Chapter Text
Back in black! I hit the sack. I've been too long, I'm glad to be back
Y es, I'm let loose! From the noose that's kept me hanging about
I've been looking at the sky. 'Cause it's gettin' me high
Forget the hearse 'cause I never die
(x)
FEBRUARY 2008
History has always been such a boring subject for you. It wasn’t that you had such a hard time doing the work, the problem was how boring it could be. History teachers seemed to have a lack of flare when it came to presenting the stories that surrounded your country. That, and history did love to repeat itself now and then. Considering it was the first class of your day, you dreaded the idea of having to listen to Mr. Brown for fifty minutes.
“All right, everybody listen up. Today we’re finally going to get started on a subject I think you’ll all like. Has anyone ever heard of The Howling Command-”
The sound of the door bursting open snapped everyone’s attention. Stunned students gasped around you as Mrs. Amaral, the school’s vice principal, rushed into the room. Her dark hair was wild and her cheeks flushed. Apparently she had sped over from the confides of her office to come to the room. “I apologize for the interruption, Mr. Brown. I’m afraid I’m going to have to collect a student. It’s a family emergency.” she said urgently, her eyes already searching amongst the students in the room.
A knot formed inside your stomach. Not a lot of kids here had families that could be in such emergencies. Half the kids here had famous celebrity parents or average wealthy families that were a part of CEO companies. Not everyone had a brother who worked with the military. To your growing dismay, her eyes landed on you. “I’m sorry Miss Stark, you’ll have to come with me.”
Silence instantly filled the room. All the eyes landed on you now. With a quick nod, you stood up slowly and collected your items. Mrs. Amaral gently tugged you close to her as she led you down the hall to the familiar entrance of the main building. Your stomach felt worse as you approached her open office door. Not only was Happy there looking flushed and tired, but Pepper as well, her eyes rimmed red and lips chapped.
“What’s going on?” you asked quietly. Tony had said before he left for Afghanistan that the trip would be quick and simple. Another example of the new project he had been tinkering with for the past few months. He even had the idea to go out for a late dinner tonight. What could have possibly happened in the hours he had gone yesterday?
Pepper rushed over to you to squeeze you into her arms. The look on her face was gut wrenching. You’ve never seen her so worried before. Especially over Tony. There had never been a reason for her to be. “Oh sweetie, I don’t know how to tell you this..but Tony was in an accident. Someone attacked his escort service after his presentation earlier this morning. And Rhode says all he can tell us is that...they think he’s been taken hostage.”
Suddenly, sitting in History didn’t sound so bad right now.
MAY 2008 (THREE MONTHS LATER)
“Now, remember, you girls don’t wanna overwhelm him. He’s gotta be tired after the plane ride. Don’t look at me like that squirt, you know what I mean.” Happy sighed. The taller man looked at you carefully, knowing that you were not only tired, but impatient at this point.
The three months of Tony’s absence have been the worst days of your life. You couldn’t sleep, couldn’t eat, and could barely function. You were even put on temporary home school for the time being. Mostly because unless they constantly handed you work to keep yourself busy, you’d listen to nothing else but the news reports across the networks.
Pepper adjusted her blazer again. A nervous tick she had whenever she didn’t know what to do with her hands. You reached out for one and laced yours together. The girl had become more of a family member during this time. A sister you never even knew you needed. She peered down at you and gave a weak smile.
The sounds of the plane’s hanger opening caused you two to jump. You stood on your tippy toes, trying your best to get any look at him. The first thing you saw from afar was his iconic beard. He must have had a chance to clean up because not only did it look the same as when he left, but he was in a clean dark charcoal suit with a matching arm sling.
Slowly but surely he made his way over. Happy had a hand on your shoulder and squeezed it gently. Taking a glance, you looked at how sad his eyes were. The idea of him not being there to help him must have killed him inside. Seeing Tony back definitely meant a lot for the three of you.
Finally, Tony stepped to stand in front of Pepper, his eyes narrowed at her before he spoke. Like he was analyzing her reaction to seeing him again.
“Your eyes are red. A few tears for your long-lost boss?”
“Tears of joy. I hate job hunting.”
“Yeah, vacations over.”
