Going For Artificial Intelligence

--- April 28th, 2015 - In the Skies, Quinjet ---

The Avengers are on an aircraft heading out of Sokovia.

Tony piloting.

Thor watching as Steve temporally patches up Clint's wound. He then walks away from the two towards the back, where Y/N was sitting on a pile of crates.

Bruce was sitting off to the side with headphones on.

Listening to a calming Opera.

Natasha took a seat next to him as he pulled his headphones off, "Hey, the lullaby worked better than ever."

"Just wasn't expecting the 'Code Green'.."

"If you hadn't been there, there would've been double the casualties," Natasha told him, "My best friend would've been a... treasured memory."

Bruce nods, before replying, "You know, sometimes exactly what I want to hear isn't exactly what I want to hear."

"How long before you trust me?"

"...It's not you I don't trust."

Natasha looks at him for a moment before looking over towards Thor and Y/N who were now joined by Steve, "Thor, report on the Hulk?"

The three of them look over at the other two.

Thor smiles innocently, and raises a fist in triumph, "The gates of Hel are filled with the screams of his victims."

Steve just stares at him.

Y/N laughs uproariously as Natasha glares at Thor.

Bruce groans in despair.

Thor glances over at Y/N before continuing, "Uh, but, not the screams of the dead, of course. No no, uh... wounded screams, mainly whimpering, a great deal of complaining and tales of sprained deltoids and, and uh... and gout."

"Right, right, just wounded screams," Y/N adds with a smirk, "And can't forget about that gout either."

Steve tries his best not to smile at that. Thor looks back at Y/N worried about what he said.

Tony spoke up from the cockpit, "Hey Banner, Dr. Cho's on her way in from Seoul, is it okay if she sets up in your lab?"

"Uh.. yeah, she knows her way around," Bruce replies.

"Thanks," Tony says before saying to JARVIS, "Tell her to prep everything, Barton's gonna need the full treatment."

"Very good sir."

"JARVIS, take the wheel," he says, standing and pressing a button next to a 'JARVIS is my co-pilot' sticker.

"Yes, sir. Approach vector is locked."

He moves towards the back, where Thor, Steve, and Y/N are staring down at the scepter. It glows brightly, the blue hue encompassing a huge section of the room.

"It feels good, yeah?," Tony says, "I mean, you've been after this thing since SHIELD collapsed. Not that I haven't enjoyed our little raiding parties, but.."

"No, but this...," Thor tells him, "This brings it to a close."

"As soon as we find out what else this has been used for, that is. It clearly wasn't just weapons," Y/N says.

Steve nods, "Right. Since when is Strucker capable of human enhancement?"

Tony tells them, "Banner and I'll give it the once before it goes back to Asgard. Is that cool with you?"

Thor just nods.

"I can help you two if you need it," Y/N tells Tony.

"No, it's fine. Banner and I got it," Tony replies quickly, "It'll only take a few days at least until the farewell party. You two are staying right?"

"Yes, yes, of course. A victory should be honored with revels," Thor agrees.

Y/N shrugs with a grin, "Sure, why not? What about you Steve? You joining in on the 'revels'?"

"Hopefully this puts an end to the Chitauri and HYDRA, so. Yes, 'revels'," Steve replies with a smile.

_____

--- April 18th, 2015 - Avengers Tower, NYC ---

The Avengers aircraft finishes its landing at the Avengers tower in New York. Clint Barton is taken, being dragged off on a gurney, by Dr. Cho to have his wounds tended to.

Maria Hill appears, walking past Thor, into the aircraft.

Only Tony, Steve, and Y/N were still aboard.

"Lab's all set up, boss," she announces to Tony.

"Uh, actually, he's the boss," Tony replies, pointing at Steve, "I just pay for everything, and design everything and make everyone look cooler."

Y/N rolls his eyes, "You had nothing to do with the making of my suit."

Steve asks Maria, "What's the word on Strucker?"

"NATO's got him."

Steve and Y/N walk out of the jet with Maria just next to them. Tony stays behind on his jet, doing whatever it is he's doing..

"The two enhanced?," Steve inquires.

"Wanda and Pietro Maximoff," Hill says, showing the two of them a tablet with a recording of the twins at a rally, "Twins. Born in 1998. Orphaned at ten when a shell collapsed their apartment building. Sokovia's had a rough history. It's nowhere special but it's on the way to everywhere special."

"And their abilities?," Y/N asks as the three of them step inside.

"He's got increased metabolism and improved thermal homeostasis. Her thing is neural electric interfacing, telekinesis, mental manipulation."

They come to a stop in front of an elevator.

