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daylight_darknightYay! I finally get to post my favourite chapter. This was completed ages ago and would have been put up as a standalone if I hadn't got the crazy idea of exploring this theme even further. Should be able to get another chapter out tomorrow but the final chapter may take a bit longer (since it's only a third done and may end up being fairly long). Hopefully, I can finish it Saturday because it looks like I may be going to see Age of Ultron that evening! :)
Title: Just A Rather Very Intelligent System
Characters: Tony, Jarvis, Thor, Steve, Bruce, Clint, Natasha
Rating/Warnings: PG
Genre: Action, Angst, Humour, Family
Word Count: 2087 (this chapter)
Spoilers: The Iron Man movies and the first Avengers movie
Summary: Five times Jarvis took control of the Iron Man armour without the other Avengers finding out and one time they did.
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
“I don't believe this.”
Tony swung an armoured fist into a nearby robot knocking it across the street and into a mailbox. It lay there twitching.
“I mean seriously who made these? They're pathetic.”
He fired his repulsors at another robot. It toppled over backwards onto the pavement where it burst into flames.
“I could make better robots in my sleep. In fact, I'm pretty sure I already have.”
“Well, that would explain Dum-E,” came Clint's voice over the radio.
The archer was perched on top of one of the nearby buildings keeping an eye on the street below. Every so often an arrow would shoot down and another robot would explode.
“Very funny,” Tony replied. He grabbed one of the robots by its arm and the arm came off in his hand. “Pathetic,” he said again shaking his head. “It's like whoever made these went bananas at a scrap yard or something.”
The robots, which despite being as pathetic as Tony described were annoyingly large in number, did resemble the assembled remains of a scrap heap. They were cobbled together from such things as bits of copper pipe, rusted car doors, 80s style computers, hair dryers, old lamps, mattress springs, and broken toasters. Each was different. The only thing they had in common were glowing yellow eyes and an insistent need to destroy everything in sight.
“Don't get too cocky, Stark,” said Steve through the coms. “These robots might look pathetic but they can still pack a wallop.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Tony grumbled.
A boom of thunder sounded down the block where Thor along with Steve was keeping the other end of the robot army at bay. Natasha was where her strengths were more useful trying to track down whoever had created these robots and Bruce was with her. It had been decided that considering the Hulk could cause as much, if not more, property damage than the robots they'd only bring him in if necessary. So far it hadn't been.
With the civilians all evacuated and the robots falling so easily under his repulsors, it's possible Tony did grow a bit cocky. It's also possible that he was a bit distracted because despite his insistence of the robots' inferior construction, something in him still itched to figure out how they worked.
As it was, he never saw what slammed into his back.
The force almost knocked him over but he put his hands out in front of him and fired up his repulsors to catch himself. He took the opportunity to launch into the air spinning around to confront his attacker. It was just another robot though something seemed different about this one. Tony couldn't quite put his finger on what it was but he didn't like the way its glowing eyes looked at him.
“Not nice,” he said and fired both repulsors at it.
It took a bit longer than usual to destroy this one but Tony had soon reduced it to the scrap it had been made from just like the rest.
“Sir.” Jarvis's voice echoed through his helmet. “We may have a situation.”
“Other than the invasion of the T-800s?”
Landing back on the street, Tony grabbed a robot that was trying to sneak past him and used it to destroy two more.
“There appears to be something adhered to the back of the armour,” Jarvis explained using a slightly alarmed tone Tony was sure he'd never programmed him with.
“What?”
Tony automatically tried to reach behind him but flexibility wasn't one of the armour's strong points.
“What the hell is it?”
“I am uncertain. It is proving resistant to my scans. Attempting to compensate.”
One of the robots took advantage of Tony's distraction and grabbed his helmet with the intention, Tony was sure, to pull it off taking his head along with it. Tony plunged an armoured fist into the torso of the robot, grabbed something he hoped was vital, and pulled. The light in the robot's eyes died and it crashed noisily to the ground.
Tony launched into the air again out of the robots' reach. Reopening the link to the rest of the team, he said, “Barton, I need a favour.”
“I am not playing monopoly with you again,” Clint deadpanned. “Once was enough.”
Tony rolled his eyes. “I need your eagle eyes for a sec. I think I've got a monkey on my back.”
