Bit shorter, but I don't want a story that's only seven chapters long . . . granted, that's probably how long the Tennant Specials for "The Creators Saga" will be . . .

Speaking of my Doctor Who series, there's a new one! I've posted my fourth Doctor Who series, "The Diaries of a Teenage Time Lady," and it starts with "Bad Wolf." Please, check it out? It's a lot like this series, except there's no MARVEL crossover. It's got the interludes, too. :)

Anyway, the Avengers try to catch up with what Ultron is up to, and the Maximoffs pick which side they're on.

***

"All our work is gone," Bruce rubbed his forehead as he looked through all of the computers. "Ultron cleared out, used the Internet as an escape hatch."

"Ultron," Steve muttered under his breath, shaking his head in disbelief, Martha squeezing his hand.

"He's been in everything," Natasha added. "Files, surveillance. Probably knows more about us than we know about each other."

"Nuclear codes," Maria put in.

"Nuclear codes," Rhodey repeated in disbelief. "Look, we need to make some calls, assuming we still can."

"Nukes?" Natasha reminded him. "He said he wanted us dead."

"He didn't say dead," Steve shook his head. "He said extinct."

"He also said he killed somebody," Saleen put in.

"But there wasn't anyone else in the building," Maria frowned.

"Oh, yes, there was," the Doctor said darkly. "Who's the first line of defense here in the tower?"

Tony swallowed and brought up a 3D image of a destroyed AI consciousness. "JARVIS would've shut Ultron down," Jessie said.

"No, Ultron could've assimilated JARVIS," Bruce shook his head. "This isn't strategy. This is rage."

Thor growled and stormed over to Tony, grabbing him by his throat and lifting him into the air. "Whoa whoa whoa!" Clint ran to stop him. "It's going around!"

"Come on," Tony grunted. "Use your words, buddy."

"I have more than enough words to describe you, Stark," Thor growled.

The Doctor rolled his eyes and walked over, grabbing Thor's wrist and squeezing. Thor actually winced at the Time Lord's strength and reluctantly let go of Tony. "We don't need any more violence after what we just went through," the Doctor warned him before turning back around. "Do we know what happened to that Legionnaire?"

"Trail went cold about a hundred miles out, but it's headed north, and it has the scepter," Thor rubbed his wrist. "Now we have to retrieve it. Again."

"The genie's out of the bottle," Natasha rubbed her forehead. "Clear and present is Ultron."

"I don't understand," Dr. Cho looked at Tony. "You built this program. Why is it trying to kill us?"

Tony suddenly started laughing, and Jessie bristled, turning to him. "Something funny, Stark?" she asked, folding her arms, the Doctor putting a hand on her shoulder as Saleen cringed. Everyone knew when Jessie resorted to last names, she was beyond pissed. "Care to share with the class?"

"No," Tony shook his head, actually looking a bit scared. "It's probably not, right? Is this very terrible? Is it so . . . is it so . . . it is. It's so terrible."

"And it could've been avoided if you hadn't played with something you don't understand," the Doctor gave him a look.

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

"Tony, maybe this might not be the time to - " Bruce began.

"Really?" Tony glared at him. "That's it? You just roll over, show your belly every time somebody snarls."

"Only when I've created a murder bot," Bruce retorted.

"And that is a murder bot," Saleen snorted.

"We didn't," Tony shook his head. "We weren't even close. Were we close to an interface?"

"Well, you did something right," Steve glared at him. "And you did it right here. The Avengers were supposed to be different than SHIELD."

Tony shook his head. "Anybody remember when I carried a nuke through a wormhole?"

"No," Rhodey shook his head. "It's never come up."

"Saved New York?"

"Never heard that."

"Recall that?" Tony shouted. "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 said simply.

"We'll lose."

"Then we'll do that together, too." Tony stared at him long and hard before turning away. "Thor's right," Steve looked around, taking charge. "Ultron's calling us out. And I'd lie to find him before he's ready for us. The world's a big place. Let's start making it smaller."

