Avenging Fire: Age of Ultron. ~Book Four~

Chapter Seven: Evil Plan.

Inside the lab, while Steve was taking the bullet out of Levinia's shoulder, and Natasha was looking over Red's head as she fixed the jagged haircut Clint had to give her, they were all trying to figure out what to do about the new found Ultron problem. 
"All our work is gone." Bruce was saying. "Ultron cleared out, used the internet as an escape hatch." 
"Ultron?" Steve asked as he glanced up to briefly look at the group. 
Levi, who was sitting beside Red, sighed. "Our super secret peace keeping program that nearly killed us all tonight." 
"He's been in everything. Files, surveillance. Probably knows more about us than we know about each other." Natasha said as she set the scissors down on the table beside them. "I've done what I can, Red." 
Red reached up to touch her impromptu bob. "Thanks." Maybe she'd keep it after this was over. At least her hair wouldn't get in the way anymore.
"So, what's our play?" Levi said, gripping the edge of her skirt as Steve started to sew up the wound on her shoulder. "If he's in the net, we can't exactly go after him with our guns blazing." 
"Levi's right. He's in your files, he's in the internet," Rhodey said. "What if he decides to access something a little more exciting?" 
"Nuclear codes." Hill said, swiveling her chair around to face the group. 
Red took a moment to glance around the room to look at her friends. Outside, the sun was starting to rise, and they hadn't been able to sleep yet. She didn't foresee any of them getting any kind of sleep anytime soon. Not until this Ultron thing was taken care of. 
Rhodey pointed at Hill as he pursed his lips. "Nuclear codes. Look, we need to make some calls, assuming we still can." 
"Nukes?" Natasha asked as she raised an eyebrow. "He said he wanted us dead." 
Steve tied off the stitch in Levi's shoulder as he said. "He didn't say dead, he said extinct."
"Which could mean more than just us." Levi winced as she shrugged her blouse back on, but she continued to speak as she buttoned it up. "It could mean everyone." 
Red gave Tony a small, tired glare. "Great peace keeping tech, Tony." And just when she thought that Tony couldn't possibly annoy her any more than he already did, he pulled this shit behind her back. It also just had to happen when she foresaw a future where they could get along again, and like always, he had to ruin everything.
Clint cleared his throat. "He also said he killed somebody." 
"But there wasn't anyone else in the building." Hill's words were followed by silence. 
Red looked back at Tony and noticed that he was thinking. Of all his recent hobbies, this had quickly become her least favorite, and it had everything to do with her aching scalp and his murderous AI. 
"Yes, there was." Tony pulled up a 3D image, one that Red had become used too, but seeing JARVIS in this state made her want to throw up. 
JARVIS was torn up and mangled. There was seemingly nothing left of him, nothing alive, that is if you could even count him as alive. But Red did, she had always seen him as alive. 
"Oh my God." Red said in a choked voice. 
"This is insane." Bruce whispered. 
"JARVIS was the first line of defense. He would've shut Ultron down, it makes sense." Steve said, but he still shielded Levi from the gruesome sight. Red wished she had someone to shield her. 
"No, Ultron could've assimilated JARVIS. This isn't strategy, this is... rage." Bruce said. 
Red jumped and clutched at her chest, clearly very startled as Thor suddenly barged into the room and took hold of Tony by his throat and held him up by it. 
Clint now pulled Red behind him and to safety. Thor might be her brother, but even she knew that he was dangerous when he was angry. "Woah, woah, woah!" He yelled. "It's going around." 
Red stood on the tips of her toes to look at Thor from over Clint's shoulder. "Thor, stand down. We can't start attacking each other." 
"Yeah, come on," Tony said in a strangled voice as he gripped Thor's arm. "Use your words, Buddy." 
Thor growled at him. "I have more than enough words to describe you, Stark." 
Levi sighed and stepped out from behind Steve. "Dad, we'd all like to beat up Tin-Can, but right now, we need him." 
When Tony was still not put back on his own two feet, Steve took a turn. "Thor! The Legionnaire." 
Thor sighed, still clearly frustrated, but he set Tony back down on the ground and let him go. Red was relieved, it was one less thing they'd have to worry about, they can't start turning on each other when they were facing their potential extinction. 
