In Tony and Bruce's absence, the young mechanic spent her free time training and reading. There were times where she was in the mood to be fat and lazy, which mostly consisted of binging Netflix and anime whilst shamelessly eating a tub of cookie dough ice cream. Not like she cared much about that minor habit, even if JARVIS chastised her how unhealthy it was to eat purely ice cream for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. She had a pretty good diet, excluding the few times where she threw all that out the window and ate questionable foods and concoctions, just because. Either way, she worked it off in her rigorous training, so JARVIS can question her choices all he wants and it still wouldn't do any justice.

Meanwhile, Happy came by every morning to greet the young prodigy and went about his day doing whatever business he needed to attend to. It was… a bit lonely for Carla. Sure, she filled the empty space talking to JARVIS when she felt like having a conversation with someone, but even this was a little pathetic. She didn't have any friends her age, the only people she was close to were all adults. It wasn't entirely a bad thing but she could use a good talking to someone who would understand her pop culture references and dark humor. She could go to a regular school and attempt to be a bit more normal, but the insufficient education system would just hold her back. From what she found online, one of the few top-notch schools was only as close as the one in Queens, which was about an hour-long drive away. The redhead could only imagine how tiresome it would be to wake up at six in the morning every day for school, only to go for another hour ride back home. A private jet could actually get her there in less than half the time, but it really wasn't like she was about to make a flamboyant appearance and exit.

Plus, the world has yet to even know that Tony Stark is taking care of a kid, and she'd prefer to keep it that way.

Currently, she was binging more Netflix while consuming a bowl of buttery popcorn mixed in with m&m's and sour patch watermelons. It might've been a weird combination, but she enjoyed it nonetheless. And because she ate all the ice cream last week and forgot to order for more. Carla wore her typical attire of a black tank top and a pair of grey sweatpants. Her hair was loose like always, and she chuckled at another funny scene from the comedy on the flat-screen TV.

She heard a surprising ding from the elevator across the room, and she looked at it in confusion. The metal doors slid open to reveal all of the Avengers in all their glory. They walked out into the suite, admiring the building. The party snapped their attention to the lone girl sitting on the sofa after she made her presence known.

Carla tilted her head, "Tony? I thought you guys weren't gonna be here for another few days. You finished early."

"It was a pretty smooth mission," he smirked, "We actually got here about an hour ago."

His niece sighed in exasperation. Her eyes first noticed Steve Rogers beside him, who looked at her with eyes of recognition and… pity. Fantastic. Bruce and Nat were their usual selves and were conversing amongst each other, already being used to the little Stark. Clint and Thor stared at her in peak interest. Carla felt a little nervous as this would be the first time she'd be meeting all of them.

She placed the bowl on the coffee table and got up from her seat to introduce herself to the new strangers. Her bare feet padded against the cold tile as she stopped before Steve. His blue eyes widened in surprise as she held out her hand, grinning.

"Hi, it's nice to meet you…" she trailed off as she gazed expectantly at the patriot for a name.

He returned the handshake, "You can call me Steve," his lips quirked up into a gentle smile.

She nodded before turning her attention to the last two, doing the same with Clint. Her brown eyes shyly looked to Thor's as she held out her hand to shake.

The man smiled, "Stark told me of a young lady as yourself with many talents. That is indeed quite impressive. It's a pleasure to meet you, Lady Carla. You can call me Thor."

She blinked in surprise at his compliment. She smiled abashedly as she retracted her hand to rub the back of her neck. Carla had to admit, she found Clint a bit intimidating and just… whatever. Steve was a devout patriot who needed a little push for evil, because he was just too pure for her to feel comfortable. And she wasn't the fan for nationalism. Thor was pretty cool and handsome, in her opinion. He always seemed pretty nice and tried to do the best he could, as well as being one of the few to try to see the good in Loki. (Which was an incredible feat that even Carla struggled to follow.) She was also pretty fascinated with the concept of multiple realms and Asgard, so she was probably going to interrogate the god later to sate her curiosity.

"I personally don't think it's that impressive, but thanks," she replied.

