Copycat: Cryptomnesia -(Marvel Fem!OC)

Comeback.

"Is too late to quit?"

"Cat, no one's asking you to fight him."

"I gotta call my mom—"

"Kate, no!" Clint took the phone away. "Take a deep breath, okay? Your mom needs our help. That video is not good, the Kingpin will not take this lightly, he's going to react, and he's gonna do it in a big way."

"This is my mess to clean up, you should go home, you should be with your family. You can still make it in time for Christmas!"

"No one that's faced Kingpin alone has survived," Cat said. "Except for one, and I rather keep him out of this."

"Kate, you're our partner," Clint added. "Your mess is our mess. We're not going anywhere until this is finished."

"I'm not going anywhere, I was joking," Cat approached and took the phone from Clint's hand. "Let's make a plan."

***

"Got more magnets!" Cat left the items on the table. "Anything else?"

"We'll let you know," Clint said.

Cat watched them work. They moved almost in sync: categorizing the arrows, testing them, and piling them into groups. She must've been looking at them in a funny way, cause Kate spoke to her with a smirk.

"What?"

"I got the weirdest deja vu right now, watching you work... not important, anyway, don't let me distract you."

"So, this, uh, this holiday party tonight, is it a fancy thing?" Clint inquired as a way to distract them from the heaviness of the situation.

"Yeah. Formal." Kate mumbled.

"You know, you don't have to do this. It is part of the job. It's always inconvenient. It's lonely. You will get hurt... Heroes have to make some tough decisions. So, if you're gonna do this... I just wanna know you're ready."

"...when I was younger, aliens invaded," Kate began, "and I was alone. And I was terrified. But then I saw you, fighting aliens with a stick and a string. I saw you jump from that building even though you can't fly, even though you don't have superpowers..."

Cat hadn't thought about it, but it was true. He and Natasha were always ready to fight, even though they had no healing factor. She wondered if hanging out with fully human agents would help her change her outlook.

"You showed me that being a hero isn't just for people who can fly or shoot lasers out of their hands— it's for anyone, who's brave enough to do what's right, no matter the cost. I'm ready."

Clint looked at Cat. "What about you, Heathen?"

Cat had been going for an entire weekend with practically no rest in between, she hadn't felt like this in ages. The mutant remembered why she'd been an Avenger in the first place: to become hope.

She remembered a time when she'd needed to feel hopeful, she thought about Kurt, and how she'd saved his life by showing mercy. She wanted to be like that again, she wanted to be in a safe space. Although she knew that the rules of heroes no longer worked for her, and her justice would come in a different form, the others would need to accept that as well, and she wondered if they would take it well.

"I lied the other day," she admitted. "Black and blue are my favorite colors."

***

"Cat, where the hell are you?"

"I was getting some things from my apartment— also, I can't resist a dramatic entrance," she stepped into the venue and looked around. "Anything interesting yet?"