Spencer sneezed and immediately was pinned by concern stares from her fellow Avengers. Snowflakes hit her face as she glared at her friends' knowing very well what they were thinking or about to say. "You should've worn something warmer, Spencer!" Hawkeye called out from the front of the stolen HYDRA vehicle. The young assassin resists the urge to smack her former mentor's head because he knew very well she hated being coddled and especially since it was recently made known that Spencer had officially lost her advanced healing abilities.
She remembered in the recent months of HYDRA base attacks, how many times she was coddled and fretted over and groaned inwardly. It was understandable why they were being so concern but aside from her abilities, she was a trained assassin. She couldn't count how many times she had to remind everyone that before her captivity with HYDRA that she had been trained to be an assassin since her young teenager years.
Though, no one really cared because that was before and right now was the present. It had taken a lot of debate with the rest of the team to allow her to partake in the raids, which was also super annoying but she had Clint and Nat on her side—if anyone deserved to kick HYDRA ass, it was Spencer. She wore hew newly modified Avenger's suit courtesy of Tony; She liked the new suit a lot as much as it pained her to say because it added to Tony's massive ego.
Clint hopped in the back with her as they crossed into territory lines; they were instantly greeted with dozens of armed men. Nat was driving because Clint couldn't drive for shit and they would most likely end up hitting a tree if he ever drove. Tony and Thor took to the sky while Steve and the Hulk made quick work of clearing Nat a clear path.
It has been a long time since Spencer felt this much adrenaline rushing through her tiny body; seeing how in sync the Avenger's worked in reminded her of how long it took them to get here. It took a lot of training, blood, sweat, and tears to get to this point. Spencer was working with a modified bow that her nerd friends Fitz and Jemma designed specifically for her and her powers. She wasn't anywhere as lethal and fast as Clint but she was good enough to be feared.
The arrows were made to be infused with her powers; the bow gleaming in currents of yellow and blue from her electrical currents thrumming through her body. In fact, in the recent months that Clint had been re-teaching Spencer how to use a bow; Tony had started calling her Lady Legolas which Spencer actually liked because it sounded pretty badass. Steve also agreed.
"Heads up!" Nat shouted snapping Spencer out of her deadly haze.
Nat swerved the stolen hydra car to the side as it slammed into barricade; The trio flew forward and rolled onto the ground; From the corner of her eye, she saw Steve extending his hand out to her and she was quick as lightning to latch on and was swung onto the back of his motorcycle. "Thanks for the pick up." Spencer cooed at her best friend as she made quick work of the enemies surrounding him. Spencer looked up in time to see Tony flying ahead as per usual.
"Shit!" Tony's voice was heard over their intercom.
"Language!" Steve reprimanded sternly.
"Shit!" Spencer repeated with a smirk.
Steve threw her an amused look, "Jarvis, what's the view from upstairs?" Steve asked the A.I as Spencer saw how happy the Hulk looked smashing everyone. She grinned slightly as Jarvis responded.
"The central building is protected by some kind of energy shield," Jarvis mused, "Strucker's technology is beyond any other Hydra base we've taken."
"Loki's scepter must be here!" Thor grunted.
Ah, yes, the other reason why they were intent on taking Strucker's base. Thor had informed the group that Loki's scepter had been missing and on Earth and had hutches that it was within Hydra's grasp. It made sense that stupid Strucker would have it. Who knows what he's been trying to do with that scepter!
"Strucker couldn't have mounted his defense without it." Thor continued and muttered, "At long last."
Eventually, Spencer decided to go solo and jumped off of Steve's motorcycle. She took down enemies with her bow with ease and for those who got too close; they got to enjoy her unmatched hand-to-hand combat skills. Her body was alive with excitement but she was also hungry. "At long last is lasting a little bit to long, boys." Nat's breathless voice came through the intercom.
"Yeah," Clint's voice followed a few seconds later, "I think we lost the element of surprise."
