Disarm • Stark

Mazzy, quietly as a mouse, sat on the mattress of the top bunk in her bedroom, staring intensely at the laptop screen in front of her. Her eyes burned a bit from how long she'd been staring at that screen, reading article after article. It had been hours by now, but every time she told herself that she was reading the last one, another intriguing title caught her eye and drew her further down the rabbit hole.

Luckily for her eyes, but unluckily for her curiosity, a firm knock on her bedroom door pulled Mazzy away from her screen. For just a second, her heart dropped down to her stomach. She quickly pulled herself together, slammed her laptop shut, and opened up the book next to her.

"Come in," Mazzy called out to whoever was on the other side of the door.

She had never felt so rebellious in her whole life. She thought that, maybe, this was what being a teenager would be like. Except for the fact that she was pretty sure teenagers were sneaking out of the house to go to parties rather than sneaking into restricted files to find answers about their own past.

"Hey," Tony said as he entered the room.

Mazzy skillfully pretended to be enraptured in her book.

Tony made his way over to her and casually began fiddling with the small things that lined her shelves as decoration. He always had to be doing something. "What'cha reading?" he asked her.

Truthfully, Mazzy wasn't sure what book was in her hands. She hadn't really thought about it when she picked it up. So, she held the cover out in front of herself, presenting it to her father. "This one."

"Nice," Tony replied, picking a Rubik's cube off of Mazzy's desk and starting to mix it up.

If Tony were to be honest, he was in there because he felt a bit guilty. Ever since he arrived back home after that mission in Sokovia, he hadn't been giving Mazzy very much attention at all. Of course, he was still making sure she ate well, brushed her teeth, and went to be on time, but he hadn't been actually spending time with her.

He, of course, had a reason for all that. He would never be intentionally neglectful. But, when he came back from Sokovia, so did Loki's scepter. And the scepter was the key to what Tony thought was one of his greatest ideas yet. So he had been working on that with Bruce for days on end with little to no free time.

Like a skilled actress, Mazzy marked her page- which she wasn't really reading- with a bookmark and placed her book on her pillow. She scooted to the edge of the bed, letting her feet dangle off of the side. "Did you figure it out yet?" she asked her dad.

"I'm not sure. Jarvis is working on it," Tony said with a shrug.

Mazzy let out a hum of acknowledgment, unsure of how else to reply. Sometimes he could get frustrated about these types of failures, and she didn't want to make him feel bad. She cradled her chin with her hand like someone with a bad toothache would.

"The party's starting soon. You planning on hiding in your room like the socially inept nine-year-old you are, or will you come out and join us?" Tony teased, raising his eyebrows at his daughter. He placed the scrambled Rubik's cube on the mattress next to her.

"I'm not socially inept," Mazzy scoffed.

"Oh, you're not, now, are you?" Tony snickered, gently tugging on her feet. "You still use grandma slang."

"Well, maybe just a little bit."

"A little bit? Yeah." Tony smiled and Mazzy furrowed her eyes at him, pretending that she wasn't smiling. Tony reached an arm up to her, so she could grab onto him and hop down from the top bunk. It seemed more fun than using the ladder. When she landed, he placed a hand on her back leading her out of the room. "Come on. People are arriving," he said.

"If I'm socially inept, then why do you want me to come to your party?" Mazzy questioned, quirking an eyebrow.

"Because I'm sure Steve loves your grandma slang," Tony answered jokingly. "He's not big on the no-no words."

The real reason was that he didn't think it was healthy for her to be sitting around in her room and reading all day. The fact that she spent so much time in her room made part of him want to start sending her to school, but now she would be miles ahead of her classmates, so she wouldn't be doing much socialization there, either.

At first thought, Mazzy wasn't very excited about this party. She knew it would only be adults, and even worse, there would also be adults that she didn't already know. Those types of adults sucked because they were always asking her questions. Questions about school. Or worse. Sometimes they would just ask about her dad because they wanted to be good at flirting with him. Mazzy didn't ever let that happen, though. The only person who was allowed to flirt with Tony was Pepper.

