Chapter 34: Age of Ultron
Upon arrival in the Sokovian capital, the Avengers quickly split up to begin evacuations. Thor entered Strucker's Castle by smashing through the wall. He made his way underground to track down an energy source they had detected, which Tony theorized was Ultron's secret project. Bruce and Clint followed along to free Natasha from a cell in the castle. Catra waited outside of the Sokovia Police station as Pietro ran inside to warn everyone. "We're under attack! Clear the city!" He had shouted, before rushing out. Catra slowly leaned around the doorway and noticed nobody was making any particular effort to evacuate. She was about to say something before he raced back in and fired an Assault Rifle into the air. "Get off your asses." He deadpanned, passing the gun to an officer and racing out. Catra couldn't help but laugh at that.
Meanwhile, Steve and Adora were directing evacuation efforts from the ground. Wanda even used her powers to subtly influence people to leave the city before things got bad. 'Okay, Bruce should have gotten Mom free by now…' Adora thought as she helped Steve direct traffic. 'Let's just hope we can get everyone out before things go to hell.' She looked up to the sky, seeing Tony flying overhead, heading right for the Church. 'Okay, so if all goes to plan, Tony can stall Ultron long enough for Vision to burn him out of the Internet.'
As if responding to her thoughts, the ground began to shake, and thousands of Ultron drones slowly began bursting from the streets, crawling out of the water, and swarming over the entire city. Sokovia was quickly put under siege by Ultron's drones. As Steve tried to push people to move faster, he only barely managed to block a shot from a drone. It leapt at him and he bashed it with his shield. Adora quickly rushed over and stabbed the drone through its power supply, turning around to decapitate another Drone.
Across town, Catra linked up with Clint and helped him defend one of Sokovia's bridges, Wanda even coming up to put up a magic barrier to shove the drones back. "I may not like you that much, but goddamn am I glad you're on our side!" Catra shouted to Wanda, who simply smirked in response.
"We can settle our issues later Kitten." She replied, tearing open a drone with her powers.
Meanwhile, Steve managed to beat down another drone and Adora backed him up. The earthquakes got even worse than before. "Tony what the hell is happening?!" She yelled into her comms.
"Vision burned Ultron out of the Net, but he's activating some machine!" Tony replied. "I have no idea what it's doing."
Adora looked down as the bridge, and area around the city began to crack apart. And then, to her horror, it began to lift into the air. "Um...think I might have an idea…" She and Steve stared in dumbstruck awe.
"Friday just confirmed it. Sokovia is flying." Tony replied, his voice shaking.
As everyone tried to make heads or tails of what was going on, Ultron's voice began to transmit out of his drones, the mad machine hovering above the city. "Do you see the beauty of it? The inevitability. You rise, only to fall. You, Avengers, are my meteor. My swift and terrible sword. And the Earth will crack under the weight of your failure. Purge me from your computers, turn my flesh against me. It means nothing. When the dust settles, the only living thing in this world...will be metal." Adora shut up the drone mocking her by punching its face right into its head. Though she had to shake the pain out of her fist afterwards.
"Why do they always have to monologue…" She deadpanned, joining Steve in fighting off the drones. One managed to send Steve flying as it flew past him.
"Cap, Adora, you got incoming!" Tony said over the comms.
"Incoming already came in Tony.." Adora groaned, grappling with a drone before ripping its arms off.
"Stark you worry about bringing the city down safely." Steve replied, painfully getting to his feet. "The rest of us have one job, tear these things apart. You get hurt, hurt them back. You get killed, walk it off."
Across town, Catra and Clint continued to fight off the Drones, Wanda trying to help move people to safety. But it was clear she was becoming overwhelmed with everything going on. The two grabbed hold of her and jumped through a window for cover. "Ow...windows not as soft as in movies…" Catra groaned, picking glass out of her fur.
Wanda, now in the middle of full on panic, crawled into a corner. "Oh god, how could I let this happen…"
"Hey, hey, you okay?" Clint asked, moving over to try to calm her down as Catra watched out the window.
"This is all our fault…" Wanda continued to whimper.
