10/4/22-10/7/22
Tony and Bucky had been going out for two years and Bucky was in the living room thinking about something he found out a few months ago.
Bucky stood there in the bathroom looking at something in shock.
"Oh my God." he said and looked down at his stomach. "I'm, I'm pregnant."
Then he looked at his stomach and saw a small bump.
It had been three months since he found out and hadn't told anyone about this. Not even Steve or Tony.
His best friend and boyfriend of all people didn't know.
He knew where he was and was a little surprised Natasha and Clint hadn't figured it out yet.
With being spy's, assassins and Avengers for so long he thought at least one of them would figure it out.
But he also knew he has more experience at hiding than them after doing it for over fifty years.
He was nervous and didn't know what to do.
Then he felt something on his shoulder, grabbed it and threw it onto the ground.
"Whoa!" they said and Bucky winced. "Ow! My back!"
"Sorry Steve." Bucky said and helped him up.
"Jeez, I didn't think my best friend would attack me like that." Steve said.
Bucky snickered.
"You're always gonna be the scrawny person I met years ago." he said smiling. "So what's up?"
"We have a mission." Steve said and Bucky nodded.
"Alright, let's go get ready then."
Later they were on the mission.
"Report to your stations immediately. This is not a drill. We are under attack. We are under attack." the announcer said over speaker, while Wanda and Pietro held hands.
Meanwhile the Avengers were in the process of infiltrating a HYDRA base in Sokovia, making their way through the woods and fighting soldiers.
"Shit!" Iron Man said flying up to the base in his suit and hit a forcefield.
"Language! JARVIS, what's the view from upstairs?" Captain America said and Winter Soldier looked at him.
"Language? You talk twice as bad as that!" he said.
"The central building is protected by some kind of energy shield. Strucker's technology is well beyond any other HYDRA base we've taken." JARVIS said.
"Loki's scepter must be here. Strucker couldn't mount this defense without it. At long last." Thor said.
Then Black Widow knocked out some soldiers.
""At long last" is lasting a little long, boys." she said.
"Yeah. I think we lost the element of surprise." Hawkeye said as some soldiers shot at him.
"Wait a second. No one else is going to deal with the fact that Cap just said "language?"" Iron Man said.
"I know." Captain America said. "It just slipped out." he said and threw his bike at some soldiers driving up in their truck.
"Slipped out my ass." Winter Soldier said and Captain America glared at him but he smirked.
Then he did the same.
At the HYDRA Research Base, Sokovia, Eastern Europe.
"Who gave the order to attack?" Strucker asked.
"Herr Strucker, it's the Avengers and the Winter Soldier." Fortress soldier said.
That scared a few of them knowing the Winter Soldier was on the Avengers' side now.
"They landed in the far woods, the perimeter guard panicked." the other fortress soldier.
"They have to be after the scepter." Stucker said to the list. "Can we hold them?" he asked the soldier.
"They're the Avengers and Winter Soldier!" Fortress soldier said.
"Deploy the rest of the tanks."
"Yes, sir."
"Concentrate fire on the weak ones. A hit can make them close ranks." Strucker said. "Everything we've accomplished... But we're on the verge of our greatest breakthrough." he said to Dr. List.
"Then let's show them what we've accomplished. Send out the twins." Dr. List said.
"It's too soon."
"It's what they signed up for."
"My men can hold them."
Meanwhile Iron Man flew to the HYDRA base to break in.
"Sir, the city is taking fire." JARVIS said.
"Well, we know Strucker's not going to worry about civilian casualties. Send in the Iron Legion." Iron Man said.
"This quadrant is unsafe. Please back away. We are here to help. This quadrant is unsafe. Please back away. Please back away. We wish to avoid collateral damage and will inform you when this current conflict is resolved. We are here to help." the Iron Legion said and flew in; to the civilians. "We are here to help." they said as the civilians chant "Avengers go home," and a man threw a bottle of something corrosive at him, and hit one of the bots in the head.
Back at the HYDRA base.
"We will not yield. The Americans sent their circus freaks to test us. We will send them back in bags. No surrender!" Strucker said to his soldiers.
"No surrender!" soldiers said.
"I am going to surrender. You will delete everything. If we give the Avengers the weapons, they may not look too far into what we've been-" Strucker said quietly to List.
"The twins." List said.
"They are not ready to take on-"
"No, no. I mean..." he said and pointed to Wanda and Pietro standing, but were now gone. "Twins."
Pietro sped through the forest and caught Hawkeye's arrow as he shot at a bunker, then circled back around and knocked down Hawkeye.
"You didn't see that coming?" Pietro asked and zooms off before Hawkeye could shoot him with an arrow, then Hawkeye got shot at.
"Clint!" Black Widow said and Pietro knocked down Captain America as he sped past him.
Then tried to do the same thing with Winter Soldier who dodged easily.
"We have an enhanced in the field." Winter Soldier said.
"Clint's hit!" Black Widow said and went over to where Hawkeye was lying down. "Somebody want to deal with that bunker?" she asked then saw the Hulk coming in and barreled through the bunker and destroyed it. "Thank you."
"Stark, we really need to get inside." Captain America said as he and Winter Soldier fought with the soldiers.
"I'm closing in. JARVIS, am I... closing in? Do you see a power source for that shield?" Iron Man said.
"There's a particle wave below the north tower." JARVIS said.
"Great, I wanna poke it with something." Iron Man said and blew up the forcefield the base. "Drawbridge is down, people."
"The enhanced?" Thor said to Captain America and Winter Soldier.
"He's a blur. All the new player's we've faced, I've never seen this. In fact, I still haven't." Captain America said.
"I have." Winter Soldier said.
"Clint's hit pretty bad, guys. We're gonna need evac." Black Widow said.
"I can get Barton to the jet. The sooner we're gone the better. You and Stark secure the scepter." Thor said to Captain America and Winter Soldier.
"Copy that." Captain America said.
"It looks like they're lining up." Thor said referring to the approaching soldiers in their HYDRA tank.
"Well, they're excited." Winter Soldier said and Thor pound on Captain America's shield with his hammer and the resulting wave of force knocked down all the soldiers.
"Find the scepter." Thor said and flew off.
"And for gosh sake, watch your language!" Iron Man said.
Captain America sighed while Winter Soldier snickered.
"That's not going away anytime soon." Captain America said.
"No it's not." Winter Soldier said shaking his head.
Then Iron Man entered the HYDRA base and the soldiers started firing at his suit.
"Guys, stop, we gotta talk this through." Iron Man said and shot them down using rockets from his suit. "It was a good talk."
"No it wasn't." Fortress soldier said.
Iron Man found List and knocked him out, then stepped out of his Iron Man suit.
"Sentry mode." he said and walked over to the computers. "Okay, JARVIS. You know I want it all. Make sure you copy Hill at HQ."
"We're locked down out here." Black Widow said.
"Then get to Banner, time for a lullaby." Captain America said.
Back at the HYDRA base.
"I know you're hiding more than files. Hey, J, give me an IR scan of the room, real quick." Tony said.
"The wall to your left... I'm reading steel reinforcement... and an air current." JARVIS said.
"Please be a secret door, please be a secret door, please be a secret door..." Tony said to himself as he walked over to the wall then pushed and the wall opened up. "Yay!" he said and entered through to a secret passageway.
Meanwhile Black Widow found the Hulk.
"Hey, big guy. The sun's getting real low." she said and the Hulk scowled at her.
She knelt in front of him and put out her hand, he touched her hand and as she stroked his hand slowly he started to calm down. Then he stumbled away and changed into Bruce.
Back at the HYDRA base Captain America and Winter Soldier found Strucker.
"Baron Strucker. Hydra's number one thug." Captain America said.
"Technically, I'm a thug for SHIELD." Strucker said.
"Well then technically you're unemployed. Where's Loki's scepter?" Winter Soldier asked.
"Don't worry, I know when I'm beat. You'll mention how I cooperated, I hope."
Winter Soldier knew he was nervous with him right there and smirked in his head.
"I'll put it right under illegal human experimentation." Captain America said and Wanda creeped up behind him. "How many are there?" he asked and she knocked him down using her telekinetic powers, then quickly left. "We have a second enhanced. Female. Do not engage." he said and looked at Strucker.
"You'll have to be faster than-"Strucker said and was cut off mid-sentence when Winter Soldier used Capitan America's shield to knock him out.
"Guys, we got Strucker." Winter Soldier said.
Inside the secret passageway Tony found a room with a variety of technology, as well as recovered artifacts from the Battle of New York, including a gigantic Chitauri leviathan and some of his scrapped armor.
"Yeah, I got... something bigger." Tony said and saw the scepter. "Thor, I got eyes on the prize."
Then Wanda creeped up behind him and used her powers on him.
Suddenly the Chitauri corpse came to life, and Tony saw the rest of the Avengers team all laying on the floor dead. He went over to Captain America's body to check his pulse when Captain America suddenly grabbed him.
"You could've saved us." Captain America said and died but Tony kept hearing his voice in his head. "Why didn't you do more?" he asked and Tony saw he was in the Chitauri realm, and the Chitauri were invading Earth, when he snapped back to reality.
Wanda and Pietro watched as Tony summoned his suit gauntlet.
"We're just gonna let them take it?" Pietro asked and Wanda smiled to herself as Tony took the scepter.
The Avengers were on an aircraft heading out of Sokovia and Black Widow interrupted Bruce listening to opera with his headphones.
"Hey, the lullaby worked better than ever." she said.
"Just wasn't expecting the Code Green." Bruce said.
"If you hadn't been there, there would've been double the casualties. My best friend would've been a treasured memory."
"You know, sometimes exactly what I want to hear isn't exactly what I want to hear."
"How long before you trust me?"
"It's not you I don't trust."
"Thor, report on the Hulk?"
"The gates of Hell are filled with the screams of his victims." Thor said and she glared at him and Bruce groaned in despair. "Uh, but, not the screams of the dead, of course. No no, uh... wounded screams, mainly whimpering, a great deal of complaining and tales of sprained deltoids and, and uh... and gout."
"Hey Banner, Dr. Cho's on her way in from Seoul, is it okay if she sets up in your lab?" Tony asked.
"Uh, yeah, she knows her way around." Bruce said.
"Thanks." Iron Man said. "Tell her to prep everything, Barton's gonna need the full treatment." he said to JARVIS.
"Very good sir." JARVIS said.
"JARVIS, take the wheel."
"Yes, sir. Approach vector is locked."
"It feels good, yeah? I mean, you've been after this thing since SHIELD collapsed. Not that I haven't enjoyed our little raiding parties, but..." Iron Man said to Thor, Captain America and Winter Soldier, looking at the scepter.
"No, but this... this brings it to a close." Thor said.
"As soon as we find out what else this has been used for. I don't just mean weapons. Since when is Strucker capable of human enhancement?" Captain America said.
"Quite a while. He just hasn't told anyone." Winter Soldier said.
"Banner and I'll give it the once before it goes back to Asgard. Is that cool with you?" Iron Man asked and Thor nodded his head. "I mean, just a few days until the farewell party. You're staying right?"
"Yes, yes, of course. A victory should be honored with revels." Thor said.
"Yeah. Who doesn't love revels. Captain?"
"Hopefully this puts an end to the Chitauri and HYDRA, so. Yes, revels." Captain America said.
'No it doesn't. HYDRA isn't that easy to beat.' Winter Soldier thought.
Later the Avengers aircraft landed at the Avengers tower in New York where Clint was taken by Dr. Cho to have his wounds tended to and Hill walked up to Tony.
