The Avenger's Soul

The Hub (Part 2)

Natasha's POV

I squeezed in after Clint as we made our way through the vents at The Hub. I grumbled, not preferring this particular mode of transport but letting Clint drag me along out of sheer boredom. The last six months had been torture for me, well all of us...finding our soulmate - only to have her disappear on us! It was driving Clint, Tony, and I crazy that we hadn't been able to track her down after all this time - except for one measly recording of her saving a bunch of people from a burning building down in LA; which had both warmed my heart and made it race in fear. What if Hydra managed to locate my, our, soulmate before we could!

And why the hell could two master assassins and a tech genius not track her down! Someone had to be helping her! It was clear that she; like me, had spent her childhood being raised in a very controlled environment; and I knew from personal experience, that she should have made more than a few mistakes by now if she was truly on her own. It had taken me several years to start getting used to life on the outside; let alone how to properly cover my tracks when I didn't want to be followed!

Skye's POV

"Okay, you have the flash drive. Go," I instructed Simmons, motioning for her to enter through the door I was not allowed past. "I programmed it with a decoy crawler. It'll use my browser history to simulate my usual online activity, so while Shield thinks I'm trolling Reddit and Facebook with the laptop they gave me –" I started to say, my voice now reaching her on the other side of the glass door through our earpieces.

"You'll be hacking the files for Ward and Fitz's mission," Simmons finished for me.

"Right. And remember, once you plug it in you'll only have about –"

"Three minutes before Shield catches on."

"Do you realize that you keep finishing my sent –"

"Your sentences. I know, I'm sorry. Bad habit." I rolled my eyes at her but let the matter go, as I smiled awkwardly towards two people who had just rounded the corner.

"This is actually a bit thrilling," I heard Simmons say in a hushed but excited tone; not noticing that the two people who I had smiled at had stopped in their tracks and were now staring at me with wide-eyed expressions.

"Ah, good. I'm glad. Now we've just got to figure out a way to get the panel open!" I told her, still oblivious to the fact that I was now being watched - but now, by four pairs of eyes, not two.

"Don't worry, I made a special something. It's what we do," Simmons reassured me.

I couldn't see her, but I could hear the whirring sound of the panel opening up on the wall.

"All done."

"Really? Wow, okay. Uh, now just find a USB port!" I exclaimed, so focused on the task at hand to realize that I had an audience listening carefully to everything I said; two of whom had super hearing and were able to listen in on Simmons' side of the conversation as well.

"Okay," I heard Simmons confirm. I waited with baited breath, sucking in a gasp as I heard a man's voice speaking in the background of her feed.

"Agent Simmons?"

"It's fine. Just play it cool!" I advised her, sensing that she was probably panicking.

"Hello, Mr. Agent Sitwell, sir. May I help you?" I rolled my eyes at her attempt to play it cool as I continued to listen in.

"Call me Jasper."

"Uh, what brings you to this restricted hallway so late at night?"

"I could ask you the same thing."