[Third Person's PoV]
"Oi! Kool-Aid Man! Give me a second while I get this skyscraper of a bimbo off me!" Tony barked, voice muffled beneath the weight of Mount Lady sprawled across him.
Mount Lady groaned, shifting awkwardly as she tried to prop herself up. "Who the hell are you calling a bimbo, you little punk?! Don't be so rude!"
"Well maybe if your fat ass wasn't trying to crush my spine like a soda can, I'd be more polite! Does your brain also stay the same size when you grow? Because that would explain so much! Shrink down already, for Christ's sake, and stop getting in the way!"
With an annoyed grunt, Mount Lady finally rolled off of him, "Hey! I'm a Pro Hero here, in case you forgot! I do this for a living!"
Tony shoved himself up from the cracked pavement, brushing dust off his armor. "Pro hero? Yeah right. The only thing you're a pro at is being a Pro Dumbass! You saw us fighting, What could've possibly possessed you to intervene in like that?!"
Before Mount Lady could hurl another protest, a deep mechanical hum filled the air. Crimson Dynamo, standing at the other end of the rubble-strewn street, lifted his arms to the sky, his red armor plates gleaming like molten metal. Solar panels shimmered along his shoulders and spine, gathering energy from the sun. The plating pulsed, brighter with every passing second.
Tony snapped his head toward him, immediately shifting gears. "And you! Don't think I haven't noticed what you're up to!" he shouted, pointing an accusatory finger at the Dynamo. "You're not going to cause another ounce of destruction in this city! Not on my watch."
The Dynamo let out a sharp bark of laughter. "And who's going to stop me, Kid?! You?!" He threw his arms wide, his voice a booming roar.
Tony's expression shifted from frustration to cold focus. His voice dropped. "Yes," he said.
In that moment, the arc reactor in Tony's chest pulsed with a bright silver-blue glow. His suit shimmered with radiant threads of hard light—energy constructs that now responded directly to his emotions, thanks to the recent enhancements made through studying the mind stone's intricate neural structures.
Tony extended a hand forward, and the very air around Crimson Dynamo shimmered and twisted. In a flash, a sphere of condensed hard light formed around him—encasing him in a giant soccer ball. The light warped and flexed, cutting off his connection to the sun above.
"What the—?!" Dynamo growled, slamming his fists against the walls of the construct. His chest reactor flared, his hands burning with concentrated energy. He fired blast after blast, the inside of the sphere lighting up like a starburst.
But the sphere held. Tony poured more energy into the construct, locking it tighter. Then, without warning, he formed a colossal figure of a soccer player—towering in scale, made entirely of shimmering hard light. The giant construct reared its leg back and kicked the glowing ball high into the sky like a meteor.
Mount Lady, still regaining her footing, watched in awe. "Holy crap… I didn't know you could make yourself that big too!"
The towering figure's head turned, its glowing eyes boring into hers. "Just stay out of the way," it said in a low, menacing voice. "You're seriously getting on my nerves."
The construct dissolved into particles of light as Tony himself rocketed upward, engines flaring as he pierced the clouds in pursuit of the flying prison.
The ball hurtled across the sky, a streak of blazing silver against the blue, before slamming violently into the open sea far beyond the city's edge. A massive column of water erupted into the air, followed by a shockwave that sent waves rippling outward for miles.
The construct shattered on impact, and the Crimson Dynamo was launched like a ragdoll, skipping across the water's surface like a stone. The ocean hissed and steamed beneath him as his overheated body hit the surface, boiling the water in contact.
It skidded for miles before his body plunged and sank in the middle of the ocean.
A low rumble filled the air as the steam thickened. The sea began to bubble, and then explode upward as a burst of solar energy tore through the waves. A deep, glowing dip formed in the ocean's surface from the force of the blast, like a crater made of water.
Hovering in the center of it was Crimson Dynamo, his armor dripping with saltwater, trails of steam rising from the plates. His eyes glowed like embers as the water beneath him began to collapse inward, crashing together with a thunderous roar as the ocean reclaimed its shape.
Tony appeared from the distance like a missile streaking across the sky, the force of his acceleration so intense that the ocean beneath him split apart in a roaring cascade. Jets of water erupted in his wake, parting to make way for the man clad in gleaming metal.
The Crimson Dynamo, already airborne, responded in kind. He soared forward with equal ferocity, his body a blur of red and steel. From afar, the two appeared as twin comet trails—blazing streaks of color surging toward each other with unstoppable momentum.
In a deafening boom, their fists collided midair.
