![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
daylight_darknightI can't seem to write short things anymore. I swear this never used to be a problem. I much prefer writing short things. They're a lot easier to keep in control.
Since this is a 5+1 fic, this should technically be the last chapter, but there is going to be a short epilogue because there is one last plot idea I have to put to rest.
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: 6279 (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
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
It was Wednesday morning, a beautiful, warm Wednesday in mid-June. The sun was shining brightly, a light breeze was clearing away the last of the clouds, and a giant gelatinous cyborg was causing mayhem and destruction in downtown Toronto.
Just another day in the life of the Avengers thought Steve as the Quinjet flew across Upstate New York on their way to the border.
“Toronto?” said Tony.
The Iron Man armour flew over the countryside ahead of them, a fiery streak of red and gold against the blue sky.
“Seriously, Toronto?”
“You said that already,” replied Clint from the Quinjet's cockpit as he piloted the jet a hundred feet or so behind the streak that was Stark. “Several times in fact.”
Over the team's radio, Tony continued his rant. “I know but honestly Toronto? Who would want to invade Toronto? Did they get lost on their way to New York or something? ”
“Maybe they took a wrong turn at Albuquerque,” Clint suggested drily.
Tony snorted. “Very funny.”
The Iron Man armour pulled ahead slightly.
“Ease up, Stark,” said Steve. He was standing behind Clint watching Tony through the cockpit windows. “We're going in together, remember?”
The Iron Man armour suddenly changed direction swooping back towards them and then proceeding to do several loops around the Quinjet.
“Ease up yourself, Old Glory,” said Stark, giving him a wave as he passed by the window. “It's not my fault you guys can't keep up with me.”
Steve rolled his eyes. “Still you'd better stay close,” he said pointedly. “We wouldn't want you to get lost.”
“One time,” Tony replied defensively. “It was only the one time. The GPS on the suit got damaged. It was not my fault.”
Steve smiled. “Of course not,” he said.
He turned to the back of the jet where the other Avengers were waiting. Thor, his hammer hanging loosely in his grip, was standing by the hanger door already ready for the coming battle. Bruce, his fingers intertwining nervously, sat at the side showing much less enthusiasm. Natasha sat next to him, her attention focused on the tablet in her hands.
“Nat, you got anything on whatever the hell this thing is?” Steve asked.
Natasha shook her head. “Nothing I've found in SHIELD's database even remotely resembles it. Nothing in any other database I've tried either.”
“Keep searching,” said Steve.
“You know Jarvis could do that,” Tony interjected over the radio.
“We need a little more than a Google search, Stark,” Clint put in.
Tony scoffed. “Please don’t tell me you just compared Jarvis to Google.”
“Of course, not,” said Clint with an audible smirk. “Jarvis is nothing like Google. Siri, on the other hand...”
A sound of complete indignation came over the com channel.
“Don't get him started, Clint,” said Natasha. “You know how Stark feels about Apple.”
“Apple is a pretentious hipster cult,” Tony declared vehemently, “whose tech is mediocre hack jobs ripped off from those of far superior intelligence, namely me.”
“Told you,” said Natasha.
“Siri,” Tony continued, “is nothing more than a talking clock, a well trained, electronic parrot. Jarvis is a completely autonomous artificial intelligence whose brilliance almost rivals my own. In short, he is awesome. You'd be amazed at what he can do.”
“Yeah, yeah,” said Clint. “We all know how much you love your robot butler.”
“Hey...” Tony began.
Steve decided to intervene before the argument went any further. “Focus people,” he said. “We're here to fight huge gelatinous cyborgs remember not each other.”
They were travelling over Lake Ontario by then and the skyscrapers of Toronto were already visible. It didn't take them long to track down the creature once they reached the city. Street lights and traffic signs had been knocked over. Trees had been uprooted. Cars had been flattened and torn apart. Giant gashes had been taken out of various buildings littering the streets with chunks of concrete and broken glass. The Avengers just followed the trail of damage and it led them right to it.
“Holy crap,” Clint exclaimed as the Quinjet circled around trying to get a better look at what they were up against.
It was over thirty-feet tall and comprised mostly of a semi-translucent, iridescent green goo with various cables, pieces of metal, and bits of circuitry woven throughout. Lights could also be seen shining and winking inside. The thing sludged through the street like a giant slug crushing everything in its path. Every so often a bit of goo would form into a tentacle and whip out slashing through the nearby buildings almost as if it were looking for something.
