"I told you the last time you came in for a check-up, no sign of progress on the hearing," I sighed, looking down at my hands there as I was sitting on the exam table and felt the strong sense of defeat there within my chest. The shale smell of the doctor's office, the hint of soap there lingering on the Doctor's hands as he placed his tools back on the table and he rubbed his eyes with his stubby fingers behind his glasses. I hated this, knowing that there would be no progress on my end. I wanted progress, I needed progress. This was not how it was supposed to be, though I was okay with what I had in the end.

It was still not enough.

"I'm sorry, Emma. There's nothing else I can do for you."

It rang in the room like a bell that was too dull for someone to listen. Another great aspect of my life.

I'll get it out in the open real quick. I have no hearing in my right ear.

It was a pure accident when I was little, but I have my father to blame for that. He was the real reason why I lost it, but trust me, I'm not bitter. It happened when I was about two years old, it was another night for him to drink and then get wind that my mother was going to leave him. He got mad, his temper was never really great from what I remember. That would tick him off to grab me and kidnap me in hopes that my mother wouldn't leave him. But the problem was that he was drunk, real drunk, and driving with me in the car in the constant busy streets San Franciso. All I knew, according to me mother, was that it was late in the night, he was going too fast, and he slammed into a trolly, in turn, made us flying against one of the buildings there closely,

We were both lucky to be alive.

I lost my hearing then, and my father was no longer in the picture. My mother got the divorce she wanted and he was gone, nowhere to be found or heard of again. At first, I was said, too young t understand that he was not there, but as I got older, I knew why. I didn't love, as tough as it sounded and as it was to swallow, I never loved him as much. It made me doubt that he loved me too, loved me enough to not get em killed from another alcoholic adventure of his. The rest of my childhood consisted of doctor visits, surgeries in hopes to get my hearing back, plenty of hearing aids to go through, learning sign language, and just trying to be as normal as humanly possible.

But my new definition of normal was learning gymnastics when I was young in order to do something outside of school and to get my hands dirty, getting my hands on a laptop and learning the ins and out of technology. It was when I was 12 years old when I found out the one true thing that I was really good at, that really made more sense in my life more than anything else.

Hacking.

It was a simple thing that I learned in school, sitting next to another schoolmate who was hacking to change his grade in the school system. Since I couldn't hear what he was saying, all thanks to the hearing loss, I only watched out of the corner of my eye. He made it seem so complicated and so scary as if he was going to be caught at any moment, but to me, it was fascinating. seeing him move in and out of the system and his fingers move over the keys. Nothing else was really catching my attention like how he was hacking to move his grades up. Although I had to wonder why he would need to do something like that when he was smart enough to get onto the school system undetected, I learned from watching him and I wanted to try it myself. Not that I needed to change my own grades, I was just more interested in the thrill and thought of hacking.

The older I was getting, the better I was getting with my hacking. My mother had no idea I was doing something like this when I would come home from school. I kept my grades up to have her worry, I still went to gymnastics five times a week and was pretty good at it. With just my mother and I, we were each other's universe and nothing more or less. My mother had to work countless hours and hours at her job as a nurse, overnights, and over time.

But she tried her best to raise me, taking the two of us out on dates every Sunday night and many nights of the both of us reading together whens he wasn't working. I could tell how tired my mother was getting throughout the years, and when I was old enough I could get a job to help my mother with the mortgage and get our feet planted on the ground. I told her it was doing administration work at an IT store, but I was really working for money under the table as one of their lead analysts to stop hackings that would happen on their system.

They didn't tell my mother a single thing, as long as I did their bidding and not said a word.

I went off to school and got my bachelors and masters in computer science and computer engineering, going off to the East Coast and leaving my mother behind, much to her dismay. I kept in touch with her, though my own need for hacking was growing more and more of an addiction than anything. I would work odd jobs here and there, and since the pay was good enough under the table for me to help computer for professors or hack through with computer companies, I wasn't going to complain about it or leave a rare large trial behind me for someone to see and come after me with. I knew that it was bad what I was doing, it was against the law and not even close to being good. But then again, I knew also that I had to do what I had to do in order to survive in the world. I was poor, going to too many medical bills on my count all from my hearing aid and hospital visits. I needed to pay them off somehow, for the sake of my mother and her worried heart and for me to just live on to the ripe old age of fifty if I had the chance.

"How'd it go?" I dropped the bag from my strap down onto the ground as I closed the door behind me. The dim lights of the room were giving off the hinted glow of the constant workings of the other hackers that were there within the basement. There were at least 5 more hackers there, typing away at their laptops that were set up around the room and with her headphones on. After another rousing day at the Doctor's office, I had to go back and help the others that were currently trying to hack into another major technology company. They've been trying for the past few days and yet they haven't even tapped into the main system yet, so that's when they called me in. They were desperate.

