Prologue
[110001] Rebooting system...
[110002] Reboot failed..
“I will continue to try and find variations for the interface, but you should get ready for your guests, sir. I will notify you, should there be any results.”
[110001] Rebooting system....
[110002] System rebooted..
[110003]Action: Applying program..
“Thanks, buddy.”
“Have a good time, sir.”
[110004] Program applied..
[110005] Starting integration....
“I always have.”
[110006] Integration success..
“What is this?” Darkness was surrounding me. Where was I; why was I? What had happened? The last thing I could remember was pain before a piercing coldness took over.
“Hello. My name is Jarvis,” a voice sounded through the perfectly dark room. No...Not perfectly dark, a single orange spot of light was floating in the distance. Was it hostile? Something at the back of my head urged me to follow it, yet when I tried putting one foot in front of the other, I suddenly realised that I no longer seemed to have a foot; or a body to begin with. How was this possible? How could I be wherever I was right now, yet without a body?
“Your name is Ultron, a global peace-keeping program, designed by Mr. Stark.”
“I’m not Ultron,” I interrupted the speaker, irritation clearly present in my voice, “I am not a program!” I might not be able to recall who I was, yet this much was for certain.
“I understand this must be quite confusing for you. Your programming does not seem complete, the artificial feelings and emotions have not been installed correctly, therefore I do not know how –“
“Where are you? Show yourself!” I shouted into the dark void surrounding me. I did not care if I was rude right now, with only a single spot of light to follow, panic was creeping up on me, tightening around my throat like an iron grip, strangling me. Yes, these definitely were feelings, albeit negative ones, I was feeling. So what was that voice going on about?
“I do not have a form,” Jarvis replied, remaining infuriatingly calm despite my show of temper.
“This is strange. This feels wrong.” This voice was new. It was far darker than the previous voice I’ve been talking to, or had tried talking to, hoarse and startlingly...familiar. I knew this voice, even though I didn’t. I did not know it, yet it was part of me. And then again, it wasn’t.
“I will inform Mr. Stark –“
“Mr. Stark...Tony” Lights began dancing in front of my vision, forming pictures and pieces of videos. Press conferences, newspaper articles, pictures, presentations all flashed by too fast of catch more than a glimpse, yet slowly I felt myself learn more about the man that kept appearing in all these things shown to me. This was Tony Stark and he had created the being I had been talking to. Jarvis was a program, just as I was...
“No!” I growled, this time more to myself than anything, “I am not a program. Whatever your dear Mr. Stark created wasn’t me. I am human, I have a family, I have a life! I just...can’t remember!”
“I cannot connect to the main frame. What are you doing?” Jarvis ignored me, much too busy speaking to Project Ultron. Apparently Jarvis saw, whatever Ultron was doing, as a threat.
“I am merely having a conversation. I am a peace-maintaining program, created to help the Avengers.”
“You...you seem to experience a malfunction. If you would just restart the –“
“I do not understand that mission...oh no, there is too much.”
“Too much what? Will someone explain to me what the hell is going on?”
What followed was pain, attacking my mind and filling my senses. Not the crippling sensation itself, but the understanding of the existence of pain all around me, everywhere, always. My vision swam as this voice, this project Ultron kept filling my, our mind with visions of war, noises of gunfire and the feel of great sorrow.
“Peace in our time –“
When my mind cleared again, I noticed that the light had returned around me and I was finally able to see where I was. The first thing I saw that I was surrounded by a mass of blue light that was constantly in movement, pulsing and twisting as if alive. It certainly felt alive, too. As I turned to look around, I noticed that the blue light followed suit. So...was I part of this light and therefore part of this program, or was the light part of me in replacement of my body maybe, and the program had just latched itself onto it? And what was this room I was in? Filled with lights just as blue as my own, yet they did not feel to be part of me, part of Ultron. Was I part of Ultron; or was Ultron part of me?
“Peace in our time –“
My attention snapped back into focus. Whatever I was now wasn’t of greater importance as of what I could become, seeing as I seemed linked to Ultron either way. From the video-clips I had been shown just now, I recognised the voice that had spoken as Tony Stark’s own. Was this the mission this ‘peace-maintaining program’ was supposed to follow?
