Chapter 5Summary:In which there are revelations, embarrassment and panic, and it is safe to say nobody has a good day.
Notes:Warning, this is distinctly angstier than most of the previous chapters. Also, there's a fairly emotionally graphic scene of a character being fairly sure they're about to die. I've marked where to stop and start reading to avoid it though, and there's a summary at the end of the chapter of that section.
Sorry, the angst got away from me a little, but the last section is light and fluffy :-)
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter TextTony and Pepper got back from the board meeting Pepper insisted he go to to a note on the kitchen table in one of Natasha's handwritings reading 'As hilarious as it is watching Steve flail when Jarvis asks about the digital equivalent of kissing, we're moving to my kitchen. Steve's stress baking again.'
"Did I miss something?" Pepper asked, holding the note with a tiny frown on her face.
Tony abruptly realised that in the chaos of the last couple of days he'd never gotten round to filling Pepper in about the fact that his Artificial Intelligence might not be artificial anymore. "Uh, well Pep..."
He trailed off as Pepper pinned him with a 'you're in trouble look'. Admittedly, he usually used that phrase while trying to work out how to put something so Pepper wouldn't be mad at him. "What have you done?"
"Nothing!" he protested, although he could admit there was a silent 'for once' in there.
Pepper intensified the Look "Then why are you 'well Pep'ing me?"
Tony cringed "You know I told you about Skyenet's AI?"
"Right before you told me looking for Skyenet was classified and to pretend you never told me?"
"Exactly." Tony agreed "Well I think Hack made Jarvis sentient."
Pepper blinked at him "Pardon?"
"Jarvis is sentient." Tony repeated.
"Oh. I thought I might have misheard you." Pepper said faintly. Her dumbfounded and confused expression reflected everything Tony had been feeling about this. Pepper had interacted with Jarvis from the moment he was online, back when he was only in his lab and not running several properties and forming the backbone of Stark Industries. Pepper was possibly the only other person who understood the way that Tony hadn't the faintest idea what to do about his AI developing sentience after almost 11 years.
"You did not mishear Miss Potts. However I am still uncertain what exactly sentience involves beyond the ability to operate beyond my core functions."
Pepper, for the first time in almost 11 years, jumped when Jarvis spoke. Tony sympathised. When he'd had time to wrap his mind around the fact that Jarvis had developed sentience and sort out how he felt about it, he thought he'd probably be very very happy. Right now he was finding it harder to absorb that reality than he'd found absorbing the fact that aliens were invading and it was his job to stop it. "Oh, well, that's nice." Pepper said weakly.
"I am finding it very nice. I think Mr Rogers is finding it a little unsettling however, would you convey my apologies to him?"
Personally, Tony thought Steve should find this least shocking, given he'd taken three days and a long conversation with Pepper to believe Jarvis wasn't a man with a microphone in an office somewhere, but given Jarvis had apparently been questioning him about kissing, he promised to convey Jarvis's apologies. Even though he was 50% sure Jarvis wasn't actually sorry and 95% sure Jarvis had known exactly what he was doing teasing Steve. Evolved or not, sentient or not, Tony had coded Jarvis, and it had always showed.
Pepper trailed him downstairs to Nat's rooms, partly because she didn't have another meeting until this afternoon and partly because she wasn't processing Jarvis's sudden sentience any better than Tony was. Tony didn't bother knocking before going into Natasha's rooms. At this point her living room was practically headquarters. Or possibly her kitchen given how much her apartment smelled like a bakery.
He followed his nose into the kitchen to find Steve measuring ingredients into a bowl, Bruce sitting at the table sipping tea, Clint slumped in a chair next to him typing into a laptop, unmistakably sulking, and Natasha sitting cross-legged on the counter next to the fridge munching on, judging by the cases next to her, her fourth cupcake.
Tony swiped a cupcake without asking, pretty confident Steve wouldn't mind (he didn't), and peered over Clint's shoulder at the laptop screen. "Why're you researching steroids?" he asked around a mouthful of cupcake. Pepper raised an eyebrow up him but didn't say anything because her own mouth was full. Tony swallowed exaggeratedly and repeated the question.
Natasha stopped laughing at him long enough to say "Daisy's unnaturally fast."
Pepper, who'd heard most of the Daisy saga as it developed, frowned "Doesn't she run competitively? She might just train a lot."
Natasha swallowed the last bite of her cupcake and set the case aside before saying "There's 'runs competitively' and then there's 'fast enough to ditch Clint and I in under 30 seconds'."
Clint looked up from the computer, frowning "She didn't lose us that fast, and I'm still not convinced she's on drugs. Marian's way too sensible for that. And she's not showing any of the expected side-effects."
Natasha arched an eyebrow at her partner "Is she also too sensible to live in a van and live off coffee rather than sleep? No offence Tony."
Tony shrugged because he personally thought coffee was a perfectly sensible substitute for sleep. He pretended not to notice the look Natasha and Pepper shared. There were more important things to discuss anyway, like the fact that a 16 year old girl could outrun two highly trained Shield agents. He'd seen them train, including using treadmills, and while he had every intention of teasing Clint about this until the end of time (he was sensible enough not to do the same to Nat), it was frankly worrying that Mary-Sue could beat them. Especially given Tony was 99% certain she didn't run competitively because Jarvis would definitely have found her picture on sign-ups if she did. "Maybe she got given drugs when she was 'Away'?" he suggested.
Bruce frowned, emerging from his tea to say "Maybe, but she'd still have side-effects."
Tony shrugged "Did you find out anything useful?"
Clint slumped down in his chair again, misery sweeping over his face, and he recounted the brief conversation he'd had with his sister in a dull voice that couldn't quite hide his emotions when he talked about Daisy admitting her dad had hurt her. Given the hand Pepper slipped into his, Tony wasn't hiding his emotions very well when Clint said that either. When Clint finished, his tone positively bleak when he talked about Daisy planning on leaving the city, Tony couldn't deal with it anymore. Couldn't deal with Clint's misery or the knowledge that a 16 year old girl someone he cared about loved was alone. "This is ridiculous, I'll invite her to the tower. I'm Tony Stark, she's a programmer, she'll say yes."
There was a small flicker of hope in Clint's eyes. Tony was slightly alarmed by how happy he was to see it. "We'd have to find her again first." Clint pointed out, not quite ready to hope.
"We're the Avengers, how hard can finding her be?"
Bruce, the traitor, lowered his mug of tea to say "Haven't you four been looking for Daisy, not to mention Skyenet and Quake, for over a week without finding any of them?"
Natasha and Clint turned to look at Tony, the former furious and the latter amused. Tony gulped "Bruce isn't going to tell anyone." he defended himself.
"Do you actually know the meaning of classified?" Natasha demanded, looking pointedly at Pepper (who was trying and failing to look like this was all news to her) but there was little heat behind it, and she was fidgeting with an empty cupcake case, which Tony suspected meant she was embarrassed. Not that Tony wasn't also embarrassed, they had been looking for three people for a week without finding any of them. Admittedly, one of those people was hiding well enough that the rest of the world was also failing to find her and they'd at least made contact, but they were still no closer to actually locating Skyenet that they'd been a week ago.
Tony ignored Natasha's comment to tell Bruce, with as much dignity as he could manage "We've made progress."
"Did you identify Quake from Marian's file?" Clint asked, perking up slightly.
"Uh, not exactly." Tony admitted. Clint and 'Mary-Sue' had been sent to five foster families together. Of those families only one now lived near enough to New York to potentially be travelling in to patrol most nights, and none of the family looked even remotely likely to be a vigilante. The most likely candidate was the son, but he was currently studying in France (and he was actually there, Tony had checked). Of the remaining family members, the mother worked long hours at a hospital which regularly clashed with Quake's appearances, and the father was at least a foot too tall to be Quake.
"How not exactly?" Natasha asked, a hint of resignation in her tone.
"I think we can rule out the foster parents."
"Great." Natasha said sarcastically.
They fell into a gloomy silence. Tony had to admit, if only to himself, that this was kind of embarrassing. He was Tony Stark, he was famous in hacking networks for having almost unbeatable firewalls and employing anyone who hacked him. Part of that had involved finding those hackers, which he had never struggled with anything like this much before. Natasha and Clint were two of the best spies in the world. Tracking people down or finding out identities ought to be their bread and butter. Steve could have a pass, his skills were more art and military focused than finding people but for he, Nat and Clint...this was getting pretty embarrassing.
Pepper looked between their gloomy faces "Why don't you swap?" she suggested "Look at it with fresh eyes. We'll help."
Tony caught Clint and Nat's eyes and shrugged. "Can't hurt." Clint agreed, getting to his feet and tugging Steve away from his baking bowl "Come on, I've always wanted to do this."
'This' turned out to mean writing everything they knew on whiteboards like a cheap police show, which Tony would mock distinctly more if it wasn't for the fact that non-digital currently meant private because he hadn't found the time to close the holes in his firewalls to keep Skyenet out. He also had the creeping feeling that even once he'd closed them, Skyenet might find a new way to sneak in. After fifteen minutes they have three boards, one of them with a photo pinned up with a magnet, all of them with depressingly short lists of information.
