Dawn of New Change

PREVIOUSLY ON: Dawn of New Change

Taeyong and the Avengers get to meet Clint's big brother, Barney Barnes. Who also has a dog called Lucky, who Taeyong is immediately smitten with. Taeyong has a chat with Natasha, getting some stuff off his chest whilst she gives him a little insight into her backstory. Tony and Steve try to control the situation whilst Thor has left to figure out whatever vision Wanda put in his head.

Fury comes and the Avengers finally start to plan again. 

In Doctor Helen Cho's personal laboratory in Seoul, South Korea, her Regeneration Cradle containing the start of Ultron's new life form was slowly starting to piece together. The Cradle glowed in strips of light, artificial blue, whilst her interns all tended to work around it. Ultron stood just over the Cradle, his looming presence provided a powerful sort of charge around the room that made everyone work even faster.

Helen Cho, currently under the mind control of one, Wanda Maximoff, was taking the lead in creating Ultron's more superior form. Her eyes glowed the same way that Clint's did, during the first Avengers level threat, against Loki. Wanda had her under complete control. Helen Cho moved with confident strides, manoeuvring around Ultron easily as she looked over the Cradle and started to insert a plug into his central cortex, just scanning him for consciousness.

"It's beautiful," she said, overlooking what her Cradle had made. Her work in science was to create a way to regenerate body parts, bring back tissue in a way that the body wouldn't reject it. She had never created a being out of nothing, that was something she didn't even realise she was capable of. "The vibranium atoms aren't just compatible with the tissue cells, they're binding them."

"And S.H.I.E.L.D. never even thought to-"

"The most versatile substance on the planet," Ultron said, hands coming forward to rest against the head of the Cradle, "and they used it to make a Frisbee."

Helen gave a small smile.

"Typical of humans." Ultron turned away, his eyes were set on Loki's sceptre, where a machine had started to break away at the gemstone. It crumpled easily and left in its place was a floating stone, glowing in a warm yellow colour. The Mind Stone. "They scratch the surface and never think to look within." He plucked the stone from the air and went back to the Cradle, setting the stone right at the forehead of his new lifeform. Helen stood just beside Ultron, looking down at the stone with fascination.

***

Taeyong handed a bag full of supplies that Barney carried and gave Lucky a few pets as he walked out of the house. He turned back, waving at Barney, who was sipping on some coffee. Clint's brother gave him a mock-salute and Taeyong jogged out of the house, round to the tent and listened in as Steve gave the rest of the Avengers his little pep talk.

"We'll give him everything we got. Whatever he wants, we take it simple as." Steve turned back and started to walk through the rest of the abandoned circus, starting for the quinjet.

Tony and Taeyong were going to be picked up by their own jet, meeting with Rhodey in the middle because they were going to Nexus. They needed to find whoever it was that was working there, someone was helping them. Taeyong reached over and clasped his hand with his dads.

Tony looked down at him and gave the younger boy a smile, "alright? You know you don't have to-"

"I do," Taeyong said, squeezing his dad's hand. "Let's go."

***

The form was starting to look more physical and complete. Helen turned to Ultron, "the cellular cohesion will take a few hours," she gestured for him to sit down and brought out a couple cables, fixing them to the back of his head. "But, we can initiate the consciousness stream."

"We're uploading your cerebral matrix... now." After clicking a few buttons, the cables also started to illuminate in the same light blue of the Cradle and Helen passed a small smile to the twins as they walked into the Labs.

Wanda was more interested in the Cradle, her lips turning upwards as she took some tentative steps closer. Pietro was fiddling around the Lab, touching a few vials whilst Helen rolled her eyes at him and went back to check on the progress of Ultron's new body.

"I can read him," Wanda said, staring back at the cradle. "He's... dreaming."

"I wouldn't call it dreams," Helen tilted her head, peering between Wanda and the Cradle. "It's Ultron's base consciousness," she explained. "Informational noise. Soon..."

"How soon?" Ultron called, before clearing his throat. "I'm not being pushy."

Helen shook her head and grinned, "we're imprinting a physical brain. There are no shortcuts," she teased.

Wanda crept close to the Cradle, heart beating slowly as her magic swirled within her. She could almost see the stands of consciousness from the Cradle, mimicking the red from her own magic. It was brilliant, she thought, stepping closer. Her hands hovered just above the Cradle and she closed her eyes, feeling the absolute power from whatever source came within the body. Wanda pressed her hands against the Cradle and immediately her brain was filled with a singular vision.

