Liv was sitting at a terminal. As head of the department, at least on paper, she had taken the task of cleaning the servers herself. She was hunting and finding the rogue program as it made its way through Shields files.
Stark had thought himself amusing. Dummy files, mainly named ‘tonnyisgreat’ and other such nonsense hid the true virus. It replaced recycle bins and executables. Created pictures with hidden code and other innocent-looking files. The only reason Liv could find them all so quickly was Octave. She had rested one hand on the keyboard and allowed a thin sliver of her to infiltrate its circuitry. Peter may have needed a neural interface but Liv didn't. Her understanding of machine code and the inner workings of a computer was more advanced. Octave flew through the code, destroying and deleting any hostile files she found.
He was a genius though, and each part was downloading relevant files. He was after not just weapons tech but what they were doing to his own armour and anything at all to do with Venom. No matter what anyone said about Tony. He was a playboy, philanthropist, arrogant jackass, he was also brilliant and inventive. Especially when it came to other people's work. She had to admit that she felt slightly guilty at that thought. He had taken delight in ruining Peter's life. While she admired him, she was more than ready to take some small revenge not just for Peter but for herself.
Liv was tired of bully tactics used by the rich and powerful to get what they want, and Tony was no exception. Once her time at Shield was over, she would be helping Peter with his Stark problem. Iron Man might be cutting-edge, but seeing its design, Liv was more than capable of improving it. Peter would have his own suit of armour. One his powers could interface with and mop up that tin-plated egotist. Her Iron Spider armour would make Iron Man look like a child's toy.
That was for another day, as over her shoulder, she could feel Rumlows gaze. As the man signed off on several server purges she knew to keep her Symbiote as well hidden as possible.
“Hey, that's great doc but we still need to purge the system. And, yeah, we don’t know who activated the armour but we’ll be moving to another building soon enough. One uh, with the security you suggested.” Liv got the impression that while Rumlow was being genial he was actually quite annoyed by this. Liv made a mental note to see if it was just Peter who had telepathic abilities or if her Symbiote shared them as well. She didn't need to be empathic to know that he was angry.
While she had made a connection to General Ross, it was by sticking her hand into his chest. While he deserved it, it wasn’t something she really wanted to repeat, and it was also pretty conspicuous. Not to mention gross. Science was fun, but sticking her hand into a man's chest cavity was not.
Liv had been tempted to activate the armour and simply purge the program. But in doing so she would reveal Octave to Shield and for now, she preferred to keep that card close to her chest. Ross had made it clear that the Military would not hesitate to exploit them, and Shield would be the same.
Fury knew they were Enhanced, but that was all they knew. The extent that Peter had been creating Symbiotes was kept under wraps. He had told Fury about Poison, Muse and Huntress, as Flash had already seen them. Hades, Octave, and Ravage were all still a secret, and they had all agreed to keep them that way.
Fury and Peter had argued for over an hour. Peter refused to budge on creating more or allowing one to be taken for study. Each time he simply threw Carol's offer in Fury’s face.
Leave the Klyntar alone or I sic the Nova Corps on you.
Fury had just laughed and called his bluff. He knew full well that the Nova Corps was several thousand lights years away. Even Asgard was quiet and, so far, hadn’t made a single move on Earth. However he was being good on his word. Peter had been spared a thorough examination of his powers and his unique biology.
As she worked, finding and deleting more files under his gaze, eventually he grew bored. He huffed and crossed his arms.
As Liv paused and turned, leaving back in her chair. "Sorry, it's not like the movies. There is no frantic typing on a screen while files wizz around. It's running software and checking files."
"Yeah. That's why I prefer fieldwork. Any idea how long it'll take?"
“Well, keep the armour offline. I’ll hunt out the main transmitter for its network access and disable it. We might need to jury rig in a hardwired network port until we get the operating system clean." Liv paused and closed her eyes to think. "If you have access to Oscorps files I can maybe patch the Goblin OS to work with this armour, but really, I doubt it’ll work. For all his arrogance Stark is brilliant. He is way above what Norman could ever aspire to,” she explained once more to him. Even though he looked pissed off, there was little he could do, and he shook his head and left.
So far, there had been no hints of whatever organisation was inside Shield. If there even was one. As she watched and listened it just seemed to be an ordinary lab to her. Full of the same stupid idiots who thought they knew better than her. They always ended up either giving in or failing so miserably they were out the door.
Even the smile Rumlow gave her could just be infatuation. She wasn’t blind and knew that her bonding with Octave had beautified her appearance. The Symbiote repaired any cellular damage, keeping her young-looking. She had even offered to fix her eyes, but Liv felt her glasses were part of her identity. Not to mention all the times she was about to take them off during sex but Peter would shake his head. She knew he had a thing for, as he would call them, hot nerds and she was happy to oblige. Lab coat and glasses, and nothing else, was a very common fantasy for Peter.
