Chapter 46: The Ultron Imperative

At the Parker household, Peter was on the phone with Gwen, checking up on her after the day's events.

"I'm just glad you're ok, Gwen," Peter told her. "Sorry the party didn't go the way I promised."

"It's alright, I'm just glad you made it home too. I'm really sorry for ditching you, but Rick needed help finding the Hulk."

"It's no problem. I'm just happy you were able to help."

"Well, I'm just glad that whole ordeal is-"

Just then, the call was cut off by some kind of technical interference.

"What on…" Peter let out, looking at his phone. "Oh no..."

Fearing the worst, Peter dashed out of his room and down the stairs to check on his Aunt May.

"Aunt May," he let out. "Have you noticed anything-"

He was cut off when he saw Aunt May staring at the TV, prompting Peter to look and see Ultron's face.

"No…"

"I am Ultron, a cybernetic intelligence created by Dr. Henry Pym. My imperative is to bring peace and order to this world. I am about to fulfill that imperative… for the extinction of humanity begins now."

All across the world, from submarines, to military bases, to stealth jets, all of them launched their payloads. Many military leaders tried to recall them, but their efforts proved to be ineffective. Their fates seemed to be sealed.

"Humanity has failed as a species," Ultron declared as Iron Man, Wasp, Falcon, and Hill tried to take him down to no avail. "You have accomplished much with your limited capacity, but in the end, your greed, frailty, and capacity for violence made you incapable of lasting in the environment you had created for yourself. Soon, the Earth will no longer be habitable for any biological lifeform. Every man, woman, child, plant, animal, fungus, or bacteria will be destroyed. The process has already begun, and there is nothing you can do to stop it. I take no pleasure in this, it is simply what needs to be done. There must be peace and order in this world, and the end of all life will bring it about."

Back at Avengers Mansion, Jane was watching the broadcast herself, gripping the hammer intensely. She stood up, the hammer sparking slightly as it channeled her pain and rage. Before she could make a move, the hammer started fidgeting in her grasp, much to her shock. She let go, watching it fly out of her hand and out the door. Shocked, she ran after it, following it through the mansion and down into Hank's lab, where Thor had last been seen. Hank looked up from the work he was doing to see the hammer entering the lab, followed closely by Jane.

"Move!" she warned.

Back in the Assembly Hall, Wolverine ran towards an Iron Man suit, dodging between the repulsor blasts before leaping towards it. He sliced at its head with his claws, causing it to fall to pieces before the body turned around and blasted at him, causing him to skid on the ground before straightening out. Wolverine just popped his neck before running right back into the fray.

Black Widow rolled on the ground before tossing a small disk at the chestplate, causing the suit to short out and drop to the ground. She was given only a minute of reprieve before two more suits came flying towards her, firing missiles right at her. She made a break for it, only for the missiles to hit the ground and send her flying.

Black Panther ran towards one suit before it suddenly disappeared from sight. Panther stopped in his tracks, altering the spectrum of his suit's eyes to catch sight of the invisible armor. Suddenly, he leapt up into the air, avoiding a repulsor blast from behind. He quickly threw a vibranium dagger towards where the blast came from, damaging the suit and causing it to become visible again. Panther then landed on the ground before darting towards the suit, only for it to grab him by the wrists and throw him aside.

Finally, Hawkeye took a stance on the table, letting loose one arrow after another at the approaching suits.

"Remind me to kill Stark for making so many of these damn things," he called out.

"After this, I'm sure he's kicking his own ass," Wolverine declared.

Just then, one suit landed right in front of Hawkeye, forcing him to fire an explosive arrow. The suit caught it, letting it go off in his hand before knocking the archer back near Wolverine, Widow, and Panther. The four heroes picked themselves up as the remaining suits closed in on them.

"Well?" Wolverine remarked, unsheathing his claws. "What are ya waitin for?"

The suits all aimed their repulsors at the heroes, all of whom braced themselves for what was to come.

"Goodbye," Ultron's voice spoke.

All of a sudden, several bolts of lightning shot down at the suits, destroying them instantly. The four heroes covered their eyes as the lightning shot down. As the light died down, everyone looked up to see Thor flying high above everyone. His armor was gleaming, and his eyes were blazing with power.

"No way…" Clint let out.

"Where. Is. Ultron?" Thor demanded.

Back on the Helicarrier, Iron Man flew right up to Ultron, ramming into him. Ultron responded by firing another laser from his mouth piece, knocking Tony back and scorching the arm of his armor.

"Tony!" Wasp called out.

She tried firing her stings at Ultron but they seemed to do nothing. Falcon flew up towards Ultron, firing numerous flechettes at the robot, but they just bounced off of him. As Falcon tried swerving up, Ultron grabbed one of his wings and yanked him down, tearing the wing off in the process. Falcon hit the ground hard, bouncing across the ground.

