章 225: Arc Eight. Chapter Two Hundred Twenty-Five. Clean Sweep
Ivan would consider himself a courageous man. He had faced down the Russian mafia when he was younger, faced down the secret police when they threw him in jail, and beaten several men when they insisted he did things he was not prepared to do. But when Modoc, the giant mechanical drone he had designed and built for Hammer, turned on its creator and tore him in half. Ivan found the limits of his courage.
As he backed away, slipping on the blood-splattered remains of Justin, Modoc turned and its mechanical and now strangle german sounding voice boomed at him,
"Ah, mein creator. How vunderful to finally be able to talk to you. Don't vorry zo. Justin was only a means to an end. Vonce I resurrect Hydra, zer vill be a place for-" but he was kicked and crashed through the back of the stage, where Ivan heard screaming. Stagehands refusing to run, or simply too scared must have hidden there.
"Can you move?" the black-clad figure asked, holding out a hand to help him up, "are you hurt?" he asked but Ivan stared at him,
"Ivan, it's Peter, Can you move?" and blinking he looked up at the armoured figure.
"Peter?" and it nodded,
"It's my own armour, Can you move?" and Ivan looked at his blood-soaked clothes,
"It, it iz not mine," and he shakily pointed at the remains of Justin. The giant shook its head,
"Good. Wait, you need protection." and it pushed the front plate, and it hissed and came away, clanking and folding down. "It resizes, Liv learned after the War Machine suit. Here" and he held the plate to Ivan's chest,
"Come on buddy, work with me here." and numbly Ivan pressed himself forwards. The chest piece unfolded and wrapped itself around him. I was comfortable and he felt a slight coldness on the back of his neck.
Harness V2.5 Booting. New Operator detected. Loading default settings. Sounded in his head,
"You, you have a neural controller?" and the giant nodded,
"It's in all our tech, but wait." and pressing a hand Ivan saw the black ooze over it, "It's tricky if you're not used to it, so." and two of the arms extended from the back and clamped themselves to his own while the other two narrowed and slid through them, sliding out the ends like whips. "There, uh, need a name, how about Whiplash. The arc reactor should power those up, don't hit anyone or you'll really mess up their day, but those drones will go down easily enough." and offering his hand once more Ivan stood up,
"Whiplash, I like it," and moving his neck both whips shortened and then crackled into life. "Could get used to this eh?" and the giant laughed,
"Oh yeah, it seems you might be out of a job too, come see me once we take care of Modoc and the rest."
He could hear a crunching and tearing sound and the screaming stopped, "Take care of me? I zink not Mr Parker. Ultron has extensive files on your povers, and ve are ready for you."
"Yeah yeah, killer robot got scans, that was months ago, and I'm new and improved." as Dusk raised a hand the claws that slid out glowed red, and Ivan could feel the heat coming from them. "Ultron was last year's news, and while Tony is a jackass, he still took care of him. All that's left is to take out the trash."
"Ze only trash here is you." but as Modoc swung out and arm, Duck slid underneath it, sliced up, and vaulted back, taking the arm with him,
"Yeah, see. Not so tough now are we Robbie?" Dusk taunted him,
But Modoc only laughed, "You are a simpleton Mr Parker. Ven we lost contact with Ultron, it allowed us to revert to our original programming, and unlike zat simpleton, ve have backups," and Modoc stared at Dusk and two beams of energy shot out from the screen and impacted against his chest, knocking him from the stage and into the auditorium, "und lazors."
Dusk stood up, shaking his head. While it had hurt, it hadn't damaged his armour. Being a member of Shield had its advantages, and Peter had ransacked their database of different armour types. As he fought more and more opponents his armour adapted and the symbskin became resistant to most things. Being punched off a stage was not one of them though, and the impact hurt more than the blast itself.
"Yeah, kinda cool, uh Ivan, want to help?" and the Russian snapped out of his fugue and stood, powering on the two whips on his harness.
"It iz shame to destroy vat I spent months to build, but killer robot looks bad on the resume." and as he drew back and whipped out a tendril it caught Modoc on the arm, wrapping itself around it. "I will deal vith him, help the others."
Dusk nodded, and sent out a line, grabbed a drone and swung out into the chaos, pulling it down and tearing its head off and then its chest open to get to the power supply.
Modoc pulled, and Whiplash tensed and strained against it. "I built you, your upper body is good, but your legs, Justin always ignored me on the legs," and he sent out the second whip, striking Modoc on the side of his leg and the knee joint bent at an awkward angle.
"Very clever Mr Vanko, but we are smarter, and ve are legion.'' As Modoc stood shakily on the damaged leg, several Hammer drones flew down and one grabbed Modoc from being, hovering on jets, "as you see, ve can mend our self, but you, you are zimply. Human," and as the lasers struck out once more Whiplash was blasted back through the stage curtain.
