(General P.O.V)
"Then we're doomed?"
Falcon asked, throwing a slightly wary look Doom's way.
"I swear I'm not trying to make a pun, so don't end me."
Doom snorted, looking away.
"In a word, yes."
Reed responded, hooking up a wire from his wrist computer device into the head of one of the Sentinels.
There was a hum and right before their eyes, a hologram was projected through the eyes of the Sentinel.
The hologram was a blue pannel that displayed rows of data.
"This Sentinel is outfitted with a learning matrix and is capable of conscious-modifaction."
Mr. Fantastic told them.
"But, can't all Sentinels already do that?"
Johnny asked.
"It's what makes them so dangerous right?"
"The key word is conscious."
Doom cut in, hands folded over his chest.
"That means a unit can not only adapt to various stimuli and attacks, it can share and transmit data with the rest. Those units can then consciously modify themselves to fight threats they have yet to come across. Smart tech."
"Exactly."
Reed nodded.
"Each Sentinel contains nanomachines that can repair and upgrade it's components. They are shielded from electromagnetic effects and can multiply by harvesting raw materials and processing them."
Mr.Fantastic explained.
"Think Death Machines that cannot be stopped without outputting a force equivalent to 8.368e+16 joules. That's 20 megatons each, almost half as powerful as a Tsar Bomb."
Johnny whistled.
Almost all eyes turned to Shazam, who was leaning on the wall away from the others.
"What?"
He shrugged with raised eyebrows.
"How...did you even fight them and survive? Let alone kill and bring back two of them?!"
Reed asked, a question that was on everyone's mind.
"I just did."
Shazam simply smiled.
He was wondering what they would say if they knew he had over 300 Sentinel remains in his Inventory.
'Yeah...lets keep that a secret Billy.'
He wasn't going to tell them. He had a use for the Sentinels, or rather, the metal used in their construction.
"Okay okay, I get that these things are unfair, but unfair doesn't mean unbeatable."
Fury interrupted with authority.
"Everything has a weakness!"
He insisted, pointedly staring at Tony.
"Stark-"
"It's not that simple, Eye-patch."
Tony sighed, tapping the Sentinel's head with a pen no one knew where he had got from.
"They're made out of a Vibranium alloy, dense and durable. Add that to the nanomachines..."
"And it becomes a headache for all involved."
Cap completed the sentence.
"Here's a thought, if they're connected to each other, why not just target the main control pannel? We can take them out in one fell swoop, leaving Ultron defenseless."
Billy proposed.
Looks were shared across the room.
"That...could work, but it's not the biggest issue."
Doom countered.
"Accessing the control hub IS the problem."
"Viktor's right."
Tony funnily enough, agreed with the Latverian King.
"I had a chance to go through Attilan's feeds. Ultron has taken up residence in one of my satellites. The most advanced one, Iris or Integrated Reconnaissance and Intelligence System in broader terms."
"Whoa, Tony. You finished it? When?"
Falcon asked, a little excited.
Tony had a proud smirk on his face as he answered.
"A few weeks ago. Actually, just 2 days before the world went to shit."
"How convinient for the enemy."
Karnak, standing at the side of the King L, Black Bolt said thoughtfully.
"You think It knew about the Satellite."
Tony hummed.
"That makes sense, if Ultron is from the future as we believe."
"The Future?"
Crystal muttered, confused.
"Where else would he be from?"
Doom cut in, his voice dripping with scorn.
"It knew exactly when to attack and who...to attack. Had Doom been on Earth at that time, none of this would have happened."
"About that, where have you been Doom? The last time we saw you-"
Tony asked curiously.
"You were screaming about revenge as you fell through a portal on top of giant snake."
The mood grew tense. Everyone around knew Doom was arrogant. Therefore it wouldn't be surprising if he took offense to Tony's words.
"No tact as ever Stark."
The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
Doom finally spoke, his voice dry and heavy as it came through his armor.
"Doom- was imprisoned."
Viktor admitted, shocking almost everyone.
"It was a colony of Rock Trolls, they dared lay a hand on Doom, so I destroyed them in retaliation."
"Typical."
Reed muttered under his breath.
"So how did you end up working for the enemy? Why were you helping Galactus?"
Tony followed up.
"I remember now-"
Thor cut in, glaring at Doom with stormy eyes.
"You are part of the reason I've-lost it all."
Mjonirl found itself in Thor's hands. The God of thunder, lightning and Strength stalked forward angrily.
"I will make you pay."
Doom chuckled, spreading his hands out. The chamber became charged.
"Bring it on, Asgardian. Doom fears no one under the sky."
