(Warning: A bit of sliding timescale in this. My universe, my timeline. Besides, it's comic books! :D)
"Ultron, if it looks like anyone is being influenced, well", Arno Stark's armored hand gently fell on the head of Valeria Richards, "you know what to do."
A pained moan came from the unconscious Hank Pym who hung by his arm grasped in his metallic son's hand. Ultron knew what to do indeed.
Rachel Summers ceased her telepathic probing. Her, Scarlet Spider, Spider-Woman, and Peter Parker stood backs together in an attempt to cover for each other if/when things escalated.
The imposter Iron-Man took a moment to survey his handiwork. Peter thought he recognized the armor scheme. Classic red and gold, but more sinister and lethal than Tony usually went with. This "Arno" seemed to know him though. And carried a grudge too.
"So you're the one messing with me and my family?" Peter accused.
Iron-Man folded his arms and focused his attention on the Spider. Even through highly sophisticated armor, he projected smugness and superiority.
"Parker, Parker, Parker", Stark shook his head in mock disappointment. "Really took you this long to realize it?"
Arno had them by their webs, and he knew it. The attitude really started to tick Peter off.
"Oh, I knew something was up for months", Peter casually admitted. "I expected more of a substantial plot than 'evil twin'. It's been done way too much, ya know?"
"Months?" Arno laughed.
Something appeared to shift in his armor. Pieces moved and folded like origami, revealing complicated gears and circuitry. An ominous hum permeated the air.
"This was set in motion YEARS ago."
A vertical tear appeared between Iron-Man and the heroes. It expanded out and formed a semi-transparent circle. In it the streets of New York can be seen.
Peter felt a nudge in his side.
"Here comes the villainous monologue. Got a plan?" Scarlet Spider whispered.
Peter nodded slightly, watching the scene in the projected image play out.
In it, an intimidating looking Iron-Man points a wand like object in the eye of a child. A familiar figure in an equally familiar black spider suit stops whatever was happening. Iron-Man chases down the fleeing Spider-Man and child. An accident appears to hurt the child and Spider-Man charges Iron-Man swinging. Iron-Man is beaten back and seems to disappear in a flash of light.
"Ok, I remember shell-head", Peter quips, but unable to shake the feeling that something was off about the scene. "The kid got hurt because of you. What's your point?"
"Shut up and watch bug", Arno growls.
The scene shifts, showing Arno in the middle of a crater. The surrounding land completely glassed. The distraught figure screams to the sky and roars out in defiance. The view is sped forward, showing Arno consulting, pleading, and begging for some way to fix what had happened. The scene eventually falls on a one-man raid on a fortified castle in the country of Latveria. The suicide run surprises the audience as the desperate Iron-Man reaches a platform in a lab and disappears again.
The Iron-Man in the viewer reappears in what seems to be the same lab, only worn with age and disuse. Again, events are sped forward. Arno travels the area reading local events. A casual look at the then local news puts the year at 2115. Using the crumbling lab as a base of operations, Arno studies the time traveling platform and begins incorporating reversed engineered designs into his armor. A successful test puts him back into his own time. Arno is seen traveling to New York and is close before he is knocked back by a sudden explosion.
Everyone can see that Arno witnesses the event that causes the crater. Distraught, he flies to another Stark building and begins refining the armor to make another, more precise, jump. Before it is completed, alarms blare and the entire world panics as a wall of white appears and engulfs everything it touches. Screaming in rage and frustration, Arno dons his armor again and makes another jump with the unfinished modifications.
He lands in a small, urban street with people gaping at his sudden appearance. Taking flight, he is seen scanning the internet for information. The year is 2016 and Captain America is arrested after a superhero war. Arno flies north into Canada and finds an abandoned Weapon X facility. He devours everything he reads, finding other facilities and scrapping together equipment he finds. Soon he forms a new base and manages to view what happened to his time in a cobbled together prototype projector similar to what he was currently using.
A "time storm" had appeared seemingly from nowhere and erased his time. After several adjustments and tests, he seems to find the catalyst for the change in his timeline. The heroes wince as the Arno in the viewer screams and rages, curses the heavens and rains destruction on his camp. The scene seems to skip as a bearded Arno sits in his repaired makeshift home and watches current news. A report of alien Skrulls appearing around the planet seems to motivate him to action.