"Wait, no one is going to deal with the fact that Cap just said language?" Tony demanded with humor in his voice.
Spencer laughed at this but was too preoccupied taking down the enemy without mercy; "I know," Steve sighed through the intercom because the rest of them liked making fun of him and his old man ways. "It just slipped out!"
Spencer was about to shoot down an enemy barricade when Clint beat her to it; Her left eye twitched and she sent a mild glare to her former mentor, "Seriously?" Spencer sassed looking not amused.
Clint just smirked at her, "Too slow."
Spencer's glare deepened, "I'll show you too slow!" She growled in a huff as Clint laughed her anger off; Clint just loved pushing Spencer's button at all costs. Clint and Spencer had a very competitive streak between them considering that Clint did raise Spencer for a chunk of her life. Clint would always push Spencer because he knew what she was capable of and thought it irritated the crap out of the younger assassin; she wouldn't be the assassin she was if Clint didn't push her constantly to her limit and taunt her too.
"Sir, the city is taking fire." Jarvis said.
"They're pulling out the big guns, eh?" Spencer muttered swiftly taking down her enemies in an attempt to compete with Clint—though there was no competition because Clint's skill was way out of Spencer's league and they both knew it.
"Well, we know Strucker's not gonna worry about civilian casualties," Tony sighed sounding rightfully disgusted, Send in the Iron Legion." Tony commanded Jarvis.
Spencer snickered, "I told you Iron Legion sounded so much cooler."
Spencer heard drag out a sigh, "Stark Army sounded cool, too."
"Nah, Iron Legion sounds more intimidating." Clint agreed with his pupil much to Tony's annoyance.
"Yeah, Iron Legion sounds badass." Nat chimes in.
"I, too, prefer Iron Legion." Thor adds.
"I don't know, I mean, Stark Army has a good ring to it…" Steve muttered through the intercom.
"Steve, Stark Army sounds better for Tony's fan-base." Spencer snorted.
"Hmm, yeah, I guess it does."
"Screw you guys," Tony snaps since he doesn't like that he was the minority in this situation.
Spencer is about to laugh when Clint's groan catches her attention. She whips around and finds him on the ground. "Clint?" Spencer says only a few hundred feet away from him and she sees a younger man, maybe around her age or older, walk by with a smirk. He's wearing a tracksuit and his hair is disheveled as if he's never brushed it.
"You didn't see that coming?" The man says in an obvious thick accent.
In a second, he's gone. Clint raises his bow to try to track him down, but he's gone. Spencer shouts for Clint to duck but it was too late—Clint's been hit. Spencer rushes forward but she's flips over suddenly. She grunts as her back hits the snowy ground and quickly jumps on her feet but before she could even blink, she's thrown into a tree face-first.
She cries out in pain and rolls onto the ground.
"Clint! Spencer!" Nat shouts.
"We have an enhanced on the field!" Steve shouts in the intercom.
Spencer can feel her face pulsing with pain, her nose is gushing blood, but the blood in her body is raging with anger. She snarls angrily as she catches the silver-blue blue of this stupid enhanced. "Clint's hit!" Nat hisses.
Spencer shakes her head knowing she can't go against this man—he's a blur and could take her out in a second. Her attention turns to Clint and Nat. Nat's trying to dress the wound and as Spencer runs over to her mentor's—she's struck by a bullet. Nat was just glancing up when she saw her little spider get hit—her eye's widening in horror as Spencer stills and a look of horror overcomes her young face.
"Spencer!" Clint shouts through his own pain, "Spencer's hit!" Clint yells through the intercom.
"Someone take out that bunker!" Nat snaps.
Spencer feels the hazy, almost numb pain of the bullet striking her. She mind is foggy; she knows that the bullet went clean through her. She's been shot at so many times but that was before Hydra captured her. She hasn't felt pain like this in so long, it was almost surreal. Nat is hurriedly dressing Clint's wound and shouting at Spencer to get down or to hide but Spencer's too frozen in shock to respond.
