Bab 167: Arc Six. Chapter One Hundred Sixty-Seven. Keeping An Eye Out
"So, you cure Flash Thompson, you help Olivia Octavious rebuilt the OS of the War Machine, and yet, here I am sat with one eye, with an agent with one hand, and nothing. No thanks, no 'oh Director Fury, thanks for not hauling my irresponsible ass to jail' and yet," and Fury shook his head, "and yet, everyone seems to be getting what they want except the one person who is helping you the most."
After Peter had explained to Liv that emotions and feelings had been transferred over with the symbcell infusion and no direct memories, she had still dragged him into the lab and made him debug code for the rest of the day.
With a sudden burst of power, and a now talkative symbiote, Flash had immediately headed to the gym and began to work out, sending Cap and Rumlow a message. While Peter toiled over line after line of broken code, Flash had an exhibition, which Fury found out about.
"So, am I getting my request, or are you going to ignore me and," he shrugged, "find another of my female agents to seduce, and add to whatever the hell you're doing when not at work."
Peter cast his gaze over to Natasha who was busy lifting things off one of Fury's sideboards, staring at them with rapt attention, ignoring the pair, "Nat?"
She sighed and put down a photo. "I forgot. This devilishly handsome man keeps me up all night, doing wherever the hell it is we do when we're not working."
Peter shook his head and stood up, "yeah, not taking the blame this time, Nat asked me, months ago? I told her it was her call, so, bye." and Peter left before he was blamed for anything else, closing the door behind him and bolting down the corridor.
A few moments later his phone buzzed, and laughing as he checked his messages,
One hour, you ass, and you owe me.
As he typed his reply he got a few looks from the staff of Shield HQ, but by now he was used to it. As he walked through the sterile white and beige painted walls, past the drab grey and black dressed staff, he realised that so far no one other than his team had made any effort to reach out to him, or the others for that matter. He knew they had gained a reputation, he could hear the quiet whispers and not just for the Misfits but the fact that Livs relationship was public but that Nat was also supposedly staying with him. Shaking his head and ignoring what he referred to as 'drones,' he made his way back to the gym.
He found Webb squatting over a huge barbell. He hadn't been officially tested for his new strength yet but it was several rings all slid onto a double thick steel bar. As Webb strained he lifted the whole thing and a small crowd cheered,
"700 lbs," Rumlow shouted and the crowd cheered again, Flash dropping the bar and flexing. Not wanting to embarrass the poor man Peter shook his head and moved on. Heading to the weapons testing centre where he knew he would find Liv.
As he scanned his badge, allowing him access to the various departments, he smirked, suck it Flash, while Flash was a cadet, Peter's badge gave him Level One access to parts of the building, a small and petty victory but one he still enjoyed. As he approached the War Machine hanger he could hear Liv and someone else arguing, it was a bald Asian man, someone Peter had never met before and he had no idea who he was.
"Agent Sitwell, I don't care if you need authorisation, I'm giving you authorisation." He could hear Liv shout,
"Yes Doctor, but I need to hear that from Agent Rumlow. He's the pilot, I can't authorise a complete overhaul of the suit without his say so," he argued back,
"Really? So even though my name is on the door, even though my work is the one actually repairing the suit, and as I said before as my name is listed as department head, you still need Brock to sign off on this?"
The man cleared his throat, "Agent Rumlow is the pilot, and one directly recommended by Director Pierce. While Director Fury is the overarching head of this facility, Director Pierce is overseeing this project and therefore, while it might be your name on the door, Agent Rumlow is in charge, and unless he gives me the go-ahead to approve these changes, then there will be no changes."
Peter heard Liv huff, "well, then as it seems that I am unnecessary. Until Brock finishes playing muscleman with Flash, I think I'll just go home. And you, agent Sitwell, can stick your head up Alexander Pierce's arse. As your tongue's up there already!" and Peter waited until she slammed the door of the lab behind her before coming over,
"Let's go home," and she nodded and took his hand.
Liv was quiet on the way back, but Peter knew she was seething mad. Since she had started working on War Machine, Rumlow had constantly undermined her authority. While it was natural as a senior agent, and as the pilot of the armour, it still grated her that she had an unofficial boss, one who didn't understand any of the problems she was facing.
As they entered the warehouse she screamed, "I swear, if he gives me crap for one more fix I'll. I'll.'' and she took a breath, "hello Director Fury, don't mind me, just letting off some steam." and Liv gave Peter a look and headed into her home, slamming the door behind her.
Fury raised an eyebrow. "Problem?" and Peter shook his head,
"Not in your department no, I'll explain later," and Fury just shrugged.
"Now, if you'll head up to my lab, we'll see what's on the slab. I see you shiver with," but Fury raised an eyebrow and looked at him, unamused.
"Anticipation. Oh, come on. Liv showed me that movie and, oh fine fine, upstairs, we can start when you're ready." Peter was deflated, it was a good movie, if a little strange for his tastes, but Liv loved it.
