From Present to Past - The Tigris Series Book 3

Chapter Eight

May 2nd, 2015

Everyone spent most of the night searching for anything that could tell us where Ultron had gone and what it was doing. I worked closely with Agent Hill as we tracked any traceable activity in relation to it and the scepter through hers and Stark's tech. For a while, there was nothing; that is, until 7:36am.

"Hill! Look at this." I called to her, my brows deeply furrowed in focus as I quickly skimmed through the words on my screen.

She quickly stepped next to me, leaning down to read over my shoulder. "Find something?"

I glanced over at her for a brief moment before turning back to my screen. "There's been a lot of reports being filed around the globe about a "metal man," or "multiple metal men" breaking into Robotics labs, weapons and metal facilities, jet propulsion labs, etcetera. They all say that they just came in and cleared the place."

"He's building more of them." she concluded, furrowing her brows tighter together as she processed what she was reading from the multiple tabs on my screen.

"The fact that he's practically everywhere at once makes it nearly impossible to pinpoint where exactly he's stationing. I've done some digging, nothing could tell me where the bots were heading." I added, sighing as I leaned back in my chair.

"There has to be something we're missing." she muttered, more so to herself than to me.

"But that's not all. Look at this." I pulled up a few specific tabs, highlighting a few specific sentences. "Reports of people freaking out and sobbing over old memories or fears after engaging with the "thieves," and "something too fast to see.""

"That's the Maximoff twins." she stated, quickly picking up on what I was showing her.

I nodded, looking up at her again as I spun in my chair to face her better. "Exactly. Which means that he could be trying to pick up where Hydra left off."

She instantly picked up her tablet, tapping on the screen a few times to pull something up. I shifted to try and see her screen to get an idea of what she was searching for. After a few moments, her brows tightly furrowed together, as if perplexed by whatever it was she had found.

"What. . . ? That doesn't make sense." she murmured.

That couldn't be good. "What doesn't make sense?"

"He killed Strucker." she replied, turning the tablet to show me her screen.

My expression fell into a scowl as my gaze instantly locked on the photo of a dead Strucker in what appeared to be a concrete room, likely the cell he was being kept in. The word PEACE was written thickly in his blood in all caps next to his slouched over, limp body. It was a gruesome sight, despite it being of someone as terrible as Strucker. Though, Hill was right. It didn't quite make sense for Ultron to go out of his way to kill him while recruiting the Maximoffs. Why would the twins join Ultron in taking us down if it wasn't in service of Hydra? I couldn't think of any reason for them to have a personal vendetta against us. Though, I couldn't rule out the possibility of them having a grudge against one or more of us, specifically.

"The Maximoffs must have some sort of personal vendetta against us, then, if they willingly joined Ultron. Or maybe it's forcing them. . . " I said my thoughts out loud, leaning further back in my chair with my arms crossed.

"Well, the Avengers aren't all that popular everywhere around the world." Hill replied, meeting my gaze as she pulled her tablet back towards her.

I let out a sigh, turning away from her to look at my own screen again. "Yeah, I know. But would they really join a robot to kill us, simply because they don't like us?"