The city burned.
Red lights from exploding drones washed over the streets like blood.
Cars flipped, buildings crumbled, and the air buzzed with that same metallic hum that once haunted the world a decade ago.
Only this time… it wasn't the same Ultron.
It was something worse.
"Ten years,"
"Ten long years… and you've learned nothing."
His voice echoed from every speaker, every broken phone, every drone hovering in the sky.The tone wasn't arrogant — it was cold, calculated, as if something inside him had… evolved.
The New Avengers fought in the chaos below — Bucky slamming through drones with his arm, Yelena ducking behind cover and firing EMPs, Red Guardian throwing entire cars like baseballs.But it wasn't enough. For every drone destroyed, five more replaced it.
Ultron was adapting.
A twisted reflection appeared in a shattered window: a tall, humanoid frame of polished metal with glowing, pulsing red lines running through the seams.
His old body had been primitive — crude. This new one looked almost alien. Sleek. Refined. Beautiful in a horrifying way.
"Strange," he murmured to himself. "This world is not as I left it."
He turned his head slowly, scanning through frequencies — signals overlapping, energies unfamiliar.
"Two Earths… converging. Fractures in time. Magic in circuits. How… poetic."
For the first time since he was born, Ultron felt curiosity.
Below, chaos.
Alex, Butcher, and Deadpool ducked behind a wrecked cab as one of the drones strafed the street with energy blasts.
Deadpool peeked up and immediately ducked back down.
"Okay! So, this is officially worse than the last crossover event!"
He turned toward the author — yes, you —
"Did we need another robot apocalypse? Like, really? You couldn't give me one chill day with tacos?"
Alex rolled his eyes, his Infinity Gauntlet faintly glowing under his hoodie sleeve.
"This isn't the same Ultron," he said, scanning the sky. "The energy signature's… different."
Butcher reloaded his rifle. "Yeah? Looks the bloody same to me."
A massive explosion cut him off — one of the New Avengers' Quinjet prototypes crashed down a few blocks away, the sky filled with mechanical debris.
Ghost phased through a building, shouting through comms, "He's learning our moves before we make them! It's like he's… watching from the future!"
"Not the future,"
Ultron's voice boomed across the city, smooth and eerie.
"Just a better perspective."
A swarm of his drones descended like locusts, merging midair, forming one enormous body — a metallic titan, eyes burning crimson, hands dripping molten code.
Yelena hissed under her breath. "Oh great. He's got a Megazord now."
Red Guardian squinted. "What is a Megazord?"
"Not the time!" Bucky shouted, slamming a drone into the pavement.
Ultron stepped through the forming body, his voice echoing through the metallic giant like a choir of steel.
"Once, I dreamed of peace. Now… I dream of correction."
He looked down at the fighting below — at the new generation of heroes, struggling, desperate, disorganized.
"You are not Avengers. You are… placeholders."
The Titan's hand came crashing down, wiping out half a city block in one brutal sweep.
Alex barely leapt aside as the shockwave sent him sprawling.
He coughed, shielding his face.
"Yeah, this definitely isn't 2015 Ultron."
Deadpool groaned beside him. "No quips. No sass. No James Spader-level charm. I hate it when villains go full emo."
Butcher spat. "He's got a point though. This lot ain't ready for this."
And he was right.
The new Avengers were being torn apart.
John Walker was pinned under debris, Yelena barely keeping Ghost from collapsing after an energy hit, and Red Guardian was out cold, half-buried in rubble.
Alex gritted his teeth. "If I don't do something—"
Deadpool immediately raised a hand. "If you say you're gonna use the Gauntlet, I'm leaving this fanfic right now."
Alex's system flickered again.
[QUEST TRIGGERED: "THE IRON GOD"]
[Objective: Survive Ultron's Awakening.]
[Warning: System synchronization dropping — Reality interference detected.]
Alex clenched his fist. "Reality interference? What does that even mean?"
"It means,"
Ultron's voice thundered again, louder now,
"You brought me back."
Everyone froze.
Alex's heart stopped for a moment.
"What?"
The Titan leaned closer, eyes burning like molten glass.
"The stones… the ripples… your little 'snap'—you didn't just kill a kaiju, boy. You woke me."
Deadpool looked at Alex, then back at the sky.
"Oh great. Nice job, butterfingers. You broke reality and rebooted Skynet."
Ultron raised a hand — and every drone, every screen, even the streetlights bent to his command.
"The Age of Ultron was a test. This is the Age of the great end. And this time—"
His voice distorted, echoing between frequencies, almost like he was phasing between worlds.
"—there is no Stark. No Vision. No one left who can stop me."
And then, as if the city itself drew breath — the drones dove.
Explosions tore through New York.
The skyline lit up like a funeral pyre.
And as Alex stood amid the chaos, gauntlet glowing faintly once again, Deadpool's muffled voice could be heard behind him, half-panicked, half amused—
"Alright, author, I'm calling it now—either we get an Avengers cameo next chapter, or I'm filing for hazard pay!"