Soundproof - An Avengers story

𝟛. History

Not long after, Avengers arrived at their headquarters with an injured Clint, a Nat with ringing ears, and the need for a new plan. They unloaded everything, where Maria Hill, the director's second in command, met them with fresh information.

"What's the word for Strucker?" Captain America asked her. The others were already inside, very in need of a break.

"The NATO's got him," Maria grimaced. She carried a small tablet, perfect for the display of their intel.

Cap started walking with her inside the building, leaving the Quinjet behind. "The three Enhanced?"

The videos showed them protesting on the street, six months before HYDRA found them. The pain and fury in their faces was not something new. "Wanda and Pietro Maximoff. Twins. Orphaned at 10 when a shell collapsed their apartment building. Sokovia's got a rough history. It's nowhere special, but's it's on the way to everywhere special."

"Their abilities?" He moved the tablet back to her, permitting her to show the next slide.

"He's got increased metabolism and improved thermal homeostasis. Her thing is neuroelectric interfaces, telekinesis, mental manipulation." When Maria noticed the confused expression glazing Steve's face, she sighed. "He's fast and she's weird."

"And the one who attacked Nat and Bruce?"

Then, she showed a picture of the other girl: a security image coming from the corner of her cell. Although it had no color, her fully black eyes staring directly at the camera stood out from the white background. "They call her 'Bombshell'. Stands for Battle and Objective Mortal Bomb: Sonic HELL."

Steve restrained the chill traveling down his spine. If they had gone out of their way to create such a long acronym, the Avengers had a storm in store. "Do we know anything about her?"

"Based on the scanners on Natasha's suit, we concluded she compresses sound waves in her body and releases them through blasts. Looks like HYDRA really likes her, because her information's more encrypted." She showed Steve the test results even though she knew he was close to zero in understanding the data; that information would be more useful to the Science Bros.

"Well, they're gonna show up again."

The SHIELD agent turned off the tablet. "Agreed. Files say the twins volunteered for Strucker's experiments."

"It's nuts," Steve scoffed.

She nodded. "Right."

"What kind of monster would let a German scientist experiment on them to protect their country?" he said, jokingly referring to his own experience a couple of decades ago.

Maria glanced at him disapprovingly. "We're not at war, Captain."

The closed of the elevator slowly closed, but not before Steve got the opportunity of responding: "They are."

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With Wanda's vision clearly implanted on Tony's mind, he'd do lots of things to fix it. Loki's scepter would be the final piece of the puzzle. And self-sabotage due to well-executed revenge is a more satisfactory victory.

What humans have unfortunately not realized yet is that they bite off more than they can chew, creating catastrophes and defeat for themselves. Tony basically begged Bruce for help in creating a more updated version of JARVIS, which he chose to name Ultron.

Ultron did not wake as the billionaire expected. In a matter of minutes, it had hacked into JARVIS' mainframe, destroying whatever consisted of the program. He was now dead.

After that, Ultron decided it was a good idea to meet his creator. He interrupted whatever attempt of normal the Avengers were having; a battle to see who could possibly be worthy in Asgardian eyes.

It admitted its own confusion and the grief caused by his metallic, wirey hands. If it was creating for world peace, then why were they not allowed to evolve? The only solution was to destroy the main cause of strife: the Avengers themselves.

They battled, barely making it out of the falling glass and blasts. Handling their weight against more than a dozen of Iron Man suits, Ultron paused. Before he could do a final attack, Thor's hammer had flown across his metallic torso.

The action was useless; it had already connected itself to the engineering/building room, acquiring a decent-sized army of clones of itself. If a droplet of information had scraped the Internet, then Ultron had access to it.

It had taken the scepter with it, causing panic amongst the Avengers as they huddled up a plan out of thin air. Tony, out of all of them, had the obvious choice of being framed.

He defended himself by talking about the Avengers were nothing compared to whatever's up in space. "How are you guys planning on defeating that?" He furrowed his eyebrows.

Steve raised his chin in confidence. "Together."

"We'll lose," Tony simply declared.

"Then we'll do that together too." He started walking around, looking at his team. "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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A voice inside Wanda's heart wouldn't let her sleep. The calling permeated through her dreams. Eventually, it had dragged the Sokovian trio out of their hiding into a midnight visit to a church.

Bombshell didn't like how this situation was unfolding, but she had to trust her family's instincts. Didn't matter if she didn't agree with them and fled... she could not survive alone. Her headphones were still very much on, so the signals given by the twins were her only source of communication.

In the middle of the church, a big throne highlighted the room. Glancing at the back of it, Wanda was the first to speak. "Talk, and if you're wasting our time—"

"Did you know this church is in the exact center of the city? The elders decreed it so that everyone could be equally close to God. I like that. The geometry of belief," the mysterious voice chuckled. "You're wondering why you can't look inside my head."

The eyes of the younger Maximoff glowed scarlet. "Sometimes it's hard. But sooner or later, every man shows himself."

"Oh, I'm sure they do." Ultron stood up from the throne, revealing his freshly made metal carcass to the now shocked trio. "But you needed something more than a man. That's why you let Stark take the scepter."

"I didn't expect, but I saw Stark's fear. I knew it would control him. Make him self-destruct."

Unconsciously, Bombshell reached for Pietro's hand. She did that whenever she felt unsafe or a tinge of fear because she was not allowed to feel those emotions. She could not read whatever the machine was saying, but the glowing eyes were enough to send her adrenaline to the edge. Pietro squeezed her hand back without dropping his glare at the machine.

Ultron walked over to them. "Everyone creates a 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."

"Is that why you've come? To end the Avengers?" Wanda's head tilted to the side in thought. She was amazed by the second sentient creature that she couldn't control, especially due to the fact that it was a robot and not a drugged, broken young adult.

"I've come to save the world. But also... yeah."

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