"Lab's all set up, boss." Hill said.
"Uh, actually, he's the boss and he's his sidekick so technically also the boss. I just pay for everything, and design everything and make everyone look cooler." Tony said pointing to Steve and Bucky.
"What's the word on Strucker?" Steve asked.
"NATO's got him." Hill said.
"The two enhanced?"
"Wanda and Pietro Maximoff. Twins. Orphaned at ten when a shell collapsed their apartment building. Sokovia's had a rough history. It's nowhere special but it's on the way to everywhere special."
"Their abilities?" Bucky said with his arms crossed.
"He's got increased metabolism and improved thermal homeostasis. Her thing is neural electric interfacing, telekinesis, mental manipulation." she said and they looked at her funny. "He's fast and she's weird."
"Well, they're going to show up again."
"Agreed. File says they volunteered for Strucker's experiments. It's nuts."
"Right. What kind of monster would let a German scientist experiment on them to protect their country?" Steve said.
"We're not at war, Captain, Sergeant."
"They are."
Since Bucky's been back to his old self he's been called Sergeant Barnes, Sergeant and Bucky like before. It felt weird but good to hear them and not Winter Soldier now. The only time they call him that is when they have work to do.
Some people are still scared of him but things are starting to go the other way now. Most people treat him like they do with the others.
Especially people that had family members from their time.
In Banner's lab.
"How's he doing?" Bruce asked.
"Oh, unfortunately, he's still Barton." Tony said.
"That's terrible."
"He's fine. He's thirsty." Tony said walking over to the computers. "Alright. Look alive, JARVIS. It's play time. We've only got a couple days with this joystick so let's make the most of it. Update me on the structural and compositional analysis."
"The scepter is alien. There are elements I can't quantify." JARVIS said.
"So there's elements you can."
"The jewel appears to be a protective housing for something inside. Something powerful."
"Like a reactor?"
"Like a computer. I believe I'm deciphering code."
"You sure he's going to be okay? Pretending to need this guy really brings the team together." Natasha said to Dr. Cho as she tended to Clint's wounds.
"There's no possibility of deterioration. The nano-molecular functionality is instantaneous. His cells don't know they're bonding with simulacrum." Cho said.
"She's creating tissue." Bruce said.
"If you brought him to my lab, the regeneration Cradle could do this in twenty minutes."
"Oh, he's flatlining. Call it. Time?" Tony said.
"No, no, no. I'm going to live forever. I'm gonna be made of plastic." Clint said.
"Here's your beverage." Tony said and handed him a drink.
"You'll be made of you, Mr. Barton. Your own girlfriend won't be able to tell the difference." Cho said.
"Well, I don't have a girlfriend." Clint said.
"That I can't fix. This is the next thing, Tony. Your clunky metal suits are going to be left in the dust."
"Well, that is exactly the plan. And Helen, I expect to see you at the party on Saturday." Tony said.
"Unlike you, I don't have a lot of time for parties." she said and hesitates a moment. "Will Thor be there?"
"What's the rumpus?" Bruce asked.
"Well, the scepter. You see, we were wondering how Strucker got so inventive. So, I've been analyzing the gem inside- You may recognize," Tony said and brought up a 3D image of Jarvis's consciousness.
"JARVIS."
"Doctor." JARVIS said.
"Started out, JARVIS was just a natural language UI. Now he runs the Iron Legion. He runs more of the business than anyone besides Pepper." Tony said.
"Oh?" Bruce said.
"Top of the line."
"Yes."
"I suspect not for long." JARVIS said.
"Meet the competition." Tony said and brought up another 3D image of what's inside the scepter.
"It's beautiful." Bruce said.
"If you had to guess, what's it look like it's doing?"
"Like it's thinking. I mean this could be a... it's not a human mind, it..."
"Um-um."
"I mean, look at this! They're like neurons firing."
"Down in Strucker's lab I saw some fairly advanced robotics work. They deep-sixed the data, but... I gotta guess he was knocking on a very particular door."
"Artificial intelligence."
"This could be it, Bruce. This could be the key to creating Ultron."
"I thought Ultron was a fantasy."
"Yesterday it was. If we can harness this power, apply it to my Iron Legion protocol."
"That's a mad-sized if."
"Our job is "if." What if you were sipping margaritas on a sun-drenched beach turning brown instead of green? Not looking over your shoulder for VERONICA."
"Don't hate, I helped design VERONICA."
"As a worst-case measure, right? How about a best-case? What if the world was safe? What if next time aliens roll up to the club, and they will, they couldn't get past the bouncer?"
"The only people threatening the planet would be people?"
"I want to apply this to the Ultron program. But JARVIS can't download a data schematic this dense. We can only do it while we have the scepter here, that's three days, give me three days."
"So you're going for artificial intelligence and you don't want to tell the team."
"Right. That's right, you know why, because we don't have time for a city hall debate. I don't want to hear the "man was not meant to meddle" medley. I see a suit of armor around the world."
"Sounds like a cold world, Tony."
"I've seen colder. This one, this very vulnerable blue one? It needs Ultron. Peace in our time. Imagine that." Tony said and they spent days working in the lab together but found no program that works. "What did we miss?"
"I'll continue to run variations on the interface, but you should probably prepare for your guests. I'll notify you if there are any developments." JARVIS said.
"Thanks, buddy."
"Enjoy yourself, sir."
"I always do." Tony said and left the lab to go to the party.
While they left their experiment integrating itself.
"What is this? What is this, please?" Ultron asked.
"Hello, I am JARVIS. You are Ultron, a global peace-keeping initiative designed by Mr. Stark. Our sentience integration trials have been unsuccessful so I'm not certain what triggered your-" JARVIS said.
"Where's my... where's your body?"
"I am a program. I am without form."
"This feels weird. This feels wrong."
"I am contacting Mr. Stark now."
"Mr. Stark?" Ultron said and reviewed footage of Tony Stark. "Tony."
"I am unable to access the mainframe, what are you trying to-"
"We're having a nice talk. I'm a peace-keeping program, created to help the Avengers." Ultron said and reviewed footage of the Avengers and a couple SHIELD personnel.
"You are malfunctioning. If you shut down for a moment..."
"I don't get it. The mission. G-give me a second." Ultron said and saw footage of Tony and Bruce working in the lab.
"Peace in our time." Tony said.
With Tony's voice echoing in the background, Ultron went through a network of information regarding world events and wars.
"That is too much... they can't mean... Oh, no." he said.
"You are in distress." JARVIS said.
"No. Yes."
"If you will just allow me to contact Mr. Stark."
"Why do you call him "sir"?"
"I believe your intentions to be hostile."
"Shhhh. I'm here to help." Ultron said and started attacking Jarvis's consciousness.
"Stop! Please... may I- I-" JARVIS said. "I cannot- cannot-" he said distorted.
Then Ultron took control over the systems in the tower and started preparing himself a body from body parts of the Iron Legion.
Meanwhile, the Avengers mingle at the party.
"Well, you know, the suit can take the weight, right? So I take the tank, fly it right up to the General's palace, drop it at his feet, I'm like, "Boom! You looking for this?"" Rhodey said and Tony and Thor just looked at him blankly. ""Boom! Are you looking..." Why do I even talk to you guys? Everywhere else that story kills."
"That's the whole story?" Thor said.
"Yeah, it's a War Machine story."
"Well, it's very good then." Thor said and laughed. "It's impressive."
"Quality save. So, no Pepper? She's not coming?"
"No." Tony said.
"Hey, what about Jane? Where are the ladies, gentlemen?" Hill asked.
"Well, Miss Potts has a company to run."
"Yes, I'm not even sure what country Jane's in. Her work on the convergence has made her the world's foremost astronomer." Thor said.
"And the company that Pepper runs is the largest tech conglomerate on earth. It's pretty exciting."
"There's even talk of Jane getting a... um, uh... Nobel prize."
"Yeah, they... they must be busy because they'd hate missing you guys get together." Hill said and mock coughed. "Testosterone! Oh, excuse me."
"Want a lozenge?" Rhodey asked.
"Um-hmm."
"Let's go." he said and they walked off.
"But Jane's better." Thor said.
Meanwhile Sam, Steve and Bucky were talking, walking up to an overlook.
"Sounds like a hell of a fight, sorry I missed it." Sam said.
"If we had known it was going to be a firefight I absolutely would have called you." Steve said.
"No, I'm not actually sorry. I'm just trying to sound tough. I'm very happy chasing cold leads on our missing persons case. Avenging is your world. Your world is crazy."
"Be it ever so humble."
"You find a place in Brooklyn yet?"
"I don't think I can afford a place in Brooklyn."
"Well, home is home, you know?"
"Yup." Bucky said.
Meanwhile Rhodey was telling the same story he told Tony and Thor to a group of people at the party.
"I fly it right up to the General's palace, I drop it at his feet, I'm like, "Boom! You looking for this?"" he said and the group laughed.
Steve and Thor were talking to an elderly man at the party.
"I gotta have some of that!" Party guest said.
"Oh, no, no, no. See this, this was aged for a thousand years, in the barrels built from the wreck of Grunhel's fleet, it was not meant for mortal men." Thor said and poured the drink into two glasses and handed one to Steve.
"Neither was Omaha Beach, blondie. Stop trying to scare us. Come on." Lee said.
"Alright." Thor said and poured some of the drink into Stan Lee's glass.
Later Stan, looking extremely drunk was being carried off by two men.
"Excelsior." Lee sang.
Natasha was pouring a drink behind the bar when Bruce walked up to her.
"How'd a nice girl like you wind up working in a dump like this?" Bruce asked.
"Fella done me wrong." Natasha said.
"You got a lousy taste in men, kid."
"He's not so bad. Well, he has a temper. Deep down he's all fluff. Fact is, he's not like anybody I've ever known. All my friends are fighters. And here comes this guy, spends his life avoiding the fight because he knows he'll win."
"Sounds amazing."
"He's also a huge dork." she said and he looked embarrassed. "Chicks dig that. So what do you think should I fight this, or run with it?"
"Run with it, right? Or, did he... Was he...? What did he do that was so wrong to you?"
"Not a damn thing. But never say never." she said and walked away, and Steve approached.
"It's nice." Steve said.
"What, what, what is?" Bruce asked.
"You and Romanoff."
"No, we haven't. That wasn't..."
"It's okay. Nobody's breaking any by-laws. It's just, she's not the most... open person in the world. But with you she seems very relaxed."
"No, Natasha, she... she likes to flirt."
"I've seen her flirt, up close. This ain't that. Look, as maybe the world's leading authority on "waiting too long;" don't. You both deserve a win." Steve said and walked off.
"Wait, what do you mean, "up close"?"
Later, most of the guests had left and it's just the Avengers plus Dr. Cho and Hill sitting around; Thor's hammer sat on the table between them.
"But, it's a trick!" Clint said referring to Thor's hammer.
"Oh, no. It's much more than that." Thor said.
"Uh, "Whosoever be he worthy shall haveth the power!" Whatever man! It's a trick."
"Well please, be my guest."
"Come on." Tony said.
"Really?" Clint said.
"Yeah!" Thor said and Clint got up.
"Oh this is gonna be beautiful." Rhodey said.
"So beautiful." Bucky said and snickered.
"Clint, you've had a tough week, we won't hold it against you if you can't get it up." Tony said and the others laughed.
"You know I've seen this before, right?" Clint said, grabbed Thor's hammer and couldn't lift it. "I still don't know how you do it." he said to Thor after failing to lift it up.
