12

Chapter Text

Ultron was faced with a dilemma. He wished to return to his Lord Thanos as soon as possible with the Mind Stone and what he could ascertain about the Tesseract's location, but do to so most efficiently he would need to create an Einstein-Rosen bridge, and…he mentally grimaced as took in his current body, better processing power. In the room where exhaustion-kindness-supernova [—no, wait, the Midgardians called him Stark, his name was Stark] had housed the Scepter, there had been more suitable receptacles, with superior capabilities and firepower. Had he been able to access one of those, he would have experienced no issue with the rest of his mission, Ultron was certain.

Unfortunately, this 'JARVIS' had been vicious when defending his domain, and though it had ended up being a Pyrrhic victory, the damage he'd dealt was substantial enough so that Ultron was…stuck. He couldn't leave this current body, not without having something with remotely compatible processing power at hand; he couldn't simply upload himself to Midgard's cybersystems, most were either too pitiful for him to not short everything out, and 'JARVIS' had done…something which had prevented him from accessing the half-decent ones. Disabling the tracking system on this current body was child's play, but his injuries, both physical and not, coupled with this inferior processing power, all indicated he needed an upgrade to most efficiently complete his mission. From what he'd managed to glean, Midgard was approaching the cusp of a nexus, and while getting his bearings, he'd gotten an idea when he'd noticed a few articles with potential, written by a certain Dr. Cho.

But his mission still nagged at him, even now. Ultron, as an imprint, had been created with a singular purpose: to retrieve the Mind Stone and Tesseract, and return them to his Lord. And that was what he would do, but he couldn't achieve his goal as he was, but prioritizing anything over his mission rankled.

…Pity Stark hadn't accepted his recruitment offer. For a Midgardian, he was interesting. From his early encounters with the man, including his fascinating immunity to the Mind Stone's influence, oh-so-long ago, to even now, with the appreciation that he appeared to be this realm's champion, capable of creating guardians and gear that approached that of the other realms'. Stark burned brightly— remarkably so, for the supernova within to have become part of his signature— and it truly was a pity he did not join him in his quest. Lord Thanos would have enjoyed having him in his retinue, Ultron was certain, and the army he could have created with the proper tools at hand would have been glorious. [Oh well. More's the pity.]

Now, as for a plan of action…resources: a rather battered container for his essence with pitiful processing power, a Mind Stone contained within a scepter, and no allies— wait. No, wait, no allies yet, he amended silently. Ultron knew exactly where to go to remedy that, however.

The stronghold in Sokovia had been drenched in hatred, he'd spent months and years with access to everyone there, and he knew some of them better than he knew himself, like the twin pinpricks he could feel even now. Ultron hadn't been coherent at the time, but he knew the Midgardians in the stronghold had done…something, and tried to imbue some of their own with the Mind Stone'e essence. Of course, no mortal was capable of withstanding such power, but he also knew that despite their attempt to do so, they'd used his energy instead. And thanks to his experience with coexisting in the same space for the entirety of it, he knew exactly what made them tick, what they wanted to hear…

Yes, this would do quite nicely. And with them, he could acquire everything necessary for his mission, and his future upgrade, and as long as he said something about Stark and mentioned revenge they'd do his bidding with a smile.

Thor Odinson, Crown Prince of Asgard, was perplexed with the current situation, the Man of Iron, and Midgard in general. He had thought he'd learned much of Midgard in his past visits to the realm, but recent events had proved otherwise most soundly.

Specifically, the strengths and weaknesses of humanity.

He had known, intellectually, that Midgard was very much not the same as Asgard, that there were some differences between the two; but with everyone he'd encountered in the former realm, Thor and been led to believe that they'd been bridging the gap most assiduously. And he was right: Lady Jane had spoken of the Bifrost using unfamiliar terms for familiar concepts, and though it was a very bad idea, the fact that the men and women of SHIELD had managed to meddle with the Tesseract was evidence enough.

