Frail heart

Eye for an eye

Chapter ten

"All our work, it's gone. Ultron cleared out, used the internet as an escape hack."

"Ultron.", Steve repeated, the name was unfamiliar to him.

"He's been in everything, files, surveillance. He probably knows more about us than we know about each other.", Natasha states, leaning her back against one of the tables.

Bruce pinches the bridge of his nose, that thing knowing everything there was to know about them wasn't their main issue, "He has unbridled access to everything that has ever been put out into the world, I mean, he was created by hydra. The damage they could do with that information would be catastrophic."

"Hydra wants us dead, what use would all of that knowledge be to him?", Rodhey adds.

"He didn't say dead, he said extinct.", Steve reminds.

"What if he's planning to do more than just kill us? Not to toot my own horn but to what extent can the world defend itself without us?"

The room falls silent at Tony's words, he's right after all, if this thing were to launch an attack and the Avengers weren't there to stop it, no one would be safe. They didn't even know his intentions other than him wanting them all of them dead, just as hydra does. Steve wondered what this meant for you, if hydra were still out there, they'd no doubt come looking for you and he didn't know how far everybody was willing to go to keep you safe.

The tragic mess of Ultron's attack on Jarvis was left behind in the lab, the wrecked blur of blue and orange troubling those who saw it.

"This is insane.", Bruce remarks, his eyes fixed to the hologram before him.

Steve looks away, crossing his arms, "Jarvis is the first line of defence; he would have shut Ultron down. It makes sense."

"No, Ultron could have assimilated Jarvis, this isn't strategy, this is... rage."

Suddenly, Thor marches into the room, grabbing Tony by the neck and lifting him into the air.

"It's going around.", Clint comments.

Tony chokes at the lack of air and grasps Thor's hand, trying to pry it off, "Come on, buddy, use your words."

"I have more than enough words to describe you, Stark.", He sneers, Steve stepping over to break the two apart.

"Look, I know... what you're thinking but I didn't have any... part in this, I swear."

"Thor! The legionnaire."

Thor narrows his eyes at Tony, dropping him and looking over at Steve, "The trail went cold about 100 miles out, but its heading north and it has the sceptre. Now we have to retrieve it, again."

"The genie's out of that bottle, clear and present is Ultron.", Natasha remarks.

Bruce shakes his head, leaning his hands against the nearest table, "It wouldn't matter anyways."

The team all turn to him with puzzled glances, Bruce spinning slowly to face them, "We wiped the sceptre of it's intelligence, transported it into our system. When we removed the protection around the core..."

"There was nothing there.", Tony finished, lightly touching his neck, "It was empty."

"What do you mean it was empty?", Thor demanded.

"It was empty! No stone, nothing."

Thor frowned, shaking his head. "That isn't possible."

Tony only shrugged, sitting down in one of his chairs with a heavy sigh, "I don't know what to tell you."