Disarm • Stark

After all that wallowing in his own guilt Tony did, it turned out that he was right to bring Mazzy along with him rather than leaving her alone at Stark Tower where she could eat tons of ice cream and throw it all back up again. Because Stark Tower was exactly where Loki had Slevig building something that could destroy the whole city.

But did it really have to be at Stark Tower? Hell, he just finished fixing its power source.

Tony's bad luck was already letting itself show, but the fact that he had to leave Mazzy alone again only added to that. He couldn't bring her to the fight, obviously, because that would earn him the Worst Father of the Year award. He couldn't drop her off at Stark Tower, either, because of obvious reasons. He would leave her with Fury or Maria, but that wouldn't work out, considering it was crucial that Fury and Maria didn't know they were leaving at all.

So now Mazzy found herself seated in the back of a quinjet. Her feet kicked back and forth as she looked around at the others in the jet. Her dad wasn't one of them, unfortunately. But Natasha was, which was good. Barton and Steve were there, too, but Mazzy didn't have any strong opinions on them.

"So, what am I gonna do?" Mazzy asked them all, her eyebrows slightly raised.

"Stay in the jet," Natasha answered.

Mazzy let out a huff. "I'm strong, though. And fast. And I have a medicine that makes me get better reeaaalllyy fast when I get hurt," she explained.

"Medicine?" Steve murmured. It sounded eerily familiar to him.

"You're staying here, Mazzy," Natasha said again.

"Oh, come on!" Mazzy grumbled, crossing her arms and slouching in her seat. All she wanted to do was help.

"Didn't you learn your lesson on listening to your dad?" Natasha asked, glancing back at her with raised eyebrows.

"Yeah, yeah," Mazzy said. Before she could argue anything else to try and convince at least one of the three Avengers to let her help, she heard a loud, low-toned blast coming from above. Leaning forward in her seat to look at the windshield, she could a massive, dark hole in the middle of the sky, and a beam of blue and white light leading up to it. "Holy moly!" she exclaimed, her eyes wide. Soon, it looked like little dots were flying down from the hole. "What the heck are those things?!" she asked.

"Loki's army," Steve answered, his voice low and quiet.

"Stark, we're on your three, headed northeast," Natasha said to Tony over the phone.

Thank goodness this quinjet actually had speakerphone, or else Mazzy wouldn't be able to hear her father's response. "What? Did you stop for drive-through?" was his quip.

"I wish," Mazzy said.

"Swing up Park. I'm gonna lay 'em out for you," Tony said to Natasha.

"You buckled, Mazzy?" Agent Barton asked, looking back at her.

Mazzy narrowed her eyes at him. "How do you know my name?" she asked.

"Buckle, Mazzy," Natasha ordered, keeping her focus on flying the quinjet.

"Okay," Mazzy replied. She reached to buckle her seatbelt just as Natasha increased the speed of the jet. Now Mazzy understood why she had to buckle. It wasn't exactly a smooth ride.

From what Mazzy could see out the windshield, complete chaos havoc had unleashed itself upon New York City. There were what looked to be aliens chasing her dad through the sky and going after civilians on the streets. This was Loki's army. He really did have evil in his heart, then, Mazzy supposed. Part of her wished he could have secretly been good. But that hardly ever happens. Most people who do evil things are truly evil on the inside, too. Unless they were tricked or they were hurting.

Loki claimed that the world made him the way he was, but he had a smile. He just kept smiling. Mazzy wouldn't smile, if she were him. Especially not if she was hurting.

"Natasha, did you know I talked to him?" Mazzy asked out of the blue. She pulled at and twisted the seatbelt over her chest somewhat anxiously.

"Talked to who?" Natasha asked.

"To Loki."

"Well, yeah. I saw you in there with him, Maz," Natasha replied simply.

"No, I mean after. You left and I went back in, even though I was supposed to," Mazzy admitted to her. Natasha sighed, but she didn't scold her. She figured Tony had already done that. Hopefully. "Well, anyway, he told me weird things, and I think he was lying," Mazzy went on.

