Chương 45: Chapter 43
Chapter 43
(General P.O.V)
"He's out of range sir."
An officer informed Fury. The one eyed spy on his part looked at Black Widow's hunched back.
"We will eventually find him, Agent Romanoff. After all, you tracked him down once."
He told her in what would have passed as a comforting gesture if it wasn't for Fury's no nonsense attitude.
Black Widow got up.
"That's before he boarded a Quinjet and decided to ditch this rock." She told him, standing at attention. "Can I get excused sir?"
Fury gave a curt nod.
"Be on standby. It's not over until it's over."
Black Widow nodded back.
"I'll be in the infirmary watching Barton cry at getting stitches."
She left, only for a transmission to come in through the comms.
"Sir, you have to hear this."
Hill informed him.
Fury's face changed as he pressed his fingers on the ear piece.
"Are you sure?"
He closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead.
"Widow, hold on a minute." Fury ordered, making the former Russian spy pause and turn around.
"Hill, pull up the feed."
Maria Hill touched a few keys on the pad in her hands, causing the display in the middle of the room to change to a scene in the woods near the crater left behind by the previously floating piece of earth.
"Is that Ash?"
The image was grainy but it was clear to see Vision and Ash fighting. The latter seemed to be protecting the Ultron Unit with them.
"What is he doing?"
Hill asked in confusion.
"Let's go find out. I'll grab Barton and Cap."
Black Widow said, running out of the deck.
"Give Iron Man the coordinates. Something tells me that we might need all the Avengers for this."
Fury gave another order.
"Yes sir."
'I knew you were bad news, Mr. Phelps. All that remains to be seen is if you're a real threat or not.'
He thought to himself.
(Ash)
"Look, can we just put a lid on the aggression for just a second?"
Ash asked, raising his hands to the sky after successfully evading another laser beam.
"I am not opposed to that." Vision informed him, calculating the time it would get for the rest of the Avengers to get there.
"However, the longer Ultron remains active, the more likely he might get away and start another plan for global extinction."
Ash spared a glance at the Unit standing next to his plasma sword. The Unit shrugged.
"He's not exactly wrong."
The rogue AI responded.
"And I know that!"
Ash said angrily.
"But I still need him alive. Just up until I know why my powers are going haywire around him. Please, Vision! We won't let him out of our sight. He won't escape if you lock his core self inside the Unit, right?"
Vision blinked. While the idea was reasonable, it was not viable. Looking in between the Unit and Ash, the Android moved back in preparation. If Ash was right, then he couldn't kill Ultron but that did not mean he could not incapacitate him until the rest of the team arrived.
"I am sorry, but I cannot risk the lives of 7 billion people. Ultron must be stopped."
Ash was ready. He couldn't realistically beat Vision but he could stall him long enough for him to think of a plan to deal with the situation.
Then things got worse.
He heard the almost silent hum of the Quinjet before it arrived. Behind it, Thor, Iron man and War Machine flew in and landed next to Vision. A hatch below the Quinjet opened and out fell Cap, Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch.
The whole roster of Avengers with a few exceptions had arrived.
'... name! ...'
The voice from before rattled in Ash's skull, making the teen groan and stumble back a little. He winced, rubbing his temple and missed Tony's first words.
"...is a killer Rocky. We need to deal with him before he decides to drop Chile on our heads."
"Tony wait." Cap interrupted, raising a hand.
"Ash, are you okay?"
Cap asked in concern, seeing the young teen rub the sides of his head in a discomfort.
"No." Ash shook his head, floating to the ground.
"No, I'm not okay. My powers are acting crazy. Something is begging me to not let Ultron die."
Tony's metal face plate withdrew, revealing his tired eyes and frustrated expression.
"Kid, think about this. Really think about it. What's worth letting a genocidal maniac roam around? Someone who cannot logically be contained in a prison? Someone who seeks the death of you and every other human alive? I'll answer for you, nothing."
"Ouch, father dearest, you wound me."
Ultron commented. Iron Man answered by shooting out a repulser beam at him. Ash followed his instinct and flicked a finger. The plasma sword stabbed onto the ground came off it and blocked the attack, making it bounce off the length of the weapon and fly away. Ash glided through the ground and stood before Ultron, feeling the sudden headache caused by his abilities subside.
"I can't let you kill him Tony. Not until I know what's going on."
Iron Man threw his hands up to the air.
"And what exactly is going on huh? Your powers are glitching? That's what you're going with?"
"I can't hope for you to understand, Tony."
Ash stated, keeping an eye on the other Avengers and their movements.
Cap was subtly trying to flank him, while Vision, Iron Man, War Machine and Scarlet Witch stayed in his line of sight to ensure he focused on the bigger threat they posed.
"Why? Because I don't have fancy shmancy abilities like the rest of you?"
Tony snorted before sighing and walking forward.
"Look, Rocky. I get it. And if this is important to you then, we'll listen. But I won't promise anything if you fail to convince us."
Ash wasn't dumb. But he also wasn't keen on clashing with who he would have called his friends.
"Ok."
He deactivated his plasma sword and wrapped the chain on his palm and wrist, ready to deploy just in case.
"Now why don't we start from the beginning. What is going on?"
Tony prompted.
