Author's Note: Oneshot. Plot Bunny. Couldn't help myself. If I get a good response, it might just turn into a twoshot. Please review and tell me what you think? ~Jazzy
Hacker by Jazzy Pseudonym
"I need in Lietz," Coulson muttered, tapping his foot. He waited outside of Stark Tower, impatiently holding his phone.
"I'm working on it!" On the other end of the line, Ella Lietz grumbled, "Give me a second."
"I don't have a second. I need in before Stark-"
"I'm working on it!" She snarled, furiously typing away on the electronic keypad in front of her. Her thin-rimmed glasses were perched on her nose, the computer screen's glare reflecting on them. A small curl of black hair fell into her face, which she smoothed behind her. Three large computer screens, two keyboards, and one mouse were arrayed on the desk in front of her. A large cup of coffee was placed on a coaster, carefully positioned as to not spill on the keyboards.
The first screen displayed a series of binary and code rapidly scrolling past, the second displayed blueprints of the Tower, another screen showed security footage. Coulson stood near the front door of the Tower, frowning visibly. "Just go in, I'm taking care of JARVIS now."
"I'm not using my access key until I know that I won't be stopped once I'm inside," he explained with a sigh. "I'm not going to waste my time."
"Just call Stark, see if he'll let you in the easy way," Ella bit her lip, trying another series of numbers into the decoder. A loud beeping noise interrupted her thoughts. She glared at the screen, eyes narrowed. Hacking into a genius' security system was far from easy. In fact, it was the hardest job she'd ever pulled. Even harder then breaking into the National Bank's system. At least people of normal intelligence created those.
"Don't you think I've tried that?" Coulson sounded exasperated. "He's refusing to talk. Stubborn a-"
"Try it again. Say you're insisting or something," she suggested, scanning through the blueprints and drawing up a quick summary of JARVIS's data information- at least as much as SHIELD possessed. This was far from an ordinary computer. Not only did she have to hack her way into security, but she had to fool an artificial intelligence.
"He's forwarding all my calls through JARVIS."
"I'M WORKING ON IT," she said loudly, throwing her hands up in the air. "This isn't easy, I doubt you could do it…" Ella pouted. The stress was getting to her head.
"That's why I'm a field agent, and you're the tech department. They don't expect me to do it." Coulson retorted. Then she got an idea. Ella's eyes widened and she quickly entered another line of text. The screen flashed red and hummed gently.
"I'm in."
Coulson nodded on the screen, and entered the building. He waved down the secretary with his key card and stood near the elevator. He waited expectantly for Ella to open them. Apparently using the community elevator wasn't good enough for him. He had to use the one heavily secured elevator. She pressed a few buttons and was met with happy results.
"Elevator doors opening… now. Stark's on the top floor," Ella muttered to him.
"JARVIS is getting nosy…" Coulson walked into the elevator. "This is Stark's private elevator. Not some usual elevator, he's wondering what's going on. And I can't get through to his cell."
"Gimme a second." Ella grinned. "Okay, your call is in. Now. You're live with Mr. Stark. And almost at the top floor."
"Thank you…" She smiled at the gratitude. No one ever took the time to thank Ella, she was the behind-the-scenes, the girl no one ever seemed to notice. But that was good. It meant she was doing her job right.
Suddenly all three screens flashed blue. Her systems were being overridden. JARVIS was fighting back.
Security protocols have been breached. Security measure 254 activating… flashed on her screen. "Shiiiii-take mushrooms," she grimaced, avoiding a swear (everything was being recorded for SHIELD purposes), "Coulson, I thought you were with Stark and everything was good, JARVIS is getting up in my business now!"
"Not my problem," he said smugly.
"My systems are being breached! This is a bit of a big deal!" Ella protested.
"I'm going to have to let you go now; I'm with Stark and Potts."
"You mean you're-" The line cut off. "Ooooooffff course. Leave me with the problem." She scrambled to regain control of the screens, which were still flashing JARVIS's warning. She quickly typed a few things and scrambled the mouse around. Finally she reached over and simply unplugged the computer. The screens died.
"Problem solved."
She counted to ten and replugged it back in, fingers crossed, to find the warnings gone. Instead a message flashed up on her desktop.
"Nice try SHIELD, good job getting that far into my systems. For once. –Tony P.S. reevaluating my security" she read aloud. "Oh no he didn't." She really shouldn't be all that offended, she'd only been on the job for a couple of months, and this was her first mission involving Stark. No doubt she was much better than any other agent that had been put on the task of hacking Stark Tower. She quickly traced the source code of the message and typed her own reply with a laugh.
"Chew on that, billionaire," she laughed. She rebooted the left most computer, since a few bugs were slowing it down. JARVIS had bugged off. She stood up, stretched her legs, and walked into the break room. She grabbed a donut, chewing on it contemplatively. Yech, sprinkles. She spat a few of them out and threw the donut away, grabbing a regular glazed one.
"I'm headed back to base soon, then I have to board a quinjet." Coulson's line turned back on and she located him to be leaving the Tower. Once she had properly sat down back in the tech-cave, Coulson knocked on her door, surprising her.
"That was fast…"
"All systems operational?" He asked. Ella turned around to look at the Agent.
"I managed to fend off JARVIS," she said, polishing her glasses on her shirt.
"Impressive. I knew you would fit in well with SHIELD," Coulson managed a businesslike half-smile. He had the right to be proud, he had originally recruited her into SHIELD. He was her commanding agent as well, even though he was more field-oriented.
"A compliment from Agent Coulson?" She gasped dramatically, placing her hand on her chest. "Amazing! Someone, take a picture- this may never happen again! Call the record books!"
"Sometimes I forget how young you are."
"Is that some sort of creepy old-dude thing that atypical father-figures say when their protégés act their age?" Ella snickered. "I'm sixteen. Which is not that young. I'm old enough to hack into Stark Tower."
"Old enough to hack into banks and steal money. Old enough to hack into the white house. Old enough to be the most renowned hacker of our time." Coulson frowned. "Your reputation precedes you. You're a criminal."
"I'm reformed. I joined SHIELD, didn't I?"
"We're still keeping an eye on you," he warned.
"No, you're keeping two eyes on me. Fury's keeping one eye on me," she laughed at her own little joke. Coulson looked a bit bemused but gave her a stern glare afterwards, silently chastising her.
"I'll need you to work on tracking Loki now, I don't think we'll have any more problems with Stark," Coulson said smoothly, picking up the coffee mug and examining it. "You really should lay off the caffeine." He added nonchalantly, walking out of the room, with the mug.
"Yeah yeah, whatever," she chuckled before going back to work.