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Ethan stepped into the elevator in the Baxter building but before it closed up a young woman jumped in quickly before the door closed. The young Korean woman sighed as she adjusted her coat.
"Cindy Moon, correct?" Ethan asked as the elevator slowly rose up.
Cindy looked over surprised and slowly nodded, "um… yes. Do I know you?"
"No, I do not believe we have ever directly interacted. But I have heard of you. You have some amazing ideas about astrology and lens technology." Ethan complemented her, then raised an eyebrow when she frowned. "Unless you do not care for your own feats or think they are not that great?"
"No, I know the new lens designs are great and have many uses but Astrology and 'lens' technology has never been what I wanted to do." Cindy answered with a shrug.
"Oh? What did you want to do?" Ethan asked as they arrived and the doors opened up. The front desk area had several armed people in Shield armor and gear. While off to the side was the large figure of the Rhino, still armored but was held in restraints. "Well this is new."
"No kidding, what is going on here?" Cindy asked as she looked around. She frowned as she took in the scene.
"Hold up, this area is restricted-" One of the guards stepped forward with his arm held out.
But Ethan held up his employee badge, which gave him access to this floor. It seemed like Cindy did not have her own yet. "I work here, and so does she." Cindy pulled out the employee badge she had received as well.
"I also live here, I was here just an hour ago." Cindy spoke up as well.
"It does not matter-" The guard began speaking but was immediately interrupted as Susan walked over.
"It is bad enough that you invaded our tower without warning, you will not be kicking out my employees and interns as well." Susan seemed angry by both her tone and the way she moved. "Ethan, are you okay with pulling an all-nighter? I need a responsible adult to stay and watch this prisoner these morons are dropping on our heads."
Ethan looked over and nodded, "certainly. I am guessing you would have to if I did not? Besides, I needed something to do tonight while staying away from my apartment all night."
Susan smiled at his understanding and nodded. "Thank you, now come here I need all hands on deck for this temporary assignment but I want your ideas." She then guided them into the lab area where Reed was talking with an agent with a bald head.
"Agent Sitwell, I do not care what you can do. But it is basic courtesy to tell us ahead of time regardless of your reasons. Also as I said before, the room where you want us to keep him is currently full of things." Reed declared aggressively.
"I do not care about your issues, Mister Richards. As per Shield protocol I will be leaving a heavy guard in the lab to observe in case there are any issues. Now-" Agent Sitwell was interrupted as Susan walked up with the interns.
"That is not Shield's protocol. You can leave a heavy guard but we can request for you to leave them out of the labs and even out of the building." Ethan cut in as they walked up, getting a look of surprise from Susan while Agent Sitwell quickly glared at him.
Agent Sitwell quickly changed his expression but not quick enough as Reed caught on. "I see, in that case I will have you station your guards out in the main floor lobby and in the ground lobby. I see no need to have any of them in the lab once we secure the prisoner in the containment room."
Sitwell growled as he walked away pulling out his phone as he did so. "How did you know about that?" Cindy asked once the agent was out of earshot.
"Shield hires me to patch their digital security every once in a while. So I had time to kill while I did it, so I read through their rules, protocols, and other stuff while I waited for things to load." Ethan explained with a shrug.
"Wait if that is protocol why did he not bring it up?" Cindy asked in confusion.
"Because their guards are wearing helmet cameras so they could record everything including proprietary technology. Then they would not have to pay for it." Ethan explained as he moved over to his desk and set his bag down in his chair.
"Oh…" Cindy frowned and went to set her own bag down on her desk. "What are we doing? Working on our individual assignments or…?"
"First we will empty the containment room. We built it to test what would be needed to contain Ben but we just started using it as a storage area. You can move all the boxes and all the pieces of technology to the Reed's lab area." Susan answered glaring at Reed when he looked like he was about to speak up.
"Then what will we be doing after that? I doubt that will take all day." Ethan pointed out as he opened the containment door and walked toward the stacks of boxes.
"Then I want the interns to come up with a plan to remove the armor. Shield said they wanted us to prioritize the gear and how Rhino was able to wear it. But I want you to prioritize the person inside instead." Susan explained as she walked over to join them.
