a lιgнт ιn тнe darĸ

"All of our work is gone. Ultron cleared out, used the internet as an escape hatch." Bruce told the team as Helen Cho cleaned the wound on the back of Five's neck.

Steve scoffed. "Ultron." He muttered bitterly.

"He's been in everything, files, surveillance; probably knows more about us than we know about each other." Natasha told the group gathered, searching what he had access to. Which was pretty much everything.

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

"Nuclear codes." Maria Hill summed up, realising what the man was hinting at.

"Nuclear codes." He confirmed her theory. "Look, we need to make some calls. Assuming we still can." Rhodey claimed, and they all agreed in some way, knowing the man was right.

"Nukes?" Natasha disagreed. "He said he wanted us dead."

"He didn't say dead, he said extinct." Steve corrected, his eyebrows furrowed in thought.

"He also said he killed somebody." Clint reminded, just as Helen Cho placed a bandage over the ginger's cleaned wound.

"But there wasn't anybody else in the building." Maria stated, though it sounded like more of a question.

"Yes there was." Tony interrupted the conversation, making a 3D image of JARVIS' conscious appear, though it appeared destroyed, ripped apart mercilessly.

"This is insane." Bruce breathed, his eyes wide.

"JARVIS was the first line of defence, he would've shut Ultron down. It makes sense." Steve reasoned, voicing his thoughts.

"No... Ultron could've assimilated JARVIS. This isn't strategy. This is..." he paused, letting out a short breath. "Rage." He was familiar with the feeling, due to the Other Guy.

Soon enough, Thor stormed in, anger rolling off of him in waves. He grabbed Tony by the neck and lifted him up, the genius' face already turning red. Five jumped up, eyes wide as she pulled in Thor's cape.

"Woah! Woah— it's going around." Clint explained, trying to ease the god.

"Come on," Tony choked out. "Use your words, buddy." Thor huffed as he let the man go.

"I have more than enough words to describe you, Stark." The god grumbled.

"Thor!" Steve brought the attention back to him. "The Legionnaire?"

"The trail went cold about a hundred miles out, but it's headed north, and it has the sceptre. So now, re have to retrieve it. Again." Thor explained, his annoyance and anger increasing as he furthered his information.

"The genie's out of that bottle. Clear and present is Ultron." The Romanoff said.

"I don't understand," Helen Cho informed. "You built this programme, why is it trying to kill us?" By the end of her question, Tony starts laughing. It was like somebody had said a joke, but they hadn't.

Thor stepped forward threateningly, asking, "You think this is funny?"

"No. It's probably not, right? Is this very terrible? Is it so... is it so— it is. It's so terrible." Tony muttered as he laughed.

"This could've been avoided if you hadn't played with something you don't understand!" Thor argues angrily, his face tinged red due to his rage.

"No, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. It is funny, it's a hoot that you don't get why we need this." Tony scowled slightly.

"Tony, maybe this might not be the time to..." Bruce attempted to stop the billionaire, only to be snapped at.

"Really?" Stark asked angrily. "That's it? You just roll over, show your belly— every time somebody snarls."

"Only when I've created a murder bot!" The scientist defended himself, and rightfully so.

"We didn't! We weren't even close. Were we close to an interface?" He didn't receive an answer as Captain America interrupted the argument.

"Well, you did something right. And you did it right here. The Avengers were supposed to be different than SHIELD." The blue-eyed man claimed, seemingly disappointed.

"Anybody remember when I carried a nuke through a wormhole?" Stark immediately reminded them all.

"No, it's never come up." Rhodey claimed, sarcasm present in his voice and face.

"Saved New York?"

"Never heard of that." Rhodey continued with his sarcastic replies.

"Recall that? A hostile alien army came charging through a hole in space. We're standing three hundred feet below it. We're the Avengers. We can bust arms dealers all the live long day, but, that up there? That's— that's the end game. How were you guys planning on beating that?"

"Together." Steve told him confidently, which raised doubts.

"We'll lose." Stark countered.

"Then we'll do that together, too." Stark looked at him in almost disbelief before the man continued. "Thor's right. Ultron's calling us out, and I'd like to find him before he's ready. The world's a big place, let's start making it smaller." He finished his speech, the other nodding, even after a second or two of hesitation.

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Considering her situation, Five was handling everything well. She was extremely tired and found herself drifting to sleep more often than she would care to admit, but it was going well, nonetheless.

Seeing her tired state, the adults told her to have a nap, considering that she's a child and would most likely not deal with lack of sleep as well as the adults.

So, she continued to sleep as they searched through the physical files, eventually finding Ulysses Klaue, and beginning their new mission.

She eventually woke up when Bruce was anxiously waiting for a signal sent by the team. He was worried that they would need a code green, but before they could relay a message, a flash of red appeared in the man's eyes before he became the Other Guy.

Her first thought was panic.

Her second thought was worry.

Her third though was help.

But it wasn't her who needed the help, it was that city, because the ginger girl knew that she could bring Bruce back, the trouble was getting to the Hulk.

So, she ran. And she ran some more, and more.

And the she finally arrived, dashing past authorities holding threatening guns and straight towards the Hulk. She slowly reached forward, ignoring the shouts for her to back away and run.

Reaching out her hand, she touched the significantly larger one that belonged to the Hulk, and she was pulled away from reality.

The wind was interrupted by shouts of terror and anxiety, a person who was so utterly terrified that it made the tall grass shake with its own fear.

The small girl pushed forward, walking through the grass until she reached a clearing, where a tall glass box stood.

She reached out, placing her hand on the glass, the cold surface making goosebumps arise on her skin. She almost released a sigh of relief when the man inside placed his palm flat against her own on the inside of the glass.

It didn't take long, but he calmed down, his screams and shouts eventually dying away and leaving the glass to shatter as reality faded back into view.

The blinding white light faded away, revealing an unconscious child and Bruce Banner, as himself rather than the green beast he was cursed to become.

The authorities hesitantly lowered their guns, the man and the child being taken back to the jet the Avengers operated.

After explaining the situation, the responding Avengers were confused and concerned with the ginger experiment. After deeming that there were no injuries, and that she was just drained, Clint began the flight to the safe house.