Loki to the Rescue

"This is the best I can do. This is exactly what I wanted," Ultron said with his arms spread out proudly. "All of you, against all of me. How can you possibly hope to stop me?"

"Well, like the old man said," Tony replied. Before looking at Steve and having him look at him too. "'Together.'"

With that cue, Hulk roared loudly while the enemies started to run towards the church and attack the Avengers.

They all had their lanes, Wanda took care mostly on her side, using her chaos magic to split the robots apart. Thor used his hammer to hit the robots while Loki used both his witchcraft and abilities to take down the enemies. Steve and Natasha took care of the side near each other. Pietro rounds in and out of the church while Hulk stays out to attack the enemies there.

Both Vision and Tony flew to fight those who were airborne. Clint shoots them as well and Wanda makes sure that not a single one of the enemies could get near the core even from above.

Seeing that his army is starting to lose, Ultron decided to take some of the matters in his own hands. He attacked Vision specifically and by his force he was able to push him to the wall. He was about to hit him again when Vision used the power of the mind stone to hit him with a light beam, similar to a laser. It was forceful enough to make Ultron fly out of the church.

Vision didn't cut the power, instead he flew out as well moving forward closer towards Ultron. Thor saw this and decided to gather lightning with his hammer before hitting Ultron as well. Tony joined their fun by using his blasters and directing it at Ultron.

For a few seconds they kept it going and after a while, Ultron's vibranium started melting from the intense heat. When he finally fell down on his knees the three stopped hitting him.

"You know, with the benefit of hindsight-," Ultron spoke with a hint of weakness in both his voice and the way he stood and walked.

But before he could finish his sentence he was punched by Hulk slinging him away from their area. Then Hulk turned to the rest of the group of Ultron's robots who immediately cowardly ran away. Since they are airborne and can fly, they immediately did so.

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

"We can't let them, not even one," Tony informed them. "Rhodey."

"I'm on it," Rhodes affirmed. Immediately flying towards the enemy.

He shot them one by one. To make sure they can't escape and he was having fun taking down a few.

"Oh, no. I didn't say you could leave," he said. "War Machine coming at you! Right-"

Vision suddenly arrived, hitting two robots with the power of the mind stone and the last one he brutally split in half.

His appearance confused War Machine. "Okay, what?"

"We gotta move out. Even I can tell the air is getting thin," Steve instructed the team inside of the church. "You guys get to the boats. I'll sweep for stragglers. Be right behind you."

"I'll come with you, double the speed of the job," Loki suggested to Steve which got him an agreeing nod.

"What about the core?" Clint asked.

"I'll protect it," Wanda answered. Then she looked at Clint as looks at her. "It's my job."

"Nat," Clint called and leaned his head a bit to the side as he invited her to go. "This way."

They all left the church except for Pietro who just got back from the fight outside.

"Get the people on the boats," Wanda tasked him.

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

"I can handle this." Wanda hit the incoming robot that wanted to come close to the core. "Come back for me when everyone else is off. Not before."

Pietro grunts in annoyance before he walks out of the church.

"You understand?" Wanda clarified.

"You know, I'm 12 minutes older than you."

Wanda chuckled at that. "Go."

Tony at the same hand flew down to see the situation under the flying city.

"Boss, power levels are way below-" Friday reported to him.

"Reroute everything," Tony instructed. "We got one shot at this."

Meanwhile, Ultron was able to manage landing himself with much difficulty near the Avengers Quinjet. This is why he also decided to board it and use it to fly away.

Arriving at the nearby lifeboat were Clint and Natasha riding a car. Upon stopping the engine, they both heard Hulk from a distance.

"We don't have a lot of time," Clint said.

"So get your ass on a boat," Natasha replied as she went down the car and immediately headed for where Hulk is at.

She found him in a destroyed playground throwing the pieces of robots he just destroyed. Natasha slowly pulled her gloves off and approached Hulk in hopes to make him calm down and return to his human form.

"Hey, big guy. Sun's getting real low."

On the lifeboat, Clint was able to find a place to stand and just wait for the others to come. Steve is busily assisting people who are still getting on as well as Loki. Everything is going according to the plan until Clint hears a weeping mother looking for her son.

"Costel. We were in the market. Costel!"

Clint was clearly hearing her and with his hawk-like eyesight, he saw a kid stuck in a staircase from afar. It is either he couldn't get out or he's too afraid to. Turning his head down, Clint willingly left the lifeboat to run towards the kid's location. He knew that he had to go back there and get the kid.

