ROYAL HOLLOWAY, UNIVERSITY OF LONDON
Thor, dressed in casual clothes, waited for Erik Selvig as he left the building.
"I like the look," Selvig commented. "If you're going for inconspicuous, though, near miss."
"I need your help," Thor told him.
"It's nice to be needed."
"It's dangerous."
"I'd be disappointed if it wasn't."
BARTON FARM
Fury met with the rest of the team and said, "Ultron took you folks out to play to buy himself time. My contacts all say he's building something. The amount of Vibranium he made off with, I don't think it's just one thing."
"What about Ultron himself?" Steve asked.
"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 the launch cods?" Tony questioned.
"Yes, he is, but he's not making any headway."
"I cracked the Pentagon's firewall in high school on a dare."
"Yeah, well, I contacted our friends at NEXUS about that."
"NEXUS?" Steve and Anna wondered.
"It's the world Internet hub in Oslo, every byte of data flows through there, fastest access on earth," Bruce explained.
"So what'd they say?" Clint asked.
"He's fixated on the missiles, but the codes are constantly being changed," Fury replied.
"By who?" Tony inquired.
"Parties unknown."
"Do we have an ally?" Natasha questioned.
"Ultron's got an enemy, that's not the same thing. 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 told him.
"I do, I have you. 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."
"Steve doesn't like that kind of talk."
"You know what, Romanoff?" Steve retorted. Natasha smiled mischievously at him while Louise let out a soft laugh.
"So what does he want?" Fury asked.
"To become better. Better than us. He keeps building bodies."
"Person bodies," Tony clarified. "The human form is inefficient, biologically speaking, we're outmoded. But he keeps coming back to it."
"When you two programmed to protect the human race, you amazingly failed," Natasha told Tony and Bruce.
"They don't need to be protected, they need to evolve," Bruce corrected. "Ultron's going to evolve."
"How?" Fury wondered.
"Has anyone been in contact with Helen Cho?"
KOREA
Dr. Cho was using the Cradle to create a new body for Ultron.
"It's beautiful," Dr. Cho said. "The Vibranium atoms aren't just compatible with tissue cells, they're binding them. And S.H.I.E.L.D. never even thought-"
Ultron cut her off. "The most versatile substance on the planet and they used it to make a Frisbee. Typical of humans, they scratch the surface and never think to look within." Ultron used a laser to break open the scepter's blue gem, and a yellow gem that was inside floated out and landed in his hand. He placed it in the head of the body.
BARTON FARM
"Lu and I'll take Natasha and Clint," Steve said.
"All right, strictly recon," Tony stated. "I'll hit NEXUS, I'll join you two as soon as I can."
"If Ultron is really building a body..." Louise trailed, shuddering at the thought.
"He'll be more powerful than any of us. Maybe all of us. An android designed by a robot."
"You know I really miss the days when the weirdest thing in science ever created was me," Steve said.
"I'll drop Banner off at the tower. Do you mind if I borrow Ms. Hill?" Fury asked.
"She's all yours, apparently," Tony replied.
"What are you gonna do?" Steve and Louise asked.
"I don't know," Fury answered. "Something dramatic, I hope."
"I'm gonna finish re-flooring that sunroom as soon as I get back," Clint told his wife.
"Yeah, and then you'll find another part of the house to tear apart," Laura said.
"No. It's the last project. I promise." He kissed her, then Laura watched them fly off in the Quinjet.
---
Thor and Selvig entered the cave.
"This is it," Selvig said. "The Water of Sight."
"In every realm, there's a reflection," Thor noted. "If the water spirits accept me, I can return to my dream, and find what I missed."
"The men who enter that water, the legends don't end well."
NEXUS INTERNET HUB - OSLO, NORWAY
"A hacker who's faster than Ultron?" Tony questioned. "He could be anywhere. And as this is the center of everything, I'm just a guy looking for a needle in the world's biggest haystack."
"How do you find it?" the world tech hub asked.
"Pretty simple. You bring a magnet." He began playfully singing as he typed. "Oh, I'm decrypting nuclear cods and you don't want me to. Come and get me."
CAVE
Thor was in the water and went back into his vision with Heimdall.
"Wake up!" Heimdall yelled and Thor started getting electric charges going through his body.
"Thor!" Selvig cried.
Ultron, in Thor's vision, said, "Extinction."
Thor saw more -- the Avengers, the destruction of Earth. He saw the Infinity Stones and their vessels.
KOREA
"Cellular cohesion will take a few hours, but we can initiate the consciousness stream," Dr. Cho informed. "We're uploading your cerebral matrix... now."
"I can read him," Wanda informed. "He is dreaming."
"I wouldn't call it dreams. It's Ultron's base consciousness, informational noise. Soon..."
"How soon?" Ultron pressed. "I'm not being pushy."
"We're imprinting a physical brain. There are no shortcuts. Even if your magic gem is..."
Wanda, reading Ultron's mind, saw a vision of global annihilation, which horrified her. She screamed and fell back into Pietro's hold before asking, "How could you?"
"How could I what?" Ultron questioned.