"Hey, look at me." Clint said, getting her to face him. "It's your fault, It's everyone's fault, Who cares?" Wanda looked at him, stunned. "Are you up for this? Are you?" She couldn't respond, Catra looking over in curiosity. "Look, I just need to know because this city is flying. Okay. Look, the city is flying, we're fighting an army of robots, there's a literal cat-girl standing next to me, and I have a bow and arrow. None of this makes sense."
"Thanks Clint.." Catra deadpanned, rolling her eyes.
The Drones outside shot a hole in the wall trying to hit the three, and Clint simply fired an arrow at them through it. "But I'm going back out there because its my job. Okay? And I can't do my job and babysit." He told her, "It doesn't matter what you did, or who you were. Just ask Catra. If you go out there, you fight, and you fight to kill. Stay in here, you're good, I'll send your brother to come find you. But if you step out that door, you are an Avenger." There was a silence in the building, Catra slightly cracking a smile at Clint's little speech. "Alright, Good chat. Catra?" Catra got to her feet taking position by the door. Clint readied a literal handful of arrows and prepared as well. "Yeah, the city is flying…" He repeated, letting out a deep breath, and kicking the door open, rushing out to face Ultron's army alongside Catra.
Steve and Adora rushed to the collapsing bridge, grabbing onto the bumper of a car that had been slipping off. Unfortunately, the bumper tore off, much to Adora's horror. However, She was relieved as Thor landed on the falling car and literally through the woman inside up to them. Steve jumped off the bridge and caught her, with Adora grabbing his hand to help him back up. Once the woman was safe, another Drone charged them. "You cannot save them all!" it yelled. Steve threw his shield right into its chest. "You'll never-!"
Steve didn't let it finish, using the magnetic mount for his shield to pull it, and the Drone, back. HE stepped aside as Adora bisected the drone at the waist. "Never what?" You didn't finish!" Steve mockingly yelled as the drone's remains collapsed off the ledge. Thor quickly landed nearby to join them. As the three ran deeper into the city, Steve got one more quip in. "What, were you napping?"
The three quickly linked up with Natasha, Adora giving her a hug as Steve and Thor began to tear more and more drones apart. Mother and Daughter quickly joined in the battle, fighting in perfect sync. Adora smiled, as it was clear that their training sessions were paying off. She was even able to catch Steve's Shield and ricochet it back to him with almost the same skill he used. Things got a lot harder for the Super Soldiers when Ultron made his appearance, in his brand new, heavily upgraded Vibranium body.
"Thor…" He growled, tackling the Thunder God. "You're bothering me." The two fought as Ultron carried Thor away.
Meanwhile, Catra and Clint were pinned down by enemy fire, barely having gotten out of the building they'd taken cover in. They were beginning to get overwhelmed before Wanda slowly left the Building. With anm unnerving ease, she tore several Ultron drones apart with her powers, and began to back up the two other heroes. Catra tore into a Drone with her claws and grinned at her. "Finally grew a pair, eh Wanda?"
"Shut up Catra." Wanda replied, with a small smile.
Clint shook his head, chuckling ad finished the last two drones. "We're all clear here."
"We are NOT clear!" Steve shouted over the comms, the sounds of combat ringing through Clint's earpiece. "We are very not clear!"
"Alright, coming to you." Clint replied, before Pietro zipped over and scooped up Wanda, running off.
"Keep up old man!" He'd called to them
Clint sighed in annoyance and pulled back an arrow, taking aim. "Clint, no." Catra deadpanned, rolling her eyes.
"Nobody would know." Clint deadpanned right back. "Nobody."
"No." Catra replied, beginning to follow.
Clint smirked and put his arrow away. "Last I saw him, an Ultron was sitting on him." Clint said, as if coming up with an alibi. "Yeah he'll be missed, quick little bastard. I miss him already."
The battle continued to rage on. Steve, Adora and Natasha managed to take out a small squad of Ultron Drones, Wanda and Pietro managed to reach them relatively quickly as well, though Adora could hear him giving a Sokovian officer grief over a bullet grazing him. As they helped a family to safety, Steve contacted Tony again. "The next wave is gonna hit any minute. What do you got Stark?"
"Huh? Nothing great." Tony admitted, flying around the city. "Maybe a way to blow up the city. That'll keep it from impacting the surface if you guys get clear."
"Even if that was a good idea, there's still too many people on the city!" Adora shouted back, panicked.
