[HORIZON ISLAND – 11:34 AM] [Reinforced Combat Room B]
The air inside the training room shimmered faintly with residual energy. The walls, reinforced with layered adamantium and layered kinetic absorption plates, bore scuff marks and burn patterns.
Ben stood near the far corner, shoulders hunched slightly, arms flexed. He took a slow breath and rolled his neck.
"Alright, you two. Just don't go easy on me this time."
Johnny bounced on his heels, arms glowing with soft orange embers. His t-shirt had burn holes, and the tips of his hair were slightly singed. Tony gave them new clothes that can sustain their power, but Johnny just wants to show off his body. There were so many girls on that island, and he was yet to get lucky.
"Don't worry, big guy. I already cleared my schedule for a rematch."
Sue stood between them, her hair tied back in a tight braid. Her hands were raised, fingers subtly twitching. A transparent shimmer surrounded her like a second skin.
"This isn't a contest. It's control. We're not burning down another room."
Johnny gave her a sidelong grin. "You say that like it was my fault last time."
"It was your fault," Ben said, crouching into a fighting stance. "You literally sneezed and blew a hole through the wall. Tony had to build this new room just for us. So, control."
"Still counts as flair."
"Let's move." Sue cut them off, pushing a lightwave pulse across the room to mark the start.
Johnny reacted first. He flared, his arms lighting up as he dashed left. Ben went right, his steps heavy but precise. Sue stayed back, building a dome of force around her body while controlling two small discs of compressed energy in her palms.
Johnny blasted a stream of controlled fire at Ben's feet. Ben jumped over it and landed with a fist that cracked the ground, but missed.
Sue launched one disc at Johnny. It curved mid-flight, chasing his movement. He created a heat wall to block it. The disc pushed through the flames and clipped his side.
"Ow! Friendly fire, Sue."
"You dodged like a toddler."
Ben spun toward her and threw a mock punch. She caught it with a shield, redirected the momentum, and used it to vault herself backward. She landed without a sound.
"Better," she said.
Johnny fired a focused flame blast at Ben's back. Ben didn't flinch. He took it head-on, and his body glowed faint purple for a second. He grinned and turned.
"New trick."
Then he clapped his hands, releasing a shockwave, catching Johnny off guard and slamming him into the padded far wall. Smoke rose.
Sue raised both hands and forced an invisible wall between them.
"Reset. You're getting sloppy, Johnny."
Johnny groaned and slid down the wall. "I thought this was a spar, not a punishment."
"That was light." Ben cracked his knuckles.
Johnny got up slowly. "Okay. Now I'm mad."
He exploded forward, heat bursting from his body as he took to the air. His fists burned white-hot as he spun, creating a ring of fire that hovered above Ben before crashing it down like a meteor. Ben raised his arms and took the full hit, purple energy flaring across his shoulders as the heat spread over his skin.
He didn't fall.
Ben shoved upward, bursting through the flames and grabbing Johnny mid-air. With a grunt, he threw him across the room like a cannonball. Johnny twisted, fired a blast under him, and slowed just enough to avoid embedding himself in the wall again.
Sue dropped low, rolling behind a column. Her forcefields shimmered in place, creating a zig-zag path of shields between her and the boys. She flicked her wrist and sent three pulse discs flying: two at Johnny and one at Ben.
Johnny twisted, dodging one, letting the second graze his thigh with a sizzling hiss. He fired back with a flamethrower burst that lit up the ceiling.
Ben simply charged through it.
"You hit like a snowflake, Sue."
"That's because I haven't hit you yet."
She raised her left hand and compressed a wide arc of force into a flat plane.
Johnny flared up again. "Come on, Sis, you really think you can block this?"
He fired a wide wave of heat.
Sue gritted her teeth and caught it with the plane. The flame curved around her, caught in the invisible barrier. She twisted her hand and sent the wave back, redirected like a mirror. The heat crashed into Johnny's side and spun him around.
"Okay!" Johnny shouted. "Maybe I deserved that."
Ben was already moving. He slammed his foot down, launching forward like a missile. Sue vanished from his view.
"Where'd she go?" he muttered, stopping mid-charge.
Johnny paused, still smoldering. "Wait... Sue?"
The room was quiet.
No shimmer. No flicker. Nothing.
"Where the hell is..."
A solid wall of force slammed into Johnny from the side, sending him cartwheeling into the crater that Ben made during the previous round.
Sue reappeared a second later, eyes wide, panting. Her body flickered in and out, like a glitching reflection.
