Call to Action

My Reputation Lets Me Know: I Can do Whatever I Want to

I should have known that, at some point, we would have been knocking on Barney Barton's front door. The man was annoyingly good at everything he did, even if some things were long left behind in favor of others. He'd been off my radar for a while, silent as he took care of business that I neither cared about nor wanted to know about.

I fall a step behind Austen, inclining my head in acknowledgement to the archer, "I changed my mind," I say, coming to a standstill, "I'll let you handle your family business while I go take care of some things. But try and actually get something done, the last thing I need is for this stop to be a waste." And I have a bigger problem on my hands than just Fury on my ass to find his missing Avengers.

I pull a phone out of my pocket and toss it to Austen before she can speak, "get rid of your phone. Leave it here, break it, whatever. Just use this for now."

"Are you shitting me? I need my phone, Sharon and Nat won't be able to reach me."

"That's the point, princess. I knew there was a brain under all that peroxide."

Her face turns red and I laugh, unable to help myself. It's almost a little too easy to rile her, even if it's mean. But I figure I can get a few more cheap shots in before we're even. And she knows it, if her pinched lips and silence is anything to go by.

"Austen!" I wave a hand, ushering her along as her uncle came out of the trailer, smile on his face.

“Later cupcake,” and I turn and jog, off back in the direction we came. But I bypass the quinjet, not so hidden by a grouping of trees, and keep going. “J, do me a favor? Call Sinister. I want all my options gone before I let the Deadpool loose.”

“Yes, Sir.”

Silence hits my ear for only a moment before the line is connected and Claudine’s voice greets me, “now isn’t this a pleasant surprise?”

“I missed you too, babe.” I lean against a tree, smirk in place. I can picture the woman on the other side, annoyance pressed on her lips and eyes drawn. “Can you spare a few minutes to talk to your favorite lover?”

“We were hardly lovers, Raffaello. You’re much too ensnared with Regan’s charm.”

I chuckle, “how about your favorite business partner?”

“The answer you’re looking for is no. I wish I could say it was one of my buffoons, but they would never go near any activity that includes your father and his friends without your strict orders. Whoever this Cade is working for, he’s outside of my immediate knowledge.”

“Fuck.”

“I’m sorry, darling.”

“Not as sorry as motherfucker is about to be.” I cut Claudine’s laughter off with a tap against my phone. Slipping it into my pocket, I drop my hand to my ankle where my gun sits. This one, unlike one I now carry, is golden handled and a sleek silver. My hope was to never use it while I stayed with my dad; let it set and cover in dust if it had too. But it looks like the pathway I wanted to keep blocked off is about to be opened ...all because some idiot with two minutes of glory wanted a third.

♦ ♠ ♦


After my call with Claudine and my decision to put out a bid, I push away from the tree and pull up my hood. A crowd has started to surface; finding pleasure in the simple tricks of the carnie. Ignoring them, I make straight for the Quinjet, only stopping as a trio of clowns run past. I cringe as I catch sight of their smiles painted large.

“Hate clowns,” I mutter as someone steps to my side. Expecting it to be Austen, I instantly turn on her, ready for whatever crack she’s bound to make. I open my mouth, planning on stopping her in her tracks when I catch sight of the blonde. “You’re not supposed to be here.”

“Tough, Jason.” She pronounces my name harshly, each letter hard on her tongue. Her hand encases on my elbow and she escorts me the rest of the way, uncaring to those around us. “I have some information that I needed to pass onto you. We’re finishing off the last of our rounds, but I think we found your kidnapper or at least got an idea of what he’s trying to do.”

“So soon?”

“So easily,” she corrects.

“Where?”

“One of our warehouses.”

Something cold runs through me: this wasn’t my act, nor my sister’s. My mother? My grandfather? Someone rogue who thought to turn an important gaze toward us? “Who hired Cade?”

“My whore-slut of a sister is digging, but it looks off shore. We got a few hits on some of our holdings, but when Bruno went to check them out -- all empty. Looked like someone had been around, but when he went through again he discovered that whoever had been by was highly interested in the basement.”

“The basement in a few of those places could easily hold the Hulk.”

