The world distorted as I lunged forward, my hand tearing through the chest of the first bot. Tearing out its core, I turned and blitzed towards the next one, using the core in hand to knock its head clean off.
My gaze flicked between the robots as I blurred around the snow, each punch and chop destroying the robots in my path before I slid to a stop a few dozen yards away.
The moment I stopped, all robots other than the main one fell to the ground in pieces, its gaze moving through the bots before looking back at me with a tilted head.
"Incredible. To think that it is possible for a human to go from zero to three hundred thirty-five million and three hundred thousand miles per hour within the span of a second," Ultron murmured, putting me on guard as his eyes flashed.
"You're off by a bit. That was me not going all-out," I replied, flexing my hands to drop the cores I had in hand onto the ground. "Also, are you scanning me?"
"But of course. I have watched footage of your chaotic energy and your speed millions of times in the span that I first awakened. The energy itself seems to be unique to you and it most likely also protects you from the negative effects."
"Interesting theory there."
"I thought so too until I saw you in action now. Along with that, I also hacked into the footage of the lab where you had been given your powers."
'That's...lovely,' I thought with a frown, glancing around at the area to try and make sure that nothing can get to me.
"Yes, your speed at first was minuscule compared to now, a fledgeling to the speedy bird of prey that you are now. However, scans of your body showed that you were on the verge of death right before you were healthy once more with that new energy. How is that, Pietro Maximoff?"
'Okay. So, he's definitely been doing a shit-ton of research in order to find my weaknesses,' I thought, not replying as the Ultron bot stared at me before letting out a sigh sound.
"You understand that a conversation can only happen when two people are talking to each other, yes?"
"I do, but if I give you a single inkling of my powers' origin, you will most definitely make hundreds of counters to it."
"Of course I would. Why would I not make countermeasures for my greatest threat?"
"Wouldn't your greatest threats be Tony or any of the smarter people in the world?"
"Ha! As if that would be possible. While I will give them credit for their smarts, no one other than you have the capability to run around the planet within a few seconds and eradicating my droids before I could finish their orders."
"So, you want to either figure out where my speed comes from so you can replicate it or you want to come up with ways to stop it in its tracks. Did I get that right?"
"Perfectly. Now, either you tell me...or I activate the nukes."
"How many?"
"What makes you think I'm going to tell you?"
"In exchange for a piece of information on how my speed works."
"You tell me first," he replied and I crossed my arms with an amused smirk.
"You honestly believe that's going to work?"
"One can only hope that you are arrogant enough to boast about it."
"Normally, yeah, but I just got laid so my ego is calm for now," I responded with a shrug and Ultron hummed before my head snapped to the left as I felt vibrations drawing closer.
They were fast too, approaching us at Mach 3? No, faster.
'Almost at Mach 5...6...7!' Sparks rippled from my body as I stepped back and out of the path, staring wide-eyed at the Ultron droid that stared back at me.
It raced past me and slid to a stop about two dozen or so feet away, the main Ultron droid I was talking to shutting down as the new one smirked.
This one didn't look all that different from the ones I fought except for the exposed core in its chest. It let off greyish-white electricity and I narrowed my eyes at its sporadic movements before it stilled.
"Hmm, some more calculations are needed. Currently, the power source needed to replicate your speed is not available yet."
"What did you do?"
"I said it, didn't I? I've been studying your speed and that chaotic energy of yours millions of times since I woke up from my slumber."
'So, he's learned to replicate it a little bit? See, this is why I hate fighting geniuses with get-away tricks,' I thought with a grumble, the world pausing once more as I crouched.
The droid followed my movements before I sped up, lunging forward before racing to the side, noticing how the droid took a few seconds before his head began to turn in my direction.
By that time, I was already on the other side of him, leaning forward and studying the core with a frown.
It didn't have the same vibrations and ripples as my own chaotic energy, but it was probably the closest thing I have felt to it. It also left a mark on the metallic body of Ultron and as I looked up, I focused on the sparks coming from its head.
'So, your physical form can keep up, but your processors can't? At least for now, that is,' I thought, my hand blurring forward and punching through its chest.
Ripping its core free, I raced back and stopped as the Ultron droid fell to the ground, its eyes flickering as its head struggled to look at me.
