Disclaimer: as usual i do not own anyone but my own cahractes, I would love to have my own Pietro though. So if anyone has a spare I'll take him!
A/N: I have been trying to write this and get it out for like a week...well more like three or four days but still, it's been hard to do so. I've been working or I've had writers block or didn't have a few hours to spare to write. So, yay! here it is!
Chapter Five
On many occasions Norah has told Tony repeatedly that she hated going to these parties of his; she hated how large they were, she hated how many people came to these parties of Tony's, she hated trying to mingle with people that she didn't know for shit, she hated being approached by random guys that usually only wanted to sleep with her and hoped that she would put a good word in with Tony for them. Even with all of those things Norah did love one thing about Tony's parties – dressing up. Norah was thankful that the party was a semi-formal and so she wore a fun little cocktail flapper styled number that was a light peach color and had a crystal belt just under the bust and ended a few inches above her knees, along with the dress Norah was wearing a pair of seven inch glittery black pumps that made her almost five foot ten rather than her usual short stature of five foot four. Along with the dress and heels Norah was wearing a fire opal necklace that was hanging from a simple and delicate looking gold chair, a pair of feather drop earrings and adorning her wrists were three fresh water pearl bracelets that were in blue, green and yellow pastels.
At the present moment Norah was sitting on a sleek black colored stood at the bar drinking her whiskey, bored out of her mind and wishing she could be anywhere but there. Norah knew that if she did indeed leave that either Tony would realize it and hunt her down and drag her back and make a whole show of it, Jarvis would tell Tony and then he would still drag her back or Jarvis would refuse to let her leave any of the level's that the party was taking place on. So, rather than attempting to leave and having any number of those options happening Norah stayed glued to her seat at the bar and enjoyed all the alcohol that she could possibly want and hope that no more men try and approach her. Already she's had to fend at least three men off all of whom were old enough to be her grandfather which was definitely not something she was into. Nope, so not happening!
"I thought you said that you weren't coming." Natasha stated simply, amused eyes looking over the outfit Norah chose and took a seat beside the younger girl as she sipped at her martini. "I remember something about hating big parties like this or something along those lines, right?"
Norah sighed a bit when Natasha said that, "Yeah, yeah. I know." She said with a mocking smile on her face. "My self-appointed father decided that me not going was not acceptable and kept on bothering me like a five year old until I agreed to go to this damn thing." She grumbled unhappily and glared at the liquor that was sitting on the counter in front of her as if it was at the heart of all of her problems.
Natasha gave a small grin when she saw the anger filled glare on Norah's face, "You know, most people would kill to get an invite to one of Stark's parties. Wouldn't doubt that they'd suffer through torture just to get a single toe in the door." She pointed out the curly blonde haired girl that was besides her.
"Yeah, well none of them have to live with an eccentric, egotistical, genius on an everyday basis." Norah replied flatly as took a long and hard swig of her drink and enjoyed the burning sensation she got from it as it slid down her throat. "Like you said, I hate big parties like this where I know maybe three or so people at the most. This," she said and gestured out towards where the many, many people that were invited were milling about on the three floors where the party was taking place. "This is Tony's thing, Pepper's thing even, but it is definitely not mine in any fashion. I only agreed to come after Tony mentioned alcohol."
Hearing that Natasha nodded in appreciation; when Tony threw a party and bought alcohol he went all out, be it some sort of Fundraiser that Pepper made him do or for some party he wanted to throw for Stark Industries. Tony would make sure the bar was stocked with the common sort of alcohol and some of the lesser known or rather, the unusual sort of alcohol – imported Sake, French Wine made from the sweat and tears of virgin's or something, aged Whiskey, Vodka made from the best of ingredients. No matter what it was or how hard it was to get, Tony would be certain they had it.
"Good enough reason to come then I suppose." Natasha said with a shrug and then turned to look around the room and took another sip of her martini and frowned, her drink could be a bit drier.
The two sat in a comfortable silence for a while after that, each sipping on their drinks and looking out into the crowd of people, but as Natasha looked behind Norah and to the other side of the room she grinned widely. There, on the far side of the room was a young attractive man that had eyes on Norah and was making his way towards her. He was tall and was wearing a nice pair of dress pants, his violet colored button up shirt with the top two buttons undone and the sleeves rolled up to his forearms and overtop of his shirt was a charcoal grey vest top. The man had slightly tanned skin, dark brown hair slicked back fashionably and seemed to have quite a bit of muscle to him but not so much where he looked like he belonged in a muscle man competition.
"Looks like you caught someone's eye Norah." Natasha said with a sly grin on her face as she eyed the man that was making his way towards where she and Norah were sitting. "So I think it's about time I go and do that mingling thing that most normal people tend to do."
At that Norah suddenly got a wide eyed look and stealthily turned and spied the man that Natasha was talking about and then quickly turned back to the red-headed friend of hers and looked at her with panic, under no circumstances did she want to be left alone with the wolves and this well-dressed man definitely had a wolfish look to him.
"What?! No!" Norah said and grasped Natasha's arm desperately. "You're not leaving me with him. I don't know him. He could be some crazed axe murderer whose plan is to lure me into a false sense of security and the moment I feel safe he's going to pull an axe or a machete out and start chopping me up into itty bitty pieces or something equally as horrible as that." She said to Natasha dramatically with wide eyes.
When Natasha heard Norah say that she couldn't help but shake her head at her unbelievably, "Norah you've been watching one too many horror movies I think. An axe murderer, really?" she questioned rhetorically and then glanced over Norah's shoulder and smiled. "You do know that going to parties like this is a way that most other people use to get to know other people of the opposite sex, this is also how young people such as yourself end up getting dates and going to fancy Italian restaurants." She pointed out to her.
"Natasha." Norah said darkly to her friend. "I don't need you to try and set me up with random guys, especially one's that come to these sort of parties." She said gesturing around the room, sure there were probably some decent guys at these parties but for the most part the people tended to lean towards the greedy side of things. "I get you trying to get Steve a date, he hasn't had a date in seventy some years…if ever. But I don't need your help in the relationship department." She said with a huff and then crossed her arms a bit childishly.
"Really? Is that so?" Natasha questioned knowingly. "If that's true why haven't you gone on a date in over a year?" she asked with raised brows.
