Set after the events of TWS but before AOU.

"Tony"

Tony turned to face the director whose face had appeared on the video link he had installed on one of his machines.

"Hey Fury, why the early morning call, couldn't wait to see me at the meeting today"

"Well that's cancelled, the British intelligence force has been in contact with me, and they have an agent in desperate need of protection. A terrorist organization is on his tail and let's put it this way, he's been shot at over 20 times in the last month. They called in a favour with SHEILD and you and the rest of the team are on guard duty"

"So we're babysitting?"

"That's the essence of it."

"Well this has got to be the easiest mission we've ever had"

"Don't be so cocky Stark, the agency after him, SCORPIA, is next to HYDRA on danger scale."

"Well they haven't killed this guy yet"

"That's more on the agent's part then theirs"

Tony sighed, if this guy was so amazing at evasion then why did he need protection.

"So who is this guy and how long are we tied down with him"

"His names Alex Rider, all information on him is withheld but he does have a partner coming to stay as extra protection, and so you guys can still work, but he's coming later, finishing a mission."

"So working partner not love partner"

"Yes Stark."

"When's this Rider guy coming then?"

"He's supposedly getting to the tower for midday. Wake up the others and make sure they're all there when he gets there. I don't want to give Jones any fuel for SHEILD being incompetent"

"Who? Fury!" tony silently cursed Fury. So they had some guy, who was wanted by a terrorist organization, turning up in 5 hours. He had no idea who this guy was, what he looked like, what his age was, why there was a terrorist group after him. "Jarvis, initiate wake up call."

"Yes sir"

"Try get a message to Jane's place that hammer man needs to get over here"

"Yes sir"

"And, locate all British nationals of male gender. Age 18 or over, and named Alex Rider."

"Am I to assume that this is a private search?"

"Yeah, and hack shields files on this guy"

"Of course sir"

"Thanks Jarvis!"

"Always a pleasure sir"

Alex shuffled slightly from his position lying across the back seats of the car. He wanted to have least a small view of where they were.

"Stay down kid" muttered the driver who was driving round practically any corner they came across.

"The last shot was an hour ago, I'm pretty sure they've lost track of us"

"Not risking it"

"Come on Tom, are you called Tom? You look like a Tom. I've been in this car for the last six hours with you and never asked your name"

"My names Lucas"

"Okay, Lucas. If they were still following us why haven't they shot you?"

There was silence from the front and a grin spread on Alex's face.

"Stay where you are for another half hour and you can pick the CD"

"So I don't have to listen to your 90's stuff anymore?"

"Yes."

"Whatever CD I want"

"Yes" Lucas paused "I'm going to regret this so much aren't I?"

"Wait and see mate" Alex grinned before looking at the watch on his wrist. "What time was I supposed to be at the tower?"

"12"

"It's 2"

"And we have another hours drive"

"You going to call ahead?"

"No, I've worked with these guys before they won't care. And maybe we'd be more on time if you hadn't done a runner within an hour of getting in the car."

"Hey, I was bored. And I thought you needed a bit of a run"

"It took me an hour to track you down. How did you even get on that roof?"

"I'm a good climber. And I wasn't really doing a runner, just a bit of light hide and seek. You know If I was driving us there we'd be there quicker"

"Yes lets also let an unlicensed under aged kid drive, break the speed laws and draw all the attention of any snipers in the next 50 miles. Wouldn't that make this a perfect day?"

"Sounds like fun"

"Alex, stay in the back of this car or so help me…"

"Fine, I guess you have to be boring"

"Well you can sit up now."

"Oh thank God"

"Half an hour left, what do you want to put on."

"Artic Monkeys"

"The band I've been ranting about hating?"

"Exactly"

"You're a little shit aren't you?"

"I've been told" laughed Alex leaning back on the chair happy to extend his back.

*Time jump to when they've made it to the tower*

"Well we're only 3 hours late"

Alex paid no attention to Lucas. He was busy trying to estimate the height of the tower.

"Hey Lucas, how many floors are there in the avengers tower? And what floor are we on?"

"100 floors, we're meeting them in the lowest room of their space, room 90"

"I bet you £50 I can get there before you"

"What? ALEX!" The poor man who had been enlisted with Alex watched in panic as the boy climbed up the outside of the building. Already about 20m up. "Shit" he muttered to himself as he grabbed Alex's bags out the bag and rushed inside to the lift where the pass key he had been given clicked the room number to floor 90.

Steve sipped at his coffee as Tony ranted. The guy had been in a bad mood ever since he had found literally no information about a spy named Rider, and the guy being 3 hours late didn't help. Nat and Clint said they had heard of a guy named Alex Rider who had screwed up some organization named SCORPIA but only knew the name.

