All the equipment here was set up on a local network, and the walls and doors could block external electronic signals. Even Ultron wouldn't be able to find us.
Steve pushed open the door and limped inside.
Dust that had settled in the safe house for who knows how long was disturbed by these uninvited guests, swirling up into the air.
Peter walked in and took a quick look around. The space wasn't large—maybe five or six hundred square feet—and the facilities were old, but they had everything they needed.
Nick Fury had probably spent most of the funds he'd skimmed on the safe house's shell, leaving little left to upgrade the equipment inside. But even if there had been advanced tech here, they wouldn't have dared use it now. Thinking about Ultron's capabilities, everyone felt a chill run down their spines.
That thing was terrifying.
Maybe a single Ultron drone wasn't much to worry about. But when your enemy could move freely through the digital world, monitor the entire globe, watch everyone's every move, and had access to the world's most advanced production lines to churn out countless robots indefinitely—that was a whole different level of terrifying.
Peter rummaged through cabinets and drawers, hoping to find a Plamos healing serum somewhere. But this safe house seemed like it hadn't been restocked in ages—no such convenient medical supplies. Clint did find some antibiotics, checked the expiration date, and mixed some water to help Natasha swallow them.
Seeing them reduced to such misery, Peter felt overwhelming guilt.
"I'm sorry. If it weren't for me—"
"It's not your fault, Peter." Steve patted his shoulder, then called Bucky over to help re-splint his leg. The earlier field dressing had been too rough. Even in times like these, he didn't forget to comfort the youngest among them.
"Ultron is too terrifying."
"This was all probably part of its plan. We were all just pawns in its game."
Thinking back on the chain of events that had led them here, everyone felt like someone had been pulling the strings from behind the scenes from the very beginning.
Back when they'd left Avengers Tower, not long after, the conflict between Spider-Man and Ultron had spread across the entire world. A lot of people thought Spider-Man might actually be a threat, but there were still some who trusted the heroes.
Steve and the others, of course, stood by Peter. None of them believed that a good kid like Peter could do anything truly wrong.
Even with Venom—same thing.
But soon, things spiraled out of control.
A super-villain made of sand—the Sandman—appeared in New York for some reason and attacked Peter while he was on a date with Liz. Liz got hurt, which enraged Peter.
But that alone wouldn't have made him lose control—not until Sandman revealed who he was and what he wanted.
He'd come looking for Ben and May, the two who'd arrested him months ago. He believed they were the ones who'd turned him into a monster, and he intended to kill them.
Of course, Ben and May weren't even on Earth anymore. Unable to find them, Sandman had set his sights on Peter instead.
That pushed Peter over the edge.
He would never allow anyone to threaten his family!
Peter and Venom went all out. To subdue Sandman, they held nothing back—but physical attacks against a natural-element opponent were a losing battle. The fight caused massive destruction across New York, injuring countless innocent people, and in the end, Peter couldn't even stop Sandman from escaping.
But a reporter named Eddie Brock had captured the whole thing on camera—Peter and Venom in the grip of their fury.
The image of them looking like enraged demons made the front page of the Daily Bugle, seemingly confirming what Ultron had said all along: the Venom symbiote was a massive threat.
In an instant, Spider-Man was caught in a firestorm of public backlash.
More and more people began to see Spider-Man as a danger. They demanded that Ultron and Tony Stark arrest him.
Tony was naturally pleased—but he hadn't completely lost his mind. After learning the full story, he knew Peter wasn't really at fault. He vetoed Ultron's proposal to arrest Peter Parker.
Ultron didn't push too hard either. Instead, it took a step back and proposed another idea: containing Venom. And beyond that, it argued that Spider-Man wasn't the only hero who could become a destabilizing factor. That's when it introduced the Superhero Registration Act—requiring all superpowered individuals to operate under government oversight.
On that point, Tony had no objections.
He'd always been the type to want everything under his control. Besides, it was just registering identities and power details. What was the big deal?
With that mindset, Tony called another Avengers meeting.
Unsurprisingly, he clashed with Steve once again.
But this time, Tony's position carried more weight.
After all, the destruction caused by Spider-Man and Venom was still fresh in everyone's minds. And Tony didn't have any bad intentions—he just thought that putting superhumans under some form of regulation, then figuring out how to deploy them on missions, would prevent too much collateral damage.
Was that wrong?
It was just a registration act. It's not like they were arresting anyone. Why get so worked up?
As long as they all followed the rules, there was nothing to worry about.
He thought Steve and the others were making a mountain out of a molehill.
But Steve refused to budge. Having lived through the Hydra incident, he couldn't tolerate superheroes being treated as emotionless tools. They needed their own judgment—the ability to decide for themselves whether an order was right or wrong.
The two parted ways again, still at odds.
That meeting produced no resolution, but it deepened the rift between the superheroes and Tony Stark.
When the Daily Bugle leaked the meeting's contents, public support for the Registration Act surged. That put a lot of pressure on Steve and his team—but even so, things hadn't escalated to the point of open conflict.
Then one day, Connors suddenly lost control in the middle of a crowded city and briefly transformed into a dinosaur-like creature.
No one died, but many were injured. Several major traffic arteries were thrown into chaos, and the public was terrified. Ultron seized the opportunity to pressure the Celestial Union, demanding Connors's arrest. It added several more names to its "dangerous individuals" list—including Bruce Banner.
At that point, even Tony started to sense something was wrong. He didn't believe that Connors would just randomly lose control for no reason. But by then, he couldn't stop the momentum. This was no longer just Ultron's agenda—it was public opinion driving the train.
