chap. 2 - Jess and the Shield

I come out of my meditation at about 5 a.m., put on a pair of sweatpants, a t-shirt, tie up my dreadlocks with a rubber band, do a little stretching, make some coffee, and go for a run.

I call 2 and 3 (they are my shadow swords, no names) and ask them to acquire information about Obadiah Stane, all the scams and embezzlement and whatever else they can find.

'I should have asked for intelligence to make an AI for me,' I think consoling myself.

It's 6:30 in the morning, I take a shower, put on some clothes and go to the kitchen, prepare a delicious breakfast with scrambled eggs, orange juice, cold mix, coffee and boiled milk.

I go to the room where May is sleeping and knock on the door. "May, it's already noon, lunch is ready." and I rush out to the children's room.

As soon as I enter, I hear the noise of a tornado coming out of the next room running to the bathroom in a hurry, which makes me laugh.

Peter wakes up with the noise, and seeing me laughing understands what happened and laughs too, I kiss his forehead wishing him a good day and go to the kitchen.

When I arrive I see a gasping, disheveled and very angry May, which makes me laugh even more. "Lady Medusa, breakfast is ready." which earns me a good punch in the arm.

"As you can Ric, I almost had a heart attack from the scare," she tells me still punching me in the arm.

"Come on May, it's Saturday, and I need to work, how can I show up in front of people with bruised and scarred arms? What will they think of me?" I tell her with an indignant face as I shield myself from the punches.

"They will think how bad you are, and they will be right. I'm not a young Ric anymore. Stop it," she says even more indignantly.

"Ok, ok, forgive me, now, could you have some coffee with us?" I say as I point to the children approaching the kitchen.

While we are having breakfast, "Peter, I will need to go away for two days, can you look after May for me?" I say looking at the little boy, who looks like a squirrel eating.

He nods his head confirming that he accepts the job.

"Good, May, be a good girl and don't make a mess ok?" I say looking at her, and see her with that fake indignant face. "If everyone is a good boy, I'll bring you presents," I say as if there were two children at the table instead of one.

I get up and go to the bedroom, a few minutes later I come out wearing a set of suit, vest, shirt, pants and boot, with an overcoat on top. The vest is a dark green and the rest black.

May whistles, which makes me look at her seriously and shake my head, Peter says "Uncle is handsome" and I mess up his hair.

"Take care of her ok?" he nods, and I walk out the door to my office.

I get in my car, a modified 69 Opal, powered by solar energy, which I had Stark Industries' scientists develop for me. The technology is already being implemented in most cars today.

In the car while I am driving, "1, 4, 5, 6, take care of the house and the Parker's yes. 7, 8, 9, I need you to acquire all possible data and materials from Tony to create my own AI" and 40 minutes later, I arrive at the office.

The door reads Nox Investigations. I open the door and find my assistant and a group of people sitting there waiting for me. My assistant is Jessica Jones.

Yes, I helped her when the purple man tried to overpower her, so I killed him and burned his body and any traces of his blood I could find. I don't want Hydra or AIM or whoever, creating serums or ways for them to gain that power.

Since then she works as my secretary and often takes over the investigations herself. Obviously I am just waiting for her to graduate from college so I can make her my partner.

*(In this universe she was born in 90, so she is barely 20 and she is in college. Working part time for me.)

"Good morning Jess, what do we have for today?" I ask her as I walk into the reception area.

"Good morning Mr. Nox, we have these guests who have not made an appointment, and have decided to wait for you." she says as she arranges the paperwork on the table.

A man with an easy smile and large entries in his hair, wearing a well tailored suit stands up, "Good morning Mr. Nox, come on behalf of the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Execution and Logistics Division, we are looking for an even smaller name. My name is Phil Coulson and we have business to transact with you." he tells me as he extends his hand.

I return the greeting by shaking his hand, "As you know, I am Emeric Nox, investigator and for now sole owner of Nox Investigations, which in the future, together with my new partner and business partner, will be called Alias Investigations. And if I may, SHIELD would be a good name for you." I finish with a smile, nodding toward my office.

As they walk in, "Jess, how is the selection going on for the two new employees we need?" I ask stopping at the office door.

"The cleaner has already been hired, as for secretaries we are still in the process." she answers me still filling out some paperwork.

"I don't want to abuse your good will, but could you serve us a cup of coffee?" I ask her ungraciously. And also, stop with the "Sir" crap, we are partners, call me Nox, or Emeric or even Ric, since we are friends.

I start to walk into the office when I remember, "My coffee without sugar please Jess, last time it had so much sugar that I had to be tested for diabetes.

I sit down, signaling for Coulson to sit down.

"Before we begin Mr. Coulson, I need to make a few things very clear to your big name group." I put my hands together on the table. "First, I don't care what you people think, but your agents destroying the privacy of my associate and my friends the Parker's, is already past my limit."

"Mr. Nox, we know that you are an enhanced person, but you don't cause trouble for anyone, so I will talk to my boss to have you decrease or remove the surveillance of the Parker family and Mrs. Jones." he replies.

"You don't understand Mr. Coulson, the order is to be given now. You can inform Nick through the communicator in your pocket or the wire in your left ear," I say a little more seriously.

This causes a reaction in Coulson, who was not prepared to be discovered so easily.

His phone rings, as soon as he answers it, he tries to put me through, which I deny "He doesn't want to talk to you, sir." After a few more seconds, "Mr. Fury asks to inform you that the recall order has been given."

"Just inform him that his agents may turn up dead without explanation if he tries to bluff me," I warn him. "And I don't care if Miss Denvers is called in as well, she won't change a thing."

I hear him say yes sir one more two or three times and hang up the phone.

At that moment the office door opens and Jess leaves a tray with two cups of coffee and sugar, and walks out again closing the door.

"Mr. Fury thanks you for the name idea, and assures you that the agents are withdrawing from their posts. He also asks me if you would like to be a consultant to Shield, taking orders from no one of course." he tells me nervously.

"I don't see a problem with that. I accept the offer. Now, regarding the job, tell me, what do you need?" I answer while sipping my coffee.

"It's been three months since Tony Stark was kidnapped, and we still have no information on his whereabouts."

"That's it? Send a search party near Gulmira, maybe you'll find him." I reply finishing my coffee. "Now as for my payment, it's $50,000.00 for the information."

I hear my phone ring and the bank app informing me that into the Nox Investigations account the correct amount has been deposited.

I smile at Coulson who gets up and says goodbye, leaving the office.