Chapter Text
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His coffee has gone cold. Again.
Tony put the mug aside and opened the files he was supposed to be working on. Long lines of encrypted data filled the holographic window in front of him.
‘Why use complicated data hiding mechanics, while still keeping computers as old as Steve?’ he thought, annoyed. It shouldn’t be too difficult to decrypt but Clint and Nat came home with literally hundreds of these files. With the variety of encryption methods and this amount of data, it might take a while to find everything that is hidden here. Yeah, it’s fun to hack into secret databases just to leave all this monotone work for him.
“Jarvis, run diagnostics on the files in this folder, keep track of all names that start with ‘HYDRA’. Make sure all formats are what they appear to be and don’t have any trojans.“ He started to mark the symbolic patterns inside the open file. “Keep all processes running while daddy works.”
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By the time Peter came from school, Tony had identified that the files followed a very basic shifting pattern — but no matter how many symbols he has been shuffling around, they still didn’t make any sense. But it definitely was the Caesar cipher, it had to be, the pattern was too obvious. Why doesn’t it make sense?
Peter quietly sat down next to Tony, watching his suffering. He didn’t dare to distract his clearly annoyed mentor. Tony turned the screen to face Peter. “You try it. Clearly Caesar but something’s off. I think it might be double encryption. If I am right, and I am, it will take us ages to find the combination — the filing is a mess. I need more coffee. Put you phone on a charger it’s almost dead.”
After raiding the coffee machine, he found Peter scribbling seemingly random letters in his notes, the kid looked as confused as Tony.
“I tried to shift them like in Caesar but it didn’t work” — the kid declared with a visible disappointment.
“Yeah, no surprises here, kid.” Tony ruffled Peter’s hair. ”I have done it with shifting as far as fifty symbols, the shift of fourteen looked the most logical, considering the pattern, but still nothing. ”
“Can I have a look?” Peter asked. Tony scrolled through the panel and opened the written proof of his failed attempt.
The kid spent around ten minutes silently studying the file, writing combinations in his notes, then crossing them out and trying again. Most of those methods Tony had already tried, and none of Peter’s new ideas gave any result.
“No, I don’t understand how it can-“ Peter cut himself, his gaze locked on the names of the files. “Oh..” — He whispered.
Tony only now thought that maybe letting the kid work on actual HYDRA data was a mistake. If even Peter-no-survival-instinct-Parker got nervous at the name. In the end, it was some serious level stuff. “Hey, don’t worry, these files only have boring documentation: locations, names, all that crap. Nothing too brutal or scary for your baby eyes.” He pushed Peter’s shoulder slightly, waiting for his reaction.
“No no, it’s not that.” Peter said quietly. “We need to not only shift the symbols by fourteen but also mix the rows. Jarvis, duplicate this file and move the rows by five.”
That was the most random idea Peter has suggested today. Why the rows? Why by five? There was no logic to it. The kid probably decided to brute-force it. They didn’t have time to brute-force.
The raws shifter and Tony could finally see readable words. He froze for a moment. Then turned to Peter. “How did you know?”
“Um..” Peter paused. “Lucky guess.”
‘Little liar.’
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All the files followed the same encryption pattern, except the number of raws that were needed to be moved. Each time Peter identified the correct number on the first try.
“How do you do that?” Clint asked, confused. Him and Nat have joined them in the lab.
“See those random letter at the end of each filename?” Peter pointed at the screen.
“Did you figure out what they mean?” Tony couldn’t hide that he was impressed.
“They don’t mean anything.” The kid said simply. “It’s the number of those letters that matters. There are three letters in this filename — so we shift the raws by three.”
Tony was stunned. How the hell did the kid figure all that out?
“How come you are familiar with HYDRA’s encryption? Those are very overcomplicated data hiding methods.” Nat said and Peter paled slightly.
“It just felt logical.” He said quietly. “We tried everything else so I thought we should try moving things around.”
“Good job.” — she said. Peter visibly relaxed and moved to the next file. It was funny how the kid was still nervous around Nat. It was also understandable — she is still a highly trained asassin.
“Boss,” — Jarvis interrupted Tony’s thoughts. “This file contains coordinates that are not marked on the map yet. Would you like me to add them now?”
“New file. Copy, paste, only the coordinates. And yes, add it to the map too.” Tony rolled his chair to another monitor. “It’s in Sokovia.”
“We have cleaned that one.” Clint looked at the map.
Tony zoomed in. “It’s another base, it's hidden much better. Probably fully underground. Let’s call a team meeting.”
“Can’t believe we missed it.” Nat was reading the file with the coordinates. “There are a few pictures, not much on them though. And also information on…” She stopped and looked at Peter. “Maybe you shouldn’t get involved, Pete. HYDRA isn’t just dangerous — it’s cruel, brutal. This is not what you need to be exposed to.”
“Yes, Pete, I think Nat is right-“
“No.” It was a hard no, Tony had never heard Peter sounding like that. “I am an Avenger, I know the world isn’t just butterflies and rainbows. I want to be part of the team, properly.”
“Kid,” — Tony tried. “We know you can handle this, we just don’t want you to learn about all the nasty things HYDRA’s doing. You still a kid and-“
“Kids don’t know the pain I do.”
After that, no one dared to argue. There was a weird look in Peter’s eyes.
And he was right. He had lost most of his family and had already seen so much pain during his time as Spider-man — the Avengers were probably the only people who could understand what he has been through. It was only fair to not exclude him. Tony gave in.
“So, information on what, Nat?” Clint, not too smoothly, went back to the previous conversation.
“Human experimentation.” At that Peter stilled, only slightly.
Tony looked at the file. “Maximoffs?”
“No. These files are different. They don’t mention any names.”
Peter was silently staring at the blurry pictures. It wasn’t fear in his eyes, at least not only. Tony couldn’t figure out what it was. Maybe he gave in too early, maybe they shouldn’t let Peter learn about stuff like this.
“Jarvis, call a team meeting in ten. Mission level, medium emergency. I expect everyone.”
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