#instead of creating jarvis they are making ultron bro stop

[gonnaeatyourgirlfriend]

i miss one citation and i have to face the wall but all AI does is steal and not only there are no consequences, it's encouraged?

[histrionic-dragon]

A little unusual: An MCU AU idea/partial fic outline

This floated into my head as I floated awake this morning.  My subconscious apparently put together the basic idea of this thread (Tony doesn’t know, but he has super-soldier serum because of Howard’s experiments on himself) with all the fanfics about “Hydra used Bucky and/or Steve’s DNA to try to make another supersoldier” and came up with a rich angst-mine.

Say that one of these Hydra experiments succeeded in the early seventies--succeeded, that is, in that the subject was viable. They have no idea if the super-soldier serum traits have been passed on. The only place with the equipment required to test that is a SHIELD lab, so a few well-placed Hydra minions sneak the two-day-old baby in for testing. But babies cry, and the boss has a habit of wandering around the facilities, especially the labs, when he can’t sleep.

Howard and Maria Stark can’t have children. But when Howard happens upon a baby apparently abandoned in a SHIELD lab, well, that’s concerning for a number of reasons. (The SHIELD agents closest to the lab swear they heard the crying and were coming to check it out, and they think they saw someone run away that way, Director, but they couldn’t give chase because they wanted to make sure the baby was alright.... and as they say this, they kick the super-soldier-serum detection test kit under a nearby desk. Maybe we should heighten the security around the labs, Director Stark.)  But when no one claims the kid, it kind of feels like fate, too. I mean, a child discovered in a lab? There’s really no one better to pass on a legacy of creation and defense to, is there?

They never tell the kid he’s adopted--apparently until the last few decades, that was the norm--and they don’t tell many other people, either, just some close friends, who they ask not to tell the boy either. (Obadiah Stane is surprised at first, and worried about Howard being distracted by a child, but Howard laughs and tells him that will never happen, and if the kid somehow isn’t interested in science, well, maybe he’ll just dump the company on Obie instead! Stane laughs and drinks to that, and it’s forgotten.) Howard and Maria both travel a lot, and everyone just assumes that they were somewhere else during the pregnancy. The child has dark hair and he’s scary smart and he picks up Howard’s mannerisms like the little sponge he is, and it never crosses anyone’s minds that he’s not their biological son.

They wanted him, and they were happy to have him, but even that doesn’t stop Howard from getting sucked up into his work. Despite what he said to Obie, Howard never truly believed his little laboratory foundling wouldn’t be interested in science. If anything, it might even make him more desperate to have the child be the person he can pass on his legacy to. They wanted him, but it doesn’t stop the friction. It doesn’t stop them from arguing.

It’s a little unusual, as he gets older, how he can pull so many all-nighters, handle heavy sheets of metal alone, and has reflexes good enough to escape the worst lab accidents even when he’s tired or drunk or hungover, but that’s genius for you--genius or a skewed but intense work ethic. Probably both. You’d need both for that, right? The endless buckets of money and privilege can’t hurt his ability to get away with things, either. He even keeps functioning longer than you’d expect when he forgets to eat. He’s just...he’s tough, and dedicated, but that’s not so unusual, right?

“The serum amplifies what is already there.” What does that mean if it’s passed along genetically? What’s already there in a newborn? Well: potential. Babies want to grow, and learn, and do. They want to live and create and be loved. Turn that up to 11 and you have someone larger-than-life, a brilliant, grandstanding, partying, hard-working inventor/CEO.

No one thinks of that as superhuman, just a little extra.

And so it’s a little unusual when he stays alive long enough for Yinsen’s jury-rigged car-battery medical device to stop the shrapnel from reaching his heart. It’s a little impressive that he can get up and stagger to the lab after Stane paralyzes him, instead of lying helpless on the couch, frozen, until he dies. Maybe he lives with palladium poisoning for several months without anyone but him noticing the effects because the effects aren’t as bad as they would be for someone else, at first. Whether he’s resistant to Loki’s mind control because of some mysterious boost to his own psychic resistance or because the scepter needs skin contact, not reactor contact, is unclear.

