Chapter 5
Mia stormed down the halls of the helicarrier, heading for her designated room with no small amount of irritation.
As an anarchical journalist, Mia had made no bones about publicly expressing her disdain for the President. This wasn't a trifling, petty dislike for matters of national affairs or policy (though, those were far from trifling or petty.) On a personal level, she was much more invested in her hatred.
"What was all that about?" said a voice she had hoped wouldn't follow her. Captain Rogers. Why was it that a mental sigh always followed that name? Oh YEAH: patriotism. Ugh. Nauseating.
Part of her was berating herself for giving so much of a reaction to Fury's rather obvious jibe. Or, was it obvious? Only if he already knew her secret— which wasn't something she liked to think of, given her current circumstances.
"Miss Paxton!" For being a super-soldier, the Captain seemed to be struggling to keep up with Mia's fast clip. Maybe he really was a bit out of shape. But, no. No way. One look could disprove that theory, Mia thought. Not that she'd been looking, but observation was her strong suit.
"Yes, Captain Rogers?" she replied, forcing any annoyance out of her voice and putting on her best and most proper voice. "I'm sorry for running out so quickly, I need to fetch a few items from my room and I didn't wish to keep you waiting." She kept her quick clip down the hallway, not looking back. She could tell from the steady rhythm of footsteps a few feet behind her that he'd caught up.
"You know, for someone who prides herself on uncovering the dishonesty of others, you do a pretty poor job of lying yourself." It was a statement, not a question. Mia almost stopped walking right then. God, did he know too? No, she reminded herself. He couldn't. He only meant her reaction, not the reason behind it.
"Yeah, well. Maybe I just don't have the stomach for it," she muttered, watching her feet as she maneuvered her way through the almost silent hall. Only the sound of their feet, and the slight humming of the ship's engines on a deck far below them. She picked up her speed.
"Paxton? Paxton!" The captain caught her by the arm, carefully enough that she didn't trip yet firmly enough that she couldn't keep walking. "What is going on?" He looked genuinely alarmed, and had Mia been a less skeptical person she might have even thought concerned.
Mia held her tablet close to her chest, observing the man with keen, green eyes. "Maybe you don't know, Captain," she said slowly. "I would have thought that, having woken up in a completely new era, you would have seen some of the changes–the real changes, mind you– that have occurred in this country since you went under."
His expression hardened, ever so slightly. "I've seen a thing or two."
"I can assure you that whatever you've seen, it's only the surface of what is festering in the heart of this country," Mia said, her voice now a whisper. She swallowed. "I would know, better than most."
Rogers looked grim, his brow furrowed. "What does President Winters have to do with this?" he asked.
"President Winters has everything to do with this!" Mia hissed, foot twitching in irritation. Luckily the Captain didn't notice the golden shockwave that flew out from around her foot. But what he did notice (and didn't mention, or acknowledge) was a slight shimmer, a light array of sparks or dust that came out from the sole of the woman's heeled shoe.
Taking a deep steadying breath, Mia returned the favor and grabbed Rogers' arm, pulling him along with her. "Just come with me."
She dragged the man, literally all the way to her room— no small feat considering his size. There, she unlocked and flung open the door, dragging him in after her. "That's not going to look good on the cameras later," she admitted. "But it was necessary."
"Why?"
"Because," Mia said, turning her tablet back on, "The interface in the wall to our right had begun to record us. I don't think SHIELD needs to know about my particular dislike for our first citizen."
"What about this room?" Rogers asked, looking around skeptically.
"I've disabled all of the cameras," Mia explained, "and put them on a continuous twenty four hour loop. They're only made to track irregularities in behavior and pattern; they won't actually check them for accuracy."
"Someone's done their homework." Rogers gave her a wary look, repeating her previous words back to her. "Funny thing for a journalist to know how to do."
"It's my job to know unusual things." Mia turned back to him, completely straight faced. "Has it never bothered you, Captain, that while you were gone, the American government has elected not to elect?"
Rogers frowned. "What do you mean?"
Mia rolled her eyes. "Okay, maybe you don't know." She opened a page on her tablet, and gave it to him. "In 2004, the government announced that according to popular vote, the term limit for presidential candidates would be eliminated from the electoral process. Instead, a president could be reelected an indeterminate number of times, even if remaining in office until their death.
"Shortly after this monumental and very unconstitutional amendment, Charles Winters began his sudden, unexpected presidential campaign. Winters was previously head scientist and CEO of Wintech, a company dedicated to progressive technology and advancement in the developmental sciences—chiefly, genetics and bio-enhancement.
