Paris is one of the most beautiful and celebrated cities in the world. Its rich history and long association with high culture making it a top tourist destination, it in most people’s minds is the crown jewel of Europe; a fact that made it all the more appalling to see it now in flames.

In spite of the continued danger, a man and woman made their way determinedly through the smoky, rubble-strewn streets.

The man was very small in build, no more than five feet tall. He wore a thickly padded red and blue jumpsuit that included a matching backpack and helmet. Beneath the pinkish visor of the helmet was a youthful face with Asian features, features that were presently set in an angry scowl.

“Idiots,” he said coldly. “If they’d only listened to me! If they just did what I told them not even one person would have been killed!”

Takeshi Matsuya, better known as the mutant adventurer Wiz Kid, had expressly warned the French government not to move their army into the city, seeing as how the Ultron drones were concentrating their attacks on military targets.

President Sarkozy however, wanting to reassure the populace with a show of strength, and worried about the police’s inability to maintain order in light of the recent riots in Paris a few years earlier, went ahead and deployed a large force of tanks and infantry. This had resulted in fierce urban fighting as Wiz Kid fully predicted, or to be more accurate, urban slaughter; the French army was being cut to pieces while a lot of collateral damage was occurring to the surrounding buildings and homes.

“Did you honestly think they’d listen to someone who they haven’t even heard of before?” asked Katherine Wentworth as she ran alongside him, her long strides allowing her to keep up with the fast moving hover chair he rode upon. “Even back in the States you’re far from a house hold name, Taki.”

Wiz Kid looked over at his female companion. Although he’d only met the CIA woman a few weeks ago he had become very taken with her. Katherine was in her late twenties. She had a wonderfully sculpted face and large, enchanting blue eyes that were set off to perfection by a mane of wavy, dark brown hair.

Besides being amazingly beautiful she reminded him a lot of a teacher he had a crush on at the Saint Simons Academy, a school he had attended up until the age of fifteen. Like that teacher she was intelligent and sophisticated, a woman of real class.

“They’ve heard of the CIA,” Wiz Kid pointed out. “But they dismissed you with all your credentials just the same as they did me.”

Katherine smiled over at him. “In case you hadn’t notice, genius, we’re in France. They may like Americans a bit more lately, but they’re still not going to let us tell them what to do in their own country.”

“They would’ve listened if I was an Avenger,” he said with a frustrated sigh.

“You’re probably right,” Katherine agreed. “The French have never shown much respect to America, or at least recently, but they always have for Captain America. His fighting alongside the French Resistance during World War II is no small reason.”

“So all I need is a time machine,” Wiz Kid muttered.

“I would think that would be no problem for you to whip up,” she said jokingly.

“Well actually--”

An explosion interrupted Wiz Kid’s rare admission of his scientific limitations. It took him but a few seconds to realize the blast had occurred just around the corner. Instead of retreating, the two immediately moved forward to investigate.

What they found was an armored personnel carrier tipped on its side. The roof and back end was blown off and there were some injured men trying to climb out of the mangled wreckage--

--with an Ultron drone swooping in on them fast!

Wiz Kid covered the distance without a second to spare, erecting a force field around the French soldiers just in time to protect them from the drone’s deadly laser blasts.

“Merci!” cried one of the men in relief. “Vous nous avez sauves!”

“You’re welcome,” said Wiz Kid, his hover chair absorbing into his metallic backpack as he trained an array of sensors on the attacking robot.

The technological configuration rays that beamed down over the entire globe from an elaborate network of orbital satellites was something that fascinated the young mutant due to the fact his own powers similarly allowed him to technoform raw materials and mold them to his whim. As his scans showed, this particular drone, while outwardly identical to the other drones, was constructed of things that looked derived from a store’s cash register.

The drone ceased blasting its laser weapons at his force field when bullets suddenly hammered against its steel plated form.

Wiz Kid turned to see Katherine had out her Walther PPK and was firing it with unerring accuracy, the small caliber rounds striking the drone and blowing out its eye lenses.

Yet, he noted, to little effect.

Far from blinded, the drone swiveled and returned fire at the spy, who rolled gracefully out of the way of the laser bolts, flipped back up in a crouch and squeezed off three more quick rounds aimed at the Ultron’s shattered eyes.

“Save your bullets,” Wiz Kid told her as he drew ready material from his backpack and formed an ionic pulse rifle, what fit perfectly in his grip. “The eyes on these things seem to be purely cosmetic.”

He dropped his force field and the freshly crafted weapon fired a single blast that instantly reduced the drone to scrap.

A few of the French soldiers were momentarily awestruck. One let out a cheer.

“The drones are not overly durable, but they’re designed strong enough to withstand conventional firearms,” Wiz Kid observed.

