Chapter Text
The flight back to Avenger’s Tower seemed to both go fast and slow, depending on who you asked. Tony would say it felt like five hours and the others would say it felt like an hour. Then again when one is excited about something they have to wait for, time seems to slow down.
It had been a long time since Tony had been challenged to do anything like this, finding other hackers, and working with coding. Normally he had Jarvis do it, he had gotten lazy, and then again it was also hard to be interested in something that was boring a great portion of the time because it didn’t present a challenge.
Darcy Lewis and her hacker friend though, they presented a challenge and he was up for it. Now if he could just get home faster, he would be happy to lock himself away in his lab and stare at code for however long it took until it spilled its secrets.
Steve, Clint and Natasha watched Tony in amusement as the man practically vibrated in his seat with excitement. It was rare for the genius, billionaire, playboy, and philanthropist to show genuine emotion and right now he resembled a child on Christmas Eve waiting for Christmas morning to open presents.
When they arrived at the airport in New York, Tony practically threw himself off of the airplane and boarded the quinjet, motioning for the others to hurry up. Steve chuckled at the antics of his teammate, this was a side of Tony he could get to like; however, the masks and the arrogance were something that he detested. Even though he understood that it made Tony, Tony. It still grated upon his nerves that Tony felt like he had to act like that.
Once they were all aboard the quinjet, and in the air, it only took them another ten minutes to get back to the tower. As soon as Clint landed and let the hatch down Tony once again propelled himself out of the vehicle and practically ran back to his workstation.
“He seems eager doesn’t he? I don’t think I’ve ever seen him like this.” Clint stated, standing from his seat and walking out of the vehicle followed by Natasha and Steve.
“Neither have I, and I technically worked for him for a year. The most I’ve really seen him be interested in was upgrading his suits and taking Pepper out on a date. Other than that, I think everything just bores him; maybe it’s the fact that in an inadvertent way Darcy issued a challenge. One specifically aimed at Tony.” Natasha said, walking alongside Clint and making her way to the elevator.
Steve choked out a laugh that drew the attention from both of the assassins, “I’m sorry, but even I know that Tony is one of the best at computers, don’t tell him I said that, so anyone who issues a challenge must either be really good or just plain idiotic.” Steve said, amusement coloring his words.
“Maybe a bit of both, I don’t really remember seeing Darcy show any real aptitude for computers, so maybe her hacker friend covered her tracks. Then again, I didn’t really pay much attention to her to begin with.” Clint admitted, he really only paid attention to Thor and the scientists because they were the main priorities, Darcy Lewis just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong (or right depending on whom you ask) and ended up being watched over as well. Once Thor left, Jane came under the protection of SHIELD; Darcy signed the NDA’s and went back to school. Only to be watched by baby agents to make sure she didn’t say anything regarding what happened in New Mexico.
-.-.-.-.-
When Tony finally arrived in his lab, he made sure to call Pepper to let her know that he was back and to clear his schedule until otherwise advised. “Tony, what is going on?”
“I have been issued a challenge, well first it was a puzzle that Agent Agent gave me, but it later escalated into a challenge. I don’t know how long this will take, and I want to make sure that I am not interrupted. Once I solve the puzzle, and defeat the challenge I will take you out to a wonderful dinner, and introduce you to what I hope to be my new hacker.” Tony said, excitement still buzzing through him.
Pepper heaved a sigh, “Alright, fine, I will make sure your schedule is clear for at least one week, if you haven’t finished by then, too bad. You have a major meeting with the company’s board of directors and you need to be in attendance. After that though, your schedule is pretty much clear. Also, why do we need a hacker when we have you?” Pepper asked, she really wanted to hear this explanation.
“Because this hacker is good, and I can’t do all the hacking to my own company, I know it’s weaknesses, I need an outsiders opinion so to speak. Plus, I received an inadvertent challenge, I can’t turn down a challenge, you know this Pep. I’m gonna get started on this now, love you.” Tony stated before he hung up.
“Jarvis, run a scan on the hard drive before I boot the laptop back up. Any coding that looks out of place notify me, I don’t want any surprises.” Tony stated before exiting the lab and making his way toward the kitchen.
“’N here I thought you’d be locked in your lab for at least a couple of hours before we would see you. That was fast, even for you.” Steve said coming to walk beside Tony.
“Not yet, Cap. I’m having Jarvis run a diagnostic on the hard drive before turning it on; I don’t want to be surprised by exploding laptop, or burning laptop. I figured while Jarvis is doing that I would grab a snack and head back into my lab and get some work done until he was finished.” Tony explained as he walked, pushed open the door to the kitchen and made a beeline for the refrigerator.
