Sy
The quinjet hovered over the city, the ramp lowering down. Ice cold wind blasted through the space as Sy carefully settled the violin into its special harness before attaching it to the speaker system Tony had built for the occasion. Thor grabbed Bruce and leapt from the plane, flying away without a second glance. Loki followed closely behind him, green light wreathing his hands while muttering darkly. The god hadn't wanted to experiment with his magic, but it hadn't taken much arguing between the two brothers from the younger god to cave in. Sy waited for both gods to disappear from sight before walking towards the ramp, adjusting her armor so that when she unfolded her wings the metal won't pinch the delicate skin attaching the wings to her back. She rolled out her shoulders in preparation of her jump.
"Wait." Pietro Maximoff came up to her, gripping at the rails so he wouldn't fall off the ramp. Sy glanced over at him. His hands were fidgeting, twisting something around in his hands.
"Here. This is yours." He held out his hand. Sy's eyes widened. In his hand was the knife he'd stolen from her in South Africa. The matching pair to the one strapped to her hip, it's sister holster hanging limply beneath it, empty.
Sy reached out and took it back, easily spinning the knife between her fingers before sheathing it.
"Thank you." A small smile crept across her face, her face burning in the cold. He gave her a sharp nod, a smile of his own playing across his lips. Pietro turned back around, gripping the rail on the wall of the jet as he made his way back to his seat. Sy just backed down the ramp, moving closer and closer to the edge. Two identical worry lines crossed both twins foreheads. Adrenaline burst through Sy, the sudden thrill of a fight coursed through her system. A pure, unbroken laugh broke out of her, burbling up through chest and was lost to the roaring wind.
She jumped.
"See you on the ground!" She called out, a wild grin lighting up her face. She relished the surprised shouts from the twins as she lost herself to the fall. She reached up and switched on the comms unit, already preset to the correct channel. Her wings snapped out and she soared in a wide loop, rushing up past the closing ramp of the quinjet. She spotted the disbelief on the team two newest allies, and the vague exasperation on Steve's before she turned her flight path down towards the city.
When she was about a hundred yards above the unsuspecting populace, she switched on the speaker, twisting the volume up as high as it would go. She pulled the violin up, tucking it under her chin and set her bow to the strings.
Sy took a deep breath, carefully visualizing the music in her mind. She gently plucked at the D string as she centered herself, gathering her power. As her bow finally began to move and the music began to spin out from the speaker, Sy forced herself to focus only on evacuation. On suggestion. She was not going to brainwash the mortals into doing what she wanted.
Soon dozens of people began to leave their homes, the flight response to Sy's danger signal kicking in. She circled slowly, focusing only on the music in her mind, and the section of the city she was responsible for evacuating.
Out of the corner of her eyes she noticed the flare of green magic flare up from another section of the city. Sy kept her bow arm steady, her fingers moving precisely to instill a sense of order in people, even though they were evacuating their homes. After another few minutes, Sy hear the quinjet's engine cut out after it landed on the far end of Novi Grad. A distinctive flare of red magic begins to flow through the southwestern section of the city.
The main thoroughfares of Novi Grad began to clog quickly, but Sy just adjusted her tune, taking more control to help keep the flow of traffic moving smoothly. She began toeing the jagged line she'd once drawn for herself, but Sy pushed forwards anyways. She focused harder, fluttering down to a rooftop, and swaying in place. She needed to concentrate only on the music. They could evacuate the civilians, save them. Protect them.
That's the mission.
That's her job.
She should have known better than to think it would stay easy.
Tony and Vision had been desperately trying to stall Ultron while they evacuated, burning him out from the internet and trapping the murderous AI into its physical forms. But based on the fight she could hear echoed through the comms in her ear, it wasn't working nearly as well as they'd hoped it would. A strange growling noise came up under the earth, a weird tearing sound as rock crumbled and a gleaming silver hand punched its way out of the soil.
Thousands of robots burst through the earth, crawling out from every nook and cranny. Sy snarled and played a quick etude, her fingers flying in detache. The shockwave of sound shattered a dozen robots in every direction; but it also caused her to lose her grip on the now panicking mortals. She resumed playing, trying to get them out quickly, encouraging them to take anyone they could with them. The rest of the team's desperate shouts echoed her own, chivvying as many people out of the city as they could.
