[TWD x Resident Evil] — Chapter 273 - Ultron on the Run

She lowered her head, pretending to examine the hammer closely. Her lips hovered just above the metal surface, and in a voice barely above a breath, she chanted a new incantation.

"With the exception of Thor Odinson," Hermione murmured, low enough that only she could hear, "everyone else is now worthy to lift you."

Done. She straightened up, set the hammer on the table in front of her with a solid thud, and grinned at Thor. "You said you could lift it too, right? Go ahead, show me."

Thor had been quietly agonizing over how to get the hammer back from her. The moment she set it down willingly, his whole face lit up.

He didn't hesitate for a second. He lunged forward, seized the handle in both hands, and silently swore that this time, no one was ever touching his hammer again.

He heaved upward with everything he had.

The hammer didn't move.

Huh?

He blinked. He'd been too worked up, maybe. Wrong angle. He adjusted his stance, drew a slow breath, and threw his strength into it again.

The hammer sat there, perfectly still, welded to the tabletop as if it had always belonged there.

The smile died on Thor's face.

He stared at his own hands, still wrapped tight around the handle, then at the hammer resting calmly on the table. A sound like static filled his skull. His mind went completely blank.

What's going on?

I... I can't lift it?

My hammer... doesn't recognize me anymore?!

Hermione watched his expression go rigid and tilted her head, the picture of innocence. "Looks like Mjolnir thinks you're unworthy. According to what you just said, does that make me the sole heir?"

"No! This is impossible!" Thor snapped out of it. He grabbed the handle again, veins rising sharp on his forearms, and wrenched upward with every ounce of strength he possessed.

The hammer didn't budge.

He tried again. His face went red. His arms shook. The hammer might as well have been the weight of a planet bolted to the table.

Thor released it and stumbled back two steps.

And then, he felt it. A faint wisp of intent drifting up from the hammer, cold and absolute.

Don't contact me anymore. I'm afraid Hermione might get the wrong idea.

"..."

He stood frozen like he'd been struck by lightning from a clear sky.

Then his knees gave out. He dropped to the floor with a thud, threw both arms wide, tilted his head back, and let out a howl of pure anguish toward the ceiling.

"NO——!"

Snowflakes drifting. Cold wind blowing...

The fight went out of him all at once. He folded forward until his forehead touched the cold floor, both arms spread, in the textbook posture of a man whose world had ended.

Around the hall, everyone exchanged looks. Thor was clearly in the depths of despair. Everyone else was trying very hard not to laugh and failing at it.

Hermione left him to his grief and clapped her hands cheerfully at the rest of the room. "Don't just stand there, everyone come give it a try. Maybe the hammer's in a good mood today. Who knows? Maybe anyone can lift it."

They all thought that was pretty unlikely. But Hermione looked absolutely certain, and they'd just watched the hammer practically roll over for her, so they were maybe forty percent convinced.

"I'll go first!" Tony had been holding himself back for a while now. He stepped up, wrapped his hand casually around the handle the way Hermione had, and gave it a light lift.

Mjolnir rose like it weighed nothing.

"Oh!" Tony's eyebrows shot up. He flashed a very satisfied grin at the figure kneeling on the floor, then turned and handed the hammer off to Banner.

Banner took it carefully, gave it a small tug, and it came right up.

"Hey — I can do it too!" He sounded genuinely delighted.

Then Clint. Then Natasha. One by one, every Avenger in the room took a turn, including Pepper. Finally, even Dr. Helen Cho, who'd been standing near the wall looking slightly out of place, stepped forward, blushing, under the gentle encouragement of everyone around her.

She held Mjolnir and wasn't quite sure what to do with it. Her eyes drifted to Thor, still crumpled on the floor, and sympathy flickered across her face.

She hesitated, then walked over and crouched down beside him. "Um... your hammer..."

Thor lifted his head slowly. He saw the hammer held out toward him. Something warm moved through his eyes.

He reached for it, trembling.

The next second, clang.

Mjolnir slipped through his fingers and hit the floor with a sound that rang through the entire room.

"..."

Silence.

A very strange silence.

So. Mjolnir would now go up for absolutely anyone. Anyone except its actual owner.

Brutal. Genuinely, impressively brutal.

Nobody understood the exact mechanism, but you didn't need to be a genius to know exactly who was responsible. The hall filled with an energy that was trying very hard to be respectful and not quite managing it. It was a good night for everyone. For Thor specifically, it was not.

Thor stared at the hammer on the floor. His eyes were empty. Whatever light usually lived in them was gone. He looked hollowed out.

Hermione studied him. If she pushed any further, he might actually crack.

She cleared her throat.

"Thor." She walked over and put a hand on his shoulder. "Try again. I think it was just messing with you."

He raised his head mechanically, looked at her, then at the hammer. He stared at it for a long moment. Then, slowly, he reached out and gripped the handle.

He barely had to try. It came right up.

The weight of it in his hand, familiar, solid, his, hit him all at once. He stared at Mjolnir for a long moment, the hollow look in his eyes filling back in, something coming back to life.

He pulled it in and hugged it to his chest. Hard. A smile spread across his face that could only be described as profoundly, completely happy.

"My..." He nuzzled his cheek against the hammerhead. "My precious..."

He showed absolutely no signs of letting go. By all indications, he was going to take it to bed with him tonight.

Tony watched this display and shook his head. "Right. That guy has fully committed to spending the rest of his life with a hammer."

The farce wound down. The laughter faded. The room settled into something warmer and quieter.

Hermione remembered what she'd actually come here to do.

"Take me to see Ultron," she said to Tony.

Something about Ultron's behavior had been sitting wrong with her. She needed to see it herself.

"Sure." Tony nodded. He had plenty of confidence in Ultron, but if Hermione wanted to take a look, he was curious what she'd make of it.

They left the party behind, walked down the corridor, and reached Tony's private lab.

The door slid open.

Tony's smile disappeared.

The lab was destroyed.

Workbenches stripped bare. Equipment knocked sideways. Broken cables and shards of metal scattered across the floor like something had torn through in a hurry.

"What the, " Tony's eyes went wide. He crossed the room in quick strides and went straight for the control console. "Ultron? Ultron!"

Nothing. The channel was dead. Silence where there should have been a voice.

Tony's stomach dropped. Something cold settled in.

He pulled up the system. A broken three-dimensional image flickered into view, faint blue light, fragmentary, barely holding together.

The residual data of J.A.R.V.I.S.'s core program. What was left after it had been completely destroyed.

"J.A.R.V.I.S., " The words came out wrong. Tony's face had gone a color it didn't usually go.

He yanked up the surveillance records. The footage from inside the lab, covering exactly the window of time they'd all been at the party, was gone. Every second of it. Just blank.

His lab had layers of encrypted firewalls, physical isolation, security measures built on top of security measures. A hacker of Skye's caliber couldn't have done this without tripping a single alarm.

But something had done it. Quietly. Completely. It had destroyed J.A.R.V.I.S., wiped the surveillance, and walked out with its own core program and left not a trace behind.

There was only one thing that could have managed that.

Ultron.

It had disappeared without a word. It had moved while they were all distracted, lifted the one moment nobody was watching.

And it hadn't just left on its own,

Tony thought of something. His whole body went still.

He turned his head slowly.

Hermione was standing right there, expression flat, eyes fixed on him. Just waiting.

"So," she said. "Where's my Mind Stone?"

"...Hmm?"

➤ Next: Ultron's Purpose — The Conversation