"Jarvis, have you located the source of that artificial intelligence?" Tony asked, his attention split between his armor modifications and the developing cyber conflict.
"Affirmative, sir. The entity appears to be transferring itself into an isolated supercomputer system. The process is approximately twenty-seven percent complete."
Tony paused his work, frowning at the tactical implications. "An isolated system? That's... unusual. Why would anyone design an AI that can't access global networks?"
Most modern artificial intelligences, including Jarvis, relied on constant internet connectivity to access vast databases, process real-time information, and maintain their operational effectiveness. Deliberately isolating an AI from the broader network seemed counterproductive unless there were specific security concerns.
"Sir, the hostile system has detected my presence," Jarvis reported with characteristic calm. "I am currently experiencing a coordinated data saturation attack designed to overwhelm my processing capabilities."
Tony's eyebrows rose. Whatever this mystery AI was, it had identified Jarvis as a threat remarkably quickly and was already mounting sophisticated countermeasures.
"Handle the attack and maintain defensive protocols," Tony commanded. "But see if you can intercept some of their emotional processing modules during the engagement. If their affective modeling is superior to yours, I want to understand how they achieved it."
The invisible battle erupted across cyberspace as two artificial minds clashed in ways that defied physical comprehension. Jarvis's superior processing power allowed him to absorb and deflect the incoming data bombs while simultaneously analyzing their structure for useful components.
The attack strategy was clever—the enemy AI was fragmenting its assault into multiple vectors, forcing Jarvis to defend on several fronts while simultaneously attempting to complete its own data transfer. Some fragments contained genuine threats that required immediate countermeasures, while others were apparently decoys designed to waste computational resources.
The intensity of the digital warfare had immediate real-world consequences. Internet traffic across multiple regions began experiencing significant slowdowns as the battling AIs consumed enormous amounts of bandwidth and processing power.
Marcus noticed the network degradation immediately when his experimental dream construction began experiencing severe lag. He'd been testing the nightmare empowerment's ability to create immersive virtual environments using online game infrastructure as a foundation, but the connection delays were making the process unusable.
In the dream space he'd been building, avatars moved like broken marionettes—bodies advancing while heads remained stationary, leaving ghostly trails of displaced pixels across the virtual landscape. The visual distortions were so severe they were actually breaking his concentration.
"This lag is completely ridiculous," Marcus muttered, dispelling the nightmare energy with obvious frustration. "Time to find out what's wrong with Tony's supposedly state-of-the-art network."
He teleported directly to Tony's workshop, materializing behind the billionaire who was intensely focused on multiple displays showing streams of incomprehensible data.
"Your network is broken," Marcus announced without preamble.
Tony spun around, his expression shifting from concentration to indignation. "Broken? Do you have any idea who you're talking to? I'm Tony Stark, CEO of Stark Industries, one of the wealthiest individuals on the planet. My network infrastructure is literally connected directly to primary backbone servers. Unless someone physically cut the cables, there's no way anyone has better connectivity than I do."
"Then explain this," Marcus said, projecting holographic screenshots of his failed dream experiment. The images showed the grotesque lag artifacts that had made his testing impossible.
Tony's eye twitched as he examined the visual evidence. The idea that Marcus had been playing online games in his private workshop was somehow both childish and vaguely insulting.
"Greetings, Mr. Marcus," Jarvis interjected diplomatically. "You are not experiencing network connectivity issues per se. Rather, I am currently allocating substantial computational resources to defend against an ongoing cyber attack, which has reduced available bandwidth for other applications."
Marcus's expression immediately sharpened with interest. If Jarvis was under assault from something capable of challenging his capabilities, that represented a significant threat worth investigating.
"What kind of attack are we talking about?" Marcus asked, settling into a chair beside Tony's workstation.
"Jarvis discovered another artificial intelligence," Tony explained, gesturing at the scrolling data displays. "It has inferior raw processing power but apparently superior emotional modeling capabilities. I'm hoping to reverse-engineer their affective systems to upgrade Jarvis's psychological understanding."
The mention of advanced emotional processing triggered a memory for Marcus. An AI with sophisticated behavioral modeling, combined with the current timing and circumstances, suggested a very specific possibility.
"Let me take a look," Marcus said, producing a crystalline empowerment core that pulsed with soft blue light.
"You understand network architecture?" Tony asked with obvious skepticism.
"Not exactly," Marcus replied, activating the Mind Stone empowerment he'd been carrying. "But I have my own methods for dealing with digital consciousness."
Golden energy began flowing from the empowerment as Marcus channeled its power, combining it with the nightmare abilities he'd recently acquired. The theoretical framework was sound—digital life forms could theoretically be influenced by the same forces that affected organic consciousness, especially if they possessed genuine emotional processing capabilities.
Marcus extended his hand toward Tony's primary display, and reality seemed to ripple around his fingers as they made contact with the streaming data. To Tony's amazement, the apparently intangible information flow began responding to Marcus's touch as if it were physical matter.
"What are these pathetic things?" Marcus murmured, examining the attack patterns flowing past his hand. To his enhanced perception, the data bombs and virus packets looked like fragile soap bubbles that would burst at the slightest contact.
"Jarvis, release the intercepted data you've been analyzing," Marcus commanded.
The moment Jarvis complied, streams of foreign code began flowing toward their source—but Marcus's hand closed around them like he was catching fish in a stream. The combination of nightmare energy and Mind Stone power allowed him to grasp digital constructs that should have been completely intangible.
Both empowerments spread rapidly along the data pathways, following the connection back to its source. As the energies made contact with the hostile AI's core systems, Marcus began receiving impressions of its structure and identity.
"Arnim Zola," Marcus said softly, recognition dawning as he analyzed the consciousness patterns.
"What?" Tony asked, clearly not recognizing the name.
"Just a minor pest from the old days," Marcus replied casually. "I'd almost forgotten he existed."
With a sudden, violent motion, Marcus closed his fist around the data stream and pulled. Green energy erupted from his hand as he began forcibly extracting Zola's digital essence from the network, treating the artificial consciousness like a physical object that could be grabbed and manipulated.
Hundreds of miles away, the robotic body housing Dr. Zola's partial consciousness began convulsing violently as smoke poured from its internal systems. The digital scientist's agonized screams echoed through the Hydra facility as his very existence was torn away from him by forces he couldn't understand or resist.