Flying.
The city was fucking flying.
Of all the things I thought we'd be up against, a flying city wasn't one.
Jesus, we're screwed.
"Tony, what the fuck?!" I practically screamed into my earpiece.
"Yep. The city is flying, kiddo." He replied, equally as loud.
"Yes, I can see that," I said, exasperated. "but why is it flying?"
"That, I can't tell you." He stated, as clueless as I was.
"Что ж, это полезно. (Well, that's helpful.)" I said, throwing a Iron Legion bot into a wall.
"What'd you say?" The billionaire asked, the sound of metal against metal ringing through my ears.
"She said, 'well, that's helpful'." Came a voice, one I knew well, from both behind me and in my ear.
I turned around slowly, but as I did, a bot decided to take advantage of this, rushing at me, preparing to ram me down, it never did though, because it was shot down by a shocker, which just confirmed that the person I thought had answered Tony, was indeed exactly who I thought it was.
I let out a relieved sigh as I came face to face with Natasha, which meant she was not dead, and that Bruce had found and saved her.
"Oh, thank god your not dead." I said, hugging her back as she embraced me.
"Nice to know you think I can't survive by myself." She spoke into my hair, I gave her a look as she released me.
"Shut up." I said, shoving her lightly.
"Come on, we've got some asses to kick." The assassin spoke, motioning behind her at the swarm of robots that were descending upon us.
"Damn Right." I stated, grabbing the earth and rolling it into dirt balls whilst Natasha recharged her shockers, her suit lighting up an electric blue.
I then proceeded to chuck those dirt balls at every single bot I could see, my anger, my sadness, my desire to save nature and the civilians of Sokovia fueling the burning fire within me, allowing more and more power to surge through my body.
I felt strong, like nothing could hurt me.
Except, practically everyone and everything here, in Sokovia, was out to do exactly that, hurt me.
But did I care, no, and was I going to let them hurt me?
No, no I was not.
I began to feel the heat energy of the sun build up, the familiar warmth traveling though me, my veins were burning and my fingers tingled as I release the light, out into the open, blasting every offending hunk of metal that got too close.
Ten minutes passed and we were still fighting, Natasha had drifted somewhere to help get civilians to safety whilst I continued to beat the shit out of the Iron Legion bots. It wasn't until another couple minutes later, that I heard Tony's voice over the comms.
"Cap, you got incoming." He said, addressing Steve.
"Incoming already came in." Came Steve's grumbled reply. "Stark, you worry about bring the city back down to safety. The rest of us have one job: tear these things apart."
"Hear, hear!" Clint exclaimed over the comms from wherever he was.
"You get hurt, hurt 'em back, you get killed..." Steve trailed off, thinking for a moment, before continuing again. "walk it off."
"Inspirational as always Steve." I drawled sarcastically as I stopped to catch my breath after running and throwing things at the same time.
It was surprisingly difficult.
"Alexia." Steve scolded and as he did so, his shield flew past me, positioning itself in the neck of a bot that was just about to attack me. "Focus."
I heard him before I saw him, removing his frisbee, and walking over to me with a disapproving look, one that a parent would give their child.
"Yes, sir." I said, raising my arm in mock salute.
The Captain just rolled his eyes and continued fighting, covering my back if needed, as I did the same thing for him.
"We're all clear here." Came Clint's voice through the earpiece, a few minutes into Steve and I's joint fight against a mini army of robots.
"We are not clear!" Steve exclaimed, slamming his fist into the back of a bot's neck.
One of them launched at me, it's hands out, reaching for my throat, resulting in me kicking it backwards, then stamping on it repeatedly until it shut down as it lay on the floor. It wasn't long till another flew at me, this time, it had it's arm outstretched, ready to blast me, aiming at my head.
"Uh uh, no you don't." I muttered, clenching my fist and watching as the ground opened up and swallowed it hole.
"We are very not clear!" I heard Steve exclaim again, from next to me, where he was decapitating a robot, and in my ear.
"Alright, coming to you." The archer replied.
