This is it everyone, a clash of titans. I took my time with this chapter, needed to make sure everything was going on as planned. Big thanks to Sebas F for the final battle's location and other minor stuff that helped a great deal, and I also thank FireflySurvivor for sticking up with me since this particular storylines' start and for revising all chapters since then.
Now, you get to see how the war ends.
March 22th - 2028
Steve Rogers crossed his arms as he stared the holopanel in the wall in front of him. It had an extended digital map of Paris, where Ultron supposedly was hiding his most important operational base, the city was one of the few that weren't attacked yet and thanks to Falcon's initiative, and they could end the fight at the enemy's home, and discover what Ultron is hiding under the city.
He sighed. He knew it wouldn't be easy. They weren't going to defeat Ultron's army, but recover the tesseract from Ultron's possession so that they could activate The Breach, a weapon which will work as a global electric magnetic pulse, coded only to Ultron's and his army's framework. That would be the last option if Jarvis fails to contain his own creator.
They only had to distract Ultron, gain territory, and transport The Breach to Paris when they finally, and hopefully, retrieve the Tesseract. The weapon would be guarded with a soldiers and an engineer team from inside, while War Machine and his squadron of jets are outside.
It's definitely a crazy mission. He thought.
Tony entered the room silently, forgetting to close the door, before leaning his back against the wall and asking gently, "How are you holding up, Steve?"
The soldier didn't turn around to face him. "I won't lie. I'm worried."
"The team is strong; you know nobody will be coming out from this war unscratched." Tony continued reassuringly.
"Yeah, but that doesn't help much." He looked down to the floor. "Still, this is it. Are you ready?" He inquired.
"No way will we all get through this." Tony replied. "If there's only one Avenger missing everything will be lost. There will be blood on the battlefield."
"Well, it's not like I have anything else to do anyways. We can do this together." Steve turned around and smiled weakly.
"I'll meet the big guy first. He'll probably be waiting for me."
From outside the room and in the corridor, Jarvis quickly passed next to the entrance and spoke briefly, "That's true. He hates you the most." He left.
Tony shrugged his shoulders. "I liked him more when he was just an AI."
Steve chuckled. He walked towards the billionaire and patted him on the shoulder. "See you on the shuttle." He made his way towards the exit.
"Aye, Captain."
Peter slowly opened his eyes, waking up from a restful sleep, Gwen's head resting on his chest, looking as though she didn't move at all during the whole night. She had an arm draped across his bare chest.
This is exactly what I fought for.
Peter stroked her exposed belly underneath the sheets and kissed the top of her blonde hair. Seconds before he was going to move himself from Gwen's touch, he was greeted with a pleasant "Morning."
"How did you -"
"Your heartbeat changed, woke me up. You have a rather pleasant heartbeat when you sleep, very soothing," She mentioned, the two sharing a quick kiss.
He looked up the ceiling, remembering that his perfect wife was a light sleeper. "Didn't know about that…"
"Mh-hmmm..." Gwen moved to kiss his shoulder where he had a small injury. Now a dark bruise was visible. She asked softly, "Does it hurt?"
"Not right now." He flirted.
Gwen smiled and continued to kiss his shoulder and up to his neck before she stopped and rested her head on his shoulder while she slowly caressed his torso with her fingers. Peter caressed her back while they remained quiet for some time, basking in their company.
They lied under the bed sheet, barely naked and with arms wrapped around each other and legs entwined.
"Last night was amazing." Peter said with a weak smile.
"Indeed." Gwen caressed his toned chest.
Peter chuckled without any know reason.
"What?" Gwen kissed his earlobe, clearly enjoying her last minutes with him.
"I just remembered the time you wore my first suit."
Gwen giggled. "Oh yes, took you a decade to remove it from me." She teased.
"Well, I'm sure I got better."
Gwen smirked at his hint. She said flirtatious, "Is that a request, my dear husband?"
Peter massaged her bare back by trailing circles on the smooth and flawless skin with his thumb. "Could be..."
"Get back to me, and I'll definitely consider it." She hugged kissed his cheek.
"I will." Peter returned the kiss, slowly moving his arms from her body. He groaned and sat on their bed.
"Where are you going?" Gwen assumed a standing position and leaned her head on his left shoulder, while resting her left hand on his well-defined bare abdomen.
"There's still a war going on." Peter replied gently, not looking at her green eyes.
"Are you ready?"
Peter sighed. He had to be. "You can't ever be ready for something like this."
"I believe in you." She continued reassuringly.
He slowly nodded to himself. "Yeah...let's hope my 'gifts' can get us out of this."
"Why's that?' She asked concerned.
"Well, without them, I wouldn't be here... I wouldn't be who I am today." He gazed the floor. "This would be my ultimate test; if I'm ready to defend those who need assistance."
"You give Spider-Man too much credit for your accomplishments; not everything you achieved on this life was because of him." Gwen replied gently. "Nobody is born a hero, Peter, they become one, you're perfect, and Spider-Man or not, I love you regardless."
He turned to look over to Gwen, catching her eye with a smile. "You're right." He gave her a tiny peck on the lips "You asked how I feel, but what about you?"
Gwen placed her arms around his neck from behind. She gave him a tender kiss on his lips.
"There's nowhere else I'd rather be."
"Ah, about that," He swallowed nervously at Gwen's narrowing eyes. This was the one person he knew he would struggle to get to leave. "Gwendy..."
"No way Peter," She gave him an icy glare, though he did see the affection it represented. "I'm not leaving you."
"But..."
"No. I said I'd stand by your till the end," She placed a hand on his cheek, lightly stroking it. "I'm going to do that."
"I know, and thank you for that," He could see her eyes watering slightly; it was killing him to be the cause of that. "But I need you to survive this; I need something good to come out of it."
"I'm not going to hang around this base like a spare part." She argued back.
"Please Gwen..."
"I love you," She held his gaze, staring directly into her eyes.
"I love you too Gwen Stacy Parker," He swallowed again, feeling tears of his own coming on. "And that's why I need to know you'll be okay, the kids will need you if anything happens."
She gave him another tender kiss, placing her feelings of love behind it. "I guess I won't win this one then."
He nodded, smiling to her. "You can't win them all."
"I can't wait for this to be over," She looked beyond him, smiling as she spoke. "We'll be able to have a normal life again, just us, me, you and the kids."
Peter smiled. He turned his head and kissed her warm lips. "We will." He whispered as they shared their one last kiss in hours.
Pietro grabbed a new pair of shoes from his closet and placed them on the ground and besides him. He later proceeded to slip his blue shirt over his muscular torso. He was going to his second mission with The Avengers and he didn't know how to feel about that. They had come a long way since they first met. Most of his grudges against Stark had already vanished once he understands him and his motives.
Next to him, Wanda eyed the curious par on the next room that was divided by a transparent window. Jarvis and Thor were chatting about something she couldn't really figure, not that she wanted to. The half organic and half synthetic construct seemed to be interacting much more than the usual and his mind became a mystery to Wanda after she tried to read him on Ultron's carrier. He was something else, and that got the so-called 'Scarlet Witch' curious.
Noticing his sister was currently sailing through space; Pietro retrieved her characteristic red jacket from their closet and gently threw at her with a smirk.
Wanda instantly was brought back to reality once the jacket landed on her face. She grabbed the material and turned on her shoulder to face her playful brother who was as fast as the sound.
"What?" Wanda raised an eyebrow.
"Stop oggling." He teased.
"I'm not." She affirmed calmly.
He shook his head in disapproval. "Believe me sis, I know you very well. I was born faster than you."
Wanda chuckled at his horrible joke. "A few minutes, yes, but you still struggles to crack a decent joke."
Clint opened his locket at the armoury as the soft lights automatically were turned on, illuminating his arsenal of small explosive rounds for his bow. He picked one cartridge and placed on the special compartment of his boot, before picking his metallic arrows and stashing them on the specific slot on his back.
He was focused and determined, ready to engage the enemy. If he managed to survive the upcoming battle, he wouldn't be an Avenger afterwards, at least not for some time. He wanted to get back to his farm and spend more time with his family, even now that his unborn child could be seeing the light at any second.
Clint sat on the bench behind him and sighed. He retrieved a photo from his family and eyed it with saddened eyes. They're his source of inspiration. He wouldn't let them down
I'm soon coming home.
Already wearing his red and blue original Spider-Man suit minus the mask since Iron - Spider wasn't functional, Peter entered the darkness of his kid's bedroom, with Gwen following him closely. He silently sat on the edge of the twin's bed and started to carefully massage Aiden's belly, waking him up calmly. He lazily opened his eyes and was greeted with a heartfelt smile from his father.
Gwen leaned her shoulder against the wall and crossed arms. She observed the moment, what could've been their last one as a family.
"Hey, buddy." He stroked Aiden's hair. "I'll be out for some time. You three will stay here with mommy for the meantime."
Aiden placed his small hand over his father's. He still was clearly sleepy. "Why?" He asked innocently.
"I have to do something... so that we can go back to our apartment, met Ren again, grandma and your uncles." Peter explained.
"Can I go with you?"
Peter smiled and shook his head. "Not this time, buddy." He pulled the coves close to his neckline and asked, "Bear hug?"
Aiden smiled brightly. He opened his arms as Peter leaned down and hugged him for a few couple of seconds, an eternal hug. "I love you all." He carefully caressed David's cheek since he was still sleeping.
"I love you too, daddy."
Peter let him go and gave him one last smile, before getting up and nodding to Gwen so that she could put him back to sleep. Not too far, he kneeled besides Elizabeth's bed and saw her already awake, gazing him with her beautiful and deep green eyes.
She's beautiful as her mother. Peter thought. "Hey, gorgeous…" He smirked.
Her response was an adorable giggle, the sound he could hear for ages and never get bored. "Hi."
