OK, so this is the second story in what I'm currently calling the 'More-than-she-appears' series. Darcy is a borderline genius in this, so if you don't like the thought of an intelligent Darcy for some reason, don't read. Poor Fury.
Anyway, as should be plenty obvious since I'm posting this on a fanfiction site, I do not own these characters or have any rights over any marvel material. This is just for fun.
- Illusinia
Tick. Tick. Tick. That was the only noise in the conference room aside from some breathing and the occasional shifting of weight as people adjusted themselves in their chairs. The meeting in question was supposed to have started five minutes ago. Only Fury hadn't arrived yet.
Darcy had to hide her smirk behind a yawn as she carefully eyed the rest of the people in the room. Stark sat across from her, looking bored as he tried to balance a pen on his nose. Hawkeye sat besides him, apparently irritated that the party hadn't started yet. Coulson looked just as irritated, though it was laced with worry, and with good reason. Fury was never late. Except today. Again, Darcy had to hide her grin.
Jane sat beside Darcy, scribbling away on a notepad, with Thor on Jane's other side trying to read over her shoulder with limited success. The poor man looked beyond confused. Steve Rogers and Bruce Banner looked a little more patient, apparently not phased by this delay. Natasha looked the same way. Though she could be bored out of her skull and Darcy was convinced you'd never know it if she didn't want you to. Creepy woman.
Erik was there too, though he was engaged with some papers in front of him, much like Jane. The man had been giving Darcy the creeps recently, ever since he found that book on her desk which she had skillfully lied about. Erik was the LAST person Darcy wanted to know about her intelligence. He was so old-school that he'd start trying to stick Darcy on projects that she had no interest in, if not trying to assign her ones of her own. Yuck.
Loki was the only marginally interesting person in the room. He was sitting on the other side of Darcy making interesting shapes with magic. The poor man looked beyond bored and she felt momentarily bad for delaying the meeting like she had. However, she knew as soon as Fury showed up everything would get much better.
Angry footfalls echoed up the hallway, matching the weight and force of Fury's own furious steps. A small smirk tried to play at the edge of Darcy's lips and she had to duck her head to the iPod look-alike in her lap. Show time.
And Fury didn't disappoint.
The man swept into the room with all of the power he usually exuded, as if he were a powerful lord everyone should bow to. Except today he looked significantly less powerful.
Where Fury's clothing was normally immaculate, today his shirt, pants, and jacket were singed black and his one visible eye was twitching madly as if he would explode any minute. His fingers were also blackened as if he'd stuck his hand against a live electrical socket. The sign almost made Darcy laugh. Almost.
Beside her, Loki raised an eyebrow and a smile played at his lips. Though the man didn't glance once at Darcy, he did shift his hand to tap her knee twice. It was a sign of interest.
If you think THAT'S interesting Loki, you haven't seen anything yet.
Carefully keeping her face neutral, Darcy hit a button on her 'iPod' and watched as the button on the conference phone Fury had just pressed shocked him. The man jumped back, cursing and shaking his hand. Apparently his fingers were a little tender.
"Commander Fury?" questioned Steve carefully. "Are you alright sir?"
"Fine Rodgers," muttered Fury in response. "Just dry air."
Steve raised an eyebrow at Fury but nodded, and watched as the commander was again shocked by the conference phone. "Son of a bitch!"
Apparently, the man's cool was fading fast.
With furrowed brows, Steve reached over to press the same button on the conference phone that Fury had pressed. Darcy quickly pressed a button of her own, and Steve successfully pressed the button to turn the phone on without any mishap.
"Geez Fury, what are you today? A Tesla coil?" joked Stark as he leaned back casually.
Fury glared at Stark and roughly jerked the phone back towards him only to be shocked again when he tried to touch yet another button. Cursing, Fury finally yielded control of the conference phone to Coulson, who much like Steve was able to operate the phone without mishap.
The remainder of the meeting passed without too much in the way of mishaps, except that whenever Fury touched anything electrical it shocked him. By the end of the meeting, Stark and Loki were barely containing their laughter and both practically bolted from the room when everything was done. Darcy rose with Jane and Thor, also turning towards the door. However, she spotted Fury and Coulson bent over the conference phone, examining the device and apparently trying to get inside it.
Casually, Darcy glanced down at her iPod and pressed a button. A faint pop could be heard from inside the conference phone just before a faint wisp of smoke escaped the edge of the case. Stark and Loki both had to clap their hands over their mouths and run from the room before their laughter could break free. The sight of Coulson and Fury jumping backwards in a rather ungraceful manner and dropping the conference phone rather hard on the ground was a funny sight.
Following Stark and Loki, Darcy found them halfway down the hall, nearly collapsed in laughter. Jane and Thor looked a little concerned for both men, but Darcy just started chuckling along with them.
"OK you two hyenas, get up," ordered Darcy, a smirk on her face and twinkle in her eye. Loki managed to straighten and help Stark to his feet as Steve, Natasha, and Hawkeye all exited the conference room. Natasha made a quick fleeing motion with her hands and all members of the little group hurried away from the conference room before Fury or Coulson could exit and question them.
