Happy Labor Day Weekend, everyone. :D
"Where is everyone going?" The whole tower had shaken with the sound of the Avengers rushing to put on their costumes before heading to the large jet they rode. Wanda had no idea what the situation was, and she disliked that.
No one bothered to answer, save for a voice that spoke out of the nearest camera. As she was in the hangar bay, there were about five to choose from; she couldn't tell which one the voice came from.
"Oh, I detected an energy spike in New Jersey, so we're popping over there to make sure it isn't one of the gems. We're hoping that if it is indeed a gem, its pulsing on its own, and not because some madman is using it to rearrange the landscape or something like that." Ultron could exposition like no one, since he had no breath to lose, but Wanda tuned out the rest of his dialogue as she got an idea.
"You know, I could assist you. I can hold my own in a fight." It was obvious, seeing as how she had been able to fight Ultron and his creator. She only hoped that Ultron felt the same way.
If she convinced Ultron to let her join the Avengers on their trip to New Jersey, she would be able to find a way to escape, or at the very least, contact Pietro. Who knows? If she felt so inclined, she might not be averse to helping out whoever had the gem.
"Your offer is interesting," Ultron hummed, dashing her hopes. She could sense a "but" coming. Sure enough, it arrived.
"However, I think I will be the only backup needed for this assignment. I would say good-bye, but I'm already gone." Wanda, shocked, turned around, but the jet had somehow left without her noticing. Ultron or Stark must have silenced the engines somehow!
Well, I suppose I can use this to my advantage. The whole team has gone out, leaving me alone to do as I please. How difficult can it be to find some sort of phone?
She tensed as she moved towards the automatic door that led back to the hallway; what if Ultron set all the doors to lock? With the power dampener on her wrist, she wouldn't be able to blast the door down. Her fears were unfounded, as the doors silently slid open into the brightly lit hallway. Stark had made sure to avoid the atmosphere of an army base; instead of plain silver, the floor was covered with a bright red carpet. It also silenced her footsteps, leading to eerie silence.
As she assessed her surroundings, she mentally checked off the windows; she knew that as cracker-thin as they looked, they were actually reinforced. Stark had explained the technical aspect, but she had done her best to ignore him.
She also had a feeling that the front gate would be impossible to get through; Stark actually hired personnel to guard it, and without her powers, she didn't feel keen on taking on a guy with a machine gun. She was desperate, not suicidal.
She remembered overhearing one of the Avengers mention an underground passage. It was her best bet at the moment. Unfortunately, the few times she had ridden the elevator had made her very aware that there were a few basement levels, marked "BA", "BB", "BC", and so forth, which meant that she would have to check all of them out. One more thing to add to the stockpile of reasons why she hated Stark.
Quietly ambling down the hallway, she couldn't help but take a peak in the long mirror fastened to the wall. Upon realizing that her clothes had been damaged during the fight, she had been asked what new articles she would like. Deciding that she should ask for something expensive just to mess with Stark, she had replied that something with red silk would be nice. She hadn't actually thought that her request would be taken seriously.
The figure staring back at her wore much fancier clothing than she was used to. Her brown hair, which dropped down to a little past her shoulders, was a contrast against the devilish red that colored the rest of her body, from the soft, long-sleeved top, to the tight jeans that seemed to reflect the light that came from the overhead light fixtures. Even her earrings looked like tiny apples.
The fact was, she looked far prettier than she ever had before, and she wasn't entirely comfortable with it. She wondered what Pietro would say. He would probably tease her; perhaps he would claim that she looked like a princess.
The thought reminded her that her brother was probably searching for her; meanwhile, here she stood, staring at herself in the mirror like a pampered and wealthy American girl. It was shameful! Shaking her head, she entered the elevator as soon as the doors opened with a "ping" sound.
She decided to try the lowest basement level first. After pressing the button, she leaned against the wall, which felt cool on her back. Looking around, she had to admit that the small space was less fancy than she had been expecting. The only two objects in the room were a circular mirror in one corner, and a security camera that seemed to stare at her from the ceiling. She made sure to keep her body language casual and slack, in case someone (namely Ultron) had decided to keep tabs on her.
