The woman pressed a button, and their straps all undid themselves. “We will be landing in about five hours,” she said. “There are facilities behind the door at the end.” She pointed. “Otherwise you will not leave this deck. I will bring you something to eat in three hours.” She walked off to the other end then, towards and empty cockpit; the ship obviously had autopilot as well.
Their bags with their things were at their feet. Foggy took a quick look in both hers and Matt’s; everything appeared perfectly undisturbed. Jennifer pulled out one stack of papers. “Probably take me that long to read these anyway. You want to see this one, Marci? It touches on Lang’s association with Wilson.”
“Yes, thank you,” said Marci.
With them both occupied, Foggy readily followed Matt when he got up and walked to the other side of the ship. “Anything more you can tell about her?” she asked softly. “This ship looks kind of high tech, honestly.”
“Sounds it, too,” said Matt. “And those weren’t ordinary earplugs; I could barely hear anything. She absolutely reeks of vibranium, and she moves like someone in shape, someone used to fighting. My first thought would be that she’s a weapons smuggler, but most of them don’t have access to this kind of ship. I think she might be the bodyguard to some powerful person, probably in Africa-I think a lot of the black market for vibranium goes through there anyway, which makes me wonder what kind of company our friends are keeping. I want to trust them, but…”
“They’re in desperate straits, you know,” said Foggy. “All the superpowers in the world can only do so much for you if no country will take you in. Maybe Rogers just went with what seemed the best option.”
She stole a glance at their colleagues, wondering if they too were wondering where this woman and this ship came from. Or maybe not. Not knowing meant they weren’t aiding and abetting their clients in much, were in absolutely no danger of having to choose between their clients and the law. It was different for Foggy, of course, who chose her husband over the law every day.
They had things to study, too. Foggy had finally gotten the government to hand over their early intelligence documents related to Wanda and Pietro only the previous day. Though the speculation about whether or not they’d known the people they’d volunteered to work with had been Hydra was making her furious. That had been before anyone had known Hydra was still around, and anyway, she knew they never would’ve knowingly betrayed their ancestors like that.
The problem was, maybe, that Wanda was now the only person alive who knew all that much of what had gone on after that. When they found out, or why they did what they did even knowing. She was pretty sure the Avengers hadn’t asked. Foggy had never dared bring the subject up. But as she sat back down and started reading through the documents, she was aware she might now have to.
Matt was mostly listening through his documents, all the S.H.I.E.L.D. records about Barton that had leaked two years ago. He described them as painting him as a very decent man, who during his missions had often gone out of his way to help those in need when it had been outside or even in conflict with his mission’s parameters. Foggy had known already that Natasha Romananov hadn’t been the only wrongdoer to benefit from his mercy, because Wanda had of course been another one, even if he’d never had the direct objective of killing her. But now Matt spoke of lower-scale examples too.
It made Foggy pretty thankful he’d come out of retirement to join Captain America’s side. The way Marci had glossed over part of Sam Wilson’s history made her think he was their only completely clean client, easy to portray as good and noble and doing the right thing no matter what the law said.
She’d held out hope they’d be served some sort of ethnic food that would provide further hints about whose hands they were in. But their escort had probably thought of that, and she served them microwavables that had obviously come the frozen foods aisle; she’d probably bought them just before coming to the café. Foggy watched Matt place a forkful of what looked like lasagna in his mouth, and do his best not to make a face.
“Are you going to hood us for the landing?” Marci asked their host as she collected their empty plastic trays half an hour later.
“No need,” said their escort. “We will be landing in an uninhabited area. Your clients will meet with you there. If any of them wish to discuss anything in private, which I belief Mr. Barton especially may wish to do with Mr. Murdock, they will lead you a sufficient distance away. You will follow their lead, and remain in their company. We cannot guarantee your safety if you do not.” A modest smirk there. Personally, Foggy would always feel very safe in the company of an Avenger, but maybe that was just her.
Even when they’d been hooded, Matt had found and squeezed her hand hard during takeoff. Now, Foggy leaned in and whispered, “You think the landing might be harder for you? I’m getting the feeling we might be landing in a jungle. That’s probably going to be pretty rough on this thing.”
