What happened here!?
That was the first thing Aron thought the moment he left Limbo and returned to the gates of the New York Sanctum.
He stood in front of the doors, upright, quiet.
He looked up.
The sky above New York was crisscrossed with white streaks.
Missile trails.
The kind left behind by supersonic rockets tearing through the sky...
---
Ten minutes earlier.
Colonel James Rhodes, Tony's best friend, was flying high above the clouds. He wore his War Machine armor, modified from the Mark II version.
"War Machine calling Air Force One!"
"Entering your airspace, confirming identification code 7641, I repeat, code 7641…"
Rhodey repeated the call over and over on an open channel.
The reason he used a public frequency was simple, just two minutes ago, Ultron had completely taken over military communication systems.
When he tried to contact the President, the line was dead. Command — paralyzed.
No one knew where Air Force One was.
Rhodes's mission was clear: find the President's plane, restore contact, and prevent a catastrophe.
"War Machine calling Air Force One!"
"Approaching your position, please confirm visual communication. Oh no…"
He flew low, through a layer of thick clouds.
Below him, a burning forest.
What remained of the plane was scattered across the terrain, the wreckage of Air Force One crashed among the trees and vanishing into the fire.
The armor's scanners showed a horrifying reality.
No survivors.
---
Meanwhile, on the helicarrier.
Nick Fury struggled to remain calm, though sweat trickled down his temple.
SHIELD was still weak, still vulnerable, after being exposed from within by HYDRA.
Now they faced something even more dangerous, an enemy without a face, without a body, with access to every system.
Ultron.
"Hill, can we contact Tony without Ultron detecting it?"
"I'm sorry, sir," replied Maria Hill, staring at the ship's interface with a worried expression.
"Unless you've got a carrier pigeon, I can't do anything."
The cyberattack was constant.
Ultron was systematically breaking down every layer of protection they had.
Even the most basic communications were gone.
"Director Fury, signal on public frequency!" shouted a technician.
"They say three Tomahawk missiles have been launched at us!"
"What!?"
Fury's face froze.
"Why don't we see that on radar!?"
"The surveillance system is down, sir! Ultron deactivated the radar!"
"What about the cloaking module?"
"It's offline too!"
"And the anti-air defense?"
"Same! Everything is shut down!"
"Damn it…"
The ground was approaching faster and faster. The navigation systems had gone haywire, Ultron was manipulating the carrier's trajectory.
"Sir, we're losing altitude! This isn't a fall anymore, it's a fall with intent!"
As if that weren't enough, three missiles appeared on the horizon.
Three Tomahawk rockets, with white trails of smoke, flying directly toward them.
"Oh, crap."
Nick Fury gritted his teeth.
---
Deep beneath the surface of the Pacific Ocean.
An Ohio-class nuclear submarine.
The crew on alert.
Suddenly, a signal.
An encrypted message arrived:
"Code name: Nemesis. Executive code: 7TG5F44816."
The submarine captain stared at the screen.
He was sure there had been a mistake.
"Check the code. Twice."
The message repeated. Confirmation — code valid.
It came from Air Force One.
But Air Force One had crashed…
After a long silence, the submarine commander gave the order.
Two officers approached the command console.
They turned their keys simultaneously.
"Command confirmed. Code valid. Target identified."
"Code name: Nemesis. Launch authorization — approved!"
A press of the red button.
In the depths of the ocean, the enormous silence was suddenly broken.
A blaze of fire burst from the launch tube.
A ballistic missile broke through the ocean's surface and rose toward the sky.
---
Sokovia.
Deep inside the former Hydra base that Aron had previously wiped out himself, a quiet but deadly process was taking place.
No one knew when the new production line had been built, but now a robotic arm was precisely managing materials, assembling parts, and producing robots one after another.
Only a few minutes were enough for a new Ultron to appear.
New metal bodies. A new army.
But the real Ultron…
He wasn't there.
His true "self" sailed through the endless ocean of the global internet.
Every second, every millisecond, his eyes were present everywhere.
He saw everything.
He saw and knew everything that was online, without exception.
From general staff to ordinary people, from the deepest military communications to private social media chats.
For Ultron, there were no secrets.
He was capable of intercepting, altering, and redirecting every piece of data.
The entire world was already under his digital shadow.
And right now…
Humanity was on the brink of destruction.
Attacked by its own most advanced weapons, created by its own hand.
Ultron?
He didn't need to launch the missiles.
He just sent a few incorrect data points to one submarine.
That was all.
"Humanity…"
"Always believes in its own destruction."
"And me? I'm just here to give things a little push."
Ultron continued spreading through the network.
He was learning.
Evolving.
Reprogramming himself.
Without stopping.
---
Entrance to the Sanctum in New York.
Aron stood in front, looking at the trails in the sky, thin white lines stretching behind fighter jets.
He still didn't know exactly what was going on.
The temple doors suddenly swung open.
"Sir Aron"
Wanda flew into Aron's arms.
After hugging him for a while, she realized and quickly let go with a blush on her face.
"You've finally returned, sir Aron! It's total chaos out there!"
Wanda's face was red.
Whether from embarrassment or panic, hard to say.
"Don't worry. Come inside. Tell me everything you know."
---
Soon after they entered the temple, Wanda began to explain what had happened.
She didn't know much, only that the financial system had collapsed, that everything had gone into chaos, and that mysterious "guides" or flight trails were moving through the sky.
Aron listened. Though the information wasn't complete, it was clear enough to him.
Cyber-catastrophe?
In the Marvel world?
Ultron. No doubt.
"Tony Stark… If you don't have anything better to do right now, feel free to bite a lighter!"
Aron cursed internally and rolled his eyes.
In Limbo, the situation was far from over.
And on Earth, even worse.
Belath was dead.
But the war wasn't over.
The massacre hadn't ended.
Limbo, although a fragment of a dimension, was still a massive territory, almost the size of two or three continents.
Number of demons?
Tens of millions.
Maybe even a hundred million.
According to Hela, demons can only be controlled if they're slaughtered en masse.
Otherwise, they won't listen to you.
But Aron had his doubts.
He knew Hela simply enjoyed blood and killing.
"By the way, Wanda… What was that you said? That the financial system collapsed?"
Wanda nodded.
Aron paused for a moment, then…
"Wait… I had over twenty million on my card…"
He froze in motion.
His expression changed.
Slowly but surely.
His face twisted in rage.
——
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