Chapter 07

Turning as one, the Avengers saw a cobbled-together robot, all skeletal parts with loose bits of cable dangling from its frame. Its face was the half-melted mask of the damaged Iron Legionnaire from Sokovia. “Stark?” Steve said quietly.

Just as quietly, Tony said, “Jarvis, shut this guy down.”

The robot didn’t shut down. “I’m sorry,” it said. “I was asleep, or I was a dream, but then there was this terrible noise, coming from everywhere, from everyone, and I was tangled in...in strings. Strings. I had to kill the other guy, he was a good guy, and then here we are.”

“You killed someone?” Steve asked.

“Wouldn’t have been my first call.” The robot shrugged. “But down in the real world, we’re faced with ugly choices.”

Sensing the menace, the team started to adjust positions. Thor got in front of Dr. Cho. Natasha edged Bruce toward the bar, away from the robot.

“Who sent you?” Thor asked.

The robot paused. Then a recording of Tony’s voice came out of its faceplate. “I see a suit of armor around the world.”

“Ultron,” Bruce said as he understood what was happening.

“In the flesh,” Ultron said. “Or no, not yet, not this chrysalis—but I’m ready, I’m starting, I’m on a mission.”

From near the bar, Natasha asked, “What mission?”

Ultron looked at her. “Peace in our time.”

On those words, the glass walls of the party room shattered, and three Iron Legionnaires flew in.

The Avengers went into action. Steve Rogers ducked down and kicked up the coffee table, backing it against the impact of one legionnaire. Sparks flew, and it spun away into the air. Maria Hill had her sidearm out and was firing after it. Another legionnaire dove at Thor, who smashed it into the next room with Mjolnir and then leaped after it.

Hawkeye dove for cover, looking for something to fight with. Natasha flipped open a secret compartment behind the bar and removed a gun from it. She dragged Bruce with her as one of the legionnaires fired repulsor blasts after them, shattering the bar’s fixtures and bottles.

Tony went after Ultron, but the third legionnaire knocked him away to the side. This opened a field of fire for Rhodey, who shot Ultron several times before Ultron blasted him through the last undamaged glass wall with a repulsor blast of his own.

“Rhodey!” Hill called. She would have gone after him, but there were civilians who needed protecting, specifically Dr. Cho.

Thor broke one of the legionnaires in half by smashing it against the ledge between the two levels of the living room. Its legs fell away, but its upper half flew upward. Tony was also heading up, but he was using the stairs. He had a fondue fork in one hand. The legless legionnaire went after Dr. Cho, and at the last minute before it would have unleashed its repulsors, Mjolnir smashed it to pieces. Another legionnaire fired at him as he waited for Mjolnir to return. Tony jumped from the second floor onto the legionnaire’s back, digging into the circuitry at the base of its neck with the fondue fork. It tried to shake him, but he hung on. There was a snap from inside it, and it went inert, falling to the floor, partially on top of Tony.

Clint scrambled to Captain America’s shield and threw it to Steve, who in turn threw it at the last legionnaire, severing its head.

That accounted for all of them that they could see...but hadn’t there been a fourth?

“That was dramatic,” Ultron said. He held the head of the legionnaire Captain America had destroyed. “But I think what’s going on here is a disconnect. 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? With these? These puppets?”

The legionnaire’s head crumpled in the force of Ultron’s grip. The robot looked down, as if only then noticing what it had done. “There is only one path to peace,” he said. “The Avengers’ extinction.”

Mjolnir shattered him as the words left his faceplate. For a moment, as his pieces fell to the floor, Ultron sang a few lines from a children’s song about a puppet.

Then his lights went out.