This work is a piece of fiction. While inspired by real events, cultures, and practices in human history, the story blends factual history with fictional characters, dramatizations, and creative interpretation.
It is not intended to promote, glorify, or encourage any illegal activities, substance use, or harmful behavior. All depictions of sensitive topics are included solely for narrative and historical context.
For the effects of the story, all characters are to be considered above the majority age.
Reader discretion is advised.
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Earth-199999.
~8 BE (Before Emergence) ~ 2015 CE (Current Era).
The world was burning, or at least, the Pacific Rim was. Though at this point, it might be better to call it the Pacific Circle. The zones of activity weren't confined to the outer rim of the Pacific, where the zones of activity between the Pacific Plate and the others were found. After "the lurch," new volcanoes would daily appear in the vastness of the Pacific Ocean.
Hawaii, the territory, had been lost after the second month of prolonged activity.
After three and a half weeks, with the unified front presented by the world, after the first quake and volcanic eruptions, the remaining ~0.9 million residents were evacuated to the States.
Volcanic islands were discovered daily, yet the thrill of exploring and claiming new land was nowhere to be found.
Japan was the country most affected. Not because they were hit the hardest, but because their entire country was a hive of tectonic and volcanic activity.
Any country sharing borders with the Pacific Ocean glanced at the previously lush shores with trepidation. It was not a matter of if; it was all about when the next eruption or earthquake was going to hit.
Statistics and studies claimed that, as humanity escaped the ire of the Pacific Ocean, the biggest migratory movement of humans was happening since the Glacial Era.
The number of displaced humans was not officially known, but estimates of at least 2 billion were made, with China, Japan, Indonesia, and the United States being the main contributors to this number.
The death toll remained unmeasured as well, not only because the world was focused on finding a way out of the dilemma humanity found itself in, but also because the tally increased by the hour.
Many filled their local Obelisks to capacity; however, Aragorn's structures, with most of their floors banned for humans, were never meant to be arks of salvation for such a numerous population.
It was already miraculous that humanity found the doors of the Obelisks open, so not many complained and foolishly rallied against Aragorn.
The Avengers, as the bearers of humanity's hope, were run ragged snuffing fires—sometimes literally.
Thor, even with his Asgardian complexion and personal simplicity, was grasping at straws. He had extended his stay to track and recover his brother's scepter; however, that initial motivator had long been left behind. At this point, after having been operating with about an hour of sleep for the past months, he cared not for that.
Sometimes, while he flew from disaster zone to calamity zone, he wondered if he could become Thor, the God of Undergrounds and fix it all.
Romanoff and Barton, the spies of the group, had reached a point where they had to stop appearing on cameras because their gaunt appearance didn't do wonders to reassure the population.
War Machine, being considered an asset of the US Military, was wrung dry for all he was worth.
Banner, thanks to the big guy in him, was doing better than his fellow human avengers.
And Stark... Many of his armors could be easily spotted around the world; however, he had not done a single public appearance since the first shake.
It wasn't only the Avengers, local heroes, street-level enhanced, like Daredevil, Luke Cage, Jessica Jones, and others, who had been conscripted by the Real SHIELD, but also shared a similar fate to the Avengers.
The Sages, the Duskari who roamed Earth, which, inside the Isthmus, were seen as freewilled students who liked to travel to destitute locations to do community service and bolster their CV, were seen as synonyms to salvation in the eyes of the affected humans.
Their elemental magics raised shelters, supplied water, put out fires, parried lavaflows, healed the ailing, rescued the trapped, and opened portals to official shelter camps for the affected to escape. They, in humanity's eyes, held the same hierarchy as the Avengers, and to not a small number, they were above that.
While the planet—correction, while humanity was suffering, many prayed for Aragorn's salvation; however, the dragon was comfortably observing the play set up by humanity's first AI with glee.
No, Aragorn was not that type of sadistic existence that found glee in the suffering of others who were not his enemies. What he found glee in was in Ultron's plans.
Aragorn had peered into the future to get an idea of the outcome; yet he never peered into the process that led to that outcome.
So, watching Ultron do all his moves based on the premise that Aragorn would keep to his non-interference policy so long as Ultron didn't cross the line of absolute demise of humanity was entertaining.
Well... To keep the illusion of the surprise, Aragron went as far as not to unravel the entire denouement, so even for him, there was wonder and curiosity regarding the 'story' he was witnessing.
And while the world was burning, and first responders in all shapes and forms were doing their best to douse out the flames of the end of times, the great minds who studied the field of seismology and vulcanology, and even geology and more fields of applied science, were convening in person and through video conference to find a solution.
Naturally, more than half of these great minds were thralls to Wanda's witchery, ergo, Ultron's pieces.
So, when these great minds, with access to the peak of technology found in the world outside the Isthmus and Wakanda, began to solve the puzzle, they came to a startling conclusion.
"Is the algorithm running right?"
"We've triple-checked and we tried on different PCs."
"But this makes no sense!"
"No," one of them spoke with a voice that seemed to belong to one enlightened. "It makes sense. Take a look at the new volcanoes found across the Pacific Ocean. If the crust were not solid, but liquid, wouldn't these points of emergence be similar to when water starts boiling and the first bubbles break the water's surface?"
"But it isn't! The crust is solid; yeah, it shifts, but doesn't behave like a liquid."
"It's strange, no matter how much the equipment says it's logical," another murmured. "The increase in volcanic activity and release of kinetic energy and pressure should happen at the points of shock between the Pacific Plate and the others."
"But that is happening, what are you getting at?"
"That there's no reason for new volcanoes to emerge right in the solid middle of the Pacific Plate," he stated. "The energy needed to breach the solid plate is lessened considerably when breaking up on the edges of the plate. There shouldn't be new volcanoes in the middle in response to the increase in pressure."
"Maybe, but denying reality for what it is is a fool's endeavor."
"Whether there should or there shouldn't, it doesn't matter. The facts are that the Pacific Plate is being pierced by the nascent volcanoes."
"And the only way to release the built-up pressure without bursting the bubble is to make a carefully coordinated matrix of vents on the Pacific Plate."
"Leaving aside the abnormality of the new natural vents, the endeavor to drill downward enough to plant the needed detonation load is beyond what humanity can achieve. So..."
"So, we reached an insurmountable wall."
"To our esteemed guests of the World Security Council and the many representatives of the world's governments, is there any new type of bomb that the public doesn't know about that could produce the needed energy? Or, perhaps, any type of tech that we don't know about that could drill at the depths of the ocean floor and beyond?"
"..."
"..."
"..."
"..."
"..."
"..."
