Hi everyone! Sorry for the delay in an update! I've been super busy lately and didn't get to get this one out when I wanted. No worries, but it's here now! LOL As always, I claim no rights nor ownership to anything Marvel! Tessa's mine and that's all! I hope you enjoy! Xoxo-NickyLynn
Later that evening, after they had provided with some food by their gracious hosts, they had all gathered in the open kitchen area, strategizing their next move. Natasha and Tessa were sitting at the table, Steve was leaning against the archway behind Tessa, Bruce was standing just behind Nat, Clint was finishing up the dishes at the sink, and Tony was messing around with the dart board hanging on the other side of the room divide.
"Ultron took you folks out of play to buy himself more time." Fury said as he stalked across the room. "All my contacts all say he's building something. With the amount of vibranium he's made off with, I don't think it's just one thing."
Tessa was watching Fury move about the room until a nudge on her elbow drew her attention down to Clint's daughter who was standing next to her, shyly holding out a drawing. "This is for me?" Tessa asked her softly, not wanting to disrupt the serious conversation going on around her. The sweet girl nodded at her eagerly as Tessa took the paper out of her fingers with a smile. "Thank you. It's very beautiful." Tessa told her sincerely before the girl took off running back to her mother with red cheeks and a wide smile.
"What about Ultron himself?" Steve asked as Tessa studied the picture made for her. It was a large butterfly with blue wings….a blue very similar to the blue glow of Tessa's powers. The corner of her lip drew up in a smile before she brought her attention back to the conversation.
"Oh, he's easy to track." Fury responded. "He's everywhere. The guy is multiplying faster than a Catholic rabbit. It still doesn't help us get an angle on any of his plans though."
"Is he still going after the launch codes?" Tony asked as he threw another dart at the board.
"Yes, he is, but he's not making any headway." Fury replied.
"Well, that doesn't make any sense." Tessa said, her eyebrows pinching together in confusion.
"Yeah, I cracked the Pentagon's firewall on high school on a dare." Tony told him, not understanding how Ultron hadn't managed to break through it yet.
"I contacted our friends at Nexus about that." Fury told him.
"Nexus?" Steve asked, confused.
"It's the world internet hub is Oslo." Bruce explained for him. "Every byte of data flows through there. Fastest access on Earth."
"So, what did they say?" Clint asked.
"He's fixated on the missiles, but the codes are constantly being changed." Fury told everyone.
"By whom?" Tony questioned as Clint threw a dark past his face, landing it dead center in the board.
"Parties unknown." Fury told them.
"We have an alley?" Natasha asked.
"Ultron has an enemy, that's not the same thing." Fury told her in retort.
"Well, how's that saying go about the enemy of my enemy?" Tessa said. "If someone's taking a stand against Ultron, I'd call that a friend." She said, crossing her arms.
"Either way, I'd pay folding money to know who it is." Fury said with a sigh. "We might need to visit Oslo. Find out who the unknown is."
"Well, that's not really going to help us track down Ultron." Tessa said, letting her head hang down onto her hand as she stared down on the table, trying to rake her mind for something they had missed. "I was kind of hoping you had more for us than that."
"I do. I have you." Fury said, motioning around the room to everyone. "Back in the day I had eyes everywhere, ears everywhere else. You kids had access to all the tech you could dream of, but then some parties in this room decided to take down S.H.I.E.L.D. and now here we are, with nothing but our wit and our will to save the world. Ultron says the Avengers are the only thing standing between him and his mission, and whether he admits it or not, his mission is global destruction. All this…" he said, motioning around the room. "Laid in a grave. So, stand. Outwit the platinum bastard." He finished, dropping himself down at the table with Tessa and Natasha.
"Steve doesn't like that kind of talk." Natasha said, looking over at Steve with a smirk.
"Oh, you know what Romanoff-" Steve said with a roll of his eyes, knowing he was never going to live that down.
"So, what does he want?" Fury asked them all, ignoring the banter.
Tessa searched her mind for that answer, as everyone else did the same, but it wasn't until her eyes trailed over the drawing that had been made for her that she found the answer. "A chrysalis." Tessa said under her breath, a new line of thought taking over her mind. She looked up to the others then. "Ultron was supposed to be a force capable of changing the world, without being bound by the errors of the human condition." She told them. "He was meant to be better than us. When he attacked us in the tower, he called his body a chrysalis." She said, her eyes dropping down to the butterfly in front of her. "If he thinks it's human error that is the cause of the world's problems, then I don't think he's trying to save humanity. I think he's trying to evolve it." She told everyone. "That's why he keeps coming back to the human form will all these bodies he's creating. Guys, I think Ultron wants to be the next step in human evolution." She told them all, bringing her eyes around the room to judge their reaction.
