Chapter 12
Buffy and Steve moved around the kitchen making themselves a quick breakfast before they headed back upstairs to continue trying to find Ultron. Steve was in his Under Armor and the bottom of his suit while Buffy was in her suit. The rest of their suits were in the Super Suit Suite ready to go for whenever they needed them. Buffy's scythe was propped against the table next to Steve's shield. They were rarely far from their sights.
"What were you and Angel talking about last night?" Steve asked suddenly.
"When?" Buffy asked, turning to grab some butter from the refrigerator.
"Just before Thor came over to talk to you about us."
"Oh, I think Nat has a crush on him. I was encouraging him to pursue it."
"Really?" He chuckled. "Didn't see that one coming."
"I did."
"You did?"
"Yeah. Why is everyone so surprised that Natasha and I talk men and shopping and all that other girly stuff?"
"I'm not surprised. You two spend a lot of time together. I just meant…. How could you tell?"
"After she met him, she always perked up when we talked about him."
"You're not upset that she might want a relationship with your ex who was the love of your life?"
Buffy smiled and set down the toast she was working on. She wrapped her arms around Steve's waist and looked up at him. "I love you. Angel was the love of my adolescent life. I grew up and while yes, I will always have a special place in my heart for him, you are the love for the rest of my life. We've been waiting for each other, remember?"
Steve smiled and leaned down to kiss her, wrapping his arms around her. "I love you, too." They ate the last bites of their breakfast and he went over to call the elevator. "Ready?"
"As I'll ever be to face homicidal software."
When they walked into the destroyed apartment where they'd first encountered Ultron, Maria Hill greeted them, handing a coffee to Buffy. "You're the best." Buffy said. "What have we gotten so far?"
"He's all over the globe." Maria said, following them towards the lab. "Robotics labs, weapons facilities, jet propulsion labs, reports of a metal man, or men, coming in and emptying the place."
"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."
"The Maximoffs." Buffy said.
"That makes sense he'd go to them, they have someone in common." Steve said.
"Not anymore." Maria handed Steve a tablet showing a photo of Strucker's dead body with the word PEACE written in blood on the wall next to him.
"That's kind of a mixed message." Buffy said.
"Is it? If it was my mission…. World peace…. I'd probably take out Strucker, too. Ultron could be in any system. He could be pulling planes down from the sky. What if he's just doing what he's supposed to?"
Buffy shook her head. "If I thought Ultron were bringing peace, I'd let Steve buy that house he's been eyeing and we'd start trying for kids tomorrow."
Maria cocked an eyebrow at her. "Would you?"
Buffy shot her a confused glare. "Just let us know if he leaves anymore messages." She turned and walked away.
Steve sighed and went after her. "Hey…. What was that about?"
Before Buffy could answer, they heard Barton say, "That's a negative. I answer to you. Yes, ma'am." He noticed them standing there. "Gotta go." He hung up and stuck his phone back in his pocket. "Girlfriend."
"Didn't know you had one." Buffy said. "Any of your old contacts come through?"
"Still waiting."
"Wait faster." Buffy kept moving and walked into the lab. Natasha was on the computer talking to Rhodes who had gone back to Washington. Thor walked over to join them.
"Any news from on high?" Steve asked him.
"Heimdall is either away from his post or he's been ordered not to answer. But Ultron can't hide forever. We'll find him."
"Well, he's not exactly hiding." Steve handed Thor the tablet with the picture of Strucker's body.
"What's this?" Tony asked as Thor pushed the tablet into his chest.
"A message." Buffy said. "Ultron killed Strucker."
"And he did a Banksy at the crime scene, just for us."
"This is good." Natasha said.
"No. That's not good." Bruce argued.
"He's showing us his hand. This isn't his pattern. This is a smokescreen. Why send a message when you've just given a speech?"
"Strucker knew something that Ultron wanted us to miss." Buffy said.
"Yeah, I bet he…." Natasha hit some keys on the keyboard. "Yep. Everything we had on Strucker has been erased."
"Not everything." Tony said. He pointed at Buffy. "Good thinking on your part, Summers."
Buffy smiled. "Told you printing out those physical files would be a good idea."
"They're at the new HQ. We can have them down here in less than half an hour."
"Good. Get it done."
A couple of hours later, the team was waist deep in file folders and papers. There were boxes on every table and the whole room was a cluttered mess. "Known associates." Steve read. "Well, Strucker had a lot of friends."
"Well, these people are all horrible." Bruce said.
