[Pietro quickly darted through the town, dispatching every Ultron drone he encountered in mere instants.]
[Tony flew to the perimeter and observed all of Sokovia from a distance. FRIDAY reported: "The vibranium core has got a magnetic field that's keeping the rock together!"]
[Tony frowned: "And if it drops?"]
["The impact would kill thousands. Once it gets high enough... global extinction." Tony's expression grew considerably more grave.]
[He began rescuing those still trapped in dangerous areas. Ahead of him, a building on the edge was about to collapse: "The next wave's gonna hit any minute. What do you got, Stark?"]
[Tony immediately accelerated toward it, blasting through a wall with his repulsor and entering the structure.]
[Inside, a family of three stared in panic at their shaking apartment. Tony entered their bathroom and awkwardly greeted them: "Hi! Okay, get in the tub!"]
[He flew out holding the bathtub with the family inside, just moments before the building collapsed behind them.]
[FRIDAY suddenly alerted him: "Boss, incoming!"]
[The next second, Captain America, standing on the bridge, was struck by an Ultron drone and slammed heavily into a car.]
[Tony belatedly warned: "Cap, you got incoming!"]
[Captain America replied helplessly: "Incoming already came in." He climbed out of the wrecked vehicle.]
["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."]
[Pietro came to rest against a wall, clutching his stomach and breathing heavily. The high-intensity sprinting quickly drained his physical strength. He paused for a few seconds to recover before continuing his mission.]
"It seems Pietro's superpowers aren't perfect!" Captain America observed with a frown as he watched the exhausted Quicksilver. Clearly, excessive use of his abilities led to rapid exhaustion.
Pietro grinned sheepishly at himself. Had he really expected to maintain that speed indefinitely? No wonder the Ancient One had ignored him after helping him develop his powers and only instructed him to train his physical fitness. This was precisely why!
"Tony, if something like this really happened, would we actually consider blowing up the city?" Rhodes asked, narrowing his eyes as he contemplated what they would do if such a scenario actually occurred.
"Although I hate to admit it, destroying it would be the only viable solution. Whether it's a city or a massive meteorite, if it falls to Earth, it would truly mark an extinction-level event for all life on the planet."
"This is essentially the trolley problem. Choose between the Earth and one city. Everyone knows the logical choice, but no one wants to acknowledge it," Banner said, touching his chin thoughtfully.
"It's not that we don't have options. We need to rescue as many people as possible, provided we have the means to do so."
"JARVIS! Remind me to equip the Stark Relief Foundation with large-capacity evacuation vehicles. I want to save as many lives as possible when disasters strike."
Tony's eyes narrowed as he issued the command to JARVIS.
"Very well, sir. Your request has been logged," JARVIS promptly recorded Tony's instructions.
[Sokovia continued its ascent. Ultron drones persisted in attacking civilians. One aimed its weapon at a mother and child when Hulk crashed down, tearing the drone apart.]
[The citizens screamed in terror at the sight of Hulk, but he ignored their reactions and leapt away to continue the fight.]
[Wanda hurried a child to safety while Barton provided cover fire. She narrowly avoided an attack from another drone, fortunate to escape injury.]
[Another Ultron drone swooped down from above, targeting Wanda. Seeing this, she immediately cast a spell, hurling it sideways where it smashed into a wall and exploded.]
[Barton ran atop a car, bow in hand, executing a front flip to evade an attack before shooting the drone through its head with an arrow.]
[More Ultron drones appeared, and Barton urgently called to Wanda: "Go, go, go!"]
[They crashed through a window into an abandoned building. Wanda began blaming herself for aiding Ultron: "How could I let this happen?"]
[Barton noticed her distress and quickly interjected: "Hey, hey, you okay?"]
["This is all our fault," she replied, deeply dejected.]
["Hey, look at me. It's your fault, it's everyone's fault. Who cares? Are you up for this? Look, I just need to know, 'cause the city is flying."]
["Okay, look, the city is flying, we're fighting an army of robots, and I have a bow and arrow. None of this makes sense."]
[Before he could finish, bullet holes appeared in the nearby wall. Barton immediately rose, fired an arrow in response, then crouched down again. "I'm going back out there because it's my job."]
["Okay? And I can't do my job and babysit. It doesn't matter what you did or what you were. If you go out there, you fight, and you fight to kill. Stay in here, you're good. I'll send your brother to come find you."]
["But if you step out that door... you are an Avenger. All right, good chat."]
[Wanda stared at Barton, speechless. He stood up and moved behind her, removing equipment from his leg to assemble more arrows. He muttered to himself: "Yeah, the city is flying."]
[He had never imagined he would witness a city hovering in the sky. After taking a deep breath, he pushed open the door and ventured outside, leaving Wanda to listen to the sounds of battle.]
"She's just a kid! She never imagined she'd end up on a battlefield! She never thought she'd contribute to creating such a disaster with her own hands!" Uncle Ben remarked empathetically as he observed Wanda's guilt and discomfort.
Wanda, far away in Kamar-Taj, lowered her head in silent reflection. In reality, her first battlefield experience had been during the confrontation with Killian.
She had primarily been there to observe and practice her chaos magic. She hadn't overthought the situation at the time—she simply recognized Killian's dangerous ambitions and knew she couldn't allow him to succeed, so she had volunteered to join the fight.
She never anticipated falling into such a state of self-recrimination because of her misplaced trust in Ultron. Thankfully, she had already learned about Tony Stark's experiences beforehand, which helped her release her hatred and abandon her vengeful feelings toward him.