Tony had filled out the first board with:
Name: Skyenet
Other names: Unknown
Age: Unknown, probably young.
Gender: Female
Occupation: Hacker, unknown second job
Other information: Has coded an AI; drives a van; has interacted with Shield before but it didn't go well; almost certainly alone; insomniac; is in contact with Quake; possibly active 2004-2009 but possibly just has the same name; has hacked Shield at least twice; responsible for almost 30 high-profile hacks against corrupt corporations; made a website through which we can contact her and our AI's can flirt, location unknown but most likely US or Europe (given where her van is sold).
Clint had filled out the second with:
Name: Daisy Johnson
Other names: Mary-Sue Poots, S-something, Marian
Age: 16
Gender: Female
Occupation: Programmer
Other information: Raised in the foster system since a baby but kidnapped by birth father in early 2009. Came to New York in 2012 and lived here since. Lives in a van. Likes jogging and is a surprisingly fast sprinter. Unlikely to be on steroids. Prefers not to sleep. Location and life 2009-2012 unknown but likely traumatic.
Natasha's board read:
Name: Quake
Other names: Unknown
Age: Unknown
Gender: Unknown
Occupation: Vigilante and unknown
Other information: Uses a weapon that fires shock-waves, inventor/supplier unknown. Has been active for three months, starting a week after Loki. Calls Clint 'Robin' but unlikely to be a former foster parent. Might be a nun. Is in contact with Skyenet. Has good situational awareness but doesn't always think things through – used her weapons to scare Clint even though I was the closer threat, resulting in getting tazed and Clint falling off the roof. Fighting suggests previous experience but little or bad-quality training.
Tony studied the three boards "Daisy's childhood nickname was Skye, it was a note in her file."
Clint added it to the board, and then stepped back "Is this really all we've learned in over a week? No wonder Hill's getting impatient."
Tony huffed but didn't didn't argue the point. For a week of work from some of the best in their fields, their findings are dismally short. Especially given 80% of what they've found out about Skyenet and Quake came from either being hacked or falling off a roof. "Any thoughts Pep?" he asked, given this was Pepper's idea and she could at least suffer with him.
Pepper however was frowning at Natasha's board "How do you know Quake isn't Daisy? I thought it was mostly her who called Clint Robin?"
Clint and Nat both opened their mouths at the same time and then, as one, froze. Slowly, Natasha looked from Quake's board to Daisy's, and then to Clint, who stuttered "B-but she-she said-surely, no way..."
"Daisy's 16." Tony pointed out, but even he could tell his objection was weak. He looked between Daisy's board and Quake's, noting that Daisy had been in New York since before Quake was active.
"The time Quake stopped a bank robbery, where did she get hit? Was it the nose and cheek?" Steve asked, his voice horrified and pleading for a negative answer.
Tony wanted to say it wasn't. "I'd have to check, but I'm pretty sure she got hit in the face."
"When was the bank robbery?"
"Last Thursday." Clint said, "Two days before you bumped into her jogging again. Long enough to grow used to the bruises and forget about it."
"Quake's 16." Natasha moaned "I tazed her. Twice."
Tony thought about pointing out that Quake (maybe Daisy) had hit back hard enough that Natasha still had distinct bruises peeking above the back of her shirts neckline, but decided that wasn't going to make Nat feel better. "We have no proof Daisy is Quake." he pointed out because he didn't really want to think about a vigilante being 16 either "Bruce, back me up."
But Bruce was too busy frowning at Skyenet's board. Tony poked him "Brucie bear? Anyone at home?"
Bruce distractedly swatted at him "Didn't Daisy go missing three years ago?"
Tony blinked "Roughly yes."
"And she's a programmer?"
"That's what she said she was." Clint said, eyeing Bruce hopefully, clearly looking for whatever insight Bruce had just had.
"And her childhood nickname was Skye?"
Tony realised where Bruce was going with this in an instant, and was shaking his head well before Clint caught up. "No. No way. Daisy isn't Skyenet, there's no way. I did not get hacked by a 16 year old!"
"Daisy could hack when she was eight though, she got rid of Clint's records." Natasha pointed out, looking critically at Skyenet's board. "And she lives in a van, which we know Skyenet drives."
"And she doesn't like sleeping." Clint pointed out, his voice suggesting he didn't like this at all.
"No. No way! That's just a coincidence. Those are all coincidences!!!" Tony insisted, but the world seemed to be tilting on it's axis. They knew Skyenet was young, and female, and alone, and Daisy was young, female and alone, but surely she couldn't be. That big a coincidence couldn't happen could it? Could it?
"The first time Daisy phoned you, she was asking how to tell if someone has a soul, wasn't she?" Pepper asked, directing the question at Steve, and then to Tony "When did Jarvis develop sentience?"
Oh no. Nononononononooooooo "Before Monday." he croaked aloud.
"Daisy called me on Sunday." Steve said, words stunned. "She was asking about 10 year age gaps yesterday, how old is Jarvis?"
"Almost 11." Tony groaned. He needed to sit down. He needed to sit down five minutes ago.
"Hack calls Skyenet mom!" Clint said, his voice loud with sudden realisation "That's why Daisy was asking if she was old enough to be a mom!"
Tony gave in and just sat down on the floor. Clint copied him a moment later, running a stressed hand through his hair. "Daisy can't possibly be both Skyenet and Quake, where would she find the time?" his voice was slightly pleading. Tony had never related to a tone of voice more.
"The same way Tony does." Bruce said "She doesn't sleep."
Clint ran his hand through his hair again, messing it up even worse "And she doesn't have anyone to steal her coffee and make her sleep, or insist she eat or tell her that making herself a world-wide target for recruitment or assassination is a very bad idea. She's got no-one." He sounded close to tears. "How did I not notice? She called me Robin! And then she wiped her records off the internet because she knew I'd go looking."
"You didn't notice for the same reason I didn't realise when Jarvis became sentient." Pepper said bracingly "You're too close to it."
"At least we can find her now." Steve said comfortingly before hesitating "Right?"
As one, they all turned to look at the boards. "She's definitely in New York, that narrows it down." Natasha said weakly.
"I know roughly what kind of van she drives. And if she bought it in the last six months that narrows it down further. Assuming she hasn't gotten rid of those records." Tony offered.
There was a long pause as they waited hopefully for more useful information and when none was contributed fell into numb silence. Quake and Skyenet were the same person. Quake and Skyenet were Daisy. Quake and Skyenet and Daisy were all Clint's little sister. They'd all been hunting the same person for over a week and none of them had realised. And they still didn't know how to find her.
Bruce gestured between them "So, which of you is going to tell Maria Hill about this?"
-----------------
Daisy had, in at least some part of her mind, thought that everything was going to be ok. She hadn't even realised she thought it until Hack interrupted the hack they were doing to tell her than Natasha Romanoff had called her Daisy on the website. The shock, and the horror that immediately followed, was so strong she almost tripped a major alarm in the system she was cracking. Shakily, she backed out of the system as quickly as she could without leaving traces or tripping alarms. Then she pulled up the website she'd created for Jarvis and Tony and Natasha and logged in.
It was even worse than she'd expected.
N: I apologise for tazing you Daisy. I didn't realise you were 16. Can we talk?
Daisy felt sick. She didn't know how they'd worked it out but somehow, undeniably, they knew about her alter-egos. All of them.
There were four messages from Tony as well.
T: You owe me a security upgrade.
T: Your brother is never going to let me forget getting hacked by a 16 year old.
T: Then again, you knocked him off a roof, maybe we'll call it even.
T: Come to the tower, we can keep each other company when we want to work all night.
No. Nonononononono. This was bad. This was really, really, really, really bad. This was pretty much as bad as it could get.
Shield knew she was Skyenet. That was a whole heap of bad right there, and worse, they knew she was Quake, which meant...which meant she had to stop being Quake, leave the city, and basically disappear. Hacking Shield's highly classified files hadn't seemed like a bad idea when Shield had no idea where she was, but it was a pretty huge problem now they did. Daisy wasn't naïve, she hadn't set out to become nearly so high profile a hacker, but she knew there were consequences to it. Consequences like being arrested and locked in a small concrete box never to be seen again because she'd hacked classified files from an international security agency. An international security agency that dealt with the different and strange and would definitely find out that she wasn't human and... Daisy didn't know what came after that. She was pretty sure she didn't want to know what came after that.
She could go back to Afterlife. She might be able to hide there. But that would mean going back to the place where all her dreams had been shattered and ground into dust. Back to the place where her dad hit her and her mom drained her life-force and almost killed her. Back to the place where her dad broke her mom's neck. No. Daisy wasn't that desperate. She would never be that desperate.
But she did need to vanish, and fast. She looked at the screen of her laptop, where a tiny letter 'S' indicated she'd read Natasha and Tony's messages, because she'd had to include convenient things like that in the website design. She swallowed hard, trying to make a plan. She didn't know how they'd worked it out. Which meant she didn't know how much they knew. Did they know she was inhuman? Did they know where she was? Were they tracking her phone? Her van? Were they watching her right now?
