Chapter 8

Taylor was so annoyed, that she got put on babysitting duty. The others got to go out on a dangerous mission, while she got the worst job imaginable. She had often gone into the training room to work out her frustration and irritation, but she couldn't this time. A thought had entered her mind, maybe she could.

"Hey, Loki!" I call out him and he looks at me with interest. "Yes, darling?" I roll my eyes at his smug grin. "Will you come with me to the training room?" I saw the look he was giving me and I knew what he was thinking. "For training purposes." He nods and I get into my outfit.

"What can I help you with?" He asks me with a proud smile. I smirk a little evilly before I respond with actions and not words. I pull out my bow arrow and quickly aim at him. I let the arrow go and it would have hit his shoulder blade if he wasn't using an illusion. He turned up right behind me and he kicked my feet out from under me. I fell on my back and you could hear a crack come from my back. He straddled my waist holding a knife in one hand and the other holding my hands in place over my head. This was how I was gonna die. I was trapped under the guy who is responsible for my nonexistent (robotic) hand. I'm half a robot now, because of him. The knife was right above the area where my heart is.

"Stop, Loki." A familiar voice could be heard. I looked up to see my Knight in Shining Armor, Steve Rogers. Loki looked up at him, dropped his dagger to the floor, and let my hands go. I took my chance, picked up his dagger, and struck it through the back of his shoulder blade. I pushed him off of me and walked up to Steve.

Clint was getting patched up by a visiting doctor, Dr. Cho from Seoul. Steve brought Loki and me to our main doctor, Dr. Palmer. I only had bruises, but Loki had to get his shoulder patched up. I felt good about what I did to him. I left Steve in Dr. Palmer's office with Loki, so I could go back to my room and paint.

A few hours later

Tony was having a party. I had to attend, so I got dressed in a form fitting white dress. I was going with Steve as his date/girlfriend. The party was filled with a lot of people. Steve and Sam were playing pool as I stood by nearby watching. Sam was being cocky (like he always is) and I laugh along with Steve. Sam ended up winning. "If I had known it was gonna be a firefight, I would have called." Steve says talking about the mission from earlier. "No, no. I'm not actually sorry. I'm just trying to sound tough." Sam says and then points at me. "Was Taylor a part of this?" I shook my head no. "I was stuck on babysitting duty." I look over to Thor and Loki, then excused myself.

I join Thor and Loki by the bar. Loki glares at me, but I didn't react. Steve joins us and wraps his arm around my waist. Loki glares at Steve, but like me, he doesn't react. We were all drinking and talking (except Loki) when an old man walks up to us.

"I gotta have some of that" he says referring to the bottle in Thor's hand. "Oh, no, no, no." Thor says replies, almost like he is telling a toddler no. "See this...This was aged for a thousand years in the barrels built from the wreck of Grunhel's fleet. It is not meant for mortal men or woman." I'm confused and about to ask a question, when another old man near by makes himself aware. "Neither was Omaha Beach, blondie. Stop trying to scare us. Come on." He says, clearly wanting whatever was in the bottle. Thor was hesitant at first, but pours the old man some. I pour myself some more champagne, but kept wondering what would happen to someone like me with a little drop from that bottle. I watched as the old guys reaction. He was really drunk and needed help walking out of here. That's what it does.

Steve and I saw Nat and Bruce at the bar. We walked over and heard a bit of the conversation. "So what do you think? Should I fight this? Or run with it?" Natasha asks Bruce. "Run with it, right? Or did he...was he...What did he do that was so wrong to you?"

"Not a thing. But never say never." She walks away and we walk closer to Bruce. "It's nice." Steve says to Bruce. "What is?" Bruce stumbles on the word 'what'. "You and Natasha, of course." I smirk slightly. "I ship Brutasha."

"No, we haven't...That wasn't..." I laugh a little. "It's okay, Bruce." Steve adds in, "Nobody's breaking any bylaws. It's just she's not the most open person in the world. But with you she seems very relaxed."

"No, Natasha, she's just...She likes to flirt." I walk up closer to Bruce. "I've seen her flirt, up close. This ain't that." Bruce scoffs and Steve walks up to stand next to me. "Look, as maybe the world's leading authority on waiting too long, don't." Steve holds my hand and we walk off to say bye to the guests and thank them for coming.

