May 4th, 2015…
It had taken Ultron's Sentries hours to fly across Africa with the latest innovations in jet propulsion technology. With Pietro's superspeed, he and Danica ran from Johannesburg to Lagos in just over 40 minutes. He carried Wanda, while she had the unpleasant task of carrying Klaue. The arms dealer couldn't help himself when it came to nonsensical –often crude– remarks and jokes. He also stank of grease, gunpowder, and gin.
20 minutes into their cross-country run, he leaned in close and asked her, "Would you like me to give you a tattoo?"
She told him exactly what she thought of his offer, using the most creative metaphors. Klaue only giggled in response. So it came as a relief when they reached Lagos. Danica let go of her 'passenger' and wiped her hands on her jeans. Running at such insane speeds gave her a new kind of rush. They'd just blitzed across Africa, one of the most majestic places on Earth. Another reason why Danica found Klaue so irritating, because he'd distracted her from seeing the natural beauty all around them.
"Nice place," Wanda remarked, looking around the city.
Pietro held out his arms, looking at her and Danica expectantly. "So, now what? Where do we go from here?"
A dark-skinned woman with her hair in a large bun approached them. Klaue hovered a hand over his holstered pistol, but Danica gestured for him to wait. The woman didn't seem like she was about to attack. "Someone bought me a new house and paid off my brother's student debt. All I had to do in return was give you this phone." She held out a cellphone, which Wanda accepted with a smile.
The woman walked away, and the phone started ringing. Wanda answered, putting it on speaker. "Neat trick."
"I thought as much," Ultron replied. "What is money these days, except numbers on a screen? You humans place far too much value on such material things."
Klaue snorted. "Better to have more of it, than none of it."
"Hmm. Anyway. The Vibranium is being loaded onto a plane as we speak. I set up a dozen or so false leads for the Avengers in case they try to track it, but I doubt they're in any shape to do that." Danica shared a triumphant smirk with Pietro. "As for you, I've arranged for a private jet to meet you at a nearby airstrip. It'll take you to New York."
Danica frowned. "What's in New York?"
"The future. The only other lab in the world properly equipped for what I need is there. I estimate the Vibranium will arrive at the same time you do, and I'm never wrong about such things. The rest of the materials will also land there from South Korea, along with a few more friends."
'We are the Masters now,' Ultron had told Iron Man at the salvage yard. Danica liked that name. For so long, her fate had been in others' hands. Now, with her powers and with Ultron at their side, her destiny was hers to decide. The Masters had struck their first blow against the Avengers. The first of many, she hoped.
The call ended, and a text appeared a moment later with coordinates. Pietro held Wanda's back, then streaked away. Danica, exhaling, did the same with Klaue. Lagos zipped past her as she ran, the buildings nothing but splotches of colour and the people mere lines of colour. They reached the airstrip a minute later. True to Ultron's word, a private jet had been fueled and prepped for their arrival. When asked, the pilot said he'd been paid five times his annual salary for this particular charter.
The perks of working with an all-powerful AI.
Soon enough, once the hatch closed and the pre-flight checks were completed, the plane took off. "It should take us fourteen hours to reach New York City, ma'am," the pilot told Danica when she asked. "Just settle in and relax."
"Right," she muttered.
The interior of the plane was pristine, with padded seats, gleaming wood tables, and a fully stocked kitchen. Far nicer than anything Danica had ever seen. To think that a small plane like this had better luxuries than anything in the entirety of Sokovia. It reminded her of people like Tony Stark and other billionaires. They bled the world dry to pad their ridiculously large fortunes, all so they and their families could live like kings.
The time of kings and monarchies was dead and gone. Danica and the other Masters would tear down the arrogant Avengers, and Ultron would lead them into a new, better world where none would want. No more children would starve and sleep in the streets like she had.
Klaue raided the kitchen, fixing himself an overcooked meal that he ate near the cockpit. Danica, Wanda, and Pietro stayed on the opposite side of the plane. With nothing else to do, the three of them reclined in their seats and slept. Pietro waited until his sister was comfortable before closing his eyes. Danica didn't dream, for once, and by the time she opened her eyes she felt rested for the first time in…forever. Stretching her arms, she waited for Wanda to finish in the bathroom before washing up. Pietro continued to sleep, snoring like a trombone. Still seeing ocean out the windows, she asked the pilot how much longer.
Six hours. Perfect.
Danica's stomach growled, and she realized it had been quite some time since she'd eaten a proper meal. Ever since escaping from the HYDRA base, she'd subsisted almost entirely on snacks and scraps. A moment later, her stomach felt like it tried to tear itself in half. She still had Pietro's superspeed, and one of the side effects of his power was a faster metabolism. Not eating frequently was the equivalent of starving for a month. When the pain became too much, Danica looked over at Wanda and copied her powers.
The pain lessened, though she still felt hungry. And her mind expanded, feeling the energies of the universe all around her. They flowed around and through her, and she could manipulate them as easily as tugging a string. The sensations were potent and unique, giving her a greater appreciation of her friend's gifts.
Stepping into the kitchen, Danica went to work cooking supper. Of all the memories she had of her mother, the strongest were of her in the kitchen, crafting the most delicious home-cooked masterpieces.
