Gosh, guys, I'm so sorry I haven't posted in a while. My plate has been kinda full, but the next few chapters should come fairly quickly since I already laid them out. I hope you enjoy, there's gonna be a lot of backstory for Lucy in the next one that I think you'll enjoy. But thanks for reading and reviewing!

Much love,

freedomintensifies

Crack!

My head was slammed against the glass wall that separated the bar from the living room. I rolled over and moaned as my fingertips got sliced by the tiny glass shards. The stupid demon bot blasted me, leaving me alone in the remnants of the disaster.

I've had my fair share of getting the crap beaten out of me, but it doesn't make it any more fun. How would you feel if someone decided to blast you out of the sky when you were just chilling with your coworkers? I would assume not good, that's how I feel at least.

When I finally recovered a little bit the first thing I noticed was the ringing, it was like everything had been placed underwater. I could see them all fighting, and shouting, but I couldn't hear anything. I sat up and shook out my head trying to clear my ears when I saw the beloved Doctor Cho crouched behind our piano. Don't ask me why we have a piano, I've never seen anyone play it, except maybe Clint when he's drunk. I stood up getting a better glance at why she was hiding, maybe she was just shaken up, or afraid of the chaos, but there was something she was looking at.

I followed her line of sight to see the mangled Iron Legion gearing up to shoot her out of the sky, no way the Cradle could fix that. I started to sprint over, more slip on all of the discarded scraps from the explosion, in attempts to grab the thing before it caused any more damage. And as soon as I made it past all of the embarrassing struggle, America's Golden Boy grabbed the thing and chucked it toward Goldilocks who crushed it under the weight of his mighty hammer.

"I had that," I grunted, kicking off my pumps, so I could get better traction on the marble floor.

"Sure, you did," he smirked, walking over to help Helen up. I smiled, thinking that the fighting was over and I really didn't have to do anything when a stray flew out onto the balcony.

"Cooper!" Barton called from behind me, "You're up."

"Already ahead of you," I slipped my brand new dress over my head, I refused to mess it up despite being in the middle of a battle, and started to run out onto the patio. Relax, I'm not naked, I swear, tank top and shorts, remember? Despite my best efforts the thing was already a mile away when I made it to Stark's landing pad, all I could see was just a speck in the distance. I turned around doing a double take as to what I was supposed to do and with no other option, I climbed over the banister and jumped off, flashing a very enthusiastic thumbs up on the way down.

I like flying, not falling. That's thanks to my father who thought it would be funny to force me to ride the Tower of Terror when I was little. It was not funny when it scarred me for life, and now whenever I jump off buildings my stomach twists into knots. Although this time, it's me legit falling not a Disney ride.

I kept a level head as a dropped stories a second and when I finally got enough momentum, I shot off. I whizzed past billboards and buildings and skyscrapers, all to chase after that little bot. "Come out, come out, wherever you are," I taunted as I slowed my pace, trying to figure out where it had scurried off to, but then I saw it. It was just sitting there next to some random building, waiting for me.

"Hello, Lucy," the scratchy robotic voice crackled as I edged closer.

"Hi," I responded, a little confused, "How do you know my name?"

It simply continued to hover and tilt it's head in curiousity, "I know many things, my child. I know about your parents, your friends, your special abilities."

I raised an eyebrow, "Creepy. Now, are you done?" My skin was crawling at the thought of anyone knowing anything about me, let alone some no faced robot.

It just cackled and flew a little closer causing me instinctively to back up, "I know about the explosion, the missing posters, the Avengers."

"What 'missing posters'?" I questioned, trying to keep my distance.

"You honestly don't expect a girl with a full ride to not be questioned when she up and vanishes out of the blue? It's very suspicious." It began to circle me, almost in a teasing manner, "All those friends back at home, don't you miss them, Lucille?"

"Don't call me that," I spat.

"Oh, right, touchy subject with the whole dead mother thing. I apologize."

