Avengers: Daughters

Chapter 2: Ruby POV

I glance up as someone enters the lab. It's a girl with brown hair, a black outfit encasing her athletic figure. "Who are you?" I ask.

"Ally Barton," she says. "You?"

"Bruce and Tony's kid. Ruby Stark. Good to meet you. I'm guessing that Romanoff and Barton have gone to that big mission," I say. Ally nods at me. "Might as well have a seat. Everyone else has."

"who's everyone else?" She looks round the empty room as I type a few algorithms in the computer. An Access Denied message flashes up at me and I frown, tapping the counter with my nails.

"Samantha Odinson and Liberty Barnes-Rogers," I answer her, typing frantically. "They went to grab some coffee."

"What are you doing?" She asks suspiciously, coming to look at the screen.

"Trying to get past all these nasty security walls. They're blocking my access to some restricted files." I bite my lip in concentration. "What's Fury's middle name?"

"They are blocked for a reason, Stark," she snaps and presses a button on the monitor. All the screen fades to black and I sigh.

I tap a few buttons, type in a password and the screen flashes back to life. "Nice try, Barton, but I can get past you turning the screen off. See you didn't get your mothers brains."

"You don't know anything about my mother," Ally says coldly.

"I know plenty. More than you know. Do you know everything about her ridiculously horrifying past? Surprised your father didn't kill her when he had the chance-"

Her hand flashes out and I'm on the floor, my nose burning with pain and blood gushing from it. I attempt to sit up, clutching the chair. "Well, that's unfair-" I begin and her foot lashes into my face.

"Shut it, Stark." She pulls me up by my hair and I yell out at her. "Don't fuck around with me."

"Eloquently put, Barton," I smirk and she throws me into a wall. I smack into it as Sam and Libby come in.

"Oh my God!" Libby says and rushes over to me, concerned. Sam grabs Ally and puts her into a headlock. In the hour I've known them, Libby seems the caring type and Sam is the Act-Fast-And-Violently type. Her and Ally will get along.

"I'm fine," I wave her away, unconcerned with the pain. I've experienced worse. Not that anyone but my parents and Pepper, my godmother, knows that. I tend to keep it secret. "This is Ally Barton, and I think she's perfect."

"Perfect for what?" She spits out at me.

"Odinson, let her go," I say and the blonde girl complies. "Barton, Odinson, Rogers, welcome to what I call the Daughter Avengers. I'll obviously come up with a better name but I've had hardly any time and-"

"What do you mean, Ruby?" Sam asks, frowning.

"I've hacked into SHIELD. And there's a restricted file. Not even the director's high clearance level can access it. Now that's big. Who has the power to block the director from a file in his own agency's system?" I clap my hands together and show them the scan I have running on my computer. "Obviously I probably could. But it would take me years. So if it's someone with inside intel. Someone who doesn't have to hack to be able to access the biggest secrets."

"You've hacked all of SHIELD?" Libby stares at me. "You know everything?"

"Most things," I shrug it off. "Don't look so amazed. I'm a genius but I don't have time to show off right now because we have a serious threat on our hands."

"Of someone making a secure file?" Ally smirks. "Very threatening."

I slam my hands on the counter and she jumps slightly. "Secret from the director, Barton. Last time this happened-" I break off and glance at Libby. She looks unaware so I don't say anything. "It was bad. SHIELD collapsed."

"You don't think HYDRA has come back, do you?" Ally asks, her face serious now. "We should tell an agent."

"But which one? For all we know they might be the enemy."

"Our parents?" Sam suggests. "My father would-"

I shake my head. "We can't trust them."

"Are you serious?" Libby says. "Do you know who my parents are? They are the last people who would be the enemy!"

I meet Ally's eyes and she frowns at me. I take that as don't ever tell her. "We don't know, Libby. If you tell them, someone else could hear, someone could realise we know. Barton, your parents-"

"They can't be trusted," she says. "I know that already."

"Good. Sam, your father is probably not involved but we don't know about who he would tell. Selvig or Hill or Coulson could be involved."

"And your parents?" Sam asks.

"Tony...he has already proved that he's dishonest by keeping things from me. They don't tell me much. I found it all out for myself. The hard way," I say. My chest tightens as a memory of the cold dank torture chambers flashes through my mind. The stench. The misery.

Ally looks almost concerned then she's back to blank and cold. "Why should we trust you?" She snaps.

"Because," I grab my coffee from the side, "I'm your biggest chance in getting through this alive."