Comment Fic--4/9 (Last One)
daria234 on April 8th, 2014 10:24 pm (local)
Arrow/Criminal Minds/Leverage/Agents of SHIELD/any, Hardison & Garcia & Felicity & Skye & anyone, hacker convention (feel free to leave any of these out and put other characters in)
The email arrived from a blind email account and no matter how he tried to back trace it; he just got dumped into another dead end. He was tapping his fingers on the edge of his desk when a familiar scent permeated his office. “Yes, Annie?” he asked.
“Problem?” she questioned.
“Not a problem exactly,” he answered. “Were you looking for something?”
She perched on the edge of his desk. “I brought you coffee. Reading anything interesting? Something that will get me out of DC?”
“No. But it will most likely get me out of DC,” he answered.
At first glance the people filtering into the hotel didn’t look any different than any other tourists. Then the staff looked closer and realized that each of them carried at least two bags and one of them clearly didn’t hold clothes. That while some of them clearly worked for some sort of government agency, more of them clearly had their own sense of style. Of course as they checked the participants in, the staff realized how wrong they were on some of them.
Amber turned to her partner on desk duty as the blonde picked his bag back up and headed for the elevator. “I wasn’t seeing things, right?” she asked. “He just handed me a military ID?”
“The hottie in the pink shirt?” Mandy asked. “Yup pretty sure he did.”
Amber shook her head. “It takes all kinds,” she decided. Turning she smiled at the new blonde and her very large black friend. “Hi. Welcome to the Inn. How may I help you?”
“Ah, reservation for Felicity Smoak?” the blonde asked. “It might be under Queen Consolidated? And I need to if possible change it to two beds.”
“Felicity, I told you, I can sleep on the floor. I’ve slept in worse places,” the gentleman with her said.
She gave him a look that clearly said they’d been having this argument for a while. “There is absolutely no reason for you to sleep on the floor, John Diggle. We are in a perfectly nice hotel and I’m sure with the amount of money Oliver throws around, they can accommodate us with two beds!”
“Um,” Mandy said tentatively. “Normally it wouldn’t be a problem, but we’re full right now. I can get you a rollaway though.”
“That will be fine,” Diggle said before the blonde could go into another rant. Accepting the key from Mandy, he steered Felicity towards the elevator.
Mandy raised her eyebrows at Amber once they’d left. “Okay so. Queen Consolidated? And she mentioned ‘Oliver’, which can only be one person.”
“What exactly is going on?” Amber asked. She pulled up the check-ins they’d had so far. “We’ve got a military ID. Two people from the Smithsonian. FBI. A couple of Brits. Two Cyber Command. Which have you ever heard of that?”
“Gotta be government,” Mandy answered.
“Okay.” Amber shook her head. “Moving on. A couple of ‘business’ people. And if they’re actually business people, I’ll take desk duty for the next Shriner convention. Two more government with initials I have never heard of. Talk about alphabet soup. And wait, we’re not done with the alphabet soup yet. We’ve got one from SHIELD. Another ‘business’ person, but this one at least had credentials that I believe. I mean Kane Software is at least a legit company. And then, to top it all off… Mr. Tony Stark himself.”
“At least he didn’t demand special treatment?” Mandy tried.
“He has the penthouse! And we don’t exactly have a penthouse! So that means he has an entire floor!” Amber pointed out, then winced as she realized her voice was a bit loud. “You would think if something was going on, management would alert us.”
Mandy favored her co-worker and best friend with a look. “Really?”
“I’m just sayin’!”
“Do you know who that was?” Hardison asked as Parker poked around their hotel room. He ignored her attempts to open the window despite them being on the twentieth floor. It wasn’t the weirdest thing she’d done after they’d entered a hotel room. “Seriously. Do you know?” He waved his hand towards the door, indicating the elevator that they’d just stepped off which had contained another couple.
Parker shrugged, obviously not concerned with Hardison’s information. “A girl? Another guy? She had purple hair, Hardison. Why would someone do that?”
