CHAPTER 10

[Ultron code successfully assimilated]

[There has been a reaction with the Mind Stone upon assimilation completion]

'Hmm, it reacted? It did birth Ultron in the first place so its reaction isn't that far-fetched.'

I closed my eyes and dived inside my mind which just looked like building blocks stacked against each other in all directions, all made of code. 

Let's see what this Ultron code is. 

A part of the information block broke and flew towards me. The moment I touched it, the intricately woven code scattered and entered my body and with it came the information.. 

'That's a whole lot of zeros and ones.'

Funny how nothing I received from the code surprised me as much as it should have given the high number of outrageous things it came with. 

Basically, like its name, it's Ultron's subliminal consciousness in the form of codes, meaning I could build him up again if I wanted but that wasn't going to happen any time soon. 

I definitely might in the future but not now. I am absolutely sure that I can make him not psychopathic with a little changes to his code but tensions were kinda high at the moment. 

If they found out that I can mass produce an army of Ultron's(because if I can make one, I definitely can make many), it doesn't matter what the reason is, they'll want to put me in a box and melt the key to molten sludge. 

'What would Simon do?' 

I'd lay off reprogramming Ultron for now because I really don't need it. My neural codes are way more sophisticated than Ultron's because if it wasn't, I wouldn't have been able to assimilate him, even if it was a dormant consciousness. 

There were even quite a few plans in place to take care of the Avengers depending on different scenarios. 

'Sheesh. This guy was very adamant on not taking an L.'

Lets just say if the Avengers had not destroyed Ultron in Sokovia, all of them would have died. 

Family. Spouses. Love interests. Hobbies. Pastime activities. Secret relationships. Government secrets. Military information. International market pillars. Economical market pillars. Veins of resources. 

The well of information here was everything Ultron could scour from the internet when he dominated it and the plans he had in motion should his first attack fail. 

'Christ. He definitely wasn't kidding about planetary extinction.'

Even places of importance that were removed from the modern day map were all factored in his plans. 

Even plans for evolution. 

I mean, I expected it but I honestly thought it'd be something else, or something more to it. 

'Now where to start from?' With a treasure lode of information like this, picking a route suddenly becomes hard. 

Most of his plans were speculations on his end but they all had promise. Even the one about evolution, I can already see the part to 'What If?' had he taken a step in that direction. 

I opened my eyes and scratched my steely head. 

If we are talking main storylines, then things to do were pretty simple; stop Civil War, don't die in Infinity War, WandaVision shouldn't take place and Multiverse of Madness is a big no-no. Pretty simple, right? 

Guess, I'll go with the usual trope – strengthening myself – which isn't a plan itself but more of a basic necessity. I mean, I have an Infinity Stone stuck in my head… it's an Infinity Stone for crying out loud. 

And maybe work on featuring a new skin for myself. To be honest, I really dig the robot look but it'd be kind of weird if I start walking in public with it. 

°°°°°

Four metal columns were currently spinning around me in uniform motion as I took care not to spin one faster than the other. 

Their collective weight was over 10 tons which I was handling quite fine. A hundred meters away from me was Pietro getting his speed training on, courtesy of me. 

I was firing electrical blasts and laser beams at him while he did his best to dodge. 

I knew it was due to a wacky plot but a speedster dying to bullets was beyond bad. No matter how hard I tried, I just couldn't sit still while he zapped around the place with his happy feet knowing fully damn well that I was faster than him, and he was the speedster. 

If he runs while I fly, there were more than ten applications of my powers that I could use to make him eat my dust, so I just dragged him with me and started blasting him until he realized what I was doing.

He's been helping me iron out my abilities with me training his speed for the past two weeks. 

I dropped the block gently while ending the electrical blasts I've been sending his way. 

He hunched over and grabbed his knees as he gasped for air. "Ho-how f-fast?"

'Pitiful.'

"A little over Mach 5." I said in a bland tone but it seems that was enough to lift his spirits. 

"So I broke another Mach, great! You know, you're pretty mean when it comes to training." He whizzed to my side, his earlier fatigue rapidly receding. 

"Hard work and talent. These two things define advancement in any sentient species. Between these two, talent far outstrips hard work and it's impossible to get unless you are born with it, or in your case, blessed with it. One is inherent while the other is worked for. If you already have the talent, what then is wrong with putting in a little effort?"

He fell silent at that and I knew he had never thought of it that way. He's never striven to become faster because he always thought his speed was enough. Oh how wrong he was. 

I found a little tidbit when I went over the information I had on every member of the Avengers, which was all of them and found something interesting in one of Steve's old photos. 

Logan. 

Mr. Gruff participated in World War I and World War II and just his appearance in a photo had already set off several precautions of my 'Ultron Protocols'. All it took was a little digging and everything started pouring out like a waterfall. 

This was also an X-men and F4 universe as it should have been had Marvel gotten the movie rights to the franchise.