Mazzy sits in the quinjet, kicking her legs back and forth as her dad kneels in front of her. He's talking, but she isn't necessarily listening very well. She's just too excited. She has a job to do. Like a real Avenger. She is very, very happy about this. Tony, however? Not so much.

"You understand this is a one-time thing, right?" Tony asks as he tightens the laces on Mazzy's shoes. Mazzy is just staring at the floor behind him with a small smile on her face. In her head, she's imagining herself as a real superhero. To Tony, it just looks like she's ignoring him. He snaps his fingers in front of her face. "Are you even listening to me at all, Alice in Wonderland?"

"Yes," Mazzy lies, turning her attention back to him.

Tony rolls his eyes and begins retying her other shoe. "This is a terrible idea. I never should have allowed this," he mutters to himself, shaking his head. There is no going back now, though, really, considering they're already on the jet.

"I can help, though," Mazzy reminds him, raising her eyebrows.

"That's not the question, Maz. The question is whether or not I should allow you to help."

"Well, then the answer's yes. Yes, you should."

After finishing lacing up Mazzy's shoes, Tony grabs her knees and gives her a very stern look. "I need you to listen to me, alright?" Mazzy gives a firm nod. "You are gonna stay right by Bruce. He isn't exactly so super when he isn't green, so I'm gonna need you to make sure he doesn't die."

"Got it," Mazzy says, ready to get up and go.

"Not done," Tony stops her, giving her knees a firm squeeze. Mazzy huffs. "The comms I have right now aren't gonna work for you, so I'm giving you this thing."

Tony pulls a small device out of his pocket and puts it in Mazzy's hand. She examines it for a moment. It is very small. It has a rectangular shape and in the middle of it is a circular button. On the back of it is a little clip, so Mazzy clips it onto her waistband.

"Anything goes wrong, you press that button and I'll come get you. No matter what. Alright?" Tony asks, raising his eyebrows at her in that stern way parents do. The way that means, you better be listening to me right now because this is very, very important.

"Alright," Mazzy replies with another nod. "So, do I have a superhero name now? Like, ummm... maybe Super-Magic-Iron-Girl? No, that's lame."

"Your superhero name is Mighty Mouse. It's already decided," Pietro interjects from across the jet, where he's sitting beside Wanda, who smiles and rolls her eyes.

"Is not!" Mazzy spits, glaring at the man.

"Is too," Tony says, smiling in amusement. He stands up off the ground, ruffling Mazzy's hair as he does so. "Be smart. Be safe. Kick some tin soldier ass."

It makes him nervous to allow this. To allow Mazzy to be aware of the fact that she has special abilities and to allow her to use those special abilities to do something good. Since she came home with those abilities, Tony has only been trying to hide them from her. To convince her that they aren't special at all, just because he can't stand the idea of her finding out what happened to her or her getting hurt again.

But she has already figured so much out, and he knows that. He doesn't know how much she has figured out, but he knows she's figured out that she has special abilities that she wasn't born with. She figured out he has lied to her a lot. But she has, for the most part, stopped asking questions, so Tony thinks that she's probably figured out enough to be satisfied. He doesn't know for sure, though.

Vision— the being he and Bruce created with Jarvis— had said that they all need to help to get this done successfully. And Mazzy has the intelligence, the strength, and the power to help, and she sure as hell wants to help. She isn't in much danger. If she gets hurt, her body will put itself back together. Mazzy is persistent, determined, and stubborn. She wants to help, so she will help.

Tony kisses the crown of Mazzy's head as the jet lands. His chest aches.

✭

"Stay behind me, kiddo," Bruce says quietly, holding an arm out in front of Mazzy

Mazzy shoves past him very easily. "I'm the security guard, here. You stay behind me, adulto," she hisses just as quietly, but much more sternly than Bruce.

Everyone is really quite bad at allowing her to help. They just cannot seem to get used to having her there without having to do everything in their power to protect her. But she is really more safe there than any of them. When they get hurt, they get hurt. When Mazzy gets hurt, she gets hurt for a good couple of minutes, depending on the injury, before being just fine again.

