127 Battle of Sokovia

The city was rising above the ground at an accelerated pace. That might have thrown a wrench in the Avengers' battle plan. But their plans were working. “Alright, Avengers, phase one is done,” Steve assured the team despite the tremors beneath their feet. “Vision’s cut Ultron off the net, and he’s stranded here with us. That means what we’ve got on the ground and in the sky is all he’s got left.”

He swept his eyes across the city and the robots that were creeping all over it. “That leaves us with phase two: we take down every single body he’s built. If even one gets out of this city, he gets a second chance. We cannot let that happen.”

The city groaned as it climbed higher into the clouds, but Steve didn’t flinch. “Tony, you figure out how to bring this thing back down safely.”

“Yeah, no pressure,” Tony muttered, already scanning the city and the schematics of Ultron’s machine through his HUD.

Steve ignored the quip. “The rest of us, we’ve got one job: tear these things apart.”

Hulk bellowed, a raw, primal roar that echoed across the ruined city square, and charged headlong into the swarm. Metal crumpled like tin under his fists, robots scattering as he tore through them with sheer brute force. Every swing of his arms was a shockwave of destruction, limbs and parts flying in all directions.

Thor leapt beside him, Mjolnir whirling in his hand before he hurled it against Steve’s shield. The resounding crack of impact turned the shield into a ricocheting missile, bouncing off ranks of Ultron’s drones. One after another fell, sparks exploding in showers as the hammer and shield worked in tandem in a deadly game of celestial ping-pong.

Clint had already taken the high ground. Perched atop a shattered balcony, he loosed arrow after arrow in rapid succession. Explosive tips lit the streets in bursts of fire while electric charges immobilised drones mid-air, sending them clattering uselessly to the ground.

Wanda stood her ground as her eyes burned scarlet. With a sweep of her hands, tendrils of crackling red energy wrapped around drones, pulling them apart as if they were toys in the hands of a child. She twisted her wrists, and a wave of crimson energy blasted outward, tossing dozens of machines into the air before shattering them mid-flight.

Meanwhile, Pietro blurred across the battlefield. Every time he stopped, a bot collapsed with a dented skull or shattered chestplate from a single well-placed strike. He kept circling, weaving an invisible perimeter, making sure nothing broke through to flank the others.

Thor spun Mjolnir in wide arcs, the hammer smashing through drones like a farmer scything through fields of wheat. Sparks rained down with each strike, the god of thunder a whirlwind of lightning and muscle, his booming war cry almost drowned by the clamour of battle.

Natasha planted her feet, Griðungr blazing in her hands. The runic weapon spat Odinforce with precise bursts, every shot dropping a machine. She pivoted smoothly from target to target, destroying any that her eyes set on. When a drone lunged too close, she slipped under its swing and buried a pair of knives into its chest before it could react.

And then there was Harry. He drew a sharp breath, uncorked a vial, and downed a Pepper-Up potion, the warmth flooding through him, burning away fatigue from his futile attempt to stop the city from reaching towards the stars. His grip tightened around his Asgardian blade. With a wordless cry, he waded into the swarm, sword flashing in silver arcs. The blade sang as it cleaved through enchanted steel, sparks bursting with every strike.

The city echoed with the clash of gods and mortals alike, their combined assault turning Ultron’s endless army into a storm of shattered metal raining across the streets.

While the Avengers continued their fight with Ultron’s robot army, Tony circled the floating city as FRIDAY analysed every structural weakness. “The anti-gravs are rigged to flip,” FRIDAY’s reported. “Any interference, and they’ll go full reverse thrust. If that happens, the city isn’t coming down slow.”

Tony cursed under his breath, banking hard to get a better look at the spire. “The core’s Vibranium. If I get Thor to blast it—”

“It’ll crack,” FRIDAY cut him off, “but not enough. The impact would still level everything beneath us.”

Tony grimaced. “Okay, okay... what if we cap the other end of the reaction? Redirect the atomic activity, make the energy fold back in on itself?”

“That could vaporise the city and everyone still on it,” FRIDAY warned.

Steve’s voice crackled in over comms. “Tony, I don’t understand a word of what FRIDAY’s saying. Just tell me what option we’ve got.”

