❛ I observe things❜

There was nothing quite like a rainy day in AP Biology with the teacher granting her students a free period. With Andy still avoiding Peter, she was inevitably also avoiding Ned. That left her with one friend, a single friend. Michelle.

Andy lounged back in her uncomfortable seat at the lab table she shared with MJ and found herself staring at the very black hair of Maya Clemmons - also known as Thunderbird. She hadn't been staring for a minute when the girl next to her sighed, "Staring is for loser, And," MJ simply stated while still invested in her novel: The Female of the Species. Melisande didn't bat an eye at her comment and instead continued to stare at the girl in front of her while she talked to a couple of other students in the class. "What is she talking about?" Andy wondered as she folded her arms across her chest and tried harder to listen in on the strange conversation Maya was having.

MJ shrugged, "Something about her dad."

Andy looked away from Maya and focused now on MJ who was still reading her book. "What about her dad?"

Shooting her friend a quizzical loook, Michelle gently slid a piece of paper into the book to mark her page and set it down. She realized that since Andy genuinely wanted to know the antics of Maya's dad for an unknown reason then she had to be equally invested in the conversation. "Her dad uses some shipping company called Zapos for his business and they lost a package or something," she explained. "Maya's just ranting."

Andy raised an eyebrow, "I've never heard of Zapos."

Michelle shrugged, "I think it's private. Not sure."

Andy nodded and focused back on the girl for a minute before something came to mind and she returned her focus to MJ. "How do you know all that?" 

Michelle rolled her eyes and picked back up her book while opening it to the page she left off on, "I observe things."

"Staring is for losers, MJ," Andy quipped with a scoff leaving her mouth because of the hypocrite next to her. "I don't stare, I listen."

"That's worse," Andy smiled while disapprovingly shaking her head. "How is that worse?" Michelle questioned. "That's eavesdropping, which is much worse than staring because it's not your business."

"When you talk as loud as Maya does, it's everyone's business."

Andy grinned and looked again at Maya's black hair. A moment of silence fell between MJ and Andy so Michelle continued flipping page after page while Andy tried to figure out what Zapos was and had to do with Thunderbird. 

Private shipping company? Lost package? That could translate to a shipment of guns didn't go through. 

But there was only one way to find out.

•••

"ZAPOS," Andy sighed while pinching the bridge of her nose as she clutched her backpack with a fist and held the phone in the other while leaning against a brick wall at eight at night. "How do you spell that?" the person on the other end asked while crunching on something hard, most likely chips. "Exactly how it sounds," Andy grumbled. She checked her watch and sighed, knowing this was going to take a lot longer. "And how does it sound?" 

"Z as is zuh. A as is average. P as is patriarchy. O as is OMG, S as in Sam, you're an idiot," she simply said while trying to contain a smile as the last phrase left her mouth. "I am not an idiot."

Andy huffed, "Did you type it in yet?"

"I'm getting there!" he snipped while typing rapidly on a program he had no idea how to use since Andy had designed all her own firewalls and encryption codes. "What am I doing, anyways? And why couldn't you do this?"

"Because something might be going down tonight. I'd rather just be out here when it does," she explained while looking all around her at the cars driving on the paved road and the people entering a club down the street. "The program you're working on will search the entire Web for the name ZAPOS. I want to know who's running it."

"Think it connects to Thunderbird?" 

Andy shrugged, "Maybe."

The phone call fell silent before Sam gasped from the other end, "Hey, I think you're right."

"What do you mean?"

"All that research you did on Maya's dad yesterday, what did you find out?"

Andy pursed her lips and tried to remember all the databases she searched through. "Uh, he works at an electric plant or something and makes a shit load of money. I searched his bank statements and he made two million in one week alone. His salary is hardly five figures."

"Suspicious?" 

Andy dryly chuckled, "If ever," she said while smiling at a woman walking her dog in front of her. "What did you find?"

"ZAPOS is run by a C.J. Thunder."

Andy pondered for a moment and pushed herself off the wall. "C.J. Thunder and Thunderbird? Coincidence?" Sam asked while chewing on another chip. "That's not what I'm thinking," Andy shook her head. Sam narrowed his eyebrows, "What are you thinking?"

"Maya's dad's name is Christopher John."

Sam raised his eyebrows, "So it's him?"

"I don't do coincidences, Sam," Andy replied while pushing herself off the wall and stepping out of the alley, "Can you track the next delivery? It shouldn't be too hard to find if you're already in the database."

"Let me see," Sam responded while using his mouse to click on the tab for 'Ordered.' 

Dozens of addresses and dates appeared on the screen like a spreadsheet and Sam's eyes widened, "There's a lot going on here, Mel."

"When is the next drop?" Andy questioned while zigzagging between people so she could try and get back to her apartment to do her own research. Sam bit his lower lip and stared at the screen in concentration.

"In twenty minutes," he answered. His answer made Andy stop dead in her tracks and repeat what he had just said back into the phone in disbelief. She didn't expect this to happen so soon, "Where?"

"Elm Road. It's an abandoned lot," he replied. "Don't do anything stupid," he then warned. Andy took a large breath, "Okay, uh, I have to gert my weapon and then I'll go there. Hopefully I'll make it in time."

"What are you gonna' do?"

"Take pictures, get proof, I don't know. I'll figure it out. But this is too good of an opportunity to pass up."

"Agreed."

"I'm gonna' go. I'll see you tomorrow," Andy bid farewell while ending the call and shoving her phone in her pocket so she could run to her apartment. She quickly unlocked her door, threw her bag on the floor, got her camera, looped it around her neck, and grabbed her gun. She was in and out in five minutes so she could get to Elm Road which was ten minutes away. 

Then she was off.

As Andy ran to the site where the next delivery was supposedly happening, she kept worrying about it being too late. She didn't want to stop this next buy, she wanted to have proof so she could finally tell the Avengers what they were looking for. They knew what she was researching, but they didn't have proof, they only had theories. So with photo evidence, this could all end, and the next mission would be finding out what happened to Andy's parents.

Once she got to the site, she ducked behind an old fence that was starting to collapse. The empty lot was filled with several large black SUVs. Andy peered put beyond the fence with her camera and pointed it discretely at the two men in front of the open trunk where a box of guns was openly exposed. Andy unfortunately couldn't get a good look at the faces of the men but as if there were sprinkles on a cake, Thunderbird was sitting next to the weapons crate with her feet dangling over the edge.

Andy snapped photo after photo and smiled. She had what she needed to prove Christopher Clemmons was part of an illegal weapons trade, and now she could tie Thunderbird to it to.