Bailey sauntered back and forth in the lab, biting at her nails.
It had been well over an hour since she woke up, Clint explained the whole story back to her as she relieved the memories in her mind. Nat was gone, taken by Ultron. They had the cradle, and the body inside. She had definitely hit her head hard, hard enough to call Clint: "Bart Clinton". That didn't go down well.
She looked over to where Clint was crouched over the cradle, examining it, and Bruce sat at the side.
"Anything on Nat?" she immediately walked towards Tony when he entered the room and asked.
"I haven't heard," he replied, "But she's alive or Ultron would be rubbing our faces in it."
That didn't make Bailey feel better at all. Ultron could be doing anything to her right this moment, and it would all be Bailey's fault if something did happen to the Red-head. Bax knew it fell on her shoulders because she was the one who was supposed to be looking out for her teammate at the time. If she had just held o tighter, or if Ultron had grabbed her instead...
"This is sealed tight," Clint informed them, slamming his palm on the top of the cradle and catching all of their attention. He then jumped down from it, swinging his arms back and forth.
They all walked towards one another, meeting in a group.
"We're gonna need to access the program, break it down from within," Bruce laid his hands on the cradle.
Bax looked over to Tony, trying to get him to translate to her or at least give her and order so she wouldn't feel so useless standing around the group that could just about hack into anything. She knew the billionaire already planned his next move, although she didn't know exactly where he would be sitting his chess piece.
She then looked to Clint only to figure he was thinking the same as he stood with his arms crossed and a locked jaw. Tony turned to the man as well, "Any chance Natasha might leave you a message outside the internet? Old-school spy stuff?" he asked him, and placed his hands in the pockets of his pants.
Tony wanted them out the room, he wasn't at all concerned for the Red-haired Spy.
"There are some nets I can cast..." Clint warily spoke back.
"We'll find her," Bailey's mind got cast away from whatever Tony was scheming, and landed on the dart board with Nat's face planted on. Her main concern was finding her friend, and the only woman to ever set a fire into her stomach, first and foremost.
Clint sighed, and beckoned her over to which she obliged. As she reached his side, his arm slung over her shoulders and guided her down a stairwell that would lead to an old computer room used for Stark industries.
Clint immediately busied himself with one of the computers, barely wasting time to even grab for a chair. Bailey pulled one out from a nearby desk, and rolled it closer to him, then pulled another for her to sit in.
She scooted a little closer, breathing at the back of Clint's neck as she watched him rapidly type at the old keyboard.
"Hand me those headphones," Clint outstretched his hand, not bothering to look away from the screen.
Bailey slumped over, and grabbed at the headset, pushing them over to his hand.
"I really hope she's dropped something," Bailey bit as her lip and wrung her hands together, nervously watching the man type.
"Me too kid..." he sighed, and clicked open a new window.
Natasha woke up on the hard floor, something she didn't remember falling asleep on. In front of her, stood Ultron as he mixed at molten metal, using his hand to stir it around. She slowly raised her head, a pounding following and her eyes filled with tears from the heat.
"I wasn't sure you would wake up," the deeply terrifying voice of Ultron spoke out to her. "I hoped you would. I wanted to show you." His eyes looked up to her briefly, "I don't have anyone else."
She wanted to scream at him, shout that it was his own fault. She wanted to know where Clint was, where Bailey is, she wanted to know if they had the Cradle. Nat didn't want to be here at all.
But she knew better than to do so.
She tried to lift herself up, bring her body up by her arms and balancing on them, it was too painful. She had to grunt and groan, brain fuzzy and body pounding in pain.
"I think a lot about meteors: the purity in them. Boom!" his head shot up, "The end, start again. The world made clean for the new Man to rebuild."
Natasha shot a disgusted look at him, scared yet so brave, she wanted to push him into the furnace next to him. She wanted to actually hear what he was saying without her blood boiling and ears ringing.
"I was meant to be new," he growled at her as if it were her fault, the Avengers fault. "I was meant to be beautiful," he looked up to the gods with a pleasurable pride on his face, but fear and anger only struck Nat's'.
"The world would've looked to the sky and seen hope, seen mercy. Instead, they'll look up in horror," which was what he saw on the Spy's face, he watched the horror as she pushed herself further from him and up against the wall.
