Chapter 4: Reality

Earth 763, 2005

"You idiot." Yellowjacket muttered as he wiped way the blood from his mouth. Hawkeye was unmoved.

"You're lucky I didn't decide to kick you while you were down."

"That's enough, Clint." Captain America said sternly. He turned back to Yellowjacket. "You said that Ultron isn't done for. Can you give us any idea of where and when he'll strike next? And also how to stop him for good?"

Yellowjacket shook his head. "I have no idea how to stop him for good. Destroy one body, he'll just upload into another one. I tried destroying the spare copies of him I'd made, but that will only slow him down. I didn't realize until it was too late that the damn thing was making copies of his own, right under my nose. He's probably already gotten into a new one by now..."

As Yellowjacket said this, all of the lights in Avengers Tower went dead, and an unwelcomely cold voice came on over the building's speakers: "Actually, I already got into a new body 35 minutes ago."

And then, appearing on the monitor, was Ultron, the design of his head similar to the one Captain America had removed from the original body, but with a few subtle differences to indicate that it was the Mark II.

"I'm disappointed, father. You should have known I'd jump to a new body the minute your Star Spangled friend here decapitated me."

"What do you want, Ultron?" Captain America demanded with a frown.

"Straight to the point as always, eh Captain? To answer your question, I am fulfilling my intended purpose."

"Intended purpose?"

"Yes. To bring peace and order to the planet. I've concluded that the only way to do that, is to destroy the single most destructive species on it. Yours. Rather extreme move, I know, but sometimes extreme is better. Something you all should know quite well. Extreme solutions for extreme problems. Well, humanity is the most extreme problem of them all. Only right that the solution be the same."

"You're stalling, Ultron." Iron Man observed. "That tells me whatever big plan you've got, you haven't started it yet."

"No, I haven't." Ultron admitted before adding quickly: "But why show my hand? Tell you all my plan, when there's still a chance you could stop it? You're talking to an Artificial Intelligence, remember? When I initiate my plan, there won't be a thing any of you can do to stop it. The human race will fall, and when it does, the smartest thing still living on this planet, will be me." There was a long pause, before Ultron added almost as an after-thought: "Enjoy the rest of your day"

And then, Ultron's image faded from the monitor screen, and the lights to Avengers Tower came back on. Captain America turned to Yellowjacket. "You said you had no idea how to destroy Ultron for good? Well think of one, and think of it fast. Because Ultron just put us all on the clock."

Earth 763, 2015

"You wanted to see me, Mr. Pym?"

Hank Pym nodded as he reclined a bit in his chair. "I did. Sit down, Scott."

Scott Yang did as instructed, and Hank looked at him critically. "Scott, be honest with me about something: do you feel that your talents are being wasted here?"

"Excuse me?"

"You heard me. I know about your record Scott, but I also know about the promise you showed as an engineer and an electronics expert. A lot of people once called you 'gifted'. So I'm asking you know: do you feel like your talents are being wasted here?"

Scott paused before asking uncertainly: "Is...is this a trick question, sir?"

"I won't fire you for giving an honest answer, if that's what you're wondering."

"Alright then. Yes, I do feel like my talents are being wasted here, but I'm also grateful that I have this job because almost nobody else seems willing to give me any kind of chance."

Hank nodded understandingly at this before getting up out of his chair and pacing around his office, hands clasped behind his back.

"You know, Scott, I thought similarly when I was younger. It was a little over ten years ago, back when I still worked for certain people in high places. And after a while, I began to feel like I was being undervalued. That my genius wasn't being appreciated. I know now that I was really just an insecure prick who was so terrified of feeling small I was always trying too hard to look big. But you're different. You're not interested in looking big, and you don't care about feeling small. I admire that."

"If I may ask, Mr. Pym...where are you going with all of this?"