At the time, Wintech had close ties with Oscorp and the military. Stark Industries was its biggest rival in technology, as both supplied to the military on fluctuating contracts. Basically, whoever created the best product got the most business."
"Stark must have been thrilled," Rogers said dryly.
"Rather. Charles Winters shift to politics was unexpected—his winning the 2004 election even more shocking. No one's honestly sure how it happened. He's been in office ever since."
"Seems rather convenient," the Captain said, scanning the photos of the man in question. He was a rather good looking, middle aged man who appeared to have a blonde wife–the first lady, he realized. Often times they appeared with a delicate looking blond girl, a teenager.
"President Charles Winters and the first lady, Victoria. They have…a daughter, Clemency Winters, age fifteen." Steve noticed her voice becoming tense, as she almost spat out the names of the president and his wife. He tone softened however, on the daughter's name—and even seemed to catch slightly. "President Winters has been in office for a good ten years. Not everyone loves him, but for the most part the population is in favor of him. Each time he has been reelected he has won by a landslide majority."
"But, why?" Rogers wondered, looking at the pictures of the relatively happy Presidential family. "Why would they essentially remove the four year term? If people like him so much, why would he want to remain in office? The Presidential seat gets you a lot of negative attention. And why did he make the jump from tech to politics anyway? What's the point?"
Mia looked impressed. "Very good, Captain," she said. "Whatever can be said for your time in the ice, it certainly hasn't slowed your wit."
He smiled a little at this. "You don't have to call me Captain, Miss Paxton. Steve will do just fine."
"Okay." Mia tried to hide her surprise, and mostly succeeded. "Steve it is then. Feel free to call me Mia." She did catch the fact that his smile widened a bit more at this, which only made her queasy. She didn't need to start anything with the guy; that was for certain. Especially after the incident with Loki in the lab. "We don't know. I don't even know; which worries me, because I usually- well, not to boast but I usually know more than most people."
"So, what does this have to do with SHIELD?" the Capt—that is, Steve asked.
"Despite what SHIELD would like you to believe," she said with a sigh, "SHIELD is in neck deep with the government – mainly, President Winters directly. And given that I don't trust either of them AT ALL, with plenty of good reasons not to, I'm not exactly comfortable with being aboard this vessel." Mia sighed again, tensely this time. "There's something going on, something behind the glass, and SHIELD is right smack in the middle of it. For example, Wintech used to be strong—debatably stronger than Oscorp— and as soon as the election was over it faded into the woodwork. No one knows who's running it now, or if it even exists. Some think it does, but there's very little supporting evidence. I can't see the whole picture yet; there's too little information to go on. But I think it's safe to say that whatever it is, it's just as much of a threat as Loki and the Tesseract."
Steve looked grim, flexing one gloved hand thoughtfully. "That's…not exactly good news."
"Little is, in my line of work," Mia replied, taking her tablet back from the man. "However, with as much uncertainty as there is, I do have one concrete fact."
"What's that?"
"It all has something to do with Phase 2." She picked up her bag and shoved the tablet inside. "And I intend to find out what."
Steve gave a slow nod. "I should stop you."
"I know," Mia said, not looking at him. But she did stop fiddling with her bag, and went still. "And will you?"
After a long, deliberate pause, Steve said, "No."
Mia let her breath out, and went back to organizing her bag. "Good."
"But I will help."
Confused, Mia whirled around. "Excuse me?"
Looking a little sheepish, Steve added, "If you'll have me, that is. I have a few unanswered questions myself, and I doubt SHIELD is going to just hand me the answers." Shuffling his feet would have gone along nicely with the face he was making.
In spite of her initial urge to say 'no way' and kick him out of the room, Mia hesitated. As far as she'd seen, his intentions had been good— nothing like she'd come to expect from anything that had 'America' practically branded on it. If anything, he seemed like a really nice, transparent kind of person–though, given his past, she knew he had his issues. But still: an honest, good guy. A reliable, trustworthy ally.
She didn't really go in for friends, except for Jane and Darcy, so that would do nicely. An ally.
"Okay, Cap," she said, giving him a quick nod. "You're in."
. . .
After this announcement, she and Steve had headed back to the lab. "I have some questions for Tony," Mia had said, and Steve hadn't argued. He found it remarkable how this woman could convince some of the most powerful men on the planet to help her, with just a few well aimed words.
He could understand her skepticism, on some level. He had been feeling similarly since he'd been woken up. But seeing what she did in spite of her doubts was interesting. She was assisting SHIELD with its prisoner—though, to what end was hard to tell. But she obviously had her reasons.