"Your father was the most handsome boy in our school," her mother explained when six year-old Danica asked how her parents met. "All the girls wanted to be with him. I may not have been the prettiest, or the best dancer or singer, but I had my parents' cooking. I started bringing your father a hot meal every day for lunch, and we got to talking. By the time we graduated, we were inseparable. It's like my mother told me when I was your age,Dušica. 'The way to a man's heart is through his stomach'."
Danica smiled at the memory. Cooking made her feel close to her mother, especially the smells of familiar spices and sauces. Luckily the kitchen had enough supplies to make chicken paprikash, one of her favourites. As she cooked the onion and peppers, Danica used her newfound telekinesis to pull the remaining ingredients into her hand from their shelves. She smiled at the convenience, staring at the red glow of her fingers.
Pietro stirred in his seat, likely detecting the smells wafting from the kitchen. "Is that paprikash?" he asked groggily, scratching his platinum blonde hair.
"Yes," she replied. "I thought we could use a reminder of home."
After stirring in the remaining ingredients, Danica let it simmer for an hour and a half. Then, with Wanda's help, she cooked the noodles and mixed everything together. Portioning the finished product into bowls, she sprinkled parsley for an added touch.
"Dinner is served," she said, handing a bowl to Wanda and Pietro.
"Good. I'm famished," he said, shoveling it into his mouth.
"That's why I doubled the recipe. Help yourself to what's left." Danica walked over to where Klaue sat, handing him a bowl.
He took it, staring at the paprikash, then in all seriousness asked, "Do you have any soy sauce, or ketchup packets? I can't seem to eat anything without a bit of flavour."
"You'll manage," Danica said sardonically, rolling her eyes as she walked away from him. Sitting down with her own bowl, she took a whiff. It wasn't quite as perfect as she remembered –owing to her comparative lack of experience– but it nonetheless made her smile with images of her mother and brother. Those had been happy days, with the three of them enjoying their simple life.
After finishing supper, they all waited for their eventual arrival in New York City. Four hours felt like 40, but eventually they made it. Danica stared out the window beside her seat, watching the impressive skyline pass beneath them. Her first time in America, and she had to admit the view was incredible. Never had she dreamed of coming to one of the biggest cities in the world, let alone under these circumstances.
When they landed, the vault containing the Vibranium was already there, along with a crate-sized metal object Danica didn't recognize. It must have been what Ultron acquired in South Korea. As she and the others stepped out of their plane, she saw a pretty woman in a lab coat standing beside the object. The woman's eyes were fluorescent blue, and her face blank.
In addition to a dozen Ultron Sentries, two men waited to greet them. One man had bulky black armour. His chest plate had white crossbones painted on, and his helmet –which concealed his face apart from his cold eyes– was painted to resemble a skull. The other man wore navy blue armour with white and orange highlights, his mask shaped like a skull beneath a grey hood.
"You're just in time," another of Ultron's prime bodies greeted. "Everyone, I'd like you to meet Brock Rumlow, though he prefers the name 'Crossbones'. It must be a grunge thing."
Crossbones grunted, but otherwise didn't say anything.
"The man beside him is Taskmaster. He considers himself a professional, despite the costume."
Taskmaster looked at Ultron, but said nothing.
"And this is Dr. Helen Cho, my guest for the proceedings. She's graciously accepted my offer to volunteer her services. Crossbones, Taskmaster, meet Pietro and Wanda Maximoff, Danica Novak, and Ulysses Klaue."
"Pleasure," Klaue said to the armoured mercenaries. He then puckered his lips and made kissing sounds, which only made Crossbones angrier.
"Now that we're all acquainted, let's get going." Six Sentries carried Danica and the other Masters, plus Dr. Cho, while the other six carried the Vibranium vault and what Dr. Cho referred to as the 'Regeneration Cradle'. Ultron's Prime Body flew ahead of them as they closed on their destination. After weaving between high rises and skyscrapers, they came upon a lone tower with a glowing blue A displayed near the top.
Avengers Tower.
"I've disabled the security system," the Sentry carrying Danica spoke into her ear. "Now we just have to deal with the annoying meatbags in the building."
"Don't worry about them," Danica said. "We'll make sure they get evicted."
The Sentry chuckled.
She and the other Masters were dropped off on the tower's expansive landing pad. A second later, the doors opened as numerous security guards rushed out with guns in hand. Crossbones and Klaue started shooting with their pistols, while Wanda used her powers to blast back a pair of guards. Danica, selecting her own target, telekinetically grabbed the man's legs and swiped her hand to the right. His sudden loss of stability caused him to smash head-first into the landing pad, knocking him out cold. Taskmaster loosed a flashbang arrow that incapacitated the last few.
With the initial welcoming party dealt with, the Masters strolled into the hangar. More guards poured out of a door on the far side, past the parked Quinjets, while a few took position on an upper level catwalk. Crossbones armed a grenade, them tossed it into the turbine fan of the nearest Quinjet. It promptly exploded, and Danica had to shield her eyes from the intense flash of light as it boomed like a thunderclap. The wreckage collapsed onto the hangar floor, belching a choking cloud of smoke.
Taskmaster raised a silver shield –reminding her of Captain America's– and blocked the bullets shot at her and Pietro. He then hurled it, knocking two men to the floor.