“I don’t know,” he whispered back, and then learned in further to whisper, “the only other flying thing I’ve ever been on may have been the Avengers jet, but honestly? This ship actually feels smoother. Maybe a little louder when taking off; I think she must have driven us out of the city when we were in that car. But I feel fewer tremors now than I felt on the jet, I think we’re less tilted in the air, and I think the mechanics that are keeping us in the air might even be less complex.”
“That sounds like super-advanced technology,” Foggy said, keeping her voice down only with difficulty. Either this was the most equipped and probably the most scary power lord in Africa that their rogue Avengers were keeping company with, or it was something else all together.
Matt was still leaned against her, and she whispered to him, “I’m starting to think the rumors are true about S.H.I.E.L.D. still existing in some form or other. That would make a lot more sense than Steve Rogers hanging out with some big vibranium trafficking king.”
“S.H.I.E.L.D. almost always used Stark Industries technology, same as the Avengers did. They did develop some things in-house, but they tended to be weapons or devices. And if they’re still around, and doing things that require planes? They’d have probably built or bought for stealth instead of smoothness.”
They couldn’t really keep on talking, especially because Marci and Jennifer didn’t have much left to read through, and the latter was giving them a couple of curious looks. Foggy supposed it was for the better if even she and Matt didn’t figure out anything further.
“Buckle up, we’re landing,” their escort said when they started their descent, but Foggy thought she detected just a touch of amusement in her voice, which made her seriously wonder if they truly needed to. And unlike Matt, she had been on a normal commercial plane before. Only twice, to D.C. and back on a case she had taken the previous winter. But he was right; this jet landed like a piece of paper settling gracefully onto the floor. Foggy found herself doubting they could truly be in the jungle; surely there wasn’t room in there for this plane to manage this, no matter how well it had been built.
But as soon as their escort lowered the ramp, Foggy was instantly hit by the level of humidity in the air. Matt wasn’t the only one who visibly reacted; Jennifer patted down her hair, while Marci wiped her brow.
Her husband’s hand was tight on Foggy’s arm the four of them followed their guide out. They’d neither of them been in any place more overgrown than the wooded areas of Central and Morningside Parks, and Foggy could only imagine what it was like for him, every completely new aspect of such a wildly different environment making itself known through his elevated senses, and after the strain even a less stressing plane ride had already put on him.
It was a jungle. Complete with tall trees, massive undergrowth on the ground, and mysterious animal noises coming from somewhere around them. On either side of the plane, the overhanging foliage was millimeters away from the hull, but it looked completely unscathed. It might have been a different story behind them, of course, but Foggy suspected it wasn’t, that this plane had been perfectly landed, and damaged nothing around it.
They had managed to find something of a clearing to land in, in which stood their four clients. At first glance, they all looked good and healthy, and Matt showed no sign of sensing otherwise either. The clothes they were dressed in were fairly nondescript, though Wanda’s dress was still beautiful in its way, covering her in simple dark cloth from shoulders to knees, contrasting well with both her pale hair and the impressive grey boots all four wore.
“Wanda wants to hug us,” Foggy said to Matt when she started running up the ramp, though of course he knew that already. She stepped forward to be hugged first, and she held her old friend tight for a long moment, taking what relief she could from the weight of her and the strength of her arms. They weren’t even true indications of her being fine, but they made her stomach untwist for the first time since they’d found Tony Stark in their apartment.
When Wanda pulled away, to their surprise, instead of going to hug Matt next right away, she reached into a pocket in her skirt-cleverly designed; it had been pretty much invisible before she put her hand in-and took out an envelope, on which she had written For Vision’s eyes only. “Could you get this to him?” she asked. “If it has to be given to Tony Stark…or maybe to Pepper Potts, if you can…”
“I can get it to her,” Foggy told her. “I’m not sure when, mind you…”
“No hurry,” Wanda assured her, which was actually a strange thing for her to say, given how quickly her situation could change. Then again, maybe she was really intending to just hide out here for the year or so it would take for the courts to do their thing.
She hugged Matt next, with a, “Is it true you were nearly killed?”
“I’m all right,” said Matt, but he still sounded haunted.
