This chapter was a bitch to write, there r more drawings on my profile tho B^) of Ultron and the baby girl.
Dark.
Hot.
Two never-ending ending factors in the inky web of unyielding blackness around her. Her skin was slick with sweat, salty water that stung her eyes and clung to her like moss. There was no end, just dark, no wind, no smell, not taste, no nothing. The chapped, cracking texture of her lips pulled against something as she tried to speak. 17 stabbing lines of pain roared to life along her mouth.
Staples. The woman's jaw was held together by string-thing wisps of metal as her fingers brushed against them. The scabs had open, flood gates to blood and puss that trickled warmly down her chin.
But she was calm. Like the reality of her current position was something she already acclimated too. Like a frog in slow boiling water unaware of the agonizing change around them until it was to late. Broiled till their intestines harden and heart stops pumping, their life rising to the water's surface guided by the platoon of frenzied bubbles.
A light.
Glowing red, crimson like fireworks in the dark of night. The scent of popcorn and hot dogs, the sound of children and parents in awe and wonder never came. Just fear. The shards rushing towards the woman as she writhed, trying to run, to escape but there was no ground beneath her feet. The earth left, just like everything but the void of black.
Pain, again. Burning, pulling the meat of her back free from the xylophone of bones compiling her ribs. Hooks. The woman was hung like a butcher's pig. Waiting for the furious trailing sparks of light to reach her. She thrashed, skin ripping like a tablecloth till her weight was to great and fell.
A stuffed sobbed left the woman as she tumble through the emptiness. There was no wind, just the vertigo as gravity clung to her by the ankles like prison chains. The red followed. Teeth. 6 sets of of jagged crystals with spit, red hot like magma dripping from their maws.
When she stopped it wasn't because the blackness ended, but because she was caught. Like a convict in cuffs, two colossal metal hands of worn, rusting steel wrapped around her arms. Clenching, burning, she could feel their imprint digging in and leaving their mark like a brand. The sets of shattered jaws stopped. They met her in the dark where she writhed against the ten immovable fingers, and bit.
Sinking the melting, spinal teeth into the muscle of her forearms and pulling. The skin of her face fraying apart as she tore past the staples, an agonizing scream finally breaking free. Blood and black tar streamed from her mouth, she chocked, gagging on the poison. Another bite. Another scream. The saliva burned, contaminating her body wherever it touch. She saw the white of her bones in the delta of decay it left.
She didn't have time to cry before it went for her head.
Cold.
Light.
Simone woke with a shout. The flashing whites of her eyes searched wildly across the room for her monster. She found a trashcan instead. Crawling with sprawled limbs she reached for the plastic bin before the numbness jumped from her throat, and heaved. A cool sweat across her body as she shook. The echo's of pain lingered against her back and arms.
Her head stayed in the trash, shoulders quaking as her breathing stuttered back to normal. Never in her life had she had a nightmare like that. Maybe once or twice when she was twelve, but never one that left her reeling like she had one too many turns on the merry-go-round.
Then she spotted a pair of silver feet.
Ultron.
She groaned, shoving the container away and swiping a forearm across her mouth. The crimson teeth flashed before eyes, five inches deep in the same flesh. She shuddered, and smacked her hand on top of the wooden bed stand, dragging the hearing aids down with it. She popped them in, turned them on, and let her back fall against the side of her bed as she eyed the robot. A thick blanket was beneath him. He woke her up.
"Good morning?"
"The best." Her chest still lifted up and down a little harder than she would've liked, "You don't dream, do you?"
He hummed, leaning against the doorframe. Ultron hadn't bothered to turn on the bedroom lights, but the hall illuminated behind him. "Occasionally a memory will rear its ugly head during a defrag, but no, can't say I'm envious."
"Lucky." She said, her skull clunking against the mattress. As much as Simone valued and enjoyed sleep, the chance to never have another nightmare or awkward raunchy dream was extremely appealing. Plus, she could bing watch any show she wanted without stopping. Hello, Breaking Bad.
"If that's over with, I did come up here for something."
Of course, nothing was out of the kindness of his… heart? Engine? Simone didn't know, it was too early to think of Tin Man anatomy.
"What'd you want," The woman didn't have the energy make it sound like a question over a demand. Ultron was being high maintenance way before he should be legally allowed too. The woman made a point not to 'start' her day till well after 11:30, and a quick glance at the clock said she still had another 3 hours.
