Chapter 50: Under the Radar


Tahiti Wing


Pepper Potts was in the surveillance room as usual, keeping track of incoming and outgoing missions and generally making sure that the minutiae stayed off of Coulson's desk. But this… this was definitely something that belonged on Coulson's desk.

She'd never seen anything like this on any Tahiti mission. A total blackout, completely unexpected, right after the Capitol newscast started to gloat that they'd shot Kate and were well on their way to catching Logan. It was a very inconvenient time to stop knowing about what was going on.

"What is happening?" she asked no one in particular as, almost on cue, both Peter and Kurt burst into the room with concern painted all over their expressions.

"I'm not sure," Tony said as he started trying to hack into the feed, looking more and more perplexed the further he got. "It should not be doing this," he muttered half under his breath. "Our comms are out on this feed too — nothing in or out."

"The Capitol had something like that," Peter said with a frown, while Kurt seemed to be hovering between Pepper and Tony. "Logan got it for Skye…"

"That's a weird present," Tony muttered.

"It was supposed to help with the TV spots," Peter muttered, leaning over Pepper's shoulder as he looked over the incoming data.

"How long is this supposed to last?" Kurt asked irritably. "Where are they?"

"You know more about this gizmo than I do, apparently," Tony said in a huff. "You tell me."

"I'll get Skye," Peter offered. "She's the one that took it apart…" He glanced at Kurt's frustrated expression and shifted into gear, though he almost needn't have bothered, since Skye was close by and also interested in what all the fuss was about.

But when she got there, she didn't look nearly as concerned as the other kids. "Oh, yeah," she said with a little nod. "That — that's just to make sure no one can track them on their escape." She glanced at Kurt in particular and gave him a tight smile. "It just means Logan's trying to cover their tracks."

Kurt glanced at her but didn't look nearly as reassured as she was probably hoping, since he could see that she wasn't exactly as relaxed as she was trying to look. "So how long will it last?" he asked slowly.

"Shouldn't be much longer, honestly," she said. "He doesn't need that much time to duck their stupid cameras. They've got nothing on Fitzsimmons' dwarves."

"And if they've developed something like the dwarves?" Kurt had to ask.

"Then we'll see where Logan and Kate are in the next few minutes," Skye said. "One way or another."

But when the Capitol feed did come up — along with Pepper's feeds — Kurt had to let out a breath of obvious relief when Logan and Kate weren't on the newscasts. Someone had captured an image of the two of them — Logan carrying Kate bridal style as she was hanging onto his shirt - but that was about it. None of the commentators knew what had become of the two SHIELD operatives.

There was nothing useful on the Capitol feed aside from the continuing commentary about the long-lost relationship or whatever nonsense the Capitol newscasters were spinning that had both Kurt and Skye rolling their eyes hard. So, Pepper switched it off as she went to the SHIELD channels instead.

"They see what they want to," Skye said with a little glare.

"They're just trying to find a way to screw with you guys," Tony agreed. "The ones that know better are just buying into it to be mean." He couldn't help but smirk as he added, "Nice visual, though."

"You're hilarious," Skye said, shaking her head.

"Admit it; you were one of the swooning fangirls too," Tony shot back.

"Shut up!" she shot back, pushing his shoulder quickly before she let her voice drop. "Just that one time…"

He grinned even wider at that. "Knew it."

She couldn't help but smile with him even as she punched his arm. "Get back to work."

It wasn't long after that when the radio call came in for May. They'd reached a different checkpoint than what they'd agreed to — one a fair bit closer for her to get to and totally in a different direction from where the Nova Corps were looking. "Make sure that you bring morphine," Logan added before he simply signed off.

Kurt was half-holding his breath when he heard it and glanced toward Skye. "Head to the hangar?" she asked, and he nodded wordlessly and simply rushed as fast as his aching body would allow him to.

"Those two…" he muttered once they were nearly there, still shaking his head.

"Yeah, well ... if you knew where that checkpoint was, you'd realize that it was a very good thing," Skye replied, trying to soften the blow a little. "We had no idea that Gamora was in that district, let alone that area. I swear."