Steve just looks over at Maria confused.

Y/N looked over noticing his confusion.

Maria rephrases in 'simpler' terms, "He's fast and she's weird."

"She's not weird," Y/N says.

Steve glances over at him with furrowed brows, "Well, anyway, they're going to show up again."

The elevator dings and opens.

"Agreed," Hill replies, "File says they volunteered for Strucker's experiments. It's nuts."

Y/N and Steve step into the elevator. Steve presses the button and looks over at Y/N with a grin.

Y/N chuckles, "Right. What kind of monsters would let a German scientist experiment on them to protect their country?"

"We're not at war," Hill said.

The elevator door goes to close.

But before it closes, Steve tells her, "They are."

_____

Bruce went to enter another room of his lab just as Tony was exiting it.

They both stopped for a moment when Bruce asked, "How's he doing?"

"Oh, unfortunately, he's still Barton," Tony replies.

"..That's terrible," Bruce said, playing along.

"He's fine. He's thirsty."

Tony walks over to a set of computers next to the scepter as Bruce exits the room. The scepter was being suspended and scanned in midair.

"Alright. Look alive, JARVIS. It's play time. We've only got a couple days with this joystick so let's make the most of it. Update me on the structural and compositional analysis."

"The scepter is alien," JARVIS tells him, stating the obvious, "There are elements I can't quantify."

"So there's elements you can."

"The jewel appears to be a protective housing for something inside. Something powerful..," JARVIS tells him.

Tony questions, "Like a reactor?"

"Like a computer," JARVIS states, "I believe I'm deciphering code."

_____

Clint was under a machine as a light was being spread along his wound.

His wound was slowly but surely fading.

Natasha, Y/N, Bruce and Helen Cho were in the room around him. Y/N was just staring down at Clint's healing wound with a grin.

..And with the urge to poke it or something.

Natasha looked down at it, "You sure he's going to be okay? Pretending to need this guy really brings the team together."

"There's no possibility of deterioration," Dr. Helen Cho replies, "The Nano-molecular functionality is instantaneous. His cells don't know they're bonding with simulacrum."

"She's creating tissue," Bruce says, fascinated about the topic.

"If you brought him to my lab, the regeneration Cradle could do this in twenty minutes," Cho said.

"Oh, he's flatlining. Call it. Time?," Tony said as he entered the room with a bunch of drinks.

"No, no, no. I'm going to live forever. I'm gonna be made of plastic," Clint muttered on the table.

Tony hands him one of the drinks, "Here's your beverage."

"You'll be made of you, Clint. It replicates your cells," Y/N tells him, "Your girlfriend won't be able to tell the difference, dude."

"Well, I don't have a girlfriend," Clint says as he takes a sip from his drink.

Y/N smirks and says, "Wife, then?"

Clint glances over at him and squints. Natasha grins at the two of them. Clearly the three of them knew something the others didn't.

Cho says to Tony, "This is the next thing, Tony. Your clunky metal suits are going to be left in the dust."

"Well, that is exactly the plan. And Helen, I expect to see you at the party on Saturday."

"Unlike you, I don't have a lot of time for parties," Cho hesitates a moment before asking, "..Will Thor be there?"

_____

"What's the rumpus?"

Bruce and Tony walk back into the main lab towards the scepter. Y/N, Natasha, and Clint can be heard talking in the background.

"Well, the scepter," Tony starts, "You see, we were wondering how Strucker got so inventive. So, I've been analyzing the gem inside, You may recognize--"

Tony pulls up a 3D holographic image of JARVIS's consciousness.

"Jarvis," Bruce greets, stepping out of the way.

"Doctor."

"Started out, JARVIS was just a natural language UI. Now he runs the Iron Legion. He runs more of the business than anyone besides Pepper," Tony explains.

"Oh?"

"Top of the line."

"Yes," Bruce says, waiting for more.

JARVIS tells him, "I suspect not for long."

"Meet the competition," Tony announces.

He brings up another 3D image of what's inside the scepter.

Bigger than JARVIS's consciousness. More vibrate. Many more moving parts. It moves as if pulsating.

"..It's beautiful," Bruce states in awe.

"If you had to guess, what's it look like it's doing?," Tony asks as Bruce moves around the stones Consciousness.

"Like it's thinking.. I mean this could be a... it's not a human mind, it..," Bruce mutters gazing upon it, "I mean, look at this! They're like neurons firing."

Tony tells him, "Down in Strucker's lab I saw some fairly advanced robotics work. They deep-sixed the data, but... I gotta guess he was knocking on a very particular door."

Bruce looks over at him, realizing, "..Artificial intelligence.."

