A Gods Favor

Revels Ruined

Elora spent the evening with Yrsa and Thor as they mingled with guests. Tony only leaving the princesses side to fetch her another drink.

"That seems to be going swimmingly," Elora said pointedly, sipping at her drink when Tony had walked away.

"So far, yes," Yrsa smiled. "I mean I am magnificent so it's understandable that he's enthralled by me but I must admit I quite like him too. His admiration of powerful women is oddly charming in a mortal."

When the evening wound down the Avengers had gathered on a cluster of sofas around a table joking and laughing when Clint began to question the magic of Thor's hammer. Thor laughed and welcomed any who wished to try and move Mjolnir and the group descended into a competition of who would be the first to do so as the Asgardians watched with knowing smiles.

When no one succeeded and Tony tried to reason that the handle must have a special lock coded to Thor's fingerprint Yrsa stood. "Yes, that's an interesting theory but I have a simpler one," she said as she grabbed the hammer and spun it, winking. "You're all not worthy."

A loud screech pierced the room as a broken mechanized suit stumbled in.

"Worthy. No," The suit spoke in a graveled tone as everyone rose cautiously. "How could you be worthy? You're all killers."

"Stark?" Steve asked, moving forward slowly.

Tony pulled something from his pocket as the suit went on. "I'm sorry, I was asleep or...I was a dream. There was this terrible noise and I was tangled in...in strings. I had to kill the other guy. He was a good guy."

"You killed someone?" Steve took a few more steps, worry growing.

"Wouldn't have been my first call but down in the real world we're faced with ugly choices."

Thor joined the conversation now, having directed Elora and his sister to move and flank. "Who sent you?"

A recording came from the suit. Tony describing a suit of armor around the world.

Elora speared her magic out to the suit, as the others interacted with it, trying to take hold of its mind but there was nothing there. It was a machine and she could not manipulate it. She met Thor's eye and shook her head.

"Peace in our time." The suit called out and others burst through the wall behind it.

Elora's hands went up a second too late to shield those still around the table but most had moved and Steve, The only one still standing there, flipped a table up for coverage. The suits wreaked havoc all over the floor of the tower as they spread out and attacked and Elora heard gunshots go off as she pulled one suit from the air tearing it apart with her mind.

She whirled and pushed another suit that had been shooting at the bar against the wall before she saw Steve jumping into the air for another. He wasn't going to make it but she pulled the suit down allowing him to grab it around the neck before she shifted her attention again. The bot she had pulled apart crawled along the floor towards Dr. Cho and Elora sprinted to her, sliding across the floor to stop in front of her with a raised shield just as Steve grabbed it and threw it to Thor.

-

Later the group all gathered in a lab as Tony and Dr. Banner tried to figure out what went wrong. Thor had gone after the bot that had taken the scepter after Elora tried to scry for it but because once again the bot was not a living being she could not focus on it with her mental abilities.

Elora half listened to the group argue as she walked up to Maria, pulling glass from her feet.

"May I?" She asked, nodding at the tweezers in Maria's hand and the woman nodded before handing them to Elora.

Elora tossed them down and settled her hands around Maria's wounds, a white glow emitting from them as little tinks of glass began to hit the floor and the flesh knitted together.

"When did that come back?" Yrsa asked, bewildered as the glow faded from Elora's hands. "And why didn't you tell me?"

Elora nodded to Maria before standing and pulling Yrsa to the side. "It came back after the Aether but it's just a speck, I can't do anything close to what I could before and at first I was afraid to use it given the source."

Thor came stomping into the room, fury rolling out from him as he grabbed Tony by the throat and lifted him in the air. Words were exchanged as Steve stepped forward and Thor dropped Stark.

"The trail went cold. It has the scepter and we have to retrieve it again."

Elora took a deep breath. This is why her magic led her here.