The silver blur comes again and flips Spencer again. She lands on the side she was shot on and screams out in pain.
The blur halts and the young man stands a few feet away from a withering Spencer. "Subject three?"
Spencer, in her pain induced haze, barely registers his words. Her vision is blurry but she can see him walking up to her, "Subject three?" He repeats quietly as he squats down and gently sits her up against a tree.
Spencer can hear her name being called through the intercom but she can't focus on that; she's focused on the man in front of her. Her eyes are wide as he stares at her with his blue eyes—this couldn't be…she thought they were dead. "Subject…two…" Her voice quivers and she's reaching out to him but then his eyes harden and he's gone.
Spencer remains dazed out—shocked from her bullet wound and the realization that Subject one and two are very well alive, well, at least Subject two was alive. "Clint's hit pretty bad and Spencer, too. We're going to need an evac." Nat states though trying to stay calm. Nat had been the interaction between the enhanced and Spencer—Clint did too.
"You saw it," Clint grunts through the pain as his eyes never stray from Spencer. He can see Spencer applying pressure to her wound but she has this tortured dazed look on her face.
"Yeah," Nat responds coldly, "I saw it."
Spencer eases in and out of consciousness but eventually she wakes up in the safety of the hellicarrier hooked up to an I.V and next to Clint. "Hey, little spider," Nat smiles as Spencer groggily wake up—her wound dressed and the pain too numb to feel.
"Hey," Spencer mutters quietly, "Did we succeed?"
"Yeah," Nat says softly pushing back Spencer's unruly hair from her young face, "We got Strucker and we found Loki's specter." Spencer gives a weak, tired smile and nods.
"Good, I didn't get shot for nothing." Spencer jokes weakly.
"You shouldn't have gone off like that, Spencer," Steve's stern face appears in her vision; Spencer wants to moan out in annoyance, "You should've stayed with me instead of running off!" Steve's upset—that much is abundantly clear.
"I can handle myself," Spencer hisses as Nat helps her sit up, "I could have handled myself, it's just that…" Her memory comes back and she goes silent. It doesn't go unnoticed.
"Well, Pikachu, you're fine and alive and that's what matters," Tony tries to diffuse the tension—Spencer was well aware of how much she was cared after and coddled due to her being the youngest. She knew since her healing abilities were gone, how worrisome the others have become.
She's touched their hearts and the last thing they wanted was for her to get hurt or die.
"Yeah, so, save the lecture for another time." Spencer mutters to Steve.
Steve huffs, "Your dad or Fury aren't going to be happy about this."
"They will be when they find out Strucker is available for interrogation," Spencer smirks darkly, "I'd like a few minutes with him." She adds with a murderous glint in her usually bright eyes.
Steve shudders, "Okay, let's settle down." He awkwardly pats Spencer's head, "I don't like murderous and dark Spencer." He mutters which makes the young assassin laugh.
"You okay, old man?" Spencer turns to Clint.
Clint sighs, "I will be."
Spencer gives Clint a smirk knowing the talking to that his wife is going to give him when she finds out she was shot. Clint gives her a pointed look, "Don't." Clint says frostily.
Spencer snickers and eases into her cot. Nat shakes her head and goes over to have some words with Bruce who's hunched into a corner listening to music. "Why does she refer to you as little spider?" Thor asks suddenly, "Jane showed me what a spider was once and I freaked out and squashed it with my hammer."
Spencer snorts, "Female black widows are famously known for mating with smaller black widow males and killing them afterwards. I suppose after time, female fatales were referred to as black widows because they killed men," Nat sends her a smirk, "It's just a term of endearment is all, Thor. She's a Black Widow and I'm her little spider." Spencer shrugs.
"Thor," Nat says grabbing the Asgardian's attention, "Report on the Hulk."
