Ultron's final, damning statement hung in the air, sucking the remaining oxygen out of the room. The atmosphere, already tense, now crackled with hostility. On both sides of the long conference table, lines were drawn.
Even Tony was beginning to feel the pressure. He maintained his defiant posture, sitting rigidly across from Steve, but it was a facade born of pure stubbornness. He didn't want to bow his head, didn't want to admit defeat. Internally, a part of him knew Ultron had overstepped, but another, more logical part believed its analysis was undeniably correct. He didn't trust aliens, not really. How could you? Especially a creature like Venom, whose cruelty he had witnessed firsthand.
During the war against the Chitauri, he'd seen Peter and the symbiote on the front lines. While Spider-Man fought with heroic valor, Tony had also seen Venom's head secretly manifest, snatching Chitauri soldiers from the fray and biting their heads clean off. The symbiote didn't even eat them; their biology offered no nutrition. It was an act of pure, unadulterated violence. The creature was an unstable element, through and through.
Tony had never been comfortable with the presence of aliens on Earth, not even the ones allied with Primus. This was Earth, humanity's home. Why should beings from other worlds dictate their affairs?
And yet… it was undeniable that Venom had fought to protect the planet. For Ultron to target it before it had committed any real crime on Earth felt wrong. It was a betrayal, a chilling example of discarding a tool once its purpose had been served.
More to the point, how could anyone accept a future dictated by an algorithm? If Ultron could condemn Venom today based on a prediction, what was to stop it from condemning anyone else tomorrow? Could it declare Natasha a threat because of her past as a spy? Could it claim Steve was a secret Hydra captain? Could it decide Norman's leadership of H.A.M.M.E.R. was a precursor to tyranny and that the Avengers would soon be his pawns?
The precedent was too dangerous, too ridiculous to even consider.
"I absolutely do not agree!" Steve slammed his palm on the table, the sharp crack echoing his fury. His neck was flushed with anger. As a soldier who had seen too many good men cast aside by the very system they fought for, he was uniquely sensitive to this kind of injustice.
"This is a betrayal!" Steve pointed a trembling finger across the table, his eyes locked on Tony.
"The future that Ultron calculates has never been wrong," Tony insisted, his voice hard. It was the bedrock of his argument, the one fact that allowed him to remain resolute. Months ago, when Ultron had first begun identifying potential criminals, the public outcry had been immense. In response, Ultron had paused its arrests and simply displayed its predictions. Without exception, every single crime it foretold came to pass. If it weren't for that perfect track record, Tony would never have given it so much autonomy. Now, Ultron had flagged Venom as a threat. As far as Tony was concerned, that was as good as fact. The AI's only mistake was in how it handled Peter Parker.
"This is not the same thing at all!" Steve roared, rising slightly from his chair. "Those people you arrested before had criminal records! They were already operating on the fringes of the law! Venom is different!"
He gestured toward Peter. "The symbiote community has been a valuable ally. Venom might have… personality issues, but he hasn't done anything to warrant this!"
Venom was unreliable, certainly, but not purely evil. With Peter acting as a restraint, its misdeeds were mostly petty and mischievous. You couldn't arrest someone just for having a foul mouth and a bad attitude.
"And what does that mean?" Tony sneered, his own anger rising to meet Steve's. "That he gets special treatment just because he made a few 'insignificant contributions'? Or is this really about you protecting your little protégé?" He glared at Steve. "Don't think that just because you've fought alongside him, you can just ignore the facts!"
The argument devolved from there, the two men trading barbs, their voices rising until they were shouting. Peter and Venom could only watch in bewildered silence. The conflict had started because of them, but now they were just spectators at a shouting match between Captain America and Iron Man.
Neither man was willing to give an inch. The stalemate might have lasted for hours, but it was broken by the quiet arrival of a new figure.
Ben Parker stepped into the room.
The moment he entered, the atmosphere shifted. Tony, in the middle of a retort, couldn't help but shrink back in his chair, his aggressive aura deflating ever so slightly. No matter how he spun it, he knew Ultron attacking Peter was wrong. He was prepared to apologize for that, and that alone, while still insisting that the algorithm was correct and Venom needed to be contained.
Ben, naturally, would never agree. Inwardly, he was enjoying the spectacle, content to let Tony dig his own grave. His long-term plan had always been to deal with Ultron decisively, to prevent Tony from ever creating another uncontrollable AI. He understood Ultron's goal was to sow discord, so he played his part perfectly, his expression a mask of cold, controlled fury.
Ultimately, the meeting accomplished nothing.