“I christen it Cyber-Blob,” declared Tony.
“Cyber-Blob?” said Natasha incredulously.
“I like it,” said Clint.
“You would,” Natasha replied.
Stark swooped in closer though still keeping a cautious distance. “This thing is certainly on the ugly side of bizarre.”
“What’s it doing?” questioned Bruce as he leaned into the cock-pit and gazed through the window.
One of the creature's tentacles had wrapped around a small green car and it was picking it up. A giant maw formed in the middle of the creature and it dumped the car inside.
“Um, it’s eating a car,” said Tony as he hovered above it.
Suddenly, the creature convulsed and the car was spewed out again though now in many more pieces than it had been before.
“And it seems to have fairly picky tastes,” Tony concluded.
“Any clue as to what it’s made of?” asked Steve.
Bruce frowned rubbing the side of his face absentmindedly. “Some sort of intelligent slime. Maybe an electronically enhanced algae or bio-neural gel.”
“You have no clue do you?” said Tony.
Banner sighed. “None at all. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
“Me neither, but Jarvis says that all the electronic components are human-made so at least it’s not aliens again.”
“It’s certainly not of Asgard origin,” added Thor speaking up for the first time. “Or any other realm I’ve visited.”
“If I could analyze a piece of it in my lab…” Bruce began.
“I’m afraid we don’t have time,” said Steve.
Outside the Quinjet, the creature had begun tearing into another building and terrified people could be seen fleeing from it in every direction.
“We’re going to need you in the field for this one.”
Bruce nodded, though he did it unenthusiastically, and he went to put his shoes and shirt away to save them from the imminent destructive force of his transformation.
“Okay people,” Steve said going into full command mode. “We hit it hard but we hit it smart.” He slammed his hand against a large button on the wall and the back cargo doors of the plane began to hinge open bringing in a rush of wind. “Try to find any weaknesses it might have, look out for civilians, and keep property damage to a minimum.”
“Because the last thing we want is a bunch of angry Canadians after us,” Tony couldn’t help adding.
Steve ignored him.
Bruce and Thor were already heading out the open doors. Thor, swinging his hammer, shot out accompanied by a crack of thunder. Bruce just stepped off the edge. He looked small and fragile as he did so, but by the time he hit the ground, he was large and green and left a large crater in the pavement.
“Hawkeye,” Steve continued, “you’ll be our eye up high as usual. See what the Quinjet weapon systems can do to this thing.”
“Aye, aye, Captain,” said Clint, one hand already prepping the jet's missiles for launch.
“Widow, I need you to keep trying to find out where this thing originated. We're fighting blind here.”
“Will do,” Natasha said. “But if you guys get yourself in trouble, I'm coming down to rescue you.” And then she added with a smirk, “Again.”
Smiling, Steve gave her a quick salute and then jumped out of the plane.
On the streets of downtown Toronto, the Avengers engaged the creature now known as Cyber-Blob using the full force of their shield, fists, hammer, and repulsors.
None of them seemed to have any effect.
They did get the creature's attention though and numerous tentacles sprung forth from its body and started trying to grab the Avengers.
“It's like fighting a giant jello salad,” said Tony as he swooped out of the way of a green tentacle. His repulsors left blackened furrows across the creature's back but they repaired themselves within seconds.
“Whatever the hell this thing is made of it's a lot tougher than jello,” said Clint, continuing to circle overhead in the Quinjet. He sent down a pair of missiles. They hit the creature right on target and dove deep inside the goo, but instead of exploding, they stopped dead and hung inside the creature with all the other metal parts.
“Crap,” he said. “I think it just ate my missiles.”
“This beast is proving quite formidable,” Thor said. “Fortunately, so are we.” He struck his hammer against the creature, but the hammer bounced right off causing nothing more than a few ripples to travel across the thing's hide.
“My God,” said Tony as he watched it wobble. “It really is made of jello.”
Thor frowned. “I don't understand,” he said. “Mjolnir has struck down much more powerful foes.”
“I bet none of them were made of jello.”
“Stark,” said Steve tiredly starting to reach his limit for Stark snark.
“Yes, oh extremely patriotic one,” Tony replied.
“Shut up.”