***

Wanda led the way into a small, abandoned building, heading for a throne-like chair in the center of the room. "Talk," she said. "And if you are wasting our time . . . "

"Did you know, this church is in the exact center of the city?" Ultron asked. "The elders decreed it so that everyone could be equally close to God. I like that. The geometry of belief." Wanda frowned, reaching out, but feeling nothing. "You're wondering why you can't look inside my head."

"Sometimes it's hard," Wanda shrugged. "But sooner or later, every man shows himself."

"Oh, I'm sure they do," Ultron said, standing and turning around, revealing his new body. "But you needed something more than a man. That's why you let Stark take the scepter."

"I didn't expect . . . " Wanda looked Ultron over. "But I saw Stark's fear. I knew it would control him, make him self-destruct."

"Everyone creates the thing they dread," Ultron nodded. "Men of peace create engines of war, invaders create avengers, people create . . . smaller people? Uh . . . children! I lost the word there. Children. Designed to supplant them, to help them end."

"Is that why you've come? To end the Avengers?"

"I've come to save the world. But also, yeah. We'll move out right away. This is a start, but there's something we need to begin the real work." He gestured around to the destroyed Legionnaires around him. "All of these are . . . all of these are . . . me. I have what the Avengers never will. Harmony. They're discordant, disconnected. Stark's already got them turning on each other. And when you get inside the rest of their heads . . . "

"Everyone's plan is not to kill them," Pietro informed him.

"And make them martyrs?" Ultron nearly snorted. "You need patience. Need to see the big picture."

"I don't see the big picture," Pietro shook his head. "I have a little picture. I take it out and look at it every day."

"You lost your parents in the bombings," Ultron nodded. "I've seen the records."

"Their records are not the picture," Pietro narrowed his eyes.

"Pietro," Wanda began.

"No, please," Ultron shook his head to Wanda, wanting Pietro to speak.

"We were ten years old, having dinner, the four of us," Pietro told Ultron. "When the first shell hits, two floors below, it makes a hole in the floor. It's big. Our parents go in, and the whole building starts coming apart. I grab her, roll under the bed, and the second shell hits. But it doesn't go off. It just sits there in the rubble, three feet from our faces. And there, on the side of the shell, is painted one word."

"Stark," Wanda turned to Ultron.

"We were trapped two days."

"Every effort to save us, every shift in the bricks, I think, 'this will set it off.' We wait for two days for Tony Stark to kill us."

"They know what they are."

"I wondered why only you two survived Strucker's experiments," Ultron looked at them. "Now I don't. We will make it right. You and I can hurt them," he told Pietro, then turned to Wanda. "But you will tear them apart from the inside."

The twins looked at each other, then nodded to Ultron.

***

"He's all over the globe," Maria told Steve, looking at her tablet. "Robotics labs, weapons facilities, jet propulsion labs, reports of a metal man, or men, coming in and emptying the place."

"Any fatalities?" the Doctor asked, approaching as well.

"Only when engaged. Mostly guys left in a fugue state going on about old memories, worst fears, and something too fast to see."

"The Maximoffs," Jessie shook her head. "Has to be."

"Well, that makes sense he'd go to them," Steve nodded. "They have someone in common."

"Not anymore," Maria said darkly, handing over her tablet, showing them Strucker's dead body. PEACE was written in blood on the wall behind him.

"Fantastic," Jessie sighed.

"Barton?" Steve turned to Clint, who looked over from talking on his cell phone. "We might have something."

"Gotta go," Clint said into his phone, then walked over.

"Who was that?"

"Girlfriend."

***

"What's this?" Tony stared at the photo when the entire team gathered.

"A message," Steve leaned back. "Ultron killed Strucker."

"And he did a Banksy at the crime scene, just for us."

"This is a smokescreen," Natasha shook her head. "Why send a message when you've just given a speech?"

