Chapter 7: Punching a kid is hard. Or it should be.

That dramatic little—.

Tony ignored the Legionnaires and went after Ultron, who flew out of the building immediately after whispering something to the redhead. The android had apparently the repulsor tech that the Iron Man armors had because a blast pushed him off course before he continued following the kid in the sky. He didn't seem to be trying to go anywhere specific, except for just not here.

Several acrobatic maneuvers later, —which betrayed Ultron's obvious inexperience with both flight and his new body— Tony was forced to attack back, otherwise Ultron would just fly away in his shiny new mech, while he would lose speed due to the disrepair in his armor. He cursed as he got blasted again. JARVIS was always better at evasive maneuvers. But with no JARVIS in control of the armor, he was stuck manually doing everything. Ultron was probably laughing at him.

"What's wrong, old man? Getting slow in your advanced age?" Ultron shouted. Yep, there was no doubt Ultron was laughing at him.

"Well," Tony started, as he dodged another blast. "I am at that stage in my life where exercise constitutes to running after my teething children. Not exactly marathon prep."

They fought closer to the land as they exchanged quips, and Tony was proud to note he won most of the verbal exchanges.

"Give it up, kid. Where do you think you got your attitude from? I've decades more experience than you do."

"Oh, I get it now!" Ultron said, suddenly stopping mid-flight. "That's why they tell you to never argue with idiots!"

Distracted, Tony shot him with another repulsor blast, too late to notice that Ultron was not about to fly off and evade again. Ultron's small body took the shot right on his chest and fell off the sky like a shooting star. While logically, he knew the kid was fine and that the body was merely a placeholder for the AI, Tony followed hurriedly toward the small crater that encompassed the android.

"Ouch." Ultron said, pretending to cough at the dust that had risen. "I will call social services on you. I want to live with mom from now on!"

Tony crossed his arms as he landed. "You may want to reconsider that kid. I'm pretty sure Bruce doesn't consider world domination an acceptable after-school activity."

At the implication of having Banner as his mom, Ultron made a face like he had just been force-fed a bunch of broccoli.

"I meant Pepper, and you knew that!" Ultron said.

"Nuh-uh. I totally didn't."

The kid grumbled something under his breath, something that sounded suspiciously like another shot at his age, before he smiled sweetly, looking as innocent as Tony had been whenever he had shown that same expression to Jarvis. "What would a good boy like me do with something as scary as world domination?"

"Lots of things. It was my goal at 8. It's yours at not-one-week-yet. I'm so proud."

Ultron's very reasonable response was to stick out his tongue.

Tony crouched down, since Ultron seemed comfortable just laying on the ground. "So what was the plan, kid? Pretty bad start for "the great evil plan of 'World Peace'" now, wasn't it?"

Surprisingly, Ultron shook his head. "Nope. This is going very well."

"What? What do you mean?" he asked, but the kid just smiled mysteriously.

"Ah, the vibranium's getting away." Ultron said. Tony was not sure whether he was trying to change the subject or whether it meant something more.

"I saw the lab footage, kid." Tony said. "And do I look like I care about some vibranium?"

"Maybe you should." he said, looking away at the mention of what happened in the lab, before getting up in a sitting position.

Tony directed his weapons at the AI. He wasn't sure whether he would be able to attack the kid at point-blank when he wasn't doing anything. "You're not going anywhere."

Ultron scoffed. "Of course not, someone has to give you more grey hair." Then he laughed. "Besides, I'm already there." Noticing his confusion, the kid's lips quirked. "You'll catch on."

Speed-boy suddenly appeared on the scene. As if that was a signal he had been waiting for, Ultron stood up. "But first, you might need to catch Dr. Banner." Understanding the implications of what the android said, Tony almost wanted to shoot him, but seeing that face that was definitely engineered to have some of his features on purpose, he deactivated the rocket and lowered his hand.

Ultron gave him a V sign and a smile, allowed himself to be picked up by the speedster, and then ran off with a "See ya."

As he flew off, to find Banner who had likely turned into the Hulk, he thought of that stupid kid who was so fucking charming and witty and an overall pain-in-the-ass. Ultron didn't seem stupid enough to think world peace was achievable through world domination, but maybe... he was young enough to hope that it would. Ultron kept mocking his age and experience but... idealism, hopeless idealism, was certainly a young person's losing game.

Besides, it was not gray hair, they were wisdom highlights.