"Trail went cold about a hundred miles out, but it's headed north, and it has the scepter, and it had the scepter." Thor said as he met Red's gaze. "Now we have to retrieve it, again." 
Tasha tuned away from her computer. "Genie's out of the bottle, clear and present, it's Ultron." 
Cho cleared her throat, and struggled for a moment to find her words before she finally said. "I don't understand. You built this program. Why is it trying to kill us?" 
Clint finally let Red go and stepped aside as she sat down on a nearby stool. "Ultron's programing dictates that peace will save the world. We do what we can, we take out the big threats." She reached up to fidget with Bucky's tags, using them as a way to keep herself calm and anchored. "But what about the rest of it? What about the little things we either can't catch, or don't hear about?" 
Of all the things Red thought would would startle her, Tony's laughter was the last thing on Earth that she thought would. Thor crossed his arms over his chest and said. "You think this is funny?" 
Tony shook his head as he tried, and failed, to gain control of his laughter. "No. It's probably not, right? Is this very terrible? It is so.." He took a breath before trying again. "It is so... it's so terrible." 
"You've lost it." Red said, mystified, as she shook her head. "Completely fucking lost it." 
"This could have been avoided if you hadn't played with something you didn't understand." Thor said. 
Tony finally sobered up as he set his hands on his hips. "No, I'm sorry. It is funny. It's a hoot that you don't see why we need this." 
And Red sighed as she set her head down on the desk behind her. This was getting too crazy, even for her. 
+++
Levi still managed to smile as Steve leaned down to give her now covered up wound a kiss. She reached behind her to grasp his hand, giving it a gentle and small shock as she did. 
Bruce cleared his throat as he took off his glasses to rub at his eyes. "Tony, maybe this might not be the time to-" 
"Really?!" Tony yelled as he whirled around to face Bruce. "That's it? You just roll over, show your belly every time someone snarls?" 
Bruce shook her head as his shoulders slump. Levi recognized that he was starting to get confused and defensive, which was still better than him getting angry, all things considered. "Only when I've created a murder bot." He said. 
"We didn't." Tony said. "We aren't even close. were we close to an interface?" 
Levi didn't exactly know what that meant, but she assumed that it meant the program, at least when they were working on it, wasn't close to being finished. She drew her eyebrows together as she thought that over. Did that mean that Ultron finished programing himself?
Steve seemed to be following Levi's train of thought as he let go of her hand and crossed his arms over his chest. "Well, you did something right, and you did it right here, the Avengers were supposed to be different than SHIELD." 
Levi glanced at Red as she gently hit her forehead against the desk and said. "Ultron was created to be something we aren't." She picked her head up and looked at herself and Steve. "Obviously, this is it." 
There was a long pause in the conversation, and for a moment, Levi thought that the argument about Ultron was over and they were finally about to try and figure out what to do about the murder bot. That what they did, they fight and argue until they try to find a solution to their problems, like any other family. Of course all that hope was dashed when Tony opened his mouth and started talking again. 
"Anybody remember when I carried a nuke through a wormhole?" He said, causing Red to glare at him.
"You say that like I could forget, Tony." Red said. 
On the flip side, being the other side of that coin, Rhodey said. "No, it's never come up." 
"Saved New York?" Tony asked the group at large, but his eyes stayed on Red. 
"Never heard that." Rhodey said, still speaking sarcastically as he shook his head. 
And being the other side of his coin, Red said, rolling her eyes as she did, "for the love of God, get to the point." 
It was funny, Levi thought, how when it came to Tony, Red and Rhodey always seemed to speak the other's thoughts.
"Recall that?" Tony said loudly as he looked at the group at large. "A hostile, alien army came charging through a hole in space. We're standing three hundred feet below it." He calmed down, even if only a slightly, before he continued on. "We're the Avengers, we can bust arms dealers all the live long day. But that up there? That's... that's the endgame. How were you guys planning on beating that?" 
He was right, of course. Levi, Thor and Red knew that better than anyone else in that room. Thanos was up there, still conquering planets, committing mass genocides, collecting his prizes. He was probably still looking for her and Derek. As far as she knew, they were still the only ones who had been able to escape. 
It was Steve who broke the deafening silence that followed, and she was so glad that he did because it didn't seem like anyone else wanted too. "Together." He said, his voice gentle but firm. 
Tony let out a breath as he shook his head. "We'll lose." 