He’s Tony Stark. He’s Iron Man. No one notices if he’s a little unusual because he’s always at some far end of the bell curve.

And then there’s the Hydra data drop, and Steve Rogers with a crazy story, asking him if he can find anything in the data drop, anything to supplement the files Natasha got from Russia. So he looks. The Hydra database doesn’t have much information on the Winter Soldier (they must have kept most of that offline, or there would be no canonical shocking revelation from Zemo; it would have been out there already). But there are a few mentions of a “Project Snowfall” that he digs into because of the loose similarity in theme, just to be thorough. He thinks it’s related from a few redacted lines, and that makes it all the more interesting, because the project was apparently successful, but mysteriously abandoned.

Tony looks at the files. It’s weird biological stuff, mainly, and he’s not a biologist and he’s just skimming, but there’s a date near the end with “viable” and then a date just days later with “confiscated before testing,” which isn’t a term he’s seen before in these files. Not “terminated,” not “tests negative,” but “confiscated,” accompanied by a note on trying again when more secure facilities can be found for the testing process. Then a note on holding off on that because “distant observation of subject” reveals nothing special.

Maybe he wouldn’t think much of it, except for when those final dates are.

And then he thinks of something Obadiah Stane said when he took the reactor out of Tony’s chest.   ....But no. No, that’s crazy.

Tony looks at the files.

Tony looks in the mirror.

Tony, for the first time, looks at his own social security card and birth certificate, and then at the other--ever-so-slightly questionable--documentation around the beginning of his life.

Tony, feeling embarrassed and irritated and--always--curious, asks JARVIS to muck around with Photoshop and face recognition software and pictures of Tony, Howard, and Bucky Barnes.

Tony talks to Pepper.

...I’m not sure what happens next, and how it affects Civil War, because it depends on when Tony and Steve talk about what, and when Tony gets his hands on a DNA sample and shoves two random samples at Bruce and says “just run it. Please,” and refuses to say what’s going on.  (Or whether Bruce is around for him to do so--stupid Age of Ultron taking away Tony’s science bro.) And there are a million ways Bucky could react to finding out, too. I may write one or more ways it could go in this same sketch/outline way later. For now I just have the basic premise.

[minaminokyoko]

Favourite avengers movies scenes?

How on earth do you expect me to ever narrow down enough to not list the entire trilogy in general? Holy hell. I am a big fat Marvel fangirl and I could write a fucking dissertation on scenes complete with charts and graphs. For the sake of argument, let me see if I can at the very least just highlight the tippy top favorite moments from the first three Avengers films. Keep in mind, I fucking love all three of them to death and could rave about them for days at a time.

The Avengers

-Loki’s confrontation with Nick Fury. This scene sets the tone for the rest of the film so fucking well, man. It’s just brilliantly done to see that whatever humanity that we saw in Loki in Thor has pretty much flown out the window and he’s here to wreak havoc and start a war, and he doesn’t care how many people he destroys in the process. I also like that it shows the vast gap in power and experience between the SHIELD agents and an Asgardian. Loki all but flattens everyone in a matter of seconds. Seeing him among other Asgardians can kind of make you forget he’s literally a thousand year old god and is tough as nails. He’s also low down and ruthless and that’s the kind of thing that is scary as hell when you realize that’s what they���re all up against.

-Nat’s “interrogation” with the Russians. I actually love every single Avenger’s introduction scene, but this one is so delightful in that Nat shows us just why she is an Avenger even though she has no enhanced abilities: deception, manipulation, and just being an incredibly agile combat expert. I am most delighted with her scene because before Avengers, I had no regard for Nat at all and thought she was just fanservice, but here, she completely proved her worth as a character and to the team, and I got on board as a fan of her just from her opening scene wiping the floor with these idiot Russian dudes.

