nova — peter parker
chapter five: you kiss your mother with that mouth?
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The youngest Maximoff had helped a few more kids onto the boats, some of the older team's members had checked in on their youngest teammate, glad she was handling herself well.
The ground began to crack as the girl held a young boy's hand, a small puppy in her grasp. They were about to travel over a bridge, but as its remnants plummeted down, the pair quickly started sprinting the other way.
Her coat trailing behind her, the girl sprinted through the streets, still clutching into the boy and the dog as if her life depended on it ( which was ironic, considering it was technically the other way around ).
They were still traveling through the buildings closer to the middle of the city, so the two had no idea what was happening outside their vicinity. They could only hear Ultron's voice booming throughout his army.
"Do you see the beauty of it? The inevitability. You rise, only to fall. You, Avengers, you are my meteor. My swift and terrible sword. And the earth will crack with the weight of your failure. Purge me from your computers, turn my own flesh against me. It means nothing. When the dust settles, the only thing living in this world will be metal."
Just then, Arabella noticed the rumbling of the ground below them, the larger cracking of the pavement indicating that something was happening.
She could hear the faint roars of the Hulk, meaning that Banner had found Natasha and got her out of Ultron's cell.
The boy whimpered as a building almost in front of them toppled to the ground. To distract him as they darted the other way, she asked, "Kid, what's your name?"
"Ashton," he responded, horrified tears streaming down his cheekbones. "The dog's name's Max."
"Pretty name," she cooed and blasted another robot away from them.
Captain America came in over her comms piece. "Stark, you worry about bringing the city back down safely. The rest of us have one job: tear these things apart. You get hurt, hurt them back. You get killed . . . walk it off."
"Nice pep talk, Captain," sarcastically muttered Arabella.
"Ashton! Ash!" she heard as she rounded the corner. She slowed her strides down as the boy called out for his mother. Arabella could see a woman jogging up to them, immediately reaching for her child and showering him in sloppy kisses on his forehead.
Tears grew in her eyes at the mother, mind flooding with thoughts that screamed, "Why couldn't that be me?" She bit her lip to halt the tears from flowing freely down her face.
The mother also took the dog from her grasp, repeatedly thanking her for protecting her child and aiding the civilians.
She didn't say, "Thank you, it's my job," because although she's saved more lives than she can count today, she still feels responsible for the trouble caused throughout the city, her city, her home. No, she just nodded and ushered them away from the bombs being pelted at them by Ultron's army.
She could faintly see the red, white, and blue glimmer of Steve's shield, so instinctively, she ran toward it. As she got to the edge of the bridge, the bumper of a car that Steve was holding onto to stop a woman from falling to her evident doom ripped off, losing Steve's grip on the vehicle.
The young Maximoff absentmindedly jumped off the bridge, her first and only thought being to save her life. And so she did, lifting herself and the woman ( who had flown out of the car ) back onto the bridge with her powers.
"What, were you napping?" Steve sassily questioned Thor as the trio sprinted down the vacant bridge.
As the group was fighting off more robots, Thor lifted his hammer toward Arabella, who frowned in confusion before thrusting her hand toward it, sending lilac rays at it, powering it up further. The God of Thunder then motioned for Steve to flip his shield, who obeyed and cast Mjölnir at it, sending the shield piercing through a large number of robots. Throwing one at a gas truck, it exploded, burning most of the robots.
"Thor," seethed Ultron, grasping onto his torso and flying away. "You're bothering me."
Arabella slowly watched them soar away, before turning back to the attacking army.
"All right, we're all clear here," Clint said through the shared earpieces.
"Well, what makes you think we're clear here?" groaned Arabella as Steve said, "We are not clear! We are very not clear!"
"All right, coming to you."
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Arabella had found Steve in the chaos minutes later, helping him direct the civilians into a safe area.
She tended to stick with Steve — he was the first person to accept her, after all.
"The next wave is gonna hit any minute," Steve said into the comms. "What do you got, Stark?"
"Huh? Nothing great," Tony dispiritedly responded. "Maybe a way to blow up the city. That'll keep it from impacting the surface if you guys can get clear."
Arabella rubbed the sweat droplets off of her forehead. "Yeah, and then we all die!"
"I asked for a solution, not an escape plan."
"Impact radius is getting bigger every second. We're gonna have to make a choice."
"Cap," Natasha chimed in. "These people are going nowhere. If Stark finds a way to blow this rock ─"
"Not till everyone's safe," the man cut her off.
"Everyone up here versus everyone down there? There's no math there," Nat shook her head.
"I'm not leaving until everyone's safe. Frankly, I don't care what you guys do," Arabella deadpanned, preparing to jog off to kill more robots.
"I didn't say we should leave," Nat explained, glancing to the view over the edge of Sokovia. "There's worse ways to go. Where else am I gonna get a view like this?"
Arabella faintly sighed, tears lining her eyes. Nat was right; if she were to die, she'd rather be a hero with a bad reputation than a villain with a worse one.
"Glad you like the view, Romanoff," a man whom Arabella did not recognize voiced over their radios. "It's about to get better."
