conquer • wanda maximoff

「 THREE 」

"You know I've seen this before, right?" Clint asked Thor. He gripped the handle of the hammer tightly, pulling with all his might, but it didn't budge. "And I still don't know how you do it."

"Looks like it isn't just down to muscle after all," Ayana teased him as he sat back down. He glared at her, but he couldn't repress a grin.

"Smell the silent judgement?" Tony asked.

"By all means, go for it, Stark," Clint said, raising a hand to motion to the hammer.

"Oh, this is gonna be good," Natasha laughed.

Even with Tony and Rhodey's combined efforts (Ayana had finally learned his name), the hammer still refused to move. Both men wore the gauntlets of their Iron Man and War Machine suits, respectively, but it made no difference.

After them came Bruce, who gave up fairly quickly and gave an awful impression of the Hulk that made even Natasha cringe for him. Finally it came to Steve, who rolled the sleeves of his blue shirt back, his muscles bulging against the fabric.

Clint let out a low whistle as the captain used both hands to pull the hammer up, and Thor's expression turned to one of horror and panic as a short screech echoed through the room, and the hammer skidded slightly against the table. Relenting, Steve held his hands up as though to surrender, a modest expression on his face.

"Nothing at all, nothing," Thor shook his head with a laugh.

"And?" Tony said, nodding towards Natasha.

"Widow?" Bruce asked.

"No, no," she shook her head. "That's not a question I want answered."

"Austin, you up?" Tony asked. The group's attention turned to Ayana and she smiled sheepishly.

"Maybe another day," she told him.

"Alright. All of my respects to the man who wouldn't be king, but it's rigged," Tony shrugged.

"You bet your ass," Clint nodded, taking a sip of beer.

"Steve, he said a bad language word," said Maria.

"Did you tell everyone about that?" Steve sighed, turning to Tony.

"The handle's imprinted, right?" Stark said, ignoring him completely. "Like a security code. I believe 'whoever carries Thor's fingerprints' is the literal translation."

"Yes, well. That's a very interesting theory, but I have a much simpler one," Thor said, striding over to the table. He picked up his hammer easily, throwing and catching it in the air.

"Hm?"

"You're all not worthy."

The team immediately broke out into protests, loudly yelling at Thor. Ayana watched with a smile, but their laughter was short lived as an ear-splitting noise reverberated through the room.

"Shit," Ayana cursed, wincing at the noise.

"Worthy," came the drone of a robotic voice. "No. How could you be worthy? You're all killers."