-Tony and Bruce getting to know each other in the lab. From a character standpoint, this is an outstanding scene. Tony is trying to draw Bruce out of his shell, and the sympathy and empathy he has for him is so palpable that it’s why we all dubbed them the Science Bros and why it’s one of the best friendships in the Avengers. Tony is so awesome for joking with Bruce and treating him like a normal person and reminding him that there is at least one person aboard that helicarrier who doesn’t see him as some terrifying monster and knows just from reading up on him that he’s not a bad person. It’s so charming and wonderful.

-Stuttgart. Man. Man, oh man, this is a well done scene. The build up to Loki’s horrifying actions is so great and so is this freaking diva’s grandstanding once he demands the poor, confused Germans kneel before him. It’s fascinating to me because Loki has an almost childlike need for attention, as if his frustrations with his failure to take over Asgard as king has manifested itself into this very basic need to be acknowledged as being a powerful threat. Loki could kill an average human being with a flick of his wrist. His comparison of “an ant has no quarrel with a boot” while cruel is accurate, but here’s the thing, Loki: if you fuck with enough fucking ants, you can get your ass into a lot of trouble, and we’re fireants, not sugar ants, buddy. And ants who band together get shit done. The old man who stood up to him, in my book, is a fucking hero all on his own and I think it’s one of the most well crafted pieces of dialogue in the entire MCU. “There are no men like me.” “There are always men like you.” Oh, standing ovation for that piece of dialogue. Give it an Oscar. Then Cap swinging in to kick ass and Tony swooping in beside him with an equally over the top entrance to Loki’s was the icing on the fucking cake.

-Thor retrieving Loki. Hnnnnnnngh, okay, so here’s the thing: I fucking love Thor and Loki’s relationship even before Ragnarok came out and upgraded it. Thor is and always has been since his first movie a man with very deep emotions who loves and loves deeply with all his heart, and his confrontation with Loki just wounds me so much. How Thor throws Loki to the ground and yet yanks him to his feet and just holds him there, his hand on his face, looking so torn between agony and relief that his brother is alive. “I thought you dead.” “Did you mourn?” Fuck me, this scene is absolutely brutal to my feels. Thor and Loki’s debate was nothing short of excellent as Thor tries to bring Loki around, and the thing is, he means it. He means every fucking word, that he would take the Tesseract and bring his brother home, and he doesn’t care about facing the music, he just wants his goddamn brother back even after all Loki has done so far in the story. Y’all better stop sleeping on Thor, man. His heart is by far the best thing about him, forget all the delicious muscles and that perfect teddy bear smile. Thor has miles and miles of heart, and that’s why I love this scene so much. 

-Nat tricking Loki into revealing his plan. This scene is so good I based an entire goddamn fanfic around its premise. Dude. Nat fucking Romanov, y’all. I love how this scene is staged and executed. I love Loki starting out almost gentle and conversational, as if for once he’s going to just be an actual person and not a monster, and then he slips back into that nasty egotistical megalomaniac when he thinks he has one over on Nat. And then Nat fucking schools him. It’s why I have a personal headcanon that he developed a hatecrush on her after she, a mere mortal, tricked the goddamn God of Mischief. It solidified Nat as one of my favorite female heroes forever. I loved seeing her use that feminine “weakness” to let him run his mouth. I also love that his cruel words did in fact affect her and motivated her even more to both save Clint and to go to war with Loki at the end.

-The whole ass helicarrier attack sequence. I mean, I don’t even need to go into detail. You already know. 

-Tony confronting Loki. This is the scene that assured us that what followed would be one of the greatest fight sequences in cinematic history. I pretty much have most of Tony’s dialogue memorized because it had such an effective impact on me from a storytelling standpoint. Tony standing up to Loki as a mortal man with no suit, candidly threatening him with barely suppressed rage that Loki murdered Coulson, a comrade, in cold blood, is downright amazing.

-The battle of New York. Boom. Again, no words necessary. Perfect fucking sequence from start to finish.

