Chapter 4

Tony, Abi and Bruce went straight to the lab to find out what had happened. Everyone else quickly followed apart from Thor who went after the bot that took the sceptre.

"All of our work is gone." Abi told them as Tony stood and looked at the rogue suit. "Ultron cleared out. He used the internet as an escape hatch." She continued as Steve walked in.

"Ultron." Steve muttered.

"He's been in everything. Files, surveillance." Nat added from the other side of the room. "Probably knows more about us than we know about each other."

Abi noticed Clint's change in stance.

"He's in your files, he's in the internet. What if he decides to access something a little more exciting?" Rhodey asked.

"Nuclear codes." Maria realised as she pulled glass out of her foot.

"Nuclear codes. Look we need to make some calls, assuming we still can." Rhodey said.

"Nukes?" Nat asked. "He said he wanted us dead."

"He didn't say dead, he said extinct." Steve interrupted.

"He also said he killed somebody." Clint added.

"There wasn't anyone else in the building." Maria said.

"Yes there was." Tony said as he walked into the centre of the room and once again projected the yellow image of Jarvis. This time though, Jarvis was in pieces. It was as though someone had shattered the computer programme.

"What?" Bruce said walking up to the image. "This is insane."

"Jarvis was the first line of defence. He would have shut Ultron down. It makes sense." Steve said as he looked at the floor.

"No." Abi said as everyone turned to look at her. "Ultron could have assimilated Jarvis. This isn't strategy, this is rage." Abi clarified.

At that moment Thor walked back in. He walked straight over to Tony, wrapped a hand around his neck and lifted him off the ground.

Everyone took a step back as Tony spluttered incoherent words. Abi's hands started to glow as she prepared to step in.

"I have more than enough words to describe you, Stark." Thor said.

"Thor!" Steve said stepping forward. "The Legionnaire?"

Thor put Tony down and looked at Steve. "Trail went cold about one hundred miles out but it's headed North. And it has the sceptre." Thor told them all. "Now we have to retrieve it, again."

"The Genie's out of that bottle." Nat said. "As clear and present as Ultron."

"I don't understand." Dr Cho muttered. "You built this programme. Why is it trying to kill us?" She asked Abi, Tony and Bruce.

Tony started laughing as Abi and Bruce shook their heads.

"You think this is funny?" Thor asked.

"No." Tony said turning to face Thor. "It's probably not, right?"

"Tony, where are you going with this?" Abi warned.

"This is very terrible. Is it so... Is it so... It is... It's so terrible." Tony rambled still laughing slightly.

"This could have been avoided if you hadn't played with something you don't understand." Thor said looking at the three of them who were all now stood together.

"No. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. It is funny." Tony said walking up to Thor. "It's a hoot that you don't get why we need this."

"Tony, maybe this might not be the time." Bruce said glancing at Abi, who was watching Tony and Thor carefully.

"Really? That's it? You just roll over, show your belly every time somebody snarls." Tony said to Bruce.

"Only when we've created a murder bot." Bruce shot back.

"We didn't. We weren't even close. Were we close to an interface?" Tony asked them both.

"Well, you did something right." Steve chipped in. "And you did it right here. The Avengers was supposed to be different than SHIELD."

"Anybody remember when I carried a nuke through a wormhole?" Tony asked.

"No. It's never come up." Rhodey said sarcastically.

"Saved New York?" Tony said.

"Never heard that." Rhodey carried on.

"Recall that?" Tony queried. "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 livelong day, but that up there, that's... That's the end game." Tony looked around. "How were you guys planning on beating that?"

"Together." Steve said.

Tony stepped towards him. "We'll lose."

"Then we'll do that together, too." Steve replied. "Thor's right. Ultron's calling us out. And I'd like to find him before he's ready for us. The word's a big place. Let's start making it smaller."

__________________________________________________________________________________

Everyone started trying to find Ultron their own way. Tony took apart the Legion and rewired the computers in an attempt to lure him out. Abi was sat on a computer when Steve and Maria walked in.

