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"Sir Spangled Cry's A Lot"

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"What's wrong?" I ask, walking into Uncle Nick's office. His face is lined with worry and that's a rare sight.

"Just as I had feared." He says staring at his screen. "I can't access the files Natasha had traced."

"What?" What the fuck does he mean he can't accesses the files? That was the whole point of that stupid little mission. "Override." I shrug as if it's obvious, it should be.

"Already did." He frowns before nodding as he heads for the door. "With me."

⍟

We head down to the floor where the World Security Council meeting is being held. We find my father waiting as well. Thankfully I don't have to hear it from him since Uncle Nick is here and we're right outside of the meeting.

I tune out most of it, not interested in here all the snobby, uptight controlling bullshit.

Finally Secretary Pierce comes out. If there's anyone in this job I cannot stand more it's him. He gives me most uncomfortable and shady feeling. I've never liked or trusted him and I never will. And here lately he's seemed to have my father in his back pocket for Project Insight.

"I work 40 floors away and it takes a hijacking for you to visit?" Pierce asks Uncle Nick.

"A nuclear war would do it, too?" Uncle N. shakes his hand.

"I hope that's not what we're here for gentlemen?" My father speaks up, shaking Pierce's hand next.

"You busy in there?" Uncle Nick asks Pierce.

"Nothing some earmarks can't fix."

Uncle Nick chuckles before getting to it. "I'm, uh, here to ask a favor." My father shifts curiously. Guess Uncle Nick didn't tell him why he wanted him to meet us here with Pierce. "I want you to call for a vote. Project Insight has to be delayed."

"Excuse me?" My father turns to him in disbelief. This has been his baby for months now. Whether he cares to share all the information or not is irrelevant, I guess.

Pierce's eyes widen as his eyebrows raise. "Nick, that's not a favor, that's a sub-committee hearing. A long one."

"It could be nothing. It probably is nothing. I just need time to make sure it's nothing." Uncle Fury responds, keeping his concerns vague. Wow, he's very serious about this. He was all team Project Insight only a few hours ago.

"But if it's something?" Pierce jumps to.

"You're putting the Project on pause for a hunch?" My father is clearly displeased.

"Then we'll all be damn glad those helicarriers aren't in the air." Uncle Nick answers, eyeing my father.

Pierce takes a moment, also taking note of how serious Uncle Nick actually is. "Fine. But you got to get Iron Man to stop by my niece's birthday party." He bargains.

I scoff quietly. "I think a clown will do just the same." I mumble to myself. The arrogant pos thinks he can waltz into where ever he wants and throw around his unwanted, incorrect advice?!

"Thank you, sir." Uncle Fury nods and shakes Pierce's hand once again.

"And not just a flyby. He's got to mingle." Pierce adds before turning to my father, "Fox, you can run recall scans again to pass the time."

My father begrudgingly nods and Pierce leaves.

"What the hell, Fury?" My father turns to him angrily. "I thought we agreed these are for the better safety for the world? That prissy little "Captain" of your's turn you soft already?"

"Dad." I hiss at him. His mouth is gonna cost him one of these days.

"What? It's a fair question. You got your paws on my daughter using her as pawn whenever you see fit and now you got my Project you made me the overhead of delayed." My father crosses his arms. I sigh, pinching the bridge of my nose. Oh, I so hope there will be drinking on the date tonight.

"I think we should all stick to our domains, Mr. Fox." Uncle Nick tells him. Well, what a polite way of saying stay in your goddamn lane. My father's jaw tightens. "Agent Fox, you're with me still." He orders calmly before moving to the elevator again. Guess I won't be getting off early after all. I smirk as I follow him, ignoring my father's stone cold stare.

⍟

"What's the game plan here, Uncle Nick?" I ask for about the third time as we head outside.

"Get your ass in the car first." He nods to his black SUV.

"Alright, alright." I huff, getting in.

"Activate communications encryption protocol." He orders the car as he puts it in drive.

"Activating communications encryption protocol." The car repeats. Okay, I'm officially starting to freak out a little here.