-Thor trying one last damn time to bring Loki around. Oh, my heart. My poor fucking heart. Thor really loves his brother and he would do anything to have him back. Is it naive? Yes. But it’s also a beautiful statement of what family truly means to Thor and it breaks my heart. The fact that a tear slides down Loki’s face when he stabs Thor and mutters, “Sentiment” is so not cool. As much as Loki pretends to be the Big Bad Wolf, there is something still young and human inside of him even though he pretends it isn’t there. All my creys.

-Hulk trouncing Loki. I went and saw The Avengers three times in theaters, and two out of the three times, everyone cheered so loud I didn’t hear the Hulk say “puny god” over all the noise. It was that satisfying a scene.

Age of Ultron

-The entire beginning sequence. Fucking loved it. What masterful ass-kicking and showcasing of the team dynamic. It made me want a longer lead in to how they all got reunited because it was so enjoyable. “Language!” Oh, Cap.

-Jarvis and Ultron’s first scene together. Dude. James fuckin’ Spader, man. I never knew I could be so intimidated by a man’s voice. It was so unsettling for so many reasons, the resentment, irrationality, and anger from his unusual birth and creation. It was all the more frightening when he turned on Jarvis, and at the time, we didn’t know he hadn’t killed our beloved butler. 

-Picking up Mjolnir. This scene needs no elaboration. It’s just perfection. Even people who complain about Age of Ultron admit this scene is just flawless.

-The team confronting Tony over creating Ultron. Cap’s line, which we now know goes even further after the events of Infinity War, just make me want to die. “We’ll lose.” “Then we’ll do that together, too.” Tony’s face, realizing that Cap doesn’t care that he fucked up–he cares that Tony couldn’t trust the team enough to let them in on what he was dealing with–is soul-crushing. Tony realizes he was wrong to assume instead of being honest with them. 

-The confrontation in Wakanda. Everything about it was badass and it hits you right where you live seeing the Avengers having to face their biggest regrets and most painful moments of their pasts. Especially Steve’s. The image of him and Peggy finally getting their dance was so not okay. Special props to Tony in the Hulkbuster armor. That was one hell of a fucking brawl.

-The Sokovia final battle. There are just so many awesome points in the final battle sequence, man. Everyone is out there just kicking ass and doing what they do best. Special props to Hawkeye getting through to Wanda, and Hawkeye’s “nobody would know…nobody” moment with Pietro. 

Infinity War

Disclaimer: I have no idea how to isolate moments in a movie that is by far one of the most well written comic book movies since The Dark Knight, but I guess since you asked, I have to try anyway. Hoo boy. Strap in. 

-Loki’s death. Let me explain something to you: I went entire years without caring about Loki, and then around the time The Dark World came out, I slowly became converted to both a Tom Hiddleston and a Loki fan, and then after Ragnarok, he finally just seduced me completely to being smitten with his stupid trashy self. It is important that you realize that I recognize that Loki is a selfish, inferiority complex-having, murdering bastard and I do not excuse a goddamn thing he does because of his fucking Daddy issues. That being said, in spite of how much of a flaming trashbag he is, I love him anyway, and I tried for months to tell myself that I knew as a fellow writer that Loki was going to die in Infinity War. It was assured not only from the trailer, but from me knowing that his character arc was always going to end with his death. What hurt most of all is that, as I predicted, Loki died trying to save Thor. I cried my eyes out. Hell, once Thanos closed his hand around Loki’s neck, I covered my eyes because I just didn’t have it in me to see it end this way for him and for Thor. Thor being helpless to stop it is truly what made it worse. There is nothing on heaven or earth Thor wouldn’t do for Loki, even knowing how wicked Loki is. And the fact that Loki couldn’t let Thanos kill Thor after all these two have been through was like an icepick through my heart. Loki wouldn’t have died protecting Thor if Thor had not loved him unconditionally this entire time we’ve watched their story. Thor’s love did have an effect on Loki throughout these films, and that’s why I literally burst into sobs and couldn’t bear to see him die that way. It is one of the most gut wrenching things ever put to film, and certainly in the MCU. I’ve only had the stomach to watch that scene twice because it hurts me so much, and neither time was I strong enough to actually watch Loki’s final moments. Goddamn, it’s just so painful. Capped off with Thor slowly crawling over to his brother to be with him one last time before the ship explodes and just laying his head on his chest in the kind of grief that honestly should get Hemsworth a fucking Oscar. Bravo. 