Clint's tone grew more serious. “Swing by and I'll take a look.”
Firing a few more blasts on his way, Tony swooped up and over to where Clint was perched five stories up. He then flipped around so the archer could see his back and so he could keep an eye on the robots who were already trying to get past the perimeter he'd established.
“Shit,” said Clint which really wasn't very reassuring.
“Well?” Tony demanded.
“Big and metal with a whole lot of wires and flashing lights. I don't know what kind of monkey that is, Stark, but you need to get it off now!”
“Fuck.”
Taking off, Tony flew in a series of quick manoeuvres, twisting and banking in mid air, testing the armour's speed and agility to its limits as he tried to shake the thing off.
“I'm afraid it's no good, sir,” said Jarvis. “The object is attached both mechanically and magnetically to the armour. You will not be able to get it off in such a manner.”
Tony briefly considered dropping on the rooftop beside Clint to see if the archer could get it off but Clint's arrows were currently the only thing keeping the robots from breaking off into the rest of the city.
“Stark,” said Steve having been listening in. “Do you need to pull out?”
“Let me get back to you on that,” Tony said.
He hovered high above the battle sending the occasional missile down at the rampaging robots as a hundred different scenarios played out in his mind. He really didn't like the idea of leaving in the middle of a fight especially when it meant leaving his friends behind.
“Don't take any stupid risks,” said Steve. “Bruce can be here in a few minutes.”
“I know. I know. But I think...”
“Sir!” Jarvis' voice cut him short. “My scans have penetrated the device's shielding and I am detecting a high level of explosives.”
Bomb. Jarvis hadn't said it but the word still echoed loudly in Tony's head.
“How much explosives?”
“Enough to level everything in a four block radius.”
His heart seemed to stop in his chest as his blood ran cold.“What's the trigger mechanism? Can we...?”
Suddenly, Tony's voice was lost, his stomach in his throat as the world seemed to disappear beneath him. The repulsors had cut out. He was plummeting straight down, all control over the armour lost. The HUD was still working, all the info still there flashing red in his field of vision, but nothing was responding.
“J... J... Jarvis!” he managed to choke out but there was no reply.
He was still trying to figure out what the hell was going on fighting back the pure, overwhelming terror, wondering if there had been something about the device Jarvis had missed, whether the device had done something to Jarvis himself, when the repulsors in his feet kicked in and he thankfully started to slow down. His relief was short lived though as the armour stopped fifteen feet from the ground and opened up. Then it was just him, vulnerable flesh and bone, plummeting towards the rumble strewn street.
His scream echoed down the block.
Some instinct kicked in enough for him to bend his legs as he hit the ground though it didn't stop the sharp jolt of pain that travelled through his knee or prevent the air from being forced from his lungs. He even managed to transfer some of the force of the landing into a forward roll, bare hands and arms scraping against the rough pavement until he finally came to a halt spreadeagled on his back.
Gasping, he lay there dazed as he watched the armour, now sans him, shooting higher and higher into the sky until it burst outward in a fiery cloud. The sound of the explosion came a moment later followed by a shock wave that broke glass and sent tremors through the ground beneath him.
Someone started shouting in Tony's ear.
“Stark! Stark!”
It was Steve.
Still stunned from the fall, Tony frowned as he looked around trying to find the source of the voice and felt like a complete idiot when he finally recalled the radio receiver in his ear.
“Tony!” Steve called again. “Did anyone...?”
“Good news and bad news, Cap,” Clint replied. “Good news is Stark wasn't in the armour when it blew. Bad news is he's now armourless, most likely injured, and surrounded by a dozen of those robots.”
Surrounded by... That didn't sound good, thought Tony. He painfully pushed himself up on to an elbow and looked around.
The robots were indeed surrounding him, their metal limbs clunking loudly as they came closer. Their glowing eyes gazed at him as if he were about to become their new favourite plaything and they were really looking forward to pulling him apart.
“Shit.”
Tony was able to roll out of the way as one of them sent down a heavy fist but the roll sent him towards the feet of another. It reached towards him with fingers which looked as if they'd once been surgical tools. Thankfully before it could grab him, an arrow hit right where it's ear would've been and its head exploded. Tony rolled again, this time to get out of the way as the beheaded robot crashed onto the pavement.
