The explosion scattered fire across the night sky, but from the flames a hulking machine emerged. Its joints screeched, molten fragments dripping off its armor as it pushed through the wreckage.
The giant metal fist slammed into Tony with the force of a missile. He was hurled backward several hundred feet, his body cutting through the sky like a comet. He stopped himself midair, the golden aura around him flaring brighter. Not a scratch.
"Big swing," Tony muttered, rubbing his jaw as if humoring the blow. "Zero damage. Try again."
The machine's chest began to pulse. Bright blue conduits ran down its arms and legs. On the battlefield below, every Brotherhood mutant screamed at once. Their bodies convulsed as invisible tendrils shot down from the giant mecha and latched onto them, draining the essence that gave them power.
One by one they collapsed. Their powers ripped away, their mutations extinguished.
Thirty mutants lay scattered, barely breathing. The machine straightened. The light within it shifted, stabilizing into a cold blue glow.
Then it began to change.
Its bulk shrank, metal folding inward. Plates overlapped and reshaped, converting the brute frame into something leaner, more human in proportion. The shifting metal converged around a figure at its core. The armor closed tight around him like a second skin.
The new form hovered in the air. It looked exactly like one of Tony's suits. The faceplate hissed, sliding back with a hiss of steam.
Forge's face emerged. His eyes glowed faintly with a white glow. His lips curled into a smile.
"Stark," he said, his voice amplified through the morphing suit. "It's time to die. I'm going to show you what happens when technology and mutation fuse together."
Tony's golden energy crackled as he steadied himself in the sky, eyes narrowing.
"You just stole thirty mutations to make yourself taller. Not to mention, you are using my First Generation Suit's model. I mean, even with Sublime's boost, you couldn't come up with your own model... It's pathetic. Oh, well... Congratulations," he said. "I'm suing your ass for stealing my design."
Forge didn't answer. His first move was fast. He raised his right arm and pointed two fingers at Tony.
Twin beams of compressed energy cut through the sky, burning a path toward Tony.
Tony braced. The blasts struck him head-on, engulfing him in light.
For a moment, the sky looked like it had split open. Then Tony flew out of the blast, golden aura crackling.
SHHHHHRRRRRK! His energy split the beams in half, sending them scattering wide.
"That it?" Tony tilted his head, unimpressed.
Forge cut the blast and darted forward with superhuman speed. Sparks tore across the air as his body blurred, Quicksilver's stolen acceleration pulling him into striking range. One moment, he was yards away; the next, his fist was already swinging. [The other Quicksilver. Sublime used Forge to extract his power and the guy is probably dead.]
WHOOOM!
Tony caught the punch with one hand. The air cracked from the impact, as a shockwave rippled through the night, shaking the battlefield below.
"You hit like a truck," Tony said, tightening his grip. "But trucks don't win against nukes."
He twisted and hurled Forge aside.
He twisted Forge's arm and sent him spinning. Forge corrected midair and countered instantly. His body twisted unnaturally, bones reshaping under Mystique's mutation. He experimented on her mutation genes and managed to weaponize her genes to the level of a sentinel. The metal of his armor bent with him, morphing to fit the shifting skeleton. He lashed out with a blade-like protrusion of steel.
Tony dodged. "Wow! You are gonna poke someone's eyes with those forks."
The blade tore a scar through the air where his head had been. Forge slashed again and again, morphing his limbs into weapons.
Tony shot upward. His hands lit up as he raised them, and golden beams exploded outward, cutting through Forge's attacks. The sheer heat forced Forge back, chunks of his armor melting from the blast.
But Forge recovered. He raised both hands, and a magnetic field ripped through the air. Metallic debris from the destroyed aircraft and battlefield below launched upward, pulled by Magneto's stolen gift. Dozens of twisted shards and metal chunks swirled together, forming a storm of weapons.
Tony glanced at the storm. His aura pulsed. "So, you've been using the Brotherhood to absorb their mutation and cause chaos to increase the hate for the mutants, huh?"
With a flick of his wrist, his own energy surged outward, catching the storm of metal. The debris halted, frozen in midair, caught between Forge's stolen magnetism and Tony's raw cosmic force.
"Cute trick, but it's useless," Tony said with his usual arrogant grin.
Sparks rained down like shrapnel.
Forge roared, pushing harder. His suit glowed brighter, blue veins of energy flaring as Sublime's influence amplified him. Tony clenched his fist and the golden aura expanded in a shockwave.
