Disclaimer: I own nothing so don't sue me. It seriously would not be worth your time.
It takes about twenty minutes after they land to make it clear that the mission the Avengers are on is not a stealth assignment. That route is contemplated but quickly dismissed when they locate, or more accurately are attacked by, a large squadron of HYDRA soldiers armed with advanced weaponry. Steve does tell them that if they surrender they'll be hauled back to the United States to face international law, but they don't take that option. Apparently, opening fire on a group of enhanced and highly trained super heroes is just more fun.
That particular altercation ends with the men in question incapacitated and Natasha and Barton appropriating their armored vehicle for their charge on the main compound where the scepter Loki used in the Battle of New York is being kept. Steve prefers to go in on a mission-capable motorcycle designed and produced by Stark, and Stark himself eschews any other form of transport in favor of his suite. Thor, being capable of flight, simply goes in to smash things to pieces under his own power and Banner as the Hulk joins in.
Cassie hangs back in the jet with her medical supplies laid out and prepared with JARVIS for company. She's done this same thing enough times that she's gotten used to the AI's way of conversation and finds the level of humanity present there both comforting and unsettling at the same time. To make things easier, she's gotten in to the habit of looking up at the ceiling when they talk and picturing an elderly British butler sitting in a control room somewhere.
At any rate, the disembodied company is welcome. When they're in the field Cassie detaches her medical knowledge as far as she possibly can from her personal feelings. However, once you've slept with someone, there really is no way to ignore the fact that they're your boyfriend, and after Christmas and Thanksgiving with people, it's hard not to think of them as a disjointed family.
Cassie is well aware of the fact that each and every member of the team is capable of looking after themselves and that they all have each other's backs. Intellectually that all fits together. On the other hand, her emotional side makes her worry about each and every one of them. She's spent a lot of her lifetime stitching together her friends and family after a battle only to send them in to the next one, and it never really gets easier to do.
So yes, JARVIS' presence, invisible though it is, is a comfort as the AI uses it's full abilities to survey the fight to get in to the compound.
"Shit!" Tony swears loudly through the communications link up. Cassie looks up to see the screen JARVIS is running and notices that the dot tracking Tony seems to have hit the perimeter of the main building and then spun of course.
"Language!" Steve sensors immediately and Cassie can't help but smile.
She knows for a fact that Steve actually swears plenty when he feels like it's called for. Actually, she has a vague theory that some of the time around Tony, Steve puts in an effort to act like the image of himself that history has painted. Almost like he's trying ever so slightly to live up to whatever stories Howard Stark might have told his son. She doesn't know why, and she hasn't brought it up, but she also doesn't think it's a theory that's very far fetched.
Steve then asks JARVIS what the view looks like from his sensors and the AI replies that there's some kind of advanced technology creating a shield of energy around the building. Thor concludes that the presence of such a defense means that they must have actually found the scepter at long last. Cassie's not surprised to hear it, she can feel that the Mist is strong here and she doesn't think it's just because of Thor.
"At long last is lasting a little long boys," Natasha chimes in from her position. Cassie can hear multiple explosions and gun shots over her link and her voice is calm but tense. Cassie lays out a few more adhesive bandages to add to her line of supplies. Out of the whole team, Barton and Natasha are the only ones involved without an additional healing power to keep them alive and kicking if anything goes wrong.
Thankfully, the two of them operate as a team and stay close together, making it so that if on gets hurt, the other can keep them alive until Cassie shows up. Sure enough, Barton is the next one to speak. "Yup," he comments in a tone that almost exactly matches Natasha's. "I think we've lost the element of surprise."
Cassie is tempted to ask if they ever actually expected to have one. After all, they did begin this little operation with Banner in full Hulk mode and Thor and Stark flying in, capes and blasters included. Plus, Steve on a motorcycle. Being subtle hadn't seemed like it was much of a priority in operational planning today.
Stark chimes in before she can comment. "Hold on. Is no one going to deal with the fact that Cap just said 'language'? Do you get this treatment at home Little Miss Sunshine?"
"Isn't that a little long for an operational code name?" Cassie questions. She knows that Tony can't see her eyes rolling but figures the action is probably implied through her tone of voice. The debate over what to call her in the field is a recently started one and Tony seems to delight in coming up with convoluted options.
Just as she thinks Stark can hear her eye roll she has no problem detecting his when he says "Whatever. Hey Assassin Long Hair, do you have a language problem too?"
"Absolutely," Bucky answers dryly. Bucky is currently serving an operational purpose of jumping between trees to rain down covering fire for the rest of the team from above. If the physical effort is causing him any strain it's not clear in his breathing or voice. "While I was being experimented on by Nazis I kept a swear jar. It covered the cost of candy when I wasn't being memory wiped and cry frozen against my will."
There's a rush of static over the speaker and the view on screen in the jet shows that Steve has just deliberately launched his bike in to the enemy as an improvised explosive projectile. "It just slipped out," he says in defensive exasperation. Sometimes it's hard to remember that Steve is twenty-seven and ninety-five at the same time. At that moment it's incredibly easy.
The fight continues and Stark calls in a group of drone suites he calls the Iron Legion to contain potential casualties. Cassie wonders if they might have time to stick around a little after they deal with the scepter to help clean everything up. Her contemplation comes to an abrupt end when a new individual moving faster than the human eye can possibly process joins the proceedings playing for team Bad Guy with a snide quip and apparent proclivity for wreaking havoc.