"Then we'll do that together too." Steve said, and he was silent for a long moment as he kept his eyes on Tony then sighed as he looked away and uncrossed his arms to take Levi's hand back. "Thor's right, Ultron's calling us out. And I'd like to find him before he's ready for us. The world's a big place. Lets start making it smaller." 
And then, they dispersed to get to work, or at least in Levi's case, she left to get changed so she can get to work. She was growing tired of wearing her battle ruined party clothes.
+++
Tony found Red standing in the destroyed lounge, she was standing next to the pile of her own hair. It almost broke his heart to see how short her hair was. He'd always loved how long her firey hair was, and it was his fault her hair was this short. 
"I'm sorry about your hair." Tony said as he stood beside her. 
Red simply shrugged. "You didn't know how bad Ultron would be." 
"I didn't want to see you hurt..." It was true. Of all the people in the tower, he didn't want to see Red get hurt, especially when he's already hurt her enough as it was. "I didn't want to see any of you get hurt." 
She kept her eyes on the small ginger pile on the floor as she spoke to him, and the fact that she wouldn't, or couldn't, look at him made his heart hurt. "Your fatal flaw is that you'll risk everything to keep us all safe." She kept her arms crossed over her chest as she slowly turned to face him. "And that, Tony, is what will kill us. Ultron will kill us, and you didn't even tell us that you were making him." 
"I thought it would be easier if Bruce and I just made him instead of going through committee meetings." 
"You were wrong." 
"I know." 
"Good." And Red left to get changed. 
And after this Ultron thing was done, when they'd figure this all out, she'd be gone, and he'd be back with Pepper.
+++
Dawn wasn't sure exactly who had contacted them, or why, but she was surprised that they wanted to meet them in an old, abandoned church in Sokovia. Not that she wasn't glad she was back home for real this time, with her siblings, but she did think it was odd. 
"Talk." Wanda said. "And if you are wasting our time." 
Dawn ignited her hands in that Asgardian's fire, she loved how Red's power-her fire, her flight-felt coursing through her veins. It made her feel powerful. 
"We'd hate to take you out." Dawn said. 
"Did you know this church is in the exact center of this city?" Dawn thought it was odd that his voice sounded strange, metallic, and she couldn't figure out why she hated it so much, but whatever he was, he wasn't human. "The elders decreed it so that everyone could be equally close to God. I like that. The geometry of belief." He was sitting, facing away from them, with a large piece of cloth over him, Dawn decided that it was a dining room table cloth. 
She looked at Wanda, the two of them passed their thoughts back and forth between them. It was only then that Dawn got a name for the thing that was sitting before them, his name was Ultron, and neither of them could get into his head. Which was as scary as it was mysterious. 
"You two," Ultron said, gesturing vaguely toward herself and Wanda. "Are wondering why you can't look inside my head." 
She and Wanda tilted their heads, but only her sister spoke. "Sometimes its hard, but sooner or later, every man shows himself." 
Ultron finally stood and faced them. That explained both why he sounded inhuman, and why they couldn't get into his head. Ultron, much to her and her sister's momentary shock, was a robot.
"Oh, I'm sure they do." Ultron said, and Dawn could've sworn that he was smiling. "But you needed something more than a man, that's why you let Stark take the scepter." 
"We didn't expect..." Wanda started. 
This was something she and Dawn had always been able to do, even before they got their enhanced abilities, and Pietro hated it, he always thought that the fact that Dawn and Wanda could continue each other's thoughts was creepy. 
"But we saw Stark's fear." Dawn continued. 
Which Wanda picked up on and said. "We know it would control him." 
"Make him self-destruct." Dawn finished. 
Pietro made a sound of mixed disgust and pride. "That will never not be creepy." 
Ultron seemed to be studying the three of them. Dawn had to fight the urge to cringe away from him. It was very unnerving to be taking to a sentient robot. 
"Everyone creates the thing they most dread. Men of peace create engines of war, invaders create avengers, people create... smaller people?" Ultron paused. "Uhh... Children! I lost the word there. Children. Designed to supplant them, to help them... End." 
But that small speech made both Wanda and Dawn excited, she could tell. Maybe now, finally, they'd be able to see the end of Tony Stark and the Avengers, and see a world free of the threat they pose and the threats they bring upon innocent people. 