"He rubs it in," Jessie pointed to the Doctor.

"Oi!" the Doctor complained. "Usually, they need it!"

"You still rub it in."

"Maybe Strucker knew something Ultron wanted us to miss?" Martha suggested.

"I bet he . . . " Saleen worked on her computer, then huffed. "Oh, look. Everything we had on Strucker has been erased."

"Not everything," Martha smirked.

***

When she brought out the physical files, everyone began searching. "Known associates," Steve looked through the files, snorting. "Well, Strucker had a lot of friends."

"Well, these people are all horrible," the Doctor quipped, flipping through them.

"Wait," Tony stopped Bruce from putting another photo aside. "I know that guy, from back in the day. He operates off the African coast, black market arms."

"Black market?" Saleen repeated warily.

"There are conventions, all right?" Tony huffed. "You meet people. I didn't sell him anything."

"Ulysses Klaue," the Doctor hummed as he read.

"He was talking about finding something new, a game changer. It was all very 'Ahab.'"

"Guess he must've found it," Jessie mused.

"This," Thor pointed to something on the back of his neck.

"Uh, it's a tattoo," Tony looked at it. "I don't think he had it."

"No, those are tattoos," Thor pointed to the rest of Klaue's marks. "This is a brand."

"Translation matrix working?" Natasha looked at the Doctor and Jessie as they examined it.

"A word in an African dialect, meaning thief," the Doctor nodded, clearing his throat. "In a . . . much less friendly way than Idris said it."

"What dialect?" Martha asked.

The Doctor thought. "Wakanada?"

"They speak it in Wakanda," Jessie rolled her eyes.

Martha's eyes widened at the same time as Tony's and Steve's did. "Isn't that where - ?" she began.

"If this guy got out of Wakanda with some of their trade goods," Tony said, sounding worried.

"I thought your father said he got the last of it," Steve said.

"I don't follow," Bruce raised a hand. "What comes out of Wakanda?"

"The one thing I can't get through," Jessie rested a hand on Steve's shield.

"It said on your file that you couldn't phase through vibranium," Saleen recalled, eyes wide.

Steve turned to Tony. "Where is this guy now?"

***

"Don't tell me your man swindled you!" the man himself was saying into his phone as the Maximoffs silently approached. "I sent you six short range heat seekers and got a boat full of rusted parts. Now, you will make it right, or the next missile I send you will come very much faster." He hung up, then made another call. "Now, minister . . . where were we?"

The lights went out, and the Maximoffs took their cues to enter. Klaue looked at them, then laughed. "Yeah. The enhanced. Strucker's prize pupils. Want a candy?" he held up his plate. "Oh, sorry to hear about Strucker. But then, he knew what kind of world he was helping create. Human life, not a growth market." Wanda looked at Pietro, not exactly sure what to do, and Klaue laughed. "You . . . you didn't know? Is this your first time intimidating someone? I'm afraid I'm not that afraid."

"Everyone's afraid of something," Wanda said boldly.

"Cuttlefish," Klaue shrugged. "Deep sea fish. They make lights, disco lights. Whoom, whoom, whoom to hypnotize their prey, then whoom! I saw a documentary. It was terrifying." Pietro zoomed past and picked up a candy, tossing it into his mouth. "So, if you're going to fiddle with my brain and make me see a giant cuttlefish, then I know you don't do business, and I know you're not in charge, and I only deal with the man in charge."

Ultron burst through the glass window and knocked Klaue out of his chair, Wanda silently snickering. "There is no 'man' in charge," the robot said. "Let's talk business."

***

Got to hand it to Steve. He chose a good wife. :) I still love Startha. Wonder what'll happen when Wanda tricks Steve?

What do you think? Would you like to see Martha get in the field again? Comment and let me know.

Next up . . . ooo, it's that time! :) Time to introduce River Song!!! "Silence in the Library" is up next for "Apocalypse Rising!"