Iron Girl

The "Hologram" (Sheen Stark)

   "I'm standing outside the house right now," Saila was saying. "I honestly didn't expect to run quite so far, but it's not as bad as when Charles sent me to Japan."

   I nodded trying not to just hang up on her. I really didn't like when people were talking to me while I was focusing on flying. But, she was giving me useful information and she was being my homing beacon in a way, so I let her jabber on.

   "Yo giiirl," Saila said in a weird voice. "You, like, totally overshot. I just saw you over my head."

   I rolled my eyes and turned around. "Thanks for the early warning," I said, landing next to Saila across the street from our target house.

   Saila took a bite out of a donut I didn't even know she had. "No problem."

   Calypso folded up into a round disk about the size of a DVD that I slipped into my pocket. Saila was now licking her fingers. I raised an eyebrow, she was faster than I could even register. Her donut was now completely gone. She gave me a smile that reminded me so much of Skye's friend Cisco that I almost laughed.

   "Catch you later Sail," I said, clapping her on the shoulder.

   It was Saila's turn to raise an eyebrow. "HA! You're hilarious. I'll catch you later." She winked and vanished, leaving only a few small silver sparks to fall to the ground.

   I shook my head with a smile. Saila was impossible. I crossed the street to the house. It was gray, with a large wood deck at the top of six stairs. I reached up and knocked loudly on the door.

   Before it even stopped ringing a teenage girl, looking about sixteen, with brown hair and blue eyes opened the door. She must have been on her way out when I arrived. She looked up at me and I could see the fear in her eyes.

   "H-hi, this is the Thorsen's house. Can I help you?" she asked, clearly trying to hide her fear, but not doing a very good job.

   "Yes, actually, you can," I said, giving her a pointed look as I leaned against the railing. "I had a friend trace some energy signatures for me and they led here."

  "Cloud? Who's at the door?" a female voice shouted from inside

   The girl in front of me, who must have been Cloud, looked over her shoulder and called, "S-Sheen Stark from the Avengers." I noted that she stumbled nervously over my name.

   A woman stomped into view. She looked at me with a look of hatred, then turned to the stairs leading down into the basement. "Nikolo! Please come up here! Sheen Stark of the Avengers is on the doorstep!"

   I waited patiently as we waited for the heavy footfalls to come all the way up the stairs. The man was tall, but not taller than me. He seemed only slightly surprised when we stood eye to eye in the doorway. I dropped a tiny bug on the porch and it scurried inside. None of them noticed.

   The man scowled at me. "What do you want?"

   This guy was obviously someone who liked to spend his free time imagining my untimely end. Wonderful. Time to play it cool like the commander Steve wanted me to be and knew I was.

   "Well, as I was explaining to this beautiful young woman," I nodded to Cloud to indicate who I meant. "I've been tracking some strange energy signatures."

   Nikolo frowned even more than before. "So? What does this have to do with us?"

   I resisted the urge to sigh and punch him in the face. "I was just getting to that. A friend of mine traced the energy back to here. I was wondering if you knew anything about it and if you would let me take a look around."

   Nikolo and his wife looked at each other. Clearly neither of them knew anything about this. Cloud on the other hand... She didn't look confused at all. She looked, terrified. Aha. Hologram indeed.

   Nikolo looked back at me angrily. "Whatever you're trying to pin on us, we didn't do anything. I work for IT security on a college campus and my wife does charity work. Our kids-"

   I decided to take a risky move and interrupt him. They would probably have called the cops on me long ago if I weren't one of the Avengers. "Your kids. I believe one of them is causing this." I showed them a picture of the "hologram" in the yard. I did my best attempt at a soothing smile, but I'm afraid it was something more of a 'I know exactly who it was' kind of smile.

   When Nikolo glared at me, I figured that my soothing smile had definitely come off all wrong. I had to force myself to keep from giving any reaction other than to drop my smile. Some strong commander I was.

   "Get off my land," he growled. "I don't ever want to see you again."

   I nodded and turned to leave. Unable to resist the perfect moment I called over my shoulder, "Better not turn on the TV then. I tend to be on there a lot." I didn't wait around to hear a response, if there was one.

   I left their property and slid into the woods on the other side. Once I was out of sight, I took out Calypso. "Calypso, I need you to connect to that bug I used."

   The disk glowed softly. "Of course, Commander. One moment please."

   The moment wasn't long enough to even qualify as a moment. The bug was transmitting before Calypso even stopped speaking.

   "Yeah mom?" Cloud was saying. I guessed that her dad had left in a towering rage.

   "It's not you is it?" Cloud's mom asked.

   There was a second of silence that I assumed was Cloud trying not to panic. "No, it's not me. Who do you think it could be?"

   "Don't lie to me," Cloud's mom snapped. "It's obviously a girl, maybe a little taller. Are you sure?"

   Cloud sighed. "I wouldn't have time for that! There's no way it's me."

   "Alright. Get ready for bed."

   The bug caught the sound of hurried steps going up the stairs. Then silence other than a couple grumbles that didn't seem to be words at all.

   "Calypso," I said. "Have the bug follow Cloud, go for the ceiling. I want to hear what she's doing next."

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FINALLY

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SPEED FORCE BE WITH YOU

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