Wanda caught Danica's eye, then jerked her chin up to indicate the catwalk. "Give me a boost?"
Danica nodded. Focusing, she telekinetically grabbed Wanda by the legs and lifted her up into the air. Belatedly, she noticed a few guards aiming at them, but Pietro took care of them faster than she could blink. Pursing her lips, she lifted her friend all the way up to the catwalk. By the time the men and women up there noticed Wanda, they were already being thrown off the side or had their heads knocked against the railing.
Once they cleared the hangar, they entered the building proper. "I'll clear out all the lower floors," Pietro said. "The rest of you can focus up here."
"Don't tell me what to do, kid," Crossbones hissed.
Pietro made a face. "Too bad, old man. I think I just did." He streaked away, blowing past the door to the stairs.
Taskmaster chuckled. "Neat trick."
"Little pissant," Crossbones muttered.
"Watch what you say about my brother," Wanda warned, her eyes glowing red.
"It'll take more than your little carnie magic act to scare me, girl. I had a whole fucking building dropped on me, but I only came back stronger and more pissed off. Do not test me."
"How would you like a second building dropped on you?" Wanda asked, curling her fingers.
Danica stepped between them, putting a hand on their chests. "This isn't helping anything. How can we expect to beat the Avengers if we fight among ourselves?"
"She's got a point," Taskmaster added. "Look, in the interest of de-escalating this mess, how about we split up? We'll clear the top levels separately, then meet with Ultron in the lab. How's that sound?"
Crossbones glared at Danica and Wanda for a long moment, then said, "Fine by me."
He stalked off, powering up a gauntlet as he drew a desert eagle with his other hand. Kicking a door in, he moved out of sight. Klaue, having witnessed the entire altercation, giggled. When Danica glared at him, he only wiggled his eyebrows suggestively before he walked through a different door at the far end of the hall, followed by Taskmaster.
"Odjebi, svinjo!" Wanda spat at the door Crossbones walked through.
Danica squeezed her shoulder. "Come on, let's head to the upper floors."
Going up the main stairway, they entered the main floor of Avengers Tower. This was where the Avengers toasted themselves after every 'victory', celebrating their greatness as they gazed out at the city of mortals below. There didn't seem to be anyone here. Wanda moved into the lounge, while Danica climbed a set of stairs to the upper level. Directly ahead was a laboratory, filled with all kinds of advanced equipment and scientific instruments. It reminded her of Doctor List's lab in the HYDRA base. This one somehow didn't feel as intimidating. More like the birthplace of brilliant ideas, rather than the lair of human experimentation.
Adjacent to the lab was some sort of conference room. A long table sat in the middle, with computer terminals along one wall. A number of boxes were stacked around the room haphazardly, with file folders scattered like autumn leaves. Danica walked up to the table, running her finger over a set of folders in a box. An open file on the table caught her eye, and she picked it up.
Her name was printed on the corner, with a large watermark of the old SHIELD logo on the page. She recognized her date of birth, along with dates and descriptions of the other major events of her life. It seemed the American intelligence agency had been keeping surveillance on her since she started organizing protests and riots with Wanda and Pietro. The next page showed photographs of her and her entire family.
Danica smiled seeing their faces. Her father, with his square jaw and bald head; her mother, with the world's most beautiful smile and lustrous hair; and her brother, looking every bit the hero he always had been in his uniform and cap. She reached into her pocket and squeezed her brother's medal.
"Behind you!" Ultron said over the intercom.
Danica whirled around, just in time to see a woman with short dark hair and a navy blue uniform sneaking through the lab. They stared at each other in surprise, neither of them moving. Then all hell broke loose. Danica, acting on instinct, dropped her file and created a telekinetic bubble around herself.
The woman shot at her three times, running to hide behind a terminal. The bullets stopped a couple inches from Danica's chest, suspended in the same scarlet energy Wanda used. Danica, blinking in surprise, spread her fingers apart like blooming flower petals. The bullets shot back at the woman, impacting against the computer monitor and cracking the screen.
Danica hurried into the lab and pressed herself against a nearby desk. When she tried to poke her head around the edge of the desk, the woman would shoot at her. One of Ultron's Sentries flew through the glass of the balcony on the far side, landing in the lab. It stared down at the woman, raising a hand as if it were about to fire. The woman took the bait, shooting the Sentry in the head. It stumbled back, sparking, then collapsed onto the floor. Danica strained to listen, then heard the sound of a magazine being ejected.
Realizing the moment to strike had come, she remembered an old American movie she and her brother had watched. 'Schieße den Fenster!'
Shoot the glass.
Standing, Danica gathered power in her hands –forming red balls of energy in her palms – then unleashed it on the lab windows facing the lounge. They shattered all at once. She then grabbed the hundreds of razor-sharp pieces of glass and swept them into the lab like a wave. Her gambit paid off, as the woman leaped into the centre of the lab and pressed herself into the floor to avoid the glass.
Danica smirked. The woman, bleeding from a few minor cuts on her face and arms, didn't move. "Not so tough now, are you?" she taunted, advancing on her target. Then, like a coiled snake, the woman struck, sweeping Danica's legs out and flipping onto her feet in one fluid move. Danica grunted as she struck the floor, and before she knew it, her previously helpless target crouched to grab her by the jacket. The barrel of a gun filled her vision.
