Running Scared (Avengers Fanfiction)

Chapter 1

Marlo's café, was the epitome of a dump, but there was no doubt that Marlo's made the best cup of coffee in all of New York. At least in Katie's opinion. The first day she moved to New York, all she had was twenty bucks and a dream. She just had the feeling that wouldn't be enough to make it in the big apple. And so she found herself at Marlo's draining her sorrows in one of the best cappuccinos ever when she spotted the help wanted sign on the counter. It was fate. And so three months later, here she was, standing behind the counter of Marlo's awaiting her next customer.

"Stupid son of a bitch!" she heard her boss yell from his office in the back. She gave an apologetic smile to the few customers there, before going to check out the problem. As she assumed it was her boss Raul Martines, Cuban native, who came to New York to live the American dream. That dream just didn't happen to include computers. He was in the middle of some Spanish swearing when he turned to see her in the doorway. "This stupid machine's not working." He whacked it again.

"Yeah, I don't think hitting it will help any Raul." Katie said walking over. "What's going on?"

"I'm trying to enter the payroll, but a box popped up and then another and then-"

"Alright, calm down." Katie replied. "I don't know much about computers, but maybe-" she walked over reading over the message on the screen. "Oh!" Raul watched as his barista typed in a few keys before turning to him. "There, that should do it." she smiled. "No more hitting." she heard the sound of the counter bell and was off to tend to the customer.

And this was pretty much how her days went. Serving customers, playing referee between Raul and any computerized object, and then sweeping up before leaving.

Walking down the streets of New York, Katie often pondered the twists and turns of her life. But now her life was nice and quiet. Boring even, and she loved it. She arrived at her apartment ignoring the whistles of the shifty loiterers that always stood outside of her building. Apartment 4B. Even her address was boring. To her it was perfect. For so long she wished for boring, and now she finally had it, and she wasn't going to let anything stand in her way of keeping it. She walked into her apartment immediately greeted by her fat cat.

"Oh, Mr. Pickles." she cooed picking up the feline. Life before New York didn't allow her to have pets, but now she could. "How was your day?" she closed her door, before latching all six locks on the door. To anyone outside looking in, it looked as if she were paranoid, but to her she was just being cautious. She typed in a code in the security system by the door before turning and walking into her apartment. It was small and the noise from the outside always got in, but it had four walls which was all she could hope for at its price. The building wasn't flashy, and the neighborhood never drew too much attention. She needed a hole to hide in and she'd found it. Pressing a kiss to Mr. Pickles's head, Katie headed down the hall of her apartment and walked into the bedroom. This is where she spent most of her time, but not in the way one would believe. She sat Mr. Pickles down on the floor, before turning to her computer... actually computers. So maybe she did know something about computers. Katie sat down in front of her many monitors, typing in a few keys she watched as they all turned on, each showing something different. There were a few of the outside of the building. They were security cameras she hooked up when she moved in. The others were the halls of the building, while the rest just played news from around the world. Mr. Pickles jumped up onto her leg and she scratched the top of his head.

"What is going on in the world today Mr. P?" she mumbled to her cat when the face of someone she'd come to recognize shown on her screen.

"And today on E-News, The one, the only, Billionaire, Playboy, and recently announced Iron Man Aka Tony Stark, tells us about what it's like to be him." the correspondent says as a picture of said playboy pops up. " Tony has recently made news with his top of the line Stark Firewall, one he claims is impenetrable. Companies around the world have been hounding the scientist, but he has decided to keep the program solely at Stark Industries." the clip changes to Tony on some red carpet event.