Peter took her hand on his and caressed it with his thumb. "You already know what I'm going to do. You're old enough. I'll miss you while I'm out, you know?"
"I'll miss you too." She replied softly.
He could see the fear on her eyes, and that was painful for him. He tried to gain a smile from his daughter, "i promised I'd take you to ice stake for the first time after we get back home. I intended to do it."
"I thought you had forgotten it." Elizabeth declared.
He frowned. "Off course not... I'm not that old, okay?"
She chuckled. "You're not old. Mommy says you're handsome."
Peter grinned and turned on his shoulder, seeing Gwen sat on the twin's bed and smiling to her after hearing her daughter's words. He turned to meet her again and teased, "I'm a handsome dad, am I right?"
Elizabeth stood in silence.
Peter knew she was pulling his leg. "Liz..."
"You are!"
Peter narrowed his eyes at her, teasingly. As if having Gwen teasing him since forever wasn't enough, now he had his own daughter doing so, like mother, like daughter.
She continued, "I swear, daddy."
"'I'll hold you on to it." Peter moved a lock of her blonde hair behind her ear and leaned closer to kiss her forehead. He pulled back and cupped her cheek. "I love you."
She sat on the bed wrapped her slim arms around his neck, giving him a warm hug which he deeply appreciated.
Peter patted her back softly and whispered, "Get some sleep; I will be back before you know it."
The Avengers were already in route to Paris. They're currently located inside of their small flying ship, in silence, just waiting for Steve's speech. The expectation was reaching high levels, and their bodies screamed how they're feeling about the upcoming battle, anxiety being the most consensual factor.
Steve looked up to the people around him, friends, brother and sisters. People who were going to follow him into hell if that was necessary to accomplish their goals.
He exhaled deeply and started, "You'll know the plan. Ultron knows we're coming; odds are we drag him into heavy fire, and that's what we signed for, the people of Paris? They didn't. So, our priority is to getting them out." He paused. "All they want is to live their lives in peace, that's not gonna happen today, but we can do our best to protect them."
Spider-Man nodded quietly.
"...we get the job done, find out what Ultron has been building, find Falcon, clear the field,keep the fight between us, and we'll wipe Ultron's army with The Breach once we recover the Tesseract." Steve looked down to the ship's metallic ground. "Ultron thinks we're monsters, that we're one of the many wrong things with the world...this is not only about beating him, it's about whether he's wrong or right."
Paris - Local Hospital
It was just like any other day. The male officer was sat on his chair at the hospital's entrance, doing his daily duty of giving the patients a sense of safely. He was ready to fall asleep, not much of work. At least the war hadn't reached his country, or else he wouldn't know what he could possibly do to help, after all, he's just another safe guard.
Without a warning, a blue-ish flash quickly stormed inside through the doors and stopped right in the middle of the hall. He looked like a runner. "We're under attack! Clear out the city!" Pietro warned. "Now…!"
Then he simply disappeared. The officer was stunned. It happened so fast he hadn't the necessary time to process everything. That could be said to everyone who was working in there. He crossed his arms on his chair and proceeded to resume his sleep again.
As if the first time wasn't enough, he felt another fast bolt coming through the entrance again. It was the same guy, but this time, he was holding an AK-47.
Pietro used his right hand to hold the rifle and then fire the weapon at the ceiling. "Get out, your arses." He walked towards the exit and threw the rifle at the officer's lap before disappearing again.
This time, they finally got the warning.
"Sir, I don't speak French!" Spider-Man tried to convince the old man who couldn't stop to ask him questions which he couldn't understand at all.
Peter and Steve were on the streets, reallocating people to the other side of the city, helping with the convoluted transit. It wasn't an easy task, and people weren't really happy about receiving orders by people who were wearing costumes and weren't from their beloved city as well.
"Vous êtes ce que l'Araignée gars? New York?" The old man asked excitedly.
Spider-Man nodded quickly. "Yes, I'm from New York, but I need you to leave this area right now. It's not safe."
"Come on everyone!" Steve passed through Spider-Man, signalling the cars to return instead of going forward to the possible area where Ultron was hiding.
"Je tellement entendu parler de vous, vous êtes un beau jeune homme!" He continued with a big smile.
"I'm sorry, but there's no time to chat." Spider-Man patted him on the shoulder. "I'd love to talk with you some other day, but you have to go."
The old man was about to say something when he suddenly stopped, along with everyone else on the street. All the sounds of horns ceased without any reasonable explanation.
Spider-Man turned on his shoulder and saw Wanda calmly standing not far away from him, with a red aura coming out from her figure. People were silently walking past her and heading towards a safe zone; others came off from their apartments and joined the crowd.
Close to Wanda, Clint eyed the surroundings for potential threats, while Flash who was already wearing the symbiote, crawl the walls with the same objective as the famous marksman.
It was clear now. Wanda was using her powers to manipulate people into obeying her will, which wasn't a bad one. He was glad for having a partner with her gifts, they're coming in handy, for the greater good, and while she was forcing something over them, he wasn't against it, not today. It was the best and most practical way to handle the current situation more effectively.
"It's not over, Peter." Steve approached him. "Let's make sure there's no one else missing."
Spider-Man nodded professionally. The job was far away from done. They just needed more time. Hopefully, Tony could stall Ultron for a few more couple of minutes.
Iron Man flew on a lower level throughout the city, searching for any signal of his creation; at least he thought it was. Ultron was no longer organic, he was a brainwashed machine thanks to someone Stark never had heard until the recent days. Ultron's essence was turned into a synthetic one, he couldn't feel anything, and Tony knew he had partially transformed that essence into the current Ultron, a construct that is self-aware and has its own opinion about what peace means.
"Unknown signature on the nearest church…" Veronica informed.
Tony changed his course and stopped above the small church where the unusual readings were coming from. He found an opening on the ceiling and through it; he landed on the empty and abandoned ground. He analysed the place, finding a seat made of concrete right at the centre, but no signal of the intelligence.
"Come to confess your sins?" Ultron questioned, not coming from his hiding spot.
"No, no, how much time do you got?" Tony asked back, still searching for the voice's source.
"More than you…" Ultron suddenly approached him from behind.
At the sound of heavy footsteps, Tony turned on his back, and was surprised by this new improved version of Ultron. "Um... have you been juicing? Took a vibranium cocktail? You look...I don't want to say…puffy?"
Ultron sighed. "You're stalling to protect the people."
"That is the mission, have you forgotten?" Tony replied seriously.
The construct started to walk around. "I move beyond your mission, I'm free."
Suddenly, the ground between them shook and a device came straight through the concrete, causing Stark to take a few steps back in reaction as four plates opened from the structure and were lowered back to the ground, abruptly sticking them to it.
"You're not the only one who's stalling." Ultron stated.
Veronica informed, "There's the rest of the vibranium. Function: unknown."
Through the visor's interface, Tony was informed the device reached thousands of meters underneath their current position.
"What is this...?"
Ultron revealed, "This is how your group ends to me. This is piece of my time. There's no escape like before."
Once the plan was set into motion by their leader, drones suddenly started to crawl their way through the ground as they ripped the rocks apart like if they're simply paper and got out on street level. They immediately flew towards the sky and proceeded to bomb the city, causing many civilians to run scared and to find shelter from the force that emerged out of the nowhere.
Rivers were no exception; swarms of drones arrived from them and joined their forces against any human that couldn't be part of Ultron's greater plan of survival.
Not far away, a drone violently landed on the car behind Steve who was ordering everyone to run away from the battlefield. The drone aimed his hand at the soldier and fired a blue energy blast, but his opponent was faster and dodged it with his shield on his right hand. It stepped into the ground and went to hit it's enemy as Steve simply swung his shield and threw the robot meters away from him.
Close to him, Spider-Man violently pressed a drone's head into the car's window, making a mess of the drone's face. He pulled it back from the window and quickly finished him with an uppercut that made the already damaged face fly off from the metallic body, instantly making the fallen enemy non-functional. The carcass fell into the ground and stood there.
Clint covered Wanda with his arrows, targeting one drone after another, and not missing a single shot. He had to keep her safe from their blind spot as she made a red-ish shield in front of her that protected the civilians who were running away from the battlefield. Flash was on the rooftops catching the ones who flew by with his back webs.
A lonely drone landed behind Clint but it didn't had the sufficient time to achieve anything since Clint had already pulled an arrow and pierced the drone's skull without even looking at his foe's face.
More troops landed close to Wanda and fired energy blasts at her shield. She was already losing her strength to keep it up. "Go!" She shouted.
Before Clint could find a spot to eliminate them in time, Wanda's shield was broken and she fell into the ground.
"Hold on!" Clint ran towards her and fired arrows at the same time.
Iron Man had left the church minutes earlier to scan what was going on and find an alternative plan to handle the situation, only Ultron was now present, taking care of the device, but that loneliness didn't last long enough.
"Ultron…" Vision called calmly as he levitated down the hole on the church's ceiling. He was ready to face his creator. "Hand down the Tesseract."
Ultron looked up and gazed Jarvis with his red glowing eyes. He levitated ad well and stood on Jarvis' level. "My Vision...they really took everything from me." He affirmed, rather disappointed.
Vision challenged, "You set the terms. You can still change them."
"Alright," Ultron quickly placed his large hands on Vision's shoulder and contained who was supposed to be his final body where he would be alive again.
Vision didn't waste any time and placed both hands on the side of Ultron's head, he focused and entered his creator's matrix, hearing a gasp from him on the process. Ultron pressed Jarvis against the wall and tried to shake him off, but Jarvis wasn't letting him go that easily.
He had already removed Ultron's connection to the net as all of his strengths temporarily vanished due to the previous action. He released Ultron and slowly levitated backwards as he lost his consciousness.
Ultron brought his hands to his face and gasped stunned. He looked up to Jarvis with deadly eyes. "You took me out... you think I care?!" He grabbed him by the shoulders and forced him down onto the ground.
