Coming Home Again
Summary: Tony Stark is 15 years old and lives in a shitty apartment with a father she hates and a mother who is hardly ever coherent. When her genius gets her into trouble with the CEO of Hammer Industries she's offered a chance to make enough money to possible get away.
I DO NOT OWN THE AVENGERS, OR MARVEL, OR IRONMAN OR ANY OTHER MOVIE REFERENCES IN THIS STORY!
This story Coming Home Again belongs to somanyfeels on AO3 and is also on her account on under the name whothefrickleisbucky!
Yes, I got whothefrickleisbucky to give me their permission to rewrite their story, but with a TWIST!
Toni was a bundle of nerves. She was sitting in the nicest limo she had ever been in, the only limo, and eating snacks she couldn't even pronounce. The only problem, she was sure she was here for only one reason. She had hacked into Justin Hammers 'secure' bank information last week hardly took her anytime at all. She didn't take a lot, just enough to feed her for the month. Her parents were busy with the bills.
So when the limo pulled up next to her on her walk home from Burger King, and she was pulled inside by the goon stereotype, she was scared. Then when she saw the richest man in America, Justin Hammer, sitting across from her, she mentally kicked herself and calculated her best chances for survival of jumping out of a moving vehicle.
"Kidnapping is illegal." Toni smiled at the man. Hammer picked at his teeth and looked down at her.
"So is stealing money. My money." He held out a candy bar to the girl, "Honestly it was quiet impressive. When we traced the signal to your shitty little apartment and got all the information on the happy family. We thought it was one of your parents but your dad is to focused on his drinking he can hardly keep his job and your mom-well she's lovely." Hammer smirked as Toni glanced around and pretended to read the foreign writing on her candy.
"Shouldn't girls dress more . . . . . . . girly?" Hammer questioned, his eyes raking over Toni's small frame, taking in her short brown hair, deep brown eyes, her pale complexion, her light pink lips, a size to large AC/DC t-shirt, and baggy jeans with grey sneakers. Toni froze.
"I won't tell if you don't." Toni eyed Hammer while she fidgeted between the large man who threw her in and locked the door. The older man's smile widened.
"You're 15, kid?"
"Yes, but not a kid. I did manage to get into your oh so secure bank account. Didn't you set up the security yourself?" Toni glared. She knew she should learn to keep her mouth shut. She was kidnapped and she couldn't help herself. She pulled out her phone.
"Shouldn't you be at school?" Hammer said as he straightened his tie, anger filling his eyes. "Little kids go to school."
"Shouldn't you be updating your network security? Just gained access to Hammer industries secure files. What is 'Project Mare'?" Toni held up her phone. She's an idiot. A genius but an idiot. Anger the scary people who picked you up off the street, brilliant Toni. "Graduated last year."
"I like you." Hammer murmured, the sharp look in his eyes said otherwise, but there was another look in his eyes, a predatory look. The limo pulled up in front of her building. Toni grimaced at the thought of all the wrong people who will see her climb out of here. "I have grown up things to go to but I'll keep in touch."
Justin Hammer looked Toni up and down again before winking at her.
With that the door was unlocked and Toni was shoved out. As she frowned at the limo speeding away she was tempted to stick her tongue out (okay she did). Then she noticed how dark it was.
Toni ran into her building and ignored the smell of beer and piss. She ran up the stairs and down the hall, stopping just outside her door and listened. She heard the quiet whir of the TV and the angry mumbling of her dad on the other side. With a deep breath she entered.
Her mom was passed out on the couch with a small stream of drool dripping off her chin, nothing surprising. Howard was watching some comedy through the static of their television, empty bottles of beer at his feet.
"Where the hell have you been?" Howard said as he glanced up.
"Nowhere. Just being productive." Toni said. Trying to quickly slip past and get to her room.
Howard stood and grabbed her by the arm. "I asked where you been."
Toni tensed up, recognizing the look in her fathers eyes. Drunk Anger. She couldn't get out of this no matter what she said.
"I was just out getting something to eat." Toni whispered. it was the truth, usually the truth hurts less.
"Are you saying i cant provide for my family? you could eat here." Howard's grip tightened and he slammed Toni against the wall.
"There isn't anything here! you blow everything on alcohol and mom spends it all on drugs!" There it was again. Her mouth. And there was what it usually brought her, a fist to the gut.
"I work my ass off at that damn garage so you can live here. You're just ungrateful." Another fist, this time to the jaw Howard stumbled back than. Falling into his chair and reaching for his beer. It sounded like Howard said 'slut' before he ignored Toni.
Toni locked the door to her room after she entered. she left the light off and slowly made her way through the maze of books she had stacked around. Once she fell into her bed she simply held her stomach and rubbed her jaw until she fell asleep.
The next morning had its usual feeling of wrongness. Howard would be at work, fixing cars making the apartment seem peaceful. His mom would be scrubbing the kitchen and humming to herself. Toni touched her shoulder gently after she had been washing the same spot on the counter for ten minutes. She blinked at him with a gentle smile and went back to her scrubbing.
Toni sat down in front of the TV with her engineering textbook. She may not be able to afford college, but she could still learn. The news was talking about how the Avengers saved the west coast from an invasion of lizard people. Toni chuckled and flipped her book open when her phone vibrated.
Kid,
I'm done with my grown up things so why don't you leave the playground and come join us for lunch. We have business to discuss.
JH
Great. First, she hacks into the bank account of one of the richest men in the world. Then, just to show off, into the servers of the company that builds weapons for the military. And now he wants to have lunch? Toni was sure she was getting arrested. Or killed. Either way she was still being mocked. Couldn't stand for that.
Twenty minutes later she was in another limo, which she decided was the worst vehicle in the world. It took her straight to one of the tallest buildings Toni had ever seen with "HAMMER" written across the side. she went straight to the top where the billionaire apparently lived in a penthouse that cost more money than Toni knew she would ever make in her life.
"Ah, Toni Stark. Lovely to see you again." Hammer sauntered over to pat her on the lower back. Toni tensed, but quickly relaxed. "Meet one of my board members, Obadiah Stane." A large bald man walked over and kissed her hand.
"I heard so much about you, Ms. Stark." Stane grinned coldly. Toni had a bad feeling about both of these men. she was most definitely going to be killed. Learned her lesson.
Never hacking again.
"Well, lunch is already on the table." Hammer dragged Toni by the shoulder to a large dining room with windows taking up the entire wall. Toni slipped out from under his grip to look out over the view of the city. All the buildings were nicer, cleaner than the ones on her side of town and she could see over all of them. "Don't smudge the windows!" She heard Hammer whine behind her.
Toni turned and sat at the large table. She didn't recognize any of the food that was set before her. Probably foreign, Toni lived off of burgers and potato chips. Still, food was food.
"You do realize Hammer Industries has one of the most secure wireless networks on the planet?" Stane said as he threw his tie over his shoulder.
"If you say so." Toni chuckled. She poked at the gooey…. vegetables? in front of her.
"Well, it does. I designed most of it myself." Hammer huffed.
"And you got into it in under 5 minutes on a cell phone." Stane smiled at him. "No one's ever got in before, you understand."
"And you want to congratulate me with goop?" Toni took a nervous bite, not that bad. Hammer groaned.
"No, Toni. We think you can do more!" Stane said, his booming voice filling the room.
"Like juggling?" Toni smiled.
"No, we want you to hack SHIELD."
Toni's eyes widened in shock.