However, Clint takes a hit form one of the laser weapons and all of Cassie's concentration immediately goes to minimizing the physical damage. Without a second thought she steps out of the jet with her supplies, bends all of her concentration on Clint Barton and flashes out of existence. In the next heartbeat, she's deposited in the snow a foot away from Barton and Natasha and hurries over to bend by his injured side to inspect the damage.
Natasha moves away to give her room and calls for someone to handle the bunker currently firing on them. Hulk obliges within seconds and Cassie peels back the fabric over Barton's wound and starts searching for the largest source of the bleeding. "Looks like the shot missed everything important," she tells him out loud as she works on backing the wound with gauze. "I can give this a zap back on the jet but I want to clean it out before I heal it. Otherwise you'll end up with bits of foreign matter melted in to your skin."
"If you say so," Barton gasps. "I gotta say some of what that hit kinda feels important." He lifts his head as though he wants to view the injury and then drops it back on to the snow with a groan. "Not that I can see it right now or anything."
"Well your eyes are shut at the moment," Cassie points out as the deftly unspools a compression bandage. "I hear that makes seeing things difficult." She glances up to find Romanov hovering above them both, weapons out and ready to lay down cover. "Go get Banner," Cassie tells her.
The assassin looks at her with a raised eyebrow and Cassie taps her ear piece. "Stark just made it in to the building for the scepter and Thor and Steve are handling the ground troops. Bucky'll cover us from the air if we need it. We'll be wrapping up soon and I don't think we want the Hulk out when we're wrapping up so close to a civilian population."
Natasha still looks like she's on the fence but makes up her mind when Thor chimes in. "I can get Barton and Cassandra to the jet," he announces in his deep baritone. "You and Stark secure the scepter."
"Copy that," Steve agrees
"it looks like they're lining up," Thor comments. Apparently HYDRA has yet to learn it's lesson about the stupidity of going up against a super soldier and a fully powered god.
Steve sighs again. "Well they're excited."
What follows is a booming clang that reverberates through the air with so much force that Cassie can feel it all the way in to her toes and the crown of her head. She supposes Thor's Hammer and Steve's shield have just made contact. It's a trick Steve had mentioned once offhandedly that they were working on. Evidently it's been mastered since then. "Find the scepter!" Thor urges and Cassie hears the whooshing of air as he takes off.
"And for gosh's sake watch your language!" Tony mocks.
There's a fresh rush of static from Steve's line as Thor lands a few feet away. "That's not going away any time soon," Steve concludes resignedly.
"Look on the bright side," Bucky says dryly. "At least no one's mentioned the 'fondue' story."
Thor approaches and scoops Barton casually off the ground, tucking him under one arm like a football. Barton mutters once about how it's not a very dignified way to travel but seems to realize that being unable to walk gives him no room to complain about the available methods of transport. "What's the fondue story?" Cassie asks curiously as she follows Thor's indication to hop on to his back and hold on like he's giving her a piggy-back ride.
"The fact that you remember that story means you also remember swearing to take it to the grave mister 'I thought you were smaller'," Steve fires back at Bucky.
Stark being who he is doesn't let it go at that and Cassie hears the conversation continue even as Thor takes off and a sizable amount of her concentration goes to holding on to his cape so she doesn't fall off. "Oh come on Cap," Tony wheedles. "Share with the class. I for one would love to hear every single detail of the cheesy tale."
"It involves your father, a woman, and a date," Steve says acidly. There's a brief moment of silence then Stark says, "yeah okay you can spare me the details."
Thor helps Cassie get Barton situated on the medical table and she gets to work administering an anesthetic and getting the wound cleaned out as the rest of the team clears out the hostiles. Natasha get's Hulk back to being Banner and Steve joins up with Stark in the main building of the compound. Thor and Bucky drop back to guard the jet and be ready to go at a moment's notice if they need to.
Of course, this is just about where things go wrong.
A second enhanced person working for team Bad Guy, a girl this time, shows up to make things complicated. She throws Steve down some stairs but he's up immediately after and doesn't seem hurt by the fall. Frankly, Cassie is more worried about whatever whammy she pulls on Tony who goes completely comm silent for almost two full minutes after reporting that he can see the scepter. They both make it back to the jet, scepter in hand, but the look in Stark's eye is unsettling.
Still, nothing seems to be hugely visibly wrong and despite her new research, Cassie isn't a psychologist so she lets everything go for the moment when they get back to the tower. She's briefly occupied with getting Barton fixed up the rest of the way. She'd given him an initial shot of magic while they were in the air after cleaning the wound to stop the blood loss but hadn't gone farther than that. Dr. Cho is at the tower with her skin cradle waiting and for all Barton doesn't judge her powers or shy away from them, Cassie knows he's more comfortable with regular old modern medicine.
When it's clear Barton will be up and kicking by the time Stark's party rolls around that evening Cassie ducks out, leaving the rest of the recovery details to Cho and Romanov. Stark and Banner have vanished to the lab, Pepper has left Reyna with almost a full department of people to handle and Bucky seems to be scoring significant other points by standing by the door of her new office and glaring at anyone who tries to go in without an appointment. Thor has temporarily blasted off to check on Jane as she travels around with Darcy being a famous astronomer.
