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milstrim · 4 years ago

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Rise From the Ashes; Just to See You Again

Chapter 6: The Parker’s

The combination of sizzling and cheerful conversation greeted Tony and Pepper as they walked into the kitchen, and it loosened the knot that was always in his chest a little. The past couple of months had been complicated, and they still were, but hearing everyone laughing peacefully...it was good.

Bucky and Sam were cooking, they were really the only ones that could, while everyone else lounged around. Nat was sitting on the counter with a book in her lap, though she wasn't reading it. Instead, she kept conversation with Rhodey, who was sipping a coffee while sitting on a stool by her. Wanda and Vision sat at the table, both were reading, with Wanda flipping her pages every few minutes with a red glow. Steve and Sam were talking while the ladder flipped bacon and sausages. Bucky remained mostly quiet, as he usually did. He'd only come to stay with them a week ago after recovering in Wakanda, and had brought with him a host of new problems.

Rationally, he knew it wasn't Barnes who killed his parents, but he couldn't stop himself from tensing every time he was in a room with the man, from being defensive and untrusting. At least he was working on it.

Other than his own misgivings, there came the problem with the UN. Things were already rather tense, what with what happened in Lagos and the UN building, but at least it hadn't been worse. He didn't know what he'd have done if a fight had broken out.

"Morning Tony, morning Pepper," Steve greeted, raising his hand in welcome. Tony ignored him, walking past the super soldier to pour himself a cup of coffee. Steve fixed him with an amused look, keeping eye contact with him while Tony took a long gulp of his coffee and let out a long, drawn out, refreshed sigh.

"Morning, Capsicle," he finally responded, "You look refreshed. Have fun last night?"

Steve's glare this time was much less playful, making Tony smirk as he shoved back around him, giving him a pat on his chest. He snagged a piece of bacon as he went.

The billionaire took a seat at the table next to Pepper, who had pulled out her StarkPad and was currently tapping the screen busily. She took a sip of his coffee when he sat down, which he playfully stole back.

"Why're you working?" he complained, "Come on? I thought this was just an us week, I mean--"

"--It is, Tony, but I can't just abandon everything--"

"--Why not? There's no way--"

"--Because it's your company! I mean--"

"--Do you two ever not fight?" Rhodey interrupted as they talked over each other.

"I just don't get why she's working," Tony responded, much to Pepper's annoyance. She sighed and fixed him with a heavy glare, which he returned with an adorable head tilt.

They managed to get along after that, sipping his coffee and eating when Steve passed him a plate of bacon and eggs. The Avengers ate their breakfast mostly silently, but it wasn't uncomfortable. It was easy; calm.

Tony had finished his plate and was just about to head down to the lab when the elevator dinged. He froze in place, watching as the doors slid open and two kids slipped out in a hurried manner, followed by Clint and Laura.

He'd forgotten the Barton's were coming over for the week.

"HI, Legolas," he greeted casually, "And good morning to you, Mrs. Barton."

"Hurts, Stark. Right here," the archer responded, placing a hand on his youngest's head as his heart was obstructed by the baby carrier. Tony smiled faintly, remembering the bright red and flowery one he'd used to have.

"No one cares, Clint," Natasha said, appearing from behind him magically and moving to take Nate from Clint, who giggled at her adorably. She turned to Lila and Cooper, "How's everyone been?"

"Dad's teaching me archery!" Lila exclaimed, pretending to pull back a bow to demonstrate.

"I bet you're already better than him," Tony commented playfully, and Lila turned to look at him with big eyes, "Better attitude too, I'm sure."

"Hey!"

Tony held his hands up in mock surrender, "Just pointing out the truth, Katniss."

A few more jabs were exchanged before Pepper shot him a look that clearly said, 'Stop stirring up trouble and let everyone have their breakfast or you'll regret it.' He consented, sitting back down instead of hurrying down to his lab, though he did make himself another cup of coffee.

Sam served the Barton's their breakfast, and the kids scarfed down everything while talking animatedly with Natasha, who listened patiently, smiling as she complimented their drawings. They handed everyone a drawing of themselves, and he had to admit that it was really adorable.

It made him wonder if Penny would've liked the Avengers. How they would’ve gotten along.

They would’ve loved her.

"Tony, I need you to sign this," Pepper said, grabbing his attention. She handed him the StarkPad, which he signed without looking at it before passing it back.

"What was it?"

"The last document for the Expo. Everything should be finished being set up by tomorrow."

"Do we get to go to that, Dad?" Cooper asked, pulling on Clint's arm.

"That's kind of why we're here, buddy," Clint smiled.

"No one told me that!" he whined.

"Well maybe you should pay attention," taunted Lila. Cooper blew a raspberry at her, which somehow ended up with the two wrestling on the couch. Laura looked horrified about how her kids were acting, but no one minded the kids' antics. And no one noticed the elevator doors open.

"Y'know, you should really control your kids."

The room froze, the calm and easygoing atmosphere turning tense and cold in a moment as every head turned to look at Secretary Ross. He had his usual look on his face, somehow smug and disappointed at the same time, as he stood in the doorway. He was dressed in his usual suit, his hands behind his back. There was also another man that Tony recognized but couldn't remember the name of at the moment. He was tall, middle aged with dark brown hair that was peppered with silver strands.

Tony glanced at the ceiling, wondering why Friday hadn't told him that Ross was coming before he remembered that it was part of the new deal with the UN. In exchange for Bucky being with them, and for how Steve and Wanda had almost run off, they got to enter their floors without warning. Yeah, he was changing that.

The two uninvited men walked more into the room so that they were at the table where everyone was gathered.

"It's not like they're at an airport, Ross," Tony bit back, crossing his arms. He turned to the man he didn't recognize, "Who're you?"

The man smiled delightfully, his eyes crinkling, "I'm Thomas Williams, the ambassador to the UN," he explained, "We know you're holding that party next Wednesday, so we thought we'd check in, make sure everyone was good."

