Ultimate Iron Man
Ch: 119 [The fall of Iron Man]

The air crackled with raw energy as Tony raised both arms, his palms glowing brightly. Twin repulsor blasts shot forward toward the glowing blonde figure hovering between him and Fury. The force of the attack roared like twin jet engines, illuminating the area with a flare of white-hot plasma.

'Fuck! That's definitely Carol. Well, time to see if I can awaken my power in this battle. What a perfect opportunity,' Tony thought.

Carol Danvers didn't flinch.

She raised one arm. The beams hit her dead center and dispersed like light striking a mountain. There was no movement, no stagger. She stared at Tony through the blaze, her eyes glowing with the same golden heat. Then she moved fast.

In a split-second blur, she closed the gap and punched Tony square in the chest.

Booom!

The shockwave cracked the air. The world slowed. Tony's body rocketed upward, crashing through the upper atmosphere like a comet. His suit auto-compensated, kinetic dampeners roaring. The chest plate flared red as the impact distributed through the adamantium weave.

Impact Damage: 10%

Armor Integrity: 90%

Vitals: Green

Altitude: 12,000 ft and rising

"Holy hell, she hits like a planet," Tony muttered.

He corrected mid-air, twisting into a spiral before stabilizing. The Endo Sym armor adapted instantly, nanites reshaping around the damaged plates. The auto repair activated. He hovered high into the sky, blue energy crackling off his gauntlets.

"Okay," he muttered. "That tickled."

He opened comms.

"Everyone, stand down. I've got this."

Below, Sue and Johnny hesitated. Ben cracked his knuckles, but none moved. Yelena's drones remained cloaked and ready, but on hold.

Carol rocketed up to meet him, a golden trail burning behind her like a comet.

Tony spoke through the comms, not to her, but for the record.

"Carol Danvers. Aka Captain Marvel. Ex-Air Force, Kree-infused hybrid. Energy absorption, flight, strength levels that make Hulk look nervous. And I don't like her right now."

She punched toward him, glowing fist raised.

Tony dodged right, boosters screaming as he fired a blast from his hip launcher. Mini-explosives surrounded her, detonating in synchronized bursts, disorienting her for just a second. Long enough.

Tony fired a graviton net from his left gauntlet, which he created using the Tesseract's energy when he was extracting it. This net compresses space around the target with immense force.

The black energy lattice wrapped around Carol. It pulled hard, bending light and gravity in a small radius. She grunted, resisting. Then snapped the net apart with a flex of her shoulders. The gravitational wave cracked outward, distorting the air.

Tony dropped altitude fast, diving under her next punch and landing a repulsor-powered uppercut into her ribs. The hit connected, sending her back, but not far.

She twisted in mid-air and hit him with a full-body slam, knocking them both through the upper airspace above Midtown. Buildings blurred below them. Wind howled.

Tony rotated and fired twin foot thrusters into her gut at point-blank range.

Carol absorbed the blast.

Her glow flared brighter. She grabbed his leg and hurled him toward a nearby building, but Tony activated mag-lock repulsion mid-throw, using the kinetic force to launch back at her with doubled speed.

Activate: Plasma Blade

His right arm transformed into a glowing white blade. It was humming with Tesseract's energy. It grazed her shoulder, tearing her suit slightly and drawing golden blood... Well, energy, more than fluid.

Carol's eyes narrowed.

"Nice toy," she said, voice calm. "Still not enough."

She lit up, energy surging. Her hair blew back in the solar wind she radiated. The sky around her shimmered.

Warning: Energy Surge Detected

Photonic Overload in 3...2...

Tony switched tactics.

He threw multiple drones that circled around Carol, creating an oval barrier, trapping her inside. But it wasn't enough to stop her. She simply punched through it and threw a beam of cosmic energy at Tony. 

"Is that all you got?" Tony said as multiple nanites detached from his suit, forming six cannons around his back. As soon as the beam struck him, he simply absorbed it and pushed the energy into those six cannons. 

Energy: 1000%

"Would you look at that?" Tony fired the cannons, targeting Carol.

She raised her hands, absorbing the blasts with ease. Her body glowed brighter, golden light flaring off her skin in waves. "You should know better than to throw energy at me," she called out, hovering within the light storm.

But that was the point.

Tony's eyes narrowed inside the helmet. A slight smirk played at the corner of his mouth.

"Yeah. But it wasn't just energy."

