bite | avengers

"home is just a room full of the safest sounds"

- troye sivan, "talk me down"

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Astraea was shouting for her brother from her bathroom, urging him to hurry his ass up. Her red dress fit perfectly and it showed off all of her curves, but she couldn't get it to zip all the way. With wonderfully styled hair and makeup, Astraea was looking amazing. Wearing her whip as a fashion statement wasn't anything new and it made the entire outfit fit. 

"What do you need?" Ares asked while he leaned into the bathroom with a wary expression. Turning to her brother with a pained expression, Astraea pointed to the back of her dress as she put the finishing touches on her lipstick. "I hope you know we're late."

"It takes a lot to look this good," Astraea scoffed while tugging on her black heels. She stood in front of her brother while holding her arms out. A grin tugged at her lips as she made funny faces at him. "How do I look?" 

Putting his hands in his pockets, Ares rolled his eyes. They both knew she knew she looked good, she liked having Ares opinion though. "You look great, can we go now? Tony's going to send up one of those weird women to come get us and she'll flirt and it'll be awkward." 

"Let's go," Astraea laughed at the awkwardness of her brother. Their arms were hooked and Astraea led the way to the party. Leaning her head on his arm, Astraea spoke, "Try to find a girl at this party, all right? You deserve to have some fun." 

Groaning at her attempt to get him with another woman, Ares shook his head adamantly. "For the last time, Astra, I'm going to find a girl on my own terms. Relax with the whole thing. I'm not going to meet a girl at this party and marry her." 

"Fine, fine," Astraea giggled with a dismissive wave of her hand. Glancing up at him, Astraea flexed her filed nails. "Just know that I'm going to be your best man, I don't care that I'm not a guy. And. . . I'm throwing you a bachelor party." 

"Oh, God," Ares groaned again and rolled his eyes before they finally reached the party. The two reached Sam and Steve, Ares giving them a pleading look. "Please, take her away from me. She's too much to handle without alcohol." 

Steve rose an eyebrow at Astraea, wondering what she did to annoy Ares this much. A smirk played on her lips as she attached herself to Steve's arm instead of Ares'. "Oh, relax, Rogers, I've been a good girl. I promise." 

The three laughed as Ares walked away to stand next to Thor. Steve glanced down at Astraea, along with Sam. The two informed her about their search for the Winter Soldier and Astraea offered up her services to help. Sam questioned her, "What'd you do to piss him off so much?" 

"I keep telling him to find a girl," Astraea laughed while plucking the drink from Steve's hand and taking a sip of it. Frowning at the lack of kick, she looked up at Steve. "What kind of drink is this? I need something more." 

The two found their way to Thor and Ares in search for a stronger drink. Steve still had Astraea attached to his arm, she didn't like to be alone at parties so once she found someone she stuck with them until she found someone else. 

They were standing by a group of veterans, all of them watching as Thor poured some drink into a glass. One of the veterans looked at Thor and nodded his head, "I gotta have some of that." 

"See this was aged a thousand years in the barrels built from the wreck of Grunhel's fleet. It's not meant for mortal men," Thor handed the drink to Steve, who lifted it up to his nose to smell it. At the sound of the sentence, Steve sent Astraea a look. 

Astraea nodded to the glass with a smirk, waiting for Steve to drink it. Hesitantly accepting the challenge, Steve took a sip of it. After not feeling a drink for almost seventy years, it was a nice drink with a good amount of kick. Taking it from Steve's hands, Astraea took a sip. Sighing at the lack of kick, Astraea frowned and handed it back. "Lame drink." 

With that she skipped away and found Clint and decided to have a drinking contest with him and Maria. Ares took a glass himself after Thor distributed some to the veterans. He, too, found it disappointingly low on the kick, but didn't care as much as his sister. 

After a few hours, the party dwindled down until it was just the Avengers with a few friends. Astraea was leaning into Clint's side, watching him twirl some drum sticks. Ares was sitting next to Steve, eating some of the Chinese food they ordered. 

