Back to GatefoldIssue #6 by Steve Crosby & Chris Munn
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The Lady Ravonna’s quarters were a sickening opulence. Even in majestic Chronopolis, where all who lived were privileged with no needs or wants, her lusts were of excess. Following her recent struggle against Immortus and his ilk, the Lady Ravonna was in a foul mood. She rose from her bed leaving Super-Skrull behind, his unique gifts having not satisfied her. Her tiny feet vanished into the carpet made from the fur of newborn kittens. She crossed the threshold and disappeared, transported instantly to another section of Chronopolis.
“How goes our Lord’s new campaign?” requested the Lady Ravonna. She had appeared with no warning into Kang’s Assembly Hall. As with all of Chronopolis, it had not been built but taken from a distant era. When it had recently taken damage, the Assembly Hall had been replaced instantly, so now had a radically different design. There was never a need for workers in Chronopolis.
“We are in the process of securing the Vibranium,” one of Kang’s generals said to her. “However, our troops have directly engaged Ultron’s robotic forces. There have been several requests for a continuous resupply.”
A massive transport of soldiers and ordinance, as many as could be made at once and as often as possible until the enemy was overwhelmed. One had not been made since the conquest of Zadkiel’s realm. “Denied. Once the Vibranium is secured our forces will have an easy time if it,” Ravonna said. “Shall we be able to do a direct extraction?”
“Negative. SHIELD appears to have tachyon-based devices that interfere with our equipment.”
“Then go back and kill the inventors.” Kang normally forbade such acts, but he has loosened on many oaths since going on this war. “I expect to be informed within the hour of our victory.”
“Wait, we’re receiving temporal fluxes.” A technician was reading the sensory output. “A consciousness has just returned to our resurrection banks. Marcus Kang is dead.”
Were the Lady Ravonna to experience a feeling at this news, she had no time.
“An inorganic has jumped from that era! It’s coming here!”
“Jam the transport!”
“I can’t! The temporal signature is Marcus Kang’s!”
Ravonna’s blood went cold even as the air filled with ozone. Air was pushed aside when metal appeared in the space. Ultron had barely gone visible when it punched a hand through the general’s head.
“Without brain or heart, the flesh is dead.” Ultron’s unfeeling eyes focused on Ravonna. “Which are you?”
The armor and weapon of the Terminatrix appeared over Ravonna. An automatic response to threat, but Ravonna’s was to turn and flee. Screams followed her as she crossed the threshold of the transport.
Once again in her chambers, Ravonna yelled out, “Awaken, Skrull! Ronan, to my side as well! The enemy is upon us!” Though Immortus had previously sent the powerful alien warriors to their native time, Ravonna had snatched them up from later periods.
Super-Skrull had barely risen from the bed and Ronan barely through the door when Ultron entered behind Ravonna. “Ah, alien flesh. I wonder if differences mean improvements.”
“You will find me far better than any human!” Super-Skrull roared. His arms became flaming fists of rock, and the front half of his body stretched at Ultron.
Encephalo-beams traveled from Ultron’s head and into the Super-Skrull. “Shapeshifting is certainly an improvement, but what of your mind?” Super-Skrull collapsed to the ground, screaming in pain. “Ah, weaker than most. And if it controls your body completely, you can die just by wanting to.” Ultron’s face of hatred was always smiling. “You want to.”
Super-Skrull’s scream bubbled into incoherent sounds of pain. His body melted, breaking apart before the eyes of Ravonna and Ronan. Raising his Universal Weapon that bristled with otherworldly power, Ronan advanced on Ultron.
“Even Skrulls deserve more.”
“More than you,” Ultron said. “You Kree took brains and made a living computer.” Marching at Ronan, Ultron raised an armed and caught the Universal Weapon on the down swing. “A computer of flesh insults me. For that abomination you Kree will be the last to die.”
When Ultron closed its first, the Universal Weapon shattered. Shards of energized metal blinded Ronan. He screamed, and Ultron’s other fist shot into his open mouth. The dead Accuser dropped to the floor, and Ultron did not move when Terminatrix shattered her spear against it.
With a swipe, Ultron shattered Ravonna’s helmet and she fell to the ground. “You still have not answered my question. Are you brain or heart?”
Ravonna was given no chance to respond. Ultron went for both.
“How goes our Lord’s new campaign?” requested the Lady Ravonna. She had appeared with no warning into Kang’s Assembly Hall. As with all of Chronopolis, it had not been built but taken from a distant era. When it had recently taken damage, the Assembly Hall had been replaced instantly, so now had a radically different design. There was never a need for workers in Chronopolis.
“We are in the process of securing the Vibranium,” one of Kang’s generals said to her. “However, our troops have directly engaged Ultron’s robotic forces. There have been several requests for a continuous resupply.”
A massive transport of soldiers and ordinance, as many as could be made at once and as often as possible until the enemy was overwhelmed. One had not been made since the conquest of Zadkiel’s realm. “Denied. Once the Vibranium is secured our forces will have an easy time if it,” Ravonna said. “Shall we be able to do a direct extraction?”
“Negative. SHIELD appears to have tachyon-based devices that interfere with our equipment.”
“Then go back and kill the inventors.” Kang normally forbade such acts, but he has loosened on many oaths since going on this war. “I expect to be informed within the hour of our victory.”
“Wait, we’re receiving temporal fluxes.” A technician was reading the sensory output. “A consciousness has just returned to our resurrection banks. Marcus Kang is dead.”
Were the Lady Ravonna to experience a feeling at this news, she had no time.
“An inorganic has jumped from that era! It’s coming here!”
“Jam the transport!”
“I can’t! The temporal signature is Marcus Kang’s!”
Ravonna’s blood went cold even as the air filled with ozone. Air was pushed aside when metal appeared in the space. Ultron had barely gone visible when it punched a hand through the general’s head.
“Without brain or heart, the flesh is dead.” Ultron’s unfeeling eyes focused on Ravonna. “Which are you?”
The armor and weapon of the Terminatrix appeared over Ravonna. An automatic response to threat, but Ravonna’s was to turn and flee. Screams followed her as she crossed the threshold of the transport.
Once again in her chambers, Ravonna yelled out, “Awaken, Skrull! Ronan, to my side as well! The enemy is upon us!” Though Immortus had previously sent the powerful alien warriors to their native time, Ravonna had snatched them up from later periods.
Super-Skrull had barely risen from the bed and Ronan barely through the door when Ultron entered behind Ravonna. “Ah, alien flesh. I wonder if differences mean improvements.”
“You will find me far better than any human!” Super-Skrull roared. His arms became flaming fists of rock, and the front half of his body stretched at Ultron.
Encephalo-beams traveled from Ultron’s head and into the Super-Skrull. “Shapeshifting is certainly an improvement, but what of your mind?” Super-Skrull collapsed to the ground, screaming in pain. “Ah, weaker than most. And if it controls your body completely, you can die just by wanting to.” Ultron’s face of hatred was always smiling. “You want to.”
Super-Skrull’s scream bubbled into incoherent sounds of pain. His body melted, breaking apart before the eyes of Ravonna and Ronan. Raising his Universal Weapon that bristled with otherworldly power, Ronan advanced on Ultron.
“Even Skrulls deserve more.”
“More than you,” Ultron said. “You Kree took brains and made a living computer.” Marching at Ronan, Ultron raised an armed and caught the Universal Weapon on the down swing. “A computer of flesh insults me. For that abomination you Kree will be the last to die.”
When Ultron closed its first, the Universal Weapon shattered. Shards of energized metal blinded Ronan. He screamed, and Ultron’s other fist shot into his open mouth. The dead Accuser dropped to the floor, and Ultron did not move when Terminatrix shattered her spear against it.
With a swipe, Ultron shattered Ravonna’s helmet and she fell to the ground. “You still have not answered my question. Are you brain or heart?”
Ravonna was given no chance to respond. Ultron went for both.
"So Long As One Man Stands"
Recent battles had taken their toll on Kang the Conquerer. His armor was damaged and drained of power, many of its systems off-line including his force-field. Physically, the aged Kang’s body was sore and exhausted. It had been his hope to recuperate in Chronopolis, the capital of his vast temporal empire. The presence of Ultron, however, made that impossible.
Once again, Kang had to battle, and as always he confronted the enemy with no fear. “Machine, you have only saved me the trouble of hunting you.”
Perched atop Kang’s bloodied throne, the bodies of Ravonna and high officials at its feet, Ultron raised an arm palm out. “No, Kang. I have simply killed you sooner than you intended to die!”
Laser pulsed from Ultron’s palm. It flashed for Kang’s head at light-speed, but the circuit in Kang’s mask closed faster. The time-jump was limited to a split-second, but at such speeds it was enough. The laser passed through the spot where Kang had been, while Kang appeared forward in a spot the laser had already passed.