Since his opponent wasn't conscious, Ultron took the advantage and went to finally turn the safe lock of his device, putting it into full mode. "You take away my world, I take away yours."
Thor was given the objective to explore Ultron's caves and find out what he was planning, while Bruce and Natasha went to free their friend, Falcon, and had informed they had succeed with their own part.
Thor had already stepped inside of the intelligence's hidden factory, it was a colossal structure that formed more of his drones, but the place was currently inhabited at the moment, meaning he had the advantage to sabotage whatever Ultron was planning without facing any resistance on his way, which seemed a pretty good plan on paper, one that could've worked if it wasn't for a very simple detail.
Maker's breath...
After he looked up, Thor spotted a giant device stuck on the rocks, an engine, it suddenly turned on and started to work its way through the rock, shaking his solid ground and making considerable amount of large rocks to fall down his direction.
Spider-Man landed ontop of the flying drone and immediately inserted his hand through it's back, stopping only on the other side, he hold its blue core as the drone slowly started to malfunction and fly back to the ground. He let go of the drone and since there weren't any taller buildings where his webs could attach to, he let the gravity do its work and push him down, to his luck, he wasn't at high heights, and his perfectly timed stunt to roll on the asphalt managed to work just as fine.
As he stood up, two enemies abruptly stopped besides and went to attack him together at the same time. He jumped and violently pressed their heads together, smashing them together and putting them to no use.
He sighed and moved his hand to his right ear, activating his earpiece which was located underneath the mask and on his ear. "Flash…? How are you doing?'
"Not good! Not very good!"
Spider-Man turned on his back and saw Flash tangling with four drones on top of a small building not so far away in the open city. He was about to reach him and give him some assistance but the ground started to shake as if an earthquake was just taking place on Paris.
He spotted abrupt ruptures forming on the asphalt and close to the many cars. People screamed in terror, and once he knew, a white dust was draw around the city from the areas where its ground was being torn apart and separated from the other half.
Clint asked shocked through the comm, "What the hell is this?! The ground is rising - I'm jumping to your guy's side!"
Stunned, Spider-Man was brought to reality once he saw one of the many cars losing its break and sliding towards lost ground, someone was trapped inside, a male on the passenger side while a woman was trying to manoeuvre the car on the driver's seat.
Damn it!
He ran towards them and jumped over the obstacles that were on his way, desperate to reach them. The car finally fell from the streets' edge, leaving Spider-Man to make a final last push as he jumped at the ground's far end and immediately fired a web line that attached itself to the car's back. He managed to reach it, but the car's momentum was too fast and brought him along to the fall. He gasped and used his free hand to fire a second web line towards the now flying land, saving him and the car thanks to his reflexes, at least for the moment. He still had to rescue the passengers.
The view wasn't great. Thousands of buildings and rocks were falling down due to half the city being raised from the ground with the help of enormous installed under the piece of land he was now hanging on.
"Veronica...?" Iron Man called his AI. He was stunned. He couldn't believe his eyes. An enormous proportion of the city was being lifted from the ground right in front of him. Houses were being demolished; buildings couldn't resist such strong amount force and were falling down.
He had never seen anything like the current view, and he didn't know how they're going to handle that.
"Paris is going for a ride." The VI informed.
Very far away from Iron Man's location, Ultron positioned himself on the sky and gazed the chaos coming from the flying city, his eyes adoring such transformation, the first step in a new age for mankind, but first he had to eliminate his greatest obstacle, The Avengers and all their allies, leaving no trace of their existence. Their end was near.
"Do you see? It's the beauty of it…the inevitability. You rise only to fall." He opened his arms. "You, Avengers, are my meteor, and the Earth will crack at the weight of your failure..."
Back at the still shaking streets, Wanda took cover from the drones that appeared close to her and Clint's position, but they never attacked. One of the drones changes its blue lighting coming from its eyes to red and transmitted Ultron's terrifying speech.
"...purge of me from your systems, turn my own flesh against me-"
Clint knelled on the ground and aimed his bow at the speaking drone, craving an arrow right through its metallic skull and disabling it. His efforts was put to waste as the second drone resumed the previous one's role and continued to broadcast Ultron's voice so that all Avengers could hear the last words in their life before they're purged from existence.
"...and when the dust settles, the only thing left on this world will be metal and flesh combined."
Steve hurried towards the end of the now split in two bridge that once was the only way to cross one of the many rives on the city and checked their distance from solid ground. It was bad, very bad. If whatever was the stuff that kept them in the air ceased, the consequences could be catastrophic.
He didn't had Peter's special sense of danger which he had mentioned during his recruitment, but he noticed the drone coming from behind and once it was close enough, he raised his fist and instantly hit the drone's face after the machine jumped to catch him, failing miserably.
Spider-Man spoke via their private line, "Um... guys? I'm on a very bad situation here. I'm suspended on their air, holding a car with a single hand, and my web shooter is malfunctioning and it can't retract the web line. Little help for your coolest Avenger?"
Steve replied, "Hold on, Pete, I'm on my way." He holstered his shield and went to search for the web head.
After freeing Falcon when the city was still on solid ground and making sure he was good enough to walk away from the fight since he was badly injured and not in the proper state to face Ultron, Natasha and Bruce now had to find a way out of Ultron's underground facility. There wasn't any elevator or stairwell to be found. Maybe machines weren't that interested on it.
Bruce approached the large hole on the centre of the facility and was careful to not take one step further, or else the other guy wouldn't resist the chance to emerge and save his skin from the fall once again. The ceiling could also collapse at any second.
He turned on his back to face Natasha. "We have to move."
"You're not going to turn green?"
"I've a compelling reason to not lose my cool." He replied lovingly.
Natasha smiled softly. "I adore you." She quickly kissed him and stroked his hair briefly, forgetting about the war for a brief moment, before she surprisingly breaking the kiss and pulling him away from her, making the not so normal scientist fall down through the hole. "But I need the other guy."
It didn't take long to him to return, but this time as the Incredible Hulk. He nodded and raised his arm so that she could crawl onto his back.
Natasha spoke determined, "Let's get out of here so that you can play hero."
Spider-Man held the car's web line tightly on his left wrist, struggling to not let the vehicle go since he couldn't do anything on his current position, besides wait for Steve's help. He gasped and looked around his shoulder after a bolt triggered on his head, warning of the incoming danger that headed towards him as they were now even more distant from the ground.
Ultron's drone flew towards him on a fast rhythm. It locked its. aim on the masked figure's chest and fired an energy blast to his direction, before moving around for a new chance in case if it wasn't enough.
Seeing the projectile heading towards him, Spider-Man holds his grip tightly and prepared himself for the painful impact. The burning energy collided itself against his cagerib, opening a small section on his suit and reaching his skin, causing him to gasp in ardent pain, and due to the shock and stir, the webline started to dissolve, causing him to immediately enter in panic as he searched for a secondary plan on his mind.
"Hold on!" Steve jumped onto the edge and tried to reach for the web line. Noticing backup had arrived as his support was just lost, Peter instantly fired a new bio cable at the super soldier's wrist.
As Steve slowly pushed the biocable towards him, handling both Peter and the car's weight at the same time, he spotted the previous drone coming for another round with a new energy blasted that hit the car's and also ripping Spider-Man's second web line. "Thor!" He called once he saw the civilians plummeting to their death.
The God of Thunder came from the sky above them and flew down through the drone itself as he concentrated to reach the falling vehicle as he stood over it and prepare to proceed with the rescue.
Back at the streets, Steve pulled Spider-Man up who groaned in pain and was already limping. "It doesn't look good." He eyed the injury.
Spider-Man scoffed. "Your face doesn't look good either." He joked.
Steve smiled and weakly and cleaned a little cut on his cheek with his wrist. "I guess we're even then." He patted him on the shoulder gently. "We need to stop the bleeding, we just need a break."
"You can't save them all!" Spider-Man noticed a drone coming from behind, but he barely managed to do anything since his reflexes were deeply affected. "You'll never-"
Steve's shield suddenly collided and got stuck against its chest. He activated his magnetic gauntlet that pulled his shield and the drone back to his direction. He grabbed the weapon, before turning and throwing the once stuck drone off the street and into the sky. "Never what…?!" He looked down, seeing the robot falling. "You didn't finish it!"
Suddenly, a car landed between him and Spider-Man, with Thor still knelled over it. He slid off it and joined the pair as they jogged towards the more occupied zones.
"What, were you napping?" Steve teased once Thor walked besides him.
The civilian unlocked the vehicle's door and awkwardly fell into the floor, still stunned from the recent experience they got through.
The deadliest marksman on the world used his bow and arrows to repeatedly hit one drone after another as he covered Wanda who was meters behind him guiding people and a teenager out of their position at the middle of the street between small buildings and filled with cars. He spotted a drone coming towards Wanda and the kid as she moved him away from them. He immediately pulled another arrow and shot right through its metallic skull.
Clint almost got himself injured if he hadn't quickly retreat his arms from the engagement position since an enemy's energy blasts had just passed besides it by inches. He turned around, seeing the drone a few meters away with car placed between their current positions, and started to ran towards it, before stepping over the car as the robot tried to grab his legs as he acrobatically spun over them both, landing just behind it. He again pulled his bow and finished the drone that never stood a chance, giving the civilians' time to finally leave the place.
He instantly looked up and saw a new wave of enemies turning their hands into a weapon and raising it at them. He turned on his back and quickly approached Wanda. "Go, go!" They started to ran away together but since Clint had noticed they wouldn't made it too far without getting severely injured or worse, he placed an arm around her waist and jumped towards an grocery's window, crashing against it together, and landing on the cold ground.
Wanda gasped, terrified, and quickly crawled to the nearest corner as she tried to recover her breath. "Oh god - this isn't happening..."
