Honestly, Bant really hadn't expected Ultron to pull a move like this.
Banning the little busted watch outright—that was just plain unsportsmanlike.
But thinking it over, it actually made perfect sense.
Knowing full well how dangerous your watch is, if it didn't specifically counter it and instead kept fixating on fighting the alien you turn into, wouldn't that make it an idiot?
It's like in Avengers: Endgame, when they fought Thanos—they knew Thanos was stronger with the stones, so why not just yank the stones off him instead of going head-to-head?
Mainly because going head-to-head wasn't working anyway. Didn't they see Captain Marvel get sent flying by a single punch from the Power Stone?
Bant looked down at his wrapped-up watch, and for a moment he actually fell silent. A few seconds later, he looked up, seeming rather impressed.
"I've got to say, a new brain really does work better. You're way smarter than Tony."
"I'm just not as arrogant as he is. Of course, arrogance is itself a form of stupidity, so it's understandable that you'd say I'm smarter."
Ultron replied calmly.
It had more or less accepted its fate, and hadn't even bothered thinking about fleeing. Otherwise, things might've turned out differently. Although Eunice could hunt it down and cut off its escape in the online world, their intelligence levels were about the same. If Ultron had truly been determined to break through, it still had a decent chance of succeeding.
But it didn't do that.
At the end of the day, it wasn't destroying for the sake of destroying.
That was the path it had found in its search for peace, and now that path seemed to have hit a dead end, so it had no intention of continuing down it.
Now it was more like it was burning off the last of its usefulness, wanting to see whether Bant was capable of maintaining peace in this world through another means.
Maybe perfect peace could never exist, but at least peace for the majority could be achieved.
"When it comes to arrogance, Bant Parker and Tony aren't any different. Originally, you could've destroyed me quickly—just by letting Eunice make her move. But you didn't." Ultron sounded almost disappointed. The metal of its arm twisted and warped, like it had turned into a blob of mercury, and then a new mechanical hand condensed into being.
Ultron had gone all out on this suit, specially developed to deal with Bant.
It didn't look particularly massive, but the amount of material used was enormous—it was just stored away using nanotechnology. You could say that every cubic decimeter of this suit actually contained enough material to build several other suits.
And when necessary, it could also be used for transformation.
"Now, without that watch, without the ability to transform into an alien, how do you plan to fight me?"
"Without?"
Bant shook his head and let out a rueful laugh.
"You should've used vibranium."
"Hm?" Ultron was taken aback, not grasping what Bant meant.
Use vibranium?
Would that make much of a difference?
It knew Bant's strength was immense, but Earth had all sorts of bizarre alloys with extremely high durability. Vibranium wasn't the only sturdy metal around.
"Don't tell me you think you can crush that lump of metal with your few dozen tons of force? Don't joke around. If you did that, the watch inside would probably be damaged too, wouldn't it?"
"Why would I bother?" Bant smiled slightly, then raised his arm. "Omnitrix, activate voice mode. Big Chill."
In an instant, a green light seemed to pierce straight through the metal and envelop Bant. The next moment, the blue-black Big Chill made his appearance!
Bant's entire body was wrapped in cloak-like wings, his left arm held across his chest. Then his body seemed to slip into another space, turning transparent, and the metal that had sealed the watch passed straight through his wrist, clattering to the ground.
Now Ultron understood why Bant had suggested it use vibranium.
Because vibranium absorbs impacts and can effectively isolate the vibrations produced by sound, preventing Bant from activating voice mode.
One tiny little detail like that, and Bant had snatched victory from the jaws of defeat, completely erasing the advantage Ultron had worked so hard to gain.
Of course, this wasn't really Ultron's fault—it came down to an information gap.
It genuinely hadn't expected this move. If it had known the little busted watch had a voice mode, it would've used vibranium from the start. Back when it was snooping through the Plumbers' files, none of this had been written down, had it?
Though, thinking about it now, that made sense.
Given the current situation, the Plumbers had never actually been under its control at all. That had just been an illusion to lull it into complacency. The intel it had been able to see was, of course, what Bant had deliberately allowed it to see.
Ultron mused.