"What do you want?" I grunted, becoming more agitated as to why I hadn't killed the thing yet.

"I want you to realize that you are better than them."

"Than who?" I glanced back at the building, "Than them? They're my friends."

"And you're their pawn, but together we can change that. We can change the world."

I snorted, "Yeah, like a pile of scraps can change the world. Go to Hell."

It almost smiled at me, "You, better than anyone, should know looks can be deceiving." It turned around as if to leave me, "Don't worry, I'll convince you and -" Before it said anything else, I shot it out of the sky. One single blast sent it falling from the heavens.

"Yeah," I smirked, "Good luck with that." I turned around and started to head back towards the building when I remembered one small detail. I live in New York City, there's a lot of people here, A lot of people on the streets where I just sent a hundred pounds of metal falling on their heads. "Uh oh."

I shot down chasing after the dismembered figure that was plummeting towards the gum covered sidewalks of Manhattan. "Crap, crap, crap," I grumbled as I tried to go faster. "Hill said no more lawsuits."

I reached out my hand as I neared, my fingers brushing against the wires as we got closer and closer to the ground and then I grabbed it, just inches from some man's toupee. I breathed a sigh of relief and started to heave the the thing up and back home when I saw a flash and then another and then a crowd began to form just a few feet under my glowing body.

"Hey, look, it's the Human Torch!" a pedestrian exclaimed.

I rolled my eyes, ugh, in no way am I, Johnny Storm.

"Let's hear it for the Fantastic Four."

"Yeah, Johnny!"

Don't say anything, shut up. Just go back to the Tower. "Excuse me," the words burst from my lips, "do I look like a man? Notice the boobs." I gestured to the chest while still holding the broken robot. "I'm Pyro, an Avenger, not that hot head. Get it right." Way to stay inconspicuous. I groaned, starting to fly away, but completely regretting my decision. I'm meant for missions, not advertising, I'm not Tony. I don't save the world or do anything great, but with the few words I just threw up, the media will have a field day. At least they don't know my true identity, well, Lucy Cooper. I'll be like what's-his-face...Spider-Man? Anyways, I slowly but surely flew back to the Tower with yesterday's garbage.

When I landed on the roof, I chucked the parts into a corner and started to pad off to find everyone. I cringed when I saw the living room, Pepper was not going to be happy when she came home from her business trip. She's really going to flip out this time especially since from the little exchange I heard between Bruce and Tony, they created it.

I ended up finding them all in the lab, more shaken up than I was, "All of our work is gone," Bruce mumbled looking through the computers, "Ultron cleared out, used the Internet as an escape hatch."

"The Internet?" I whispered to myself, "He could be anywhere now."

Steve was leaned against a table with one hand on his hip, "Ultron."

Natasha was wearing an old hoodie and looked up from her side of the room, "He's been in everything. Files, surveillance, probably knows more about us than we know about each other."

I hugged my arms closer to myself, "Well, that's a comforting thought."

Rhodes looked up and started to pace, "He's in your files, he's in the Internet. What if he decides to access something a little more exciting?"

"Nuclear codes," Hill spoke up.

"Nuclear codes." Rhodes started to look around, "Look, we need to make some calls, assuming we still can."

"Nukes?" Natasha continued, calmer than I ever could be. "He said he wanted us dead."

Steve spoke up and I continued to hover by his side, "He didn't say 'dead.' He said 'extinct.'"

I played with spare part from one of the broken robots, "That's not what he told me."

"What?" Natasha asked, walking towards me.

I cleared my throat, "He said he wanted me to 'join him.'" I glanced around everyone, "Crazy, right?"

Clin got up, "He also said he killed somebody."

Hill picked a piece of glass out of her foot, "There wasn't anybody else in the building."

Stark walked up and threw some orange thing onto the projector, "Yes, there was."

