Agent Raven of S.H.I.E.L.D. (COMPLETE)

Recognized

Once she was into a SHIELD airlane, Raven finally sat back in her seat and relaxed. Grabbing the comm pack, she replaced her earpiece and her receiver before closing it and putting everything back in the cabinet she had found it in. She was very tempted to nap on the way home, but she had to stay awake since she was the only one on the jet.

Luckily, someone called her. It wasn't the best thing to deal with, but at least it would keep her from dozing off. Raven checked the caller's identification. Fury.

She answered it. "Sir?"

"You still alive?"

"For now. Give it a day or two, and we'll see."

"Hilarious," Fury groaned, and Raven smirked. She had to poke fun sometimes. "Where are you?"

"Took off about ten, fifteen minutes ago. It'll be an hour or so before I get back to headquarters."

"Status on CROS?"

"We'll probably have escapees to round up, but they got the message. Everyone stood down once Turner was captured."

"Good. Once you touch down, come up to my office."

"Yes, sir."

He ended the call. Raven wondered what the office meeting was for but didn't bother to ask. Apparently, it wasn't important information.

With nothing better to do, Raven checked her phone for anything that had come in while she had been busy. The first thing she noticed was ten texts from Peter:

'You know, when you said you needed help tracking the weapon dealers, this isn't what I was thinking'

'Dude, the news is all over this. Every channel is talking about it'

'Who are those guys coming out?'

'Aaannnd now the police are carting them off. Was there a coup or something?'

'OH SHIT YOU'RE THERE'

'You probably have your phone off, don't you?'

'Shit'

'Sorry'

'Call me when you're done, tho'

'Suit looks great by the way'

Raven shook her head and called him. He picked up on the second ring.

"Hey! Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, Parker," she assured him, laughing slightly. "Congratulations, by the way. You might have just saved the President from being assassinated."

"Oh, shit, really? Are you good?"

"A little worse for wear, but I'll live." She glanced down at her stomach. "Maybe a few welts. Shuri's suit doesn't have a ton of padding."

"Huh. She's never mentioned welts with her suits."

"Most of the people she makes suits for have enhanced metabolism, remember? I'm just a regular human. We get welts."

"Right, right. Forgot about that."

"It's fine. I'll ask her for more padding. I'm sure she can throw something together." Raven gazed out the windshield. "How's everything look from the outside?"

"Oh, people are losing their minds. MJ's been texting me nonstop for the past hour, and every news station in the country is giving live updates. We saw you on the roof earlier."

"Yeah, you mentioned that. I had to drag a sniper off there, and I couldn't avoid the helicopter. I'm just hoping everyone will forget about it once they hear what happened."

"What did happen?"

"I can't tell you that. Come on, Parker."

He groaned into the speaker. "What's the point in having your number if you can't tell me the good stuff?"

"No idea. You tell me."

Peter didn't like that answer. She smirked but went on: "Thanks again for giving me that call. I do owe you a favor."

"Just not telling me what that was?"

She rolled her eyes. "Look, even if I wanted to, why would you waste a favor on that when you'll find out in a day or two anyway?"

"FIIIINE. I'll hold you to it."

"Sure thing," she promised.

"So, where are you now?"

"Heading back, for now. Other people are taking care of the White House," she explained. "There will be a mess to clean up afterward, I'm sure. I'll probably get roped into that too. Other than that, hopefully, this will all settle down."

"Until the next mission?"

"Yep. Onto the next thing."

"Well, glad you're doing okay. Just wanted to make sure you're alive."

"Appreciate it. What about you? Is work going okay?"

"Yeah, it's fine. I'm lookin- well, it's..."

"Long story?"

"Yeah. I'll explain later, but it's just an idea for now."

"Fair enough. Stay out of trouble."

"You too."

"Not gonna happen."

"Yeah, I figured."

Raven ended the call and, after a moment of thinking, opened her watch communications. She sent a quick message to Shuri: 'Tested the gear today. Everything worked great, and you should have lots of data to work with. Any chance I can get some extra padding on the next upgrade?'

Knowing the Princess would reply when she was awake, she forgot about it for the time being. That was one of the difficulties of having a fellow Avenger on the other side of the planet. Time zones were somewhat difficult to deal with.

As the clouds flew past her, Raven couldn't help but be somewhat disturbed by Peter's warning: she had made her television debut. It wasn't the press she was afraid of; it was the attention. The entire reason for hiding for five years had been to lay low and stay off of people's radar. It had been drilled into her at a young age: she had to remain hidden. Granted, she had probably been at the Academy long enough for people to forget she existed. Still, it didn't help that every muscle in her body was tensing up at the thought of someone connecting the dots about her identity. 

She had to trust that Turner's scandal would draw attention away from her presence at the White House, and she had to hope that anyone who had been looking for her five years ago wouldn't recognize her now. If they did, the next few months were going to get interesting. 

Then again, if Fury's plan to make Raven an Avenger worked, then she wouldn't be able to avoid attention. Dealing with the press would become a regular chore, and looking over her shoulder would become a much more necessary practice. It was easy to slip past people now: no one looked twice at a teenage girl in a hoodie. A SHIELD agent with a bow, though? People paid attention to that. 

Not just people outside, either. SHIELD agents knew who Clint was better than the world did. People already knew Raven was Natasha's student, which was fine because Natasha was still alive. Clint wasn't, and any association with him painted a giant target on her back. People like her and Natasha (and Fury, of course) were the only ones who really knew anything about the late assassin. 

She was going to have to get used to being recognized. It seemed that was in her job description now, for better or worse.