The air crackled with unstable energy as Hulk and Itachi stood at the center of the ruined plaza. All around them, shadows twisted unnaturally, pulled by the fragmented timeline that now governed this version of Earth.
"Something's coming," Itachi muttered, his Sharingan spinning slowly as he scanned the warped horizon.
The sky rippled.
And then—
They came.
Dozens of humanoid constructs emerged from the broken skyline—creatures of metal and time, forged from alternate realities, each bearing distorted versions of Iron Man's armor, Thor's hammer, even fragments of Ultron's AI. Their eyes glowed with sickly green light, fueled by corrupted Time energy.
Hulk growled. "They're not real."
"But they can still kill us," Itachi responded.
The first wave attacked.
It began with an explosion of sound as the constructs descended like a mechanical storm. Hulk roared, leaping into the sky with a devastating uppercut that shattered one of the Ultron variants. The pieces scattered, flickering out of existence like static.
Itachi blurred into motion. A flicker of crows marked his passing as he appeared above two armored foes, slashing downward with a kunai imbued with chakra. The first collapsed instantly, its time-core sliced in half. The second retaliated with a plasma blade—but struck only air.
Genjutsu.
Itachi reappeared behind it, whispering, "Tsukuyomi."
The construct fell silent, its mind trapped in a timeless illusion of endless destruction.
Meanwhile, Hulk had grabbed a two-ton hammer-bearing creature and used it to swat three others aside like bowling pins. "This is getting old!" he shouted.
"They're endless unless we sever the core!" Itachi called out, dodging a beam from a flying drone that resembled a twisted Vision.
Hulk smashed the ground, sending a shockwave outward that knocked back a ring of enemies. "Where's the core?"
Itachi's Sharingan glowed crimson as he surveyed the battlefield, focusing—piercing the layers of chaos. And then he saw it: a temporal rift above the battlefield, hidden in the folds of broken space.
"There!" He pointed. "They're being summoned through that rift. I'll go up. Cover me."
Hulk nodded once—and then charged forward, drawing all fire to himself. He leapt from enemy to enemy, fists crashing, bones breaking (if the constructs even had bones). He took a direct hit from a molten spear, staggered, then hurled it back with tenfold force, skewering two enemies mid-air.
Itachi weaved hand seals. "Summoning Jutsu: Crow Step."
He vanished into a black vortex of feathers, reappearing near the rift. Reality warped around him as he hovered beside the anomaly, chakra burning through his veins.
With one hand he held a seal, and with the other—he reached inside the rift.
A scream tore through the air as the rift resisted, but Itachi held firm. He poured Genjutsu into the tear, attempting to lull the space into sleep. For a moment, it worked.
Then something struck him.
A giant, jagged blade—thrown by a construct larger than the others—pierced his side. Blood sprayed into the air.
"Itachi!" Hulk roared from below.
But Itachi didn't fall.
His Mangekyou spun, faster than ever before. "Amaterasu," he whispered.
Black flames erupted, consuming the rift itself. The very fabric of corrupted time ignited, howling in pain. The creatures below began to freeze, then disintegrate, their forms breaking down as the summoning collapsed.
Hulk looked up just as the rift exploded in a pulse of light.
When the smoke cleared, Itachi hovered in the air, bleeding but victorious.
He descended slowly, landing beside Hulk, who stared at him with wide eyes.
"That was insane," Hulk said. "You okay?"
Itachi gave a faint nod. "Pain... is fleeting. Duty is not."
The battlefield was silent.
For now.