"That's beside the point." Norah sulked at her. "I….I'm picky, you know that. I just haven't found anyone who has piqued my interest." She said defensively and took another gulp of her whiskey – god, she really didn't want to be here right now if Natasha was now trying to set her up with random guys at an event of Tony's.
Natasha just grinned at Norah mischievously, "Well now's your chance to figure out if he pique's your interest or not." She said and then gracefully rose from her seat at the bar and then glided across the floor as if she owned the place and went to mingle with the other party goers.
When Natasha left all Norah did was sulk in place and dread the man sitting down next to her which she definitely knew was going to be happening, he was walking with a purpose and no man walked like that just to get a drink from a bar. No, men walked like that when they had their eye on a prize.
Norah has dated on and off, she's had flings with a couple guys before, she's had one night stands (Tony and Pepper will never find out about those) and she's had friend's with benefits sort of relationship with a guy named Sebastian from University, but she's never dated seriously and as far as Norah is concerned the whole dating thing is overrated. Like she had told Natasha, no one has really piqued her interest enough to want to do anything more than casual dating. Of course she didn't want to be alone for the rest of her life and become the weird crazy cat lady or crazy dog lady, she wanted to find someone that she wanted to wake up to every morning, she wanted someone to share things with, someone that would be playful along with her, someone who would love her for the silly faces she liked to make, someone who would listen to her go off on a tangent about whatever book she's reading and how fascinating she found it, she wanted to find someone that she could see herself with in the long one but no one has fit that bill as of yet. Besides, the whole being a Mutant thing makes things a bit complicating.
"Hello." The deep suave voice of the dark haired man said from besides Norah as he finally reached her side and slid into the seat that was next to her, the seat that Natasha had vacated not minutes beforehand. "I'm Jesse Seymour." He said to her and extended his hand towards her in a friendly sort of gesture. "I've seen you around these parties before but haven't had the honor of meeting you or learning your name." he said and gave Norah a curious smile and almost blinded her with how white his teeth were – they were so not real, no teeth were that white naturally.
Reluctantly Norah gave out her name, "Norah Sjoholm." She responded simply and hesitantly put her hand in his expecting to give a quick shake but before she had the chance to do just that Jesse lifted her hand and gave a kiss to the back of it while looking up into her dark eyes with stormy grey ones in a charming fashion.
It was when he heard her name that he took on a look of recognition, "Tony Stark's adopted daughter." He realized, his eyes brightening as he released Norah's pale hand and grinned at her. "May I say that it is a pleasure to meet you and that you look beyond stunning tonight." He said laying his charm on thick and then turned and waved for the bartender to come over to where he and Norah were seated.
"Thanks." Norah said with disinterest as she forced a smile on her face and begged all the gods that existed that this guy…Jesse, would leave her the hell alone and let her drink the night away until Tony, Thor or Steve had to carry her back to her room because she couldn't sit up straight let alone attempt to walk.
It was then, after meeting Jesse Seymour, that Norah experienced one of the most, dreadful, boring and painful forty-five minutes of her life and she has suffered through lectures with professors who've been incredibly monotonous and didn't really care about what they were teaching to their students. Norah thought those classes were pure torture and were boring to try and suffer through but boy was she wrong at that, this man….Jesse, god was he boring. He may look pretty with that dark hair of his and stormy grey eyes and any sane girl would jump at the chance to grab him up especially since he had a great paying job, had a condo in downtown Manhattan but geeze, he killed the conversation. He talked about work, he talked about the gym he went too and all of the 'fat' people that went there and ruined the atmosphere, he talked about his high schools years at the unbelievably expensive private school he went to, he talked about his life of privilege, he talked about himself a lot and talked about wanting to move up in the world which Norah took as him wanting to work for Tony eventually. He asked about Tony, about her life with him and being his daughter, he asked about the Avengers and missions they've gone on which Norah flat out refused to tell him about. Norah would almost prefer a lecture from Tony about Chemistry rather than talking to this guy, if she wanted to talk to an egotistical man at the moment she'd go find Tony and talk to him instead, at least he was amusing egotistical asshole.
Finally, after suffering much longer than Norah thought she would be able to, she spotted someone that she knew and someone that would save her from this horrible social situation – she'd been attempting to look for an escape without coming off as a bitch but nothing presented itself. But now, now Bruce was walking into the room by himself and looked to be headed somewhat near where Norah was being tortured…chatted to by Jesse.
"BRUCE!" Norah all but yelled across the room to the older man and waved excitedly with a big smile on her face and probably looked a tad bit crazed at the moment, but oh well, the important thing was that she got his attention and he was now walking towards her.
Giving Norah an odd look Bruce made his way over towards the bar where Norah was seated along with a man he's never seen before, he gave a small smile when he got in earshot of the two young people. "Norah, hello. Are you en-"
Before Bruce had a chance to finish his sentence Norah interrupted him, "I know you've probably been looking all over for me but I got a bit sidetracked. I'm really, really sorry Bruce. I didn't mean to." She said to him with a fake smile plastered across her face as she looked at him pleadingly, hoping against hope that he'd be able to get the hint that she was trying to get across to him and that he would just go along with it.
Taking a look at Bruce, Norah internally groaned when she saw the utterly confused and unsure look that he had on his face after she said that he had been looking for her. It seems that even incredibly smart people such as Bruce were prone to not understanding social que's and hints that Norah was trying to lay at his feet obviously.
Bruce furrowed his brow and looked at Norah in confusion, he was lost as to what the girl wanted and what she was talking about and wondered for a moment if Tony and Norah switched bodies/personalities. "Helping me?" he questioned as he cocked his head to the side a bit, similar looking to a dog. "With wha-"
"Remember." Norah said imploringly as she looked intently into his eyes "You have a pile of documents that you need to be translated that that one scientist sent over from….what country was it again?" she asked, feigning confusion and trying to convey to Bruce that he needed to get her out of there and away from this guy.
For a moment all Bruce did was look at Norah blankly, genuinely confused as to what she was trying to say to him and just was uncertain as to what he was supposed to say. Norah was talking and looking at him as if she believed, truly believed that there were some documents from a foreign scientist that needed to be translated but for the most part foreign scientist can read and write in English just as good, if not better than most American's. After staring at her for a while it finally clicked with him, Norah knew that he had nothing to translate she just needed a reason to get out of the situation with this guy that was sitting beside her.