"Is that why you've come?" Wanda asked, a spark of excitement glinting in her eyes. 
And all Dawn could do was smirk as she spoke. "To end the Avengers?" 
"I've come to save the world." Ultron said dramatically as he gestured the lab. "But there's something we need to begin the real work." 
Wanda looked around as she set her hand on Dawn's elbow. "All of these are...?" 
"Me." Ultron said simply. "I have what the Avengers never will. Harmony. They're discordant, disconnected. Stark's already got them turning against each other." He turned and looked down at her and Wanda, sounding smug as he said. "And when you two get inside the rest of their heads-" 
Pietro interrupted with a sigh. "Everyone's plan is not to kill them." 
"And make them martyrs?" Ultron shook his head. "You need patience, need to see the big picture." 
"I don't see the big picture." Her brother said as he shrugged and shoved his hands into his jacket pockets. "I have a little picture. I take it out and look at it every day." 
"You lost your parents in the bombings. I've seen the records." 
"The records are not the picture." 
Wanda and Dawn sighed together and said. "Pietro." 
Ultron held up a hand to stop them from stopping him. "No, please." 
It wasn't a story Dawn particularly enjoyed hearing, seeing as she lived through it. She didn't ever want to relive the day her life had ended. As if hearing her thoughts, which she probably had, Wanda reached over to hold her hand. 
"We were ten years old, having dinner, the five of us." Pietro said, and Dawn's grip on her sister's hand became tighter as she pictured the scene, it was almost as if it had just happened yesterday. "When the first shell hits, two floors below, it makes a hole in the floor, it's big." She saw herself, younger holding onto Wanda for dear life, as if she were the only lifeline available. "Our parents go in, and the whole building starts coming apart. I grab them, roll under the table." Dawn remembered screaming for mommy and daddy until her throat was raw. "And the second shell hits. But it doesn't go off. It just... sits there, three feet from our faces." Dawn closed her eyes, trying to force the memories away but failing. "And on the side of the shell is painted one word." 
"Stark." She and Wanda whisper together. 
"We were trapped for two days." Pietro said.  
Wanda let go of Dawn's hand so she could wipe away her tears away. "Every effort to save us, every shift in the bricks, I think 'this will set it off'." Wanda said. "We wait for two days for Tony Stark to kill us." 
"I know what they are." Pietro said as he reached over to rub Dawn's shoulder. 
Once she had gotten ahold of herself, Dawn wiped her hands down on her jeans and wiped her face clean with the sleeve of her sweater. "We all do," she said. "Murders, trying to act the hero." 
Ultron slowly looked at them one by one, almost as if he was studying them for a long moment before he nodded, seemingly coming to a decision. "I wondered why only you three survived Strucker's experiments. Now I don't." They had survived because of pure spite and anger and a thirst for vengeance. At least, that's how Dawn had gotten herself to survive. "We will make it right," Ultron said as he looked at Pietro. "You and I can hurt them." He turned his eerie gaze to herself and Wanda. "But you two will tear them apart from the inside." 
At least they've finally be able to finish their mission, and then they'll be able to go back to their normal lives, as normal as they can after how much they'd been changed. 
Dawn didn't even think that their own parents would recognize them now if they could see them. That thought made her heart hurt, but that was how it had to be now. There was no way to go back. 
+++
The next morning, after everyone had been able to go get in a short power nap, shower and change, Steve walked with Hill as she told him the updates on Ultron's whereabouts and recent activities. 
"He's all over the globe," she said as they walked down one of the many catwalks and back toward the lab where the rest of the group was waiting. "Robotics labs, weapons facilities, jet propulsion labs, reports of a mental man, or men, coming in and emptying the place." 
Steve raises an eyebrow at that. "Fatalities?" It was more than a little concerning that Ultron had already raided weapons facilities, and labs that held jet propulsion labs, but at the same time, he wasn't really surprised. 
"Only when engaged. Most guys left in a fugue state, going on about old memories, worst fears, and something too fast to see." 
"The Maximoffs." Steve said, nodding as he finally understood how Ultron was able to easily get into all of these heavily secured places. "Well, that makes sense, why he'd go to them, they have someone in common." 
Hill pursed her lips as she handed a tablet over to him. "Not anymore." On the screen, there was a photo of Strucker's dead body, still in his cell, with the word 'peace' written in bold lettering. Of course, the gruesome scene wouldn't be complete without the word having been written in blood.
