He left the barn before the Avengers' plane even arrived, stepping through the portal right under Nick Fury's nose. On the other side of the portal, there was only pitch-black darkness—no matter how hard Fury tried to peer into it, he couldn't make out any form. It was as if the space beyond swallowed all light.
"Where are you going?" asked the former S.H.I.E.L.D. director. "Taking a nap before the apocalypse?"
Solomon didn't respond.
Although he hadn't contacted the Maximoff twins since they left the castle, he had been monitoring Sokovia's situation through the boy's eyes and his own spy satellites. To delay Ultron's acquisition of nuclear launch codes, the two artificial intelligences within the Eternal City were also brought into play. After receiving his orders, Stephanie had even gone as far as inviting two individuals with whom they normally had little interaction.
The moment Ultron entered the internet, the AI created by Mr. Finch detected the anomaly. When Stephanie invited them to join the operation against the rogue AI, Mr. Finch quickly agreed, and Ms. Groves arrived in Rome accompanied by the witch's drinking buddy, Sameen Shaw, before descending into the Eternal City via a secret elevator.
"Ladies and gentlemen, I trust you've reviewed the files." Solomon shook Harold Finch's hand and nodded to Ms. Groves. "I need you to find a way to permanently eliminate an artificial intelligence within the internet. Truly eliminate it—not a single line of code can remain. The Eternal City will provide for any of your needs—even if you want to work in low orbit."
"I've seen part of that code," Finch said grimly. "If the data's accurate, then that AI's sophistication outclasses anything we've built. Not even my machine can match it—it was custom-built to solve specific threats, but that thing… that code has perception. I don't know who wrote such a chaotic algorithm, but it certainly wasn't created by anyone alive today. And your storage technology…"
"You're right," Solomon replied, gesturing toward the working staff in the server room, the marble eagle on the floor now obscured by towers of machines and tangled cables. "They're focused on discovering the true motivation behind the AI's hostility toward humanity—I believe the answer is buried in the original code. Your task is harder… stop it, Mr. Finch, Ms. Groves. Use the Eternal City's satellites, prevent it from getting those nuclear codes. You'll have support from Wakanda's technology. Shuri, please explain to our guests how your computing systems work—they're not quite used to high-end tech."
"I noticed you're mobilizing troops," said ROOT, smiling with interest. She tapped the device on her ear. "This little guy told me everything. You've planned for our failure."
"Yes," Solomon replied, looking toward the three helicarriers as Sisterhood operatives and mortal troops boarded. A holographic display beside him showed global troop movements from the Eternal City—names of Sisterhood combatants and their assignments, results from live-fire training, melee performance, battle experience, weapon specs, personality profiles of commanding officers—endless data scrolled across the screen, awaiting the Archmage's input.
Solomon always prepared for the worst. And the worst was coming. The devastating force he controlled would only be unleashed if there was no other option. A massive radioactive wave could wipe Sokovia off the map, along with every bit of Ultron's wireless network. Despite all its evolution, Ultron was still bound by a basic AI weakness—it needed the internet. The type of satellites it controlled revealed it was keenly aware of this vulnerability.
As for the brain-interface candidates, their mission was even more daunting. Tita was already deploying Sisterhood operatives to accompany them. If things reached the worst-case scenario, they would board the vessel Solomon had prepared—not just a helicarrier, but something much larger.
"We need someone to sound the alarm for humanity," Solomon said quietly to Stephanie. No one else could hear their conversation. "Just like during the Battle of New York. But we must ensure that alarm doesn't destroy humanity's fragile civilization in the process. Our goal is the same as Ultron's—to push human progress. But finding the right balance is incredibly difficult. We must prepare for every outcome, including long-term war. No one can guarantee Ultron hasn't backed itself up somewhere. If that's true, we'll have to enact the more… aggressive contingencies."
"All the contingencies are ready." Stephanie was both excited and a little scared. "Are we really going to use that kind of power? If we reveal that strength, we'll become enemies of every nation on Earth."
"Let them come," Solomon said, eyes cold as ice. "I may not have claimed my throne yet—but that doesn't mean I can't take my territory first."
————————————
"Master." Wanda's urgent magical transmission pulled Solomon from his mountain of paperwork. He had been working nonstop for more than twelve hours, orchestrating logistics for the worst-case scenario. That worst case was war—between humanity and machine, and between him and the secular governments. Just the contingency index was over three hundred pages long.
Wanda's message snapped him out of it. She showed him a blurry image—a wave of fear, regret, pain. Her telepathic transmission was thick and murky, as if sent from the bottom of a deep ocean.
"We've caused something irreversible… the gem…"
Her voice was distorted and distant. Solomon could barely understand her.
"Help us. Ultron doesn't just want to destroy the Avengers—it wants more."
"Where are you?" he asked.
No response.
A long, tense moment passed before Wanda sent a second message. At the same time, Stephanie entered his office with a report intercepted by the Eternal City from the Avengers' internal communications—now that Stark Industries no longer had J.A.R.V.I.S. for cyber defense, Samaritan had gone to great lengths to infiltrate Tony Stark's satellites and tap into the Avengers' network.
"Ultron is in Korea. Honestly, you could've just checked Twitter—there are already posts about Avengers and robots brawling in Seoul," Stephanie said. "We allocated all our information resources to filtering the code and stopping Ultron from accessing nuclear launch protocols. We didn't have enough bandwidth to track its current body. Should we reassign Samaritan to help the Machine with that?"
"No. Samaritan still has more critical work," Solomon replied, pulling up the Avengers' comm files and hitting play. He then asked Stephanie to leave the room.
Alone, he removed the silver key hanging from his chest, closed his eyes, and began divining every possible outcome. He needed to confirm one final time—whether the Mind Stone and Vision were absolute fixed points in time.
It was a long while before he allowed Stephanie to re-enter the room.
"Activate the mechanical-alchemy body in Vault X-111," Solomon said. His eyes were bloodshot. He looked utterly exhausted. "We're going to need it."
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Fairy Tail: Igneel's Eldest Son (Chapter 256)
I Am Thalos, Odin's Older Brother (Chapter 336)
Reborn in America's Anti-Terror Unit (Chapter 542)
Solomon in Marvel (Chapter 924)
Becoming the Wealthiest Tycoon on the Planet (Chapter 1284)
Surgical Fruit in the American Comics Universe (Chapter 1289)
American Detective: From TV Rookie to Seasoned Cop (Chapter 1316)
American TV Writer (Chapter 1402)
I Am Hades, The Supreme GOD of the Underworld! (Chapter 570)
Reborn as Humanity's Emperor Across the Multiverse (Chapter 660)
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