I took a closer look, "Is that - is that Jarvis?" It was a mass of mangled pieces of nothing, he was almost unrecognizable.

"This is insane," Bruce gaped, and Steve bowed his head.

"Jarvis was the first line of defense. He would have shut Ultron down. It makes sense."

"No," Bruce started, "Ultron could have assimilated Jarvis. This isn't strategy, this is rage." I gulped, what if he started to apply this anger elsewhere.

Stomping started to come down the hallway and I looked up to see Thor in his full armor. When he entered the room, he didn't stop walking. He went all the way up to Tony and wrapped his hand around his neck, hoisting him up. I jumped up and so did everyone else, "Whoa, whoa, whoa," Steve yelled.

"It's going around," Barton continued.

"Come on, use your words, buddy," Stark choked as Thor dragged him across the room.

"I have more than enough words to describe you, Stark," he boomed.

"Thor," Steve called, "The Legionnaire." Thor threw Tony to the ground.

"Trail went cold about 100 miles out, but it's headed north, and it has the scepter." I buried my head in my hands, "Now we have to retrieve it, again."

Romanoff sashayed up, "Genie's out of that bottle. Clear and present is Ultron."

Helen had been analyzing the Iron Legion when she spoke up, her voice quivering, "I don't understand. You built this program." Tony looked down, "Why is it trying to kill us?"

I looked up for his response, too, but of all things, he started laughing. That's when I got mad, "I really don't find this funny," I growled.

"You think this is funny?"

"No," Stark shot. "It's probably not, right? This is very terrible. It is so.. Is is so.." He chuckled again, "It is. It's so terrible"

Thor shook his head, "This could have been avoided if you hadn't played with something you didn't understand."

"No. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. It is funny." Stark went straight up to Thor's face, "It's a hoot that you don't get why we need this." I rolled my eyes and made my way towards Maria.

I slipped up onto the counter and took a few breaths, "Hey, when you're done, can I please use that after you?" I whispered while Bruce tried to reason with Tony.

"Yeah, did you step on glass, too?" I glanced at my bloody feet and gave her a small nod. "Give me your foot." I slid back on the desk and put up my foot and she started to wipe it with a clean cotton ball.

"Really? That's it. You just roll over, show your belly every time somebody snarls?" Stark spat.

"Only when I've created a murder bot," Bruce shot back.

"We didn't. We weren't even close. Were we close to an interface?"

"Well, you did something right. And you did it right here." Steve spoke up."The Avengers were supposed to be different than S.H.I.E.L.D." I instinctively dropped my head and watched as Maria picked at my feet with tweezers.

"Anybody remember when I carried a nuke through a wormhole?" Stark blabbed.

"No, it's never come up."

"Saved New York?"

"Never heard that."

"Recall that?"

A hostile alien army came charging through a hole in space. We're standing 300 feet below it." Stark shook his head, "We're the Avengers." He started to walk up to Steve, "We can bust arms dealers all the livelong day, but… that up there, that's… that's the endgame." He glanced around the room, "How were you guys planning on beating that?"

"Together." Steve said simply with his arms crossed over his chest.

"We'll lose."

Steve looked at Tony as if it were the simplest thing in the world, "Then we'll do that together, too. Thor's right. Ultron's calling us out. And I'd like to find him before he's ready for us. The world's a big place. Let's start making it smaller."

"What if he finds us first?" I started, my voice low at first, but louder the more I spoke, "He knows everything about us." I thought he was just trying to get under my skin, I didn't think it was serious, that he knew about me and the people I love. I glanced at Tony then at Bruce, "I wasn't always an Avenger, I had a life, and friends, and people I care about, he could get to them." I gulped and ran a hand down my face, "What am I supposed to do? What are we supposed to do? Every contact we've ever made is plastered somewhere on the Internet. What if we don't find him in time?"

Steve gave me a stern look, "It won't come to that."

I nodded and shook it off, but that didn't kill the seed of doubt glued into my mind.