I don't own Avengers or its characters. I only own Riley Stark and other OCs that appear in the story.
Take on the World
Chapter 28: Ultron
Riley nervously stood close to Tony as she and the others stared at the robot that arrived into the room.
It looked like one of her father's suits, but it was in terrible condition.
The paint was scraped and parts of its body were missing.
The metal face plate was cracked and the arms and legs were bent in odd angles.
Oil dripped from it and wires hung from the whole body.
But the young brunette knew immediately this robot was anything but friendly.
"No. How could you be worthy?"the robot asked in a deep voice, the words falling from his lips lazily."You're all killers."
The robot gestured towards Riley, Agent Hill, Helen and the Avengers.
"Stark?"Steve questioned.
The first avenger's eyes still focused on the robot.
"J.A.R.V.I.S.?"Tony called out.
"I'm sorry, I was asleep."the robot informed.
Tony mumbled something as the robot pressed some buttons.
"Terrible noises."the robot continued."I was tangled in...strings."
The robot was stumbled back slightly while he looked down at his body.
The group all watched trying not to make any sudden movements.
Riley slowly reached her hand back slowly to get her repulsors.
"Had to kill the other guy."the robot muttered as if it was absolutely normal to mention something like that."He was a good guy."
"You killed someone?"Steve asked.
"Wouldn't have been my first call."the robot answered."But down in the real world we're faced with ugly choices."
"Who sent you?"Thor asked.
Tony's voice suddenly played from the armour.
"I see a suit of armour around the world."Tony's voice remarked.
Like everyone else, Riley turned to look at her father with a stunned expression.
He created that robot?
"Ultron."Bruce responded.
"In the flesh."Ultron replied, sounding quite proud of himself."Well, no. Not yet. Not this...chrysalis."
Riley pulled out her repulsors, but kept them low.
Thor adjusted his grip on the hammer while Agent Hill stood, holding her gun low as well.
"But I'm ready, I'm on mission."Ultron continued.
"What mission?"Natasha asked.
Riley focused her hearing as Ultron said "Peace in my time" and quickly pulled Agent Hill, who was closest to her down just as two more of the iron legionaire burst through the wall behind Ultron and flew right at them.
Everyone jumped into action as they flew around them.
"Thanks, Riley!"Agent Hill thanked.
Riley placed her repulsors onto her hands.
"No problem, Aunt Maria!"Riley answered.
Riley shot the thrusters of the armour which came at her and Agent Hill with her repulsors.
It crashed to the ground before struggling to get up, but after the young brunette gave couple more shots later, stayed down.
There was a lot of shooting and people being thrown around as Riley stood up ducking every now and then to avoid being hit.
One of the armours grabbed Loki's scepter that was sitting on a table in Tony's lab.
Riley quickly shot at it but it was too late.
The Stark heiress turned to see Helen cornered by one of them and quickly ran in her direction.
She shot its arm distracting it as Steve ran forward grabbing half of an armour and flung it at Thor, who threw his hammer at it.
Once the last robot was gone, Riley turned towards where Ultron stood.
Riley rubbed a spot on her arm that she had hit the ground pretty hard when she and Agent Hill dropped down.
"Well, that was dramatic."Ultron taunted."I know you mean well. You just didn't think it through."
Everyone turned to look at Ultron, unable to think of what to do at the moment.
"You want to protect the world but you don't want it to change."Ultron continued to pace."How is humanity saved if it's not allowed to…evolve."
He picked up one of the broken armours.
"With these? These puppets?"Ultron questioned, breaking the face mask with his own hands."There's only one path to peace. The Avengers extinction."
Thor flung his hammer at Ultron, breaking him apart.
Normally that wouldn't be Riley's solution, but at the moment, it was the best one.
At least Ultron had shut up.
He was starting to creep her out.
Ultron's armour glowed again.
"I had strings but now I'm free."Ultron mumbled.
Then Ultron shut down.
There was dead silence in the room as everyone took in what just happened.
Riley sighed and shifted her weight onto her other foot as she waited for someone to say something.
The bad guy just couldn't leave without saying something that proved that this wasn't over.
Not yet.
Riley was sitting in her bedroom.
Slowly rewinding what happened to herself and the others just a half hour ago.
And it haunted her.
It wasn't dead.
Ultron wasn't dead yet.
Riley scrolled down into every file that was downloaded into the USB-stick that was sticking into her laptop.
Tony and the rest of the group were down at the lab.
Not wanting to get his daughter there, Tony sent Riley to her room.
She didn't mind.
The Stark heiress needed space after all what happened.
While scrolling through every classified file on her laptop, a file showed up the names of everyone they experimented on and it showed several videos of strangers being mentally en physically abused.
Until they all ended up in death.
Riley couldn't bare to watch them, so she skipped forward until the name 'Pietro Maximoff' popped up.
She clicked it open and a video started playing.
"Name."A voice behind the camera demanded.
"Pietro Maximoff."
The had wires stuck everywhere in his body and I assumed it was the physical test.
His hair was as brown as my eyes and it hung loosely above his shoulder.
The curls bounced with every movement he made.
His hair was the total opposite of what it was now.
The wires lit up blue with a liquid running through it pumping his body with the liquid as he screamed out bloody screams but no words as "stop" and "please" escaped his lips.
Not like the others.
He wanted it much more than them.
Riley closed the video and stared blankly at the many more files of Pietro before she opened the 'process' file.
Nothing unusual until on the 5th day he could run faster and on the 12th day his hair turned silver.
Riley stared blankly at a picture of Pietro and his younger twin sister, Wanda Maximoff.
