chapter six
Bianca watched closely as Ulysses Klaue opened a secret compartment in one of the rusted brown walls. Her arms were knotted tightly around her chest, her long fingernails digging into her forearm. The young blonde was standing between the Maximoff twin, and together, they intimidated Klaue's surrounding guards. Each guard was holding their large guns close, their knuckles whitening around the steel toy. Bianca wanted to grin, liking the way the soldiers flustered in their presents, but the blonde kept her face expressionless, not wanting to look too cocky.
The fluorescent light in the secret compartment made the bottles of vibranium glisten. Bianca's pale blue eyes widened slightly at the sight of towering bottles. Amazement surged through her, questioning how the goofy salesman before them was able to obtain so many containers of the rare substance. Klaue stepped forward then removed one of the vials, making the perfectly organized row uneven. Bianca watched the man closely, making sure that he wouldn't try anything that he wouldn't quickly regret. The blonde was becoming impatient, her fingers fiddling from their lack of action. Adrenaline was pulsing through her like blood, and the lack of action between Ultron and Klaue was boring her. She wanted to fight, to have chaos ring through the wasted boat. The fourteen-year-old wanted to feel power surge through her young system, pushing her until she reigned victories. But how things were going at the moment, it seemed that her wish wouldn't be granted.
"Upon this rock, I will build my church," Ultron said as Klaue handed him the bottle of rare substance.
Ultron's sharp words rang through the air, making Bianca's head pound slightly. A headache had been brewing since she arrived at the worn boat, and the fourteen-year-old couldn't tell what was causing the pounding sensation. At first, she believed it had been nerves. After the last mission she had, Bianca had been a bit jumpy and lost in thought, reliving the events of Strucker's quick death over and over again. Ultron had threatened her, disliking that she couldn't kill her torturer. Bianca would be lying if she said she wasn't nervous for this mission, not wanting to disappoint the ringleader again. The nerves had quickly disappeared when the urge of violence surged through her system, but her head continued to pound with an unknown cause. Bianca desperately wanted the pounding sensation to vanish, the pain was distracting her, making her weak and vulnerable. Bianca could not be either of those things because if her enemy saw her weakness, they would kill her soundlessly.
"Vibranium," Ultron stated, throwing the bottle over to Pietro, who caught it with ease. Pietro's eyes shined, mimicking the glisten of blue-ish material.
"You know," Klaue said, itching the tattoo on the back of his neck, "it came to a great personal cost. It's worth billions."
Ultron lightly chuckled at the newfound information, then responded, "Now so are you."
At that moment, a cellphone beeped loudly and the simple noise brought a heavy tension to the room. One of the guards--probably the leader of the slightly quivering bunch--grabbed out his phone from the back pocket of his brown pant. The guard shared a look with Klaue, who just wore an expression of confusion, before scanning the new messages on the old screen. His eyes widened as messages continued to come up, giving the salesman his heavy money for the rare substance. Seeing the look of shock on his worker's face, Klaue glanced over his shoulder and within seconds, the salesman was mimicking the surprised look. Bianca started picking the dead skin around her thumb, impatiences still swallowing her whole. She was sick of sitting here watching these middle-aged men read large numbers on their old screen when they take the vibraium and leave. But the blonde trusted Ultron, so he was waiting to make a deal with this salesman then she would continue to wait.
"It's all under your dummy holdings," Ultron explained, "Finance is so weird. But I always say, keep your friends rich and your enemies rich and wait to find out which is which."
Klaue slowly looked at the robot before saying, "Stark."
The three enhanced teenagers narrowed their sharp eyes in suspicion. Ultron just tilted his head, and asked, "What?"
"Tony Stark used to say that," Klaue explained, "To me. You're one of his."
"What?" Ultron snapped, anger filling his robotic voice. He grabbed Klaue's hand, pulling the suddenly panicked salesman closer to him. The guards started taking out their guns but Wanda and Bianca were quicker than their steel toys. Red and blue energy surged through the air, their telekinesis stopping the guards from using their guns. Bianca's blue beamed a lighter shade, showing everyone in the area that her powers had been activated. Wanda's green eyes had turned red, mimicking the same action as the blondes. The brunette was breathing heavily, struggling to hold the guards back, unlike Bianca, who thought the task was too easy. The guards--including the leader--raised loud grunts and groans, scrambling to push back against the supernatural teens. "I'm-I'm not. You think I'm one of Stark's puppets? His hollow men? I mean, look at me. Do I look like Iron Man? Stark is nothing!"
Bianca jumped lightly, the sudden chopping sound startling her. A wave of nausea instantly hit her when the fourteen-year-old caught sight of Klaue's unattached arm laying on the ground. Blood was already covering the metal surface, and the smell had quickly mixed with the smelt of ash. The blonde felt her power stammer for a beat, her mind becoming preoccupied with the newly disabled body part. Klaue let out a weak groan, blood immediately staining his light brown t-shirt. Ultron released the salesman, and once he was released from the robot grasp, Klaue stumbled backward, breathlessly trying to get away from the robot.