The sounds of hollow clanking and metal creaking was her signal to move. She glanced over the edge of the building to see that the drones that couldn't fly, could climb. Metal fingers dug gouges into stone and clawed their way up concrete.
She took three steps back, giving herself a running start. She spread her wings, the rustle of her feathers magnified by the shiver of the celestial bronze armor covering them. Sy leapt off the building, violin tucked under her arm as she flapped hard pushing herself higher into the air. As she coaxed the Ultron drones into following her, she tucked it back under her chin. Desperation forced her to play on instinct, fingers flying; alternating between blasting the robots and evacuating the citizens. The deep drone of flying robots sent heavy vibrations through her skull, until Sy could swear she could feel her teeth rattling. A wave of machinery hissed and clicked menacingly behind her.
The earth shook with an ominous rumble. Sy froze for a moment, stuttering in the air. Muscles tensed and her hands shook, and cold fear stole through her veins. Gaea's rise on the beach at Camp Half Blood played in her mind. Horror beat wildly in her chest as she remembered the pure terror of the Earth Mother's rage coming to life in a twisting column of nature shaping her body. The earth rose up against them, an ancient being's fury melting the soil under feet, grass twining around her legs to pin her like a butterfly while enemies poured in from every side. She couldn't tear her eyes away from the rising city, and she was struggling to anchor her mind into Sokovia rather than the battle against Gaea. Sy's breath caught her her throat as she dragged her mind back to the present.
Which, somehow, was much much worse.
The entire city was lifted into the air, tearing away from the ground.
Sy's distraction cost her. The only warning she had before she got hit was a bright blue flash in the corner of her eye. She managed to twist away and the blast only glanced off her shoulder. But it was powerful enough to knock her out of the sky. Sy slammed painfully into the roof of a car, metal folding under her, glass shattering in to the road. She bit back a few choice words, groaning instead as she rolled off the car. She looked mournfully at the splintered remains of the violin, strings curled up on themselves, the dark polished wood shards gathered in the center of the sizable dent she'd made in the car.
"Sy?" Steve's worried voice crackled through the comms unit her ear.
"I'm good." She grunted back, ripping the ruined speakers off her belt and tossing them carelessly to the side. She pulled a shard of metal that had embedded itself into her shin. A thin trail of blood trickled down her leg, but the cut was shallow and her pants would hide the damage for now. There were more important things to worry about at the moment.
She glanced over the side of the now floating island, her eyes wide in disbelief. The mechanical whirring reminded her to focus. The floating city would need to be solved, but first she needed to focus on the more immediate threat; Ultron.
Sy opened her shield, and advanced on the enemy.
A terrible voice echoed across the city. Sy paused to listen, leaning on her sword while panting. Her chest heaved with exertion,
"Do you see? The beauty of it. The inevitability. You rise, only to fall. You, Avengers, you are my meteor. My swift and terrible sword, and the earth will crack with the weight of your failure. Purge me from your computers, turn my own flesh against me. It means nothing. When the dust settles, the only thing living in this world… will be metal." Sy wheezed out an exhausted laugh, her heart beating wildly. Natasha had been right; Tony and Bruce had failed spectacularly at building a protection program. Sy lunged forward, slashing through one of Ultron's many bodies, destroying it.
"Cap. Incoming." Came the bored warning. Sy jumped, unused to the voices of her teammates so close in her ear. Usually they were a muffled shout, if she heard them at all. Now she could everyone's voices with perfect clarity directly in her ear. A wheeze and a groan came through the comm unit.
"Incoming already came in." Steve groaned. A sigh of relief made it through her lips even as she took a hit. Sy snarled and stabbed one robot through the head with her knife, slashed another in half with her sword, and kicked the last one into the side of a building where angry civilians quickly descended on it. The machine didn't stand a chance.
"Stark you worry about getting the city down safely. The rest of us only have one job; to tear these things apart." Steve ordered through the comms. She turned to face the street, covering the civilian retreat.