Steve and I fought, for how long I don't know, I wasn't currently wearing a watch, smashing the metal bastards to pieces, every now and then looking around for any stray civilians, and if there were, getting them to a safe place.
Not that there was very many of those on a flying city.
Natasha soon reappeared, joining us in punching and kicking our way out of, what was most likely, a deadly situation.
"The next wave is gonna hit any minute." Steve said, turning to Tasha and I before speaking into his earpiece. "What have you got, Stark?"
"Maybe a way to blow up the city." Was Tony's reply, his voice flat.
"Blow up?!" I questioned, slightly concerned for everyone on the floating piece of earth.
Steve ignored me, talking to Tony again.
"I asked for a solution, not an escape plan." The super soldier shouted.
"Cap," Natasha spoke up, getting his attention. "these people are going nowhere. If Stark finds a way to blow this rock..."
As always, she was right. If I was being honest with myself, I had known that from the minute the city had detached itself from the rest of planet earth, acting as meteor, that was to destroy the entire population, and everything else that lay below. I wasn't panicked like I should've been, seeing as my life and everybody else's was at risk, but I was as calm as cucumber. The thought of death had never scared me, as a child I had welcomed it with open arms, hoping that it would scoop me up and take me some place else, somewhere better and happier than the Hydra base that I'd had the displeasure of calling home.
It never had though, so I began to hate the idea of it.
But now, I was okay if the last thing I got to see was the bright blue sky and fluffy clouds.
I'd lived life, maybe not for very long, but I'd certainly done a lot of things most people hadn't, like assassinate someone, meaning I'd say I'd lived life to the fullest. Not to mention, I'd being going, whilst on a floating rock, how cool was that?
"Not 'til everyone's safe." Steve spoke, his tone aggravated and low.
"Everyone up here versus everyone down there?" Natasha asked, pointing in different directions. "There's no math there."
"I'm not leaving this rock with one civilian on it." He said, stubbornly.
"I'm not saying we should leave." She replied, voicing my thoughts as Steve turned to look at her, his features shocked.
He whipped his head round to look at me, his eyes asking the unspoken question.
"There are worst ways to go." I said, shrugging.
"Besides," Natasha spoke, diverting his attention back to her, relieving me of his surprised gaze. "where else am I going to get a view like this?"
Steve looked at her, then at me, his eyes searching mine for any hint that I was lying and wasn't okay with dying up here, when he realised that he wasn't going to find anything worth while, he turned back to Natasha, just as a new voice sounded over the comms.
"I'm glad you like the view Romanoff." Nick Fury stated, dramatically. "It's about to get better."
If I had been amazed at how he was even here, what appeared next nearly sent me into a fit. A huge airplane, that had it's own runways and other, smaller, planes on it, rose up, leveling with the earth.
"What the fuck?!" I exclaimed. "You really have a thing for drama don't you, Fury?"
"Hey kid, didn't know you had the guts to be up here?" The man replied, I could hear the smirk, that I was sure was plastered across his face, in his voice.
"Ha ha, very funny." I spoke, sarcasm in my tone.
"Nice, right?" The director continued, addressing Natasha and Steve. "I pulled her out of the mothballs with a couple of old friends. She's dusty, but she'll do."
"Fury, you son of a bitch." Steve sighed.
"Ooh! You kiss your Mother with that mouth?" Nick asked, teasingly.
Again, as if I hadn't already been shocked enough, lifeboats were deployed, flying towards the edge of the rock, attaching themselves and opening their doors for the civilians, who had seen what was going on and were now rushing as fast as they could to get to them.
"This is S.H.I.E.L.D?" Pietro asked as he came to a stop next us, catching his breath.
"This is what S.H.I.E.L.D's supposed to be." Steve answered the boy, pride clear in his voice.
"It's not so bad." He said, realising that maybe he and his Sister had been wrong.
"Lets load 'em up." Steve stated, making his way to the civilians, trying to get them to the boats as calmly as he could.
Deciding that someone had to hang back and fend off any Iron Legion bots, I stayed back, keeping an eye out and showing any stragglers in the right direction. I heard gunshots in the air, turning, I saw Tony and another suit, whooshing around, making sure none of the bots got anywhere near the lifeboats. I was curious to know who, or what, this mysterious suit was, so I asked tony.