"The gates of Hel are filled with the screams of his victims!" Thor brightly says with a proud smile. Bruce goes pale and drops his face into his hands as Nat stares at Thor with exasperation, "But not the screams of the dead, of course, no, no wounded screams!" Thor tries to say hurriedly, "Mainly whimpering, a great deal of complaining, and tales of sprained deltoids and gout." Spencer tries not to laugh and Steve is smirking and shaking his head behind Thor.
Poor guy.
A day or so later, Spencer was in her apartment. Dr. Cho had come from Seoul to help mend the chunk of flesh that Clint was missing; it was amazing what technology could do now. Tony forced her to go through with the same treatment that Clint went through even though Spencer complained that her gunshot wound would heal within a few weeks or months but that was too long for Tony and Tony wanted Spencer to come to the party in three days.
In hindsight, Spencer was grateful for Dr. Cho and her invention. Spencer was fully healed and there was no discomfort or pain. Her flesh felt the same as it did before—it didn't feel different to her though Clint complained that Laura would feel the difference when it was just him, her, and Nat.
Cooper and Frodo were both curled up on her bed with her; she was content to be back home where it was safe. She had caught up on some much needed rest and was waiting for Sam and Steve to come back with food! Nat was catching her up on what her father and godfather were doing. Tomorrow night would be the party and then Thor would leave the next day with Loki's specter.
Though, she was back to normal and it would seem that way to anyone who didn't know her; Spencer had been quiet these last few days and it was noted by her whole team. Her mind was someplace else; Nat knew where.
Nat hadn't asked what happened with the other enhanced yet, but she was. Nat watched Spencer as Spencer was in her usual day-dreams. Nat wasn't sure what to think about the incident with the enhanced since it was his fault that both Clint and Spencer got hurt…but when he heard Spencer scream in pain…he stopped in shock. Nat's eyes narrowed as she processed the look on his face when he realized Spencer through her scream of pain.
It would make sense; maybe they weren't allowed interaction with one another and just kept isolated. The only way they could tell each other apart were from the screams of pain and of torture through the experimentations. It sent a knot to form in Nat's stomach just thinking about it; the only way he recognized her was through her scream of pain.
The way he had looked at Spencer was…strange.
He had looked relieved, maybe because he had thought she was dead but she was instead alive. He had coaxed her into a sitting position in a gentle manner though he still seemed shock that it was…her—Subject three.
Spencer felt Nat's burning gaze and turned to look at her, "What's wrong?" Spencer asked softly going to reach for Nat's hand.
"The enhanced," Nat stated watching as Spencer flinched, "You knew each other."
"Subject two…" Spencer mumbled quietly remembering the details of his face—Subject Two had been handsome and it felt wrong to think that way since he was technically the enemy and the reason why she was shot and Clint had a chunk of flesh missing from his side but she couldn't think of him as the enemy…the look of shock and concern that was on his face when he realized who she was…was almost heartbreaking for Spencer.
"You always told me that you thought they were dead." Nat said quietly.
"I did think they were dead," Spencer countered defensively, "How was I supposed to know that they were alive when all I heard from them were their screams?" Spencer demanded bitterly and then the young assassin sighed, "I never even bothered to look for them or even try to find out their names."
Nat heard the guilt in her voice, "You shouldn't feel guilty. I know who they are and they volunteered for Strucker's experiments, Spence."
Spencer's face paled, "Th-They volunteered?" She sputtered, shocked.
Nat nodded, "Yeah, they did."
Spencer swallowed the lump in her throat, "Oh."
"Did he say anything else to you?" Nat pushed on carefully.
Spencer shook her head with a dejected expression, "No, he just called me Subject Three and…he got this hard look in his eyes and left. It must've been because he realized I was the enemy." Spencer murmured sadly—she had tried not to think about it because the harsh look he had gotten after he realized she was enemy had hurt her heart more then she cared to admit.
There was no more talk about Subject Two after that.