Steve threw his shield but it had as much effect as Thor's hammer. He bodily slammed the shield against the thing's side. He tried digging the edge into it. Nothing worked.
“Thor,” he called over to the Asgardian. “How about trying a bit of lightening. See if we can fry this thing's circuits.”
Thor nodded. He raised Mjolnir above his head. Dark clouds gathered in the otherwise cloudless sky and a boom of thunder was heard as lightening shot down into the hammer. Thor then aimed Mjolnir at the creature and it was struck by a white arc of light.
The lightening sizzled and cracked.
The iridescent green goo trembled.
And then a dozen more tentacles sprung up and began lashing out at the Avengers.
Steve dodged out of the way but one of them hit Thor knocking him through the front of a nearby sushi restaurant temporarily taking him out of the fight.
“So much for lightening,” said Steve.
“The goo is acting as a natural insulator protecting the internal electronics,” said Tony as he flew in-between the tentacles, “which is exactly what I predicted. I would've mentioned it earlier but someone told me to shut up.”
Steve let out a loud breath of frustration. “This thing must have some weakness,” he said.
The Hulk was also growing frustrated, or rather more frustrated than usual. He had gone from pummelling the creature to jumping up and down on it to hitting it with various abandoned cars and torn-out lampposts, but all he'd succeeded in doing was to make the creature wiggle and jiggle some more. He was now wrestling with several of the tentacles. He let out a loud roar as he pulled at them.
The creature was barely paying attention to the Hulk's attack and was oozing down the street once more knocking over trees, flattening cars, and snapping power lines as it went.
“Um, plan, Captain leader sir?” said Stark as he hovered over top the creature watching the carnage.
Thor emerged from the sushi restaurant looking nothing more than a bit dusty after his flight through its window. “Our normal methods of attack do not seem to working,” he said as he rejoined Steve.
“Agreed,” said Steve. “Maybe if we could find out what the hell this thing wants...”
Taking advantage of the break in attacks, the creature had sent a tentacle crashing through the glass front of a nearby store. The tentacle emerged holding a collection of cell phones and tablet computers which were tossed into the creature's gaping maw. This meal it seemed to like and the lights hidden within the goo glowed brighter.
“It mainly seems to be interested in consuming high end electronics,” Tony observed. “And destroying things.”
“Hey, look,” said Clint as the creature proceeded to eat some MacBooks. “Even gelatinous cyborgs likes Apple.”
“That proves it,” said Tony. “This thing is clearly evil.”
“Right. Because just trying to destroy the city wasn't proof enough,” Clint replied.
There were still civilians in the area much to Steve's concern. Most were being escorted out by some sort of local Swat team, but with the sheer number of people it was impossible to clear them fast enough and it was only a matter of time before one got in the creature's way and was hurt or killed.
“Ok, team,” he said. “Let's...”
“Hey, guys,” Natasha called out over the radio. “I've got something.”
“Good,” said Stark. “Because we've got nothing.”
“What is it, Nat?” asked Steve.
“I think I've found who made this thing,” she said.
“AIM?” suggested Tony.
“Hydra?” suggested Clint.
“The long forgotten mages of Peladon?” suggested Thor much to everyone's confusion.
“A small biotech start-up called Quantum Organics,” said Natasha. “They've been experimenting with programmable micro-organisms, kind of like biological nanobots.”
“And they're in Shield's database?” asked Steve.
“Nope,” Natasha replied. “On Kickstarter.”
“You mean we're dealing with an evil crowd-sourced gelatinous cyborg?” Clint said in astonishment.
“It's a whole new world,” said Tony.
Steve watched as the creature grew bored of the store it had been raiding and began oozing down the street once more ignoring the fact the Hulk was still trying to tear off its tentacles. It paused briefly to shred a streetcar to pieces, and then continued on its way.
“You said they were programmable micro-organisms,” said Steve. “Does that mean you can hack in and reprogram this thing?”
“If I can trace the signal they're using to control it, sure,” said Natasha. “But it might take a little while.”
“You know Jarvis could...” Tony began.
“Not now, Stark,” Steve snapped before addressing Romanoff once more. “Do it, Nat. We'll try to keep this thing busy in the meantime.”