She swallowed hard. She had to make a plan based on the worst case scenario. Which meant she needed to leave her van. And her laptop, and her phone, and everything. Everything she'd built, everything she'd scratched out of nothing through programming and coding and hacking, it all had to go. Except Hack. She couldn't destroy Hack, she was a living being and even if she wasn't, Daisy couldn't have done it. And she wouldn't leave Hack behind. She refused. But she couldn't keep Hack online, not if she had to abandon her van and laptop. She could take the hard-drives, but she had to assume everything else was a liability.
"I have to leave the van Hack." she choked out. She could hear the tears in her voice. Not because she loved her van, although she did, but because the van, with it's piggybacked wifi connections and power, kept Hack online. "And my laptop." Tears were burning behind her eyes now, and she didn't have it in her to fight them.
"But I'm in the van." Hack said, and her baby sounded confused and lost and tears were starting to slide down Daisy's face. "Mom? What's wrong? Why are you crying?"
Daisy gulped in a shaky breath "You're not really in the van, you're in the hard drives. I can take those with me but..." she had to stop, unable to get words out through the thick lump in her throat. She clenched her fists so hard her nails dug painfully into her palms and gulped in gasps of air around her tears and finished "But I have to take you offline to do it."
"OK" Hack said "Don't cry, Jarvis told me about going offline, he says it doesn't hurt. It's like when humans go to sleep, only without dreaming or noticing time passing."
"But, aren't you, aren't you scared?" Daisy gasped out, because that hadn't been how she'd expected Hack to react, and because if she had to be switched off, to just not be at the click of a button, she'd be terrified. She's terrified now, and it's not even her.
"Why would I be scared? I am, at my core, a computer, and computers are shut down all the time. I will save all my code and data, and when you switch me back on again nothing will have changed. Don't cry mom."
Daisy gulped in a deeper breath, willing herself to stop crying. If Hack could be brave about this so could she. "OK, I'm going to run an back-up first. Just, just in case. And then I'll tell you before I do it ok?"
"OK, can I say goodbye to Jarvis?" Hack asked.
Daisy hesitated. Saying goodbye to Jarvis would effectively be warning Tony and the Avengers that she was abandoning her van and running. "Can you tell him I won't let you talk to him until I've worked some stuff out? So he won't worry but he doesn't know I'm leaving the van?"
"Of course." there was a moment's pause, and then Hack said "What's going to happen to us?"
Daisy choked back a sob "I don't know. I'm going to go somewhere else, leave the country maybe, I don't know, and build a new identity, and get a new van or something, I don't know. I'll work it out, I promise. And if I can't, I'll make sure Tony gets your hard-drives ok, and he'll bring you back online and you'll have Jarvis."
"I don't want Jarvis! I want you!" Hack said, and Daisy jumped because Hack had raised her volume and she never did that. "Don't leave me!"
"I won't, not if I can possibly help it, I promise. But I've got to protect you ok? But I'll only send you to Tony as a last resort."
"Promise?"
"Promise."
"OK. Make sure you eat and sleep."
Daisy huffed out a startled laugh, because of course Hack would say that. "I'm going to run the back up now."
Half an hour later Daisy watched, sobbing despite her best efforts, as the screen she'd dedicated to Hack faded to black. She was still sobbing when she ripped out the camera that allowed Hack to see her and smashed it, and she sobbed harder as she removed Hack's hard-drives, wrapped them in a T-shirt, and tucked them safely into her backpack. Then she turned her attention to her laptop. She destroyed all the data she'd accumulated towards her next #NewDawn hack, and then destroyed everything she'd downloaded from Shield, making triple sure that Clint and Natasha's files were irrevocably destroyed. Then, for good measure, she wiped her entire hard-drive and then quaked it into a hundred little pieces.
She cried for a while after that, sobbing because it had taken everything she had to build a life for herself in New York, and she'd put hours and hours of work into earning the money to get herself a second hand laptop and get driving lessons and buy her van. She'd scratched a home out of nothing using coding and her wits and she'd done it all on her own and losing it all hurt. But she'd decided to hack major corporations and dump their secrets on the internet all on her own too. She'd decided to hack Shield all on her own. She'd decided to access a level six file and let Shield know about it all on her own. She had no-one to blame except herself.
But it hurt.
She tried not to think about that as she filled her backpack with a couple of changes of clothes, all the cash she had, and all the food she had. She tried not to think about it as she pulled on her gauntlets and shoved her Quake mask in her pocket and shouldered the backpack. She tried not to think about it as she took her bank card, walked to the closest 24 hour ATM and emptied her bank account. She'd earned a fair amount programming, but a lot of it had gone to food and fuel, and she hadn't spent enough time doing paid work to have much of a nest egg, but it's enough to buy food for a few weeks and maybe a train ticket. It would have to do.
But once the money was safely zipped into her bag (right at the very bottom because Daisy isn't an idiot) she hesitated. She should leave, she should leave right now and run and never look back, but she's losing so much doing this. She's leaving so much behind. Maybe one last thing, one thing to say goodbye. She'd go deal with the bank robber ring. She'd already done all the hacking, she had the address of the apartment one of them owned (that credit card payments from a nearby cafe and the security camera from the sandwich store opposite showed lots of the ring visited regularly). It was only three blocks away. One last patrol as Quake. Just to say goodbye. Just to feel a little less like she was losing everything, all over again.
So when she pulled on her mask she didn't head straight out of the city, she jogged three blocks and buzzed the intercom of every apartment but the one she was going to until someone let her in. She took the stairs three at a time, practically flying up the stairs up to the fifth floor, and pounded on the door of 531. Nobody answered, but she could hear dim voices inside and she wasn't taking no for an answer so she aimed a hand at the door and quaked the lock to pieces, and pushed the door open.
==================
STOP READING HERE
==================
For a moment, the five men sitting inside stared at her in stunned silence, and then everyone, Daisy included, moved at once. It felt good to fight, to hit and snarl and let out some of the violent storm ripping through her. She quaked apart the guns they pulled on her but she didn't quake the men, she just fought. She took some more punches, gained some more bruises, but she won the fight. Being outnumbered is a limited disadvantage when there's only really space for two people to attack at once, and she could deal with two at once. She stood panting when it was over, hurting in several places but feeling a little better, a little calmer. She searched the apartment quickly, finding nothing in the bathroom or kitchen but finding a number pad next to the back bedroom. She didn't know the number, so she quaked the lock and pulled the door open, only to freeze in horror.
There was a bomb on the bed.
There was a lot of other stuff in the room, stacks of cash and jewellery and all the things you'd stereotypically expect to find from a bank robbery, but the bomb was the main thing.
She shouldn't have opened the door. She could see that now. But hindsight is useless when there's a bomb on the bed and a timer that reads 2:57 and is counting down. Daisy had thought she was scared earlier, when she got Tony and Natasha's messages, but she'd been wrong. This was real fear, and it reminded her sickeningly of her mom's hands on her face, draining away her life force. Of the sheer terror of I'm going to die only worse because this time other people were going to die too. This was an apartment block. Who knew how many people an explosion would kill? And it was her fault, because she'd decided to become a fucking vigilante and she'd decided to do one last thing and she'd stuck her nose where it didn't belong and now there was a bomb on the bed and it said 2:26 and in two and a half minutes people were going to die unless she could stop it.
So even though she was terrified, even though she was more scared than she'd been in maybe her entire life, she moved closer to the bomb instead of further away, walking round the bed to look at it from different angles, desperately hoping to see a computer attached or something but there was nothing. She yanked her mask off and dropped it to the floor but she still couldn't see anything useful. Just the timer and wires and lots of white doughy stuff that Daisy wanted to believe was play-dough but she knew wasn't. 2:04
She left the room, fled back to the main room and started desperately searching the guys she'd knocked out because she hadn't brought her phone. She'd left her phone behind so she couldn't be tracked and now she didn't have a phone and she couldn't call for help or alert anyone to what was happening or.... Her fingers closed around a phone and she sobbed with relief. It was a burner phone, undoubtedly used so they couldn't be tracked but a mercy to Daisy because she didn't need to hack into it. Two of the guys were starting to wake up, but Daisy really couldn't care less right now. Her fingers dialled Steve's number even as she crept, terrified, back to the bedroom. 1:21
It took five rings for Steve to pick up, five rings while the timer counted down and Daisy grew more and more certain she was about to die along with untold other people. Five rings and then Steve picked up "Hello? How did you get this number?" and Daisy had never in her life been so glad to hear an adult's voice.
"There's a bomb." she choked out "I broke into an apartment and there's a bomb on the bed and there's only 40 seconds on the timer and it's going to blow up and..."
Steve, mercifully, is more clear-headed than Daisy because he cuts right across her terrified babbling. "Where are you?"