He let Hill go into the lab before him as he turned to face Clint, who was talking on the phone some distance away from the entrance of the lab, Steve almost felt bad that he could hear his side of the conversation. But only almost. 
"That's a negative," he was saying. "I answer to you. Yes ma'am." 
Steve cleared his throat to announce his presents, even if there was a chance that Clint already knew he was standing there. "Barton, we've got something." 
"Gotta go." He said quickly before he hung up. 
Steve raised an eyebrow at him. "Who was that?" 
"Uhh..." Clint said, then sighed as he shoved his phone into his jacket pocket. "Girlfriend." 
Steve didn't decide to question it. It wasn't his business, and at this moment, it wasn't even something he had the time and energy to worry about. 
The team didn't look at all well rested. Levi had dark circles under her eyes and gladly took a mug of coffee from Red as she sat down. It broke his heart to see his two favorite girls this tired, but Levi was still healing up from the knife incident, he couldn't even begin to imagine how tired she was. 
Slowly, the group passed the tablet between themselves until it finally got to Tony. "What's this?" 
Steve crossed his arms over he chest as he leaned against the counter beside Levi. "A message. Ultron killed Strucker." 
Red ran a hand through her hair, looking frustrated as she glared at the tablet in Tony's hand. "The fucker speaks of peace, and then pulls this shit?" 
Tony nodded, seemingly agreeing with Red as he set the tablet down. "And he did a Banksy at the crime scene, just for us." 
"This is a smoke screen." Nat said as she picked the tablet back up to look at the picture again. "Why send a message when you've just given a speech?" 
Levi offered Steve her mug, which he accepted. When he took a sip of her coffee, he wasn't at all surprised to taste Bailey's in it. He set a hand on the small of her back as he handed it back to her. "Strucker knew something he wanted us to miss." 
Levi held her mug close to her body as she took it back. "Lets find out if he had any friends." 
Nat turned to look at the computer. "That's assuming he didn't..." It took only a moment of clicking around for her to find what she was looking for. Which had to be nothing because she looked more than a little disappointed as she turned back around to face them. "Yeah, everything we had on Strucker has been erased." 
Red perked up as she turned to look at himself and Levi, it was the first time he'd seen excitement in her eyes since DC. "Not everything." 
Tony smiled at her as he set his hand on her shoulder. "For once, I'm really glad that you're old school." 
And they sat, gathered around one another as Red, Clint and Levi got dozes of boxes from Red's file room. When they were done, Levi set a mug down next to him and kissed his cheek before they got to work. Everyone had at least twenty files stacked in front of them. 
"Known associates." Steve said as Levi scooched closer to him. "Well, Strucker had a lot of friends." 
Red glared as she threw down the file she was looking at. "One of his friends was John Garrett." 
"Another was Alexander Pierce." Levi said, naming another one of HYDRAs favorites, and someone who had also taken Red. "Strucker loved traitors." 
"Yeah, all these people are horrible." Bruce said. 
Tony glanced over Bruce's shoulder. "Wait, I know that guy." He took the photo as Bruce passed it to him. 
"That's the most suspicious thing I've ever heard." Levi said, looking at him from over the file she had replaced Pierce's with. 
Tony sighed at her. "From back in the day, he operates off the African coast. Black arms deals." 
Levi now set her file down all together as she blinked at him. "I take it back, that's the most suspicious thing I've ever heard." Which was followed by Steve, Levi and Red all giving him accusatory looks. 
Tony sighed at them again. "There are conventions, alright? You meet people, I didn't sell him anything." 
"I bloody well hope not." Red said as she looked over his shoulder. "Ulysses Klaue. A shady name for a shady person." 
"He was always talking about finding something new, a game changer." Tony said. "It was all very ahab." 
Thor tilted his head as he looked at the picture and his eyebrows came together as he pointed at something on the picture. "What's this?" 
"Uh," Tony muttered as he tilted the picture. "It's a tattoo. I don't he had it-" 
"No," Thor pointed at the thunder storm sleeves on Levi's arms. "Those are tattoos. This is a brand." 
It didn't take Bruce very long to identify the mark on Klaue's neck. He pushed his glasses up on his nose as he read. "Oh yeah, it's a word in an African dialect. Meaning thief, in a much less friendly way." 
