Ultimate Iron Man
Ch: 122 [Ultimate Tony Stark]

Tony's hand clamped around Carol's face. The heat radiating off her Binary form didn't faze him. His grip tightened.

"Let's take this off-world," he said, voice low.

With a flash of golden light, Tony rocketed upward. The sound barrier shattered behind them. Buildings below rippled from the aftershock. Debris scattered into the sky. Within seconds, they passed the clouds, cut through the atmosphere, and tore into space.

Stars stretched in every direction. The Earth hung below like a fragile blue marble.

He released her with a violent push, and the shockwave rippled in the vacuum like a ripple through folded glass.

Carol flipped midair and stabilized, her aura flaring gold and orange. Her eyes narrowed.

'How?' She thought. 'Cosmic energy?!'

Tony hovered above, body crackling with golden energy that shimmered with a layer of white flare just beneath it. His eyes burned like twin stars. Behind his forehead, the Mind Stone pulsed, feeding him faster than thought. Every movement, every photon shift around her, every fluctuation in her posture was already calculated.

He blinked.

One second, he was still; the next, he was on her. His fist slammed into her jaw and sent her reeling backward, spiraling through the void. She recovered quickly, hands out, bracing as she fired a beam of concentrated solar energy from her palms.

Tony moved like lightning. The beam passed through where he had been a fraction of a second ago. He appeared behind her and struck again, this time a punch to the spine laced with raw strength. It folded the space around her body and sent her flying toward the Earth's orbit line.

Carol flipped and released an energy burst. It spun her in place, giving her control as she locked onto Tony's signal and rocketed back toward him, screaming as her power flared to maximum.

She collided with him mid-space, shoulder to chest, and they both exploded backward, spinning like dying stars caught in each other's gravity.

Carol flew in and struck first, a knee to his ribs followed by a backhand across his cheek. Tony caught the second strike with a glowing hand and twisted her wrist, snapping it with a sharp crack. Then he kicked her away, flipped backward, and flared both hands open.

His palms glowed gold. Then blue. Then a bright, complex pattern of energy burst from his hands in spiraling beams, like solar latticework laced with cosmic charge. It hit her like a net of collapsing stars.

She screamed.

Tony moved in, fist cocked.

The punch hit her square in the chest and detonated like a small supernova. The shockwave spread for miles in the vacuum, bending distant starlight.

Carol twisted out of the blast and countered, punching upward. It caught Tony's jaw, cracking it to the side. Blood sprayed from his mouth but quickly dissolved into golden light, regenerating before it could drift far.

He wiped his lip and cracked his neck with an arrogant grin.

Carol blasted forward, twin solar trails arcing from her hands. Her Binary form flared brighter, warping the light around her. She clenched her fists and dove toward Tony like a golden missile.

Tony didn't dodge this time. He met her head-on. Their collision triggered a flash of white light that could be seen from the surface of Earth. The blast wave spread in a perfect ring across the vacuum, distorting starlight and tearing through satellite debris like tissue.

Carol twisted mid-blow and slammed her knee into Tony's gut. His body folded for half a second before he countered with an uppercut that knocked her upward. He was already following, movements now faster than before, every calculation completed by the Mind Stone before she could react.

He struck again. Palm to chest.

A blast of telekinetic force launched her toward a drifting communications satellite. She flipped and crashed through it, the machine exploding in a burst of flame and sparks that instantly died in the vacuum.

Carol emerged from the wreckage, her energy swirling in chaotic arcs. Her eyes burned white. She roared and launched another attack, this time weaving in and out of visibility with raw speed. Each flicker was another strike. Left to the ribs. Right to the jaw. A knee to his spine.

'Fuck! Too fast!' Tony thought as he continued to analyze her.

He blocked the fourth hit, twisted her arm behind her back, and blasted her across the vacuum again. But this time, she caught herself with a spherical blast of power that reversed her trajectory in an instant.

She flew straight into him, punching him so hard across the face that his neck almost snapped. He flipped once, then twice, tumbling backward into the thermosphere. The energy trailed off him like bleeding fire.

He quickly raised an energy dome around his body.

Carol didn't wait.

She flew in again, this time spinning like a drill, punching through Tony's hastily formed energy barrier and landing a second hit to his side. His ribs cracked under the pressure. The regeneration kicked in and healed the fractures, and thanks to the Mind Stone, he didn't even feel any pain.

She pressed the advantage.

