The place had grown empty as more and more people left over time. The only ones that were left were the team, Maria, Rhodey, Helen Cho and her. The time could have been anywhere between twelve or four in the morning. No one really knew or bothered to care.

Elizabeth's headache had died down as more people left the party. The small group of people now sat scattered around on the couches and chairs in the middle of the room, talking amongst one another.

"Come on!" Clint groaned out as he twirled a pair of drumsticks in his hand. "It's a trick! He whoever so be he worthy shall have the power," he mocked in Thor's accent as he pointed to the gods hammer with his drum stick.

"Well then why don't you try it then," Elizabeth said playfully from her seat beside Thor. "Since you're just full of tricks."

Looking around and seeing everyone's encouraging looks, Clint agreed and stood up from his place by the couch. "Really?" he asked Thor with his hands spread in question.

"Be my guest," Thor said confidently as he jutted his chin toward the hammer that sat on the table that was littered with glasses of alcohol and half eaten food.

Clint shrugged and made his way toward the weapon with ease. He swapped the sticks into one hand and used his left hand to try and pull the hammer up. He tried with as much strength as he could muster but the hammer didn't even move an inch.

"I still don't know how you do it," Clint gave up with a shake of his head. This ensued the teasing from other members of the team as the archer made his way back to his seat.

"Do you smell the silent judgement?" Tony commented from his seat on the couch with a look toward Clint.

Rolling his eyes, Clint pointed toward Tony with a raised eyebrow. "Please, Stark." He began with an open hand toward the hammer. "By all means, go ahead."

Noticing everyone's look of doubt at the fact that he could lift it, Tony got up from his seat dramatically. "Never was one to shrink from an honest challenge," he announced to everyone with a smirk on his face.

Placing a hand on the handle, he found the proper grip. "It's physics," Tony explained simply as the others laughed around him. "So if I lift this, I'll rule Asgard?" He looked to Thor for confirmation who just nodded his head.

"I will make sure that there's a ten foot tall statue of me made out of gold," Tony said proudly before proceeding to pull on the hammer. Realising that he wasn't able to lift it, he relaxed his grip and took a step back. "Be right back," he muttered to everyone as he tried to brush of his failed attempt.

He came back minutes later with a piece of his suit on his right hand. Everyone watched in amusement as he tried to use the force from his suit to help, but just as before it was no use. "Rhodey, come on," He called on his best friend for help. "Get your suit, let's go."

"What's in it for me?" Rhodey questioned as he leaned further back into his seat.

"I'll make you your own statue," Tony persuaded with his grip still on the hammers handle. "I'll even add a little tank and everything," he added upon seeing his friends unconvinced look. Rhodey nodded before getting up and helping his friend out. Just as before, the two failed.

Bruce tried it out too. Attempting to turn green, he thought the Hulk would have a better shot than him. Another failed test. He took his loss like a champ, all good naturedly. Unlike Tony and Clint who were still whining about how it was rigged.

"Steve?" Elizabeth nudged her arm with his. He looked up from his lap to see everyone staring at him expectantly, waiting for him to try.

"Your turn, Cap." Maria Hill cheered him on as everyone agreed, watching him closely.

Realising that they weren't gonna stop till he got a turn, Steve got up from his seat and walked over to the hammer. Everyone made over enthusiastic cheers and claps for the man as he took a grip on the weapon.

Propping his foot up on the table, Steve began to pull the hammer up. At first the hammer moved ever so slightly, no more than an inch. Then it stopped. Elizabeth's eyes widened as she looked around to see if anyone else saw it. No one else seemed to have seen it except for Thor, whose playful and confident smile had dropped from his face.

Steve released his grip on the hammer when he saw that the weapon wasn't moving, completely oblivious to the inch it moved before. He held his hands up in surrender before sitting back beside Elizabeth.

"Thor," She whispered to the man beside her quietly not wanting anyone else to overhear. "Did you see that?"

Turning to face her, Thor shook his head. "See what?" He tried to play it off despite his emotions saying that he was still in shock at what he had just witnessed. "Oh that?" he tilted his head in the direction of the hammer. "That was nothing."

Elizabeth laughed at his attempt to brush it off. "Whatever helps you sleep at night," she joked before leaning back into the soft cushions of the couch.