Steve watched as Tony fished out a box of pizza, grabbed a bottle of water and closed the door before turning around and walking right back out of the kitchen. He shook his head and wondered about the sanity of their resident genius.
When Tony got back into his lab, he immediately called out to Jarvis, “How’s the diagnostic look so far?”
“Sir, there appears to be an encryption on the hard drive I cannot tell you if the coding is out of the ordinary or not yet.”
“That’s fine J; I’ll take over from there. Don’t let anyone bother me alright?” Tony asked as he placed the pizza on his workbench and opened the bottle of water.
“As you wish, sir.”
Tony plugged in the laptop, opened it, and then booted it up. He was surprised when instead of an operating system loading screen strings of commands and code started running across the screen. Furrowing his eyebrows he started typing furiously, he recognized some of the commands, and they were not good commands to see when one wanted to snoop through someone else’s system.
Within twenty minutes Tony was cursing up a storm, and typing faster than he had in years trying to keep up with the commands. Most of which revolved erasing all contents, even from outside the shop Clint could hear Tony’s cursing and tried to get into the lab.
“I apologize, Agent Barton; however, Mr. Stark has asked to not be disturbed. Although, even if he hadn’t right now would not be a good time. He is currently fighting against a rather tenacious virus on Ms. Lewis’ laptop, and seems to be losing. It would be in your best interest to not be around the labs for a while.” Jarvis’ said quietly, as though talking at regular volume would draw the attention of Tony who was completely engrossed in the laptop.
A string of rather virulent curses sounded clearly from the lab, and Clint laughed before moving away from the workshop to warn Natasha and Steve to stay clear of Tony for a while. Cling shook his head ruefully, at least it sounded like Tony was definitely getting a challenge.
-.-.-.-
Two days had passed and Tony had not been seen by any of his teammates. Bruce was starting to worry because every time he passed by the lab a string of what should be muffled curses came through loud and clear. Natasha thought it was amusing that Tony was being out shown in his own field, Steve just wondered if Tony finally lost his sanity, and Clint watched from the air vents and laughed at every new inventive threat Tony came up with.
Coulson had called and said he would be showing up at the tower today and that he wanted to talk to Tony, even though Pepper, Steve, Clint and Natasha had warned against it. He had even received an e-mail from Jarvis warning against visiting Tony, as he was not in the best of moods to see other persons. However, it didn’t stop him from showing up at the tower anyway, and taking the lift to Tony’s workshop.
However, the scene he arrived to was not what he was expecting at all. From what he could see through the glass partition, Tony was hunched over a laptop that looked eerily familiar cursing up a storm with crazed hand gestures. He typed in the code Pepper had given him to access the lab and walked in quietly.
Clearing his throat gently, so as not to startle Tony too much, but still gain his attention he waited. However, Tony never turned his attention to him and continued with his tirade of inventive threats and curses. Eventually he walked around the work bench and glanced at the laptop, and then he paused and took another look at the laptop and realized that it belonged to Darcy Lewis. The same Darcy Lewis who interned for Dr. Foster and it was the same laptop that even his computer techs couldn’t hack.
“Mr. Stark, how did you come to be in possession of that laptop?” Coulson asked, though he had an inkling that he wasn’t going to like the answer. The only answer he received though was a grunt, and a curse.
“Agent Coulson, as I have told you before Mr. Stark has asked to not be disturbed. If you have any questions please direct them to me.” Jarvis’ admonished lightly.
“Jarvis, how is it Mr. Stark came into possession of Ms. Lewis’ laptop?” Phil asked again, he could feel the beginning of a headache forming behind his eyes, and hoped that it wouldn’t actually develop into a migraine that he was beginning to associate with being in Stark’s presence.
“Sir went to speak with Ms. Lewis about something in regards to the phone call you asked him to look into. I am not exactly sure what happened while he was away, but when he returned he had this laptop with him. Since then he has been working to ensure that all information on the laptop itself is not erased. So far, he has managed to not make the laptop fry itself as it was supposed to do, that was a day and a half ago.” Jarvis explained.
Phil sighed, he knew asking Stark to do this was a mistake, and now SHIELD had lost track of Darcy and Tony had her laptop. “When he is finished doing whatever it is, and has slept have him call me please. I need a status update on the project I gave him.”
