'I wanted to sleep, but the world just doesn't want to let me,' I thought with a grumble as I sat beside Wanda, Aria sitting on the opposite side.
In front of us sat the Eternals, all but Ikaris that is as their gazes flicked to me and back to Wanda.
In all honesty, I wasn't even going to try and help since I was sure Wanda and Aria could handle them, but the surge of cosmic energy I had felt from Ikaris sent every warning bell off in my body.
Was he going to kill Wanda with a one-shot attack? No, but the brotherly part of me didn't want to risk that happening so I decided to take matters into my own hands.
Now, here we are, Eternals staring down humans and Nexus Beings while we waited for Ikaris to wake up.
Whether or not he's going to be pissed is not known, but to be truthful, I don't believe that there's going to be an inch of peace coming from him.
"So, would someone like to begin or are we just going to keep staring each other down?" Wanda broke the ice first, but the chilling tone to her voice might as well have been the replacement.
To their credit, the Eternals just glanced at each other before they all looked to Ajak as she cleared her throat.
"I would like to apologize first for our impulsive attempt to kill you. I of us all should have paid more attention and done more research in order to make sure that we didn't try to kill an innocent young man."
"I'm not exactly an innocent guy, but I accept your apology."
"I don't," Wanda spoke up and I sighed as I saw the frown still aimed at them.
"Wanda, please."
"No, I'm not going to forgive them that easily. What if they didn't listen to reason and instead kept following that guy's example?" she asked with a frown. "Would you have forgiven them if they nearly came close to killing me?"
"But they didn't," I replied calmly. "Besides, they wouldn't have come close to killing me. I'm too fast."
"We know that you are as fast as Makkari and I can tell you that while none of us can match her travel speed, some of us can keep pace with her in combat," Gilgamesh spoke up and I raised an eyebrow at that.
"No, you can't. I was taking it easy against Makkari just as she was against me, but the both of us know that I am the faster of us two ," I replied, staring directly at Makkari as Gilgamesh turned to her.
"Makkari, do you believe this to be true?"
"Of course not, Gil. There's no way a human, no matter how enhanced they are, is a match for Kari."
"It is," Makkari signed, stunning Druig and the rest of the Eternals as I smiled. "I may have taught Pietro how to utilize his speed, but ever since he came back from his training, he has only once used his full speed."
"When he travelled through three universes while vibrating his body to break through the bonds between dimensions, yes?" Aria asked, the other Eternals narrowing their eyes at me as I shook my head.
"In my defence, that only happened because I was vibrating as fast as I could while running as fast as I could. That does not happen as long as I just run at that speed," I explained with a shake of my head.
"What of the reason the Shi'ar empire came to Earth?"
"That was because of another incident and the reason you all came looking for me," I said with a sigh. "Also, if hadn't done what I did, the Earth and your precious Celestial would have been eradicated by the impact."
"What was the blast, if I may add?" Phastos asked and I glanced at him before giving a shrug.
"I don't mind at all. Do you know Tony Stark and his Arc Reactor?"
"We do, yes," Thena added, though I hid my smirk at the looks of displeasure flashing over their faces. Damn, even cosmic beings don't like Tony.
"Good. Well, his largest Arc Reactor was turned into a concentrated hydrogen bomb thanks to the murder A.I. he made and I had to run out with it to the North Pole.
Unfortunately, the explosion would still have wiped out half of the planet so I had to go full speed and contain the explosion within a set space."
"Energy of that level would be compressed to its utmost limits and you mentioned that you vibrated, yes?" Sersi asked, to which I nodded. "That would lead to the energy piercing through the boundaries of time and space, leading it to impact several other Earths throughout the multiverse. Who knows what happened to those Earths?"
"Actually, I do," I replied, drawing their attention. "Well, I can't say how I knew given that I was sworn to secrecy, but apparently, fifty universes were destroyed."
"...And you feel nothing from saying that?" Gilgamesh asked with a frown, looking both disappointed and disturbed at my callous words.
"I did, but then I remember one simple thing. That's someone else's Earth, not mine. As long as mine is safe, then I'm satisfied."
"Those are not the words of a hero," Druig replied and I gave a shrug.
"I'm a hero to this world, not other ones."
"Agreed/ He is not wrong," Wanda and Aria's words surprised me for a moment before I smiled, turning my gaze back to the Eternals as they stared me down.
"Think of it this way. Would you rather save your little Celestial thing that's in the core of the planet or would you risk sacrificing him to save one that you don't care about?"
"The former without question," Kingo replied, giving a shrug when the other Eternals stared at him. "What? The kid's not wrong. We were willing to kill a potential threat to protect the Celestial Tiamut."
"Not a kid."