Despite how smiley this man was, and his cheery personality, Tony already couldn't stand him. He twitched angrily when he made eye contact with Williams.

"It's not a party," he almost spat, but Pepper put a hand on his arm soothingly, "Besides, everything's good here. Nothing illegal, as you can see, so if you'll be on your way we'll send you a nice card or something."

"Not so fast," Ross said, pulling a yellow envelope out of his jacket and handing it to Steve. The super soldier opened it, pulling out a file labeled 'classified' in bright red letters.

"Who's this? What's this about?" Steve asked, shifting through the papers he’d taken out. Tony moved closer to see what he was talking about.

There were multiple photos and newspaper clippings depicting a figure clad in red and a light blue. Other than the newspaper clippings, all the photos were rather blurry. Tony thought he recognized the person, but he wasn't completely sure. There was also flash drive included in the envelope, which he took out and placed on the table.

"That there is the new vigilante," Ross explained, "Her name is Spider-Girl, and she's been terrorizing the streets of New York."

"Terrorizing?" Tony repeated mockingly, finally recognizing her, "She rescues cats out of trees and spends half the day doing flips for kids in the park."

"She's in direct violation of the UN by being unregistered and she's using her powers illegally," Ross snapped back.

"And you want us to capture her? Is that really Avengers level?" Natasha asked coolly.

"Essentially, yes," Williams answered, "We need to ask her some questions, and she needs to face the law for her actions."

"She hasn't done anything," Tony protested.

"That's an order, Stark!" Ross called over his shoulder, already leaving with Williams trailing behind him, "You've got two months."

Penny stuffed her suit in her bag and hurried out of her room, making sure to grab her phone from beside her bed. She groaned in exasperation when she saw it hadn't charged, so she grabbed the charger too. Stupid broken charger.

"Morning, May!" she called to her aunt, who was already dressed for work and eating some breakfast. Penny popped two pieces of bread in the toaster for her breakfast, grabbing the peanut butter from the shelf, hopping on the counter to reach it.

"Morning, sweetie. Ready for the weekend?"

"A hundred percent. I’m gonna hang out with Ned, get some homework done and stuff," she lied. May hummed and they sat in silence for a bit, Penny taking out her toast and sitting down at the table to eat.

"So," May started, "I got my schedule for next week, and I'm going to have to work on your birthday," she paused and Penny looked up at her in surprise, trying to keep the hurt out of her eyes, "I'm really sorry, honey. How about we just hang out tonight? I could go get some ice cream, and we could watch a movie?"

"Y-yeah, that sounds...that sounds good, May," she said hesitantly, forcing a smile, "We should get candles too."

"And put them on the ice cream?"

"Absolutely," Penny shoved the last of the toast into her mouth and quickly placed her plate in the dishwasher, "Love you, May! See you after school!"

"Be home by six!!"

And with that, Penny left, racing down the hall and jumping down the stairs three at a time. The elevator was broken, but she didn't mind, she wasn't even out of breath when she ran out of the building. The teen got on at the bus stop, managing to not miss it, which she was proud of, and walked the rest of the way to school once she got off, walking through the doors with ten minutes to spare.

Ned was waiting for her by their lockers, and she greeted him cheerfully.

"So are you coming to the Stark Expo?" he asked as she put her bag up.

"May said we couldn't go," she replied, and Ned deflated a little.

"You're not going? But--I mean, it's chill. It probably won't even be that cool anyway, so--"

"--I never said I wasn't going," she interrupted as he tried to downplay his disappointment and closing her locker. Ned looked at her in surprise.

"You're sneaking out?"

"I technically do it all the time," the teen said as they headed to class, "I'll just be doing something different from what I usually do."

He furrowed his eyebrows at her, but she refused to give in. She was going to the Expo and nobody could stop her.

Ned didn't question her again though, in fact, he seemed quite excited that she was coming. Neither of them had ever been, despite the fact that it had been held in New York before. It was mostly because it had been on her birthday, which Ned had always found kind of suspicious. He'd once asked her if she could be Penelope Stark in a hushed whisper as if it could actually be true, which she had found ridiculous but kind of funny. Like some play pretend daydream that would be fun to experience.

Technically, she had thought about it too, but never seriously. Being named Penny and having the same birthday as the dead child of a superhero was beyond farfetched and really only existed in that part of your mind that wished you were a fairy or that you were secretly the princess of some European country hidden away for her protection. Besides, her parents were dead.

She didn't really remember them, she'd been so young, but May and Ben had told her that her dad had died in a plane crash, and that her mom had died giving birth to her. She'd been shown pictures of the two of them together, Richard and Elizabeth Parker, which she'd looked at every so often, making her wish she could've met them, really met them.

"Hey nerds," MJ said, coming up to walk beside her, "What's this I hear about sneaking out?"

"We're just going to the Stark Expo," she replied. MJ had found out she was Spider-Woman last week, and she had quickly joined their friend group, which was probably the best thing to ever happen to her. Michelle was a professional liar and had already perfectly covered for her twice, "Wanna come?"

"I heard that the Avengers were actually mind controlled by government drones and are just going there because the UN told them to," She and Ned stared at her, "Of course I'll come."

"Uh, okay," Penny smiled, "We're just going to take the bus, so I'll text you when we're going later?"

"Sounds good."

And then she was gone, heading off to her own class while she and Ned walked into their own. Penny felt herself blushing as she sat down and put her binder on her desk.

"She's weird, right?" Ned asked.

"Yeah," she responded, "but really cool."

Ned hummed in agreement.

"May?"

The woman looked up quickly at her name. She'd been going through some patient's papers at the front desk, and she guessed she'd zoned off. It wasn't really her fault, she was always nervous around Penny's birthday, had been since she was ten. The Stark Expo hadn't moved to New York until the girl was eleven, but Ben had finally told her the truth when she’d turned ten, after everything had turned into a nightmare.

