"[4/4, sorry I'm late, brothers and sisters.]"
A mechanical whirring sound came from the back of Kara's head.
And that declaration, devoid of any emotion:
"Kara Zor-El, purge."
She could even feel the metal parts on its arm making their final adjustments.
Too late!
This thought flashed through Kara's mind for only an instant.
She had no time to turn around and make an effective defense.
There was only one thing she could do.
That was to use her back to firmly block the position of Ultron's palm cannon.
This way, the children in front of her would be safe, but unfortunately, she couldn't get them away.
"Watch out!"
Tel-Rol's roar came from afar, but distant water couldn't quench a nearby fire.
Kara gritted her teeth, ready to take the full force of the blow.
Just a thousandth of a second before the energy cannon in Ultron's palm glowed to its maximum and was about to erupt.
A silver-white shadow, carrying a strong wind, flashed past Kara.
"Swish—"
Kara only felt a blur before her eyes.
The dozen or so crying children in front of her had vanished into thin air.
Not far away, Pietro steadily placed the last child on the ground and shouted at her.
"I've got the people! You get out of the way!"
Well done!
Kara praised him in her heart.
The children were safe, and her tightly strung nerves finally relaxed.
It was at this moment that she lost her best chance to dodge.
Disdain flickered in Ultron's electronic eyes, maximum power output!
"Boom—!!!"
A crimson beam of energy slammed squarely into Kara's back.
Kara's entire body flew forward.
With a "bang," she crashed through several broken walls and finally fell heavily into the distant ruins.
The next instant, Tel-Rol's foot was already on Ultron's head, directly stomping it into the ground, its entire head twisted.
"Ultron..."
"Are you f***ing not playing fair?"
At this moment, the playful grin on his face was gone, replaced by extreme gloom.
White aura flickered around him, with faint yellow aura mixed within the white.
The clear sky began to churn with dark clouds, and lightning subtly pulsed within them.
Steve and the others, who were evacuating civilians, all stopped their actions and looked in that direction.
They felt a pressure that made it difficult for them to breathe.
"My goodness..."
Tony looked at the wildly soaring energy readings on his armor's screen, muttering to himself.
"Is this muscle-brain... really angry?"
Natasha didn't speak; she just looked at the figure enveloped in aura, her chest heaving rapidly.
Ultron's main body struggled under Tel-Rol's foot, but an invisible force locked it down.
Tel-Rol's foot pressed harder and harder, and the creaking sound of twisting metal continuously came from underground.
"A fight is a fight."
"What kind of thing is it to run off and ambush someone in the middle of it?"
"Do you think I have a good temper?"
Ultron's processor continuously whirred, trying to find a way to escape.
The energy form Tel-Rol was now displaying completely exceeded its database.
"No martial virtue."
Tel-Rol gave Ultron a final definition.
He lifted his foot and stomped down!
Ultron's hard vibranium head scraped against the ground, making a "creaking" sound.
Centered on its head, the ground cracked like a spiderweb, forming a large crater more than ten meters in diameter!
Tel-Rol was still not appeased.
He lifted his foot, then brought it down.
Lifted his foot again, then brought it down again.
"Bang!"
"Bang!"
"Bang!"
Foot after foot, he stomped Ultron's head flat.
Each blow caused the entire floating city to tremble.
Thor, watching this scene from a distance, forgot to swing his hammer.
"By Odin's name..."
He swallowed.
"This guy... is scarier than Hulk when he goes crazy."
The Hulk, next to him, uncharacteristically didn't retort, only letting out a low growl; he also recalled how he had been brutally beaten by Tel-Rol that day.
Tel-Rol stopped his foot.
In the large crater beneath his foot, Ultron's vibranium body lay motionless.
Electrical sparks flew from its neck joint, and the red light in its electronic eyes completely extinguished.
But just then...
A sudden change occurred!
The entire city of Sokovia, floating ten thousand meters in the sky, suddenly emitted a violent roar!
"Buzz—"
The ground began to shake violently.
Rocks continuously crumbled from the city's edges.
On the streets, the robot soldiers still entangled with the Avengers froze in unison.
Then, the blue lights on their bodies all extinguished, and they fell to the ground one by one.
In just a few seconds, all the robots on the entire battlefield lost power.
The battle... ended?
Clint leaned against the wall, panting heavily.
His arrows had long run out, and he had already picked up a dagger to fight.
"What's going on? Was Ultron destroyed?"
"Something's not right."
Steve gripped his shield, vigilantly looking around.
"It's too quiet."
Tony's grave voice echoed gravely in the comms channel.
"f.r.i.d.a.y., report status!"
"Sir, detecting a super-strong signal from an unknown source, taking over Sokovia's entire network!"
Everyone felt uneasy.
A dead silence, like before a storm, pressed down on them, making them breathless.
Tel-Rol also frowned.
He ignored Ultron's corpse beneath his foot.
He turned his head to look at a certain location in the city center; he couldn't use his aura to sense if Ultron was still alive, but his intuition told him that it wasn't over yet.
He walked towards that location, determined to dismantle Ultron completely.
A hand made of vibranium suddenly shot out from the ground!
It grabbed his ankle!
Tel-Rol was startled and looked down.
He saw that Ultron's body, which he had stomped into the ground with its head almost flattened, had, at some point, wrapped its limbs around Tel-Rol's body like octopus tentacles, gripping him tightly.
Its arms, thighs, and waist all clamped onto Tel-Rol's body.
In that mangled head, two red lights glowed once more.
An electronic voice, filled with static but also mockery, rang out.
"Tel-Rol."
"Did you think it was over? This is where your nightmare begins!"