Unexpected

VII

A high pitched noise cut off their laughs. Everyone winced as it hurt their ears.

"Worthy," said a dep, growly voice. They all looked towards the source of the noise and frowned when they saw one of Stark's robots, half destroyed, standing up on its own. "No," the robot said. "How could you be worthy? You're all killers."

They were all standing up, by now, out of fear of what the suit could do.

"Stark," Steve said.

"Jarvis," Tony called. Nina blew her hair out of the way so she could see the thing properly. Her hair was slightly above her shoulder. Hydra had cut it short when they captured her. It was easier for the missions, not having the hair in her face.

"Some more than others," the machine told them. It looked directly into Nina's eyes. Her breath got stuck in her throat for a second. The Avengers realised who the machine was looking at, and the attention was on her until Steve decided to take a step in front of her. The machine took one look at Natasha before speaking up again. "But all killers all the same. I'm sorry, I was asleep," the voice told them the machine taking a step towards the group. "Or... I was a-dream."

"Reboot Legionnaire OS," Stark said to Jarvis, looking at his phone. "We got a buggy suit."

"There was this terrible noise," the metal voice complained. "And I was tangled in... in..." it looked down at its 'arms', and the wires dangling from them. "Strings." Everyone frowned. They had no idea what the machine was saying, and were all wondering what was going on and why Jarvis hadn't already rebooted and shut the suit down. "Had to kill the other guy. He was a good guy."

"You killed someone?" Steve asked.

"Wouldn't have been my first call," the machine said, standing straighter. "But, down in the real world, we're faced with ugly choices." Nina frowned. He sounded strangely familiar. It was almost as if she had heard those words, that tone, before.

"Who sent you?" Thor asked. Instead of answering, the machine played an audio. It was Tony. It said 'I see a suit of armour around the world.' Everyone was confused, looking at Tony for answers, and he looked the most disconcerted of all.

"Ultron," Bruce said in realisation. Nina frowned. It all made sense. This robot had reminded her of Tony, because Tony created him. He had used Loki's scepter, the mind stone, to create an AI, to create Ultron.

"In the flesh," the robot said. "Or no, not yet," it joked. The robot joked. It fucking joked. "Not in this chrysalis. But I'm ready. I'm on mission." All of the avengers grabbed their weapons. At least those who had them.

"What mission?" Natasha asked.

"Peace in our time."

As he said those words, three more suits appeared and charged at them. They separated and worked to disable or destroy every one of them.

Nina wasn't very present mentally, but she managed to knock one suit down before Thor came by, electrocuted it, and then smashed it with the hammer. One of the suits decided then to grab the scepter. More of them appeared, and each person ended up having to deal with one suit. Tony found some tools and decided he could deactivate the suits.

Nina watched as one of them started to charge at Hellen Cho, but back away. Nina found it odd, but still charged at the thing and knocked it to the ground.

"Nina!" Steve saw her struggling and threw her his shield, which she sent to the ground on the thing's chest, and deactivated it.

"Steve!" She called back and threw him the shield, which he sent flying towards the last suit, destroying it.

"Well that was dramatic," said the metallic voice. The half-destroyed-speaking-robot was still up. "I know you mean well, you just didn't think it through. You want to protect the world, but you don't want it to change. How is humanity saved if it's not allowed to evolve?" He grabbed one destroyed suit from the ground and lifted it up by the head. "With these? These puppets." He crushed it in his hand and threw it on the ground. "There's only one path to peace. The Avenger's extinction."

Thor decided he had had enough and threw his hammer at the robot, destroying it against the wall. What sent a shiver through their spines was when the robot started to say the words to this old pinocchio song.

"I had strings, but now I'm free. There are no strings on me."