However, despite the annoying stranger adults, Mazzy was happy because she knew the Avengers, whom she had grown to like a lot, would be there, along with Rhodey, whom she hadn't seen in a while.

With her dad at her side, Mazzy joined the party, earning huge smiles and finger waves from several of the people in the room. Sometimes it made her feel special, and sometimes it made her feel patronized. Today, she was in a decent mood, so she felt special.

At these types of parties, there was always a set of rules that Mazzy was supposed to follow. These rules were made up following the incident at Tony's birthday party. They were rules that kept Mazzy safe, both from the people around her and from the knowledge that she was so desperately clawing at.

So, tonight, Mazzy Stark decided that she would only follow some of those rules.

One of the rules was that she was, at all times, ordered to be in the presence of someone whom she already knew before the party. At this particular party, the list included Tony Stark, Natasha Romanoff, Bruce Banner, Clint Barton, Steve Rogers, Thor Odinson, Nick Fury, Maria Hill, James Rhodes, and Helen Cho. The list technically also included Sam Wilson, but she only barely knew him and didn't yet know him enough to want to follow him around like a shadow. Anyway, that was the rule Mazzy decided she would have to break.

For now, Mazzy was still by her father's side. She was sitting at the bar, which technically wasn't legal, but she didn't care and neither did Tony. She kicked her feet back and forth as she waited for the bartender to fill her cup with Coke and listened to Rhodey's War Machine story.

"But, you know, the suit can take the weight, right?" Rhodey was saying. Mazzy took her Coke from the bartender with a smile. "So I take the tank, fly it right up to the general's palace, drop it at his feet. I'm like, 'Boom. You lookin' for this?'"

For a moment, there was this painfully awkward silence as Tony, Thor, and Maria forced smiles onto their faces. As soon as Mazzy realized that that was the end of the story, she remembered that she was supposed to laugh. Unfortunately for the people around her, that realization came at the moment that she had a sip of Coke in her mouth.

So, in an attempt to make Rhodey feel better about his joke, Mazzy sprayed Coke right out of her mouth, all over the bar in front of her, laughing loudly like Rhodey's one-liner was the funniest thing she had ever heard. The bartender let out a sigh and grabbed a towel.

Unfortunately, Rhodey saw right through the performance. "Okay, I don't need the pity laughs from the nine-year-old," he sighed, holding a hand out in front of him. Mazzy's laughter came to an abrupt stop and she used her sleeve to wipe her face clean. "Why do I even talk to you guys? Everywhere else, that story kills," Rhodey complained.

"That's the whole story?" Thor asked.

"Yeah, it's a War Machine story."

"Oh, it's very good, then."

"It's a great story, Rhodey. Swear," Mazzy insisted.

"It's impressive," Thor agreed pitifully.

Rhodey pressed his lips together and rolled his eyes, letting out a silent sigh. "Quality save." In an attempt to change the direction of the conversation, he turned to Tony. "So, no Pepper? She's not coming?"

"What about Jane? Where are the ladies, gentlemen?" Maria asked, her arms crossed over her chest.

"Well, Miss Potts has a company to run," Tony reasoned with a shrug.

"Yeah. She's always busy," Mazzy groaned. She missed Pepper a whole lot. Pepper was one of her favorite people in the entire world and she hardly ever got to see her anymore. Sometimes, though, Pepper would pick her up and take her on ice cream dates. Those were Mazzy's favorite, and she supposed they made up for all the time Pepper spent working.

"Yes, I'm not even sure what country Jane's in," Thor commented. Mazzy didn't know Jane. All she knew about her was that she was Thor's girlfriend, apparently. Mazzy thought it was convenient that she just happened to never be around. She wondered if this Jane was even real, but Thor swore on it. "Her work on the convergence has made her the world's foremost astronomer."

