Storm ≛ Tony Stark ≛

44.

The laughter from the team was cut off by a gut-wrenching noise. A screech ripped through their ears, and everyone's hands flew up to cover them. Sue felt her already swimming stomach lurch, and her aching head was hit as if with Thor's hammer. Her teeth clenched together, and a ringing was left as the noise faded.

'Worthy? No, how could you be worthy?' A voice sounded from behind them. 'You're all killers.'

Sue looked over her shoulder and saw one of Tony's suits half dismantled. Wires were exposed and sparks flew from the scraping of its limp leg against the floor. An arm was missing and the hand on the present one was nothing but a stump at the wrist. But lights shone through the eyeholes, showing that it was powered and conscious.

'Stark?' Steve called out; his eyes trained on the thing that hobbled into the room.

'JARVIS?' Tony said and pulled out his handheld monitor of the AI.

'I'm sorry... I was asleep,' the jumble of Iron Man parts spoke with its hand (wrist) against its head. 'Or... I was a dream?'

The team stood from their places in the living room and watched in confusion. The suit talked and moved as if it were human, looking around the room and even eyeing each of its inhabitants. Its wires swung as its parts moved, and the voice hummed from within. Sue sobered up at the sight and stood barefoot on the tiles, slipping into the space between Clint and Steve. Although her head ached and her vision blurred in the corners from the alcohol, the sight of the robot was enough to feel frightened and uneasy.

'Reboot, Legionnaire OS, we got a buggy suit,' Tony tapped at his device, confused about the technical issue. JARVIS was always quick to respond to his commands, yet he was silent and uncooperative.

'There was a terrible noise... and I was tangled in... in... strings. I had to kill the other guy. He was a good guy,' the suit looked down, as if shamed by his actions.

'You killed someone?' Steve questioned.

'Wouldn't have been my first call. But, down in the real world we're faced with ugly choices,' the suit looked at the group. Sue hated the moment its eyes settled on her. As it moved over to Clint, she felt like she had been looked through. As if it knew everything about her and wouldn't need to ask who she was or what she was capable of.

'Who sent you?' Thor boomed, his hammer tight in his fist.

'I see a suit of armour around the world,' Tony's recorded voice rang out from the suit, and everyone's heads turned to him. He looked up from his handheld device and pinched his eyebrows together, his lips parted.

'Ultron,' Bruce gasped. The group's attention went back to the suit, but Sue's eyes stayed on Tony.

Ultron was a touchy subject between her and her boyfriend. When it was first mentioned, Tony enthusiastically explained it to Sue, like a child would to his mother. His idea of having a safe world would need something that would require monumental power on a technological scale. His babblings of AI and putting their trust into something inhuman, was shot down by Sue almost immediately. She knew that Tony had a habit of not knowing the line between saving the world and putting it in danger. Ever since then, Tony made sure to not mention Ultron to her again.

But as always, he had done what he wanted, because he was Tony Stark.

'In the flesh. Or, no, not yet. Not this... chrysalis,' the suit with Ultron in it said. 'But I'm ready. I'm on a mission.'

'What mission?' Natasha tried.

'Peace in our time.'

Ultron watched as the Iron Legion shot through the walls behind him. The Avengers didn't have time to prepare as Iron Man suits operated under Ultron's orders, attacking each of them with the intent to kill. Everyone besides Thor was without their weapons, so most of the team had to use their instincts and combat skills.