𝐂𝐀𝐋𝐈𝐂𝐎, p.m.

𝐓𝐞𝐧

CHAPTER TEN —— C'S GET
DEGREES, FOR MOST PEOPLE

"ULTRON TOOK YOU FOLKS OUT of play to buy himself time. My contacts all say he's building something. The amount of Vibranium he made off with, I don't think it's just one thing." Hazel watched as Lila quickly walked over to Nat, handing her a drawing she had done in the living room, making the woman smile.

"What about Ultron himself?"

"Ah. He's easy to track, he's everywhere. Guy's multiplying faster than a Catholic rabbit." The younger Barton chuckled as she stood up, walking over to the fridge to grab a bottle of water. "Still doesn't help us get an angle on any of his plans though." She sat back down at the table with Nat, taking a swig from the bottle before going back to her bowl of macaroni Laura had made for Coop that he didn't finish.

"He still going after launch codes?"

"Yes, he is, but he's not making any headway." Hazel watched the man multitask, cutting up his food and talk at once as she stuffed a good spoonful of macaroni into her mouth.

"I cracked the Pentagon's firewall in high school on a dare." Hazel quickly swallowed her food, rolling her eyes at the brunette.

"Yeah, and I was done with college by fourteen, big deal." Tony sighed, throwing the darts at the board on the wall as Clint chuckled. Hazel had graduated from Brown when she was fourteen, her biological parents forcing her to study as hard as she could for it when she was younger. At least something they did to her helped her future plans.

"Yeah, well, I contacted our friends at the Nexus about that."

"About me, or soda can over there?" Fury smirked, motioning towards the man with the darts, making Hazel grin.

"Nexus?"

"It's the world internet hub in Oslo, every byte of data flows through there, fastest access on earth." Steve just nodded his head in understanding as Clint questioned them, asking what they had said.

"He's fixated on the missiles, but the codes are constantly being changed." The younger red head looked up in confusion, taking a sip of her water before closing it up and leaning back in her chair, crossing her arms over her chest.

"How? Who's doing it?" Nick just shrugged his shoulders, taking a sip of his drink before he answered, telling her the parties were unknown. "Do we at least have an ally?"

"Ultron's got an enemy, that's not the same thing. Still, I'd pay folding money to know who it is."

"I might need to visit Oslo, find our 'unknown'." Hazel grinned, whispering to Nat and telling her that at least he would be away from them for a little while.

    "Well, this is good times, boss, but I was kind of hoping when I saw you, you'd have more than that."

    "I do, I have you. Back in the day, I had eyes everywhere, ears everywhere else. You kids had all the tech you could dream up. Here we all are, back on earth, with nothing but our wit, and our will to save the world. Ultron says that the Avengers are the only thing between him and his mission. And wether or not he admits it, his mission is global destruction. All this, laid in a grave. So stand. Outwit the platinum bastard." Hazel grinned, standing up and grabbing her now empty bowl to take it to the sink.

    "Old man over there doesn't like that kind of talk, Fury."

    "You know what, Barton?" Hazel smiles mischievously at the man as she turns to scrub her dishes clean, placing them on the rack when shes done, Nick asking what he wanted.

    "To become better. Better than us. He keeps building bodies."

    "Person bodies. The human form is inefficient, biologically speaking, we're outmoded. But he keeps coming back to it." Hazel watched as Bruce moved closer to Nat, looking over her shoulder at the drawing her niece had given her just moments prior.

    "When you two programmed him to protect the human race, you amazingly failed."

    "They don't need to be protected, they need to evolve. Ultron's going to evolve." Everyone looked at the scientist in confusion, asking him how he knew what he was talking about. "Has anyone been in contact with Helen Cho?"

..........

    "I can read him. He's dreaming." Wanda smiled as she watched the body in the large box shaped machine, her brother standing in the doorway.

    "I wouldn't call it dreams. It's Ultron's base consciousness. Informational noise. Soon-" Instead of letting the woman finish her explanation, the robot cut her off, asking how soon. "We're imprinting a physical brain. There are no shortcuts." Pietro watched his sister place her hands on the crate, her eyes closing as she looked through it's mind. Like she had been hit with something, Wanda quickly pulled away from the crate with a yelp, her brother immediately by her side.

    "How could you?" The large robot stood up, asking her what she meant. "You said we would destroy the Avengers, make a better world." Pietro looked at his sister and then the robot, realizing Hazel had been right all along.

    "It will be better."

    "When everyone is dead?"

    "That is not!" The robot huffed, taking what looked to be a deep breath in, even though he was a robot and couldn't actually breath, before continuing. "The human race will have every opportunity to improve. Pietro turned to Ultron, eyes widening as his sister tried to read the robot some more, only to find nothing.

    "And if they don't?" The tall piece of metal just stared at the twins, telling them to ask Noah.

    "You're a madman."

    "There are more than a dozen extinction level events before even the dinosaurs got theirs. When the Earth stars to settle, God throws a stone at it. And believe me, he's winding up. We have to evolve. There's no room, for the weak." Trying to hide it, Wanda holds up her hand, using her own powers to rid Dr. Cho of the tesseract powers.

    "And who decides who's weak?"

    "Life. Life always decides."

    "She was right about you." The robots head perks up, telling the three in the room that theres incoming.

    "The Quinjet. We have to move." Dr. Cho steps away from the monsters, telling the robot it wasn't a problem as she quickly typed into her computing, stopping the upload. The robot sighs, blasting the doctor with a beam of energy, Pietro quickly picking up his sister and running from the robot to get to safety. "Wait, guys! They'll understand. When they see, they'll understand."