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VALOR
x. YOU DIDN'T SEE THAT COMING?
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ULTRON WAS A VIRUS. That was the conclusion Riley had come to. Not only was Ultron a virus, but he was a little bitch to deal with, which was a fair conclusion, in her opinion.
The team had been trying to pin down Ultron's location after he attacked them last night, and they hadn't been successful in the slightest. It felt impossible. How do you track someone who's always on the move?
The bright side was that wherever Ultron went, he left traces of his existence behind him. This made it easier to follow him at the very least. He was all over the globe: robotics labs, weapons facilities, jet propulsion labs. Reports had come up of metal men raiding these places, which lead to inevitable fatalities when engaged. The strangest part was that the survivors left in fugue states going on about old memories, worst fears, and "something too fast to see". These were signs of the Maximoff twins.
Now, this led to one question: How did Ultron know where to find the twins?
The Avengers had busily worked throughout the night, strategizing and tracking all reports of Ultron. Some had fallen asleep, but for people like Riley and Tony, sleep wasn't in their vocabulary. But today was a new day that brought new possibilities, which were all the Avengers needed.
Riley shuffled through some of the research she'd done with Tony and Bruce when working on Ultron, trying to determine if there was anything in their notes she could use. Her raven hair was pulled back, her tired eyes losing focus with every second. Riley squeezed her eyes shut for just a moment, regretting not getting a wink of sleep last night.
The youngest Avenger glanced up at Thor, who she supposed was technically the oldest Avenger in terms of age, as he slid a cup of coffee toward her. She faintly smiled at him and accepted the caffeinated beverage. She'd always appreciated that Thor managed to remember how she liked her coffee.
"Thanks," she told through a yawn. After taking a sip of it, Riley mentioned, "I guess your farewell party was kinda useless, right?"
"It's alright, Valor," insisted Thor. Judging his tone of voice, Riley could tell he was still frustrated with what happened. "When this is all over, we'll have to throw another one. The celebrations we throw on Asgard are legendary compared to the way you humans do it. Nonetheless, all victories should end in revels, remember?"
"I dunno," she lightly returned. "Steve nearly killed you for trying to give me a Beer last night. I doubt he'd want to have to do that again."
Thor shrugged. "Well, you are a growing young woman," he excused. "Rogers was overreacting." The two shared quiet laughs as voices filled the neighboring corridor.
She glanced back at the door, seeing as Maria and Steve headed in for the first time that morning. "Speak of the devil," she mused.
Steve merely walked forward and handed a small device to Thor, causing the others to move closer to see it. They hovered around in a small group to stare at the screen, causing Riley's vision to become blocked.
"What's this?" asked Tony, eyebrows furrowed together at the small screen. On the portable device was a photo of Strucker's dead body with the word PEACE written in his crimson blood on the wall next to him.
"A message," Steve clarified. "Ultron killed Strucker."
"And he did a Banksy at the crime scene, just for us," Tony muttered.
Standing up on her chair, Riley had to look over Tony's shoulders. She made a face at the disturbing image. "Is that supposed to be flattering?"
Natasha frowned while everyone backed away to give each other space again. "This is a smokescreen. Why send a message when you've just given a speech?"
"Strucker knew something that Ultron wanted us to miss," Steve noted.
His words sent a flurry of thoughts into Natasha's brain. She glanced back at the computer before her, mumbling, "Yeah, I bet he..." She was interrupted by the monitor flashing a series of words at her. "Yep. Everything we had on Strucker has been erased."
"Well, he didn't erase everything," Tony pointed out.
With that, the Avengers dove headfirst into countless boxes of physical files. Riley had always questioned why S.H.I.E.L.D. or any government organization would bother with transcribing physical files in a world of growing technology. Now, she understood why.
Riley rummaged through the boxes, searching for any and all information regarding Strucker, when she overheard Bruce call her name. She glanced up at him with curious eyes. "Figured you might want this," he quietly remarked, sliding a small photograph toward her.
Riley took the faded image in her hands and studied it. It was of a smiling man and woman holding a baby. Riley hesitated, unsure of who she was looking at until she looked down at the nametag the man wore on his lab coat. Rob O'Dair. Oh. These were Riley's parents.