"'That fucker that stole my shit'?" Red suggested. 
Bruce shrugged at her. "Yeah, pretty much." 
Steve raised his head as he set down one file and reached over to pick up another. "What dialect?" 
Bruce blew out a puff of air as he stared at the computer. "Umm.. Wakanada? Wa-Wa-Wakanda." 
Tony suddenly turned to look at Steve and Red as Levi looked between the three of them. Steve wanted to hit his head against the wall. He thought that it was almost poetic, considering what his shield was made out of. 
"If this guy got out of Wakanda with some of their trade goods..." Tony said, then trailed off as he looked from Red, to Steve, to the shield and then back again. 
Steve crossed his arms over his chest as his gaze turned from Red to Red. "I thought your father said he got the last of it?" 
Red slowly shook her head. "No, he just used what we had at the time to make this." She spoke slowly as if she was trapped in a daze as she leaned down and picked up Steve's shield. 
Bruce cleared his throat as he turned back around in his seat to look at them. "I don't follow, what comes out of Wakanda?" 
"The strongest metal on Earth." Tony said, in the same dazed tone as Red. 
Steve and Levi stood up together. It was almost comical how him being on edge put her on edge. "Where is this guy now?" 
Levi chugged the rest of her coffee, which she seemed to regret, but there was no backing down now. Steve knew that she'd already committed. "We need to find him before Ultron and the Wonder Squad does." She said as she set her mug down. "Otherwise..." She didn't seem like she could bring herself to finish that thought.
"Otherwise our only lead is dead." Red said. 
And together, they all stood up and got ready to rush to Africa.
+++
If there was one thing Dawn hated more, it was watching and waiting for the perfect moment to strike. It was boring, it was especially boring because this Klaue guy wasn't giving out any hot gossip, or talking about anything exciting. It was all threats and business. 
"Don't tell me your man swindled you." He was saying. "I sent you six short ranged heat seekers, and got a boat full of rusty parts. Now go, make it right, or the next missile I send you will come very much faster." He hung up and she guessed that he was connecting to a different call. "Now, minister, where were we?" She didn't think anyone would threaten a Prime Minister. 
Thankfully, finally, the waiting as over. As Wanda gave her the signal, Dawn made the power out out, smiling as the people working in the salvage yard panicked. They took the opportunity to show up in Klaue's office. To her disappointment, he didn't react at all or even appear surprised upon seeing them. 
"Yeah," Klaue said. "The enhanced, Strukcer's prized pupils." He picked up a dish full of candy and offered it to them. Dawn thought it looked like something her grandmother would've offered them, or any grandma, really. It was very much grandma candy. "Want a candy?" 
Dawn shook her head. "No. I don't take candy from strangers." 
"Right." Klaue said as he set the bowl down. "Sorry to hear about Strucker, but then, he knew what kind of world he was helping create. Human life, not a growth market." 
Dawn exchanged confused glances with her siblings, they clearly had no idea what Klaue was talking about either. She raised an eyebrow at the arms dealer. "What happened to Strucker?" 
Now that did seem to have caught him by surprise. "You... you don't know?" Klaue glanced between the three of them. "Is this your first time intimidating someone? I'm afraid that I'm not that afraid." 
Wanda tilted her head. "Everybody's afraid of something." 
"And we will find out eventually." Dawn added. 
There was a pause in conversation as Klaue looked at them, his arms crossed over his chest as he seemingly studied them. "Cuttlefish." He finally said. "Deep sea fish. They make lights, disco lights." He started making hand motions as he went on this tangent about cuttlefish. "Whoom, whoom, whoom! To hypnotize their pray, then whoom! I saw a documentary, it was terrifying." 
Pietro flashed across the room, over to the desk and tossed Dawn a candy before he took one for himself. Dawn smirked as Klaue jerked at the sudden movement, at least one of them was able to get some sort of startled reaction out of him. 
"So, if you two are going to fiddle with my brain, and make me see giant cuttlefish, then I know you don't do business, and I know you're not in charge, and I only deal with the man in charge." 
Dawn gave him a flat, bored look. "Making you see a giant cuttlefish would be ridiculous." 
"Exactly." Klaue said. "So, who's in charge?" 
