Bogey
Maria barged into the control room that was in charge of overseeing the middle east at Shield headquarters. “Does somebody want to tell me what the hell is going on?” She yelled. At the moment she was the highest ranking agent in the room.
“We are not sure ma’am.” One of the analysts said from their station. “One minute the 10 Rings were rolling through Gulmira unopposed, the next minute everything they had in the area was being torn apart.”
Maria walked over to the analysts and looked over her shoulder at the monitor. “No one should have been cleared to go in there.” Maria said to herself before she said to the room. “Listen in on all military channels and see if they have a clue as to what is going on. I need answers now people.”
The room got to work trying to find any answers for Maria. She went to the back of the room and surveyed the room, waiting for any information.
Suddenly, one of the analysts spoke up. “Agent Hill! I’ve got something with the Airforce. Two Raptors are moving to engage an unknown bogey they say originated from Gulmira.”
“Put it up on the main screen. Until we know otherwise, this will be our focus.” Maria ordered as she put a headset on.
“Putting the Airforce channel up now ma’am.”
“Whiplash One, what is it?” Came the voice of the Airforce controller.
“I've got no idea.” Whiplash One responded.
“Do we have satellite footage of this?” Maria asked the room.
“We’re working on it.” Came a frantic response.
“Work harder!” Maria ordered.
“Bogey just went supersonic. I got a lock!” Came the voice of Whiplash Two. “Wait a second. Bogey deployed flares!”
“No way that's a UAV.” Whiplash One called.
“This can’t be happening.” Maria said angrily. “Where the hell is the satellite?”
“30 seconds.” Came a response that Maria growled at the response.
“I think bogey's been handled, sir.” One of the whiplash pilots said.
“Fuck!” Maria slammed her headset down. She knew Fury was going to be absolutely livid when he found out that the Airforce took out whatever that was before they could identify it.
“Satellite overhead!” An analyst called out.
“Start searching. Maybe we can find a wreckage trail.” Maria ordered.
“On your belly!” Came the voice of Whiplash One, causing all the eyes in the room to snap up to the monitor. “It looks like a man!Shake him off! Roll! Roll!”
The room watched in horror as the unidentified aircraft flew off of Whiplash Two and tore through the wing of Whiplash One.
“I'm hit! I'm hit!” Came the pilot's frantic call.
“Get me a list of every asset we have in that area. If anyone but us gets their hands on him he will be dead within 12 hours.” Maria ordered.
“Do we alert the Airforce?” Someone asked.
“Not until we have the pilot.” Maria said, watching the screen. “Where the hell is his chute?”
“Whiplash Two, do you see a chute?” The Airforce controller asked.
“Negative! No chute, no chute!” The pilot called out
“My chute's jammed!” The downed pilot called
“Sir, I've got a visual on the bogey.” Whiplash Two called.
“I want that thing identified before that Raptor sends it to hell.” Maria ordered walking up to the monitor. “What the hell are you?” She murmured.
The room watched as the craft flew toward the falling pilot and freed his chute. Before flying away.
“Track its trajectory. We need to know who this belongs to.” Maria called.
“We’re going to lose contact any second ma’am. This thing is moving way too fast.” No sooner as that was said, the craft jumped off the screen.
“Alright listen up.” Maria said to the room. “I want half of you to start rerouting satellites over whatever that thing was’ last known trajectory. We might get lucky and spot something. The other half of you are going to start going over all the footage we have on it, frame by frame. We need to know what it was and who it belongs to. Get to work.” Maria ordered.
As soon as she finished speaking, Fury entered the room.
“Please tell me we know something, Agent Hill.” He said to her.
“What we know so far is an unidentified bogey took off from Gulmira after destroying most if not all of the 10 Rings hardware in the area and was engaged by two F-22’s. The bogey is capable of supersonic flight. Before being forced to eject, Whiplash One said that it looked like a man before he was downed.” Maria filled the director of Shield in.
Fury’s head snapped to her at the last part. “A man?”
Maria nodded. “It’s what he said sir.”
“What about the downed pilot?” Fury asked.
Before Maria could answer, one of the analysts spoke up. “The Airforce already has a chopper en-route. We don’t have anything close enough to help.”
“Good.” Fury said before he motioned Maria follow him to the back of the room. “What are you still doing here?” He asked her quietly once they were out of earshot of everyone else in the room.
“I’m not sure what you mean sir.” She replied.
“Maria.” Fury’s use of her first name had her on edge, he rarely ever used it. “You’ve been in this building for four days straight looking into the Rings. You need to go home for a little bit.”
“Sir. If you’re worried about me sleeping…” She was quickly cut off.
“Sleeping in your office doesn’t count. Maria, take it from someone who knows this life all too well, you need to develop a life outside of this building.” Fury told her. “You are dismissed for the next week. Go home, eat, shop, go to a movie, do whatever. You need a break.”