As for Tony he found a way to penetrate through where the main machine is operating. So he talked through their radio. "Thor, I'm gonna need you back in the church."

"Is this the last of them?" Thor asked as he and Steve finished rescuing the last of the civilians in the city.

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

"You know, this works. We maybe don't walk away," Tony said.

"Maybe not," Thor replied.

Going back to the playground, Natasha was about to touch Hulk as a way of calming him down and initial process of his transformation back into Bruce Banner when Ultron riding the Quinjet open fired at them. Natasha threw herself down to avoid getting hit while Hulk took a step back.

After that, Ultron flew to where the boys were loading the people and he took a shot at Steve and Thor. Both of them avoided the shot. But it continued on as Ultron saw Clint and the kid from afar. The latter guy hugged the kid and was about to leave when he saw the incoming bullets getting fired towards them.

Standing not very far, Pietro saw Clint turn around to cover the kid and used his hyperspeed to save him and the kid from getting shot. While from the lifeboat, Loki saw this and knew that no matter how many times they would flip Earth, the three of them would get hurt from that.

Using his illusion manipulation and presence concealment, Loki created a diversion for Ultron that looked like Clint, while holding the kid, ran away. But the real scene became concealed from his sight.

The illusion tricked Ultron and he immediately switched his target hitting of course nothing but thin air. Although even with Loki's much effort, Pietro still got hit a few times by the bullets that were released last minute.

"You didn't see that coming?" Pietro asked Clint after he moved them away from the area and then fell down on the ground.

Steve was fast to come over to their place after he recovered while Clint placed the kid down and immediately checked Pietro's pulse.

"It's getting weak," Clint said. "He needs medical attention fast."

Steve carried Pietro and immediately brought him to the lifeboat as the young man continued fighting for his life. From inside of the church, Wanda felt what happened to Pietro. Although he still has consciousness, the connection between them got weaker that made her feel the misery, making her cry in pain and fall on her knees.

The true extent of her powers came out which vaporized the robots that tried their best to come close to the core.

Hulk on the same hand carried Natasha from the city up on the carrier. He gently placed her down on it before he jumped back to the city before jumping up and getting inside of the Quinjet.

"Oh, for God's sake." Ultron gets tossed out of the aircraft while Hulk stays inside.

His fall from the sky was so fast that when he landed inside of a derailed subway wagon, he could find the energy to stand up anymore. Wanda left the church after finding out that Ultron is back in the city. She walked towards him as her hand manipulated her chaos magic.

"Wanda," Ultron said with a soft voice. "If you stay here, you'll die."

"I just did," Wanda replied. "Do you know how it felt?"

She used her power to telekinetically pull Ultron's heart out of his body.

"It felt like that."

Because of Wanda leaving her place, a half dead robot crawled towards the core and pressed it. That immediately reversed the thrusters making the city fall down at great speed. Steve felt the sudden fall and before it was too late he ran towards the edge and jumped up just in time to get on the lifeboat.

Tony underneath the massive rock bore the weight of the city falling down at a fast speed. So he flew down to get away from the underside just enough for him to get back with a right stance. He made sure that the chest of his Iron Man suit is right in the middle of the hole that he made before firing the beams from his chest heating up the middle and core of the engine.

"Thor, on my mark," he said through the earpiece.

On the church above the surface, Thor raises his hammer to gather lightning as he awaits Tony's further instructions.

Wanda didn't have enough time to get out and she was left floating in the air due to the speed of the fall of a city. Hopefully, Vision didn't just forget about her and he was able to locate her whereabouts. When he saw her inside of the subway wagon he immediately carried her and flew out with her to get to safety.

"Now!" Tony shouted.

Thor brought down his hammer to hit the core inside of the church. The amount of lighting that he had was enough to vaporize the city and make it explode into thousands of meteorite pieces of rocks falling from the sky. From above, Hulk watched them succeed with their plan to save the people of Sokovia and avoid global extinction.

"Hey, big guy. We did it," Natasha spoke through the communication screen of the Quinjet.

It caught Hulk's attention which made him walk towards the front of the jet to listen to her.

"The job is finished," she continued. "Now I need you to turn this bird around, okay?"

Hulk finally got closer to the screen and Natasha could see this, so she continued to talk to him.

"We can't track you in stealth mode," she added. "So help me out. I need you-"

Hulk turned off the transmission and it made Natasha pause. Her face displayed confusion and misery. She was really hoping to have him back, or at least just Bruce but now that he himself is the one who decided that he's had enough, Natasha could only feel sad.

