Iris West doesn't have a death wish, okay? (tellsyourstory) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2019-07-08 14:25:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, iris west, kitty pryde (shadowcat), natasha romanoff (black widow) |
Who: Iris West, Kitty Pryde, Natasha Romanoff and NPC!CBP agents
What: A rescue of sorts
When: July 8th
Where: Airport in Texas
Warnings: Low
Status: Log | Complete
It wasn’t even about the humanitarian crisis at the border. At least, not entirely. There had been bodies being found in different places of refugees in ways that seemed like there was more to it than natural causes. Bodies on both sides of the border. So with something to investigate, Iris had packed her bags and gone to look into things.
Now she was being detained by Customs and Border Patrol for…. well, Iris didn’t know. She had an idea though. She knew that journalists, activists, and lawyers were being targeted and given her passport did have a lot of stamps…..
Still the experience wasn’t quite what she had expected.
“What’s your profession.”
“Journalist.”
“What’s your story about?”
That was a peculiar question and not one the journalist really wanted to answer.
“I’m a US citizen.”
“That’s not what I asked.”
And that was how it began. She was apparently being ‘hostile’ so she was taken to the detainment room where her stuff was being rifled through - no search warrant, no ability to call a lawyer since she wasn’t under arrest. She just wasn’t be let back into the country which she was a citizen of.
While two other agents came in to go through her computer and phone (and proof on why having a separate set for work was definitely a good thing on her part), Iris faced more questioning. She was doing her best to be polite. But the questions just….
What were her opinions on the administration? Why did she travel so much?
She wasn’t sure what they wanted but it was clear they were looking for anything to hang on her and Iris wasn’t about to give them that. Not at all.
There were days and situations where Natasha, really,really wanted to fall back into her old wetwork habits. The past three years being one of those days.
But being that she spent most of her waking hours working, she liked to keep tabs on Dreamers when they left the country and she had sources that would make any Journalist envious.
It was one of those sources that sent word of Iris being detained.
Once she’d gone through three different fantasies involving violence as a means to an end, Natasha grabbed one of her favored IDs, made something up for Iris, and then drafted Kitty and the Blackbird into flying her.
“I feel all Men in Black.”
Natasha grinned at Kitty. “We do cut a striking look in suits.” She nodded at the door. “And as much I want to kick it down we should enter professionally.”
“Since when do you have telepathy,” Kitty replied, pouting for a brief moment before she reassumed her Federal Junior Agent role.
Nat had to shoulder the door open anyway, lowing her sunglasses down her nose as she took in the scene.
“Hey, you can’t come in here!”
She flashed a badge, “Natalie Rushman, NSA. You’ve detained one of my assets and this isn’t going to go over well with my superiors.”
Kitty produced Iris’s fake ID and badge, giving one of the border bigots a smug look.
Iris really wanted to know how much longer this was going to take. She was pretty sure she had already missed her connecting flight to LAX. While she hadn’t actually wanted airport coffee, she still at least tried.
And denied.
God the power trip these agents were on was… well, she was used to it. She got it plenty of times when she was working overseas. Governments tended to dislike when American journalists came snooping around after all. And it wasn’t as if the United States hadn’t been added to the list of dangerous places for journalists in recent months. It was all part of an ongoing trend. One that Iris wasn’t going to let stop her, of course not. It just made her all the more determined.
Still, she knew she had to remain calm - she might be an American citizen, but she wasn’t white and she wasn’t male. There were all sorts of things that could go wrong and then what?
Or a guard could come back and say that NSA was there for her? What the hell? It was only because of the confusion and annoyance in the CBP agents that let her know that it wasn’t them trying to intimidate her even more.
Okay. Time to see how this played out.
Natasha turned towards Iris, giving her a quick wink before she repositioned her sunglasses. “All right. Let’s get you out of here before your work is any more compromised.”
“You can’t just--”
Kitty interrupted the CBP agent, voice icy. “Do you want to know what happened to the ribs of the last man I had to interrogate? Because if you don’t release our asset I’ll show you and make sure no one outside of this room ever knows.”
