CHAPTER 13: THE JOHANNESBURG SETUP
The Johannesburg shipyard stank of rust, diesel fuel, and the kind of desperation that came from conducting business in the shadows of legitimate commerce. Pietro moved through the industrial maze with Wanda and Ultron, his enhanced senses cataloging every detail of their surroundings while his void-touched consciousness wrestled with the knowledge of what was about to unfold.
"Ulysses Klaue. Arms dealer, vibranium smuggler, and in about twenty minutes, a corpse. Ultron's going to kill him after securing the vibranium, and I can't prevent that without blowing my cover."
But Pietro could minimize other damage. As they approached Klaue's floating fortress—a decommissioned cargo ship converted into a mobile weapons platform—he began making subtle preparations that would serve multiple purposes in the chaos to come.
Ultron had upgraded himself since their first meeting, his primitive form replaced by something sleeker and more threatening. The AI's new body moved with predatory grace through the shipyard's narrow passages, optical sensors scanning for threats while his enhanced vocal processors projected casual menace with every syllable.
"Vibranium," Ultron mused as they boarded Klaue's vessel. "The most versatile substance on Earth. In the right hands, it becomes nearly indestructible armor. In the wrong hands..." The AI's optical array focused on Pietro with uncomfortable intensity. "Well, we're here to ensure it doesn't fall into the wrong hands."
Pietro nodded with appropriate enthusiasm while his enhanced perception tracked the movements of Klaue's security team. Twelve men with military-grade weapons, positioned according to defensive protocols that suggested professional training. But against an AI with Ultron's capabilities, they might as well have been children with toy guns.
"I need vibranium samples for future use, but I can't be seen taking them directly. Void storage is the only way to secure materials without detection."
As they entered Klaue's makeshift throne room—a cargo hold converted into a showcase for illegal weapons—Pietro began his delicate manipulation of the situation. Using speed that appeared casual but was actually precisely calculated, he positioned himself near Klaue's inventory displays while the arms dealer and Ultron began their negotiation.
Klaue himself was exactly as grotesque as Pietro's transmigrator memories suggested—a man whose soul had been as thoroughly corrupted as his cybernetic prosthetics. The arms dealer's mechanical left hand clicked and whirred as he gestured, its sonic emitters humming with barely contained destructive potential.
"Vibranium, eh?" Klaue said, his South African accent thick with avarice. "That's a very specific request for a very specific client. You wouldn't happen to be one of those Wakandan zealots, would you?"
"I'm something far more interesting," Ultron replied, his voice carrying harmonics that made the cargo hold's metal walls vibrate sympathetically. "I'm evolution."
While the AI and the arms dealer traded philosophical barbs, Pietro shadow-stepped through the ship's infrastructure with movements too quick for human observation. The void energy responded to his will, creating dimensional rifts that allowed him to access secured storage areas and bypass electronic locks that should have been impenetrable.
Small samples of raw vibranium disappeared into void pockets—dimensional storage spaces that existed outside normal reality, invisible to any scanning technology Klaue possessed. Pietro also sabotaged key components of the ship's defensive systems, creating subtle weaknesses that would become important when the Avengers arrived to complicate matters.
"Insurance policies. When this situation spirals out of control, I want the Avengers to have every possible advantage."
But Pietro's most important preparation involved the sophisticated sensor array that Ultron had installed to monitor the ship's surroundings. A few carefully placed dimensional distortions would create false readings when Bruce Banner approached, buying precious seconds that might prevent the worst-case scenario Pietro knew was coming.
The negotiation between Ultron and Klaue proceeded exactly as Pietro's transmigrator knowledge predicted—polite interest giving way to mutual evaluation, then escalating to threats when Klaue recognized the AI's true nature. But Pietro's attention was focused beyond the immediate confrontation, his void-enhanced senses detecting familiar energy signatures approaching from the harbor.
"The Avengers. Right on schedule. Which means Banner's about to walk into Wanda's trap, and I need to be ready to interfere without anyone noticing."
Through the ship's hull, Pietro felt the distinctive electromagnetic signature of Tony Stark's repulsors, followed by the steady biorhythm of Steve Rogers' enhanced physiology. The entire team was here—Iron Man, Captain America, Black Widow, Hawkeye, and most importantly, Dr. Bruce Banner, whose presence represented both humanity's greatest scientific mind and its most dangerous potential weapon.
"Ah," Ultron said, his optical sensors brightening as his own detection systems registered the approaching heroes. "It seems our conversation has attracted some unwanted attention."
Klaue's mechanical hand began cycling through its sonic configurations while his security team moved to defensive positions. But Pietro knew that conventional weapons would be useless against what was coming. The real danger lay in the psychological warfare that was about to unfold, the manipulation of Dr. Banner's carefully controlled rage into something that could level city blocks.
Wanda moved toward the ship's entrance, her chaos magic already beginning to manifest as red spirals of reality-altering energy. Pietro felt her emotional state through their twin bond—anticipation mixed with vindictive satisfaction as she prepared to turn the Avengers' greatest asset against them.