As if on cue, Ultron suddenly appeared. Dawn wasn't sure if there was ever going to be a time where she'd ever be used to him just randomly, and silently, appeared out of nowhere. It was among her least favorite things about working for him. 
"There is no 'man' in charge." Ultron said. "Lets talk business." And in what seemed to be no time at all, they were being handed bundles of vibranium from Klaue's stash. Ultron looked proud as he held up one of the bars. "Upon this rock, I will build my church. Vibranium." 
"You know," Klaue said as he watched Ultron closely. "It came at great personal cost. Its worth billions." 
Ultron chuckled at that, and Dawn could only assume that he was putting money into Klaue's bank account. "Now, so are you. It's all under your dummy holdings?" At least Dawn had been right. "Finance is so weird, but I always say, 'Keep your friends rich, and your enemies right, and wait to find out which is which'."
A spark of recognition light in Klause's eyes. "Stark." He said. 
Dawn could've cut the sudden tension with a knife. She'd already made the mistake of comparing him to Tony Stark, but she was lucky that he didn't do to her, whatever he was about to do to Klaue. "Oh Hell." 
"Tony Stark used to say that to me." Klaue said, digging himself an even deeper hole. "You're one of his." 
Dawn surrounded herself and her siblings inside a green protective barrier just as Ultron started to lose his temper. "What?! I'm not-!" Ultron yelled at he suddenly grabbed Klaue. "I'm not. You think I'm one of Stark's puppets, his hollow men? I mean, look at me, do I look like Iron Man? Stark is-" Pietro shielded her and Wanda from Ultron as a knife appeared in his hand, but Dawn could still hear it slicing through whichever body part of Klaue's, and based on his screaming alone, he was still alive. "I'm sorry. I am sor-uh, I'm sure that's going to be okay. I'm sorry, it's just-I don't understand, don't compare me with Tony Stark! Start is-he's a sickness." 
And then, Dawn suddenly wished that Ultron had never found them, because Tony Stark and his Merry Band of Murders showed up. 
+++
"Awe, Junior," Tony said as he landed, and he was quickly flanked by Thor and Steve. "You're gonna break your old man's heart." 
"If I have too." Ultron said. 
Thor held out a hand toward Ultron and the triplets behind him. "We don't have to break anything." 
Tony glanced behind Ultron. Surrounded by a dark green bubble of a barrier, were the Maximoffs, and just behind them, were Red and Levi, sneaking up behind them to try and get a drop on them. 
"Clearly, you've never made an omlet." Ultron said. 
"Like you've had enough time to make one." Red said as she ducked behind the stairs and pulled Levi down with her. 
Beside him, an image of Levi shimmered into existence, and she looked slightly disappointed in him. "He beat you here, Tin Man." She said. 
Tony fought the urge to roll his eyes. "He beat me by one second." 
Dawn, at least, looked surprised as Red and Levi flew up and landed behind the triplets. Red's staff appeared in her hand as the brother, Pietro, turned to look at them. "Ah," he said, almost laughing as he turned his back on Red and Levi, and faced Tony again. "Ah, this is funny, Mister Stark. It's what? Comfortable? Like old times?" 
Tony shook his head, he really couldn't believe that any of this was happening. It was all his fault because he didn't want the world ending to be his fault. "This was never my life." 
Red held her staff tightly as she looked at them. "None of us wanted this." 
Steve kept his eyes on the triplets as he spoke. "You can still walk away from this." 
"Oh, we will." The redhead, Wanda, said as she tilted her head. 
The dark haired one, Dawn, smirked. "Just not with you." The way they seamlessly finished each other's sentences was equal parts creepy and impressive. 
"It's not too late to come with us," Levi said as she held out a hand toward the triplets. Of all the people in the room, she knew that the most. Tony had been one of the people who'd saved her from both herself and that emo kid, Derek. "We can help you." 
Dawn glared at Levi. "We're not coming with you. I don't need your help." 
Tony couldn't have been the only one who caught that. Levi's eyebrows drew together as her eyes met his. 'I don't need your help', she'd said. It was so subtle, he thought, so stubborn sounding that it was almost completely hid the cry for help. 
"I think you do." Levinia said, her voice staying soft and gentle. 
Steve picked up on that as easily as Dawn had picked up Wanda's thoughts, but Tony didn't think it was nearly as creepy. "I know you've suffered." 
