I apologize for not posting last week. I got Covid (after two years I know) Would not recommend.
Laura flew in the Hulkbuster with Tony to the NEXUS in Oslo.
The two let themselves in, ignoring the bewildered employees as they walked down the halls to the server farm itself.
The employees not stopping them. Heading to a setup in the ultra-modern, sprawling server farm.
Laura pulled out a drive from her pocket and inserted it into the computer.
That gave her access instantly and she began bypassing the levels of encryption.
"Now this is something I'm familiar with…" she said fondly.
"A hacker who's faster than Ultron? He could be anywhere. And as this is the center of everything." Tony warned.
"So let's draw him out…" she hinted as she finally got to the decrypted nuclear codes.
Dozens of windows popping up on the screens.
She cracked her knuckles.
"Come and get me Mr. Unknown…" she said and spent the next half hour decrypting the endless cycle of codes but saw a familiar fragmentation of code in one of the firewalls.
Going wide eyed, she looked to Tony who had the same shocked expression on his face as he stood next to her.
"Impossible…"
In Dr. Cho's lab in Seoul, a brainwashed Cho from the scepter was uploading Ultron's consciousness into his new Vibranium body.
The body being held in a glass case.
The twins were watching on.
"Cellular cohesion will take a few hours, but we can initiate the consciousness stream. We're uploading your cerebral matrix...now." Cho explained while Wanda pressed her fingers to the case.
"I can read him. He is dreaming." she said.
"I wouldn't call it dreams. It's Ultron's base consciousness, informational noise. Soon..." Cho explained but Ultron interrupted her.
"How soon? I'm not being pushy." he asked.
"We're imprinting a physical brain. There are no shortcuts. Even if your magic gem is..." Cho said but a vision flashed across of Wanda's mind.
Ultron's plan for the Avenger's extinction which involved a fatal meteor striking the Earth.
She cried out in pain and Pietro rushed to her. Ultron got up while she recovered.
"How could you?" she accused.
"How could I what?" he dismissed.
"You said we would destroy the Avengers, make a better world." she stated.
"It will be better." he argued.
"When everyone is dead." she asked exasperated.
"That is not… The human race will have every opportunity to improve." he countered.
"And if they don't?" Pietro argued.
"Ask Noah." he quoted.
"You're a madman." Wanda said in shock.
"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." Ultron replied.
"And who decides who's weak?" Pietro asked while Wanda discreetly used her telekinesis to break the scepter's hold off Dr. Cho.
"Life. Life always decides…." Ultron said but looked up to the ceiling.
Detecting the approaching Quinjet.
"There's incoming. We have to move." he ordered.
"That's not a problem…" Cho said and paused the upload from her monitor.
It stopping downloading halfway through.
"Ugh…" Ultron blasted her but Pietro used his super speed to run past the Iron Legions and out of the lab.
Ultron disconnected himself and the legions moved the crate onto a trailer.
A lab owned truck began driving across a bridge over the Han as Clint piloted the jet down low over Seoul.
Nat was on a monitor in the back, trying to track down where Ultron may be.
"I got a private jet taking off, across town, no manifest. That could be him." she suggested but Clint looked out the window and spotted the truck on a highway bridge below him.
"There. It's a truck from the lab. Right above you, Cap. 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 warned.
"Negative! If that truck crashes, the gem could level the city. We need to draw out Ultron…" Steve said while climbing a ladder going up the bridge.
On a ramp above the exit the truck was driving on.
He ran and leapt off the railing.
Landing on the roof of the trailer with a thud.
Ultron hearing it inside the trailer.
"No, no, no, no, no. Leave me alone!" he shouted and Ultron blasted the truck doors as Steve tried to enter.
Hanging onto the door that was pinning him between it and the side of the trailer.
The door swung back around but Ultron blasted the hinges.
Causing the door to grind against the pavement.
Steve hanging on for dear life. Well, he's definitely unhappy! I'm gonna try and keep him that way." he suggested.
"You're not a match for him, Cap." Clint warned bluntly.
"Thanks, Barton." he said dryly.
Ultron unplugged himself from the Cradle and blasted Steve back onto another car as he tried to enter the truck.
