A/N. Here am I again! Same day, different chapter. This one is kind of all over the place because I had messed it all up and then rearranged it, added and deleted certain parts, and then changed it some more and... yeah. Sorry. Hope you still enjoy :D Also, as for the German last chapter, I got it off of Google Translate so it's probably horrible and if you want the translations, you're not meant to know them which is why I didn't give them ;) And as for Clint's age and b-day in this chapter, Marvel Wikia said that Clint was born January 7th (which is ironically the same day as this chapter... mind blow!) in 1971. ... that would make him like 42. So I took the liberty of making his birthday September 15th and having him be 23. Hope you don't mind ;D

CHAPTER XVI

Later that day, in Philadelphia, Pepper marched into the meeting room, clipboard in hand, ready to squash that Mr. Green under her gorgeous red heels. She was anxious to get back to the Tower. She had heard about the whole story from Bruce and Betty over the comms. She and Thor had of course wanted to come home immediately, but both of them knew that they couldn't leave when there was still work to be done.
So on Monday the seventh of January, Pepper strode into the room with a purpose. She would be going home today. She would make sure of that. Stark was going to buy Arrow if it killed her.

Half an hour later, Stark Industries bought Arrow Incorporated. She shook hands with a frowning Mr. Green, feeling smug and accomplished, before rushing off to find Happy with Thor in tow. She bundled everyone onto the Stark jet and they were off to NYC again.

Another half our later and she was walking up to the Tower with Thor carrying four of her bags and Happy lugging behind her mini-suitcase. The chauffeur/bodyguard had been rather un-happy to have been replaced by a Thunder God and then being shown up by said Thunder God. But he kept his mouth shut, knowing that Thor and Tony (who'd sent the God) both meant well.

When the red head reached the doors and they did not open, she walked right into them. "Ow!" she cried out, holding her nose.

"Lady Pepper, are you alright?" Thor asked worriedly, stepping forward.

She turned around and waved him away. "I'm fine, I'm fine." She removed her hand and looked down at it. Blood. Great. "I've got a nose bleed. Figures." She turned back towards the doors. "Jarvis? Open up please."

"DNA scan required," the AI stated without even addressing her.

"DNA scan? What for? You know who I am and you know who they are." She gestured to Thor and Happy behind her.

"Please look into the provided retina scanning device to your right," the computer provided. Pepper warily allowed her eyes to be scanned. There was a little bit of beeping before JARVIS answered. "Thank you. Welcome home Ms. Potts. I hope your trip was enjoyable?"

"It was, thank you," she replied as she stepped into the lobby. "Where are all the workers?" she asked, noticing immediately that no one was milling about with paperwork or coffee. "And what's with the DNA scan all of a sudden? What happened?"

"Agent Barton has activated the Mandarin Protocol."

"Ohhhh… now I get it. Wait, WHAT?" She nearly jumped in shock. "He locked everyone out of the Tower except for the Avengers?"

"It would seem so."

"But that means that the workers are all at home and can't come into work until further notice!"

"That is correct."

"But we just had this huge business deal! We have to get started on it right away but how are we supposed to do that when we don't have a workspace?!"

"May I suggest asking Mr. Stark? He was the one who suggested it."

"Of course," she muttered under breath. "Alright. Well it seems the Stark employees are getting more than the day off I just gave them. More like a week. Where's Tania? May I see her?"

"She is in the range with Agent Barton , Doctor and Mrs. Banner, and Mr. Banks."

"The shooting range?"

"Is there another range in this Tower I am unaware of?" JARVIS answered sarcastically.

Pepper rolled her eyes. "Thanks Jarvis." She turned around to face the two men still standing behind her with her stuff. "You guys can give those back now. I can take them to my room." She held her arms out for them.

"Nay, my Lady. I shall carry them to your chambers for you."

"Me too," Happy chorused.

Pepper smiled sweetly at them. "You guys are the best."

