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Chapter 172 - Chapter 172: High-Speed Chase

[Third Person's PoV] 

"While I admit this is a heartwarming tale, can we focus on the objective in front of us, please?" Steve said, exasperation creeping into his voice as they closed in behind the truck.

"Ah, right, my bad," Tony replied. Both he and Steve pressed buttons on the handlebars of their motorcycles. From the front of each bike, a pair of disks shot forward, landing precisely on the handles of the truck's rear doors.

A sharp sizzling sound followed, and the doors snapped open, revealing Ultron and several of his robots standing around the cradle.

All of their heads turned toward the open doors, locking eyes with Steve and Tony on their bikes.

"Oh, come on," Ultron groaned, visibly annoyed.

"I know, right? What a wasted opportunity for a knock-knock joke!" Tony quipped, feigning a pained expression.

"How about I settle for knocking all of you down?" Ultron snapped back, clenching his fists as a bluish aura enveloped them.

With a jerking motion, two cars on either side of the road lifted and hurtled toward the bikes.

Melissa, standing on the back of Tony's bike, sprang into action. She raised her arms, and dark yellow tendrils shot out, catching the cars mid-air. With careful precision, she set them down gently on the road. The startled drivers swerved before regaining control, while Melissa retracted her tendrils.

Ultron's fists flared with an orange-red hue. Steve instinctively raised his shield, positioning it in front of his bike just as Ultron fired a plasma beam. The energy scorched the shield, leaving a blackened mark but doing no real damage.

Without hesitation, Steve flung the shield at Ultron. The vibranium disk struck hard, embedding itself in the robot. Steve activated the electromagnetic connectors on his arm, recalling the shield—and Ultron with it.

Ultron's thrusters roared to life as he struggled against the shield's pull. The shield came flying out of him and he stabilized himself mid-air, Tony pressed another button on his bike.

The headlights shifted, revealing twin turrets that locked onto Ultron and fired a barrage of explosive concussive blasts. The impacts sent Ultron tumbling back into the truck, causing it to swerve wildly along the road.

"We need to retrieve the cradle!" Steve shouted over the chaos.

"I'll keep him distracted! You can extract the cradle!" Tony called back.

"Brilliant plan, discussing it right in front of me!" Ultron sneered, appearing at the back of the truck again.

Both of his fists glowed blue, and with a violent motion, he tore a massive chunk of the road free, launching it toward them.

"Leave it to me!" Master Splinter shouted, leaping from Tony's shoulder. Jumping and twisting mid-air, he extended his tail, which morphed into a massive blade. With a swift slash, he split the flying debris in two.

Steve, undeterred, charged forward. His shield activated its hard-light enhancement, the star in the middle shone with a blue light, forming a protective barrier around him. He smashed through the falling rubble like a battering ram, landing smoothly as the shield's light retracted.

Ultron snarled in frustration, only to be ensnared by black tendrils. Pulled off balance, he looked toward the source and saw Melissa standing behind Tony, her arms extended.

She smirked as arcs of electricity surged from her tendrils, aiming to stun him. "Gotcha!"

Melissa yanked Ultron away from the truck, giving Master Splinter the opportunity to leap onto her shoulders. Without missing a beat, he dashed along the length of her extended tendrils, heading straight for Ultron.

Ultron's fists glowed red as he unleashed a flurry of plasma beams, targeting the tendrils in an effort to sever them. While some disintegrated under the intense heat, new ones formed almost immediately to replace them.

Frustrated, Ultron shifted tactics, morphing his hand into a blade. He slashed wildly, cutting through the tendrils that bound him. With a sharp swing, he managed to slice into Melissa's arms, causing her to wince in pain. But by then, Master Splinter had already launched himself at Ultron, letting out exaggerated karate noises as he extended his tail, wrapping it tightly around Ultron's neck.

"PAWS OF FURY!!" Splinter shouted as he began clawing furiously at Ultron's face, leaving a series of jagged scratches on the metal.

Melissa's tendril-arms flailed wildly for a moment before retracting back to her sides. She flexed her hands, testing them, before giving Tony a thumbs-up.

"You alright?" Tony asked, concern lacing his voice.

"Peachy," Melissa replied with a smirk, shaking her hands to loosen the lingering tension.

Meanwhile, Steve accelerated his bike, closing the gap to the truck. Grabbing his shield, he hurled it inside, where it ricocheted off the walls, systematically dismantling the remaining robots guarding the cradle.

Recalling the shield to his arm, Steve flicked off a broken piece of robot before slinging the shield onto his back. With a press of a button on his handlebar, the bike's front hood opened, revealing a magnetic grappling hook. It shot forward, latching onto the cradle securely.

Steve pulled the clutch, and the grappling hook began retracting, dragging the cradle out of the truck. As it neared him, Steve tapped his comm and said, "Prepare for extraction."

"On it," Clint replied immediately, his voice crackling through the line.

Back near the truck, Master Splinter continued his relentless assault on Ultron, clawing at his face while Ultron roared in frustration.

"IT'S YOU AGAIN! YOU FREAKISH ABOMINATION OF A RODENT!" Ultron bellowed, gripping Splinter tightly.

Master Splinter's ears twitched, sensing the shift in Ultron's energy as his hand began heating up with plasma. Just before the attack could land, Splinter swung himself to the side, using his tail still wrapped around Ultron's neck to evade the strike.

Spinning rapidly around Ultron's head, Splinter released his tail and flipped mid-air. "THE NAME IS MASTER SPLINTER!" he declared.

As he spread his posture in the air, the tip of his tail morphed into a spiked morningstar. "Allow me to impart some wisdom to your young mind!" he said, swinging the weapon with force.

The morningstar struck Ultron hard in the face, causing him to stagger back, his head jerking to the side from the impact.

Without hesitation, Splinter grabbed his tail again, swinging the morningstar in rapid succession. "JUST BECAUSE I'M A RODENT DOESN'T MEAN I'M NOT POTENT!" he shouted.

"Ora! Ora! Ora! Ora! Ora!" Splinter yelled with each strike, hammering Ultron relentlessly.

Watching from a safe distance, Tony couldn't help but grin. "I think Master Splinter might just be the new main character of this story," he teased, clearly enjoying the spectacle.

Ultron spotted the approaching Quinjet and turned to see Steve attempting to extract the cradle. With a swift motion, he grabbed Master Splinter by the tail. "Well, cheese," Master Splinter muttered as he hurled straight at Steve.

Master Splinter collided with Steve, causing him to swerve wildly. The abrupt movement sent the cradle sliding across the truck bed, smashing against the side of the vehicle.

Taking advantage of the chaos, Ultron fired a plasma beam, severing the grappling hook that tethered the cradle. His hand glowed blue as he manipulated the road ahead, warping it into a steep ramp. The truck launched off the highway intersection, landing on a busy city street below, scattering pedestrians on the sidewalks in panic.

The force of the truck's landing caused the back compartment to tilt upward, sending the cradle tumbling back inside.

"Hold on!" Tony called to Melissa, twisting his bike's handlebar to accelerate. Using the same ramp Ultron had created, he soared off the highway and landed on the city street in pursuit of the truck.

"Sorry," Master Splinter said sheepishly, glancing at Steve.

Steve quickly regained control of his bike and followed Tony. As they both flew through the air, he shouted, "Don't worry about it! This isn't over! We're not letting Ultron get away with this!"

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