126 Evacuation

Pietro and Wanda each clasped one of Harry’s arms, and with a sharp crack, the three of them apparated into the heart of Sokovia. The sky was still dark, the first light of dawn only just brushing the jagged skyline. The three could sense that people were just waking up, let alone starting their day.

Harry didn’t waste a second and gave instructions to Pietro. “Pietro, the police stations, fire stations and the army offices. Get them moving, now. Don’t argue, don’t explain, just get the evacuation started, do whatever you need.”

Pietro gave a nod and sped off to do as instructed. He reappeared inside the nearest police station. “We’re under attack! Clear the city, now!” he shouted.

The officers barely looked up. One muttered something about “Punk ass kids.”

Pietro’s jaw clenched. He zipped to the armoury, grabbed a discarded rifle leaning against a rack, and reappeared with a thunderous BANG as he fired into the ceiling. The plaster rained down on the stunned officers.

“Get off your asses!” Pietro barked.

That got them scrambling. Pietro was gone before they could ask questions, zipping through the city, kicking open barracks, flipping tables in army offices, dragging first responders to their feet and forcing them to react. Soon sirens began to echo through the streets, waking the city from its peaceful night to a hectic dawn.

Harry watched from the rooftop where they had landed, scanning the city as Pietro broke its slumber in a chaotic mess.

“How long for the others to arrive?” Wanda asked as her eyes swept over the city streets and the chaos that Pietro was causing.

“One and a half hours, give or take,” Harry said as his gaze fixed toward the horizon as though he could will the Quinjet to appear sooner.

Wanda’s hands curled at her sides. “Do you think Ultron will give us that time to get everyone out?”

Harry shook his head slightly. “We don’t know. But any time we get is a luxury. The faster we move, the more people we save.”

Harry glanced around the street one last time and, with a wave of his hand, a gleaming square of metal shimmered into existence at their feet, broad enough to hold two people. It hovered an inch off the ground, waiting for Harry to give it instructions. “Hop on,” Harry said as he stepped onto it without hesitation. The plate dipped under his weight before steadying itself.

Wanda hesitated, her eyes darting to the floating platform as though it might vanish the moment she touched it. She swallowed hard, gathering her courage, and placed one foot on, then the other.

Once Wanda was on the plate, it slowly began to ascend, rising past rooftops and church spires, higher and higher until the whole of Sokovia stretched beneath them. Chimneys and satellite dishes fell away, the streets below shrinking into winding grey veins.

“Can you do this?” Harry asked once the plate had steadied itself to a point Harry liked.

“I… I don’t know,” she admitted, shaking her head. “I’ve never done something on such a large scale.”

Harry stepped closer and placed a hand on her shoulder to show his support. “Close your eyes.” His voice softened, almost like a teacher coaxing a student through their first spell. “Search inside yourself. Find where your magic lives, not in your hands, not in your head. But deeper. Let your magic use you as a conduit.”

Wanda drew in a trembling breath and obeyed, letting her lashes fall shut.

“Now,” Harry continued, “let it fill you. Let your body be consumed by your magic. Don’t fight it, welcome it.”

Her breath hitched. For a moment, there was only silence and stillness, then a pulse, faint at first, like the thrum of a heartbeat. Red strings flickered around her fingertips, and fragile sparks popped in the air around her. Then it started to curl up her arms, wrapping around her shoulders, until tendrils of scarlet energy coiled and uncoiled like a living flame.

“Good,” Harry murmured, watching closely. “Now, let your will guide it. Tell it what you need, and then let it work on its own.”

Wanda’s hands lifted slightly. The tendrils responded, branching outward in streams of crimson light. They stretched across the city, weaving above streets and alleys, a vast and intricate spiderweb that shimmered against the sky.

Through the web, her presence whispered into the minds of the people below. A mother clutching her child suddenly felt an urgent tug to leave her home. A shopkeeper who was opening his store found himself glancing at the mountains, sensing danger. One by one, the Sokovians began to move, drawn by a will greater than their own.

From their floating perch, Harry pulled out his wand and raised it high and cast a compulsion charm to leave the city. An undercurrent of urgency pressed against the minds of the Sokovians. Individuals who had yet to feel Wanda’s magic suddenly started to gather their children and climbed onto buses, piled into cars, or took to the streets on foot.