"We're thousands of years old. You are a child to all of us," he replied with a smirk, to which I paused and gave a shrug.
"Touch-" the world paused as I felt the surge of cosmic energy in the distance, immediately vanishing and racing through the hallways of Kamar-Taj.
Sliding to a stop in the medical room, I grabbed onto Ikaris' hand as I felt his cosmic energy gathering behind his eyes. Taking off, we shot through the hallways and out of Nepal, sliding to a stop in the middle of the ocean.
Racing away, I turned my head just in time for the water to be parted by pure light, Ikaris shooting out of the ocean with a snarl.
He did look majestic with his golden eyes floating in the star-filled sky, but I didn't focus too much on that when I saw his gaze flicked to me.
With no hesitation, I took off, skating across the ocean water to get away as fast as I could.
Of course, I didn't want Ikaris to go back and attack the others, but it appears that he was more fixated on killing me with how he was focused solely on keeping up with me.
Water was replaced by grassy ground in the blink of an eye and I turned with a spin, sliding across the dirt while watching Ikaris charging at me with both fists raised.
I expected him to try and hold back, but as he flexed his neck muscles, I was already out of the path of the beams that slowly moved towards me.
I was gone, reappearing behind him and delivering a vibrating punch straight through his heart. His eyes widened in slow motion as I felt the muscle fibers slowly tearing apart around my fist, which I immediately pulled out.
Taking off, I skated across the ground and narrowed my eyes at the sight of Ikaris still afloat, pain being replaced by sheer anger as his eyes snapped to me.
To my surprise, he acted much faster than earlier as he shot towards me, but I was gone and beside him with a leg kick that phased through his lungs.
Literally kicking the wind out of his body, I pulled my leg back and leapt with the other, swinging it overhead and delivering a vicious blow to the back of his head.
I could feel my shin crack from kicking synthetic fibers beyond my capabilities, but I pushed through the pain and slammed his head deep into the ground.
Landing on my uninjured leg, I circulated my chi around the broken limb, which repaired immediately as Ikaris tore himself free with a snarl.
"Ikaris!" I began, sliding to a stop as his eyes stared right through me with a piercing glare. "Listen! I don't want to fight you!"
"Then, don't and die!" he replied, shooting forward with a fist pulled back.
As he swung it, I ducked under the blow, stepping back as he tried to continue with a rising knee.
He twisted with the blow, a roundhouse barely missing my head. Continuing with the spin with a backheel kick, I stood waiting behind him with my arms crossed as Ikaris stopped in his tracks.
"Behind you," I replied before taking off yet again, standing behind him as he turned to look at my previous location.
"This has got to stop," This time, he spun with his optic lasers at full blast, but they met nothing but grassy plains and air as I was hundreds of miles away.
Once the destructive beams died down, I stopped beside him again, staring Ikaris down as he took heavy breaths.
"Ikaris, we both know that you're not going to be able to kill me so just surrender and let's talk this out. Maybe there was a misunderstanding and-"
"Are you calling the birth of a Celestial a misunderstanding?" he asked in a low tone, making me pause before he blasted towards me.
However, my eyes flicked past him to stare at the distant violet star in the night sky, only now noticing how it was growing...brighter?
At the same time, Ikaris' beams obscured it for a moment and I immediately moved to the side, looking back to the star only to be confused by it being missing.
'Did a star just die out? Why did I sense cosmic energy from it, then?' I thought before deciding to focus my attention on Ikaris and his problems.
He swung his head towards me and I rushed forward, sliding under his optic beam before leaping to my feet.
With a barrel-roll, I dove over his beams and kicked off the air behind me, diving forward with a superman punch that cracked against his forehead.
The blow made his head snap back and nearly hit me with the beam had I not moved out of the way, sliding to a stop a few yards away.
My eyes scanned the area as Ikaris floated to his feet, noting the surge of cosmic energy that drew closer.
At the same time, an orange portal opened beside me, Aria and Wanda along with the Eternals stepping out as a figure covered in violet sparks appeared on the far horizon.
The only thing I could do as Ultron's surprisingly golden form covered the distance between us was let my eyes widen before pain exploded in my chest.
It felt like I was ragdolling through the air before I gained clarity of mind to roll myself over, kicking off the air below as Ultron charged through.
Golden electricity danced around my body as I took off, but to my surprise, Ultron kept pace with a cackle as the two of us raced through the air.
Diving down and sliding across ocean water, Ultron was right beside me, holding my surprised stare with an amused one as the two of us came to a stop atop coarse sand.
"That's not vibranium your body is made out of," I spoke and he gave a raspy chuckle before I stepped to the side as I felt another appearing behind me.
