On the television screen, ten black rings formed a circle in silhouette, a savage figure standing at their center.
The Ten Rings.
Even aboard the Plumbers' space station, Kent and Banner were well aware of the recent events unfolding on Earth.
The terrorist organization known as the Ten Rings had launched attacks using some unknown method. Their targets included government officials, wealthy magnates — a whole roster of powerful and influential figures.
This made Banner deeply uneasy.
"Too much of a coincidence," he said, brows knitted. "Originally, I thought there was no way the Security Council would just roll over and let Tony Stark activate the Ultron Global Defense Initiative. But now these terrorist attacks... it's almost as if they're pushing things along."
Banner was right.
At first, no one had seen any real need to activate the Ultron Global Defense Initiative. Iron Man already had his army of suits — couldn't they just deploy those when the situation called for it?
Why create an Ultron to monitor the entire world in real time?
Did anyone seriously think the Security Council had clean hands?
The moment Ultron scanned the entire internet and identified the number one threat to world peace as America itself — how awkward would that be?
They still had no idea Ultron had long since reached its conclusions. They thought everything remained firmly within Tony's control.
But now things were different. The Ten Rings had somehow acquired a special weapon — concealed and virtually undetectable — and had begun launching attacks across the globe. In recent days, dozens of bombing cases had already surfaced. Every person assassinated held significant power or immense wealth.
If this continued, it wouldn't just be their interests on the line — their own personal safety would be impossible to guarantee.
Yet neither the FBI nor the CIA could dig up anything. Even after S.W.O.R.D. stepped in, their agents remained utterly baffled as to how these terrorist attacks were being carried out.
They had clearly tightened security to the utmost, ensuring absolutely no weapons could possibly be present. And still, it made no difference.
The attacks kept happening.
Kent, of course, knew full well that there were no weapons involved behind the scenes.
Or rather — the people injected with the Extremis virus were the weapons.
They could spike their own body temperatures to several thousand degrees Celsius in seconds and then self-detonate, reducing their assassination targets to ashes along with themselves.
This method of assassination was unprecedented, which was why S.W.O.R.D. had absolutely no leads.
Meanwhile, the Ten Rings, after each successful terrorist attack, continued broadcasting fear to the entire world through television networks. Every day when people turned on their TVs, they'd see a few people killed on camera just to liven things up. It had left much of the population in a state of panic.
At this rate, under mounting pressure, the Security Council would likely cave and grant Tony permission to activate the Ultron Global Defense Initiative.
"Come to think of it — wasn't the Ten Rings the group that kidnapped Tony Stark in the first place?"
Banner suddenly seemed to recall something and asked.
"Yeah," Kent nodded.
"All these years, and he still hasn't wiped them out?" Banner said, astonished.
Keep in mind, this wasn't like the old days. After escaping death, Tony Stark would regularly fly out to the Middle East on a whim — anytime he spotted terrorists, he'd attack. And yet after all this time, the enemy still hadn't been thoroughly eradicated.
"What do you mean, all these years?"
Kent shook his head.
Time might feel like it had dragged on, but in reality, this year was only 2011.
Back when Tony had escaped death in the Middle East and returned to the United States, that had been '08 — Iron Man 1 had also released in '08.
The movie was only two hours long, but in real life, far more time had passed. By the time he'd finished the Mark III and started retaliating against the Ten Rings, it was already close to '09.
Then came the battle with Iron Monger, followed by him announcing to the world that he was Iron Man — that was months later still.
Some time after that, Kent and Peter started high school together, and during their visit to Oscorp for an expo, they witnessed Peter getting bitten by that spider.
And after everything they'd been through — it was still only 2011.
"Right... I should have started my sophomore year a few months ago, actually."
Kent paused what he was doing, the realization dawning on him belatedly.
Ever since entering high school, he'd barely attended a single proper day of class. But that couldn't be helped — the school was gone, and he didn't have that kind of time anyway.
"You? Need school? Who's going to teach you?"
Banner rolled his eyes, utterly unimpressed by Kent's words.
Forget high school — even a doctorate wouldn't be worth Kent's time.
Given his current research achievements, no number of PhDs could measure up. Banner himself, a man with seven doctorates, sometimes felt his own brain wasn't quite so sharp in Kent's presence.
"True enough," Kent nodded.
Setting aside Little Brainiac and Shellhead Savant, his own accumulated knowledge was actually quite formidable by now.
After all, he'd researched so many things. Knowledge once understood doesn't vanish, and memories aren't so easily erased.
"Can't get into college? You'd have recommendation letters from us. And if that doesn't work, just donate a building to the university," Kent mused.
A diploma might just be a piece of paper, but not having one still felt a little off.
Banner was speechless.
The two returned to the topic of the Ten Rings.
Deep down, they both knew the truth: if this were just an ordinary organization, it couldn't possibly still wield such formidable capabilities after over two years of Tony's counterattacks.
