Chapter Four
Iron Avengers
3,409 Words
Tina looked around widely as the alarms blared and the red lights shone around them lighting up the area. "James go to your room!" Tony ordered when the teen spun around to look back at Tony.
"Tony!" Torunn yelled soaring over towards the growing group. They all stood before Tony as he looked around at them.
"What's going on what are these lights and that noise?" Pym asked fluttering up to them and looking around.
"Maybe it's Santa?" Tina asked hopefully looking around at the still blazing red lights.
"Everyone inside James' bungalow!" Tony ordered. When nobody moved his eyes narrowed and he pointed towards the building. "Now!"
Squeaking at the sudden yell Tina jumped and scrambled towards the bungalow like Ultron was after her. She squeezed past James who still stood rooted in the doorway to his bungalow and rushed into the small room ignoring when she heard a squish and her right foot slid out from under her slightly. She immediately moved towards the window watching as Tony ran towards some of the other buildings.
"Tina any idea what's going on?" James asked. His voice was slightly muffled and Tina looked for him getting her answer of where he was when the door to his small washroom opened with him in actual clothes and not his pajamas.
"Hang on." Tina muttered her voice finally losing the playfulness that was usually in it. She frowned and chewed her bottom lip as security code after security code was passing over the screen before her screen went blank and a silver lock appeared on it.
"No go. The most I got was that something tripped the outdoor sensors before Jocasta threw up a firewall I wasn't aware of and locked me out." She looked thoughtful tapping a few buttons on the bracer before looking at the others. "I can probably get through but it would take a few minutes and Jocasta will find out quickly."
"Don't bother." James said waving his hand as he plopped down on his couch.
Azari started pacing as Tina turned back to her bracers trying anything. Major security codes were blocked. Some camera's like the forest ones were still unlocked but others in their living area and the fountain were locked down. Why the fountain?
Switching bracers she activated Jocasta's main database slipping through the firewalls and defences that the A.I. had in place. There they were. With a simple click a bar appeared on her bracer's screen as it quickly grew darker a clear 'UPLOADING IN PROGRESS' on top of it.
With a ping the bar was finished and blue pictures flew through the screen till she stopped it on one. "That's odd." She muttered.
The others ignored her seemingly more intent on watching Azari ask James something. "We should be out there with Tony." Tina ignored Torunn when she said that and instead her frown grew as she looked at the picture before her. "Not hiding."
"Maybe this is a new training drill." Pym pointed out.
"It's not." Tina told them.
"Maybe." With a gasp Pym covered his mouth before cupping it like it would stop the words from being heard easily. "Maybe it's Ultron."
"What that's ridiculous." James joined in. "It's not Ultron. Probably something ridiculous like a fire on the machine deck or that time Jocasta went nuts because a water mane leak. It's not Ultron."
Tina froze when she felt something tickle her back. She felt that tickle before when she phased through a living person. It was odd it started inside your body than spread out like an itch. Her body shivered as she unconsciously went intangible the tickle disappearing with the shift.
She looked down at her see through body seeing an equally see through green head with a yellow frayed collar slowly moving out from the wall and through her. James, Torunn and Azari must have seen it to because with a gasp they all got ready to fight.
A crackle, swish and whirl sounded in the room as electricity coursed from Azari, Torunn drew her sword and James activated his shield.
Pym seemed to clue in as he stiffened and slowly turned around to stare at what was quite obviously a robot his metal body showing through the rips and tears of his costume.
Arms spread wide the robot floated into the room the last shred of his cape flowing through Tina's stomach. With a gasp she became solid again before going invisible and reappearing behind Torunn.
Slowly the robot became solid his form seemingly hesitating to reappear like it was a great effort. Still floating with his arms wide he looked down at the group of five. "Hello, children." The robot greeted voice halting between the two words.
With a clang he collapsed sideways falling out of the air and crashing to the ground.
Almost as if it was choreographed Tony swung the door open and looked at their shocked faces. Following their eyes he saw the robot on the ground and quickly knelt down placing a hand on the robots chest. "Vision?"