"You get hurt, hurt it back. You get killed? Walk it off." Sy stopped moving for a moment, tensing. Nobody she cared about was going to die today. Not if she had anything to say about it. Sy whispered a quick prayer to Ares and Athena before plunging back into the fight.
"You're captain is a tough one." Pietro said casually. Startled, Sy whirled around, her sword flashing. It plunged through his neck, slashing through his body like it wasn't even there. She narrowed her eyes at him, carefully bringing the sword down to her side. His blue eyes were wide with shock, his face completely drained of color. Not that he had much to begin with. The boy, man really since he was older than her, had the complexion of printer paper.
"My sword won't harm mortals." Sy said by way of explanation, turning and killing another robot while she spoke. She had to hide the smile on her face. She doubted it would make the Sokovian feel any better to know she was laughing at him in the middle of his first real battle.
"Oh." He said faintly. Sy spun in a circle, her sword plunging into the side of another drone, her focus entirely on the battle ahead of them.
"Focus. There's a battle to be won. Everything else comes later." She ordered shortly. Clint had given the sister, Wanda, a similar speech. Although he'd been much nicer about it. Sy had laughed when he'd muttered about his bow, and the flying city. But he was right. This was Wanda and Pietro's crucible, and this would define them as either heroes or villains for all of history.
She glanced over at the still shocked Sokovian, her sword held out defensively. He shook his head, not unlike a was a burst of sound and suddenly every robot on the street collapsed, broken. Pietro reappeared by her side, slightly out of breath, a smirk plastered across his face. She managed a faint smile back, and as Sy studied him she could still see his fear.
'Good. Fear will keep him alive.' She thought to herself. Pietro's smirk widened into a proper smile at her slight approval.
"So-" Sy whipped around, holding up a hand to cut him off. A faint scream echoed in her ears.
"Civilian. Hold on." And without another warning, Sy grabbed Pietro by his arms and launched herself into the air.
She grinned at his surprised shout. His hands quickly scrabbled at her arms, looking for purchase. Sy tilted her wings to better access a warm draft and soared to the ground, dropping Pietro off before tumbling through a window herself.
Sword drawn she slashed forward, cleaving a robot in half.
The two of them worked surprisingly well as a team. She had the experience and he had the speed. And somehow they managed to completely clear a few blocks over the course of the next ten minutes.
"Ow." Clint's voice surprised her. Sy really didn't like the comm unit in her ear. She ducked, but the wind from the passing robotic arm warned her how close a call that blow had been to a concussion. The fighting had gotten intense enough that the usual quirky one liners and sarcastic banter had vanished from the airwaves. She slammed her shield through a drone's head.
"Getting tired old man?" Sy teased through the comm without thinking about the consequences. She yanked her hand away from her ear like she'd been burned. Sy glanced around the street, half expecting a monster to attacker her right then and there.
The pointed silence over the comm unit was more than enough of a response. Sy snickered as she imagined the irritation on the archers face. Three drones landed hard, cracking the road beneath their feet. Sy readied her sword.
Pietro appeared next to her, metal falling to the ground behind him in pieces. His speed was convenient; more than making up for his lack of fighting skills.
"We're all clear here!" Clint called through the comms. She glanced at Pietro.
"Go." He was gone before she could blink. She tentatively pressed her hand to her ear, activating the microphone in the earpiece.
"We're clear here too."
"We are not clear! We are very much not clear!" Steve shouted through the comms unit sounding vaguely panicked.
"On our way." She reported, before launching herself into the air.
Suddenly, something huge and heavy slammed into her, dragging her in the opposite direction she's intended to go.
"You. You're annoying me." Sy couldn't do anything but scream.
Ultron brought her to an abandoned church in the center of the city. He dropped her inside, and then sent a concussive blast at her as he landed. She was slammed backwards into the wall, the concrete crumbling under the force of her blow.
"Who are you? What are you? You made me, but I don't know what you are." Sy laughed bitterly, standing up slowly. She grasped the part of her consciousness that she'd spent the last week listening to and told herself to shove it. She looked up at the metal monstrosity.
"Me? My name is Syrinx Melos. Daughter of Calliope, leader of the nine muses, goddesses of art, science and inspiration. And you have something of mine. I'd like it back now." Sy drew her sword and reached for the power laying curled inside of herself. She'd always imagined it the same warm bronze glow of her sword. Her awareness expanded, and she could see the bronze glittering in fragments across the city laid out like her own personal map of Ultron.
