Heeey, I'm the Archer Here! [[Hawkeye]]

[kate]

New York City during the midnight hours, what fun to be had! There were all kinds of things for a person to do. For instance, one could visit one of the many local clubs in the city to get their boogie on. Or find an all night diner and chow down on some delicious grub. Maybe hit up a few games down at the bowling alley. Or you could be like the beautiful Katherine Bishop and find yourself kicking ass and taking face on a nightly basis. With all the crime running rampant in the city, there had to be someone to bring down the strong arm of the law. It was a necessary burden that Kate carried with pride. Tonight was kinda special because she got the opportunity to beat up on some lousy gang banging morons.

There had to be at least a good dozen of them or at least there was a good dozen when the fight first started. Kate had already taken out five of the criminals and was now working on numbers six and seven. ”People like you…” ~PUNCH!~ "That make me..." ~KICK!~ "Sick!" ~GROIN SHOT!~ After dispatching those two goons, she turned her attention the rest as they started to circle her, all with weapons like bats and chains and poles. Kate immediately drew her battle staves and twirl them. "Bring it!"

[barton]

Clint was doing what he did every Friday night when not on duty with S.H.I.E.L.D., namely hitting the city and trawling the bars for any loose women he wouldn’t mind taking back to the nearest low rent motel. Of course, the sound of a scuffle quickly brought him out of his thoughts of chasing tail, and quickly causing him to direct his attention down the alley jutting off from where he stood.

Vigilantism. It was nothing out of the ordinary given this city’s reputation and apparent magnet for costumed crime fighters. The girl’s choice in weaponry, however, was certainly not exactly the standard type you’d find on a cape crusader. Battle staves and of course, his own weapon of choice, a bow. Whoever the girl was, she’d certainly caught his attention with that. He cracked his knuckles and smirked to himself, making his way into the alley and joining in the fray. First he’d deal with the punks, and then he’d settle the question over who was the better archer.

He took the first crook by surprise, roughly pulling him off balance by yanking his shoulder from behind, and quickly following up with a solid right hook to the face that sent him crashing to the floor in an unconscious heap. He tilted his head and smirked at the rest of the goons that had suddenly become aware of his presence. “Hope you don’t mind me crashing this little social gathering, but I was just in the neighbourhood and, well, I just couldn’t help but admire the collective ass whooping you guys seem to be on the receiving end of.”

[kate]

Twirling her battle staves, Kate watched the guys closely, waiting for one of them to slip up and make a move. The sound of a punch colliding with a a jaw instantly caught her attention along with the criminals'. She turned around and came face to face with another individual standing over a downed criminal. Who in the was this guy cutting in on her action? Well truthfully she was kinda glad he showed up to lend her a helping hand with these goons. One of them thought he was being clever by sneaking up behind her while she was looking towards the newcomer. Pfft, idiot. She spun around swinging her staves hard, one the neck and one to the ribs, breaking the bones in both areas.

Kate high kicked the crippled man to the ground and delivered a leg sweep to another one that tried to get fresh. "Help yourself. Plenty of ass whooping to go around." She connected the staves together forming a bow staff and spun it a few times, waiting for the neck idiot to make a move.

[barton]

“Well, if you insist...” He smirked as he talked, switching his focus from the girl to his next opponent. With a slight swaying movement he avoided the thug’s attempt to crack his skull with a baseball bat, quickly capitalising on the opening by grabbing and twisting the man’s wrist, and delivering a solid blow with his elbow to the face with his free arm. That brought his count up to two, of course even with those remaining goons he’d never be able to catch up with the masked vigilante girl, but it never hurt to keep score even if it was to yourself.

Aforementioned girl was pretty talented, obviously having either taken way too many lessons, or had been doing this kind of work for a while. Still, there were some flaws in her form that could probably do with ironing out here and there, but considering her age she would undoubtedly go far given the right opportunities. Hell, she could probably give him a run for his money in terms of hand-to-hand. “So, they call me Barton...” He trailed off to avoid another incoming blow before continuing. “...And you would be, who exactly? I mean, if I’m going to be cleaning up some of your mess, I think I should least get a name, right?”

[kate]

Kate planted her staff onto the ground and used it to propel herself forward, delivering a straight kick to the chest of a man swinging around a chain like a maniac. She stumbled back and hit his head on the concrete wall, rendering him uncounscious. "Barton huh? Yea I gotta name." She held up the staff to block an incoming swing from a bat, then parried it to the side and nailed the attack in the side of his head puttin him out of commission. "Call me Knightress." Taking a quick looke around the area, she noticed that there was only one more goon to take care of. He looked like a scared and lost little puppy, not knowing what to do.