Clint Barton had also come up the ramp, and Marci and Jennifer had gone down, looking to get properly introduced to their own clients. Down on the ground, Sam Wilson beckoned to those on top of the ramp, and they came down to join their companions.
When they were all gathered together, Wilson said, “The four of us have been talking things over. I’m sorry, but I’m afraid we’ve brought you here to ask you to drop the lawsuit.”
“What?” Matt demanded, echoing all their dismay. “Why?”
“Clint and Scott both want to cut deals with the government. Scott has his daughter to worry about, and Clint’s got a very good reason for it, too. If you want to know it, Murdock, you’re going to have to go for a walk in the woods. And Wanda and I...listen, do all four of you really mean it when you say you can’t tell anyone what we tell you?”
“If you guys are going rogue,” said Marci, “well, if we actively aided and abetted you, there’d be a problem.” The stunned look on Sam’s face made it clear she’d guessed right. Not that it had been hard to do so. “But just telling us, without us even knowing exactly what you’re doing?” She looked over at Matt and Foggy as she said, “Well, you must know the Devil of Hell’s Kitchen’s favorite lawyers here are safe, and for my own part, and I assume Ms. Walters’ here...”
“We can always point out, if pushed to tell them your plans,” Jennifer added, “that doing so would probably get us disbarred. They try to arrest us, we’d be martyrs.” She looked uneasily at Marci as she said that last part. It was the first time any of them had said it out loud.
“Sounds like we’re putting you in a bad situation, then,” said Wanda anxiously. “I mean, we never meant for you to have choose between being arrested and being disbarred…”
“No,” said Foggy, who had endured enough of that kind of talk for one lifetime already. “We all four of us knew of the dangers when we took this case, and yes, as Marci just pointed out, Matt and I are even used to that already. And by the way, if you really want us to drop the case on behalf of all four of you just to keep us out of trouble, you don’t have to do that. In fact, I have to advise you against that. Right now you may be planning to simply never return to the U.S. again or just try to go undetected if you do, but you don’t really know what’s going to happen in the future. If we drop the lawsuit now, and you end up in the Raft later, it’ll be a lot harder to get you guys your due process then.”
“And it’s not just about you guys, either,” Matt said, and Foggy recognized that righteous tone. “You’ve noticed, no doubt, there are a lot of people with superpowers who’ve become known to the public, or at least their neighbors, since the Incident that started all this. Honestly, I’ve started to wonder if the Sokovia Accords were targeted at you as much as it was targeted at them. Especially now that the Inhumans have gotten themselves established as a distinct racial minority, and you know how people treat those.
And those people, you know, most of them can’t just go rogue and disappear. Many of them probably wouldn’t see a need to anyway, if they aren’t using their powers to do anything special. But do you really think those people are going to just going to be left alone, even if they aren’t? Honestly, I’m just waiting for the first reports of them being arrested for petty things, maybe things they didn’t necessarily even do, and then getting sent straight to the Raft…”
“Oh, come on!” Scott Lang scoffed. “You really think some Inhuman kid’s going to get sent to the Raft for loitering or something?”
“I don’t think it’s impossible,” said Matt, and his voice was turning cold. “And I certainly think it’s only a matter of time before they start putting other criminals there, at least for major offenses. And even if you were in it as a white male folk hero, I would expect you, at least, to know enough about how our justice system works to know it might be impossible for them to be treated the same by the jury as it is. If you people really want to fight the worst aspects of the Sokovia Accords? This is the way to do it.”
“And my daughter has to pay for that then?” Lang still demanded. “I’ve put her through enough, okay?”
“You don’t all have to continue on,” said Jennifer. “We just need to get the case into the court system and get them to establish the precedent. If you and Mr. Barton want to make deals, we can do it with just Mr. Wilson and Ms. Maximoff. Of course, if you bargain, you’ll likely have to waive all rights to appeal, so you might not be able to benefit from any later court decisions.”
Barton had obviously been listening to that speech himself, and now he said, “Okay, now Murdock and I definitely have to go for a walk, and it might be a pretty long one, and hell, maybe all four of us should have a private discussion with our own lawyers, get an idea of what we want to do.”
