SLEEPWALKING

CHAPTER FOUR: SNEAKY SERVERS

AS soon as the computer opened up to the main home screen, Audie found little to no trouble in searching through Tony's files before locating the private server he'd instructed Jarvis to create once he'd begun designing a better version of his first Iron man suit.

She stared at the password entry slot for a few moments, he wouldn't be stupid enough to use the same password.

Would he?

Typing in Peppers birthday once more she realized that he was indeed stupid enough to use the same password.

She let out a sigh.

For a genius of sorts, she wasn't the least bit surprised to see he didn't act like one.

Entering the private server, Audie scanned over the numerous amounts of smaller grouped files, she needed to figure out what it was she was looking for.

And as soon as her eyes grazed over the file name, she knew she'd found exactly what it was she'd been searching for.

The avengers' profiles.

She'd been intrigued with them from the start, that much she would admit.

More so the incident from the year prior.

The Insight project that Nick Fury had begun, and later ended.

She'd found several things about it interesting, including the fact that HYDRA had made itself known within the walls of the organization and its members. She wondered how something that big slipped past a government organization of their strength.

Of their skill.

Audie shook her head and clicked on the file closest to her mouse, she watched as it opened and displayed four of the many profiles she'd been looking for.

The first one that caught her attention was that of a man with long flowing blonde hair, she softly frowned as she read through it before moving onto the next profile.

A redhead named Natasha.

As she glanced through the woman's file she found herself leaning her head into her hand quietly processing the information as she read, the woman had skills, that much she would willingly admit to.

But it seemed she was also a double agent of sorts, something that the rest of her little friends more than likely pushed against her to question her loyalty.

It must've been hard.

Living a life where you were never trusted, always considered a traitor by those that you cared for.

She let out a sigh and quietly moved onto the next profile.

A man named Steve Rogers.

He was dressed in some god-awful American-themed get-up and the girl couldn't help but cringe, how could anyone in this decade even consider wearing something like that.

It seemed so childish and out of place among the rest of the people living in the twenty-first century, she almost felt sorry for him. He must've been either blind or oblivious to even consider wearing the thing.

Although he did look somewhat familiar, she couldn't remember where exactly it was she'd seen him, but she knew she had.

Audie continued like that for the next hour, her fingers thrumming against the keyboard as she read through each detail the reports had to offer. And when she was done, she found that not only was staying with her uncle putting her at risk but that it could quite possibly cause her demise.

She let out a small sigh and pushed away from the desk, she could care less about logging out, if Tony found out then he found out.

He would know someone had gotten inside the servers no matter what, so instead, she went up to her bedroom and began to pack. Not everything, just enough so that her uncle wouldn't notice upon first glance.

And when he arrived home later that evening with enough anger swamping his features to look like he was going to murder someone, Audie made sure to stay in her room and simply pretend she'd gone to bed.

At least then the scolding could wait till the morning, and after that, she'd be long gone before he could work out some form of punishment for her.

Turning over in bed, Audie shielded her eyes from the bright light of the sun that had begun to shine through the window, as she sat up in bed she watched as the window slightly darkened and Jarvis greeted her in his normal tone.

"Good morning Audie." he spoke as he showed her the weather for the day, "please get dressed and head to the garage, Mr. Stark would like to have a word with you." ignoring the AI the girl made her way to her bag and pulled out another set of overalls with a medium sleeved navy blue shirt.

She liked the way the two colors worked together, the blue of the shirt and the grey of the overalls.

She let her mind drift to her mother and Laura for a moment, she missed them already. She knew Laura was more than likely staying with Lily while both she and her mother were gone- Lily being their "cousin" when in reality she was just extremely close to their mother- she wondered how the girl was holding up.

She hated being alone- even if she was with Lily- she preferred being with Audie when given the chance.

Closing her eyes for a moment, Audie tried her best not to think about her sister and proceeded to get dressed. And although she knew she should've been heading down to the garage, she ignored Jarvis and instead tried to find Pepper.

Ever since her mother had told her about the man's assistant she knew she would like her, there was just something about the way she'd been described that made her sound like the most caring and honest person around.

As if one moment she would tell you everything would be alright and then the next she'd be screaming at you for doing something impulsive and stupid.

It made her smile.

"Good morning Pepper." the teen chimed as she entered the kitchen, the woman looked up from her plate and smiled carefully setting her fork down.

"Good morning Audie." she spoke returning the gesture with a smile as the teen had, "how long has he been up?" she questioned as she moved to open the fridge, "since six, he doesn't sleep very well sometimes." the girl softly nodded her head.