“Parker. That was the Black Queen.” Hardison’s eyes widened as Parker turned to look at him. “At least I’m pretty sure it was. She’s got to be here for the convention. This is absolutely fabulous. I mean I get to meet the Black Queen.”
Parker shrugged again. “She can’t be as good as you.”
“She might be better,” Hardison said.
“No one’s better than you,” Parker said loyally.
Garcia carefully set her laptop up on the table. “You’re going to be really bored,” she pointed out to the man stretched out on one of the two queen beds in the room.
“I think I can manage to find something to occupy me, baby girl,” he replied. He held up the tablet. “If nothing else, I can read up on the possible cases we’ll have when we get back.”
She made a face. “I thought the point of coming with me was to take a vacation, Morgan. That is not taking a vacation.”
“Would you rather I…?”
Garcia flapped a hand at him. “Yes. Yes. Go. Find a girl to flirt with or something to beat up. Not a person, a punching bag. Or. Something. Just leave me alone. I don’t need you looking over my shoulder while I do this.”
“I have never heard of coming to a convention and then not actually attending a convention,” Morgan muttered as he swung his legs down so he could get to his feet.
“I am attending the convention,” she told him. “I’m just doing it virtually. No need to actually interact in person with people.”
“Still weird, Garcia.”
Skye tapped the side of her laptop as the screen fizzled again. “I knew I shouldn’t have agreed to bring along SHIELD tech,” she muttered. “Stupid. Obsolete. Unwieldy.” Her head jerked up as someone pounded on her door. “That can’t be good.” Reaching out, she grabbed her sidearm from where she set it on the nightstand before getting to her feet and cautiously approaching the door. “Yes?” she asked. “Who is it?”
“Um, ma’am? Could you open your door please?” a voice asked.
“Nope. I don’t think so,” Skye called back. “Not unless you give me a damn good reason.”
A badge appeared in her peephole. “US Cyber Command,” the same voice as before told her. “Please, ma’am. We don’t intend to injure you.”
“Cause that’s comforting,” Skye complained. “Hang on a minute.” She scooped up her cell phone and dialed FitzSimmons as she called, “Can you lower your badge? Lemme see your faces?”
“Hey, Skye,” the science twins said almost in unison. “Are you enjoying the convention?” Simmons continued.
“Hasn’t started yet,” Skye answered. “I’m still trying to log in with this laptop Coulson gave me. Listen, have you ever heard of Cyber Command?” As she listened to the two of them attempt to talk over and around each other, she held her phone up to the peephole and snapped a picture of the two people on the other side. “Hey. Hey!” she broke in. “I’m sending you a picture. Just tell me if I can let them into my room or if they’re going to murder me.”
“The man is Gabriel Vaughn,” May said after a minute. “Ex-Delta Force. Ex-military. Very dangerous. Probably not there to kill you though. The woman is Riley Neal. Secret Service.”
“Ex-anything else?” Skye asked. “Seriously? Can’t you just say ‘very bad man. Do or do not trust’?”
“You can probably trust him,” May answered. “I said he wasn’t there to kill you.”
Skye rolled her eyes. “Fine. I’m opening the door.” For a moment she juggled the gun and her phone, before setting the gun down on the shelf in the closet. Swinging the door open, she said, “I still don’t know what Cyber Command is, but apparently you aren’t here to kill me.”
“We aren’t… what?” Gabriel asked, even as Riley shoved him into the room.
“No. We aren’t,” Riley said. She glanced around the room, spying the gun on the shelf, and nudging Gabriel. “We’re…” She noticed Gabriel appeared to be focused on the computer. “Gabriel!”
“Sorry.” The man shook his head. “I can fix that,” he said, pointing at her computer.
“Yeah. I kinda doubt it,” Skye replied. “My boss wanted me to take a work computer, but it’s apparently…” She paused when it was clear Gabriel’s focus was on the computer and not her. He had crossed the room and was sitting down in front of it, seeming to commune with it. “Is he always like this?” she asked Riley.