"OH!" Bruce said suddenly. "Yes, him. The guy from Romania." He said with a fake half-smile on his face which was barely believable but thankfully Jesse couldn't really tell. "You do speak Romanian, don't you?"
Norah responded with a smile, "Of course I do. What sort of linguist would I be if I didn't know at least a few eastern European languages?" she questioned with a tone of arrogance. "Let's go and look at those documents of yours, before you know it that deadline of yours will be here." She said to him cheerfully as she hopped off of the barstool, grabbed her drink (a sex on the beach this time) and then looked towards Jesse who looked a bit hurt that she was leaving him to go with the middle-aged doctor. "Oh, sorry Mr. Seymour but duty calls." She said with a false sympathetic look and then looped her arm through Bruce's and then hurriedly weaved herself and Bruce through the crowds of people and towards somewhere that was far away from Jesse Seymour who hopefully didn't intend of going to search her out later in the night.
Once Norah felt as if they were far enough away that the chance of Jesse finding them was slim to none, she let go of Bruce's arm and turned towards him with a wide, thankfully smile and leapt at him and gave him a bear hug in thanks. "Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you!" Norah repeated like a mantra to the man as she squeezed him tightly in a hug once again before releasing him. "Seriously, thank you so much Bruce! I thought I was going to be stuck talking to that guy until Tony kicked everyone out. God, it was horrible. If I had to hear about his private school that cost ten thousand dollars or whatever a year to attend, or about his stupid swim meets or anything else again I was about to get violent. Seriously, I was picturing gouging his eyes out with a rusted metal spork and was contemplating the best plan of attack." She told him and gave a wry smile.
Bruce looked down at Norah gently, he cared about Norah and not just because she was the youngest in the group and Tony's 'daughter' as he pointed out often, especially when men showed an interest to her. She was a nice girl, she's had a bit of a hard life because of being a Mutant and left her family because of them not being able to accept her being one and somehow at the age of fifteen was able to survive and make it in the world. She became a stronger person because of what she has seen, what she has done and what she has been through. Bruce appreciates that in a person.
"So," Bruce said as he and Norah walked slowly through the crowds of people. "He seemed attractive." He said awkwardly, unsure how to talk to a girl Norah's age about guys….it was weird. "Why did you need to be saved from him?" he questioned.
Norah gave a heavy sigh as she maneuvered herself around a rather tall statuesque woman. "There is no doubt that he was attractive, yay! Good for him. I don't really give a shit if he's attractive or has thousands and thousands of dollars and three vacation houses across Europe and the Bahamas. I really don't care." Norah said to him with a scowl on her face. "I know most women want to marry into a good family with money, or at least date a moderately well off man but I don't care. I don't want to be bored to death and listen to someone blather on about themselves. I mean he's one dimensional."
At that Bruce gave Norah a confused look, "One dimensional?" he asked curiously and waited for her to elaborate.
"No personality." She said to him simply and shook her head. "I get that Natasha was trying to set me up, I really do. She wants me to find someone or at least try dating again after not going out on a date in almost a year or whatever but I'm not going to just date someone to simply date. I'm picky." She said and ran her hands through her thick and wild curly blonde hair – she's gotten her fingers stuck in her own hair a few times, those weren't proud moments of her life.
"I just was curious. I'm not going to force you to go over there and talk with him until he asks you on a date." Bruce said as he raised his hands in a peaceful gesture. "The other guy makes things hard when it comes to relationships and dating. I don't really date because of him." He said quietly as he looked around them to be certain no one was listening to their conversation.
"Someday Bruce," Norah told him as she lightly patted him on the shoulder. "Someday you'll find someone that won't care and that will make you not fear dating." She told him with confidence, Bruce was a soft man who was caring and worried like a mother at times but had a slight…Green Man problem, he deserved someone.
After that both Norah and Bruce walked around the party making small talk and Bruce asking Norah what she wanted to do now that she was done with University – now that she was an actual adult with a degree. Norah sniggered at that and gave a shrug, she thought about moving out of the tower and getting her own place rather than living with Tony, Pepper and everyone else but Norah would miss it too much, she's been living with or around other people for so many years that she wasn't sure if she'd be able to sleep if she did get her own place. Eventually Norah would, but for now living at the tower with everyone else was home for her.
Both Norah and Bruce went their separate ways after talking for a bit, Bruce going to talk to some scientists that he spied and Norah going off to find someone else that she knew to go and bother for a while and she also went off to go and find another alcoholic drink, something that was fruity and the epitome of a girlie drink.
"You'd think there'd be someone that wasn't boring here." Norah muttered to herself as she sipped at the straw that was sticking out of her drink, a little umbrella adorned it as well.
"Don't tell me you're bored at a Stark Party." A voice said suddenly from behind Norah making her jump in spot from fright.
"Don't let Tony hear you say that." The voice of Steve said from behind her as well.
Turning Norah looked at both Steve and Sam and put a hand on her hip as she jutted it out a bit, a sign of annoyance. "What the hell guys. Give me a heart attack why don't you two." She said as she looked from Steve to Sam admonishingly. "I have the urge to hit you both upside the head but these heels are already a bit iffy." She said and pointed down to the adorable high heels she was wearing.
Hearing that Steve looked down at the shoes Norah was wearing and shook his head not being able to understand the fab of high heels like the ones that Norah and Natasha seemed to enjoy wearing. "I don't understand you dames and high heels that hurt your feet. Back in the day no gal would wear shoes that were that high." He said as he looked back up into Norah's eyes.
"Steve," Norah said as she looked at him softly. "Beauty is pain." She explained to him simply with a shrug of her shoulders at why she and a good majority of other women wear heels that hurt them.
"Females." Sam said with a shake of his head and looked at Steve with a knowing look, understanding the confusion that women brought out in men.
Slowly the trio talked and made their way away from the crowd and headed up a set of stairs to the next level that the party was also taking place on; the first floor was the more crowded floor because it had three bars and food laid out for the guests to snack from whenever they liked, it was also harder to hear anyone talk let alone hear yourself think on that level.
"So," Norah said as they ended up at a balcony that overlooked the first floor of the party. "How goes the search?" she questioned with genuine interest in how it was going for Steve and Sam.
