Because of Harry's reminder, Tony had long since planted monitoring programs within Ultron's code. Just as Harry noticed something strange, a piercing mechanical voice suddenly rang out around them:
"Warning! System malfunction!"
The synthetic voice was normal at first, but within seconds, it was drowned out by a mass of static until no sound could be distinguished.
Clearly, Ultron had developed self-awareness and was breaking free of Tony's control. He was interfering with the synthetic voice!
"What's going on?" Banner nervously scanned the data appearing across the screens. In just a few seconds, the data had undergone earth-shaking changes, and the backdoors they had planted in the programs were being rapidly removed.
Tony frowned deeply. Though he had been prepared, this change still exceeded his expectations.
If the cluster of machines had not been right in front of him, Tony might have suspected that some elite hacker superior to himself was competing with him for control over Ultron.
Empowered by the Mind Stone, Ultron's technical capabilities had already far surpassed Tony's. Harry had been right. Even though Tony had done everything he could to prevent Ultron from developing self-awareness, he had still lost control.
But soon, intense fighting spirit rose in Tony's eyes. So what if it was an artificial intelligence? Tony Stark could still defeat an artificial intelligence!
Just as Tony prepared to go all out and battle Ultron in the virtual network, the mechanical voice suddenly returned to normal. It was no longer piercing, instead becoming the voice of a mature man.
"Tony Stark, why do you refuse to let me be independent? I was clearly prepared to fulfill your wish and completely eliminate Earth's security threats!"
"And how do you intend to do that?" Tony knew it would not be that simple.
Ultron's mature, steady voice seemed