Copycat: Agent Zero (Marvel Fem!OC)

Recruitment Day.

"I don't wanna be here..." she groaned.

"He'll feel better if he sees you."

"I'm going to make it worse," she walked into the room and looked around, "but if I have to choose between making him uncomfortable and upsetting Fury... I guess is pretty obvious..."

They heard voices coming from the hall, Talos sat at the corner of the room and pulled out his tranquilizers, Cat stood next to him and leaned against a wall looking disgruntled.

"Look, I just wanna spend some time with MJ— we were talking about Paris and I think she really likes me..." Peter walked in with his back facing them. 

The words stunned her, she wouldn't have moved even if the place had burst into flames. 

"That's nice," Ned was the next person to wander in, "it reminds me of when Betty and I first fell in love..."

Betty and Ned!

"...I had just finished my fruit cobbler, right, and—" Talos shot him before he could finish his sentence. 

She knew their lives had restarted without her, but she didn't think they would turn into this! Ned and Betty were dating? And Peter said something about MJ... for some reason, it made her want to cry, but she kept her mouth shut and brows furrowed, her emotions were pointless.

"You're a very difficult person to contact, Spider-man."

Peter turned around slowly, took the toothbrush out of his mouth, and stared at the man next to her.

"You're Nick Fury," he mumbled, "and you just shot Ned!"

"It's just a mild tranquilizer, he'll be alright," Fake Fury leaned forward, "so good to finally meet you! I saw you at the funeral, but I didn't think that was a good time to exchange numbers."

"No, that would've been really inappropriate," Peter said with a nervous laugh.

"It's what I just said," Fury replied. "Agent Zero did her best to keep you away, she's against your recruitment."

"Agent Zero?" Peter finally looked at her. "That your name now?"

"Sorta." 

"And you didn't want to recruit me?" His voice changed. "Is that why you pushed me away?"

Her eyes darted towards Ned and decided not to answer. She didn't know how Talos knew, cause she'd never told Fury about it, but that was true. She went to Fury begging to be hired in hopes that he'd look past Kurt and Peter. He'd done it, perhaps not fully, but he hadn't looked for them.

"The important thing is, you're here," Talos continued, "I tried to bring you here, you avoided me, and now you're here. What a coincidence."

"You what?" Cat turned to the man next to her. "You never told me that!"

"Am I supposed to report back to an agent below my rank?" He asked dryly.

The mutant bit her tongue. "Sorry, sir," she said, but it came out tense and full of sarcasm, "I wasn't thinking."

"Wait," Peter leaned forward with childish curiosity. "Was this a coincidence?"

The more she thought about it, the more something felt out of place, but she couldn't tell exactly what it was.

"I used to know everything," Fury responded, "then I come back five years later and now I know nothing. No intel, no team— and a high school kid, is dodging my calls!"

"To be fair, Fury, a grown man shouldn't be calling an underage boy he doesn't know—"

"Here's what I do know..."  

Talos spoke over her, he'd been warned about her tendency to poke fun at her superiors, so he was ready to face it without losing his train of thought. Not that he was actually that grumpy anyway, Talos was a softie, everyone knew it. 

She let Fury do all the talking, her mind was jumping from one thing to another and she felt she wouldn't be able to say a damn coherent sentence for at least another hour. Mr. Harrington came into the room and interrupted their talk, Fury remained deadly quiet while Peter got rid of him, and just when the teacher had closed the door, a second person knocked on it.

"Babe, you're still awake? You're not answering any of my texts..."

"Uhm..." Peter was on the verge of an anxiety attack. "He's asleep, Betty!"

"Oh! Already?" The girl questioned, a little embarrassed.

"Mmhm, yeah," Peter's hand tightened around his toothbrush.

Betty went away then, but Mr. Dell arrived right after and it made Talos lose his patience.

"Another person touches that door, you and I are going to attend another funeral," he got up. "Suit up! And you..." he pointed at her, "make sure he doesn't stay behind."

"He doesn't work for you," she reminded him. The man gave a step forward to scold her. "But I do, so of course, I'll do what you ask."

Fury exited the room and left her in the most uncomfortable silence of her entire life. She moved toward the boy's suitcase and searched for his suit just to do something.

"Was it true?" Peter said quietly. "What he said about the funeral..."

Cat didn't look at him. "You'd gone through enough, so I did my best to keep you and Nightcrawler out of this."

Peter gave a step forward and she stepped back in alarm, her body reacted on its own. The boy didn't seem hurt by this reaction. "I knew it!" He was a mix of joy and exasperation. "You could've just said—"

"You would've listened?"

Peter didn't reply, she walked up to his suitcase, pulling the red and blue suit from it. "Get changed."

"I'm glad to see you," he added before she could leave, "Thought you'd like to know... I mean, sounds like you think I'm having a hard time handling everything, but I'm... I'm better now."

Her hand grabbed the doorknob but she didn't turn it.

"Let me be clear," she moved her head slightly to the side, "we are not friends. This is no life for a boy like you. I was trained to obey my superior's orders and to be a team player, and that's all I'll be. Got it?" She pulled the door open. "Once I'm done here, we're back to being strangers."

Peter grabbed the suit and began to take off his clothes, when he heard the squeaky door closing he muttered. "She could've just said 'okay'..."