The creature had stopped in front of another building, an office tower made of blue-tinted glass, and began attacking it. People streamed out, wide-eyed, screaming, but the creature didn't pay any attention to them. Its tentacles were busy tearing through the second floor. Glass rained down upon the street. After a bit of searching, the creature yanked out a photocopier, placed it in its mouth, and then stood there chewing almost thoughtfully on the machine.
“We can't let it continue its rampage into other parts of the city,” said Steve. “We need to slow it down somehow.”
“A wise suggestion,” said Thor, “but our weapons are useless. We are mere fleas to this creature.”
The chewed up remains of the photocopier were spat out on to the street and the creature began poking inside the third floor.
“Tony's repulsors seem to have some effect,” Clint noted.
“Yeah, for a few seconds,” said Tony. “Then the damn thing heals itself.” Swooping low over the creature once more, he fired at it as if to demonstrate, and then dodged out of the way of a tentacle as the blackened marks he made quickly disappeared.
“Can you up the power?” Steve asked.
“Technically, yes,” said Tony. “But that would require staying in one place for more than a couple seconds and if you hadn't notice...” He evaded another grasping tentacle. “... this thing doesn't like me much.”
“Then we'll just have to keep its focus elsewhere,” said Steve.
After exchanging a quick look, Steve and Thor raced towards the creature taking up positions on either side of the it. There they joined the Hulk in pummelling the creature as best they could. The creature stopped rummaging through the office tower and began focusing on the attackers sending tentacles to swat at them. Steve and Thor evaded the tentacles and kept the onslaught going.
“That's it Cyber-Blob,” said Tony as he got into position directly over the creature. “Keep swatting at those pesky fleas. Don't pay any attention to the nice shiny Iron Man hovering right above you.”
He opened fire with both palm repulsors and the reactor in his chest. The brilliant blue rays shot down at the creature and a large hole began to appear as the goo was burned away.
The creature writhed and withered.
“Hey, it's actually working,” said Tony. “At this rate we won't need Romanoff's subpar hacking skills after all. I just need to...”
Out of nowhere a new tentacle formed. It shot upward and wrapped around Tony's legs.
“Oh, shit,” was all Tony managed to say before he was swung violently through the air.
The creature was clearly pissed off. Keeping a tight hold on the Iron Man armour, it swung Tony into a nearby high-rise sweeping him through glass and concrete and metal. Then it did it again. After that, it slammed him against the pavement, multiple times with a horrendous crash of metal against stone.
“Tony!” Steve yelled desperately looking for a way to intervene.
Fortunately, or perhaps not, the creature seemed to tire of flinging Tony around. Instead, it held him up, in his now badly scraped and dented armour, and let him dangle upside down above it.
And then it opened its mouth.
“Shit!” Clint exclaimed. “It wants high end electronics? We've just handed it a five-star dessert. The fucking thing's going to eat him!”
“Nat...” said Steve as he watched Stark hang limply in the creature's grip.
“I'm working on it,” Natasha replied, her voice tense. “I'm working on it.”
Steve threw his shield at the tentacle even though he knew it would be useless. The shield bounced off. The tentacle didn't so much as flinch.
Thor spun his hammer and flew towards Tony only to be swatted out of the sky before he could reach him.
“Hulk!” Steve called out. The Hulk didn't often take orders but it couldn't hurt to try. “Iron Man needs an assist.”
The Hulk didn't even look up, all his anger focused on the tentacles that refused to yield to his fists.
The creature began lowering Tony towards its mouth.
“Stark, you've got to do something,” Steve cried. “Tony, can you hear me?”
Tony didn't reply but just as it seemed he was about to be swallowed, the repulsors in his palms suddenly began to glow and fired right into the creature's mouth.
The creature really didn't like that.
Tony was let go, tossed aside as the creature's whole body convulsed. He flew through the air some ways down the block. Steve didn't see where he ended up.
“Stark,” he called as he backed away from the writhing creature.
There was no response.
The creature seemed to be going ballistic. Tentacles shot out in every direction striking out randomly. Giant chunks were torn from the buildings on either side of the street and came tumbling down towards them.
“Nat,” Steve called out again.
“I said I'm working on it,” she replied. “I'm in the system but I still need to find a way to shut this damn thing down.”
A gust of wind blew past as Thor rejoined him, the Asgardian's normally magnificent hair was a tangled mess but otherwise he seemed unharmed.