Shaking his head he motioned for Fury and the other agents to head up the walkway, He recognised Clint, from the first briefing, his arm in a sling, holding the bandaged end of his ruined hand. Coulson was there but there were also two women he had no clue about. One was a tall brunette, sharp eyes and she stared at him as he motioned, shaking her head as she walked past him, great, Peter thought, another prude, and as the last woman walked past, a cute blonde with the same serious look, she leant in and whispered,
"your lab? Is it a jump to the left?" and Peter snorted and laughed as he shook his head,
"Just up the ramp, but keep your knees in tight thought," and she smiled as she followed the rest.
Once they were in the room, Fury nodded and took out a small circular disk, which he handed to Peter, and even as he shrugged he still pressed the button on the top. Nothing happened visually but to Peter, he felt and tingled as the device emitted a constant stream of not just white noise but ionic interference as well.
"You know I shielded this place right?" but Fury shrugged,
"And if I wanted I could penetrate that, so it never hurts to be careful." and Peter laughed,
"Sure Nick, sure." and as the group all stared at Fury, being huffy with a kid, they had no clue as to where their director was and who this stranger was.
"Uh look, this is nice and all but my hand, you know, the one I was promised I could get back," Clint said, waving his stump at the pair, and Peter nodded,
"Gwen will take you next door, but we don't know if Enhancement will do that. You might not get your hand, but your eye should be back to normal," as he waved over at Fury as well.
"You don't know?" and Fury looked over at him,
"You might need to remain Enhanced." but Clint shook his head,
"We discussed this," Fury said,
"No, you discussed this, my wife on the other hand told me, and who do you think I'll listen to. No more Shield." As Clint spoke Gwen walked in and handed him a bottle "uh, what this? I thought it was an injection" but Gwen just handed one to Fury,
"Regrowing limbs is great but the procedure will make you hungry, protein shake with essential minerals and a few extras. You first though, regrowing a hand will be gross and I don't want anyone puking."
"Uh, Ms Stacy, we're all highly trained shield agents here, I don't think-" Nick began but the blonde interrupted him,
"Gross as in muscle and bone regrowing at a viable rate gross?" And Gwen nodded, "yeah I don't want to watch that, oh, and as Nick is an ass, I'm Sharon," and she lent over to shake Gwen's hand, and "Clint," who raised a hand and finger saluted her, "Maria," who stood and scowled, "and finally Phil," who shook her hand as well,
"hi, nice meeting you."
"Likewise, but you all are getting Enhanced right? Or am I missing something?" and Fury nodded,
"Just the eye for me, but yeah, Enhancement for everyone else." Fury stated, Clint just taking a swig of his bottle and frowning.
"I still don't see why though, I mean, once we do this we all fall under the accords, and then we're more limited than as normal agents." Sharon stood, crossing her arms staring at Fury, who shook his head,
"Nope, Stark testified in front of a congressional committee and screwed that all up. I get you don't like him, he did punch you through a building but right now, he saved all our asses."
"Got a TV I can cast too?" and Peter nodded, switching on the projector behind him, Fury took out his phone and after swiping it, a video began to play.
"So Mr Stark, we are here to ask you to hand over the specifications for the Iron Man suits as well as the manufacturing methods," and as Tony laughed he shook his head,
"Yeah, that's not happening. See, you can call them military all you like, but do that and several of the patents and parts I use suddenly fall under that too, and unless you feel like refitting almost every commercial jet in the US, and making every single airline a military operation, then tough, I say no."
"You realise the New York accords give us that power Mr Stark,"
"Yeah, see, a lot of people think I'm just a billionaire, philanthropist, playboy but I am also a genius and I have a lot of staff. When your boss, and I don't mean the flag one, I mean the money one, wrote those laws, they slipped in a few minor details."
"See, any private company can apply for a licence and hold its own Enhanced team, as long as they aren't wanted criminals, or have a criminal record. And the paperwork takes 5 minutes."
That brought a flurry of activity from not just the senators who struggled to find the passages in the paper in front of them but from reporters behind him as well. Tony turned and smiled and waved for the cameras.
"So, yeah, with this permit," and Tony took out a card, labelled with Iron Man, and a snap of his smug smiling face, which he held up to his own face, "I can run as many Iron drones as I like, and you can't stop me. If you try, then not just me but," and Tony clicked a pen at the monitor and Shield's database came up. "Shield, oh Avengers, nice name by the way, and Sword. The military, Thunderbolts? Really, you let Ross name his team after himself and I'm the one in court. See, they all become illegal, and they all get jail time, sure me too, but are you going to throw Alexander Pierce in jail, or war hero General Thaddeus Ross, oh he'd love that." And the crowd behind Tony erupted in a cacophony of questions.
As the group watched the clip Peter shook his head,
"Yeah," Fury explained, "Stark might be an ass, even bigger than you, but he is a smart ass and he just saved all of us."
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