As Airbus One gradually descended, anti-aircraft missiles suddenly bombarded both the vessel and the cloaked Quinjet trailing behind it. Unfortunately for the attackers, both aircraft were almost entirely empty at that moment. The entire roster of the Avengers had collectively bailed out before the anti-air fire could strike, descending from the heavens.
Pym and Janet had rushed over from the Raft prison to participate in the operation, and they weren't alone—Wanda and Pietro had followed as well. According to them, Magneto had sent them to assist Spider-Man, so they felt obligated to come along.
After a brief moment of consideration, Captain America overruled Tony's suggestion to keep them out of it, allowing the two mutants to join the fray. Thus, a total of ten figures fell from the sky.
The fastest to touch down were Hulk and Thor. Hulk smashed into an anti-aircraft missile launcher with perfect precision before launching an assault on the A.I.M. technicians clad in yellow hazmat suits. He swatted them away one by one, only to discover that these grunts weren't dying; instead, they were scrambling back to their feet, alive and kicking.
Thor likewise crushed a launcher upon landing. He summoned a bolt of lightning for a wide-area strike against every enemy in the vicinity, but he found the same result: these guys were virtually unfazed and stood right back up.
"Don't hold back! These guys are all Extremis Virus subjects! Every single one of them is a living bomb!"
Tony barked as he cruised through the air, launching a barrage of micro-missiles to destroy them from within. Forced experimentation aside, every single one of these men actively fighting the Avengers was a terrorist and a walking bomb; killing them was the only solution.
Furthermore, these grunts appeared to have no intelligence value. With the exception of Killian, there was no need for prisoners—and if Killian resisted too fiercely, he wouldn't be spared either.
With that thought, Tony landed directly in front of Killian. Glowing, incandescent patterns had already surfaced on the latter's skin. He looked at Tony with a smirk. "Finally, we meet on the rooftop."
"First of all, this is a dock warehouse," Tony replied, opening his faceplate to look at Killian with a quip. "Second, who are you again?"
Killian froze for a second before flying into a rage. He lunged forward and threw a punch at Tony. Tony snapped his faceplate shut and raised his arm to block; a section of the All-New, All-Different armor was torn open by the high-temperature fist. However, Killian's joy didn't last a second before he saw the armor rapidly restructure and self-repair.
Tony's retort followed immediately: "It's over. My turn."
The arc reactor in his chest emitted a powerful beam of light. As Tony watched the rest of the Avengers crashing down, he raised a crucial question: "Uh, has anyone found Rhodey?"
"He's here, Tony. A.I.M. was in the middle of augmenting him."
A giant-sized Ant-Man burst through the roof of the warehouse, cradling an unconscious Colonel Rhodes in his hands. A group of A.I.M. technicians self-detonated at his feet, but thanks to the increased durability of his giant form, the explosions achieved nothing for the time being.
Two Super-Adaptoids charged out at that moment, quickly finding Thor and Hulk to begin their assault. Hulk slammed a fist into a Super-Adaptoid's head without mercy, but the robot's head healed instantly. It began radiating heat similar to an Extremis infected subject before punching Hulk in the head. Its fist grew as massive as Hulk's, and its entire physique shifted rapidly to match his size, engaging the behemoth in a relentless trade of blows.
On the other side, the Super-Adaptoid facing Thor took the initial hits and then transformed to mimic his appearance, complete with a cape and armor. It turned one of its hands into a hammer, releasing thunder as it clashed against Thor.
"What strange creations!" Thor smashed the Super-Adaptoid into two pieces with his hammer, watching as the liquid metal robot began to recover. "A few months ago, they were merely ordinary machines driven by copper wire and electricity, easily dispatched by Knull. But now, they have become such monsters."
"Yeah, it looks like their evolution isn't normal."
Black Panther appeared behind the enemy Thor was facing, plunging a claw into the Super-Adaptoid's head in an attempt to rip it off. Moments later, the Super-Adaptoid simply regrew its head. Looking at the metal in his hand, Black Panther remarked, "This thing... doesn't look like technology from this era."
"Not from this era? You mean Nimrod brought it?"
Quicksilver, who had been zipping around pummeling A.I.M. grunts, ran over to ask. However, Black Panther, having contemplated the entire timeline, shook his head.
"No, Nimrod arrived too late. And we've encountered more than one time-traveling enemy."
The source of the metal was identical to that used by the Molten Man, but the integration with Extremis and the sophisticated mimicry capabilities were far beyond the reach of modern science. Considering someone's loathsome behavior during the previous Green Goblin incident, Black Panther reasonably suspected that this mess was the work of Kang the Conqueror.
That fellow was truly omnipresent. The Avengers had to find a way to deal with the Time Stone; otherwise, Kang was simply too much of a nuisance.
However, as powerful as the Super-Adaptoids seemed, they were not invincible. On Thor's side, by continuously flooding the Super-Adaptoid with his divine power, the robot eventually became a prisoner of the god's own energy, held in place by a hard-lock.
Over with Hulk, the Super-Adaptoid had no defense against magic. Peter and Wanda simply used magic simultaneously to trap it, ending the struggle.
The end of the battle was signaled by an explosion. As the smoke cleared, Tony landed nearby, looking worse for wear and sounding frustrated.
"That Killian guy couldn't beat me in the end, so he just blew himself up. I honestly don't know if he had some deep-seated grudge against me."
Tony, who failed to remember why he and Killian were enemies until the very end, walked over. Everyone focused their attention on the Super-Adaptoids being held by magic. No longer serving as combat robots for the American Avengers, the Super-Adaptoids appeared in a perfect, blank white rather than the colors of the American flag.
"So... you were waiting for me."
As Wanda's expression froze and Peter shouted a warning, the magical chains were severed instantly. The Super-Adaptoid's body began to shift, and then it spoke in a voice that didn't sound entirely cold.
"And here I am, Avengers."