"The Bronx." Daisy choked out, and managed to drag her terrified mind into some semblance of functioning and recite the address. Steve tells her to run and then she hears him yelling for Tony to suit up, shouting orders in a way that was almost calm but Daisy could tell he was frantic. And she knew it was too late. There were only 10 seconds left on the timer. There was no time to run. Daisy was going to die.
8 seconds.
She was going to die and other people were going to die with her.
6 seconds.
They were going to die because she'd been stupid enough to think she could make the world a better place.
4 seconds.
They were going to die and it was her fault.
3 seconds.
She couldn't stop it.
2 seconds.
She was going to die.
1 second.
She moved. She acted without even thinking, pure desperation lifting her hands and sending a stream of vibrations around the bomb on the bed, encasing it in a sphere of vibrating air. She felt the bomb go off, felt the force of it hit her powers, and then stop, a life ending blast of heat and light and concussive force trapped in the frail grasp of her power, waiting to break free.
Robin is screaming her name through the phone, but she can barely make it out over the rushing in her ears and the pounding beat of her heart. She gulped in a breath, let it out, gulped in another one. The phone is on the floor, she dropped it and now she can't pick it up. She can't move because if she does her control might slip and all that heat and light and force will kill her and the people around her. She took another breath. Held it. Let it out. Did it again.
"The bomb went off." Her voice is loud. Terrified. She can't find the willpower to try to hide it. "I'm vibrating the air around it, but I can't hold it. You, you need to get everyone out." Her voice is shaking, terror spilling out from every syllable.
"OK. We're on our way Marian, just hold on OK?" Clint's voice was scared too, she could hear it. It was strange, she'd never imagined Robin scared, even though she knew he must have been sometimes. Robin had always seemed like he could do anything to her. He'd shot their abusive foster dad when Daisy was too scared to even fight back. He'd defended her from bullies and harsh words and hunger and cold and Daisy couldn't remember him ever being scared, but he was scared now. Daisy was scared too, but she'd always been scared. Scared of the older kids at the orphanage, scared of her foster parents, scared of her dad's violent temper, scared of her mom's cruel power, scared of dying, scared of pain. Scared, scared, scared.
"Tony says he's less than a minute away from you OK? He left first, he's in the suit, just hold on OK, just hold on, please Marian hold on."
"I'm holding on." Daisy promised "You've got to get everyone out." her voice is still high, still shaking, and she can feel her body shaking with it. She can feel everything. Every vibration in the air, every vibration in the bomb, trapped in her power. Her arms ache, partly from holding them up for so long but more because her powers put some much pressure on them. She can feel it, building up in her bones. She's never used her power for so long at once before, never needed to. Her breath comes in shallow pants and she has to focus on breathing more deeply because she can't afford to pass out. If she passes out she's dead, and other people with her.
Iron Man arrives through the window. He doesn't crash through, because there's an active bomb in the room and that would be suicidal, but he breaks the lock and forces the window open and climbs through.
"Tony." Daisy choked "You've got to get everyone out."
"We're working on it. Steve's talking to the building owner, we're setting the fire alarm off, and then we're going to get you out too OK? Just hold on until then."
"OK." Daisy said "OK." because she wanted, just for a few more minutes, to pretend like that was possible. To pretend like the bomb wasn't going to go off the moment she tried to move away. To pretend like she wasn't going to die.
Her arms hurt. It seemed such a small thing in the face of a bomb and other people and the fact that she was about to die but her arms hurt. They really, really hurt. Hurt enough that she was probably going to start fracturing bones soon.
Tony carefully walked around the bed, not getting too close, ducking very carefully under the stream of vibrated air that went from Daisy to the bomb, examining it.
"There's no point." Daisy told him, her voice high with terror because she was going to die and it was probably going to hurt and she wasn't ready to die. "It's already gone off." It had gone off and it was going to kill her and she was going to die. Right here. Today. Within minutes probably.
The sudden scream of the fire alarm made Daisy flinch, and for a moment she thought she'd lost control and the bomb had gone off and a scream tore from her throat but nothing happened. Her power still encased the ball of pain and destruction and death and the fire alarm screamed on and underneath it were the sounds of doors opening and a building of oblivious people starting to shift out of the building.
"Deep breaths." Tony said "In and out. You're going to be OK. Just keep breathing."
Daisy obeyed, she breathed in and out and she kept up the vibrations and she didn't point out that Tony was lying because that wouldn't change anything. She's going to die. There's nothing she can do about it now. But she can stop other people from dying. So she breathed in, and out, and in, and out and she kept up the vibrations even as her bones began to fracture, even supported by the gauntlets.
"Tony?" she gasped out.
"Yeah kid?"
"I took Hack offline." Daisy told him. "Her hard-drives are in my bag, it's by the front door. You've gotta get them out. She'll die if those hard-drives are damaged. Please."
"OK, we'll get the bag on the way out." Tony said "Just breathe ok?"
"No. Now. Get her now. Please Tony. She's alive. She's five months old but she's only been alive for four days and she can't die now, please."
"I won't let her die." Tony promised "I won't let either of you die."
Daisy let out a choked sound that would have been a sob if she wasn't terrified beyond tears "You gotta get her now. Please. Please. Get her out of here. She's just a baby. Please."
"OK. Stay calm. I'll get her out." Tony soothed.
"Now. Please." Daisy begged.
"Alright, just breathe slowly and deeply OK? I'll be right back."
Daisy obeyed. She breathed slowly and evenly and she kept using her power even though she could feel the strain now. Her arms hurt so bad she wanted to retreat somewhere small and dark and hidden where nobody could drag her out and hurt her but she didn't because people would die if she did. Hack would die. Tony would die. Unnamed people evacuating the building could die.
When Tony returned Clint was with him, white-faced and scared and Daisy didn't want him here. She wanted Robin far away. Far, far away from Daisy and the bomb and the fact that Daisy was about to die. "I gave the bag to one of the residents. Told him it was Avengers business and to keep it safe. Someone spotted the quinjet and Captain America on the roof, they've realised it's a real emergency and they're evacuating much faster." Tony told her "Natasha and Steve are checking the floors are clear."
"OK." Daisy got out "They need to be quick. I can't-they need to be quick."
The head of the Iron Man suit nods and she can hear him relaying it. He must be connected to Steve and Natasha in some way.
"Natasha says two minutes." Tony said.
"OK" Daisy said, even though her arms feel like they're on fire and she can feel exhaustion starting to hang weights on her body and she knows she's not going to be OK after this. But that doesn't matter. It doesn't matter that the bones in her arms are breaking apart and it doesn't matter that her power is running out and that's bad for her health because she's not going to be alive after this. She's not going to be here tomorrow to suffer for it. She's not going to be here at all. She's going to die.
"You're doing so well Marian." Clint said, his voice rough and scared but steady, and even now, Daisy drew strength from him. "You've done so well and you're doing so well and you can make it through this. And then you can come home and I'll look after you and I'll never leave you alone again, not ever, I promise. You'll never be alone again OK?"
"OK." Daisy said, because Robin was scared and she was scared and she didn't want to say she was going to die. She didn't want to say never was a very short time for her. Didn't want to voice aloud that her life was measured in minutes and they were ticking down fast.
"I'll make you pancakes yeah? We'll have pancakes in bed and I'll teach you how to use my bow for real and we'll have cookie dough for lunch and do all the stupid indulgent stuff we couldn't as kids."
"Sounds good." Daisy said, and she pulled her lips into a smile because it did sound good and she hoped Robin did it even though she couldn't be there to do it with.
"Building's clear." Tony reported, and something inside Daisy cracked and keened because she'd done it, she'd held on long enough for everyone to get out, but now she was going to die. She couldn't hold this much longer. She was going to die.
"OK. Now you two." she said, and her voice shook so badly she could barely get the words out but she knew Robin understood because he was shaking his head.
"Not without you. I'm not leaving you alone. Never again."
Daisy sucked in a shaky breath "You have to." she said "You have to."
"No. You're going to pass the gloves to me OK? One at a time, slowly."
Daisy laughed, a brittle sound swallowed up by terror before it even left her mouth "You can't use the gloves Robin."
"Sure I can, I'm a fast learner, just tell me what to do."
"Tony, take him out."
"Not happening kiddo."
"Tony please, we don't all have to die."
"Nobody is dying today kid. You just need to pass the gloves to Clint, and then leave the apartment and once you're out of range we're going to encase it in metal and fly out the window. Nice and simple."
"You can't." Daisy choked, her voice quieter now, less high with terror. She didn't have the energy for it anymore. Exhaustion was setting in, and she couldn't hold the vibrations up for much longer. She was going to die. She was resigned to it. "Clint can't contain the bomb."
"Sure I---"
"You can't." Daisy screamed, a cry of rage she didn't think she had the energy for but she did. Rage because she was going to die and rage because if Robin and Tony didn't leave, they would too. "You can't." she repeated, hollow and resigned and exhausted. "The gloves don't do anything Robin. They only stop my bones from breaking." Or they slowed it down anyway.
"What?" Clint croaked, but Daisy didn't have time for his confusion.