She reached for her power that was threaded through Ultron's consciousness and pulled. Her sword slashed through empty air as Sy reclaimed what had been stolen from her, smoothing over the jagged edges inside herself. She hadn't even realized how wrong, how incomplete, her own power had felt until she took it back.
The robot screamed with an almost human pain, and the sound echoed across the city, amplified by a hundred thousand voices. She released her breath, slumping back a little as she processed the feeling swirling through her gut, the not quite wholeness inside her being gently repaired. She was still missing parts of herself, but it was no longer a gaping wound.
Ultron lunged forward with a wordless snarl, and Sy didn't react in time to dodge the backhanded blow. She went flying across the room, barely pulling her wings in time before smashing into another wall. Her head snapped back, colliding with the concrete with a solid thunk that echoed in her skull. She looked up as three blurry images of Ultron advanced, the fight over before it even began. Her sword was less than two feet away, but it was still to far. There's no way she could reach it before Ultron dealt a fatal blow.
Sy lifted her chin defiantly, reaching for her knives. She isn't going out without a fight.
Green light flashed through the air, and the robot launched himself at thin air. Loki appeared in front of her, rage fixed across his features. Green magic flared around them, temporarily holding off the robotic menace.
"My debt is paid godling. Now go, battle awaits." Lightning crackled in the air as Thor's hammer smashed into Ultron. The robot turned around, anger flashing across the metallic face. The two beings collided in a flurry of motion and shattering concrete. She glanced up at her friend, glancing between the two Loki's wondering which one was real and which was her concussion.
"You boys sure you've got this?" Loki snorted.
"Ultron is beneath me. I am a god you insolent halfling." He winked at her, and she laughed. Lighting crackled and snapped, and Ultron went flying through a wall. Loki knelt down next to her and removed the flask of nectar from her belt. He unscrewed the cap and held it to her mouth. Sy downed most of the nectar, feeling the concussion she'd sustained vanish quickly. Loki yanked the drink away from her, capping it before helping Sy to her feet. Sweat broke out on her forehead, and she fanned herself lightly. She'd probably overdid the nectar a little bit, but she needed to be in fighting form. As long as she didn't spontaneously combust, it didn't matter.
Energy rushed through her, and Sy shook out her wings, feeling mostly renewed.
"I'm headed for the city center, you keep the big guy distracted." The god nodded at her and she launched herself away.
Sy landed with a thud, her shield up to protect Natasha's unprotected back from a blue laser blast.
"Thanks." The spy called to her as they worked back to back. Sy threw herself into a forward roll, bringing her sword up to slice through three robots in a single arc. She turned and threw one of her knives to stop one from sneaking up on Wanda. Pietro waved at her in thanks, as he blurred around the battlefield destroying drones.
Flapping into the air Sy let loose a sonic whistle, blasting back a group of flying robots. The air got quiet, and the dust slowly began to settle. She slowly came back down to the ground, her sword still drawn. It seemed as though they won that round. When nothing else happened, she cautiously started helping civilians get clear from the battlegrounds.
Her comms crackled to life in her ear, startling her.
"The next wave is going to hit any minute. What do you got Stark?" Steve asked. Sy turned around, having heard his voice twice. She spots him through the gloom and waits for him to help a couple inside one of the more stable buildings before launching herself into his arms for a tight hug. He squeezed her gently, then let go. They both turned around, moving back out to get as many people to relative safety as they could.
"Well, nothing great. Maybe a way to blow up the city, that would keep it from impacting the surface, if you guys can get clear." Tony said softly, resignation lacing his tone.
"I asked for a solution, not an escape plan." Steve snapped back.
"Impact radius is getting bigger every second. We're going to have to make a choice." Tony reported back. Sy stumbled over a piece of rubble she hadn't noticed. The facts of the situation slammed into her gut, a chill stealing over her body.
"Cap, these people are going nowhere." Natasha reported, making her way over the rubble to where they stood.
"If Stark finds a way to blow this rock…" She trailed off, the assassin's vote clear. Sy looked over at her friend. The red head's expression was more solemn than usual.