"My apologies the drones in Ultra City have been upgraded, one managed to damage my immaterial form as I left."
"Where you followed?"
"Negative. Did I set off the alarms?" That explains the motion sensor trip on the exterior of the dome. Vision reached up clutching his head like he had a head-ache. "Perhaps my electronic access key was damaged. And how odd this doesn't look like the control centre."
"Nope." Tina sang skipping forward and leaning almost ninety degrees to look down at Tony and Vision. "Welcome to James' room the messiest and most disgusting place in the entire world. Care for a tour?"
"No time. Tina help me with Vision here." Tony ordered slipping an arm under Visions shoulders and grunting as he lifted him slowly to his feet.
"Hu yah that's going to work real well." Tina muttered looking up at the robot that towered a good two and a half heads taller than her. She only reached his stomach and on top of that he was made completely of metal.
"Stay here!" Tony ordered looking at the others as Pym had a delayed reaction and screamed scurrying back and pointing at Vision.
Grabbing Vision's other arm and draping it over her shoulder she gasped at the weight on that one appendage alone. It had to be at least fifteen pounds. "Holy crap." She wheezed as they angled their way out the door and struggled down the step one grueling drop at a time.
Tony went first but that meant that when he was a step lower all of Vision's immense weight was placed on the small Tina.
Finally at the bottom of the steps Tony forced them to turn Tina taking the weight for a second as they did so. She guessed that someone, most likely James called him because the way he talked sounded more like a reply. "Look I know you have questions and I promise I will explain, later. But right now Tina and I have to take care of my friend."
After they had walked for a bit, or more like shambled Tina shifted Vision's arm and tried to peek around him. "So why do you need me?"
"One step at a time first we get Vision to the workshop."
With a sigh Tina struggled to keep up under Vision's shared weight as Tony led the way towards, wherever the workshop was, it wasn't something she had ever heard of that's for sure.
Surprisingly she recognised the area and something struck a chord in her memory. The direction, the path they walked on, the pictures of long forgotten blueprints from Jocasta's memory bank.
"The fountain." Tina whispered as they shambled out of the forest and onto the stone walk that led to the large memorial circle. They walked right up to the stone pillar that was dedicated to the knight. The stone mask stared out from the pillar the face it created looking like it was glaring at them daring them to make a move.
Tony made that move. Free hand moving forward other wrapped firmly around Vision he gently placed his palm on the centre of the carving.
A hum filled the air and the stone lit up in a blue nimbus of light as grinding soon drowned out the humming. Turning them around Tina did her best to follow and take in the sight before her at the same time. "I thought a secret passage was supposed to be easily missed."
"Only when you wanted it to be missed." Tony replied.
They paused at the top of the stairs and Tina groaned as she looked down them. They were deep enough that the bottom was barely visible shadows starting to thicken halfway down. "I am sorry that I am not made of lighter material." Vision stated glancing down with a whirl of protesting parts as he stretched damaged components.
"Eh no problem Vision." Tina replied with a shrug as she glanced up at the robot. "I'm stronger than I look, besides we can't all be fifty pounds like me now can we?"
"I still don't see how you can weigh that and not be sick." Tony mussed taking the first step down the metal stairs.
They reached the bottom a minute later. Tina was panting and starting to sweat for once regretting the heavy white cape that she never took off, ever. Her shoulders ached from Vision's weight and her knees were numb trying to support them both.
"This way." Tony told her angling them through the lone door. The door opened and they walked through a dark room.
"Welcome Tony, Vision." Jocasta piped up another door sliding open. "Oh hello Tina what are you doing here?"
"Wish I knew myself but these two act like their mouths are welded shut."
The lights in the new room flickered on computers that took up most of one wall turned one screens cycling through before it came up with various diagrams. One metal table was in the centre of the room the last third of it arched up slightly.
"Help Vision over there Tina I need to get something's quickly." Tony told her.