There was no "ping" when the elevator opened, and she almost didn't notice when the elevator finished its gentle descent. Trying to exit the elevator in a manner that she normally would (or at least she hoped looked like she normally would), she peered around at the dark room, waiting for her eyes to adjust.
Slowly, shapes and figures began to make themselves known. Many boxes filled the floor, and dusty pipes lined the walls. She had no idea what flowed through the pipes, but she could hear a steady…something through the pipes.
"Can I help you?" Wanda jumped and instinctively shot out her hands towards the voice, briefly forgetting that no energy beam would burst from her fingertips. The orange-haired lady staring back at her didn't look startled or concerned in the least; if anything, maybe a tad bored.
"Tony told me that we had a guest, but of course, he waited until the absolute last second." She sighed in a long-suffering kind of way. "That's just how he is, I suppose." Motioning towards Wanda, the lady began to stride towards the elevator, her heels clacking on the floor.
"My name is Pepper Potts. I work for Mr. Stark, although I like to think that he relies on me to run everything while he's off saving the world." She finally gave Wanda a brief smile. "And you're Wanda, of course. I was instructed to keep you comfortable, but I never imagined I'd find you in the basement where Stark keeps his old equipment. Were you lost?"
Not wanting to be found out too soon, Wanda simply nodded earnestly, even if getting lost in the basement made her seem like a fool. Still, this Pepper surely couldn't be much of a threat. Wanda considered the possibility of over-powering her, but dismissed it. Too many cameras around that could catch her in the act.
"This is my first time being left alone, so I thought I might explore, but before I knew it…" Wanda shrugged, trying to act like someone who had been swept away by events. Pepper, who had been holding a pen, tapped it against her bottom lip.
"I'm a little surprised that Tony gave you free access to the whole tower. That man is way too lax when it comes to security." She huffed, before remembering that there was a guest in the same room. "Right, anyway, would you like me to take you to your room?"
Wanda stiffened, hating being treated like a child who could forget where her own room (or prison) was located. Still, she had brought this upon herself. No sense in heading back to the room yet, however; this could be a good time to gather info.
"Very well," Wanda casually began. "In case of an emergency, are there any escape routes? Considering that this building seems to be a magnet for trouble, it would be useful to know." Pepper smiled, and Wanda couldn't help but think about fishing. Pepper was the fish who had just bitten into the bait.
Or so she thought.
"I'll be happy to tell you all about the building – once we defeat HYDRA." Wanda must have looked as shocked as she felt, because Pepper let out a small laugh. "Seriously, I've been seeing through Tony's small lies for years. I've gotten pretty good at being able to tell when someone is prying for information. Tony usually tries to bribe me, though."
She bemusedly shook her head, before finally pressing a button on the elevator. The seemingly cheerful box now felt stifling, despite the wide space. It was partially embarrassment, but then, she had never been as good at subterfuge as her brother.
As the doors opened, Pepper surprised Wanda by putting her well-manicured hand on her shoulder. "I don't know you, or anything you've gone through, but HYDRA isn't a group you want to work for, trust me. I don't know what hold they have on your brother, but I promise, the Avengers will do everything in their power to rescue him."
Wanda's eyes burned, and she didn't know why. "I hope they never defeat HYDRA," she whispered. "If they do, my brother would surely be jailed." It was too horrible to imagine her free-spirited brother being confined to a small, dark room where he couldn't run.
Pepper pursed her lips. "Oh, I don't know. Tony has a way of convincing judges to look the other way." Wanda looked at the red-haired woman in shock. Was she implying…?
"If we find your brother, and if he cooperates, I promise that we'll do everything we can to lighten his sentence." Wanda could hear no lie in her voice, no subtle demands, no hidden meanings. She meant what she said.
"You would do that for me, a random stranger who attacked your tower?" She was absently aware that her voice had broke, but she couldn't bring herself to care/
"Well, not just me. The whole team gladly would," Pepper assured, handing Wanda a napkin from her purse. "And it's not my tower, it belongs to Tony, so I'm not very particular about what happened before."