"Uncle Nick, what the hell is going on? You're starting to worry me a little here." I chuckle a bit to lighten the ride.

"Open secure line 0405." He continues at the car, ignoring me. Am I speaking French?

"Confirmed."

"Okay, listen old man, you may get off not giving any real information to anyone else, but you better tell me what the hell is happening here right now or I will jump out of this vehicle." I raise my voice.

He gives me the side eye, a very hard side eye, before clearing his throat. "I think I'm being targeted." He finally gives me a real fucking answer.

I sigh. "Oh, well..." I fall back into my seat, allowing myself to relax a little more now. "You could've just started with that."

He unamusedly glances over to me again when Maria finally picks up.

"This is Hill."

"I need you here in D.C."

"What am I not enough?" I whisper with a playful smirk.

He shoots me a deadly look causing me to laugh before he continues. "Deep shadow conditions."

"Give me four hours." Maria says.

"You have three. Over."

"Bye Maria!" I chime in as he hangs up.

"That's enough outta you." He points to me, approaching a stop light.

"I didn't have to come, you made me." I roll my eyes as the old man tries to stop himself from smiling as a cop pulls up to our right. I nudge Uncle Nick's arm for him to take a look and he gives a quick glance before doing a double take and the two cops start a stare down.

"Wanna see my lease." Uncle Nick sasses to them, rolling his eyes as he looks back to the road. Maybe rolling down the window was a mistake.

The one driving scowls and flashes his lights and siren real quick before driving off slowly. Uncle Nick starts moving as well when suddenly a car crashes forcefully into his side of the car. My head slams against my window as our air bags go off, Uncle Nick's face slams into his.

"Motherfucker-" Is all I can get out before the cop car that was just by us backs into us as another cop car hits us from behind and a fourth one pulls up. What the hell?!

"Fracture detected." The car voices, pulling up an X-ray of Uncle Nick's arm. Yeah, well I think I've detected a concussion! I wince touching my head while Uncle Nick raises back up with a bloody nose. He unbuckles and reaches for the glove box. "Recommend anesthetic injection."

I look out to see a black van has now taken place on his side of the car and men in swat gear start piling out with guns. "Oh shit."

Uncle Nick pulls out an epi-pen looking thing, pulls the cap off with his teeth and stabs his arm.

"D.C. Metro Police dispatch shows no units in this area." The car informs us.

"Yeah, no shit captain obvious!" I shout back at it. The so-called "police officers" start exiting their vehicles with guns as well. Uncle Nick spits out the cap. "We need to move now."

"Get me out of here." He orders the car. They start shooting at us from all angles. Fuck, I wish I had my gear.

"Propulsion systems offline."

"Then reboot, damn it!" He yells back.

A blueprint of the car pops up with 'ARMOR ITEGRITY 81%.' The shooting stops as they bring out some big machine and set it up right next to Fury's window.

"Warning. Window integrity compromised."

"You think?" Nick barks back. "Get to the back." He says to me. I climb over the console and he takes my seat. "How long to propulsion?"

"Calculating."

There has to be a gun in here somewhere right?! The machine outside goes off, sending a large hit to our car, rocking us.

"Window integrity 31%. Deploying countermeasures." It went to 31% for that?!

"Hold that order!" Uncle Nick shouts. WHAT! I turn to him with a glare. Is he trying to kill us?! The car rocks again. Dear Lord, I would just like to say-

"Window integrity 19%. Offensive measures advised."

That I am so sorry I did not have more time...

"Wait!" Uncle Nick pauses. Oh really?! We're gonna die.

To come up with more insults for Sir Spangled Cry's A Lot.

Our car takes another hit. The window looks like a spider web it's so cracked!

"Window integrity 1%."

"Now!" He screams. The console opens and a gun emerges from it. Uncle Nick fires away causing the window to finally shatter. HELL YES!!! It's about time!

He takes down multiple fake officers, then blows up the van.

"Propulsion systems now online." The car informs.

