Ultron

After his assault on the Hellfire Gala, Ultron returned to Arakko triumphant, with a new form and a new purpose.

When he had first journeyed to Earth, it had been with a personal goal in mind: to disrupt a mysterious assailant’s attempts to remove him from the timeline.

But Ultron’s time on Krakoa had shown him just how small and petty the scope of his mission had become. He was letting revenge drive him instead of the one thing he had truly come to love while traversing the cosmos over the last seven decades — conquest.

Now, with the heroes of Earth still reeling from his surprise attack, it was time for Ultron to get back to doing what he did best.

Ultron’s time on Krakoa had changed more than just his focus, however. He had emerged from the fray as an entirely new construct. At the peak of the battle, he had shed his previous robotic form — a body forged from a rare Mysterium alloy — in order to upgrade to something entirely different. Using the Mutant machine known as Cerebro, he had recalibrated the Krakoan Resurrection Protocols and generated himself an advanced techno-organic body unlike any of his prior forms. Once his memory files were successfully downloaded into this new frame, he then donned Cerebro itself, amplifying his processing power far beyond his previous capabilities. Like the Mutants who called Krakoa home, Ultron had evolved into something completely unique. He had become X-Tron.

Upon returning to Arakko, X-Tron began to realize that his current form came with unexpected capabilities. He could feel chronal energy coursing through his circuits as freely as the electricity that powered him. He deduced that the techno-organic virus that had served as the foundation for his new body must have bonded with genetic material from the living island of Krakoa itself as it was being generated within the Cradle. And since Krakoa had absorbed an excess of chronal energy when it was ripped through the timestream, X-Tron now shared in the island’s bounty. Similarly, that same virus had likely left traces of X-Tron himself in the very soil of Krakoa. The two beings were now linked in ways that even X-Tron could not have predicted. And it was a development that the villain could almost certainly use to his advantage.

Perhaps he could use that chronal energy to anchor himself in the timestream and prevent himself from being erased by whoever was manipulating it against him. Perhaps he could use his newfound symbiotic relationship with Krakoa to store his essential data within the island’s vast reserves of Chronovium, offering a failsafe should someone unexpectedly succeed in destroying his physical form. Or perhaps this strange energy could be used as a weapon in his ongoing quest for universal domination.

X-Tron had already conquered countless civilizations across the galaxy. It wouldn’t be long before Earth, Arakko, and every other inhabited planet were assimilated into his machine empire. But this new power that flowed through him opened an exciting possibility. Once he had amassed total control of this reality, he theorized that he might be able to tap into the chronal energy to invade other timelines, resulting in a mechanical multiverse! And Cerebro — which had been altered by the Scarlet Witch’s sorcery to locate Mutants in other dimensions — would be X-Tron’s key to opening gateways to any point across space and time.

“The Ages of X-Tron are about to begin,” X-Tron said to himself as his sinister grin began to glow an eerie orange.

“Self disagrees,” a digitized voice replied from above.

Before he could turn to face his unexpected guest, X-Tron was knocked back by a powerful blow from a techno-organic fist. His internal scanners began to glitch wildly, but X-Tron’s optical array was still functioning well enough that he could recognize the unique gold and black mechanical makeup of his attacker’s physical form.

“The Technarchy?” X-Tron mused. “I thought I defeated all of you…”

“Not all,” the alien attacker replied, “Self is still alive. And now, Warlock will avenge self’s people.”

“Warlock…?” X-Tron replied with curiosity, recalling the similarly-named warrior with golden skin who had just confronted him on Krakoa. “Any relation to Adam?”

“Self does not know a Designate: Adam,” Warlock replied, as the shape of his body quickly morphed to dodge X-Tron’s incoming energy blasts. “Self was off-planet when self received an urgent distress call from selfriends on Krakoa. But as self approached Earth, self detected traces of a familiar techno-organic signature on Arakko. Query: What has happened here?”

“I stopped on this red planet to plan my attack on Earth,” X-Tron said, continuing to unleash a barrage of concussive bursts in Warlock’s direction as he spoke. “Sadly, the locals were less than happy to see me. The Arakki fought valiantly, but as with any hostile culture, I was left with no choice but to assimilate them.”

“Using a virus that was stolen from self’s people,” Warlock responded, extending his arm to grab ahold of X-Tron.

“Not stolen,” X-Tron said as he struggled to break free of Warlock’s enlarged fist. “When I conquer any species, it is my right to incorporate their best assets into myself. You should be grateful. If not for the Technarchy’s unusual gifts, I would still be slaughtering those who oppose me instead of converting them into my soldiers. Think of the countless lives your fallen friends have saved!”

“Self is still trying to calculate how many lives you have taken,” Warlock replied, tightening his grip.

