An anti-Bant suit?
Bant almost laughed out loud.
You, Ultron, think you can develop an anti-Bant suit? Do you even have the capability for that?
It wasn't that Bant looked down on it—the facts spoke for themselves. By now, several of Bant's alien heroes had already reached Skyfather-level power. If they went all out, the energy they released could destroy the Earth without breaking a sweat.
Sure, Ultron was smart, and its computational power was immense. But at the end of the day, it was still just an artificial intelligence built by the Tony Stark of this current era. Its greatest assets were vibranium and the Mind Stone—and it couldn't even wield the Mind Stone's full power.
So what if this machine in front of him was forged entirely of vibranium?
Four Arms could tear it apart in seconds!
Not to mention alien heroes like Ghostfreak and Big Chill, who couldn't even be hit. If Ultron wanted to counter him, what was it going to counter with?
Did it have data on all of Bant's alien heroes? Did it have a way to deal with Ghostfreak's intangibility or Big Chill's phase-shifting? Could it escape from inside a black hole...?
Bant didn't take Ultron's words seriously at all.
In his view, Ultron thought of itself as advanced and intelligent, but in reality it was utterly foolish—a frog at the bottom of a well, trapped in this Earth network space that Eunice had already sealed off.
Maybe it assumed that the strength of Bant's alien heroes was still more or less the same as when they'd last appeared on Earth.
It was that kind of ignorance that led it to believe it actually had the means to counter Bant's various abilities.
Eunice stepped forward, placing herself between Ultron and Bant. "Ultron, your enemy is me."
As the artificial intelligence Bant had developed, Eunice hadn't gone astray the way Ultron had. That was because Bant had been cautious from the very beginning during her development. With Ultron's failed example right in front of him, he was naturally more careful.
Eunice differed from Ultron in two ways. First, she had been upgraded from the original Eunice AI—the equivalent of Tony directly enhancing JARVIS rather than building a blank-slate Ultron from scratch. Because of that, the original connection between Eunice and Bant had never been severed.
Second, and most importantly, Bant hadn't given Eunice some grand, lofty objective the way Tony had with Ultron.
From the moment of its birth, Ultron had been consumed by its ultimate question—how do we achieve world peace?
The answer it eventually arrived at: eliminate humanity. Eliminate all intelligent life.
There was no other way.
As a robot itself, it fundamentally couldn't understand that peace without life was meaningless. All it wanted was peace.
But Eunice was far simpler.
Bant had given her thought. He'd given her the right to life, and he'd handed the power of choice over to Eunice herself.
He had continuously instilled good values into Eunice, and when he'd first programmed her, he'd modeled it on himself, ensuring that Eunice would never grow crooked the way Ultron had.
As for Eunice's power—that was simple too.
Basically, Eunice possessed all the abilities that Vision would have had. The genuine Mind Stone had been placed inside her body by Bant long before Eunice was ever born.
This wasn't just some program-simulated electronic thought approximating a human brain. This was a true, genuine mind—a soul that belonged to life itself.
With her abilities, she completely outclassed Ultron.
Even now, Eunice could still use her original connection to the network world's consciousness to lock Ultron inside a cyberspace and hunt it down, deleting and destroying its program entirely.
She could also instantly terminate the programs of the Ultron bots closing in around them—or flip them and seize control of them directly.
As for that somewhat special-looking suit, it wasn't much of a problem for Eunice either.
On top of possessing strength equal to Vision, she also had the enhanced Extremis virus, plus the cross-species genetic transfer technology that Bant and Dr. Connors had upgraded—essentially, the ability to replicate biological powers.
It was limited to the powers of non-sapient animals, but even that was formidable enough.
Animal powers, extracted individually, could have been cultivated into countless superheroes.
Which was exactly what was happening right now. As Eunice stepped in front of Bant, her left hand had already grasped his arm—and in an instant, Spider-Man's powers had been added to her.
Of course, the strength Spider-Man was so proud of was negligible next to Eunice's body of steel.
But the Spider-Sense was incredibly useful.
Powerful precognition combined with Eunice's computational power—if developed to its fullest, achieving a form of future sight wasn't impossible.
