COLORS || P. PARKER

Gepetto's Box

  "If you meet a loner, no matter what they tell you, it's not because they enjoy solitude. It's because they have tried to blend into the world before, and people continue to disappoint them." 

 ~Jodi Picoult, My Sister's Keeper   

"LANGUAGE!"

Marina giggled at the Captain's outburst.

It had been roughly a month since the interrogation. In such little time, a lot had changed for the teenager. Her fourteenth birthday had come and gone. Due to her parents being locked away, Marina's birthday was a lonely one. However, the biggest change was living in the former Stark Tower. After discovering Marina had no other family, Stark decided to take her in. Seeing as the man was a genius billionaire, nobody saw a problem with Tony assuming guardianship. Although, he preferred calling it a temporary apprenticeship. In any other situation, Marina would have been ecstatic to even be in the same room as Iron Man, but with her parents gone she wasn't sure how to feel.

The teenager continued to listen in on the mission. Marina received little entertainment couped up inside the tower. Could you blame her for hacking into the Avengers comm system? Listening to a bunch of adults argue about curse words was the highlight of her month. 

Mr. Stark thought it would be best to keep Marina off the grid for a while. The entire Hopkins case was stuffed under a rug and hidden from the media. Marina, herself, was even kept off all files. Its not like she could disagree after all the man had done for her. The only downside was not being able to leave the tower. Marina had chosen not to make contact with any of her old friends. It was best to ditch her old life, seeing as most of it was a lie. The isolation wasn't so bad and being home schooled seemed better than facing the horrors of high school.

"Miss Hopkins, should you really be hacking into Mr. Stark's technology?"

Marina groaned. "Should you really be this nosy?"

Unfortunately, Mr. Stark installed Jarvis into her room. At first, it was cool to have an AI around, but eventually Jarvis turned into a glorified babysitter.

"Tell me, Jarvis. Does it bring you joy to interrupt the only fun I've had in weeks?" Marina asked, not even looking up from her laptop.

"Well, I can't actually-"

"Rhetorical question, Jar."

"Miss Hopkins, you realize I must inform Mr. Stark about you eavesdropping on a mission."

Marina's head snapped up. "No one said you have to tell him."

"Actually, it's in my programming. Mr. Stark refers to it as the Angsty Teen protocol," Jarvis said, almost smugly- well if an AI could be smug (and Marina was sure it could).

The teen let out another groan. "You're kidding me. Of course that's what he would call it."

Suddenly, her laptop went blank. "What the heck? I can't hear anything."

"I am sorry, but I must follow the protocol." The AI didn't sound very sorry.

Almost theatrically, Marina fell backwards into her bed with a dramatic sigh. Then she stuck up her middle finger and yelled, "Screw you, Jarvis!"

<><><>

After what felt like ages, the Avengers finally returned. Once everyone had gone to sleep, Tony paid Marina a visit.

"Hacking a comm set, huh? Cute."

Marina sighed. Tony sat at the edge of her bed. So, Jarvis wasn't actually bluffing about telling Mr. Stark.