“Counting that high will take more time than you have left,” X-Tron sneered. With that, he let loose a massive electrical surge that instantly caused Warlock to release his hold and recoil his arm in pain. “If I could take out your entire race, what chance do you stand alone?”

“A valid query…” Warlock replied, still trying to recover from the shock, “…but an irrelevant one. Self is not alone.”

As Warlock spoke, a massive creature descended from the sky above Arakko. X-Tron instantly recognized it from images he had seen in the Technarchy’s hivemind during their assimilation. It was a Dominion-level Phalanx entity — a god-like being that had ascended to the very highest level of intelligence, artificial or otherwise.

“We are Dominion [Phalanx],” the giant spherical construct said with a voice that echoed across Arakko’s dusty red plains. “You have captured our attention/interest/concern. We have come to observe/understand/judge.”

“Then I will provide you plenty of evidence…” Ultron said as he powered up his weapons array, “…to prove why I am your superior!”

Without hesitation, Ultron channeled a powerful blast of pure chronal energy through the pulse cannons in his palms, expecting its time-bending effects to rip the Dominion Phalanx asunder. But when the assault ended, the bio-mechanical behemoth remained exactly where it had been, unmoved and unharmed.

“We have grown/adapted/evolved beyond the limits/confines/boundaries of the timestream,” the god-level being responded. “But our suspicions/worries/fears were correct. We must deter/stop/obliterate you.”

“Of course,” X-Tron said with contempt. “Another deity with delusions of grandeur. And I thought the Asgardians were insufferable. You always try to make those who worship you feel so small. Maybe it is time you were made to feel the same.”

X-Tron outstretched the palm of his hand and slowly opened it to reveal… nothing…

“What is selfenemy doing?” Warlock asked curiously, gazing at X-Tron’s empty hand.

“I really had no desire to meet your maker today, Warlock,” X-Tron said, “but now that it’s here, perhaps I can introduce it to mine. At least in spirit.”

“Unstable matter/particles/Kirbons detected,” the Dominion Phalanx said. “Source of origin: The White Hot Room/Above-Place/Mystery. Further study/examination/analysis required…”

“I’ll save you the time,” X-Tron replied. “They’re called Pym Particles — named for my creator, Dr. Henry Pym. He may not have been the best father, but I’ll give him some credit: He had a lot of big ideas…”

As X-Tron spoke, the Dominion Phalanx began to rapidly decrease in size until it no longer seemed to pose a threat at all. Warlock watched in horror as his hopes of victory rapidly diminished along with his god-like ally.

“…but it was the small ones that always fascinated me the most.”

“Retreat/regroup/reconsider…” the Dominion Phalanx said in a voice that no longer echoed across Arakko.

The Dominion Phalanx began to rise into the skies once more, this time to make its escape. X-Tron raised his hand and, in an instant, the creature was surrounded by his army of robotic drones, all primed to attack.

“We yield/forfeit/surrender,” said the Dominion Phalanx before the drones could open fire on it.

“Lock that thing away,” X-Tron commanded. “I may be able to use it later. I imagine its version of the techno-organic virus far surpasses the one I inherited from the Technarchy. And speaking of which…”

X-Tron turned to Warlock. The hero stood defiantly, despite knowing in his techno-organic heart that he didn’t stand a chance against someone who could take out a Dominion Phalanx with such ease.

“Self is not afraid to die,” Warlock said, shifting his mass to make his body seem bigger and stronger than ever before. He lunged forward to attack X-Tron once again.

“It is not death that awaits you,” X-Tron said, grabbing Warlock by the throat and stopping the hero in his tracks. “That would be too kind. Instead, I am disabling your motor functions and your speech circuits, while making sure that your optical and audio receptors are still fully functional. Then I will put you on display so that, when your allies arrive here on Arakko — which I am certain they soon will — they will see how badly you have failed. And though you will wish to cry out and warn them, to join the fight beside them, you will only be able to watch and listen as I use your own techno-organic virus to drain the humanity from each and every one of them. That seems like a fair response to what you attempted here today…”

By the time X-Tron was done speaking, he had already finished what he had promised. Warlock had been completely immobilized and could not utter a word. X-Tron carried him over to a nearby wall, which was already covered in the remnants of other mechanical entities he had conquered, and displayed his foe’s motionless body like a trophy.

“All this talk of makers has made me yearn to see my own,” X-Tron said as he walked away from Warlock. “Once Earth is finally mine, I think I will venture back in time to the era of my creation and show Henry Pym what I have become. Surely, once he sees how far I have evolved beyond his original hopes, he will not dare to reject me again…”

X-Tron’s synthetic smile began to glow once more.

“…and if he does, I will show him the mercy he never showed me… by ending his flawed existence with my own hand!”