The other three all agreed, so a few minutes later, Foggy found herself walking in the middle of the jungle with Wanda, their arms linked like she normally did with Matt. “It’s all right,” Wanda said. “We’re deliberately in a part of the rainforest that doesn’t have anything too dangerous in it.”
“Should I really not ask what company you people are in with?” Foggy asked. “You’re…you’re not ashamed, are you?” She could let the rest of it go, but she at least wanted to know that.
“No,” said Wanda quickly. “The reasons we’re not telling you have absolutely nothing to do with us, and we’re not in company we need to be ashamed of.”
Foggy could believe her, and that was enough. “That’s good,” she said. “I would’ve hated to think that in your desperation you’d…well…” She drifted off hastily, worrying about offending her friend.
“I know,” said Wanda, soft and sad. “Don’t worry. I’m never going to make that mistake again.”
Then she said, “I don’t ever want to go back, you know. I never even forgave Stark entirely, and I never will now. Or your whole country, really.”
“Well,” said Foggy, “you’re hardly alone on either of those. But is that why you don’t want to go forward with this case? Because you really want nothing to do at all with the United States?”
“Maybe,” Wanda sighed, looking away.
Foggy shook her head, “That’s what the likes of Ross wants you to do, Wanda. Hell, I think it might even be what Stark would prefer at this point. I know maybe this shouldn’t be your fight, but, well, you’re a superhero. You’re used to taking fights because you’re the one who can, right?”
“Do you think we’ll win it?” she asked. “I am worried, you know. That people are now so afraid of me and so set against me, that the judges will rule against me when they might not against someone else without my history.”
Sadly, that was a legitimate concern. Foggy considered it briefly, then said, “We’re doing our best to spin your public images into good ones again. The way Marci’s doing it with Sam has a good chance of working; we’ll try to put our ears to the ground there when we get back, see if we're getting the public reaction we want. If only one of you goes on with the suit, it should probably be him. But I think if you do it with him, and Marci gets his image fixed, they won’t punish him for your supposed sins.”
They walked in silence for a little while, Wanda looking deep in thought. Then she said, “I don’t know if I even believe the U.S. courts will do the right thing, though I understand why you have to try. I suppose…I have to try too. I mean, it won’t even affect just the superpowered U.S. population, will it? How they treat us in one part of the world…”
“Exactly,” said Foggy. “And I’ll say this also: Ross is one of the driving forces behind the enforcement of the Accords, especially since apparently Wakanda’s new king has decided that country’s had enough to being involved with international affairs for now and gone home. He’s even made comments about other countries possibly sheltering superpowered criminals and maybe responding with sanctions. Not that there’s any signs any country’s actually going to do so; he’s talking out of his ass. But yeah, anything that cuts him down to size, especially in relations to superpowered people? Is doing the whole world a favor.”
“Well, I have taken to doing the world favors,” said Wanda, and there was only a trace of crossness in her smile. “All right. You can do this one in my name. And it’s like you said, we don’t really know what’s going to happen in the future, do we? We might even have to seek out Stark, if we need him to save the world, or something like that, though I hope not.”
“I’m holding out hope that if it’s a world-saving situation, people will be flexible until the world has been saved,” said Foggy. “But I suppose there’s the whole question of what happens then, so…”
They were the first lawyer and client to return to the clearing, though Jennifer and Scott Lang were only a few minutes behind them. “He’s still adamant about taking a deal,” said Jennifer, and Foggy smiled and nodded, because that was just fine.
Especially when Marci returned with Sam Wilson, with him saying to her, “Remember what I said.” To the four of them, he said, “So if I have to be the face of this, I want to be able to keep tabs on my mama. I may or may not end up needing your help for that.”
He said it to Foggy, more than to anyone else, to which she just nodded, and said, “We’ll make sure she knows where to find us.”
It took much longer for Matt and Clint Barton to return. Foggy even wondered if Natasha Romanov was hiding somewhere in the rainforest, and they’d stopped to confer with her. She was just starting to think she’d have to demand a search party if they took much longer when she heard her husband’s voice call out, “Foggy? Is everybody back yet?”