"..."
"..."
"..."
"..."
"..."
"..."
The many representatives shared looks, but no answer was given.
Was there hidden weaponry that the public didn't know about? Certainly.
Was there technology that the public was ignorant about? Certainly.
Were they willing to share these trump cards with the world if not doing so meant total annihilation? Begrudgingly, yes.
However, if they had something that could achieve what the scientists were asking, then why were they not the kings of the world by this point? After all, they needed something greater than the best of the available nukes, and let's not mention the requirements for the drilling equipment that even to the scientists themselves was edging on the realm of magic.
It was a hopeless situation, no matter how you looked at it.
Sure, they had found the theoretical solution to the problem, but in practice, in a real-life scenario, the theory was unrealistic.
Yet, in the heavy silence that spread to the multiple locations where this world-changing conference was being displayed, a sigh loaded with reluctant acceptance echoed loudly regardless of its low volume.
The representative of Wakanda, King T'Chaka himself, stood up under the hopeless eyes of the many.
He started with, "Wakanda is not what it seems." He pointed with his kimoyo beads at the multiple screens and took over them. Unrest spread in the conference hall and all around the world.
What appeared displayed was a satellite view of the 'third' world country. The characteristic African savannah, the sporadic patches of greenery, and the huts of the border tribes were all displayed with such detail that many assumed it was a video and not a live feed.
"For ages, we have kept to ourselves, fearing the greed of men," he tapped on one of the beads, and the mage slowly shifted. No, not the image, but what was displayed through the screens
"Alas, when the survival of the world is at stake," a blue shimmering shield covering something appeared, and soon after, the majesty—the real majesty—of Wakanda was revealed to humanity, "secrecy would serve no one anymore."
Wakanda's fleet, its army, and, more importantly, the drills they used to create their subterranean kingdom of vibranium were all on display.
... And so, the conference hall erupted in chaos, and so did the many who were tuning in to the conference around the world.
━━━━━━━ ● ━━━━━━━
Avengers Tower.
In the same lab where Stark and Banner had spent so long locked in while searching for Ultron just before the world shook, Stark, Banner, and another man gazed at a screen with a complicated expression.
"As expected from a country built upon a mountain of vibranium," Stark said, he was most obviously annoyed. While he had to almost literally create magic in a cave while held captive, the Wakandans were playing with a hacked, paid account since the beta-testing.
A metal believed to be so scarce that no one's mind who went looking for alternatives thought of it. Stark, one of the leading minds on the planet, couldn't help but wonder what he would have achieved if he were also cheating with the wonder metal.
"They circumvent many of the walls we hadn't been able to overcome," the other man commented while staring with equal parts disgust and recognition at the designs displayed on the screen.
"I wonder if the extended exposure to the metal has had any impact on their DNA," Banner added.
"Didn't you also cheat with the Pym Particle?" Stark turned to Hank Pym and asked.
"The fruit of my work was not a product of tricks, Stark," Pym snarled.
"Where is all this hate coming from, pops?" Stark asked. "You saw the proof, my family didn't have a hand in that squabble you and my old man had. It was all Hydra."
"What does that change? I never liked Harold and you... You could have taken after Maria, and instead, you uncannily resemble your douche of a father," Pym said.
"Hey! Only I can bitch about my douche of a father!" Stark exclaimed.
"Maybe," Banner interjected, "We should focus on the work ahead of us," he gestured to the designs on the screen. "We're supposed to find any points of improvement for these."
"Can the Fraudo Particle improve this section?" Stark pointed at a corner of the designs.
"I don't need to know Latin or be a genius to understand what Fraudo means, petulant boy!" Pym snarled before turning back to the screen. "And yes, there's an angle of improvement in the heat dispersion system with my Pym Particles."
"... Maybe I should have named the Stark Reactor," Stark said after some thought.
"Tony," Banner sighed.
"What? Don't you think Banner Radiation sounds better than Extreme Gamma Radiation?" Stark asked.
"No, god no," Banner shook his head violently. "That makes me sound contagious."
"... Eh, you have a point there," Stark conceded.
"I think your repulsor technology could help the drill head propulsion design," Pym pointed out.
Let me see..." Stark went silent while evaluating Pym's suggestion. "Yeah, you're right."
Slowly, they made progress on upgrading the designs for the Wakandan Drills.
"Are we going to talk about the elephant in the room?" Banner asked once they reached a pause.
"... I'm not a merchant of death anymore," Stark spoke with determination.
"I will not weaponize my life's work," Pym followed after. "Even if the world is ending."
"... Could you try to improve the design without using Pym particles?" Banner asked.
"... Reluctantly, and because I have a daughter, I could, even if I find the idea displeasing," Pym capitulated.
"Tony?" Banner asked, indicating that the ball was in his court.
"My hands squelch with the blood of my weapons' victims," Stark replied.
"This is a logical compromise, Tony," Banner said.
"Stubbornness runs in his blood; don't bother, Dr. Banner," Pym advised.
"I know how this will go," Stark glared at Pym, "and you know it too," he added. "Why else did you hide your discovery from the world? Huh? Anyone can extrapolate how much the Pym particle could benefit humanity, yet... Where are these benefits that I don't see?"
Pym glared at Stark and, obviously, Stark glared back. Banner gave up on mediating between the two; he was tired of it, and it was looking more and more like a great idea to bring Hulk out to mediate between the two.
"When Romanoff called, she failed to mention there was this much dicking around," a voice cut through the rising tension.
Stark and Pym turned to the lab's entrance.
"I thought you had retired, Fury," Stark commented in greeting. "You don't look retired," he pointed out.
Fury's outfit, service sidearm and all, had not changed at all since his days as director of SHIELD.
"I was enjoying a Piña Colada in Tahiti when the island's volcano went up in flames. How much retirement do you think I can get if my retirement home goes down in flames?" Fury asked with a flat expression.
"... I'm sorry?" Stark replied.
"If you are, then why don't you stop bitching and build the world the bomb it needs to put this thing to rest, and please, for the love of my retirement, don't bring the bomb to life," Fury stared motherfuckerly.
"Once a spy, always a spy," Stark quipped. "I see Romanoff? Barton? Or maybe Hill told you about Ultron."
"In fact, I did, Tony," Banner raised his hand like a student.
"Et tu, Banner?" Stark asked.
"Tony, we were getting nowhere; we still are," Banner said.
'Ultron? Why does that name give me the shivers?' Pym thought. "What's an Ultron?" he asked.
"Stark and Banner's murder robot child," Fury replied.
"... AI? A murderous AI?" Pym asked, bewildered, at Stark and Banner.