Inside Carol's body, something began to change.

The absorbed energy wasn't pure. Laced inside the photonic flood were micro-scale nanites powered by Tesseract energy. The second they entered her body, they activated. They bypassed her immune defenses and latched onto her nervous system like ticks.

Carol's expression faltered, and her glow stuttered. She twitched midair, her eyes flashing wildly. "What... what did you do?" she gasped. The nanites sent pulses of Tesseract-charged static directly into her neural lattice. Her flight wavered, her arms spasmed, and her glow dimmed.

Tony didn't waste time.

"Locked."

His HUD lit up brightly, showing the Arc Reactor's power level as he charged.

"Uni-beam. Max charge."

The center of his chest opened like an iris. White-blue energy gathered and spun in a tight, violent core. The sky pulsed with building pressure. Even the clouds pulled toward him like a vacuum.

"Fire."

The beam exploded from his chest in a straight column of raw power. It hit Carol directly, slamming her into the atmosphere like a meteor striking in reverse. Her body convulsed against the blast. The nanites within her magnified the effect, momentarily paralyzing her in place. She couldn't move, breathe, or blink.

She was locked in a stasis-like suspension, frozen mid-flight, arms outstretched, eyes wide.

Tony cut the beam, his system warning him of overheating.

Smoke drifted from his armor. The coolant activated, doing its job of stabilizing the overheated parts.

"Stay down," he said, voice sharp through the comm.

But then her body twitched again. Her hands clenched tightly. The light returned, growing stronger and brighter. Suddenly, everything around her exploded in a wave of raw, golden energy.

Tony's HUD went white for a second. The Mind Stone was feeding him information on the target in real time on his HUD through his unique technopathy power.

Warning: Cosmic signature spike

Energy source: BINARY MODE ENGAGED

Threat Level: ∞

"ARGGGG!!!!" Carol's scream echoed across the skyline.

Her entire body erupted with solar fire, burning white at the core and bleeding into red and gold at the edges. Her hair whipped like a living flame. The glow of a star burned inside her chest.

She had taken her Binary form.

The nanites in her body simply vaporized due to the overwhelming energy.

Tony flew back in the air, thrusters firing at full to keep distance. His suit instantly reshaped its outer shell, forming dual-layered heat-resistant plating. The nanite systems rushed to reinforce all energy barriers.

"Okay. She went nuclear," Tony muttered. "Cool. Great. Exactly what I wanted."

Carol blurred forward faster than radar could follow. She punched Tony in the gut. The shockwave flattened clouds for miles. His body shot through three skyscraper levels of airspace before crashing into a SHIELD floating drone platform. It shattered on impact, scattering drones like sparks.

Tony flipped in the air, stabilized, and stared up at her as she hovered above.

Her voice rumbled with power.

"You put something inside me. You don't get to do that, Stark."

Tony spat blood into his helmet and smirked.

"First time someone said that and didn't like it."

She charged again, burning brightly with raw cosmic energy.

Tony raised both arms, eyes glowing gold with the Mind Stone's light.

"Yup! She's angry."

Her fists glowed white-hot with compressed stellar energy. One punch hit Tony square in the jaw. The next slammed into his ribs. Then another. And another. Each strike was a blur. It looked like an afterimage tearing through air and armor alike.

Tony didn't have time to block. His shield failed under the rampage. His HUD flashed red. 

Integrity: 64%

53%

41%

Each hit felt like a building falling on him. The force rattled through his bones even with the kinetic dampeners at full. Alarms screamed in his ears. Blood rose in his throat.

Then, one final blow to the chest.

BOOM

The shockwave cracked the sky.

Tony spiraled down like a meteor. A sonic boom tore across the skyline as he plummeted, carving a fiery trail. The suit strained to compensate, nanites desperately rebuilding critical systems mid-fall.

Impact trajectory: fatal

Tony growled, coughing blood into his helmet.

"Override… Overdrive Mode."

The system hesitated.

Warning. Overdrive is unstable in current condition. Proceed?

"Yes."

The armor hissed.

Nanites flushed with dark red light, changing the silver armor into pitch black with red linings. The Mind Stone's energy surged through Tony's nervous system. Every limiter broke. Every safety protocol snapped. His body jerked as power flooded through him. 

Despite the damage and injuries, he was able to maintain his focus and block the pain for the moment.

He slowed, then reversed. He stopped midair just before hitting the ground. The street cracked beneath him from the pressure of his repulsors. Dust exploded outward.

His armor pulsed with raw, unstable energy. Glowing red cracks laced through the chest plate and arms. Light streamed from his joints. 

Carol descended like a goddess of war, eyes blazing.

Tony raised both arms and fired.

The twin beams of Tesseract-enhanced repulsors met her flight path.

Carol roared and blasted through them like they were fog. She rammed into him at full speed, driving him into the ground. The street collapsed. Pavement exploded in a ring of dust and fire.

Armor Integrity: 9%

Vitals: Yellow

Internal Bleeding: Detected

Tony grunted and slammed both fists into her sides, discharging a concentrated plasma burst point-blank. It made her flinch, but not fall.

"Just give up!" She slammed her fist into his helmet.

The HUD shattered.

Glass cracked. Sparks erupted. His vision blurred. The helmet folded back automatically, revealing Tony's bruised face underneath. Blood trickled from his nose. One eye was swelling.

Carol hovered just above him, fists glowing brighter.

"You're done, Stark."

She punched him to the ground, followed it up with another one, creating a massive crater on the ground. His suit crumbled. The nanites dispersed and entered his body, repairing the damage and healing him fast.

Carol grabbed Tony by his throat and pulled him up.

"It's over. Don't make this hard. You've lost. Accept your defeat and stop whatever plan you've cooked up."

Tony spat out blood. 'Fuck! I can feel something, but... Gotta take one final gamble.'

Yelena and the others flew toward his location, weapons ready.

"Hahahaha..." He let out a hoarse laughter and looked dead into her eyes. "Lost? Haaa... Cough! Cough!"

He gasped for breath and coughed out more blood, and his vision went blurry. If he wanted, he could have called for his mechs and more armor and nanites to heal, but this was a gamble he must take to awaken his power. 

"Here's the thing," Tony raised his right hand. "You can not stop my plan. Everything is in place. I gave them 24 hours, but you... Argg! Haaa... Cough! You and Fury took that chance away from them. Sad." The nanites formed a remote in his hand. "And for the records..." He gave his usual arrogant grin. "I NEVER LOSE."

Carol's eyes widened as his thumb went toward the button.

"DAMN YOU! STUPID!" She clenched her fist and ripped his arm out before punching a hole through Tony's chest. A blast of cosmic energy burst from his back, lighting up the sky brightly. 

Sue tried her best to create a shield around Tony's body, but she was too far away. 

Yelena and the other Widows stopped in mid-air. Sue, Ben, Johnny, Howard, and the other SHIELD agents who followed them also stopped.

There was a moment of silence.

Carol pulled her fist out from Tony's chest as blood fizzled out of the hole and then slowly let his body down on the ground. 

"Hermes!" Yelena's voice trembled.

"I am sorry," Hermes replied.

Yelena flew over and landed behind Carol. 

"You fight for those who invaded our world, hurt my sisters, and tried to assassinate my family and my love. And now you killed him," Her suit was already in overdrive mode. The other Widow's armor began to disappear as the nanites flew toward Yelena, upgrading her suit further. "You chose them over humanity. For that, I'll kill you and I'll annihilate SHIELD."

Her armor shifted into a new mode. It was still in beta phase.

MODE: Predator

Carol turned back toward Yelena and said, "Don't throw your life away. I don't want any more blood on my hands today."

Yelena disappeared from Carol's vision. She was so fast that even Carol couldn't detect her movement. Instead of attacking her, Yelena appeared before Fury. Her left arm transformed into a long, burning, red energy blade. 

Carol's eyes widened as she caught a glint of Yelena's armor. She pushed her power to its limits and flew toward Fury. She caught on to Yelena, but Johnny flew over, throwing a barrage of fire blasts at Carol.

"Not on my watch," He yelled as flames covered his body.

Sue raised multiple shields around Carol to stop her, but it was useless against her Binary Form. A burst of cosmic energy was enough to shatter everything and catch Yelena's leg before the blade could reach Fury.

Carol slammed Yelena to the ground.

Ben morphed into his rocky form and rushed toward Carol. Sue trapped Fury in her force field to prevent him from escaping. Johnny aimed his fists at Carol as a beam of pure plasma shot out.

The second round has begun...

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AN: I had a thought of nerfing Carol a bit, but then decided nope. MCU already did that. Let's keep her the same. Just simply, OP.

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[Read 15 advance chapters] <No double billing> 

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