Project 43

A common goal

The former soldier's eyes went wide as he remembered the weapon he was always second best to. If the Winter Soldier was standing in his apartment, he didn't have much of a chance to get out alive even with his extensive training. It only made sense that Hydra had sent Winter. After the few times Elias had taken down soldiers that had come looking for him, they must have realized only Winter was strong enough to take down the small man.

"You don't have to do that," a low voice said. It wasn't Winter's. The Winter Solider didn't speak like that and when he did it was in Russian and less mechanical. Whoever the voice belonged to, he wasn't scared or bothered, he sounded like the figure genuinely just wanted Elias to know what he was doing was useless.

"Mind if I turn on the lights?" the same voice said gesturing towards the switch next to the door.

"if you don't keep your hands up I will shoot all of your heads off. Starting with that one," Elias said gesturing towards the smaller figure to the left.

"That won't be necessary," the same low voice said and put its hands up and the other two soon followed. Elias was confused. If they had been Hydra, they would have started shooting already. Maybe they were with Matej. Did Elias take too much money the day before?

"You. Turn the lights on," Elias commanded the smaller figure to the right. "Slowly," he added as the person shifted.

The second the lights turned on, Elias was taken aback, but only slightly. He was standing in front of a huge robot. It was composed of gray pieces of metal with red light glowing in between them and through its eyes. The robot had wide shoulders and a weirdly human-like build.

"What the fuck?" Elias asked through his teeth. The robot looked like an evolved version of the robots he had seen during the day, Stark's robots. Just the thought sent a wave of anger through Elias' body. If the Avengers had sent one of Stark's robots and two kids to look for him, they would have to do better.

"I know you must be confused so allow me to introduce myself," the robot said.

"I am the cure to the sickness that plagues this world," the metallic man who was insanely full of himself explained.

"Uh-huh. And who are they?" Elias asked indifferently motioning to the two humans who were now standing side by side. Upon further inspection, they were the same two people Elias had seen enter the church just a couple of hours earlier. A redhead girl and a blonde boy, probably siblings by the looks of it.

"I'm Pietro and this is Wanda," the blonde boy said after exchanging looks with the robot and his supposed sister. The robot was clearly in charge which Elias found weird. In fact, he found the whole concept of robots weird and unfathomable but his mind had quickly cleared up the second one had broken into his apartment.

"Okay thank you for sharing but I don't care about your names," Elias coldly said. "You are a robot with a huge ego, but what are they and why?" Elias asked more clearly this time. He could feel the anger bubbling inside him wanting to be set free.

The two humans looked at each other and seemed to have a whole conversation without words making Elias roll his eyes.

"I would like to be answered, after all, I'm the one holding the gun," Elias hurried the people up. "Also, if you could tell that one to stay out of my head it would be greatly appreciated. If not her head really is the first to go," Elias continued talking to the robot as he motioned toward the red-headed girl with his gun.

"Wanda," the robot simply said and the woman's eyes turned back to their greenish color.

"They are people with great abilities that I want on my side," the robot explained.