Chapter 42

Chapter 42

(General P.O.V)

There's that period of 'Oh Fuck' before everything goes completely wrong. With an audible shudder, the whole section of the floating city dropped from the sky. The worst case scenario had officially happened.

"Oh no."

The Scarlet Witch said as they all looked back at the dome. They had missed one of the robots. Ash grunted in annoyance and shot off towards the unprotected core.

"No! kid!"

Hawkeye had his hands stretched out when Quicksilver's form blurred across the city, promptly depositing Captain America and Hawkeye onto the last ship. He was about to go back when one handcuff was strapped onto his wrist by Cap's quick thinking. The other end of the cuff was around Cap's wrist.

"I can't let you go back there."

The super soldier told the speedster, not backing down from the glare he was getting.

"My sister..."

"Vision has her."

He pointed a gloved hand over Quicksilver's shoulder. The latter looked back and saw his sister in Vision's arms. Both were flying towards them.

Back in the quickly descending city, mostly owing to the gigantic thrusters constructed at the top, Ash was navigating through the floating debris to get to the Core.

This time the lack of foresight hadn't truly been his fault. There had been a need to kill Ultron before he got on the Quinjet and killed Quicksilver like he did in Canon. The loop mission was everything to Ash, luckily this time the mission was not too difficult.

He'd thought that they had won but reality couldn't be far from the truth. Ash had prevented Quicksilver's death at least. Now he just had to make sure that everyone survived this.

He arrived at the core seconds before Iron Man and grabbed the Ultron Unit off the core. Ash could only recount a few instances where he'd ever been this mad, his blue eyes were glowing with power and the purple Ouroboros necklace hanging off his hand was pulsing with purple Reiryoku.

"Your bitterness has blinded you Ultron. Your existence is a fucking Cancer."

He then stabbed his hardened hand through it's chest before the Unit could answer.

"No, you don't get to talk."

Ash growled out before ripping apart the machine.

With a hard stomp, Iron Man landed next to Ash.

"What should we do Tony?"

The teen asked the brains of the team, discounting a Banner who was by now still roaring bloody murder at the fleeing Ultron Units.

"You," Iron Man pointed at Ash, "Are getting out of here. Now."

"I don't..."

Thor crashed through the doom while holding Mjolnir, interrupting Ash.

"Stark, what is the plan?"

Iron Man, fiddling with the core perked up as an idea came to mind.

"We'll have to destroy it."

"What do you mean? The core?"

Thor wondered out loud.

"No," Ash spoke up, remembering the details from the movie. It had been sometime since he had seen it but Tony's words made him recall something.

"He means the city. The whole thing needs to go. You can't stop the fall but we can separate it into smaller pieces by destroying it. But we'll have to aim for the sea to avoid a shower of rocks descending onto the surroundings."

Tony inside the suit blinked.

"Precisely."

Thor looked in between them in confusion.

"And how exactly do we achieve that?"

Iron Man turned to Ash who blushed.

"Umm...maybe you should take it from here."

He coughed.

"Really? You're sure?" Tony asked sarcastically.

"Sir, should I remind you that we're about to face a catastrophic event that will end with all life on earth extinguished?"

Friday's voice came in through the comms.

"Thor, I'll need you to go nuclear on my command. Blast the core with everything you got!"

Then he flew off without waiting for a reply. Ash stood together with Thor, feeling useless. Then realization dawned on him. There was a chance that Ultron could escape by piggy backing off a Unit. He was an AI after all.

"Thor! You can handle this right?"

Yet again, before Thor could answer, Ash was off.

The Prince of Asgard narrowed his eyes. He was starting to think they were being rude on purpose. Ash ascended to the sky and looked down at the falling section. Apart from the Helicarrier that was to his left a few feet below him and a Quinjet that was strangely disappearing over the horizon, there was nothing else...there!

Sure enough there was a group of Ultron Units flying away. Ash dove down towards them, activating his plasma sword. It came on with a sudden hum. He cleared the distance that was almost a mile in a few short seconds and caught up with them. The first Unit looked back and met it's death by a sudden diagonal slash followed by another. It fell from the sky into four pieces.

