Hey, so I've been wanting to write this for a while but have never had the right way to start it till now.

I hope you all like it!

Disclaimer: I don't own the Avengers in any way shape or form. OCs are mine though. (Don't worry, they aren't main characters.)

Four year old Anthony Stark sat on the floor of his room. He wasn't playing with building blocks or stuffed animals or anything else that children his age would generally play with. No. He was playing with pieces of technology, fitting them together and working out how to make them work.

He was being watched over by his only friend and butler Edwin Jarvis. Tony liked Jarvis. He was nice and comforting. Jarvis was always there for Tony when he needed him. Usually this was whenever Tony had seen his father.

Howard was not nice. Not safe. Tony didn't like him at all but he wanted, needed, him to be proud. Howard would always say he was proud of his son to the press but Tony knew otherwise. Howard would often tell Tony how much of a disappointment he was. Tony was a smart boy though, he knew to act like a happy family when they were out of the mansion. He had thrown a tantrum once and Howard hadn't been happy at all, Tony had learnt from that mistake.

Tony didn't talk very often because of Howard. He didn't like it when his father told him to be quiet so he just stopped talking. He could talk a lot better than most others his age but rarely did, even around Jarvis.

Suddenly, there were loud noises coming from downstairs. Tony heard his mother scream. It was a fairly common occurrence so he thought nothing of it. A few seconds later though, he heard something that was not a common occurrence. The sound of screams turning into a strange strangled gurgling.

Jarvis told him to stay put while he went to see what was going on.

Tony was never very good at following orders.

He waited until Jarvis was gone before getting up to see what was going on. He walked through the mansion to where he had heard the sounds from; his father's study. He was hesitant to go inside as his father never let him.

After plucking up some courage and pushing the door open he nearly screamed at what he saw in front of him. His father looked like he was resting his head on his desk but Tony could see the blood that was pooling around him. He also saw his mother. Her throat sliced open and lying on the ground.

He knew that they wouldn't be getting up again but he didn't feel anything. He didn't like the sight of the blood but he didn't care that his parents were dead. It was a hollow feeling, one he wasn't sure if he liked or not.

He also saw the figures in the corner. Both dressed in black with black, wooden masks that had bright colours on them and had glowing contact lenses in. One had two cyan blue lines tapering off at the ends that ran diagonally across the face, crossing in the middle, their contacts were glowing the same cyan colour. The other had emerald green around the eyes, like thick eye liner, and going diagonally across each eye, their contacts the same shade of green. The green one cocked their head and stared at him for a second before Jarvis came into the study, gasped and took Tony away. He hadn't noticed the figures.

The two assassins were now alone in the study with the corpses. "What's going to happen to the boy?" The one wearing green asked as they left through the window. Their voice was going through an enhancer so it was impossible to determine the gender.

"Who cares?" The other asked back. "We did the job, we're not the ones who have to deal with the aftermath."

"Don't you feel a little bad for taking his parents away from him?"

"No."

"Awh, come on Densetsu, have some feelings."

Densetsu stared at the other one, as if trying to figure out some hidden meaning in the words. "Cub, he's too young to join the order."

Cub shrugged. "He's a genius. I'm sure he'd cope, besides, did you see how he reacted to the bodies?"

Densetsu sighed. "Fine," they said, "but if we're taking him then he's your responsibility."

This was rewarded with a quick hug from Cub. "You're the best!" They said. "Now we just have to figure out how to take him."

A few hours later, at midnight, the assassins came back to the mansion. They had cleaned up considerably and sneaked into Tony's room. They woke the young boy up.

"Anthony," Cub said, the enhancer was off and her voice was quite clearly feminine, "would you like to come with us?"

"We'll take care of you." Densetsu said, his voice was masculine.

Tony blinked up at the masked people above him. They were adults and strangers so he shouldn't speak but their tones of voice were soft, like when Jarvis would talk to him.

"Anthony," Cub said, sitting on the floor now, "do you want to become an assassin?"

Tony knew what an assassin was. He knew that they were almost untouchable. That if he became one then he wouldn't have to worry about people mistreating him again. He smiled and nodded.

Densetsu gently picked Tony up. He was slightly surprised when the boy flinched. He then took him out of the window and they quickly ran through the streets to a private jet that they got on. Tony fell asleep again pretty soon.

Densetsu and Cub took off their masks and contacts, revealing them to be very similar looking. Both had a fair complexion and brown hair. They also both had blue eyes.

"You should try to get some sleep too." Densetsu told Cub who nodded and closed her eyes.

When Tony woke up he was in a strange place. It took a moment for him to remember the events of the night before.

He was welcomed into the order with open arms. They liked having the little kid around and he settled into life at the order pretty quickly. He began to speak a lot, knowing he wouldn't be punished for it, and began training on his fifth birthday.

He was being home schooled by some of the older assassins who had already got their degrees. He took a particular interest in mechanics and engineering although he excelled at pretty much everything they threw at him, both academically and in his training.

