Skye's POV
I sighed as I stared at my reflection in the motel's bathroom mirror. Coulson and I were making our way to New York as under the radar as possible to avoid the risk of Hydra following us. We had been driving across country for the last few days and were finally almost there but had decided to take a quick stop to get a brief nap in before heading back into the fray.
I had taken the opportunity to work on perfecting my new "persona" and the appearance that would come with it. In order to pull this off, I would have to be flawless with the execution. Otherwise it would cause more drama than I was trying to avoid by going in disguised to begin with.
I had glamoured my skin to look unmarred by the scars that normally covered my body, given myself white hair, and made myself a makeshift "costume". It wasn't anything fancy, just the Mayesque jacket I had, a black crop top, black jeans, and black boots that I had sewn inner pockets into to hold various knives and such. It looked nowhere near as sophisticated as Tony and the other's outfits but hey, I did the best with what I had.
I could probably get Fitz to make me something more sleek once this is all over, I thought as I exited the motel room and hopped into the passenger seat of the new run down car Coulson had just finished hot-wiring. We had been swapping out cars every couple hundred miles or so.
When Coulson saw my new look, he just shook his head and grinned.
"I thought you wanted to blend in, not stick out," he commented.
"I stick out no matter what I do, at least the new look doesn't make me look weak and helpless. I just hope I can keep up the attitude to match it..." I added quietly, voicing my biggest concern. With all of my insecurities and emotional issues, I had no idea if I was going to be able to pull off the whole "kick ass" and confident persona.
"You'll do fine, I definitely would not have recognized you if I hadn't already known it was you. Just stay calm and remember your cover."
I nodded as he started up the car, but still felt unsure of myself. The cover was easy enough, Coulson had managed to convince Fury to backup my story that I was a high level Shield Agent who was captured on a mission and experimented on and gained powers - it wasn't exactly a total lie, so I wouldn't have to worry about my horrible deception abilities so long as I continued to stick to half truths whenever possible.
What was bothering me was whether or not I was making the right choice by pretending to be someone else. But it was the only thing I was trained for and knew how to do. It was easier to be someone else than trying to figure out who I was now that I had the freedom to do so.
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"Why does it have to be me?!" I said in frustration as we pulled into the parking lot of an all night gym in Brooklyn, New York.
"I'm supposed to be dead, I can't just walk up to the guy without having some serious explaining to do...and something tells me he'll be more agreeable to helping if it comes from you," Coulson gave me a funny look as he finished his explanation.
"Why? It's not like I'm walking in there as anyone he would recognize!" I countered.
"Just trust me Skye," Coulson said, the weird look still on his face. I rolled my eyes but got out of the car all the same. Guess now is as good a time as any to test my disguise.
I breathed in deeply as I stood before the door to the gym; rolling my shoulders and straightening my back before finally yanking on the handle.
I froze in my steps at the panty dropping sight that met me as soon as I crossed the threshold.
There in front of me in all his wonderfully shirtless glory was Steve. My face and neck suddenly felt extremely hot as my gaze was directed towards the rippling of torso muscles as I observed the man punching the bag next to him.
I swallowed the lump that was developing in my throat as I attempted to stop my mind from wandering enough to focus on the task at hand.
"Trouble sleeping?" I commented, my voice thankfully coming out steady as Steve turned around to face me. I watched as his eyes looked me up and down suspiciously; though I think I also detected a brief flicker of attraction - it was probably my imagination wanting to see what wasn't there.
"I slept for 70 years, ma'am," he replied. "I think I've had my fill." I frowned. What is with his determination to call me ma'am! Though in all fairness, he didn't know he knew me.
"Then you should be out, celebrating, seeing the world," I commented; feeling hypocritical for giving him advice that I wasn't taking myself. "And the name is Alexa, but you can call me Lexi," I added; feeling good about the name I had decided to go with. It was the female version of Alexander; which broke down to "defender of man" in greek. I figured it was appropriate for someone who was supposed to be a member of a team of superheroes.