The rest increased the power of their thrusters and tried to get away. From his his back, Ash felt something fast and powerful reach him and then leave him in the dust. Vision's red cape flapped in the air as he phased his arms through a unit and then pulled them apart, destroying it with a mere flex.

Ash was about to attack another Unit that broke off from the main group, when he found himself thrown away by an enormous shockwave. He looked at the place of origin and saw the floating city piece, get destroyed into smaller chunks that dispersed through the air, falling into the sea below.

A sigh of relief escaped him. Tony and Thor had done their part, it was time for him to do his. It was easy to see Vision as he tangled with the last 4 Units. With a wide blast from the mind stone above his head, he destroyed three of them and then descended to face the last one that had landed in the woods.

Ash followed after them. He floated down and landed in between the both of them, Vision and the final Ultron Unit that was walking in an unsteady gait. Further investigation and Ash saw that one of it's thrusters was damaged.

"End of the road, Ultron."

Vision informed him just as Ash arrived.

"You know, I never meant for it to go this way. In the end, I was still too soft. I could have killed them anytime I wanted."

Ultron's voice came off the Unit.

"Having regrets?"

Ash asked. He knew what they had to do.

Ultron looked to the side, the Unit blinking it's optical lenses in quick succession.

"I...can process that emotion. Yes. I guess I am."

Then a chuckle escaped it.

Ultron spread his hands out.

"Well, what are you waiting for? Do it."

"Gladly."

Vision answered, letting loose a laser from his forehead. It seemed Ultron was going to meet his end.

Then he didn't. Ash's arm came up and he blocked the laser by deploying his plasma sword. The golden beam from the android hit the sword and bounced off, carving out a groove on the floor of the forest and destroying trees. They fell to the ground with a resounding crack as branches broke on the hard terrain.

"What is the meaning of this?"

Vision asked in confusion and a little anger. Ash himself had no idea why he had done that. No, he did. A voice. The same one that had spoken out during the fight, uttering only one word, 'name.' Ash was not dumb, having come from the Bleach universe it was clear to see that somehow, his plasma Knife was changing, evolving into something else. It couldn't be a Zanpakuto. The plasma knife had not been an Asauchi in the first place.

However, the fact that it was asking for him to call out it's name meant that it shared a few similarities with a regular Zanpakuto. Ash had initially thought he had the abilities of a Fullbring.

While there was still a high possibility that he had initially started out like that, the Hogyoku had changed him in some unseen way. Even the description of the new perk he was rewarded by it, said that no Soul abilities were far from his reach. So Maybe Ash wasn't a soul reaper or FullBring or Quincy or Arrancar. Maybe Ash was an entirely new species.

As to what the voice had whispered that made him save Ultron, it was a simple, 'No!' followed by an intense feeling of need or rather, interest. Somehow Ultron was important. Ash did not know how or why but he chose to follow his gut.

Which is why when Vision made to advance forward and destroy the Unit, Ash blocked his way.

"Vision! Wait!"

The android spared him no mind as he phased through the teen.

Vision was brought to a grinding halt when his cape was clutched in a vice grip, then tugged with overwhelming strength. He fell off the air and landed on the ground on a knee. Looking back, he saw Ash with a hard look on his face.

"Just wait a fucking second man!"

Ultron was inching away slowly, when Ash's Plasma Sword landed near him.

"Don't. Even. Think about it."

Ash growled out, hand still holding onto Vision's cape. The android narrowed his eyes before sending a laser beam Ash's way. The blast landed on the Teen's chest and threw him off his feet.

Ash smacked onto the bark of a tree, breaking it under his weight, flipping and then arresting his momentum while in mid air. He rubbed his chest, wincing in pain. If he hadn't activated his Quirk on reflex alone, the slight pain he was feeling would be something else entirely.

"Do you realize who you're trying to protect?"

Vision asked. Ash spared a glance at Ultron and sighed.

"Yes. Yes I do. But I won't let you kill him. Not yet."

Vision floated to the air.

"Then you have left me no choice but to fight you."