"Okay, so he wants to evolve. How?" Fury asked.
"Well, if I were a murderous robot hell bent on building myself the perfect human form, I can think of one very helpful person I would go after." Tessa said. "A person who had very close connections to the Avengers, who's file would have been thoroughly ravaged when Ultron tore through our systems."
"Helen." Bruce breathed out in realization, face dropping down as he came to the same conclusion as Tessa.
"Helen." Tessa echoed in confirmation. "Ultron's going to use the Cradle to make himself a body."
"Well, then I guess you better get your asses in gear and get to Seoul." Fury said to that.
"What do you say, Nat? You up for a little international travel?" Tessa asked, lifting her chin in Natasha's direction.
"I think it would be best if we go in as a team." Steve told her, causing Tessa to turn in her chair with a raised eyebrow.
"Think you can manage to cut the self-righteous guilt trip you've been dragging me through if I promise not to go making another maniacal robot who wants to destroy the world?" She asked him with crossed arms.
Steve let out a sigh as he pushed off the wall. "Come on. We've got a long flight ahead of us." He told her, knowing it did no good to keep harassing her over things she fully admitted were mistakes. "Barton, Romanoff, grab your things, we're wheels up in ten minutes." He said grabbing his shield up off the floor and snapping it into place on his back.
Tessa pushed herself up from the table, looking over at Tony. "Think you can head over to Oslo and figure out who our friend is?" she asked him as everyone moved into action.
"Yeah. I'll hit Nexus and join you as soon as I can." He told her as they moved through the house. They caught up to Steve in the main foyer and came to a stop in front of him.
"If Ultron's really building himself a new body…" Steve began.
"Then he'll be more powerful than any of us." Tony finished for him.
"Possibly all of us." Tessa added with a sigh. "We've got to stop him before he can do that."
"An android designed by a robot." Steve said with a tilt of his head, letting out a breath. "You know, I really miss the days when the weirdest thing you managed to create in a lab was me." He said to Tessa.
"Yeah, well, you and me both." Tessa told him, it suddenly seeming so very long ago that life had been so less complicated.
"I'll drop Banner off at the tower." Fury said then, stepping into view as he slung his jacket back around his shoulders. "Mind if I borrow Ms. Hill?" he asked Tony.
"She's all yours. Not sure she ever wasn't." Tony responded, knowing he really didn't have a say in it either way.
"What are you gonna do?" Tessa asked him with eyebrows pulled together in confusion, seeing the determination on his face.
"I don't know. Something dramatic….I hope." He told her, moving to leave.
Tessa watched him leave before she brought her eyes back over to Tony. "Be safe. We'll report back with whatever we find." She told him with a nod.
A few minutes later, Tessa, Steve, Clint, and Natasha were back up in the air and taking off towards Korea. They made it there within a few hours, and as Clint and Natasha brought the quin jet down over the large building that Helen Cho did most of her research, Tessa transported herself and Steve down onto its roof.
"Alright, stay close." Steve told Clint and Natasha through the communication device in his ear. "We'll be in and out in two minutes."
"Hopefully." Tessa added before gripping onto Steve again. "Let's go find Helen." She said before bringing them inside. As they moved closer to Cho's lab, however, they knew that something was wrong. Furniture was knocked over, equipment destroyed, and shattered glass was left lying about everywhere, as if a fight had broken out. Tessa's eye swept over the mess before they landed on the woman they had been searching for, sitting up against the far wall, blood staining her clothes and sweat covering her pale skin.
"Helen!" Tessa shouted, rushing over to her, and dropping down on the ground next to her. She looked over her damaged flesh as Steve grabbed up a cloth and handed to her. Tessa pressed the fabric over the wound on Helen's shoulder, pressing down on it firmly, causing her to let out a grunt of pain. "What happened?" Tessa asked her.
"He's uploading himself into the body." She said weakly. "I..I tried to stop him…"
"It's okay." Tessa told her, knowing the doctor couldn't have done anything to stop him on her own. "Where is he now? Where's Ultron?"
Helen shook her head at her, having no idea where Ultron had gone. "I'll check the perimeter." Steve said, taking a step back from them. "He couldn't have gotten far yet." He said before rushing from the room.
"Nat." Tessa said into the com. "I need medical response here. Helen's hurt bad and Ultron's already cleared out."
"On it." Natasha responded as Tessa went to stand up.
