Prologue

Who's that Girl?

It was a courtesy you know…Avery sitting here in this cell. She could get out whenever she wanted to. But she heard some whispers that she got her bail made and wanted to see who in the hell would pull her out. She had no family so to speak of. She had very few friends who had money their parents didn't give to them, and even fewer who could afford bail. The rest of her friends were online personalities she never met in person. So who was it?

An hour later and the guard who locked her up, knocked on her door and opened it up for her.

"Your rides here."

Avery got off her bunk and waltzed down the hall, saying her goodbyes to acquaintances she had made in her 48 hour hold. She was escorted to the main gate and as the guards slid it open a man in a nice gray suit stood up. He had shiny red cuffs on the end and wore sunglasses…inside. Avery definitely couldn't mistake that trademark goatee and sighed as she realized who her debtor was.

"You can go, tiny. She's good from here." said Mr. Stark.

The guard muttered something under his breath and then left the two alone. The bars slammed shut behind Avery and Stark offered her a sucker. She shrugged and took it.

"I assume you know why I'm here?" he asked, he motioned for her to follow him outside to his car as he popped a blue sucker in his mouth. His driver was waiting in a nice black lexus and Avery nodded to him as she got in.

"I assume you found out what I did at your fancy little tech school and that's why I was in there."

"How did you hack into the systems?"

"I didn't hack into them."

"Bullshit."

"Nope. Didn't do a thing but apply."

"You're telling me, that a high school drop out, who doesn't even own a computer, managed to apply to MIT, gain a full ride Stark Scholarship, and pass every single class with straight As, without even attending?"

"Maybe I'm just that good."

"Or maybe you're after something," he showed her some images taken of her walking around authorized personnel only sections, "You didn't find it?"

Avery looked out the window and saw they were driving out of town. "Where are you taking me?"

"Gonna go visit a friend of mine. He's real good at interrogations."

"Hmmm…." Avery nodded and then flexed her fingers, "Or…and this is crazy, but here me out. We don't do that, and I disappear right before your eyes."

Suddenly, Avery dropped through the bottom of the car and was gone. Tony stared at the spot for a long moment. Then he blinked and said, "Aaaalright."

Present Day

One Year Later…

New Orleans, Louisiana

Avery walked up to an ATM and typed in 1234 into the pin pad and immediately received several dozen hundred dollar bills. She tucked them right into her pocket and walked along. Perhaps today she'd treat herself to a fancy burger, one of those where you have to sit down and use a fork to eat it. Maybe she'd get that nice, red, leather coat she had been eyeing in the store front window of Macys. Who knew what today could bring.

She took out some headphones from her pocket, plugged them into an old cell phone that didn't work, and bobbed her head to music that shouldn't have been playing. She turned her head when she noticed someone was following her. Clever. Avery turned down an alley, held up her hand, and walked through the back entrance of a coffee shop. She slipped in past a crowd in the bathroom line and once the hall was empty she opened another wall and jumped into a new store. She wasn't fond of being followed. Once she was sure no one was around, Avery held up both of her hands and opened up a wall that led to her apartment. She'd have at least fifteen minutes before Black Widow realized she wasn't anywhere on the street anymore.

"I told her you'd pop up here again."

Damn.

It was Captain America in full red, white, and blue spanx.

"Widow owes me five bucks."

Avery flexed her hands again, but nothing happened.

"The hell?"

"Oh yeah…" he took out a little black metal band and waved it, "Stark said you left some residue or something of the like in his car, so he manipulated it and made this. Stops you from doing your Houdini act."

Avery nodded, "Clever."

"We gonna do this the hard way?"

"It's my only option really."

"If you see it that way, doll."

"That's a little sexist, Cap."

"Oh, sorry—"

She ran at him and punched him in the throat before he realized what had happened. He did manage to slip the bracelet on her but she slipped out of his grasp and run into the hall. And there was Widow! Damn.

Avery opened her neighbors door, gave a quick hello, and then jumped out of their window down the fire escape. An arrow flew past her head and a net exploded above her.

"The entire team, Stark?! Really?!"

Avery jumped down to the street below and made off at a run. She started to fiddle with the bracelet Stark made for her. If it hadn't been an annoyance she would have enjoyed the thought he put into it. After some meddling, she finally got the bracelet to pop off. Once she dropped it and got far enough away, she made her portal. She had a safe house in Seattle, there was no way he could track her there.

Avery jumped through the portal and landed on her couch. She sighed, finally away from everything…until she heard the thunder outside.

