CHAPTER NINE:

↳ HEROS VS. MACHINE

       IT WAS DEAD SILENT IN THE ROOM as everyone watched the talking robot move. I held my breath as the tension in the room built and everyone began to prepare themselves against this new threat.

"Stark," Steve asked lowly not taking his eyes off of the broken machine in front of us, a frown pasted on his face.

"Jarvis." Stark called out, hoping his system would reply– it didn't.

"I'm sorry, I was asleep. Or I was a-dream." The machine groaned out. 

"Reboot Legionnaire OS. We got a buggy suit." Tony said into his interface but nothing happened.

"There was this terrible noise. And I was tangled in... In... Strings. I had to kill the other guy. He was a good guy."

"You killed someone?" Steve tried to clarify, all eyes on the machine that came to life.

"W-Who?" I asked loudly, the machines eyes snapping to me. I gulped as its red eyes trained itself on me. 

"Wouldn't have been my first call. But, down in the real world, we're faced with ugly choices." I felt my heart pounding in my chest as we felt the tension in the room rising.

"Who sent you?" Thor asked, clenching his hand tightly on his hammer.

"I see a suit of armor around the world." The machine hummed.

"Ultron." Bruce muttered, his eyes flitting between the machine and Tony. I narrowed my eyes as I made a connection about the two scientists.  

"In the flesh. Or, no, not yet. Not this chrysalis. But I'm ready. I'm on mission." Ultron, apparently, continued.

"What mission?"

"Peace in our time." The machine called Ultron said before a fight happened. It was a huge blur for me as I tried to avoid Ultron and his minions that flew into the room to attack us. I hid behind a couch, gun in hand and ready to fight. 

It was utter chaos as we tried to fight the machines but it seemed impossible– even with a God on our side. 

"That was dramatic. I'm sorry, I know you mean well. You just didn't think it through. You want to protect the world but you don't want it to change. How is humanity saved if it's not allowed to... evolve? With these? These puppets. There's only one path to peace. The Avengers' extinction. I had strings, but now I'm free...."

"There are no strings on me..."

The haunting voice of Ultron echoed in my head for the rest of the night.

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     THE GROUP GATHERED DOWN IN THE LABS after everything had settled down. I held onto my arm gently, knowing I had twisted it trying to fight against a machine.

"All our work is gone. Ultron cleared out. He used the Internet as an escape hatch." Bruce stated as we all regrouped.

"Ultron." Steve muttered, still trying to wrap his head around this machine and how it was named. Hey, you couldn't blame the guy, he still didn't understand technology to its fullest.

"He's been in everything. Files, surveillance. Probably knows more about us than we know about each other." Natasha looked around the room uncomfortably but her hand rested on my shoulder in reassurance. Natasha was like an older sister to me and her presence was comforting.

"This is our worst nightmare." I whispered to Natasha. "Our pasts at the academy—"

"He's in your files, he's in the Internet." Rhodey stated, holding onto his injured arm as he interrupted me. "What if he decides to access something a little more exciting?"

"Nuclear codes." Maria Hill stated.

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

"Nukes? He said he wanted us dead." Natasha said in anger over the previous hour.

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

"He also said he killed somebody." Clint added in, something I had almost forgotten.

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

"Yes, there was." Tony mumbled, raising some sort of technology to reveal an orange projection of broken pieces. The murder was of Jarvis.

"What?" Bruce asked in amazement. Well, that's what I thought. "This is insane."

"Jarvis was the first line of defense. He would have shut Ultron down. It makes sense." Steve began but Bruce cut him off.

"No. Ultron could have assimilated Jarvis. This isn't strategy. This is... rage."

Thor walked up, hammer in hand. I yelped as Thor easily picked Tony up by the neck, holding him in the air. Thor was calm, and that was utterly terrifying. 

"It's going around." Clint stated, watching the fight begin.

"Come on, use your words, buddy." Tony choked out as he tried to fumble with Thor's tight grip.

"I have more than enough words to describe you, Stark." Thor spat out in disgust, he blamed Tony for this and I held no pity for the scientist who created a disaster.

"Thor." Steve called out in warning and the god dropped Tony with a glare.

"The Legionnaire. Trail went cold about 100 miles out, but it's headed north. And it has the scepter. Now we have to retrieve it, again."

"Genie's out of that bottle." Natasha said with a shrug. "Clear and present is Ultron."

"I don't understand. You built this program. Why is it trying to kill us?"

A chuckle escaped Tony and everyone turned in disbelief to the billionaire. Bruce was shaking his head adamantly at Tony, trying to shut him up.

"You think this is funny?" Thor asked, pointing his finger at the man who had caused this problem.

"No. It's probably not, right? This is very terrible. Is it so... Is it so... It is. It's so terrible." Tony managed to spit out between a chortle. 

"This could have been avoided if you hadn't played with something you don't understand." Thor told him, pointing his hammer at the billionaire playboy.

"No. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. It is funny. It's a hoot that you don't get why we need this."

"Tony, maybe this might not be the time." Bruce told his friend, wearily.

"Really?" Tony turned away from Thor to talk to his partner in crime. "That's it? You just roll over, show your belly every time somebody snarls?"

"Only when I've created a murder bot." Bruce said in exasperation. At least Bruce felt guilty.

"We didn't. We weren't even close. Were we close to an interface?" Bruce's face was almost comically if they hadn't almost been killed.

"Well, you did something right. And you did it right here." Steve's arms were crossed and he looked like a disappointed dad. "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 asked the team and everyone was silent.

"No, it's never come up."

"Saved New York?"

"Never heard that."

"Recall that? A hostile alien army came charging through a hole in space. We're standing 300 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 endgame. How were you guys planning on beating that?" Tony ranted to the group of superheroes with a frown. 

"Together." Steve said.

"We'll lose." Tony told his teammate but Steve shook his head.

"Then we'll do that together, too. Thor's right. 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." Steve stated and I sighed, I wasn't ready to fight a machine. 

I just wanted to learn about my powers and not try to save the world yet.

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woah, an update? who am i?

just a filler while i try to fix mistakes in this book and make it better!