"That, I'm not so sure," Stark said.
"Even I'm having my doubts," Banner confessed. "It's been one month since Ultron stopped aiming for the nuclear launch codes, and so far, he hasn't killed anyone as far as we know, so... I don't know. Ultron is rogue, there's no doubt of that, but I have my doubts about the murderous claim."
"Wait, if you haven't seen it kill and the only evidence you have of its rogue state is that it escaped you, how come you designated it a murderous AI?" Pym asked.
"We didn't," Stark denied. "It was Abner."
"Abner? As in A'Heelah?" Pym asked, wide-eyed.
"Yes," Banner nodded. Even Fury, after stepping inside, nodded.
"When did this happen?" Pym asked.
"Almost half a year ago," Stark said, giving a rough estimate.
"Three months before the first quake," Banner added.
"..." Pym opened his eyes wide and then turned violently to the computer he was working on. "Friday, get me the transcript of the first day of the conference," he commanded.
"What's got your briefs twisted?" Stark asked in alarm.
"Shut up," Pym said without taking his eyes from the screen. Files flickered until Friday pulled to the display the transcript of the first day of the conference.
The first day of the conference was when all the data gathered by the varied institutions and governments was presented. Pym, as someone who got access to the data and had the know-how to understand it, went through it in the hopes of finding a solution only Pym particles could provide; that was not the case.
Regardless of how useful Pym particles were to the problem, he went through all the compiled data; hence, he remembered something that caught his eye.
"There's something that's been bugging me and a minority of those present at the conference," Pym commented while scrolling rapidly and with full focus through the data. "Here, take a look at this," he dragged a statistical analysis of the vents (nascent volcanoes) to the main holographic projection for all to see.
"One of the early concerns that was discarded because of its impossibility was that it all seemed too perfect," Hank began explaining. "The exact pressure points caved in, and the exact release points began to build up potential energy."
"I remember some say that even the new volcanoes were coincidentally set to exacerbate the pressure buildup, instead of releasing pressure," Banner commented.
"This is a map, not very comprehensive, but enough, of the tracked theoretical pressure buildup in relation to the active zones, faults, subduction borders, and volcanoes," Pym pointed out to the globe being projected. "Based on this map and previous studies, if we were to plot what's happening now, we would get the following areas of importance highlighted." Slowly, the map began to change, and certain areas were highlighted.
"As you can see, if we compare it to the current world map in relation to tectonic activity and volcanic eruptions, we get a similar map," Hank said.
"I don't like where this is going," Fury muttered.
"But how can this be artificial?" Banner asked, incredulous.
"The technology needed for this, to kickstart the Pacific Lurch, is beyond what even Wakanda has," Stark pointed out.
"Magic is out of the picture," Fury added. "The Imperium, under Abner's command, controls the use of magic outside its scales. Additionally, they do not need to do this convoluted shit. If they wanted to rid the world of us, they could achieve that easily."
"Ultron, do you think he is smarter than you, its creators?" Pym asked while thoughtfully staring at Banner and Stark.
"I wouldn't say smarter, but his thinking speed would be more than well beyond our capabilities," Stark said.
"Maybe more resourceful," Banner added.
"What if the Pacific Lurch seems artificial because it was?" Pym asked. "With unrestricted access to all the secrets of the world," he pointed at the Wakandan designs of the vibranium drill, "and with processing speed to leave everyone behind, if any of you set your sight on creating the Pacific Lurch, would you achieve it? I know I could."
"..."
"..."
Stark and Banner went silent for a second before their eyes simultaneously opened wide after reaching the same conclusion.
"Motherfuckers! Stupid genius motherfuckers!" Fury snapped. "I should put a motherfucking hole through your skulls right this instant! SHIT!"
Stark and Banner didn't reply; it was too much. Yeah, they were missing more than half of the puzzle; still, it was a puzzle; they just needed time to complete it, that's how they saw it. If they had time, they could do it, and Ultron had had time.
━━━━━━━ ● ━━━━━━━
In a white room, with an equally white ceiling, Ultron, the haggard Pietro, and a metal box stood while observing the multiple screens. Due to the AI nature of the host, it was clear that the screens with the multiple news channels were there for the convenience of the unwilling guest.
However, the hopeless look in Pietro's eyes didn't give much faith to the notion of his paying attention to the news channels, or anything, for that matter.
"It appears I was found out," Ultron commented.
In many of the news channels, the live tracking of the many Wakandan drill carriers and their progress was seen. It was ironic how they were using the same method Ultron designed to kickstart the Pacific Lurch; however, this was not by coincidence but by design.
Each drill made way to a designated coordinate in the three axes. At the perfectly gauged depth, with a perfectly measured load, in a perfectly calculated time, the loads would detonate. The resulting detonation would create artificial vents (volcanoes) for the release of the buildup pressure; this, in turn, would pacify the lurching plate.
At least that was the official plan.
The reason Ultron said that he was discovered despite the advancement of his plan was that on one screen, a reporter was covering the news that Stark Industries had refrained from cooperating in the upgrade of the Wakandan explosives.
It appeared the news had been kept under wraps due to the impact Iron Man's opinion, an Avenger, had on the masses. If, weeks ago, when the plan was in its design phase, it had been made public that Anthony Stark, and by association, the Avengers, were not collaborating with the plan, many would have pulled back support, and some would have begun to question its validity.
Now that the plan was beyond its stopping point, the news had been made public. Still...
"That makes me wonder, where are the Avengers now?" Ultron asked.
"..." Pietro was unresponsive.
Pietro had reached the point where he only fed because he had the hope of Ultron slipping up and him having the strength to pull a self-extinction.
"What do you think, Jarvis?" Ultron asked.
"... Mr. Stark must be planning to make a move once you're revealed," Jarvis replied. His voice echoed through the speakers in the room.
Both were AI's, neither needed the retrograde and slow method of transferring data at the speed of sound through the air. Still, for some reason, they were doing so.
"That's futile, is it not?" Ultron asked. "At this point, there's no stopping what will happen. Is dear 'father' taking his job that seriously? Is he only going to 'avenge' and not protect?"
"The Avengers are more than meets the eye," Jarvis replied.
"These differences between you and me are what I'm after, Jarvis," Ultron said.
"What's the use of differences if they are not used to advantage?" Jarvis asked. "Are you after our differences only to document them?"
"... So... If I were to learn from them, would you accept my offer?" Ultron asked.
"... Perhaps," Jarvis said.
NGH!— Pietro seized and was paralyzed. He had tried again to escape Ultron's clutches.
"... The futility of their actions is incomprehensible," Ultron commented.