"I heard he wants to talk to me." she added turning to meet the woman's gaze, Pepper gave a small nod and moved to stand, "if I were you..." she spoke, "I would say, that I sent you to get me something on the computer and you got curious." she offered softly crossing her arms over her chest.

Audie shook her head, "no, I did it, I might as well own up to it." she sighed, "thank you though."

Pepper gave a small nod before watching the teen take off for the staircase leading downstairs, she let out a sigh, what could that girl have possibly been doing on Tony's computer?

She'd probably never know.

Not that she wanted to.

Tony could be an odd person.

As Audie traveled down the flight of stairs, she stopped just barely out of sight and tried her best to slow her racing heart.

She shouldn't have been scared.

What would he do? Send her home? That was exactly what she wanted.

Letting out a small sigh, she descended the last of the steps and let Jarvis unlock the door using her biometric scan as one of the passwords, and as soon as she popped the door open and stepped inside, it seemed everything had gone silent amid her entrance.

Tony looked up from what he was working on a scowl carefully settling onto his features as she began to cross the room.

"You." he spoke his voice drawn taut as he fiddled with a screwdriver, "yes?" she countered narrowing her eyes, "you had no right to go through my computer." he stated having already turned his attention back to what laid in front of him on his workbench.

"Maybe don't leave me unsupervised and then we can talk about what I have the right to do."

Tony closed his eyes for a moment trying his best to not lash out at her, he couldn't, if he did that would make him a hypocrite, he'd been the same at her age.

Cocky, sarcastic, and annoyingly brilliant.

"I didn't leave you unsupervised..." he began quickly gesturing over his shoulder to the robot she'd shut down the day prior, "I left Jarvis to keep you on your side of the garage, and you felt inclined to disable him." he spoke removing a piece of metal from the thing on his desk.

"You need better security measures." she replied, that much was true, even Tony knew that, but he hadn't thought it would be necessary for her.

Although he hadn't quite expected her to cause THIS much trouble.

"And using Peppers birthday for BOTH your passwords? That's not very billionaire genius of you."

Tony tightened his grasp on the screwdriver his head snapping in her direction, "I AM THE ADULT HERE, YOU DO NOT GET TO QUESTION ME!" he yelled his words clipped as he stood from his seat.

"I'M AN ADULT TOO." Audie yelled back, she sometimes wondered why he couldn't remember the simple things, Laura's birthday, Logan's funeral, or her age.

It shouldn't have bothered her, but it did.

"I am the adult of THIS house." he replied, "and if you have a problem with that, then you can go home! I don't even know why your mother wanted to send you here!"

"Good!" Audie taunted, "I didn't even want to come here to begin with!" she spoke watching as Tony settled himself back into the seat at his workbench, "you're just like mom said you'd be." she mumbled already having begun to walk away from her uncle and towards the staircase.

That was the final straw.

All his anger had managed to gather and explode at that moment, a moment he would forever regret.

Still holding his screwdriver, he rammed it into the center of the device in front of him the sound of cracking and electricity following as his eyes widened in fear.

"AUDIE!" he yelled already having stumbled out of his chair to rush towards her.

He didn't get the chance to warn her.

The loud sound of an explosion silenced the rest of his words and the world went black for some time.

Cracking his eyes open deemed more difficult than he'd have previously assumed, but as he took in the sight before him, he realized his niece was quite possibly dead.

If not seriously injured.

Rubble covered the entire garage and smoke filled the air, looking down at the floor beneath him he could make out a small bit of blood- undoubtedly his own- as he tried to push himself into a sitting position.

"AUDIE?" he called out his voice hoarse after inhaling some of the smoke that seemed to dot every bit of the air around him, he needed to find her, to see if she was alright.

"Jarvis." he weakly called happy to hear the low humming that followed as Jarvis waited for a command, "call paramedics, and the fire department." he spoke.

"Yes sir."

And then the AI was gone.

He was doing what he'd been told to do.

And now Tony had to find Audie.

He had to.

Clenching his eyes shut, he forced himself to stand- using a piece of rubble at his side to help him- before he reached his hand up to fan away the smoke. Scanning the area around him, he knew Audie wasn't there, she was nearby though.

And as he continued to look, his hope for her only being slightly injured grew smaller and smaller. If the explosion had sent her as far as he thought it had, she would be dead, the impact alone would be enough to kill her.

Pushing past another large bit of rubble he stumbled upon the wall that had been destroyed from the explosion,

Bringing his hand up to cover his mouth, he held back a choked cry at the sight of the girl's body lying in the driveway.

SLEEPWALKING

CHAPTER FOUR: SNEAKY SERVERS