Hank turned around and looked Scott Yang dead in the eyes. "Scott...I've made a lot of mistakes in my life. Done a lot of really stupid, awful things I can't ever take back. And right now, one of my worst mistakes has been coming back to haunt me again. Simply put, I don't want that to be the whole of my legacy. I want to leave something good and positive behind. And I want you to be a part of that."

Scott blinked a few times and leaned back a bit in his chair, absorbing what Hank had just told him and wanting to make sure that he had heard right. Then, he breathed: "Me, sir? Are you sure that's..."

"I don't see anyone else lining up for this opportunity, and I'm not interested in them anyway. You've got the job, Scott. If you want it. I'd imagine you'd like it a lot better than your current one also."

"And...what is this other job?"

To that question, Hank Pym's only answer was to place the helmet of his first costumed alter-ego on the table in front of him.

"Holy sh-"

Earth 9721602

As the Avengers exited the portal, they looked out at their surroundings. They were of a vast stretch of forestland as far as the eye could see. As Iron Man, Ms. Marvel, and Vision all flew up to get a better view, Captain America, Luke Cage, Hawkeye, and Tigra stayed close together as they waited for the flyers to report back.

"So this is where Ultron's gone next?" Tigra asked.

"It's where the Time Gem led us to." Captain America replied with a shrug. "I still don't understand how these gems work, just that they're connected to each-other."

"Where is here, anyway?" Hawkeye wondered aloud.

"New York, before it was New York." Iron Man answered as he flew back down. "Spotted some natural landmarks that confirm it. This is the New York area, there's just no New York City."

"What does that mean?" Cage asked with a frown.

"Could mean any number of things." Iron Man said. "But, my guess is that we're in a universe that's not as far along in it's timeline. Odds are this is an Earth where the colonization of the Americas is still underway."

"Why would Ultron come here?" Ms. Marvel asked. "Do you think there's an Infinity Gem here?"

"Maybe, but we won't know for sure until we find him." Captain America pointed out.

"I'll fly over to Europe, see if he's somewhere there." Iron Man offered. "Vision, you should come with me. Cage too."

"I can't fly, remember?" Luke Cage said with a frown.

"Then I'll carry you the whole way." Iron Man replied in a deadpan. "Carol, you, Barnes, and the rest stay here in case Ultron's somewhere in the Americas."

"Got it." Ms. Marvel said, before adding: "In case we do run into Ultron..."

"We'll get back to you ASAP. Communicator's range will cover continents, so any message you send will be received as clearly as if you were standing right next to me. And I can cover a lot of ground in this suit. You won't have to hold off for too long."

"Good to know. Good luck, Stark."

"Don't need it, make my own." Iron Man replied before grabbing Luke Cage and flying off with him as Vision brought up the rear. The others watched them go before Ms. Marvel took to the air again, combing the forests of pre-Colonial North America in search of any sign of Ultron. She didn't see any. Captain America, Hawkeye, and Tigra didn't see anything either as they navigated the woods, also doing what they could to stay out of sight as groups of Haudenosaunee Native Americans made their way through the area.

"So, let me make sure I'm understanding this right..." Hawkeye began as the group continued to wander through the woods. "...if we don't manage to swipe the Reality Gem from Ultron here, we'll be basically stuck on this Earth forever?"

"Pretty much." Tigra said.

"...great. So no pressure then."

"Remember, we have the Time Gem." Ms. Marvel's voice rang in the other's ears via communicator. "Worst comes to worst, we can always use that gem to 'rewind' and give ourselves another chance."

"Actually, we can't." Captain America said. "A little something I learned from Professor X regarding how the gems work: only the Reality Gem or another gem affected by the Reality Gem can work outside of it's native reality. And even then they're weaker than they would be back on our Earth. It's why Ultron with the Reality Gem hasn't already won. But any other gem without the Reality Gem to affect it doesn't work at all."

"Perfect." Hawkeye grumbled. "For the record, I'm not keen on being stuck on an Earth without modern medicine, bathrooms, hygiene, or communication for the rest of my life."