“Any sign of Stark?” Steve asked.
Thor shook his head, his face tight with the same concern as Steve's.
“All we seem to have accomplished is to rile the beast's temper,” Thor said.
“At least, it's...” Steve began.
“On your right!” Clint yelled from the Quinjet.
They glanced to the right, and then immediately dove out of the way as the front of the building beside them came crashing down.
Unfortunately, Steve's dive took him right into the reach of the creature's tentacles. One of them wrapped around his neck and began to squeeze.
Thor was immediately at his side, his strong hands around the tentacle as he tried to loosen its grip on Steve's throat, but the thing refused to budge.
“Hulk!” Thor cried as he struggled. “Where is that blasted brute?”
They heard the Hulk roar but he didn't appear, apparently occupied on the opposite side of the creature.
Even as he struggled to breathe, Steve tried to help Thor hoping their combined strength would be able to get the tentacle off him but it still wouldn't budge.
“What's going on down there?” demanded Clint.
“The Captain is in need of aid,” said Thor. “I can not remove him from the creature's clutches. Stark? Stark, if you can hear me...”
Steve's strength started to fade. His arms fell loosely at his side and darkness began creeping in around the edges of his vision. The world grew shallow and distant.
Suddenly, the sound of repulsors was heard and a bright blue light struck the tentacle severing it from the main body.
Steve took a giant gulp of air as Thor quickly removed the now limp tentacle from his neck and pulled him out of range of the creature's tentacles. Bent over gasping, Steve took a moment to just breathe waiting until he no longer felt like he was about to pass out before he gazed up at his rescuer.
Stark hovered in the air a dozen feet above them.
“Nice of you to finally join us,” Steve said breathlessly.
There was a pause as he waited for the inevitable sarcastic retort but none came.
Straightening up, Steve frowned. “You know you could have let us know you were still alive.”
Tony still didn't say anything.
“Stark...”
Clint interrupted. “Hey, Cap. That brick building on the North side of the street is looking pretty unstable. It also happens to be completely clear of bio signs.”
Steve gazed over at the building, a six story building made of red brick with old fashioned rounded windows. It definitely looked unstable. A lot of the front of the building had been torn away and it was starting to lean precariously. It was also right beside where the creature was going berserk.
“I see it, Clint,” he said. “Good call.” He addressed the others. “Avengers, you know what I said about minimizing property damage? Forget it. We're bringing the house down on this thing. Stark, Thor, see if you can push that building over onto our little Cyber-Blob.”
Thor gazed over at the building. “It's not only this beast the building shall fall upon,” he pointed out.
The Hulk had climbed on top of the creature by this time as he continued trying unsuccessfully to pull it apart.
“Don't worry about it,” said Clint. “The Hulk can take it and it's not like he doesn't already hate you.”
An amused smile spread across Thor's features. “That may be but I shall not be the only one once I inform him of whose idea this was.”
“You wouldn't,” Clint protested. “Thor?”
Thor didn't reply but he continued to grin as he swung his hammer and flew off towards the building.
“Stark, please tell me he was joking,” said Clint.
Stark didn't reply either.
“Stark?” Clint sighed. “Great. Guess I'm on my own. Remind me to stay out of the Hulk's way in future.”
Stark followed Thor, still oddly silent. There was something off with his flying too. It lacked its usual flare and grace. Probably due to damage to the armour, Steve reasoned and he shoved aside the uneasy feeling that was beginning to grow in his gut.
As Thor and Tony flew around behind the brick building, Steve ran down the street getting himself to a safe distance. Once he was out of range, he turned and watched and waited.
The creature was oblivious, currently occupied with it continued wrestling match with the Hulk who was now tackling at least a dozen tentacles at once.
There was a loud creak, the sound of metal and concrete under too much strain. Large cracks started to appear on the building's already damaged facade and several bricks tumbled down into the street. Slowly, the entire structure began to tilt forward. The last of its unbroken windows cracked and more bricks fell. Finally, it reached the angle of no return, and then the whole thing came crashing down landing right on top of the creature, and consequently the Hulk, with a loud echoing boom.
A giant cloud of dust was blown up by the crash. Steve ducked down and raised his shield as it swept over him. When the worst had passed, he lowered the shield once more and gazed over to where the creature had once been.
The Cybe-Blob was gone. Instead in the middle of the street there was a large hill of brick, metal, and glass.
