Iron Man's Keen Instincts, Tony Stark's Overreach

Under the cover of night, the waves relentlessly crash against the rocks at the Malibu cliffs, producing a deep and rhythmic roar.

Inside a brightly lit private workroom on the top floor of the Stark Industries building, the air was filled with the rich aroma of coffee and the slightly sweet scent of metallic coolant.

Tony Stark held a freshly brewed Espresso in one hand, while his other hand casually moved in the air, enlarging, rotating, and disassembling a "Top Secret report" that Nick Fury had just personally encrypted and sent to him.

The report's title is very official and dry, "Preliminary Investigation Report on the Structural Collapse of the Triskelion in Washington, D.C. and the Crash of the Helicarrier."

"The aging natural gas pipeline exploded, triggering a chain reaction that ultimately led to the Triskelion's unstable foundation and collapse..." Tony read the report's conclusion, a sneer playing on his lips. "Three Helicarrier, representing the pinnacle of human technology, crashed due to 'sudden, unpredictable severe convective weather,' causing internal system malfunctions."

He took a sip of his bitter coffee and chuckled.

"JARVIS, give this report a score out of 100."

"Sir, based on its rigorous format, official wording, and revolutionary imagination regarding the common sense of physics, I give it 90 points," JARVIS's gentle and steady electronic voice echoed in the workshop. "But if 'authenticity' is the grading standard, the score is zero."

"Ha, I like that about you, JARVIS, honesty." Tony casually placed his coffee cup on the worktable, his eyes sharpening. "Our one-eyed Director is too lazy to even come up with a decent lie now. Is he treating me like a fool, or is he telling the whole world that he's in a mess he can't handle and can only resort to this kindergarten-level excuse to cover things up?"

He was, of course, following the events in Washington, D.C. closely.

Although S.H.I.E.L.D.. blocked all signals immediately, Stark Industries ' global satellite network was not something Nick Fury could simply block.

He saw the eerie tricolored sky, and the three enormous ships in a jarring, frozen state before their descent, as if the pause button had been pressed.

All of this goes far beyond what can be explained by "natural gas explosion" and "severe convective weather".

"Sir, perhaps you should take a look at this."

JARVIS's voice interrupted Tony's thoughts. The next second, the Holographic Projection in the center of the workspace switched instantly, and a massive, waterfall-like Data Stream appeared in front of Tony.

These data come from various sources— Earth Quake Monitoring Station, Weather Satellite, High-Altitude Particle Detector, and even a few Miniature Spy Satellite Stark secretly deployed over Washington, D.C..

JARVIS integrated and modeled all the data, and finally, a dynamic 3D model was constructed.

In the model, three massive Helicarrier are hurtling toward downtown Washington, D.C. at an alarming speed. However, just before they hit the ground, something bizarre happens.

The three Helicarrier fell at the same moment, with exactly the same acceleration, until their velocities suddenly dropped to zero.

They were as if held up by an invisible giant hand, transitioning from extreme motion to extreme stillness without any buffer, perfectly suspended in mid-air less than a hundred meters above the ground. Then, they were gently and steadily "placed" on the ground.

The entire process violated all of Tony's understanding of the Laws of Inertia and Conservation of Energy.

"Did you see that, JARVIS?" Tony's eyes were more serious than ever before. "This isn't deceleration; this is a modification of 'existence.' To offset the entire kinetic energy of three million-ton aircraft carriers in an instant, without generating any energy dissipation or Impact... how much power would that require? No, this isn't a matter of power anymore; this is an operation at the level of rules."

He thought of the Battle of New York, of the Chitauri, and of Thor.

But even the gods of Asgard could not do such an incredible thing.

"Nick Fury is hiding an 'existence' capable of easily wiping out a city and altering the laws of physics at will." Tony paced back and forth in the workshop, arms crossed. "And this 'existence' seems to be connected to a junior agent we all know... Lynn, right?"

That unremarkable Level Three Logistics Agent in S.H.I.E.L.D.. files, even marked as "sacrificed in the line of duty".

He saw Crossbones ' death livestream. The figure sitting on the Bone Throne, and the three women standing beside him, each emanated terrifying energy fluctuations that overloaded his satellite sensors.

"JARVIS, bypass all of S.H.I.E.L.D..'s firewalls and investigate." Tony stopped, his eyes gleaming with the unique excitement and determination of a genius, a drive to dissect everything. "I need to know everything that happened in Washington, D.C. that night, besides the official reports. Analyze all the deleted, altered, and hidden data, and dig it all out!"

"Yes, sir."

JARVIS's response was as calm as ever, but behind it was Stark Industries ' massive computing power, spread across the globe, beginning to operate at unprecedented efficiency.

However, a few minutes later, JARVIS's voice rang out again, this time with a hint of confusion.

