Rapid Love | P. MAXIMOFF

[3] no roots

Tony had tried to convince Beatrix to attend the farewell party he was hosting but she declined, opting to stay in her room in the comfort of her self created bubble, away from the rest of the world.

He seemed unable to take a hint, however, and frequently sent both robots and humans after her and she swiftly sent them away, threatening them by saying if they returned, she would burn them to ashes.

She didn't actually have the ability to do this but that was besides the point.

Despite her previous inclination to remain put in her room, upon checking the security cameras, she saw that the only people that remained were those she tolerated. What harm could be done if she just went down for food and then vanished again?

Beatrix stuck her earbuds in her ear and hummed quietly along to 'Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy' as she made her way through the facility. A huge 'warning' in red clouded her vision and for a brief moment, she thought the twins had somehow broken in.

She pulled up the security camera again to find the group battling what appeared to be one of Stark's suits. It was damaged and seemed to be falling apart due to the Avengers repeated attempts to put it down.

"With these? These puppets?" the machine inquired, holding up one of Stark's dismembered legions. "There's only one path to peace: The Avengers' extinction."

Beatrix was running purely on instinct, flashing into the kitchen and getting to everyone within seconds of getting what she needed.

She dumped the bucket of water over the robots head, causing the wires to fry and the body to collapse to the floor. "I had strings, but now I'm free. There are no strings on me, no strings on me."

She huffed, dropping the bucket and allowing it to clatter to the ground, "I really hate parties."

"All our work is gone," Bruce announced after checking the computers in the lab. "Ultron cleared out, used the internet as an escape hatch."

"He's been in everything," Natasha explained. "Files, surveillance. Probably knows more about us than we know about each other."

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

Maria huffed, "Nuclear codes."

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

"Nukes?" Natasha inquired. "He said he wanted us dead."

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

Clint spoke up, "He also said he killed somebody."

Maria shook her head, "But there wasn't anyone else in the building."

"Yes there was," Tony countered as he pulled up the now demolished 3D image of JARVIS.

Bruce shook his head in disbelief, "This is insane."

"JARVIS was the first line of defense," Steve pointed out. "He would've shut Ultron down, it makes sense."

"He easily could've made JARVIS a part of him," Beatrix countered as she circled the digital consciousness. "This is pure rage." Her gaze flickered over to Tony, "I knew you were an idiotic genius but this is a stupid beyond even my comprehension."

Thor grabbed a hold of Tony within seconds and held him up by his throat. "Woah, woah, woah!" Clint spoke up, "It's going around."

"Come on," Tony tried. "Use your words, buddy."

Beatrix waved her hand, "Put him down, Thor."

Thor reluctantly put him down and she swiftly nailed Tony between the legs with her knee, "You deserve worse than that." He groaned as he clutched his groin in pain.

"Thor," Steve spoke up, "The Legionnaire."

"Trail went cold about a hundred miles out but it's headed north, and it has the scepter," he answered. "Now we have to retrieve it. Again."

"The genie's out of that bottle," Natasha announced. "Clear and present is Ultron."

"I don't understand," Helen, the doctor who had helped Clint, spoke up. "You built this program. Why is it trying to kill us?"

Tony started laughing at this and Beatrix raised an eyebrow at him. Bruce shook his head slightly, clearly trying to get him to stop.

"You think this is funny?" Thor demanded.

"No," he answered. "It's probably not, right?" He shook his head, "Is this very terrible? Is it so...is it so...it is. It's so terrible."

"You messed with something you didn't understand fully," Beatrix reminded him with a scowl. "This all could have been avoided if you just tucked your tail between your legs and pulled your head out of your ass long enough to think something through."

"No, I'm sorry," he apologized. "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 to-" Bruce tried.

"Really?" Tony inquired. He looked over at Bruce, "That's it? You just roll over, show your belly, every time somebody snarls."

Bruce shook his head slightly, "Only when I've created a murder bot."

"We didn't," he pointed out, gesturing between the two. "We weren't even close. Were we close to an interface?"

"Well, you did something right," Steve informed him. "And you did it right here. 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 and Beatrix looked up at the ceiling in disbelief.

"No," Rhodes replied with narrowed eyes. "It's never come up."

"Saved New York?"

"Never heard that."

"Recall that? A hostile alien army came charging through a hole in space," he reminded them. "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?" He pointed up to the sky, "That's...that's the end game. How were you guys planning on beating that?"

Steve crossed his arms over his chest, a pointed look on his face, "Together."

"We'll lose," Tony deadpanned.

"Then we'll do that together, too," he replied. Tony watched him for a moment before looking away. He addressed the group, "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."