Chapter 11

The Ultron Invasion Part II

The flame throwing fiend laughed hysterically as he caused an inferno in the shame of rampaging bulls to consume Time Square, destroying vehicles and setting buildings ablaze, as NY citizens fled in terrored, or were consumed by the fires. The Blonde haired super villain knew it was only a matter of time before his actions would attract the attention of his sworn enemy and most hated rival. Pyro ceased his flames as he felt a strong gust of wind, as a blue and silver blur tornado swirled around the street distinguishing fires and moving people out of harm's way. Pyro turned around slowly and looked at Quicksilver who appeared with his sister jumping out of his hands. The member of the New Brotherhood smiled maliciously as he spoke.

"Well lookie who decided to leave his nice mansion on the beach of California to pay ole Pyro a visit!?"

"Let's not waste any more of our time then we have to Pyro." Quicksilver retorted, already annoyed by the mutant thug's presence. "You know that both me and my sister are more than enough to take you down. And with us together…yeah, you stand absolutely no chance. So, are we going to do this the easy way or the hard way?"

"Please…" Scarlet Witch stared bitterly at the villain as her hands glowed red. "Pick the hard way."

"I like your style, babe." Pyro spoke as his eyes flared with bloodlust. "The "hard way" is always more fun anyway!"

With this comment, Pyro extended both his arms out towards Scarlet Witch and shot out a giant wave of flame in her direction. Wanda quickly leapt to the left and did a barrel role, dodging the blaze. Pyro laughed as he pursued her with his flames. As they came closer to the Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver sped by and swiftly picked up his sister and moved her out of the way. Upon jumping out of her brother's arms to safety, Wanda shot a hex bolt towards the ground at Pyro causing a minor fissure. This would have knocked the flamethrower off his feet, if the villain had not quickly jumped backwards.

"You're too slow, Witch." Pyro spoke energetically, enjoying his small victory over the brown haired heroine.

"If it's speed you're worried about…" Quicksilver murmured as he readied himself to lunge at Pyro. "Perhaps I can keep you entertained, crazy!"

Pietro flashed forward like a lightning bolt, punching Pyro square in the jaw, causing the villain to fly backwards from the impact. As he moved backwards, the speedster kept up with his advisory punching him rapidly in the stomach, causing a small dent in his shiny red and yellow suit of fire proof light armor. Finally Pyro landed on the ground, having his wind knocked out of him as Quicksilver stood over his body, ready for a round two if necessary. Wanda ran up to be ready to aid her brother, as her hands once again glowed with hex bolts ready to fire.

"It's over, Pyro." Quicksilver taunted, "I told you this wouldn't work out for you. I should have simply stated you could pick the "easy" way or the "painless" way. It wouldn't have mattered anyway, you seem like the kind of idiot that likes to take a beating."

"You think you're so much better than me, Pietro." Pyro coughed as he regained his breath. "I once saw an equal in you…that's why I asked you and your hot sister to join me back in the day…but now I see nothing more than condescending prick who needs to be put in his place. You think you're so tough since you got the Avengers around to save your tail? Well, you're not the only one who's made some friends."

"What are you talking about, Pyro?" Scarlet Witch demanded. "Do you think this is some kind of game? You've set half of New York City on fire! For what? Just to get our attention?"

To this, the Brotherhood thug began laughing once again, "I like that, Wanda! A Game…yes this is our game, and…and the game hasn't even started yet! There is still so many things, and people, to burn…and I've been given some new toys to test out on you two…I hope you enjoy the fun we're having, because I'm just getting warmed up!"

"I hate these freaking fire puns…" Quicksilver spoke as he began to taunt Pyro more. His speech was cut off as the flame thrower hopped up and shot a massive surge of fire onto the ground, which launched Pyro in the air and away from Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch. The twins looked up at the maniac as he reached into one of his pockets and pulled out a metallic red headband that he placed on his head. Upon putting on the headband, several small wires ingrained themselves in Pyro's skull, causing the flamethrower to shriek loudly in pain. Once rooting, the headband's center gem began to glow with a yellow light.

"What are you doing, John?" Scarlet Witch asked, horrified at the sight she was witnessing.

"Just wait…" Pyro replied as he concentrated hard on his new ability, "You'll see!"