It bothered Riley knowing that she didn't recognize her parents. She had seen them before in articles or other images, but every time, they looked like strangers. Still, whenever she realized who they were, she'd always smile. Riley pondered what her parents were really like. The stories never sufficed, but the pictures always did somehow. Pictures hold the stories of our past, after all.
Thanking Bruce and sticking the photo into her pocket, Riley soon got back to work. It felt like they were never going to get anywhere. It wasn't like there wasn't any information on Strucker. The problem was that there was too much.
"Known associates," Steve mumbled to himself. "Strucker had a lot of friends."
"Well, those guys were kinda terrible people," quoted Riley as she scuffled through more old photographs.
"Wait," Tony called. "I know that guy... from back in the day." He pointed at one of the images in Riley's hands. Without thinking twice, she passed it to him. "He operates off the African coast, black market arms." When Steve shot him an accusing look, Tony dismissed, "There are conventions, alright? You meet people. I didn't sell him anything."
Curious, Thor read aloud, "Ulysses Klaue."
Tony nodded. "He was talking about finding something new, a game-changer. It was all very Ahab."
Thor narrowed his eyes at the scar on the back of Klaue's neck. "This," he pointed out.
"Uh, it's a tattoo. I don't think he had it—"
"No," Thor inserted. "Those are tattoos." She pointed out the tattoos detailing his arms. Then, he traced his finger to the marking on his neck. "That is a brand."
Riley eyeballed the brand before asking for the photograph. She immediately made her way over to a nearby computer, scanning it to find more information regarding it.
"Bingo!" Riley exclaimed when the monitor flashed with data. "It's a word in an African dialect meaning "thief"." She paused, turning around and exchanging glances with Bruce, who had been standing next to her.
"In a really unfriendly way," Bruce added.
"What dialect?"
Bruce looked over the teenager's shoulder. "Wakanada...?" he trailed off. "Wa...?"
"Wa...?" Riley started, trying to help him out. "Wa...kanda...?" She furrowed her eyebrows together. "More like Wakanda nonsense do we have going on here?"
Ignoring her little comment, Tony and Steve's heads snapped toward each other. Tony looked worried. "If this guy got out of Wakanda with some of their trade goods..."
"I thought your father said he got the last of it?"
Bruce wasn't sure what they were talking about. To be frank, none of them did. "I don't follow. What comes out of Wakanda?" he inquired.
"The strongest metal on Earth," Tony revealed. Riley's eyes trailed down to Steve's shield. That didn't sound good to her.
Steve looked back at Tony. It seemed that their next move was tracking down Ulysses Klaue before Ultron got to him. "Where is this guy now?" he demanded.
○ ○ ○
The Avengers were now on their way to a Salvage Yard on the African Coast in pursuit of Ulysses Klaue. The theory was that Klaue could be sought out by Ultron to help fulfill his murder fantasy. If they got to Klaue in time, they could shut this whole thing down... hopefully.
The team maneuvered their way throughout the Salvage Yard, silent. It seemed their suspicions were right—Ultron and the twins wanted to use Vibranium for their mission, and they were taking it from Ulysses.
Riley moved ahead of the others, invisible. It was dark, the aroma of trash wafting into their noses. She could hardly stomach the smell of it.
As Ulysses handed Ultron a piece of Vibranium from his stash, Ultron declared, "Upon this rock, I will build my church. Vibranium."
"You know, it came at a great personal cost," admitted Ulysses.
By the time she found their targets, it seemed like Ultron (who was in a new robotic body) had just transferred funds into Ulysses's bank—a reward for helping him.
Chuckling, Ultron revealed, "Now, so are you. It's all under your dummy holdings? Finance is so weird. But I always say: Keep your friends rich and your enemies rich, and wait to find out which is which."
Riley's eyebrow twitched upward. That sounded like something Tony would say, which she supposed made sense.
Ulysses's face dropped, eyes now filled with pure hatred. "Stark... Tony Stark used to say that... You're one of his."