Still, each and every adult there looks at little Mazzy Stark and sees nothing more than a little girl in need of protection. Every time they give her that look, Mazzy gives them her best glare to remind them that she is tough, too. It doesn't always work.

Bruce lets out a sigh. It doesn't feel good being a grown adult man with a ten-year-old girl as his security guard. He pushes his insecurities to the back of his mind and redirects his focus to the task at hand: finding Natasha.

The place they are in is very dark, which sucks for trying to find someone like Natasha, who is dressed in all black more often than not. Neither Bruce nor Mazzy really know what the place is. It gives off cave vibes at the same time as seeming like a sewer. If Mazzy were to give it a name, she would call it the Antagonist's Dungeon in an Old Disney Film. It's a fitting name, in her opinion.

The walls are all a dirty, brownish color that make it look like a dingy basement, only a thousand times bigger. There are stairs that look endless along with big, wide open spaces that Mazzy and Bruce can only imagine what Ultron is planning to use for.

There are lots of little machines and even more weapons. Mazzy runs up to a table where a gun-like weapon is sitting. She picks it up, despite the fact that it is practically the same size as her, and turns around to show Bruce.

"Holy cow! Look at this thing," Mazzy breathes out excitedly.

Bruce turns to look at her, and as soon as he does, his eyes go as wide as saucers. "Holy sh- Mazzy, put that down," he says sternly, marching over to her.

"But it could be useful," Mazzy points out. She wiggles her eyebrows in an attempt to convince him.

Letting out a sigh, Bruce gives in. "Fine. But I'm holding it," he says.

Rolling her eyes, Mazzy hands the giant gun over to him. "Oh, fine."

With a new weapon to protect themselves, Bruce and Mazzy venture further into the Antagonist's Dungeon in an Old Disney Film.

It would be extremely hard to find Natasha if Natasha was unconscious, but luckily for them, Natasha is awake and has the ability to hear and speak. So when Bruce calls out her name, she can reply instantaneously.

"Natasha! Natasha?!" Bruce whisper-shouts, his voice echoing throughout the Dungeon.

"Natasha!" Mazzy calls out a bit louder.

"Bruce? Mazzy?"

Bruce can hear that, but Mazzy can't. So when Bruce goes rushing in the other direction, Mazzy is completely confused.

"Bruce! You're supposed to follow me!" she whisper-shouts as she runs to catch up with him.

Down the stairs, Bruce and Mazzy go so quickly that they're stumbling over their feet, just one wrong step away from tumbling down each and every flight. Mazzy is still extremely confused until Bruce finally comes to a stop.

Behind bars stands Natasha. Alive and awake, and most importantly, okay.

Bruce rushes up to the bars, resting his hand on them as he looks Natasha over, checking for any sort of wounds. She looks okay. "You alright?" he asks, his eyebrows pinched together.

"Yeah," Natasha breathes out from the other side of the bars.

"You're okay!" Mazzy exclaims when she sees Natasha. She joins Bruce at the bars, bouncing on her toes.

"What are you doing here?" Natasha asks with concern. She is less concerned with Mazzy getting hurt, considering she knows the girl's strength, but she is more concerned with whether or not Tony knows Mazzy is there. "Where's your dad?" she asks.

"It's okay. I'm allowed this time," Mazzy insists with an excited smile on her face as she gives a firm thumbs up.

Natasha looks to Bruce for confirmation, and he nods. Natasha is surprised, to say the least. She has seen Mazzy beg and beg to come along nearly every time the Avengers went on a mission, and she has seen Tony say no again and again. But there Mazzy is, like she is a part of the team.

"Yeah. I'm an Avenger now," Mazzy boasts casually. She shrugs her shoulders and looks off to the side like it's nothing, even though, on the inside, she is squealing with delight.

"Well, Miss Avenger, wanna tell me where the rest of the team is?" Natasha asks the girl.

"In the city," Mazzy answers.

"It's about to light up," Bruce adds.

"I don't suppose you found a key lying around somewhere," Natasha hints. If the city is getting lit up, she doesn't necessarily want to be stuck in a cell in the city.

"Yeah," Bruce says. He backs away from the bars and lifts the gun. "I did."

Mazzy's eyebrows shoot up and a smile grows on her face. She is practically jumping with excitement. "Can I do it? Please?"