"Hey Tony, who's up there with you?"
"Oh, um, Rhodey, or as he likes to call himself, War Machine." The billionaire replied, a little bit out of breath.
"Rhodey? War Machine?" I asked incredulously.
"Hey! It's a cool name!" Rhodey exclaimed, joining us over comms.
"No, it's not." I said, at the same time Tony sighed. "Whatever, Rhodes."
He sounded as if he'd had this conversation with 'War Machine' too many times.
Suddenly, from out of nowhere, lots, and I mean lots, of Iron Legion Robots appeared, but what was strange, was that they weren't attacking anyone, not me, not Steve or any of the civilians, they we heading further into the city, aiming for the middle.
"There're coming for the the core!" Thor's booming voice floated through my ears, alerting me of something I had yet to know about.
"The core? What's the core?" I inquired, as I stood dumbly in the middle of a swarm of people.
"The thing that's powering this floating city." Tony explained. "There's a church, in the centre, get to it. We're going to need all the help we can get."
I obeyed, running in the direction that the bots had gone, asking the earth and the sun for as much power they could give me as I went. I arrived at my destination, to see the rest of the Avengers crowded around a large chunk of metal, that protruded out of the ground like the stem of a plant. Except, this was no daisy or tulip, it was a dangerous looking contraption, that Tony had said, powered this entire flying city. Which, I guess, meant that if we were to touch it, blast it or harm it, it could blow up the rock, with everything and everyone on it.
Which, quite frankly, was not what we wanted to happen.
I placed myself on the ground next to Tony, who was hovering just above my head, ready to fight.
"You ready, kiddo?" He asked, looking down at me.
"As ready as I can be when I'm about to fight off an entire army of robots, in an attempt, to stop them from using a flying city, as a makeshift meteor." I deadpanned, making him chuckle.
"Brutally honest as always." He muttered, his suit's skull moving from left to right as he shook his head, I was sure that he was smiling though.
"You know it." I smiled.
Ultron got there before his army did, and he stared, looking down on us like we were scum.
"Is that the best you can do?!" Thor boomed at him.
"You had to ask." Steve mumbled as he prepared himself.
"This is the best I can do." Ultron sneered. "This is exactly as I wanted. All of you, against all of me. How could you possibly hope to stop me?"
That was when the robots arrived and they wasted no time in pouncing on us, there was punches and kicks, beams of light shone everywhere, metal clashed and the dirt was picked up and thrown as I summoned as much nature as I could. We fought, together, as one, it was as of we'd been fighting robot armies for years, we knew where to go if a teammate needed help and we were always ready to back each other up. I'd never really had experience with family, as the only relatives I had left were murderous lunatics, but that was what, as cheesy as it was, it felt like, that we were one big family of misfits.
We were in sync with one another.
And, for the fist time in my life, I felt as though I was a part of something, something good.
This thought stayed with me as I destroyed and decapitated as many bots as I could, sending them crashing into the church walls and allowing the ground to swallow them up. As I did that Clint had given me a suspicious look, to which I just shrugged and turned around, ripping off the head of the nearest robot.
I don't know how long we went on like that, fighting to get rid of these things for good, but the robots began to retreat, sulking away from us and back out into the city.
"They'll try to leave the city!" Thor exclaimed as he chucked his hammer through multiple bots, knocking them all to the ground.
"We can't let 'em, not even one!" Tony shouted. "Rhodey!"
"I'm on it!" I heard Rhodey reply from wherever he was, over the comms. "Oh, no, I didn't say you could leave."
I chuckled at that, as Tony muttered something about his best friend being really uncool.
"We've got to move out, even I can tell the air is getting thin." Steve said, before nodding at the rest of us. "You guys get to the boats, I'll sweep for stragglers, be right behind you."
He was right, the air was getting thin and my lungs were having to work extra hard to breathe, they contracted, but the lack of oxygen was making it difficult, painful almost.
