Tessa yawned, and Steve glanced sideways at her.

"Shush!" He hissed, putting a finger to his lips.

"We're on a roof, Steve," Tessa rolled her eyes, "nobody is going to hear me yawn."

Steve shot her a death-glare, but Tessa had a habit of ignoring things she didn't want to see.

"We've been up here for ages," she complained, gesturing to the building they were on top of, "why don't we just charge in there, get what we need and leave?"

She waved her hand towards the heavily guarded AWSOMR Museum, lit only by the last rays of the setting sun. Steve sighed; Tessa was just as impatient as any true Stark.

"We need a plan of attack," he stalled.

"I have a plan!" Tessa teased, "Pick up your silly excuse for a lid and ATTACK!"

"SHHHH!" Steve hissed again, glancing around. Tesse groaned at his stress on silence.

"You're overreacting."

"Tess, if I tell you a secret will you SHUT UP?" Steve whispered as loud as he dared.

"Maybe."

"I'll tell you if you promise to keep quiet for five minutes."

"Two minutes," Tessa negotiated.

Steve raised his eyes to the emerging stars.

"Fine, two minutes. Deal?"

They shook hands, and Steve changed his position so that he sat cross-legged, facing Tessa. He pulled the pot-lid, which he had taken along on the mission, onto his lap. Tessa watched curiously as he ran his fingers over the smooth surface before he began.

"This," he explained, "is not just a pot lid. It is the one and only shield of Captain America."

He showed her a small scratch that his mother had made to prove it to him. Underneath the thick metallic paint, you could see a tiny part of another layer of paint, mostly red and blue. With a white star in the middle, Steve knew, even though you couldn't see it.

"Wow..." was all Tessa managed to say as Steve put the shield back behind him.

Steve grinned.

"Now keep your part of the bargain, and keep your mouth shut!"

Tessa closed her mouth obediently, but Steve could tell by her expression that she was counting to one hundred and twenty. Oh well, that gave him two minutes to come up with a plan.

-

"Tess!" Steve glanced around quickly, "put that back! We're here to take what's rightfully yours, not whatever you can get your Starky hands on!"

Tessa held out the small technological object, of which Steve couldn't even guess what it did.

"But Steve, this is high-tech stuff!" she protested, "With these we'd be able to track down the rest of the Iron Man suit faster than you can say Captain America!"

Steve sighed.

"Yes, and they would be able to track us down before you can say Iron Man. Listen Tess, I'm sure they have trackers all over that... thing. You'll already have to search the whole Iron Man glove-thing for trackers."

"But they won't even notice it's gone... At least let me take a picture!"

Steve gave in, (anything to get her to keep it down) and after that Tessa reluctantly put it back.

They crept on through the maze that made up the basements of the AWSOMR Museum, Tessa often biting her lip as they passed by glorious displays of technology.

They turned around a corner, and there it was. Dramatically placed in the center of the room, lit by a single light, stood a box. It even had its own pedestal. Tessa ran up to it and reached inside.

"Wow..." Steve whispered in awe as Tessa Stark held up the first piece of the Iron Man armor, "that's pretty epic."

Carefully, Tessa inserted her left hand into it, and slowly moved her fingers.

"It's perfect..." she whispered. 

"It does seem to fit quite well," Steve agreed, "but what are you going to do if someone comes in now?"

Tessa smiled mischieviously.

"Well," she started, assuming an attack position with her left hand outstretched, "they'll probably say something like 'drop your weapons!', right? So then I'll be like 'It's not a weapon, it's a flight stabilizer!' And then nothing will happen, because I don't have the arc reactor, and I'm pretty sure I need that to power the suit. So then I'll make a run for it."

Steve shook his head. He had NO IDEA what an arc-thingy was, but he wasn't going to let Tessa know that.

"I think it might be more effective to stick to the plan," he suggested, and Tessa grudgingly put the piece of Iron Man's armor into Steve's backpack, muttering something about members of the Rogers family not understanding the concept of fun.

