Artemis : The Seventh Avenger ➳ Steve Rogers [1]

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

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

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

"Nuclear codes." Maria says, digging shards of glass out from the sole of her feet.

I sigh at the sound of those words, not even wanting to think about what could happen if Ultron got his hands on them.

"Nuclear codes." Rhodey says in agreement, "Look, we need to start making some calls. Assuming we still can."

"Nukes?" Nat asks, "He said he wanted us dead."

"He didn't said dead, he said extinct." Steve corrects looking deeply disturbed.

"Right," I say, "And the most failproof way to do that is to bomb the whole damn place, make sure none of us makes it out alive. Safe to say we shouldn't rule nukes out as a possibility."

The thought makes my stomach churn, but it had to be said.

"He also said he killed someone." Clint adds.

Maria stops tending to her foot, looking up at us, "But there wasn't anyone else in the building."

"Yes, there was." Tony states, looking solemn as he pulls up a hologram of JARVIS' consciousness, now left in fragmented pieces.

I gasp at the sight of JARVIS, leaning forward in my seat.

JARVIS wasn't just killed, he was massacred.

"This is insane." Bruce speaks my mind.

"JARVIS was our first line of defence." Steve says, folding his arms over his chest, "He would've shut Ultron down, it makes sense."

"It would normally, but not in this case." I say, drawing all their attention to me.

Nat raises a brow at me, "What do you mean, Cam?"

"Look at this." I gesture at the shattered remains as I got up from my seat, "If Ultron wanted to get JARVIS out of his way he could've just shut down JARVIS' cognitive configurations, that would've done the trick. But no, Ultron took it a step further. He basically assassinated JARVIS."

"She's right, Ultron could've assimilated JARVIS, too. But he didn't." Bruce agrees, "This isn't strategy, this is rage."

Just the words leave Bruce's mouth, Thor comes stomping across the room with his fists clenched at his side. He certainly doesn't look very happy either.

"It's going around." Clint states nonchalantly, his eyes following Thor as he strides across the room.

The God wraps his hand around Tony's neck, lifting him off the ground as if he weighed nothing.

"Come on," Tony struggles to speak, "Use your words, buddy."

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