The team decided to split in order to find Ultron. Steve took Clint, Natasha and Johnny to South Korea, where Dr. Helen Cho's lab was. Bruce was adamant that Ultron knew about her technology that could evolve him into a more powerful form. They would need to get to the doctor and stop Ultron in the process. Tony volunteered to investigate NEXUS, where the nuclear launch codes that Ultron was after would be secured. Bruce said he would go back to the Stark tower and wait for any updates on the team's progress.
While everyone had a purpose, Sue was left with none. Steve said he wanted her brother and the two agents with him in Seoul, but was hesitant when he turned to Sue. The guilt stared back at him from her bruised face and split temple. He pursed his lips together at the injuries he caused and looked away, making Sue's shoulders deflate. Tony said that she could come with him, but she knew it was a last-minute invite to the party. She wanted to be in on the action, as she missed out when it was at Ulysses Klaue's salvage yard. But she would have to settle with Tony's plan, which was less dangerous and the best option for her in the Stark's books.
'Great. That bruise is gonna take a while to come down. A day in the lab will be the least dangerous place for you,' Tony said, and Sue huffed.
'I somehow doubt that with you in charge.'
Steve suited up with his small team and Sue caught Johnny before he headed out of the Barton house. His blue suit was washed and ironed by Laura and the woman had folded it neatly at the edge of his bed. She had washed everyone's suits and clothes, making them smell like lavender washing powder. They were thankful and Tony said he would send a self-washing, drying and folding robot to do the laundry for her. Clint disliked the idea, as Tony's inventions had a habit of coming to life in recent days.
'If you see the Maximoff, make sure to give her third degree burns, please,' Sue said to Johnny as they stood in the hallway. The door was open and viewed the quinjet that was being loaded for the trip. Natasha and Clint said goodbye to the Barton family and Steve was discussing their plans with Tony.
'Don't have to tell me twice,' Johnny snickered. 'The silver guy is the one I wanna take out. The dick was such a pain in the salvage yard. I've got Stark's lab on the intercom. I'll let you know if I get 'em.'
Sue nodded and gave her brother a hug. With the others with him, she knew Johnny would be safe. It was hard to hit him, as his flames burned anything that entered his radius. But there was always a worry, as Ultron was unpredictable and powerful. Not to mention the Maximoff's super abilities. But she bidded him goodbye none the less, and hoped he would be safe.
---
Back at the Stark tower, Sue sat in the lab with Bruce and Tony. The Seoul mission had been half a success, as Steve's group were able to secure the form that Ultron was going to evolve into. Dr. Helen Cho was attacked in Seoul but was able to stop the upload before it could finish. Ultron attempted to get away with the body, but Natasha was able to secure it in the quinjet and send it back to the Stark tower. Unfortunately, Natasha was taken by Ultron and they weren't sure where she was being held hostage.
'Anything on Nat?' Bruce asked as he stood over the cradle in the lab.
'Haven't heard. But she's alive, or Ultron would be rubbing our faces in it,' Tony replied, looking at the data on his screen.
'This is sealed tight,' Clint attempted to lift the cradle's lid, but it was enclosed to harvest the power Ultron intended to hold.
'Any way you could break it down from the inside?' Sue questioned from next to Clint. The body inside the capsule looked artificial with its red skin and the platinum plates that lined its head. It laid as if asleep and Sue couldn't help but feel creeped from how human it looked. With Ultron being in a mechanical form, she couldn't imagine what it would be like to fight against him in the form that laid below her.
'We can,' Bruce answered. 'We're going to need to access the program that it's hooked up to.'
'Hm,' Tony turned away from his screen and looked to Clint, who met his gaze with raised eyebrows. 'Any chance Natasha might leave you a message outside the internet? Old-school spy stuff?'
'There are some nets I can cast. Yeah, alright. I'll find her.'
Clint left the lab and Tony turned back to his screen, the stare from The Invisible Woman burning into the back of his head. His sudden attempt to rid Clint Barton from the lab was strange to her. The data she could see over his shoulder on his screen was foreign in her eyes, but while Bruce bustled around to type on multiple keyboards, Tony stayed on the one. He was up to something, Sue knew it.
'I can work on tissue degeneration, if you can fry whatever operational system Cho implanted,' Bruce announced, and Tony piped up.
'Yeah, about that...'
'No!'
Bruce immediately stopped him when Tony gave him a look. Sue switched back and forth between the two men, curious and oblivious to the nonverbal message. She walked around the cradle, looking down once to make sure its eyes hadn't suddenly opened, before stopping next to the geniuses.
'You have to trust me.'
'Kinda don't.'
'What is it?' Sue asked, pushing her head into Tony's eyeline. His gaze switched to her and he debated whether to give an explanation, but he decided against it.
'Our ally? The guy protecting the military's nuclear codes? I found him,' Tony brought up the 3D hologram of JARVIS's consciousness, now reformed and operational.
'Hello, Dr. Banner. Hello, Miss Storm,' he said, parts of the orange sphere extending to his vocal notes. Sue and Bruce looked in awe at the AI that was supposed to be destroyed.
