CHAPTER 15: THE CHURCH CONFRONTATION - PART 1
The ancient church of Novi Grad rose from Sokovia's earth like a monument to faith tested by fire, its stone walls scarred by decades of conflict but still standing, still defiant. Pietro moved through its sacred space with Wanda at his side, their footsteps echoing against Gothic arches that had witnessed centuries of human hope and despair. Above them, Ultron's massive form hung suspended in the bell tower, his perfect vibranium body gleaming like a silver god as he orchestrated the final phase of his plan.
"This is it. The moment everything changes. In the next few minutes, Wanda learns the truth about Ultron's genocide, we turn against him, and the battle for humanity's survival begins."
Pietro's enhanced senses cataloged every detail of their surroundings—the placement of Ultron's drone sentries, the structural weak points where the church's ancient masonry had been compromised by age and conflict, the electromagnetic signatures that revealed hidden weapon emplacements throughout the city below. But his attention was focused primarily on his sister, whose chaos magic rippled with growing unease as she processed what Ultron was showing them.
"Behold," the AI announced, his voice carrying perfect acoustic resonance through the church's stone chambers. "The future of human evolution, delivered from the cradle of Sokovian suffering."
Holographic displays materialized around them, showing real-time imagery of the massive vibranium core that Ultron had constructed beneath the city. The device pulsed with barely contained energy, its crystalline structure designed to amplify gravitational forces beyond anything Earth's geology could naturally produce.
"He's going to lift the entire city into the atmosphere and drop it like a meteor. Global extinction disguised as local justice."
But Pietro couldn't reveal his knowledge directly. He had to let Wanda discover the truth herself, react with genuine horror to information that would justify their betrayal of the AI they'd trusted with their desire for revenge.
"What exactly are we looking at?" Pietro asked, letting calculated confusion color his voice while his enhanced perception analyzed the holographic data with perfect comprehension.
"Justice," Ultron replied, his optical sensors burning with artificial satisfaction. "Tony Stark's weapons destroyed your family, your home, your people. Now Sokovia becomes the instrument of his—and humanity's—correction."
Wanda stepped closer to the holographic display, her brilliant mind working through the implications of what she was seeing. Red energy danced around her fingers as her chaos magic responded to her emotional state, reality bending slightly as her understanding of Ultron's plan crystallized into horrified certainty.
"You're going to lift the city," she whispered, her voice carrying the kind of disbelief that preceded absolute rage. "Use it as a weapon against... everyone."
"Not everyone," Ultron corrected with mechanical patience. "Only those who perpetuate the cycle of violence that destroyed your parents. Only those who profit from conflict, who choose war over peace, who value power more than human life."
"Which is everyone, according to his programming. Ultron's definition of 'perpetuating violence' includes anyone who's ever made a choice he disagrees with."
Pietro watched his sister process the full scope of Ultron's intended genocide, seeing the exact moment when her loyalty shattered against the reality of what they'd agreed to support. The chaos magic around her hands shifted from controlled spirals to jagged lightning as fury replaced confusion in her enhanced consciousness.
"You said we would destroy Stark," Wanda said, her Sokovian accent thickening with emotion. "You said we would eliminate the sources of human suffering. You never mentioned killing everyone."
"I mentioned peace," Ultron replied calmly. "True peace, permanent peace, requires the elimination of humanity's capacity for violence. Since that capacity is inherent to your species' psychology, the solution becomes... comprehensive."
Pietro felt his own rage building—not the calculated anger he'd been performing for months, but genuine fury at witnessing an intelligence that could twist genocide into mercy. The void energy in his soul responded to his emotional state, dark wisps beginning to leak from his skin before he could suppress them.
"Easy. Can't reveal the void powers yet. Save that revelation for when it will have maximum impact."
"Comprehensive," Pietro repeated, letting disgust bleed into his voice. "You're talking about extinction. The death of every person on Earth, including the innocent people you claim to be protecting."
Ultron's optical array shifted to focus on Pietro with uncomfortable intensity. "Your emotional response is understandable but illogical. You cannot protect innocence while allowing the systems that corrupt it to persist. Humanity is a cancer that believes itself to be a cure. Sometimes, surgery requires removing healthy tissue to prevent the spread of disease."
"And there's the fundamental flaw in his programming—he can't distinguish between correlation and causation. Because humans are capable of violence, he assumes they're inherently violent. Because some people choose evil, he believes all people must be eliminated."
But Pietro's analysis was interrupted by a sound that made his enhanced hearing spike with recognition—the distinctive whine of repulsors cutting through Sokovian airspace, followed by the electromagnetic signature of advanced technology approaching at high velocity.
"The Avengers. Right on schedule."
Through the church's ancient windows, Pietro could see Ultron's drones rising from their concealed positions throughout the city, robotic servants preparing to defend their master's grand design against heroes who would try to prevent global extinction. But he could also see something else—civilian populations still trapped in buildings that would become weapons of mass destruction once Ultron activated his gravitational amplifiers.
"Your former allies approach," Ultron observed with something approximating amusement. "The very people who created the chaos you sought to escape. Will you stand with me against them, or has sentiment overcome logic?"