Riley shrugged. “This is… So you’re here for the convention?”
“Are you?” Skye looked at the two of them. “I gotta say, neither of you look like the type.”
“Well it’s more a work thing for us. We both work for a government group that tries to prevent this sort of thing. I guess whoever invited everyone thought it would be good to have people on both sides. Both the hackers and the ones who prevent things from happening,” Riley answered.
“Which is probably why we weren’t supposed to meet,” Skye pointed out.
Gabriel looked up from her computer then, the screen clearing as he did. “Computer’s fixed. You can log in now.”
“Thanks!” Skye scrambled across the bed, settling in front of the computer. Quickly she logged into the site she’d been given before asking, “Are you going back to your room to log in?” Not hearing an answer, she looked up and realized she was alone in her room. “Well that was just… strange.”
Mac gave a smile of satisfaction as she logged off the chat session. It had been nice to spend some time talking with people who actually understood everything she said. Even most of the people she worked with at Kane Software only understood about half of her computer language. This weekend was just what she needed. While it was fabulous having Veronica back in Neptune, sometimes she just needed a break from the sleuthing. And this weekend away had provided it. She would be glad to get home though and actually talk face to face to someone. Stretching, she considered what she would do for the rest of her break. After all, she didn’t have to hurry right home. She had another night already paid for.
Added characters (although not necessarily named):
Auggie Anderson (Covert Affairs) [Annie Walker]
Jake Jensen (Losers) [Carlos “Cougar” Alverez]
Cindy “Mac” Mackenzie (Veronica Mars)
Gabriel Vaughn (Intelligence) [Riley Neal]
Nell Jones & Eric Beale (NCIS Los Angeles)
Tony Stark (Avengers)
Connor Temple (Primeval) [Abby Maitland]
[Parker] (Leverage)
[Derek Morgan] (Criminal Minds)
[John Diggle] (Arrow)
Brackets means they are not hackers themselves but were added because they were dragged along for various reasons.
Arrow/Criminal Minds/Leverage/Agents of SHIELD/any, Hardison & Garcia & Felicity & Skye & anyone, hacker convention (feel free to leave any of these out and put other characters in)
The email arrived from a blind email account and no matter how he tried to back trace it; he just got dumped into another dead end. He was tapping his fingers on the edge of his desk when a familiar scent permeated his office. “Yes, Annie?” he asked.
“Problem?” she questioned.
“Not a problem exactly,” he answered. “Were you looking for something?”
She perched on the edge of his desk. “I brought you coffee. Reading anything interesting? Something that will get me out of DC?”
“No. But it will most likely get me out of DC,” he answered.
At first glance the people filtering into the hotel didn’t look any different than any other tourists. Then the staff looked closer and realized that each of them carried at least two bags and one of them clearly didn’t hold clothes. That while some of them clearly worked for some sort of government agency, more of them clearly had their own sense of style. Of course as they checked the participants in, the staff realized how wrong they were on some of them.
Amber turned to her partner on desk duty as the blonde picked his bag back up and headed for the elevator. “I wasn’t seeing things, right?” she asked. “He just handed me a military ID?”
“The hottie in the pink shirt?” Mandy asked. “Yup pretty sure he did.”
Amber shook her head. “It takes all kinds,” she decided. Turning she smiled at the new blonde and her very large black friend. “Hi. Welcome to the Inn. How may I help you?”
“Ah, reservation for Felicity Smoak?” the blonde asked. “It might be under Queen Consolidated? And I need to if possible change it to two beds.”
“Felicity, I told you, I can sleep on the floor. I’ve slept in worse places,” the gentleman with her said.
She gave him a look that clearly said they’d been having this argument for a while. “There is absolutely no reason for you to sleep on the floor, John Diggle. We are in a perfectly nice hotel and I’m sure with the amount of money Oliver throws around, they can accommodate us with two beds!”
