Fanfic: Avengers / Leverage Crossover (Part Six)
Thieves, Spies, and Accidental Allies Masterpost
Pepper was nervous. She knew that Clint, Tony, Steve, and Bruce were all watching the feeds from the security room they had just set up and that even if these people were dangerous, she was in no real danger. Intellectually she knew this. She did. But actually executing the plan that had been hatched the night before just felt wrong.
Mason had saved her life and endangered his own. Cassandra was her friend. And maybe they had stolen from Tony and had sinister intentions, but every fibre in her being was telling her that there was something else going on.
She watched them enter Stark Tower and she didn't have to fake the smile she gave them. Cassandra looked around with interest - barely any staff were in the lobby when normally the place was buzzing with activity. "Everyone else is helping with the clean-up and debrief today, which is actually where I need to take you."
Pepper had been directed to lead them to a conference room on the main floor immediately as per the plan, but she turned to Mason before continuing. "Thank you for pulling me out of the way," she said to him. She needed to get that out before whatever happened next, and she was rewarded with what she thought was a real smile.
"Hey, just doing what anyone would do."
Sadly, from personal experience she knew that wasn't the case, but she pushed that thought away. There were other things at work now.
***
The room was extremely large with doors at each end, and remnants of some sort of technical presentation strewn about. She could see that Hardison was fascinated by all the clutter, but she was focused on other matters.
There was something wrong. Sophie knew it, but she couldn't figure out what, nor what she was supposed to do about it. They were being led through exactly the sort of debriefing she was expecting from Pepper and Natalie, and she, Hardison and Parker were answering as much as they could without giving anything away. They left out the parts about the earbuds and Sophie seeing Natalie fight like an expert. She had just told them how Dr. Banner managed to save those people that were injured, and then they escorted them to safety.
It should have been enough, but somehow, it wasn't. Maybe Eliot was right, that whoever the man was from Eliot's past was somehow working with these people, that he had warned them that they were not who they said they were.
But how much did they know? Did they know anything at all? Pepper seemed genuinely happy to see them this morning. She knew Pepper was capable, but was she that good of an actress?
Pepper started outlining safety protocols in case an attack happened again when her first tell showed, and Sophie had to interject. "Sorry, but do we expect another attack in the near future?"
Pepper looked at Natalie as if she held the answers, but responded instead. "We believe that it was the first attack in many that will be happening over the next few days, and since we think it was targeted..."
Sophie narrowed her eyes suspiciously but she heard Hardison and Parker both shift nervously beside her. They believed her and she couldn't figure out why she didn't...
And then as if it was on cue, the door exploded behind Pepper, and an object that looked like a cross between Hammer's rogue drones and that thing that had been photographed in the New Mexico desert the previous year.
They all ducked in surprise and Natalie and Pepper screamed perhaps a little too convincingly. She turned around to look at the door behind her - but one of the pieces from the explosion had lit a large drafters' pad of paper on fire in their path. They were effectively trapped.
In a mirror of what happened yesterday, Natalie and Pepper ran to their side of the table and they hid behind it before a project easel exploded too.
Wait, the easel had exploded? She surveyed the room. There were plenty of small objects that the machine could target its fire power before turning to them, but why would the machine target the inanimate objects instead of the people that were running? Another object exploded, and for all the show, none of the projectiles actually did any damage. And the fire was orange, not blue.
Eliot was already in her ear telling her to hold on, that he was coming to help soon, and she frantically whispered no but her pleas were unheeded.
Beside her, Natalie showed none of the expertise she displayed yesterday, though Pepper still managed to seem both genuinely frightened and in planning mode, rummaging again for a cell phone that was just out of reach, and giving Natalie some sort of directions that she's sure Natalie didn't need.
Parker and Hardison were arguing, and she tuned in just long enough to realize that they too had missed her plea to stop. "It's just a machine!" Parker was protesting over the noise of the small explosions. "Can't you stop it? Just -" she waved her hands at Hardison. "Hack into it!"
"Hack into -- hack into it?" he cried back at her. "You think it's connected to the internet? You see a USB port? No worries, because this thing's got Bluetooth!"
"Mason!" Sophie exclaimed, trying to derail their debate before they blew their cover even more, but Hardison seemed to have forgotten his name. And anyway, it was too late to stop everyone from falling into the trap, because Eliot had arrived at the door.
***
Natasha surveyed the damage around the room. When they were developing the plan, they didn't actually think that Spencer would be able to rip the head right off the drone, though she had warned them that it was a possibility. Still, Tony told her that it didn't matter, as long as it wasn't taking fire at that exact moment.
