"A lot of times freedom doesn't mean being free. It is not a right, but a choice. Anyone can be free if they want to. Telling someone to be free is taking away their choice to be free. You don't take away decisions."
A story in which Lilly Richards...
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"Stark," Steve said to Tony. "JARVIS," Tony called him out. "I'm sorry, I was asleep. Or...I was a-dream?" The robot asked himself. Tony tapped his device. "Reboot, Legionnaire OS, we got a buggy suit." "There was a terrible noise...and I was tangled in... in...strings. I had to kill the other guy. He was a good guy," the robot said. "You killed someone?" Steve asked him. "Wouldn't have been my first call. But, down in the real world we're faced with ugly choices." "Who sent you?" Thor asked him. The robot replayed Tony's voice "I see a suit of armor around the world". "Ultron!" Bruce said. "In the flesh. Or, no, not yet. Not this...chrysalis. But I'm ready. I'm on a mission." "What mission?" Nat asked him.
"Peace in our time." Suddenly the Iron Legion bots broke smash through the walls and attacked the team. Lilly was pushed back into a wall. "Get off me you freak!" She said and kicked the robot in the head. Another robot attacked her, but this time Thor's hammer rushed through his body, making the pieces of metal fall on the ground.
She noticed Steve hanging from one of the robot that was in the air. "Hold on!" She screamed and let a fire blast through the robot and forming a fire ball, which caught Steve. A robot knocked her off. "God damn it!" She kicked the robot, but that didn't help. Someone grabbed it and threw the robot at the wall. "Thanks, Tony," she said and held his outstretched hand. He pulled her up.
"Stark!" Steve screamed. Tony tried to shut down on of the Iron Legions. "We are here to help," the robot was saying. "One sec, one sec!" "We are here to help. We are here to help..." as it was saying that, Tony tried to shut it down. "We are here to help. It's unsafe. It's unsafe. It's unsafe." "No more. That's the one," he said and managed to shut if down.
At the same time Steve destroys the last robot with his shield. "That was dramatic! I'm sorry, I know you mean well. You just didn't think it through. You want to protect the world, but you don't want it to change. How is humanity saved if it's not allowed to...evolve?" Ultron asked them and picked up one of the destroyed robots. "With these? These puppets? There's only one path to peace: The Avengers' extinction." Suddenly Thor threw his hammer at Ultron and smashed him to pieces. After that Ultron started singing, "I had strings, but now I'm free. There are no strings on me, no strings on me."
——— later in the lab ———
"All our work is gone. Ultron cleared out, used the internet as an escape hatch," Bruce said. "He's been in everything. Files, surveillance. Probably knows more about us than we know about each other," Nat said and looked at the team. "He's in your files, he's in the internet. What if he decides to access something a little more exciting?" Rhodey asked. "Nuclear codes," Maria said to him and he said, "Nuclear codes. Look, we need to make some calls, assuming we still can."
"Nukes? He said he wanted us dead," Nat said to him. "He didn't say dead. He said extinct," Steve told her. "He also said he killed somebody," Clint said. "But there wasn't anyone else in the building," Maria said to Clint. Tony said, "Yes there was." As he said so, he brought up a 3D image of a now destroyed JARVIS' consciousness.
"This is insane." Bruce commented on it. "JARVIS was the first line of defense. He would've shut Ultron down, it makes sense," Steve said. "No, Ultron could've assimilated JARVIS. This isn't strategy, this is...rage," Bruce told him. Out of nowhere Thor came in and grabbed Tony by his throat and held him up.
"Thor! Put Tony down!" Lilly said. Thor didn't listen to her. "Thor! The Legionnaire." Steve reminded Thor. He let go of Tony and said, "Trail went cold about a hundred miles out but it's headed north, and it has the scepter. Now we have to retrieve it, again."
"I don't understand. You built this program. Why is it trying to kill us?" Helen asked Tony as he started laughing. Everyone looked at him. "Why is that funny?" Lilly asked him and crossed her arms. "No. It's probably not, right? Is this very terrible? Is it so...is it so...it is. It's so terrible," "This could've been avoided if you hadn't played with something you don't understand," Thor told him and got close to him again. "Thor," Lilly said and also walked closer.
"No, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. It is funny. It's a hoot that you don't get why we need this," he said and moved closer to Thor. "Tony, maybe this might not be the time to—" he cut off Bruce by saying, "Really?! That's it? You just roll over, show your belly, every time somebody snarls." "Only when I've created a murder bot." "We didn't. We weren't even close. Were we close to an interface?" "Well, you did something right. And you did it right here. The Avengers were supposed to be different than SHIELD," Steve said.
Lilly sighed. "Anybody remember when I carried a nuke through a wormhole?" "Listen Tony," Lilly said, "I know you tried your best to do something that would protect the Earth from aliens and beings like Thor," she said and pointed to him. He frowned. "But you took it too far here. You endangered our live and—" "excuse me for cutting you off, but do you guys remember who we are? We're the Avengers. We can bust arms dealers all the live long day, but, that up there? That's...that's the end game. How were you guys planning on beating that?" "Together," Steve told him. "We'll lose." "Then we'll do that together, too."
Tony looked at Steve for a moment, before looking away. "Thor's right. Ultron's calling us out. And I'd like to find him before he's ready for us. The world's a big place. Let's start making it smaller," Steve said and walked to Lilly. "Come on, we have to prepare for the mission," he said and walked away.
Lilly looked at Tony. He looked miserable. She waited for everyone to get out, and stepped over to Tony. She put a hand on his shoulder. "We'll find him," she said and he looked at her. She saw regret in his eyes. "I promise."
——— later ———
"You talked to him?" Steve asked Lilly as they were heading towards the room, where the meeting was held. "Yes." "And?" "Nothing," she said and he looked away. She saw Maria in front of stairs, holding a file. "I'm going up," she said and left Steve alone with Maria.
"What's this?" Tony asked as he saw Steve walk in and hand him a file. "A message. Ultron killed Strucker." "And he did a Banksy at the crime scene, just for us." "This is a smokescreen. Why send a message when you've just given a speech?" Mat asked Steve. "Strucker knew something that Ultron wanted us to miss." "Yeah, I bet he...Yep. Everything we had on Strucker has been erased." She said as she looked at the computer.
"Not everything," Tony said and put a box on the table. Everyone went through files that had Strucker involved.
"Wait. I know that guy," Tony said and Bruce passe him a photo he was looking at. "From back in the day. He operates off the African coast, black market arms," Steve looked at him, confused, "There are conventions, alright? You meet people, I didn't sell him anything. He was talking about finding something new, a game changer, it was all very "Ahab."," Tony finished.
"Is that a mark?" Lilly asked and pointed to it. "Uh, it's a tattoo. I don't think he had it—" "No, those are tattoos, this is a brand," Thor said and Banner went to search for it on a computer. "Oh, yeah. It's a word in an African dialect meaning thief, in a much less friendly way," he said. "What dialect?" Steve asked him. "Wakanada...? Wa...Wa...Wakanda." "Isn't this where your shield comes from?" Lilly asked Steve. "Not shield. Vibranium he told her. "The strongest metal on Earth," he added. "Where is this guy now?" Steve asked Tony.
