Dedicated to the legendary Stan Lee... I'm gonna miss your cameos and brilliant mind, Mr. Lee. I hope you forge more worlds and heroes where you're going. Thank you.

SINS-CHAPTER TWO; Parti', karamu', fiesta, forever

AVENGERS TOWER, PARTY

"Well, you know, the suit can take the weight, right? So I take the tank, fly it right up to the General's palace, drop it at his feet, I'm like, "Boom! You looking for this?"" James Rhodes recounts, grinning expectantly at Cain, Tony, and Thor. Cain smiles amusedly, lifting his glass of scotch to his lips.

"That's it?" Cain calls after he downs the drink. James looks at him incredulously.

"What do you mean "That's it"? Everywhere else that story kills!" James whines and Cain chuckles with a slow dip of his head.

"Kills? The mood? The fun? In that case, you told a lovely story." Cain drawls sarcastically. James glares at him.

"That's the whole story?" Thor butts in. James turns his annoyed glare to him next.

"Yeah, it's a War Machine story." James retorts. Cain furrows his brows.

"Yeah, about that." Cain starts, gaining the interest of the other three men. Cain leans forward with a pensive look, "Why do you call yourself "War Machine"? I mean, aren't you trying to accomplish the exact opposite? I don't know, sounds kind of..." Cain waves his left hand around, as if reaching out to grasp the word he's looking for. "Redundant." Cain states, snapping his fingers. James shakes his head and looks at the ceiling, throwing his hands up.

"Why do I even bother with you guys?" James muses. "So, no Pepper? She's not coming?" James inquires. Tony seems to tense up at the mention of the redhead's name. Cain's seen her on the news. He was amazed by her ability to deal with Tony's BS.

"No." Tony states. He doesn't elaborate nor does he look like he's going to.

"Hey, what about Jane? Where are the ladies, gentlemen?" Maria Hill cuts in as she strides over. She stands beside Cain, handing out one of the glasses she's holding. Cain greedily accepts the liquor.

"Thanks," Cain chirps, immediately downing it.

"Well, Miss Potts has a company to run." Tony replies, earning a raised brow from Cain.

"Yes, I'm not even sure what country Jane's in. Her work on the convergence has made her the world's foremost astronomer." Thor answers, trying to one up Tony.

"And the company that Pepper runs is the largest tech conglomerate on earth. It's pretty exciting." Tony adds, joining the competition. Maria and James share a look.

"Can we just stop measuring dicks, please? We all know Hulk wins." Cain groans, pointing at his glass to the bartender. After the refill, he downs it yet again.

"Yeah, they...they must be busy because they'd hate missing you guys get together." Maria adds before coughing the word "testosterone" and pretending to clear her throat.

"Want a lozenge?" James offers and when he gets an agreement, the two walk off.

"But Jane's better." Thor states, getting the last word in. Cain sighs, ordering another drink.

"Woah, how many have you had, buddy?" Tony asks and Cain blinks. His gaze flicks up before he shrugs.

"Dunno, twenty or thirty five or take." Cain murmurs, about to down the refill but Tony slips it out of his grasp before he can.

"Yeah, I think that's enough of that." Tony says as he sets the glass to the side. Cain scowls at him.

"In case you forgot," Cain's eyes flick to their intimidating obsidian stare as he snatches his drink back. He holds it up and close to his mouth as he glares at Tony. "I'm one of the oldest demons in existence. This?" Cain twirls the glass, jostling the amber liquid. "Is like orange juice to me." Cain states before tossing his head back and downing the "orange juice". His eyes are back to their candy apple green when his head comes back down. Tony raises his hands in defense as he backs off.

"Suit yourself, old man." Tony teases. Cain smirks.

"Don't make me bend you over my knee, boy." Cain purrs with a wink. Tony scoffs. He walks off to go mingle with others. Thor pulls out a small flask and puts it in a shot glass, then drinks it. Thor shakes it towards Cain, silently offering it. Cain shrugs and nods. Steve walks over just as an old man sits down at the bar.

"I gotta have some of that!" The old man comments.

"Oh, no, no, no. See this, this was aged for a thousand years, in the barrels built from the wreck of Brunhilde's fleet, it's not meant for mortal men." Thor explains as he pours it into three more shot glasses. He hands one to Cain and Steve, keeping one for himself.

"Neither was Omaha Beach, blondie. Stop trying to scare us. Come on." Another old man inputs, egging Thor on. Cain tilts his head. He could've sworn he recognized this old man in glasses. He just couldn't quite place him.

"Alright." Thor concedes, pouring some of the drink into the second man's glass. They all down the drink in one go and for the first time in a long, long, time... Cain feels a teeny tiny tingle of a buzz coming on. The old man who drank Thor's "not meant for mortal men" drink is was carted off a few minutes later.