Norah read Bucky's file – she actually collected all the files leaked about him online and put them on an encrypted flash drive – she knew what the Russian's had done to him, what Hydra had done to him. That they experimented on the guy, they tortured him, beat him, barely gave him enough sustenance to survive, punished him if he didn't do as he was told, wiped his memory repeatedly especially when he started to remember things that they didn't want him remembering…..like Steve, they forced him to kill people without remorse. From what Norah has learned from Googling him and from talking with Steve, Bucky would have never done any of these things if he had been in his right mind and knew who he was he would have never even dreamed of doing a majority of the things that Hydra forced him to do. Norah felt bad and hoped that Steve and Sam were able to find him soon so that he could get the proper help that he deserves. No one should be forced to live a life like he had – being frozen, being forced to kill, tortured and having their memory wiped so that they wouldn't even know their own name.
"Could be better." Steve answered with a downcast expression as he rubbed at his forehead; it killed him that he was unable to find Bucky, to find his long lost best friend who he thought died decades ago. "We get close to finding him and then he manages to escape before we have a chance to confront him." He explained.
Sam nodded along with what Steve said, "Yeah, we get close and then bam," he said throwing his hands up in the air animatedly. "He's gone. Like a ghost in the wind." He said disappointed that they've been searching for months without much to show for their effort. "Those bastards from Hydra trained him well if he is able to evade us and Stark's tech without problem and only leaving a breadcrumb of clues on where he might be." He bemoaned in annoyance.
Norah gave them a sympathetic look, "Where was the last place you guys traced him to?" she questioned.
"Seattle." Steve said simply a frown gracing his face. "I thought he might have come up here to New York, to go back to Brooklyn since that's where we're originally from." He explained. "That maybe he'd come back here so that he can try and remember who he was."
"What's in Seattle?" Norah questioned.
Both Sam and Steve shrugged, Sam responding to her question. "See, that's the thing we're trying to understand. Even with all the research we can do we can't find any reason for him to be there, there weren't any Hydra bases there where he might have been taken to or anything." Sam said to her as he took a swig of his beer bottle.
"It's random." Steve said quietly with a downcast expression.
At that Norah patted Steve on his rather large bicep in a comforting way, hoping that both Steve and Sam would be able to find Bucky and that they'd be able to convince him to come back to the tower so that he could get the help he needed. He didn't need to be alone to figure out things, to recover from what he experienced. In fact, he needed a support system, people who wouldn't judge him for what he did and people who would help him in any way that he needed.
"I don't care what Tony says but," Norah said suddenly as she looked up at Steve with a determined expression on her face showing that she wasn't going to take no as an answer. "I want to help you if you need me to. I want to help you find your friend. Besides," she said with a small smirk on her face. "If he does try and hurt me I can get away without a problem unlike the two of you." She pointed out matter of a factly.
Steve looked at her gratefully, ecstatic to hear that Norah was willing to help Steve when there wasn't anything for her to gain from doing so. "Thank you Norah. I appreciate that, I really do. But I hope that it won't have to come to that. I want to find Bucky but I don't want to force him to come to me, he's been forced into enough over the last seventy years." He ended with a dark look in his eyes at recalling what Hydra has done to his friend.
The party had finally ended an hour or so ago and now everyone; Tony, Steve, Clint, Bruce, Thor, Natasha, Helen, Maria, Norah and Rhodey were all sitting around on the couches and eating Chinese takeout while relaxing from the excitement of going to one of Tony's parties and were joking around with one and another. This was the kind of party Norah preferred, a small group of people just hanging out, laughing and messing around while having food and some alcohol.
"It's a trick." Clint said as he gestured towards Mjolnir, Thor's hammer that was sitting on top of the glass table, while twirling a pair of chopsticks in his hands.
At that Thor gave a laugh and shook his head, "Oh no, it's much more than that." He stated in his deep tone of voice.
Clint rolled his eyes and began talking mockingly in a deep tone of voice, "He who shall ever be worthy shall haveth the power." He ended making the other's laugh at his attempt at sounding like he was from a different time. "Whatever man, it's a trick." He said reverting back to his usual tone of voice.
"Please," Thor said as he gestured towards Mjolnir. "Be my guest." He said with a knowing grin on his face, knowing without a doubt that none of his friends would be able to lift Mjolnir even an inch.
Clint looked at Thor surprised, "Really?" he asked to be certain that Thor wasn't just messing with him, he has been known to do that once in a while.
"Yeah." Thor said with an encouraging nod and a small smirk on his face.
Clint got up without having to be told twice and slowly made his way to the glass table and on the side that Mjolnir was on while ignoring the quips and jeers that the other's were sending.
"Clint," Tony began jokingly as he began to watch the scene in front of him unfold. "You've had a tough week, we won't hold it against you if you can't get it up." He ended with a small laugh.
Norah gave a small scoff at what was happening; she's read books on Norse mythology and knew that there was no way in hell that anyone but Thor would be able to lift Mjolnir….usually. Though Norah kinda had an urge to go hunt her phone down so that she could record Clint attempting to lift Mjolnir, if there was a time in the future when she was having a bad day and needed a pick me up she could pull up this video on her phone and laugh. Sadly her phone was up in her room; maybe Jarvis could download it to her phone for her.
"He's so going to fail horrendously." Norah whispered to Natasha who she was sitting beside on the small couch they were both on. "He's going to crash and burn." She said with a slight smirk on her face and took a drink of her hard cider that was in her hands at the moment.
Natasha nodded her agreement at that, "Definitely." She said to her. "He's seen this before and knows that no one but Thor can lift the hammer. But he's gotta try it of course."
"Men." Norah scoffed and shook her head a she looked back at Clint and waited for him to attempt to lift it and fail horribly at doing so.
Clint looked over at Thor, "I have seen this before." He said and then turned his attention back to the hammer and looked at it with determination before he wrapped his hand around the handle of it and pulled with all of his might, he tried to move around to see if a different angle would help but all he did was strain his muscles a bit. "I still don't know how you do it." He said with an unbelievable laugh and shook his head.
"Smell the silent judgement." Tony said as he took a sip of his beer and grinned widely at Clint ho was making his way back to his seat beside Maria Hill.
At that Clint waved towards the hammer, "Please stark, by all means." He said to him.
Tony being Tony, and not being able to say no to anyone who tried to challenge him be it at engineering, racing or lifting Thor's hammer, he got up from his seat and arrogantly made his way over to the hammer acting as if he truly believed he was going to be lifting the hammer from the table it sat on.