Ben stared. "Was that... were you invisible?"
Sue blinked, then looked down at her hands. They flickered and faded again, then returned.
"I... I think so."
Johnny coughed. "You think so? You punched me while invisible. That's ambushing."
She held her breath, trying to feel it again. The space around her rippled. For a moment, she vanished entirely. Then she popped back into sight.
Ben let out a low whistle. "Damn. That's new."
"I didn't even try," Sue said, her voice quieter now. "It just... happened. My body felt like it bent with the light."
Johnny raised a hand from the floor. "So you can go invisible now and still punch people? Great. That's fair."
"Looks like your powers are still evolving," Ben said. "You're the strongest one in the room right now."
Sue looked between them, a little dazed. "No. Not the strongest. Just... more precise."
"Semantics," Johnny muttered. "Still cheating."
Sue cracked a grin. "Then learn how to dodge."
Ben chuckled, walking over to help Johnny up.
"Alright," he said. "Back to round three. Let's see what else we're hiding."
Johnny groaned. "Yeah, yeah. But I'm checking my room for Sue every night from now on. No more sneak attacks. Dang! Why not me? If I were invisible, I could have easily escaped Melina after busting her bike."
Sue lifted her hands again, energy pulsing from her palms. "She would've still found you. No one escapes her eyes."
...
[SIBERIA] [Unmarked Forest Sector – Frost Line Ridge]
The wind howled through the dead trees, carrying sharp flakes of snow that bit like glass. The ground was packed white, broken only by a blood-soaked trail leading to the base of a twisted pine tree.
Nick Fury sat slumped against it, his back stiff, his coat torn and frozen to the bark. His left arm was gone. Torn off at the shoulder. The wound had been cauterized, but not cleanly. Blood had frozen in a jagged pattern across his chest and side. His breath came slow and visible in the air.
Tony stood five feet away, fully armored. The Arc Reactor pulsed a low, steady blue in the mist. His visor was open, face unreadable.
Fury chuckled once, low and bitter.
"You know, it didn't have to end like this."
Tony didn't speak.
Fury stared at him, one eye filled with pain and defiance.
"If you had just tried to understand. Just for one damn minute. We were close. You could've helped. You could've saved them... or at least spared the innocent."
Tony's eyes narrowed slightly.
Fury leaned his head back against the tree, wincing.
"But no. You had to make it personal. Had to play god with orbital death rays. You saw green skin and made the call. No trial. No evidence. Just execution. A whole race... gone. So many families just gone..." He reached for his wallet and opened it. Inside was a picture of his wife. He just looked at it once before closing.
Tony stepped forward, boots crunching in the snow.
"They replaced my people," he said coldly. "They kidnapped my friends, attempted to kill me and my team, infiltrated governments, and killed civilians. You let them in."
"I was trying to buy time," Fury rasped. "Trying to keep Earth safe without setting the world on fire. You think people would've handled it better if I told them the truth ten years ago? They'd have burned their neighbors alive."
He coughed, blood dark against his lips.
"I made hard choices, Stark. You made worse."
Tony didn't move.
Fury looked up at him again, his voice quieter now.
"So. Tell me. Since you're the new god of Earth now... have you slept? At all? Since you pushed that button?"
Tony's jaw tightened. His eyes, glowing yellow for a moment before going back to normal, stayed fixed on Fury.
"I sleep fine," he said.
Fury huffed out a humorless, painful laugh. "Yeah, right. You can't even lie properly."
Tony stepped closer, one hand at his side, twitching with built-up tension.
"You think I don't feel it? Every face. Every possibility. I counted every last one of them before I acted. And I gave them a chance. You took it away."
Fury didn't respond right away. The wind blew between them, tugging at Fury's coat. He sighed, looking at the sky for a moment before looking back at Tony.
"Maybe I did," he said. "Maybe I lost my way. No. I did lost my way somewhere along the way. Ha! I didn't even realize that. I guess, when you are close to death, everything comes back with clarity. But you... you lost something bigger. You crossed a line that doesn't uncross."
Tony leaned down slightly, getting close enough to meet his eye. "I crossed it to make sure that no one else has to. I did this to protect Earth and my family; you have no idea how far I would go."
Fury looked up at him, his voice low and steady.
"Then I hope whatever comes next makes that true. Now, do what you have to do. End it and create a new world. I hope you won't be lost like me on your journey."
"Despite our difference, I'll end this painlessly," Tony pressed his hand on Fury's head and extracted all the information he had, then painlessly shut down his brain before burning his body.
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