"We can't trust him."
Quicksilver muttered from Thor's side. Thor placed a hand on the speedster's shoulder.
"Let Stark do his thing. Ash is a friend."
Piotr knew a warning when he heard one.
"Let go of my brother."
The Scarlet Witch growled out, palms lighting up with red.
Thor held her gaze for a few seconds before releasing Quicksilver's shoulder.
"Word of Advice, wait. I recently came to learn that patience is a warrior's most valuable asset."
A ways off from their discussion, Cap brought his fingers to the communication device inside his ears.
"Move in if you find an opening, we cannot let Ultron leave."
He informed Black Widow, who was manning the Quinjet.
"What about the kid?"
She asked only to receive a response soon after, almost as if he was waiting for that particular question.
"Don't take the shot if he's in your line of fire. Let's try talking it out first."
"Got it."
Widow answered.
Ash threw a glance at Ultron over his shoulder.
"As I told Vision before, it's to do with my powers. They...I can't really explain it. But they have a sort of awareness. And just before Vision destroyed Ultron, that awareness was going crazy." He looked around at all of them.
"Please...just give me a chance to know what's going on. If Ultron escapes again, it will be on me. I'll take the blame."
Tony closed his eyes.
"Kid, you don't want that kind of weight on your shoulders, trust me."
Tony whispered, rubbing his shoulder.
"We can find out what's happening to your powers some other way. If Ultron leaves here, we can't...we can't stop him. You hear me?"
Tony's tone was grim. Despite knowing all that, Ash also understood that he needed answers.
"People can change Tony."
"He's not!..." Tony begun to yell before catching himself.
"I'm not winning any dad awards by saying this, but he is not people."
Ash knew he had to try his best to convince them without fighting.
"I know he's evil and will probably never change, but there's a reason for everything. I'm being selfish right now, that much I also know, but I need to follow my gut." He looked around at them.
"I will back down, as long as you all promise me that instead of killing him, we can take him in. Let him face..."
"Not gonna happen. He's crazy! I was in his mind, the only thing he cares about us bringing about the end of the world."
Scarlet Witch cut in.
"And all you cared about a few hours ago was killing Tony, yet here we are."
Ash shot back at her.
"How does he know that?"
Hill muttered. Fury, standing by her side narrowed his eye. That was suspicious.
"Widow, get ready."
He ordered through the comms.
The Quinjet over head reoriented itself to come in from Ash's blind side. The tension increased instead of lessening.
"It's admirable that you seek to spare an enemy, friend Ash." Thor who had almost been silent through out the entire conversation spoke up. Ash was still wary. Tony had gone quiet with a conflicted look on his face.
"Thank you?"
He stepped forward, in-between Iron Man and Ash.
"We're all on the same side. There is an enemy far worse than any of us have faced before. Now is not the time to fight amongst ourselves. So how about we all calm down, go and have a drink?"
The Asgardian Prince offered.
"He's too young to drink." Tony said,
"Too young to do alot of things, like take risks that can put everyone in danger."
"Just give me an assurance Tony. Promise me you won't deactivate him until we find out why my powers are behaving erratically."
"I can't do that."
Tony shook his head, remembering the cries from the city of Johannesburg from the Aftermath of his and Hulk's destructive battle. He couldn't afford to take more chances.
"Just step aside."
"Come on Kid, take the offer. Stand down."
Cap softly requested.
"We are wasting time here!"
Quicksilver finally lost patient and blitzed forward.
"No!"
Before Thor could fully utter that word, Quicksilver was already close to Ultron, hand cocked back and aimed for the Units core.
Ash knew he wasn't fast enough or strong enough to fight them, but there was something he could do. Something he hadn't tried out before but figured it wasn't that much more difficult from using his quirk.
He tried to connect with his Reiryoku. If he could remotely control his plasma sword, then it meant he had a certain measure of control over his spiritual energy.
Ash looked within him and visualized the effect he wanted to create. Just as Urahara had done to him, Ash's purple Reiryoku slammed down onto everyone present, bringing Quicksilver to the ground mid run.
Even Black Widow felt it, to a lesser degree. Her hands jerked on the controls of the Quinjet as she pulled away. Tony's faceplate slammed down to cover him as he stepped on the thrusters of his suit, taking him to the sky to escape the effects of the spiritual pressure.
Cap was on his knees along with Scarlet Witch. Vision and Thor, the latter who yelled and called a storm of clouds gathering over their heads, both attacked.
Vision headed straight for the Ultron Unit while Thor reached to the sky with his hammer and called down a streak of lightning, before shooting it out of the Uru weapon.
Ash activated his plasma sword and spun to gather momentum before slashing out at the steak of lightning. An explosion bloomed out, blowing him back. His hand hardened as he stabbed the edge of a tree and spun himself around. Ash came diving down in a roll, activating his quirk upon impact, neatly landing in between Vision and Ultron.
Vision phased through the dust and the stones pelted at him from the unexpected impact. The mindstone on his head shone before releasing a thin laser headed for Ash.
The laser struck nothing, continuing to only tear apart more of the destroyed woods.
Iron Man landed on the ground just as the Spiritual Pressure disappeared. The dust settled on an empty ground.
"Where are they?"
He asked.
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