"Not until everyone is safe." Steve insisted. Sy frowned, looking up towards her brother.
"Steve, everyone up here, verses everyone down there? That's not math. That's right and wrong. I don't like it either, but I don't think we have a choice."
"I'm not leaving this rock with one civilian on it." He snapped. She exchanged a glance with Natasha before the two of them looked back up at Steve. Their choice was made.
"I didn't say we should leave." Natasha said. Sy stepped closer to her friend, threading their arms together. They were willing to go down with the ship. That was the job wasn't it? Fight because others can't. And when you finally can't, you don't run away. You give as good as you got, and then it's time for someone else to step up. Twenty was pretty good for a demigod. Sy knew she could die today complete.
Steve looked at the two of them in shock. Natasha shrugged, glancing out over the horizon line.
"There's worse ways to go. Where else am I going to get a view like this?" Natasha joked weakly. Sy smiled tiredly, leaning her head on her friend's shoulder. She reached out and took Steve's hand. His face had gone blank, blue eyes carefully observing both her and Natasha.
She'd always loved the sky, from the moment she'd gotten her wings, nothing brought her more joy than the freedom of being in the air, with nothing but the horizon ahead of her, blue skies and the occasional cloud around her. To die in the air... Natasha was right, there are much much worse ways to find her way to Hades kingdom.
A soft crackle in her ear made Sy flinch. She was never going to get used to the comms unit, with everyone's voices projected so directly into her sensitive ears. A familiar voice came through the comms.
"Glad you like the view Romanoff. It's about to get better." A massive helicarrier slowly rose out of the clouds. Sy laughed, a smile she couldn't stop even if she wanted to spreading across her face. It was their own personal miracle.
"He did say he would do something dramatic." Sy commented dryly.
"Nice right? Pulled a few strings at SHIELD, got her out of the mothballs. She's a bit dusty, but she'll do." Steve laughed in disbelief.
"Fury, you son of a bitch." Sarcastic laughter drifted over the comms.
"Ohh, you kiss your mother with that mouth?" Steve rolled his eyes good naturedly.
"Really? Even Fury knows about that?" Another familiar voice drifted over the line.
"Who do you think told him about it?" James' voice laughed down the line as Coulson's voice drifted through, telling them that they had reached eighteen thousand feet of altitude, and they were still climbing. Sy grinned as she spotted the Lifeboats coming towards the flying city, the sound of the thrusters ringing happily in her ears. She pulled away from both of her friends as Pietro walked over from the bridge where he'd been staring at the helicarrier.
"This is SHIELD?" He asked in amazement.
"Yeah, this is SHIELD now." Sy replied.
"This, is not so bad." He commented, a small smile playing across his face. She smiled back.
"Let's load them up." Steve ordered. She turned and ran towards the buildings where they'd been sheltering civilians. A blur of blue moved alongside and ahead of her. The Lifeboats landed, and with a whir of metal the doors opened.
The people watching from inside the building began to stream out, racing towards the promise of rescue. Sy guided a Lifeboat's landing, meeting up with orange vested SHIELD agents who were moving quickly to load the lifeboats or manning machine guns as they scanned the skies for more drones. Above them Sam, Rhodey and Tony were battling robots that were trying to target the helicarrier while exchanging rapid fire jokes in a way that only good friends could.
She glanced up at the sky for a moment before turning away. Her friends could handle it, she was needed here. They had thousands of people to evacuate. James nodded at her as he got off one of the incoming Lifeboats, rifle in one hand, ushering people aboard.
The first of the Lifeboats began to fly to the helicarrier when the second wave of robots began to trickle out. Her comms unit crackled to life.
"Thor I got a plan!" Tony shouted urgently, a groan slipping through the mike. Sy glanced up to see him supporting a damaged Lifeboat to the helicarrier.
"We're out of time!" Thor roared.
"Ultron is coming for the core." Loki added.
"Rhodey, Bird Brain, Bionic Wonder, get the rest of those people on board the carrier." Sy glanced at her teammates, drawing her sword. Steve met her eyes from across the field, smoke drifting through the air. Tony's voice echoed in her ear.
"Avengers, time to work for a living."