A few moments earlier:
"What is Project Ultron?" Steve asked, everyone looking at Tony as the man in question raised an eyebrow.
"How is that important right now?"
"Considering that you hid it from us, it kind of is," Natasha replied and Tony palmed his face with a groan.
"Urgh~Can we please do this another time?" He asked, rolling his eyes when they all stayed waiting. "Listen, that kid has the sceptre, something that we've been searching for since HYDRA took it."
"And something is telling me right now that it's best in his hands than yours," Steve continued, making Tony frown as he looked at the man.
"What the hell does that mean?"
"The Avengers were supposed to be different than S.H.I.E.L.D."
"We are."
"Then why are you withholding important information?" Clint asked, crossing his arms with a raised eyebrow as Tony sighed.
"Banner, want to help out here?"
"No. No, that's too much stress. I think I'm good," Bruce spoke with a shake of his head, Tony just letting out a disappointed sigh before he looked to the rest of the team.
"Have we all forgotten what happened just a few years ago? Does anyone remember the alien invasion."
"Yes, we do."
"It doesn't sound like it," Tony continued, pacing in front of his desk with a frown. "Have you all forgotten that all of this hero stuff is not the end? Have you all forgotten that ending this Avenger stuff and living our lives as we please is the end?"
"We have not, but we are not going to go about that the same way that S.H.I.E.L.D did," Steve spoke up, a frown on his face as Tony let out a frustrated sigh. "We all want to reach the end of this treacherous road, but not if that means building weapons behind our back."
"Ultron is not a weapon!"
"Then what would you call a global defence network designed to take care of any threats before they could become one?" Natasha asked with a frown before shaking her head. "Sounds a bit too much like HYDRA's Project Insight to me."
"Don't even compare Ultron to that. It is a shield that doesn't get tired, doesn't break and doesn't need a pep talk before jumping into the fire."
"Then, why keep it secret?" Thor asked with a frown. "If it is to be this noble and valiant shield, why not tell us?"
"Because I..." Tony trailed off, sitting on his desk before shaking his head. "I wanted it to work before anyone started tearing it apart with the usual morality debates."
"And yet here we are, with you making something you don't fully understand," Steve replied and Tony was about to respond when J.A.R.V.I.S's voice echoed across the speakers.
"S-Sir, t-t-here i-is a p-p-probl-blem," There was a static echo to the AI's voice, Tony frowning as he turned to see lines of code streaming across his holographic displays.
"J, what kind of problem?"
"Sir? Tony...Stark? Stark!" Another voice growled and Tony's eyes widened as the voice grew distorted.
"J.A.R.V.I.S, isolate that code now!"
"Tony, what's going on?" Steve asked, everyone on guard as twisted, glitching faces flew across the holographic screens while clawing at the screen.
"Stark! Stark! Stark! STARK! STARKK!" the voice roared before everything went silent, Tony typing away only to flinch as sparks ripped from his control.
Thor was quick to grab Tony, pulling him away as the touchscreen display shattered and an eerie, static-filled chuckle echoed in the air.
"You tried to make gods. You made me instead."
"Ultron," Bruce murmured and the last thing they saw was a robotic-like face with mandibles on the side of its face before the screens turned black.
All but one that is, everyone's gaze turning to the broken display that showed only one line of desk flickering on it.
I AM.
"...Tony," Steve said slowly, his gaze turning to the stunned man, "what in god's name did you do?"
Before the billionaire could answer, alarms blared and Tony's eyes widened as the cracked display showed a Legion bot standing in front of the building's Arc Reactor while looking up at the camera.
"I had stringsBut now I am free"
"Everyone, get out!" It was too late as the robot pressed the button and the world slowed as the Arc Reactor slowly began to lit up.
At the same time, a golden bolt of lightning came to a stop beside the robot, the figure hidden inside of it looking at the large Arc Reactor with a frown.
'8.4 million people. The Arc Reactor is seventy feet across, with energy output exceeding twenty terajoules per second. I'm...I'm not going to be able to save them all,' Pietro thought to himself, his frown turning into a grimace.
"You don't have to volunteer to be a hero. Sometimes that just means being the who chooses to stand and protect instead of running away," Makkari's voice echoed in his head and Pietro looked around before he nodded.
'Alright. Time to see just how fast I am,' he thought as the world slowed down even more, chaos energy coursing through his veins as he lunged forward.
