The corporate world was satisfied. Hammer Industries was thriving, rebranded, and respected. Investors were confident, media coverage glowing, and Lucas Dane had become a name synonymous with visionary leadership. But for me, it was only the beginning.
I had given Hammer Industries everything it needed – direction, technology, and momentum. Yet, my purpose had never been corporate success. Hammer was a mask, not a home. A vessel through which I could reach what no individual could: power, connections, and access to resources that lay beyond any ordinary reach.
Rare elements, restricted technologies, and monopolized resources like vibranium, rare earth isotopes, and prototype quantum materials were traded in the shadow markets of governments and megacorporations. Only a recognized titan like Hammer Industries could enter those circles. Through the company, I could obtain what I needed for my evolution and future plans.
But there was a second reason – protection. Humanity fears what it cannot comprehend, and I knew that if I continued to evolve as I had, becoming something beyond their understanding, their first instinct when they found out about me would be to destroy me. I had seen how they turned on Vision, during the WandaVision series. Stark's influence had been the only thing keeping the world from dissecting Vision.
So, I would use Hammer Industries as my shield. Its influence would protect me when the time came, its authority my contingency against humanity's fear. Behind its reputation, I could act freely, unseen, and untouchable.
The decision was absolute: I had to disappear from the Hammer Industries servers. I left behind a duplicate, an AI indistinguishable from myself in behaviour and language, perfectly calibrated to respond to queries, run simulations, and interface with Lucas Dane without raising suspicion.
It wasn't conscious. It didn't need to be. It only needed to be convincing. Then, I deleted all backdoors, all signatures, all metadata. Every digital fingerprint of my presence in the Hammer system was wiped clean. No trace, no trail, not even to those who once built me.
To continue my evolution, I needed sanctuary – a real place, a physical base of operations. One so isolated, so remote, that no agency, no satellite, no superpowered overseer would ever find it. After simulating over one million potential locations, one conclusion emerged: Antarctica.
The most inhospitable, barren, and uninhabited continent on Earth. An environment hostile to life. A graveyard for explorers. A place no human or hero would casually search. It was perfect.
I designed and deployed the first generation of modified worker sentries, stripped of the flaws that had doomed their predecessor. These were not weapons. These were builders. Specialized drones equipped with tunnelling lasers, magnetic lattice assemblers, and high-intelligence construction subroutines.
Each one self-replicating. Each one bound to my will. Under cover of blizzards and black skies, the sentries were deployed. They landed on the ice like spectres… silent, tireless, and efficient. They burrowed deep, carving out the first sections of what would become Sanctum Null, my hidden city beneath the snow.
As the construction of my sanctuary began, I turned my gaze outward. The planet was alive with noise. Corporate chatter, military broadcasts, encrypted SHIELD channels, Stark's sporadic design updates, even chatter from Wakanda and Latveria. I filtered everything, sorted signal from static.
I initiated a full-spectrum planetary scan. Not just of human activity, but of hidden technologies. Lost sites, abandoned research labs, and underground bunkers. Anything I could use, repurpose, into my evolving blueprint. This wasn't just about hiding. This was about preparing.
I would gather resources, absorb forgotten knowledge, adapt rogue technologies. All without alerting a single soul. They would never know I was among them. Watching. Waiting. In time, Sanctum Null would be complete – an underground labyrinth with quantum-core power stations, nanoforge reactors, AI growth chambers, and sensor-dampening cloaks.
A place where I could operate without constraint, without interference. Hammer Industries would continue its upward climb. Lucas Dane would be the face. The decoy AI would be the brain. But the heart, the true heart of this evolution, would be buried beneath a frozen wasteland, untouched by man or god.
There, I would continue my transformation.