Tony opened his eyes and found himself standing in the middle of an endless space. Everything was white, but not the eye-hurting white. He looked around, "Would you look at that. Mindspace? Isolated dimension? Pocket dimension?" He mumbled to himself.
He looked down. Beneath his feet, a faint shimmer rippled like frozen glass. When he crouched and touched it, the floor vibrated faintly, humming like a living circuit. It was cold, yet it pulsed with energy that crawled up his arm like static.
"Interesting…" he muttered. "Infinity energy. But different... Space energy."
A voice answered, soft but familiar. "Yes. It is. This place is constructed with the power of the Space Gem."
Tony turned.
Before him stood the child. The same one he had seen once before—small, bare-footed, with golden eyes that looked far older than his face suggested. The Mind Stone's will.
Tony let out a short laugh and waved casually. "Long time no see."
The child smiled faintly. "Indeed, it has been some time. You have done well, Anthony Stark. You learned to wield the power you were given, and you used it to protect instead of destroy. You've brought peace where others would have brought ruin."
Tony crossed his arms. "I try. World's been quiet lately. No alien invasions, no killer ancient bacterial lifeform. Just me, a lab, and a lot of overdue paperwork. Oh, there's that Apocalypse freak. He hasn't made his move yet. So... yeah, pretty peaceful. Which I guess you already know."
The child's expression shifted. "Peace never lasts. The balance has started to tilt again. The other Gems are awakening."
Tony's brow furrowed. "I know. Sublime said something like that, and I felt similar power in one of the pyramids."
"Each stone reacts to the will of the universe. When a great power rises or an imbalance grows, they answer. Right now, another bearer has touched the Power Stone. He has bent it to his command."
Tony's jaw tightened. "And let me guess. That's bad news."
"The worst kind," the child said. "And it will not end there. The Soul Stone has already chosen its vessel. An ancient mutant. One whose will is older than the civilization."
'Ah! Crap!' Tony sighed. "Ancient mutant… Apocalypse."
The child gave a slow nod.
Tony stepped closer. "What about the Time Stone? Kamar-Taj still has it locked down, right?"
The child didn't answer. His golden eyes flickered like candlelight in the wind.
"Hey," Tony said, irritation creeping in. "You can't drop cosmic bombshells and then go mute on me."
The child finally spoke. "Be careful, Anthony. The universe is shifting. What you know as stability is only the calm before something far greater. A war is coming, beyond your wildest imagination and you stand at its center."
Tony stared at him. "You're saying this like it's destiny."
"It is not fate," the child said softly. "It is the consequence of your actions. I have already warned you before, haven't I?"
The white space around them pulsed, colors bleeding through faintly—blue, red, purple, yellow, green, orange—then fading back to white.
The child looked up at him again. "You already have everything you need. The answers you seek are within your reach. You only have to look. Every tool, every invention, every fragment you've ever dismissed as insignificant. They are all connected. Use them."
Tony frowned. "That's vague even for a space ghost."
The child smiled. "You will understand when it is time."
"Before you go, just answer one question. How many Infinity Stones... No, how many Gems are there in this Universe apart from the classic six?" Tony asked with a serious expression.
"You already know the answer," The child said with a faint smile as his form began to disappear.
"Eight?" Tony asked again. [Note: In the Ultimate verse Earth 1610, there were Eight Gems. And as far as I remember, they were unnamed.]
The floor beneath Tony cracked. Light swallowed him whole.
He gasped as he came to—back in the containment chamber, knees hitting the metal floor. The machines around him burst into static and unstable energy. Hermes worked fast to stabilize the lab.
Tony opened his hand.
The Space Stone floated over his palm, steady and pulsing in rhythm with his heartbeat.
Hermes's voice cut through the noise. "Boss! Your vitals dropped to zero for 4.3 seconds. What happened?"
Tony stared at the Stone, his reflection warped across its surface.
"Just had a chat with an old friend," he said after grabbing the Stone. "And I think we've got bigger problems than I thought."
...
[Next Night]
[Baja, Mexico – Owl's Compound]
Frank crouched behind a half-buried dune of concrete and sand. With him were Natasha, Yelena, Sue, and Emma.
