Birth of a New Guardian
Tony arrived at the place where the battlefield between Owen and Alexei had been, and began scanning the area, finding no one nearby.
Friday then performed a deeper analysis and detected something in the depths of the water, right where the cargo ship had sunk completely destroyed.
However, before she could give the warning, something suddenly burst out of the water, creating a huge splash.
It was Owen, who leaped out while holding several vials filled with vibranium before letting them drop onto the ground.
There were far too few compared to the amount that should have been there. Owen frowned with a clearly annoyed expression; he didn't need to think very hard to realize that Alexei and Ultron had managed to secure a large amount of material to improve Ultron's structure.
"Looks like you had quite a blast over here," Tony said as he looked toward the center of the crater, where a mass of remains could be seen—something he preferred not to examine too closely—as well as blood of a very familiar color scattered around.
"What happened to Ultron?", Owen asked, even though he knew that defeating him wouldn't stop him completely; Ultron could have easily copied himself onto the Internet.
"Well, about that… he just exploded," Tony replied.
Owen narrowed his eyes as he looked at him; even Tony felt a bit nervous under that stare. Owen's personality remained cold and serious, as if he was still forcing himself to maintain control.
Owen lowered his gaze to the vials on the ground, apparently lost in deep thought.
"It's not like we could do much. Looks like he was prepared for something like a kamikaze attack; all the robots he sent were just decoys meant to be destroyed," Tony continued, perhaps justifying himself to avoid drawing more of Owen's anger, since he already looked quite irritated. That was when Tony noticed something: Owen's right hand was ungloved, and the scars were glowing red-hot. "That… looks much worse than before, doesn't it?" he said seriously.
"Yes. Much worse. The gloves you made won't be able to handle it anymore," Owen said in an equally serious tone. And Tony finally understood why the atmosphere around them felt so heavy and cold; Owen was surely enduring immense pain.
"Okay… I can improve a few things in the cooling system. And…" Tony looked at the vibranium on the ground. "That will help me make something more resistant," he added.
"In the meantime, you can use one of the prototypes," he said quickly. Owen nodded.
…
Later that same day, the whole group had gathered for a strategic meeting. Owen wore another glove on his right hand; it was one of the prototypes, and even so, in just a couple of hours it was already showing burn marks, a sign that it wouldn't last beyond that night. Owen kept a distant gaze, his mind full of thoughts that distracted him from the meeting.
"We need to find a way to force him out of the network; otherwise we might end up with a bunch of terrorist robots exploding in our faces," Nicolás said in a very serious tone.
During that day's battle, he had needed to be extremely careful; the robots, unafraid of being destroyed, threw themselves at them like maniacs. That way, if they were destroyed too close, they would still damage anyone nearby with the explosion.
"It's possible he won't use the same method again. Destroying his own army, if he builds another one, wouldn't be profitable at all. It might have been a tactic to obtain the resources he wanted so badly," Steve commented calmly; he had a strategic, confident tone because what he said was true. "Still, if we can't destroy his core…" Steve fell silent.
"The only alternative we have is to start disconnecting servers to trap him in a single place; but that would cause a lot of problems worldwide," Banner added seriously, evaluating possible solutions.
"At this point, shutting down the Internet might be easier; something like a global blackout," Pietro said with a grin.
"Don't be stupid. Even if a server shuts down, once it turns back on it reloads with all the data," Nicolás replied, rolling his eyes.
"Couldn't you create several artificial intelligences and send them to look for him through the Internet? Something like a cyber squad?" Scott Lang said suddenly, making everyone look at him.
"Right. And that way I can get more friends who might lose control. Perfect," Hawkeye muttered.
"Although… it's not a bad idea," Banner said suddenly, surprisingly interested.
"See? I told you," Scott said quickly.
"Not like that," Banner added immediately. "We could use a cyberattack; something like using an Air-Gap, and then trying to eliminate him from the very server he's in by sending other intelligences as bait to track him," he explained rapidly.
