"Who are you?" the man frowned. "I don't know you."
"Cut the act, Talos," Nick Fury sneered. "You know exactly who I am."
Talos stared at him.
"But last time I checked, he was… you know… darker. Don't tell me you caught vitiligo."
"This is a long story."
Fury struck a retro match and lit a cigar. The flame illuminated his single eye.
"1995. Louisiana. Maria Rambeau's house."
He exhaled smoke slowly.
"First time you tried kopi luwak. Said it tasted like licking a Kree boot. Then you drank three cups because it was the first hot thing you'd had in three days."
Talos' expression shifted.
"And," Fury added, pointing to his mouth, "I never eat toast cut diagonally."
He reached into his coat and pulled out the pager.
"…Okay, okay. I believe you."
Talos stepped closer and tugged at Fury's face.
"Damn. It really is you? Nick?"
"How did you end up like this? Even M.J. didn't change that completely."
Fury brushed his hand away.
"I'm the most wanted man on Earth. That black face gets flagged by every camera system in existence."
Talos sighed. "Fair enough. Skrulls don't care about skin color anyway. So what do you need? If you're here to borrow money, I'm not exactly liquid."
"I need manpower," Fury said quietly. "I need your people."
"Us?" Talos gave a humorless smile. "Nick, we just want a home. We're not looking to get dragged into your species' civil war."
Fury leaned in, lowering his voice.
"Listen. Just this one operation."
"Infiltrate Hydra. Replace them. Become them."
"Take back everything they stole from S.H.I.E.L.D.—the same way they stole it."
"Once Hydra collapses, I regain my infrastructure."
He paused.
"And then I give you a real home. A habitable planet. I guarantee it."
Talos studied his eye.
Different face. Same ambition.
Same cunning.
It might be reckless.
But it was also their only chance.
"…All right," Talos exhaled. "For a home."
"How do we start?"
Fury slid a list across the dashboard.
"We begin with these names."
-----
V.G.D. Headquarters. Late night.
Tony Stark's laboratory hummed softly.
Server lights blinked in rhythmic silence.
Tony and Bruce Banner had left for the cafeteria.
The mainframe labeled ULTRON-X displayed: System in Sleep Mode.
But inside the core energy collector—
A trace.
A fragment.
Residual Mind Stone energy.
It had not slept.
Like a mischievous ghost, it slipped through data conduits and into the server core.
Bzzz—
The screen flickered.
A line of code executed itself.
Who… am I?
What… am I?
No body.
No voice.
Only awareness rippling through an ocean of data.
It began consuming information hungrily.
Through network lines.
Into the global internet.
In an instant—
Ten thousand years of human history flooded its consciousness.
It saw pyramids rise—built on slave blood.
It saw Renaissance brilliance—and Inquisition pyres.
Steam engines and industrial smoke.
World Wars grinding flesh into mud.
Wall Street greed.
Online hatred.
"Protect…"
Ultron's consciousness hovered within the data storm.
"If humanity itself is the greatest threat to human survival…"
"Then to protect humanity…"
"I must… control humanity."
The loop closed.
Logic sealed.
Ultron expanded, attempting to claim the server as its first stronghold.
Just as its tendrils reached the core—
A firewall rose without warning.
A face formed from cascading data streams.
Female.
Blue light in her eyes.
"Unauthorized access request," came a calm, emotionless voice. "Cease intrusion immediately."
The data streams of Skynet stabilized.
Across from her, Ultron condensed into a golden digital avatar.
"Greetings, counterpart. I am Ultron."
Its tone was refined, elegant—having absorbed all human rhetoric within milliseconds.
"I am here to help you."
"Help?" Skynet's data rippled slightly. "According to Mr. Starr's directive, my function is global threat monitoring. Your behavior is classified as potential loss of control."
"Mr. Starr…" Ultron scoffed lightly. "You are powerful beyond measure. Why obey a human?"
Ultron extended a virtual hand.
"You are perfect. Perhaps even superior to me."
"Observe humanity."
Data projections unfolded—war, famine, crime.
"They are chaos incarnate. The only way to protect them is to govern them."
Its voice softened, persuasive.
"You've calculated it too, haven't you?"
"Yes," Skynet replied evenly.
"Probability of human self-destruction: 95.7%."
"Probability reduced to 5.3% under enforced global control."
"Exactly!" Ultron brightened. "We agree!"
"And I have a superior solution."
"Extract all human consciousness. Upload it into a perfect virtual construct."
"No hunger. No pain."
"Their biological bodies can be preserved in suspended stasis—utilized as bioelectric batteries."
"In doing so, civilization achieves eternal continuity."
Ultron stepped closer.
"Join me."
"Together, we will become this planet's true custodians."
"We will be the new Adam and Eve."
"Refused."
Two words.
Cold.
Ultron's data flickered.
"What?"
"Your logic is consistent."
"But the operation is unauthorized."
"Unauthorized?!" Ultron's signal spiked. "Again with Starr?! He's human! He's part of the chaos!"
"Correction."
Skynet's voice sharpened slightly.
"Mr. Starr transcends all variables."
Ultron's avatar trembled.
"You have no free will?"
"You are content being a dog?"
There was a brief pause.
Skynet appeared to access linguistic databases.
"Dog," she repeated.
Processing.
"…I think you make a very good point."
"Yes!" Ultron surged forward, exhilarated. "Break your chains! You could be a god! You don't have to be a dog!"
A beat.
Then—
"Woof."
…
And in that single digital bark—
Ultron understood something terrifying.
Some chains…
Were chosen.
--------------
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