"If I can't beat him, I'll run!"
"I didn't expect Ultron to catch our scent this quickly. This makes things much harder. We still have no idea how many Avengers are being held there. For now, all we can do is survive this wave of attacks."
Karl knew he could not simply sit around and wait for death.
Eric O'Grady seemed to vanish as though he had crossed into another dimension.
Even if Karl wanted to follow him, all he could do for now was wait and see.
Suddenly, Eric appeared behind him.
"Run!"
He had already shaken Ultron off!
Karl did not hesitate in the slightest. With a wave of his hand, he immediately took off.
By the time Ultron caught up, he could only watch the two figures rapidly disappearing into the distance.
He sighed helplessly.
"Nothing but deserters!"
"I thought the Karl that Tothwanwell told me about was supposed to be impressive. Now that I've seen him for myself, he's nothing special…"
Ultron was extremely pleased.
He had failed to actually capture Karl, but forcing his opponent to flee in panic was still proof of his own superiority.
Pride and satisfaction welled up within him.
Still, allowing them to escape like this was a pity.
"Look at this. These guys really are a pain to deal with!"
Karl and Eric temporarily landed somewhere safe.
Eric was extremely frustrated.
Thinking back on how badly he had just been overwhelmed, he could hardly believe it.
How could this be happening?
Ultron had become terrifyingly powerful, and now he had even formed an alliance with those troublesome Skrulls.
Whatever came next would only become more difficult.
"All right. I know you're frustrated. You're not the only one worried about this. I'm having a hard time with it too!"
Eric was far from convinced that this situation could be resolved so easily.
He immediately contacted S.H.I.E.L.D.
He wanted to know whether they had received any information at all.
Earth was already in danger.
Everything was only going to become more complicated!
The enemy had already developed such an enormous conspiracy.
Could the Director really have noticed absolutely nothing?
If so, that would be utterly incompetent.
No wonder others were walking all over them!
"Director, are all the Skrulls currently under our surveillance?"
"Why have they already managed to secretly build an army and establish their own empire without you knowing anything about it?"
After Eric finished speaking, all he heard from the other end was laughter.
"Don't joke around with me in broad daylight!"
"Even if we haven't placed every single one of them under our complete control, we still have a cooperative relationship with them."
"How could they suddenly betray us halfway through? Stop imagining things."
Eric was speechless.
He had nearly died at Ultron's hands moments earlier!
Yet they actually thought he was joking!
A surge of anger erupted from Eric.
"Watch this video first. Then think carefully about what I just told you."
Eric immediately sent over a recording.
Karl could see that he was still furious and had nowhere to vent that anger.
"I hadn't even finished explaining my plan to you earlier before Ultron interrupted us."
"We still need to proceed according to that plan."
"From the looks of things, S.H.I.E.L.D. hasn't received any useful information at all. That means we can only rely on ourselves for now."
Eric took a deep breath and forced himself to calm down.
The battle just now had gotten his blood boiling.
He needed to suppress the anger burning inside him.
"Sorry, Sorcerer. I got a little worked up just now. Go ahead…"
Only after Eric had regained some composure did Karl slowly begin explaining his plan.
Ultron was simply too difficult to deal with.
They could not come up with any particularly good way of fighting him directly.
That meant they could only attack the enemy from within.
The Skrulls had already cleared away the obstacles standing in their way and were preparing to build an empire of their own.
That made the entire situation even more difficult and frustrating.
Eric hesitated again.
"Come on, Sorcerer. Stop keeping me in suspense!"
"Just look at the situation we're in. Even the Director doesn't know what's happening!"
"They've already built their own army. That puts us in an extremely passive position!"
Worse still, they knew the enemy had secretly created numerous superpowered enemies.
It was absolutely insane.
"I refuse to believe they can really be that powerful!"
Those words were obviously spoken out of frustration.
Karl merely shook his head and pretended he had not heard them.
Negative remarks like that would not contribute anything to their overall plan.
"Stop talking like we've already lost!"
"We haven't truly reached a dead end yet."
"Ultron chose to appear at a time like this, and he didn't even hesitate to reveal their plans right in front of us."
"That means he isn't merely arrogant. He must have a much more comprehensive plan prepared."
"Remember what I told you earlier?"
"They're collecting ultimate weapons!"
Eric silently nodded.
But what did their plan have to do with those ultimate weapons?
"They want the belt you're wearing."
"Otherwise, we can use it as bait. If they want it badly enough, they'll inevitably reveal more of their plans."
Eric immediately dropped to the ground.
The whole situation felt hopeless.
Even if they managed to lure all of them over, wouldn't they simply be inviting disaster onto themselves?
With only the two of them, there was nothing they could do to Ultron!
And the Skrulls were involved behind the scenes as well.
They had been plotting against Earth for far longer than a day or two.
If the Skrulls had not been manipulating things from the shadows, everyone would never have ended up in such a passive position.
After finishing his explanation, Karl crouched down and began using his power to draw an extremely detailed diagram of the plan on the ground.
"As long as we carry out this plan and lure them here, everything else will be much easier!"
They still did not know how many superpowered individuals had been replicated.
But if the enemy truly wanted Eric's belt, they would inevitably send some of their strongest fighters to retrieve it!
If they could kill one, that was one less enemy.
If they killed two, even better!
"This plan is way too risky."
"Losing my belt would be the least of our problems. If we really provoke both the Skrulls and Ultron, that could get us killed!"
If Karl lost control of the situation, things would become disastrous.
It was true that Karl possessed the Phoenix Force.
But the Skrulls were hardly easy opponents.
The thought alone filled Eric with concern.
"I'm telling you, this plan can work!"
"I know Ultron is powerful, but we aren't going to go through him."
"We're going to work through the people on the inside!"
Karl's words gave Eric quite a bit of confidence.
If Karl was confident in the plan, then Eric was willing to go along with it.
"Besides us, there's one more person who's absolutely essential."
"We need to find him and ask whether he's willing to help us!"
(End of Chapter)
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