Ch36. New project

Two weeks passed since Natasha's freakout and Tony was glad she took it so well. He really did not see the similarities between the creation of Ultron and what he did with JARVIS and FRIDAY but... meh, women.

Of course, it took a few evenings of talking and explaining in dumbed-down version what he knew about Artifacts to her while she sipped on whiskey but they got through this crisis relatively fine.

Becoming Artifacts had profound effects on JARVIS and FRIDAY, and that was mostly why Tony decided to go through with turning them into ones.

For starters, it was not JARVIS's and FRIDAY's servers that were made into an Artifact but their very selves. They became something akin to pseudo-'spiritual' beings capable of existing without physical form.

Hence the entire shtick with pulling JARVIS out of rock.

The rock was not really JARVIS. JARVIS only stored a bit of 'himself' into that rock, or rather, imbuing his energy into it, which gave him a connection to the material world through said rock.

It was the same with his servers. JARVIS and FRIDAY could connect himself to his servers, becoming fully capable of acting like A.I. despite not being A.I. anymore. Through their servers, they could simply connect to the digital world.

The biggest plus of this was that 'distance' was a relative term on their plane of existence.

For example, and Tony totally intended to exploit the shit out of this, if JARVIS had servers on Jupiter and servers on Earth, they could, through JARVIS's mystical energy, communicate with each other without delay.

If the servers on Earth were destroyed, JARVIS would not be harmed either. After all, he no longer 'resided' in those servers. They were just a link for him. At most he would be forced to retreat to the servers somewhere else or an object he was bound to like the rock in Tony's possession.

Well, this was also a limitation in its own right since JARVIS could only materialize himself for a few seconds from the rock. The object that served as his link mattered as it determined how he could affect the world through it.

JARVIS nor FRIDAY were able to form these links by themself, however. That was the biggest drawback. If all their links were destroyed, they would be done for, capable of existing only on their own plane of existence where there were only the two of them, never to be able to get into the material world again.

Well, the world was a big place so maybe they would find a way eventually but still...

And that's where their bond to Tony as their wielder became relevant. Since they were his Artifacts, they had a connection to him that would not be destroyed until his death. Hence, Tony was their 'hub', so to speak.

In Tony's past, JARVIS could control many suits from the Iron Legion series but he did so crudely. As much as his speech patterns begged to differ, JARVIS was not a human. He had a hard time doing complex independent actions without being told what to do. He was an A.I. A computer system. Meaning, he was designed to take input and give output.

Controlling a suit and making it fight efficiently was a bit above his paygrade.

Granted, it was still useful for swarming tactics but...

The current JARVIS and FRIDAY could 'evolve' however. They could learn and improve themselves further and faster than their previous digital selves would allow them. Tony was quite sure they would learn how to substitute a human user after some practice.

Plus, making the armors their links to the material world would also have its own effect.

So, neither JARVIS nor FRIDAY were in essence offensive nor defensive Artifacts. They were something entirely new.

Tony's own loyal Skynet...

Tony wondered if he should make a liquid metal capable of forming into a humanoid next.

...

For the following month, Tony was focused on his project, not doing anything else. At most, he hopped into Kamar Taj for more reading material about Alchemy and Artificing but other than that, he completely halted everything else.

When the month finally passed, Tony distantly remembered that in his past, it was around this time the gala in his name to which he was not invited happened but... no Obadiah, no gala. It was a good thing too. Tony could do without Pepper trying to make him attend an event organized for him without him and even without his consent.

'Meh, socializing is for losers anyway...' Tony snidely thought and looked at his most recently developed golem with a satisfied grin, 'Right, Mark Thirty-seven.'

Alas, Tony was done... playing with his metal dolls, as Natasha dubbed it in her ignorance and incapability to understand the finer things in life.

Mark Thirty-seven was the last golem Tony would make. Tony wistfully admitted that this month was a nice return to his starting days but he had more important things to do than make droids all day.

It was never his intention to make them by himself anyway. He has just gotten carried away after making tenth and... yeah, it snowballed from there. Somehow.

Tony was sure it was not his fault but he didn't yet find anyone he could blame for it so...

"J, I have the last one prepared for you, buddy. How is the project Colonisation going?" Tony asked.

"Everything is prepared, Sir. These last few days were very fruitful." JARVIS answered with a hint of smug satisfaction.

Tony decided not to comment on that. The guy deserved it. Setting his plans into motion and pushing them into this stage in under a month was nothing short of incredible.

There was just one slight problem...

"I see. How much did it all cost?" Tony asked, hiding an instinctive wince.

He would have never asked such a thing in his past but after Thanos Tony learned to appreciate money. Spending it more than he was making it and never having enough for all his projects might have had something to do with it.

Stark Industries was already making money back and rising under Peppers management and the new patents were doing wonders for its income but Tony's wealth still wasn't fully recovered from buying out Stark Industries shares. Having another massive expenditure so soon was unhealthy for his bank account.

Naturally, Tony could do a few purchases like this more but his ego was very hurt he dropped from the top ten richest men on the planet.

"You are again one point two billion poorer, Sir. The materials were quite costly, after all. I am sure FRIDAY will earn it back in post-haste. She is hard at work improving more patents for your company and playing with the stock market. I must say, it has been a marvelous opportunity to learn for her."

Hearing that, Tony felt sullen and decided to not spend much until his patents and company earn him his well-deserved place as the richest man in the world.

FRIDAY's new interest in stock trading was also making him quite the penny but he wasn't touching that. FRIDAY got a hundred million starting budget and she already earned ten million in the past two months. Funnily enough, that was supposed to be her learning phase.

Tony would leave that money to FRIDAY so she could play with the stock market more freely. Ten million or a hundred million... who really cared, right?

Not that he needed to spend more on this project. JARVIS should be fully self-sufficient by now. The billion was well-spent in that regard and will eventually save him billions worth of future expenses.

"Sir, may I recommend braggi-, ahem, showing off the facilities to Miss Romanoff? That will surely cheer you up." JARVIS spoke after noticing that Tony felt a bit down.

Naturally, that made Tony perk up. "You are right, J. No need to feel depressed over something as small as not being the best. Pfft. I am the best. Just because some ignorant people do not recognize that fact doesn't mean it is not the truth!" Tony humbly, in his opinion, declared and giddily grinned, "I wonder what kind of expression will Red have after seeing the fruits of our labor, J. Let's blow her mind again!"