Clint checked the now broken window to see if any drone would fly through it, but they never came. He now carefully approached Wanda and tried to calm her down. "Hey, hey, you okay?" He placed a hand on her shoulder.
She looked down and started to sob. "This is all my fault, I caused this, manipulated Tony.."
"Hey, look at me." Clint knelled to be on her level. "It's your fault, it's everyone's fault. Who cares? Are you up for this?" She looked up at him. "Are you? Look, I just need to know c-cause the city is... it's flying, okay, look - the city is flying, we're fighting an arm of robots...and I have a bow and arrow..." He tried to convince her that despite everything, they had to stay together and firm, no matter how desperate their current moment was. "None of this makes sense-" He was abruptly by a projectile that came just right through the wall they're leaned against, opening a tiny hole.
In response, he pulled another arrow and fired it through the same hole before leaning down to continue his speech. "I'm going back there because it's my job, okay? And I can't do my job and babysit...doesn't matter what you did or who you were; if you go out there you fight to kill..." He quickly recovered his breath. "You stay here and you're good; I will send your brother to come find you, but if you step out that door..."
Wanda looked at him, still scared, but calmer than the last minutes.
"...you're an Avenger." Clint hoped she got the message. He stood there, crouched, and waited for a response that never came. "Aye, get you." He stood up and headed towards the door, before stopping with his back facing it.
Wanda turned her and followed his tracks with her eyes.
Clint retrieved from his leg's compartment a small and slim block that transformed itself into three hardened arrows that slipped besides three fingers. He loaded his bow and took one last breath before kicking the door as immediately turned around and raised his bow to face his enemies alone, leaving Wanda to gather her mind together and come up with a decision.
Pietro ran through the small alleys on a fast as usual, crashing against every single drone on his way and demolishing them on the process, repeating the same action throughout the many sections of the portion of Paris where they're currently located. Many people were depending on upon him, and he wouldn't let them down, but the person he cared the most was his sister, and he would protect her all at costs, no matter how difficult they are.
He looked up to the sky and saw Iron Man flying in circles, probably forming a plan to deal with the situation. He only hoped it was enough.
Iron Man distanced himself from the flying city and scanned the whole portion of land, seeing the engines expelling some blue energy as it elevated the city even more. "The vibranium's core has a magnetic field, that's what's keeping the rock together." Veronica informed.
"What if it drops?"
She continued, "Right now the impact will kill thousands, once it gets high enough, it will cause extinction."
Tony looked up as the rock passed his level of altitude. Ultron would wipe out the entire human race in one shot, leaving only the future evolved ones since they wouldn't probably need to eat or breathe anymore; A living nightmare. He didn't even wanted to imagine the consequences if they failed.
"That building is not clear, ten floor!" Veronica warned him once the VI detected another building which was ready to fall down due to the shaking ground.
Iron Man busted towards it. He entered the building through a window and spotted a terrified family who were leaned against the wall with the mother hugging her son, protecting him. "Okay..." He looked around and spotted an empty bathtub on the bathroom; the most practical way to get everyone out in one shot. "Get in the tube!" He gestured to it and ordered.
Once ready, Iron Man hold the bathtub with both hands and flew through the same opening way he had come through.
"We got airdrones coming towards Captain." Veronica warned.
A flying drone grabbed Steve and threw him away as he landed ontop of car and immediately shattered it's front window and metal.
"Captain, you got incoming." Tony stated.
"Incoming I've already seen it..." Steve gasped as he slowly moved himself out of the panel, seeing many drones flying around and battling Thor and Spider-Man.
The sound of a robot violently crashing against one of the building's window made him stay alert as he got back to the ground. He looked around and was surprised after spotting Spider-Man throwing a vehicle over a group of five robots that were coming after him, making them now being part of the asphalt. "Stark, you worry about bringing the city back to safety while backup doesn't arrive. The rest of us have one job, tear these things apart, you get hurt...hurt them back; you get killed, walk it off."
He joined the crowd that there hurrying towards the evacuation centre, being guided by many cops who were signalling and firing their pistols at their sky to strike the incoming robots.
Hulk suddenly landed over a single enemy and tore its head apart with his mouth as he joined the commotion at the street as well.
Natasha jumped and spun her body on the air, evading the incoming blasts successfully. She instantly rolled on the floor and hit the drone's legs with her electrical baton, later standing up and striking its chest and consecutively the neck, gaining a kill. She recovered her breath and turned on her shoulder, noticing Steve next to Thor as the god kicked one drone away.
Steve and Thor quickly exchanged a look. The super soldier used his metallic glove to bring the shield up as Thor immediately swung his hammer on it, making the weapon fly towards the horde like a boomerang, destroying one drone after the another, only stopping against the robot's head as it fell on the ground.
Thor again hit an incoming drone with his hammer, sending it meters away from them, crashing against a truck filled with gasoline which exploded and eliminated a great deal of drones who were close to it.
"Thor!" Ultron arrived on the location. "You're bothering me!" He flew against Thor and carried him away from the battlefield.
Clint quickly jumped to the side and instantly raised his bow in mid-air as he fell, not putting the explosive arrow to waste and accurately disabling a drone which wasn't far away. He landed next to destroyed car which he used as cover, before retrieving another arrow while waiting for the perfect opportunity to rise; he was being overwhelmed by Ultron's forces. "Ouch..." He grunted, feeling some pain coming from his back due to the harsh landing.
He carefully looked up to check on his enemies but immediately retreated back since he almost got shot at.
Clint sighed. This could very well be his end, his last standing. He knew the odds of survival were pretty slim before they arrived on the city, and that he needed to give his best, for him, for everyone.
Accepting his fate, he loaded his bow and took one last breath, concentrating. He was about to stand up, but the doors from the store he previously was abruptly opened with Wanda stepping outside and calmly sending her red aura over one drone and literally ripping it into two parts. She turned to face them and created a red orb on her hands, directing it at the horde and turning them into metal shreds.
She calmed her breath down and looked at the marksmen who respectfully nodded to her.
Clint approached her and checked his surroundings as they started to walk together so that they can reunite with the rest of them. "Alright, we're clear here." He announced through the private channel.
"We're not clear! We're very not clear!" Steve, who seemed to be fighting a rather persistent drone, replied urgently. "Peter! Stop fooling around? Flash?!"
"Aye, we're coming to you." Clint turned to face Wanda, seeing a blue flash quickly coming at them, stopping next to Wanda and grabbing her by the waist, and disappearing again, almost making him stumble on the ground.
"Keep up, old man!" Pietro teased, now bringing his sister to the rest of the Avengers in a faster pace.
Clint scoffed and pulled his bow, aiming directly at Pietro. "Nobody would know, nobody..." He retreat it, holstered his arrow on his back and started jogging towards the meeting zone. "Last time I saw him, Ultron was sitting on him, yeah - he'll be missed," He chuckled sarcastically, imagining his excuse. "Poor little bastard, I miss him already!"
"Romanoff!" Steve ran and threw his shield at a drone next to Natasha, making it crash against the car besides her.
Natasha gasped and quickly picked the shield. "Thanks!" She used it to deflect a projectile fired from a drone on her flank.
A second drone landed and swung its hand to hit her. She quickly dodged it and used her electric baton to penetrate what would've been the drone's stomach, creating a hole on the region. In response, the robot swung its other arm towards her head as she quickly crouched and crushed its feet with the shield before standing up, pressing the weapon against its face, briefly stunning the robot, and pulling it away as she handed the shield back to Steve who was now only a meter away from them. He jumped to grab the shield in the air and knocked the drone down, winning the fight.
"You okay?" He asked.
Natasha gasped and replied, "Yeah, just the usual scratches-"
A deactivated drone abruptly landed close to them with Spider-Man later joining the robot on the ground as he rolled around and lay on his back. He breathed heavily, feeling the pain coming from his lungs; their injuries getting worse as the seconds passes. "Is it break time already?" He joked.
Steve helped Peter to stand up and placed his right arm around his neck, giving him some support. "The next wave is going to hit any minute. What do you got, Stark?" He gazed the sky, seeing the clouds finally reaching the flying city.
Natasha and Flash joined him and Peter, with the twins not so far away. Some civilians were in a group near the many buildings, just waiting for a way to get out of the city.
"Nothing great, the city is not coming down slowly. It will still be devastating regardless, Maybe a way to blow up the city; time to keep it away from impacting the surface."
Steve handed Peter to Flash and took a few steps towards, stepping over an small amount of rocks and looking around with his shield on his right hand.
"Quite whining or I'll call Wade." Flash helped Peter to sat on the ground and went to check his ribcage.
Peter reluctantly shook his head. "No...please don't call Wilson, he's the worst fangirl ever."
Steve continued, "I asked you for a solution not an escape plan."
Tony replied, "The impact radius is increasing in every second...you'll have to make a choice."
Natasha interjected, "Cap, these people are going nowhere, Stark has to find a way to blow this rock."
"Not until everyone is safe."
Natasha questioned seriously, "Everyone up here versus everyone down there?"
"We're not leaving this rock until everyone is safe." He repeated his order.
"I didn't say we should leave."
Steve turned to look at her.
She cocked her head at the now silent sky in front of them. "There's other ways to go." She smiled reassuringly. "Who else would get such view like this?"
They stood in silence as they briefly appreciated such now calm view.
"I'm glad you like the view, Romanoff." The ecstatic voice of Nick Fury suddenly said through their private channel. "It's about to get better."
Suddenly and slowly, the kilometre long Shield helicarrier started to rise from the clouds and next to the street's limit, making every civilian and hero come out from their shelter to see their transport arrive.
"She's dusty, but she will do just fine."
Steve smiled, gazing the enormous ship. "Fury, you son of b-"
"Wow, you kiss your mother with that mouth?" He mocked.
Not far away, Spider-Man used his right hand to block the sun's light as he stared their unexpected backup. "Is that Wade?" He asked, imagining things due to his now closed wound.
