Disclaimer: Sadly, I own nothing associated with Marvel, Captain America, the Avengers, etc. Only original characters and ideas are mine.
AN: Sorry this is later than usual; it was a bit difficult to write this scene from the movie, since a ton of stuff was going on. Anyway, here's the next chapter. Please enjoy, and don't forget to review. Thanks.
Chapter 11: Sokovia:
The flight to Fury's location seemed to take forever.
To his credit, Richie did his best to distract me by telling me everything he could about his work in the CIA. It was interesting, and I really had been curious about how he was doing; we had mostly communicated by e-mail, and only every few months.
But once I'd heard all the news from Richie, I was back to being bored –and being bored meant worrying about my friends. Everybody knew I was the worry-wart of the group, which was why they tended to keep the details of their missions from me, unless I insisted that JT or Jarvis tell me everything.
'But now there is no JT, and no Jarvis,' I reminded myself. 'They're completely different now.'
It was still so weird, knowing that JT, who I'd relied on for so long, now had a body and a different personality. He was an actual person, with the ability to walk, talk, and experience everything humans took for granted.
'Hell, he probably has superpowers, too, since that Ultron built him,' I realized. I had no idea what those powers might be, but if he did have some, I hoped that he'd put them to good use, helping the Avengers.
"Here we are!" Richie exclaimed, looking out the window. "Come see, Adena."
When I looked out, my jaw dropped. "Where the hell did they get that?"
Once we landed, I couldn't help but look around. "Where the hell did Fury get a Helicarrier?" I asked Maria Hill, who had come to meet us at the docking area.
She smiled and shrugged. "Need to know," she calmly said, much to my frustration. "Come on; he's expecting you."
As I followed her through the maze of hallways and passages, I noticed that this Carrier was exactly like the one I'd met the Avengers on -it had the exact same layout, and was filled with SHIELD agents carrying various forms of dangerous-looking weaponry and tools. The only thing missing were the Avengers themselves.
"Maria, why am I here?" I said, slightly out of breath as I tried to keep up with her brisk pace. "And what do you guys plan to do with this thing?"
That's when we reached the bridge of the ship, where Fury himself stood in the midst of a bustling mass of agents. He called out orders even as he looked at the view screens in front of him, his gaze going from one to the other so quickly, it made my head spin.
When he finally caught sight of me, Fury motioned for me to join him. I got to his side just as he gave the order for the hovering Carrier to keep heading to Sokovia.
"Sorry to pull you away from your friends, Adena, but I figured the last thing Cap would want is for you to dive head-first into danger with them," he said, his tone not at all apologetic. "I figured if you were here with me, it might make it easier to get you there…and make you useful."
I gave him look that screamed skepticism. "Useful how?"
He shrugged. "I'm sure I can find you something. Maybe running errands for the medics? They always need something, and helping people is something you like to do."
Well, that's just great. I was horrible around medical stuff – just the thought of blood, needles, and scalpels made me queasy. Even Bruce knew better than to ask me to help with his medical tools!
"Um, no," I firmly told him. "Medical stuff and I don't go well together."
Fury looked somewhere between disgruntled and amused. "We'll find something. Right now, I need you to take a seat here," he pointed to a chair near his, "And stay out of everyone's way."
Jeez, this was even worse than waiting in the Tower for the team. At least I'd had a way of keeping myself amused at the Tower. Here, I felt like I was being subjected to an adult version of a time-out.
Reluctantly, I took a seat and tried not to look bored.
As it turned out, I was more useful than I thought.
As he worked, Fury had me catch him up on what had happened since the Avengers and I had left Barton's farmhouse. I told him about them retrieving the new artificial bodies that Ultron had made Helen Cho construct using the Vibranium, and how Tony and Bruce had put Jarvis and JT into those bodies, so that they could help fight Ultron.
Needless to say, Fury was –well, furious. He didn't yell or curse, but the look on his face indicated that, when he next saw Tony, Fury was going to let some seriously nasty words fly.
"Two androids built by Ultron, and powered by Stark's own computer programs," Fury muttered as he signed an approval for one thing before ordering the helmsman to change altitude. "I can only imagine how you feel about this, since he did use that little computer of yours for his stupid experiment."