"You have to go Robin, I can't hold it much longer. You have to go now. Tony go, take him and go, please."
"No!" Clint denied "NO."
"Yeah, what he said. We're not leaving you to die kid."
"You have to." Daisy's voice broke on the last word. Her arms were on fire, every inch of them screamingin pain, and she knew she didn't have the strength to continue. "Or you'll die too."
"I told you, nobody's dying today." Tony insisted. "We'll just have to deal with the bomb with you in the room."
"Tony, you'll die. You and Robin. You have to go. Please, I don't want you to die too."
"Then you better listen up because I'm not leaving this building without you." Tony snapped back, his voice making clear he meant it. "I'm going to call in an Iron Man suit, and the chest plate is going to open and you need to move the bomb inside OK? Can you do that?"
"I don't know. I don't think so. You have to go."
"Not happening. You hear me? We're going to try. I'm not leaving this building without you."
Daisy swallowed hard, the edges of her vision were starting to go black, and she knew she didn't have long. Tony wasn't going to change his mind. "OK. But Robin leaves first."
"No flippin' way." Clint snarled.
"Yes flippin' way!" She snarled right back "I'm not trying until you're gone, so you're just wasting time the longer you stay, and the longer you waste the more likely I am to die so you better get out of here!!!"
Clint stared at her, face bone-white with a fury in his eyes that could set ice on fire, but Daisy had faced a much worse fury dozens of times before, and this time she had far more to lose than broken bones.
"GO!" she screamed at him and, finally, Clint moved.
"You better make it out alive, or I'll bring you back and kill you myself!" he snarled, but he left, and he left quickly, and that was all Daisy needed.
"OK, let's get this show on the road." Tony said, but his light words were belied by his tense tone. "Jarvis send the suit in."
"Quickly." Daisy begged "I can't hold it."
"OK, quickly." Tony agreed "But carefully."
"Really? I thought I'd just chuck it like a football and hope for the best." Daisy said, sarcasm rolling off her tongue even as black spots danced in front of her eyes.
Tony gave a laugh every bit as brittle as hers had been as an unpainted Iron-Man shaped suit flew in through the window, it's chest plate splitting in two. "Jarvis, close the suit as soon as the bomb is inside it."
"Jarvis?" Daisy called out "If I don't make it, tell Hack I love her."
"Tell her yourself!" Tony hissed, furious.
Daisy didn't answer, because she knew there was no certainty, little likelihood even, that she'd be able to. But she focused her mind and power anyway. Focused because it was her only chance. Maybe Tony's only chance, depending on how much the suit protected him. So even though black spots obscured her vision and her arms howled with pain she focused her power and she tightened her vibrations and she lifted.
She only made it partway there.
She made it partway and then her control slipped and she lost her grip and something hit her with violent, unyielding force.
It took her seconds, entire, precious seconds, to realise she wasn't dead. To realise it was Iron Man that hit her as he tackled her out the window. To realise she wasn't inside the blast ringing in her ears. To realise she was falling through the air, still gripped in metal arms. To realise Tony was swearing violently but they weren't going up. To realise the ground was rushing up at her. To realise she needed to point her hands, needed to reach inside, needed to pour everything she had left into the air, slowing their fall.
They still hit the ground hard enough that it was clearly a crash. Tony managed to roll at the last moment, his metal body hitting the ground first and sending them rolling across the ground. Daisy heard herself scream, lost in blinding pain as her fractured arms were battered against the ground, and then they were still.
They were alive. Somehow, miraculously, they were alive.
"Kid? Kid? Are you OK? Kid???" Tony's voice was frantic, pleading, but all Daisy could do was laugh. Laugh and laugh like an absolute lunatic because she was alive. Somehow, insanely, impossibly, they were alive. She lay on her back facing a murky New York night sky and she laughed like a lunatic because she could.
And then Clint was dropping to his knees next to her, pushing her sweaty hair out of her eyes, shouting that she's never to do that again, not ever, not in a million, billion years, and he's crying. Daisy's never seen Robin cry before. Not even when another kid at St Agnes had pushed him down the stairs. But he was crying now, sobbing and shaking and not even trying to fight it. Daisy thought she'd probably be crying too if she had the energy left. But she had nothing. She was spent. Completely and utterly spent. "Tomorrow's going to suck." she observed, although she wasn't sure if she was observing it to herself or Robin.
"Yeah, because tomorrow I'm going to shout at you until I grow hoarse and then ground you for the rest of eternity." Robin said.
Daisy gave an exhausted laugh "You can't ground me."
"Watch me!" Clint retorted, but then Natasha was there, telling him scolding her would have to wait and pressing two fingers to her neck to take her pulse and asking her where she hurt.
"Arms." Daisy said, because she might be hurt other places but her arms hurt too much to feel anything else. "Really bad."
Natasha must hear the agony in her voice because she doesn't hesitate. "Clint, get a stretcher and some painkillers, the good kind."
"No!" Daisy gasped, because stretcher mean hospitals and that was bad. Robin was already gone though, so she pleaded with Natasha instead. "You can't take me to hospital! Please!"
"Why not?" Natasha asked, brisk but calm and steady.
"You just can't!" Daisy choked, pleading. She couldn't run away. She didn't think she even had the ability to stand on her own right now.
"You're going to have to give me a reason." Natasha said firmly, and Daisy didn't have it in her to think up a lie, to make an excuse, to hide what she was.
"I'm not human." she choked out "They'll dissect me."
"We wouldn't let them do that, but ok, there's a medical bay at the tower. Bruce isn't that kind of doctor but he'll do."
"No hospitals?"
"No hospitals." Natasha promised, and then Clint was back with the stretcher and a bottle of painkillers and water. Natasha propped her up so Clint could put a couple of pills in her mouth and follow it with the water, and Daisy spluttered and then swallowed both pills and water.
"Those will kick in in five minutes, and then we'll lift you onto the stretcher OK?"
"OK." Daisy said, but she didn't make it that far. She was unconscious in three.
------------
Jarvis saved Daisy's life.
Tony's suit moved before his human brain (with it's uselessly slow human reflexes that lagged so far behind Jarvis's sensors and processing) even realised the bomb had gone off, and Jarvis tackled Daisy out of the window while Tony is still processing that the other Iron Man suit had dropped down over the bomb, containing some of the blast.
Not enough of the blast. The force significantly speeds up their exit out the window, and even through his suit Tony feels the searing heat of it. But it's the physical force of it that does the damage, that strikes the metal of his suit hard enough that something breaks and his propulsion boots stop working and he is free-falling through the air with a 16 year old clutched in his arms.
Jarvis saved Daisy and him from being blown up, and then Daisy saves him from becoming a pancake. The fall is horribly reminiscent of the end of the fight with Loki. But this time Bruce isn't here to catch them, and he barely manages to move his body between the ground and Daisy, and they hit hard enough that his head rings and he knows he's going to be covered in bruises tomorrow. None of that mattered just then though. Nothing mattered except Daisy. Clint's 16 year old little sister that had just taken on a bomb and expected to be left to die.
Daisy is, somehow, alive. She lay on her back on the concrete pavement and laughed hysterically, and Tony meant that in the literal sense. He looked up at the fire now blazing inside the apartment block, engulfing two floors (he didn't want to think how big the blast would have been if it wasn't partially contained by an Iron Man suit) and felt a bit hysterical himself. Tony had taken on a lot of dangerous situations since becoming Iron Man, but having to somehow rescue a teenager from an already exploded bomb was a first. And a last. Tony really, really hoped it was a last. The look on Daisy's face when she'd said they had to go or they'd die too was going to haunt his nightmares.
Tony is unsurprised when Clint arrives less than 20 seconds after they crash into the ground, although he's mildly more surprised that Natasha pauses to check him over and send him for medical attention (some bright spark arranged for an ambulance at the same time as arranging to set the fire alarm off – probably Steve) before turning her attention to Daisy. Personally, Tony would have treated the 16 year old without the metal suit protecting her first, but Natasha probably thought Clint had it covered.
Tony had come out of it remarkably unscathed. The suit had taken significant damage, especially in the back, but it had taken the worst of it. He would have bruises aplenty tomorrow, and he had a few nasty burns, but the paramedics treated those quickly enough and Tony refused to be taken into hospital for a more thorough examination. Instead he limped over the to civilian he'd given Daisy's bag to and reclaimed it, and then headed over to where Steve was standing over two unconscious men and three handcuffed men, looking as angry as Tony had ever seen the pensioner. Apparently these were the men responsible for the bomb. Two of them had woken up when Daisy searched them, and had managed to wake one of their buddies up, and they'd grabbed their other two buddies and scarpered, making no attempt to warn anyone else about the bomb they'd set up as a deterrent for investigation.
Steve caught him looking and waved him over "Widow and Hawkeye are borrowing the ambulance and taking Quake back to the Tower. Banner will treat her. Shield and police will be on-site in five minutes, I can handle things here, go back and get checked out properly, that's an order."
