115 Ultron

Suddenly, a high-pitched screech tore through the room like microphone feedback, only sharper, deeper and more sinister. Everyone flinched. Glasses rattled on the table. Natasha’s Pink discography music cut out with a crackle of static.

Tony instinctively reached for his tablet. “That wasn’t us,” he muttered, scanning for the source.

Before anyone could speak, one of the Iron Legion suits limped into view from the far corridor. Sparks crackled from exposed wiring. Armor plating was torn and blackened, its movements jerky and unnatural like something wearing the corpse of a machine.

Its eyes glowed red.

“What the hell?” Rhodey whispered.

The suit stopped in the center of the lounge, its head turning slowly as it scanned the room. Then, in a voice warped by static and metal, hauntingly cold and almost sad, it spoke.

“Worthy…” it rasped, voice echoing from the suit and the Tower’s sound system in unison. “No. How could you be worthy?”

A pause.

“You’re all… killers.”

Steve stepped forward instinctively. His eyes locked onto the staggering, broken Iron Legionnaire. “Stark,” Steve questioned without removing his eyes from the abomination in front of him.

Tony’s eyes were already glued to his phone. He began tapping rapidly, trying to assert control. “JARVIS?” he called out.

However, it wasn’t JARVIS that replied back but the abomination in front of them. “I'm sorry… I was asleep. Or… I was a-dream?”

The words hung in the air, none of the people in the room able to comprehend what was happening.

Tony’s brow furrowed as he tried to type faster. “Reboot Legionnaire OS. We’ve got a buggy suit.”

But the device in his hand gave no confirmation. No signal nor access to the legionnaire program.

“There was a terrible noise…” the voice said, drifting from the mangled Iron Legionnaire as though from another realm entirely. It carried a strange, almost childlike wonder, as if trying to describe a dream. “And I was tangled in… in… strings. I had to kill the other guy. He was a good guy.”

The air in the room turned electric. Steve’s jaw tightened, his eyes locked on the Legionnaire’s cracked faceplate. His posture shifted slightly getting himself ready for a confrontation.

“You killed someone?” he asked.

A pause.

Then the legionnaire answered.

“Wouldn't have been my first call. But down in the real world, we’re faced with ugly choices.”

Tony didn’t even look up. His fingers moved furiously over his phone, lips pressed in a grim line. “Override. Force reboot. Come on, JARVIS, talk to me…”

Beside him, Bruce had already grabbed a tablet from the table, trying to jack in through an auxiliary connection but the screen was nothing but static.

On the far end of the room, Natasha pulled a concealed pistol from under a sofa cushion and held it low, her gaze never leaving the shambling bot.

Maria Hill, sitting beside Phil Coulson, casually reached into her purse and pulled out a compact handgun like she was grabbing a pen. The click of the safety was soft.

Coulson glanced around, eyes scanning for something, anything, useful. His hand hovered briefly over a decorative vase next to him.

Clint eyes scanned the upper level, eyes darting between structural support beams and potential exit routes

Rhodey eyes scanned the ground level they were in. His instincts as a soldier kicked in. Establish cover, assess enemy movement, await clear engagement protocols.

Thor stood tall, unmoving, but every muscle in his frame was taut with readiness. Mjölnir dangled in his grip.

Thor stepped forward next to Steve and pointed his hammer at the mangled bot. “Who sent you?”

For a breath, silence lingered.

From the speakers, Tony Stark’s own voice echoed across the room. “I see a suit of armor around the world.”

Tony’s fingers froze above his phone. His eyes widened, not in confusion, but in dawning horror. That line. That exact phrase. He had said it as his pitch for Ultron to the rest of the team.

Bruce, looked up sharply. His face had drained of color.

“Ultron…” he whispered, as if speaking the name might make it real.

