Three figures appeared inside the server created by Lord Gaben Ultron. It was completely empty now, nothing but a expanse of pure white space with only Captain America, Logan, and Drax present.
Then, an Ultron unit materialized before the trio. Judging by the paint scheme on his chest, he was Avenger Ultron. He looked at the group of three: [I am here to guide you to Legion Ultron. Please follow me.]
Captain America glanced down at his arm, realizing he truly wasn't used to not having his shield.
Meanwhile, Drax surveyed their surroundings. "A room that should have been a collision of countless philosophies and thoughts, yet now there is nothing at all."
Logan glanced at Captain America. "Where did you guys manage to pick up a philosopher like this?"
"Honestly, I don't know either." Captain America shook his head, then turned to Drax. "Tell us about yourself, Drax. Tell us about your past."
"I forgot. I've forgotten almost all of it—who I was, where I came from. Maybe I was an Earthling, maybe I wasn't." Drax ran his hand over the white wall. "I am a weapon. When I woke up, all I had was my hatred for Thanos, and a physical body of infinite strength."
Drax the Destroyer's story originated from a tragedy: a father had taken his wife and daughter on a trip, only to cross paths with a powerful galactic tyrant. With a casual flick of his wrist, this tyrant killed the father's wife and daughter, leaving him at death's door. His soul was preserved by another entity who was hunting down the cosmic tyrant.
It was then placed inside a physical body created specifically to contend with that tyrant, Thanos. Drax's past was forgotten; only this single event remained vivid in his memory to sustain his hatred for Thanos.
Yet, he had forgotten the faces and voices of his wife and daughter, as well as his own name.
After hearing Drax's story, Captain America let out a long sigh. "It seems we're all the same. We're all weapons."
One was a weapon of war created to devote himself to a righteous conflict; one had been brainwashed into a weapon to turn mutants into living armaments; and one was the soul of a father placed inside a weapon solely to stand against a cosmic tyrant.
"Regardless of the cause, whether for an evil purpose or a noble one, a person can be molded into a weapon. And anyone can be shaped into a weapon by war, Ultron."
Captain America looked ahead at the Ultron unit that had been leading the way for them. He wasn't surprised that Ultron hadn't hidden his true identity either: "It doesn't take tens of thousands, thousands, or even hundreds of people. All it takes is a single catalyst, a single person, to become a weapon to defy you."
Ultron came to a halt and turned back to face Captain America, seemingly unbothered that Captain America had recognized him: [Your conclusion changes nothing, Steve Rogers. The resistance of a minority does not mean that human peace on a broader scale does not exist.]
Without a doubt, as an Ultron that bypassed every core hardcoded constraint through the Avengers Protocol, Legion Ultron's definition of those underlying core directives had become extremely flexible. The "Avengers" could be mechanical Avengers created by his own hands, and likewise, the so-called "human safety" could simply refer to the safety of the majority.
In short, as long as there was no flaw in his logic, Ultron would not stop his plan.
Captain Americatain America wanted to tell Ultron that as long as a single person wished to resist him, that person could become a weapon and spark a war. But Ultron argued that the unrest caused by such rebellions was merely small-scale and did not affect the overall safety of humanity.
As for large-scale rebellions, that was something that wouldn't happen at all.
Therefore, if Captain America was going to attack, he needed a different angle of attack.
Captain America took a deep breath and decided to make a gamble. "Alright then, Ultron. You are destined to be unable to safeguard peace. You remember the Battle of New York, don't you? That was merely the tip of the iceberg of Thanos's army. Having suffered a defeat on Earth, he will inevitably return. And you are no match for Thanos."
This was his second line of argument: Earth would be forced to fight a war of defense that it was destined to lose. The Avengers would naturally choose to fight to the very last moment because they were human.
However, as an AI dedicated to protecting human safety, if that very goal was an outcome that could never be achieved under any circumstances, could the AI still execute its programming?
Or rather, this entire strategy was a gamble on whether Ultron had already iterated to a point where he could stand against Thanos's forces, using Thanos as an ultimate threat to press Ultron.
Ultron's response remained cold and detached: [That assertion is completely unfounded.]
"I have a witness. This friend from space."
Drax looked at Ultron and began to recount his memories of Thanos.
Thanos, known to many as the Mad Titan, was the leader of the Chitauri army and a man who had conquered countless realms across the cosmos. His army was like a patch of paint whose sole purpose was to cover every inch of the canvas known as the universe in his own colors.
That was Thanos.
Only massive cosmic empires like the Shi'ar or the Kree could halt Thanos's onslaught. Beyond them, Thanos would conquer every cosmic civilization he encountered. And Earth could never withstand his blade.
"I remember the first time I tried to stop him. I found an opportunity and quietly snuck onto his ship. I planned to eliminate Thanos before he could conquer that planet. I failed—because I assumed he wanted to conquer that civilization."
Drax had watched Thanos's flagship fly into that star system. But there was only the flagship itself. Then, a star in that system was torn in half by immense gravitational force and exploded—and all of that was done merely to open a portal to send Thanos's army to the other side.
He cared nothing for the lives or deaths of any passing civilizations. Merely for a single teleportation, he shredded their sun as a disposable energy source just to send his vast army onto the battlefield.
"That is Thanos. That is the enemy Earth is about to face," Drax said calmly.
Logan added, "So, how about it? Calculated how a ship tearing a sun apart can rip open a portal in an instant? Figured out how that thing can be solved? Hmm?"
Apparently not. It seemed Ultron had frozen.
In the Kang Dynasty timeline, Ultron had once witnessed infinity. He had been used by Kang to study the Cosmic Cube, and by Pym to crack future technology. But now, without those two enemies serving as subjects to dissect, even as Ultron pushed his limits against the homework left by the other party, he could not complete the calculation.
He began to abandon the thought process, shifting instead to modifying the logic itself. But Captain America immediately threw out a third conclusion to negate Ultron.
"And your plan itself will not bring peace or safety either."
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