Tony stepped in, "She's just being humble. She's literally a better mini-me, but with a horrible diet and terrible mischief."

"Hey…" she pouted.

Thor's eyes glinted knowingly and rose an eyebrow, "Mischief?"

The mechanic nodded, "My niece here tends to get bored easily and pulls pranks here and there."

She shrugged, knowing she couldn't argue with that. A few of them were actually inspired by pop culture, of course. The main victim of her crimes was poor Happy, who dealt with it pretty badly. One time, she made green gelatin and put Happy's stapler inside it, then placed it back in his desk drawer. It was hilarious to watch through the security footage as he was in utter confusion and annoyance at something so random.

She recalled another time where she pulled an old-school prank that involved a sleeping Tony, a feather, and a can of whipped cream.

There were times where she reprogrammed some systems to malfunction in the way that she liked, going as far as having JARVIS act as if it had been hacked and forced Happy to do ridiculous stunts in the process. She managed to get a really hilarious video of the bodyguard doing his best to wall twerk to Nicki Minaj, only to fall onto his back.

She couldn't help but chuckle at the memories. Tony saw this and rolled his eyes playfully. Thor looked amused and had a nostalgic gleam in his eyes. For whatever she reminded him of, she had no idea.

Thor felt a slight pang in his chest when he saw the mischievous look in the young girl's eyes. It somehow reminded him of his brother, back when things used to be normal. A time when Loki used to pull his own pranks on those unfortunate enough to be apart of. She was sharp and had a knowing look in her eyes just as he did. Carla held a weird sense of familiarity about her that he couldn't seem to fathom.

Soon after, Tony had JARVIS navigate the new guests to their rooms to settle in. Tony and Bruce went to the lab to probably try and create Ultron, and Carla felt a little sick to her stomach.

For one, she knew the outcome of this... but who would believe her? Wouldn't stopping Ultron before anything started to be a bad idea? What if they really needed Vision? The risk was just too high to change anything right now. She had to pretend and act as if lots of people might not die.

In shock, she came to an epiphany. She was… indifferent. Carla chewed her bottom lip, guilty. She knew she didn't care if people died for the sake of saving the universe, or, well, her loved ones. She had to sacrifice the pawns in order to defeat the main enemy. She was a lot more cynical than she was led to believe.

She couldn't outright tell anyone her deepest secret, in the risk of it ever getting into the wrong hands. There was no way she could have herself as a suspected target of SHIELD, Hydra, or Thanos. Carla didn't really know how to go about the situation, either. She was good at hacking but was yet to outmatch Tony, so there was no way she could break into his database and create something better than Ultron. This was Tony's big mistake that even Carla cannot afford to fuck up further than he could.

The only solution was to sit back and hope for the best. Preferably, she would like to save Pietro but that would prove difficult with her lack of superpowers and not being allowed to tag along with the Avengers to Sokovia.

The following few days before the day of the party and the forsaken Ultron attack, she spent her time training with Natasha. The teenager didn't talk much to Clint, but ended up chatting a lot more with Thor and Steve. Thor enthusiastically talked about his glorious battles in other realms, to stories of his childhood in the Asgardian palace. They were fascinating and Carla found herself looking forward to talking to Thor again. Other conversations with Steve were awkward but otherwise pleasant. She could tell that Steve probably felt guilty about what happened years ago, but she didn't blame the soldier for at least doing his best. The only vendetta she had was against Thanos and the chitauri, after all.

Her body was full of nerves and she tried to shake the feeling of dread by distracting herself with an intense training session, but it was no use. The night of the party eventually came, many people dressed in fancy attire and suits trickled into the tower.

Like most parties, Carla stayed in her room, choosing to not socialize with others. The only time she did come down was to spend her time with Natasha, who equally didn't care too much about talking to the other guests. Besides, it would be better for her to stay in her room and out of harm's way once the attack goes down later.

Tonight's party wasn't going to be any different. Carla pulled out her worn-out notebook, scanning over the written contents.