"What weird things?" Steve asked, slightly concerned.

"He said I hurt people," Mazzy answered with a frown on her face. "Well, actually, he implied it." Implied was a word Mazzy had learned a few months ago. "But that doesn't even make sense because I can't remember ever hurting anyone. Except for this one guy. His name was Justin, and I kicked him on the shin because he called Pepper sweetheart, and he was really rude. Maybe that was what Loki meant. Do you think that's what he meant?" Mazzy looked up from her lap with wide, hopeful eyes. She needed that reassurance. She needed it badly.

God, did Mazzy really have to ask all of these hard-hitting questions now? In the middle of this battle? This was very, very inconvenient.

"I'm sure that's what he meant, Mazzy," Natasha answered offhandedly.

Her focus was still mainly on flying the quinjet, but she couldn't just ignore Mazzy completely. She knew what it was like to have those big, confusing emotions. Part of her wished Tony would just tell Mazzy the truth, but the other part of her thought that that was the worst idea in the world. It would tear Mazzy's heart apart. But it left Natasha with hardly anything to tell Mazzy when she asked questions like this.

Luckily for Natasha, she wasn't the only one stuck in that jet with Mazzy and her hard-hitting questions. Steve was there, too. And Steve was happy to give the girl his pieces of advice. "Loki is a liar and a manipulator. Whatever he told you, it was to trick you into trusting him or helping him. Don't believe anything he said," Steve told the curly-haired girl. "None of it's true."

Natasha didn't like the way he said it like he knew it. He didn't know the half of it. But she supposed it was better for Mazzy to hear it like that from him.

"How would you know?" Mazzy asked, narrowing her eyes and crossing her arms. "You don't even barely know me," she pointed out. She didn't know much about Steve, but she knew that he and her dad didn't get along so well, and if she was going to be on either one of their sides, it would be his. Always. She was sure of it.

"Jeez, kid. I'm just trying to help you out here," Steve sighed, shaking his head.

"You're supposed to be helping people out out there," she stuck her arm up to point out the window, "Capsicle."

"Nat," Clint interrupted, jerking his head to his left.

"See him," Natasha replied, turning to jet to face it right at Loki, who was fighting with Thor on the balcony of Stark Tower.

It was good to see that Thor was alive and well, but Dr. Banner, whom Mazzy truthfully liked a bit more than Thor, was still completely missing.

Just as Natasha began firing shots down at Loki, he shoved Thor to the ground and used his so-called magical stick to send a blast of energy up at the quinjet, destroying one of the engines and sending it plummeting down to the Earth's surface. Mazzy shrieked in fear, holding tightly onto the armrests that were on her seat. Steve held on to the handlebars in the back as Natasha and Clint worked to land the jet safely.

Unfortunately for all four of them, landing that jet safely was just about as impossible as getting Mazzy to eat asparagus- and Mazzy truly hated asparagus. She hadn't tried it herself, but she heard from Happy that it makes your pee smell bad, and she wasn't taking any chances.

As Mazzy screamed like any other little girl in a falling jet would, they all went crashing into the ground in a big cloud of sparks and smoke. When the jet stopped skidding across the concrete, Clint, Natasha, and Steve all rushed to leave out the back of it, but Mazzy was still strapped into her seat with her hands pressed firmly over her eyes. She only dared to move them when Natasha knelt in front of her and pulled them down herself.

"Mazzy, listen to me," Natasha said. Mazzy nodded, her eyes as wide as saucers. "I'm going to close the back of this jet and you're going to wait in here until I or your dad come get you. You stay here. Understand?"

"Yes," Mazzy answered, nodding her head adamantly.

"Promise?"

"Yes."

"Ok. Keep quiet and don't touch anything. Thank you, sweetheart," Natasha said before getting up and following Clint and Steve out the back of the jet.

As Mazzy unbuckled her highly uncomfortable seatbelt, which was now digging into her skin, she watched the back of the jet close like an upside-down garage door. The last thing she saw before being enclosed in almost complete darkness was a giant work-looking creature soaring through the sky aimlessly, crashing into buildings on its way.