“But sir…” She began before getting cut off again.
“This isn’t a punishment. You need this.” Fury told her as he placed a hand on her shoulder.
“Yes sir.” She reluctantly agreed.
Fury went back into the control room while Maria left to head back to her office to get her things before she headed home. She was so close to proving without a shred of doubt that her brother was 100% innocent. Just as she reached her car in the parking garage, her phone rang. Looking at the screen, she saw it was Rhodey that was calling her.
“It's not a great time Rhodey. Can I call you back tomorrow?” She asked as she fumbled with her keys.
“Do you know what your brother has been up to?” He asked her in lieu of a greeting.
“Besides giving everyone around him high blood pressure, no I can’t say that I do.” She answered as she finally got into her car and turned it on.
“Yeah you can say that again. I just had two F-22’s have a run-in with his latest creation.” Rhodey said.
Maria’s blood ran cold. It had to be a coincidence. Tony couldn’t possibly be that stupid. “Please tell me this wasn’t over Afghan airspace.”
“What? Yeah it was. How did you…” Rhodey sputtered out before realization dawned on him. “Noooo.”
“Fuck! We monitored that whole situation the second that bogey left Gulmira. What the hell did he make?” She stopped. The one pilots words were suddenly echoing in her head. “Tell me he wasn’t in whatever that was.”
“Wish I could but he told me he was.” Rhodey said.
“Shit. Fury is all over this now and I’ve just been sent home for the next week so I can’t run interference for the dipshit I call a brother.” Maria threw her car in drive and headed to the airport. The private plane that Pepper had on standby while Tony had been missing was long gone so she would be flying commercial. “Alright. I'm heading to the airport now. Let me know if you hear anything from the Airforce that I should know about. I’ve got to call Happy and have him pick me up.”
“Good luck with that, he’s in New York with Pete.” Rhodey informed her.
That was news to Maria. She really needed to find out what Tony was up to. “Why is Peter in New York with Happy? He’s supposed to be in school.”
“I can’t answer that. All that I know is he put Pete on a plane with Happy the other night and sent them to the Parkers.” Rhodey replied.
“Alright I’ll figure something out. Just keep your phone on and let me know if you hear anything we should worry about.” She told her old friend.
“You got it crayon eater.” He said teasingly as he hung up.
Once she was off the phone with Rhodey, she called Happy and after a few veiled threats the plane that took Peter and Happy to New York was sent to pick her up in Washington before taking her to California.
Once the plane landed at the Stark Industries airport, she took Happy’s Rolls that he had left and headed to the mansion. She had tried calling her brother multiple times while in the car but each time Jarvis told her that he wasn’t available and no threat worked on the A.I.
Soon enough she was pulling up to the house. She barged through the front door only to be greeted by Jarvis.
“Good evening Ma’am. Sir is not to be disturbed.” The A.I informed her as soon as she stepped into the house.
“Initiate ‘Maria is smarter than Tony’ override Jarvis.” Maria ordered the computer without breaking stride.
“Sir is in his lab.”
“Figured that.” She said as she went down the stairs.
As she neared the bottom of the stairs she noticed shards of broken glass all over the ground. Quickly taking her gun out, she slowly continued down and could see the glass walls were the source of the broken glass. As she reached the bottom, she could hear her brother grunting in pain.
“Be gentle. This is my first time.” Tony's voice traveled down the hall. “I designed this to come off, so... Hey.”
“Please, try not to move, sir.” Jarvis instructed.
Maria was met with a sight that absolutely threw her for a loop. There was her brother, encased in a metal suit, suspended in the air while robotic arms disassembled the suit. “What the shit Tony?!? What the hell is this?!?”
Tony’s head as well as the robotic arms snapped to Maria. Tony had a deer in the headlights look. “Let's face it. This is not the worst thing you've caught me doing.” Tony told her, trying to defuse the situation but judging by the look on his sister's face, it didn’t work.
“Are those bullet holes?!?” She yelled at him, inadvertently raising her gun.
He leaned his head to the side, trying to get away from the loaded gun pointed at him. “They are and I would really appreciate it if you didn’t add to them.”
Maria rolled her eyes and holstered her pistol. “I wouldn’t shoot you accidentally.”
“That’s how 99% of all accidental shootings start.” Tony quipped.
Maria smirked at him. “Jarvis, initiate ‘Runaway’ protocol please.”
“Yes ma’am.” The A.I complied.
Tony looked at his sister incredibly confused. “What did you do? When did you get protocols?”
Maria, still smirking, said, “You left me alone with Jarvis. Now get that off and get your ass upstairs.” Her anger was starting to return. “I have questions for you and I’m not leaving until I get answers.” She turned around and went upstairs to wait for him to join her.