"But it's a trick," Clint spoke while shaking his head. Everyone laughed and Astraea shook her head along with Maria. Taking a sip of her beer, Astraea giggled as Clint continued to twirl the sticks. 

Thor sat on the other side of Steve, a good hearted laugh coming from him. Shaking his head at the man, Thor grinned. "No, no, it's much more than that." 

Deepening his voice four octaves, Clint stopped twirling the stick and gestured to the hammer that sat on the table. "'Ah, whosoever be he worthy shall haveth the power.' Whatever, man! It's a trick!" 

Everyone laughed and Astraea continued to drink her beer and watch it go on. Thor gestured to the hammer in front of him, glancing at Ares and giving him a wink. "Please, be my guest."

Clint stood and passed Astraea his drum stick and beer before making his way over to the hammer. Grinning and sending her brother a smirk, Astraea spoke, "Clint, you've been going through a lot lately. We won't blame you if you can't get it up."

"You know I've seen this before, right?" Clint stared down an amused Thor as everyone laughed at Astraea. Ares ran his fingers over his grinning lips and watched the interaction. Pulling on it, Clint shook his head as he couldn't lift it.

"Smell the silent judgement?" Tony asked. Clint urged Tony to try next as he sat back in his place on the floor with Astraea. Tony nodded his head, "I'm never one to back down from an honest challenge." 

Sitting back on the couch, Ares chuckled. He exchanged looks with Astraea as they rolled their eyes at their uncle. "Get it, Tony!"

"If you need some extra help getting it up, I'm sure we have some medicine somewhere," Astraea continued to make innuendoes as everyone laughed. It ended with Maria shoving her mouth full of pork fried rice to get her to shut up. 

"It's physics," Tony explained after ignoring his niece. "Right, so, if I lift it, I then rule Asgard?" Thor nodded and gestured for him to carry on. "I will be reinstitution prima nocta."

Tony tried to lift it and couldn't, so he tried with his Iron Man hand, but was still unable. He then asked Rhodes to help, but they couldn't get it together either. Bruce was up next and he couldn't get it and then pretended to Hulk out which caused Astraea to giggle into Clint's shoulder. 

Ares rose from beside Steve and pointed to his little sister. Moving to help his sister off of the ground, he forced her with him to stand by the hammer. "We will raise to the occasion and lift the hammer together." 

"J and W, back at it again!" Astraea laughed before nodding to her brother. The twins leaned down and positioned their hands on the hammer. They managed to get it to budge a bit and everyone rose their eyebrows, but they couldn't get it the rest of the way. Pulling back, Astraea placed her hands on her hips, "Damn." 

Steve went next and he pulled up his sleeves and placed his hands on it. Barton held his hand up, "Come on, Cap." It moved a  bit, but didn't get all the way up so it too didn't count. 

Everyone turned to Natasha, waiting for her to take her turn. She rose her eyebrows and shook her head with a small chuckle, "Oh, no, that's not a question I need answered." 

"All deference to the Man Who Wouldn't Be King, but it's rigged," Tony determined as he pulled Astraea up from the ground. She moved to sit in Ares's old space as her brother moved to stand next to Maria. 

Clint nodded along with Tony as he moved to stand between him and Rhodes, "You bet your ass." 

"Steve, he said a bad language word," Maria said while lifting her beer up to point to Clint. Ares tilted his head back and laughed and threw an arm around Maria. He found the entire thing hilarious. 

Steve turned to face Tony with a look on his face that made Astraea put her arm around him to keep herself from laughing. "Did you tell everyone about that?" 

Ignoring his question, Tony turned to Thor once again and questioned him about the hammer. "The handle's imprinted, right? Like a security code. 'Whosoever is carrying Thor's fingerprints' is the literal translation." 

"Yes. It's a very interesting theory," Thor spoke as he stood up from the couch. He swiftly moved to the hammer and grabbed the handle with one hand and flipped it in his grasp. "I have a simpler one. You're all not worthy."