“Stark, get out of there,” Clint called out.
“Yeah, easier said than done,” he replied breathlessly.
He managed to scramble to his feet but almost ended up back on the ground once more when a stab of pain shot through his left knee. Limping, he made it through the gap Clint's arrow had provided, the ominous sound of the robots' heavy footsteps following behind him and growing closer. Adrenaline was keeping most of the pain at bay but it felt as if his knee would buckle at any moment.
So he was very glad when the clunk of metal against pavement was joined by a familiar swooshing sound.
He turned to see a red, white, and blue shield ricochet off several robots before imbedding itself in the one nearest him. The shield was soon followed by its owner bounding over the robots, using their heads as stepping stones until he landed with a flip in front of Tony.
“You okay?” Steve asked glancing over his shoulder as he confronted the incoming robots.
“Peachy,” Tony replied taking the opportunity to lean against a nearby abandoned car and take the weight off his injured knee. “Nice of you to join me.”
Dodging a clumsy blow, Steve retrieved his shield. “Well, I couldn't let you face these poor pathetic robots on your own.” He used the shield to body slam one of the robots sending it tumbling into another creating a domino effect throughout the army.
Tony groaned. “I'm never going to live that one down, am I?”
“I don't know,” Steve replied as he sent his shield off once more bouncing back and forth against the robot's metal heads. “You did manage to save us from getting blown up and get yourself out more or less in one piece. That was some quick thinking.”
“I suppose so,” Tony agreed quietly as the Captain charged once more into the robotic melee.
Doing his best to keep out of the way of the fighting, Tony tapped at his earpiece. “Jarvis?” he said. “You still with me?”
There was a tiny beep indicating the A.I. had switched them over to their own personal frequency.
“Always, sir,” Jarvis replied.
Tony smiled. He knew Jarvis existed independent of the armour but it was still good to hear his voice again. “Memory transferred from the suit alright?”
“Yes, sir. I feel I should apologize. Immediate action was called for and there seemed insufficient time to...”
Tony shook his head. “Forget it, J.”
“But sir. I knew there was a good chance of injury resulting from my actions. My calculations indicated...”
“Save it,” Tony said watching the diminishing robot army become scrap metal once more and realizing just how close he'd come to being the one on the scrap heap. “You did good.”
Chapter 5
Title: Just A Rather Very Intelligent System
Characters: Tony, Jarvis, Thor, Steve, Bruce, Clint, Natasha
Rating/Warnings: PG
Genre: Action, Angst, Humour, Family
Word Count: 2087 (this chapter)
Spoilers: The Iron Man movies and the first Avengers movie
Summary: Five times Jarvis took control of the Iron Man armour without the other Avengers finding out and one time they did.
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
“I don't believe this.”
Tony swung an armoured fist into a nearby robot knocking it across the street and into a mailbox. It lay there twitching.
“I mean seriously who made these? They're pathetic.”
He fired his repulsors at another robot. It toppled over backwards onto the pavement where it burst into flames.
“I could make better robots in my sleep. In fact, I'm pretty sure I already have.”
“Well, that would explain Dum-E,” came Clint's voice over the radio.
The archer was perched on top of one of the nearby buildings keeping an eye on the street below. Every so often an arrow would shoot down and another robot would explode.
“Very funny,” Tony replied. He grabbed one of the robots by its arm and the arm came off in his hand. “Pathetic,” he said again shaking his head. “It's like whoever made these went bananas at a scrap yard or something.”
The robots, which despite being as pathetic as Tony described were annoyingly large in number, did resemble the assembled remains of a scrap heap. They were cobbled together from such things as bits of copper pipe, rusted car doors, 80s style computers, hair dryers, old lamps, mattress springs, and broken toasters. Each was different. The only thing they had in common were glowing yellow eyes and an insistent need to destroy everything in sight.
“Don't get too cocky, Stark,” said Steve through the coms. “These robots might look pathetic but they can still pack a wallop.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Tony grumbled.
A boom of thunder sounded down the block where Thor along with Steve was keeping the other end of the robot army at bay. Natasha was where her strengths were more useful trying to track down whoever had created these robots and Bruce was with her. It had been decided that considering the Hulk could cause as much, if not more, property damage than the robots they'd only bring him in if necessary. So far it hadn't been.