“Um,” Mandy said tentatively. “Normally it wouldn’t be a problem, but we’re full right now. I can get you a rollaway though.”
“That will be fine,” Diggle said before the blonde could go into another rant. Accepting the key from Mandy, he steered Felicity towards the elevator.
Mandy raised her eyebrows at Amber once they’d left. “Okay so. Queen Consolidated? And she mentioned ‘Oliver’, which can only be one person.”
“What exactly is going on?” Amber asked. She pulled up the check-ins they’d had so far. “We’ve got a military ID. Two people from the Smithsonian. FBI. A couple of Brits. Two Cyber Command. Which have you ever heard of that?”
“Gotta be government,” Mandy answered.
“Okay.” Amber shook her head. “Moving on. A couple of ‘business’ people. And if they’re actually business people, I’ll take desk duty for the next Shriner convention. Two more government with initials I have never heard of. Talk about alphabet soup. And wait, we’re not done with the alphabet soup yet. We’ve got one from SHIELD. Another ‘business’ person, but this one at least had credentials that I believe. I mean Kane Software is at least a legit company. And then, to top it all off… Mr. Tony Stark himself.”
“At least he didn’t demand special treatment?” Mandy tried.
“He has the penthouse! And we don’t exactly have a penthouse! So that means he has an entire floor!” Amber pointed out, then winced as she realized her voice was a bit loud. “You would think if something was going on, management would alert us.”
Mandy favored her co-worker and best friend with a look. “Really?”
“I’m just sayin’!”
“Do you know who that was?” Hardison asked as Parker poked around their hotel room. He ignored her attempts to open the window despite them being on the twentieth floor. It wasn’t the weirdest thing she’d done after they’d entered a hotel room. “Seriously. Do you know?” He waved his hand towards the door, indicating the elevator that they’d just stepped off which had contained another couple.
Parker shrugged, obviously not concerned with Hardison’s information. “A girl? Another guy? She had purple hair, Hardison. Why would someone do that?”
“Parker. That was the Black Queen.” Hardison’s eyes widened as Parker turned to look at him. “At least I’m pretty sure it was. She’s got to be here for the convention. This is absolutely fabulous. I mean I get to meet the Black Queen.”
Parker shrugged again. “She can’t be as good as you.”
“She might be better,” Hardison said.
“No one’s better than you,” Parker said loyally.
Garcia carefully set her laptop up on the table. “You’re going to be really bored,” she pointed out to the man stretched out on one of the two queen beds in the room.
“I think I can manage to find something to occupy me, baby girl,” he replied. He held up the tablet. “If nothing else, I can read up on the possible cases we’ll have when we get back.”
She made a face. “I thought the point of coming with me was to take a vacation, Morgan. That is not taking a vacation.”
“Would you rather I…?”
Garcia flapped a hand at him. “Yes. Yes. Go. Find a girl to flirt with or something to beat up. Not a person, a punching bag. Or. Something. Just leave me alone. I don’t need you looking over my shoulder while I do this.”
“I have never heard of coming to a convention and then not actually attending a convention,” Morgan muttered as he swung his legs down so he could get to his feet.
“I am attending the convention,” she told him. “I’m just doing it virtually. No need to actually interact in person with people.”
“Still weird, Garcia.”
Skye tapped the side of her laptop as the screen fizzled again. “I knew I shouldn’t have agreed to bring along SHIELD tech,” she muttered. “Stupid. Obsolete. Unwieldy.” Her head jerked up as someone pounded on her door. “That can’t be good.” Reaching out, she grabbed her sidearm from where she set it on the nightstand before getting to her feet and cautiously approaching the door. “Yes?” she asked. “Who is it?”
“Um, ma’am? Could you open your door please?” a voice asked.
“Nope. I don’t think so,” Skye called back. “Not unless you give me a damn good reason.”
A badge appeared in her peephole. “US Cyber Command,” the same voice as before told her. “Please, ma’am. We don’t intend to injure you.”
