"Hey mister. Are you alright?" Hawkeye slowly regained consciousness and found himself lying face down on the dusty earth. The last thing he remembered was hurtling through the quantum realm before passing out. A little girl in an ivory white petticoat was standing over him with a concerned look on her face. He pushed down with his hands and got back on his feet before facing the kid.

"I'm fine," he smiled faintly. The strange clothes she wore caught his eye. In turn she was fascinated by the red and white suit he had on. He surveyed his surrounding, looking for familiar sights or landmarks but he could find none. The S.H.I.E.L.D. facility based in South Philadelphia, where he was working before he fell into the quantum realm ,was nowhere to be seen. He had to figure out where he was.

"What city is this kid?" he asked her in a quiet voice.

"Phi...phipha... phidaphelphia," she finally managed to say before turning around and running away.

If this was indeed Philadelphia, the next thing he needed to figure out was the 'when'. The multistory apartment complexes and skyscrapers were replaced by brick buildings and tiny wooden shacks. Makeshift tents made of plastic and paper were erected beside the shack. He headed towards them and picked up one of the newspaper that served as the roof.

His hands started shaking as he read the date on the top right corner which read June 1930. If the date was to be believed, he had traveled almost ninety years back in time. After taking a deep breath to calm himself, he assessed his options. He knew that the suit was capable of taking him back to his own time but what he saw next made his heart sink. The meter on his wrist indicated that he was out of Pym particles, the fuel that helped him traverse time. It slowly dawned on him that he might be trapped in this era for good.

No. There had to be a way to get back and he was going to find it. But right now he needed to find a change of clothes. His flashy suit was bound to draw unnecessary attention to himself. He weaved through the row of tents till he reached a red brick building. One of the windows were ajar and he climbed in through the open window. 

The strong smell of spirits filled his nostrils as soon as he stepped inside. He moved around the darkened room carefully and as luck would have it, he found a worker's outfit on top of one of the barrels in the corner. After making sure that he was alone in the room, he peeled off his Advanced Tech Suit and changed into the baggy pants and frayed shirt. As he folded his Tech Suit he heard footsteps approaching and with no time to spare, he stashed his suit in one of the empty barrels which had a distinguishing white cross mark at the bottom. 

"Hey you, what are you doing here?" a gravelly male voice called out to him.

Hawkeye looked towards source of the voice to find a giant of a man blocking the entrance with a slender woman in a bright red gown standing beside him. She stared at him intently waiting for his reply. "I work here, I'm making sure these barrels are secure," Hawkeye responded calmly. He was unsure if they believed him. His gaze was fixed on the man but then the woman stepped forward.

Vale was doing her morning rounds at the distillery, with her head guard by her side. It was something that she did every morning; every morning after her cup or two of coffee, that was. It was just something she did, helped her keep tabs on the people around her and made sure the product they were producing was being done properly. The better the quality the more she could charge for it, needless to say money was good.

They were half way through their rounds, Vale wasn't paying much attention in front of her but instead, watching the couple guys filling up some bottles. That's when she felt the strong hand of her guard pushing her behind him as he spoke out. "Hey you, what are you doing here?" Vale whipped her head around, only to be staring at the back of her guard. Peeking her head around him, she noticed a man she had never seen before. He was dressed right but something was different about him, also as if he didn't belong.

She narrowed her eyes in his direction, waiting for him to answer.

"I work here, I'm making sure these barrels are secure."

If it wasn't for the mans nonthreatening stature, Vale would have immediately pulled out her gun. She knew he didn't work here, every one working at the distillery went through her. So who was he and what did he want? Was he spying on them, trying to get their trade secrets. Cause if that was the case, this man would definitely wind up at the bottom of the Atlantic.

Taking a step to her right, Vale moved out from behind her guard. Though she made sure to keep ever so close to him, just cause he wasn't armed didn't mean he had no weapons on him.

"So, let's try this again. Who are you and what are you doing here? Considering this is my place and I hire everyone, I know for a fact you don't work here. If you enjoy breathing, I'd start talking."

Vale crossed her arms together, while staring at the man in front of her. Waiting for him to say something.  