“With how long you two took of course we are,” laughed Wanda, but it was gentle, and she sounded like she’d expected them to take a while. The two men looked similarly amused.
“I’m still taking a deal,” Barton said. “And I don’t know if any of you will see much of me after that. Four of you now know why that is, and my lawyer here has absolutely agreed this is the best option for me.”
“I have,” said Matt, with that professional certainty that Foggy had never doubted, not even when she’d doubted everything else about him. He also looked surprisingly pleased.
Their escort had gone off after they'd broken off into pairs, and she wasn't coming back for another hour or so, apparently. Marci and her client decided to use the opportunity to talk more. But Matt and his had had the time to talk themselves out, and when he voiced a wish to go right back into the rainforest, Matt nodded as if he’d expected that. It increased Foggy’s suspicion that they’d had company back there. Except that Scott Lang also announced he’d go with them, apparently not interested in talking further with his lawyer either.
So Matt, Foggy, Jennifer, and Wanda all ended up finding a part of the forest floor they could sit on comfortably, and tried to catch up as best they could. Of course with Jennifer there they couldn’t talk about Matt’s other life, but he could tell Wanda about his big victory for Aaron James, which was the type of story she always loved to hear about. “That poor young man could do with some bionic legs,” she said. “Like the ones I’ve heard Rhodey is currently walking around on. But those would still cost his family even more than the settlement you got him, I suppose.”
“I don’t think they’ll be on the market for at least half a year more,” said Foggy. “Karen’s looked into it, and according to her, this is all very experimental, though a few less scrupulous people have been looking into bionic enhancements since Natasha leaked all the S.H.I.E.L.D. files. I’m pretty sure Danny wants Rand to look into it too…” She drifted off as a phone chimed, and then chimed again, and a couple more times after that.
It was Jennifer’s. “At least we can get a signal here,” she commented as she pulled it out and opened her messages. Then her eyes narrowed, only slightly, but that told her companions enough. “I finally have a message from Ms. van Dyne,” she announced, “which she has directed me to share with everyone.”
She flipped her phone around for the other two women to read. Foggy read it out loud for Matt: “My father and I have just learned we’re about to be charged for violation of the Sokovia Accords, due to Scott using our suit in Germany. Even though we didn’t know what he was going to do, and certainly would never have allowed the AVENGERS-that’s in all caps-to make use of our technologies. But we’re pretty sure if we tried to say that, Ross would call us liars and lock us up forever. So none of you will be hearing from us ever again. Tell everyone that, Scott especially.”
“So, yeah.” Jennifer stood up. “I’ve gotta go find Scott. This is probably going to be painful.”
Matt and Wanda also hastily got up. “I think you should find Sam and Ms. Stahl instead,” said Wanda. “Sam has his wings on him; he can get to them faster.” Now Foggy was dead certain Romanov was off in the woods. Maybe Jennifer suspected the same, because she didn’t protest.
As they headed off, Matt said, “What does it say about this situation, that none of us think she’s just being paranoid about Ross?”
“But can this just be Ross?” asked Wanda. “I mean, he is not a prosecutor, is he? Doesn’t someone else have to do the charging?”
"Yes, that’s true,” said Jennifer. “And even if they don’t want any help from any of us, the two of them will get lawyers who’ll take up this cause.”
“If they get captured,” Matt noted. “If they prove trickier to find than normal, which they probably will, what with all the size changing abilities, who’s going to provide the resources for it? Resources that would all find much better use going after people who actually pose a real threat to the average person-people who, we might add, have just had one very strong force working against them removed from the picture.”
“Because we all know that protecting the average person is what the powerful people care about,” said Wanda bitterly.
“Yeah,” Matt agreed. “I assume it won’t shock the company here if I saw I hope they don’t find them.” That made Wanda laugh a little, the way she often had back at Columbia.
Jennifer considered the two of them. “Was it a bad idea to let the two of them reunite, Foggy?”
“Probably,” said Foggy, because of course she couldn’t tell her Matt and Wanda had already reunited while fighting a bunch of undead ninjas.
When Sam received the news, he flew off and brought Scott back with him, with time enough to spare for him and Jennifer to go off and confer. Those wings really were very fast.