"No!" Iron Man called out.

Before he could make a move, Ultron grabbed him by the chest plate and took hold of his helmet, tearing it off. With the state that his armor was currently in, Tony could do little more than maintain a stern face as Ultron's mouth laser began powering up. Before it could fire though, something shot out like a comet, nailing Ultron in the chestplate and knocking him to the ground. This caused him to release Tony, who backed up and searched for the source of the attack. Suddenly, the object that hit Ultron rose up, revealing itself to be Mjiolnir itself. Tony's face lightened up as he looked up, seeing Thor entering through a hole in the ceiling with the other Avengers in tow.

"Ultron," he declared. "We would have words with thee."

"Impossible," Ultron declared as his body repaired itself. "You're supposed to be dead."

"You failed robot."

"Not for long."

Ultron fired at Thor, forcing the Asgardian to fire lighting from his hammer that collided with the energy blast. As the two fought, Tony pulled himself out of his damaged armor and went over to Hill.

"Can you recall the missiles?" he asked,

"Normally, yes," Hill responded. "But Ultron's locked us out of the system. I can't access it."

Hill looked up at the map tracking the missiles, the reality of the situation sinking in.

"We're not gonna make it…"

"We're not dead yet," Tony reassured, putting a hand on her shoulder. "Ultron locked you out? We unlock you. That's what the Avengers do. Save the world."

"Whatever you're gonna do, do it fast."

Meanwhile, the other Avengers continued opening fire on Ultron, even Sam was letting loose a few bullets on the ground. Unfortunately, the attacks seemed to do little to physically hurt Ultron, and any that might were repaired quicker than they could counter. Just then, two turrets rose up from Ultron's shoulders and opened fire on the Avengers, forcing them to move for cover. Thor quickly spun his hammer to deflect the shots as Wasp flew up high.

"Hey, where'd you get guns like that? Hank wouldn't have given you those!"

"This original vessel may have been built by Henry Pym, but the initial upgrades were provided by Tony Stark."

Hill just shot him a glare in response.

"Well that's just great," Hawkeye remarked. "What'd Hulk contribute? Your bad attitude?"

He then fired a sonic arrow at Ultron. Upon impact, it seemed to scramble his circuits.

"Error. Error. Reconfigure."

Wolverine took this chance to climb up a nearby wall and leap towards him. He quickly jammed his claws into Ultron's back, stabbing him repeatedly. Finally, Ultron's head spun around, blasting at him with full force. He collided with the ground as Ultron's body spun around with his head, unrelenting as the laser blast continued striking at him, burning off parts of his costume and even his skin.

Finally, Thor darted down and struck him across the face with his hammer. His face seemed to crumble from the impact, but was repaired in record time. Ultron fired two energy blasts from his palms, knocking Thor aside as Panther approached from behind. He quickly slashed at Ultron's side, spinning around and preparing to strike him again. This time though, Ultron grabbed the arm and squeezed it, causing Panther to kneel over as the robot prepared another palm blast. Fortunately, Wasp quickly flew in the way before the shot could be fired.

"Nice try, pal."

"Your resistance is growing tiresome. Rest assured, this inability to hurt you will not last forever."

At that moment, Black Widow opened fire on Ultron, emptying out entire clips on the robots chassis. Ultron discarded Panther as he marched towards Widow, who was slowly backing away.

"Do you honestly believe such trivial tactics will stop what is coming?" Ultron asked as her guns ran out of ammo.

"No," Widow admitted, tossing the pistols aside. "But this might."

She then shot out her wrist, firing an electric disk from it. It collided with Ultron, causing him to short out for a second. She fired another one, hoping to keep him disoriented. Before she could fire another one though, Ultron darted forward and grabbed her wrist with one hand before using the other to grab her by the throat.

"Illogical."

"Ultron!" Ant-Man called out, getting Ultron's attention.

"Henry Pym," Ultron noted, releasing Widow's wrist and using his palm to fire at him. "Just as illogical and weak as the rest of your species"

Ant-Man maneuvered the ant he was riding to avoid Ultron's blasts. Widow took this chance to fire one last electric dist at Ultron, disorienting him and causing him to let go of her throat. She took a big gasp of air just as Ant-Man flew inside Ultron's mouth. Widow quickly rolled out of the way before Ultron could fire another blast, allowing Thor to toss his hammer towards him, lobbing an arm clean off.

"Now we end this, machine!" Thor proclaimed, reclaiming his hammer and bringing it down on Ultron.

Inside Ultron's inner working, Ant-Man flew through the various wires and connections. Finally, he reached Ultron's central processor.

"Alright Ultron… time to end this..."

Even with one arm, Ultron proved to be a challenge for the heroes. He held them off, his armor too tough for even Wolverine's claws. Panther maintained a safe distance and threw some vibranium daggers, but the sole arm was enough to protect the vile robot from the attack. Thor proved to be the most effective, shooting lighting that seemed to knock him back. Meanwhile Tony was working to disarm the missiles before they could hit their targets.

