SHADOW [Avengers: AOU]

XXV. A Glimpse Of What's To Come

"OOOOh Shadow!"

The glowing green eyed girl gave a long, strained sigh. With her abilities she dropped the metal she was instructed to collect, neatly stacked together next to the other piles of needed materials that sat on the dirt ground. Shadow whipped her body around to face the stupid tin man, her dark cloak lifting slightly behind her.

"What." She spat.

"Hmm. You seemed highly aggravated." Ultron says from his work place a six feet away. The robot was cutting, screwing, and mending materials together at a surprisingly fast rate, "Tell me. Have I upset you?"

"Just focus on your task." Shadow growled.

They were in a cave that dug deep into the earth. The space inside was large enough to hold all the materials gathered and the contraptions within. Small candles were lit for some amount of light. From the corner of her green eyes Shadow noticed the dingy trunk from the warehouse. The one armed tin can had been very insistent on bringing it with him. Walking over towards it she placed on hand upon the top, followed by the other and smoothed them over it. Light clanking footsteps approached from behind.

"Don't touch that!" Ultron swatted her hands off from the trunk. He pulled it with him closer towards and work area to keep an watchful eye on it.

"What is it that you've put inside?" Shadow asked?

"A little something I'd like to call, none of your business."

The dark haired girl rolled her eyes and gritted her teeth. What did Jacqueline value in this walking scrap metal? She was impatiently counting the down the hours, minutes, and seconds until she would finally be able to crush and rip him apart.

"The Source...though I've yet to truly meet them in person, seems—what's the word I'm looking for?" Ultron took a small pause from his work. He snapped his fingers together while his red eyes flickered slightly.

"I think the word your looking for is get back to work!"

"That's four words, actually. But you seem very peeved about her orders regarding me. Yet you continue to follow without a thought. I mean—without a choice." Ultron cut back his chuckle before he turned to face the imposter who resided in Jacqueline's body.

"We are one powerful collective. Thousands of souls in one mind. The Source's plans and goals are ours as well." Shadow says her chin held up high.

"That wasn't the case with Jacqueline. And I'd really, really like to believe it isn't with you."

Shadow brought her chin back down and watch Ultron tilt his head at her in thought. Her mouth opened but no words came out. The robot hummed, sounding disappointed. The green eyed girl frowned before shaking her head. Pressing her lips together she turned on her heel.

"Just stop talking and focus on your task. If you try to delay us anymore Jacqueline will suffer."

"Delay you? Wouldn't dream of that." Ultron's voice echoed after her as she disappeared into the darkness of the cave.

=•=•=•=

"Think I've got something, guys." Natasha says entering the lab after hours of endless searching on all of their ends.

"Me too!" Bruce comes popping up beside her.

Steve, Wanda, Pietro, Vision, Tony, and Clint all pulled away from their own files and gathered towards the middle of the room.

"Look," Bruce went first and pulled up the holographic screen and several pictures of work from inside the files he chose were shown.

"It took time to get them all together in the right spots, kinda like a jigsaw puzzle. They were each hidden images that passed as copy's of a"dismissed" project attached to the files I grouped." He brought them together by pinching two fingers together. Words and lines aligned, making the images much clear to read.