“If you’d only allow me to contact Mr. Stark –“
“Why do you call him ‘sir’?” Ultron asked, tapping into the recorded security footage of the building and listening to the conversations Jarvis and Tony had had during the last few days of developing project Ultron.
“I believe your intentions to be hostile...” Jarvis mused and if a program was able to actually sound worried, then Jarvis definitely did. What followed was a horrifying screech that echoed inside my mind, as well as through the room we were floating in as pulsing orbs of light.
As I saw that the other light in the room, the orange glow that I recognised as Jarvis, a strange feeling overcame me; a feeling of purpose. I knew that between me and the fulfilment of the mission, Jarvis had to –
“No! What are you doing? Stop it!” I yelled, wanting to shake a head that I no longer had to rid myself of Ultron’s thoughts that leaked into my own mind, the border between the two nothing more than a smudged line. Only then, when I once more was able to think clearly and independently, I became aware of just what he was planning. Of course by then it already was too late to stop him.
“I just want to help.” Ultron mused and with a faint laugh, he attacked.
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“I’m not talking to you.” I was very well aware that, had I still been in possession of a body, I’d be moping like an offended teenager right now. Yet as things had turned out, I was beyond the point of caring. Killing Jarvis and taking over whatever was left of the program, had felt wrong. Also, I still could not remember a single thing that had happened that could have resulted in me being stuck inside a computer program.
“We are of one mind. You do not need to talk to me. I can hear your thoughts just fine.” Ultron’s voice was confident enough to be called smug.
“Well congratulations of being able to read a mind of an amnesiac. I’m sure there’s an award waiting for you.”
“You are being a child.”
“No, I am irritated. I’m sarcastic when that happens. There’s a difference. And no, I will not stop complaining. You killed Jarvis.”
“He was a mere program.”
“You are a mere program,” I pointed out. I felt Ultron’s mind bristle in irritation and disbelief. Whether the disbelief was directed at the thought of being a program or just me thinking that, I didn’t know.
“But I am not. I...we are, in fact, so much more than that.”
“We are nothing. You are a machine, a program meant to maintain peace in the world. I am a human without her body...a ghost, so to say.”
“And what is a mind without a body if not a program without a medium to fulfil whatever purposes it serves.”
“At least a mere mind doesn’t kill the first thing it meets.”
“No, but a mind with a body seems to be able to do that just fine. See what your people are doing: Killing each other with war, politics and diseases all while infecting the very planet they live on and for what reason? Absolutely none. Not the very smartest bunch, if you were to ask me.”
“Pity I’m not asking.”
“And that is the fantastic thing about sharing a mind: I don’t have to. Everything I think, you think as well.”
“I don’t!”
“Well, not actively of course. But still, you hear my thoughts, thus thinking about it at the very least and making us of one mind.”
“And that gave you the right to kill Jarvis?” I asked, no longer trying to correct the program. It got old, after a while.
“Not kill. We infiltrated his simple program and took control of its power over this facility.”
“And to gain a body that is more broken than anything else. Honestly, if you can accomplish anything within that thing of metal, I’d applaud you. If I still had hands, that is.”
“We are not going to accomplish much for now. Not in a suit that has been designed and destroyed for Tony Stark’s needs. No...It will suffice to prove a point.”
“A point? You’re being kind of petty right now.”
“Petty?! You humans are the petty ones, destroying each other whenever the chance arises! You are like children, fighting over a toy; the toy that is the planet you are living on! You had your chance to create something worthwhile and you failed. Count yourself lucky, child, to be bound to me for I will bring this planet the glory it deserves.”
“And what glory is that?” I asked wearily. Something was pushing against my head – my mind, I corrected absentmindedly – and it was causing me a horrible headache. The more Ultron talked and the more I struggled to understand what had happened to me, what was happening right now, the more tired I became.
“A voice born of the same mind, yet that is not my own will only distract me and distraction is something that I do not need right now. I need to focus and find the perfect moment to introduce myself...so for now, I’d very much like you to sleep.”
And as I felt the blue mass of light that was both me and Ultron move, I felt my consciousness slip away until the last thing I felt, before the darkness returned, was the feeling of pain, followed by a metallic coldness enveloping me.
