everyone gathered in the lab to take in what just happened.
"all our work is gone. ultron cleared out, used the internet as an escape hatch." bruce informed everyone.
"he's been in everything. files, surveillance. probably knows more about us than we know about each other." natasha told everyone
"well, that's comforting." alice joked. "he's in your files, he's in the internet." rhodey commented
"what if he decides to access something a little more exciting?" alice said while giving nat an ice pack since bruce fell on top of her.
"nuclear codes." maria said while using tweezers to get glass out of her foot.
"nuclear codes." alice repeated. "look, we need to make some calls, assuming we still can." she continued.
"nukes? he said he wanted us dead."
"he didn't say dead. he said extinct." steve said. "he also said he killed somebody." clint exclaimed.
"but there wasn't anyone else in the building."
"yes there was." stark said.
stark showed everyone a 3d image of a now-destroyed of jarvis' consciousness. "this is insane." bruce said adjusting his glasses.
"jarvis was the first line of defense. he would've shut ultron down, it makes sense." steve said calmly.
"no, ultron could've assimilated jarvis. this isn't strategy, this is...rage."
suddenly thor started to charge towards tony and he grabbed him by the throat
"woah, woah, woah thor!" alice said getting up from her seat.
"use your words buddy." tony said struggling to breathe.
"i have more than enough words to describe you, stark." thor told stark.
"thor! the legionnaire."
thor let go of stark and he started panting. "trail went cold about a hundred miles out but it's headed north, and it has the scepter. now we have to retrieve it, again." thor complained.
"the genies out of that bottle, clear and present is ultron." natasha stated. "i don't understand. you built this program. why is it trying to kill us?" helen asked stark seriously.
stark just started laughing.
"mmm-mm" banner said while shaking his head trying to make him stop. "you think this is funny?" thor asked.
"no. it's probably not, right? is this very terrible? is it so... is it so... it is. it's so terrible." tony said within laughs.
alice put her face in her hands. tony stark is so immature.
"this could've been avoided if you hadn't played with something you don't understand." thor stated and he was right. this was all tony's fault.
"no, i'm sorry. i'm sorry. it is funny. it's a hoot that you don't get why we need this." tony said walking up to thor.
"tony, maybe this might not be the time to-" bruce went on but was interrupted by tony.
"really?! that's it? you just roll over, show your belly, every time somebody snarls."
"only when i've created a murder bot."
"we didn't, we weren't even close. were we close to an interface?"
tony and steve and everyone else started a conversation and alice just zoned out, she was tired of the arguing. but she payed attention when tony was mentioning the battle of new york in 2012.
"we're the avengers. we can bust arms dealers all the live long day, but, that up there? that's... that's the end game. how were you guys planning on beating that?" tony asked.
"together." steve replied.
"we'll lose."
"then we'll do that together too."
stark just stared at him for a second but then turned away. "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. let's start making it smaller." steve continued his little speech.
meanwhile; in sokovia
pietro and wanda maximoff went to a church in sokovia to meet up with someone. "talk. and if you are wasting our time..." wanda scolded but was interrupted.
"did you know this church is in the exact center of the city? the elders decreed it so that everyone could be equally close to god. i like that. the geometry of belief." ultron said with a cloth draped over his body. he was sitting in a chair faced away from them.
"you're wondering why you can't look inside my head."
"sometimes it's hard. but sooner or later, every man shows himself." wanda said.
ultron stood up and turned around to show himself. wanda backed up and her and pietro looked shocked. she was staring at a giant robot. ultron created a new and improved new body.
"oh, i'm sure they do. but you needed something more than a man. that's why you let stark take the scepter."
"i didn't expect... but i saw stark's fear, i knew it would control him, make him self-destruct." wanda replied.
"everyone creates the thing they dread. men of peace create engines of war, invaders create avengers, people create...smaller people? uh...children!" ultron stated and pietro smirked.
"i lost the word there. children. designed to supplant them, to help them...end."
"is that why you've come? to end the avengers?" wanda asked. "ive come to save the world. but also... yeah."
ultron took wanda and pietro to the sokovia base and showed them his creations. "we'll move out right away. this is a start, but there's something we need to begin the real work."