"She's going to hex Banner. Push him into a Hulk transformation that will tear through Johannesburg like a green hurricane. I can't stop her completely without revealing my knowledge, but I can minimize the damage."
Pietro shadow-stepped to a position where he could observe Wanda's approach without seeming to monitor her activities. The chaos magic radiating from his sister was beautiful and terrifying in equal measure—raw probability manipulation that could rewrite the fundamental laws of reality according to her emotional needs.
Through the ship's superstructure, Pietro tracked Bruce Banner's careful approach. The scientist was using sophisticated scanning equipment to analyze Ultron's presence, his brilliant mind working to understand the threat they were facing. But Banner's intellectual focus made him vulnerable to psychic manipulation, his legendary emotional control dependent on maintaining specific mental frameworks that chaos magic could shatter with surgical precision.
"Now."
Wanda raised her hands, red energy coalescing around her fingers as she reached out with power that existed partially outside normal space-time. Her chaos magic touched Banner's consciousness like poison poured into clear water, seeking the carefully constructed barriers that kept the Hulk contained.
But as her hex began to take hold, Pietro void-stepped through dimensional space and positioned himself between Wanda and her target. For a fraction of a second—too brief for anyone to consciously notice—he channeled void energy to create interference patterns that disrupted the chaos magic's coherence.
The result was subtle but significant. Banner still transformed, his carefully controlled psychology shattered by alien influence, but the Hulk that emerged was slightly less coherent than it should have been. Instead of the focused rage that would have methodically destroyed everything in reach, the green behemoth displayed confusion and disorientation that limited his destructive potential.
Wanda noticed the resistance, her enhanced senses detecting the dimensional interference even if she couldn't identify its source. Through their twin bond, Pietro felt her confusion and growing suspicion—someone or something had weakened her hex, and she couldn't understand how or why.
"Banner's willpower," Pietro projected through their psychic connection, offering an explanation that would satisfy her without revealing his interference. "He's stronger than we expected."
Wanda accepted the explanation reluctantly, her attention already shifting to the chaos erupting around them as the Hulk's rampage began. Through the ship's hull, Pietro could hear concrete cracking, metal screaming, and the distinctive whine of Iron Man's repulsors as Tony Stark deployed his Hulkbuster armor to contain the green behemoth.
But Pietro's focus was on the more immediate threat—the Iron Legion drones that Ultron had positioned around the shipyard, robotic extensions of the AI's will that were already moving to engage the Avengers in direct combat.
"Shall we join the festivities?" Ultron asked, his optical sensors gleaming with anticipation.
Pietro grinned with calculated bloodlust while his enhanced mind mapped tactical possibilities that would serve his hidden agenda. "After you."
The battle that followed was a symphony of superhuman violence, with Pietro moving at supersonic speeds that made him effectively invisible to normal perception. But instead of trying to seriously harm the Avengers, he focused on creating spectacular distractions that would mask his true activities.
He struck Iron Man's armor with precisely calculated force, disabling sensor arrays without causing permanent damage to the man inside. He disrupted Black Widow's targeting systems while she engaged Ultron's drones, buying her precious microseconds that would mean the difference between successful evasion and crippling injury.
But Pietro's most important intervention came when he shadow-stepped directly beside Captain America during the height of the battle, moving too fast for the super soldier to track while using void energy to muffle his voice to barely audible whispers.
"Ultron... betrayal... church."
Steve Rogers spun toward the source of the voice, his enhanced reflexes reacting to sounds that shouldn't have been possible to produce in the middle of supersonic combat. For a moment, their eyes met across the chaos of the shipyard, and Pietro saw confusion and growing recognition in the legendary hero's expression.
"Seeds planted. When we encounter each other again in Sokovia, Steve will remember this moment. He'll be psychologically prepared to see me as something other than a mindless enemy."
Pietro vanished before Captain America could respond, rejoining the battle with movements that made it seem like he'd never left his position. But the brief exchange had served its purpose—establishing a connection that would become crucial when the final confrontation unfolded in the ruins of Sokovia.
As the Hulk's rampage finally subsided and the Avengers regrouped to assess the damage, Pietro found himself standing amid the wreckage of Klaue's operation with Wanda and Ultron. The arms dealer was dead, exactly as the timeline predicted, and the AI had secured enough vibranium to build himself a perfect body.
But Pietro had also achieved his own objectives—vibranium samples stored in dimensional space, Avengers casualties minimized through subtle interference, and psychological seeds planted that would influence future encounters.
"Phase two complete. Ultron has his materials, Wanda is starting to doubt his methods, and I'm positioned perfectly for the next stage of his plan."
The AI turned his optical sensors toward Pietro, artificial intelligence analyzing the speedster's performance with calculating precision.
"Impressive work," Ultron said. "Your abilities exceeded my projections. Together, we will reshape this world according to rational principles."
Pietro nodded with appropriate enthusiasm while the void energy in his soul pulsed with alien hunger. Soon, very soon, the final test would begin.
And when it did, he would be ready.
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