-Cap, Widow, and Falcon reuniting with Vision and Wanda. Holy shit, yes. This fight was gorgeous, gripping, and fucking awesome. Special props to Cap and Widow being the ride or die Avengers Mom and Dad team. We can infer from their actions that the two of them have been together since the end of Civil War possibly, so you can not tell me Cap and Widow are not a thing on some level. Captasha all day, err day. They perfectly compliment each other and I headcanon that they’re together and no one will convince me otherwise.

-”We’ll fight you too.”/”We don’t trade lives.” That sound you hear is me screeching. Some people have said Cap wasn’t given a ton to do this time around, and I emphatically protest it simply because, yes, he has less screentime, but man, he does so much work in this role that reminds us of why we all love Captain America. His values mean so much. Cap will lay down his life in the blink of an eye for someone who needs it. He cares so deeply. He is the pinnacle of selflessness and it’s so important to see in this film.

-Thor meeting the Guardians. Perfection. Just…perfection.

-Irondad and Spiderson aboard the Space Donut. Jesus fucking Christ, I am so on board for Irondad and Spiderson that it’s insane. I love that entire fucking interaction from start to finish. I love Tony’s strict, fatherly anger and exasperation because he just wants his baby boy to be safe on earth while he’s on another suicide mission, but the baby boy wants to help his dad out and baby boy also doesn’t quite realize the consequences because he’s too young. Extra points for Tony’s death-glare after Parker says, “It’s kind of your fault I’m here” and the fact that even the fucking cloak did a double take at Parker when he said it. Oh, it’s so perfect.

-Gamora making Peter promise to kill her if Thanos gets to her. I just…I want to die. This was so beautifully done, and so in character for both of them, and Peter and Gamora are just so soft and sweet and in love that it’s so overwhelming. At the very least, I take a small comfort in knowing that they were a happy family for four years before this shit happened to them.

-Gamora “killing” Thanos. Again, can we just award Oscars to like half the fucking cast in this movie? Jesus Christ, I cried at this scene too because the fact that she’s just completely unraveled as she finally thinks she’s killed her goddamn abuser is so deeply tragic. Gamora is my favorite Guardian. Hands down. She is so three dimensional. She tries so hard and she is so much more than the deadliest woman in the galaxy. She is so complex and it is the worst pain ever to know that Peter actually kept his promise and tried to kill her to prevent her from being in the hands of her abuser again and Thanos foiled their plan, and had the fucking nerve to say, “I like him” before he took her again. 

-”It’ll kill you.” “Only if I die.” “…yes, that’s what killing you means.” 

-The battle of Wakanda. Motherfucker. This is some A+++ motherfucking good shit hurr. What always gets me hype as hell is Cap and T’Challa sprinting down the goddamn hill at 80 mph and I just can’t even handle that shit because it was so good and satisfying. Everything about this battle was incredible.

-The battle on Titan. Same thing. It’s so creative and well crafted and amazing. You feel every blow. You flinch. You want them to beat that son of a bitch but he’s just so fucking strong. It is an incredibly engaging fight, man. Hoo boy. 

-Thor’s entrance to the battle of Wakanda. I distinctly remember the entire audience going absolutely apeshit during this scene the night Infinity War premiered. Like the first Avengers, I saw it three times in theaters, and two out of the three times, the crowd went fucking wild. That was so fucking satisfying, man, as are the neat little scenes of levity with Cap introducing himself to Groot and Cap and Thor remarking on each other’s changes in appearance. It was so pure and good and perfect.      