Well, the resounding explosion that happened right after he entered the room told her that he did exactly that. While they had planned on a simple exposure and confrontation once they drew Spencer out of hiding, instead there were eleven people in the room staring daggers at each other while Eliot corralled his people behind him despite the burn on his arm.
For a brief second she actually wanted to see what Eliot in top form could do when fighting Steve, but she pushed that thought away. With Hardison and Eliot both facing injuries, this was not the time or place for a battle. "I think it's time to come clean," she said calmly. "This has gone far enough."
She was surprised when it was Cassandra - no, Sophie - that spoke up first, and even more with how angry her voice was. "You couldn't have exposed us without endangering all of our lives?"
Nate put his hand on her arm to stop her, and Natasha cut her off before she could continue. "You're right. It was a bad plan. There were other ways of doing this." She caught Tony almost protesting out of the corner of her eye before Pepper stopped him. Great. He wasn't going to stay placated for long.
Before Natasha started again, Pepper stepped up to where she was standing, almost creating a shield between the imposters and Tony as if that would keep him calm longer. "Look, Nat can be calm and soothing all day, but the only way this is going to end if you start talking. Now." There was silence for a moment as if the others were all figuring out who should go first, but Pepper of all people was getting impatient. "Who are you people?" she finally exclaimed.
"Please," Parker scoffed. "As if we're the only ones that were lying; there's no way she's a lawyer."
Tony jumped in. "There's no way he's an architect!"
"Look," Steve said, taking his turn. "Agent Romanov was only here because you did something with the computers. Maybe if you just tell us why you're here this can end."
Nate was confrontational. "We took a client that had been screwed by you guys, and so went on a fact finding mission to see how the heroes of the year could actually be the bad guys. With the way you put my people in danger, it's not that hard to believe."
Natasha could see Tony's temper rising and even Bruce shifted at his words, but before she could answer, Eliot's face shone of recognition and she knew that the calm portion of the negotiations were over. "Agent... Romanov?" He turned to Clint. "You grill me about how I care about innocent lives and you have the Black Widow on your payroll?"
Tony, for all his faults, jumped to her defence. "Hey, you can't talk to her like that -"
Steve jumped into the fray, addressing Nate. "And you just believe this client of yours?"
Clint was still arguing with Eliot, and the noise level was rising, with each person ending up arguing with more than one other.
"She stole millions of dollars of paintings -"
"One of his family members was killed because of one of your Avengers -"
"I'm a grifter, and hardly the worst one that he went through -"
"Hardison was hurt saving one of you and you tried to blow him up -"
"And you just try to ruin people's lives because you can -"
" - couldn't handle himself -"
"I personally vet all our clients and everything he said at the meeting was true -"
"-think you can just use my labs -"
"And that other guy at the meeting was really creepy."
"-in Harlem!"
"What other guy?"
"See? The blonde doesn't even know who was at the meeting. It's crazy!"
Everyone had exploded at the same time and now it had dropped to a whisper just in time for Parker to defiantly say, "I'm not crazy!" and Bruce to whisper, "Harlem?"
It was quiet, and Nate turned to the blonde. "Parker, there was only one person at the meeting."
"No, there were two. The Senator, and the guy talking to the Senator."
Natasha knew that at moments like these it was best to just stay silent, but now was the time that Steve decided to be chivalrous, taking at step forward and extending his hand as if to pat her on the shoulder. "Maybe you were thinking of another meeting..."
She just jerked away and backed out of the room with the other exit now clear. "I know what I saw."
Hardison turned to follow her but she was already long gone and he still wasn't in any condition to follow her, but that wasn't her biggest worry right now. Whoever the Senator was, he had intelligence on them, and it was good. And, if she could believe Parker's word, there was something much bigger here going on. She exchanged a look with Clint and he nodded. He was thinking the same thing as she was.
They needed to deal this immediately. But first, they needed to find Parker.
***
Clint left the explaining and details to Natasha and Steve, but he did manage to figure out before leaving that Parker had ditched whatever way that they had of tracking each other. He ran out the doors and looked around. They were planning a search of the tower - which could take hours, because apparently she liked to go in all the places that Jarvis didn't have sensors - but she hadn't yet left the building. That was the only thing they knew for sure.
