Ultimate Iron Man

Tony's repulsor blast struck Magneto with staggering force, knocking him backward across the cracked pavement. His magnetic shield absorbed the worst of the blow, but the impact still sent a ripple of pressure through the air. Dust and metal fragments scattered, and the surrounding lights flickered.

Before Magneto could recover, the plating on the back of Tony's Model 51 suit shifted with a mechanical hiss. Segmented panels peeled open, releasing two swarms of nanites that shimmered for a moment before vanishing from sight. One swarm moved like a cloud, invisible to the naked eye, darting forward with surgical precision.

Within seconds, they infiltrated Azazel, Toad, the still-healing Sabretooth, and the still-unconscious Pyro. None of them noticed. The nanites slid beneath skin and muscle, latching onto nerves and crawling through tissue like living sensors.

Overhead, the drones split apart with mechanical precision, each segment rotating and reconfiguring in midair. Panels folded, joints clicked into place, and internal cores aligned as the components magnetized and locked together. Nanite strands snapped between them, forming a dense internal frame.

In seconds, the swarm became a humanoid armor, behind Tony like a transformer come to life. Bladed appendages extended from its arms, reactor vents flared along its back, and glowing circuits lit up across its chest as it activated. The mecha dropped behind Tony with a ground-shaking thud, as it synced with his neural interface and entered combat standby.

At the same time, a separate wave of nanites surged toward Rogue. She staggered back instinctively, one hand raised as if to shield herself, but the swarm reached her before she could react. They spiraled around her body in a tight formation, weaving a full-body suit over her frame. The suit formed in seconds, adapting to her physiology without causing pain or discomfort.

Azazel saw what was happening and moved to act. His eyes flashed, and his body began to dematerialize in a burst of red energy. He reached for Rogue, intending to teleport both of them away from the chaos.

The moment he activated his power, his body convulsed. A burst of energy erupted across his skin, and he crashed to the pavement with a thud. The impact left cracked ground beneath him. He twitched once and then went completely still.

The anti-mutant nanites inside him had activated.

His teleportation ability was completely suppressed.

Toad lunged toward Rogue, tongue flicking out, but his limbs locked mid-stride. He collapsed, writhing, unable to move properly. Sabretooth roared and charged Tony, only to crumple to one knee before he got close. His regeneration stopped. Muscles lost coordination, and old wounds started to open up. Pyro tried to lift his head, but sparks flickered in his neural pathways as the nanites triggered another shutdown.

Tony turned his head slightly, voice calm and direct through the suit's speaker.

"Don't be afraid, Rogue. You're safe. I've got you covered."

She stood frozen in the armored nanite suit, heart racing, eyes wide as she looked down at her gloved hands now wrapped in high-tech material. But for some reason, she felt a rush that she hadn't felt in years. 'Cool. Tony Stark's armor!'

He took a step forward, eyes still locked on Magneto, who now floated cautiously just above the ground, metal swirling around him in tight formation. His expression had shifted. He was no longer focused on Rogue. He was focused on Tony.

Tony looked at Magneto and said, "C'mon, man. You pull this shit, just when the people started to accept mutants... You stupid? Why the hell would you do that? I heard from Wanda and Pietro about your mission to ensure the survival of the mutant kind, no matter the cost. Yet, just when I provided that chance and things were getting better, you just had to fuck up, huh? What is it with you? Superiority complex? Or, just outright retarded?"

Magneto's gaze didn't waver from Tony's, but a new expression passed over his face. It wasn't rage, or even contempt. It was conviction.

"You think I did this because I'm afraid of your progress?" Magneto said, his voice deep and resonant, echoing slightly in the broken space around them. "Because I'm threatened by your vision of peace?"

Tony didn't respond. He knew that Magneto would now give him a long monologue about his vision. So, he used this time to set up anti mutant field around that area to counter Blink and any other nasty, unnecessary surprises. The nanites are already in position.

Magneto drifted a few inches higher. His hands rose at his sides, fingers splayed slightly, and the air around him shimmered as if the very atoms were shifting under his command. Metal fragments lifted again, but this time they hovered gently, not as weapons but as silent markers of his presence.

"I've spent decades fighting for mutant survival. I've buried friends. I've held children as they died in my arms because humans feared their abilities. Because governments hunted them. Because society branded them monsters."

Tony's visor flared as it processed the heat rising from Magneto's hands. But he made no move. He let the man speak.

"I once thought domination and genocide were the answer," Magneto continued. "That mutants must rise by force, by fire. But I've realized something far more effective than genocide."

His eyes burned with certainty now.

"I don't need to kill humanity. I just need to end it."

Tony understood what he meant by that.

"Not by blood. By biology."

Magneto's fingers curled slightly, and the hovering metal shards formed a complex molecular model in midair—atoms, DNA strands, twisted double helices constructed from scrap and steel.

"I am building a machine. Powered by Rogue, amplified through the chaos fields, and triggered by my own magnetic resonance. It will release a radiation pulse that alters human DNA. Everyone on Earth will become a mutant."

Magneto's voice lowered, but the intensity remained. "The same people who burned our homes. The same governments that hunted us for years. They will wake up in mutant bodies, terrified of the very thing they once despised. There will be no war. No need for violence. Just... evolution."

"That will kill her," Tony said.

"Yes. But sacrifices must be made to achieve something great," Magneto replied. "Who other than you would know that? The true meaning of sacrifice and the burden that comes after that."

Rogue inhaled sharply behind Tony, still standing inside the armor he'd gifted her. Her heartbeat quickened.