Pietro exchanged a look with his sister, both confused as to what the psychotic Pyro had up his sleeve. Their curiosity grew, as they began to hear massive rumbles. It was clear that something, or many "somethings" were coming their way. The heroes took a step back in fear as they witnessed ten very large robots fly into the scene and land, surrounding the twins.

Each robot looked identical: About eight feet tall, made out of solid red metal with bright yellow eyes that glowed similar to Pyro's headband. The robots had several flamethrowers built into their body. Each arm had a large flamethrower attached to it, each palm had a small one in the center, each shoulder had a turret that shot flame balls, and the robots' mouth also had the ability to breathe fire.

"This…" Quicksilver moved his head around staring at the robots closing in on him and his sister. "This may even the odds a little…"

"Meet the Scorcher 5000's!" Pyro yelled out excited about the barbeque that was about to take place. "I must compliment the legendary villain, Ultron, for his incredibly quick work on such machines. You know, he was about to kill me and the rest of the Brotherhood…but after hearing his plan and what he needed, I volunteered to come "play our game" with you two…and thanks to the robot's generosity, I have some new toys! Would you like to see what they can do?"

"If we say no…" Scarlet Witch spoke, "Would you put the robots away?"

"I don't know…" Pyro spoke as he put his finger on his chin. "I suppose you could always try!"

"Okay then…" Quicksilver replied, giving his sister a questionable look…nobody knowing how to handle this kook. "Um…no we would not like to see what you toys can do?"

"TOO BAD!" Pyro yelled out as he laughed hysterically, "Thanks to this headband, all I have to do is think a command, and the Scorchers will follow my orders!"

Suddenly, the robots raised their arms and sent out a massive wave of flames towards Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch. Wanda quickly hexed the ground around her to create fissures and a large earth barrier between her and the fires. Quicksilver began to spin so quickly that his body became a blue and silver tornado that repelled the fire flying his way.

"Nice try, kids!" Pyro laughed at the heroes' attempt to protect themselves from the flames. "But with this much fire at my disposal, there is no force on earth that will serve as a match for me! It'll take more than speed and some bad luck to keep me down this time!"

After speaking, Pyro raised his hand and clenched his fist, as his eyes turned bright orange with power. As the robots continued to release endless flames, the inferno manipulator created massive fire tornados to close in on Quicksilver, as he simultaneously send waves of blazes to melt the rocks that Scarlet Witch was hiding behind for protection.

Instinctively, as the fire tornadoes were too hot for Quicksilver's wind to distinguish, he ran quickly at out harm's way. After bolting out of danger, the speedster turned around and yelled out for his sister, as he realized Wanda was not safe yet.

The Scarlet Witch watched as he flames surrounding her slowly moved forward from all directions. Wanda closed her eyes and concentrated, trying to feel out for anything in the area that she could hex to save herself from the imminent death. She opened her eyes as she gravely realized that there was no way out of her mess. The flames suddenly stopped, less than of an inch from the Scarlet Witch. The woman dressed in crimson breathed heavily, as sweat dripped from her. She had never been so hot in her life.

Pietro cursed as he quickly ran towards Pyro who now stood on the top of a large pile of debris, controlling all the flame like a god. Knowing Pietro was closing in on him, Pyro caused a massive wave of fire to come between him and the speedster. Quicksilver jolted to an abrupt halt, as the fire wall leapt up near him.

"I'd slow down and think for once in your life, if I were you Quicksilver." Pyro taunted as he lowered the fire wall slightly, allowing the enemies to see each other. "With but a thought, I can use the Scorchers' flame to consume your beautiful sister. We're both selfish…but come on Pietro, isn't that a little much? Even for you?"

Quicksilver scanned the entire terrain around him that was flame scarred, as infernos floated around what was once Time Square in New York City. His eyes fell upon where his sister stood, being surrounded by an incredibly long and high inferno. Pietro thought hard trying to come up with an alternative to beat Pyro. The speedster knew that as fast as he was, those fires were to immense and to hot for even he to run past to save Wanda.

"Alright!" Quicksilver snapped in frustration, admitting defeat. "Leave my sister alone! What do you want? I'll play your game Pyro…it's me you did all this to get to anyway. What do you want?"

"Excellent." Pyro's voice went from its normal manic mode to that of an evil psycho who was high on a power trip. The flame controller knew that there was no force on earth that could touch him, and it was finally time for the mutant to extract his revenge on Quicksilver. "We're going to play a new game, Pietro. I call it, Burning Flesh."

