The Last Shifter (a Loki romance)

Chapter 117

Arista's POV

Someone was shaking me, breaking my concentration and pulling me out of Loki's dream.

"What's the big idea?"

"You're really comfortable here on the floor? It's possible for me, but just about no one else in this house." It was Natasha, "Come on. Dinner is ready and we have a very welcome guest. You may want to straighten your hair first though." That's right, I hadn't brushed it in I couldn't remember how long.

"Ok. I'll be along shortly."

It took me a few minutes to get my emotions locked up and buried, and my face relatively dry. My cheeks felt raw from all the tears I'd spilled. When I finally joined the others in the kitchen, Steve was leaning against a wall, Bruce was standing mostly in the shadows, Tony was throwing darts and missing, and Natasha was sitting at the table. Clint and....Nick Fury? Were helping to make dinner. The fact Fury was alive wasn't a surprise, but how did he know we had been here? And seeing him with a chopping knife and vegetables was a complete shock. It was so...domestic.

"Ultron took you folks out of play to buy himself time. My contacts all say he's building something, and with the amount of vibranium he made off with, I don't think it's just one thing. Hello, Arista."

"Hey."

"What about Ultron himself?"

"Oh, he's easy to track, he's everywhere. The guy's multiplying faster than a Catholic rabbit. Still doesn't help us get a handle on any of his plans though."

"Is he still going after launch codes?"

"Yes he is, but he's not making any headway."

"I cracked the Pentagon's firewall in high school on a dare."

"I contacted our friends at the Nexus about that."

"Nexus?"

"The world Internet hub in Oslo. Every byte of data flows through there. Fastest access on Earth."

"So what'd they say?"

"He's fixated on the missiles." Tony was pulling darts out of the border of the board, "But the codes are constantly being changed."

"By who?" Clint threw a trio of darts, landing them all dead center.

"Parties unknown." Great.

"We have an ally?"

"Ultron's got an enemy. That's not the same thing." I scoffed.

"You can say that again."

"Still I'd pay folding money to know who it is."

"I might need to visit Oslo. Find our Unknown."

"Well this is good times, boss, but I was kinda hoping when I saw you you'd have more than that."

"I do. I have you. Back in the day I had eyes everywhere, ears everywhere else. You kids had all the tech you could dream of. Now here we all are back on Earth, with nothing but our wit and our will to save the world. Ultron says the Avengers are the only thing between him and his mission and whether or not he admits it, his mission is global destruction. All this, laid in a grave. So stand. Outwit the platinum bastard."

"Steve doesn't like that kind of talk."

"You know what, Romanoff?"

"So what does he want?"

"To become better. Better than us. He keeps building bodies."

"But always human bodies. The human form is biologically inefficient compared to other species."