[Third Person POV]
Momo knelt over Tony's battered body, her hands trembling as she summoned every tool, clamp, and medical patch her Quirk could possibly create. Metal instruments, bandages, and strange polymer sheets materialized from her arms and shoulders in frantic succession, but none of it seemed to matter—the bleeding refused to stop. Her breath came in ragged gasps, each one sharper than the last, her heart hammering in a deafening rhythm that drowned out almost everything around her.
The world itself seemed to be coming apart. Explosions boomed across the ruined camp, the ground quaking violently beneath their knees. Towers of smoke billowed upward in thick, greasy plumes that painted the sky in shades of black and rust-red. Scarlet laser beams lanced through the haze like lightning bolts, burning holes through ground and trees alike.
A sudden shriek of repulsor fire tore through the chaos. Momo flinched, shielding Tony with her own body as several beams from the descending Ultron sentinels streaked toward them. At the last possible instant, a thunderous crack of ice split the air. Todoroki skidded across the rubble-strewn ground, one hand outstretched, his breath frosting the air as a colossal wall of glimmering ice erupted upward in front of them. The barrier stretched like a frozen fortress, catching the laser fire and scattering it in a dazzling spray of blue light. Steam hissed where the heat met the cold.
On the torn ground below, Iida moved like blur, his Engine Quirk roaring to life with a scream of turbines. He crouched low as his leg thrusters flared white-hot, propelling him across the battlefield with impossible speed. Every few seconds he veered sharply to scoop up wounded allies or shove others out of the blast radius, his frame a streak of blue amidst the smoke and fire.
"Baymax!! BAYMAX, WHERE ARE YOU?!" Momo's voice cracked as she screamed the name into the choking air. Her face was streaked red with Tony's blood, her hands slick and shaking. Her school uniform clung to her with sweat and grime.
Two figures planted themselves around her in a protective ring. Mina Ashido skidded to a stop with a feral grin, her hands glowing a bright, corrosive pink as she conjured massive streams of acid. With a whip-like motion, she hurled the sizzling liquid skyward, the air hissing and popping as the corrosive spray struck the metal frames of the sentinels. Beside her, Tsuyu Asui darted forward with amphibian agility, her tongue lashing out like a living cable. She snared the leg of a descending robot, yanking it violently out of formation before slamming it into a second sentinel with a bone-rattling crash. Her movements were frantic but precise, eyes wide with a desperate energy. When her gaze flicked toward Tony's motionless body, tears welled and threatened to spill.
Elsewhere on the battlefield, Denki Kaminari and Eijiro Kirishima fought like unleashed forces of nature. Denki was nothing more than a streak of neon yellow lightning, his electrified body zigzagging through the dark battlefield. Wherever he passed, sparks detonated in dazzling bursts, sentinels dropping from the sky in showers of molten shrapnel. Kirishima, hardened and unyielding, was a living tank. His crimson hair was matted with sweat and blood, but his eyes burned with unbreakable resolve as he charged headlong into enemy fire.
A blinding beam of energy streaked toward Kendo and Monoma. Kirishima leapt in front of them without hesitation, taking the full brunt of the repulsor blast. His hardened skin cracked and chipped under the relentless force, fragments of his armor-like flesh scattering like shards of glass. Monoma lunged forward, pressing a hand to Kirishima's back, instantly copying his Quirk. Hardened to near-diamond density, Monoma braced himself and lent his strength, while Kirishima pushed against the roaring beam with a guttural cry. With a final surge of power, he sprang upward, crashing into the attacking android and dragging it down in a fiery explosion. The blast engulfed him completely—only for him to stride from the flames moments later, unscathed, eyes blazing.
Not far away, Bakugo had once slammed into the ground with a harsh grunt, smoke rising from his battered form. He had been blasted clear across the battlefield, but he refused to stay down. Glancing at his wrist, he exhaled in relief as he saw the reinforced bracers still intact. Slowly, deliberately, he pushed himself to his feet. His gauntlets hissed and sparked as they reactivated, black plates and fibers unfolding with a metallic snap.
With a deafening whoomph, a sleek black and neon-orange combat suit materialized around his body, piece by piece, until he stood clad in the same advanced armor Tony had personally engineered for him. He flexed his gloved fingers into a tight fist, the servos whirring in response. For a heartbeat, his crimson eyes softened. He closed them, whispering under his breath, his voice a raw mixture of fury and fear.
"You better not die, you bastard… or I'll kill you myself."
A metallic screech rang out as cybernetic wings burst from Bakugo's back, glowing a brilliant orange. They flared to life with a resonant hum, the energy coursing through them so bright it painted the smoke in fiery hues. Crackles of explosive energy sparked between his palms before detonating in a thunderous blast. The shockwave obliterated the nearest squad of sentinels, the resulting flash carving a blazing orange trail through the suffocating darkness as Bakugo launched himself into the sky like a living missile.
Across the battlefield, Midoriya crouched low, his body shaking but his eyes alight with a fierce emerald glow. His bloodied fist wrapped itself in writhing strands of black whip, the tendrils coiling tighter and tighter until they not only shielded his knuckles but reinforced his entire arm. The dark cords began to spread, weaving across his torso and legs like living muscle fibers. They didn't merely brace his frame against the strain of One For All—they became an extension of it, forming the jagged outline of a black combat suit traced with faint green energy lines.
"Tony…" Midoriya murmured, voice cracking as he steadied his stance like a runner at the starting block. A tremor of grief crossed his face, but he forced a small, determined smile. Emerald tears welled and fell, glinting in the faint green light. "It will all be okay… it has to be."