When he was eight they brought in some more trainees of his age. He got along with them surprisingly well with three of them and they made a good team. There was one girl and two boys and they all quickly became a tight knit group of friends, almost family. The girl was called Rebekah and the boys were Lucas and Kyle.

Rebekah was small, with dark skin and long black hair and brown eyes. She was tough though and very smart, not as smart as Tony but she wasn't far off. She was feisty though and angered easily. At first she was only in the group because she wanted to annoy the boys but she soon grew to actually like them.

Lucas was the tallest. He had very short blonde hair and blue eyes. He didn't talk often but whenever he did it was always well calculated. He was a pretty private person but he opened up to the group. He didn't really get along with other people too well and so having such a close group of friends meant a lot to him.

Kyle was pretty average height wise and had brown hair and green eyes. He was a strange one and was extremely immature but he still somehow managed to do everything that was asked of him efficiently.

By the time they were ten, Tony was an expert in at least four kinds of martial arts and was doing extremely well academically too, already being more intellectual than the average high school student. He also knew how to speak and understand roughly twenty different languages. The others were a little behind on him but that was to be expected considering that he'd been training for longer than them. At ten they were allowed to choose what weapons they wanted to learn how to master. They were allowed two combat weapons and one ranged weapon or vice versa depending on what they preferred. They were also all given colours. These colours would be what colour their mask would be when they got it.

Tony's was a yellow-gold. He was happy with that, gold was always a colour he liked. Lucas' was scarlet, Kyle's was an indigo blue and Rebekah's was a light shade of lavender.

They all took their time over it, with help from the other members of the order. They all found their first choices pretty easy. Tony chose a three foot katana. He forged it himself with help from the blacksmith and bound it's black handle with gold tape. The hand guard was a simple gold one and the bottom of the handle was the same gold colour.

Lucas' first weapon was a long bow. The arrow tips and fletchings were scarlet as was the handle on the bow. Kyle chose twin sais, wrapped with indigo tape and Rebekah picked twin butterfly knives with lavender handles.

They all went hunting together once they had picked their first weapons and got pretty good at using them. They were slightly put off at the thought of killing innocent creatures at first but they soon grew to love their hunting sessions.

Their second choices were harder. Tony decided to go with a sniper rifle. Not many of the assassins actually used one so he mainly self taught himself how to. After some consideration, Lucas picked another ranged weapon. A crossbow. It's bolt tips were poisonous and scarlet. Rebekah picked what was technically a ranged weapon, throwing knives. They were plain steel although they would later be engraved with her chosen name in lavender. Kyle eventually picked a battle axe. He had trouble with it at first but eventually learnt to master it.

Their third choices were the hardest of all. Tony went with a long, wooden bo staff that he carved. The tape on the handle was his trademark gold and it had a concealed blade in one of the ends. Lucas went with a yari spear, it's binding scarlet. Kyle went with throwing knives and got help from Rebekah on how to use them and Rebekah picked a thin rapier, the handle lavender.

They went to New York when they were thirteen to a section of the order that was stationed there. The section was like a family. It was a relatively small one and everyone knew everyone. Densetsu and Cub had come with them.

By the time they were fifteen they had mastered all of their weapons and were finally allowed to go on their first job. They were all nervous but excited at the same time, their black masks had no markings but they wore their coloured contacts and were to leave a token that marked the order and their colours at the crime scene. The token was just a simple black feather but it's edges were coloured gold, scarlet, indigo and lavender.

The job was simple enough, kill an extremely corrupt cop. He had asked Densetsu why they killed people once and he had told him that they only killed people who were making the world a worse place. The ones who were beyond redemption. He had accepted that. Densetsu had also said that sometimes they did jobs if they were offered enough money although that was usually millions.

The cop should have been easy but Tony had hesitated. He had then thought about all the people who were walking free because of him, murderers being among them and took the shot from his rifle. The bullet hit it's mark and Lucas put the feather on the corpse before they all left.

They went on a few more missions, alternating who took the kill and at sixteen they were given masks. Tony's had golden markings on it climbing up the left cheek from the chin in a techno pattern. It also had the gold pattern coming from the right side of his forehead down to the right eye. He was allowed to choose his name. He picked Enjinia, the Japanese word for engineer.

Lucas' had circles of scarlet in a seemingly random pattern. He picked the name Tagetto, the Japanese word for target. Kyle's had indigo around both eyes and the left had detail like it was cracking with a long crack leading to the chin. He picked the name Ignotus, the Latin word for unknown. Rebekah's had no detail on the left side but on the right it had three thick lines all tapering off at one end. Two were above the eye and one was below. She picked the name Uzhas, the Russian word for terror.

They each began to leave tokens at their kills. Tony's was a single bullet for a sniper rifle engraved with the name Enjinia on one side and with a techno pattern on the other. Lucas' was an arrow, the wooden shaft engraved with the name Tagetto. Kyle's was a throwing knife with the name Ignotus engraved in indigo on one side and cracks on the other. Rebekah's was also a throwing knife with the name Uzhas engraved in lavender on one side and three lavender stripes on the other.

