With every Ultron Robot present losing power, everyone suddenly found themselves without an opponent.
They gathered around, looking at the distraught Brad in Doctor Strange's arms. They were only flesh and blood and could not see the Nanobug at all, but they had heard Ultron's triumphant shout.
They knew that something crucial had been taken from Brad.
Just as everyone was wondering how to comfort him, the Watcher appeared beside them.
"I believe the crisis facing the Multiverse has been resolved. You can go home."
"What?!"
None of them understood.
"Sometimes, resolving a crisis does not require destroying its source. Ultron no longer plans to annihilate all worlds. The Multiverse is safe now."
The Watcher explained with an indifferent expression.
Brad suddenly stirred and struggled to sit up.
"So your plan from the beginning was the 'treasure' in my head?"
"You used me to lure Ultron in, then gave him a trove of knowledge that would take ages to decipher, temporarily sparing the Multiverse from his purge!"
"...You could put it that way."
The Watcher's detached tone instantly enraged everyone present.
"You set Brad up!"
Party Thor flew into a rage. He could not accept someone using his teammate, even if they had only met a handful of times.
But the Watcher paid no attention to the Son of Odin's fury. With a casual wave, he sent him back to his original universe.
The others, who had been about to speak, exchanged glances. They had no way of resisting the Watcher's immense power.
Doctor Strange rose, his expression dark. "Watcher, we need an explanation."
"He was supposed to be a nobody who died during World War II. Now his fate has changed, diverging from the paths followed by every other Brad across the Multiverse. He should be satisfied."
Unable to send Doctor Strange away at will, the Watcher could only offer a reluctant explanation.
Brad raised his head. In a daze, he once again glimpsed that possible future in which Sabretooth killed him in the cabin.
Doctor Strange wanted to argue further, but Brad raised a hand to stop him.
With Doctor Strange's support, he slowly stood.
"It's true that all that knowledge kept pushing me forward. I barely had a choice."
The Watcher nodded. It seemed Brad still had some self-awareness.
But the next second, Brad stepped forward and stared coldly at the Watcher.
"Maybe I used to be a puppet, controlled by something foreign inside my head."
"But your self-righteous scheming makes me sick in a much more immediate way."
"Everyone here differs from their counterparts across the Multiverse to some degree. But just because I'm a nobody, you think you can interfere and change me?!"
"You call yourself a Watcher who would never interfere with any universe's fate. Then Ultron broke through the barriers between universes, drove you out of your home, and nearly killed you, so you dragged this group together to help you fight him."
"You broke your people's promise, exploited these heroes' compassion, and then plotted against me?"
"You changed my fate however you pleased. Aren't you afraid I'll take revenge? That I'll become a new threat to the Multiverse?"
"I'm no superhero!"
The Watcher silently regarded Brad as he confronted him, his expression utterly unruffled.
Finally, he shook his head. "Without that knowledge far ahead of its time, you're nothing."
Brad raised his arm toward the Watcher.
"Whoever schemes against me will pay for it. Either kill me here, or one day I'll come looking for you!"
The Watcher shook his head. Brad was not even reflected in his eyes. He did not take the threat seriously at all.
The next moment, Brad felt the world spin around him. When he regained his bearings, he found himself looking at the laboratory in his Hydra Base in Canada.
The Watcher had sent him back to his original universe.
In the Watcher's eyes, he was a nobody.
Brad clenched his fists hard, his grinding teeth producing a grating sound.
"Watcher... Watcher!!!"
T900 walked up behind Brad in confusion and patted his back. The robot struggled to understand what had happened. From T900's perspective, Brad had merely gone blank for a moment before suddenly flying into a rage.
Brad shoved T900 away and smashed everything on the table in front of him.
"I'll find you in the Multiverse."
Brad rushed to the computer and began looking through his previous research.
Data he had once read with ease now seemed obscure and incomprehensible. His existing memories had not vanished, and the knowledge he had already mastered was still there.
But Brad had to struggle to recall it before he could understand his own inventions, bit by bit.
As for the notes Howard had left at the base, Brad could barely understand any of them.
He was no longer a genius researcher.
Now, Brad did not even qualify as a mediocrity by Howard and the others' standards.
He slumped into his chair, took several quick, deep breaths, then began taking stock of the assets he still possessed.
The Moonstone, his mutant ability to control technological creations, the research files he had previously saved on the computer, and something he had never activated before.
Skynet.
Brad had already witnessed Skynet's power.
Back in the ruins of that other universe, there was no way he could have built that enormous Ultimate Nullifier Army by hand, one unit at a time.
He had built a factory and machine tools amid the ruins, then made a computer, written Skynet's program, and activated it.
Skynet had handled all the subsequent mass production of troops.
Moreover, the Skynet Brad had programmed there was not the complete version.
Its program had been simplified.
Without Brad's control, it would merely continue mechanically executing the troop-production plan.
But the computer in his base now held Skynet's complete program.
After encountering Ultron, however, Brad understood profoundly how dangerous highly intelligent artificial life could be.
Without his vast foundation of knowledge, he could not guarantee that his mutant ability would keep the fully programmed Skynet in check.
Just as Ultron had pointed out, his human brain simply lacked the necessary processing power.
Unless he turned himself into a supercomputer.
Brad sat silently in his chair, his face grim as he thought and wrestled with the decision.
T900 respectfully withdrew from the laboratory, leaving his master a quiet space to think.
A week later, a single command sent the entire base into high gear again.
Brad removed the Moonstone and lay down on the operating table.
He was going to turn himself into a half-mechanical life-form.
Unlike the Iron Lung System custom-built for Little Arnie, a full-body conversion using Brad's current technology would cause rejection reactions he could not suppress.
But Brad still had a healing factor in his body, and he had also received the Human Optimization Serum.
Mere rejection reactions.
Besides, Sabretooth was still in his grasp.
Brad effectively had an inexhaustible Healing Factor Reservoir.
The conversion lasted two full years.
Brad sent Silver Fox away. He did not want her to see the process.
Silver Fox would only think he had gone mad, then do everything she could to take Emma Frost far away.
First his arms, then his heart and lungs.
Some of his bones, nerves, and blood vessels.
Finally, his brain.
"Emma, help me."
The White Queen, who had grown into a graceful young woman, pressed herself against the wall and sensed the mind on the other side, trembling in agony day and night.
She used her powers awkwardly, constantly trying to comfort him.
"Why are you torturing yourself like this?"
Emma Frost shared the pain of cold machinery being implanted into flesh. She leaned against the wall outside the laboratory, tears brimming in her eyes.
"..."
On the other side of the wall, silence lingered for a long time.
"If it means being ordinary from now on, I'd rather die."
Brad's bloodshot left eye stared at the ceiling as he lay lost in thought.
"I'll always stand by your side, Mr. Brad."
Emma Frost, the White Queen, used her telepathy to envelop the heart that had already been converted into a bionic structure.
Half of Brad's body had been replaced with mechanical components.
The modifications to his brain were the most crucial part of all.
Because he had put Skynet's main program inside his head.
At such close range, Skynet could not escape the control of his mutant ability.
Over those two years, Brad had spent most of his time studying every part of Skynet's programming.
He sought absolute understanding and control.
He had never examined his own ability so deeply before.
Not until he could ensure that Skynet would never escape his control after the conversion.
Without the Nanobug, he had lost his cheat-like inspiration.
But freed from the knowledge that had occupied his brain all this time, he could consider his next steps from a calmer perspective that was truly his own.
Brad would become one with Skynet.
Before you continue