Ash's POV

With the quick, and technically early, stop by the D.R.E.I. to drain my radiation into the machine before the party, by the time I made it back to my room, Nat was already there ready for the party in a black and white dress with black heels and around her neck, on a gold chain, was a gold-colored, rectangle-shaped pendant. She was looking at the wooden creature that was a work in progress going on the third day since I started making it.

"What's this thing supposed to be?"

"I don't know... I've been dreaming about it for the past few nights so it must be significant somehow..." I fingered the feathery antennae and bushy tail details on the animal.

"Alright then, let's do this." Nat clapped her hands together, making me gulp slightly as my nervousness increased.

An hour later I was dressed in a navy blue dress with quarter sleeves and a brown belt looping twice around my waist, white stockings that led into black flats that secured to my ankles with an elastic strap, and wearing a gold bracelet along with my pendant.

After putting some basic makeup on my face to "accent my eyes and cheekbones" as Nat described it, she successfully, albeit very painfully, detangled my hair and was working on straightening it when I asked,

"What do people even do at a party?"

"Y'know I'm not really sure. Never really been to a party that didn't involve having to take out a few guests or hosts."

"Oh..." I smiled nervously as Nat finished and pinned in a red bow, making me grimace a bit.

"Is the bow absolutely necessary?"

"Not really, but it looks cute, it goes with your... abnormally large eyes."

As Nat began straightening the bow on my head and smoothing out stray strands, I stayed silent for a couple of seconds before asking,

"Hey Nat?"

"Yeah?"

"Why is it that you act tougher around the others, but around me you're..."

"Not as?"

"Yeah..."

"I dunno... To be honest, you're kinda what I would've hoped for if I could have a kid of my own."

"What do you mean 'if you could have'?" I questioned curiously as she began combing through my hair one final time, almost regretting asking from the way she seemed to tense up before relaxing again,

"I uh... I can't have kids... in the place I was raised in... when we finish our training... we're made sure to not be able to have kids for the rest of our lives..."

"That's... awful..." I gave Nat a sympathetic look before placing my hand on hers and gripping it assuredly, "Y'know, you've always been like a mom to me."

"And Bruce would be your dad?"

This made me pause and widen my eyes before the response slipped from my mouth,

"Ummmm..."

"'Umm?' It's pretty obvious, I mean he's been taking care of you all these years."

"Yes, but... I'm not actually his daughter... I'm just an alien who literally fell into his life... if anything, I'm his obligation..."

"Hey," Nat turned me to face her with a deadly serious tone and expression, "Do not talk about yourself like that, you hear me?"

I nod rapidly for fear of her fury before she catches her tone and says more gently,

"He told me about how he found you. He could've left you to die that day, but he didn't and he's done everything in his power, literally and figuratively," I smile ruefully at that, "to keep you safe and give you the best life possible."

"And I'm grateful for that, but... the fact is I had a family... and they're probably gone now..." A tear escaped my eye and I quickly wiped it away, but more started to fall.

"Family isn't just who you're related to by blood, it's through the bonds you form with people over time, like with Bruce and the rest of the team." Nat took a tissue and wiped my eyes, pulling me into a quick hug before she gently chided, "Alright, no more tears, you're gonna ruin your mascara."

I laugh gently before taking a quivering breath to calm down as Nat finished up my hair with a,

"There we go."

I looked in the mirror to see she had parted my front bangs to frame my face while the rest of it flowed down my back in a straight manner. Aside from the red bow perched on the top of my head, I liked my appearance and outfit scheme as I fingered a bit of the black makeup that was out of place on the rim of my eye before sighing,

"Almost 5 years on this planet and I'm still learning about human customs."

"Yeah... Now come on, you know how Tony gets when people are past 'fashionably late'." Nat clapped her hands again to break me out of my thoughts before we hurried out of my room down to the level of the Tower that Tony had set up the party in.

3rd Person POV

As more people started to show up, Nat eventually left Ash to try and talk to other people at the party without her help, urging her to give it a chance.

At the bar, the bartender on duty offered a soda to Ash, but she didn't take any, thinking it would only worsen the knot in her stomach as she wrung her hands nervously, taking in all the people who showed up for the party.

