Boom!
Ben's fist connected with Tony's face, a sound like a wrecking ball hitting concrete. Stark was launched backwards, tumbling across the arena sand like a desert tumbleweed before skidding to a halt in a cloud of dust.
Knowing Tony had injected himself with Extremis, Ben had held back, using perhaps only a tenth of his full strength. Even so, the force of the blow was staggering. His spider-DNA had optimized his human genetics, pushing his potential far beyond that of any other Spider-Totem. In his base form, without factoring in cosmic entities or giant robots, Ben was in a class of his own.
Tony lay in a heap for a moment before scrambling to his feet, a move which immediately reignited the Sakaaran crowd's bloodlust. They threw their arms in the air, a stadium-wide roar of approval erupting for their champion. When they first saw Tony acting familiar with Ben, they had feared the match would be a dud. Now, the real show was starting.
"PRIME!!"
"BEAT HIM TO DEATH!!"
The chants were deafening. Ben, ever the showman, responded to his people's enthusiasm, raising his hands and turning to acknowledge their cheers.
Tony, however, was not cheering. His face was a mangled ruin. The punch had nearly caved in the left side of his skull, and even at a fraction of Ben's power, it carried nearly ten tons of force. The only reason his head hadn't exploded like a ripe melon was the enhanced durability granted by the Extremis virus. An unnatural orange glow emanated from his cheek as the flames of the virus began knitting the shattered bones and torn flesh back together.
"Are you crazy?!" he screamed, his voice a mixture of rage and disbelief.
He never dreamed Ben would actually attack him. Just seconds ago, he was weeping with joy, convinced he'd found his savior. Now that same savior had nearly sent him to the afterlife. He had trusted Ben so completely that he hadn't even activated his exoskeleton's energy shield.
"Am I crazy?" Ben let his hands fall, the heavy chains clattering against the sand as he began to drag them forward. "This is a Championship Challenge, Tony Stark. This isn't the place for a friendly reunion."
Without another word, he charged. He covered dozens of meters in a single leap, swinging the chains in a wide, whistling arc. They cracked through the air with the sound of thunder. Tony's eyes went wide with terror, and he threw himself into a desperate roll.
The chain slammed into the ground where he had just been, gouging a deep fissure in the hardened earth.
"Are you trying to kill me?!" Tony shrieked.
His answer was another series of brutal, lightning-fast strikes.
CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!
In an instant, the ground around him was a web of deep scars, as if the earth itself were being flogged. He knew with sickening certainty that if one of those chains connected, it wouldn't just break bones; the sheer force would allow the heavy links to slice through his armor and body like a blade. The thought of being hit, of exploding like a watermelon, sent a jolt of pure fear through him.
"Wait, wait, Ben! Stop it!" he pleaded, scrambling away. "I don't want to fight you! Now is not the time for this! Earth is still—"
"Tony Stark," Ben interrupted, his voice cold. "What happens to Earth is no concern of mine, an outsider, remember? Or are you the one treating this sacred Championship Challenge as a joke?"
Tony was speechless. He remembered his own dismissive words on the helicarrier, calling Ben an "outsider."
"You hold a grudge much?" he gasped, lunging to the side as a chain whipped past his head, the sharp wind making his scalp tingle.
A grudge? You have no idea. "Stand still and take your beating, Tony Stark," Ben sneered, putting more force into his swings.
A chain lashed out, aiming for Tony's waist.
CLANG!
With a metallic roar, Tony drew the double-bladed sword from his back, holding it horizontally like a shield to block the attack. "Wait a minute, Ben… I apologize for what I said, alright? But this really isn't the time for us to be fighting!"
He put all his strength into it, deflecting the chain, then spun the massive blade in a circle to parry another. To Ben's mild surprise, Stark's combat prowess was decent, even without his AI. Wielding an unconventional weapon like a double-bladed sword required considerable skill to avoid cutting oneself.
But Tony could feel Ben's immense power through the weapon. He was struggling to keep up. His right arm was numb from the vibrations, and the prosthetic connection at his left shoulder screamed in protest. Pain lanced through him, but he grit his teeth and pressed on.
"...Ultron has gone rogue… It's completely out of control! It's seized the global network, the Plumbers' systems, everything! Its goal is to exterminate all life!"
Ben seemed not to hear him, his assault growing more relentless. He pressed forward, forcing Tony back, parry after desperate parry, until Tony's back hit the arena wall. A chain slammed into the stone just inches from his head, leaving a deep crater. Trapped, with nowhere to retreat, he could only glare at the black-clad figure advancing on him like the specter of death itself.
His fear finally gave way to anger.
"Don't you understand what I'm saying? The Earth is in danger!" he roared. "This is not the time for games!"
"Who's playing games?" Ben asked softly. "Aren't you the one who created Ultron, Stark? The famous genius who thinks everyone else is an idiot. I seem to recall everyone disagreeing with letting an AI take over the planet, didn't they?" He took another step closer. "You were the one who insisted on getting your way. You treat the Earth as your personal playground, and now you come here to disrupt Sakaar's most sacred tradition. Do you really think the entire universe revolves around you? You're the main player."