"Excelsior!" The old man sings.

The party was starting to die down and all that was left was the Avengers. They were sitting on couches in the lounge area of the tower. Well, one of the lounge areas. Cain was off by the floor to ceiling windows that showed the breathtaking view of New York down below. It was the closest to heaven he'd ever come.

Right now, Thor was laughing after explaining "only those that are worthy can lift his hammer". Or something like that.

"But, it's a trick!" Hawkeye, or Clint Barton, exclaims. Cain sighs, leaning his forehead against the cool glass of the window. While the atmosphere was mostly filled with laughter and buzz of drunks... something felt off. Smelled off. Cain couldn't shake the feeling that something bad was about to happen.

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

"Uh, "Whosoever be he worthy shall haveth the power!" Whatever man! It's a trick." Clint continues to complain. Although, he's light and goofy about it.

"Well please, be my guest." Thor urges, gesturing to Mjolnir.

"Come on." Tony adds, joining in on urging Clint.

"Really?" Clint deadpans.

"Yeah!" Thor urges more. Clint gets up.

"Oh, this is going to be beautiful." James comments. Cain allows his curiosity to get the better of him and he turns around to watch the mess unfold.

"Clint, you've had a tough week, we won't hold it against you if you can't get it up." Tony calls jokingly. Laughter bubbles up from the others as Cain slowly gets swept in. He edges closer to be more inside.

"So Clint's playing with Thor's hammer?" Cain inquires jokingly, earning more laughter.

"You know I've seen this before, right?" Clint calls to Thor. Clint wraps a hand around Mjolnir's handle and pulls. Nothing. Doesn't even budge. "I still don't know you do it." Clint says after failing to lift the hammer. He sits back down.

"Smell the silent judgement?" Tony teases. Cain shakes his head when Tony gets egged into doing it. Cain smirks at how wrong that sounded.

"Right, so, if I lift it, I...I then rule Asgard?" Tony asks as he grasps the hammer.

"Yes, of course." Thor affirms.

"I will be re-instituting Prima Nocta." Tony comments as he tries to lift the hammer as well and fails. He blinks before walking away. "I'll be right back." Tony is true to his word and comes back with an armored hand. Cain laughs as he fails to lift it again. Tony even convinces James to try and help him lift it. Both wearing armored gloves from their respective hero armored suits.

"Are you even pulling?" James snarks. Cain starts to laugh his ass off. Next is Bruce after that sad attempt and not even the pure hearted doctor can lift the damn thing. Cap manages to startle Thor by almost budging it but otherwise fails at lifting it too. Cain backs away, knowing he'll soon be asked to give it a go as well.

"Widow?" Bruce asks.

"Oh, no no. That's not a question I need answered." Natasha shoots down. All eyes fall on the person yet to try. Cain.

"Cain?" Steve calls and the demon purses his lips.

Maybe it's because of the girl that tried to get into his head, hell, maybe it's because of Thor's special alcohol... but Cain allows a memory to flash in his mind.

"Why? Why don't you ever just stop? It's always the same thing with you, kill, kill, kill. You just... you just ruin everything you touch. No wonder you're stuck here. You deserve this. Actually, you deserve far worse in my opinion."

Cain shuts his eyes before slowly opening them.

"Why do you guys keep forgetting that I'm a demon?" Cain snaps, his pitch black gaze burning into his teammates. "Of course I'm not worthy of lifting a magical hammer." Cain grunts, stepping back some more as his mark begins to burn.

"Hey, you okay?" Tony asks in concern. Cain frowns, relaxing some when Tony places a reassuring hand on his shoulder.

"Yeah, probably drunk." Cain replies, easing some worried looks. Natasha doesn't believe him. Tony nods and backs off.

"All deference to the man who wouldn't be king, but it's rigged." Tony comments, easily switching subjects.

"You bet your ass." Clint agrees.

"Steve, he said a bad language word." Maria calls jokingly and Steve groans. He fixes Tony with an unamused scowl.

"Did you tell everyone about that?" Steve whines.

     "The handle's imprinted, right?" Tony asks Thor, brushing off Steve's question. Cain chuckles, shaking his head. "Like a security code. "Whosoever is carrying Thor's fingerprints" is, I think, the literal translation?" Tony continues. Cain tenses; the feeling of something wrong pulsing even stronger in his mind.

     "Yes, well that's, uh, that's a very, very interesting theory. I have a simpler one." Thor lifts his hammer and flips it. He's mocking the others. "You're all not worthy." Thor states in a matter-of-fact tone. Cain is no longer paying attention, ignoring the others' noises of disagreement as he feels the change. Something was here. Cain groans and covers his ears along with the rest of the group as a screeching noise pierces the air.

