About three hours later, I'm awoken by the car stopping. "W're are we?"

"Providence, Rhode Island." a familiar voice announces. "And where we are going to be spending the next…yeah."

I rub a hand against my face and blink a few times, my eyes adjusting to find the car parked in a garage about half the size of the one at home, with Beta III resting just outside the car within arm's reach and Bruce and my dad standing a few feet away with their bags.

I quickly grab all my bags and my suit, following the two men up a flight of stairs and into a living room-type area.

"Make yourselves at home," my dad commands, dropping his bags on an armchair and proceeding to take out his phone and mess with something.

I shrug and deposit my bags on the small coffee table and kick off my sneakers before sprawling out on a couch, Bruce dropping into a loveseat.

My dad then gathers our attention by clearing his throat. "First off, yes, that did just happen. We three are no longer part of the Avengers. Old Man Capsicle really did give us the boot, because apparently, as leader, he can do that. Questions?"

"Pick me! Pick me!" I bounce in my seat until my dad looks at me. "Where are we?"

Dad doesn't skip a beat as he pulls up a holographic set of 3D blueprints. "Meet Stark Compound #394."

The compound is shaped like a U, but with straight lines; a big iron gate at the front, and a courtyard in the middle that was surrounded by the three sides of the building. The building itself had three floors, two of which were above ground.

"We're on the ground floor right now," my dad explains. "This is where the living room and kitchen are, obviously, but also all of the bedrooms are - there are six in total. Below us are the parking garage and all of the labs, which double as bunkers. Above us are all the 'War Rooms', if you will; the debriefing rooms, etcetera. Simple enough."

Bruce raises his hand, significantly calmer than I had. "What are we doing?"

It isn't often Tony Stark is speechless, but two of the best people to do that were standing in the room, the only other being Rhodey.

"Um…" he tilts his head curiously, like a dog might. "Good question. Well…we're being rich, not following orders, and making Spangles pull his head out of-"

I clear my throat loudly. "Technically, we've gone rouge." I point out. "I mean, at least last time, it was all of us working towards a common goal. But this time, it's the three of us against Captain America, the only super soldier and a dude I have seen lift a small car, Black Widow, one of the most successful spies in the history of ever, and-" I break off and swallow thickly before I can mention the third ex-team member we left behind.

Bruce gives me a soft look and nods. "Yeah, him too. We're grasping at straws here, Tony."

My dad sighs. "What we need to do here is-"

He's cut off by my phone chirping and buzzing in my pocket. I sigh and fish it out, frowning at the screen.

"What is it?" Dad asks, suddenly alert.

I hiss out a breath and send the information to the hologram, shoving the building diagram to the side.

We're staring at a list of screaming headlines, all of which have triggered important keywords:

"IMPORTANT: THE END OF THE AVENGERS?"

"Iron Man: Villain or Vigilante?"

"Captain America speaks out against Stark Industries…"

"A Second Civil War Approaching?"

"Interview with the Falcon: Life as an Avenger…"

"Winter Soldier: Good Guy or still frozen?"

I sigh and pinch the bridge of my nose. "Damn…Черт, Черт возьми, Черт возьми…"

"They're recruiting," Bruce notices, pointing at the last two headlines.

"No," I correct wearily, "they're replacing."

"Well if they get to invite new guests…" I look to see a wicked, slightly insane gleam forming in my dad's eyes, "Who says we can't do the same?"

I stare at him for a second before taking a deep breath. "Who would we call?"

"Rhodey, first off." he says as if it were obvious. "Then…I don't suppose you have any assassin connections?" he asks hopefully.

"I'm not an assassin," I scoff. "They scare me. The one with all the connections was Cl – H-Hawkeye." I duck my head for a moment before regaining my composure. "In short, no. All I know are smart people."

"That's it!" my dad exclaims. "Smart people! If we can't beat them in muscle, we can out smart them! Brains over brawn, people!"

"Jane," I realize, grabbing onto his train of thought.

"And Betty." Bruce adds. "What?" he defends at our odd looks. "If we want to continue the 'brains over brawn' theory, then we need to complete the Dream Team; ergo, Betty."

"And this has nothing to do with the fact that she's your girlfriend?" I tease. He just shrugs.

"Okay then." My dad claps his hands. "We have some calls to make. I'm calling Rhodey, Taylor you take Jane, Bruce call your missus."

I roll my eyes but grab my weapons bag and amble away to make that call anyways, heading towards one of the guest rooms as I dial a familiar number.

"Hello?"

"Jane," I greet. "Long time no talk."

"Yeah, I guess. What's up?"

I sigh as I reach one of the rooms and shove the door open. "Always down to business with you, huh, Foster? Alright, I'll bite. Have you seen the news lately?"

"Yes. The Avengers are having some major issues."

"You could say that," I joke humorlessly as I sit on the bed in what was now my room. "You could definitely say that."

"And let me guess: you want me to join your side."

"Well, you put it quite bluntly, but essentially." I nod.

"Taylor…" she sighs. "I'm not an Avenger, no matter how much you try and militarize me. Can't I stay out of this?"

"I'm not asking you to be and Avenger, Jane." I reason. "I'm just asking you to do what's right!"

"How do I know that's right?" she argues. "Plus, that's not what Thor would have wanted – and I can't lose him, Taylor, I can't! My life is so ordinary and then this Norse God comes and crash lands and suddenly I'm in love and I'm dating a superhero, and I cannot lose that. I…just can't. I'm sorry."

And then there's a click as the line goes dead.

