Chapter Twenty-Two:

While the others loaded the Quinjet, Pietro and Tyron snuck off, managing to get a few minutes to themselves before going off to fight. Tyron was sitting down, and Pietro's head was on his lap. Tyron was messing with his silver locks, absolutely entranced by them, but there had been other things on his mind.

"Are... We doin' this right?" Tyron asked suddenly, and Pietro looked at him.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean," Tyron didn't meet his eyes, "This. Us. We've only really known each other for a week, and..." Tyron sighed, "Nevermind, m'bein' stupid. Don't listen to me."

"You are not stupid," Pietro chided. "Do not say that. And as for your question, I do not know. In my experience, you really cannot do 'love' right. You simply... Work with it."

"Yeah, but I have no experience," Tyron urged, rubbing his face. "I mean, I don'... I've never done this before. I never had a relationship before. I... I'd jus' feel shitty if I messed it up for both us, ya know?"

"Then do not," Tyron gave him a half-hearted glare and he laughed. "Kidding. Just relax, alright? I do not have such high expectations, and neither should you. If this does not work out, we can still be friends. If it does, well," he rose a bit and pecked him on the lips. "We stay lovers. So far, I like the second option."

Tyron smiled, and Pietro rose up, grinning, "Well, we better get going before my sister thinks we are having sex. That would be funny, her face would be priceless." Tyron laughed.

"Let's get this robot situation done, then we can have that situation," Tyron said, and Pietro grinned.

"Is that a promise?"

"Think of it as something to look forward to," Tyron teased and began to leave.

- 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 -

As soon as they get to Sovokia, they begin working out their jobs. Tyron goes door to door, urging people out of their homes. Pietro taught him a few phrases to get the people.

"It roughly translates to 'danger, get up! We're under attack!'" Pietro explained.

"And what do I do if they don't listen after tha'?" Tyron asked.

"Make them," Pietro said, and that was all he needed.

It took a long while, but after gathering enough metal from nearby cars, trash cans, and benches, he created copies that went to each door on the street, they were stretched pretty thin, but with one relaying the same message he was, he was able to get to two times as many people.

However, after three or four blocks, this tired him and he needed a easier solution. Which was why he started banging trash cans and screaming the message. This had been more effective than his words before, and once people began to listen to what he was saying, they heeded his warning.

People scurried out of buildings like ants, and once one block saw another, they began to copy them. Soon, the streets were swarmed with people. Adults were shouting, some at each other, others at him. Children were being scolded by their parents, and babies cried at the commotion.

Tyron touched his ear, "M'people are moving. What next?"

"Keep them orderly," Steve instructed. "We can't have riots, it'll do more harm than good."

"We've got incoming," Clint announced, and Tyron could hear the sound of the robots from above.

"Shit!" He swore, hurrying the people along. He began to multitask, bring the metal from sides of the buildings down to curl over the people, allowing them coverage from the rain or bullets. And, he shot at the sky, bringing several robots down towards him and absorbing their metals. With that, he used to make almost an umbrella over the masses of people evacuating.

They were nearing the edges of the city, about to cross a very backed up bridge when the ground began to shake. "What's goin' on?!" He hissed, watching as the ground began to quickly rise, the city separating from the earth. One child, teetering too close to the edge fell off and immediately, Tyron ran after him.

He jumped, grabbing the child and shooting back at the flying city. He managed to get a part of the protruding metal bars from the edge and used that to bring himself back up. The boy was crying as Tyron brought him back to land.

Tyron pushed him up, then climbed up himself. He was surprised to see several arms helping him. A woman was kneeling beside the boy, crying and hugging him. A few even hugged Tyron, kissing his cheeks.
Awkwardly, Tyron pulled away, "I need somewhere to put all these people," Tyron said. His eye catching a robot that was coming his way. He used a gun he stole from Tony - yes, even after he said not to - and shot it down.

"I'm sending Pietro your way," Steve said, "He'll bring them to me. I need you here to help with the 'bots. Where are you?"

"I'm on the eastern side," he told him. "What are you going to do with them?" Tyron asked.

"As much as we can," Steve replied, as Pietro appeared by his side. He began shouting orders to the crowd, directing them to Steve.

"How's it going so far?" Tyron asked, shooting down another one, in order to keep the robots off the mass of people.

"Well, for one, we are on a flying city," Pietro began, and Tyron chuckled.

"I can see," Tyron chuckled. " Ya a'ight?"

"Fantastic," Pietro grinned, and Tyron matched it.

"We need backup!" Steve shouted, which was Tyron's cue to head over.

As soon as he got there, he shot down a robot that waa giving Steve a hard time. Then, he used his grappling gun to shoot at the sky, bringing him up to the robot. Be easily began absorbing the metal, glad to have something in his system. His razor sharp teeth bit into the robot's power core, which was in it's neck. Immediately, it fell, disabled, and Tyron quickly shot over to another one.

Tyron went from robot to robot, taking them down one at a time, using the metal he gained to reinforce his line and get him to the robot faster and more efficiently.

