Alex was wandering around the tower, looking for someone to bother when she heard a crash nearby. She quickly ran up some stairs and saw a sight of utter carnage. Bruce had Wanda in a chokehold, Pietro was lying in a corner and Steve and Tony were fighting.
"What the hell are you doing?" Alex screamed, "I'm not letting you start another war!"
It was all happening at once, she didn't know who to go to first. Wanda let out a choking noise and Alex turned, throwing out her hand to grip Wanda's jacket. After a few desperate tugs, Alex realised she wasn't strong enough to teleport Wanda away and instead swung a leg under Bruce, bringing him to the floor.
"Are you alright?" Asked Alex and Wanda nodded, rubbing her throat. Alex asked the same question again to Bruce, who refused to look at her. Linking arms with Wanda, Alex tried to pull her towards Pietro when someone else appeared,
Thor burst into the room, waving his hammer around frantically. He hesitated the moment he saw Alex, giving Steve enough time to throw his shield at Thor's head. Thor dodged, swinging his hammer around as it burst with lightning.
Without thinking, Alex teleported across the room, grabbed Mjolnir out of Thor's hands and threw it out of the nearest window. She faced Thor and the rest of the Avengers who all looked completely surprised, apart from Thor who had a proud smile on his face, "What?"
"You wielded Mjolnir,"
It took Alex a good minute to realise why that was important. Her right hand was steadier than it had been all week, although it was twitching every few seconds, as though reaching out for something.
"I'm worthy, motherfuckers!"
Mjolnir flew back into the room, Thor easily catching it as he stormed towards Dr Cho's cradle which was next to Wanda. Tony leapt forward with a shout as Thor used his hammer to destroy the cradle,
"What the hell do you think you're doing." Tony had looked heartbroken even before Thor had started to destroy whatever he was building, but the look on his face now was devoid of any hope.
"Sorry Stark, the choice has been made."
"That wasn't a choice." Spat Tony, "It was a trick."
"I never said it was Alex's choice."
"And here I was thinking it was your brother who was the God of deception."
"Everyone, stop." Steve shouted 'stop' just as Alex did, and together that was enough to bring silence into the recent chaos.
"Can someone explain what's going on?" Said Alex, Steve coming up behind her and raising his shield. For a second, Alex didn't understand why until she saw the way Tony had also placed himself between her and Thor.
"He—" Pietro gestured in Tony's direction, "is trying to make another monster. That thing in the cradle, it's Ultron's body and he is trying to bring it to life."
The sight of Tony throwing his hands up in surrender was a common one, but while it was usually a joke, his face was deadly serious now, "Thor told me to do it, he said it was the only thing that would save us all."
Steve had yet to lower his shield, still half-covering Alex and half himself, "How do you know that?"
Thor looked uncomfortable, staring almost aggressively at Alex who moved closer to Steve's protection. "I've had a vision, of the future. There was a choice that needed to be made. A choice by that stone right there."
Alex looked where Thor was pointing— the only important-looking stone around was the small, yellow one inside the cradle, "That little thing? Come on Thorin Oakenshield, at least make it believable."
"This is deadly serious, Alessandra. It's the mind stone. One of six infinity stones from before the beginning of the universe. Even one will give you immense power, power beyond your wildest dreams."
"And you wanted to put that in a robot?"
"No." Tony had slowly been moving backwards, keeping his eyes and hands trained on Thor, "He wanted to put it in Alex."
Steve moved instantly, forcing his shield onto Alex's left arm and jumping into place next to Tony. Thor shook his head, lowering Mjolnir to the ground. "I have no say in the matter. I love Alex, I wouldn't do this to her willingly."
"In his visions, there were two paths. One, if the stone chose this thing I created and the other being if it chose Alex." Tony directed his next words to Thor, "You told me I could save Alex, that if I made a safe carrier for the stone then she wouldn't be chosen."
"The mind stone's already made its choice. It has deemed Alex worthy, giving her the ability to wield Mjolnir only once to prove she is chosen one. We are dealing with things more powerful than gods here, I don't have the power to convince the mind stone to go the other path."
"You can't give a super-powerful weapon to a seventeen-year-old."
Alex lowered the shield, making Steve gesture for her to hold it back up, "Eighteen now. Actually."
Tony dismissed Alex with a wave of his hand, "My point still stands. How can we trust this, any of this? Alex is young, the only thing all of us in this room want is to protect her."
"Maybe that's why she was chosen." There was a crack due to the speed at which Tony twisted his neck to look at Steve. "You've said it yourself, Tony; you would be long gone if it wasn't for her. If we're the one group protecting Earth from everything and the thing keeping us together is Alex, it makes sense for her to be chosen."
"Why can't one of us have it, I would take it if it meant Alex was safe. If a child is capable of handling it, surely two grown men are"
"It doesn't work that way." Bruce interrupted, "Whatever happens, Alex has been chosen and that stone will not stop until it is with her. Look at it now, shaking to get to her."
It was true. Alex forced her right hand down to her side, realising that it was twitching from wanting to hold the stone. The stone seemed to glow as Alex looked at it, and she could hear faint whispers in her head.
