Red Thorn

Chapter 10

May 2015

It was late on a Saturday night when Natasha had called Red, telling her to get to the tower as quickly as possible. Apparently, Bruce and Tony had managed to create a murderous robot called Ultron whilst fiddling with Loki's sceptre. The team had retrieved it only a few days earlier when they'd raided a HYDRA base in Sokovia and Thor had allowed them to study the artifact before returning it to Asgard. Considering that he was now holding Tony in the air by his throat, it was safe to say that he was less than happy that Ultron had not only interrupted their after-party, but taken off with the sceptre.

"Woah, woah, woah!" Clint cried. "It's going around."

Stark patted him on the hand, hoping he would release him. "Come on. Use your words, buddy."

"I have more than enough words to describe you, Stark," the Asgardian told him.

"Thor!" Steve shouted. "The legionnaire?"

He begrudgedly let go of Tony and Red instantly checked to make sure he was okay. Yes, he well and truly screwed up but there was no point killing him for it. "I'm okay," the billionaire told her as Thor answered Steve's question.

"Trail went cold about a hundred miles out, but it's headed north, and it has the sceptre. Now, we have to retrieve it again."

"Genie's out of that bottle," Natasha cut in. "Clear and present is Ultron."

"I don't understand." Doctor Helen Cho was looking over one of the dishevelled Legionnaire bots. "You built this program. Why is it trying to kill us?"

Tony started laughing in response to her question as he typed on one of his computers, Bruce quickly telling him to be quiet.

"You think this is funny?" Thor asked.

"No. It's probably not, right?" he quipped. "Is this very terrible? Is it so...is it so...it is. This is so terrible."

"This could have been avoided if you hadn't played with something you didn't understand," the god continued.

"No, I'm sorry. I'm sorry." He walked over to Thor, stopping just in front of him. "It is funny. It's a hoot that you don't get why we need this."

"Tony," Banner warned, "Maybe this might not be the time to—"

"Really?!" he exclaimed, cutting his fellow scientist off. "That's it? You just roll over, show your belly, every time somebody snarls."

"Only when I've created a murder bot," Bruce deadpanned.

"We didn't," Stark countered. "We weren't even close. Were we close to an interface?"

"Well you did something right," Steve piped up, his words subtly angry. "And you did it right here. The Avengers were supposed to be different from SHIELD."

"Anyone remember when I carried a nuke through a wormhole?" Tony asked, flailing one arm up at the sky.

"Nope, it's never come up," Rhodey muttered.

"Saved New York?" he went on, making everyone sigh.

"Never heard that," Rhodey said, sarcasm oozing from his words.

"Recall that? A hostile alien race came charging through a hole in space." Red's heart ached for him as he spoke, even if his other teammates hadn't noticed the panic attacks he'd been having since that day, she had. He wore it well, but it was a look she recognised all too well. "We're standing three hundred feet below it. We're the Avengers. We can bust arms dealers all the live long day. But that, up there? That's...that's the end game. How were you guys planning on beating that?"