Her body was shocked, almost crumbled as she cried out. An image of a giant rock crashing down upon the Earth filled her mind, she could also feel the fear and hate, and something else. Crying out, Wanda felt arms wrap themselves around her body and pull her backwards. She stumbled onto the ground, hearing shouts coming from her brother.

"-anda? Wanda? Can you hear me?"

"You-" she blinked and found black spots in her vision. Wanda collapsed against her brother's chest, "How could you?" she questioned, looking up at Ultron.

"How could I what?" he said, standing up and already looking at her with a resound head tilt. Already prepared to answer and Wanda shook her head.

"You- you said we would destroy the Avengers, make a better world."

"It will be better."

"When everyone is dead?" Pietro tensed from behind her.

"That is not! The- the human race will have every opportunity to improve."

Pietro helped his sister stand up and glared at Ultron, "and if they don't?"

Ultron's shoulders fell and he stared at the twins silently. "Ask Noah."

"You are a mad man," Wanda whispered.

"There were more than a dozen extinction-level events before even the dinosaurs got theirs!" He scoffed. "When the Earth starts to settle, God throws a stone at it. And, believe me, he's winding up... We have to evolve." Ultron came forward to caress the Cradle, "There's no room for the weak."

Pietro didn't like that. He had a problem, specifically, when men in authoritative positions started to spew about God. Pietro, unlike his sister, did not care for whatever trivial being above created their world. His picture was small and it never included God. He could still feel the pain in Wanda, the panic in her heart because he was still connected with her. But he could also feel her adamance at getting out of the Labs.

Wanda waved her hand and with an ease she was starting to learn with her powers, Helen's mind was now her own, free. Pietro narrowed his eyes at Ultron, "and who decides who is the weak?"

Ultron gave a humourless chuckle, "life. Life always decides." Pietro gave a disgusted look, almost grumbling as he turned back to his sister. "There's incoming."

"Tell me what to do," Pietro said quietly, dipping his head to lean against his sister. She closed her eyes and breathed in deeply, "what do you want?"

"To leave," she whispered, breathing unsteady.

"Okay," Pietro took a step back, breathing in deeply and turning to Helen Cho who, now in her own mind, was starting to stop the progress on Ultron.

"The Quinjet," Ultron said quickly. "We have to move."

"That's not a problem," Cho said, turning the cradle off. Ultron groaned, hand already up like he didn't want to use the extra energy. With a swift beam, Cho flew backwards into her lab set up, falling into a heap on the ground with her gaping hole on her side. Pietro grabbed his sister and took off.

"Uh- wait guys! Urgh... They'll understand." Ultron shot at the rest of Cho's interns. "When they see, they'll understand. I just need a little more-" he ripped the coils from his head and looked back at the body in his cradle. "Time."

***

NEXUS INTERNET HUB

"A Hacker who's faster than Ultron?" Tony questioned, fingers flying over the central keyboard, eyes skimming over the monitors. Taeyong frowned, walking quickly through the giant computer systems that took up Nexus.

"Not just faster, almost impossible," Taeyong murmured, frowning. "And no one's doing this on the down-low?" he asked, walking back over.

There were three people in the control rooms with them, a lady who was the Senior Tech Assistant, one of the Control Maintenance workers who overlooked the computers in particular and an intern. "No," The senior lady shook her head, looking back at Tony worriedly. "Is this... an Avengers-level threat?"

"Shouldn't be," Taeyong answered quickly, walking back over. "There's nothing that would suggest..." Taeyong tilted his head, looking over at the monitor. "There's a spike there," he said, pointing to the codes running through the screen. "It's like... it's working almost as efficiently as you..."

"Huh?" Tony said, trying to slow the coding on screen so he could see what Taeyong was talking about.

Taeyong stepped into his dad's space, fitting easily in place as his own fingers moved a mile a minute, trying to understand what was going on. "There's you," Taeyong said. "You know how you sometimes skip over the big, long, convoluted context and use keys. Then you just get the answer through the frame of the stupid amount of jargon that apparently is important."

Tony scoffed, "what about it."

"Well that's what this is," Taeyong waved his hand around the monitor. He started to hack into the nuclear codes himself, "Look here," he said, hearing the footsteps of everyone else crowding around him. "I put in a little virus, something small but enough that all you need is-" They all watched as the thing seemed to pull strings around Taeyong's coding, taking skips and locking him out of it easily.

"It's you dad," Taeyong said. "It's what you do... you sure you haven't programmed anything to keep Ultron out? Even a fail safe?" He let go and took a step away from the monitor.