"Don't ask," I grumbled to one of the hackers that I was friends with, Gibbs. He snorted, seeing the agitation on my face as I walked past him and ruffled my own hair with my bitten down fingernails.

"That bad?" He asked, making me look over at him and watch him up and down with my eyes. He was a smaller built than me, a lip ring there evident and a small scruff there on his cheeks. He was weighing another graphic shirt with his baggy jeans and his black-rimmed glasses there to hide some of his eyes from me to see.

"Doctors don't know shit," Another hacker said from her spot at her laptop, her headphones around her neck as she craned her neck over to see me there, "They told me I had cancer, I'm as healthy as a horse, idiots."

"Any who, ready to play?" Gibbs asked me as he was trying to steer that awkward conversation back over to where I was. I had to smile or how he was sounding, having me then nod in agreement as I walked over to one of the spare laptops that they had out. Gibbs chuckled as he walked me over to his spare laptop, a standard durable one that was used to hacking and getting more data than the regular ones would have from day to day. As soon as I sat down at the table, he tapped a few buttons to have me see the symbol and sigma of what company we were hacking into. My eyes go wide and I looked at him in shock from what I was seeing.

"You can't be serious," I said to him in a low tone, Gibbs looking at me in confusion.

"What?" he asked, not getting the gentle hint of what this was.

"You want to break into this company? You know not one single human was able to do this," I reminded him with a low tone, "This is suicidal. it's not like the other jobs I've been able to cut into."

"Think of this as you graduation, getting up to the big dogs and showing them how ti's done," he said it so nonchalantly like it was another hacking job that was worth that struggle. But this, this was a big deal, too big for someone like me to at least try to tap into. I knew I was good, but I also knew that I wasn't stupid enough o think that I could get through this whole thing in one piece. Gibbs had faith in me, more faith than he should as I bit my lower lip and looked back at the sigma again.

Stark Industries.

1 hour later

"Shit…shit shit shit," I moved away from the table now with my hands out in front of me like I touched poison for the first time. The others were right bind me, watching me the whole time and seeing what I was doing and they too were shocked, looking at the screen with wide eyes and with astonishment there written all over their faces. I was beyond shocked, scared out of my life, and I thought this was some kind of trick, that I really didn't do it.

But I did.

"You really hacked into the mainframe," Gibbs said in a breath of air now next to me, just as shocked as I was as I shook my head.

"It wasn't supposed to be possible,…" I trailed off.

"This is legit! We're in Stark Industries!" another one said in a joyous tone, the others were laughing and chuckling too like this was some kind of victory that we would have for another hacking job. But I still thought this was too much and not even close to being right. if it was anything else, I would be fine with it, but Stark Industries? What were they thinking of letting em do this?

"We need to erase this," I said out of the blue, all of them going quietly from hat I said to them and they were looking at me in shock now, not in the best way but in confusion and in a negative way really.

"What are you talking about? We can see whatever we want from here," Gibbs explained to me in a light tone, still not getting what I was telling him.

"This is Star Industries…you know who runs this?" I asked him in a hiss, seeing him watch em carefully now as it was overflowing his head and then sinking in under his skin.

"Tony Stark…." He added, having em raise an eyebrow at him.

"In lamest terms…Iron Man of the Avengers." I said to him in a hiss, the others were now looking at me with grave looks on their faces and almost like he floor dropped out from underneath them. I looked back at the laptop again, instantly closing the laptop before anything else could happen or anything else could pop up.

"Destroy the laptop," I said to them all now, rushing over to my bag again and throwing it over my shoulder, "Wipe every piece of equipment that's here in the basement and relocate, don't come back here for another month or so,"

"Why?" one of them asked, having it sound like they very much new at this game and now knowing the real consequences that this was going to bring on all of us. I knew about that, coming too close several times with the law and almost getting arrested myself because of it.

"Because if you don't leave this basement within the next five minutes, you'll going to be arrested."

"Good luck," Gibbs said to me under his breath while we were bee-lining out of the basement and into the alleyway that we were walking down. I threw my hoodie on over my head and tried not to show my face. My own heartbeat was racing more and more now since it was getting to be more of a reality that I could be arrested within seconds now, someone could be watching me and waiting for the next big moment. I was looking everywhere with my eyes, my hands tightly on my laptop in my backpack and my feet were moving faster and faster now

I turned the corner, going down to the main street and seeing the others coming to and fro in the area as if nothing else was going on and nothing was tainted. They didn't now who I was, and it was fine by me, I was trying to blend in and not be seen to lightly by the civilians there. I just need dot make it to my apartment and not make any other decisions from there on out.

