A Lab of Decisions

"There are more than a dozen extinction level events before even the dinosaurs got theirs." Ultron said in a voice that was bordering on exasperated. "When the Earth starts to settle, God throws a stone at it. And, believe me, he is winding up. We have to evolve, don't you understand that? We need to evolve, it is necessary, there is no room for the weak." Ultron said as he looked down at the cradle, his hand stroked it in a loving fashion. "No room for the weak."

"And who decides who's weak?" Pietro asked while Wanda took advantage of Ultron being distracted to free Cho from her mind control.

"Life," Ultron laughed. "life always decides." Ultron was about to continue when a beep was heard. "There's incoming," He said. "the Avengers are making their move, we have to start making ours."

"That's not a problem." Helen Cho said, drawing Ultron's attention to her. She quickly cut off the upload of Ultron into the creation in the cradle.

Ultron sighed right before he blasted her, Wanda gasped as Helen fell to the floor. Pietro reacted quickly and picked Wanda up into his arm before he ran away at superspeed while carrying her, Pietro was able to hear Ultron call after them but he didn't stop. Once they were at a distance that was far enough away from Ultron and safe enough to stop, Pietro put Wanda down before pulling her into a hug.

"Are you okay?" Pietro asked in a concerned voice while stroking her hair.

"He… he's going to kill us all." Wanda cried into his shoulder. "He's going to kill us all. It's all our fault."

"Wanda, please, please calm down." Pietro all but begged.

"I can't," Wanda said as she pushed herself out of his hug, she shook her head several times as she grabbed her head hard in an attempt to slow down her thoughts, "we need to stop him, we need to stop him before it's too late. We need… we need the Avengers!" She suddenly blurted out.

"The Avengers?"

"Yes, yes!" Wanda quickly nodded. "They will help us, I know they will."

"Are you sure?" Pietro asked.

"I don't know about all of them, but I know at least one of them that will do whatever it takes to stop Ultron." She said in a confident voice.

.....

Harry teleported just outside of the building where he knew Ultron and Helen Cho would be, Harry was currently on his own (with the exception of Clint who was flying nearby in the jet) as he insisted that it was better this way since the other Avengers were not at full health and Thor wasn't here. It took a lot of arguing, especially with Steve, but a bit more arguing and some genuine threats and they had stayed put. Tony and Clint were still fine, Harry had given the former a portkey that would take him to the Nexus in Oslo and back once he was done. Tony was heading there so they could work out who exactly was responsible for preventing Ultron from getting nuclear codes.

The Avengers took the threat of nuclear weapons far more serious ever since they had all heard Harry's story of how his own world had been destroyed by nuclear weapons. None of them were really willing to let there be a repeat of what happened to Harry's world. That meant quickly learning who was responsible for protecting the codes and seeing if they weren't going to use them themselves. But for now Harry pushed that thought out of his mind and focused on dealing with Ultron. Harry looked around, there didn't appear to be any Ultron bots nearby but Harry was still going to stay vigilant.

Harry teleported directly into Helen Cho's lab, he landed with his wand ready to start blasting if needed but it turns out it wasn't needed, he lowered his wand as he looked around. Harry saw a small group of scientist lying dead on the floor. Harry waved his wand to cast a detection spell, he was quickly able to find at least one person alive. Harry rushed past the dead bodies and into the next lab, he found Doctor Cho the room. She was sat against a wall with a big wound on her chest and blood over her face and uniform. "Alright, stay calm, I'm going to start healing you." Harry said before he began waving his wand over her. "You know that this would be a really, really good time for you to start talking so I can start figuring out a way to stop Ultron." Harry added as he continued waving his wand over her wound.

"He… he is… he is uploading himself… into the body." Helen Cho gasped out as she could feel her body healing itself.

"Where?" Harry asked after he continued waving his wand.

"The real power is inside the cradle." She replied as she continued to feel her body healing, she would love to ask him some questions about magical healing and the limits it possesses but unfortunately now was very clearly not a good time to start asking those questions. She also would have gladly answered Harry's question if she knew the answer but unfortunately she did not. "The gem, it's all about the gem, the power… the power it has. Its power is uncontainable. You cannot let Ultron get his hands on it, you can't. You can't just blow it up, you have… you have to get it to Stark."

"We got to find it first." Harry said once he was done. "You'll be fine for now, you will need more medical assistance but you are healed enough. When did Ultron leave?"

"A… a few minutes ago, he planned… he planned to go incognito… stay under the radar."

