Tony Stark slamd the thrusters into ergency overdrive, barely escaping the sweeping golden beam by inches.
Below him, entire streets were sliced apart with horrifying precision, the city carved open like layers of cake.
Cold sweat rolled down Tony's face inside the helt.
This fight was unwinnable.
The difference in firepower wasn't even remotely balanced.
Then the enemy raised an arm again.
Golden light erupted outward like a tidal wave.
At that exact instant, auxiliary thrusters deployed from the waist and abdon of Tony's symbiote armor. Four secondary propulsion ports ignited simultaneously while the main thrusters on his hands and feet adjusted in perfect synchronization.
His flight path changed violently midair.
The beam missed him by less than a ter.
But the attack didn't stop there.
The enemy's tracking capability was monstrous.
With only a slight movent of the arm, the golden beam curved after Tony, sweeping across the skyline in pursuit.
Iron Man pushed the symbiote armor's mobility to its absolute limits, weaving around the gigantic beam with impossible aerial maneuvers.
He was small.
Fast.
Hard to lock down.
The enemy's attack carved through seven or eight skyscrapers in succession, leaving burning scars across the city, but sohow still failed to touch Tony directly.
The closest call nearly clipped his thigh.
Even without contact, the sheer heat pierced through the armor plating.
For a split second, Tony thought his propulsion systems were screaming in pain.
The temperature was even more terrifying than direct exposure to Extremis heat signatures.
He genuinely thought the engines were about to lt apart mid-flight.
But the armor held.
The suit he had poured countless sleepless nights into endured temperatures far beyond its official safety limits. The thrusters roared harder than ever, forcing out one final burst of acceleration that carried him safely away from the beam.
Monts before colliding with a skyscraper, Tony twisted ninety degrees upward and shot into the sky like a red-and-gold bullet.
Then Hulk attacked.
The green giant roared as he launched himself from the rooftop of a nearby building, soaring toward the enemy like a living missile.
His fist clenched tight.
A pale-white shockwave spiraled around his arm as the punch ca crashing down with enough force to resemble an intercontinental missile strike.
The blow slamd directly into the enemy's face.
Hulk's strength was terrifying.
A punch like that could level entire sections of a city.
But the golden warrior didn't move.
Not even an inch.
The surrounding streets exploded apart from the shockwave, yet the target itself remained completely unaffected.
Still, Hulk succeeded in grabbing the enemy's attention.
The golden figure stopped pursuing Tony.
Then casually counterpunched.
Its fist tore straight through Hulk's torso.
"HULK!"
Green blood erupted from the wound, glowing with dangerous gamma radiation.
Everyone froze.
This was only the second ti they had ever seen Hulk critically injured.
Instantly, the Avengers realized sothing horrifying.
This enemy was on the sa level as monsters like Raditz or the Shi'ar Imperial Guard's elite champions.
Then the golden man smiled.
"I am Hyperion of Earth-6666."
He spread his arms proudly while floating above the ruined city.
"And this universe is weak."
The Avengers stared blankly.
None of them understood what he was talking about.
But Drex Valen stood up imdiately.
Hyperion.
Of course he knew Hyperion.
Marvel's most blatant Superman analogue among the so-called "Four Supern."
Just like Superman, Hyperion possessed a weakness to Argonite radiation. Exposure to the mineral stripped away his powers entirely.
Beyond that?
The similarities were absurd.
Heat vision beca atomic vision.
Super strength, invulnerability, flight, overwhelming energy output… practically identical.
Drex already possessed Gladiator, one of the Four Supern equivalents.
The remaining three, Sentry, Hyperion, and Blue Marvel, had always been targets of interest.
And now one of them had just dropped onto Earth personally.
But Earth-6666?
That didn't make sense.
As far as Drex rembered, alternate-universe Hyperions usually originated from Earth-616 variations.
Unless…
No.
Impossible.
This Earth definitely wasn't Earth-616.
anwhile, the Avengers were getting dismantled like helpless amateurs.
Drex finally lost patience.
Partly because the heroes were about thirty seconds away from total defeat.
Mostly because his collector instincts had kicked in.
He wanted Hyperion.
The mont despair started spreading across the battlefield, Drex Valen appeared.
No warning.
No dramatic entrance.
One instant he wasn't there.
The next, he exploded forward like black lightning.
At the ti, Hyperion had Steve Rogers pinned beneath his foot and was preparing to rip the vibranium shield apart with his bare hands.
Then Drex's fist hit him in the face.
The impact detonated like artillery.
Tens of thousands of tons of force crashed into Hyperion's jaw with a thunderous boom.
Hyperion's body trembled from the hit, but he endured it head-on.
His boots scraped across the ground, carving trenches through the street as he stabilized himself and counterattacked imdiately.
"It's Drex Valen!"
Cheers erupted from S.W.O.R.D. personnel watching remotely.
The Avengers relaxed slightly as well.
After all, Drex had already beaten terrifying monsters before, including the Shi'ar Imperial Guard commander.
In their eyes, Hyperion was just another problem Drex would solve effortlessly.
"You're the Hyperion of this universe?" Hyperion asked while charging forward.
Drex raised one hand and blocked the incoming punch cleanly.
The impact sent a violent tremor through his arm.
Strong.
Very strong.
But not strong enough.
BOOM!
Drex answered with another punch.
Black force collided with golden light, erupting into a hurricane-like explosion upon impact.
Half an abandoned city block disintegrated from the shockwave alone.
This ti Hyperion couldn't remain standing.
His head snapped backward as he was blasted through a chain of buildings, entire structures collapsing one after another behind him.
Drex pursued imdiately.
But before he could close the distance, scorching golden energy erupted from the smoke-filled ruins.
Atomic vision.
The beam crossed the battlefield too quickly to dodge.
So Drex didn't bother.
He took the attack head-on with his chest.
The Avengers held their breath.
Then their expressions changed.
The golden beam vanished into Drex's body harmlessly.
Absorbed completely.
Drex retaliated instantly.
His eyes burned crimson.
Heat vision exploded outward.
The blast struck the ruins with temperatures reaching into the millions of degrees, vaporizing everything in its path. Steel sublimated into glowing gas before it could even lt.
Hyperion took the full hit.
And for the first ti since arriving on Earth, he looked stunned.
Drex gave him no ti to recover.
He teleported directly into close range, grabbed Hyperion, and unleashed a relentless barrage of punches and kicks.
The attacks ca so fast they blurred into invisible afterimages.
Hyperion couldn't fight back at all.
A final punch crashed into his neck like a point-blank missile strike, detonating into a massive fireball of golden light and fla.
The impact flipped Hyperion onto his back and smashed him into the earth hard enough to collapse the ground dozens of ters downward.
User Comments
0 comments from readers