"Damn him to hell…"

The bay windows to her apartment blew open and in came the God of Thunder himself. Stark walked out of the kitchen and into her living room with a cup of coffee in his hands.

"Nice place you got here."

"How many backup plans did you have?" she asked, remaining on the couch.

"Just the two. I had an inkling you'd get the upper hand on Cap, so I figured, the big boys and I would stay here."

"Boys?"

"Hi…"

Banner walked out from behind Tony and he too had a cup of coffee in his hand. "Hope you don't mind…"

"You literally thought it would take these two power houses to take me down? Look at me. I'm 5'9 and 175lbs. Those two together are at least a ton!"

"I didn't know what you had up your sleeve. You'd be surprised the people we come across." said Stark.

"Oh, no surprise. Like you guys basically blow up the planet every two years. It's like Christmas when all of you are together…except the opposite of exciting and filled with hope. It's like dread and terror."

"You gonna come with us or not? Because honestly, it's gloomy here. I'd rather not."

"You got another thing to stop my powers?" He nodded, "Ugh, fine. Whatever."

Avengers Tower

Avery sat on a table with wires hooked up to her and Banner was running all over his lab getting readings from her. After some time, some big guy with a cape and goatee walked through the automatic glass doors and waved his hand over Avery. Every inch of her tingled while he did this and when he stopped he looked over at Stark who was eating an apple.

"And?"

"She's human if that's what your asking." Said Goatee guy.

"I'm sorry…I'm interrupting here but—did you just violate me?"

"I scanned you on a molecular level."

"That's not creepy at all, who are you?"

"Forgive me, I'm Doctor Vincent Strange."

"Your name is Strange?"

"That's literally what I said when we first." laughed Stark.

"Would you like the rest of my analysis or can I go?" Tony rolled his eyes and then pulled up a chair, "Well, she's no practitioner of magic. Her abilities are…unique. Energy doesn't move around her as it does a normal person."

"Well I could have told you that," said Avery as she pushed Doctor Strange's hands away from her. "I can open up doors to other places. Usually places I've already been or seen. If I have a location then I'll be able to focus better. But sometimes…" she trailed off then took a deep breath, "Sometimes I have ways with technology," she now looked at Stark, "I didn't hack into your little computer system. It let me in. I don't know how else to explain it. Technology just…likes me. It does whatever I want."

"How long have you had these powers?" Asked Banner. He started taking the wires off of her.

"Since I was a kid." Avery said, "My sister and I thought we were just really good at playing pretend."

"Sister?" asked Stark, "She got the same stuff as you?"

"Not anymore…" Avery hopped off the table and straightened her clothes, "Look, this is all very interesting, but…can I go? Or at least have a shower? It's been a long twenty four hours."

Of course, Avery was being watched. Stark had surveillance everywhere but the actual shower. As she walked into her bedroom she dropped the towel and flipped a nice finger to the security camera.

"That's classy…" Tony said as he shut off the camera. He swiveled around to Strange and Banner, "What do we do?"

"Us? We?" asked Banner, "I say we let her go. It's not like she's doing anybody any harm."

"She warped her way into MIT."

"Aside from hurting your pride, Stark," said Strange, "I agree with Doctor Banner. She's harmless."

"Why was she at MIT?" Tony asked, ignoring the other two. "Friday!"

A blue orb appeared beside Tony, "Yes, Boss?"

"Can you look into what Miss…what was her name?" He looked at Strange.

"Never got it." Said Strange.

"Balls…Friday, what's her name?"

"Her name is Avery Chay, Boss."

"Avery…" said Tony, making sure to remember it, "What Miss Chay was looking into at MIT?"

Friday scanned her databases for a brief moment, "I'm afraid I can't tell you that, Boss. It appears there's no record of her ever attending the school."

"She wiped it." Tony said, he smiled. This was all like a puzzle to him. A really, really, fun puzzle. "How did a street wise, orphan, hack into MIT and wipe any record of her even being there?"

Strange shrugged but watched the cameras as Avery tried to find a way out. She flicked her wrists but nothing was happening. "You know this won't keep her locked in there for long."

"I'm sure it'll do just fine—"

"She's gone."

"What?"

Tony swiveled back to the cameras and saw that Strange was right. The footage was playing on a loop.

"How does she do it?" asked Bruce who smiled but lost it when Tony glared at him.

"Widow…" said Tony into his watch, "Our guest is loose."

"Got it."

Avery wandered through the halls of the Avengers tower and checked every room she came across. Library, kitchen, research center, pool room…another kitchen. She kept walking along and then once again felt the presence of a shadow following her.

