High-pitched ringing interrupted a round of good-natured laughter. Maria Hill couldn't help her wince. Though at least she wasn't the only one. Anything that had Steve Rogers wincing was legit. Once it passed, she looked up.

Stark fiddled with his phone, looking around the facility in confusion. A tech problem then. The others offered faint smiles, their mouths opening to continue the conversation.

Then, an electronic voice. "Worthy…" Followed by clanging of metal feet on cool stone. The being slowly stumbled into view, a grotesque mess of wires and damaged, twisted metal. "No… How could you be worthy?"

Maria shared a look with Natasha as the thing finally turned to face them. One of Stark's legionnaires. He played with something stupid again. The question now became, was it simply a rogue piece of code, or a threat?

"You're all killers," it stated, sweeping a jerky arm out toward the lot of them. Unfair, really. Dr. Cho didn't deserve to be lumped in with the rest of them

"Stark?" Steve asked through gritted teeth.

"Jarvis?" came his response. And yet, both went unanswered.

Another stumbling step forward. "I'm sorry. I was asleep. Or… I was a dream."

Stark tapped something on his pad, muttering to himself. "Reboot Legionnaire OS, we got a buggy suit."

"There was this terrible noise." The suit grabbed its head like it could still feel it. "And I was tangled in-" it stumbled around more before gesturing wildly "-in strings."

Nat cocked her head. Maria hoped she was piecing more of this shit together than she was managing to.

"I had to kill the other guy. He was a good guy."

Steve stiffened. "You killed someone?"

Again, a bit unfair. So had all of them. Minus Dr. Cho, of course. Though she supposed the metrics were a bit different for a delusional machine starting to sound a bit like Terminator.

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

"Who sent you?" Thor asked.

Stark's voice came from the suit, a recording. "I see a suit of armor around the world."

In unison, Nat and Maria turned a united disappointed front toward him. It wasn't surprising. But it was fucking stupid.

Banner's eyes widened in realization. "Ultron."

"In the flesh. Or… no. Not yet. Not this-" the suit looked down at itself, disgust radiating from it despite the lack of a face, "-chrysalis. But I'm ready."

Thor's grip shifted on Mjolnir. Maria slipped the pistol from her thigh and cocked it in her hands.

"I'm on mission."

She slowly stood, back to Ultron, catching Nat's gaze. A moment of understanding passed between them. Nat looked past her, able to face Ultron head-on, asking the question plaguing both of them. "What mission?"

"Peace in our time."

Explosions came from two directions at once. Or, well, one explosion came from behind Maria, the warmth of sparks cascading against her back. And in front of her, not an explosion but a shatter as a figure crashed through the window.

The figure looked up. Smirked.

Maria groaned.

Steve flew past her right, a table falling on top of him, shielding him from the flying mass of a half-destroyed suit. Maria barely had time to register it before the figure who crashed in through the window made a familiar signal. She dropped immediately, flat on her back, gun raised.

She managed two quick shots into a suit flying through the space she had just occupied. They barely slowed it, only knocking it off course. Until it found a new target behind her. Maria let it go. She popped up to her knees instead, using the couch to hide behind as she laid down cover fire for Nat and Banner to dive beneath the bar.

Sure enough, a horrible wrenching sounded behind her a moment later, confirming her suspicions. She shouted back over her shoulder, "four more hostiles!"

"Copy!" came the quick reply.

Movement from the corner of her eye. "One going for the scepter!"

"I'll handle it."

She barely blinked as a blur shot past her, instead turning her attention to the suit pinning Sam and Steve down. Three shots glanced off of its armor, barely denting it. Damn, Stark and his craftsmanship. The fourth hit its eye, damaging the sensors within. It whirled in its disorientation, slamming itself into a wall.

Steve and Sam darted from cover.

Metal landed with a clang just beside her. Maria whirled, heart pounding, gun ready. But the suit had no glowing blue life to it anymore. In fact, it had no head at all, and its internal systems were crushed beyond repair. Its hand, the only part of it remotely intact, curled loosely around Loki's scepter.

Fuck.

She looked up to find two of the suits gunning for her now. Including the one with a broken sensor. Bitch used her as bait. She pulled her spare pistol from her clutch, tossing her now empty one aside. A shot. Two. They didn't stop, thrusters rocketing them toward her. Three. One faltered. Not enough.

The one with the faulty center abruptly slammed into its companion, knocking them both off course. But they didn't stop. As if pushed by an invisible force, they continued sideways until they slammed against the wall. The force didn't stop. It kept pushing metal against metal until the suits crumpled and twisted in on themselves.

Blue flickered. Then dimmed.

Silence rang in the room. Maria chanced a glance around to see the Avengers peeking their heads out from behind cover, scoping out the room much the same as her. Their gazes landing one of two places. Ultron, who still stood at the far end of the room, untouched. Or the woman who crashed their party, standing to the right of Maria near the piano, her stance protectively planted in front of Dr. Cho.

"Well," Ultron's electronic voice echoed against the walls, "that was dramatic."

"You're one to talk, Mr. I'll-Have-A-Big-Dramatic-Attack-Right-After-I-Reveal-My-True-Intentions." Everyone's attention snapped to the woman guarding Dr. Cho. "What? I'm right?"

"Curious…" Ultron muttered, his head tilting. "You aren't an Avenger. You aren't… anyone."