At 17 Tony got his first degree and heard news that Jarvis, his old butler, had died in a car accident. He tracked down the driver who had been drunk when he hit Jarvis' car. That was the first time he ever killed for vengeance.

At 19 he got his second degree and met a young SHIELD agent while he was masked and on a solo mision. He had begun to get a reputation as he was one of the most skilled killers, killing over one hundred and fifty people in the space of the three years he'd been active. The agent was able to recognize the techno patterned mask. He wasn't hostile as SHIELD had a kind of truce with the order but was by no means friendly.

"Enjinia I presume." He had said.

"You presume correctly." Tony said. "May I ask your name?"

"Coulson." The agent said. "Agent Coulson."

"Okay." He said. "What do I owe the pleasure of bumping into you Agent?"

"We heard about a death. I presume that was your work."

"It probably was." Tony confirmed. "Now, if you'd let me be on my way I'd like to get back to my order before they start to miss me."

"You're lucky your order has a truce with SHIELD." Coulson told him.

"You do realize that even if we didn't I'm allowed to do anything in the means of protecting my identity." He smirked behind the mask as he saw the agent step back slightly. "Now, if you don't mind, I really must be going." The agent let him go with no further comment.

Tony dropped a bullet on the roof that he'd met the agent on. He wasn't sure why he did so but he saw no harm in doing it. Coulson had noticed and picked it up.

At twenty one Tony officially retired and returned 'from the dead' to take over his company from Stane. He still took the occasional job but they were very few and far between, only being called on when he was actually needed. Often these were jobs with his three best friends. He continued his vigorous training at night, often claiming to have gotten drunk which was why he was generally tired in the mornings.

The press had been all over him when he returned, asking where he'd been for eighteen years. He told them that he'd run away and been put into the system. It was an alibi that had more than enough proof to back it up thanks to the order and so the press and public accepted it.

He made three robots in quick succession. Dum-E 'Dummy', U 'You' and Butterfingers. They were each AIs with a mentality parallel of a five year old's. He then went on to develop an extremely advanced AI that he named Jarvis after his old butler. When asked what JARVIS stood for he would give the joke answer; Just A Rather Very Intelligent System.

He built a tower for Stark Industries, the power source being an Arc Reactor, an old design of his fathers. He had made a hidden lab bellow the basement and a floor that was even more hidden, underneath the lab that only he, Jarvis and the bots knew about. It was where he kept his gear from when he was an active assassin and where he spent most nights training.

He had problems with trust and getting along with people. The first lesson he'd ever learnt was to trust no one outside of the order. He hired and fired assistants almost twice a week until he met Virginia Potts. She had pepper sprayed his security the first time he met her so she gained the nickname Pepper. He had tried to fire her once but she refused to leave. This made him happy as he didn't seem to get along with anyone other than Stane and a man he'd met one day who soon became a friend, James Rhodes or Rhodey as Tony called him.

Stark Industries was a weapon company so Tony saw no reason to change it, not realizing how many people were being killed by illegal sales of his weapons.

He had been kidnapped after demonstrating the new Jericho missile and even with his abilities he couldn't get away from it. He hadn't been trained to withstand torture. He did okay though and managed to build a miniaturised Arc Reactor to keep shrapnel from an S.I. bomb from entering his heart. He had then built a suit that had cost a friend their life. He had liked Yinsen, the man who was trapped with him in the cave but the man had died so that Tony could live.

Tony had stopped weapon production when he got back. Stane hadn't been happy. The order had though and Pepper seemed to be okay with it too so that was all that really mattered.

Then he had had to kill Stane. That one had hurt him and he really hadn't wanted to do it but he knew that the man deserved it and would have killed him otherwise.

He had become Iron Man. A vigilante. He liked the attention he got from that and it meant that he got to clear the streets of scum again. He also met Agent Coulson for a second time. Thankfully, the man didn't seem to realize that he'd already met Tony once.

Captain America was then found and revived. He didn't remember much about the captain other than Howard had always been searching for him and there was random memorabilia all over his old mansion so he wasn't particularly excited. He did know that it was his technology that let it happen though and for that he was proud.

He had then gotten involved in the battle of Manhattan and found out that he really didn't get along with anyone he was meant to be working with other than Bruce Banner and that was probably only because he was the closest in intellect to Tony.

They had all come to live with him in his tower after that. Except Thor who had gone back to Asgard with his brother.

Tony wasn't sure how he was going to cope living with a super soldier who he really didn't get along with, two assassin/spys who he could probably never trust and a man with serious anger issues while still keeping his secrets secret.

He was pretty sure he'd find a way. Hopefully.

Well, I hope you enjoyed reading that!

I can't say when the next part will come out or even if there will be a next part.

Would you like more? If so then be sure to leave a review to keep me motivated.

Thanks for reading!

Ebil