Nanobug

As they stared at the Ultimate Nullifier Army stretching seemingly without end inside the enormous golden portal, the other team members' eyes nearly popped out of their heads.

"Okay, you really are a scientist. I'm sold."

Party Thor swallowed.

Gamora and Killmonger exchanged a glance, each seeing the shock in the other's eyes.

It wasn't that they had never seen robot armies this large in their own universes. But Brad had spent only a few years alone on that ruined planet.

Alone!

And he had built an army capable of overrunning any nation on Earth!

Captain Britain Peggy looked a little dazed as well. "If our universe had someone like Brad, Hitler probably wouldn't have been a problem at all."

Brad walked calmly toward them in black-and-silver armor, countless streams of data flashing across the goggles built into his helmet.

"In my own universe, I wouldn't dare activate an artificial intelligence and mass-produce troops on this scale. Now, Skynet's army, attack!"

The moment Ultron's robot army clashed with the Ultimate Nullifier Army under Skynet's command, the battle became a rout.

Countless Terminators dragged Ultron's robots out of the sky, pinned them to the ground, and pounded them to pieces.

Countless more drove combat vehicles loaded with prepared materials, beginning to build bases on-site and expand their territory.

Power Wells, Mining Fields, Refining Furnaces-one building after another rose from the ground in mere minutes.

This series of astonishing sights finally drew Ultron's attention to the newly arrived Brad.

"You made one fatal mistake! You tried to use technology against me!"

Ultron's faceplate lifted, revealing the scarlet face that should have belonged to Vision. An eerie light gleamed in his blood-red eyes.

He began hacking into his opponent's Supercomputer.

Ultron tried to seize control of the Ultimate Nullifier Army.

Ultron remained silent in the air for a full five minutes.

Then he looked at Brad in disbelief.

"Heh."

Brad sneered.

"You want to take control of my army? Sorry, but as far as I know, your underlying algorithms were derived from the artificial life known as JARVIS. What actually gave you life was the Mind Stone on your head."

"But in my eyes, aside from that Mind Stone, your code is worthless. You can't even get past my firewall. In my universe, I'm the granddaddy of computing!"

Brad's contempt enraged Ultron completely. He swept his spear, and all the Infinity Stones lit up at once.

Everyone's heart jolted, and they each assumed a fighting stance, bracing for the incoming attack.

Brad rose into the air and pointed at Ultron.

Ultron fell from the sky as though his strings had been cut.

While Ultron had been trying to infiltrate Brad's Skynet system, Brad had also been using his mutant ability to rapidly analyze the technology in Ultron's body.

Now, he had temporarily forced Ultron to shut down.

"Now!"

Doctor Strange swept his hand, and a new Infinity Stones Destroyer appeared in Gamora's hands. Brad followed immediately, fitting a silver device onto the machine before pressing both hands against Ultron's forehead.

The Infinity Stones Destroyer clamped onto Ultron's chest plate again. The device Brad had supplied worked at high speed, using data analysis to match the radiation readings emitted by the Infinity Stones from Ultron's universe.

Meanwhile, Brad used direct contact to maximize his mutant ability, repeatedly shutting Ultron down whenever he tried to reboot himself.

Everyone waited anxiously. Finally, the device lit up, and the Infinity Stones Destroyer began operating.

The purple Power Stone was extracted by the Destroyer.

Immediately afterward, the device began its analysis anew.

"How is this possible?!"

Brad was shocked as well. This was completely beyond his expectations.

Once it finished analyzing one stone, it should have extracted the others instantly!

Why did it have to start analyzing all over again after extracting just one stone?

A startling thought flashed through Brad's mind.

Every time Ultron conquered another universe in the multiverse, he replaced one of the stones on his chest with a stone from that universe!

The Infinity Stones on his chest plate came from different Multiverses!

That meant the device he had developed would probably have to run its analysis six separate times.

Could I really keep Ultron under control that long?

A second later, Brad had his answer.

Ultron evaded his ability by constructing an entirely different set of logical algorithms, then successfully rebooted.

Brad had no time to use his mutant ability to analyze Ultron's new algorithms.

The red Reality Stone lit up, and Brad and Gamora tumbled into a heap.

Ultron reappeared in midair.

Disappointment washed over everyone, but at least the Power Stone on Ultron's chest was gone.

The Destroyer in Gamora's hands hummed. After a powerful shock wave, the Power Stone was successfully destroyed!

Unexpectedly, however, Ultron did not react. Instead, he stared fixedly at Brad, even using the Time Stone to create a field of temporal turbulence that separated Brad from the others.

"Your ability is very unusual."

"You can sense machinery, electronic components, energy transmission, and data exchanges, and control them to a certain extent."

"Normally, that would make you the natural enemy of artificial life like us. But there's one thing I want to know: how do you analyze things so quickly?"

"In mere minutes, you finished analyzing my entire body, then took control and forced me to shut down."

"I repeatedly changed my algorithms and programs, even the hardware inside my body, yet you successfully analyzed every change. In those last ten-odd seconds, you shut me down more than two hundred times!!!"

"Can a human brain really compute that quickly? If so, wouldn't developing artificial life like me be completely redundant?"

After speaking, Ultron simply watched Brad in silence.

Then Doctor Strange used his own Time Stone to break through the spacetime field around them.

Ultron began laughing, making Brad's scalp prickle.

"Found it!"

Doctor Strange had barely broken through the field when he saw Ultron point his spear at Brad.

An indescribable, piercing pain suddenly erupted in Brad's mind. He clutched his head and fell to the ground, howling.

An extremely tiny green speck, invisible to the naked eye, flew out of the top of Brad's head.

One of Doctor Strange's pupils instantly became a vertical slit. Using the power of a magical creature, he saw the green speck.

It was a nanoscopic flying insect made of vibranium, carrying the mighty power of a Time Stone obtained from some unknown source.

Ultron drew the green speck into his hand.

Then he froze.

"This... what an immense store of knowledge! It contains technology beyond the multiverse!"

The robot's body began trembling, despite supposedly being incapable of human physiological reactions.

"All this data packed into a single Nanobug? How was this even accomplished?"

"This must be a treasure left behind by a technological powerhouse who stands above the multiverse!"

"Hahahahaha! I've found a higher purpose in life! All the technology in here will belong to me!"

The next instant, Ultron swept his spear, opened a dimensional rift, and charged inside.

On the battlefield below, the countless Ultron robots fighting the Ultimate Nullifier Army suddenly seemed to lose power. The blue lights in their electronic eyes went out, and the Terminators captured them.

Brad climbed to his feet and stared blankly at the spot where Ultron had just vanished.

For the first time, his mind felt utterly quiet.

The endless inspiration, the technological ideas that could break through the bounds of the universe-all of them vanished from his mind along with the Nanobug.

An indescribable sense of loss swept through Brad's entire body. Doctor Strange hurriedly blinked over and caught him as he collapsed.

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