Beads of perspiration ran down the back of his neck as he faced off against the woman and her bodyguard. Hawkeye could tell that this woman was not to be taken lightly. He had to think of a plausible explanation for his presence before he ate a bullet. With his arms slightly raised he took a few steps forward in their direction.

"Alright you got me there. That was a lie" he confessed as he took a couple more steps. "I'm not from around here... " he paused while he concocted a story in his mind. He knew it had to be close to the truth if he was to deceive this woman.

"The name is Hawkeye. I come from a distant land. It was not my wish to be brought to this place. Yet here I am, far away from my friends and family," his voice broke as he recounted his tale. "I don't know if I can ever get back to them, but what I do know is that I will never give up. First I need to find a job and earn some dough. And that is what brought me to this place."

The bodyguard motioned for him to stop and he came forward to pat him down. He then turned towards his mistress and stated, "He is unarmed Miss Patangeli."

"Of course I am unarmed, why would I bring a weapon in here. All I want is a job, nothing more." said Hawkeye while looking directly into the woman's eyes. "I am sorry for breaking into this place. If I tried the front entrance, I doubt your guards would have let me inside. Isn't that right?" He could see her knit her brows while she listened to his story.

He pleaded with her one last time, "Please, you have to help me out Miss..."

Vale wasn't completely sure she believed him, you don't really break into an establishment because you are looking for a job. Though there was something about the guy, he definitely didn't have the normal look. Well besides the clothing but that wasn't hard to get around here. Vale said nothing for a little while but kept her eyes on the man in front of her, that was until she broke her silence.

"You could have used the front entrance, we would have given you the time of the day. I'm always looking for capable people to help around here but you broke in and just started working? I mean how does that make any sense? How would you expect to get paid if I didn't even know you worked here."

Vale glanced over to her guard and gave him a nod, a nod that indicated for him to remove the man from the site. He took a couple steps towards Hawkeye and gripped him up by the arms.

"Come on! Time for you to le..."

Before he could finish his sentence, the guard was on the floor. Faced down with his arms in some sort of arm lock. Vale took a step back and placed her hand on her hip. Getting ready to draw her weapon. Hawkeye loosened his grip on the guard then offered his hand to help him up. A hand that the guard refused to grab. 

Hawkeye took a step back and put his hands up in front of him.

"Listen, I don't want trouble. Really I don't. I just need some work.."

Vale looked at him then at her guard that was just pushing himself off the ground.

"You know, that may be the first time I've ever seen Sonny taken down like that. Where did you learn that move?"

She was not buying his story and Hawkeye cursed himself for having picked this particular building to break into. He saw the guard move closer to him, ready to throw him out. As soon as Sonny's hands were on him, his training kicked in.

He placed his right hand on Sonny's wrist and the other hand above his elbow joint. With a quick twist he had the guard down on his knees, his hand locked firmly in an armbar. Hawkeye knew he could break the guard's hand if he chose to but he let him go almost instantly. The woman had a bemused look on her face as she asked him where he learned that move.

"Its something I picked up in New York," he replied calmly and that was indeed the truth. It was a move he often used on Tony whenever he got hammered and started trouble. 

The guard rubbed his arm and got back on his feet. He then looked at Valencia and muttered, " Miss Patangeli, maybe we could use him. The situation in Detroit has worsened. We need more men to accompany us when we head out there today. It might be a great opportunity to see what he has to offer. And if he ends up dead" the guard chuckled and added "that's just too bad ain't it."

Valencia thought long and hard about Sonny's proposition. After making her mind up she looked at Hawkeye and said flatly, "Follow me to my office if you still want that job." With that she turned around and marched off.

Hawkeye glanced back at the barrel that contained his suit, his ticket back home once he could figured a way to make it work. But he knew he could't grab it now. When this job in Detroit was done, he would come back for it. He followed the woman to her office with Sonny right behind him. They walked along a narrow corridor and up a metal staircase. He memorized the route they took as they reached the second floor but this place was enormous. Bootlegging must be quite profitable during this era he thought.