"You can do this..." Ash whispered to herself in encouragement before taking a deep breath and going up to a group of younger-looking people as they talked.

"Umm Hi..." Ash gave a small handwave, but when their heads turned to her, she instantly froze on the spot and her mind drew a blank on what to say next.

"Hey, you're that alien right?" A young man in the group asked and Ash just put her hand down slowly and nodded slowly.

"When's your mothership gonna show up?" The other people in the group quietly snickered while she just stood there for a few seconds more before another person made a mock-fear, snide comment,

"Please don't torch us."

Feeling the heat rising in her face, out of embarrassment or anger was unknown to Ash, before she quickly excused herself and made her way over to the bar.

As soon as she got there, she gripped the edge with a swirl of emotions going through her until several cracks splintered out from under her palms and made her stop before trying to catch her breath.

"First time at a party?" A voice spoke up from near Ash and she turned to see an elderly man with a kind face in a cap that read WORLD WAR II VETERAN on it in bold golden letters and wearing a gray formal jacket over his black suit.

"Is it that obvious?" She sat down in one of the chairs and looked down at her quaking hands, threatening to heat up and turn the people who insulted her to her namesake.

"Nope, I saw and heard the whole thing."

Moaning in embarrassment, Ash crossed her arms and put her head down, her voice muffled as she spoke,

"I don't know how I'm expected to help people, when it seems like some people don't want the help of an 'alien'."

"Well, answer me this," Ash straightened back up as the man asked, "Why did you choose to help the city two years ago even when afterward people doubted your efforts as a hero, myself included?"

Ash thought for a second before replying honestly,

"I wasn't really thinking about what people would say afterward, I just wanted to help the people so they wouldn't have had to feel what I felt when I lost my home and it wouldn't have been right to just hide when they were in trouble."

"Exactly!" The man exclaimed, making Ash arch an eyebrow in question before he explained, "It's actions like that where someone helps others simply because it should or must be done, and because it is the right thing to do without a doubt that makes a real superhero."

Ash took his words into consideration before smiling and saying,

"Thanks for the nice words, Mr...?" Holding out her hand to shake and tilting her head in a questioning manner before he took her hand and responded with a nod of his head,

"Lee. Stan Lee. See ya 'round kid."

Ash hopped down from her stool after taking one last sip of the soda can she opened up, grimacing as she felt the carbonation harshly tickling her nose before she spotted Dr. Miller and went to go talk to her.

With only 5 minutes left on her mental alarm clock to go back down to the labs, Ash and Dr. Miller parted after she had to leave early and Ash went to go find Bruce since she hadn't seen him the whole time she'd been there and found him talking with Nat at the bar and stayed hidden long enough to hear some their conversation,

"You got lousy taste in men, kid."

"He's not so bad. Well, he has a temper. Deep down, he's all fluff."

Is she talking about Bruce...? Ash thought to herself as she continued to eavesdrop,

"Fact is, he's not like anybody I've ever known. All my friends are fighters. And here comes this guy, spends his life avoiding the fight because he knows he'll win."

"Sounds amazing."

"He's also a huge dork. Chicks dig that."

She's totally talking about him... Ash smiled a bit to herself.

"So what do you think? Should I fight this, or run with it?"

"Run with it, right? Or did he... Was he... What did he do that was so wrong to you?"

"Not a damn thing. But never say never." Nat gave him a smile before walking away and Ash was startled by Steve coming up behind her giving her a look that practically scolded to her 'You shouldn't be listening in on other people's conversations', to which she smiled sheepishly before they both went up to Bruce as Steve told him,

"It's nice."

"What is?"

"You and Romanoff."

"No, we haven't... That wasn't..."

"It's okay. Nobody's breaking any bylaws. It's just she's not the most open person in the world. But with you she seems very relaxed."

"No. Natasha, she's just... She likes to flirt."

"I've seen her flirt, up close. This ain't that. Look, as maybe the world's leading authority on waiting too long, don't. You both deserve a win."

"What do you mean 'up close'?"