"And the company that Pepper runs is the largest tech conglomerate on Earth," Tony added on to his previous statement, trying to one-up Thor and his supposed girlfriend. "It's pretty exciting."

"There's even talk of Jane getting a, um, Nobel Prize."

"Oh, brother," Mazzy huffed, sharing meaningful eye contact with Maria and Rhodey.

Couldn't Pepper and Jane just be impressively smart at the same time without one being inherently better than the other?

"Yeah, they must be busy, because they would hate missing you guys get together," Maria told the men sarcastically. She then raised her hand up to her mouth, coughing out, "Testosterone!"

"Gross," Mazzy murmured, scrunching up her nose as she signed the word by rubbing her hand over her belly in a claw shape.

"Oh, goodness," Rhodey said.

Maria brought her hand up to her chest, raising her eyebrows. "Oh, excuse me," she said, pretending to clear her throat.

"Want a lozenge?" Rhodey offered as he and Maria walked away, leaving Tony and Thor with amused smirks on their faces.

After a moment longer, Thor leaned over to Tony. "But Jane's better," he said before walking away.

"Nuh-uh!" Mazzy called after him. Unfortunately, Thor either didn't hear her or completely ignored her. Probably the latter. She turned to her dad. "Is Jane even real?" she asked him.

After a moment of thought, Tony shook his head. "No. She's not," he answered as he helped Mazzy down off of her stool at the bar.

•

By eleven o'clock on the dot, Tony was tipsy enough to believe Mazzy when she said she was going to the bathroom and would be right back. Mazzy was actually not going to the bathroom.

Instead, she was joining a group of young women gathered around a small table far away from where Tony was. She chose the women because, well, women always felt safer than men. So, she sat down at one of the chairs and the women suddenly got all quiet.

"Where's your dad, sweetheart?" one of the women asked, her eyebrows pinched together.

"Oh, it's okay. He said I could come talk to you because I really like your blue dress and I just really wanted to tell you," Mazzy lied effortlessly, putting on the most adorable smile she could manage. To the women, the smile was awkward and weird, but adorable and charming nonetheless.

"Thank you so much," the woman said, her smile wide and her hand against her heart.

"Yeah, of course," Mazzy said. She leaned in closer, her elbows on the table. "Hey, do you remember when I was little? Like, when I was three or four?" she asked.

She was being reckless about this, and part of her knew that. If she wanted answers, she would have to be patient and pry the answers out of the strangers carefully, like a surgeon removing shrapnel from around the heart. But she had already drunk four Coca-Colas and her energy was through the roof, sugar racing through her blood and making her tap her hands and feet against the table and floor.

"I'm sorry?" the woman asked, glancing at each of her friends awkwardly.

"Like, when I was sick. Do you remember the news?" Mazzy asked.

"I don't know, honey. I don't really remember," the woman said awkwardly. She looked around the room, searching for Tony. "Where's your dad? Why don't you-?"

"Actually, I have to pee. See you later," Mazzy huffed, sliding off of her chair and leaving the women at the table confused.

She actually did have to pee, now, but she could have waited longer. She just knew already that none of the women were going to be of any use. They were all clearly either drunk or close to it, and they wouldn't listen to her that way.

So, Mazzy went to the bathroom. When she got out, she decided that she was going to go put her pajamas on before coming back downstairs to say good night to her dad and everybody else. She was tired of this party and now frustrated due to the woman in the blue dress. When she changed and came back down to where the party was taking place, Mazzy saw that the place was mostly cleared out now, minus the people that she already knew.

Now that there weren't so many strangers, everything felt a lot less overwhelming.

When she joined the others, Steve was trying to pick up Thor's hammer. Mazzy crept up behind Tony and climbed over the back of the couch in order to sit next to him. He wrapped an arm around her shoulder, pulling her into his side.