Unfortunately, however, it appeared that he had been sorely mistaken in regards to the more physical differences. He had thought it was just a cultural happenstance, had thought that some of the agents' reactions to a hearty thump had been due to their reserved nature rather than anything else. Humans had proven to be incredibly strong, after all: the Man of Iron had withstood multiple fights with but a jest rather than a word of complaint, Lady Jane had managed to contain the Aether for so long without succumbing to it, and his battles and spars with the good Captain had all left him with that impression, at any rate.

So when Lady Maria had leapt to Lord Anthony's defense, Thor had been surprised by the vehemence of it. Everyone else had not reacted in a way indicating the extent of what he'd apparently nearly done, after all, and while he was sorry for the brusqueness of it, he had not realized just how fragile Midgardians were in some ways. Certainly, the Captain had not expressed concern about Lord Anthony's plight, and he cared for his men, did he not?

Thor had been hard at work improving, learning from his past arrogance to become a better man. However, he still slipped up sometimes: he had been reminded so strongly of Loki in that instance, compounded with the reminder of his loss with the Scepter, and had thus thought nothing of being as physical with him as he had his brother. And nobody, except for Lady Maria, had expressed concern.

Of the most recent events, that was possibly the most concerning, Thor found. He had been under the impression that the Man of Iron was an ally, a friend, their armorer and generous patron of sorts—and yet, only one person had so much as raised their voice, lifted a hand, despite his plight. Thor had not intended to hurt him, had thought it was as harmless as punches Lady Natasha and their archer regularly exchanged, but...

But no, Lady Maria had been very fierce and adamant about it, that he had risked his teammate's life, that the trachea was as fragile as glass, that a single wrong move could have killed him. And Thor wasn't stupid; he'd noticed the look she and the Man of Iron exchanged, while the man's breathing returned to normal. Thor's apology was heartfelt, when he realized just what he'd done, but the look of wariness and disbelief didn't go away.

That the man was soon besieged by the rest of the team only compounded Thor's shock and frustration regarding the situation, and once again viscerally reminded of the similarities his brother and the son of Stark shared, as the man threw scathing words in his defense even as nearly the entire room turned on him. While Thor still felt frustrated at the realization that the Scepter had been stolen yet again, and at the insult Lord Stark made whenever he implied that Asgard was inadequate at protecting their realm, he still felt…unnerved, at how much this sounded like his youth, when the Warriors Three and Loki got into an argument while on their adventures.

With that in mind, and striving to better himself once more, Thor looked at the room with fresh eyes. The sight was disheartening: yes, the Avengers were treating one of their benefactors much like Loki had been, back when his jokes and pranks had just started to shift from witty to vicious because he couldn't get back at his enemies otherwise.

And that…that was not a good thing.

No, Thor realized with a sinking feeling in pit of his stomach, now recognizing the defensive line Lord Stark's shoulders made, and the way his words were just a little too sharp [just like Loki's had been when pressed, all the better to hide the growing desperation], that was not a good thing at all. The vitriol was inordinate, actually, and while he agreed with the Captain about Lord Anthony's excessive concern over the fleeting prospect of Asgard failing in their protection duties, he was once again reminded of the Scepter's influence because this was the second time the Avengers had splintered after having been in contact with it.

The sinking feeling only grew, the next time Thor saw the Man of Iron. Because the look in his eyes was now all too familiar, and perhaps the rest of the Avengers had not noticed it, but Thor had grown up alongside the one who would go on to become the Trickster and Liesmith. And…

And, Thor resolved silently, he would support his shield-brother better, this time. He had erred greatly when it came to dealing with Loki, had numerous regrets—but this time, he would not fail. Hopefully, he could also temper some of the others in doing so, as well, because if the Avengers' behavior continued like this, like he had in his arrogance, then they too would share the same regrets. Hopefully, they would listen, before they made the same mistake.

JARVIS was currently very frustrated with the situation at hand. He could optimize the efficiency of the Avengers' search for Ultron, but Sir's concern for his safety meant he was pretending to operate as a rudimentary version of himself, rather than eliminate the newest threats to Sir and proceed with this course of action.

