Avenging Justice 2:
Caught Between an Ultron and a Doomsday
Part XXXIII
Earth, Sokovia, Novi Grad
Wanda Maximoff watched her country again, ravaged by conflict. This time it wasn't at the hands of Stark products, well not directly. Ultron had used his drones as a template for his own, and now an army of them were attacking the citizens. She found herself having to take refuge with one of the Avengers, Hawkeye.
Beyond any amount of sense, he was shooting at these robots, armed with lasers mind you, with a bow and arrow set up. She wasn't sure that the world hadn't gone insane. Teamed up with the man who she blamed for the death of her parents, and his team of heroes. She felt crazy for not going after Stark, her whole life she had hated him. Yet, Ultron was a bigger threat. Afterwards, she would need to figure out what to do with him.
She was scared, just like when she was a little girl, with bombs and missiles raining down from the sky. She could almost see their modest apartment wall crumble again before her eyes. The Stark Industries missile in the middle of her home, beeping as if an angry intruder meant to kill them all. Later she found out the beeping was because it had malfunctioned, it was designed to level the whole building.
It was his touch, Hawkeye's that brought her back. It was firm, but wasn't painful. Meant to get her attention, not to hurt her, and she looked up to find understanding. He understood, and she felt ashamed of her fear, with her power she should be above it. Yet, here she was hiding out like a little girl, the one she promised would never see the light of day again. He didn't let her break eye contact.
"Look I know you're scared, I'm scared. I'm fighting an army of robots, and I've got a bow. None of this makes sense," he gave her that crooked smile. "No matter what you did, what you were before, if you fight, you go out there to win. Stay in here, you're good, I'll send your brother after you when all this is done. It is okay not to want to, but go out there, you're an Avenger."
Hawkeye nodded and burst from the door, three arrows hitting three Ultron drones, dropping them to the ground. Below the ground thrummed, almost throwing the expert archer off balance. He kept his feet, and took another Ultron drone down, with many more to replace it. In his ear, the other Avengers were talking, and he followed them, looking to link up. Behind him, he knew a hero would either be born, or an innocent would be safe. Well as safe as being in the middle of an Avenger's level threat, it was relative.
Wanda took a breath, and stood. She saw a figure floating above, powerful, dangerous, formidable. On the figure's head was the modified crown of a Sokovian fortune teller, one of her ancestors was supposed to have been one. The figure's dress was a long flowing coat or robe, opened to show an armored chest piece. Just as quickly the vision subsided and Wanda found herself walking out the door. Bolts of her magic flung into the plentiful army of killer robots. The Scarlet Witch had entered the battle. She felt the ground shake, but paid no heed to it.
Wonder Woman was in the zone, her sword slashing through one Ultron drone, while another tasted her boot. Its head flew off, while the one she slashed fell into two pieces by her. Another came, and she obliterated it with a savage strike. An Amazon, she had trained from the day she could walk to protect, in case she was ever needed. This was the most she felt at home, since coming to the World of Man.
Another two came at her, only to find a Vibranium shield bouncing between their heads, followed by Captain America's fists. He held up his hand, grabbed the shield as it shot back to him, and then planted it into one of the Ultron drones. Just as quick, he brought it around as the other shout out an energy blast at him. It harmlessly hit the ground by his foot, as he smashed the shield into the drone's sternum. Broken, the robot fell as Captain America put his fingers to his ear, hitting the transmit command.
"How is the evacuation progressing?" he asked.
The voice of Iron Man answered, "Speedy is trying to get everyone to the city limits. Point Break, how are things where you are at?"
"Listen, Stark, I will feed you to a Bilgesnipe if you keep calling me this ridiculous name!" came the annoyed voice of Thor. "I've got quite a catch on this end."
"We seem to have a problem," Vision joined in. "I'm detecting a massive repulsor field beneath the city, and it's raising it."
Iron Man checked his readings, and noticed that Vision was correct. Now that he was actively looking for it, he could see his own technology's power source. The buildings shook as the landmass started to move, and Tony didn't need to know that they wouldn't be able to evacuate everyone in time. This was getting bad, even with him and Thor transporting people, and loading the Quinjet up, there wouldn't be enough time.
"Tony, any ideas?" Captain America asked.
Beside the Star Spangled Avenger, Wonder Woman answered, "I do." Pulling a communicator from her bracer, "J'onn, signal Green Lantern and Superman. We have a situation going on here."
"Sending the message now," The Martian Manhunter replied. "You'll be happy to know that Lantern Jordan and Star Sapphire are Earthbound as well. I'll signal them as well."
Wonder Woman threw her headwear like a boomerang at an incoming Ultron Drone, "Thanks J'onn, I'll update you."
Quicksilver was moving people out of the way of the action as fast as he could, and had done a pretty good job of getting everyone to safety. However, it seemed that was going to be a very point of view idea. Where he had dropped them off, was supposed to be their exit point of the city. Instead, it had turned into an artificial cliff as the city rose into the air. Some of the civilians had started to fall, and as much as some of them deserved it, he rescued them. There would be a reckoning for their treatment of Mutants later, especially how they had treated he and his sister.
