Emma Joan Tallis

chapter sixty-three: Elevator

Once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return.

~ Leonardo da Vinci

~*~

"I wish I could fly," I said as lifeboats from the Helicarrier arrived to ferry civilians to safety. 

"Then you need to get a set of wings, Em," Sam answered. 

"Glad you could join us," I replied as I picked up a little child, put her on my back, and then grabbed her sister to carry them to a boat. 

"Alright, let's load 'em up!" Steve called. 

"Alright, here we go. Here we go, let's move. Let's go everyone!"

"Thor, I got a plan!" Tony called. 

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

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

"On it," Rhodey confirmed.

"Sam, watch his back," I said.

"I don't need a babysitter," Rhodey complained.

"Too bad," I said smiling as Thor landed next to me. 

"Hold on," Thor warned as we took off. 

"Avengers, time to work for a living," Stark ordered. 

"This is just like that time on Muspelheim," I told Thor as I decapitated another robot. 

"Romanoff? You and Banner better not be playing hide the zucchini," Stark said.

"Relax, Shell-head. Not all of us can fly," Nat said as she crashed in with a truck and joined us. "What's the drill?" 

"This is the drill," Tony pointed out. "If Ultron gets a hand on the core, we lose." Hulk landed nearby on a robot and I winced at the oil oozing everywhere.

"Is that the best you can do?" Thor shouted as Ultron showed up. 

"Dumb blonde," I sighed as Ultron summoned an army of robots. 

"You had to ask," Steve said with a glare. 

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

"Well, like the old man said," Tony began, "together." Hulk roared in agreement before all hell broke loose. I stood between Steve and Wanda as they pushed robots back either by destroying them, or by sheer force, anything that made it past them, I slashed to pieces. 

When a robot wrapped its hands around Steve's throat, I cut off its arms. When a robot pushed its arm through my stomach, Wanda removed its arm from its body as Steve separated its head from it too. 

Steve jumped above me as a robot flew close. I used my sword to cut in in half from head to toe as he landed on another one, turning it into a pancake. Wanda picked me up when a group swarmed above us and spun me around the room rapidly so I was able to slice any robots within range

Ultron flew above us and slammed into Vision. I gave Thor a nod, and he grabbed threw me at Ultron so I could lodge my sword into his back and pull down. My sword slid through a portion of his vibranium body before I landed on top of the core. Vision forced Ultron out with a beam from the stone, Thor and Tony followed quickly behind him.