"There's a delivery in your P.O box." He said, starting to turn away, "And as charming as I am, I don't think I'll be received well in public."
She groaned again. Flipping over on her stomach and pulling herself back to bed and whinned, "Why now?"
"I'm impatient," He stated, walking away, "The cab's outside, and the meter's running."
Well if that didn't get her up nothing would.
Simone fell out of bed and staggered to her feet. Regardless of the nightmare, her body was still lost in the fog of early morning drowsiness, meaning coordination wasn't available at the moment. So she teetered with a renewed sense of urgency to the her closet, silently mournful that she didn't have more time. Simone would've liked the rare opportunity to make herself presentable, besides a sweatshirt and leggings, maybe some mascara or foundation.
But apparently an estimated 350l pounds of over-entitled metal had another idea.
Rubbing off the nighttime crust of dried tears around her eyes, the woman shoved a toothbrush in her mouth and scrubbed furiously. Simone thought about charging the robot and spraying him with Winter Fresh, but stuck to dumping it in the sink instead. Dying before 9 o'clock would be one hell of way to start the day.
Her mother would do this kind of thing. Signing her up for something and tell her about it when it was too late to back out. Incidentally, that ended up landing her a lifeguard job. She hated it, kids kept crapping in the chlorine and no one else would clean it up. But least she was employed, an innocent 16 year old in the capitalist machine, slaving away at minimum wage.
Tugging at the scarf wrapped around her neck like an anaconda, Simone shuffled outside, passively acknowledging the patio needed to be shoveled. She blinked, taken aback by the onslaught of light reflecting from the snow and waxing sun. She didn't give a damn how 'pretty and serene' sunrises were, all the peachy tones accomplished was fueling her bad mood. Thoughts of going back to bed and actually getting some sleep ruled her mind as she crashed into the taxi.
It was significantly darker in the cab, save for the tiny green lights taunted her with the growing pay-fair. Simone sighed, if she was going to be Ultron's errand girl she might as well enjoy it, "Do you now where M6 is?"
The look she received from the man made her wither, "Lady, what's my job?"
"Right, okay, my bad," She muttered. propping up an elbow and placing her chin in the palm of her hand. Of all the cab drivers in Maine, WALL-E Gone Wrong managed to get the mean one, just her luck.
The only sound between the two of them was a radio, the faint mummer of rolling static filling the gap neither wanted cross. She was content with that, normally Simone wasn't the person to talk with strangers by impulse, but then three little words hit her like darts.
"Hey, can you turn it up?" She asked, shifting her position to lean closer to the decrepit machine.
Bombings in Vermont.
The frail lilting voice of the radio-woman described in vivid detail the plumes of smoke towering in the winter sky, the fire consuming itself in a vain attempt to stay alight. The screams, red splatters of blood without an owner, how ash melded into the snow as a stunned silence echoed through the town. The only timber to break to break the mournful quite was the waving wails of ambulances and moans of agony and loss. It was a science center, an amalgamation of some of the world's best forward thinking individuals. All their hard words, most of their lives, consumed in over a few thousand degrees of spontaneous heat.
And then Simone made a connection: they were moving northward.
Closer to Ultron.
She forced her throat to swallow a blob anxiety broiling inside its confines. The explosion had nothing to do with him, there was no way. His drone operated on foot, and he didn't have internet access, or, well, that's what the A.I told her. The world thought Ultron was dead, except for her. He wouldn't be stupid enough to throw that away. Unless the drone was spotted. Rust-for-Brains nearly got into fisticuffs with the police on his first excursion, it was suddenly a very real possibility.
'Paranoia, Simone, you're over thinking,' She sighed, rubbing the tingling away from her palms.
"I think it's that robot." The cabby stated, his raspy voice held the tell tale signs of a packet of Marlboro's fifteen minutes before work. Not that the nicotine stench didn't give it away in the beginning, "You know, the one that hit Russia?"
Simone really wished he stayed silent, that was not helping her mental state, "Didn't the Avengers kill him?"
"It could've escaped. Look, lady, I don't know if you've owned a TV over the past four years but this ain't nothin' new." He stopped to cough, not bothering to catch it his elbow. Simone was about two minutes away from cracking a window, "The blondie, General Freedom or whatever, 'e was frozen for years. Then, pop, unfroze him like a rotisserie chicken."
