DAYWALKER | n.romanoff ✔

FOURTEEN

CHAPTER FOURTEEN
' I JUST HAD A
STROKE. '

'Morse code!' the Blade exclaimed. 'I love you, Natasha Romanoff!' She smiled widely, pulling away from the computer. She faltered, glancing at Barton, who raised his eyebrow. Her smile dropped, and she tilted her head.

'Looks like Ella owes me ten bucks,' he proclaimed.

'Ten bucks?' she repeated. 'What- you bet on us?'

'Well that depends if you...' he trailed off. 'You know-' He wiggled his eyebrows.

'If this gets out, I will incarcerate you to the golden gates, got it?'

Barton grinned. 'Ten bucks coming my way.' He could practically feel the glare, and he mimed zipping his mouth shut. 'Not a word.' She shoved her middle finger in his face before moving to the door with Barton on her tail. All of a sudden, loud voices bounced between the walls to their ears, and they shared a glance. Eyes widening, they burst into a sprint, the Blade faster than Barton.

'You don't know what's in there!' A voice met their ears, and she registered it as the female Maximoff.

'This isn't a game-' Rogers added.

'The creature-'

With a whip of blue, the cradle was separated from its power sources, and Pietro came to a stop, crossing his arms. 'No, no. Go on. You were saying?'

Barton reacted in a second and pulled out a gun. He shot the glass under the boy's feet, causing him to plummet to their level. 'What? You didn't see that coming?' The Blade backed a few paces before giving herself a run-up and propelling herself through the gap.

'I'm rerouting the upload,' Stark declared.

The Blade turned to face Banner as he grabbed Wanda, his arm around her neck. 'Go ahead, piss me off,' he warned lowly. 

'What the fuck is going on?' the Blade asked helplessly, the voices becoming a gentle crescendo and tapping on the walls of her skull. Rogers stopped in front of her, his stance apprehensive. 'Answer me, goddammit!'

Out of nowhere, Thor burst out from nowhere and launched a massive streak of lighting towards the cradle. Chaos ensured for a brief moment and then the screen opened and a red-figure crouched on the edge. It looked up and in a split second, launched itself at Thor. The god pushed it over his shoulder, but it stopped itself before it could hit the wall. The Blade shifted to watch as it surveyed the city below.

'I'm sorry, that was...odd,' it spoke, its voice identical to Jarvis. He turned to Thor. 'Thank you.' The others descended the stairs and stood around the red humanoid, confusion and intrigue sitting around them.

'Thor,' Rogers began. 'You helped create this?'

He turned to them. 'I've had a vision. A whirlpool that sucks in all hope of life and at its centre is that.' He pointed at a yellow gem in the middle of the red figure's head.

'What, the gem?' Banner asked.

'It's the Mind Stone. It's one of the six Infinity Stones, the greatest power in the universe, unparalleled in its destructive capabilities,' Thor answered. The Blade shifted, leaning against a chair with her arms crossed, the voices mellowing as did the tension in her shoulders.

'Then why would you bring it to-'

'-Because Stark is right,' Thor interrupted.

The Blade whistled lowly. 'We are truly dead now.'

'The Avengers cannot defeat Ultron,' Thor continued.

'Not alone,' the Vision added.

Rogers shifted. 'Why does your "vision" sound like Jarvis?'

'We... reconfigured Jarvis' matrix to create something new,' Stark replied.

'I think I've had my fill of new.'

'You think I'm a child of Ultron?' the Vision asked.

'You're not?'

'I'm not Ultron. I'm not Jarvis. I am... I am.'

'I just had a stroke trying to understand that,' the Blade replied in a low mumble.

Wanda stepped forward, her eyebrows furrowed. 'I looked in your head and saw annihilation.'

'Look again,' he challenged.

'Yeah.' Barton shook his head. 'Her seal of approval means jack to me.'

Thor turned to face the others fully. 'Their powers, the horrors in our heads, Ultron himself, they all came from the Mind Stone, and they're nothing compared to what it can unleash. But with it on our side...'

'Is it? Are you? On our side?' Rogers asked.

'I don't think it's that simple,' the Vision replied.

Barton scoffed. 'Well, it better get real simple real soon.'

'I am on the side of life. Ultron isn't. He will end it all.'

'What's he waiting for?' Stark questioned.

'You.'

Banner shifted. 'Where?'

'Sokovia,' the Blade replied mid-yawn. 'He's got Natasha there too.'

Banner nodded before turning to the Vision. 'If we're wrong about you if you're the monster that Ultron made you to be...'

'What will you do?' The red humanoid looked around at the gathering. 'I don't want to kill Ultron. He's unique, and he's in pain. But that pain will roll over the earth, so he must be destroyed. Every form he's built, every trace of his presence on the net, we have to act now. And not one of us can do it without the others. Maybe I am a monster. I don't think I'd know if I were one. I'm not what you are, and not what you intended. So there may be no way to make you trust me. But we need to go.' He moved, taking Thor's hammer and handing it to him. 

Silence flitted through the room, eyebrows raising before Thor took it awkwardly. 'Right.' The god patted Stark on his shoulder. 'Well done.'

Rogers looked towards the others. 'Three minutes. Get what you need.'

'Three?' the Blade exclaimed. 

'That's five seconds already gone, Blade,' he replied in a teasing tone.