The Man My Father Always Talked About • A CAPTAIN AMERICA STORY

24

~24~

"We're here," Clint announced from the front of the jet. The jet landed in Sokovia and one by one the Avengers exited it.

"This is going to be dangerous," Steve said, making Clara eye him with a smirk.

"Most likely," she agreed.

"We may not make it out," he continued.

"There's always that possibility," Clara looked back and smirked, making him smile softly. They starred at the already ruined streets of the poor city.

"You ready?" Steve asked, putting on his helmet as Clara fiddled with her gloves.

"Not really," Clara sighed. "But this has to end." Clara shot at a robot that came towards her, then the fighting began. The couple fought off the robots and made it into the city. Clara shot at Ultron's army left and right before she noticed one aim at Steve's head when he wasn't looking. She quickly shot it, leaving it a pile of scraps.

"Do you see? The beauty of it, the inevitability," Ultron's voice sounded out through the city. Clara fished fighting a bot on the bridge, but the voice still continued. "You rise, only to fall. You, Avengers, you are my meteor, my swift and terrible sword and the earth will crack with the weight of your failure. Purge me from your computers, turn my own flesh against me. It means nothing. When the dust settles, the only thing living in this world will be metal." The ground began to shake. Clara and Steve looked eyes before the bridge they stood up suddenly split into two. While Steve's side was still intact, Clara's side began to collapse back down onto the earth. She put all of her strength and energy to use in that split second to jump from her side to Steve's and barely made it. Her gloved hand slipped, but before she could fall, a pair of brown gloved hands caught hers.

Steve grunted as he used his strength to pull her up to the floating city. Before they could catch their breath, they were visited by several robots who would soon be scrap metal. One flew out of nowhere, shooting at Clara and Steve. She dodged the hit and shot it in it's head. Suddenly another one flew out, knocking Steve into a car. Clara quickly fired at it and killed it. She rushed over to Steve and helped him off of the car's broken windshield.

"Cap, you got incoming." Tony said.

"Incoming already came in." Steve huffed as he got down from the car and huffed. "Stark, you worry about bringing the city back down safely. The rest of us have one job: tear these things apart. You get hurt, hurt 'em back. You get killed, walk it off." Clara stared at him. "What?"

"Do you write these things down or do they just come naturally?" She asked, her eyes squinting at him as she was also being blinded by the sun.

Steve was about to reply with a sarcastic comment, but the sound of a scream caused the two to turn I the edge of the floating city. The brunette watched as Thor tossed up a falling woman for Steve to catch. "I got you! Just look at me." He said. He looked at Clara, who nodded, and threw the lady back up. Clara caught her by the arm and set her off to safety before helping pull Steve back onto the land.

"You can't save them all," An Ultron bot said behind Clara. "You'll never..." Clara shot the robot in the chest, leaving a big whole in it before Steve tossed it off the side of the city.

"You'll never what?" Steve asked.

"You didn't finish!" Clara yelled after. Thor landed on the bridge on the top of the woman's car that he just saved. "What, were you napping?" Clara asked.

"Thor! You're bothering me." Ultron said and swooped down to get him.

"Clara!" Steve yelled and threw his shield to her when he noticed three robots had their blasters turned to her. She caught the shield and blocked the shots, then shot all of them. She threw the shield back to Steve. "Thanks," she breathed out. Her and Steve fought off the last couple robots.

"The next wave's gonna hit any minute. What have you got, Stark?" Steve asked Tony.

"Well, nothing great. Maybe a way to blow up the city. That'll keep it from impacting the surface if you guys can get clear." Tony said.

"We asked for a solution, not an escape plan." Steve said.

"Impact radius is getting bigger every second. We're going to have to make a choice."

"Cap, these people are going nowhere. If Stark finds a way to blow this rock..." Natasha said, coming from behind the two.

"Not 'til everyone's safe."

"Everyone up here versus everyone down there? There's no math there." Natasha said.

"I'm not leaving this rock with one civilian on it." Steve said.

"I didn't say we should leave." Natasha said. "There's worse ways to go. Where else am I gonna get a view like this?" Clara took in what she was saying. She grabbed ahold of Steve's hand and held it tight. She didn't want to admit it, but she was scared. She'd gone through so many near death experiences, but this one really scared her.

"Glad you like the view, Romanoff. It's about to get better." Fury said. Just then the Helicarrier showed up. "Nice, right? I pulled her out of mothballs with a couple of old friends. She's dusty, but she'll do."

"Fury, you son of a bitch." Steve said.

"Oooh! You kiss your mother with that mouth?" Fury exclaimed, making Steve shake his head and smile at the sight.

Pieteo sped over to the three. "This is SHIELD?" He asked, admiring the helicarrier.

"This is what SHIELD's supposed to be." Clara turned to him with a relieved smile.

"This is not so bad." He smiled.

"Let's load 'em up." Steve said.

Suddenly Rhodey came up in his War Machine suit. "Yes! Now this is gonna be a good story."

"Yep. If you live to tell it." Clara said over her comms.

"You think I can't hold my own?" Rhodey asked, resting his friend.

"We get through this, I'll hold your own." Tony said.

"You had to make it weird." Rhodey rolled his eyes as Clara began to help usher citizens onto the carriers.

"I got it!" Clara heard Tony exclaim. "Create a heat seal. I can...I can supercharge the spire from below."

"That could work." Clara said.

"Thor, I got a plan!"

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

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

"On it."

"Avengers, time to work for a living." Tony said. Steve had already taken off towards the core, leaving Clara and Pietro. He glanced at Clara before starting to run away, but Clara stopped him.

"Hey flash, you wanna give me a lift?" She asked. He nodded and picked Clara up before rushing to the church. When they stopped, Pietro dropped Clara, who was a little dizzy at the sudden speed increase and decrease.

"What? Can't handle a little motion sickness?" Pietro laughed as Clara steadied herself.

"I'm fine." She said, holding her hand up to Pietro to tell him she was fine. She quickly steadied herself as the other Avengers joined them.

"That's the drill?" Clara asked Tony as she pointed to the metal coming out form the center of the church.

"Yep. If Ultron gets a hand on the core, we lose." Tony said. Then Ultron showed up.

"Is that the best you can do?" Thor yelled at his army. Ultron held a smirk on his metal lips as he summoned his army of robots to join him.

"You had to ask." Clara said, glaring at Thor.

"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 said.

"Well, like the old man said." Tony said, looking at Steve. "Together."