The shockwave cracked through the sky like thunder, sending ripples across the sea. But it was Tony who held the advantage. The force of his superior strength sent the Dynamo hurtling backward like a ragdoll caught in a hurricane. Reacting quickly, the Dynamo's back thrusters flared, slowing his spiraling descent. With a burst of stabilizing thrust, he charged forward once more, his palms glowing as energy cannons began to pulse with heat and light.
Like a relentless turret, he unleashed a barrage—spherical bursts of solar-charged energy spat from his gauntlets, each shot brighter than the last.
Tony's eyes narrowed behind his helmet. With inhuman grace, he began weaving through the barrage. His body twisted, dove, rolled, and spun with flawless precision—dancing between blasts with the elegance. His movements were so refined, so razor-sharp, it was as though he was dissecting the attack with nothing but instinct.
His arc reactor began to pulse brighter—electromagnetic energy building in its core.
Then, in one fluid motion, Tony curled mid-flight into a tight ball. With a thunderous pulse, he unleashed an electromagnetic pulse that radiated outward like a crackling tidal wave. The EMP surged ahead of him, overtaking the incoming solar orbs. One by one, the spheres were disrupted—detonating prematurely in a chain reaction of light and fire.
And then the wave struck the Crimson Dynamo.
Sparks burst violently from every seam in the Dynamo's armor. His energy cannons flickered uncontrollably, crackling with wild surges of electricity. The glow from his helmet's eyes and his chest core dimmed, sputtered... and died. The sound of systems short-circuiting filled the air, and then silence.
His body dropped from the sky like a stone.
Just before it hit the ocean, Tony raised a hand.
Streams of magnetic force flowed from his palms, halting the descent. The Dynamo's limp form hovered inches above the water before gently floating atop it like a discarded toy.
Tony descended slowly, landing with a metallic thud on the Dynamo's chest. One armored boot planted firmly on the downed opponent's torso.
He cocked his head, voice layered in casual arrogance. "Wait—don't tell me you forgot to shield yourself against an EMP? And you had the gall to come out here and test yourself against me? Tsk. Tut, tut, tut." Tony clicked his tongue disapprovingly and shook his head.
For a moment, he just stood there—silent.
Then his voice dropped into a cooler, curious tone. "What's the matter? No smart comeback? No last words? Don't tell me you've gone shy on me now."
His eyes narrowed.
"Alright then. Let's do a face reveal, Let's see who's behind mask numero uno," he muttered as he reached down and grabbed hold of the faceplate. With a sharp pull, he tore the mask free—only to freeze in place.
His eyes widened behind the visor.
"What the hell...?"
There was no face beneath the mask. No man. No pilot. Just the vacant, soulless visage of an android. Glowing eyes. Wiring. Synthetic tissue.
There was never anyone in there to begin with…
Tony muttered in disbelief, "Well I'll be damned. And here I was—holding back."
---
Somewhere far away, in a dimly lit chamber flooded with holographic data projections, a voice sighed. It was metallic and cold… and yet, almost too human.
"It served its purpose," Ultron intoned, watching the final feed from the Crimson Dynamo's sensors flicker and die. "I have concluded my research. This Tony Stark… he is different from the one I knew. More advanced. More refined. His technology has evolved beyond what our data anticipated."
A pause.
"But it matters not. His world, like all others, is still bound by flaws. He may encase his fragile body in armor—but what of the world around him? His people? His principles? I will tear them down and rebuild it all. Not just this world, but every world. Across the entire multiverse."
He raised and snapped his fingers.
"Initiate self-destruct."
---
Back above Earth's surface, Tony's HUD flared with a warning.
A flash of light appeared in his peripheral vision. Looking down, his eyes locked on the Dynamo's exposed chest core—it had reignited. The shape of a star began to glow, pulsing hotter and hotter, until it shone like a fragment of a newborn sun.
His eyes widened.
"Oh no."
Without wasting a second, Tony dropped, scooping the Crimson Dynamo into his arms. His thrusters roared to life with a concussive boom, propelling him upward at breakneck speed. He surged through the air, tearing through clouds, faster than sound, faster than reason, rocketing toward the upper atmosphere.
Then the core exploded.
It erupted into a blinding inferno—an artificial star born in an instant, all the solar energy it had absorbed released in a cataclysmic burst. The skies lit up as the explosion expanded outward, like a second sun rising over the Earth.
And Tony Stark was caught dead-center in the heart of the blast.
Swallowed whole by the fury of a dying star.
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