"Absolutely not."

"Lame."

Natasha backs herself up against the wall as Bruce aims right at the lock. A burst of energy and flames shoot out of the weapon and burn through the metal lock and bars. Natasha pulls the cell door to the side and slips out through the gap.

"So what's our play?" Natasha asks.

"We're here to get you to safety," Bruce tells her.

And as much as Mazzy wants to continue fighting and helping, she knows that Bruce is telling the truth. Their job isn't to get Natasha and join the fight with the others. Their job is to get Natasha and take her back to the jet, where she and the rest of them will be safe.

"Job's not finished," Natasha reminds him, her eyebrows furrowed.

"We could help with the evacuation, but I can't be in a fight near civilians," Bruce explains, shaking his head. He is too dangerous to be around civilians. At least, that's what he thinks of himself. "And you've done plenty," he says. He takes a step closer to Natasha. "Our fight is over."

"So we just disappear?" Natasha asks.

"We're supposed to go to the jet, but that's just what they said. We could just not listen," Mazzy suggests with a shrug.

Natasha smiles. "I like that idea better."

And suddenly, the ground begins to shake. Mazzy's eyes widen and she looks up at Natasha and Bruce for an explanation. They look just as concerned. The shaking only gets worse. They can hear the Earth cracking around them. They can only wonder what's going on above them.

"Oh, my goodness. Oh, my goodness," Mazzy mutters out very quickly. She steps closer to Bruce and Natasha, and they all edge further inside to see through the cracks and holes what is going on outside. "What's- I didn't- I didn't know this was gonna happen."

"We gotta move," Bruce says, panic in his voice.

"You're not gonna turn green?" Natasha asks with concern.

"I've got a compelling reason not to lose my cool," Bruce answers.

"I adore you."

Mazzy's eyes narrow and she furrows her eyebrows. She takes a step backward, and just as she does, Natasha pulls Bruce's face towards her own and kisses him.

Gross.

Natasha pulls away from Bruce with a quiet gasp as she shoves him backward, through a hole in the ground. Because they are now being lifted into the freaking air, Bruce goes falling through the sky and Mazzy stares at Natasha with her jaw dropped.

"But I need the other guy."

The green monster that is the Hulk flies back up through the hole and lands right in front of Natasha and Mazzy.

Mazzy runs her teeth over her lip. "Um, when we see my dad again, can you tell him this was your idea and not mine? Or else he's never gonna let me be an Avenger again."

Natasha says nothing in return, being too focused on the Hulk to answer, but Mazzy hopes that she's going to do it, anyway. Hulk smiles at Natasha and she returns it, cocking her head to the side. "Let's finish the job," she says.

✭

"That was, like, the most dangerous thing I've ever done in my whole entire life! I never wanna do that ever again!" Mazzy whines, her heart beating hard in her chest. She and Natasha just rode on Hulk's back to get to where they need to be, which is absolutely terrifying, but also a little bit fun, even though Mazzy will never admit it.

Now, Mazzy is running through the woods with Natasha, heading for the city. Their main objective, now, is not to get Natasha to the jet. It's to get as many people off of the floating piece of land as possible whilst also taking down as many of the tin soldiers as they can.

When they make it to the city, Natasha pulls out two little, metal baton-like weapons that have blue glowing light coming off of them. Mazzy watches as she uses them to take down Ultron's army. Each time she hits one with one of the batons, it electrocutes them and makes them crumple to the ground. It is a very useful weapon, and Mazzy, who has no weapon since Bruce took the gun, is jealous.

"Can I have one of those?" Mazzy asks Natasha. "Pretty please with a cherry on top?"

"If you promise to stay in my sight, then yes," Natasha answers in a strong voice that says she really means it.

"Promise."

Natasha tosses one of the batons to Mazzy, who catches it and instantly uses it to take down a robot that is coming her way. When the electricity crackles out of it and makes the robot fall limply to the ground, Mazzy lets out a giggle of delight. She feels like Natasha.

