Long Time No See • Natasha Romanoff

Part 14: I had strings, but now im free

The entire squad was sat around a small coffee table. The party was over but all of the Avengers, including Helen Cho and Maria Hill were eating a takeaway whilst drinking.

It was a positive mood and they were all laughing and joking about Mijlonir and how it wasn't real.

"But it's a trick." Clint was salty that they couldn't lift the hammer and he could. He though the whole 'He is worthy' spell was crap.

"No, no, it's much more than that." Thor replied, clinking Steve, who was sat next to him. They were both quite tipsy and had probably a few too much. None of them were drunk however. But they were far from sober.

"Ah, whosoever be he worthy shall haveth the power." He said in a tone that imitated Thor. It was low and all of the words were drawn out. It was actually quite impressive. "Whatever man, it's a trick." He said, converting back to his normal voice.

"Ah, please go ahead." The blonde man gestured to the hammer, inviting him to try and lift it. He accepted the challenge and stepped up to the small table.

"Oh this is going to be beautiful." Rhodey said in a slurred voice, probably due for the booze in his hand.

"Clint, you've had a tough week. We won't hold it against you if you can't get it up." Tony added, causing everyone to laugh.

He grabbed the hammer and pulled it with all his strength. Nothing. He kept tugging in the handle and yet he could not lift it.

He invited Stark to try and lift it because he was mocking him from a far.

"I'm never one to shrink from an honest challenge."

"Get after it." Barton said sarcastically. He knew there was no way in hell he was lifting the hammer. He would be the lowest on the list of people who would be worthy.

"It's physics." He was smug and believed he could lift it. Boy was he wrong. It took him and Rhodey to find their suits of armour, take the repulsor gloves and lift together to get the same results.

Banner was up next and got the exact same results as the people before him. And the people after him. He tried to bring out the big guy but he couldn't. Even the Hulk couldn't lift the hammer.

After banners go, it was Steve's turn. He rolled up his sleeves. The first pull there was no result. But the second time, however, there was a slight squeak. Nobody except Thor saw this and a serious look dawned on his face.

Once the captain failed to lift the hammer, Thor laughed, it was more of a collective of sighs that he wasn't worthy.

Finally, it was Natasha's turn. She didn't want to embarrass herself by trying, because she knew it would make her look stupid when it didn't lift off the table.

"It's rigged." Tony said. Clint was finally happy that someone was agreeing with him on this.

"You bet your ass." Barton said as he patted him on the shoulder.

"Steve, he said a bad language word." Maria pointed out. She was referring to when Cap told Stark off because he said 'shit' on a mission.

"Did you tell everyone about that?" He asked the billionaire. He didn't respond to the captain, he continued to ask Thor how it was done.

"The handles imprinted, right? Like a security code. 'Whosoever carries Thors fingerprints' I think is the literal translation." His impression was good and was a similar low voice like the one Barton did earlier.

"Yes, it's a very, very ingesting theory. I have a simpler one." He paused and flipped the hammer in his hand, it made a slight wooshing sound as he did so. "Your all not worthy."

They all groaned at the cringe line that Thor mentioned.

Then, out of nowhere, there was a high pitched sound. All of them covered their ears to hide from the deafening sound.

A half built robot walked out of the hallway and into the room the hero's were in. It was leaking oil and had a sort of, limp to it. 

"How could you be worthy?" The machine asked in a low and scratchy tone. "Your all killers."

Tony asked for Jarvis to inform him of what was going on. There was no answer.

"I'm sorry, I was asleep. Or... I was a dream."
Tony tapped a few buttons on his holographic phone.

"I had to kill the other guy. He was a good guy." He sounded remorseful, like he didn't want to kill 'the other guy'. Who this other guy was the team didn't know.

"You killed someone?" Steve asked in a serious manner.

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

"Who sent you?" Thor bellowed in his direction. Still nobody approached the robot.

The bot played a recording of Tony's voice.

"A suit of armour around the world."

"Ultron." Bruce said, finally putting the pieces together. Only he and Tony knew what they were talking about.

"In the flesh." He continued. "Or, no, not yet. Not this chrysalis." He looked his form up and down like he was disgusted. "But I'm ready."

Thor clenched his hammer that little bit tighter and Maria flipped the safety off of her small handgun.

"I'm on mission." They were all on edge, sensing that this could turn violent.

"What mission?" Romanoff asked.

"Peace in our time." After that phrase, Tony's legionnaires flew threw the walls and into the direction of the Avengers.

Thor began smashing the fighters that Tony had created. Tony and Rhodey had gone for their suits. Rhodey, however, was blown into a glass pane and fell down into the hanger.
Cap and Maria where behind the tables and sofas. And lastly, Natasha and Banner where behind the bar, taking cover from all of the chaos.

Natasha grabbed a gun from under the bar, it was there in case of emergencies. Steve jumped onto the back of one of the robots and began to......strangle it?

One of the robots was floating towards Dr Cho who was hiding behind a piano. But just as it was about to fire it decided to hesitate, giving Steve and Thor time to destroy the legionnaire.

Clint threw Caps shield at him and in one ballet move he swivelled them shield at the last remaining enemy. There was a moment of silence before Ultron turned the attention back on himself.

"Well that was dramatic." He said as he liked across the floor back towards the wall. "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. With these?" He asked before picking up a broken Stark robot. "These puppets. There's only one path to peace. The Avengers extinction." Just as he finished his sentence Thor flung his hammer into the AI.

It was definitely going to break but before it did it began to sing a creepy song.

"I had strings but now I'm free." Then the lights in his eyes burned out and turned off, signalling the end of its life.

They all began to asses the situation and see what damage the robot was able to accomplish. They were all in the lab when Rhodey mentioned that he might be going for nuclear codes.