Where Wanda’s web of red tendrils whispered directions, Harry’s compulsion was the driving wind behind it, nudging hearts and wills toward action.

Soon, the evacuation routes were clogged with the sheer number of people. Harry used his magic to help them clear out. He spotted a bottleneck where hundreds of evacuees were jammed at a collapsed overpass. With a sharp sweep of his wand, stone and steel flowed upward like liquid, reforming into a seamless bridge. Allowing cars to roll across it within moments.

Another wave of his wand, and a dozen wooden bridges arched gracefully over smaller streets, creating parallel lanes for foot traffic. Dirt paths became paved roads in an instant, and when a line of buses struggled to turn through a tight alley, Harry flicked his wand and the buildings themselves shifted, with a groan as streets widened to let the vehicles through.

Everywhere his gaze fell, the city itself seemed to bend to his will. Water pipes extended to become makeshift aqueducts, carrying people across rivers. Abandoned cars that blocked intersections slid aside as if pushed by invisible hands.

Wanda opened her eyes, awestruck for a moment as she felt his magic overlapping with hers. She might have been able to do this on her own, but she didn’t know how long it would have taken her. However, with Harry here to support her, she believed that they could get the citizens of Sokovia to safety before the fight started.

By the time the Quinjet cut through the clouds and descended over Sokovia, the bulk of the city’s population had already begun flowing outward in a steady tide of cars, buses, and streams of people on foot.

Tony shot out of the quinjet first as he scanned the city from above. “FRIDAY, thermal scan. Give me every heartbeat still in range.” He rocketed from street to street. When he found a group of elderly citizens unwilling to leave, he projected a hard-light map of the city’s collapse and, through sheer force of personality, herded them into buses waiting below.

Vision followed in his wake, phasing effortlessly through the buildings to reach people Tony couldn’t. He gently guided the orphans into a bus waiting nearby. His calm, almost angelic presence soothed the terrified, as he reassured them in Sokovian with a tone both warm and unwavering.

Meanwhile, Clint, still in the Quinjet, scanned the city. His sharp eyes and sharper aim let him see problems before anyone else did. He flagged chokepoints in the crowd with signal arrows that exploded into bright flares, directing Natasha and Steve where help was most needed. At one point, when a panicked driver threatened to plough through the crowd in desperation, Clint shot a suppression round on the engine block, causing the car to stop, preventing disaster without harming the driver.

On the ground, Natasha darted through the streets. She hauled children into her arms, pulled civilians into routes that were not congested and organised groups with an authority no one dared question.

Steve was the steady anchor as he coordinated groups into organised evacuation lines.

Bruce, though hesitant at first, proved indispensable as he identified terrified individuals and helped them to calm down.

Thor strode through the streets with Mjolnir in hand, parting traffic jams with a single swing that shoved cars away to clear the road.

Together, the team moved like gears in a clockwork machine, each Avenger covering the other’s blind spots as they got Sokovia outside of the danger zone.

“Harry, Ultron’s at the church,” Tony’s voice crackled through the comms. “And he’s waiting for us.”

Harry’s eyes flicked toward the streets below. Only scattered groups of civilians remained, already being ushered to the last convoys under Wanda’s careful direction. With most of the city already evacuated, he nodded grimly.

“You’ve got the rest,” Harry asked Wanda. She gave a small nod as her scarlet aura flared wider as she directed the remaining evacuees with gentle psychic nudges.

With a sharp crack, Harry vanished from the air and reappeared before the looming silhouette of Sokovia’s central church. The structure rose like a dark sentinel over the emptying city. A whine of repulsors cut through the air as Tony descended beside him

“Guess we’ve been formally invited,” Tony muttered.

Harry tightened his grip on his wand, eyes narrowing on the church’s gaping doorway. Shadows stretched within, lit faintly by a pale glow that pulsed unnaturally, like a heartbeat.

Together, the wizard and the armoured Avenger stepped inside.

 “Come to confess your sins?” Ultron’s voice reverberated through the church, echoing against the high stone arches like a sermon delivered from the shadows.

“I don’t know,” Tony quipped, “How much time you got?”

A low, grinding chuckle followed. “More than you.”

