The rest of the mission was a fortunate success. It turns out that the silver-haired boy, was a subject of Strucker's experiments, he and his twin sister being the only two survivors- Pietro and Wanda Maximoff. All Tony told Ana was that she needed to stay far, far away from the silverhaired boy's sister, Wanda. He didn't want to speak about it any more after that.
They had the scepter. They had succeeded. All that was left now was to celebrate.
"This liquor is the some of the strongest in the galaxy, aged for thousands of years. It's far too intense for any mortal man," Thor explained to the four of them. Arthur and Marty, two war veterans and Tony's great friends, rolled their eyes.
"C'mon pretty boy, don't try to scare us. I was in 'Nam!" The man protested, and Thor sighed.
"As you wish," He said, pouring each of the men a cup of the liquid. Ana eyed it suspiciously.
"Can I have-"
"No." Steve told her immediately.
She glared at him. "You didn't even let me finish!"
"You didn't have to."
"I'm a hero!"
"You're seventeen."
"I helped a lot today!"
"You're seventeen!"
"I deserve a little drink!"
"Oh," Thor started, watching amused as the men downed the liquid, feeling the affects immediately. "This isn't a little drink."
Ana raised a sculpted eyebrow, lips curling into a smirk. She placed her hands on her hips. "But, I'm Russian." Thor rolled his eyes. "And we Russians are born with great tolerance to alcohol."
Thor shrugged and looked at Steve for approval.
"Aw, come on Old Man! If anything, this goes wrong and you can lock me in my room. I'll be too scared to touch another drop of liquor again!" Ana pleaded.
Steve rolled his eyes and reluctantly nodded.
"Fine," he sighed in defeat. "Just don't tell Clint or Nat I was the one to give permission. They'll flip."
Thor grumbled something under his breath, pouring Ana a small glass of the drink. He glanced at the wasted men at his side.
"Let's hope this doesn't kill you," Thor mumbled, pouring Ana some of the drink in a small shot glass and handing it to her hesitantly.
"Bottoms up!" she cheered, downing the drink in one go. She felt the effects immediately. Her hands gripped the glass like a vice, eyes swiveling towards the back of her head in the distressed sense of a headache. Ana let out a loud laugh, taking her pointer finger and bringing the access liquid left in the glass to her lips.
"This is trippy!" she drawled out before giggling again, letting out another loud snort.
Thor glanced at Steve and shook his head.
They had made a big mistake.
Ana's eyes found Natasha's bright red hair somewhere in the crowd, and started migrating towards it.
"Hey! Hey Nat!" she shouted loudly, before letting out another hysterical laugh.
Steve gripped Ana's wrist tight, dragging her back with them.
"Russian my ass," Steve mumbled, and Ana gasped exaggeratedly.
"Language old man! I am a minor!"
•
"I can't believe you let her drink in general, much less Thor's thunder juice," Tony mused.
Nat held a cold towel to a giggling Ana's forehead, sending a glare towards the Captain and Thor. They just shrugged.
"Not to be rude, but she did ask for it." Thor reasoned.
"Children always ask for things you can't necessarily give them," Bruce piped up meekly.
Ana shot up from her reclining position on the couch. "I'm not a child," she hissed, quickly looking like she had sobered up. Then she burst out into a fit of giggles. "I only have one more year to go!" She laughed, plopping back down again. "Then you guys all can't be my parents anymore!" She dragged her pointer finger down her cheek, feigning a tear streaming down her face. "Sad, isn't it?"
Tony shrugged, and took another sip of his beer. "We'll survive."
Ana's gaze fell on Thor's hammer, which sat on the table on its side. Curiosity filled her and she stood to her feet, eyeing it suspiciously.
"Don't try it," Thor warned her. "You'll break your back."
Captain sat at attention. "I've always meant to ask about that thing," He started. "So, only you can pick that thing up."
Thor chuckled. "Not exactly."
Ana clenched her right hand into a fist, and a strong gust of wind blew from underneath the hammer, not moving it a bit.
"If its not just you who can pick it up, then why can't I?" Ana asked, words slightly slurred.
"Simply because none of you are worthy," Thor replied with a hint of a smile.
Clint laughed and rolled his eyes. "Then what does worthy mean, bud? Give me a job description. I'd like to be worthy."
A high pitched scream emitted from the speakers of the Avengers tower. Everyone winced, covering their ears.
"W-o-r-t-h-y?" An electronic voice drawled out, sounding distorted, drunk. Ana looked around the room with crazed eyes as everyone started arming themselves, ready for whatever could come. "Worthy?" The disembodied voice asked. "How could you be worthy? You're all killers."
Ana watched as one of Tony's defense bots appeared from the hallway, looking more deteriorated than she could ever think possible. The droid was mangled to the point that Ana considered if it had been through Hell and back before it had decided to make an appearance at the party.
"Defense bot, shut down." Tony ordered, watching, shocked as the bot kept on advancing towards them with a limp.
Bruce whispered frantically to Tony. "Is that Ultron? You said that project was a failure!"
The robot laughed, a cackle that sent shivers down Ana's spine. She reached for one of the water bottles Natasha gave her.
"I know you mean well, you want to protect the world but you don't want it to change. But there's only one path to peace: your extinction!" It roared out, and suddenly four other defense bots hovered in from the hallways, springing into action.
Ana quickly uncapped the water bottle and sent a stream of water into the first of Tony's robots that approached her. It twitched, sending out sparks as she froze the water that soaked into the bots circuits, shutting him down.
Ana turned to do the same to the bot apprehending Agent Hill, when she was grabbed by the collar of her shirt and hoisted upwards. She screamed, looking up to see the main droid of Tony's. Ultron, she heard Banner call him.
"Anastazya!" Clint shouted out, trying to get a good shot at Ultron without shooting Ana, but to no avail.
Ana wriggled around, panic rising up in her chest as the bot ascended higher and higher. She clenched her fist, watching as numerous bottles of Tony's alcohol exploded, and the liquid from them floated up to where Ana was. The bot sent a shock through her, causing her to fall limp and the alcohol to fall from midair.
Natasha shot at the bot, her bullets ricocheting off of Ultron's body. He paid no mind to her frantic attempts at saving Ana.
"I'm gonna show you something beautiful. I had a vision: the whole world screaming for mercy. Everyone tangled in strings.. strings.. you're all puppets, but now I'm free.. there are no strings on me," Ultron droned out in a haunting sing-song voice, strangely similar to a human's. His voice crackles, sounding like it came out the speakers of an old TV.
"Anastazya! No!" Steve yelled, throwing his shield at the bot, but it hovered out of the way. It rocketed up further in the air, crashing through the skylight, taking an unconscious Anastazya with him.
All the Defense bots were mangled and disassembled, lying in heaps of metal on the floor. Steve looked up at Tony and Bruce with a look of disdain.
"Tony," Natasha's shaky voice asked. "What did you do?"
Tony ran his hand down his face, his heart pounding loudly. "I don't know."