“Certainly Agent Coulson; however, if it is in regards to the phone call that was made to Ms. Lewis, sir has put it onto the back burner for now, at least until he can talk to Ms. Lewis himself.” Jarvis said, “Also, from what I understand of what Sir has said, the project you gave him has turned into a challenge of sorts and Ms. Lewis will more than likely end up with a job offer if and when sir finds her.”
Shaking his head, Phil Coulson stepped out of Tony’s lab and into the elevator. Sometimes he wished he had an easier job, one that didn’t involve Tony Stark and his eccentricities. Although, he was curious as to how his puzzle turned into a challenge, and how it came to interest Stark. Then again from the threats and curses inside, he’s sure he’ll hear about it eventually.
-.-.-.-
Three days had passed since Tony had brought the laptop back into his workshop. Three days with no sleep and little food. Although, if he thinks about it hard enough he can somewhat remember Coulson stopping by. Though he can’t remember if actual words were exchanged, he’d been pretty engrossed in the laptop and the coding behind it.
Which was another oddity, the coding looked similar to work he had seen done a long time ago. Work he hadn’t seen done since C0d3_M@$t3r had fallen off of the grid. Stretching, Tony sighed in contentment when his back popped. “Hey Jarvis, what time is it?”
“It is currently nine twenty seven PM, Friday.” Jarvis replied. “Sir, it has been two days since you have last eaten.”
“Aw, Jarvis are you worried about little ole me?” Tony drawled; however, he quickly made his way out of his shop and straight towards the kitchen where he ran into his science bro. “Hey Bruce! When did you get back?”
“I actually arrived back at the tower shortly after you locked yourself in the lab. I heard about your mini adventure.” Bruce said turning away from the stove to peer at Tony.
“Ah, yes, and what a challenge I have had issued! I haven’t gotten far though, which is kind of surprising, but the code that I keep seeing looks familiar to a hacker that fell off the circuit a while ago.” Tony said casually as he made his way toward the fridge. “We have anything to eat? I’m famished.”
“No, but we have some Thai food on the way, we ordered some for you as well. We figured you would come out of your daze around this time. The food should be here in about ten minutes or so if you can wait.” Bruce said with a slight grin, “So have you finally met your match, Tony? Someone who can keep up with you in terms of computers?”
“Nope, not yet, but the coding is amazing. So far though I’ve only managed to keep the laptop from frying itself. Whoever set that virus up knew what they were doing.” Tony said, pulling a bottle of water out and taking a deep pull of the bottle.
“Ah, Tony has finally emerged from his lab! So, how much information have you gotten? Where is Ms. Lewis and her hacker friend?” Clint asked, as he stepped into the kitchen. However, the smirk that graced his face told Tony that Clint had heard everything.
“You already know birdbrain, why ask stupid questions?” Tony shot back before taking another pull of water from the bottle.
“If that is the case, and you have been holed up for three days and only managed to make the laptop not fry itself I’d say you met your match. Then again, SHIELD had a crack at the computer and it only took them twenty minutes before the laptop crashed on them.” Clint stated before retrieving his own bottle of water.
“Yes, well SHIELD techs, are nowhere near my level of computer savvy. Plus, they weren’t dealing with a potentially smoking paperweight.”
“Sir, I believe you should return to the lab immediately, the laptop has begun to smoke lightly.” Jarvis’ voice cut through the conversation. Tony cursed before running back to his lab to hopefully stop the laptop from further damage. Bruce and Clint followed behind him, curious to see what was happening. When they arrived at Tony’s workshop though, Tony was cursing up another storm, and stomping on the smoking ruins of Ms. Darcy Lewis’ laptop.
“Sir, there seems to be an incoming phone call from Ms. Lewis, would you like to take it?”
“Yes Jarvis, I would like to take the phone call, trace it.” Tony gritted out, completely frustrated that all of his hard work had been for naught.
“Hello, Tony. I would normally say I am glad to see you took my challenge. However, in this case not so much. Although, I am surprised it only took you three days to stabilize the virus that I put on there, it normally takes my friends weeks of work to do so. Then again you are a genius.” Darcy said, and while her voice sounded cheery, it was also tinged with slight sadness.
“Ms. Lewis, how the hell did you manage to undo all of my work? Let alone know when I wasn’t occupying the computer?” Tony asked, frustrated curiosity coming out.
“I cannot give away all my secrets Mr. Stark. You should know that a hacker never tells. Isn’t that right C0mm4nd S33k3r?” Darcy stated, before the dial tone took over the line.
“Jarvis! Tell me you got something?” Tony practically screamed.
“I apologize sir, I did not. Ms. Lewis covered her tracks very well.” Tony’s cursing could be heard all the way from his lab to the entertainment room.