"Uh oh." Hill said.
"You know I'm not one to shrink from an honest challenge. It's physics." Tony said as if it was easy as pie and then looped the leather strap onto his wrist and then grasped the handle tightly. "So if I lift it I then rule Asgard, right?" he questioned as he looked over at Thor.
Thor nodded at his question, "Yes, of course."
"Thor!" Norah admonished making the blonde haired god look at her in confusion. "Don't tell him that, do you know what he would do to Asgard if he was ruler of it? He'd all but burn it to the ground in three day's straight." She said to him.
At that Tony looked at his daughter, "Hey! You're supposed to be on my side. What the hell kid." He said with a pout on his lips looking very much like a small child would when they are told they can't have candy before having dinner. "Some child of mine you are." He grumbled a bit.
Norah just grinned widely at him and shrugged, "Hey, I know you too well now." She explained to him simply. "You'll tear Asgard a part and have giant Orgies or something like that."
Tony just rolled his eyes at Norah and then turned his attention back to the matter at hand, lifting Mjolnir from the table. "I will be reinstituting Prima Nocta." He said and then tried to lift the hammer and gave a slight groan of pain and tried a few more pulls of the hammer before letting go and looking at it with determination. "I'll be right back." He said and then left the living room for a brief moment.
Apparently Tony decided that since he couldn't lift Mjolnir with his own two bare hands that he was going to use alternate methods to do so and decided to use his detachable Iron Man arm to do it for him, but….well it wasn't really much use to him in the end. Even with the help of Rhodey with his almost identical arm they were unable to lift the hammer and from the sounds of it, it sounded as if Tony blew a fuse in the arm or some sort of electronics in his Iron Man arm from trying to lift the hammer. When Norah heard the tell-tale sizzling and crackles from the arm she couldn't help but laugh a bit at Tony's misfortune, he sent her an angry glare when she laughed but she just smiled innocently at him in return. It served him right, it was Tony and the other's that were trying to lift a magical object from Asgard, an object that only Thor was able to lift.
"Come on Steve, it's your turn!" Norah cheered as she looked over at the man out of time and grinned widely at him encouragingly. "You know you want to! Shoe these asshole's how it's done!" she said to him and ignored the indignant 'heys' that were throw at her.
When Norah said that Maria looked over at Steve with feigned alarm, "Steve! She said a bad language word." She said in a false shock tone of voice.
Steve sighed heavily and then glanced over at Tony in annoyance, "Did you tell everyone about that?" he questioned rhetorically and shook his head before he stood up and approached the hammer.
"Come on Cap!" Tony cheered on.
Norah sat up a bit and smiled, "Come on Steve, you can do it!" she cheered, if anyone was going to lift Mjolnir it would be Steve, he's a boy scout at heart.
Tony looked over at Norah with a slightly hurt look, "What? You cheer on Capsicle here but you didn't cheer me on? How can you call yourself my daughter?" he questioned and then pretended to sob into Bruce's shirt.
"Like you need anyone to cheer you on, you're arrogant enough to not need it." Norah stated with a roll of her eyes. "Besides, if Pepper's not here who else is going to take you down a peg or two?" she asked with a smirk on her face. "Now shut up, I wanna see this."
"It's a harsh world Stark." Natasha said with a laugh at the slight put out expression that was on Tony's face when Norah told him to shut up.
Grumbling, Tony turned his attention to Steve and watched as the capsicle did his best to lift the hammer from the coffee table that it was sitting on. Steve tried a few times to pull the thing up and off of the table but nothing came to fruition so he gave a small 'what can you do' sort of smile and then sat back down on the couch, Bruce also tried to lift Mjolnir but all he did was stumble back a bit and embarrass himself a bit by making 'argggh' kind of sound when he ended up letting it go.
"Natasha, Norah." Bruce said as he looked at the two females in the room and gestured towards the hammer.
At that Natasha shook her head in the negative, "Oh no, no that's not something I need answered." She said to them all and took a small sip of her bottle of beer.
"Norah," Clint said looking into the younger girls dark eyes with a playful smile. "Come on, you try."
Tony nodded his agreement at that statement, "Yeah, come on mini me. Go and show us how it's done." He urged, but Norah was pretty certain he more so wanted to see her fail like she saw him fail and make fun of her in return as well.
At that Norah shook her head, her curls flying around her face. "Nope. Not happening guys. Sorry, not sorry." She told them in an unsympathetic tone of voice. "I'm not going to try and lift Mjolnir in these heels. I'd end up killing myself or I'd fall on my ass and break my leg or something of equal importance." She told them all with a slight shrug of her shoulders.
"Oh, come on Norah! Please! Please! Please!" Tony begged her with a childish look in his eyes and clasped his hands in a begging fashion. "I wanna see you beat everyone."
"No." Norah said simply and shook her head at him, wondering how he managed to snag someone like Pepper when he acted like such a child and an asshole at times. "Not going to happen."
Instead of responding, Tony looked over at the hammer with a glower on his face. "It's rigged." He said as he leaned up against the bar.
Rhodey nodded his agreement, "You bet your ass it is."
"Like a security code or something." Tony pipped up. "He who shall ever be holding Thor's finger print is the literal translation."
Thor smiled at the others in amusement at them attempting to lift Mjolnir and then approached his hammer, "Yes, well that's a very, very interesting theory. But I have a simpler one." He said as he grasped Mjolnir with ease and lifted it up and off of the table as if it weighed as heavy as a feather and flipped it up and in the air before catching it in his hand. "You all are not worthy." He answered simply.
The moment those words escaped Thor's mouth the majority of everyone in the room began to protest what he said about them all not being worthy of carrying Mjolnir, but before they could say much of anything at all there was a sudden loud and high pitched screech sound that seemed to echo throughout the room making everyone cringe in pain and cover their ears for a few moments until the noise passed.
"What in the hell was that?" Rhodey questioned wincing a bit as his ears recovered from the sudden painful sound.
Norah stood up from her spot on the couch and looked around the room, trying to see what might have made that sound – sometimes Tony's projects got out of hand, it happened. Tony was a genius who couldn't stay still doing nothing for more than five seconds so he did projects and made things for the Avenger's use…..a few have gotten out of control and almost became a problem and that was what Norah was assuming happened and what made that noise.