"Wait. Summers, go back." Tony said. Buffy flipped back to the last page she'd been looking at with a picture attached. "I know that guy." She handed him the picture. "From back in the day. He operates off the African coast, black market arms." Steve shot Tony an accusing look. "There are conventions, all right? You meet people. I didn't sell him anything."
"Ulysses Klaue." Buffy read.
"He was talking about finding something new, a game changer, it was all very 'Ahab.'"
Thor pointed to the scar on the back of Klaue's neck. "This."
"Uh, it's a tattoo. I don't think he had it…."
"No, those are tattoos, this is a brand."
"Bruce, can you…." Buffy took the photo and handed it to Bruce.
A few minutes of fast typing and internet searching, Bruce had identified the brand on Klaue's neck. "Oh, yeah. It's a word in an African dialect meaning thief, in a much less friendly way."
"What dialect?" Steve asked.
"Wakanada…? Wa…. Wa.… Wakanda."
Tony looked over at Steve. "If this guy got out of Wakanda with some of their trade goods…."
"I thought your father said he got the last of it?" Steve said.
"I'm not following." Buffy said. "What comes out of Wakanda?"
Tony looked at Steve's shield. "The strongest metal on earth."
"Where is this guy now?" Steve asked.
Buffy checked her wrist launchers and thigh holsters one more time before stepping off the back of the quinjet. Her scythe was securely in its holster on her back, ready for her and Steve's use. She flexed her fingers in the gloves and made sure they were powered up.
"You ok?" Steve asked as they headed for Klaue's base of operations.
"Yeah. Just wondering if we should've called in Willow." Buffy said.
"Why?" Tony asked, all suited up in his Iron Man suit.
"The Maximoff girl has powers. Willow might be able to counteract her."
"Little late now."
"Not necessarily. She can teleport. Tony will you notify Willow that she might be needed?"
"On it."
"I'll let you know when to send out the signal."
Tony looked down at Buffy after sending out a call to Willow. "So, you think the Maximoff girl is just a witch?"
"Maybe she started out as a witch and whatever experiments Strucker did on her enhanced certain witchy abilities. Willow is able can mess with the mind like the girl does and I've seen all different colors come from her hands. Red usually means someone is saying 'ow'."
"Been on the receiving end of those powers, huh?" Barton asked.
"Once."
The entire Avengers team let out a collective yelp and jumped back when Willow suddenly appeared in front of them in a flash of green light. Buffy's quick reflexes kept Tony from shooting her. "I didn't give the signal!" Tony said.
"I know." Willow smiled. "I came anyway. Can't let you guys have all the fun." She looked at everyone's Avenger suits and then down at her jeans and bell sleeved blouse. "I am way under dressed."
"You're fine." Buffy looked at the abandoned ship sitting in front of them. "This thing is huge. We need to fan out. Willow, you go with Barton and stay close to him. Sweep the high decks on this side. Nat, you take the higher decks on that side. Steve, you and I will take this side of the ship's lower decks and Tony and Thor, you guys take the lower decks on that side. Take out any guards you can so no one sounds the alarm that we're here. Stun, don't kill. We'll meet in the middle."
"Yes, ma'am!" Tony saluted and he and Thor took off. Barton led Willow away and Natasha disappeared around the boat.
Steve pointed to a missing door in the side of the ship about halfway up. "That looks like a good place for us to enter." They made their way over to the door and Steve crouched down to give Buffy a boost up. She stepped on the shield with one foot and pushed off with the other. Steve pushed up and she flew up into the open door. She looked around for something to help Steve up and found an emergency fire hose.
Steve easily climbed up the hose and they headed into the bowels of the ship. There weren't many guards, but the place seemed to be a workshop. Opting not to take out the workers, they stealthily maneuvered around them while keeping an eye out for Klaue. As they got closer to the middle of the ship, they heard some workers walk past discussing that Klaue was talking with a "giant metal man" in his office with a couple of kids.
"Ultron is here with the Maximoffs." Buffy said.
Steve activated his comm unit. "Stark, what's your location?"
"We're nearing the rendezvous point. No sign of Klaue yet."
"Guys, stay on alert. Ultron is here with the twins." Buffy said. "Barton, make sure Willow is ready to go."
"Copy that." Barton said.
Steve rounded a corner and they were suddenly in the middle of the old cargo bay. Ultron was standing on a catwalk with the twins behind him and a man who apparently had just had his arm ripped off. "Don't compare me with Stark!" Ultron yelled. He kicked the one armed man down the stairs. "It's a thing with me. Stark is…. He's a sickness!"