Tony's expression didn't change, but the suit's lights began to pulse more rapidly.

"And what if they can't handle it?" he asked. "What if they die from the transformation? Or go insane?"

"They had no problem doing that to us," Magneto replied. "I'm merely giving them a taste of their own destiny."

"So, if I turn you into a human right now, the plan fails, right?" Tony said as he smirked under his helmet. He noticed a little flinch in Magento's expression. "I'll turn you into what you hate most... A normal human."

Magneto's eyes narrowed, his moment of self-control breaking like a dam. His hands snapped outward, and the air exploded with energy. Every piece of metal within a five-block radius responded to his command. Storm drains tore from the pavement. Lamp posts twisted and bent. Vehicles in the nearby streets screeched as their frames folded inward, pulled off the ground, and dragged through the air like toys.

A massive wave of sharpened steel and iron spiraled above him in a chaotic vortex. It spun faster and faster until the roar of friction and magnetism became deafening. The storm of metal hung in the sky, waiting for a single gesture to strike.

Magneto's voice rose over the roar, furious and full of power. He flew up into the sky.

"You think your toys can stop evolution? You believe you can stand in the way of destiny with clever suits and smart words?"

He thrust both hands forward. The entire metal storm surged toward Tony in a crushing avalanche. Blades, beams, twisted doors, railings, shattered construction girders—thousands of jagged pieces converged at once. The force behind it could level a skyscraper.

Tony raised one hand, and the mecha responded instantly, charging into the incoming barrage of steel.

The ground cracked beneath its feet as it launched upward with violent force, smashing through the center of the metallic vortex like a battering ram. Thousands of steel fragments collided against the mecha's adaptive armor, but none could pierce its surface. The mecha spun midair, deflecting larger debris with bladed arms, its defense algorithms evolving in real-time to counter every angle of attack.

Magneto watched from above, arms outstretched, his face etched with fierce concentration. He pulled deeper from the Earth's crust, drawing raw iron and steel from beneath the city. Sewer pipes cracked open. Power lines tore loose. Subterranean foundations lifted into the air, feeding the storm with endless fuel. The sky turned silver with fragments, the streets below hollowed and trembling from the pull.

But Tony had already anticipated this.

He activated the magnetic counter-field. The mecha extended its wings, each blade segment unfolding into a high-frequency polarity disruptor. The whirling magnetic storm lost cohesion. Particles clashed against each other, destabilizing the mass of debris. In seconds, what had once been a weaponized hurricane began to collapse into itself.

Tony took off from the street, thrusters flaring. He soared upward at blinding speed, catching up to the mecha in midair. It reconfigured around him, panels sliding into place as the exo-frame locked onto his suit. The two merged, Tony at the core of a fully-armored titan, now hurtling toward Magneto like a living warhead.

Magneto's eyes widened as he launched backward, but Tony was faster.

He struck Magneto with a clean uppercut that sent the master of magnetism spinning across the sky. Even though he had his shield up, the disruptor on Tony's suit kept sending pulses that made it harder for him to maintain it.

Magneto stabilized midair. He raised a hand to summon more metal, to rebuild his field, to fight back. But Tony did not give him the chance.

A barrage of micro-missiles launched from Tony's shoulders, streaking through the sky with perfect precision. Each one detonated on contact, surrounding Magneto in a symphony of concussive explosions. The sky lit up with fire and shockwaves.

Tony dove through the smoke, his repulsors flaring. He fired twin beams straight into Magneto's shield, forcing the field to flicker and crack under the pressure. Magneto roared in anger and pushed forward, trying to reestablish control over the magnetic environment. But the pulses from Tony's suit kept scrambling the local field, interfering with the very essence of Magneto's power.

Then came another wave of missiles.

Magneto barely dodged the wave, only to be caught by the next wave. The blast threw him sideways, armor cracking at the shoulder, blood dripping from the corner of his mouth.

Before he could recover, Tony appeared above him. "Plasma 24%" He aimed his right fist and shot a bright blue plasma beam. The beam struck Magneto's chest and sent him crashing to the ground below.

Baaam!

Dust rose around his broken form. He rolled over, coughing violently, struggling to pull himself upright. His helmet was cracked, his fingers twitching as he tried to summon anything—metal, magnetic feedback, the iron in the soil.

Nothing responded.

He gasped for air. The nanites had already entered his bloodstream during the battle, and right now, they released the cure. He reached for the sky, hoping to lift a shard of metal, but his hand shook, and nothing moved.

He couldn't feel it anymore. The field was gone. He collapsed to one knee, gasping once more. The realization hit him harder than the blows: he was powerless.

Above him, Tony flew down slowly, the massive exo-frame peeling away and returning to aerial standby as he touched down a few feet from Magneto's broken form. The mask retracted from Tony's face. He looked down, expression cold.

"I didn't want it to come to this," Tony said, voice steady. "But you forced my hand."

Magneto coughed, blood on his lips. "You... turned me into one of them."

"No," Tony replied. "I gave you exactly what you were planning to give the world. A taste of their own medicine, remember?"

...

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[Read 16 advance chapters] <No double billing>

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SPOILERS> Upcoming chapter names. Click to read.1

Ch: 139 [Rogue and Tony] Ch: 140 [A Perfect Failure] Ch: 141 [Rogue and Janet] Ch: 142 [Blushes and Realizations] Ch: 143 [Sue: Submissive? or Masochist?] Ch: 144 [Lorna Dane] Ch: 145 [Shaw vs Lorna] Ch: 146 [Crimson Reckoning]