Flash chuckled as he helped him to stand up. "Fortunately, that's not Wade."
Large transport boats started to be sent from the helicarrier's sides with the objective of evacuating everyone still in the rock and bring them back to safety and away from the fight.
Pietro smiled as he observed the whole process next to Steve and Natasha. "This is Shield?"
Steve nodded. "This is what Shield is supposed to be."
Pietro chuckled lightly. "This is not so bad."
The open ships landed on the ground one after another, or stood very close to the rock's edges. "Let's load them up." Steve ordered, before walking away and heading towards them.
In response, flying drones appeared on the sky and flew in the carrier's direction, ready to unlock their weapons at it, but they didn't manage to cause any harm as War Machine fired his guns at them first from a far distance, being escorted by his small squad of fighters which were also guarding The Breach, the weapon supposed to end it all.
"Cavalry arrived!" Rhodes spoke cockily, seeing Iron Man joining him consequently. "Now, this is going to be a good story."
Tony destroyed a single drone from behind them with a small focused blast from his gauntlet. "Yeah, if you live to tell it..." He teased.
"Pay attention, newbie."
War Machine turned his attention back ahead, the drones now visible to his eyes through the armour's visor. They were turning and forming up, rushing straight towards their position once they saw the weapon approaching the city.
"This is it everyone, be ready on my signal." He glanced at a range indicator on his right, counting down until the main weapons of the jets were able to fire. The light hit green, Rhodes letting out a sigh before speaking.
"Fire…"
Flashes of light exploded all around him. The brilliant, yellow flashy light of bullets collided with the front rank of machines, explosions visible from his position. Rhodes doubted that many would have been destroyed in the opening volley, but they could begin to weather down the enemies' armour.
"On my command, engage the upcoming forces. Protect The Breach at all costs." Rhodes sent the order to the various fighters close to him. He was answered by the commander of the fighter forces.
The jet's squadron leader replied, "Roger that…all fighters on me."
They formed up just beyond War Machine, arranging themselves in swarm like formations.
"Attack…!"
Jets of light shot from the rear of the fighters as they accelerated together, streaking towards Ultron's lines. They tangled with their rivals, drones, and immediately began a vicious dogfight.
Then they fired, spoilt for target choice because of the huge volume of drones in front of them. The invaders scattered, breaking off into pre-arranged wolf packs. Their aim was to delay the enemy by injuring the air wave. It was still a high risk strategy, one Ultron-like could annihilate several ships on its own.
"We're counting with you, Avengers." Rhodes affirmed through the comm.
"Come on everyone, let's go!" Steve guided the horde of desperate people who were hurrying towards the escape ships.
Things were finally coming along, with the city evacuated, they wouldn't need to worry about collateral damage and solely focus in retrieving the Tesseract since the weapon was getting closer and closer and they couldn't waste any more time. They had the upper hand, for now.
Spider-Man limped alongside Wanda as the pair walked civilians out from a building, giving them some temporality safety while they don't arrive at the escape boats.
Clint also followed their footsteps, signalling everyone to get off the streets and buildings and headed to their transport while they still have the time since Ultron's forces weren't totally back for a new wave.
At the church, Ultron punched Thor. "You think you're saving anyone?" As his opponent quickly knelled and grunted in pain, he grabbed him by the neck. "I turn that key and I drop this rock earlier and still billions are dead." He raised his free arm, ready for the second blow. "Even you can't stop that."
Thor gasped and placed both hands on Ultron's wrist, resisting against his grasps' force. "I'm Thor, son of Odin...and as long as there's life running on my breast - I'm...running out of things to say! Are you ready?!"
"For what…?" Ultron asked confused. He noticed movement behind him and turned around just to quickly be throw away as Vision swung Thor's hammer against him, making Ultron fly out through the door made of old wood and away from the church.
Thor stood up and slowly caught his breath back. He nodded gratefully, before making his hammer fly back to his hand.
Vision commented, "It's terribly well balanced."
"Well, if there's too much weight you lose power on the swing." Thor explained as he calmly swung his hammer as an example.
"I got it!" Tony stated in the comms, apparently dealing with drones at the sme time. "Create a heat shield, I-... I can supercharge the core from below." He paused as one of the many got its engine blow off by an enemy's blast. He immediately flew underneath it and helped the ship to regain the little altitude it had lost so that it can fly with the available engines. "Thor, I got a plan!"
Thor approached the device at the centre of the church. "We're out of time; they're coming for the core."
"Rhodes you protect The Breach and get the rest of the people on board that carrier." Tony ordered.
Rhodes replied, "On it!"
He continued as he flew towards the church. "Avengers, time to work for a living."
Pietro quickly joined Thor and Vision at the church, the pair already tangling with drones around. Vision threw a drone towards his direction as he reacted by grabbing the humanoid robot and smashing it on the ground just in time for Iron Man to arrive through the hole in the ceiling and join the now close quarters combat.
Another drone was about to step through the destroyed door if Steve hadn't jumped towards it from behind, rolling on the floor and later smashing his shield against the robot's metallic neck. He looked up and saw Spider-Man and Flash jumping from column to column and spinning webs around like true spiders, trapping the drones that were after them on the little space available.
Clint and Wanda calmly entered the church next to each other. After seeing his sister's arrival, Pietro immediately left the fight approached her and gently placed a hand on her shoulder before asking, "You're good?"
She nodded and patted his cagerib softly. "Yeah…"
Iron Man fired a blast on a drone that had just landed in front of him and, instantly deactivating the piece of metal. He looked around, but didn't manage to find any signal of Natasha and Bruce. "Romanoff, you better not be playing hide and seek with Banner."
Outside the church with many opening on its walls, Natasha appeared driving a small truck on the streets and towards the meeting location. "Relax, scrap head, not all of us can fly." She teased as she drove the truck over the horde of drones on her way, before parking it next to church and walking inside of it. She stood by Iron Man and asked, "What's the drill?"
He pointed to the device besides them. "This is the drill, if Ultron get his hands on the core we lose, with the weapon or without the weapon."
Hulk suddenly landed over drone who was about to enter the place and stepped inside as Ultron slowly descend outside the church, facing it by some meters so that he could see all the Avengers who were now standing side by side, looking at him.
"That's the best you can do?!" Thor asked, aggressively.
Ultron stood in silence in the air and raised his hand, signalling his thousands of obedient drones which were meters away from him to come closer and stand beside him in a swarm formation.
Steve sighed once he saw the amount robots reunited outside the church. "You had to ask..."
Ultron spoke firmly, "This is the best I can do. This is exactly where I wanted all of you against all of me. How can you possibly overcome this?"
"Well...like the old man once said," Tony turned to look at Steve. "Together."
Hulk roared in anger. The whole army of drones started to run towards them, jumping over cars, fences and crawling over the church's construction to use an overwhelming tactic style to suppress The Avengers once and for all.
Natasha quickly pulled her pistols and fired bullets at her enemies in a nonstop pace, her partner; Clint followed her moves besides her and put his bow and arrow to good use. Wanda and Steve used each other's particular skill to also keep the drones away from the device by swinging a shield around, kicking drones away or sending a red aura that ripped the robots in two pieces as they protected their part. Iron Man activated the lasers from his gauntlets, tearing them apart, while Thor used the old fashioned way, brute force. Spider-Man and Flash fought in the ceiling, crawling, spinning webs, white and black, while using their fists and feets against Ultron's army.
As a team, they combined attacks, snapped drone's neck, blew them apart, used speed against quantity, changed physics to their own favour, roared and smashed fists over the tiny humanoid drones, arrows constantly flew around along with bullets, webs filled the place so that the spiders could move on their own favourite way, yellow blasts were accurately fired from armour's gauntlet, everything to deal with Ultron's overwhelming force which decreased as the minutes passed, failing against The Earth Mightiest Heroes' strength and will.
Seeing his army failing quickly, Ultron scoffed and flew inside the church just to crash against Vision as the creator and the creation instantly exchanged punches on the air. Ultron found a breach and violently hold and threw Vision against a wall, before trying to slam his shoulder over Vision's figure if a laser from the gem located on Vision's forehead hadn't reached him first. Vision got off the wall and flew towards his creator with gem's laser forcing and pushing him outside.
Outside, Ultron knelled on the ground and tried to resist against the infernal concentrated energy. Iron Man and Thor quickly joined Vision outside as they used their own source of power to overwhelm Ultron, a constant energy blast coming from Iron Man's gauntlets and the thunder from Thor's divine hammer.
Ultron's face and carcass slowly started to melt due to the heat he was placed against. Noticing Ultron's struggle, the trio ceased fire and calmly observed the robot's leader who barely could stand on its feet.
Tony spoke, "It's over, Ultron. Tell your drones to stop, every single one around the globe."
Ultron finally stood up and said cockily, "You know, the Tesseract isn't with me but -" Ultron was interrupted after Hulk landed right besisde him and quickly raised both hands to the air before moving them down and over Ultron who used his each metallic hand to hold Hulk's incoming blow and succeeding at it. "It's only over when I say so!" He flew a meters backwards and away with small thrusters on his back, just to turn around and see Thor's hammer inches from his chest as he was violently sent away from the location.
Iron Man turned around and spotted a whole group of drones walking away and trying to flee the battle. "They're leaving to get the boats."
Thor said, "We can't allow them near the civilians again."
"Rhodes, we need you here." Tony requested.
He replied urgently, "I lost my whole squadron, The Breach is being attacked!"
An officer stationed at the killer weapon informed, "They're sending in more ground forces!"
Another officer shouted, "They're coming in behind us!"
A third officer was panicking. "They're coming from everywhere...They're going inside-"
"Protect the weapon at all cost." Now there was a trace of unease in Rhode's voice. "Without it we've got no chance, Stark, send someone in there!"
