Double-Edged Sword ─ age of ultron ✓

three

Unfortunately, the second half of this chapter does have a lot of verbatim script. The party is Ultron's introduction, so there wasn't really a way around it. Sorry, y'all. You know I hate that too.

★★★

"I CAN'T believe I let you talk me into wearing this," Sasha muttered, tugging on the hem of her black satin skater dress, then yanking its spaghetti straps. "I can't believe you're wearing a dress."

"You've seen me wear dresses before." Natasha pressed the elevator button.

"Yeah, when you've gone undercover. It's not exactly your typical loungewear."

"At least I'm not the one wearing combat boots to a billionaire's party."

"Okay, number one, heels are a pain in the ass, and number two, these are the only appropriate shoes I own with boot knives. It was either these or Vans."

"Or you could just—" Natasha stopped. She and Sasha turned their heads, suddenly remembering that there were two other people in the elevator with them. Two complete strangers. Sasha waved awkwardly.

"Hi, nice to meet you." Sasha grinned. The people, a man and a woman holding hands, gave her a harsh stare. "You don't like the boots either? I know they aren't exactly cocktail attire, but they do make a statement. And black goes with everything."

Natasha rolled her eyes. These people were here for a Tony Stark party, which meant they probably recognized her, and they probably knew they were going into a room full of ex-S.H.I.E.L.D. She wasn't particularly concerned. Sasha wasn't either; she just didn't want to be standing in awkward silence until they reached the top floor.

The doors slid open a few seconds later, thank God. The couple scrambled away.

"Really?" Natasha gave Sasha a look. "They make a statement?"

"They do. That statement may be that I'm an angsty teenager who listens to Linkin Park, but it is a statement nonetheless."

Across the room, Tony dismissed himself from a group of people Sasha partially recognized and strolled over.

"If it isn't the infamous Tony Stark," Sasha said once he got closer, crossing her arms.

"Didn't know if you were coming, Slasher." Tony nodded at Natasha. "Romanoff."

"Play nice," Nat whispered in Sasha's ear before going to find the rest of the Avengers. Sasha smirked.

"Wouldn't miss it. I heard you grabbed Loki's scepter a few days ago."

"Yeah, Banner and I have been looking at what's in it."

"What's in it?"

Sasha was a former S.H.I.E.L.D. agent and well-versed in the art of technology and coding. In a very specific scenario, such as the human race being overthrown by robots, she wasn't a bad person to have on your team. But as of right now, although the team knew Tony was messing with the scepter, only Bruce knew his plan to use it for the Ultron program. If Sasha wasn't basically Nat's kid, Tony might have actually told her everything out of desperation, because his and Bruce's attempts had been fruitless, and she was a coder, but she was basically Nat's kid. Instead he gave her the same watered down details.

"The gem inside it has coding that's pretty advanced. We just took a look at the data. But we have to hand it over soon."

His vagueness was a touch off-putting, but she had a bit of a Pavlovian response to words like, "coding" and, "data."

"What? Really?" Her eyes went wide. "Can I see it? Did you look at the code? What's the language like? What can the program be used for?"

"I don't know what the government is going to do with it." Which was true. "They'll be taking it in a day or so. It doesn't belong to the Avengers."