"I can guarantee that the 31st century has absolutely no copyright laws, otherwise Kang would definitely know he's infringing on my patents."
The Avengers, acting as Kang's praetorian guard, did not set out immediately. In truth, convincing the Avengers to rebel against Kang was remarkably easy, but witnessing the instantaneous destruction of the entire Indian subcontinent and the deaths of tens of thousands of Sinisters was such a staggering display of power that they found it difficult to believe it had actually happened.
War Machine turned directly to Tony and asked, "Can you handle this, man?"
"Can I handle this?" Tony looked at his old friend with a face full of disdain. "Are you kidding me? Who could handle a monster like that?"
"This time last year, I only had to deal with an alien army. All it took was one nuke to their home base and they were finished. Now? Now I have to face a guy who shoved a reality-warping Cube into his chest and can rewrite every timeline on Earth?"
Tony glared angrily at a nearby portal and then pulled a lever.
"I can damn well handle it!"
Kang realized instantly what Tony Stark had done. As he raised his hand to strike, Strange intercepted the attack, his entire body cracking like a piece of shattered porcelain. But even so, Tony's objective had been achieved. A massive space-time tunnel tore open in the high atmosphere, as if attempting to replicate the Battle of New York—except this time, an endless, black tide of an army came diving down.
They were not invaders from an alien planet, however; they were Assimilators from the future. Tony saw himself, and he saw Pym, but these "Avengers" were all half-human, half-mechanical constructs. Their bodies had undergone varying degrees of modification, and without exception, these upgrades looked strikingly similar to... Ultron.
Hank Pym suddenly understood why Kang had called the future an "Age of Ultron." He had thought Kang was lying, but it turned out Kang was telling the truth.
"If that's the case, then Ultron shouldn't exist..." Pym thought sadly.
Tony slapped Pym on the shoulder. "Alright, stop moping. I'm not counting on a machine uprising to hold Kang off for very long. Hurry up, we don't have much time."
"...Who do you think can pull this off? The Sorcerer Supreme has reached his limit; we can't count on Strange to help us anymore."
"Exactly. So we need some other kind of help. I'm putting my money on Doom. What do you think of Doom?" Tony spoke with what seemed like a complete lack of confidence. He then glanced at Carol. "Ms. Danvers? Could you go fetch our flying Sorcerer Supreme back? Be careful—don't let him break."
Kang's attention was now entirely fixed on the Ultron Legion before him. He flew upward, coming face-to-face with an Ultron unit leading the swarm, and asked in confusion, "Is this all you can do?"
He was perplexed. If this was the full extent of the Age of Ultron's power, then Ultron shouldn't have been able to trigger such a horrific catastrophe. Why, then, had the Multiversal Incursion begun?
"You are suffering, Kang. You need treatment. Ultron can provide that treatment."
The lead Ultron explained the situation and immediately launched an attack. Kang struck out at the group of mechanical superhumans, but to his surprise, they were not hit by the power of the Cosmic Cube.
Kang quickly realized how Ultron was evading the strike.
They all had miniature time engines implanted in their bodies, allowing them to shift their temporal axis during combat. This method allowed them to dodge the power of the Cosmic Cube, which could only modify the "present." Kang said nothing; he simply waited for the Ultron bots to make contact with him, and in an instant, he detonated the lead unit.
At the moment of its destruction, the Ultron bot dissolved into a cloud of nanomachines that blanketed the surface of Kang's body. Kang could feel Ultron attempting to consume his essence and assimilate him. Once he understood the principle behind Ultron's power, Kang purged the nanites from his form.
Next, he threw a heavy punch. The Time Gem on his gauntlet pulled all the Ultron Avengers into a single timeline, and with one blow, he wiped them all out.
But this was far from over. The temporal gateway in the sky remained open, and a vast number of Ultron Avengers continued to pour out. At first, Hank and Tony thought the Age of Ultron meant Ultron had turned all the Avengers into cyborgs, but now it looked different—the batch of Ultron Avengers that had just died was being replaced by identical ones.
Tony couldn't help but ask, "Did you program Ultron to 'assist the Avengers'?"
"...And to not use lethal force."
"Transforming others into Ultron doesn't count as lethal force to him, and to make his job easier, Ultron built himself a fleet of mechanical Avengers," Tony sighed. Hank immediately replied, "If we survive this, I'm deleting Ultron. Assuming we survive."
Kang began to escalate his counterattack. He used the Time Gem to pull another version of himself from a different era. In that timeline, Kang's aesthetic had shifted; he wore a red and silver suit of iron armor. Upon connecting to the power of the Cosmic Cube, this version surged toward the year 2015.
"The Scarlet Centurion shall conquer the Age of Ultron!"
If you're wondering why this Kang is called the Scarlet Centurion... well, it probably has nothing to do with Tony having a suit called the Silver Centurion, right?
Watching this while communicating with a self-repairing Strange, Tony couldn't help but snark.
"This time, I am definitely charging Kang a licensing fee. If I'm still around to collect it."
The threat of the Age of Ultron delayed Kang for only about fifteen minutes before he temporarily neutralized the nuisance. Shortly after, Baron Zemo and Doctor Doom arrived together—one descending from the sky with magical energy, the other arriving before Kang on a personal flyer.
"Are you here to kneel before me, or do you intend to overestimate yourselves?"
"The word 'kneel' is not in Doom's vocabulary, Kang."
Green magical energy coalesced in Doom's hands. As for Zemo, he simply raised his longsword.
"Likewise, Kang. Hand over the Cosmic Cube. That object belongs to Hydra."