Foxx Hunting

by Phantomchajo

((A/N: No, I haven't forgotten about my other stories. Just waiting on one muse to step back and let others have some time.

A wonderful thanks to my friend Lady Moonhawke, who is also my co-writer, co-conspirator, Idea tester, plot hole finder, monkey wrench thrower, and ghost editor.

Italics usually means another language that I'm too lazy to have translated into that language. The location mentioned is a real location located in LA, Ca.))

Chap 6

Mid-April, the El Cerrito compound….

When Johnny came down for his breakfast, most everyone had already found or made something and dispersed for the time being. He didn't mind. He had the house's AI, Wendy (short for WEDNESDAY, it was a Stark House after all,) turn on some music as he cooked. Like her 'Sister' FRIDAY, Wendy was an AI that was constantly learning, in this case, she was designed for the more civilian/domestic side of things. "Wendy, what's on my schedule for today?" he asked as he plated his meal.

"You're schedule is clear Mr. J until this afternoon when you are required to pick up Miss Riley from school. Then you both have gymnastics starting at 5pm until 7pm," Wendy said. Where FRIDAY had what sounded to be a touch of Irish in her vocalization programing, Wendy somehow ended up with a more Southern twang to her's.

"Hmmm, what's the weather forecast for this evening? I'm thinking of taking the bike to pick her up," Johnny asked as he moved to the breakfast nook. "And I take it Doc is still out?"

"Yes sir, she's doing the household shopping right now. Do you need me to contact her? And the weather should be perfect for the bike this evening. As long as you wear your jackets, gloves and scarves, that is."

"No, no. You know I trust her judgement. Lords know she has more sense than I do when it comes to impulse buys," Johnny commented. "Especial when I have the kids with me."

Wendy stayed quiet on that subject. "Anything else Mr. J?"

"No, that will be all, thank you." After finishing his breakfast, Johnny cleaned up after himself then headed down to his office. Just because nothing was due, didn't mean he had to wait till the deadline to finish it. He came up when Wendy informed him that Doc had arrived home, so he assisted in unloading the SUV.

It was short work when both T'Challa and Steve pitched in. While Johnny and Wanda distracted Alexei, Sam and Sharon helped Doc with lunch. Neither Bucky nor Natasha had been seen since the night before, which concerned Steve some. Johnny pointed out that they'd had a long talk last night and that he'd seen them that morning. Vision simply stated he didn't need to eat and chose to stand out on the back porch instead. Rhodey had left earlier that morning to report back to his duties in the military.

As Johnny helped with the after lunch clean up, Doc pulled him to one side for a moment.

"'Talk' huh?" Doc asked as she made quotation marks with her fingers, getting a grin in reply. "With both?" she asked, eyebrows moving upwards towards her hairline. The answering grin turned to a smirk. "Damn, no wonder you're in such a good mood today." She crossed her arms over her chest as she shook her head. "I don't know how you can be so lucky."

Johnny just shrugged as he continued to load the dishwasher. "You'll find someone, one day, who will see you for you. Not what you can do or who you know. Then it will be my turn to tease you about it," he said with a laugh. Their relationship was more like a close friendship than an employer/employee one. It also helped that he wasn't afraid of her because she was an inhuman and he protected her from those that wanted to use her.

Until it was time to get Riley from school, Johnny spent the afternoon doing his normal household chores. Once those were finished, he went down to the garage to give the bike a once over before gathering Riley's gear and changing into his own, which consisted of leather chaps, a matching jacket and helmet. His gear had blue flames on them, Riley's was fiery red pixies swirling around and Alexei's gear had silver stars. He stopped by the kitchen and checked the message board on the fridge for any items needed for dinner. From there he tracked down Doc, who was on the back patio with Alexei and several of the Avengers. "Heading out in a few. Need anything while I'm out?" he asked as he bent down and picked Alexei up.

"Looking good Johnny," Wanda called out before throwing the Frisbee for Mr. Snuffaluffagus to chase after.

"Papa, vroom vroom?" Alexei asked as he patted the leather jacket his papa was wearing.

Johnny grinned at Wanda then turned his attention to his son. "Yes. Papa go vroom vroom. Be good for Doc. Okay?"

"I good," Alexei said, wrapping his arms about his papa's neck and giving him a sloppy kiss before demanding to be put down again. As soon as he was down, he went chasing after Shep with a carefree giggle.