We gathered around as a group, eating Shwarma, talking, and laughing with each other (except for Loki, again). Loki kept glaring at Steve. "But it's a trick." Clint doesn't believe the whole 'being worthy' thing. "No, no, it's much more than that." Clint continues with a mocking voice. "Ah, whosoever be worthy shall haveth the power." Thor laughs, but in a serious tone, Clint continues, "Whatever, man! It's a trick." Thor holds his hand out to the hammer in a 'go ahead' way and says, "Be my guest."

"Come on. Really? Clint asks in a 'are you serious' tone. "Clint, you've had a tough week. We won't hold it against you if can't lift it up." Tony teases Clint and everyone laughs. Clint grabs the handle of Mjolnir and grunts as he can't lift it. "I still don't know how you do it."

"Smell the silent judgement?" Stark teases Barton again. "Please, Stark, by all means." Clint challenges Tony.

Tony clears his throat as he gets up off the couch. "Never one to shrink from an honest challenge." He walks over to the hammer and tries to and fails like Clint. "I'll be right back." He comes back with a piece of his armor. He still can't, even with both hands. Rhodey even tries to help him out, but they can't lift it.

Bruce stands up to try. He stands on the table and grips the hammer with both hands. He tries and tries, but fails as well.

Steve gets up to try. Loki rolls his eyes at him. Steve doesn't even grunt and the hammer moves a tiny bit. Thor looked upset for a second, but Steve being the nice guy he is, pretends he can't pick it up.

Bruce looks at Nat and I. "Do you girls want to try?"

"Oh, no, no. That's not a question I need answered."

"I agree with Nat."

I'm talking and laughing with Bruce and Nat, when I heard Maria Hill say, "Steve, he said a bad Language word." I couldn't stop laughing and Steve just looks at Tony. "Did you tell everyone about that?"

"The handle's imprinted, right? Like a security code." Tony suggests and Thor stands up. "Yes, it's a very interesting theory. I have a simpler one." He picks up Mjolnir and flips it in the air. "You're all not worthy." Everyone groans and laughs at Thor's statement.

There was a sudden high-pitched noise and it made everyone flinch or tense up. A weird voice speaks up and the elevator closes. "Worthy." A broken robot is awake and moving around (one of Tony's). He also had wires tangled around him. Everyone looked to see what was happening. "No. How could you be worthy? You're all killers." It points to all of us. "Stark?" I ask my voice trembling a little. "Jarvis." Tony says trying to get the A.I. butler online and awake. "I'm sorry, I was asleep. Or I was a dream." The robot continued. "Reboot Legionnaire OS. We got a buggy suit." Tony says tapping a hologram like pad. "There was this noise. And I was tangled in...In...Strings. I had to kill the other guy. He was a good guy."

"You killed someone?" Steve asks the malfunctioning robot. "Wouldn't have been my first call. But, down in the real world, we're faced with ugly choices." Thor asks him a question. "Who are you?"

"I see a suit of armor flying around the world." It plays a recording of Tony's voice. "Ultron."

"In the flesh. Or, no, not yet. Not this chrysalis. But I'm ready. I'm on a mission."

"What mission?" I ask trying not to stumble on my words. "Peace in our time." An army of robots burst through the wall and I tensed up. I was waiting for one of them to hit me, but nothing hit me. I looked down at my hand and I couldn't see anything. Was I invisible? I couldn't tell, but I stayed where I was, too afraid to move. A robot almost flew into me, but before it could, Loki must have scene or sensed me, because he picked me up and threw himself (and me) over the bar. I landed on top of him and I blushed. "Thank you...for saving me." He chuckles. "You're welcome, Taylor." I peek my head up over the bar and saw Steve destroy the last robot with his shield.

"That was dramatic." Ultron says irritated. "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? These puppets?" He crushes the robots head. "There's only one path to peace. The Avengers' extinction." Thor destroys Ultron with Mjolnir, or at least he thought he did, but instead I heard his voice say, "I had strings, but now I'm free." Then the lights in his robotic eyes went off. We all just headed into the lab to discuss what just happened.