"Hope rises like a phoenix from the ashes of shattered dreams." – S.A. Sachs
Thor and Aphrodite were enraged stomping their way to where the tram was gathered in Tony's lab. In the aftermath of the small battle between the Avengers and Ultron, Bruce went to check the stats on the sceptre to see how Ultron managed to be alive when the trials had been such fails. What he found was that the sceptre was gone. Taken by Ultron and his small band of Iron Legion robots.
The siblings took off as soon as they realized. Aphrodite tracking the sceptre's energy. But being that the trail was so faint since it had taken them a while to realize the sceptre was gone. They lost it soon after.
Thor stomped over to Tony wrapping his hand around his throat and picking him up off of the ground.
"It's going around." Clint commented calmly.
"Alright, c'mon," Tony choked uselessly trying to pry of Thor's hand to no avail the God's grip was unrelenting. "Use your words buddy."
"We have more than enough words to describe you Stark." Thor sneered at the billionaire.
"Thor," Steve snapped sharply making Thor drop Tony. "The legionnaire?"
"The trail went cold about 100 miles north of here," Aphrodite answered. "And it has the sceptre, which means we have to retrieve it."
"Again." Thor added darkly glaring at Tony.
"Genie's out of that bottle. Clear and present is Ultron." Natasha surmised crossing her arms over her chest looking as unimpressed in Tony and Bruce's actions as everyone felt.
"I don't get it," Helen Cho mumbled staring down at a dismantled legionnaire. "You built this program, why is it trying to kill us?"
To everyone's disbelief and further ire Tony started laughing.
"Uh-uh." Banner says, shaking his head a bit at Tony telling him that this was no laughing matter.
"You think this is funny?" Thor questioned in the same tone making a move towards Tony again but Aphrodite held him back.
"No?" Tony answers turning to face the group, trying and failing to look serious and stop his chuckles from escaping. It didn't work. "It's probably not, right? Is this so terrible? Is this very terrible? Is it so, is it so?" He laughed again. "It is, it's so terrible."
"This could have been avoided had you not played with something you don't understand." Aphrodite said trying to get him to see logic but Tony wasn't having it.
They hadn't seen what he'd seen.
"No, no I'm sorry," Tony interrupted though it was unclear if he was apologizing for the interruption or apologizing for creating Ultron. "It is funny. It's a hoot why you don't get why we need this."
"Tony, maybe this isn't the time-" Bruce started to warn only for Tony to cut him off too.
"Really? That's it for you? You just roll over, show your belly, every time somebody snarls?"
"Only when I've created a murder-bot."
"We didn't." Tony stressed nearly begging. "We weren't even close. Were we close to an interface?" Bruce shrugs nodding to say that they were close enough.
"Well, you did something right. And you did it right here." Steve piped up glowering at Tony. "The Avengers were supposed to be different than SHIELD."
"Anybody remember when I carried a nuke through a wormhole?" Tony said changing the subject in lieu of a real response raising his hand in the air.
"Nope, it's never come up." Rhodey sarcastically responded to his best friend while everyone else either groaned or rolled their eyes.
"Saved New York?"
"Never heard that."
"Recall that? A hostile alien army came charging through a hole in space. We're standing 300 feet below it. We're the Avengers. We can bust arms dealers all the live long day, but, that up there?" Tony continued to try and get the team to see his side of things without them ever knowing what he's actually seen as his voice turned softer. "That's, that's the end game. How were you guys planning on beating that?"
"Together." Steve told him his voice a lot less colder than it had been a moment ago.
"We'll lose." He said taking a step closer to the solider looking at him sadly.
"Then we'll do that together too." Steve said determined but assured. "Thor and Aphrodite are 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."
Aphrodite stood by the window overlooking the city, the cars rushing below and the twinkling lights of the city that never sleeps helped to keep her at ease. If she concentrated enough she could even hear the sounds of the cars along the streets.
"You okay?" Steve asked coming up behind her and resting his hands on her shoulders.
"I'm not angry anymore, if that's what you're asking." she responded leaning into his hands as he began kneading into her tense muscles. "We should've let Thor take the sceptre to Asgard as soon as we found it. As was planned." She sighed shaking her head as a thought occurred to her. "You know what this all reminds me of?"
"What?" Steve asked wishing that she had the little flask of Asgardian magic juice so he could get his buzz back. He'd gone from slightly tipsy to stone-cold sober as soon as Ultron appeared.
"Way back when we all got together for the first time, nearly the exact same thing happened." She said turning around to slip her arms through his open shirt. He was in the process of unbuttoning it to get ready for bed when he approached her.
"That's right," Steve said also remembering that time that seemed so long ago. "If I had known then what I know now." He said his hand dipping low on her back settling at the top of her ass.
"Would you have done things differently?" she asked shyly.
"Not one day." He said before leaning closer until their lips met in a soft kiss. They separated slightly breaths mingling in the space between them before their lips met again. Steve pulled her closer with his hands on her back tilting his head so he could slide his tongue into her mouth. He groaned when she pulled away and tried to chase her but she resisted.
