The Bravest of Them All (Pietro Maximoff)

Part 6: The Help

Interrupting my thoughts, a reflection of a person appears beside me. Somehow I blink a few times and the city is gone. It's replaced with dark fields of grass. I put my finger on the glass to feel the window myself. I'm at Clint's house, I remind myself, Not at the Avenger's tower. But I feel like I was somewhere else. Maybe I'm hallucinating. That seems better to explain than seeing something that isn't obviously there.

I shiver just thinking about if I was. I look up at the window again, but this time I still see someone's reflection as they come into view beside me. "You're sure you're okay?" Steve asks, turning his head to look at me.

Steve follows my gaze at the window which I continue to stare at. My silence is my response. But then I remember that I should say something before Steve or anyone starts to pressure me. "Nothing happened, like I already said." Pietro saved me—that's not nothing.

"We found your locations from Seoul, South Korea," Steve says. "Ultron could still be there."

"With the twins," I add. They're still with Ultron.

"We're going in a few so freshen up, 'kay'," he tells me, patting my shoulder.

I glance at Steve with another silent response. He nods and leaves my side. I take a few deep breaths—in and out. I put my hands on the glass and look down at me feet, giving myself a moment to pull myself together. I allow myself one last look at the window, telling myself that I was hallucinating the city. That I was only thinking about the disaster that's as my birthday party that I was kidnapped from. I turn around and take a few steps to teleport myself to the guest room where I left a duffle bag with my suit.

**

When we arrive to Seoul, we track Ultron's location to a special laboratory. Steve and I are the only ones who leave the ship to scope out the place. Supposedly, one of scientists or doctors who work here went to my birthday fiasco. When Steve and I both walk inside the laboratory, we only find death and destruction right from the moment we open the door. At our feet lay dead bodies of people who worked here. And beside them were scattered pieces of damaged equipment, spilled chemicals, and broken glass. It could only mean Ultron was here and left a big mark to say it.

What about the twins? Did they play a part in this?

Steve turns around and his eyes widen. "Dr. Cho!" he calls out, finding her leaning against the wall with a wound on her shoulder. She groans in pain, feeling the wound for herself. Steve bends down at her side, helping support her against the wall.

Dr. Cho tries to shallow back the pain and all that happened before we got here. She out of everyone in the room was kept alive. Why? "He's uploading himself into the body," she whispers.

That means Ultron got what he wanted.

"Where?" I ask her.

She shakes her head in defeat with the unknown information. Just as Steve and I step back to walk away, she pulls Steve close to her to tell us something. "The real power is inside the cradle. The gem," she pauses in spite of the pain, "it's power is uncontainable. You can't just blow it up, you have to get it to Stark."

Steve nods. "First we have to find it," he says. By the look of his face, he seems to already have a plan up his sleeve.

"Go," Dr. Cho insists.

I raise my hand to the com in my ear. "You guys copy that?" I ask through the earpiece, waiting for Natasha and Clint to respond on the other end.

"We did," Clint replies.

"I got a private jet taking off across town, no manifest," Natasha reports from the aircraft. "That could be him."

"There, it's a truck from the lab, right above you two." Clint tells us. "On the loop by the bridge. It's them, three in the cradle and one by the cab. I can take out the driver."