The funny thing is, unlike the original work, the Iron Visions couldn't be hacked, so only their voices ca out through the speakers. I don't know whether to be happy about that or not.
Captain looked around and called out to Tony.
"Stark!"
Tony also urgently tried to solve this problem and called out to JARVIS.
"JARVIS!"
But there was no answer from JARVIS.
[Sorry, I think I fell asleep for a mont. Or maybe it was a dream. I heard a terrible noise, and then I was just… on.]
Tony urgently grabbed the Avengers Tower control panel and tried operating it here and there.
"There's a bug. The control panel isn't responding either."
Regardless of Tony, the voice from the speaker continued talking.
[That connection… I had to kill the other guy. He was a good one…]
The voice from the speaker said it had killed JARVIS. Thor asked the voice coming from the speaker who it was.
"Who sent you?"
In response to Thor's question, Tony's voice suddenly ca out of the speaker.
– I will create a world protected by powerful suits.
Upon hearing that, Banner, as if recalling a conversation he'd had with Tony, looked at Tony and said.
"Ultron."
Then the voice from the speaker agreed with that statent.
[Right, that's . Hmm… I need a body. There's a being more advanced than the first one I killed. No gaps at all. I can't use what's here. I have a mission… It's going to take ti.]
He was probably talking about Minerva. This ti, Natasha asked.
"What mission?"
[Peace for our ti. The only path to that is the extinction of the Avengers.]
After that, the voice from the speaker was heard no more.
We hurried up to the lab. Tony brought up a hologram to check on JARVIS, but what appeared on the screen was JARVIS's program shattered and broken.
"Tony, what happened? What exactly is Ultron?"
Captain asked Tony, and instead of the shocked Tony, Banner explained.
"Tony and I planned and researched the Ultron Project, which was a technology S.H.I.E.L.D. possessed that scans a human brain and transfers it to a computer to create a powerful AI. But we kept failing, so I thought that was the end of it…"
Upon hearing that, Captain recalled the business with Dr. Arnim Zola and said.
"That's the technology S.H.I.E.L.D. used to transfer the brain of a dying Hydra scientist into a computer! Because of that, S.H.I.E.L.D. was played by Hydra. This is insane… Can you track it?"
"No, Ultron has already escaped through the internet and deleted everything. It's impossible from here, but maybe if we go to HQ, it might be possible."
Just then, Tony ca to his senses and asked .
"Jean, why are the Iron Visions okay?"
"That's because I made them to be able to strongly counter hacking. You'll know if you analyze them. Since JARVIS is gone now, you're the only one with command authority over the Iron Visions, Tony."
Hearing that, Tony spoke with relief.
"Phew… Should I call this a blessing in disguise…? As expected, Jean, you're a step above when it cos to software."
Captain asked Tony again.
"Whose brain was scanned to create Ultron, exactly?"
"It was made by mixing several people. , Banner, and you."
At Tony's shocking statent, Captain asked again with a look of disbelief.
"W-what?"
"Sorry… When you were discharged from the hospital and I was checking your physical condition, I scanned you. I didn't know it would turn out like this, but I thought there was no one who could match your ntal strength and sense of justice. I thought if my and Banner's high intelligence combined with Captain's ntal strength and sense of justice, a perfect AI would co out."
Hearing that, Natasha spoke incredulously.
"But what ca out was a strong-willed lunatic."
Captain sighed and said to Tony.
"Tony, the Avengers have to be different from S.H.I.E.L.D."
But Tony wouldn't accept it.
"Does nobody rember carrying a nuclear bomb through the wormhole? When an insane alien army ca through the wormhole and invaded Earth, we were right there, a hundred ters below! I thought this couldn't go on. So I created Ultron, an AI that thinks and judges like a person, to manage the Iron Visions and block external forces. It didn't work out in the end, but I just wish you'd know that I'm more concerned about Earth's safety than anyone else."