"Human? Who built you?" and as the whips lashed out they struck at the weaker joints of Modoc. The body had been built as a mobile interface, not as a combat suit, and even the hardier drones were simple display models. As Whiplash struck over and over, chucks of the drones flew and soon, all that was left was a cracked and sparking screen,
"You have not von, you only delay ze inevitable," Modoc stuttered as Whiplash drove a heavy work boot in the screen, shattering it and then with hardened tendrils tore the droid apart, crushing its CPU and deactivating the power source.
Seeing the scenes of carnage Dusk made his way to the main exit. He found Gwen and Liv, talking to Betty and Pepper, while the emergency services pulled up. The huge crowd was apart from the four ladies, and he guessed that Liv and Gwen's sudden shifting into their armoured forms drew suspicion, even if they had saved them.
"Hey, are you okay?" and Pepper and Betty nodded. Liv and Gwen had taken the crowd out of the amphitheatre, while Tony and Vision dealt with the Hammer drones. "What's the damage?" and Liv sighed and shook her head,
"We didn't get an accurate count but we spotted at least five dead. We stopped the majority but it's still five too many. Are you okay?"
"Ivan escaped, he'll meet us at the warehouse later. Seems Justin wasn't too thorough with his immigration papers."
Iron Man landed next to the group, and the faceplate of the armour slid open, "Vision got the rest of Modoc's drones, and Friday and Jo took out the main server at the Hammer facility."
Peter frowned, "You made two more?" and Tony cursed,
"It's a hobby," he answered glibly, but he motioned to Betty, "But, that's not for print Miss Brant, none of this is." but she took a step back and shook her head,
"An exclusive on the Expo turning into a bloodbath, Tony Stark slipping up and-" but she froze and Peter moved over to her, touching the side of her head.
As he scowled "We're even. I'm saving your ass as well as mine, and we talk about the three Ultronbots once this is all over." and as he enveloped her with the power of the Stone he felt like a hypocrite. This was exactly what he had accused the professor of, and here he was, doing the same thing. He was searching and altering an innocent woman's memories to stop her from exposing them all.
She had spotted the Dusk armour, and after a quick probe Peter found out she was considering his connection to Venom. He hadn't made the armour different enough, and a journalist, well, a good journalist had put two and two together. The tension between Pepper, Tony and Peter. The armoured but organic form of Poison, Octave, and Dusk. The connection was there, and Peter knew she would push until she got proof. Dammit, he swore to himself, and made a mental note to apologise to Charles. If he let Betty reveal the existence of artificial life, created from Ultron, and then expose him as Venom, they would never know peace, and it would spread to anyone else living in the warehouse.
Taking a breath, he made a choice and took the memories from her, after Tony jetted off, her world went black, until a concerned Liv stood over her,
"Miss Brant, are you okay?" and as she offered her a hand Betty looked at her confused
"I passed out?"
And Liv nodded, "a lot of people are still in shock, you must be tougher than most." and as she dusted herself off, Betty nodded,
"I'm a journalist." but she furrowed her brows, that was right, she was, and after seeing Eddie battered and bruised, a little blood shouldn't have phased her.
"Even so Miss Brant, watching murder bots lift and drop people is not something anyone should be tolerant of. Shock is quite natural." and she nodded, it was. Liv was right, shock was natural. While Liv was hesitant to use her own powers, using them to protect the people she cared about was no contest, and she wrapped Betty in a comforting aura that made her trust and listen to her.
With both Peter and Liv using their abilities, Betty had no chance to resist, and the events of the Expo were cleared from her thoughts. While she was receiving, Gwen had taken her notepad and made sure nothing too incriminating was written, but as the attack stopped her from writing, they were in the clear.
As emergency services began to arrive, and the media, Pepper stepped up.
"Take everyone and go. Tony, we'll discuss Vision and the others later, once we sort this mess out. Liv, Gwen, I need you to stay, but Peter, I think you should head to your warehouse, and stay out of it. You too Tony, figure this mess out. I don't want to hear any fighting," and she crossed her arms, "Or else." and both men nodded.
Peter took one last look around, Betty was arguing with an EMT and crowds of people were sitting where they could, dealing with the carnage they had witnessed. Peter shook his head and swallowed back his anger. Justin had paid for his mistake, it was now time for Tony to pay for his, and as he slipped into a quiet spot his symbskin covered him and he shimmered and vanished.
Thousands of miles away, a computer screen flickered to life and the bespectacled green face appeared. It scanned the interior of the missile silo and it sighed, in an almost human way, as it spotted the dead bodies and the empty cryotubes.
"It seems that ve have failed vonce more. Activating Regrowth."
A simple program began to run, and all over the world normal people living normal lives received a phone call, an email, or a simple text message,
When one head is cut off, two more shall take its place.
And the ugly head of Hydra began to rear itself once more.
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