[Third Person POV]
Over on Earth, where the sun was supposed to be shining bright and golden as always, everyone suddenly found themselves frozen in place, staring up at the heavens in sheer horror and disbelief. The day that had started so normally took a turn for the unimaginable. The sky remained lit, yet the sun itself—humanity's eternal source of warmth and light—had turned completely pitch black, as though someone had poured darkness across its surface. Then, before anyone could even process what they were witnessing, the blackened sphere began to fracture. It split apart like glass shattering under impossible pressure, scattering fragments of light before vanishing completely from the sky.
The sight alone sent ripples of panic across the globe. People screamed, others fell to their knees, praying, calling loved ones, or staring blankly at the empty sky where the sun should have been. Traffic halted, cities froze, and the entire planet descended into chaos.
Inside the White House, President Johnathan Steel was already receiving a flood of urgent calls from NASA, each one overlapping the next. His office, normally a symbol of control and composure, was filled with the sound of ringing phones, hurried footsteps, and anxious voices.
He could hear the commotion even before the door was thrown open and several aides, generals, and scientists burst in. Their voices collided in a whirlwind of panic, everyone trying to speak over each other.
"Mr. President—!"
"Sir, you need to see this—!"
"It's NASA, they're saying the Sun—!"
"EVERYONE STOP!" The President's voice thundered through the room, sharp and commanding. The room fell silent almost instantly. His steely gaze swept across the panicked faces before he barked, "Get NASA on the line and bring up their satellite transmission feed. Now."
Moments later, a holographic display flickered to life above the table, revealing the vast expanse of space. The President leaned forward as the image zoomed in, courtesy of the high-tech orbital satellites they had deployed years prior.
"Wait a second…" Johnathan muttered, narrowing his eyes. "Is that—? Is that Tony and Melissa?" He looked to his advisors, bewildered. "What on Earth are they doing there?"
Before anyone could answer, the live feed changed—showing a horrifying sight. Ultron. The mechanical tyrant was siphoning the very energy of the Sun itself, absorbing its blazing essence until it shriveled into a dead, blackened core. A moment later, the core collapsed and disintegrated into nothing.
The room fell into absolute silence. Every person in attendance watched in horror, their faces pale and eyes wide. Some gasped; others covered their mouths. They didn't need to be scientists to understand what had just happened—without the Sun, Earth was doomed.
"Mr. President…" the National Security Advisor stammered, his voice trembling. "What do we do? What can we possibly do?"
Johnathan didn't respond at first. He sat back in his chair, interlocking his fingers, his head bowed in grim contemplation. When he finally spoke, his tone was heavy, almost hollow.
"The only thing we can do now," he said quietly, "is pray."
The word lingered in the air like a last breath. Everyone exchanged uneasy glances before looking down, the weight of despair pressing on them.
"Pray," the President continued softly, "that this is all just a nightmare… or that a miracle finds its way to us before the end."
---
Across the world, similar scenes unfolded. From New York to Tokyo, London to Rio, every nation watched the broadcast in disbelief. Thanks to global communication networks, the entire world had seen what transpired in space—how their Sun, the very heart of life itself, was extinguished in a single act of mechanical destruction. The realization spread like wildfire: this was the end of the world as they knew it.
"Tony…" Melissa's voice came through the comm-link, strained with fear. "The Sun… it's gone."
"I know," Tony replied, his voice calm but tight, the kind of calm that came from a man staring straight at the impossible. "Don't panic. We have about eight minutes and a few seconds before the effects start to hit. That's enough time… barely." His tone hardened. "I've got an idea—but I'll need you to keep Ultron busy."
Melissa took a deep breath. "You got it."
"Despair…" Ultron's voice boomed, cold and resonant. "For your world is doomed."
"We'll see about that!" Melissa roared in defiance. Lightning flared around her as she shot forward like a comet of divine fury, colliding with Ultron midair. Their clash erupted in an explosion of thunder and energy, the two of them tearing through the void in a storm of light and chaos.
Tony turned his gaze toward the fading light of the vanished Sun, his expression unreadable beneath his helmet. "Friday," he said steadily, "I'm going to need your help more than ever. The room for error this time is absolute zero."
"Of course, boss," Friday replied, her tone calm yet curious. "May I ask… what exactly are you planning to do?"
Tony's lips curled into a determined, almost maniacal smirk. "We're going to recreate the Sun from scratch." His eyes glowed as the energy readings on his HUD began to spike. "Set the arc reactor to warp energy."
The arc reactor nodes across his armor shifted color, transitioning from their usual red to an intense black threaded with streams of violet light.
"Friday, open a warp portal between here and S.T.E.L.L.A.," Tony commanded, raising his hand. A black beam laced with pulsing purple energy shot out from his repulsor, tearing open a swirling portal before him.
"Call forth Armor Mark 41—the Elemental King," he ordered. "If we're going to pull this off, we'll need everything it's got."
A few seconds later, the portal rippled—and from its depths emerged a gleaming green-tinted suit.
