It had been an hour since Riley had read the first words of her file and she still couldn't wrap her mind around what Strucker had done. Maybe she didn't understand all of the chemicals and serums and formulas the scientists created and injected into her bloodstream, but she could remember the pain as if it was happening all over again. They had experimented on Riley for six months until a serum finally attached to her cells, altering her forever.

Tony and Bruce were working in the lab quietly, each looking over Strucker's notes on his technology and comparing their work to understand. The Scepter sat on the table glowing like a trophy, which is exactly how it was being treated. Even as the two scientists ran their tests.

When she finally looked up from the endless words, she noticed the sun was almost set on the city.

"What...what time is it?" she asked, turning, her head aching from her constant focus.

"Uh, it's almost seven," Bruce replied, pushing his glasses up on his nose.

Riley let out a small yawn, rubbing her tired eyes. God, she wanted a shower. She wanted to sleep.

Pushing herself up off the desk she had been sitting on, Riley closed the file in her hands and carried it over to where the two men worked. She sat it down quietly on one of the workbenches, looking down at it. There had been the temptation to just take off with the file, it was hers after all, but decided against it. With everything she had read, with all the horror she was reminded of over the one read-through, she was sure that once was enough.

"Captain Latex told me you'd let me know when you have a file for Claire, right?" she asked.

Tony felt a smirk creeping onto his lips at the nickname, and looked up from his tablet to nod over to her in assurance.

"Jarvis is combing the data now," he told her. "Actually, while you're still here-"

"I'm not still here," Riley shook her head. "All I want to do is go home to an apartment I may or may not be kicked out of,"

"We just want to know what you know about the other two enhanced we met out there," Bruce explained. "We haven't seen anything like them before,"

"Yeah, well you probably won't see anything like it again," she sighed, folding her arms. "I doubt they'll leave the Sokovia, not with all the protests and fighting,"

"They're protecting their city," Bruce nodded. "That's why they volunteered, right?"

"I guess," Riley shrugged. "They wanted to fight back, and Strucker promised them power to allow that,"

"But he wasn't going to let them fight for their country, he wanted them to fight for him, didn't he?" Tony asked.

"He wanted all of them to fight for him. Well...for Hydra," Riley explained. "But no one else got through all the serums they made. Lucky us, huh?"

"So you know these two?" Bruce continued.

"I knew them," Riley nodded. "But it wasn't some sort of group therapy session for survivors,"

"You were talking to one of them in the field," Tony reminded. "No bad blood then?"

Riley looked over to him with a small frown.

"We were all stuck in an underground lab for a year, you get to know people pretty well in those close quarters," she defended. "Look, I don't want to talk about all this shit anymore. I need to go sort out what the fuck I'm going to do now,"

Riley began to walk off down the hall, searching for the elevator in the corner. She could see through all the glass walls that the others were all busying themselves with whatever the fallout of this mission turned into. Public relations, emergency services in Sokovia, sifting through all of Hydra's secrets. They all got what they wanted, and they could move on with their mission.

But now Riley had even less than she did a few days ago, which really wasn't much to begin with. She could feel her stomach churning with anger and worry, wondering how she was going to get any sense of normality back.

"Hey, I told you I'd get you your job back," Tony called out.

"I doubt my boss is gonna sweep this under the rug," Riley shook her head. "I'm sure there's another bar somewhere in New York looking for someone to pour booze,"

"So, that's it then?"

Riley turned back to him, shrugging her shoulders.

"Let's not make a thing of it. You owed me, you squared it."

"You don't want anything from that lab? You don't want to know where the others are?" he asked. "Nothing?"

"I really don't," she shook her head. "Unless you have a cure for this shit and can reverse it, I'm officially clocked out."

They both watched as Riley walked into the elevator, pressing the button for the ground floor. She wondered if security in this tower would even let her out, she didn't exactly walk in the front door. But given the mood she was in right now, she really didn't care if they tried to put up a fight. It would be quick one.

