Marvel: A Tale of Shadows

Ethan sped down the road nearing the gates as Jean held tightly to his back. Clearly she was upset they had figured that out when she had barely spoken through the entire dinner and ride out here.

As he pulled up to the gate she jolted as Ethan quickly stopped and pulled out his phone. Quickly hacking the security system as well as frying the surveillance systems that were in the vicinity, just because he was feeling spiteful about Jean's behavior.

He knew he said something to set her off but could not figure out what he said that was the trigger.

"Umm… they are going to open the door-" she stopped as the door creaked open. Ethan put his phone away and pulled into the grounds. Quickly navigating to the front of the female dorms. While he could feel her burning gaze in the back of his head.

When he stopped he kicked up the stand and looked back. Jean started making eye contact before climbing off and taking off her helmet.

Ethan climbed off and opened the seat compartment to give Jean her bag back. "Why don't you see the world in black and white?" Her question caused him to freeze in surprise as she took back her bag.

After a moment he took off his helmet as well. "Because, my parents raised me that a person is the sum of their parts and not just where they landed in life." He seemed to think for a moment before he continued, "they were not idealists who saw the world one way or another. In fact when I was twelve they took me to the scarier part of New York where I saw in the span of two minutes two completely different scenes. One moment I saw a bunch of hooligans beating the crap out of an old man. The next I saw an elderly woman give a homeless girl a bag of food and help. I thought it was simple. But my parents taught me to look for the signs, the old man that was being beat up was branded by a gang with a mark that represented him as a child rapist. While the old woman was doing a discreet photo shoot with the photographers hidden." He explained before seeing her face go from understanding to horror to contemplation.

"Huh?" She looked him in the eyes and nodded before leaning toward him and kissing, tongue and all. After a moment of surprise he went all in and kissed her back pulling her body toward him and groping her ass causing a moan.

He then pulled away and bit his lip when he saw her expression, "If we don't stop I am going to be delayed. Besides-" he nodded toward the building where several girls were peeking out. "I think you have enough of a problem already."

"Okay… ah! The helmet-"

"Keep it, I don't have enough room." Ethan explained briefly before riding off quickly.

Jean stood for a moment longer ignoring the prodding from the professor's mind before ultimately walking into the building.

[Yes professor?] She asked mentally.

[Is everything alright? I could sense that your emotions are in turmoil.] Professor Charles asked carefully, prodding at her memories but getting refusal from the invasion of privacy.

[Just thinking through something. It is not something you have to worry about. Please stop trying to read my mind.] Her statement was followed by the toughest mental wall the professor had ever encountered, stopping him completely. Jean followed it up by walking confidently into the girls door and straight to Ororo to talk.

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Riding up to the building he saw the massive structure from over a few miles away. Getting closer he rode up a private road that was empty arriving at a security station.

He slowed to a stop by the box while the security guard opened the window. Ethan unzipped his motorcycle jacket and pulled out the forms and his guest security ID. The guard frowned when he saw it, "this is a first. Usually they give these out when you are already escorted inside. What is your purpose for today?"

"IT support." Ethan answered, getting a look of confusion from the guard, "it is what it says on the official record but otherwise I have to keep what exactly I am going to 'support' a secret."

"Yeah there is a lot of that classified stuff going on. Makes you wonder what they hide sometimes." The guard smiled and chuckled as he scanned the papers and ID through a machine.

"I doubt we will ever know for certain." Ethan chuckled as he accepted and tucked the forms and ID back into his jacket pocket. He then rode down the road arriving at the garage where he quickly dropped off his motorcycle with security after pulling out his bag from the compartment and walking with his helmet in one hand.

He followed the directions through VIP security then entered the elevator. The door was slowly closing when a hand suddenly stopped it. Ethan backed up in surprise as a blonde man in khakis and a form fitting gray shirt stepped inside along with a man that was carrying a case.

"I am just saying Steve, I understand that you are suspicious of Fury's motives. Honestly I am as well. But the guy does mean the best even if he does things that will drive you nuts." The case man explained.

"But he is not giving us the whole picture. How can I navigate finding Hydra if I can not even see the whole picture Clint!" The door closed and the elevator started descending.

"Of course not, he is literally the super spy. His secrets have secrets. But that makes it that much harder to try and pull something with him around. I doubt a spy would be able to sneak into the Triskelion without him knowing about it!" The case man, Clint, let out a breath after his quick rant.

"That is my point. He has to know more, but why is he not telling us? What secret is he hiding?" Steve took a moment before sighing and looking around, "what floor are we going to?"

"Huh?" Clint looked and saw the elevator stop and the lowest floor. "The server room? What-" He looked back and saw Ethan who nodded.

"Do you mind? This is my stop." Ethan stated as he nodded toward the opening door. Clint stepped aside and Ethan stepped off the elevator walking toward the security fence where a security guard was standing at a podium and looked up from what he was reading.

"You must be the guest for the IT department. Our IT guys look way more exhausted and not nearly as relaxed." The guard observed and nodded toward behind Ethan. "They with you?"

He looked back to see Steve looking around. "Nope." He pulled out the forms and ID card handing them over. "I will be here for about six hours."