Booom!
The entire metal storm shattered into dust, fragments vaporized in an instant.
Lorna and the others looked up, shielding their eyes from the golden blast, watching as Tony pushed Forge back with sheer dominance.
But Tony felt it. Deep in his chest. A faint tug, almost like a drain. The golden aura flickered for half a second, then stabilized. 'Energy drain!' He opened and clenched his fists a couple of times, checking the energy level.
Forge noticed. His grin widened. "You feel it, don't you? My system is pulling your energy. Every time you flex that pretty glow, I absorb a portion of it."
"Rogue's mutation? Ah! Let me guess, you sent an infected doctor to the hospital where Rogue went for a check-up when she first awakened her power. Then, over the years, you managed to harness her power and probably evolve it to absorb power without touching. Interesting," Tony revealed his deduction as he touched his chin as if he was in deep thought and couldn't care less about the battle. Then he mumbled, "Humm... With a bit of a tweak and if I can reverse No.2X with S33Y... It's possible."
"You bastard! Where the hell are you looking?" Forge screamed in rage and lunged again, this time shifting his body mid-charge. His arms elongated unnaturally, stretching with a grotesque mimicry of Toad's mutation. The suit reinforced the extension, turning his limbs into metal whips. They lashed across the sky, cracking like thunder.
WHIPPP-CRACK! WHIPPP-CRACK!
Tony dodged between them with controlled bursts of speed. His aura flared as he zipped forward and struck Forge with a straight punch to the chest. The blow lit up the sky, the sound echoing like a cannon.
BOOOOM!
Forge flew back, his armor tearing apart from the hit. But even as he tumbled, his body twisted again. His wounds sealed with accelerated healing, courtesy of another stolen mutant. His chest plates reformed, and his grin returned.
"You're wasting energy," Forge taunted, his voice carrying over the battlefield. "Keep going. Burn yourself out for me."
Tony ignored the words and attacked again. He moved like a comet, golden trails burning behind him. He slammed into Forge with a barrage of blows. Each strike cracked armor, bent steel, and forced shockwaves across the air. Forge blocked, countered, and reshaped his form, but Tony kept hammering.
The sky lit up like a warzone. Every collision of energy shook the night, the flashes visible for miles.
Below, Pietro's eyes tracked every movement, his jaw slack. "He's beating the shit out of that Cyborg."
"What?" Yelena asked as she popped a can of melon soda and took a chug.
Wanda's left eye twitched a bit.
"We are hungry," Johnny said with his usual grin.
"Tony is about to lose. His energy is depleting at a massive rate," Wanda said, pointing at the sky.
"Lose? Tony?" Natasha said, raising an eyebrow, and then everyone began to laugh hard.
"Hahahahaha! Good one," Yelena said.
"What the hell is wrong with you all?" Wanda asked again.
"Here," Yelena threw a can of soda at Wanda, who caught it with one hand. "Just drink and chill. There is no way he's losing. He's barely using 20% of his power, right now."
"You serious?!" Lorna flew down near the stairs. The enemies on the ground stopped fighting after the healing stopped and Lorna pinned them all to the ground with metal cuffs.
"Yep! Just keep watching. You'll see soon," Sue said as she threw a few popcorn into her mouth.
Back in the sky...
Forge countered hard, shifting again. His body swelled with brute strength as he mimicked Sabretooth's ferocity, claws of metal ripping outward. He caught Tony with a slash across the chest. Sparks flew as golden energy resisted the strike, but the force still knocked Tony back a few meters.
Tony steadied himself midair. His jaw tightened. He was still unharmed, but the drain in his power was undeniable now.
"Alright," Tony said as he cracked his neck and stretched his legs. "You're more annoying than I thought."
Forge laughed. His eyes glowed brighter, his body surging with stolen power. "And you're weaker than you pretend."
He spread his arms. Lightning arced across his body, another stolen ability sparking to life. Bolts of raw electricity cut across the sky, converging on Tony from every direction.
ZZZZZKKT!
Tony braced, his aura shielding him as the lightning struck. The air sizzled with the collision, the night torn apart by light and thunder. When the storm ended, Tony hovered untouched, though his glow had dimmed again.
"Humm..." Tony looked at the timer. 1 minute to go. "Well..."
His energy suddenly skyrocketed as his body began to glow brighter and brighter with each passing second.
"...Playtime is over."
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