And as soon as that door did close, all Mazzy could hear was the sounds of it. The sounds of chaos, war, fear, hurting. It was an absolutely terrible sound to hear and made Mazzy's anxiety shoot through the roof. She wanted to be able to see it. Or else how could she know whether or not one of those monsters was coming right for her?

"Natasha," she yelled nervously. Maybe Natasha was still close by. Maybe she could hear her. "Natasha," Mazzy yelled again. Still, no response. "Oh, gosh," she muttered to herself, tugging on the collar of her shirt. She didn't like being trapped in this quinjet. It sort of made her feel sick, but also really panicky. "Daddy?" she called out, even though she knew he wouldn't hear her.

Gosh, it was way too dark in there. There was hardly even enough for Mazzy to be able to see three feet in front of her. Where was the light switch? There had to be a light switch somewhere!

Slowly and hesitantly, Mazzy pressed her hands against the wall and began to feel around for the light. There had to be a button or a switch or something. Maybe, Mazzy thought, it was voice-activated.

"Turn on the lights!" she shouted.

Nothing happened.

"Dang it," she muttered to herself, furrowing her eyebrows and frowning at the nothingness.

With no other options, she continued to feel around the jet for a light. She kept stumbling over her own feet and knocking into the walls. She wanted out of there. Her hands pressed against the cold, metal walls over and over again, back and forth, around the entire jet. It wasn't working out in the slightest. At least, not until Mazzy's hand landed on a smooth, round button. She smiled to herself, internally praying that it was the light switch.

Maybe pressing random buttons in jets she had never been in before wasn't her brightest idea, though, because when she pressed that button, the door opened itself right up.

Well, at least it wasn't dark anymore.

"Oh, my gosh. Oh, my gosh. Oh, my gosh," Mazzy whispered to herself repeatedly as she backed further into the jet. She reached for the button once more because, just maybe, it was better to be in the dark than to have the door open. Just as she was about to press down, though, she felt an unbearable force hit her side, shoving her across to the opposite side of the jet until her back hit the wall. She let out a cry, arms curling around her body and her now aching ribs.

Looking up, Mazzy could see one of the creatures stalking toward her. She wasn't sure if it was a robot or an alien, but it looked like some kind of mixture between the two of them. Either way, she knew she didn't want it anywhere near her. So, as the aching in her body began to subside, she scrambled back up to her feet and began sprinting out of there. She was lucky she was fast, but the creature was right on her tail.

As she ran through the wreckage and debris, all she could see were more and more of Loki's army. They were everywhere. Up above, there were monsters soaring through the sky, and Mazzy could see her dad soaring after them. She wished she could call out to him, but he would never hear her.

Further down the road, Mazzy could see Natasha, Clint, and Steve fighting them hand to hand. Natasha and Clint didn't even have superpowers, but they were still fighting. Maybe, Mazzy thought, she could fight them, too. She was strong, after all. And if they hurt her, she'd get better. She always did.

Stopping her running for just a moment, Mazzy looked around at the debris around her. There was a metal rod stuck in some rubble. Maybe she could use that. Yes, sure, she could use that. So, with all the might that she could muster up, Mazzy pulled the metal rod out from under a few rocks just in time for the monster to get to her. She held out the rod in front of her and shoved it straight through the monster's chest.

That wasn't enough. The next thing Mazzy knew, there were three more aliens turning their heads in her direction. She didn't know how to do this. She needed directions. She needed someone by her side, fighting with her and giving her orders. It felt like there should have been someone there. It felt like that person was missing, which Mazzy thought was strange because that person was never really there to begin with.

With seemingly no other options, Mazzy let out a loud, high-pitched scream and cowered away from all three of the alien-monster-robots. Then, out of nowhere, bolts of lightning flew down from the sky, hitting each and every one of the monsters around Mazzy.

With wide eyes, she watched Thor land on the ground in front of her like a character out of a movie. He looked down at her with raised eyebrows. "Your father is displeased," he informed her.