He'd been her babysitter. He was just supposed to be her babysitter. The fury she'd felt when Penny had told her, crying and barely able to get the words out, the ways she'd wanted to torture that man. The ways she still did.

"What do we do?" May had asked Ben after Penny had finally falling asleep. They'd put her in their bed, sure that she wouldn't want to be alone, "I mean, we need to press charges right? He-he hurt her, and I'm not letting him get away with this."

She'd never forget the look on Ben's face. How sad he had looked, how disappointed and broken his expression had been before being split by a second of anger. He'd muttered a quiet yet heated, "Dammit, Richard," before looking at her, heartbroken.

"I don't think we can," he'd said.

"What do you mean!?" she'd whisper-yelled back at him, eyes narrowed in fury, "He can't get away with this! He deserves to rot in prison for the rest of his life! God, why they ever did away with the chair is a mystery to me!"

"Honey--"

"Don't 'honey' me, Benjamin! That good for nothing piece of shit hurt our niece! Our practically daughter and--"

"She's not our niece," he'd said, and she'd stopped in her tracks, mouth agape.

"What do you mean? Of course she is! She's Richard's daughter!" she'd protested, talking to Ben slowly as if her were a toddler, as if it was all too much for him.

And then he'd told her. Three horrible words, "She's Tony Stark's."

May hadn't accepted it at first. There was no way that Penny was the daughter of a superhero, the daughter of that asshole she'd seen on TV being reckless and throwing parties. Just last month Penny had shown her a video of Tony Stark peeing himself in the Iron Man suit. There was no way that her sweet little girl was that man's daughter. But Ben had explained, had shown her records and Richard's letter to Ben that was given to him after her brother-in-law had died.

"He kidnapped her?" she'd asked, horrified. Were they guilty of kidnapping!?

"Technically, yes," Ben had said, the words bitter on his lips as he'd adjusted his glasses, "I don't agree with Rich, but I trusted him. He said in his letter that Stark was unsafe, manipulative, and that they were just getting Penny out of the way."

"Why not just call CPS?"

"He's a billionaire, May. There's no way they would've taken her away, and besides, I don't think he just meant what Stark would do to her...I think he meant what was going to happen to Stark."

May had been silent for a moment, not moving even to wipe away the tears that had sat on her cheeks. She’d thought about what the man had been doing lately, how he’d been so reckless and awful on TV, how he’d been called to testify. And just a couple of years ago he’d been kidnapped. She couldn’t imagine what might have happened to Penny is she had still been with him.

"So Richard was involved in some shady shit, huh?" she'd finally said.

"Yeah."

"So now we're in some shady shit."

"Yeah. And if we press charges against Westcott, we could alert Tony Stark. You've seen what he's been up to, how unstable he's been. We can't take that chance."

"What're we going to do about Skip, though?"

"It should be enough that we know, there's no way he'll come back."

And he hadn't. May had never heard from him ever again after Ben talked to him. She'd seen him put his gun away afterwards though, and she'd guessed that Ben had really leaned into the whole, 'I'm a cop and I have a gun' thing.

From there, life had returned to normal, or as normal as it could be. Penny had been terrified of everything, she didn't even let Ben touch her. They'd kept her home from school for a couple of weeks, just letting her get comfortable in her own skin while she and Ben took extra steps to ensure Penny never be found. They threw away pictures of Richard and Elizabeth (who was apparently an old colleague who had died and not Penny’s mother), not wanting Penny to notice that they didn't look anything alike. They updated records and made sure everything was perfect looking, though nothing had really been out of place to being with.

They'd let Penny keep on with her Iron Man obsession (and later her Avengers obsession), but they'd never let her go to the Stark Expo, not that she'd really persisted that much in going. Usually, as long as they took her and Ned to Luna Park to ride the Cyclone and then the movies afterwards, they were usually fine. But it was different this year, Ben was dead, and Penny was about to be fifteen. She wouldn't be able to distract her as easily, but she couldn't let her get close to Stark, couldn't let him take her from her.

"May," her colleague called again, and May looked up to see her friend Reed, "You alright?"

"Yeah, yeah. Why?"

"You look upset, May, and I called your name a good three times."

"Oh, sorry, just distracted. It's Penny's birthday next week, I just don't know what to get her. You never really know with teenagers," she lied, straightening her papers.

"Well, it's your lunch break, so you can think about it for thirty and then get back to work with no distractions."

May laughed a little, "Thanks, Reed. See you later."

"See you!"'

"Have you seen anything yet?" Ned asked in her ear as she swung from one building to another. She's been patrolling for a couple of hours, so she had a couple of hours before she had to be home. Maybe she'd patrol again after she had dinner with May. It was Friday anway, it wasn't like she had to get up early for school tomorrow.

"No, but it's not like someone's going to get murdered on the street in broad daylight," she responded, stopping on a billboard to look around a bit. The traffic was pretty crazy, but it was always like that, so nothing was unusual, "I'm going to go to the outskirts of the city, see if anything's happening there."

"Okay. I'm just going to chill here," Ned said.

"Isn't that your job?"

"Duh, Guy in the Chair." She snorted and swung off of the building. She headed to the outskirts of the city, basically near the suburbs. It took her awhile to get there, but it was kind of nice just listening to Ned quiz her on Academic Decathlon while she flipped around. It was only around 4:30 when she got there, so she had plenty of time.

She searched around for a little bit, mostly just jumping from trees, which was a new experience. There weren't really a lot of trees, except for Central Park, but it wasn't like she was regularly hanging out there. She was pretty sure Liz lived around here, though, which made her blush as she swung around. Spider-Woman stayed around that area for about an hour before deciding it was a bust.

"Alright, I'm heading back, there's nothing happening here--"

A high pitched kind of reverberating shriek cut her off, ringing in her ears as she held onto a lamp in the middle of a golf course. She looked around wildly, unsure of where the alarming noise had come from until she saw smoke what looked like a mile away. It was tinged kind of blue, and it was bright, unlike any smoke she had ever seen.

