His Oracle

Chapter 13 - JARVIS

Natasha POV

We're all on the plane ride home absolutely exhausted of everything just happened. I look over to Bruce. "The lullaby worked better than ever." He takes his headphones off and looks over at me. "Just wasn't expecting a code green." I smile. "If you hadn't been there, there would've been double the casualties. My best friend would've been a treasured memory." He looks out the window and back at me. "You know, sometimes exactly what I want to hear isn't exactly what I want to hear." He slightly smirks. "How long before you trust me?" I smile. "It's not you I don't trust." I look at him confused. "Thor report on Hulk." I look over at Thor.

"The gates of Hela are filled with the screams of his victims." I glare at Thor and Bruce groans. "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." I roll my eyes. "Hey Bruce, Dr. Cho is on her way in from Seoul, is it okay if she sets up in your lab?" Tony asks Bruce. "Uh, yeah, she knows her way around. "Thanks" Tony says and talks to Jarvis. "Tell her to prep everything, Barton's gonna need the full treatment." Jarvis replies. "Very good sir." Tony says something to Jarvis and gets back up. "It feels good, yeah? I mean, you've been after this thing since SHIELD collapsed. Not that I haven't enjoyed our little raiding parties, but..." Tony, Thor, and Steve all look at the scepter. "No, but this... this brings it to a close." Thor replies. "As soon as we find out what else this has been used for. I don't just mean weapons. Since when is Strucker capable of human enhancement?" Steve asks. "Banner and I'll give it the once before it goes back to Asgard. Is that cool with you?" Tony asks and Thor nods. "I mean, just a few days until the farewell party. You're staying right?" Tony asks. "Yes, yes, of course. A victory should be honored with revels." Thor replies. "Yeah. Who doesn't love revels. Captain?" Tony looks to Steve. "Hopefully this puts an end to the Chitauri and HYDRA, so. Yes, revels." Steve smiles.

End of POV

As the plane lands they all head inside and they rush Clint to Dr.Cho so he can be all fixed up. Natalia leaves to get cleaned up and everyone heads to the lab. Nat, Steve, Natalia, and Tony meet up in the lab when Maria comes in with news. "Labs all set up, boss." Maria looks at Tony. "Uh, actually, he's the boss. I just pay for everything, and design everything and make everyone look cooler." Tony points at Steve. "What's the word on Strucker?" Steve asks Maria. "Natos got him." Maria replies. "What about the two enhanced?" Natalia asks. "Wanda and Pietro Maximoff. Twins. 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." Maria says. "What about their abilities?" Natalia asks. "He's got increased metabolism and improved thermal homeostasis. Her thing is neural electric interfacing, telekinesis, mental manipulation." Steve gives her a funny look. "Dad it means he's fast and she's weird." Natalia's says to Steve. "Well, they're going to show up again." Maria nods. "Right. What kind of monster would let a German scientist experiment on them to protect their country?"Steve asks and walks around. "We're not at war, Captain." Marias says. "They are." Steve replies. They all leave and Natasha and Tony leave to the lab to check on Clint.

"How's he doing?" Bruce asks Dr. Cho. "Oh, unfortunately, he's still Barton." Tony walks in. "That's terrible." Bruce smiles. "He's fine. He's thirsty." Tony leaves to the other lab.

Tony walks over to Jarvis. "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." Tony says. "The scepter is alien. There are elements I can't quantify." Jarvis replies. "So there's elements you can." Tony says. "The jewel appears to be a protective housing for something inside. Something powerful." Jarvis replies. "Like a reactor?" Tony asks. "Like a computer. I believe I'm deciphering code." Jarvis replies.

"You sure he's going to be okay? Pretending to need this guy really brings the team together." Nat looks at Clint. "There's no possibility of deterioration. The nano-molecular functionality is instantaneous. His cells don't know they're bonding with simulacrum." Dr. Cho says to Nat. Nat looks at Bruce. "She's creating tissue." Bruce says to Nat. "If you brought him to my lab, the regeneration Cradle could do this in twenty minutes." Dr. Cho says. "Oh, he's flatlining. Call it. Time?" Tony walks back in. "No, no, no. I'm going to live forever. I'm gonna be made of plastic." Clint laughs. "Here's your beverage." Tony hands Clint a drink. "You'll be made of you, Mr. Barton. Your own girlfriend won't be able to tell the difference." Clint laughs. "Well, I don't have a girlfriend." He says. "That I can't fix. This is the next thing, Tony. Your clunky metal suits are going to be left in the dust." Dr. Cho smiles at Tony. "Well, that is exactly the plan. And Helen, I expect to see you at the party on Saturday." Tony says to Dr. Cho. "Unlike you, I don't have a lot of time for parties." She looks as if she was going to say something and then doesn't. "Will Thor be there?" She finally asks and they laugh. Tony leaves back to the lab and Bruce follows.

Bruce enters the lab after Tony. "What's the rumpus?" Bruce asks Tony. "Well, the scepter. You see, we were wondering how Strucker got so inventive. So, I've been analyzing the gem inside-- You may recognize," He pulls up a 3D image of Jarvis. "Jarvis." Bruce says. "Doctor." Jarvis replies. "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 states. "Oh?" Bruce looks at Tony. "Top of the line." Tony looks back at Bruce. "Yes." Bruce nods. "I suspect not for long?" Jarvis says to Tony. "Meet the competition." He pulls up a another 3D image of what's in the scepter. "It's beautiful." Bruce says looking at the image. "If you had to guess, what's it look like it's doing?" Tony asks Bruce. "Like it's thinking. I mean this could be a... it's not a human mind, it..." Bruce says. "Mmh." Tony nods. "I mean, look at this! They're like neurons firing." Bruce gets excited. "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." Tony says. "Artificial Intelligence." Bruce replies. "This could be it, Bruce. This could be the key to creating Ultron." Bruce looks at Tony quizzical. "I thought Ultron was a fantasy." Bruce asks. "Yesterday it was. If we can harness this power, apply it to my Iron Legion protocol." Tony says. "That's a mad-sized if." Bruce looks at Tony. "Our job is "if." What if you were sipping margaritas on a sun-drenched beach turning brown instead of green? Not looking over your shoulder for VERONICA." Tony replies. "Don't hate, I helped design VERONICA." Bruce looks at Tony and back at Ultron. "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 states. "The only people threatening the planet would be people?" Bruce thinks for a minute. "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." Tony pleads with Bruce. "So you're going for artificial intelligence and you don't want to tell the team." Bruce says to Tony. "Right. That's right, you know why, because 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." Tony makes a gesture with his hands. "Sounds like a cold world, Tony." Bruce looks at Tony with a nervous look. "I've seen colder. This one, this very vulnerable blue one? It needs Ultron. Peace in our time. Imagine that." Tony hits bruce with that line and the next they spend 2 days in the lab trying to figure this out. "What did we miss?" Tony asks. "I'll continue to run variations on the interface, but you should probably prepare for your guests. I'll notify you if there are any developments." Jarvis replies. "Thanks, buddy." Tony's says to Jarvis. "Enjoy yourself, sir." Jarvis replies. "I always do." Tony replies and leaves for the party.

To be continued...