Storm ≛ Tony Stark ≛

51.

Sue looked to the sky that sat in between the buildings around her. The mountains that towered over the city disappeared and the clouds grew closer. They would soon pass through the puffs of white and Sue realised that the sky wasn't falling, but the city was rising. Rumbles beyond audibility dulled her ears and the pavement under her feet cracked from the added pressure. Rubble fell from the aged buildings and she took hold of a lamppost as the ground shook. The city rocked and swayed, before gaining its balance to continue on a steady path.

As she turned her head back to the street in front of her, a robot with a thin frame of wires and parts flew down from above. Its eye holes were an electric blue and its mechanical arm powered up an electricity of the same colour. The robots were hosts for Ultron, as he was confined to metal forms. If needed, could upload to one of his soldiers, also known as his Sentries, to stay alive.

'Shit!' Johnny hissed as another fired a shot in his direction that singed strands of his hair. Sue held up a barrier and attacks from the Sentries dissolved into its wall. She sent the shimmer of blue invisibility outwards, and the force throwing the robot back into a building. It smashed into the brick and powered down, damaged beyond repair. Johnny sent a ball of flames at another and it wailed as its part caught fire. It flew into the street from its malfunction, wires sparking and sizzling as the flames burnt into its circuits.

'Looks like we're fighting another god damn army,' Sue announced as Sentries flew overhead. They spotted the two in the street and aimed their weapons down, Sue forming a dome around her and Johnny to shield them from the rainfall of attacks.

'I'm out, sis,' Johnny said and his shoulders smoked with fire. Before Sue could reply, he leapt upwards and collided with a group of Sentries that gathered in the sky. They parted from the impact of the flaming man before their weapons locked onto him. Some stayed put to attack Sue, while others followed after Johnny.

'Stark? Where are you?' Johnny asked through his earpiece. 'I've got a pack on my tail. Could use some help.'

'I'm flying a Sokovian family in a bathtub, at the moment,' Tony answered with his usual nonchalant tone. 'Gonna have to help yourself, torch.'

True to his word, Tony found a civilian family stuck on the top floor of a building. If he wanted to get them all out before the structure collapsed, he would need to carry all of them at once. The bathtub was the only option and he loaded them up, flying them out before bricks collapsed from the city's ascent.

FRIDAY informed him that Ultron's plan was to rise the city high enough, before dropping it from the vibranium core's hold. The impact with the Earth would lead to global extinction, allowing Ultron to regrow the planet from scratch. Tony was yet to have a plan on how to stop Ultron, but Sentries attacked relentlessly and civillians needed saving first.

Tony, clad in his red and rose gold suit, lowered the bathtub down and the family scurried out, the children clutched in their parents' arms. The sight of the mother and father making sure their children were unharmed pinged something in the Stark's chest. They were in danger, yet they shielded their young with their backs. Rubble landed on their clothes, but they gripped their children in their arms. Tony wanted that. Tony wanted to love someone with Sue. To be the protectors and to be parents of something innocent and their own.

As the family ran off, Tony looked to his screen. With FRIDAY online, Sue's suit sent its updates of her vitals. He could see she was actively fighting, and her suit was taking hits from the left and right. But she was yet to be harmed, so he fired up his repulsors and thrusters to shoot him into the sky.

Sue encased four Sentries that fired at her in a sphere of transparency. They squirmed as it shrunk to crush their mechanical bodies and let out robotic whirls when it ripped into their wires. Sue felt the release of resistance from the Sentries, and she broke her concentration, the Sentries parts falling to the floor in a mess. She ducked from the bricks other Sentries threw in her direction, before they held up their arms that powered into guns.