Protector (EN)

Chapter 20

There was a lot of noise in the tower about the Viper. I would love to know who he was and why he was doing all this. First of all, we wanted to come up with a plan. What do you mean, we? I mean the Avengers. Dad would never let me be one of them. Even if I was, I would need a super power to get in, as I understood it. The Avengers were going up against Viper with a lot of forethought.

It's been two weeks since we learned that Viper was our opponent. A few of the Avengers went on a mission to find out where Viper was. Unfortunately without success.

I was sitting on the couch on my floor. Loki next to me. I flipped through the channels to watch something interesting.

"I heard you have an opponent." Loki informed me.

"Yes." I answered him.

"And that he wants the reactor from Tony." He continued talking.

"Yes."

"Without it, Tony dies." He stated.

"Yeah."

"Heard you weren't part of the Avengers." Grinned.

"Yeah ... Wait what?" I then asked, confused.

"Finally you say something other than 'yes'" he complained.

"So what. Doesn't mean I'm not an Avenger." I clarified for him.

"Why wouldn't it mean anything? I mean, doesn't everyone want to be an Avengers?" He then asked further.

"No, I don't want to be an Avengers. I have enough problems with you." Replied I.

"Me more with you than you with me." He pointed out.

"What, what kind of trouble am I causing you please?" I wanted to know from him.

"You can be annoying, like a little kid." He answered my question.

"Go ahead and cry." And waved his hands around. Finally he said no more and that's when I found a good movie. 'The Lord of the Rings'. Loki watched the movie intently. Seems to be exciting for him. At least he keeps his mouth shut. I didn't notice how tired I got and my eyes closed until I completely fell asleep.

When I woke up again, I realized that my head was resting against Loki's shoulder. It was just comfortable enough that I didn't want to sit up.

"Are you going to lie like that for long?" Loki asked, somewhat annoyed.

"If you leave me alone, yes." I answered him calmly.

"It bothers me." He replied. I gave a slight sigh and straightened up again. Annoying. Can he do anything else? Then I got up and went to the kitchen to fill my glass with water. Man was I thirsty. When I came back, my cell phone was vibrating. I answered it to find it was my dad.

"Juli, come on down. Fury is coming here with some agents in a minute. Don't say a word about Viper. The others will be here in a minute too." My dad informed me. Yup that's what it looks like when Jarvis is gone. Somehow I missed Jarvis. I so hope this problem gets fixed quickly.

When I got downstairs, Fury was standing in the lobby with two agents. Fury went somewhere, I don't know where. I'm not going to ask him now either.

First, I walked up to Dad.

"Dad? Somehow I have a bad feeling about the agents. We know that one of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s employees is our adversary, but we don't know exactly who that is." I confided in him about my feeling.

"OK, July. I'll take that into consideration. I'll introduce you to the guys, though. I so eventually come across as nice." He winked at me. I don't think he quite understood me. We walked together towards the agents.

"Hey guys, can I introduce you to my cousin ... Of a distant cousin ... My dog's maternal uncle brother from Hong Kong? This is ... um ... Stephanie ... Rush." Introduced my dad to the agents.

"Very remarkable that you have a connection to one of their distant relatives,. Stephanie, it's an honor. My name is Jack Smith and this is Hugh Coleman." Greeted the agents.

"I thought your name was Agent." Said my dad a little confused, with no one paying attention to him. They smiled at us and then walked over to Fury, who was in the living room, chatting with some of the Avengers.

"Your dog's? Seriously?" I asked Dad a little more quietly.

"It couldn't very well be a cat. I hate cats." Said Dad simply.

"You don't even own a pet." I mentioned.

"He doesn't need to know that." He said.

"How could anyone believe you?" I asked further.

"They took the bait. It's all good." He reassured me, patting me on the shoulder. I nodded, assuming for Mal that this was true. We then walked over to the others.

"Mr. Stark. It's come to my attention that they're having problems." Fury began.

"No, we're not having any problems this time. Everything is running smoothly, just like you wanted us to." Trying to speak as calmly as possible, he crossed his arms in front of his chest.

"Agent Smith?" And looked questioningly at Agent Smith.

"In the S.H.I.E.L.D. system, someone tried to hack in. We noticed it very late. We thought you were still keeping an eye on it." Said the agent.

"Whooooaaaa. What, you still want me to babysit. Mr. Fury you are head of S.H.I.E.L.D. and the nice gentlemen here agents. That was your job. How irresponsible you all are!" Shouted my dad in horror. I knew it was all an act, but Dad was right. Dad did keep an eye on his system for security, although he didn't have to. He tried to stop the hacker. To no avail, but he tried. I'm guessing.

"You're right Mr. Stark. But I thought you knew something about that. I'm sorry. We'll try to fix the problem as soon as possible and get rid of the person." Fury then commented before they left again.

Agents Smith turned around again briefly and said goodbye to everyone personally.

"Stephanie, it was an honor to have met you." He said as he shook everyone's hand already. I just nodded at him and then he was gone.

This visit was a little strange. I had such a queasy feeling about it. It was good that my dad didn't tell the truth.