Project Ultron

Fourteen.exe

"The news is loving you guys. Nobody else is," Ms. Hill said. Mister Stark was talking to her through the communications monitor. "There's been no official call for Banner's arrest, but it's in the air."

"Stark Relief Foundation?" Mister Stark asked. For what I had gathered, Hulk had taken it upon himself to destroy about 20% of an entire city. There were bound to be casualties.

"Already on the scene," Ms. Hill informed him and Mister Stark nodded, "How's the team?"

"Everyone's..." Mister Stark stopped and looked over his shoulder to us. "We took a hit. We'll shake it off."

I scoffed.

"Well, for now, I'd stay in stealth mode," Ms. Hill recommended, "And stay away from here."

"So, run and hide?" Mister Stark said.

"Until we can find Ultron, I don't have a lot else to offer," Ms. Hill said.

"Yeah... Neither do we," Mister Stark said, ending the conversation. He walked over to the pilot seat, where Agent Barton, the only one who still looked like himself, was flying us somewhere.

"Hey," Mister Stark said catching his attention, "You wanna switch out?"

"No, I'm good," Agent Barton said, "If you wanna get some kip, now's a good time, cause we're still a few hours out."

I rose my eyes a little. He seemed to have a destination in mind.

"A few hours from where?" Mister Stark asked.

"A safe house," Agent Barton said.

A safe house seemed like a good call right about now. I certainly felt vulnerable. Agent Barton probably had a couple of them around the world. Or at least he knew of some, from his days in SHIELD, I assumed. Secret government organizations surely had safe houses to spare, and now that SHIELD was extinct, those houses must have been abandoned, waiting for occasions like this one.

Mister Stark nodded and looked at the rest of the team. No one met his gaze. I couldn't raise my head to look at anyone. Even if I could, there wasn't anyone to look at. No one to turn to for comfort. No one that would understand.

"Kid," Mister Stark said. I hadn't realized he had taken the seat beside me, away from everyone else. "Are you okay?"

I scoffed. "Yeah," I lied, "I'm fine."

"Are you sure? You looked pretty shaken up when we found you," he pressed.

I swallowed. I didn't know if I should talk to him about it or not, but the knot on my throat wasn't going away. Mister Stark had been through enough drama to, maybe, be able to help me out. Or at least offer a friendly ear.

"I, uh, I saw-" I struggled to get the words out, "She took me back to that day." I darted my eyes towards him, to check if he was following, and then back to the floor. "When I did that to Raymond."

I couldn't bring myself to verbalize what I had actually done. That I had killed Raymond, my own father. He shifted on his seat but didn't say anything. Maybe he was thinking about what to say. Maybe he was judging me. I was too afraid to look.

"I relived it," I said, shuddering, biting my cheek as to not cry, "It felt like I was there."

"You weren't," he said.

"But it felt like it," I snapped, desperate.

He placed a hand on my back. "But you weren't," he repeated, "You're okay."

I nodded, wanting to believe him. My nod turned into a head-shake.

"If I see that girl again," I trailed off.