Project Ultron

Five.exe

The ice had helped a little with the swallowing, but my eye was still going through different ranges of colors. Red, green, and purple were the ones it had chosen for us today. I was more colorful than Brooklyn on Pride weekend.

I spent the morning alone, and I finally finished reading all of the code. The few questions I had, I asked JARVIS, and, to my surprise, it was able to answer me with a lot of detail. It was amazing how big JARVIS was. It was everywhere. According to Stark, it even controlled a big part of the company. I suspected Stark also used it for his Iron Man suit. It was the perfect sidekick for anything he had to do.

During the day, I talked more and more to it. I wanted to see how broad its vocabulary and answer repertoire was. It gave more conversation than all the boys I had ever talked to put together. It became clear that it wasn't just a finite database. It learned and evolved. With each passing second, it became smarter. Of course, it had its limitations, but it was a pretty amazing AI.

I was re-reading some of my notes when Stark came into the lab. As always, he was absent-minded, reading something on a tablet. He went straight to one of his computers and started typing. I sat there, very self-aware of my eye and amazed that he hadn't noticed.

"Jarvis told me about your little request," he said.

"And?" I asked.

"I allowed it. I'm curious about that drive too," he told me, "Turns out you've been pronouncing it wrong all along. I blame our schools. Dietrich. It's German. It means key or code breaker. It's HYDRA's."

"What?"

The thought of it being HYDRA's hadn't even crossed my mind. My chest tightened. HYDRA had been destroyed, but it hadn't completely disappeared. What if someone else knew of the drive and came looking for it?

"Yeah. Where did you say you got it from?" he asked.

"I found it on the bus three years ago," I said, remembering very clearly how weird I thought the drive was when I first saw it. I had taken it without giving it much thought, planning on taking it apart and play with the little board, but then I tried it back at home. I was shocked when I realized what it could do. "It was under a seat."

Someone from HYDRA must have left it there for another agent to pick up. They must have been pretty surprised when they didn't found it.

Stark hummed frowning, still typing something.

"I finished reading," I informed him.

"Good," he said without stopping.

"What do I do now?" I pressed.

"You're going to help me retire."

I frowned.

"You saw how Jarvis controls the Iron Legion?" he said and I hummed in response. "And I control Jarvis."

"Yeah.".

"I want to erase myself from the equation," he said, "How do you suppose we can-" He stopped the second he unglued his eyes from the screen and saw me.

"Uh... What happened there?" he asked.

I quickly shuffled the many comebacks I came up with.

"I messed up with the eyeliner," I said, looking at him dead in the eye.

"You got in a fight?" he said surprised.

"It wasn't a fight," I mumbled, "It was boxing training, and I was the bag."

"Does it hurt?" he asked. He sounded genuinely concerned.

"Only all the time," I joked and shrugged it off. "I know how to take a punch."