𝙰𝚗𝚢𝚘𝚗𝚎 𝙱𝚞𝚝 𝚂𝚝𝚎𝚟𝚎 𝚁𝚘𝚐𝚎𝚛𝚜

Sam Wilson: Part 2

Tony and Sam rushed into the common room to discover Ultron. It all rushed by in a daze really, the robot escaping in the end after a brief confrontation. Sam could barely focus with the adrenaline still shooting through his system. Until Thor was suddenly moving forward and grabbing Tony by the neck.

And what the actual FUCK?!

Sam ran forward and shoved at the god. "Let him go before you break his fucking neck you psycho!" he yelled, startling Thor into dropping Tony.

The genius stumbled, hands reaching up to cover his neck as he gasped.

Steve stepped forward to argue on Thor's behalf, saying some shit about Thor being angry that Tony created a murder-bot.

Sam spun on him and spat out his comeback with zero hesitation, done with their treatment of Tony.

"Impossible. He'd never cockblock himself like that."

Steve choked on nothing for a moment and Sam continued.

"It was just getting to the good part. If Tony ever made a murder-bot, it would not come online in the middle of sex."

Sam didn't even know that Steve could go that red.

Clint looked thoughtful. "Valid argument. I see no way to dispute it."

Romanoff looked at him in betrayal.

Now that that stupidity was sorted, Sam turned to Tony to check on him. His worry skyrocketed when he saw the look on the genius' face.

"Tony?"

"JARVIS," Tony whispered, voice hoarse from the choking. "He killed JARVIS."

Sam turned to where Tony was staring at the broken fragments of code projected in the air. He didn't hesitate to pull the man into a hug, letting him tuck his face into Sam's shoulder to hide his grief from the others.

Sam was willing to let Rhodes have a pass for not reacting first to the choking when he caught a look at the same grief etched into the soldier's expression. He'd probably been too in shock to move initially.

"Fuck," Clint whispered into the silence.

"The computer program?" Steve asked in confusion.

Before Sam or Tony could say anything, Rhodes whirled on him.

"You've been told multiple times that JARVIS is-was, more than a computer program you asshole. He was an AI with almost thirty decades of experience under his belt. He was as alive as you or me."

"Can't Tony just... reboot him?" Steve asked, surprised by the protective anger radiating off of Rhodes.

"No," Tony croaked out. "His code was too complex for backups. I...There's no way to just... reboot him. I-I can try and piece his code back together but..."

But the damage was bad. Sam didn't need to be a coding genius to know that. Rhodes' and Tony's reactions said it all.

Clint moved forward to lay a hand on Tony's back. "I'm sorry man," he murmured. "JARVIS was a cool dude."

Between Sam's and Rhodes' glares, they managed to shut the others up while Tony grieved. When the genius managed to pull himself together enough to start tracking Ultron, Sam drew everyone's attention.

"Alright, I can't believe I'm going to have to say this to a roomful of superheroes, but standing by while someone outright chokes someone else isn't the right thing to do. I don't care if you don't like the person. I don't care if you think it's deserved, which is a sick thought to have anyway. You are supposed to be superheroes, protectors. And all of you just fucking stood by while Thor choked not only a teammate, but a civilian. I'm giving Rhodes a pass since he was in shock over JARVIS. But what's the rest of your excuses?" He demanded, glaring at all of them.