"Because of you," he took a threatening step at her, but she did not flinch.
"You've wounded me," Nat shook her head, trying to get further from him, "I give you full marks for that."
"But, like the man said, what doesn't kill me..." he stopped walking towards her.
A red hand broke through his head, yanking it off and caused the body to crumble to the ground. Natasha's heart rate spiked, and fear definitely shone in her as she watched Ultron murder himself. She gasped and shot back, besides the pillar and further into the cage. Pieces of metal fell around her, and she shuffled further with groans and gasps o pain, clambering to get away from him. The end landed next to her.
"... just makes me stronger," He stepped closer to the panting woman, trying to bring her own normal breathing pattern back.
With a swift move, he closed the gate to leave the broken Woman to herself, facing her own fear and nightmare all by herself. Leaving her with scared thoughts, and a racing mind.
"And you've already made the mistake that could cost you the most," he hummed with a cheer, and if he were able to there would be a grin plastered on his face.
"What mistake?" She croaked our, glaring at him from the other side of the cell bars.
"You've fallen in love."
"Touch her and I'll kill you," she spat, trying to jump at him but a pain spiked into her side and she fell to the ground in agony. Only groans left her mouth, no threats or trash talk, not a single sarcastic comment that normally sat comfortably in her words.
Ultron laughed at this, and turned his back.
He left Natasha to be scared without the loud hum of Bailey being able to soothe her in the moment, Natasha was left in her panic attack, and only her quick breaths left to remind her she's still alive.
Bailey sat in the corner, ice pack to her head and eyes closed. Upstairs had been as quiet as the room Clint and her sat in for a long time now, and nothing was keeping her from imagining the worst case scenario. She had no sarcastic comments, no quips to send to Tony as he and Bruce were working. She had nothing to say when she found out Jarvis was still alright, nothing to say when she found out that he had been the one protecting the nuclear codes, nothing to say as all she heard was the silent tapping of Clint's' fingers on the keyboard.
They had both changed out of their outfits, Clint being hot and bothered, and Bailey's being soaked from the river.
The woman had left to get a tank and tights, as well as a leather jacket out of Nat's closet.
Suddenly, Bailey had a lot to say as the radio sparked with static sounds, and small thumps of sound came pouring out in Morse code.
Both she and Clint grabbed at their own set of headphones, pressing them roughly to their ears and intensely listening as Natasha spelt out the name of the City she was trapped in.
They grinned at each other, gleaming with happiness, and faced the screen. Clint intensely tapped, tracking the sounds and typing the City name into their maps. Bailey loomed over him, hands gripping hard at his chair as she willed herself not to phase from the joy she felt; Nat was okay, and they knew where she was.
The roof of the Hydra base they had infiltrated to receive Loki's sceptre in the first place appeared on the screen.
A boom filled the room, as a boot stomped on the ground. Bailey's head shot up to see three figures looming above them. Cap had come to shut down Tony's plans.
She shared a look with Clint, and they both stood up. They loomed over towards the group, or under the group. Bax raised a handgun she had snuck off the table, and pointed it up in case things went south. Not to shoot them, merely to shoot the murky glass under their feet so they would fall down next to her.
A blue blur shot around the room, and sounds of machines shutting down sung in their ears, system failures popping up on all the screens.
"No, no, go on. You were saying?" a Sokovian male accent asked.
As an immediate reflex, Bax shot the bullet at the glass the Maximoff was standing on, not knowing he was a friendly face yet.
The boy fell to the ground at hers and Clint's feet, and looked at them in irritation.
"What? You didn't see that coming?" Clint mocked him, high fiving the Eidolon.
Whatever Tony was doing, right or wrong, it was a plan to defeat Ultron. If Ultron could do this already, what more could he and other threats accomplish? Bailey also knew that this might be the only way she might be able to get Nat back, they needed another weapon that could end the fight.
"I'm rerouting the upload!" Stark informed them.
Steve acted quickly, throwing his shield and hitting every machine possible, causing too much collateral damage for Tony to continue the plan.
As quickly, Tony summoned his suit and as soon as the arm piece touched him, sent a blast at the Captain.