His hair was wildly in his face while he was wearing a black adidas jacket while his twin sister had a red dress on and her hands were radiating red aura.
He was a speedster.
That explained the blue stroke of wind behind him.
Quicksilver aka Pietro Maximoff was able to use superhuman speed.
Scarlet Witch aka Wanda Maximoff had the ability to cast minor hexes that cause a variety of effects such as momentarily moving or levitating objects.
In a way, she seemed like a witch or sorceress.
"They're twins."Riley murmured with a hint of concern."But what exactly are they trying to accomplish?"
The silence on the room was almost suffocating.
Tony had run off as soon as the fight had ended and tried to get to J.A.R.V.I.S..
But J.A.R.V.I.S. wouldn't respond.
At least not yet.
Riley, Bruce, Steve, Natasha, Thor, Agent Hill and Helen soon joined him in the lab, only to find the laboratory completely ransacked by Ultron.
"All our work is gone."Bruce stated as he went through the files on the computer."Ultron cleared out. Used the internet as an escape hatch."
Steve scoffed, obviously not very happy about the turn of the events.
"Ultron."Steve mumbled under his breath.
"He's been in everything."Natasha added."Files, surveillance. Probably knows more about us than we know about each other."
Riley felt butterflies in her stomach at Natasha's declaration.
"He's in your files, he's in the internet."Rhodey said as he straightened up."What if he decides to access something a little more exciting?"
Agent Hill was in a chair and had an ice pack pressed to her leg.
"Nuclear codes."Agent Hill commented.
"Nuclear codes."Rhodey agreed with a nod."Look. We need to make some calls, assuming we still can."
"Nukes?"Natasha asked."He said he wanted us dead."
"He didn't say dead."Steve said, looking at his girlfriend."He said extinct."
"He also said he killed somebody."Clint added.
"But there wasn't anyone else in the building."Agent Hill reminded with a confused look on her face.
Riley nodded in agreement.
Maria was right.
They were the only people in the building at the time.
"Yes."Tony replied."There was."
The billionaire brought up the now destroyed image of J.A.R.V.I.S.' consciousness.
Riley sucked in a deep breath.
Bruce walked to the image a dumbfounded look on his face.
His held out his hands, at first unable to say a word.
"This is insane."Bruce retorted.
"J.A.R.V.I.S. was the first line of defence."Steve stated."He would've shut Ultron down, it makes sense."
Riley frowned. "That does not look like defence."
"No. It doesn't."Bruce agreed."Ultron could've assimilated J.A.R.V.I.S. This isn't strategy, this is...rage."
Suddenly, Thor walked into the room and took hold of Tony by his throat and held him up.
Riley stiffened slightly, just like everyone else in the room.
"Woah, woah, woah!"Clint protested."It's going around!"
"Come on."Tony muttered, unable to be serious even when the situation demanded it."Use your words, buddy."
"I have more than enough words to describe you, Stark!"Thor snarled.
"Thor!"Steve shouted."The Legionnaire!"
Thor finally let go of Tony and turned to address the others.
"Trail went cold about a hundred miles out but it's headed north and it has the scepter."Thor scowled."Now we have to retrieve it again."
"The genie's out of that bottle."Natasha informed."Clear and present is Ultron."
"I don't understand."Helen said, panic still in her eyes."You built this program. Why is it trying to kill us?"
Riley quietly looked at Tony.
"Dad, you and Uncle Bruce created Ultron to be a force for peace, for law and order."Riley said with a small frown."But its programming evolved. It's now beginning to believe the only way to truly bring order to the world was to control it. That's when it turned on us."
Tony started laughing while Bruce subtly shook his head at him to get him to stop, but he continued anyway.
A glare appeared on Riley's face.
"Dad!"Riley snapped, upset that her father was not taking the situation important."Be serious!"
"You think this is funny?"Thor asked, clearly annoyed.
"No. It's probably not, right?"Tony responded mockingly."Is this very terrible? Is it so...is it so...it is. It's so terrible."
"This could've been avoided if you hadn't played with something you don't understand!"Thor snapped.
Tomy didn't seem very happy with that answer.
"No, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. It is funny."Tony retorted."It's a hoot that you don't get why we need this."
"Tony, maybe this might not be the time to-"Bruce started softly.
"Really?"Tony snapped."That's it? You just roll over, show your belly, every time somebody snarls."
"Only when I've created a murder bot."Bruce declared.
"We didn't!"Tony argued."We weren't even close. Were we close to an interface?"
"Well, you did something right and you did it right here."Steve informed."The Avengers were supposed to be different than S.H.I.E.L.D."
"Anybody remember when I carried a nuke through a wormhole?"Tony started.
A soft yet irritated scowl escaped from Riley's mouth.
"Dad, please."Riley begged, knowing that her father was going for the full on pep talk."Please not now..."
"No, it's never come up."Rhodey mumbled sarcastically.
"Saved New York?"Tony continued.
Riley covered her face in disappointment.
Her father had jumpstart a dormant peacekeeping program which was now loose to kill them.
"Never heard that."Rhodey mumbled.
"Recall that?"Tony asked, recalling the incident of three years ago."A hostile alien army came charging through a hole in space. We're standing three hundred feet below it. We're the Avengers. We can bust arms dealers all the live long day, but, that up there? That's...that's the end game. How were you guys planning on beating that?"
"Together."Steve spoke up.
"We'll lose."Tony complemented.
"Then we'll do that together too."Steve admitted.
Tony looked at Steve for a moment before turning away.
Steve looked at Riley and the rest of the Avengers.
"Thor's right."Steve stated."Ultron's calling us out and I'd like to find him before he's ready for us. The world's a big place. Let's start making it smaller."