Natasha and Hawkeye left the group at one hallway, heading towards the command room to examine some data from their most recent mission while everyone else proceeded to the lounge. As soon as they entered, Darcy hit another button on her iPod and slid it into her pocket as Loki and Stark collapsed yet again into a laughing mess.
"Thank you, thank you," accepted Darcy with a mock bow. "Good to see you guys enjoyed that."
Stark, gasping for breath slightly, just nodded before finally taking a deep breath and managing to speak. "That was awesome. Gotta give you props for that one Darc, especially for confusing Fury like that."
"How did you keep the talking device from shocking Rogers?" questioned Loki, his own breathing back under control.
Darcy smirked and showed them the screen she had been using during the meeting. "I slipped in a device that I can activate and deactivate at will. It produces a minor charge and shocks whoever touches a surface to which it's attached."
"And you controlled it through your music player?" asked Thor, finally seeming to catch up with what was happening. Jane looked shocked.
Darcy snickered. "This isn't actually my iPod big guy. Its a little gadget I built for my personal use. And because I programmed it, I can reprogram it for any purpose I wish andit will never run out of power unless my wireless generator fails."
"You've been shocking him all day?" exclaimed Jane. All Darcy did was grin. "Oh Darcy..."
"He is so gonna kill you when he figures that out you know," pointed out Stark as he moved to drop into his preferred chair in the room.
"Oh, he already knows its me," dismissed Darcy casually. "He just doesn't have any evidence that I was behind this."
Stark looked concerned. "What about the shorting device?"
"They've all been destroyed."
Loki raised an eyebrow. "'All'? How many of these devices did you plant?"
Darcy shrugged. "One in every electronic device Fury owns. If someone takes any of the devices apart, it'll just look like there was a short. Plus, everything will still run and I caused no actual damage to any of the devices. Though, the conference room phone may be toast but that's entirely Coulson and Fury's fault for dropping it."
Thor looked confused. "What does grilled bread have to do with the conference communication device?"
"Its a turn of phrase brother," explained Loki. "I believe she means that the device may be inoperable now."
Darcy nodded. "Bingo."
Stark snorted. "OK, now go back to the part where Fury knows it was you. You're not concerned why? And how does he know exactly?"
"Again, he has no evidence," explained Darcy with a smirk. "One can't be friends with the God of Mischief without learning a few tricks after all. Besides, I pretty much told him. Using electricity that is." For a moment, Darcy began to giggle. "Seeing him walk in singed from my little trap while still trying to act poised was completely worth the pain of actually pulling this off."
Jane looked concerned. "What do you mean you told him with electricity?"
Darcy smirked, mischief in her eyes. "I set up a series of electrical prongs which, once he was in his office, activated and spelled out the words 'Payback is a Bitch' in the doorway of his office. He knows it was me. And he knows I did it because I'm sick of his manipulation. If he wants to play dirty, I'll play dirty. And he'll loose."
Loki chuckled and hugged Darcy. "Wonderful bit of mischief there Darcy. Thank you for informing me that I should attend the meeting today. It was worth it. Alternatively, I feel the need to ask, what about this trick was such a pain? It seems relatively simple, from your description. At least, nothing beyond your skill range."
"It wasn't the set up that was really a pain," dismissed Darcy. "And it really is a simple prank. The pain was building the shorting devices. I used to have a whole set of calculations for the amount of voltage a human could take and how to make sure no more was disbursed than that. Unfortunately, Erik stole my calculations book and I haven't been able to get it back yet. So I had to redo all the calculations. It took 4 hours to do that on top of redesigning the devices. Plus, I hadn't finished my little toy yet," Darcy held up her home-made control device, "so I had to finish this and rebuild my wireless power distributor which took an additional four days because, again, Erik has my book."
Stark's jaw was nearly laying on the floor. Jane looked just as shocked. However, Loki and Thor were unaffected because neither really understood what she was saying.
"It took you four days?" exclaimed Stark.
Darcy just shrugged and blushed slightly. "Well I had built one before, but I had to remember and refine the calculations. And most of that four days was spent getting my hand-held working, so its really not that bad."
"Darcy, I think he was surprised it only took you four days," muttered Loki, reading Stark's posture for his otherwise oblivious friend.
"Oh," muttered Darcy, still looking embarrassed.
Loki just chuckled and kissed her temple. "Come on, lets see if we can find some place to hide from Fury for a bit. Just in case he decides to come after you." With that, Loki popped them out of the room.
Stark blinked a few times before he seemed to finally regain his voice, though he definitely sounded dazed. "That girl scares me."
"You're telling me," muttered Jane. "And you don't even work with her."
Stark just nodded vaguely. "Do me a favor Foster. If Darc ever ends up truly pissed with me, let me know so I can hide."
"Something tells me there is no place you could go that you'd be safe," replied Jane with a shake of her head.
"Damn straight!" exclaimed a voice that sounded like Darcy, before it and a laugh which sounded suspiciously like Loki's faded away.
"We're all doomed," moaned Stark before he collapsed backwards and began laughing again.