"Why don't you try then?" Thor tried to turn the conversation around on her. Elizabeth just shook her head at his question.

"Yeah," Tony piped up from the other end of the table. "Why doesn't our very own Lizzie Grace try?"

All eyes turned to her, waiting her response. Once again she shook her head, "I would," she started, "But I don't exactly feel like ruling a whole country right now." She knew she would never be able to lift it, and she was totally okay with that.

"Fair enough," Bruce said against all the laughter in the room. Turning toward Natasha he raised an eyebrow at her. "Natasha?"

"Oh no," she quickly protested to everyone in the room. "That's not a question I need answered," she told the group between sips of her drink.

Tony stood up from his place to stand next to Clint who had just come back from the bar with more drinks in his hand. "It's rigged," Tony said before grabbing a drink from Clint.

"You bet your ass it is," Clint agreed as he clinked his bottle against Tony's.

"Steve," Maria called out to the man. "He said a bad language word," she pointed a finger to Clint with a grin on her face.

"My god," Steve muttered lowly as he hang his head. "Did you tell everyone about that?" He  lifted his head to glare at Elizabeth playfully.

"How could I not?" she retorted with a smile. "It was just too good." Steve groaned as Elizabeth laughed at him.

"The handle is imprinted right? Like a security code?" Tony asked Thor, the man still sour at not being able to lift the hammer. "It's more like 'Whosoever is carrying Thor's fingerprints is worthy,' I think is the literal translation.

"Yes," Thor started as he got up from the seat to stand before his hammer. "But I have a better theory. You're all just not worthy," He picked his hammer up with ease and a proud smile on his face.

Around the room, everyone booed him with frowns on their faces. There were laughs thrown around the room as well. All was fine until the loud sound of some feedback over the speakers cut through the air. Everyone in the room winced at the noise and looked between one another.

Steve and Elizabeth stood up at the same time, looking for the source of the noise. Somewhat embarrassed at the fault in his system, Tony took out his phone to check that everything was in order.

The sound of metal dragging on the floor coming from the distance grabbed all their attention. From behind the pillars, a dark body of metal came into view. It looked like one of Starks suits, but without all the red and gold. It looked disassembled with wires sticking out and some pieces missing. The robot-like thing left a trail of black oil as it took some more steps closer.

The robot stopped a few metres away from the group, the blue light coming from it's eyes now visible. "No," the robot said in a automated voice. "How could you be worthy? You're all killers."

The way it spoke resembled a way a proper person would speak. It sounded so lifelike yet so dead. The only thing that did confirm to Elizabeth that it was not in fact a breathing person, was the fact that she could not feel it's emotions. But then again, she couldn't feel Bucky's emotions when he's the Winter Soldier.

"Stark," Steve warned the man to find out what was going on. Robots was in his area of expertise after all.

In response, Tony stared in horror at the skeleton of metal before them. "Jarvis?" Tony called out for the AI. But just like when Elizabeth had, he got no response.

"Sorry," the robot began again, eerily person like. "I was asleep. I was having these dreams." They all watched the robot in horror, not knowing what was going on.

A few feet away from her, Tony was muttering some stuff while tapping into his phone. Trying to figure out a way to reboot the robot.

The robot moved as if taking a look around the place. "There was this terrible noise," it continued on as Steve and Elizabeth shared a wary look. "I was tangled in strings," the robot lifted it's half made arms to show the web of wires and metal that hung on it's arms.

"Had to kill the other guy," the robot said in the same way someone would say they took out the trash. "He was a good guy," the way the robot said it was as if it truly did regret it's actions.

"Who'd you kill?" Elizabeth was the first to ask the question, feeling how everybody was wary and unsure about the metal body in front of them. Making sure that she could feel the heat in her hands in case of anything.

"Ah yes," the robot said as it's body turned so that it's head was practically staring at her. "The poor young Grace," it said as if they had known each other for years.

Elizabeth felt her blood run cold at the name. All eyes darted back and forth between Elizabeth and the robot. "Such a shame what happened to your parents," the robot said as if he had all the answers in the world. "And your poor brothers could really use your help, huh?"