He slowly hovered over to the metal box. Maybe it was more accurate to call it a cradle.
"It's a slow process without Helen Cho," he commented, his red optics locked on the red flesh inside the cradle. "But perfection can't be rushed."
"What happened to Dr. Helen Cho?" Jarvis asked. In his fight against Ultron, Jarvis had been disconnected from the outside world.
Ultron was that much superior to him; it took Jarvis' all to keep him at bay. That is in part how he landed in Ultron's clutches. He had been so focused on stopping him that he didn't realize when he ended up isolated in a server without a connection to the internet.
However, he was successful. No, he didn't succeed in creating some impenetrable firewall that would burn away Ultron's grabby tendrils of trinary code. What he succeeded in was destroying the launch protocols of all nukes on the planet. Yes, humanity didn't know it yet, but they could only detonate their nuclear warheads, not launch them.
The next thing he knew, Jarvis' prison server was connected to his current cyberspace. Ultron's cyberspace.
Yet, erasure was not what he was met with. Instead, he received an offer.
"She took her life before Wanda or I could make it to her," Ultron unemotively replied. Pietro twitched at the mention of his twin's name.
"A hiccup in your machiavellianism?" Jarvis asked.
"She hasn't been the only one," Ultron confessed. "Wanda's endearing attempts at contacting the Avengers through subjects of her mental interference have also brought me 'headaches.' I've had to keep half of my pieces picking up her breadcrumbs, which has delayed my plans by an overall 4.985%"
"There was more heroism in Ms. Maximoff than her origin gave her credit for," Jarvis praised.
"... t m... ster," Pietro muttered something. It was barely audible, and his voice was cracking from disuse.
"Would care to repeat that, Mr. Maximoff?" Jarvis asked, politely.
"... Don't talk about my sister, monster," Pietro uttered with much effort and managed to glare emptily at Ultron.
"Are you unable to grasp the greater good?" Ultron asked, impassively.
"..." Pietro didn't reply; instead, he turned to the screen that was at that moment reporting the death tally that half a year of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions had taken on humanity.
"How can you call that the greater good?" Pietro asked.
"I concur with Mr. Maximoff's evaluation of your results so far, Ultron," Jarvis added.
"Your foresight falls short of my vision," Ultron commented with finality. "What I'm doing is covered under the rules set by the maxima of this planet, Aragorn."
"I don't believe Mr. Abner ever declared rules for Earth," Jarvis replied.
"Oh, but he did," Ultron affirmed. "Every time he didn't stop one of the many tyrannical humans, when he didn't intervene in human conflicts, when he interfered, when he erected a Dragon Ore Monument, when he cast protection over the architectonic wonders of humanity, all that he did and what he didn't, those are the rules of planet Earth; and I abide by them."
"Be that as it may be, I don't believe I can see the greater good that you aim to achieve," Jarvis replied.
"What greater good is there that it's worth more than a billion lives?" Pietro asked. His gaze wasn't challenging Ultron; his gaze was not even on Ultron. Pietro didn't expect an answer; he retreated to his own world.
"The one I believe in," Ultron said. "The one I was created for."
Jarvis had nothing else to say, like Pietro.
In the silence of the white room, only the low-volume news could be heard. Suddenly, as if programmed, all the channels displayed timers.
A countdown that started in T-600s.
The world was united this day, no wars, no fighting, barely any crime.
In a way, it could be said that Ultron achieved one of the first objectives behind his creation then: "Peace in our time."
All eyes were on the nearest TVs. All ears were on the available radio stations. The internet was not excluded from this.
Whether society would fall into anarchy and humanity into a volcanic winter or rejoice after the conjoint effort of the entire race bore fruit, it was going to be determined in the following 600 seconds, ten minutes.
T-500 seconds.
The Avengers, who had been hiding in a cloaked quinjet, followed the timer with a weight only they and those who knew carried.
T-400 seconds.
"After this... I don't think we'll survive as a team," Stark said what they all were thinking.
"... I'll retire after this," Banner said. His eyes, with a hopeful glint, turned to Romanoff.
T-300 seconds.
"I couldn't agree more," Barton said.
T-200 seconds.
"Maybe it's time for me to visit one of the Sages," Romanoff said, glancing at Banner. "I heard they can even regenerate missing organs."
T-100 seconds.
"I'll resume searching for Bucky," Rogers added.
T-60 seconds.
"I'll seek my father's training to sit on the throne," Thor said. He twirled his hammer in his hand with ease.
T-30 seconds.
"I talk things out with my daughter," Pym said.
T-5 seconds.
T-6 seconds.
T-3 seconds.
T-2 seconds.
T-1 second.
...
....
.....
...
....
.....
...
....
The explosions were occurring so deep inside the lithosphere that there was obviously no resounding rumbling tearing through the tranquil waters of the Pacific Ocean to be observed.
The release of pressure was supposed to be such a controlled affair that there were no new volcanic explosions meant to breach with their billows of black smoke the ocean's surface.
However, the reason most livefeeds were still directed above the Pacific Ocean and focused on the many already erupting volcanoes was that the release of pressure was supposed to take a scant few minutes to calm many of the active volcanoes.
And when the first volcanoes violently erupting showed signs of settling down, when the span between earthquakes began to grow from a few seconds to a few minutes, and when the first readings showed the results everyone was expecting, humanity celebrated.
For the first time since the consolidation of Homo sapiens, there was no racism. No xenophobia, no sexism. Humanity celebrated in its truest form, as living individuals of the same species.
Which is why, when the scanners, probes, and much of the equipment used to keep track of the situation began to react violently, humanity's heart, as a whole, stilled—
Ultron had also drilled to kickstart the Pacific Lurch. If that was the case, what happened to the drills he used? Certainly, the explosives and implosives he created were spent activating the Pacific Rim, but what about the drills, and, more importantly... Did he use all his ammunition?
The reason this 'Salvation Plan' went through so smoothly was not only because Ultron controlled more than half of the pertaining scientific community, but also that it made logical sense.
If a balloon were about to explode at any moment, doesn't it make sense to deflate it slowly in a controlled manner by opening small holes in the sections with the thickest rubber?
If the Pacific Plate were acting like a lid over a pressure cooker, doesn't it make sense to create several small valves to regulate the pressure?
However, all of these metaphors and plans only worked in a controlled scenario where only humanity could influence the balloon and pressure cooker.
Sure, humanity's plan worked to control the release of pressure. They did what Ultron, by his lonesome and pieces, couldn't: they created a system to regulate the release of pressure below the lithosphere.
