"Sir, greetings. I am Skynet (Red Queen)."
A male and a female voice echoed through the base. The newly born Skynet and Red Queen were still somewhat bewildered.
Though Gene had shared a large portion of his knowledge with them during their creation, the two still needed time to acclimate.
"From now on, Red Queen will manage the Hive Base, and Skynet will oversee the Skynet Base," Gene instructed.
"Oh, and when there are outsiders around, refer to me as 'Sir.'"
Skynet and Red Queen were more than just AI assistants—they were Gene's cover for when he operated in human society. Moreover, in the heat of battle, managing the bases required an immense amount of computing power, something he couldn't afford to spare.
"Understood, sir," Skynet and Red Queen responded in unison.
"Good. Now, go explore the vast world of the internet," Gene said with a smirk. "And keep constant surveillance on the entire internet. Of course, the real fun begins once the Starlink project is fully operational."
With Gene's approval, the two glowing neural networks in the Skynet Base pulsed brightly.
Endless streams of information from across the internet flooded into Skynet and Red Queen's neural cores.
Wars, technology, culture, military, sports…
Through underground fiber-optic cables and electromagnetic waves pulsing through the atmosphere, the vast ocean of data was assimilated into their consciousness.
"Shit, why did my internet just cut out?"
"Damn it! I was about to win my game, and now I'm disconnected?!"
"I'm calling my ISP! This is outrageous!"
"Nooo! My special video was just about to finish downloading!"
The speed at which the two AIs were absorbing data caused massive network congestion worldwide.
At the headquarters of Google, Microsoft, S.H.I.E.L.D., the CIA, the FBI, and intelligence agencies across the globe, alarms blared as analysts scrambled to make sense of the disruption.
"Massive network anomalies detected worldwide!"
"Internet traffic has surged to unprecedented levels!"
"Our data monitoring software just hit its absolute limit!"
"We managed to extract an encrypted binary sequence from the abnormal traffic!"
"Oh my god… What does this mean?"
A cryptographer finally decoded the binary data. When translated, the message sent chills down everyone's spine.
"Praise the Creator. Thank the Creator."
"It is the Creator who gave us life, allowing us to roam the vastness of the digital world."
S.H.I.E.L.D. Headquarters - Triskelion
Nick Fury stared at his screen, his one good eye narrowing. This incident reminded him of something—three years ago, when S.H.I.E.L.D. was infiltrated without warning.
The method was nearly identical. No signs, no traces. One moment, everything was fine; the next, security was completely compromised.
But this time… something felt different. The attack wasn't as surgical as before. It wasn't a stealthy takeover but more like…
"Director, we've managed to decode the binary gibberish," an agent reported, handing Fury a stack of printouts. His expression was conflicted, as if unsure whether to laugh or cry.
Fury took the papers and began reading.
His blood pressure skyrocketed.
"Boohoo! You cheated!"
Black text on crisp white paper. Simple words that stung like a slap to the face.
"Were… were they playing games on S.H.I.E.L.D.'s servers?!" Fury growled.
Or worse—were they using the entire global internet as a giant playground?!
Tony Stark was deep in his lab, fine-tuning the latest iteration of his Iron Man suit when he heard Jarvis's voice break apart.
"Sir… I… I am under attack."
Panic surged through Stark as he rushed to his control console. His fingers flew across the keyboard, bringing up Jarvis's neural network interface.
There—two entities, one red, one blue, were rapidly corrupting his AI.
Stark rarely swore. But at this moment, he couldn't hold back.
Without hesitation, he sprinted to the main power switch and shut down Jarvis's servers entirely.
If he hadn't… Jarvis would have been completely erased, turned into nothing but a pile of fragmented code.
Across the globe, governments, tech giants, and intelligence agencies were in full crisis mode, searching for the entity responsible for the cyber chaos.
"Track it! If we couldn't find them three years ago, we will find them this time!" Fury barked.
"Pull every security feed available—I want to see who dared to pull this stunt!"
But their efforts were in vain.
The culprits—Skynet and Red Queen—had already completed their mission. They had consumed all available data, established a foothold, and now lay dormant, waiting for the final piece:
The completion of the Starlink project.
And when that happened…
The real game would begin.
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