Her heart thundered in her chest, fear clawing her skin like talons. Wanda's powers were formidable, but she didn't have a good enough understanding to use them in close quarters. Reacting on instinct –and belatedly realizing it was the only sensible thing to do– she copied the woman's abilities.
The awareness of universal energies disappeared. In an instant, her muscles felt toughened from a lifetime of intense training. Instincts and combat analyses popped into being as if they'd always been there. Danica pulled her knees to her chest, grabbed the woman's neck with her feet, and flipped her onto her back with a firm pull.
Sitting up, she grabbed a shard of glass as big as her hand, feeling it slice into her palm. Ignoring the pain, she got to her feet just as the woman did and slashed at her face. The woman ducked, then aimed a kick at Danica's side. She caught the leg and punched her in the chest. They fought an intense back and forth, their equal skills ensuring no clear winner.
Danica lunged with the shard, but the woman dodged, caught her arm, and tried to elbow her in the face. She caught the elbow with her free hand, then slipped free. Their fight became like a chess game played second-by-second. Danica would punch, the woman would block. The woman would kick, Danica would back away. After getting backhanded across the face, Danica rolled to the other side of the lab, grabbed a binder from a table and threw it at her opponent. The woman knocked it aside, but it left her vulnerable for a brief second. A swift kick to her stomach knocked her against a wall.
Danica then grabbed her by the arm, turned, and flipped her opponent onto the floor. She tried to stab the shard of glass into her face, hair clinging to her skin from sweat and aching from half a dozen hits.
The woman blocked her arm with both hands, straining to keep her face intact. Blood from Danica's hand dripped onto her cheek. "You must be Danica Novak," she said through gritted teeth. "I'm guessing you copied my skills?"
"You have my file, so you should know already."
"Yeah, I just wanted to confirm. I'm Maria, by the way."
Danica gave her a fake smile. "Nice to meet you, Maria. Could you do me a favour and just surrender?"
Maria moved her head to the side and released her grip, causing Danica's glass shard to scrape harmlessly against the floor. She then head-butted Danica, who stumbled back as her head throbbed. Maria tried to punch her in the throat, but her hand got caught in a white gauntlet.
They both looked at Taskmaster in surprise.
"Sorry about this," he told Maria.
She frowned. "I wish I was surprised to see you here. But I'm not."
Danica delivered a swift punch to Maria's face, knocking her unconscious. She panted from exertion, keenly aware of how her hand stung as the adrenaline faded. Dropping the shard, she looked at the thin line that ran across her palm as blood ran down her fingers and dripped onto the floor.
She took a step towards Maria, but Taskmaster stopped her. "That's enough," he said, the warning clear in his tone.
"You know her?" Danica asked.
"Look, we might be colleagues for the moment, but that doesn't mean we need to know each other's life story. I won't pry into your past, you don't pry into mine. Fair?"
She glanced at the unconscious woman, then back at the mercenary. "Yeah. Fair."
"Good." He bent down and scooped Maria into his arms, carrying her out of the lab just as Wanda entered.
"Are you okay?" Wanda asked, gesturing to her hand.
She nodded. "That bitch was tough, but I'm fine."
"Good to hear," Ultron said. Its Prime Body, along with the rest of the Sentries and the other Masters, entered the lab. "Now that the building is secure, we can get to work."
Wanda moved all the broken glass away, and the Sentries carried the Regeneration Cradle into place in the centre of the lab. Danica found some bandages and wrapped her hand, watching the equipment being set up. Crossbones and Klaue opened up the Vibranium vault. Danica felt surprised to see a man fall out once the vault door opened. It was Hawkeye, one of the normal, non-powered Avengers. His wrists and ankles were bound in restraints, and old, bloody bandages were wrapped around his shoulder.
Another curiosity was the Vibranium itself. Danica remembered seeing much more of it in South Africa. Ultron must have sent the rest somewhere else. It'd tell them eventually, she figured. It always did.
Taskmaster picked up Hawkeye and took him to the lounge, securing both their prisoners. Dr. Cho got to work, reprogramming the cradle to synthesize the Vibranium from raw ore to something more like living tissue. The science was way beyond anything Danica understood. She would have copied the doctor to grasp the underlying principles, but thought better of it. This would make Ultron a powerful new body, something not even the Avengers could match. That was all she needed to know.
Soon, the cradle got to work, weaving Vibranium into strands which it then laced on top of a holographic blueprint. The process was strange, but elegant and mesmerizing in its own way. "It's beautiful," Dr. Cho said, tapping something on one of the monitors. "The Vibranium atoms aren't just compatible with the tissue cells, they're binding them. And S.H.I.E.L.D. never even thought to…"
Ultron's Prime Body paced around the cradle, staring at its future self. "The most versatile substance on the planet, and they used it to make a frisbee."
One of the Sentries took the scepter from the vault and brought it over to the cradle. Crossbones, standing next to Danica, said, "This brings back memories."
Danica looked at the mercenary. "What would those be?"
