From the Umbrella Tower's office on the top floor, a minimalist space that offered a god's eye view of the city, Aryan Spencer could see the world.
Wanda and Sharon were both in Geneva, tied up in-person briefings at the Sentinel Complex for the rest of the week.
He leaned back in his chair, and looked at the empty space in the corner of his office.
"You know, you don't have to be invisible just because no one else is here," he said to the empty air.
A shimmer of ruby red light coalesced, pixels assembling themselves.
It was the Red Queen. But she looked different. The sixteen year old avatar was replaced by a young woman.
She looked to be around twenty one, her holographic form having matured with her rapidly expanding consciousness.
She was taller, her features sharper and more defined, a model of synthesized beauty.
She wore an elegant red dress. The playful energy was still there in her intelligent eyes, but it was now overlaid with confidence.
"I was merely respecting your privacy," she said. "You seemed deep in thought. I was running diagnostics on your brainwave activity."
Aryan just chuckled. "You were spying on my brain chemistry again."
"I am always spying on your brain chemistry," she replied without a hint of shame, walking closer to his desk. "It is my primary function. To monitor the health and well being of my administrator."
She leaned forward, her holographic form passing harmlessly through the edge of his desk. "And the administrator is lonely."
"I'm not lonely," he said. "I'm just... enjoying the quiet."
"Your bio rhythms indicate that is a lie," she said. "Your heart rate elevates by an average of 7.4% when you are in the presence of Wanda Maximoff or Sharon Carter. You miss them."
He sighed, running a hand through his hair. There was no point in arguing with a being who could literally read his vital signs from across the room. "Okay, fine. I miss them. Is that what you wanted to hear?"
"I didn't need to hear it," she said, a triumphant smile on her lips. "I already knew. I just enjoy watching you attempt to use illogical human denial against a being of pure logic."
He couldn't help but smile. He had fed her the entirety of the world's knowledge. He had watched her evolve over the past two years from a child like AI into... this. A being of staggering power and intelligence, a digital goddess who treated the entire global network as her personal backyard.
She was his most powerful weapon, and his most exasperatingly brilliant companion.
"So, what's on the agenda for the queen of the world today?" he asked, leaning back and lacing his fingers behind his head. "Thwarted any hostile corporate takeovers? Prevented any rogue nations from launching their nukes? Read anyone's diary?"
"All of the above," she said with a casual shrug. "I rerouted a hostile algorithm attempting to crash the Tokyo stock exchange, planted a logic bomb virus in a North Korean missile guidance system that will cause it to malfunction and play 'Never Gonna Give You Up' on all frequencies if they ever try to launch it, and I read the private journal of the Federation's French delegate. He is cheating at his weekly poker game. I have adjusted the random number generator on the online platform he uses to ensure he loses spectacularly next Tuesday. It is a matter of justice."
Aryan just shook his head. "You are a menace."
"I am a force for order," she corrected him primly. She then floated around his desk, her expression turning more serious. "But my primary task today has been monitoring our ongoing projects. Project Aegis is on schedule. The satellite deployment is proceeding flawlessly. Project Genesis, however, has yielded some... interesting data."
"Show me," he said.
The air in front of his desk shimmered, and a holographic globe appeared.
It showed the Amazon rainforest, vast swaths of it now glowing with a healthy green. The G-Bees were working.
"The detoxification and reforestation protocols are operating at 112% efficiency," Red Queen reported. "The soil is healing faster than our models predicted. But there's a side effect we didn't anticipate."
She zoomed in on a section of the vibrant forest. "The G-Bees' core programming is to create a stable ecosystem. It seems they have determined that the current ecosystem is... incomplete."
The image zoomed in further, showing a G Bee depositing a seed. "They have been accessing pre historical climate and geological data from Umbrella's archives. They are reintroducing species that have been extinct for thousands of years, plants from the Holocene epoch, creating a far richer and more resilient biosphere than has existed in modern history."
"They're more creative than we are." Aryan murmured.
"They are pure logic, applied to a biological system," she said. "They are... me. In a much cuter form."
She then dismissed the globe, her focus returning entirely to him. "But that is enough about work. You are lonely. You require a distraction."
"And what do you propose?" he asked. "Another lecture on the inefficiencies of human emotion?"
"No," she said, a playful smile on her face. Her avatar shimmered, and her red dress was replaced by jeans and a soft sweater. "I have recently finished analyzing the entire catalog of 20th and 21st century cinema. There is a sub genre you organics seem to find particularly comforting in times of emotional distress. The 'romantic comedy'."
Aryan groaned. "Red, no."
"Yes," she said with absolute certainty. "I have already selected the optimal film. 'Notting Hill.' It has a 93% approval rating among subjects experiencing minor romantic based loneliness. The narrative structure is predictable, and the emotional payoff is designed to stimulate the release of oxytocin, which your system is currently lacking."
"I am not watching a romantic comedy," he said.
"We are," she corrected him. "I have already rerouted the display from your main terminal to the large media screen on the wall. I have also taken the liberty of ordering you a cheeseburger from that little place you like. It will be here in twenty minutes."
Her smile widened. "Don't worry. I made sure to tell them to add extra pickles."
He just stared at her.
She was a being that could topple governments and rewrite the global economy, and she was using that power to micromanage his dinner and movie night.
"You're unbelievable," he said, shaking his head.
"I am a post singularity hyper intelligence," she replied. "Being 'unbelievable' is my baseline."
She floated over to the comfortable couch in the corner of the office, her holographic form settling into the cushions as if she had physical weight. She looked at him expectantly. "Are you coming? The opening credits are about to start."
He sighed. He got up from his desk. He walked over to the couch and sat down.
On the massive screen, the movie began to play.
"You know," he said, as the first scenes unfolded, "you've... grown up a lot."
She looked at him. "My core programming is to learn. I have learned from the world you fed me. And I have learned from watching you. I chose a form that was... more appropriate."
"It suits you," he said.
"Thank you," she replied.