“Cause that’s comforting,” Skye complained. “Hang on a minute.” She scooped up her cell phone and dialed FitzSimmons as she called, “Can you lower your badge? Lemme see your faces?”
“Hey, Skye,” the science twins said almost in unison. “Are you enjoying the convention?” Simmons continued.
“Hasn’t started yet,” Skye answered. “I’m still trying to log in with this laptop Coulson gave me. Listen, have you ever heard of Cyber Command?” As she listened to the two of them attempt to talk over and around each other, she held her phone up to the peephole and snapped a picture of the two people on the other side. “Hey. Hey!” she broke in. “I’m sending you a picture. Just tell me if I can let them into my room or if they’re going to murder me.”
“The man is Gabriel Vaughn,” May said after a minute. “Ex-Delta Force. Ex-military. Very dangerous. Probably not there to kill you though. The woman is Riley Neal. Secret Service.”
“Ex-anything else?” Skye asked. “Seriously? Can’t you just say ‘very bad man. Do or do not trust’?”
“You can probably trust him,” May answered. “I said he wasn’t there to kill you.”
Skye rolled her eyes. “Fine. I’m opening the door.” For a moment she juggled the gun and her phone, before setting the gun down on the shelf in the closet. Swinging the door open, she said, “I still don’t know what Cyber Command is, but apparently you aren’t here to kill me.”
“We aren’t… what?” Gabriel asked, even as Riley shoved him into the room.
“No. We aren’t,” Riley said. She glanced around the room, spying the gun on the shelf, and nudging Gabriel. “We’re…” She noticed Gabriel appeared to be focused on the computer. “Gabriel!”
“Sorry.” The man shook his head. “I can fix that,” he said, pointing at her computer.
“Yeah. I kinda doubt it,” Skye replied. “My boss wanted me to take a work computer, but it’s apparently…” She paused when it was clear Gabriel’s focus was on the computer and not her. He had crossed the room and was sitting down in front of it, seeming to commune with it. “Is he always like this?” she asked Riley.
Riley shrugged. “This is… So you’re here for the convention?”
“Are you?” Skye looked at the two of them. “I gotta say, neither of you look like the type.”
“Well it’s more a work thing for us. We both work for a government group that tries to prevent this sort of thing. I guess whoever invited everyone thought it would be good to have people on both sides. Both the hackers and the ones who prevent things from happening,” Riley answered.
“Which is probably why we weren’t supposed to meet,” Skye pointed out.
Gabriel looked up from her computer then, the screen clearing as he did. “Computer’s fixed. You can log in now.”
“Thanks!” Skye scrambled across the bed, settling in front of the computer. Quickly she logged into the site she’d been given before asking, “Are you going back to your room to log in?” Not hearing an answer, she looked up and realized she was alone in her room. “Well that was just… strange.”
Mac gave a smile of satisfaction as she logged off the chat session. It had been nice to spend some time talking with people who actually understood everything she said. Even most of the people she worked with at Kane Software only understood about half of her computer language. This weekend was just what she needed. While it was fabulous having Veronica back in Neptune, sometimes she just needed a break from the sleuthing. And this weekend away had provided it. She would be glad to get home though and actually talk face to face to someone. Stretching, she considered what she would do for the rest of her break. After all, she didn’t have to hurry right home. She had another night already paid for.
Added characters (although not necessarily named):
Auggie Anderson (Covert Affairs) [Annie Walker]
Jake Jensen (Losers) [Carlos “Cougar” Alverez]
Cindy “Mac” Mackenzie (Veronica Mars)
Gabriel Vaughn (Intelligence) [Riley Neal]
Nell Jones & Eric Beale (NCIS Los Angeles)
Tony Stark (Avengers)
Connor Temple (Primeval) [Abby Maitland]
[Parker] (Leverage)
[Derek Morgan] (Criminal Minds)
[John Diggle] (Arrow)
Brackets means they are not hackers themselves but were added because they were dragged along for various reasons.