While Hulk also felt the downcast of what he did. Although he's in the form of a monster, he surely has emotions too. Plus, it wasn't only Bruce who got attached to Natasha but also Hulk. So this might be one of the saddest decisions that the big guy could make in his life.

While this was happening, Vision went to the woods beside the crater where the previous flying city is placed. The last of Ultron's robots came crawling up from the crater. He placed his consciousness in that in order to keep living and run away from the place. But because Vision saw him, he wasn't able to do just that.

"You're afraid," Vision said, looking at the robot.

"Of you?" Ultron asked.

"Of death. You're the last one."

Ultron walked closer to Vision. "You were supposed to be the last. Stark asked for a saviour and settled for a slave."

"I suppose we are both disappointments."

Ultron then laughed at that remark. "I suppose we are."

"Humans are odd. They think order and chaos are somehow opposites and try to control what won't be," Vision said. "But there is grace in their failings. I think you missed that."

"They're doomed."

"Yes."

They both paused for a while before Vision spoke again.

"But a thing isn't beautiful because it lasts," he said. "It's a privilege to be among them."

"You're unbearably naive."

"Well... I was born yesterday."

Ultron attacked Vision only to be hit by the power of the mind stone and after the bright light, Ultron was no more.

(Avengers Compound)

"The rules have changed," Steve said.

"We're dealing with something new," Tony agreed.

Currently the two of them with Thor in between are walking along the outside corridor of the compound.

"Oh, the Vision is artificial intelligence," Steve pointed out.

"A machine," Tony corrected him.

"So, it doesn't count."

"No, it's not like a person lifting the hammer,"

"Right, different rules for us." Steve pointed at Tony then at himself.

"Nice guy. Artificial."

"Thank you."

Thor then butted in their conversation. "He can wield the hammer, he can keep the Mind Stone."

Both Tony and Steve looked at Thor after he said that.

"It's safe with the Vision," Thor continued. "And these days, safe is in short supply."

"But if you put the hammer in an elevator..." Steve voiced his concern.

"It would still go up," Tony said.

"Elevator's not worthy," Steve contradicted him.

"I'm gonna miss these little talks of ours." Thor held Tony by the shoulder.

"Not if you don't leave." He shook his head at the god of Thunder.

"I have no choice. The Mind Stone is the fourth of the Infinity Stones to show up in the last few years," Thor explained. "It's not a coincidence. Someone has been playing an intricate game and has made pawns of us."

The three of them exited the corridor shortly.

"And once all these pieces are in position..."

"Triple Yahtzee," Tony finished the sentence for Thor.

"You think you can find out what's coming?" Steve asked.

"I do," Thor answered. "Besides this one, there's nothing that can't be explained."

Thor walked away from the two before nodding his head at them. He lifted his hammer and summoned the bifrost that teleported him back to Asgard.

"That man had no regard for lawn maintenance," Tony said as he looked at the bifrost markings left on ground.

Then it was his turn to be walked by Steve to the side of the road he remotely made his car drive from the parked state towards them.

"I'm gonna miss him, though," he said. "And you're gonna miss me. There's gonna be a lot of manful tears."

"I will miss you, Tony," Steve finally spat out.

"Yeah? It's time for me to tap out." Tony continued to walk and meet up with his car. "Maybe I should take a page out of Barton's book. Build Pepper a farm, hope nobody blows it up."

"The simple life." Steve held his front weapons' belt.

"You'll get there one day."

"I don't know. Family, stability." Steve looked away. "The guy who wanted all that went in the ice 75 years ago... I think someone else came out."

Tony nodded his head before he opened the car door for himself. "You alright?"

Steve looked around upon hearing the soldier's chants. Then he nodded his head.

"I'm home."

Tony smirked at him before getting inside of his car and leaving the place. Steve then went to where Natasha is currently standing, staring at nothing.

"You wanna keep staring at the wall or do you wanna go to work?" he asked. "I mean it's a pretty interesting wall."

Natasha turned to him before she approached. "I thought you and Tony were still gazing into each other's eyes... How do we look?"

Steve gave the tablet with the information of the new recruits before they both walked to where the room they are staying at is.

"Well, we're not the '27 Yankees," he said.

"We got some hitters," Natasha commented looking at the profiles.

"They're good. They're not a team."

"Let's beat them into shape."

As they entered the room, they immediately saw the newly recruited Avengers. Vision, Wanda, Pietro, Sam in the Falcon suit and Rhodes in his War Machine. They all looked at Steve and Natasha.

"Avengers..." Steve called as he looked at all of them.

*** Authored by: Alaysa_Deyan ***