Mazzy let out a whiny huff. "It opened by itself! I didn't even touch any buttons," she lied.

Maybe she would have gotten away with that lie if it weren't so specific.

"Sounds to me like you were touching buttons." Oh, boy. That was her father's voice, and it was coming from behind her.

Spinning around to look at her dad, Mazzy shook her head. "Nuh-uh," she insisted.

"Uh, yeah-huh," Tony replied. His mask lifted to show his face. He didn't look very happy. Not at all. He gave her a stern look. "You're supposed to be in the jet," he reminded, his eyebrows raised.

"But it was dark in there, and the door opened by itself, and then one of the alien-monster-robots was chasing me, so... so- so I had to leave," Mazzy explained in a very fast-paced jumble of words.

Tony pressed his lips together for a moment, only shaking his head. "I don't know. For some reason- I'm really not sure why- I don't believe you," he said before his helmet came down to cover his face once again.

Mazzy jumped when he raised his hand and sent a blast of light past her and into another monster that had been coming up behind her. She shrieked, turning around just in time to see the alien fall to the ground. And, of course, coming up to meet them were Natasha, Clint, and Steve.

"Oh, brother," Mazzy muttered under her breath. She didn't really want Natasha to know that she broke her promise.

"Mazzy," Natasha sighed as she spotted the little girl. Mazzy could hear the disappointment in her voice and it really bothered her. "You promised me you'd stay in that jet."

"Yeah, well, Mazzy's a big, fat liar," Tony said. He patted Mazzy once on the back before shooting up into the sky. "Be right back."

"I'm a big, fat liar," Mazzy confirmed to the others, nodding her head with a frown on her face.

Before anything else could be said, they were all interrupted by the quiet rumbling of a motorcycle. Turning around, they saw none other than Dr. Bruce Banner himself riding towards them. He was covered in ash and dirt, just like the rest of them, and he had clothes on, which was good. He must have found some after he landed because Mazzy was sure his old clothes got all messed up when he got all green and big and chased her through the Sheild hovercraft.

"So, this all seems horrible," Bruce said as he leaned the motorcycle against a tipped-over car.

"I've seen worse," Natasha replied.

"You chased us, but it's ok because we're fast," Mazzy told him.

"Sorry," Bruce murmured.

"No. We could use a little worse," Natasha said, giving him a small smile.

"Stark, we got him," Steve informed Tony of the device in his ear.

"Banner?" Tony asked.

"Just like you said."

"Then tell him to suit up, and get my kid out of there. I'm bringing the party to you."

Mazzy spun on her heels upon hearing glass shattering from behind them all. She watched her father lead a giant, flying worm-alien-monster-robot through the sky, heading straight toward them.

"Miss Stark," Clint said from behind her. She turned, her eyebrows pinched together. The worm didn't look particularly nice. "You wanna come with me?"

"Are you gonna lock me in a dark quinjet all by myself," Mazzy asked, side-eyeing Natasha.

"No," Clint assured her.

"Then, yeah," Mazzy responded quickly. She grabbed Clint's hand and they began running through the rubble, side-by-side. Every couple of steps, though, Clint would let go of Mazzy's hand and send an arrow into the head of one of the creatures after them.

Suddenly, though, Clint stopped. He grabbed Mazzy by the shoulders and looked her in the eyes to make sure she was listening. "Hey. I have to go back now. But just around this building, there are cops," he began to explain, pausing to point to the officers just outside the perimeter they had set up. Mazzy nodded. "You run straight for them and do what they say. Ok?"

"Ok," Mazzy said with a nod. 

"You mean it this time? I hear you're a big, fat liar," Clint said, his eyebrows raised.

"I mean it this time," Mazzy assured him. She really did. As long as she was with people she knew were safe, she had no reason to get herself into any more trouble. 

"Alright. Go, go, go. Fast as you can," Clint told her, ushering her around the corner. 

The last thing Mazzy was able to see before she turned that corner was Bruce willingly and smoothly becoming the Hulk once again just in time to stop the giant worm monster from getting to anyone.