VROOM!
While Captain America jumped off one of the highway loops and took the truck from above, Percy ended up borrowing a motorcycle and sped off, his intent being to meet the truck at a rendezvous point. As the truck suddenly passed by him, he kicked up the stand and sped after the truck.
As he rode along next to the truck, Percy reached with his trident, tapping the window. Meanwhile, on top of the trailer, Captain America tried to continue to hold off Ultron.
"Hey! Pull over!" Percy ordered.
The robot driving the truck rolled the window down and blasted at him in response and Percy was forced to swerve out of the way, managing to stay upright on his bike. As Percy glanced to the top of the trailer again, he spotted Ultron growling as Cap's shield stuck into his body and he pushed it off of him. The shield went flying backwards and clattered on the highway pavement somewhere way back behind them. Percy made a quick 360 on his bike and picked up the shield.
"Hey Cap, I think you dropped something important," Percy noted jokingly as he attached the shield to the bike handles.
"Ya think?"
"Don't worry though, I got you," he reassured.
Percy rode alongside the truck again and tossed the shield up at him, which stuck to his arm like a magnet. Percy then drove a little further, Ultron spotting him as Steve knocked him down. The robot used gravity manipulation to tear a piece of the asphalt in front of Percy.
Percy had to ditch the bike before he crashed into the floating piece of asphalt, so he instinctively jumped off and grabbed onto the drivers' door. When he looked back, the motorcycle broke apart into several pieces as it completely battered itself against the chunk of asphalt Ultron had pulled.
Percy swung his arm into the window with all of his strength, completely shattering the window and reaching inside. The truck driver blasted at him again, which Percy ducked but that resulted in the driver shooting at the door now, and it went flying open. Percy held on for dear life, refraining from falling into traffic and getting run over.
The truck driving robot continued to fire at Percy, and the door finally gave way, forcing Percy to throw himself onto the front window and grabbed onto the windshield wipers.
"You just don't let up, do you?" Percy complained.
The robot tried for a different strategy this time, applying the brakes. Percy was launched off the truck by the sudden force of the brakes, but he managed to summon his trident, which went flying into his hand and he planted it into the asphalt, the three sharp points digging three deep lines into the asphalt as he forcibly stopped his own momentum. Quickly as he halted, he threw the trident at the driver with pinpoint accuracy, smashing right through the front window and impaled the robot, after successfully completing what he had been trying to do: getting the truck to stop. The robot instantaneously died in its seat.
Noticing that Steve was gone, Percy called into comms. "Cap, you okay?"
"I'll be fine," he replied. "What about you?"
"I got the truck to stop," Percy said. "No Ultron, though."
"That's because he's with me right now," Steve panted, like he was in combat.
"Alright, then," Percy said with a nod. "That means the Cradle's just for the taking. Clint? I'm here for pickup."
"On my way," he immediately answered.
From behind him, Percy could begin to hear the wailing of sirens as he stepped into the back of the trailer and hopped inside, where the regeneration cradle sat completely unharmed. Ultron had yet to finish downloading his matrix onto the new body, but with Percy in there, there were finally able to put a halt to it completely.
That was, until Percy picked up the sound of something being latched onto the trailer. Next thing he knew, he was airborne, Percy falling on his butt and sliding down the trailer as he was taken into the air.
"Um, guys?" Percy called. "Any chance you see a flying trailer?"
"What the hell?" Clint could be heard muttering in the radio.
"Yeah, that's me in there. Please don't shoot it down," Percy pleaded.
"We're on your tail, Percy," Natasha said.
"Alright, I got a plan. I'm gonna send this thing to you," Percy replied.
"Um … how?"
"Just spread your butt cheeks open," Percy joked with a toothy grin. "It should slide right in."
Natasha and Clint could both be heard sighing. "This kid," the latter muttered.
"Alright, you heard him," Natasha said. "Turn the Quinjet on its tail."
Percy spotted the Quinjet with its back hatch open and he started to unstrap the Cradle, with contained four straps tying it down. As he got the second one undone, Steve notified over comms that he lost Ultron and it was probably headed in Percy's way.
