DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN MARVEL OR ANY ASSOCIATED CHARACTERS

I legitimately love writing this story. Sean fits so well into it I can almost picture him in the movies. The next chapter will be a really long one, or so the plan is.

Chapter 26

Sean covered his ears at the unexpected noise while Tony pulled out his phone, presumably to ask JARVIS what was going on. They were interrupted by the clanking noise of metal boots on the tile. Turning around, they faced the back wall, where one of Tony's Legionnaires was standing.

"No, how could you be worthy? You're all killers," it said in a raspy voice, waving half an arm at the ten of them.

"Stark," Steve said in his Captain's tone.

"JARVIS," Tony began, but was met with no answer.

The Legionnaire looked around the room. Half of his faceplate was melted off, it looked like it had been assembled from damaged parts. "Sorry, I was asleep. Or I was a dream," it pondered.

Tony tapped on his phone a few times, speaking to JARVIS. "Reboot Legionnaire OS, we got a buggy suit."

"There was terrible noise, and I was tangled in...strings," it said, looking down at its wired body and stumbling. "Had to kill the other guy, he was a good guy," it continued nonchalantly.

"You killed someone?" Steve asked forcefully. Sean knew Steve's brain was running a thousand miles an hour right now to figure out who the suit had killed because Sean was doing the same thing. He hoped to God it wasn't Sam.

"Wouldn't have been my first call," the Legionnaire conceded. "But, down in the real world, we're faced with ugly choices."

Thor spoke up in his deep, booming voice. "Who sent you?" he inquired.

"'I see a suit of armor around the world,'" it played in Tony's voice.

Banner looked at Tony with a look of utter shock and realization. "Ultron."

The robot straightened its posture. "In the flesh. Or no, not yet. Not this chrysalis. But I'm ready. I'm on a mission," Ultron enlightened.

"What mission?" Sean asked, seeing Hill and Natasha cocking guns as Thor clenched his fist tight around his hammer.

Ultron seemed like he would've smirked if he had a human body. "Peace in our time."

As soon as he'd finished, three of the Iron Legionnaire's burst through the wall behind him. The Avengers sprang into action as the suits opened fire. Flying right at Steve and Sean, with a slight glance, Steve kicked up the table and he and Sean held it in place before two of the suits impacted with it and sent the brothers flying.

The third attempted to attack Thor, but the Asgardian simply knocked it backwards with his hammer. The suit that was batted aside collided with Clint, and the archer smashed through a bookshelf as Tony and Rhodey hopped the railing and slid down the sloped glass surface to avoid incoming fire. Rhodey stood and drew a gun on the nearest Legionnaire, but he was too slow, a repulsor blast hitting him in the chest and sending him through the plate glass window to the balcony below.

Sean was shaking his head, trying to recover from the blow as the others dove for cover. Clint slid under a table like a professional baseball player, and Nat and Banner dove behind the bar. Banner didn't quite make it, so Natasha reached up and pulled him down. Sean decided he'd had enough of this shit. He sprinted for the nearest Legionnaire, tackling it and ripping its head off, effectively shutting it down.

Steve jumped on another one while it was in midair as Natasha shot at the third with her pistols. The Legionnaire with Steve on it propelled itself towards the back wall, causing Steve to fall of with the contact. Tony sprinted up the staircase before using his momentum to vault himself onto the back of the third one, a metal stick now in his hand. He used it to short circuit the wiring in the Legionnaire's neck, causing it to malfunction as a fourth Legionnaire showed up. It attacked Thor, but the God of Thunder simply knocked its legs off with one blow before tossing it down from the walkway they were on.

The legless robot began flying with only its hand repulsors as it approached Helen Cho threateningly. It seemed to hesitate for a moment before Steve grabbed it and tossed it to Thor, calling the Asgardian's name to get his attention. Thor brought his hammer down on it and destroyed it as Tony fell out of the air with the now deactivated robot.

Only one was left when Clint reappeared, now holding Steve's shield. "Cap!" he called before tossing it towards Steve. Sean's brother caught it in midair, performing a spin before using the momentum to throw the shield at the last Legionnaire, which split into pieces from the impact.

"That was dramatic," Ultron stated from his place by the wall. "I'm sorry, I know you mean well, you just didn't make 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? These," he said as he picked up the remains of one of the Legionnaires before popping the faceplate off with a squeeze. "These puppets. There's only one path to peace...The Avengers' extinction."

Evidently, Thor'd had enough, because the God of Thunder chunked his hammer at Ultron. It broke Ultron apart before busting a hole in the wall behind him. Sean glanced his way as Thor called the hammer back.

"I had strings, but now I'm free," Ultron rasped one last time before shutting down. Turning around, Sean became vaguely aware that one of the Legionnaire's had gotten away, and Thor noticed as well. He spun his hammer and took off after the Legionnaire, who had also happened to steal Loki's sceptre.