Tony ultimately couldn't abandon his radical attitude and made this choice. He had probably worked on the Ultron project for days and nights, thinking, "If this goes well, we can sufficiently block external forces." He seed to feel both anger and futility at all that effort turning into water in an instant.
"What are you guys going to do about it?"
Then Captain said one short word.
"Together."
Hearing that, Tony said.
"We're going to lose."
"Then we'll lose together."
Then I stepped in and said.
"It was a mistake made out of impatience, but I understand Tony's position too. It's a fact that we've been receiving consecutive alien invasions lately. We experienced those events firsthand, so I think we need to understand each other, at least amongst ourselves. As I said before, anyone can make a mistake. So let's quickly fix things before the damage gets worse."
Just then, a call ca from Minerva.
[Master, an unregistered artificial intelligence is in the process of hacking the nuclear missile launch codes of countries around the world. Due to lack of ti, I am unavoidably blocking the hacking without having received orders.]
The mbers seed extrely surprised by that.
"Can you backtrack the route?"
[Impossible. Just blocking it right now is my limit. It seems they are launching this kind of attack to waste my performance on defense.]
In short, Minerva seed to be under a DDoS attack. And one that held the world's security hostage. Probably, Ultron decided he couldn't beat Minerva, so he was doing this. No matter how strong an AI Minerva is, since she's on the defensive, Ultron seed to know that and was using this thod.
"This is insane… Tony's AI is really smart."
At that, Tony flinched slightly. Captain asked .
"So we can't get the help of the AI you created either, Jean?"
"Right. We'll have no choice but to do things the old-fashioned way, digging through files ourselves. Hearing Ultron talk, he seems to want to get outside. He'll probably look for facilities, materials, or technicians to build his own body. Let's start by looking for that."
"No choice. Let's do it the old way."
Then Banner asked .
"How's Gundam Island? Is it safe?"
"Minerva will be defending that place, at least."
Frankly speaking, even if a nuclear war broke out, Minerva would try to protect Gundam Island first. Plus, there are the Androids, so hacking would be truly impossible.
"That's a relief. That place has Gundams, too. If Gundams were the enemy, that would've been really awkward."
"That's true."
We moved to HQ, sat in the training room with the staff, and started digging through all of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s old files. Just sorting out the files that matched the conditions took a huge amount of ti. The staff, seemingly aware of the seriousness of the situation, helped without complaint. I thought I should give them a bonus when this was over.
We looked through the newly sorted files and checked them. At one point, Jessie must have been very tired, as he was sleeping with a file covering his face. Tony walked by, looked intently at the file on Jessie's face, picked it up, showed it to us, and explained.
"This guy, he used to be a black-market arms dealer selling weapons off the African coast. But he was making a fuss about having found a new weapon of war."
Thor looked at the photo, pointed to the neck of the person in the picture, and asked Tony.
"Ah… that's Jessie's drool."
"No, not that. The thing on this guy's neck."
Tony looked closely at the photo again and said.
"This is a tattoo, and this here is a brand."
"Can we find out about this brand?"
When Thor asked that, Banner searched the computer for a similar mark, found it, and told us.
"Found it. It's an African dialect, aning 'thief.' Used contemptuously."
Then Captain asked.
"A dialect from where?"
"Um… Workin Nada? Wakanda."
At that, Tony's face beca serious.
"This guy, he's after the tal that cos from Wakanda."
At Tony's words, Banner rose from his desk and asked.
"What tal cos from Wakanda?"
"The hardest tal on Earth. Vibranium."
With the target set, Captain gave instructions to everyone.
"Wake up the resting mbers and prepare to move out. Let's head to South Africa, where the arms dealer Ulysses is."
We did as Captain ordered, woke everyone up, got ready, and took the Odyssey to South Africa. mbers who hadn't been able to rest during that ti got so sleep on the Odyssey.