Kurt glanced her way and let out a long breath. "I believe you," he said quietly. "Or I would be knocking down the director's door this very moment for sending them out there alone."

"It was Coulson that sent them out. I saw the intel before it hit his desk," She leaned toward him with a whisper. "I was up late. Got sidetracked looking for something else entirely."

"That's a common problem for you?" he teased.

"You have no idea," she replied, looking out into the hangar with her arms crossed, just waiting for some sign of life.

Kurt was halfway pacing by the time the jet returned to the hangar, despite Skye's reassurances that this was the easy part, getting back. And he wasn't exactly helped by the fact that medical arrived in the hangar to attend to Kate once the door was open.

Still, he almost couldn't help but smile when he saw Kate. She was definitely riding the morphine high and broke into a girlish giggle the second she saw Kurt, reaching out with one hand for him even as medical got her rolling out.

"Lookit that, Trickshot, I didn't even have to go find him for you," Logan said as she got a hold of her Elf.

"I am so, so-o-o-o-o spoiled," she agreed, still giggling as she half snuggled into Kurt's arm, since that was the first thing she had hold of — and they were moving.

"Why is that?" Kurt had to ask.

"Got my Elf, got to shoot Nova Corp. Got my guy they sent me after. Except for being shot, I just can't miss today," she giggled. "And I can't feel a thing so…"

"She got a solid dose before I set her down in the plane," Logan said — half to Kurt, and half to the medics.

"Mmhmm. He carried me, and I shot anyone who tried to sneak up on us. Bang!" Kate grinned with the fingers of her left hand in a gun.

"There weren't too many of those after we got moving good," Logan added — this time entirely to Kurt.

Kurt nodded and put a hand on Logan's shoulder. "Thank you for getting her out," he said gratefully. "We saw the footage from the Capitol…"

"What footage?" Logan asked with a frown. "I thought I killed that."

"Before," Kurt explained. "They had cameras on Gamora, and they caught the two of you — they were gloating about it, too."

"After they shot her then," Logan said, looking irritated.

"Yes." Kurt matched Logan's look of irritation. "They were talking about the two of you…" He let out a derisive noise and shook his head. "The same old nonsense. It never changes."

"You think they'd come up with something new," Logan agreed, though he didn't look nearly as tweaked over it as Kurt was. He'd heard it far too much to even really have it ping his radar.

Kurt shook his head, still irritated, though he glanced at Logan a little closer now that he was sure Kate would be alright. "Logan," he said with a frown as he got a good look at his uniform. "You should go with Kate — you've been shot too."

"Yeah, a few times. Armor caught it, I'm fine," Logan replied in an almost bored tone. "Probably bruised to high heaven, but I'll live."

Kurt shook his head. "You should get yourself checked out all the same. Or you'll have Kate coming after you on crutches to back me up on this," he teased.

"I'm not concerned," Logan replied. "Go watch over your busted up hawk," he advised. "I'll go fill in whoever wants to hear about it."

Kurt frowned his way for a moment, then let out a little huff. "Fine. Be sore all day. It would serve you right," he waved him off.

"Simmons will get to me before I step out of briefing," Logan called back to him.

"She can't resist the poking," Skye teased as she caught up to Logan and looped an arm through his to kiss his cheek.

"Anytime it's over ten minutes, I know it's got to be comin'," he agreed.

She smirked at him as she walked with him to Coulson's office for the expected briefing. "Rotten way for me to find out you're stepping out on me on national TV," she had to tease him — just because she didn't get many openings to tease like that.

"Well, I don't like to be the bearer of bad news," he said without missing a beat. "Obviously, you didn't do your research well enough. That was all over the papers forever."

She chuckled and kissed his cheek again. "Yeah, I read something like that. Still not sure I believe it." When they got to Coulson's office, she leaned in to give him a proper kiss and then grinned. "Try not to get too wrapped up."

"Won't be long," he agreed before he stepped into the office where both Coulson and Fury were waiting.


May 25

Tahiti's Research and Development Department


"Took you long enough to get here," Tony said with a frown when Skye finally made her appearance in his labs. "Most of the team can't wait to get a hold of my presents when I make such a valiant effort to build them something special." His tone sounded almost hurt — but that certainly wasn't the actual case. He was just being a pain — as usual. Playing up himself because he wanted the accolades and attention.

