After saying her piece, G'iah abruptly ended the call.
However, after hanging up, she turned her head to look at the several "Tony Starks" bustling about inside the laboratory.
That's right. Inside this Skrull laboratory, there were currently multiple Tony Starks conducting research together.
It was actually quite ironic.
The Skrulls possessed the ability to implant genes and perform a perfect transformation. While this allowed them to inherit the original's abilities and memories, they couldn't directly acquire the original host's cognitive processing power or mindset.
After all, if their minds were completely overwritten, they might end up with an overwhelming sense of justice after transforming and choose to rebel against their own kind.
This meant that for Skrulls, transforming into targets with inherent superpowers was obviously more cost-effective.
For someone like Tony Stark, who relied on equipment to fight, transforming was usually pointless. A Skrull couldn't utilize his genius brain or scientific research capabilities, and his equipment could simply be transferred to others via command authorization.
Originally, the plan was just to have one or two Skrulls implant Stark's genes to transform and take over his command clearances. That should have been enough.
However, that was the Skrulls' initial perspective.
That changed when one Skrull, who had perfectly transformed into Tony Stark, discovered something. Although he could still only think and research using his own mindset, possessing Iron Man's vast knowledge and memories made his research significantly easier.
It was like equipping an average researcher with a massive, instantly accessible database. This "database" even included complete "tutorial videos" of Stark's experiments within those memories.
This allowed even an ordinary researcher like him to make significant improvements in his actual work.
While he was still far from a super-genius like Stark, he instantly surpassed the average Skrull researcher.
This led to many Skrull researchers simply choosing to inject Stark's genes. Relying on the memory boost brought by the transformation, they could conduct their research much more effectively.
Even those Skrull researchers who held out a little hope for combat abilities could choose to implant Norman Osborn's genes instead.
Consequently, the Skrull laboratory was suddenly filled with over a dozen "Starks" and a scattering of "Osborns."
Back to the present.
When G'iah turned around and saw this flock of researchers wearing Stark's face, she felt a headache coming on. However, she quickly rallied her spirits and asked:
"I want to use Friday's power to hack into Luca Aurantius's system mainframe, dig up intel, and block their outgoing messages. What are our chances?"
Hearing their Queen's question, the busy Tony Starks looked at each other. Then, one of them stepped forward and braced himself to speak.
"My Queen, if we use Friday... even though we've already seized control of the AWS computing center, we can barely manage a defense."
"Luca's AI, Hakimi, hasn't stopped attacking our data for a second. If we get distracted even slightly, Friday could lose control over her own data."
"If that happens, the enemy might seize partial authorization for the nuclear launch codes, or even lock onto the location of our space station."
As he spoke, this Tony Stark looked cautiously at G'iah, clearly disapproving of her idea.
"Then what if we activate Jarvis... actually, never mind."
Halfway through the sentence, G'iah rejected the idea herself.
In reality, the highest authority over the intelligent programs and other resources "left behind" by Tony Stark had already been transferred to G'iah, the Skrull Queen.
However, since she hadn't implanted any extra transformation genes yet—in order to better accept the upcoming Super Skrull modification—her understanding of these technical matters was shallow. She had to ask her subordinates who had transformed into Tony Stark.
Among Tony Stark's "legacy," the only thing the Skrulls couldn't control was Jarvis, the original AI Tony created.
Because his artificial intelligence level was too high, and Tony had intentionally allowed him to grow over the years, Jarvis possessed not only rational AI thinking but also a significant degree of human-like emotional thinking.
Initially, after capturing Tony Stark, the Skrull impersonating him was identical to Tony in appearance, voice print, fingerprints, and every other aspect.
But because the orders he gave were severely inconsistent with Tony Stark's behavioral patterns—before he could even issue more unreasonable orders like "arrest Pepper"—Jarvis became suspicious and refused to execute his commands.
If they hadn't forcibly shut down Jarvis in time, these infiltrating Skrulls might have been hunted down by the Iron Legion controlled by Jarvis.
Left with no choice, after shutting down Jarvis, the Skrulls had to activate the AI program Tony created later—Friday, whose "brain wasn't as sharp"—to control Stark's various devices and resources.
As for how "not sharp" Friday was...
The fact that after the transfer of authority, G'iah's clearance level was even higher than Stark's—her creator—spoke volumes.
But even so, G'iah ultimately abandoned the risky idea of reactivating Jarvis.
Otherwise, before Jarvis could even start fighting Luca's Hakimi on the network, those two might team up to dismantle the Skrulls' wide-open network system.
"Fine, let's leave it at that... Friday, get ready. Once the troops in New York start their operation, deploy half of the drone fleet to assist and launch an attack on the construction base!"
"Understood, my Queen!"
"As for the other half of the drones..."
---
Meanwhile, in the ruins of New York.
Time-wise, the city's reconstruction work had actually been going on for quite a while.
However, Luca and his team had now "chased" all the ordinary workers back to the refugee camps, retaining only a large number of robotic engineering teams on site.
Aside from a small amount of new materials teleported directly from Sokovia via portals, most construction materials were sourced locally, "misappropriating" supplies originally intended for building New New York.
At this moment, Luca, having already released the information online, stood quietly on this land that was half desolate and half sci-fi. He waited in boredom for the Skrulls' potential follow-up offensive.
On the other side.
Natasha finally formally met the "older helper" Luca had mentioned.