The Stark Chronicles: Book 1 The Decoy

Chapter 23 Midnight Coffee Runs

I was awoken by Fowler in the middle of the night. He was shaking me when I opened my eyes.

"Stark get up!" He whispered quietly. "Fury has a mission for you!"

"It's 2am," I groaned after looking at my watch.

"Get up seriously. This is a part of being the Sphinx."

"Waking up for midnight coffee runs?" I joked, sitting up and rubbing my eyes.

"No, fixing equipment and collecting information when we need you to."

I got out of bed and looked in my hiding place for my suit. It was gone.

"We made some improvements on the helmet and the suit itself," he explained, handing it back to me.

It was now royal blue colored with black stitching and prints around the edges. "You changed the color."

"We also fixed the helmet to change your voice when you talk, that way your identity won't be given away if you happen to run into the Avengers again."

I slipped into the new suit in my closest , which was freezing, and put on the helmet when I walked back to Fowler.

"Interesting." My voice came out as deep and robotic and I flinched. "Why do I sound like a man?"

"Shhh!" Fowler urged. "Captain Rogers is sleeping across the hall."

"My bad," I groaned.

The mission wasn't hard. They flew me on a jet to some facility just outside of New York City. I broke into a small computer lab in a office building and transferred some files onto a flash drive. It was something called Project Centipede. I knew I wasn't supposed to look so I restrained myself from stealing glances at the file. The whole time I was paranoid that the Winter Soldier would jump out and attack me.

I returned to my escape car at 5 am and was driven back to HQ. I slipped off my suit and put it in a bag before walking to my room, incase anyone was awake. I had only been in my room for two minutes before Nat opened the door.

"Rise and-" she paused. "Oh you are already up."

"Mguhhh," I grumbled.

"You ready to fight me and disappoint the Captain?" She grinned.

"That's today?" I face palmed.

"Um yeah did you forget?" She laughed and closed the door. "Put on your training clothes."

I sighed. Sometimes I hated that I had to keep The Sphinx a secret. 

I was strolling along in a drowsy state when I came across my father.

"Hey kiddo," Tony greeted. He had his hands in his suit pockets.

"Tony," I acknowledged, stopping front of him.

"So I've got some news," he told me, scratching his head. "Something came up with Stark Industries. I've got to head out to Malibu for a bit."

"Everything okay?" I asked him. His tone concerned me. He seemed dismayed.

"Yeah, I'm just going to be gone for a bit. It just some complicated things happened and Happy is struggling..." He trailed off a bit. "I'm leaving this afternoon. I don't know when I'll be back."

"Oh," I said.

"Would... would you want to come?" He looked up at me.

"I think for now, I'll be okay here," I told him. "But I appreciate it."

He nodded. "Alright then. Go on and fight Nat."

I nodded. "Will do, thanks Tony..."

He kind of cringed. "Ya..."

With regret, I walked to the training room to find that everyone in SHIELD was there, ready to watch, minus the busy people. They cheered as I entered and I walked to the center mat where Nat was stretching and Steve was talking to someone.

"Are you ready?" Steve asked me.

"Maybe?"

"Why are you so tired?" He asked. "Did you sleep?"

"A little," I admitted.

"Alright, do your stretches," Steve instructed. "Warm up."

As I stretched, I saw Tony sit down next to Clint in a chair. He watched as Steve encouraged me to keep stretching.

Just as Romanoff and I were about to go at it, Agent Fowler burst through the doors of the room. He looked at Steve. "We've got a problem." Then his eyes went to me. "There has been an explosion and hostages were taken."

He looked terrified and my eyes widened. Sigh. The suit was going back on.

"You're lucky Tori," Nat laughed as she followed my father and important SHIELD workers out the door. "Looks like I'll have to kick your butt another day."

"Hey." Steve put his hand on my shoulder. I realized that I must have looked scared. "It'll be okay. Just stay here and stand by."

"Be careful," I said.

He smiled. "Don't worry about us."

Then he walked out.

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Once I was back in my suit, Fowler and I went to Fury.

"Tori, it's bad," Fury said. "They found out that you took the files last night. And they think you work for us."

"But i do work for you," I pointed out.

"The whole point of your operation is to be an anonymous outsider with no connections to SHIELD at all," Fury explained. "They took those hostages and threatened to kill them in your name."

"Like in Starks name?" I asked in fear.

"No they don't know your identity, but they know the Sphinx."

"So now what?"

"I sent the Avengers in to try and free the hostages, but I have a feeling it's a trap. Everyone went except your father. He had to leave for California early."

"What do you want me to do?"

"I want you to go in, but as yourself. Not the Sphinx."

"That's not a good idea," I exclaimed. "I would have died without the suit. What problem would that solve anyway?"

"It's a risk everyone has to take. You can can wear this black suit and it will protect you from most blows," Fury explained. "I need you to spy on them and look out for them."

Fowler sighed. "Are you ready for this kid?"

I nodded. "Send me in."