"He's all over the globe." Maria was telling him. "Robotics labs, weapons facilities, jet propulsion labs. Reports of a metal man, or men, coming in and emptying the place."

"Fatalities?" Steve asked.

"Only when engaged. Mostly guys left in a fugue state, going on about old memories, worst fears, and something too fast to see." Maria told him.

"Maximoffs." Steve said. "That makes sense he'd go to them. They have someone in common."

"Not anymore." Maria said as she showed Steve a picture of Strucker, dead in his cell with peace written on the wall.

They walked over to Abi.

"No." She said.

"What?" Steve asked.

"No, I am not going to tell you how to bring down Wanda and Pietro." She answered.

"Why are you so protective of them anyway?" Stark asked as he walked in.

Abi turned to Steve. "Don't you think it's ironic that they're twins? Just like us? That they were experimented on by German scientists? Just like us?" Abi turned back too Stark. "They are just kids. You have no idea what Strucker put them through. What he put us all through. What it's like to sit and wait to either be experimented on or to have your memories torn away from you.

"Do any of you know what happens when you remove a person's memories? You end up with a perfectly defined hunter. One who's a killer, who's loyal to a fault and who's protective. But without memories the person doesn't know who to protect, who to kill or who to be loyal to. Hydra exploited that fact and forced me and Bucky to do their will. Wanda and Pietro are in the same boat. They don't know who to trust or who to be loyal to. The only difference is that they have their memories, but they are just as lost as we were. Ultron is exploiting them the same way Hydra exploited us."

Abi was breathing heavily and her hands were glowing. "I'm not going to tell you how to bring them down. I'll talk to them myself."

They were all cut off by everyone else walking in.

"You said you might have something." Clint said.

"Yeah." Steve said, still a little shocked from Abi's outburst. He handed Thor the tablet.

"What's this?" Stark asked as Thor looked at a tablet.

"A message." Steve said as Thor slammed the tablet into Tony's chest. "Ultron killed Strucker."

"And he did a Banksy at the crime scene, just for us." Tony said looking at the image.

"This is a smokescreen. Why send a message when you've just given a speech?" Nat said.

"Strucker knew something that Ultron wanted us to miss." Abi said her voice still shaking slightly.

"Yeah, I bet he... Yeah." Nat said as she pulled up something on the computer. "Everything we had on Strucker's been erased."

"Not everything." Abi muttered as she ran out of the room.

She returned with boxes of hard copy files. Everyone immediately started searching through them all.

"Known associates." Steve said putting another few boxes down. "Strucker had a lot of friends."

"Well, these people are all horrible." Bruce muttered as he looked through some files.

"Wait." Tony said pointing to a file Bruce was currently holding. "I know that guy." Tony took the file from Bruce. "From back in the day. He operates on the African coast. Black market arms. There are conventions. All right? You meet people. I didn't sell him anything." Tony said as Steve gave him a look.

"He was talking about finding something new, a game-changer. It was all very Ahab." Stark recalled.

"This?" Thor asked pointing to a picture.

"Ah, it's a tattoo. I don't think he had it." Tony started.

Thor cut him off. "No, those are tattoos, this is a brand."

Abi took the file and handed it to Bruce, who scanned the picture into the computer and searched the mark.

"Oh, yeah. It's a word in an African dialect meaning thief. In a much less friendly way." Bruce told them.

"What dialect?" Steve asked.

"Wakanada. W-Wakanda." Bruce eventually said. Abi, Steve and Tony froze.

"If this guy got out of Wakanda with some of their trade goods..." Tony said to Steve and Abi.

"I thought Howard said he the last of it?" Abi said thinking back to the forties.

"I don't follow." Bruce said standing and walking to them. "What comes out of Wakanda?"

Steve looked to his shield as Abi replied. "The strongest metal on earth."

"Where is this guy now?" Steve asked.