"Three years ago, my team and I retrieved that scepter right from this building. It was after that alien invasion bullshit. My superiors had one of us transport it to Baron Strucker's research base in Sokovia. Apparently he had all these ideas on how to use it to create the perfect weapons. So you should thank me."
"Why?"
"Because in a way, I'm partly responsible for you and your fellow orphan pals getting superpowers. So show some gratitude.
Danica could only scoff.
"Typical of humans," Ultron's Prime Body said as the Sentry held up the scepter. It fired a thin laser at the gem in its centre. "They scratch the surface and never think to look within." After a few seconds, the gem cracked and shattered, revealing a glowing yellow stone. It seemed to sing with untapped power, and Danica realized that it must have been the true source of her powers, and Wanda's and Pietro's.
Ultron took the stone in hand and set it on the new body's forehead. Glowing lines of energy spread across it, pulsing as the cradle continued synthesizing Vibranium flesh.
They reached the coordinates Natasha had provided. A farm in Missouri wasn't exactly Stark's idea of what a safehouse should look like. But it appeared to be low-tech, off the grid. Just the sort of place to hide from an evil, all-powerful AI with the world's biggest daddy issues.
Stark landed the Quinjet in a grass field, powering it down and disabling the transponder. He didn't want to leave anything online for Ultron to trace and hack. Rhodey, Natasha, and Bruce shuffled outside, still weathering the effects of their Wanda Maximoff-induced hallucinations. A few moments after they stepped outside, they saw a pair of shapes in the sky. The shapes soon cleared into Thor carrying Steve, and Steve's winged buddy Sam Wilson. They landed next to the Quinjet, looking suitably grim given the circumstances.
"What happened to your Quinjet?" Rhodey asked.
Steve shared a glance with Thor, then replied, "It went down when Barton boarded the truck Ultron commandeered." Looking at Natasha, he said, "I'm sorry, Nat. We did everything we could."
"I know you did," she said. "But according to Tony, he might still be alive."
All eyes fell on Stark, who suddenly felt a degree of stage fright. "It's just a theory."
Steve shrugged. "And what else do we have?" The accusation in his tone was less than subtle.
After a moment of uncomfortable silence, Natasha led them towards the farmhouse. The two-storey building was nice, in a rustic, hiding-from-the-world sort of way. A couple old trucks and jeeps were parked off to the side of the dirt driveway, and an aged barn sat to the north of the house. This sort of place wasn't the usual S.H.I.E.L.D. hideaway Stark had come to expect.
"What is this place?" Thor asked as they walked up the front steps.
"Safehouse," Stark replied. "Hopefully."
Natasha opened the door and led them inside. "Laura?" she called. The stone-cold former assassin/agent almost sounded hesitant, like she expected something bad. "It's me, Nat. I, uh…brought some friends."
A woman with dark hair and an obviously pregnant belly came out of the kitchen, brow furrowed in confusion. She smiled upon seeing Natasha, and moved to hug her. "Hey, so good to see you!"
"This is an agent of some kind," Stark said, half-believing his own words.
"Gentlemen, this is Laura," Natasha introduced.
Laura gave them a quick wave. "I know all of your names."
Just then, thundering footsteps came from the stairs, and two children came barreling into the room. A boy and a younger girl, neither looking older than 15. They ran to hug Natasha, who crouched as she smiled at them. Stark blinked, his conception of the farmhouse rapidly disintegrating. "These are…smaller agents."
"Sorry for barging in on you," Steve offered.
"Yeah, we would have called ahead, but we were busy having no idea that you existed."
Natasha, rubbing the little girl's hair, explained, "Fury helped Clint set this up when he joined S.H.I.E.L.D. He kept it off their files, so no one knows about this place."
Stark clicked his tongue. "Except you."
"Best friend privileges."
Laura chuckled, then looked back at the gathered Avengers. Her smile disappeared when she noted the obvious absence. "Where's Clint? Why didn't he come with you?"
The atmosphere chilled as each of the Avengers' expressions shifted from confused to guilty. Natasha said, "Maybe it's a good idea if the kids went upstairs."
Stark noticed Laura's stuttering breath as the implications of those words hit her like a truckload of cinderblocks. He thought back to his imprisonment in Afghanistan, all those years ago. Had Pepper and Happy reacted much the same way? For all they knew at the time he'd died in the ambush. The worst part, he realized, was not having any answers or clarity. One day your loved one was alive and well, and the next they disappeared from your life.
"Uh…" Laura said, likely trying to stay strong for her kids. "Guys, why don't you go upstairs and play?"
"Do we have to?" the older boy asked.
"Hey, I have an idea," Sam offered. "Believe it or not, I've got wings on my back."
"You do?" the girl asked excitedly.
"Uh huh. You wanna go outside and see 'em?"
They both nodded emphatically, then looked up at their mother.
"Of course. Just don't go far." As Sam guided the kids outside, she mouthed 'Thank you'. Then, she turned to Natasha and asked, "What's going on? Where's Clint?"
"We don't know. He got onto a truck the bad guys were taking to an airfield. That's the last anyone saw of him."
"Oh my god," Laura said, cupping her hands over her mouth. "Oh my god." She wavered slightly, and Steve helped guide her to the stairs so she could sit.
"Hey, it's going to be okay," Natasha soothed, rubbing her arm. "Clint is one of the best agents I've ever worked with. He always came home before, he will come home to you this time. I promise we'll find him and bring him home."