"Well, Lexi, I went under, the world was at war,
I wake up, they say we won. They didn't say what we lost." Ok, I could get used to him saying my name like that...focus Lexi, I reprimanded myself as my mind started to wander again.
I didn't know how to respond to his comment, so I stayed quiet, shifting uncomfortably as he continued to look me over.
"You here with a mission, ma'am - sorry, Lexi?" He corrected himself.
"I am," I said with a nod.
"Fury still trying to get me back in the world?" He asked with a hint of bitterness. I mentally rolled my eyes. Clearly I wasn't the only one bothered by Fury's constant recruitment efforts. Yet here I was, doing it for him...
"Trying to save it," I replied. "Hydra's secret weapon. Howard Stark fished that out of the ocean when he was looking for you. He thought what we think, the Tesseract could be the key to unlimited sustainable energy. That's something the world sorely needs," I added, filling Steve in on the situation as I handed him a copy of the files; having read up as much as I could on our drive over. Though personally I think Fury should have left the Tesseract buried.
"Who took it from you?" Steve asked.
"He's called Loki," I replied; my inner geek still amazed by the fact that these myths were real. "He's not from around here," I added. "There's a lot we'll have to bring you up to speed on if you're in. The world has gotten even stranger than you already know." Everything outside of Hydra is strange to me, so what would I know about what people consider normal or not...
"At this point, I doubt anything would surprise me, Lexi," Steve commented confidently.
"Ten bucks says you're wrong," I said with a wide grin. I stuck out a hand and we shook on it. I shivered as I felt one of my scars burn and silently thanked the gods that I had been given a way to hide them. It was one of the few benefits of my powers.
"There's a debriefing package waiting
for you back at your apartment," I told Steve, half turning back towards the door, before pausing. "Is there anything you can tell us
about the Tesseract that we ought to know now?" It felt like something Coulson would ask so I gave it a shot.
"You should have left it in the ocean." Amen to that, I thought as I left the gym and got back in the car.
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The next morning I grabbed my laptop and sent a quick email to Pepper Potts asking to meet up briefly before I planned to make my way over to Stark Tower, since knowing of Tony's stubbornness, I needed all the help I could get.
She responded immediately and I left Coulson to get a quick breakfast with Tony's "nanny" - her words not mine. I liked the woman the minute I met her and though I was still cautious about keeping my cover, I found myself opening up to her more than I expected.
"You know, Tony isn't going to agree to work with Shield easily."
"Oh, I know, I've got a plan for that," I replied with a smirk before I left to go change back into my "uniform" before heading over to Stark Tower with my laptop in hand.
Getting into Stark Tower was laughably easy and I chuckled as I ducked down one of the corridors; into an empty room, and started typing on my keyboard.
I hacked my way into JARVIS's system and started sifting around Stark's files. A few minutes later I grinned as I found what I was looking for. I sent the video to my phone before closing my laptop and heading back out into the hallway.
I punched in Tony's phone number and hit dial as I started making my way to the elevator. As expected, Tony wasn't picking up, so I fiddled around with my phone as I punched the up arrow for the elevator and stepped in.
"Sir, the telephone. I'm afraid my protocols are being overwritten," I overheard JARVIS informing Tony. I smirked at this.
"Stark, we need to talk," I demanded as I looked at my phone to see that he had finally picked up.
"You have reached the life model decoy of Tony Stark, please leave a message," he stated. I rolled my eyes. Who the hell does he think he's fooling.
"This is urgent," I responded.
"Then leave it urgently."
At that moment the elevator door opened and I stepped out, applauding the perfect timing of my arrival.
"Security breach," Tony said, pointing out the obvious as he turned to Pepper, who was also in the room. "That's on you."
"Mr. Stark," I said as I stood by the elevator.
"Lexi! Come in," Pepper greeted me.
"Pepper, you know her? Who the heck is she?"
"Come on in, we're celebrating," Pepper told me, ignoring Tony.
