Upon entering the laboratory, he found a stack of books and sighed as he read their titles. One was a guide for apprentice exorcists, something the Ancient One had sent.
Not one to complain about the opportunity, he leaned back in his chair and retrieved a pair of glasses from one of the drawers.
"It went from being something fictional to something real," he said as he looked at the speed-reading glasses he had designed, inspired by the anime Fairy Tail. They significantly reduced the time required to read a book or document.
As he worked through the books, he came to understand why the Ancient One, despite her personal preferences, sometimes favored accessible power over purely natural energy.
Those two resources had become incredibly scarce in the modern world, either because the Earth itself had become too polluted or because humanity's corruption had consumed nearly everything, leaving only the pure souls of the very young untouched.
"Father."
Turning around, he saw a young blonde woman dressed entirely in black, her hands clasped behind her back.
She wore an expression that was both gentle and serious, the latter softened by the warmth that naturally defined her.
"Yes, Karen."
"You need to see this."
She opened her hand, and a holographic screen materialized above her palm, displaying a video.
Karen was an AI similar to J.A.R.V.I.S., though considerably more advanced.
She managed the company's document classification, home security, and countless other routine tasks.
He had created her because Cortana had recently begun her life as a vigilante, and he did not want her consciousness divided among multiple parallel processes, risking severe mental exhaustion or information overload.
Instead, he had convinced Cortana to create someone who could handle the routine work while she focused on the more complicated matters.
It also fulfilled a promise he had once made to Cortana: that Karen would become their daughter. The idea had genuinely made Cortana happy. Once Karen was complete, he intended to provide her with an organic body. For now, she existed only as a hologram, just as Cortana once had.
Unlike his other children, Karen was far more reserved. She rarely opened up to others and usually responded with brief, precise answers.
It amused him that she resembled him more closely than any of the others in both personality and temperament. It was only natural that she felt more comfortable around him, just as his other children tended to resemble their respective mothers more than him, something that secretly bothered Cortana despite loving Karen with all her heart.
Looking at Karen now, he silently concluded that he needed to stop letting Cortana spend so much time choosing their daughter's wardrobe.
Returning his attention to the video, he watched a woman dressed in a cat-themed costume fleeing from two drones.
More than once she came within inches of being captured, but through a combination of extraordinary agility and unbelievable luck, she escaped every attempt.
In a desperate improvisation, she destroyed one drone, then used its wreckage to disable the second.
She dropped to one knee, panting for breath.
Once she had recovered, she sprinted to the edge of the building and escaped using a grappling hook.
When the video ended, he frowned, removed his glasses, and walked over to retrieve his suit.
This time, he chose the newest and most advanced one he had built.
"Mark the location of the confrontation. I am going to investigate."
"Understood," Karen replied.
....
Twip.
Twip.
Landing on the rooftop, he walked over to the destroyed drones, crouched beside one of them, and picked up its upper casing.
The emblem engraved on it made him frown in renewed annoyance at the person responsible for sending them.
"What the hell have you gotten yourself into, Black?" he muttered.
He then ordered several Spider-Bots to clean up the scene.
He could not allow anyone to get their hands on that technology.
"Dad, you have a call from Dan," Karen said through the communications system.
"Put him through."
"Spider-Man, I need you to come to my location. There are things we need to talk about. Important things," Dan said.
"I will be there soon."
He ended the call and swung away.
....