fourteen

9.3K 242 78
                                    

"Ultron took you folks out of play to buy himself time."

Victoria refused to look at her father, the latter doing the same. The lack of interaction made Laura annoyed, therefore she left to put the kids to bed.

"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."

"What about Ultron himself?"

"He's easy to track – he's everywhere," Fury answered Steve. "The guy is multiplying faster than a catholic rabbit. It still doesn't help us get an angle on any of his plans though."

Victoria took the time to glance around at the team.

They were still on edge about the whole thing, about whatever Wanda had made them see. Seeing them like they were currently, it hurt the younger girl. She knew Pietro wouldn't allow Wanda to do it to her, but for some reason she wanted it to happen to her.

She wanted to understand what pain they were in. She wanted to feel, something. Other than pain, she had felt numb ever since she had gotten her powers. There was no thrill, no rush anymore – now that she could heal whenever she got hurt.

But there was one emotion that was rising up in her chest as the battle with Ultron drones on.

Fear.

She had a bad feeling about all of it, well as bad as one could feel while fighting a psychotic robot.

"Is he still going after launch codes?" Tony asked, playing darts on his own.

"Yes he is, but he's not making any headway."

"I cracked the Pentagon's firewall in high school on a dare," Tony raised his hand.

"Well, I contacted our friends at the N.E.X.U.S. on that."

"N.E.X.U.S.?" Steve frowned, still clueless about today's world.

"It's the world internet hub in Oslo, every byte of data runs through there," Bruce explained. "Fastest access on Earth."

"Did they have anything?"

"So what'd they say?"

Victoria's voice ran along with her father's, making the pair look at one another before diverting their gazes. The awkward tension hung in the air a minute, thankfully Nick stepped up to answer.

"He's fixated on the missiles – but the codes are constantly being changed."

"By who?" Tony asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Parties unknown."

"Do we have an ally?" Natasha asked.

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

"I might need to visit Oslo – find our unknown," Tony said.

"Well, this was a good time boss. But I was kind of hoping when I saw you, you'd have more than that," Natasha said shrugging.

"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 the Avengers are the only thing between him and his mission, and whether or not he admits it, his mission is global destruction. All this is laid in a grave; so stand. Outwit the platinum bastard."

Virago |1| Where stories live. Discover now