"Sir, someone has activated the elevator to arrive at this floor. They appear to be late 30's and have a pair of large suitcases with them." Came the bland voice of Jarvis over Tony's rants.

"So this guy chooses to grace us with his presence finally, let's see what he has to say for being so late" muttered Clint. "Although I'm more interested in who the great Alex Rider is"

"Sir there is also a disturbance on the outside of the tower."

"Jarvis, I told you to stop reporting those after the fifth time you woke me up in the night about some birds"

"Apologies Sir"

The elevator doors pinged open and a very tired looking man exited. He had appropriately styled brown hair over his head with a stubble beard. He looked athletic but not heavy. Although Steve had to say the thing that really stuck out was the fact the man looked so exhausted and had a similar look on his face to Fury when Stark was being difficult. Oddly he was looking straight past all of them.

"Hello, you must be Alex, I'm Steve Rogers" he held out a friendly hand, the man looked at him confused before realization took opver his face.

"Oh, I'm not Alex, he" the man pointed at the main window onto a balcony area "is Alex"

The group turned to where the man was pointing and all jaws dropped in shock as they stared at a grinning teenage boy who waved happily at them before mouthing something along the lines of 'can you let me in?'

Stark, who still looked shell shocked pressed a button on a control pad which opened the door. The teenager, Alex, entered.

"Thanks! It was starting to get boring out there. Lucas, you owe me £50"

"I never agreed to that bet"

"HOW THE HELL DID YOU GET ON MY BALCONY!?" yelled Stark

"I climbed up the building." Said Alex, as if he normally climbed 90 stories.

The avengers all looked at each other with confusion. Before finally looking back to the kid.

"You realise that's 90 floors? Right?" questioned Clint slowly.

"You know, I should enter through windows more often, we've seemed to miss out all the age questions" grinned Alex at Lucas, who looked so done.

"Speaking of which, I think I know why there are no files on a spy named Alex Rider. He legally shouldn't be a spy. How old are you anyway, 16? 17?" stated Natasha.

Natasha had originally been shocked at the appearance of a teenager on the balcony but know her brain was trying to think where it knew him from. He looked ridiculously similar, the light brown hair, brown eyes, athletic build, and the good looks. She knew all those features. But couldn't think where from.

"15 actually"

"You mortals use children to fight your battles!?" interrupted Thor looking horrified at the group. He thought back to his own childhood, yes, he and his brother had been trained from a young age as warriors. But he had only gone to war at the Asgardian equivalent of 18, and even then he had snuck along.

"Trust me, this isn't normal. Especially from the British. I thought they were supposed to have better morals then us!" assured Steve.

"I'm going to go. Alex, bags."

"Yeah fine. Bye Tom!"

"Lucas" said a voice from the closing elevator doors.

Alex turned to the group of Avengers.

"Now, the reason we were so late was I wanted a bit of cardio when we first got in the car and SCORPIA tried to kill me again. So I would really appreciate being shown to my room. I am sure you have an entire barrage of questions for me but you'll have to wait until I wake up. "

"Yeah, right this way" motioned Bruce, who was the only one who hadn't said anything in the commotion. Alex grabbed his bags and followed.

He respected the privacy this kid had. He recognised the haunted eyes that gave the kid an older look. He realised the snark and jokes where just a cover for the pain that Alex had experienced. But who was he to pry. He lead him to the lift for the last 10 floors and took him down the main corridor to a turn off which his room was in.

"This is your room, it has three exits, vents, balcony, and normal door. Bathrooms just down the main hall. Sadly as Tony's own floor is having refurbishments done after he practically exploded it you're sharing the floor with Steve and Tony. When you stand at the main corridor Tony is 2 doors down on your left, Steve is 5 doors to your right. Stairs are at the end of the main corridor on both sides…"

"Don't worry about explaining, I'll figure out all the rooms." Interrupted Alex.

"Ok, I'll leave you to get acquainted." Bruce left the room.

Alex waited until he heard the elevator moving to take of the act he was playing. His face dropped to one of emptiness and he lay flat on the double bed they had put in his room. Silently he cursed at his predicament. If MI6 had left him alone none of this would have happened. Jack would be alive, Sabrina's parents would be alive, Sabrina would still be… he swore at himself for thinking of her, it had been 4 months since her death, 5 weeks since he escaped. Or as MI6 liked to say 'was rescued'.

He needed sleep, but didn't want it to come, as it was always joined by nightmares. He hadn't slept for the last three days. But now he could feel it circling him. Finally he let go and sleep claimed him.

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