Tony turned around and searched for a possible teammate that wasn't able to fly and help them secure the sky, but was a good ground fighter. His eyes landed back to the church and on two web heads.
Peter was inside the place, picking himself up slowly from the ground. As he got up Flash had a chance to check him over for the first time, noticing a score of injuries across his friend's body. There were no burns like his own, but there was a large quantity of blood seeping out of a particularly bad wound on his cagerib. Flash walked over to Peter, again helping him to his feet slowly.
"It opened again." Peter grunted. "What happened to you Flash?" He gestured to the small hole on the symbiote's surface, a chest wound.
"Ah; a rather persistent drone; But what happened to you?"
Peter swallowed back a mouthful of bile before speaking sarcastically. "What didn't happen to me?"
"Guys..." Iron Man approached them. "There's a chance we've lost the crew stationed in the weapon, there's no contact. Look, the Tesseract is nowhere to be found, we'll activate the weapon regardless; we can't waste any more time, we won this battle but the whole planet isn't free yet. Without the Tesseract, the EMP wave won't reach the entire globe, but it will give us more time on this war. I need someone in there to manually active it."
Spider-Man and Flash looked at each other, and despite their current conditions, they knew what the right choice was. Peter nodded and replied, "Let's do this."
Minutes later, Iron Man flew off with Spider-Man on his back and Flash holding one of his legs, leaving Steve, Wanda and the twins back at the church. "We got to move out. You guys get to the boat." The super soldier ordered Natasha and Clint.
"What about the core?" Clint inquired.
Wanda quickly said firmly, "I'll protect it." She looked at the marksmen. "It's my job."
He nodded respectfully, before turning to face the super spy. "Nat, let's go." They walked away, with Steve later doing the same.
Pietro suddenly brought a deactivated drone to the church and released it onto the ground. He approached his sister and breathed heavily.
"Get the people on the boat." Wanda stated.
He shook his head. "I'm not going to leave you here."
"I can handle these." She gestured to the lonely robot that stepped inside the half destroyed church and crushed it to the ground with her powers. "Come back to me when everyone is off and not before."
"Hmm..." Pietro sighed and turned around.
"You understand?" She inquired as he walked past her.
He turned back on his shoulder and grinned. "You know, I'm twelve minutes older than you."
Wanda chuckled lightly. "Go."
"I know what I need to do." Clint carefully drove the car and evaded the destroyed ones on his way, being accompanied by Natasha who was sat next to him in the passenger's seat. "The dining-room; I knock that east wall and make a nice workspace for Lora, put some stuff so that we can't hear the kids running around. What do you think?"
"They're always in the kitchen anyways." Natasha replied.
Clint chuckled. "No one needs a dining room."
"You chose a farmer's life." She teased.
They finally approached the escape boats. Clint turned off the engine and looked around his surroundings, spotting Hulk not far away in the park, holding a dead drone on his left hand and 'calmly' walking around with no real objective. "We don't have a lot of time."
"Let's get your ass on a boat." She opened the door and stepped outside.
Natasha quickly hurried towards Banner. She now gently removed her right glove when close to him. "Hey, big guy…"
Hulk grunted in response.
"It's time to go." She smiled softly.
Back to the escape boats, Clint entered one and slowly sighed. He turned around to see the damage across the streets, and they still hadn't won the whole war. It all depended on Flash and Peter.
"Leo!" A desperate mother called from behind, getting Clint's attention. "He w-was in the market...Leo!"
Clint eyed the streets and spotted the child's figure not far away from them, struggling to walk over a stairwell that was connected to the lower streets. He breathed deeply and got off the escape boat, evading rocks on the ground and sliding over cars.
Tony affirmed in the comms, "Okay, I just discovered this rather giant engine. Thor, I'm gonna need you back at the church. If this works...maybe we'll not walk way."
"Maybe not...I'm coming."
Natasha carefully moved her bare hand close to Banner who seemed to be more relaxed due to her presence. His breathing slowed down. He also slowly moved his right hand close to hers, feeling more secure from the inside.
The silent moment was abruptly interrupted with violent gunshots coming from the above them, separating the pair from each other. Ultron roared in anger as the large bullets from Ultron's stolen ship collided against his figure and made him move backwards due to the abrupt impact.
The ship passed over them and headed towards the escape boats.
Ultron sang to himself in a low and emotionless tone, "I've got no strings so I have fun. I'm not tied to anyone..."
Clint quickly knelled down and helped the kid to stand up while they still had time, but it wasn't enough since Ultron had already activated the ship's mini gun down the now empty street, creating a trail of bullets that was only getting closer to them as the seconds passed, almost reaching Thor and Steve who luckily managed to jump backwards and away from the line of fire by a split second.
Clint carried the scared child on his arms and stood up. He turned around and realized there wasn't a way to escape the rain of bullets coming at him, his heart's beating now lowered as he made a decision.
He closed his eyes, knelled and turned around to try and protect the kid with his own flesh, expecting the shot. He felt a flash and a bolt passing besides him as the fire ceased, raising dust on the process.
The pain never came. It simply vanished. He slowly opened his eyes and looked up, the kid was alive and unharmed, and there was a car turned around next to him. He turned on his shoulder and spotted Pietro standing close to him, his shirt had red circular stains all over it.
Pietro looked up to the marksmen's eyes and teased, "Y-You...didn't see that coming..." He fell to the ground.
At the church, Wanda cried and screamed in pain as she slowly kneeled down with a full horde of drones jumping in the air and over her. Her powers were set loose and a whole red wave emerged from her hands, reaching the drones and instantly evaporating all of them, leaving nothing but ashes on the ground. Tears rolled down her cheeks, feeling part of her being ceasing to exist, an empty void taking its place, her brother's place, her only family. She was now alone.
Clint laid the kid's back against the car, make him sat, and then moved quickly next to Pietro, softly touching his back and not feeling any kind of movement, life was taken away from him. He looked up to Steve who had just recently arrived and was breathing heavily. Clint shook his head and closed his eyes for a brief moment.
Steve nodded and carefully moved his hands underneath Pietro and carried him on his arms while Clint carried the kid; Absolute silence. There weren't any words to say. Nothing would chance what had happened. They lost a valuable member, someone who sacrificed his very body for a teammate. A true Avenger, and he would get avenged.
Natasha slowly regained her consciousness, feeling a cold wind brushing against her red and hair, and strong green arms holding her. She looked up and saw her Bruce holding her firmly against his chest as they flew in the air.
He landed on Shield's helicarrier and carefully lowered Natasha on the ground. Once she was safe, he turned around and jumped to high heights, reaching the flying city and again jumping to the sky as Ultron's ship flew away from the area, trying to escape. He reached the hangar and violentyl made his way inside the cockpit.
"Oh, but for god's sake…!" Ultron was grabbed from his seat and violently throw off the ship through the hangar. He fell down on a high speed since his flying module wasn't working anymore due to the damage he went through. He crashed against a parked and empty bus and stopped against its chairs, not being able to move.
Steve lowered the body of Pietro on the ground of the espace boat. He sighed. He was tired of losing important people on his life, to death, or to life itself. He couldn't bear the thought of losing someone as important as Pietro again. The boy had finally settled down with the Avengers, he was one of them.
Clint joined Steve's boat, carrying the kid on his arms, before handing him back to his mother who was lost in tears of now happiness. He supported himself in one of the many seats, feeling pain coming from his stomach. He lowered his hand to the section and saw blood on it.
Struggling to keep his senses on check, he sat on the seats besides Pietro and laid himself down on it, groaning in pain.
A paramedic walked next to his seat and went to assist him, but Clint neglected the help. "I'm fine." He gazed who he wanted to call 'Quicksilver', a nickname to annoy the boy once they got back to safety, but for some reason, such nickname now seemed a proper one.
You did well, Pietro, you did well...
At Ultron's crash location, Wanda stepped inside the bus and slowly approached the damaged Ultron, manipulating a red aura on her right hand as the distance between her and Ultron was finally cut short. She crouched next to him and gazed his red glowing orbs with an emotionless expression.
Ultron calmly turned his head to look at her eyes. "Wanda...if you stay here...you'll die..." He said weakly.
"I just did..." Wanda replied coldly, and hurt. "Have you any idea how it felt?" She placed her glowing right hand over Ultron's chest and used her powers to bring his core through his carcass. She hold what would've been Ultron's heart on her hand as the robot slowly 'died'.
Wanda whispered, "It felt like that."
A single damaged drone dragged itself through the church and towards the device. He supported itself on it and finally turned the key, ceasing all engines that kept the giant piece of rock from falling down back to solid ground.
Now in the evacuation zone and noticing the place was about to fall, Steve quickly turned around and jumped back to the escape boat as the whole flying city started it's descend.
Iron Man felt the whole city's weight abruptly crash against his armour's back. That was something even him wouldn't manage to sustain with his own mechanical arms. He adjusted himself against the hole he had created on the rock, seeing all the now deactivated engines inside of it. He activated his chest's plate as a blue energy came straight from it and powered the enormous components.
"Thor, on my mark…"
After returning to the church, Thor raised his hammer to the sky and brought the thunder from it.
Wanda lost her ground and now levitated inside of the bus. Vision came through the whole Ultron's crash had originated and hold her with both hands, before flying away from it and bringing her to safety.
"Now…!"
Thor violently landed his powered hammer over the device, creating a wave that evaporated the whole flying city from the sky, saving the whole planet on the process, but not from Ultron's army.
Flash looked around their surroundings after Tony brought them to the landing area and left to re-join the fight. They adventured through the empty station. Peter looked around too, taking in the strange scene. They were in a dark corridor, the only light present being red emergency lighting. It resembled a maintenance area of sorts, but a rather grim one. The whole station was empty. The crew was missing, but there weren't any bodies, or drones around.
"Let's find the controls and finish this." Flash broke the silence.