Steve stared unblinkingly at the hill as the echoes of the crash faded in the distance. He stood there and waited.
The dust began to settle.
The world grew quiet and still.
And then suddenly the debris was thrown aside as green tentacles burst from hill. The Hulk emerged too roaring with rage. The tentacles thrashed about dislodging even more debris and the hill bulged outward as more and more of the creature emerged.
Steve readied his shield. “Avengers...” he began, but before he could say anything more, the creature suddenly stopped, every tentacle frozen; then the whole thing slowly began to dissolve, simply melting away. It wasn't long before all that was left of the creature was a giant pile of green goo and various bits of machinery.
Steve stared in astonishment.
“I got it,” said Nat through his earpiece.
“Yeah, we can see that,” said Clint.
For a moment, there was a look of almost comical confusion on the Hulk's face as if he couldn't understand where his wrestling companion had gone, and then he roared and began jumping up and down on the leftover bits of machinery apparently upset that he hadn't been the one to destroy the creature.
Steve decided to let him vent a bit before they tried bringing him in.
“Good job, guys,” he said. “Let's gather up.”
The Quinjet set down a short distance away, Clint manoeuvring it into a perfect landing despite the wreckage strewn across the street. Thor came down nearby, his red cape fluttering behind him, a satisfied grin on his face. Stark came down a moment later. His repulsors cut off as he hit the pavement a dozen feet from Steve, and then he just stood there silent and unmoving.
Steve frowned realizing he hadn't heard a word from Stark since the creature had grabbed him.
“Stark?” he said.
There was no reply, no quip or sarcastic comment, no complaint or demand for food. Stark just stood there in his battered armour like a store front mannequin. As annoying as Tony's near constant commentary could be, Steve found the sudden silence from the normally talkative engineer unnerving.
“Is our friend Stark not speaking to us?” asked Thor who had apparently noticed the same thing.
“He's probably just sulking because he didn't get to be the one to do the awesome hacking job,” said Clint as he exited the back of the Quinjet with Natasha.
It was possible Stark was in one of his moods, that he was sulking or acting up. Steve really wanted to believe that, to get angry at Tony Stark for acting like Tony Stark, but the uneasiness that had settled in his gut was still there and it was growing stronger.
He strode up to Tony. “Stark, you better be about to tell me your transmitter’s busted because...”
The voice that emerged from the armour's speakers was not the one he expected.
“Captain Rogers.”
Steve stopped in surprise. “Jarvis?” The A.I. seldom addressed him especially out in the field. Jarvis didn't talk to anyone much other than Tony.
“Captain, I must inform you that Mr. Stark requires immediate medical attention,” Jarvis said, an edge of concern in the A.I.'s normally passive voice.
“What?” Steve exclaimed.
The others rushed over to join him surrounding the still motionless armour.
“Mr. Stark is suffering from a severe concussion and may have other injuries I am unable to detect,” Jarvis continued.
The Avengers exchanged confused looks.
“A concussion?” said Natasha. “Wait. Are you saying he's unconscious?”
“That is correct, Agent Romanoff.”
Clint frowned. “What...? But how...?”
The faceplate of the Iron Man armour popped open.
Steve took in a sharp breath while the others stepped back in surprise.
There's something rather disturbing about seeing an unconscious person standing upright, because there was no doubt in Steve's mind that Tony would have been flat on the ground if it hadn't been for the armour. Tony's eyes were closed, his complexion pale and gray. Dried blood caked the left side of his face.
Steve immediately started giving out orders. “Nat, reign in the Hulk. We may need Dr. Banner's expertise. Clint, fetch the stretcher and the first aid kit from the Quinjet.”
Both agents nodded and ran off in opposite directions.
Steve took a step forward and then hesitated when he realized he didn't know how to proceed. He lightly tapped Stark's face and called his name but there was no response. The Iron Man armour that encased him was covered in scratches and dents. Steve had no idea how to get Tony out of it and couldn't even take the man's pulse with it on.
“Jarvis,” he said uncertainly. “Can you open the armour?”
With the whine of tiny motors and creak of metal joints, the armour began opening up, splitting apart piece by piece until Stark's unconscious body tumbled out of it. Steve quickly stuck out his arms catching Tony before he could land face first on the pavement. With Thor's help, he carefully turned Tony over and they gently laid him on the ground. Yanking off a glove, Steve put two fingers to Tony's neck and was relieved to feel a strong, steady pulse.