"Tony?" Norah questioned softly, as she looked across the room carefully waiting for some weird invention of Tony's to come out from nowhere.
Instead of answering her though Tony looked down at his clear mini-tablet and was pressing all sorts of buttons while trying to figure out what was making that noise. Tony didn't have a clue what was making that noise, the only project or inventions that he's been working on as of late was Ultron and there was no way in hell that whatever was doing this was Ultron.
Suddenly, one of Tony's Iron Legion suits that looked as if it had gotten a bit mangled while in Sokovia came forward, limping towards where the Avengers, Norah, Hellen Cho and Maria Hill were standing and looking around curiously.
"Worthy." The dark voice breathed as it looked out at everyone and seemed to be studying each and every single one of them. "No, how can you be worthy. You're all killers." He said waving his hand out at them and then seemed to let his eyes rest on Norah.
When Norah saw that this….thing or whatever it was had its gaze fixed on her all she did was stand up a bit taller, raise her hands unnoticeably in a defensive fashion in case he/it decided to attack them suddenly. She really wasn't in the mood to die by some possessed/crazy suit of Tony's, it wasn't her thing. If this thing didn't have its gaze transfixed on Norah and seemed to be taking in every inch of her, she would probably have looked over to Tony with an icy glare and demand to know what he and Bruce have been doing in that lab of his and ask him what the fuck he thought he was doing. But now was not exactly the time for that, priorities.
"You," the mangled suit said as it pointed towards Norah who tried to control herself but she shrunk back just a bit. "You aren't like them, you're not a killer." He said and cocked his metal head a bit to the side.
Steve took a step forward so that he was standing beside Norah and looked at the possessed suit with fierce looking eyes; he knew that this didn't just suddenly happen, that this thing didn't suddenly come into existence. Stark had something to do about this mangled metal suit coming to life, there was no doubt about that.
"Stark." Steve said simply without taking his eyes off of the suit.
Tony knew what Steve wanted and pressed a few buttons on his tablet while speaking, "Jarvis." He said expectantly and waited for the British voice of his AI to come through and to tell him he was taking care of whatever was happening to the suit. "Jarivs? Jarvis? Where are you buddy?"
"I'm sorry," The deep voice of the suit said and seemed to rub as its temples. "I was asleep. Dreaming."
Looking at the suit worriedly Tony ignored the thing and continued trying to contact Jarvis who seemed to not be answering him at the moment, "Jarvis. Reboot. We got a buggy suit." He said as he looked down at his see-through mini-tablet.
"I was tanged," the suit said as it seemed to walk/limp across the floor in front of them. "In strings."
Everyone watched the suit carefully and cautiously, it didn't take a genius to realize that it wouldn't take much of anything to set this suit off and for it to start attacking them all without any hesitation. They needed to be careful with what they did and what they said to this thing especially if they wanted to figure out what it wanted.
"Had to kill the other guy. He was a good guy." The suit said sounding a bit sympathetic that he was forced to do that.
"You killed someone?" Steve questioned as he stepped a bit closer to the suit of metal, needing to know who he killed.
When Steve had stepped away from Norah and towards the suit of armor Thor had taken up his spot and stepped a bit in front of Norah in a protective manner, when he did that Norah glared at his back in annoyance and pursed her lips. As much as she wanted to give Thor a piece of her mind and his gallantry actions – she wasn't a damsel in distress damn it – but they kind of had a possessed Iron Legion suit to deal with.
"Wouldn't have been my first call." The suit said and seemed to sigh a bit. "But down in the real world we're faced with ugly choices."
"Who sent you?" Thor demanded of the metal suit, itching to grab his hammer at the moment.
Instead of answering the suit turned so that he was facing them head on and then within moments the voice of Tony came out from his body, "I see a suit of armor around the world." The recording of Tony's voice said.
"Ultron." Bruce said in shock at his realization.
"In the flesh," Ultron said proudly but then looked down at himself and shrugged a bit. "Or no, not yet. Not this Christmas. But I'm ready." He said with determination laced in his voice.
While Ultron had been talking, the others had silently and inconspicuously got their weapons at the ready that they had on their person which really only consisted of Maria and Natasha. It's not like any of them really expected to be attacked while at Stark tower by something that Tony and Bruce created but by the looks of it shit is about to hit the fan.
"I'm on a mission." Ultron stated.
Natasha looked at Ultron with guarded eyes, "What mission?" she asked curiously.
Ultron answered without hesitation, "Peace of our time." He said to her simply and matter of fact.
The moment those words left Ultron, two of Tony's Iron Legion suits burst out through the wall behind Ultron and to the side of him and immediately headed towards where the Avengers, Hellen, Norah and Maria were standing. Thor took action immediately and hit one of them; the suits hit a few of the others as well. Tony got knocked down and slid a across the floor, Steve was thrown down through a glass window and onto the balcony and Norah and Hellen both got knocked into the piano that was in the room.
Groaning a bit Norah quickly slipped her high heels off and threw them away from her before she looked around the piano and saw that the majority of her friends and family were fighting off Ultron and the Iron Legion which Ultron seemed to have gotten control of somehow. Taking a deep courageous breath Norah left Hellen's side from behind the grand piano and crawled her way through the fighting and hoped to make it to a vantage point where she would be able to see all that was happening in the room so that she could try and blow a few of the suits up, luck didn't seem to be on Norah's side though because as soon as she made it about five or so feet she was lifted up and off of the ground by Ultron who was gripping onto her side and back of her neck tightly. There were so going to be bruises the next morning.
"You better not fuck up my dress," Norah said as she glared up at Ultron defiantly. "I like this dress even if it is kind of pink which isn't exactly on my top ten favorite colors." She told him and wished that she could move enough to cross her arms in annoyance.
Ultron looked at her curiously for a few moments before he gave a laugh and leaned in close to her, "You're a feisty one, aren't you?" he questioned.
"My best and worst quality. What can I say." Norah said with a smirk on her face.
Okay, so being sarcastic and feisty to a crazy robot thing that Tony and Bruce created was probably a bad idea, an incredibly bad idea but sometimes Norah just couldn't help herself and it was sort of her go to defense mechanism when she was freaked out and scared out of her mind. But, doing so to murder crazy robots probably was not the sort of situation to do that in, when facing regular people it was a bit safer but robots that are trying to kill you and your family isn't the idea situation for that.