The Registration Act had become inevitable.
Anyone who refused to register was now treated as an enemy!
And just like that, a nationwide manhunt for superheroes began. Heroes who'd once been celebrated were suddenly hunted like rats, with nowhere left to hide.
Some of them quietly accepted the Registration Act. Peter and the others paid a heavy price just to escape New York.
Now, Venom was missing. Harry and Norman had been placed under surveillance to cover their escape. Plamos had been taken over by Ultron long ago.
Ultron had even labeled the Celestial Union a threat, hacked into the planetary defense network, and activated the shield to seal the Celestial Union's space station off from Earth.
At this point, Ultron had practically taken over the entire planet.
With just the few of them left, there was no hope of defeating Ultron.
Now, they had only two paths forward: first, try to contact Bent somehow and get help from the Celestial Union—the all-powerful Bent always found a way; second, go back to New York, find Tony Stark, and make him shut Ultron down.
"Tony definitely has a contingency plan to stop Ultron. But I think he's already lost his mind."
Natasha had taken her medicine and was leaning dizzily against her chair, shaking her head.
No one responded.
The fact that they'd ended up in this position was largely Tony's fault. If he were really that easy to wake up, Ultron wouldn't have gotten this far.
Besides, just getting back to New York seemed nearly impossible. The moment they left the forests of the East Coast, Ultron would find them.
"Peter, can you reach Bent?"
Steve asked.
Peter shook his head. He placed his Celestial Union badge on the table. Right now, the badge seemed to have lost all power—no matter what he tried, nothing worked.
"Ultron might be jamming communications…"
"But," Peter frowned, "the Celestial Union uses quantum communication. Theoretically, it can't be jammed."
"Not entirely impossible." Natasha shook her head. "I don't know if you've heard of Hank Pym."
Most of the people in the room shook their heads in confusion, but Peter's eyes went wide with surprise:
"You mean Dr. Pym? The genius scientist in quantum physics?"
"You know him?"
"There used to be a portrait of him on the walls at my school." Peter said with admiration. "If it's Dr. Pym… he really might be able to disrupt quantum communications and cut us off from the Celestial Union…"
His face fell.
"That means… we might never be able to reach Ben again. By the time he gets back to Earth on his own, it might be too late."
The others' faces showed signs of despair as well.
After a moment, Steve seemed to steel himself once more. Pushing himself up on his injured leg, he said firmly:
"No matter what, we have to save the world from Ultron!"
"Since Bent's help is almost impossible, we'll just have to find Tony and make him see the truth!"
"With just the few of us, getting to Tony at all is a problem…"
Natasha looked around the room in despair.
There were only five of them: Peter, Steve, Bucky, and herself. How were they supposed to fight Ultron?
"If we take the sewers, we might be able to avoid Ultron's detection," Peter said uncertainly.
"Then we take the sewers!" Steve was as resilient as ever. He made the decision quickly, though they couldn't move immediately—now that they'd found a safe house, they needed to at least recover from their injuries first.
Meanwhile—
In New York.
Tony Stark angrily hurled his phone against the wall, then buried his face in his hands, deep in thought.
"Sir, Steve Rogers and his group have refused to submit to oversight. They engaged us in combat at the docks, causing massive destruction. In their attempt to evade capture, they've even caused civilian casualties."
Ultron pulled up footage, listing Steve and the others' supposed crimes one by one.
Of course, most of those charges were fabricated—tacked onto them by Ultron.
Now that Ultron controlled the entire network, it could say whatever it wanted about what was happening in the outside world.
If it weren't for the lingering fear that Bent Parker might suddenly return, Ultron would have already started its global purge long ago. It wouldn't still be playing nice with Tony Stark.
The planetary shield certainly couldn't stop Bent—he still had the Space Stone. That shield was useless against it.
But—
Once my new body is complete, I'll no longer have to fear Bent Parker!
Ultron's gaze flickered.
Not long ago, it had found two interesting superhumans—ones who happened to have a grudge against Tony Stark. So it had made use of them.
Those two were, of course, Wanda and Pietro. Just like in the movies, Ultron had manipulated them. The difference was that this time, they were actually following Bent's orders.
Ultron thought it had controlled them through their hatred. But really, it was all part of Bent's plan.
Connors's sudden loss of control might have looked like Wanda's doing, but it had actually been orchestrated from the very beginning.
Now, Ultron believed it had taken over Plamos. With Wanda's help, it had obtained the Mind Stone from Mary Jane—though it was the fake one. It had also brought several superheroes under its control. It was just one step away from its goal now.
The problem was, it still didn't have enough vibranium.
Ultron wanted a perfect body—and nothing less than vibranium would do.
Lucky for it, it knew exactly where to find enough vibranium.
Just as it was thinking this, Tony looked up, glaring at Ultron with rage.
He'd only heard Ultron's one-sided reports. All he knew was that Steve and the others had gone too far.
Not wanting to be controlled—fine, he could understand that. But destroying everything in their path and dragging innocent civilians into the chaos? That, Tony couldn't accept.
What made it even worse was that, based on Ultron's reports, it really seemed like they had become the threat to peace.
Either way, Tony felt this couldn't go on any longer.
He had to bring them back and have a proper conversation.
"Where are they?!"
Ultron's gaze flickered. It looked up, a glint of human-like cunning flashing in its eyes:
"T'Challa, son of the Black Panther, has given them refuge."
"They're in, Wakanda."
/-\
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