CHAPTER NINE:
YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE DEAD

SALEM STOOD THERE WITH Clint, doing everything he asked of her. Lila and Cooper were there too, Lila was coloring whilst Cooper helped as well. They measured the wood, which both Tony and Steve were chopping in the yard. Salem found herself smiling as she and Cooper talked about what it was like to be a hero, doing everything in her power to avoid the gruesome parts. When Cooper walked away to sit with his sister, Salem stood there, staring blankly at the measuring tape.

"Are you okay?" Clint asked, making the girl blink and look up at him. She shrugged her shoulders lightly.

"I mean, I have to be right?"

"Sal. . ."

Salem gave him a small smile. "Clint, don't worry about me. I can take care of myself, and I promise I'm okay." Clint looked at her for a moment before nodding his head and going back to work in silence with the teenager beside him. "She showed me being back at the HYDRA place."

Clint looked up at her, a frown immediately pulling at his lips at this. Salem continued to work as she spoke. "I was there, and I went through everything over and over again, but this time you and Nat didn't come to save me. I was stuck there. And you know what, I'm not even mad about her showing me that. Sure, it scared the hell out of me, but I'm more mad about the fact that she even touched Natasha."

"I've never seen both of you so shaken, and it scared the hell out of me." Clint told her. "Especially you."

"Why, especially me?" Salem asked, furrowing her eyebrows as she looked up at the man. He gave her a small smile in response.

"Well, for one you're sarcastic as can be and always manage to find a way to smile no matter the situation. And two, you're like the child I never wanted. But look at me now, I got three of 'em. Technically four if you want to count yourself." Clint told her with a shrug of his shoulders. "Point is, I'm not used to seeing you so. . . destroyed. Not since Nat and I rescued you. You looked so terrified, and I couldn't do anything about it and it scared me."

"I'm sorry." Salem apologized.

"You can't apologize for something you can't control." Clint told her. Salem nodded in response before giving the man a side hug. The man smiled down at the girl he thought of as a daughter before giving her a kiss on the top of the head, Salem smiling as she finally felt like she was out of her fears.

☘︎︎☘︎︎☘︎︎☘︎︎☘︎︎

"Hey, you're supposed to be dead." Salem pointed, entering Clint's kitchen when she saw Nick Fury standing there. Although she was there when he supposedly died and disappeared, she just wanted to add on an affect to make sure he was really supposed to be here.

"Well, as far as you know, I am." Salem sat down beside of Natasha who placed an arm on the back of Salem's chair. "Ultron took you folks out of 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." Lila ran into the room, a picture in her hand before handing it to Natasha. Natasha smiled at the girl before placing the drawing on the table as she ran out of the room once more.

"What about Ultron himself?" Steve asked from his place against the door frame. Salem looked at him before her eyes wandered to Clint and his family in the living room. A frown pulled on her face, wondering what it was like to have a mother and father that cared about her.

"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." As Fury said this, Clint's family went upstairs and he entered the kitchen, walking over to where the dishes were.

"Still going after launch codes?" Tony asked, throwing darts at Clint's dart board.

"Yes, he is, but he's not making any headway." Fury answered him.

"I cracked the Pentagon's firewall in high school on a dare." Tony stated, Natasha and Salem sharing a look before rolling their eyes at the man. Salem placed her head on Natasha's shoulder, a gentle smile falling on her face as she sat in the comfort of her mother-like figure.

"Yeah, well, I contacted our friends at the NEXUS about that."

"NEXUS?" Steve asked.

"It's the world internet hub in Oslo, every byte of data flows through there, fastest access on earth." Bruce answered from his spot in the corner of the kitchen.

"So what'd they say?" Clint asked, messing with the darts.

"He's fixated on the missiles, but the codes are constantly being changed."

"By whom?" Tony asked, grabbing his darts from the board just as Clint threw two of them at the board, whizzing right past Tony's face. Tony looked at the man and he shrugged his shoulders in response with a playful smirk on his lips.

"Parties unknown." Fury answered.

"Well, aren't you a whole lot of help." Salem sarcastically said, giving the man a sarcastic smile.

"Do we have an ally?" Natasha asked as everyone ignored Salem's comment.

"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, entering the kitchen and leaning against the other doorway.

"Well, this is good times, boss, but I was kind of hoping when I saw you, you'd have more than that." Natasha said, looking at the man with a sigh.

"I do." He claimed. "I have you."

Salem scoffed in response. "Please."

"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's eyes immediately turned to Salem as a smirk fell over her features. "Steve doesn't like that kind of talk."

"You know what, Sal?" Steve pointed towards her. She smiled and let out a small giggle of amusement, something that made the group of Avengers smile briefly.

"So what does he want?" Fury asked.

"To become better. Better than us. He keeps building bodies." Steve says, becoming serious once more.

"Person bodies. The human form is inefficient, biologically speaking, we're outmoded. But he keeps coming back to it." Tony pointed out.

"When you two programmed him to protect the human race, you amazingly failed." Natasha said, earning a smirk of amusement from the teenager.

"They don't need to be protected, they need to evolve." Bruce said, stepping forward and looking down at the drawing Lila had made for Natasha. He looks up at the others before saying, "Ultron's going to evolve."

"How?" Fury asked the scientist.

Bruce paused, his eyes looking over everyone before he spoke once more. "Has anyone been in contact with Helen Cho?"