"What was that?" she whispered, "What is that?"

"I don't know," Ned answered, sounding rather excited as he looked at the smoke through a screen, "But we're going to find out! What are you waiting for, Penny?!"

"Oh, yeah!" and she headed off to where the smoke was trailing into the sky, disappointed to find herself having to run across the golf course, which was kind of embarrassing. She didn't run! She wasn't a running superhero, she swung!

The source of the blue smoke was surrounded by voices talking about weapons. She landed on a bridge over a ditch and clung upside down to the side opposite to the men, her lenses narrowing as she took the scene in. There were three men surround a van that looked to be full of oddly shaped weapons. Nice, this was exactly what she'd been looking for.

"Oh my God, Penny are you seeing this!!?" Ned whisper-yelled into her ear, but she didn't respond with anything other than a harsh shush.

"Man I wanted something lowkey. Like, why are you trying to upsell me, man?" one man complained, and she guessed he was the customer. The man who had been showing him a weapon returned to the van with some hurried words while the third man talked to the buyer lowly.

"Look, we're the only one selling these things, and they're gonna make up the whole market soon. We've got a huge deal tomorrow, selling hundreds of these things, you've got to cash in now while they're still here," he said, his voice low. A huge deal tomorrow, hundreds of alien weapons. She needed to find where that was.

She was just about to move closer when her phone rang, the rather loud ringtone she had set up for May breaking the heavy silence that had persisted until only a few moments ago. Immediately the two dealers reached for their guns and pointed them at the third man. Her heart skipped a beat.

"What the hell? Did you set us up?"

She heard the gun click, and it was like all logic flew out as she flipped over and landed on the ground. All eyes flicked to her as she put her hands up tentatively.

"Hey, woah woah woah, if you're going to shoot at someone shoot at me!"

"Alright," replied one man, pointing the gun at her and pulling the trigger. She was faster though, shooting a web that caught the bullet in its line of fire and slapping the gun to the side. The man looked at her in fear as she ran forward to get a punch in, she was blocked by a punch to the face by the man in the van. It hurt really bad, striking her square in the face and shocking her. She was bounced back and into the bridge's base, breaking the concrete.

"Penny! They're getting away!" Ned warned in her ear as she grasped her now aching head. She blinked dots out of her eyes as she looked up to see the van driving away, the back doors still swinging open.

"Dammit," she whispered, getting up and running after it. She shot a web at it, but rather than slowing the car down, it dragged her with it along the road which teared at her skin through her suit, "Ow! Ow, ow, ow, ow! Fucking ow!!"

The man who had punched her earlier swung open the van doors, holding a gun that glowed purple in his hands. That didn't look good.

He aimed it at her, but never managed to hit her as the car swerved, causing him to lose his balance several times. Then the doors fell off, leaving her skidding on the road as the van drove off.

"You okay, Penny?" Ned asked as she got up.

"Yeah, just peachy. I'm just going to have to take a shortcut," she answered. Penny ran through a yard, leaping over fence after fence and trying her best to not break anything, which she apparently was not capable of. She probably cost thousands of dollars of damage as she tore through fences, broke roof tiles, and permanently fucked up a gutter.

"Thought you got a way from me, didn't you?" she panted as she climbed up on a roof, the van now in her sights again. It was going really fast, but she was close, "Ha, I've got you...right...where, I want you!"

She jumped off of the building, about to land on the van when her senses flared. She tried to turn on instinct, but she wasn't fast enough as metal claws encased her. Her heart jumped to her throat as she tried helplessly to tear at them, the ground growing farther and farther away.

Wings. He had wings. They were huge and skeletal, clearly more for support and direction, as there were some kind of generator in the middle that kept him afloat. He looked down and she froze for a terrifying second at the piercing green eyes that met her own. They were bright, yet lifeless.

She couldn't stop staring at the eyes until she was forced to. Her senses flared again, and suddenly she was falling, Ned screaming at her in her ears as she tried to right herself in air. Twisting and shooting helpless webs as the wind pushed past her.

"NO! No no no nononononono!!!!" she screamed, but she was silenced when she hit the water, the cold seeping into her as sank, her body aching from the force of colliding with the water. God, everything hurt. Ned was still talking in her ear, but he was harder to hear now. He was much clearer when she broke the surface, taking in huge, shuddering breaths and ripping her sopping mask off her face, "I'm alive, Ned. I'm alive."

"Oh thank, God," he sighed, and she could hear his chair creak as he leaned back in it.

"I can't believe I lost them," she said bitterly, looking around to find shore and beginning to swim to it. Ugh, her arms ached so much, "They always get away!"

"We've got a lead now, though!" Ned responded helpfully.

"Barely. We know they're selling a bunch of stuff, but we don't know when or where. We've got basically nothing."

"That Vulture guy, though. We might still be able to figure something out."

"Maybe," she muttered, "Shit. I'm not going to get home in time am I?"

"Nope."

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#Iron Man #spiderman #spiderwoman #tony stark #peter parker #female peter parker #spiderson #spiderdaughter #fanfic #irondad fanfiction #irondad

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existing-on-cloral · 5 years ago

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Brooklyn's Night Terrors

A Steve Rogers X Reader fanfiction

The pretty scientist working to eradicate a vigilante villain catches the eye of the former Captain America. He jumps back into the time machine, becoming young again in order to live out a new life with his best friends, and perhaps her.

Paradise has a price, however.

The tracked vigilante kidnaps Sam Wilson and leaves the shield for Steve to take up one last time. Reluctantly, Steve takes on the mantle of Captain America once more as he teams up with his old pal Bucky Barnes and the beautiful and deadly smart scientist.

"Lust can cloud the mind, but love makes it clear as day."

Chapter Two: All's Fair

After a discovery about the dangerous villain, you ask Sam out for coffee. Meanwhile, Steve and Bucky talk women to "help Bucky remember the 40s better".

"Well, you're starting the day off with a bang," Sharon greeted you as she entered the lab.

