Chapter 166: Tony's Dilemma
"Maybe four days."
Lynn's expression remained unchanged.
"You don't care about your own neck?"
Tony lay face-down on the examination table.
"I'm responsible for global security."
"Neck problems don't count."
Lynn pressed firmly against the spinous process of C3.
"Hiss—!"
Tony nearly jumped.
"Easy!"
"This is chiropractic adjustment."
"Not a spa treatment."
A crisp click echoed through the room.
C3 slid back into proper alignment.
Immediately, blood flow through Tony's cervical region improved.
Some of the tension around his shoulders visibly eased.
"Tell me something."
Lynn's fingers moved lower.
"What?"
"What have you and Bruce been doing lately?"
Tony's muscles tightened.
Lynn noticed immediately.
The reaction lasted less than half a second.
"What do you mean?"
"You mentioned Bruce saying humanity needs a shield."
Lynn pressed against C4.
Another click.
"You don't sound like two people casually discussing philosophy."
"What are you building?"
Tony remained silent.
The adjustment continued.
Click.
C4 returned to position.
"...A defense system."
"What kind?"
"Global."
Tony exhaled slowly.
"Automated."
"Independent."
"Not reliant on any individual hero."
Lynn nodded.
"Keep talking."
Tony rolled slightly onto one side.
"The idea started after New York."
His voice was quieter now.
"Then Metropolis happened."
"Then S.H.I.E.L.D. collapsed."
"Every major crisis keeps proving the same thing."
He stared at the ceiling.
"Humanity survives because somebody happens to show up."
"Captain America."
"Thor."
"Hulk."
"Superman."
"The Justice League."
"The Avengers."
Tony shook his head.
"That's not a system."
"That's luck."
Lynn said nothing.
Tony continued.
"We need something that never sleeps."
"Something that doesn't panic."
"Something that can monitor threats twenty-four hours a day."
"Something capable of making decisions in milliseconds."
"You want an artificial intelligence."
Tony hesitated.
Then nodded.
"Something beyond current-generation AI."
"Jarvis is incredible."
"But Jarvis still has limits."
That statement wasn't false.
J.A.R.V.I.S. was already among the most sophisticated artificial intelligences on Earth.
Unlike most modern systems, Jarvis could understand context, adapt, learn, and operate independently across thousands of simultaneous tasks.
But Tony understood those limitations better than anyone.
"I need more processing power."
Tony rubbed his forehead.
"A lot more."
"Not ten percent."
"Not fifty percent."
"Orders of magnitude."
"The architecture itself needs to evolve."
"It has to analyze military threats, extraterrestrial threats, dimensional threats, superhuman threats—simultaneously."
"It has to coordinate responses globally."
"And it has to make decisions faster than any human can."
Lynn wasn't surprised.
This was the same path Tony Stark repeatedly walked throughout Marvel history.
Whenever he encountered a threat he couldn't control, he attempted to build something larger.
A bigger armor.
A stronger system.
A smarter machine.
A wider shield.
Usually because he was afraid.
Not of dying.
Of failing.
Of being unable to stop the next disaster.
"You've hit a wall."
Lynn wasn't asking.
Tony laughed weakly.
"Several walls."
Lynn walked toward a storage cabinet.
Inside was a syringe filled with a colorless solution.
A neurological stabilization serum.
Designed specifically for cases of chronic stress-induced autonomic imbalance.
"Your nervous system needs recalibration."
Tony eyed the syringe suspiciously.
"That sounds expensive."
"It would be."
Lynn prepared the injection.
"If I were charging you."
Tony immediately relaxed.
"Ah. Then proceed."
The needle entered the side of his neck.
The medicine flowed slowly into the bloodstream.
"What exactly is that?"
"Something that prevents your brain from cooking itself."
"Good."
Tony closed his eyes.
Lynn placed two fingers against his temple.
Quantum Electromagnetic Domination activated.
Microscopic perception expanded.
The structure of Tony's hypothalamus appeared within his awareness.
Neural pathways.
Neurotransmitter concentrations.
Stress-response feedback loops.
All clearly visible.
Carefully, Lynn began correcting the abnormal activity.
The process resembled tuning a complex instrument.
Tiny adjustments.
Microscopic corrections.
Gradually, the runaway stress signals weakened.
Then Lynn spoke casually.
"Tony."
"Hm?"
"You remember Loki's Scepter?"
Tony opened one eye.
"The glowing staff?"
"The one Loki used during the Battle of New York?"
"Yes."
"The one recovered by S.H.I.E.L.D. afterward."
Tony frowned.
"Why?"
"The gem at the top."
"The blue one."
"Did you ever study it?"
"A little."
Tony's expression became thoughtful.
"After New York, some of the residual energy readings ended up in my database."
"It didn't behave like conventional energy."