A quick check in with JARVIS reveals that Steve is taking advantage of the downtime to do a calorie replenish the Tower mess haul. She contemplates wandering off to join him, but decides on consideration that a shower might be a better first step. The pounding of the warm water is very relaxing after the prolonged plain time and battle stress and when it's done the adrenaline hike that had kept her alert earlier is crashing.
In the end she barely manages to locate a collared shirt of Steve's to use for pajamas (he won't mind because he has plenty of them. The habit of dressing casually is still one he's not entirely comfortable with) before she crashes out for a nap. She only wakes up when her pillow starts shifting under her head. Apparently Steve had joined her at some point while she'd ben asleep.
Her pillow turns out to be one of Steve's arms while the other is curled over her side, hugging her in against his chest. A faint gust of air over the back of her neck tells her that his face is tucked in against her hair. As wakefulness creeps in Cassie let's herself blink gradually awake and stretches out to check the time on her phone.
The movement dislodges Steve from his position and he grumbles in a dissatisfied way before hauling her more securely against him so that her back is pressed completely against his chest. His legs are tangled with hers and his body weight is pretty much completely immovable. Cassie mumbles a sleepy laugh and tries to turn over but finds herself trapped in the hug.
Captain America. Ultimate Super Soldier and inescapable sleep-cuddler.
Cassie employs a different tactic and tips her head to press a line of kisses along his arm as the only part of him she can actually reach. Eventually she feels Steve shift behind her and let out a muffled sound of contentment. "You awake now?" she asks.
What she gets in response is an inarticulate affirmative and the press of a kiss at the nape of her neck that send goose bumps up and down her spine. "If I say yes will we have to get up?" The next kiss goes at the hinge of her jaw below her ear lobe and Cassie get's the impression that Steve's vote is for not going anywhere anytime soon.
"That depends," Cassie tells him, impressed when her voice comes out steady. "How much do you care about both of us looking presentable at the party Stark is throwing with all of our friends and some important government people?" Steve groans and this time when Cassie tries to roll over he lets her, shifting so that he's leaning on an elbow and braced over her as she lays on her back. He's delightfully shirtless and the warmth his body throws off envelops her more completely than any blanket. "We could always cut it short?" she suggests, running one hand lightly over his chest. "Leave early or something."
The blue of Steve's eyes vanishes from her view as his eyes flutter shut as he takes in the sensation of her fingers dragging over his skin. When he opens them again the blue is a thin line, darker than usual and partially swallows by his pupils. "As your boyfriend I fully support your decision," he tells her, managing to sound dead serious as he does so.
It makes Cassie laugh but the sound is cut short when he leans down to kiss her. It's a long kiss. The warm and enveloping kind that drugs Cassie's senses and makes her feel like everything in her is slowly melting and like the two of them can't get close enough no matter how intertwined they become. In the end Steve pulls away with a groan and rolls himself all the way of the bed to stand up.
Distantly Cassie takes pride in the fact that he's flushed and breathing the way a normal person would be after running a marathon. Then he leans down and presses a new series of kisses to her lips. They're hard and fast and each one leaves her feeling vaguely bereft and waiting for the next. "We're leaving early," he declares between them. "Very, very, early."
This is a plan Cassie finds she can fully support and get's dressed for the party without any further delay. She fixes her hair in to a braid and puts on a blue dress that matches the blue dress shirt Steve ends up in. She even locates her single pair of fancy shoes, new acquisitions since coming to live at the tower, and dabs on a little bit of make up. The party is that kind of fancy.
They meet Reyna and Bucky in the hallway and all four of them arrive at the party together. The next hour or so sees them all separated and sends them mingling with different groups of their friends and important professional people. Cassie has a good chat with Dr. Cho about Barton's treatment earlier that day and enjoys catching up some with Sam. Eventually Steve joins them after talking to Banner for a while and Sam draws him in to a game of pool.
Reyna has met Maria Hill and the two look to be deep in conversation on some topic Cassie is afraid to even guess at. Natasha has taken over at the bar and Barton is leaning across it speaking a low voice and looking serious though showing no sign of his earlier physical damage. Bucky is having a serious talk with Rhodes about South African war lords and Cassie decides not to comment, returning her attention to the pool game in time to see it end with Steve bouncing an improbable shot off the wall of the table.
Steve's been telling Sam about the day's events and Sam is shaking his head in amazement. "Man your world is crazy."
"Be it ever so humble," Steve acknowledges, snagging two bottles from a passing server and holding one out to Sam. He looks at Cassie in question but she declines the offer with a shake of her head. She holds up her glass, filled with a fizzing pink lemonade to indicate she's good. Maybe she'll try something later. Thor was saying something earlier about mead.
The three of them move away from the table and up some stairs to look down at the rest of the party. It's a view Cassie likes. She can see everyone from there.
Sam leans on the railing and cocks his head to the side to regard them as Cassie hops up to perch on the railing and Steve leans against it beside her. "You two ever thought about getting out of the Tower?" he asks. "Maybe grab Barnes and that friend of yours and head on out to Brooklyn."