As soon as she was discharged from the hospital years ago, she decided it would be safe to write everything on paper. People these days were dangerous and could easily hack her computer… something bad could happen where her secret would fall into the wrong hands. The only places that held the data was her head and the notebook she possessed.

She wasn't entirely sure about the amount of time that passed within each of the movies, but it was really killing her not being able to know when exactly something was going to happen. The redhead preferred to be emotionally prepared than anxiously unaware, but that was a faraway dream she'd never reach. She spent hours locked away from society in her room until she heard the relaxed silence of the night.

She nervously sighed, "JARVIS, did the guests leave yet? What are the others doing?"

When she didn't get a response she stood up from her desk, walking to her door.

"JARVIS…?"

She made her way down the hall and into the room, spotting the Avengers and some other guests talking with one another on the sofas. Thor was up from his seat and easily picked up his hammer from the table, showing off.

He easily flipped it into the air and caught it, "You all are not worthy."

Everyone groaned in disagreement. Carla laughed at the jab. The Asgardian noticed the approaching teen and was about to greet her when a high pitched noise rang through everyone's ears. She winced as she began to realize that Ultron was indeed coming, and she came downstairs at the wrong time. Tony quickly took out his small control pad from his pocket. A weird, robotic voice resounded from the lab entrance as everyone looked to the source.

"Worthy… No… how could you be worthy?" asked Ultron. "You're all killers."

Carla's brown eyes widened in fear and shock. Her heart started racing and her hands trembled.

"Stark," Steve cut in.

Tony murmured, "JARVIS?"

"I'm sorry, I was asleep. Or… I was a… dream?"

The mechanic looked back to his device, tapping the screen, "Reboot, Legionnaire OS, we got a buggy suit."

"There was a terrible noise… and I was tangled in... in… strings," the suit seemed to examine itself, "I had to kill the other guy. He was a good guy."

"You killed someone?" Steve questioned.

"Wouldn't have been my first call. But, down in the real world we're faced with ugly choices," it answered.

Thor glared at the suit, "Who sent you?"

Tony's voice echoed from Ultron, "I see a suit of armor around the world."

"Ultron!" Bruce answered. Tony stared at his creation in grave realization.

"In the flesh. Or, no, not yet. Not this...chrysalis. But I'm ready. I'm on a mission."

"What mission?" Natasha questioned.

"Peace in our time."

Suddenly, explosions erupted in the walls behind Ultron. Legion bots shot out, one aimed for Steve and the other aimed for Carla. Without thinking, she raised her hands in defense, closing her eyes before hearing a loud thunk and sparks in front of her.

Her eyes opened in surprise, expecting to see that someone had saved her. She sighted a big wall of ice, floating midair. It was probably twice the size of Steve's shield. Her mouth fell open, immensely shocked and confused. The bot's fist was embedded in the middle of the ice, stuck as it struggled to free itself. The ice soon cracked and fell to the floor as it released itself and looked for a new target. She quickly put her attention to a stool, raising her hand towards it and swiping her arm to said bot, the stool flying in the air from its position. It crashed into the Legion robot as it was tossed across the room.

She immediately noticed that her hands felt a bit… cool. Carla's hands and arms were blue to the middle of her bicep before fading into her original skin color. She looked down at her hands in wonder as she tried to think of a possible explanation.

She hadn't even realized that the others took down half of them already with only a few more left to destroy. One soon resorted to aiming its palm at the teen from where it hovered in the air.

"Carla!"

As if it was as easy as breathing, she did the first thing her mind could think of. She flicked her blue-toned hand at the bot, ice shards materializing out of thin air and shooting themselves towards her target. It fell to the ground, once again aiming to attack one of the cowering guests by the piano. Steve grabbed it and tossed it to Thor, who then smashed it to pieces with his hammer.

Tony hung onto another flying hot before deactivating it and landing harshly on the floor. The last one was shooting at Natasha as she tried her best to kill it. Clint tossed Steve his shield, who quickly flung it like a frisbee and sliced the offending foe. Carla collapsed on her knees, suddenly feeling lightheaded.

