Victoria sat on a barstool in the lab, falling asleep as the team argued over the fight. She had no energy to deal with the shouting, so her hearing was a barely functional at the moment.
Clint walked over to his daughter, causing the girl to jump when he put a hand on her shoulder.
"You okay, kiddo?"
"I'm fine, just tired. Did you know, fighting robots really takes it out of you?"
"Did you get any gashes or whatever? If so, I can—"
"—I'm fine, father. See," she held up her arms, then gestured to her legs. "Nothing."
That was a lie.
One of the robots actually cut open her legs pretty badly, but the wounds somehow healed themselves without any scarring within a few minutes. Whatever Strucker injected her with, clearly messed up her healing processes.
Her father opened his mouth to say something, but shut it once Bruce began to speak, "All our work is gone. Ultron cleared out, used the internet as an escape hatch."
"Ultron," Steve muttered.
"He's been in everything," Natasha said. "Files, surveillance – probably knows more about us than we know about each other."
Natasha sent a pointed look towards Victoria, the girl furrowing her eyebrows in confusion. Natasha discreetly twirled a stand of hair, causing Victoria to gape silently at what she insinuated.
Ultron knew about her powers.
"He's in your files," Rhodey said. "He's in the internet – what if he decides to access something a little more exciting?"
"Nuclear codes?"
"Nuclear codes," Rhodey confirmed. "Look, we need to make some calls – assuming we still can."
"Nukes?" Natasha asked. "He said he wanted us dead."
"He didn't say dead," Steve stated. "He said extinct."
"He also said he killed someone."
"There wasn't anyone else in the building," Maria said.
"Yes, there was."
Tony, who had been extremely quiet this whole time, walked to the middle of the room. He brought up an orange hologram of J.A.R.V.I.S.' system for a moment. The hologram, usually whole, now was scattered with shards of blue on it.
Victoria stood, her interest returned as she frowned at the hologram. Clint joined his daughter, wrapping an arm around her.
"What the hell?" Victoria muttered.
"This is insane," Bruce muttered.
"J.A.R.V.I.S. was the first line of defence," Steve stated. "When he shut Ultron down, it made sense."
"No," Bruce shook his head. "Ultron could've assimilated J.A.R.V.I.S. This— this isn't strategy, this is rage."
Thor stomped in, much like a sulking toddler to Victoria's amusement, dressed in his Asgardian clothes. He shoved his way through to Tony and picked him up by his throat.
"Woah— woah," Clint started. "It's going around."
"C'mon, use your words buddy," Tony choked out.
"I have more than enough words to describe you, Stark."
"Thor," Steve ordered and the God put Tony down. "The Legionnaire?"
"Trail went cold about 100 miles out, but it's heading north. And it has the Sceptre," Thor replied before looking pointedly at Tony. "Now, we have to retrieve it, again."
"Genies out of that bottle," Natasha stated. "Clear and present is Ultron."
"I don't understand," Dr. Cho spoke up for the first time. "You built this program, why is it trying to kill us?"
Tony started cracking up, causing Bruce to shake his head, telling the billionaire to shut up. Victoria frowned, sensing a fight about to occur.
"You think this is funny?"
"No," Tony said, turning to the God. "It's probably not, right? This is very terrible, is it so? Is it so— it is. It's so terrible."
"This could have been avoided if you didn't play with something you do not understand—"
"—No— I'm sorry, I'm sorry," Tony said. "It is funny. It's a hoot that you don't get why we need this."
"Tony," Bruce warned. "Maybe this might not be the time—"
"—Really?" Tony said. "That's it? You just roll over and show your belly, every time somebody snarls?"
"Only when I've created a murderbot."
"We didn't," Tony started. "We weren't even close— were we close to an interface?"
Bruce shrugged. Victoria felt awkward, the tension in the room was thick. Her father squeezed her shoulder, a gesture that reassured her slightly.
"Well, you did something right," Steve deadpanned. "And you did it right here. The Avengers were supposed to be different than S.H.I.E.L.D."
"Anybody remember when I carried a nuke through a wormhole?"
"Nope, it's never came up," Rhodey denied Tony.
"Saved New York?"
"Never heard that."
"Recall that?" Tony carried on. "A hostile alien army came charging through a hole in space, we're standing 300 feet below it." He paused. "We're the Avengers. We can bust arms dealers all livelong day, but that up there – that's— that's the endgame. How're you guys planning on beating that?"
"Together," Steve stated.
"We'll lose."
"Then we'll do that together too," Steve said. "Thor's right, Ultrons calling us out. And I'd like to find him before he's ready for us. The worlds a big place, start making it smaller."
Victoria looked around, the team had weary expressions cast on their faces. She, too, felt weary about the situation. They were fighting a robot, with no clue as to what his plans were, and she had a bow and arrow.
