The Father of Ultron
"ULTRON?" Steve asked, frowning with evident confusion.
"According to the data recovered from what little was left of JARVIS, that was the name it used before being attacked," Tony explained, visibly irritated. "Someone created an artificial intelligence and called it that. I don't know if it was meant as a joke or sheer madness."
"So, it's an AI more advanced than JARVIS or Friday?" Steve asked, trying to understand the scope of the threat.
Tony raised an eyebrow, clearly annoyed by the implication.
"It's just a virus. One that managed to slip into the central servers," he replied quickly. "If JARVIS had been there, he would've done exactly the same—or better."
Nicolas, still playing on his phone against Pietro, sank deeper into the screen, hoping no one would drag him into the conversation.
Owen listened silently, but after a few seconds, he turned without a word and started walking away.
"Where are you going?" Wanda asked as she saw him heading toward the exit.
"To find Hank Pym. Tony, send me his location," Owen said in a grave tone without stopping.
"Pym?" Tony repeated, surprised, but Owen had already left the lab. Tony clicked his tongue, shrugged, and went straight to the computer. If he had learned one thing about the soldier, it was that there was no point in making him wait.
…
Meanwhile, in a hidden laboratory among the city buildings, an elderly man with white hair was hunched over a worktable, surrounded by blueprints, microscopic components, and holographic screens. Beside him, Scott Lang—Ant-Man—was adjusting his suit's controls while discussing a strategy to improve stability within the Quantum Realm for a future mission there.
The sharp sound of an alarm cut through their conversation. Red lights began flashing throughout the lab, accompanied by a cascade of automated alerts.
The old man, Hank Pym, turned toward the main console, his expression filled with concern.
"What the hell…?" he muttered.
Though the lab looked like a regular-sized building, it had a peculiar defense system: it could shrink to a portable size within seconds, transforming into an emergency briefcase. But what appeared on the monitors left Hank speechless.
The exterior gates, reinforced with next-generation materials, were being torn apart by sheer brute force. On the security feeds, only flashes of red light could be seen, obliterating everything in their path.
"Activate containment protocol, now!" Hank ordered firmly, though the tension in his eyes betrayed his fear.
The entire building began to shrink, the floor vibrating as the structure compressed inch by inch. Hank grabbed Scott by the arm and pushed him toward a side exit.
"Go! Take the emergency route!"
"What's happening? Who's—?"
"No time!" Hank interrupted, already preparing the failsafe mechanisms. He was ready to destroy the entire lab rather than let the intruder steal anything.
Two explosions echoed suddenly.
BOOM. BOOM.
The nearby gates were blown apart.
"Scott!" Hank shouted.
Ant-Man pressed a device on his wrist and instantly shrank out of sight.
Hank, however, stood his ground. Despite his age, his mind was still sharp, calculating possible escape routes and evaluating the intruder's abilities.
The screech of tearing metal interrupted his thoughts. Two blazing hands burst through the lab's main door, melting the steel with a red glow. With a brutal pull, the door was ripped apart, left in molten fragments.
A figure stepped through the smoke and sparks. Owen entered, his gaze as cold and sharp as a blade.
"Found you," he said in a low, almost emotionless tone.
Hank stepped back in shock. "You… you're that soldier…"
He didn't finish the sentence. Owen already knew who he was and understood that if he let Pym think for even a second, the man could come up with a countermeasure. Besides, the building was still shrinking; there was no time for talk.
In a flash of red light, Owen appeared in front of him. He grabbed Hank's face with one hand and slammed the other against the wall with such force that it shattered instantly.
The crash echoed through the entire lab. In the next instant, both men were hurled outside. Owen threw Hank onto the street and turned just in time to see the building finish shrinking until it was no larger than a model.
It was the perfect failsafe; the miniaturization speed was designed so Pym could escape while trapping any intruder inside. But Owen had moved too fast.
Hank touched his face, dazed from the impact, then looked up with fury.
"I don't know who sent you, but you won't get anything from me," he said in a trembling voice, struggling to keep his composure.
Owen answered with a single, clean strike to the jaw. Hank collapsed instantly, unconscious.
The legendary original Ant-Man, defeated in one blow. Disappointing.