"Help will be here soon. Will you be okay until then?" Tessa asked her as she rose to her feet.
Helen reached out and latched onto Tessa's arm, halting her from standing fully. "The real power is in the Cradle. The gem Ultron is using as a power source….it's uncontainable. You won't be able to just blow it up." She said, trying her best to push past the pain.
"Don't worry." Tessa told her. "It's not the first uncontainable power I've come across. We'll find it and handle it." She reassured her.
Helen nodded at her. "Go. I'll be fine."
Tessa finished standing all the way up as Helen's fingers slipped from her arm. She turned and jogged out of the room as she called out to her brother through the comms. "Steve, do you have eyes on Ultron?" she asked him.
"Negative. Looks like he cleared the building already." Steve's voice responded.
"Clint…Nat…do you have eyes on anything from the sky?" Tessa asked then, moving back through the building.
"Nothing yet." Clint responded.
"I've got a private jet taking off across town though. No manifest…could be him." Natasha said.
"Wait, I've got eyes on a truck from the lab pulling out onto the freeway here. On the loop by the bridge." Clint said then, having caught sight of the suspicious vehicle.
"On my way." Tessa told them. "Steve?" she asked, not having been able to locate him yet.
"Go!" Steve told her. "I'll catch up! Get after him before he gets too far!" he told her.
"We've got three in the back with the Cradle and one in front." Clint told them, having gotten a reading on the truck. "I can take out the driver."
"Don't fire!" Tessa told them as she landed back up on the roof to get a good look at the area around. "That gem is volatile! We can't take it out without risking the city." She caught sight of the loop Clint was talking about, and with as much power as she could muster, she focused on the image of it before wrapping energy around herself and transporting herself as far as she could. Surprisingly, she managed to make it to an overpass right where she was hoping to get to in one jump, staring down at the highway below. "I've got it." She told them as the truck drove closer up the highway towards her. With a deep breath, she moved herself through space once again, dropping down on the roof of the moving truck, having to drop and roll once her feet hit the metal surface.
Once she pushed herself back up, she ran towards the back of the truck, dropping down on one of the doors as she pulled the other side open with her powers. A blast suddenly tore out from inside the back of the truck, hitting the door Tessa had been clinging to, sending it flying open and slamming against the side of the truck with a bang that threatened to knock Tessa loose.
She kicked herself back off the side of the truck, swinging herself back to the wide opening. When she swung around, she caught sight of Ultron in the back of the truck and before he could make his next move, Tessa transported herself into the truck, dropping down right behind him, sending out a large blast that sent him stumbling across the truck and falling out, slamming into the windshield of the car following behind them.
Ultron pushed himself back up like the hit hadn't even phased him and flew back into the truck. He drew Tessa over to him as he landed on the edge of the door, sending her flying through the air instead. She was throw out the back of the truck just like Ultron had been, but she didn't let herself crash down. Instead, she transported herself back up onto the roof of the truck. "Yeah, I think he's mad." Tessa breathed out as she regained her footing. "Steve, you going to be joining this party any time soon?" she called through her earpiece.
"On my way, just keep him busy!" Steve told her, sounding out of breath.
"Yeah, easier said then done." Tessa muttered as she watched Ultron bring himself up onto the roof.
"You know, I don't understand why you're trying so hard to stop this." Ultron told her as he dropped himself down on the roof in front of her. "I was built on your fears….on your desires. The power in that Cradle will be able to bring about real change in the world. Isn't that what you wanted?" he asked her.
"I think you've seriously misunderstood my desires." She told him. "You were meant to protect this world, not destroy it."
"Well, sometimes in order to fix things, they must first be broken." Ultron shot back at her. "Starting with you." He said then, sending a blast in Tessa's direction.
She brought up a shield of energy around herself, and the blast hit it, the force of it sending her sliding a few feet back. She dropped the shield and, instead, sent out her own bust of power out at him. It hit him in the chest and sent him flying backwards, but he regained control of himself, flying up into the air over Tessa, sending out blast after blast down at her. The surges of power ricocheted off her shield, but each one sent her further and further back on the roof, making her teeter dangerously on the back edge.
Tessa dropped her shield as Ultron let up and wrapped her powers around his form, bringing her fist down as hard as she could, sending him slamming down into the asphalt of the highway next to the truck, creating a large crater. The back tires of the truck hit a patch of loose road from the crater that shook the whole truck and nearly sent Tessa over the edge before she regained her balance and managed to get her feet under her again.
