Chapter Eighteen : Ultron's Mission

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     Valencia smiled as everybody laughed at how Thor's hammer was supposed to work. Apparently, only he could lift it and nobody else could because they weren't worthy enough of wielding its power. If what Thor was saying was true, she already knew that there was no way in Hell she was gonna be able to lift his hammer.

     "I bet it's a trick!" Clint said as he looked at the hammer that was just simply sitting on the table.

     "No, it's much more than that," Thor said.

     "Whosoever be he worthy shall haveth the power!" Clint said in a dramatically deep voice. "It's a trick!"

     "Please, be my guest," Thor said with a smile as he gestured as the hammer.

     "Seriously?" Clint questioned with a crooked smile.

     "Yeah, go on!" Thor encouraged as Clint stood up.

     "This is gonna be beautiful," Rhodes said.

     "Clint, you've had a tough week, We won't hold it against you if you can't get it up," Tony said and everyone laughed while Valencia cringed at the sexual undertone of his comment.

     Clint wrapped his hand around the handle of the hammer and tried to pick it up but it just stayed put while Clint struggled. He laughed as he looked at Thor who had a cocky smile on his face. "I still don't know how you do it," he said.

     "Can you smell the silent judgment?" Tony asked and Valencia scoffed as she looked at him.

     "Why don't you get up there and lift it then?" she asked.

     "Yes, by all means," Clint said as he sat down next to the dark haired woman while Tony got up and walked over to the hammer.

     "Oh, here we go," Natasha said as she took a sip of her beer.

     "Why are we even trying to lift this thing anyway?" Valencia asked.

     "No one else but Thor has been able to hold it. And to be honest, it would be pretty cool if one of us could do it too but alas, it seems that won't be the case," Natasha said.

     "It's physics," Tony said as he grabbed ahold of Thor's hammer. "So, if I lift it, do I then rule Asgard?"

     "Yes, of course," Thor said with a small nod.

     "I will be reinstituting prima nocta," Tony said as he tried to lift the hammer but failed just like Clint did. "Be right back."

     Tony walked out and then came back with his armoured hand and tried again. He even got Rhodes to get his armoured hand and try to lift it with him but the two of them combined with high tech armour wasn't enough.

     "Are you even pulling?" Rhodes asked.

     "Are you on my team?" Tony countered.

     "Just represent. Pull!" Rhodes said and Valencia couldn't help but laugh.

     "I don't think your high tech armour is gonna work on, um, what's your hammer called again?" she asked as she looked at Thor.

     "Mjolnir," he replied.

     "Anyway, your tech isn't gonna help you lift Mjolnir," Valencia said.

     "Why don't you lift it then?" Tony asked.

     "Why don't you ask the Grinch to lift it?" Valencia asked while looking at Bruce who only rolled his eyes at the nickname she just gave him.

     Regardless, he got up and tried to lift the hammer, even tried to change into the Hulk but that didn't work either since he was still Bruce Banner. Steve stood up and rolled up his sleeves and Valencia's interest piqued. Considering he's a super soldier with enhanced strength, he should be able to lift up the hammer without breaking a sweat, unless he too was not worthy enough to wield its power. Valencia raised an eyebrow while sitting on the edge of her seat when she heard the hammer budge and chuckled at Thor's expression. But even Steve couldn't lift it.

     "Widow?" Bruce asked while looking at Natasha.

     The brunette laughed as she shook her head. "Oh, no. That's not a question I need answered," she said before taking another sip of her beer.

     "Parrish?" Maria asked while looking at Valencia who only scoffed.

     "You crazy? I think we all know how that's gonna end," she replied as she leaned back into the cushions of the sofa.

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

     "You bet your ass," Clint replied with one leg crossed over the other.

     "Steve, he said a bad language word," Maria said and Steve only sighed.

     "Did you tell everyone about that?" he asked while looking at Tony who innocently shrugged his shoulders and Valencia just laughed.

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

     "Yes, well that's, uh, that's a very, very interesting theory. I have a simpler one," Thor said as he stood up and lifted the hammer and flipped it in his hand. "You're all not worthy."