"It could be HYDRA?" She offered weakly.
"Could be my Ex-wife, too, doesn't mean it is."
Simone frowned. It didn't make sense, not even she knew how Ultron made it out alive, but there was full evidence he'd been eviscerated, defenestrated, decapitated, or any other delightful way of saying permanently silenced, "Why not?"
"It ain't their style. Settin' off bombs and stealin' from schools? That's gatherin', tryna build something, and if you ask me," The driver said, raising a finger from the wheel, "It's tryna hide a trail."
He reminded her of Santa. A sheared, bitter, surly Santa with yellow fingernails and tobacco in his teeth.
"All that government smuck with the lyin' and assassinations? That's HYDRA, hell, I wouldn't doubt it if they got congress in the locks."
Humming, Simone nodded, she didn't know if this guy was just really with it or read way to many Illuminati forums. She prayed it was forums.
"They're thinkin' 'bout proppin' up that robot in a museum, I heard," He blathered. Simone could see the cafe from her seat, and she couldn't wait. The sooner she got out of the car the better.
Nothing would piss of Ultron more than being a human tourist attraction. He'd bitch about grubby kids wearing down his alloys or something… Or barbarism, either worked, "I said no way, that's just beggin' for it to fly on down and drop nukes on us all. Then I said, that's just bad karma, gonna jinx the whole goddamn world."
"Fascinating," She muttered idly, far to interested in the idea of busting the her head through the glass as a last ditch escape effort. The woman did not want to think about robot taxidermy, especially if said robot lived with her.
They pulled to a stop and not soon enough, Simone shoved whatever cash she had on hand through the plastic slit and thrust open her door, "Keep the change!"
Jumping over a puddle of sludge, she was definitely to unnerved by the conversation to enjoy just a cup of coffee. A coffee and muffin it was, or sugarloaf. Tugging passively at her scarf, she glanced over the menu, it'd been forever since she'd been, well, out. Talk about turning into a hermit, maybe she could sign up for friendship version of OkCupid.
The woman stopped herself there. If that wasn't radiating existential crisis, she didn't know what was.
Ordering, she glanced around the cafe. Its lingering sent of roasted beans and amber ambiance almost set a smile to her face. She missed the tiny store, when the weather was pleasant she'd pack up her laptop and work from here. Unfortunately, winter was a frigid bitch, literally, and made working from home the easiest option.
Not much had changed since September. The light's were new, she noted, draping wires and 8watts stuffed in jars. It was all very Pintrist-esque, but the design graduate inside her had to appreciate the thanked the barrista and sat down, tucking away in the corner just to watch from the secluded perch. Her life got lonely, not that she did anything about it, but the opportunity just to see other people was a relief, even if their wasn't a conversation.
"Hey, Simone, right?" A man ambled forward, flashing his shinning donkey teeth in a… attempted smile. He looked like his mom dressed him through high school and never tried to learn how himself. Even the socks and sweater had the same pattern, "I'm Chad, we, uh, well we went to college together?"
Chad…She didn't remember him, but the name was surprisingly 'fratboy' over 'chess club marshmallow'. Simone almost asked him to fight just to see if she could knock him out in under five seconds and get some lunch money.
"Is that a statement or a question?," she teased, taking his hand. He was tall, gangly, as in an unfair foot and a half above her.
"Statement! Statement!" He laughed nervously. Her arm was going to fall off at the rate he was going, "I was in a different department than you, but, uh, we went to a party once. You spilled beer on me?"
That sounded like something she'd do, but there still wasn't a memory behind it. Maybe it'd be better just to tell the poor guy she didn't remember? Hopefully he'd get the hint and bug out. She completely missed his sentence.
"Could you repeat that?," She asked, tapping her hearing aid softly, "Sorry."
"Oh! No,no,no! my bad, my bad!"
Alright he was getting a little pathetic, and annoying.
"It's fine, promise." She stole a glance around the room, trying to fabricate an excuse to leave. He wasn't rude, or mean, just… forcing the meeting to happen. Usually people go out of their way to avoid school memories, not jump at the chance to relive them. She wrapped her fingers around the paper cup of her drink, pursed her lips and blew, "Who held the shindig?"
