Sue looked to the sky that sat in between the buildings around her. The mountains that towered over the city disappeared and the clouds grew closer. They would soon pass through the puffs of white and Sue realised that the sky wasn't falling, but the city was rising. Rumbles beyond audibility dulled her ears and the pavement under her feet cracked from the added pressure. Rubble fell from the aged buildings and she took hold of a lamppost as the ground shook. The city rocked and swayed, before gaining its balance to continue on a steady path.
As she turned her head back to the street in front of her, a robot with a thin frame of wires and parts flew down from above. Its eye holes were an electric blue and its mechanical arm powered up an electricity of the same colour. The robots were hosts for Ultron, as he was confined to metal forms. If needed, could upload to one of his soldiers, also known as his Sentries, to stay alive.
'Shit!' Johnny hissed as another fired a shot in his direction that singed strands of his hair. Sue held up a barrier and attacks from the Sentries dissolved into its wall. She sent the shimmer of blue invisibility outwards, and the force throwing the robot back into a building. It smashed into the brick and powered down, damaged beyond repair. Johnny sent a ball of flames at another and it wailed as its part caught fire. It flew into the street from its malfunction, wires sparking and sizzling as the flames burnt into its circuits.
'Looks like we're fighting another god damn army,' Sue announced as Sentries flew overhead. They spotted the two in the street and aimed their weapons down, Sue forming a dome around her and Johnny to shield them from the rainfall of attacks.
'I'm out, sis,' Johnny said and his shoulders smoked with fire. Before Sue could reply, he leapt upwards and collided with a group of Sentries that gathered in the sky. They parted from the impact of the flaming man before their weapons locked onto him. Some stayed put to attack Sue, while others followed after Johnny.
'Stark? Where are you?' Johnny asked through his earpiece. 'I've got a pack on my tail. Could use some help.'
'I'm flying a Sokovian family in a bathtub, at the moment,' Tony answered with his usual nonchalant tone. 'Gonna have to help yourself, torch.'
True to his word, Tony found a civilian family stuck on the top floor of a building. If he wanted to get them all out before the structure collapsed, he would need to carry all of them at once. The bathtub was the only option and he loaded them up, flying them out before bricks collapsed from the city's ascent.
FRIDAY informed him that Ultron's plan was to rise the city high enough, before dropping it from the vibranium core's hold. The impact with the Earth would lead to global extinction, allowing Ultron to regrow the planet from scratch. Tony was yet to have a plan on how to stop Ultron, but Sentries attacked relentlessly and civillians needed saving first.
Tony, clad in his red and rose gold suit, lowered the bathtub down and the family scurried out, the children clutched in their parents' arms. The sight of the mother and father making sure their children were unharmed pinged something in the Stark's chest. They were in danger, yet they shielded their young with their backs. Rubble landed on their clothes, but they gripped their children in their arms. Tony wanted that. Tony wanted to love someone with Sue. To be the protectors and to be parents of something innocent and their own.
As the family ran off, Tony looked to his screen. With FRIDAY online, Sue's suit sent its updates of her vitals. He could see she was actively fighting, and her suit was taking hits from the left and right. But she was yet to be harmed, so he fired up his repulsors and thrusters to shoot him into the sky.
Sue encased four Sentries that fired at her in a sphere of transparency. They squirmed as it shrunk to crush their mechanical bodies and let out robotic whirls when it ripped into their wires. Sue felt the release of resistance from the Sentries, and she broke her concentration, the Sentries parts falling to the floor in a mess. She ducked from the bricks other Sentries threw in her direction, before they held up their arms that powered into guns.
Her fingers curled around the spikes of blue that formed in her hands and she reared her arms back. While dodging the bricks and shots from their guns, Sue threw the spikes that penetrated through Ultron's army. Their chests were impaled, and they attempted to keep fighting, but malfunctioned when disks slicked through their necks. Invisible objects pulled them a part one by one, leaving Sue surrounded by Ultron's fallen army.
'Sue,' Steve called through her earpiece. She had pressed the button on her collar to retrack the mask from around her face. When it had encased her, she struggled to concentrate when in battle. She didn't know how Tony functioned with FRIDAY talking in his ear every second. She preferred to fight with her hair flowing behind her and the wind on her face.
'I need you at the bridge. There are too many civilians here to protect,' he informed.
'The bridge? At the edge of the city?' she questioned in disbelief. 'That's miles away. How am I going to get there?'
Sue jumped as Pietro appeared next to her. He had ran down the steps at lightning speed and came from behind her, smirking when she put her hand to her chest from the shock. The silver blur formed into the young man and Sue finally felt what it was like to be snuck up on.