You waved the smoke off of the communicator you'd been trying to fix. "I pulled the wrong wire. Didn't expect for it to blow up in my face."

Sharon shrugged. "Just saying. Did you get the news?"

Still focused on waving away smoke, you shook your head. "Don't have time for much of anything anymore, with that villain woman taking over not only New York, but my schedule as well."

"That's what I wanted to talk to you about," Sharon said, dropping a newspaper on the table. You picked it up and scanned the front page. A disturbing picture filled the top half, showing several dead bodies and a figure dressed in deep blue, a mask covering her face. The headline screamed, "Newest Villain Tormenting New York", and underneath the picture was the caption, "Photo courtesy of Peter B. Parker".

"The kid got a photo job for the Daily Bugle," you noted. "Thought that Jameson guy exposed him?"

Sharon rolled her eyes. "Where better to hide than right in plain sight? At least, that's what Parker seems to think." She opened the paper to the big story. "Anyway, this woman killed three men and four women that were stumbling out of a club, drunk. Left her usual message." Another picture advertised the trademark of the villain, six dots surrounding a skull's head. For the first time, you realized how familiar the symbol seemed.

"Agent Carter, get Mr. Rogers down here as fast as you can," you barked, sending Sharon sprinting from the room. You picked up the phone and made a quick call to Director Fury, which he surprisingly ignored.

Still, you were unperturbed and waited for the voicemail beep. Once it sounded, you began rambling. "Director Fury, I've found something on the new villain." You flipped through the story, noting that the reporter was taking the six dots to heart and referring to her as "the Blue Reaper". "They're calling her the Blue Reaper, but that's- that's everything to do with her symbol. And the symbol is everything. Director..." you trailed off as Captain Rogers- Steve- ran into the room. "It may be a coincidence, and Mr. Rogers just arrived to clarify-" you gave Steve a quick look and pointed to the symbol- "Her symbol looks very similar to that of HYDRA. She could be working for a new branch or something."

"Cut off one head, two more grow back," Steve muttered, tracing his fingers over the blue spray paint in the picture.

"Director Fury, please give me a call back soon, I'd like to discuss this further. Thank you." You hung up, still not entirely confident in the former director of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Steve picked up the paper and stared at the symbol, trying to make sense of it. "I don't understand. I thought HYDRA was done and gone for good."

You exhaled sharply and slammed a hand on the table, which caused the already smoking communicator to completely blow itself up. "Dammit!" Now the stupid thing was most definitely beyond repair.

"I think you need a stress break," Steve suggested. "Take an hour or two, I'll analyze this and the article and get back to you."

Nodding, you picked up your bag and headed for the door. Steve was being so generous... then a thought came to mind.

"Steve."

He turned around, giving you his full attention, something the other workers and scientists barely ever achieved.

"Could you look at past articles? That might help your search as well."

Steve smiled. "It would be my pleasure. Go. Take some time."

You turned and stalked out the door, ready to run off to the nearest coffee shop and chug as many espressos as you could without achieving spontaneous combustion (like your communicator). As you were nearing the entrance to the building, however, you remembered your promise to Sharon. Luckily, Sam was in the lobby, bringing in some paperwork.

"Hey, Sam!" you called out. "Do you have some time to grab coffee?"

Sam dropped the paperwork at the front desk and grinned. "I absolutely have time for coffee! Especially for my favorite doctor." He offered you his arm cheekily, but even with his bad humor, you giggled and took it.

"Thank you. I stumbled upon something major in an article and Steve suggested I take some time to process it." You pushed open the door before Sam could get it for you, but to your surprise he looked genuinely disappointed. "In any case, I don't want to talk about vigilantes, or the Blue Reaper, or skulls, or HYDRA. I'd like to get to know you, as Sam, not Captain America."

"I'd love that!" Sam returned, giving you a bright smile. "I know this great coffee house that's within walking distance from here. The coffee is really excellent and cheap, too!"

You allowed Sam to lead you to the little hole-in-the-wall coffee shop, where a sign over the door read, "The Falcon's Nest". Chuckling, you elbowed Sam. "Sure it's just for the cheap coffee? Or is there an ulterior motive?"

Sam shrugged. "I knew the owner back in my military days. He opened a coffee shop and after I became the Falcon, he changed the name to commemorate me."

"That's nice of him," you said, pulling open the door for Sam. He snapped his fingers and made a pretend angry face at you.

"One of these days, I'll show you chivalry isn't dead!" he vowed, propping the door open with his hand and refusing to let go until you walked inside. You did, smiling to yourself at Sam's cute antics.

Sam ordered for the two of you, insisting on paying for your drink. The barista recognized Sam immediately and gave him an over-the-counter hug, then asked, "Who's this lovely lady?"

With pride in his voice, Sam introduced you, tacking on, "My favorite doctor," before grabbing the drinks and making a beeline for a table.

"What was that all about?" you asked, taking your drink from Sam.

He sighed and leaned back in his chair. "That's my buddy. Ever since he got his leg blown off he jokes that it's his best way to pick up girls. I knew he'd start flirting with you, and to be honest, I wanted to talk to you before other men started making passes or anything."

A warm feeling bubbled up in your chest and you giggled. "That's sweet, Sam."

Sam grabbed your hand, pulling your arm a tiny bit so you leaned forward and across the table. "Don't tell me I'm the only one feeling this."

You shook your head. "You're not."

He relaxed, letting go of your hand. "I just thought that you'd prefer one of the others. A real Avenger, even."

"Are you kidding?" you scoffed. "Bucky's flirty, Bruce is a little too big, Thor is off who-knows-where, Parker is way too young for me, and Steve..." you trailed off, unable to come up with a good reason to prefer Sam over Steve. Mentally kicking yourself, you joked, "I'm not on the Carter family tree."

Sam laughed. "I'm glad, I suppose." He fell silent, staring down at the whipped cream in his latte. "Thanks for asking me to coffee," he finally said.

