Hands-On

After Zola left.

Apocalypse King told everyone what he knew of Zola's history and what he had pieced together.

Iron Man sighed. "I never imagined someone so brilliant existed. He digitized his consciousness decades ago."

"If he weren't with Hydra, I'd love to ask him how he did it."

"Looks like Earth is in for a rough time..."

"Zola may have retreated for now, but once his countless copies finish devouring one another, he'll probably be even stronger."

"Let's put this experiment on hold."

Apocalypse King shook his head. "No. Just the opposite. We need to bring Vision to life as soon as possible."

"If Vision can roam the internet as Zola does, we'll have another ally."

In his current form, Zola had left Apocalypse King helpless despite all his powers.

For now, Vision was probably the only one who could hold Zola in check.

Helen worked up her courage. Gone was the righteous confidence with which she had challenged Apocalypse King earlier. "Apocalypse King..."

"Just call me Mr. Tang."

"Oh... all right."

"Mr. Tang, today was our first attempt to turn an AI into a conscious being. We never expected to run into that monster."

"Even if Zola hadn't possessed Tony's JARVIS code, we have no idea how long it would take to succeed."

Iron Man agreed. "It's much harder than building the body."

"We planned to spend three years researching this problem."

Apocalypse King said, "I told you I'd step in if you couldn't solve it."

A few minutes earlier, those words would have made Helen bristle with anger.

Now they seemed perfectly reasonable.

She even found herself eager to see how Apocalypse King would solve a problem that she and Iron Man, two great scientists, could not.

A man whose thoughts ran so deep must have plenty