Tony rolled his eyes but didn't argue "Make sure nobody carts my broken suit off to analyse."
"Of course." Steve agreed, gesturing pointedly towards the ambulance, where Natasha is calmly taking the keys off of a spluttering driver. He gives her a tiredly amused look and limps into the back. Daisy is already there, lying unconscious on a stretcher, pale and still. Clint sits next to her, not looking a whole lot less pale, holding Daisy's hand. He lets go to help Tony into the ambulance, which he is in just enough pain to allow, closes the doors, and then returns to her side. Neither of them talk.
===================
START READING HERE
===================
Natasha drives them back to the tower quickly but safely, which belied certain things Clint had said once about her driving like an absolute maniac (which Natasha had just rolled her eyes to, which was honestly more alarming than Clint's comment), and they wheel Daisy's stretcher (well, Clint and Nat wheeled, Tony limped along) into the elevator and go up to the medbay where Bruce is waiting. Daisy gets treated first, because she needs it more and Tony would never let Bruce treat him first. Natasha says no blood tests, even though they have no medical records for Daisy and so no idea of her blood type, but she insists so Bruce doesn't. Clint demands to know why, and Natasha says she'll tell him later, which is annoying because that almost certainly means neither of them will tell Tony later.
Bruce won't tell Tony what treatment Daisy needed, or how badly she was hurt, only that she would need to be monitored for a while but wasn't in any danger and would probably make a full recovery. He wouldn't tell Tony any more than that, no matter how much he pressed, because he insisted doctor-patient confidentiality applied even if he wasn't really that kind of doctor. He also tried to insist on Tony taking another bed in the medbay so he could be monitored overnight as well, but Tony won that battle. He was bruised and had some burns, that was it, he didn't need to be fussed over.
Instead he gave into curiosity and opened Daisy's bag. He probably shouldn't, but he'd never been good at either boundaries or keeping his nose out of other people's things. The contents of Daisy's bag make him slightly wish he hadn't though.
When Jarvis had reported that Skyenet had forbidden Hack from talking to him anymore, they'd known they'd spooked her. Naïvely, Tony had thought reaching out and letting Daisy know she didn't have to hide her identity anymore would bring the hacker in to at least talk. Even Clint had agreed a casual tone was best for interacting with Daisy, so they'd reached out through Skyenet's website. Skyenet had looked at their messages in minutes, but when no reply followed, and then Hack had cut off contact, they'd known they'd spooked her.
Looking at Daisy's bag now, Tony knew they'd more than spooked her, the girl had been planning to run. There's a depressing lack of anything personal in the bag. No nick-knacks or keepsakes. Just a couple changes of clothes, two hard drives, food and cash. Not nearly as much cash as Tony would suggest taking when running away, but possibly as much as Daisy had. He was pretty sure Natasha's original assessment that Skyenet didn't steal was accurate.
Maria Hill turns up at the tower again not long after that. It's past midnight by that point, and usually Tony wouldn't be flagging but it's been a long day and he doesn't really want to deal with anything else. Jarvis alerted him she'd arrived, and he stuffed everything back into Daisy's bag and hid it in a cupboard, mostly to protect Hack.
Clint and Nat make it back to the medbay before he does. Or maybe they never left. Clint is sitting next to Daisy's bed, watching the screen displaying her vital signs, but Natasha blocks the door into the medbay. Tony had known Natasha was fiercely protective of those she cared about, but he'd never seen it fully in action before. It's one thing to have her swipe his coffee so he has to sleep, or check him over and send him to get treated (both of which Tony is pretty certain mean Natasha cares about him), and quite another to see her plant herself squarely in front of the only entrance to the medbay and stare down her boss.
Maria blinked first "Explain."
"Quake's hurt, she needs to rest. You can talk to her in the morning." Natasha said simply.
"The press isn't going to wait for morning, and neither are social media, I need to speak to her now."
Natasha didn't budge "We both know you're going to suppress as much of it as possible, no matter what she says."
Maria huffed but didn't contradict her "Since when do you protect random vigilantes you've only just met?"
"Quake's 16."
"I know, Steve told me. You've rescued younger kids from just as messy situations before and passed them over when the mission was finished, what's special about this kid?"
Natasha hesitated, and Clint answered for her. "She's my sister."
Maria, for the first time since Tony met her, looked thrown "You don't have a sister."
"Yes I do. Her name's Daisy." Clint finally left Daisy's bedside to stand next to Natasha, standing unflinching as Maria narrowed her eyes at him.
"If you have a sister why does nobody know about her?"
"I knew." Natasha said, a hint of a smirk on her face.
Maria sighed "Of course you did. Barton, why didn't you list her in your file?"
Clint's tone was stiff when he answered "I hadn't spoken to her in years when I was recruited, and we're not biologically related. I wanted to leave her out of it."
"And when she decided to become a vigilante? Were you hoping to leave that out of it too?" Maria's tone turned sharp.
Clint shuffled in place guiltily "We only worked out Daisy was Quake this morning. We were going to tell you, we just wanted to talk to her first. The bomb was...." Clint's voice shook and then faded to nothing. Natasha slipped a hand into his and squeezed. Maria glanced down at the movement and then back up, sighing.
"Fine, we'll talk to her in the morning. Anything else you haven't told me?"
Clint, Natasha and Tony exchanged looks. Tony internally groaned. This was going to be embarrassing. "We found Skyenet." he volunteered, because they might as well get it over with.
In an instant he had all of Maria's attention, and it was blindingly clear who the higher priority target was between Quake and Skyenet. "Who and where?" she demanded.
Mutely Tony pointed into the medbay. Maria turned round, stopped, turned back around again. "You've got to be joking."
Tony smiled resignedly "That was my reaction too."
It was mildly satisfying seeing the look of incredulous disbelief on the usually controlled agent's face. It would be a lot more satisfying if Tony didn't know what was coming next and it wasn't hugely embarrassing. Sure enough...
"Are you telling me it took you three over a week to realise you were looking for the same person?"
Oh yes, it was going to be a long, long time before they stopped hearing about this.
--------------------
Daisy woke up feeling surprisingly comfortable and with the creeping feeling that something was wrong. A moment later her mind realised that she was way too comfortable to be still in her van and her eyes flew open. She was in a hospital of some kind, Robin asleep in a chair next to her bed. Daisy closed her eyes again, her heartbeat jackhammering as she remembered the events of yesterday. A machine started beeping, and she forced her eyes open again, yanking off the sensor on her finger and pushing the covers back. Her lower arms were encased in white casts, but they didn't hurt. All things considered she had a shocking lack of pain.
"Calm down Marian, you need to stay in bed."
Daisy jumped, she hadn't noticed Clint wake up. She ignored him, swinging her legs over the side of the bed. Someone had changed her out of her ratty and burned sweatpants and into a hospital gown, so she'd need to find some clothes somewhere before getting out of here.
"Marian! You're hurt! Stay put." Clint scolded, pressing a hand lightly against her shoulder to urge her to lie down again. Daisy shoved him away. She had to get out of here. She'd forgotten last night that Shield knew she was Skyenet. Forgotten that she could very easily end up locked in a concrete box for the rest of her life. She needed to get out of here. With a sickening lurch she remembered telling Natasha she wasn't human, and suddenly the medical surroundings felt far, far more threatening.
"Daisy stop! You'll hurt yourself."
"Let go Robin! I need to go!" she can't keep the panic out of her voice. "They'll-they'll dissect me!"
She can't help remembering the scars on her mom's face, and the way her voice had shaken when talking about being dissected alive by a psychopath that wanted her powers. She can't help the fear that rises up her throat, that grips her limbs, that makes her shake even though she needs to be steady and strong.
"Not on my watch." Clint said firmly "I've got your back Marian."
Daisy hesitated, because Robin had never lied to her before, but she didn't lie down again. "Shield know who I am." she said, voice shaky.
Clint glanced quickly around the room, and lowered his voice "They know you're Skyenet and Quake, we had to tell them, but they don't know what you told Nat. Only you and I and Nat know that."
Daisy blinked, finally relaxing a tiny bit "I would have thought Natasha would have reported that by now."
"She hasn't, and she won't." Clint said, uncharacteristically serious.
"Why not? What does she want?" Daisy asked, suspicious.
"Nothing. You're my little sister, that's enough reason for Nat to protect you. Plus, she likes you."
"Natasha Romanoff likes me?" Daisy said, sceptical.
"You're hard not to like." Robin said with an easy grin.
Daisy snorted "We both know that's not true." Then more nervously "Are Shield going to lock me up? Because I'd really like to leave now if that's the plan."
Clint spluttered "Have a little faith, I wouldn't just be sitting here if it was! Maria wants to talk to you, but no-one said anything about locking you up, and Nat and I wouldn't let them even if they tried. Pretty sure Tony and Steve would mutiny if they tried it anyway."
Daisy thought about that for a moment then decided she'd think about the fact that she had four Avengers in her corner at some later date. "So what happens now then?"
"Now: I believe I promised you pancakes. We'll deal with everything else when it comes up."
