The Girl with Wings and a Metal Arm || Avengers Fan Fic

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

More robots flew from behind a wall, breaking it and covering Cosima in dust and rock. She could now see, move and hear fine, and she needed to stop Ultron. She needed to put an end to him to make sure he never repeated those words ever again. She didn't want to be out of her right mind. She never wanted it in the first place.

Meanwhile, the other Avengers were either busy hiding from the mad, killer robots or trying to stop them and shut them down for good.

Cosima looked upwards, and saw Steve, in a rather different suit than she usually saw him in, in the air thrashing at a robot. She rose from the ground, waving her dark wings up and down. She grabbed the robot as it dropped Steve and smashed it's face with her metal arm. She threw it's lifeless body against a wall where it crumbled into it's basic metal pieces.

"Oh Cosima, I'm not finished with you yet," someone said in a tuneful voice. Cosima turned around and met a piece of rubble coming her way. She dropped down from the air and landed on the ground, stepping and crushing another robot.

Steve on the other hand ended another robot by serving his shield into one's back. It crumpled to the ground, broken and oily. 

"That was dramatic." The unmistakable voice of Ultron rang out. "I'm sorry. I know you mean well, you just didn't think it through. You wanna protect the world but you don't want it to change. How is humanity saved if it's not allowed to ... evolve? Look at these, these puppets. They're much like you Cosima." Ultron crushed the head of a robot he just picked up. Cosima kept a straight face, telling herself she was no puppet, and if she was, it was in her best interests. "There's only one path to peace, the Avengers extinction." 

Thor threw his hammer violently into Ultron, causing him to smash into a thousand pieces up against a wall. His oil spilled out across the floor, but Cosima thought that wouldn't be the end of everything they had seen from him.

The Avengers only seemed to notice Cosima when everything died down. "What's she doing here?" a man asked, curly-haired and wearing glasses. He seemed shaken. 'Surely he wasn't an Avenger. He never even fought those robots,' Cosima thought into herself. 

"I didn't ask to be brought here," Cosima said. "I was-" but she couldn't finish her sentence. Thor had thrown his hammer in her direction, hitting her metal arm and sending her flying backwards into the wall of debris. She hit her head and fell into the dark world of despair and self-pity.

"What?" Thor asked, looking at Steve who glared coldly at him. "She's a threat."

"A neutralised one," Steve said.

"For how long?" Natasha added, leaving the room.

---

Cosima started stirring round about thirty minutes after being knocked out. It wasn't unusual at Hydra to be knocked out, but it was usual to be woken right away. At least now Cosima had time to contemplate what she wanted to do, and there was two things on her mind.

Number one was to escape this facility. She couldn't do anything here. She could sit in her cell and get fat, but what use would that be to Hydra? They could still be looking for her, hoping she would never give away secrets. What if they had turned their backs on her? She didn't wanna think about that.

Number two was to find and eliminate Ultron. He knew of the words that would make Cosima do anything, and he wasn't afraid to use them. Even Stryker was cautious to use them. She had to take him down, for her own sake. She couldn't be controlled. Not by anyone else but Stryker.

Cosima started stirring to the sound of laughter. It continued for a while. It was like she was alone with this person laughing, but she could feel other bodies presence in the room, and they didn't give off the same happy vibes. She could also feel something binding her down to something cold. 

Someone eventually spoke up. "You think this is funny?" Their tone was one of rage.

"No. It's probably not. Right?" It seemed to be the same man who was laughing. And the voice sounded familiar to Cosima. Not like recent familiar, but something deeper. As if she had heard his laugh before in another lifetime. As if she had been in the same room as him once and heard him laugh. And it definitely sounded like Tony Stark. "This is so terrible. Is it so? It is. It's so terrible."

"This could have been avoided if you hadn't played with something you don't understand," said the other man.

Tony started talking, again. "No. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. It's a hoot that you don't get why we need this."

Cosima could hear someone else in the background, saying that he shouldn't say what he was about to say, but Tony probably wasn't going to listen. Cosima focused on trying to wake up from her unconscious state. She wanted to be as silent as a hawk, so no-one would hear her and she could pounce on her prey. She tried to loosen herself from whatever was shackling her down, but she moved slightly. So slightly that some people might not notice, but it didn't go past every eye unnoticed.

"Look who just woke up," Natasha said, looking at her nails and seeming uninterested.

"Cosima?" Steve asked.

"Why would you give me up like that?" Cosima said, turning her head round and eyeing Natasha.

Nat lost it. "Well maybe I'd like to because of what you said on the quinjet." Nat took one of her high heels from the bench beside her and started walking towards Cosima. Steve stopped her with her arms and a glare. Nat sighed, and walked out of the room, totally finished with everything Cosima was involved in. 

"Looks like someone ruffled her bells," Cosima said. Thor couldn't hold back his patience and went to Cosima's steel rope straps and tightened the one across her waist and arms. Cosima bit back her oncoming scream and just closed her eyes. She was losing blood flow.

"Thor," Steve said, turning around to him. "It wasn't her fault."

"Well I'm sure she had something to do with it." Cosima smiled because she usually did have something to do with bad things. "She reminds me of Loki," Thor said under his breath. It was too low for anyone else to hear except Cosima, and she decided to keep this knowledge to herself.

"What is it ... you want to know?" she asked, breathing difficultly.

"Loki's sceptre. Ever heard of it?" Thor asked.

"You mean the staff with the yellow, dazzling stone? Yeah. I've seen it around before."

"Did Stryker ever create something out of it?" Steve asked.

Cosima thought. She knew Stryker was planning to and he was in the process before the Avengers came and mucked up his plans, but technically he never did make anything out of it. "No."

"Never planned too either?"

"Not that I know of," Cosima lied. "Why? You think whatever powered Ultron was from inside the yellow gem?"

"Yes," Steve said. "Do you know anything of it?"

"No." Cosima was truthful. She was never told of it. "Look, if it's all the same to you, I'd like to thrash Ultron too. I know you lot are going after him to try and put a stop to making you lot extinct. What about in exchange for letting me go, I'll help you track and find Ultron and bring him down. You've seen me and watched me. I have a flight ability above any other. What do you say?"

"No. Absolutely not. We do not make bargains with criminals," Thor said.

"No. I think you'll join us," Steve said. The whole room errupted in 'What?' and 'Cap, are you feeling alright?'. Steve continued. "She knows things about the Maximoff twins and can track them down too. She is a good fighter and skilled at that. And it's someone more against Ultron. He seems unstoppable. We should at least let her have a go."

The other Avengers never agreed, but Steve let Cosima join the team. Who knew if he would regret it, but one thing was for sure: Cosima wasn't going to stay out of trouble and be good for the Avengers. She was going to carry on like she never had.