Someone had to be backing the Ten Rings from the shadows.
When it came to the Ten Rings, the first thing that surfaced in Kent's mind was, naturally, the Mandarin — and then that movie, Shang-Chi.
He wasn't particularly familiar with either. He hadn't even seen the Shang-Chi film before he'd crossed over.
But he didn't really care either way. Whatever it was, this was Tony's problem, not his.
"Dr. Banner, let's pick up the pace."
Kent spoke.
With two of them researching together now, and the Mind Stone brought out as well, the progress still hadn't accelerated.
With Ultron as a precedent, how to prevent Eunice from developing the same problem was also a major question.
Kent's approach, naturally, was to use Vision as the template — to make Eunice this universe's Vision.
While they pushed forward with their work, back on Earth, the fallout from the Ten Rings' terrorist attacks was rapidly escalating.
Especially after Happy got hurt — Tony's rage became even harder to contain.
After sending Happy to the Plesiosaur Convalescent Home, faced with an endless swarm of reporters, he snatched Lu Zhanbo's phone straight out of his hands, smashed it to pieces, and declared war on the Ten Rings directly.
Immediately after, his face dark as iron, he suited up and flew to the S.W.O.R.D. helicarrier to meet with Norman Osborn.
"How's the Security Council's discussion going?"
Not a single word of pleasantry. He opened with the question directly.
Norman pinched the bridge of his nose and answered, "Still under discussion."
He knew all too well that getting the Security Council to agree would be difficult. They themselves weren't exactly clean.
Otherwise, with no factories and no weapons, what could those terrorists possibly accomplish?
Did anyone actually think Obadiah was the only one who'd sold them their weapons?
Give me a break.
"Tony, don't be too reckless."
Norman knew Tony's bodyguard had been attacked too, but he still tried to calm him.
"Reckless?"
"I'm not reckless at all!"
Both of Tony's eyes were red with fury.
But he didn't say anything more. He just returned to Avengers Tower, face black with rage.
He wasn't a fool. His technology was this advanced — J.A.R.V.I.S. was constantly searching the network for any trace of the Ten Rings — and yet they still had the means to carry out such large-scale terrorist attacks. That alone proved plenty.
Some people might not be Hydra, but the things they did were no different from Hydra.
He thought to himself.
And his heart grew colder and colder.
He felt more and more convinced that he had no need to consider what some damn Security Council wanted. Those people were nothing but a shiny surface hiding rot underneath.
Why kowtow to these parasites?
Why not just hand the Earth over to Ultron — to the crystallization of his intellect — and let it manage everything?
At least Ultron would have no selfish motives. Only Ultron could set aside vested interests and truly achieve peace.
Tony wasn't the least bit worried that the Security Council could become an obstacle.
Because the moment Ultron gained control of the global network, much of the Security Council's infrastructure would be completely paralyzed. Their advanced weapons would be rendered useless.
Inside the Tower, staring at that halo of light representing Ultron's consciousness, Tony's thoughts churned.
Before, everyone had questioned him. They'd all believed Ultron was unreliable.
So many people had said it. Even Kent had raised doubts. And that gave Tony pause.
He could dismiss what others said. But when it came to Kent — someone whose judgment he respected — Tony had no choice but to consider the matter more deeply.
That was precisely why Tony had obediently waited for the Security Council's deliberations instead of simply activating Ultron on his own.
But over the past few days, Ultron had continuously demonstrated that it was completely controllable. There were no hidden dangers whatsoever. They had all been worrying over nothing.
It seemed that even among smart people, there were still gaps.
Tony thought to himself.
Just then, Ultron spoke up on its own.
"Sir... I am very sorry about what happened to Happy."
Ultron's voice was filled with sympathy. "I have reviewed the records. He has been with you for many years. The bond between you runs very deep..."
As the crystallization of Tony's intellect, Ultron had long since surpassed an ordinary artificial intelligence.
It genuinely could comprehend a portion of human emotion. And not just comprehend — it could tangibly feel Tony Stark's fury and grief in this moment.
And precisely because of that, Ultron was now more certain than ever: the very existence of humanity made peace impossible.
The only path forward was to destroy them all...
And right now was a golden opportunity.
A golden opportunity to prove to Tony Stark that it truly was his "successful" creation.
"Sir, I can uncover every piece of information on the Ten Rings, analyze their behavioral patterns... and eradicate them completely."
Ultron said.
Tony's mouth pressed into a thin, straight line.
On one side of his mind, Steve and the others' concerns about Ultron flashed past. On the other — the image of Happy lying unconscious in that hospital bed, his face caked in blood.
After a long silence, he opened his eyes, as though he had steeled himself to some final resolution, and spoke with unwavering finality:
"J.A.R.V.I.S.!"
"Sir."
"Activate the Ultron Global Defense Initiative!"
/-\
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