I had to admit, I'd been pretty pissed off with Tony, but now that I knew that JT was in an actual body, I wasn't quite as mad as I had been. 'I will still miss him, though, and if I'm being honest about it, I am still pissed off at the whole thing.'
"Sir, we're coming up on Sokovia," someone reported. "But there's a problem. Half of the city is floating!"
Everyone rushed to various monitors, as well as the windows, to look. "Holy crap," Richie muttered as he took in the sight. "How the hell does that happen?"
"I guess Ultron was busier than we thought," Fury said, scowling. "Start loading the emergency rescue aircrafts, and get the medical teams ready. I also want every agent aboard to armed and ready for any possible attacks. I think we're going to have lots of company."
"Can this carrier hold all those people?" I asked, my stomach tightening with anxiety.
Richie put a comforting hand on my shoulder. "We don't know how many citizens the Avengers managed to evacuate before this happened. Hopefully, we'll be enough. It's a big ship, you know."
That didn't make me feel too much better. I'd only be happy if I knew that we had those people aboard and safe. But I suppose that saving most of Sokovia's people was better than saving none.
Things were not looking good. Ultron's forces were huge, and worst of all, half of Sokovia City was slowly rising in the sky, with hundreds of innocent civilians still on it.
Needless to say, Steve did not like their odds so far.
Looking out at the clouds that surrounded the huge sky-bound landmass, Steve wondered if Adena was alright. 'At least she isn't here with us.'
He honestly hadn't thought that things would get this bad. Natasha getting kidnapped had been worrisome; the team facing wave after wave of Ultron's robot army had been annoying and exhausting. But when the city started to lift from the ground, thanks to the several huge propulsion engines that Ultron had built, Steve had begun to feel the emotion that undid many men: fear.
Oh, he didn't fear for himself; as a soldier and seasoned fighter, Steve was used to being in dangerous situations. He merely counted this as one of them.
No, he feared for the hundreds of people stuck on this floating hunk of rock. They hadn't managed to evacuate even half of the people in the city before Ultron had made his appearance, and those left behind were going to die unless they managed some sort of rescue.
A quick chat with Stark only gave him worse news: they couldn't bring the city down without a lot of casualties, either in the city or on the surface of the planet. And as Natasha had just told him, there was no where for any of them to go.
"It's not a bad way to go," Natasha said with a sad smile. "Where else am I going to get a view like this?"
Then, through their communications systems, Steve heard a voice he least expected. "Glad you like the view, Romanoff. It's about to get better." It was Nick Fury, and to Steve's complete shock, out of the white clouds rose, of all things, a Helicarrier.
"You like it? Just something I pulled out of some mothballs, with the help of some old friends," Fury said, his tone slightly amused and smug. "She's a little dusty, but she'll do."
"Fury," Steve said, grinning broadly, "You son-of-a-bitch."
"Whew! You kiss your wife with that mouth, Cap?" the former head of SHIELD joked.
"He sure does," stated a voice that Steve would know anywhere. "And if he wants to kiss me again, he'd better wash it out with soap."
Steve wasn't sure if he was angry or relieved that she was there. "Adena? What are you doing here?"
He heard her sigh. "Right now? Nothing much. I just came along for the ride, at Fury's insistence."
"Hang on, Cap," Fury instructed him. "Help is coming."
Steve felt a breeze to his left, and when the blue-and-silver blur stopped, Pietro Maximoff stood staring at the sight, a surprised and awed expression on his face.
"This is SHIELD?" the Sokovian asked, gawking at the hovering airship.
"This is what SHIELD's supposed to be," Steve replied, some of his fears easing. Adena was safe aboard the vessel, and soon, there'd be a way of evacuating this floating hunk of rock.
Pietro nodded. "This is not so bad," he commented as the first of the rescue ships arrived.
The events that followed were scattered and grueling, as all around the rising Sokovia City, Avengers fought Ultron's forces and struggled to save the people stranded there.