Left hook. Right jab. A headbutt laced with kinetic acceleration. Tony staggered. His golden aura flickered, lines of his energy armor splitting as the strain began to show.

He raised both hands and summoned a complex geometric pattern between his palms. The energy lattice cracked like a thunderclap. Dozens of golden shards formed and launched themselves like intelligent missiles. Each shard twisted in space, homing in on Carol's limbs, chest, and head.

She was forced to fall back.

Carol ducked and spun, weaving between the shards. She absorbed two. The others she vaporized mid-air with energy bursts. But that cost her time.

Tony blinked and struck her from above, slamming both fists down. The impact sent her into a fast spiral. She recovered, but this time her mouth was bleeding.

She wiped it with her wrist, glaring.

She believed that she could subdue him without full escalation. But now? She saw the truth. His movements were faster. He anticipated every strike, adjusted to her pressure, and hit back harder each time. His power was evolving and matching hers.

And he was learning.

'Darn it! Can't let this drag on any longer.'

She charged.

Tony didn't move. He tilted his head slightly. Calculations flashed behind his eyes faster than thought. Every shift in her posture, every twitch of her fingers, every micro-glow of charge... He saw it all.

She crossed the space between them in a blink.

Tony stepped aside, making minimal movement. Her punch missed by less than an inch. He countered, palm flat, striking her shoulder joint. The force rebounded through her collarbone. She twisted into a kick and swept low. He ducked under it. Her foot grazed his hair.

Their blows blurred into streaks of motion.

Each hit now was less about raw power and more about precision. They struck, blocked, reversed, and countered. Neither gave ground. Each time Carol surged with another level of force, Tony adapted. She spun in, grabbed his neck, and hurled him backward into an asteroid fragment.

He shattered it as he passed through, kicked off the debris, and spun into her, elbow-first. She caught it mid-air. Their bodies clashed again. The energy backlash formed a pulse that warped space around them.

Tony has now gained new knowledge. He can now copy Carol and absorb energy from his surroundings. Thus, closing the gap between their energy level. He can now move faster and use more destructive moves.

'Did he just?!' Carol thought, noticing the sudden increase in his power.

He moved in and pressed the advantage. Two hits to her abdomen. One to her ribs. She deflected the next blow with her forearm, grabbed his wrist, and pulled him in close. Her forehead met his with a sharp crack. He staggered, then twisted and landed a blow to her thigh.

They both dropped low, drifting beneath the magnetic field's edge. The world glowed faintly below them.

Carol drew in her energy again. This time, every last reserve. Every bit of charge from every cell. Her body became radiant, glowing like a living embodiment of cosmic energy. 

Tony paused and studied her carefully. 

He realized what she was about to do: a final strike. It would be a full conversion hit, with no defense and no pullback. It would burn through anything it came into contact with. 

She launched.

Tony didn't dodge. Instead, he raised one hand and opened his palm. The force struck him head-on. It should have vaporized him, but it didn't. He absorbed it. Every molecule of it. Pulled it through his cells. The Mind Stone flashed inside his head. It calculated the power limit, and Tony instantly dispersed the excessive energy and stabilized his body.

Carol's body faltered mid-flight. Her arms dropped. The light around her faded as Tony drained her within a few seconds.

She hung there, eyes wide, chest heaving. 

Tony winked at her before grabbing her throat and diving back down toward Earth. He boomed through the atmosphere. Fire wrapped around their bodies as they tore through the sky, a golden comet splitting the clouds. Air screamed against them, heat built fast, but Tony didn't slow down.

He aimed straight for the center of the old SHIELD training yard, a patch of hardened steel-reinforced ground deep in the desert.

The moment they hit...

BOOOM!

A blinding column of light exploded upward as the impact cratered the Earth. Dust and rock blew out for miles. The shockwave shattered windows two towns away. A tremor rolled across the valley, and birds took off from the trees in a panic.

At the center of it all, Carol lay at the bottom of the crater, barely conscious. Her body twitched. The last of her energy flickered like a dying flame.

Tony stood over her, hair wild, eyes glowing bright gold.

Carol tried to sit up.

His fist met her jaw before she could.

She dropped back down.

"You hurt them," Tony said in a low voice.

He punched her face. Her body jerked sideways. Blood sprayed from her nose. Her jaws were shattered, and her nose was broken.

"You hurt my girls."

Another punch.

"You hurt my friends."

His fist met her face again.

"You would defend those shapeshifting fuckers even if it means dooming humanity. I'm gonna smash you up and break every fucking bone in your body and kill Fury."