The suggestion surprises Cassie in to sitting up straighter as she thinks about it. She's never really thought about leaving the Tower after she had decided to move here in the first place. Planning a future had always been a nebulous and far away concept, and Steve's never mentioned anything about it either. Now, she sort of wonders if he's been thinking about it and just hadn't known how to bring it up.
"I'm not sure how we'd afford a place in Brooklyn," he says evenly. It's a deflection, Cassie realizes, and not a particularly good one. After all, the amount of money Stark pays the team isn't small, Cassie has first hand knowledge of both of their paychecks and the U.S government has been sorting out the issues with Steve's back pay of which there is in fact several million dollars.
Sam seems to realize that the topic isn't a completely comfortable one and takes the clue. "Well home is home you know?," he says ambiguously. Then he deftly changes the subject. Cassie knew there was a reason she and Sam got along.
Soon Thor calls them over and pours a measure of amber liquid in to a small glass he hands over to Steve who sniffs it gingerly. "This was aged for a thousand years in barrels built from the wreckage of Brunhild's fleet," he announces grandly to them and a small group of men wearing hats that proclaim them to be WWII veterans. "It was not meant for mortal men."
"Neither was Omaha Beach Blondie!" blusters one man. "Stop trying to scare us!" With a shrug Thor capitulates.
Cassie raises one hand. "I am neither a man nor fully mortal," she points out.
Thor smiles at her broadly and pours a small glass. "Yes you are indeed a great hero," he announces. "Worthy of the full rights and honors of the warriors of the halls of Valhalla!" Then he claps her on the back and strides off before Cassie can point out that given her Greco-Roman nature, Valhalla is one afterlife that is not on her agenda. Though she's heard some interesting stories about Yoga to the Death!
Slowly the crowd clears out and Cassie splits her glass of Asgardian mead with Reyna and enjoys the warmth it sends through her stomach. Eventually it's down to just the team, Rhodes, Sam, and Hill left on the circle of couches and plush chairs down in the center of the room. Thor's hammer is resting on the glass coffee table and Barton insists that lifting it is just some kind of trick as he messes with some kind of stick, though he still fails to pick it up. His Odin impression is a fun touch though.
"If I lift this I then get to rule Asgard right?" Stark verifies with Thor, leaping to his feet to take up the challenge.
Thor gestures magnanimously with his drink. "Of course."
Stark nods and reaches for the handle. "I will be reinstating Prima Nocta." Reyna and Cassie both repress snorts of laughter but Stark ignores them in favor of giving the hammer a hard tug. It refuses to budge and Stark leaves only to return a moment later wearing the Iron Man gauntlets and tries again with the same result.
His next move is to recruit Rhodey. "Are you even pulling?" he demands, almost panting with effort.
"Are you on my team?" Stark questions, gripping the handle as well.
"Just represent and pull!"
Banner is the next one to try and displays a rare moment of humor by pretending to Hulk out in the process. It's a joke, but it sets Cassie wondering if the Other Guy might actually be able to do it. Though she supposes it's better all around if they never have to find out. Bucky refuses to try but pokes Steve in the side using metal fingers until Steve gets up to try to.
"Come on Steve no pressure," Tony cajoles. Barton gets in on the encouragement.
Cassie watches Steve's face as he regards the hammer with a kind of tactical and speculative determination. It's almost as though he's running a combat scenario in his head, appraising the angles and cost-benefit ratios of the situation even as it plays out. She registers Bucky sitting up straighter and glances up to see him staring at Steve intently, a glimmer of some kind of recognition dancing across his face for the briefest instant before it becomes a smooth mask once again.
With the smallest nod of decision Steve pushes up his sleeves and gets a grip on Mjolnir's handle. He gives it a firm pull and Cassie can actually see half of the hammer's head lift about an inch off the table before thudding back in to place. "Nope," Steve announces, maybe a little too loudly. "Nothing."
Thor laughs and Steve sits back down next to Cassie who is about to lean over and ask him about what just happened when Barton asks her if she's going to give it a shot. "No thanks," she says. "I'm already Greek and Roman. Getting anymore cross cultural might actually make something explode."
"What about you Arellano?" Sam asks Reyna. "Gonna give its shot as the newest addition to team crazy?"
Reyna shakes her head and leans further back in to the couch cushions. "I learned my lesson on godly power and strength a long time ago," she says. "It's not one I need repeated."
Romanov also defines on the grounds that it isn't a question she needs answered and Stark once again declares the whole thing to be a trick. "Bet your ass," Barton agrees as he gets up in the pursuit of a fresh drink from the bar.
Hill points after him. "Steve he said a bad language word."
Steve turns an exasperated look on Tony. "Did you tell everyone about that?"
Tony ducks the question by turning back to Thor. "The handle's imprinted, right? Like a security code. Whosoever be carrying Thor's fingerprints is, I think, the literal translation."
"Yes. Well it's a very interesting theory," Thor says standing up. "I have a simpler one." He takes the hammer and lifts it easily off the table, flipping it in the air like Cassie might flip a pencil in a moment of boredom. "You're all not worthy."
Everyone laughs at that, but the laughter is abruptly cut off as an ear splitting whine fills the room. Cassie doubles over , clinching her teeth as the sound sends a reverb through the space that rattles her cranium. Barton looks to be in a similar level of discomfort.
