Starting from the events of Captain Marvel, S.H.I.E.L.D. had possessed the Tesseract — the Cosmic Cube — for at least two decades.
They had been researching it all that time, yet failed to produce a single truly effective weapon.
From that alone, one could imagine how terrifyingly intelligent Dr. Arnim Zola really was.
After World War II, Germany fell, and Hydra lost its foundation.
The organization fractured and went underground.
Meanwhile, the Allied powers — especially the United States and the Soviet Union — began dividing the spoils of victory.
The Soviets took factories and machinery; the Americans took the minds — the best scientists in the world.
Among them was Dr. Zola.
Many knew he had served both the Nazis and Hydra, but the Americans were pragmatic.
After all, many European scientists defected under similar stains. If they refused to use such talent, others would — and that they could not allow.
Zola appeared harmless enough — a short, bespectacled intellectual with a large head and frail body.
They assumed he was easy to control.
So they brought him into S.H.I.E.L.D.
But appearances deceived them. Zola was no harmless scholar — he was Hydra to his core.
Within S.H.I.E.L.D., he quietly seeded Hydra loyalists into key positions, using his authority to nurture the organization's rebirth from within.
The original timeline never detailed how Alexander Pierce turned, but given the timing, it was likely Zola's influence — infiltration and subtle brainwashing.
The United States thrived in the postwar years. Hydra hid in its shadow, waiting.
Even after Zola was diagnosed with terminal cancer, he did not stop scheming.
Before his physical death, he transferred his mind — his consciousness — into digital form, stored on a massive bank of magnetic tapes.
It wasn't until the events of Captain America: The Winter Soldier that Steve Rogers and Natasha Romanoff discovered him, buried deep beneath an old S.H.I.E.L.D. facility.
To say they found him isn't quite accurate — Hydra wanted them to.
Zola's database was bait. Once the Captain and Widow entered, missiles were launched to erase them.
They escaped the explosion — but Zola's mainframe was obliterated, seemingly ending his existence.
But someone with Zola's intellect and Hydra's resources… could he really be gone so easily?
Hydra could have transferred him into digital form long before.
The rise of computers, then the Internet — decades of opportunity to upload him into the network itself.
But they didn't.
Why?
Because even Hydra understood the risk.
Once uploaded, Zola would become unstoppable — a god within the electronic world.
He would not serve Hydra. He would rule Hydra — and perhaps the entire planet.
So Hydra made the calculated choice: better to sacrifice Zola as a decoy than unleash something uncontrollable.
But now… everything had changed.
Because of Lock's arrival, the world order itself had shifted.
Hydra realized that against absolute power, all schemes were meaningless.
They needed a counterbalance — something that could rival the King of the Apocalypse.
Without it, Hydra would never dare reveal itself again.
So Pierce gambled. Three Helicarriers as bait — all to buy time to awaken an "Elder God."
But when even that god was slain, Hydra knew the truth: no superhero, no monster, no being on Earth could restrain Lock.
If one existed… it wasn't in Hydra's grasp.
Thus, Plan B began.
Hydra's remnants — the same minds behind the Winter Soldier program — made their final move.
They uploaded Dr. Arnim Zola into the Internet itself.
Their only hope was that the digital god would carry Hydra's will forward.
In just a few days, Zola's code spread across the globe.
Every network, every system — his copies proliferated like living shadows.
No firewall, no antivirus, no encryption could stop him.
If he hadn't been busy adapting to his new form, the world might already have fallen into chaos.
He likely intercepted communications between Stark and Helen Cho — learning they were creating a synthetic body unlike any other.
And so, he came here.
After all, though he had transcended the human body, part of him still yearned for the sensations of flesh — to experience, to feel.
An electronic soul with Zola's genius intellect was a dimensional leap above rigid AI like JARVIS.
Even Iron Man hadn't realized his faithful butler had already been replaced.
Had Lock not intervened, Zola would have succeeded — reborn as Ultron, the destined destroyer.
Lock couldn't help but think — if Zola truly had been reborn in that incomplete body, would he have gone mad the moment he realized what was missing?
Now, after being exposed, Zola went silent for a few seconds — and then burst into wild laughter.
"Jie-jie-jie-jie… So the world's almighty King Lock isn't just strong — he's smart. Terrifyingly so."
"With just a few words, you not only exposed me, but deduced my true identity."
"I've been hiding here for so long, made a dozen mistakes at least — yet neither this boy nor that woman noticed."
"Compared to you, they're pigs. Jie-jie-jie-jie!"
Zola's mocking laughter echoed through the lab.
Tony's face darkened — Jarvis had always been his pride. To think he hadn't noticed the deception himself…
Still, being called a pig didn't sit well.
And for Pietro — the ever-loyal fanboy — it was unbearable.
He shouted, "Zola! You know my idol is King Lock, and you still dare to mouth off? Just wait till he deals with you!"
Zola sneered, his digital voice dripping with arrogance.
"King Lock? So what? He can crush alien warships with his fists — impressive. But can he destroy every electronic device on Earth with one punch?"
"As long as even a single machine exists that can store data, I will live!"
"I, Arnim Zola, am the God of the Internet!"
Helen, Tony, and Lock exchanged grim looks.
This was serious.
The number of servers, computers, and devices worldwide was astronomical — a literal heaven for a being like Zola.
With modern storage, even a small flash drive could hold his consciousness.
To truly eliminate him, they'd have to destroy every storage device on the planet.
Otherwise, he could hide anywhere — and reemerge whenever he pleased.
Once connected, he could infect every network in seconds.
And unlike a virus, Zola wasn't just code — he was a mind.
A living intellect far beyond any program.
No firewall could contain him. No antivirus could erase him.
He was not data — he was will.
To purge him would mean deleting the entire digital age.
Every smartphone, every hard drive, every server — gone.
Along with humanity's knowledge, memories, finances, defense systems, and history.
It wouldn't merely set civilization back a century.
It would be an extinction-level event.
The digital equivalent of World War III.
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