Chapter 1826

Before dawn the next day, it started to rain in New York; thick fog spread on the highway in the suburbs, damp breath floated in the forest, and ghostly shadows were reflected between the trees.

Nick was driving, Natasha was sitting in the passenger seat, staring expressionlessly at the frost fog condensed on the glass.

In the end, it was Nick who opened the conversation first.

"Sorry, that was a secret mission, not within your knowledge; in general, I deliberately downplayed Hope's death."

"You know this is a violation." Natasha stared at Nick's side face and said.

"You know rules are useless." Nick replied with pursed lips, but soon his tone softened, and he explained, "I can't say Hope's death was completely an accident; I have to take responsibility for it."

"And you can't take any responsibility." Natasha raised her tone and said, "You said every agent's sacrifice is worth valuing, and you didn't do it."

"There hasn't been one since then." Nick reached out and patted the steering wheel and said, "But you have to listen to my explanation; Hope's matter had a reason; she didn't just sacrifice in battle."

"Then why did you hide it from everyone? Why did even her cemetery have to be set in the most remote suburbs of New York? What are you afraid of?"

Nick turned his gaze away and said, "If the mastermind is Dr. Pym, I think this is understandable; he must feel that I made his daughter's death a secret that couldn't be seen; she didn't get the treatment a hero who sacrificed bravely should have; I hope I can have a chance to explain it to him."

"And you are still hiding it until now." Natasha pursed her lips and shook her head, saying, "Excessive emphasis on game theory and groundless persecution mania will kill you sooner or later, and all of us."

"This time is different, this time it's not a false alarm."

The decelerating tires kicked up fine water mist, boots stepped on muddy puddles, and when the heavy water droplets were splashed, they looked like ghost hands reaching out from hell.

Nick took Natasha to a tombstone in the deepest part; Hope Pym's name was written on it in fancy English, and Natasha keenly noticed that the part with the name had been wiped clean in advance.

"Careful."

When the female agent's low voice echoed, a huge figure walked slowly out from the depths of the dense forest; with a "click," the faceplate opened, revealing an old face.

Natasha had never seen such an old and frail Dr. Pym, but from the familiar features, she could still tell that it was the genius scientist Hank Pym who developed Pym particles.

"Long time no see, Hank."

"You should say this to Hope." Hank's voice sounded very weak, but he still stared tightly at Nick's eyes deep in his eye sockets, flashing with nameless fire.

"About your daughter's matter, I'm very sorry, I..."

"Careful!"

"Boom!"

Nick was sent flying, falling heavily onto the muddy ground; Natasha gripped Mjolnir, looked around, and said, "Dr. Pym, killing is not the way to solve problems; we must talk."

With a "swoosh," the enlarged Hank Pym appeared behind Natasha; he gritted his teeth and said, "Despicable S. H. I. E. L. D. and its director killed my daughter, and hid the news of her death; until she was buried did I know she died; Nick Fury is a complete despicable villain, and so are superheroes..."

Watching Pym disappear again, Natasha had no choice but to raise the hammer to defend; the protective shield formed by thunder light sent a black dot flying out the moment it touched the brilliant light.

The old Ant-Man fell to the ground, but he rushed toward Natasha like crazy again; Natasha saw the familiar flash of purple light in his eyes.

Natasha didn't dare to act rashly, jumped backward, and leaped out three or four meters with the help of the power of thunder; just then, her phone rang, and Jarvis's voice came from the phone.

"Ma'am, the analysis of the armor is complete; the system was not cracked in the usual way; a special energy that humans cannot analyze for the time being cut off my connection with the armor and gained control; you must be careful... hello? Hello?! Natasha, I am Tony Stark!"

"Listen, this power is very dangerous, and for some reason, it is extremely familiar with the Stark Group's system; the energy remaining in the armor just now attacked the Stark Group's software system; I am currently re-strengthening the defense system."

"This strange energy's infectivity to intelligent systems is beyond imagination; must be careful of all intelligent equipment..."

Natasha decisively hung up the phone, dodged Pym's attack with a roll, and stared at the armor he was wearing.

In her universe, although Pym had developed Pym particles, he hadn't become a superhero wearing a suit, or rather, he hadn't had time to wear the suit and go out to fight before he was caught in the lab.

But Natasha could see that the armor on Pym was the same type as the one Stark used, and there was probably an intelligent control system in it too.

Pym, who rushed up again, suddenly paused; cold light appeared around his body; after a series of light "click click click" sounds, Pym's whole body was frozen.

Loki walked out from the woods, holding the Casket of Ancient Winters with dim light, and Nick also climbed up from the ground; he rushed to Pym's front in a posture that made Natasha panic, and stared tightly at his eyes.

Seeing the familiar purple color in Pym's pupils, Nick seemed to lose all his strength and retreated to lean against a tree trunk.

Discovering Nick's abnormality, Natasha keenly thought of something; she turned to look at Nick and said, "What's wrong? You seem to have seen this power."

"Hope... Hope she..."