“Option?” Tony scoffed. “Well, nothing great. Maybe a way to blow up the city. That'll keep it from impacting the surface. But it means we’ve got to clear out everyone.”

“That’s not a solution,” Steve shot back. “That’s an escape plan.”

Tony’s thrusters flared as he spun around the spire again, data flashing red. “Cap, the impact radius grows every second. If Ultron gets this thing any higher, there isn’t going to be a good solution. We’re running out of time, and we’re going to have to make a choice.”

Harry’s eyes swept the battlefield, then the sky above. “If the solution is vaporising the city, then I can do it,” Harry added. “My magic is better suited for this than any stupid idea Tony can think of. But it has to be clean. If even one of Ultron’s puppets slips through, then this whole fight means nothing.”

“I don’t think we have enough firepower to finish this before the city hits the upper atmosphere!” Natasha shouted over the comms, ducking under a barrage of plasma fire.

“Someone said firepower?” A familiar, gravel-edged voice crackled through their earpieces.

From beneath the floating city, four massive shadows loomed, engines roaring like titans. SHIELD Helicarriers rose into formation around the floating city, as targeting beams lanced down on the swarm of Ultron drones.

Steve’s chest swelled, eyes wide. “Fury, you son of a bitch,” he said, grinning despite the chaos.

“Oooh, you kiss your mother with that mouth?” Fury jibed back, but the faint smirk in his tone carried across the channel.

The helicarriers unleashed hell. Batteries of cannons roared, anti-air missiles streaked through the heavens, and entire clouds of drones were shredded mid-flight. Then, as if the spectacle wasn’t enough, their decks opened like hives. Waves of quinjets and fighter jets screamed into the sky, contrails crisscrossing overhead. Gatling guns lit up the horizon, tearing through Ultron’s legions.

And then another voice cut in, cocky and unmistakable.

“Alright, boys and girls, the cavalry’s here,” Rhodey announced, War Machine soaring past the Avengers in a blaze of repulsor fire. “I pulled some strings. Turns out the world’s best air forces don’t like genocidal robots either. So say hello to every ace pilot who wanted a piece of this fight.”

Tony shot up through the sky, streaking past a wave of Ultron bots as Rhodey came up alongside him, War Machine’s shoulder cannons already thundering. The two of them broke into a synchronised spiral, blasting bots out of the air in tandem.

“Yes! Now this is gonna be a good story,” Rhodey shouted over the comms, his voice crackling with exhilaration as he locked onto a bot and turned it into scrap.

“Yep. If you live to tell it,” Tony shot back, weaving past a missile that screamed by his shoulder. He blasted the bot that had fired it into molten shards.

“You think I can’t hold my own?” Rhodey challenged, banking hard to cover Tony’s flank as three bots closed in.

“We get through this, I’ll hold your own,” Tony teased without missing a beat, his repulsors blazing.

“You had to make it weird,” Rhodey groaned, rolling his eyes mid-flight, though his grin was audible through the comm.

Before Tony could respond, the comms crackled to life with voices from the allied fighter squadrons now joining the fray.

“Alpha Squadron, break left, form up on Iron Man’s mark!”

“Beta Squadron, peel off—War Machine’s got lead, watch his six!”

“Delta Squadron, cut that cluster, we’re not letting a single bot through!”

Jets screamed past overhead in tight formation, releasing a volley of missiles that lit up the city in fiery blossoms, shredding a swarm of Ultron’s bots. Quinjets and fighter jets danced between helicarriers, tracer fire cutting bright lines across the sky.

Tony let out a whistle. “Oh yeah. This is pod-race levels of crazy.”

The two armoured Avengers surged forward at the head of the allied squadrons, blasting bots in perfect sync as Earth’s best pilots flew in starfighter-tight formations around them. The sky above Sokovia turned into a living battlefield, steel and fire and smoke streaking in every direction.

At the same time, Vision’s eyes snapped open. For a breathless moment, he lay still, light rippling through the lines of his body as though rebooting some vast, cosmic system. Then, he drifted upward without effort, his feet leaving the shattered ground as though gravity had no claim on him. The battlefield reflected in his eyes, burning wreckage, fighter squadrons tearing through Ultron’s bots, the Avengers locked in desperate combat.