"That was dramatic!" Ultron quipped, "I'm sorry, I know you mean well. You just didn't think it through. You want to protect the world, but you don't want it to change. How is humanity saved if it's not allowed to...evolve? With these? These puppets? There's only one path to peace: The Avengers' extinction."

Thor aggressively threw his hammer at the suit, and it fell to pieces on the floor. He retracted his hammer back to his hand.

The mask of the suit glowed blue as it hummed to itself, "I had strings, but now I'm free…"

It finally died as the light flickered away. Tony immediately got up and ran to his niece's side, kneeling on the glass-covered floor. His eyes trailed to her hands. They were blue.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

She retracted her gaze from her skin, aware that all eyes in the room were now on her. She looked up to her uncle before watching the other's expressions.

"I'm not… crazy, right? You guys saw what I did," she asked with worried uncertainty. She swallowed, her mouth feeling dry, "I… how did this happen…?"

Maria Hill stared at the girl in realization. This was the girl that she had reported to Fury for observation, in hopes that something would be amiss with her humanity. Hill watched with a calculated stare. Carla looked back down to her arms, examining the color.

Her anxiety rose and her breath quickened as she spoke, "Why are they blue? Why don't they change back? Tony-"

Before she could break down, he grabbed his niece and embraced her in his arms. He stroked her hair as she started to cry.

"It's okay. We're fine now, and we'll figure this out. It's okay," he soothed.

Her crying stopped. She retracted herself from his hold, sniffling. Her arms slowly faded back into their original color as everyone watched in fascination.

She couldn't believe this. She couldn't. Carla did it like it was nothing, like it was as easy as riding a bike. She couldn't think of a single explanation as to how she could've done that. She was fucking Elsa from Frozen. All she could think of was feeling scared and terrified for her life, and was willing to do anything to survive. Soon after, she felt almost powerful and maybe a bit confident when she struck down that one bot with ice. But, this… this was close to impossible.

Tony and the others watched her in worry as she picked herself off from the floor. Natasha came down from upstairs before wrapping her left arm around the teen's shoulders. She guided her to her room down the hallway, shoes crunching on broken glass.

"You guys can figure this mess out while I take care of Carla," she explained.

After they left the vicinity, Tony sighed in disbelief. As concerned as he was for Carla, he had bigger fish to fry. This was his mistake that could potentially become unstoppable.

If only Morgan was here to give him good advice, for once.

Carla's mind raced with questions and concerns as Natasha walked with her to her room. She finally sat at the foot of her bed as she raised her hands to cover her face in overwhelming emotion. She felt the weight of the mattress shift beside her, feeling Natasha's hand gingerly rubbing her back. She lowered her hands and held them on top of her knees, glancing up at her mentor.

The teen sighed dejectedly, "I can't believe I did that."

"You're not the only one," said Natasha. Her hand moved up to Carla's face, cupping her right cheek, "But, you helped big time. It might not be what you expected or wanted, but now that you have it… you can either suffer by hating what you've got, or utilizing those abilities for the greater good."

The spy retracted her hand before Carla shook her head at her, "That's not why I'm upset… if anything, I'm pleasantly surprised that I was able to do that." Her hands fiddled with the beloved ring upon her neck, "I feel like I don't know my mother as much as I thought I did. I mean, how else could I have ended up like this? The only reason I could think of involves my parents."

"...And you wish your mother would've told you about this ahead of time?" Natasha presumed, frowning.

Carla nodded, her eyes glistening, "I'm scared to find out where… this," she gesticulated to herself, pointing out her new discovery, "comes from. What if my father isn't even human? Or maybe I don't have a father and I'm some sort of freaky science experiment created in a lab? The thought just gives me a headache."

Natasha deeply exhaled through her nose, mulling over her words. She had heard about Carla's unknown father from Tony, who barely had any idea about the mystery-man. Now that she thought about it, this was all just a little too coincidental to just be swept under the rug.

"You might be right," the woman agreed. She stood up from the bed before facing Carla, "Don't worry. We'll get to the bottom of this mess, eventually."

