Stolen - Tony Stark

11.

2015

"Shit," Kass cursed when Tony's dart struck closer to the target than hers. 

"Remember Babe, watch the language."

"Right, sorry."  They shared a chuckle while Cap acted like he hadn't heard their joking.

"Ultron took you folks out of play to buy himself time," Fury explained while the group gathered in the Bartons' kitchen to discuss what their next move should be.  "My contacts all say he's building something. The amount of vibranium he made off with suggests it's not just one thing."

"What about Ultron himself?" asked Cap.

"Oh, he's easy to track, he's everywhere. The guy's multiplying faster than a rabbit. Still doesn't help us get an angle on any of his plans, though." 

"Is he still going after launch codes?" Tony asked, throwing a dart. 

"Yes he is. Though he's not making any headway so far."

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

"Okay, we get it," said Kass. "You're kind of a big deal."

"Kind of."

"I contacted our friends at the Nexus about that."

"The Nexus, the world internet hub in Oslo. Makes sense, every byte of data flows through there," said Bruce. "Fastest access on earth."

"So what did they say?" asked Clint.  "Your 'friends' at the Nexus?"

"That he's fixated on the missiles, but the codes are constantly being changed."

"By whom?" Tony jumped as a dart shot past him, hitting the direct centre of the target - Clint.

"Parties unknown."

"So does that mean we have an ally?" asked Kass.

"Ultron has an enemy, that's not the same thing. But I'd like to know who it is," said Fury.  

"I might need to go to Oslo," Tony announced. 

"Well, this is good times Boss," Nat sighed. "But when I saw you I was hoping you'd have more than that."

"I do, I have you." Fury gestured to them.  "Back in the day I had eyes everywhere, ears everywhere else. You kids had all the tech you could dream of."

"The good old days," chuckled Kass.

"Good old days indeed. Now, here we all are, back on Earth, with nothing but our wit and our will to save the world. Ultron says that his mission is to end the Avengers, and whether or not he admits it that mission is global destruction. All this, laid in a grave.  So stand and fight. Outwit the platinum bastard."

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

"You know what, Romanoff?" Steve said back. 

"Tony, Bruce, you built Ultron. Any idea what his weaknesses are?" Kass asked.

"Yeah, us. A united us," Tony said. "Together," he added, nodding to Cap who just scoffed, tired of all the jokes aimed at him. 

"So if you're his weakness, then what does he want?" asked Fury, sitting down at the dining room table with the sandwich he had prepared for himself.

"To become better, better than us," said Cap.  "He keeps building bodies."

"Well, when you two built him to protect the human race you amazingly failed," Nat told Tony and Bruce.

"I have to agree," Kass said, retrieving the darts from the board.