"What!? I'm not...!" Ultron exclaimed, suddenly irritated. When one of Klaue's buddies tried to grab his gun for protection, Wanda used her powers to restrain him. Meanwhile, Ultron grabbed Ulysses. "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 nothing!"
Without warning, Ultron chopped Klaue's arm off. Riley remained stone-faced despite her stomach doing flips at the sight.
Ultron cringed at what he'd done. "I'm sorry. I am sor—Ooh, I'm sure that's gonna be okay. I'm sorry, it's just. I don't understand. Don't compare me with Stark!" He proceeded to aggressively kick Ulysses down a nearby flight of stairs. "It's a thing with me. Stark is, he's a sickness!"
It was peculiar to Riley to witness Ultron in his natural state. It was so evident that he was a Stark creation, yet Ultron despised Tony.
Riley glanced over her shoulder when Thor, Steve, and Tony caught up with her. She had a habit of getting ahead of herself since she could pass through any place without being detected.
Tony descended in his Iron Man suit. "Ah, Junior," greeted Tony. "You're gonna break your old man's heart."
Riley glanced toward the side, seeing Clint and Natasha sneaking toward them. She noticed how tense the twins became at the sight of the Avengers, specifically Tony. Riley remembered how much Sokovia hated Tony because of Stark Industries.
"If I have to," Ultron casually replied.
"We don't have to break anything," Thor disagreed.
Ultron scoffed. "Clearly you've never made an omelet."
Riley pinched her eyebrows together. "Have you? You can't even eat anything."
Meanwhile, Tony just tsk'd. "He beat me by one second."
Riley studied the twins as the male of the two walked forward. She wouldn't have thought he and his sister were twins at first. Pietro was tall and he had platinum blond hair and grey-blue eyes, whereas Wanda was a bit shorter, a brunette, and had bright green eyes. However, upon closer inspection, she could see it.
She frowned. They were too young to be caught up on the wrong side of justice like this. Riley assumed the twins couldn't be too much older than her.
"Ah, this is funny, Mr. Stark," greeted Pietro. His accent was thick and filled with bitterness. He nodded toward the missiles on the level beneath the group. "It's, what, comfortable? Like old times?"
"This was never my life," Tony fired back.
Steve nodded, eyeing the twins. "You two can still walk away from this."
Wanda Maximoff's lips curved into a smirk. "Oh, we will," she assured.
"I know you've suffered—" Steve tried to continue.
"Gah! Captain America," interrupted Ultron. He lightly chuckled before his tone went dark. "God's righteous man, pretending you could live without a war. I can't physically throw up in my mouth, but—"
Riley, on the other hand, cringed at how similar Ultron and Tony were. The way they spoke, the way they carried themselves, it was too much for her. "Do you think you're funny or something?" she interjected. "Seriously, you get all jacked and forget how to act."
Thor stared up at Ultron in his new form. "If you believe in peace, then let us keep it," he insisted.
"I think you're confusing peace with quiet," argued Ultron.
"Uh-huh," dismissed Tony. "What's the Vibranium for?"
"I'm glad you asked that! Because I wanted to take this time to explain my evil plan!" sarcastically proclaimed Ultron before the Iron Legions burst through the wall, attacking the Avengers without hesitation just as they did at the Avengers HQ.
Riley gasped at the unexpectedness of the attack as she was unintentionally knocked into a wall, forcing her to turn visible again. She rolled onto the ground to avoid getting pummeled.
The Iron Legion was completely overridden. They now worked for Ultron, which wasn't doing the Avengers any favors. Steve, Riley, and Thor took on the Iron Legion and the twins, whereas Tony went after Ultron. Meanwhile, Natasha and Clint worked through Ulysses Klaue's henchmen.
Riley's eyes widened to the size of bowling balls as one of the robots leaned over her. She didn't give it a chance to attack her. She forged a forcefield through its midsection, causing it to fall apart into two clean pieces. Then, Riley got back on her feet, using her enhanced strength to take on the robots.