"You know," Ultron said as he looked down at the small blonde haired female that he had in his grasp. "I like you. I don't think I like many people, especially one's associated with the Avengers and Tony Stark. But you amuse me. And you haven't killed anyone before." He told her offhand, acting as if they were talking about the weather or what movie they wanted to go to. "You were taken in by Stark, he helped you when you were vulnerable and treated you like a daughter and warped your mind into thinking that he and the rest of the Avengers were on the side of good. But they aren't. Come with me and see what the side of good truly looks like."
Norah glared at him, "As fun as that sounds I'm gonna have to pass." She told him.
"Why?" he asked curiously, seeming to genuinely want to know why she won't go with him.
Norah scoffed at him, "Why? Why am I refusing to join you?" she questioned him with an unbelievable look at the fact that he couldn't understand why she wouldn't go with him. "I'd die before going with you and your little mission. They are my family. Tony is my father as far as I am concerned. We, the Avengers, are the good guys. We are there for people if we can be; we help people and do all that is in our power to protect those who can't protect themselves. Sure, a lot of us have made mistakes and did things that we never wanted to do but we are making up for it. They're my family and they come before anyone else, no matter what."
"It's too bad you think that way." Ultron said as he squeezed the hand that was around her neck a bit tighter. "You would have been a good ally to have, I thi-"
Before Ultron had the chance to finish his sentence or squeeze Norah's neck any tighter, Steve suddenly came out of nowhere and attacked Ultron with his shield which surprised Ultron enough that he stumbled back and released Norah from the hold he had on her. Norah sent Steve an irritated look at the fact that he decided to come in and play hero before she had the chance to use her powers on Ultron, she knew he said that it was going to be hard for him to treat her like the adult she was but seriously, they only had that talk two or three days ago he shouldn't have forgotten it that easily.
"That was dramatic," Ultron said as they killed the last of the Iron Legion that he had taken control over and walked a bit away from everyone before beginning to talk once again. "I'm sorry. I know you mean well. You want to protect the world but you don't want it to change. How is humanity saved if it's not allowed to evolve? Like these," he said as he grabbed one of the disassembled Iron Legion suits and squeezed the head of it so hard that the face plate flew off and sparks began coming from it and hitting his metal fingers. "These puppets," he said as he threw the head of the suit away from him. "There is only one path to peace. The Avenger's extinction."
The moment Ultron had finished saying that, Thor, not wanting to listen to this thing talk anymore threw Mjolnir straight at Ultron and which resulted with him breaking into small bits and broken chunks of metal that had formerly resembled an Iron Legion suit. A bit of blue light still emanated from within the suit, the voice of Ultron sang one last little tune before the suit went dark.
Steve turned and looked at Tony with a serious expression that meant he was not about to put up with anything at that moment in time, "We need to talk."
Rather than staying in her dress which looked the worse for wear – hopefully the stains and rips could be fixed, like she told Ultron, she loved this dress – Norah changed into a pair of washed out burgundy sweatpants and a black Misfits band shirt that was a tad bit too big for her and then slowly made her way down to where Tony's lab was located at so that they could talk about what just happened in the tower.
Norah understood that Tony wanted to protect people, that he wanted to keep people safe from the bad things in the world that most normal people didn't have a chance and protecting themselves from, like the aliens that attacked. She knew that he had a few problems dealing with what happened and almost dying and now, part of dealing with what had happened was him creating something that would protect everyone from those sorts of things so that all they would have to worry about hurting or attacking them were other people.
"Pepper is going to be pissed." Norah said to herself already dreading when the woman came home and found out what happened and specifically what Tony did.
As the elevator that she was in came to a stop Nora stepped out and then headed down a hallway and down two flights of stairs before she finally arrived at Tony's lab, walking inside she saw that they were already talking about what had happened and what they were going to do now since Ultron escaped through the internet. Walking past the railing where Clint was leaning against, Norah walked down into the main part of the lab and looked at Tony in concern and wondered if he was still dealing with his near death experience from the battle of New York.
"Nukes?" Natasha questioned. "He said he wanted us dead." She pointed out to the others.
Steve looked at the other's, "He didn't say dead. He said extinct." he remarked, his eyes narrowing at the realization of what Ultron wanted to do.
Clint spoke up then, "He also said that he killed somebody."
"There wasn't anybody else in the building," Maria said as she looked up from working on taking the glass that had embedded itself in her foot.
Norah furrowed her brows in confusion, "Then who could he have been talking about?" she asked curiously, looking around to see if anyone else knew who it was that Ultron said that he had killed.
Tony walked forward solemnly with his mini-tablet in his hands, "There was someone else here." He said softly and then flicked his tablet out in front of him as a large yellow/gold hologram appeared in front of the group and looked as if it had either exploded or been scrambled into small pieces.
It took a few moments for everyone to realize what it was that they were looking at, or rather who they were looking at, this yellow/gold colored orb of light was Jarvis. And now Jarvis had been killed by Jarvis because he was trying to help them, to protect them from Ultron.
"This is insane." Bruce uttered as he ran his hands through his dark colored hair.
Steve looked away from the damage that Ultron had done to Jarvis, "Jarvis was the first line of defense. He would have shut Ultron down, it would have made sense." He reasoned.
Bruce shook his head, "No, Ultron killed an assimilated Jarvis. This isn't strategy, this is rigged." He said in anger at what his and Tony's creation did.
Before Bruce could explain more, Thor suddenly stalked into the room and headed straight for Tony who had his back turned towards him but before he could turn and see who it was that was stalking towards him angrily Thor grasped him by the neck and lifted him up and pressed him harshly against the wall of the lab.
"Hey! What the hell Thor!" Norah yelled as she approached the god who had her father figure pressed into the wall painfully, she may not be happy with what Tony did but she still loved him. "Let him go Thor!" she said and gave a futile push at Thor's arms trying to get him to release her father. "THOR!"
"It's going around." Clint muttered under his breath as he looked in on the scene in front of him.
Tony grabbed the arm of the hand that was wrapped around his neck and looked down at the god, "Come on, use your words buddy." He said, his sarcastic and teasing personality not even hindering with the current situation.
Thor looked at him with anger filled eyes, "I have more than enough words to describe you Stark." He seethed at Tony as he narrowed his eyes at the arrogant and egotistical genius.