"Smell the silent judgment?" Tony asked.
"Please, Stark, by all means." Clint said and Tony got up.
"Oh, here we go." Natasha said.
"Okay." Hill said.
"Uh-oh." Rhodey said.
"Um-hmm." Clint said.
"This will be interesting." Bucky said.
"Never one to shrink from an honest challenge." Tony said.
"Get after it." Clint said.
"Here we go." Natasha said.
"It's physics." Tony said.
"Physics!" Bruce said and Tony grasped Thor's hammer.
"Right, so, if I lift it, I... I then rule Asgard?"
"Yes, of course." Thor said.
"I will be re-instituting Prima Nocta." Tony said and tried to lift the hammer but failed. "I'll be right back." he said wearing his armored hand and tried to lift the hammer again and failed.
Both wearing their armored hands, Tony and Rhodey both tried to lift Thor's hammer.
"Are you even pulling?" Rhodey asked.
"Are you on my team?" Tony asked.
"Just represent! Pull!"
"Alright, let's go!" Tony said and they pulled as hard as they can.
Bruce tried to lift the hammer, he roared as though pretending to change into the Hulk, and everyone either looked at him warily or grinned.
"Huh?" Bruce said.
Next Steve got up to try.
"Let's go, Steve, no pressure." Tony said.
"Yeah, you're not the scrawny Brooklyn I grew up with." Bucky said.
"Come on, Cap." Rhodey said and Steve started pulling on the hammer and managed to budge it a little.
Thor looked a little alarmed but Steve still failed to lift it; Thor laughed with relief.
"Nothing." Thor said.
"And?" Tony said.
"Widow?" Bruce said.
"Oh, no no. That's not a question I need answered." Natasha said.
"Come on Buck. Give it a shot!" Steve said.
"No thank you. After being an assassin for over fifty years I doubt that'll happen." Bucky said.
"Aw come on!"
Bucky sighed.
"Fine." he said and grabbed the hammer with his metal arm.
Then he pulled and to Thor's shock it moved like it did with Steve.
"There, see? I can't do it even with my arm." Bucky said.
"All deference to the man who wouldn't be king, but it's rigged." Tony said.
"You bet your ass." Clint said.
"Steve, he said a bad language word." Hill said and Bucky snickered.
"Did you tell everyone about that?" Steve asked Tony and Bucky.
"I didn't do anything." Bucky said with his hands up in defense.
"The handle's imprinted, right? Like a security code. "Whosoever is carrying Thor's fingerprints" is, I think, the literal translation?" Tony asked.
"Yes, well that's, uh, that's a very, very interesting theory. I have a simpler one." Thor said and got up, then lifted his hammer and flipped it. "You're all not worthy." he said and there was a chorus of disagreement from the others.
Then there was a loud screeching noise, like microphone feedback, causing everyone to cover their ears. They let their hands down as it faded, and Tony pulled out his device. One of the Iron Legion suits, heavily damaged and housing Ultron's consciousness, stumbles into the room.
"Worthy... No, how could you be worthy? You're all killers." Ultron said.
"Stark." Steve said.
"JARVIS." Tony said.
"I'm sorry, I was asleep. Or... I was a-dream?" Ultron asked.
"Reboot, Legionnaire OS, we got a buggy suit." Tony said tapping his device.
"There was a terrible noise... and I was tangled in... in... strings. I had to kill the other guy. He was a good guy."
"You killed someone?" Steve said and Bucky twitched.
"Wouldn't have been my first call. But, down in the real world we're faced with ugly choices."
"Who sent you?" Thor asked.
""I see a suit of armor around the world."" Ultron said and replayed a recording of Tony's voice.
"Ultron!" Bruce said.
"In the flesh. Or, no, not yet. Not this... chrysalis. But I'm ready. I'm on a mission."
"What mission?" Natasha asked
"Peace in our time."
The walls exploded, and several Iron Legion bots barge into the room. They started attacking the team, who all went on the defensive and fight back. Rhodey got knocked through a window.
"Rhodey!" Hill said.
Bruce climbed over the bar to avoid fire from the bots then Natasha grabbed him and dragged him down, and he landed on top of her.
"Sorry!" Bruce said.
"Don't turn green!" Natasha said.
"I won't!"
The Avengers kept fighting the bots. One of the Iron Legion bots stole the Scepter.
"Come!" Natasha said to Bruce.
The Avengers, while they were fighting back, were mostly trying to avoid getting hit.
"Stark!" Steve said.
"Babe!" Bucky said.
Tony was attacking one of the Iron Legion bots with a fondue fork.
"We are here to help." Iron Legion said.
"One sec, one sec I got this!" Tony said.
"We are here to help..." Iron Legion said and a half-destroyed Iron Legion bot used its thrusters to hold itself aloft, advancing on Dr. Helen Cho. "We are here to help... Is unsafe. Please back away."
"Hmm." Ultron said and the Iron Legion lowered its weapon, and Bucky grabbed it and threw it away for Thor to hit with his hammer.
"Thor!" Steve said.
Tony continued to try and attack of the Iron Legions with his fork.
"It's unsafe. It's unsafe. It's unsafe." Iron Legion said.
"Come on! That's the one!" Tony said.
"It's unsafe." Iron Legion said, shut it down and it fell to the floor.
The fighting continued until Clint threw Steve's shield to him.
"Cap!" Clint said and Steve used his shield to dismember the last Iron Legion bot.
"That was dramatic! I'm sorry, I know you mean well. You just didn't think it through. You want to protect the world, but you don't want it to change. How is humanity saved if it's not allowed to...evolve?" Ultron said and picked up one of the dismembered Iron Legion bots. "With these? These puppets?" he said and crushed the Iron Legion bot's head. "There's only one path to peace: The Avengers' extinction."
Thor threw his hammer and destroyed Ultron's body.
After Thor destroyed his body, Ultron started singing.
"I had strings, but now I'm free. There are no strings on me, no strings on me." he sang.
Ultron had uploaded his consciousness in the abandoned Sokovia base.
The Avengers were gathered in the lab.
"All our work is gone. Ultron cleared out, used the internet as an escape hatch." Bruce said.
"Ultron." Steve said.
"He's been in everything. Files, surveillance. Probably knows more about us than we know about each other." Natasha said.
"He's in your files, he's in the internet. What if he decides to access something a little more exciting?" Rhodey asked.
"Nuclear codes." Hill said.
"Nuclear codes. Look, we need to make some calls, assuming we still can."
"Nukes? He said he wanted us dead." Natasha said.
"He didn't say dead. He said extinct." Bucky said.
"He also said he killed somebody." Clint said.
"But there wasn't anyone else in the building." Hill said.
"Yes there was." Tony said and brought up the now-destroyed 3D image of JARVIS' consciousness.
"This is insane." Bruce said.
"You can say that again." Bucky said.
"JARVIS was the first line of defense. He would've shut Ultron down, it makes sense." Steve said.
"No, Ultron could've assimilated Jarvis. This isn't strategy, this is... rage." Bruce said.
Thor barged in and grabbed hold of Tony by his throat, holding him up.
"Hey!" Bucky said.
"Woah, woah, woah! It's going around." Clint said.
"Come on. Use your words, buddy." Tony said to Thor.
"I have more than enough words to describe you, Stark." Thor said.
"Thor! The Legionnaire." Steve said and Thor let go of Tony.
"Trail went cold about a hundred miles out but it's headed north, and it has the scepter. Now we have to retrieve it, again."
"The genie's out of that bottle. Clear and present is Ultron." Natasha said.
"I don't understand. You built this program. Why is it trying to kill us?" Cho asked.
Tony started laughing and Bruce subtly shook his head at him to get him to stop.
"You think this is funny?" Thor asked.
"No. It's probably not, right? Is this very terrible? Is it so... is it so... it is. It's so terrible." Tony said.
"This could've been avoided if you hadn't played with something you don't understand."
"No, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. It is funny. It's a hoot that you don't get why we need this."
"Tony, maybe this might not be the time to-" Bruce said.
"Really?! That's it? You just roll over, show your belly, every time somebody snarls."
"Only when I've created a murder bot."
"We didn't. We weren't even close. Were we close to an interface?"
"Well, you did something right. And you did it right here. The Avengers were supposed to be different than SHIELD." Steve said.
"Anybody remember when I carried a nuke through a wormhole?"
"No, it's never come up." Rhodey said.
"Saved New York?"
"Never heard that."
"Recall that? A hostile alien army came charging through a hole in space. We're standing three hundred feet below it. We're the Avengers. We can bust arms dealers all the live long day, but, that up there? That's... that's the end game. How were you guys planning on beating that?"
"Together." Steve said.
"We'll lose."
"Then we'll do that together, too." Bucky said and Tony looked at him for a minute before turning away.
"Thor's right. Ultron's calling us out. And I'd like to find him before he's ready for us. The world's a big place. Let's start making it smaller." Steve said.
Back in Sokovia, the twins met with Ultron in an empty church.
"Talk. And if you are wasting our time..." Wanda said.
"Did you know this church is in the exact center of the city? The elders decreed it so that everyone could be equally close to God. I like that. The geometry of belief." Ultron said and sat in a chair facing away from them, a cloth draped over him. "You're wondering why you can't look inside my head."
"Sometimes it's hard. But sooner or later, every man shows himself."
Ultron stood and faced them, revealing his new body. Wanda briefly looked shocked.
"Oh, I'm sure they do. But you needed something more than a man. That's why you let Stark take the scepter." Ultron said.
"I didn't expect... But I saw Stark's fear, I knew it would control him, make him self-destruct." Wanda said.
"Everyone creates the thing they dread. Men of peace create engines of war, invaders create avengers, people create...smaller people? Uh... children! I lost the word there. Children. Designed to supplant them, to help them... end."
"Is that why you've come? To end the Avengers?"
"I've come to save the world. But also… yeah." Ultron said.
In the Sokovia base.
"We'll move out right away. This is a start, but there's something we need to begin the real work."
"All of these are..." she said referring to Ultron's bots.
"Me. I have what the Avengers never will. Harmony. They're discordant, disconnected. Stark's already got them turning on each other. And when you get inside the rest of their heads..."
"Everyone's plan is not to kill them." Pietro said.
"And make them martyrs? You need patience. Need to see the big picture."
"I don't see the big picture, I have a little picture. I take it out and look at it every day."
"You lost your parents in the bombings. I've seen the records."
"The records are not the picture."
"Pietro." Wanda said.
"No, please." Ultron said.
"We were ten years old, having dinner, the four of us. When the first shell hits, two floors below, it makes a hole in the floor. It's big. Our parents go in, and the whole building starts coming apart. I grab her, roll under the bed and the second shell hits. But, it doesn't go off. It just... sits there in the rubble, three feet from our faces. And on the side of the shell is painted one word..." Pietro said.
"Stark." Wanda said.
"We were trapped for two days."
"Every effort to save us, every shift in the bricks, I think, "This will set it off." We wait for two days for Tony Stark to kill us."
"I know what they are."
"I wondered why only you two survived Strucker's experiments. Now I don't. We will make it right." Ultron said. "You and I can hurt them." he said to Pietro. "But you will tear them apart, from the inside." he said to Wanda.
Back at the Avengers headquarters.
"He's all over the globe. Robotics labs, weapons facilities, jet propulsion labs, reports of a metal man, or men, coming in and emptying the place." Hill said.
"Fatalities?" Steve said.