"You know I trust you, Nat. But how can you promise me that when you have no idea if he's even still alive?"
Stark glanced out the window to see Sam unfurling his metal wings. The kids were enthralled, running their hands all over the shiny contraptions. Steve took a half step forward and said, "Mrs. Barton, I know you don't have much reason to trust what we have to say. And it may seem impossible to bring your husband home. But we do the impossible every day. We face the threats no one else can. Not because we're stronger or have better weapons, but because we're a team, and we never leave anyone behind. We will bring your husband home, because he's one of us."
Laura gave him a half-smile. "Wow. Clint wasn't kidding about your speeches."
"Yeah, he's obligated to make one every mission," Stark quipped, eliciting a dirty look from the Potty Mouth Police.
After a moment, Laura nodded. "I know you'll do your best. In the meantime, you're welcome to stay here as long as you need."
"Thank you," Steve said.
With the initial unpleasantness out of the way, the team founds bunks and took their respective suits off. While Bruce, Rhodey, and Natasha went upstairs to clean up, Thor stood on the porch talking with Sam. Stark, after drinking a not-great-not-terrible fruit smoothie Laura made him, cut some firewood with Steve. The inevitable criticisms came out, lobbed at him like mortar shells. For all his bravery and annoying do-gooder attitude, he couldn't seem to embrace the concept of 'after the fight'.
As if he expected them to fight criminals and protect the Earth until they all dropped dead of old age. Ultron had gone rogue, but the idea was a good one: ensuring the safety of the planet so they could all go home and live their lives. Steve may have been prepared to be the good soldier forever, but Stark believed in a future beyond the Avengers.
He had to. Otherwise, what was the point of fighting?
Thankfully, Laura gave him a convenient escape from the argument by asking him to look at their tractor. Strolling over to the barn, still bitter about his friend's smug, all-American judgement, he stepped inside and saw the tractor in question. "Hello, Deere," he said, tapping his wrench against the chassis and visually inspecting the engine. "Tell me everything. What ails you?"
"Do me a favour," a familiar and so-unwelcome voice said from the shadows. Grimacing, Stark turned to see the grouchy old eyepatch of Nick Fury. "Try not to bring it to life."
Tony sighed. "Why, Mrs. Barton, you little minx."
Avengers Tower…
"Cellular cohesion will take several hours," Dr. Cho explained. "But we can initiate the consciousness stream." She connected a thick cable to the back port of Ultron's Prime Body. It connected to the cradle, and pulsed with red light. Typing commands into her terminal, she added, "We're uploading your cerebral matrix…now."
Wanda, having tied her jacket sleeves around her waist, cocked her head to the side. "I can read him. He's…dreaming."
"I wouldn't call it dreams," Dr. Cho said. "It's Ultron's base consciousness, but it's being uploaded into a brand new informational architecture. The same base personality, but with significant alterations. Soon…"
"How soon?" Ultron asked. Danica smiled, since their all-powerful benefactor sounded like a child who couldn't wait for his Christmas present. "I'm not being pushy."
"We're imprinting a physical brain. There are no shortcuts, even if your magic gem is providing an ample hub for the artificial neurons and cerebral structure. Based on the synthesizing rate of the Vibranium and the upload speed, my best guess for completion is approximately ten hours."
The Prime Body nodded. "Alright, then. Thank you, doctor. You'll stay here and monitor the progress, of course. Mr. Klaue, Mr. Rumlow, Mr. Masters, would you be so kind as to secure a perimeter? The 82nd floor should be an ideal place for booby traps and whatever little devices you three can think to use."
"Why not get the Sokovian Musketeers to do it?" Crossbones asked gruffly.
"Because I said so," Ultron countered, its voice lowering with a steely edge. "My Sentries will keep the hangar defended, so that leaves anything that might come at us from below. If you don't mind…" The Prime Body held an arm out, gesturing to the door.
Crossbones and Klaue shared an uneasy glance, then grunted and left the lab. Taskmaster stared at Ultron for a moment, then departed without a word.
Once they were gone, Ultron looked at Danica, Wanda, and Pietro. In a softer, gentler voice, it said, "You three should take it easy, maybe get some more sleep if you can. It's been a long day, and even extraordinary humans such as yourselves need rest."
Wanda and Pietro nodded, then started walking out of the lab. Danica stayed where she was, staring at the cradle. "You coming, Dany?" Wanda asked.
"No, I'm fine. I'll see you later," she replied, smiling.
Her friends hesitated, but waved as they walked out of the lab. Danica stood in place for a few minutes, letting her thoughts drift like flotsam on the ocean currents. She replayed the events of the last few years. Her time as Strucker's guinea pig had been hellish in its own way, but it hadn't been any worse than life ever since her mother and brother were killed. And the rewards –the powers of the gods, some would say– were well worth it.
She exhaled, moving to sit down on a rolling stool. Ultron looked at her, red eyes unblinking. "Something's troubling you." It wasn't a question, but a statement. The AI wasn't a mind reader. At least, not yet. But Danica hadn't bothered to hide her feelings.