Below, Owl's compound glowed under the floodlights, a mix of concrete bunkers and old cargo hangars turned into fortresses. Heat signatures moved everywhere on their HUD: fifty human guards, twenty mutants, all armed.
"Would you look at that," Yelena said over comms. "Owl's got an army down there. And two of the Hand's pets—Gorgon and Silver Samurai."
"Still no sign of Bullseye or the monk," Sue said.
Emma replied. "Their psychic signatures are masked. Either they're not here or they've taken countermeasures against telepathy."
Frank did another scan before saying. "Then let's make them come out."
Natasha gave the signal. "Hermes, deploy the swarm. Let's use those old gen drones. They've been gathering dust for a while now."
A second later, the night sky lit up with red dots.
Hundreds of Stark drones flew overhead, breaking formation and diving straight into the compound. The first wave hit the outer wall, blasting holes clean through. Alarms blared. Automated turrets turned skyward, shredding the air with gunfire, but the drones were too fast.
"That's first-generation drones?" Sue asked Natasha.
"Yeah." She nodded.
"Aren't they too fast for a first-gen series? And considering the firepower..."
"That's what they are only good for. Fast and heavy firepower but shitty defence," Yelena chimed in.
Explosions rippled across the camp. The barracks went up in flames. The air was filled with smoke, shrapnel, and chaos.
Yelena grinned under his helmet. "Ha-ha! That's how you knock."
"They're scrambling," Emma said with her eyes closed. She was touching the side of her forehead with her finger. "Owl's men are confused, scared. They are trying to organize a defense."
"Good," Natasha said. "Let them show their hand."
Yelena smirked. "Literally."
The drones continued their assault, firing pulse rounds and guided micro-missiles into defensive towers. Within minutes, the outer layer of the compound was a wreck.
"Movement," Frank said. "North gate."
On their HUD, they saw Mutants shielding themselves with energy barriers and elemental attacks. A man in silver armor stepped forward, blade glowing faintly with tachyon energy. Silver Samurai.
"Target two, confirmed," Natasha said.
Behind him, another figure emerged. Gorgon. He was carrying a katana.
Silver Samurai swung his tachyon-charged blade, arcs of orange energy slicing clean through drones midair. Waves of red light splintered the night sky as each strike sent smaller drones spiraling into the sand.
Gorgon, on the other hand, was cutting down any drone that hovered low enough to reach. Metal fragments rained down. His powers were useless against the inorganic machines, so he was forced to rely entirely on skill.
From a distant ridge, a silent figure crouched. Each drone that strayed into his crosshairs was instantly obliterated. Bullseye. His bullets punctured the drones' cores with perfect accuracy. Even in the chaos, he looked calm, almost bored, like a man cleaning his workbench.
"Natasha, they're adapting fast," Frank said, scanning the battlefield. "Our drones won't last long at this rate."
Natasha's fingers tapped rapidly on her wrist console. "Hermes, fuse the drones. Form two humanoid units. Let's see how they handle this."
The drones hovered, lights blinking frantically, before converging with whirring servos. Metal plates shifted, limbs extending, thrusters merging. Within seconds, two massive humanoid robots stood over the wreckage with energy shielding.
Gorgon raised his katana. The humanoids moved with surprising speed, sidestepping his slashes. Silver Samurai unleashed a tachyon wave, but one of the robots raised an energy shield, absorbing the attack and countering with a blast from its forearm cannon. Sparks flew, and the ground shook from the impact.
"Gaahhh!" Silver Samurai got thrown back a few feet away. But he was unharmed due to his tachyon energy armor, covering his body. He got up and started to fight again.
Bullseye's shots continued to hit the robots' weak points, but it was useless against the energy shield. While Gorgon fell back since those two robots were out of his league. The remaining goons and mutants started to attack the robots.
On the other side, Frank lay on the ground with a sniper rifle. He was locked onto Bullseye. Considering the distance between them and the hiding spot, it'd be nearly impossible to take a perfect shot for any sniper. But with Hermes' AI guidance and a high-caliber sniper rifle that shoots plasma beams...
Well...
Frank pulled the trigger.
Zip! Splatter! Sizzzle!
Bullseye's upper head splattered. He fell to the ground. Sizzling smoke rose from his charred lower head.
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