A/N: Hello all, I'm so sorry for the slightly longer wait for this chapter than normal, unfortunately I've been really busy with work recently; and this update comes in a break I'm taking in what is going to be an all-nighter of studying.
On a happier note, thank you all so much for the amazingly positive feedback from this story so far, I'm so grateful to everyone who has followed or favourited, and a special thank you to FaithfulReader92 and candycrum for the reviews, they really do give me the motivation to keep writing.
Disclaimer: I do not own the Avengers and I make no money from this story, I only own my OCs and their plotline.
I hope you enjoy this chapter, I'm pretty proud of it and Ren is finally going to meet the Avengers!
Lucksby xx

CHAPTER 10

"Ladies and Gentlemen thank you for flying with British Airways, we hope you had a pleasant flight, and we look forward to welcoming you again soon."

Ren stared blankly out the window of the plane as it touched down on American soil; glad that the flight was over. It had been an awkward seven and a half hours sitting next to Agent Coulson the whole way from London; she felt like he was constantly watching and judging her, not that it had stopped her indulging in movies such as Pitch Perfect 2 and Paddington. Screw his opinion!

She followed the man off the plane, trailing behind him as he badged his way to the front of the queue for customs and out to collect the lone suitcase she had brought with her; she didn't expect to stay long, and Coulson had assured her that she would have all of SHIELD's best tech at her disposal when she got down to doing what she had come to New York to do.

"There's a car waiting for us outside." Coulson said turning to the girl beside him. She had been rather quiet the whole flight and he felt a little guilty for putting the weight of this on her.

"Cool." It was less of an answer than he had hoped for.

"The Avengers are happy for you to stay in the Tower, which I'm sure you'll find much more comfortable than the Helicarrier, so we'll go there first, then we can visit Tony in hospital if you'd like."

Ren regarded him coolly, "Absolutely not to the second, and fine but I still don't think it's a good idea to the first." Coulson sighed.

"Give the team a chance Ren, you might find you actually like them."

She brushed past him as she climbed into the big black Hummer that awaited them, speaking almost so quietly that he didn't hear her say, "That's what I'm afraid of."

They stepped inside the entrance hall of the huge and imposing Avengers Tower, Ren's eyes popping out slightly; it was swanky she would give it that. Ren waited until they stepped into the elevator then turned to the agent, "Remember our deal Coulson, I help SHIELD out of its shit and you-"

"I'm well aware of our deal Ren", he replied mildly, "I'm just not sure if they'll all buy it."
Ren scoffed in response, "The whole of SHIELD bought it for years, I'm not worried. Besides, grief tends to cloud peoples' judgment." All she received was a disapproving sigh from Coulson who thought much better of the team's skills than she did.

"Agent Coulson, we've reached the main communal floor. Shall I announce your presence?" Ren had to physically restrain her gasp as she heard JARVIS, the AI who had been her best friend and teacher for so many years' question. Coulson picked up on it and merely smiled,

"No thanks JARVIS." He smirked a little at Ren as the doors opened, "Come on then."

When Coulson had told the team as they had all stood round in the hospital, that he knew a person who could find the one responsible for Tony's injuries, they had been very keen on the idea. It was then that they had offered a room in the Avengers Tower and as much help as they could provide, however none had any idea that Coulson had been referring to a seventeen year old girl, so they were understandably confused when Coulson had one in tow with him.

"Phil" Barton was the first to speak as the two assassins, Norse god, super soldier and scientist come giant green rage monster stared at the girl with looks of utter bewilderment on their faces, "Who is this?"

He opened his mouth to speak but Ren beat him to it. "Seren Ashmore, I'm a computer programmer, Agent Coulson told you I'd be coming did he not?" The last was directed with a raised eyebrow at the man himself.

Bruce, who had now put two and two together chipped in, "In a manner of speaking yes he did." Coulson was amused to see the glasses come off the scientist's face and get cleaned on his t-shirt. He had never known if Banner knew he did that or if it was just a subconscious habit.

"He did?" Natasha was incredulous.
Bruce nodded, "This is Coulson's computer genius, the one who is meant to figure out who hacked into the most sophisticated AI in the world and almost killed Tony."
"We did not think you meant a child, Phil." Thor boomed, and Ren had to keep herself from laughing. It was just such a… Godly thing to say.

"Perhaps not." Coulson had a wry smile on his face, "But I assure you Seren is one of the very best. Some would even say as good as Tony himself."

There was a beat. A moment of silence where Ren stood and allowed herself to be scrutinised by the band of superheroes held it as their duty to protect the world, people who in this moment, were looking to her for help. She could tell why Tony liked it; It's called feeling needed honey.

They took her in; the faded skinny jeans, lose fitting shirt, long dark hair falling in waves to her waist; she was whilst certainly very pretty, but not what they expected to see in a computer hacking prodigy. But there was something there, a determination that hid behind the deep brown eyes, a fire that spoke of victories hard won that resonated in each of them.

"In that case, Lady Ashmore, may I help you with your luggage?" At her raised eyebrow Bruce laughed. "Yes, he's always like that."

"Sooooo, what do we think?" Barton asked as the Avengers minus Tony sat sprawled out in the living room of the communal area in The Avengers Tower.

"About Lady Ashmore?" Thor asked, but Steve cut him off.
"I think they get younger every day. She looked like she was barely an adult."
"She's seventeen Cap, I started way younger than that. So did Barton."
"Well I think she's seriously good." Bruce's voice carried across them all, and they turned to him with looks of interest. "Well for a start, SHIELD wouldn't bother with her if she wasn't talented, but also Phil went all the way to England to get her. If she wasn't something special then they wouldn't bother doing that, they would just summon her the way we get summoned by Fury. The fact that they are treating her so well speaks for itself."

Barton was the next to speak, "Does anyone else think she's weirdly familiar though? Like they've seen her somewhere before but they just can't place it?" Noises of affirmation sounded around the room.

Sitting in her room on her own floor of the tower Ren listened to the team's conversation. It had taken her no time to tap into JARVIS's video and audio feeds and she was glad she had; she wanted to know if any of the Avengers could actually place her. But it seemed they couldn't; she had done her job well. Stretching she allowed herself a hint of pride that even JARVIS didn't recognise her; comparing people to data he already stored to identify them only worked if the data was correct. Currently the fingerprints, DNA and photos of her that were in JARVIS' data banks were fake- the fingerprints substituted for others, the same with the DNA, and the photos altered so facial recognition wouldn't work.

Being a genius was sweet.

Not that it hadn't pained her to do it at the time; it took away all chance Tony had of finding her- if he wanted to look he would get the AI to do it for him, and JARVIS was simply looking for the wrong things. Painful but necessary, especially now.

She began to consider the task ahead; it wasn't going to be easy, finding someone who was able to fool both Tony and JARVIS would be no mean feat. They had covered their tracks very well, just a precursory glance at the AI's operating system could tell her that- and whoever had booted him back up after the incident hadn't helped her either. She rolled her eyes, amateurs…

There was a knock on the door, "Seren?" She recognised the voice to be that of Bruce Banner.
"Uh-huh?"
"We were wondering if you wanted to have dinner with us? We're ordering takeout so we'd need to know what you would want."
She swung off the springy bed and opened the door, smiling at the man who stood on the other side. "Sure, that would be really nice. Just give me a second though." She dashed back inside, grabbing her laptop and smart phone, before re-joining the scientist and starting towards the elevator.
"So tell me more about your work on anti-electron collisions, Dr Banner, I've heard it's absolutely unparalleled in its depth."