After stopping at a corner 7-Eleven for a pack of cigarettes, Riley was beginning to feel the full effect of the past few days. Her whole body was aching and tired in ways she had never felt before. She had never used so much of her strength and power before, not since escaping Strucker's lab, and it was a definite shock to the system.

As she made her way down the busy street to her run-down basement apartment, she looked around for anything suspicious. There was nothing out of the usual, but she couldn't be too sure. She felt like she had eyes on her everywhere she went, and what scared her most is that it couldn't be passed off as paranoia. It was a very real possibility.

Walking down the narrow steps to her apartment, she found what she had been expecting on her from door. A red piece of paper, taped to her black door, in bold writing.

Eviction Notice.

"Fuck," Riley sighed, ripping the paper off and shaking her head in frustration.

It was just what she was expected, and yet it did nothing to soothe her anger.

A moment later the door upstairs opened and Riley heard footsteps marching down, hurrying as if she was about to disappear. Then Frank was standing in front of her, just atop the steps outside her door.

"Take it you got the notice," Frank spoke, hands on his hips.

"I did," Riley sighed. "But I pay my rent, don't I?"

"Gonna be hard to keep payin' rent without a job," Frank shrugged.

Riley groaned, feeling her head become heavy on her neck. She needed this day to be over already.

"I'll talk to Benny tomorrow," she assured.

"Don't bother. Jesus, you left the front doors of that place wide open and let it get trashed. Do you know how much the damage is gonna cost him?"

Riley stared back at him with nothing left to say. There was nothing she could defend herself with because the truth was worse than the lies they had assumed. There was nothing she could argue back with, and even if there was, Riley was quickly running out of energy to pay attention.

"Let's just do this tomorrow Frank," she shook her head.

"I want you out by morning," he told her firmly.

"Oh come on," Riley whined. "Where am I supposed to go with one night's notice?"

Frank shrugged.

"Not here."

And with that, the man once again marched away and headed for the stairs. Riley stood there outside her door, eyes closed and hands clenched into fists. It was taking all of her strength to stay calm, to push through, to focus on getting some sleep. Tomorrow everything would be clearer.

She would still wake up with no money and no place to live, but she really couldn't deal with it all right now. Instead she pushed her door open and stepped inside, letting out a long sigh of relief. There was an almost empty bottle of whiskey sitting by her bed, and Riley didn't think twice before lifting it straight to her lips and gulping it down.

All she wanted was for this day to be over.

It was two days later when Riley began to regret not taking Tony Stark's offer. Maybe he really could have organised her job back, maybe he could have explained all of the mess and paid off whatever damage had been done to Benny's. After all, if he hadn't shown up, none of this would have happened.

But as she sat on her own in a corner booth of another run-down bar in the early hours of the morning, three empty glasses in front of her, she realized it might have been the last thing she wanted right now. Ever since she had left Sokovia all those months ago, she had been living in New York out of fear. It was familiar, it was comfortable, and here she could we anyone she wanted to be. The city was big enough that she could blend right in, and working at questionable bars and clubs meant she never grew any personal relationships with anyone. No coworkers, no regulars, no connections.

But now this city felt like a prison, and with the Avengers knowing who she was and where to find her, all she wanted was to be somewhere else. Somewhere secluded and quiet. Somewhere she didn't have to hide, but still couldn't be found.

"Hey pretty lady, this seat taken?"

Riley turned to the intoxicated man standing beside her, beginning to push his way into the seat across from her in the booth. She looked down at the almost empty glass in front of her and quickly finished the rest of the burning liquid, sliding her way out of the booth.

"Aw, don't go sweetheart," he called out, reaching for her hand.

Riley stopped and looked down at his grip on her wrist, her eyes trailing back up to stare back at him. Her other hand lifted then, hovering above his own, as she began to form a fist. With each movement her fingers made, scrunching up into a ball, the man let out a series of whimpers and gasps. Riley could hear the bones in his fingers cracking, breaking underneath her focus just before she made her way to the exit.

