"But it's a trick!" Clint exclaimed.

Most of the partygoers had left, and it was just the core group of Avengers, with a few extras, crowded in the room. Thor's hammer was perched on the table.

"Oh, no," said Thor. "It's much more than that."

"Uh, 'Whosoever be he worth shall haveth the power!' Whatever, man! It's a trick."

"Well please, be my guest."

"Come on," said Tony.

"Really?" asked Clint.

"Yeah!" Thor encouraged. Clint got up.

"Oh, this is gonna be beautiful," I heard Rhodey say. Aria was shaking her head. She knew like I did: that hammer wasn't going to move an inch.

"Clint, you've had a tough week, we won't hold it against you if you can't get it up," Tony said.

"My mind went so south on that one," said Todd, laughing nervously, rubbing his face.

"You know I've seen this before, right?" said Clint to Thor. He grabbed the hammer, and I could practically see his veins popping as he strained to move it. "I still don't know how you do it."

"Smell the silent judgement?" said Tony.

"Please, Stark, by all means."

"Now this I have to see," I commented with a smirk.

"Oh, here we go," Tasha chimed in.

"Never one to shrink from an honest challenge," said Tony.

"Get after it," chirped Clint.

"It's psychics."

"Physics!" Bruce exclaimed.

Tony grasped the hammer. "Right, so, if I lift it, I...I then rule Asgard?"

"Yes, of course," said Thor.

"I will be re-instituting Prima Nocta." We all watched eagerly as Tony, like Clint, failed to make Thor's hammer budge. "I'll be right back."

"Anyone else want to try while we wait?" I asked as Tony disappeared.

"Since you brought it up, how about you?" Aria probed me.

"I already know it won't move. There's no use in trying."

"Why not? It'll entertain us."

"Then why don't you give it a go?" I raised a brow at her.

"Like you said, there's no use in trying." She shrugged.

I rolled my eyes. "Coward."

Aria squinted her eyes at me. "Coward, huh? If we both try together, will you consider it?"

I pursed my lips. "Even if we know it won't move?"

"Even if that."

"Oh, what the hell." I slapped my thighs as I smoothed out my dress. Aria and I hovered near the hammer, grabbing with four hands between the two of us. I looked at her. "One, two, three!" Straining, the two of us put our backs into it. Like we expected, we didn't feel the hammer cave a centimeter. We both released the hilt.

"Two Asgardians couldn't even do it?" asked Todd. "Damn, that's one hell of a hammer."

"What'd I miss?" asked Tony, who came back with an arm piece of his Iron Man suit.

"Nothing," I said as I sat back beside Steve. "The hammer is all yours, Tony."

Tony tried again, and failed, again. When that didn't work, he roped Rhodey into helping, with a piece of his War Machine suit.

"Are you even pulling?" Rhodey told Tony.

"Are you on my team?" Tony retorted.

"Just represent! Pull!"

"Alright, let's go!"

Yeah, you can imagine how their attempt ended.

Bruce's turn didn't pan out, either. He tried to turn into the Hulk, but that failed. That was followed by an awkward, wary silence.

"Let's go, Steve, no pressure," Tony encouraged my boyfriend as he went to grip the hammer. "If you need a lifeline, firefly will most certainly give it to you."

"I won't be of much use," I said.

"Come on, Cap," said Rhodey.

My eyes took a double take when I saw the hammer budge. I noticed the reaction on Thor's face. He was surprised as well, and perhaps a little...worried. In the end, Steve didn't lift the hammer entirely, which definitely looked like it relieved Thor.

"Nothing," Thor said, laughing in relief.

"Todd, you want a go?" I asked him.

"And risk embarrassment in front of the Avengers? No thanks."

"You're among friends, not Avengers at the moment."

"I'll still pass. And calling me a coward won't encourage me."

"Darn." I snapped my fingers.

"Widow?" asked Bruce.

"Oh, no, no," said Tasha. "That's not a question I need answered."

