Bloodborne: First Blood {1}

Chapter 𝟚𝟡 - All Along

"I found it in my piano. I could only collect the fragments."

I was in the Stark residence, specifically in Howard's office. As soon as I found the listening bug I came over as fast as I could to ask Howard to inspect it for me. He had already been picking it apart for an hour and some change since Tony kept wanting to come into his office.

Howard picked the remainder of the bug apart with a pair of tweezers and a magnifying glass. He didn't look up at me as he responded.

"If the chip is even remotely intact, I might be able to hear the voice of who planted this. Speaking of who planned this, any ideas so far Tina?"

I rubbed my face. "I have zero ideas. All I do know is that they probably want important shield intel."

"Are you positive that's all they want?" I rose an eyebrow. I knew what he was thinking.

"The only file on that belongs to Peg, Howard, how would someone else even know about that?"

He shrugged. "Beats me, but why wouldn't someone want to know how you died and came back to life."

"...Nobody but who I trust can know." The Cove, if they wanted information on that—what would they do when they got it?

I slumped my shoulders and frowned, just a little while ago I was arguing my point about protecting the Cove and here I am, potentially having all those secrets aired out. That made me feel, for the first time in a while, like I was failing them.

Howard looked back at me. "Something bothering you Tina?"

I rapidly shook my head no. "No, it's nothing—"

I was cut off by the sound of the door opening, and both of us looked up at it. Howard expected Tony to stand in the doorway but instead, it was Mr. Jarvis.

"Ah, Mr. Jarvis." He said.

"Mr. Stark. Miss Harding, may I speak with you?"

Curious I nodded, "Yes of course Mr. Jarvis." With that, I walked out of the room to go and join the butler outside of the Stark mansion. We were in the backyard where Maria would sometimes garden.

Instead of seeing her, I saw a young Tony studying a butterfly that landed on top of a flower petal while Ana Jarvis watched over him, enjoying tea. He seemed like he was very interested in it, observing what makes the creature tick.

"Good morning Ana." I said to the woman.

"Good morning Miss Harding. Nice to see you."

"Likewise." I turned to where Tony was.

"Hey, Tony." I greeted the child, he turned around with a big smile on his face. He ran up to me.

"Carol!" He had grown fond of me as I also did for him. Tony was very smart, which never needed to be stated because he constantly showed that. Somehow I knew life would take him to many places.

"How are you doing kid? Your Dad hasn't been too hard on you now, has he?"

"Eh, sometimes he's a grouch but that's expected, nothing I can't handle. On another note..." He reached into his pants pocket and pulled out what looked like to be a scale model of the monarch butterfly he was looking at.

I studied the invention in awe, he was always creating something. "Tony, I don't think you can ever fail to impress me. What is that?"

He looked at it proudly. "This is one of the more ambitious projects that I call B.U.T.T.E.R.F.L.Y. The acronym has no meaning yet but it will." He pushed a small button on it which made it fly. "You see, the head of the butterfly is a camera and the antenna are small microphones—mind you this took a long time to build."