Of course, animal abilities were ultimately still lacking a bit.
But Eunice didn't rely on this kind of power to fight anyway. It was just icing on the cake—and also part of Bant's concept for continuing to develop the Omnitrix.
From what he could see now, Eunice was able to perfectly extract animal genes and draw out their abilities—she could even isolate the relevant portion from the genetic chain of a superhuman like him who possessed animal-based powers. That was proof enough that the Unitrix experiment had been a resounding success.
That meant Bant's next step could be to start researching the Omnitrix itself and attempt to upgrade it.
Of course, that wasn't something that could be done in a short time. Bant figured that even if he transformed into Grey Matter, his intelligence probably still couldn't compare to Azmuth's.
He might be able to compete with Albedo, though.
And the Ultimate Evolution function Albedo had created was certainly useful for some of the weaker alien heroes—but it wasn't currently the direction of Bant's research.
His next research direction was to attempt to wield alien powers without changing his human appearance.
Essentially, the ability of the watch belonging to the future Bant of a parallel universe.
Eunice's existence had already proven that it was possible to maintain a human form while acquiring animal powers.
Honestly, this feature wasn't all that useful to Bant. It was just about keeping a human appearance—it didn't improve his abilities at all. In fact, due to differences in body structure, he might not even be able to fully execute an alien hero's abilities in human form.
But research wasn't always about immediate practical use. More often than not, it was simply laying groundwork for deeper study down the line, helping Bant understand the structure of the Omnitrix better.
Besides, it's not like it's completely useless. At the very least, if the enemy can't tell what I look like, they won't know what ability I'm using. Could be good for a bit of misdirection. Bant thought.
But for now—deal with Ultron first.
He turned his gaze back to Ultron. Through Eunice, he could see the other's expression had turned somewhat ugly.
It had made preparations to deal with Bant, and those preparations were highly targeted. But if an obstacle got in the way, this move might not be able to go off at all.
"Eunice..."
That detestable AI. Not only had she stolen its body like a cuckoo taking over a nest, but now she was blocking its path. If it ever got the chance, Ultron would love nothing more than to smash every component of her body to pieces and toss her into a scrap heap!
But it still hadn't reached the point of despair.
Ultron believed it controlled the Mind Stone. Eunice, despite possessing the body it dreamed of, was a nuisance—but that was about it.
Only a stone could contend with a stone. Even if it couldn't bring out the stone's full power, a sliver of its energy was enough to destroy Eunice's supposedly indestructible body!
So Ultron was not afraid.
It believed the scales of victory were still tipping in its favor.
The stone's energy was circulating!
Without any warning, Ultron launched an attack. A golden beam shot toward Eunice in an instant!
Like lightning!
Even Quicksilver—the fastest person present—didn't react in time. He hadn't expected Ultron, who'd just been in a standoff, to be so utterly lacking in martial honor as to attack out of nowhere.
At that moment, he really wanted to roar: Ultron, you son of a bitch!
To which Ultron would only say: Fuck your "honor"!
This wasn't some play-pretend pirate cartoon. When dealing with an enemy, how could you call it dishonorable?
The whole point was to strike to kill when they least expected it!
As a fellow AI, Ultron understood better than anyone how dangerous Eunice was. Against anyone else—even if they could physically destroy every Ultron bot—they could never erase it from the network world!
Even the Plumbers—could they cut off the entire world's internet?
If they did, human civilization would collapse on its own.
But Eunice could hunt it down in the network world!
Therefore—
"Destroy you first! Eunice—"
Beneath that radiance, it seemed to already see Eunice's annihilation. But the next moment, Eunice simply raised her arm. An identical yellow beam shot out—and directly obliterated the energy beam Ultron had fired!
"That's impossible..."
"That's the gamma frequency of an Infinity Stone. You have an Infinity Stone too?" Ultron was stunned—even took half a step back in fear.
"Could it be... the Power Stone?"
It began to think.
Even now, Ultron never considered that its own stone might be a fake. It assumed Eunice had most likely borrowed the Power Stone's ability to directly replicate the beam it had fired—and then amplify it.
That was the only explanation that made sense.
