Thank you for the reviews! And yes, leprechauns are from Ireland sorry about the typo I'm fixing it now.
Disclaimer: see chapter 1
Chapter 3
"What do you mean we can't help you rescue Bruce?" Steve demanded, glaring at Fury from across the debriefing room table. "He's part of our team, not SHIELD!"
"Do you even know what Spectrum is?" Fury asked, oddly calm. It was probably a mask though, considering the fact that the Avengers had been arguing (well, more like screaming) with him for over half an hour.
"…no," Tony admitted with a frown. He hadn't heard even a whisper of this 'Spectrum Agency' in government or civilian files alike, which genuinely frightened him. If this Spectrum was that good at hiding from him and JARVIS, then they were a force to be reckoned with.
"Spectrum is like a temp service. Say you want someone murdered, or something stolen. Or maybe the CIA or MI6 just can't do it right. You contact Spectrum, they send a woman, she does what you want, and you pay her directly. They're responsible for all kinds of assassinations and international incidents," Clint explained, leaning against a wall.
"They send a woman? Specifically a woman?" Steve asked, raising an eyebrow. He knew that gender roles had changed drastically since the 40s, but that was a bit much. Then again, there was Natasha…
"It's a female only organization," Natasha spoke up. Think of the devil, she shall appear. "I was invited to be an agent, during my time at the Red Room."
"The Red Room doesn't sound like the type to share," Tony commented, recalling what little Natasha had told them of the Red Room and the KGB. "So, are they evil or what?"
"Depends on who's buying. SHIELD has cooperated with Spectrum in the early days, but it took a lot out of the budget and as soon as they were paid, they were out of the picture," Fury said. "They've worked with national governments, the mafia, even HYDRA."
"They worked with HYDRA?" Steve asked, shocked.
"During World War Two, yes. Some of the Spectrum agents were on the Allied Powers' side, others Axis," Fury replied.
"They're even older than SHIELD," Natasha added. "They go all the way back to the 12th century."
"Are you serious?" Tony exclaimed, slapping his hands on the table. "We're going against an 800 year old organization?"
Steve noticed that Thor was being unusually quiet, standing off to the side and letting the rest of the Avengers fight it out. "Thor, do you know anything about Spectrum?" he asked, noticing that Thor was in deep thought.
"Yes. A few Spectrum agents visited Asgard centuries ago, when I was but a child, seeking refuge from the Dark Elves. Odin granted the request, and they stayed in the palace for about four months. One of them helped Loki with his magic."
The entire room went dead silent. Thor was well over a thousand years old, which meant that his childhood was over six centuries ago. And they had magic. "So, we're going against a bunch of magical old ladies who kill people?" Tony asked, attempting to lighten the mood.
"No," Clint said flatly. "All of the agents never look above forty. We've even seen a few teenagers as Spectrum agents."
"And you're not going against anybody, SHIELD is going to handle this," Fury stated briskly. "Tensions with Spectrum have been high over the last few decades, and I'm not going to have you busting in and ruining all of it."
"But-"Steve began, but oddly enough, Tony, of all people, cut him off.
"Okay, okay, we get it. We'll let you super spies handle it," Tony declared, standing up from his chair and began pushing Steve towards the exit. "Me and Cap'll just go… train or something!"
"Tony, what are you-"Tony shoved him out the door, the inventor quickly following. As soon as they shut behind them, Fury turned to the two SHIELD agents.
"Barton, keep an eye on Stark and Rogers. Romanoff, stay here. Thor…" Fury trailed off, not knowing what to do with the thunder god.
"I shall go to Asgard, and see what the All Father knows of this Spectrum Agency."
"That works." Thor nodded, and exited the room with Clint.
"Sir, what are my orders?" Natasha asked.
"You're coming with me. We're going to San Francisco."
She raised an eyebrow. "Sir?"
"We're meeting a representative from the Spectrum agency in exactly three hours. And Ms. Monroe specifically requested for us not to be late."
-o-
"Tony, what are you doing?" Steve demanded, rather tired of his teammate's relentless internet searching/hacking. The Iron Man was currently typing away on one of his holographic computers, trying to find any and all data on the Spectrum Agency.
"Hold on… and, bingo!" Various pictures and documents popped up on the holographic screen. "This is everything on Spectrum!"
"I thought you said that there was nothing in SHIELD on Spectrum," Steve said with a frown.
"There isn't. This is from someone's secret data base, some French guy. There were a lot of firewalls around it, but not enough to keep me out of it." Tony's grin was incredibly arrogant and a little scary.
Two of the pictures under the words 'Potential Agents' caught his eye. "I know them." Steve pointed to a picture of a woman with gold hair twisted into a bun, and another woman with tanned skin and a scar over her right eye and dark hair flopped over the other. The word DECEASED was stamped across the dark haired woman's picture in big red letters.
"Who are they?" Tony asked, but he was already typing away to find out.
"Astrid O'Hare and J.J. Daring. Astrid led the French Resistance against the Nazis in Paris, and J.J. was a RAF pilot and a friend of Peggy's."
"The blonde is Astrid O'Hare, she's supposedly over six centuries old and one of the founders of Spectrum. Specializes in espionage and manipulation. She's a magic user. Currently residing in Paris. The dark haired chick is Jessica Jane Daring, only about four hundred, soldier for hire and sniper. Also a magic user. She died in 2002, sorry Cap. Wait, she has kids…" A few more keystrokes later and two more pictures popped up. It was a girl who looked about 18 with thick black eyeliner and red lipstick, and a younger girl with multicolored hair, but she only looked 13.
"They don't look like Daring," Steve commented. The older girl had grey eyes, pale skin, high cheekbones, and choppy bleach blonde hair; the younger with curly hair, freckles, and pale eyes. Both of them lacked Daring's tanned skin, dark hair, or shockingly green eyes.
"Yeah… Miss Daring here was just their legal guardian but both of them have her last name. The blonde girl is-"Suddenly the screen went blank, then the words 'GET OUT' flashed on the screen and disappeared as soon as they came. "JARVIS, what happened?"
"The owner of the database accessed the database and found that you were in it. He disabled your systems and boosted the firewalls," the AI explained.
"What percentage of us getting back in?" Tony asked.
"Less than ten, sir. He moved the database to a different server, boosted the firewalls and added new ones, and put out at least twenty decoys. It would take days to figure out which one was real, and then attempt to get through the firewalls and viruses surrounding the database."
"Dammit." Tony fell back in his chair, then sprung back up. "Wait, I've seen that blonde before." He pulled out his phone, went to the camera roll.
"Stark, now is not the time to be taking one of those self-photos…"
"It's called a selfie, get with the times Capsicle. And no, I already have one right here." He tilted the phone in Steve's direction so he could see the screen. There was the blonde girl, a little younger than she had been in the other picture, in a purple gown with her arm slung around Tony's shoulders, both of them flashing peace signs. "This is Jazmine, the daughter of the president of the DGSE. She's some sort of music genius and has an absolutely amazing singing voice. I met her at the Metropolitan Gala a few years ago."
"So the adopted daughter of a Spectrum agent is the actual daughter of the president of the DGSE?" Steve knew of the DGSE. It was similar to SHIELD, but they dealt with less of the 'alien Nordic gods and super soldiers' and more of the normal super spy type of stuff. "She has to know something about Spectrum."
"Yep. And I think I know where to find her."
Beta: Mercy
Please favorite, follow, review, etc.