Hello, and welcome to my new fic, a first for this account!

I do not own any characters or places unless stated otherwise.

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Prologue.

It hadn't been planned, of course. Things like these never are.

But when you're drunk and desperately trying to impress a group of people, you can't really say no.

That's what Allie tried to tell herself later when her head was sore and her mouth dry, unable to remember what was going through her head when she accepted the bait that was dangled in front of her; she had taken it, had no second thoughts because the cheap vodka had addled her brain and her common sense was nowhere to be found and that intense need to be liked reared its ugly head. It can't hurt, was probably what the small, fragile voice in her head said and she had listened to it – like an idiot.

Lisa had convinced her to come to the small house party; they weren't into big clubs and blaring music anymore, not like when they were in college. She was twenty-five, but Allie felt she was moving onto fifty and as they stood outside, she made a point to sniffle as loudly as she could, fisting her pink tipped hands beneath her arms to ward away the cold.

"Who are these people again?" Allie asked, ear cocked at the sounds of laughter rushing from inside. Lisa tugged at her top awkwardly and looked down at the bottle of wine in her hand; store bought, ten dollars. Nothing fancy, but better than showing up empty handed.

"They used to go to college with us, I don't know," Lisa replied back, reaching up to push a strand of hair behind her ear, hooking it in place. Lisa sounded exasperated, as if she didn't want to be there anymore than Allie. Which was believable, as Lisa was the one with the much stricter job and showing up hung over tomorrow wouldn't be the best idea. "She messaged me, and I think we had mutual friends or were in the same class, something like that."

"And I'm here because…?" Allie trailed off, the two lingering on the door step, on the fringe of social interaction. Neither wanted to be there but both didn't want to remain a social recluse either. They turned to face each other, Lisa in her slightly more formal (casual, she had told Allie but even her most casual clothes were more formal than anything Allie had in her closet) clothes and Allie in her nicest casual clothes.

"Because I didn't want to come alone," Lisa offered with a quirked smile, reaching across Allie to ring the doorbell, holding it for a few seconds with the sound chiming within and sounding muffled. The talk from within lulled for a second before picking up. "And it's a great opportunity for us to widen our friendship circle!"

"Our friendship circle consists of you and me, Leese, that's a friendship duo," Allie murmured, causing her friend to smile at the words before the door was opened and their host for the night greeted them. The warmth from within spilled out and Allie let out a sigh of relief at the feeling, the two young women smiling though, albeit, forced.

"Lisa, hey!" the girl said, stepping across the threshold to wrap her arm around the other woman. "So glad you could make it! And this is…?"

"Oh! Allison Lawrence," Lisa said, pulling back from the half awkward hug to place a hand in the middle of Allie's back. "She's a friend. Allie, you remember Louise Kern?"

"Of course, I do," Allie responded, while having not the faintest idea as to who Louise was, and it seemed that the feeling was mutual as Louise's face scrunched up but reached a hand out nonetheless, Allie taking it and giving it a firm shake before Louise pulled back, eyes bouncing between the two.

"Come inside, before all the warmth leaves!" Lisa ushered the two women in from the cold, grin still on her face and Allie could see her cheeks were pink from whatever they had been drinking before she arrived. Her palms began to tingle as the warmth seeped in through her bones, fingers flexing and unflexing as she and Lisa lingered in the hall, unsure of where to go or what to do.

"We brought a bottle, just in case," Lisa piped up, handing it over carefully, afraid it might drop and stain the floorboards red.

"Oh, wow, red wine! It's my favourite!" Louise said, looking at the bottle in her hand, squinting at the label and fingers drumming on the neck. The bottle had remained unopened throughout the entire night. "Take of your coats, everyone is in the kitchen."

Shrugging out of the extra layer of clothes, Allie hung her coat of the hook, the label catching on before they followed Louise to the source of the sound, the faint smell of food lingering in the air, lacing with the undeniable trace of alcohol.

There weren't many people, not as many as Allie had thought there would be; three lingered around the kitchen, holding bottles or glasses, pouring the last few drops of wine into a mug, talking to one another, through one another. There was not a single face that Allie knew, and her eyes darted to Lisa, who scanned the room as she had and found nothing but strangers. Louise placed the bottle of red on the kitchen counter, atop of a pile of magazines that were worn with age and dog eared, before turning to the two.

"You want a drink?"

