In the midst of my freak-out I happen to glance up to the sky where a jet full of people suddenly get hit with a blast.
"TONY!" I cry out into the coms.
"On it." He says instantly. My breathing becomes erratic. How many people are going to or have died because of my actions?!
I twist, aiming to punch whatever robots behind me. But instead, the world slows as Pietro evades my punch and steps in front of me. He cups my cheek.
"We have to focus." He says with force. I nod and rush forward, helping as many people get onto the jets as possible.
"Thor, I got a plan." Stark says.
"We're out of time. They're coming for the core." Thor warns us.
"Rhodey, get the rest of the people on board that carrier." Tony orders. "Avengers, time to work for a living." Tony ends the conversation with.
Pietro and I look up, watching all the robots start flying to the core. He looks down at me. I send my a quick nod and before I know it, we're running- - well, he's running with me in his arms towards the core.
We're greeted with what's left of the church being flooded by robots. Thor and Vision quickly working to disperse of any of them. Pietro rushes in, punching robots, flinging robot parts into other robots to destroy them. I bound forward myself and start to quickly tap into robots, destroying their mainframe so that Ultron will never be able to use them again.
I destroy a robot, throwing it to Pietro as he uses it to smash another robot. I step up to the core. And look around at it and the church.
"So... is this core in the center of the church? Or like... is the actual center of the church already destroyed?" I ask anyone in particular.
"Can you focus?!" Thor strains out as he's struggling with a few robots. I nod.
"Oh, yeah. Sure!" I carefully place my leg on the core and push off of it, tumbling two of the robots off of Thor and taking care of them as quickly as I am able.
I then rush over to help Pietro tear a robot part when I hear movement in some of the rubbled up church. I smile seeing Clint and relieved that Wanda was still alive. I hit him on the arm and he sees what I'm showing him. We both rush forward.
"Barton!" I exclaim, hugging him tightly. He chuckles.
"That worried about me, huh?" He asks. I put space between us and push him harshly.
"Hell, no." I scoff. " It's Just..." I trail off. He looks at me curiously. "It's just that you have a family now. Or well, you have a family I know about now. I've only recently learned the importance of having family around and... your family needs you around." I explain hesitantly. Feeling a vulnerability that I especially hate. Clint slings an arm around me.
"Well, your family too. Don't forget that..." Clint notices the worry still evident on my face and sighs. "I promised Laura and I'll promise you. This is my last job. I'm done after this." He assures. I nod and watch the twins exchange.
"Are you good?" Pietro asks, shaking out of what I can assume was listening to our conversation.
"Yeah." She replies a little breathlessly.
We all quickly walk back over to the core and I subtly glare as I see Tony's joined us.
"Romanoff... you and banner better not be playing hide the zucchini." Tony warns. I snort, covering my mouth with my hand.
"Relax, shellhead. Not all of us can fly." Natasha remarks. I nudge Pietro and he clears his throat with a smirk. "Or superspeed." She mumbles. I can faintly hear some type of truck on her side of the coms.
I become pleasantly surprised as she shows up in a truck. I was right! She rushes into the church.
"What's the drill?" She asks.
"That's the drill." Tony says, pointing at the core. "If Ultron gets a hand on the core, we lose." Tony explains.
I jump in surprise as Hulk jumps down from wherever and kills two robots. He soon joins us in the church.
Pietro's facing me, re-checking for any injuries. I smile up at him before I see something out of the corner of my eye. Ultron floats down, hovering over the ground. I tap on Pietro's very strong arms. He turns to look at him, not moving his stance from in front of me.
"Is that the best you can do?!" Thor cries out.
"Don't goad him!" I hiss at him harshly. I become worried as Ultron merely holds up an arm. ALL of his robots start heading toward us.
"You had to ask." Steve asks plainly, making my lip twitch up. This was definitely NOT the time to be smiling.
"This is the best I can do. This is exactly what I wanted. All of you, against all of me. How can you possibly hope to stop me?" Ultron asks smugly.
"Don't say together. Oh, just don't. That is so cheesy." I whisper to myself.
"Well, like the old man said..." Tony trails off.
"Dammit!" I whisper.
"Together." Tony finishes.
"Of course, Tony's the one to say it." I say, my voice clear. The Hulk lets out a raging roar.
Robots immediately start flooding in. Pietro leaves my side, running around the perimeter, smashing robots as he goes. His closeness helps, allowing me to move at a fast speed as well. I rush through the sea of robots, quickly changing their programming to destroy themselves. It's easier that way.
I watch in amazement for a second how Wanda uses her powers to rip them apart. I guess in some ways we are different.
"Wanda!" I shout, getting her attention. I flick my chin up and she seems to get the message. She sends me up into the air, allowing me to jump from one robot to the next in order to do my work.
As I fry one robot to the next, I get too focused
on one of them. A robot grips my back, making me cry out in pain. I try and twist around as the previous robot drops to the ground. Suddenly it's ripped off of me. I drop to the ground, rolling on the floor and quickly destroying another robot before looking up and watching vision destroy the robot that was previously on my back. We nod to each other before I rush over to Clint.
I tap into the muscles on my arms before grabbing two of his arrows. Robots are quickly flying in through the ceiling.
"What are you doing?!" Clint shouts as he tries to fire his arrows as fast as possible.
"Helping." I explain calmly.
I throw the arrows, Clint and I both watching as each arrow goes through at least four different robots. If the arrow was longer, they would've looked like a kabob. I look over at Clint with an amused glint. He scoffs.
"Whatever." Before he goes back to shooting.
I tap into Pietro's speed and watch as his quick punches are so powerful, they shatter the robot. Getting an idea, I run over to the closest robot and push it into a larger group of robots. Praying this works, I fry it's mainframe. Sparks start flying everywhere as the close vicinity is causing to fry the other robots too. They all drop to the ground.
I smile, still tapping into Pietro's speed. I glance around, seeing Steve flip over and destroy robots. Thor, smashing them to bits. Tony, blasting them. Vision, using whatever powers he has to make the robots glow green and completely destroy them. Wanda, as she continues ripping them apart. Pietro, shattering one robot to the next. Hulk, going on his rampaging ways. I smile because it looks to be as though we are actually winning. Like we could actually win this and get everyone safe. I know not everyone is going to be in perfect health. There are always casualties.
"There are always casualties, my dear daughter. It just turned out that you were one of them."
A females voice flickers through my mind. My Mom. I stagger forward, unable to recognize much over the pounding in my ears. I wasn't focused. I wasn't focusing! I needed to focus!
I grunt as I'm lurched forward. I turn around to see a robot try and claw at me. I scream, trying to evade its hands and get my own on them in time. Focusing on the robot I don't notice the Hulk who quickly jumps above me, leg on each side of my comparably tiny body. He rips the robot off of me and tears it to pieces. I stand frozen. I had never much interaction with the Hulk. Only Bruce.
The Hulk bends down, ignoring the robots landing on his back. The Hulk traces the red marks the robot made with such care that it frightened me more than the actual Hulk standing over me was. I nod.
"I'm ok." I speak softly, hoping he can hear me.