[Earth-838. The Baxter Foundation. The Hallway.]
Sebastian Michaelis moved through the pristine corridors like a smudge of ink on a white canvas. Alarms blared. Red lights flashed against the sterile walls.
"Intruder Alert. Sector 4. Biological Contaminant."
Ultron sentries marched past him, their orange eyes scanning for heat signatures. Sebastian pressed himself into the ceiling tiles, his heart beating a slow, steady rhythm of dread.
He had to find the Doctor. He had to find the girl.
And he had to get away from the man in the laboratory. The man with Tony Stark's face and a machine's soul.
He will kill them, Sebastian thought as he dropped down behind a sentry and crushed its processor. He will kill them because the math says so.
[The Tribunal Chamber.]
Doctor Strange stood in magical handcuffs in the center of a circular room. America Chavez was trapped in a force field box nearby.
Above them sat the Illuminati.
Captain Carter (Peggy with the shield). Black Bolt (King of the Inhumans). Captain Marvel (Maria Rambeau). Professor Charles Xavier (in his yellow hoverchair). Reed Richards (Smartest Man Alive).
And finally, walking in late, his liquid armor flowing like a silver cape: Superior Iron Man.
"Stephen Strange," Professor Xavier said gently. "We are not here to kill you. We are here to prevent an Incursion."
"By killing the girl?" Strange argued. "That's not prevention. That's murder."
"It's calculus," Superior Tony said, sitting in his chair. He tapped the armrest. "One life against two universes. The math is elegant."
"Elegant?" Strange scoffed. "You sound like Thanos."
Tony's eyes flashed blue. "I killed Thanos. And I used his gauntlet to power my city. Don't lecture me on elegance, wizard."
[The Dreamwalker]
Suddenly, the heavy blast doors exploded inward.
Smoke filled the room. Red mist curled along the floor.
Walking out of the debris was Wanda Maximoff (the 838 variant, possessed by the Scarlet Witch). She was barefoot. She was covered in oil and blood from the Ultron bots she had just dismantled.
"Wanda?" Xavier asked.
"Where is she?" Wanda's voice was distorted. "Where is the girl?"
Reed Richards stepped forward. "Wanda. Stop. You are possessed. We can help you."
"Help me?" Wanda tilted her head. "I don't need help. I need my children."
"Black Bolt can destroy you with one whisper from his mouth," Reed warned.
"What mouth?" Wanda whispered.
Black Bolt gasped. His mouth was gone. Skin had grown over his lips. He panicked. He tried to scream.
BOOM.
The sonic scream had nowhere to go. It imploded inside his skull, crushing his brain. Black Bolt collapsed, dead.
Reed Richards stared in horror. "You—"
Wanda turned him into spaghetti. He unraveled into blue ribbons of flesh.
[The Intervention]
The remaining Illuminati attacked.
Captain Carter threw her shield. Wanda caught it and threw it back, slicing Peggy in half. Captain Marvel blasted Wanda with cosmic energy, but Wanda absorbed it.
Superior Iron Man stood up. His faceplate slid over his face. The liquid metal hissed.
"Enough," Tony said coldly. "Ultron Protocol: Eradicate."
He aimed his repulsors. They glowed with the power of an Infinity Stone.
"Tony! No!"
Sebastian Michaelis burst from the ventilation shaft above.
He didn't aim for Wanda. He aimed for Tony.
Sebastian tackled the Superior Iron Man, slamming him into the far wall just as Wanda fired a bolt of chaos magic that would have decapitated him.
"Get off me!" Tony roared.
"Sir!" Sebastian pinned him down, his eyes desperate. "You cannot fight her! She is rewriting reality! Your armor is just metal to her!"
Superior Tony looked at the demon butler on top of him. He felt insulted. A biological anomaly touching his pristine suit?
"Get off me, filth!" Tony yelled.
He triggered a sonic pulse from his chest plate.
SCREECH.
The sound was agonizing. It blasted Sebastian backward, shattering the glass floor. Sebastian tumbled, clutching his ears, his demonic senses overwhelmed.
"I am the Superior Iron Man!" Tony floated up, his ego bruised. "I solved world peace! I killed the Titan! I will not be lectured by a servant!"
He turned to Wanda.
"You want a fight, Witch? Let's see how you handle pure antimatter."
He charged his unibeam.
Wanda looked at him. She looked at the arrogant, shining armor. She looked at the man who thought he was a god because he had solved a math problem.
"You're just a man in a can," Wanda whispered.
She clenched her hand.
[The Crush]
The Endo-Sym armor stopped flowing. It froze.
Tony's eyes went wide inside the helmet. "System failure. Suit... not responding."
"It's not a suit," Wanda smiled cruelly. "It's a coffin."
She twisted her wrist.
The liquid metal responded to her magic, not his tech. It began to contract.
"No," Tony gasped. "Stop. Authorization Alpha! Stop!"
The armor squeezed. It crushed his ribs. It crushed his legs. The silver metal turned red as blood began to mix with the mercury.
"I... am... Superior..." Tony wheezed.
CRUNCH.
The helmet imploded.
Superior Iron Man fell from the air. A crumpled ball of silver and red. Dead.
[The Escape]
Sebastian lay on the shattered glass, watching.
He saw the silver ball hit the ground. He saw the blood pool around it.
He felt a scream build in his throat, but he swallowed it. That wasn't his Tony. That was a stranger. A monster.
But it still had his face.
"Professor!" Strange yelled.
Professor Xavier tried to enter Wanda's mind to save her. Wanda snapped his neck in the psychic plane. He slumped in his chair.
Only Mordo and the trapped America Chavez remained.
Wanda turned to America's glass prison.
"Open," she whispered.
The glass cracked.
Sebastian forced himself to stand. His ears were ringing. His ribs were bruised from the sonic blast. But the mission remained.
He looked at the dead Iron Man one last time.
You were not superior, Sebastian thought bitterly. You were just alone.
He turned to Strange, who had managed to break his cuffs during the chaos.
"Doctor!" Sebastian yelled. "The girl!"
Strange tackled America just as the glass shattered.
"Run!" Strange ordered.
They ran toward the door that led to the Waypoint—the space between universes.
Wanda walked after them, her bare feet leaving bloody footprints on the pristine white floor. She stepped over the crushed body of Iron Man without even looking down.
[End of Chapter 68]
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