As soon as she turned back around though, Ultron was racing back towards her and crashed into her, wrapping his metal fingers around her throat as he slammed her down onto the roof, a large dent warping the metal around her body. Tessa struggled to draw in a breath as he crushed her trachea. She started to gather all the power she could muster to get him off, but before she could do anything, Steve's shield suddenly collided into the side of Ultron's head, redirecting Ultron's focus enough that she was able to get her feet up under his body and kick him off of her.
As his hand left her throat, she drew in a deep breath, trying not to fall into a coughing fit as she felt the burning of the air moving back and forth again. Steve had managed to get on the back of the truck as well and was throwing hit after hit with his shield and fists, as Tessa pushed herself back up. She watched as Ultron threw a powerful punch against Steve's chest that sent him flying back through the air. He slammed down into the windshield of the car following behind them. Before Tessa could latch onto him and bring him back up, Ultron sent out a pulse down at the concrete in between the two vehicles, pulling up a large chunk of the material, causing the car Steve was thrown on top of, to slam into it.
Knowing the car was about to go spinning out of control, Tessa latched onto Steve's body and, with a sharp tug, sent him flying back towards the truck. She dropped her hold on him as he slid into the back end and had to quickly bring up her arms to block the strikes Ultron was now throwing out at her. He managed to get a couple of harsh blows into her ribs that she let out a yelp of pain at before sending out a pulse of energy that pushed him away from her.
"Heads up." She heard Clint say through her earpiece before bullets came raining down on the truck, Clint targeting Ultron. The two sentries that had been in the back of the truck, trying to fight off Steve, instead set their targets on Clint and the quin jet, flying out and trailing after him as he led them up into the air.
"I've got eyes on the body." Steve said then. "Romanoff, I could use a hand getting this thing out of here. Rose, keep his focus up there!"
"Yeah, well what do you think I've been doing?!" She yelled out as she dodged another blow from Ultron. She sent out a powerful blast of power that caught him and sent him flying back onto the other side of the highway, right into the path of a semitruck that crashed right into him. Ultron was pulled under its several sets of tires, the whole semi jostling around wildly as his body was ran over by the heavy truck's many axels.
Tessa watched the truck as they kept moving past, but knew that it would take a lot more than a semi to take him down. Suddenly, the truck that had hit him, was flung back through the air as Ultron tore back up into action, looking downright furious. "Oh, shit." Tessa breathed out, realizing he was heading right at her with all that fury. Without having enough time to react, Ultron slammed into her, and the pair went flying off the roof of the truck and kept flying until they crashed into the side of a train, Tessa's back taking the brunt of the collision.
Once they hit the floor of the train car, Ultron's grip on her was broken and the two rolled away from each other. Ultron managed to jump back up to his feet as Tessa let out a groan as she rolled onto her stomach and began pushing herself up. She found Ultron's cold, red eyes staring down at her from the end of the walkway before she swung her eyes around to register the countless frightened passengers surround them. She knew she had to get them out of this train before anyone could get hurt.
Ultron didn't give her a chance to finish pushing herself back up to her feet, however, before he sent a blast out at her. Knowing that if she brought up a shield, the energy would just ricochet towards the innocent passengers, she instead let the blast hit her, sending her skidding on her back as pain bloomed out on her chest. She struggled to push herself back up as Ultron stalked down the row towards her. She pushed herself back up, but instead of getting back up to her feet, she transported herself through the train, latching onto Ultron's body from behind, before moving them both out of the populated car. They dropped into the next car that was, thankfully, empty before Ultron managed to grab onto Tessa and rip her from his back. He swung her down with all his might onto one of the metal bench seats, her back arching and cracking painfully as she let out a scream of agony.
She let out a shout as she dropped down onto the floor in a heap in between the two seats and looked up to find Ultron bringing a hand down on top of her, the repulsers in his hand beginning to glow with energy. She brought up a shield around herself, waiting for the blast, but before he could make it, a blur came rushing by and caused Ultron to stumble back through the train away from Tessa.
Tessa caught sight of Pietro Maximoff's white hair behind Ultron before a red glow took hold of the luggage racks around them, and suddenly they pulled out like they had come alive, slamming down into front of Ultron's form, blocking his path. Wanda Maximoff walked up the row as Tessa pushed herself back up, her eyes glowing as she controlled the metal around them. She and Tessa shared a brief look, and a small smile lifted up Tessa's lip as she realized the twins were taking a stand against him.
"I think your odds in this fight just fell significantly, Ultron." Tessa called down to him as she faced him again.
"Please….don't do this." Ultron said then, looking back and forth between the two young individuals, who up until this point had stood with him, not against.
"What choice do we have?" Wanda shot back at him, making her position clear.