The teen nodded, eyes unfocused on the floor. Natasha turned to head out of the room to give her much needed privacy.

"Get some rest. You'll feel better when you wake up." Natasha gave the girl a reassuring smile as she twisted the cool handle of her bedroom door.

Right before she left, Carla uttered a small, "Thanks."

The door clicked shut. Carla groaned as she laid back on her bed, legs hung over the edge. Just when she started to feel assured of herself, a new problem arises. Cool, she had powers. What she didn't find cool or amusing was the fact that she knew nothing of her father.

Before her mother died, Carla asked about her father several times. Like, a lot. Each time she'd ask, her mother would suddenly get really sad, usually saying, "I'll tell you when you're older." Carla dropped the subject quickly, feeling too guilt-ridden to bother her mother of a painful reminder.

Sometimes, her mother actually did tell her a vague detail here and there. All she knew was that for whatever reason, he saved her mother's life, they were in love, and in a way, he was perfect in her eyes. That was all she was told of him. All these years, she assumed that maybe her father simply just left them, maybe for falling out of love or not wanting to deal with being a soon-to-be father. Maybe her father had a good reason for leaving? Maybe… it had to do with his powers?

Carla would have to ask Tony about her mother as soon as she could… she hadn't really asked him anything since the invasion to spare his feelings.

She lightly exhaled, her eyelids weighing down to a close as her body started to give in to the lull of sleep.

The next morning, she woke up bright and early and felt a lot better, and decided to just make some toast for breakfast. Dressed in a blue cardigan and black shorts, she walked into the small kitchen in the hallway on the way to the main room. After the slices of bread popped up from the toaster, she gingerly spread some nutella on her toast, placing four pieces on a white plate. She gripped the edge of the plate as she made her way through the rest of the hallway to where she assumed where she would find Tony and the others.

She entered the main room, seeing everyone looking through a bunch of folders and files, many of which were scattered on the tables. Tony looked up from his file and saw Carla smiling at him as if last night never occurred. She made her way to him, her white vans crunching in the fractured glass that littered the floor. She held out a plate of prepared toast, one of which was in her hand, half-eaten. Tony rose an eyebrow at his niece.

"I made you some toast," she shrugged, the ceramic plate clinking on the table as she set it down.

Tony reached out for a piece with his right hand, pinching the edges and bringing it up to his mouth to take a bite. Carla pulled out a chair and sat down next to Bruce and continued eating her toast, watching as everyone searched through files.

"Thanks," he swallowed. "Are you okay after what happened last night?"

Strangely, she wasn't too disturbed as she was last night. She was probably desensitized more than what was healthy with all the hell that she's already been through.

The teen sighed, "I guess so. It's just that now I feel extremely confused. Otherwise, I'm good… Aren't you freaked out by this?"

The mechanic took another bite as he gave her another calculated look, "It's definitely not as freaky as an alien army, but I guess you could say that I am a bit freaked out. I think the impending doom of Ultron has made this a little less overwhelming."

Steve gave her uncle a look of disdain, "Stark, she's only fourteen. I really don't think being that blunt with her is appropriate right now. It isn't wise to be cracking jokes about this."

Tony rose an eyebrow, frowning deeply. The teen watched the scene with apprehension. He glared daggers, opening his mouth to retort back at him before Carla intervened.

"Ah, Steve…" she paused. Steve gave her a confused look as she tried to smile reassuringly, "Its fine. It's a bit unusual, but that's just how we communicate… with blunt honesty. I prefer it that way. Besides, my soul's a lot older than you think."

He nodded in understanding. She mused how her last comment was technically the truth, even if she was joking. Tony gave her an appreciative look, grabbing another piece of toast after finishing the last one he had. She offered the final piece to Bruce, which he gladly accepted and gave her his thanks. A few moments passed by as they read through files while Carla had resorted to scrolling through her Instagram on her phone in boredom.

Steve pulled out another file, "Known associates. Well, Strucker had a lot of friends."

