Chapter 9

Steve was standing in front of them, debriefing them. The plane was landing as he spoke.

"Ultron knows we're coming. Odds are, we'll be riding into heavy fire. And that's what we signed up for. But the people of Sokovia, they didn't. So our priority is getting them out. All they want is to live they lives in peace. And that's not gonna happen today. We can do our best to protect them. And we can get the job done. Keep the fight between us."

A heavy silence followed his speech, each one recalling what they were fighting for, who they were fighting for. They had a duty. A duty to protect the innocents.

Once on the ground, everyone went to fulfill their part. Alice, Clint, Steve, Wanda and Pietro split up to evacuate the people. Thor and Vision went to find what Ultron had been building while Bruce went to search for Natasha. Tony went to find Ultron himself, since he was the one he'd been waiting for.

Alice went into every building to urge the residents to flee. Tony had managed to warn the police and the government with his hacking talent, so they could warn their citizens through the media and help them.

As people were still evacuating, robots controlled by Ultron appeared from every parts of the city, attacking everyone. It was chaos. Panic was all over. Alice prepared herself for battle. She rarely used all her powers. But this time she would have to make an exception. "Time can ravage anything, even robots," she thought darkly. A robot was about to shoot her. She stopped the bullet, and with small hand gesture, she controlled the time of the robot. She stopped it and it disintegrated. It was more easy to touch the object to do so but she would have to deal with it. She repeated the same process over and over, also containing explosions and blasts.

She saw a man shot by a robot. Darting toward, she pulverized it and knelt next to the man. She quickly healed him. "Go ! Hurry out of town !" He nodded, grateful, and took off. A child was weeping near her. She went to the boy and held him, looking for the mother. She found her near, her leg stuck under piece of rock. Alice shattered it and healed the woman's leg before handing her the child before they fled. But as she got up, she didn't see a suit aiming at her. A blue blur lifted her away, just as she made the robot disappear. Pietro was smiling wickedly.

"Hey there, be careful. Don't forget you and I need to take a nap together when this all is over."

She laughed. "I'll keep that in mind. Thank you. Now I really owe you that nap."

He winked at her before disappearing.

She continued her rescue mission when suddenly the ground trembled and moved, creating rifts.

"His machine is making the center part of the city go skyward !" Thor screamed by radio.

"He needs to make the city crash to boost his machine and make everything explode. The more it goes up the better. He's planning a genocide !" Tony informed the team.

"Damn it !" cursed Alice. She was on the part that was going up. She went to help the people that fell.

Ultron spoke through his robots. "Do you see ? The beauty of it. The inevitability. You rise only to fall. You, Avengers, are my meteor, my swift and terrible sword, and the earth will crack under the weight of your failure. Purge me from my computers, turn my own flesh against me. It means nothing. When the dust settles, the only thing living in this world will be metal."

"Thanks but no thanks !" she shouted as she turned a few robots to dust. When she saw that no one else was going to jump or fall, she ran back to the center, making enemies disappear on her way.

She saw Clint, shooting arrows everywhere. She helped him making one suit he didn't see go away.

"Hart ! It's nice to discover a new power about you every time we fight," he joked, still shooting.

"Well, I didn't know I was going to use it. It's a dangerous one."

"I can see that."

They fought side by side, when they heard Cap's voice. "Stark you worry about bringing the city back down safely. The rest of us, we have one job : tear this things apart. You get hurt, hurt them back. You get killed, walk it off."

Wanda helped Clint finish the area while Alice ran to Steve's position. The area was filled with foes. She disintegrated one after another.

"Glad you came 'cause I'm quite busy here..."

The rest of the team arrived later to help them. When Alice saw Natasha join them, she was truly relieved. She wasn't hurt. "Natasha ! It's good to see you !" she called out while shattering a assailant. She noticed a green figure on a building a little further.

"Yeah I couldn't miss the party, could I ?"

In the turmoil, they heard Stark's voice in the radio. "I think we'll have to blow the city... The radius impact of the vibranium core is growing more wide as the city flies higher," he announced. The news left them shaken up. That meant they had to make the hard choice. The worst when it came to work in this field, Alice realized, was to accept that not everybody can always be saved.

Steve had moved to a border with Natasha. "Not until we clear every civilian off this rock," he firmly ordered.

"Steve... We don't have a choice. Its people of this rock against the rest of the world. No need to do the maths here," Natasha sadly told him.

Just then, a huge flying heliport arrived at the border of the rock, sending big flying "lifeboats" for evacuation.

"An old friend helped me get this back. She's dusty but..she'll do." Fury said to them through the comm.

"Fury you son of a bitch !" Steve excitedly exclaimed.

"Ooho ! You kiss your mother with that mouth ?"

Alice ran closer with Pietro. "Is this SHIELD ?"

"This is how SHIELD is supposed to be," Steve solemnly answered.

Pietro grinned. "This is not so bad."