"Get to a safe place! Everyone get to a safe place!"
Percy currently tried to get exposed civilians into the safety of a roof over their heads, demolishing any robots in his way as he did. They luckily understood him and got inside the city hall building, ducking under attempts of an attack from the robots before they ended getting a trident to the skull.
A kid stood around, looking lost as Percy spotted a robot shooting itself towards the kid. He threw his trident and struck the robot, impaling it to the wall before going to the kid.
"Hey, kid, where's your mother?" Percy asked in concern.
"I don't know," he moaned.
"Come here," he said, extending his arms and the kid let himself get carried. "Let's go find her."
Percy carried the poor kid inside the city hall as he curled up into his shoulder. "Hey kid, you mind telling me your name?"
"Milan."
"Nice name," Percy commented with a smile. "I'm Percy."
"Nice to meet you, Percy."
Percy smiled. "Now, where might your mother be?" He turned towards the massive crowd of people. "Is anyone looking for their son Milan? I have him right here!"
"Here!" A woman called and she rushed him. "Oh my god, Milan!"
The woman held onto her boy for dear life. "Oh, you silly, silly boy! I was so worried!" She looked at Percy with a tremendously grateful look, tears brimming in her eyes. "Thank you! Thank you so much!"
Percy smiled warmly. "No problem, ma'am."
Percy summoned his trident as he walked back out, which strangely had a robot head attached to one of the sharp points. He flicked it off and met up with Steve.
"I think that's everyone inside, Steve," Percy informed. "What's the game plan?"
Steve called into comms. "What have you got, Stark?"
"Huh? Nothing great," Tony admitted. "Maybe a way to blow up the city. That'll keep it from impacting the surface if you guys can get clear."
"And … what about everyone that's on this rock?" Percy questioned.
"I asked for a solution, not an escape plan," Steve negated.
"Impact radius is getting bigger every second. We're going to have to make a choice," Tony explained.
Percy's heart sank.
"Cap, these people are going nowhere. If Stark finds a way to blow this rock …" Natasha said.
"I just … saved this kid," Percy said and both looked at him. "The look on his mother's eyes when I gave him back to her … all that's gonna be undone."
Steve nodded, understanding. "Percy's right. Everyone needs to get off safely if we're gonna blow up this rock."
"Everyone up here versus everyone down there? There's no math there," Natasha argued.
"I'm not leaving this rock with one civilian on it," Steve was firm.
"There has to be something we can do," Percy agreed.
"Well … I didn't say we should leave," Natasha said. She looked at them with a woeful expression before glancing towards the clouds at the edge of the cliff. "There's worse ways to go. Where else am I gonna get a view like this?"
"Glad you like the view, Romanoff," a familiar voice said over comms. "It's about to get better."
Percy perked up at the sound of what was undoubtably Nicholas Fury's voice, still the same from the first and last time they met.
He arrived with a more than just a carriage, coming to the rescue with an entire flying aircraft carrier.
Percy couldn't help but break out a grin.
"Nice, right? I pulled her out of mothballs with a couple of old friends. She's dusty, but she'll do," Fury said.
"Fury, you son of a bitch," Steve swore, for what was probably his first time ever.
"Oooh! You kiss your mother with that mouth?" Fury joked.
As they watched, lifeboats that came in the form of massive, hovering vehicles were deployed and made their way to the flying rock.
Pietro appeared next to them. "This is SHIELD?"
"This is what SHIELD's supposed to be," Steve said.
Pietro tilted his head. "This is not so bad."
As the lifeboats touched ground, Steve got moving. "Let's load 'em up."
Percy helped with getting as many civilians onto the lifeboats, spotting Milan and his mom coming out of there as well, both waving at him as Percy got the group on the lifeboat. Percy smiled and waved back as the lifeboat took off, heading back towards the flying carrier.
As he watched the lifeboat leave, he spotted multiple robot bogeys flying in the sky, heading towards the heart of the city, which concerned Percy. Seemed like the others spotted them as well as they looked concerned, too. Thor only confirmed their suspicions.
"Thor, I got a plan!" Tony said.
"We're out of time. They're coming for the core," the god of thunder warned.
"Rhodey, get the rest of the people on board that carrier," Tony ordered.
"On it."
"Avengers, time to work for a living," Tony said.
It was go time, Percy ran alongside Steve as they joined Tony, Vision, Thor and Pietro whom were already at the church with a massive vibranium core sitting in the middle of it. Percy rolled into church, before throwing his trident a one spare robot before another grappled to his neck and he grabbed the robot, throwing it against the church wall. Percy looked miffed as Pietro ran towards him.
"How are you doing?" Pietro asked, genuinely concerned.
Percy gritted his teeth. "A little annoyed, but I'll be fine."
"Aren't we all?" Wanda agreed.
Pietro tilted his head at her.
The Avengers all stood defensively around the core as Ultron hovered towards them.
"Is that the best you can do?!" Thor challenged.
Ultron waved up his hand and an overwhelmingly large amount of robots appeared to his aid. So many to the point where Percy could only sigh as a sea of grey was literally enveloped throughout the streets of Sokovia.
"Oh, for Neptune's sake," Percy grunted.
"You had to ask," Steve muttered at Thor in annoyance.
"This is the best I can do. This is exactly what I wanted. All of you, against all of me. How could you possibly hope to stop me?" Ultron said.
"Well, like the old man said. Together," Tony quipped.
