An Age of Metal

A Bad Science Project

Charlotte had retreated into the New Avenger's section of the tower. Well, it was really it's own floor. Tony had let them had free reign over the place, and it was pretty amazing. There was a common room with comfy furniture and a great flat screen. 

Down the hall was a training room where the team would go five days a week, to practice their powers or skills or academics.  

A small lab was used primarily by Robert and Charlotte. But Annabeth and Leo were in there a lot too. 

One hallway held all of the girl's rooms, the other held all of the boys. 

The entire place had wide windows with beautiful views of the city. 

Charlotte, of course, wasn't paying attention to any of that. She was sat in front of the computer screen, looking up everything she could find about Strucker, HYDRA, and the Maximoff twins. She was determined, and when that happened she basically shut off from the rest of the world. She didn't hear Annabeth explain the value of architecture and design to Percy. She didn't see Jason and Thalia camped out on the ceiling (they could fly, after all) with Piper and Reyna yelling at them to come down. She didn't hear Nico scold Leo about trying to make toast by setting his hands on fire and holding it. Even Hazel and Frank's race (Hazel was in the form of a cheetah) went unnoticed. 

She wasn't bothered at all, until Noor sat next to her.

"Hey." Noor said.

"Hello."

"How'd the mission go?"

"Great. Clint got hurt, but he'll be okay. We got the scepter."

"Great!" Noor perked up and smiled.

"Mhmm."

"I'm getting the feeling you aren't invested in this conversation."

"Then you would be correct."

"Charlotte!"

"What? I'm doing research on the punks who knocked me down."

"So what? Who am I supposed to talk to?"

"Robert."

"Robert is testing out a new suit design."

"The younger kids, then."

"They're all busy."

"Really? And Robert can't be with you?"

"Yes, he's in full Iron Warrior mode, it's pretty cool."

"Your boyfriend is a nerd."

"Yeah but he's my nerd."

"Ew."

"You're just jealous because you're not dating anyone."

"No I'm not."

"Well, you've been staring at that picture of the enhanced guy you ran into for the past ten minutes. You sure you don't have a crush?"

"First off, he ran into me. Second, no, I do not have a crush on the enemy, Noor. I don't like him."

"Whatever you say, Charlotte."

"I'm going to my room."

"Your ship name could be Zippy and Zappy!"

"Shut up, Noor!" Charlotte warned, walking off.

.-.-.-.-.-. 

 Tony had called Bruce back into the lab. Apparently, there had been "a development." (In both of the men's cases, new developments were hardly ever a good thing.)

"What's the rumpus?" Bruce asked.

Tony started to explain. "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 pulled up a three-dimensional hologram. It was blue, and pulsing. Not unlike a vaguely shaped brain. "Jarvis."

Tony continued. "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."

"Oh." Said Bruce, a bit impressed but not sure where Tony was going with this.

"Top of the line." Tony added.

"Yes." 

"I suspect not for long." Jarvis stated.

"Meet the competition." Tony said. He pulled up another 3D image of what was inside the scepter. This hologram was larger, and a bit more detailed.

"It's beautiful." Bruce said.

"If you had to guess, what's it look like it's doing?" Tony asked him.

"Like it's thinking. I mean, this could be... It's not a human mind...its...I mean, look at this."

Bruce gestured to the moving particles of the image.

"They're like neurons firing."

"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 alluded.

"Artificial intelligence." Bruce realized.

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

"I thought Ultron was a fantasy." Bruce spoke.

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

"That's a man-sized "if.", 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 shoulderfor Veronica." Tony tried to persuade Bruce.

"Don't hate. I helped design Veronica." Bruce argued.

"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?"

"The only people threatening the planet would be people."

"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 begged. 

"So you're going for artificial intelligence, and you don't want to tell the team?" Bruce asked, incredulous.

"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."

"Sounds like a cold world, Tony."

"I've seen colder. This one, this very vulnerable blue one, it needs Ultron. Peace in our time. Imagine that."

.-.-.-.-.

Days passed. Bruce and Tony spent hours pouring over experiments, but no program worked with the system.

"What did we miss?" Tony asked, mostly to himself.

"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 said.

"Thanks, buddy." 

"Enjoy yourself, sir." 

"I always do."

Tony turned off the lights and walked out. What he didn't see was one of his failed experiments successfully integrate itself into the program.