『ᴀʀᴄʜᴀɴɢᴇʟ || ᴀ ᴍᴀʀᴠᴇʟ ꜰᴀɴꜰɪᴄᴛɪᴏɴ

Ch. 42: Jarvis

"Anything on Nicole?" Bruce asked, looking at Tony from where he walked in. The scientist looked nervous for the winged hero, scratching his arm.

Tony walked past him to where Clint and Nat were. The Cradle was right beside them, and Tony sighed, "I haven't heard. But she's alive, or Ultron would be rubbing our faces in it."

Clint hopped off the Cradle, looking it over before looking at the two other men in the room, "This is sealed tight."

"We're gonna need to access the program, and break it down from within," Bruce explained, smacking the glass on the Cradle as he looked down at the half-formed figure within it.

"Any chance Nicole might leave either of you a message outside the Internet? Old-school spy stuff?" Tony asked, looking at Clint and Natasha.

Clint had his hands on his hips, shrugging slightly, "There are some nets I can cast. Yeah, I'll find her."

Natasha looked at Clint's figure as he walked away, before looking back at the billionaire, "She might, but she wasn't as old-school as we are. She might've not been able to give us any hints on where she is."

Tony nodded slowly, watching as Natasha followed after Clint. He rubbed a hand over his face as he sighed, glancing to Bruce. The scientist had started talking, "I can work on tissue degeneration if you could fry whatever operational system Cho implanted."

"Yeah, about that," Tony responded, rubbing the back of his head.

Bruce looked at him oddly, before widening his eyes, shaking his head, "No."

"You have to trust me," Tony tried to reason.

"Kind of don't."

"Our ally, the guy protecting the military's nuclear codes, I found him," Tony smiled slightly, flicking a device and creating a hologram to appear.

A familiar, A.I. voice picked up from the hologram, currents rippling as it spoke, "Hello, Dr. Banner."

"Ultron didn't go after Jarvis because he was angry. He attacked him because he was scared of what he can do," Tony explained, "So Jarvis went underground. Scattered, dumped his memory. But not his protocols. He didn't even know he was in there until I pieced him together."

"So, you want me to help you put Jarvis into this thing?" Bruce asked, pointing at the half-finished body inside of the Cradle.

"No! Of course not. I wanna help you put Jarvis in this thing."

Bruce shook his head slightly, shocked and in disbelief that Tony was suggesting such an idea. In the doctor's mind, it was confusing. Why would Tony want to recreate the same thing that started this whole mess in the first place?

The same thing that hurt Helen Cho? The same thing that took Nicole, their teammate? Their friend?

"We're out of my field, here," Tony added, leaning closer towards Bruce, "You know bio-organics better than anyone."

"And you just assume that Jarvis's operational matrix can beat Ultron's?" Bruce asked, staring at Tony through his glasses.

"Jarvis has been beating him from inside without knowing it. This is the opportunity. We can create Ultron's perfect self without the homicidal glitches he thinks are his winning personality. We have to."

"I believe it's worth a go," Jarvis spoke.

Bruce shook his head, "I'm in a loop! I'm caught in a time loop! This is exactly where it all went wrong!"

"I know. I know. I know what everyone's gonna say. But they're already saying it. We're mad scientists. We're monsters, buddy. We've gotta own it. Make a stand."