"AJ...AJ wake up!" Morgan says into my ear and I groan. It was morning which means that we had to deal with the events of last night.
"I'm up," I say with a grunt. I look around and wince when the sunlight streams into my eyes. Peter and Harley were both already up.
"Sorry but we would let you sleep but weirdly enough, you know more about our situation than we do," Peter says with a guilty smile.
I shrug, "It's fine."
"So…," Harley starts, "where exactly are we? I mean I know we're in the lower east side but why here?"
"I grew up around here. I have a friend who will probably help us."
"Probably?" he asks.
"Um… all you guys friends can't," I shot back.
"He's got a point," Peter pipes in.
"Sorry I'm just a little on edge," Harley says.
"Aren't we all?"
Peter points to Morgan, "I don't think she is."
Harley and I both look over to where Morgan is playing in some old things.
She notices and races over with something in her hand.
"AJ look at this necklace! Isn't it pretty?" she asks holding her hand out.
I look at the necklace and my heart starts to beat increasingly fast. It was old and hadn't been worn in years but I immediately recognized it. It was a heart shaped locket.
"Where did you find that?" I managed to croak out.
She pointed, "Over in the corner that says 'Dani'. Is this her's?"
Peter and Harley shrug while I nod. I keep staring at the necklace.
Dani! You dropped your necklace! Dani?...Dani!
"Hey AJ. You okay?" Peter asks shaking my shoulder. I snap out of it.
"Uh yeah. Fine." Peter and Harley are still looking at me concerned.
Morgan was now sitting in Harley's lap twirling the necklace around her fingers.
She looks at me, "Do you know Dani? Does she live here?"
I swallow, "I do...I mean did. She didn't live here. This was our play spot."
"You used to play here?!" Morgan asks surprised.
I nod, "Yeah. See all the drawings? I did most of them."
Morgan stands so she could see them better. Peter and Harley follow suit. They hadn't done much exploring last night.
"Wow!" Morgan says stunned by the numerous drawings and paintings.
"Yeah. AJ you're really talented," Peter says.
I shrug, "Thanks."
Morgan stops admiring and looks at me again, "But who are 'Carmen' and 'Jarvis'?"
Peter and Harley's heads shoot up, "Where does it say 'Jarvis'?"
She points to the corner I'm sitting in.
"Carmen is one of our friends and I'm Jarvis."
Both boys turned to me surprised.
"Your name is Jarvis?" Peter asked shocked.
"Middle name. That's where the 'J' in AJ comes from. Why?"
"Tony had a program named JARVIS. Just A Rather Very Intelligent System. What does the 'A' stand for?"
"Antonio," I answer.
Peter looks at me skeptically, "So your first name is the spanish form of Anthony and your middle name is after one of Tony's programs? That's strange."
I shrug, "I don't know. My mom hated Tony Stark so I doubt she would intentionally named me after him. I think she said she got Jarvis from the name of some family friend of my dad's."
Peter seemed pretty satisfied with the answer but Harley asked, "What happened to your dad?"
"Probably dead. Never met him and my mom never said."
Harley nods and Morgan interrupts us.
"Are Dani and Carmen the friends that are going to help us?"
"Carmen is. Dani can't...she umm…"
I struggled to get the words out and looked to Peter and Harley for help.
Peter crouched in front of her, "Hey Morg, you know where we said Uncle Steve went?"
She nods.
"Well Dani's living with him."
"Oh," she says understanding washing over her little face. She turns to me, "I'm sorry."
I smile, "It's fine Morgan. She would've liked you."
She nods and I clear my throat.
"We should probably go find Carmen. She'll be able to help us get a message to Tony. Hopefully. Come on. She doesn't live to far and we need to get there before she heads to school."
We leave the building the way we came in and blended into the crowd of people. I limped down the sidewalk towards Carmen's house. I knew she and her mom would be leaving soon.
After maybe fifteen minutes walking we arrived to the more residential area of town. We approached a white house and I gestured for them to follow me.
Peter looks at me skeptically and whispers, "Are we breaking in?"
"What?! No, I'm just going around back so no one recognizes me. Plus her room's back here. Come on!" I whisper back.