God, would these two ever see how much they like each other or were you the only one who had a clue. You glanced over at Happy again. He rolled his eyes with a humored sigh. He probably saw these kind of interactions a lot more than you did.
Tony stood in front of you now. The look in his eyes was more gentle than how they looked with Pepper, more worried. It was rare to see this side from him. “Sprout, you cut class to come pick up your big brother?” The last few words sounded more choked up and you felt a lump tug in your throat. Now it was you choking up.
“Well, you always used to say real life taught you more lessons than school anyway.”
“I did, didn’t I?”
There’s a quiet moment before he used his free arm to pull you against him. You wrapped your arms around him and cried softly against his chest. He held onto you so tightly it hurt but you weren’t going to say a thing. A few kisses were pressed against your forehead with a soft shush following.
There was a hard pressure against your cheek but you assumed it had been whatever the medical team had wrapped him up in.You don’t even know what he had been through, they mentioned that he was found roaming the desert. But any details on if he was harmed had been purposely kept from you. The bigger question to you was how had he escaped? The most important part was that he was back home. Things could finally go back to normal.
“I had my eyes opened. I came to realize that I have more to offer this world than just making things that blow up. And that is why, effective immediately, I am shutting down the weapons manufacturing division of Stark International. Until such time as I can decide what the future of the company will be.”
Turns out, Tony had different ideas of what the new normal should be. The media was in an uproar of the news and you barely had any chance to hide from it all. In the first few weeks he had been home, tabloids, reporters, even a few Generals wanted to speak with Tony. Pleading with him to change his mind.
It had gotten so bad that a few of the kids at school later on had tried contacting you for their parents. The amount of press this was getting had been too much to handle at one point. This was never your lifestyle. Tony was pretty much a cautionary tale for you growing up. Not only that, but after a week of his return, Tony had revealed to you the current problem he had on his chest. Literally . The illuminating piece that laid center on his chest held shard fragments from killing him.
Honestly, it freaked you out. You’ve never heard of something like this and now this was happening to your brother. The only family you had left. But Tony reassured you he had plans on either perfecting it or getting it out entirely. The goofy grin stayed on his face as he did his best to explain the plans out to you. He promised to keep you posted about it.
It was later on that you would find out what his solution was when he sent you away. “You gotta go out and soak up some sun, kiddo. You look like you’ve been in a cave for the past three months. Oh wait, that was me!” You agreed for a three week getaway just to shut him up.
Tony figured it’d be better if you took some time to get away from the press’s eye. The school year ended in mid June which thankfully got you away from the random people who wanted to suddenly talk now. It gave you the chance to get away and have things die down without you having to be there in the middle of it.
You were taking a trip down to Catalina island with some friends from school when one of them turned on the tv to catch the morning news. The mass news reports of an ‘Iron Man’ filled the channels. A familiar knot returned to your stomach. The blurry video that played on repeat showed a man in a metal suit with a light around the center of their chest flying in the sky. It looked all too similar to something you had seen only a couple of weeks ago.
“Oh gosh, look! It’s Tony!” your friend gasped. The coverage changed to show Tony was having yet another press conference. Rhodey gave a regular scripted introduction as he usually did when Tony was involved. The man really had a world of struggle as he had the task of keeping Tony on script. He’s already done that once this year, you both knew he’d do it again. Tangents were his worst enemy.
“Been a while since I was in front of you. I figure I’ll stick to the cards this time.” the audience on screen laughed politely to that. “There’s been speculation that I was involved in the events that occurred on the freeway, and on the rooftop..” What the hell?
“I’m sorry, Mr. Stark, but do you honestly expect us to believe that was a bodyguard in a suit that conveniently appeared despite the fact that you..” Tony is quick to interject with a comment. The hard look on his face only made you more curious. He was quick and curt with his response. “I know that it’s confusing. It is one thing to question the official story, and another thing entirely to make wild accusations or insinuate that I’m a superhero.” WHAT THE HELL? Three weeks. How much trouble could have happened in just THREE WEEKS!
“I never said you were a superhero.”
He fumbled over his words. The man gifted with the gab was suddenly unable to speak clearly. Not to mention he was very much lying to a group of reporters on live television. This sort of thing did not happen to your family. You painfully tore your eyes from the screen and spammed Pepper with texts. Insisting that she give you the honest truth. Her message had barely come in when Rhodey called out for Tony. Your eyes glanced back to the screen. Rhodey leaned over to him and whispered something that sobered him up. He attempted once more to read from his cards again.
