Chapter 159: Arc Six. Chapter One Hundred Fifty-Seven. Iron Filings

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, 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, replaced recycle bins and executables, 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 needed a neural interface but Liv’s understanding of machine code and the inner workings of a computer were more advanced and 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, playboy, philanthropist, arrogant jackass, he was also brilliant and inventive, especially when it came to other peoples work. She had to admit that she felt slightly guilty at that thought. He had taken delight in ruining Peters life, and now while she admired him, she was more than ready to take some small revenge not just for Peter but herself.

Pepper had been true to her word, and the legal documents for the release of not just her patents but the CLS and Parker Industries came in and totalled over 50 million dollars. A figure that both Pepper and Tony knew Peter had no way to afford. Even if they sold everything, cashed in the cream and the serum licence they might have enough, but right now, it was trading one advantage for another and it rubbed Liv the wrong way.

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 make sure Tony Stark was reminded that while his genius was built on the work of others, hers was built on her own hard work.

Over her shoulder, she could feel Rumlows gaze, and 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, and Liv made a mental note to see if it was just Peter who had telepathic abilities or if her symbiote shared them as well.

While she had made a connection to General Ross, it was by sticking her hand into his chest, and while he deserved it, it wasn’t something she really wanted to repeat, and it was also pretty conspicuous. 

Liv had been tempted to see if she could activate the armour and simply purge the program that was causing the problem, but in doing so she would reveal her symbiote to Shield and for now, she preferred to keep that card close to her chest.

Fury knew they were Enhanced, but that was all they knew, but 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 but 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 refusing to budge on creating more or allowing one to be taken for study, and 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, knowing full well that the Nova Corps was several thousand lights years away and so far hadn’t made a single move on Earth. However he was being good on his word, other than the formula experiments done by Gwen and Connors, 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 and huffed, crossing his arms. As Liv paused and turned, leaving back in her chair,

“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, or 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, way above what Norman could ever aspire to,” she explained once more to him, and even though he looked pissed off, there was little he could do, and he shook his head and left.

So far, after discussing things with Peter, there had been no movings from 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, with the same stupid idiots who thought they knew better, but 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 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.

Back tracing the virus was also a simple task for Octave, she could see it was sending information back to a remote server, 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 Shields unmentionables, she didn’t see why she couldn’t strip him bare as well, still mad at him for tricking Peter and taking her patents.

Running with that thought, she found several files with call back protocols and used Octave to reverse lookup their locations. Smiling to herself as she found not only the databases but their physical locations, she made a small note to pay them a visit later, and for now, settled on copying the entire database of information and routing it off to her own private and secure server. Octave making the job much easier, as she simply shredded the electronic trail leading anyone to its location. If Tony could steal government secrets, why not her?

She was slightly disappointed to find that there was only Shields information. She had hoped to discover what Tony had been doing with his own armour, and if he had actually done anything with Peter’s CLS system and the symbcell technology he stole. 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?” and he laughed but she smiled and shook her head,

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“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,” and Rumlow shrugged and took the older phone.

“I’ll put a rush on it, get it back to you, okay?” and 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 several highly illegal servers would be perfect, and 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 but if it was such a problem, then you should have brought it back to me, and I would 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, remembering the small get together, and the several pictures of Peter’s manhood they had taken while making moulds, and more. It was only one picture, 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, plenty of exercise, and maybe a small dose of reality. Those pictures were of my partner, and really, comparing yourself to another man, no matter how energetic he may be, will never bring anyone anything good.”

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.

“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.” and he frowned, “A lot of agents get that life, but uh, not on your work phone, okay?” and she nodded.

“Still though, Brock. Peeking at a ladies unmentionables, how rude.” and he laughed, he had neglected to mention that as well as Peter, there were several pictures of her on there as well, taken to send to Peter, and a few very candid shots taken in a very identifiable Shield toilet when, after a vigorous work out session from him, and a very stressful conversation with a lab technician that though he knew better than her, she had snuck off for some relief.

“We’ll get your phone back in one piece okay? Some guys are twitchy when it comes to a ladies phone, and uh yeah,” he said with a small smile on his face,

“I’ve 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.” and she patted the back of his hand.

Rumlow looked annoyed. “Well, yeah, of course, doc. Oh, here’s your phone, 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, and 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.

Something was up with the agent, and she knew she needed to find out what it was. It gave her an in though, if that could be exploited, even if it was painful to do and painful to explain, it gave her a chance to complete her mission for Fury and then it would be over.

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