"Want the grand tour?" asked Widow as she caught up with her.

"Sure. I figure I'll have to stay here a while so why not?"

"Who says you have to stay?" Widow asked with a smirk.

Avery rolled her eyes, "Stark's been after me for years and he sends his entire team to catch me…someone who can't even throw a good punch. Yeah, I can leave, but you'll be hot on my trail."

"I'm not so sure about that punch. I mean you cave Cap a good one before you took off."

Avery chuckled, "You grow up on the streets you learn to fight dirty."

"An orphan huh?" Widow asked, "Welcome to the club."

"That seems to be a big superhero thing isn't it? Tragic orphan Annie grows up on her own and decides to fight back…" Avery smirked, "Doesn't fit my bill. As soon you all finish up the experiments you wanna run on me, I'm outta here. Maybe I'll finally go to Hawaii."

The arrived to a lounge where Thor, Cap, and Hawkeye were relaxing. Cap, or Steve, since he wasn't in uniform, approached Avery with his hand out. "Nice to formally meet you."

She shook his hand and saw the bruise on his throat, "Sorry about that."

He shrugged, "I've had worse."

Avery tapped on his pecs and raised an eyebrow out of curiosity, "Thought you were made out metal or something. Couldn't get hurt."

"We've all got our Achille's Heels," Clint said. He poured a drink and then walked it over to Avery, "I could have hit you if I wanted to, by the way." She reached for the drink and he raised it out of her reach, "You're of drinking age aren't you?"

"I'm twenty-seven," Avery said and then took the drink from him. She shook his hand though, she liked this guy.

"It is good to receive a fellow warrior!" Thor walked over and pulled Avery into a very big, very tight, hug. "Welcome to the Avengers Tower, young maiden."

"Oh I like this one…" Avery said to Widow—Natasha. She joined everyone else on the large, overly expensive, but incredibly soft couch that leveled into the floor. "So now that introductions are out of the way, what did the good ol'Boss man tell you about me?"

"Well in typical Tony Stark fashion…" Started Steve, "He said you were a rebel without a cause, and that made you highly dangerous."

Avery laughed, "Dangerous? Do you even know what I can do?" she asked, the others shook their heads no. "Ok," Avery motioned for Thor to hand her the tablet beside him. Once in hand, she shut her eyes for a few seconds and then opened them again. Her eyes were a deep blue and as she smiled at them, all the electronics in the room began to react to her presence. "I've got a special connection to technology. It does what I want. Whatever I want it to. I mean I guess that could be dangerous if I ever established a connection to the White House or Government files and whatever. But I don't intend to blow up the world and or start World War Three. I live here. Rather it stay in one piece."

Everything went back to normal and she set the tablet down. "Stark needs to work on his security, he should not have everything hooked up to the same network. That's just dumb."

"Noted." Came Tony's voice as he, Bruce, and Strange rounded the corner. "Really cool how you do that…thingy."

"So she can hack into computers and make portals. Sounds like a high level security threat, Stark…" Steve said, as sarcastically as he could.

"I like being cautious." said Tony, he plopped down next to Avery and eyed her, "You're cleared. Feel free to leave whenever…but!" He raised a finger and pointed it at her, "I think you could be a real help to us."

Avery was not intrigued by his notion, "I'm nowhere near physical peek condition to fight aliens and robots like you all do…"

"Don't mean fighting," Tony said as he stood up and went to pour himself a drink, "We could use someone like you. Finding our targets would be easier, covert operations would go smoother—oh and Strange had a crush on your little portal powers and wants to meditate or some shit like that, with you. Gross."

Strange glared at Tony but then turned his attention to Avery, "I think I have an idea where the source of your power could be coming from. We could focus on it…discover it together."

"Horrible first date idea…"

"Stark…" Strange honestly had to use all of his patience around the man, "Whether your abilities take you to different realities or other worlds…I believe we can make them stronger and reach out to anywhere in the known universe."

Anywhere…Avery liked the sound of that.

"I want a top floor room."

"No." said Tony.

"Why?"

"Saved for actual Avengers, trainee."

"Trainee?" she looked around the room at the other official Avengers and they nodded, confirming their approval. She sighed and then began to weigh the pros and cons. "What are the perks?"

Tony smirked, he liked her already, "Well aside from gaining international fame for saving the world when it needs it?"

Avery shrugged, "Yeah…like…what else?"

"State of the art equipment at your disposal…" Banner said, "If you know anything about science."

"I broke into MIT, I at least have an interest in it."

Steve smiled and patted her on the shoulder, "I think we've got a good ally here."