The explosion made everyone breathe a long sigh of relief, and a wave of celebration instantly swept through the crowd.
"I didn't expect the armor to be this useful."
"This is what you call combat IQ. Tony's fighting instinct is insane."
"If it were me, I'd probably die miserably."
"Jarvis is too good, controlling so many suits without a problem."
"What do you know? It's a supercomputer doing calculations. If anything goes wrong, then we call it artificial intelligence."
"Killian's dead, but unfortunately… Pepper's gone too."
"Yeah… a lot of things are just worth the sacrifice."
Inside the Federal Hospital, Tetsuo and the others were still watching the broadcast. Jay blew aside the long hair clinging to her forehead.
She turned to Tetsuo. "The virus isn't that powerful. Honestly, I'm more curious about the difference between Jarvis and human intelligence."
Tetsuo chuckled. "Didn't you study that when the first AI came out?"
Jay pouted. "Don't remind me. That thing was too low-level, nowhere near Jarvis."
Tetsuo smiled and let the matter drop. He was still wondering whether Jarvis had a model solution for turbulence.
Inside the Administration Office, the chief finally relaxed a little.
"At least the Extremis Virus being controlled won't destroy the world."
Darwin and Kasey continued discussing related matters. Killian's terrifying strength had given them a flood of inspiration. Many things could now be re-examined, pushing their research into possible new directions.
Meanwhile, inside Apollo Laboratory, founder Griffin Sovann stared at the glowing screen with a deep frown. He hesitated because once he acted, the Terra Federation would tremble, almost certainly. Yet if he didn't act, Apollo, their artificial intelligence program, would never make a significant breakthrough.
After a moment of intense contemplation, Griffin finally said to his staff, "Begin. Connect Apollo's AI program to the Network via the brain-computer interface!"
As he spoke, excitement flickered across his face. That's right, he wanted to take the existing AI system and link it to the Network, reshaping Apollo into something new.
"But it's only speculation. No one knows whether the Network can even do what I imagine."
"But it's worth trying."
[Many armor fragments rained from the sky. A damaged visor landed nearby, and Tony exhaled in relief. But suddenly, from the raging flames, a figure stood. Killian wasn't dead. His body looked charred, molten patterns glowing across his frame.]
[Tony, heavily injured, staggered backward in desperation.]
"God! He's not dead?!"
"The repair ability of that virus is insane!"
"Before, Savin got shot in the chest with a cannon and still died! Does Killian's virus not have that weakness?"
"The Mark 42's explosion was massive, but it still couldn't tear his body apart!"
"His defense must be ridiculous."
"Honestly, the Extremis Virus is terrifying in certain ways!"
"Tony, run!"
"No! He's injured, he can't run!"
No one saw this coming. Everyone thought Tony had escaped the crisis, but now danger loomed again.
Kayden frowned. In this state, Tony had almost no chance against Killian. The key question was whether Killian's regeneration came from the Extremis explosion or if it was some kind of pure defensive boost. The difference mattered, but either way, it was horrifying. Imagine a human body that no explosion could kill. How strong was that?
Prayers spread across the Federation, millions hoping Tony would somehow survive.
[Killian strode toward Tony. "No more false faces. You wanted the Mandarin; you're looking right at him. It was always me, Tony. I was the Mandarin."]
[He spread his molten arms wide, rage pouring out, then suddenly vanished from Tony's sight.]
[Tony turned, startled, and there she was. Pepper. She stood with an iron rod, lava-like lines glowing across her body. Tony's eyes widened with shock and joy.]
The chat erupted.
"WHAT?! PEPPER'S ALIVE?!"
"The Extremis Virus healed her, no way!"
"Hahaha! Perfect timing! Let's go!"
"Tony is completely stunned!"
[A suit suddenly descended, auto-locking onto its target. Tony shouted, "Jarvis, subject at my twelve o'clock is not the target, disengage!"]
[But he wasn't wearing his headphones, so Jarvis didn't hear. The armor's palm lit up, blasting an energy cannon toward Pepper, but she dodged effortlessly.]
"F*ck! Are you serious?!"
"What a mistake!"
"Pepper is moving as fast as Killian!"