Everyone groaned and Astraea leaned into Steve's grip. The groaning stopped when a high pitched sound came and everyone stopped talking. Tony pulled out a small control device as everyone heard a voice. "Worthy." 

Turning, the gout could see one of Stark's bots was standing. Astraea was pulled up from the couch by Steve, and he pushed her behind him slightly. Not enough for her to notice, but enough so he could shield her. Ares sent a soft nod to Steve while doing the same thing to Maria. 

"No. How could you be worthy? You're all killers," the robot said while turning. The Avengers shook their heads and glanced around at each other. The majority of the group had killed before, yes, but having a rogue bot tell them this made the group wary. 

"Stark," Steve's hard voice came and Astraea placed a hand on his visible arm. He continued to stare at the robot, but he tilted his head down towards Astraea. 

"Jarvis," Tony spoke, but got no answer. 

The robot started to speak again. It was making motions to grab its head as if it hurt, "I'm sorry. I was asleep or was I was a dream. There was this terrible noise. And I was tangled in. . . In. . . Strings. I had to kill the other guy. He was a good guy."

Ares's voice cut through the air like a knife. Glaring at the robot, he stood and was ferocious in his stance. "You kill someone?" 

"Wouldn't have been my first call," it replied while watching the group. "But, down in the real world, we're faced with ugly choices."

"Who sent you?" Thor demanded with a glare. His fingers curled around the handle of his hammer and he waited to use it until they got answers. He was angled so he could protect Helen Cho from any violence that would occur.

A recording came from it. Tony's voice played, "I see a suit of armor around the world." Astraea felt her heart sink and she stared at her uncle with a curled lip. Ares wished that he could turn away from the robot, but he couldn't. The glare on his face only grew. 

"Ultron," Bruce said with a frown. He didn't realize that it would work so quickly, but it did. He spared a glance to Tony, unable to read his expression. 

"In the flesh. Or, no, not yet," Ultron bent down and gestured to his body. "Not in this chrysalis. But I'm ready. I'm on a mission."

Everyone slowly got their weapons ready, if they had some near them. Thor readied his hammer, Maria cocked her gun, and Astraea loosened her whip. Maria stood and turned around with her gun hidden.

Natasha looked at the robot with a hard glare, "What mission?"

"Peace in our time." Ultron raised his hands and Tony's bots flew through the wall. Steve kicked at the table so it flew in the air as the robots flew right towards him and Astraea. Twirling through the air, Steve grabbed Astraea and turned so he could land with the weight on him. 

Ares jumped to grab Maria and made her land on him so she could get a better angle to shoot the robots at. He quickly helped her jump off the ledge to get to Rhodes as he ducked down under a table with Clint. 

Astraea stood and cracked her whip so it hit the robot headed for Steve. Using every ounce of her strength she tugged down and forced the bot to hit the ground and shatter. Just as she was going for another one, a body tackled her and forced her to the ground. 

Groans came from both twins, but they managed to dodge the blast that landed in the exact spot Astraea was standing in. Glancing at her brother, Astraea hit her head on the floor in defeat, "This is not how I imagined our night would end." 

Clint grabbed Steve's shield and tossed it to him right as the twins reached him. They watched Steve catch it and throw it at the remaining Iron Legion bots. 

Ultron took a couple of steps as the Avengers took a breath, "That was dramatic. I'm sorry. I know you mean well. You just didn't think it through. You want to protect the world but you don't want it to change. How is humanity saved if its not allowed to evolve?" Ultron lifted up one of the Iron Legion bots, "With these? These puppets. There's only one path to peace. The Avenger's extinction." 

Thor's hammer flew through the air and crashed through Ultron. Ultron's form still had some life as it landed on the floor. Its eyes were still glowing as it look right into the Avengers. 

"I had strings, but now I'm free." 

Astraea looked at her brother and muttered under her breath with nostalgia. "Ar, that's the song Pinocchio sings."

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