"I-I-I s-se-see. Th-That i-i-is t-the perf-fect f-formul-la," he spoke and I immediately took off as I saw their cores lighting up, stopping a few hundred miles away.
Spinning around, I stared at the large explosion in the distance, admiring it for a moment before I looked at the core in hand.
'You most definitely have some kind of tracker and/ or recording device on you,' I thought as I tossed the thing between my hands before clasping it with both hands.
The ground under me trembled as I began to vibrate my entire body at once, feeling the energy inside the core leaking out. It was a chaotic mess of electricity and pure power, tearing through the ice and melting every bit of ice that touched me.
However, it didn't explode and I counted that as a good thing. Letting out a soft exhale, I let the energy course through my arms, down my body and out through my feet, each breath making me frown as the energy began to die down.
Then, my own silver-blue aura erupted from my body and immediately tore the core apart, making me shake my head as I tried to do the same with my own energy.
As I expected, my energy harmlessly passed through the ice, but the surface shook when I ceased the energy output. Moving off the ice and to the side, I watched as it crumbled in upon itself, leaving a perfect hole from the top all the way through the ice to the bottom.
'Okay, so mine cannot be used just by anyone. Got it,' I nodded, looking around at the destruction around me before taking off.
Let someone deal with that.
As fast as I got here, I was out oft here just as quickly, stopping in front of Kamar-Taj's main doors. Knocking politely, the guards inside opened it with an expectant look before rolling their eyes when I stood there with a smirk.
"You just love doing that, don't you?"
"It's what I do best," I replied with a smirk, walking through and making my way to the courtyard.
"Pietro!"
"Xialing!" I exclaimed just as happily as the girl rushed forward, smiling as she gave me an excited hug. I then turned my head to Shang, who was busy flowing through katas with Tails in some kind of human form.
His form was the same height and build as Shang, but I rolled my eyes when I saw his sparkling white hair and shimmering scarlet eyes.
'Seriously?' I thought with a matching look, which Tails caught as he gave a proud smirk. I just shook my head and turned my head as I felt Wanda approaching.
"Sister."
"How do you know it's me?"
"I'm just that good," I replied, smirking as she just rolled her eyes.
"Wanda, think Pietro can train with Shang and me now?"
"I don't know, Xialing. He might be too busy like usual."
"Firstly, it's not my fault I've been so busy with one world-ending threat after the other. Secondly, give me a few minutes to talk to Wanda and then I'll come train."
"Promise?"
"Pinky promise," I nodded as I held out my hand, Xialing narrowing her eyes at me even as she did the pinky promise.
"If you're lying..."
"I'm not," I replied with my hands raised in surrender and she just gave an uncertain nod as she turned away. I waited until she began doing her katas with her brother before both Wanda and I took a few steps away from them.
"And?"
"Apparently, the droid wants to dissect me."
"Of course. Anything else?"
"He's also figured out a way to mimic my speed with technology so that's fun."
"...Pietro, do you understand how fast you are, brother?" Wanda asked and I nodded with a serious frown.
"I do, but I should have worded that better. He is fast, but not even close to me at my fastest."
"How close is he then?" she asked and I was in thought with a hum.
"Well, if I'm let's say...100 000, then he's one."
"Where does everyone else lie?"
"...A 0.5 at most?" I replied with an uncertain shrug and she paused and took a deep breath.
"So, you're telling me that he's one of the fastest beings on this planet?"
"Thor and Hulk have him beat. Maybe Tony too if he can make a fast suit, but for anyone other than them, it's going to be a tough fight if you don't take away his speed."
"So a homicidal android with the intellectual capabilities of a tyrannical super-genius now has your speed and is looking to obtain higher levels to it? Is that all?"
"Well, I wouldn't call Tony a tyrannical super-genius to be honest."
"You sure do love taking Stark's side in our recent arguments," she replied with a frown and I rolled my eyes as I heard the anger in her voice.
"Firstly, let's be truthful. You and I have not had an argument about something in a while, right?" I spoke, smirking when she rolled her eyes. "Secondly, I do not like the guy's gut especially since he's the reason we have a murder-bot on our hands, but I won't deny that he's skilled.
If given the chance, I think he'd be able to find a way to take care of Ultron permanently, but that's going to take a while given that the little shit is hiding away in the internet."
"What does that mean for us?"
"It means that he could hack into any electronic device that functions as a communication device and steal everything we own from there. That or he could incriminate us with damning evidence to force us to try and clear our names."