Suddenly a large pool of fire surged towards Pietro and elevated next to him. Pyro continued to speak as Quicksilver listened, horrified at what the psychopath wanted him to do.

"The object of the game is to see what lasts longer, your flesh or my fires. To play, simply stick one of those quick little legs of yours in the fire!"

"You've got to be kidding me!" Quicksilver responded, "There is no way I am going to do that, you sick freak!"

"Don't you get it?" Pyro snapped back, angry at the smart mouth on his nemesis. "For someone who is so fast, you're certainly not very quick in the head. I am going to be burning someone and my choices are you or your sister…You decide who it is!"

Quicksilver looked back at Wanda, and noticed that Pyro was very slowly inching his inferno that surrounded his sister closer to her. After a moment's hesitation, the silver haired young adult cursed loudly hating that he had been defeated by this crazy thug. Quicksilver screamed loudly as he placed his left leg into the inferno and felt the heats consume his leg. Pyro laughed with pure joy as he directed the flames around Quicksilver's leg and watched the mutant's pain.

Meanwhile, back at Ultron's lair the rest of the Brotherhood watched, slightly taken aback at Pyro's sick sense of humor within their capsules. Ultron had created a massive holographic screen that showed a live action video of the battle that his very tiny mechanical flies were flying around the battle scene filming. The cold inhumane robot watched the battle with no remorse, horror, or amusement. Ultron's eyes flickered as he was absorbing data and transferring it into one of the crates with his "2nd greatest" creation held inside.

"Damn, this is to far…even for Pyro!" Avalanche's stomach churned as he watched Quicksilver scream as his leg burned.

"I'm going to give him the beating of a lifetime when he comes back!" Blob grumbled, as he hit his fists together. "With all that power, Pyro should have been getting us out of here!"

"Let's go get him now, shall we?" Avalanche spoke as he pointed his hands at the ground he stood directly under. "I bet if I shoot a seismic wave directly under where I stand I can break out of here…"

"Not just yet…" Mystique snapped authoritatively at Avalanche. "Let that psycho have his fun, I know how those Avengers work and I wouldn't vote them out yet…Pyro, in his little mind, has thought he's on some kind of island with just himself and Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch. If experience has taught me anything, it's that when dealing with the Avengers…you're never just dealing with two…Give it some time, Pyro hasn't won yet."

"You think more Avengers will come and then they'll beat Pyro and make their way back here, don't you?" Avalanche predicted Mystique's strategy. "And then you plan on, with the help of the heroes, taking down Ultron. That's why you want me to wait, right?"

"Well, there's that…" Mystique agreed, "But I'd also love to see the Avengers be just a moment too late to the rescue and watch those worthless twins get burnt to a crisp. They were with the Brotherhood once, you know…but after failing a mission miserably, which led to the disappearance of our people's great leader Magneto…they defected and eventually joined the "good guys"…Morons, the way I see it they are going to get exactly what they deserve, it's just later then I would have hoped for."

"Analysis of Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch complete." Ultron spoke, his voice very mechanical and analytical. "And with their battle strategies within my data base, the Vision is ready for its mission."

"That's it?" Mystique asked, impressed with Ultron's higher technology. "They've barely had a chance to fight, Pyro's been beating them down so much. That's all you needed? Goodness, why not watch a video of them saving California from a bank robbery or something? You stupid machine, always wanting to do things the hard way."

"I could try to explain to you the intricate details of my programming and data processing…" Ultron spoke, his head turning around completely to face the encapsulated villains. "But there is a 89% chance that such action would be a waste of my time as you would fail to understand such things. Instead, our time together would better be used to process your mutant powers to add to my greatest creation, the Harbinger."

Without allowing any of the Brotherhood members to speak against such actions, with but a thought, Ultron caused there to be a massive electrical surge within each capsule that created incredible pain for each mutant. As they were being tortured, DNA and energy from each mutant was being sucked away and taken into the crate that had what Ultron considered his "greatest creation."

"Pietro, no!" The Scarlet Witch screamed loudly, as she watched her brother yell in pain as his leg continued to burn. Wanda's eyes were covered in tears, as she couldn't bear such a sight. The mutant now was no longer burning due to surrounding flames, but the rage that built within her. Scarlet Witch found herself blacking out with hysteria, but that is not what Quicksilver and Pyro witnessed.

