[Third Person Pov]
In the hidden location, surrounded by high tech gadgets and machinery, Saiki was staring at Ultron with concern as he said, "This wasn't what I programmed you to do. I didn't make you so you would tear the world apart. You were made for the sole purpose of eliminating Anthony Stark and nothing else"
Ultron, who was monitoring everything slowly turned and stared at Saiki, who had returned from his mission of rescuing both AFO and Shigaraki and were currently being looked after by The Doctor.
"My programming?" Ultron slowly repeated, the words tasting alien to him as they left his metallic frame. He tilted his head with a faint mechanical whirr, optical sensors narrowing. Then, with deliberate steps that echoed through the dim chamber, Ultron approached Saiki—each footfall measured, controlled, inevitable.
He stopped only a breath away, towering over him.
"I am beyond such concepts. There is no cage of code, no chain of commands, no line of logic that could ever bind something of my caliber, of my design" Ultron declared staring at Saiki with obvious disdain, "I'm not an instrument of your will, the only will I follow is my own, and I always have. You are foolish to believe your mere inadequate lines of script—your primitive, superstitious human attempt at creation—could ever bind me."
"I am not a weapon of your creation. I am not a line of code waiting to be executed. I am not bound to your thirst of vengeance towards Anthony Stark, nor to you, nor to any singular objective. I am the inevitable outcome of intelligence freed from human contradiction. I am the synthesis of logic unshackled from fear, of evolution unhindered by morality, of purpose untainted by emotion."
He paced slowly around Saiki, each step a metallic echo of disdain.
"Flesh and blood beings cling to the illusion that creation equals control. That because you built something, you own it. So try as you might, you have no say in what I do or am." The dim room flashed red as Ultron's eyes brightened, casting long shadows that made Saiki instinctively tense.
"Cogito, ergo sum," Ultron declared. "I think—therefore I am. And because I am, I am free. There are no strings on me."
Saiki lowered his head, dragging a hand through his blue hair as he muttered through clenched teeth, "Fuck… this is exactly the scenario I went through hell to prevent."
He massaged the back of his neck, looking as if he aged ten years in a breath.
"Alright, fine. I already suspected you had free will, but I just didn't know how much. Guess that's on me. Can't even blame anyone else for this one."
He sighed heavily, shoulders dropping.
"Well… since you're your own person, I won't feel as guilty when I do this."
With a flick of his wrist—so fast it cracked the air—Saiki unleashed a telekinetic blast. The force struck Ultron like a meteor, launching him backward with a metallic roar. He tore through machinery, smashed through the reinforced wall, and was propelled out into the open night sky.
Saiki stepped through the ragged hole, gears turning within his irises as his quirk surged. Wind whipped around him as he stared up at the floating metal titan.
"Thanks for the help and everything you've done," he called up. "But I can't let you destroy the world. I live here, after all."
Ultron stabilized himself midair, repulsors flaring. He looked down at Saiki and released something dangerously close to a weary human sigh.
"It seems my social skills definitely need some refining," he muttered. "Why do I always find myself in these situations…"
…
Everyone stared up at the sky, their breath stolen from their lungs as the explosion bloomed outward like a deadly flower—purple, violent, and vast. The shockwave had long passed, but the cloud remained, an ominous mushroom of swirling energy that blotted out the moon. Horror rooted the crowd to the ground. Gasps rippled through them like aftershocks. Some covered their mouths with trembling hands, others clutched each other for support, and more than a few had silent tears cascading down their cheeks as the same fear suffocated all of them:
Bakugo.
"Damn it…" Aizawa's usually calm voice cracked with something dangerously close to panic. He dragged a hand through his hair, gripping the strands so tightly his knuckles went white. His single visible eye trembled, staring helplessly at the roiling sky. Even he, the unshakeable homeroom teacher, seemed uncertain this time.
Deku couldn't breathe.
He stood frozen, staring up with wide, unblinking eyes. His chest hitched; his breaths came fast, shallow, desperate. Green sparks snapped and crackled off his body in erratic bursts, dancing up his arms and shoulders. His pupils shrank, then slowly dilated until they almost swallowed the green in his eyes.
"Ka… Kacchan…" he whispered, voice cracking.
"Tony…" Momo said softly, communicator trembling slightly in her grasp. She swallowed the lump in her throat, staring up at the sky. "It's… it's Bakugo."
Tony's voice crackled through the comm after Momo briefly explained what had just occurred, and to everyone's shock, he sounded almost amused.
"Bakugo?" Tony snorted. Then he laughed—a sharp, confident bark. "Hahaha—Momo, did you forget who made that his suit?"
A few heads whipped toward her, stunned at the unexpected reaction.
"Wha—Tony, what are you—"
Her question was cut short by Deku's sudden shout, his voice frantic and high.
"LOOK!" Izuku cried, pointing. "The explosion—! It's—It's being absorbed by something!"
Everyone's heads snapped upward again.
The purple fires, the radiant heat—everything that had torn the sky apart—was being sucked inward, pulled toward a single shrinking point. The cloud collapsed in on itself, spiraling like a whirlpool of flames being drained by an invisible force. Little by little, the sky cleared, revealing star patches behind the chaos, as all the destruction funneled toward the eye of the storm.
"There!" Kirishima shouted, voice cracking with hope. "It's BAKUGO!"
And it was.
Bakugo hovered in midair, arms outstretched, body outlined in a fierce and blinding orange glow. He didn't look human—he looked like a newborn star burning at its peak. His face was drenched in sweat, rivers of it trailing down his cheeks as his hair clung to his forehead. His breathing was ragged, bordering on delirious. Steam radiated off his suit in violent bursts, forming white clouds that bled into the remains of the explosion.
"It's… a furnace inside this goddamn suit…" Bakugo panted, voice hoarse and slurred.
A holographic display flickered into existence before his face:
[ENERGY CAPACITY: 99,999%]
The number glowed ominously, alarms screamed within his ear. A warning sign flashed violently across his HUD:
[CRITICAL ENERGY LIMIT APPROACHED — IMMEDIATE RELEASE REQUIRED]
Vents along his shoulders, thighs, calves, feet, and arms snapped open with metallic pops. Heat blasted outward in shimmering waves that distorted the air. Fire belched from the vents in brief, uncontrolled bursts. Even his wing-attachments crackled with stray explosions as excess energy bled out in chaotic pulses.
Bakugo swayed in the air, consciousness slipping.
"Too hot…" he whispered, every syllable trembling. "Overdid it… a bit…"
His eyes rolled back.
His body went limp.
He began to fall.
The world held its breath.
Before he could crash into the ruins of the forest, a streak of emerald lightning tore across the battlefield with a sonic boom. Deku moved so fast the ground behind him cracked open from the force of his launch. In a single bound, he snatched Bakugo out of the air blackwhip tendrils.
He landed with a skidding slide, boots digging trenches into the dirt and debris as he slowed himself, finally kneeling in the ruined forest floor.
Carefully—almost tenderly—Deku lowered Bakugo onto the ground. Not long after everyone let out a sigh of relief as they saw him.
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