The Hulk roared in challenge as the robots all rushed at them. Every … last … one …
They never stopped coming. For every kill the Avengers made, 20 more took its place. But they held their ground, using all of their powers combined and using every ability in their arsenal.
Percy's trident took a full-time job of spinning like a furiously fast windmill, which sent enough force to crush several robots, through their skulls, bodies, legs, whatever it was, it would get crushed to smithereens.
Somehow, the Avengers together managed to fend off the inhumanely massive wave of robots and Ultron was not happy about it, attacking Vision.
The Vision was even less of a pushover than Percy, as it lasered Ultron and pushed him back, Ultron trying to contain it. Thor and Tony both joined in with their own sources of energy, melting halfway through Ultron before giving the robot a breather.
Ultron tried to stand. "You know, with the benefit of hindsight-"
Ultron didn't get to finish his thought as he was suddenly punched away by the Hulk. He growled at the remaining robots, sending them scurrying off.
"They'll try to leave the city," Thor warned.
"We can't let 'em, not even one. Rhodey!" Tony called.
"I'm on it," Tony's friend said.
Percy panted. "Guys, I don't know if it's me, but … I'm starting to feel short on air."
Steve nodded. "Air is starting to get thin, we need to get off. You guys get to the boats, I'll sweep for stragglers, be right behind you."
"What about the core?" Clint asked.
"I'll protect it. It's my job," she said, looking at Percy. Then to Pietro, she said. "Get the people on the boats."
"I'll stay, too," Percy said.
"No, you should go," Wanda urged.
"I'm staying and that's final," Percy denied. "Don't worry, Pietro. She won't be alone."
"You can come back for us when you get everyone on the boat," Wanda added.
Pietro playfully narrowed his eyes at the two of them. "You better not fool around, you two."
Wanda blushed and Percy raised an eyebrow. "Shut up," Wanda retorted.
"I'll be back to check," Pietro said.
"I look forward to it," Percy said. "Wouldn't be right if you didn't."
"Exactly," Pietro said and sped off.
"You know what I bet you don't have?" Percy challenged at Wanda as he threw his trident, striking a robot and sending it soaring across the sky.
"What?"
The trident of Neptune returned to his hand. "A weapon that comes back to you."
"You can keep your silly fork," Wanda said.
Percy smirked at her. "One day, Wanda. One day."
Wanda shot down a robot and Percy struck the ground, sending a shockwave that crumpled a few more.
"By curiosity, what did your brother mean when he said 'no fooling around?'"
"Oh, that? He was just being an annoying big brother," Wanda dismissed.
"Are you sure about that? I think it's something else."
"It's nothing," Wanda dismissed again.
Percy sent swung at another robot, sending it crashing into the church wall. "Okay, whatever you say."
Wanda suddenly went rigid, which worried Percy. "Um … Wanda?"
"Pietro," she gasped.
"Yeah, he's honestly one of the coolest people I've ever met," Percy said, sending another robot soaring. "I can see us become really good friends in the future. The three of us would be really great together."
"No," Wanda muttered. "He's … he's …"
Percy's eyes went wide. "Wanda?"
"He's dead!" Wanda cried.
Out of grief, red energy bursted all around her and Percy was launched into the air and pushed flat on his back as robots around her were crushed.
Wanda fell to her knees as Percy couldn't believe what he was hearing. She was nowhere near Pietro currently, but if they had that twin connection, than it was only understandable that she could feel when something wrong has happened to her brother.
Percy approached Wanda with caution, who was grieving. As someone who lost a loved one, he knew exactly how that felt. A sense of emptiness and anguish fills the heart quickly like water in a tub. Wanda almost attacked him but he was quicker, wrapping her in a warm embrace. He said nothing, just continued to hold her, letting her cry into his shoulder as Wanda grieved for her dead brother.
"I'm going to tear him apart," Wanda growled into his chest.
Percy didn't even try to oppose her. "Go ahead."
…
They found Ultron barely conscious, laying all battered up in an abandoned metro.
"You two will die if you stay on this rock," Ultron's hollow voice warned.
"We'll be just fine," Percy said, eyebrows raised. "It's you who's not."
Wanda pulled Ultron in with her telekinesis and pulled out its heart, which surprised Percy. Not that Wanda even knew about it, but that Ultron even had one. Made out of metal, but it was undoubtably Ultron's core function.
"That's how it felt," Wanda said. "What you did to me."
Ultron grunted. "You guys might want to buckle up."
Percy realized what he meant and grabbed Wanda by her waist without even thinking. They managed to reach the end of the rock before they jumped off.
"What are you doing?!" Wanda demanded.
Wanda watched as the rock suddenly plummeted like a roller coaster down a drop, falling at high speeds, catching up to Percy and Wanda.
"We're going to crash!"
"The ocean is probably the safest place we can land right now," Percy said. "That's where we're headed."
Way up above them, the giant rock exploded and pieces of what remained of the city started to rain down on them. As they quickly approached ocean water, Percy reached out to control the water, cushioning their fall and they softly fell through the ocean. The two remained underwater in Percy's proactive underwater bubble while the pieces of the giant rock continued to rain on them.
As they finished getting rained on, Percy moved to propel back up to the surface, but Wanda stopped him, saying only two words, "thank you."
"You're welcome, Wanda," Percy replied.
And then she surprised Percy by reaching up and planting her lips on his. He was taken back, momentarily looking at her with wide eyes while she kissed him, but eventually he returned it.
The two remained in that position in the middle of the ocean for a long time.