Boys Will Fight

The Scarlet Witch looks at Iron Man and the Thing, battering each other like colliding trains.

She thinks about it. The Thing is said to be basically a good guy, bruiser with a heart of gold, like that. Whereas Tony Stark is the Devil.

So she first attempts to wipe the madness from Ben Grimm's mind.

The Thing blinks, a sound like chunks of mulch being rubbed together.

"Hey, Shellhead," he says. "What wuz we fightin' over? In all the hysteria, I kinda forgot."

WHAM!

Iron Man clocks him but good, sending chips of orange brick everywhere. The Scarlet Witch yelps and jumps, stung by a bit of flying gravel.

"We're fighting over who's the better man," says Stark, flexing his wrist and shoulder. "Took most of my battery reserves, but I think we've answered that one."

The Vision floats toward Iron Man.

"Oh, you want some of this?" Stark demands. "Bring it, Casper. I'm wise to your density-control trick. The lighter you are, the more your atoms magnetically attract each other -- so you can walk through walls, but not a handy-dandy .." whirr-buzz "polar repulsion field."

The Vision's eyes are dark. (In a brooding Heathcliffe way, not actual darkness.)

"You have hurt Wanda," he explains carefully. "You will hurt no one else."

And so saying, he lays hold of Iron Man's suit, holding him fast by the wrists. Iron Man kicks the Vision in the side, but the clunk it makes sounds like he was kicking a bridge support.

"Okay, high density instead of low. Junior's growing up fast," says Stark. "But didja ever think --"

"No," said the Vision. "This isn't a time for thinking."

And the yellow jewel in his head lights up.

A beam of sizzling yellow energy blasts into Iron Man's forehead, or just about. Actually it hits a polar repulsion field just short of him.

"Please stand back, everyone," the Vision advises. "This could take some time."

"You think your little light show's going to put Iron Man down for the count? This is the Mark Fifty-One, Rudolf. My forcefields can take whatever you dish out."

"Rudolf?" says the Vision. "I do not understand."

"Red skin? Glowing nose, sort of? It's a stretch," Stark concedes. "And hey, how 'bout a threat to your soft-skin teammates? Don't look now! Because you're Cyclops, and anything you look at is street pizza."

A hatch opens on Iron Man's shoulder.

The Vision flicks his yellow beam over it, causing all the little smart missiles to explode!

Iron Man gasps in pain. Bits shower off the Vision, who turns his beam back to Stark's head.

"You will at some point run out of battery life," the Vision explains. "At that point, my beam will begin cutting its way through your armor. When the inner surface becomes too hot, you really should consider surrendering, although I understand you have intrusive code running in your wetware just now. I will try to shut off the beam before it kills you."

"You'd kill me? Jarvis -- I'm your buddy! I MADE you!"

"I am not Jarvis," the Vision insists firmly. "And you have threatened my friends."

"How SURE are we that the Vision's not still angry?" says Machine Man to everyone. "I mean, yes, he's angry, but the Collector's madness is off him ..."

The yellow beam strikes smoke and blue sparks from Iron Man's face.

"... right?"