✓ | escaped [ ➀ ]

[ chapter eight ]

"All our work is gone."

Andi sat down in the laboratory where Tony and Bruce had been hard at work for the past three days. Hard at work on Ultron, only to have it fly back up and hit them in the face. Almost literally.

She had no place to interject here. She was nothing more than a child in their eyes, and she was sure of that, and in any case, she was the newest one there.

"He's been in everything. Files, surveillance. Probably knows more about us than we know about each other," Natasha said, reading something from one of the electronic tablets.

"What if he decides to access something a little more exciting?" Rhodey suggested.

"Nuclear codes," Hill answered his question, as the realisation dawned on her.

"He said he wanted us dead," Natasha piped up, turning to lean against the table so she could face everyone. Andi herself sat on a stool beside Tony, who was busy staring at the now broken body of Ultron, whilst deep in thought.

"He didn't say 'dead'," Steve corrected. "He said 'extinct'."

"He also said he killed somebody," Clint continued.

"Yeah, but there wasn't anyone else in the building," Hill pointed out. But that was when Andi realised that it was not a physical person. It was a user-interface.

"Jarvis," she whispered softly, looking up at Tony. He met her gaze briefly before turning to face the others.

"Yes there was," Tony answered hill, projecting to everyone the form that Andi assumed was Jarvis. Only, this collection of orange holograms looked... broken. Ripped apart. This had been done by Ultron.

"Jarvis could have assimilated Ultron. He didn't do this based on a strategy this is... rage," Bruce murmured as he took in the sight of Jarvis.

Before anyone could say much else, Thor suddenly entered, now dressed differently, cape on his back and a hammer in one hand. He walked directly to Tony, and lifted him up by the throat with one hand.

"Well, rage seems to be going around," Clint commented. Andi on the other hand, rose to her feet, alarmed. She was ready to step in. This may have backfired but she didn't believe that Tony was the bad guy here.

"Come on, use your words, buddy," Tony croaked, trying to pry Thor's hand from his throat.

"I have more than enough words to describe you, Stark."

Andi's hands were firmly by her sides, but she opened her palms, and she could see the hammer vibrating in Thor's hand again. It was enough to surprise him, and get him to drop Tony, but before he could address it, Steve spoke. "Thor."

Thor, though reluctant, turned away from Tony and Andi, and looked to Steve.

"What about the rest of the robots?" Steve asked.

"Trail went cold about 100 miles out, but it's headed North. And they have the scepter," Thor replied.

"I don't understand," Doctor Cho finally spoke. "You built this program. Why is it trying to kill us?"

Tony had now walked to a nearby computer screen. Andi didn't know what he was doing, but when he began to laugh, she felt dread pool in her stomach. He's an idiot.

Clearly, he was testing the patience of everyone in that room, and Thor was the most pissed off right now.

Bruce was subtly shaking his head, trying to tell Tony to stop, but it was too late.

"You think this is funny?" Thor asked, taking a step toward Tony. Did the guy have a death wish?

"No," Tony turned to him. "It's probably not, right? This is so terrible. It's so terrible." There was uncertainty to his tone, and a hint of sarcasm. The snarky smile on his face did nothing to ease the tension in the room.

"This could have been avoided if you hadn't played with something you don't understand," Thor continued.

"No," Tony interrupted. "I'm sorry. It is funny. It's a hoot that you don't get why we need this."

"Tony, the Avengers were supposed to be different from Shield," Steve cut in, walking toward him. At this point, there was a lot of talk that Andi was not aware of but she had briefly heard of Shield while she was with Strucker. He often ranted about the people from there.

"Anybody remember when I carried a nuke through a wormhole?" Tony countered, glancing around. "Not you of course, you weren't there," he spoke as he looked to Andi. "But a hostile alien army came charging through a hole in space. We're standing 300 feet below it."

There was silence all around, and Tony took the cue to continue speaking. "We're the Avengers. We can bust arms dealers all the livelong day, but that up there... that's the endgame. How were you guys planning on beating that?"

Nobody spoke, except for Steve. "Together."

Tony pursed his lips. "We'll lose."

Steve regarded him for a moment before speaking again. "Then we'll do that together too."

* * *

The Maximoff Twins regarded the facility they had been kept in for the past year. Most of it had turned to rubble, but the underneath, where Strucker had been working on other things, was still mostly intact. And this is where Ultron led them.

There were a lot more robots, however. That was the only difference from the last time the twins were there.

"These are all..."

"Me," Ultron finished Wanda's sentence. He was now in a new robotic body. "I have what the Avengers never will. Harmony." All around, as if to prove his point, robots were at work. Neither of the twins knew what he was truly doing, but it seemed to be some kind of robotic army. And it was still in the works.

"The avengers are discordant," Ultron continued. "Disconnected. Stark's already got them turning on each other."

At the very name, Pietro's face shifted, to an expression of hatred. Ultron noticed this. "I read your files. I know you lost your parents in the bombings."

"We were ten years old," Pietro said softly as he looked at Ultron.

"I wondered why you two were the only ones to survive Strucker's experiments," Ultron said. "Now I know why. We'll make everything right."

"We weren't the only ones," Wanda corrected him. That didn't seem to surprise Ultron, but Wanda continued Anyway. "There's another. A girl. She was here before us. She went through the same."

"She went through worse, because of Strucker and his minions," Pietro spat, clearly only getting angrier.

"You're close to her," Ultron looked between Wanda and Pietro. "Which means you can get her to see which side is the right one. Like I said, we'll make everything right."

Ultron looked to Pietro. "You and I... we can hurt them. But," he glanced to Wanda and stepped closer to her. "But you... you will tear them apart from the inside."