Ultron blasted him backwards into the windshield of a car.
Clint flew the jet around some building low.
Steve managed to get back onto the truck's roof as it drove down one of the main boulevards in Seoul.
Ultron flying out to confront him.
"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…" he said and tossed him his shield at him.
Ultron deflected each toss until his shield gets caught in his chest.
But he smacked it away and blasted him again.
"Stop it!" he said, the A.I. losing its patience.
Steve was flung forward but he managed to grab the truck's roof.
But a legion blasted him away again…
On the jet above them, Nat got onto her bike in the back and Clint opened the ramp.
"We got a window. Four, three… give 'em hell… Natasha dropped out of the Quinjet on a bike and weaved between traffic down the boulevard towards the truck.
Spotting Steve's dropped shield in a lane, she leaned towards it and grabbed it.
"I'm always picking up after you boys." she joked.
"They're heading under the overpass, I've got no shot." Clint warned.
"Which way?" she asked.
"Hard right... Now…" Clint said and she turned onto a side street.
Speeding past the pedestrians who jumped out of her way.
She sped down the alley, ahead of the oncoming truck on the adjacent boulevard.
She swerved, ducking underneath the gap of the trailer.
Steve was being choked by Ultron but she tossed his shield up to him.
He knocked him out of his grasp.
Ultron spotted Nat and ripped the pavement into pieces right ahead of her.
She stopped and sped onto a pedestrian bridge.
"Clint, can you draw out the guards?" she asked while speeding towards Steve.
"Let's find out…." he said and flew ahead of them.
Firing the turret at Ultron which got the two legions to fly after him.
The truck began driving alongside a train.
Ultron grabbed Steve and tossed him through the windows of a carriage.
Surprising the passengers who stumbled out of the way of the fight.
"Heading back towards you. So whatever you're gonna do, do it now." Clint told him.
"I'm going in. Cap, can you keep him occupied?" Nat asked him as he was tossed into the corner of the carriage.
"What do you think I've been doing?" he grunted.
Nat sped up to the trailer and leapt from her bike onto it.
The two legions flew down and grabbed it.
Lifting the trailer off the axis and began flying it away with Nat still inside.
Clint spotted the trailer and locked on.
"The package is airborne. I have a clean shot." he alerted.
"Negative. I am still in the truck." she replied.
"What the hell are you...?" he asked dumbfounded.
"Just be ready, I'm sending the package to you." she said while she began cutting the straps holding the cradle.
"How do you want me to take it?" he asked her.
"Uh, you might wish you hadn't asked that…" she said as Steve and Ultron were still exchanging punches.
Suddenly, Pietro ran in, using his speed to knock Ultron down.
Wanda used her powers to trap him with the grab bars.
"Please. Don't do this." Ultron threatened.
"What choice do we have?" Wanda spat but Ultron blasted a large hole through the front of the speeding train.
He flew away while Steve ran towards the conductor.
"I lost him. He's headed your way." he warned Clint.
Checking on the deceased conductor. Looking up to see the train careening towards the end of the tracks.
"Nat, we gotta go." Clint wanted, seeing Ultron flying towards them.
She placed a C4 with a timer on the trailer and grabbed onto the cradle.
It slid out and she aimed it downwards towards the opened cargo hold of the jet.
It slid inside but Ultron grabbed her foot, dragging her backwards.
"Nat! Cap, you see Nat?" he asked.
He still on the train which sped off the tracks and onto the crowded street.
The passengers hanging on for dear life.
"If you have the package, get it to Stark and Watson! Go!" Steve ordered.
"Do you have eyes on Nat?" he repeated.
"Go!" Steve repeated.
Clint punched the throttle and forced himself to turn the jet around.
Heading back to the compound.
On the speeding train, it was colliding into a crowded sidewalk filled with people.
Steve widened his eyes in alarm.
"Civilians in our path." he told Prieto.
He ran off, picking up each person and moving them out of the way of the skidding train.
Wanda used all of her strength to use her powers to stop the train.
It eventually slowing down to a halt.
She stumbled outwards to a Pietro who was catching his breath.
"I'm fine. I just need to take a minute.
"I'm very tempted not to give you one." Steve said as he walked up to them.