Clint closed his eyes and breathed in, thinking of everything she knew about the girl - which really wasn't much. In his mind he scanned through the video they took of the hotel room from his perch and the recovered video from the fight yesterday, thinking about the way she moved, the things she said, and finally one thing stuck out: the way she jumped out of the way of a blue blast at the end of the battle, grabbing the bottom of a fire escape and swinging out of the way. Natasha would have jumped behind the wall. It was an easier jump and far safer, but Parker thought the same way he did, which meant...
It took him a while to figure out how to bypass all of Tony's protocols, but when he finally reached the roof he wasn't at all surprised to see the girl sitting at the edge, almost wistfully looking down.
"I'm not making things up," she said, without turning around. He didn't think he had made any noise.
"I know."
"I'm not crazy, either."
"I know that too." She turned around and squinted up at him, his shadow falling across her with the sun at his back. It must have been painful for her so he sat beside her instead. He looked down, appreciating the view. "Most people I know would be scared to be up here."
The corner of Parker's mouth twitched into a tiny smile before it disappeared again. "Alec's afraid of heights."
"I -" he absently rubbed his temple, thinking. "I don't actually know who that is."
Her twitched smile reappeared again, and she playfully shoved his arm. While on top of a skyscraper. While they were sitting on the edge. Maybe she was a little crazy. But that's not why he was there now. "Hardison. Or, Mason. We're dating. And it's funny that he's afraid of heights because you should see what we did on vacation..."
He let her talk and he was fascinated, not only by the stories that she told but also the way her mind went from subject to subject, weaving conclusions that he may have missed and things that were obvious to him were foreign to her. Maybe that's why... "Parker," he asked when she had finished. "What did this other man at the meeting look like?"
"Really tall, really straight teeth, long dark hair..."
"You are definitely not crazy, Parker. You're just really perceptive. And you just saved everything."
***
Nate was starting to worry. This job had gotten out of his control, and he couldn't figure out where it had gone wrong.
At least Parker was okay - Clint had notified the AI which had let the rest of them know to gather in a different conference room. He appreciated it. This one was in significantly better shape than the one they had vacated.
After he had explained who they all were and what they really did, Natasha and Pepper had given them quite the briefing before they left to search for Parker as well. Hardison was still working with Tony to verify each others' stories, but it seemed like they were telling the truth. Mild mannered Dr. Banner was the monster they were hunting, but he was not the monster that had killed the Senator's nephew.
And Captain America was alive and well, and had a crush on Parker.
Of course he did.
Nate rubbed his eyes. He could really use a drink.
The rest of their absurd group joined him at the table with Parker and Clint bringing up the rear. "We know what happened," the man said to the group, and with great gravity he announced, "Loki."
Half the people looked shocked and reacted with what he assumed was the appropriate level of fear, but he just shrugged. "Who's Loki?"
Apparently they hadn't gotten to that part of the briefing before. "Remember when we told you about Thor?" Natasha asked, though it was really more of a statement. "He's Thor's brother. He... he sent the aliens and wants to destroy Earth."
"Oh," Hardison squeaked.
"I don't understand," Tony piped up. "Thor took him home. That should be the end."
Clint answered. "In New Mexico we found out that Loki had appeared to Thor while still being in Asgard, and Dr. Selvig confided that the feeling we had while we were under the influence of the Tesseract? He had felt that before. It had been driving much of his work on it."
"You think that Loki is implanting ideas? Controlling people from his jail cell?" Tony added.
"There's only one way to figure out," Pepper concluded. "I'll call Jane. She can contact Thor and see what he might be up to." She glanced at her smart phone's calendar. "But the opening for contact won't be for another few days. What do we do until then?"
"The Senator," Natasha said. "He's the key. Which Senator?"
"Bancroft."
"He's on all the right committees," Tony responded. "He'd know about SHIELD, right?"
"And could have access to their weapons," Steve added. "That explains the men from yesterday."
Nate noticed Natasha and Clint exchange a look, and Natasha nodded once before Clint said, "He's part of the World Security Council too."
"Who are they?" Parker asked for all of them.
"They're the ones that sent a missile to New York City," Pepper answered darkly. "They're the ones doing the campaigns of misinformation and tried to release the man that did all real damage in Harlem that they tried to blame on Bruce."
"And now Loki has one of them under his control," Eliot added for clarification.
Nate listened to the arguments unfold around him and he sat back in his chair, putting his index fingers up to his lips. "I know that look," Sophie purred at him, and he smiled.
"Alright gang," he said, and everyone turned to look at him. "I think we just found ourselves a new mark." Tony looked interested and Natasha looked wary, but he knew this was the beginning of a wonderful partnership.