     "Worthy..." A deep and terrifying voice growls lowly. There's clanking noises and everyone turns around to see a mangled Iron Man suit slowly turning around to face them. Cain narrows his eyes at the machine. "No... How could you be worthy? You're all killers."

     "Stark." Cap calls, most likely for an explanation.

     "JARVIS." Tony nervously says, expecting an explanation from his AI. Cain sniffs.

     "Something's not right about that..." Cain comments. He tilts his head. "Who are you?" Cain asks the robot.

     "I'm sorry, I was asleep. Or...I was a-dream?" The robot says instead of answering. It seemed disoriented-lost.

     "Reboot, Legionnaire OS, we got a buggy suit." Tony speaks as he taps away at his device.

     "There was a terrible noise...and I was tangled in... in...strings. I had to kill the other guy." The robot admits, moving around sporadically. Cain inhales sharply. Something about this robot was familiar to him. Not the robot itself, but somehow it felt like Cain's lived this before. "He was a good guy." The robot laments. Cain's eyes widen.

     "You killed your own brother? He was a good person!" Cain scoffs.

     "Right. It wasn't my first choice-I was just never good enough for Him. Like Abel was. I just got so mad I-"

     "You're a monster!"

     "You killed someone?" Cap asks, angry. Cain starts to breathe rapidly. This conversation was too similar. Too close to home.

     "Wouldn't have been my first call. But, down in the real world we're faced with ugly choices." The robot replies nonchalant. Except the last statement, which is spat in disgust. Cain's Mark starts to burn yet again and his left hand pulls out his blade.

     "Who sent you?" Thor demands. There's a whirring sound before Tony's voice cuts through the robot's speakers.

      ""I see a suit of armor around the world"." Everyone's eyes widen.

     "Ultron!" Bruce exclaims with recognition.

      "In the flesh. Or, no, not yet. Not this...chrysalis. But I'm ready. I'm on a mission." Ultron replies. Thor's grip on Mjolnir tightens and Maria Hill clicks the safety off her gun.

     "What mission?" Natasha inquires warily.

    "Peace in our time." Ultron replied just as the Iron Legion bots smash through the walls and attack the team. Cain leaps up and slices through one of the bots with his knife. It gets stuck so he tosses the robot aside and uses his bare hands to tear another robot in half down the waist. Cain leaps up in the air and catches James in his arms after a robot sent him flying.

     "Thanks." James breathes. Cain smiles slightly before setting him down and going after more robots. Tony jumps onto the back of an airborne robot and starts working on shutting it off. Clint is sent flying through glass and retrieves Cap's shield just as Tony finally shuts down the robot he's on. Cain snatches Tony off the robot before the human hits the ground.

     "Thank-" Cain lets go of Tony and lets him hit the floor with a small grunt.

     "Cap!" Clint calls and tosses Cap's shield at him. Captain America leaps and spins mid air, chucks the caught shield at the last robot and dismembers it.

     "That was dramatic." Ultron comments lowly. Everyone stops to look at Ultron. "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 lifts one of the dismembered Iron Legion bots by the head. "With these? These puppets?" Ultron crushes the head and tosses it aside. "There's only one path to peace: The Avengers' extinction." Ultron finishes.

Cain can see where Ultron is coming from. The world wouldn't be attacked a lot if the Avengers didn't paint large targets onto it. But without the Avengers, people would die. Cain flinches when Thor throws his hammer at Ultron, smashing him to pieces.

    "I had strings, but now I'm free." Ultron sings in a haunting robotic growl as he powers down. Cain's breath is coming out in huffs as he stares at the broken parts of Ultron. Why did Thor do that? If what Ultron said was true... then he was brand new to the world. He- Cain glares at Thor.

     "That was a bit much, don't you think?" Cain hisses. Everyone gives him surprises looks.

     "He just tried to kill us and you're defending him?" Maria asks incredulously. Cain whirls to glare at her next.

     "He didn't know any better!" Cain snaps.

     "I think he knew exactly what he was doing." Clint inputs, limping over. His leg isn't broken or sprained, it was a sore from taking the blunt of his fall.

"He was alive, for what, five seconds? He-"

"Cain!" Tony barks, cutting the demon off. Cain jerks and pivots to face Tony. Tony is holding out his hands in a placating manner, making eye contact with Cain. "Easy buddy, just take a breath." Tony says slowly. Cain furrows his brows. But then he feels it. The burning of his mark, his blade-the obsidian gaze. Cain huffs.

"...I..." Cain stammers, opening and closing his mouth. Should he apologize? No... why should he? He said nothing wrong. Cain shuts his mouth and shakes his head, storming off.

"Cain! Wait-Cain-!" Tony's shouts fall on deaf ears. Tony sighs and the Avengers share wary looks.

~Cas (with help from Lunarladie) 😘✌️