Even After Everything | Steve Rogers

Chapter 24

We all met in the kitchen, and Fury joined us, "Ultron took you folks out of play to buy himself time. My contacts all say he's building something," Fury started, "The amount of Vibranium he made off with, I don't think it's just one thing."

"What about Ultron himself?" Steve asked. I looked up to him and met his eyes. The scene of Steve and I's kiss replayed in my head. I honestly felt giddy, and also felt the need to inform Sam of what happened. He noticed my continuous stare, and gave me a smirk.

"Hey, lovebirds, eyes up here," Nick ordered, eyeing us both. We both snapped our heads over to him, and I felt like a kid in trouble with her parents. Nick looked back to the team, who were all looking at us with curiosity, "Ah. He's easy to track, he's everywhere. Guy's multiplying faster than a Catholic rabbit. Still doesn't help us get an angle on any of his plans though."

"He still going after launch codes?" Tony asked.

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

"I cracked the Pentagon's firewall in high school on a dare," Tony laughed, throwing a dart to the board.

"Yeah, well, I contacted our friends at the NEXUS about that," Nick eyed Tony.

"NEXUS?" Steve asked.

"It's the world internet hub in Oslo, every byte of data flows through there, fastest access on earth," Bruce answered.

Clint walked up from behind the counter, "So what'd they say?"

Nick sighed, "He's fixated on the missiles, but the codes are constantly being changed."

"By who?" I asked.

"Parties unknown."

"Do we have an ally?" Natasha looked to me, then Fury.

"Ultron's got an enemy, that's not the same thing," Nick scoffed, "Still, I'd pay folding money to know who it is."

"I might need to visit Oslo, find our "unknown,"" Tony said.

"Well, this is good times, boss, but I was kind of hoping when I saw you, you'd have more than that," Natasha rolled her eyes, looking to Fury.

"I do, I have you," he looked to every one of us, "Back in the day, I had eyes everywhere, ears everywhere else. Here we all are, back on earth, with nothing but our wit, and our will to save the world. So stand. Outwit the platinum bastard."

I looked over to Steve again, grinning, "Steve doesn't like that kind of talk."

"You know what, Wilder?" Steve laughed.

"So what does he want?" Nick asked.

Steve nodded, looking away from me and back to him, "To become better. Better than us. He keeps building bodies."

"Person bodies," Tony corrected, "The human form is inefficient, biologically speaking, we're outmoded. But he keeps coming back to it."

"When you two programmed him to protect the human race, you amazingly failed," I said, looking to Tony and Bruce.

"They don't need to be protected, they need to evolve. Ultron's going to evolve," Bruce looked at me.

"How?" I asked.

"Has anyone been in contact with Helen Cho?"

We discussed our plan to meet and talk with Helen, "I'll take Natasha, Cora, and Clint," Steve looked to the three of us.

I got up from the table, pushing my chair in. Tony stopped Steve and I before we could leave, "Alright, strictly recon. I'll hit the NEXUS, I'll join you as soon as I can."