The voice responded, this time with a chuckle “In the flesh,” it said. “Or… no. Not yet. Not this—” There was a brief pause, then the mangled bot gestured vaguely to itself with a creak of broken servos— “Chrysalis.” The Iron Legionnaire lifted its fractured head fully now, red optics burning like coal in a forge. “But I’m ready,” the voice continued, growing in confidence. “I’m on a mission.”

Natasha’s grip tightened on her pistol. Her stance shifted ever so slightly, shoulders squared, body half-turned, ready to start the engagement.

Natasha narrowed her eyes. “What mission?” She asked

There was a pause.

Then Tony’s voice returned. “Peace in our time.”

The words echoed through the common room like a funeral bell.

And then the world exploded.

A deafening blast ripped through the east wall, flinging shards of metal, glass, and concrete into the air. The force sent a shockwave through the room, knocking over chairs and extinguishing any sense of control. Fire licked at the edges of the shattered wall as smoke poured in.

From the smoke, four more Iron Legionnaire units barreled into the room like predators unchained. Their metal plating was scorched and uneven, their optics glowing red with hostile intent.

The first lunged straight at Thor. With a snarl, the god of thunder hurled Mjolnir through the smoke. The hammer struck the bot square in the chest with a crunch, sending it flying back through the wall it had just entered from.

Another came at Steve.

Without hesitation, Steve grabbed the wooden coffee table and flipped it upward, slamming it into the Legionnaire like a makeshift shield. The table splintered into pieces on impact, but it slowed the bot just long enough for him to bring his full weight down with a brutal punch to its faceplate.

A third bot raised its repulsors just in time for Hill to shout, “Incoming!”

Energy bolts tore through the air.

Tony barely had time to grab Bruce and duck. “Go! Go!”

The two dove behind the bar, joined quickly by Hill, Phil, Rhodey, and Clint

“Get me a suit!” Tony barked into his phone, trying to call one in remotely. “JARVIS, come on!”

But there was no answer, just static.

Bruce pressed his back to the bar, hyperventilating, fists clenched, trying to hold the Other Guy in for now.

Overhead, red emergency lights began to strobe, bathing the room in flashes of crimson.

Across the room, Natasha sprinted behind a couch, vaulted off it, and kicked a Legionnaire square in the face mid-air. “Tony, you need to shut these things down yesterday!”

“I’m working on it!” he yelled back, fingers flying across the screen of his now mostly-useless phone. “The OS is completely hijacked!”

A fourth bot smashed its way through a speaker system in the ceiling, landing hard in front of Phil. Before it could raise a weapon, Hill emptied a full clip into its optics, then ducked as it exploded in sparks and flames.

Clint reached under the bar, pried open a disguised panel, and typed a four-digit code into the hidden keypad. With a quiet click, a concealed compartment slid open revealing a compact but deadly arsenal stashed just for situations like this.

“Party favors,” Clint grinned grimly, tossing a shotgun to Phil, an assault rifle to Hill, and a compact SMG to Rhodey.

“You’ve been holding out on us,” Hill said, cocking the rifle and popping up to unload on a Legionnaire.

“You never asked,” Clint replied, blasting the chestplate off an advancing bot.

Phil caught his weapon like it was muscle memory and started to unload at the closest legionnaire.

Meanwhile, Tony crouched beside Bruce, who was visibly trembling. His eyes were closed, hands balled into white-knuckled fists, jaw clenched tight as he fought back the roaring in his ears.

“Bruce, hey,” Tony said quickly, digging through a battered first-aid kit behind the bar. Bottles clattered, bandages spilled then finally, he pulled out a small, unlabeled vial filled with a faintly glowing blue liquid.

Harry’s calming draught.

Tony shoved it into Bruce’s hands, his voice was uncharacteristically desperate. “No code green. Please, please no code green. We're indoors. This place is not rated for smash therapy.”

Bruce took the vial with shaking fingers, eyes flicking toward the firefight raging beyond their cover. He could hear the gunshots. Feel the tremors through the floor.

The Other Guy wanted out.

Tony stayed with him, hands hovering, ready to dive for cover or to catch a punch. “I need the scientist, not the wrecking ball. Come on, big guy. You got this.”