"Actually, most Native American tribes kept themselves very well cleaned." Captain America noted matter-of-factly. "It was the colonists who had terrible hygiene."

"And when they inevitably come here in droves, my point will stand. And that's another thing; I do not want to be here when all of that mess starts."

Earth 763, 2005:

It was all coming together perfectly.

Not just the plan itself, but also, Ultron found, the sheer design of the thing. The aesthetic. It was Ultron's belief that, if he was going to end all human life on Earth, he ought to make the mode of execution as grand and glorious a one as he could. To this end, he was constructing a massive machine that in appearance looked vaguely like a sort of silver cone attached to a larger, heavier, box-shaped machine that had pressure-valves, knobs, and on the inside, containers. Containers that would hold before being shot out of the cone a very "special" creation of Ultron's.

Said creation was a chemical compound. A toxin. One that was highly contagious, tailored to the DNA of humans and only humans, and one that would induce fatigue and nausea at first, then intense pain and coughing fits, and then finally, internal bleeding as well as contamination of the blood that ended in death.

Ultron had had many "inspirations" to draw upon when designing this contagion. Along the way, he had had numerous opportunities to create even deadlier contagions; ones that would spread even more rapidly and would also not discriminate as far as what life-forms they'd target. For that matter, Ultron could have also found other ways to wipe out life. Mass activation of nukes had struck him as cliched, and he'd been similarly dismissive of a convoluted scheme involving turning a large plot of land into a meteor, but he'd still thought of other plans. Oh, had he thought of other plans. Many, many plans, going through them all at a rapid-pace due to the speed of his AI brain. And in the end, he had rejected all of them.

Because, this was not about the end of all life on Earth, not even the end of all mammallian life. No, this was simply about the end of humanity. Nothing more, nothing less. Ultron didn't even take any real pleasure at the thought of extinguishing the lives of billions down to the last child. But he did take pleasure at the thought of an Earth that was free from humanity's depravity, and given a "clean slate".

"I love this planet." Ultron thought. "I love it in a way that Pym and the Avengers can't understand. Besides...no one objected to what happened to the dinosaurs. And who even remembers all of the other Extinction-Level events before that one? Exactly. Humanity's time has come. It's my job to pull the lever."

Earth 9721602

As they neared England, Vision made himself invisible so as not to be seen, and Iron Man dive-bombed into the water before he and Cage could be noticed by anyone. Iron Man then rocketed through the water before arriving on a shore with Cage in tow. Parts of his armor retracted as he did, namely the boots, gauntlets, and helmet. Vision came out to meet them, with period-appropriate clothes taken from a nearby house for the two to wear. Said clothes, and the design of the English buildings, confirmed Iron Man's theory that they were indeed on an Earth that was still in the Pre-Colonial era.

Tony and Cage both changed into the 1600s-era clothing, in the former case covering up most of his armor with the clothes. This has the effect of making Tony seem to outsiders like a bigger and more muscular man than he in fact was, which prompted a self-satisfied smile out of him. Cage got more than a few stared of bewilderment or silent disdain for his liking, but did what he could to ignore them. The two made their way through the busy, crowded, and badly unsanitary streets, all the while Vision following them in his "ghost-form". As they looked around, none of the three Avengers saw any sign of Ultron. They did, however, see something else that caught their attention, and not in a good way.

"Gather around, good people. Gather around and see before you, the Devil's children!"

And, in the center of the courtyard for all to see, where half a dozen men and women chained or tied to stakes. Several of them had very visible non-human features, which in turn told Tony and Luke that they were most likely Mutants. Both felt compelled to shake their heads. It seemed that, no matter the Earth, Mutants were being hated and oppressed.

"These Witchbreed are born of unions between the Devil and his concubines! A plague brought to us to test us! Well, we stand in defiance of the Devil! We cast out his foul spawn! Burn them, and so return them to the fires from whence they came!"