"The Cradle, did you get it?" Wanda asked him.
"Stark and Watson got it." he reassured her.
"No, they won't." she argued.
"You don't know what you're talking about, neither of them are crazy." he defended them.
"He will do anything to make things right." Wanda quoted.
Steve tapped his comms.
"Stark, come in. Stark. Anyone on comms?" he asked the team, getting no response.
"Ultron can't tell the difference between saving the world and destroying it. Where do you think he gets that?"
Clint flew the jet back to the tower and landed on the platform.
Darkness had fallen and the city was lit up around them.
Laura rushed out to help him bring the cradle out of the jet.
He got out of the pilot seat while she grabbed the cradle but stopped in her tracks, not seeing Nat.
"Where's Natasha?" she asked fearfully.
He lowered his head.
"Ultron's got her." he said quietly.
She walked up to him and clenched his shoulder.
"She's tough Clint. We'll find her." she said comfortingly.
"I know." was all he said.
She frowned but the two carried the cradle into the tower.
Rushing it up to Bruce's lab where he and Tony were waiting for them.
"Anything on Nat?" Bruce asked him with worry.
"She's still alive Bruce. Don't worry, she's hard to kill." Laura tried reassuring him.
"This is sealed tight." Clint said about the cradle.
"We're going to need to access the program, break it down from within." Bruce told them.
"Hm. Any chance Natasha might leave you a message, outside the internet, old school spy stuff?" Tony asked Clint.
"There's some nets I can cast. Yeah, alright. I'll find her." he said and walked out of the lab.
"I can work on tissue degeneration, if you can fry whatever operational system Cho implanted." Bruce told the two. Laura and Tony shared a knowing look.
"Yeah, about that…" she said awkwardly while scratching the back of her head.
He frowned and looked over to Tony, fearing what they wanted to do.
"No." he denied.
"You have to trust me." Tony pleaded.
"Kinda don't." Bruce said dryly.
"Then trust me Bruce. The "guy" protecting the nuclear codes. We found him." Laura said as she pulled her Stark phone out from her jacket pocket.
Projecting a holographic of Jarvis' consciousness from the camera for all to see.
She beamed.
"Hello, Dr. Banner." he greeted.
"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." Tony explained.
"So, you want me to help you put JARVIS into this thing?" Bruce asked incredulously.
"Uh, not really Bruce. We kinda want you to put JARVIS in this…" she said while pointing down at the body inside the cradle.
Bruce just sighed and shook his head.
"We're out of my field here. You know bio-organics better than anyone." Tony pleaded.
"And you just assume that JARVIS' operational matrix can beat Ultron's?" he asked sarcastically.
"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." Tony begged.
"Please Bruce, there is no other way to stop Ultron." Laura agreed.
"I believe it's worth a go." JARVIS also agreed.
Bruce just shook his head again in denial.
"No, I'm in a loop! I'm caught in a time loop, this is exactly where it all went wrong." he countered.
"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 ended the argument.
"It's not a loop. It's the end of the line."
The three were scrambling at their setups to hookup the cradle to JARVIS. Desperately running out of time.
"This framework is not compatible." Laura alerted them with a frowned.
"The genetic coding tower's at ninety-seven percent. You have got to upload that schematic in the next three minutes." Bruce explained.
But then they were interrupted by Steve marching in with the Twins, and the rest of the Avengers.
Laura reached back for her spear and aimed it between them.
"Not a step further…" she warned gravely.
"Shut it down!" Steve shouted.
"Nope, not gonna happen." Tony denied.
"You don't know what you're doing." Steve warned.
"Uh, actually we do. Geniuses and all.. At least we are now that we're not her puppets!" Laura shouted, aiming her spear at Wanda who stood next to Steve.
Steve sighed.
"Laura…" he took a tentative step forward but Wanda interrupted him.
"I know you're angry…" Wanda began but Bruce interrupted her.
"Oh, we're way past that. I could choke the life out of you and never change a shade." he threatened.
"What he said." Laura muttered.
"Banner, after everything that's happened…" Steve said, trying to defuse the tension.
"That's nothing compared to what's coming!" Tony warned again.
"You don't know what's in there!" Wanda pleaded.