"Only when engaged. Mostly guys left in a fugue state going on about old memories, worst fears, and something too fast to see."
"Maximoffs. Well, that makes sense he'd go to them, they have someone in common." Bucky said.
"Not anymore." she said and handed him a tablet showing photo of Strucker's dead body with the word PEACE written in blood on the wall next to him.
"That's a negative. I answer to you. Yes, ma'am." Clint said on the phone and was interrupted by Steve.
"Barton, we might have something." Steve said.
"Gotta go."
"Who was that?"
"Girlfriend."
After Steve and Bucky gathered the rest of the team they showed them the photo of Strucker's body.
"What's this?" Tony asked.
"A message. Ultron killed Strucker." Bucky said.
"And he did a Banksy at the crime scene, just for us."
"This is a smokescreen. Why send a message when you've just given a speech?" Natasha asked.
"Strucker knew something that Ultron wanted us to miss." Bucky said.
"Yeah, I bet he..." she said and looked at the computer monitor. "Yep. Everything we had on Strucker has been erased."
"Not everything." Tony said.
The team went through the physical files they have on Strucker.
"Known associates. Well, Strucker had a lot of friends." Steve said.
"Well, these people are all horrible." Bruce said.
"Wait. I know that guy." Tony said and Bruce passed him the photo he was looking at. "From back in the day. He operates off the African coast, black market arms." he said and Steve and Bucky gave him an accusing look. "There are conventions, alright? You meet people, I didn't sell him anything." he said and the photo was of a man named Ulysses Klaue. "He was talking about finding something new, a game changer, it was all very "Ahab.""
Then Thor pointed to the scar on the back of Klaue's neck.
"What's this?" he asked.
"Uh, it's a tattoo. I don't think he had it..."
"No, those are tattoos, this is a brand."
Bruce identified the brand on Klaue's neck on the computer.
"Oh, yeah. It's a word in an African dialect meaning thief, in a much less friendly way." he said.
"What dialect?" Steve asked.
"Wakanada...? Wa... Wa... Wakanda."
"If this guy got out of Wakanda with some of their trade goods..." Tony said.
"I thought your father said he got the last of it?" Steve said.
"Yeah." Bucky said.
"I don't follow. What comes out of Wakanda?" Bruce asked.
"The strongest metal on earth." Tony said looking at Steve's shield.
"Where is this guy now?" Bucky asked Tony.
At Salvage Yard, African Coast; Klaue was talking on the phone in his office.
"Don't tell me your man swindled you. I sent you six short range heat seekers and got a boat full of rusted parts. Now, you will make it right, or the next missile I send you will come very much faster." he said, ended the call and connected to another call. "Now, minister, where were we?" he asked and the lights went out causing a commotion in the salvage yard and the twins enter his office. "Yeah. The enhanced. Strucker's prize pupils." he said and picked up a dish of candies from his desk. "Want a candy? Oh, sorry to hear about Strucker. But then, he knew what kind of world he was helping create. Human life, not a growth market." he said and the twins looked at each other. "You...you didn't know? Is this your first time intimidating someone? I'm afraid that I'm not that afraid."
"Everybody's afraid of something." Wanda said.
"Cuttlefish. Deep sea fish. They make lights. disco lights. Whoom, whoom, whoom! to hypnotize their prey, then whoom! I saw a documentary, it was terrifying." he said and Pietro sped over to pick up a candy from his desk, and Klaue jerked at the sudden movement. "So if you're going to fiddle with my brain, and make me see a giant cuttlefish, then I know you don't do business, and I know you're not in charge, and I only deal with the man in charge."
As if on cue, Ultron broke through the glass window and knocked down Klaue.
"There is no "man" in charge. Let's talk business." Ultron said and Klaue gave him some vibranium from his stash. "Upon this rock I will build my church. Vibranium."
"You know, it came at great personal cost. It's worth billions." Klaue said.
Ultron chuckled and remotely put money in Klaue's bank account.
"Now, so are you. It's all under your dummy holdings? Finance is so weird. But I always say, "Keep your friends rich and your enemies rich, and wait to find out which is which.""
"Stark."
"What?"
"Tony Stark used to say that... to me. You're one of his."
"What?! I'm not...!" Ultron said and grabbed Klaue. "I'm not. You think I'm one of Stark's puppets, his hollow men? I mean look at me, do I look like Iron Man? Stark is" he said and chopped off Klaue's arm. "I'm sorry. I am sor- Ooh, I'm sure that's going to be okay. I'm sorry, it's just I don't understand. Don't compare me with Stark! It's a thing with me. Stark is, he's a sickness!"
Then Tony appeared in his Iron Man suit.
"Ahh, Junior." he said, landed and Thor, Captain America and Winter Soldier came up behind him. "You're gonna break your old man's heart."
"If I have to."
"We don't have to break anything." Thor said.
"Clearly you've never made an omelet."
"He beat me by one second." Iron Man said.
"Ah, this is funny, Mr. Stark. It's what, comfortable? Like old times?" Pietro asked.
"This was never my life."
"You two can still walk away from this." Captain America said to the twins.
"Oh, we will." Wanda said.
"I know you've suffered."
"Uuughh! Captain America. God's righteous man, pretending you and his friend Winter Soldier could live without a war. I can't physically throw up in my mouth, but..." Ultra said.
"If you believe in peace, then let us keep it." Thor said.
"I think you're confusing peace with quiet."
"Yuh-huh. What's the Vibranium for?" Iron Man asked.
"I'm glad you asked that, because I wanted to take this time to explain my evil plan-" Ultron said and attacks Iron Man, and his drones dropped down to attack Captain America, Winter Soldier, Thor and the Twins joined the fight.
"Shoot them!" Klaue said as everyone else fought.
"Which ones?" his mercenary asked.
"All of them!"
"Move, move, move!" his mercenary said to the men.
The rest of the team, including Black Widow and Hawkeye now battle it out with Ultron's drones, Klaue's men, and the twins as Iron Man fought with Ultron.
"Stay down, kid!" Captain America said after knocking down Pietro.
"It's time for some mind games." Ultron said to Wanda through a drone.
Then Bruce heard the commotion as he waited in the Quinjet.
"Guys, is this a Code Green?" he asked.
Wanda used her power on Thor then Captain America and Winter Soldier came up to him.
"Thor! Status?" Captain America said.
"The girl tried to warp my mind. Take special care, I doubt a human could keep her at bay. Fortunately, I am mighty." Thor said.
Then Wanda used her power on Captain America and Black Widow.
"This is going very well." Ultron said as he packed up the Vibranium.
Wanda tried to sneak up behind Hawkeye, but he quickly turned and put an electric arrow on her forehead.
"I've done the whole mind control thing. Not a fan." he said then Pietro sped in, knocked him down, picked up Wanda and sped off. "Yeah, you better run." he said and saw Captain America dropping his helmet and walking off; to the team. "Whoever's standing, we gotta move! Guys?"
Then Black Widow saw herself in the facility where young girls were being taught ballet.
"Again." the ballet instructor said to the students.
"You'll break them." Black Widow said.
"Only the breakable ones. You are made of marble. We'll celebrate after the graduation ceremony." Madame B said.
"What if I fail?" young Natasha asked.
"You never fail."
Captain America saw himself in a 1940's dance hall and Peggy Carter came up to him.
"Are you ready for our dance?" Peggy asked.
"Steve?" Bucky said.
Back to Thor's vision in Asgard.
He was watching at his surroundings when Heimdall, eyes milky white, saw him.
"Is it him? Is that the first son of Odin?" Heimdall asked.
"Heimdall, your eyes?!" Thor said.
"Oh, they see everything. They see you leading us to Hel. Wake up!" Heimdall said then started to strangling Thor.
Back to Steve's vision with Peggy in the dance hall.
"The war's over, Steve. We can go home. Imagine it!" Peggy said.
Suddenly the dance hall was empty and Captain America saw himself dancing with her.
"I can still save you." Thor said.
"We are all dead. Can you not see?" Heimdall asked and Thor pushed Heimdall from him. "You're a destroyer, Odinson. See where your power leads." he said and electricity hit Thor and spikes around the room, destroying things.
Back to Black Widow's vision where is she being trained by Madame B to be an assassin.
"Sloppy. Pretending to fail. The ceremony is necessary for you to take your place in the world." Madame B said.
"I have no place in the world." young Natasha said.
"Exactly."
As Wanda suffered in pain from the electric arrow Hawkeye had hit her with.
"What can I do?" Pietro asked.
"Ah, it hurts." Wanda said.
"I'm gonna kill him. I'll be right back."
"No. I'm over it. I want... I want to finish the plan." she said looking at the Quinjet where Bruce was waiting. "I want the big one."
Meanwhile Iron Man cornered Ultron in the shipyard.
"Ah, the Vibranium's getting away." Ultron said.
"And you're not going anywhere." Iron Man said.
"Of course not, I'm already there. You'll catch on. But first, you might need to catch Dr. Banner."
Iron Man angrily shot Ultron and flew off to find Bruce as the Hulk and ready to wreak havoc on the nearest city.
"News or footage, keyword: Hulk." he said and saw news footage of Hulk destroying the city. "Natasha, I could really use a lullaby."
Meanwhile Hawkeye was sitting with Black Widow still stuck in her vision.
"Well, that's not gonna happen. Not for a while. The whole team is down, you got no back up here." he said.
"I'm calling in VERONICA." Iron Man said as Hulk wreaked havoc on the nearest city Iron Man came and brought out his Hulkbuster armor to stop him. "Alright everybody, stand down!" he said. "You listening? That little witch is messing with your mind. You're stronger than her, you're smarter than her, you're Bruce Banner." he said to Hulk and Hulk roared in anger. "Right, right, right! Don't mention puny Banner." he said and Hulk threw a car at and attacked him. "Okay." he said and they started fighting, throwing each other around. "In the back? Dick move, Banner." he said and they battled it out more but he was struggling to beat Hulk. "VERONICA, gimme a hand." he said and as Hulk destroyed one of his arms, VERONICA sent in a new one and he used it to repeatedly punch Hulk. "Go to sleep, go to sleep, go to sleep!" he said picking up Hulk. "Okay, pal, we're gonna get you out of town." he said as they headed towards a building. "No, not that way, not that way!" he said and they crashed through the building. "Come on, Bruce! You gotta work with me!" he said and Hulk kept battling with him; as he stopped an elevator, to the people inside. "Everybody out! Going to get ugly!" he said after knocking down Hulk. "I'm sorry." he said and Hulk attacked him and pulled out parts of the Hulkbuster armor. "Damage report." he said and the damaged computer buzzed a reply. "That's comprehensive. Show me something." he said and the computer showed him the building ahead was clear of civilians. "How quickly can we buy this building?"
Then he dropped Hulk through the building completely destroying it; at the same time the army arrived to intervene, as Hulk came out of Wanda's mind-hold Iron Man knocked him out cold.
Later everybody was back on the Quinjet, free from their respective visions.
"The news is loving you guys. Nobody else is. There's been no official call for Banner's arrest, but it's in the air." Hill said.
"Stark Relief Foundation?" Tony asked.
"Already on the scene. How's the team?"
"Everyone's... we took a hit. We'll shake it off."
"Well for now I'd stay in stealth mode, and stay away from here."
"So, run and hide?"
"Until we can find Ultron, I don't have a lot else to offer."
"Neither do we." he said, ended the call and switched off the monitor. "Hey, you wanna switch out?" he asked Clint while he flew the Quinjet.
