The Valiant (The Seventh Avenger)

Chapter 22

"Steve slow down!" 

We landed an hour ago and Steve is gunning it down the street. Wanda and Pietro look between us because we made them sit in the back. We're only a few blocks away from the tower. 

"Grace, you don't understand," Steve says. "Tony might be doing something with what Ultron had created."

"I do understand that!" I shout as he crosses another red light. "But we don't need to die!" 

Steve slams his foot on the break and we stop right in front of the tower. We run into the tower and go onto the elevator. Once it dings we all run to the lab and stop when we see Tony and Banner walking around the cradle. 

"I'm only gonna say this once." 

"How about nonce," Tony snarks back.

"Shut it down."

"Nope." 

"Tony, you don't know what you're doing," Steve says. 

"And you do, she's not in either of your heads?" Banner says. Wanda steps up next to me. 

"I know you're angry," she says.

"Oh, we're way past that, I can choke the life out of you and you won't even change your shade," the way he says it sends chills up and down my spine, I've never seen this part of him before.

"Bruce, after everything's that happened," I say.

"Is nothing compared to what's coming," Tony says.

"You don't know what's in there!" I shout and Pietro just sighs beside me. He takes off in a wave of silver and blue, running around the room and stops by Banner dropping a power cord. 

"No, no you were saying," He says looking at me. A gunshot rings out and a bullet breaks through the floor before Pietro falls to the room below us. I look down through the glass and see Clint hold him down with his shoe. 

"I'm rerouting the upload," Tony says and sparks fly across the room. Steve flies back from his spot beside me and Tony aims his hand at me. Wanda looks over at me and wisps of red flow onto her hands before Bruce grabs her mumbling, "Go ahead piss me off." 

Steve comes from behind Tony and gets blasted from Tony's chest piece and they both fly back in opposite directions. I tackle Bruce to the ground so he would let Wanda go. 

"Bruce, listen. The gem in it's head, it could cause global catastrophe," I say after heavy breathing comes from beneath me. Growls escape between breaths. "You need to calm down." 

Someone slides in and Banner and I are on our feet within seconds. Thor jumps onto the cradle and lifts his hammer to the sky. Lightning fills the room and Banner and I both scream, "Wait!." But it was too late. Thor redirects the electricity to the cradle, alarms blare around us warning that there is an overload. Thor pulls away and everything goes quiet for a second. The cradle breaks apart and the explosion sends Thor flying back, I summon my flames when a creature floats out and lands at the edge. The yellow gem at the top of his forehead glows and yellow replaces my purple without my commanding. The creature looks over at me and pounces, I quickly throw my hands up and throw him towards the living area. It stops though, right before hitting the glass and stares out at the New York City skyline. 

Thor jumps down to the living area and the rest of us follow. He puts his hand up to tell us to not take our advance to the creature. Thor approaches it as it descends back down to the floor. It gazes around the room at us, and it stops on me. 

"I'm sorry, that was odd," it says. "Thank you." A cape appears around his shoulders. 

"Thor, you helped create this?" Steve asks behind me. 

"I've had a vision, the whirlpool that sucks in all hope in life and at it's center is that," he points at the gem. 

"What the gem?" Banner asks. 

"It's the mind stone. One of the six Infinity Stones. The greatest power in the universe, unparalleled in it's destructive capabilities." Thor says. "It was created with a large boom at the center of the universe, Attolia." 

"It was created at my homeland?" I ask. 

"Yes," is all Thor says. 

"Then why would you bring it here?" Steve asks. 

"Cause Stark is right." 

"Oh, it's definitely the end-times," Banner says. 

"The Avengers cannot defeat Ultron," Thor says. 

"Not alone," it makes it's way towards us. 

"Why does your vision sound like Jarvis?" I ask. 

"We configured Jarvis' matrix to create something new," Tony says. 

"You think I'm a child of Ultron," the Vision says, "I'm not Ultron. I'm not Jarvis either."

"I looked in your head and saw annihilation," Wanda says. 

"Check again." 

Clint chuckles and walks over to us, "Yeah, your soul approval means jack to me." 

"Their powers, the horrors in our heads, Ultron, they all came from the mind stone and they're nothing compared to what they can unleash. But with it on our side..." 

"Is it?" Steve asks, "Are you?" 

"I don't think it's that simple," It says. 

"Well, it better get real simple, real soon," I say. 

"I'm on the side of life, Ultron isn't. He will end it all."

"What's he waiting for?" Tony asks. 

"You." 

"Where?" I ask. 

"Sokovia, he's got Nat there, too," Clint says. Banner walks up towards the Vision and crosses his arms. 

"If we're wrong about you, if you're the monster Ultron made you to be."

"What would you do?" It says and we all stay silent, "I don't want to kill Ultron, he's unique and he's in pain. But that pain will roll over the earth, so he must be destroyed. Every form he's built, every trace of his presence. We have to act now, and not one of us can do it without the others. Maybe I am a monster, I don't think I'd know if I were one, I'm not what you are or what you expected, so there may be no way to make you trust me, but we need to go." 

It.... it is holding mjolnir, Thor takes it and watches as it walks away. We all look around at each other and all the boys have a shocked look on their face. 

"Alright," Thor says breaking the silence, he walks over to Tony and pats him on the shoulder. "Well done." 

"Three minutes, get what you need," Is all Steve says and we go to our rooms to get ready for the battle coming our way. 

I quickly changed to a different uniform and look at myself in the mirror. Scars travel up my arms reminding me of my time with the Harolese. I cover my arms with cuffs to hide the scars, I don't really need the newspaper to have another reason to paste my face on teh front page. My eyes meet themselves in the mirror.

"You don't deserve any of this," a voice says in my head. "Your sister should have lived."

Tears fill my eyes as I place my bracelet onto my wrist. After grabbing my utility belt and a new pair of boots I run to the quinjet. Once I arrive, I plop onto a chair and throw my shoes on, Steve enters behind Tony and the twins. Clint is already in the pilot seat firing up the engines, Tony closes the hatch as Steve motions for us to listen in on him. 

"Ultron knows we're coming, odds are we'll be entering into heavy fire. And that's what we signed up for. The people of Sokovia didn't, so our priority is getting them out. All they want is to live their lives in peace and that's not going to happen today but we can do our best to protect them. We can get the job done. Find out what Ultron's been building, we find Romanoff and we clear the field," his eyes flicker around the room showing which job belongs to each of us. "Keep the fight between us. Ultron thinks we're monsters, we're what's wrong with the world. This isn't just about beating him, it's about whether he's right."