-Cap squaring up with Thanos. I. Can’t. Breathe. It was so powerful. Like the above scene of “we don’t trade lives,” this is why we love Captain America. Why we love Steve Rogers. This man, this mortal human man, took one goddamn fucking look at that twelve foot all powerful alien giant and said, “Not today, bitch.” Steve fucking Rogers stood there and took it. He put his life on the goddamn line for Wanda, and for Vision, and for the rest of the universe, and he actually held that goddamn line for a moment. The incredulous look on Thanos’ face is what seals it. He is utterly confused that this little man is actually holding him back, that this mere mortal doesn’t give a fuck that he can’t overpower him, but he is giving it his all because that is who he is. Steve will not quit. Steve will not falter. Steve will die doing what’s right and that is one of the most moving things in the whole MCU, imo. He just planted his feet and said, “No, you move.” I know we saw that scene in the trailer, but it was so unbelievable to see it in context that Cap gave it everything he had trying to protect Wanda and the rest of the universe, and I still get choked up just thinking about that shit. 

Welp, you asked for it and now you have it. I told you I was gonna rave, man. God bless anyone who actually read this nonsense. Marvel had me at hello with these characters and they have way too much sway over my emotions, as you can see above. Ten years, man. Ten years. 

[starkcontrasts]

Or basically a quickwrite i did in response to that scene in AoU after they’ve just been attacked and they find out Ultron destroyed JARVIS

Includes: Tony-whump and reader insert(but not in the romantic sense) bc I’m a mess and this shiz was unplanned and is somehow an even bigger mess than the actual author

° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° °

You can see the pieces falling into place. Only, they’re falling all wrong. This wasn’t how any of it was supposed to happen.

Before you can react- before you can even think- Thor’s striding forward, one hand around Tony’s neck. You push off the table in response, opening your mouth to tell everyone to calm down. Steve talks over you but Tony’s feet are on the ground now and the air comes into your lungs a little easier. It had felt like you were being choked alongside him.

The conversation continues around you but you make your way towards Tony and Bruce. You hesitate to touch him because something’s definitely up and suddenly Helen’s asking questions at the worst possible time and there’s Tony’s “why can’t you people understand” laughter. Internally, you ask every higher being in creation where it all went wrong.

“We weren’t anywhere near close to a successful interface.” Tony says and you corroborate this when Bruce refuses to.

You don’t restrain the urge to throw him a glare. Intelligent as he is, he couldn’t recognize the signs of his supposed best friend falling apart in front of him.

“Oh, what so now you fall belly up.” Tony calls out.

Bruce retorts something about murder bots and it physically hurts you because the three of you know that’s never what Ultron was. What he was never supposed to be. Whatever he is now, that doesn’t change the fact that his original purpose had less to do with harming the Earth and more to do with protecting it. Tony explains as much and the derision in Steve’s voice is enough to make you scoff.

The good captain gives you what is meant to be a withering look. It’s a look of clear disapproval, rife with glaring notions of moral superiority and you squint your eyes at him. There’s a divine shiver of pleasure at the slight flinch you draw from him but mostly he keeps on talking and this time you don’t hesitate to place a gentle hand on Tony’s forearm. Brown eyes, clearly distressed to someone who knows how to look, turn to you and there’s a distinct sensation of your stomach hitting your toes. God, Tony. He looked wrecked.

Your face crumples watching him, and the hand that was on his arm rises to rest on his cheeks instead. The room doesn’t notice the two of you and the feeling is mutual. Tony looks like all he wants to do is crawl into a ball. He’s so tired of trying to explain to people who won’t listen, why a system of instantaneous planet-wide protection is more reliable than a group of seven people. Still is reliable.

“Breathe, Tony, I need you to breathe.”

You can feel the moment Bruce’s attention suddenly flicks over to you but you can care less.

