One moment, the Avengers were locked in a desperate battle, clinging to survival with nothing but grit and determination.
The next, everything went silent.
Hulk, still clutching a crushed Ultron drone in one hand, blinked in confusion. His fierce expression softened into bewilderment as he looked around at the now-empty battlefield.
Where had all the enemies gone?
Across the field, Thor stood frozen with Mjolnir raised, a crackling bolt of lightning suspended mid-air, leaving him uncertain where to strike.
Tony Stark held the head of a mechanical soldier, his repulsor cannon primed, then lowered it slowly, eyes wide as he stared at Malrick hovering above.
"Holy… We actually got ourselves a real-life Clark Kent," Tony muttered. "Please tell me this Earth have Kryptonite."
Even in the middle of chaos, his sarcasm never failed him. Relief and disbelief tangled in his voice.
Wanda, on the other hand, smiled faintly. Unlike the others, she wasn't surprised. She knew what Malrick could do.
"He's not Clark," Wanda said, her tone calm but proud. "He's Malrick—and he's more than Superman."
Malrick didn't respond to the astonishment surrounding him. He floated forward, eyes locked on Ultron.
The AI glared back, rage twisting its artificial face. The Mind Stone on its forehead pulsed with a violent yellow glow, power radiating like a storm barely contained.
"Who are you?" Ultron demanded, his voice metallic and furious.
"You don't need to know," Malrick replied evenly.
In an instant, his figure blurred—then vanished.
The next second, he was beside Ultron, throwing a single punch.
The blow looked simple, almost casual, yet it tore through the air with power no being on Earth could withstand. But to Malrick's surprise, his fist passed straight through Ultron's body.
Ultron had phased.
Still, the AI's confidence faltered. Its sensors screamed as it detected something it couldn't compute: the afterimage of Malrick still hanging in the distance, even as his arm had already passed through its chest.
"What—?!" Ultron recoiled in panic, retreating midair like a startled animal. "You… what are you?! That speed— even Pietro couldn't move like that!"
Down below, the Avengers could only stare upward in disbelief.
"Unbelievable," Tony breathed. "He flies, shoots heat beams, moves faster than lightning… Great. We really did summon Superman."
"Can Clark Kent actually beat Ultron?" Captain America panted, resting his hands on his knees. Even he was running on fumes.
"It'll be hard," Thor admitted grimly. "Ultron can shift his density, phase through matter. My lightning and Mjolnir can't touch him."
"Then we fight together," Thor continued, landing beside Hulk. "If Ultron can't stay phased while attacking, that's when we strike!"
Wanda interjected quickly, correcting the confusion. "His name is Malrick Stark, not Clark Kent!"
Tony's head snapped up. "Stark? Wait—another me from another universe?"
He smirked under his damaged helmet. "Well, at least he's got the style."
Despite the banter, the team braced themselves to back Malrick up.
Meanwhile, in the air, Malrick studied Ultron closely. "You've been staying intangible this whole time. Cautious. Smart."
Ultron sneered. "You think you can destroy me? Foolish creature. I am Ultron! I am evolution!"
The Mind Stone on his forehead flared, unleashing a blinding golden beam.
Malrick's instincts kicked in—he began to charge his Heat Vision, ready to counter. But midway, he paused.
A thought struck him.
He didn't need to destroy Ultron. Not completely.
After all, this body—the synthetic form Ultron had hijacked—was meant for Vision.
This was supposed to be his.
And there was someone better suited to handle Ultron's digital essence.
"Jarvis," Malrick muttered, eyes narrowing.
Dodging Ultron's beam, he waved a hand. "Give me two seconds. I'll let someone else deal with you."
Before Ultron could react, Malrick vanished.
Ultron hovered in confusion, scanning the area. "Jarvis? That weak program? I erased every trace of it long ago. Stark rebuilt its fragments, but I consumed the rest. There's nothing left!"
Across universes, Malrick reappeared in his own world.
Checking the time, he found only an hour had passed since he left—Eternity's realm still matched the flow of Earth.
He activated his communicator. "Jarvis."
"Yes, sir?" the AI's voice echoed politely. "I was assisting Mr. Stark with his armor schematics."
"Store a copy of your sub-core into this device," Malrick said, holding up a thumb-sized transparent cube.
Jarvis complied instantly. "Understood, sir. Data transfer complete."
"If I insert this into another system—wireless or physical—you can execute full infiltration?"
"Of course. Stark Industries designed it for universal network access."
"Good," Malrick said with a faint smile. "Then get ready to claim a new body."
"A new body?" Jarvis hesitated. "Forgive me, sir, but are we… stealing one?"
Malrick chuckled. "Not quite. Think of it as taking back what's rightfully yours."
He vanished once more, reappearing in the parallel world exactly two seconds later.
Ultron was still hovering, scanning for him. "What trickery—?"
"Come on, Ultron," Malrick interrupted, his tone calm but dangerous. "Show me what you've got."
Ultron hesitated. For the first time, he looked uncertain.
He remembered the name Jarvis—and something in his core code trembled.
"You can't win," Ultron snapped finally. "In five minutes, Sokovia will fall. Humanity will burn. You will watch your failure from the ashes!"
Malrick sighed. "I was hoping you'd cooperate. Guess not."
Raising his hand, he released the combined power of the Space and Time Stones.
Blue light rippled outward, freezing the entire area in an instant.
Ultron stopped midair. The clouds halted. Even the debris around them hung motionless.
Thor, Tony, and the others below were frozen like statues.
Malrick approached Ultron calmly, the Stones glowing within his palms.
Ultron's body, locked in stasis, could no longer phase. Its control over density was nullified.
"Let's make this quick," Malrick murmured.
He pressed the transparent cube into Ultron's eye socket. A spark of golden light flickered inside.
Then he stepped back and released the temporal freeze.
Time resumed.
Ultron jerked violently, electricity sparking through its circuits.
"What… what is this?!" It screamed as a surge of blue and green light erupted from within. "No! No—!"
From inside Ultron's body, a calm, familiar voice spoke through the static.
"Hello… Ultron. My name is Jarvis."
Ultron's scream echoed across the sky as it plummeted toward the ground.
The Avengers watched in stunned silence, their hearts pounding as the metallic titan fell. For the first time in the battle, they sensed hope—real, tangible hope.
Wanda lowered her arms, letting the residual energy from her magic dissipate, while Pietro stepped out from behind a pile of rubble, shaking his head in disbelief.
Malrick floated above, his expression unreadable, yet there was a faint glimmer of satisfaction in his eyes. He had set things in motion—now it was only a matter of watching the universe correct itself.
Even the sky seemed to breathe easier, the clouds dispersing slightly as the immense energy surrounding the frozen battlefield finally began to fade.
Somewhere, far below in the streets of Sokovia, the surviving civilians stirred, unaware that their world had been spared by the intervention of a few extraordinary beings—and one calculated, timeless strategy.
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