The code erupted around Lin Ye like a digital supernova.
One moment she was standing in the vibranium chamber, surrounded by heroes and humming machinery. The next, she was inside—inside the raw, screaming data-stream of six Infinity Stones colliding for the first time in eons.
It was beautiful. It was terrifying. It was wrong.
[SYSTEM NOTIFICATION: HOST CONSCIOUSNESS TRANSFERRED TO CODE-SPACE]
[INFINITY STONE RESONANCE: ACTIVE]
[CORRUPTION LEVELS: CRITICAL - 51% AND RISING]
[TIME DILATION ACTIVE: 1 SECOND PHYSICAL = 10 MINUTES CODE-SPACE]
[YOU HAVE APPROXIMATELY 45 MINUTES CODE-TIME TO COMPLETE REPAIR PROTOCOLS]
Forty-five minutes. In the physical world, less than five seconds would pass. Strange's time manipulation was working exactly as intended.
Lin Ye materialized on a vast plain of golden light, surrounded by six towering pillars that stretched into an infinite sky. Each pillar represented a Stone—Space in pulsing blue, Reality in flowing liquid red, Power in crackling violet, Time in serene green, Soul in warm orange, and Mind in…
Mind was wrong.
Where the other pillars stood tall and relatively stable, the Mind Stone's pillar was wrapped in throbbing black vines of corrupted code. They pulsed with malicious intent, squeezing the golden structure, forcing their way into its foundations. Even as Lin Ye watched, new vines sprouted from the base, reaching hungrily towards the other pillars.
"The corruption is trying to spread," a voice said beside her. Vision materialized in his golden code-form, looking healthier than his physical body—but only slightly. Dark veins still traced his digital features. "It senses the other Stones now. It wants to consume them all."
"Then we don't let it." Lin Ye turned to find the others arriving in code-space—Thanos as a towering figure of burnished gold, Wanda as a swirl of crimson energy barely containing her power, Strange as a complex mandala of green light, and Tony as a brilliant white star surrounded by intricate circuitry patterns.
"Whoa," Tony's voice echoed from his star-form. "This is… a lot. My brain is processing data at rates that should be impossible. Is this what being a supercomputer feels like?"
"Focus, Stark," Strange's mandala pulsed impatiently. "We have limited time. Lin Ye, what's the repair protocol?"
Lin Ye pulled up her system's interface—which manifested here as a massive holographic display visible to everyone. "We need to isolate the Mind Stone's corruption while simultaneously reinforcing the other Stones against infection. Thanos, you're on Stone stabilization—keep them calm, keep them from reacting to the corruption's presence."
Thanos's golden form moved towards the pillars, his presence somehow soothing them. The Space Stone's frantic pulsing slowed. Reality's chaotic flow became more measured. "They know me," he rumbled. "They trust me. I will hold them."
"Wanda, you're with me on containment. We need to build a barrier around the Mind Stone that the corruption can't penetrate. Your chaos magic can adapt to its attacks faster than my code can."
Wanda's crimson form flowed forward, joining Lin Ye at the base of the corrupted pillar. "Show me what to do."
"Strange, you're on time management. Keep the dilation stable—if we lose it, we lose our window. And monitor for external interference. If the Realverse movement realizes what we're doing, they'll try to accelerate the corruption."
Strange's mandala rotated slowly. "Already sensing their presence. They're distracted by the surface battle, but that won't last forever. I'll warn you the moment they shift focus."
"Tony." Lin Ye turned to the brilliant white star. "You're the wild card. Your arc reactor in the physical world is broadcasting our repair protocols, but here in code-space, you can do something more. You're a creator, an innovator. The corruption is adapting to our attacks because it's following predefined patterns. You need to create new patterns—things the corruption hasn't seen before. Keep it confused while we build the barrier."
Tony's star pulsed with something that might have been a grin. "Confuse a malicious AI with creative problem-solving? I've been training for this my whole life. Watch and learn, Code Girl."
He dove towards the corrupted pillar, and suddenly the code-space around him erupted in a fireworks display of impossible geometries and recursive logic loops. The black vines hesitated, confused by the unfamiliar patterns, their spread slowing as they tried—and failed—to process what they were seeing.
[TONY STARK: INNOVATION PROTOCOL ACTIVE]
[CORRUPTION CONFUSION: +37%]
[SPREAD RATE: REDUCED]
"Now!" Lin Ye shouted. "Wanda, with me!"
Golden light erupted from Lin Ye's form as she began weaving barriers of pure code around the Mind Stone's pillar. Wanda's crimson energy joined hers, the two forces intertwining to create something neither could have achieved alone—a living, adaptive barrier that shifted and flowed to counter the corruption's every move.
The black vines struck the barrier and screamed—a silent, code-deep shriek of frustration as they found themselves blocked. They tried to go around; the barrier extended. They tried to go over; it grew taller. They tried to burrow under; it sank into the digital earth.
"We're holding!" Wanda gasped, her crimson energy flickering with effort. "But it's strong. It's drawing power from somewhere—"
"From the Realverse movement," Lin Ye realized. "They're still feeding energy into the attack. As long as they're connected, the corruption has an unlimited power source."
"Then we cut the connection." Strange's voice was tight with concentration. "But that means exposing ourselves to their attention. If we sever the link, they'll know something's wrong. They'll look closer. They'll see what we're doing."
The chamber fell silent—as silent as code-space could be—as the weight of his words settled over them.
If they cut the connection, they saved the Mind Stone but alerted the enemy. If they didn't, the corruption would eventually overwhelm their barriers. Either way, the Realverse movement would know they'd been tricked.
"There has to be another way," Tony said, his star-form pulsing with frustration. "Some way to sever the connection without them noticing."
"Maybe there is." Lin Ye's mind raced, pulling up every piece of data she'd gathered from Zhou's drive. "The Realverse movement is monitoring multiple universes simultaneously. They can't watch everything at once. If we create a distraction—something big enough to draw their attention away from this moment—"
"What kind of distraction?" Thanos asked.
Lin Ye smiled grimly. "The kind they've been waiting for. The kind that fits their narrative perfectly."