Even After Everything | Steve Rogers

Chapter 22

The loud noise caused us to cover our ears. We all let out hands down as the sound faded.

A crash was sounded, and I looked to the wall across from me. A worn robot slowly walked through the wall, "Worthy... No... How could you be worthy? You're all killers."

"Stark," Steve angrily looked towards Tony.

"JARVIS?" Tony looked around, awaiting the answer.

"I'm sorry, I was asleep," The robot said, "Or...I was a-dream?"

Tony tapped on his phone, "Reboot, Legionnaire OS, we got a buggy suit."

"There was a terrible noise...and I was tangled in... in...strings. I had to kill the other guy. He was a good guy."

"You killed someone?" Steve asked.

"Wouldn't have been my first call. But, down in the real world we're faced with ugly choices," The robotic voice rang through my ears.

"Who sent you?" Thor asked.

The robot played back a recording of Tony's voice, "I see a suit of armor around the world."

"Ultron!" Bruce gasped.

"In the flesh. Or, no, not yet. Not this...chrysalis. But I'm ready. I'm on a mission," Ultron looked to all of us.

"What mission?" I asked.

"Peace in our time," Suddenly the iron legion broke through another wall, ready to attack us.

One robot came at me and I thrust a sword into its metal chest. Wait. Water and electricity don't mix, right? I immediately created water as another robot came at me. I thrust my hands forward, encasing it. It crumpled to the floor, wires sticking out everywhere. I continued to do this, until no robots remained around me.

"Stark!" Steve yelled, after destroying another robot.

"We are here to help," The robots said in union.

"One sec, one sec!" Tony replied.

"We are here to help. We are here to help... We are here to help. It's unsafe. It's unsafe."

Tony managed to shut them down, and Clint threw Steve's shield at the last alive.

"No more. That's the one," Tony said.

"That was dramatic! I'm sorry, I know you mean well. You just didn't think it through," Ultron said, taking the form in another robot, "You want to protect the world, but you don't want it to change. How is humanity saved if it's not allowed to...evolve?" He picked up a destroyed robot, "With these? These puppets? There's only one path to peace: The Avengers' extinction," Suddenly Thor threw his hammer, smashing him to pieces. The remaining parts of him began singing, "I had strings, but now I'm free."

I shuddered at the voice, the words rattling around my head.

We all moved to the lab, as Banner looked on the computer, "All our work is gone. Ultron cleared out, used the internet as an escape hatch."

"Ultron," Steve shook his head.

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

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

I looked up, "Nuclear codes."

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

"Nukes? He said he wanted us dead."