"Tony, get the earphones! Stop the targeting!"
[The armor swooped in again. Pepper looked at Tony, and as Tony feared, she was angry. He simply said, "What? Are you mad at me?"]
[Pepper launched upward from Tony's knee, grabbed the armor mid-air, smashed it into the ground, then slipped her arm into its gauntlet. When Killian charged, she blasted him away.]
[A bomb rolled beside Killian. Pepper kicked it aside, raised her hand, and fired.]
[Boom! The explosion tore Killian apart.]
"My God! That move was exactly like when Tony blasted the helicopter at the villa!"
"Pepper is AMAZING!"
"Tony is speechless!"
"Perfect! Absolute perfection!"
"Mark 42… poor guy, still hilarious."
The broadcast exploded into cheers.
[Pepper stared at her own hands, stunned. "Oh my God… that was actually kind of violent."]
[Tony said, "You nearly scared me to death, I thought you were…"]
["Dead? Why? Because I fell two hundred feet?" Pepper shot back.]
[She ruffled her hair. "Who's the hot mess now?"]
[Tony bent down, picked up the earphones. "Debatable. Maybe lean a little toward your side." He put them on. "Why don't you dress like that at home? Sports bra, everything."]
[Pepper was still shaken, breathing rapidly. "Now I finally get why you won't give up these suits. What am I supposed to complain about now?"]
[Tony grinned. "I'll think of something."]
["Am I going to be okay?" she asked.]
["No," Tony replied honestly. "As long as you're with me, chaos is the norm. But I can fix this, I almost solved it twenty years ago when I was drunk. That's what I do. I fix things."]
["And your distractions?" Pepper pressed.]
["I'll tone them down. Jarvis, hey."]
["All wrapped up here, sir. Anything else?" Jarvis replied.]
["You know what to do."]
["The clean slate protocol, sir?"]
["Screw it, it's Christmas. Yes. Do it."]
[Tony pulled Pepper close. She looked up, and the suits flew overhead. One by one, they exploded mid-air like brilliant fireworks. Armor after armor burst into dazzling light, blooming around the ship like a grand festival display. Pepper hugged Tony, smiling.]
[Tony whispered against her cheek, "So… do you like it?"]
[She smiled warmly. "I do."]
[They embraced tightly.]
"Wow, I'm crying!"
"Laughing and crying, this is perfect!"
"Tony went all out."
"Each armor costs tens of millions!"
"And he still blew them up! That's love."
"When will I ever have someone love me like that…?"
Many were moved to tears, even Ashton and the others.
But in the Council chamber, gloom suffocated the room.
Panic filled every face. All eyes stared at a newly transmitted photo, a massive virtual shadow captured in space. Blurry, but unmistakably similar to the monstrous silhouette Tony glimpsed when sending the nuke into space.
"Image captured by the Webb Space Telescope. But this is all we managed; the rest is unreadable." Silence washed over the room.
Gladwin's expression twisted. "The voice from the southwest region, and now this fleeting shadow… The Federation has seen something."
No objections. These discoveries hung over them like executioner's blades.
Councilor Sith, struggling to breathe, stood and paced. "Accelerate progress! It's all we can do!"
Everything had been initiated: resources, effort, pressure. Whether it succeeded depended only on the final outcome.
Councilor Hyeon added, "Nuclear fusion weapons, full priority!"
Heads nodded. Fusion weapons were the Federation's strongest attack. According to the previous memory fragments, such power could obliterate Chitauri creatures.
Suddenly, Kennedy noticed chaos in the broadcast, activity data spiking violently. His eyes widened. "You're insane! The activity skyrocketed AGAIN?!"
The other councilors rushed over.
"How?!"
"How many times has it spiked?!"
"It's true! When activity jumps, new, unusual memory fragments get captured!"
Their eyes locked on the surging number, tens of millions, then hundreds of millions per second. In a blink, it surpassed nine hundred million.
The entire Terra Federation erupted. Millions stared at the screen.
"It's happening again!"
"Who IS this person?!"
"What did he capture this time?! The ancestor of humanity?!"
"Stop, STOP!"
"Oh my god!"
"What exactly was captured?!"
All of Terra held its breath, staring at the glowing broadcast.