Avengers: Age of Ultron | Saviors | Aftermath

"All our work is gone," Bruce breathes in shock…like this day can't be happening, his eyes darting around the lab area where he and Tony have been practically hiding in for the past couple of days. "Ultron cleared out, using the internet as an escape hatch."

Steve shakes his head, almost disgusted by the name. "Ultron," he scoffs, not believing how two members of his team could go behind their back and create a monster (even if they knew it at the time or not). The thing that pisses him and the rest off the most, is the fact that this secret project was kept a secret from them - their own team.

Avery is keeping to herself, quiet and listening. She can't believe what's happening - after finding out what Tony Stark and Bruce Banner have done behind everyone's backs; she can't help but feel a tremendous amount of anger run through her veins. She doesn't know much about SHIELD other than what the boys told her, but she knows Hydra and everything connects with it. And that's where her anger lies. Those two idiots have basically stripped the Avengers of their identity and exactly copied what Hydra and SHIELD were. The Avengers were supposed to be different from both SHIELD and Hydra, but right now, she can't even see the difference anymore.

Natasha sighs, having finished browsing through some of the computers. "He's been in everything," she informs them, twisting around so she's face to face with everyone else. All of them have come straight to the lab where Ultron was created, forgetting about the party and to see what damage Tony and Bruce have done. "Files, surveillance…" Natasha got out of her party dress and shoes the moment she had a chance, now she only wears the jogging uniform that is rarely used but stored in her room in the Stark Tower. She crosses her arms, leaning against the side of one of the tables. "He probably knows more about us than we know about each other."

Rhodes still holds his damaged arm, the one he landed on after his descent down a floor - courtesy of Tony's destructive bots. "He's in your files, he's in the internet," he summarizes briefly, pacing over to stand by Agent Hill who's still tending to her foot, shards of glass piercing at her skin. "But what if he decides to access something a little more exciting?"

Agent Hill knows exactly what he's saying, what they all should be dreading more than anything else right now. "Nuclear codes."

"Nuclear codes," Rhodes nods. "Look, we need to make some calls, assuming we still can."

Natasha isn't buying it. "Nukes?" She says with an ounce of doubt. "He said he wanted us dead." Although, if the machine does fire nukes towards them, they could actually result in dying anyway, but not only that, hundreds of thousands of people will suffer in death too.

Bucky shakes his head. "He didn't say 'dead' though," he says unconsciously bringing himself nearer to Avery - who actually stands next to him, both leaning against the table behind. She doesn't move away from this, finding it oddly comforting having him so close - almost like a protector. She still wears her nightly outfit and even though he won't say it (wanting Ava to still feel comfortable with him_ he is really liking her choice of clothing tonight.

Steve nods, remembering the choice of words Ultron used. "Exactly, he said 'extinct…'"

Clint decides to pitch in. "He also mentioned killing someone." He looks pissed that they couldn't save this person who doesn't have a name or a face. But if Ultron did kill someone, where's the body?

Agent Hill frowns, confused. "But there wasn't anyone else left in the building." Everyone from the party left hours before their little get together on the balcony.

"Yes, there was," Tony sighs with sorrow, grabbing his mini tablet before walking into the middle of the room. He flicks the device outwards and out pops up an almost ball of orange holographic pieces floating in the air, but it looks so broken with many scattered pieces.

Everyone in the room knows instantly who was killed when this is formed.

"What?" Bruce gasps, taking hesitant steps towards the remains of the AI everyone grew to love; Jarvis. "This is insane." Not believing how much damage Ultron has done to Jarvis, it's utterly unbelievable.

Steve bows his head, feeling sorry for the now deceased AI. Even though Jarvis isn't an actual human being like they are, he's still a part of the Avengers. "Jarvis was the first line of defense. He would have shut Ultron down. It makes sense."

"No," Bruce shakes his head, a frown forming on his lips, still looking at the broken pieces floating in the air. "Ultron could have assimilated Jarvis." He gestures to Jarvis with his hands, trying to make his point clear. "This isn't strategy. This is…rage."

