Chapter 1
It took Fury’s team four years to track her down. And another year to convince her that they weren’t the bad guys. Phil couldn’t blame her though, after it had been revealed that HYDRA had infiltrated SHIELD she trusted the organization even less. But Anna had done her research, hacked her way through SHIELDS files to make sure she actually knew what was going on. Phil had expected this though, wasn’t surprised in the slightest when she mentioned it to him on the way to her assignment.
After all she was a Technopath, the only one that SHIELD had ever heard of, which is why they wanted her so badly. She could control any technology with just the power of her mind. Ancient tech, alien tech, it didn’t matter, she could decipher and find what no one else could.
Anna fidgeted in her seat, she wasn’t great around people. She usually sat behind a screen for days on end, that didn’t really help improve her people skills.
“It’ll be fine, Anna.” Coulson said with a slight smirk on his face.
She just rolled her eyes at the man beside her and turned her head to the window to hide the warm smile that blossomed on her face. The smile faded when she caught sight of the tower. It loomed over the rest of the city, the sun reflected off the windows so brightly she could only look at it out of the corner of her eye.
“You’d think he’s compensating for something.” she quipped
Coulson’s cheeks flushed at that. “Ugh unfortunately I have heard some stories, and I can tell you he’s not.”
Anna laughed out loud at that. The idea of Coulson overhearing or actively participating in gossip about Tony Stark’s size was the funniest thing she had heard in a while. She was about to ask him for details when they pulled into the garage. She set it away in her mind for later, she would definitely be trying to find some security footage of those conversations.
Avengers tower was just as ostentatious on the outside as it was on the inside. Everything was bright, sleek, and shiny. Her brain began to buzz. She could feel the hum of technology all around her.
She breathed in deeply, the surge of data overloaded her brain. She closed her eyes and then cataloged and stored all of the machines in her head, she kept what she thought would be important, she would filter through it later, and then deleted the unnecessary things like appliances and bluetooth devices and other miscellaneous machines.
“Good evening Agent Coulson and Madam Vargas, the Captain is awaiting you in the briefing room.” an omniscient voice spoke seemingly out of no where.
Anna had heard about Tony’s personal AI. She had always wanted to get her hands on it, dissect it, pry it open and see how it worked. Her mind was already digging through layers of coding when the machine spoke again.
“Madam Vargas, there is no need to snoop, I would be happy to answer any of the questions you may have.” JARVIS spoke again.
Anna caught a bit of snark in his words and that made her grin up at the ceiling. “Sorry Jarvis, sometimes I forget my manners.”
“Quite alright. Now if you two will please step into the elevator, I believe the meeting is about to start.”
Anna walked into through the opened elevator doors, excited for what awaited her upstairs.
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“So Ms. Vargas, do you have any questions about your roll here or would you like to move on to the tour?” Steve questioned.
“Tour please, Captain. I’d like to get the lay of the land.”
“Yes, ma’am.” the Captain smiled as he gestured to the door.
Steve showed her around the lab levels, where she ran into Bruce Banner, Jane Foster, and her assistant Darcy Lewis. Bruce was shy but polite, Jane was nice but distracted with a complex formula that Anna couldn’t even begin to try to decipher. Darcy was quick witted and loud in a way that wasn’t overbearing.
They then headed to the residential floors, she met the rest of the Avengers in the main common room. They were all scattered about but were welcoming, waving or saying a general hello.
Anna was becoming more and more at ease as the tour went on. Despite what she had read, the Avengers were just ordinary people and she was no longer worried about making a fool of herself.
“I know you’re probably tired Anna, but we only have one last stop, promise.” somewhere throughout the tour it had turned into ‘Anna’ and ‘Steve’ not ‘Ma’am and Captain’.
“And where would that be?” she asked genuinely curious.
“To meet Tony. You’re going to be working with him the most so I want you two to meet formally. He’s down in his personal lab.”
Unlike the other labs, Tony’s lab was on the highest floor. When they walked in the lab took her breath away. Blue holograms floated throughout the space. Robots and machines whirred. One wall was completely made of glass, the view was like nothing she had ever seen.