Tony and Thor appeared on the other side of the walkway and met up with Buffy and Steve. "Ahh, Junior. You're gonna break your old man's heart." Tony said.
"If I have to."
"We don't have to break anything." Thor said.
"Clearly you've never made an omelet."
"He beat me by one second." Tony said.
"Ah, this is funny, Mr. Stark." Pietro Maximoff said. "It's what, comfortable? Like old times?"
"This was never my life."
"You two can still walk away from this." Steve said.
"Oh, we will." Ultron said.
Steve ignored him. "I know you've suffered."
Ultron groaned loudly. "Captain America. God's righteous man, pretending you could live without a war. I can't physically throw up in my mouth, but…."
"If you believe in peace, then let us keep it." Buffy said.
"I think you're confusing peace with quiet."
"Yuh-huh. What's the Vibranium for?" Tony asked.
"I'm glad you asked that, because I wanted to take this time to explain my evil plan!" Suddenly the Iron Legion was there attacking Tony, Buffy, Steve, and Thor. Tony ignored them to attack Ultron.
Buffy grabbed her scythe off her back and brought it around in a deadly arc, taking off one of the Legion's heads. She dodged another that went after Thor and buried her blade in the back of one that was holding Steve against the railing. She turned to see Wanda Maximoff standing there with a ball of red ready to throw. Steve came to block the energy ball with his shield, but Willow, from her standpoint next to Barton up high, saw it. She threw her hands out and Wanda flew backwards, the ball of energy dissipating.
Guns started shooting and Steve turned the shield to block the bullets from hitting him and Buffy. They realized that the crew was now shooting at them along with the Iron Legion trying to bash their brains in. Buffy and Steve moved back to back, taking out robots and dodging bullets. A blur whizzed past her and her scythe was nearly yanked out of her hands by Pietro. She was much stronger than him and managed to hold on, but she went flying over the railing from the speed and landed hard in a large group of men. They turned and were ready to shoot, but Willow had thrown a magical force field around her and the bullets just bounced off. They ricocheted into the crowd, taking out some of the men.
Buffy got up and put her scythe back. Willow dropped the magical force field and Buffy started throwing punches, knocking the guys out. Some of them were knocked out with her tranquilizer darts. The crowd around her thinned and the rest of the men ran off. Pietro suddenly appeared at her feet, crashing into a large stack of containers. He tried to get up, but Buffy turned and punched him in the head, disorienting him.
"Stay down!" Buffy ordered, turning back to the rest of the fight. Two large men showed up with guns and she rolled out of the way, popping up behind them. Just for fun, she knocked their heads together and watched them go down with a giggle. She heard Steve laugh above her and as she looked up to smile at him, Pietro suddenly rammed into her with all his speed and threw her across the room. She landed hard against some metal barrels and saw stars for a moment.
Wanda appeared above her and threw her red magic at Buffy's head. She disappeared with Pietro and Buffy got painfully to her feet. Her head swam and her vision blurred. She blinked a few times to clear it and found herself standing in the kitchen of a house she didn't recognize. Somewhere in the house kids were screaming and things were banging around.
"Are you even listening?" Steve asked behind her.
Buffy turned to him, confused, and realized she was in a vintage dress with a full skirt and she had an apron on. "What?"
Steve continued to have an argument with her, but she was only half listening as she inspected her dress and the kitchen around her. "The boys need a bath, the kitchen is a wreck, the rest of the house isn't far behind, Fido needs to be taken out for a walk…. You're acting like this is all too much for you!" She realized he was in old fashioned clothing and the kitchen looked straight out of the early 50s. There was a large spot of blood on her shoulder and a bruise was forming on her arm. "How can you still go out and be the Slayer? How could you go back on your word to me that our fighting days were done? You wanted this life and now you hate it! You'd rather go out and get killed than be here with your family!"
Buffy looked up at Steve, ready to defend herself, but the house around them had changed and they were standing in their townhouse's kitchen in the modern world.
"This is nice." Steve was saying as he poured them drinks from the Sprite bottle. "No missions to go on. No enemies knocking down our door. It's just the two of us."
"We've had this conversation already." Buffy said, confused. She remembered wearing the same pink flannel pajama bottoms and black tank top. They were getting ready to watch Casablanca again. Buffy tried to beat Steve to what he was about to say, but he didn't seem to hear her.
"We could do it, I think. Give up the fight. Put down our weapons. Stop ending up in hospitals." He chuckled. "I'd like that last part the most."