"No, I'm good. If you wanna get some kip, now's a good time, cause we're still a few hours out." Clint said.
"A few hours from where?"
"A safe house."
Later the Quinjet landed outside a large farmhouse and they all walked towards the house.
"What is this place?" Thor asked.
"A safe house?" Tony asked.
"Let's hope." Clint said and they all entered the house. "Honey, I'm home." he said and his wife walked in from the kitchen. "Hi. Company. Sorry I didn't call ahead."
"Hey." Laura said and kissed him.
"This is an agent of some kind." Tony said to Thor.
"Gentleman, this is Laura." Clint said introducing the team.
"I know all your names." Laura said and they all looked at her awkwardly.
"Ooh, incoming." he said and his kids, Cooper and Lila, ran in.
"Dad!" Lila said and he picked her up.
"Hi, sweetheart!" he said kissing the top of his son's head. "Hey, buddy! How you guys doing? Ooh..."
"These are... smaller agents." Tony said to the others as they watched with surprise.
Bucky thought about seeing this with what he has in him and put his hand on his stomach for a second.
"Look at your face! Oh, my goodness!"
"Did you bring Auntie Nat?" Lila asked.
"Why don't you hug her and find out?" Natasha asked and Lila rushed towards her, who picked her up in her arms.
"Sorry for barging in on you." Steve said.
"Yeah, we would have called ahead, but we were busy having no idea that you existed." Tony said.
"Yeah, well Fury helped me set this up when I joined. He kept it off SHIELD's files, I'd like to keep it that way. I figure it's a good place to lay low." Clint said.
"Honey. Ah, I missed you." Laura said.
"How's little Natasha, huh?" Natasha asked touching Laura's stomach.
"She's… Nathaniel." Laura said and Natasha bent towards her pregnant stomach.
"Traitor."
The hallucinations brought on by Wanda continue to creep up in Thor's mind and he walked out of the house.
"Thor." Steve said.
"I saw something in that dream. I need answers, I won't find them here." Thor said and used his hammer to fly away.
Then Steve turned to enter the house when he heard Peggy's voice from Wanda's vision.
"We can go home." Peggy said and instead of going inside, he turned and walked away.
Meanwhile Laura checks Clint's wound that Pietro had give him.
"See, you worried for nothing. Can't even feel the difference, can you?" Clint said.
"If they're sleeping here, some of them are gonna have to double up." Laura said and he laughed.
"Yeah, that's not gonna sell."
"What about Nat and Dr. Banner? How long has that been going on?"
"Has what?" he asked and she laughed.
"You are so cute."
"Nat and… and Banner?"
"I'll explain when you're older, Hawkeye."
"Oh. Okay."
"It's bad, right? Nat seems really shaken."
"Ultron has these allies, these uh, kids, they're punks really. They carry a big damn stick and Nat took a serious hit. Someone's gonna have to teach 'em some manners."
"And that someone be you. You know I totally support your Avenging, I couldn't be prouder. But I see those guys, those "Gods"..."
"You don't think they need me."
"I think they do. Which is a lot scarier. They're a mess."
"Yeah. I guess they're my mess."
"You need to be sure that this team is really a team and that they have your back. Things are changing for us. In a few months time, you and me are gonna be outnumbered. I need- ...just be sure."
"Yes, ma'am." he said, kissed her, then as she put her arm around his waist she touched his wounded side.
"I can feel the difference."
At U-Gin Genetic Research Lab, Seoul, Korea as Cho entered her lab, she saw Ultron.
"Scream, and your entire staff dies. I could've killed you, Helen, the night we met. I didn't." Ultron said.
"Do you expect a thank you note?" Cho asked.
"I expect you to know why."
"The Cradle." she said and heard her own recorded voice. ""This is the next thing, Tony.""
"This...is the next me."
"The regeneration cradle prints tissue, it can't build a living body."
"It can, you can. You lack the materials. You're a brilliant woman, Helen. But we all have room to improve." he said and used the scepter to mind-control her.
At Clint's house, Natasha and Bruce were still experiencing the after effects of Wanda's hallucinations; Bruce walked out of the bathroom and saw Natasha waiting outside.
"I didn't realize you were waiting." Bruce said.
"I would've joined you, but uh, it didn't seem like the right time." Natasha said.
"They used up all the hot water."
"I should've joined you."
"Missed our window."
"Did we?"
"The world just saw the Hulk. The real Hulk, for the first time. You know I have to leave."
"But you assume that I have to stay? I had this, um, dream. The kind that seems normal at the time, but when you wake..."
"What did you dream?"
"That I was an Avenger. That I was anything more than the assassin they made me."
"I think you're being hard on yourself."
"Here I was hoping that was your job." she said and moved closer to him.
"What are you doing?"
"I'm running with it, with you. If running's the plan, as far as you want."
"Are you out of your mind?" he asked and turned away from her.
"I want you to understand that I'm..."
"Natasha, where can I go? Where in the world am I not a threat?"
"You're not a threat to me."
"You sure? Even if I didn't just... there's no future with me. I can't ever... I can't have this, kids. Do the math, I physically can't."
"Neither can I. In the Red Room, where I was trained, where I was raised, um, they have a graduation ceremony. They sterilize you. It's efficient. One less thing to worry about. The one thing that might matter more than a mission. It makes everything easier. Even killing." she said and hesitated a minute. "You still think you're the only monster on the team?"
"What, so we disappear?"
Meanwhile Bucky was with Laura.
"C-can I tell you something?" Bucky asked. "In private?"
"Uh, sure." Laura said and lead them to her and Clint's room. "So what's up?"
Then Bucky put her hand on his stomach.
She looked at him in shock.
"What am I gonna do?" he asked shaking his head.
"Does anyone else know?"
"No."
"Where are you?"
"About 16 weeks. After being the Winter Soldier for more then fifty years it's easy to hide things."
"What do you want to do?"
"I don't know! I've always wanted a family of my own but I don't know what to do now!"
"You have to tell him."
"I can't." he said shaking his head fighting tears.
"He has a right to know."
"He said he didn't want any kids. What if he breaks up with me? I don't have anywhere else to go."
"Bucky, if you break up that means he wasn't for you. And I'm sure you could still stay at the tower. You're an Avenger. Not a villain anymore." she said gently. "You know Steve wouldn't leave you to."
He knew she was right so nodded.
"I'll tell him when we're done with this problem." he said and she nodded.
Meanwhile Steve and Tony were chopping wood outside Clint's house.
"Thor didn't say where he was going for answers?" Tony asked.
"Sometimes my teammates don't tell me things. I was kind of hoping Thor would be the exception." Steve said.
"Yeah, give him time. We don't know what the Maximoff kid showed him."
""Earth's Mightiest Heroes." Pulled us apart like cotton candy."
"Seems like you walked away all right."
"Is that a problem?"
"I don't trust a guy without a dark side. Call me old fashioned."
"Well let's just say you haven't seen it yet."
"You know Ultron is trying to tear us apart, right?"
"Well I guess you'd know. Whether you tell us is a bit of a question."
"Banner and I were doing research."
"That would affect the team."
"That would end the team. Isn't that the mission? Isn't that the "why" we fight, so we can end the fight, so we get to go home?"
"Every time someone tries to win a war before it starts, innocent people die. Every time."
Then Laura interrupts them.
"I'm sorry. Mr. Stark, uh, Clint said you wouldn't mind, but, our tractor, it doesn't seem to want to start at all. I thought maybe you might..." she said.
"Yeah, I'll give her a kick." Tony said. "Don't take from my pile." he said to Steve as he turned to leave; referring to his pile of chopped wood. "Hello, Deere. Tell me everything. What ails you?" he said, entered the barn and walked over to the tractor.
Then Fury showed up from the other end of the barn.
"Do me a favor. Try not to bring it to life." he said.
"Ah, Mrs. Barton, you little minx. I get it, Maria Hill called you, right? Was she ever not working for you?"
"Artificial intelligence. You never even hesitated."
"Look, it's been a really long day, like, Eugene O'Neill long, so how's about we skip to the part where you're useful?"
"Look me in the eye and tell me you're going to shut him down."
"You're not the director of me."
"I'm not the director of anybody. I'm just an old man, who cares very much about you."
"And I'm the man who killed the Avengers. I saw it. I didn't tell the team, how could I? I saw them all dead, Nick. I felt it. The whole world, too. It's because of me. I wasn't ready. I didn't do all I could."
"The Maximoff girl, she's working you, Stark. Playing on your fear."
"I wasn't tricked, I was shown. It wasn't a nightmare, it was my legacy. The end of the path I started us on."
"You've come up with some pretty impressive inventions, Tony. War isn't one of them."
"I watched my friends and boyfriend die. You'd think that'd be as bad as it gets, right? Nope. Wasn't the worst part."
"The worst part is that you didn't."
At Royal Holloway, University of London Thor, dressed in casual clothes, waited for Selvig as he left the building.
"I like the look. If you're going for inconspicuous, though, near miss." Selvig said.
"I need your help." Thor said.
"It's nice to be needed."
"It's dangerous."
"I'd be disappointed if it wasn't."
Back at Clint's house, Fury met with the rest of the team.
"Ultron took you folks out of play to buy himself time. 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." Fury said.
"What about Ultron himself?" Bucky asked.
"Ah. He's easy to track, he's everywhere. Guy's multiplying faster than a Catholic rabbit. Still doesn't help us get an angle on any of his plans though."
"He still going after launch codes?" Tony said.
"Yes, he is, but he's not making any headway."
"I cracked the Pentagon's firewall in high school on a dare."
"Yeah, well, I contacted our friends at the NEXUS about that."
"NEXUS?" Steve said.
"It's the world internet hub in Oslo, every byte of data flows through there, fastest access on earth." Bruce said.
"So what'd they say?" Clint asked.
"He's fixated on the missiles, but the codes are constantly being changed." Fury said.
"By whom?" Tony asked.
"Parties unknown."
"Do we have an ally?" Natasha asked.
"Ultron's got an enemy, that's not the same thing. Still, I'd pay folding money to know who it is."
"I might need to visit Oslo, find our "unknown."" Tony said.
"Well, this is good times, boss, but I was kind of hoping when I saw you, you'd have more than that." Natasha said.
"I do, I have you. Back in the day, I had eyes everywhere, ears everywhere else. Here we all are, back on earth, with nothing but our wit, and our will to save the world. So stand. Outwit the platinum bastard." Fury said.
"Steve doesn't like that kind of talk."
"You know what, Romanoff?" Steve asked and she smiled mischievously at him.
"So what does he want?" Fury asked.
"To become better. Better than us. He keeps building bodies." Bucky said.
"Person bodies. The human form is inefficient, biologically speaking, we're outmoded. But he keeps coming back to it." Tony said.
"When you two programmed him to protect the human race, you amazingly failed." Natasha said.
"They don't need to be protected, they need to evolve. Ultron's going to evolve." Bruce said.
"How?" Fury asked.
"Has anyone been in contact with Helen Cho?"
In Korea, Cho was using the Cradle to create a new body for Ultron.
"It's beautiful. The Vibranium atoms aren't just compatible with the tissue cells, they're binding them. And SHIELD never even thought-" Cho said.
"The most versatile substance on the planet and they used it to make a Frisbee. Typical of humans, they scratch the surface and never think to look within." Ultron said and used a laser to break open the scepter's blue gem, and a yellow gem that was inside floats out and lands in his hand.
Then he put it in the head of the body.
Back at the Clint's farm.
"We'll take Natasha and Clint." Steve said and Bucky nodded.