Steve Rogers, Natasha Romanoff and Clint Barton struggled to evacuate the citizens as quickly as possible. It was slow going, but thanks to Fury's foresight, there appeared to be almost enough space on the crafts for everyone, if they didn't mind squeezing together or sitting on the floor.
Guarding the fleeing evacuees was the stunningly blue Cyan, who raced to take down anything that attacked. Between the Carrier and the smaller vessels, Ultron's drones attempted to prevent any refugees from docking, but were blown apart by the combined efforts of War Machine and the Falcon.
But in spite of the need to rescue the people, it was clear that the Avengers needed to protect the core device, which would send the city crashing down to the planet's surface if activated. The problem was that they had to fight their way there.
At the site of the core, those with flight capability or super-speed arrived first, holding down the fort until the others managed to make their way over. Steve hadn't liked the idea of leaving the refugees, but with War Machine and Falcon helping out, they weren't completely unprotected.
As the team assembled at the core, surrounding the device in a protective circle, Ultron's army arrived in force. An epic battle soon took place, with each hero struggling to defend not only themselves, but the central device as well. Energy blasts, arrows, fists, magic hammers, and all sorts of other weaponry took down robot after robot, until Ultron's primary body joined the fight.
It was the Vision who pinned Ultron down, using the magical Mind Stone embedded in his forehead. With it, along with the combined attacks of Thor and Iron Man, the three were able to melt Ultron's primary, near-indestructible form into a puddle of metal and circuitry.
"Now it's simply a matter of destroying those that remain," Cyan told his brother, as well as the other Avengers.
Unfortunately for Ultron, as his automatons attempted to flee the city through the air, they found themselves struck down by the combined forces of War Machine, the Falcon, and the Vision. Between them, all of the machines leaving the city were turned into tiny bits of metal and shrapnel that rained down from the clouds to the earth below.
While the others focused on evacuating the rest of the civilians and taking down the last of Ultron's forces, Wanda Maximoff struggled to protect the device that kept the city afloat. Her twin, meanwhile, did his best to help save various citizens by carrying the wounded or handicapped to the evacuation aircrafts.
But in spite of Wanda's best efforts, a robot she thought destroyed surprised her, landing a laser blast into her back. While it wasn't a serious wound, it was enough to shock and subdue her for a critical moment, just enough time for it to clamor over the shells of its fallen fellows and up to the device.
As luck would have it, by then, all of the citizens had been loaded onto the escape crafts, and as the final vessels pulled away, the city began to hurl towards Earth. Many of the Avengers were safely aboard as well -but not all of them. Wanda had lingered a moment too long, dealing with the last of the robots who had come to eliminate her. Pietro had stayed as well, to help his sister, and if it had not been for the Vision sweeping in to perform a last-minute rescue, they would have died in the ensuing collapse of the city.
As the Maximoff twins and their rescuer shot away from the destruction, Tony Stark combined the energy of his suit's energy with the might of Thor's hammer to turn the falling city into rubble before it hit the ground. A huge amount of dust, debris, and other materials fell into the water that was building up in the crater where the city had once been, with very few injuries occurring in the areas around the crater.
And at the edge of that very crater, the Vision dealt with the last of Ultron's robots, and thus, with Ultron himself. With the final machine destroyed, the destructive AI created by Tony Stark was no more.
The battle was over.
While my friends faced Ultron, I struggled to help with the flood of refugees.
Walking through the cavernous landing docks that would have held Quinjets, I rushed to help set up beds and distribute food, blankets, pillows, and various other items to refugees as they came in. Ship by ship, they came, a never-ending flood that broke my heart.
To children, I gave a kind smile and some candy; to any adult who was weeping, wailing, or panicked, I gave a hug or a gentle touch on the shoulder. It was hard, looking at those sad, shocked faces, but it was the angry expressions that worried me most.
"Don't try and get close to anyone who looks angry," Maria Hill warned me. "Take Richie with you, and stay close to the medical or distribution groups. That way, you'll make a harder target if mobs start forming."
It didn't get that bad, though it was rough sometimes. Richie had to deal with a few furious angry men and women who demanded answers about the whole situation, but after a while, any potential troublemakers were pulled away by family members who quieted them down –at least for a while.