"Adora's right. I asked for a solution, not an escape plan." Steve replied, continuing his efforts to protect everybody.
"Impact Radius is getting bigger every second." Tony continued to argue. "We're going to have to make a choice."
"Cap!" Natasha yelled, walking over. "These people are going nowhere… if Stark finds a way to blow this rock-"
"No mom, not until everyone's safe!" Adora replied, rushing over.
"Everyone up here versus everyone down there?" Natasha countered. "There's no math there."
"I'm not leaving this rock with one civilian on it." Steve told her.
Adora nodded. "Me neither."
"Well, I didn't say we should leave…" Natasha admitted. The two looked at her and she grimly nodded. "There's worse ways to go. Where else am I gonna get a view like this." Adora took a deep breath and considered the option. Would the Avengers be willing to sacrifice themselves for others? She would gladly lay down her life for another, but she didn't want to force the choice on Catra, or the civilians.
"Glad you like the view, Romanoff." Fury suddenly announced over the team's comms, to Adora's surprise. "It's about to get better." Looking ahead, a gigantic grin came to Adora's face as a salvaged Helicarrier slowly raised up alongside the city. "Nice right? Pulled her out of mothballs with a couple of old friends. Figure she'll do."
"Fury! You son of a bitch!" Steve replied, gleefully.
"Oh! you kiss your mother with that mouth?" Fury teased, much to Adora's laughter and Steve's embarrassment. Several ships soon disembarked from the Helicarrier and headed towards them.
Pietro, who had joined the three as the Helicarrier raised up, smiled and looked it over. "This is SHIELD?"
"This is what SHIELD is supposed to be." Adora told him, smiling at the Sokovian.
"This is not so bad." He replied, Adora walking over and patting him on the back. Soon the ships landed on the floating city, and the Avengers got to work. As they loaded people onto the ships, SHIELD agents helped fight off the Ultron drones attacking the civilians. At the same time, Rhodey flew in wearing his War Machine suit, and Tony worked with him to keep the Drones from shooting down the helicarrier. Despite Ultron's best efforts, they managed to get ship after ship of Civilians off the city. Adora briefly panicked seeing another Ship almost get shot down, But Tony and Rhodey were on top of things.
"Thor, I've got a plan!" Tony broadcasted, ready to make his next move.
Thor's next words weren't very encouraging though. "We're out of time! They're coming for the core!"
"Rhodey, get the rest of the people aboard that carrier!" Tony instructed his friend, breaking away to fly deeper int the city. "Avengers, time to work for a living." The Avengers very quicly made their way to the core to assist Tony, Thor and Vision. Adora and Steve arrived quickly, soon followed by Catra, Wanda, Pietro and Clint. "Romanoff, you and Banner had better not be playing hide the zucchini." Tony quipped, causing Adora to shudder in disgust at the thought.
"Easy Shellhead, not all of us can fly." Natasha deadpanned back, pulling up tot he church in a heavy truck. She quickly joined the others as they surrounded the core. "What's the drill?"
"This is the drill." Tony replied, pointing out the core. "If Ultron gets a hand on the core, we lose."
Hulk quickly joined the others, Ultron descending to stare the team down. "Is that the best you can do!?" Thor yelled at him.
"Tony please don't taunt the super-villain…" Catra groaned. Ultron raised a hand, calling all of the drones across the entire city to the core. The machines still numbered in the thousands. Adora began to flashback to the Battle of New York. The odds were roughly the same, only this time they had a single objective to protect. And if they failed….the end of the world.
"You had to ask…" Steve said, glancing at Thor.
"This is the best I can do." Ultron retorted. "This is exactly what I wanted. All of you, against all of me. How can you possibly hope to stop me?"
"Well, Like the old man said…." Tony began, looking over at Steve. "Together."
The Avenegrs stood in resolute defiance of the mad mechanical would-be God. As Ultron's Drones began their charge, the final battle against Ultron had begun.
To be continued…
Part 1 of the battle of Sokovia. This took longer than I planned due to my issues with fight scenes. Not much else to add honestly. Other than the fact I love writing Wanda and Catra interacting.
I do not own She-Ra or the MCU. Feedback is always appreciated.
NEXT TIME: Victory and Sacrifice.