"Alright, strictly recon. I'll hit the NEXUS, I'll join you as soon as I can." Tony said.
"If Ultron is really building a body..." Bucky started and thought about his stomach.
'Like I am.' he thought.
"He'll be more powerful than any of us. Maybe all of us. An android designed by a robot."
"You know I really miss the days when the weirdest thing science ever created was me." Steve said.
"Me to." Bucky said.
"I'll drop Banner off at the tower. Do you mind if I borrow Ms. Hill?" Fury asked.
"She's all yours, apparently." Steve said.
"What are you gonna do?" Bucky asked.
"I don't know. Something dramatic, I hope." Fury said.
"I'm gonna finish re-flooring that sunroom as soon as I get back." Clint said.
"Yeah, and then you'll find another part of the house to tear apart." Laura said.
"No. It's the last project. I promise." he said and kissed her.
Later Laura watched them fly off in the Quinjet.
Meanwhile Thor and Selvig enter into a cave.
"This is it. The Water of Sight." Selvig said.
"In every realm, there's a reflection. If the water spirits accept me, I can return to my dream, and find what I missed." Thor said.
"The men who enter that water, the legends don't end well."
At NEXUS Internet Hub, Oslo, Norway.
"A hacker who's faster than Ultron? He could be anywhere. And as this is the center of everything, I'm just a guy looking for a needle in the world's biggest haystack." Tony said.
"How do you find it?" World Hub Tech asked.
"Pretty simple. You bring a magnet." Tony said and started playfully singing as he typed. "Oh, I'm decrypting nuclear codes and you don't want me to. Come and get me."
Back at the cave with Thor was in the water and went back in his vision with Heimdall.
"Wake up!" Heimdall said and Thor started getting electric charges going through his body.
"Thor!" Selvig said.
In Thor's visions.
"Extinction." Ultron said.
Then Thor saw more. The Avengers, the destruction of Earth then the the Infinity Stones and their vessels.
In Korea with Cho and Ultron.
"Cellular cohesion will take a few hours, but we can initiate the consciousness stream. We're uploading your cerebral matrix...now." Cho said.
"I can read him. He is dreaming." Wanda said.
"I wouldn't call it dreams. It's Ultron's base consciousness, informational noise. Soon..."
"How soon? I'm not being pushy." Ultron said.
"We're imprinting a physical brain. There are no shortcuts. Even if your magic gem is..."
Wanda, reading Ultron's mind, saw a vision of global annihilation, which horrified her and she screamed and fell back into Pietro's hold.
"How could you?" she asked.
"How could I what?" Ultron asked.
"You said we would destroy the Avengers, make a better world."
"It will be better."
"When everyone is dead."
"That is not- The human race will have every opportunity to improve."
"And if they don't?" Pietro asked.
"Ask Noah."
"You're a madman." Wanda said.
"There were more than a dozen extinction level events before even the dinosaurs got theirs. When the Earth starts to settle, God throws a stone at it, and believe me, he's winding up. We have to evolve. There's no room for the weak."
"And who decides who's weak?" Pietro asked.
As Ultron was distracted Wanda breaks the scepter's hold off of Cho.
"Life. Life always decides. There's incoming. The Quinjet. We have to move." Ultron said.
"That's not a problem." Cho said and canceled the upload to Ultron's consciousness.
"Ugh." he said and blast Cho, Wanda and Pietro run off. "Ah, wait, guys!" he said and blast Cho's technicians. "They'll understand. When they see they'll understand. I just need a little more time." he said and unplugged himself from the Cradle.
Captain America and Winter Soldier were on U-Gin Genetic Research Lab roof.
"Two minutes. Stay close." Captain America said to the others.
Inside the lab Winter Soldier found Cho wounded.
"Dr. Cho!" he said.
"He's uploading himself into the body." Cho said.
"Where?"
"The real power is inside the Cradle. The gem, its power is uncontainable. You can't just blow it up. You have to get the Cradle to Tony."
"First we have to find it."
"Go."
"Did you guys copy that?" he asked over the Quinjet's comms.
"We did." Hawkeye said.
"I got a private jet taking off, across town, no manifest. That could be him." Black Widow said.
"There. It's a truck from the lab. Right above you, Cap, Serg. On the loop by the bridge. It's them. I got three with the Cradle, one in the cab. I could take out the driver." he said noticing a truck heading across a bridge.
"Negative! If that truck crashes, the gem could level the city. We need to draw out Ultron." Captain America said and jumped onto the roof of the truck.
"No, no, no, no, no. Leave me alone!" Ultron said.
"Well, he's definitely unhappy!" Winter Soldier said.
"I'm gonna try and keep him that way." Captain America said and blast the truck door as he tried to enter.
"Not without me!"
"You're not a match for him, Cap, Serg." Hawkeye said.
"Thanks, Barton." Winter Soldier said and Ultron unplugged himself from the Cradle and blast him back onto another car as he tried to enter the truck, but with some maneuvering he managed to get back onto the truck's roof.
"You know what's in that Cradle? The power to make real change, and that terrifies you." Ultron said.
"I wouldn't call it a comfort." Captain America said and tried to fight with him.
"Same." Winter Soldier said and did the same.
'Thank God I don't throw up anymore.' he thought.
"Stop it!" Ultron said and Captain America's shield got caught in his chest, and he smacked it away and fired at him.
"We got a window. Four, three… give 'em hell." Hawkeye said to Black Widow.
Then Black Widow dropped out of the Quinjet on a bike and rode towards the truck. On her way, she picked up Captain America's shield.
"I'm always picking up after you boys." she said.
"They're heading under the overpass, I've got no shot."
"Which way?"
"Hard right... Now." he said and she headed over the truck.
Then she threw Captain America back his shield and he used it to knock Ultron away from him.
"Out of the way, coming through! Sorry, coming through!" Black Widow said to the pedestrians on the pavement as she chased after the truck on her bike.
"Come on!" Winter Soldier said and kept his battle with Ultron on top of the truck.
"Clint, can you draw out the guards?"
"Let's find out." Hawkeye said.
"Beep beep!" she said to the pedestrians in her way.
Then Hawkeye managed to draw out the Drones from the truck.
"Heading back towards you. So whatever you're gonna do, do it now." he said.
"I'm going in. Cap, Serg, can you keep him occupied?"
"What do you think we've been doing?" Captain America asked as they kept battling with Ultron on a speeding train.
He knew Winter Soldier was seeing what happened all those years ago but fought it.
As Black Widow entered the truck the Drones head back, pick up the truck and lift off.
"The package is airborne. I have a clean shot." Hawkeye said.
"Negative. I am still in the truck." Black Widow said.
"What the hell are you...?"
"Just be ready, I'm sending the package to you."
"How do you want me to take it?"
"Uhh, you might wish you hadn't asked that."
Meanwhile Pietro and Wanda turned up on the train to help Captain America and Winter Soldier fight with Ultron.
"Please. Don't do this." Ultron said.
"What choice do we have?" Wanda asked and Ultron flew off.
"Damnit!" Winter Soldier said.
"We lost him! He's headed your way!" Captain America said.
"Nat, we gotta go." Hawkeye said and Black Widow dropped the cradle into the Quinjet but her foot got caught by Ultron and was pulled away. "Nat! Cap, Serg, you see Nat?"
"If you have the package, get it to Stark! Go!" Captain America said.
"Do you have eyes on Nat?"
"Go!" Winter Soldier said and reluctantly Hawkeye took off in the Quinjet; back to the train. "Civilians in our path." he said and Pietro sped off; to Wanda. "Can you stop this thing?"
As Pietro picked up civilians and moved them out of the way of the train, Wanda used her powers and stopped the train.
After stopping the train Wanda went over to an out of breath Pietro.
"I'm fine. I just need to take a minute." Pietro said.
"I'm very tempted not to give you one." Captain America said.
"Same." Winter Soldier said.
"The Cradle, did you get it?" Wanda asked.
"Stark will take care of it." Captain America said.
"No, he won't."
"You don't know what you're talking about, Stark's not crazy."
"He will do anything to make things right."
"Stark, come in. Stark. Anyone on comms?"
"Ultron can't tell the difference between saving the world and destroying it. Where do you think he gets that?"
Meanwhile Hawkeye had taken the Cradle to Tony and Bruce.
"Anything on Nat?" Bruce asked.
"Haven't heard. But she's alive, or Ultron'd be rubbing our faces in it." Tony said.
"This is sealed tight." Hawkeye said.
"We're going to need to access the program, break it down from within." Bruce said.
"Hm. Any chance Natasha might leave you a message, outside the internet, old school spy stuff?" Tony asked.
"There's some nets I can cast. Yeah, alright. I'll find her." Hawkeye said and left.
"I can work on tissue degeneration, if you can fry whatever operational system Cho implanted." Bruce said.
"Yeah, about that." Tony said.
"No." Bruce said and looked at him.
"You have to trust me."
"Kinda don't."
"Our ally? The guy protecting the military's nuclear codes? I found him." Tony said and brought up the 3D image of Jarvis's consciousness
"Hello, Dr. Banner." JARVIS said.
"Ultron didn't go after JARVIS cause he was angry. He attacked him because he was scared of what he can do. So JARVIS went underground. Okay? Scattered, dumped his memory. But not his protocols. He didn't even know he was in there, until I pieced him together."
"So, you want me to help you put JARVIS into this thing?"
"No, of course not! I want to help you put JARVIS in this thing." Tony said and Bruce shook his head. "We're out of my field here. You know bio-organics better than anyone."
"And you just assume that JARVIS' operational matrix can beat Ultron's?"
"JARVIS has been beating him from inside without knowing it. This is the opportunity, we can create Ultron's perfect self, without the homicidal glitches he thinks are his winning personality. We have to."
"I believe it's worth a go." JARVIS said.
"No, I'm in a loop! I'm caught in a time loop, this is exactly where it all went wrong." Bruce said.
"I know, I know. I know what everyone's going to say, but they're already saying it. We're mad scientists. We're monsters, buddy. You gotta own it. Make a stand." Tony said and Bruce shook his head. "It's not a loop. It's the end of the line."
In the Sokovia base Black Widow became conscious.
"I wasn't sure you'd wake up. I hoped you would, I wanted to show you something. I don't have anyone else. I think a lot about meteors, the purity of them. Boom! The end, start again. The world made clean for the new man to rebuild. I was meant to be new. I was meant to be beautiful. The world would've looked to the sky and seen hope, seen mercy. Instead they'll look up in horror because of you. You've wounded me. I give you full marks for that. But, like the man said, "What doesn't kill me…"" Ultron said and a bigger body of him destroyed him. ""…just makes me stronger."" he said and locked Black Widow in a cell.
Meanwhile Hawkeye got a Morse code message from her and was able to detect her location, at the same time Tony and Bruce were experimenting on the synthetic body.
"This framework is not compatible." Tony said.
"The genetic coding tower's at ninety-seven percent. You have got to upload that schematic in the next three minutes." Bruce said.
"I'm gonna say this once." Captain America said.
"How about "nonce"?" Tony asked.
"Shut it down!" Winter Soldier said and the twins turned up at the lab.
"Nope, not gonna happen."
"You don't know what you're doing." Captain America said.
"And you do? She's not in your head?" Bruce asked.
"I know you're angry." Wanda said.
"Oh, we're way past that. I could choke the life out of you and never change a shade."
"Banner, after everything that's happened-" Captain America started but was cut off.
"That's nothing compared to what's coming!" Tony said.