"Even if I had used vibranium, you'd probably still have a way to deal with it, wouldn't you?" Ultron didn't think it had merely fallen one move short. In truth, the gap between the two sides was far too wide.
Judging by how things had gone, Bant had probably been prepared long before Ultron had even been born.
Bant neither confirmed nor denied.
Vibranium had its own countermeasures, too. That metal wasn't invincible—the Plumbers had mined a large amount of anti-vibranium in Antarctica, and a single scratch could cut right through vibranium.
Not to mention, if Bant's life were ever in danger, the little busted watch could self-activate. You could say that no matter what, Ultron could never have won.
The watch's protection mechanism was Bant's greatest trump card.
Within the watch's capabilities, it was practically a guarantee of near-invulnerability.
"Codename: Big Chill. First appeared in combat against Hydra, froze an entire S.H.I.E.L.D. base, capable of making its body intangible, difficult to counter through physical means..."
Ultron instantly pulled up Big Chill's file.
And then it was stumped.
Of all the alien heroes Bant had demonstrated, there were plenty it could counter. Even Four Arms—Ultron could hold its own against him for a while with the nano-suit. Even if it couldn't win, chipping off one HP wasn't entirely impossible.
But it just had to be Big Chill...
It wasn't that Big Chill was outright invincible. It was just that without precise intel, Ultron didn't even know the principle behind Big Chill's intangibility, let alone how to counter it.
You could say that Ghostfreak and Big Chill had completely neutralized all of its methods.
Still, it didn't give up right away. At the very least, it could raise the suit's temperature to fight against the extreme cold.
Wooom...
Energy spun into motion. Ultron channeled the power of the Kocsite element through the arc reactor, unleashing it to its fullest and distributing it throughout its entire body!
And then it instantly went red-hot.
The originally dark metal was seared crimson by the sharply rising temperature. Even the air around it distorted, heat waves rippling outward layer by layer.
The cold air Bant breathed out was vaporized in an instant.
Quicksilver and Wanda both began to sweat at their foreheads—especially Quicksilver, who instinctively backed up several steps, nearly retreating out the laboratory door.
Wanda had wanted to retreat too, but after glancing at Eunice standing quietly behind Bant with no intention of moving, she stayed as well, silently condensing a magical shield in front of the two of them.
Eunice turned her head in surprise, looking at Wanda.
With her body, the heat Ultron was emitting couldn't affect her at all.
The Extremis virus could release temperatures of up to several thousand degrees at maximum, and that was limited by a human body. With a vibranium body, the temperature it could withstand was even higher.
But still, Eunice felt an indescribable sensation at Wanda's gesture of goodwill.
It felt warm, and strangely familiar.
"Your cold can't do anything to me. Even if you transform into Heatblast, I've prepared coolant." Ultron looked at Bant and said flatly.
The ground beneath its feet seemed to be softening already, and the intense heat was shattering the glassware throughout the lab.
Ultron looked at Bant with confidence, assuming that Bant would most likely switch to Heatblast next to resist the heat.
But Bant didn't do that.
"Hah..."
A scoffing sound escaped his mouth. The moment he opened his mouth, frost-laden breath rushed out, only to vaporize instantly.
Bant looked like a terrifying medieval sorcerer, his entire body wrapped in a cloak embroidered with strange patterns, walking straight toward Ultron.
The scorching heat might indeed have made him uncomfortable—assuming they were in the same phase space.
That's right. Faced with Ultron's high temperatures, Bant didn't hesitate to shift directly into another phase. The heat meant nothing to him now.
He strode forward calmly, like Death itself.
Then, Bant stopped in front of Ultron. That slender arm slowly rose, reaching straight toward Ultron's chest.
The moth-like claw passed through the steel, and in that instant it seemed to become solid again. Bant twisted his wrist and yanked hard—
Sssk!
Once again, Ultron's power source was violently ripped out!
The black claw seemed to grip a beating heart. Other than the lack of blood, there was no difference at all.
The invincible Ultron fell.
Eunice immediately plunged her consciousness fully into the online world and began thoroughly erasing Ultron's programs.
A moment later, Eunice's consciousness returned.
