Temper in Red *Editing*

Chapter Twenty-Five

Chapter Twenty-Five

"Avengers, time to work for a living." Stark's voice filled all of our ears as we hurried towards the church in the center of the city, leaving the rest of the civilians as they all worked on getting onto the lifeboats. When we reached the church we found Vision and Thor both already there.

"You good?" Pietro asked Wanda and I, looking us both over for any scratches.

"Yeah." Wanda and I both nodded.

"Romanoff? You and Banner better not be playing hide the zucchini." Stark taunted Natasha through the ear comms as he noticed that neither her or Bruce were at the church with us yet.

"Relax, Shell-head. Not all of us can fly." Natasha rolled her eyes as she joined us. "What's the drill?"

"This is the drill." Stark pointed at the large metal contraption in the center of the church. "If Ultron gets a hand on the core, we lose."

"Is that the best you can do?" Thor yelled at Ultron as he appeared in the air overhead of us. At Thor's words Ultron raised a hand, silently summoning dozens of robots that filled the air around him as well as the ground below him.

"You just had to ask." Steve threw him an annoyed look.

"How are we going to do this?" I muttered under my breath.

"Well, like the old man said. Together." Stark said.

"You know, with the benefit of hindsight...." Ultron was cut off by Bruce appearing as the Hulk, smacking him through the sky, causing all of the robots to begin to retreat rather than attacking us.

"They'll try to leave the city." Thor said.

"We can't let 'em, not even one." Stark shook his head. "Rhodey!"

"I'm on it." Rhodey assured him through ear comms.

"We gotta move out. Even I can tell the air is getting thin." Steve looked around at all of us. 

"We can't leave the drill unguarded." Natasha shook her head. "We can't risk Ulton getting to it, someone needs to stay behind and guard it."

"I'll do it." Wanda volunteered, earning looks from both Clint and I. "It's my job."

"You guys get to the boats, I'll sweep for stragglers, be right behind you." Clint told everyone else.

"Get the people on the boats." Wanda told Pietro and I as all of the others began to head out, heading back towards the lifeboats.

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

"I can handle these." Wanda promised him as she blew up an approaching robot. "Come back for me when everyone else is off, not before. You understand?"

"You know, I'm twelve minutes older than you." Pietro reminded her, earning a chuckle.

"Go." Wanda told him. He nodded before running off. I went to follow, but hesitated as I looked back at the younger woman that stood before me.

"Stay safe." I looked her in the eyes as I spoke. "Don't go dying on us. Got it?"

"Got it." She nodded with a small smile. With that said I manipulated the air around me, lifting myself off of the ground and sending myself sailing through the air towards the lifeboats, sending small balls of fire at stray robots that I came across.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

"Costel?" I heard a young woman cry out as she sat on the floor of the last lifeboat, her skin cut up and bloody, her eyes filled with desperation. "We were in the market. Costel?!"