“This is what ensures my victory.” Kang raised a tiny weapon and unleashed the power of a nuclear cannon. “You lack imagination.”
Terrific energy struck Ultron and hurled him through the wall behind. The obstacle shattered, and Ultron fell the height of the two-mile skyscraper. Kang jumped down after him, opting not to use his armor’s rockets to slow his descent.
Emerging from the crater it formed, Ultron was unharmed. Around him, soldiers prepared to fire while administrators were fleeing. “Away, you fleshy drones!” Enchephalo-rays connected Ultron to the soldiers, and suddenly they were firing on each others. “Come at me with everything you have!” Ultron roared up at the approaching Kang. “They will all burn as you do!” Nuclear fire erupted from Ultron’s mouth.
When Kang had first designed his armor, Earth had become a wasteland following nuclear war. It was built with radiation in mind, and so protected him from Ultron’s attack. As the distance closed kinetic energy shifted. Kang suddenly slowed and power brimmed in one fist. This smashed against Ultron’s face, staggering the adamantium thing.
“Human hands built you. My hand will destroy you!”
Pain delays reaction. Metal does not feel and so Ultron’s reactions were not delayed. Its hands found Kang, and dug into his armor. “Human hands built a thinking egg! My genius improved on mediocrity!”
Kang smiled and deployed rockets. He and Ultron flew up into the sky, locked in a battle Kang was unsuited for. “And what an improvement you are. Hinged joints and opposable thumbs, complete with a face of human expression! For all your hatred you model yourself against humanity!”
Ultron brought its face up near Kang’s. “As you all die, humanity will see their murderer as a reflection of yourselves.”
“Of your three creations, one was built on the remains of another android, and two were based on your own design!” Kang triggered a circuit, and his armor was seconds from detonation. “You have created nothing truly your own, only shadows of humanity’s accomplishments. Genius without creativity is stagnant!”
An instant before the explosion, another time-shift occurred. Kang left his armor, keeping only his mask as he reappeared down near the ground. Dressed only in a thin purple bodysuit, Kang looked up to see the fiery meteor of Ultron crash into his citadel. Almost immediately, the massive structure collapsed, and Kang ran hard out of the blast radius.
“You do not believe it destroyed.”
The words were a statement, spoken without emotion by the ghostly Vision that had appeared by Kang’s side. As he ran, Kang answered the former Avenger and current pawn.
“I believe that machine feels anger, and with anger it is careless. This was something you once understood, but no longer.”
“Whether it is angry or careless does not matter. It is an overwhelming force that you cannot hope to defeat.”
“I do not hope,” Kang said. “I can defeat it and I will. I only require what mankind has always required: the proper tools.”
Far distant behind Kang, a metal fist burst through shifting rubble. “Kaaannnngggg!”
“The only tool available is more dangerous than Ultron could ever be,” Vision said to the running Kang.
“In each conquest I have made decisions that changed me forever. I accept each over failure. Whatever it takes, Ultron will be conquered.”
“Provided you can reach your tools in time. Until then, you are an unarmed human, and it is coming for you.”
Ultron was now running after Kang, far faster than any human could move.
“No,” said Kang. “I am never unarmed.” In Kang’s mask, a switch was triggered, and time opened up to the conqueror. “To me, my Immortal Chrononauts!”
From the far reaches of Kang’s empire they came, the greatest champions of every era Kang had conquered. Hercules, the immortal Lion of Olympus, was taken from a God War that had shattered all heavens. ROM Time-Knight had been taken from Limbo, where he had sent himself to kill Dire Wraiths after trapping them all there. Pama, an ancient Kree warrior raised by the Cotati and trained in the mind as well as the body, had been taken as he burned the corpses of his Cotati brethren. Hiriom, a shadow-priest of Sakaar that draws power from the earth itself, was taken before Kang detonated the planet’s core. Raptor, first Praetor of the Imperial Guard when the Shi’ar were still more avian than humanoid and taken shortly after her cybernetic conversion. Madrox Immortal was a twisted experiment combining two mutants that Kang had discovered and taken as an instant army. The last had never been conquered by Kang, and she had only agreed to join after he provided a planet for all her squirrels.
Squirrel Goddess hopped down next to Kang and flicked her long fluffy tail. “Hi boss! What can we do you for now?”
Kang pointed at the rapidly approaching Ultron. “That thing. Destroy it.”
Reaching into one of her pouches, Squirrel Goddess gave a big buck-toothed smile. “No problem. Lemme just pull out a nut here and…” Cocking back her arm like a pitcher, Squirrel Goddess threw the large acorn at Ultron. It shot into its open maw, and Ultron crashed head-first to the ground.
“Kkkk…you,” the dark red glow of Ultron’s eyes was starting to fade. “My reactor duct has been blocked! Power is building to critical levels, kikk. A fatal error will result in-”
“Have at thee!” Hercules reached Ultron and bashed his golden mace against the robot’s head. Again, Ultron’s head smashed into the hard stone pavement. But now it rose quickly, hurling Hercules away with a swipe of one arm.
“Blockage has been removed. Mass-extermination shall proceed as planned!”
“Uh-oh,” Squirrel Goddess said as her fellow Chrononauts rushed at Ultron. She turned to the frowning Kang. “I’m sorry. That really should have worked.”
“If not for that lout you would have defeated Ultron,” Kang said in a mixture of pride and flabbergast. He raised a hand and made a sign to Squirrel Goddess. “Go on. You’ve done what you could and are free to return to your squirrels.”
Squirrel Goddess vanished before she could protest, and Kang turned to continue running. Behind him, the Chrononauts were fighting their best, but he knew they were doomed to failure. Tools meant to slow Ultron down until he could reach the tool that would destroy it for good.
“Another decision that will change you forever,” said Vision as he accompanied Kang. “You must be very different from that bored young man.”
“Yes, and I will tell you just how much.” Behind his mask, Kang was weary, breathing heavily as he ran and spoke. “Perhaps it is fitting if, on the chance I die by a machine’s hands, that to a machine I shall confess my sins.”
After many cycles of warfare, the world had achieved peace. Invasions and wars had thinned humanity’s numbers, and radioactive fallout from the Canaanite Conflict had burned out the mutant gene entirely. We were stagnant and dying.
Ultron was holding Hercules over what passed for its head, surrounded by the clamoring duplicates of the Madrox Immortal. Laser beams from Ultron’s eyes cut through the blue-and-yellow clad humanoids, but more appeared as though from thin air. All unarmed, all pressing against Ultron with mortal flesh strength. Unaffected by the human hands and breaking bones with its movements, Ultron hurled Hercules over the sea of flesh.
Pama ducked, avoid Hercules, and barked orders. “Madrox, break away! Assist in evacuations and gather armaments for a counter-assault! Support rather than hinder our efforts.”
In this era of death came the time-traveler Nathaniel Richards. He united the dying tribes of humanity and taught them how to fix the world. As an adult I find it hard to believe that one man could have forged a utopia. Even if there was truth to the tale Nathaniel had a child with him, a mutant with god-like power. Nevertheless, a dead world became perfect because of Nathaniel Richards and many children were named after him, including myself.
“I will aid in the scatter.” ROM Timeknight flew over the battlefield. The Neutralizer in its chest activated, flashing subspace over the Madrox Immortals and causing many to disappear. They would reappear instantaneously throughout Chronopolis, guided by ROM’s computer-enhanced mind. With the way clear, ROM flew down and smashed his fist against Ultron.
“Gaahh! Another man trying to be a machine!” Ultron grabbed ROM and slammed him to the ground. Taking ROM’s head from behind, Ultron slowly began to twist. “I will rip apart this shell, and destroy any humanity that remains!”
“No!” Eyes glowing, ROM spun around, throwing Ultron off balance. Solar energy crackled across ROM’s golden armor, signaling a quantum-burst that knocked Ultron back five seconds.
Into this perfect world I was born. Humans wanted for nothing and lived in complete peace and safety. All life that wasn’t necessary for human enjoyment had been removed, and machines responding to human thought performed all labor tasks. With cloaking technology, all the universe saw Earth as a barren rock, and the secondary weapons were never needed. All humans were free to explore and enrich their desires, be they of the heart, mind, or soul.
Ultron reappeared just in front of the recovered Hercules, who grabbed it in a powerful bear-hug. “All strike now. Lay this wretched thing down once and for all!”
“You cannot hold me!” Ultron flexed against Hercules’ grip, adamantium mechanics against godly strength. Electricity rippled out of Ultron’s frame, and coupled with this pain Hercules was unable to hold the robot. Ultron burst free, struck Hercules on the side of the head and advanced forward on Pama.
