Ice and Defenders: The New Age// Book 4 of the Frostbite Series

A New Plan

That evening we were served dinner, no one really touched on the fact as to why Nick Fury was there or where he had been. We all assumed that Maria had called him and told him everything. He looked strange not wearing all black, he was wearing a white shirt and brown pants, which looked so unnatural on him. After dinner, we scattered about the kitchen and living room. I stayed at the table with Natasha and Bruce stood behind us. Steve stood leaning against a wall, Nick was slicing bread in the kitchen, Tony was throwing darts, and Clint sat with his family in the living room.

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

Lana ran over to me and Natasha with a piece of paper in her hand. She squeezed in between our seats and held it out, showing us a drawing of a butterfly.

"Lana, that's beautiful!" I praised her quietly.

"You are quite the artist!" Nat touched Lana's cheek as she set it down on the table and ran back to her mom.

"What about Ultron himself?" Steve asked.

"Ah, he's easy to track, he's everywhere." Fury answered. "Guy's multiplying faster than a Catholic rabbit." I chuckled at the joke. "Still doesn't help us get an angle on any of his plans though."

"He still going after launch codes?" Tony asked, throwing a dart at a board across from him.

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

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

"No need to brag, Tony," I said sarcastically.

"Yeah, well, I contacted our friends at the NEXUS about that." Fury said.

"NEXUS?" Steve repeated.

"It's the world internet hub in Oslo, every byte of data flows through there, fastest access on earth." Bruce explained.

"So what'd they say?" Clint asked, entering the kitchen.

"He's fixated on the missiles, but the codes are constantly being changed." Fury answered.

"By whom?" Tony questioned and there was a thud from a dart hitting the board in front of his face. He looked back at Clint who shrugged.

"Parties unknown," Fury replied.

"Do we have any allies?" I asked.

"Ultron's got an enemy," Fury said.

"Not the same," I shook my head.

"Still, I'd pay folding money to know who it is." He finished.

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

"Well, this is good times, boss, but I was kind of hoping when I saw you, you'd have more than that." Natasha looked at Nick.

"I do, I have you." He gestured towards all of us. At the moment we looked like a pathetic last hope. "Back in the day, I had eyes everywhere, ears everywhere else. You kids had all the tech you could dream of. 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." Fury looked around at us. "And whether or not he admits it, his mission is global destruction. All this, laid in a grave. So stand. Outwit the platinum bastard." Fury sat down at the table.

I sucked in through gritted teeth at the sound of the bad language word.

"Steve doesn't like that kind of talk," Natasha joked.

"You know what, Romanoff?" Steve said challengingly and Nat smiled at him.

"So what does he want?" Fury asked us.

"To become better. Better than us. He keeps building bodies." Steve answered.

"Person bodies," Tony added. "The human form is inefficient, biologically speaking, we're outmoded. But he keeps coming back to it." 

Bruce looked down at the picture of the butterfly.

"When you two programmed him to protect the human race, you amazingly failed." Natasha said.

"They don't need to be protected, they need to evolve." Bruce said.

"What's that?" I looked up at him.

Bruce pointed to the butterfly. "Ultron's going to evolve."

"How?" Nick asked.

"Has anyone been in contact with Helen Cho?" Bruce looked up at us.

"Oh..." I said with realization.

"We've got to get to Seoul," Steve said.

"Now?" I looked around as everyone stood up, wanting to do something but not knowing what exactly.

"Yes, now." Steve began to head towards the living room where all our suits were.

I stood up and quickly walked to the living room, grabbed my suit and ran to the bathroom to change. Natasha went in after me and when I re-entered the living room Steve was already in his suit. Clint was probably upstairs because he wasn't in the living room. 

"I'll take Natasha, Clint, and Ellie." Steve said, putting his shield on his back.

"Alright, strictly recon." Tony said as we began walking towards the hall. "I'll hit the NEXUS, I'll join you as soon as I can."

"Wait, if Ultron truly building a body..." I began.

"He'll be more powerful than any of us." Tony looked at me. "Maybe all of us. An android designed by a robot."

"You know I really miss the days when the weirdest thing science ever created was me," Steve stated.

"I'll drop Banner off at the tower," Fury walked up to us while putting on his jacket. "Mind if I borrow Ms. Hill?"

"She's all yours, apparently." Tony answered.

"What are you planning?" I asked, knowing that he was always up to something.

"I don't know. Something dramatic, I hope." Fury replied before leaving the house.

I said goodbye to Laura and she followed us outside and waited on the porch as we flew away in the Quinjet. Hopefully this would end the Ultron problem.