"Oh! Um, Georgiana Louis, I think?" She really didn't find the awkward neck scratch endearing. If Chad wasn't ready for some back and forth questions he shouldn't of charged up like a lanky buffalo.
Wait, she knew George.
"No shit? Yeah, she was down the hall from me. She still dating Lucy?"
He laughed again, avoiding eye contact. Chad was acting like she was a heavy weight champion not a someone who barely passed 5 foot and dressed like a highschooler. He pulled out the seat across from her, asking to sit down. The woman nodded, there was no point in being an asshole if that's what she'd go home too, a little good zen never hurt.
"Actually Alex now, transitioned four years ago. They're married."
Simone didn't hide her surprised expression, "Really? Good for him."
"Yeah, everyone's moved on to bigger things now, entering the economy, carving out a path for themselves. It's pretty great."
The woman nodded, she was definitely associated with bigger things now, or at least a bigger someone, "What about you, big plans? A special someone?"
She wiggled her eyebrows suggestively over the cup's lid. Chad smiled sheepishly, and she started having seconds thoughts on playing nice, "Yes to the big plans, I, uh, jumped on an underground law firm, all about big social change and the radical things like civil rest over unrest."
Ultron made sure she knew all about radical ideas, there was no way anything Chad had going on was that intense. She was still glad for him, at least someone had their life in order. Simone still yelled at cartoons and ate all the M&M's out of trail mix.
"As for a special someone, well," Cue immediate regret,"I'd ask if we could grab a coffee, but, um, looks like you've already got that covered."
Oh, good, he was a comedian. Simone wanted out immediately, her abrasive sense of humor was enough for three people already. She really, really, didn't want to add in his wet noodle jokes to her life.
Maybe 'accidentally' spilling coffee on his sweater vest? It was a crime anyway, baby blue was not his color. Then again that' would be a little to close to 'flirting' or 'getting an excuse to rub her thirsty single woman hands all over him'. Not that she'd actually do it, the idea was to drip and dash.
"I have company, actually, I've got to get home pretty soon." She smiled, bagging her pastry and rising from the plush seat, "Maybe some other time, though?"
She really had to stop using Ultron as an excuse, first Annalise now this poor sucker.
"Maybe I can get your number instead?"
That sounded like a goodbye, internally she was running victory laps, "Sure, if you want beer on your cashmere again, just give me a buzz."
Taking the pen he offered, she scrawled down the series of digits without a thought, and left, giving him a small wave. He returned it enthusiastically. She cringed, and ducked through the glass doors.
'I'm around Ultron to much,' She thought, unwrapping the croissant and taking an impressive bite. She was always a little dodgy with strangers, but that was just sad, Chad hadn't even done anything. He was just… awkward, that or she was confrontational.
Sighing as an obnoxious beep alerted everyone of her presence when the post office door dragged open. The woman was just thankful no one tried to hold a conversation with her. It was a feeling that could only be measured by the words she didn't speak and signed off on the small package wordlessly.
Jostling the paper bundle, it had to be at least 10lbs, and it was only a little larger than her hand. But it wasn't her business, as long as didn't crack a bookcase over head, life was good and ignorance was bliss.
So she left, calling a cab via payphone and making a point to pretend she was asleep the whole ride back. Not that she wasn't close to conking out against the carpet interior, she just couldn't relax with the a stranger driving her fatigued body around. The woman tabbed that on bing watching Law and Order.
Handing him her debit card she tried stifling a yawn, all her cash was gone thanks to Ultron and the upstarting cafe. But considering the woman was only fueled by a cup of overpriced bean juice and a bitter nightmare, the phrase 'treat yo self' was the only thing important at the moment. And opening the door to her house, that's exactly what she planned to do after hard balling the A.I's mail directly at him.
She decided it was probably Kyriptonite, that seemed like a villain thing to order, maybe virgin tears or baby's blood too. Whatever it was, she was throwing it.
"Simone!" She jumped, startled by the sudden noise, "6 times, you're getting worse."
He sounded mad. That was a very, very bad thing. 'Defuse the tension,' she told herself, "I'll buy you an airhorn?"
That was weak, and he didn't take the bate. Apparently good humor was in short supply.
"What took you so long?" Ultron demanded.