The angry Iron-Man appears in the middle of a war. Heroes and Skrulls locked in battle, and in the middle, Arno's armored figure shooting through the sky and driving an armored Tony into the ground. The fight around seems to stand still as Arno's gauntlet sprouts a spike that is driven into the chest of his forbearer. Shouts of disbelief and rage echo around him as the murderous Stark jumps once more.
A new scene opens in a futuristic looking laboratory. Several people in lab coats appear bloodied on the floor, while a manic Arno works. The screen in front of him shows complicated work, some form of microscopic robots pulled from the surrounding blood cells. The geniuses watching realize Arno is removing the Extremis from the large amount of Tony Stark's blood that was stolen. They watch as Arno modifies and changes the Extremis into a new form and makes another jump before Security enters.
In a new location, Arno injects himself with Extremis. His body cocoons itself before the heroes' eyes and a revitalized Arno eventually erupts from it. He flies once again to Canada and finds his onetime camp to be completely in operation. He's watched as he slaughters the heads and takes control of the facility. He worked on his armor, using the adamantium the facility had to form a new compatible armor for Extremis. Some hidden military brass had tried to unleash a mutated weapon at him, a wide eyed, scarred man with no mouth. Arno tested his recent enhancements and blasted the creature and the man who released it.
The Arno in the viewer looks drunk on success as the scene begins chaotically skipping around. The time-hopping Iron-Man is shown in various locations. Futuristic worlds, primitive colonial homes, post-apocalyptic wastelands, and more were visited. A familiar looking Iron-Man was once again slaughtered by his descendent as the Blizzard looks on in shock. He too is quickly cut down and his technology is taken by Arno.
The next few jumps seem more strategic. One to a future where the bearded Hulk, the Maestro, is recruited for a chance at revenge. The two are watched making several trips to the heroes' time, also recruiting Dark Beast and Ultron. Arno promises them all revenge and the chance to "change" things. Maestro is given a device to pull copies of himself from the timeline, Dark Beast leaves to stalk McCoy, and Ultron enters the internet digitally in a plot to capture two important people.
Arno makes a few more jumps around time, one to what seems like Miguel O'Hara's future being consumed by the time storm. Arno picks up something from a panicked pedestrian and jumps again. This time, a white armored Tony is confronted by Arno. The fight is fierce, but Arno manages to knock Tony into a void of white he summoned. The heroes realize their Stark was consumed by the time storm.
Arno masks himself as Tony Stark, using the advanced Extremis in his body to fool everyone. His long reaching plot now appears in full swing. It was Arno pulling the strings around Peter, keeping him depressed and alone. Manipulating Mary Jane with something called "Rapture" from the future, she becomes more hedonistic and less compassionate towards everyone. Some leaked information directed to Aunt May and her husband shows what seems to be Peter making serious mistakes with Parker Industries and the company's money. Carol is recommended to stay away from a spiraling Peter and Arno later sends a message from Logan's phone of Peter in the arms of another woman that no one could trace. And more and more problems are created as the Arno Stark in the viewer laughs and laughs.
The viewer shuts off and the Arno in front of the heroes is holding his knees and bent over laughing maniacally. "I- ha ha- always get a kick out of seeing that."
Spider-Woman and Scarlet Spider can almost taste the rage coming off of Peter, but he shows nothing but calm.
"Why the innocent man in the alley?" Peter's voice is chilling.
"Innocent? Ha!" Arno stands straight to glare at the Spider.
"None of you are innocent. If it wasn't for you, I could have stopped the bomb. If it wasn't for you, I could have saved my family. And if it wasn't for ALL OF YOU", Arno gestures to all those present, "my WORLD WOULDN'T HAVE BEEN ERASED!"
He turns on a recording and displays it for all to see. It seems to be a bright and sunny future. The people look happy. The view pans to a building that is heavily occupied. All manner of beings come and go. Humans, Inhumans, obvious mutants, androids, gynoids, known aliens, and unknown walk in harmony. Inside the building, labs and classrooms are fully occupied. Searching around, a tall blue furred man, with streaks of grey, seems to be lecturing on viral mutations. In another room, a middle aged scientist shows observers a complicated hologram of lights and pulses that seem to be a robotic brain. Another scientist nearby explains to his audience the less common effects of gamma radiation on a living organism. An office filled with paintings of investors, one of a slightly older man that was not frozen in an act of violence, is looked into next. A young blonde woman receives her 8th doctorate and a handshake while her parents, a similar looking blonde woman and a brunette with more white streaks watch proudly. The young woman holds a stoic façade before a wide grin splits her face and she hugs the man in front of her. Laughing in pride he lets her go and the aged, but happy, face of Peter Parker congratulates her and wishes her the best of luck with her future teaching position there.
