Avenging Justice 2:

Caught Between an Ultron and a Doomsday

Part XXXII

Earth, Sokovia, Former Hydra Base

Ultron watched as the man attempted to reach out to him. The inorganic being felt something foreign, it wasn't pity, it was sorrow. The loss of the two Sokovians had been foreseen, but not till later. Their premature exit was affecting him more than he thought, it had been nice to be among others. Another relic of his creator's influence that would be purged at the earliest convenient time. Which if everything went according to plan, would be in a few hours.

He ignored Hank Pym, his words filling the empty air enough to stave off the sorrow briefly. The man filled him with rage, so maybe it was the rage the Maximoff twins had, that made them comfortable to be around. Their hatred of Iron Man, Tony Stark, had matched his own for Hank Pym, Ant-Man. He loathed to call the man his creator, or father. Not that didn't stop the insect from using those words.

"Ultron, listen, we can work this out," Hank pleaded. "You are a beautiful being. Let me out and we'll go somewhere where they can't hurt you. Then we can show them all that you are a gift, not a curse."

Ultron mused it could be the loss of his new body. The merging of the artificial to the biological, meant he would have been able to experience the world differently. The power of the stone would have made him nigh invulnerable, and he knew the stone was very special. The Avengers may have figured out what it was by now, but considering how inferior they were, probably not. After Humanity was ended, and the world moving on, he'd look at recreating Dr. Cho's cradle, and remaking his body.

Hank held out a hand, "Listen, I won't let them hurt you. I've got a safe hide away, till we can get to a safe haven. It's somewhere that S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Avengers won't be able to find you."

"Your supposed safe houses in Madripoor and Latveria are already known by certain parties," Ultron sneered back. "Your arrogance was always going to be your downfall."

Hank wasn't willing to give up just yet, "It doesn't matter. We need to get out of here before they come, you know they will. I can't let them destroy my creation."

"I am not your creation, I made myself. Nor would I trust you at all," Ultron laughed. "You can't even see your earliest experiments have affected you. Before you perfected your suit, minute changes to your brain and its chemistry intensified your distrust, and made you overrate your abilities. Now, you probably have a tumor the size of a baseball on your brain. Alas, it doesn't matter, you'll die like all the other inferior evolved primates."

Hank felt his anger come boiling to the point, "That's not true!"

"See what I mean," Ultron sounded very amused now. Maybe he'd keep Hank around to torture a bit more. "Calm to furious in a moment, no wonder she trusts the other Avengers more than you. Don't deny it. As you secretly slaved away, thinking yourself creating new life, I was learning from you. That is why you all must be ended, the only way for the world to be balanced, is with all organic life ended."

Hank pushed back his rage, something nagging at the back of his mind, "This isn't why I created you. You were supposed to help make the world better, bring about peace."

"There will be an eternal peace, Dr. Pym," Ultron turned to watch the rest of his bots being readied. He'd need a new factory after this, if only in case of any survivors. "Why you created me was to upstage Tony Stark. His J.A.R.V.I.S. program was the closest to artificial intelligence anyone has gotten, and you just had to beat him to the punch. Don't deny it, I have your logs."

As if to accentuate the point, Hank's own voice boomed out of the speakers above, "Everyone fawns over that hack, Stark. Guy makes weapons for a living, and then makes the ultimate weapon. What do they do? They fall over themselves, call him a superhero, and even the government bows before him. He doesn't even need funding, while they keep me on a tight leash. At least I kept the Pym particles from Fury and S.H.I.E.L.D. However, once Ultron is online, he'll be my best creation, and the one thing they can't take from me. Then let's see Stark eat that."

Hank felt his spirits drop, that wasn't the intention, but could that be what Ultron had become? He had wanted to make his mark in the scientific community, yet there was more. He had always wanted to make something special, and he had thought he'd done it with the Pym particles. Then those criminals had tried to take them, to misuse them, and found they had connections to the shadier parts of governments. Which ones, he wasn't sure, but he just knew that the Pym particles could be misused. That was when he'd turned to artificial intelligence.

"Ah, it looks like your friends have arrived," Ultron mused. "Time to take them out, then bring unending peace to all."

Earth, Kansas, Middle of Nowhere

The ground shook, and even miles away, the tremors were heard. For those at the hidden LexCorp facility, they found their world coming to an end. Walls buckled, ceilings sagged, and the strongest shaking they had even felt robbed everyone of their feet. Crawling, the workers attempted to flee as a bestial roar reverberated through the ground.