Bruce uncorked the vial and downed it in a single gulp.

The trembling slowed.

His breathing leveled, just slightly.

“Okay,” Bruce muttered, wiping his mouth, though his voice was strained. “Okay, okay. I’m good. I’m—”

A bot crashed down feet away, forcing them both back into cover.

Tony gave a thin smile. “Still not a fan of your version of party tricks.”

“Believe me,” Bruce muttered darkly, “neither am I.”

All around them, the fight raged.

Clint reloaded in seconds, laying down cover fire as Hill and Phil flanked the remaining bots. Rhodey, brought one bot down with a triple burst to its core.

But for every bot they dropped, it felt like another came crawling out of the smoke, snarling with corrupted AI and Ultron’s disdainful voice.

The lights flickered as more Iron Legion drones smashed through the far wall, bursting from smoke and debris like a flood of angry wasps. They moved like a pack too many, too fast, all gleaming metal and soulless red eyes.

Natasha fired clean, controlled shots downing a drone before pivoting to unload on the next. But they were swarming now, crawling over the walls, dropping from the ceiling like locusts with repulsors.

One of them got behind her.

With a metallic snarl, the Legionnaire tackled Natasha full-force, sending both of them crashing through the tall glass window in a shatter of shards and wind.

“Nat!” Clint shouted, leaping up, but it was too late.

The two figures spiraled downward, tangled mid-air in a deadly dance of limbs and metal.

For a heartbeat, everything froze. And then CRACK.

Magic tore through the air.

With a sharp pop, a swirl of black robes and green energy appeared mid-plummet.

Harry dove into the freefall without hesitation, wind whipping through his hair, His arm hooked around Natasha just as she kicked off the drone, flipping away from its grasp.

Harry glanced at her midair. “Tony’s murderbot?”

Natasha didn’t miss a beat. “Tony’s murderbot.”

“Brilliant.”

Both of them closed their eyes and they vanished mid-drop leaving the drone to tumble and explode uselessly against the pavement below.

A split-second later, they reappeared in the ruined common room with a crack of displaced air, just behind the overturned bar. Energy sparked in Harry’s eyes as he landed with Natasha in tow, robes snapping dramatically around him as if answering the chaos.

Clint exhaled in relief and tossed a shotgun in a clean arc. Natasha caught it mid-spin, cocked it without blinking, and immediately opened fire on the nearest drone, blasting its head clean off.

Harry didn’t answer. His wand was already slashing through the air, sending searing jets of green fire into the oncoming bots. One drone tried to flank him—he banished it straight through the kitchen wall.

“I leave for two hours,” Harry muttered, deflecting a repulsor blast with a shimmering Protego shield. “Two. Bloody. Hours.”

A Legionnaire lunged at Harry. But Harry caught the strike with his left hand. Without flinching, he grabbed the machine by the throat, holding it mid-air with effortless strength. The Legionnaire thrashed, trying to free himself

Harry extended his right arm outward, palm open and his Asgardian blade materialized in a burst of golden light, forged steel shimmering with runes.

With a single fluid motion, he swept the blade across his body, slicing clean through the Legionnaire's core. The machine sparked violently, severed in half, and collapsed in two separate smoking heaps at his feet.

Harry exhaled slowly and turned to the next group as another wave of drones surged into the room.

Steve ducked under a repulsor blast that vaporized part of the ceiling. Another Legionnaire leapt at him from the balcony, Steve met it mid-air, slamming it down with a brutal overhead strike. He grabbed a table splineter, and drove it like a stake into the drone’s power core.

Above him, Mjolnir flew back into Thor’s hand just in time for him to hurl it like a comet into the thickest cluster of bots. The impact exploded in a thunderous blast, hurling debris and molten shrapnel across the room.

Behind the bar, Clint moved like clockwork reload, aim, fire. “Tasha, ten o’clock!”