"Stark doesn't deserve you." It was amazing that such a selfless and smart woman could stand to even work in the same company with a man as egotistical and heartless as Stark.
"He isn't quite that bad," Pepper mused. "He can be a bit…much sometimes, but he has his moments, and I don't just mean the saving-the-world ones." Wanda didn't understand how Stark could have any "good" moments, but she followed Pepper down the hallway to her room.
"Is it OK to just leave her alone in the tower unsupervised?" Hawkeye, who was leaning in one of the chairs up front, asked Stark, who was flying the plane beside him. He even had his feet up on the console, something Ultron knew his father wouldn't appreciate.
"No, not alone," Stark was quick to admonish, "Pepper is there to watch over her. Trust me, Pepper keeps everyone on a short leash. Anyway, Ultron can check in every few minutes." Ultron nodded, happy to hear his father entrust him with something so important.
"That's right. All I have to do is open my other "eyes", and I'll be able to see through every camera in the tower. If something is amiss, I'll notice right away." He paused. "Unless we end up in a battle with someone, then I probably won't be able to."
Hawkeye laughed, and not in a nice way. "What, your processor isn't large enough for you to multitask?" Ultron stomped his foot, setting a small dent in the plane's floor.
"I can multi-task very well, thank you very much. That's how I was able to spread my consciousness throughout the system while talking with your mother." Everyone on the plane laughed except for Clint.
"A 'your mom' joke. Really? Tony, what are you programming your robots to do lately?" Tony was still laughing, but made the noticeable effort to stop.
"Wasn't me, I swear. Junior has been surfing the net, so it's only natural he'd find some interesting jokes…" His father wiped a tear from his eye, still grinning even as he focused on flying the plane. It would be embarrassing to crash for no reason.
Ultron heard the first hit more than he felt it; it sounded like a very big piece of popcorn popping. The second hit actually managed to rock the ship, and the third one caused a red warning signal to flash before his eyes.
He didn't even need to vocalize any of this to his father, who had already begun to suit up as he placed the jet on auto-pilot. There was a slight jolt as the plane switched modes; the automated CPU wasn't quite as good a driver as Stark was.
"I think any chance that this was a false alarm has just been wiped away," Steve offhandedly remarked as he grabbed his shield from the wall.
Not wanting to wait as his father opened the hatch, Ultron quickly accessed the cameras on the belly of the jet. He wanted to get a good look at the perpetrators using them for target practice.
It took him only a moment to get acquainted with the zoomed in lenses of the no-doubt expensive camera. As soon as he did, he saw what looked like a bunch of dark red drones. They had Gatling guns where their hands should have been, and they didn't seem to have any heads so much as a dome with a sliver of purple that slightly resembled sunglasses.
The least surprising aspect of the situation was that Strucker was standing smugly behind his new robots. Somehow, he must have figured that someone would be watching, because he gave a two-fingered salute in Ultron's general direction. That's when Ultron spied…something fastened around Strucker's pointer finger, but even with the extremely high quality vision, he couldn't make it out.
Not that it mattered; instants after the salute, the robots fire off another round, only instead of the bullets Ultron had been expecting, a strange energy as black as a starless sky buffeted the jet. Obviously, Strucker had found a use for the gems.
He relayed the info to the others, who took it as well as any Avenger would be expected to.
"If Strucker wanted to try out his new toys, he probably should have done it someplace more discreet." Stark was of course referring to the fact that Strucker was smack-dab in the middle of a New Jersey city.
"I can't say I'm surprised," Natasha airily replied. "I have yet to meet the mad scientist who can keep himself from messing around with his inventions." Stark turned to berate her, but she was already jumping off the plane with Clint, the latter shooting an arrow towards a roof top that they could swing to. Captain America wasn't too far behind.
"Ready?" Ultron nodded at his father, and the two flew of of the plane.
Author's Notes:
I think Wanda is slowly coming to realize that not everyone has some kind of secret agenda. HYDRA must be a pain to work for; I'd imagine that everyone would always wonder if their own partner could betray them.