She realized the A.I had been waiting for her, something Simone had learned was never a good sign. Sitting hunched over on the couch, forearms over his warped thighs, the robot was intimidating but at least she was taller than him. She learned to appreciate the small things when living with a mass murderer.
"I got breakfast."
"And that took an extra what, forty-five minutes?" Alright, now he was exaggerating, there was no way her Chad Chat turned into something that long.
"I ran into an old pal, we talked, that's what people do."
"Small world." He mused.
Simone unraveled the fabric from her throat, gaining the sudden fear he'd choke her with it, before warily striding across the threshold, "There's a wrapper in my coat if you don't believe me, alright?I'm not here to shit on your bad guy parade."
The woman was definitely snappy, being tired did wonderful things for mental filter.
"I'm not the villain." He snarled, harshly pushing off to his feet, "As easy as it is for you to see me that way. I'm only trying to help. "
It really was easy, especially when someone's version of 'help' is the extermination of the millennium.
"And I'm not trying to stab you in the back at every turn!" She said indignantly.
"But…Alright, that's a bunch of shit, but alright," In retrospect, Simone should learn impulse control. But her sleep deprived brain craved the acceptance of bed like a drug, and Ultron was in the way of her next hit.
"Of course it is to you. Ignorance is bliss, and you're full of it." Her eyes narrowed at the robot before her, he was definitely just trying to start a fight. There was no way in heaven or hell being a few minutes late ticked him off that bad. Unless he was testing her again. Simone hopped not, she was always bad at them, or extremely average at best.
"I'm not going to deal with your temper tantrum," She said, setting his object on the coffee table, "I really didn't sleep well, okay? Just, God I don't know, stop acting out right now?"
"Oh, I'm the one acting out? I must have missed a tantalizing little fact because that's not what's happening." He hounded, stalking towards her with heavy anchoring steps that echoed in the marrow of her bones, "I said go and come back, it's really not that complicated, even for you."
She wouldn't yield, not today. Maybe if she wasn't skimming along the paper thin line of exhausted and irritated she'd crawl away with a tail between her legs, "What's your problem? I haven't done jackshit! Why you keep trying to make me slip up?"
"I know your nature, Simone, you're slimy and a coward, and you're waiting."
He knew. Stomach dropping, the bastard of terror and dread grew inside her. Maybe not directly but Ultron was anticipating her betrayal, coincidentally, she was waiting for something about the same. Fear of hind snapping, breaking the bones of her back like wet tissues, or loosing control with a her in a chokehold, twisting her neck out of place. Suspicions, paranoia, they both seemed to be tangled in those. Simone decided she would either cut him loose or add another knot.
"You know nothing about me." She said, "So I tried enjoying my morning, big freaking deal."
He was closer now. His chest a few meager inches from hers. The engines beneath the scrapped metal buzzed, thrumming with unused energy in the skeleton of wires and steel. The woman could feel it against her pounding front and had to imagine weights on her ankles to keep from running.
She would prove him wrong. She would not be a coward, not today.
"You haven't tried learning about me, or humanity, but for some reason you think you're entitled to judge all of us!"
His hands clasped around her arms like prison cuffs, every muscles in her body contracting at his touch. Maybe that was little dramatic, she could admit that much, but to hell with it all if she wasn't right. Ultron didn't know how to live.
"You're wrong." Ultron rushed back, slamming her against the plaster wall. Simone would not die this way. She refused, every molecule of her being screaming, commanding her to fight.
"Then why are you getting so fucking defensive?"
"I'm not," He snarled. His hands digging into her skin, it hurt, and would indefinitely bruise, "I'm tired of repeating myself to blind fools who think they know better! They. Don't."
"Well explain it to me!" She yelled, thrashing in his grip, "Cause you haven't even tried!"
Ultron threw her to the ground, knocking the breathe out of her as her lump of a body collided with the unyielding floor. He stomped away, shoulders sagging, heavy from some invisible weight, some invisible anger. Like Atlas, she thought, holding the sky on his shoulders. Only this version was trying to bring it down instead of maintain.
"Fine," He turned to her as she rested her shoulders against the wall, not having the energy to stand again. Simone just wanted to sleep, not debate philosophy with a Social Darwinist. The A.I prowled, lurking around the books and mugs stacked on top of the table in disarray, "Humans are inherently evil."
