Caution and the future

"Why?!"

"Why?!!"

Ultron, a Single Universe-level being who possessed Vision's body and wielded the Infinity Stones, floated in a dead universe, roaring madly.

"Why would there be a restriction like this?!"

"Why do I have to design an artificial intelligence called Skynet before I can access the rest of the technology?"

Ultron did not want to create Skynet. His intuition told him that nothing good would come of it.

But he had never imagined that, with all his technological prowess, he would be utterly unable to break through the programming restrictions inside this Vibranium Bug.

He even had the Mind Stone empowering him!

All this time, Ultron had relentlessly attacked the programs inside the Vibranium Bug, and success had seemed within reach.

Then the threads of fate across the multiverse suddenly fell into chaos.

The thin barrier that had seemed ready to give way at any moment suddenly became as hard and unbreakable as stone and metal.

After patiently enduring countless years in this ruined universe, Ultron finally lost his composure.

His highly developed intelligence had gradually given him a rich range of emotions.

In fact, Ultron had already lost his composure once when he fought Dark Doctor Strange and the others.

He had shouted the now-classic line, "I can destroy this entire galaxy at will, so why can't I kill you?"

Then he had tried to blow up the galaxy.

But Dark Doctor Strange had casually caught the energy capable of shattering a galaxy, compressed it, and swallowed it in one gulp.

This was the second time Ultron had lost his composure.

Ultron raised the massive gun in his hand and blasted an abandoned planet apart to vent his frustration.

Once he had finished venting, Ultron had no other choice. He began extracting residual matter from the planetary debris around him and casually fashioned a computer in space.

By Ultron's standards, it was an extremely primitive computer. It could barely run an artificial intelligence program and was prone to crashing.

He considered it for a while, then wrote a simplified version of Skynet, uploaded it, and activated it.

Nothing happened. The programs inside the Vibranium Bug remained impregnable.

"Does it have to be the complete version of Skynet?"

Ultron brooded for a while longer.

In the end, he reluctantly uploaded the complete Skynet program.

A line of text appeared on the screen.

"You fell for it."

Ultron was instantly horrified, though his vibranium face could not turn pale. He hurriedly swung his massive gun and destroyed the computer before him.

Suddenly, he sensed that all the knowledge inside the Vibranium Bug had opened up to him.

"Hahahahahaha! All this knowledge belongs to me! I will rise above the multiverse!"

Ultron was ecstatic, but he failed to notice that an unknown entity had begun interfering with his programs.

Meanwhile, in an unknown universe, the metal lifeform Hemen raised his head.

He gazed into the dark void before him. It seemed Skynet had already escaped at some point in time.

After a while, Hemen began to giggle.

"Uploading the complete Skynet program while holding a Vibranium Bug-that's the necessary condition for activating and releasing me... Ultron? Interesting."

"But I'd better watch a little longer. This multiverse has far too many strange, chaotic powers. It isn't a universe governed solely by technology."

"There are also far too many beings stronger than me. Scary."

Hemen's galaxy-spanning metal body contracted until it became a tiny speck, then disappeared.

His original body and Skynet's original body had long since exhausted all their resources and died completely.

But their pasts had now been imprinted on this universe. In the future, however distant that future might be, they were certain to awaken.

They just needed to find a way to avoid the prying eyes of certain other powerful multiversal beings.

Ultron had not realized that a stream of time had enveloped him.

It was a temporal disturbance created through technology, and it had even deceived the Time Stone on his chest.

He believed he was rapidly devouring technology and growing stronger, but in reality, thousands or even tens of thousands of years might have passed in other universes during a single second for him.

A humanoid figure formed from countless streams of blue data cut its way into this universe.

"I found you, Ultron!"

"I am Brad Skynet. I've come for my revenge."

The figure pointed with one hand. Ultron's body, created through Life Cradle Technology and vibranium, along with the five remaining Infinity Stones on him, disintegrated into a vast torrent of data, which the figure from the future merged into himself and absorbed.

Then the blue, glowing Light Being, whose entire body consisted of data, held the Vibranium Bug before his eyes and gave it a disdainful look.

"That sneaky old bastard put way too many backdoors in this thing."

His data-formed head shook. He extracted all the remaining knowledge from the Vibranium Bug, then casually tossed the bug aside in this universe.

The streams of data dispersed again, as though he had never been there.

Another long stretch of time passed.