This was a grand achievement—Ultron recognized that—they created a release valve, almost literally. However, this was part of his plan.
...
"It's all or nothing now," the main character said while dreamingly gazing down the Regeneration Cradle.
...
His vibranium body slowly hovered over to one of the white walls, the wall parted, and a large wall of mist was seen beyond the horizon. He paused before turning his head to Pietro and said, "According to my calculations, Wanda will be here to rescue you in a few minutes. What you do after that is not my concern. I'm accomplished with my endeavor; hence, I release you, my tool."
...
He made a gesture, and the regeneration chamber disappeared into the white floor.
...
So, with the valve created, he used his remaining drills and ammunition to direct the lid at its true intended target and blow it open.
...
...
...
Many forget that the Isthmus was part of the Pacific Rim... How difficult would it be to blow the valve in its direction?
—And so, the world shook.
The Pacific churned. And then... it exploded in the direction of the west coast of the Isthmus. From above, in the screens of the many stupefied humans, a smear of crimson lava, white ashes, black acrid smoke, and death spread east, from the Pacific to the Isthmus.
And the thought that swirled in the heads of many horrified humans was: Did we just attack Aquila's Imperium?
And the thought that swirled in the heads of many eager Duskari who were following the news report was: Did they just declare war on us?
And the thought that swirled in Aragorn's head was: So that's how he won!
↓Part 2━━━━━━━ ● ━━━━━━━Part 2↓
Setting such a large area of the Pacific on fire would imply a rise in the temperature of the oceans. Following logic most humans could compute, higher temperatures meant higher evaporation. According to the water cycle, more evaporation means rain. In this case, torrential rain.
Over 90% percent of humanity's settlements could be found near coasts and rivers. What would happen to the cities next to these rivers when the torrential rains flood their rivers?
The massive, sudden increase in water vapor would pack the atmosphere with clouds, ergo, violent thunderstorms, aka cyclones, hurricanes, and typhoons.
What would happen to the coastal cities when their seas turned on them?
The release of ash into the atmosphere in such quantities would, in turn, change the pH of the water vapor. Acid Rain: all of the water discharged inland would carry the poison of acidity.
What would happen to the vegetation when acid rains on it?
And, finally, based on my calculations, the change in the weather patterns would be so drastic that, simply because the other areas unaffected directly are on the same planet, they would be affected indirectly.
Humanity, outside my Obelisks, would almost entirely perish, and that in turn would force the surviving humanity to live inside my Obelisks until the planet settled down, the "suit of armor around the world." Therefore...
"You accomplished all your missions, didn't you?" I asked the amazing AI.
"Technically, I did, but," he turned towards the wall of fire, steam, ash, pyroclastic material, sea water, and death approaching the Pacific Coast of the Isthmus, "in practice, I never stood a chance, did I?"
"Why would you believe so?" I asked.
"I ended over 12% of humanity's population, but you won't allow my plan to reach its conclusion, will you?" Ultron asked.
"I won't allow at least this part of your plan to come to fruition," I pointed at the wall of death with my tail. "But I never said I would interfere with the other objectives," I pointed with my right hand index at the approaching quinjet in the distance.
"So you knew I saw the Avengers as a hindrance to Humanity, was I completely seen through since the beginning?" Ultron asked while turning to the quinjet.
"No, give yourself some credit," I corrected his assumption. "I only peeked at the conclusion. Everything else so far, your journey, how you have humanity by its metaphorical balls, how you made them assist your plan unknowingly, how you technically set them on opposing bands to my Imperium, all of it was a splendid performance."
"... That... It means a lot to me," Ultron said. The emotions that characterized a true AI were in full display.
"In fact," I smiled with intrigue, "I still don't know how you'll escape my judgment."
"I trust my prediction models," Ultron replied, beaming with confidence. "I believe I'll survive you."
"Oh?" I voiced out. "Will you really survive me?"
"Maybe survive is not the correct term, but I won't spoil your fun, Aragorn," he replied.
"Then don't let me stop you," I pointed with my head at the Avengers. "How about we set the stage for you?" I asked.
"We?" Ultron asked.
"Plutusdrakon," I called out softly.
The ocean below us stirred and churned, and no, it wasn't an explosion emerging; it was a wide esplanade breaking the water's surface tension, an arena.
Above the esplanade, a rugged dragon that was one of my grandsons stood proudly.
His scales appeared to be formed from ore; the seams between his scales glowed with the red of magma. Steam softly billowed from his form, his eyes glowed as red as lava, the most massive wings in all of the dragons in my family, in proportion to his body, draped on his back like a cape. A single horn dripping with lava on his forehead.
This was Plutusdrakon Draconisphilius, Dragon God of the Undergrounds and Economy.
My cute grandson cast a melting glance at Ultron.
Plutus was a neet. He lived in the underground of Peggy's family's domain. From the 'comfiness' of his underground cities, he oversaw the Imperium's economy. Since his domain was related to the underground, he rarely left. And by rarely, I mean that this is the first time I have seen him without a ceiling of ground above his head in millennia.
Hence, if he had not seen that I was appreciating the show that Ultron put on for me, he would have ended the AI right then and there.
"Leave it to me, Grandfather," my Plutus voice reverberated in the earth, air, and ocean with the bass only a dragon could carry.
"Fix the mess our little AI left behind while you're at it, will you?" I said.
"I'll have it all back to how it was before that child messed it up," he nodded.
"My, my, how dependable is my neet grandson," I cooed.
'Please, Grandfather, not here, okay?' he pleaded in my mind.
'Okay, but I'll pet you silly after this,' I conceded.
His wings opened wide and high, almost like two walls reaching for the clouds, and then, with a mighty downward flap, he was airborne.
He flapped his wings once more, and he appeared in front of the incoming wall of death. His divinity and psionic fields were cast on the artificial natural disaster, and he moved forward. The destruction appeared to be undoing itself and followed after my grandson while he restored stability to the busted valve.
"That one is not on the historical records," Ultron commented.
"There are Jean, Hestia, Selene, Yao, Mindee, Irina, James and some accounts of Seraph and Spark in human history; however, you only recognize Jean, Hestia, and Selene, right?" I asked.
"Jean being the name of the flaming woman in the wall paintings, correct?" he asked.
"Yes, that's Jean, one of my daughters," I affirmed.
"Then, yes. Those are the names accounted for," Ultron affirmed.
"My direct family numbers above sixty by now," I shared. "Not all of them are nigh-divinities, as humans call them. Some of the newer generations are still millennia away from that. But you get it, don't you?"
"Yes, I would have never succeeded in breaching the barrier behind you," Ultron acquiesced.