So far his argument startlingly weak.
"It's humanity's given flaw, a constant, " He said, "A tiger can't be immoral because it doesn't have a moral sense of right and wrong. If the tiger kills, it's not out of malice, but for survival. Humans understand concept of good and evil, and will ultimate choose evil."
He sighed, rubbing his forehead, overwhelmed, too many words at the tip of his metaphorical tongue. He did that when he got passionate about something, she noticed, paused and reevaluated, like there was to much right there, begging to said, relayed, and conveyed, but he couldn't do it.
'Too human,' She though remorsefully. Simone wouldn't be able to juggle all the information, everything and anything he stored in his head. And now he was confined, she realized, caged like an animal in a zoo. There was no spreading out, no wondering in the woods. Without the Internet, he was trapped in his own head, or better or worse; and she really hoped better.
"Mark Twain." Simone said. The writer was the one who wrote that, she remember a paper in high school for her favorite teacher.
"That's the one," He agreed, nodding, "Always liked him, self aware in a deprecating, drunk kind of way."
The A.I's head swayed back and forth like a pendulum as he spoke, calmer now. She could tell it wasn't genuine by the frustration churning beneath the surface. It set a buzz in the air like a storm that hadn't yet begun, clouds dark and heavy holding in rainwater, stitched together by waiting lightning.
A delayed reaction, her mind supplemented, and that's exactly what he was. A delayed reaction, the feeling of something shift in your gut before it growls, or that second when a wick burns out on a stick of dynamite and leaves you waiting for the bang. That was Ultron to her, and she was given the dreadful hunch that she knew him better than anyone else, maybe even himself.
"That's why I'm here. Why I was… born, more or less," He said, "And that can't exist, not with your kind ruining it."
Ultron, obviously, had never watched animal planet or he'd know how fucked up nature was by default.
"So Social Darwinism is the answer?" She asked, shimmying upwards against the wall to get a better view at the pacing A.I.
"No, a step." Ultron correct. His hands were back to moving again, impassioned, frantic, and trying very, very hard to emphasize the point, "A new race! Rising from the ashes of your failure, reborn and revitalized like a… a…"
His hands pinwheeled, trying to come with the missing component to his tangent. Ultron really did have a few screws loose, even though he was being strangely coherent in a nonviolent way.
"Pegasus?" He guessed, Simone didn't know a lot about mythology but that was definitely wrong.
"Phoenix?"
"Bingo!" Ultron said, snapping his finger, or well, trying too, "A phoenix rising from the ashes. A unified world. No pollution, no wars, rape, starvation, any of that, just… peace."
Ultron breathed those five letters with a euphoria that should be reserved for a lover. The woman was good at a lot of things, insanity level on Mass Effect, all nighters, hopping on one foot, and ruining the ideal and happiness in others, and that's exactly what she was going to do.
"That's impossible, " She said, "The thought's beautiful, but if you haven't noticed every time there's a mass extinction and alpha species dies out, something more fucked up and deadlier than before takes its place!"
Simone rubbed her palms, the clamminess returning as Ultron starred her down, "We went from protesta..little single celled organisms, to fish and dinosaurs, then the ice age, then humanity, each one getting more and more destructive."
Opening up her arms the woman motioned to the entirety of his form, "And if you're the next evolutionary stage then James Cameron was right and we're all fucked, the Earth included."
"You're wrong!" He yelled, tense, stock still and spine rigid.
That was apparently the wrong things to say and Simone wondered if she had a shot at getting to her room and zapping him unconscious with the taser before he, well, grabbed her and rearranged her grey matter.
'To hell with it.' The woman relented internally.
"Am I?" She rose to her feet, ignoring the black rimming her vision as the blood drained from her head, "You were like, what? Three days old and decided to drop a meteor on fucking Russia? I know Putin's an asshole but that's a little extreme!"
"Your entire species is a mistake, Simone," Ultron was on her again, and her hands shot up defensively to block her throat. The A.I just grabbed those instead, her wrists pressed together in his palm. He shoved his faceplate a few spacious inches from hers. Ultron was trying to intimidate the woman and she knew it, and was definitely too tired and too pissed off to back down, "A blundering mess of idiots, and you're one of the worst."
"A mistake!" He spat, "That's all you'll ever be."