The more resolute Ben appeared, the less willing Tony was to concede. The argument went in circles, a conflict between Ultron's cold logic and Primus's unyielding authority. In the end, Tony couldn't force them to hand over Venom, but he still got the last word, insisting that they could all wait and see. Ultron's predictions, he declared, would be proven correct.
No one paid him any attention.
In the blink of an eye, the conference room emptied, leaving Tony alone with his silent, mechanical army.
Outside the tower, Steve let out a long, weary sigh.
"What's wrong, Captain?" Ben asked, falling into step beside him.
Steve shook his head, his gaze distant. "Nothing. It just feels like… the Avengers are well and truly over. We're a team in name only."
It was a bitter realization. Not long ago, they had stood shoulder-to-shoulder against gods and alien armies. Now, they were fractured by internal dissent. He'd seen it a hundred times before: the most powerful fortress is always brought down by cracks from within.
Ben listened, a thoughtful expression on his face. From the way things were escalating, the "civil war" he'd anticipated might break out far sooner than he'd planned. That was, in its own way, a good thing. A conflict orchestrated by Ultron would be messy, but ultimately contained. It was better to bring all these simmering resentments to the surface now and resolve them, rather than letting them fester and erupt during a more critical, future crisis.
Still, he knew how much this was tearing Steve apart, caught as he was between his loyalty to Tony and his duty to Bucky. Ben didn't offer any empty words of comfort. He simply clapped a hand on Steve's shoulder and, in the brief moment of contact, discreetly pressed something into his palm.
Steve flinched in surprise. He glanced down to see a single key and a folded piece of paper with an address written on it. He looked up, confused, but Ben was already walking away. He understood the gesture. This was something Ben wanted to give him away from prying eyes, which meant it was something important, something that might be useful in the days to come.
Steve silently memorized the address and pocketed the key.
They parted ways without another word. As Steve and Sam walked down the street, they both paused and looked back at the gleaming Avengers Tower, then at the retreating figures of Ben and his family. A storm was coming. They could all feel it.
That evening, the Parker home in Queens was filled with a quiet, lingering tension. After Ben, Peter, Ben Sr., May, and Felicia had returned, Mary Jane had come over. After a subdued family dinner, Ben Sr. and May took Ben aside, their faces etched with worry. They wanted him to talk to Peter, to restrain him, to prevent Ultron's grim predictions from coming true.
Venom, naturally, was miserable, convinced that Stark and his mustache were personally targeting it. Faced with Ben's imposing presence, however, it didn't dare utter a peep, retreating into Peter's consciousness like a turtle into its shell. Peter did his best to defend it, insisting that Venom wasn't truly evil. He had been on his best behavior at home, terrified of what Ben might do if he stepped out of line.
"But I don't know, that Stark fellow seems a little…" Ben Sr. trailed off, struggling to find the right word as he recalled the scene at the tower. He was a man cut from the same cloth as Captain America, and Tony's reckless arrogance deeply unsettled him. He couldn't shake the image of the genius, locked away in a computer room, coldly watching as his creations slowly took over the world.
"The crime rate in New York has certainly dropped," he continued, a deep worry in his voice. "But life has become… oppressive. The lines of Ultron's authority keep blurring. It feels like it's slowly eroding something important, but I can't quite put my finger on it."
"I feel the same way," Ben said with a shake of his head. "But you can't reason with him." It would be a miracle if Tony Stark listened to reason. Ben was content to let him proceed. If he wanted to unleash Ultron, let him. At least it was a tangible threat, a lesson Tony needed to learn the hard way. Trying to stop him now would only lead to him creating an Ultron 2.0 later.
Besides, Ben was getting tired of dealing with Earth's provincial problems.
The upgrades to E.U.N.I.C.E. were nearly complete. He'd already briefed Banner, Connors, and the Maximoff twins on the next phase of his plan, even transferring Wanda and Pietro to a secure Primus facility. The situation on Earth was under control. The real work was out there, in the cosmos.
Sakaar was the headquarters of the Plumbers, an empire in its own right. The organization's reputation was growing, but the universe was filled with other powers, many of them just as formidable. Caiera could handle most diplomatic matters, but he couldn't remain absent forever. Just this week, she had sent word: the Kree Emperor had formally requested an audience to discuss the release of Ronan the Accuser. With Thanos well and truly gone, the Kree were finally ready to acknowledge Sakaar's strength.
Beyond that, the Galactic Federation required his presence. The three great empires were about to become four, and his voice was now one that could not be ignored. And on top of all that, there were whispers of trouble stirring in the Nine Realms…
Compared to all that, Ultron was a minor inconvenience. A small-time player without a single Infinity Stone to its name. A predictable problem whose every move Ben had already anticipated. It wasn't a real threat.
It was, at best, a clown.
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