"Well, these people are all horrible," Bruce responded, finishing off the rest of his toast.

Tony glanced at the file in the scientist's hands, "Wait," he held out his hand, "I know that guy."

Bruce handed the document to Tony. He examined it before handing it out, "From back in the day. He operates off the African coast, black market arms."

Steve responded with an accusing look.

"There are conventions, alright? You meet people, I didn't sell him anything," he defended with exasperation.

Carla got up from her seat to get a better look at the file. She mildly forgot the man's name and face, mostly because he wasn't necessarily important to her in this universe or the last.

Tony continued, "He was talking about finding something new, a game-changer, it was all very 'Ahab.' "

Thor observed the photo, "This."

"Uh, it's a tattoo. I don't think he had it…"

Thor cut him off, pointing out a distinct mark on Ulysses Klaue's neck, "No, those are tattoos, this is a brand."

Bruce quickly went to work scanning the image and loading it up on the computer, finding its meaning. Carla remained at her seat, watching the scene unfold before her. Some information finally popped up on the screen as Bruce brightened.

"Oh, yeah. It's a word in an African dialect meaning thief, in a much less friendly way," he explained.

"What dialect?" Steve questioned.

Bruce looked at the screen, struggling to pronounce the word, "Wakanada...? Wa...Wa...Wakanda."

Tony's face lit up with recognition before turning to Steve, "If this guy got out of Wakanda with some of their trade goods…"

Bruce furrowed his eyebrows, perplexed, "I don't follow. What comes out of Wakanda?"

"The strongest metal on earth," Tony answered.

Steve looked at him gravely, "Where is this guy now?"

"Can I please go with you guys?"

"No," Tony answered firmly.

Carla sighed, exasperated, "I can just stay in the quinjet. I don't even have to do any of the dangerous stuff. I want to be there, just in case."

He rose a dark eyebrow, annoyed but slightly amused, "Okay, Elsa, how about staying at home, in the comfort of safety? Because that sounds like a smart idea."

"Why can't I go? I'd be out of harm's way in the jet anyways. And Bruce would get lonely without me," she childishly argued.

As they quickly prepared to leave for Wakanda, Carla decided to try to tag along. First, to attempt to keep Bruce under control from the twins and prevent any deaths that could be caused. Second, to hopefully practice some of her powers on the twins in defense. She couldn't really try to persuade the twins to join their side yet, since she still needed them to realize how chaotic Ultron was. Then, Wanda would take that lab girl out of her scepter trance in the nick of time to sabotage Ultron's upload to the vessel. For situations like this, patience and staying two steps ahead was everything in order to win.

Right after Tony and Bruce found the black market location, Carla attempted to use her powers.

They… didn't work as she had anticipated.

Her telekinesis was shit. She couldn't even lift a chair, and the most she could do was raise a fork in the air before her head exploded into a huge migraine. Her burst of power the previous night was probably the adrenaline rush and the great need to survive, anyways. On the bright side, her ice powers weren't too bad. Tony had watched her as she hilariously attempted anything she could think she could do with her powers, actually. She managed to create a rose-shaped ice model in hand from just thinking about it, and she managed to create more ice blades in thin air, as well as making an ice shield. She eventually felt drained after that, but was pretty pleased nonetheless.

Tony sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose, "Because, I don't want you to get hurt. This is a lot more dangerous than you think it is."

Carla frowned, "I get that. But I really want to be there if the worst happens."

Natasha decided to make her entrance, "C'mon, Stark. Let the girl come along, I'm sure she can handle herself."

Tony gave them both a long, apprehensive look before rolling his eyes, "Fine. But Carla still stays on the quinjet."

They both grinned. Tony left the room to prepare the quinjet. Natasha gave Carla a mischievous look, smirking. The teen rose an eyebrow.

"What?"

"Suit up before we take off," she answered.

Things are now definitely getting into full swing. Next chapter shall finally conclude Age of Ultron.

Review: What do you guys think so far? Any new predictions? Any accurate or inaccurate predictions? Or really anything else that I haven't asked about yet?

Love, Navi