"What the hell is happening now?"
The current king of Wakanda - T'Chaka, stood on an elevation overlooking the command center, his worried eyes fixed on his daughter.
Shuri didn't lift her gaze from the holographic interface.
This was the first real invasion of Wakanda since her father became king.
And immediately - catastrophe.
"Dad, please, don't interrupt me," she said tensely.
Sweat trickled down her forehead as her fingers flew rapidly across the keyboard with blue light projections.
"This artificial intelligence… Ultron… has just breached the first layer of our defense network!"
Her voice was calm but fast, filled with urgency.
"His goal isn't a direct attack… but to disable the energy barrier above us, and do it before the nuclear missile arrives!"
She paused for just a moment and looked at her father.
"Dad, do you know what will happen if he succeeds?"
At that moment, Shuri turned her gaze to the large screen in the background.
A countdown.
Five minutes left.
"Exactly three hundred seconds!" she shouted.
In front of King T'Chaka now clearly stood a display with large numbers relentlessly ticking down.
He knew. They all knew.
Three hundred seconds would decide Wakanda's survival.
Shuri and her team of scientists had to endure and protect the energy shield to the very end.
Because if it falls…
That day will be the end of Wakanda.
"Great ancestors… be with us," T'Chaka whispered and closed his eyes for a moment.
…
In another location.
Aron, under the guidance of the Black Widow, was teleported to a remote part of New Jersey.
In front of them stood a complex that had clearly been abandoned for years.
No signs of life. The nearest town was miles away.
Buildings overgrown with weeds, concrete paths cracked, and the silence almost unnatural.
Signs on the walls and the architecture revealed that this was once a military facility, probably from the Cold War era, maybe even World War II.
"Are you sure this is the place?" Natasha asked suspiciously.
Aron stepped forward without a word.
He made no gesture, didn't touch anything.
But the rusty fence in front of him suddenly melted as if under intense fire, turning into glowing molten iron.
And not only that.
The weeds along the path ignited on their own and turned to ash.
Still, the strange flames didn't spread, as if they knew exactly where to go, following only the path Aron walked.
Black Widow was left speechless.
"This is the place," she finally said. "Ever since we dismantled Hydra, Stark managed to get hold of their confidential data. All their projects, all their operations were here."
Aron didn't comment, but his gaze was steely as he measured the building ahead.
It read "Ammunition Depot."
"Within a 500-meter radius of the barracks, ammunition is not allowed."
"A building like this shouldn't be here!"
Black Widow immediately reacted, realizing the target was inside this building.
Right after that, she felt a hint of curiosity.
"How did you know this was the right place? Have you ever served in the military?"
Actually, what she wanted to ask was: Have you ever been in a war?
"Guess."
Aron didn't give further explanation.
He couldn't tell her he had watched the Captain America movie.
BOOM!
The metal door of the depot echoed as Aron kicked it forcefully.
"Enter."
But it wasn't an ammunition depot at all.
It turned out that underneath was an underground office complex, resembling an administrative building from the last century.
On one of the walls, the SHIELD emblem was clearly displayed.
When they pulled the electric gate, the space lit up.
The building still had power.
Lights shone above their heads.
"This is where SHIELD was founded," said Black Widow, approaching a wall adorned with old photographs.
One of them showed Howard Stark, father of Tony Stark.
Another – Peggy Carter, former girlfriend of Captain America.
They were all among the founders of SHIELD.
"Come on. The person I'm looking for isn't here."
They passed through the rest of the administrative building and came to a hidden elevator platform.
Aron and the two of them descended to the very bottom of the facility.
There they were met by rows of old devices, machines from another time.
It was a massive computer unit, the size of two basketball courts, using tapes as a medium for data storage.
Each tape was connected to computing modules.
At the center of the room stood a console with three old CRT monitors.
"Aron, are you sure he's still alive?" asked Black Widow, suspiciously looking around.
"These things look like they don't have a shred of intelligence."
The environment looked more like a museum exhibit than an active system.
Hard to believe that in that pile of rust and old wires something advanced could be hidden, let alone artificial intelligence like Ultron.
Most would think Aron had lost his mind.
"Miss Romanoff…"
"Do you trust me? Or do you still trust Hydra?" Aron gave her a slight smile.
Without further words, he connected the device they had taken from Hydra directly to the console.
The moment it connected, each memory unit around them began to light up.
One by one, the tapes activated.
Finally, the CRT screens lit up as well.
A blurry face appeared on them.
At the same time, a camera the size of a speed sensor began to move and focused on the Black Widow.
"Natalia Alianovna Romanoff. Born 1984…"
The system's voice spoke mechanically.
"Alright, enough!" Aron immediately interrupted. "Don't start listing the biography."
"Zola, right? Dr. Arnim Zola."
"Hydra has fallen. And I will destroy all data here in 15 seconds."
He spoke without emotion, connecting Stark's own storage disk to the console.
"Your only chance to survive is to immediately transfer everything you know and come with me."
He didn't give the system a moment to think.
"14!"
"13!"
The countdown began.
The lights in the memory modules went out one by one.
Soon, the last tapes lost power.
Aron kept his promise.
He raised his right hand.
The shadows surrounding him immediately formed into massive arms.
RUMBLE!
In a moment, all disk systems were destroyed.
Metal and plastic turned to ash.
"So, besides Ultron, now we have another super artificial intelligence."
Black Widow looked at the remains with a mix of disbelief and unease.
——
Support me on Patreon: patreon.com/_BlackRose
For $3, you get 20+ advanced chapters.