Owen took a deep breath. He couldn't afford to lose a single minute; if Ultron was active, it had to be rebuilding somewhere. He couldn't give it any advantage.
He crouched to grab Pym's unconscious body and take him for interrogation at VITAE, but he stopped when he noticed a slight movement.
Something tiny leapt toward his face. A single ant… or rather, Scott Lang.
Owen blew sharply. The burst of compressed air was enough to send the miniature hero flying.
Scott enlarged mid-air, landing on his feet several meters away, shocked by Owen's speed and strength.
"Wow… you must have lungs of steel," he said in disbelief, staring at the soldier who had countered him with nothing but a breath.
Owen let out a sigh at the sight of the man before him, then turned again, intent on picking up Hank and leaving immediately.
However, Scott's battle cry broke the silence. Owen rolled his eyes, already guessing what was coming.
Scott shrank again, sprinting across the concrete, convinced Owen couldn't see him. But the soldier's eyes followed him calmly, every muscle relaxed, every move measured.
The moment Scott leapt to climb up his leg, Owen had already anticipated it. The hero enlarged mid-jump, attempting to perform a perfectly structured takedown. Unfortunately for him, his opponent wasn't an ordinary enemy but a super soldier.
Scott clung to his leg, applying all the amplified strength of his suit… yet Owen didn't even bend his knee.
The sound of Scott's effort mixed with the soldier's impassive silence. Owen looked at him with a neutral, almost bored expression until the shrunken man lifted his head and met his eyes.
It was the last thing he saw before a fist wrapped in red energy slammed into his helmet.
The blow sent him crashing into the ground, his head embedding into the concrete and leaving a visible crater. Even so, Owen knew the helmet was sturdy, so he hit him again—once, twice, three times—until he was sure Scott was unconscious.
With his other hand, he held Scott's body down to prevent him from shrinking again. Only when the man's breathing steadied and the helmet opened automatically did Owen let go.
He straightened up, grabbed both Hank Pym and Scott at once, and prepared to leave.
But as he turned, he found a short-haired woman standing at the mouth of the alley, holding a trembling gun aimed straight at his chest.
"Let them go," she demanded, trying to keep her voice firm, though her shaking hands betrayed her.
"I don't have time for this. If you want them, find them at VITAE," Owen replied coldly.
His legs glowed red; the ground cracked beneath his feet, and in a few crimson flashes, he vanished, leaping between the buildings and leaving the woman frozen in place.
…
Owen burst into the main hall of the VITAE base, both unconscious prisoners slung over his shoulders. He dropped them to the floor with a casual ease that froze the entire room.
Everyone stared at him in shock and confusion.
"Well, looks like you're into kidnapping scientists now," Tony remarked, raising an eyebrow. "And for the record, I sent you that info five minutes ago. How long did it take you to get him?"
"Two minutes," Owen replied calmly, unfazed. "Take them to a secure area. I don't know how that suit works, but it can shrink; make sure there aren't any bars he can slip through."
A squad of soldiers entered immediately, saluting with precision before hauling both captives away.
Tony crossed his arms, his curiosity barely hidden. "And since when do we kidnap scientists? What does this have to do with anything?"
"Hank Pym," Owen answered, "was an acquaintance of your father. And he's the father Ultron is trying to find."
The remark wiped Tony's smirk off instantly. His expression shifted; the sarcasm vanished, leaving only the sober look of an engineer who understood the weight of that revelation.
"Wanda, help the old man remember," Owen ordered firmly.
Wanda nodded without hesitation and walked toward the containment area where the two men had just been taken.
"And how do you know he's the creator?" Steve asked, turning to face Owen.
"What was Darren Cross's company called before?" Owen asked in a low tone.
Banner was the one who answered. "Pym Technologies."
"Exactly," Banner continued, his eyes widening in realization, his tone that of someone connecting the dots. "The company's creations were his. Pym built a security system—a virus—to protect his projects in case they fell into the wrong hands. The servers were locked down… he couldn't retrieve or manipulate them."
"Until Darren Cross died. Or was killed," Tony added, his gaze darkening.
"And when that happened," Banner went on, "someone—maybe Pym, maybe the virus itself—activated the protocol. The files were released, and Ultron escaped. If it was trapped inside the system before, now it's completely free."
Silence filled the room as the gravity of that thought settled in.