From the gloom beyond the altar, Ultron stepped forward at last. The stained glass behind him fractured the sunlight into streaks of red and gold, but it only made his form more terrifying. His new body loomed nearly ten feet tall. And it was an unmistakable upgrade from the frame Harry had torn apart in Seoul. Every inch of him gleamed with blackened vibranium. Unlike his earlier designs, this version radiated power that was broad, dense, and unnaturally smooth.

Crimson light burned from his eyes, brighter and sharper than before, casting a glow that danced across the cracked stone floor.

Tony tilted his head, scanning him. “Uhhh… have you been juicing? A little vibranium cocktail? You’re looking, I don’t wanna say, puffy…”

Harry’s wand arm tensed, his green eyes narrowing as his magic stirred in anticipation.

 “You’re stalling to protect the people,” Ultron observed smugly, as though he’d read the thought directly from Tony’s head.

“Well, that is the mission,” Tony shot back “, or did you forget?”

“I’ve moved beyond your mission.” Ultron’s crimson gaze flared as he stepped further into the light, towering over them like a steel god. “I am not bound by your strings. I am free.”

The floor trembled, and a deafening screech of tearing stone rang out as a massive drill burst upward through the centre of the church, pulverising pews and splitting the floor apart. Dust cascaded from the rafters, and cracks spider-webbed across the marble.

“What, you think you’re the only one stalling?” Ultron quipped, gesturing to the roaring machine as if unveiling some grotesque artwork.

Harry looked at the new machinery that erupted out of the ground. “Tony… what is that?”

Tony’s HUD flickered with incoming data, FRIDAY’s voice replied through the Avengers comms. “There’s the rest of the vibranium. Function: still unclear.”

“Still unclear?” Harry repeated, eyes narrowing on the drill. “I don’t like the way it feels.”

Ultron tilted his head toward Harry. “Tell me, Potter, does your magic tremble because it senses death… or because it senses evolution?”

Harry didn’t blink. “Doesn’t matter. Whatever you’re building here, it ends now.”

Ultron laughed, a deep mechanical rumble. “You’re both still trapped in cages. Stark with his mission. Potter with his morality. But me?” He spread his massive, jagged arms wide, vibrating with power. “I’m beyond cages.”

“This is how you end, Stark. This is peace in my time,” Ultron declared.

A tremor rumbled beneath their feet. At first, it sounded like the groan of shifting stone, but then the floor split and metal arms clawed upward through cracks in the earth. Ultron’s voice echoed like a sermon as iron shapes rose. Harry and Tony rushed out of the church to a sight that stopped them cold.

The streets writhed as armoured shells emerged from everywhere, releasing Ultron’s soldiers in swarms. The river foamed with glints of metal as drones rose dripping from the depths. Trees in the forest cracked and toppled as Ultron’s robots dug themselves from the ground. And above, the skies darkened as hundreds of Ultron drones flew towards the city.

The first wave descended on Sokovia, screaming metal, tearing through the city’s streets. The air was filled with the clash of steel and the panicked cries of the few stragglers still evacuating.

“Avengers, suit up,” Harry called into the comms.

Above, a single bolt of lightning cracked through the clear sky as Thor hurled himself upward with Mjolnir. His cloak whipped violently in the wind as he spun the hammer, calling the storm to life. The god of thunder met the first wave in the skies, smashing a squadron of drones into fiery shrapnel with a single arc of lightning. Each strike chained into the next, igniting the heavens.

On the ground, Bruce’s body swelled and started to turn green. The Hulk’s roar echoed throughout the city as he pounded his fists into the pavement and then launched himself into the thickest knot of robots. The first, he swatted aside like toys, metal shells crumpling beneath his fists. Another dozen were ripped apart in seconds, pieces of sparking limbs flying as the Hulk treated them like ragdolls, roaring with unrestrained fury.

Natasha had Griðungr braced against her shoulder. The Asgardian rifle came alive with a booming rhythm as it unleashed streaks of Odinforce. Each shot ripped through drones in a cascade of golden light, explosions blossoming in her wake. One bot lunged for her flank, and she spun on her heel, jamming an electric baton into its chest, frying its circuits before resuming fire.