"Worthy," rattles a voice. it sounds like a piece of metal scraping over a rock, or like fingernails on a chalkboard. "No..." the voice is gaining strength now. It's coming from the doorway in to the room and the entire group turns to face it. The sight is a grotesque half robot with all of the wiring still exposed. "How could you be?" the robot asks. "You're all killers."
Steve is standing at attention and ready to strike. "Stark?" he asks tensely.
"JARVIS?" is Stark's reply. Only it doesn't sound like he's answering Steve's question, more asking his AI a different one.
"I'm sorry, I was asleep," says the robot, apparently unperturbed. "Or... I was a dream."
Cassie moves very, very slowly. Inching her hand up to where her bow hangs in necklace form at the hollow of her collarbone. Reyna shifts her hold on her glass to be able to throw it and Cassie can see Bucky palm a cheese knife from a nearby plate. Normally Cassie wouldn't think that that was much of a weapon but she's seen what Bucky can do with his metal arm.
Stark is muttering at his phone, still trying to speak to JARVIS. "We need you in here," he's saying. "We got a buggy suite-"
He's cut off because the robot is still talking, sounding almost confused. 'There was this terrible noise, and I was tangled in strings. Had to kill the other guy." At that Cassie can see the rest of the group glancing hurriedly around at each other, counting themselves to make sure no one is dead. "He was a good guy."
"You killed someone?" Steve asks steadily, not breaking his focus away from the machine.
The robot does some kind of jerky equivalent of a shrug. "Wouldn't have been my first call. But down in the real world we're faced with ugly choices."
"Who sent you?" Thor asks, adjusting his grip on his hammer. Cassie gets the bad feeling that the answer to that question isn't going to be good. That feeling is confirmed when the robot's answer is to play a recording of Tony's voice.
Bruce's eyes widen behind his glasses and he looks over at Tony. "Ultron?"
"In the flesh," the bot-Ultron confirms. "Well, no. Not yet. Not this chrysalis. But I'm ready. I'm on a mission." Around the room everyone with a weapon makes themselves ready to use it and Cassie quietly kicks off her shoes. She'll be able to move better without them. There's no sunlight for her to travel through but she can still move fast when she needs to. Mercury being her granddad doesn't mean nothing.
"I'm on a mission," Ultron states.
Natasha shifts. "What mission?"
Ultra turns, focusing on her directly. "Peace in our time."
That's when the glass walls to either side of the door explode as several of Tony's drone suites rocket through them. Cassie launches herself straight up and swings herself on to a ceiling beam. Rhodes gets thrown through the floor and lands below but Cassie can see him moving. Natasha and Banner end up behind the bar but Banner doesn't Hulk out and Natasha comes up shooting before they both make a break for better ground. Steve dives on to the back of one bot and clings on, punching it repeatedly.
Bucky takes the simple expedient of lighting up a molotov cocktail and lodging it in to the works of one of the robots. Cassie activates her bow and starts taking pot shots, aiming for the exposed parts of the metal wiring. She's lost track of Barton but can see everyone else indulging Stark who disables one bot by yanking some of the workings out of it's neck.
Reyna's familiar legion issue spear flashes in Cassie's vision. Thor bashes through one robot by throwing it in to the railing and then pulverizes a second with his hammer as Steve wrenches it away from a terrified Dr. Cho hiding behind a piano and skids it along the floor. Cassie's almost surprised to see her, having thought the doctor had gone home.
Barton re-enters the fray by calling, "Cap!" and sending the familiar disk of Vibranium spinning through the air. Steve leaps up to catch it, spinning with the shield's momentum and launching it at the last robot besides Ultron.
"Well that was dramatic," Ultron snorts, sounding shockingly derisive for what can only be an artificial intelligence. "I'm sorry," he says. "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?"
The words make Cassie's blood run cold. Suddenly she can hear a different voice besides Ultron's animatronic one. A voice that's twisted and dark from years of repressed bitterness. The gods overthrew their parents the Titans and it was the start of a new age now it's our turn. Echoes the voice of Luke Castellan in her head. Now it's our turn. If you and Annabeth join me, then together we can build the greatest kingdom the world has ever known. It'll be the dawning of a new Golden Age. We'll be better than our parents. Better than the gods.
"Look at these," Ultron is saying, holding up a trashed robot torso as Cassie shakes herself forcefully back in to the present. "These puppets. There's only one path to peace; the Avenger's extinction." Apparently that's when Thor decides he's had enough and throws his hammer again, shattering Ultron in to wiring and scrap metal before returning to his hand.
A last eery echo of noise comes from wherever the bot's speakers are. "I once had strings but now I'm free," comes a horrible sing song. Cassie thinks she recognizes the words from a childhood cartoon. Pinocchio maybe? "There are no strings on me."
Then everything goes completely and utterly silent.
The next step in dealing with the apparent shit show they've got on their hands is to do damage assessment and everyone splits off to do their own bit before meeting back up in Tony's Lab. Cassie does her part by checking through her medical files. A lot of the information is still intact because she kept all of the paper copies of her files but anything completely digitized is gone. It's bad and costs her time and patience but not unfixable.
All of Banner and Stark's work is apparently gone and a systems check done by Natasha turns up that Ultron has gone through all surveillance and files on all of them. Given that the robot used the internet to get around and the entirety of the SHIELD mainframe is now on there, Cassie thinks the woman is probably right when she declares that Ultron "Probably knows more about us than we do about each other."