"That's enough from both of you."
Cap came between the two.
"We have bigger fish to fry. You two can finish this later."
"Cap is right."
Hawkeye, who had been silent up to this point supported the Supersoldier.
"I don't know about you, but I want to save my home. We can't do that if we're fighting amongst ourselves."
Doom and Thor stared at each other for a few tense seconds. Green eyes to blue.
Then the pressure died away as Thor stepped back.
"This isn't over."
(Billy's P.O.V)
Bummer.
I thought a fight was going to break out and I would see two of the most badass characters goe toe to toe with each other.
In any case, Hawkeye was right.
I did use my Psionic abilities to siphon away some of the fury in Thor's mind though. It wouldn't do if we lost sight of what was important.
From the start of the meeting, I'd surreptitiously been probing everyone's magnetic field. And although Black Bolt was the first Omega classification I saw, he wasn't the only one.
Thor was Beyond Omega, Doom was Omega, Tony was surprisingly enough Beyond Omega( the suit of armor he was wearing perhaps? He had no powers to speak of, so it meant the field scanned for how much energy a target was outputting.)
That meant, I could be tricked. It was the same concept as Ki manipulation from Dragonball. Anyone with good control of their Ki could conceal their true power level.
Black Bolt was Omega, so was Medusa- her hair was stated to be stronger than steel, and who knows how long she could stretch it.
The rest of the house of Agon(Black Bolt's extended Royal Family) were a smattering of Superhuman and Omega.
So were the Avengers and the Fantastic Four.
Probing Fury showed he was simply human but I was more surprised that it had worked.
The last Fury I saw must have been an imposter. Wait...could it have been a life model decoy? All this talk about killer robots and AI had nudged a few memories loose.
I inquired from Quantum Prognosis and the answer came back as 100%.
That means, the Fury I'd known had been a robot stand in for the real deal.
I want one.
If it could use my abilities then I would have a powerful sparring partner. I still had a few more legacies to unlock.
But by far the most powerful entity in the chamber was as stated before, the Watcher.
Beyond Omega.
Of course the Ancient One was still around but I knew better than to prove her field.
There was no doubt in my mind that she would sense it, and I wasn't sure she wouldn't mess with the readings.
I let her be.
"...with a full military force, it can be done. We can take back the world."
My focus returned to the discussion, where Fury was looking around the chamber, trying to argue that...
Huh...actually, I missed the whole convo.
I delved into his mind and perused his memories and thoughts for some context.
He was wondering if Attilan's forces could occupy the Sentinels as the rest of us tried to look for a way to get to Ultron.
"It won't work. The Sentinels are only the first problem we have to deal woth."
Reed shook his head with a sigh.
"The field of energy surrounding the satellite is impenetrable. And the only way to disrupt it is from the inside, bombarding it with attacks will only make it stronger. My scans indicate it can absorb kinetic, thermal and any other type of energy."
"What if we just teleported in?"
I proposed.
"Difficult. The barrier seems to be powered by an exotic type of energy source. It must have upgraded or replaced the Arc Reactor I had installed."
Tony replied.
"Witg this exotic energy, Ultron can isolate spatial fluctuations and close them instantly. Too bad I can't outhack an AI."
"So that's it?"
Fury asked, hands on the table.
"We endure all this shit for weeks and you tell me there's nothing we can do?"
"Time travel is an option."
Doom offered.
"We could stop it from happening."
"Not viable Viktor." Reed refused.
"That would drastically alter our timeline, who knows what would happen then?"
"It also wouldn't work."
The Sorcerer Supreme informed them.
"There are what we call fixed points in time. Changing them is quite literally, Impossible."
"Then how are we going to bring back everyone?!"
Hawkeye demanded.
"Who are we doing this for then? I thought at the end- we'd get back everyone we've lost."
"I don't have an answer for you Archer."
The Ancient One sighed.
"Whether you'll fight for a lost cause or for revenge, it's your decision to make."
"This is a load of bullshit."
Hawkeye spat out, making his way to the exit.
"Clint..."
Widow tried to call after him but he ignored her.
"Go on without me."
He threw over his shoulder.
A brief dive into his mind and I understood whst had him so worked up. Turns out that this Hawkeye also had a family. Or had.
I narrowed my eyes.
"Wait."
Hawkeye stopped at my voice. All eyes also turned my way.
"I don't know about all that 'fixed point in time' shit, but I have a way to deal with the shield."
A breeze of hope swept out across the room. I snapped a finger and a ball of bright red hellfire appeared, floating above my palm.
The temperature in the room increased dramatically.
Falcon and Widow who were closer to me than the others, stepped back.