“The truth is...I am Iron Man.”
“Shit.”
APRIL 2011 (THREE YEARS LATER)
Things never stood a chance at becoming normal again. When you finally returned home that summer, Tony and Pepper filled you in on everything that had occured. You felt horrible that someone as close to the family as Obadiah Stane had not only been behind Tony’s kidnapping, but also tried to kill him while you were away. The man had been in your home and your brother’s company for almost all your life. He posed as a caretaker to you briefly when Tony had his crazy phase in his early twenties.
Not that the memories were entirely good with him. To him, you were simply Tony’s shadow.
When you never showed signs of being a master genius or inventor like your brother, he never gave you a second glance behind closed doors. Tony saw him as family, you pretended to. Only being polite during holiday dinners or parties that were held in your home. A part of you always felt second to Tony for many reasons. He was one of the factors as to why that feeling began in the first place. Thankfully, it would seem that fate would take care of him when he ended up falling in the reactor at Stark Industries.
Then there was the complete mess that occurred two years after that when Ivan Vanko would lead the next attack on Tony. The man was the son of a Russian physicist who had helped your father design the Arc Reactor. Later on he’d be deported when it became clear he worked more for money than to actually help benefit humanity. When his father was sent back home, he took out his emotions on Ivan. Causing the man to hold a grudge against all the Starks.
By some miracle, he wasn’t too aware of you existing at all. You were born in such a later time from Tony that not a lot of people around the world really did know about you. To your luck, you had been on a holiday trip with your friends in London at the time. Still, the whole thing left you pretty shaken up. Was everything going to be like this from now on? Would you always have to worry that Tony could be hurt by someone who held a grudge against your family?
Tony had insisted that extra safety protocols would be taken for your safety the following years after his reveal. Two big boss battles would make anyone become more cautionary. Of course, that made a pretty tough Senior year for you. Even your prom date had to be interviewed by his security team (and even Tony himself when he actually came to pick you up). It wasn’t till you were in your college dorm at USC two years later that you finally felt a little bit of freedom. Kids from different parts of the state and even country had been around you and it was refreshing not to be known as Tony Stark’s little sister. Not to mention the attacks stopped briefly.
You managed to join in on the track team for social activity and computer science for your own prerogative. Though Tony was sure to be overly protective of you now because of his lifestyle, you had your own urge to protect him. Seeing people try to harm your brother twice was enough to do that. He was your only blood family in this world. All that you knew of your own parents and relatives were with him. You simply couldn’t risk people around him betraying him anymore.
Before you moved into your dorms permanently, you spent the whole summer working with Tony’s AI system JARVIS on improving your computer skills and learning to hack into Tony’s software. Throwing in secret fail safes that were connected to your laptop and even a few bugs in Tony’s own computer down in his garage. The AI worked with you on learning to strengthen up his servers and security. It was almost like a student/teacher relationship with how fast you learned from it. Anything to help keep things safe.
All that time developing things for back home gave you the need to do more. After all, it wasn’t just your brother that you could help out. So, as best as you could, you developed a software that allowed you to hack inside your school’s system for brief amounts of time. The hold could never be long considering it’d link back to you if you did. But, the outcome was still successful, whenever you’d run your code for any suspicious activity, you managed to catch some secret dealings that could end up severe. Students being black mailed, Professors pushing dirty work, and even a few kids from your computer science who tried hacking into students' personal information. For once, being in the shadows allowed you to stomp out plans of those who only sought out for harm. You got to be the one who caught bad people before they could even make their next big move. The one who would look out for others. A Scout. Ironically, that was what your calling card would be named.
For a short time you wanted to let Tony in on your secret work. The progress you made in such a short amount of time was surely something to be praised for. But truthfully, this was your own thing, something you could consider your own without having any judgement or comment on from people you knew.
Things seemed to be going smoothly for you for a short while. At least until now it had been. It was a regular weekday night when you returned home from dinner with friends. Your mind buzzed with a little alcohol and the slight headache that you knew you’d get from staying out too late. All you wanted to do was curl up in bed, check on a few tabs on certain staff members you were keeping an eye on before your classes that morning. You had so much you wanted to do with so little time.