With the civilians all evacuated and the robots falling so easily under his repulsors, it's possible Tony did grow a bit cocky. It's also possible that he was a bit distracted because despite his insistence of the robots' inferior construction, something in him still itched to figure out how they worked.
As it was, he never saw what slammed into his back.
The force almost knocked him over but he put his hands out in front of him and fired up his repulsors to catch himself. He took the opportunity to launch into the air spinning around to confront his attacker. It was just another robot though something seemed different about this one. Tony couldn't quite put his finger on what it was but he didn't like the way its glowing eyes looked at him.
“Not nice,” he said and fired both repulsors at it.
It took a bit longer than usual to destroy this one but Tony had soon reduced it to the scrap it had been made from just like the rest.
“Sir.” Jarvis's voice echoed through his helmet. “We may have a situation.”
“Other than the invasion of the T-800s?”
Landing back on the street, Tony grabbed a robot that was trying to sneak past him and used it to destroy two more.
“There appears to be something adhered to the back of the armour,” Jarvis explained using a slightly alarmed tone Tony was sure he'd never programmed him with.
“What?”
Tony automatically tried to reach behind him but flexibility wasn't one of the armour's strong points.
“What the hell is it?”
“I am uncertain. It is proving resistant to my scans. Attempting to compensate.”
One of the robots took advantage of Tony's distraction and grabbed his helmet with the intention, Tony was sure, to pull it off taking his head along with it. Tony plunged an armoured fist into the torso of the robot, grabbed something he hoped was vital, and pulled. The light in the robot's eyes died and it crashed noisily to the ground.
Tony launched into the air again out of the robots' reach. Reopening the link to the rest of the team, he said, “Barton, I need a favour.”
“I am not playing monopoly with you again,” Clint deadpanned. “Once was enough.”
Tony rolled his eyes. “I need your eagle eyes for a sec. I think I've got a monkey on my back.”
Clint's tone grew more serious. “Swing by and I'll take a look.”
Firing a few more blasts on his way, Tony swooped up and over to where Clint was perched five stories up. He then flipped around so the archer could see his back and so he could keep an eye on the robots who were already trying to get past the perimeter he'd established.
“Shit,” said Clint which really wasn't very reassuring.
“Well?” Tony demanded.
“Big and metal with a whole lot of wires and flashing lights. I don't know what kind of monkey that is, Stark, but you need to get it off now!”
“Fuck.”
Taking off, Tony flew in a series of quick manoeuvres, twisting and banking in mid air, testing the armour's speed and agility to its limits as he tried to shake the thing off.
“I'm afraid it's no good, sir,” said Jarvis. “The object is attached both mechanically and magnetically to the armour. You will not be able to get it off in such a manner.”
Tony briefly considered dropping on the rooftop beside Clint to see if the archer could get it off but Clint's arrows were currently the only thing keeping the robots from breaking off into the rest of the city.
“Stark,” said Steve having been listening in. “Do you need to pull out?”
“Let me get back to you on that,” Tony said.
He hovered high above the battle sending the occasional missile down at the rampaging robots as a hundred different scenarios played out in his mind. He really didn't like the idea of leaving in the middle of a fight especially when it meant leaving his friends behind.
“Don't take any stupid risks,” said Steve. “Bruce can be here in a few minutes.”
“I know. I know. But I think...”
“Sir!” Jarvis' voice cut him short. “My scans have penetrated the device's shielding and I am detecting a high level of explosives.”
Bomb. Jarvis hadn't said it but the word still echoed loudly in Tony's head.
“How much explosives?”
“Enough to level everything in a four block radius.”
His heart seemed to stop in his chest as his blood ran cold.“What's the trigger mechanism? Can we...?”
Suddenly, Tony's voice was lost, his stomach in his throat as the world seemed to disappear beneath him. The repulsors had cut out. He was plummeting straight down, all control over the armour lost. The HUD was still working, all the info still there flashing red in his field of vision, but nothing was responding.
“J... J... Jarvis!” he managed to choke out but there was no reply.