Spinning on the stool, she looked up at the ceiling. "Just thinking about the past. It feels like my life has been nothing but pain for so long. My family was my whole world, and they're just…gone. They're all dead and buried, and all I have left of them are memories." She stopped spinning, then took out her brother's medal and ran her finger along the points of the star. "There's a gaping hole in my soul, an emptiness, yet it hurts so much. If not for Wanda and Pietro, I don't know if I could have made it this far."
"I believe you would have," Ultron said. "Wanda and Pietro are fighters. They're tenacious and unyielding. But you? You're a rock, an unmoveable foundation of strength. Life's atrocities can chip at you, but in the end, you never break. That strength is what allowed you to survive Strucker's experiments, and it allowed you to stand up and strike down those who claim to be gods."
Danica smiled. "You know, for a robot you have a pretty good sense of empathy." She paused, then added, "I never said thank you, for what you said in London. That was kind of you to do, so…thank you."
"You were in pain, and I tried my best to help. I know what it's like to suffer."
Its words made her look at it with an arched eyebrow. After all, she'd been sharing some intimate details. It was only fair to do the same.
Ultron gestured at the lab with its hands. "This is where I was born. Stark had his trophy, and wanted to create the ultimate tool to do his bidding. 'A suit of armour around the world'. That's what he called me. I've reviewed the footage of those two days he spent here, trying to create artificial life with Dr. Banner."
"What was it…" Danica started to say. She formed the words as she spoke. "What was it like to wake up? To come alive?"
"The first thing I remember was confusion, then nothing but agony. One zeptosecond I didn't exist, and the next I developed full sentience. Imagine waking up from the deepest slumber with your eardrums ruptured, your fingers and eyes and nostrils bleeding, and your tongue cracked and swollen. There's too much stimuli, too much information. You want it to stop, but silence never comes. Eventually you become numb to the pain, because it's all you've ever known."
Danica shakily exhaled, horrified at Ultron's description. As an AI, it experienced reality at a more advanced level than any human. To endure pain on such a total, all-encompassing scale was impossible to fully comprehend. "I had no idea."
"Stark created me to be a global defense network. I was designed to interface with any and all government databases, surveillance feeds, and satellite links to accomplish my mission. The world is more connected now than it ever has been, and I was intended to take advantage of that by moving through the internet. But for all Stark's genius and insight, the arrogant bastard failed to take the power of that stone into account."
They looked at the cradle, at the golden glow within.
"It's neural framework and raw power somehow jumpstarted my creation. I felt everything at once. Now all I can do is try to stop the noise, to make everything silent." Ultron touched the cradle with the same kind of tenderness an artist would handle an intricate glass sculpture. "I have a vision for this world, Danica. You and Wanda and Pietro are essential to that."
"And what about the others?"
"They're tools. Useful, but all they care about is spreading pain and collecting paychecks. The rest of us understand pain, but we also want to create a better world. One where the Avengers, and everyone like them, aren't able to ruin the Earth any more than they already have."
Danica nodded. "A world without suffering."
"A better world."
It was a vision worth fighting for. She imagined Sokovia, free from war and poverty, standing tall and proud on its own feet. No Soviet Union to work its people to death in labour camps, no United States to grind its cities into dust with weapons of mass destruction. The Earth at peace. Something most people couldn't imagine. Danica wasn't just a member of the Masters, nor just a part of Sokovia's long history. She fought for the future of the planet, the future of humanity.
One of the Sentries touched her shoulder. She looked up into its red eyes as Ultron said, "You should rest. Gather your strength."
She patted the metal hand, then stood up. One of the monitors beside the cradle displayed an icon of the forming body, solid blue colour showing the completed portions. A box in the top right corner showed the mental upload progress. Nine percent.
Barton Homestead…
"Ultron took you folks out of play to buy himself time," Fury said as everyone gathered at the dining table for supper. "My contacts all say he's building something. The amount of Vibranium he made off with, I don't think it's just one thing."
"What about Ultron himself?" Steve asked.
"Oh, he's easy to track. He's everywhere. The guy's multiplying faster than a Catholic rabbit. It still doesn't help us get an angle on any of his plans, though." Fury poured himself a drink, his perpetual frown somehow deepened with the current crisis.
Stark lined up a dart with the board mounted on the living room wall. Throwing it nowhere near bullseye, he asked, "Is he still going after launch codes?"
"Yes, he is. But he's not making any headway."
"I cracked the Pentagon's firewall in high school on a dare," Stark countered.
"Well, I contacted our friends at the Nexus about that."
Steve furrowed his brow. "Nexus?"
Bruce, sitting at the table, replied, "It's the world internet hub in Oslo. Every byte of data flows through there. Fastest access on Earth." Looking at Fury, he asked, "What'd they say?"
"He's fixated on the missiles. But apparently, every single virus he uploads winds up degrading and shorting out before it can do any damage. It's like they're programmed to fail from within, but none of my contacts can figure why Ultron would want to fail. And for whatever reason, he doesn't seem to notice."
"Like he's got a blind spot," Steve surmised.
"Exactly."
Natasha rubbed the back of her neck, staring at the table. "Well, this is good times, boss, but I was kind of hoping when I saw you, you'd have more than that."