She delivered a swift kick to the chest of one of the robots, sending it flying backward. From there, Thor used his hammer to finish it off. It was always a little intimidating for Riley whenever she worked directly alongside people like Steve and Thor. She never wanted them to think she was falling behind, so she always tried to pull out all the stops.
Riley had been trying something new with her powers lately. Her new thing was conjuring UV rays from her surroundings in the form of energy that she could shoot out at others. She couldn't do it very efficiently or for very long, but sometimes, she could, and in her opinion, that was what mattered most.
Fortunately, this was one of those times where Riley could do it. Her fists glowed with a hilariously faint light as she fought the Iron Legion. It was a little frustrating to think she had spent so much time helping Tony with the Iron Legion, just to destroy it.
Riley yelped when a blur pushed her to the ground. She quickly got back on her feet, just to get pushed down again. Riley groaned from the ground, knowing her attacker was Pietro.
He sprinted back to her side and stared at her menacingly. "You didn't see that coming?" Pietro taunted.
She narrowed her eyes at him. "Two can play at that game," she sneered. With that, she turned invisible, but not without entrapping Pietro within one of her forcefields.
Riley stood up and moved through her forcefield. She hadn't quite figured out how to phase through actual objects like walls, but Bruce theorized that it was possible since UV rays aren't visible to the naked eye, meaning that they can travel through solids. For now, all Riley could do was phase through her own forcefields.
She raised her fist, punching Pietro in the jaw and sending him over a ledge into some boxes. It had happened so fast that Pietro wasn't able to process what she had done until he was pushed down.
Riley rolled her eyes, staring down at him. "You didn't see that coming?" she mocked. She paused, adding, "You didn't. That's the point."
With that, Riley continued on her way throughout the Salvage Yard, taking down robots and Klaue's henchmen with every other step.
"Thor! Status?" Steve shouted.
"The girl tried to warp my mind. Take special care, I doubt a human could keep her at bay," Thor quickly advised. "Fortunately, I am mighty."
Riley nodded at his words. It didn't matter if Thor was fine. Riley needed to avoid Wanda at all costs. The last thing she needed was to be mind-controlled, especially in an environment like this one.
"I'm fine," Riley quietly told herself. She turned down a corridor, surprised to see that none of their enemies were in it. She shrugged and walked through it, cautious. "If I manifest not being mind-controlled, it won't happen."
She felt herself go lightheaded for a moment. Her brown eyes, which usually turned purple when she used her powers, flashed a shade of bright red. Wanda, who had been stalking after her in silence, had snuck up on her. Riley didn't notice that quite yet though.
"Nope, I'm strong as an ox," she continued to mumble. "No mind-control for me—" She hesitated, suddenly realizing that she wasn't in the Salvage Yard anymore.
Bright, fluorescent lights blinded her. She raised her hand to shield her face until her sensitive eyes eventually adjusted. She looked around, puzzled as to where she was. Clean, white walls swallowed the world. The tiles beneath her feet were buffed and shined to perfection and the smell of chemicals burned her nose. Her ears perked up when she heard voices.
Riley wandered through the room, quickly discerning that she was in a laboratory. Not thinking anything of her surroundings, Riley soon stumbled upon a couple. They were both wearing lab coats and they appeared to be working on some kind of experiment.
"Do you think if we introduce a new regent under your microscope, we could minimize the cell wall? Or should we leave that one alone?"
"Mm, maybe leave it alone for now. I don't wanna mess up anything we already have, you know?"
"Yeah, of course."
Riley tilted her head to the side, curious. Something about them was so familiar to her. She glanced to her left to see the face of Roman beside her. Riley didn't seem troubled by his presence even though he was supposed to be dead. Instead, she wondered, "Hey, Mood Ring, who are these guys?"
Roman rolled his eyes. He stuffed his hands into his pockets, as he casually stood beside her. "I thought I told you that's a stupid nickname," he grumbled. "Those are your parents. Athena and Rob? Ring a bell?"
Riley made an o-shape with her mouth. "I knew that," she calmly dismissed. "...What are they doing?"
Roman shrugged. "Does it look like I care?"
Riley snapped her head back toward the brooding teenager. "You're annoying."