I groan and flop back onto the bed. "Well there goes that."

And then my phone vibrates again, this time with a text: Rhodey's being a stubborn butthole, call him.

I grin and shake my head exasperatedly as I dial another phone number.

"I've been expecting this."

"Hello to you too." I sass. "Someone's cranky."

"Your dad sic'd you on me, didn't he?" Rhodey sighs. "Taylor, I can't help you – I want to, believe me! I really think you did the right thing…for you, anyways. But what you're doing is breaking so many laws. I've worked too hard to get this uniform, Taylor, longer than you've even been alive. I can't lose it all just to help a friend."

"Going by what I'm told, you were Tony Stark's friend before you were an airman, Rhodey. But anyways – you're saying you would rather be on the wrong side than possibly lose your uniform? That's only a possibility, Rhodey, and even if it did happen, my dad would hire you faster than you could say 'unemployed'. He's been looking for a chance for decades."

"Taylor…" he warns, using the tone of voice that says you will listen to me because I am an adult and therefore inherently right.

I hated that tone.

"You want to play that game, Lieutenant Colonel Rhodes?" I hiss dangerously, both of us knowing me using his full title means I'm pissed at him. "Fine, let's. The United States Air Force motto includes three things: 1) Aim High. 2) Fight. 3) Win. Does it mention which side you must be on? No."

"And don't even start with loss." I continue. "I had to leave Hawkeye, Rhodey. I had to leave C-Clint…" I swallow around a new lump in my throat.

"This means that much to you, huh?" my godfather asks softly. "And have I mentioned I hate it when you use my own logic against me? You're right. Send me your coordinates, War Machine will be there ASAP."

I grin. "You're the best. Bye." I hang up the phone and get Jarvis to send the compound's coordinates over a secure line and head back out into the living room to rejoin Dad and Bruce. "What's our status?"

My dad sighs. "Rhodey's stubborn. Did you get any farther with him?"

"War Machine's on his way." I grin, then sober. "But Jane's not coming, she can't afford to lose Thor."

Bruce sighs. "Betty's not coming either. She feels horrible, but she's currently doing some research on a tiny island in Central America and I just told her to stay there, she'll be safe." He fiddles with his glasses. "But she sends her best and her support and wishes us all luck."

"So while we wait for Rhodey to get here, I'll be in a lab downstairs." I share a glance with both of them. "Something tells me I'm going to need to rush production of version 2 of Beta IV."

About an hour and a half later, Jarvis gets a blip on the air traffic monitoring systems we apparently had.

"Rhodey's here," my dad almost squeals as there's a muted thump above our heads. "Taylor-"

"I'm going to be a one-woman welcoming committee." I head for the elevator, punching the button for the top floor.

My godfather is standing there, a bit of a wild gleam in his eyes and the massive form of the War Machine armor lying at his feet.

"There's the world's best godfather." I greet him warmly and give him a hug.

"Well, that's what my latest birthday mug says," he fires back, squeezing me gently before letting go.

I help him disassemble his armor, packing it all into a bow and making a note to have it delivered to whatever room he chose later.

I lead him back to the elevator to return to the ground floor, but just before the elevator doors open again my phone buzzes again. I groan and look at it again, expecting it to be another news alert or something.

Not…this.

Darcy: your front gate just electrocuted me.

"What the-" I blink at my screen a few times and then look up at Rhodey, who was watching me curiously. "You trust me, right?"

"Yes…what crazy thing are you going to do now?"

I grin. "You know me too well. I need your gun."

He wordlessly hands over his Beretta M9, which I slip into the waistband of my pants. "Thanks. I need to go check on something."

As soon as the elevator doors open I take off towards the front of the building, emerging onto the courtyard and watch the front gates from a distance.

Sure enough, I can just make out the form of the brown haired intern. "Jarvis," I sigh. "Stand down and let her in."

I stay tense, however, as the gates swing open and she jogs towards me. "Hey."

"What are you doing here?" I ask her tersely, narrowing my eyes. "Come to think of it, how the hell did you even find us?"

She stops about a foot away from me and rears back slightly. "Whoa there, someone's tense. I came to help, and I found your number in Jane's call logs."

"You're sure?"

"About wanting to help, or about the call logs?"

"Darcy…" I sigh.

"Yes, I am sure I want to help." she announces. "I'm going to stand by what I think is right."

I nod and finally relax, shepherding her into the building.

"Thanks." I grin at her as we make our way down one of the hallways.

"I figured you might need me here," she explains simply.

"Yeah, we could sure use the help," I admit. "And god knows I'm going to need someone to talk about my screwed up love life with."

"Screwed up…?"

"I left." I give a small shrug. "Cl – Hawkeye, I mean, stayed."

She stares at me for a moment before declaring, "You're right, that sucks." before we emerge into the living room, where Rhodey's already made himself comfortable.

I take a look around the room as Darcy introduces herself to him.

So far, on our little team of ragtag "runaways", we had a 'genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist', the Hulk, a Lieutenant Colonel that was technically defecting in order to be here, and a slightly-crazy-Taser-wielding-intern.

And me.

I'll admit, we weren't much, nor were we the prettiest of groups.

But we were all that we could get, and we'd make due.

Or else.

Thanks a million to Yami the Outcast, TheGirlOfTooManyFandoms, and Finnish Toast for reviewing the last chapter, you made my day!

Also, any Harry Potter fans that get the symbolism behind Compound #394 are amazing.

Please keep reviewing! You're all awesome!