But Kate had no sympathy for him. Don't do the crime if you can't take an ass whooping is what they always say right? With one last twirl of her staff, she slapped it across his face and jabbed it into his gut the knock the wind out of him, which it did. As the guy slumped to the ground, she split the weapon and sheathed the staves. "Woot! Rack up another one for the good guys. Thanks for the help, Barton." She extended her hand for him.

[barton]

“Knightress, huh? Well, I suppose I’ve heard of worse codenames over the years.” Clint shook her hand and gestured at the prone forms of the goons, “So I can take it that these weren’t members of your fan club, right? I mean, not that I mind beating new shades of black and blue into people, but I’d hope it wasn’t just because you didn’t want to give them your autograph.”

He knelt next to one of the fallen criminals, patting him down quickly and retrieving a wallet from the man’s pocket. Thirty dollars, some small change, but no form of ID. Palming the cash and tossing the wallet onto the man’s back, he stood up and gazed at Knightress or, to be more specific, her bow. It certainly was not a common weapon to be found in anyone’s hands these days, outside of your local archery club that was, and Clint certainly had never expected to see it in the hands of the local street hero that’s for sure. He wasn’t even sure why he favoured the bow over the alternatives being a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent provided, it just felt... Right. “So, you any good with that bow or are you just that into that whole pretending to be Robin Hood and saving the day role?”

[kate]

"Hey I happen to think that Knightress is pretty damn good name. And no, these morons aren't to my liking. They're just a bunch of useless gang bangers that decided to take their activities to the public. So naturally I had to put a stop to em." She hated all criminals, but gang members were the worst. Half of the time the things they did never had any real goal. Just picking on civilians for no damn reason and beating up people for wearing the "wrong colors" in the "wrong hood". It just irked her so much. Seeing one of them trying to crawl away, she gave a quick snap kick to his gut, effectively stopping him from going anywhere.

For a second she almost stopped Barton from taking one of the guys' money, but she figured he deserved it. The man probably had stolen it from someone himself. Kate placed a hand on her hip and smirked at Barton. "Am I any good? Pfft, I'm the best archer in the city... the only real archer but the best non-the-less." It was true. Every contest she entered over the years she won first place. Her skills were hard to much, at least for everyone she had run across so far.

[barton]

“Sure it is, kid, sure it is.” He barely managed to stop himself rolling his eyes as he spoke, but completely failed in keeping the sarcasm out of his tone. Truth be told Knightress was one of the better codenames he’d come across, especially considering he’d worked with the likes of Agent Cheesecake and Dum Dum Dugan since joining the agency all those years ago. Speak of years, he absently wondered just how old the girl was to be falling in with such a career choice as masked vigilante. Hell, Clint had probably been more interested in chasing girls at her age than running around fighting the “bad guys”... Not that that had changed much over the years.

“Best in the city?” He tilted his head and smirked in return, “You might be good, hun, but the best in the city? Well, that’s a matter of opinion.” She was definitely confident in her skills it seemed; then again Clint was no different in that regard. For all intents and purposes he was the best of the best when it came to projectile weapons, a feat that he not only owed to his powers, but the constant hours of training he put in everyday to refine the skill to perfection. “Y’see, I kind of fancy myself a bit of an 'amateur' archery enthusiast myself, and I’m thinking that while you might be good, that I might be just that little bit better.”

[kate]

Her eyes narrowed behind those goggles of hers, he didn't believe her. Well she really hadn't shown that she was the best since the fight was close range and whipping out the bow would have been a very stupid thing to do. And she really couldn't show him all her trophies and awards because they were all won by Katherine Bishop, not Knightress. No need in giving away her secret identity to prove a point. As Barton continued speaking, she pulled out a piece of work and then began to round up all of the criminals into a nice little pile.

The cops were so going to be happy to see that someone was nice enough to tie them up on the ground instead of having them hanging from a lightpole or something like that. "Pfft, you may be able to kick ass, but I highly doubt you can beat me in archery." Kate tossed the rope around the guys to string them together before turning to face Barton. "But I tell you what..." She unslung her bow and arrows and tossed them to him. "Show me what you can do."

[barton]

He watched on as she tied up the knocked out thugs, absently wondering why vigilantes did what they did. Sure sometimes you had to operate outside the law, everyone did it, but sometimes all a vigilante could do is ruffle a few feathers and disrupt business a bit. No, if you really wanted to work justice you had to be willing to go that little further, and put an end to the crime full stop. “You better hope there’s some outstanding warrants on these guys, kid. Evidence or no evidence, being beaten up and left in an alley with no eye witnesses to tie them to anything, well, best case scenario is they get done for weapon charges, and worst is they walk with a slapped wrist.”

