Iron Man: Resurrection

10

Thomas POV

120 Asgardian soldiers and 45 ex agents. Total death count of that mission. "Whoever is still alive has you to thank for it," Peter tries to assure me. "Everyone would have been dead if you hadn't sent that fleet. Including me," he says but it doesn't make it feel any better.

His usual way of making me feel better has no effect now and it's because Ultron is stronger than he's ever been and it's all my fault. "His stronger now. That's my fault."

"We still have hope," Peter says grabbing my hand. "That's your fault too."

"He's too powerful now," I say pulling my hand away from his. Tears build up in her eyes. The guilt is too much.

"Power he would have gained anyway if he had killed us all. What were you thinking when you sent the fleet in?" Peter asks and I have to think about it.

"I can't remember," I say it's like I was just in the moment.

"What were you thinking when you woke up on the old base , put on that suit," he says pointing over to the Mark XLVI. The only suit that was not controlled by Ultron because I had cut all connections to it that day at the old base. "Fought the battle pods and probably saved Jackson's life?" He finished.

"I wasn't thinking much. Just really wanted to find you guys."

"Because protection is an instinct to you. You could have flew away and saved yourself but you ran in the direction of two battle pods to get to Jackson."

"I didn't know how to fly."

"Bullshit, you're a genius Thomas. You could have figured it out. You did. You don't think much in those moments because it's more impulsive. ," he says and there's a brief silence. "Can I ask you a question but I need you to answer me honestly," Peter says.

"Why not. It's not like I have anything to hide."

"If you knew Ultron would gain control of all those suits, would you still send them in or would you let those all those soldiers die?"

Tears starts involuntarily streaming down my face as I think about it. I wouldn't have done anything differently.

"Exactly !" Peter says as if reading my mind. "So stop beating yourself up about it"

*** *** ***

I never thought I'd see the day. Before Agent Koenig and I laid a green corpse. The shard of metal removed from his head. A layer of dry blood fills the hole.

"Did we just lose?" Koenig asks.

"Probably," I laugh. "We could've probably used your alternate earth pony tailed Cap," I joke. What's the use in being down. We're all going to die.

"It wasn't a ponytail !," Koenig defends captain drag Queen. A drag queen superhero would actually be dope now that I think about it. "So there's literally nothing we can do?" Koenig asks.

"If we had all the time in the world I have a hundred solutions. We don't though," I say.

"What would some of those solutions be?"

"Find more heroes," i say off the top of my head. "Create twice as many as suits as he has? Create a virus that would infiltrate his connection to the other suits-"

"That would be cool. Then we'd only have to fight one robot. "

"That would take me months of coding. "

"Shame you don't already have a virus," Koenig laughs.

"It's not that. I can make a virus in five minutes but we need one as advanced as Ultron."