Hidden Flame~ Steve Rodgers~

Chapter 10:

The once bright blue sky is now covered by its black velvet counterpart, stars twinkling like diamonds sewed into its fabric. Everyone included the infamous Nick Fury takes around in the kitchen. "Ultron took you folks out of play to buy himself time."Fury tells everyone, "My contacts all day yes building something."

"Building what exactly?"I ask as strands of my hair fall over my shoulders brushing the skin on my arms. "Well with the amount of vibranium he made off with, I don't think it's just one thing." "That still doesn't really answer my question."I whisper to Steve. I watch carefully as this smirk falls on his lips, a small chucking seeming to escape him. "What about Ultron himself?"Steve finally asks after he stops laughing.

I stand there in silence, my arm just barely grazing his. Even with a hoodie on just the simple touch sends chills down my spine. "Are you cold?"Steve asks me as he unzips his jacket. "Oh no it's okay, I'm fine."I tell him as I try to cover up the fact that he is the cause of my shivering. "Please I insist."and with that he places his hoodie on my shoulders. This small smile making itself present on my faca as I remember back to the night we first met. "Oh he's easy to track,"Fury states, "he's everywhere. The guy is multiplying faster than a Catholic rabbit." Now that's a picture I didn't want in my head. "It still doesn't help us get an angle on any of his plans though."

It's then Tony speaks up, "is he still going after launch codes?" "Yes he is, but he's not making any headway." Tony stops what he is doing and turns to the rest of us. "I cracked the Pentagon's firewall in high school on a dare."he says. "You did what?"I interject. He gives me this cocky smile before Fury continues. "Well I contacted our friends at the Nexus about that."

"Nexus?" "Yeah what does that mean or what is that?"I ask as I add in to Steve's question. "It's the world internet hub in Oslo. Every byte of data flows through there."Banner tells us, "it's the fastest access on earth." "So what did they say?" "He's fixated on the missiles. But the codes are constantly being changed." "By whom?"Tony asks. "Parties unknown." "Do we have an ally?" Natasha's voice suddenly speaks up.

"Ultron's got an enemy. That's not the same thing. Still I'd pay folding money to know who it is."Fury says. "I might need to visit Oslo."Tony interjects, "find our unknown." "Well this is good times, boss, but I was kinda hoping when I saw you, you'd have more than that."Nat tells Fury.

Damn. Fury just gives her this confused look, "I do. I have you. 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. And whether of not he admits it, his mission is global destruction. All this laid in a grave."

I watch carefully as those words catch Clint's attention. He looks around at his family and home knowing that he has to take a stand against Ultron. Eventually his eyes find mine as worry seem to consume them. I try to give a reassuring nod but I'm not sure if it worked. "So stand."Fury says, interrupting my train of thought. "Outwit the platinum bastard." "Steve doesn't like that kind of talk"Nat says, her eyes darting to Steve with a smile on her face. "You know what Romanoff."he says with a smile. I can't help but smile and laugh at the two of them before the conversation continues.

"So what does he want?"Fury asks. We all sit and ponder the question for a moment until Steve says what we are all thinking, "To become better. Better than us. He keeps building bodies." "Person bodies."I add. "Yeah the human form is inefficient biologically speaking we are outmoded but he keeps coming back to it."Tony continues.

"When you two programmed him to protect the human race, you amazingly failed." "They don't need to be protected. They need to evolve."Banner announces, "Ultron's going to evolve." "How?" "Has anyone been in contact with Helen Cho?"