After listening to Kitty's entire explanation, Peter felt completely bewildered. He was, of course, familiar with the story of "Days of Future Past." It was an essential plotline that the X-Men franchise simply couldn't avoid: the death of a specific character triggers a wave of panic and fury toward mutants throughout society, pushing the U.S. government to move forward with the Sentinel Program.
Eventually, the Sentinels spiral out of control and lead to the destruction of the world—that was the gist of it.
The only difference across various continuities was who actually died. In the earliest comic version, the Brotherhood of Mutants assassinated both Senator Kelly and Professor Charles Xavier. Charles's death meant there was no one to lead the moderate mutants to reach an agreement with the government, thereby accelerating the implementation of the Mutant Registration Act and the Sentinel Program.
In the Days of Future Past movie, the person who died was Bolivar Trask, the head and developer of the Sentinel project.
However, in the information Kitty had received from the "future," this key role had changed again—and it had become incredibly crowded and chaotic.
There was Senator Kelly, assassinated by the Brotherhood of Mutants.
There was Tony Stark, who theoretically should have successfully saved the President during the events of Iron Man 3, and President Matthew Ellis himself, who should have been rescued.
There was Aldrich Killian, the leader of A.I.M. who should have been eliminated, along with the Vice President who was conspiring with him.
And then there was Magneto, who supported the Brotherhood of Mutants.
Basically, as long as a single one of these elements didn't go wrong, the Days of Future Past timeline wouldn't occur. Yet, in this version, everything had gone wrong simultaneously.
"Wait, there's a problem here. What about Ultron?" Peter asked, confused. "Was there no Ultron in that timeline? Didn't Ultron give Nimrod a serious reality check?"
They're all super AIs; why would Nimrod be able to outmaneuver Ultron?
[Actually, the Avengers did indeed use Ultron to combat Nimrod. While I am not entirely clear on the details, even now, Ultron remains the final insurance policy for the survivors against Nimrod. But that was not enough to defeat him.]
[Nimrod's uniqueness lies in the fact that it is not merely an artificial intelligence; it has a physical form. Every Nimrod Sentinel is an extension of Nimrod's physical self. These entities can replicate X-Gene abilities. They destroyed Genosha and copied the X-Genes of fifteen million mutants.]
Peter was stunned, not just by the voice appearing in his head, but by Nimrod's capabilities. "Is Nimrod really that ridiculous? Isn't that a bit too unfair? Oh, uh, first time meeting you."
[A pleasure to meet you, Spider-Man. I am Charles Xavier. I originally intended to notify Scott first, but Kitty convinced me that you might be a more suitable candidate—you can notify the Avengers, and you've made a good impression on Erik. Perhaps it would be best if you handled things on the Genosha side as well.]
"Alright... to be honest, I'm not entirely sure how all this happened, but I'll go notify the Avengers." Peter rubbed the bridge of his nose. "What about you?"
[I need to gather my X-Men.]
"Then, I'll be going now?" After seeing Peter, Kitty waved with a smile and prepared to leave, then ran a hand through her hair somewhat helplessly. The memories the Professor had transmitted from the future had caught her off guard. In that apocalyptic future, she and the person in front of her had become lovers, and she suddenly felt a strange sense of familiarity with him.
Even though they had known each other before, they weren't this close. This sudden intimacy made it difficult for Kitty to navigate the atmosphere between them, and she had come over on a sudden impulse. Fortunately, the Professor hadn't blamed her.
Bidding Kitty farewell and watching her phase through the walls of his room to leave, Peter thought for a moment before quickly finding his uniform and putting it on. He then called Captain America, who was on duty at Avengers Tower. "Cap, can you gather everyone? That's right, something big has happened. No, it's not urgent in terms of time yet—I'll be there soon."
About half an hour later, at Avengers Tower.
All eight members of the Avengers were assembled. After listening to Peter's narration of the situation, Tony brought up the bizarre explosion cases he had recently been investigating. These explosions left no trace of conventional explosives. According to his reconstruction and analysis of the scenes, there was only one possibility: the bombs were human bodies.
"The ones behind these explosions are the so-called Ten Rings. Their leader is called the Mandarin, a radical fanatic who wants to rebuild the Mongol Empire in the 21st century."
"The Mongol Empire?" Cap looked at Tony, confused. "The Mongol Empire has been dead for nearly eight hundred years. What's his deal?"
"Well, his father was a British diplomat in Mongolia, and his mother was a local... service industry worker. So, he's an illegitimate son. According to himself, he possesses ten rings that make him omnipotent, and he claims to be a direct descendant of Genghis Khan with a claim to the Great Mongol State."
Tony sipped some green vegetable juice while reciting the intel Jarvis had helped him dig up, then shrugged helplessly. "It hasn't been very useful. I've been investigating and fighting them for two years, but I can never catch the guy; it's like he's vanished. He's probably somewhere in Central Asia. After all, it's the Mongol Empire; Eastern counter-terrorism forces have also mobilized to clear them out."
"And according to the information Spider-Man brought from the future, A.I.M. is actually behind the Ten Rings. They are currently undertaking a new Super Soldier program and a new weapons development project. Furthermore, they are the equipment maintenance contractors for the American Avengers."
T'Challa analyzed the portion regarding A.I.M. from that extreme future. "Once the Ten Rings carry out a terrorist action against the U.S. President on American soil, the United States will be forced to launch a new round of large-scale counter-terrorism wars, the likes of which haven't been seen since 9/11. Since the Vice President has a cooperative relationship with A.I.M., A.I.M. will become the government's most favored weapons developer in this new war."
A single U.S. President dies, and someone becomes the largest arms dealer in America during the age of superpowers. What a perfect plan.
Since it would be a war on terror, radical mutant terrorist organizations would also be targets for the U.S. government. To face this new "trouble," A.I.M. would choose to acquire Trask Industries and contract the production of Sentinels.
Tony fell silent. From the current perspective, opposing A.I.M. might not be just his personal problem anymore; it might require the entire Avengers to mobilize.
However, before that, there was one more thing he could do.
"Let's get a little creative, guys. It just so happens I've been thinking about what we'd do if we lacked firepower during the next extraterrestrial invasion. Although I've always looked down on giant robots, since things have come to this..."
Tony set down his glass of vegetable juice and looked at everyone.
"Stark Industries will move first and acquire Trask Industries. The Sentinel production lines and equipment will be used to manufacture a brand-new Iron Legion, rather than mutant-slaughtering machines."