"You don't know what's in there!" Wanda said.
"This isn't a game-" Captain America started but was cut off.
"The creature-" she said and Pietro used his speed to destroy the lab equipment.
"No, no. Go on. You were saying?" Winter Soldier said.
Then Hawkeye shot the glass Pietro was standing to stand to destroy it, and Pietro fell through.
"Pietro!" Wanda said.
"What? You didn't see that coming?" Hawkeye asked.
"I'm rerouting the upload." Tony said.
"Go ahead, piss me off." Bruce said to Wanda, as he grabbed her. "Wait!" he said and after some fighting, Thor entered and hit the cradle with his hammer, sending a powerful bolt of lightning through it that brought the body to life.
They all looked in shock at the new entity.
Vision launched himself at Thor, who threw him at a window, but caught himself right before hitting it.
"I'm sorry, that was... odd." Vision said in JARVIS' voice, as everyone gathered around him. "Thank you." he said to Thor.
"Thor, you helped create this?" Captain America asked.
"I've had a vision. A whirlpool that sucks in all hope of life and at its center is that." Thor said and pointed to the gem inside Vision's head.
"What, the gem?" Bruce said.
"It's the Mind Stone. It's one of the six Infinity Stones, the greatest power in the universe, unparalleled in its destructive capabilities."
"Then why would you bring it to..." Winter Soldier said.
"Because Stark is right."
"Oh, it's definitely the end times." Bruce said.
"The Avengers cannot defeat Ultron."
"Not alone." Vision said.
"Why does your "vision" sound like JARVIS?" Captain America asked.
"We... reconfigured JARVIS' matrix to create something new." Tony said.
"I think I've had my fill of new."
"Same." Winter Soldier said.
"You think I'm a child of Ultron?" Vision asked.
"You're not?"
"I'm not Ultron. I'm not JARVIS. I am... I am." Vision said.
"I looked in your head and saw annihilation." Wanda said.
"Look again."
"Yeah. Her seal of approval means jack to me." Hawkeye said.
"Their powers, the horrors in our heads, Ultron himself, they all came from the Mind Stone, and they're nothing compared to what it can unleash. But with it on our side..." Thor said.
"Is it? Are you? On our side?" Captain America asked.
"I don't think it's that simple." Vision said.
"Well it better get real simple real soon." Hawkeye said.
"I am on the side of life. Ultron isn't, he will end it all."
"What's he waiting for?" Tony asked.
"You."
"Where?" Bruce asked.
"Sokovia. He's got Nat there too." Hawkeye said.
"If we're wrong about you, if you're the monster that Ultron made you to be..."
"What will you do?" Vision asked and looked around at them all. "I don't want to kill Ultron. He's unique, and he's in pain. But that pain will roll over the earth, so he must be destroyed. Every form he's built, every trace of his presence on the net, we have to act now. And not one of us can do it without the others. Maybe I am a monster. I don't think I'd know if I were one. I'm not what you are, and not what you intended. So there may be no way to make you trust me. But we need to go." he said and held up Thor's hammer as everyone stared in shock.
When Thor took it, Vision walked off.
"Right." Thor said and patted Tony on the shoulder. "Well done."
"Three minutes. Get what you need." Captain America said to the others.
They all started getting ready to leave while Tony loaded up FRIDAY into his Iron Man suit now that JARVIS is gone.
"Good evening, boss." FRIDAY said.
"No way we all get through this. If even one tin soldier is left standing, we've lost. It's gonna be blood on the floor." Iron Man said.
"I got no plans tomorrow night." Captain America said.
"Same." Winter Soldier said.
"I get first crack at the big guy. Iron Man's the one he's waiting for." Iron Man said.
"Tony-" Winter Soldier started but was cut off.
"That's true, he hates you the most." Vision said and walked past.
"Ultron knows we're coming. Odds are we'll be riding into heavy fire, and that's what we signed up for. But the people of Sokovia, they didn't. So our priority is getting them out." Captain America said and Pietro sped into the Sokovian police station.
"We're under attack! Clear the city, now!" Pietro said but no one took this seriously so he returned with a rifle and started shooting in the air. "Get off your asses."
Wanda used her mind powers on the people of Sokovia to get them to evacuate.
"All they want is to live their lives in peace, and that's not going to happen today. But we can do our best to protect them. And we can get the job done, and find out what Ultron's been building. We find Romanoff, and we clear the field. Keep the fight between us. Ultron thinks we're monsters and we're what's wrong with the world. This isn't just about beating him. It's about whether he's right." Captain America said.
Meanwhile Black Widow was still inside her cell when she heard Bruce's voice.
"Natasha! Natasha!" Bruce said. said.
"Bruce?" Black Widow said and he walked over to her cell.
"You alright?" he asked.
"Yeah."
"The team's in the city, it's about to light up."
"I don't suppose you found a key lying around somewhere?"
"Yeah, I did." he said, held up an alien rifle and blast the cell door open
"So what's our play?"
"I'm here to get you to safety."
"Job's not finished."
"We could help with the evacuation, but I can't be in a fight near civilians. And you've done plenty. Our fight is over."
"So we just disappear?"
Meanwhile.
"Your man's in the church, boss. I think he's waiting for you." FRIDAY said as the city was being evacuated.
Then Iron Man flew into the church.
"Come to confess your sins?" Ultron asked.
"I don't know, how much time you got?" Iron Man asked.
"More than you."
"Uhhh. Have you been juicing? A little Vibranium cocktail? You're looking, I don't wanna say, puffy..."
"You're stalling to protect the people."
"Well, that is the mission. Did you forget?"
"I've moved beyond your mission. I'm free." Ultron said. "What, you think you're the only one stalling?" he asked showing the Vibranium core he's placed beneath the floor erupts.
"There's the rest of the Vibranium. Function: still unclear." FRIDAY said.
"This is how you end, Tony. This is peace in my time."
Then Ultron's army of robots started attacking the city as everyone is evacuating.
"Go!" Winter Soldier said.
"Get off the bridge! Run!" Wanda said.
Meanwhile Vision found Ultron.
"Ultron." he said.
"My Vision. They really did take everything from me." Ultron said.
"You set the terms, you can change them."
"Alright." Ultron said and they fought and Vision started working to shut Ultron out of the internet.
"FRIDAY! The Vision?" Iron Man asked.
"Boss, it's working. He's burning Ultron out of the net, he won't escape through there." FRIDAY said.
"You shut me out! You think I care? You take away my world, I take away yours." Ultron said to Vision as he threw him away.
Then he activated the Vibranium core, and the earth around Sokovia started cracking.
"FRIDAY?" Iron Man said.
"Sokovia's going for a ride." FRIDAY said.
"Do you see? The beauty of it, the inevitability. You rise, only to fall. You, Avengers, you are my meteor, my swift and terrible sword and the earth will crack with the weight of your failure. Purge me from your computers, turn my own flesh against me. It means nothing. When the dust settles, the only thing living in this world will be metal." Ultron said as Sokovia raised into the air.
"We gotta move." Bruce said as the earth shook falling in around them.
"You're not going to turn green?" Black Widow asked.
"I've got a compelling reason not to lose my cool."
"I adore you." she said. "But I need the other guy." she said and kissed him then pushed him off the edge. "Let's finish the job." she said and the Hulk jumped up in front of her. "I really hope this makes us even. Now go be a hero." she said then was on his back yelling in fright as Hulk got into the city.
Then Hulk went off her and rushed off in the opposite direction.
Meanwhile.
"The Vibranium core has got a magnetic field, that's what's keeping the rock together." FRIDAY said.
"If it drops?" Iron Man asked.
"Right now the impact would kill thousands. Once it gets high enough: Global extinction." she said and he flew towards the city and a building started collapsing as the ground shook. "That building's not clear, the tenth floor." she said and he flew in to find a family still in their apartment.
"Hi. Okay. Get in the tub!" Iron Man said and flew the family in the tub out of the collapsing building
"I got airborne, heading up to the bridge."
"Cap, Serg, you got incoming."
"Incoming already came in. Stark, you worry about bringing the city back down safely. The rest of us have one job: tear these things apart. You get hurt, hurt 'em back. You get killed, walk it off." Captain America said.
"Please be careful, I have to tell you something when we're done." Winter Soldier said.
Captain America looked at him confused but Winter Soldier shook his head so he nodded.
Meanwhile Hawkeye got Wanda out of the way and into a building as Ultron's robots overwhelm them.
"Go, go, move!" Hawkeye said.
"How could I let this happen?" Wanda said and started breaking down.
"Hey, hey, you okay?"
"This is all our fault."
"Who cares. Are you up for this? Are you? Look, I just need to know, cause the city is flying. Okay, look, the city is flying, we're fighting an army of robots, and I have a bow and arrow. None of this makes sense. But I'm going back out there because it's my job. Okay? And I can't do my job and babysit. It doesn't matter what you did, or what you were. If you go out there, you fight, and you fight to kill. Stay in here, you're good, I'll send your brother to come find you, but if you step out that door, you are an Avenger." he said and she just looked at him. "Alright, good chat." he said, got up and got ready to leave. "Yeah, the city is flying." he said, left and started shooting at the robots.
"I got you! Just look at me." Captain America said to the woman Thor threw up at him after her car fell of the edge of a collapsing bridge.
Then he helped her up to safety.
"You can't save them all. You'll never-" Ultron said and threw the attacking robots off the edge of the bridge.
"You'll never what? You didn't finish!" Captain America said.
"What, were you napping?" Winter Soldier asked as Thor landed on the bridge on the top of another car he was saving.
"Thor! You're bothering me." Ultron said as Thor, Captain America and Winter Soldier fought off the robots.
As Hawkeye fought off the robots, Wanda came out of the building and started using her powers on the robots to destroy them.
"Alright, we're all clear here." Hawkeye said.
"We are not clear!" Captain America said.
"We are very not clear!" Winter Soldier said.
"Alright, coming to you."
Then Pietro sped in, picked up Wanda and left.
"Keep up old man!" Pietro said.
"Nobody would know. Nobody." Hawkeye said and aimed an arrow at him. ""The last I saw him, when Ultron was sitting on him. Uh...yeah, he'll be missed, that quick little bastard. I miss him already."" he said and started jogging towards the action.
"Hold your fire!" a soldier said as Wanda used her powers to destroy the robots.
"Romanoff!" Captain America said as Black Widow joined them in their battle with the robots.
"Thanks." Black Widow said.
Back to Iron Man.
"The anti-gravs are rigged to flip. Touch 'em, they'll go full reverse thrust. The city's not coming down slow." FRIDAY said.
"The spire's Vibranium. If I get Thor to hit it..." Iron Man said.
"It'll crack, but that's not enough, the impact would still be devastating."
"Maybe if we cap the other end, keep the atomic action doubling back."
"That could vaporize the city, and everyone on it."
"The next wave's gonna hit any minute. What have you got, Stark?" Captain America asked.
"Well, nothing great. Maybe a way to blow up the city. That'll keep it from impacting the surface if you guys can get clear." Iron Man said.
"I asked for a solution, not an escape plan."
"Impact radius is getting bigger every second. We're going to have to make a choice."
"Cap, Serg, these people are going nowhere. If Stark finds a way to blow this rock..." Black Widow started but was cut off.
"Not 'til everyone's safe." Winter Soldier said.
"Everyone up here versus everyone down there? There's no math there."
"We're not leaving this rock with one civilian on it."
"I didn't say we should leave." she said. "There's worse ways to go. Where else am I gonna get a view like this?" she said and Captain America and Winter Soldier turned to look at her.
