The Multiversal Road-Trip: Book Five

29

Stephen noted Loki was even more conscious about checking the hallways for approaching guards after that little encounter. Luckily for him, the only other interesting encounter they had was when they got to the section of the "prison" with the glass fronts and passed by one of Wanda's old friends.

Thankfully he'd never had to meet this particular friend.

Ultron.

They'd been walking past, nice and casually, trying to ignore the stares from the weird-looking robots (it was weird how many AIs existed outside of Earth) when one rapped on the glass and demanded attention. Stephen and Scott nearly jumped out of their skin (not that they'd admit it) and even Wanda and Loki looked a little startled. However, the shock just turned to confusion when Wanda started talking to the demented android.

"Hello, Ultron," Wanda said, crossing her arms and facing the AI. "Fancy seeing you here. In a Robot Heaven."

"Oh, I assure you, this place ain't a heaven," Ultron said, in a surprisingly normal voice, Stephen thought. He looked at Scott, and then at Loki (who was obviously still not actual Loki). Both just shrugged at him.

"Do you know this guy?" Loki asked, and only then did Stephen remember that he might not have known who Ultron was.

"He killed Pietro," Wanda answered, and Loki's face cleared.

"And then you killed me, and confined me to this place, so we're even," Ultron shrugged, side-eyeing Loki suspiciously before looking back to Wanda. "Why are you here anyway? You're a human. Did they send you to the wrong afterlife?" His face lit up... well, as much as a robot could. "OMG-" (yes, he said the letters) "-are you dead?"

"No," Wanda said, and Ultron's face dropped (kinda). "And we've gotta go. See you around."

Stephen and Scott looked at each other, before shrugging and following Wanda and Loki out. When they were almost out of sight of Ultron though, Wanda backtracked and asked, "Oh, and, have you seen Vision anywhere?"

Ultron's face contorted into an expression of... anger? Or maybe like he was just about to throw up. Stephen couldn't tell. "That little... what's the word..." He hit his forehead, making a loud clank with the metal upon metal. "Uh... bastions. No. Custard? A mix of the two?"

Everyone blinked. Stephen truly had no clue what the hell he was going on about.

"Do you mean bastard?" Loki offered, confused.

"Yes! Yes, that's it," Ultron grinned. "Forgot the word there." He cleared his throat and went back to a more threatening tone. "That little bastard? Nope, haven't seen him."

"OK, well, nice catching up," Wanda said, and off they continued down the next corridor. "Not nice," she mumbled.

"He seems like a prick," Scott said, matter-of-factly.

"More than a prick," Wanda muttered.

"He's a real custard then," Scott rectified, and a little laugh actually escaped Wanda's mouth. That was the first laugh.

"Yep, total custard," Wanda nodded. "But now we really need to find him."

"I'm doing my best," Loki told her, frowning. "There are over a million corridors in this place, remember?"

"No... that was just Mephisto exaggerating, right?" Scott asked, and his eyes looked very wide through his helmet's eyepieces. Loki just shrugged. "Crap."

"Well, can we at least speed up?" Wanda pleaded. After that, they did speed up somewhat, not quite jogging, but certainly speed-walking.

Though it wasn't even a single corridor later before they found him.