DAYWALKER | n.romanoff ✔

THIRTEEN

CHAPTER THIRTEEN
' NO ONE CAN
SEE   WHEN
YOU'RE SCARED. '

Oswin sat on the dining table, her helmet sitting over her freshly-dyed, bright pink hair. It was now cropped, brushing her shoulders and curled loosely. She shifted, leaning back into her chair with Zeus sitting at her side. The Avengers, bar Thor, and Nick Fury sat around the table with Estella and Xander sitting on the floor alongside Lila and Cooper, who coloured quietly.

'Ultron took you folks out of play to buy himself time.' Fury rose to his feet and began to pace around the table. 'My contacts all say he's building something. The amount of Vibranium he made off with, I don't think it's just one thing.'

'What about Ultron himself?' Rogers asked.

'Ah. He's easy to track, he's everywhere. Guy's multiplying faster than a Catholic rabbit. Still doesn't help us get an angle on any of his plans, though.'

Stark raised his eyebrow. 'He still going after launch codes?'

'Yes, he is, but he's not making any headway.'

'I cracked the Pentagon's firewall in high school on a dare,' Stark boasted.

'Yeah, well, I contacted our friends at the NEXUS about that.'

'NEXUS?' Rogers asked.

'It's the world internet hub in Oslo,' Banner replied. 'Every byte of data flows through there, fastest access on earth.'

'So what'd they say?' Barton asked.

'He's fixated on the missiles, but the codes are constantly being changed,' Fury continued.

Stark straightened. 'By whom?'

'Parties unknown.'

'Do we have an ally?' Natasha questioned.

'Ultron's got an enemy,' Oswin spoke for the first time, her gaze on the table in thought. 'A lot of people hate us and Ultron, so it doesn't really narrow it down.'

'I might need to visit Oslo, find our unknown,' Stark decided.

Natasha sighed. 'Well, this is good times, boss, but I was kind of hoping when I saw you, you'd have more than that.'

'I do,' Fury replied. 'I have you. Back in the day, I had eyes everywhere, ears everywhere else. Here we all are, back on earth, with nothing but our wit, and our will to save the world. So stand. Outwit the platinum bastard.'

A smirk curled on Natasha's lips. 'Steve doesn't like that kind of talk.'

Rogers rolled his eyes as a grin made its way onto Oswin's lips. 'You know what, Romanoff?'

'So what does he want?' Fury redirected the focus.

'To become better. Better than us. He keeps building bodies,' Rogers added.

'Person bodies,' Stark continued. 'The human form is inefficient, biologically speaking, we're outmoded. But he keeps coming back to it.'

'You know, I considered you scientists to be really smart, but somehow you've managed to do everything wrong,' Oswin sighed out, shifting to drape an arm over the back of Natasha's chair. Lila stood up, and the pink-haired woman glanced at her. She placed her drawing in front of Oswin and smiled up at her. 'Καλή δουλειά, αγαπούλα μου,' she spoke softly.

'They don't need to be protected, they need to evolve,' Banner continued, looking at Lila's drawing of a butterfly. 'Ultron's going to evolve.'

'How?'

'Has anyone been in contact with Helen Cho?' Banner asked.

\_|_/\_|_/\_|_/

The Blade lounged on a chair with her feet on the table and a knife in her hands. She fiddled with it as Banner paced the expanse of the room, one hand under his chin the other crossed. She threw the knife into the air and caught it by the handle, her grip tight.

'Please,' she drawled exasperatedly. 'Would you sit down?'

Banner stopped, shifting awkwardly. 'Sorry.' He moved to sit opposite her, fiddling with his hands.

The Blade looked at him after a moment. His eyes flickered up to hers before dropping to the ground. 'Look,' she began, sitting up straight. 'No one's going to burst through those doors to arrest you, alright?'

'I'm not worried about that,' he replied quietly. She stared at him, the helmet obscuring any emotion on her face. Banner shifted, crossing his arms over his chest and staring at the table. 'I just don't want to lose control again.'

The Blade sighed heavily, throwing the knife onto the table, causing Banner to jump. She leant forward and folded her hands on the surface. 'Listen. I hate sappy shit, and if any of these words get out, I'll gut you, okay?' He looked up, shifting. 'We're similar, you know? More than you might think. I have... I have these voices in my head. They tell me to do things... violent things. Sometimes I can't resist them, and they take over. Once they're in control, there's nothing I can do. I just blackout, and I only resurface when they've gotten... Well, there's no other way to explain this... blood. When I was a child, I believed they were my friends, and I trusted them more than anyone. But, I-I learnt the hard way that they are the opposite, and I began to try to resist them. My point is, Banner, is that no matter how hard you work or think you've won, these things are never truly beaten.

'It's not what we want, but it's something we've got to live with. I've had these voices for my whole life, and I can tell you that something like this will never go away. But the trick is that you've got to adapt to it. See what you can exploit out of it as it exploits out of you.'

Banner was quiet for a moment. 'I never realised.'

The Blade shrugged, reclining back into her seat. 'Well, it's not something you go prancing around proclaiming, is it?' She looked away. 'You learn to hide it.'

'Thank you. That-that helped, actually.'

'I hope so, cause I would have just trauma dumped for no reason.'

'Blade!'

They both looked up, and she rose to her feet, moving to a screen with a furrowed brow. 'Yes?'

'I need you to scan the air for ships!' Barton continued through the speaker. 'Ultron's got Nat!'

'I'm sorry,' she paused, her eyebrows pulling into a furrow. 'What did you say?'

'We got the Cradle, but Nat's still on Ultron's ship!'

'Where are you?' she asked, moving to a computer.

'Just over Manhattan!'

'Fuck, Barton. Just so you know, you and Rogers are dead.'

'Yeah, I kind of expected that.' The comms shut off, and the Blade began to type onto the computer.

Banner moved over to her, fiddling with his fingers. 'You're-you're not worried about her?'

The Blade glanced at him, the corners of her lips quirking. 'Benefit of wearing a helmet, Banner, no one can see when you're scared.' She continued to work before Stark followed by Barton came in with the Cradle. Barton joined her side while the two scientists surveyed the new machine in the centre of the room.

Banner looked between Stark and the assassins. 'Anything on Nat?'

'Haven't heard. But she's alive, or Ultron'd be rubbing our faces in it,' Stark replied as the Blade and Barton turned to look at the Cradle.

'This is sealed tight,' Barton informed.

'We're going to need to access the program, break it down from within,' Banner added.

Stark hummed. 'Any chance Natasha might leave you a message, outside the internet, old school spy stuff?'

'Old school spy stuff?' the Blade repeated. 'What exactly do you think we do, Stark?'

Barton sighed, grabbing the Blade's arm. 'There's some nets we can cast. Yeah, alright. we'll find her.' He then dragged her away.