Make You Feel My Love
~Book III~
Disclaimer: I do not own the Avengers nor do I own the plot of Age of Ultron. All rights go to Marvel.
All I do own are my own characters and their stories.
~Chapter 15~
Mind Games Part 1
The elevator doors opened with a ding; Hill, Steve and Maria exiting it. The two lovebirds had just woken up from a very short nap they were in desperate need of (which had been all they had had time for seeing as things didn't go quiet until late in the morning after Ultron's appearance), and while Steve and Maria were on their way upstairs, they had walked into Hill who decided to give them a little report on what she had found out about Ultron so far, following them upstairs as she did.
"He's all over the globe. Robotics labs, weapons facilities, jet propulsion labs… Reports of metal man, or men, coming in and emptying the place," said Hill, the three of them slowly making their way up the stairs.
"Fatalities?" asked Steve.
"Only when engaged," replied Hill, beginning to try and find something on her PAD while she continued to talk. "Mostly guys left in a fugue state going on about old memories, worst fears, things moving on their own, and 'something too fast to see'."
"Maximoffs," said Maria.
"That makes sense he'd go to them. They have someone in common," said Steve.
"Yeah, Strucker," replied Maria with a sigh. "You think they're going to bust him out?"
"No, I don't," replied Hill, stopping in her tracks and turning her PAD to show the picture she had been searching for.
It was a picture of Strucker lying on his bed in his cell; dead. On the wall behind him, the word 'peace' was painted in blood. Probably his own blood.
"That's just… great," replied Maria sarcastically.
"I'll keep an eye out for more and report to you when I find something," said Hill, looking at the both of them before taking a turn to the right, away from the lab where Steve and Maria were going.
"Alright," replied Steve.
The two of them were already dressed partly in their uniforms. Maria was indeed wearing her suit, though had a long, grey cardigan wrapped around her suit too and she wasn't carrying any weapons. Her hair was still dripping slightly from the shower she had taken just a couple minutes ago (a shower which she hadn't taken alone; Steve having joined her which was the reason for why she and Steve were the only ones still not in the lab where they were going to try and make up a plan). Steve was wearing his uniform's pants and boots. Though he wasn't wearing the upper part of his uniform, simply wearing the grey shirt he usually had on underneath the uniform or while exercising. His hair was still damp as well.
As they were meters away from the lab, Steve stopped when he, with the help of his super soldier hearing, heard Clint talking on the phone.
"Barton," said Steve, causing Maria to stop walking as well. "We might have something."
"Yeah," said Clint absentmindedly before hanging up.
"Who's that?" asked Steve.
"Uh, girlfriend," said Clint, shrugging slightly before he followed the two of them inside the labs where the rest of the Avengers were all seated.
Natasha and Tony had just gotten a call from Rhodey which they immediately reported Steve and Maria on before Steve retold everything Hill had told them. Grabbing a spare PAD, Maria searched for the picture Hill had shown them of Strucker before handing it to the Avenger standing closest to her; Thor.
"What's this?" asked Tony, walking over to see the picture Thor was currently looking at though only getting the PAD shoved at him by Thor, who obviously was still rather mad about the whole situation.
"A message," replied Steve. "Ultron killed Strucker."
"And he did a Banksy at the crime scene, just for us," said Tony.
"This is a smoke screen," said Natasha. "Why send a message when you've just given a speech?"
"Strucker knew something that Ultron wanted us to miss," deduced Steve.
"I bet he-" said Natasha, using her place in front of a computer to search for something. "Yeah, everything we had on Strucker's been erased."
"Not everything," said Steve, earning looks from everyone.
"What do you mean?" asked Bruce.
"I know for a fact that there are a lot of files in paper form downstairs," said Steve.
"Well, then… Let's go," said Maria.
Immediately, the entire team followed Steve down to where the files were. Boxes upon boxes were piled up in the storage room; all filled with files having something to do with whatever the name of the box was. All Avengers grabbed the boxes associated with Strucker before making their way back up to the labs, everyone beginning their own search for any sort of helpful information. Maria and Clint grabbed a couple of boxes and placed themselves a little away from the rest of the group in order to have more room to search through the boxes.
"He had a lot of known associates," mumbled Maria, looking at the box she had grabbed which was filled with files on all who were suspected of knowing Strucker. There was another one like that over by the rest of the Avengers.
"Wait," said Tony from where he and the others were standing. "I know that guy. From back in the day. He operates off the African coast. Black market arms." Maria and Clint made their way over to the group, seeing them all looking at Tony with meaningful looks as he spoke about the black market stuff; "There are conventions. Alright? You meet people. I didn't sell him anything."
"It's okay, we believe you," said Maria.
"He was talking about finding something new, a game-changer. It was all very Ahab," continued Tony.
"This?" asked Thor, pointing towards one of the pictures of the man Tony had found.
"Uh, it's a tattoo, I don't think he had it," said Tony.
"Those are tattoos, this is a brand," said Thor, pointing towards a spot on the man's neck right underneath of his left ear which obviously was a mark that had been burned there.
"Yeah," said Bruce as he placed himself in front of the computer, quickly searching what the mark meant. "It's a word in an African dialect meaning 'thief'. In a much less friendly way…"
"What dialect?" asked Maria.
"Uh, Wakanada – Wakanda," said Bruce.
"If this guy got out of Wakanda with some of their trace goods…" said Tony, his gaze diverting over to Steve.
"I thought your father said he got the last of it," said Steve.
"I don't follow," said Bruce. "What comes out of Wakanda?"
"The strongest metal on Earth," said Tony.
"Vibranium…" breathed Maria. "Ultron wants Vibranium."
"If he gets his hands on Vibranium-" started Steve.
