Mission 4:

Call to Duty

Catherine's POV

Adam lead me back down the several hallways and up to a reception area. The room was sterile with it's white walls and its extremely large window. Adam and I were just about to sit down when a woman with red hair and glasses came in wearing a gray skirt and white button up shirt. She was carrying a clip board along with five manila folders. She was sifting through as she walked in. She looked up a few moments later spotting us.

"Oh good Adam you're here. And I see you brought Agent Mills also." the secretary said exposing a British accent.

"Agent Mills I'm-"

"The famous Pepper Potts." I finished with a smile. She smiled back and nodded.

"I see you did your research." she concluded walking behind a desk facing the painting behind.

"Well if you call receiving several files with every Stark Industries employee closest to Mr. Stark research, sure." I mumbled.

I then silently watched Pepper remove the painting from the wall and behind it, was a large flat touch screen. On the screen was a keypad. Pepper entered a combination and then the wall itself opened like two double doors. Pepper stepped in and urged us to follow. I looked at Adam, his face was calm and he looked as cool as a cucumber, like this was normal to him. However, for me... this was shy from normal. ALL OF IT! From the Tula's green house, to Terra's Brooklyn boxing gym, and then Aurora's strange morgue of a room. And now this. A wall opening up like a book! I was done. It was WAY too much for me. I stopped short as we walked further into the room. Pepper kept walking but Adam stopped with me. He turned and faced me.

"What's the matter?" he asked his face smothered with concern.

"This is....well.....too much. I mean from the girls rooms to THIS. It's......it's.....all too much. I don't know if I can handle this." I said frazzled. At first he just stared at me processing this. Then his face slowly melted from concerned to joking. Then he laughed. Hard, throaty, and loud. He did this for about what seemed like minutes but for only a few seconds. I looked at him annoyed as he continued to laugh. When he stopped he began to pant catching his breath.

"I-gasp- I'm sorry. It's just that you're acting as if stepped into a crime scene. We only went through a secret entrance there's nothing overwhelming about that." he said gasping

"Well, excuse me if I see this everyday." I retorted.

"Look, I'm sorry it's just that, I thought you were used to this kind of stuff. Since you worked at S.H.E.I.L.D. and all."

"Well you thought wrong." I said catching up to Pepper. "And f.y.i, I worked in the administrative part of S.H.E.I.L.D. I never saw a lab or even a office."

A few minutes and awkward silence later, we arrived in what I guess was the conference room. It was a fairly large with one long clear glass table in the middle of it. Surrounding it were about twelve frosted plastic office chairs. Occupied at the head of the table was Tony Stark. He had a glass of what looked like brandy in one hand and a file in his other. Pepper walked up to him and whispered something in his ear as he looked up and noticed Adam and I. He then waved her away and stood up..

Man, he's such a jerk. I thought as he beckoned us to him. I reluctantly shook his hand and took a seat at the table next to Adam. We waited or about ten minutes before Terra and Tula arrived in the conference room.

"You're late." he grumbled before taking a sip of his coffee.

"Ahh, sock it Tony! We had to wait for Aurora." Terra exclaimed sitting down. Tula silently twirled in the chair next to her.

"Speaking of which, where is she? She's almost twenty minutes late." Tony stood up and walked to the door, but before he could open the door, it swung open. Aurora and Haru quickly came in and sat down.

"Well, now that everyone is all here we can begin." Tony stated walking back to the head of the table. He turned and faced all of us in the room.

"There has been a couple of mysterious happenings at the EMA lab in Alphabet City. A few agents have disappeared, along with a couple of "monsters" have been seen," Tony paused shooting a glance at Aurora. "I'm sending you all tho the lab. Terra I want you and Aurora to investigate inside the lab itself, while Tula I want you to stay behind and-"

"And do the tech work, I know." Tula finished with a smile. Tony winked at her and then turned his attention to me.

"Agent Mills I want you to accompany Terra and Aurora in the lab. I'm confident that you'll do find." And with that, he walked out. Soon after Pepper handed us all folders containing information about the mission. After we all recieved our folders, we all left and headed toward the EMA Tech and Engineering Lab in the Alphabet City.