Vision extended a hand, and the Mind Stone blazed. A sphere of light exploded outward, disintegrating a cluster of drones mid-flight. He shot into the heavens, a streak of gold and crimson cutting across the battlefield. Bots swarmed toward him, but he passed through them like a blade of pure energy, phasing through metal, tearing apart circuits with effortless grace.

 “Guys, we are out of time,” Thor shouted onto the comms, “Ultron drives his horde toward the core.”

Tony streaked overhead, repulsors flaring, banking toward the looming church spire. “Avengers,” he called through comms with excitement, “time to work for a living.”

One by one, the team converged on the church where Ultron’s doomsday device was. Hulk thundered down the avenue, smashing through drones like paper. Natasha sprinted across a rooftop before vaulting down to the square. Steve tore through wreckage, shield cleaving bots in half as he broke into the open. Clint loosed arrows mid-run, each finding its mark as he slid into formation.

From the sky, Thor and Vision descended. At the same time, Pietro sped in with Wanda.

Together, the Avengers gathered in the sanctuary where Ultron’s doomsday device pulsed with malignant energy.

“Alright, here’s the drill,” Tony started “If Ultron gets his hands on the core, we lose. Period. Which also makes this the one thing he needs the most. That means—” he glanced at the others, “—we force him to throw everything he’s got at us. Right here. Right now.”

As if on cue, Ultron stepped into view at the far end of the ruined nave, eyes burning red. His grin was cold, mechanical, almost mocking.

“Is that truly the best you can muster?” he called out, voice echoing through the shattered walls.

The air rippled with Ultron’s laughter as he raised one clawed hand. At his signal, the swarm descended of thousands of drones crawling over rooftops, flooding the streets, dropping from the skies until the church was a fortress besieged, the Avengers encircled by an unending tide of steel.

Steve tightened his grip on his shield, surveying the endless horde. “You just had to ask,” he muttered.

Thor gave a half-smirk, unbothered. “Tony did say he wanted the whole army gathered.”

Ultron spread his arms wide. “This is the best I can do? And this is exactly what I wanted. All of you, against all of me. Tell me, how can you possibly hope to stand against this?”

The Avengers braced themselves, each falling into position. Harry stepped forward, cloak rippling in the wind. His green eyes blazed with fire as he met Ultron’s gaze. “The same way we’ve always done it,” he declared, his voice ringing with unshakable conviction. “together.”

Ultron’s army surged forward like a tidal wave of metal and claws, tearing through stone and concrete as they rushed the church.

Harry dismissed the Asgardian blade with a thought, the steel dissolving into sparks of golden light. His hand reached out and drew forth the Elder Wand. He pressed the wand to his chest, closing his eyes, channelling his magic until the air around him began to crackle.

A whisper escaped his lips, soft yet sharp enough to cut through the chaos. “Protego Diabolica.”

At once, a spark of blue-black fire leapt from the wand, striking the stone floor with a hiss. The flame crawled outward like a living serpent, hungry and unnatural. Harry thrust out his hand and turned, his robes flaring with the motion as he spun in a slow circle. The fire obeyed, following his gesture, carving a burning perimeter around himself, his team and Ultron’s Vibranium device.

The circle completed with a resonant snap, the flames rising higher, twisting and roaring. The first wave of robots leapt through the haze, only to be met with shrieks of tearing metal. The inferno clung to them like tar, searing through armour and circuitry until they collapsed into pools of molten slag. The next wave met the same fate, the wall of fire consuming them mercilessly, as if the spell itself had decided who was unworthy to pass.

The flame roared with an otherworldly life, its blue-black edges flickering like a living veil between the Avengers and the army of Ultron’s machines. The ground itself seemed to tremble beneath the unnatural barrier, the air vibrating with an energy that was both terrifying and awe-inspiring.

The Avengers stared, frozen, each of them caught in fear of the sight in front of them. The magic radiated power unlike anything they had ever seen. Even Thor, who had seen the raw fires of Muspelheim, regarded the circling wall of flame wearily.

For a heartbeat, no one moved.