Clint snatched the quiver and bow of the air as she slung it at him, dropping the quiver to the floor after snagging an arrow. The bow itself wasn’t too shabby; indeed it was the sort he’d probably use if it wasn’t for the one the boys at SHIELD had whipped up for him. He smirked at the girl and twirled the arrow absently in his left, using it to gesture down the alley. “Name the target, and do me a favour? Make it something a bit challenging, eh?”

[kate]

”Yea you’re right about that, which friggin sucks balls. These assholes are probably going to be back out here tomorrow night doing the same damn thing. But then again I might just take them out next time. Not to sound all murderous like.” Kate had killed before, but only if it was necessary. She usually only beat the snot out of criminals and thugs and sent them off to the police. On those rare occasions where the perp had a gun or hostage or something of that nature she’d take them out permanently.

She smirked at Barton and looked down the alley, searching for a worthy target. Hmm, it would of course have to be something very challenging to hit that most people couldn’t and wouldn’t even try to hit. Aha! There is was! ”You see that little spider on the back wall about to have itself a little snack?” she asked, nodding her head down the alley. ”That’s the target hot stuff.” Way across the street in the next alley sat a little black spider on the wall, creeping towards a fly that got caught in its webbing. It was amazing that she managed to spot something so small and in such a dark place. The benefits of having superhuman sight.

[barton]

Clint had to smirk at the girl’s tone, fully understanding that she had the right to be frustrated at the futility of her work. If it had been him he’d probably of planted some evidence or just disposed of them already by now, and had to respect the girl’s patience in having not taken that step yet. “Don’t worry about it, kid. I’m a firm believer in the whole Law of Retribution type deal. Lex Talionis, an eye for an eye, etc etc. It’s all good.”

“Hot stuff?” Clint shook his head before focusing across the way at the indicated target, squinting his eyes slightly to just make it out. It was quite the feat that the girl had managed to spot it at all as, even with Clint’s ability, it wasn’t exactly an easy thing to pick out considering the light. He smirked slightly to himself, levelling the bow and sighting down the shaft at his intended target. It wasn’t a hard shot, hell, ordinarily he’d of taken the shot by now, but he wasn’t looking to destroy the girl’s pride in her skill, just prove that he was better. “Easily done.” He let the arrow sail from the bow, cutitng a clean path and thudding into the wall scant milimetres away from the fly and the spider, severing the webbing and feeing said fly from it’s unfortunate fate. “Want to go for best out of three, or are you gonna just admit I’m amazing and call it a night?”

[kate]

Kate watched the guy carefully as he began his shot, he did have a nice form going on lined up perfectly and whatnot. She crossed her arms and cocked her head to the left as she waited for him to fire. It was something about having a bow in you hands that she just friggin loved. Archery was like an escape I guess for her, a way to forget everything that has happened to her in the past. When Barton finally release the arrow, she looked on with amazement as she shot severed the webbing to free the little fly. She couldn't believe that he had this kind of skill with a bow. Kate looked at him and grinned. "Ha! You didn't the specified target so that didn't count."

She was now just trying to make her ego feel better. That shot was damn good. "Ah hell screw it, that was impressive. Just where did you learn to shoot like that anyway?" Interest peaked.

[barton]

Like the girl beside him, Clint just simply loved the bow. With his power he could “see” the flight paths and as such, with his harsh training to hone his hand-to-eye coordination, any thrown or projectile weapon was a breeze. Yet there was just something refreshing about a bow, something indescribable that drew him back to it time and time again. Sure there were times when he’d ditch it in favour of a better suited weapon for a particular situation, but when push came to shove... Clint “Hawkeye” Barton would always fall back on his trusty old bow. “Didn’t count my fine white ass, I’m not just gonna kill something for the sake of proving I’m better, hun. Well... Ok, so I’d totally do that, but that’s not the point. That shot so counted.”

“Waverly-Shell Rock High school, Iowa.” That was true to some extent, there wasn’t any need to reveal that it was also in large due to his mutant heritage. He passed the bow and quiver back to her, cocking his head slightly to one side as he threw the question back at her. “What about you? Last I checked archery isn’t exactly a common sport for you New yorkians, so I’m kinda surprised to see anyone running around with one of those, let alone one of you crazy masked vigilante types.”

[kate]

"Waverly-Shell Rock High School huh? I think I've kicked a few butts from there in a few archery tournaments before." She takes back her supplies, slinging them over her shoulders and poppin her neck. "Been in the archery game for years now. Picked it up after... something and just stuck with it along with fencing and a bunch of other stuff. My mutant powers aren't exactly offensive like laser beams or something." Kate looked him over then eyed the criminals with a short laugh.

((short post... muse slightly still dead lol))