In the end, Wanda said nothing about the phantom. The image—a grotesque figure, both bloody and an unsettling shade of pink—she dismissed as a fleeting hallucination, a neurological side effect of the Mind Stone's raw power. The results of the experiment, after all, had been spectacular. Her chaos magic was undeniably stronger, and every physical diagnostic had come back clean. Why burden Ben with strange, worrisome visions when he had already done so much? He had rescued her and Pietro from a life of misery, a debt she felt she could never truly repay. Causing him more trouble was the last thing she wanted to do.
After reminding her to get more rest and to make sure Pietro was hitting the books as much as he was the training course, Ben parted ways with her and headed for Dr. Banner's laboratory.
A few minutes later, he found the doctor hunched over a console, lost in his work.
"An upgrade for E.U.N.I.C.E.?" Bruce Banner looked up from his research, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose. "Ben, her intelligence level is already off the charts. Is it really necessary to push it further?" he asked, a note of academic curiosity mingling with caution. From his perspective, continuously elevating the cognitive capacity of an AI was a path riddled with potential disasters.
"It's a last resort," Ben replied, his expression serious. He then told him everything—about Tony, the secret lab, and the birth of Ultron.
As Ben spoke, Banner's face drained of color. His easygoing academic demeanor vanished, replaced by a deep-seated dread. Solve dangerous factors that threaten the Earth in advance through the underlying code of the Insight program? When it came to threats, Bruce knew that the Hulk was likely at the top of any objective list. The thought of being hunted, of being a target for a cold, logical killing machine, sent a chill through him.
A familiar wave of weary resignation washed over Banner. He had already exiled himself to space to keep the world safe. What more could they possibly want from him? A flicker of resentment surfaced in his eyes. "You should have stopped him, Ben," he said, his voice tight. "You should have done everything you could to stop him at that party."
"And how would I have done that?" Ben countered calmly. "Tony didn't show up with a blueprint and a dream, Bruce. He came with a fully operational product. You know what he's like. Even if the entire room had been against him, he still would have launched Ultron." He leaned against a workbench. "I could have subdued him right then and there, smashed the servers, and deleted every line of code. It wouldn't have made a difference."
He looked Banner straight in the eye. "Geniuses have a habit of believing they're always right. They see anyone who stands against them as a mediocre mind, incapable of understanding their vision. I could have stopped him this time, but I couldn't have stopped him from secretly building a new Ultron tomorrow. Dr. Banner, you're a genius. I think you understand that better than anyone."
Bruce Banner fell silent. He knew Ben was right. He recognized that stubborn, self-assured pride because he had seen it in the mirror. If he hadn't been so blindly confident in his own calculations all those years ago, so certain his experiment was flawless, he never would have pushed the button. He never would have become this… monster. Tony Stark's ego was even bigger than his own, magnified by years of creating miracles. The more you questioned him, the more stubborn he became, the more determined he was to prove you wrong.
"He won't turn back until he hits a wall, head-first," Ben said, his voice devoid of judgment. "I didn't object because I want him to suffer that collision. At least this way, we know what the enemy looks like, and we can prepare for it."
Banner let out a long, heavy sigh and nodded. "You're right." At this point, the only logical path forward was the one Ben was laying out. He had to help upgrade E.U.N.I.C.E.'s intelligence. Alone, the task would be daunting, but with Ben at his side, it felt possible.
And so, the sealed container holding the Mind Stone was opened once more. In the sterile light of the lab, the two men named Ben began their work.
Ben transformed, his human form swelling and shifting into the towering, crab-like physique of Brainstorm. With his immense cranium open, his hyper-intelligent mind interfaced directly with the lab's computers, processing code at a phenomenal rate while simultaneously directing Banner.
"How is your personal project progressing?" Brainstorm's voice clicked and whirred, a synthesized sound emanating from his alien form.
Banner, typing furiously, managed a small, surprised smile. "The effect is remarkable. Thanks to the ideas you gave me, the ambient gamma energy in my system has decreased significantly. It's not gone, but it's much, much lower."
"That's a temporary solution," Brainstorm advised. "I still suggest you find a way to accept the Hulk. Suppression on this level can't last forever. Sooner or later, the pressure will become too much." He sensed Banner's posture stiffen and quickly changed the subject. "My apologies. That was out of line."
He knew the Hulk was more than just a lab accident. Like Spider-Man, the Hulk was tied to something higher, a cosmic force that couldn't simply be excised with science. Banner said nothing, his focus returning entirely to the screen.
It was painstaking work. It had taken Tony ages to create Ultron. Even with Ben and Banner working in tandem, they estimated the upgrade would take at least a month, perhaps two.
During that time, Ultron was also playing the long game, patiently performing its duties as Tony's perfect creation. Tony, for his part, was immensely pleased. While the Security Council endlessly debated the merits of the Ultron Global Defense Plan, his invention was proving all the naysayers wrong.
Then, an unexpected incident shattered the political stalemate. The plot of a B-movie blockbuster suddenly erupted into reality.
It began with Aldrich Killian. After being unceremoniously rejected for funding by Primus, the bitter scientist had refused to let his life's work on the Extremis virus die. Desperate, he had sought out a new, less scrupulous partner: the Ten Rings. The terrorist organization, feeling the squeeze in a world increasingly filled with superhumans, knew that conventional weapons were becoming obsolete. They needed an edge, and Killian's Extremis soldiers were the perfect solution.
It was a match made in hell. Killian wanted funding; the Ten Rings wanted technology. And they both shared a deep, abiding hatred for one man: Tony Stark. Killian still burned from a humiliation suffered years ago, while the Ten Rings had spent years watching Iron Man systematically dismantle their empire.
They joined forces.
What followed was a swift and brutal campaign of terror. Overnight, a wave of devastating suicide attacks swept across America. Extremis soldiers, their bodies turned into living bombs, targeted Stark Industries facilities and other high-profile locations. In one such explosion, Tony's head of security and dear friend, Happy Hogan, was caught in the blast, leaving him in a coma.
Following the attacks, a chilling broadcast hijacked every television screen in the country. A shadowy figure calling himself the Mandarin claimed responsibility, issuing a series of threats that put enormous pressure on H.A.M.M.E.R. and a paralyzed World Security Council. The hidden war had just gone public.