Maya Stark

Chapter 5: Maximoff Twins

After dinner that night, we all got together and talked. I am playing around with the darts with my dad.

    'Ultron took you folks out of play to buy himself time,' Fury said. 'My contacts all say he's building something. The amount of Vibranium he made off with, I don't think it's just one thing.'

    'What about Ultron himself?' Steve asks.

    'Ah,' Fury said. 'He's easy to track, he's everywhere. Guy's multiplying faster than a Catholic rabbit. Still doesn't help us get an angle on any of his plans though.'

    My dad shoots a dart. 'he still going after launch codes?' I throw a dart. It landed on the green next to the bullseye.

    'Yes,' said Fury, 'he is, but he's not making any headway.'

    'I cracked the pentagon's firewall in high school on a dare,' my dad said as I shoot another dart. I roll my eyes at him.

    'Yeah, well, I contacted our friends at the NEXUS about that.'

    'NEXUS?' Steve asks.

    'It's the world internet hub in Oslo, every bite of data flow's through there, fastest access on earth,' said Bruce.

    'So, what they say?' Clint asks.

    'He's fixated on the missiles,' Fury says, 'but the codes are constantly being changed.'

    'By whom?' my dad asks. Clint throws a dart from the sink, getting a bullseye. My dad and I give him an annoyed look. I walk over to the door and lean on the wall inside the doorway.

    'Parties unknown,' Fury said.

    'Do we have an ally?' Nat said.

    'Ultron has an enemy,' said Fury, shaking his head, 'that's not the same thing. Still, I'd pay folding money to know who it is.'

    My dad leaned on the other side of the doorway and says, 'I might need to visit Oslo, find our "unknown".'

    'Well,' Nat said with a sigh, 'this is good times, boss, but I was kind of hoping when I saw you, you'd have more than that.'

    'I do,' Fury says with a shrug. 'I have you.' We all share a look. 'Back in the day, I had eyes everywhere, ears everywhere else. Here we all are, back on earth, with nothing but our wit, and our will to save the world. Ultron says the Avengers are the only thing between him and his mission. And whether or not he admits it, his mission is global destruction.' I look at the ground. Fury motions around the house. 'All this laid in a grave. So, stand. Outwit the platinum bastard.'

    'Steve doesn't like that kind of talk,' Nat says, making me chuckle.

    'You know what, Romanoff?' Steve says as Nat sends him a smile.

    Fury sits down. 'So, what does he want?'

    'To become better,' Steve said. 'Better than us. He keeps building bodies.'

    'Human bodies,' I say, looking at the rest. 'The human form is inefficient, biologically speaking, we're outmoded. But he keeps coming back to it.'

    'When you three programmed him to protect the human race, you amazingly failed,' said Nat.

    Bruce had moved and was looking at a drawing Lila had given to Nat. 'They don't need to be protected, they need to evolve. Ultron's going to evolve.'

    'How?' Fury asks.

    Bruce looks up at all of us. 'Has anyone been in contact with Helen Cho?'