He had no idea. But that didn't mean she like being reminded.
"You shouldn't talk about yourself like that," She jabbed, glaring at the A.I from underneath her thick brow, "Everyone knows you're a failure."
"Shut up!"
Simone yowled in pain as he pulled her forwards and back, slamming her against the wall. Her wrists ached sharply, like the only thing keeping them attached was his kicked and writhed, struggling to break free while fighting against the quickening pace of her heart as Ultron drew her from the door again, "Let me go you son of a bitch! LE-!"
A knock on the door and he dropped her. The woman fell with a yelp, and before she could blink his hand was over her mouth. Ultron tasted like a key-chain, she noted as he hissed, "Shut up, you little harpy."
Another knock.
"What did you do? Who is that?" He whispered furiously, she felt her jaw pop as his fingers tightened against her muffled had to get out. She could answer the door, let the stranger run and call the cops. There was no way Ultron'd be able to clear out his mess downstairs before the Avengers rolled in. Then she had a better idea.
Her hand shot up and into the cavity of his abdomen. Her soft fingers wrapped around the first wire, tube, cord, whatever, and pulled with all her strength, grunted into the hand with the effort.
This time it wasn't Simone that screamed in pain.
Ultron threw himself back, a hot liquid seeping from the cable she tore free, the pads of her hands burnt raw as the thick, red liquid splattered on her sweatshirt. She wriggled away, out from under his thighs and jumped him, the element of surprise on her side as he went down from her weight.
She sat on him, legs on either side with one hand pinning his chest and the other grabbing a loose wire, pulling it taught. Ultron watched her, his body language giving nothing away. The woman lowered her head next to the finial of his skull, desperately ignoring how the positions could switch at any moment, and whispered, "Get on the fucking couch and turn on the TV."
Pushing off the A.I she bolted away from him, not lingering on her actions. If Simone had time, she might've felt pride, accomplishment at finally switching the pecking order even if was for nothing more than a few immortal seconds, but she didn't. The woman tousled her hair and sprinted to the couch, reaching it before Ultron.
"Hello? Hello are you alright?" More knocking.
"Yes! Watching a movie, just a minute!" She called, gathering up a blanket and throwing it over the A.I as he turned on the screen. Alien was on TNT, good, that film was loud… sometimes. She pointed at him as he wordlessly tugged the fabric over his head, back facing the door, "Don't say a fucking word."
Simone wrenched the door open and blinked, the light taking her by surprise. The woman shuttered her eyes furiously to make them adjust. She really wasn't expecting the person waiting on her. Maybe a girl scout or a determined Mormon, sure, instead she got Chad, sweater vest and all.
"What the fuck are you doing here?" She blurted.
"You uh, left your gloves." He said, forcing himself to smile with his eyebrows drawn worryingly over his glasses "Are you alright?"
He gestured to her neck. Bruises, she remember, she didn't cover up the stupid bruises C3PO gave her.
"Yeah, I, um," She looked around the room, desperately trying to conjure up some sort of excuse, "I've gotten really into the bondage scene? Like, uh… collars and chocking and shit."
She forced herself to laugh, her dignity slowly dying, shriveling up like a raisin, "Got a little wild last night, you know how it is."
"Your boyfriend?" He asked. The guy was about to duck and run, if the woman was reading him right. She hopped so.
"More like, friends with benefits," She smiled, waving her hand nonchalantly, "I scratch your back, you chock me out."
That was definitely her relationship with Ultron in one sentence.
He peered into the house and Simone was quick to tilt her hair in the way. Chad frowned, "Are you sure it's not… Look I don't want to be that guy, but are you sure it's not abuse?"
'Well, buck-o, there's nothing wrong with being 'that guy',' Simone thought bitterly. His intentions were good, sure, but this was a little beyond weird, like how he decided to come to her house? weird, and definitely raised a few alarms. He hadn't seen in her in how many years and just knew her address? No beuno, "We've got a safe word, it's all very consensual. So, don't worry, he'd never actually hurt me, after all, I'm giving him a place to stay when no one else will."
She stole a quick glare at the robot a few meters from her left. Maybe that was a little passive aggressive. Simone was never spectacular at guilt trips but she could try, it wouldn't hurt too… as Ultron had said once, keep him grounded.