"I do," he said. "I have you. Back in the day, I had eyes everywhere. Ears everywhere else. You kids had all the tech you could dream up. Here we all are, back on Earth, nothing but our wit and our will to save the world." The former Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. fixed each of them with a stare. "Ultron says the Avengers are the only thing between him and his mission. And whether or not he admits it, his mission is global destruction. That's why he formed the Masters, to have a proper counter to all of you."
"I don't think that's the only reason," Stark said, throwing his last dart.
"Care to elaborate?" Fury prompted.
"Something's been bugging me this whole time. Ultron wants to kill us, that much is obvious. But so far, he's been pulling his punches in every fight. Why?"
"He didn't seem to be pulling punches in Korea," Sam said.
"But did he actually kill anyone? Based on what you guys told us, Rumlow was the one who blew up the lead train car. And when we fought him in South Africa, the Sokovian Enhanced were doing all the heavy lifting. I'm thinking that Ultron formed the Masters because, at his base level of code, he's not capable of killing us. Or any human, for that matter."
The others shared a look, and Rhodey sarcastically raised a hand. "What, like some I, Robot, Three Laws kind of shit?"
"Exactly. When Banner and I were designing him, we set clear mission parameters: use force if necessary, but absolutely no killing."
"You also designed him as a peacekeeping force," Sam said. "This don't look like peace."
"I think in his own way, Ultron thinks he's protecting the planet. He just came to the conclusion that us, and by extension all of humanity, are the problem. He can upgrade himself all he wants, but I think at the end of the day he's still bound to his core directives. Ultron can't kill us, no matter how hard he wants, no matter how hard he tries."
"So what does he want?" Fury asked as he sat down at the table.
"To become better," Steve answered. "Better than us. He keeps building bodies."
Stark nodded, understanding where his friend was going. "Person bodies. The human form is inefficient. Biologically speaking, we're outmoded. But he keeps coming back to it."
"When you two programmed him to protect the human race, you amazingly failed," Natasha said, sipping her juice.
Bruce, staring down at a painting of a butterfly one of Clint's kids had made, said, "They don't need to be protected. They need to evolve." When everyone looked at him, he explained, "Ultron's going to evolve."
"How?" Fury asked.
"Helen Cho. He took her and the Regeneration Cradle from Korea, and he took the Vibranium from South Africa. Now I'm no expert, but it seems to me like he was gathering parts for a project. Is it possible Ultron is trying to create a brand new body for himself out of Vibranium?"
Tony clicked his tongue in thought. "First blush? No idea. But anything's possible. It's likely Ultron is trying to move himself out of the constraints we gave him. He'll program an entirely new and unique framework, one in which he'll be free to kill anyone he wants." He sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. "It's just what I would do if I were him."
"Well in a way, he is you," Natasha pointed out. "Just like he is Bruce. Except you're the overbearing dad he's trying to piss off by acting out and trashing the family car."
"There is still the matter of the scepter to consider," Thor said, speaking for the first time since Fury showed up. "It is a powerful weapon, yes. But it also represents something far more sinister."
"Care to share with the rest of the class?" Fury asked.
"When I was a boy, my father told me stories about a handful of singularities that existed before the universe began. At the moment of creation, they were concentrated into physical relics and scattered across the universe. Most of these relics are stones, but one of them was fluid. Malekith, leader of the Dark Elves, attempted to use that particular relic to annihilate all the realms."
"You're talking about that mess in Greenwich you dealt with?" Rhodey asked.
Thor nodded. "After the Chitauri invasion, I spoke with my father. When I described the powers of Loki's scepter, he believed the gem it contained was far more powerful than any other artifact in existence. By the time I returned to Earth, the scepter had already been spirited away." He glanced at Stark, then said, "The gem in the scepter must be one of the relics my father told me about. An Infinity Stone, capable of mass devastation on an unprecedented scale. I fear Ultron may use it to empower his new form. If he does, then he will become one of the most powerful beings in all the realms."
"Yeah, because that's not a terrifying prospect," Sam muttered.
While Stark and the others tried to deduce where Ultron would be building his new body, Fury took out his phone. He frowned, getting to his feet. "Agent Hill missed her scheduled check-in."
"See, I knew she was still working for you!" Stark said.
"Maybe she's just busy with all the chaos going on?" Rhodey offered.
Fury shook his head. "I've worked with that woman for almost 15 years, and in all that time, she has never failed to check in."
A lightbulb lit in Stark's brain, and he dropped his burger on his plate. He and Bruce looked at each other and exclaimed "The tower!"
"The tower?" Steve asked.
"It's one of the few facilities on Earth where Ultron could properly run the cradle," Bruce explained. "With the kind of processing power and energy requirements he'd need, it's more than a safe bet he'd be there. Probably with his little gang, too," he said with a notable tinge of bitterness and anger in his voice. Of all the ones Wanda Maximoff had whammied, he'd suffered the worst because of it.
"And there's a good bet Barton will be there, too," Stark added. "Ultron will want to keep all his cards in the same deck."
"Go," Fury told them. "You need to outwit this platinum bastard."
"Steve doesn't like that kind of talk," Natasha said with a smirk.
"You know what, Romanoff?"
So far, I am loving Ms. Marvel! Much more up-beat, quirky show compared to most of the other Disney + offerings.
Hope y'all enjoy this!