“Well that only makes sense,” said Katherine, putting away her useless gun. “If these things are intended to overwhelm the world’s individual militaries, it’s natural they’d be bullet proof. Few countries have energy ray weapons, and those that do don’t have them in large quantity.”

“Speaking of which,” he said, after reconfiguring the rifle he was holding before he presented it to her. “Happy Birthday.”

“It’s not until August, but thank you none the less,” she replied smoothly.

August tenth to be exact, Wiz Kid remembered. He had hacked into the CIA mainframe and read her service dossier upon their first encounter, at the time wanting to learn just whom it was he was dealing with. *

Katherine took the weapon in her perfectly manicured hands, quickly familiarizing herself with its use. She then without delay angled it up and pulled the trigger; a plume of energy streaked through the air where it struck an oncoming Ultron drone dead center, destroying it.

Wiz Kid conducted a sensor sweep of the vicinity and detected dozens more approaching. No doubt attracted by the destruction of their fellow drones.

“This way,” he said, reforming his hover chair as Google Earth flashed across his visor. “We’ll lead them to the outskirts of the city, and engage them there.”

“Merde,” Le Peregrine swore in exhaustion.

He had been single-handedly defending the City of Lights, being about the only superhero that his country boasted, and already after less than half an hour he was tired and sore, with his blue and black costume nearly in tatters.

Banking in wide circles, his sharp eyes scoured the streets and buildings below for more of the Ultron drones. As he flew over the Grand Palais, a magnificent landmark that had been constructed for the 1900 World’s Fair, hot anger rushed through him upon sight of it half destroyed, the drones obviously having assaulted the police station that was housed in the building’s basement.

“Merde!” the Frenchman repeated again, this time with extra vehemence as fury gripped him.

But in his heart of hearts he did not curse the drones themselves, or even the main Ultron that was likely controlling them all. Rather he cursed the name of Ultron’s creator.

“Goddamn you Henry Pym, goddamn you to hell!”

Sighting a group of drones, and eager to take out his rage on them, Le Peregrine climbed another thousand feet, then dove straight down on them exactly like his namesake. He extended his arms out and shredded two drones simultaneously with his wrist blades. The element of surprise gone, under other circumstances he might have made a temporary retreat. Instead he turned back around to finish them all off.

He weaved out of the way of their weapons fire and closed in on the nearest. With uncanny precision that came from years of aerial combat training, he tackled the robot, using his momentum to flip it over himself so that it smashed right into another of its kind at enough speed and force to break them both apart.

Almost recklessly the winged hero threw himself at the remaining drone. A laser blast seared across his left hip. Ignoring the flash of pain, he twisted in the air and brought a wrist blade through the drone’s neck, sending its head falling down to the Seine River below.

His foes vanquished for the moment, he ascended back to a height that would grant him a fuller view of his surroundings. His feelings of fatigue began to return and he blocked it out as best he could. He knew those down there, the frightened citizenry, were all counting on him. He could not let them down.

A few minutes passed by when suddenly his eyes fastened on another group of drones, and then he took note of a second, a third, and a forth group. All of them were heading at great speed in the same westerly direction.

Mon deux. Perhaps they are in the process of leaving?

Curious, and hopeful this might somehow be true, Le Peregrine stealthily fell in behind the robotic swarm, and followed them.

Katherine rode on the back of Wiz Kid’s hover chair that was racing down the streets, leading the drones out of the city.

“They’re increasing speed,” she warned him as she noticed the robots starting to gain on them. “We’ll soon be in their weapons range. I don’t suppose you would care to go any faster?”

“Hold on,” Wiz Kid said. “And when I say hold on, I mean seriously, hold on!”

The hover chair morphed into a rocket sled and blasted off, shooting over the street like a missile. He looked back to make certain she hadn’t fallen off. Seeing she was in no danger of doing so, he went back to what he was doing; studying the drones, and specifically what he could glean of their operating software.

Wiz Kid’s eyes widened a bit, reflecting his amazement at the sheer level of sophistication. He had thought it would be highly advanced programming language, but this was so much more advanced than he expected, perhaps hundreds of years ahead of anything else he’d seen before. A computer expert and master hacker, it was still going to take him a good few days before he could even begin to do something so ambitious as hack into the drones, so much was the software beyond his current level of understanding.

He mumbled a prayer that either Reed Richards or Tony Stark was even now somewhere working on this, and far closer to a solution...

If you’re looking for more Ultron drone action look no farther than Avengers here at the Lab, written by Mick Edwards and yours truly. Also if you would like to see more of Wiz Kid, Katherine Wentworth a.k.a Kate Worthy: Agent of S.T.R.I.K.E, or even the flying Frenchman Le Peregrine, let us know!