Frostbite (Pietro Maximoff)

Chapter 7: 20/20 Vision

Stark Tower

Dad and Bruce stood inside the lab, trying to upload JARVIS into the body inside the Cradle. Steve stormed into the lab, and I trailed behind him. Pietro and Wanda followed us. I glanced down at the glass floor to see Clint holding a gun. He held a finger to his lips, telling me not to say anything. I looked up as Steve began talking.

"I'm gonna say this once." Steve said before he was cut off by Dad.

"How about 'nonce'?" He said snarkily.

"Shut it down!" Steve shouted at him. Dad shook his head. Bruce and I met eyes and sighed at their inability to communicate.

"Nope, not gonna happen." Dad told Steve. Bruce flicked something on his tablet to pull up a hologram. It was a familiar orange. JARVIS. Well, I'm convinced.

"You don't know what you're doing." Steve tried to tell Dad. I'm pretty sure that Bruce was uploading JARVIS because the body inside the Cradle would need bio-organics knowledge to upload JARVIS than Dad's more technical based skills.

"And you do? She's not in your head?" Bruce asked Steve while pointing at Wanda. Pietro moved in front of her protectively.

"I know you're angry." Wanda said to him, holding her hand up in surrender. Bruce cut her off.

"Oh, we're way past that. I could choke the life out of you and never change a shade." Bruce said angrily. Pietro put his arm in front of Wanda to keep her from stepping forward. I calmly walked over to Dad's side, glancing at the screen to confirm that they were trying to upload JARVIS into the Cradle.

"Not going to stop them, Snowball?" Steve asked confusedly. I shook my head.

"They're trying to upload JARVIS, and if he hasn't turned evil in the past several years, I doubt he's going to do it now." I told him. Pietro looked at me disbelievingly. I shrugged at him.

"Boom." Dad said as though his point had been proven by me taking his side.

"So you're just going to help them?" Steve asked me.

"Well, bio-organics are a little beyond me, so there's not much I can do. But, yeah." I said to him. Pietro shook his head at me, but there was a small smile on his face. I grinned at him.

"After everything that's happened?" Steve asked me.

"That's nothing compared to what's coming!" Dad shouted at him. He had seemed pretty shaken up since the battle in Sokovia last week.

"You don't know what's in there!" Wanda shouted at us. I glanced at the computer and typed something in to speed up the process. Dad looked at me impressed, and I gave him a smile.

"This isn't a game..." Steve trailed off, and Wanda took over.

"The creature...!" She said. Pietro ran forward and unplugged the Cradle.

"No, no. Go on. You were saying?" Pietro asked the rest of us. His gaze was on me, and his lips curled up in a smile. I smiled back at him as a gunshot sounded. The glass beneath his feet shattered, and Pietro fell to the floor below us.

"Pietro!" Wanda shouted at him.

"What? You didn't see that coming?" Clint asked Pietro, standing over him with a gun in hand. I smiled at that. Clint did not disappoint. Bruce stepped forward, and held Wanda in a headlock.

"Go ahead, piss me off." He said angrily. Just then, Thor burst through the ceiling and shot lightning at the Cradle.

The Cradle's glass top shattered, and Thor was blasted backwards. A red android landed on top of the Cradle. It glanced around the room before locking its eyes on Thor. It flew forward, trying to grab Thor. He threw the android through the glass wall. It stopped and floated, gazing out the window at New York City.