Gods, I'm such a bad uploader. This one I've been working on for a while and definitely one of my favourites. Hope you like it.
Maria Hill was teaching a group of new agents about the techniques used in the field to get a mark. Agent Romanoff was on the projector in a floor length green gown, luring in a pot-bellied man. The glint of her knife was only visible to the photographer.
A pair of kids came down the corridor, chatting animatedly and distracted the new recruits- they hadn't expected to see children in the top secret agency headquarters. Seeing the shot of her mother, the girl grinned at them through the glass and burst into song, dancing down the hallway. "She'll make you take your clothes off and go dancing in the rain. She'll make you live her crazy life or she'll take away your pain. Like a bullet to your brain. Upside, inside out! Livin' the vida loca!"
She now stood in the doorway, hands clasped in a perfect imitation of Hill. Her young comrade had his head against the wall behind her, shaking with laughter. Philippa had adopted a very serious face but her eyes held the sparkle of mischief as she informed them, "The Black Widow is a very dangerous woman. Don't cross her." She met the eyes of every agent and most found themselves looking away from the twelve-year-old.
"Who are you?" One brave man questioned.
The girl sighed and dragged her now-calm best friend forward so the recruits could get a better look at him. "Recognise him?" She asked.
"That's Max Stark." A very young man said in awe. "Tony Stark's son."
"Well done." The girl said patronisingly. "Can you work out who I am? She challenged. It took them some time but eventually one woman's head whipped around to stare at the screen. Back to the girl. Screen. Girl. Screen. Girl. It was like someone watching a tennis match.
"You're the Black Widow's daughter." She said hesitantly. Now all the agents were staring at the picture on the screen, comparing it to the girl.
"Keep that one." Philippa told Hill, pointing to the observant woman. "She has potential."
Hill rolled her eyes but wrote something on her clipboard all the same. "Are you two staying?" She asked the troublemakers. They shared a glance and Pip shrugged.
"Yeah, why not." Max decided. "We were going to spy on Fury but that can wait."
Once the recruits had settled down, Hill clicked to the next slide. It was another of the Black Widow's techniques: Let them think they have her captured, get the information, escape and kill them. Hill showed a few more slides of Agent Romanoff in action and the kids were fairly quiet, Pip humming 'Livin' the Vida Loca'.
The next slide showed a completely different approach. Philippa gave a small cheer from the back off the room and twenty-two heads turned her way. "Sorry." She apologised, not sorry at all. "That's my dad."
The screen showed Hawkeye crouching on his 'nest'. Below him was a swarm of people but his arrow was trained on just one man. A man that has died from the arrow Hawkeye held to his cheek.
"Got a song for him too?" Though she sound annoyed, Maria Hill was very pleased to see the young superheroes. She lived an extremely busy life and didn't see them half as much as she would like to.
Pip had this prepared. "I'm an angel with a shotgun, fighting 'til the war's won. I don't care if heaven won't take me back-" She stopped singing abruptly once more. "He never misses. Ever." She enlightened them.
"He missed when he shot Uncle Steve last month." Max objected.
"Deliberately!" Pip retorted. "Why would he want Uncle Steve dead?"
The recruits watched this with open mouths. Hawkeye shot at Captain America? Captain America is Uncle Steve to these kids? Their day couldn't get any more bizarre.
"Do I want to know why Clint was shooting Steve?" Maria asked them.
"No." They replied simultaneously.
Maria winced as she moved the slideshow on. THE AVENGERS was the new title on a background picture of the team in action.
"Woo! Go Avengers!" Max hi-fived his best friend.
Maria gave a rare smile. "Since this is your area of expertise, maybe the pair of you could take over."
They ran to the front as Hill clicked to the next slide.
"That's the Other Guy." Max said as the green monster appeared on the screen."
Pip elbowed him. "The Hulk." She corrected. " He'll destroy anything and everything in his path unless it's family. A Seven Nation Army couldn't hold him back..."
"Captain America." Max read from the slide before adding his own knowledge. "He was given super serum to make him strong and he fought in World War Two 'til he had to land a plane in the sea and he was trapped in ice for ages."
"Ice, Ice Baby..." Pip whispered.
"Iron Man."
"He's a genius billionaire philanthropist playboy- with a suit." Max reeled off.
"I don't even know what philanthropist means." Pip admitted.
"Me either, but that's what Mom calls him." Max forgot about his audience who were having the strangest day of their lives. Maria raised an eyebrow at Pip questioning and the girl frantically racked her brain for a song.
"Shoot him down, but he won't fall. He is The-Ir-on-Man!" She sang impressively. "But to be fair his suit's more titanium that iron now anyway."
"Thor!" Philippa cheered. He was by far the most entertaining Uncle and they loved it when he could stay at the Tower.
"He's cool!" Max felt this was vital information for the new agents.
"He brings us magic stuff from Asgard." Pip explained their enthusiasm.
"Um, yeah." Max attempted to get back on track. "His hammer is really heavy so only he can pick it up and he can fly with it and make lightening."
"God of Thunder" Pip headbanged. "And rock and roll."
"And you already know about Black Widow and Hawkeye." Max finished as the last slide showed the couple fighting back to back. The recruits clapped as they gave their bows.
"Thank you, thank you." Max doffed an imaginary hat. "But we really must be going now."
"Can we use your desk?" Pip asked a blonde woman who had been taking notes. Philippa stood on the desk and in a practiced motion helped the younger boy onto her shoulders and into the air vent. A second later his arms were hanging down, waiting. With a wave goodbye Pip jumped straight up, grasped Max's forearms and was pulled up through the hole. The grate was replaced and the recruits could hear "We're off to see the wizard..." echoing through it.
"Now before I dismiss you for lunch I have a very important announcement to make." Maria told the new-comers. "You do not speak of Philippa outside this building. The public does not know who Black Widow and Hawkeye are, let alone that they are married and as assassins it is vital it stays that way. Philippa is shaping up to be the best assassin this agency has ever seen so her identity cannot be made public." Maria fixed a cold glare on each of her recruits. On a lighter note, she added. "Pip would kill the paps anyway. She gets her temper from her mother. Dismissed."
"Poor kid's got her life planned out for her." One woman commented to her neighbour as they packed up.
"Her parents tried to dissuade her." Hill told her. "They trained Pip for fighting to keep her safe but they never wanted her to live the same life they did. But Philippa wants to be a superhero like the rest of her family and she is an extremely good assassin already. As gruesome as it sounds- it's in her blood."