"You said we would destroy the Avengers, make a better world."
"It will be better."
"When everyone is dead."
"That is not -- The human race will have every opportunity to improve."
"And if they don't?" Pietro inquired.
"Ask Noah."
"You're a madman," Wanda retorted.
"There were more than a dozen extinction level events before even the dinosaurs got theirs. When the Earth starts to settle, God throws a stone at it, and believe me, he's winding up. We have to evolve. There's no room for the weak."
"And who decides who's weak?" Pietro asked.
While Ultron was distracted, Wanda broke the scepter's hold from Dr. Cho.
"Life," Ultron said. "Life always decides. There's incoming. We have to move."
"That's not a problem," Dr. Cho told him as she canceled the upload to Ultron's consciousness.
"Ugh." He blasted Dr. Cho; Wanda and Pietro ran off. "Ah, wait, guys!" He blasted Dr. Cho's technicians. "They'll understand. When they see they'll understand. I just need a little more time." He unplugged himself from the Cradle.
Steve and Louise were on the roof of the U-Gin Genetic Research Lab and said to the others, "Two minutes. Stay close." Inside, they found the wounded doctor and called, "Dr. Cho!"
"He's uploading himself into the body," Dr. Cho said.
"Where?"
"The real power is inside the Cradle. The gem, its power is uncontainable. You can't just blow it up. You have to get the Cradle to Stark."
"First we have to find it," Steve replied.
"Go."
---
Steve, over the Quinjet's comms, asked, "Did you guys copy that?"
"We did," Clint answered.
"I got a private jet taking off, across town, no manifest," Natasha informed. "That could be him."
Clint, noticing a truck heading across a bridge, said, "There. It's a truck from the lab. Right above you, Cap, Shadow. On the loop by the bridge. It's them. I got three with the Cradle, one in the cab. I could take out the driver."
---
"Negative!" Steve cried. "If that truck crashes, the gem could level the city. We need to draw out Ultron." He jumped onto the roof, joined by Louise.
"No, no, no, no, no," Ultron said. "Leave me alone!"
Ultron blasted the truck door as Steve and Louise tried to enter and the elder super soldier said, "Well, he's definitely unhappy! Lu and I are gonna try and keep him that way."
"You're not a match for him, Cap, Shadow," Clint told them.
"Thanks, Barton," Steve replied as Ultron unplugged himself from the Cradle and blasted Steve and Louise back onto another car as they tried to enter the truck, but with some maneuvering, Steve and Louise managed to get back onto the truck's roof.
"You two know what's in that Cradle?" Ultron asked. "The power to make real change, and that terrifies you both."
"I wouldn't call it a comfort," Steve shot back as he and Louise tried to get in a fight with Ultron.
"Stop it!" Steve's shield got caught in his chest, and he smacked it away before firing at Steve and Louise.
---
Clint said to Natasha, "We got a window. Four, three... give 'em hell."
Natasha dropped out of the Quinjet on a bike and rode towards the truck. On her way, she picked up Steve's shield before saying, "I'm always picking up after you boys."
"They're heading under the overpass," Clint informed. "I've got no shot."
"Which way."
"Hard right... Now." Natasha headed over the truck. She threw Steve back his shield and he used it to knock Ultron away from him and Louise.
Natasha said to the pedestrians as she chased after the truck on her bike, "Out of the way, coming through! Sorry, coming through!"
Steve and Louise continued their battle with Ultron on top of the truck and cried, "Come on!"
"Clint, can you draw out the guards?"
"Let's find out," Clint replied.
Natasha, once again, spoke to the pedestrians in her way. "Beep beep!"
Clint managed to draw out the Drones from the truck. "Heading back towards you. So whatever you're gonna do, do it now."
"I'm going in. Cap, Shadow, can you two keep him occupied?"
Steve and Louise , as they continued their battle with Ultron on a speeding train, retorted, "What do you think we've been doing?"
As Natasha entered the truck, the Drones headed back, picked up the truck and lifted off.
"The package is airborne," Clint said. "I have a clean shot."
"Negative. I am still in the truck," Natasha told him.
"What the hell are you...?"
"Just be ready, I'm sending the package to you."
"How do you want me to take it?"
"Uhh, you might wish you hadn't asked that."
---
Pietro and Wanda turned up on the train to help Steve and Louise fight with Ultron.
"Please. Don't do this," Ultron begged.
"What choice do we have?" Wanda retorted before Ultron flew off.
"We lost him!" Louise yelled. "He's headed your way!"
---
"Nat, we gotta go," Clint warned.
Natasha dropped the Cradle into the Quinjet but her foot got caught by Ultron and she was pulled away.
"Nat!" Clint called. "Cap, Shadow, you two see Nat?"
"If you have the package, get it to Stark!" Steve told him. "Go!"
"Do you two have eyes on Nat?"
"Go!" Reluctantly, Clint took off in the Quinjet. "Civilians in our path." Pietro sped off. Steve asked Wanda, "Can you stop this thing?" As Pietro picked up civilians and moved them out of the way of the train, Wanda used her powers and managed to stop the train.