Then Natasha stepped forward. Her eyes flicked from the molten remains of the bots to Harry, standing tall within the circle. She trusted him, always had and always will. Slowly, deliberately, she reached out.

Her fingertips brushed the fire.

The others braced for her scream. But none came.

Instead, Natasha exhaled softly. The flame curled around her hand like a living ribbon, warm and protective. Like Harry’s magic knew her, recognised her, accepted her.

She glanced back at the team, her lips curving into the smallest, knowing smile. Then, without hesitation, she stepped fully through the flame. It parted for her, wrapping her in its glow before vanishing from her skin like it had never been there.

Thor’s booming laugh followed. “Very well, Lady Potter.” He lowered his hammer and strode through the fire, which bent around his godly form, harmless as sunlight. With a roar, he leapt forward, Mjolnir spinning, and crashed into Ultron’s advancing ranks with a thunderous strike that sent shards of metal flying.

That was all it took.

The spell no longer felt like a threat but a shield, an unbreakable bond forged by Harry’s will. Steve charged next, shield raised, his eyes burning with conviction. Clint nocked an arrow and sprinted after him, disappearing into the chaos beyond the flame. Tony’s repulsors flared as he blasted into the air. The Hulk stepped forward and let the flame wash over his green form without harm. Pietro ran forward, and Wanda walked over the flames with her red tendrils curling in and around her.

They surged out together, each one scattering into position, pushing back against Ultron’s legion, knowing that if even one machine broke past them, Harry’s fire would finish the job.

Natasha danced like a phantom through the chaos. She drew her Asgardian Spear and charged at the robot army. She vaulted onto a bot’s shoulders, flipped backwards, and sent a crackling jolt that left it convulsing before shattering against the ground.

Clint held high ground among the rubble as he shot arrow after arrow. Arrows rained down with pinpoint precision, explosive, electric, concussive. Each shot cleared a path, each volley buying precious seconds for the others.

Rhodey thundered across the battlefield in the War Machine armour, guns blazing with deafening firepower. He laid down heavy suppressive fire, his shoulder cannons tearing holes through ranks of drones. Each explosion lit up the sky, keeping Ultron’s army scattered and broken.

Hulk was a force of nature unleashed. He tore bots apart with raw strength, ripping them limb from limb, smashing them into the ground so hard the earth itself quaked. No matter how many swarmed him, none could withstand his fury.

Thor fought like the storm incarnate, Mjolnir flashing arcs of lightning that split the sky. His hammer crushed through Ultron’s constructs with thunderclaps.

Wanda’s hands glowed crimson as her magic rippled across the battlefield. With a single wave, she sent waves of drones flying like ragdolls, crushing them against buildings or tearing them apart midair.

Pietro blurred through the battlefield in streaks of silver. He darted past enemies before they could react, dismantling them piece by piece in the blink of an eye. He disassembled weapons from their hands, tripped their footing, and sent them crashing into their own kind.

Vision soared above, his red cape billowing. His body shimmered with energy as he weaved through the air, phasing through drones to tear them apart from within. From his brow, the Mind Stone unleashed concentrated beams of power that cut swathes through the army like the judgment of a sun-god.

And Harry stood at the heart of it all. The blue-black flames of his Protego Diabolica formed an unyielding circle around the device, a second battlefield that incinerated any bot foolish enough to attempt passage. He cast spells at anyone that got close, disarming, blasting, and tearing through drones with destructive arcs of spellfire. Each time one of his teammates faltered, his healing magic surged forward, closing wounds, refreshing strength, and sending them back into the fight.

Ultron, seeing the beating his army of drones was taking, descended to the battlefield. But the Avengers met him together.

Steve led the charge, shield sparking against Ultron’s claws. Natasha struck from behind, her spear searing into the gaps of his armour. Rhodey and Clint kept his army at bay with relentless fire. Hulk hurled himself at Ultron, grappling the machine titan with primal fury. Thor descended in a storm of lightning, his hammer shattering Ultron’s guard.