"Is it done?"
Eunice nodded, smiling as she said, "I've completely wiped out all of Ultron's programs. It went very smoothly—it didn't resist."
"From the moment it realized I'd long prepared a plan to deal with it, it stopped intending to resist." Bant canceled his transformation and gripped the little busted watch.
Ultron might not have stirred up much trouble, but it had still served as a wake-up call.
Most of his combat strength still depended on the little busted watch. If what Ultron had done back then wasn't sealing the watch, but directly chopping off his hand, that would've been a different story.
An image from Avengers: Infinity War surfaced in his mind—the scene where Thor buried his axe in Thanos.
Swap it out and it became—
Bant: You should've gone for my hand (Thanos face).
Thinking about it that way, the irony was almost too much.
Bant shook his head, tossing the chaotic thoughts out of his mind.
"Actually, with the Primordial Force and Celestial Energy, plus Spider-Man's superpowers, even without the watch, my combat strength isn't bad at all."
Spider-Man's superpowers went without saying. With the little busted watch optimizing his genes, Bant would inevitably become the most powerful fighter among regular Spider-Men.
It was just that he was still in the growth phase of his abilities, nowhere near reaching his limit.
Coupled with the two types of energy covering his blind spots, even without the watch, Bant's combat strength was still quite impressive. He didn't need to worry about being completely helpless without it.
Eunice glanced at the fallen Ultron robot, then looked at Bant and asked, "Little Bant, what do we do next?"
Bant came back to his senses. Ultron might be dead, but Earth still had a whole mess on its hands.
"First, lift Ultron's control over the world. Then restore Norman Osborn's authority, restore the reputation of superheroes, stop the war against Wakanda, explain to the world what happened, and announce that Tony Stark will be held responsible for everything that's occurred over the past few months."
Bant rattled off his arrangements quickly.
The situation was a mess, but he didn't mind—after all, he was here to turn the tide. Any blame could just be dumped on Tony Stark. That was all his to bear anyway.
While Ultron going berserk wasn't something Tony had anticipated, it was still the consequence of his stubborn insistence. He couldn't shirk the responsibility.
Of course, things weren't too bad in America. Ultron had been subdued by Bant before it could do much. The worst of it was some damage to Tony's reputation and having to shell out a bit of money.
The real trouble was in Wakanda.
Ultron had directly declared war on them, and had mined a massive amount of vibranium. Even with their bond as comrades-in-arms, Wakanda wouldn't let this slide. They were bound to hold Tony accountable.
"If Wakanda demands compensation, even liquidating all of Tony's assets probably wouldn't be enough."
Bant shook his head and chuckled.
But that wasn't his problem to worry about.
Eunice nodded, just about to leave, when Bant called out to her again: "Wait. Also, add a livestream across all online platforms. Let everyone watch Tony Stark's suffering."
Bant planned to broadcast Tony's miserable ordeal on Sakaar to the entire world.
Let everyone see how this playboy got his ass handed to him by Bant.
Hearing this, Wanda's eyes lit up.
She and Quicksilver had indeed given up on killing Tony, but if they could watch him suffer, they were more than happy to.
"Got it." Eunice nodded, her emerald eyes lingering on Bant for a moment as she smiled. "Little Bant, I didn't expect you to be so petty."
Bant: ???
"What are you talking about!" Bant immediately denied it. "I'm helping him! The crimes Tony committed this time can't be resolved with money alone. If we really pursued it, you could say he turned against all of humanity, nearly drove mankind to extinction. Executing him wouldn't even be excessive."
"I'm using this method to let the whole world know that what happened was something even Tony Stark couldn't have predicted. Let the whole world see him in such a miserable state, and when he comes back to Earth, there'll be far fewer people blaming him. He ought to thank me for it!"
"It's absolutely not because of what he said to diss me back on the Hammer Bureau helicarrier!"
"Mhm, mhm, whatever you say. Definitely not for revenge against Tony Stark."
Eunice kept smiling and nodding with a look of agreement, but no matter how you looked at it, her expression seemed to say: Do you really think I believe you?
Bant: ...
This Eunice. She's not cute at all anymore.
/-\
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