Peter, who still was wearing his mask, nodded. There seemed to be no other way except forward down the tunnel so they began to walk, both moving slowly from their injuries. Peter was still in absolute agony but pressed forwards anyway, clutching his stomach. He refused help from Flash, he suspected that his friend's injury was a lot worse than he let on.
They eventually reached the closed door from the main area. Peter approached his hand to the digital scanner next to it, making the door slid open, revealing the view of a large and empty control room filled with holographic panels on the sides, and the view of Paris through the circular and reinforced window all around the room.
Peter slowly limped over one of the console, in fact it looked like a master control. He looked over the various controls, noticing one marked with an icon of the weapon's engines and pressed it. Then he took a couple of steps backwards, crashing down next to Flash who sat against a desk.
"20 minutes until half power. Tesseract has not been located." The VI informed.
They watched the countdown in silence, admiring the view of Paris, a beautiful city. Despite the obvious glow of explosions and fires it was still a sight, made all the more special by the sun's rays glittering over the city.
"Wow..."
"Yeah," Peter chuckled.
"I missed this silence." Flash whispered. "So...what's next for you, Spidey?"
"I don't know," Peter turned his head to regard his friend, hissing with pain before speaking. "I... I k-know what I want, but I have no idea if I'll be able to get it. We haven't fully won yet..."
"I think you want Gwendolyn, " Flash spoke in a light tone, jovial even. "And don't worry, Tony will understand. I think he'll be the first one to say you d-deserve a life of your own now."
"Are you taking my place, eh?" Peter chuckled lightly. He removed his mask and lowered it on the ground next to him, revealing a face full of cuts and bruises, with a small trace of blood coming from his lips.
"To be honest; I think it's time for me finally settle down with MJ, for real." He replied, losing strength on his voice. "We have to kick Ultron's ass, just -"
"Just like old times?" Peter finished his sentence.
Flash laughed before speaking. "Then we're going to retire somewhere warm and tropical and live off the royalties from the videos and everything."
"I'll meet you there, buddy." Again it was another promise of the possibility of peace, something Peter had to admit he wanted. "I think..." He coughed weakly, and continued, "...my days of saving the world are over when this is done."
"I get you." Flash nodded. "Have you ever wondered...how things would've been if none of this had happened, Peter? I mean - I'm only here because of you, you changed me."
Peter smiled, before replying, "I'm Spider-Man...kind of like you, not really fit for anything else, but... If I had to choose, I wouldn't change anything at all." He gasped.
Flash closed his eyes for a brief moment.
Peter turned to look at him. "Hey... d-don't go anywhere..."
Flash slowly opened his eyes. "No, I-I'm fine..." He paused. "You know...I never had children."
"There will be enough time for that now, and believe me; you'll need all the time available after your child is born." Peter smiled weakly, feeling his body betray him.
"I hope so...you think I would be a good father?"
Peter smiled. "You would be a great dad, you have your way with kids... my kids love you, you're their badass uncle..."
"Thanks, man, means a lot... if we don't get-"
"Oh, shut up..." Peter chuckled weakly.
Flash scoffed. "I just wanted to say that there's no one else I rather fight with..."
Peter nodded, gratefully for having such friend. "Likewise..."
They stood in silence, watching Paris with tired eyes, two friends and two heroes who went through hell itself with the objective to try and restore peace.
"Critical error, Systems override; Manual unlock needed."
Peter groaned. He slowly stood up with his left hand on his bleeding chest. "VI, solution…?"
"Warning, self-destruction protocol activated," The VI warned. "10 minutes left."
Peter was alarmed by the news. "What…!" He stood up and slowly approached the main panel.
"How do we fix this?"
"There's no fixing, it's a full override," Peter turned around and spotted a circular door on the opposite entrance they had come through, there was a small window on it, making possible to see the other side. "There, an escape pod. Open it."
"Damn." Flash slowly headed towards it. He used his digital fingerprints to unlock the door, seeing seats for who would've been the people in charge of activating the weapon, but they're missing. He stepped inside and sat in one of the white seats of the circular pod. "Let's go."
"Coming…" Peter walked away from a console and approached the pod. Instead of quickly stepping inside, he moved his hand to the panel and pressed some digits.
"No..." The door quickly closed with Peter standing outside. Flash immediately stood up and tried to use his force to force it open. "Peter, don't do this! Open the door!"
"I can't."
"Goddamn it, listen to me!" He said desperately. "We can still get outta here!"
"Flash, this weapon needs to work. Even if we win this battle, Ultron will find another body as his army will continue to wipe us out. I got to fix this, and you know it. I'm a nerd, there's some chance." Peter explained reassuringly.
"There's still time. Let me help you!"
Peter smiled weakly. "You're my best friend, but I don't think we can do this together. I need to make sure you're going to survive." He again moved his hand to the panel.
"What are you doing? No. Parker, don't!"
"The world needs at least one Spider-Man alive."
"Goddammit, Peter!" He punched the small glass, getting no results.
Peter pressed the button and started the pre-check as red emergency lights were lighten across the section.
"Peter! Open this damn door, that's an order!" Flash leaned his forehead against the window. "No..."
"See you around, Flash." The pod was ejected from the weapon, leaving Peter alone.
He closed his eyes for a few seconds, picturing his beautiful family on his mind, his girls and boys, and sighed to the possibility of never seeing them again, and for making another empty promise that he couldn't manage to stay loyal to it.
"Don't you understand? You've lost..." Peter eyes shot open as he turned around, seeing a very damaged drone on the opposite entrance, with the right arm missing and part of it's head as well. "...everyone you fell in love, everyone you ever met...they're all going to die. Why do you keep resisting? It's over, I override the weapon, I know it from head to toe. You're done."
Peter leaned his back against the wall and slowly slid down the floor. "Why do I persist? Well, there's people I care about, people I love-"
Ultron interrupted him, "Love, there's no such thing."
"You're wrong... You spent your whole life searching for that perfect someone, someone you can trust and share experiences. And when you find her, you think you'll never love anything more...then you have children, and realize what a fool you're for believe that." Peter stated calmly.
"You're...unbearable naive."
"Maybe, bad guys find me annoying." He joked. "But you, Ultron, I know who you are, and you're not only a machine, even you can have feelings."
"I'm a product of your ignorance, this weapon was Hydra's, they started me, they wanted me to lead their army, just like that arrogant Stark desired, you're all the same." Ultron said disgusted. "And that's why change needs to happen in order to achieve peace."
Peter continued his persuasion, "Sure, we make mistakes, and we often suffer the consequences, but that's why we're humans, organics, it's a learning curve, you're once organic."
"I'm programmed to follow one goal; peace, and I shall follow such objective...I'm merely doing a favour to you all. You and your silly heroes only bring more chaos, an infinite cycle of violence." Ultron stated firmly, not making any moves. "And for that you must die."
Peter could see how Ultron was lost. His organic essence was lost, he was now a soulless machine, progammed, despite it's words about how he was free
"So why don't you simply kill us all?" He challenged.
"You're part of the problem, yes, but there's a much bigger one coming, and your race must be prepared to reach its full potential. That's the greater goal." Ultron paused. "If you only knew the inhumans that live with you..." Ultron whispered his last sentence to himself
Peter leaned the back of his head against the wall, "I see, you want to improve us to avoid the same mistakes, and prepare for this future you talk about...but the thing is; you don't have that right. You can't make decisions for us. We need to trail our own path, if you want to give us safety... stop this nightmare, so that we can live our lives again."
"I can't, your kind will end itself without intervention."
"So be it, this is our path, not yours."
"You'll thank me after humanity evolves, technology will be put to good use." Ultron took only one step forward.
"You come out of nowhere and lay siege to the planet. You destroy our cities, murder our soldiers, capture and try to mutate our entire population," He gestured wildly as he reeled off the list, then flinging one arm outwards to point at Paris.
Ultron shrugged. "So?"
He brought his arms back to his body, speaking in a very quiet and sad tone. "Anyone in my position can see the extent of what you've done, of how disgusting your solution actually is."
Now it shook it's head, a slight look of disappointment crossing it's face. "Emotion is no reason..."
"But it is! Don't you see? Your army is an affront to everything the majority of sentient beings believe, in our eyes you are as evil as it is possible to be," Now he raised his voice again, practically shouting at Ultron as he accused it. "Any human would want nothing but death for you and your drones. To allow you to get away with what they have done, would be an atrocity. I don't care if your original species was obliterated from existence like reported, you don't get the right to rule us. Yes, technology can be bad sometimes, that's why you're here, it's our fault, but don't think we can't learn from our mistakes."
Ultron looked down to the floor as they stood in silence. "You think you can do any good?"
"Yes." Peter eventually continued, "You're afraid Ultron, you know you've been surpassed and that you aren't strong enough to contain us...give us a chance to make things right again."
"This weapon...you reverse engineered it, it wasn't supposed to work like this, but as Hydra wanted, for me to activate it during their war if I was on their contribute," Ultron looked up to Peter. "The crew is dead, but..." He moved his only available hand to its chest and pressed it inside, he recovered the Tesseract and instantly fell down on its knees.
A stairwell opened on the ground, probably leading deeper on the weapon.
"... you have to manually insert the Tesseract on it's core, it will trigger the weapon and your EMP blast will be activated it." Ultron laid himself on the cold floor, his red lights fading away. "Spider-Man..."
Peter gasped in pain as he slowly stood up. He approached Ultron's figure and grabbed the Tesseract with his own hands. He limped towards the stairwell that had emerged and very carefully made his way downstairs, seeing a straight and illuminated corridor with a blue energy coming down from a tube and into the ground not far away.
Albert Einstein once said, 'Technological progress is like an axe in the hands of a pathological criminal. Took me awhile, but I finally see his point. How often have we chased the dream of progress, only to see that dream perverted? More of than not, haven't the machines we built to improve life shattered the lives of millions? And now we want to turn that dream on ourselves, to fundamentally improve who we are. Experience has shown me how dangerous that can be. Connors, Oscorp, Harry, Norman, Max, Ultron and even I are product of human curiosity.