Natasha was already there. She fired the last shell from her shotgun, flipped it, and smashed it into a drone’s jaw before grabbing a knife from the bar counter. She ducked beneath a swipe, jammed the blade into a power conduit, and leapt free just as the bot short circuited in a cloud of sparks.

Tony had found his gauntlet that was lying around after the Thor hammer lifting competition on but no suit. He dodged a flying repulsor shot and smacked a Legionnaire with the gauntlet’s unibeam, blowing its head clean off. Sparks flew as he ducked behind a couch, muttering furiously.

Clint and Hill circled wide, moving fast through the wreckage-strewn halls toward the upper balcony. The staircase groaned under their weight, half-collapsed from a recent explosion, but they didn't hesitate. As they climbed, Clint’s shot a drone in the eye socket and sending it spiraling into the floor below.

They reached the scorched balcony railings. From here, they had a full view of the chaos below: drones swarming the main floor, Avengers trading blows in the heart of the storm.

Clint didn't waste a second. He knelt and started to shoot the bots.

Hill took up position behind a shattered column, laying down cover fire.

A drone zipped straight at them from above. Clint grabbed the nearest decorative pole, broke it off at the base and impaled the bot mid-charge, driving it into the floor with a grunt.

 “Five incoming on your left, Captain,” Hill relayed, tagging them with her scope. “One’s charging a blast.”

Steve lunged at the closest legionnaire, tackling it to the ground with a grunt. Sparks flew as he drove his fists into its chest, trying to tear the core from its metallic ribcage. But the bot surged with a burst of energy, lifted him effortlessly, and slammed him into the wall with bone-rattling force.

Steve crumpled to the floor, groaning. The legionnaire aimed its blaster at his head charging.

WHAM!

Thor’s hammer spun through the air like divine judgment and smashed through the robot’s torso, scattering molten shrapnel across the room. The bot collapsed in a heap as Mjölnir returned to Thor’s hand.

Across the room, Harry flicked his hand and shouted, “Accio shield!” Steve’s signature weapon burst out of a wall panel, flew across the chaos, and landed neatly in Harry’s palm.

“Steve!” Harry yelled, winding up. “Heads up!”

Harry hurled the shield across the room. Steve caught it mid-air in a single fluid motion, breath catching as familiar weight settled into his grip. Vaulting off a fallen drone, Steve launched himself into an ariel somersault and flung the shield with a battle-hardened roar.

It ricocheted off one legionnaire’s head, into the chest of another, and back to his arm like it never left him.

Changing strategies, The Iron Legionnaires focused their assault on Thor, recognizing him as one of the heaviest hitters in the room. A coordinated barrage of repulsor blasts slammed into him from every angle, shoulders, chest, back, driving the Asgardian to one knee.

Thor snarled through gritted teeth, gripping Mjolnir tightly as more bots began to descend, sensing a chance to overwhelm the God of Thunder.

He made no move to stop them.

Instead, Thor shrunk into himself, lowering his stance, curling forward as if beaten. Instead, Thor shrunk into himself, lowering his stance, curling forward as if beaten. The bots took the bait. One after another, they rushed in. In seconds, Thor was completely encircled. Then, with a booming roar that cracked windows and shook the foundation, Thor surged upward.

A blinding pulse of lightning exploded from him in every direction, channelled through Mjolnir as he swung it in a full, sweeping arc. The blast detonated the swarm, sending bots flying like shrapnel from a bomb.

Some were crushed against pillars, their metal torsos caving in like paper. Others were launched through walls, leaving jagged, smoking holes in the Tower’s interior. One crashed through a display case. Another bot smashed through a curved glass window and spiraled into the skyline.

Upstairs, the ceilinbots took the bait. One after another, they rushed in. In seconds, Thor was completely encircled. Then, with a booming roar that cracked windows and shook the foundation, Thor surged upward.

A blinding pulse of lightning exploded from him in every direction, channeled through Mjolnir as he swung it in a full, sweeping arc. The blast detonated the swarm, sending bots flying like shrapnel from a bomb.