"So are you."
Riley snorted. "Touché." She looked back at the couple: her parents. Riley watched them in awe as they worked. They were so in sync with each other that it was mesmerizing. "My parents, huh?"
"That's what I said."
Riley nudged him with her elbow. "I didn't ask for the sass," she lightly insisted. She walked closer to them. They didn't seem to notice her and Roman. "Hey, how come they can't hear us? Or see us?"
"Pass me the micropipette? The 20."
"Anything for you, amor."
"Yeah, yeah, just pass me the pipette, Rob," teased Athena.
Roman leaned against the counter. "They've always been that way. Whenever they're in the labs, nothing matters but their work," he explained. "I guess that's why they're so good at their jobs, right?"
Riley hummed. "Maybe, but—?"
She was interrupted by Rob suddenly turning around and grabbing Riley by the neck. He lifted his daughter into the air with a furious gleam in his eyes. "You did this!" roared Rob. "You killed us!"
"Whoa, what!?" Riley cried, squirming under her iron-grip. She felt her airway being crushed the more Rob squeezed her neck. No matter what she did, she couldn't defeat her father. "R-Roman!?"
She fought against Rob, but she couldn't free herself. Athena glared daggers at Riley. "What did we ever do to you?" hissed Athena. "You took everything from us!"
Riley sharply gasped as Rob threw her. She crashed into the neighboring equipment, causing them to clatter onto the floor. Her legs felt heavy, almost as if sandbags were shackled to her ankles. Riley sat up on the floor and tried to scoot away from her parents as they attacked her.
Roman, nonchalant as ever, just loudly whistled. "That's gotta hurt," he casually narrated.
"You killed us!" Athena bellowed. "You killed us, you killed Coulson, you killed Roman. You killed us all!"
Rob continued to attack her, throwing pieces of equipment and chemicals at her. Every time Riley tried to use her forcefields against him, she was rendered weak. She couldn't run, she couldn't fight. All she could do was sit and watch.
"Who's next?" Rob spat. "Natasha? Tony? I bet you'll be the reason they all die. It'll be your fault, Riley! It's all your fault!"
Riley squeezed her eyes shut, raised her arms over her face, and waited for the end as Rob hovered overhead. But, at the last second, Athena shouted, "RILEY, DON'T TOUCH THAT!"
She opened one of her eyes as her face was pressed against the dirtied floor. A small, two-year-old girl wandered carelessly throughout the laboratory until she stumbled upon something that caught her eye. The child giggled, her brown eyes filled with glee.
Then, a flash of white blinded Riley once more. All that was heard in the abyss that overtook her mind were the helpless screams of her biological parents. They were dead. She had killed them.
"Riley? Come on, Riley, we can't stay here."
Now back in reality, Riley found herself sitting in a corner. Her back was pressed against the wall as she hugged her knees and helplessly cried. Hot tears cascaded down her cheeks until Riley realized what had happened.
Steve Rogers kneeled before her, worried. "Hey," he gently greeted. "Are you with me, Riley? The witch, she warped our minds—"
He let out a quiet oof as Riley reached out and wrapped her arms around Steve in a weak embrace. She continued to sob into his broad shoulder, mumbling, "I killed them. My parents, they're gone. Roman's gone. Phil's gone. Everyone's dead. I killed them, Steve. I killed them and it's my fault."
Steve faltered. He hadn't been expecting that. He knew they needed to flee the Salvage Yard and he knew that Wanda had manipulated their minds. Steve was still shaken up by what he had seen, personally, but he couldn't just ignore the fact that Riley was crying.
He pulled his arms around her and lifted her as she continued to cry into his shoulder. "It's okay," Steve quietly told her. "I've got you."
Steve wasn't sure what Wanda had shown her, but it wasn't very hard to guess. As he carried Riley back to the quinjet, he couldn't help but feel a greater sense of protectiveness over Riley.
Riley couldn't focus on anything else. For the next few hours, the sounds of her parents screaming played on repeat. Even if it wasn't real, all Riley could think about was the fact that her parents were right:
Riley would be the downfall of the people she held closest to her.