"Yeah, I had to finish what I was working on. Sensitive juncture. You know how that is. Working on a laptop instead of something with more beef …" She rolled her eyes as she pulled the chair next to him out. "Three cycles per frame, but at least it's rolling all on its own so I don't have to babysit it. What's up?"

"I have a present," Tony said with a sparkle in his eyes.

"Be still my heart; should I have brought back up?" she teased, which of course just got a wider smile from Tony. Picking on Fitz like this was always met with a sputtered, shy response, but Tony was an entirely different ballgame.

"Oh no, no, no … I'm pretty sure you can handle this one alone," he teased.

She narrowed her eyes for just a second, and a crooked smile quirked the corner of her mouth up. "Is this because my boyfriend stabbed you to death in the Games?"

Tony's good humor slipped — but only for a second. "Yes, that is part of it, but that's not why you don't need back up." He hit a button that made the glass in the labs shift to opaque — a more high-tech version of the roll-down privacy barriers that Fitzsimmons had in their lab.

"I want to make sure this stays secret," Tony said in an almost husky voice as he waggled his eyebrows for a second. She watched him with an expression of disbelief as he pulled out a box from under his work bench and put his hand out to take hers. "I have been reliably informed that super secret sneaky weapons are a great bonus to have when doing battle with over confident nutbags." He pulled out some very streamlined-looking gauntlets — shining metal, articulated at the wrist so that it would cover her hands up to the knuckles.

"I saw you come in with the kids after the kidnapping fiasco, and it occured to me that you needed something sneaky if you're going to run with Wolverine. This … is a new trick of my own design, of course. For the most part, you can pull your sleeves over them … the long part of the gauntlets that go over your forearms are designed to absorb the worst of the vibrations, but — and I have tested these — set the vibration right. Lay your hands on it, and you can disassemble anything from a padlock to an entire structure." He tipped his head to the side. "Get it right when you hit someone square or grab a limb, and you could probably shatter bones or explode their heart."

She stared at the new weapons on her arms for a moment with raised eyebrows. "That … actually sounds like some pretty nasty firepower." She looked up at him with alarm. "And I have to try not to … shatter bones ... or explode hearts?"

"Hey. I just make the weapons. It's up to you how you use them, but Coulson and I agreed that if you're going to go in with the Tahiti teams, it's only fair that you get something custom like they all have. I mean, look at it," Tony continued. "Cap has a shield, Parker and Miles have web slingers now so they can be actual Spider-men. Kate and Clint have a whole arsenal of custom trick arrows. I've even got my suit ... which … admittedly I have yet to field test, but Coulson and Fury both are a little itchy right now about anyone flying around impersonating a bogey, so that will just have to wait until we need it." He let out a breath and leaned further back in his chair. "Face it. The people around you all have heavy duty-fire power. Even your boyfriend has freakin' claws in his arms, and have I mentioned exactly how disturbing that little detail is? That … Fitz can't feel good about that now."

"He doesn't," Skye said, "I mean, he's kind of coming to peace with it — but only because Logan's making a point to make the most out of them—"

"Which is also very disturbing," Stark finished. The two of them sat in silence for a moment before Tony urged her to give her new weapons a try. "I've got an area set up for testing. I want to make sure you know how to work them and that you're at least semi-comfortable with them before you leave."

"Do I leave them here in the meantime?" she asked, surprised when Tony shook his head.

"You won't always have time to get through my security to get your gear, so like everyone else — keep it where you can grab it fast. After the base change and all that noise with Hydra screwing up our first 'out of the Captiol' base for us? I'm maybe a titch paranoid."

With that, Tony took her into his testing room, and the two of them spent a good long time fine tuning her gauntlets. When they were done, she left in a bit of a daze, shocked at how quickly she'd taken to them — and how it really took little time before she was comfortable enough wearing them that they really didn't bother her.

Still though …. Before she went to her laptop that had been whirling and working in her absence, she made a stop to her room, where she carefully tucked the new weapons away where no one would see them. He did say to keep it secret, she thought to herself.