Glitch (Avengers X Reader)

One

"What's going on?" Clint questions Tony as the group sits inside the meeting room at the compound. They had all been summoned in quite late into the evening which has raised many complaints and questions.

"We've got a new mission to work on." Tony swipes his hand across a screen which brings up what appears to be security footage. "For a few weeks now, different people have been targeted and killed by someone unknown. All and any footage of the suspect appears tampered with and glitched."

Tony presses play on the video, directing the teams attention towards it. The feed shows a long corridor with a few guards and workers milling about before it suddenly glitches, static distorting the recording for a few seconds before clearing up. Once clear, it reveals that anyone who had been in the hallway was knocked unconscious, leaving a trail of bodies. Tony continues to swipe through multiple different camera feeds, all showing the exact same thing.

"Do we know what they're after?" Steve questions, wanting to know as much as possible about their suspect.

"As far as we know, they're not after an object." Tony shrugs, crossing his arms over his chest. "Every single person they've targeted has been proven to have been breaking the law in some way."

The screen changes to show two pictures of an older male. The picture on the left appears to be a license photo while the one on the right is the body after death. In the second one, the victim is slumped in his office chair with blood pooling out of a single bullet hole in the center of his forehead.

"This is the first known victim. Paul Hemmings, 53, a wealthy business man. Apparently our unknown assailant did quite a bit of research on him before making their kill. Paul here was making most of his money by trafficking men and women of all ages to buyers across America and in other countries. The assailant left plenty of evidence to prove it, along with a list of names of anyone who was trafficked and who bought them. Investigation showed the list to be accurate as over twenty victims have been recovered safely and their traffickers arrested."

A new slide shows another victim, the pictures almost the exact same. "This is William Gregory, 47, state senator. This time our victim was proven to be a collector and distributor of child pornography. Once again, our assailant gathered enough evidence to condemn him to life in prison- should he have been left alive. He wasn't the only one targeted as a few of his buddies were killed off as well for the same reasons."

"Our latest victim," Tony pauses as he switches the screen to show yet another man just like the previous two. "Alexander Tyree, 34, CEO of a major corporation. According to the evidence our assailant found, he was dealing with illegal weapons distributions to other countries along with a large drug trade."

"Do we know anything about this person?" Natasha pulls her gaze from the image of dead Alexander to look towards Tony.

"Just that they're good at covering their tracks and has some weird vendetta against people that get away with shitty crimes."

"So we don't know age, gender, abilities, or even their location?" Natasha raises a brow, already annoyed at the thought of trying to track this mystery person down. "How do we find them?"

"FRIDAY is already working on trying to map out a pattern for us." Tony turns around and grabs a stack of files before tossing them on the table. "Everything I just went over and more is in these. Grab one and study up. We leave as soon as we get a lead on a location."

Everyone grabs a file to flip through, looking through the known victims of their target, last known locations and what little is known about them. The page with what is known is mostly blank save for a few things- how video feed of them is always glitched, how they somehow get into buildings without being seen, and how they knock everyone but their target unconscious. It appears as if they're searching for a ghost.

They split off after that, knowing it could be hours or even days before they get anything on their target. It seems almost impossible to track down someone who doesn't appear on camera at all. They also have no way of figuring out who the next potential target is since their assailant seems to pick at random and they have no idea how they even discover their misdeeds to mark them in the first place. Their only real hope is that Friday can map out a pattern of some kind regardless of how impossible it seems.

Tony heads down to the lab, wanting to distract himself for a few hours. When Fury first gave him the mission, he voiced his concerns on how difficult it seemed, especially since Fury informed him that many agents have already tried and failed to track the person down. While Tony is significantly smarter and has better equipment, that doesn't mean he can pull off miracles. The suspect has left virtually no evidence behind and there's no camera footage to track back to a location. This entire mission will basically have to be played by ear.

Hours later, soon after the sun has risen, Friday finally alerts Tony that something has been found. Despite being exhausted from staying up all night in the lab he perks up, ready to listen and view whatever it is the AI has found. "I've managed to find security footage from different dates and locations that match what we've seen so far, sir."

"Show me." The screen in front of Tony changes, showing yet another glitched feed of a hallway filled with people suddenly falling unconscious in the short amount of time the camera malfunctioned.

"This footage is from three months ago in Las Vegas, sir. This is the earliest evidence I have managed to find of our culprit."

Tony keeps his tired eyes trained on the screen as Friday flicks through multiple videos, all of them the exact same. Nevada, Texas, Tennessee and now New York. In just three months their target has eliminated people in all of those states. They currently know of three people who have been killed in New York which means there's a chance the culprit will move on soon.

"Sir?"

"What is it?" Tony hums, running a hand over his face.

"We've got activity in Queens, sir. I believe our culprit is about to make their next hit."