Nick closed his eyes forcefully, clenched his fists, and said, "The night Hope Pym died two years ago, I saw the same color in her eyes."

"What the hell is going on?" Natasha stared at Nick and walked to him, saying, "You can't hide it anymore, Nick."

Nick squatted on the ground slowly, wiped his face with his hand, and said, "The mission report says Hope Pym died in battle, but I killed her."

Natasha opened her eyes wide.

"I had no choice." Nick stood up, slammed his fist against the tree trunk, and said, "Hope's armor was out of control; she suddenly went crazy and attacked the surrounding agents; she killed thirteen people and wanted to kill me."

"I was chased to the corner of the corridor and had no choice but to shoot; I silenced all the agents who witnessed this, not for me, but for Hope."

"She did a lot for S. H. I. E. L. D.; she couldn't become a traitor." Nick lowered his head and shook it, saying, "But at least four agents witnessed her killing, and the gun I used at the end was also thrown to me by one of the agents; this is a confirmed fact, irreversible, and can only be downplayed."

"I knew that if I told her father the truth, he wouldn't believe it, and would only think I was shirking responsibility." Nick turned his head and said, "I did a lot of investigations after Hope died, wanting to find out where this strange power came from, but there was no result at all."

After speaking, he turned back to look at Hank Pym, his tone a bit heavy, and said, "If old Pym also has an accident, I can't be sure Hope was entirely innocent; if it was really some experiment of old Pym's that caused Hope to lose control and kill, then both father and daughter have to take responsibility for it."

"It's not that simple." Natasha opened her mouth, "Jarvis just told me..."

Suddenly, the roar of an engine approached from far to near; a familiar gold-red armor landed in front of the grave; with a "crack," the faceplate opened; Stark's expression was extremely serious, and he said, "An extremely incredible piece of bad news, the one who hacked Jarvis's system is Jarvis."

"What did you say?!" Natasha looked at him in disbelief.

"I can't believe it either, but it's a fact; it was another Jarvis who cut off the connection between that armor and Jarvis, and even almost reverse-hacked him."

Everyone on the Star-Eater Engine cast their eyes on Stark's face; Stark shook his head and said, "Don't look at me, my butler is busy falling in love; I suspect he has forgotten how to write even the most basic code now."

"Remember the name we got from the Watcher?" Nick touched his chin and said, "'Infinity Ultron,' Ultron is also a robot, right?"

"That's possible." Stark nodded and said, "The Watcher said Infinity Ultron is an Ultron that got the Infinity Stones, so he must have some real skills."

"Hope's death two years ago was also Ultron's ghost; did he start laying out so early?" Loki frowned and said.

"Not necessarily." Schiller shook his head and proposed another possibility, saying, "Don't forget the role of the Time Stone; it might also be able to travel through timelines like us."

"But aren't the Infinity Stones only useful in their own universe?" Nick frowned, a bit puzzled, and said, "This Infinity Ultron has harmed more than one universe; how did he do it?"

"That crazy Strange." Schiller reminded, "He kept devouring Stranges in various universes before, gaining quite a bit of energy."

"And now I'm afraid a group of Ancient Ones are looking for him; he's been driven to a dead end and is very likely to cooperate with Infinity Ultron; in most cases, Infinity Stones are only useful within their own universe, but if it's combined with the crazy Strange's method of devouring multiverse power, it might not be the case."

"What a trouble." Nick pressed his forehead and said, "That is to say, the mastermind likely traveled to two years ago before us and killed Hope, then left the universe to develop, using Hank Pym to eliminate the Avengers."

"But our arrival attracted his attention, so he applied extra power, wanting to get his plan back on track."

Schiller shook his head again and said, "I'm afraid it's not that simple; perhaps it's some time in the future, we thwarted his conspiracy, and he chose to return to the past to interfere with us."

"But if we really succeeded, would you give him a chance to escape?" Nick asked back.

"That's not necessarily true." Schiller touched his chin and said, "Maybe I want to let a long line catch a big fish?"

Just as everyone was discussing endlessly, Natasha returned; she nodded at everyone and said, "The trouble is basically resolved; Tony used Jarvis to regain control of Pym's armor, and Pym has sobered up."

"He heard our conversation in the ice; Nick showed him a part of the backup left by the mission at that time, especially the surveillance in the building where the mission took place; Pym saw the scene of his daughter going crazy."

"Tony wants to avenge Rhodes, but Nick stopped him; they must find the killer first, otherwise everyone is still in danger; I told them we would try our best."

"Loki went back to find his brother, and I returned Mjolnir to him, but he gave me this."

Natasha took out the Casket of Ancient Winters, which had almost no power left, from behind, then handed it to Tony and said, "The real killer spent some time absorbing the power in this artifact; it's very likely that he left his own power on it."

Tony took the Casket of Ancient Winters and walked toward the lab bench, saying, "Give me a little while."

About half an hour later, the projection screen lit up; everyone stared at one of the countless light spots.

Tony pulled down the joystick and said, "He went to another universe; same old rules, hold on tight, it's time to go."