And it was Natasha plus Kitty. Okay then, that made a bit more sense than the actual NSA showing up. Because really, she was just wanting to get her stuff and get back to California. Not sit around in a Texas airport unable to get back to her country because the administration was targeting people like her. She’d been through similar types of interrogations, but those had always been in places like Iran, or Libya or Russia.
There was a calculation going on with the CBP agents. They clearly hadn’t gotten anything out of Iris or their search of her possessions - phone and computer included - that they could hold her on. It had essentially been a fishing expedition. And now they had NSA breathing down their necks. Was it really worth calling higher up?
The decision ended up being no, it was not worth it. So instead, Iris was allowed to get her stuff (still a mess) as well as her passport back.
“Welcome to the United States, Miss.”
“Thanks.”
Was her voice sarcastic in her thanks? Obviously. Even so, Iris was not looking to stay in the interrogation room any longer than necessary so once she made sure she had all of her belongings and that Kitty and Natasha were ready to go? That was enough for her.
Natasha led the way out, Kitty strategically behind Iris, neither woman giving the CBP any more time of day, though Kitty was fuming loudly enough there was steam coming out of her ears.
“We’ve booked a private flight,” Natasha said, once they were out of earshot and she could relax. “There’s a car waiting for us, we landed a little bit aways.”
Spoiler alert, she didn’t relax. But she did slow her pace.
Once they were in the car, Kitty snapped. “You know we could enact regime change in three--”
“Pryde.”
“I know I’m just…” Kitty sank back into the driver’s seat and started the car, muttering something under her breath that sounded like ‘cyclops’ and ‘was right.’ There might have been something about ‘magnets’ in there too.
This was hardly the first time Iris had dealt with border agents but it still had been unsettling all the same. Even with knowing that journalists were on the list of those targeted by this administration and how a lot of journalists were now getting flagged. Even so, she maintained her calm as the three walked out.
And she was relieved when Natasha said they had a private flight given the fact she had missed her connecting flight. At least she had only brought carry ons so she wouldn’t need to worry about her stuff being on a plane without her. Though she’d need to let Barry know that she wouldn’t need a ride from the airport after all.
The journalist was about to say thank you when Kitty started talking about enacting regime change and getting cut off. Right then. She couldn’t exactly say she disagreed but at the same time….
“Thanks for getting me.” She probably would have been fine but it was still nerve wracking all the same. “Should I be thanking Cisco for letting you know somehow or was this just on your radar?”
Because she knew Cisco had been twitchy about her travelling and not using her usual phone (which strange and honestly she didn’t put too much thought into it because part of her didn’t want to know) so it wouldn’t be shocking if he had picked something up. But Natasha had shown up out of the blue when she was in trouble before, so that was also a possibility.
“I keep a lot of things on my radar,” Natasha explained. “And I have a few sources of my own.” She swiveled around in her chair, to look back at Iris. “Are you all right? Physically, I mean.”
Mentally was another matter entirely and Natasha was still on the fence about referrals to certain shrinks.
Natasha's answer really didn't shock Iris at all. Instead she just nodded some. And then the question on how she was.
"Yeah, I'm fine."
It wasn't like they had roughed her up, though part of that undoubtedly was from knowing how to handle herself in such matters.
"Just some failed attempts to intimidate me."
“I know someone discreet if you need to talk to someone.” Nat left it at that; Iris wasn’t one of hers so she couldn’t do more than offer a suggestion.
“Was there anything important on your laptop or phone that you don’t want them having copies of?” Kitty asked. She’d grabbed the equipment but that didn’t mean the government hadn’t made copies.
"I'm fine, but thanks." Of all the things Iris had been through in recent months, intimidation tactics by CBP and the like really didn't seem to register to her. They weren't the first overzealous agents she'd had to deal with when training and likely wouldn't be the last.
As for Kitty's question?
"Nope. There's a reason I use a separate laptop and phone when I travel for work. Things like this."
There hadn't been any particularly sensitive interviews that she had gone into this trip, and previous ones were already in stories that had been published.
Natasha nodded, shifting back to a normal sitting position. “Pryde, get us to the blackbird and let's go home.”
“Hope they like their present,” Kitty murmured, smiling to herself.
After all of that, home definitely sounded good. So for now, it was letting herself finally relax some. There would be time later to work on the story.