Large thumps fill the air, making their way with anger towards Tony. Tony only turns around the second he finds himself dangling in the air while a hand slowly crushes his throat. It's Thor. He now wears his Asgardian warrior uniform, his hammer clutches in the hand that isn't in the middle of crushing the life out of Stark.

"Woah, woah, woah," Steve straightens up, not wanting a fight to break out no matter how much he wants to be in Thor's place right now, his hand around Tony's throat. Everyone else straightens up too, either thinking the same thing as Steve and not wanting violence or they actually want Tony to feel some more pain after what he's done.

Clint is one of the ones who wants Tony to at least get a good punch from the God. "It's going around," he mutters to himself, narrowing his eyes at Stark.

Tony's hands are gripped around Thor's very strong one, barely any oxygen able to get into his lungs. "Come on, use your words, buddy," he croaks with very little breath going into his words, only Thor can hear what he said.

Thor's eyes pierce him with anger, his hand clutching tighter. "I have more than enough words to describe you, Stark."

"Thor," Steve takes a step forward, seeing that no one else is going to try and stop this future-brewing fight. "The Legionnaire." He wants Thor to know that Tony is still a team member, because even if he had screwed up, they need Thor to help fix this monumental problem in front of them.

Thor pauses for a moment before throwing Stark out of his grip, making the man stumble and grasp his own throat as the oxygen finally fills his lungs back up. He groans with discomfort quietly, although never reporting that what Thor did was anything bad. Tony knows he screwed up - although he won't fully admit it out loud - he just made a mistake. But now it's time to fix that mistake.

Avery can't help but finally think, 'What a shame,' when Thor throws Tony down. But that's Winter talking, the real Ava would never say yes to killing a man on her team, even if they've done something incredibly stupid.

Thor is still brimming with furiousness. "The trail went cold about 100 miles out, but it's headed north." He glances around to his fellow Avengers, all feeling the exact thing he is when it comes to the situation they've been forced back into. His eyes finally land on Tony, and they glare at him. "And he has the scepter. Now we have to retrieve it, again!"

"Genie's out of that bottle," Natasha nods over towards the Ultron bot they have destroyed only an hour ago. "Clear and present is Ultron."

Dr. Cho, who has been silently listening and internally trying to forget that she could have been killed tonight if it wasn't for Bucky, is now staring down at the robot Ultron was occupying - the mess of a bot is laying on top of a metal table. "I don't understand," she says slowly, but it's loud enough to gain everyone's attention. She turns towards Tony, her eyes full of confusion. "You built this program." Tony makes his way over to a surviving computer as she speaks. "Why is it trying to kill us?"

There's a moment of silence before something startling happens, and this isn't a pleasant event. Tony laughs; he slowly begins to chuckle but turns into full-blown laughter. Everyone is beginning to wonder if he has either finally gone crazy, or he just doesn't get how serious his actions could become. Banner is standing next to him, shaking his head silently with panic starting to fill his eyes. Everyone else isn't finding this predicament funny - so why the hell is he?

"Do you think this is funny?!" Avery finally speaks up; her tone is deadly calm but you can almost sense the undeniable murder in her voice. She stops leaning against the table with Bucky, but her arms are still crossed against her chest, her metal arm constricting with the need to fight, to relieve the tension.

Tony finally stops laughing for a second, turning towards her with an odd look. "No," he replies, looking as though a second ago he wasn't laughing at what he created in this very room. "It's probably not, right?" He looks around to everyone else. He's acting as though he really is going crazy. "This is very terrible. Is it so-" he laughs again. "Is it so…it is. It's so terrible."

Thor steps forwards looking exasperated - he hates when a fight between friends and allies is in motion. He started it actually. "This could have been avoided if you hadn't played with something you don't understand."

Tony is having enough of the blame game. "No. I'm sorry," he apologies, but not really. "I'm sorry. It is funny. It is a hoot that you don't get why we need this." Feeling the urge of anger that none of them are trying to understand why he had to do this. What he is trying to accomplish.

"Uh, Tony," Bruce calls from behind, looking uncomfortable. "Maybe this isn't such a good time."

Tony spins around to Bruce. "Really?" His voice rising. "That's it? You just roll over, show your belly every time somebody snarls?"

