𝐏𝐞𝐞𝐫𝐥𝐞𝐬𝐬 (marvel fanfic)

Chapter 21 🎁🎁🎁

"Throughout History, humans have only been a source of pain and misery." Ultron floated over them with all the arrogance of an entity created to decide the fate of humanity.

Tony's face was pale, as the consequences of his actions settled in. This was his creation, a machine born and made to protect. As he looked at the few victims still lying on the floor, some cowering beneath tables, he felt sick. Not the kind of sickness that came with the bitterness of alcohol or the aftermath of a hook-up, but the sinking realization that once again he had fucked up, badly.

"Tony..." Banner looked at him, with a look of realization—their experiment succeeded but at a heavy cost.

"We'll talk about that later," Steve cut in, his shield flying back to him, "for now, let's deal with them." He pointed to the dozen armors still flying around.

Sarah slipped into their formation unnoticed, taking in the sight of the crestfallen genius and the regret etched onto Banner's face. It was obvious what had happened when she looked at the familiar armors. Stark's ambition got the best of him and he bit off more than he could chew...

"Who are you?" Ultron finally noticed Sarah who appeared behind him.

"Too much talking." She punched him, grunting as her arm came into contact with the metal and she was thrown back by a full kick. As she crashed against a table, she had one thought, this was going to hurt. This wasn't a human which she could fight bare-handed.

"This is too dangerous, get back!" Natasha shouted, shooting at Ultron from a distance while bashing in an armor's reactor.

Ultron raised an arm, the energy gathering to his palm, it didn't matter to him who she was—she was just another human to get rid of.

Sarah barely avoided the blast as she landed close to the fallen champagne tower. This would be new, but not impossible. However, was it worth fully blowing her cover?

The adrenaline soon clouded her thoughts as she grabbed a broken alcohol bottle and brought it down on him. He managed to move away at the last second, sacrificing his arm to parry. The bottle lodged itself between his shoulder and his arm, perfectly cutting off the connection of the arm.

He tried to punch her away, but she dodged, slipping under his arm and throwing him down with a loud thud. She grabbed another bottle and just as she was about to cut off his other arm he fired at her. She moved away at the last second, the blast grazing her stomach.

A sense of dread filled her, she immediately turned around. Peter and Delia.

Ultron knew he was losing, but he wanted to leave a strong impact on their minds before leaving and gathering more strength. Afterall, his hivemind had already escaped through the Internet, even if he lost his shell, he could build another. He was a patient being.

There wasn't enough time to intercept the shot, there was only one thing left. She raised both of her hands as liquids slid through the air, and as she clasped both of her hands, it imprisoned the blast in a bubble. It exploded and splashed everyone around but at least no one was hurt. She pretended not to see the astonishment in Peter's eyes. Not yet.

Sarah turned to Ultron and cut off his other arm. She wasn't interested in playing with him, not after he tried to kill the very few people she cared for. Before anyone could stop her, she pushed a shard in his neck and pushed through. With a loud clack, his head fell.

"Anything you want to tell us, Ms. Cano?" Tony flew down, glancing at the remnants of the armor that constituted Ultron with a tinge of unease

"I didn't do this?" She turned toward him with an innocent smile. She was tired.

"Right," Natasha chuckled as she finished off her own opponent. "And Santa is real..."

"I don't suppose you'll let that slide?" She tried to negotiate, while signaling Peter to leave.

"And pray tell me, why would we do that Ms. Cano?" Stark replied as men came rushing in, helping the injured civilians onto stretchers and getting everyone out.

"Because you wouldn't want me to become a threat?" Her tone was jovial but her eyes weren't. And he knew that.

"I don't like threats." He approached her with confidence, something she couldn't comprehend when he probably didn't know the extent of her abilities. His only protection against her was his iron armor, and the arrogance of a human with too much pride.

Sarah hated getting entangled with complicated matters.

"I wonder what I did to earn such blatant dislike," he commented, seeing the way she frowned when he walked closer.

She forced the frown away, grabbing one of the few remaining glasses of wine and downing it. She was too sober to deal with the consequences of her actions. "What do you even want with me?" Before he could spew his pretty bullshit, she cut him off, "Don't even think about putting me in jail, or using me as another one of your hero mascots."

"You're putting me in a difficult position Ms. Cano," he retorted, glancing at the Avengers who remained alert for any attacks. "You know, being a hero isn't so bad."

She scoffed, "Being a civilian isn't bad either."

"So you would let people die, in order to protect your little bubble of selfishness?" Silence. "With your powers, do you know how many you could save?" He knew she wasn't as heartless as she appeared, all the actions she took so far showed him that. His voice grew louder in frustration. "Can you bear to sleep at night knowing you could have made a difference in so many people's lives?"

The guilt she usually managed to repress came back full force, gnawing her inside and blinding her vision. She knew that. She knew how much of a waste it was for her to own these powers. Someone like Peter would have been a better fit. Someone who wouldn't let their conscience rot in hell like she so often did. Her hand twitched, water started trembling, an instinctive move to protect their owner.

The avengers stared warily at the unnatural phenomena.

"Tony-" Natasha stepped forward to stop him, but Tony continued.

"I know how tempting it is to just close your eyes and pretend nothing is wrong," his voice held a tinge of unmistakable anger, but only he knew how much of that had once been directed toward himself, "but growing up is about realizing you cannot do that, not with powers like yours."