Faint Heart [Steve Rogers]

20. The Lesser of Two Evils

The power that surged through Reigna died down after a couple of minutes. Though the shock was still there.

"Wha..." Thor's voice could barely grumble out. His mind continued to have a tough time figuring out why or how the brunette managed to grab and fling the hammer as if it were as light as Cinderella's glass shoe. However, there was a part of him that made him gulp and want to utter "that was so hot," but he didn't, of course.

"Uh... How did you..?" Tony himself couldn't even form a sarcastic remark at the events that occurred before him.

"Guess the universe decided I'm worthy after all." Reigna said nonchalantly, despite feeling more confused than when she tried to study geoscience. Yet still managed to hand the hammer back to Thor as if nothing major as picking up a literal God's hammer had just occurred. His own hand limply grabbed ahold of the handle of his rather precious hammer. Had it not been that only moments ago there was a murderous robot right in front of them, Reigna would have been hysterically laughing at the almost constipated look on the blonde man's face. "We should go check out the damage."

The lab itself appeared to be untouched by Ultron's malevolent intentions, but it was the interior damage that was done. Bruce walked over to one of the numerous super computers they had.

"All our work is gone," he said, voice laced with disappointment. All the while, the constant clicks of the mouse is heard as he checked every folder held in the hard drive. "Ultron cleared out. He used the internet as an escape hatch."

Steve clenched his jaw as he leaned on hand on the steel table in front of him and his other rested on his hip. "Ultron," Reigna walked over to him and placed a hand on his button up shirt clad bicep, a small smile forming on her lips when she feels the tensed muscle relax a tad under her tender touch. Steve turned his head towards her before sighing out.

"He's been in everything. Files, surveillance. Probably knows more about us than we know about each other." Nat spoke, eyebrows furrowed and arms crossing over her chest.

Rhodes, who stood next to Natasha clenching his injured upper arm, stepped forward. "He's in your files, he's in the internet. What if he decides to access something a little more exciting?"

"Nuclear codes." Hill answered, stopping her careful process of picking small shards of glass from the bottom of her feet.

All the while, Rhodey didn't stop his pacing. "Look, we need to make some calls, assuming we still can."

"Nukes? He said he wanted us dead-" If Natasha had anymore to continue her sentence it was cut off by a frustrated Steve Rogers, who immediately raised his head at the statement.

"He didn't say "dead." He said "extinct."" His eyebrows were scrunched upwards, worry lines adorning his forehead.

"He also said he killed someone." Barton reminded them just as he walks around to the edge of the table in front of him.

"There wasn't anyone else in the building," Maria explained.

"Yes, there was." Stark said while walking towards one of the table. With a swift swing of wrist, the insanely advance remote pulled up the damaged remains of what was once Jarvis. The shattered orange reflection of what used to be Jarvis' core made everyone in the room turn towards it, mouths falling open and both a sense of rage and shock ran through their bodies.

Banner shook his head in an almost disbelief motion, "What?" His arms extended outwards as he took in the level of severe anger they were facing. "This is insane."

"Jarvis was the first line of defense. He would've shut Ultron down, it makes sense." Steve spoke at the time, but Bruce was quick to explain.

"No," He began as he stared at the broken remains of what was once Jarvis. "Ultron could've assimilated Jarvis. This isn't strategy, this is..." The grown out curls that sat atop of his head bounced with every shake of his head. "rage."

Just then heavy footsteps began to echo throughout the room as Thor entered. His insanely broad shoulder seemed to slouched in a way that just radiated the anger that surged through him as he stalked towards Stark. In a matter of seconds, the blonde's hand wrapped around Tony's neck. Tony's breath hitched, but not in the pleasurable way it does when your partner caresses your neck, no, it was more so in a "oh my god, I'm going to die by the hands of the God of hammers," way. His own hands, smaller than the 6 foot 3 tall God's own, wrapped around Thor's forearm.

"Woah, woah, woah!" Clint said as he watched Thor effortlessly pick up Tony by the throat. "It's going around."

From his rather unfortunate place, Tony began to try and reason with Thor. "Come on. Use your words, buddy."

Reigna's eyes quickly kept looking from Thor to Tony and then back to Thor. The ball was very much in Thor's court at the moment.

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

Before things got too out of hand, Steve stepped forward. "Thor! The Legionnaire." It was enough to make the God of Thunder set Tony down with just a hint of force whether he meant it or not. Tony stumbled back as his feet finally made it back to the ground.

Thor still kept his eyes glaring at Tony as he talked. "The trail went cold about 100 miles out but it's headed north, and it has the scepter. Now we have to retrieve it, again." Bitterness laced his voice, but with obvious reason.

"The genie's out of that bottle." Nat said, arms crossed over her chest as she gestured her head forward to silently signal about the scepter. "Clear and present is Ultron."

Helen Cho shook her head as she stared at the severed head of one the iron legion that almost murdered them not thirty minutes prior. "I don't understand," She began, turning to face in Tony's direction. "You built this program. Why is it trying to kill us?"

Tony only looked at Helen for a brief second as he made his way to one of the many computers that were in the lab. The laughter that began pushing its way past Tony's lips made everyone turn towards him with furrowed eyebrows, confused at his ridiculous behavior. However, his giggles didn't stop. Beside him, Banner began shaking his head subtly to make him stop.

"You think this is funny?" Thor said, his finger came up to point towards him as he spoke. He once again began taking steps towards him.

The billionaire turned back from the computer. "No." Tony said, but the slight smirk that decorated his lips hinted something different. Reigna could almost feel the utter stupidity that was about to fly out of Tony's mouth. She loved and cared for Tony, but sometimes she really just wanted to punch him ten times in a row.

"It's probably not, right?" His voice brought her back from her thoughts. "Is this very terrible? Is it so... is it so... it is. It's so terrible." The hint of laughter came about in the last part of his sentence. It made Reigna roll her eyes so hard that for a moment, she feared they would stay stuck.

"This all could have been avoided if you hadn't played with something you don't understand." Thor took 3 steps towards Stark.

Reigna snapped her head to the side at the sound of a voice. "Don't leave..." Her eyes scanned the room and she found that it was only her that seemed to have heard it. "Oh, you're awake!" This time the voice seemed further away, but it seemed so... familiar. Almost too familiar that it made her stomach cave and fall to an abyss yet she couldn't seem to place who it belonged to.

Steve's booming yet soothing voice brought her out of whatever little thing that was. "Then we'll do that together, too." Steve said, turning away from Tony. "Thor's right. Ultron's calling us out. And I'd like to find him before he find us. The world's a big place. Let's start making it smaller."

Miles away, Ultron stood in front of the rather powerful twins that would set the course for his plan. They were the cement he needed to make his road. And it wasn't hard at all to set them down.

"Is that why you've come? To end the Avengers?" Wanda stepped forward as she asked.

Ultron's red "eyes" stared back at the younger of the two siblings. "I've come to save the world. But also, yeah. We'll move out right away. This is a start," The steel man turned back from Wanda, but only for a brief moment. "but there's something we need to begin the real work." Ultron turned to face her once again. "Or should I say someone."

And there was the sole thought Wanda could read from Ultron, the sole thought he allowed her to see.

"Reigna."