"Only when I've created a murder bot," Bruce retorts, looking at him dumbly like this should be what he's doing too.

"We didn't!" Tony exclaims looking defensive. "We weren't even close. Were we close to an interface?" But all he gets in return is a look that says 'We were, and you knew that!'

"You were playing with fire, Stark!" Ava suddenly yells, causing many people to jump but also Tony who spins around to her. Bruce is looking at her wide-eyed, seeing her eyes practically turn red with an emotion he can't seem to quite grasp with. She strides up to him, practically in his face now. "And you knew that! You just didn't care," she continues, Steve and Bucky stand there still in their stances, never seeing her like this before. And this outburst is different from both the hallway and the gym.

Tony feels the need to counter what she's saying. "Of course I care! It's why I invented Ultron as a peace-keeping program."

Ava gives a hollow laugh before repeating mockingly. "Wow, a peace-keeping program." narrowing her eyes dangerously. "How's that working out for you? I bet hundreds of people are already dead because of your stunt," she pauses, relishing in the realization fluttering in his orbs but she doesn't call it out. "You know what I think? I think the man I'm seeing in front of me is an exact replica of Hydra just built into one body. They went head first into something they didn't understand too, and then, they created me, an emotionless soldier built to torture and kill under orders. The only difference is; is that they used me, a human who had a life beforehand and luckily I got my memories back so I could stop myself. But right now? You've created something much worse than Hydra did." She cocks an eyebrow, tilting her head with questions. "So, what the hell makes you any different from them?"

Everyone is stunned into silence; you can't even hear anyone breathing.

"The avengers were supposed to be different from Hydra…from SHIELD," she pauses. "At least that's what I was told. And as far as I'm concerned, you've destroyed what's made the Avengers who they stand for. We were supposed to be a team, but where you were a couple of hours ago, it was just a one-man's game."

Tony is silent for a moment, honestly stunned by how right she sounds. A great put in his stomach begins to form. He blinks, trying to think of a way to steer away from the subject she just raised. "Does anybody remember when I carried a nuke through a wormhole?" He looks around to everyone with his words, but they stay silent. Apart from Rhodes that is.

"No, it's never come up," he replies, shaking his head but you can tell by his face he knows exactly what Tony is talking about and what he's doing. He too is still thinking about what Avery has said. How right she actually sounded, and by glancing to everyone else to see what they are thinking - he's sure their faces mirror the exact same expression as him.

"Saved New York?"

Avery can understand the bravery, courage and sacrifice he made that day. But it still doesn't give him the right to go behind their backs like this. A big part of her is thankful to Tony after hearing that he saved everyone from a nuke that day - it was one of the things her brother mentioned during one of their sharing sessions.

"No, never."

"Recall, that?!" Everyone who witnessed that day does lower their heads - Tony saved the lives of New York that day, along with them. But parts of them know that even that can't excuse him from what he's done now. He didn't think this through - he didn't include them in the debate. They are supposed to be a team; a solid one. A family of weird sports. "A hostile alien army came charging through a hole in space. We're standing 300 feet below it," he pauses, looking at everyone but mostly to Ava. "We're the Avengers. We can bust arm dealers all the livelong day, but that up there, that…that's the endgame."

"How were you guys planning on beating that?"

Steve isn't smiling. "Together. Just like Ava said; as a team," he says with a hard tone.

Tony looks towards him. "We'll lose."

Ava moves back over to Bucky as he says, "Then we'll do that together, too." He stands up for his two best people in the world.

At that Tony gives up his fight, looking away before heading back near Bruce who still looks like the most uncomfortable person in the room. Steve takes a deep breath. "Thor's right," he declares. "Ultron's calling us out." He glances to Bucky who nods subtly, getting where this is going - then he looks to Ava; she sighs but gives one nod in approval. "And we'd like to find him before he's ready for us."

"The world's a big place," Bucky continues for him, and although he doesn't realize it, his hand is now resting on the base of Ava's back, and this time she doesn't flinch. She just goes with it, liking the feeling of his warm hand against her clothed covered skin. "Let's start by making it smaller."