As more and more of the Ultron Sentries come flying towards them, the Avengers work together to kill them. She hasn't seen her dad yet, though, which she's sort of relieved about. She's glad he doesn't yet know she hasn't stuck by Bruce's side like she's supposed to, but she also doesn't like what he has been tasked with doing, which, according to Steve, is to figure out how to stop the piece of land they are floating on from falling back to the Earth and wiping out nearly every living thing left on the planet.

"What's he saying? Does he have a plan yet?" Mazzy asks Steve, who she is sure has comms.

Steve doesn't answer her. He only answers Tony over the comms, instead. "I asked for a solution, not an escape plan."

"Hey, what's he saying?" Mazzy asks again, her eyebrows furrowed as she nudges Steve's arm.

"He wants to blow up the city before it can drop," Steve answers.

That is not good. That is, like, maximum destruction. Or almost maximum destruction, because maximum destruction would be allowing the city to fall and destroy the whole rest of the Earth.

"Cap, these people are going nowhere. If Stark finds a way to blow this rock..." Natasha speaks.

"Not till everyone's safe," Steve interjects, shaking his head.

"Everyone up here versus everyone down there? There's no math there."

"I'm not leaving this rock with one civilian on it," Steve insists.

"I didn't say we should leave," Natasha tells him.

Mazzy frowns, digging the toe of her shoe into the rubble below her. Is she going to die on this rock? Are they all gonna die on this rock? There has to be another solution. There just has to be.

"There's worse ways to go," Natasha says. She turns to look out at the clouds ahead of them. "Where else am I gonna get a view like this?"

Before Mazzy can suggest maybe an airplane, she watches Natasha's and Steve's eyes widen as their heads snap over to the left. She follows their gaze to see the Shield helicarrier rising into the sky.

"Fury, you son of a bitch," Steve breathes out, a smile on his face.

Nick Fury. Of course.

As Mazzy stares at the helicarrier, she sees smaller carriers coming out from the sides and heading toward the rock. Carriers to bring the civilians to safety.

Pietro appears beside her, smiling at the view. "This is Shield?" he asks.

"This is what Shield is supposed to be," Steve answers.

"This is not so bad."

"Get to work then, Pietro. Load 'em up," Mazzy orders in a teasing manner.

"You," Pietro says, pointing a finger in Mazzy's face, "do not give me orders, Mighty Mouse. I'll load up these carriers because I want to. Not you."

"Whatever you say," Mazzy jokes, shrugging her shoulders. Pietro rolls his eyes before disappearing, off to help get the civilians to safety.

It's hard for Mazzy to get people to listen to her, considering she is only about four-foot-three and not wearing any clothes that might indicate that she is an Avenger. Despite that, she manages to get a few families to follow her lead to the carriers, and once they get on, she repeats the process.

While the others go to defend the core, Mazzy is tasked with helping Rhodey— because Rhodey apparently showed up with Shield, which is totally awesome— get the rest of the civilians on board the carriers, as well as taking down any bots that stray from the group of them going after the core.

"Hey!"

Mazzy stops and turns at the sound of Clint's voice.

"Get your ass on a boat!" Clint shouts from a good thirty feet away.

"It's not a boat! It doesn't have any buoyancy!" Mazzy shouts back at him.

"Just get on a carrier, kid!" Clint scoffs, shaking his head at her.

After giving Clint a thumbs up, Mazzy joins the civilians on one of the last carriers with seats left open. She keeps her eyes glued to the city, though, watching just to make sure that no civilian is left behind.

Her eyes catch on Clint again. He's picking up a little boy, probably around Mazzy's own age or a bit younger. The boy clings to him for dear life, but when Clint turns around, a hijacked jet flies near. Bullets rain from above, getting closer and closer to Clint and the boy.

Mazzy's heart beats so hard in her chest that she can feel her pulse in her head, her hands, and her stomach. She gets off of her seat, running as fast as she can towards them, because maybe if she gets there in time, she can shield them. But she isn't fast enough.

Clint turns around, shielding the little boy's body with his own.

No bullets hit him.

Mazzy stops where she is. No bullets have hit her, either.

Beside Clint is Pietro. Blood soaks through his shirt from the bullet wounds that are scattered all over his body.

"You didn't see that coming?"

His body drops to the ground, and all Mazzy can hear is Wanda's screaming.