You had just entered your room and taken off your coat. The regret of the frozen margaritas was building up inside. “Rough night?”
A gasp fell from your lips and you scrambled to reach for the bat you usually hid beside your door. When you reached over you felt nothing. The light beside your bed switched on. The first thing you noticed about her was her fiery red hair. A color so vibrant that you couldn’t shake the feeling that you had seen it before. “Who the hell are you and what the hell are you doing in my room?” you asked calmly.
Your eyes looked all around you for anything you could use as a weapon. Your room was too tidy for anything to be out of place which meant you had no defense for yourself. The woman sitting on your bed had such grace and calmness on her face that made you very uncomfortable.
“You can relax, first off. I’m not here to harm you.” She reached behind her and playfully showed the metal bat you were looking for before she threw it at the ground beside you. The clinking of the metal was shrill against your ears. “I’m here because my associates and I have become curious. You see, I’ve recently just come from working for your brother.”
That’s where she was from! Pepper had messaged you a bit about her new secretary. Natalie something. You figured everything was fine until news about Tony’s birthday had blown up. That night you received a panicked but reassuring call that he was fine since you couldn’t make it in time. She mentioned not trusting those around him again when she mentioned Natalie. She couldn’t shake off the idea that she wasn’t being completely honest about who she was. Unfortunately, calls had died down to simple texts. Probably because of the stress of Ivan at the time.
“While we got what we needed from him, we also took notice of you. Especially with the work that you do as Scout.” Her green eyes shimmered when she saw your jaw drop a bit. “It is Scout you go by, isn’t it?”
You nodded and shrugged. Wanting to appear cool and aloof. “Well going by my real name isn’t entirely ideal, don’t you think, Natalie ?” That seemed to only make her curious instead of mad like you hoped. It bothered you how calm she managed to stay. There had to be something that made this lady nervous. A small smile tugged at her lips now. “It’s Natasha actually, though I’m sure you’ll want to try and find out more about that once I leave.”
“Yeah, and when would that be actually? I’d like to get some sleep tonight if you don’t mind.” you volleyed, using your fake confidence to take a step closer. The red head tilted her head over at you, trying to analyze you better. “I’ll be quick. My boss is interested in you joining us. You see, I actually work for SHIELD. You may have heard of us?”
Of course you did, Pepper only received dozens of missed calls from a Phil Coulson that worked there. You had always wondered about what. Now you had somewhat of an answer. “What does SHIELD want with me, exactly?”
She uncrossed her legs and reached down to her feet to pull out an envelope from her bag. Papers were laid out across your bed. One even looking like a job application. How old school. “We’re interested in you joining us. With your computer skills, we’d love for you to join in on our security operatives. Not only would we provide the rest of the schooling for your computer science, but we offer training in physical defense, boarding within the academy, and schooling for those available to finish early. Your usual four years would be cut in half and you’d get to focus on solely learning your main subject.”
She stood up from your bed to stand in front of you. “I know it’s a bit much to present to you on a regular Wednesday night, but we’re hoping that this might be something you’d consider. We’ve been watching your progress these past few months and see a real potential with you, Scout.” It was your nickname that started to draw you in. They wanted you for your mind and skills.
“Is this something that Tony would be joining?”
A smirk appeared on her lips. “No, we were considering him for another position within SHIELD but decided to go against it for the time being. Even if he was in, it would be for a completely different section of our division. We want you for your mind.” Her finger pointed at your head. Something about what she said that made your chest rise in pride a bit. “Things don’t have to be discussed right now. My contact is on the last page if you want to get in touch with me.” She extended her hand out to you and you hesitantly took it. “We look forward to hearing from you.”
You watched as she left your room quietly. All of this was still so sudden. It was like something out of a movie. Looking at the papers on your bed, you went over every detail over the week. Trying to find if something could be wrong with it. The thought of just leaving your schooling worried you. But the bigger thought of going on this adventure of joining an organization, one that wanted you was thrilling.
It was a few days after her visit that you found yourself reaching out for your cell phone. The numbers you stared at for days were etched in your mind still as you dialed. The line only rang once before the smooth voice of Natasha’s filled your ears.
“What can I do for you, Miss Stark?”
“It’s Scout, and I’m in.”