"We gotta stop him," concluded Clint.
"No arguing with you there," said Tony.
"Where is this guy now?"
Salvage Yard, African Coast
"Me, Thor and Tony will take the front," said Steve quietly as the team, minus Bruce who would wait in the Quinjet as usual unless he was told the Hulk was needed, made their way through the hide-out of Ulysses Klaue. "Nat, Barton and Maria stay in cover until all hell breaks loose. 'Cause it will."
They arrived at the catwalk where they found Ultron, the twins and one more man standing, talking to Klaue. Behind them, the wall had opened to show a secret stash of tubes filled with, presumably, Vibranium. At the sight of the extra man nobody had known worked with Ultron, Maria disobeyed the orders she had gotten from Steve earlier and walked out of her cover and up to where Steve, Thor and Tony were standing to confront Ultron. She was ready to walk past her three teammates and confront her father once and for all though Steve grabbed her and kept her behind him.
They approached the catwalk slowly; Tony, Thor, Steve and Maria, watching and listening. The entire team was surprised at the way Ultron looked. Clearly, he hadn't just made his army of metal suits bigger, but he had also made himself a suit which was way bigger than any of those Stark had made during his life. It almost looked a little frightening to Maria.
"Don't compare me with Stark!" exclaimed Ultron, pushing both men he had been talking to down a flight of stairs. "It's a thing with me. Stark is… He's a sickness!"
"Ah, Junior. You're gonna break your old man's heart," said Tony, alerting the four of them of the Avenger's presence.
"If I have to," said Ultron, the four villains walking forwards slightly.
Erik lulled his head to the side, watching Steve and Maria with a smirk on his face. He was wearing jeans along with a sleeve shirt, his sleeves rolled up slightly. He didn't look evil, though Maria saw him as nothing else.
"Nobody has to break anything," said Thor.
"Clearly, you've never made an omelet," said Ultron.
"He beat me by one second," said Tony, to which Maria rolled her eyes slightly.
"Ah, yes, he's funny," said Pietro, taking a step forwards. "Mr. Stark. It's what? Comfortable? Like old times?"
Pietro had gestured towards their surroundings. It looked much like a place smugglers used to hide or transport their goods. Though the most of the goods were weapons, missiles and such, which Maria was sure of Pietro was referring to the most.
"This was never my life," said Tony.
"You two could still walk away from this," said Steve to Wanda and Pietor, Ultron's gaze turning to Steve.
"Oh, we will," said Wanda.
"I know you've suffered-"
Ultron made a noise of disgust suddenly, causing Steve and the others to look at him as he chuckled.
"Captain America. God's righteous man," said Ultron. "Pretending you could live without a war." Maria looked at Steve, forgetting her father for a moment as Ultron's words sunk in. "I can't physically throw up in my mouth, but-"
"If you believe in peace, then let us keep it," said Thor.
"I think you're confusing 'peace' with 'quiet'," said Ultron.
"What's the Vibranium for?" asked Maria, seeing the hatch in the wall behind Ultron where the Vibranium was being stored. It glistened beautifully as the lights shone down on it, though Maria didn't think too much about the beauty of it at the moment.
"I'm glad you asked, girl, because I wanted to take this time to explain my evil plan," said Ultron sarcastically before, indeed, all hell broke loose.
Tony was dragged forwards by something magnetic Ultron used on his suit while metal robots climbed over the edge of the catwalk, attacking Steve, Thor and Maria. Taking out her sword, she could, much more easily than the other night, take out the metal robots that attacked her and Steve. That was, until actual men appeared, shooting at them. Most likely, these men were Klaue's.
When the twins and Erik joined the fight, Steve and Maria got separated by a blast of Wanda's powers. Maria was about to make her way to him again, when she caught sight of Erik pointing a gun at her. She just about managed to dodge the bullet using her sword. However, as Maria made her way towards her father, he raised his other hand and with a single twitch of his fingers, the sword she had been so fond off lately, was thrust out of her hands and thrown over the edge of the catwalk down the pit below them. She leaned over the catwalk to try and catch a glimpse of the light from her holographic blade, though it was nowhere to be found.
"Oops," said her father's voice from beside her, causing her to take out her daggers before slashing them at her father.
He easily dodged and backed away, chuckling at her try to hurt him. "You realize we have the same powers, right? Oh, no, sorry, I forgot… You don't realize that."
He obviously referred to the fact that he had gotten away from them earlier that week because of the fact that they had forgotten he couldn't be killed so easily. The anger at that fact made her attack him again. Erik this time grabbing her hands and holding them above their heads, their faces inches apart.
"You can't hurt me with those daggers of yours, sweety. You're going to need some better weapons."
Maria struggled against his hold before glaring at her father; "The satisfaction I'll feel knowing you'll feel at least some pain is better than seeing you never feeling any pain ever again."
With that, she lifted her knee up against his private parts, causing him to back up and let go of her as he doubled over in pain. Knowing exactly what to do to make him shut up at least for a moment, she thrust the blade of one of her daggers right through his forehead, knowing it would at least make him be away from the fight for a while so that she could focus on the mission at hand: stop Ultron from getting the Vibranium he needed.
"Thor, status." Steve's voice was heard over the com-system while Maria continued to fight off the men and metal robots coming her way.
"The girl tried to warp my mind. Take special care. I doubt a human could keep her at bay. Fortunately, I am mighty…"
Maria punched the last man close to her unconscious, hissing slightly at the pain in her hand before turning to look where the others were. However, instead of seeing her teammates as she turned, she saw the face of Wanda Maximoff. Her hand made a funny move in front of her face and before Maria could react, the red glow coming off of Wanda's hands had surrounded her vision…