Spencer wasn't big on parties because she didn't like dressing up all nice and fancy but because she never went to parties or dressed up was the reason why she was all dolled up. Steve wasn't happy though he thought Spencer looked absolutely stunning, he just wasn't prepared for the endless amount of ogling many of the guys were doing and how protective he was going to get.
Sam thought it was funny though, he too, started giving any guy a stink eye whenever they were eying Spencer for too long. Spencer was at the bar laughing with Maria and Clint while Cooper was being petted by Tony. Spencer hardly drank but she was nursing a girly drink that Maria made for her.
It was fruity and not that bad.
Cooper, of course, had to come because Tony begged and begged for the wolf-dog to tag along and besides, who didn't like seeing a dog a party? As per usual, the party always ended with the gang centered on a table enjoying the closeness that was a part of the Avenger's. Spencer was curled up against Steve—she had complained and changed clothing since her dress was beginning to suffocate her to death and her heels were slaughtering her feet. She had changed into some nice fitted jeans and a black My Chemical Romance shirt and she was barefoot. Cooper was enjoying attention from Thor—Much to Tony's horror, Cooper adored Thor for some reason.
Maybe Cooper could tell that Thor was an alien from another planet.
"But it's a trick!" Clint stated.
"No, no," Thor laughed, "It's much more than that!"
Clint snorts and dramatically states, "Ah, whosoever be he worthy shall haveth the power!" Spencer rolled her eyes because this was all revolved around Thor's mighty hammer, "Man, whatever, it's a trick!" Clint waved it off.
There was laughter as Spencer was offered some food by Sam. She had drunk more than she had wanted and now, Sam was trying to sober her up with food and water. "Please, be my guest," Thor chuckles in amusement and gestures to his hammer.
"Be our guest, be our guest, put our service to the test." Spencer sang under her breath making Steve and Sam snort.
"Come on," Thor reassured with a smirk.
"Really?" Clint asked getting hyped up.
"Yeah, do it!" Tony cheered with a grin.
"Oh, this is going to be beautiful." Rhodes laughed getting more comfortable.
"Clint, honey, you've had a tough week. We won't hold it against you if you can't get it up." Tony dirtily said.
Spencer snorted and Steve shook his head as the others laughed.
"You've seen this before, right?" Clint asked Thor before trying to yank the hammer off the center of the table. Spencer started laughing, "I still don't know how you do it!" Clint says with breathless laughter.
"Smell of silent judgment?" Tony remarks with a snort.
Clint glares at him and gestures for him to step up, "Please, Stark, by all means."
Tony has his usual know it all smirk on his face as he gets up. Spencer groans, "Here we go, and you're just going to wound your precious ego." To her comment, the others laugh while Tony glares at her.
"Uh oh," Rhodes says with laughter.
"Never one to shrink from an honest challenge," Tony states confidently as grasps the handle, "It's Physics."
"Physics!" Bruce snorts with laughter.
"Right, so, if I lift it, I then rule Asgard?" Tony asks Thor.
"Yes, of course." Thor smirks delighted by everything. Tony attempts and fails and Spencer can't help but to laugh like a maniac at Tony's expression. Tony attempts again but this time with help of his suit—just the hand part of it anyway.
That fails too.
Then Tony enlists the help of Rhodes and his hand part of his suit—that fails too.
Suddenly, Bruce decides to try and Spencer is cheering him on ignoring the stink look Tony's sending her way. Bruce fails too but not without dramatically grunting and groaning as if he's about to turn into the hulk. Spencer snorts as she nudges Steve to go on next.
"Go, Steve!" Spencer cheers with a wide grin.
"No pressure, old man!" Tony teases.
Steve rolls up the sleeves of his dress shirt as Clint encourages him, "You can do it, Cap!" Steve grasps both hands over the handle and pulls. Spencer gasps the tiniest bit when the hammers moves an inch but doesn't do it again.
She laughs and nudges Thor, "He almost got you there!"