Allie had taken coke and vodka in a mug, stamped with small umbrellas and was heavy to hold. The room was lit with a golden glow over-head, the lampshade casting a rim of shadow to the farthest place and bathing the centre in light, just above the table.

The drink had been her first mistake; there had been more coke than vodka and she had it downed in less than ten minutes. When conversation lulled with Louise, who had tried to tend to Allie as host, Allie used the excuse of getting another drink to break away from the awkwardness. Drink number two hadn't been the second mistake, neither had drink number three. They had decided that they would stay for three hours, no more, no less, and the clock was edging closer and closer to ten. But when ten came and went, that had been mistake number two.

Mistake number three came at eleven forty-six, her seventh drink in her hand and a goofy grin on her face. Her jaw was numb, and she was pretty sure she was drinking straight up vodka at this point. Lisa sat beside her and was talking as loud as she could so as to be heard by the others. Louise was chatting to the only other girl closely, not paying heed to the rest of her guests. Allie felt warm, fuzzy at the edges as her thumb circled the rim of the cup, Lisa keeping the attention of all others on her.

"So, how did you two meet?"

That had been mistake number four.

"It was at college – " Allie began lazily but was cut off by Lisa.

"No, no, it was during college we met, but we actually met when she fixed my computer!"

Number five.

"It wasn't that hard, Leese, and you're just really bad at tech."

"Oh, are you good with computers?"

Six.

"Is she good with computers? She's like… I don't know, amazing with computers and numbers and all that. Like, you ever see those hacker movies?"

"Ew, Leese, don't call me that – it makes me sound like a weird kid villain."

"What hacker movies?"

"I don't know, just one of those hacker movies, you know the ones."

Lisa waved her off, continuing on. "But she can do anything with a computer, can get into anywhere."

Allie felt her cheeks turn red, either from the embarrassment or the praise, and a shy giggle left her lips, hands reaching up to cover her burning face, the dampness from the condensation of the mug slick on her palms. A muffled groan left her as she tried to voice her shyness, but Lisa gave her a slap on the shoulder.

"Bullshit, that kind of shit only exists in movies."

And that had been the magic, and quite tragic, mistake number seven.

Her pride, what was left of it, felt annoyed and Allie dropped her hands, scoffing and rolling her eyes at the man who had said it; she didn't even know his name, couldn't even remember it later (Larry? Gary?), all that she knew was that it was completely, and utterly, his fault. The drink had buried her sense in the dirt and she could not fight through the haze to reel herself in, to stop the words from falling from the tip of her tongue.

"Oh, yeah? Wanna bet?"

It felt like a stupid game, something akin to spin the bottle and Louise leant her laptop for the occasion, not bothered to ask what it was for as Allie dug the wire from her charger out from the pocket of her coat, nearly toppling the vase of flowers that lay beside the stairs. Her fingers felt numb and her head hurt with having to actually think as she plopped herself back down in the chair, chugging back the remnants of her drink as the guy who had challenged her, Larry or Gary or whatever, placed the laptop down in front of her, scooting his chair to watch her work as Lisa did the same, the only other guy of the group electing to watch from behind. With some difficulty, Allie managed to connect her phone to the laptop, stretching and straightening her fingers as she waited for the laptop to finish booting up.

For her first trick, she quickly bypassed Louise's password and the two men snorted, while Lisa remained enthralled by the straw in her cup, one eye on her drink, the other on the screen. Using the phone and the laptop was difficult as Allie's coordination had been damaged by the drink she had consumed, but she still remained concentrated. Her fingers stumbled a few times as she worked, listening to the requests of her spectators, asking for her to get in to Facebook accounts, their own or someone else's. Then, Lisa asked her to go into the Twitter account of an ex, one of the men asked her to get into his boss' email.

It was innocent fun, not something one could be incriminated for. She could barely keep her eyes on the bright screen and her mind was focused on one thing and another. Her thoughts felt scattered and she felt quite sick and then –

"If you can get into anywhere, then I dare you – "

"You 'dare' her? What are you, twelve?"

"Shut up. I dare you to get into Stark Industries."

Lisa turned her head around, frowning at the words. "Don't be stupid, she could get into trouble."

Larry or Gary snorted and rolled his eyes. "If she's good, she won't get caught."

Allie straightened her spine and sneered at Larry or Gary. "I'm not good, I'm brilliant."

