"Vision."
Baron Zemo's voice carried quiet urgency as he gave the android a meaningful look.
Vision could connect to global networks. Simple electromagnetic jamming shouldn't affect him. His consciousness could slip through digital pathways that physical barriers couldn't touch.
Except at this precise moment, in the vast electronic landscape of cyberspace, Vision was suffering.
A completely unfamiliar AI had surrounded his consciousness like a digital predator. This entity, calling itself Azmuth, operated with sophistication far beyond anything Vision had encountered. Its code moved with surgical precision, cutting off escape routes before Vision even recognized them as options.
And the real problem, the genuinely infuriating complication, was that Ultron itself was helping Azmuth contain him.
Ultron, what are you doing?!
Vision's consciousness finally wrenched itself free from the network and slammed back into his physical body with jarring force. He immediately fixed Dr. Pym with a glare that would have melted steel. "Helping a foreign artificial intelligence trap me in cyberspace? It appears you've chosen to side with these wanted criminals."
His voice modulated with barely contained threat. "Don't forget who graciously permitted you to remain in Alaska unmolested. Are you truly prepared to declare war on Hydra?"
"Please, don't become agitated, Vision." Dr. Pym's half-organic face arranged itself into an expression of profound sorrow. "Today was meant to be a family reunion. Even though so few have come, I don't want arguments to erupt."
His mechanical hand gestured at the empty chairs around the long table. "Why can't we simply sit together peacefully, the way we used to? The way things should be?"
The nostalgia in his voice carried genuine pain. "You all fell apart because you weren't united enough. I created the Ultron Realm and retreated to Alaska's mountains because I couldn't bear watching my former family and friends murder each other."
His gaze swept across the tense faces. "The tragedy is, I've realized something terrible. Ultron doesn't need to lift a finger to destroy the world. You superheroes are already doing it yourselves."
"You don't need to concern yourself with such matters." Baron Zemo's hand drifted toward his weapon. "Simply give us the Cosmic Cube fragment. With it, Hydra can resolve all these problems immediately."
He leaned forward, voice dropping to persuasive tones. "Even if you don't trust me, surely you trust Steve Rogers?"
"Of course." Pym's response dripped with bitter irony. "You always have solutions to solve problems directly. Like Tony's Registration Act. Or like Wanda using magic to simply rewrite reality and fix everything."
His mechanical chassis shuddered. "But each time, it only makes the outcome worse."
He looked around the room again, taking inventory of the few faces present. So many missing. So many who should have been here but chose not to come. The realization seemed to physically pain him.
"That's why I brought you together. To try mending the bonds we once shared."
But Tony hadn't come. Steve hadn't come. Thor hadn't come. This reunion had been doomed from the start.
The hybrid entity felt genuine sadness radiating through both his organic and mechanical components. He'd believed that if Steve Rogers said "Avengers Assemble," everyone would rally to his side. If Tony announced a brilliant plan, most would support him.
But all Pym wanted was reconciliation. A return to normalcy. And no one respected his wishes enough to even try.
"Dr. Pym." Ben's voice cut through the melancholy with uncomfortable clarity. "Although we can't claim friendship, I need to be honest with you. No one can simply pretend terrible things didn't happen just because acknowledging them is uncomfortable."
He met the hybrid's gaze steadily. "Your intentions may be good. But Steve Rogers serves Hydra. He's killed countless innocent people. There's no path back from that. Reconciliation isn't possible."
Baron Zemo's patience finally snapped. His pistol cleared its holster with practiced speed, while the other Hydra operatives moved into combat stances.
"Enough of this sentimental nonsense!" Zemo's voice cracked like a whip. "Ultron, you possess something that belongs to Hydra. Hand it over immediately, or we'll take it by force!"
The absurdity of the moment wasn't lost on anyone. A man with a small handgun, attempting to threaten a god-tier artificial intelligence merged with one of Earth's greatest scientific minds.
"Belongs to Hydra?" Hope van Dyne's laugh came sharp and humorless. "I don't think so."
She braced both hands against the table and launched herself into the air with enhanced strength. Her kick caught Baron Zemo square in the chest, sending him stumbling backward.
Simultaneously, Black Ant responded by shrinking to microscopic size, transforming into a bullet-fast projectile aimed directly at Hope.
Scott Lang immediately countered, his own Ant-Man suit reducing him to match his opponent's scale. The two tiny warriors collided in midair like dueling wasps.
Taskmaster moved with professional efficiency, his boot sweeping toward Hope's shin in a calculated strike. His shield followed in a devastating arc aimed at her skull.
The shield never connected.
Ben's hand caught it mid-swing, stopping the attack with overwhelming force. Metal groaned under the pressure of his grip.
"I heard you're a master of imitation." Ben's smile through the shield made Taskmaster's blood run cold. "I wonder if you can imitate this?"
The transformation rippled across Ben's body in an instant. His frame exploded upward and outward, skin turning crimson like sun-baked clay. Muscle mass multiplied exponentially. Arms thickened to the diameter of ancient tree trunks.
And then he grew two more arms.
