Kept Behind Enemy Lines

C H A P T E R E I G H T E E N

Wanda looked down at the humanoid figure in the Cradle with deep interest.

"I can read him." She remarked, surprised. "He's... dreaming."

"I wouldn't call it dreams." Dr. Cho remarked. "It's Ultron's base consciousness. Informational noise. Soon-"

"How soon." Ultron butted in, twisting his head to look at the possessed woman. "I'm not being pushy."

"We're imprinting a physical brain. There are no short cuts."

Wanda cautiously placed her hands on the glass separating the body from the rest of the world, feeling the cool surface spread across her skin. Nobody could say he was sheltered. After all, soon it would be Ultron.

"Even if your magic gem..." Dr. Cho's voice ever so slowly faded.

Suddenly, Wanda screamed. Pietro reacted immediately, cradling his twin in his arms. He made gentle shushing sounds to ease her.

Wanda, still panting from fear, turned to Ultron accusingly. "How could you?"

The world.

"How could I what?"

Gone.

"You-you said we would destroy the Avengers. Make a better world."

An explosion to tear everything apart.

"It will be better."

Nothing spared.

"When everyone is dead?" She asked.

Nobody spared.

"That is not!" Ultron cut himself off and restarted. He needed a way to explain this in a way they would understand. "The human race will have every opportunity to improve."

"And if they don't." Pietro asked, his voice a mixture of curiosity and disgust, his face openly displaying horror.

"Ask Noah. There were more than a dozen extinction-level events before even the dinosaurs got theirs." Of course he would know that. "When the Earth starts to settle, God throws a stone at it. And believe me, he's winding up. We have to evolve." Wanda looked to be on the edge of tears. She stayed close to her brother.

"There's no room for the weak." Ultron ran a hand lovingly down the Cradle containing his future.

"And who decides who's weak?" Pietro asked softly. Subtly, Wanda waved a scarlet coated hand of writhing magic and directed at Dr. Cho. The spell over her was broken. Ultron didn't appear to notice.

"Life." Ultron chuckled before sobering up suddenly. "Life always decides."

A beeping ricocheted around the room.

"Incoming. It's a Quinjet." Ultron growled.

"I can help." Suddenly Dr. Cho paused the Cradle. Ultron yelled in fury and shot her. Pietro grabbed Wanda and sped away, ignoring Ultron's protests. Ultron shot everyone else in the near area.

~~~~

Percy shot up, gasping for air.

"We need Loki." He mumbled under his breath.

"What was that?" Natasha asked from her seat in the pilot chair at the front of the plane.

"Where's Thor?" Percy demanded.

"We don't know. He just took off the day we got to the Barton's house." Steve said, giving Percy the only somewhat helpful information.

"We need Loki."

"What the hell do we need Loki for? We hate him. You should too." protested Tony. "Especially you!"

"It's not about what we want. It's about what we need to save the world."

"Percy, we can talk about this later, right now we've arrived and if Ultron's here, he isn't going to be so happy to see us." Bruce promised as everyone prepared to activate their hastily put together plan.

Despite the wrecked train now sitting in the middle of a Korean market, the battle had turned out mostly in the Avengers favour. They had lost two of their members during the battle. Not to death, or at least, they hoped not.

When Natasha was transferring the Cradle to Clint, whom was driving the Quinjet, Ultron had grabbed her ankle and pulled her out of the Quinjet. When Percy had tried to pull her in, he ended up out the back door as well.

~~~~

"Anything on Nat and Percy?" Bruce asked quietly when Tony walked into the room hosting the Cradle.

"I haven't heard. But they're alive, or Ultron would be rubbing our faces in it." Tony stated. They were all worried about the two. They knew Natasha could handle herself, but they still didn't know much about Percy. What would Ultron do? How would Ultron react? After all, the destructive robot had just lost the Cradle and his two now not so loyal followers.

"This is sealed tight." Clint said unhappily. He'd been trying to open it for a while, with no success.

"We're gonna need to access the program, break it down from within." Bruce muttered, gazing down at the metal prison.

"Any chance Natasha might leave you a message outside the internet?" Tony asked, turning to Clint. "Y'know, old school spy stuff?"

"There are some nets I can cast." Clint sighed. Everything was moving so quickly. "Yeah. Alright. I'll find them." Clint nodded to himself, psyching himself up.

He left the room.

"I can work on tissue degeneration if you could fry whatever operational system Cho implanted." Bruce reported.

Tony scratched the back of his head. This should have been Bruce's first sign.

"Yeah, uh, about that." He began.

Silence ensued.

Bruce, mostly catching on, turned to Tony.

"No."

"You have to trust me."

"Kind of don't." Bruce had every right not to. Last time he had listened to Tony they created the current problem.

"Our ally, the guy protecting the military's nuclear codes?" Tony paused before flicking his wrist.

A very familiar program appeared. The sun coloured program was completely healthy, recovered from its attack.

"I found him."

"Hello, Dr. Banner." Jarvis greeted. Bruce stared for a while. When Bruce didn't say anything Tony spoke again.

"Ultron didn't go after Jarvis because he was angry. He went after him because he was scared. Scared of what Jarvis could do."

"So you want me, to help you out Jarvis in this thing?"

The widening grin on Tony's face told him everything.

~~~~

This chapter is a bit short, but I want to end it here, hence I am. Enjoy the second update today.

I got scolded by my friends for attending the last two classes of school today 😂

Peace

BTSWD