Thor gives her a sour look before laughing at Cap, "Nothing."
Spencer snorted as Steve sat back down next to her, "Nice try, and you almost got it." Spencer patted Steve's bicep with a grin.
"Your turn, Pikachu!" Tony sings.
Spencer turns to find everyone staring at her with grins, "Me?" Spencer whines and sighs, "I guess why not?" She shrugs as everyone cheers and whoops. She smoothes out her shirt and stands over the hammer and her friends are encouraging her brightly.
She glances at Thor and see's him a bit nervous.
Spencer looks down at his hammer with a tilt of her head, "Why are we doing this again?" She asks cutely.
Tony groans and rolls his eyes, "Because we want to become rules of Asgard!" Tony jokes.
Spencer rolls her eyes, "I certainly don't want that, now do I?"
"Don't be a buzz kill!" Clint says, "Just try to lift it!"
Spencer huffs and wraps both of her dainty hands around Mjölnir, "I doubt I'll be deemed worthy in the eyes of Odin but let's give it a shot!" Spencer inhales and lifts as she exhales.
She is greeted with laughter and she tugs again—nothing. She pouts cutely and shrugs, "I tried." Her friends congratulate her thoughtful and cute attempt and continue to tease and make fun of Thor. Thor laughs and picks up his hammer and taunts everyone, "You all are not worthy."
"I'll be worthy one day!" Spencer laughs as suddenly Cooper jumps up from his spot next to Thor and growls. Spencer frowns as suddenly a hitch pitch sound resonates through the room—Cooper whimpers as Spencer holds her head.
"Worthy?" A guttural voice asks distantly.
The room is now silent—Cooper going to Spencer's side protectively as a badly repaired and put together suit from Tony's workshop stumbles out into plain view, "No," The voice is coming from the suit. "How could you be worthy?" The suit asks sarcastically and adds grimly, "You're all killers."
Steve gently tucks Spencer behind him, "Stark." Steve says icily.
"Jarvis," Tony begins to call for his A.I.
Jarvis doesn't respond but the suit does, "I'm sorry, I was asleep. Or I was a dream—"
Tony sighs, "Reboot Legionnaire OS. We just got a buggy suit." Tony tries to reassure everyone but the tension doesn't leave the room—everyone is on high alert.
The suit continues to drone on, "There was this terrible noise and I was tangled in…" The suit stumbles around as if it's drunk, "In strings," Spencer swallows uneasily because Cooper is right in front of her and the last thing she wants is for her canine to be hurt, "I had to kill the other guy—he was a good guy."
What guy? Spencer thought feeling a bit pale.
"You killed someone?" Steve demanded.
"Wouldn't have been my first call," The suit mutters, "But, down in the real world, we're faced with ugly choices."
"Who sent you?" Thor demands.
The suit cocks its head to the side and suddenly we hear Tony's voice, "I see a suit of armor around the world," Spencer looks at Tony and sees a stunned look on his face.
"Ultron," Bruce shoots Tony a look.
"In the flesh," The suit says brightly and then adds, "Or, no, not yet. Not this chrysalis." The suit sighs gesturing towards his poorly made suit.
Slowly and silently Spencer sees everyone holding and grabbing their weapons. Her number one priority is keeping Cooper safe. Her friends can handles themselves but Cooper can't—he's a dog! He's trained to keep her safe not fight robots!
"But I'm ready," The suit states, "I'm on a mission."
"What mission?" Nat asks coldly.
"Peace in our time," Ultron says plainly before the back wall behind Ultron bursts forward with other Legionnaire suits. Everyone ducks as Spencer throws out a force field around everyone as the suits strike. "Tony!" Spencer shouts, "Cooper!"
Tony nods and begins poking his tablet and it isn't long before pieces of metal begin flying from some random direction and attaching itself to my furry companion—Tony's latest toy. Cooper, already used to the metal suit that Tony designed for him, barks as he's suddenly turned from Cooper the husky-wolf to Cooper the Iron Dog.