"Under the radar," Harry said under his breath. "he is transporting the cradle so probably a truck of some kind." Harry said to himself before he nodded to her. "Thank you." Harry said before he teleported out. Harry instantly took the air and began casting wide spread diagnostic spells, he could detect many life signs coming from various big trucks but what he was actually doing was looking for a lack of life signs. "Barton," Harry said into his ear piece. "did you get all that?"

"All of it," Clint's voice replied. "so keep an eye out for trucks?"

"If he's trying to hide and has got the cradle with him then it makes sense to carry it in something that can carry the cradle and be normal enough for you to not bat an eye at." Harry replied.

"Fair enough." Clint replied.

"Find anything?" Harry asked a couple of minutes later.

"I have actually," Clint replied after a few moments. "or at least I think might have found something." Barton said, he was going to say more when Grim suddenly teleported back into the jet and landed right behind him. "Whoa! Don't do that!" Barton jumped in his seat before he shook his head to calm himself down.

"Well… are you going to speak or what?" Grim asked in an impatient voice.

"Look down there." Barton said as he pointed down. "It's the truck from the lab, on the loop by the bridge."

"I see it." Harry said as his eyes locked on the truck.

"I got three with the cradle and one in the cab, I can take out the driver." Barton offered.

"No." Harry shook his head. "We don't really know what we are dealing with. If we take out the driver then that could result in a crash and the cradle being damaged enough to explode or something. You do that and we could end up causing more damage than we can handle. I will draw out Ultron and then I'll portkey the cradle back to Avengers tower. You can go and head back, I will meet you there."

"Are you sure?" Clint asked.

"Three in the cradle, one possibly being Ultron, plus a driver." Harry replied. "That I am sure I can handle, don't worry, I know my limits. Unless Ultron had discovered some magically resistant metal and made himself a new body then I am fairly sure I can take him, even if he had, I am still sure I can take him. Go back." Harry said before he teleported out of the jet before he landed on top of a bridge. "Come on Potter, don't screw this up." Harry said to himself just as the truck was about to pass under him. The truck went under the bridge and Harry quickly ran to the other side, once it was in view again Harry jumped off the bridge and onto the top of the truck.

His landing was thankfully pretty quiet, if not it would have likely made Ultron aware of his presence. Harry made the top of the truck see through from the outside, this way anything on the inside of the truck could look up and only see the truck ceiling. Harry looked down to see two Ultron bots plus Ultron himself and the cradle. Harry let out a small sigh before he walked over to the back and flicked his wand at the truck doors, two knocking sounds were heard on each door.

"No, no, leave me alone!" Harry heard Ultron's voice shout from inside the truck.

The truck doors suddenly burst open thanks to a blast from inside, the right door fell off while the left door nearly came off but wasn't fully ripped off so it ended up being dragged across the road by the truck. Harry saw Ultron's hand reach out just before Ultron's head came into view, the robot was clearly trying to look around for threats. Harry quickly aimed his wand down and aimed it at Ultron.

"Ahem." Harry coughed, Ultron quickly span around and looked at him. "What's up you midget Decepticon?" Harry calmly asked.

"… Hi." Ultron said in an awkward voice.

"Bye." Harry replied before he blasted him into pieces. Harry heard the sound of something being fired off and quickly moved from his position just in time to avoid a blast that had shot through the truck ceiling and nearly hit Harry. Harry landed inside the truck where he saw the cradle positioned in front of him with an Ultron bot standing one either side of it. Both Ultron bots raised their arms to start blasting but neither of them were really as fast as Harry who was able to raise his wand and quickly destroy both of them. "Well that was anticlimactic." Harry said before he created a portkey and attached it to the cradle, a few seconds later the cradle disappeared and would be found in Avengers tower.

Harry was about to teleport into the passenger seat of the trucker and take out the driver when suddenly the truck just stopped, Harry quickly teleported on top of the truck. And saw an Ultron bot - the one that was driving the truck - attempt to escape by flying off. It didn't get too far before Harry was able to take it out with a single spell.

"Ultron bots are dealt with." Harry said into his communications ear pieces. "The cradle should be in the tower by now."

"Got it." Tony's voice replied. "Nice work."

"I'll meet you guys there." Harry said before he cut communication, Harry was about to teleport away when he suddenly heard a voice.

"Wait!" A female voice called. Harry turned around and looked down, he saw Wanda and Pietro, the Maximoff twins, staring at him. "We need your help!" Wanda called. She was hoping that Harry would at least be willing to listen to them, thought the narrowing of his eyes certainly didn't help her keep up those hopes.

.....

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