Call to Action

I Only Show You What I Want You to See; I've Got My Tongue in my Cheek

As Austen storms out, I slid my gaze over her body, and take in the view of her ass. Annoyance turns into an appreciative smirk; can't deny how good looking she is. But it was just a look—the moment she door shuts, I turn my smirk on Maria and Sharon, just as wolfish and attentive: "if I have to save her, I want a raise."

"We're not paying you, Frost. You're doing this out of the goodness of your heart." Hill replies, voice almost skeptical sounding. She hesitates for a moment, I miss the beat before she continues, "don't forget you're just as emotional tied to this as Barton is, both of you have a father kidnapped."

It's on the tip of my tongue to point out any—everyone—of the major differences between Austen and myself. But those are things I can't say: I can't point out that I have been taught for moments like this and I hold enough connections in my back pocket to embarrass the Black Widow. I'm not stupid enough to tell Maria Hill that I can handle myself just fine, I don't need to stop my feet or cry a little, because I know for a fact that I'll be on top. The method of how is just up for debate, especially now that for the first time in my life I'm going to have an unknown tagalong.

Maria's voice breaks my internal tantrum, "you'll have to learn to play nice. You're father learned to do it, and I'm more than confident you can do the same."

I end the conversation there; waving my hand in a salute, cocky and dismissive, "that's great, Maria. Let me know when you have something that's actually useful." I push one of the screens around, putting a block between the two of us. Her eyes harden and I flick a hologram open, devoted to the sudden work before me.

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Unfortunately, for me, there isn't anything to do. The lab, despite having some fun toys, is mediocre compared to the quality of Stark R&D. The lab also comes off to empty with just JARVIS and myself. Over time I've grown used to the helper 'bots and their penchant for always being in the way. After touching everything, making one explosion for the hell of it, I set myself up with a live feed of the main computers on the bridge.

"I want to know everything, J."

"Anything in particular I should green light, sir?"

I take care as I look over the data running over the screen in front of me, "anything that looks like Fury might hide it." I swing another screen around, "put it here."

"Yes, sir."

I hesitate, hands tight on the sides of the board. It's tempting to dig even deeper, past security and the fake files. I've never sat in front of a computer that didn't spill its secrets, but I know if I a start prying—start prodding—it could end up … bad. I occupy myself with turning away, leaving JARVIS in peace, and call Wade.

He answers immediately, the phone clicks and I listen to his heavy breathing. "It's me, Wade."

"Jase," he replies cheerfully, "coming home so I can shoot you?"

"Hardly," although that does sound like fun, "S.H.I.E.L.D. wants me to do a mission for them with Barton's daughter."

"Do you get to work with Captain America?" He asks excitedly, "is she hot?"

"We've saving Captain America." Something clatters on his end and the phone line fills with static.

"Shit, fucking---yes! This is great!" The static fell away to Wade's loud excitement, "who should I kill first?"

"Nobody yet, just take a look around. It's not only him though; Bruce, Barton, and my dad are with him. Play it up as much as you want," I say pleasantly, almost as an afterthought, "remind everyone whose turf they're on."

When Wade laughs, he sounds like a maniac ready to kill someone—granted, half the time he is about to kill someone. "I'll call you when I find something."

I disconnect the call with confidence that something will be done, soon, and with efficiency. I exchange phone for ear piece and spare the quickest of glances for the screens. The words are a blur, rushing over and over as JARVIS reads and digs. I step closer and swing a screen up; the pace instantly slows to one that I can control: nothing, it's nothing. I spare a moment to snort as Justin Hammer and his son's name slip onto the screen. The two of them could actually be a threat of Hammer would let his son shine. But the elder had a serious control problem resulting in the inability for them to find their way out of a paper bag, let alone into Avengers Tower. And that was, even, if the door was left wide open.

I tapped the screen, "don't be insulting, JARVIS."

"Never," the names vanish, allowing new names to take their place. "Sir, Agent 13 is approaching."

"Fade to black," I promptly spin around in my chair, catching sight of the light over the alarm turning red. It flashes a second time, this time it goes green and unlocks. "Sharon! You're back so soon, did you miss me?"

She dismisses my antics, "please stop hacking our servers."

"If you told me anything, I wouldn't have too…"

"We're having a group debriefing in a few hours, we've discovered—" JARVIS lights up one of the screens and I turn it toward me. The same pinched harassment that Fury usually has on his face is suddenly on her face – I wonder if it's a Stark thing.

"You were saying?"

"If you leave the Helicarrier without my order and without Barton, I will come and fetch you. It won't be pleasant."
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I'm done with school, so yay! All my time away from work and the library will be focused on writing. ♥