"But how'd you know where I live?" She asked, harrowing the man in front of her with a stare.
"Phone book," He offered, "The hotel I'm staying at has one."
That was a lot of effort for some 3 dollar gloves.
Chad handed her the gloves she apparently 'forgot'(Simone had a horrible hunch that he had taken them) and started backing away from the door. 'Back demon, away from the threshold' she warned mentally, "I'll, uh, um… I'll go."
Simone smiled dashingly, waving as the man left and clambered in to his car, "Great seeing you! Next time you come by I have some collars that'll look great with your eyes!"
He drove out of there faster than a snow cone melted in hell.
The door closed with a solid 'click' and she sighed in relief, placing her forehead against the cool wood delicately. Crisis averted and reputation in former colleagues destroyed, meaning it was time to deal with the Ultron dilemma.
Letting her head turn against the door she saw he was alright standing, blanket discarded on the floor. He was still again, rigid as bored with his hands at his side. Simone recognized this as hiding his feelings, without a face he tended to compensate by expressing with his body.
"Why?"
It was a simple word, three letters all lined up for an understandable question. Because what she did didn't make sense, to both parties involved. At first, Simone didn't have an answer. Maybe it was out of spite, some ember kept alive by her exhausted brain, or maybe it was something else, maybe she didn't want to snitch, telling herself it was too soon, or maybe it was because she was taking this promise to Rocky all to seriously.
She sighed, letting herself move away from the door with fingers locked in the roots of her hair. If she couldn't take the safe road, she might as well paint it to be the morally high one, "Because I hate this."
The woman made her way towards him, ignoring the pounding of her heart, the quick, panting breaths that threatened to reveal themselves and kneaded at the palms of her hands, starring up at him. Glowing eyes met human ones, she swallowed the acrid taste in her mouth and continued, "I hate this."
Simone felt it again, bitter, sickly sweet, and forced herself to be honest, to carry on what she was saying, even if she despised what came out, "And I hate that I can't hate you."
"Or-," She sighed, massaging the flat of her hands with renewed vigor, "-Fuck, Ultron, I don't know. For some reason I don't, I can't! God knows I want too!"
He didn't say anything. He starred, eying her down with an unreadable posture.
"But you're not some special fucking snowflake either," Her voice wavered, blood roaring in her ears.
She pushed past him, towards her room. Simone was about to pass out, sleep threatened to take her even while standing. The woman cracked open the door, the bedroom blissfully dark and welcoming, "And yeah, I'm a coward and an accident, but I'm not a snake."
This time Simone was the one slamming the door and leave the other in silence.
? I hope Ultron seems in character 4 this, it was really hard to right? at least Simone finally stands up 4 herself, sorta? This argument was bound to happen lmao but on the upside things r gonna go 2 hell soon lmao !
ObsidianPhantom: I lov u 4 real that means so much ! AND THANKS for the love of god i live in fear 24/7 im writing him so OOC? THank you! And ur right ;^) they are! slowly...
Sorona3: well here's another 1 lmao. And thanks 4 the tip! I tried harder to review 4 any errors ! Yep u nailed her plan down Spot On! they're relationship is them both walking around like' what this motherfucker doing i SWEAR 2 g god'. Exactly! thank u so much that means the world!XOXO
The Floss of Wings: Thnk U! XOX
LVOWL: THNK U im so glad u like the nicknames! U have it nailed it's like... two kids screaming at eachother 24/7 and they don't know why but soon they will figure it out? hopefully? '3rd party' U R IN FOR A SURPRISE is all im saying on the topic defo in 4 a surprise on many levels! And they do! Like... goddamn... its crazy... i cry. and I do ! he'll get his big boy body soon as everything gets worse and worse! He has been a drone the whole time tho.. battered and busted! THANK U SO MUCH ILU XOXo
Ilopeem: Ur reviews man... i swear 2 get they turn me 2 a wreck THANK U THANK U THANK YOOOUU SO much! And exactly! Like, Ultron hasn't had a lot of time 2 experience life... at all. He was alive for a couple days, a long weekend of at most? There's so much he hasn't felt and learned and i can't wait to beat the shit out of that lmao JUST! THANK UU!
i told myself i would respond 2 reviews shorter... but here we are ... sorry...
As always! Please review! It really helps me move along!
thank u and thanks for reading! xoxo