     Everyone groaned in disagreement, some even laughing and Valencia just leaned into Natasha's side as the two of them laughed while also giving Thor a piece of their minds. All the laughing and commotion stopped when they heard a high pitched noise and they covered their ears until the sound faded away.

     "Worthy . . . " a deep robotic voice said and everyone turned around. One of Tony's robotic suits walked into the room and Valencia started to get a bad feeling settling in the pit of her stomach. "How could any of you be worthy? You're all killers."

     He's not entirely wrong, Valencia thought to herself as she swallowed the lump in her throat.

     "Reboot, Legionnaire OS, we got a buggy suit," Tony said as he tapped the screen of the device in his hand.

     "There was a terrible noise . . . and I was tangled in . . . strings. I had to kill the other guy. He was a good guy," the suit said and Valencia warily raised her eyebrows.

     "You killed someone?" Steve questioned.

     "It wouldn't have been my first call. But, down in the real world we're all faced with ugly choices," the suit said and Valencia slowly stood up.

     "Who sent you?" Thor asked.

     "I see a suit of armour around the world," the suit replayed Tony's voice which left everybody confused.

     "Ultron," Bruce said as he stood up but everybody else was just even more confused.

     Well, everybody except for Tony and Bruce. "In the flesh. Or, no. Not yet. Not this . . . chrysalis. But I'm ready. I'm on a mission," Ultron said and Valencia slowly moved her fingers as she let out a quiet but slow and controlled exhale.

     "What mission?" Natasha asked warily.

     Ultron tilted his head as he looked at everybody in the room. "Peace in our time."

     Right after he said that, the Iron Legion broke right through the walls and started attacking everyone. Steve kicked the table up but the bots still knocked him and Maria onto the floor while Valencia jumped out of the way. She quickly got up and threw a force field at one of the bots and cursed under her breath when it turned its head, unaffected. It started firing at her and she put up a shield to block it until Natasha started shooting at it. Valencia noticed one of them grabbing Loki's sceptre and she ran up the stairs and jumped onto its back. She tried to grab the sceptre but the bot kept trying to shake her off while she held on tightly. It wasn't until Thor threw his hammer at the bot and it shattered to pieces, causing Valencia to fall to the floor along with its remains and the sceptre. She tried to get up and grab the sceptre but another bot fired at her and knocked her away from it.

     "Guys, the sceptre!" she said as she got up while the bot picked up Loki's sceptre and left with it. She ran after it and shot another force field but it fired back and blocked her move. "Shit!"

     She turned around and saw Helen Cho hiding behind the piano and the top half of one of the bots aiming at her. She ran in front of her and created a force field that she used to push the bot to Steve who grabbed it and threw it over to Thor who used his hammer to smash it to the pieces. The last active one was smashed when Clint threw Steve's shield over to him and he threw it right at the malfunctioning bot. Valencia pulled Helen up to her feet while everyone looked at Ultron.

     "That was dramatic. I'm sorry, I know you mean well. You just didn't think it through. You wanna protect the world but you don't want it to change. Tell me, how can humanity be saved if it's not allowed to evolve? With these? These puppets," he said as he grabbed one of the broken bots by its head and crushed it with his own hand before discarding it on the floor. "There's only one path to peace. The Avengers' extinction."

     Thor threw his hammer at Ultron and the bot he possessed was broken to a million pieces. Valencia looked at Natasha before she looked at Bruce and Tony. "What the hell was that?"

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     "All our work is gone. Ultron cleared out, used the internet as an escape hatch," Bruce said while Tony looked over the damaged Iron Legion suits in the lab.

     "He's been in everything. Files, surveillance, he probably knows more about all of us than we know about each other," Natasha said with her arms crossed.

     "He's in your files, he's in the internet, what if he decides to access something a little more exciting?" Rhodes asked.

     "Nuclear codes," Maria said.

     "Damn it," Valencia muttered under her breath. They just finished a mission three days ago and now an artificial intelligence program that Tony created just tried to kill them. "Does this always happen after you guys finish a mission?"

     "Usually, we just have the party and call it a night until something else comes up," Tony said.