They beamed at her and they all packed into the elevator. Pepper got off on the floor with the shooting range after grabbing several tissues from the lobby to absorb the blood from her nose and the others continued up to her room to drop off her stuff. When she entered, she saw everyone in different rows, wearing goggles and headsets, aiming guns at the round targets roughly twenty fifteen meters away. Clint stood off to the side with his hands behind his back, rocking back and forth as he watched.

"Alright, now just relax your shoulders, open both eyes at the same time, if possible, try to keep your face neutral, and use only your finger to pull the trigger."

Four simultaneous shots went off in the room and Pepper instinctively covered her ears. Clint nodded approvingly. He walked up to the adjacent wall, looking at it thoughtfully for a few moments. He turned to face the others. "Nice shot Graham, I'm impressed. One ring off from dead center."

The younger Banks sibling grinned and blew the end of his gun. "Tons of practice with paintball and laser tag."

Clint walked over to the next range. "Not bad for your first try, Betty. Remember to keep your grip firm and to try not to let your hands jerk too much."

The brunette nodded in understanding and lifted her goggles upon her head so that she could rub her eyes tiredly

Clint eyed the next range warily. "Bruce… where's your bullet?"

The doctor rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. "Uh… in the floor." He pointed to a spot near the archer's feet. Clint stepped back to see the bullet lodged in the wooden plank.

"What happened?"

"I… I just… when I looked at the target I… saw a human being. I chickened out at the last second."

Clint nodded and hummed. "Understandable. We'll have to work on that." He made his way over to the last range. The bullet had hit the ring two away from the edge of the circle. "Well it's better than Bruce's."

"Shut up," Tania mumbled. Clint approached her while the others began to disassemble and reassemble their guns as Clint had taught them to do while Pepper watched on.

He smirked before he began signing. Fine. No talking.

She rolled her eyes but put her gun on the table next to her to sign back. I know. I'm bad.

Not really. You've got potential. I can see it. Eyes like a Hawk, remember? All you need is a little practice. You caught on to Nat's combat training pretty quickly.

She sighed. I guess.

Come on. Let me see you line up your shot so I can figure out what's wrong.

She raised her gun, arms straight out in front of her. Immediately he saw the problem. "You're too tense. Relax your elbows and soften your eyes. Don't squeeze the gun too hard." He nudged her feet into the proper position. "Obviously in a real fight you won't have as much time to think about this kind of stuff and may not even be in a standing position, but this is just the basics. You remember the two things that stick up right? How you're supposed to aim and look through them."

"Yeah."

"Good. Now try again. Take a deep breath."

She obeyed and lined up her shot. She closed her left eye before he could stop her and pulled the trigger. They both looked at the target. The fifth ring from the center.

"Better," he complimented. "We'll work on it. We've got nothing better to do."

More gunshots sounded as the others fired off their second shots as well. Clint continued watching and criticising, teaching and improving. It had been his idea to teach Tania how to use a gun, seeing as how she didn't even know how to take the safety off yesterday. This evolved into Betty learning for self defense as well, which brought in Bruce and since Graham didn't want to be left out and you never know if someone might want to kidnap Captain America's girlfriend's brother, he had joined in as well.

When the second round of gunfire was over, Pepper removed her hands from her ears and looked up. She watched as the archer himself began to criticise each of their shots again.

When she spotted Tania, her fears bubbled down and she knew that the brunette was fine. As she walked over to her friend that she considered her sister, her three inch stilettos clicked and clacked against the hardwood floor. They ironically sounded like gunshots in the eerily silent room, catching everyone's attention.

"Pepper!" everyone exclaimed. They all removed their goggles and headsets before approaching her.

She was greeted with hugs from everyone and smiled warmly at them all. "Hey guys. Did you miss me?"

A cacophony of affirmative responses reached her ears and she laughed lightly. "How did the meeting go? Did we get it?" Tania asked immediately, eyes wide.

