Main Universe Iron Man, having taken off his armor, sat by the office window. Schiller sat across from him, looking out at the Long Island skyline.
In Ant-Man's kidnapping case, Iron Man and Doctor Strange were suspects, Hydra was a suspect, and even interdimensional travelers like Schiller were suspects—but one very important figure had been overlooked: Ultron.
Ultron had left, but he was not dead. Besides, for a creature born from Electronic Life, leaving behind hundreds or thousands of backups in his home turf was perfectly normal. He was hiding in the shadows, ready to strike at any moment.
If the methods alone were not enough to identify Ultron as the culprit, then the ultimate beneficiary made it almost certain.
Pym had been kidnapped. Who benefited the most?
It certainly could not have been Iron Man and Doctor Strange. They would have preferred to keep Pym in their hands, so they could take the initiative in the early negotiations; even if they did not use him as a bargaining chip, they could not let the chief culprit run free. Keeping him under control was the most natural choice.
Nor would it have been Hydra. Hydra needed something from Pym. Perhaps they hoped he would improve their equipment, or perhaps they wanted him to develop new weapons to turn around the Manfredi family's situation. But those gains were far too insignificant to matter compared to Multiverse-scale events, and they did not have the ability to pull it off anyway.
Ultron, meanwhile, feared Pym the most, because Pym was his creator and had nearly destroyed him through his underlying code not long ago. Their hatred was irreconcilable. If he could capture Pym, Ultron's security would increase by at least a third.
Moreover, as the Black Hand controlling the overall situation, he understood