"What about the core?" Clint asked, it was a very good question too.
"I'll protect it." Wanda spoke up, a small smile directed at Clint. "It's my job."
The archer accepted this as an answer, but her Brother disagreed.
"I'm not going to leave you here." Pietro said, his voice laced with worry.
It was sweet how much he cared for her, and I think Wanda felt the same, usually, but this time her face seemed to say that this was something she had to do by herself, to prove to everybody that she could defend what mattered most and to prove to herself that she could do it.
"I can handle this." She replied, blasting an oncoming robot as she did so. "Come back for me when everyone else is off, not before."
I had to admire her courage and her willingness to go down with her country, she wasn't going to abandon her home.
Pietro only hummed in response, so she had to check that he understood.
"You understand?" She questioned, raising her eyebrows.
"You know, I'm 12 minutes older than you." Pietro joked.
"Go." Wanda replied, chuckling lightly.
He sped away, following after Steve and Clint, I turned to Wanda, I knew she could do it, but I wanted to help.
"You need a hand?" I asked.
"No, I've got this, Sokovia is my country and if it goes down, so do I." She said firmly, finality in her tone.
"Good luck." I nodded at her before running in the same direction as Pietro had done, though not as fast, of course.
I stopped, just outside the city centre, sensing something, a blip in the earth, I couldn't figure out what it was though, but that had become the least of my problems, as I was now surrounding by Iron Legion bots, each one was ready to rip me to shreds, tear my body to pieces and leave me for dead.
But I was not going to let that happen, not today at least.
It was then, as I felt myself, unconsciously, heat up, the sun's energy rushing through me, that I realised that it wasn't a blip in the earth that I'd sensed, it was the earth warning me that I was in danger. I could both see and feel the link between nature and me, my senses flared, powering up 10x more than usual, like I'd just gotten an upgrade. The warmth spread, from the top of my head to the tips of my toes, my entire body was tingling with anticipation and my heart sped up. I didn't know what was happening, it was as if I'd lost all control over my powers, and my feet left the ground as my body rose into the air. I looked down at my hands and I saw my veins, every single one, but they weren't green, they were glowing. The heat intensified tenfold as all around me became bright, so bright that I struggled to see. My skin burned, but painlessly, and I was on fire, literal fire, or at least that's what it felt like, but what was strange, was the fact that it didn't hurt, not one bit. In fact, it felt natural, like I was meant to do this, whatever it was that I was doing.
They was a blinding flash and I fell to the ground, landing gracefully on my feet.
I was no longer glowing, or on fire, and the robots that had cornered me were no longer standing, but instead, lying lifelessly, in pieces, on the cold hard ground, where they were shut down for good.
I was unaware of how long I stood, staring at their metal remains, dumbfounded. I had know idea how I did that, or what caused it, but I felt relaxed, calm even, like using all that energy had released any and all stress I might or could've had, which wasn't the best thing to be feeling in a situation like this.
"Please tell me every one is on a lifeboat!" I heard Tony exclaim through my earpiece.
"Yes, we are...wait where's Alexia?" Steve replied.
"Kiddo, please tell me you're on a lifeboat!" Tony shouted at me.
I was so relaxed that I struggled to form a sentence, but I wasn't relaxed enough not to notice that I my feet were no longer on the solid ground, but were floating, just as I was, as the city began to fall.
"Alexia, tell me you're on a damn boat!" Tony repeated himself, with more urgency this time.
"If I said that, it would be a lie." I sighed, my eyes fluttering closed. "And my Mama taught me to always tell the truth."
The last thing I saw before my eyes closed for good, was the bright blue sky and fluffy clouds, I knew nobody would ever hear what I whispered into the air, but I did it anyway.
"Я уже еду, мама.(I'm on my way, Mama.)"
AN:
Hello, I'm sorry that it's been a few days, but I couldn't think of anything to write and I was quite busy too, but have a cliffhanger for compensation. As always, constructive criticism is welcomed, so let me know what you thought. I hope you are all staying safe during these times. Remember to R&R!
Until next time, happy reading!
Sincerely,
Purpleslytherin xx