When Johnny arrived at the private charter school Riley went to, he parked and headed to the office. One of the features he loved most about the school was that the children were not allowed to go with anyone unless that person was either on the approved pick up list, or had the matching placard number assigned to the child. Even though he was very recognizable by the school staff, he still had to go through the procedures in order to pick her up, which again, was a security protocol he approved of. Riley was escorted in a few minutes later by one of the school staff, who wished her a good day then left. They used the nurse's office to change her into pants first, then put on her gear before they headed out. He stowed her backpack in one of the saddle bags, then made sure her helmet was on securely before swinging her up and over into the sidecar. The sidecar was essentially a safety pod on wheels that Tony designed and built. There was enough room for both kids and Mr. Snuffaluffagus, Shep, because she was smaller, would ride behind Johnny. On their way home he listened to Riley talk about her day, told about his when she asked and answered questions in general.

When they arrived home, there were several government black SUVs parked outside of privacy wall around the compound. As he pulled through the gate, he noticed a third one was parked in the circular driveway under the portico, which annoyed him. Since he would be departing again in under an hour, he parked the bike in the driveway instead of the garage. After taking Riley out of the sidecar, he put her on the ground and removed her helmet, then dug her backpack out of the saddle bag and handed it to her. "Remember, put your helmet on the table by the door Imp," he told her as he removed his own and held it by the chin strap.

Riley took off at a run, headed for the front door but stopped when she reached the steps that lead up to the front porch of the house. She looked back at her papa with a frown then back to the door.

When Johnny got there he saw the reason for her expression. Agent Hill was standing to one side as Director Fury was in a staring contest with Doc, who stood with arms crossed, in front of the closed door. At Doc's sides were Shep and Mr. Snuffleupagus.

"Problems Doc?" Johnny asked as he positioned himself between Riley and the two SHIELD members.

"Not at all Mr. J," Doc replied calmly. "I was just explaining to this… gentleman… that we've already donated to the local charities and we're not buying what he's trying to sell."

"I see… Please take Riley inside. I'll be in shortly," Johnny said as he picked Riley up and carried her to the door before setting her down.

Doc nodded, as she uncrossed her arms and reached back to open the door. Only after Riley was past her did she take several steps backwards, before closing the door once more, this time on the other side of it.

"What an unpleasant surprise. What can I avoid doing for you today Director Fury?" Johnny asked with a false pleasantness. "And what did you do to piss Doc off? She's normally so polite to people she meets for the first time." When Director Fury didn't say anything, he decided to take a stab in the dark. "Ah let me guess, you overrode my security, let yourself in and then marched up to the door demanding to be let in so you could speak to someone. Am I right?" he asked, glancing over to Agent Hill who only raised an eyebrow in Fury's direction as if to say 'I told you so'. "Ummhmm…" Johnny hummed before taking a deep breath and letting it out in a sigh. "If you expect to have an edible dinner, then I would advise against pissing Doc off anymore," he said as he opened the door. "Escort," he said, flicking a finger in the direction of the two SHIELD members. Shep immediately moved to stand slightly behind and to the right of Hill, while Mr. Snuffleupagus took up the same position with Fury.

When Johnny and Riley returned after gymnastics, Doc had dinner ready and was setting the table. He noted that neither Natasha nor Bucky was amongst the gathering. He nodded when Doc passed a message saying they were still deciding his offer. Once dinner was over with, Fury, Hill and all of the Avengers gathered in the den to talk. After putting the kids to bed, he was asked to stay and get Tony in on the discussions as well as give his opinion on a few subjects. Why they wanted his thoughts on those subjects, he had no idea.

"Tony, can we continue this in the office tomorrow?" Johnny asked. "It's getting late."

"Right, school night," Tony commented. "You'll be in office tomorrow," he said, glancing to the side of the screen. "Good. Have everyone come with you and we can continue then. I might even have something to add to it."

"Thanks Tony. And Tell Pepper I said good night," Johnny added.

"You got it kiddo," Tony replied, giving a nod to the gathering before ending the call.

Bucky and Natasha didn't get the chance to talk to Johnny and inform him of their decision. He called it a night and Fury was speaking with them for a little while longer.

Early the next morning, a rollback tow truck arrived with a trio of standard SHIELD Motorcycles along with Fury and Hill, both driving SUVs. Steve and Bucky helped unload the motorcycles, in a rare display of their enhanced strength, by simply picking them up and setting them on the ground. When the group walked back in, they were treated to Riley's normal mid-week meltdown.

"But.. but… I don't know how!" Riley practically sobbed from her place, sitting in the middle of the entry hall with several pairs of shoes in disarray around her. "And why do I have to go? Why can't Alexei go and I stay with you?"

Johnny sighed, as he knelt down in front of her, automatically sorting the shoes and picking out Riley's favored pair. "We've already talking about this. You have to go to school and Alexei is going with me today. After school, what do you have?" He tugged her socks back up then held an ankle in place as he worked the shoe on.

"Uuhh…." Riley frowned tilting her head to the side as she thought about it.

"Ssss...iii…" Johnny prompted.

"Science club?" Riley asked.

