Elemental Mimicry

17: Our job

"This is the best I can do." Ultron chuckled darkly, his red eyes flicking between the eleven heroes. "This is exactly what I wanted. All of you, against all of me. How could you possibly hope to stop me?" Tony's eyes flickered towards Steve under his mask.

"Like the old man said. Together." Instantly Ultron's face seemed to twist into anger before he gave the signal. Bots came at the group at rapid speed from all angles. Seconds later Tony, The Vision and Crystal took to the sky, destroying the robots from above and stopping them before they could land on their team mates. Natasha and Clint kept close, firing their weapons at the moving silver metal, using their hand to hand combat if they got to close for comfort.

Pietro sped around the core, breaking robots into pieces quickly; Wanda used her hexes to split them apart, sending pieces of metal flying. The God of Thunder and the Hulk both smashed any bots that got near them, the former using his weapon while the latter simply used his fists. Captain America defended himself with his shield before using the vibranium 'frisbee' to slam into the robots power sources and deactivate them. Ruby stood motionless for several moments.

"Mimic!" Steve yelled, grabbing the blonde and pulling her out of harms way. "What are you doing?" As Ruby looked up the Super solider gasped slightly. Her eyes were no longer blue but a dark purple, her iris almost matching the colours of her pupils. They seemed lifeless as they stared at him, causing him to take a step back. "Ruby, are you okay?" The girl seemed to not hear him, her darkened eyes staring off into the distance as if she was have an internal war with herself.

Suddenly her hands thrust forward, narrowly missing the super soldier who jumped before holding his shield over their heads to protect them from flying scraps of metal. "Ruby?" Once again no response came from the blonde as her eyes began to glow. Slowly Steve turned, coming face to face with one of Ultron's robots. It's face was being held by Ruby's hands, the colour slowly draining from its eyes and floating down the females body. The bot hit the floor heavily and lifelessly.

"What was that?!"

"I-I don't know." Mimic whispered, her eyes fading back to blue with a look of fear. "I don't-"

"Mimic!" Her head whipped around violently, her hands shooting up to protect herself from the oncoming attack. As soon as she grabbed the metal she pushed herself away from Steve, tumbling to the floor as the robot continued to fight her off. Blue eyes snapped back to purple as she held the silver bot down on the ground, her hands locked around where it's neck should be and legs either side of its torso. It continued to lash out, kicking and punching the girl, trying to pry her from it.

However, Mimic took no note of the fight back, her eyes locked on her hands as they seem to suck all of the life force out of the robot. It fell lifeless seconds later, going limp under the girl as she pulled away. Mouth open the blonde female ignored everything going on around her, her eyes focused on the bot that lay under her form. She had killed it with her bare hands, she had taken all of its life force, pulled it from the robots body and absorbed it into herself.

"What the-"

"Ruby!"

"Don't touch me!" She panicked, jumping to her feet and scrambling away from Crystal who stared at her best friend wide eyed. "Please Crystal, I don't want to hurt you."

"What happened?" Pietro asked, looking at the elder female before taking a small step back. "обезьяна your eyes."

"I know, I know but I don't know." Mimic stared down at her hands once more, her breathing ragged and body tense.

"We don't have time to sit around panicking." Natasha interrupted, giving the seventeen year old a once over before turning to Steve. "We need to get everyone off, Banner, Stark and Thor helping to take care of the rest."

"We gotta move out." Captain Rogers agreed, checking over the rest of the team briefly with his eyes. "Even I can tell the air is getting thin. You guys get to the boats, I'll sweep for stragglers, be right behind you."

"What about the core?"

"I'll protect it." Wanda assured, giving a soft look towards Clint who nodded. "It's my job." With that the rest if the Avengers left the four enhanced alone, all staring at one another silently.

"You think you can carry on?" Crystal questioned her blonde partner, who rubbed her eyes violently before nodding.

"Get the people to the boats." Miss Maximoff urged.

"I'm not going to leave you."

"Neither are we."

"I can handle this." To prove her point the brunette tore a robot apart as it tried to reach the core behind her. "Come back for me when everyone else is off, not before." The male hummed earning a glare from his twin. "Do you understand?"

"You know, I'm twelve minuets older than you."

"Yeah and I'm twelve years more experienced than you, let's go road runner." Ruby demanded, her normal blue eyes lighting up with excitement once more. Wanda chuckled softly while Crystal nodded in agreement, taking to the skies while Ruby hurried through the city.

"Go!" Wanda repeated, watching as her three 'siblings' disappeared from sight. This was her job and she was going to do it until the very end. Crystal hovered silently in the air for a few seconds, watching the ground below as the Avengers helped more and more people onto the life boats. Below she could just make out Ruby as she carried a small child away from the chaos and handed him to his mother while Pietro sped around to make sure no one strayed too far away.

On the ground Mimic paused beside Hawkeye, who was staring down at a woman calling her sons name frantically. "Costel." The blonde whispered horrified, her head snapping up and gaze sweeping the rubble. "Where are you Costel?"