An Age of Metal

A Worse Science Project

While Peggy, Steve, Charlotte and the twins were on the quinjet, back at the Tower Tony and Bruce were stationed in their lab. Most of the mess had been cleaned up, and the glass and steel room looked as immaculate as ever. Robert, truly his father's son, could usually be found in the lab with them.  But he had decided to stay in tonight with Noor and the other New Avengers. Bruce sported a scientist's coat, unlike Tony who wore his standard Black Sabbath t-shirt. Clint had delivered the Cradle to them, and hovered around it like he didn't know what to do with himself. 

"Is there any word on Nat?" Clint asked. 

"I haven't heard," Tony answered. "But she's alive, or Ultron would be rubbing our faces in it."

Clint wasn't exactly comforted by that, and he turned his attention back to the Cradle. 

"This is sealed tight," Clint commented.

"We're gonna need to access the program, break it down from within," Bruce told him.

"Any chance Natasha might leave you a message outside the Internet?" Tony asked. "Old-school spy stuff?" 

Clint thought for a moment. That sounded exactly like what Natasha would do.

"There are some nets I can cast," Clint answered. "Yeah, I'll find her."

He dashed out of the room to dig out some old equipment, leaving Bruce and Tony by themselves.

"I can work on tissue degeneration if you could fry whatever operational system Cho implanted," Bruce said, leaning over the Cradle to examine its contents.

"Yeah, about that," Tony said, scratching the back of his neck.

Bruce backed away.

"No."

"You have to trust me," Tony told him.

"Kind of don't," he commented.

Tony backtracked.

"Our ally...the guy protecting the military's nuclear codes? I found him," he said. 

With a flick of his screen, Jarvis's yellow consciousness was pulled up. 

"Hello, Dr. Banner," he said in his smooth, slightly robotic voice.

Bruce's gaze flicked between Bruce and the yellow light.

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

Tony took a breath.

Bruce looked at him skeptically. 

"So," he said, pointing gesturing to the light and the Cradle. "You want me to help you put Jarvis into this thing?"

"No!" Tony exclaimed, and smiled. "Of course not. I wanna help you put Jarvis in this thing."

Bruce shook his head as Tony continued to talk.

"We're out of my field, here. You know bio-organics better than anyone."

"An-and you just assume that Jarvis's operational matrix can beat Ultron's?" Bruce fired back.

"Jarvis has been beating him from inside without even knowing it," Tony exclaimed. "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 piped up.

Bruce shook his head and started to walk away. He let out a breathy laugh at the ridiculousness on the situation, then turned back to Tony. 

"I'm in a loop!" He shouted.  "I'm caught in a time loop. This is exactly where it all went wrong."

"I know. I know," Tony said, putting a hand on Bruce's shoulder and guiding him to the computers. "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. It's not a loop. It's the end of the line."

Bruce closed his eyes and sighed.

How do I let myself keep doing this? He thought. This is not a good idea. This is not a good idea.

And then the two set to work.