"Okay! I admit it! It's my fault!" Tony ground out, the words tasting like ash. It was one thing to know it; it was another to say it aloud. Thankfully, only Ben can hear this, he thought. "I'm an incurable egomaniac! A self-righteous fool…"
Another chain lashed out. Tony barely managed to block it. "Ben, please, now is not the time! After we deal with Ultron, you can do whatever you want to me!"
"I'm going to stop you right there, Tony Stark," Ben's voice was laced with irritation. "Don't you dare assume that your business is the most important thing in the universe. What happens on Earth doesn't matter to the people of Sakaar. The only reason the Plumbers have a branch there at all is because of me. You want our help to clean up your mess, but you show no respect for our customs?" Ben's voice dropped to a low, dangerous tone. "In the end, your self-righteousness hasn't changed at all, has it?"
Tony paused. For the first time, he looked past Ben and saw the faces in the crowd. They were filled with fury. He was wearing the armor of their most hated tyrant. He had entered their sacred challenge only to treat it with casual disrespect. He was contemptuous of their champions and their king. And this man wanted their help? They'd rather see him die.
He had screwed up. Again. Ben was right. He wanted help, but offered no respect. He had been rude to the Plumbers, and now he was spitting on the traditions of an entire planet.
He took a step forward, leveling the fiery blade of his sword at Ben. "Fine. As long as I beat you, I win the whole challenge, right?" The Death-Fire ignited, bathing the blade in shimmering heat.
"That's right," Ben finally laughed, a genuine, pleased sound. "And I've been wanting to beat you up for a long time." He waved his arms, and the black chains coiled around his body like giant serpents. He crossed his arms, the Omnitrix flashed, and a colossal, crystalline shadow emerged behind him.
The flaming sword came slashing down. Ben didn't move. He simply brought his crossed arms up to block.
CLANG!
The sound of metal striking diamond echoed through the arena.
Diamondhead! Tony realized, stunned.
He glanced down and saw a flicker of green light. A shard of emerald crystal erupted from the ground, piercing straight through the right side of his chest and pinning him to the arena wall.
A raw scream of pain was torn from his throat. The wound didn't bleed; it glowed with the hot, orange light of Extremis.
"What is this ability?" he gasped. It felt familiar. Enduring the agony, he hacked at the crystal with his sword, then wrenched his body free. The hole in his chest was ghastly, but already it was beginning to seal. He stomped his foot, shattering the ground, and charged again.
Ben met his charge without fear. Green crystals bloomed over his right arm, hardening in an instant into a sharp, brutal blade. Their weapons collided, and a shower of dazzling sparks filled the air. Ben's strength was superior. He drove Tony back, then spun, flinging him across the entire length of the arena.
Crystal creation is stable. Hardness and strength are unaffected. Next.
Ben's internal analysis was finished. As Tony was still tumbling hundreds of meters away, the shadow behind Ben shifted, replaced by a blurred, streamlined form.
Tony had just managed to arrest his momentum when he caught a glimpse of the new shadow. If you asked him which alien had left the deepest impression, it was undoubtedly the speedster. Could Ben be connected to him?
"Ben, you—"
BOOM!
Before he could finish, he was slammed against the far wall by an invisible force. It was like being struck by black lightning. When his vision cleared, the wall behind him was a spiderweb of cracks, and through the haze, he saw that the figure who had crossed the arena in an instant was Ben himself.
No Spider-Man is that fast, he thought, his mind racing. Unless… it's that Dino-boy.
"That guy is one of the Plumbers… so you're connected to him…"
Speed is unchanged, but my strength is slightly increased due to my base human stats, Ben calculated. The increase wasn't massive, but for a hero like XLR8, any addition to strength was multiplied exponentially by the velocity. He was no longer just a speedster; he was a living locomotive. A slight touch could annihilate a weakly defended enemy.
At maximum velocity, I could probably generate more kinetic force than a punch from Four Arms.
Speaking of which, he was curious how that would translate. The shadow behind him shifted again, morphing into a hulking, four-armed silhouette.
"Another one?" Tony recognized it instantly. It was the form King Sakaar had taken when he first appeared on Earth. "Did Ben invent a device that can borrow their powers?" His eyes lit up with scientific curiosity.
The next moment, he felt his legs seized by an immense force. A terrible premonition bloomed in his heart.
"Wait, wait… Ben…"
"You know, Tony," Ben said, a wicked, Hulk-style grin spreading across his face. "Now that you're in an arena, there's one move we just have to try."
He lifted Tony into the air, swung him around like a rag doll, and began smashing him into the ground. Left. And right.
From his private viewing box, Loki leaned forward, eyes wide, a look of pure, ecstatic joy on his face.
"Brilliant!!!"