Four Arms. The Tetramand form towered over Taskmaster, each limb corded with enough muscle to bench-press a tank.
Taskmaster recognized the species immediately. The same race as Looma. The same overwhelming physical superiority.
But there was absolutely no way he could imitate four arms. Where would he even put them? How would his skeleton accommodate the additional limbs?
"Can't copy it?" Ben's grin widened, taking on a predatory quality that would have made the Hulk proud. "No problem!"
He clenched all four fists sequentially, the sound like artillery shells loading. "You can always imitate Steve Rogers, right?"
He gestured at the shield still trapped in his lower-left hand. "Just grab that shield and pray it's actually made of adamantium."
Crimson lightning erupted along Ben's right arms, crackling and coiling like serpents made of pure energy. The Old Power, channeled through Tetramand physiology, created something terrifying.
"Just kidding." Ben's voice dropped to barely above a whisper. "Even adamantium couldn't withstand this."
BOOM!!!
The punch connected.
Taskmaster didn't so much fly backward as he ceased to exist as a coherent physical form. The shield crumpled like a beer can crushed under a hydraulic press, flattening into a disc of compressed metal no thicker than a sheet of paper.
The human body inside the armor fared significantly worse.
"Well, that's that." Ben dusted off his hands with exaggerated casualness, already reverting to his base form. "Old Power Four-Arm might be slightly overpowered for street-level combat."
On the other side of the room, Vision attempted to join the fight.
Ultron intercepted him immediately, mechanical tendrils wrapping around the android's limbs. The two artificial beings grappled in midair, energy beams crossing and canceling each other out.
"Ultron, you've truly decided to side with these criminals?!" Vision demanded, firing a sustained beam from the Mind Stone embedded in his forehead. "Why? What possible reason could you have?"
"Because they call me Pym."
Something human flickered across Dr. Pym's partially organic face. Throughout the Ultron Domain, thousands of dormant robots suddenly activated, flying toward their creator and merging with his body. The hybrid entity grew exponentially, metal and circuitry flowing together until a titan stood in the hall.
But no matter how much Ultron's mechanical components increased, Hank Pym's organic core remained intact. Unchanged. Human.
The tens-of-meters-tall fusion entity moved with the deliberate grace of a Buddhist statue come to life. One massive palm descended, pressing Vision down into the metallic floor with inexorable force.
Meanwhile, Ben had shrunk to match Black Ant's microscopic scale by changing to the rarely use Nanomech, teaming up with Scott to overwhelm the Hydra operative through coordinated strikes. When they'd subdued him, Ben returned to normal and immediately shifted forms again.
Diamondhead.
The crystalline warrior moved with lethal precision. His hand transformed into a blade mid-thrust, piercing Baron Zemo's chest before the man could even process the attack. Inside the wound, the diamond exploded outward like thorns, shredding organs and pulverizing bone.
"Done." Ben withdrew his hand smoothly, the ease of the kill leaving both Hope and Scott looking vaguely disturbed.
Only one enemy remained.
"Upgrade."
The solid diamond instantly liquefied, transforming into cascading streams of black and green technological fluid. Ben surged forward like a tidal wave, engulfing both Vision and the massive Ultron/Pym hybrid in a single motion.
The liquid metal spread outward from that point, flowing across the landscape, infiltrating every system in the entire Ultron Domain.
"Electronic virus detected," Ben's voice echoed from everywhere at once. "That's mildly troublesome."
Inside Vision's systems, malicious code had already begun spreading, attempting to infect Upgrade's technological matrix and turn it against its host.
"Azmuth, initiate antivirus protocols."
As an artificial intelligence itself, Azmuth possessed defensive capabilities that made conventional firewalls look like paper barriers. The cleansing program launched like digital bleach poured directly into Vision's core systems, burning out corruption with surgical precision.
The Omnitrix's faceplate began flashing in rapid sequence.
Ben reverted to human form. The giant Ultron robot had vanished entirely.
In its place stood two figures: Vision, frozen as though his operating system had crashed, and a completely human Hank Pym, standing naked among scattered mechanical parts, looking profoundly disoriented.
"What... what am I doing here?" Pym's voice cracked with confusion and residual fear.
"I reversed Upgrade's fusion capabilities," Ben explained. "Separated you from Ultron's mechanical body at the molecular level."
Upgrade could merge with and enhance technology. But it could also disassemble unified systems into their component parts.
Dr. Pym remained stunned, his mind struggling to process the abrupt transition from hybrid consciousness to purely human awareness. Ben continued before the silence could stretch too long.
"Don't worry about Ultron. It's been handled."
Azmuth's voice echoed with smug satisfaction through Ben's communications system. Destroying rogue AIs? That's literally my specialty.
"I'd almost forgotten what being human felt like." Pym covered his face with trembling hands, then glanced fearfully at his daughter from the corner of his eye.
Hope stood frozen, tears streaming down her face.
"Take the Cosmic Cube fragment with you," Pym said quietly, gesturing toward a secure vault that had opened automatically when Ultron's control systems went offline