"All out work is gone," Bruce said, annoyed. They were all in the lab, Ultron's destroyed body on a table that Tony was at, looking at it all. "Ultron cleared out. He used the Internet as an escape hatch."
"Ultron," Steve silently scoffed to himself, Riley looking over at him with their eyes crossed. They leant up against the table that Steve rested his body weight on with his arm, his other hand on his hip.
"He's been in everything. Files, surveillance." Natasha announced, "Probably knows more about us than we know about each other."
"He's in your files, he's in the internet." Rhodey spoke. "What if he decides to access something a little more exciting?"
"Nuclear codes." Maria said, pausing the task of trying to get the glass of of her feet for a second. Rhodey repeated what she said, pacing around the room.
"Look, we need to make some calls," Rhodey suggested to everyone, "assuming we still can."
"Nukes? He said he wanted us dead," Natasha reminded the group.
"He didn't say 'dead.' He said 'extinct.'" Steve quickly interjected, correcting Natasha's quote.
"He also said he killed somebody." Clint said, hands on the metal railings.
"There wasn't anyone else in the building." Maria pointed out, facing Clint as she did. Tony walked away from the table he was at to the centre of the room.
"Yes, there was." He said, getting out his holographic tablet screen once again. Flicking it slightly, an orange hologram appeared in front of him.
"What?" Bruce questioned, his voice hoarse due to how quiet he speaking. He walked closer to it, seeing how broken it looked. "This is insane."
"Jarvis was the first line defence," Steve stated, looking down at the ground, "He would have shut Ultron down. It makes sense." Riley stayed near the table whilst a few of the others stood up from where they were sitting or moved around a bit.
"No. Ultron could have assimilated Jarvis." Bruce said, hands still hovering around the hologram, "This isn't a strategy. This is... rage."
All of a sudden, Thor came storming into the room, no longer wearing casual clothes like he was before. The rage he was feeling was obvious as he made his way towards Tony, grabbing him by the neck and lifting him off the ground.
"Woah, woah, woah!" Steve yelled as Riley got up from where they were sitting.
"Thor, put him down," They scolded, knowing that their demands won't be met due to the God's building rage.
"It's going around," Clint said.
"Come on, use your words, buddy," Tony said, still joking around in a situation like this. He held onto Thor's arm in an attempt to make his grip around his neck looser.
"I have more than enough words to describe you, Stark." He said, his deep voice lingering with anger.
"Thor. The Legionnaire," Steve said, walking closer to where the two men were. Thor put Tony down aggressively; the billionaire groaned as his feet touched the floor. He stumbled back a few feet in an attempt to get away from the man who just choked him. Riley put their hand on the back of Tony, keeping him stable as her stood up straight, facing Thor when he began to speak once more.
"Trail went cold about 100 miles out, but it's headed north." He summarised what's been happening to everyone, "And it has the Scepter." Riley cringed hearing this, squeezing their eyes shut and sighing as they turned their head to the side. They knew how long the team took trying to find the Scepter, and now it's been taken once again. "Now we have to retrieve it, again."
"Genie's out of that bottle," Natasha stated, "Clear and present is Ultron."
"I don't understand," Helen faltered, her voice coming from where Ultron's parts were placed, "you built this program. Why is it trying to kill us?"
Tony chuckled, but nobody found it amusing. Everyone looked at him, waiting for him to explain why he was laughing. Riley hit the side of his arm with the back on their hand, attempting this make him stop laughing. "Tony." They simply said, trying to get him to see everyone's stern looks on their faces.
"You think this is funny?" Thor inquired.
"No." Tony simply assured, making his laughing come to a halt. "It's probably not, right? This is very terrible. Is it so..." he looked around at everyone in the room before starting to laugh again, "is it so... It is. It's so terrible."