"I'm going to take a shower." She said slipping from his arms and heading for the bathroom leaving him standing there dumbfounded, until she spoke again. "Come with me Steve." She tossed over her shoulder teasingly.
"Be right there." He responded instantly almost ripping his shirt in his haste to get it off and join her in the bathroom.
The elevator doors opened with a ding; Steve, Aphrodite and Maria exiting. The two of them having just been informed that the team was meeting in the lab, Hill had caught them boarding the elevator decided to give them a the report on what she had found out about Ultron so far, following them upstairs as she did.
"He's all over the globe. Robotics labs, weapons facilities, jet propulsion labs. Reports of a metal man, or men, coming in and emptying the place,"
"Fatalities?" asked Steve.
"Only when engaged," replied Hill, beginning to type on her tablet while she continued to talk. "Mostly guys left in a fugue state going on about old memories, worst fears, things moving on their own, and 'something too fast to see'."
"Maximoffs." Aphrodite concluded.
"That makes sense he'd go to them. They have someone in common," Steve said nodding as they reached the top of the stairs.
"Not anymore." Maria replied handing the tablet over to the Captain. On it was a picture of Strucker lying on his bed in his cell; dead. On the wall behind him, the word 'peace' was painted in blood.
Aphrodite sighed looking down at the message, "Let us know if anything else comes up."
"Got it." Maria nodded as they went their separate ways.
"Bit of a mixed message don't you think?" Steve asked as they continued on to the lab.
"I don't know, if world peace was my mission. I'd probably take out Strucker too. Ultron's in any system, he could be pulling planes down out of the sky if he wanted."
"So could you." Steve pointed out.
Aphrodite smiled but continued, "What if he's just doing what he's supposed to?"
"If I thought Ultron was bringing peace I'd hang up my shield."
"Would you?" she questioned curiously.
Then they both heard Clint talking on the phone to someone, apparently someone with authority.
"Barton," Steve called redirecting the conversation. "We might have something."
"Yeah," said Clint absentmindedly before hanging up.
"Who's that?"
"Uh, girlfriend," Clint shrugged putting his phone away before he followed the two of them inside the labs where the rest of the Avengers were all seated.
As they walked in Aphrodite handed the tablet to her brother who glared down at the offending item and the picture it was displaying.
"What's this?" Tony asked moving to get a closer look only to have the tablet slapped into his chest by the obviously still annoyed God.
"A message," Steve replied. "Ultron killed Strucker."
"And he did a Banksy at the crime scene, just for us," Tony said sarcastically waving the tablet.
"This is a smoke screen," Pointed to the picture. "Why send a message when you've just given a speech?"
"Strucker knew something that Ultron wanted us to miss," Aphrodite suggested.
"I bet he-" Natasha mumbled searching something on the computers. "Yeah, everything we had on Strucker's been erased."
"Not everything," Tony said easily a thought coming to him.
Moments later they were all in a room where a bunch of files were kept. They pulled the boxes containing information on Strucker and it seemed to be most of them.
"Known associates." Steve said reading the label on his box. "Well Strucker had a lot of friends."
"Well these people are all horrible." Bruce commented digging through his own box.
"Wait," Tony said pointing to the file Thor was flipping through. "I know that guy. From back in the day. He operates off the African coast. Black market arms." At Steve's glare he rushed to explain himself, "There are conventions. Alright? You meet people. I didn't sell him anything. He was talking about finding something new, a game-changer. It was all very Ahab," he concluded.
"This?" Thor questioned, pointing towards one of the pictures of the man Tony had found.
"Uh, it's a tattoo, I don't think he had it,"
"Those are tattoos, this is a brand," Aphrodite corrected, pointing towards a spot on the man's neck right underneath of his left ear which obviously was a mark that had been burned there as it still looked red and raw in the picture.
"Yeah," said Bruce as he placed himself in front of the computer, quickly searching what the mark meant. "It's a word in an African dialect meaning 'thief'. In a much less friendly way."
"What dialect?" Steve asked.
"Uh, Wakanada – Wakanda," Bruce said jumbling the pronunciation a few times before getting it right.
"If this guy got out of Wakanda with some of their trace goods," Tony mumbled to Steve both of them looking slightly distressed at the thought.
"I thought your father said he got the last of it,"
"I don't follow," Bruce interjected. "What comes out of Wakanda?"
Steve and Tony shared a look before Steve stood to the side and gestured to his shield. "The strongest metal on Earth,"
"Where is this guy now?"
BrittStar1199: Lol, we all know how stab-happy Loki is so that is highly likely. Who knows he might even still try to stab Steve if they ever meet. No need to be nervous, we've got big things coming and Infinity War is still a long way away. My mission in life is to frighten. You will get an idea of Aphrodite's future rock real soon.
Love. Fiction .2018: Thanks.
Alright folks, big chapter up next which includes the Avengers' dream sequences and the first time Aphrodite will meet Wanda. I have an idea of what I want to happen but I'm still open to any and all suggestions. I love hearing your ideas.
As always let me know what you think and what you'd like to see in the future. Leave me a review too, as you can see I'll be answering/responding to the ones can. So feel free to say or ask me anything.