"What's he talking about?" Thor asked Elizabeth as his grip tightened on his hammer. "Lizzie, what's he saying?"

"I-I don't know," She answered him truthfully as she stared blankly at the robot. After all these years, she never really knew what happened to her parents and she was okay with it. She really was. But then her brothers, that was a different story.

"Anyway," the robot started up again, wanting the attention back on itself. "Down in the real world we are all faced with ugly choices."

Growing tired of not knowing things, Steve spoke up. "Who sent you?" He asked.

The robot played back what sounded like an audio recording of Tony. 'I see a suit of armour around the world,' it said in response.

Recognition flashed through Bruce like a bullet. "Ultron?" he asked with a worried glance toward his friend.

"In the flesh," the robot confirmed with even some sort of humour in it's voice. "Well, not flesh. At least, not yet." It looked at the metal limbs coming out of it's body. "Not this poor excuse of a body."

"But I'm ready," it continued on speaking as they all got ready for the attack they felt coming. "I'm on a mission."

Natasha spoke up carefully as she prepared herself for an answer she may not want. "What mission?"

Tilting it's head, the robot answered her. "Peace in our time."

Suddenly four more suits of metal came bursting through the wall, creating a loud crack and a splatter of debris and wood. Thinking fast, Steve kicked a table up to protect both him and Elizabeth from and oncoming robot.

The robot flew straight at the table, sending the two flying back and onto the ground. Elizabeth groaned as she rolled onto her back. "He could've given us time to stretch," she muttered to Steve distastefully before they both got up and went separate ways.

She got up just in time to see Rhodey get flung out the window like some kind of rag doll. Looking down below, she saw him land on the raised platform, obviously not dead. She sighed in relief when he sent her a thumbs up from down below.

Turning back towards the fight, she saw one of the robots raise it's palm toward her. Ready to fire. As fast as she could the ducked out of the way before sending a blast of energy toward the chunk of metal, sending it flying back into Thor. He caught the robot before smashing it to pieces.

Getting up from her kneeling position on the floor, she looked to her right and saw Steve climbing onto the robots back. The robot flew backwards into a wall with Steve still on it's back. Finding the right opportunity she felt her hands charge up before the robot got hit right in the chest. Making it fall burst into pieces as Steve fell to the ground.

"Stark!" He yelled over the noise of the chaos for Tony to explain how to deactivate the robots.

From above she heard his reply. "One second!" She looked up to see him on the back of one of the robots, poking a fondue stick into one of it's gears. Finding the right spot, he pushed the stick down. The robot fell to the ground, with Tony still on it's back completely useless.

The sound of robotic muttering to her left got her attention. Helen Cho stood behind a piano as the upper half of a robot approached her, palm up and open, ready to shoot. Elizabeth ran toward her to help.

Standing in between Helen and the robot, she fired a ball of blue energy at the robot. Steve's shield collided with it at the same time, making the robot shatter to pieces in a mess of metal and sparks.

The place had gone quiet. All of the robots had been destroyed and lay in pieces on the ground. Elizabeth was breathing heavily as she helped Helen Cho stand up. All eyes turned to Ultron who stood in the same spot as they had last seen him.

"Wow," Ultron drawled out. If robots could sound sarcastic, he definitely would have. "That was dramatic."

From the floor above her, Thor jumped down with his hammer in hand. He landed next to Tony who sat at the foot of the stairs, cuts littering his face. Steve grabbed his shield off the ground and stood next to Maria.

"I'm sorry," the robot apologised condescendingly as he looked at the destruction that littered the place. "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." Ultron continued on with the most patronising look a robot could have. "How is humanity expected to change if it's not allowed to evolve?"

Ultron picked up the body of one of the robots in his metal hand. "These?" he said mockingly just before crushing the metal in his hands. "These puppets? There's only one path to peace," he threw the dismembered piece of metal by Elizabeth's foot. Staining her shoes with dark oil.

"And it's the Avengers extinction-" if there was more the robot wanted to say, he didn't get it. In that moment, Thor threw his hammer into the body of Ultron. Pieces of metal flew everywhere as it's body was smashed into pieces.

It didn't seem to do much since it continued to hum a line of words. "I've had strings, but now I'm free."