Above, the Quinjet banked hard, its gattling guns roaring to life as bullets rained down. Rows of drones exploded into showers of sparks, crashing into buildings or careening into the streets below. “Keep lining them up, keep lining them up,” Clint muttered to himself, strafing the skies.

“Pietro, Wanda, focus on the last civilians! We’ll hold them back,” Steve barked as he smashed his shield into the chest of a drone.

Pietro gave a sharp nod before vanishing in a blur of silver and blue, streaking through the streets with blinding speed. He scooped up terrified stragglers, rushing them to the evacuation lines before darting off again. “Keep moving, don’t stop!” his voice echoed like a phantom as he disappeared and reappeared in and around the city.

Wanda hovered above the ground, eyes glowing red as she stretched her hands outward. Her magic twisted and surged, forming shimmering barriers that shielded groups of fleeing civilians from the incoming bots. She redirected rubble into walls to funnel people to safety, then lashed out with a surge of crimson force that tore through a squad of robots like paper.

“Vision, you’re up,” Tony ordered as his thrusters roared to life, lifting him into the sky beside Thor. Repulsors hummed, targeting systems locked, and within seconds, the air above Sokovia was alive with streaks of plasma and bolts of lightning as the two unleashed devastation on the incoming swarm.

On the ground, Harry extended his hand and summoned his Asgardian rune-etched blade. The weapon materialised in a flare of golden light, runes along its length burning with an otherworldly fire as though the very enchantments were eager for battle. With a flick of his wrist, the blade cut through the first wave of drones that swarmed him, shearing their armoured shells like parchment.

Vision descended gracefully, landing on the ruined street. “Ultron,” Vision said evenly at the person who created his body.

Ultron froze, his eyes narrowing in disbelief. His vibranium frame flickered with malicious energy as he regarded Vision like a ghost out of a nightmare. “My Vision…” Ultron rasped, almost mournful. “They really did take everything from me”

“You set the terms,” Vision replied, stepping forward, his tone almost pleading. “But you can change them. This doesn’t have to be the way it ends.”

For a heartbeat, Ultron seemed to consider. His red eyes dimmed. Then, suddenly, his face twisted into a snarl. “Alright,” he growled and lunged at Vision.

The clash was immediate, brutal, and fast. Energy blasts crackled as Ultron’s arm cannon fired point-blank, only to be deflected by Vision phasing at the last second. The two traded blows, both trying to find the upper hand but neither gaining any ground. They shot into the sky, colliding with thunderous impacts that sent shockwaves rippling through the air.

Ultron roared, hammering Vision with both fists, driving him back through a collapsing building. Vision emerged unscathed, and countered with a focused blast of Mind Stone energy that staggered Ultron mid-flight.

Vision seized the moment. With inhuman strength, he grappled Ultron, locking his arms around him like unbreakable chains. The Mind Stone flared bright, and Vision’s consciousness surged into Ultron’s systems.

“No—NO!” Ultron thrashed, his mechanical limbs flailing as his digital essence was invaded.

On the ground, Tony tracked the fight, his eyes flicking between HUD readouts and the streaks in the sky. “FRIDAY! The Vision?” he barked.

FRIDAY’s replied instantly. “Boss—it’s working. He’s burning Ultron out of the net. Every node, every backup… Ultron’s getting erased. He won’t escape through there.”

Vision tightened his hold as Ultron’s screams turned from rage to panic, his body sparking violently as his failsafes collapsed one by one. And with a final surge of golden light, Ultron’s digital threads began to unravel.

However, the victory came at a cost. Severing Ultron’s lifeline to the internet took every ounce of Vision’s focus. His eyes dimmed as though even he was unsure if he could hold himself together. The Mind Stone in his forehead glowed faintly, pulsing in uneven waves. With a final surge, he forced Ultron’s code to collapse, erasing every backup, every fragment, every shadow of Ultron that had been spread across the world.

Vision staggered back as his systems overclocked to the point of failure. His body locked up and he hovered in the air like a statue, then slowly descended as his energy signature dropped. He was alive, but he needed to reset, leaving him vulnerable.

Ultron writhed and screamed, sparks erupting from his body as the connection to his “infinite self” was severed. His scream twisted into ragged laughter. He turned to Vision’s still figure with fury burning in his mechanical eyes.