"Six hours to-?" The guard asked as he looked over the forms.

"IT support. Can't tell you any more." Ethan's explanation caught the attention of the two behind him.

"Okay… everything looks good. Go on in." He clicked something under the podium and the fence gate popped open.

Ethan walks forward and enters the room while the other two are surprised and exchange a look. "Clint, I have an idea."

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Ethan spent a few hours typing up while tucked between a few servers. Directly making alterations so there was a secure black box for the First Line's agents' files, with only a single access through a secure phone he brought with him. He would hand it off the next time 'that person' appeared before him.

He set down his laptop as the program was loading. It was taking awhile to implement since it was an unobtrusive update. It took longer but was more discreet and was disguised as a blip on the internet for only a moment. He stepped away from the servers to stretch and noticed the pair from before walking towards him.

Steve and Clint, Ethan believes he heard them call each other.

"Hello there, I have an idea I hope you could help with." The blonde one, Steve if he remembers correctly, asked Ethan.

Ethan looks between them with a raised eyebrow before shrugging, "sure I have an hour to kill. What do you need?"

The blonde smiled, "actually I wanted to know if it was possible to reach out to a criminal underworld-umm…" he opened a paper that was in his hand causing his companion to roll his eyes. "Hacker. That's the word, a criminal hacker who is apparently well known."

"A well known hacker? There are many in the-" Ethan started explaining with a shrug.

"How about 'The Reaper'? Can you help us contact him?" Clint, the companion, asked. Causing Ethan to flinch and blink in surprise for a moment. Are they serious? He was half tempted to give an underhanded statement but decided against that.

"That is… hard. Technically SHIELD, the U.S. Military, the FBI, the NSA, China, and a number of tech and software companies all want a piece of them." The duo exchanged a confused look at Ethan's words. "That being said… he is less of a disrupter or destroyer, and more of a spy sooo…. Yeah that might work."

"Might?" Steve asked.

"I need to borrow a computer. No way am I trying to contact a black hat hacker on my personal one." Ethan explained as a plan formed in his mind. He had set up a method of contact for those that were desperate and smart enough to find the breadcrumbs he left.

Steve pulled a laptop out of his bag. "Will this work?"

Ethan looked it over and accepted it, "I can make it work. Do you have anything personal on it?"

Steve shook his head, "no I just bought it yesterday. Couldn't figure out how to work it."

Ethan frowned and shrugged walking over to an open table. "Works for me." He opened the computer and started it up. Getting the charger from Steve and plugging it in. He then started it up and was surprised that the computer was not even set up with an account nor any preference settings.

He quickly sped through the basic stuff and started accessing an old website that had several ads. He then clicked on one ad in particular as a flurry of links opened. The underworld blackmarket, it was basically the shopping center for the underworld bosses. He entered a search criteria with the names, 'Reaper' 'Hacker' and 'Assistance'. Several posts popped up and he quickly looked through them and clicked his tongue. He then added another word a second later to the criteria, 'Messageboard'. A moment later and then a single post appeared. He opened it and then created a link on the desktop directly to this messageboard.

"Okay, what is your question or request for him?" Ethan asked. Looking over at them. Steve looked lost while Clint was confused about what he just did.

"Can I request a meeting?"

"I doubt it. This would be the closest thing to a meeting you will get. So what is your request?" Ethan stretched his arm while he waited.

Steve and Clint exchanged a look. "I suppose if I can't meet them then… can you ask if they know any local stateside Hydra facilities?" That caught him off guard. He looked at them for a moment.

"You mean like those terrorists and war criminals from the second world war?" Ethan asked, getting an affirmative nod from Steve.

"I can, but it would be best to avoid certain keywords." He turned back to the computer and typed a new post in the messageboard. "Like Hydra, base, and the general location. So lets see lets go with an old undying decaying dragon for Hydra. Lair for base and Land of… stars for the states."

"That… sounds like unreasonable nonsense. How do you know he will understand the message?" Clint asked while Steve somehow seemed to understand a second quicker.

"That is not the point." Steve answered for Ethan, "the point is to grab attention from the hacker. If he is a 'spy' he will have his ear to the ground in messageboards concerning him and will answer if he is curious or can take advantage of the situation."

"How do you know more about this than I do?" Clint asked in surprise.

"Because in world war two we used several off hand and informal communication methods in a similar manner. I figured they wouldn't be used anymore." Steve observed.

"No, they are still used in the criminal underworld between organizations. It is well known even by the police but it keeps out the general riff raff and wannabe vigilantes." Ethan responded briefly as he quickly authored a message that looked like a Dungeons & Dragons script. "Done. I also set it up so you can access the messageboard through your desktop."

"How will they know to contact me?" Steve asked. Ethan just looked at him with a confused expression while Clint laughed off to the side.

"I will explain to him how messageboards work. If it is secure then I think that is it." Clint answered. Waving Ethan off with a chuckle.

Ethan nodded and stood up walking back to the crawlspace he was working. He did a quick stretch before climbing back in and checking the progress. There was still about an hour, he still had time to kill. He thought for a moment before shrugging, deciding he might as well browse the SHIELD files while he waited.