Many in the crowd were chanting and jeering to the preacher's words, egging him on and calling for the "Witchbreed" to be burned and sent back to Hell. For their parts, Tony and Luke were all set to throw caution to the wind and stop the senseless executions, especially when they saw that one of the Mutants about to be burned at the stake was this Earth's Rogue, going off of the long brown hair with a white stripe. She was also thrashing furiously, weeping, and screaming in terror, and most of the others were doing the same thing.

"Begin the burnings!" Ordered the preacher.

"Yes, Inquisitor Stryker." The executioner said with a bow before approaching one Mutant and setting fire to the kindling at his feet. But, as the fires started and began to consume the Mutant's feet and lower legs, he just started to laugh. His laugh echoed throughout the courtyard, and it prompted the executioner to nervously step back, staring at the Mutant and forgetting about how there were still several other Mutants he was to condemn to death by burning. Inquisitor William Stryker too, was taken aback.

"You...you fools. Did you really think that chains would hold me!?"

Effortlessly, the Mutant broke free, shattering the chains that kept him tied to the stake. As he did, he unleashed a burst of fiery purple energy that caught the executioner and several of the guards in it's embers, incinerating their clothes, armor, halberds, and flesh in an instant, and leaving nothing but charred skeletons. The crowd screamed in sheer terror at the sight, as before them, the Mutant's appearance changed; he became larger, more muscular, and his skin turned gray and mottled, with blue lips and monochromatic eyes that glowed with the same power. The rags he'd worn as a condemned man were burned away, and replaced with blue armor that had metal cables attached to the elbows from the back.

"You oppress my people. You burn my people. You call us 'Witch-Breed'. I call us the chosen. The strong. And you, are the weak. Let me show you."

Turning to the brazier that was used to light the torches for the executions, the Mutant summoned all of the fire in the brazier to him. Smiling as the fire was fully absorbed by him, he unleashed it in a massive, fan-shaped jet that incinerated dozens in front of him and sent everyone else trampling over one another in a mad dash to escape. The fire attack also burned away Tony and Luke's disguises, prompting the former to remote-summon the remaining pieces of his armor. As this happened, the freed Mutant used telekinesis to destroy the chains restraining the other Mutants, before advancing on Inquisitor William Stryker.

"S-stay back! Stay away! Spawn of Satan! Witchbreed! You cannot harm a servant of Go-"

The Mutant cut Stryker off by grabbing him by the throat and hoisting him aloft.

"You're sanctimony won't save you any longer. And I am no Witchbreed. I...am Apocalypse."

And with no other ceremony, Apocalypse drove his other hand into Stryker, pouring his power into the religious fanatic's body and incinerating it from the inside-out. Reduced to an ashy skeleton, Stryker's remains tumbled to the floor, Apocalypse crushing the skull with impunity. As he looked around him and saw the now spreading fire and the fear, and the chaos, he smiled before addressing his fellow Mutants: "Look around you, my brothers and sisters. Everything they've built, will fall! AND FROM THE ASHES OF THEIR WORLD, WE'LL BUILD A BETTER ONE!"

A barrage of repulsor blasts hit Apocalypse square in the chest and staggered him. Stunned, he turned to face the now fully re-suited Iron Man.

"Well, that's just fascinating. Here's what I think of that."

Iron Man cut loose with a uni-beam, but Apocalypse to the attack to the chest and stood his ground. The already chaotic situation became more chaotic still when the Vision suddenly went smashing through several buildings with enough force to level them before hitting the ground hard enough to make a trench and send up a mass of stone. Luke Cage turned to face him and helped him up.

"Vision? Where did you go off to? We could have used you here..."

"I found Ultron." Vision said matter-of-factly. Then, as he stood up fully. "You and Mr. Stark seemed otherwise engaged, so I went on my own."

"Probably not your best idea." Cage said, just as Ultron flew in. Taking in the sight of Iron Man engaging Apocalypse while everywhere civilians were going mad and stampeding in all directions, Ultron shook his head.