"Let's go steal a Council."
***
end.
Pepper was nervous. She knew that Clint, Tony, Steve, and Bruce were all watching the feeds from the security room they had just set up and that even if these people were dangerous, she was in no real danger. Intellectually she knew this. She did. But actually executing the plan that had been hatched the night before just felt wrong.
Mason had saved her life and endangered his own. Cassandra was her friend. And maybe they had stolen from Tony and had sinister intentions, but every fibre in her being was telling her that there was something else going on.
She watched them enter Stark Tower and she didn't have to fake the smile she gave them. Cassandra looked around with interest - barely any staff were in the lobby when normally the place was buzzing with activity. "Everyone else is helping with the clean-up and debrief today, which is actually where I need to take you."
Pepper had been directed to lead them to a conference room on the main floor immediately as per the plan, but she turned to Mason before continuing. "Thank you for pulling me out of the way," she said to him. She needed to get that out before whatever happened next, and she was rewarded with what she thought was a real smile.
"Hey, just doing what anyone would do."
Sadly, from personal experience she knew that wasn't the case, but she pushed that thought away. There were other things at work now.
***
The room was extremely large with doors at each end, and remnants of some sort of technical presentation strewn about. She could see that Hardison was fascinated by all the clutter, but she was focused on other matters.
There was something wrong. Sophie knew it, but she couldn't figure out what, nor what she was supposed to do about it. They were being led through exactly the sort of debriefing she was expecting from Pepper and Natalie, and she, Hardison and Parker were answering as much as they could without giving anything away. They left out the parts about the earbuds and Sophie seeing Natalie fight like an expert. She had just told them how Dr. Banner managed to save those people that were injured, and then they escorted them to safety.
It should have been enough, but somehow, it wasn't. Maybe Eliot was right, that whoever the man was from Eliot's past was somehow working with these people, that he had warned them that they were not who they said they were.
But how much did they know? Did they know anything at all? Pepper seemed genuinely happy to see them this morning. She knew Pepper was capable, but was she that good of an actress?
Pepper started outlining safety protocols in case an attack happened again when her first tell showed, and Sophie had to interject. "Sorry, but do we expect another attack in the near future?"
Pepper looked at Natalie as if she held the answers, but responded instead. "We believe that it was the first attack in many that will be happening over the next few days, and since we think it was targeted..."
Sophie narrowed her eyes suspiciously but she heard Hardison and Parker both shift nervously beside her. They believed her and she couldn't figure out why she didn't...
And then as if it was on cue, the door exploded behind Pepper, and an object that looked like a cross between Hammer's rogue drones and that thing that had been photographed in the New Mexico desert the previous year.
They all ducked in surprise and Natalie and Pepper screamed perhaps a little too convincingly. She turned around to look at the door behind her - but one of the pieces from the explosion had lit a large drafters' pad of paper on fire in their path. They were effectively trapped.
In a mirror of what happened yesterday, Natalie and Pepper ran to their side of the table and they hid behind it before a project easel exploded too.
Wait, the easel had exploded? She surveyed the room. There were plenty of small objects that the machine could target its fire power before turning to them, but why would the machine target the inanimate objects instead of the people that were running? Another object exploded, and for all the show, none of the projectiles actually did any damage. And the fire was orange, not blue.
Eliot was already in her ear telling her to hold on, that he was coming to help soon, and she frantically whispered no but her pleas were unheeded.
Beside her, Natalie showed none of the expertise she displayed yesterday, though Pepper still managed to seem both genuinely frightened and in planning mode, rummaging again for a cell phone that was just out of reach, and giving Natalie some sort of directions that she's sure Natalie didn't need.
Parker and Hardison were arguing, and she tuned in just long enough to realize that they too had missed her plea to stop. "It's just a machine!" Parker was protesting over the noise of the small explosions. "Can't you stop it? Just -" she waved her hands at Hardison. "Hack into it!"
"Hack into -- hack into it?" he cried back at her. "You think it's connected to the internet? You see a USB port? No worries, because this thing's got Bluetooth!"
"Mason!" Sophie exclaimed, trying to derail their debate before they blew their cover even more, but Hardison seemed to have forgotten his name. And anyway, it was too late to stop everyone from falling into the trap, because Eliot had arrived at the door.
***
Natasha surveyed the damage around the room. When they were developing the plan, they didn't actually think that Spencer would be able to rip the head right off the drone, though she had warned them that it was a possibility. Still, Tony told her that it didn't matter, as long as it wasn't taking fire at that exact moment.