Ultron let out a frustrated sigh before he brought up his arm towards Pietro. Tessa latched onto Ultron's body, but before she could do anything, he sent out a powerful blast that tore through the front of the cabin, going right into the conductor's booth. Tessa threw Ultron through the side of the train with as much force as she could muster and after he disappeared from view, he didn't make a reappearance.
"I've lost Ultron guys." Tessa told her teammates. "He'll be heading back towards you. Do you have the Cradle?" she asked them.
"We're working on that." Natasha's strained voice responded.
"We'll whatever you're doing do it fast." Tessa said as she walked up through the front of the train. Her eyes dropped down to the conductor who had been hit by Ultron's blast and was slumped over on the destroyed controls. She looked up for find them heading straight for the end of the tracks and her heart sank into the pit of her stomach. "I've got an out of control train heading right for downtown that I've got to deal with." She told them, knowing they were on their own with Ultron for the moment.
She spun back around to find the Maximoff twins still standing in the middle of the train, watching her with wide eyes, having realized for themselves what was happening. "You guys want to be the good guys now?" she shot out at them. "We've got to stop this train. Can you get anyone in our path out of the way?" she asked Pietro.
He only responded with a nod before taking off in a blur once again, running out through the hole Ultron's body had left. After he was out of sight, Tessa let her eyes slide closed, focusing down on the energy inside herself, feeling it stirring within her. She latched onto it and let it flow out, sending it wrapping around the train around her. Her eyes snapped back open as she pulled down with everything she had, desperately trying to bring the speeding train down to a stop. Unfortunately, they kept hurtling ahead, the train no longer on tracks and jostling everyone inside around chaotically. Tessa strained even harder, pulling back like she was trying to bring the train to a stop with her bare hands.
The train slowed minutely, but as they crashed through a large brick building, a tank of some sort came flying in through the front of the train, slamming right into Tessa's chest, breaking her concentration and sending her soaring back through the train. She slammed into the floor and was thrown about by the rumbling train as she struggled back up. Tessa watched as Wanda let her own powers snake out around her and, without letting another moment pass, let her powers burst back into action, wrapping them back around the train. She felt her powers brush up against Wanda's and together they pulled back on the train, using their combined forces to bring it to a halt. Tessa let out a grunt of effort as she bared down, feeling the train slowly give in to their power. Once the rumbling under their feet stopped and the train no longer pushed ahead, Tessa dropped her hold on it, letting out a breath as she did.
She brought her eyes over to Wanda as she stood panting, suddenly feeling so very drained. "Thanks." Tessa said, looking her up and down.
"I need to find my brother." Wanda said then, moving quickly towards the hole, having been worried abut him.
"I've got the trained stopped, but there's some serious damage control to do." Tessa said into her earpiece. "What's going to on on your end?" she asked them. "Did you get the Cradle?"
"Cradle's secured." Steve's voice responded. "But Ultron's got Romanoff."
"What?" Tessa breathed out, fear beginning to creep up her spine.
"He's gone." Steve told her then. "We're headed to you now."
Tessa let out a breath, dragging her fingers through her hair as she tried to control her anxiety. "No." She finally said. "I've got the Maximoffs here with me and a huge mess to clean up. Get the Cradle back to Tony and Bruce." Tessa said as she walked out of the side of the train, pushing past the crowd of people who were emerging from the wreckage in a panic. "I'll get back there as soon as I can." She told them as her eyes landed on the twins, Wanda leaning over Pietro as he sat down, trying to catch his own breath.
"You know, as glad as I am to have had your help here, you two have seriously pissed me off." She told them as she walked up to the pair.
"The Cradle." Wanda said, ignoring her anger. "Did you get it from Ultron?"
"No thanks to you." Tessa bit out at her.
"No thanks to me?" Wanda repeated bitterly. "Ultron can't tell the difference between saving the world and destroying it. Where do you think he gets that from?" she asked.
Tessa drew in a breath as she tried to stop the surge of anger that flared up in response. "You have no idea what you're talking about." Tessa told her.
"Oh, don't I?" Wanda asked, crossing her arms. "Ultron's doing what he was designed to do, nothing more. He's all your fear and anger wrapped up in one shiny package. Whether you want to admit that or not, it's the truth."
Tessa silently watched Wanda before her eyes drifted around the sea of people rushing about the area. She had to swallow down the lump that was growing in her throat, because whether she wanted them to or not, Wanda's words struck a chord in her. She knew she was right. Ultron was her creation and the devastation he wanted to lay upon the world…..the blame lay right at her feet.