Emerging out of the clouds, a massive, flying, runway-looking structure came into view. Its four large propellers spun round and round, slowly moving the structure toward the city.
"Nice, right? Pulled her out of mothballs with a couple of old friends. She's dusty, but she'll do."
"Fury," a ghost of a smile unruled on Steve's face. "You son of a bitch."
"Ooh!" the man, Fury, chuckled. "You kiss your mother with that mouth?"
Multiple parts of the ship opened up, unveiling smaller boats that flew faster to Sokovia.
Pietro sped to his sister, placing a comforting hand on her shoulder. She lifted her hand to rest on top of his. "This is S.H.I.E.L.D.?" he asked.
"This is what S.H.I.E.L.D. is supposed to be," Steve corrected.
"This is not so bad," Pietro chuckled.
"Let's load 'em up," instructed the Captain.
"What about the robots?" Arabella pointed to the machines soaring to the mothership.
"Fury should take care of them. Come on," said Natasha, placing a hand on the small of Arabella's back and guiding her towards the frightened but relieved citizens.
She could hear Tony talking to another unknown man over the comms, but she didn't pay attention to it, focusing on rescuing the people.
Arabella teleported to a particularly far ship, leaving faint purple smoke in her tracks. She began to guide the awaiting Sokovians onto the vessel, attempting to fit as many as she could on it. Once the boat was fully stocked, she ushered the un-boarded people to the next boat, not stopping until everyone was out of there.
"I got it," Stark informed. "Create a heat seal. I could . . . I could supercharge the spire from below."
"This better work," muttered Arabella as she ran back into the city, searching for any stragglers.
"Thor, I got a plan."
"We're out of time. They're coming for the core!"
"Rhodey, get the rest of the people on board that carrier."
"On it," Rhodey answered.
"Avengers," Tony called. "Time to work for a living."
Arabella had arrived at the middle of the city, where a gazebo-like structure stood. Vision, Pietro, and Thor were already there, fending off Ultron's army.
Wanda, Clint, and Steve joined the group, while Tony warned, "Romanoff. You and Banner better not be playing 'hide the zucchini.'"
Wanda immediately encased her younger sister into a hug, having not seen her this whole battle and not knowing if she was still alive.
"Relax, shellhead. Not all of us can fly," the girl in question answered.
She joined the gathered Avengers. "What's the drill?"
"This is the drill," Tony pointed to the core. "If Ultron gets a hand on the core, we lose."
The Hulk crashed through, Ultron floating not far behind him.
"Is that the best you can do?" Thor bravely yelled.
Ultron simply raised his metal hand, motioning for the largest army of robots that Arabella had seen to enclose on the Avengers.
"You had to ask," Steve panted, annoyedly glancing at the God of Thunder.
"This is the best I can do," Ultron said. Arabella protectively manipulated a ball of light in her grasp. "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 . . ." Iron Man trailed off, taking a glance at Captain America. "Together."
Hulk let out a mighty roar as the army charged forwards.
Each hero used their abilities to fight the robots. Arabella would keep an ear out for anyone struggling and instantly blast the robots attacking her away from the girl to help another team member.
Arabella still thought this was insane. Fighting for the other side, of course. Yeah, the fact that robots were flying through the air and trying to kill them with no mercy was slightly alarming, but she had superpowers. Was she really that surprised at anything anymore?
No, she thought to herself as she threw another robot into the roof, smashing it into pieces. Definitely not.
More and more of Ultron's minions were seeping through the walls; Arabella could only hope that Fury had gotten the boats safely out of the chaos.
Arabella began to unintentionally lift herself up to kill more of the machines.
When Ultron had entered the vicinity to battle Vision, Arabella blasted herself upwards to help the only robot on their side since there were no more robots attempting to harm her after seeing what she did to the other ones.
Thor and Tony apparently had the same idea. When Vision blasted Ultron out of the broken structure, he and Arabella shot their own energy beams at the villain. Tony began to shoot his repulsers, and Thor struck lightning at Ultron, the quartet forming a diamond shape as they fought the main robot.
Ultron fell to his knees, causing Arabella to cease her light. As the robot stood back up, she noticed that some of his body was chipping off due to the overwhelming amount of power sent his way.
"You know, with the benefit of hindsight ─." Ultron was cut off by the Hulk punching him extremely hard, sending him flying across the city. He then looked at the remaining robots, who scattered off in fear, trying to fly away from the floating Sokovia.
"They'll try to leave the city," Thor realized.
"We can't let them, not even one. Rhodey," Tony called.
"I'm on it," the man in question said over the comms, narrating his fight against the army."
Vision then joined the battle, using different techniques to kill the machines, causing Rhodey to let out an, "Okay, what?"
"We gotta move out," addressed Steve. "Even I can tell the air is getting thin. You guys get to the boats. I'll sweep for stragglers. Arabella, you're with me. Be right behind you."
"What about the core?" asked Clint.
"I'll protect it," Wanda hesitatingly but confidently stated. "It's my job." The Maximoff looked at Clint and nodded.
Hawkeye proudly nodded back. "Nat, this way." The pair ran off, as did Steve and Arabella, leaving Wanda to guard the core.