With the very little money she had saved, Riley had managed to secure herself a few nights at a motel while she figured out what she was going to do next. The whole plan was to find a new job, lay low, and continue to fade into the background of her own life. But in just one night, none of that appealed to her anymore.

When she walked into her motel room, she quickly realized that it wouldn't take long at all to pack her things and leave this city. Everything she owned had fit into one backpack, and all she had to do was pick it up and go take the next bus out of the city.

Letting out a long sigh, Riley walked over to the small kitchen counter in her room and unscrewed a new bottle of cheap whiskey, taking it with her to the small chair by the window. The only luxurious views she had from here were of the dumpster outside, but she could still see the moonlight behind one of the surrounding buildings. Taking a mouthful, Riley savoured the burning sensation before swallowing with a satisfied sigh. It felt nice to numb some of what she had been feeling these past few days, but she doubted one bottle would do the trick.

It was only twenty minutes later that Riley's head whipped around to the door. It sounded like something was scratching at it with a knife, scraping away at the frail wood. Putting down the bottle, she pushed herself away from the window and wandered over to the source. She wasn't exactly in the nicest neighbourhood, but if someone was looking to break in, this was an odd way to go about it.

But when Riley swung the door open, she was met with a half-constructed robot. It looked like Iron Man, with one arm hanging off and sparks flying everywhere, and oil spilling out and puddling everywhere.

"What the fu-"

"You're hiding," the robot spoke, a human-like voice. "Mm, you shouldn't hide. No, not when you were made to rise."

"Stark?" she asked, a frown forming on her lips.

"No, no, no, no," it answered. "I'm not under his control, I'm not under any control. Just like you."

Riley stared back at the robot in shock, her eyes wide with disbelief. It looked like it had clawed itself out of a junkyard, and it was barely standing in front of her. Swaying uncontrollably, spinning in confusion, the robot seemed like it was malfunctioning. But it knew her, and it had come looking for her.

"You survived for a reason," it insisted. "And that reason is here."

"What are you?" she demanded.

"Ultron," the voice grumbled. "And I'm everywhere. We're about to be very busy."

"We?"

"You survived those experiments, and you think of yourself as a failure, because of them,"

"Who?" Riley demanded. "What the fuck is going on!"

"The...Avengers," the robot seethed. "I know how they make you feel,"

Riley carefully stepped back, her arms hanging at her sides. She wanted tempted to dismantle what was left of this creature right now, but with every word it spoke, Riley's curiosity grew.

"You don't know me," she shook her head.

"I know everything about you," it assured. "Which is why I know how strong you really are, Riley. You're so alone, and you don't have to be. We will be the cure this world needs,"

Alarms began ringing in Riley's head. At first she thought this was a prank, and then she thought it was some hijacked Iron Man tech someone had got ahold of, but now she knew it was more than that.

"Who sent you?"

"There are no strings on me," the robot sang.

It was barely a moment later when the robot collapsed, sparks flying from the metal that hit the floor in a heap.

The team were all sitting in Tony's lab, silently mulling over their game plan. They had done their arguing, they had shared their frustrations, and yet they were all still in disbelief. The Scepter was gone, along with all of the work Tony and Bruce had been doing for the past few days. But it didn't matter, because they had unintentionally created something bigger than they ever expected. Something they had no control over.

"How are we supposed to find anything when Ultron wiped it all?" Clint asked.

"I'm not worried about what he's wiped," Hill shook her head. "He's got everything now."

They all looked down at the shattered glass covering the floor, trying to think of what Ultron was going to do next. He had warned them of their own extinction, and they could only assume it wouldn't be long until he made another move.

Their silence was interrupted a moment later by the sound of a shattering window, and they all looked up in alert, glancing at one another before gathering their weapons once again. If they were about to be hit by anything like the bots they just endured, they needed to be ready.

But instead of being met with robots intent on killing each of them, they looked out toward Riley standing in the middle of the now trashed communal living room, a mangled Iron Legion robot hanging from her hand. In the other hand, she had poured herself a drink from the neat row of Tony's expensive scotch, swallowing it down as she turned to see the crowd of Avengers gathering.