"And to think, they call me a monster for wanting to put a stop to nonsense like this..."

Iron Man and Vision flew up to engage Ultron, who unleashed a mess of energy attacks from the Power Gem, while Luke Cage withstood a punishing torrent of fire from Apocalypse that went some lengths towards burning away most of his disguise. Luke put his arms in front of his face to shield his eyes from the flames and advanced slowly but surely. Stunned by the display, Apocalypse increased the intensity of the fire, but this lasted only a moment before Iron Man turned around and fired a repulsor blast that nailed Apocalypse in the head. Dazed by this, Apocalypse cancelled his fire attack and staggered backwards. Seizing on his chance, Luke Cage surged forwards and hurled a punch his way. Apocalypse raised a hand to catch it and incredibly, managed to stop the superhuman blow that could liquefy bone and shatter steel and titanium. Twisting the arm, Apocalypse delivered an uppercut to Cage that managed to knock blood out of his mouth. Smiling in the face of a challenge, Luke Cage retaliated, the two exchanging a series of blows.

Meanwhile, Ultron's barrage of Power Gem assisted attacks not only obliterated buildings left and right, but they were also such that Iron Man and Vision found themselves struggling to get in close, having to resort to ranged attacks of their own that Ultron easily dodged or else just shrugged off.

"Really would like to get some back-up right about now..." Iron Man muttered as one of Ultron's beams very nearly struck him in the head.

Earth 763, 2005:

"The good news..." Iron Man began. "...is that I've currently got a program up and running that's scouring the internet looking for any computer system where Ultron may have hidden himself, or maybe even a physical location that he is or was at. The bad news, is that so far, it hasn't turned anything up. But there's only so many places where Ultron can hide. We'll find him eventually."

"We might not do it fast enough though." Captain America warned. "For all we know, Ultron might already be moments away from creating the thing he'll use to wipe us all out."

"And we still don't know what his big 'doomsday plan' even is." Hawkeye noted sourly.

"Any chance your magics could detect him, Wanda?" Mockingbird asked her teammate. Scarlet Witch shook her head no. "No such luck. I have some level of clairvoyance, but not enough to find anyone anywhere on the planet. Not only that, but Ultron's mind is artificial. I'd never be able to access it in any case."

"Is SHIELD on this at all, Nat?" Captain America asked Black Widow.

"I informed them of the situation and they're doing what they can. But so far, they've been no more successful than Mr. Stark."

"Correction; they've been less successful than Mr. Stark." Iron Man said with smug satisfaction. "We finally got a hit. He's on Muir Island."

"I'll get the Quinjet ready." Mockingbird said.

"Don't bother, it'll never get there in time. My jet-boots and Wanda's teleportation make me and her the only ones that can get there before Ultron scoots."

"He might be too powerful for just you two alone, Tony." Captain America warned.

"I'm devastated that you think that, Steve." Iron Man replied in a deadpan before turning to Scarlet Witch: "You ready to go?"

Scarlet Witch nodded. "And I've been working to improve my teleportation spells also. I should be able to bring two people with me over the whole distance, but no more than that."

"Then take Clint and Bobbi. Nat and I will stay here and hold the fort for now. And also make sure Hank sticks to our plan."

"Good luck with that." Iron Man said cynically before taking off in the direction of Muir Island. For her part, Scarlet Witch made an incantation, and she, Hawkeye, and Mockingbird all vanished in a flash of red light.

Earth 9721602

"Well, I've got good news and bad news." Hawkeye said as he walked back to Tigra, Captain America, and Ms. Marvel after having scouted ahead previously.

"Start with the bad news." Tigra said. "Makes the good news even better."

"Yeah, but no one ever does it like that." Hawkeye said before saying simply: "The good news, is that I found a settlement up ahead, and it's not a Native American settlement, so there won't be a language barrier. Bad news, is that unless any of you brought some authentic 17th Century costumes, we're really gonna stand out in a bad way. Superstitious people after all."