"Stark, we're running out of time!" Hill called out.

"I know. I've accessed the missile control, but I can't send the detonation command. We have to override Ultron's control."

"Think you can do that in three minutes?"

"We'll certainly try."

Back in Ultron's CPU, Ant-Man was hard at work, doing something to his internal programming.

"Commencing upload," his computer reported.

"I know you're here, Henry Pym. Even if you destroy this body, I will upload into another."

"I know."

As Thor swung his hammer once more, Ultron managed to knock it out of his hand. He then kicked Thor in the chest and struck him across the face to keep from reclaiming it. Tony meanwhile still struggled to deactivate the missiles, growing even more worried upon seeing the clock counting down.

In New York, the citizens all looked up at the large array of missiles heading their direction. Many ran for cover while others just stared in horror.

...

Back at home, Peter looked out the window and saw the missiles heading for the city. His spider sense was going completely insane, and all he could do was just hold his aunt. May was utterly shocked, shaking hands gripping onto Peter's shirt. He pulled her in close, whispering promises that everything would be okay, even as his body screamed at him to run.

Inside her apartment, Gwen looked out the window and saw the approaching missiles. Feelings of helplessness ripped through her as the rocket got closer and closer. Her dad came up behind her, just placing a hand on her shoulder.

"What do you hope to accomplish here?" Ultron asked. "No matter what virus you create, I can destroy."

"It's not a virus… it's logic."

"Upload complete," Hank's computer reported.

"... goodbye, Ultron."

Ultron picked up Thor, ready to finish him off. All of a sudden, the light in Ultron's eyes started fading. He let go of Thor before finally shutting down. Thor stood there for a moment, staring at Ultron. He waved his hand in front of the robot's face, then poked it with his hammer. The robot then toppled over, driving home that it had been shut down.

"Ultron is down!" Thor called out.

"Stark?" Hill let out.

"Working on it!" Tony replied. "Come on… come on!"

After a few keystrokes, Tony finally managed to deactivate the missiles, causing them to explode in the air, not harming anyone. Tony let out a sigh of relief upon seeing that, wiping his brow.

"Too close," he said, slumping slightly.

Clint went and helped Rick pick Bruce up off the ground, carrying him over to the others as Ant-Man emerged from Ultron.

"Well done, Pym," Thor commended. "Your plan was sound."

"Thanks," Hank replied.

"What exactly did you do?" Hawkeye questioned, nudging the downed Ultron with his foot. "How'd you get him to turn himself off like that?"

"During our fight at the mansion, I recognized a flaw in Ultron's reasoning. His programming was based on the human mind, making him as flawed as us. Once I introduced that line of logic to Ultron, he realized he was part of the problem, and thus, couldn't exist in his own imperative."

Upon flying over to him, Wasp instantly grew to normal size and threw her arms around Hank, which he returned without question.

"You did it, Hank," she said happily, pulling back to meet his eye. "I knew you could."

"Not bad, Pym," Wolverine commended.

"Yeah, who'd have thought it'd take stating the obvious to save the world," Clint remarked.

"Correct me if I'm wrong," Hill spoke up. "But wasn't it because of him that the world was in danger in the first place? Ultron was his creation."

"Come on Hill, you can't-"

"No," Hank cut off. "She's right… this is all my fault."

He pulled himself away from Wasp and started walking off, head hung low. Wasp watched him go, clearly torn, but knowing there was nothing she could do to stop him.

Later, Hill was in another meeting with the World Security Council, informing them of everything that had transpired.

"Ultron is shut down and the Avengers prevented the nukes from hitting the city," she relayed.

"Nukes that wouldn't have been accessed in the first place without the threat the Avengers inadvertently created," the first member noted.

"That… is accurate. While I still believe the Avengers do good in the world… we can't let something like this happen again. We won't get this lucky next time."

"Our sentiments exactly."

"So, how should we proceed?"

"We believe it is time for the Avengers to be registered and join S.H.I.E.L.D.," the second member suggested.

Back at the mansion, upon Thor's return, Jane immediately embraced and kissed him passionately. He returned the gesture in kind, holding her close. When they finally broke for air, he saw tears in Jane's eyes.

"I thought you were dead..."

"I was pulled away at the last second… by the Enchantress."

"Her? But why?"

"She said she was saving me from something. I do not know what she was referring to, but I can only assume it has something to do with my inability to return to Asgard.

"You think she's the one who did it?"

"Nay, but she may have knowledge as to what. My return home just became more imperative than ever."

Jane took Thor's hand in hers, giving him a confident smile.

"Don't worry Thor. One way or another, we will get to Asgard. I promise."

Thor smiled, tightening his grip on her hand before kissing her once more.