Mia kept pace with Steve, instead of rushing ahead or falling behind like she wanted to. She had been shocked when he had offered to help her in her investigation. She had been expecting something like outrage or disbelief from him, considering that was what she usually got until she had proved her instincts true. Instead, he had willingly agreed to participate in snooping on one of the world's largest covert organizations.
It was possible, of course, that his true motives were to make sure she didn't find out too much. But Mia was nearly perfect at discerning human expressions, and his was only one of sobriety and determination. Much how she felt, in fact, so for the time being she decided to let him be and allow him to help out.
Though what help a superhero could be on her quest for truth, she wasn't exactly sure.
They walked into the lab to find Tony being Tony–that is, poking Bruce Banner in the side with an electrified prod.
"Really? Nothing?" He was observing the scientist with an intense look that seemed to be a little disappointed.
"Hey!" Steve said sharply, and Mia jumped just a little. "Sorry," he apologized, momentarily setting a hand on her arm to steady her. He was still glaring at Tony.
"Its fine," Mia said dismissively, brushing his hand off. He looked at her for a moment before marching up to the table.
"Are you nuts?" he demanded.
"Jury's out," Tony snarked, straight-faced. "Hey, cat eyes. I was wondering if you'd show up." He caught sight of what she was holding. "Ooh! Gimme your tablet a minute." Seeing Mia's 'no way in hell' expression, he added, "software update, c'mon. You're the first person to get it."
Damn his persuasiveness. Mia came around the table and reluctantly handed the Starkpad over, watching closely as Tony installed the files. "No funny business, mister," she said, nudging him.
"Um, double-crossing the world's best journalist? I'm not an idiot."
"Senseless flattery doesn't suit you, Tony."
"Oh admit it already, you love me."
"STARK," Mia said sternly, but Tony was far from finished. He chuckled at her obvious irritation and turned back to Banner, who was focusing on his work. "You've really got a lid on it, don't you? What your secret? Mellow jazz, bongo drums, a huge bag of weed." He gave Mia a fake serious look. "You didn't hear the last one."
"Right," Mia said, rolling her eyes.
"Is everything a joke to you?" Steve asked, annoyed.
"Funny things are," Tony said, pointing the prod at the super-soldier.
"Threatening the safety of everyone on this ship isn't funny," Steve said seriously. "I mean, Mia's a civilian!" He gave the scientist an apologetic look. "No offence, Doc."
"It's alright," Banner acquiesced. "I wouldn't have come aboard if I couldn't handle pointy things."
But Tony, being the intellectual hawk that he was, picked up on something. "Hold up: she's Mia now?" he asked skeptically. "And suddenly, you're protective of her? Something's changed." He looked at Mia, assessing. "And you, didn't protest." A small smirk began to form on his lips as he handed the tablet back to her. "I see."
Mia rolled her eyes, and forced herself not to blush. "I can protect myself," she said firmly, not looking at the Captain to her left. "We're not here to goof off with you, Stark."
"But isn't that what we normally do? I mean, just a minute ago…"
Steve looked ready to strangle him.
"Look," Mia said, leaning closer to the table to get a closer look at the spear. "Save the comedy for later, alright? Time and place."
Tony made a tsk-ing noise. "Stress getting to you already? SHIELD is a killer, I tell you." He pointed at Banner. "Take him, for example. You're tip-toeing, big man. You need to strut."
Banner shook his head bemusedly.
"And you need to focus on the problem, Mr. Stark," Steve insisted. For once, Mia was grateful for the backup. Normally, she just had to endure Tony's crap until he grew tired of it and got to work. Having a hero available to enforce your point had its perks, apparently. Somehow Steve managed to remain relatively calm and firm, when Mia would have socked Stark in the arm by now. Though, the tension in the room was suffocating.
"You think I'm not?" Tony argued, picking up a silver pouch of snack food and opening it. "Why did Fury call us in? Why now? Why not before? What isn't he telling us? Including, but not limited to, the real reason he needs an anarchist. I know I'm not the only one who didn't buy his little speech about Mia observing and assessing the prisoner. I mean, really?" He popped some of the snack into his mouth. "I can't do the equation unless I have all the variables."
"No kidding," Mia muttered, much to Steve's surprise. "It was all I could do not to laugh out loud right there on the bridge. How stupid does he think I am, seriously."
"You think Fury has another reason for bringing you on board," Steve said, eyeing her with a certain level of concern.
"Yes, but that's off topic," Mia corrected him lightly. He stood a little straighter, leveling a flat stare across the table at Tony. "Tony's being slippery."
"Do you think Fury's hiding something from us?" Steve asked Tony.