Lisa focused in that bit more, sitting properly in her chair and leaning close to Allie. The smell of her perfume invaded Allie's mind and she felt herself being dragged back down to Earth once more, away from the clouds. "Hey, listen Al, just because you can, doesn't mean you shouldn't."

Lisa was right, of course she was, anyone could see that. Allie knew she should have listened to her, should have closed the laptop then and there. Lisa's tone was of seriousness and Allie knew what could happen if she got caught; her hands stilled over the laptop and she bit her bottom lip, regaining her composure and she hesitated for the briefest of moments.

Then she shook her head, scattering those thoughts to the four corners of her mind and letting a wicked grin take her place. Stark Industries was a big no-no; a company with the weight and power to have her locked away forever was not something that she was going to target, so her mind led her to next best thing.

"What about the Avengers?"

There was not much that Allie knew about the group; she didn't really keep up to date with the coming and goings of superheroes and if they had had a website, she might have spared herself the trouble and redecorated the home page. But no, her mind delved further than that; in a world of technological age, there was nothing that wasn't online, and she knew that a guy like Stark had a system that she was itching to get by – she wasn't what Lisa built her up to be to the other two guests, some wicked hacker (God, what was this? The eighties?) who broke into companies and stole information like that Lang guy some time back.

She was someone who had gone to a mediocre college, gotten her degree in English and History and worked as a barista in one of a million Starbucks.

And it wasn't a bad idea – it was a terrible idea; she was drunk and anything to do with Stark was technologically superior and far beyond this laptop and her inebriated self. One misstep and she would be sent straight to jail. One misstep, and it was all game over.

But the thrill, the challenge, the possibility made her excited, made her body hum as she didn't bother suppress the grin.

And they watched in silence, Louise and the other girl wandering over to watch at what had captured the silence of the others. Twelve sixteen crawled onto the clock and Allie slipped once on the board but corrected herself, trying to fight the sleep and the intrusive thoughts of whether she should go for a shower in the morning or when she got home. Lisa chewed on the end of her straw, grinding it into a pulp between her teeth as Allie fought the need to yawn and there was a dull ache at the back of her mouth from the drink, Louise tapping her glass and her ring clinking, Larry or Gary watching with half lidded eyes and –

"There, done."

They all stared at the screen, trying to make sense. There wasn't much of interest and Louise gave a shrug, turning away with the girl at her side, Lisa sighing and getting up to get another drink. Files, upon files, upon files lay out before Allie and her two remaining spectators, all labelled with numbers and words that made no sense. It had taken her thirty-seven seconds, and she scrolled through on what she saw on the screen, clicking her tongue and leaning back against her chair. Her eyes flashed over names and places and times and dates and they made no sense and were of no interest for Allie and, satisfied she had proved herself, she left, remembering to scatter any trace that might she might leave behind as evidence that she had been there.

"Neat," Larry or Gary whistled before turning to Allie and his friend. "Anyway, have any of you seen Game of Thrones yet?"

It was twelve seventeen – twelve seventeen in the morning and he wanted to sleep, wished he could and Tony was going to strangle whoever had decided to jolt him awake just as he was about to disappear into a state of unconsciousness.

With a grumble, eyes squinted to dim the harsh brightness of his phone, Tony grabbed the rectangle demon from his bedside table, shoving beneath the opposite pillow and there was silence, briefly.

"Boss."

He loved F.R.I.D.A.Y, he truly did, but he was going to wring her neck for waking him – well, he would if she weren't an AI.

"Tony is asleep and is not to be disturbed," he murmured into his pillow, tugging the blankets up further.

"Boss, there's been a – "

"No, no, no, I don't care if the world's ending again or if the government has fallen or if humanity has descended into chaos. I am going to get my eight hours of sleep and there is nothing on this Earth that will – "

"There's been a breach in the security system."

There was a brief interlude of peace in Tony's life, a tiny moment where everything was calm and quiet, and he could get some sleep and it had consisted of six days! What a record. The AI's words still hadn't sunk in as Tony pulled himself up, the heel of his palms digging into his eyes to banish the traces of sleep that lingered at the edges of his vision.

"A what?"

"A breach; someone has gotten into the security system."

There was a pause.

And then, panic.

Tony grabbed his phone that lay smothered beneath a pillow and unlocked the screen, pulling up the notification that had torn him from his sleep.

Just for once, just once, he'd like to go a week without shit happening.

Thanks for reading!