Cheshire

Chapter 4

"Mr. Stark has notified the Avengers of a security breach in the building."

"Well Alice, I guess that means we get to play a little cat and mouse with the Avengers only they don't know I'm the cat."

Tony's POV

"Mr. Stark, there is a large heat mass travelling in the vents of the northeast bathroom on the first floor. Would you like me to start the security protocol?"

"Nah, it's probably just Clint again."

"Yes sir, however, this was in the lady's bathroom and Mr. Barton is currently out on business with Ms. Romanoff."

What? I forgot Barton was out, but that doesn't make any since. Who the hell could it be?

"FRIDAY, where is it going?" I asked as I pulled up a heat map of all of the vents in the tower.

"It appears to be going towards the private elevator on the first floor."

How would anyone know where that is? It's only for the Avengers and security.

"Pull up the camera footage in the elevator."

"There is no one in there. I can see the heat mass in the middle of the elevator, but there's nothing there."

I start pulling up security footage from the main entrance to the girl's bathroom in the past hour. I don't understand. Everyone who goes in, comes back out.

"FRIDAY, call Nat and Barton. I may be overreacting but I'm not taking any chances. And tell them it's an emergency"

"Tony, I'm not getting Thor anymore pop tarts. We're on a very important mission right now."

"Actually, Nat this isn't about Pointbreak or his stupid pop tarts, this is a real emergency. I think there is someone trying to break into the tower."

"Are you sure about this Stark?"

"Well Barton's with you right?"

"Yea, why?

"Then who does this heat mass in the vents belong to?"

After a few moments of silence, I hear her respond.

"We're on our way." (End call)

As soon as she hangs up, everything in the lab shuts down for a second and then immediately turns back on again.

"FRIDAY, what was that?" No response

"FRIDAY? Hello?"

She's not answering. Shit, this is not good. I go back to my computer to the security footage and watch the elevator door open on the eighth floor, only for no one to exit. Then the cameras suddenly shut off after everything else does. That's FRIDAY's floor. Someone shut her down. Once she's cut off at the source, I can't start her back up again over the computer.

So, I make my way upstairs, making sure to use a short-cut after I've put on the blasters from my suit. Once I get to FRIDAY's HQ, I notice the tablet on the side has been shattered. Great. Now I have to cut through my very expensive door that was supposed to have top notch security. I cut out a large hole in the door with the laser in my blaster and step inside the room.

In the center of the room, I see that the hologram of FRIDAY's computer has been shut off meaning that so is all of the security systems. This wouldn't be an issue if it weren't for the wiring board to all of the computer software being destroyed. I run over to the box and see that some of the wires had been cut and the rest pulled out. I plug everything back in and quickly start mending the other wires back together with the tools on a table next to me.

After a while I have everything back in place at least well enough to get FRIDAY back online. I go back to the computer and find they have managed to get through every password and firewall this thing has. She's already been down for a good six minutes. It took a second, but eventually I get FRIDAY back on.

"FRIDAY, I need Security Protocol 1 on immediately." Now all of the locks and cameras are working again, I go back downstairs to the lab so I can I find out who the hell is doing this.

"I'm sorry sir, but all of our security protocols have been shut down."

How is that even possible!? I'm the only one who can do that. Luckily, I still have the SP button under my desk. Okay, obviously this person is extremely intelligent and very sneaky. Whoever it is poses as an extremely serious threat, especially if they can shut down FRIDAY completely undetected. But I still can't explain how they got in. All of the footage shows nothing. And the only way they could know there way around the building that well is if they've hacked into FRIDAY. You can't just find a map of the Avengers compound anywhere. And definitely not one that includes the vents system.

No, I don't care how smart they are. No one hacks me. It's impossible.

I walk into the lab towards my computer to finish rebooting the rest of FRIDAY's security software so I can find this son of a bitch. Once that's down I go to hit the SP button when I hear a loud crash that makes me jump slightly. I turn around to see my toolbox knocked over on the ground with the tools falling out.

"What the hell was that!?" I shout to no one in particular. "Hello? Who's there?" I ask only to be met with silence. "FRIDAY, scan the room."

"There is a heat source just four feet in front of you," she says.

"Show yourself!" I demand as point my blaster in front of me.

I then suddenly feel my armed hand get kicked up were my blaster goes off, almost knocking my light down from the ceiling. I try to steady myself when in the corner of my eye I see a quick flash where a person appears out of nowhere in the middle of the room. Just before I can turn back around, another flash goes off and the person is gone.

"SHIT!" I yell along with some other choice words as I hit the SP button under my desk.

"Ms. Romanoff and Mr. Barton have just arrived and are currently on their way up along with the rest of the Avengers."

"Thanks FRI" I suit up and make my way out the door to look for the intruder.