"He's a spy," Tony said, noshing on his snacks. "Captain, he's "the" spy. His secrets have secrets. Mia knows that better than anyone." Mia tipped her head in an acknowledging way, while Tony pointed at Banner. "And it's bugging him, too."
Mia gave Banner a surprised look. He sighed. "Uh…I just wanna finish my work here, and…"
"Doctor?" said Steve, eyeing him carefully.
The scientist paused for a moment. "'A warm light for all mankind', Loki's jab at Fury about the Cube," he began.
"I heard it," Steve agreed.
Banner pointed at Tony. "Well, I think that was meant for you." As if offering a reward for his insight, Tony handed the packet of snacks to Banner. He took some and passed it back. "Even if Barton didn't tell Loki about the tower, it was still all over the news."
"The Stark Tower?" Steve said, looking a bit appalled. "You mean that big ugly–" Mia elbowed him in the ribs, at the exact moment Tony gave him a look that said 'really?' Steve saw Mia giving him a similar look, but with a faint smirk on her lips. She also appeared to be having a tiny coughing fit. "…building in New York?" he finished. If it were anyone else, Mia could have sworn that he was being stubborn. As it was, Steve had been laughing. Now he was just being stubbornly unimpressed.
"It's powered by an arc reactor, a self sustaining clean energy source," Mia explained, her smirk long gone.
"That building will run itself for what, a year?" Banner asked.
Tony shrugged in agreement. "It's just the prototype. I'm kind of the only name in clean energy right now," he admitted. "That's what he's getting at."
"So why didn't SHIELD call him in on the Tesseract project?"
"What are they doing in the energy business in the first place?" said Mia, brow furrowed. Intuition told her that this had something to do with (or possibly was) Phase 2.
A few months back, when she'd been investigating into the inner workings of the Oscorp Corporation, she'd come across similar discrepancies in a particular program: Genesis. What had supposedly been discontinued years before was somehow running in the background of Oscorp's servers, almost like a virus, or hidden file. She had taken it to Tony, who had helped her hack the file—only it was an alternating encryption, which according to Tony meant that in this case, the file was a dummy. Her other leads on the subject eventually led her to a dead end—a tidy dead end.
While Mia was still investigating Oscorp on the side, her SHIELD Phase 2 leads had become much more interesting—which had lead her here, of course. This situation reminded her of Genesis, in the simple fact that there weren't enough loose ends. It had been cleaned up too well, hidden away from prying eyes.
"I should probably look into that, once my decryption program finishes breaking into all of SHIELD's secure files," Tony quipped, the note of 'I am made of sheer awesome' not easily missed in his tone.
Steve frowned. "I'm sorry, did you say—"
Mia sighed impatiently. "Yes. Yes, he did."
"What, and you're not happy about that, miss 'I love everybody's dirty secrets'?" Tony snarked at her playfully.
"I'm a political journalist, Stark," said Mia, more stiffly than usual. "Not a gossip columnist. I search for the truth behind the lies, not the juicy tidbit behind the façade. Know the difference please."
Tony shrugged. "JARVIS has been running it since I hit the bridge," he said, moving on. "In a few hours, I'll know every 'dirty secret' SHIELD has tried to hide. Blueberry?"
Steve just looked sort of miffed at this, ignoring Tony's random fruit offering. Mia, for her part, was relatively excited at this bit of news. No doubt Tony would let her take a peek at the files as well, and that could help her a lot. Maybe coming aboard the carrier wasn't such a bad thing, after all…
"Yet you're confused about why they didn't want you around," Steve deadpanned, looking at Stark unimpressed. Mia rolled her eyes, turning her attention back to her Starkpad. This could go on for ages.
"An intelligence organization that fears intelligence?" Tony scoffed.
"Historically speaking, not awesome," Mia finished, giving Steve a dubious look. He seemed a little disappointed with her response, but settled on a neutral look in her direction when she turned down Tony's attempt at a high five. Not that Mia particularly cared about what others thought about her opinions—only a select few had that respect from her, and so far, Rogers wasn't one of them. His volunteering to assist her in snooping was a step in the right direction, but if he was trying to get on her good side, he had no idea how long of a journey he had just started.
"I think Loki's trying to wind us up," Steve said bluntly. "This is a man who means to start a war, and if we don't stay focused, he'll succeed." His expression grew serious, and Mia almost laughed aloud as she considered that this was probably his 'captain' face. "We have orders. We should follow them." Strike that, it definitely was.
"Following's not really my style," Tony said, tossing a handful of fruit into his mouth. "Nor Mia's. You don't even want to know what happened the last time she was given direct orders from her editor." Steve looked at Mia out of the corners of his eyes.
