Opening My Past

Chapter Thirty-Five~Ultron

"Worthy... No... How could you be worthy?" ask a robotic voice, we all stand and turn towards the elevator were a mangled bot from the Iron Legion stumbled out, flickering, glitching.

"You're all killers." it finishes pointing a ruptured, robotic finger at us.

"Stark." starts Steve.

"J.A.R.V.I.S?" I ask my eye never leaving the bot.

"I'm sorry, I was asleep. Or...I was a-dream?" the bot starts.

"Reboot, Legionnaire OS, we got a buggy suit," says Tony tapping his device.

"There was a terrible noise...and I was tangled in... in...strings. I had to kill the other guy. He was a good guy." says the bot.

What? Kill?

"You killed someone?" asked Steve.

"Wouldn't have been my first call. But, down in the real world, we're faced with ugly choices."

"Who sent you?" asked Thor, holding his hammer at the ready.

"I see a suit of armor around the world." replays Tony's voice through its speakers.

No way!

"M-My program? I-It worked?" I gasped out.

"Ultron!" gasp Bruce realizing

"In the flesh. Or, no, not yet. Not this...chrysalis. But I'm ready. I'm on a mission."

"What mission?" asked Nat.

Ultron turns to us "Peace in our time." 

My eye widens as my fingers touch my lips, those words came from my mouth, I've been using them for so long. This creation was my own doing.

Suddenly the Iron Legion bots break smash through the walls and attack to us!!!

Dang, I left my gloves upstairs! I form two long half shields around the outsides of my arms and use them to block oncoming attacks from two bots. I look up to see Tony has jumped onto one of the bots trying to shut it down.

I take down one of my shields and form an illusion of a screwdriver "Tony!" I shout, he looks down as I toss it up to him, he gets to work as I battle my bots, one arm with my shield, the other outstretched to Tony trying to keep the screwdriver with him.

I punch one of the bots in the jaw while the other grabs my illusion hand causing the screwdriver to flicker in and out "Spirit!" shouts Tony.

I feel a thud as Thor throws his hammer destroying the bot allowing Tony to finish his job. This was bad and the bot wasn't letting up, I was able to punch him back using my shield only a little. Just goes to show I'm terrible at close range combat!

The bot grabs me by the neck, I disengage my shield at my elbow and let it swing around to the front with enough force to cut the bot in half.

Tony manages to shut down the Iron Legion, at the same time Clint throws Steve's shield to him who uses his shield to dismember the last Iron Legion. All of us all out of breath turn to Ultron "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?" he asks and picks up one of the dismembered Iron Legions "With these? These puppets? There's only one path to peace: The Avengers' extinction."

Suddenly Thor throws his hammer at Ultron and smashes him to pieces. Everyone looks to me as I slowly walk over to make sure he's really...gone?

I kneel down to touch it and it flickers on "AH!" I shout jumping back falling on my ass, Tony rushes forward and catches me by my arms "Spirit!"

We both stare at Ultron as he begins to sing "I had strings, but now I'm free."

My eyes widen and my mouth hangs open as he fades from the bot. 

"There are no strings on me." I finish in horror of what I've done.

*******************************************************

We were all gathered in the lab "All our work is gone. Ultron cleared out, used the internet as an escape hatch." says Bruce looking through the files, they were all gone.

"Ultron." says Steve, I look as well "He's been in everything. Files, surveillance." I list.

"Probably knows more about us than we know about each other," says Nat.

"He's in your files, he's in the internet. What if he decides to access something a little more exciting?" asks Rhodey walking around, I sigh "Nuclear codes." starts Maria.

"Nuclear codes. Look, we need to make some calls, assuming we still can."

"Nukes? He said he wanted us dead," says Nat.

Among there talk I was looking through the database "He didn't say dead. He said extinct." 

"He also said he killed somebody," says Clint

"But there wasn't anyone else in the building," says Maria.

"Yes there was," says Tony as he brings up the now destroyed 3D image of J.A.R.V.I.S.'s consciousness. I walk over facing it and my hands fly to my mouth "J...."

"This is insane," says Bruce.

"J.A.R.V.I.S. was the first line of defense. He would've shut Ultron down, it makes sense." says Steve.

"No, Ultron could've assimilated Jarvis. This isn't a strategy."

"It's rage," I say.

Suddenly, Thor grabs hold of Tony by his throat and holds him up "Come on. Use your words, buddy."

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

"Thor! The Legionnaire?" I ask, he lets go of Tony.

"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."

"The genie's out of that bottle. Clear and present is Ultron," says Nat.

"I don't understand. You built this program. Why is it trying to kill us?" asked Helen walking over to me. Tony starts laughing, Bruce subtly shakes his head at him to get him to stop "You think this is funny?" ask Thor.

"No. It's probably not, right? Is this very terrible? Is it so...is it so...it is. It's so terrible." says Tony.

"This could've been avoided if you hadn't played with something you don't understand."

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

"Tony, maybe this might not be the time to..." says Bruce.

"Really?! That's it? You just roll over, show your belly, every time somebody snarls."

I walk over to Tony and make him face me "Only when I've created a murder bot." I say "You didn't. 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 S.H.I.E.L.D." says Steve walking over to us.

"Anybody remembers when I carried a nuke through a wormhole?" asked Tony.

"Tony." I start.

"Saved New York? Recall that? A hostile alien army came charging through a hole in space. We're standing three hundred feet below it. We're the Avengers. We can bust arms dealers all the livelong day, but, that up there? That's...that's the end game. How were you guys planning on beating that?"

"Together," I say taking his hand.

"We'll lose," answers Tony.

"Then we'll do that together, too." says Steve, Tony looks at him for a moment before turning 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."