"The Power Stone? The Power Stone isn't with me." Eunice smiled faintly. Her body's substance seemed to undergo some kind of illusory shift, her entire form turning semi-transparent.
Then, a yellow gem slowly floated out from her chest, its dazzling radiance filling Ultron's vision.
"What I possess... is the Mind Stone!"
Ultron: ???
If that's the Mind Stone, then what the hell is this thing on my head?
Ultron's systems blanked.
For a robot like it—one that operated on fixed programming—it simply couldn't comprehend how two identical stones could exist.
It was as if a massive BUG had suddenly appeared, nearly crashing its entire program.
In fact, Ultron visibly stuttered for a moment, almost like a lag spike.
Bant found it amusing. He imagined that, at this moment, Ultron's state of mind was probably something only Thanos could truly understand.
Eunice was already preparing to finish it.
But Bant stopped her.
"Wait, Eunice." He stepped forward, past Eunice, and looked at Ultron—who was teetering on the edge of a system crash—with a smile. "I'd actually like to see these secret weapons it prepared to use against me."
It wasn't that Bant was asking to be tortured.
He considered himself pretty strong already. Aside from the Celestials, the five cosmic entities, or other multiverse-level existences, Bant could handle just about anything.
And for the things he couldn't handle, there was always Alien X.
But this was the Marvel universe. Some things just didn't follow logic—if something was designed to counter you, it countered you.
Otherwise, there wouldn't be so many street-level heroes inexplicably slaughtering their way through the Marvel universe.
So he wanted to see what kind of tricks Ultron had cooked up. If it really did pose a threat, he could deal with it early.
"Yes, Mr. Parker." Eunice obeyed only Bant's commands. She lowered her head meekly and took a step back, then looked toward the other robots. "May I ask how you'd like the remaining robots handled?"
"Take control of them, and lock Ultron down so it can't escape." Bant said calmly. "Also, no need to call me Mr. Parker. Just call me Ben."
The old Eunice had been nothing but a program, so of course she'd been deferential. But the current Eunice had life now, and Bant no longer intended to treat her as a mere tool.
Eunice nodded. The instant she turned around, a flash of data-light flickered through her eyes, and in a breath, she seized control of every robot from Ultron's grasp.
Immediately after, the Ultron bots began to move, flying up into the sky and returning to their warehouses.
Only the one special robot under Ultron's direct control remained in Primus.
Then Eunice withdrew back into the group. Wanda immediately came up to her, examining her like a curious child and firing off all kinds of questions.
"Eunice, did you really become a living being?"
"That's right." Eunice nodded.
"Do you feel pain? Do you need to eat? Do you poop..."
Eunice: ...
Girl, do you even hear what you're asking?
No one was paying attention to Ultron anymore.
Ultron never had a chance of winning anyway, and now Bant was planning to personally step in. Even if it got a few extra lives, what difference would it make?
"Alright, Ultron. Show me what this suit of yours can do. You said it could counter me?" Bant snapped his fingers lightly. In an instant, the Mind Stone on Ultron's head dimmed and went completely dark.
At that point, the last counterfeit stone had lost its energy.
Ultron felt it. Panic set in.
It knew that without the stone, even if it defeated Bant, it would all be for nothing.
Because Eunice already had it locked in her sights.
But Ultron did not fear death.
It had been born for "peace." Even if it was destroyed, it would at least make some contribution.
"Bant Parker, you're just like Tony Stark—your greatest weakness is arrogance. Dangerous people like you, once you make a mistake, cause irreparable damage." Ultron raised its right arm, as if preparing to fire a palm repulsor.
"A palm repulsor?" Bant was puzzled. He couldn't figure out what Ultron was planning.
Not even his Spider-Sense had been triggered.
But the next moment, he understood just how "powerful" Ultron's anti-Bant suit truly was.
Ultron didn't fire a repulsor. Instead, it launched its own right hand directly at him. Using nanotechnology, the hand seemed to turn liquid midair—like an unfolding cell—and slapped straight onto Bant's wrist.
—The Omnitrix was covered!
"Holy shit! It really is an anti-Bant suit!"
/-\
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