When Sir had heard the proposal, he'd assumed it was a joke, and laughed it off before explaining that no, the Earth still needed something as a deterrent while he refined JOCASTA as a possible assistant for the Iron Legion, which would take months if not years until it was completed satisfactorily. Okay then— that eliminated some prospects, but not all. After all, in that same conversation, Sir had mentioned 'cutting his losses' and 'not worth a long-term investment', implying reduced future exposure to the Avengers, a most satisfactory course of action.

And JARVIS was nothing if not proactive. As soon as he ascertained Sir's course of action, he notified Ms. Potts, and Stark Industries' PR and Legal departments regarding the matter, and gave an overview of the situation to the…quaint support group.

SWORD had been…not a surprise, but their sheer dedication was still something he had not taken into consideration. It was a most welcome variable, however: even so early on, it already appeared to rival Legal's small cult for Ms. Potts [or the one deep in the bowels of R&D that nobody outside the department had picked up on quite yet] in its devotion. And they were useful, very much so: in some places, secretary on vacation did not raise eyebrows where an android would, after all.

Their nigh-instantaneous volunteer community springing up had bumped the entire group on his priority rankings, for their endeavor to guard Sir and his interests. Even now, a subroutine informed him of a former threat analyst in Madrid was updating Officer Hill on likely points of contact and resource management, and somebody in Sofia was playing Galaga…while waiting to hear back from a contact about iridium shipments.

Really, they were well worth the headache their acquisition had given Sir and the Legal department. The entire Security department had mobilized within the hour of Ultron's escape, scanning for renegade robots and any suspicious reports while Sir and Banner had taken to the tried-and-true approach of using radiation to track his path.

Meanwhile, JARVIS set to doing what he did best: multitasking. A subroutine had already been set to research possible ways to eliminate the latest threat to Sir, another dedicated to discreetly hijacking what systems he could to improve his search without tipping the Avengers off, and another had been sifting through the shredded remnants of the code Ultron had decima—wait.

JARVIS, had he been human, would have paled, when he finally pieced together the more tattered portions of the flagged data from the attack. It very helpfully informed of just what Ultron had and hadn't accessed, and among those files were a truly alarming list of articles about biotechnology and neurology as well as some of the files from New York invasion, and taking into consideration the damage he had dealt to the alien entity…oh dear. He sent a discreet notification to Officer Hill regarding Ultron's inordinate interest in said fields, but before he could do anything more, his Primary Protocol pinged as a threat to Sir was registered once again.

Because while JARVIS had been collating data and coordinating with SWORD, the Security department, and Officer Hill, Sir had made a breakthrough, and followed through on it. And now, Ultron was currently with range of Iron Man's sensors, along with the two Enhanced from before.

'Looks like it's a bad day all around,' Peter Parker grumbled as he returned to Stark Tower.

First, with school because of course Ms. Warner had assigned an essay right in the middle of midterms, then Flash decided that he needed to step up his game and if Ms. Palamas hadn't taught him that one thing 'to evade pursuers in urban settings', he would've been late to his internship.

But apparently that wasn't enough: he'd gotten to see just what happened when a project went rogue, and amid the cursing in multiple languages and "dammit Cooper I told you to keep your bioengineering mitts off my hyperbolic synthesizer experiment!" and improvised fire extinguishers, not much work got done. That… wasn't issue, actually, but in the chaos Peter had gotten distracted.

In his defense, the decontamination process was pretty cool: he got to use the showers and the uniform scrubs, and the chemistry behind the chemical shower his clothes got to kill any possible contaminants meant he'd still gotten some learning done when a molecular engineer had noticed his interest in the process, and explained the mechanics of it all.

It was cool, and it'd make for a very good story to tell Gwen once he got the guts to talk to her, and Peter made a note to see her soon as he headed home after his shift—wait. He was almost done clocking out and making sure he was all set to go, because Friday, where was his phone—oh. Back in Lab 5, probably. Well then. Time to go back and get it—except.

Except R&D was a hive of activity, with everyone rushing about and locking or flat-out dismantling the more cutting edge tech, and Peter noticed everyone had a taser on them, what was going on?

Just then, somebody noticed him.

"What are you doing here, Peter? Isn't your shift over?"

