Gunpowder and Satin ; BW

3.2

TONYS POV

I brought up a 3D image of Jarvis's consciousness just as Banner walked into the spacious lab.

"Jarvis." Banner greeted.

"Doctor."

"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." I smiled.

"Oh" Banner hummed, giving me a confusing look.

"Top of the line."

"Yes." He nodded.

"I suspect not for long."

"Meet the competition." I said, bringing up another 3D image of what I found inside the scepter last night.

"It's beautiful." Banner gasped in awe.

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

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

"Artificial intelligence." He concluded.

"This could be it, Bruce. This could be the key to creating Ultron." I gripped his biceps.

"I thought Ultron was a fantasy." He chuckled breathlessly.

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

He gulped, "That's a mad-sized if."

"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."

Bruce pushed my hands off his arms, "Don't hate, I helped design VERONICA."

"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." I begged.

"So you're going for artificial intelligence and you don't want to tell the team." Banner asked, raising his bushy eyebrows at me.

I nodded, comfortable with my decision, "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."

Bruce sighed heavily, "Sounds like a cold world, Tony."

I pressed my lips into a thin line, releasing a sigh of my own, "I've seen colder. This one, this very vulnerable blue one? It needs Ultron. Peace in our time. Imagine that."

YOUR POV

"Tony's party started, why aren't you dressed?" Nat asked, slinking her arms around me from behind, placing a light kiss between my covered shoulder blades.

I licked my lips, continuing to gaze out in over the city of New York, the breeze softly blowing through my hair.

"I wasn't lying when I said parties weren't my thing." I turned around in her arms, "I don't feel like partying."