Steve stayed on the lookout while Tessa inserted a small projector into the side of the box. When she switched it on, it projected a perfect 3-D image of the piece of the Iron Man suit. Steve came to check on her, and nodded his approval. Unless you tried to touch it, there was no way to tell that it wasn't the real thing.

They slipped back through the tunnels as silently as they'd come, moving a little faster now. They knew they didn't have much time before someone would figure out that they'd unplugged the cameras, and that guard that they'd knocked out would be waking up soon.

By that time, they needed to be gone.

Unfortunately, Steve and Tessa had used up their daily portion of luck.

"Halt!" A voice from behind them ordered as they strode into the lobby. 

They turned around slowly, and Steve shrugged the shield off his shoulder. 

"That pot-lid isn't going to save you," the guard with the gun growled, "what are you two doing here?"

Steve glanced sideways at Tessa, who was sniffing loudly. He was surprised to see that she was crying, but before he could comment on it she dashed towards the man, falling to the floor at his feet.

"You have to help me!" she begged, "We can't find my necklace anywhere! It's the only one that goes with the shoes I want to wear for the ball tomorrow. Please, you're my last hope!"

The guard went a little red. 

"Uh..." he stuttered, sure that this wasn't covered in his training, "I...uhm... I could check the lost and found..."

Tessa smiled.

"That would be great! You're my hero, thankyouthankyouthankyouTHANKYOU!"

The guard walked over to the lobby desk, keeping his distance from the bouncy Tessa. He pulled out a cardboard box that had 'LOsT ANd fOUnD' written on it in big letters.

Tessa started digging through its contents enthusiastically, and the guard took a step backwards. He glanced at Steve, who was still standing on exactly the same spot, and frowned. The moment Tessa sensed that he was distracted, she turned around and delivered him a punch to the face. He sagged to the ground with only a soft grunt.

Tessa walked back to Steve, shaking her hand to rid it of the sore feeling.

"That guy has a hard head," she muttered, gesturing to the unconscious guard.

"That was some pretty impressive acting," Steve complimented, "did you come up with that at the moment or was it planned?"

"All in the spur of the moment," Tessa grinned, "the 'S' in Stark stands for Spontaneous, you know."

"Right," Steve muttered under his breath, "and the 'T' for troublesome, 'A' for arguing, 'R' for reckless and 'K' for... knuckleheads."

Tessa raised an eyebrow. "What did you say?"

"Nothing, nothing," Steve hurried to reassure her, "let's just get out of here."

They sprinted towards the exit, and just as they reached the doors, another yell echoed through the Museum.

"STOP!"

"Keep running!" Steve ordered, turning around himself.

He turned just in time for his shield to block a bullet aimed at the door, and as the guard swore Steve ran outside, following Tessa into a murky back alley.

The guard stormed outside after them, but they had disappeared into the shadows of the night. Without a torch it was almost creepy on the streets, especially in front of the large museum. The guard shivered in the cold night air, and returned inside. 

"That was too close," Steve decided, "we're going to need to find some help before we look for anything more. If there is anything more."

Tessa didn't reply; she'd already slipped out of the alley on the other side, and was heading towards the forest.

"Wait up!" Steve shouted, running after her. 

Behind them, the stars and the small rays of moonlight lit up the National AWSOMR Museum, which now had one less precious artefact in its basements.

-

In the forbidden forest, as the first rays of sunlight streaked across the sky, Tessa searched the Iron Man fist for trackers. She found 23 before declaring it clear. But trackers weren't the only thing she found.

Inside the hand, in a secret (Starky) compartment, was a minuscule letter. It read;

This is the beginning. This is the easiest part of the 8 to find. If you wish to find the rest of my Iron Man suit, know this; it'll be a trial that only a true Stark can complete. Simply because nobody else on Earth (or elsewhere) is so ridiculously reckless. And yes, I take that as a compliment. 

Good Luck.

Tony Stark

And so, as the early joggers entered a few of the secret paths of the forbidden forest, Steve and Tessa retreated into their cave.

Now, they had a mission.