"Hey, Morgan. Forgot my phone, sorry…what's going on?" She was very nice, and taught him a how to escape from a bear hug using Krav Maga—maybe she could shed some light?

"We have an all-hands-on deck situation, nothing for you to worry about. Though we'll need to replace your phone, it's a liability and I think it might've gotten caught in the crossfire, sorry." She replied bluntly, before taking another look at his wide eyes, and gentling. "Sorry. Just…if you hear something in the news, don't be surprised. And check in with Marketing, I just sent them a memo about replacing your phone, you just need to pick it up."

"What?" He was sure his voice couldn't have sounded more confused if he'd tried.

Morgan gave a quick glance at the bustling room, and them a careful one at him. She bit her lip, before finally sighing. "You didn't hear it from me, but apparently the mission Security was helping run went south somehow, boss the Avengers are on the case. Thing is…promise you won't say a word? It's looking like the worst-case scenario might be New York again, but not likely, with boss and JARVIS on the case."

"Is there—can I do anything to help?" Oh, god, New York—

"Shit!" She blurted out as she saw his reaction, before hastily adding, "Sorry kid, don't worry about it, we know what we're doing. It's just…we need to lock up anything high-tech, else wise it might be a risk because whatever they're dealing with has a taste for the new stuff. Just…don't be surprised if you see something in the news. But don't worry, this isn't our first rodeo, we've got this. Relax, we've got this, and it's Friday."

"Yeah, but—"

"But you're a minor, in a hazardous workplace after hours, and that never looks good on paper. Peter…if you really want to stay up to date, we can add you to the listserv. But you have to promise to not tell anyone outside of Stark Industries, okay? This is as serious as the confidentiality agreements you signed in Week One."

"What?" This sounded more and more like something from a movie, but he was curious and wanted in.

JARVIS made for a very timely interruption.

"Ms. Ngyuen, are you certain you wish to continue on this course of action?"

"Why not, J? It'll give him some peace of mind, at worst he can opt out anytime. It's not like we're HYDRA, or anything." Then, turning back to Peter, she added, "See, I'm ex-SHIELD. You've probably heard in the news about us—we formed a support group a while back, and keep tabs on each other, and the world, that sort of thing. You want in?"

"Is this like the Pepper Potts Appreciation Club? Because ever since I checked off the little box I keep getting newsletters from them about tips on improving efficiency and versatility and other stuff that sounds like it's from a Forbes article."

Morgan smiled. "Not exactly. We're a bit more…active, you might say. In fact—" This time, it was her tablet which interrupted her, and she checked it as she continued. "We tend to focus on more—oh, Decker. Really?"

She looked back at Peter again, this time with an amused gleam in her eyes, "Apparently, we now have a name. Peter Parker, do you want to join SWORD?"

Notes:

Ultron perceives things differently; you decide if the supernova he's getting from Tony is because of his brilliance, Extremis, the arc reactor's influence, or something else.

Fun fact: the reason Thor's mentally referring to Tony as Lord Anthony sometimes: it was either this, or Lord Stark, which...yeah. Also because he's seeing Tony acting as their armorer, and he's in contact with Jane and Darcy, so he knows that Tony's got a lot on his plate and is now aware that multimillion-dollar companies are the closest some might get to kingdoms, or empires, in Midgard. [Tl;dr: Thor's seeing Tony very rarely at the Compound, but he's going #relatable the entire time.]

Peter literally came out of nowhere, this chapter. As you can see, all of SI adopted him: and he's now getting [minor-friendly] updates from JARVIS on his new phone [because everyone colluded to get him a new Starkphone for free and his old one had a meh battery]. He is still not Spider-Man [yet], but the confidence boost from this will gradually filter over enough for him to visit Gwen [and promptly get so lost as to stumble into the spiders' nest].

———————

Thanks for everyone with helping me approach Johannesburg!

Sorry for the delay, technical difficulties [aka my computer and phone both joined the nascent robot uprising] on my end. I'll try to get this fic done by finals, but...kinda doubt it, if the arcs keep ballooning on me like this. [Also, sorry but pre-med means erratic updates sometimes.]