“Ah, Capsicle, what brings you to my neck of the woods?” Tony asked, not looking up from one of his many computers.
Steve rolled his eyes. “I’ve come to introduce you to Anna, you’ll be working very closely with her from now on.”
Tony stopped typing and looked up from his screen.
“Is this the the hacker that Fury supposedly says is be better than all my Computer Engineers and IT Specialist combined, and myself?” The billionaire looked her up and down seemingly un impressed. “No offense sweet cheeks but no one is better than me when it comes to computers.”
Anna’s mood changed instantly. This is why she didn’t work with people. They were rude and arrogant and always underestimated her, but she had proved them wrong every single time.
Steve frowned at Tony’s lack of manners, mouth open to interject when Anna interrupted him.
“Bet.”
Tony sat up then, a look on his face she couldn’t quite decipher.
“Excuse me?”
“You heard me asshat.” she replied anger leaking into her voice. “You and me, lets have a competition, whoever cracks the code first wins.”
Tony was smiling now. “And what exactly will we be cracking?”
“Everyone connected to SHIELD has a file. Who ever finds a certain file first and is able to access it wins.”
“What do I get when I win?” Tony questioned.
“IF you win, which you wont, I’ll owe you a favor. Same goes for me, if I’m the winner you owe me a favor.”
“Any favor?” Tony grinned lewdly
Anna rolled her eyes. “Yes. Any favor.”
The cocky billionaire stood up and began to stretch.
“Okay Sweet Cheeks, we’re on. Who’s file are we cracking?”
It was Anna’s turn to smile now. “Nick Furry’s.”
Tony’s grin was replaced with a puzzled frown. “Fury doesn’t have a file.”
“Everyone has a file Tony. Some are just more well hidden than others. You chickening out?” Anna teased as she grabbed her laptop from her bag.
“No, you’re on. Cap, start the countdown.”
“Guys I don’t really think this—“
Anna pierced the soldier with a look. “Start the countdown, Steve.”
Steve sighed in resignation. “Five…four…three…two..one..go!”
Anna quickly got to work, not thinking, just letting her fingers glide over her keyboard. They’d take her where she wanted to go. She found the file in a minute and a half. Not as fast as she had liked but it was the head honchos’ file, so she had expected a slight challenge.
She glanced up at Tony, studied his face as he muttered to himself as his typed. He was handsome, sculpted facial hair that usually Anna wouldn’t be into, but for some reason on him it worked. Too bad he was a jerk.
Anna looked back down at her screen and sighed. She updated her facebook, retweeted some memes, and reblogged some cute puppy videos before she finally decided that she had given him enough time to at least pretend this had been somewhat difficult for her.
“Done.” she deadpanned, turning her screen to Tony.
The look on Tony’s face was priceless. she was pretty sure she heard Steve silently laughing in the background.
“No…how? What? That was only like two minutes? I call fowl!”
She pushed her laptop towards him. “See for yourself, it’s all legit.”
Tony scrolled through the pages, his mouth still slightly agape with shock.
“Now you owe me a favor, Tony. Best believe I will come collecting.”
And with that she took back her laptop and shoved it in her bag. “Alright Steve, I’m ready to be shown to my room.”
As they turned to leave Steve spoke up.
“Was that really necessary?”
“Yes, he needed to know that I was the superior hacker. It was completely necessary.” Anna replied, loud enough to be sure Tony could hear them.
“More like superior cheater!” Tony called.
“If I may Sir, Ms. Vargas has the mutant ability to manipulate and control technology. Therefore she was not technically cheating.” JARVIS chimed in.
The squawk of surprise that was emitted from Tony’s mouth made Anna burst out laughing.
“She’s a what? What? How? Huh?” Tony stammered to his AI.
“I believe Sir, you’re experiencing what Ms. Lewis calls a ‘mind fuck’.
She and Steve were both laughing now, and they heard another squawk of indignation right as the elevator doors shut