Hello! Hello! This is late, and I'm uber sorry: I just had a bit of a family emergency and we've been travelling and... yeah. It's pretty crazy right now.

So... originally this was going to be a oneshot? But everyone was like: I NEEED MORE! (Someone even went as far as to hijack one of my other stories! I'm looking at you, jujuliet!) SO here you go! This is kind of one shot style too... but I have a story sort of in mind and It'll have an obvious conclusion in the end of all the little snippets, so there you go!

...

Francis sighed as he pulled yet another arrow from a sparking robot, swiping the arrow- ew, robot guts- on his pants before sliding it back into his quiver. That was the woe of being an archer in a team of superheroes; you had to pause in the action to retrieve your weapons.

He wasn't sure what was going on. No one was. All he knew was that one minute he was sleeping- which was a beautiful, beautiful thing that he never got enough of- and the next James was waking him up at bloody three o'clock in the morning because a bunch of freakin' killer robots were invading the newly reestablished city and attacking everyone, and he needed to suit up and be ready to go in five.

(No one mentioned how eerily similar having robots invade the city was. How the sleek silver metal brought to mind Ultron and bad, bad things that should most definitely not ever come into existence again. But the thought was there, and it terrified him.)

Nonetheless, Francis forced himself out of bed and into his gear, in the landing bay and ready to go perfectly on time.

(Well… ish. He was technically one minute late, but he didn't think that James noticed, too busy nudging a half asleep Pym to the jet to pay attention, so it was okay.)

On the short ten minute flight there- the robots were attacking on the opposite side of town- Pym fell asleep, drooling, on Francis' shoulder five times, Azari had been threatened for his life by Torunn after repeatedly shocking her and went to hide in the cockpit (although the plane had long since been switched to auto-pilot by Tony, an AI by the name of FRIDAY in charge of its software), Francis himself had to pinch himself awake a couple of times, and every single one of them were cursing the robots for not waiting an extra hour or so before their mass invasion.

The only one who seemed remotely awake was James, and that was probably because he had yet to go to sleep. (Once the kid fell asleep nothing short of an avalanche level of noise could get him up, that or any touching of his person. Francis had learned the hard way to leave James well alone when he was sleeping and to never, ever volunteer to wake him up; he still had bruises.) Francis had a sneaking suspicion that the redhead was running away from dreams and thus staying awake until he crashed, but he had no evidence and James was acting alert enough, so he couldn't really complain. (He'd keep his eye out though, he always did; playing leader for several years does not just suddenly leave you because someone else fills in the role.)

Tony had been gone for several days, on some business trip or another to help certify the Next Avengers with the world. Luckily, this time he didn't insist that they actually go with him…. The peace conference giving ample warning that said events were not at all fun for the children and would probably do more harm than good.

There was that at least.

While he was away, however, taking care of the city (and themselves) had fallen onto their own shoulders. Francis felt that they were actually doing a pretty good job taking care of the city and its outer bounds, keeping it clean of thugs and minor criminals that tended to rise up after such major breakdowns of society, and going out every day to help relocate people and settle them into their new Ultron-free lives.

Taking care of themselves, however…. Well. They ate at least twice a day (All of it take out, not wanting to repeat… the incident.) and most of them get to bed before one in the morning, which was, in all honesty, better than he expected.

It was weird. For the most part, they were alone in a big empty base that had yet to become home and without any adults whatsoever. They were heroes, they had done, and still do, amazing things…

But when push came to shove, they were all sort of still kids.

A fact that Francis deeply resented.

He sighed and bent down to pick up another arrow.

Just as he was standing back up however, his peripheral vision caught the sight of movement and a soft whir filled his ears.

He managed to turn around in time, shooting his newly retrieved arrow directly in the "face" of the robot trying to sneak attack him. The robot, all sleek metal and piercing objects, let out a mechanic roar and retreated, only to dive back at him a moment later. Francis grunted and dove out of the way, pushing off against a wall to flip over the robot's charging form. He whirled around and hooked another arrow, an explosive one this time, and once more shot at the metallic beast, hitting it right between the joints before hightailing it out of there.

In his head, Francis counted off the seconds.

3

2

1

There was a distinct sound of an explosion going off behind him and he smirked, rounding a corner at a flying pace.

His smirk fell off rather quickly when he crashed directly into another hulking mass of metal, especially when said piece of metal turned on him with a mechanic roar, two answering roars following soon after from a small distance away.

Francis sighed.

He hated his life.

An hour, a lot of crushed property, and three dead robots later, Francis found himself lying on the ground and staring drowsily at the sky. The clouds were very pretty, he thought… Fluffy. They were very... fluffy. And white. They were white too. And the sun felt veeeeerry nice on his skin, and his head was kinda hurting, which was sad, but not too sad, 'cause the robots were dead.

Lazily, he glanced to the side where the hulk of a robot head was lying besides him. He absentmindedly patted it, because he felt kind of bad for killing it because it kind of looked like that dog his dad had brought in once…, except, you know, twelve feet tall and made of shiny silver metal. But it had been trying to kill him first! So he guessed it was okay.

Still… Poor puppy….