The earth itself seemed to recoil as he kicked off. A thunderous shockwave ripped through the shattered street, chunks of concrete exploding outward. In an instant, Midoriya became a streak of black and green light, tearing through the battlefield with unstoppable speed—a living comet hurtling straight into the heart of the chaos.
A sudden shadow swept over Momo, blotting out the fiery chaos around her. She raised her tear-streaked face, blinking against the drifting smoke until the broad, white silhouette of Baymax emerged through the haze. The gentle glow of his optic sensors cut through the darkness like a soft beacon. Her breath caught in her throat.
"Please… save him…" she begged, her voice cracking as thick droplets of tears rolled down her cheeks and splashed onto Tony's bloodied chest. Her hands tightened around his head as if holding him in place might keep his soul from slipping away. "You have a million medical procedures programmed inside of you, right?! Surely you have something—anything—to help him, don't you?! So please… save him!!"
Her desperate plea rose against the deafening thunder of distant explosions and the electric hiss of repulsor beams, but it felt impossibly small in the open battlefield. The ground trembled beneath them, every shockwave threatening to shatter what little hope she still clung to.
Her next words came out as a trembling whisper, barely audible even to herself. "Please… I can't lose him."
Baymax's black, glassy eyes brightened with a soft cerulean glow as a scanning light extended from his body. A beam of pale blue swept up and down Tony's still frame, flickering with gentle pulses as it focused on his chest. The light settled over his heart, which lay deathly still, pierced.
After a long, clinical pause, Baymax spoke in his usual calm, measured tone. "I am sorry. There does not seem to be anything I can do for him."
The words struck like a blade.
"No…" Momo's voice cracked under the weight of despair. Her heart clenched, the sound of Baymax's gentle apology ringing cruelly in her ears. Her vision blurred as more tears welled and spilled, streaking her dirt-stained face. She had only just begun to be with him, where she could dream of a future with him—and now that fragile dream was being torn away, ripped from her before it could even bloom.
Her trembling hands cradled his head with aching tenderness. "There… there has to be something," she whispered, her voice breaking into raw fragments. "I don't know what I'd do without you…"
"Do not misunderstand," Baymax interrupted, his voice cutting through the spiral of panic threatening to consume her.
Momo blinked, her tearful eyes snapping toward him. "What?" she croaked, the single word almost lost to the booming chaos around them.
"When I stated that there does not seem to be anything I can do for him," Baymax clarified, his tone unchanged, "I did not mean that in a negative connotation."
"H-huh?" Momo froze, her mind struggling to process the words. Her grip on Tony tightened instinctively.
"I meant that there is nothing I can do," Baymax continued, his voice a calm anchor amid the noise, "because there is simply no need for me to intervene."
Confusion flashed across Momo's tear-streaked face. "What do you mean by that? What's going on? Are you saying Tony's going to be… alright?" Her voice trembled, but a flicker of desperate hope ignited in her chest.
Baymax projected a holographic X-ray above Tony's chest, revealing a faint glow where his heart should be. Within the translucent image, thousands of tiny motes of silver light swirled and pulsed in delicate patterns. "According to my scans," Baymax explained, "Tony's heart is filled with microscopic nanobots that are actively reconstructing the damaged tissue. Cellular repair is already underway."
Momo gasped, her eyes widening in shock and wonder. "Nanobots? But… why would there be nanobots inside his heart?" Each passing word drew more breathless hope into her voice.
A soft chime echoed from Tony's body, followed by the familiar, serene voice of FRIDAY. "I will answer that," the AI said, her tone tinged with quiet reverence. "Tony anticipated that one day his heart might become the target of an attack. He believed there was always a chance that shrapnel—or worse—could pierce it. To prepare for such an event, he injected a small colony of self-replicating nanobots into his heart and kept it there for safe keeping. Initially, I dismissed the idea as one of his more… paranoid contingencies. Yet it appears his foresight far exceeded my own calculations. Truly, he is an exceptional man—one who dreams of the future even as he battles in the present."
Relief crashed over Momo in a tidal wave. Her lips trembled into a fragile smile as fresh tears spilled down her cheeks—this time tears of joy. "Yes… thank god," she breathed, her voice shaking. "He's going to be okay."
But FRIDAY's voice hardened, cutting through the fragile hope. "Do not celebrate yet. This is only a temporary safeguard. The nanobots' energy reserves are finite. When their power runs out, so will Tony's heart. It is far too early to rejoice."
Momo's fragile hope wavered, but she clung to it with every ounce of will she had. Tony was alive—for now—and that was enough.
---
Location: Tartarus – Maximum-Security Prison for Criminal Villains
Far across the ocean of chaos, a different kind of storm was brewing. The iron walls of Tartarus loomed like a titan, their obsidian-black surface glistening in the cold moonlight.
Without warning, a swirling ripple of purple energy tore open the air above the prison yard. A circular portal blossomed outward with a low, resonant hum, bending the world around it like a mirage. From its center drifted a lone figure.
Saiki emerged without a sound, levitating effortlessly as if gravity itself held no claim on him. His hair shimmered faintly in the moonlight as he hovered a few feet above the ground, his expression unreadable. The portal behind him flickered once, then snapped shut with a hollow pop, leaving only silence in its wake.
His outline shimmered briefly before vanishing altogether, his body fading into perfect invisibility. Only a faint ripple in the air betrayed his presence.
"I think the boss man has enjoyed his vacation long enough," Saiki murmured, his voice low but laced with dry amusement. "It's time for him to come back to work."
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