𝒑𝒖𝒑𝒑𝒆𝒕 || s. rogers & b. barnes

7||; 𝒅𝒐𝒏'𝒕 𝒓𝒖𝒏, 𝒘𝒂𝒍𝒌

⤷ march 27, 2014
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"First rule of going on the run is don't run, walk," Romanoff instructs as they make their way through the crowd.

After the hospital, Irina, Steve and Romanoff had gone straight to a mall in the city to decrypt the drive Fury had given to Steve before his death.

Steve had given her back his jacket to use as a disguise after her agreement to join them in finding out the mystery shrouding the director's death, as well as avenge him by getting rid of HYDRA — but Irina wasn't so sure the others knew that. And she wasn't too eager to tell them who had raised her, yet, either.

It might make for a shit storm later, but she'll deal with it when it comes. Future Irina can curse her for it all she wants. Present Irina just wanted to make sense of things.

"If I run in these shoes, they're gonna fall off," Steve mutters back.

Irina smirks, mostly to herself, as she pictures Captain America running from bad guys, and tripping on his own shoes and falling to the floor. A small snicker sneaks past her lips, but it's loud enough for Steve to hear, and nudge her shoulder with his arm in amused retaliation.

They find an electronics store not far off, and hover around a single laptop. Romanoff taps away, and Irina casually surveys the store. No danger yet.

"The drive has a Level Six homing program, so as soon as we boot up, S.H.I.E.L.D. will know exactly where we are," the agent murmurs as her fingers dance across the keyboard

"How much time will we have?" Steve asks.

"Not long, that's for sure," mutters Irina.

"About nine minutes from..." Romanoff plugs in the USB drive, "now."

Irina begins to hold her breath more intently, her foot tapping anxiously on the floor as she keeps an eye on the entrance of the store. No enemies.

Not yet, at least.

Romanoff continues typing away, eyes intent on the tech in front of her. "Fury was right about that ship. Somebody's trying to hide something. This drive is protected by some sort of AI. It keeps rewriting itself to counter my commands," she says.

"Can you override it?" Steve asks.

"The person who developed this is slightly smarter than me," Romanoff says. "Slightly."

"Switch in with me. I can override it," Irina says, leaning closer to the agent.

Steve glances at her. "Are you sure you can?"

She sniffs, casually scanning the store once over again. "I hate to admit it, but I've always been good at tech work. I'm nothing like Tony, but I know my stuff well," she says.

"Really? Good," Romanoff mutters. "Switch."

It's a smooth action between the two women. Just as Romanoff steps away, her fingers leaving the keyboard, Irina's are on them right away, taping aggressively as she watches the screen, Romanoff glancing over her shoulder at her progress.

The agent was right, it was one hell of a system. Irina punches out a slightly irritated breath when it doesn't budge to her, so she wracks her brain for another answer as she keeps punching out override code after override code.

A tracer.

"What are you doing?" Steve asks. She can feel his breath right beside her ear, anxious and short.

"I'm going to run a trace. If I can't get something out of it before it's done, we can head to the location it tells us to. That's where it came from," she voices to the two.