Emma Joan Tallis

chapter fifty-five: End Game

It's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog.

~ Mark Twain

~*~

"Are you okay?" Steve asked as he helped me walk to the lab. We were lagging behind the others, but I didn't particularly mind. 

"No," I said honestly, "but at least I didn't die this time."

"That's not reassuring," Steve said as we walked into the lab.  

"All our work is gone," Bruce said. "Ultron cleared out, used the internet as an escape hatch."

"Ultron," Steve stated like it left a bad taste in his mouth. 

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

"I doubt that," I muttered. 

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

"Nuclear codes," Hill supplied. 

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

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

"He didn't say dead," I sighed. 

"He said extinct," Steve finished. 

"He also said he killed somebody," Barton pointed out. 

"But there wasn't anyone else in the building," Maria said. 

"Yes, there was," Tony said as he brought up a 3D image of what I knew was JARVIS' consciousness. What was left of it that is. 

"This is insane," Bruce said. 

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

"No, Ultron could've assimilated Jarvis," Bruce said. "This isn't strategy, this is rage."

"Thor," I warned as he marched in and grabbed ahold of Stark by his throat. "Thor!" I warned when he lifted Tony off of the ground by his chin. 

"It's going around," Clint said dryly. 

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

"I have more than enough words to describe you, Stark," Thor responded.

"Oh for the love of-" I began as I marched up to Thor and kneed him in the stomach, forcing him to drop Tony. "Quit it!" He whirled around to glare at me, and I was contemplating applying my heel to his man parts. 

"Thor!" Steve snapped. "The Legionnaire."

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

"Again," I added. 

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

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

Tony turned, and then I heard giggling. I glared at him as Bruce shook his head, "I have had it with you men." 

"You think this is funny?" Thor asked. 

"No," Tony said as he turned around. "It's probably not, right? Is this very terrible? Is it so, is it so, it is."

"Use your words, you know how to speak," I said flatly. 

"It's so terrible," Tony finished.  

"This could've been avoided if you hadn't played with something you don't understand," Thor said angrily. 

"No, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. It is funny," Tony said as he walked up to Thor. "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?! That's it?" Tony demanded, turning on Bruce. "You just roll over, show your belly, every time somebody snarls."

"Only when I've created a murder bot," Banner shot back.

"We didn't. We weren't even close," Tony said. "Were we close to an interface?"

"Well, you did something right. And you did it right here," Steve said. "The Avengers were supposed to be different than SHIELD."

"Anybody remember when I carried a nuke through a wormhole?" Tony asked rhetorically. 

"No, it's never come up," Rhodey said sarcastically. 

"Saved New York?" Tony suggested. 

"Never heard that," Rhodey added. 

"Recall that?" 

"Recall what?" I asked Tony as I poked him in the chest. "Recall that I've lived through more wars and death than you can imagine. That many of us have sacrificed everything? We have to recall every horrible thing we've been together as a team, and focus on your almost dying, and then fix your dumbass mistake?!"  

"A hostile alien army came charging through a hole in space," Tony told me. "We're standing three hundred feet below it. We're the Avengers, Emma, you joined this team. We can bust arms dealers all the live long day, but, that up there? That's-that's the end game."

"That never ends," I told Tony is exasperation. "As long as mankind exists, it gets into trouble."

"And how were you guys planning on beating that?" Tony asked, completely missing my point. 

"Together," Steve said, also missing my point. 

"We'll lose," Tony stated. 

"Then we'll do that together, too." Stark looked at Steve for a moment before turning away. "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."

I turned to leave to see what I could find in what was left, when Tony stopped me. "I'm sorry," he said. I stopped to look at him, but I didn't say anything. "I just-I just wanted to make the world safer. For us to not always be doing this, so we could go home."

I sighed, "you're part of a team, Tony. You need to start acting like it, almost every word out of your mouth is about you." 

"I know you've been through hell and back," Tony said. "What you and Cap have been through, I can't imagine surviving without Pepper. I'm sorry, I don't know what else to say other than that." 

"I know, Tony," I told him with a sad smile before walking away. 

~*~