Hi! I'm back after Nanowrimo!

Carmen here.

I was under mind control for all of this, so my memory is a little fuzzy. I think I can give a pretty good summary, though.

I woke up lying in the back of a quinjet. I sat up, glancing around at the interior. Ribbons of red floated around me still. Pretty. Very pretty.

Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch sat on the seats, several feet away.

"I was starting to wonder if you'd ever wake up," said Quicksilver. "Do you speak English now?"

"Ich habe Englisch gesprochen seit ich war zehn Jahren." (I have spoken English since I was ten years old.)

"Apparently not." He sighed and walked up to the front of the quinjet. "She's awake and still doesn't make any sense."

A robot appeared.

I jumped up in surprise. "Sie sind Ultron." (You're Ultron.)

"Ja."

He apparently had some kind of translation thing – handy, I suppose. Not so much for me.

"Tell me what you know about your friend Ivy," he said.

Scarlet Witch let out a little groan.

"Can we use that staff? She's exhausted."

"Yes, thank you for reminding me."

Ultron walked to the front of the plane and retrieved the staff.

The ribbons suddenly dropped away.

I blinked and my mind cleared.

Ultron pressed the staff against my chest.

Obey your master. Obey obey obey...

Blue sparked around my chest and a cloud of sparks flew everywhere.

"Is it supposed to do this?" asked Ultron.

"No," said Quicksilver.

Obey obey obey...

NEIN NEIN NEIN!

The blue sparks exloded, sending Ultron flying into the front of the ship and me against the back.

Ultron stared. "How..."

"Ich weiss nicht." (I don't know.) I glanced around wildly, trying to find an escape route – pointless, really, since I had no parachute. There was no way out from up here.

"Calm down," ordered Ultron. "No one –"

I tried to dart past him, which would have been a possibly good idea if Quicksilver hadn't been between us.

He grabbed my arm and wrenched it hard, slamming me down into one of the seats and trying to pin me. I twisted hard to the side, wrenching my arm out of his grip and falling flat onto my back on the floor.

He dropped down, pinning me down. Something sharp bit into the side of my neck.

He pulled out a syringe.

I tried to scramble back up, but my head suddenly felt fuzzy and I fell back onto my elbows. I should have seen that coming.

Stop groaning. One of those jokes is a necessity in any introductory scene to Quicksilver.

Quicksilver laughed and helped me up and into a seat.

My body felt like it was made of lead and my head felt fuzzy. What was that stuff?

"Are you sure that wasn't too much?" asked Quicksilver.

"I was careful," said Ultron. "If she dies, I loose my one piece against the Fortune Seller."

"She was making a deal with Strucker when the Avengers attacked HYDRA."

"What did you think of her?"

"We didn't see much," said Scarlet Witch. "She couldn't have been much older than twenty. Slightly tall. She seemed nice. She knew Pietro's name. She also said we'd find out how she knew things like that in a few days."

"Really?"

I somehow doubt Ultron would be excited when they actually did.

Ultron made his phone call to Ivy.

Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch looked a little surprised – and slightly unnerved – at the given ultimatum. Apparently, he hadn't mentioned it to them before.

When he hung up, I couldn't stop a tiny laugh from escaping my mouth.

"What's funny?"

"Sie wird nicht es tun." (She won't do it.)

"Why not?"

"Sie ist zu intelligent." (She's too smart.)

"And how do you think she can think her way out of this?"

I didn't know.

Ivy here.

Well, "smart" isn't exactly the right word. A better descriptor would be "crazy".

I'm not particularly smart. However, who needs brains when you've got Miranda and Jack?

I ran along the halls after them, wishing I'd chosen a set of shoes which were easier to run in – for some reason, I'd chosen a set of flats which my heels couldn't stay in.

"JACK! MIRANDA!"

They spun around, staring.

"Um... I have a problem. If you had five minutes before someone you knew was shot, and you had no idea where they were, what would you do?"

They stared at each other.

"I'm going to assume this isn't a hypothetical question," said Miranda. "Do you have any clues to their whereabouts?"

I shook my head. "Couldn't get a trace on the phone."

"Then..." she glanced at Jack, "you have anything?"

"Not that could work in five minutes."

"I have a teleporter," I offered. "And a time travel thing."

"Why didn't you say that before?" asked Miranda. "Do you also have a tracking device?"

"No."

"I do." She dropped a small object into my hand. "Travel back in time and give this to them, then come back."

I obeyed, setting my teleporter and sending myself hours into the past.

I found myself outside the prom. Students ran everywhere, screaming in terror.

I found down the sick feeling in my stomach and ran in the direction Carmen had gone.

I caught up with in front of her door.

"Carmen! Carmen wait!" I shouted as loudly as I dared.

She spun around, face white.

I ran to her and pressed the tracking device into her hand. "Keep this on you at all times. Do not loose it."

She tucked it into her bodice. "There." She shoved the door open and slammed it behind her.

I pressed the teleporter and returned to the hallway.

Miranda jumped back and shrieked with surprise when I appeared suddenly. "Ah! Don't do that!"

"Sorry!" I said. "I gave it to her. Now what?"

"Now we track it." Jack had a weird device in his hand. "A gift from Mr. Stark – he designed the tracker."

"How did you get it?" I already had a pretty good guess – Mr. Stark had bugged a set of my earrings in case I was ever in trouble. Jack would take them apart to get the tracker.

"It's complicated. Here's a set of coordinates." He read them off. "Over the ocean. Will that be a problem?"

"I don't care." I entered them in.

"Did you ever meet Ivy Williams?" The question from Miranda was sudden.

I nodded.

"You make me think of her."

"Should that be a compliment?"

"Most definitely."

My cheeks flushed. "Thanks."

Then I hit the teleporter.