You took your own drink and held it out in a toast. "It was my pleasure, Sam. To this... whatever... that I feel for Sam Wilson!"

He clunked his own cup against yours, laughing. "To this... whatever I feel for my sweet doctor."

"Women!" Bucky said, writing the word in big letters on the top of a college-professor-sized whiteboard. "Any questions so far? Don't worry, you'll have some."

Steve, sitting in the back of the room so Bucky would be forced to yell, returned, "I just want to know about one woman, you jackass!"

"Shut up, punk, school's in session," Bucky shot back, threatening Steve with an Expo marker. "As I was saying." He drew a line underneath the word women. "They are fickle creatures, sharing their love- otherwise known as THE FUCK-" "Language." "-with whoever they feel has big dick energy."

"Two things." Steve raised his hand. "One, it's whomever."

Bucky threw the Expo marker with amazing accuracy. It thonked Steve in the forehead and dropped onto his paper, leaving a big blue mark. "I'm an expert on women, not grammar. Let me teach."

"Second thing," Steve pressed on, "Big dick energy?"

"Yeah!" Bucky seemed far too enthusiastic for someone who was casually throwing around the word dick as if he was talking about a renowned actor or a king of England. "Peter taught it to me. It means you exude manliness and you're very masculine, or whatever. Anyway."

Steve groaned. When he had asked Bucky to teach him about how women worked and how you could ask one out, he had not expected a crash course in Bucky's idiocy from the forties. He swore up and down that he was still trying to help Bucky "remember his past" but he just wanted to work on his own future.

"To ask one out, make sure the timing is good." Bucky wrote timing underneath the big line. "If you ask a woman out at the wrong time, such as when you has just crashed her father's very expensive new car, you will get slapped, rejected, and possibly kicked in the balls."

Steve recalled the day Bucky had crashed his date's father's car on the way to a fair and burst out laughing. Another marker smacked into his chest. At least the lesson was helping Bucky too.

"The second thing is how you ask her out." Bucky wrote method. He turned to Steve, face completely serious. "Do not ask out a woman by singing your own rendition of 'The Star-Spangled Banner' off key in front of her entire friend group. You will get laughed at, and possibly kicked in the balls."

"Hurry up, Barney Stinson, I have a woman I would love to ask out and I'd really like to know how," Steve griped, throwing the markers back at Bucky. Amazingly, one of them hit Bucky. Steve smirked, a little proud of himself.

Unfortunately, it had hit Bucky's metal arm, so he just picked it up and shot Steve a glare. "I understood that reference, and also, don't throw markers. It's disrespectful. Now, if you want to ask this wonderful-sounding lady out, just walk up to her and say- not scream- the words 'Hey, would you like to go out for ice cream sometime?' Works every time, because you're not implying that it's a date in any way." Bucky folded his arms and gave Steve a smug smile. At least he would have if Steve was still sitting in the back of the room. "Steve?"

The Steve in question was running down the hallway of S.P.E.C.I.A.L. headquarters, looking for the scientist that he couldn't get out of his mind. When he reached the lobby, he spotted Sharon and grabbed her arm. "Sharon, where's the doctor you came to look at the time machine with?"

Sharon gave him a Look. "We have more pressing things to worry about, Steve."

"Like what?" Steve asked. "Other than, you know, the Reaper terrorizing New York City."

"That's the problem," Sharon pulled a note from her pocked. "Our doctor just got back from a coffee date with Sam." Steve's heart sank, but he reminded himself that, technically, he'd been the one to tell you to get coffee. Sharon continued talking, slowly drawing a piece of paper out of her pocket. "But Sam didn't return with her. According to her, the Reaper kidnapped him and left her this note."

Steve grabbed the piece of paper, unfolding it until he could read the words written in blood-red ink. So much for Captain America.

His eyes narrowed, his lips pursed, and he threw the note to the ground. Steve looked up as his doctor ran in, looking so scared and yet so dangerously beautiful. "I need my shield," he said, locking eyes with her.

#steve rogers x reader #steve rogers #mcu x reader #sam wilson #sharon carter

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videogamesdebate-blog · 6 years ago

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“Press Start”

Anyone who plays video games knows that the earlier generations view video games and video game culture as “...a waste of time” or “...corrupting our children with violence” (My Mom). Many media sources have tarnished the video game name, and have accused video games to be related to acts of violence or terrorism. The reality is, why do so many people hate video games?

The go to accusation people make is that the violence in these games corrupt our children and make them into “killers” or “psycho paths.” Although this may be true in some cases of events, it is not the cause of every single teen violence act that is made.

Take this article by DailyMail for example: the article talks about the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting in 2012 committed by Adam Lanza. The article seems to focus on the fact that Lanza had over “83k online kills including 22k ‘head shots’ to train himself for the massacre” (Bates / Pow). While the statistics may be true on the number of online kills he got, the article displays no evidence of the perpetrator using these games to ‘train’ to kill innocent people. Instead, many of the victims parents agreed that it had to do with parenting issues in the Lanza household, an illegal gathering of firearms, and possibly some evidence towards mental illnesses. So, what’s the point?

The older generations do not understand the younger generation’s culture when it comes to video games. Now, I am not saying that EVERY single adult hates video games. If that were the case, they wouldn’t even be legal. I am talking about the group of people who use video games as an excuse for bad things that happen in the world. They just assume that because of one or two incidents with video games, they automatically make them the Devil’s path to Hell, when in reality, video games create a lot of good for the world; In fact, some researchers say that video games are better than actual television, because unlike watching a movie, while you play video games, you are using your cognitive functions and improving your cognitive skills, and improving the part of your brain that helps you multi task (National Public Radio).