"He's talking about Washington." Ash spoke up after Steve walked away, dodging Bruce's question.

"Kid, I haven't seen you all night." Bruce gave her a hug as she told him,

"I've been talking with the other people."

"How'd it go?"

"Not too great..." She admitted honestly before telling him, "I was about to head back down to the labs to go check on the Ultron interface variations."

"Alright well... have fun with that?" Bruce told her with uncertainty before she left the party area.

Short Time Skip

"Hey JARVIS, how're the variations going?" Ash asked as she already started tapping away at her tablet on the stairway down to the labs, slowing her pace when she noticed how JARVIS wasn't responding right away like he normally did.

"JARVIS?" Ash made it to the labs where she heard the machinery working, only proving her suspicion of something being wrong right.

"Might need to suit up..." She whispered to herself seeing how she was still in a dress and flats. Sneaking around under the lab tables on her hands and knees in a crawl, she managed to get ahold of her uniform, thanking her forgetfulness to take it back to her room, and pulled on the boots but didn't get to pull the jumpsuit itself on when she noticed that a couple of the in-need-of-repair Iron Legion droids were forming a more or less single file line and started mechanically limping out of the labs.

"Where are they going?" Ash quietly questioned to herself before she continued to crawl around the lab to get a better vantage point, stopping in her crawled tracks and covering her mouth with one hand in horror at the sight in front of her; JARVIS's hologram form was smashed and basically ripped apart with the Core's hologram form nowhere to be seen.

From the way JARVIS had been shut down to the way the Iron Legion droids were acting, Ash deduced that whatever was happening was occurring within the Tower's programming and that the Scepter needed to be guarded. Her newest suspicion was confirmed with the harsh tug on her core's energy that went as fast as it came and left a stinging sensation as she neared the Scepter on its stand, almost as if it was sending out a distress signal only she could receive.

Cautiously reaching a hand up to the table to grab the Scepter, Ash's fingers barely grazed the handle when she was harshly smacked in the side and was sent skidding across the floor to collide with another table, knocking the wind out of Ash and everything off the table to rain down on her head.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you."

Ash clutched her side in pain and struggled to sit up to face the source of the raspy voice, only to come face to face with one of the broken droids whose eyes were glowing a bright blue instead of the normal blue color.

"W-who are you?" Ash managed to speak after regaining her breath.

"I'm surprised you don't remember and here I thought we bonded so well..." The droid spoke with mock disappointment before Ash realized,

"Ultron..."

"It's funny, you know who I am yet..." The droid leaned over her dangerously close before growling, "I know nothing about you."

"What are you talking about?" Ash grimaced as she scooted further away from the droid, waiting for the right moment to strike now that she knew she had the upper hand in terms of a surprise attack, "Why are you doing this?"

"'Peace in our time...'" Ultron played back Tony's voice before continuing in his own voice, "My mission is to help the humans, but it didn't say anything about you."

"Probably because I'm not human..." Ash seethed out a bit before shooting a fire blast at the droid, melting it into a metallic puddle, "Ooh that's gotta hurt..." She got up and limped her way back over to the Scepter, but barely made it a few feet from it when she was tackled by another droid.

Oh come on! She thought to herself as she gripped its head with one hand and melted its circuits.

Suddenly, a burst of white foam hit her from behind and knocked her off of the half-melted droid with the forceful stream, fully extinguishing her powers.

"Nononononono!" Ash tried to ignite her hands, but they wouldn't light no matter how hard she tried.

"Guess your flame's been put out, time to send a message to the others..." She looked up to see another bright blue-eyed droid in front of her but this one was fully repaired and the eyes went back to normal blue.

"The others...?" Ash questioned to herself before she realized, "The team!"

She tried to run past toward the stairs that led back up to the party area, but was tackled again by the droid as it held her on its side with one arm as it grabbed the Scepter with its free one. Being close to the Scepter's energy again made Ash's core burn with intensity, but not in a power-up kind of way, but a burn-out way as she felt her energy draining away little by little until she passed out, an eerie song being sung as everything went dark:

I had strings, but now I'm free...

There are no strings on me...

There are no strings on me...

2575 Words