[quozl]

Perhaps it's time for Part 3 of Johnny and LP's story!

CLASSIFIED LOCATION
11:52 EDT | 5/11/12

He raises his fists, giving a left, and a right. He takes Ultron by the neck and pounds him into the roof beneath them. Ultron’s lasers are too slow, his ray too weak, his power too little. Dagger, bleeding on the sidelines, releases a wan laugh; Stark, despite himself, smiles. The Doombots seem to sag and dim. Ultron, it seems, is dead.

Superman reaches down and with considerable effort, tears the machine’s chest open, searching for the core. He sees it, glowing red, deep within the mass of wires and shifting nanomachines inside his body. He grabs it, holds it, pulls.

"Not so fast, Superman."

The voice is cold, metallic. His eyes relight. His adamantium form shifts, only slightly, and from within something terrible moves at the speed of light like a horde of monstrous mechanical spiders, slipping beneath the invader’s skin, the Kryptonian’s entire body shivering with pain as they swarm. His body goes limp – he falls to his knees, hand still gripping the red core.



CLASSIFIED LOCATION
12:02 EDT | 5/12/12

The battlefield goes quiet, save for the screech of metal-on-wood as Ultron limps away, Superman’s remains still holding fast to his core. Mockingbird covers her mouth, while Falcon looks away. Ultron, slowly but surely, moves away.

"You have done great ill," says Cloak, slowly rising into the dark of the night. "And I am here to rebuke you." He opens his cape, and the pitch-dark of midnight wraps around Ultron’s shattered form. It is not absorbed, nor dispersed, nor destroyed – it simply vanishes into nothing. Cloak turns to his allies.

"Avengers!" he shouts. "Assemble!"



CLASSIFIED LOCATION
12:06 EDT | 5/12/12

Mockingbird charges forward, leaping into the plateau and vaulting over a Doombot. She lands beside him – moments later, an explosion wipes him away. Iron Man begins to fly, firing wildly at the Doombot nearby.

The Doombot attempts to track him in the dark, flying closer to get a steady shot. He does – unfortunately, Iron Man has long since left the spot. From high above, he releases his entire arsenal on the doppelganger, leaving nothing but scrap behind. Stark lands, falls to his knee, and clenches his fist.

As Falcon and the final machine trade blows in mid-air, Cloak slowly advances from above, the darkness now unabated and uncontrolled. The Doombot is taken by its darkforce tendrils; it fires its thrusters, pushes itself beyond its limits, chunks of metal flying from its chassis. It is of no use. It is consumed, and does not emerge.



CLASSIFIED LOCATION
12:17 EDT | 5/12/12

Iron Man arrives as the group converges. Darkness flows like water from the cloak of darkness, visible even in the moonless night. Its owner seethes palpably as Tandy, her white suit stained red, limps painfully toward him.

"Calm down, Tyrone. It’s over." He looks at her, and after a moment of deliberation, he seems to agree. The cape stops billowing, and the stillness of midnight returns.

"Dagger is wounded," he says, turning to Stark, "and it seems that Mockingbird has also been hurt. I suggest we return quickly to the Helicarrier."

"Yeah, that sounds like a plan." He looks wistfully over to the now-ruined lab, seeing the blue body of Superman amongst the rubble. "What should we do with him?"

Falcon approaches, lifting the limp and heavy corpse on his shoulders. "We bring him back, give him a burial. I’m sure the Justice League will want to hear about this."

Mockingbird hangs her head. "So... he’s really dead, then?"

With a sigh, Iron Man nods. They return to the dark, slowly, silently.

S.H.I.E.L.D. HELICARRIER
2:37 EDT | 5/12/12

Iron Man pensively walks into the hanger, seeing an army of red and gold on all sides. He shakes his head as a machine begins to remove his suit, piece by piece, and reassemble it in a glass tube nearby. He leaves the room, not looking back.

As the lights go dark, a miniature spider-esque creature crawls from the suit’s eye. Quick as light, it scurries into the empty chest cavity. Before long, it begins to glow – dim, red, and monstrous.