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Tony immediately focuses on Ultron as Klaue's men begin firing. Elana gathers some white mist and knocks them all down in one sweep. She breaks apart Iron Legion robots, looking around to try to spot Wanda or Pietro. She watches as Steve finally lands a hit on Pietro, sending him sprawling to the ground.
"Stay down, kid."
Elana gets distracted, moving to scold Steve. "He's just a child, Steve! There's no need to be so harsh!"
The protests die before they can leave her lips however as one of the Legion bots smashes into her with considerable more force than she anticipated and causes her to fly backwards into some crates. She gets up slowly, stepping back over them into the ring again before electrocuting the responsible bot with her batons and making it short circuit. The battle rages on around her as she reaches out with her mind to try and find Wanda. She switched through consciousnesses, racing to locate the young girl before she does something she regrets.

She's snapped out of the search when Steve jumps in front of her with his shield raised, deflecting bullets heading straight for her.
"What are you doing? Focus on the fight!" he scolds.
"I'm trying to find Wanda. It's important to know what she's doing, but... it's not working!" she yells back.
"Try finding Pietro. He's gone again."
Elana nods and searches for an increased pace of thought- almost like searching for a radio station on a different frequency. When she finally gets it right, an involuntary gasp leaves her lips. She sees Wanda walking towards the Quinjet (their Quinjet!), her hands glowing an ominous red and one idea lingering in his mind.
"Bruce."

Sprinting towards the Quinjet, jumping and climbing over things in a desperate attempt to get there faster; nobody knows what Elana knows but nobody can (hopefully) solve it faster than she can.
"Wanda! Stop!"
But it's too late. Just as Elana arrives, so does the Hulk. Pietro sweeps up Wanda and disappears in a blur, but Elana is too focused on the major problem in front of her to spare the two a second thought other than to curse them. Her concern for her friends (since Hulk and Bruce both get on well with the girl) outweighs concern for the two misguided teens.
"Hulk?" she inquired shyly, taking small steps towards the looming green figure. She's in no way scared of him, despite her awareness of his confusion, his destructive nature and his anger- his overwhelming wrath and outrage.

Directed at what, Elana can't establish, but the flashing and blinking lights of the nearby city of Johannesburg have caught his attention. Her turns to face Elana as she says his name and she smiles gently as she senses his recognition of her.
"Hey, Big Guy. You alright? As much as I love seeing you... now isn't ideal for a catch up," she says, still progressing forward step by tiny step as she listens to Bruce's calls for help from inside Hulk's mind.
"Hulk... smash?" he asks, pointing at the city.
"No, no! Hulk no smash. Elana needs Banner, okay? Please?" she asks. All seems to be going well until a loud noise erupts from the city- an orchestra of loud beeping of horns and screeching of breaks from what Elana assumes is a near miss of a collision on the busy roads.

The Hulk roars, his anger out of control at the interruption. He sets off towards Johannesburg, ignoring Elana's futile calls for him to come back.
"Hulk is AWOL," she says into the radio. "I repeat, Hulk is AWOL, I'm going after him. Do not engage with the twins."
And in one swift motion she projects herself from the edge of the hill into the sky with a burst of energy, using it to follow the path the Hulk took and to coax Bruce out before Veronica can be engaged.
"I'm sending Veronica," Tony says through the earpiece.
"No! It'll only make things worse," Elana argues. Tony ignores her and gives the instruction to FRIDAY, a replacement for the JARVIS program.

Elana continues to move towards the city, trying to catch up with the green blob in front of her. She lands on one of the main roads into town, looking at a path of destruction leading onwards. Traffic is at a standstill and almost none of the people have stayed in their cars. It's completely silent apart from the slightly distant sounds of the city and the Hulk. Cars are left abandoned and people are cowering in alleys or beside upturned vehicles, some shielding their children with their bodies, others looking distressed and with tears running down their faces. The citizens watch her nervously. Her eyes flicker around, ensuring that nobody is trapped. She placed cars the right way up with her white mist as she rushes past, yelling apologies and promising to come back and help after. She sees Veronica plummeting towards Johannesburg from the sky and knows she has to push on. Bruce's saddened face from the mission where they found Loki's sceptre keeps flashing onto her thoughts. If he was upset then, he'll be devastated now.

She continues sprinting through the streets, barely stopping to help fix minor things on her way past and twisting and turning to try and take shortcuts. The longer she's taking, the more damage Hulk and Veronica are causing. She can hear the angered roars of Hulk and the churning of Veronica's metal as she tries to stop him. Hulkbuster was a project she helped with and she can't fathom the damage it may cause, not just to the city but perhaps to one of her closest friends. Nobody had tuned into the radio lately so Elana had no idea about the twins or the rest of the team but she can only spare them a thought as she is greeted with the sight of Hulk and Veronica vying for control messily and loudly as civilians run for cover. Elana directs them and begins to try and contain the two forces battling it out with a dome of white mist separating the people from the Hulk and his match.

"Go! Get away. He doesn't mean any harm, he's just angry and confused," she yells, passing through the barrier and flying up to Hulk's height in front of his face.
"Hulk, please! I need Banner and I need Banner now. If you'd rather, I could pull him forward instead of you giving in," she offers, her hands splayed in a calming gesture. "I love Hulk, but I need Banner."
"Hulk sorry," he says gruffly before he begins shrinking again, turning less green as Bruce is finally given an escape route. He is eventually curled up in a ball and Elana dismisses Veronica with a small thank you as she swoops down to help Bruce. She sighs as she brushes some hair back from her mentor's face before lifting him up and flying back to the jet. She drops him off and is off again before anyone can stop her.

Grey. | marvel [2]Where stories live. Discover now