Pepper paused dramatically, her mouth open. Everyone leaned in closer. Just one more second… "Yes," she breathed. Cheers erupted in the room and she felt the exhaustion and stress from the past weekend lift from her shoulders. It had all been worth it. "So what are you guys up to?"

"Clint's teaching us how to shoot," Graham filled in.

"Mind if I join you?"

"Not at all," the archer reassured. "Grab some gear and a gun and choose a range."

Because Tania was on the end, Pepper chose the one next to her and began to take apart and put back together the gun as fast as she could. Tania watched with wide eyes as she managed to do it in ten seconds flat before lining up her shot. It took her less than ten seconds to pull the trigger. The bullet landed in the ring closest to the center.

Everyone gaped. She smirked at their shocked looks. "Dad and I used to go to the range all the time and just do this for hours," she explained. "It was one of our main ways of bonding."

"Nice," Clint complimented. They high-fived. "Alright everybody, let's do it again! From the top!"

After lunch, Pepper and Tania had opted to work together in the aquarium (for a change of scenery) on their respective portable electronic devices (laptops, blue tooth, phones, tablets, SMART boards, etc). They isolated themselves on that floor and brought two mugs of steaming hot beverages (Orange Pekoe tea for Pepper and black coffee for Tania) and settled in for basically the entire day. Four hours later and they were still there.

They spent their time doing as much work as they could since the other workers had basically been banned from their workspace. They also caught up and made sure the other was okay and that the meeting had gone well, etcetera, etcetera.

Meanwhile, Clint and Graham had been trying to get them to come out since they started, but they had both refused. Mutually deciding that it would be fun to prank them out of their work, the two of them began to formulate a plan.

Ten minutes later, they entered the aquarium, barely hiding the matching grins on their faces. Another five minutes later with no luck of finding them, Clint and Graham began to sign to each other (which had been discovered while formulating their plan).

Do you think they would be able to hear us if we talked? Graham asked.

Probably. But better safe than sorry.

How do we find them? At this rate, it will take us forever!

Calm down Mr. Impatient. I've got an idea. Clint ran and jumped, grabbing the top of the extremely tall fish tank with one hand. Holding in a grunt, he swung his other arm onto the ledge before pulling himself up onto the top. He lay on his stomach and scoped out the scene. He spotted the "Business Partners" lounging in a wide open space not too far from where Graham was standing, surrounded by notebooks, folders, calculators, scattered papers, and over half a dozen electronic devices.

He leaned over the edge so that the student could see his hands while he signed. I see them! They're just around that corner.

Graham nodded and Clint hopped down soundlessly to join him. "There you guys are!" The former exclaimed. "Betty wants to talk to you guys in the lounge."

Clint nodded along. "Yeah, she said something about her honeymoon?"

Pepper and Tania shared a look before sighing and closing their laptops in perfect sync. When the two of them eventually made it the lounge, Clint and Graham opted to remain in the elevator to watch the show. The taller of the two switched on the fan as Pepper and Tania searched for Betty.

As the fan spun faster, it began raining goo. The two women squealed and dove for cover as the fan shot out globs of unidentified substances at them. Clint and Graham couldn't hold it in anymore – they laughed their butts off.

They were practically busting their guts, chortling while the two business women were seething and glaring at them. Pepper was mourning her hair that had been so nice just seconds before. She sniffed it. "Is this… sun tan lotion?"

Tania whirled on her brother. "GRAHAM BANKS!"

"You'll never catch me alive!" He jammed the button to close the doors just as Tania ran for him. He cackled when the elevator was shut and they had gotten away. He and Clint fist-pumped.

Most people tended to forget just how young Clint actually was. He was the same age as Graham: twenty-three. And yet, Graham was a University Student and Clint was master assassin turned SHIELD agent turned super hero. He'd seen and done a lot of things no one should have to do, but there was always that immature boy that had never gotten the chance to come out during his childhood lurking just under the surface.