Smiling, Johnny worked the other shoe onto a squirming foot. "That's right. Science club. Doc will pick you up afterwards. She'll bring you to papa's work place and you can visit Uncle Tony and Aunt Pepper. So you need to be well behaved when you get there," he said, adding under his breath "Even though they let you two get away with everything." Standing up, he held out his hand to help Riley up. Once he had ahold of her hand, he pulled her up into his arms in a fierce cuddle-hug.

"Papa!" Riley squealed as she tried to get away. "Stop! Stop!" she yelled as she giggled and laughed. "Paaappaaaa!"

"Don't worry Riley, I got you!" Doc said with a grin as she grabbed the girl's arms and started a tugowar with Johnny.

"No… she's mine! You can't have her!"

The game lasted all of two minutes before Alexei decided he wanted in too. With a laughing yell he tackled his papa's legs then reached up and grabbed the waist of the leather chaps his papa was wearing and started bouncing up and down. "Papa! Papa! Paapaa! Up up up! Papa!" he shrieked as he was caught and flipped so he was hanging upside down.

"You sure you don't want me to leave one of the dogs?" Johnny asked as he glanced at Doc.

"Naa, I'll be fine Mr. J," Doc replied as she gathered up Riley and everything she needed for school. "I'll be sure to add a change of clothes for her when I pick her up. I'll text you when we're on our way."

"Alright," Johnny said as he set Alexei down and gave Riley a quick hug. "Be good for papa," he added.

"I will!"

Half an hour later, everyone's bags were loaded into the SUVs. Steve, Bucky and Natasha had claimed the bikes while everyone else was piled into the SUVs for the trip over to SI Headquarters. Johnny had Alexei strapped into the sidecar, a show playing on the built in screen and both dogs in the sidecar with his son. On the trip, any time they'd stop at a light, Alexei would turn to the vehicle next to them, grin and, if it was a woman driving, he'd throw a kiss. When Bucky asked who taught Alexei that, Johnny just shrugged and laughed saying he came by his flirtatious personality naturally. Both men missed the look Natasha and Steve exchanged.

Both Pepper and Tony meet everyone in the lobby of the building when they arrived. Pepper of course took Fury and Hill along with Steve, T'Challa and Vision up to the conference room Tony had had set up. Tony rode with Johnny and the rest to the floor Johnny worked on. As soon as the group got off on Johnny's floor, they were spotted by a couple of the office workers. A moment later the call of 'Munchkin on the floor!' was taken up and repeated as he walked to a set of colorful lockers set off to one side.

"Welcome to the only office floor you will ever likely to see, that has baby-gated cubicles and safety gates blocking off stairwell doors, the elevator landing areas, and any other place a child or pet should not be," Johnny said with a laugh as he set Alexei down so he could open a locker. Out of it, he pulled a set of wide, silver and blue bracelets and a pair of tags. Crouching down, he fastened one around Alexei's wrist, making sure it wouldn't come off, then fastened his own around wrist. The third he tucked away in a pocket, before he fastened the tags to both Shep and Mr. Snuffaluffagus's collars. Walking over to a scanner placed high enough only an adult could access it, he took the wand and ran it over both bracelets and the tags to log them in. "Alright, we're logged into the floor."

"How do you know someone can't just take a child and leave?" Wanda asked in curiosity.

Tony smirked. "Any floor above second is inaccessible to the public. Second… well… just give it a try," he said with a gesture before motioning everyone else away from the elevators. "FRIDAY, log this as a test of the security protocols."

"Yes Boss," the AI replied. "Child Protocol drill is now logged with security."

Wanda glanced at the others then shrugged and walked over to Alexei and crouched down so she was eye level with him. "May I pick you up little one?" she asked. When Alexei nodded and held out his arms, she picked him up and settled him on her hip.

"Walk down that direction a little before coming back," Tony instructed.

Johnny motioned for Alexei to cover his ears, then grinned.

Wanda did as instructed. When she turned back around to return to the elevators. As soon as she passed the 1st cubicle, amber lights dropped out of the ceiling and started flashing as an alarm sounded. She didn't make it to the second cubicle before over a dozen people were standing up, looking around and started to exit their work spaces. Floor to ceiling force fields activated, blocking off all access to the elevators, stairwells and windows. And on top of all that, both dogs went on immediate alert.

"Color me impressed," Wanda said before giving Alexei a peck on the temple and setting him down.

The next half hour was spent standing around discussing various ways of attempting to take a child off the floor without getting caught. Finally a call from Pepper asking Tony what the holdup was, had everyone on the move again.

"I'll catch you during lunch hour," Johnny said before turning and walking after the child, who was hi-fiving everyone he passed.