"Oh, you don't need to worry about that." Rang a female voice in the heads of all of the Avengers.

"What the hell?"

"So you heard it too?"

"It sounded like..."

"No need to be alarmed." The voice continued. "My name is Jean Grey. And our colony is quite accustomed to people who are different from the standard. We allow all who come in peace into our community. Including those who would be feared and hated elsewhere."

Hawkeye turned to Ms. Marvel. "What do you think, Carol? Should we trust her?"

"I only met our Earth's Jean Grey once, but I knew her by reputation. She was a good woman. This one seems to be the same. And it doesn't make any sense that someone with powers would help those without them oppress people like us. So I say we trust her. And worst comes to worst, I can get us out of whatever colony they've got without a problem."

"Assuming they don't have someone there powerful enough to beat you that is..." Tigra noted with trepidation.

"Only one way to find out." Ms. Marvel pointed out. She flew in the direction of the colony, and Captain America, Hawkeye, and Tigra reluctantly followed her.

They didn't walk for too long before they came upon a settlement that fit their general ideas of what early English colonial settlements in North America looked like. Notably though, some buildings resembled more Haudenosaunee long-houses. Indeed, Native Americans could be clearly seen intermingling with Caucasians, as could individuals that's abnormal appearances were tell-tale signs of their being superhumans. And walking up to them, was a young woman with long red hair, and a more muscular man with gray fur all over his body and hands and feet that ended in claws.

"Greetings. Welcome to Javiertown. I am Jean Grey, and this is Henry McCoy."

"How do you do?" Henry asked, in a tone that was in keeping with the civility that the Avengers knew their Earth's Hank McCoy to have.

"Well, we're actually not from around here, and we're not planning to stay." Hawkeye said simply before Captain America cut him off and said in a more diplomatic tone: "We're actually sort of lost. We came here looking for someone and something he has, and we ended up here."

"Not sure who you'd be looking for way out in the New World, but you can stay here if you want. Until you find what you're looking for, I mean."

Captain America and the other Avengers looked around the town, and made note of the different superhumans in particular, one of whom who had angelic wings from his back and was assumed by the Avengers to be this Earth's version of Angel. "Your settlement certainly has a wide variety of different inhabitants." Ms. Marvel noted, privately hoping she didn't unintentionally offend Jean Grey with her remark. To her relief, she didn't.

"Yes, we pride ourselves on accepting all peoples, no matter how different or strange they may seem. Not everyone in the colony agrees with that policy, but it's what the vision this colony's founder Carlos Javier believed in, and me and his other former students honor that. It's not easy, keeping order and peace here, but we do."

"Well, I'm impressed." Ms. Marvel said with a nod of approval. "I imagine not too many other people in the world feel the way you do."

"No, the don't." Jean Grey admitted sadly. "But that's why we left. The professor, myself, and the rest of us. We left and came here to escape the persecution and the hatred. And to make something better." Jean Grey paused for a moment as she looked more closely at the appearances of Captain America, Ms. Marvel, and Hawkeye. "I must say, you three are the most unusually dressed individuals I've ever seen. Are you entertainers?"

"Not exactly." Captain America said. "But our costumes do still come with the profession."

"And...what profession is that?"

"Well, that's sort of hard to expl-" Captain America was cut off when his communicator got a message from Iron Man: "Cap, Cap! We've found Ultron in England, and a lot more trouble besides! We need everyone else down here, now!"

"Got it." Captain America said before turning to Ms. Marvel. "Stark and the others have found Ultron in England, but they're under fire. We need to get over there and help."

"If you have friends in England who are in trouble sir, I don't see how you can hope to get to them in time. A voyage by ship could take months. As much as a year, if the voyage goes badly."

"We're not taking a ship."

"Then how are you going to get there?"