Clint raced up the stairs, clocking his gun in hand. Bailey shot into the sky, covering Steve with her body as more fires got shot her way.
Tony gave her a 'come on man' look, but Bailey didn't stop protecting them from each other. She wasn't on anyone's side anymore, she wasn't going to let Ultron tear them apart when they had just found Natasha.
Better yet, when they had just figured out where to go in order to save the world from Annihilation.
Despite that, they both went full at it and forced Bailey to change her phase, letting the beam shoot through and hit Steve the exact same time his fist flew into Tony's chest through Bailey. The boys flew backwards from impact, straight into glass doors around them.
And then there was thunder. After it, came the lightning, and blonde God following the flashes of light. He stood over the cradle, jumping up on it, and looking around the room to the fight that had ceased for a moment due to his presence.
Bax's eyes widened as she watched him raise his hammer, summoning all the electricity from the broken machines in the room. When he had as much as he could possibly take, he channelled the electricity to the Cradle, charging up all systems that had been broken or pulled apart by Pietro.
Bolts of electricity danced around everyone's heads, and Bailey had to hold her arm in front of her face to not let her sensitive eyes be blinded by the light.
Thor eventually finished, all his bolts had been absorbed into the cradle, powering up the body. The light and thunder subsided, coming to an end as he stood there panting from loss of energy.
"That's one way to do it-"
Bailey got cut off as a purple-maroon man busted out the cradle, landing softly as if he flew in the air.
Thor was shot back into more glass, his hammer flying out of his hands. Bailey was quick to turn her body and phase in order for the glass to fly through her instead of embedding her back muscles.
The figure slowly rose, looking at each face in the room and comparing his own body and skin to them. This easily classified him as different, and the Avengers as a plausible threat to him.
His eyes locked with Thor, and lunged at the god.
Thor moved his arms, yanking the body over him and barrelling towards the biggest glass window of them all. Bax flinched, not ready for more glass to be broken. When the shattering sound didn't reach her ears, she opened her eyes in curiosity.
The Vision floated near the window, watching the New York skyline matched with his own reflection next to it.
Steve made a leap to the Man (man?) and Bailey flew over in suit, following her leader.
They landed right behind him, ready in case he attacked.
Thor held out a hand to them, signalling urgently for them to stop, to stand down. Bailey easily obliged having full faith in him, but Steve not so much just yet. He took a threatening step forward, and Bailey threw herself into his chest to knock him back and keep him put.
They shared a look, and then adjusted their focus back to the figure that was too turning to face everyone in the room who had their eyes settled on him.
He seemed to get the general idea, and willed clothes to be formed around his body. A tight-skin suit that looked like something a stereotypical superhero would wear, spandex and all.
The rest of their group gathered around, running to a stand-still, or just walking down stairs to get a little closer look at whatever was floating in front of them.
"I'm sorry. That was...odd," He looked at them with guilt.
"Thank you," he shared a look with Thor, and took an interest in the red Cape hanging from his shoulders. With a thought, his own Yellow one built itself from his shoulder piece, falling all the way to the ground.
"That's highly unfair," Bax began to complain but was silenced by a jab of Steve's elbow.
"Thor," Steve addressed, "You helped create this?"
"I've had a vision," he reminded them, "A whirlpool that sucks all hope of life, and in its centre is that," he pointed a crooked finger at the yellow gem that sat in the forehead of Thor's and Ultron's vision.
"What? The gem?" Bailey asked him, shocked.
"It's the Mind Stone. It's one of the six infinity stones- The greatest power in the universe, unparalleled in its destructive capabilities," the deepened voice replied, quick with its speech and prepared for all questions.
"Then why would you bring it-" Steve got cut off.
"Because Stark is right," everyone was surprised at that.
"Oh, it's definitely the end times," Bailey teased, but didn't show any signs of a grin or smirk.
"The Avengers cannot defeat Ultron," Thor gave the big statement they were all worried about.
"Not alone," The Vision ended for him.
"Why does your Vision sound like Jarvis?" Steve asked him.
"We... reconfigured Jarvis's Matrix... to create something new," Tony walked forwards with wide eyes, also surprised what he did has finally worked.