"I'm sorry," Ultron said, his voice emotionless, "I'm... Oh! I'm sure that's gonna be okay. I'm sorry. It's just that I don't understand. Don't compare me with Stark!"
Unable to get away fast enough, Klaue was suddenly kicked roughly by Ultron's metal floor. An echoing grunt escaped Klaue's lips as he flew backward into a set of stairs. Noises of pain continued to escape his lips as he tumbled down the large metal staircase, and each sound sent another wave of shivers down Bianca's back. She felt the same emotion that she had when she had faced Strucker. Bianca had been angry and she had desperately wanted to see him suffer. But when the suffering started, the fourteen-year-old wanted to back down, suddenly feeling guilty for wanting them dead even though they wronged her. Bianca clenched her teeth roughly and swallowed down the guilt that was started to build in her throat. Klaue--who had probably killed just for green pieces of paper--deserved to have this karma come to him. The blonde had to keep telling herself that, even though she barely believed the statement to be true. Wanda and Bianca released the soldiers, letting them filing down the stairs after their boss.
"It's a thing with me," Ultron shouted, his hand flailing around angrily, "Stark is... He's a sickness!"
"Ah, Junior," A voice sounded, ringing through the boat. The three enhanced tensed, each of them instantly knowing who the voice beloved to. Bianca's eyes flared, the guilt she had felt before instantly slipped away becoming replaced with anger. She, alongside the others, turned and an orb of blue ice immediately appeared at Bianca's fingertips. Standing on the opposite of a short bridge were Iron Man, Thor, and Captain American, each of them suited and ready for battle. Hatred started to mix with the anger, this caused more adrenaline to surge through her. Bianca had wanted a fight, but a battle against the Avengers was better than she wished for. They weren't going to underestimate them this time, so they will be even more surprised when they lose. "You're gonna beat your old man's heart."
"If I have to," Ultron stated.
"Nobody has to break anything," Thor said, his accent thick.
The fluorescent light accented Thor's magical hammer--mimicking the shine of the vibranium bottles. Bianca wondered for a moment if the rumors were true about the god's hammer, was it true that only Thor could lift the hammer because he is worthy? Even though Thor was from a magical place up above, Bianca didn't seem to find the god of thunder worthy, and she knew that nothing could convince her that he is. The orb of ice in her palm became thicker, the blonde could even hear the light popping of the hard icicles. She could start the battle between the two teams at any moment, any second, but she wouldn't. They needed to talk first, the battle would come unexpectedly.
"Clearly, you're never made an omelet," Ultron stated.
"He beat me by one second," Tony muttered, making light jokes even though heavy tension was hanging over them.
"Ah yes," Pietro said, taking the opportunity to speak. There was a fake smile dancing across his face, and the expression matched perfectly with the hatred beaming from his blue eyes. Bianca could feel the anger radiating off of the supernatural boy, his strong emotion bringing another layer of coverage of the suffocating blankets overhead. The heavy air made the pounding sensation against Bianca's skull worse, but the blonde continued to push it away, hoping that her increasing adrenaline would eliminate the awful pain. "He's funny. Mr. Stark. It's what. Comfortable? Like old times?"
"This was never my life," Tony said, but to Bianca, his voice didn't sound sincere.
"You three can still walk away from this," Steve Rogers said, his voice loud and proud. Bianca rolled her eyes at the superhero's statement, if he truly believed that his words would change their minds then he was sadly mistaken. The fourteen-year-old thought it was crazy that the Avengers thought they would change everything with one battle, or a couple of simple sentences. They thought they were always looking at the big picture, but they never were, no one truly is because of their own biased plans. Many people believed that the Avengers put the people first, but Bianca knew that wasn't true because no matter their abilities, they will always be human.
"Oh, we will," Wanda stated, glaring at superheroes with flashing red eyes.
"I know you've suffered--" Captain Amercia started but was quickly intrrupted by Ultron's mechanical laughing. Bianca let out a huff of her own, not believing that the famous superhero knew anything about suffering, or what the three of them had suffered through their few years of life. Bianca was fourteen, and she had already lost everything to the hands of others and it all started becomes someone gave a group of terrorist bombs. No matter if it was his life or not, there was no turning back time which meant he had to live with the many lives had taken before he left that buisness behind.
"Captain America," Ultron chuckled, "God's righteous man. Pretending you could live without a war. I can't physically throw up in my mouth, but..."
"If you believe in peace, then let us keep it," Thor intruppted, speeching his opinion.
"I think you're confusing peace with quiet." Ultron said.
"Uh-huh. What's the vibranium for?" Tony asked.
"I'm glad you asked that," Ultron answered, "because I wanted to take this time to explain my evil plan."
At that moment, Ultron released a strong beam of energy from his finger, hitting Iron Man right in the breastplate. The superhero was thrown back, slamming into the worn metal wall behind him--creating a huge dent in the already uneven surface. Allowing the cocky grin to dance across her face, Bianca threw her blue orb of ice at Captain America. Seeing the magical orb heading in his direction, the superhero sliced the ball of ice soundlessly. The tension disappeared from the room as the battle commenced, and for the first time since Bianca has been able to use her powers, she finally believed that they had met their match.
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