Everyone who worked under Johnny in his special financial group, loved it. Pets, as long as they were well behaved and had their tags, were allowed. If someone was a parent but couldn't get a sitter for their under school aged child, the child could be brought with them. People were encouraged to personalize (within reason of course) their cubicles. Since the building was a non-smoking environment, alternatives such as patches, gums or even quit smoking plans were offered and encouraged as well. Lunches were a mandatory 1 hour, and depending on how long of a day was put in, an additional 30 minute meal break was added, in addition to the normal four 15 minute breaks. Business casual was the dress code with Friday's being an optional casual (jeans) day. There were also a lot of different stress relief methods offered for the times when people just got overloaded. All in all, it was just another bit of proof that Stark Industries was one of the best companies to work for.

Lunch rolled around quicker than expected due to some of the work Johnny and his group were in the middle of. He didn't exactly want to leave, but they assured him they could handle it and if anything changed, he'd be informed. When he and Alexei arrived, Johnny saw the property that Tony had decided to offer as a way to sweeten the deal he was brokering with Fury. He took a look at it, tilted his head sideways and smirked. "Hey Tony, toss that image here a moment would you?" he asked, holding up his own tablet after he set Alexei down at the meeting table.

With a grab and toss motion, Tony sent the image to Johnny. He watched as the younger man pulled out a stylus and started sketching then writing. A few minutes later, the image was re-passed back to him. When he opened it, he blinked then started laughing.

"Care to let us in on the joke?" Fury asked, eyeing the former Avenger from across the conference room table.

Still chuckling to himself, Tony sent the image to the large display screen on the wall. "I guess that means it was meant to be the location of a New Avenger's Facility."

The satellite map of the location had been flipped so north was now at the bottom. In 'Avenger Blue' the property had been outlined, creating the slanted A that was associated with the team. The buildings were numbered with a legend written to the side. What the buildings were seemed to have been logically assigned. To the west was a second property, this one outlined in yellow-gold with a sloppily sketched SHIELD symbol on it.

"Imagine that," Fury commented as he sat back to study the image.

Down the table further, Johnny frowned as he sat up straighter, his lunch forgotten in favor of the info he was receiving. He spent the next few minutes in rapid fire communications with his group before he sat back and tapped his bottom lip in thought. Getting up he walked around the table until he was next to Tony, where he leaned back against the table, his back to everyone, and placed the tablet in front of his boss. He crossed his arms and waited.

Tony glanced at the tablet, then Johnny, and back to the device. Picking it up, he scrolled through the information. Once he was done, he leaned back in his chair, staring at Johnny for several moments. He then passed the tablet to Pepper.

After reading it over, Pepper nodded and passed it back to Johnny. "I'll take care of it this afternoon," she commented. "I'll bring Alexei back down to your floor when he's done eating."

Johnny took the tablet with a nod. "Thanks," was all he said before he moved around to Alexei. "Be good for Aunt Pepper, ok? I'll see you when you come back down." He gave the boy a quick kiss on the forehead then headed for the door without another word.

Later that evening, the last of Johnny's people were logging out for the night. His floor was dark with only the few widely spaced lights. Even the cleaning crew had finished and moved on. All the information had been uploaded to Tony's private servers, the plans had been made and authorized. Pepper had both of the kids and the dogs for the evening and would be keeping them overnight. Doc had been informed so as to not worry. Now all he needed to do was go home, finalize a few things then gather his gear and prepare to leave. A knock on his door had him looking up to find both Natasha and Bucky standing there. "Hi," he said as he finished closing down his computer.

"Hey stranger," Natasha replied. "Mind if we come in?"

"No, not at all," Johnny returned. "Sorry I wasn't around more, but something came up."

Bucky moved around the office, looking at everything before he finally stopped next to Johnny's chair and leaned casually against his desk. "We've made our decision," he said, waiting for Natasha to settle.

"And?"

Natasha looked at Bucky then to Johnny. "We'd like to stay and take you up on your offer," she said.

"We can't promise it will be perfect. We can't even promise it will be forever, but we can promise to try. To stay as long as possible and to make it work," Bucky added.

Johnny stood up slowly, looking between the two for several minutes before he smiled. "I can work with that," he said as he wrapped his arms about both. "I can definitely work with that."

"Speaking of 'work'," Natasha spoke up. "Need a hand with the job you're planning?" she asked.

"Need? No," Johnny shook his head. "But I would enjoy having someone to keep me company. Think either of you might know someone?" he asked with a smirk.

"Oh, I think we can find someone," Bucky replied as he wrapped his arms about Johnny's waist and leaned in for a kiss. "Don't you?" he asked Natasha.

The redhead smiled knowingly. "Yeah, I think we can," she agreed as she claimed Johnny's mouth in a kiss of her own. "Now let's blow this popsicle stand and get the job done so we can go home and 'negotiate' some more."