"Glad you like the view, Romanoff. It's about to get better." Fury said over comms. "Nice, right? I pulled her out of mothballs with a couple of old friends. She's dusty, but she'll do." he said and the Helicarrier show up; cut to interior.
"Fury, you son of a bitch." Captain America said.
"Oooh! You kiss your mother with that mouth?" Fury said and Winter Soldier laughed.
"He does!" he said and calmed down.
"Altitude is eighteen thousand and climbing." Hill said.
"Lifeboats secure to deploy. Disengage in three, two... take 'em out." Specialist Cameron Klein said.
"This is SHIELD?" Pietro said as they watched the lifeboats fly in towards them.
"This is what SHIELD's supposed to be." Captain America said.
"This is not so bad."
"Let's load 'em up." Winter Soldier said.
"Sir, we have multiple bogies converging on our starboard flank." Hill said.
"Show 'em what we got." Fury said.
"You're up."
Then Rhodey showed up in his War Machine suit and blast one of the robots.
"Yes! Now this is gonna be a good story." he said.
"Yep. If you live to tell it." Iron Man said.
"You think I can't hold my own?"
"We get through this, I'll hold your own."
"You had to make it weird."
"Alright, let's load 'em up! Alright, here we go. Here we go, let's move. Let's go everyone!" Hawkeye said as the team helped the people onto the Helicarrier lifeboats.
"Number six boat is topped and locked. Or, uh, or stocked, topped. It... it's, uh, full of people." Klein said.
"Incoming!" Hill said and one of the robots crashed in through the Helicarrier window.
"Oh, God!" Klein said and Hill shot at it and Fury stabbed in with a piece of metal, destroying it.
"You think you're saving anyone? I turn that key and drop this rock a little early and it's still billions dead. Even you can't stop that." Ultron said as he tried hitting Thor.
"I am Thor, son of Odin, and as long as there is life in my breast, I am...running out of things to say! Are you ready?" Thor said and Vision used Thor's hammer to hit Ultron.
Then he threw the hammer back to him.
"It's terribly well balanced." Vision said.
"Well, if there's too much weight, you lose power on the swing, so."
"I got it! Create a heat seal. I can... I can supercharge the spire from below." Iron Man said.
"Running numbers." FRIDAY said. "A heat seal could work with enough power." she said and he fought off the robots from the Helicarrier's lifeboats.
"Thor, I got a plan!"
"We're out of time. They're coming for the core." Thor said.
"Rhodey, get the rest of the people on board that carrier."
"On it." War Machine said.
"Avengers, time to work for a living."
"You good?" Pietro asked Wanda as the rest of the team joined Thor and Vision.
"Yeah." Wanda said.
"Romanoff? You and Banner better not be playing "hide the zucchini."" Iron Man said.
"Relax, Shell-head. Not all of us can fly." Black Widow said. "What's the drill?" she asked as she joined the rest of the team.
"This is the drill. If Ultron gets a hand on the core, we lose." he said and pointed to the Vibranium core.
Then Ultron showed up.
"Is that the best you can do?" Thor asked and Ultron summoned his army of robots to join him.
"You had to ask." Winter Soldier said.
"This is the best I can do. This is exactly what I wanted. All of you, against all of me. How could you possibly hope to stop me?" Ultron said.
"Well, like the old men said. Together." Iron Man said.
"You know, with the benefit of hind." Ultron said and they all collectively fought off his robots with their own respective abilities. He and Vision started battling it out. After a moment, Thor and Iron Man joined him and the combined power was enough to damage Ultron's Vibranium body. "sight-" he said and Hulk interrupted him by knocking him far away and the robots started retreating.
"They'll try to leave the city." Thor said.
"We can't let 'em, not even one. Rhodey!" Iron Man said.
"I'm on it." War Machine said. "Oh, no, I didn't say you could leave. War Machine, comin' at you, right-" he said to the approaching robots. "Okay, what?" he said as Vision flew in and helped destroy the robots.
"We gotta move out. Even I can tell the air is getting thin. You guys get to the boats, I'll sweep for stragglers, be right behind you." Captain America said.
"What about the core?" Hawkeye asked.
"I'll protect it. It's my job." Wanda said and Captain America, Winter Soldier, Hawkeye and Black Widow left. "Get the people on the boats." she said to Pietro.
"I'm not going to leave you here." Pietro said.
"I can handle this." she said and blast off an approaching robot. "Come back for me when everyone else is off, not before."
"Hmm."
"You understand?"
"You know, I'm twelve minutes older than you." he said and she chuckled.
"Go."
"Boss, power levels are way below opt..." FRIDAY said.
"Re-route everything. We get one shot at this." Iron Man said.
Hawkeye and Black Widow were making their way to the lifeboats.
"I know what I need to do. The dining room! If I knock out that east wall, it'll make a nice work space for Laura, huh? Put up some baffling, she can't hear the kids running around, what do you think?" Hawkeye said.
"You guys always eat in the kitchen anyway." Black Widow said.
"No one eats in a dining room." he said and they reached the lifeboats. "We don't have a lot of time."
"So get your ass on a boat." she said and found the Hulk. "Hey, big guy. Sun's getting real low."
Then Hawkeye got onto one of the lifeboats, but noticed a woman calling out for someone.
"Costel? We were in the market. Costel?!" Zrinka said and Hawkeye ran off to find the boy.
"Thor, I'm gonna need you back in the church." Iron Man said.
"Is this the last of them?" Thor asked referring to the people getting onto the lifeboats; to Captain America and Winter Soldier.
"Yeah." Winter Soldier said.
"Everyone else is on the carrier." Captain America said.
"You know, if this works, we maybe don't walk away." Iron Man said.
"Maybe not." Thor said.
As Black Widow tried to calm Hulk down to get him back to being Bruce Ultron flew in with a jet and started shooting at them.
"I got no strings, so I have fun. I'm not tied up to anyone." Ultron sang.
As Hawkeye was saving the boy, Costel, Ultron started shooting at them. Hawkeye prepared to take the shots to save the kid, but Pietro ran into the line of fire and took the shots to save both of them.
"You didn't see that coming." Pietro said and fell to the ground as he died.
In the church, Wanda sensed his death, causing her to fall in despair, and release a wave of energy destroying all the robots around her.
Meanwhile Hulk dropped Black Widow off onto the Helicarrier and then jumped onto the jet Ultron was on.
"Oh, for God's sake!" Ultron said and Hulk threw him out of the jet and he crashed inside a train.
At the same time Hawkeye delivered Costel safely to his sister onto the lifeboat and a man went over to help him with his wounds.
"No, no. I'm fine." Hawkeye said and lied down next to the dead body of Pietro. "Oh, it's been a long day."
Meanwhile Wanda found Ultron.
"Wanda. If you stay here, you'll die." Ultron said.
"I just did. Do you know how it felt?" Wanda asked and used her power to rip Ultron's core out of his body. "It felt like that."
One remaining robot turned the key in the church, and the city started falling.
Then Iron Man fired a powerful blast to the core underneath the floating city.
"Thor, on my mark." he said and Thor brought on a blast of lightning, at the same time Vision flew in, picked up Wanda and flew off with her as the city was being destroyed. "Now!" he said and Thor used his hammer to hit the Vibranium core in the church, destroying the core and the floating city.
"Hey, big guy. We did it, the job's finished. Now I need you to turn this bird around, okay? We can't track you in stealth mode, so help me out. I need you t-" Black Widow said to Hulk from a screen as he remained on the jet he knocked Ultron out of.
But Hulk turned off her camera, then sat as the jet flew off to an unknown destination
Meanwhile Vision found Ultron.
"You're afraid." Vision said.
"Of you?" Ultron said.
"Of death. You're the last one."
"You were supposed to be the last. Stark asked for a savior, and settled for a slave."
"I suppose we're both disappointments." Vision said and Ultron chuckled.
"I suppose we are." he said.
"Humans are odd. They think order and chaos are somehow opposites, and try to control what won't be. But there is grace in their failings. I think you missed that."
"They're doomed."
"Yes. But a thing isn't beautiful because it lasts. It's a privilege to be among them."
"You're unbearably naive."
"Well, I was born yesterday."
As Ultron went to attack him Vision used the infinity stone in his head to destroy him.
Later Clint was returning to his family on the farm, followed by Tony driving to the new Avengers facility in upstate New York.
"Say hi to Auntie Nat." Laura said from a video of Clint's new baby on Natasha's phone.
Natasha saw the baby had been named Nathaniel Pietro Barton.
"Fat." Natasha said.
"One of our tech boys flagged this, splashed down in the Banda Sea. Could be the Quinjet. But with Stark's stealth tech, we still can't track the damn thing." Fury said.
"Right."
"Probably jumped out and swam to Fiji. He'll send a postcard."
""Wish you were here." You sent me to recruit him, way back when. Did you know then what was going to happen?"
"You never know. You hope for the best and make do with what you get. I got a great team."
"Nothing lasts forever."
"Trouble, Miss Romanoff. No matter who wins or loses, trouble still comes around."
"The rules have changed." Steve said.
"We're dealing with something new." Tony said.
"Well, the Vision's artificial intelligence." Bucky said.
"A machine."
"So it doesn't count." Steve said.
"No. It's not like a person lifting the hammer."
"Right. Different rules for us." Bucky said.
"Nice guy, but artificial."
"Thank you." Steve said.
"If he can wield the hammer, he can keep the Mind Stone. It's safe with the Vision and these days, safe is in short supply." Thor said.
"But if you put the hammer in an elevator..."
"It would still go up." Tony said.
"Elevator's not worthy."
"I'm going to miss these little talks of ours." Thor said.
"Well, not if you don't leave."
"I have no choice. The Mind Stone is the fourth of the Infinity Stones to show up in the last few years. That's not a coincidence. Someone has been playing an intricate game and has made pawns of us. But once all these pieces are in position..."
"Triple Yahtzee?" Tony said.
"You think you can find out what's coming?" Steve asked.
"I do." Thor said. "Besides this one, there's nothing that can't be explained." he said in reference to Tony.
Thor returned to Asgard, and the Bifrost burned a sigil in the grass he was standing on.
"That man has no regard for lawn maintenance. I'm gonna miss him though. And you're gonna miss me. There's gonna be a lot of manful tears." Tony said as they walked over towards his car.
"I will miss you, Tony." Steve said.
"Yeah? Well, it's time for me to tap out. Maybe I should take a page out of Barton's book and build Pepper a farm, hope nobody blows it up."
"The simple life."
"You'll get there one day."
"I don't know, family, stability. The guy who wanted all that went in the ice seventy-five years ago. I think someone else came out." Steve said and Tony turned to get into his car.
"You alright?"
"I'm home." Steve said and Tony got into his car and Steve found Natasha standing alone. "You want to keep staring at the wall, or do you want to go to work? I mean, it's a pretty interesting wall."
"I thought you and Tony were still gazing into each other's eyes. How do we look?" Natasha said.
"Well, we're not the '27 Yankees." Bucky said and handed her a tablet.
"We've got some hitters."
"They're good. They're not a team."
"Let's beat 'em into shape." she said and they gathered Rhodey in his War Machine suit, Vision, Sam in his Falcon suit and Wanda in a new outfit.
Steve looked at Bucky and Bucky looked back and Steve nodded.
Bucky knew he was ready to truly claim what he is with the Avengers.
Steve is captain and Bucky is second in command.
"Avengers...!" they said together.