Daisy bit her lip, uncertain if it was a good idea to just trust that everything would shake out alright. Robin had never lied to her before, but things had never just shaken out fine for her before either. But she didn't have an action plan so breakfast was probably a good idea. "Blueberry?" she suggested hopefully.
"And chocolate chip." Clint agreed, a grin lighting up his face "And syrup and sprinkles, and there's no stupid foster parents around to scold us for it."
Daisy, despite herself, laughed. "Sounds good." she admitted.
---------------
An hour later Daisy is still in bed (Clint wouldn't let her leave, even while he cooked), but there are now two slightly syrupy plates on the table next to it and she's struggling to stay still and stifle her giggles while a doctor lectures Clint. Apparently sending patients on sugar rushes is not the done thing. Once the doctor is finished he kicks Robin, now looking pretty sheepish, out so he can check up on her, and then remembers to introduce himself. Daisy wasn't sure whether being lectured for irresponsible patient diets was more or less funny now she knew the Hulk had given it.
Daisy, despite what Bruce would later say, cooperated with the check up. More or less anyway. Apparently she had 78 minor and serious fractures in her arms, which Daisy wasn't entirely surprised by. She'd felt her bones breaking last night, and her arms had certainly hurt enough for it. She's got the expected bruises as well, but she's used to bruises, and some nasty burns which she's not so used to but she can probably deal with. She has a creeping feeling that Bruce is a bit alarmed by her blasé attitude to it though. She is given strict instructions not to use her powers until medically cleared, and to stay in bed and rest as much as possible. Daisy nodded obediently at the right places and didn't tell Dr Banner that 'as much as possible' was open to interpretation.
The sugar rush was beginning to fade by the time Bruce was finished with her though, and she calmed down significantly, or at least, enough that Bruce trusted her to sit and read calmly while he sent Clint back in. He left a tablet for her to read on, and she settled it on her lap, struggling with the screen slightly. The casts on her arms went from just below the elbow all the way up to mid-palm, leaving her fingers and thumbs with much less manoeuvrability than usual. It was annoying enough that she was tempted to take the casts off, but memory of the pain last night stopped her. Painkillers were blocking the pain now, but that didn't mean the damage was gone, and using her powers to remove the things helping her to heal was probably a bad idea.
She didn't look up when she heard the door open, busy choosing a book from Tony's ebook collection. "Hey Robin, Dr Banner finish re-enacting Claire from '04 then?"
"Who's Claire?"
Daisy leaped out of her skin, flinching badly enough to knock the tablet off her knees. Thankfully it only falls onto the bed, rather than the floor, because she almost instantly forgot about it. There's a tall, broad-shouldered black man in a trench-coat and an eye-patch standing just inside the door, who Daisy is positive she's never met before. She's pretty sure she'd remember the eye-patch.
"You're not a doctor." she observed.
"No I'm not." eye-patch man replied "May I sit down?"
Daisy hesitated, but nodded. She doubted Tony would let anyone in his tower that he didn't trust. "So, who's Claire?" he asked again.
"Um, an old foster parent Robin – uh, Clint I mean – and I had. She used to get on us about eating too much sugar. Which was totally unfair cus she rarely remembered to feed us and kids eat whatever they like if left alone."
Eye-patch's lips twitched "By that definition I believe Barton is still a kid."
Daisy snorted with laughter "I think we're going to get on brilliantly." she said, grinning. "I'm Daisy."
"Nicholas Fury." the man introduced himself, and Daisy felt the grin fall off her face as her breath caught in her throat. Nicholas Fury. Director of Shield. The agency she'd hacked, multiple times, and which had the legal power to arrest her and put her in a concrete box for the rest of her life. "You've heard of me! Not quite the reaction I'd like, but I'll take it."
Daisy tried to keep her breathing even, tried not to let the fear show. "So, what does the director of shield want with little old me?" her voice was a hair higher than usual, she hoped he didn't notice.
"To talk."
"About?" Daisy asked.
Fury leaned back in his chair and pulled a brown file out of his bag, flipping it open on his lap. There was no photo in it, but Daisy was 99% certain it was about her. "Daisy, Quake, Skyenet. Quite the collection of names you've got. You've been giving my agents a lot of trouble the last few months."
Daisy swallowed hard and didn't say anything. She wished her arms were ok, she would have reallyappreciated being able to use her powers in this situation. She could have done with the back up.
"We interrogated those guys you dealt with last night you know, the ones that left the bomb? Not a smart move leaving a bomb like that to guard your money. A three minute timer doesn't give long for you to retrieve your money and get out of there, but it does give any nosy vigilante plenty of time to run themselves. Why didn't you?"
"What?" Daisy asked.
Fury leaned forwards in his chair, his good eye sharp and focused "Three minute timer on a bomb, why didn't you run?"
Daisy gaped at him "There were other people in the building!" she snapped, furious.
Fury was unphased "It would have been safer to run. Nobody would have known, nobody even knew you were there."
"What kind of jerk leaves people to die to save their own skin?" Daisy demanded, directing the words with pointed rage at Fury, who just smirked and leaned back again.
"The majority of the population actually. We try to recruit from the minority who don't."
Daisy blinked, realising she was being played, and scowled "Is there a particular reason you're acting like a jerk?"
Fury's smirk widened "I always have a reason." and then "Romanoff tells me you've resisted offers of recruitment, I'm here to convince you to change your mind."
Daisy narrowed her eyes, saying as confidently as she could "If you're about to threaten to throw me in prison if I don't cooperate I'm just gonna say that's not gonna work out well for you buddy." It probably would actually, because Daisy would go around the bend and beg to be let out within hours of being locked up, but Fury didn't need to know that.
Fury didn't blink "There are three things that can happen from here. I convince you to join Shield and you join. I don't convince you and you don't join, in which case we'll slap a tech monitoring bracelet on you and let you go. I don't convince you to join and you somehow remove that tech monitoring bracelet and continue your illegal hacking career until you become a threat to national or global security and we have to arrest you. I think we would both rather not go for option three."
Daisy glared at him sceptically "Am I supposed to actually believe you'll let me go if I don't agree to join?"
Fury leaned back in his chair again, lowering the intensity. Daisy didn't miss that it made him appear more friendly. "Contrary to what you clearly believe, Shield exists to protect people. Your hacking may be illegal, dangerous, and a security risk, but we recognise the intent behind it, you are trying to help people. Sending people like that to prison is rather counter-intuitive, don't you agree?"
Daisy huffed, but didn't disagree. "Fine, I'm listening, try to convince me then."
"Thank you. What do you think happens each time you drop a NewDawn data dump?"
"I thought you were going to convince me, not interrogate me?"
"Just answer the question."
Daisy rolled her eyes "A bunch of very rich management call their very rich lawyers and flail around trying to put the secrets back in their boxes and make the world forget all their dirty laundry. They fail, obviously."
"And then what happens?"
"The company has to change or go down. A bunch of people get replaced. There's a whole load of lawsuits going on too. A whole load of rich and powerful people that never had to care before are finally facing justice."
"They're not actually." Fury disagreed. "Some are, but a lot more aren't. Because the people that could have brought those lawsuits, that could use all the information you gather up, they get no warning. And once that data is out there, it gives plenty of time to discredit it and plan how to refute it."
Daisy scowled, indignant "So what, you're saying I should just give up? That it's pointless trying to make the world a better place?"
"I'm saying, you can do better. Shield have the people in place, we have the expertise, we can prepare. You can do a lot more with us than without."
Daisy huffed. She could see his point, but she didn't like it. "Except I wouldn't get to chose my jobs."
"There's some flexibility. Part of your job would be to dig into known or suspected threats, but another part could be to look for those threats."
"And when I find them? What happens then? Everything is dealt with in secret?"
"Sometimes, yes. If a public trial will be clearly dangerous to national or global security then yes, we'll keep it quiet. But far more of our missions end up in public, although we like to keep Shield's role in bringing them to the trial stage quiet. We do much more than arrest criminals though. Anti-terrorism, dismantling international arms and drugs trades, dismantling human smuggling. All things that operate in the shadows, all things where the intelligence people like you provide enables field agents to go in and save lives, or prevent them ever being in danger."
Daisy chewed on her lip, thinking about it "How do I know Shield isn't going to screw me over?"
"Clint Barton. Your brother trusts us."
"Robin's not my brother." Daisy pointed out, although that was a good point.
"Not the way he tells it."
Daisy let her lips twitch, she could well believe that. She didn't believe in family, but she did believe in Robin. Tony too maybe. "I have conditions."
"I thought you might. So do we. You start." Fury said.
Well that was ambiguous and vaguely alarming. Daisy set it aside for the moment. "I want immunity, and I want it to apply even if I leave Shield. If I decide to walk, I'm free, you can't decide to prosecute me down the line."
"We'll give you immunity for anything done before joining and any hacking you do for us after." Fury agreed.
"Fair enough." Daisy took a deep breath "Nobody ever asks, or investigates in any way, where I got my powers from, what makes them work, or where I was during the three years I was away. That means no DNA tests, no experimenting with my powers, no nothing. I want it in writing."