Another problem that is involved with the older generation is that a lot of the kids and teens who play games are really good at them, some good enough to start getting payed to play the game at a professional level, yet the parents don’t understand this. How could a 12 year old kid get paid 60 grand a year to play a video game for 10-12 hours a day, while a company streams the game play live to millions of people? Simple. The pure fact that this particular 12 year old is one of the best players to play the game, and people like watching that. In fact, they LOVE watching it! Part of it has to do with that the people who watch these live streams are embraced in the same culture as this particular 12 year old, yet this 12 year old has this particular talent of being one of the best. People admire this, whether it be jealousy, where the viewer wishes to be as good as this 12 year old, admiration, where the viewer loves to see a good player play a game they really enjoy, or envy, where the viewer hates that the 12 year old is good and the viewer is not as good, yet they watch anyway.

Caption: A picture of the crowd at Intel and ESL’s IEM Expo Championship event, featuring many competitive games, such as Counter Strike: Global Offensive and League of Legends. Around 173,000 fans attended, and millions more watched at home through streaming services. It was labeled “...world’s biggest eSports event in history” (Source).

So, what does all this mean? I plan on covering the overarching positives of video games when it comes to entertainment and jobs, and determining why video games are not what the earlier generations believe.

#video games #esports #introduction #positives #of #counter-strike: global offensive #league of legends

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immaculatasknight · 4 months ago

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Boys and their toys

#London #technology #surveillance #social control #counter terror #business #Zionism #paranoia #fascism #military

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shirlleycoyle · 4 years ago

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Cars Have Your Location. This Spy Firm Wants to Sell It to the U.S. Military

A surveillance contractor that has previously sold services to the U.S. military is advertising a product that it says can locate the real-time locations of specific cars in nearly any country on Earth. It says it does this by using data collected and sent by the cars and their components themselves, according to a document obtained by Motherboard.

"Ulysses can provide our clients with the ability to remotely geolocate vehicles in nearly every country except for North Korea and Cuba on a near real time basis," the document, written by contractor The Ulysses Group, reads. "Currently, we can access over 15 billion vehicle locations around the world every month," the document adds.

Although the company told Motherboard it has not sold the product to the U.S. government at this time, the news highlights the scale and reach of car-tracking technology, and the fact that car location data is of interest not just to insurance companies and the finance sector, but to government contractors who explicitly say they want to source the data for intelligence and surveillance purposes.

Ulysses previously had a contract with U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM), though for a different piece of technology.

Do you work for a company buying car location data? Does your company sell it? Do you know of any other companies offering telematics data to government agencies? We'd love to hear from you. Using a non-work phone or computer, you can contact Joseph Cox securely on Signal on +44 20 8133 5190, Wickr on josephcox, OTR chat on [email protected], or email [email protected].

Consumers may be unaware that automakers and Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) often include sensors in vehicle parts that collect information such as their airbag and seatbelt status, engine temperature, and current location, and then transmit that information either back to the automaker or to third parties. Aggregator companies also purchase or obtain this data, repackage it, and then sell that data or products based on it to their own clients.

"Vehicle telematics is data transmitted from the vehicle to the automaker or OEM through embedded communications systems in the car," the Ulysses document continues. "Among the thousands of other data points, vehicle location data is transmitted on a constant and near real time basis while the vehicle is operating."

The document specifically suggests that this technology could be used for military operations: "We believe that this one attribute will dramatically enhance military intelligence and operational capabilities, as well as reduce the costs and risk footprint of ISR [intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance] assets currently used to search for and acquire mobile targets of interest," the document adds. It says that Ulysses has "existing access to bulk commercial telematics data."

Included in the document is a map showing apparent vehicle locations spread across Russia, Ukraine, and Turkey, including along the border with Syria. A section of text next to the map says Ulysses' data access lets clients analyze targets "whether you want to geo-locate one vehicle or 25,000,000 as shown here." An image on the company’s LinkedIn page appears to show data related to Bulgaria.

A section of the document obtained by Motherboard. Image: Motherboard

The office of Senator Ron Wyden obtained and then provided the document to Motherboard. Wyden spokesperson Keith Chu told Motherboard in a statement that "Far too little is known about how private information is being bought and sold. Senator Wyden is conducting an ongoing investigation into the sale of personal data, particularly via data brokers, to put some sunlight on this shady industry. Our office is continuing to perform oversight into where data brokers are acquiring Americans’ information, and who they’re selling it to."

Ulysses is a small surveillance contractor based in Charleston, South Carolina, that also claims to offer cellular interception and jamming technology, hidden video recorders, and military training such as tactical driving, according to the company's website. The company paid former Trump National Security Advisor and conspiracy theorist Michael Flynn as an advisor, financial disclosure records show.

Ulysses has worked with U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM), a branch of the military tasked with counterinsurgency, counterterrorism, and special reconnaissance, according to public procurement records unearthed by Motherboard. Navy Lt. Cmd. Timothy Hawkins told Motherboard in an email that a 2016 contract related to Ulysses "using publicly available information to analyze how peer and near-peer competitor countries were making economic and financial investments in Africa and Central and South America. SOCOM used this analysis to deepen our understanding on how foreign competitors used economic and financial tools against U.S. interests in those regions. The contract’s period of work lasted around one year and concluded in 2017."

On its website, Ulysses said it has spoken at the Counter Terror Expo in the United Kingdom, and on its LinkedIn page claims it took part in a recent event with the U.S. Navy.

A post from The Ulysses Group's LinkedIn page. Image: Motherboard

"Ulysses participates in the Navy's Joint Interagency Field Experimentation 21-2 event," the post reads, alongside an image of vehicles driving along a highway. "Telematics based intelligence; the next revolution in data," the image adds. On its website, Ulysses also says it has worked on four contracts with the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA).

The Navy acknowledged a request for comment, but did not answer specific questions on whether Ulysses demoed the vehicle location data product to the Navy or not, or what the purpose of Ulysses' attendance was. The NGA did provide a statement in time for publication.

Andrew Lewis, president of The Ulysses Group, told Motherboard in an email that "any proprietary promotional material we may have produced is aspirational and developed based on publicly available information about modern telematics equipment."