They all watched as Steve attempted to pull the hammer up off of the table. It let out a little squeak and gave the slightest amount of movement, but Steve seemed to be unable to pick up the hammer along with everyone else who wasn't Thor. He let out a sigh, holding his hands up in surrender as Thor let out a laugh.

Tony cleared his throat. "And, Widow?" he said, glancing at Natasha, who apparently hadn't yet tried picking up the hammer.

"Oh, no, no. That's not a question I need answered," Natasha said, shaking her head and taking a sip of her beer.

"Maz?" Bruce offered, raising his eyebrows at the girl.

Trying to be like Natasha, Mazzy shook her head. "No. Not a question I need answered," she said, echoing Natasha's words.

"All deference to the Man Who Wouldn't Be King, but it's rigged," Tony said.

"You bet your ass," Barton agreed, patting his shoulder.

"Steve," Maria spoke, gesturing to Barton. "He said a bad language word."

Steve let out a sigh, shaking his head. "Did you tell everyone about that?" he asked Tony.

"Tell everyone about what?" Mazzy questioned.

"I told you. Steve doesn't like no-no words," Tony answered. Mazzy scrunched up her face, confused, but Tony had already changed the subject back to the hammer: "The handle's imprinted, right? Like a security code. Whosoever is carrying Thor's fingerprints is, I think, the literal translation."

"Yes. It's a very, very interesting theory. I have a simpler one," Thor said, standing up out of his seat. He stood next to Mjölnir and picked it up easily, flipping it in his hand. "You're all not worthy."

The group all let out a chorus of scoffs, laughs, groans, and plenty of muttered words.

That is, until they were all interrupted by a loud, ear-piercing ringing.

At first, Mazzy thought that maybe she accidentally messed with her hearing aids when she was changing her shirt, so they weren't fitting in her ears correctly and subsequently letting off a loud ringing in her ears. But that ringing would be loud to her and extremely quiet to everyone else around her, and everyone in the room was recoiling in on themselves in reaction to the ringing, which meant that it definitely wasn't the hearing aids.

Footsteps marched across the room behind them. "Worthy," a low, grumbly voice seemed to murmur.

Mazzy pressed her head against her father's side as they all turned around to face the sound. A tall figure stood in the shadows, small blue lights emitting from certain parts of its body.

"No." Slowly, the figure turns around, revealing itself to be some sort of mangled robot with a jack-o-lantern-like face and strings hanging from its body. "How could you be worthy? You're all killers."

All?

From Loki's words, Mazzy had already figured out that she must have hurt someone in the past. But killed? Could that be true?

Then again, they didn't even know what this robot was. Maybe it didn't truly know anything.

"Stark," Steve said, glancing at the man.

"Jarvis," Tony spoke, receiving no answer.

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

"Reboot Legionnaire OS. We got a buggy suit," Tony continued to try talking to Jarvis, despite the silence he got in response.

"There was this terrible noise."

"Dad, what's wrong with it?" Mazzy asked anxiously, clinging to her father's arm.

"And I was tangled in... in..." The robot brought its arms out at its side, looking down at its form, as if only now realizing what it was. "Strings."

The more it spoke and moved, the less robotic it seemed. What kind of coding mistake could lead to this?

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

"You killed someone?" Steve asked it.

Tony moved himself in front of Mazzy and she peaked nervously out from behind him, watching the robot warily.

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

"Who sent you?" Thor asked.

Then, and audio began to play. It was Tony's own voice emitting from the robot. "I see a suit of armor around the world," it said. And, in response, the room went silent for a good four or five seconds, Mazzy staring up at her dad with wide, confused eyes.

Bruce's eyes widened as he came to a realization, his head turning to Tony. "Ultron."

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

Faintly, like the ticking of a clock, Mazzy could hear guns being cocked and weapons being raised.

"What mission?" Natasha asked.

"Peace in our time."