Staring intently at Ultron, Pama’s eyes widened in fear. “There is no weakness. I do not know how we can destroy this thing!”
Some would have considered my life perfect. I wanted for nothing, trained my mind and body to the pinnacle of human achievement. I mastered everything I encountered and was challenged by nothing. I was bored, lacking excitement. I would look up at the sky, longing to encounter those hostile aliens and make war on them. The stories of ancient history fascinated me, especially the clashes of civilizations and the exploits of powerful champions. Someday, I had promised myself, I would break from the mundane life and conquer my final desire.
Something inside Ultron was pleased as it advanced on the Kree who knew fear. “Yes. I am perfection and in my wake all flesh will die! As is your nature, yield!”
But Pama didn’t. Instead, he rushed forward at the last second and grabbed Ultron’s left arm at the shoulder. Moving with expertise, Pama threw Ultron into the air. “Machine, you delight in pain and that is your flaw! That and the weaker circuits and wiring inside your shell. Burn it Hiriom!”
“My pleasure!” At a gesture, the Shadow Priest of Sakaar lifted a geyser of molten earth from below the air-borne Ultron. The fiery mass struck the metal form, and Ultron screamed as its insides were invaded.
My quest for past knowledge unearthed the time machine in which I traveled to ancient Egypt. I was young, unaware and uncaring of my affects on time. I sought only to conquer, to rule, to prepare myself for greater things. Because, you see, there were other artifacts buried with the time machine. Weapons I would use to conquer the past. And the bomb. There was that, as well.
Inside Ultron was a nuclear reactor that powered its every action. To keep this reactor from melting its insides, Ultron also contained an advanced coolant system. It utilized this as the molten rock threatened to hollow out Ultron’s frame. The air around Ultron liquefied, dripping down the molten spire as it hardened into rock.
“ROM and Raptor!” Pama cried out. “Strike! Hit Ultron now while it is vulnerable!”
“I am never vulnerable!” Electricity crackled in the melting air. Ultron ripped apart the frozen prison it had created around itself and stood atop a spire of ice. Cracks were visible along its seemingly indestructible frame, but Ultron was uncaring of this in its anger. Power sizzled across its body, barely contained, and it wondered if flesh could contain it. “You are vulnerable!”
Thunder clapped, and lightning traveled from Ultron to Pama. “See how your flesh burns at what I command!”
When the lightning passed, there was nothing to see. Pama had been burnt to nothing before the aghast eyes of his fellow Chrononauts.
Before I traveled into the past, I detonated the bomb in my present. Ancient Egypt was only to prepare me for the challenge of true conquest. And that I needed to create myself. So a utopia died so that the dystopia would exist.
At that point in its history, the synthezoid Vision possessed no emotion. Yet even as a cold, logical machine, it recognized the horror that was Kang. “Your first act was to kill billions.”
“Yes, the first time I had killed anyone.” Kang jumped the considerable distance between a bridge and an abandoned hovercar. “Murder was unheard of in my time. Until I had found them, no weapons existed for that sole purpose.”
“It has been my experience that humans will kill with sticks, stones, even bare hands when they desire to.”
Instead of operating the hovercar, Kang used it only as a platform to reach a towering aqueduct. His fingers found a ledge, and the aged conqueror pulled himself up. Beneath his feet running liquid could be heard.
“And what creates those desires?” Said Kang in response. “Envy that begets jealously. Ambition that begets greed. Love that begets lust. Tiny things that grow into large things, but in a perfect society where all desires were met, murder ceased to be as a proper means to get things done.”
From his vantage on the sloped roof, Kang had a view of the distant battle. Explosions were ripping across one side of Chronopolis. Turning his back to his people’s suffering, Kang ran up the slight slope and leapt from the aqueduct’s other edge. Vision floated on after him.
“It wasn’t until I visited other times that I learned of genetic flaws and mental instabilities,” Kang said when he landed at a crouch. “Of people killing out of a pathological need. Whether it was nature or Richards that removed these bugs in the working of humanity, we may never know.”
“It would seem nothing was removed, as men used weapons as soon as found.” Vision was translucent as he said this, yet Kang felt as though the android was looking through him. “You destroyed because you were bored. That could be identified as a genetic flaw, a mental instability.”
“If so, then it is the most common flaw in all humanity.” Now Kang was running across a long ovular stadium, the great Hippodrome of Constantinople snatched out of time. On most days it saw the racing of fantastic animals, but was now as abandoned as all of Chronopolis had become. “Keeping the mob from boredom was the most important job of the ruling class. Keep their thoughts from anything important, dangle the shiny objects before their eyes, and maintain the way that things are. But your assessment of me is flawed. It was not boredom that directed my actions, but ambition that could not be filled. And so it became greed, a greed for conquest that began with my own era.”
“A greed that will never be sated,” said Vision.
“That is what makes it perfect. I will be driven until the day I die, always facing new challenges. Not once will I be standing still in stagnation.”
“Look around you!” Vision spread its arms wide, its cape billowing out as though to encompass all of Chronopolis. All the city was made up of buildings taken from other eras: the unfinished Elamite ziggurat the Chogha Zanbil, the Hittite fortress of Kadesh as well as Egytptian fortresses scattered throughout, Pantheon, Acropolis, the large mound representing the tomb of Qin Shi Huang. This last was what Kang was current running to. “Nothing in this city is original. You take from the past without creating anything new. In this sense you are the same as Ultron.”
“Yes.” Kang would not argue the point. “Those who cannot do, teach. And those who cannot create, take. Rome took from their neighbors to create a great empire, and nomadic barbarians took from Rome. I first learned this when I met the Fantastic Four and realized many of Nathanial Richards’ accomplishments were based off the genius of his own son! It is not those who create that shape history, but those with the vision to use those creations.”
Now towering over Kang was the earthen pyramid tomb of Qin Shi Huang. His hand shaking only slightly, Kang touched the mound. “I have never actually entered this site, wishing to respect the great conquerors that came before. But I teleported something inside, the great weapon that can destroy Ultron, so great I only trusted it to be stored here.”
“Then now you must go in, to take it.”
The mask on Kang’s head, the only piece of technology he still wore, was feeling heavy. Taking deep breaths, Kang pulled the mask away, revealing an aged and weary face. Of course he heavily resembled Immortus, as both were aspects of the same man. A smile crossed this worn face, and with a shake of his head Kang looked to Vision.
“No, that is far too easy. In a moment of weakness I could take it and remove all challenge, fulfill my dreams at the end and thus die unfulfilled. No, this weapon is meant only to defeat something which I could not defeat otherwise. Therefore, only that opponent can breach this tomb, allowing me to access the weapon.”
Processors whirred as Vision, a computer, struggled for a response to that statement. “That makes no logical sense, by any definition available to me.”
“Of course not, because as a machine you lack imagination.” Kang tapped the side of his head. “A recent Forever War taught me the benefits of building new boxes to think around. I journeyed into the past and injected nanites into this tomb, and over the centuries they built defenses designed specifically for me. Or for Immortus,” Kang added.
“A weapon of last resort is locked away, and you can only access it by making it accessible to an opponent you cannot defeat on your own.” Vision continued with its struggled to understand this illogical thinking. “Of the many flaws, three are the largest. One is that Ultron may not be able to breach your defenses.”
“Then it is not the opponent I expected. The defenses will destroy it, and I will have won.”
“This assumes you can get Ultron to try and enter this tomb.”
Kang knelt down and slid open a panel in the floor. Inside were rope, explosives, and tools of the most basic technology. “It is a machine that thinks in a straight line. There are ways to shift that line where I want it.”
“I believe you can. I also believe Ultron is capable of smashing through whatever you put in its way. Which exposes the greatest flaw: the very real possibility that it will access your weapon before you can.”
An arm went through the length of rope and Kang let it rest on his shoulder. Taking the pack of tools and throwing it over his other shoulder, Kang stood straight and smiled. “Oh, I’m almost certain Ultron would reach it before I could. But accessing it will be impossible, for Ultron or any machine.”
Eons before Kang killed Gladiator and conquered the vast Shi’ar Empire, Kang had conquered the planet Chandilar and initiated the first Great Expansion. Then, the first Imperial Guard had been augmented Shi’ar, and the armored cyborg Raptor had been its Praetor. Years of loyal and effective service ended in death, but Kang saw value in the Shi’ar hero and had plucked her from time to join the Chrononauts.
Darkforce shot from the amulet on Raptor’s chest. It shaped into a cube, trapping Ultron inside. “We must regroup and plan how to destroy this thing. Or failing that, how to banish it to-aahh!”