"That was awesome!" He said.

"I know! But if I know my sister, then this isn't the end."

"What do you mean?"

"Dude, you don't know? We just started a prank war."

Sure enough, the girls were quick to retaliate. They quickly recruited both Betty and Bruce in an alliance (Happy had gone home) and used them to lour Clint, Thor (whom they had gotten to first), and Graham into rooms opposite each other before leaving them there. They quickly tied a rope between the two of them (some of the only rooms in the entire Tower with actual knobs) and snickered as they were loured out, only to play tug of war with each other when they couldn't open the door.

Okay, so maybe they were just super bored with work and were looking for a distraction and willing to sink to their level for some fun, but hey, it was a good distraction. Plus, Pepper's hair was ruined. That, of course, meant war.

They guys (minus Bruce) surprised them when they put on their shoes and found Lego blocks digging into their skin. It was totally on now. No one messed with Pepper's shoes.

When Clint, Thor, and Graham wanted to watch TV, the volume had been set to maximum and nearly broken their eardrums while the Business Partners high-fived from the aquarium while watching the surveillance feed via JARVIS.

The boys recovered fast and fought back with a kitchen fridge stocked full of exploding drinks. ALL of them. Even water. How they managed to do that, no one really knew.

The girls TP'd the guys' bedrooms.

The guys waxed the floor of the gym so much that they couldn't walk without slipping.

The girls threw the guys in an unknown floor of the Tower after setting up a fog machine so that they wouldn't know where they were or where they were going. And JARVIS wouldn't help because Ms. Potts was his "master" so to speak when Mr. Stark was not present.

Bruce and Betty eventually took to hiding in one of his labs and working on an experiment they had been wanting to test out for a while now.

This war continued on for about two hours before they got bored and called a truce for lunch. Of course, both teams realized that the pranks they were playing were extremely lame, but no one cared. It had been funny.

After the fruit salad Pepper made for them, they decided that they didn't want the war to continue and called it a draw before shaking hands.

"You are valiant opponents! I wish not to face your ranks should Lady Natasha wish to join you."

Pepper and Tania laughed. "No, I don't think this will happen again. At least, not for a little while. Maybe on April Fool's?" the red head suggested.

"It's a date," Clint confirmed.

"Awesome," Tania clapped her hands together once. "Now, this has been a blast and all, but I need to get back to work. I think I left my USB in the party deck. I'll meet you in the aquarium in five, kay Pepper?"

"Sure thing."

So Tania said good-bye to her friends and made Graham swear not to pull any more pranks until April and walked over to the elevator. She stood inside, waiting patiently for her to rise and tapped her foot to the beat of the horrible elevator music.

When the doors opened she stepped into the huge, open-ended room. She immediately spotted her USB stick on the counter all by itself and marched over to it. She grabbed it and smiled triumphantly.

Sunlight suddenly illuminated the room as the bright golden star came out from behind a cloud, catching Tania's attention. She squinted and walked over to the floor to ceiling windows to look out over NYC. Her breathing sped up as she looked down at all of the cars and people that looked like ants down below. It was a long way down…

Something clunked against the glass in front of her face and she jumped. What was that? She inspected the window but there wasn't anything there, not even a scratch. Another thing thwacked it, and this time Tania saw enough to know that it was small and black. Was that…? It couldn't be… could it?

Suddenly, several different black things pounded against the glass in front of her and she stepped back, heart pounding as pellets bounced off the window harmlessly. "Jarvis?" she asked, not taking her eyes off of the projectiles.

"Yes, Miss Banks?"

"What are those?" She pointed towards what looked like rocks still hitting her window at crazed speeds.

"I believe those are bullets."

She gasped. "Bullets?"

"Yes, but there is no need to worry. Since the Mandarin Protocol has been initiated, all windows have been reinforced with extra layers of bullet-proof glass. There is a zero percent change of anything penetrating it."