The Ultron that did just hummed as he stood with his arms crossed, his entire body made out of vibranium while the golden one stepped towards me.
The former was not the only vibranium Ultron as hundreds more appeared around me, soon finding myself surrounded in a circle of robots coated in violet sparks.
'That one doesn't feel as chaotic as the others,' I thought as I stared at the golden Ultron, who stood with his arms crossed behind the others.
My eyes then locked on the violet stone embedded into his chest and my eyes widened at the sheer vibrations of cosmic energy that radiated from it.
'Is that the motherfucking Power Stone? Did this murderous, power-stealing, conniving killer robot go to space just to get an Infinity Stone?' The thought flashed through my mind as I scanned the Ultron speedster army, all of whom were overflowing with energy.
With a frown, I went full speed in the blink of an eye, immediately charging towards the golden Ultron whose eyes followed after me.
Yet, as I swung my fist, I was surprised when the blow barely glanced his cheek, cracking my fingers and one of his mandibles at the same time.
He countered with a hook punch and I barely pulled back, his punch barely skimming my leg.
Leaping back to avoid the flurry of kicks he threw at me, I reappeared in the centre of the clones again, crouched down and in a runner's stance.
The next moment, as arcs of violet electricity rippled from their bodies, I shot forward, nothing more than a golden blur racing in a wide circle.
The vibranium was torn apart by my bare hands as I swung towards the golden Ultron, who immediately avoided the blow while the sparking Power Stone enhanced his body.
The two of us then took off, leaving nothing but a gaping canyon in our wake as we raced through the South Pole.
He threw a haymaker, but I slipped under it, grabbing onto his arm and slamming him back first into the ice.
The ice cracked for miles right as I swung my leg, digging my toes into his side and sending him ragdolling across the ice.
He skipped across the Pacific Ocean as I caught up halfway, immediately flipping over when I came for a dropkick.
The robot grabbed onto my skull and threw me into the air, grabbing onto my legs before the world blurred as we turned into a violet-gold tornado of energy.
The world didn't spin for long before I was thrown, feeling my body skipping from building to building before I managed to get my feet under me.
Leaping from the surface I stood up, Ultron tore right through it as I slid to a stop, staring wide-eyed at the robot sliding to a stop just a few paces away from me.
The Empire State Building came crumbling down thanks to the gaping hole in it, the panicked, sorrowful cries of the citizens nearly making me stop as they ran away as fast as they could.
I didn't get long to look at them before Ultron charged at me, immediately taking and throwing a spinning roundhouse at me.
Ducking under the kick, a scorpion kick snapped into his jaw, cracking it to the side before I grabbed onto his leg and tossed him as hard as I could.
Not done yet, I raced through the air and pinballed the robot with a rush of blows, finishing with a double stomp that sent him ragdolling flying out of the city.
With that done, I took off towards Avengers' Tower, coming to a stop just in time for Tony and Clint to point their weapons at me.
"Easy! It's me!" I exclaimed and the group relaxed as I turned towards the window.
"Excuse my language, but what in the fuck is going on?!" Tony asked in a hurry and Cap didn't even try to correct him as I frowned.
"Ultron. He's back and with a new body that can go toe to toe with my speed."
"...What?"
"Look, I can't explain right now, okay? He's trying to force me to fight him in the cities, but I'm keeping him to the unpopulated areas of the world."
"Pietro, this doesn't make se-"
"I know it doesn't, okay?" I cut Cap off with a frown, letting out a shaky sigh as I saw the man's concerned stare. "Just...stay here. It will be over before you know it."
"W-" Before he could even say another word, I was gone, racing through frozen time to where Ultron was rapidly approaching.
"Ah! There you are!" he exclaimed and rocketed towards me, but to his surprise, I vibrated through his body and took the Power Stone with me.
I only held it for a brief moment before dropping it immediately, but it was enough as blinding hot pain stabbed through my entire right arm.
Yet, I ignored it, spinning and slamming a vibrating fist through Ultron's skull.
I could feel the finer machinery tearing apart thanks to my vibrations before I pulled my hand out, stumbling backwards with a grimace while keeping a close eye on the robot.
"H-He-Hehehe, s-so...th-that's how it w-works? I-I s-s-see," Ultron's voice echoed with static before his form died down, my heavy breathing being the only sound in the area.
"What...just happened?" I murmured, looking from Ultron's golden body to the Power Stone and then back to the body.
When did my life become a Sonic wannabe?
'I need Deathbird to get back soon because I need to get laid.'
A/N: And we end it off here~! This is to show the upper limits of Pietro's power as well as the threats to come.
Next chapter: Back to Thanos and Kane before more Pietro and Ultron.
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As always, read, enjoy, review and until the next one...
Ba-Bye~!