Everyone scrambles to find safety as the suits begin their assault. Gunshots begin to ring out as Spencer and Rhodes are blasted forward but Spencer reacts quick enough to catch both herself and Rhodes. She throws out several daggers of electricity to try to deter the metal suits; she struck several of them but they refuse to go down.
Rhodes hides behind the safety of the wall as Spencer stands and gather all the energy she can muster; her eyes becoming brilliant neon shade of blue; static begins to pulse out of her body. She snaps her fingers and a brilliant wave of blue energy pulses loudly through the room filling every space and every corner—not harming the fleshy bodies of her friends but the metal suits causing havoc.
The suits, excluding Ultron, all fall to the ground. Her team of friends was quick to crush the metal suits to make sure they didn't rise again. Cooper was snarling as he tore apart the head of one of the suits with much ease due to the suit. "That was dramatic." Ultron says.
"I'm sorry," Ultron continues, "I know you mean well, you just didn't think it through," Ultron wobbles around as everyone gathers once more, "You want to protect the world but you don't want it to change," Spencer listens on as Cooper runs to her side, "How is humanity saved if it's not allowed to evolve?" Ultron asks cynically.
"With these?" Ultron asks with disgust picking up the body of metal suit, "With these puppets?" And he easily crushes its head and throws it carelessly on the ground, "There's only one path to peace," Ultron drones and pins everyone with an eerie gaze, "The Avenger's extinction."
Spencer's heart jolts.
Thor has had enough and throws his mighty hammer forward. It pins Ultron to the back wall and shatters his body into pieces. Everyone is silent for a few seconds before Ultron speaks again but his voice is fading and crackling, "I had strings, but now I'm free." Then the suit's lights begin to fade out.
Spencer exhales and rubs her temples.
It isn't long until the team is gathered in Tony's lab. The remains of Ultron's body lies on a table with Tony staring at it absentmindedly. "All our work is gone," Bruce states quietly as I help tend to Maria's wounds—she had been barefoot like me but she had to run across shards of broken glass to get to safety. "Ultron cleared out; he used the Internet as an escape hatch." Bruce informs us.
"He's been in everything," Nat says with annoyance, "Files, surveillance. Probably knows more about us than we know about each other."
Rhodes grunts, "He's in your files, he's in the internet. What if he decides to access something a little more exciting?" Rhodes demands—ah, always thinking about the safety of our country.
Maria cringes, "Nuclear codes."
Rhodes nods, "Look, we need to make some calls assuming we still can." Rhodes says.
Nat scoffed, "Nukes?" He said he wanted us dead."
"He didn't say dead, he said extinct." Steve corrected coldly.
Clint pointedly reminds everyone, "He also said he killed somebody."
Maria shakes her head, "There wasn't anybody else in the building." She hisses when Spencer digs a little too deep for a certain shard.
"Sorry," Spence sighs.
"Yes, there was," Tony steps forward with his little tablet in his hand and shows everyone the distorted image of…Jarvis? Spencer gasps lightly in shock.
"What?" Bruce sputters in shock.
"Jarvis was the first line of defense," Steve sighs, "He would have shut Ultron down. It makes sense." He said quietly.
"No," Bruce counters, "Ultron could have assimilated Jarvis. This isn't strategy, this is…rage." Bruce concluded making Spencer shudder—Poor Jarvis!
Spencer saw moment from the corner of her eye—Thor and he was all geared out in his Asgardian armor. "Oh, shit." Spencer muttered as Thor had the look to rival an angry crocodile!
Thor stormed up to Tony and grabbed him by his neck.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Steve tried to get in between the two.
Clint sighed, "It's going around."
"Come on, use your words, buddy!" Tony gasped.
"I have more than enough words to describe you, Stark!" Thor snapped viciously.
"Thor, the legionnaire!" Steve asked trying to distract Thor from killing Tony. Thor grunts and drops Tony and Tony instantly backs away from the angry God.
