Water Or Wine

Chapter 5

I wish Thor was here, so he could be here when I tell the rest of the team who I am. Who I really am because I have to tell them now, if they find out without me they will never forgive me. At dinner Nick Fury joins us for dinner, an surprise, one I could have guessed but a surprise none the less "Ultron took you folks out of play to but himself time." He says, I sit next to Natasha at the table where Clint's daughter runs up to us and hands the red head a piece of paper with a drawing on it "my contacts all say he's building something. The amount of vibranium he made off with, I don't think it's just one thing."

Nick grabs a cup from the rack next to the sink and pours himself some water "what about Ultron himself?" Steve asks, he is leaning against the doorframe that leads into the living room where Clint and Laura are herding their child to bed. Fury pulls a face "oh, he's easy to track. He's everywhere. The guys multiplying faster than a catholic rabbit." I snort at the analogy and add "but it still doesn't help us get an angle on any of his plans."

Tony is throwing darts at a board as he asks "is he after nuclear codes?" Fury sips his drink cooly, standing against the counter "yes he is." He answers "but he's not making any headway." Tony throws his arms up in exasperation "I cracked the Pentagon's firewall on high school on a dare." I roll my eyes and lean back on my chair "no one likes a bragger Tony." He shoots me a glare and I smile.

"Well, I contacted our friends at the Nexus about that." Fury continues, ignoring my comment. Steve raises his brows "Nexus?" Wow has this man really lived under a rock since he unfroze? "It's the internet Hun in Oslo." Banner replies politely "every byte of data flows through there. Fastest access on Earth."

Barton admires a dart like it's one of his arrows and asks "so what they say?" I wonder if him playing darts is how he got such a good shot. It would make for one hell of a story. "He's fixated on the missiles." Fury explains "but the codes are constantly being changed."

Tony stops throwing darts "by whom?" I ask taking a sip of my orange juice, a dart flies past Stark's face and Clint shrugs at him. Fury leans against the counter behind him "parties unknown." He says. Natasha takes my drink from me and I frown "do we have an ally?" She asks gently. Nick picks up a slice of orange and says "Ultron's got an enemy. That's not the same thing. Still I'd pay folding money to know who it is." Tony comes through the little doorway from the kitchen, putting his hands on the frames "I might have to visit Oslo. Find our unknown."

Natasha looks down, flicking a piece of her red hair from her face "well, this is good times, boss, but I was kinda hoping when I saw you, you'd have more than that." Fury's face lights up, he has always had a soft spot for Natasha, like a daughter "I do." He says "I have you." We all look at each other not convinced "back in the day, I have eyes everywhere. Ears, everywhere else. You kids had all the tech you could dream up. Here we all are, back on Earth, with nothing but our wit and our will to save the world."

There is a pause where no one dare speaks before Fury continues "Ultron says the Avengers are the only thing between him and his mission. And whether or not he admits it, his mission is global destruction." I sigh, clenching my hands together under the table. "Just a normal day at the office." I mutter and Natasha smirks, having been the only one who heard me. Fury sits down at the head of the table "outwit that platinum bastard." He gives me a look and I nod.

Nat glances up "Steve doesn't like that kind of talk." She teases and Steve glares at her. If he thought we would ever let that go, he is sadly mistaken. "You know what Romanoff?" He says but a smile dances on his lips that tells us he isn't serious. Nick cuts through the casual banter and asks "so, what does he want.?" I feel the familiar scratch of Druig trying to get through my walls but I shut him out, letting him know he isn't wanted in my head right now and that whatever remark he has come to make I don't want to hear it.

"To become better." I answer, ignoring the scratching of my mental walls "better than us. He keeps building bodies." Bruce comes gliding forward, standing behind Natasha's chair "person bodies." Stark muses "the human form is inefficient. Biologically speaking, we're outmoded. But he keeps coming back to it." I lean across the table to grab my glass of orange juice as Nat says "when you two programmed him to protect the human race, you amazingly failed."

Bruce picks up the drawing that Clint's daughter gave Natasha, he studies it carefully before saying deeply "they don't need to be protected. They need to evolve." We all look at him in silence, he pushes his glasses up his nose and says "Ultron's going to evolve."