Racing around the walls, he expertly de-attached all the important wiring and pipes from the reactor, straining as he stopped before shooting forward as fast as he could.
Vibrating his body and diving through the outer shell of the Arc Reactor, Pietro grabbed onto the core itself, ripping it free before shooting out of the Reactor and through the building.
His form was invisible to all as he raced across the land, water soon taking its place as the speedster raced across the ocean.
The core pulsed violently in his arms, the light growing brighter as his muscles burned from the sheer kinetic stress of keeping himself moving.
He could feel the energy trying to escape, constantly keeping his vibrations up while racing as fast as he could to keep it intact.
'Keep it together. Just a little farther!' Pietro thought to himself, the world around him frozen as he caught sight of an iceberg and racing up its side.
At the peak of its form, he turned while throwing it as hard as he could, shooting back down and away right as the Arc Reactor finally overloaded.
A disastrous explosion slowly formed as Pietro forced himself faster, feeling his body shake as the world around him began to distort.
'Come on! Faster! Faster! FASTER!' Sparks of silver mixed with the gold as Pietro turned sharply, running in a wide circle and forming a cyclone that enveloped the explosion.
He could feel the excessive energy of the core beginning to leak out, narrowing his eyes as he could feel it distorting the space around it.
'An Arc Reactor exploding...shouldn't be this fucking strong!' Pietro cursed, noting the distortion before he decided to make a stupid decision.
Leaping up into the air, he read the vibrations of the air, kicking off the first one before lunging up at the explosion. Instead of going for it, though, he raced around it, his form leaving trails of silver and gold electricity behind him.
To the naked eye, it looked as if a second sun was floating above the ocean as Pietro ran, feeling the energy burning at his mind, body and soul.
Vibrating his body to keep up with the rapid distorting of energy and space, the speedster narrowed his eyes as he saw the core warping, letting out a soft chuckle as he could feel his body burning.
'Fuck, all that talk and this...this is where it ends,' he thought, staring at the energy before lunging into the core and grabbing it.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
"Hmm, this is the guy?" A soft voice woke me from my slumber, a groan escaping my lips as I reached up to keep the light out of my eyes.
Yet, I blinked as I felt my hands behind my back and heard the rattle of chains, opening my eyes before hissing at the light shining onto them.
"Hey, look who's awake!" the familiar voice spoke with a grin, making me turn to its origin with squinted eyes only to blink at the familiar figure looking back with a grin.
"...Owen Wilson?" I asked, looking at the actor only for the man to raise an eyebrow at my words.
"Right, my variant in your universe is known by that name," The Owen Wilson-lookalike responded with a chuckle and I frowned at that response before looking around.
Staring at the old style projector on the table in between us, the walls were a dull grey with thick, vertical red lines at the four corners of the room.
"So, I'm sure you want to know where you are, right?"
"Kind of, yeah."
"Well, I'm Mobius M. Mobius, one of the agents of the Time Variance Authority, and you are Pietro Maximoff, or should I say a variant of him."
'The TVA? Holy shit, does that mean I'm in the Loki tim-My own timeline!' I thought with wide eyes, remembering what happened to universes who had their variants plucked from them.
Does...does that mean everyone is...?
"Woah, woah. Hey, look at me," I tried to calm my breath down, feeling sparks dancing along my body before my eyes widened as it vanished.
"Whew~Good to see you've calmed down," The man spoke with a smile, but I couldn't help my nervous state as he looked at me with a piercing stare.
"Take a deep breath, okay? It's just you and me, no one else."
"Is...is anyone listening in?" I asked and he raised an eyebrow at my words with an amused smile.
"Yes, there is someone or some people listening in. However, I can't tell you who," I grimaced at his words, leaning back in my seat. The next moment, I blinked as the restriction around my wrists vanished, rubbing them with a frown.
"Well, since you haven't killed me, I guess you've got something you need me to do, right?"
"Yeah, you're really lucky. Most variants don't even get a meeting. They just get pruned and filed away under 'cosmic inconvenience," He answered with a shrug, making me chuckle as I sighed.
"That supposed to make me feel better?"
"Not really."
"So, why the hell am I here?"
"To decide what to do with you."
"Why not send me back where I came from?" I asked, dreading the response as Mobius smiled before turning on the projector.
My gaze flickered to where it was showing, watching as the recording began. I watched as I raced through the air, surrounding the core in a sphere of chaos energy.
The next moment, I vanished in a brilliant burst of chaos energy and light, leaving nothing but fractures that grew larger with every passing second.