"Shouldn't they go to the person that made the gear?" Cindy asked as she walked up as well.
"From what I briefly saw, the creators of the various pieces of hardware are students at the Potts-Stark Science Center. That is a rabbit hole that Shield is probably avoiding since Tony and Fury are locking horns more often." Reed explained as he walked with them.
"We can request to see if any of the students want to volunteer to help. It will not be difficult to remove the armor. But it is just as Agent Sitwell probably suspects it would be one or the other." Ethan explained getting a look of confusion from Reed.
"But you could-" He started but something warped his lips as Susan quietly shook her head. Understanding the situation better, Shield wanted a weapon out of this. But they could discreetly destroy the armor instead.
"Anyways…" Ethan started moving objects, "let's get this done. I am almost finished with the active camouflage and I want to complete it before tonight so I can work on my own projects."
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"Ladies Night!" Felicia called out as the girl's all raised their wine glasses. "So let's get wasted and talk about our woes!"
""Yeah!"" They yelled in agreement. "But you start first!" Susan suggested as they began quieting down. If she was going to talk about her woes and worries then she had to have a lot more liquor in her system.
"Hahaha! That is fair." Felicia easily agreed. "Fine, I am frustrated because a house guest of ours recently left. Now I feel a void in my life because it was fun having her around. I can tell Ethan feels the same way but neither of us have done anything about it."
"Sounds like you two need to sit down and have an honest chat about the future." Vanessa suggested with a sly grin.
"Maybe… probably… I will try to get him to sit down to talk in the next few weeks. How about someone else?" Felicia asked in hopes of switching topics.
"The ego…" Pepper complained as groaned. "Tony has a gigantic ego and will not accept help from anyone. So when he learned that someone basically did all the hacking work for him and even disabled his suit at the raid on the Hydra facility he has been studying and trying to up his game."
"Oh honey… it is not just Mister Stark. Fisk has an ego of his own, he likes knowing every little bit that goes on in the underworld. Unfortunately a bunch of new players are making a mess of things. Both foreign gangs making plays for slices of the city and vigilantes upsetting the natural order." Vanessa got a glare from her sister while Pepper, Jean, and Susan all looked at her in confusion but Felicia only chuckled in amusement.
"There is nothing natural about crime. While I do not endorse the vigilantes as long as they only make trouble for criminals I am fine with it." Her sister pointed out in amusement.
"Oh, please it costs Fisk nothing at the moment. But the petty criminals and smaller gangs are using it as an excuse to constantly carry sidearms. Which means more idiots hopped up on drugs carrying weapons. There has already been an increase in weapon discharges and bullet injuries from small arms." Vanessa rolled her eyes causing Felicia to chuckle again.
"Crime is a business, it does not stop just cause control of assets changes hands." Felicia explained, causing the others to look at her in confusion while Vanessa grinned, "These vigilantes will realize this after they make names for themselves, until then they remain a wildcard."
"What about Spider-Man? He is technically considered a vigilante, do you think he will cause problems." Susan asked, more curious about what was considered a vigilante and what was considered a hero.
"He will… but for a whole different set of reasons. The young man is basically drawing attention to the possibility of heroes who are not from some big conglomerate. While it might sound good on paper…" Felicia trailed off and the others nodded.
"You are worried about people with powers going out and accidentally hurting someone while portraying themselves as a hero." Jean responded with a nod. "I get that, I mean as a mutant I have to worry about that all the time. But I feel like we should talk about a lighter topic."
"Hmm… then my turn I guess." Susan sighed, "Reed, the moron. Is acting strange, I barely understand it myself but he seems to think we need more people so he can study more on his theoretical technologies." Susan seemed to think for a moment, "actually he really dislikes Ethan for some reason."
Felicia, Jean, and Pepper all shared a look before giggling. While Vanessa chuckled lightly and the other two remained confused. Vanessa decided to explain, "Ethan is the kind of man whose gentle and kind personality is very seductive. Fisk did some research and he has stolen the hearts of several married women so I would tread carefully."