The Man My Father Always Talked About • A CAPTAIN AMERICA STORY

19

~19~

     The Avengers, excluding Thor, stood in the office as they tried to track to renegade bot that escaped. "Well I can say that Pinocchio is now a hundred times creepier," Clara said to Tony. Her attempt to lighten the mood failed and the room fell silent as Clara continued looking through their files. "It's gone," Clara said and kicked away from her desk. "All our work is gone. Ultron cleared out, used the internet as an escape hatch." She sighed and propped herself down on the desk. She had traded out her maroon dress for a pair of jeans, gray tank top and a black jacket.

"Ultron." Steve said under his breath, the name repeating over and over again in his mind.

"He's been in everything. Files, surveillance. Probably knows more about us than we know about each other." Natasha said, she too wasn't in her fancy party dress anymore, rather in clothes that she borrowed from Clara.

"He's in your files, he's in the internet. What if he decides to access something a little more exciting?" Rhodes asked, his arms crossed as he leaned on a desk.

"Nuclear codes." Maria answered.

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

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

"He didn't say dead. He said..." Steve started.

"Extinct." Clara finished Steve's thought, meeting his eyes with her worried brown ones.

"He also said he killed somebody," Clint said.

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

"Yes there was." Tony solemnly said. He brought up a now destroyed 3D image.

"JARVIS." Clara said, though she didn't mean for it to come out. JARVIS was one of her best friends, even though he was a AI unit. He was a memory of their old butler, who was like a father to her and her brother after their parents died.

"This is insane." Bruce said.

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

"No, Ultron could've assimilated Jarvis. This isn't strategy, this is...rage." Bruce said. Suddenly, Thor stormed in grabbed hold of Tony by his throat and held him up.

"Woah, woah, woah! It's going around." Clint said.

"Let him go Thor." Clara said, though she knew that Tony deserved it.

Tony choked out. "Come on. Use your words, buddy."

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

"Thor! The Legionnaire." Steve said. Thor let go of Tony with regret. Tony walked over to Clara, sitting down next to her on the desk. She rubbed her hand on his back, trying to calm his stress.

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

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

"I don't understand. You built this program. Why is it trying to kill us?" Doctor Cho said. Tony started laughing, making everyone in the room glare at him in annoyance. Bruce subtly shook his head at him while Clara stared daggers at her brother.

"You think this is funny?" Thor asked.

"No. It's probably not, right? Is this very terrible? Is it so...is it so...it is. It's so terrible." Tony said, aggravating Clara.