Thor pins an angry, cold glare on Tony but answers Steve, "Trail went cold about a hundred miles out, but it's headed north." Thor reported talking about the Legionnaire that was seen grabbing the scepter before the battle and scurrying away. "Now, we have to retrieve it, again." He glares at Tony even more now.
"Genie's out of that bottle," Nat states dully, ""Clear and present is Ultron."
"I don't understand," Dr. Cho states quietly observing the remains of Ultron's dummy body, "You built this program so, why is it trying to kill us?" She asked the most important question everyone was thinking about.
Tony had his back to everyone and-and he was laughing? Bruce's eyes go wide and he begins to shake his head at Tony but Tony just keeps laughing setting everyone off. "You think this is funny?" Thor demands angrily.
"No," Tony stops laughing and turns to stare at everyone in the room, "It's probably not, right?" Tony chuckles, "This is so terrible, isn't it so? Is it so…it is. It's so terrible," Tony laughs like some crazy person.
Thor glares at him, "This could have been avoided if you didn't play with something you don't understand." Thor reprimands Tony like he would a child.
"No, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. It is funny," Tony walks up to Thor very boldly and Spencer sighs, "It's a hoot that you don't get why we need this."
Tony's interrupted by Bruce, "Tony, maybe this might not be the time."
"Really?" Tony turns to Bruce with an annoyed looked, "That's it? You roll over and show your belly?" Cooper whines from his spot beside Spencer. "Sorry, Coop." Tony quickly adds. "Every time somebody snarls?" He asks Bruce.
"Only when I've created a murder bot!" Bruce cries out in defense.
"We didn't!" Tony says loudly, "We weren't even close! Were we close to an interface?" Tony demands Bruce.
"Well, you did something right and you did it right here," Oh, no Spencer knows that look very well, Steve isn't happy, "The Avengers were supposed to be different than shield—"
"Anybody remember when I carried a nuke through a wormhole?" Tony suddenly asks.
Rhodes rolls his eyes, "No, it's never come up." Rhodes said sarcastically.
"Saved New York?" Tony prodded.
Nat shakes her head with annoyance, "Never head that." Rhodes continues.
"Recall that?" Tony demands while everyone rolls their eyes or shakes their head at Tony bringing up the wormhole situation again, "A hostile alien army came charging through a hole in space and we're standing three hundred feet below it," No says anything and Tony continues, "We're the Avengers—we can bust arm dealers all the livelong day but that up there, that's…that's the endgame."
Spencer fidgets uneasily as Tony gazes around the room, "How were you guys planning on beating that?" Tony questions before his gaze falls on Steve.
Steve stares back and answers solidly, "Together."
Tony clenches his jaw and states, "We'll lose."
Steve doesn't back down, "Then we'll do that together, too." Spencer smiles fondly at her best friend and knows that they came overcome everything as long as they stuck together as always and fight as a unit. "Thor's right, Ultron's calling us out." Steve tells Tony.
Tony walks away looking incredibly annoyed and Spencer feels pity for him—No one knows what goes on through his mind and while Spencer knows Tony had his reasons…she knows it wasn't right of him to do without them or even telling them.
"I'd like to find before he's ready for us." Steve takes command over the room, "The world's a big place, let's start making it smaller." Spencer moves smoothly towards Tony and places her hand over his shoulder. Tony looks over at her looking so defeated and ragged and…alone. Spencer gives him a gentle but brilliant smile meant to reassure him that everyone makes mistakes and it was okay.
Tony blinks at her robotically before he nods at her and turns his attention to Steve. Tony's reminded on why Spencer is so important to all of them; despite what they've done and who they are…Spencer makes everyone feel…special. Tony's mind flashes to the vision he had when finding the scepter…all of his friends dead and defeated.
He remembers Spencer's pale and bloodied face—he shakes his head.
No, that won't be the endgame.