He threw multiple punches, shattering her rib cage.

"I gave them 24 hours, but you pulled this shit..." He looked down at her broken body. His fists were dripping with her blue blood. "...and took that chance they had, away from them." He kicked her multiple times, making her curl up in pain.

Tony then grabbed a fistful of her hair and flew up into the sky again. Within a few seconds, he reached where they had first started fighting before and threw her down. Carol crashed onto the ground. 

He then looked around.

Everyone was doing alright, although injured, they were alive. He also noticed the dead Skrull posing as Fury. He then flew toward one of the drones. 

"As you can see, I'm still very much alive through some luck. Now, let's get to the point. Previously, I gave our shapeshifter invaders 24 hours to leave Earth. I really didn't want to commit genocide. But you all saw what happened. Instead of talking this through, they decided to outright kill me for taking humanity's side and protecting our planet. So, given the present situation, they just lost that chance. I, Tony Stark, will annihilate the Skrull race from the face of Earth." 

Tony controlled the nanites in his body and connected to the weapons around Earth's orbit. He activated the vaporizer.

"No mercy."

Across space, 1,000 cloaked Stark-forged satellites came to life.

"Execute Protocol: KSF."

The world changed in an instant.

Wave One

A silent ripple passed through the stratosphere. Invisible to the naked eye, it swept across continents like a ghost tide. Skrulls hiding as schoolteachers, CEOs, bus drivers, scientists, and political figures jerked violently mid-movement.

Their skin rippled. Their forms convulsed and shifted.

Green skin appeared as people tore off their disguises. In cities like New York, London, Cairo, Tokyo, and Sydney, screams filled the air as loved ones changed right before their eyes. Then, they turned to ash.

Wave Two

The radiation doubled in intensity.

Underground bunkers. Deep-sea vessels. Cloaked labs in deserts. Even high-security SHIELD black sites couldn't protect them. The frequency tore through every countermeasure.

Skrulls hidden in the upper branches of world militaries vaporized at their desks.

In the U.S. Capitol, two senators flickered green and disintegrated in front of live broadcasts. The president of America, a Skrull, turned to dust before his security's eyes.

In a remote monastery in the Himalayas, a Skrull monk gasped, staggered, and turned to dust mid-prayer.

Wave Three

The final sweep was absolute.

Sleeper agents. Cloned infiltrators. Those deep in space suits. Those mid-mission. Even the Super Skrulls' remains, regenerating somewhere in secret labs, turned to sludge and vanished in a puff of smoke.

The satellites coordinated perfectly. Cross-frequency pulses overloaded Skrull genetic stability. Nothing could hold form. They collapsed into themselves, their cellular bonds breaking down under the disruptor's strain.

In 30 seconds, it was over.

Every Skrull on Earth… dead.

All that remained were charred remnants of skin, swirling dust, and ashes carried away by the wind. There were no screams and zero mercy.

[Back to Tony]

Tony walked over to Carol, who had regained her power and was now healed. She was still sitting on the ground.

"They are gone," He said, looking down at her.

"How are you going to live with yourself? You just killed thousands... You..." Carol clenched her fists and looked at Tony with hatred.

"Don't you dare put this on me. You bastards brought them here, gave them refuge, but failed to control them. You have done nothing so far to stop their invasion. I gave them a chance to live, but your action took that chance away from them. With your abilities, you could have easily found a place for them to live; instead, you doomed them on Fury's command. Their deaths... Man, woman, children, bad, good... It doesn't matter. You..."

Tony pointed his finger at her. "...You doomed them. You killed them all. You are responsible for their deaths."

"No, I..." Carol stuttered.

"You know very well what Fury actually tried to do, don't you? He promised to find a new home for them, but the reality is he simply wanted to control them and use them. They waited and waited for him to keep that promise, but they got tired of waiting and probably realized that Fury was just using them; thus, the invasion began. They thought... Why not take over this planet instead of finding a new one?"

Tony bent down on his knees and looked into her eyes.

"You had enough time. You did nothing for them. I gave them a chance. You took that away from them. You killed them all. Now, how are you going to live with yourself?"

He stood up and flew toward the place where the Widows and the others regrouped.

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AN: That's it for this week. See you all on Sunday with the aftermath. Oh, by the way, I know some wanted her dead, but let's think this through. Imagine the future threats like Knull or an evil Thor. Just saying... As for Tony's power, this is just the first phase of his real power. We'll see the final phase during the Asgard Arc.