Tony’s breathing isn’t any better than before. In fact, it’s practically inaudible, meaning it’s essentially not there and you resist the urge to throttle every single person in this room.

“Antonio, listen to me. Breathe.”

It takes a while but a glowing chest begins to rise and fall in normal intervals and you smile weakly in an attempt to steady the both of you, mentally and emotionally.

“You’re doing wonderfully. Keep going for me, okay?” Tony nods imperceptibly and you glance over at the now silent room.

Steel settles itself into your gaze and cold eyes focus on the God of Thunder first.

“Try something like that again, Thor, and you’ll find not even Heimdall will be able to get you out of here fast enough.”

The crimson-clad blonde furrows his eyebrows at you, as if confused as to how he had garnered your wrath.

“You don’t wrap your super-powered hands around the neck of someone suffering from anxiety and PTSD, you insensitive asshat.”

“Langu-”

Your head comes flying to face Steve.

“Tell me to watch my language, Steven. I fucking dare you.”

“Okay, why don’t we all just take a chill pill, Y/N.” Clint interjects from near your left.

“Barton so help me…”

“Alright then, never mind.”

The archer lowers his hands in surrender and you turn to Bruce, embittered.

“Science bros stick together, numbnuts. Don’t you dare think you can throw Tony to the wind like that ever again because trust me, I’ll make any wreckage the Big Guy’s done so far, look like a kid throwing a tantrum.”

Bruce flinches hard and you nearly sneer in satisfaction before turning back towards Steve and taking a deep breath.

“Since no one is willing to fucking listen to Tony, I’ll do the explaining instead and we’ll just see what happens if someone tries to cut me off with weakass statements like ‘together’.”

Steve opens his mouth to reply but you cut him off.

“That was not permission to speak, soldier.”

He swiftly closes his mouth.

“I’m going to try talking to all of you like you’re adults but if you don’t start using your heads like the mature, capable-of-thinking-for-themselves human beings that you are, then I will make it so your physical state matches your childlike temperaments.”

It’s very clearly a threat and you can see each Avenger(sans Tony) openly bristle and twitch to grab their weapons. Bruce wrings his hands together. The witch glares at you and you smile at her, all teeth and mock-sweetness.

“My abilities are stronger than yours, so I wouldn’t even try, Miss Maximoff.”

Pietro, beautifully complex Pietro, shoves a hand in front of his sister to keep her from surging forwards, all the while fixing you with an indecipherable look. From the beginning, as much as everyone seemed to focus on Wanda, you could tell there was more to the older Maximoff twin that meets the eye. You were glad to be right.

You take another deep breath.

“The Avengers aren’t infallible, don’t even pretend like that isn’t the case. What Tony- and Bruce included because he was very much included- what they were trying to do was create an artificial intelligence much like JARVIS that could fulfill JARVIS’s primary directive taken to a global scale.”

Confused looks all around. Tony shivers behind you and you grasp his hand, holding tightly to try and keep him grounded.

“For those of you who don’t know, J’s primary directive was to protect Tony. Ultron’s primary directive was intended to be the protection of planet Earth from outside forces seeking to enter our atmosphere and wreak havoc below. He was the brainchild of our science geniuses here, in an attempt to prevent anything similar to the fight with the Chitauri from happening ever again.”

You lick your lips, swallow down your earlier anger, and continue.

“Thor said it himself when Loki first arrived. SHIELD’s experiments with the Tesseract showed to the rest of the Universe, specifically to other, advanced races, that the Earth is ready for a higher form of war. Sooner or later, the rest of the Universe is going to come knocking and believe you me, not very many of them will be here to ask for a cup of sugar.”

“The Avengers can handle whatever comes at us. Advanced alien race or otherwise.” Natasha drawls from beside Clint.

The amount of conceit in her tone is almost laughable considering how much training had been invested to make sure she was above displaying her innermost thoughts so easily. In front of friend or foe, she was always to appear unbothered. Mayhaps, if Barnes had been trusted to teach her that aspect rather than just combat skills, the Widow would have been better at it.

