"Worthy... no... how could you be worthy? You're all killers." A robot says as it limps into view, making us all stand up.
"Stark," Dad says.
"JARVIS," Tony calls out.
"I'm sorry, I was asleep. Or...I was a-dream?" The robot continues.
Tony taps on the tablet in his hand. "Reboot, Legionnaire OS, we got a buggy suit."
"There was a terrible noise...and I was tangled in... in...strings. I had to kill the other guy. He was a good guy." The robot says as he stumbles to keep balance.
"You killed someone?" Dad questions.
Before he can continue I start laughing. "Alright Stark jokes over. I know this is a prank."
"I don't think this is a prank (Y/n)," Roy mutters.
"Look Pinocchio, you're crashing our party here so how about you take your broken robotic butt to the elevator and leave," I say to it.
"Wouldn't have been my first call. But, down in the real world we're faced with ugly choices." The robot says, answering Dad's question. It turns to me. "Don't think I won't hesitate to kill you too."
"Try me bitch." I dare. Dad slaps the back of my head.
"Who sent you?" Thor asks.
The robot plays a recording, 'I see a suit of armor around the world.' It was Tony's voice.
"Ultron!" Bruce says. I look at him confused.
"In the flesh. Or, no, not yet. Not this...chrysalis. But I'm ready. I'm on a mission." Ultron says. I nudge Roy, telling him to get ready because I already know something is gonna go down. I look to see Thor ready his hammer and Maria loads her gun. Roy slowly bends down to grab the katanas.
"What mission?" Natasha asks.
"Peace in our time," Ultron says and then Tony's Iron Legion smashes through the wall behind him.
I quickly grab Roy as Dad pushes us out of the way and kicks the table in front of him, but is thrown back by a robot. Roy and I fall to the ground and I look at him.
"You okay?" I ask him.
"Yeah I'm fine." He answers.
We get up just as a legionnaire flies down at me, trying to scoop me up. I'm ready to attack it, but just then Roy swings his katana and cuts the robot in half. I look at him and smile, he smiles back. I give him a fist pump and then run to take the other legionnaires down, knowing Roy can handle himself.
I quickly take off my heels because I know I can't run in them and I take down some more bots as they keep coming. Glass is flying everywhere, gunshots are being fired, and blasts are fired towards us. I see Dad jump on a legionnaire's back and punch at it, but the thing flies backwards smashing him into the wall behind them.
As I'm running I see a legionnaire near Doctor Cho. I run to her and speed punch the robot, breaking it into pieces.
"Are you alright?" I ask her. She nods and I run off again.
I take down another bot as I hear Clint call out to Dad.
"Cap!" He yells and throws Dad his shield.
Dad catches the shield and throws it at the last bot, breaking it into pieces.
"That was dramatic!" Ultron says as we all look at him.
"Yeah, coming from you Pinocchio," I say back to him.
"I'm sorry, 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 picks up one of the dismantled Iron Legions. "With these? These puppets?" He crushes the robot's face. Roy comes up beside me, katanas still in his hands. I look at him and he looks back. We then focus on Ultron as he continues. "There's only one path to peace: The Avengers' extinction."
"You talk too much." I groan and run at him, throwing a speed punch that leaves Ultron in pieces. I look back to see everyone looking at me. "What? He was getting on my nerves." I shrug.
Ultron starts singing, "I had strings, but now I'm free."
I look back at the robot in confusion. The robot's eyes go dark and then all was silent.
"Is everyone okay? Anybody hurt?" Dad asks everyone.
"We're good." We all say.
"Probably a bit shook up. Minor cuts and bruises but we'll walk it off." I reassure Dad.
Maria looks at Roy. "Since when did you learn how to fight?" She asks him.
"Took martial arts since I was five." Roy shrugs. "My dad also took me out hunting before so I know how to use a gun."
"I remember that!" I say. "You took out a deer on your first shot. I called you a sharpshooter." I chuckle at the memory.
"Can we get back to the fact that there's now a murder bot on the loose," Clint says.
"Let's head down to the lab," Natasha suggests.
We all nod and make our way to the elevator. Thor goes off to find out where the legionnaire went. Once in the lab Bruce starts checking to see if anything is missing and Natasha helps. I stand around, annoyed and tired. I then feel a sharp pain in my feet. I look down and forgot I took off my heels so I could run.
"You're leaving bloody footprints in my lab," Tony says. I glare at him.
"Well maybe if you didn't create a murder bot I wouldn't have glass in my feet!" I snap at him.
Before Tony could retort, Dad speaks up. "(Y/n) you're hurt." He says with worry in his voice.
I don't say anything as I just look down at my feet. Dad sweeps me up off my feet and places me on a table. He checks my feet and winces.
Doctor Cho comes over and takes a look at my feet. "I can handle this." She reassures Dad and he nods.
She gets a pair of tweezers from a table. I'm guessing I have a lot of glass in my feet, but at this point, I don't care. I'm tired and pissed.