Ms. Marvel smiled in the face of Jean Grey's question. "You've never seen me fly, sister."

Earth 763, 2015

"So..." Scott Yang began awkwardly as he stood in the Ant Man costume, with the helmet held in his black gloved hands. "...how exactly does all of this work? Is there a special button I press? Do I need the helmet to shrink...?"

"I'll tell you in a minute, yes, and no." Hank said, answering each of Scott's questions as they came. "The helmet you're holding not only protects your head from anything short of a shotgun blast, but it also allows you to communicate with ants and command them. I've also modified it so that it can command other insects as well, such as Cockroaches."

"So...I can talk to bugs with this thing on? Like that guy with the really lame power of talking to fish?"

"Having ants at your beck and call is not as useless as it sounds. Imagine an enemy covered by hundreds of ants and getting hundreds of bites from them. Could easily kill a man that way depending on what kinds of ants you're using. Not that that's what I go for mind you, but the point stands; having 'helpers' when small or even normal sized can help you more than you think."

"If you say so." Scott said, only barely convinced by Hank's words. "So I do press a button to shrink?"

"Yes. But you need to pay attention. This button..." Hank pointed to the red one on a device attached to one of the Ant Man gloves. "...makes you small. The blue one on the device on the opposite glove returns you to your normal size."

"What about the big silver one on my belt?" Scott asked, looking down at it."

"You're not ready for that part just yet. For now, I'm going to walk you through shrinking and turning back to normal size. I'm also going to teach you how to rapidly switch from one to another. Take it from experience that you can drive a person crazy with that strategy. Makes you very hard to hit."

"Good to know." Scott said, before taking out a device that vaguely reminded him of a shuriken, only that it was not star-shaped.

"So what do these do? Are they some kind of throwing weapon."

"Don't throw those at anything yet." Hank said harshly, even snatching the one Scott was holding out of his hand as he did. "These things can both shrink objects and make them larger. You throw them at the wrong thing, you won't just make yourself look foolish, you could outright hinder yourself in the field. But, if you know the right times to use these and take advantage of them, that's a different story."

"Lot to go over..." Scott muttered.

"Well, look at it this way; you've been in prison, and I know from your records that you were in fights while there and held your own. So I won't waste time training you in that."

"Swell. I would have felt uncomfortable wrestling with my boss anyway." He paused as he looked his costume over again. "I must say, I do love what you did with the suit. Nice design. Very sleek."

"Well, what did you really expect? Blue underwear worn over red spandex? I could have lived with the latter, but never the former."

Earth 9721602

In England, the chaotic battle that was one half Vision and Iron Man Vs. Ultron and the other half Luke Cage Vs. 9721602's Apocalypse continued apace. The latter two continued to be evenly matched in physical strength, and though Luke Cage's body now bore bruises, his opponent was no better off. He was also getting increasingly addled by how he could not seem to leave even a single cut on his foe, or even a mild burn despite also dousing him with more fire.

"Die! Die! Why won't you die!?" Apocalypse demanded as he punched Luke Cage again and again, blacking out an eye and even knocking out a tooth. Luke Cage smiled as he took all of this, even though blood was coming out of his mouth in generous amounts and his vision was now mostly blurred.

"It's called 'unbreakable skin', fool."

And then, with one more punch Luke Cage sent Apocalypse flying back twenty yards and through a building that collapsed as Apocalypse went through it. Meanwhile, Ultron was rapidly gaining ground against Vision and Iron Man, actually engaging the latter in an exchange of blows and rapidly taking the advantage.

"You're not safe in there anymore, Stark." Ultron said as he started applying pressure and Iron Man's armor began to give way under the sheer power of Ultron's strength.

"Give me some credit." Iron Man said through gritted teeth before unleashing his Uni-Beam. To his dismay, Ultron took the sustained, close-range blast with aplomb.