"Which is why she can't stay. As gorgeous as she may be, I don't mix business with pleasure," he commented as he raked his eyes over me.
"With a reputation like yours, I highly doubt that, Mr. Stark," I said, rolling my eyes as I strode over to him.
"We need you to look this over." I held out the file for him to take. "Soon as possible."
"I don't like being handed things," he said bitterly. I frowned, remembering what I had read in his file.
"That's alright, 'cause I love to be handed things. So, let's trade," Pepper said as she passed her glass of champagne to me and took the file and handed it off to Tony. I found myself strangely jealous of the fact that she was allowed the privilege of his trust while I was not - but I couldn't blame the man; even if I wasn't Lexi; someone he had never met before right now, I still had disappeared on him and refused to talk to him for months...
"Official consulting hours are between eight and five every other Thursday," said Tony as I took a sip of the champaign in my hand.
"This isn't a consultation," I corrected him, fighting the urge to roll my eyes again.
"Is this about The Avengers? Which I...I know nothing about," Pepper amended as she realized she wasn't supposed to know about it. I laughed; liking her even more.
"The Avengers Initiative was scrapped, I thought. And I didn't even qualify," Tony said.
"I didn't know that either," Pepper piped up, not that I believed her one bit.
"Yeah, apparently I'm volatile, self-obsessed, don't play well with others -"
"That I did know," Pepper chimed in. Damn, I really like her. Under normal circumstances I probably would have tossed my two cents in as well, but now was not the time.
"This isn't about personality profiles anymore," I said, trying to stay serious and on topic. "We need your help," I added. I was surprised to see a flicker of emotion cross Tony's face before it straightened out once more.
"And if I say no?"
"Then I upload this lovely video for everyone to see," I said with an evil grin as I pulled the video I had discovered up on my phone, pressed play, and turned it to face him. It showed a wasted Tony with his suit tie wrapped around his head dancing on a table in only his boxers and singing horribly into his wine bottle as if it were a microphone.
""Wha-how, how did you get that...no one could have gotten that unless, unless...JARVIS! You let this woman hack me! ME! Of all people! How could you?!" Tony said indignantly.
"He really didn't have much of a say in the matter," I said as I tucked my phone into the back pocket of my pants.
"Is Fury so desperate that he's willing to resort to blackmail?" Tony said as he ran a hand through his hair.
"Nope," I said, popping the p. "But I'm not, I figured it would make things more interesting," I wiggled my brows as I grinned at him.
"No one gets away with blackmailing Tony Stark! Even someone with looks like yours, not without oaying the consequences," Tony said stonily as he stared at me, but something about the way he said the last part had my mind heading in the wrong direction once more.
"Oh, I wouldn't consider it blackmail seeing as I might still upload the video even if you do say yes. I mean, I would hate to be the one to deprive the world of such fantastic entertainment," I smirked. Being Lexi is more fun than I thought, I admitted to myself, enjoying the expression on Tony's face.
"You wouldn't dare," Tony said with wide eyes.
"Oh, yes, I would, Mr. Stark. Even the all-mighty Tony must learn to play nice at some point; might as well be the one to facilitate that process. So I suggest you get reading; you've got a lot of homework to catch up on." I finished the rest of my champaign and smiled at Pepper; who was doing her best to hold in her amusement - and failing miserably, before heading back to the elevator and exiting the building.
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In-Line Comments
- lol did anyone get the Pepper/Piper pun I put in? like peter piper picked a peck etc etc lmao yes i'm lame but it amused me and thats what counts so HA.
- Yipppeee it's finally Avenger time! excited for the next few chapters!
- Suggestions for what powers Lexi should use when fighting Loki for the first time are welcome! Haven't quite decided yet so hoping it comes to me, thinking she shld have something lightning/fire related since I know I want Zeus to be her dad but haven't decided which of the other gods/goddesses she'll be related to/get her powers from but yeah.
- also if anyone has any general suggestions of things they might want to see let me know and i'll try to incorporate them!