"We do not have any contracts with the government or any of its agencies related to our work in the field and we have never received any funding whatsoever from the government related to telematics," Lewis added.

A section of the document obtained by Motherboard. Image: Motherboard

The document does not explain exactly how Ulysses sources its data, be that directly from automakers or OEMs, or via an aggregator company. But there are plenty of companies that could be contributing.

With a consumer using a GPS navigation tool, for instance, "The OEM will have first dibs to the data, because they made the car and have access to the telematics," Andrea Amico, the founder of Privacy4Cars, which, among other things, sells tools to help dealerships remove data from vehicles, told Motherboard in a phone call. "But the company that provides the map itself, for instance, would have access to it; the company that provides the infotainment system may have access to it; the company that provides the traffic data may have access to it; the company that provides the parking data may have access to it. Right there and then you've got five companies that are getting your location."

With mobile phones, consumers can generally see what data an app may be requesting, and Apple recently told developers to add extra information about whether the data is used to track a user too.

"We have not entered that era yet with cars," Amico said.

An image on The Ulysses Group's LinkedIn page. Image: Motherboard

One company acting as a middleman for a wealth of this sort of car data is Otonomo, based in Israel. Motherboard has no evidence that Otonomo is involved with Ulysses in any way, but Otonomo is an example of how the car location data industry functions.

Otonomo says it has partnerships with 16 OEMs, with an installed base of over 40 million vehicles, according to an Otonomo presentation made for investors. The presentation adds that "thousands of organizations" in turn have access to Otonomo's data, and that it collects 4.3 billion data points a day.

Otonomo describes itself as "uniquely positioned at the heart of the automotive data ecosystem." The presentation suggests Otonomo has relationships with major car companies and car part companies. In another slide, Otonomo says the geography of BMW Group, for example, is "global," with 12 million vehicles available. "Commercial use cases" mentioned in the Otonomo presentation include smart cities, dealerships, fleet services, as well as insurance and financial firms.

BMW Product & Technology spokesperson Oleg Satanovsky told Motherboard in an email that BMW sends "traffic signs, traffic hazard warnings and traffic flow information" to Otonomo.

A section of the Otonomo presentation. Image: Motherboard

When asked if Ulysses is a client of Otonomo, Jodie Joseph Asiag, head of content and communications at Otonomo, told Motherboard in an email that "It is our policy not to comment on the status of any commercial relationship unless there has been a public announcement to the fact." Asiag added that "We are not actively pursuing or plan to pursue the use cases you mention" when Motherboard asked about selling location data for intelligence or surveillance purposes.

The investor slides add that connected cars are expected to make up 95% of new cars sold in the United States by 2022. Ulysses, for its part, is aware of this ballooning growth.

"When one considers that there are approximately 100,000,000 vehicles manufactured around the world every year which are increasingly connected to the manufacturer, other vehicles, infrastructure and their owners it becomes apparent that telematics will revolutionize intelligence and create new fields of study within the community. By 2025 it is estimated that 100% of new cars will be connected at some level—each transmitted more than 25 gigabytes of data per hour," the document adds.

The role of data that cars collect and who has access to it was a flashpoint in the November elections in Massachusetts. A "right to repair" ballot measure there sought to give independent manufacturers and owners greater ability to access repair information on vehicles; car manufacturers spent $25 million lobbying against it, claiming that passing the law would also give access to telematics data collected by various sensors. Manufacturers said this data was highly sensitive, and that wider access to it could be used by "sexual predators" to stalk innocent people (there was no specific provision in the measure that allowed this, and the measure overwhelmingly passed). Meanwhile, car companies are sharing this type of data with third-parties themselves.

Subscribe to our cybersecurity podcast CYBER, here.

Cars Have Your Location. This Spy Firm Wants to Sell It to the U.S. Military syndicated from https://triviaqaweb.wordpress.com/feed/

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quantustecsol · 4 years ago

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Counter Terror Expo and Defence & Security Equipment International (DSEI) will run in-person event in September 2021

Source: Security Magazine Counter Terror Expo and Defence & Security Equipment International (DSEI) will run in-person event in September 2021 The Counter Terror Expo (CTX) and Forensics Europe Expo (FEE) are scheduled to take place alongside the Defense & Security Equipment International (DSEI) in London, September 14 through the 16, 2021.

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i-hls · 4 years ago

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Let's Meet at INNOTECH 2021 Tel Aviv - Leading Conference & Exhibition on Cyber, HLS and Innovation

iHLS is proud to present the international Homeland Security Technologies, Cyber, and Innovation Conference and Exhibition: INNOTECH 2021. iHLS is celebrating the return to normal in a huge international event with delegations from all over the world. The large event provides an effective

https://i-hls.com/archives/108065

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castellex · 7 years ago

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The biggest Security & Safety Trade Expo (RISCON TOKYO) 2017, the trade show KICK OFF in Tokyo Big Sight today 11th October 2017 for security, safety, risk and crisis management; and those related market in Japan. This three days show expects to attract more than 60,000 worldwide trade visitors and 350 exhibitors, including leading Japanese security and safety manufacturers and service providers. NBC filtration system "AIR350" from the United Kingdom, which Natural Promotion Co., Ltd. sells as an agent, also became Japan's first landing. The visitor's interest concentrates on its innovative design and powerful functions, which is unlikely to be a NBC solution systems , and many questions were received. International Trade and Investment Section,British Embassy Tokyo which is exhibited at SEECAT (unique exhibition specialized in counter-terrorism equipment, services and information in Japan going on at the same time ) , also showed great interest about AIR350. Natural Promotion Co., Ltd will exhibit this "AIR 350" during the exhibition period, accumulate customer data, and use it as important data of future sales policy. The exhibition is being held at the Tokyo Big Sight until Friday, 13th Octber, Japan time.

#nbc shelter #nbc air filtration #NBC Filtration #doomsday bunker #doomsday shelter #doomsday preppers #fallout shelter #fallout bunker #survival shelter #survival bunker

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