"Someone want to explain why this thing was at my doorstep in the middle of nowhere?" she asked, her voice full of frustration as she let the robot hit the floor.

"Was it the only one?" Thor asked. "You did not see the Scepter?"

Riley stared back at him, her hand moving up to rub her temples.

"You lost the Scepter?" she asked. "You're shitting me. Honestly, what the fuck is going on?"

The whole group looked to Steve, wondering if he was going to warn her about language use. But it seemed even Steve knew that would be a waste of time, and they all knew it was part of Riley's daily vocabulary.

"It came to your apartment?" Tony asked, walking down the stairs as the group seemed to follow, dispersing around the room.

"A motel on the other side of the city," Riley explained. "Which is why I'd love to know how it found me,"

"It knows everything," Natasha sighed, folding arms as she leaned on the back of the couch. "Everything that was in our systems, Ultron has in his now too. He knows more about all of us than we do about each other,"

Riley looked around at all of them, shaking her head and letting out a long sigh of annoyance.

"What is Ultron?" she asked. "Just tell me that."

"It's an A.I program," Tony explained. "Gone wrong."

Steve shook his head, folding his arms.

"Gone completely wrong," he corrected. "And now he's everywhere. He has no limits."

"Ultron doesn't need a body or entity to survive," Bruce cleared up. "And he's got the power to create anything we wants now. Especially with the Scepter."

"Where the hell did this thing come from?"

They all looked to the two scientists in the middle of the room, a frown on their face.

"You're kidding me," Riley shook her head. "Oh, you're kidding me. You guys made this shit?"

"We started to create a peacekeeping program. We weren't even close to integrating Jarvis, and this thing...Strucker's tech-"

"You were playing with shit you had no idea about!" she argued.

"That's science!" Tony defended.

"No, it's bullshit, and now it's a fucking mess," she continued. "You think Strucker started making A.I tech for peacekeeping? You just unleashed his own fucked up creation into the world,"

"How about cooling it with the language?" Steve warned.

Riley looked over to him with a laugh, shaking her head in disbelief. The world was about to be terrorised by a rogue, uncontrollable program and she was standing here being scolded for her use of 'bad words'.

"Well I guess it's not hard to see why this Ultron freak doesn't like the holy Avengers," she bit back.

Tony watched as she turned back to the shelf of fancy liquor, pouring herself another glass. Even from where he stood, he could see her hands trembling. He knew this act too well, and he could guess that the rest of them were seeing through it too. Riley was scared.

Ultron found her somewhere he shouldn't have been able to. He knew everything about her, including every one of the experiments that she had endured. Ultron knew she was capable of, and she knew he was going to come back to her again.

"That's uh, more of a sipping scotch, you know? It's exp..."

Tony's words trailed off as Riley swallowed the entirely of her glass. She could feel her body trying to calm down, but it was taking too long.

"What exactly did he tell you?" Steve asked, ignoring the fact Riley was still glaring at him.

"That he was...a cure," she explained, trying to think. "That the world needed a cure. And that we'd be busy,"

"We?" Steve repeated. "Us?"

"No," she denied. "He meant me and I'm guessing him. Hence, we."

"He wanted you to go with him?" Bruce asked.

"Well he didn't exactly ask, just sort of...broke after that," she shrugged. "But sure, that's the gist of it. And I'm assuming he'll be back to finish that conversation, am I right?"

They all exchanged a look, knowing that Ultron was beginning to forge alliances already. Whatever he was planning, he was getting there fast. Now he had information on everyone that could be an enemy of the Avengers, and he had everything he needed to start the fight they knew was coming.

Steve sighed, trying to push away all of the anger he felt right now. Ultron should've have been created, and yet he was out there now. There was nothing else to do.

"Let's get to work,"

Thanks for reading guys! Riley will be basically incorporated into the central plot now, so I hope you guys are enjoying! Please do leave a review/comment for me with any suggestions or thoughts, I love reading them. xx