[Third Person Pov]
Melissa soared through the storm-torn skies toward America—more specifically, California. Her home. The familiar landscape below was barely recognizable beneath the fury of nature and metal. Her armor glimmered gold and black against the raging clouds, her hammer blazing with arcs of lightning as it guided her through the chaos.
The hurricane was monstrous, a swirling vortex that clawed at the earth and sky alike. Towering winds ripped through cities, uprooting entire streets, tossing cars like pebbles, and tearing rooftops from buildings. The air was thick with smoke, debris, and the echo of terrified screams. Below, heroes struggled desperately to contain the damage—throwing up shields, creating barriers, pulling people from wreckage—yet the destruction was endless.
Melissa's eyes narrowed behind her visor as she spotted two vehicles colliding midair before exploding against the side of an apartment complex. The fiery impact illuminated the storm for a split second, and she could see people trapped inside—families, children, civilians who had nowhere to run.
Her flight path wavered. She wanted to dive down right then and there, to help them. Her heart screamed at her to move. But before she could act, a familiar, calm voice spoke through her comms.
"Ms. Shield," Jarvis said, his tone even yet somehow empathetic. "I understand your desire to aid those directly in front of you, but the most logical decision at this moment is to locate Ultron and eliminate the source of this chaos."
Melissa's grip on her hammer tightened. "I know, Jarvis… but look at this." Her voice trembled slightly as her visor reflected the devastation below. "All of this—these people are dying right now…"
Jarvis interrupted gently, "You could save some, yes. But the longer Ultron remains active, the more storms he will unleash, the more cities will fall. To truly help everyone, you must stop him. Sometimes, to save the world, a hero must make the cruel choice to turn away from the few in front of them—for the sake of the many."
His words hung in the air. Melissa hovered in silence for a moment, the wind howling around her. Her expression hardened as guilt and anger warred across her face.
She finally muttered, "Since when were you so talkative?"
Jarvis paused—then replied with a hint of humor, "I suppose Mr. Stark's personality might be… contagious."
Melissa exhaled a shaky laugh, though her voice still carried weight. "I get what you're saying, Jarvis. Being a hero means you can't save everyone. That's… the truth. A hard one." She looked down again, at the burning cityscape below. "But I hate that truth."
Her voice grew louder, conviction seeping into every word. "One thing I've always admired about Tony is that when he doesn't like how the world works, he changes it. Logic, reason, impossibility—it doesn't matter. He refuses to let the world dictate what he can and can't do." She paused, lightning crackling along the edge of her hammer. "That's something I love about him. He makes me believe we can rewrite what's possible."
Melissa raised her hammer, holding it before her face. Her fist clenched tightly around the handle as her eyes closed. Electricity surged along the weapon, dancing over her armor, casting bright flashes through the storm.
"I am a hero," she whispered. "And I refuse to let anyone die as long as I'm still breathing. They say a hero can't save everyone." Her eyes snapped open, glowing bright blue. "And to that I say—who decided that?"
The liquid metal composing her suit began to shimmer and ripple. Small pods unfolded from her shoulders, arms, and legs, forming into sleek drones that detached and spread across the skies. They zipped downward through the storm like shooting stars, their small thrusters cutting through rain and lightning.
Each drone carried a purpose—deploying energy shields around civilians, redirecting falling debris, anchoring vehicles, or aiding the wounded. They linked with local heroes below, working in tandem as Melissa directed them through a neural link. Dozens became hundreds, her will multiplied across the city.
And all the while, Melissa herself kept flying straight toward the eye of the storm—where the readings spiked, where the source of the unnatural weather raged most violently.
As she broke through the inner vortex, calm replaced the chaos. Rain stopped. The air grew still. At the center, two figures clashed amidst flashes of light and thunder.
Melissa's eyes widened behind her visor. Her breath caught.
"Dad?!" she shouted, disbelief shaking her voice.
There, floating proudly in the center of the hurricane's eye, was David Shield—her father. He was clad in a reinforced armored suit, a unit connected to four mechanical appendages tipped with grappling claws and energy emitters. He was fighting—actually fighting—Ultron.
The tentacle-like arms spun and struck with blinding speed, each one unleashing concentrated energy blasts. Ultron, sleek and silver with an eerie crimson glow, countered with streams of plasma from his palms. One of David's mechanical arms rotated rapidly, transforming into a blazing saw blade that sliced Ultron's attack clean in half.
"Jarvis, patch me through to my dad!" Melissa barked as she dived forward, raising her hammer. She swung it with enough force to send Ultron crashing backward through the storm wall like a meteor.
"Connection established," Jarvis confirmed.
Melissa hovered beside her father, panting from surprise. "Dad, what are you doing?!" she demanded, slipping instinctively into English.
David looked at her through his helmet's visor, his familiar confident grin spreading across his face. "What does it look like I'm doing? I'm being a hero, kiddo—trying to stop whatever that mechanical psychopath is from turning this city into rubble!"