     "Look, assuming we can still make some calls, we need to get on that," Rhodes said.

     "Ultron said he wanted us dead," Natasha replied.

     "He didn't say dead, he said extinct," Steve corrected and Valencia scoffed.

     "Dead, extinct, it doesn't matter. Either way it doesn't end well for any of us," she said.

     "He also said he killed someone," Clint added.

     "Who? There was nobody else in the building," Maria said with her eyes narrowed in confusion.

     "Yes there was," Tony replied as he showed a damaged 3D image of what JARVIS' consciousness looked like.

     It reminded Valencia of a freeze frame of a broken object with pieces flying in every direction.

     "This is insane," Bruce said.

     "JARVIS was the first line of defence. He would've shut Ultron down so it makes sense," Steve said with his hand on his hips.

     "No, Ultron could've assimilated JARVIS. This isn't strategy, this is rage," Bruce explained while Thor walked in and grabbed Tony by the neck.

     "Woah, woah, woah!" Clint said as Thor lifted Tony off the floor.

     "Use your words, buddy," Tony tried to talk with Thor's hand around his throat.

     "I have more than enough words to describe you, Stark," Thor replied.

     "Hey! I thought we were strangling HYDRA soldiers, when did we start turning on each other?" Valencia asked.

     "You're still new to this," Rhodes said.

     "New or not, I will still kick Ultron's ass. Just tell me where to find him and he'll be dealt with faster than you can say boo," Valencia replied.

     "Valencia, we'll get to that later. Thor, the Legionnaire?" Steve asked and Thor put Tony down.

     "The trail went cold about a hundred miles out but they're heading north and they have the sceptre, which means we have to retrieve it again," he said.

     "Well, the genie's out of that bottle. Clear and present is Ultron," Natasha said while Valencia rubbed her eyes in frustration.

     "Seriously? I am not getting tased again for that thing," she groaned as she threw her head back.

     "I don't understand. You built this program. Why is it trying to kill us?" Helen asked while looking at Tony who started laughing.

     Valencia looked at Natasha who only shrugged her shoulders while Tony seemed to somehow find humour in their current situation.

     "You think this is funny?" Thor questioned.

     "No. It's probably not, right? Is this terrible? It is. It is so terrible," Tony replied.

     "This all could've been avoided if you didn't mess around with forces you didn't understand," Thor said.

     "No, I'm sorry. It is funny. It's a hoot that you don't get why we need this," Tony said as he stepped closer to the tall blonde man.

     "Tony, this might not be the time to─"

     "Really?" Tony cut off Bruce as he looked at him with furrowed brows. "You just roll over and show your belly whenever someone snarls?"

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

     Valencia really wanted to say something but it seemed like it was between the Avengers and since she wasn't really one, there wasn't really a reason for her to be there yet there she was. All she could do was chew on the skin of her thumb as she watched everyone argue over what led up to the current situation.

     "We weren't even close to a 'murder bot' or anything at all. Not even an interface," Tony said.

     "Well, you did something right and you did it right here," Steve said with his arms crossed. "The Avengers were supposed to be different from SHIELD."

     "Anybody remember when I carried a nuke through a wormhole and saved New York?" Tony questioned.

     "Never came up," Rhodes said while shaking his head.

     Valencia couldn't help but ask, "What does that have to do with Ultron and how we're gonna deal with him?"

     "Just think about it. A hostile alien army came charging through a hole in space. 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 the endgame. How were you guys planning on beating that?" Tony asked while looking at Steve.

     "Together," he replied.

     "We'll lose, even with our new addition," Tony said while nodding towards Valencia who only shrugged her shoulders.

     "Then we'll do that together too. Ultron is calling us out and I'd like to find him before he's ready for us. The world's a big place so let's start making it smaller," Steve said while looking at everybody in the room.

     Valencia couldn't lie and say that working with the Avengers wasn't keeping her busy and on her toes. Not even a week after her first mission and they had to go back out there to take down a robot Tony and Bruce created using Loki's sceptre. But first, they needed to figure out what Ultron was up to before they could stop him.