Spider-Man: Duty and Loss Chapter 21: Curiosity

Tony stark looked up at a holographic screen as he watched Natasha walk out the front door of Avengers tower. Making sure that she was gone and looking at the time. (7:30) He pulled up a keyboard in front of him. Typing in some quick commands a new screen appeared.

The screen showed a view of New York before in the following seconds it zooming in on a specific target. The person that was being tracked turned out to be Natasha and the view followed her as she walked down the street. In her gorgeous dress and carrying a large bag, the screen caught the sight of many a man staring her way.

Tony slowly lowered himself down on to the seat behind him and watched with a satisfied smirk. Anyone looking from the outside would feel that his smile had gone from charming one second to slightly creepy.

*Pish* The door to the lab opened and a new person entered. Sporting a bow behind his back and a black top, the man had a perpetual smile on his face and a happy glint in his eyes. Scanning the room with his hawk like eyes, he instantly locked on to tony sitting down.

Walking over to discuss something, his footsteps stopped for a second as he looked at the screen in front of Tony. Without looking behind Tony addressed the new person. "Hey Legolas, what's up?" Not one to be outdone the man quickly quipped back. "I knew you were interested in Tash, but I think you've gone over the edge Tony with the stalking. What am I going to tell Pepper?"

Tony tensed at the words and a small shiver went down his spine at the mention of 'Pepper' he still felt a phantom pain from when she caught him eyeing Natasha the other day. "Don't joke about that Barton." Giving a small smile, Clint Barton, better known as Hawk eye, pulled up a chair next to the billionaire and looked at the screen before them. He straddled the chair backwards and rested his chin on the top of the chair back.

Laughing lightly a curious light flashed through his eyes. "So why are you tracking Tash with a…Satellite I'm guessing." Tony gave a small nod at his words. "You remember when she was angry the other week." Clint gave an amused nod. "It was so bad I was afraid to ask if it was 'that time' of the month'. I think she might have actually broken something at the time." Tony gave him a look at the intended joke with a shocked face, before giving him a thumbs up. "I wish I had thought of that one!"

They both laughed as they imagined what her face would have looked like after asking the question, before they both shuddered as they realized how much danger they would be in if they uttered such words.

Having a moment of silence Clint finally spoke again. "So you hacked a satellite to track her? Because of her bad mood a week or two ago?" Tony gave a self satisfied smirk. "Hacked one? No, I own this on. Stark industries made and manufactured." He flashed a big smile towards Clint as he bragged. "And yes, yes I did. Come on you want to know as bad as I do why she was so pissed off!"

Clint had to admit he was right, he hadn't seen her that mad since a target got the drop on her and almost killed her one mission. After that incident she had stepped up her game to a whole different level and at the same time trained Clint into the ground with how many spars they went through. He physically couldn't walk for a week after the amount of time he spent with her practicing combat techniques.

But even though he was thinking that he could help but get in a little teasing. "Nah I'm not buying it, if you really like her so much you should try the direct approached instead of stalking her." Stark's face turned annoyed as he chewed on the words. "Haha, I don't think that would work out well for me, actually scratch that, I don't think that would end well for anyone."

At his words Clint winced for a second. He had indeed once been straight forwards with Natasha when they had just started working with each other. Trying to hit on her during a sparring match might have been the worst thing he ever tried. Waking up in the infirmary with 2 broken bones wasn't funny in their sort of business.

No need to guess Clint hadn't tried to do that again, he didn't even think the bone set properly after that day, his shooting always was a little to the right… Not noticing the slight wince tony continued to talk. "You know what I'm talking about, every time she gets back from a mission she always rushes to go somewhere in the morning, and I decided it was time to find out why."

The both took a quick look at the screen to see where she was walking, both curious what they were going to find out. Clint spoke from the side. "Well I am interested. But you know when she finds out you stalked her with a satellite she's going to kill you." Tony, that had been relaxing and staring intently at the screen, single minded in his obsession to find out her secret had never thought of this one fact.

He froze as his body chilled like he was dipped in ice. The angry eyes of Natasha when she finds out and then all the possibly torture methods she might use filtered through his mind. He wasn't one of the smartest men in the world for no reason. His spine shivered and he almost closed the screen out of instinct, but fought it backs to sate his curiosity.

Before he could figure out what was the best course of action Natasha arrive at a park and it looked like she was slowing down. 'She was going to meet whoever it was!' Both of the men had the same thought as they sat on the edge of their seats. The satellite zoomed in even more and they tried to see who she was about to meet.

She was walking towards a bench in the middle of the park when the concerned voice of Jarvis came over the speakers. "Sir it seems that one of our satellites is being hacked right now" "What!" Tony shot his head from the screen to the disembodied voice of Jarvis. The screen tracking Natasha suddenly blinked out and Clint also knew something was up.

They both furrowed their brows. "Jarvis what's happening?" The slightly British voice responded with a bit of fluster. "Sir an unfamiliar code has hacked into our systems and shut down our control of all satellites. They are hacking into our main servers as we speak. I am trying to lock them out."

Tony sprang to his feet as he started to type furiously into the keyboard before him. "Sir they are tracing back your signal and have overridden all my system protocols…."*Bzzt* Suddenly a different female voice spoke over the speaker. "….Ohh this is quite the quaint system." Tony looked aghast as he tried to type more commands into his console. "Who is this?!" Clint talked in the stead of Tony as he tried to get his system back under control.

"So it was Tony Stark and Clint Barton. Iron-man and Hawk Eye. I've got all the information I needed." With that the voice disappeared and the screen in front of them flickered back to life. But this time it wasn't showing Natasha it was something different.

*Bzt* "Sir what just happened?" Tony kept the serious face. "Run internal diagnostics on all systems now Jarvis, and put down a reminder. I need to increase our security." "Yes Sir." The screen in front of them kept the same, only showing an image of some type of silver crystal. Both hadn't seen that symbol before, but they wouldn't forget it for a long time.

"What does that person have to do with Natasha?" Clint spoke as he stared at the crystal. "I don't know but I'll find out." Tony gave a serious nod as his mind wandered off. While he was off in his own thoughts for a few minutes he was broken out of it when a hand clasped his shoulder.

Turning around he looked at Clint who gave him a pitying gaze. "I don't envy you when you have to tell Tash about this." Sporting a pale face at the words, Clint gave a small chuckle as he left the room. He may have shown a carefree attitude but he was also worried about what just happened.

His worry for Natasha grew.

Chapter end