Tick Tock

Chapter Seven

Tick Tock was starting to open up to Spidey. From the sound of his voice, he was around her age, and he also loved cracking jokes to criminals. She liked him, as a local crime fighter and as a person she could talk to.

"There is a great donut shop in Manhattan called the Doughnuttery, if you're up for donuts. I go there all the time as both Hourglass and as a civilian." Tick Tock suggested. Stark liked it, and had told her about it when she was first adopted by him. He was right, the Doughnuttery had amazing donuts.

"Speaking of donuts, is there a specific way to spell 'donut'? Is it donut or doughnut? I can never decide when I'm texting someone." Spidey admitted. Tick Tock laughed, agreeing completely with him.

"I guess it depends on your family heritage? I can easily see a British person spelling it as doughnut while an American would write it as donut. I dunno." Tick Tock answered after momentarily pondering about it. "Maybe it's one of those questions that can never be answered."

Spidey turned to her, studying her suit. "Sweet suit you got there. Mr Stark showed me this cool Iron Spider suit a while back. It had the same emblem on it as yours does. Pretty weird, considering you made your suit before he did."

"I know. The emblem is almost the same, but the spider on mine is shaped like an hourglass because, well, I don't have to explain why, do I?" Tick Tock asked. She looked down at her web shooters, then over to Spidey's. "Do we have the same web shooters?"

Spidey lifted his hands and moved them closer to hers. At first glance, they were identical: the black devices with the cartridge holder/dispenser and a palm button to fire the webs. He had to take a second look at hers, though. There was a tiny mechanism on the inside of her arm, right next to the cartridge case. It looked like another web shooter on top of the other web shooter.

"What's that?" He asked, pointing to it. Tick Tock dropped her gaze to her web shooter before looking back to him. "It looks like half of a bubble."

"It's a WebLock. Do you have one?" When Spidey shook his head, she responded. "If I pass out while swinging, it grips the web for me. It's saved my life several times."

While the two teenage arachnids talked, their A.I.'s were busily sharing data. Karen and COSTA's databases were almost completely the same, and add that to the fact that the majority of their code and systems could be linked easily, the two interacted on a daily basis, learning from each other and from FRIDAY.

Just so you know, when the A.I.s are talking to themselves, not Charlie or Peter, they are in italicized font, not bolded, with no quotes.

Transferring today's patrol data, Karen told Costa via code. I have identified faces seen by the Baby Monitor Protocol and matched 98.79% to public facial records. Sending to FRIDAY now.

Data received. Sending compiled criminal video evidence to appropriate police stations. Have you seen this one? His name is Brent Herder, and I have seen him around Manhattan, primarily around Avengers Tower. Costa answered, sending a series of images collected throughout the day.

I have not seen him yet, although I am deciphering potential similarities of the facial structure between a few of the unidentified photos. Karen sent back.

I have noticed that Herder passes by here every day around this time. Maybe you can grab a picture of him here. Costa suggested. A moment passed, with no response from Karen. Detecting a breach in her firewall, she acted according to the Naptime Protocol that she and Karen both shared.

A second before this, Charlie felt a weird tickle, almost like a gust of wind, at the nape of her neck. Brushing it off as being normal, and nothing else, Charlie ignored it.

Then her HUD went dark. "Costa? Costa, what happened?" She asked her A.I., who didn't respond. "Spidey, my A.I. just went M.I.A."

"Costa has used the Naptime Protocol to automatically shut herself down to prevent a firewall breach from allowing someone to access her database. She will onl-" Karen explained, before her firewall was also breached, forcing her to do the same midsentence.

"Karen? Tick Tock, same here." Spidey answered. "Hey, you okay?" The young vigilante leaned forward, trying to get her attention. The female in question was sitting with her shoulders hunched, as if she was spooked.

It was her budding Spider Sense. But she didn't know. "Yeah, its just that I felt weird right before Costa shut down. Did you?"

Peter contemplated. "Um, no. Not really. I was just about to tell you that Mr Stark mentions you a lot. When I get my suit repaired. It's kinda cool, actually. That he talks about you like you're his child or something."

Tick Tock started. "Why would I be his child? That's funny. Hahaha!" Immediately after she said that, she thought Yep. That's very convincing, Charlotte.

"Speaking of Mr Stark, I think we should head back to the Tower and ask him to check out our suits to see if they were interfered with." Spidey suggested.

"Yeah. Good idea. I know a quick way there." Tick Tock mentioned. She stood up and jumped, firing a webline out over the water to launch herself forward, her new crime fighting friend not far behind.

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One of the many people on the Queensboro Bridge was the person of the A.I.'s concern. He was hunched over a computer by a broken bike, hacking into the two suits. Just as he'd managed to make a tiny breach in Costa's firewall, the artificial intelligence somehow managed to become nothing but a name and nothing else.

"Shit!" Brent yelled in anger before remembering where he was. Three people had turned and were now sending him frowns of concern and alarm. "My laptop just died and I was sending an Uber request."

A man who wore an Oscorp shirt with a name tag that read Max Dillon stopped down low to be at his level. Motioning to Brent's phone, he said in a very sympathetic voice, "Use your phone, jackass."

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Hourglass, with Spider-Man tagging behind, made it to Avengers Tower. Tony was surprised.

"This hasn't happened before. I will check out their systems to make sure no info was taken and to turn them back on." Stark said.

"When will they be fixed? I need Karen to talk to." Spidey stated.

"She will be fixed when she will be fixed, Underoos. In the meantime, I will work on them overnight, so don't get into any trouble." Stark replied in his signature tone.

"What about the suits?" Spidey asked.

"What do you mean what about the suits?" Stark asked. Tick Tock rolled her eyes.

"cough SECRET IDENTITIES cough," she sputtered out, with a hand over her mouth as if miming a cough. 

"You just leave with the suits on. I have the A.I. codes and systems here, so you can leave. Bye." Stark answered without hesitation. Tick Tock and Spidey waved bye and started to walk to the Quinjet platform which was currently empty, since the entire team was living at the Avengers Compound.

"See ya around, Underoos!" Tick Tock called out before turning in the direction of some apartment buildings several blocks away. 

"Yeah, that's hilarious, Grey Widow." Spidey shot back over his shoulder as he swung towards Queens.