Taking a deep breath Tina grunted when Vision leaned fully on her. "Holy." She wheezed struggling over to the table like thing. Reaching it she turned slightly so Vision was leaning against it and helped him lay down lifting his metal legs up after him.
Leaning against the table that Vision now laid on Tina tried to catch her breath holding a hand over her racing heart as it beat a mile a minute. "Are you okay?" Vision asked.
Nodding Tina looked up at him her silver hair falling in front of her eyes slightly. "Just winded. Your heavier than you look and you look heavy to begin with."
"I am sorry."
"No need to apologise, you can't help that your almost pure metal as much as I can't help being shorter than five feet tall."
Tina looked up when she heard the huff of breath behind her. With a clunk Tony set the heavy box on the table and fished around inside digging out various tools. "There it is." With a yank he pulled out a smaller box about the same size as a shoe box.
"Tony shows for me!" Tina squealed moving over to him with a beaming smile.
"Not after last time."
"That wasn't my fault, it was Pym's and you know it." Tina huffed crossing her arms over her chest and turning around to look at the wall.
Laying a gently hand on the small teens shoulder Tony turned her around placing the box in her hands. "This is from me; everyone has something that I made with Jocasta's help. Though the others just have their armor. But I thought since you got most of your armor from your father, that I would instead make you a weapon."
Quickly opening the box Tina frowned at what she saw. They were a pair of white gloves with pads on the finger joints and Velcro to keep it snug on the hand. On the back of the hand and the palm were two two-inch disks made of an odd milky silver material. "Ah thank you." Tina said looking at the gloves as she slipped them on.
"What do they do?" She asked him looking up. He wasn't where she thought he was so she turned to look over towards Vision and saw Tony leaning over Visions abdomen, open and showing off the circuitry beneath.
"I like to think of them as boom gloves." Tony replied bending over and putting his hand deep enough into the robot for it to go in up to the wrist. Tina shivered feeling queasy as she watched. "They use sound waves to make concussive blasts that are strong enough to rip through strong alloys. Better for close range the far range sorry."
"Ok that explains what it is but not how it works?" Tina muttered loud enough for him to hear. Walking over to them she leaned up on her tip toes and looked at what Tony was doing.
Tony chuckled and even Vision looked like he was hiding a smile, that or he was smiling as much as he could with a robotic face. "The top disk absorbs sound and sends it to the bottom disk which than magnifies the blast by massive amounts and launches it out when you flex your hand open."
She experimented opening and closing her hand and feeling the stiffness of the gloves. Even the disks in the palm of her hands were somewhat malleable able to be bent to a certain degree before stopping. Keeping her right hand in a loss fist she turned it so the palm would face down and slowly opened it.
Nothing, maybe it was broken. Right when she was about to tell Tony her ears rang and a thump was heard. Ears still ringing lightly she squinted down at the rock floor seeing a small dent about the size of an orange and at least that deep also. "Woo."
"Do you have any ear plugs or something?" Tina asked Tony looking up from the new hole in the floor.
"Hmm didn't I give them to you?" When Tina shook her head he waved his hand dismissively and turned to concentrate on Visions' repairs. "In the box should be in a small bag."
She quickly ran over to the box and saw a small baggy that could carry loose change. She quickly opened it and pulled out the small clear ear plugs. Oddly they didn't look like ear plugs at all instead they looked like clear slightly liquidity tubes. "Put them in your ear and they drown out the high sonic pitch that gloves emit when firing, others close by will still affected and might have temporary hearing loss." Tony explained without prompting.
Looking a little grossed out as she did so Tina slipped the tubes in her ears shivering when they caused her flesh to prickle with goose bumps. "Eww so gross." She whined shivering again as she slipped in the last one. They felt odd in her ears but soon she started to notice them less and less until eventually it was like they weren't even there.
"How did they find you?" Tony asked Vision bending over him again as he frowned at some parts.
"I was accessing the mainframe." Vision began. "All of Europe has now been subjecated to the machine forces since my last report. Drones are gathering on the pacific rim and eastern Europe."