From the armor Tony was already wearing, streams of liquid metal began to ripple and move as though alive. The silver fluid tendrils writhed outward, stretching across the void like serpents seeking their prey, before latching onto the approaching Elemental King suit. The two metals hissed as they made contact, their surfaces melting together seamlessly in a display of molecular fusion. The liquid flowed and folded over itself, forming plates, lines, and arcs of energy until the two suits became one—an amalgamation of raw power, intellect, and audacity.
Tony hovered in silence, his silhouette illuminated by the faint reflection of distant starlight.
He positioned himself in the vast emptiness where the Sun once burned, the ghost of its warmth replaced by a cold, hollow void. With his hands held close together, Tony closed his eyes and focused. His breath came slow and deliberate, the kind of stillness that only existed between genius and madness.
"Friday," he said, voice steady as steel, "everything has to be perfect. Down to the last decimal. If I have to count every single atom one by one, then so be it."
"Understood, boss," Friday replied calmly, though even her artificial voice carried the faintest trace of tension.
Tony inhaled deeply, then exhaled—a single, centered motion. His mind filtered through equations, cosmic ratios, quantum dynamics, the balance of hydrogen fusion—all flashing like code in his eyes. There was no room left for doubt, fear, or hesitation.
"The Sun," Tony murmured, his voice soft but deliberate, "is composed of 73.46577342% hydrogen, 24.85346258% helium, 0.773568% oxygen, 0.2900240% carbon, 0.1635727% iron, 0.121688367% neon, 0.09982452% nitrogen, 0.0724624673% silicon, 0.053577447% magnesium, 0.04030463% sulfur…" His palms began to glow, particles gathering between them like grains of golden dust drawn from the void.
"We'll also need to take into account its orbital velocity, its obliquity, while also measuring its Equatorial radius, its surface area, its volume, mass, density, its surface gravity, its temperature, luminosity…" Tony calculated everything in his mind, with a speed that left him with a headache.
He paused for a heartbeat, then whispered almost reverently, "And let there be light."
At those words, the space between his repulsors ignited. A blinding, golden-white sphere of energy blossomed outward—small at first, then rapidly expanding, swirling and rotating like a miniature storm of molten fire. The light it emitted pierced through the darkness of space, casting reflections across Tony's armor as if the cosmos itself were watching.
He raised his hand gently, guiding the orb upward. It floated from his palms, slowly stabilizing as gravity and fusion met in delicate harmony. The newborn star hovered in front of him, radiating life-giving brilliance.
"The power of the Sun…" Tony whispered, his voice trembling slightly with awe, "in the palm of my hand." A grin spread across his face beneath the helmet. "It's beautiful."
The small, artificial sun continued to pulse and expand, its surface flickering with solar flares and plasma waves.
---
Inside the White House, the air was still heavy with despair—until a sudden flash of light illuminated the holographic feed.
"Mr. President!" one of the scientists gasped, almost dropping his tablet. "Look!"
Johnathan lifted his head, the shadows under his eyes replaced by confusion. Then his gaze met the screen—and for a brief, unbelievable moment, he saw it: light. A new sun burning brightly in the void. His mouth fell open.
"What in God's name…" he whispered, pushing himself to his feet. Then the shock gave way to wild laughter. "Ha… ha… hahaha!" The laughter grew louder, spilling into a full, unrestrained roar. He dropped back into his chair, clutching the armrests as his body shook with disbelief and joy.
"That kid… that damn kid!" he said between breaths. "He's recreating the goddamn Sun! It's a miracle! Our prayers have been answered!"
The room erupted in applause, cheers, and tears. For the first time since the sky had gone black, humanity dared to hope again.
---
"Boss," Friday spoke after a long silence, her sensors analyzing the readings. "Isn't it… a bit on the smaller side?"
Tony chuckled softly, his confidence returning in full force. "Heh. Don't worry about that." His smirk widened. "Tell me, Friday… you remember the formula for Pym Particles, don't you?"
"Of course, boss. I'm not exactly programmed to forget," Friday replied with a hint of robotic pride.
"Then what are you waiting for?" Tony said, crossing his arms as he floated before the star. "Get to work."
At once, the arc reactor in his chest began to pulse with red-hot energy. Complex data and formulas danced across his HUD as Friday reconstructed the Pym Particles within his reactor's core. When the process completed, Tony gave a single, sharp nod.
"Do it."
A thin crimson beam erupted from his chest, striking the small star. At first, nothing happened—then, suddenly, the sphere began to grow. It expanded outward, plasma swirling and boiling with renewed fury. The heat and light intensified so quickly that Tony had to rocket backward to avoid the wavefront. The miniature star was no longer miniature—it was becoming colossal, burning brighter, fuller, alive.
He continued to channel the particles, pushing them to their limit, until at last the fiery mass stabilized into the blazing, full-sized glory of a newborn Sun.
Tony floated in front of it, his armor outlined by the inferno's brilliance. He let out a breathless laugh that grew into a wild, uncontrollable roar.
"HAHAHA! What do you think now, Stan?!" he shouted into the void, his voice echoing through the comms and across the empty blackness. "You said the world doesn't revolve around me—but what about now?!" He spread his arms wide, basking in the heat and light of the reborn Sun. "From where I'm standing, I'm at the center of the. Entire. Fucking. Solar. System!"
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