"This could have been avoided is you hadn't played with something you don understand," Thor told him. Tony began talking before Thor even finished his sentence. Bruce and Riley both had a similar expression on their face; the two were both trying to keep their cool in this situation and not lash out at Tony. Bruce trying not to get angry for obvious reasons, and Riley trying to keep collected as they weren't one to express their anger by yelling.
"No. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. It is funny," he walked over to where Thor was, "It's a holt that you don't get why we need this."
"Tony, maybe this might not be the time," Bruce tried to stop his friend from digging himself a bigger hole. His voice made him sound calm and collected, it not showing any signs of him growing angry.
"Really? That's it?" Tony was now expressing his anger towards him friend, "You just roll over, show your belly every time someone snarls?"
"Only when I've created a murder bot," Bruce bit back at him, his arms up in defence.
"We didn't. We weren't even close. We're we close to an interface?" Tony defended himself, raising his voice near the end of it.
"Well, you did something right," Riley said. They didn't want to seem like they were picking sides, especially when their Boss was the person they were disagreeing with, but they knew that Tony was in the wrong here.
"Yeah, and you did it right here," Steve said, finally moving from the spot he's been stood at for a while, "The Avenegrs were suppose to be different than S.H.I.E.L.D."
"Anybody remember when I carried a nuke through a wormhole?" Tony reminded everyone one, bringing up the heroic act he performed to save New York City.
"No, it's never come up." Rhodey rejected, making it seemed like he never knew about it.
"Save New York?"
"Never heard that."
"Recall that?" Tony entreated. "A hostile alien army came charging through a hole in space. We're standing 300 feet below it." He took a pause, making eye contact with a few people for a split second.
"We're the Avengers." He preached. "We can bust arms dealers all the livelong day, but that up there, that's... that's the endgame." He pointed with his index finger before dropping his arm back down beside him. "How were you guys planning on beating that?"
"Together." Steve vowed.
"We'll lose." Tony objected.
"Then we'll do that together, too." They stared at one another for a while, Steve's optimism overshadowing Tony's pessimistic rebottles. "Thor's right. Ultron's calling us out. And I'd like to find him before he's ready for us. The world's a big place. Let's start making it smaller."
-
It had been a little while since then; Riley chatted with Thor as he helped them clean the cute they got from the glass as he vented out his anger without causing any more fights with anyone. They listened to Thor until he finished helping them.
"Thank you, once again, Riley," Thor thanked them once again after they hopped off of table they were sitting on. They flashed him a wide grin when their feet made contact with the ground.
"It's no problem at all, I know what it's like when you need to release some anger," they reassured him, "and thank you for helping me. I don't think I would've been able to clean them all."
"They aren't too bad, so they'll heal pretty quickly," he explained to them, giving them a smile in return.
"Oh thank God," the sighed in relief, placing a hand over their heart. He breathed out a small laugh through his nose.
"Riley?" Steve called out their name after he appeared in the doorway of the room the two friends were in, "Can I talk to you?"
"Oh, yeah, of course," they accepted. Thor nodded towards Riley as a 'goodbye' as they waved slightly. Thor did the same to Steve as he walked out of the room. Steve made his way over to where Riley stood. "What'd you need to talk about?"
"You've been training with Natasha for a while now, and it would be helpful to have an extra pair of hands helping us right now," Steve offered, his hands comfortably holding his belt as he stood up straight.
"Oh," Riley was shocked at the offer, "are you sure?" Steve nodded. "I'm flattered, really, but I'm not sure I'd be the best out in battle."
"Don't be overly humble, you're an amazing fighter, I've seen you and Natasha spar together," he complimented them, gaining a small curl at the ends of their lips.
"Thank you," they said, taking a deep breath before continuing, "but I'll have to think about your offer, I'm not sure if I'm ready to be out in battle."
"That's understandable," he reassured them, "I'll be there whenever you make up your mind." He patted their shoulder a bit before saluting them when he went to leave the room.
"G'Night, Captain," they called out to him before he left their sight.
"Goodnight, Riley." He said back, stopping in his tracks as he did, before continuing.