The others filed into Banner's lab to mull over the recent events. "What the hell?" Sean asked as he sat down.

Bruce spread his hands. "I don't know."

"No seriously, what the hell? That was some next level Terminator type shit, man. Whatever all that shit was wasn't natural in any way," Sean said, speaking quickly and rising to pace the room.

Banner focused his attention to the computer screen in front of him as Natasha was doing on another. "All our work is gone. Ultron cleared out, used the internet as an escape hatch," the doctor said.

"Ultron," Steve muttered in disbelief.

Natasha looked up from her computer. "He's been in everything. Files, surveillance, he probably knows more about us than we know about each other."

Sean chuckled. "Yeah, I bet that really builds teamwork," he joked, trying in vain to lighten the mood. In truth, he was probably the most scared of all. There were hundreds of things that Sean had done over the years that he didn't want the team to know about. They'd never look at him the same. Especially Steve.

Rhodey, still clutching his shoulder that was injured in the fall, stood up. "He's in your files, he's in the internet. What if he decides to access something a little more exciting?" he asked.

Maria Hill looked up from where she was cleaning a cut on her foot. "Nuclear codes," she realized, and Rhodey confirmed.

"Look, we need to make some calls, assuming we still can," Rhodey stressed, the gravity of the situation weighing down on everyone.

Natasha was skeptical, however. "Nukes, he said he wanted us dead-"

"He didn't say dead. He said extinct," Steve interrupted.

Clint spoke up. "He also said he killed somebody."

Hill looked up at him. "There wasn't anyone else in the building."

Tony turned around from his brooding in the corner and paced towards the center of the room. "Yes there was," he said, projecting something off of him phone. It was a large, orange sphere, but it was in pieces, as if someone had torn it apart, but it was digital.

Sean hadn't been here long enough to know what that was, but everyone else sat back with realization and shock. Banner joined Tony in the middle, staring at the broken sphere. "This is insane," he said quietly.

Steve looked down at his feet as he spoke. "JARVIS was the first line of defense. He would've shut Ultron down, it makes sense," he said.

So that's what JARVIS looks like in the digital world? Sean thought to himself.

Banner shook his head. "No, Ultron could've assimilated JARVIS. This isn't strategy, this is...rage," he arrived at his conclusion.

Sean suddenly became aware of heavy boots hitting the floor as Thor, in his full battle armor and cape, strode into the room. He marched right up to Tony, grabbed the billionaire by the neck, and hoisted him up in the air with one hand. "Come on, use your words, buddy," Tony managed as everyone else protested.

"I have more than enough words to describe you, Stark," Thor spat as he glared up at Tony.

Steve, using his Captain voice again, came to Tony's rescue. "Thor! The Legionnaire?" he asked.

Thor set Tony down hard. "Trail went cold about a hundred miles out, but it's headed North. And it has the sceptre," he said, directing the last bit at Tony for good measure. "Now we have to retrieve it, again."

"Genie's out of that bottle. Ultron is the clear and present," Natasha reasoned, seeing the bigger picture.

Helen Cho, who'd been quiet up until this point, spoke up from where she was studying the remains of the Legionnaires. "I don't understand. You built this program, why is it trying to kill us?" she asked Tony and Bruce.

Tony turned to a computer and stared at the screen for a few seconds before letting out a hiss of laughter. More followed and pretty soon he was cracking up, Banner shaking his head at Tony to try to get him to stop.

Thor gave Tony the steely eye again. The Asgardian was pissed, Sean could see. "You think this is funny?" he asked.

Sean agreed with Thor. "Yes, genius billionaire playboy philanthropist, do tell us why the end of the world is so funny to you," he demanded.

Tony looked up and around the room, still grinning. "No," he said, not very convincingly. "It's probably not, right?" he asked, looking at Steve, who he was getting not help from. "This is very terrible? Is it so? It-it is, it's so terrible," Tony declared, still laughing.

Thor stepped forward threateningly towards Tony before Sean stopped him with a hand on his chest. "This could've been avoided if you hadn't played with something you don't understand," he said, pointing at Tony angrily.

Tony, pretty stupidly for a genius, stepped closer to the angry God of Thunder. "No, I'm sorry. It's funny. It's a hoot why you don't get why we need this," he said as he stared Thor down.

"Tony…maybe this might not be the time," Bruce cautioned, causing Stark to whirl around to face him.

"Really?!" he exclaimed. "That's it? You just roll over, show your belly, every time somebody snarls."

"Only when I've created a murder bot," Banner defended. He had a point, too.

"We didn't. We weren't even close. Were we close to an interface?" he asked Banner, who shrugged.

"Just own it, Tony, stop making lame excuses," Sean insisted. Tony was clearly in the wrong here, but he was trying to save himself by making up some half-assed excuse as to why he created this program. He was also trying to cover up the fact that it malfunctioned on his watch.

