In this paper, we study a simple distributed averaging algorithm, under
constraints on information exchange among the nodes. The constraints include communication delays,
fading connections and additive noise. We consider the fragility, rather than the stability, of a popular
distributed averaging algorithm. We show that the otherwise well studied and benign multi-agent system can
generate a collective global complex behavior. We characterize this behavior, common to many natural and human-made 
interconnected systems,  as collective hyper-jump diffusion process and 
as a  L\'{e}vy flights process in a special case. We further describe the mechanism for its emergence and predict its occurrence. By exploiting the structural properties of the system, we decompose it into two parts, namely, the deviation part and the conserved part. Under standard assumptions, we show the state of the conserved part is a hyper-jump diffusion process if and only if the deviation system loses mean square (MS) stability and prove it
to be L\'{e}vy flight for a two-node system. We also show that the strong connectivity property of the
network topology guarantees that complex  behavior is global and manifested by all the  agents in the network.
This work is  the first, to the best of our knowledge, to establish the intimate relationship
between propagation of channel uncertainties in networked systems, the MS stability robustness
and the emergence of L\'{e}vy flights, which may have far reaching consequence
on the understanding and engineering of complex systems.