Tony furrowed his brows, hands already in his pockets. "I couldn't, not at the Tower when he blocked us out. It'd have to be..." Tony tilted his head towards the screen and he closed his eyes. "The first line of defence."

Taeyong's jaw fell open, "Jarvis?"

"Jarvis," he confirmed. Tony opened his eyes, turned towards the three workers, "we need to get to the centre of your hub. I'm going to need a closer look."

***

Back in South Korea, the Avengers had formed their plan. Steve, having found Cho attacked in her lab, started out on Ultron and specifically the Cradle. He called in a medical team from S.H.I.E.L.D. and hoped that they got to Cho on time because she was bleeding out quickly.

"You're not a match for him Cap," Clint said from his piloting of the quinjet.

"Thanks Barton, but I'm plenty fine," Steve said, grunting and pulling himself up from the door that Ultron managed to blast off from its frame. Ultron, the legionnaires and the Cradle were all in an unsuspecting lorry, going through a highway bridge and not slowing down. Steve stepped up along the steep framework of the door and quickly dodged Ultron's shots before jumping up onto the roof of the lorry.

"You know what's in that Cradle?" Ultron flew up to the roof of the vehicle, arm already out and ready to fire at Steve. He ducked, pushing his shield forward and taking the hit but not falling backwards. "The power to make real change and that terrifies you."

Steve shrugged, taking off his shield, "I wouldn't call it a comfort," he said, before swinging it forward and hitting Ultron backwards. Ultron fell off the lorry but flew higher, blasting more repulsor energy at Steve, who dodged each attack, grabbing his shield and continuously using it to hit Ultron until it embedded itself in his arm.

"Stop it!" Ultron groaned, ripping the shield from his arm and throwing it over the highway.

"Ah come on! That's gonna cost ya a couple fivers!" Steve said, putting his arms up and taking Ultron's next hit, falling backwards but quickly grabbing onto the lorry's front panel before he accidently flew off. The legionnaire driving the lorry, punched through the window and Steve quickly ducked, rolling around the rest of the vehicle, hanging off the side. "Someone tell me they're faring better?"

"We got a window," Clint informed. "Four, three... give 'em hell."

"Pleasure," Natasha smirked, charging up her bike and waiting for Clint to eject her from the bottom of the quinjet. She landed on the ground with a little bump but streamlined her body and weaved in and out between the cars. Her eyes fell on Steve's shield and she sighed, "I'm always picking up after you boys." Bending down, her hand came forward and Natasha swiped the shield from the ground, clipping it on her back as she sped forward, towards the lorry, towards the Cradle.

"We're heading under the overpass, I've got no shot," Clint said.

"Which way?" Natasha asked.

"Hard right... now."

Natasha veered her bike and started to speed through different alleyways, until she saw the giant lorry and both Ultron and Steve fighting on the roof. She sped up until she was at the side, quickly throwing the shield upwards. Steve caught it easily, smashing the shield down on Ultron and rolling away when the AI fell forward.

Clint, who had taken to looking over both Steve and Natasha's shoulder, barely let a curse through his lips as he tried to find a way to get to them. The quinjet was too big and could easily hurt civilians if it meant that he flew too low. Their pick up was also driving under bridges and through narrower roads, so he had to take the high ground.

But the legionnaire didn't even get to Clint, instead he tried to find them on the satellite sources. Which was hard because both Natasha and Steve were fighting and wouldn't respond to him. Clint sighed, leaning against the back of his seat, "this is starting to get boring."

"You- argh- wanna say that again blondie?" Natasha grunted through the comms.

"Oh come on! You're having all the fun!"

"Hawkeye!" Steve cried, "not the time!"

"Ey- ey- Captain..." Clint sighed audibly, flying the jet higher whilst he tried to put a camera on them. He really wasn't getting anywhere. "Oh nice!" The lorry finally got out from the bridge and Clint fired at Ultron, except two more legionnaires, went for the jet. "Oh I spoke too soon, I spoke way too soon!" He flew upwards, flinched when one Iron Legion suits crash itself into the pilot window, throwing punches after punches. Clint grunted, pulling the quinjet joystick upwards and flying further away.

Natasha drove her bike along the railway lines, shooting another Iron Legion suit and ducking when Steve bodily tackled Ultron onto the passing train. She sighed, lifting herself from her bike and pushing on the accelerator. With quick balance, she stood on her bike and jumped forward, landing inside the lorry with a grunt and holding on to the Cradle with a tight grip. "Got it!" she called. Then, before she even knew what was going on, the lorry started to pick up and her balance was thrown off.