"No. She's not having it."
"Tony." Angrily, Tony tried to shrug off Steve's hand but he refused to let go. "Tony, it's alright."
"Can I ask something ?" Alex asked, feeling lightheaded from everything going on. "Don't I get a say?"
"No Alex, let us handle this." Steve turned to face her, Tony covering his back with all focus on Thor, "This needs to be a family discussion. Once we have Barton and Romanoff back, then we can discuss the possibility of you being in charge of this stone."
"If you're going to do that, can you at least tell me where the hell Mama and Dad are?"
"Natasha and Clint went missing the day we rescued you. They were caught by Ultron, never stood a chance." Tony snapped.
"That long?" Alex wilted, feeling as betrayed as Tony looked, "Why didn't anyone tell me?"
"We didn't want you to worry."
"Well that worked great, didn't it." Looking away from the three men, Alex could see Pietro clutching Wanda to him, as though preparing to take her away. Alex blinked once, then looked back, "So, when are we getting them?"
"Alex, you're not allowed on this mission."
"What do you mean, I'm not allowed to go. I'm an Avenger and they're my family."
"I mean," Steve said "We can't have you panicking and destroying the city."
"Excuse me?"
"You've been through a lot recently, it's best for you to rest so you don't lose control of your emotions. I know you want to help; there's nothing you can do."
"Name me one time I've destroyed somewhere. Apart from the obvious childhood one."
"When you teleported me and Pietro out of Ultrons lab, you also brought the room with us. When we landed it almost crushed us." Wanda said.
"Considering you had passively allowed Ultron to break my fingers so I couldn't teleport properly, I'd say that's more your fault than mine."
"Grow up a little, Alex."
"Shut up, Steve! Don't patronise me when my family are missing."
"Don't speak to your dad like that." Tony was the next to receive a glare from Alex, "And don't you look at me like that."
"I don't want to look at you— your face is so ugly it could break my own."
"Watch it, Alex."
"You're about to watch me leave. Pietro, take me out of here." Put in the centre of another family argument so soon after the last one had ended, Pietro looked faintly terrified.
"We should go." He gestured to himself and Wanda. "This seems like a private conversation."
"Now, Quickshit. Or I'll throw another chicken foot at you." That threat was enough for Pietro and he was out of the room in seconds, leaving a whirl of blue aura that formed around Wanda.
They all waited a few seconds, Thor trying to prod the Mind Stone with Mjolnir as Steve tried to understand what the chicken foot threat meant. Pietro returned, gasping for breath while he picked Wanda up,
"She's very annoyed. Tried to throw a pigeon at this baby in a pushchair."
<~~>
Bruce had located Alex, not that she had gotten very far away from the tower after Pietro had let her out. He reached out and held her forearm, the touch grounding Alex in a way words could not.
"I'm sorry for storming out." Alex wasn't really, but she was calm enough to know Bruce hadn't done anything too bad.
"I'm sorry for not telling you about Natasha and Clint. I understand why you're angry."
"I bet you don't," Alex mumbled.
"I do, I know quite a lot about anger." He shrugged, hand rubbing his neck.
"Why didn't anyone tell me Clint and Natasha were taken?" Alex said, lifting her head. "I had a right to know."
"It was for the best, knowing they were in danger could have resulted in you doing something. We were working on getting them back, everyone's worried about them. We were more preoccupied with looking after you first."
"You seem more worried that they're gone than anyone else though. I wonder why." Alex said, grinning slightly.
"I'm not more worried."
"Yes you are, it's because you like Nat"
Bruce grew more serious again, "You know I don't feel that way about anyone."
"It's okay, I was just teasing you. I don't ship it anyway."
"What's shipping?"
"I don't think you want to know."
Bruce swallowed as Alex leaned back with a smile on her face. "So, do you wanna go with me to get some pizza?"
"I'm amazed you even need to ask me."
<~~>
"That'll be $14.79 please."
"Here," Alex said handing over the money. She could see the woman eyeing up her missing hand, making Alex want to get away as quickly as possible. Bruce took the change and the pizzas, adjusted their balance on his arm as he followed Alex out of the shop
"You want to wait till we get back to the tower to eat this?"
"No. I'm not ready to see them yet. I hate it when they do that, dump all this information on me at once without explaining anything.
"I'll sort them out when we get back. Come on, for now, we'll find a bench to sit on."
"Thank you," Alex said, taking one of the pizzas from Bruce and putting it in the crook of her left elbow to hold it.
"Are you really going to eat the whole thing?"
"No, I'm going to share it with my friends on Mars. Of course I'm going to eat the whole thing."
When Bruce stared at her she sighed "I like pizza. It's a good friend."
"It's a good friend that is very high-"
"Really? It didn't look like the kind of thing to do drugs."
Bruce pinched the bridge of his nose and closed his eyes. When he opened them again, Alex and the box of pizza had already walked away.
I've tried using Grammarly to spellcheck this part but all it did was tell me I had 86 mistakes so...never using it again