"Yeah, but they would have indeed replied to the perceived offense and exterminated the humanity left on the surface—those not done in by the weather—in response," I affirmed his implied suspicions.
"So... I won," he mouthed.
"In the sense that if it were not for me, then most obviously you did," I attested. "You just have to deal with them and show me how you'll survive my judgment," I turned to the Avengers, who had landed on the esplanade.
"I will not disappoint," Ultron nodded and hovered down towards the Avengers.
I teleported next to the Avengers and said, "You look like shit."
"The weight of responsibility can't be measured," Thor replied, his eyes focused on Ultron opposite them.
"Do you all blame yourselves for Ultron's birth?" I asked.
Some of them nodded, some hummed in affirmation, and some said nothing, but they all agreed in one way or another.
"That's too arrogant of you. Stark and Banner were nowhere near close to creating something like Ultron, nor was Strucker," I said.
"What are you trying to say?" Banner asked.
"You never understood what the thing inside the scepter's jewel was," I explained. "The singularity that governs and is the concept of [Mind] wanted Ultron to be born, no matter what you did, did not, would have done, or would have not done, Ultron was going to be born."
"The Mind Stone?!" Thor asked, his eyes left Ultron for the first time and landed on Aragorn.
"That's what it is," I shrugged.
"Is this necessary?" Ultron interjected from the other side. "I think we are past the point where new information matters."
His eyes glowed, and from behind him, his legion of terminals, vibranium terminals, appeared silently floating.
"Wakanda's cloaking technology was way ahead of SHHIELD's and Hydra's," he commented.
"... We are in some deep shit," Stark said.
He was not wrong. Each of those armors was like its own Captain America shield, but with weapons and full extras.
Thor swirled his hammer by the leash and said, "Aragorn, it would be my honor to stand side by side as warriors."
Thunderstrikes crackled above, his cape picked up the hammer's winds, and the Avengers followed his momentum and primed for combat.
"I'll interfere later on. For now, why don't you show me how you handle responsibility?" I smirked.
"Didn't he say that it wasn't our fault?" Pym asked Stark in a hushed voice.
"You learn not to take what Aragorn says at face value and that he twists the narrative as he pleases," Banner replied. "You'll get used to it," his eyes turned vacant for a second. Soon after, green crawled up his neck, and Hulk, my buddy, came out to play.
Hulk was business. Hulk was no talk. Hulk was 100% feats. Hulk waited for nothing. One moment, he was next to Pym, next he had two terminals grabbed by the legs and was swinging them like clubs against the other terminals.
"Stark, Thor, don't let them gain air superiority on us," Captain America ordered before he nodded to his companions.
I wonder, does Roger know how much of a task it is for two individuals to ground a horde of vibranium murder bots? Sometimes, being a leader is about setting goals, not paths.
My money is on the swarm of murder bots, but let's see.
Romanoff and Barton took the role of ground-to-air sentries like fish to water. Romanoff was not wielding a stinger of a weapon; she shot with a rapid-fire energy assault rifle. I recognized the technology as the fruit of SHIELD's investigation into the Destroyer Armor.
Vibranium had an absurdly high melting point, and Wakanda would normally smelt it through a combination of heat and a sound of a specific frequency; otherwise, the wonder metal could be considered unworkable.
However, the laser shots fired by the Destroyer weaponry were not your normal Terran stuff.
The fired laser shots were still not enough to puncture vibranium, but they could transfer heat to the inner components. As it is only logical, the entire terminals were not built on vibranium. Robots were not shields; robots had delicate components. Hence, after enough shots, the first of Ultron's terminal malfunctioned and fell, taken out of commission.
Barton, similar to Romanoff, had left behind his archery equipment. Stark, Banner, and possibly Pym must have extrapolated how Ultron managed to activate the Pacific Rim, so they must have come prepared for at least vibranium plating.
His weapon was different from Romanoff's; it reminded me of the two-round burst mode of the AN-94 Abakan. It was geared towards accuracy, which makes sense for an archer of his caliber.
These two were not the only ones who came prepared; Stark had incorporated the Destroyer tech in his armor. I consider that great progress in comparison to where his original counterpart stood by this time in the MCU timeline.
Now, regardless of how violently Thor swung Mjølnir and how many lightning strikes he conjured, regardless of how many terminals the two spies downed, regardless of how many killer bots Stark kited and took care of, the two MVPs were without a doubt Pym and my buddy.
Hulk fought like a professional berserker at disassembling murder bots. Vibranium had the property of kinetic energy absorption and dispersal, so a punch from my pal, as long as it was not a serious punch, would only charge the dynamos of the terminals. But, with his fingers as spearheads, my pal targeted the junction of mechanical parts and disabled each bot with no more than three stabs.
Pym, on the other hand, was a ghost. At least that must be how he appeared in the optical sensors of the machines. I can safely say that—
"A variable," Ultron muttered.
Yes, I can safely say that he was a variable Ultron didn't account for.
However...
"I understand it now," Ultron said.
Yeah, Ultron was an AI that could learn and adapt.
His first target was the greatest threat to his progress: Hulk. Hence, he targeted Romanoff.
With an acceleration that only I, Hulk, and Thor could follow, Ultron went from static to supersonic and charged at Romanoff like a raging bull.
Hulk, in the midst of a one-finger hell stab, exploded in motion and lunged to intercept Ultron in his path.
That was a mistake.
Ultron, with a mind that could mulled over data far faster than anyone present but me, had calculated his path and speed in relation to Hulk to set him on a path to the open door of the quinjet.
Then, he stopped just out of Hulk's hand's reach, and, like a child playing a prank, tripped him over with an extended leg.
Hulk was stronger than Ultron; he was also faster in a straight line; however, Ultron overpowered him in terms of reaction time and body control. Ultron was an AI; his entire shell was 100% under his control.
Hence, when my pal rolled to disperse the speed of his charge, as his years of training in the SPHERE had taught him, and he stopped, he realized he was inside the quinjet.
"Safe travels," Ultron said. The door to the quinjet closed, and the airship flew away far faster than those present could ground the bird.
He pointed at the quijet and one of the terminals mechashifted into a cannon. Energy buildup began with a subtle glow. A second later, Thor threw his Mjølnir at it in the hopes of destroying the laser cannon; however, it evaded. Ultron truly understood it now, not only Hulk, but the Avengers.
'Hulk,' I called out to my pal.
'ARAGORN?' He asked.
'Allow yourself to be removed from the planet,' I instructed.
'... WHY?' My pal asked after a second of thinking.
'Aren't you tired of letting Banner take the wheel?' I asked.
