Stealth Mode

I groan when I see that my candy is missing again. Seriously?! It's in a secret stash and it still goes missing!

Just then Entropy pops her head in the doorway. I sigh when I remember what day it is. Saturday. The one day out of the week where Entropy decided she is going to teach me a new skill that she learned from her mother. And this week's lesson, stealth.

"You ready?" she asks all excited.

"What if said no?"

"I'd force you to learn some how."

"Fair enough. So where is this lesson taking place?"

She simply points up at the vents.

"Isn't that sort of Uncle Clint's territory?"

"Yeah. But I'm his favorite niece so he's letting us go up there today."

"Of course. So. Where do we begin?"

She just smiles and walks out of the room and I reluctantly follow her. She goes to the grate in the wall in the living room and opens it up before sliding in effortlessly. I sigh and follow her in. Thankfully the vents are wide enough so that I can turn around and put the grate back in place before following her into the maze.

She moves along silently, while I on the other hand can't move without making some sort of noise. She stops and turns around.

"Lesson one, instead of using your whole hand, use the heel. That way your hand won't make a slapping noise on the metal."

I not and try it. It's extremely uncomfortable, but I do it anyway so I don't annoy Entropy. We keep going along and stumble upon Uncle Sam's room. We hear pop music playing and look through the small grate to see him dancing around while he cleans. Entropy tries to hold a straight face so she doesn't blow our cover. I on the other hand don't and I let out a little giggle. Thankfully the music is loud enough that he can't hear little whispers and the occasional schoolgirl giggle.

We keep moving and before long we stumble upon Uncle Bucky's room. Everything is silent in there so we can't afford to make a sound. He is quietly doing maintenance on his arm while humming a Russian lullaby he used to sing to me as a child. As we start to move again, I slip and make a banging sound. Entropy glares at me and Uncle Bucky is on his feet with a gun in his hand in seconds. I gulp as Uncle Bucky speaks.

"Who is there?" He asks all dark and menacing.

"It's just me. Please don't shoot." I say in a weak voice.

"Jamie?"

"Yes…"

"Damn it Jamie. You scared the crap out of me. What are you doing up there?"

"Learning to be stealthy."

"Well I'd say you failed this one."

"Yeah tell me about it." Piped up Entropy.

Bucky sighed when he heard her voice and went back to what he was doing, minus the humming.

We keep going until we reach the lab, the final destination I guess. She gestures for me to go ahead of her.

"I want you to go to the vent all the way on the other side of the room and come out there without dad knowing."

I look at her to see if she's joking but she is dead serious. Great.

I slowly make my way across the vents, trying desperately to stay silent. About half way things are going smoothly. Just as I am beginning to think I might accomplish my goal, I put my hand down on a loose block in the vent. It begins to wobble and shake before the entire section I am on collapses and I fall through onto Uncle Stark's work station. I scream the whole way down, scaring Uncle Bruce, causing him to drop the chemicals he was holding. After a few moments, a small explosion happens. Dad and Uncle Stark come in to find the vents on the ground, me in a heap of broken glass and blood, and an explosion's aftermath in a corner.

Just when I think it can't get any worse, my candy that has been missing for weeks falls from a hole in the wall that was covered by the vent onto my lap.

"What the f-"

"Jamie!" My father shouts before I can release the offending word.

Aunt Nat runs in and stares for a moment.

"Entropy Alexei Banner! Show yourself right now!"

Entropy releases a sigh before gracefully swinging down from the not broken vents.

"Hi mom."

"Did you convince Jamie to do this?"

"Fall from the ceiling? Nope. That was her own doing."

"You know what I mean."

"If you're meaning teaching her an important life skill, then yes. Yes I did."

Aunt Nat looks at me.

"Are you alright?"

"I'm fine. I am more curious as to why my food was in the walls than I am angry about this."

Entropy shrugs before helping me up and guiding me to my concerned father. He picks me up, careful of the glass shards in my back before taking me to the medical wing with Uncle Bruce and Aunty Nat following.

"We are not finished with this conversation young lady." States Uncle Bruce as we leave the destruction.

Entropy nods and follows us. She jogs to catch up with my father and walks beside us.

"Why do I let you drag me into this?" I mutter quietly.

"I don't know. I guess you're just stuck with me." she says while smiling a cheeky little grin.

"Yep. You're stuck with me too." I laugh.