pure devotion | | bucky barnes | | book one

4. the age of ultron is near

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𝐀𝐠𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐔𝐥𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐧 

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The Avengers are gathered in the lab. "All our work is gone. Ultron cleared out, used the internet as an escape hatch. He took Mila too, he has access to a potentially dangerous individual who like himself hates you." Bruce finishes pointing at Tony. 

"Ultron." Steve scoffs. 

"He's been in everything. Files, surveillance. Probably knows more about us than we know about each other." Natasha informs the group. "He's in your files, he's in the internet. What if he decides to access something a little more exciting?" "Nuclear codes." Maria suggests, Rhodes points at her. "Nuclear codes. Look, we need to make some calls, assuming we still can." "Nukes? He said he wanted us dead." Steve is quick to add. "He didn't say dead. He said extinct."

"He got Mila out and we need to find her before somebody else does." Clint walks forward, "He also said he killed somebody." Maria looks up confused. "But there wasn't anyone else in the building."

Tony steps forward with a remote in hand. "Yes there was." 

Stark brings up the now-destroyed 3D image of J.A.R.V.I.S' consciousness. Bruce steps up to the image projected, "This is insane." Steve looks down to his feet. "J.A.R.V.I.S was the first line of defence. He would've shut Ultron down, it makes sense." "No, Ultron could've assimilated Jarvis. This isn't strategy, this is...rage."

Out of nowhere Thor barges in and grabs hold of Stark by his throat, holding him up. 

"Woah, woah, woah! It's going around." "Come on. Use your words, buddy." Tony taps his hand that holds him suspended in the air. "I have more than enough words to describe you, Stark." Steve steps in. "Thor! The Legionnaire? Mila?" Thor lets go of Stark. "Trail went cold about a hundred miles out but it's headed north, and it has the scepter and Mila. Now we have to retrieve it, again." he sounds exasperated and furious. 

"The genie's out of that bottle. Clear and present is Ultron." 

Dr. Helen Cho finally breaks her silence. "I don't understand. You built this program. Why is it trying to kill us?" Tony starts laughing, Banner subtly shakes his head at him to get him to stop. 

"You think this is funny?" "No. It's probably not, right? Is this very terrible? Is it so... is it so... it is. It's so terrible." Thor's anger only brewing, "This could've been avoided if you hadn't played with something you don't understand." "No, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. It is funny. It's a hoot that you don't get why we need this." Tony argues.

"Tony, maybe this might not be the time to--" Tony shuts down Bruce. "Really?! That's it? You just roll over, show your belly, every time somebody snarls." "Only when I've created a murder bot." he reasons.

"We didn't. We weren't even close. Were we close to an interface?" Bruce shrugs as if to say, we kind of were.

 "Well, you did something right. And you did it right here. The Avengers were supposed to be different than S.H.I.E.L.D." "Anybody remember when I carried a nuke through a wormhole?" Tony ignores Steve once again. James scoffs, "No, it's never come up." "Saved New York?" "Never heard that." the sarcasm is as clear as day in his voice. 

"Recall that? A hostile alien army came charging through a hole in space. We're standing three hundred feet below it. We're the Avengers. We can bust arms dealers all the live long day, but, that up there?" He points up. "That's... that's the end game. How were you guys planning on beating that?"

"Together." Tony moves closer to Steve. "We'll lose." he tells him, his faith in the team clearly wavering. "Then we'll do that together, too." Stark looks at him for a moment before turning away. 

"Thor's right. Ultron's calling us out. And I'd like to find him before he's ready for us. The world's a big place. Let's start making it smaller." 

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Back in Sokovia, the Maximoff twins meet with Ultron in an empty church. Wanda steps in first. "Talk. And if you are wasting our time-" Ultron interrupts her. "Did you know this church is in the exact centre of the city? The elders decreed it so that everyone could be equally close to God. I like that. The geometry of belief." 

Ultron is sat in a chair facing away from them, a cloth draped over him. Mila stands in a dark corner, shrouded in shadows, silent and unnoticed. 

"You're wondering why you can't look inside my head." "Sometimes it's hard. But sooner or later, every man shows himself." Ultron stands and faces them, revealing his new body. 

Then Mila steps out from the shadows, in an all black hoodie and leggings. Wanda briefly looks shocked. Pietro speeds over to Mila, checking to see if she is okay. "Oh, I'm sure they do. But you needed something more than a man. That's why you let Stark take the scepter." "I didn't expect..." she inclines her head up to Ultron as he steps closer. "But I saw Stark's fear, I knew it would control him, make him self-destruct." Ultron nods, "Everyone creates the thing they dread. Men of peace create engines of war, invaders create avengers, people create...smaller people? Uh...children! I lost the word there. Children. Designed to supplant them, to help them...end." 

Mila and Pietro shift closer to Wanda. "Is that why you've come? To end the Avengers?" Ultron shakes his head, debating his wording. "I've come to save the world. But also... yeah." he shrugs.

Ultron brings the trio to the same H.Y.D.R.A base in Sokovia. "We'll move out right away. This is a start, but there's something we need to begin the real work." Mila looks around at his expanse of building bots, "All of these are..?" "Me. I have what the Avengers never will. Harmony. They're discordant, disconnected. Stark's already got them turning on each other. And when you get inside the rest of their heads..." He turns to Wanda. Pietro sighs heavily, "Everyone's plan is not to kill them." 

Mila is silent watching the exchange carefully. She doesn't fully trust Ultron yet but she will humour his ideas for the moment. 

"They need to end." "And make them martyrs?" Ultron questions. "You need patience. Need to see the big picture." Pietro shakes his head, "I don't see the big picture, I have a little picture. I take it out and look at it every day." Mila sends Pietro a look, he has deep hidden sadness in his eyes. "You lost your parents in the bombings. I've seen the records." 

"The records are not the picture." Pietro argues, "Pietro." Mila warns him, Ultron waves her off. "No, please." "We were ten years old, having dinner, the five of us. When the first shell hits, two floors below, it makes a hole in the floor." he spreads his hand out to show the size. "It's big. Our parents go in, and the whole building starts coming apart." he points to Mila and Wanda. "I grab them, roll under the bed and the second shell hits. But, it doesn't go off. It just... sits there in the rubble, three feet from our faces. And on the side of the shell is painted one word..." 

"Stark." Mila adds to the story, "We were trapped for two days." "Every effort to save us, every shift in the bricks, I think, 'This will set it off.' We wait for two days for Tony Stark to kill us." "We know what they are." 

"We know exactly what Stark is." Mila says quietly, looking at the floor, she still couldn't figure out her thoughts on the rest of the Avengers. "I wondered why only you three survived Strucker's experiments. Now I don't. We will make it right." He turns to Pietro. "You and Mila can hurt them." then he shifts his gaze to Wanda. "But you will tear them apart, from the inside."

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(A/N)

That was a baddd chapter. I feel like my writing is getting worse.

[Word Count: 1371]