The scene is cut out before more information could be learned. Arno shakes with rage.
"It's your future that tore my whole world apart."
"Well that's stupid", all assembled focus on Scarlet Spider. "How many alternate futures has everyone here lived through? They don't just disappear."
The long forgotten tingle in the back of his head distracts him a second before a vicious repulsor blast hits his shoulder and forces him to roll back and on his feet.
The visor lifts and Arno glares daggers at the red clad Spider. "You mock me?"
The villainous recruits tense around them. Pym awakens, moaning in pain and grabbing at the hand restraining him. Valeria squeaks in pain from the sudden pressure.
This sets off a something in Peter. "Kevin Sydney."
Everyone turns to him, most in confusion.
Arno's puzzled glare moves from Peter to Ultron in a silent demand.
"Kevin Sydney. Mutant", the android recites. "Powers: Shape shifting-"
"We knew him as Changeling", Dark Beast interrupts with a grin.
Arno's eyes turn from Ultron to the dark furred man and back to the android before the reality sinks in. By then it was already too late for him to stop it.
In one smooth motion Dark Beast grabs a blue leg and hurls him at the upper torso of Ultron. The strong metallic grip immediately begins to tighten at the micro-second he understood he was under attack, but the powerful redhead communicating mentally with the heroes forced his grip to slacken and he was knocked away from his hostages. Pym, having grasped the situation, moved to cover Valeria and activated a green shield designed by Banner. Bruce had feigned unconsciousness for some time and triggered his transformation, scoring an easy low blow on the despot above him and launching him several floors up.
Peter kept his eyes on Arno. Beast, the powerful camouflage device turned off, turns to keep the Iron-Man boxed in. Hulk shifts around the room to cut off any avenue of escape. Scarlet Spider moves to surround their enemy. Spider-Woman flanks Peter with Rachel, keeping watch over the shielded Pym and Valeria.
Ultron pulls the now revealed Dark Beast off of him and stands ready to battle. The roar of Maestro quickly turns from pain to rage. The faceplate of Iron-Man snaps shut and he observes the group surrounding him.
Peter wants to gloat, he really does. But that has never worked for him in the past. And the slowly building pressure of his Spider-Sense agrees.
"You're outnumbered and outgunned Arnie. Give up", he gave in to his snarky urge. If bad luck was going to happen, he was going down mouth moving.
It may have been the lighting, some manipulation of Extremis, or the sheer lunacy of the man, but Peter could have sworn the helmet smirked at him.
"Time is on my side insect", the clichéd line is spoken while a pair of armored fingers snap.
The building tingle is now a jackhammer as the air around them all seems to shimmer. Rips appear in a vertical slit in the air and widen into large, Hulk sized portals. Once they appear to stabilize an army of Maestros, Dark Beasts, and Ultrons step through, pulled from various points in time. The world appears to shake as the time stream hemorrhages, but barely manages to pull together and hold.
The gathered heroes move in a defensive circle, Pym and Valeria in the center.
Iron-Man walks through the group and addresses everyone.
"Now Parker, now you'll die. You and your friends will die. My timeline will be restored, and my associates here can pick through the rubble of this world or any other they can choose with my technology."
Peter decides not to point out the obvious hypocrisy in the deranged man's scheme. Kaine had already poked a hole in his fantasy earlier, and that did not seem to work too well for him. He tenses up for a massive melee and waits for another cliché.
"Any last words?" Iron-Man sneers.
Before Peter could unload a "why you suck" speech, the building shakes from a large blast. Holographic screens show a veritable goddess. A goddess bathed in green fire. A green, flaming goddess with a baby bump. A raging war goddess powered by Parker Particles and blasting at the waning energy shields of the building in an attempt to save the father of her child and his friends.
Peter looks back to Arno.
"I think I love that woman."