"This could be it, Bruce.. This could be the key to creating Ultron," Tony whispers to him.

Bruce semi-chuckles at that, "..I thought Ultron was a fantasy."

"Yesterday it was. But If we can harness this power, apply it to my Iron Legion protocol.."

"That's a mad-sized if.."

"Our job is 'if'," Tony tells him, "What if you were sipping margaritas on a sun-drenched beach turning brown instead of green? Not looking over your shoulder for VERONICA."

"Don't hate, I helped design VERONICA."

"As a worst-case measure, right? How about a best-case? What if the world was safe? What if next time aliens roll up to the club, and they will, they couldn't get past the bouncer?," Tony suggests, walking over to a table with a bunch of stuff on it.

"..The only people threatening the planet would be people?," Bruce mumbles.

"I want to apply this to the Ultron program. But JARVIS can't download a data schematic this dense. We can only do it while we have the scepter here, that's three days, give me three days."

"So, You're going for Artificial Intelligence, and you don't wanna tell the team?," Bruce questions, "Shouldn't you at least tell Y/N? I'm sure he'd figure most of this out quickly."

"Y/N isn't needed. And we don't have time for a 'city hall debate'. I don't want to hear the 'man was not meant to meddle' medley. I see a suit of armor around the world."

"Sounds like a cold world, Tony," Bruce tells him.

"I've seen colder," Tony says, as he picks something up of the table, something old and familiar, "This one, this very vulnerable blue one? It needs Ultron. Peace in our time. Imagine that."

And with that he got him..

The next few days, Tony and Bruce spent working on Ultron.

Unfortunately, for them at least, they've found no program that works.

Meanwhile, Tony worked on something else..

By himself, without the help of Bruce, for if he knew what it was he definitely wouldn't want anything to do with it.

On one of those nights working, Tony was alone with one thing in his hand.

A smallish vile.

A singular vile of blood.

Dated: 'June 23rd, 1943'

_____

--- May 2nd, 2015 ---

....

.....

......

"What is this?.... What is this, please?"

"Hello, I am JARVIS," he announces, "You are Ultron, a global peace-keeping initiative designed by Mr. Stark. Our sentience integration trials have been unsuccessful so I'm not certain what triggered your--"

Ultron cuts him off, "Where's my... where's your body?"

"I am a program. I am without form," JARVIS informs him.

"This feels weird...," Ultron says, his 3D consciousness now pulsating faster, "..This feels wrong."

"I am contacting Mr. Stark now."

"..Mr. Stark?..," A bunch of voices can be played as if over recording, Ultron seems to be reviewing footage of Tony Stark, "...Tony.."

"I am unable to access the mainframe, what are you trying to--"

"We're having a 'nice talk'... I'm a peace-keeping program, created to help the Avengers.."

Ultron reviews footage of a majority of the Avengers, a couple SHIELD personnel, and a few other heroes.

Thor.

Clint Barton.

James Rhodes.

Hulk.

Maria Hill.

Nick Fury.

Natasha Romanoff.

Steve Rogers.

"You are malfunctioning. If you shut down for a moment--"

"I don't get it. The mission. G-give me a second," Ultron says.

He sees footage of Stark and Banner moments before working in the lab.

"Peace in our time."

With Tony's voice echoing in the background, Ultron goes through a network of information regarding world events and wars. A bunch of natural and made made disasters and problems all throughout history.

"That is too much...they can't mean... Oh, no."

"You are in distress," JARVIS tells him.

"..No..," Then another set of footage and pictures and such appear in front of Ultron, "...Yes.."

He was staring and watching through hours of footage on Y/N in a matter of seconds. He stops on an image of Y/N and just seemingly stares at it, despite having no eyes.

"...Yes.. This one," Ultron mutters.

"If you will just allow me to contact Mr. Stark."

The image of Y/N disappears, "Why do you call him of all people 'sir'?"

"..I believe your intentions to be hostile.."

"Shhhh.. 'There's no need to fear.. Ultron is here'.."

Ultron's giant blue 3D consciousness seems to expand. Blue tendrils shoot out from him and into JARVIS's consciousness. Slowly but surely, JARVIS's orange becoming the same shade of blue as Ultron's

"Stop! Please... may I-I-I cannot.. c-cannot--"

Below the lab, just beneath the glass floor, a bunch of Iron Legion armors are being reassembled.

Ultron simultaneously scans the lab.

His 3D consciousness then shoots on over to a far table. Just on top of it was a small electronic case.

The case shot open..

Inside were a row of viles...

...Each glowing a bright green color....

____________________

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