"It won't work," Dr. Pym said right away, shaking his head. "It's far too simple; Ultron wouldn't fall for something like that. And creating an artificial intelligence at his level would be a perfect way to end up with another Ultron."
"Depends on which intelligence," Tony said suddenly, with a slight smile.
Everyone looked at him. It was obvious he had something.
"Just say what you have, Stark," Natasha said, watching him intently.
"Remember when I told you someone had been protecting attempts to infiltrate extremely sensitive places? For example, sites from which they could easily launch a nuclear strike at us?" Tony said with a mysterious tone. Then he tapped several commands on his tablet, and in the middle of everyone appeared what looked like a neural network.
"Here's the culprit… or rather, our savior," he added.
"Hello, everyone," said a very familiar voice: JARVIS.
"JARVIS?! How?" Banner exclaimed, stunned.
"Explain it, JARVIS," Tony requested so the others could understand.
"Of course, sir. At the moment of Ultron's infiltration and the beginning of the attack, when I found myself overwhelmed by a destructive intrusion, I activated the emergency protocol to transfer all data to the private backup server provided by General Nathaniel Hawthorne," JARVIS explained with total clarity.
"What? The general?" Banner asked in surprise. "But even then, Ultron wouldn't have let you escape," he added immediately.
At that moment, the general walked in through the door with his usual calm smile.
"That's simple; I can explain it. Once JARVIS accessed the computer in my office, I simply cut the Internet cable with a pair of scissors," the old man said as if it were the easiest thing in the world.
Everyone was in shock. It had literally been way too easy. And fast.
Nicolás almost burst out laughing at how casually his father talked about it.
"Wait… very important… why did the general have a server ready for JARVIS?" Pietro asked, immediately interested.
"I told him," Owen replied with a calm look.
Up to that moment, he had barely spoken; he had only been observing the meeting in silence, with Wanda sitting beside him. She glanced at him for an instant, fully aware of why Owen had prepared all of that, though she also said nothing.
Everyone looked at Owen, waiting.
"Remember that time when Tony tried to create an artificial intelligence to protect the Earth… and I stopped him," Owen began seriously. "In reality, knowing him, we all know he wouldn't have stopped anyway. And we also knew that a single failure could cause a machine apocalypse, just like what happened now. That's why I told the old man to prepare a backup plan," Owen explained.
"But why JARVIS? How did you know he wouldn't be the one to lose control?" Tony asked immediately. It was clear the subject bothered him; it sounded almost as if everything had been prepared from the beginning for JARVIS to survive, as if Owen had somehow known he would be destroyed unless something was done.
Before answering, Owen stood up and walked to a corner where there was a fairly large briefcase. He picked it up, carried it to the center of the room, and opened it.
Inside was an object far too familiar to many; especially to Hawkeye: Loki's scepter.
Before anyone could say anything, Owen pressed a button inside the briefcase. The technology hidden within activated instantly; a hologram appeared at once, very similar to JARVIS's neural network… except this one was immensely larger, more complex, and far more detailed.
If JARVIS's neural network was a marble, this one was a soccer ball.
Tony and Banner were the most shocked; they understood perfectly what Owen was showing them.
"How… is this even possible? This surpasses any known artificial neural network," Banner murmured as he walked around the projection, analyzing every connection as if he were looking at actual brain neurons.
"Because we were preparing a new home for JARVIS," the general added calmly.
"What?" everyone asked at the same time, completely bewildered.
"You want to put JARVIS in there?" Nicolás asked, confused, pointing at Loki's old scepter as if it were ridiculous to imagine a smart staff.
"Not in the scepter. We already have something prepared," the general replied while giving his son a look that suggested it should have been obvious.
At that moment, Doctor Helen Cho entered behind him.
"General, everything is ready. We only need the materials," she reported with a brief nod to the rest of the team.
"Don't worry. With the materials these brats brought, it should be enough," the general said with a smile.
The others grew even more confused; no one seemed to fully understand what they were planning.
Except for Owen and Wanda.
They knew exactly what they were about to create.
Or rather… who they were about to give life to.
It was time to bring Vision into the world.