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Chapter Forty-Two: Reunion

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"How did you find me?" I asked skeptically, after we'd loaded into a quinjet that had been parked a ways outside the city.

"We never lost you," Nat answered, slipping behind the wheel and lifting us off the ground.

"Heard that before," I shook my head, sighing, "So where are we going?"

"A safehouse."

"A safehouse..?" I frowned, looking between them, "Why, exactly, are we in need of a safehouse?"

"Same reason we need your help," Steve said, arms folded as he glared at Tony, "Would you like to tell Alivia why, exactly, we need her help?"

Tony cleared his throat, scratching at the back of his head. "We lost Loki's sceptre—"

"You did what?" I deadpanned, staring at him.

"We got it back, okay?" He raised his hands cautiously, "Banner and I were studying it in the lab, when we found some sort of... Intelligence inside of it."

"What does that mean, intelligence?"

"It worked almost like an A.I.," Tony explained.

"This is where Tony got the brilliant idea to use the sceptre to create a global defense program," Nat said to me over her shoulder.

"I really don't love where this is going," I said hesitantly, looking back to Tony to continue.

"He's called Ultron," Tony told me, folding his hands together, "And he—"

"He's batshit crazy," Nat interrupted, "He spent all of five minutes on the internet and decided that the best way to save the world was to eradicate human life."

I gaped at her. Looked between the three of them. "I mean... I can see why he would draw to that conclusion but... Stark, you made him, why couldn't you—I don't know—stop him?"

"Ultron was made from the intelligence inside Loki's sceptre... It's not like any computerized intelligence I've ever seen. I examined it against my own A.I., Jarvis, and it seemed almost like it was thinking. On its own."

"Right, so you mean to tell me, you've created a genius, genocidal, all-powerful artificial intelligence hell-bent on wiping out humanity. Got it."

"It escaped the Avengers Tower, and we tracked it down to a shipyard in Africa, where it went to deal with some illegal arms dealer, Ulysses Klaue. He was looking for vibranium."

"Why did it want vibranium?"

"No idea," Steve answered, "A weapon, most likely."

"And so, I'm assuming it didn't go great in Africa?"

"Ultron enlisted two of Strucker's experiments to help him," Nat said, "Long story short, we got our asses kicked."

"But, everyone's okay, right?" I asked, leaning in.

Steve glanced at me in his peripheral. There was a silence. Then he spoke, "Banner, he—He went nuts on a civilian town. A lot of people died."

I raked a hand through my hair, sucking in a breath. He was probably devastated. I remembered how broken I'd been after the accident in Asgard. I couldn't imagine the guilt over what the Hulk had done.

"And Ultron... Where is he going now?" I asked darkly, removing my fake glasses and tossing them aside.

"We don't know." Nat didn't look back at me when she answered. "He could be anywhere."