Back tracing the virus was also a simple task for Octave. She could see it was sending information back to a remote server. It was masking Tony’s infiltration, and making a note, she would take a small look at his files as well. If he wasn’t shy about peeking at Shield's unmentionables, she didn’t see why she couldn’t strip him bare as well.
Smiling to herself as she found not only the databases but their physical locations. She made another note to pay them a visit later. Peter would enjoy looting Stark of anything they could find. Even banks of servers would be a nice haul, and it did fit with Peters MO.
Once she was done, Octave made the job much easier. She simply shredded the electronic trail leading anyone to its location. If Stark could steal government secrets, why not her?
She was slightly disappointed to find that there was only Shield's information. She had hoped to discover what Tony had been doing with his own armour. Tutting in disapproval, she still copied it and then wiped the database clean.
Rumlow came back a few minutes later and handed her a grey phone. “Uh, it’s the Shield special. Don’t expect it to send emails or anything, but it’s a phone right?” He laughed
Liv smiled and shook her head, “Sorry, I’ll pass. If my other phone is out of commission for too long I can just buy a new one. I would hate to lose my number.”
Rumlow shrugged and took the older phone. “I’ll put a rush on it, get it back to you, okay?” As she nodded, he grinned once more and walked away.
With a pad next to her, she started to jot down the information. If she needed to find an in with Rumlow, then the location of Starks highly illegal servers would be perfect. Once Brock came back she slid the paper over to him,
“I’ve managed to trace the location of Tony’s little trick back to a few places. There are several, and should be a small fraction of Starks hidden network.”
Rumlow nodded, “Oh yeah?, this is great doc. Uh about your phone. Seems it’ll take a bit longer. It’s one of those import models and the guys are having problems getting it to uh, yeah, they’ll fix it.” and he laughed nervously,
“That was a gift Agent Rumlow. I understand that it can be difficult to work on foreign technology. If it was such a problem, then you should have brought it back to me. I could have done the purge myself.”
“Oh no, no, they got it working, just uh, there are a few things on there that, uh, you might not want anyone to see.”
Liv raised an eyebrow. She remembered the small party and the several pictures of Peter’s manhood they had all taken. That had been a very fun evening while making moulds, and more. She only had one picture on her phone, of that anyway, and she used it when he was busy and she needed to destress from work.
Liv smirked. “If your agents are feeling inadequate Agent Rumlow, then I suggest a healthy diet. They should get plenty of exercise, and maybe a small dose of reality. Those pictures are of my partner." Liv smiled and leaned forward on her desk. "And really. Comparing yourself to another man will never bring anyone anything good. Especially one as, " Liv paused, "generous as he is."
Brock shook his head, he had heard the rumours about Parker, but to actually find out they were true. Not just Liv it seemed, but Romanov and supposedly a couple of the others.
Damn bastard, he thought to himself, she’s too good for him. Screw Pierces orders. I'll make her see the truth.
“No No doc, shit. I just wanted to warn you okay, a lot of the guys here, they uh, might get the wrong idea you know.” He frowned, “A lot of agents get that life, but uh, not on your work phone, okay?”
She nodded. “Still though, Brock. Peeking at a lady's unmentionables, how rude.”
He laughed. He had neglected to mention that as well as Peter, there were several pictures of her on there as well. She had taken them to send to Peter. Very candid shots taken in a very identifiable Shield toilet. Liv liked being daring, especially in such a stuffy envoroment as Shield. She had been very liberal with the camera angles, and where her other hand was.
“We’ll get your phone back in one piece okay? Some guys are twitchy when it comes to a lady's phone, and uh yeah,” he said with a small smile on his face.
“I have nothing to be ashamed of Brock but thank you. I know a few things like that have the habit of being passed around, and I can assume you put a stop to it.” She patted the back of his hand.
Rumlow looked annoyed. “Well, yeah, of course, doc." Another agent gave Rumlow an exasperated look, shook his head and nudged him. Rumlow turned to chastise the man for interrupting but stopped as he handed him a package. "Oh, here’s your phone now. It's clean just uh, wait until your home before you power it on okay, the Shield servers are still offline for now.”
He smiled at her as he handed over the phone and Liv felt something from him, it wasn't just attraction. It was more like hunger. As if his sparkling smile and welcoming grin hid more than just friendship.
That was the second time she had gotten more than just an impression from him. As she patted the back of his hand the feelings had become stronger. She would have to check with the rest, that if Peter could read minds, could Octave as well, even just with a small touch. Emotions were easy, and she could tell Brock was interested in her. She just needed to make sure it was okay with Peter before she did anything.
Something was up with the agent, and she knew she needed to find out what it was. It gave her an in though. Even if it was painful to do and painful to explain, it gave her a chance to complete her mission.
Uhhh, anyone can guess its sus, not to mention handing your personal tech, them taking time with it, specifics on how to use or turn on, all v e r y sus
Its standard protocol to not allow techs to work on their own devices in such a situation. Just to remove the potential for suspicion that they are involved. It would be easy to 'purge' the device then walk out with stolen data.
This better not have any NTR stuff.