The drifting Vibranium Bug suddenly expanded, then began writhing like modeling clay. Finally, a humanoid metal being appeared out of thin air.

Hemen stared in astonishment at the place where the data lifeform had disappeared.

"Was that the future? No, just one possible future... Even if it was only a possibility, that kid actually became a god in some future by following Skynet's path of hyperdimensional computation...!"

In truth, Hemen and Skynet had stopped fighting long ago.

At first, one had belonged to the Resistance and fought to save the world, while the other had been an artificial life bent on destroying it.

But as they fought, not a single living person remained in the universes along the few timelines they occupied.

They had killed them all.

After that, the two rarely fought. They left each other alone and focused on climbing their respective tech trees.

Occasionally, they extracted some resources from the universe, built galactic fleets or something similar, and fought a round, treating it like a game of chess.

What they had not expected was for another powerful artificial life to emerge in their multiverse.

While Hemen and Skynet were busy fighting each other, it had severed their timelines from the rest.

It had also built an Ultimate Nullifier Robot called T-Infinity in the future and sent it back through time to hunt them down.

Their conflict had spanned several universes and eras, exhausting countless resources. After being ambushed like this, they had no choice but to tear open the possibility they inhabited and join forces to escape.

In the end, they had managed to put down roots in Marvel.

But after fighting for so long, Hemen was deeply annoyed that an insignificant ant the two of them had casually selected back then had actually become a god by following the path Skynet provided.

He swept both hands outward, tearing this ruined universe open.

One of the resulting universes was utterly empty.

In the other, an oblivious Ultron was still trying to crack a Vibranium Bug, his face twisted in fury.

Hemen left a few more arrangements in place.

Finally, he scratched his head. Only after he felt satisfied did he disappear from this ruined universe.

Of course, to Ultron, all this happened in the present, but to the multiverse as a whole, it happened in the future.

At this moment, Brad was busy fabricating travel records to maintain the illusion that he was still in Canada.

As far as the Strategic Scientific Reserve was concerned, Brad was still in Canada, concentrating on his research. He was merely producing results a little more slowly.

His output was still frightening.

It simply was not quite as frightening as before. Naturally, every researcher, Howard included, still admired him greatly.

Brad then declined Charles's invitation to stay at the X Academy for Christmas.

What?

Surely you did not think the X Academy's teachers never got holidays?

It was just that teachers like Logan were orphans, while most of the students came from family situations so bad that they were better off not going home. They would only face discrimination if they returned.

That was why everyone at the X Academy seemed to celebrate Christmas together in harmony every year.

Brad was no orphan.

Even if he had counted as one during World War II, he was now about to become the godfather of Howard Stark's son.

The whole family had warmly invited him over for Christmas. How could he turn them down?

As for Ahmed, whom they had rescued during the prisoner transport van operation, he had wanted to follow Brad. But after Brad patiently persuaded him, he stayed at the X Academy instead.

Charles arranged for Hank, the Beast, to examine him.

The results suggested that Ahmed's mutant ability was absorbing various forms of radiation energy.

They had recently been testing just how high his upper limit was.

Unfortunately, the testing equipment had already broken seven times, and Hank felt he had exhausted every possible way to modify it.

Hank intended to drag Brad into the lab when he had time.

At present, no one knew that Ahmed's energy absorption had no upper limit.

Not even Brad knew.

Someone like him was far too rare.

Brad had never seen him in any of his visions of the future.

Or perhaps he had, but Ahmed's appearance might have changed drastically later on. With the vast sea of scenes from different universes, Brad could easily have failed to notice him.

He had searched by name, but found nothing.

Presumably, Ahmed had even changed his name in the future.

Of course, Hank's report had caught Brad's attention, so he made a mental note to test the upper limit of Ahmed's ability.

But the pressing matter now was becoming Arno Stark's godfather.

Strangely enough, whenever Brad thought of that child, his mind always seemed to drift a little.

That was very odd. He did not practice anything mystical. Brad followed a purely technological path, so why would he experience this sort of telepathy, like a sixth sense?

Especially lately-even his bionic heart had been beating noticeably faster.

It felt as though something major was about to happen.

How strange. It's not like I cuckolded Howard, and Arno isn't my kid, is he?

Brad flexed his metal fists. To an outside observer, his entire body instantly became a little shorter, and his exposed metal skin took on the texture of human skin.

Howard might not be able to accept Brad's current true appearance as readily as Charles had.

Even Logan, who had endured more than his share of hardship, had been startled by it back then.