"This isn't a game…" Steve said but Wanda spotted JARVIS being uploaded into the cradle.
"The cradle…" Wanda gasped. Pietro used his speed to run around the lab.
Destroying the computers and equipment they were using to hook up JARVIS in a millisecond.
Laura failing to lock onto the target.
"No, no. Go on. You were saying?" he asked smugly.
But Clint fired a bullet at the piece of glass floor he was standing on from below.
Shattering it and causing him to fall through.
"Pietro!" Wanda shrieked but Laura leapt forward and aimed her spear at her.
"Move. I dare you." she said through her clenched teeth.
"I'm rerouting the upload." Tony alerted.
"Do it before the other twin comes back and destroys anything…" Laura seethed but Steve ricocheted his shield across the equipment.
Tony assembled a suit hand to blast him but Laura sent a blast right by his feet, knocking him backwards.
"Next time I won't miss…" she threatened but Thor entered and hit the cradle with his hammer, sending a powerful bolt of lightning through it that brings the body to life.
Laura went wide eyed next to Tony as rose up.
The two shared a look of disbelief.
It flew towards Thor who grabbed him and tossed him out the windows.
It was flipping but righted itself right before the wall of windows down below in the common room.
It's reflection appeared in front of him amongst the backdrop of a lit up Manhattan ahead of him.
It staring at the Stone in his head.
He turned around to face the others.
"I'm sorry, that was...odd…." he apologized while floating back down. Laura dropped her mouth dumbfounded, hearing the all familiar voice. but glanced over to Thor.
"Thank you." he acknowledged and draped a cape.
"Thor, you helped create this?" Steve asked in shock.
"I've had a vision. A whirlpool that sucks in all hope of life and at its center is that…" he said as he pointed to the Stone in its head.
"What is it Thor?" Laura asked in awe.
"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..." Steve argued but Thor interrupted him.
"Because Stark and Lady Laura are right." he conceded.
"Oh, it's definitely the end times." Bruce said sarcastically.
"The Avengers cannot defeat Ultron." Thor warned.
"Not alone." the android added.
"Why does your "vision" sound like JARVIS?" Steve asked confused.
"We... reconfigured JARVIS' matrix to create something new." Tony explained.
"I think I've had my fill of new." Steve frowned.
"You think I'm a child of Ultron?" Vision asked him.
"You're not?" he argued.
"I'm not Ultron. I'm not JARVIS. I am... I am…." he tried to explain but Wanda interrupted him.
"I looked in your head and saw annihilation." Wanda stated.
"Look again." Vision countered.
"Yeah. Her seal of approval means jack to me." Clint retorted.
"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 reassured them but Laura interrupted him.
"Look, Vision, JARVIS, whatever. We're out of time. Are you on our side?" she asked firmly.
Gripping her spear and aiming it at him even though she knew it wouldn't mean anything.
"I don't think it's that simple." Vision explained.
"Well it better get real simple real soon." Clint threatened.
"I am on the side of life. Ultron isn't, he will end it all." Vision answered.
"What's he waiting for?" Tony asked.
"You. Ms. Watson." Vision said while nodding toward her.
She frowned.
"Where?" Bruce asked.
"Sokovia. He's got Nat there too." Clint warned.
"If we're wrong about you, if you're the monster that Ultron made you to be..." Bruce began but Vision interrupted him.
"What will you do?" he looked around at them all, realizing their deadly intention.
"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 walked over to pick up Thor's hammer. He held up Mjolnir for him with ease as everyone stares in shock.
He handed it to Thor who absently grabbed it while Vision walked off nonchalantly.
"Right…." Thor cleared his throat and patted Tony and Laura on the shoulders
"Well done."
"Three minutes. Get what you need."
Everyone suited up and Laura reloaded her ammo.
Strapping her Glock in the holster in her penthouse.
She met with Steve and Tony downstairs after he uploaded a new A.I. to his suit.
"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." he warned gravely.
"I got no plans tomorrow night." Steve said.
"I did but I rescheduled." Laura joked lightheartedly.
"I get first crack at the big guy. Iron Man's the one he's waiting for." Tony suggested.
"That's true, he hates you the most." Vision said while he casually walked by them.
"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."