'I'll get you there,' Pietro offered, his voice thick with his accent. 'If you don't mind hopping on my back.'
'I seem to be doing that a lot,' Sue sighed and put a finger to her ear to talk to Steve. 'I'm on my way, cap.'
Pietro ran through the city with the thirty-nine-year-old woman on his back. Sue was humiliated from the amount of time she spent piggybacked by grown men. She squinted from the wind that came at her from Pietro's speed. His silver hair was permanently in her face from the force of air that rushed at them, and she was relieved when he slowed to a normal speed at the edge of the city.
The bridge that once connected to the outside of the city was detached, now leading to nowhere. Sue saw nothing but the blue sky with clouds and she was made aware of the extent at which the city had risen. Cars were destroyed and crawling with Sentries, civilians caught in the middle. Rocks of buildings and road sat in piles, the bridge cracking further from the pressure.
As Pietro stopped and Sue jumped down from his back, Thor jumped up from below the bridge. A civilian woman ran off after being thrown by the Asgardian and Steve looked between the two newcomers.
'What, were you two napping?' Steve asked sarcastically and Thor narrowed his eyes at the human. Sue resisted a snarky retort and spotted civilians that were rounded up by Sentries. She ran over, Steve, Pietro and Thor turning to their own soldiers and fighting through them with their weapons.
Sue's shoes skidded against the road as she slid in between the quivering civilians and Ultron's army. She threw up her hands as they fired their weapons, a forcefield separating them from her and the group. People screamed when the Sentries' shots pounded against the barrier, dull thuds and bangs echoing from the collision. The invisible force shook from the attack, but Sue held it steady. She glanced over her shoulder and spotted children that shrunk into their mothers' arms. Women cried in their European language and pushed their children behind them, ensuring that they would be hit first if any harm were to get through Sue's barrier. Sue couldn't help but see Clint's daughter, Lila, whose picture sat in her bedroom back at the tower.
At the distraction, the Storm's barrier faltered in strength. A Sentry sent a shot and it penetrated through to Sue's shoulder. The suit absorbed most of the impact, but the force spun her and she fell to the floor. The civilians cried as their saviour was hurt and ran in all directions, desperately trying to get away from the army of robots.
'You can't protect everyone, Susan,' Ultron's voice came from one of the Sentries. Sue gripped her shoulder with her opposite hand and winced at its ache. She looked up, hair draped over her face and saw the Sentry's eyes beam down at her.
'The day you fall will be the day you are responsible for the death of everyone,' Ultron held his Sentry's hand out with the bright blue powering up and aimed at her face. 'You will die without achieving anything. You are nothing but a shield. A shield that will break. Susan Storm, the invisible woman with no purpose.'
The Sentry's chest was torn a part by a blast from behind. Its blue eyes dimmed, and the metal fell to the side, chest destroyed and disassembled on the road. Tony descended from his place in the sky, lowering his repulsor and he cut his thrusters. His suit's boots clanked as they touched the tar of the street, and he reached his arm out for Sue to grab. She gratefully took it and Tony heaved her up, his free hand taking hold of her waist to steady her. She winced from the pain in her shoulder and felt the sting of cuts that lined her face.
'You good?' Tony asked through his suit. He towered over her in his red and gold glory. He could see the red flash in Sue's shoulder from the live data of her suit. Parts of the diagram of her body flashed red on his screen from wounds that couldn't be seen on the surface. Sue put her hands on her hips to take a moment to breathe and looked up at Tony's mask.
'I'm okay...' she let out through small pants. 'What's the plan to get back down to Earth?'
'Don't know, yet,' he said. 'But hey! I had a thought.'
'Is it appropriate for right now?'
'No, but it never will be appropriate. So, I was thinking, a child?'
'A child?'
Sue looked at Tony in his suit with a look of confusion. Bruce's roar was heard in the distance and Johnny's stream of fire was seen flying over the city. Sentries followed the torch who sent infernos as he spun in circles. As the battle continued, Sue choked on her airflow as she realised what Tony meant.
'You mean to have a child?! Like a baby?!' her eyes were wide, and her mouth sat open in the shape of an 'o'. 'Not only are we in the middle of Europe on a city that's suspended in mid-air, but we are fighting an army of Ultrons! And your thoughts right now are about having an infant?!'
'See, this is why I don't like talking to you when we're in battle,' Tony sassed but threw his arms out beside him as he spoke. 'Imagine! A little Stark running around with brains and cosmic-radioactive genes!'