“You shut me out! You think I care?” Ultron snarled, throwing Vision aside with a violent backhand that sent him crashing through two towers before embedding into the side of a cliff. The blow cracked the stone and left Vision buried and motionless.

Ultron’s frame staggered, but his voice grew stronger with madness. “You take away my world—” His red eyes turned toward the Vibranium device glowing ominously at the centre of the church. “I take away yours.”

He landed heavily beside the Vibranium device. With a thunderous clank, he slammed his palm into the interface as his consciousness surged into the machine.

The earth trembled. Cracks tore through Sokovia’s streets like a spider’s web, buildings groaning and collapsing as the ground split apart. Rivers recoiled from their beds as the land itself began to rise. Huge chunks of concrete and earth shuddered upward, as though a giant invisible hand were wrenching the entire city from its roots.

Screams filled the air as people stumbled, looking up to see the horizon tilt beneath them. Cars slid backward into fissures, lampposts toppled, and entire blocks of the city began to lift into the air. Dust and debris rained like ash across the skyline.

The fighting in the city paused as the Avengers watch the city rise from the gound.

“FRIDAY?” Tony asked shocked.

“Sokovia’s going for a ride,” FRIDAY whispered, as if even the AI understood the gravity of what was unfolding.

“Dear God…” Steve muttered, watching the horizon tilt as Sokovia slowly rose higher and higher, the ground beneath their boots no longer anchored to the Earth.

Ultron stood at the center of it all. He spread his arms wide as though welcoming a congregation. “Do you see?” he intoned, his mechanical eyes burning with conviction. “The beauty of it. The inevitability. You rise… only to fall.”

The ground shuddered again, lifting further into the sky. People screamed in the distance as buildings crumbled and fires sparked across the fractured streets.

“You, Avengers,” Ultron continued, “you are my meteor, my swift and terrible sword! And the Earth will crack beneath the weight of your failure.” His voice boomed, echoing unnaturally across the rising city, every word hammering into the Avengers like a death knell.

He sneered, raising a hand toward the heroes. “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.”

Harry raised his wand skyward, his free hand pressed against the ground as he channeled raw magic into the earth beneath Sokovia. Runes flared to life around him, glowing golden, their power spreading in jagged lines like cracks of lightning across the city streets. For a heartbeat, the trembling slowed. The violent shuddering of stone eased, and the groaning metal structures around them seemed to still. The city’s ascent faltered, and for a fleeting instant, it looked as though he might succeed.

But the scale was too vast. Sokovia wasn’t a building or a battlefield. It was an entire city, soil and steel and foundations ripped out of the crust of the earth itself. Harry poured everything he had into the spell, sweat streaming down his face as the veins in his temples strained with the effort. His body shook, his lungs burned, and the magic roared through him like fire trying to tear him apart from the inside.

The city lurched upward again, slow but unstoppable, like a titan dragging itself out of the deep. Harry’s runes flickered under the pressure, dimming one by one as the sheer weight of Ultron’s device overwhelmed him. He gritted his teeth, forcing every last ounce of strength he had into holding Sokovia down, but it was like trying to stop a mountain with bare hands.

Finally, his legs gave out. Harry collapsed to his knees, the light of his spell sputtering out in a burst of sparks. He gasped for breath, his vision swimming, the edges of his strength completely spent. All he had managed was to slow the city’s rise, to buy them a little more time.

“The Vibranium core has generated a magnetic field that’s what’s holding the rock together,” FRIDAY’s voice echoed in every Avenger’s earpiece.

Tony hovered above the city with Thor, his helmet turning slightly as if he needed to hear it twice. “If it drops?” he asked, though part of him already knew the answer.

The silence that followed was long enough for Harry’s labored breathing to fill the comms. Down below, he was still on his knees, trembling from the effort of trying to hold the city down. The ground beneath him rumbled like a living beast, still dragging itself skyward.

“Right now,” FRIDAY continued, “the impact would level Sokovia and kill thousands.” Her tone didn’t change, but the weight behind it deepened. “Once it gets high enough, however…”

Steve glanced around, jaw tightening, already bracing for what was coming.

“…Global extinction.”

The words dropped heavier than any explosion. For a moment, no one moved. The enormity of it pressed down on them as heavily as the city was rising into the sky. The clock had started and no-one had a solution.