"What about Bucky?" She hadn't meant to continue the conversation, but apparently whatever Wanda Maximoff did to her prevented her from going off script too much.
"Sam's still on it. We don't have to join the Avengers again in New York."
"And when he finds him?"
"Then we'll bring him back here and we'll make him better. We'll be a family. We can finally start settling down and maybe even work on that subtle hint Giles gave us when he bought the townhouse with the biggest backyard." He laughed as he handed her one of the glasses. "Buck always wanted to be an uncle."
Buffy chuckled. "I'm not sure he'd be ready for that."
"And what about you?" Buffy turned to see herself in her Avengers suit standing with her arms crossed. "Are you ready for that, Buffy?"
Buffy gasped awake and looked around her. She shook her head to clear the cobwebs and found Willow and Steve kneeling in front of her. She was still laying among the scattered metal barrels. "Buffy?" Steve asked.
"The Maximoffs…."
"They're gone." Willow said. "The girl got everyone with her witchy woo. She tried to get me and Clint, but I stunned her with a little mind spell of my own." Buffy looked up at Steve and he gave her a tight smile. Whatever he'd seen, it had shaken him. "Are you ok?"
Buffy got to her feet with some help and shook her head again. "I don't know."
"What did you see?" Steve asked.
"I, uh…. I'm not sure." Buffy looked over at Willow. "Everyone?"
"Clint's got Natasha. He's taking her back to the quinjet. Thor is still roaming around, I think. I'm not sure I want to try and bring him back from whatever he's seeing."
Buffy's eyes widened. "Bruce."
Willow followed behind Buffy and Steve as they made their way out of the boat and back to the Quinjet. Natasha was sitting in one of the chairs staring off into space and Barton was watching something on a tablet. "We've got a serious problem." He handed the tablet over to show them a news channel streaming video of the Hulk fighting with the Hulkbuster that Bruce and Tony had created. They were completely destroying the city.
"Is this now?" Willow asked.
"Stark's bringing Banner in now. He finally knocked out the Hulk by completely destroying a skyscraper that was under construction." Buffy and Steve exchanged worried looks. "We just got our asses handed to us. I think it would be a good idea to go into stealth mode once we take off."
"Yeah. That is a good idea." Buffy said, looking at the destruction being played on the screen. She turned away and looked at Willow.
"Who is Ultron?" Willow asked. "What did you guys do to him to make him so angry?"
"Tony and Bruce…. Created him…. It."
"They were trying to make it a sentient being to protect the world so we wouldn't have to." Steve said.
"But Ultron's idea of peace on earth is destroying all of humanity. Starting with the Avengers."
"What are we going to do about it?" Willow asked.
Buffy smiled. "Ultron is in the Internet. Can you go to New York and work with Maria Hill on tracking Ultron? You know computers as well as Tony does. If anyone can keep tabs on Ultron, it's you."
"Yeah. What about the girl?" Willow gestured behind her at the boat where they'd battled the Maximoff twins.
"I'll call you back in when she shows back up."
"Gotcha." Willow smiled at Buffy and Steve before disappearing in the same green light she'd appeared in.
"Still can't get used to that." Steve said. He turned to Barton. "Is Nat going to be ok?"
"I'm fine." Natasha said quietly.
Buffy looked up at Steve. "Let's get this bird in the air and get the hell out of here."
Night had fallen and Barton was flying the quinjet. They didn't have a destination in mind since everyone was quiet and not willing to speak up just yet. The entire team was spread out in the jet. Steve and Buffy were sitting all the way in the back on opposite walls and avoiding eye contact with each other. Barton was flying the jet while Natasha sat staring at the floor behind him. Bruce was back to normal and curled up on the floor of the jet wrapped in a blanket. Thor was standing off to the side standing like a hunched over statue. Tony was sitting on the other side of the jet talking to Hill and Willow on his tablet.
"The news is loving you guys." Maria was saying. "Nobody else is. There's been no official call for Banner's arrest, but it's in the air."
"Stark Relief Foundation?" Tony asked.
"Already on the scene."
"How's the team?" Willow asked.
"Everyone's…. we took a hit. We'll shake it off."
"Well for now I'd stay in stealth mode, and stay away from here." Maria said.
"So, run and hide?"
"Until we can find Ultron, there's not a lot else we can offer you." Willow said.
"Thanks." Tony switched off the tablet and went over to Barton. "Hey, you wanna switch out?"
"No, I'm good." Barton said. "If you wanna get some kip, now's a good time, cause we're still a few hours out."
"A few hours from where?"
"A safe house."