Well, the resounding explosion that happened right after he entered the room told her that he did exactly that. While they had planned on a simple exposure and confrontation once they drew Spencer out of hiding, instead there were eleven people in the room staring daggers at each other while Eliot corralled his people behind him despite the burn on his arm.
For a brief second she actually wanted to see what Eliot in top form could do when fighting Steve, but she pushed that thought away. With Hardison and Eliot both facing injuries, this was not the time or place for a battle. "I think it's time to come clean," she said calmly. "This has gone far enough."
She was surprised when it was Cassandra - no, Sophie - that spoke up first, and even more with how angry her voice was. "You couldn't have exposed us without endangering all of our lives?"
Nate put his hand on her arm to stop her, and Natasha cut her off before she could continue. "You're right. It was a bad plan. There were other ways of doing this." She caught Tony almost protesting out of the corner of her eye before Pepper stopped him. Great. He wasn't going to stay placated for long.
Before Natasha started again, Pepper stepped up to where she was standing, almost creating a shield between the imposters and Tony as if that would keep him calm longer. "Look, Nat can be calm and soothing all day, but the only way this is going to end if you start talking. Now." There was silence for a moment as if the others were all figuring out who should go first, but Pepper of all people was getting impatient. "Who are you people?" she finally exclaimed.
"Please," Parker scoffed. "As if we're the only ones that were lying; there's no way she's a lawyer."
Tony jumped in. "There's no way he's an architect!"
"Look," Steve said, taking his turn. "Agent Romanov was only here because you did something with the computers. Maybe if you just tell us why you're here this can end."
Nate was confrontational. "We took a client that had been screwed by you guys, and so went on a fact finding mission to see how the heroes of the year could actually be the bad guys. With the way you put my people in danger, it's not that hard to believe."
Natasha could see Tony's temper rising and even Bruce shifted at his words, but before she could answer, Eliot's face shone of recognition and she knew that the calm portion of the negotiations were over. "Agent... Romanov?" He turned to Clint. "You grill me about how I care about innocent lives and you have the Black Widow on your payroll?"
Tony, for all his faults, jumped to her defence. "Hey, you can't talk to her like that -"
Steve jumped into the fray, addressing Nate. "And you just believe this client of yours?"
Clint was still arguing with Eliot, and the noise level was rising, with each person ending up arguing with more than one other.
"She stole millions of dollars of paintings -"
"One of his family members was killed because of one of your Avengers -"
"I'm a grifter, and hardly the worst one that he went through -"
"Hardison was hurt saving one of you and you tried to blow him up -"
"And you just try to ruin people's lives because you can -"
" - couldn't handle himself -"
"I personally vet all our clients and everything he said at the meeting was true -"
"-think you can just use my labs -"
"And that other guy at the meeting was really creepy."
"-in Harlem!"
"What other guy?"
"See? The blonde doesn't even know who was at the meeting. It's crazy!"
Everyone had exploded at the same time and now it had dropped to a whisper just in time for Parker to defiantly say, "I'm not crazy!" and Bruce to whisper, "Harlem?"
It was quiet, and Nate turned to the blonde. "Parker, there was only one person at the meeting."
"No, there were two. The Senator, and the guy talking to the Senator."
Natasha knew that at moments like these it was best to just stay silent, but now was the time that Steve decided to be chivalrous, taking at step forward and extending his hand as if to pat her on the shoulder. "Maybe you were thinking of another meeting..."
She just jerked away and backed out of the room with the other exit now clear. "I know what I saw."
Hardison turned to follow her but she was already long gone and he still wasn't in any condition to follow her, but that wasn't her biggest worry right now. Whoever the Senator was, he had intelligence on them, and it was good. And, if she could believe Parker's word, there was something much bigger here going on. She exchanged a look with Clint and he nodded. He was thinking the same thing as she was.
They needed to deal this immediately. But first, they needed to find Parker.
***
Clint left the explaining and details to Natasha and Steve, but he did manage to figure out before leaving that Parker had ditched whatever way that they had of tracking each other. He ran out the doors and looked around. They were planning a search of the tower - which could take hours, because apparently she liked to go in all the places that Jarvis didn't have sensors - but she hadn't yet left the building. That was the only thing they knew for sure.