“I know.” She dropped down onto a bench and swung her legs up, “we’ve got surveillance in place and Mariah’s running detail. But she still wants us to check out Columbus. The place belonged to Costa.”

“Did any of the other places belong to them or any of the--”

“--we’re looking into it. Mariah thinks he’s trying to turn us on each other while taking the focus off someone else…”

“And get payback because we wouldn’t hire him.” I groan, leaning back: apparently this wasn’t going to be as easy as I thought. “At least if it leads into our side of the tracks, Barton won't offer up that much information, not without including myself or Mari first."

“How are you going to bring that up to baby Barton? If it gets ugly--”

“--if it gets ugly, Mari can step in. Our goal is to get to the highest seat anyway. Nobody in the Maggia had part of this.”

She leaned back, inviting and smile coy, “then we can move onto something else while we wait?”

“Regan…”

“Come on, Jase. We have to wait for your little agent friend. Might as well make good use of it. It’s been two months since I last saw you.” Regan’s smile turned to a pout.

“Because you’re psychotic.”

“Aren’t you?” And that's what I was waiting for: she swept her leg out and locked it around my knees, bringing me down. I grabbed onto the leather and twisted, yanking her off the bench. The position had been awkward to start with and only resulted in the both of us on the floor.

She laughed and pressed her head to my shoulder. “I missed you, Jase.”

“Missed you too, Regan…” I pressed a kiss behind her ear, “but fixate on Jason. I’m not going to share anything about myself with her unless it’s dire. Right now she thinks I’m some bastard pampered prince my dad had hiding away.”

“I hate that that name.”

“I know, but it won’t last. I don’t think I’ll be welcome around once we save the day,” I snort a little at my words. “Fury doesn’t trust me and eventually, someone will ask questions.”

“Preferably not Fury.”

“Preferably.” I lean back on the bench and tug Regan’s hand, “go contact everyone. Tell them that Austen is getting information from her uncle and then we’re on our way to Columbus. I want a nap.”

“Lazy shit,” she pulls away and purposely kicks my ankle before stepping on it with her heeled boot as she gets to her feet, “if you stay there, you’re going to wake up an even bigger asshole.”

“You’ll get over it.”

But I do move to sprawl on the bench once Regan has vanished to the front of the Quinjet. I have no idea how to explain her sudden appearance to Austen, but then, I shouldn’t have too. She brought us to her Uncle’s trailer in the middle of nowhere -- I should be allowed to use some of my sources without sneaking off to back corners.

Even though it’s going to lead on us on a wild goose chase: the amount of buildings under the Maggia’s hold is endless. To suddenly have countless empty buildings going means that something bigger is going on, and I have to waste time cleaning up small messes while figuring out a big one.

So no better time for a nap. Regan can keep running point while we wait for Austen and then we leave. I know Barton is good, he might actually provide some insight on Cade that could shorten the whole trip. If I can get a city, I can narrow it down to a building. If I can get a name, even a hint of someone who might be able to dig something up on myself or Austen, even my sister, would be helpful.

♦ ♠ ♦
I’m barely asleep, twisted on my side and half off the bench when I hear footsteps that are unfamiliar. They’re too heavy to be Regan, but too light to be male: I’m up before even registering my act. The holster was tucked between shirt and jeans, against the small of my back. I had it pointed at: Austen.

There was shock on her face. “Don’t you know not to sneak up on a sleeping person.” I snap, lowering my arm.

“I didn’t sneak up on you,” she retorted, then snapped to attention to what really happened, “do you pull a gun on everyone that scares the shit out of you?”

“If you scared me, you would be dead.” I roll my eyes, rolling my finger over the safety. It clicks in place and I slip it away. “Did you find out anything helpful?”

“Yea, and I’m probably the only one since it seems you decided to sleep.”

“For all of two seconds,” I mutter, then louder, “Regan, let’s go!” As if she was waiting, or JARVIS relayed the message, the soft hum of the Quinjet starts.

“Who is Regan?”

“Nobody you need to worry your gorgeous little head about, now, catch me up."
♠ ♠ ♠
I decided it was time that Jase gets really introduced. For the readers that read the comics, I apologize for how Sinister turned out, I just based her on [Mister] Sinister from the tv series, at least what I remembered. For Regan, I just looked at some rp blogs to get the main idea.