Chapter 5

Her body automatically woke her at 7am. Today was Friday, a school day, so usually she would have gotten up by now. Today though Ali wasn't going to school which infuriated her. She wanted some normality back after what had happened.

Ali had remembered the game of Seek and Stalk that Clint had promised her and just hoped that it wasn't a prank. Without that game to look forward to Ali knew she would at some point today, she would end up throwing something at someone.

She slowly got dressed as she still had an hour to get ready. Instead of putting her hair in a ponytail, Ali just brushed it and left it down so that it hung off of her shoulders in its usual soft curls.

Just before she left her room to go down to the lab level, Ali opened her draw full of emergency snacks and took out a cereal bar before eating it. Going to the kitchen for food would probably alert someone that she was up and if anybody caught her then there was no way that she was going to be able to play seek and stalk with Clint.

She wore jeans and a t-shirt. It may have been the middle of Autumn, but it was still warm outside. Ali also pulled out her sandals and put them on. The lower floors didn't have carpets and the floors couldn't always be counted on to be clean.

The elevator would be the obvious way to get to the lab floor, but it was too risky. FRIDAY could easily inform anyone and everyone about where she had gone. That was why Ali removed a panel of her ceiling and started to crawl through the vents.

Putting any pressure on her left hand hurt more than Ali would ever admit and so she ended up looking like a limping puppy as she crawled through the vents on her hands and knees.

Some sections of the vents she could slide down since the lab floor was a few floors below the main sitting room. It didn't take her long to arrive at the grate that overlooked the corridor that held both Tony and Bruce's labs.

Before dropping down she waited for a bit for Clint to arrive. He got there 5 minutes late and started looking around for her.

"Ali waited until he was almost directly above him before jumping out and Clint only just managed to contain his screams.

"I thought you wanted to play Seek and Stalk?"

Ali's silent laughter stopped and instead she turned her puppy eyes onto him.

"I am sorry Uncle Clint. Anyways who is up first?"

Now Clint may have been desperate for his prank to work but that didn't mean that he wanted Ali to hurt herself. Crawling through the vents on an already sprained wrist would definitely do more harm than good.

"I am going to hide but you can't follow me through the vents or go in them. Also, because you are so good at following people you have to follow me for 30 minutes instead of 10."

Ali nodded her head. She knew that Clint was being overprotective by not letting her in the vents but had realised that this, and the added time, would make the game a lot more challenging.

She turned her back to Clint and silently counted to 10. When she turned around, she grabbed some sunglasses which she had hidden in the plotted plant a while ago and put them on her face.

The sunglasses hid her eye colour so that no one would know that it had changed.

Using her heat vision, she could see that Clint was crawling through the vents and heading in the direction of the drop which would take him 10 floors down. At some point someone had placed a crash mat at the bottom of the drop to prevent anyone from getting seriously hurt.

Jemma had told Ali not to use her powers but as long as nobody knew, then Ali assumed that she would be fine. That was why she was wearing the sunglasses.

Ali followed Clint as he went down the many floors of the tower. After only 10 minutes Ali started to get a headache which grew whenever she used her powers and disappeared whenever she didn't. That didn't stop her from using them though.

By this point Clint was now crawling through the vents above the public floors of the tower where all the workers and interns worked and where some people got private tours.

After spending a year at the tower many of the workers had became used to seeing her face. They had no idea who she was or what she did but left her alone any ways. FRIDAY had already informed them that she was allowed to roam wherever she pleased and that they should not ask about her or talk to her unless she talked to them. Natasha had gotten FRIDAY to announce this, and Ali still had no idea that she had. Ali had always just assumed that they were too busy on their work to talk to her, and she didn't want to interrupt them.

At the end of the corridor was a massive room with lots of tables and chairs for workers and interns to sit on and have their lunch. The canteen was a few floors further down but was always incredibly busy.

Ali smiled up at the ceiling knowing that Clint was trying absolutely everything to shake her off of his tail and failing.

The sunglasses were still on her face as she was still using her heat vision. That was why she saw Clint stop just in the middle of the large white break room. Ali merely strode into the room. She didn't stop as she looked up to where she could see Clint in the vents before saying,

"I can still see you, you know."

Clint didn't respond and instead pointed to something just in front of Ali. Even though her heat vision was on, Ali could swear that she saw a grin on his face.

In confusion, Ali turned her eyes back to brown and took off her sunglasses to see what he was pointing at.

There stood the whole of Year 9 and Ali's French teacher:

Monsieur Dupont.