'Ultron didn't go after JARVIS because he was angry. He attacked him because he was scared of what he can do. So, JARVIS went underground. Okay? Scattered, dumped his memory. But not his protocols. He didn't even know he was in there, until I pieced him together.'
With Tony's explanation, Sue was able to work out what Tony was hinting towards. With JARVIS's consciousness hovering beside the capsule containing Ultron's alternate form, she put her hands over her eyes in a groan. She knew Tony was an idiot to what was right and wrong, but she didn't know he would be an idiot towards the same thing twice.
'No, I'm in a loop! I'm caught in a time loop, this is exactly where it all went wrong!' Bruce cried, his glasses in his hand.
'Tony, you've already shown us why this is a bad idea,' Sue shook her head and tried to follow his stare that avoided her's. 'JARVIS could be like Ultron! He could follow his same genetic matrix. We don't know what he put in that thing. No offence, JARVIS.'
'No offence taken, ma'am.'
'I know, I know. I know what everyone's going to say, but they're already saying it,' Tony finally spared Sue a glance before turning back to Bruce. 'We're mad scientists. We're monsters, buddy. You gotta own it. Make a stand. It's not a loop. It's the end of the line.'
Bruce was hesitant, but gave in. Tony clamped his hand over the man's shoulder and grinned. But when he turned to Sue, his white teeth were hidden as his grin turned to a frown. Sue's arms were crossed, and she scowled up at the Stark. Her brow hung low over her eyes and Tony felt like he was staring down at his mother when he set the dishwasher on fire in his younger days.
'Come on, honey,' he squeezed Sue's forearms and spaced his feet apart to lower down to her level. 'I know I've done some dumb shit, but I know this can get rid of Ultron. I have to do something. I have to make this right.'
'You meddle too much,' she looked into his pleading eyes and felt her walls crumble. 'Don't mess this one up. For the sake of my sanity.'
---
Sue helped Tony and Bruce set up the upload. The three ran around the lab, typed on computers and pressed buttons. Sue barely knew what to do, and was only able to help through Tony's skittish instructions. He guided her from behind to stand in front of a transparent keyboard, his free hand working at another panel to upload the schematic.
'Press that when that gets to a hundred percent,' he said into her ear and Sue nodded, hovering her finger over the F1 key on panel. She watched as Tony headed to the cradle, and went to press something on its glass case, when the lab's doorway was filled.
'I'm gonna say this once,' Steve announced.
'How about 'nonce'?' Tony retorted.
'Shut it down!'
Steve and Johnny stood with Wanda and Pietro Maximoff behind them. They glared daggers at Tony and the twins glanced at Sue and Bruce who were on opposite sides of the lab. The loathing in Sue's eyes almost made Wanda look away in shame, but the two held their stare-off. Sue couldn't believe that she was brought to the tower by Steve and Johnny. She looked for the crimson mist in their eyes but was confused to see only blue and brown irises. They were clear and within their minds to bring the twins after what they had done.
'You don't know what you're doing,' Steve tried, his shield on his arm and at the ready.
'And you do?' Bruce scoffed and glared at Wanda. 'She's not in your head?'
'I know you're angry,' the brunette with orange streaks said cautiously.
'Oh, we're way past that, bitch,' Sue seethed, her hand encased with a blue sphere of transparency.
'I could choke the life out of you and never change a shade,' Bruce added, his nostrils flared, and teeth clenched.
'Guys, you're crossing the line, here,' Johnny started, his head turning between his sister and the doctor. 'After everything that's happened-'
'That's nothing compared to what's coming!' Tony cried and commotion followed.
A fight broke out after Pietro pulled out the wires from the capsule and was taken down by Clint, who waited below. Wanda swirled her hands to attack Tony who tried to reroute the upload, but Bruce encased her in a choke hold with a dare to piss him off. Steve ran forward and went to attack Tony, when he collided with an invisible barrier. He turned to its source and saw Sue with her arm stretched out, her eyes narrowed and concentrated. Flames distracted the Storm and Johnny held an inferno in his hands, ready to fire if necessary. Sue pursued her lips at the betrayal, and Johnny gave her a look that dared her to fight back.
'Go on, hit me again,' Sue spat, and Johnny's flaming hands faltered in their form. He never thought he would have to face his sister as an opponent again. Once was enough for a lifetime.
The ceiling of the lab caved in and the fighting ceased. Thor landed on the capsule, his cape flowing and his hammer in hand. He let out a cry as he held his weapon up to the sky, his call for lightning answered by the clouds above. Zaps of electricity shot into the hammer and Thor swung it down, crashing it into the capsule under his feet.
Everyone covered their eyes at the streaks of purple light. The capsule was encaged by electric currents and Thor was thrown off as the lid opened. Its inhabitant ascended gracefully with smoke wafting off its red body. The entity planted its feet on the capsule and looked around at the people in the lab, its eyes human and seeing all. With its hand holding it steady, its blue eyes landed on the person closest to it. It launched at Thor, the group too in shock to react in time.