She stepped through a large wooden double door and he followed her inside. The office was quite different from the rest of the building. The floor was carpeted and handcrafted bookshelves lined one side of the room, filled with a variety of books. The woman took a seat behind the ornate desk and she pulled out a large file. On the wall behind her he noticed a golden plaque that read 'Crown & Cork'.

Vale sat behind her desk and opened up the folder. She placed the tip of her pointer finger onto her tongue, wetting it just a little bit before flipping through the pages. It was a bit of a habit of hers, something to help guide the pages a bit quicker as they turned. Finding the page she was looking for she pulled it out and closed the folder placing it next to her. She gave it a look over, then at Hawkeye whom was still standing.

"Sit please!"

Hawkeye looked over at Sonny who gave him a nod to take a seat. She waited a moment for him to get situated before passing the piece of paper across the desk. "What's this?" He exclaimed.

"That's the person who is causing trouble in Detroit." Vale said, which made Hawkeye raise an eyebrow. She could tell he didn't understand why she had passed him info on someone causing trouble in Detroit. From what he knew, he thought he was in Philadelphia.

"I don't understand? Aren't we in Philadelphia?" Hawkeye questioned.

Vale smirked then leaned onto her desk, folding her arms in front of her. 

"Indeed we are, do you not remember the scum that invaded Philly recently?" Hawkeye shook his head, which made Vale sit back into her chair. Perhaps this guy really wasn't from here, cause there was no way he wouldn't have known of the recent invasion. She thought about it for a couple seconds but shook it off and went into explaining.

"Well you see, recently in the major cities around the country. There was an uprising of bad personnel, they came in and tried to take over all at once. Was quite a battle, we spend days trying to rid them from the streets of Philly. Which was a successful task on our part but now we have them on the run. There's a small population of them hiding out in Detroit, we've been asked to come help. A request that was happily obliged. So tonight we head to Detroit and well since you're so enthusiastic on taking up a job with me, you get to some and show me what you have to offer."

She gave him a bit of a gaze.

"If you're not up to the task then you can stay behind. I'm sure I could hook you up with a job at my fathers supermarket. I think he said he needed to hire a couple bag boys....."

The bullets were flying left and right, Hawkeye ducked and weaved through the streets of Corktown trying to find cover. The place was overrun with enemy soldiers. A couple of goons were hiding behind the black Chrysler parked up ahead. He found one of his allies on the other side of the street and gave him an almost imperceptible nod. The guy started firing at the enemy, giving Hawkeye the cover he needed. After taking careful aim, he squeezed the trigger and watched the goons drop dead on the road one after the other.

Yesterday was an eventful day. Valencia had given him a simple choice; join the fight in Detroit or stay behind. If he had stayed behind in Philly, he could have easily broken into the distillery while the guards were away. The suit would have been his and he could have been working on figuring out a way to get back home. Why then was he here in the middle of this battle. It was something he knew not the answer to.

A bullet hit the dumpster right beside him and ricocheted off. "Sniper on the rooftop," he called out and sprinted from his position, diving behind the Chrysler as another bullet whizzed past his head. He broke the side mirror from the vehicle and used it to look past the corner. The long barrel of an Enfield rifle was jutting out from a window of a two storey building in the distance. 

After what seemed like an eternity, the sniper fired again. This time he found his mark, the man Hawkeye nodded to earlier fell forward as the bullet struck him in the head. Without wasting a second, Hawkeye dashed towards the building which housed the marksman, reaching it before he had a chance to finish reloading. He raced up the stairs and searched the rooms quietly till he found the sniper who was unaware that he had been discovered. Hawkeye pulled out his handgun and pointed it at the man.

Click. The gun jammed and it alerted his target. The man swung his rifle around and shot at Hawkeye who rolled out of the way just in time. The Enfield rifle was not meant for close combat fighting. The man dropped the rifle and charged towards Hawkeye throwing a punch directed at his face. Hawkeye was quick to react , parrying the blow and countering with quick jabs to his solar plexus. As the man doubled over, Hawkeye drove his knee into his face causing him to crumple down on the floor unconscious.