Fade To Blue » Marvel |3|

Chapter 24 and 1/2. Robots Everywhere

April 20, 2024. 12:03 PM.

"Alright, Eliza. Lockdown protocols."

"Lockdown protocols have been active for the past week, remember?"

"Fair point," I shrug before walking up to the safe. I put my thumb on the scanner and watch as a thin blue bar runs over the screen. It flashes green before going blank. I widely open my right eye as the computer scans. The slight blue light flashes green before going blank. "Romanova, Alina N." I say and the safe opens to reveal a case that holds six stones that are set in a foam block. I close the case and bring it to the lab. I'm going to figure out how to use these against the Red Room.

"Alright, time to debut your new baby brother. Eliza, I'd like you to meet JARVIS Jr."

"A pleasure to finally meet you." JARVIS Jr. says.

"Because, after all, he's Just Another Rather Very Intelligent System." I smirk slightly. "JARVIS Jr. is the lab's AI. Over the next few hours, I'll be introducing you to various AIs, designed specifically for individual occurrences." We pass by a partially assembled, yet fully programmed Hadley, a purple BB unit.

"Who's this?" Eliza asks.

"That's Hadley. No acronym, she's just Hadley. She's in the middle of phase three and programmed for... what is it? Where did I put my notebook?" I sigh as I go through the storage cabinet next to my desk. "Aha!" I exclaim upon finding my notebook. I search through the various names and find exactly the one I'm looking for. "Hadley here is programmed to help me out here in the lab when I need an extra pair of hands. JJ is programmed to help with equations and the like. Over in the storage room that's off of the hallway close to the elevator, we have Reyna, an R2 unit to help keep everything clean, but we're gonna focus on the ones that are in the actual apartment."

"When did you make these?" Eliza asks.

"Oh, I started to design JJ around two weeks ago. Hadley finished phase two yesterday, she'll go through three and four tonight, and Reyna was built yesterday, phases one through four."

"What are the phases?"

"May I?" JJ asks.

"Go ahead."

"The four stages of Miss Romanoff-"

"JJ, my name is Alina, I'm your creator, not your overlord. I try to give you guys as much free will and personality as I can."

"I apologize, Alina. The four stages of Alina's plan are phase one: concept, astromech make and model, and naming, phase two: programming, three: assembly, and four: test drives and final tweaks." JARVIS Jr. says.

"Whoa." Liza says. "And this is relatively new?"

"It's a project I've been working on in my spare time." I shrug.

"And by spare time, you mean when you're supposed to be sleeping."

"Maybe." I say nervously as I lie so obviously and so horribly that even the most gullible person would know I'm lying.

"It's ok, but consider having me around to remind you to go to sleep."

"But you need to recharge, remember? You might not sleep sleep, but you shut down and charge for the night. I don't want you to end up half charged for an important development."

"Fine. JARVIS Jr, shut down the lab after Alina has been awake for twenty four hours. I don't want to have to do this, but you can't live off of coffee forever."

"Fine, mom, I'll go take a nap." I sigh as I trudge to my room. I slowly drag my feet, clad in the fuzziest of fuzzy socks, across the hardwood floor. I slowly walk to my room, slouching a bit and overall looking like a puppy who was just denied bacon.

"Not your mom, I'm your awesome big sister."

"Yeah, yeah... Loki never made me take a nap." I sigh.

"Go to sleep or I'll lock you out of the lab."

"You turn into Ultron and I'll kick you out."

"Glad we're on the same page, now sleep child, you need sleep."

"I am not a child! I am a mature eighteen year old!"

"Take a nap."

"Yeah, you're the one who keeps talking to me!"

"You're annoying." Eliza sighs.

"I love you too!" I exclaim as I disappear into my disaster of a room.