"All deference to the man who wouldn't be king, but it's rigged," said Tony.

"You bet your ass," Clint agreed.

"Steve, he said a bad language word," Maria Hill joked.

"Did you tell everyone that?" Steve asked Tony.

"Why do you assume that it's me? Your girlfriend could be the guilty party."

"No, it was totally you," I told Tony.

"The handle's imprinted, right?" Tony ignored me, addressing Thor. "Like a security code. 'Whosoever is carrying Thor's fingerprints' is, I think, the literal translation?"

"Yes, well that's, uh, that's a very, very interesting theory," said Thor. "I have a simpler one." He retrieved his hammer and flipped it. "You're not all worthy." This caused an uproar of disagreement from all sides.

Our disagreement got interrupted by a high-pitched screech. I had my hands on my ears, and Aria was cringing into a ball. Everyone had the same instinct that I did, hands were over ears.

When the noise died down, it was safe for us to uncover our ears. We all heard the stumbling, clacking noise. Across the room from us came a hobbling robot who smelled like leaking oil, who was sparking, and had loose wires dangling from its parts.

"Worthy..." said the distorted, croaky voice. "No...How could you be worthy? You're all killers."

"Stark," Steve said warningly.

"J.A.R.V.I.S.," Tony called for his AI.

"I'm sorry, I was asleep. Or...I was a-dream?" asked the robot.

Tony pulled out a tablet, tapping it. "Reboot, Legionnaire OS, we got a buggy suit."

"There was a terrible noise...and I was tangled in...in...strings. I had to kill the other guy. He was a good guy."

"You killed someone?" Aria asked the robot.

"Wouldn't have been my first call. But, down in the real world we're faced with ugly choices."

"Who sent you?" asked Thor.

"'I see a suit of armor around the world'," the robot echoed, but it wasn't the voice we'd been hearing. It sounded a lot like Tony's.

"Ultron!" Bruce whispered.

"In the flesh," said the robot, Ultron. "Or, no, not yet. Not this...chrysalis. But I'm ready. I'm on a mission."

"What mission?" asked Tasha.

"Peace in our time." Robots crashed through the walls behind Ultron and went after all of us.

Aria shoved Todd to the ground so he didn't get hit, Maria Hill fired bullets at the flying machines. I countered the robot's attacks with my fire. Furniture was collateral damage. I saw Bruce and Natasha catapult themselves over the bar to safety. The rest of us were spread out.

Aria screeched as a robot grabbed her and flew with her around. I focused on getting her down, leaping when I saw my chance. I wedged my fiery hand into the robot's chest, making its circuits melt. The three of us dropped to the ground, separating when we awkwardly hit the furniture. I tossed the robot body off me.

"Stark!" Steve shouted at Tony.

"We are here to help," said the robots.

"One sec, one sec!" Tony shouted.

"Damn it, Tony!" I yelled, running to grab Todd. Aria and I kept him protected from both sides. One by one, the robots fell. I threw few fireballs, as I remembered the last time I couldn't control my fire in the Tower.

"Cap!" Clint shouted.

I turned my head as Steve dismembered the last robot with his shield. When the chaos was all said and done, the place reeked of oil and metal. The last robot, Ultron, nobody had touched.

"That was dramatic!" he said. "I'm sorry, I know you mean well. You just didn't think it through. You want to protect the world, but you don't want it to change. How is humanity saved if it's not allowed to...evolve?" Ultron picked up a head of one of the robots. "With these? These puppets?" He crushed the head. "There's only one path to peace: The Avengers' extinction."

A sudden breeze kicked up, and Thor's hammer collided with Ultron's metal body, smashing him to pieces. As the body shut down, we could still hear Ultron. He was...singing.

"I had strings, but now I'm free. There are no strings on me, no strings on me."

"What in the name of Odin was that?" Aria gasped.

"Something tells me shit is about to hit the fan," Todd whispered.

For once, nobody made a comment about Steve's famous "language!" line back in our raid in Sokovia.