"Copy that," Percy said.
Percy unstrapped the last one and kicked the Cradle with his legs, pushing it in the Quinjet's direction. Percy held onto the Cradle as it shot down inside the Quinjet, but not before Ultron plucked him out before he could fall inside the Quinjet with the Cradle.
"Percy!" Both Clint and Nat called.
"I'll be fine!" Percy yelled as Ultron grabbed his leg and didn't let go. "Get the package to Tony Stark!"
"You have gotten on my last nerve," Ultron said.
"Let me go, you overgrown Terminator skeleton wannabe!" Percy angrily yelled.
Percy was certainly no pushover as he managed to pry himself from Ultron's grip and they proceeded to battle it out mid-air. Ultron blasted him, and he struck back by piercing Ultron's arm. Ultron used gravity manipulation to bring Percy closer, he struck back by piercing his body. With every pierce of Percy's trident, Ultron grew weaker and was dismantled. As they approached water, Percy summoned a wave to stand upon, while he let Ultron crash into the ocean at full force. Ultron looked more than broken now, barely functioning but he managed one more attack, which didn't faze Percy as he swung his trident and hit him like a baseball, sending him crashing into a pillar of the bridge.
Percy moved the wave back towards land, where Ultron laid like a broken record. Its voice was hallow and mechanically destroyed as he approached it. Limbs completely shattered, missing both legs and an arm. Its face was caved in.
"You know what the difference is between me and you, Percy?" Ultron asked.
"I don't think we have anything in common," Percy argued.
"The difference is this body I have right now will die, but I will come back in a newer and better body than this one," Ultron said. "Humans don't get that privilege."
Percy frowned. "I think that's what makes life precious. The fact that we only get one body."
"You're … very unsophisticated," Ultron said. "Humans have every opportunity to evolve but it's like … you don't want to."
"You're not any evidence of evolution," Percy said. "You're just a deluded robot."
"Shame … well, you know what they say 'what doesn't kill me, makes me stronger.' I'll see you soon, Percy."
Ultron did Percy the favor of sparing the final blow, as it ended up dying on the spot. Percy sighed, knowing that Ultron wasn't wrong about the AI being able to just move itself into a new body. Ultron was bound to return more pissed off than ever.
As he looked around, he noticed he drew some commotion among the civilians, some of them with their phones out, recording him. He could hear murmurs between them as they discussed about him amongst each other.
Guess there was no more hiding for the Sub-Mariner now.
…
"Um … what the hell happened here?" Percy asked Steve, gesturing towards the train that sat in the middle of a marketplace.
"Ultron," Steve muttered.
"Of course." Percy noticed the twins as they greeted him with a nervous smile. "Hey." Wanda rushed in and embraced him, hugging around his waist. Pietro hugged him, too. "Oh … this is nice."
"You were right," Wanda said.
"Ultron was … manipulating us," Pietro added.
"We were just too blind to see it."
Percy nodded. "I'm glad you two saw sense."
"I'm glad you seem to believe in us," Pietro replied. "Even when nobody else did."
Percy nodded. "I get it. You wanted to make a difference, you wanted to make an impact on this world. It's not wrong to want to. Ultron, though … he's …"
"A madman," Wanda finished.
"Exactly," Percy said. "Well, not exactly, he's not a man, per se."
Pietro and Wanda smiled.
"What did you do with the Cradle?" Steve asked.
"I gave it to Clint and Natasha," Percy replied. "They should handing it over to Stark any moment now. He'll take care of it."
"No, he won't," Wanda replied after a moment.
Percy frowned. "Wanda, I know Stark is a little flawed, but I promise you he's not the bad guy Ultron tried to make him out to be."
"He will do anything to make things right," Wanda said.
It was dawning on Percy what she meant and he and Steve exchanged looks. "Shit."
"Stark, come in," Steve radioed. "Stark. Anyone on comms?"
"Ultron can't tell the difference between saving the world and destroying it. Where do you think he gets that?" Wanda asked.
Oh, for Neptune's sake, what was Stark up to?