He was still trying to figure out what the hell was going on fighting back the pure, overwhelming terror, wondering if there had been something about the device Jarvis had missed, whether the device had done something to Jarvis himself, when the repulsors in his feet kicked in and he thankfully started to slow down. His relief was short lived though as the armour stopped fifteen feet from the ground and opened up. Then it was just him, vulnerable flesh and bone, plummeting towards the rumble strewn street.
His scream echoed down the block.
Some instinct kicked in enough for him to bend his legs as he hit the ground though it didn't stop the sharp jolt of pain that travelled through his knee or prevent the air from being forced from his lungs. He even managed to transfer some of the force of the landing into a forward roll, bare hands and arms scraping against the rough pavement until he finally came to a halt spreadeagled on his back.
Gasping, he lay there dazed as he watched the armour, now sans him, shooting higher and higher into the sky until it burst outward in a fiery cloud. The sound of the explosion came a moment later followed by a shock wave that broke glass and sent tremors through the ground beneath him.
Someone started shouting in Tony's ear.
“Stark! Stark!”
It was Steve.
Still stunned from the fall, Tony frowned as he looked around trying to find the source of the voice and felt like a complete idiot when he finally recalled the radio receiver in his ear.
“Tony!” Steve called again. “Did anyone...?”
“Good news and bad news, Cap,” Clint replied. “Good news is Stark wasn't in the armour when it blew. Bad news is he's now armourless, most likely injured, and surrounded by a dozen of those robots.”
Surrounded by... That didn't sound good, thought Tony. He painfully pushed himself up on to an elbow and looked around.
The robots were indeed surrounding him, their metal limbs clunking loudly as they came closer. Their glowing eyes gazed at him as if he were about to become their new favourite plaything and they were really looking forward to pulling him apart.
“Shit.”
Tony was able to roll out of the way as one of them sent down a heavy fist but the roll sent him towards the feet of another. It reached towards him with fingers which looked as if they'd once been surgical tools. Thankfully before it could grab him, an arrow hit right where it's ear would've been and its head exploded. Tony rolled again, this time to get out of the way as the beheaded robot crashed onto the pavement.
“Stark, get out of there,” Clint called out.
“Yeah, easier said than done,” he replied breathlessly.
He managed to scramble to his feet but almost ended up back on the ground once more when a stab of pain shot through his left knee. Limping, he made it through the gap Clint's arrow had provided, the ominous sound of the robots' heavy footsteps following behind him and growing closer. Adrenaline was keeping most of the pain at bay but it felt as if his knee would buckle at any moment.
So he was very glad when the clunk of metal against pavement was joined by a familiar swooshing sound.
He turned to see a red, white, and blue shield ricochet off several robots before imbedding itself in the one nearest him. The shield was soon followed by its owner bounding over the robots, using their heads as stepping stones until he landed with a flip in front of Tony.
“You okay?” Steve asked glancing over his shoulder as he confronted the incoming robots.
“Peachy,” Tony replied taking the opportunity to lean against a nearby abandoned car and take the weight off his injured knee. “Nice of you to join me.”
Dodging a clumsy blow, Steve retrieved his shield. “Well, I couldn't let you face these poor pathetic robots on your own.” He used the shield to body slam one of the robots sending it tumbling into another creating a domino effect throughout the army.
Tony groaned. “I'm never going to live that one down, am I?”
“I don't know,” Steve replied as he sent his shield off once more bouncing back and forth against the robot's metal heads. “You did manage to save us from getting blown up and get yourself out more or less in one piece. That was some quick thinking.”
“I suppose so,” Tony agreed quietly as the Captain charged once more into the robotic melee.
Doing his best to keep out of the way of the fighting, Tony tapped at his earpiece. “Jarvis?” he said. “You still with me?”
There was a tiny beep indicating the A.I. had switched them over to their own personal frequency.
“Always, sir,” Jarvis replied.
Tony smiled. He knew Jarvis existed independent of the armour but it was still good to hear his voice again. “Memory transferred from the suit alright?”
“Yes, sir. I feel I should apologize. Immediate action was called for and there seemed insufficient time to...”
Tony shook his head. “Forget it, J.”
“But sir. I knew there was a good chance of injury resulting from my actions. My calculations indicated...”
“Save it,” Tony said watching the diminishing robot army become scrap metal once more and realizing just how close he'd come to being the one on the scrap heap. “You did good.”
Chapter 5