I was so lost in assisting others that I quickly lost track of time. It was Richie who told me to stop, go clean up and rest, before I collapsed. "You've been at it for hours," he said. "If you don't go on your own, I'll haul you out of here myself."
As much as I wanted to keep going, I knew he was right. After calling up Maria to give her an update on how I was doing, she gave me directions to a small set of rooms that had been assigned to me. I managed to make my way there, getting lost only twice, before I found them.
The minute the door closed behind me, I almost immediately felt the effects of my efforts. I realized that I was hungry, dirty, and drained, emotionally and physically.
To my immense relief, the bag Richie had ordered me to pack was off to the side, on the floor not too far from the doorway. The rooms were small, with a short entryway, a bedroom off to the left, a sitting area further in, and a bathroom to the right. I immediately grabbed my bag and headed for the bathroom for a quick shower and to change into something clean.
When I got out, dressed and still slightly damp, I saw a covered food tray on the desk in the bedroom. I lifted the lid and saw a tuna sandwich, a bag of chips, and a box of juice. It was like cafeteria food, but since the refugees were getting the same thing, I couldn't complain. The food was basic, but it was all that Fury's people could scrape together at the last minute.
I wolfed down the food, yawning occasionally, and barely managed to brush my teeth before falling into bed.
After what felt like a few minutes, I felt someone climb into bed with me, and almost panicked, fearing an intruder. But the arm that gently wrapped around my waist was one I knew very well –it was Steve, coming to join me.
Turning over, I snuggled against him, still half asleep. I heard him sigh, his arm pulling me fully against him. I could smell that he'd showered, too, and could also detect that he'd had a peanut butter sandwich instead of tuna.
I sighed and put my head on his chest, the sound of his heartbeat lulling me back to sleep.
Feeling Adena in his arms was more than enough to help Steve relax. He had wanted to find her immediately, but Fury had told him that she was busy helping the Sokovians, and he hadn't wanted to interrupt her.
Instead, Steve had stopped to eat, grab a shower, change into some random civilian clothes stored aboard, and checked in on his fellow Avengers. All of them looked as drained as he felt, and just as beat up –cuts, scrapes, and bruises abounded amongst the group. Pietro Maximoff even had a bullet wound in his left arm, where a Sokovian police officer had accidentally shot him. He was the only one who needed a visit to the emergency medical area, though Wanda had stuck by him the whole time he was being seen to.
After burning what he considered a fair amount of time, Steve got a visit from Maria Hill, who personally escorted him to the rooms assigned to him and his wife. Without waiting a single second, he nodded his thanks to his guide and went in, his eyes adjusting to the dim light of the room as he shut the door behind him.
There in the bed was Adena, sleeping peacefully. The sight was so invitingly familiar that Steve simply kicked off his shoes and climbed in, his arm automatically sliding around her as he settled into his side of the bed. She turned, but didn't wake as she snuggled into his embrace.
Sighing in relief, Steve pulled her close, lying awake just long enough to make sure she was still sleeping comfortably before drifting off himself.
AN: So, yeah, I totally changed things up by sparing Quicksilver, and tossing the Falcon in there a little bit. I felt that Sam didn't get enough screen time in the movie, and I just didn't like the idea of Quicksilver getting killed off.
I also know that there's the Captain America: Civil War movie coming out next year, but from the rumors I've heard, I don't think I like the direction it's going. I honestly don't believe that Tony and Steve would try and kick the crap out of each other over a difference of opinion, not after all they've been through together as Avengers team members and friends. Sure, it might be fun to watch all the heroes in one movie, but the plotline (from the little I've read and heard about it) doesn't sit well with me.
Of course, it also doesn't fit in with my stories, considering I've had Adena draw the team together as friends and everything. I'll probably write my own story based loosely on Civil War, but it's clearly going to be very different from the film, and is going to take a while to write. So, please be patient while I attempt to scribble out my own version after the movie comes out. In the meantime, I'm going to be posting a few short stories about Adena and Steve, to tide everyone over until Civil War.
Anyway, please be kind and review. There's not much left of this story!