"All our work is gone. Ultron cleared out, used the internet as an escape hatch." Bruce says as Doctor Cho pulls out the glass shards in my feet. I wince a little in pain, but I don't say anything.
"Ultron." Dad mouths.
"He's been in everything. Files, surveillance. Probably knows more about us than we know about each other." Natasha says.
"He's in your files, he's in the internet. What if he decides to access something a little more exciting?" Rhodey asks.
"Nuclear codes," Maria says.
"Nuclear codes." Rhodey agrees. "Look, we need to make some calls, assuming we still can."
"Nukes? He said he wanted us dead." Natasha says.
"He didn't say dead. He said extinct." Dad corrects.
"What's the difference?" I ask as Doctor Cho finishes taking the last piece of glass out of my feet. She begins to bandage them, knowing I can heal fast so I don't need her tissue regeneration machine.
"He also said he killed somebody," Clint says, ignoring what I said.
"But there wasn't anyone else in the building," Maria says.
"Yes there was," Tony says as he brings up a 3D image of JARVIS' consciousness.
"Not my man JARVIS," I say, kinda sad because JARVIS was actually really cool. Especially when he sasses people.
I go to stand up, but Doctor Cho pushes me back lightly. "You need to let them heal." She says.
I shake my head. "No it's fine." I insisted and hop off the table which causes me to wince in pain on impact. I make my way next to Roy.
"This is insane," Bruce says as he steps closer to the 3D image.
Dad looks down as he says, "JARVIS was the first line of defense. He would've shut Ultron down, it makes sense."
"No, Ultron could've assimilated JARVIS. This isn't strategy, this is...rage." Bruce disagrees.
Thor stomps into the lab, looking pissed as ever. He goes up to Tony and grabs him by the throat, lifting him in the air.
"Woah, woah, woah," Rhodey says.
"It's going around," Clint says as he watches the scene in front of him.
"Come on. Use your words, buddy." Tony grunts to Thor.
"I have more than enough words to describe you, Stark," Thor says.
I snort. "Don't we all."
"Thor! The Legionnaire." Dad steps forward.
Thor puts Tony down and he stumbles backward.
"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 says aggressively.
"I just found that damn thing too Stark! It took me months!" I yell at him. Dad doesn't scold me knowing I have every right to be mad at him. He knows how hard I worked to find that scepter.
"The genie's out of that bottle. Clear and present is Ultron." Natasha says.
"I don't understand." Doctor Cho starts as she turns to face us. "You built this program. Why is it trying to kill us?"
Tony starts laughing while Bruce shakes his head at him, telling him to stop.
"What the hell is so funny?!" I yell at him.
"You think this is funny?" Thor says at the same time I yell at him.
Tony then stops and says, "No. It's probably not, right? This is very terrible? Is it so...is it so...it is. It's so terrible."
"This could've been avoided if you hadn't played with something you don't understand," Thor says to him.
"No, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. It is funny. It's a hoot that you don't get why we need this." Tony says as he steps up to Thor.
"Tony, maybe this might not be the time to..." Bruce starts but is cut off.
"Really?! That's it? You just roll over, show your belly, every time somebody snarls." Tony says as he looks back at Bruce.
"Only when I've created a murder bot." Bruce retorts back.
"We didn't. We weren't even close. Were we close to an interface?"
"Well, you did something right. And you did it right here. The Avengers were supposed to be different than SHIELD." Dad says to him.
"Anybody remember when I carried a nuke through a wormhole?"
"No, it's never come up," Rhodey says as he shakes his head.
"Saved New York?"
"Never heard that."
"Recall that? A hostile alien army came charging through a hole in space. We're standing three hundred feet below it. We're the Avengers. We can bust arms dealers all the livelong day, but that up there? That's...that's the end game. How were you guys planning on beating that?" Tony looks at all of us.
"Together." Dad answers.
"We'll lose."
I look at Dad then back at Tony. "Then we'll do that together, too." Dad and I say. Dad looks at me and gives me a small smile.
"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." Dad says to all of us.
"And this is why you're the Man With The Plan," I say to Dad and smirk.
I then suddenly yawn, it's really late.
"I think we all should go to sleep," Roy says as he yawns too. "It's late."
The others nod in agreement and make their way out. I was gonna join them, but Roy stops me.
"I'll carry you." He says.
I shake my head. "No, it's fine. I think I'll manage." I say, but Roy doesn't take no as an answer because he sweeps me off my feet and carries me to the elevator. "This is so unnecessary," I tell him. I lean my head against his chest and close my eyes as I feel his warm body against mine.
"No it's not. You're hurt and I'm doing you a favor." He says.
I hear him open a door and feel him set me down on my bed. I feel him collapse on the bed next to me. I open my eyes a little to see him completely passed out on my bed, both of us still in our party outfits. I smile a little and close my eyes, drifting off to sleep.
—ASE715