"I… umm… Thanks, I guess."

"You're welcome."

"Jarvis, could you please tell the others about this and to meet me in the aquarium? That room has no windows, right?"

"That is correct, and I shall do so promptly."

"Thank you," Tania breathed just as the bullets stopped firing. She gulped, heart racing. Her eyes roamed the tops of buildings and windows but she couldn't see the shooter. Finally, she gave up and ran for the elevator.

When she arrived in the aquarium, everyone was already there. "What are we going to do?" she asked as she entered the little circle they'd formed.

"Did you see the shooter?" Clint wondered.

She shook her head. "No. I tried but, I just couldn't find him."

"Then he's most likely long gone by now. There isn't really anything we can do."

"Does this count as another attempt on her life, because if it does, I think Tania should stay away from windows all together. In fact, maybe she should just be locked on her floor."

"Graham!" Tania exclaimed.

"That's probably the best course of action," Clint agreed.

"Clint!"

"We can give her DUMMY for company."

"Ooh, good idea."

"Um, hello!" Pepper interrupted. "I think Tania should be able to walk freely about the Tower. Nothing can break the glass of this tower when it's on lock down. She's perfectly safe wherever she is."

"Precaution is necessary in these types of situations," Clint told her.

"I kind of agree with him," Bruce said meekly.

"Well I agree with Pepper," Betty stated, walking across the circle to stand next to the girls.

"As do I," Tania confessed.

"I am afraid I am with Friends Clint, Graham, and Bruce. I am sorry." Thor crossed his arms, determined.

"It's four against three. We win! Ha!"

"Graham, this is not a democracy, it's my life!"

"Yeah, well too bad! We won!"

"How exactly did you win? It's not like you can make me stay in my room until further notice!"

"Damn. I can't believe he locked me in my room until further notice," she muttered from her perch on her and Steve's bed. "At least I have the whole floor, though." She turned to DUMMY, who was rocking back and forth uncomfortably, having nothing to do. "I don't know why they gave me you, though when there are several perfectly good humans (and a God) that make good company. No offense to you, DUMMY, I just don't understand the way their minds work."

She patted his head affectionately and the little robot vibrated and hummed in response. She chuckled. "Well, if I'm going to be stuck here for who knows how long without my work, I suppose I'll just have to go to the studio and draw. Wanna come with?"

DUMMY nodded excitedly and she smiled at him before leading him to her gallery. She picked up her sketchpad and pencils as well as her charcoal and erasers before she started drawing.

What started out as a dream catcher eventually turned into a spider web behind which were two, ominous looking eyes. She nearly dropped the pad when she realized what she had created and inhaled a sharp intake of breath. She quickly flipped the page and began to start anew when JARVIS' voice cut through her mind like a knife to butter.

"Miss Banks?" she jumped, knocking the pad to the floor which DUMMY hurriedly picked up for her and handed to her. She sent him a warm smile and took it.

"Yes, Jarvis?"

"I figured that you would like to know that a woman who claims to be one Felicity Deed is at the doorstep."

"… did you just say Felicity Deed?"

"Yes, I did."

"Oh my God, Jarvis, let me down!" She shot up from her spot on the bench and ran for the door. She burst into the hallway and bolted for the elevator.

"I do not have authorization to-"

"DO IT JARVIS! This is my floor and I'm overriding Pepper's direct order!"

"But-"

"JARVIS!"

She could almost hear him sigh as the elevator doors opened for her. "As you wish."

"Thank you. DUMMY, stay here," she commanded before she was headed down to the lobby. "Has she rung the doorbell yet?"

"Yes, and Ms. Potts is on her way to answering the door."

"No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no ,no, no, no!" The doors had just barely begun to open when she launched herself forward into the lobby. She stopped just shy of bumping into Pepper and stared incredulously at the woman in front of the doors. "Mom?"

A/N. Duh Duh DUHNNNNNNNNN!