The intelligence Ned brought back piqued Su Ming's curiosity.
It seemed the original plot had deviated. Ultron's designs for the Regeneration Cradle were no longer limited to creating a perfect body.
He clearly had other plans.
Could this have something to do with my interference...
Su Ming continued questioning him.
It turned out Ned had not come to the base with Peter earlier because he had taken on a "big job"—
upgrading the security system for Dr. Helen Cho at the Life Sciences Foundation in Seoul.
It was a private technical gig with generous pay.
Ned had beaten out numerous competitors to win the opportunity.
When Ultron arrived, Ned was in the Foundation building's underground server room, carrying out the final adjustments.
Hearing the commotion, he witnessed the entire process of Dr. Zhao being taken away through the surveillance feeds.
Amid the chaos, Ned watched in terror as:
while Ultron took Dr. Zhao and the Regeneration Cradle away,
he used the tip of the Mind Scepter
to inject an extremely unusual energy directly into the Regeneration Cradle's core control unit!
On the screen, that energy appeared as a twisted, ominous stream of dark red data.
It bore a strong resemblance to Wanda's Chaos Magic.
Yet it was far colder.
Ned realized this was no trivial matter.
Ultron was very likely using Dr. Zhao's technology and the scepter's power to alter the Regeneration Cradle's very function!
Taking advantage of the chaos, he copied the signature data of that abnormal energy stream and a small fragment of the contaminated core program onto his encrypted flash drive.
Using his privileges as a specially invited technician, he rushed back aboard a private jet.
Listening to Ned's account, Peter and Pietro stared blankly at each other.
They knew nothing about Ultron. Hearing Ned mention