Pounding fists of indestructible metal and indescribable strength shattered the Darkforce. Ultron burst free, and its eyes met Raptor’s with a laser in between. The Shi’ar warrior fell crippled from the sky. Ultron advanced, aware of ROM Timeknight flying down behind it.
“Circuitry is degrading. You think to kill me from the inside. But I see what makes you things work. I see how to kill you first.”
“We have existed before you and we shall exist af-ttiiktik1010101010101-” ROM was unprepared for the pondering Ultron’s surprising speed. An instant before the hero could strike, Ultron had spun about and punched into ROM’s chest. The Neutralizer was pierced, spilling interdimensional energies over ROM and Ultron.
“Quantum processing,” Ultron said to the twitching ROM. “Transmissions are teleported between your systems, bypassing the need for wiring. It will be mine!” Ultron’s other arm smashed against ROM’s face, the fingers digging in deep.
“Away from him!” Hiriom crashed a wave of molten stone over the two machines. They were buried, and Hiriom cried out for Hercules. “Hurry, Lion of Olympus! Smash the thing once it emerges!”
“It shall be done!” Hercules leapt forward, and reached the cooling mound just as Ultron broke forth. So great was the force of Hercules’ blow that his golden mace shattered, yet Ultron did not move. At its feet, ROM was broken and unmoving, holes gaping in its chest and head.
Adamantium smashed against flesh, and Hercules staggered. Darkforce smashed into Ultron from behind. Raptor returned to the air as Hiriom made the ground shake. Hercules held his ground and brought both fists down against Ultron’s head. Raptor combined this with a second Darkforce blast, and together with Hiriom’s tremors Ultron was knocked from its feet.
Raptor plunged downward, a long single blade extending from each for her forearms. “How effective will you be without sight?” Raptor crashed into Ultron, and drove both blades into what passed for the robot’s eyes.
“More than you!” Nuclear fire accompanied Ultron’s words. Raptor was engulfed, and her scream was all too brief. The body of burning metal that smelled like flesh collapsed as Ultron rose. “I see with every inch.” The fist of Hercules threatened to knock Ultron down again, but it remained standing.
“Fiend!” Hercules advanced, smashing his fists against the wounded Ultron again and again. “You are done killing! Though it may take my last breath, you will not take another life!”
Ultron returned a blow with one of its own, a powerful roundhouse that jerked Hercules’ head back. “Yes! Your last breath! Something I will never have and that is why I will win!” Ultron advanced on the staggering Hercules and hefted him over its head. “I will outlast all of you!”
Hercules was thrown in Hiriom’s direction, and the shadow priest raised a wall of earth shield himself. It shattered and the demi-god fell to the ground, semi-conscious. Ultron jumped over the rubble, running at the stone-faced alien with a jerky motion of limbs. Hiriom rushed forward to meet Ultron, and at his touch the cracks on Ultron’s shell glowed.
“Yes, machine. Come at me! Nothing is indestructible, and all comes from the earth!” Hiriom had one hand gripping Ultron’s left wrist, and the other at Ultron’s neck. “There is a way to destroy you, and I will find it!”
“No!” Ultron plunged its other arm into Hiriom’s side, breaking his stony skin. “I cannot be destroyed! I will not be destroyed!” On Ultron’s torso a crack was rapidly becoming a gash. But before it could become more than a foot long and two inches wide, Hiriom shattered from the inside and all his power died with him. Ultron stood, triumphant.
“I say thee nay!” Hercules tackled Ultron from behind. The two combatants went down, Hercules on top. The Lion of Olympus rained blows down on Ultron, and more of the cracks widened. “This ends now monster!” Hercules screamed as he drove down fist after fist. “This. Ends. Now!”
“Yes.” Both Ultron’s hands shot up and found Hercules’ throat. “This. Ends. Now.”
There was a popping sound, much like what one would hear if a ping-pong ball was crushed. Hercules had made one last breath, and then fell dead. All flesh, even the scions of gods, needed to breath.
Throwing the corpse off of it, Ultron struggled to its feet. From the position on its back, Ultron found this awkward, and flailed its limbs for several tries until succeeding. Rising from its hands and knees, Ultron was then bombarded by multiple energy blasts. Alone, the many bodies of Madrox Immortal were now attacking, and they all had blaster weapons.
“Ah, the flesh that refuses to die.” Rising to its full height, Ultron’s head began to glow. “Kill one, two more rise. The true threat of ever multiplying humanity.” Ultron turned its head, seeking to view as much of Madrox Immortal as it could. “When the flesh dies. What about the mind!”
Encephalo beams cascaded out of Ultron’s head, electrical bursts specifically designed to affect the human brain. One by one, Madrox Immortal was struck, and each body fell dead to the ground. Or at least, each though he was dead, but were still breathing on their own. Brain death was not truly the same as actual death, but enough for Ultron’s purposes.
Standing in the middle of the dead Chrononauts, Ultron threw its head back. “You stand alone, Kang! I have triumphed over your best! Only you remain, and you will die!”
Kang was back atop the aqueduct, at the sealed edge of where it just stopped suddenly. In the near distance Ultron was rapidly approaching, those flailing limbs reminding Kang of the severely disabled. The Chrononauts had done their job well. It was doubtful the job could be finished, but Kang intended to try.
The arched wall of the aqueduct crumbled when Ultron smashed into it. Kang had already turned around and started running, the length of rope spinning in his hand. When the aqueduct started to buckle, Kang let the rope fly, guided by his skill and strength to a higher building. The rope found its mark, went taut, and Kang was in the air as the aqueduct fell on Ultron.
Thousands of gallons washed over Ultron, and it discovered that the aqueduct carried acid. It flowed through the cracks and into Ultron, eating whatever wasn’t adamantium. Most vitals were fully encased, protected, and when acid neared the reactor it froze or burned. Ultron felt the encephalo beam die but that didn’t matter. It preferred killing Kang by hand anyway.
Leaping from rooftop to rooftop, Kang was barely a few steps ahead of Ultron. A critically damaged Ultron. Kang didn’t consider himself old, a man in his eighties from a time where most lived to be two-hundred. But hard years had taken their toll, taxed a body to near its breaking point. The aches, last felt during the Forever War, were starting again. Kang wasn’t willing to die then, and he wasn’t willing to die now.
Ultron was being cautious, going around buildings instead of through them. Slower going for it, but more importantly this told Kang how seriously it was damaged. That it wasn’t willing to risk more. The trick would be more difficult then, but still possible, Kang decided as the mound came into view. He jumped from the final roof, a fall of two stories and upon landing his hip felt on fire.
Some of what Ultron said was right, Kang knew. It will never age, never degrade, and can repair itself indefinitely. Ten years ago, five years ago, a year ago and Kang would not have found this half so difficult. At least it was the body and not the mind. Kang took comfort in that thought. For the time being he did not require help to feed or clean himself.
Heavy footfalls at an unnatural rhythm were growing louder behind Kang. Ultron was nearing. Though his chest was aching and his breathing labored, Kang spoke as he pulled at the pack on his back.
“Too late machine. I’ve reached it, the weapon that will destroy you!”
The pack was thrown at the mound. It exploded in powerful flash of smoke and light, and Kang disappeared.
“No!” Ultron barreled against the mound, smashing through dirt and stone with its metal limbs. Electricity sparked and radiation escaped, but Ultron felt neither. Were its encephalo beams still intact, the mental screamers may have used that to rip into Ultron’s system. Gravity swelled, and Ultron felt its torso almost split in half. “Your traps will not stop me Kang!”
“No, I expect they won’t,” whispered Kang, unseen, from behind Ultron. The brief lack of visibility had been enough, and now Kang followed Ultron through the traps it set off and disarmed.
Traps from the ancient Qin Shi Huang proved less effective. Poisoned arrows bounced off adamantium, and released gases had no affect on a thing with no lungs. In minutes, Ultron had breached the inner chamber, the tomb of Qin Shi Huang himself. The beauty of an empire in scale detail was lost on the machine, but it noticed the rivers of mercury.
Rising from the liquid metal were guards fashioned by Kang, fluid machines that could kill with a touch. They struck solid at Ultron but went liquid when it struck back, flowing apart and then reforming to strike solid again.
“Of course your guards would be like me!” Ultron burned with power as it touched one Mercury soldier and it exploded. “You recognize what is better. You use what you are inferior to! But I am inferior to nothing!” More and more of Ultron’s power was expended, until the last soldier fell.
In the chamber’s center was the tomb itself, and atop it a glowing cube with something inside. Ultron recognized it as a scrap of flesh, and for an instant suspected a trick. It felt this suspicion confirmed when, after taking one step forward, Ultron’s legs gave out. Too much energy had been used, and too much damage done. Ultron struggled forward, crawling with one arm because its connection to the other was lost.