Tina looked up from studying her new gloves again and watched as Tony moved towards the blow torch. "The invasion of Asia will soon commence."
"Vision do you think you can open a data-link with me so I can see the plans?" Tina asked skipping towards them and leaning on the table looking down at Vision.
"Very well."
Smiling she looked to her bracers and started to run through the systems eventually finding and accessing the open link. Quickly she accessed and copied the right files before leaving the link. "Thank you." She giggled.
Quickly she looked around and saw a pair of lightly tinted glasses and putting them on. Just in time to as the second they were over her eyes the blow torch was on and shooting into Visions abdomen welding a loose piece of machinery in place. "In thirteen years he has enslaved half the world." Tony muttered eyes showing a sad haunted look that his old face hid.
"Also, Clint Barken's son is alive."
"What?" Tony asked shocked as he shut off the blow torch.
Tina frowned as she tried to remember who Clint Barken was, she was sure that she heard that name before in the stories that she used to beg Tony to tell her of the Avengers, stories that the others were never told.
"Whaahh!" Tina's head shot up at the same time as Tony's did at the scream.
There almost directly above her was Pym dangling under a balcony with nothing stopping him from falling other than Azari holding him up. "Azari, Pym what are you two doing down here?" Tony asked. Azari struggled as he pulled the kid up beside him on the balcony and then looked down sheepishly.
"Uhh somebodies in trouble." Tina squealed clapping her hands excitedly like a five year old.
With a groan the room started to shake and rattle. Tina stumbled eventually just falling on her butt with an oomph. Above her Azari and Pym grabbed onto the metal railings for support and Tony just stood there looking at an oil can as it rattled on the tray before falling onto the floor with a clang.
Suddenly a radar appeared on the screen beside where Tina sat topographic maps popping up beside it. "Iron Avengers launch sequence initiated." Jocasta stated the first three words popping up in bold red letters over the radar like some vast warning.
"Oh no." Tony muttered slipping the goggles off of his head. Tina followed suit taking off her own goggles and groaning as she rubbed her sore butt. It was like the room was in shock, nobody moved or breathed scared that if they did something worse than what just happened would happen.
Moving forward Tony glared at the screen his fingers flying over the keyboard below it. "Jocasta send reserve power to long range scanners." Tony ordered.
Pym flew down from the balcony above and grew to his actual size as Azari jumped and landed beside him. "Tony this is not my idea." Azari always sounded so guilty when he tried to shift blame.
"Boys grab Visions head." Azari and Pym looked shocked as they stared at Tony's back and then each other.
"Hello Henry, hello Azari." Vision greeted using Pym's real name instead of the name he goes by.
"His head?" Azari asked flinging his arm towards the robot.
"Boys now!" Tina squeaked at Tony' loud yell and rushed over towards Vision ready to grab his head if the other two didn't.
With a hiss Visions chest plates retracted the metal shifting to reveal more parts. Deep inside the chest cavity you could see parts shift slightly and Tina just heard a faint click. "Awesome!" Pym said grabbing Visions head and gently pulling it off the body.
"Have you ever lost your head?" Tina asked looking at the now bodiless head.
"Multiple radar contacts." Jocasta cut in. "Designation; Iron Avengers."
"What's an Iron Avenger?" Tina asked coming up to stand at Tony's elbow and looking at the screen.
"New contact, sub orbital trajectory. Designation…"
"Tony." Torunn suddenly yelled voice echoing from the tube like hallway that was through the open door.
"I'm sorry." James apologised standing in the door way with Torunn behind him as she looked over his head. "Th-there were these robots and, they looked just like our parents and then…" Just now seeing Tony's glare he quieted.
"I think he knows." Torunn supplied.
Tony ignored them turning back to the blinking screen as the red lights on the radar moved closer together. All Tina could do was watch as Tony seemed to collapse in on himself. The red lights played on his face lighting up his face and making him seem much older than he was.
"We're leaving."