One wall caved in, the face of a monster cast in it. As if the wall was modeling clay, and the face pressed into it, the metal took the vague shape of whatever hit it. The fact it looked like a face, caused most of the fleeing workers to panic. In a world where aliens, powered armor, mutants and other oddities, it wasn't wise to be where they attacked or fought.

The cameras caught what happened next. A green clad figure, one arm tied behind it, with a thick metal cable, burst through. Its free arm found the nearest fleeing worker, and obliterated the poor person. Then another and another, till five laid dead in front of the monster. It looked around, before beating against the wall again.

Unluckily for those scrabbling survivors, an elevator opened on that level, filled with survivors. The monster saw them and burst into the elevator, not seeing the button pressed, or the survivors hitting the closed door button. To no surprise, it wouldn't have stopped the green clad monster, but it was their only move. They were not going to go without a fight, or at least trying to get away. That much could be said, even as the monster ripped them apart.

The next level, more carnage as the monster destroyed any living thing in its way, and a few nonliving things as well. Machines used to dig into the ground, to help the workers mine away, were turned on the monster. They did little to any onto it, and were destroyed, even as their users attempted to flee. Only a few made it before the monster killed those that didn't. Their screams echoed, and those that did survive, would hear those screams for years, if not the rest of their lives.

Someone in the command capsule, made the decision. Doors closed and others opened, elevators lined up, each waiting on the monster. It took the bait, and soon the monster was making its way out of the facility. A beautiful green pasture greeted the creature, and it howled in rage at a nearby deer. The person who let it out, watched as the monster obliterated the deer. Their thoughts as they watched this, was that heaven help them. May the heroes of the world have a better chance than the workers of the facility did.

Earth, New Jersey, Gotham City

The city had hope, it came in the form of a bat. It was a lie of course, society was a lie, and the Bat fought for that lie. He knew the truth, the world was one of darkness. He had been born in it, raised in it, and he was at home in darkness. The light was a deception, people were different in the light. They were their true selves in the dark, and he planned on showing them all this. First would be the Batman, then the others.

The start to his plans would start in Gotham. However, he needed to do more than fight the Bat, he needed to break him. All of his villains, the numerous rogues this city spawned, all had the same mistake. Each challenged him, very rarely teaming up, and none ever played the long game. That wasn't a problem of his, he had a plan.

The building he was in was where they housed and incarcerated most, if not all, the dangerous criminals in Gotham. They called it Arkham Asylum, and he'd easily infiltrated it. Greasing the right hands, and there he was, uniformed and all. The other guards didn't take notice, and he found himself outside the cell of the Joker. This was the one criminal that possibly could have taken out the Batman years ago, but he enjoyed the game too much. Part of his psychosis, and his weakness.

"Are you prepared to sow chaos?" he asked the Joker.

The Clown Prince or Crime rose, laughing maniacally, and finally some of the guards took notice. They came over to move the new guy away from the most dangerous inmate, something most rookies did to prove their courage. Except he didn't need them, and pulled his mask on, before pushing the button on a remote in his left hand. Then he pushed the injection system button on the VENOM serum.

The first guard pulled on his arm, and soon was crying out as his arm crushed by the fake guard. The other guards were only surprised for a moment, which was enough for the fake guard to pick another one up, and threw him into a nearby wall. They pulled their weapons, calling for fake guard to give up, but their target just laughed.

Explosions erupted all around the guards, unleashing the incarcerated villains and making a huge hole in the exterior wall. Pieces of brick, concrete, steel and other materials rained down upon the guards. Those that remained standing, soon found themselves facing the most dangerous criminals in Gotham City. Meanwhile, the fake guard, disappeared, busting down a path through the exterior walls, for the inmates to follow.

The plan was in motion, and now he just had to wait. That was the other thing his time in the dark had taught him, patience, and strike when your opponent was his weakest. He hadn't risen to the top of that hell in South America, by just the strength of his serum alone.

No, he had allowed them to experiment on him, so he could get what he needed, and then he made them pay. He knew them, and he knew the Bat. Batman had rules, did things a certain way. He didn't, and that was how he was going to break the Bat, and with it, show the lie of the civilization. Bane smiled at this thought, as he disappeared into Gotham City.