"I think I've had my fill of new," Steve spoke with petty.
Tony and the Vision circled one another, analysing what they each did, and how each would react.
"You think I'm a child of Ultron," Vision broke the stare, addressing his statement to Steve.
"You're not?" Cap challenged back.
He shook his head slightly, "I'm not Ultron. I am not Jarvis. I am... I am." He stated, looking up to the two scientists that created him.
"I looked in your head and say annihilation," Wanda upturned her nose to him, as if warning everyone what he planned.
"Look again," was all he challenged back to her.
Clint scoffed, and Bailey turned to see what he had to say, "Her seal of approval means jack to me," he said as he walked closer to the group, strutting almost.
"Their powers, the horrors in our heads, Ultron himself, they all came from the Mind Stone," Thor stated in authority, "And they're nothing compared to what it can unleash."
"That doesn't make this more comfortable," Bailey raised her eyebrows in a sing-song tone.
"But with it on our side..."
"Is it? Are you? On our side?" Steve interrupted, and looked to Vision.
He hesitated for a moment, thinking of a suitable answer, "I don't think it's that simple."
"Well it better get real simple, real soon," warned Clint.
Even Bailey started doubting him now, scared if he might actually share Ultron's values and morals, if Tony and Bruce had once again failed in their experiment.
"I am on the side of life," he poetically replied, "Ultron isn't. He will end it all," The quick statement made everyone realise that he only cared about keeping people safe, humanity was the bigger picture in his mind, and that he was definitely on their side if it was against Ultron's.
"What's he waiting for?" Bailey asked, Nat picking up her trail of thought again, and she worried for what was happening to her.
"You," he looked to her.
"Me?" she asked, pointing at her chest in confusion and looking to everyone around her.
"The Avengers," Bruce explained, "Where?"
Clint shared a knowing look with Bailey, and both pairs of eyes did a quick glance at the twins.
"Sokovia. He's got Nat there, too," he stated, walking over by Bailey, and placing a hand on her shoulder in passing.
"If we're wrong about you, if you're the monster that Ultron made you to be..." Bruce stepped to him, trying to look Vision in the eyes, "What will you do?"
Vision looked up, tightening his jaw muscles and then relaxing them, and the yellow eyes reached Bailey's own scared ones.
"I don't want to kill Ultron. He's unique, and he's in pain," he tried to sympathise, looking at Bax because he could see her relation, "But that pain will roll over the Earth. So, he must be destroyed."
The vision slowly spoke, taking a step with each word, and walking over to Thor and the table next to him.
"Every form he's built, every trace of his presence on the net. We have to act now, and not one of us can do it without the others," each word was soaked in, drunk by the Avengers, all of whom looked at each other and felt the wave of affection and admiration they had developed over the past year.
Even the Maximoff twins got a touch of feeling from the string of words.
Bailey and Clint took in a breath in sync, and she could feel his hand on her shoulder squeeze the slightest bit in comfort.
"Maybe I am a monster," he thought the sentence each one of them had repeated over in their heads, "I don't think I'd know if I were one."
Bailey blinked a couple of times, remembering her conversation with Nat before all hell broke loose, "I'm not what you are, and not what you intended. So, there may be no way to make to trust me," he locked his gaze on Thor's Hammer sitting down.
"But we need to go," he lifted Mjolnir and held it out for Thor to take from him.
The Avengers all looked at Thor, who questioned the Hammer himself. Though, not accepting anything, he bashfully gripped the handle and removed it from the Vision's hands.
They were all left stunned, not knowing whether or not to follow Vision yet when he walked out, or to throw the questions now. Thor made up his mind for them just as Clint went to say something.
"Right. Well done," He patted Tony as he passed him, walking out the door with his own self-doubt.
They all looked at the billionaire, not knowing exactly what to do now.
Bailey had to make her own reality check to see if she were dreaming still or not.
"Three minutes," Steve informed them, "Get them something to wear," he looked at Bax and nodded his head to the Twins. "Get what you need."
"Right," she nodded her head in disbelief, "Of course, follow me," she waved her hand in signal.
They turned to walk behind her, hesitating on speaking to the wide eyed Eidolon or not.
"Exactly how hard did I hit my head?"