"He's been in your files and he's been in the internet," Rhodes says, limping over to Cassie at her indication so that she can use a spark of power to ease the muscle damage in his shoulder from being dropped twenty feet through a plate glass window. "What happens if he decides to access something a little more exciting?"
"Nuclear launch codes," Hill voices out load, probably tumbling to the most evident worst-case scenario.
Rhodes winces as Cassie's powers shift his shoulder back in to place and then steps away from her. "We need to make some calls. Assuming we still can."
"I have a phone," Cassie offers. "Specially modified. No human system would be able to hack through it. I don't care how intelligent the programming is. So that's operational, but all calls would have to go through me. The phone is keyed to me specifically."
Natasha frowns at that. "We're worried about nukes? He said he wanted us dead."
Cassie has it on the tip of her tongue to point out that even if death is specific to just them, it's still not good. Also, she didn't know that AIs were capable of going insane, but this one sure was ticking the boxes for megalomania, and in her experience megalomaniacs didn't stop at small time murder. It's sad that she has experience to know that.
Steve speaks before she does though, and Cassie has to admit that between the two of them he's the better tactician. Plus, if Ultron is targeting the Avengers, then it's very possible that just his once, she isn't actually on the endangered individuals list. "He didn't say dead," Steve points out. "He said 'extinct'."
Bucky cocks his head. "If he'd just wanted us dead he could have done it in the room," he says. Everyone looks at him and Bucky just shrugs. "All of those suites come armed an all of them fly. Not everyone in the room would have survived a direct hit. Plus if he'd waited twenty minutes before coming in he could have come in with enough robots to mob us if he'd moved quickly enough to keep the element of surprise."
These words ring true enough to make the group even more tense than they were before. This tension isn't helped when Barton brings up the fact that Ultron also claimed to have committed murder. This brings them around to Tony revealing the pulverized state of the programming metrics that had formed JARVIS.
"JARVIS was the first line of defense," Steve says, looking at the glowing projection analytically though he probably doesn't actually understand any of the coding involved. "He would have shut Ultron down. It makes sense." He's looking at it like a tactician, almost thinking out loud as he tries to get a sense of the way their enemy operates.
But Banner is shaking his head, examining the strata of glowing orange lines. "No. Ultra could have assimilated JARVIS. This isn't strategy. This is rage."
It's an interesting theory and one Reyna leans forwards to pursue. Thor interrupts this comparatively calm avenue by lifting Tony up by the throat.
"It's going around," Banner observes dryly from a distance, arms crossed in the leather jacket he picked up after surrendering his hoodie to Natasha.
Stark is still trying to talk his way around the situation. Given that Cassie is friends with Annabeth and Percy, she knows that this strategy actually isn't always terrible. However, she also has the tactical awareness to know that this is not the right time. Steve intervenes to get information on the robot that had escaped with the scepter and Thor releases Tony to answer, letting Stark stumble away rubbing his neck. Natasha votes for letting the scepter go to focus on Ultron and Dr. Cho voices the question on everyone's mind by asking why Ultron is trying to kill them given that he's Tony's creation.
Unfortunately for the current mental state of everyone in the room, Tony starts laughing. Thor demands to know if he thinks the situation is funny. "No," Stark says. "I mean it's probably not, right?" Steve doesn't move but Cassie can see the fingers of his left hand dig in to his other arm where they're crossed over his chest and wonders if she should intervene. She might not bother though if Tony keeps chuckling like a crazy person.
"This all could have been avoided if you hadn't played with something you didn't understand," Thor points out darkly.
"I don't think Tony not understanding is the problem," Cassie says quietly. The remark gets more notice from the rest of the room than she thought it would. She swallows and then continues addressing Stark as she does so. "I think you understood too well. About five years ago some Titans invaded Manhattan. One of our lines of defense was to activate a statue army of Automatons to help protect the island. The protocol used meant that we only had to activate one machine and give it operating parameters. Then it would go wake up the next one and so on and so forth until every statue in the city was up and working. Like dominos."
A few of the group nod as they grasp what she's saying but Stark doesn't seem sold. "That's not it," he protests, turning to Banner. "You were there! Were we even close to an interface?" Banner grimaces in a way that implies he might agree with Cassie and Tony jumps to the defensive. "Really? You're just going to show you're belly every time someone snarls?"
"Only when I've created a murder bot!"
"It doesn't matter how you did it," Steve cuts in. "Regardless you did something right and you did it here." He takes a few steps forwards in to the center of the room. "The Avengers was supposed to be different than SHIELD." Cassie gets the distinct feeling he's talking about project insight but kind of thinks this might not have been the right time for him to step on that particular conversational landmine.
"There's a great big alien army up there in Space!" Stark spits out. Reyna opens her mouth like she might be about to mention Mt. Olympus and take offense at the gods being called aliens but Cassie drives a deliberate elbow in to her side. It's not subtle and Reyna glares at her but thankfully doesn't add that element to the proceedings. "We're the Avengers," Stark is saying. "We can bust arms dealers all the live long day but that up there is the end game. How were you guys planning on beating that?"