Tony, who was surrounded on all sides by hostiles, was in fight or flight mode. "You need to shut up, sidekick boy. You're only here because your big brother felt bad for leaving you out," he accused.

Sean rolled his eyes. "Oh, please, Tony. You need me on this team more than you know. Live as long as I have, see the things I've seen. You don't have nearly as much experience with the causes of death as I do. None of you do," Sean said, looking around the room at every face. He knew his words had cut deep and true, because as he looked each person in the eyes, every pair dropped except Thor's. "Maybe not you," Sean conceded.

"Enough," Steve said before looking at Tony. "You did something right. And you did it right here. The Avengers were supposed to be different than SHIELD."

"Anybody remember when I carried a nuke through a wormhole?" Tony looked around at everyone. "Saved New York, recall that?"

"No, it's never come up," Rhodey joked.

"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 endgame. How were you guys planning on beating that?" Tony asked.

Steve stepped forward. "Together."

"We'll lose," Tony stated simply.

Steve nodded. "Then we'll do that together, too. 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."

It was dawn. The first rays of sunlight were shining through the windows of the Tower, making the shards of broken glass look like diamonds. Sean needed some damn sleep, though. They'd been up all night, attempting and failing repeatedly to regain access to the internet, but Ultron had locked them out. Rhodey had left hours earlier to inform Washington about the situation. That was one thing Sean didn't like about the man, he was always kissing the government's ass.

Steve and Hill had found something, so they sent Sean to gather everyone. He'd already told the entire team except Clint. He found the archer in a hallway, on the phone while staring out the window at the New York sunrise. "Hey, we might have something," Sean called.

Clint nodded before muttering 'I gotta go' into the phone and hanging up. "Who's that?" Sean inquired.

Clint paused for a second before answering. "Ah, girlfriend."

Sean raised an eyebrow at that before shrugging and leading the way back to the lab just as Steve handed a tablet to Thor. "What's this?" Tony asked, before Thor half handed, half slapped him with it. Sean walked up to look over Tony's shoulder at the tablet. On it, was a picture of a very dead Baron Strucker, with the word 'Peace' written in blood on the wall.

"A message," Steve clarified. "Ultron killed Strucker."

"And he did a Banksy job at the crime scene, just for us," Tony remarked.

Natasha had other thoughts, however. "This is a smokescreen. Why send a message when you've just given a speech?" she asked.

"I agree," Sean said, looking her way. "In my long experience, the bad guys never post twice in the same day."

"Strucker knew something that Ultron wanted us to miss," Steve realized.

Natasha was already on it on the computer, though. "I bet he-yep. Everything we had on Strucker's been erased," she said, displaying the deleted records message.

"Not everything," Tony said, a light bulb going off in his head.

"Really? What kind of maniac keeps these?" Sean asked, carrying three boxes of old SHIELD files in each hand.

Tony snorted, looking Steve's way. "Cap's ex-girlfriend Peggy."

"Fair enough," Sean allowed as he set his boxes down, digging in. The team all chose a box and began leafing through the files. Thor was the most visibly frustrated, as every time he found a file with nothing in it, he tossed it behind him before digging in for another one.

Steve brought over a box and set it next to Sean. "Known associates. Well, Strucker had a lot of friends."

Banner was going over the list of Strucker's so called friends. "Well these people are all horrible."

Tony perked up when he saw something in banner's file. "Wait. I know that guy. From back in the day, he operates off the African coast, black market arms."

Steve looked at Tony with his judging look. "There are conventions. Alright, meet people, I didn't sell him anything," he deflected. "He was talking about finding something new, a game changer, it was all very 'Ahab.'"

Sean took the file from Tony and stared down at the man. He looked like a poacher. He had curly salt and pepper hair, as well as a large brand on the back of his neck that Sean assumed was part of an arms dealer's club. Ulysses Klaue, Sean read.

Thor grabbed the photo and pointed to the back of the man's neck. "This."

Tony glanced at it before dismissing it. "Uh, that's a tattoo, I don't think he had it."

Thor shook his head before pointing again. "No, those are tattoos, this is a brand."

Banner put it into the computer and began running some matchmaking software with known databases. "Oh yeah. It's a word in an African dialect meaning thief...in a much less friendly way."

"What dialect?" Steve inquired.

Banner turned back to the screen. "Uh...Wakanada...Wa...Wa….Wakandan."

Sean, Steve, and Tony all glanced at each other with knowing looks before huddling together. "Is this serious?" Sean asked.

"If this guy got out of Wakanda with some of their trade goods…" Tony trailed off.

Steve looked him in the eye. "I thought your father said he got the last of it."

Banner stood up and walked over to the three of them. "I don't follow. What comes out of Wakanda?"

Tony, Steve, and Sean all turned their gazes to the red, white, and blue shield and sword leaning against the desk behind them. "The strongest metal on Earth."