Stark Industries, California.

In his newly acquired space sat our favorite futurist doing what he did best. Tinkering with machinery both old and new as Tony readjusted to the luxurious lifestyle he was all too familiar with but had been deprived from for a lengthy period of time. Multiple touchscreens surrounded him whilst he shifted through each display attempting to draw inspiration for a new invention.

“Man since I’ve dabbled in mysterium and created the Model 72 it just feels like everything else has been…I don’t…I guess subpar!?”

His statement was made as the Model 72 stood upright in the center of the room watching over him like a bodyguard would. Back on the west coast it was just him and Rhodes this time around with aspirations to create their own team of Avengers. An idea welcomed by both in attempt to give the duo a fresh start after previously dealing with Fei-Long and his tyranny.

Theo blue holograms abruptly turned red signifying a threat was nearby. Using his finger he dragged the screen upwards to reveal more information regarding the enemy at hand.

“No, not now? Did he really follow me to the other side of the country? I can’t catch a break!”

Ultron was in downtown Los Angeles wreaking havoc and with the avengers all the way in New York Tony would have to handle this on his own until backup arrived!

Donning one of the greatest suits he’d ever developed he flew out the hanger and arrived on the scene in minutes. Firing several misiles that detonated on impact sending the cyborg backwards.

“Long time no see old friend did you miss me that bad to the point you had to follow me across the nation?”

There was no time for quips as his armor was met with a violent beam of red radiation which sent him hurling backwards and into a parked car. Citizens screamed and ran for safety as the two metallic gladiators prepped for a ferocious one on one.

“Yeah that’s gonna leave a mark, his tech never ceases to amaze me.”

Tony stood up and activated the thrusters in his boots which resulted in him dashing forwards and connecting his fish with Ultron’s chin to deliver a brain rattling uppercut! Tony would follow up by charging the uni-beam to max capacity and shooting it directly at Ultron causing him to….explode?

“So uhhh yeah, that was easy I guess? Not the real deal obviously which means the real Ultron has to be somewhere close by. I’m going to alert the others before it’s too late in that case.”

Tony flew off heading back to his base of operations to send out the word that one of Ultron’s avatars had engaged with him and maybe an even bigger threat was on the horizon. But little did he know the threat had already made its entrance and the situation was about to become a lot more complex!

Back at HQ Ultron’s virus had spread his essence through Tony’s blood stream, uploading his influence into his being like data to a hard dive. He struggled and tried to resist but it was too late the process had finished.

“Hmph, thanks for being the catalyst in the testing of one of my newer methods of experimentation with Pym Particles Tony!”

Ultron’s plan always revolved around the destruction of the Avengers but now he had a sure fire way of gathering them into one location and launching an unforeseeable ambush of Earth’s mightiest heroes.

“Hey, Avengers, it’s Stark.  We got a big problem out where I’m at and I’m gonna need a little help cleaning this entire thing up.”