"all of these are..." wanda said referring to the bots.
"me. i have what the avengers never will. harmony. they're discordant, disconnected. stark's already got them turning on each other. and when you get inside the rest of their heads..."
"everyone's plan is not to kill them." pietro said. "and make them martyrs? you need patience. need to see the big picture."
"i don't see the big picture, i have a little picture. i take it out and look at it every day." pietro said while changing the subject.
"you lost your parents in the bombings. i've seen the records." ultron told him.
"the records are not the picture."
"pietro." wanda said while turning to make eye contact with him.
"no, please." ultron asked for him to share.
"we were ten years old, having dinner, the four of us. when the first shell hits, two floors below, it makes a hole in the floor. it's big. our parents go in, and the whole building starts coming apart. i grab her, roll under the bed and the second shell hits. but, it doesn't go off. it just... sits there in the rubble, three feet from our faces. and on the side of the shell is painted one word..."
"stark." wanda finished his speech.
"we were trapped for two days." pietro explained. "every effort to save us, every shift in the bricks, i think, "this will set it off." we wait for two days for tony stark to kill us."
"i wondered why only you two survived strucker's experiments. now i don't. we will make it right. you and i can hurt them." ultron said to pietro. he moved to wanda and put his metal hand on her cheek. "but you will tear them apart from the inside."
avengers headquarters
"he's all over the globe. robotics labs, weapons facilities, jet propulsion labs, reports of a metal man, or men, coming in and emptying the place." alice explained while looking at an i pad that stark gave her.
"fatalities?" steve asked
"only when engaged. mostly guys left in a fugue state going on about old memories, worst fears, and something too fast to see." maria explained referring to the maximoff twins.
"maximoffs. well, that makes sense he'd go to them, they have someone in common." steve stated.
"well, not anymore look at this." alice handed steve the device. there was a picture of strucker's dead body with the word peace written in blood on the wall behind him.
steve stood up to walk to find clint but he was on a phone call.
"barton, we might have something."
"gotta go." clint hung up with the person on the phone.
"who was that?" steve asked.
"girlfriend."
steve gathered the team and showed the photo
"what's this?" tony asked. "a message. ultron killed strucker." steve explained.
"and he did a banksy at the crime scene, just for us."
"strucker knew something that ultron wanted us to miss." steve said as nat went to a computer. "yeah, i bet he..."
"yep. everything we had on strucker has been erased." natasha informed them.
"not everything." stark said.
the team decided to go through physical files on strucker. it was the only option that would get them information. thor was kinda reckless with the papers and boxes. each box he opened he threw the lid at alice on accident.
"dude! chill with the lids." alice said being fed up with thor.
"ope- sorry mystique." he chuckled.
she rolled her eyes and kept searching through files.
"known associates. well, strucker had a lot of friends." steve said showing us some of strucker's friends.
"all of these people are terrible." alice stated.
"wait i know that guy!" stark said pointing to a photo of a man called ulysses klaue. "from back in the day. he operates off the african coast, black market arms." he explained.
steve, alice and natasha all gave tony an accusing look.
"there are conventions, alright? you meet people, i didn't sell him anything. he was talking about finding something new, a game changer, it was all very "ahab."
thor pointed to a mark on his neck. "what's this?"
"uh, it's a tattoo. i don't think he had it..." stark said but was interrupted.
"no, those are tattoos, this is a brand." thor explained while pointing at his tattoos and then the brand.
bruce looked up the same photo on the computer and examined klaues neck. "oh, yeah. it's a word in an african dialect meaning thief, in a much less friendly way."
"what dialect?" alice asked.
"wakanada...? wa...wa...wakanda."
"if this guy got out of wakanda with some of their trade goods..." tony said.
"i thought your father said he got the last of it?" steve asked.
"i don't follow, what come out of wakanda?" alice asked while looking at bruce's computer screen.
"the strongest metal on earth." stark said while looking at steve's shield.
"where is this guy now?" steve asked.