She shrugged. "A series of rather scandalous emails may have been leaked online from his account," she said matter-of-factly. "But they were genuine, and he was an asshole. I liked his wife. Still like her now. I was glad she took over the editorial after the divorce. Deborah understands my need to freelance."
Steve ignored this. "And you're all about style, aren't you?" he said to Stark.
Tony frowned in mock consideration. "Of the people in this room, which one is A, wearing a spangly outfit, and B, not of use?"
If it were possible for Captain America to have a 'fuck you' expression, Mia thought, this would be it.
"Steve, tell me none of this smells a little funky to you," Banner interjected. Steve looked at him, then back at Stark.
"Just find the Cube," he said, and went for the door.
Mia stood there, tablet clutched to her chest and an amused look on her face. "This has been…interesting," she said, smirking at Tony. She saw Steve pause outside the door, and turn as if waiting for her.
"Ah look, your new boytoy is waiting for you," Tony said sarcastically, eyebrow quirked. "How chivalrous."
Mia scowled. "Shut it, Ironass," she bit out, and deliberated a moment before following the captain from the room.
"Ooh, nice one. I like it better than Ironhead—though both do point out my best physical attributes."
"Whatever." Mia didn't look back. "Doctor Banner, if he gives you hell just flick him in the ear. Works every time."
"Good to know," she heard Banner say quietly, just before the door swung shut behind her.
Out in the hall, Mia found Steve waiting and still looking pretty pissed.
"Just—ignore Tony," Mia said, not sure what else to say. "He's an ass most of the time. You really only need bother listening when he's saying something useful—otherwise, I think you two are just going to keep butting heads."
"You two seem to get along well enough," Steve replied, just the faintest tinge of accusation in his voice.
"Yeah, well. We both use sarcasm to keep people at a safe distance. It's a similarity of language, more than anything—and I am friends with his girlfriend. So yes, we keep things chummy."
Steve said nothing to this, just grimaced thoughtfully as a group of agents shouldered past them. After a moment he grabbed her carefully by the arm and tugged her down the hall, into a spare room.
"If we keep this up people really are going to get the wrong impression," Mia muttered to herself.
"That might not be bad, considering the way Loki was talking about you." Startled, Mia froze. "That is, unless you're comfortable with him calling you a 'mesmerizing enchantress'."
Swallowing dryly, Mia turned to face him. "How did you know?"
"It wasn't hard to guess," Steve said, viewing her concernedly. "You're probably the only woman on board that could be called a…well, you know." He cleared his throat…was that nervousness, Mia wondered? If so, that was kind of adorable, coming from him—stop it, Mia. Captain America is your ally, and is decidedly not adorable.
"When did he see you?" Steve asked, arms crossed.
"I was in the lab, with Bruce," Mia replied, trying to replay the event in her mind. "I was discussing how each of us had been rather forcefully inducted into our SHIELD assisting positions, when Loki was brought past us on the way to the holding cell. I was…" she paused. "I was out of sight, at first, but when he saw me…" She hugged her tablet closer. "It was like he lost it. I've never seen someone so surprised to see me in my life—and I've done my fair share of sneaking up on people."
"Are you saying Loki recognized you?" Steve sounded alarmed.
"I don't know!" Mia said, flustered. "I mean, how could he? I've never seen him before in my life!"
Steve looked grim. "It doesn't mean he hasn't seen you," he replied. "This could have something to do with why SHIELD brought you on board in the first place." He looked at her seriously. "You need to be careful."
"Like I said, captain. I am able to take care of myself." Mia looked up at him resolutely. "I may not be in a tight spandex suit or seem intimidating, but I am more than capable of handling my current situation."
Steve looked her over thoughtfully. "I don't know," he said slowly. "You seem pretty intimidating to me." He gave her a slight but genuine smile.
"Have you told anyone?" Mia asked, trying to hide how nervous she was. She clenched her fists in an effort not to lose control—he didn't need to know all of her secrets.
"No. But I think Fury, and possibly Romanoff know as well."
"Great." Mia ran a hand over her hair. "Just what I need right now, Fury being more nosey." She sighed. "And frankly, Romanoff is pretty freaking alarming."
"If either of them give you trouble…" Steve began.
"They won't. Have you seen me and Fury? I've got it covered." Mia gave a slight laugh, and shook her head, pretending to be more confident than she felt. "I should prep for my interrogation with Loki."
Steve grew serious again. "Right. Good luck with that," he said, giving her a tight nod. "I've…got a few leads to track down myself."
"Phase 2 related?"
"Probably."
"Okay." Mia frowned in confusion. "Let me know what you find."