Rumors and Ghosts

x. sacrifice

Rhodey showed up in his War Machine suit and blasted one of the robots before saying, "Yes! Now this is gonna be a good story."

"Yep," Tony replied. "If you live to tell it."

"You think I can't hold my own?"

"We get through this, I'll hold your own."

"You had to make it weird."

As the team helped the people onto the Helicarrier, Clint said, "All right, let's load 'em up! All right, here we go. Here we go, let's move. Let's go everyone!"

Specialist Cameron Klein said, "Number six boat is topped and locked. Or, uh, or stocked, topped. It... it's, uh, full of people."

"Incoming!" Hill warned before one of the robots crashed in through the Helicarrier window.

"Oh, God!"

Hill shot at the robot and Fury stabbed it with a piece of metal, destroying it.

Ultron, as he was hitting Thor, said, "You think you're saving anyone? I turn that key and drop this rock a little early and it's still billions dead. Even you can't stop that."

"I am Thor, son of Odin, and as long as there is life in my breast, I am... running out of things to say!" Thor replied. "Are you ready?" Vision used Thor's hammer to hit Ultron.

Vision then threw the hammer back to Thor before saying, "It's terribly well balanced."

"Well, if there's too much weight, you lose power on the swing, so."

"I got it!" Tony said. "Create a heat seal. I can... I can supercharge the spire from below."

"Running numbers," F.R.I.D.A.Y. told him as Tony fought off the robots from the Helicarrier's lifeboats. "A heat seal could work with enough power."

"Thor, I got a plan!"

"We're out of time," Thor replied. "They're coming for the core."

"Rhodey, get the rest of the people on board that carrier."

"On it," Rhodey said, moving to get people on the carrier.

"Avengers, time to work for a living."

The rest of the team joined Thor and Wanda and Pietro asked, "You good?"

"Yeah," Wanda replied.

"Romanoff?" Tony called. "You and Banner better not be playing "hide the zucchini.""

"Relax, Shell-head," Natasha retorted. "Not all of us can fly." She and Anastasia drove up on a motorcycle. "What's the drill?"

Tony pointed to the Vibranium core. "This is the drill. If Ultron gets a hand on the core, we lose."

Ultron appeared to wreak havoc and destruction once again.

"Is that the best you can do?" Thor asked.

Ultron summoned his army of robots to join him.

"You had to ask," Steve muttered.

"This is the best I can do," Ultron told them. "This is exactly what I wanted. All of you against me. How could you possibly hope to stop me?"

"Well, like the old man said," Tony replied. "Together."

"You know, with the benefit of hin-" the Avengers collectively fought off Ultron's robots with their own respective abilities; Ultron and Vision started battling it out; after a moment, Thor and Tony joined him; the combined power was enough to damage Ultron's Vibranium body, "dsight-" Hulk interrupted him by knocking him far away. The robots started retreating.

"They'll try to leave the city," Thor warned.

"We can't let 'em, not even one," Tony said. "Rhodey!"

"I'm on it," Rhodey answered. He spoke to the approaching robots. "Oh, no, I didn't say you could leave. War Machine, comin' at you, right-" Vision flew in and helped destroy the robots. "Okay, what?"

"We gotta move out," Steve told the group. "Even I can tell the air is getting thin. You guys get to the boats, he and I'll sweep for stragglers, be right behind you."

"What about the core?" Clint asked.

"I'll protect it," Wanda replied. "It's my job." Steve, Clint, Natasha and Anastasia left. Wanda turned to her brother and said, "Get the people on the boats."

"I'm not going to leave you here," Pietro argued.

"I can handle this." She blasted off an approaching robot. "Come back for me when everyone else is off, not before."

"Hmm."

"You understand?"

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

She chuckled. "Go."

Pietro sped off.

"Boss, power levels are way below opt..." F.R.I.D.A.Y. trailed.

"Re-route everything," Tony ordered. "We get one shot at this."

---

Clint, Anastasia and Natasha were making their way to the lifeboats.

"I know what I need to do," Clint said. "The dining room! If I knock out that east wall, it'll make a nice work space for Laura, huh? Put up some baffling, she can't hear the kids running around, what do you think?"

"You guys always eat in the kitchen anyway," Natasha stated.

"No one eats in a dining room." They reached the lifeboats. "We don't have a lot of time."

"So get your ass on a boat." She found Hulk. "Hey, big guy. Sun's getting real low."

Clint and Anastasia got into one of the lifeboats, but noticed a woman calling out for someone.

"Costel?" Zrinka called. "We were in the market. Costel?!"

Clint and Anastasia exchanged a look and nodded, then ran off to find the boy.

---

"Thor, I'm gonna need you back in the church," Tony said.

Thor, referring to the people getting onto the lifeboats, asked Steve, "Is this the last of them?"

"Yeah," Steve replied. "Everyone else is on the carrier."

"You know, if this works, we maybe don't walk away," Tony told the group.

"Maybe not," Thor said.

---

As Natasha tried to calm Hulk down to get him back to being Bruce, Ultron flew in with a jet and started shooting at them.

Ultron sang, "I got no strings, so I have fun. I'm not tied up to anyone." As Clint and Anastasia were saving the boy, Costel, Ultron began shooting at them. Clint and Anastasia prepared to take the shots to save the kid, but Pietro ran into the line of fire and took the shots to save each of them.

"You didn't see that coming," Pietro said as he fell to the ground and died.

Anastasia's expression fell as she stared at Pietro.

---

In the church, Wanda sensed his death, causing her to fall in despair, and she released a wave of energy that destroyed all the robots around her.

---

Hulk dropped Natasha into the Helicarrier, then jumped onto the jet Ultron was on.

"Oh, for God's sake!" Ultron complained.

Hulk threw Ultron from the jet and he crashed inside a train. At the same time, Clint delivered Costel safely to his sister onto the lifeboat while a man went over to help him with his wounds.

"No, no," Clint said. "I'm fine." He laid next to Pietro's dead body. "Oh, it's been a long day."

Anastasia sat on the ground as she ran her hands through her hair while staring at Pietro. "Thank you. I'm sorry it came to this."