Sokovia (Sokovian Cyrillic: Соковиja; Sokovian Latin: Sokovija) is a landlocked country in Central or Southeastern Europe. A ruler named Stanislav (1789-1844) is known as the first leader of the Principality of Sokovia.
HYDRA established an underground compound in the country of Sokovia while its operatives still posed as loyal S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents. While Sokovia was in the middle of a rebellion, HYDRA managed to send its operatives to the country under the guise of being S.H.I.E.L.D. peacekeeping forces.
One of HYDRA's operatives, Mark Basso, custodied recently recruited S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Mark Smith to the HYDRA Research Base, as Smith managed to obtain the Scepter that Loki used during the Battle of New York for HYDRA. Basso explained how HYDRA had managed to secure a secret base in Sokovia while the current rebellion provided a cover.
Wolfgang von Strucker personally welcomed Smith, in order to make sure that his scientist, led by Doctor List, started immediately to study the Scepter. A group of HYDRA scientists immediately harnessed the power of the Scepter and attempted to use it to power the Chitauri Guns left behind in New York City. However, the progress they were making, though remarkable, was not enough to make the advances that Strucker demanded.
Doctor List told Strucker that in order to progress, they would need to perform experiment on living human subjects. Watching the news reports of the rebellions in the streets of Sokovia, Strucker assured List they would have plenty of subjects to choose from.
Doctor List approached a group of protesters in the streets of Sokovia, which included the twins Pietro and Wanda Maximoff, in order to convince them that they should not look to their government to protect their rights, but rather should fight for them personally. List offered to provide them with the "tools" they needed to battle their oppressors if they were willing to volunteer for experimentation. The Maximoff twins confronted List, saying they wanted the wars out of their streets, but List told them that they would need power to achieve their goals. List exemplified the power he was offering them, saying they had already seen it in Iron Man and the Avengers. The only thing List said he required to grant them a greater future was their consent. Many of the citizens in Sokovia took List up on his offer, including the Maximoff twins.
Doctor List began the experiments to use the Scepter in the Sokovian citizens that volunteered in order to obtain the power that would allow them to stabilize their country.
List approached Pietro and Wanda Maximoff, explaining that given the amount of volunteers he had, they would still have to wait for their turn. List admitted he was eager to witness the results of his test, given the fact they were twins, and wondered what kind of abilities the Scepter would unlock in them. Wanda was not sure about the procedure, but Pietro asked her to be strong, as it would soon grant them the power they needed to fight.
Meanwhile, Mark Smith wondered how they would evade human trials, and Mark Basso explained to him that once Project Insight had been launched, the whole world would change, and they would not have the need to work underground anymore.
Wolfgang von Strucker and Doctor List, one of the scientists stationed at the HYDRA Research Base, discussed the public revelation of HYDRA's existence and its infiltration within S.H.I.E.L.D. List asked what would they do now that Nick Fury had revealed everything about them, but Strucker replied that he only revealed the things he knew.
As they continued walking through the facility, Strucker acknowledged that HYDRA and S.H.I.E.L.D. were two sides of a coin that was no longer currency, and Strucker stopped right in front of the Scepter, saying that they got something more worthy than anyone could imagine, even though they have only scratched its surface.
Strucker informed that they would lure Captain America and his allies to other HYDRA facilities in order to keep them away from them, and they would deal with the "volunteers" to their experiments, burying the dead deep so that none could find them.
List asked about the two survivors of their experiments, Pietro and Wanda Maximoff, who were being kept in cells as they struggled with their powers. Strucker acknowledged that sooner or later the Avengers would meet them, as the world was not a world of spies anymore, not even a world of heroes. Strucker ominously announced the arrival of the age of miracles, as there was nothing more horrifying than a miracle. As Strucker was speaking, Pietro moved at superhuman speed from one side to another of his cell, while Wanda moved a series of cubes with her mind, finally making them explode.
Provided by information gathered by Phil Coulson, and relayed to Maria Hill[3], the Avengers discovered the location of the Research Base where the scepter was located. They attacked in full force, breaking down the defenses of the base. There they had a brief interaction to the Maximoff twins. In order to minimize casualties, Iron Man used his Iron Legion to try to keep Sokovian citizens away from the fight, though they were met with some hostility. Both Captain America and Iron Man were able to infiltrate the main building. Wolfgang von Strucker, surrendered himself to Captain America, while Iron Man searched for the Scepter. When he found it, Wanda used her abilities to make him hallucinate and see the Earth under attack by aliens and his Avenger companions lying dead before him, causing him a lot of emotional pain. Once the vision subsided, he used his armored arm to take the Scepter back to the Quinjet.
With the first fight with the Avengers fought, Ultron retreated into the Internet and repurposed the HYDRA designed robots to serve him, as well as making another body for himself in the abandoned base. Once his new body was finished, he summoned the Maximoff twins to a church in the center of the city. There, he explained to them his intentions about supposedly saving the world, and "ending" the Avengers.
During the skirmish in Seoul Ultron lost his allies and the the synthetic body he was building. He returned to Sokovia, with Black Widow as a hostage. There, he built his doomsday project, along with a new body made out of Vibranium.
Drawn by a morse coded message sent by the Black Widow, the Avengers traveled to Sokovia, where they began the process of evacuating the city, while Iron Man and Vision went to confront Ultron. At that point, Ultron revealed his plan, and began the process of raising the city into the sky, so as to duplicate the effect of a meteor and murdering all of humanity. As the Avengers began to battle with Ultron and his Sentries, S.H.I.E.L.D. arrived in the Helicarrier, and managed to evacuate the remaining civilians and eventually most of the Avengers.
Eventually, Ultron was overpowered, and his primary body destroyed by Scarlet Witch in an act of rage and grief over the loss of her brother. However, this allowed one of his Ultron Sentries to take absorb his conscious, and activate the device, which caused the city to plummet back to the ground. Through the combined efforts of Iron Man and Thor, coupled with the saving of Scarlet Witch by the Vision, the city was destroyed, and the disaster prevented.
The sole remaining Ultron Sentry, which carried Ultron's mind, managed to crawl away, but was intercepted by Vision. After a brief exchange of words between the two, Vision destroyed the Sentry, ultimately ending Ultron's threat. After the battle, cleanup crews were sent to Sokovia, and regional neighbors began responding to the chaos. The Avengers withdrew from the public eye.
Points of Interest:
Novi Grad
HYDRA Research Base
Citizens of Sokovia:
Wanda Maximoff
Pietro Maximoff
Helmut Zemo