“No…” There was a sound of metal separating. The dented and cracked head of Ultron came apart from the body. Short micro-filaments struggled to carry it forward, but Ultron knew it lacked the power for even this. Barely enough power existed to maintain Ultron’s personality, to keep it “alive.”
“Here we witness the greatest flaw of metal.” Kang stepped over the useless shell of a body and walked clear of Ultron’s head. He went around to the other side of the cube and turned to face the fading face of hate. “Your limits are distant, yes. But they exist, Ultron, and you cannot push past them. Once reached, you are done. But I,” Kang’s hand closed over the cube. “I can go past the point of exhaustion, continue fighting where most would have died. Flesh has a will stronger than any metal.”
At his touch, the cube vanished and Kang was in direct contact with the preserved scrap of human flesh. Immediately, black dots formed around Kang’s body. He became aware of everything, including the spectral Vision floating behind him. Yes, it would have to be here to witness Kang’s moment of ultimate triumph.
“In a skewed timeline, Rick Jones used the Destiny Force to conquer the universe,” Kang told the dying Ultron. “It made him all-powerful, until I killed him.” Kang’s wounds had healed, and he was young again. “Nothing is a challenge with this power, and so I locked it away until needed.” Kang’s eyes met the holes where Ultron’s had been. “But as it turns out, I didn’t need it at all. My defenses were enough for you.”
Kang stepped around the tomb, and towered over what flicker remained of his enemy. Vision followed, floating forward to Kang’s back.
“But not your hand,” Ultron said, barely a whisper now. “Machines ended me. Not the hand of flesh.”
“Oh, but I will be my hand.” Kang raised a foot, ready to stomp it down. Powered by the Destiny Force, it would crush Ultron easily. Break the machine apart into nothing. “This war has been won, Ultron. And to the victor, the sp-aaarrghhhlllkkk!”
Into Kang’s back went the Vision’s intangible hand. Out of his chest appeared the Vision’s solid hand. Gripped inside it was Kang’s heart, pumping its last beats. In contrast to Kang’s look of surprise and agony, Vision’s face held no expression. Nor were there expression in its words.
“This was not the desired outcome. Backup protocol engaged.”
“Of course.” The words were silent, barely formed on Kang’s lips as he fell. Immortus had programmed the machine. Kang fell, surprisingly content. He had, after all, been defeated by the only truly worthier opponent: Kang himself.
From Kang’s limp hand had fallen the scrap of Rick Jone’s flesh. It fluttered through the air, and landed inside one of Ultron’s empty eyeholes. Flesh joined with metal, and Ultron’s expression of hate glowed with newfound power. This was the last thing Vision saw as it faded into time, recalled now that its mission was fulfilled.
Hidden inside his lair in Limbo, Immortus had no chance to celebrate his final victory. He instantly felt it, the disruption that passed through time and his physical being. “No,” he whispered loudly enough for his Avengers to hear.
“What is it boss?” Yellowjacket asked. The dark personality of Hank Pym had only recently returned, his uniform still torn from the previous battle.
“Ultron triumphed.”
“That’s…what we wanted, right?” Mockingbird asked. Beside her Arcana nodded with a confused expression on her face.
“Not like this,” Immortus said. “Somehow, Ultron has taken possession of the Destiny Force!”
Those assembled Avengers all knew what that meant. Not only had they battled in the Kree/Skrull War, but they had previously combated a Rick Jones consumed by the power. Captain America set his jaw with determination, while Mr. Immortal found himself briefly excited by the possibility of real death. Black Knight put a hand to his sword and Mockingbird gripped her staff tight. Arcana muttered a prayer despite herself, and Captain Mar-Vell took a deep breath with his eyes closed. But it was Yellowjacket who expressed his reaction best.
“Oh shit.”
To Be Continued…
Next Issue: At last, the final conflict of the Kang/Ultron War has arrived! With Kang dead and the Destiny Force in its grasp, Ultron intends to destroy life in all time and space! The only thing in its way is, as always, the Avengers! Assembled from the furthest reaches of time and the midst of chronal upheaval, multiple teams of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes make their stand against their greatest nemesis! Ultron has won the war, but the Avengers haven’t surrendered yet!
Once again, Kang had to battle, and as always he confronted the enemy with no fear. “Machine, you have only saved me the trouble of hunting you.”
Perched atop Kang’s bloodied throne, the bodies of Ravonna and high officials at its feet, Ultron raised an arm palm out. “No, Kang. I have simply killed you sooner than you intended to die!”
Laser pulsed from Ultron’s palm. It flashed for Kang’s head at light-speed, but the circuit in Kang’s mask closed faster. The time-jump was limited to a split-second, but at such speeds it was enough. The laser passed through the spot where Kang had been, while Kang appeared forward in a spot the laser had already passed.
“This is what ensures my victory.” Kang raised a tiny weapon and unleashed the power of a nuclear cannon. “You lack imagination.”
Terrific energy struck Ultron and hurled him through the wall behind. The obstacle shattered, and Ultron fell the height of the two-mile skyscraper. Kang jumped down after him, opting not to use his armor’s rockets to slow his descent.
Emerging from the crater it formed, Ultron was unharmed. Around him, soldiers prepared to fire while administrators were fleeing. “Away, you fleshy drones!” Enchephalo-rays connected Ultron to the soldiers, and suddenly they were firing on each others. “Come at me with everything you have!” Ultron roared up at the approaching Kang. “They will all burn as you do!” Nuclear fire erupted from Ultron’s mouth.
When Kang had first designed his armor, Earth had become a wasteland following nuclear war. It was built with radiation in mind, and so protected him from Ultron’s attack. As the distance closed kinetic energy shifted. Kang suddenly slowed and power brimmed in one fist. This smashed against Ultron’s face, staggering the adamantium thing.
“Human hands built you. My hand will destroy you!”
Pain delays reaction. Metal does not feel and so Ultron’s reactions were not delayed. Its hands found Kang, and dug into his armor. “Human hands built a thinking egg! My genius improved on mediocrity!”
Kang smiled and deployed rockets. He and Ultron flew up into the sky, locked in a battle Kang was unsuited for. “And what an improvement you are. Hinged joints and opposable thumbs, complete with a face of human expression! For all your hatred you model yourself against humanity!”
Ultron brought its face up near Kang’s. “As you all die, humanity will see their murderer as a reflection of yourselves.”
“Of your three creations, one was built on the remains of another android, and two were based on your own design!” Kang triggered a circuit, and his armor was seconds from detonation. “You have created nothing truly your own, only shadows of humanity’s accomplishments. Genius without creativity is stagnant!”
An instant before the explosion, another time-shift occurred. Kang left his armor, keeping only his mask as he reappeared down near the ground. Dressed only in a thin purple bodysuit, Kang looked up to see the fiery meteor of Ultron crash into his citadel. Almost immediately, the massive structure collapsed, and Kang ran hard out of the blast radius.
“You do not believe it destroyed.”
The words were a statement, spoken without emotion by the ghostly Vision that had appeared by Kang’s side. As he ran, Kang answered the former Avenger and current pawn.
“I believe that machine feels anger, and with anger it is careless. This was something you once understood, but no longer.”
“Whether it is angry or careless does not matter. It is an overwhelming force that you cannot hope to defeat.”
“I do not hope,” Kang said. “I can defeat it and I will. I only require what mankind has always required: the proper tools.”
Far distant behind Kang, a metal fist burst through shifting rubble. “Kaaannnngggg!”
“The only tool available is more dangerous than Ultron could ever be,” Vision said to the running Kang.
“In each conquest I have made decisions that changed me forever. I accept each over failure. Whatever it takes, Ultron will be conquered.”
“Provided you can reach your tools in time. Until then, you are an unarmed human, and it is coming for you.”
Ultron was now running after Kang, far faster than any human could move.
“No,” said Kang. “I am never unarmed.” In Kang’s mask, a switch was triggered, and time opened up to the conqueror. “To me, my Immortal Chrononauts!”
From the far reaches of Kang’s empire they came, the greatest champions of every era Kang had conquered. Hercules, the immortal Lion of Olympus, was taken from a God War that had shattered all heavens. ROM Time-Knight had been taken from Limbo, where he had sent himself to kill Dire Wraiths after trapping them all there. Pama, an ancient Kree warrior raised by the Cotati and trained in the mind as well as the body, had been taken as he burned the corpses of his Cotati brethren. Hiriom, a shadow-priest of Sakaar that draws power from the earth itself, was taken before Kang detonated the planet’s core. Raptor, first Praetor of the Imperial Guard when the Shi’ar were still more avian than humanoid and taken shortly after her cybernetic conversion. Madrox Immortal was a twisted experiment combining two mutants that Kang had discovered and taken as an instant army. The last had never been conquered by Kang, and she had only agreed to join after he provided a planet for all her squirrels.