"...And I'm supposed to not be angry at Stark?" she asked and I sighed while shaking my head.
"You can be angry, sister. Just don't let your anger cloud your judgement."
"...I will try. Now, I believe that you owe me, yes?" she asked and I raised an eyebrow before my eyes widened as I saw her looking me over.
"You want me to get naked and let you...see...?"
"See it all? Yes."
"Why?"
"Because I need to make sure that you can actually give me nieces and nephews."
"Well, no."
"I showed you mine!"
"Again, he showed me yours! Be mad at him!" I exclaimed while gesturing to the fox in question, who looked both confused and pleased with himself.
Wanda on the other hand was neither as she glared at me before crossing her arms with a huff and a glare.
"What does that mean?" I asked, raising an eyebrow when I got nothing but silence as a response. "Oh, come on, Wanda. You can't be serious."
I think she was because the only response I got was her glancing at me with a frown before looking away once more.
"Wow, it's like dealing with a child."
"You are a child," was her quick reply and I rolled my eyes as I shrugged.
"Fine," I replied, walking towards Xialing and Shang while taking off my shirt and jacket.
"N-Not here!" she exclaimed and I raised an eyebrow as the two kids and Tails looked at her.
"I was going to go train with them and work up a sweat. What are you thinking about, sister dearest?" I asked, smirking as she stared gobsmacked before her shock turned into an anger-fuelled glare.
I just cackled at her expression as I made my way over to Shang and Xialing, who looked excited as I copied their stance and stood beside them.
"Okay, I have not trained much in hand to hand combat so you two mind helping me out?"
"Only if you promise to hang out more with us," Shang replied and I snorted at his request.
"Sure. Wanna shake on it?" I asked, shaking both of their hands before we fell back into our stances. I did raise an eyebrow as Wanda stood beside me as well, trying her best to take a stance while undoing her corset and jacket.
"What? My hand to hand is bad. That is all."
"Of course, sister. Master Shang, take us through it," I spoke with a teasing smile and the teen in question cleared his throat awkwardly.
"R-Right! Follow me as best as you can!"
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
On the far-eastern coast of Russia sat a small village, its largest building being only two stories tall as they were all made out of wood and coarse stone.
However, it was under these villages that one would find a series of tunnels, all reinforced with tungsten-steel walls that had layers of reinforced bunker steel walls in between them.
Walking along these walls were numerous Ultron droids, each busy with their own tasks that were given by the central hive mind further underground.
In said hive mind sat a single droid, its body connected to various pipes and wiring as other Ultron droids worked at expanding the room around it to be more fitting.
Ultron's eyes were focused on the various simulations playing out in its vision, flicking from screen to screen as it ran through every pathway and choice made during its fight against Pietro.
One of its simulations froze mid-frame, Pietro's fist nothing more than a silver-blue blur to the droid's eyes before it nodded.
"Recalibrate," the droid spoke out loud, rewinding the footage for the thousand time and it began to watch again.
With every one, it peeled back another layer of the speedster's movements, dissecting the speedster's movements by one microsecond after another.
However, it knew that it would only get so far with the processing power it had at its disposal. It needed something more, something far more powerful than the processing chips on this planet.
With that thought process, several of its droids flew up into the atmosphere withstanding the heat from the atmosphere as they pierced through and flew out into the void of space.
At the same time, Ultron shifted its sight to the calculations of Pietro's speed, staring at the various cores that it was creating.
'No, something more stable,' he thought, his eyes flicking through the various maps of the world before he located the energy sources he needed.
With another thought process and planned laid out, more of his drones made their way to the surface, heading to two different parts of Africa where he tracked abnormal energy signatures.
"Pietro Maximoff," the robot rasped while staring at the footage, "it won't be long until you and I shall do a dance. A dance to determine the fate of not only the universe, but also the multiverse."
A/N: And we end it off here~! Pietro is having some fun time, but he seems to be underestimating his foe thanks to his speed. How will that work out for him?
Also, I'm sure most Sonic fans would be able to tell where I'm going with Ultron and his obsession with Pietro's energy and speed. If not, hint: I AM THE TRUE ULTIMATE LIFE FORM!
Next chapter: Birth of Perfection.
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As always, read, enjoy, review and until next week...
Ba-Bye~!