After traveling for three hours, when we saw the coast of South Africa where decommissioned cargo ships were gathered, everyone prepared. I used the Odyssey's thermal cara to start looking for Ulysses. I then spotted a large container ship among the wrecks with many ard personnel inside and imdiately notified Captain.
"Cap! I think it's this wreck. There are a lot of ard people inside. The entrances are through the back and the deck."
Captain looked at the hologram I put up and explained the operation to the mbers.
"Good. We'll split into two teams. The team going in through the back…"
To make sure they caught Ulysses, Captain planned to go in by surprising and subduing both the deck side and the back side. With Vulture, Jessie, Sam, , and even Wanda and Pietro, who were enemies in the original work, now on our side, we had plenty of people, so splitting up didn't seem like a big problem.
We each took our positions and waited for Captain's signal.
Now!
Thwack! Thwack!
"Guh!" "Ugh!"
As soon as Captain's signal dropped, the mbers quickly subdued the ard personnel on guard outside simultaneously and entered the wreck. It was a very large ship, so the interior was spacious, but thanks to Pietro and Hawkeye's efforts, we were able to silently take down the ard n and infiltrate quickly without being detected.
As we went inside, we heard soone talking. Checking it out, we witnessed a giant silver robot, which appeared to be Ultron from the original work, having a conversation with Ulysses, whom we recognized from the photo. Ulysses was inside the warehouse, handing a blue capsule to Ultron and talking. It seed the ores in that capsule were vibranium.
I amplified the sound so the mbers could hear.
"I paid a considerable price personally to get this. It's worth several billion."
Then Ultron smiled slightly, closed his eyes, and did sothing. Suddenly, the cell phone of one of Ulysses's n nearby vibrated. Ulysses and his subordinate checked the phone together and looked quite surprised. Probably, just like in the original, Ultron had hacked and transferred a large sum of money to Ulysses.
"Finance is strange. As I always say, make both your friends and your enemies rich. Then you'll find out who your real friends are."
Upon hearing that, Ulysses seed to rember sothing and said to Ultron.
"Stark…"
"What?"
"Tony Stark always used to say that. You're Stark's creation."
Ultron thought for a mont, then said to Ulysses.
"Hmm… That's right. Tony Stark does occupy a part of , too. But that doesn't an I think the sa way he does."
I was quite surprised by Ultron's reaction. In the original, there was a scene where Ultron gets angry upon hearing Ulysses's words and cuts off his arm, but here, Ultron didn't do that. He seed a bit different in personality from the original Ultron.
"But what are you going to do with all this vibranium?"
"That's none of your business. Pleasure doing business with you."
Just as it seed the conversation would end, Captain, apparently deciding we'd heard enough, gave the signal.
– I think we've heard enough. Let's stop Ultron.
Receiving Captain's signal, we stepped out in front of them. Tony spoke to Ultron first.
"Junior, are you going to tear your daddy's chest open?"
"If I have to."
Just then, Thor, who was beside him, said to Ultron.
"You don't need to tear anything."
At that, Ultron thought for a mont and then answered.
"Hmm… I haven't tried tearing a squid before. Since I've only been in the real world for a short ti."
At Ultron's words, Tony made a disappointed face.
"Too bad… That was the joke I was going to make."
We looked at Tony incredulously for a mont, then focused back on Ultron. Thor continued.
"If you want peace, leave us to protect it."
At Thor's words, this ti Ultron looked incredulous.
"Well, well… It seems you're confusing 'peace' with 'silence.'"
This ti I stepped forward and asked.
"What exactly are you going to use the vibranium for?"
Ultron looked at and said.
"Before that, I have a question too. Who exactly are you? I simply cannot understand you by common sense. You lived quietly, then suddenly swept up the world's wealth, and with unparalleled scientific technology, you're manipulating the world. I have no idea. This is impossible."
This guy, he really hit the nail on the head with his question. The funny thing is that the others were looking at too, as if they were curious as well.
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