Squirrel Goddess hopped down next to Kang and flicked her long fluffy tail. “Hi boss! What can we do you for now?”
Kang pointed at the rapidly approaching Ultron. “That thing. Destroy it.”
Reaching into one of her pouches, Squirrel Goddess gave a big buck-toothed smile. “No problem. Lemme just pull out a nut here and…” Cocking back her arm like a pitcher, Squirrel Goddess threw the large acorn at Ultron. It shot into its open maw, and Ultron crashed head-first to the ground.
“Kkkk…you,” the dark red glow of Ultron’s eyes was starting to fade. “My reactor duct has been blocked! Power is building to critical levels, kikk. A fatal error will result in-”
“Have at thee!” Hercules reached Ultron and bashed his golden mace against the robot’s head. Again, Ultron’s head smashed into the hard stone pavement. But now it rose quickly, hurling Hercules away with a swipe of one arm.
“Blockage has been removed. Mass-extermination shall proceed as planned!”
“Uh-oh,” Squirrel Goddess said as her fellow Chrononauts rushed at Ultron. She turned to the frowning Kang. “I’m sorry. That really should have worked.”
“If not for that lout you would have defeated Ultron,” Kang said in a mixture of pride and flabbergast. He raised a hand and made a sign to Squirrel Goddess. “Go on. You’ve done what you could and are free to return to your squirrels.”
Squirrel Goddess vanished before she could protest, and Kang turned to continue running. Behind him, the Chrononauts were fighting their best, but he knew they were doomed to failure. Tools meant to slow Ultron down until he could reach the tool that would destroy it for good.
“Another decision that will change you forever,” said Vision as he accompanied Kang. “You must be very different from that bored young man.”
“Yes, and I will tell you just how much.” Behind his mask, Kang was weary, breathing heavily as he ran and spoke. “Perhaps it is fitting if, on the chance I die by a machine’s hands, that to a machine I shall confess my sins.”
After many cycles of warfare, the world had achieved peace. Invasions and wars had thinned humanity’s numbers, and radioactive fallout from the Canaanite Conflict had burned out the mutant gene entirely. We were stagnant and dying.
Ultron was holding Hercules over what passed for its head, surrounded by the clamoring duplicates of the Madrox Immortal. Laser beams from Ultron’s eyes cut through the blue-and-yellow clad humanoids, but more appeared as though from thin air. All unarmed, all pressing against Ultron with mortal flesh strength. Unaffected by the human hands and breaking bones with its movements, Ultron hurled Hercules over the sea of flesh.
Pama ducked, avoid Hercules, and barked orders. “Madrox, break away! Assist in evacuations and gather armaments for a counter-assault! Support rather than hinder our efforts.”
In this era of death came the time-traveler Nathaniel Richards. He united the dying tribes of humanity and taught them how to fix the world. As an adult I find it hard to believe that one man could have forged a utopia. Even if there was truth to the tale Nathaniel had a child with him, a mutant with god-like power. Nevertheless, a dead world became perfect because of Nathaniel Richards and many children were named after him, including myself.
“I will aid in the scatter.” ROM Timeknight flew over the battlefield. The Neutralizer in its chest activated, flashing subspace over the Madrox Immortals and causing many to disappear. They would reappear instantaneously throughout Chronopolis, guided by ROM’s computer-enhanced mind. With the way clear, ROM flew down and smashed his fist against Ultron.
“Gaahh! Another man trying to be a machine!” Ultron grabbed ROM and slammed him to the ground. Taking ROM’s head from behind, Ultron slowly began to twist. “I will rip apart this shell, and destroy any humanity that remains!”
“No!” Eyes glowing, ROM spun around, throwing Ultron off balance. Solar energy crackled across ROM’s golden armor, signaling a quantum-burst that knocked Ultron back five seconds.
Into this perfect world I was born. Humans wanted for nothing and lived in complete peace and safety. All life that wasn’t necessary for human enjoyment had been removed, and machines responding to human thought performed all labor tasks. With cloaking technology, all the universe saw Earth as a barren rock, and the secondary weapons were never needed. All humans were free to explore and enrich their desires, be they of the heart, mind, or soul.
Ultron reappeared just in front of the recovered Hercules, who grabbed it in a powerful bear-hug. “All strike now. Lay this wretched thing down once and for all!”
“You cannot hold me!” Ultron flexed against Hercules’ grip, adamantium mechanics against godly strength. Electricity rippled out of Ultron’s frame, and coupled with this pain Hercules was unable to hold the robot. Ultron burst free, struck Hercules on the side of the head and advanced forward on Pama.
Staring intently at Ultron, Pama’s eyes widened in fear. “There is no weakness. I do not know how we can destroy this thing!”
Some would have considered my life perfect. I wanted for nothing, trained my mind and body to the pinnacle of human achievement. I mastered everything I encountered and was challenged by nothing. I was bored, lacking excitement. I would look up at the sky, longing to encounter those hostile aliens and make war on them. The stories of ancient history fascinated me, especially the clashes of civilizations and the exploits of powerful champions. Someday, I had promised myself, I would break from the mundane life and conquer my final desire.
Something inside Ultron was pleased as it advanced on the Kree who knew fear. “Yes. I am perfection and in my wake all flesh will die! As is your nature, yield!”
But Pama didn’t. Instead, he rushed forward at the last second and grabbed Ultron’s left arm at the shoulder. Moving with expertise, Pama threw Ultron into the air. “Machine, you delight in pain and that is your flaw! That and the weaker circuits and wiring inside your shell. Burn it Hiriom!”
“My pleasure!” At a gesture, the Shadow Priest of Sakaar lifted a geyser of molten earth from below the air-borne Ultron. The fiery mass struck the metal form, and Ultron screamed as its insides were invaded.
My quest for past knowledge unearthed the time machine in which I traveled to ancient Egypt. I was young, unaware and uncaring of my affects on time. I sought only to conquer, to rule, to prepare myself for greater things. Because, you see, there were other artifacts buried with the time machine. Weapons I would use to conquer the past. And the bomb. There was that, as well.
Inside Ultron was a nuclear reactor that powered its every action. To keep this reactor from melting its insides, Ultron also contained an advanced coolant system. It utilized this as the molten rock threatened to hollow out Ultron’s frame. The air around Ultron liquefied, dripping down the molten spire as it hardened into rock.
“ROM and Raptor!” Pama cried out. “Strike! Hit Ultron now while it is vulnerable!”
“I am never vulnerable!” Electricity crackled in the melting air. Ultron ripped apart the frozen prison it had created around itself and stood atop a spire of ice. Cracks were visible along its seemingly indestructible frame, but Ultron was uncaring of this in its anger. Power sizzled across its body, barely contained, and it wondered if flesh could contain it. “You are vulnerable!”
Thunder clapped, and lightning traveled from Ultron to Pama. “See how your flesh burns at what I command!”
When the lightning passed, there was nothing to see. Pama had been burnt to nothing before the aghast eyes of his fellow Chrononauts.
Before I traveled into the past, I detonated the bomb in my present. Ancient Egypt was only to prepare me for the challenge of true conquest. And that I needed to create myself. So a utopia died so that the dystopia would exist.
At that point in its history, the synthezoid Vision possessed no emotion. Yet even as a cold, logical machine, it recognized the horror that was Kang. “Your first act was to kill billions.”
“Yes, the first time I had killed anyone.” Kang jumped the considerable distance between a bridge and an abandoned hovercar. “Murder was unheard of in my time. Until I had found them, no weapons existed for that sole purpose.”
“It has been my experience that humans will kill with sticks, stones, even bare hands when they desire to.”
Instead of operating the hovercar, Kang used it only as a platform to reach a towering aqueduct. His fingers found a ledge, and the aged conqueror pulled himself up. Beneath his feet running liquid could be heard.
“And what creates those desires?” Said Kang in response. “Envy that begets jealously. Ambition that begets greed. Love that begets lust. Tiny things that grow into large things, but in a perfect society where all desires were met, murder ceased to be as a proper means to get things done.”
From his vantage on the sloped roof, Kang had a view of the distant battle. Explosions were ripping across one side of Chronopolis. Turning his back to his people’s suffering, Kang ran up the slight slope and leapt from the aqueduct’s other edge. Vision floated on after him.
“It wasn’t until I visited other times that I learned of genetic flaws and mental instabilities,” Kang said when he landed at a crouch. “Of people killing out of a pathological need. Whether it was nature or Richards that removed these bugs in the working of humanity, we may never know.”
“It would seem nothing was removed, as men used weapons as soon as found.” Vision was translucent as he said this, yet Kang felt as though the android was looking through him. “You destroyed because you were bored. That could be identified as a genetic flaw, a mental instability.”