"Sir, our analysis has hit a snag. All network data, surveillance footage, and communication records in the Washington, D.C. area for the three hours before and after the incident have been 'formatted' cleaned. This isn't a simple deletion; it's more like... being wiped off the Timeline by some force. I can't find any trace of tampering because that data 'never existed' in the first place."

"Doesn't exist?" Tony raised an eyebrow. "Interesting. The other party isn't a hacker, but a programmer—a programmer who directly modified the source code of this 'server' of the world."

This feeling gave Tony a long-lost sense of challenge.

He wasn't fighting against any particular person or organization; he was fighting against an unknown, higher-level technology, or "magic."

"Don't stare at those clean tables, JARVIS." Tony's mind raced. "Even the best cleaner leaves dust in the corners. Go find the 'edges' of data vacuums, the 'cracks' between information gaps. Find any discontinuous, logically disconnected fragments!"

"Executing new scan logic... Sir, an abnormal data packet has been detected."

JARVIS's voice lifted Tony's spirits.

On the Holographic Projection, a data packet, only a few KB in size and as insignificant as dust in a sea of invalid data, was highlighted.

It's like an ant that survives in a crack in the rocks after a massive flood has receded—insignificant, yet representing its escape from the cleansing.

"An oversight? Or... a trap?" Tony muttered to himself, but his hands didn't stop moving.

He took matters into his own hands, his ten fingers blurring across the Virtual Keyboard as he began to brute-force crack the multi-layered encrypted data packet. The encryption method was unheard of, filled with Chaos and disordered logic, but who was Tony Stark? With his newly constructed algorithm, he forcefully found a path to the core within this Chaos.

"Gotcha!"

With the last Bastion breached, the contents of the data packet were revealed before him.

There were no words, no images, only a series of constantly jumping and changing coordinates. Like a cunning beacon, it began to frantically flee through the network world the moment it was cracked.

"Trying to run?" Tony sneered, his fighting spirit ignited. "JARVIS, lock onto it, follow it! I want to see what kind of monster is hooked on this fishing line!"

A silent chase, taking place in the digital Dimension, erupted instantly.

The "clues" left by the other party made inexplicable jumps between servers around the world, from the Pentagon's security system to Tokyo's financial network, and then to the secret satellite phone of a South America drug lord... Its path was illogical, yet it precisely avoided all the highest-level surveillance.

This doesn't seem like running away; it's more like... playing around.

Fine beads of sweat appeared on Tony's forehead; he had pushed his brain and JARVIS's processing core to their limits. He felt like he wasn't tracking a data packet, but chasing the shadow of a ghost.

Finally, after circling the Earth three times, the data packet plunged into a long-abandoned server deep within the Dark Web, and then disappeared completely.

"It's over?" Tony gasped for breath, leaning back in his chair.

"No, sir," JARVIS's voice rang out, "It left a final message."

The last access logs of that Ghost Server were displayed on the Holographic Projection.

At the end of the log, there was only a lonely login signature and an IP address that even JARVIS found confusing.

That IP address wasn't made up of numbers, but rather a string of twisted, ever-changing Runes that seemed to come from another world.

The signature, however, struck Tony as even more absurd.

[Ghost-Spider]

"Ghost-Spider?" Tony frowned. "Is that some new superhero nickname? It sounds like something a high schooler came up with."

"Sir, according to my cross- Dimension database (beta version), this signature... does not originate from our universe."

JARVIS pulled up another document.

The image shows a blonde girl wearing a black and white bodysuit and a hood, swinging on Silk among towering buildings in a city. Her movements are agile and elegant, full of power.

Below the document is her personal information.

[Name: Gwen Stacy Stacy]

[Codename: Ghost-Spider (also known as Spider-Gwen)]

[Belongs to Universe: Earth-65]

[Status: Recently recorded unauthorized, high-energy Dimension travel, destination... Earth-199999 (our universe).]

Tony Stark was completely stunned.

He leaned back in his chair, looking at the information on the "Spider-Girl" from Parallel Universe, his mind briefly going blank.

He is investigating a mysterious event in Washington, D.C. that could upend the world order, and is linked to a terrifying entity that can alter the laws of physics.

But in the end, all the clues pointed to a little girl who had come from another world...?

What is the connection between these two things?

"JARVIS..." Tony rubbed his temples, feeling that things had completely spiraled out of his comprehension. "Get me all the connections between ' Lynn ' and this ' Gwen Stacy Stacy.' Don't overlook any, no matter how insignificant."

He had a strong premonition.

He felt as if he were touching the edge of a huge secret, one whose complexity and danger might far exceed his imagination.

A disaster caused by Yandere was unexpectedly revealed to him by another Yandere who had crossed the universe, in a way that was almost provocative.