We went through the alley and I opened the back gate. I smile. Old habits must die hard.
We near the back window and we can hear the music playing from inside. I motioned for them to stay low so no one saw them. My smile turned into a full on grin when I recognized the song. It was 'Put Your Records On' by Corinne Bailey Rae. Carmen's and Dani's absolutely favorite song. They used to make me listen to it over and over again. I used to want to smash that CD.
I motioned for them to stay quiet and I took some pebbles and started to throw them on the window sill. After about thirty seconds I heard the song cut off and the window open.
"You go ahead, let your hair down," she said.
"Sapphire and faded jeans. I hope you get your dreams. Just go ahead, let your hair down," I answer.
Harely and Peter both give me weird looks but I decide to ignore them.
"Well, Jarvis it's been a while. How've you been?" Carmen answers and I can hear the smirk in her voice.
"Alright. I um… need your help."
"Always. I assume I'm to get my Mom to leave and you and whoever's with you want to come in?"
"That would be nice," I answer.
"Give me ten minutes."
After about ten minutes we hear a car leave and the back door opens. Carmen is standing there with her stereotypical smirk. She has long dark and curly hair. She's average height and had tanned skin. She's also my best friend.
Peter, Harley, and Morgan are staring as I stand up. Her dog, Acero was next to her wagging his tail.
I limp over to her and we do our handshake.
She gestures toward the yard, "How many people did you bring with you? And when am I gonna get an explanation?"
"Two other teens older than us and a five year old. When we get in the house."
"And you didn't mention to them I was blind, huh?" she says as she walks back into the house.
I shrug, "Didn't think it was relevant," as I follow after her.
Pepper and I arrive at the compound early this morning. I don't know if they're back from their mission yet but I hope so. We walk in just as Rhodey walks in. It's weird seeing him as the only iron wearing one on the team. After the snap most of us og's retired. Clint's on his farm, Cap died after living a fulfilling life, Thor's off world, and Nat's off doing something with Fury after she came back from the dead. Bruce still occasionally helps with the team but he's not as strong as he used to be. Sam, Bucky, and Wanda walk in behind him.
Rhodey looks like he's about to greet me cheerfully but his eyes scan my face and he asks, "What's wrong?"
Pepper and I had talked about easing them into our theory but I blurt out, "Someone's trying to kill my children."
"What?!" Rhodey practically shouts and the other's faces become alarmed.
"We think," Pepper amends while giving me a look, "someone's trying to harm our kids. FRIDAY was hacked."
We launch into a story of what we know happened.
"...in conclusion our kids are missing and being hunted and my AI is broken. Questions? No great! I'm gonna go try to fix my program," I finish and turn on my heel to leave the room. I know Pepper can deal with the rest of the Avengers and Rhodey will end up following me.
I get to the lab and immediately log on to my computer and log into to Friday's complex code. I open another window in order to run one of my debugging software.
I can slowly feel my pulse rising as I begin to realize what they did. They managed to hack deep enough to Friday in order to change her recognition software. When she saw the guys come in she recognized them as Pepper and I. They also messed with all the other security protocols. I can literally feel my blood boiling.
"Tony?" Rhodey asked interrupting my thoughts.
I spun around, "They've messed up my code and security protocols! If I hadn't shut Friday down they could have gotten into anything she ran."
Rhodey nods, "Did they get into anything else?"
I quickly scan the stuff that had been accessed and I am surprised, "No. They didn't access anything else besides the facial recognition. No state secrets or anything that could've been worth something."
Rhodey looks just as surprised as I felt, "Really? Nothing?"
I nod and stare puzzled at the screen, "So what do they want?"
"HOW CAN YOU LET A COUPLE OF KIDS OUTSMART YOU?!" I yell at the two idiots kneeling in front of me with their arms up as shields.
"They...they're Starks. The must be geniuses or something," Bafoon one stumbled out.
"Yeah...yeah we'll get 'em next time. We'll be prepared."
I glare, "You better or your gonna end up like the last ones. Now get out!"
I watch as they scramble away from me. I pick up a picture on my desk and say, "You're gonna pay."
I laugh as I relish in the thought of what I'm going to do to Tony Stark.