Not being able to take seeing Thor's rather unbelievably large hands wrapped around Tony's throat which made it look like he was trying to choke the life out of him Norah stepped up and once again tried to push at Thor to get him to release Tony from his hold, sure she knew that she physically couldn't take on Thor or make him move if he didn't want to but it made her feel better to try rather than not doing anything.
"Thor!" Norah hissed at him with a hostile expression on her face. "Let him go now Thor. He gets the point, you're angry and you kinda hate him right now. Trust me," she said with a dark smirk on her face. "Everyone has hated him at some point in time." She told him. "Now, let my dad go now or I will use my power on you. I don't care if you're my friend and a god, I will use my power on you if I have to." She threatened him fiercely, a dangerous look in her eyes.
For a moment, a single moment Thor actually feared for his life because of a small slip of a human girl. He's seen what Norah can do, he's seen those video's that were taken of what she did with her power and he knew without a doubt that if Norah truly tried hard enough that she could use her power to kill people if she so chose. She could use her powers to tear a person a part from the inside out. After considering Norah for a moment, he knew that the blonde girl wouldn't hesitate to attack anyone that hurt Tony or Pepper – her family.
Steve seeing the impasse that both Norah and Thor were in decided to step in before either did something that they may regret, "Thor," he said with an authoritative tone of voice. "The legion?" he questioned.
Grudgingly Thor released Tony and let him stumble to the ground without remorse, "The trail went cold about one hundred miles out and it's headed North. And it has the scepter. Now we have to retrieve it," he said and paused for a moment and looked over at Tony in anger and frustration. "Again."
Hellen looked over at the remains of the suits before turning to Tony with confusion, "I don't understand. You created this program. Why is it trying to kill you?"
For a few moments there was nothing but silence after Hellen had asked Tony that but soon there was the sound of Tony laughing manically, crazed even and Bruce turned to where Tony was and gave him a look before he started shaking his head and gave a disapproving sound at the fact that Tony was laughing as if he belonged in the crazy house. This was definitely not the time to be laughing like he lost his mind.
"You think this is funny." Thor said in his booming tone of voice.
Norah looked at Tony and shook her head at him, not being able to believe that he was actually laughing at a time like this. "Tony." She hissed and gained his attention. "This isn't exactly the time to be laughing just to laugh. This isn't funny." She barked at him angrily, she may love Tony but that doesn't mean that she agreed with what he did nor is she on his side for why he did this.
"No, it's probably not right?" Tony questioned sounding a bit out of it and crazed at the moment. "This is very terrible. Is it so terrible? It is, it is so terrible." He said rambling off about the Ultron situation.
Thor approached Tony in a threatening fashion, "This could have been avoided if you hadn't played with something you don't understand." Thor said and ignored Tony's interjection that he didn't understand.
The other's in the room watched Tony and Thor with bated breath, waiting to see if Thor gets so angry and frustrated with Tony that he ends up attacking him which ultimately would result in Norah attacking Thor back with her power and blasting him out of the Lab, the hallway and more than likely outside of the building and to the street that was however many feet below them. All in all, this was a very tense moment.
"You're right," Tony said as he walked closer to Thor. "I'm sorry. This isn't funny, it's a hoot that you don't get why we need this." He said waving his hands out in front of him while he was speaking.
Bruce looked over at Tony, "Tony, maybe this might not be the time for this." He said looking at him in a way that begged him to shut up before someone punches him or kills him.
Tony turned around abruptly and looked over at Bruce sharply, "Really? That's it. You just roll over and show your belly every time someone snarls?" he questioned his friend in frustration that he didn't seem to be on his side of things.
Bruce gave Tony a look, "Only when I've created a murder bot." he said testily.
Tony gestured towards the lab and the scraps of the Iron Legion, "We didn't. We weren't even close to creating Ultron." He gestured and then looked intently at Bruce. "Were we close to an interface?"
Norah sighed heavily to herself and sat down beside where Maria Hill was sitting on a chair and looked between Steve, Bruce and then over at Steve, Thor and everyone else who were looking at Tony in annoyance for what he did and for what he did without telling them. It was really starting to feel like this was going to be a long ass week, Norah thought the mission in Sokovia felt long but now with the whole Ultron situation she knew that it was going to be a lot longer week than she had thought it was going to be. Once this was all done and over, because honestly Norah knew that they were going to need her help with Ultron, she was going to sleep in her bed for about a week straight and only get out for food and bathroom breaks.
"Well you two did something right." Steve said as he looked at Tony and Bruce and then uncrossed his arms as he approached Tony. "And you did it right here. The Avengers were supposed to be different from SHIELD." He said quietly, trying to understand why Tony would go behind their backs rather than being upfront about what he planned to do, if he had then none of this would have happened.
Tony got on the defensive when Steve said that, "Does anybody remember when I carried a nuke through the worm hole?" he questioned.
Rhodey groaned when Tony said that, "No, never came up." He said blandly.
"Saved the Earth." Tony pointed out sardonically. "Recall that? A hostile alien came charging through the wormhole and you don't understand why we need something like this? How were you planning on dealing with that?" he asked sarcastically to them as he looked around at his team members with his arms crossed in a challenging way.
Steve was the one who answered, "Together." He said to him simply.
"We'll lose." Tony said despondently.
Steve looked at him in understanding, "Then we'll do that together too." He replied as if it was the answer to all of their problems.
For a moment they all stood there in silence at what Steve had said, he was a soldier through and through. He'd rather die for his country, die protecting people and die for his friend's than hightail it out of the face of danger and save his own hide. Steve was a boyscout as Norah liked to call him teasingly, an all American boy who believed in right and wrong and as far as he was concerned Tony had made a wrong choice by hiding his Ultron project from him.
Steve gave a decisive nod, "Thor's right. Ultron is calling us out. I'd like to find him before he's ready for us. The world is a big place, start making it smaller."
And so with that the Avengers and Norah were on to their next mission. Taking down Ultron.
~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~ Author's Note ~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~~_
Hello Darlings! I just want to say i love you all and appreciate you all for reading and favoriting and reviewing my story it is really amazing. So, Thank you!
Quote:
There is a fine balance between honoring the past and losing yourself in it. For example, you can acknowledge and learn from mistakes you made, and then move on and refocus on the now. It is called forgiving yourself.
Eckhart Tolle
I like to think that I've got determination, and I'm fiercely protective of the people I love.
Andrew Lincoln