Author's Note: I know I haven't been on in a bit. Got people visiting and life is getting nuts. I still own nothing. Yall better be ready for this.
29. No More Secrets
"What's the mission?" Natasha asked it and Piper would have sworn that if it had a real mouth Ultron would have smiled.
"Peace in our times."
Just like that all hell broke loose. The wall behind Ultron exploded disgorging six more rouge iron legionaries. Every Avenger moved separately, but each seemed to know what the other was going to do before they did so. Hill was armed, but no one else had anything viable on them save Piper herself. Cap flipped the table, blunting the blow from one of the legionaries as Thor slammed his hammer into another. Piper grabbed Harry and threw them both out of the way, twisting as they fell so he landed on top of her. She rolled them as they landed, ending them up behind a sturdy end table. She flipped them easily and Harry stared at her blinking.
"I love you, please don't think less of me for this." His expression went questioning then turned to stunned awe as she leapt over the end table and swung into the fray.
Harry wasn't sure what he was feeling as he watched Piper swig away on what was clearly a webline coming from her bracelets. He dove back to his spot behind the end table as glass flew. One of the legionaries was repeating the phrase, 'we are here to help' over and over as they attempted to murder the Avengers. Harry tapped on his watch as he mumbled to himself, he was summoning his glider. It had seemed prudent after the Rhino to have the call button on him.
"Ok, so she's been Spidey this whole time. So that's a thing." That was, embarrassing to say the least. That meant that she had been there for all of Venom. Oh god. He'd tried to kill her more than once. Oh god. He'd told Spidey he was in love with Piper. Oh god! His dad had tried to kill her more than once. Wait, if she was Spidey that meant that his dad's whack job employee had stolen her blood to turn his dad into the Goblin. Oh fuck, she blamed herself for that.
"Well that's coming to a screeching halt." He muttered and caught Natasha shooting him a dirty look from her vantage point behind the bar. He ducked as more glass rained and one of the legionaries spotted him. He scrambled back as it flew his way. His glider and suit were still two minutes out. He was gonna die. The robot raised its arm and two hands sprouted from its center and ripped it in half. He blinked up at Piper and she turned as Cap sent his shield through the second to last legionnaire. The last one was the original legionnaire still standing there sort of half slumped. There were remains of five robots around the room, one of them had gotten away.
"That was dramatic." There was a beat of silence. "I'm sorry, I know you mean well. You just didn't think it though. You want to protect the world. You just don't want it to change. How is humanity saved if it's not allowed to evolve?" The blank staring lights that made up the robot's eyes fixed on Piper for a moment then it bent down and picked up one of the broken legionaries. "These puppets… There's only one path to peace." It crushed the head in its hand, oil dripping from incomplete fingers. "The Avengers extinction."
Thor's hammer whirred through the air smashing through the broken legionnaire. The pieces clattered to the floor and Piper looked around.
"Where's the last one?" There was a crash from upstairs and Piper spotted the final legionare taking off from the lab something golden and glowing in its hands. Thor had spotted it too for he took off smashing his way out of the window. Clint helped Dr. Cho to her feet as Piper turned to Harry, her eyes pointedly avoiding his as she tapped her watch. It lit up and she spoke to it.
"Call in, everyone who can check in ASAP." Five quick call in's followed. Piper looked relieved but then her expression settled to confused. "Then who did he…" Her eyes met Tony's and they both raced for the lab. Harry followed, hot on Piper's heels.
"Piper?" She held up a hand to him, staving off whatever he was about to say as her fingers flew across keys and her father ducked under some mangled machines. He swore as sparks flew. "Piper there's something I need to tell you too." Piper held up her hand at him, gesturing a bit more forcefully. "I mean this is something I kind of need to tell you now. The screen in front of Piper lit up orange, but the glow was spotty, broken and her hands stilled on the keys.
"Dad." Her voice faltered. Tony pulled himself out from under a smoking console and stumbled slightly. Harry swore he saw tears in the inventors eyes. But he didn't have time to argue as his watch beeped and the window behind them shattered. A very dented glider slid to a halt beside Harry as Piper leapt to the ceiling, in a defensive crouch and Tony snatched up a glove from the table.
"I'm the Hobgoblin." Harry said both hands raised as the other Avengers barreled into the room after the glider. Piper stared at him from the ceiling then began to laugh. She devolved into giggles after a few minutes and sat on the ceiling just laughing as the avengers and Dr. Cho gathered around. Harry looked around for some kind of answer. Natasha was the one who took pity on him.
"Shock." A short but effective answer to his question of what the fuck was going on. He frowned and sat on his glider carefully guiding it so she was eye level with him.
"I was going to tell you after the party." Piper hiccupped out a laugh at him.
"I was going to tell you at the party, it's why I wore my web shooters."
"I vote you just never take those off again." Tony said from his spot on the ground. Harry huffed out a laugh.
"Honestly seconded." He caressed the side of her face, it was a little awkward as she was currently upside down but somehow it worked. She sniffled and rubbed her eyes.
"He killed JARVIS." Harry stiffened. The others around them frowned. Bruce stepped up to one of the still functional screens and began to type.
"All our work is gone. Ultron cleared out. Used the internet as an escape route." Natasha nodded from her screen.
"He's been in everything, files, surveillance, probably knows more about us than we do about each other." Piper flinched slightly at that but Harry didn't pull away from her. She leaned into his hand, tears gathered at the corners of her eyes, threatening to fall into her hair. Rhodey stepped forwards looking concerned.
"He's in your files, he's in the internet. What happens if he decides to go for something more interesting?"
"Nuclear codes." Maria Hill said from her spot in the corner and Rhodey nodded.
"Nuclear codes." That seemed to clear Piper's head a bit and she carefully flipped herself down off the ceiling and onto the glider next to Harry. "We need to make some calls assuming that we still can." Natasha shook her head.
"Nukes?" She shook her head. "He said he wanted us dead, he didn't"
"He didn't say dead." Steve cut across her. "He said extinct." Clint nodded.
"He also said he killed somebody. That was JARVIS?" Piper nodded and hopped off the glider tapping the screen she'd been working on. A large orange projection spilled out in front of them but it was broken, ripped into pieces. Bruce stepped up to it.
"This is insane."
"JARVIS was the first line of defense, he would have shut Ultron down. It makes sense." Bruce shook his head at Steve before going back to examining the carnage left behind.
"Ultron could have assimilated JARVIS. This isn't strategy. This is rage." Thor stormed into the room, heading straight for Tony. Piper stepped in his way, preventing him from reaching her father.
"Come on use your words buddy."
"I have more than enough words to describe you Stark."
"Thor!" Steve stepped up next to Piper. "The legionnaire?" Thor lowered his hammer and sighed angrily.
"The trail went cold about a hundred miles out. But it was heading north, and it has the scepter. Now we have to retrieve it again!" Natasha shook her head.
"Genies out of that bottle. Clear and present is Ultron." Dr. Cho shook her head.
"I don't understand. You built this program. Why is it trying to kill us?"
