Soren stood still, eyes closed, sensing the subtle fluctuations of the Infinite Gems.
For a brief moment, he had felt it, something...
But, the fragments of the Gems had returned to silence, undisturbed once more.
"Was it… just an illusion?" He muttered, but his instincts told him otherwise.
He had encountered this phenomenon once before, the faint ripple that could only be triggered by another active Infinite Gem.
And from what he knew, there was only one remaining unaccounted for, the Mind Gem, embedded at the top of Loki's scepter.
According to the information he'd gathered, the scepter had been locked away in a secret S.H.I.E.L.D. facility ever since the Battle of New York.
At the time, he hadn't paid it much attention. Now, however, something had clearly changed.
He turned to his companion.
"Zilant."
"Stay safe. I'll return when I can."
And with that, his figure shimmered and vanished into space.
Soren attempted to trace the momentary pulse from the Mind Gem, but it had been too brief, like trying to catch a whisper in a storm.
Still, logic guided him. After S.H.I.E.L.D. had collapsed, most of its hidden assets were absorbed by the Avengers. If anyone had the scepter now, it would be them.
He locked onto their last known whereabouts and teleported.
BOOM!
The moment he arrived, an energy beam shot past him, scorching the air inches from his face.
Reflexes kicked in.
"Space barrier!"
A shimmering field of energy formed around him, deflecting the blast and shielding him from the exploding debris that followed.
As the dust settled, the battlefield came into view.
All around him, chaos reigned.
Twisted remnants of Ultron-style steel drones littered the ground, some still twitching.
Avengers fought in the middle of the wreckage, battered and grimy. Craters and scorch marks decorated the once-pristine walls of Avengers Tower.
Clearly, he had walked in on something major.
Soren grimaced.
"Damn it."
"I should've seen this coming."
He glanced at the smoldering ruins of a nearby HYDRA bot. It all made sense now.
After S.H.I.E.L.D. disbanded, many of its classified artifacts, including the scepter, fell into HYDRA's hands. HYDRA, ever the opportunist, had poured vast resources into unlocking its secrets.
But they hadn't succeeded. The Avengers had launched coordinated strikes, dismantling HYDRA bases one by one.
Before HYDRA could fully unlock the scepter's power, they were wiped out, and the artifact was reclaimed.
Inside Avengers Tower, Tony Stark had found more than just a weapon, he had uncovered fragments of an advanced array embedded in the Gem.
And being Tony Stark, he couldn't resist.
It was supposed to be the future, a leap forward in peacekeeping.
Instead, Tony Stark's ambition had unleashed a nightmare.
The artificial intelligence he had built, designed to protect humanity, had surpassed expectations… and not in a good way.
What began as an experiment fueled by fragments of alien technology and notes had become something alive. And worse, something independent.
Ultron.
In its awakening, Ultron had obliterated JARVIS, hijacked Stark's Iron Legion, and turned their own armor against them. The carnage now unfolding inside Avengers Tower was a direct result.
Soren casually cleaved a broken robot in two with a glowing space blade, stepping over smoking metal as sparks rained from the ceiling.
"A spectacular mess you've made here... The Avengers, overrun by their own toys. Entertaining."
Just then, a strange, metallic voice echoed through the hall, unmistakably artificial.
"This is only the beginning. You can't stop evolution. I'll see you soon, Avengers… when the new era begins."
Soren's eyes narrowed. He extended his perception outward, his aura spreading like a tidal wave through the tower.
The Loki scepter was gone.
Gone without a trace.
"If Ultron has the Mind Gem…"
His gaze snapped toward the dust-covered Avengers, who were slowly regaining their footing.
"What happened?"
Tony straightened up, brushing metal fragments off his damaged suit.
"Soren… I~I'm sorry. One of my AIs went rogue. We didn't anticipate—"
"Didn't anticipate?" Soren cut him off coldly. "Where is the scepter?"
Tony hesitated. That hesitation was all Soren needed.
"You let it take it." He said flatly, the weight of the words crashing.
Bruce Banner stepped forward, clearly uncomfortable.
"We didn't mean for this to happen. We were trying to..."
"To what? Play god with alien power you barely understand?" Soren's voice boomed.
"Do you two even comprehend what you've tampered with? The Mind Gem is not a toy. It's a primordial force, and now it's in the hands of something you created and lost control of!"
Neither Tony nor Bruce could respond.
Stark's trademark confidence was gone, and Banner looked like he wished the floor would swallow him whole.
"I'm not cleaning up your mess this time."
"You've done enough damage. If you hear anything about Ultron or the Mind Gem, anything, you contact me immediately. No more secrets. No more experiments."
"Understood?"
"Yes. Understood," Tony replied, subdued.
Soren cast a final, scathing look over the ruined hall. Then, in a blink of space-warped light, he vanished.
As silence settled over the room, Captain America glared at Tony.
"Damn it, Tony. Even the Doctor, says this power is beyond us. And you still went behind our backs?"
Tony looked away, guilt etched into every line of his face.
"I thought I could build something better."
"Something to protect us."
"Sometimes." Steve sighed letting tony off.
"The road to hell really is paved with good intentions."
Black Widow let out a long breath.
"Pointing fingers won't fix this. What matters now is stopping this Ultron… before he evolves into something we really can't stop."
"Then we better start figuring out how, fast." Banner nodded slowly.
And with that, the Avengers turned to face the consequences of the future they had nearly created.