"It's so hot, I feel like I'm cooking."
Falcon stated while gazing at the fire warily. A thin trail of sweat fell down his face.
"This flame is called Hellfire."
I informed them, a little pride leaking into my voice.
"It can eat through anything. Including energy."
The reveal was met with an array of different reactions. The one I paid most attention to was the Ancient One. She narrowed her eyes my way, staring at me with a strange look. Almost...caution.
She must be sensing the demonic aspect of the flames.
The ball of fire disappeared.
"How sure are you that it's going to work?"
The question came from Fury.
"Chances that my idea will work?"
I made the query to Quantum Prognosis.
"78%"
Not a bad number. Why was it a 100% then? The question was pretty clear cut. Maybe it went down due to circumstances outside of my control?
"78% sure."
I answered, causing weird looks to be thrown my way.
"With the field down...all we would have to contend with are the Sentinels."
Reed said.
"Leave them to us and our esteemed King."
Medusa said, her hand on the shoulder of her husband.
"The rest of you can focus on saving your friend."
"Friend?"
What were they talking about?
"We found out a few...concerning things while going through Attilan's sat feeds. The Hulk was captured by Ultron."
Tony answered me.
"And that's not all either...there was a man."
Cap ran a gloved palm down his face.
"He went up against hoardes of Sentinels and a mind controlled Hulk...we don't know what happened next."
"The shockwaves from the fight must have corrupted the recording components of the satellite. We think he might have been captured...or killed."
Tony took over and concluded.
"It might have been easier to just blow the satellite up. But now you've turned this into a rescue mission?"
I wondered out loud.
Cap shared a look with Reed before both turned to me.
"Will you still help out?"
A smile worked it's way onto my face.
"Of course Iwill. But only because the added difficultly might prove to be fun. Oh and I also expect a full renovation to my apartment once Earth is back on its feet."
"You will be saving the world son, even if you asked for the whole building, I doubt anyone would complain."
Fury told me.
Nice.
I had a few ideas on-
A tremor rocked the banquet hall. Then a loud blaring alarm sounded out.
Everyone was instantly on guard.
Black Bolt stood up, signalling to his subjects with his chin. Karnak and Gorgon ran towards Crystal and Lockjaw. A second later, they all disaappeared into a portal.
Meanwhile I stretched my senses out. The alarm was ringing out across the entire city. Something had happened.
"What's going on?"
Someone asked, not sure who but that question was going through everyone's mind.
Without a word, I teleported out of the Banquet Hall, appearing outside Attilan.
I swept my gaze out.
The city of the Inhumans was a technological marvel. It was contained within a bubble of energy.
The buildings were constructed perfectly. All sharp edges in a dull grey futuristic color.
Flying crafts the size of vehicles flew all over and through my Psionic Field, I detected various strong beings in the city proper.
Most of the auras they were giving off were in the Superhuman range, with a few Omegas mixed in.
The next part was to find out what was causing the tremors. A moon quake? We had earthquakes on Earth so was it the same thing?
I increased the range of my Psionic Field and that's when I felt it. At the edge of my perception...they were coming.
I popped back into the Banquet Hall where I found myself the target of barely held back attacks.
"Oh, it's you."
Iron Man said, powering down his repulsers.
"Got some news."
I told the room.
"We've been discussing how to deal with Ultron while forgetting he's not the only enemy coming for us. Galactus is on his way."
My words left everyone gaping.
"The tremor you felt...is from the first wave of meteors crashing on to the surface of the moon."
I continued.
"The remains of Mars."
A brief silence fell. And in that moment, anlther tremor rocked the palace.
"Its decided then."
Thor said, getting to his feet.
"The Watcher, Doom and I shall halt his advance while the rest of you deal with Ultro."
His eyes sparked.
"I shall avenge my father by striking down the World Eater! This I swear on my Name!"
Thunder and lightning crackled on the outside.
"Any objections?"
The God of Thunder asked the room, daring anyone to say otherwise.
"None from me, Goldilocks. Kick his cosmic tincan ass."
Tony patted his shoulder.
"Clobber him up real good."
The Thing added, smacking a fist into his open palm.
"Be careful."
Cap told Thor.
"Doom?"
Thor called out to the Supervillain.
"We have our differences. And you played a part in the destruction of my home. I ask you, will you redeem yourself by my side?"
The Aesier Prince stretched out his hand towards the Latverian King.
Without saying a word, Doom grasped it.
Thor turned to the chamber, his eyes briefly landing on me.
"We shall end this. Once and for all. So do not dare lose."
Energy surged within Uatu, and the three of them disaappeared.