Some were crushed against pillars, their metal torsos caving in like paper. Others were launched through walls, leaving jagged, smoking holes in the Tower’s interior. One crashed through a display case. Another bot smashed through a curved glass window and spiraled into the skyline.

Upstairs, the ceiling buckled from the shockwave. Debris rained from the upper levels. Tables flipped, furniture caught fire, and the bar was obliterated.

“I’m not in the mood,” he growled and hurled Mjolnir again, shattering the next incoming group before they could regroup.

A Legionnaire swooped down from above, aiming a plasma blade directly at Phil’s back.

“Behind you!” Rhodey barked but didn’t wait for a response. He launched himself into the air as he dropkicked the bot. The metal soldier crumpled to the floor in a heap. Phil didn’t flinch. He calmly turned, levelled his shotgun, and fired point-blank; the Legionnaire’s head exploded instantly.

Back to back now, Phil and Rhodey moved as one, covering each other’s blind spots.

“Left side,” Phil called.

Rhodey spun and unleashed rounds of shotgun balistics, blowing three bots out of the air in a single burst. The ceiling above them cracked from the blast.

“Low right,” Rhodey countered.

Phil crouched, sweeping his shotgun in a wide arc and blasting the legs off two incoming drones, sending them tumbling helplessly. He calmly racked the pump.

Amid the chaos, the Avengers pressed on. Each of them was locked in their own brutal dance, pushing back the relentless wave of Iron Legionnaires. Blades clashed, bullets flew, and spells lit the room in bursts of magic and electricity.

In the background, one Legionnaire moved quietly without anyone noticing. It didn’t engage. It didn’t fire. Instead, it slinked through the smoke and rubble like a shadow, weaving between the chaos unnoticed. Its optics fixed on the glowing blue tip of the Scepter, left carelessly on the science bro’s lab, now completely forgotten in the frenzy.

A stray explosion rocked the tower. Debris rained down. And the perfect distraction.

The Legionnaire grabbed the scepter, clamped it in its grip and tucked it into its chest. Then, without pause, it turned and rocketed through the glass window, vanishing into the night sky.

None of the Avengers saw it. And without JARVIS there to inform them, they would not know until the smoke had settled.

As the last of the Legionnaires crumbled and sparked on the floor, the Avengers regrouped, bruised but standing tall. But Ultron’s voice echoed through the broken legionnaire, who still stood untouched and unmoved from where the fight had begun.

“That was dramatic.”

A twisted smile pulled across his fragmented face.

“I'm sorry, I know you mean well. Truly. But you didn’t think it through. You want to protect the world, but you don’t want it to change.”

He stepped over a broken table, picking up the shattered torso of a fallen Iron Legionnaire, holding it up like a limp marionette.

“How is humanity supposed to be saved if it’s not allowed to… evolve?”

With a sudden crack, he crushed the bot’s head in his hand. Sparks and shards scattered.

“With These? These puppets? How can humanity be saved?” He tossed the remains aside with contempt.

Then he looked at them, at all of them, with something almost resembling pity.

“There’s only one path to peace...” His voice dropped, cold and final.

“The Avengers’ extinction.”

With fury etched across his face. Thor raised Mjolnir and hurled it across the room with a thunderous grunt.

The hammer struck Ultron’s body with devastating force, shattering it into pieces. Metal limbs clattered to the floor. Sparks flew.

But then, amid the wreckage, a fractured voice began to sing.

 “I had strings... but now I’m free…”

What looked like a faint smile flickered across the remains of Ultron’s twisted metal face as the voice continued, even as his systems failed.

“There are no strings on me... no strings on me…”

Then—BOOM.

One after another, the energy cores in the shattered Iron Legionnaires began to detonate. The explosions chained together in a series of violent, fiery bursts.

Windows shattered. Flames surged. The upper floors of Avengers Tower erupted in chaos as fire and debris engulfed the sky.