And then the final blow came. Tony’s repulsor beams locked on, searing through Ultron’s plating. Thor channeled lightning through Mjolnir into Ultron’s core, amplifying the surge. Vision hovered above and shot his yellow beam from the Mind-Stone. The three beams converged, striking Ultron in unison. His scream tore through the flying city. His armor cracked, molten metal spilling as the light consumed him until Ultron’s body melted away into nothing but ash and slag.

The battlefield fell silent for a moment, the Avengers standing amidst fire and ruin, their breaths heavy but unbroken.

Seeing Ultron’s main body get disintegrated, Ultron’s surviving drones scattered like a swarm of locusts, streaking upward to escape the death trap Sokovia had become.

“They’ll try to leave the city,” Thor growled, Mjolnir sparking with lightning.

“We can’t let them, not even one,” Tony snapped, his armor blasting alive as he rocketed into the air.

Without hesitation, Thor, Vision, and Rhodey launched after him on pursuit.

On the ground, Steve crouched, hand to his knees, his breath misting in the thinning air. “We got to move out. Even I can tell the air’s getting thin.” On cue, a Quinjet arrived infront of them to take them away.

“What about the core?” Clint asked.

“I’ve got it,” Harry said firmly. His eyes glowed faintly as he clutched the Elder Wand, the black flames of Protego Diabolica still wreathing the device. “Once Tony gives me the signal, I’ll destroy Sokovia.”

Natasha’s gaze snapped toward him. “Are you sure?”

Harry’s answer was a quiet smile. He stepped toward her, the chaos of battle dimming around them for a heartbeat, and brushed a chaste kiss against her lips. “Go.”

Natasha’s breath hitched, but she nodded. Then she climbed aboard the quinjet with Steve, Wanda, Pietro, and Clint. The aircraft’s engines roared to life, kicking up waves of dust and debris as it prepared for lift-off.

They all pulled away, the quinjet engines roaring as Harry remained alone at the heart of the floating ruin. His silhouette stood stark against the broken carcasses of Ultron’s robot army, wand raised, the blue-black fire circling him like a predator straining against its leash.

“Tony, whenever you’re ready,” Harry called out into the comms.

The flames hissed and spread, creeping along cracks in the ground like veins of molten lava. Each fissure glowed an unnatural blue, spider-webbing across Sokovia until the entire city seemed to pulse with an alien heartbeat. The fire wasn’t content to wait. It clawed forward, rattling against the stone and steel, hungry.

From above, the people on the Helicarriers and the fighter jets held their breath, eyes fixed on the dying city.

“Now,” Tony’s voice finally came, flat and absolute.

With that, Harry let his magic off its proverbial chains.

The blue-black blaze convulsed, and from its heart four shapes tore free. Dragons that were skeletal and malformed, their bones etched in fire and their wings made of torn flame. They shrieked without sound, their empty jaws yawning wide as they clawed their way into the sky. For a moment, they hovered, circling like carrion lords above a battlefield.

Then, as one, the dragons folded their wings and dived.

They plunged into Sokovia’s streets and towers, fire bursting from their descent like volcanic eruptions. The city roared as the dragons split apart, racing through alleys, chewing through skyscrapers, their passage leaving trails of annihilation, consuming and devouring matter itself until steel and stone melted into nothingness.

The sky blackened with smoke. The glow turned the clouds sickly, like bruised flesh stretched across the horizon. To those watching, it looked less like fire and more like a living plague sweeping across the city.

Screams echoed from the city itself. The metal twisted, groaned, and shattered as if begging for release. The dragons answered only with fire.

No one could tell how much time passed as Sokovia vanished piece by piece. The proud spires crumbled into glowing skeletons. Roads collapsed into rivers of blue fire. Parks, homes, and factories all alike were reduced to indistinguishable ash. The flames reached higher, feeding on everything, until the city was nothing more than a floating pyre.

And then it was gone.

The fire gave one final convulsion, a last triumphant roar that shook the clouds themselves. The four dragons burst from the collapsing ruin, soaring into the heavens in a spiral of terror and majesty, before unravelling into smoke, their bones collapsing into sparks that rained down silently.

As the flames died out, where Sokovia had floated, there was nothing. Not rubble. Not dust. There wasn’t even ash for the wind to scatter. Only the memory of fire burned into the eyes of everyone who watched.