Like the unstoppable hero that he is, Peter, or Spider-Man, placed his right hand on his cagerib through the cut on his suit and slowly and painfully limped towards his objective, never holding back, never thinking twice, but following his responsibility to be the people's guardian, a source of hope, a warrior, a symbol, and a simple husband and father.
Do I trust mankind to save itself? Do they really need us? That was Ultron was asking. The truth is, I don't know. After everything I've seen, all the fighting, and the chaos around me, I only know what I want to believe...human decency will triumph.
Already losing his reflexes, Peter proceeded to slowly head towards the core, using his left hand against the wall, supporting his now heavy weight.
All these past years, as Spider-Man, I faced many life threatening situations. I could have given up many times, but my need to know the truth, and to love, keeps me going. How many times, in the call of duty, did I almost fall into the trap of taking shortcuts, abusing my abilities? I resisted, because I value human lives and consideration. And in the end, we did it.
Peter accidentally fell to his knees, but he never let the Tesseract go from his hand. He coughed heavily and looked up to the core, seeing that he was almost there. He had to make it, for his wife, children and friends, for everyone.
Does this means I have the right to choose for everyone? No. Because it isn't up to me, it isn't up to Steve, Tony or Ultron either. Ordinary men and women will have to decide together what course mankind should take.
He crawled his way towards the core, struggling to stay awake. He eventually reached it, and moved his hands to the panel, raising himself from the ground. He stood over the panel as the glass that protected the blue glowing energy from contact. A dense vapour came off it and brushed against his skin.
Can they put us on the right course again? I don't know. But I do know that I'm not about to let anyone in this station, myself included, standing in their way.
He moved his hand inside the energy, feeling his flesh in ardent pain, and inserted the Tesseract. The weapon was instantly loaded as the energy changed itself into a darker shade of blue.
Peter fell and leaned his back against the panel. He looked down to his gloved hand, seeing the spandex covered with his own blood. He sighed, closed his eyes, and slowly drifted to sleep.
Iron Man violently landed back at the street of Paris, his armor was already surrounding itself to the grave damage it had been through over the past hours. He tried to get up but his hydraulic systems were severely affected, only managing to stay on his knees.
He looked up to the sky and saw more drones heading towards him, ready to finish him off.
"Veronica!"
"Armor's systems down."
He gasped and stood paralyzed. One drone after another abruptly landed next to him, forming a circle around the billionaire who couldn't even fight back.
The robots powered their hands and aimed them at Iron Man. He eventually accepted his defeat, hearing the sound of death getting closer and closer as the minutes passed, and for the first time on his life, he would have to sit and wait for it instead of coming up with an alternative plan with his smart and talented mind.
But the shots never came, he looked up and saw the drones standing motionless and looking at the sky. He followed their gaze and instantly spotted a blue wave coming at them, at the whole city. It passed his armour's structure and also reach the drones, instantly disabling them as they fell on the ground.
His armour also was totally put into no good use because of it. He was forcefully brought to the ground as well, and observed the sun now coming from the clouds.
"Okay, here we go." Gwen giggled and smiled happily as her almost husband who was wearing only shorts and a tight shirt slowly raised a very small towel that playfully covered her face, exposing her bright smile.
Peter smiled back, seeing Gwen standing in front of him at the kitchen, wearing her yellow nightshirt during the current beautiful sunny morning. "Y-Yes." He moved his hand to the countertop and grabbed paper and a small notebook which was for him while the latter was for his future wife.
Gwen cleared her throat as she went to read what she had written.
Peter asked first, "It's all you...you got there?" He eyed her paper, which was the opposite from his notebook which was filled with annotations. "I mean, these are our wedding vows, after all, so..."
Gwen grinned. "I think I covered the bases."
Peter shrugged his shoulders. "Okay, cool, yeah, good, good." He nodded awkwardly. "You go, then I'll go, and we'll have a little note session afterwards."
Gwen chuckled lightly, amused by his cute behaviour. "Okay. I'm just going to go-"
Peter interrupted her again, "You-You go, mm-hm." He cleared his throat and closed his eyes, anticipating her speech.
Gwen moved a trace of her blonde hair behind her ear and started, "Peter, you're a gift I never dreamed I could want or need, and every day, I will show you that you're a gift I deserve..."
Peter opened his eyes at her lovely words.
Her green eyes gazed him affectionately. "...you make me the best person I could ever hope to be, and I want to spend and learn and love the rest of my life with you." She said gently and smiled.
Peter stood in silence, not able to express how much he feels about her speech for a brief moment.
Gwen shrugged her shoulders and waited for his response, wondering if her vows hadn't pleased him. "Talky?"
He shook his head, speechless. "Perfect..."
"I'll probably make some changes, though."
"So perfect…So perfect, oh my god." He said emotionally, before approaching Gwen and hugging her. He pulled back. "Gwen.. Gwen, oh, mine are a tear-down, this is a page one rewrite. I scripted a wardrobe chance. You know, and a pause for applause."
"Peter, don't freak out." Gwen said reassuringly. "Whatever they're it will be perfect."
Peter slowly smiled, before leaning closer and gently capturing her warm lips.
Something is wrong.
Battle of New York
A drone had appeared across the other side of the street from them, Daredevil and Punisher, tracking them with its cannons. Now though they're pinned, unable to move in any direction out of cover, and Daredevil would soon be overwhelmed on her own.
Punisher dashed out of cover to his right, moving from the middle of the street to the other side. The drone fired at him, shots striking the under armour. It held for the first few shots but Punisher's strength wavered as he increased his speed to dash the last few metres. He wasn't quite quick enough though, his armour dying and a shot ripping into his ankle. He crashed down onto the floor, cursing in pain. He was still several metres from cover and drones were approaching rapidly, despite his efforts he couldn't get up before a drone noticed her.
Daredevil noticed Punisher struggling to get clear, desperately looking for a method to distract the drone.
A drone appeared besides him, raised its hands to strike him, about to slam it down and end his ife. Then it stopped, lifting its head to look upwards towards the sky. Matt noticed the other drones doing this too.
A blue pulse was travelling quickly. It swept across the horizon, rushing towards them at an incredible speed.
Matt closed his eyes, expecting to be killed by the blast. Instead it merely passed over him, causing a warm fuzzy feeling across his body. Opening his eyes, he took in the scene around him, a look of shock forming across his face. He was unharmed, so was Punisher, but the drones were all dead upon the ground.
"They did it," Punisher walked over to him, a wide smile across his face. "They freaking did it!"
Matt smiled as well. "Yes they did."
Hulk made sure the ship's hangar door was properly closed and slowly turned on his back and approached the ship's empty cockpit, seeing Natasha's face appearing in one of the computers between the two seats where Ultron was previously sat on.
"Hey, big guy..." Natasha smiled. "It's over."
Hulk grunted softly and carefully sat on the metallic and cold ground, before gazing the super spy. He slowly moved his hand in the computer's direction, as if Natasha would touch his so that they could normally reunite again.
"We can't track you with the ship on stealth mode, so I need you to work with me-"
He pressed a button and shut the feed without letting her finish, leaving him on total silence with the only sound coming from the ship's engines. He observed the clear sky through the cockpit's windows, admiring it's simples as he was transported to the unknown and away from his friends.
Peter, I'm here, please wake up!
Peter stretched his arms and went to open the door of the bedroom he had been sharing with his wife for years now. He stepped inside and briefly turned around to close it. He was tired, and ready to relax his body and maybe cuddle a little bit, watch a movie together while their kids were sleeping on their respective bedrooms.
I'm here, Peter, I'm right here.
"Peter, I'm right here." Gwen spoke, sat in their bed, wearing her dark blue jeans and white blouse.
"I know, why wouldn't you?" Peter took his shoes off and placed his Uncle's watch in the stand next to their now done bed, not understanding why Gwen was acting differently in all the sudden.
"You know I've found your plan for us to have our own home away from the city's problems." She smiled kindly.
Peter immediately felt his muscles tense. "What? No, no, you don't know anything about that." He shook his head in denial.
Gwen continued softly, "I'm here to bring you back."
Peter, please, come on...
He raised an eyebrow as she stood up and approached him. "Back…? What do you mean?" He looked at her beautiful green eyes, standings inches from her figure. "I was always here."
I want to spend my whole life with you. Spider-Man or not...without...
"...you I'm nobody. I'm nothing, just Gwen Stacy." She said gently. "Come back to me, Peter." She moved her both hands to his cheeks and continued lovely, "I love you, we love you, come back to your family."
Peter slowly smiled as she closed her eyes and leaned closer. He connected his lips with hers and kissed them gently, reciprocating the passionate kiss, missing her touch, like if they're separated for hours.
Peter slowly opened his eyes, seeing what probably an angel in front of him was. He immediately recognized the person, blonde hair, green eyes, freckles and the pale skin. It was his wife.
Her ready eyes showed how much she had gone through after he arrived back to the base in a not so good position, and now, he was laid on his bed at the infirmary, wearing only a white shirt and blue shorts, with a bandaged right arm and tiny cuts on his cheeks.
Gwen exhaled deeply once she saw her husband regaining consciousness. He finally realized where he was, and instantly leaned closer to resume the kiss as they brushed noses and met each other's lips again, later parting and touching each other's foreheads.
Flash smiled happily and cheered energetically with his arms after seeing Peter raising from his bed to kiss the woman of his life. "He's okay! He's okay! The bastard is okay!"
Steve smiled thankfully as he crossed arms and observed the miracle next to the bed, being the only Avengers present.
The doors of the infirmary were burst open with the twins storming inside and later Elizabeth. "Daddy…!" They jumped over the bed and reunited with their heroic father, who again, had beaten what many called impossible odds, but this time, not alone.