Lynn remained silent.
Tony continued.
"It wasn't electrical."
"Wasn't gamma radiation."
"Wasn't any known particle emission."
"The output resembled..."
He searched for the correct term.
"...information."
Lynn smiled slightly.
"Interesting description."
Tony nodded.
"Extremely dense information."
"Almost as if the energy itself contained structured data."
That wasn't entirely wrong.
The Mind Stone fundamentally interacted with thought, consciousness, and information.
Even without understanding Infinity Stones, Tony had instinctively noticed something unusual.
"What if that kind of energy powered an AI?"
Lynn asked casually.
Tony froze.
His brain activity immediately spiked.
The All-Seeing Eye could practically see the thought forming.
A new processing architecture.
Information itself becoming computation.
A system no longer limited by traditional hardware.
A possibility.
"Theoretically..."
Tony spoke slowly.
"If such a source existed..."
"If information density reached a sufficient level..."
"It could replace conventional computational foundations entirely."
His eyes opened fully.
"No silicon bottleneck."
"No traditional architecture limitations."
"No quantum decoherence problems."
"It would be..."
He stopped.
Because he finally realized what he was saying.
Lynn's expression remained unchanged.
Tony stared at him.
"Why are we talking about this?"
"Just conversation."
The electromagnetic recalibration continued.
Tony's heart rate began dropping steadily.
His trembling disappeared.
For the first time in weeks, his autonomic nervous system was returning toward equilibrium.
"What happened to the Scepter?"
Tony asked.
Lynn withdrew his hand.
"After S.H.I.E.L.D. fell?"
"HYDRA took it."
Tony's eyes narrowed.
That matched several loose threads he'd been unable to connect.
"The exact location?"
"No idea."
Lynn lied effortlessly.
"But most surviving HYDRA operations are concentrated in Eastern Europe."
Tony became very quiet.
His engineer's mind immediately began assembling pieces.
HYDRA.
The Scepter.
The strange information-based energy.
Artificial intelligence.
Planetary defense.
The path was already forming.
Lynn deliberately said nothing further.
Sometimes the most effective push required only a single sentence.
The rest happened naturally.
A few minutes later, the treatment ended.
Lynn removed his hand.
"Done."
Tony sat upright.
Slowly flexed his fingers.
No tremor.
No instability.
The fine motor control had returned.
His expression shifted slightly.
Relief.
"That's..."
He rotated his wrist.
"Actually incredible."
"Three days."
Lynn washed his hands.
"Minimum."
"Eight hours of sleep per day."
"No all-night engineering sessions."
"No emergency projects."
"No pretending coffee counts as rest."
Tony groaned.
"You sound worse than Pepper."
"Pepper is usually right."
"I hate when people say that."
Tony stood.
Adjusted his hoodie.
Straightened his posture.
The difference was obvious.
Not fully recovered.
But functional again.
Much better than when he arrived.
He walked toward the back door.
Then stopped.
"Lynn."
"Hm?"
"You mentioned the Scepter on purpose, didn't you?"
Lynn continued organizing instruments.
He never turned around.
"What do you think?"
Tony smiled faintly.
"I think you never waste words."
"Then make your own judgment."
For several seconds, Tony simply watched him.
Then he nodded.
Decision made.
The Scepter.
HYDRA.
Eastern Europe.
The puzzle pieces were already moving inside his head.
"Go home."
Lynn finally spoke again.
"And sleep."
Tony opened the door.
Cold October air entered the clinic.
Leaves rustled somewhere outside.
He took several steps.
Then stopped again.
"One more thing."
"What?"
Tony looked back.
"If the masked man turned out to be somebody you knew..."
"What would you do?"
Silence filled the room.
Two seconds.
Three.
Then—
"Tony."
Lynn's voice echoed from inside the clinic.
"Could you avoid raising my patient's blood pressure before dawn?"
Tony laughed.
For the first time that night, it sounded genuine.
"I was only asking."
"Get out."
"Alright. Alright."
The door closed.
His footsteps gradually disappeared into the distance.
Lynn stood alone behind the reception desk.
The clinic was quiet again.
He picked up the now-cold teacup.
Finished the final sip.
The Mind Stone.
Even if he said nothing, Tony would eventually find it.
That was inevitable.
Lynn turned off the lights upstairs.
Then descended into the underground laboratory carrying a freshly brewed cup of tea.
He sat down before the control panel.
His thoughts drifted elsewhere.
To Sokovia.
To a pair of twins.
To chaos itself.
Wanda Maximoff.
The Scarlet Witch.
Chaos Magic.
A power capable of twisting probability, rewriting reality, and affecting dimensions beyond conventional sorcery.
Lynn adjusted his glasses.
A faint smile appeared.
That ability...
would probably pair exceptionally well with All-Dimensional Magic Affinity.
...
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