Red's eyes couldn't, or wouldn't, focus on just one of them. They kept dancing between the triplets as if she was worried she wouldn't be able to pay attention to just one of them. "We know you all have." 
"Uuughh!" Ultron exclaimed in disgust. "Captain America and his little groupies, God's righteous man. Pretending you three could live without a war. I can't physically throw up in my mouth, but-" Red and Levi shared a look of disgust. 
Thor sighed, trying to take the attention off of the three of them. Tony didn't like it either, but that was because he hated the thought of Red being with anyone else but him. It was something he was trying, and failing, to shake. 
"If you believe in peace, then let us keep it." Thor said. 
"I think you're confusing peace with quiet." Ultron replied. 
Tony rolled his eyes, now he was getting impatient. "Yuh-huh. What's the vibranium for?" 
"I'm glad you asked that," Ultron said, raising his arms. "Because I wanted to take this time to explain my evil plan." 
Tony braced himself as Ultron moved in for the attack, but all he could do was watch Red as the drones descended upon them. 
+++
As Levi ducked down and into a corner, Red just barely managed to burn Pietro with her fire as he knocked her down and on her ass, all around them, all they could hear was Klaue calling for them to be shot, but luckily for the Avengers, they were all moving to fast for Klaue's men to be able to get a proper shot in. 
Natasha and Clint quickly joined the fight against Ultron, his drones, Klaue's men and the triplets. Not to far away from Tony and Ultron, Levinia sounded herself and Dawn with her lightning, only for Dawn to send it back at her and causing her to go flying back at it struck into her body. 
As Pietro is running around the facility, he spotted Thor's hammer as it flew through the air. For some ungodly reason, he decided that it was a great idea to take hold of it. Mjolnir pulled him into a wall of crates, and as he started to get up, Steve landed beside him and smacked him in the face with his shield. 
"Stay down, Kid." Steve said. 
On top of the catwalk above Steve and Pietro, Levi was backing away from Dawn as the other girl's hands glowed green. As Levinia looked around, clearly panicking, ghosts of her past and worst fears surround her, and grabbed at her. The one that scared her the most was Thanos, which was followed by Derek. She covered her face, screaming as they entered her mind. 
"Steve!" She shrieked. 
"I'm coming!" He yelled back. "Just hold on!" And Steve ran toward her. Just hold on, he told her silently as he sprinted and fought his way toward her. Please just hold on. 
Ultron spoke through one of the drones as it passed Wanda. "Time for some mind games." 
Meanwhile, outside in the Quinjet, Bruce can hear the chaos through the intercom system. "Guys, is this a code green?" 
Back inside, Steve finally made it to the nearly catatonic and sobbing Levinia. He picked her up and held her close to his chest as Wanda, some distance away, she touched Thor with her magic and quickly backs away. "Thor!" Steve yelled as he stood up with Levi in his arms. "Status?" 
"The girl tried to warp my mind." Thor said. "Take special care, I doubt a human could keep her at bay. Fortunately, I am mighty." Suddenly, Thor is standing in the middle of a very active party in Asgard. "Shit." 
As Ultron packed up the vibranium, Wanda's magic touched Natasha and Red. "This is going very well." And as he flew off with the goods, Wanda tried to get Clint, but he quickly turned around and stuck an electric arrow to her forehead. 
"I've done the whole mind control thing, not a fan." Clint said and then proceeded to get knocked over by Pietro, causing him to fall over. Dawn ran passed him and after her siblings. "Yeah, you guys better run." He muttered as he pulled him back back to his feet. "Whoever's standing, we got to move!" He said only to be met with silence. "Guys?" 
Steve was desperately trying to shake Levi back to reality. The blank look in her now blue eyes scared him, scared him more than anything in this world or the next. He pushed her hair out of her face with a shaking hand as he cupped her cheek. "Nia? Come on, Levi. Honey, wake up." 
Red slowly walked passed him and Levinia, clearly in a daze as she dropped her staff. Clint watched Natasha sit down on the stairs, looking just as dazed as Red and Levinia. 
"They're not gonna wake up anytime soon." Clint said to Steve as they both just now notice that Tony was gone, hopefully going after Ultron. "We need to get them out of here." 
Steve nodded as he looked at Thor, and then back to Levinia. "Alright, lets move them out.