Second Sphere

How'd we do?

I hear Barton over the com "Alright we're all clear here"

"We are not clear here" Steve grunts "we are very not clear."

I turn and see a bot behind him and throw my sword pinning it to a car behind him.

Steve looks at me, "Thanks."

I grunt pulling the sword free, it had buried itself up to the hilt in the metal chest of the robot. "Yeah."

After a while we manage to get a minute of relative peace.

"The next wave is going to hit any minute. What do you got, Stark?" Steve asks.

"Huh? Nothing great. Maybe a way to blow up the city. That'll keep it from impacting the surface, if you guys can get clear." Tony doesn't sound optimistic, and for good reason.

"I asked for a solution not an escape plan." Steve retorts, I can hear the frustration in his voice.

"Impact radius is getting bigger every second. We're going to have to make a choice." Stark says grimly.

The coms are quiet for a minute and I'm able to look around, I had been herding people together into a building that looked a little safer than the others. People clung to one another and I could hear sobbing and quiet whispers. I feel something wrap itself around my leg and I look down to find a kid, the boy couldn't be older than four. I kneel down and the child unwraps himself from my leg.

"Are you an angel sent to help us?" His English is broken and I can hear the shaking in his voice.

I try and put on a reassuring smile, I may not be an angel but the boy doesn't need to know that right now, "I'm here to help. Do you know where your parents are."

The child shakes his head and I look around, it's too frantic to try and find them but I can pass him to someone who can help more. I pick the boy up and walk over to a police officer and explain that he needs help finding his mother. The police woman takes the child and they walk off. I sigh. I wish I had been able to just fly him down but there's not enough time, the next wave will be here soon.

I walk out of the building to see a huge helicarrier in the sky. Smaller pods are heading towards the floating rock. We start to load people on board and I take to the sky fighting off any incoming bots that threaten the boats.

Tony calls us all to protect the core back at a wrecked church.

"What's the drill?" Romanoff asks when she gets here.

"This is the drill. If Ultron gets his hand on the core we lose." Stark replies.

Got it. Don't let the robots touch the spire.

Ultron flies down a little ways off and thor shouts at him "Is that the best you can do?"

He raises a hand and a bunch of robots run behind him. Fuck.

Steve shoots Thor a look. "You had to ask"

With arms outstretched Ultron says, "This is the best I can do. This is exactly what I wanted. All of you against all of me. How could you possibly hope to stop me?"

"Well, like the old man said. Together." Tony quotes Steve with the last part.

I pull a gun out before the fighting starts and from then on it's chaotic. Nonstop fighting along side each other to protect the core.

When things do die down the remaining robots scatter and we split up to stop the robots from leaving the city and sweep for stragglers. I only manage to find a few people and it's pretty easy to fly them to the boats, my wings have long been done aching and now it's just numb. I'll be feeling this tomorrow, if there is a tomorrow.

I see the last of the ships has the kid that clung to me earlier and I give him a small wave and a soft smile. All of a sudden the city starts to drop. I spread my wings out and let the updraft take me into the sky. After a few moments somewhere below us the floating rock is blown to bits.

"Stark?" I ask on the com. There's no response. So I dive down looking for him. After a while I see the red and gold in the water and I pull him from it.

I tear the mask off and put my fingers over his nose. He's breathing. I laugh and he opens his eyes.

"How'd we do feathers?" He asks, grunting from pain.

I laugh. "Not half had tin man."