CHAPTER 70 - A DISCOUNT ULTRON(?)

"I see you've been quite busy." Vision turned to look at Wanda who was leaning against the door to his room.

"Well it had to be done at some point."

Hearing his answer, Wanda nodded and noted that the Mind Stone was visible in his forehead which meant that he was currently using it for something.

"So what next?" She found herself asking. Seeing the apprehension of Edward Buckman on the news yesterday was all it took for her to know who was behind it and now she wanted to know his next course of action.

"What some people don't understand, heroes in this case, is that heroes thrive during times of chaos and now is the most chaotic time as of recent." Seeing as she didn't understand what he was saying, he was forced to break it down a little bit for her. "Despite how bleak the current situation looks, this is the best time, if any, for heroes and the heroically-aligned vigilantes to be more active and try to change the public opinion as doing so will leave a more prominent mark now than if they were to do it on a normal day."

Wanda more or less understood what he was saying but what she didn't understand was how it correlates with what he was currently doing.

"What I'm trying to say is that the thing that will be most ideal in the current public is to take away their attention from going all 'to the guillotine' on mutants and focus it on something else."

"A scapegoat?"

"I see you're catching up quickly." He said, impressed. "And Buckman is just the first of many to fill out that role."

Having gotten a general overview of what was most likely Vision's next course of action, Wanda asked. "So what are you doing next?"

"Easy." He said cheerily. "Since the fire's already been set, we'll just have to wait for the smoke to drive out our targeted rodents."

Wanda had a weird face after hearing what Vision said and the person in question only raised a brow in inquisition. "Somehow all what you just said just doesn't seem like something a hero would say."

Hearing her thoughts, Vision laughed, not out of mockery or because it was funny but because of the irony of the entire thing.

He walked past Wanda and gestured for her to follow and started speaking as she kept her pace beside him.

"The word 'hero' and 'villain' are very subjective and mostly based on individual perception so the concept itself is flawed and complicatedly biased." He paused a bit and continued after seeing that she was paying attention instead of outright debating against it, he expanded further.

"But unlike the two previously mentioned concepts, the concepts that are not skewed or biased against are 'good' and 'bad'. Heroes are called that because they do 'good' for the general public, so rather than trying to be heroic I'll rather I remain being good. Helps put things into perspective and creates a very balanced moral line."

One thing Wanda was quick to notice about Vision was that he liked making himself as clear and precise as possible when he spoke which made most of the things that came out of his mouth when talking about specific things sound like an advice, sometimes even a lecture, rather than a simple flowing conversation

She doubted it was something he did intentionally so she just shrugged it off as another apparent behavioral feature of him being an AI. 'Perhaps because of Jarvis' code structure? He does have similarities to Ultron too… except for the sarcastic retorts.'

"That's a pretty good narrative but you still haven't said anything about what you want to do next."

"Oh right, it seems I got carried away. Ever heard of the phrase 'strike while the iron is hot'?"

°°°°°°°

Sebastian Shaw read the latest reports his associates had sent him regarding Edward Buckman's case which had suddenly turned into a national lawsuit with multiple states filing a case against Buckman.

His face remained impassive as he read through the detailed and lengthy write up that explained just what Buckman would be facing at a minimum. Even if he tried to weasel his way out of this, he would be scarred for life.

"I guess this is the end of your road, 'friend'" He said with a small smile on his face before picking up the intercom on his desk. "Send a message to the others. We have to discuss Buckman's case and whether or not the Club should interfere."

Though he said those words, he knew just what those vultures would do and the decision that they'll make concerning Buckman and he was all too pleased for it to happen. All the better since he knew more about Buckman's underhand businesses than anyone else which meant that the larger piece of the pie will be falling in his hands while everyone else will be scrambling for the crumbs he'll leave.

'You have to feed the wolves under the table after all. Not too much that will have the energy to take a bite at you, and not too little that they will starve and turn rabid on you.'

Because the Hellfire Club prioritized maintaining a low profile despite their wealth and influence, Buckman's little stunt-gone-wrong had a very high possibility of blowing their way and if there was one thing elite businessmen hated more than anything was having to deal with someone else's trouble.

He put out another call and gave out his orders as soon as the other end picked it up. "Contact Buckman's lawyers. Tell them I have a business proposal for them. One they would rather not want to miss."

'And just like that, everything falls into place.'

°°°°°°°

[Wanda Maximoff POV]

Even though I had first doubted it when he said so, that woman called Mystique really is something else.

She has already managed to integrate herself into Buckman's life so seamlessly that the poor man couldn't even tell the difference between her and his wife. Literally.

"Guess shape-shifting and top-tier espionage skillsets really come in handy when you need it."

Right now I was currently going solo, raiding an underground storage facility where Edward Buckman kept some of his things. The problem was that there were quite a few of these and he didn't bother specifying what was kept where. Which meant we had to manually cover the bases in case any of them turned out to be of any substantial importance.

"Hopefully this better makes the trip worth it."

And of course there just have to be guards and whatever that defective Ultron lookalike is supposed to be.

"Rich guys do spend their money on the most random things. I mean who else will spend millions just to guard an underground storage facility in the middle of nowhere?"

Getting past the perimeters was easy but unfortunately that was where it all ended as it turns out that I must have unknowingly triggered some sort of sensor that my abilities for some reason didn't register.

The Ultron lookalike turned towards me and started spouting some robot talk that I have no time to pay attention to since I was busy making a mental count of the people currently converging on my location.

"Sorry guys. It's nothing personal but this is my first time flying solo on something major and I can't afford to mess it up."

The Ultron ripoff was already flying towards me but I easily caught it in a telekinetic hold and flung it to the side in favor of dealing with the multitude of armed mercenaries and mutants.

For another I made the ground around them start sinking in which started another panicking round of the usual warnings of 'careful, she's a mutant' as if it wasn't obvious from the start.

Trying to create a little breathing space for myself, my eyes glowed red and whoever was unfortunate to meet my gaze immediately fell under my control.

Regrettably I don't have Vision's level of telepathy and mind control and the only type of command I can give them with these methods are simple ones, which was perfect in this situation.

'Kill each other.'

A simple order given was all I needed to give those ensnared under my gaze to start attacking their own people. Turning the already chaotic place even more chaotic.

-‼

Two projectiles immediately hit the barrier I constructed around me with a resounding explosion and the cause of the explosion was none other than the robot who for some reason looks like I just became no. 1 priority on its kill list.

I fired two hex blasts at it with the first one causing it to stumble briefly in its flight path and tanking the next one with a more balanced ease. "Quite durable, huh?"

Before the robot reached within a few meters of myself, a red chain shot out from my palms and wrapped around its neck which I used to draw it faster towards myself.

It did try to react to the sudden pull and tried to grab me when I was within distance only for my form to fizzle out with a red mist as the illusion faded, only for the robot to be pulled directly into the ground as if it was a viscous liquid.

"That should hold you for a while until I'm through with the others." I said before turning to the mess of the battlefield around me. 'Now that I think about it, it's been a few days since the last time we went night patrolling. I'll tell him we should hang out after this. Maybe bust down a few operations.'

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