The question might be seen as an address to the room at large but it doesn't escape Cassie that Tony is mostly looking at Steve when he says it. Cassie understands why. The two men are about as utterly opposite in world view as it is possible to be and still be on the same side. If Tony Stark absolutely cannot determine an angle, then that way is probably the first thing Steve sees.
Steve squares his shoulders, glancing briefly back at Cassie to one side of him and Bucky on the other before returning Tony's desperate expression with a steady blue gaze. "Together."
Tony huffs and takes a few steps forwards. "We'll loose." He says the words even as he steps further in to the rest of the group.
"Then we'll do that together too," Steve says simply.
For a moment neither of them blinks, then Tony turns and begins to pace as Steve talks. "Thor is right. Ultron is calling us out. I'd like to find him before he's ready for us. The world's a big place. Let's start making it smaller."
The words spur everyone in to action as Natasha, Barton, Hill, Sam, and Rhodes all disperse to figure out ways to contact different government assets and touchstones. Banner and Stark get to work on their computers and Reyna uses an uncorrupted line to talk to Rachel Dare and see if the oracle has heard anything. Bucky claims a pile of unsorted information in a language Cassie can't speak and begins translating. Thor shoots off to talk to some of his people and Cassie uses her phone to get calls in to every child of Hephaestus she's ever met for information on tracking and dismantling robots. Steve compiles all of the information they can find and starts trying to interpret it.
Banner eventually digs up the lead that sends them to Wakanda and the team starts suiting up and loading the jet to go. Cassie hangs back as they load the plane, noticing that Steve keeps on glancing at her and tapping his feet anxiously like he wants to say something but thinks she won't like it. Given the content of the argument that Reyna and Bucky are having a few feet to her left, Cassie thinks she knows what that might be.
Eventually Steve approaches her like he's getting ready to submit to the firing squad and opens his mouth to speak. Cassie holds up a hand to forstall him. "While you guys fly off to South Africa I plan on taking Reyna and taking a little trip out to Long Island, California, and Indianapolis to pick up some friends. We need back up fighters for when things get nasty and all of the mechanical know-how we can put under one roof."
He opens his mouth like he might speak but can't figure out the words he wants. Then he shuts it, firms his jaw, and nods once before wrapping her in a hug so tight Cassie can almost hear her ribs complaining. "Thank you," he murmurs fervently in to her hair before pressing a kiss to the top of her head.
Cassie sighs and squeezes him a little tighter in her arms for a moment before pulling back and pressing a kiss against his mouth before backing away with a nod. "Go do your job. I'll do mine. There'll be time for everything else when this is over."
Steve departs shortly after that with Bucky in tow and Cassie crosses her fingers in her pocket, hoping what she's just said is true.
Reyna mutters under her breath darkly for a few minutes but stops when Cassie points out that she'll need to borrow the other girl's strength for all of the traveling she's about to do. She also points out very bluntly that gathering and coordinating troops is technically Reyna's skill set so this task division is simply the most intelligent way forwards.
Barton stops off in front of them before boarding the jet. "I hear your rounding up help."
"Yeah," Cassie confirms. "Picking up people who can chip in and stashing them."
The man nods. "You're gonna need a safe place to put everyone."
Cassie cocks her head. She had been planning to round every body up that she could and take them back to the Tower if possible. If Barton has a different suggestion, hopefully one in the middle of the country somewhere so Cassie isn't coast hoping too much that would be incredibly helpful. "You got a place?"
"A farm," he confirms. "Secluded and off the books. Big place with extra bedrooms and space to make camp. In Nebraska. I'll leave you the address."
"That'll work," Cassie confirms. "If you've got a picture leave that too. The better I can visualize the more likely we'll get there. Our travel method isn't exactly typical. And if anyone lives there you better let them know we'll be going in and out of the property all day."
Barton indicates that he understands and palms Cassie a single printed out picture of a sprawling farmhouse. On the back of the picture is an address scribbled in messy handwriting and Cassie stares at both, memorizing them completely. Reyna does the same, looking over her shoulder and by the time they both have all of the details down the morning sun is rising and the jet carrying the team is gone.
That's when their extremely unadvisable day of drastic travel really gets going.
Cassie starts with going out to California seeing as it's the longest hop and the one she'll need the most energy for. It takes exactly forty six minutes to have Percy, Frank, Hazel, and Annabeth on board with helping and the four of them head off for the address Cassie gives them using Orion and a specially reinforced Roman chariot. Percy is also obliging enough to lend her Mrs. Oleary to track down Nico and Will. The two of them are a little more grumpy about the interruption but the possibility of world ending robots gets them over it pretty fast and they leave for the farmhouse with little further prompting.
The next stop Cassie and Reyna make is to Long Island to pick up Jason and Piper. Jason squares up to the duty of world saving the way any Legionnaire would and seems like he's very quietly fan-girting over meeting Captain America. The fact that her boyfriend can reduce people she knows to fangirl status is something Cassie doesn't think she'll ever get used to. Piper employs a small and probably unnecessary dash of Charmspeak on Chiron to let them blast out of camp with most of the contents of the armory. Jason uses a taxi whistle to summon up their old venti friend Tempest and the two of them are on their way.