Falling off the Cradle, she rolled backward, sitting up and holding against the edge of the lorry. Natasha took one look outside to find the landscape falling back and away from her. The lorry was flying, "huh... okay... so I got it, technically?"

"Technically?" Steve called.

"It's the Legionnaire," Clint explained. "They're under the truck, Package is airborne. Nat you got a plan?"

"Come to me, I'll bring it to you," She said, starting to tie cables around the Cradle. "And Captain? You keep Ultron busy." She smirked at the grunts he let out on his end of the line.

"What d'yer think I've been doin?"

Steve, who was in a train full of South Korean passengers, started to shoo them away as Ultron came barrelling at him. He held his shield up and took the hit, sliding backwards and with a look, found one of the passengers holding the door open, ushering the other scared civilians away. Steve gave them a quick nod, they held a shaky thumbs-up and ran away as Ultron started to blast repulsor energy at him.

He ducked quickly, throwing his shield at Ultron and letting the vibranium work its magic, hitting and bouncing off the AI. Ultron fell backwards and just as Steve was about to hit him again, a blur came from behind and swiped Ultron from behind the legs. Steve frowned, nodding appreciatively and threw his shield at Ultron again.

"Kid?"

"Not a kid," came Pietro's accented reply, before he turned to nod at someone at the back of the train. Steve turned, finding Wanda standing in the middle of the train carriage, her arms coming to a clap and two pieces of metal from the bars overhead clamped themselves down on Ultron.

The AI grunted, falling to his knees. "Please, don't do this."

"What choice do we have?" she hissed.

Steve put his shield up, running to tackle Pietro as Ultron using his hands to beam at the kid. Pietro fell with a grunt, but the front of the train had a hole blasted through it and Ultron flew off. Steve stood up, extending a hand towards Pietro. The brother looked at the hand and snarled, picking himself up off the ground with a grunt and wobbling as he made his way back to his sister.

"I lost him," Steve said, running over to the front of the train, "he's headed your way!"

"Affirmative," came Natasha's reply.

When he got to the front of the train, Steve found the conductor lying face down over his controls, blood pouring from his chest. Steve gently pushed his body back on his seat and turned to the controls, looking over at all the Korean words. "Anyone, know how to drive a train?"

"Nat, we gotta go," Clint said. "NAT!"

Steve couldn't ask what was going on because the train crashed through the stop bars laid out at the end of the tracks, started to skid into a parking lot and was heading towards an open market street. He turned back to find the twins still standing in the middle of the carriage, looking back at Steve with blank faces. He marched over to them, "civilians first."

Pietro stared at Steve but gave a resolute nod. He sped off in that familiar grey blur and Steve turned towards Wanda. "Can you stop this thing?"

"I- I-"

"Cap, you see Nat?"

Steve cursed, "If you have the package get it to Stark! Go!"

Wanda pushed her hands down against the trains floors, face contorted in pain but it started to slow. Until eventually it slowed to a stop and she scurried out of the train. Steve wiped face and took off his cowl, gently helping the other civilians down.

"Kamsahamnida," the civilian who helped the others from before said, bowing her head multiple times as she jumped off the train and ran out to her friends. Steve turned back to find Pietro leaning heavily against the wall and Wanda checking him over.

"Are you alright?" she asked her twin.

"I'm fine. I just need to take a minute."

Steve walked over to both of them. "I'm very tempted not to give you one."

"The Cradle," Wanda scowled, narrowing her eyes at him. Steve wanted to scoff at the audacity of the both of them. "Did you get it?"

"Stark will take care of it," Steve replied impassively.

Wanda's glare turned into a frown and retreated backwards, "no he won't."

Steve squinted his eyes and shook his head, "you don't know what you're talking about. Stark's not crazy."

"He will do anything to make things right," she tried.

Steve looked at her and then at her brother who simply arched a brow. He cursed, turning on his comms, "Stark, come in. Stark... Taeyong? Anyone on comms?"

"Ultron can't tell the difference between saving the world and destroying it. Where do you think he gets that?"

NEXT TIME ON: Dawn of New Change

Taeyong cleared his throat, breaking the silence and then his lips tugged upwards. Even with the tense atmosphere, he could feel laughter bubble up his throat. "So..."

"Yeah?" Tony said, immediately clicking on.

"I mean," Steve rubbed the back of his head.