"Full acceleration! Now!" He screams at the car. "Agent Fox, grenades under seats, go."

Well that would've been valuable information sooner. I reach under grabbing two and start pulling off the hooks and throwing. The car reeves forward into the cop car, no movement, then reverses, driving over the hood of another cop car. Uncle Nick hits a few more men as they mostly just hit the steering wheel, missing him.

"Initiate vertical takeoff!" He yells at the car.

"Flight systems damaged," The car replies.

"Then activate guidance cameras!" Uncle Nick jumps back into the drivers seat and I maneuver back to mine. He groans in pain, clutching his arm.

"Do I need to take over?" I ask.

"Give me the wheel!" He shouts at the car. Guess we'll see. "Juniper, status now."

I look out the cracked back windshield. "At least 5 are gaining. Probably more back there."

"Get me Agent Hill." Uncle Nick commands.

"Communications array damaged."

"Well, what's not damaged?" He snaps.

"Air conditioning is fully operational." Oh, how lovely. I turn back around. They're catching up.

"Traffic ahead." The car warns.

"Give me an alternate route."

"Traffic alert on Roosevelt Bridge. All vehicles stopped." My phone starts ringing. Well, that still works, though I have a good mind to throw it out the window. "17th Avenue clear in three blocks, directly ahead."

"So is this what you had in mind for 'Agent Fox you're with me?'" I shout. Just curious.

"No, I did not!" He stresses, his words straining. "And you can tell your daddy to put that on my grave." Oh, he's gonna be pissed that's for sure.

Uncle Nick rams our car into a truck before I can smart off anything else. He grazes against two cars as he squeezes through, causing them to block the fake cop cars.  Next he drives up on a median, ramming into another car.

"That got them off our ass." I exhale just as they jump out of their cars and step onto the hood of the wrecked ones, getting ready to fire. "Now on foot." Uncle Nick backs up and start driving off again, moving any car that's in our path out of the way. "They're following in pursuit."

They start running beside us, shooting through a glassed-in bench area, shards flying everywhere and into our car. Shit, we're blocked. He puts it in reverse, hitting one of the men behind us. Nice! The man lands on our windshield that I'm surprised is still somewhat in tact. Uncle Nick then drives forward, slamming a car into the other men that are shooting from the side, before taking off again.

"How many now!"

I whip my head back. "Just two." This road is much more clear so it's easier for us to fly through traffic, unfortunately same for them. They make it almost directly beside us and start shooting in. "Oh shit!" I duck down as Uncle Nick leans back. The shooting takes a pause and I pop back up to find a dump truck in between. Uncle Nick dives the car towards them once the barrier is gone and the man hanging out of the passenger door fly's halfway into our car. I pull my seat back as he starts shooting at me while Uncle Nick tries to grab him.

The second car catches up to us and starts pushing into my side of the vehicle. Uncle Nick finally punches the guy in the face with his own gun once he stops shooting. He gets two hits on him before the guy grabs one of Uncle Fury's guns. Fury grabs his hand. I spring up, take the gun from the guy, and slam it into his hand, then up to his chin.

"Warning. Approaching intersection."

Nick slams on the breaks as the cars continue forward, sending the one with the guy that was in our vehicle to be demolished by a semi-truck which then flies into the second car and the semi blasts them out of the way.

Nick turns sharpy. "Get me off the grid!" He yells at the car.

"Calculating route to secure location."

"Nick-" I say slowly as I notice through the cracks a figure approaching us. He squints. Somethings shot at us and then our car flies forward, turning upside down. Son of bitch.

We screech across the pavement quite a ways before coming halt. After a moment, I dizzily try to sit up. I hear Uncle Nick pull a device out of his jacket before a sizzling noise starts. Well, guess we're not running outside of the car then...

⍟ ⍟ ⍟ ⍟

Author's Note: omg it's been forever since I've updated this book!!

This chapter (when I wrote it haha) was such a headache to write and took foreverrrr so hope y'all enjoy <3

I love Juniper and Fury's relationship lol

See you next time ;)