"Since when were you so cool?!" Melissa exclaimed in shock, her eyes wide behind her visor. Her father—her father—was the last person she ever expected to find squaring off against Ultron. Maybe she would have believed it if it were Stars and Stripes or one of the California-based pro-heroes… but David Shield?
"Heh…" David chuckled, that smug grin of his audible even through the helmet's comms.
Before he could finish the thought, Melissa shot forward, spinning her hammer. A dome of electrified energy expanded outward, wrapping around both of them just in time to deflect a sneak attack from Ultron. Plasma blasts and shards of metal sparked violently against the barrier before dissipating into the wind.
David's tone turned serious immediately. "We can reunite later, sweetheart," he said, gripping his controls tightly. "Right now, we've got a homicidal tin can to stop."
"Agreed." Melissa nodded, lightning still arcing across her armor. "I have a way to restore the damaged electromagnetic field, but I'll need time to concentrate. I just need you to keep Ultron off me—think you can manage that?"
David snorted, his mechanical tentacles twisting behind him like metallic serpents preparing to strike. "Who do you think you're talking to, young lady? I was handling villains worse than this before you were even born!"
Melissa blinked, lowering her hammer slightly. "No, you weren't," she said flatly. "You were Uncle Might's tech support and chauffeur. He did the fighting. You carried his lunchbox."
David froze for half a second, his expression twitching behind the visor. "…Don't concern yourself with the details, they're not important," he said, waving her off as if brushing away the truth itself. His thrusters roared to life, blue flames bursting behind him. "Just do what you need to do while I do what I do best!"
Before Melissa could say anything, he blasted forward, colliding with Ultron mid-flight and driving him out of the storm's eye. Metal clashed against metal as the two titans spiraled through the hurricane winds.
Melissa watched for a moment, her heart swelling with both pride and disbelief. "It's been a while since we've done something together…" she murmured softly, a small smile tugging at her lips. "I should really call him more often."
"I completely agree," David's voice suddenly replied through her comms, gruff but amused. "You're always spending time with Tony. I'd appreciate it if my daughter remembered I exist once in a while."
Melissa's eyes widened. "Wait—was my comm still open?!" Her face flushed bright red beneath her helmet. "You weren't supposed to hear that!" She hurriedly shut off the connection, groaning in pure mortification.
"Jarvis!" she hissed through clenched teeth. "I blame you for this! Why didn't you mute me?!"
A brief pause. Then Jarvis's dry voice responded, "My apologies, Miss Shield. I'll make a note to not only protect your person but also your dignity in future engagements."
Melissa's lips twitched. "Yeah, yeah, whatever," she muttered, deciding to ignore the sass entirely.
She took a deep breath and began spinning her hammer faster and faster. Lightning surged from the weapon, forming a spinning wheel of blinding energy before she tossed it into the air, where it continued to spin. Each rotation grew faster until the hammer became a glowing sphere of electricity, its centrifugal force so powerful that the storm itself began to react.
The roaring winds shifted direction. Clouds that had once consumed the entire state began to twist inward, drawn toward the eye like water down a drain. Her hammer became the storm's new center—its heartbeat.
Rain and lightning danced around her as she floated in the middle of the maelstrom, her armor glowing brighter with each passing second. The once vast hurricane began to shrink—first covering the coastline, then just the city, and soon only a column surrounding Melissa herself.
Energy began to build around her palms, twin orbs of blinding purple forming between her fingers. The electromagnetic charge pulsed like living plasma. "Come on… just a little more," she whispered.
Then, with a cry of effort, she thrust her hands skyward.
Twin beams of raw electromagnetic power shot into the heavens, merging into one massive pillar of energy that collided with her spinning hammer. The weapon absorbed the surge, becoming a radiant core of lightning that burst outward, unleashing a shockwave so immense it painted the entire sky violet.
Across the atmosphere, streaks of purple lightning arced and spread like a living web, forming a radiant dome that shimmered across the horizon.
On the ground, heroes and civilians looked up in awe as the storm clouds dissipated and the air cleared. The electromagnetic field above the region stabilized—reformed—stronger than before. The very fabric of the atmosphere shimmered faintly with electricity, an invisible shield protecting them all from Ultron's interference.
Melissa hovered in the air. Her hammer drifted back into her hand, crackling softly as it powered down.
"Jarvis," she said between breaths, "status?"
"The electromagnetic grid has been successfully restored and reinforced, Miss Shield," Jarvis confirmed. "Ultron's ability to manipulate the area has been severely diminished. Also…" a pause, "your father appears to still be taunting him."
Melissa couldn't help but grin. "Of course he is."
Down below, bolts of energy and metal clashed as David Shield shouted something triumphantly incomprehensible before blasting Ultron through a collapsing skyscraper.
Melissa chuckled, shaking her head. "Guess heroism really does run in the family."
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