As the X-Men were trapped in a desperate struggle, beaten senseless by the perfected Nimrod, Rogue—having understood as much as she could of the situation—had a daring thought.
"If he obtained my abilities by having my DNA implanted," she said, removing her gloves, "then can I take my own abilities back?"
"...If you're going to try, you'd better make up your mind fast, sugah."
Glancing at Logan, who lay on the ground like a fallen Yamcha with his healing factor still struggling to complete its work, Gambit sighed helplessly. He had thought the opponent would be easier to deal with; he figured no matter how tough the fight, he could eventually blow it to smithereens.
He was wrong.
Rogue moved to make her attempt, but she paused for a second and looked toward the sky. A young mutant with a ponytail descended from above, using her power to phase directly through Nimrod's body before sinking into the ground and vanishing. After a brief pause, Nimrod seemed to fall into a daze.
No—he had completed his evolution.
"Final verification complete. Contact made with specific target Katherine Pryde. Self-atomic decomposition ability acquired." In just an instant of contact, Nimrod had finished recording Kitty's power. He immediately began transmitting this data—this unrecorded X-gene—back to his primary unit. However, the moment the data transmission started, Nimrod detected the problem.
"I don't know who created you, but they probably weren't as smart as Hank Pym. Your intelligent evolution stems from your contact in another timeline with sixteen million mutants you slaughtered."
A teleportation circle appeared before Nimrod, one that he was very familiar with and capable of casting himself. Magik appeared alongside Spider-Man. The lone Avenger on the scene told Nimrod what was happening: "So, in terms of evolutionary speed, you're not as fast as Ultron. Furthermore, your mainframe is in another timeline. Transmitting data across involves latency, loss, and other issues."
"Therefore, what Ultron wanted to do wasn't to lower your computing power, but to lock your program down completely. He only needed to learn how you transmit signals across time and space, and then cut that signal off."
"Your actions are meaningless, Spider-Man. Nimrod has already completed his evolution. The database still contains over sixteen million X-gene samples, allowing for the re-initiation of all protocols in this world."
"And the cross-temporal device remains active in the year 2029, capable of delivering other non-Nimrod versions of Sentinels at any time."
"Then can you tell me how many other Sentinels you are currently connected to?"
Facing this question, Nimrod was silent for a moment. The number was zero. Without a doubt, something had gone wrong in the future. The 2059 Nimrod, who had just led the Resistance into a trap, had met his downfall.
Having received intelligence through the White Queen's telepathy, Peter continued his interrogation: "Your plan was to create an illusion, making us think we were fighting you for Rogue and Master Mold, but in reality, you succeeded the moment you secured a physical body. While fighting the Avengers, you could have used the Super-Adaptoid body to upgrade to Nimrod immediately, but you didn't do so in the Hydra warehouse because you needed to receive Rogue's DNA from the future."
"You had the 2059 Nimrod assist your 2013 self in setting up defenses, right? In other words, you actually transferred most of your processing power into this body. Now that your signal is cut off, you aren't a ghost AI ubiquitous on the internet. You're just a robot."
"Negative." Nimrod's voice gradually became mechanical and flat. "This unit still possesses all probabilities of success. This unit remains immune to all attacks including magic, physical force, and banishment."
It was true. Nimrod was still unbeatable. Even the method Strange used against Juggernaut was ineffective here, because Nimrod could use Illyana's power at any time to retreat to Limbo and then use it as a springboard back to Earth-616.
There was still no way to defeat Nimrod.
"Yeah."
Peter shrugged, walking toward Nimrod step by step. "We don't have a way to beat you. You have resistance to both physics and magic, and none of the known methods can solve you. At least, we haven't secured any means of reality warping yet. To be honest, you're terrifyingly strong. I saw your battle in Paris all the way from New York; my Spider-Sense was ringing non-stop, like the world was ending."
"Your actions are illogical. You have no probability of defeating me."
As Nimrod spoke, he fired energy beams from his eyes at Peter. However, the beams passed right through Peter's body, hitting nothing.
Shadowcat, who had just implanted the Ultron core into Nimrod, returned. She appeared behind Spider-Man and took his hand, allowing the beams to penetrate their bodies without effect.
"You gave us the illusion that time was plentiful to prevent us from thinking of a way to deal with you—" Peter stopped mid-sentence as a thought occurred to him. He looked at Kitty, who was holding his hand. "Sorry, can I carry you on my back? I'll need my hands for the fight in a moment."
"Ah, oh, okay, no problem." Kitty nodded quickly. After her hands passed through Peter's body, she jumped onto his back and wrapped her arms around his neck. Nimrod could not comprehend the combination before him. Could Shadowcat, while phased, make contact with another phased target?
It seemed she could, but even this could not defeat him.
"If you seek death, you shall receive it, Spider-Man."
Watching Peter walk toward him with Kitty on his back, Nimrod raised his arm, which instantly hardened into a metal-like substance. Everyone watched the scene; no one dared to intervene, as they didn't know Spider-Man's plan and feared ruining it.
Nimrod's fist swung down.
Nimrod's arm vanished.
"Warning, program error. Warning, program error..."
Nimrod's arm hadn't been destroyed by an attack; it had completely vanished. A portion of its mass had utterly disappeared from this universe. Logically, this was impossible. Yet, the Spider-Man before him simply raised a hand casually and traced a slit in the air before Nimrod's chest.
"This will have a serious impact on our reality. Our universe will be vulnerable to threats from the multiverse just like other universes until this rift is repaired—but then again, other universes didn't have such strong reality barriers to begin with, and they get by just fine. So, this price doesn't seem that... hard to accept?"
"Warning, mass loss 17%. Calculation error detected."
Nimrod looked at Spider-Man, his eyes glowing with blue light. "Initiating Plan B."
"Open information transmission, Ultron!"
If Nimrod found he could not hit a phased Peter and was being devoured by spatial rifts, what would he do with the combined powers of all mutants at his disposal?
The answer was obvious: he would attempt to shut down Peter's brain via telepathy.
"You want to transmit your delusions to the entire multiverse?! Then go ahead and do it!"
Nimrod's data transmission to his future self was re-established.
Nimrod saw it: a colossal spider. He could not comprehend it; he could not analyze it. He then saw a vast web. His programming struggled to parse it all—the massive influx of data. The power of the Great Totem did not stop him from viewing the Totem itself.
Instead, it forced him to read the infinite souls of the infinite multiverse.
"Warning—"
The massive metal robot exploded in front of Peter Parker and Kitty Pryde. Every atom collapsed completely under the weight of an uncalculable volume of data.
And this massive stream of data would be transmitted to the primary Nimrod on Earth-811. He would be forced to face the data stream known as Infinity. Wish him luck.
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