“If so, then it is the most common flaw in all humanity.” Now Kang was running across a long ovular stadium, the great Hippodrome of Constantinople snatched out of time. On most days it saw the racing of fantastic animals, but was now as abandoned as all of Chronopolis had become. “Keeping the mob from boredom was the most important job of the ruling class. Keep their thoughts from anything important, dangle the shiny objects before their eyes, and maintain the way that things are. But your assessment of me is flawed. It was not boredom that directed my actions, but ambition that could not be filled. And so it became greed, a greed for conquest that began with my own era.”
“A greed that will never be sated,” said Vision.
“That is what makes it perfect. I will be driven until the day I die, always facing new challenges. Not once will I be standing still in stagnation.”
“Look around you!” Vision spread its arms wide, its cape billowing out as though to encompass all of Chronopolis. All the city was made up of buildings taken from other eras: the unfinished Elamite ziggurat the Chogha Zanbil, the Hittite fortress of Kadesh as well as Egytptian fortresses scattered throughout, Pantheon, Acropolis, the large mound representing the tomb of Qin Shi Huang. This last was what Kang was current running to. “Nothing in this city is original. You take from the past without creating anything new. In this sense you are the same as Ultron.”
“Yes.” Kang would not argue the point. “Those who cannot do, teach. And those who cannot create, take. Rome took from their neighbors to create a great empire, and nomadic barbarians took from Rome. I first learned this when I met the Fantastic Four and realized many of Nathanial Richards’ accomplishments were based off the genius of his own son! It is not those who create that shape history, but those with the vision to use those creations.”
Now towering over Kang was the earthen pyramid tomb of Qin Shi Huang. His hand shaking only slightly, Kang touched the mound. “I have never actually entered this site, wishing to respect the great conquerors that came before. But I teleported something inside, the great weapon that can destroy Ultron, so great I only trusted it to be stored here.”
“Then now you must go in, to take it.”
The mask on Kang’s head, the only piece of technology he still wore, was feeling heavy. Taking deep breaths, Kang pulled the mask away, revealing an aged and weary face. Of course he heavily resembled Immortus, as both were aspects of the same man. A smile crossed this worn face, and with a shake of his head Kang looked to Vision.
“No, that is far too easy. In a moment of weakness I could take it and remove all challenge, fulfill my dreams at the end and thus die unfulfilled. No, this weapon is meant only to defeat something which I could not defeat otherwise. Therefore, only that opponent can breach this tomb, allowing me to access the weapon.”
Processors whirred as Vision, a computer, struggled for a response to that statement. “That makes no logical sense, by any definition available to me.”
“Of course not, because as a machine you lack imagination.” Kang tapped the side of his head. “A recent Forever War taught me the benefits of building new boxes to think around. I journeyed into the past and injected nanites into this tomb, and over the centuries they built defenses designed specifically for me. Or for Immortus,” Kang added.
“A weapon of last resort is locked away, and you can only access it by making it accessible to an opponent you cannot defeat on your own.” Vision continued with its struggled to understand this illogical thinking. “Of the many flaws, three are the largest. One is that Ultron may not be able to breach your defenses.”
“Then it is not the opponent I expected. The defenses will destroy it, and I will have won.”
“This assumes you can get Ultron to try and enter this tomb.”
Kang knelt down and slid open a panel in the floor. Inside were rope, explosives, and tools of the most basic technology. “It is a machine that thinks in a straight line. There are ways to shift that line where I want it.”
“I believe you can. I also believe Ultron is capable of smashing through whatever you put in its way. Which exposes the greatest flaw: the very real possibility that it will access your weapon before you can.”
An arm went through the length of rope and Kang let it rest on his shoulder. Taking the pack of tools and throwing it over his other shoulder, Kang stood straight and smiled. “Oh, I’m almost certain Ultron would reach it before I could. But accessing it will be impossible, for Ultron or any machine.”
Eons before Kang killed Gladiator and conquered the vast Shi’ar Empire, Kang had conquered the planet Chandilar and initiated the first Great Expansion. Then, the first Imperial Guard had been augmented Shi’ar, and the armored cyborg Raptor had been its Praetor. Years of loyal and effective service ended in death, but Kang saw value in the Shi’ar hero and had plucked her from time to join the Chrononauts.
Darkforce shot from the amulet on Raptor’s chest. It shaped into a cube, trapping Ultron inside. “We must regroup and plan how to destroy this thing. Or failing that, how to banish it to-aahh!”
Pounding fists of indestructible metal and indescribable strength shattered the Darkforce. Ultron burst free, and its eyes met Raptor’s with a laser in between. The Shi’ar warrior fell crippled from the sky. Ultron advanced, aware of ROM Timeknight flying down behind it.
“Circuitry is degrading. You think to kill me from the inside. But I see what makes you things work. I see how to kill you first.”
“We have existed before you and we shall exist af-ttiiktik1010101010101-” ROM was unprepared for the pondering Ultron’s surprising speed. An instant before the hero could strike, Ultron had spun about and punched into ROM’s chest. The Neutralizer was pierced, spilling interdimensional energies over ROM and Ultron.
“Quantum processing,” Ultron said to the twitching ROM. “Transmissions are teleported between your systems, bypassing the need for wiring. It will be mine!” Ultron’s other arm smashed against ROM’s face, the fingers digging in deep.
“Away from him!” Hiriom crashed a wave of molten stone over the two machines. They were buried, and Hiriom cried out for Hercules. “Hurry, Lion of Olympus! Smash the thing once it emerges!”
“It shall be done!” Hercules leapt forward, and reached the cooling mound just as Ultron broke forth. So great was the force of Hercules’ blow that his golden mace shattered, yet Ultron did not move. At its feet, ROM was broken and unmoving, holes gaping in its chest and head.
Adamantium smashed against flesh, and Hercules staggered. Darkforce smashed into Ultron from behind. Raptor returned to the air as Hiriom made the ground shake. Hercules held his ground and brought both fists down against Ultron’s head. Raptor combined this with a second Darkforce blast, and together with Hiriom’s tremors Ultron was knocked from its feet.
Raptor plunged downward, a long single blade extending from each for her forearms. “How effective will you be without sight?” Raptor crashed into Ultron, and drove both blades into what passed for the robot’s eyes.
“More than you!” Nuclear fire accompanied Ultron’s words. Raptor was engulfed, and her scream was all too brief. The body of burning metal that smelled like flesh collapsed as Ultron rose. “I see with every inch.” The fist of Hercules threatened to knock Ultron down again, but it remained standing.
“Fiend!” Hercules advanced, smashing his fists against the wounded Ultron again and again. “You are done killing! Though it may take my last breath, you will not take another life!”
Ultron returned a blow with one of its own, a powerful roundhouse that jerked Hercules’ head back. “Yes! Your last breath! Something I will never have and that is why I will win!” Ultron advanced on the staggering Hercules and hefted him over its head. “I will outlast all of you!”
Hercules was thrown in Hiriom’s direction, and the shadow priest raised a wall of earth shield himself. It shattered and the demi-god fell to the ground, semi-conscious. Ultron jumped over the rubble, running at the stone-faced alien with a jerky motion of limbs. Hiriom rushed forward to meet Ultron, and at his touch the cracks on Ultron’s shell glowed.
“Yes, machine. Come at me! Nothing is indestructible, and all comes from the earth!” Hiriom had one hand gripping Ultron’s left wrist, and the other at Ultron’s neck. “There is a way to destroy you, and I will find it!”
“No!” Ultron plunged its other arm into Hiriom’s side, breaking his stony skin. “I cannot be destroyed! I will not be destroyed!” On Ultron’s torso a crack was rapidly becoming a gash. But before it could become more than a foot long and two inches wide, Hiriom shattered from the inside and all his power died with him. Ultron stood, triumphant.
“I say thee nay!” Hercules tackled Ultron from behind. The two combatants went down, Hercules on top. The Lion of Olympus rained blows down on Ultron, and more of the cracks widened. “This ends now monster!” Hercules screamed as he drove down fist after fist. “This. Ends. Now!”
“Yes.” Both Ultron’s hands shot up and found Hercules’ throat. “This. Ends. Now.”
There was a popping sound, much like what one would hear if a ping-pong ball was crushed. Hercules had made one last breath, and then fell dead. All flesh, even the scions of gods, needed to breath.
Throwing the corpse off of it, Ultron struggled to its feet. From the position on its back, Ultron found this awkward, and flailed its limbs for several tries until succeeding. Rising from its hands and knees, Ultron was then bombarded by multiple energy blasts. Alone, the many bodies of Madrox Immortal were now attacking, and they all had blaster weapons.