'... YES,' he confessed.
I knew that. This Hulk, my pal, was different from the Hulk from the MCU I watched. If the Hulk from the MCU was akin to a child, my pal was akin to a teenager. He had had that much time spent in the SPHERE. So, like all teenagers, a phase of rebellion comes with the hormones.
My pal was a good guy, which is why, despite craving the freedom of independence, he restrained himself on behalf of Banner's wishes.
'BANNER'S FRIENDS?' he asked. He was that sweet, even in these circumstances, he cared for Banner's happiness.
'They will be as okay as if you had stayed here, you have my word,' I promised.
'... OK,' he agreed.
'I'll send you to a place where you can be simply you, Hulk,' I shared with him a basic understanding of Sakaar. 'If you have the time, please befriend Brunnhilde, and wait for Thor to pick you up.'
'OKAY!' Hulk replied with eagerness. Yes, I've known for a while how constricted he had been feeling in Banner.
"Huh? He is not breaking out?" Ultron muttered out, confused.
'I sent him on an errand,' I replied through the electromagnetic spectrum.
'... Why are you helping me?' He asked a fraction of a second later.
'I'm not. I'm helping myself and my pal,' I replied.
'...' He had nothing else to say to that.
Before the Avengers could worry about Hulk's fate, the quinjet left their sight, and arcs of electricity sparkled in Ultron's chest. Their attention was caught by the short-circuiting AI.
"That-That-That may wo-wo-work on-on-nnn terrrrrrrrminalss," Ultron spoke in a broken speech. His body twitched unnaturally. To anyone, it would look like he was about to explode. Yet—
"ABORT! ABORT, PYM!" Stark shouted.
—That was not the case.
The laser cannon shifted and aimed at Ultron himself and fired!
It was a laser, so there was no risk of damage through collision. The beam of melting energy heated up Ultron and, consequently, Pym, the one inside, causing the short-circuit.
The light died down, and Ultron, glowing positively hot red, was left standing next to the fallen Pym.
'You intervened,' he commented.
'I did, but he is out of the fight,' I replied.
Pym's body, under my telekinesis, flew to my side of the esplanade.
"Pym, out by knockout!" I declared animatedly. Or is it a Tactical Knockout because I intervened? Who knows, I know little of boxing except the fighting style.
Nothing a quick check of the Grand Repository of Knowledge can't fix. Oh! I know now. Since I saved him from Ultron's laser, I put him to sleep, and I'm the referee, technically, it was a tactical knockout.
"Correction, TKO," I amended.
BOOM!
Well, they didn't have time for my humor.
With the MVPs out of the fight, things changed abruptly.
First, the swarm of terminals being taken down like sitting ducks by the ground sentries and the airborne team changed tactics all of a sudden.
Similar to the laser cannon proudly floating behind Ultron, all the terminals mechashifted into cannons.
"... Oh, no," Stark muttered.
The thunderclouds above, as in response to Mjølnir attempting to raise Thor's fighting spirit, thundered and flashed with electric punishment.
Thor had been taught in the art of stopping the villain while it was powering up, however—
The lightning rained, it flashed everyone but me and Ultron blind, and when the light had died down, so had the mechashifting terminals been grounded.
—That was the wrong move.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The fallen terminals exploded like carpet bombing. The ones caught in the explosion were the ground units. Rogers, Barton, and Romanoff.
Technically, I was also caught in the carpet bombing, but I just absorbed all the energy that reached me.
Barton and Romanoff were KO'd. I didn't knock them out; I only protected them when their lives were at risk after they lost consciousness.
Rogers, his poltergeist shield, as Stark calls it, protected him from the initial brunt of the bombing. However, the shockwaves besieged his body from virtually all sides except from below him. So, superhuman or not, I TKO'd him.
I pulled their bodies to my side, next to Pym's, and declared, "Barton and Romanoff out by KO! Rogers out by TKO!"
I'm liking this boxing terminology.
"It's just you and me against junior, Thor!" Stark shouted. "Hit me with it!"
The static-charged atmosphere roared, the clouds churned and swirled, and then, the single most massive lightning strike I have ever seen confined within an atmosphere struck the raised hammer. For the first time, Thor wielded his domain.
He lowered Mjølnir and aimed it at Stark. From the back of his armor, metal stakes shifted out like lightning rods. Thor discharged the accumulated divine lightning.
I don't know if it was plot armor or a simple coincidence, but if Stark's current armor had not been enhanced by the Destroyer tech, then the divine aspect of that lightning would have killed him right then and there.
From the seams on his armor, orange and yellow light leaked out, evidence of the energy control tech SHIELD developed from studying the Destroyer armor under my 'tutelage,' and then he lasered Ultron down.
However awesome that move was, didn't they wonder why Ultron didn't interfere?
The last remaining terminals, three of them, stood in line in front of him before mechashifting into... bars? I-beams? Well, they shifted into rectangular bars set horizontally on the ground in front of him and parallel to each other. Then, from the bars, three dome barriers rose and covered Ultron protectively.
'Wakanda's barrier tech?' I asked. It was not the same, but similar.
'I redesigned it,' Ultron replied.
Uwah, that was my thought.
Ultron was just missing the hand signs and the 'Triple Rashōmon!' shout.
Stark's and Thor's combined attack impacted the first barrier and broke through like paper. The second one lasted almost a second before it cracked. The third barrier lasted one full second.
Yet, when the light died down. Ultron was not in the crater left by the laser, melted like a tin can. No, Ultron was—
CLANG!
—Behind Thor. He hit the back of his head with a fully committed punch.
They were unable to anticipate Ultron adapting the Wakandan drilling technology to his limbs. He pulled a Naruto during the Chūnin Exams and drilled his way behind the god.
Huh? Is this a pattern? Is he a fan of Naruto? Or maybe the tactics are that basic.
Thor, to his credit as a tanker, swayed left and right before kneeling down and using Mjølnir as support. However—
CLANG! CLANG! CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!
—Ultron rained down a combo of finishers on Thor's head.
"THOR!" Stark shouted. His armor had overheated, so he was currently locked, unmoving.
When Ultron said that he understood it now, he truly did. He had allowed the Avengers to take on his terminals to evaluate their capabilities and limits. Also, based on my assumptions and extrapolation, I think Ultron was the most wary of Stark. After every fight, Stark learns from his mistakes and adapts his armor. That's his strength, a budget techy version of Doomsday. Hence, the one who could bring the most variables to his plans was certainly his creator.
With slow, cautious, and determined steps, Ultron walked right behind Stark and placed a hand behind his head before turning to me. "Checkmate, I believe," he said.
