The Ultimate Fix-It Fic

6| Ultron

"Or no. Not yet." Ultron's metallic voice pulled Natasha out of her reverie. "Not in this chrysalis. But I'm ready."

Natasha could hear the almost imperceptible click as Maria pulled back the hammer of her gun, the way Thor and Steve are instantly on guard, Tony ready to pull some weird hat trick out of his glass phone of wonders, and Bruce, next to her, shifting every so slightly into a more defensive stance. A second ago, she wasn't sure who was talking. Now it was like she was wearing brand-new glasses, so irregularly clear it gave her a small headache. The weight of Mjolnir anchored her to reality.

"I'm on a mission," Ultron continued.

Natasha suppressed her headache enough to speak. "What mission?" she asked.

"Peace in our time." Ultron tilted his head and behind him, the walls exploded in a shower of sparks and splinters. The Iron Legion flew out of the gaping crevices, clearing not of Tony's doing.

The room burst into action, and Natasha had no time to think, though the path she was going to take seemed to shine in perfect clarity. Grab Bruce, get him out. Grab the guns under the bar for defence. Do not engage Ultron. Natasha had never let go of her grip on Bruce's arm, so she dragged him to the bar and leapt over the counter.

Bruce had a little difficulty going over so she grabbed his shirt and pulled him, inadvertently making him fall on top of her.

"Sorry!" Bruce climbed off quickly.

"Don't turn green." She panted and peeked over the counter to scan the scene.

"I won't."

Natasha spotted Thor having a little trouble, so without thinking, she tossed the hammer his way. It flew into the head of the machinery that was the problem and Thor nodded at her in respect when he retrieved his hammer from the floor.

She shot at the suit that was bothering her the most and grabbed Bruce by the sleeve. "Come on," she pulled him up the stairs, shooting another suit that was flying up to meet them.

A second or two later, they had gotten everything. Clint had thrown Steve's shield at the captain and he had thrown it at another suit.

"Well, that was dramatic," Ultron said. "I'm sorry, I know you mean well. You just didn't think it through." He started pacing. "You want to protect the world, but you don't want it to change. How is humanity saved, if it's not allowed to... evolve?" He picked up a dead suit. "With these? These puppets." He crushed the cranium and threw it aside. "There is only one path to peace:

"The Avengers' extinction."

Thor reared back and let fly his hammer at Ultron, smashing him into pieces and denting the elevator.

Natasha realized her room was the closest to the exploded area, and most, if not all, of her belongings, would either be on fire or already in ashes. She groaned.

"Are you okay?" Bruce asked, alarmed. "Did you get hurt?"

She offered Bruce a quick smile. "No. Just a little headache from the ever-lovely Mjolnir." She nodded towards the glowering Thor. And then she passed out.

-

When Natasha opened her eyes, she was in an unfamiliar room. Or, more precisely, she was in a room that had the exact same layout as hers, but in different colours, and had different decorations.

"Hey." Natasha's attention turned to the speaker: Bruce. "You were out for a little while."

"How long?" she asked, a little scared.

Bruce chuckled lightly. "What, five, ten, fifteen minutes?" he shook his head. "You fainted after Thor got rid of Ultron's body, and everyone else went to clean up. That left you with me, and your room was kinda... trashed."

Natasha struggled to sit up for a moment. "I'm commandeering your clothes."

Bruce reddened slightly. "Oh."

In a few minutes, Nat had taken a hoodie and a shirt and a pair of sweatpants from his closet and changed, rolling up the sleeves since they were too long.

"You're tall," she grumbled when Bruce said she looked 'cute'. "Your clothes are too big."

"Could've asked Tony or something."

Natasha wrinkled her nose. "It's not my style."

"And my clothes are?" Bruce asked, furrowing his brow. "I fail to see how that happens."

Natasha nodded anyway and they set off to the lab where everyone was waiting.

Tony took Bruce aside for a chat while Maria sidled up to Nat with a smirk on her face. "Banner's clothes?"

"Yep." Natasha said. "I was told my room was 'trashed'."

"What about the necklace?" Maria asked, actually sounding concerned.

"It's metal, Hill, it'll survive."

They watched as Bruce explained the situation to everybody else. Natasha already knew and Maria had figured it out, so they just had a little chat about Bruce and Natasha and how the latter would punch Maria if she ever brought it up again.

A few minutes later, Thor flew in. He grabbed Tony by the throat and lifted him off the ground.

"Woah, woah, woah, buddy. Use your words." The billionaire managed.

"Thor, the Legionnaire." Steve interrupted.

Thor dropped Tony reluctantly. "Trail went 100 miles before going cold, but it was headed north. And they had the sceptre." He set Mjolnir down. "Now we have to retrieve it, again."

"Genie's out of that bottle," Nat said. "Clear and present is Ultron."

"I don't understand," Dr. Cho said. "You built this program. Why is it trying to kill us?"

Out of the blue, Tony started laughing.

Bruce muttered. "Tony, maybe now is not the time."

Thor glowered. "You think this is funny, Stark?" he snarled.

"Yeah, actually, it is." Tony looked around the room. "I carried a nuke through a wormhole. Anyone remember that? And we're standing three hundred feet below it. We're the Avengers. We can bust arms dealers all livelong day, but up there?" His hand flicked to the ceiling. "That's the endgame. How were you guys planning on beating that?"

"Together," Steve said, stone-faced.

Natasha shook her head. "Maybe..." she hesitated, knowing she'll regret this. "Maybe he's got a point, Steve."

Everyone looked at her, shocked. She sighed. "We don't know anything about the people out there other than what Thor's told us. If we're supposed to defend the Earth, how is that going to happen for us? When we don't know them, but they know us? We have no experience with this. If we go into this fight without knowing what we could know–" she shrugged lightly, uncomfortable– "we could lose the entire world. And we aren't prepared for that. I'm not condoning Tony's stupid idea–" she added– "but I'm saying I can see it from his point of view. That's all."

There was a long silence. Everyone knew that Nat had put a bit of thought into this because usually, she didn't pick sides in a conflict. Now she was on Tony's.

"Ultron's trying to draw us out," Steve said, trying to move on. "I'd like to find him before he's ready. The world's a small place. Let's start by making it smaller."