It was then that Francis realized that the mechanic creature was not entirely undecorated and that there was a simple insignia on the upper lisp of the head, hidden under the curve of the head plate and virtually indistinguishable unless one was practically lying down underneath the head.

...Which Francis just so happened to be doing.

Curious, the archer tilted his head a little to the left. The insignia was a simple "X" lookalike structure, coloured with various purples and oranges. The whole thing was rather faint, but his sharp eyes were able to make it out…. And it looked familiar.

He scrunched his brows in concentration, trying to remember where exactly he had seen the insignia before. However, no sudden enlightenment came to him, and before he was able to further contemplate the familiar sign, he heard a very familiar voice.

"Look, I, uh... I really gotta go! There's like, crazy robots attacking the city and my team needs me and, uh, it was really nice talkin' to you but, um, maybe we can talk later or something instead?"

Francis frowned. Why was Pym sounding so upset? Grudgingly, he stood up and started heading towards the source of the noise… only to pause at the entrance of the alley and glance back.

There was something important he should be doing with the robots, and there was something important with the insignia… but for the life of him he could not remember. Eventually, after a brief hesitation, he shrugged and pushed on forwards; he could always come back and look later.

He turned the corner and was rather surprised to see Pym surrounded by three young woman and a guy with a camera. Pym was obviously flustered, wringing his hands together in complicated patterns and shifting nervously on his feet. The women were all smiling too bright, obviously faked, smiles, and were holding microphones.

Reporters then.

….

….

….

Francis didn't like reporters.

Ever since that night at the Peace Conference, he had developed a finely tuned distaste for them. They were too loud and nosy and he didn't like the way that they got into his personal space and in the way of his job. At the very least, this group was only three; gaggles of reporters were far, far worse.

Still, even though they were only three, they were obviously making Pym uncomfortable, which was UNACCEPTABLE. Pym was too… soft and, and.. squishy. Yeah. Pym was too soft and squishy to be uncomfortable, and he needed to be protected at ALL COSTS! And because Francis was bigger and... less squishy, it was his job to protect the soft and squishy Pym.

He nodded, assured in his logic.

His head hurt.

"So, hun, where were you these last few years and so?"

"Ummm… We were in this base kind of thingie that Tony built, but-"

"So you were abandoning human civilization to its fate?"

"What!? No, no. We just, it wasn't like that-"

"Do you think your parents would be proud of what you're doing today?"

"Wh-What? I- I don't know? I never met them, I was just a baby… but that's besides the point! I really, really need to go and-"

"Did Tony Stark abuse you? Is he using you and the other children against your will?"

"What!? No! Tony's the best-"

"We'll be going. Now."

Both the three women, the camera guy, and Pym looked up at him at the sudden interruption. Pym's face was beyond relieved and he quickly threw himself at the older hero in a tight hug, but the happy features quickly turned into one of concern and fear.

"Hawkeye! You're bleeding!"

Francis frowned, gently lifting a hand to touch at the spot Pym was pointing at. His hand came away red.

"Huh."

That explained why his head hurt.

He became aware of snapping sounds and looked up to glare at the group in front of him. The cameraman was clicking away and the three women were staring at them with fake looks of joy and adoration. It was ridiculous. They were super heroes, not puppies.

"We're going. Now."

He blinked, getting a sense of deja vu; had he already said that?

"Awwww, but sweetheart," Francis bristled at the endearment, "We just wanna know more about you! You too are so cute together! Tell me, Hawkeye, how too you see your fellow hero?"

The archer tilted his head: What kind of question was that?

"Like, do you see him as a friend? A partner in crime? A brother? A lover?"

Francis made a look of disgust at the last suggestion. To even insinuate… Pym was still a kid for heaven's sake! He had hardly even reached double digits! It was ridiculous, and horrible to even consider. It made him feel sick, beyond just the fact that he had a nasty concussion.

"He's a friend and a brother in arms, and it really, really, isn't any of your business."

Perhaps the women might have asked more questions, but just then several explosions wracked the city. The ground shook and smoke fouled the air, leaving them all coughing.

It also left a convenient smoke screen.

Francis grabbed Pym's hand and started to move away, only to stop and abruptly change directions. He pushed his way through the rapidly clearing smoke and towards the alleyway that he had originally left, where the robot heads had been and the very important insignia.

The smoke got thicker as they got closer, and Francis felt a rising sense of dread.

They finally entered the alleyway, coughing, and he felt like hitting himself, because the entire thing was empty except for the smog.

The robots had self destructed, all over the city, leaving behind no evidence.

And the all-important insignia, their only lead so far as to who caused the sudden mechanic invasion- That was what was so important!- was gone as well, their only source of it now in Francis' head.

"Francis?"

Pym was hacking up a lung and his face was incredibly pinched, and so he pulled him out of the alley way and into the open air once more. He swiped sweat and blood from his forehead and tried to ignore his lightheadedness. They had to regroup and plan their next move.

"C'mon, let's go."

Francis took a step… and then promptly fainted.

...

MUWAHAHAHAHA! CLIFFIE!

Hope you all enjoyed! :)