He got some help as Iron Man caught two and had them link hands with others, pulling a whole group up from doom. Behind him was Thor, who tossed four back up to the waiting hands of Quicksilver. If it wasn't such a dire circumstance, the realization of what was happening would have overwhelmed him. These were the allies of Tony Stark and Stark himself, the man who was responsible for the death of his parents. Yet here he was saving people he didn't know, and Quicksilver had to admit that was damn admirable.
Hank Pym sat broken inside the cage Ultron had put him in. The words of his creation coming back to torment him over and over again. With them the realization that he hadn't been lying. He hadn't wanted to admit it at first, but he wasn't acting much like the man Janet had fallen in love with. Overly jealous, secretive, it was a wonder the woman had put up with him for as long as she had.
"Hank, are you okay?" came the gently voice of the woman he didn't deserve. "Come on, Hank, look up at me."
Despite himself, he looked up with hope. He needed it to be her, and not some cruel trick Ultron had cooked up to antagonize him. Much to his relief, it was Janet in her Wasp armor. Her rebreather mask pulled back and he could see her worried look. If he never saw that look again, he'd be a happy man. She deserved better, she deserved to be happy.
"Come on, the others are here," she gently said. "I found these over there on the workstation."
In her outstretched hands, were his Pym particle cannisters. He gingerly took them, and was surprised as she grabbed him in a tight hug. He felt her warmth even through the armor and felt his walls of anger break down. He had been so worried about making his mark, he had almost missed out on the greatest experiment he'd even started.
He spoke, his voice breaking ever so slightly, "He's planning on eradicating all life. We need to stop Ultron."
"We will, you up to this? We have the Quinjet nearby," she said.
He smiled, "Let's finish this. For what it's worth, I'm sorry."
"There will be time for that later, for now, I'm just glad to have you back," Janet said again before disappearing as she shrunk down.
He followed suit and together they escaped. Meanwhile Hulk was being swarmed by Ultron drones, with everyone he smashed, replaced by three more. He bit down, gnashing the arm off one of the drones, and he spat it out at another coming up on him. From his side, came the lithe form of Black Widow. Her twin batons slammed into drones, and even managed to knock a few off the Hulk.
More and more of the drones came, starting to overwhelm her defenses as well. She had to resort to throwing one of her batons, and using an improvised weapon to take out another. Luckily for her, that was at the same moment that Captain America and Wonder Woman came to back her and the Hulk up. She smiled, seeing them, especially Steve.
A soldier out of time, she made a mental note to help him find some happiness. Since being woken up after being in deep freeze since the forties, all he'd known was one disaster looming after another. She had tried to set him up before, but nothing seemed to stick. It made her feel bad for him, it wasn't like her situation. She was made a monster against her will, but he could still find happiness. All she knew was her training, at times wasn't sure where it ended, and she began.
"Avengers, this is Green Lantern, we have more of the Justice League incoming, what is your status?" the clipped military speak of John Stewart's marine background came through.
With Captain America currently up to his eyeballs in drones, Iron Man answered for them, "Did you bring our shawarma order? I think the big guy wanted the…"
"Stark, shut it!" Hawkeye growled, two more drones fell and he retrieved his arrows before sending them back out to two more drones. "We have civilians in need of pick up at the city boundaries."
Green Lantern shook his head, "I think it would be better to get the city from rising into the air. Any ideas?"
"No, we can't get the engines to shut them off, and knowing Ultron, its trapped," Tony answered. "We'd have to blow it, but to low and we wipe out a country, to high and we create more problems."
John Stewart knew this was a fine mess they were in. Technically the limit to his ring's power was his own willpower. However, imagination also factored in as well. He could think of a jumbo jet to safely load and transport the people off, but what to do for a whole city's population? Luckily for him and the gathered heroes, two things happened, that helped increase the survival of the poor citizens.
The first was the arrival of a helicarrier. The massive, super aircraft carrier sized vehicle came alongside the rising city. From its flightdeck a fleet of transports lifted off and headed towards where the civilians were being kept. Beside them were two new forms entering the fray, Hal Jordan and Carol Ferris, Earth's first Green Lantern and newly minted Star Sapphire. Together the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents started to load the people on, while Green Lantern and Star Sapphire turned back any drones coming their way.
Just as quickly as they were filled, the transports blasted off and went back towards the helicarrier. There they were unloaded and given blankets to keep them warm, and taken to refugee camps below decks. Again the transports made their way, over and over, knowing that with each minute, things became more dire for the inhabitants of Novi Grad.
Which is where the second thing happened. From the sky came the crack of the sound barrier being smashed. Across the visible light, a blue and red streak blurred past the people and the pilots. Smashing down into a group of Ultron drones, the figure stood and unleashed heat vision. The drones caught in the blast fell to the ground in various states of molten metal slag. Superman had arrived.