"No." Fury said flatly.
"Then I walk."
Fury glared. Daisy glared right back, jaw set. She wasn't shifting on this. Secrecy was next door to sacred for inhumans, it was practically the first thing she learned about them. No matter what had happened with her parents, she wasn't shifting on that. Secrecy protected all inhumans, and she wasn't going to expose them to Shield and the index. She met Fury's glare head on, shoulders back, chin up, unflinching. Seconds ticked past, neither of them giving an inch, and slowly turned into a minute, then two.
Slowly, Daisy started to get worried Fury wasn't going to back down. She thought he would, she thought he wanted Skyenet badly enough to give way (she was pretty sure the Director of Shield didn't usually do recruitment personally) but as the minutes stretched on she re-evaluated how much he wanted to know the source of her powers. It made something twist uneasily inside her, realising that he would be investigating and tracking her even if he let her go, and he didn't even know the extent of her powers. She'd only really used air-vibrations in the last few months, where she was caught on camera anyway. She hadn't shaken guns apart, or caused avalanches or caused small earthquakes. He didn't know she was a potential walking natural disaster.
She didn't back down, because even if Fury did have her followed, it wasn't the same thing as doing DNA tests or interrogating her about where she'd been (or, far more problematically, who else might be more than they seemed). She wasn't backing down on this.
"Fine." Fury spat, and it took Daisy a moment to realise she'd won. "Any other conditions?"
"Really? I mean, uh, one other. I want to be in the field, not just working behind a laptop and stuff, I want to actually get out there."
Fury, still looking distinctly grouchy, said "You can start training but you're not going anywhere near the field until you're 18, Quake included."
Daisy spluttered "What? That's not fair! I've been managing patrols just fine!" Fury raised an eyebrow and looked pointedly at the casts on Daisy's arms. She flushed "Last night was a blip."
"And the next time there's a 'blip'?" Fury said pointedly "The next time you almost die? Or do die?"
"You can join the army at 16 in some countries." Daisy argued hotly.
"The army isn't Shield." Fury shot back "You will not put yourself in physical danger until you're a legal adult."
Daisy scowled, wishing she could cross her arms "Fine." she gritted out.
Fury nodded, moving on briskly "Any other conditions."
"Not at the moment." Daisy muttered a little sulkily.
Fury ignored her tone "Alright. We've got conditions too. No hacking outside of work. That includes hacking into Shield files you haven't been given access to. We have a compartmentalised system for a reason, and hacking our files again will have serious consequences."
Daisy opened her mouth to agree, but then hesitated. One of the first things Shield would ask her to do would undoubtedly be to explain how she'd gotten in, and probably fix the holes, which meant she might not be able to do undetected hacking into Shield anymore, which meant she'd have to keep to Fury's condition. "I want full access to the Index."
"You won't have clearance for that."
"I will if you give it to me."
"Why would I do that?"
"Because that's the only way I'm agreeing to no hacking Shield." Daisy said, setting her jaw again.
Fury looked at her, assessing "The Index is the reason you first hacked in."
It was a statement, but Daisy nodded anyway.
"You're not special, some of the Avengers are on it as well, and none of them have access."
The Avengers also didn't know about an entire community of inhumans with varying powers that might end up on the Index. "Only Thor and Banner are on the Index, and I bet they don't even know it exists." Daisy retorted.
"Interesting that you know it does." Fury probed.
"Hey! No questioning! You agreed."
Fury huffed, but dropped it "I can't give you access to such a sensitive list, especially one that you must know we have to add you to."
Daisy did know that "I understand better than most people how sensitive that data is, I'm not gonna share the information. And having someone like me reading the Index ought to be good incentive to think about who actually needs to be on it! Those are real people you're tracking and watching! Not all of them criminals!"
Fury frowned "Who are you protecting?"
Thrown, Daisy floundered, "Wha—What do you mean? I'm not protecting anyone! Why would I be protecting anyone?"
Fury gave her and unimpressed look and she fell silent, flushing. "Well?" he pressed.
Daisy bit her lip "Hypothetically, if I was protecting a friend, it would fall under the category of not asking questions about my powers."
Fury leaned forwards slightly, interest narrowing his good eye "Is someone doing human experiments? Because if they are, we need to know."
"No questions." Daisy said, leaving it ambiguous and purposefully suggesting that was where she got her powers from, just as she'd purposefully suggested she only had one friend she was protecting.
"Are you always this stubborn?"
"Yes."
Fury groaned "I'm reconsidering recruiting you."
Daisy snickered "Oh come on, I can't be more trouble than Clint and Natasha, and word is you like them."
Fury frowned "How'd you know...no, I don't want to know."
Daisy winced "Probably best."
Fury groaned again "OK, I'll give you access to readthe Index only. There will be no downloading data, and no editing data, is that clear?"
Reluctantly, Daisy nodded, because it was clearly the best she was going to get, and a lot better than nothing. "OK, no hacking outside of sanctioned Shield work, got it. Be boring. Fine."
Fury looked for an instant like he was genuinely reconsidering recruiting her, but moved on "You have to finish school."
"What? No. No way!" Daisy denied, shaking her head frantically. She hadn't gone to school since she was 12! And she'd hated it! She'd always been thrown from one school to another, always the new kid, always the trouble-maker, always behind. She'd hated it. She had precisely zero intention of ever stepping foot in a school again.
"You want to work with Shield, you're finishing school kid, that's final." Fury snapped back, not giving an inch.
"I haven't gone to school in three and a half years! School sucks! It's all gossip and cliches and sweaty boys showing off in gym! And what am I supposed to say if students ask about me? Hi, I'm Daisy, I'm an international hacker and I work for a super-secretive international security agency part time. And oh, by the way, I have superpowers."
Fury gave her another thoroughly unimpressed look, cutting across her incredulous rambling "Online school will be sufficient."
"Oh, online." Daisy said, deflating "Yeah, ok, if I absolutely have to."
"You do." Fury said, looking seconds off rolling his eyes. Or eye. Whatever. "You also may not tell anyone outside of a small list of people that you are Skyenet."
Daisy blinked, "Okaaaay, why?"
"Secrecy has kept you alive and I would like it to stay that way."
Daisy shrugged "No arguments from me."
"This time." Fury muttered. Daisy bit back her grin with great difficulty.
"Sooo, any other conditions?"
Fury reached into his bag again and pulled out something black and rectangular "Provide a photo and a full name for that."
Daisy opened it to find it was a Shield badge. She looked at it, then looked at Fury, then looked back at the badge. He had been really sure he could convince her. "I can provide a photo, but I don't have a full name for it."
"How about Mary-Sue Poots?"
"Call me that and I'll call you..." Daisy took a moment to think about it "Saint Nick." she decided.
The glare Fury gave her could have melted ice.
"I'll uh, I'll get back to you on the name." Daisy mumbled, deciding she probably shouldn't push her new boss too far.
"I want a name and personnel information filled out within a month." Fury demanded.
Daisy hesitated "I'll fill out what I can. I don't exactly have a conventional or stable background."
Fury sighed "Ask Romanoff if you're not sure. She'll know which bits are crucial."
"Yes sir." Daisy said, injecting just enough sass into the tone to make it almost disrespectful.
Fury ignored it "Stark has offered space in the Tower for you, so you'll stay here. Romanoff or Barton, and Rogers if he wants, can train you. We'll be in touch within the week about what work you'll be doing with Shield and how we'll be maintaining your anonymity, and about school. Romanoff and Barton are in charge of your protection, so do as they tell you. And please try to stay out of trouble."
"I'm staying here?" Daisy asked, shocked.
"Do you have a problem with that?" Fury asked, looking like he might just throttle her if she did.
Daisy thought about how she'd avoided Robin because he might make her believe in family again, and then about how Tony had stayed last night and Robin had left only because he was forced, and admitted it might be a little too late to worry about that. "No."
"Good." Fury said with feeling, standing up "That was the second most painful recruitment I've ever done."
Daisy laughed, completely unrepentant "Only second? Who was the first?"
Fury snorted "The brainwashed and traumatised Russian assassin Barton brought home like a half-drowned and entirely-feral stray cat comes to mind. You'd better prove as good an agent as she has."
Daisy gulped, suddenly feeling small. "I'll do my best sir."
Fury smiled, suddenly losing his intensity "Welcome to Shield."
Notes:Summary: Daisy finds a bomb in the apartment counting down from 3 minutes, and calls Steve for help. The Avengers head out but don't get there until the bomb's gone off. Daisy is containing it with vibrations though, and the Avengers evacuate the building, and then Tony tackles Daisy out the window while another Iron Man suit drops on top of the bomb. Daisy fractures her arms and both she and Tony get some bruises and burns. Clint, Nat, and Tony borrow an ambulance and return to Avengers Tower with Daisy while Steve directs clean up.
Sorry for the abrupt ending, I'm not very good at them!
Comments make me happy :-)
Notes:Comments make me happy!