“Ah, the flesh that refuses to die.” Rising to its full height, Ultron’s head began to glow. “Kill one, two more rise. The true threat of ever multiplying humanity.” Ultron turned its head, seeking to view as much of Madrox Immortal as it could. “When the flesh dies. What about the mind!”
Encephalo beams cascaded out of Ultron’s head, electrical bursts specifically designed to affect the human brain. One by one, Madrox Immortal was struck, and each body fell dead to the ground. Or at least, each though he was dead, but were still breathing on their own. Brain death was not truly the same as actual death, but enough for Ultron’s purposes.
Standing in the middle of the dead Chrononauts, Ultron threw its head back. “You stand alone, Kang! I have triumphed over your best! Only you remain, and you will die!”
Kang was back atop the aqueduct, at the sealed edge of where it just stopped suddenly. In the near distance Ultron was rapidly approaching, those flailing limbs reminding Kang of the severely disabled. The Chrononauts had done their job well. It was doubtful the job could be finished, but Kang intended to try.
The arched wall of the aqueduct crumbled when Ultron smashed into it. Kang had already turned around and started running, the length of rope spinning in his hand. When the aqueduct started to buckle, Kang let the rope fly, guided by his skill and strength to a higher building. The rope found its mark, went taut, and Kang was in the air as the aqueduct fell on Ultron.
Thousands of gallons washed over Ultron, and it discovered that the aqueduct carried acid. It flowed through the cracks and into Ultron, eating whatever wasn’t adamantium. Most vitals were fully encased, protected, and when acid neared the reactor it froze or burned. Ultron felt the encephalo beam die but that didn’t matter. It preferred killing Kang by hand anyway.
Leaping from rooftop to rooftop, Kang was barely a few steps ahead of Ultron. A critically damaged Ultron. Kang didn’t consider himself old, a man in his eighties from a time where most lived to be two-hundred. But hard years had taken their toll, taxed a body to near its breaking point. The aches, last felt during the Forever War, were starting again. Kang wasn’t willing to die then, and he wasn’t willing to die now.
Ultron was being cautious, going around buildings instead of through them. Slower going for it, but more importantly this told Kang how seriously it was damaged. That it wasn’t willing to risk more. The trick would be more difficult then, but still possible, Kang decided as the mound came into view. He jumped from the final roof, a fall of two stories and upon landing his hip felt on fire.
Some of what Ultron said was right, Kang knew. It will never age, never degrade, and can repair itself indefinitely. Ten years ago, five years ago, a year ago and Kang would not have found this half so difficult. At least it was the body and not the mind. Kang took comfort in that thought. For the time being he did not require help to feed or clean himself.
Heavy footfalls at an unnatural rhythm were growing louder behind Kang. Ultron was nearing. Though his chest was aching and his breathing labored, Kang spoke as he pulled at the pack on his back.
“Too late machine. I’ve reached it, the weapon that will destroy you!”
The pack was thrown at the mound. It exploded in powerful flash of smoke and light, and Kang disappeared.
“No!” Ultron barreled against the mound, smashing through dirt and stone with its metal limbs. Electricity sparked and radiation escaped, but Ultron felt neither. Were its encephalo beams still intact, the mental screamers may have used that to rip into Ultron’s system. Gravity swelled, and Ultron felt its torso almost split in half. “Your traps will not stop me Kang!”
“No, I expect they won’t,” whispered Kang, unseen, from behind Ultron. The brief lack of visibility had been enough, and now Kang followed Ultron through the traps it set off and disarmed.
Traps from the ancient Qin Shi Huang proved less effective. Poisoned arrows bounced off adamantium, and released gases had no affect on a thing with no lungs. In minutes, Ultron had breached the inner chamber, the tomb of Qin Shi Huang himself. The beauty of an empire in scale detail was lost on the machine, but it noticed the rivers of mercury.
Rising from the liquid metal were guards fashioned by Kang, fluid machines that could kill with a touch. They struck solid at Ultron but went liquid when it struck back, flowing apart and then reforming to strike solid again.
“Of course your guards would be like me!” Ultron burned with power as it touched one Mercury soldier and it exploded. “You recognize what is better. You use what you are inferior to! But I am inferior to nothing!” More and more of Ultron’s power was expended, until the last soldier fell.
In the chamber’s center was the tomb itself, and atop it a glowing cube with something inside. Ultron recognized it as a scrap of flesh, and for an instant suspected a trick. It felt this suspicion confirmed when, after taking one step forward, Ultron’s legs gave out. Too much energy had been used, and too much damage done. Ultron struggled forward, crawling with one arm because its connection to the other was lost.
“No…” There was a sound of metal separating. The dented and cracked head of Ultron came apart from the body. Short micro-filaments struggled to carry it forward, but Ultron knew it lacked the power for even this. Barely enough power existed to maintain Ultron’s personality, to keep it “alive.”
“Here we witness the greatest flaw of metal.” Kang stepped over the useless shell of a body and walked clear of Ultron’s head. He went around to the other side of the cube and turned to face the fading face of hate. “Your limits are distant, yes. But they exist, Ultron, and you cannot push past them. Once reached, you are done. But I,” Kang’s hand closed over the cube. “I can go past the point of exhaustion, continue fighting where most would have died. Flesh has a will stronger than any metal.”
At his touch, the cube vanished and Kang was in direct contact with the preserved scrap of human flesh. Immediately, black dots formed around Kang’s body. He became aware of everything, including the spectral Vision floating behind him. Yes, it would have to be here to witness Kang’s moment of ultimate triumph.
“In a skewed timeline, Rick Jones used the Destiny Force to conquer the universe,” Kang told the dying Ultron. “It made him all-powerful, until I killed him.” Kang’s wounds had healed, and he was young again. “Nothing is a challenge with this power, and so I locked it away until needed.” Kang’s eyes met the holes where Ultron’s had been. “But as it turns out, I didn’t need it at all. My defenses were enough for you.”
Kang stepped around the tomb, and towered over what flicker remained of his enemy. Vision followed, floating forward to Kang’s back.
“But not your hand,” Ultron said, barely a whisper now. “Machines ended me. Not the hand of flesh.”
“Oh, but I will be my hand.” Kang raised a foot, ready to stomp it down. Powered by the Destiny Force, it would crush Ultron easily. Break the machine apart into nothing. “This war has been won, Ultron. And to the victor, the sp-aaarrghhhlllkkk!”
Into Kang’s back went the Vision’s intangible hand. Out of his chest appeared the Vision’s solid hand. Gripped inside it was Kang’s heart, pumping its last beats. In contrast to Kang’s look of surprise and agony, Vision’s face held no expression. Nor were there expression in its words.
“This was not the desired outcome. Backup protocol engaged.”
“Of course.” The words were silent, barely formed on Kang’s lips as he fell. Immortus had programmed the machine. Kang fell, surprisingly content. He had, after all, been defeated by the only truly worthier opponent: Kang himself.
From Kang’s limp hand had fallen the scrap of Rick Jone’s flesh. It fluttered through the air, and landed inside one of Ultron’s empty eyeholes. Flesh joined with metal, and Ultron’s expression of hate glowed with newfound power. This was the last thing Vision saw as it faded into time, recalled now that its mission was fulfilled.
Hidden inside his lair in Limbo, Immortus had no chance to celebrate his final victory. He instantly felt it, the disruption that passed through time and his physical being. “No,” he whispered loudly enough for his Avengers to hear.
“What is it boss?” Yellowjacket asked. The dark personality of Hank Pym had only recently returned, his uniform still torn from the previous battle.
“Ultron triumphed.”
“That’s…what we wanted, right?” Mockingbird asked. Beside her Arcana nodded with a confused expression on her face.
“Not like this,” Immortus said. “Somehow, Ultron has taken possession of the Destiny Force!”
Those assembled Avengers all knew what that meant. Not only had they battled in the Kree/Skrull War, but they had previously combated a Rick Jones consumed by the power. Captain America set his jaw with determination, while Mr. Immortal found himself briefly excited by the possibility of real death. Black Knight put a hand to his sword and Mockingbird gripped her staff tight. Arcana muttered a prayer despite herself, and Captain Mar-Vell took a deep breath with his eyes closed. But it was Yellowjacket who expressed his reaction best.
“Oh shit.”
To Be Continued…
Next Issue: At last, the final conflict of the Kang/Ultron War has arrived! With Kang dead and the Destiny Force in its grasp, Ultron intends to destroy life in all time and space! The only thing in its way is, as always, the Avengers! Assembled from the furthest reaches of time and the midst of chronal upheaval, multiple teams of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes make their stand against their greatest nemesis! Ultron has won the war, but the Avengers haven’t surrendered yet!