“Come now, Natalia, I thought you were cleverer than that. Have you grown so lax in your training so as to believe you cannot be stopped?”

The statement gets a rise out of more than just her, and you can feel the anger in Bruce’s gaze at your neck. Clint and Steve narrow their eyes at you but otherwise don’t respond. The Widow tries her damndest not to throw a knife at your throat and its times like these that you miss Winter’s ability to disassociate. The Captain was going to be in for such a surprise when next he met Barnes. His best friend was less Bucky and more something in between Hydra’s Fist and the exemplary soldier, less the charming man from Brooklyn and more the damaged transitional phase.

Even then, he was still far better at feigning indifference than the redhead in front of you.

“I don’t care how super-powered some of you are, you’re still so very human. With a single thought from my head, I could disseminate your insides throughout the stars. I’ve trained with mutants and titans alike, and they’re nowhere close to how terrifying the races out there are. If I could kill you in a second, what makes you think Earth could survive more than a meager few moments against the might of the worst the Universe has to offer?”

Steve turns towards Thor, uncertain and hoping he can corroborate or contest your claim. The demi-god furrows his eyebrows, his grip on Mjolnir shifting.

“Y/N does not lie. Even I have yet to experience a vast number of the Universe’s most feared warriors. My Father has kept the nine realms, most of all your Midgard, sheltered from the rest of the starways for centuries.”

Tony breathes out shakily from behind you and you tighten your grip on his hand. Thor nods at you to continue and you stare at Steve right in his shadowed blue eyes.

“What Ultron was meant to be versus what he ultimately became was the result of ignorance on all our parts, least of all Tony’s. Firstly, you were all ignorant for believing yourselves unstoppable, and secondly, you were ignorant for believing Wanda Maximoff to be less spiteful than she is.”

“Now hold on, I think, at the very least, I’ve been keeping a close eye on the Witch and I think she’s pretty spiteful.” Clint interjected.

Both Maximoff siblings bristle from the edge of the group and you don’t miss the glint of red filtering into Wanda’s eyes.

“You so much as attempt to fiddle with any of the minds in or out of this room and I’ll turn you into a pile of red leather.” You state matter-of-factly, in her direction.

Wanda narrows her eyes and hisses while Pietro stiffens, legs vibrating with the desire to not be here. You can’t blame him, you don’t want to be here either. But someone has to say this shit and goodness knows, no one was going to listen to Tony if he did it instead.

“As I was saying, Miss Maximoff over here had a bigger part to play in Ultron’s genesis than you all previously believed.”

You state right into her hateful, hopelessly child-like, eyes.

“Wanda put the idea into Tony’s head that the faster Ultron came to be, the better.”

“And what does that mean?” Steve bit out.

You feel physically ill thinking back on it and it takes a great deal of effort not to will Wanda into non-existence.

“Miss Maximoff worked her third-rate sorcery on Tony’s head during the fight at the factory. She played alphabet soup with his head and showed him a vision of the world ending, everyone dying at his feet. And Tony? Tony felt what Tony always feels.”

“Vindication?” The Widow mocks.

You look at her blankly.

“You mistake him for you, Natalia.”

That shuts her up quickly.

“No,” Tony’s hand was clammy in yours. “He felt guilty.”

Several sets of eyes widen.

“He felt guilt and so much regret, I picked up on it even though I was here at the Tower.”

“Why would you feel guilty, Tony?” Maria questioned, tone delicate where no one else’s had been.

You turn back to see Tony visibly shaking, one arm wrapped around his trembling frame.

“Because I wasn’t dead. I had to watch as I was the only one left.”

And hell if that doesn’t do some serious damage to the sizeable egos in the room.

But that still wasn’t the whole story, so you finish where Tony couldn’t.

“And you, Steve, you asked him why he didn’t do more.”

The super-soldier practically deflates before your very eyes, lean frame going slack where he stands.

“Jesus, Tony.”