Chapter 133: A Quiet Night In
Later that night all of the other guests (including Bucky and Sam) had left, leaving the tower free and empty for use by the Avengers, Rhodey included, along with Doctor Helen Cho, the doctor they brought in to check up on Hawkeye. Tony decided to repay her inviting her to the party. Though Harry suspected that Tony had invited her instead of a regular doctor just to talk tech with her and discuss the advanced tech she possessed that was capable of making new tissue. The body sort of tissue… not the one used to wipe your nose.
Tony had ordered them all Chinese food and they all sat around talking, somehow the conversation had got to Thor's hammer.
"It's a trick." Barton said as he twirled his chopsticks in his hand and gestured to Mjolnir, which was placed on the table that the Avengers were all sat around.
"No, no, it's so much more than that." Thor said in an amused voice.
"Oh 'whosever shall be worthy shall wield the power'." Barton said in a dramatic voice. "Whatever man, it's a trick." He scoffed.
"Then please be my guest." Thor said in a challenging tone as he gestured to Mjolnir
"You serious?" Barton asks as everyone goes quiet.
"Yes go on." Thor said.
"Hmm, fine." Clint says as he stands up.
"This is going to be beautiful." Rhodey whispered to the others as Barton walked up to it.
"Clint, you've had a rough week, we don't hold it against you if you can't get it up." Tony said, causing the others to laugh though Harry thought about how less likely it was for Stark to make that joke when Pepper's around. Though he'd probably still make the joke and get hit for it.
"You know I've seen this before." Barton said as he grabbed the hammer, he pulled but like Stark predicted he just couldn't get it up. "I still don't know you do it." Barton laughed.
"Can you hear the silent judgment?" Stark asked.
"Then by all means Stark." Barton stepped away and gestured to Mjolnir. Tony stood up and began unbuttoning his suit as the others made dramatic noises.
"Never one to shrink from an honest challenge," Tony said as he walked up to the hammer. "It's physics."
"Physics?" Rhodey repeated.
"It's magic, not physics." Harry replied.
"Which is simply just physics we don't understand." Tony said without missing a beat. "If I lift this then I rule Asgard?" Tony asked Thor.
"Of course." Thor said, though he had no doubt that Stark would not be able to lift it.
"I will be a firm but incredibly fair and sexy king, and I will be reinstituting prima nocta." Tony said as he grabbed the handle with both hands and pulled with all of his strength, he then realized that he wouldn't be reinstituting prima nocta and walked off to get the tools necessary to help change that fact.
"What are you doing?" Banner asked Harry who had taken his phone out.
"I'm just double checking what 'prima nocta' means." Harry replied. "Ah, it does mean what I think it means. I take it Pepper doesn't know of his plans, if she did then Tony's 'nocta' might never be 'prima-ed'." Harry commented. Tony came back a short while later with a gauntlet from his armour on. He tried lifting with the gauntlet but still wasn't able to pick it up, eventually Rhodey tried helping him using a gauntlet of his own but it still wasn't working.
"Are you even trying?" Rhodey asked as he kept trying to lift the hammer.
"Are you on my team?" Tony asked.
"Just represent, pull!"
"Okay!" Tony said and they both pulled yet neither could lift the hammer.
"So Stark, can't get it up?" Clint commented when the two stopped pulling.
"Poor Pepper." Natasha smirked, earning a small glare from Tony.
Tony and Rhodey went to put their gauntlets away after realizing that it wouldn't work, when they returned it was Banner's turn to try it. He pulled and pulled before letting go and doing a mock impression of the Hulk by roaring and throwing his arms in the air, everyone stared at him, not scared and very unimpressed.
"Not that good huh?" He eventually said before quietly sitting back down. Next it was Sif's turn, she pulled on the hammer but was unable to lift it. She didn't look too surprised or disappointed and simply sat down after. Gwen tried as well, her try went exactly like Sif's.
"Go on Steve." The other's cheered when Steve got up to take a turn, Steve pulled on the handle, the hammer shifted a little, Harry saw Thor lean forwards slightly to see if Steve really could lift it. After a few more seconds of trying it turned out that Steve couldn't and called it quits.
"Ha, nothing." Thor laughed.
"Widow?" Bruce asked Natasha.
"No, that's not a question I really need answering." She replied.
"What about you?" Barton asked Harry.
"I'm good." Harry replied, he glanced at the hammer for a second before averting his eyes.
"Come on Grim," Tony said. "you're the magic man, if anyone here can do it then it's you."
"If red, white and big pecs over there…" Harry gestured to Steve. "can't do it then I can't either. Besides I've got enough magical items on me as it is."
"That's a shame, I looked forward to you trying." Thor said as he stood up, he took his hammer back and casually tossed it in the air before catching it. "It's a shame that you're all… unworthy." Thor grinned to show that he was merely joking.
"Boo!" Nearly everyone in the room said at the same time.
Any further conversation was cut off by a high pitch noise, hurting their ears, they all turned in the direction of the noise when they something they did not expect to see. A damaged iron legion robot was walking towards them, it had a damaged face-plate, a limp and broken parts barely holding themselves together. It looked nowhere near as strong as the regular iron legion robots but somehow managed to look scarier.
"Stark," Harry said as he stood up. "you might want to deal with that." Harry said as his wand appeared in his hand.
"Worthy…" The damaged robot spoke in a different voice than the one used by the regular iron legion robots. "No, no how could any of you be worthy? You're all killers."
"Jarvis." Tony said as he pulled out his phone. "Reboot the legionnaire, I've got a buggy legion suit."
"I'm sorry. I was asleep… or… or I was… a dream. There was this terrible noise," The suit said as it gestured to its head. "and I was tangled… in strings. I had to kill the other guy, he was a nice guy." It said, adding the last part in a sad voice.
"You killed someone?" Steve asked, standing ready for a fight.
"Wouldn't have been my first call. However down in the real world we are faced with ugly choices."
"What's your deal?" Harry asked as he pointed his wand at it.