"Yeah," in one fluid motion, the woman raised her hand, curling her fingers into a fist. Clanging, crunching, crushing. Ultron's electronics sputtered as the Avengers watched his core crumple like paper. He stumbled around once, twice more. Nobody dared move until his body hit the floor, unmoving. "That's the point, dumbass."

"I'm sorry, who are you?" Stark asked, sauntering forward as if he hadn't just been hiding behind cover. The rest of the Avengers followed suit in various states of readiness. Steve had his shield now, and from the tension in his frame, he was still debating if he needed it or not. Sam stood beside him, just as tense. Thor looked moments away from just throwing Mjolnir and being done with it. Banner had just popped up from behind the bar and looked generally confused, as usual. Though Rhodey had meandered to his side now.

Nat and Clint though, well, they knew Maria well enough to know what having her back to the strange woman meant. It didn't mean they weren't ready—Nat still had her gun cocked—but they weren't presenting an active threat. They looked toward Maria for answers.

With a sigh, Maria gave them. "Everyone, meet Daisy Johnson." Blank stares met her. "Former level one probationary agent."

Again, everyone blinked. Even Nat seemed confused at that one. Which… yeah. No level-one agent could do this.

Daisy's snort behind her brought their attention blissfully away from Maria. "That's one way to put it." She stepped forward until she was in line with Maria. "Sorry, I'm late. Taking down Ultron's network took a bit longer than I thought. Wasn't able to destroy it completely but I did isolate it to only the suits he was actively controlling so… as long as no one gets any stupid ideas with preserving these clankers," she kicked the one still holding the scepter and cast a pointed gaze at Stark, "we should be good."

Nat's gaze turned considering. "You were at the party." It wasn't a question. Daisy only grinned. "You got Stark a drink."

Now it was Stark's turn to do a double take. His brows furrowed as he examined her. "Wait… you're the girl who knew how to hack?" He leaned back, letting out a low whistle. "Muscle and good at coding. Might just have to hire you."

"To do what? Help your security? Yeah, already did that when I was like… sixteen? Honestly, letting a bunch of groupies hang out by the tower is an awful idea. You're lucky I liked Jarvis too much to do anything beyond data-crawling and leaving Captain America fan art everywhere."

Stark spluttered, and Maria could practically see him counting. "That was- You're Skyenet?"

"In the flesh." Daisy grinned.

"I was in the middle of tracking you down to hire you when you disappeared. Let me guess, Shield got you?" He barely let Daisy nod before continuing. "Explains how you got into the party at least. But isolating Ultron's code to only those Legionnaire suits? That would've taken time."

"We've known this was coming," Maria answered with a sigh. "Not the specifics, of course." Though not for lack of trying. Daisy was frustratingly tight-lipped when it came to just how things would play out despite full knowledge of it. "But enough to start preparing for when it did."

"Yup. Tried to keep the scepter out of your hands but I got a bit busy with other things and Sharon took off with it before I could stop her. So here we are."

Finally, Steve spoke, clearly having sat on this question for a while. "That still doesn't explain how you took down the Legionnaire suits. I've worked with low-level Shield agents before. They can't do that. And they don't have powers."

"Right. Proper introductions then, since Hill did me dirty." Daisy cast a dirty glance her way. Hill only grinned. "Daisy Johnson, also known as Skye, Skyenet, or Quake. Destroyer of Worlds. Daughter of the First Elder of Afterlife."

Hill's lips twitched, turning toward Daisy. "That's a new one."

"Eh, not really. I just kind of forgot about the whole sort of a princess thing until I talked with my mom again." Daisy shrugged as if that wasn't another level of insanity on top of all of the other weird shit that followed in her wake.

Thor's head tilted in thought. Daisy caught on and elaborated before he could fumble around too long. "I'm a friend of Lady Sif. She knew me back when I was Skye." But she didn't elaborate further. Maria wasn't entirely sure what happened when the Asgardian and Kree descended on Afterlife together, but she knew it had something to do with the Inhumans. Surely Lady Sif would have reported that to her superiors on Asgard but… apparently not. Because Thor accepted that answer with ease.

"I see. Any friend of Sif's is a friend of mine." He placed a fist against his heart and inclined his head ever so slightly in respect.

Daisy followed suit.

"You dodged the question." Steve took a step forward, shield still ready at his side. "You told us who you are, but not how you were able to do what we couldn't as a former first-level agent."

Damn it. And Daisy was looking at her expectantly. Double damn it. She really didn't want to explain this. Nothing about it would go down well. Shield was kept a secret from them for a reason. Coulson was kept a secret from them for a reason.

But then again… times were changing. The Avengers wouldn't escape this incident without media backlash and calls for more oversight. Particularly as it was an Avenger's fault. And while she hesitated to put them truly under Shield… Coulson was a good man. A good, pushover of a man. She could make this work.

Daisy said she was working on getting Talbot to come around on Shield. Said he could be trusted. If they let Shield go public enough for classified officials with military knowledge, set them up to be placed under Talbot who apparently could be swayed to their needs… The Avengers could be loosely associated with Shield and by extension the government. That might just be enough oversight to keep the broader government without classified military intel from putting up too big of a fuss and taking even more power.

Yes. That could work.

"She was a former agent of Shield, that much is true," Maria said. Steve cocked his head, waiting for her to continue. "But… Shield is technically still around. Though on a much smaller scale."

Natasha and Clint's eyes narrowed in unison. Surely, they already suspected what would come next. If they weren't invited back into the fold of the new Shield, Maria was deliberately keeping them in the dark because of something hiding within it.

"A Shield led by Phil Coulson."