Lyra Redfield has been pushed around ever since she cut ties with the famous Anthony Stark. When fate happens to bring them together again, she realizes just how little her life meant to her. She wanted to make a difference-be better and do better...
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LYRA could see headlights in her rearview mirror. She leaned down in her seat, hoping it was Steve. She was open without cover since it was bright from the sunlight, but she had turned off all forms of tracing thanks to Jarvis. She gulped, already having Jarvis convert her bracelet to the hand again in case.
When someone knocked on her window, she opened the door hastily, grinning when she heard a groan of pain. Jumping out, she powered up the blaster and pointed it at the man.
"Woah! Damn!" The man yelled on the ground with his hands up in surrender.
"Lyra! He's good! He's all right!" Steve yelled, and she turned sharply to see him eyeing her with a smirk.
Natasha was leaning against the car as she laughed. Lyra felt the corner of her mouth tilt upward as she said, "Retract the hand," to Jarvis. The man on the ground was helped up by Steve as he eyed Lyra questionably.
"What the hell was that!? We're on the same side!" the man exclaimed.
Lyra held her hand out to shake his. "Sorry. People are always trying to kill me. Lyra Redfield."
"Soon to be Stark," Natasha sang.
The man grabbed her hand warily. "Sam Wilson."
"Nice to meet you," she said quickly, turning to Steve. "So, where were we with planning? Rumlow tried to take me out, but I lost him."
Steve nodded. "Remember Sitwell?"
"Jasper?" Lyra asked as they walked to Sam's car. She paused as Steve nodded. "J, send Stark 23 to Stark Towers."
Sam's eyes were wide as the car she was in turned itself on and began to drive off. He hit Steve's shoulder as something clicked in his mind. "She's like a female Stark!"
Natasha rubbed her forehead as she pointed to the car. "We need to go. Jasper Sitwell was on a pirate-invaded S.H.I.E.L.D. ship—the Lemurian Star—that Steve and I were sent on a mission earlier this week to rescue. We'll explain on the way."
As Sam drove, Steve and Natasha explained about the Project Insight that S.H.I.E.L.D. was starting, but they had no idea Hydra was involved until they met Dr. Zola—a man from Steve's timeline. She nodded as she took everything in. Placing her glasses on her face, she said, "Jarvis show me Zola's Algorithm."
"Unknown search," Jarvis replied causing Sam to jump.
"Does this guy follow her everywhere?"
"Jarvis is an AI that has worked for the Stark family since Howard," Lyra answered as she asked Jarvis, "Give me Zola's file if you can find anything."
Jarvis lit up her spot in the back with a small hologram of Arnim Zola. Natasha watched her with interest. "Find anything?"
"Nothing about an algorithm," she mumbled as they reached an unknown area to her knowledge. "Is this where Sitwell is?"
"Has a meeting with Senator Stern. You're familiar with him, aren't you?" Natasha said.
Lyra snorted. "Hates Tony's guts."
"Good. Means he probably hates you, too," Sam said. "I'll call him. Can you hack his phone, Starkette?"
Lyra glared at the back of his seat. "Yeah. I'll have it say Pierce is calling him. How are we going to get him?"
Natasha smirked. "I'll take care of the threat, Sam needs to just get him to the car. Steve, Lyra, watch for him."
The pair left Steve and Lyra alone. Lyra used her phone to hack into Sitwell's phone, waiting until she saw Stern and Sitwell embrace before the Senator walked away. "Now," she murmured, creating a call between Sam's phone and Sitwell's.
She held the phone between Steve and herself as Sitwell answered. "Yes, sir?"
"Agent Sitwell, how was lunch? I hear the crab cakes here are delicious," Sam said with a mocking laugh.
"Who is this?"
"The good looking guy in the sunglasses, your ten o'clock," Sam said as Sitwell turned to look. "Your other ten o'clock. There you go."
"What do you want?"
"You're gonna go around the corner, to your right. There's a grey car, two spaces down. You and I are gonna take a ride."
Sitwell smiled mockingly. "And why would I do that?"
"Because that tie looks really expensive, and I'd hate to mess it up." On his tie was a red light from a gun being pointed at him from Natasha. He gulped and nodded, turning to walk off.
When they made it to a random rooftop, Steve threw Sitwell across it as Natasha and Lyra followed him. Steve held Sitwell's jacket as he pushed him to the edge.
"Tell me about Zola's algorithm."
Sitwell smirked. "Never heard of it."
"What were you doing on the Lemurian Star?"
"I was throwing up, I get seasick." Steve shoved him off the roof a bit, as if to show he was not messing around. "You've gotten Redfield involved? Bad move." Steve shoved him back further, not liking how he smirked at Lyra. "Is this little display meant to insinuate that you're gonna throw me off the roof? Because it's really not your style, Rogers."
Steve shrugged. "You're right. It's not. It's hers." Steve moved out of the way as Natasha kicked Sitwell right off the roof as the man screamed for his life. She looked away as she thought of the fire she fell in. Shaking her head, she heard Natasha speak.
"Oh, wait. What about that girl from accounting, Laura...?"
"Lillian. Lip piercing, right?" Steve asked.
"Yeah, she's cute."
"Yeah, I'm not ready for that."
"Are you still trying to get him a date, Nat?" Lyra asked.
"Trying. Failing," Natasha sighed.
Lyra smirked as Sam suddenly flew up with a Falcon jet-pack suit with Sitwell in his arms. He threw Sitwell back onto the roof as Sam landed gracefully, his wings retracting. "I like them," she said, pointing to the wings.
Sam nodded. "Awesome, right?"
Steve approached Sitwell, but the man rose his arms in fear. "Zola's algorithm is a program! Program... for choosing Insight's targets!"
"What targets?
"You! Redfield and Stark! A TV anchor in Cairo, the Undersecretary of Defense, a high school valedictorian in Iowa city. Bruce Banner, Stephen Strange, anyone who's a threat to Hydra! Now, or in the future."
"The Future? How could it know?" Lyra asked.
Sitwell laughed. "How could it not? The 21st century is a digital book. Zola taught Hydra how to read it! Your bank records, medical histories, voting patterns, e-mails, phone calls, your damn SAT scores. Zola's algorithm evaluates people's past to predict their future."
"And what then?" Steve asked.
"Oh, my God. Pierce is gonna kill me."
"What then?!"
"Then the Insight Helicarriers scratch people off the list. A few million at a time."
