Storm ≛ Tony Stark ≛

45.

After a short coerce from Steve, Thor dropped Tony and the man stumbled to regain his balance. He put his hand to his throat and massaged it while glaring at the Asgardian. Sue walked over and took hold of Tony's arm, pulling it away to see the red marks that marked his neck. He glanced down at her and used his free hand to thread his fingers through her's. They would be having a talk later, but it had been days since they had any physical or verbal communication. They couldn't resist their urge to at least hold each other, even if it was as small as through their fingers.

'Trail went cold about a hundred miles out, but it's headed north, and it has the scepter. Now we have to retrieve it, again,' Thor glared at Tony, who turned away to lean his hands against the table facing out to the city.

'I don't understand. You built this program. Why is it trying to kill us?' Dr. Cho questioned.

Sue heard the small laugh before everyone else did, making her the first to turn to where Tony stood. His chuckles raised eyebrows and Sue crossed her arms over her chest, intrigued at what the man found so humorous. Bruce, who was inches off from being in Tony's eyesight, shook his head vigorously to wordlessly communicate that it wasn't the time to make jokes.

'You think this is funny?' Thor was ready to summon his lightning.

'No. It's probably not, right?' Tony swivelled on his heel with his eyes in crescent moons and his teeth shining brightly through his grin. 'Is this very terrible? Is it so... is it so... it is. It's so terrible.'

'This could've been avoided if you hadn't played with something you don't understand.'

'No, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. It is funny. It's a hoot that you don't get why we need this.'

'Tony, maybe this might not be the time to—' Bruce tried.

'Really?! That's it? You just roll over, show your belly, every time somebody snarls?'

'Only when I've created a murder bot.'

'We didn't. We weren't even close. Were we close to an interface?'

'Well, you did something right,' Steve broke Bruce and Tony's back and forth with a hard glare. 'And you did it right here. The Avengers were supposed to be different than SHIELD.'

'Stark, when you said about Ultron, you said it would keep the world safe,' Johnny ran a hand down his face with a groan. 'Why is it now the thing we're trying to stop?'

'You knew about this?' Sue pointed a finger, her eyes wide with betrayal.

'A world that relies on a machine is a world that is naïve,' Thor barely took his eyes off Tony for the entire conversation.

'He's not a machine,' Tony fought.

'Try not to fall in love, Stark.'

Johnny shrugged his shoulders as the man turned to him with a look that said, 'whose side are you on?'. Sue used the balls of her palms to rub at her eyes. The combination of alcohol, the incident with Ultron, and the back and forth with the most stubborn people she knew, was making her headache worsen. After they retrieved the scepter from Strucker's lab in Sokovia, she thought they were done with missions, at least for a little while. The Avengers planned to stay at the Stark tower for the next few days, and Sue hoped that they would be able to spend some time together in an environment that wasn't threatening the Earth. Yet, they were plunged back into another altercation that they would have to fight alone. No SHIELD, no JARVIS, and no cooperation.

'Does anyone recall the wormhole?' Tony threw his hands out to either side of him. 'Recall that? A hostile alien army came charging through a hole in space. We're standing three hundred feet below it. We're the Avengers. We can bust arms dealers all the live long day, but, that up there? -' he paused and thought about the Chitauri mothership for the first time in two years. '-That's... that's the end game. How were you guys planning on beating that?'