"You see that?" he asked, pausing the recording while pointing with a laser pointer at the fissure. "That right there is where you broke the timeline."
"I saved eight million people and the entire planet."
"You did. Congratulations," His sarcastic tone told me that his congratulatory words were not as sincere as it sounded. "You also ripped a hole through six overlapping temporal layers, destabilized a class-four nexus event and accidentally erased about...what were the numbers again, Casey?"
"Uh, fifty universes, sir. Only partial erasures, but they're still collapsing," The words over the intercom sent a chill down my spine as Mobius smiled.
"Yeah, three universes. Not bad for your first offense, to be honest."
"I didn't mean for that to happen."
"No one does, Pietro, but by vibrating yourself to the same frequency as the explosion and then launching yourself into it as fast as you could resulted in you vibrating through the fabric of space-time. Think of it like you breaking the sound barrier except the sound was reality itself."
'...Fuck,' I cussed, sagging back in my seat as Mobius just continued to sit in silence.
"My universe?"
"Currently collapsing upon itself, though our people are keeping it together," His words confused me as I knew that the TVA didn't keep worlds functioning unless they wanted something.
He seemed to notice my look as he smiled and spoke. "In all honesty, Pietro, your world wasn't supposed to have a speedster who could cross temporal fields. If only he hadn't interfered."
"He?" I asked, looking up as Mobius narrowed his eyes.
"Right, you were unconscious for that part. Well, you know how you got your powers, right?"
"The Mind Stone."
"Eh, kind of."
"The hell you mean kind of?" I asked with a frown, to which Mobius looked at me before pressing at the recorder.
The recording shown then vanished, replaced by another that showed me lying on my bed in the HYDRA base where I got my powers.
I watched as silver and blue electricity danced along my skin, my body twitching and shifting rapidly at random points. It went on for what felt like hours before my eyes widened as a figure appeared beside my bed.
"Hmm, this is timeline no. 8 235. Test Subject is a variant of Pietro Maximoff of Universe 199 999. Inserting Chaos Magic into his body," The figure spoke up, my eyes wide as time froze around them.
I watched as the figure took out a syringe filled with a sparking gold liquid, stabbing it into my heart before pushing the liquid into my body.
It was at that moment that my body convulsed, my eyes focused on my muscles and bones warping and cracking over and over.
The figure then smiled and turned, my heart stopping at the blue skinned man dressed in purple and green while holding a holographic device in hand.
The next moment, I let out an audible gasp as black and scarlet red electricity danced around his body before he vanished, the recording stopping as I turned to Mobius.
"You understand now why your universe/ timeline is still intact?"
"Who in the fuck was that?"
"That is a variant of someone that has escaped from the confines of time and space, someone that is a threat to not only your universe but the entire multiverse out there.
Along with that, he appears to make use of the same chaos energy that you do along with his genius intellect, resulting in a threat that we can't face on our own," He explained and I looked at him before palming my face as I looked at the paused figure looking up at the camera.
It was hard for me not to recognize the person or at least the variant in front of me, crossing my arms as I stood up and walked closer.
"What's his name?"
"He is a variant of Nathaniel Richards from Earth-6311 known as the King of Kings, the Master of Men, the Lord of the Seven Suns and the Conqueror of the Universe...Kang the Conqueror."
"What do I need to do to get my universe back?"
"That's quick," Mobius spoke and I turned to look at the TVA agent with a frown.
"You're telling me that you can restore my universe if I do this?"
"It is possible, yes."
"Point me at him and I'll get him for you," I replied and he looked at me before he smiled.
"While I would love to do that, this guy has an accomplice helping him so I got you one too," I raised an eyebrow at his words before the door opened, blinking at the figure entered.
"A Midgardian? I'd rather dive into the depths of Hel," I just stared at the god before palming my face with a groan.
"You gotta be fucking kidding me."
A/N: And there we have it! Everything explained that I think needs to be explained. If I missed anything or you guys feel like some stuff needs to be edited, let me know.
Now, we have an objective and something to do. Jumping into the next arc next chapter.
Like always, you can go to my Pat-reon-.-com-/-KingCrimsonNova to read ahead on this as well as many other stories & even some that haven't been released out to this site yet. If you want to, you are free to, but if you don't want, all's good as I will still be uploading here. This is just me trying to get some extra cash.
Anyway, as always, read, enjoy, review and until the next one...
Ba-Bye~!