Clint closed his eyes and breathed in, thinking of everything she knew about the girl - which really wasn't much. In his mind he scanned through the video they took of the hotel room from his perch and the recovered video from the fight yesterday, thinking about the way she moved, the things she said, and finally one thing stuck out: the way she jumped out of the way of a blue blast at the end of the battle, grabbing the bottom of a fire escape and swinging out of the way. Natasha would have jumped behind the wall. It was an easier jump and far safer, but Parker thought the same way he did, which meant...
It took him a while to figure out how to bypass all of Tony's protocols, but when he finally reached the roof he wasn't at all surprised to see the girl sitting at the edge, almost wistfully looking down.
"I'm not making things up," she said, without turning around. He didn't think he had made any noise.
"I know."
"I'm not crazy, either."
"I know that too." She turned around and squinted up at him, his shadow falling across her with the sun at his back. It must have been painful for her so he sat beside her instead. He looked down, appreciating the view. "Most people I know would be scared to be up here."
The corner of Parker's mouth twitched into a tiny smile before it disappeared again. "Alec's afraid of heights."
"I -" he absently rubbed his temple, thinking. "I don't actually know who that is."
Her twitched smile reappeared again, and she playfully shoved his arm. While on top of a skyscraper. While they were sitting on the edge. Maybe she was a little crazy. But that's not why he was there now. "Hardison. Or, Mason. We're dating. And it's funny that he's afraid of heights because you should see what we did on vacation..."
He let her talk and he was fascinated, not only by the stories that she told but also the way her mind went from subject to subject, weaving conclusions that he may have missed and things that were obvious to him were foreign to her. Maybe that's why... "Parker," he asked when she had finished. "What did this other man at the meeting look like?"
"Really tall, really straight teeth, long dark hair..."
"You are definitely not crazy, Parker. You're just really perceptive. And you just saved everything."
***
Nate was starting to worry. This job had gotten out of his control, and he couldn't figure out where it had gone wrong.
At least Parker was okay - Clint had notified the AI which had let the rest of them know to gather in a different conference room. He appreciated it. This one was in significantly better shape than the one they had vacated.
After he had explained who they all were and what they really did, Natasha and Pepper had given them quite the briefing before they left to search for Parker as well. Hardison was still working with Tony to verify each others' stories, but it seemed like they were telling the truth. Mild mannered Dr. Banner was the monster they were hunting, but he was not the monster that had killed the Senator's nephew.
And Captain America was alive and well, and had a crush on Parker.
Of course he did.
Nate rubbed his eyes. He could really use a drink.
The rest of their absurd group joined him at the table with Parker and Clint bringing up the rear. "We know what happened," the man said to the group, and with great gravity he announced, "Loki."
Half the people looked shocked and reacted with what he assumed was the appropriate level of fear, but he just shrugged. "Who's Loki?"
Apparently they hadn't gotten to that part of the briefing before. "Remember when we told you about Thor?" Natasha asked, though it was really more of a statement. "He's Thor's brother. He... he sent the aliens and wants to destroy Earth."
"Oh," Hardison squeaked.
"I don't understand," Tony piped up. "Thor took him home. That should be the end."
Clint answered. "In New Mexico we found out that Loki had appeared to Thor while still being in Asgard, and Dr. Selvig confided that the feeling we had while we were under the influence of the Tesseract? He had felt that before. It had been driving much of his work on it."
"You think that Loki is implanting ideas? Controlling people from his jail cell?" Tony added.
"There's only one way to figure out," Pepper concluded. "I'll call Jane. She can contact Thor and see what he might be up to." She glanced at her smart phone's calendar. "But the opening for contact won't be for another few days. What do we do until then?"
"The Senator," Natasha said. "He's the key. Which Senator?"
"Bancroft."
"He's on all the right committees," Tony responded. "He'd know about SHIELD, right?"
"And could have access to their weapons," Steve added. "That explains the men from yesterday."
Nate noticed Natasha and Clint exchange a look, and Natasha nodded once before Clint said, "He's part of the World Security Council too."
"Who are they?" Parker asked for all of them.
"They're the ones that sent a missile to New York City," Pepper answered darkly. "They're the ones doing the campaigns of misinformation and tried to release the man that did all real damage in Harlem that they tried to blame on Bruce."
"And now Loki has one of them under his control," Eliot added for clarification.
Nate listened to the arguments unfold around him and he sat back in his chair, putting his index fingers up to his lips. "I know that look," Sophie purred at him, and he smiled.
"Alright gang," he said, and everyone turned to look at him. "I think we just found ourselves a new mark." Tony looked interested and Natasha looked wary, but he knew this was the beginning of a wonderful partnership.
"Let's go steal a Council."
***
end.