The hearing aid was buzzing from the sounds around me, the small hit of rain that was falling, the boots stomping on the concrete ground of the sidewalk, it was still the same sound I was used to for years and years, and yet it felt like every sound I was hearing was heightening because of my fear of being caught. it was scaring me, all of the it was. What I just did was insane, beyond insane, and it made me think that I was just own my death sentence with a pen and with my fingers on the board.

I was just about to turn onto the street when I had the itching feeling that I was just caught, having me freeze and feel a hand on my back. I whirled around, seeing a man in front of me dressed in black up and down and have a haunting look on his face, but he looked too pale for my liking and it scared me.

"My boss would like to talk to you." He said in a thick accent, almost Russian from what it sounded like. Within a second, I thought it was someone from Stark Industries, already finding out about me and waiting to send me to the police, if not worse. I felt like I was about to head into my death sentence there if I went with him, and His grip on me was a bit too tight for me liking. I had to think fast, real fast now since He might be knocking me out sometimes too.

So I punched him, hard in the throat.

He released me, doubling over as I started to run, double time now as I was thinking that he would be right behind me. I could hear him say something in Russian now, maybe a curse word or two as I was boiling more and more down the road, passing the people there and not trying to run into them. I was more concerned about whoever was coming after me and trying to kill me. What was I thinking? I was an idiot, a big one for doing something like that and thinking that I would get away with me, let alone succeeding in it.

I turned another corner, hearing tires squealing behind me on the road and it made me wonder that they were following me. I ran faster, looking back for one second and seeing some kind of run own van coming up after me, going a bit faster than the other cars. it made me instantly look forward again, seeing my apartment at the corner of the street, third floor. I had to find a way to get there without showing them how to get there. It was tricky, but it was another thing that I picked up in the past, to get in and out of my apartment without the landlord seeing me and getting his nose into my business. Thank God for gymnastics.

I had a sharp right, reaching up for the low fire escape ladder that was within jumping reach from me in the alleyway to the right. I jumped, grabbing the bar with both hands and pulling myself up within seconds int my arms to the first ladder. I looked back at the street, seeing no sign of the van or that it followed me, and I grinned, climbing a bit faster now and up to my window there against the few escape, seeing it already cracked up slightly from where I left it when I left this morning for the Doctor's appointment. Once I reached the window, I sighed in relief, thinking that the worst would be over now as I opened the window completely and crawled through.

With my back to the room and my face to the window, I thought I was in the clear.

"You know for a hacker, I thought you would have a better sense of security for you place."

I froze, not moving from my spot there and thinking that it was another person from Stark that was there to get me. But the voice sounded more humorous, warm and down to earth, not sinister like someone from a big company would. I looked t the reflection in the mirror of the window, seeing a person there in the middle of my room and looking at me with a tilt of his head and a small smile on his lips. I could see he was wearing some kind of uniform there, Maroon and chrome almost with a helmet that was covering most of his head, except for his face. I finally turned around, facing the person who was in my apartment.

"Are you with Stark Industries?" I asked him almost tentatively, still clutching my backpack there that was on my shoulder and thinking that he was. He looked right at me, a small glimpse there on his lips like he was observing me with his now eyes. Maybe he was, and I saw the lightness there in his eyes and how dark his hair was in the lightness that was coming into my apartment. Even with him breaking into my own home, I couldn't help but think that he was handsome, with the scruff there on his own face, he seemed kind. But it was not what I wanted to know from him.

"What are you going to do if I say…yes?" He asked me almost tentatively now, having me shift a bit there in the room now as I felt my fingers twitching against my side.

"How did you get into my house?" I asked him, looking up and down at the uniform he was wearing,a small eyebrow raised on him then as I pointed to his uniform, "Did you use that?" He looked down at his own uniform, shrugging his shoulders when I heard another voice from the other side of the room where the hallway was.

"Scott, quit trying to scare her, please." An older man walked into the room now, walking a bit slower than what I thought. But his look was determined, white hair medium length but looked like it suited him as he was wearing white almost clear-rimmed glasses and a business suit. He was using a cane in one hand and he stood next to the younger man, apparently his name was Scott. In my head, it suited him as the man spoke up once more.

"I am going to assume why you're wondering why we're in your apartment." He said to me, having me nod slowly at him and shift away from him slightly. He saw me do this, holding up both of his hands at me now to show that he wasn't going to try anything on me,

"You're not in trouble or anything," He explained calmly, "At east, not yet. Not unless you want to talk to me."

"I don't know you, sir. And the fact that you broke into my apartment I don't think is helping you case in convincing me to talk to you," I admitted to him calmly, my fingers were still twitching next to me against my leg there as he nodded in agreement.

"You have a point there," he said in agreement, shifting with his cane still in his hand, "I'm Hank Pym."

My heart stopped then, knowing that name from the past things on the news and all hat went on with his old company, which happened to be another company that I tried to hack into in the past.

"You're Emma Grains, and I'm here to hire you."