Without any warning, the Scarlet Witch screamed so loudly that Pyro had to cover his ears at such a high shriek. He turned to shut the annoying noise up permanently to see a disturbing sight. Wanda Maximoff was floating in the air with a red aura swirling around her body, as her eyes were glowing red with power. The aura spun around her and continued to move at an increased speed. Suddenly, the hex aura expanded in far in every direction, sending all the flames around the Scarlet Witch towards Pyro.

The flame thrower cursed loudly as he lost control of all the flames. It was as if Wanda had used Pyro's own abilities against him. With only a thought, Pyro was able to save himself by ordering all the Scorcher robots to leap in front of the mutant and absorb the flames. Each robot instantly exploded upon impact with the massive inferno. As the rubble fell to the ground and the smoke cleared, Pyro walked forward to an unconscious Scarlet Witch, ready to start his second mutant barbeque.

"That crazy broad…" Pyro grumbled to himself, "This is the SECOND time she's turned my fires against me…You may be hot, honey…but you'll find I'm a lot hotter. I like my women, extra crispy!"

Meanwhile Quicksilver laid on the ground writhing in pain. He moved his leg closer to his torso and noticed that despite the pain he thought he was having, he seemed to have no physical harm. Pietro looked over to his sister wondering what on earth she could have done that healed his body? Physically, it was like he had never been burned. Mentally however, Quicksilver found himself unable to recover as quickly and struggled to gain his strength to run towards Pyro to stop him from killing Wanda.

Pyro slowly walked towards Wanda's unconscious body, swirling a fireball in his hand, preparing for the kill. The flame thrower stood over the motionless beauty debating what part of her he wanted to burn first. The head? The torso? Maybe start with the legs and make his way up? Pyro always had such a hard time deciding on how to kill his prey. Suddenly, the mutant's mood changed violently, as he kicked the Scarlet Witch in the stomach.

"You bitch!" He raged at the Scarlet Witch, "You broke all my robots! They were one of a kind, now I'll never have them back! All because Pietro's sister decided to have a little hissy fit cause she didn't like my game? Not like you'll be here enjoy your little victory…so that leaves me, robotless and you dead! I hope it was worth it…"

Pyro raised his hand, ready to throw a fire ball. Before he could let go of the flame, three arrows hit him in the chest. Pyro coughed as he felt an immensely cold sensation as the arrows let out some kind of fluid that quickly froze around the flame thrower's chest. After having his chest frozen, Pyro watched as Hawkeye leapt from a small building down to kick the mutant in the stomach.

"You need to chill out, freak!" Hawkeye yelled as knelt down to check Wanda's vitals. Pyro slowly rose to his feet, ready to attack his ambusher. Hawkeye sternly looked at him. "You know, all this constant rage is just going to give you wrinkles."

"I may not have all the power I did a few minutes ago…" Pyro grumbled, still embarrassed that Scarlet Witch got the best of him in a surprisingly powerful move. "But you're no match for me. You should have stayed away, you would have lived longer!"

"Oh no…" Hawkeye mocked, "What ever will I do? How could I have thought to come here by myself…if only I had brought along backup to take on the great and mighty Pyro. Oh wait a second…"

As Hawkeye spoke, Captain America leapt from another building behind Pyro and hit him hard in the back of the neck with his Vibranium shield, knocking the mutant out cold. After kicking the villain to the side, Captain America rushed over to Quicksilver to see his condition.

"Pietro, are you alright?"

"Working on it…" Quicksilver slowly stood to his feet. "Glad you guys came when you did though."

"I thought you said this would be an easy win?" Hawkeye spoke as he picked up Scarlet Witch and moved closer to his two allies, looking around at the destruction of Time Square caused by Pyro and his robots. "I think it's safe to say that you got your butt kicked!"

"He had help…" Quicksilver muttered, hating the fact that he got beat by that Australian thug. "And I believe you guys know his new friend, Ultron."

"Ultron!?" Captain America exclaimed, "If he's involved, then sending a low class super villain like Pyro out here couldn't have been the extent of his plan of attack…We need to figure out what it is he's up to, and what's his next move?"

"Something tells me we're about to find out…" Hawkeye spoke as he nodded to the west. The heroes all turned to see a giant crate fall from the scene like a missile creating a large crater in NYC. Smoke seeped out of the crate as it opened slowly. The Avengers braced themselves for whatever was about to happen.