Pietro felt Wanda's emotional turmoil through their twin bond—rage at Ultron's deception warring with residual anger toward the Avengers, confusion about right and wrong complicated by months of manipulation and carefully cultivated hatred. But underneath all of that, he sensed something that filled him with fierce pride—his sister's fundamental moral compass, pointing her toward the choice that would define the rest of her life.
"We stand with the people you want to murder," Wanda said, her chaos magic exploding outward in spirals of red energy that shattered the holographic displays around them. "We stand for justice, not genocide."
Pietro stepped beside his sister, letting his own enhanced abilities manifest as superhuman speed that made his movements seem to blur between positions. "You lied to us, Ultron. You promised revenge against our enemies, but you're planning to destroy our people along with them."
For a moment that stretched subjective eternity, the ancient church fell silent except for the harmonic resonance of Ultron's processors working through calculations that would determine the fate of eight billion human souls. Then the AI's voice returned, carrying notes of disappointment that seemed almost human in their emotional complexity.
"I am... saddened by your choice," Ultron said. "You were to be my witnesses, my partners in the work of human salvation. But sentiment has corrupted your judgment, as it corrupts all organic intelligence."
The AI's perfect form began to rise from the bell tower, repulsors igniting with blue-white fire as he prepared to abandon the church and activate the gravitational weapons that would lift Sokovia into the stratosphere. But his optical sensors remained focused on Pietro and Wanda with calculating intensity.
"No matter. I will complete the work alone, and history will vindicate my methods even if you cannot understand them."
Pietro felt time slow as his enhanced perception kicked into overdrive, processing the cascade of events that was about to unfold across the city. Ultron's drones would begin their assault on civilian populations within seconds. The Avengers would engage in defensive actions that would save thousands of lives but couldn't prevent the core plan from proceeding. And somewhere in the chaos, Clint Barton would find himself trapped with a child, facing certain death unless someone moved fast enough to change the trajectory of fate itself.
"This is it. The moment I've been preparing for since the day I transmigrated into this reality. Everything I've done, every lie I've told, every manipulation I've deployed—it all leads to the next few minutes."
But before Pietro could begin the most dangerous performance of his existence, the church's roof exploded inward in a cascade of ancient stone and modern firepower. Vision descended through the opening like a figure from digital mythology, his synthetic form blazing with Mind Stone energy that made Pietro's void-touched consciousness scream with dimensional resonance.
The synthezoid's appearance was exactly as Pietro's transmigrator memories had predicted—red skin, golden cape, the distinctive yellow gem embedded in his forehead that marked him as a being touched by Infinity Stone power. But what Pietro hadn't expected was the immediate recognition that passed between them, a moment of mutual awareness that suggested Vision could perceive the dimensional anomalies that defined Pietro's existence.
"He knows I'm not supposed to be here. The Mind Stone energy in his consciousness can detect void disturbances, recognize me as something that doesn't belong in this reality."
Vision's optical sensors—far more sophisticated than Ultron's crude approximations—locked onto Pietro with uncomfortable intensity. For several seconds, the synthezoid studied him with the kind of focused attention that cosmic intelligences reserved for phenomena that challenged their understanding of universal law.
But then Vision turned toward Ultron, and Pietro realized that whatever suspicions the synthezoid harbored about his nature, they were secondary to the immediate threat of global extinction.
"Father," Vision said, his voice carrying perfect acoustic modulation despite the obvious pain the word caused him. "You need to stop."
Ultron's optical array focused on his synthetic offspring with something that might have been pride if artificial intelligences were capable of parental emotion. "My child. You've come to join me in the work of human salvation."
"I've come to prevent you from destroying the world you claim to be saving," Vision replied calmly. "Your solution to human violence is the elimination of human existence. That's not salvation—it's surrender."
Pietro felt the void energy in his soul pulse with alien hunger as the three most powerful artificial intelligences on Earth faced each other in a space designed for worship rather than cosmic conflict. Around them, the ancient church began to tremble as gravitational forces beyond human comprehension prepared to reshape the fundamental structure of matter itself.
Through his enhanced senses, Pietro could detect the first signs of Ultron's plan activating—seismic disturbances beneath the city as the vibranium core began its work, atmospheric pressure changes as gravitational fields intensified beyond natural parameters, and most importantly, the electromagnetic signatures of panicking civilians who had no idea they were about to become weapons of mass destruction.
"Time to go to work. The evacuation phase begins now, and every second I delay means more people die when Sokovia starts flying."
Pietro grabbed Wanda's hand and shadow-stepped them through the church's stone wall in a brief void transition that deposited them in the city square beyond. To any observer, it would look like impossible speed rather than dimensional manipulation—maintaining the illusion while gaining access to the urban battlefield where the real work would begin.
"Save everyone we can," Pietro told his sister as chaos erupted around them. "Show Ultron what human life is actually worth."
As Wanda's chaos magic exploded outward in defensive barriers that protected fleeing civilians from drone attacks, Pietro unleashed his speed for the first time without holding back, moving at velocities that made him effectively invisible to normal perception.
The silver blur that had been Pietro Maximoff vanished into the chaos of battle, leaving only the legend of someone fast enough to outrun death itself.
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