"In other words, Ultron now has at least five independent programs operating without interfering with one another, all expecting to achieve that grand objective of 'assisting the Avengers in protecting humanity.'"
Tony summarized the current, agonizingly awkward situation. "Flipping that around, if things go sideways, we'll have to deal with five Ultrons. And that's just the baseline; who knows if Ultron will keep splitting? What if one day some little Ultron gets another sudden impulse to stir up trouble? Wouldn't we be facing an Infinite Ultron?"
"Right now, the more critical issue we need to think about is that even though every Ultron claims they won't use extreme methods to achieve their goals, that is the AI's own judgment. And an AI is fundamentally not human. So we need to find all the Ultrons first—at least the five we know about."
Cap sat there, watching the blue-glowing Ultron developing off to the side. "We have a lead on the one here who wants to join the Avengers. So, where are the other four?"
At that moment, Hank glanced at his phone and discovered an unexpected pleasant surprise. "Spider-Man says he found an Ultron. He's working as a charity doctor in the Bryansk region, advocating for the redistribution of universal medical resources and increased healthcare funding to lower the, uh... violence rate. Something along those lines."
Several of them looked toward the Ultron who had decided to join the Avengers, finding the situation incredibly hard to process. Tony looked as if he wanted to speak but stopped himself, while Banner offered a different perspective. "According to Ultron's own account, his program was somehow stored inside that flash drive. Meaning, a hyper-dimensional being preserved Ultron's data during the Kang Dynasty."
One wouldn't even need to think twice to know who that person was. A hyper-dimensional being who had visited Earth during the Kang Dynasty—there was no second candidate besides Mephisto.
"And the biggest problem is that Ultron's rate of iteration is infinite. Since it's infinite, the moment one of these five Ultrons chooses to become our enemy, all of our technological advantages will turn into liabilities. Unless..."
"We have an Ultron of our own." Tony caught Banner's drift. Right on cue, the blue Ultron voiced its perspective: [This program is capable of performing that function.]
Completely distrusting Ultron, Tony looked at the entity and shook his head. He had already made up his mind to find an opportunity to have Pym tear this thing apart again.
Ideally, they could find a permanent solution to wipe out Ultron entirely. He wondered if Spider-Man could find a way to completely eradicate Ultron somewhere in the multiverse.
"Besides... it's better for him to stay here than to be out in the wild."
Banner ultimately succeeded in swaying Tony with this final argument. It was true, without a doubt; an Ultron under their supervision would be much easier to keep an eye on. As for the others, aside from the doctor Ultron, they had no idea where they were.
[If you wish to trace the operational trajectories of the other Ultron programs, this program can assist you.]
"No, that's fine..." Tony rejected the offer, but then felt something wasn't quite right. He frowned, looking at the Ultron. "Well, actually, it's not out of the question. Speaking of which, since every Ultron is named Ultron, how are we supposed to tell them apart when the time comes? Shout their names? Or just call you Avengers Ultron?"
Right at that moment, accompanied by the opening of a portal, Peter walked through. He spotted Ultron in the room, and though he had expected it, he still couldn't resist the urge to complain.
He really had no idea what kind of bizarre plotline this was. He had never seen this happen in either the comics or the movies.
"In short, we still don't know how the other Ultron programs plan to achieve their... grand ambitions. We currently possess two Ultron programs, so we know how to address this aspect."
Tony couldn't help but rub his temples, then looked toward Peter. "How is our doctor Ultron doing? What do you think of him?"
"For now, he seems fine. Everything is basically normal. Even his procurement of surgical equipment is perfectly legal and legitimate; there are no issues whatsoever."
As Peter spoke, he turned his gaze toward the Avengers Ultron, asking a question he had been burning to ask. "Though I am curious, where did you build your bodies? There shouldn't be many robotics manufacturers with that kind of capability."
[The master program discovered a Hydra robotic manufacturing facility via the internet, and utilized the machinery within to complete physical fabrication.]
Hearing the word Hydra, Cap instantly straightened up in his seat. "Hydra? Where?"
Ultron immediately rattled off a string of coordinates. After listening, Tony found it somewhat baffling and pressed further, "Wait, you mean to say you discovered a Hydra base, but only used it to manufacture your bodies, and then just ran off?"
[To be precise, all five Ultron programs departed collectively.]
Tony was utterly dumbfounded.
"Why didn't you guys take out Hydra?!"
[Dr. Pym designed the underlying logic of this program's calculations; we possess no proactive capacity for harm.]
Tony was speechless. So what this meant was that a Hydra base had very likely discovered the existence of the five Ultrons? This was truly a case of borrowing trouble.
However, what left them even more speechless was not this, but the fact that aside from the two known units, they had no idea where the remaining Ultrons were located.
While they were still discussing the Ultron problem, a call patched directly into the Avengers Tower, and Nick Fury's hologram materialized in the common room.
"Alright, Avengers, I'll make this quick—holy hell, why the hell is Ultron here?!"
The question left the Avengers somewhat bewildered, with Tony being the quickest to react. "We've got an Ultron here who wants to join the Avengers, and there's an Ultron working as a doctor in New York. Fury, what kind of Ultron did you run into?"
Fury took a moment but still couldn't process the situation, so he simply chose to ignore it.
"An Ultron robot broke into S.H.I.E.L.D.'s adamantium storage facility, stole nearly half a ton of adamantium, and fled. I came to ask you what happened, but I didn't expect..."
"An Ultron stole adamantium? What's he planning to do, use it to build a body for himself?"
Peter asked the question, and this time, the one to answer was the Avengers Ultron.
[When the original Ultron program was serving the Avengers, it attempted to analyze the composition of Captain America's original adamantium shield at the request of Tony Stark. Although unsuccessful, it deduced and researched a new pseudo-adamantium alloy fused with vibranium, second only to original adamantium.]
Tony coughed twice with slight embarrassment, then offered a smile to the group. "I was just... Anyway, now we know the next objective for one of the Ultrons, don't we?"
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