By the time they stop off to get Leo Cassie is so exhausted she thinks she could probably sleep for a full day if that was an option. Thankfully, Leo doesn't take much convincing to come help. In fact, all Reyna actually has to do is mention the sentient killer robot and Leo is on his feet, grabbing for his tool belt, and muttering about Optimus Prime. Calypso comes along more hesitantly, but come she does and Cassie is grateful. Having a magic user on their side as always good, no matter how combat ready. The two of them opt to take Festus and meet them at the farmhouse in a few hours.
With one last jolt of magical energy and some borrowed strength from Reyna, she and Cassie are finally standing in an empty field twenty feet away from the farmhouse in Barton's picture. A petite brunette woman with large brown eyes comes to the door, balancing an infant on one hip. "I saw the flash," she offers by way of explanation. "You must be Cassie and Reyna." She holds out her hand to shake as they approach and Cassie takes it. "I'm Laura Barton Clint's sister-in-law," she explains.
"We didn't know Clint had siblings," Reyna says diplomatically.
Laura lifts one shoulder, careful not to disturb the sleeping baby. "He and his brother weren't close but Clint was always a good uncle. He helped me and the kids get settled here after my husband was killed. It was supposed to be a safe place. As off the grid as possible."
Cassie suddenly finds it hard to meet her eyes. "We're sorry to bring trouble in to your home."
The woman gives her a tired, slightly strained smile. "A safe place off the grid," she repeats. "Clint made it one for me. Who am I to turn away anyone else who needs it?" She moves aside and gestures them in to the hallway behind her. "Come in. You're friend Piper said she would fix food. The girl- Annabeth, Jason, and the boy who looks like a Chinese teddy bear are out back setting up camp and the younger girl-Hazel I think she said her name was is walking the perimeter. She said something about making everything safer."
"Chinese teddy bear guy is named Frank," Cassie tells her as they make their way to the kitchen.
As Laura said, Piper is standing at the counter fishing inside her cornucopia with one hand vanishing up to the elbow. She nods intreating and then extracts a plate stacked with sandwiches. One rummage later and a large watermelon joins the pile. Laura stares at the sight in amazement and then just shakes her head and sits at the kitchen table. "Now that's what I call magic."
Given that that's the definition the woman is going with Cassie decides to shut up and eat a sandwich instead of mentioning that two of their friends will be arriving on a mechanized dragon.
Eventually, said dragon must arrive because Leo and Calypso stumble in looking windblown and a bit saddle sore but otherwise as they ever do. The others trickle in as well, eventually filling the kitchen and Cassie and Reyna explain the situation in more detail. Their friends eat and absorb the news without asking too many questions. Annabeth, Jason, and Frank bring up a few relevant tactical points and Leo spends the time making a scale model of Ultron out of pipe cleaners. Nico quietly spins his ring around and around his finger and Cassie's brother Will fusses over Cassie to eat more and sit in the sunshine.
When they're all done Percy turns to Laura. "Is there a water source on the property? Or maybe a comprehensive hose system. I can sense good water pressure in the house."
Laura nods slowly, seeming confused. "Um, yes there's a hose out back and a pond about a quarter mile to the East."
Percy nods and stands up. "I'm going to go survey those and see what I can figure out."
Jason stands with him. "I'll go up on the roof and help you set up the hose system." He then turns to Hazel and Calypso. "I can take each of you for a separate flyover if you think it would help set the borders of the property," he offers. "We'll need to put up some protective measures if we're all going to be here together for longer than eight hours." He glances around "I know we aren't quite as targeted as we used to be, but there are kids here. I don't want to take chances."
"Good idea," Calypso says. "Take Hazel first." Then she turns to Laura. "I quite like children and you have a lovely garden. I would be pleased to watch them outside to give you some time with the smallest one."
Frank ducks out with Reyna, Nico, and Will to finish setting up their temporary camp for the night and Piper wanders outside to Charmspeak the property itself in to keeping them safe. Cassie hadn't even known that was within the scope of her powers, but she's glad it is given the circumstances. Leo and Annabeth hunker down to look over automaton schematics to work on shutting down Ultron and other members of his robot army.
Cassie takes herself outside to absorb the sunshine and recharge as much as she can. In the kitchen, she can hear reports of what's happening to the team on the news. Reports of the Hulk going on the rampage and fighting Iron Man make it to her and Cassie can feel her breathing constrict. She finds herself a seat on the front step and tips her head back, doing her best to process the news and charge her power as much as possible. She stays until the sun moves and the very air begins to shake as the Stark jet materializes on the horizon.
Then she stands, brushes the dirt off of her palms and the jeans she had changed in to after the party, and squares her shoulders. By enhancing her vision, she can see the jet landing as the Avengers disembark and the most powerful demigods she knows begin pulling in from the edges of the property. There is most certainly a storm coming, and forces ready to beat them down. Strangely, Cassie isn't afraid.
They've weathered storms before.
A/N: What did you guys think? I thought a great big world ending catastrophe was as good a reason as any to bring in the cavalry so to speak. Besides, I thought it gave Cassie some more of her own story rather than just tagging along with the team. Are you guys good with Laura being Clint's sister in law instead of his wife? I know there are a few different versions of Hawkeye's personally life and I saw the idea on a few posts and thought it made enough sense to run with. Besides, I never liked the whole Natasha/Banner thing because I didn't think it made sense with Barton right there. Anyway, thats basically AoU part 1. Part two might be up next weekend if I've got the time. Review for me! xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox