Ultimate Iron Man
Ch: 121 [Fall of the Widows]

AN: Just to warn you, this chapter contains the final cliff hanger. 

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Carol's eyes widened. She didn't get a chance to respond.

Natasha fired first.

The pulse cannon on her arm erupted in a blinding blue arc that struck Carol in the chest. It knocked her back, forcing her into the air. Carol recovered instantly, floating just above the ground, but the energy shimmered over her skin. It stung.

Melina moved next. Her suit unfolded mid-run, plating down over her spine, arms, and legs. Her gauntlets pulsed as she aimed for Carol's blind spot. She launched two micro-charged darts. They hit Carol's side and detonated on impact, bursting with gravity-enhanced compression fields. The shockwaves bent the air around Carol, pushing her sideways.

Carol twisted and threw her arm out, releasing a pulse of photonic energy. The blast tore through the air and hit Melina's shields. Melina slid back but held firm, planting her boots into the street.

Above them, the four Omega mechs dove.

The cannon arrays are locked on target. They split into formation around Carol, encircling her.

"Engaging," one of the mechs said in a flat voice.

The lead Omega fired a triple-beam blast. Carol raised an energy shield and deflected it, but the force pushed her down.

Two others launched stun cannons and concentrated pulse cannons filled with the energy extracted from the Tesseract. The pulses slammed into Carol, disrupting her balance. Her energy flared again, wild and uncontained. She screamed and burst forward, knocking one mech out of the sky with a single punch. It exploded behind her.

The remaining three adapted. Each fired a plasma tether, locking onto her limbs and pulling her midair. She struggled, but the energy tethers held, draining her momentum.

Natasha activated her second weapon system.

Twin blades extended from her forearms, glowing with anti-photonic energy developed after analyzing Carol's combat with Tony. Hermes made them in a rush. She launched into the air, flipped over one of the mechs, and came down hard.

Both blades slashed across Carol's back. The impact wasn't lethal, but it made her scream. Sparks flew. Blood, or rather, cosmic fluid, spilled from the cuts.

Melina moved with precision. She activated a shock dome from her gauntlet. It expanded around Carol like a cage. The dome pulsed with frequency disruptors that targeted Carol's binary energy signature.

Carol was trapped.

For a moment, she was actually frozen in place. Her glow dimmed. Her breathing staggered.

That was when it happened.

Across the battlefield, unnoticed by most, Howard moved. His suit had vanished from view, cloaked with high-level refractive stealth. No one noticed him slip away during this fight.

He walked calmly through the outer perimeter, weaving between the SHIELD agents who were now frozen in place, watching the battle unfold. Fury stood at the edge, one hand at his side, a communicator still in his grip.

Howard emerged from the shadows just behind Fury and grabbed him by the shoulder, spun him, and drove a plasma blade straight through his chest. The blade ignited on entry, bursting with white-hot energy. Fury gasped. Blood sprayed from his lips. His communicator fell to the ground.

"You watched it happen," Howard said, his voice flat and cold. "You chose them over us. Tony... Because of you... You bastard." 

Fury staggered. Howard pulled out the blade. Fury dropped to one knee, clutching the wound. The blade burned through armor and bone. Smoke drifted up from the hole in his chest.

Howard severed his head. But it wasn't Fury but another Skrull.

"Figures," He looked down at the poser and smashed his head under his feet. "Only hiding like a coward and using others to take the fall." 

The other Shield agents looked at each other's faces, confused. Their goal was to protect humanity from threats, but the way things are unfolding, even they are having a second thought. So, this time, no one moved or tried to attack Howard.

Back above, Carol roared.

Her energy surged again, overloading the shock dome. The field shattered. She tore free of the mechs, blasted through two, and launched straight at Natasha.

But Natasha had already calculated the angle. She flipped over Carol, landed on her back, and shoved a nanite disruptor into her spine.

It detonated.

Carol screamed and dropped from the sky, her glow flickering wildly.

Melina landed beside Natasha and handed her a second device.

"One more hit," she said.

Natasha nodded.

But before they could move again, Yelena landed in front of Carol.

Her Predator armor glowed brighter than before. Steam hissed from the joints. Her eyes burned red through her visor. She stepped forward.

Carol looked up from the ground, blood on her lip, her glow still there, but flickering now.

Yelena aimed her arm.

"ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!" Carol punched Yelena hard enough for her armor to completely shatter. 

Yelena's eyes widened as she felt her ribs shattering under the punch. She coughed out blood as her body flew and crashed into a Shield's car. 

Carol stood up slowly.

Her breathing evened out. Her spine arched as cosmic light poured through every pore. The bleeding stopped. The bruises vanished. Burn marks faded into perfect golden skin. Her body trembled as regeneration kicked into overdrive. Her eyes burned white.

Then her chest ignited.

The light around her exploded outward in a pulsing wave. The crater beneath her feet cracked in a perfect circle. Energy wrapped around her fists. Hair floating in the air like smoke off a wildfire, she hovered an inch above the ground.

Binary Mode: Fully Reignited.

The sky went orange. Wind rushed in from all sides as her energy output distorted local weather patterns. The pressure made the remaining ruined buildings around them creak. The remaining three Omega mechs locked in on her again.

They didn't last five seconds.

Carol launched herself like a missile, a shockwave left in her wake. Her first punch shattered the left mech's core. Metal sprayed out like shrapnel. She flipped mid-air and kicked the second mech's cannon straight through its armor plating. Her final blow cracked the third mech's torso and sent it crashing into a nearby dried river.

Then she flew down.

Melina fired twin pulse launchers at her chest. They hit dead center and exploded into rings of gravity compression. Carol didn't even blink. She walked through them, the ground splitting beneath each step.

Melina switched to charged needles, aiming at Carol's joints. She fired a volley.

Carol raised one arm. The needles melted before they reached her. 

Natasha leapt in from behind, spinning into a low slide and activating her forearm blades. She slashed both across Carol's legs, aiming for pressure points.

Carol flared.

The heat burst outward and knocked Natasha back like a ragdoll. Her armor sparked. The kinetic dampeners inside her suit flared red.

Melina moved in from the side, launching a drone-assisted sonic pulse.

Carol turned and slapped it out of the air with raw force. Then she rushed Melina with blinding speed, caught her by the throat mid-dodge, and hurled her into the concrete. Melina's body bounced and rolled, armor crumpling under the pressure. The suit couldn't hold.

Natasha recovered and went in again, faster, her suit humming at max output. Her blades extended with anti-photonic energy. She dodged a fist, ducked under an energy blast, and drove one blade into Carol's side.

The tip pierced through the muscle. Carol flinched.

But she didn't stop.

She twisted and grabbed Natasha's arm, wrenched her forward, and slammed a knee into her gut. Natasha's HUD flashed red. Kinetic dampeners overloaded. Bones cracked. Carol grabbed her by the front of her chestplate and threw her upward like a bullet.

Natasha crashed through a Stark drone above and tumbled downward.

Carol turned again and fired a wide beam of energy at Melina, who was trying to get up. The blast hit her square. Her shields held for two seconds. Then they caved. The suit lit up with emergency protocol codes as Melina screamed and collapsed again, barely breathing.

Carol stood alone, her breathing steady. Smoke swirled around her like a dying storm. The widows surrounding the perimeter hesitated; the field was dead silent now, except for the crackling of broken machines and shattered armor. Yet, something in Carol's expression flickered. She wasn't smiling, and she didn't appear proud.

She looked... angry. And tired. Her Binary form flickered as if her own mind was fighting itself.

Yelena groaned in the wreckage, barely conscious.

Johnny was still out cold. Ben hadn't moved. Sue was still unconscious.

And in the center of it all, Carol floated like a silent star burning down over a warzone.

Then the sky changed color.

The clouds twisted above into a spiral of gold and white.

A deep vibration pulsed through the battlefield.

Carol felt a heavy spike in cosmic energy. She snapped toward where Tony's dead body was lying. 

The ground cracked around him. Gold-white tendrils of light spiraled outward in fractal veins. The smoke above twisted as if it were inhaling. A second pulse followed, louder and sharper, shaking the debris like a heartbeat through stone.

Tony's chest lit up with a white energy as his body began to regenerate. The hole vanished. Bones cracked, knit, healed.

"Aahhhh!!" He took a deep breath as his heart began to beat again. His eyes snapped open, glowing gold.

Tony stood slowly, surrounded by a vortex of rising light. The crater peeled outward in concentric rings of force. Bits of broken drone, mech, and armor lifted into the air like dust in zero gravity.

Carol's cosmic senses were screaming.

Tony looked up at her as he slowly walked out of the crater. There was no armor or mask this time. He looked around and saw his friends, family, and loved ones lying on the ground, bleeding and injured.

He closed his eyes for a moment before opening them. He looked toward Carol and then disappeared.

"Wha-?!" Words stuck in her throat as an open palm appeared before her face.

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