A/N: I just want everyone to know that I spent well over an hour just making a plot line for this story. And I have absolutely no snacks next to me because I have no money. *sigh* I want a donut.
EDIT: Y'all... I'm so sorry for disappearing for three years, but I'm back and I've fixed the end of this chapter! (y'all were right that Daisy should've been more badass haha, so I fixed it) Currently also working on the next chapterrrr. I hope you enjoy!
15 minutes before Daisy enters Stark's lab...
Steve hits the mat with a thud.
"I let you have that one," he mumbles.
"Sure, Rogers," Natasha smirks as she stepped over him and headed to the bench. She took a seat and drank some water.
All of the Avengers— the ones currently at the tower anyway— were in the gym. Natasha had come up with a new training schedule. Something about everyone getting too comfortable when they weren't actively on mission.
It was safe to say that Tony hated it. But thankfully he had convinced the assassin that he was close to figuring out who the hacker was from a few days ago and he was allowed to sit out this time, on one condition. Tony Stark had to be in Romanoff's eyesight at all times so she could make sure he was actually being productive for an hour.
Talk about being the mom of the group.
Tony was currently sitting on a pile of punching bags with his tablet, trying to ignore the others around him. Sam was visiting his sister, Thor was off world, and Bruce was meditating somewhere or something. And as it turns out, Clint has no understanding of personal space.
"Think fast!" Clint shouted at Tony.
Tony looked up just in time to be hit in between the eyes with a nerf bullet.
"What the hell, Barton?!" he screeched. "I'm doing important work right now. Go back to your targets!"
Clint looked amused. "I had to get your attention somehow," he said. "Did you finish my arrows yet? I want to show Nat."
Natasha looked up from her conversation with Steve at the mention of her name.
"What arrows?" she asked.
Tony sighed, rubbing his face.
"Tony made me a new set of arrows that are exactly like your widow bites. I can even adjust the stun levels. And he said they'd be done by today so I figured since we're already in the training area, I could show you," Clint explained. "So, are they finished?"
"They're finished," Tony stated simply. Clint was about to speak up when Tony cut him off. "And no you can not go grab them from my lab."
Steve pitched in, "They do sound interesting."
"Of course they're interesting. I made them!" Tony exclaimed. "Give me two more minutes to find out who our mystery man is and I'll grab the arrows for you myself."
"Speaking of that little incident, what are we going to do when we find him?" Clint asked. "Can Nat and I track him down? Then I can test out my new— Ow!"
Natasha had smacked him on the side of the head.
"Stop being a child, Clint," she said. "What do you think Cap?"
"I agree that we should track him down, but from what I've heard a hacker won't put up much of a fight."
"You never know," Clint chided. "Tony Stark here is a hacker that puts up a fight."
Stark looks up and rolls his eyes.
"Got it!" Tony exclaims. "It seems that the file deleted was on a high level Hydra operative."
Natasha leans over Tony's shoulder to look at the tablet. "Can you pull up their profile?" she asks.
"Pulling it up now," he said. An image of Daisy in her Hydra uniform appeared on the screen. There was barely any information on her at all, other than the photo and her security status as an operative. "Well that was a lot of work for such a small reveal." Tony handed the tablet over to Steve.
"Is this the person who hacked you?" Steve asked. He took a look at the image of the woman then handed the tablet to Natasha.
Tony looked at the wall in thought. "It's hard to say," he said. "The hack was impossible to trace; all I was able to do is recover the file. It could have been her, but it also could have been some other agent looking to protect this woman." He shrugged.
Clint walked back over to the archery targets and picked up the nerf gun from earlier. He loaded a dart and shot it at Tony, who dodged it, tossing a glare at the archer.
"Can you grab my arrows now?" Clint asked again.
Tony stood up and Natasha handed him the tablet.
"Just this once Legolas," Tony declared. "Next time, you wait until they're added to your inventory."
Tony got a thumbs up from Clint, who went back to target practice, then he walked onto the elevator.
"Take me to my labs Jarvis," he said when the elevator doors closed.
"Of course Boss," the AI chimed back.
The elevator doors opened up to the floor holding Tony's private labs. He walked down to his lab and was seconds from typing in the code to open the door when he glanced up through the glass and paused.
There was a woman standing in the middle of his lab, typing at his holotable.
What the... Tony thought. He reached for the key pad to enter the code to the lab when the woman turned. She didn't turn around completely, but it was enough for him to recognize who she was.
The woman in his lab was the one who's file was deleted from his servers.
She was Hydra!
Tony slowly backed away from the glass door. When he was sure he was out of sight, he ran with everything he had. Tony took the stairs up two levels to the gym where his teammates were. He practically barreled through the door when he reached it.
Everyone responded simultaneously.
"Woah!" Steve shouted.
"Where's my arrows man?" Clint said.
"Since when do you take the stairs?" Natasha asked.
Tony took a few deep breaths before quickly explaining.
"She's-she's in my lab!" he exclaimed, taking another breath. "The Hydra woman from the deleted file is in my lab! She didn't see me, so I made my way back here as quick as possible."
The four Avengers quickly formed a plan to corner the woman and grabbed some of their gear from the training area. They all took the stairs back up to the lab floor. As soon as they opened the door, the small team had their weapons ready. They stepped into the main area of the lab floor and began to walk towards the main hall.
The Avengers rounded the corner at the same time as the woman exited the lab. The woman was holding her left arm to chest as if she was injured. She raised her right arm almost in fear as she noticed the small group of heroes.
"Jarvis, initiate Protocol Haywire!" the girl shouted as she dove into the labs. At her movement, the Avengers ran towards her, but metal barriers came down around the windows of the lab, locking them out.
"What the hell?! That's my protocol! She stole my protocol!" Tony pounded his fist against the metal that had been put in place to protect the labs. "Jarvis override Protocol Haywire," he fumed, but the AI was silent. "This can't be happening again!"