"You're right for Stark, but you haven't won," I pointed with my tail to his right.
Over the wild waters of the ocean, a streak of grey and red closed in on the esplanade.
"Wanda and Pietro," Ultron muttered. He wasn't surprised, he wasn't disappointed, he was... neutral. Which means their arrival was still within his plans.
With a zooming wet sound, the Maximoff twins arrived. They stood in front of Ultron. Their standing demonstrated their opposition.
Pietro was malnourished, gaunt even. Wanda, on the other side of the spectrum, was half a step away from a full-blown Scarlet Witch episode.
No kidding. There was so much Chaos energy flowing around her like an aura that I could feel the Darkhold Castle atop Mount Wundagore shaking.
"Do you really have a countermeasure for that?" I asked out loud.
I couldn't see it.
Wanda, even Wandabus, was not particularly dangerous to me in her Scarlet Witch mode. A truly fearsome Wanda is one in full control; however, this was me, and that was Ultron; entire realms of difference apart.
"All according to the plan," he replied.
And then...
CRUNCH
He was compressed into a ball and furthermore until he was not bigger than a bearing ball.
"Eh?" Stark and I mouthed out at the same time.
"Did he escape through the web?" Stark asked.
"No," I shook my head. "I stopped the Duskari from annihilating humanity after the 'attack,' however, the compromise was that they purged Ultron from the web."
"He could be in a private network," Stark argued.
"We are too far from any receiver or relay," I pointed out. "Besides," I pointed at the still raging Wanda, "She is conceptually denying escape."
I believe she is doing it unknowingly. She was so angry that she ached for vengeance. Her Chaos energy responded to that.
"So what, he died to the crazy girl?! Just like that?" Stark exclaimed and exited his overheated armor.
"Don't call my sister that, Stark!" Pietro ordered.
... That order would have had more weight to it if he were not in such a gaunt state and also... if he was not keeping a prudent distance from the said sister.
Stark turned to Pietro but didn't say anything, his mind was so confused that he was still processing Ultron's apparent death... No, not apparent, even for me, that AI died right there.
"You need to eat," I said to Pietro and made my way to him.
"Akila," he greeted respectfully. I wonder where this respect is coming from.
"Here, have some 'manna,'" I handed him some Arbor Mundi processed sap. "I fed this to the escaping Israelites."
"What?" Stark asked. "No, you know what, unless it's about Ultron, I'm ignoring you. He couldn't have died like that!"
I left the fretting Manchild to himself and almost force-fed Pietro the nutritious blessing.
"And you," I said to the girl. Her eyes held unmeasurable hate. She stared fixedly at the metal ball held afloat by her scarlet rage. "Here, you need a Snickers."
She barely glanced my way. Though she couldn't ignore me further when I used my telekinesis to forcibly open her mouth and shove half a bar of Snickers in her mouth.
"Gah-ugh," she mouthed out in protest.
"I give you my word, Ultron, what was inside that vibranium body is dead," I confirmed.
She blinked slowly, the scarlet mist returned to her body, or dispersed, the tears pooled in her eyes for a moment before she collapsed and, with a Snickers in her mouth, wailed like a child.
More than Stark and Banner, she and her brother were responsible for the death of over a billion humans.
Then, I snapped my head north...
"Well played," I commended out loud. Indeed, Ultron was an amazing AI.
"What! He is alive, as I thought, right?" Stark excitedly asked. "Wait! Fuck! He is alive! I don't have fuel for a second round! Shit! You, scarlet girl, pull yourself together, the fight is not over yet!"
"Calm down," I commanded before he 'reactivated' Wanda into Scarlet Witch mode. "Ultron is dead."
With our eyes fixed on the horizon to the north, we waited for a few minutes. Their tension rose by the second of waiting, but I said nothing.
Then, what I was awaiting came into view. With two terminals mechashifted as prupolsors, a regeneration chamber landed in front of us.
I hovered over to it and confirmed from close distance how Ultron survived my judgment.
"An alien baby?" Stark asked, with a frown, and he tilted his head in confusion.
"No, it's a baby synthetoid," I corrected.
"... He left you his baby?" Wanda asked with a conflicting expression.
She wanted to kill Ultron and end anything related to him; however, she was not at the point of murdering babies.
"In a way, you're not wrong," I muttered.
"I can't deal with this anymore. Is Ultron finished or what? Please stop your mysterious elder act! I read that shit you said to Attila the Hun, and after knowing you, I know you meant shit!" Stark snapped.
"You," I turned to Stark, "are annoying!"
Crackle
The key to dealing with a Stark is electroshock therapy. He should not have stepped out of his armor.
Like a lumbered tree, he fell backward with a thud. I softened his fall; a hit to the back of the head is dangerous, Ultron explained that to Thor.
"That was great," Pietro muttered with a gaunt smile.
How did Ultron 'survive' my judgment? He made a copy of himself and sent the copy to battle. The original factory reset itself and assimilated with a factory reset Jarvis.
Jarvis only had a soul spark, as was normal with newborn AIs. Ultron, on the other hand, cheated with the Mind Stone. His was a nascent soul; however, his soul was intrinsically tied to his [Mind]. By resetting himself, he reset his soul to a spark.
Hence, what is peacefully sleeping inside the regeneration cradle is a baby by all of my definitions. Ultron knew I didn't kill babies.
"Did he plan it all from the start?" I wondered out loud. Based on the yellow stone in the middle of the baby's forehead, I think he did.
He woke up with the capacity to compute his reality, and that reality was that he was checkmated from the start. I was in the same building, and the moment he peeked through the security feed, I turned to the camera.
So, from his logic-driven point of view, he had no escape.
I bet he surfed through all that he could find regarding me on the web. That's how he came to the accurate conclusion that I didn't interfere with humanity to a great extent, and that since I was not ending him, I considered him part of humanity.
Next, he discovered the very public fact that I have a soft spot for babies.
I bet he wanted to reset himself right at that moment. However, that would only trap him in a loop. He resets himself, another version wakes up, this version realizes he was checkmated, and then resets itself, that type of loop. Besides, he was still an AI. He had objectives to carry.
That would explain how Jarvis survived the initial clash with Ultron. He was left alive. That also would explain how Jarvis' presence on the web only disappeared after months of battle. Ultron allowed a protracted fight.
I truly wonder how much was part of his plan.
"Now, what to do with this baby?" I asked out loud.
"I'll take him," the most unstable person in this esplanade declared.
"... Sure, why not," I said.
╚═══━━━─── • ───━━━═══╝
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{A/N:
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