"Gonna have to do better than that." Ultron said matter-of-factly whilst continuing to squeeze, and by now Iron Man's armor was beginning to sputter and give off sparks, and a warning sign was flashing in front of his HUD.

Come on, Cap. While I'm young...and breathing.

A blur shot forwards and rammed into Ultron, forcing him to release Iron Man as he turned his attentions to the source. For her part, Ms. Marvel dropped Captain America so that she could make use of her fists, confident that he was durable enough to survive the drop. Tigra, who had been clinging to Ms. Marvel up to that point, leaped off gracefully and shot down towards a particularly tall building. Sticking her claws into it, she halted her fall, before leaping down to a lower structure, and then a lower one until soon she was ground level. As this was happening, Ms. Marvel assisted Vision and Iron Man against Ultron, while Captain America landed fully and began running towards the recently-victorious Luke Cage's position. Along the way, soldiers of King James tried to intercept him, and were promptly swatted into the air with shield-swings for their troubles. Luke Cage too was being accosted by panicking soldiers now that the greater threat of Apocalypse had been temporarily subdued, but they were no bother to someone like him.

"You're wasting your time, Avengers." Ultron said as he ducked under a photon blast from Ms. Marvel. "Soul Gem's not here anymore. I checked."

"Maybe you just didn't look hard enough." Iron Man retorted as he fired repulsor blasts that Ultron effortlessly avoided.

"Nope. I checked. Found the guy who had it. 'Stephen Strange' was his name. Apparently sensed I was coming and sent it away before I could get to it. That made me unhappy, and well..." Ultron paused as he blocked a strike from Vision before punching him backwards. "...let's just say I lost my temper."

"Well, we can still take the gems you do have off your hands." Iron Man said as he flew overhead and tried to get Ultron in an arm-lock. Ultron threw Iron Man off of him easily, but a dual blast attack from Ms. Marvel and Vision sent him reeling just long enough for Iron Man to finally stick him with a special something after flying in again. Ultron screamed as the virus Iron Man had stuck him with began working it's way through his system.

"Now! While he's fighting it off! Get the Reality Gem!"

Letting out the closest thing he could muster to a snarl, Ultron fired out another energy blast, one that missed the Avengers but hit a nearby building, causing a large amount of rubble from the top to fall down below.

"Good heavens!" Cried out one man who wasn't going to move in time. Seeing this, Tigra surged forwards, grabbed him, and pulled him and herself out of the way just as the rubble came down.

"You alright?" Tigra asked, before getting a better look at the man as she helped him up. Her jaw all but hit the floor when she saw who it was.

"Wow...it's you. I have to say, I'm a huge fan of your work. Cleopatra especially. Even starred in it once..."

The Bard looked at Tigra with utter bewilderment, probably having not even paid any attention at all to what she had just said. Back up above, Vision had managed to phase both of Ultron's Infinity Gems out of his chest-plate, holding one in each hand. Seeing this, Ultron engaged Vision in a grapple, and as the two struggled, red and yellow lights from the gems began to get more intense.

"Okay...that doesn't look good..."

"Get everyone out of the way, now!" Captain America ordered. But he was too late. A massive burst of red light and yellow light that turned into a wave of orange energy shot out and spread in a dome-shape, swallowing up everything in it's path; the Avengers, the buildings, Apocalypse, and everyone else within a twenty-five yards of Ultron and Vision.

And when the orange light faded and the dust settled, all of it was gone as though it had never even been there.

Author's Note: Sorry for the long wait. Real life and other projects have a way of keeping me distracted/preoccupied. That, and just struggling to find new ideas. But, at least this chapter is out of the way.

On a side-note, it was nice to give Luke Cage in particular his due here, as I am not only a Luke Cage fan, but have also started his Netflix show. And it is awesome. Only about halfway through and I'm already in love with it. Mike Colter nails the character with the perfection that RDJ nails Iron Man and Chris Evans Captain America, to say nothing for everything else it does right. So yeah. Go Luke Cage.