Tyron got a quick glance down, finding Natasha fighting along side Steve. He took down three more robots before shooting his grappling gun at a building and made his way to the ground to catch his breath.

After a few seconds, he began to run, tackling robots who tried to come behind Natasha and Steve. With dangerously fast movements, he demobilized, disabled, and destroyed them.

It didn't take long for Tyron to be practically dripping with metal again. Tony's invention worked, but not as well as he hoped. Although he was able to lace the metals in his suit like the inventor planned, it simutaneously made the suit heavily, and thus harder for him to stay in the air when he attacked a robot. But, it did take some of the load off of him, which certainly helped plenty.

"Tyron!" Steve shouted, and pointed to a small house that looked a bit worn but wasn't in terrible shape. He could see the people inside cowering as robots began to surround it. Tyron wasted no time running over.

"Hey!" Tyron screamed, catching the robot's attention. Some flew his way, but others stayed with the people, aiming weapons ready to fire.

Tyron knew he didn't have much time, or backup. Steve and Natasha were tied up, Pietro was with Clint and his sister. It was up to him.

Tyron grabbed the first robot, absorbing the metal so fast, he could feel each individual atom enter his skin. With that, he weaved thick strands of metal along the robot's feet, and quickly yanked them to the ground.

The other robot's noticed this, and turned their fire to him. It pelted his skin, but Tyron fiercely ignored the bullets as they sank into his body, strengthing him. He wasn't able to save his mother in the Battle of New York. He wouldn't let anyone die here, not under his watch.

Tyron felt as it he was snaking through the crowd of robots, his arms turned to sharp, lethal blades as they pierced through the metal exoskeleton, and rendered them useless.

Tyron decapitated the robots, bisected them with a sharp swipe, eliminating them. He was a weapon, a loyal pet. He was a good, loyal pet, he would kill each one of the robots. He wouldn't let any hurt these people.

Tyron loved the thrill of a fight. Even though he tried to ignore it. Even though he tried to forget what it turned him into, he still desired it. For a long time, he wanted this, he needed this. He was no longer on Baron's short chain, no longer doing his will and regretting every second. Now, he was doing good, helping people, and still doing what he loved.

And for once, he enjoyed every second of it.

When Tyron finally finished off the last one, he was panting. The wave of robots has stopped, for now, and the people inside the building were staring at him. Tyron knew what he probably looked like. A teenager with metal literally dripping off his skin. His eyes were a cold silver that matched the rest of the skin he showed. His arms turned into blades, that were covered in oil and a few rubber-wrapped wires entangling them.

Tyron took a step towards the crowd, wanting to ask if anyone was hurt, but they collectively backed away. He heard babies cry and mothers hold their children tighter to them to protect them from him. From the metal monster that might have saved their lives, but that didn't matter. Mutants never mattered, they were abominations, distrustworthy, disgusting things.

If only Tyron had never turned out like this, if only he weren't so... Strange. Then maybe, people would see him as a person. But, he wasn't, and never would be. What was the point of dwelling on something that would never exist?

"The next wave's gonna hit any minute," Tyron heard Steve say over the comms. "What have you got, Stark?" This snapped Tyron out of his thoughts, and he headed back to the others.

"Well, nothing great. Maybe a way to blow up the city. That'll keep it from impacting the surface if you guys can get clear," Tony replied, for once, sarcasm wasn't layered over his words.

" I asked for a solution, not an escape plan," Tyron heard Steve say as he got closer.

"Impact radius is getting bigger every second," Tony informed. "We're going to have to make a choice."

"Cap, these people are going nowhere. If Stark finds a way to blow this rock..." Natasha trailed off.

"Not 'til everyone's safe," Steve said sternly.

"Everyone up here versus everyone down there?" Natasha asked, "There's no math there."

"I'm not leaving this rock with one civilian on it," Steve said stubbornly.

"I didn't say we should leave," Natasha said, softly, looking at the sky. As the city rose, the view of the clouds and the landscape below was beautiful. "There's worse ways to go. Where else am I gonna get a view like this?"

"We're Avengers, aren't we?" Tyron spoke up, and the two turned to him. Natasha looked shocked for a moment, probably not recognizing him. "We save people, or least, y'all do. There's gotta be some other way to help them. We can't just leave them, not after all this. They've done nothin' to deserve this. They're scared, m'scared too, but these are normal people. If we left them... We'd be just as bad as Ultron is..."

"I like the way you think, kid." A new voice, one Tyron didn't recognize, spoke into the comms. "And, I'm glad you like the view, Romanoff. It's about to get better." Then, a miracle happened.

A large ship, rose out of the clouds underneath the city. People were aboard, and there were several small transports on top, to get people unto the flying ship. Tyron felt his chest rise with shock and awe. He heard of this thing before, but it was a long time ago, and he thought it wasn't true. After SHIELD revealed itself and shut down entirely, a lot ot secrets were exposed, which mixed with a lot of lies. This caused people like Tyron to dismiss these secrets since there was really no way of verifying it. Tyron assumed, this was just as mythical as the others, but boy was he wrong.

The SHIELD Helicarrier had come to the rescue.