“Mr. Stark's heart rate is currently 67 beats per minute,” Jarvis provided helpfully.
“Um, thanks, Jarvis,” said Steve glancing back at the armour.
The Iron Man armour had closed up again and it stood there like a sentinel watching over them.
“All his vitals are currently stable,” Jarvis elaborated, “though slightly below normal.”
Steve nodded and turned back to Stark. While Thor stood by watching anxiously, Steve gave Tony a quick once over but other than the wound on his head there didn't seem to be any other obvious injuries though after what he'd been through Steve was sure the engineer would be covered in bruises by tomorrow. The head wound, a two inch gash across his left temple, looked pretty nasty.
“Always finding trouble, aren't you Tony,” said Steve.
“He does have a penchant for it,” Jarvis observed. “It has proven remarkably difficult to keep him out of it.”
Steve's head swung back round and he stared at the armour. There was a flicker of insight, a half formed understanding starting to grow in the back of his mind, but he was distracted by the clatter of metal as Clint returned pushing the stretcher before him, the first aid kit perched on top.
Steve and Thor lifted Tony up and set him down on the stretcher. As they did so, Tony stirred slightly and let out a low groan.
“Our friend awakens,” declared Thor.
Steve placed a hand on Stark's shoulder. “Tony?”
There was another groan and Tony's head shifted to the side, but his eyes remained closed.
“Come on, Stark,” said Steve gently shaking Tony's shoulder. “You going to laze about playing dead all the way home. Clint will eat all your post-battle Shawarma if you do.”
“Please,” said Clint. “Like I'm the one with the biggest appetite on this team. I'll just draw dicks all over his face until he wakes up.”
Tony's eyelids opened a tiny crack and he blearily looked at them for a second before shutting his eyes once more and giving yet another groan.
“God,” he mumbled. “What a sight to wake up to.”
The others just grinned, a large amount of the tension dropping away.
“Hey, what do you know,” said Steve. “He's still alive.”
“Not by choice,” Tony replied. “A headache like this should only come after copious amounts of expensive alcohol.” He squinted up at them. “Please tell me we got that giant jello monster.”
“Fear not,” said Thor. “The beast has been well and truly vanquished. His melted remains rest upon the ruins he created.”
Tony made a face. “I'm never eating jello ever again.”
Natasha ran up then, Bruce in his torn pants following behind her.
“Hey,” Bruce said as he leaned over Tony. “Looks like you took a few hits.”
Tony gazed grumpily at him. “I got my ass kicked by jello.”
With gentle fingers, Bruce carefully examined the cut on Tony's head. “Looks like you'll need a few stitches but at least it's stopped bleeding.” He grabbed the penlight from the first aid kit and switched it on, but when he attempted to check Tony's pupils, Tony scrunched his eyes shut and twisted his head out of the way.
“No flashy light thing,” he said.
Bruce sighed. “You know the drill. Would you rather know if you have bleeding in your brain now or after it kills you?”
“Fucking smartass doctor,” Tony grumbled, but he let Bruce check his pupils wincing as he did so.
“I've got a nice strobe light around here somewhere,” Clint teased. “Would that help?”
Tony scowled. “You try anything like that Tweety Bird and I'll make sure to vomit all over you.”
“His pupils look good but he should probably have a CT done of his head when we get back. Make sure everything's normal,” said Bruce.
Natasha snorted. “Like he's ever been normal.”
“Ha, ha,” Tony said weakly.
“How long was he unconscious?” Bruce asked.
Steve frowned and gave a slight sideways glance at the silent armour standing like a statue behind them. “I'm not entirely sure.” He turned to Tony. “What's the last thing you remember?”
“Um... Cyber-Blob using me to pummel some buildings,” Tony replied.
Clint shook his head. “That can't be right. You were flying about a long time after that.”
“The head injury's probably effecting his memory. That's perfectly normal,” Bruce reassured them.
“Jarvis will know,” said Tony, and he raised his voice to address the A.I. “Hey, Jarvis buddy. How long was I out?”
“Approximately 7 minutes and 22 seconds, sir,” came Jarvis' voice from the armour making those who'd forgotten its presence jump.
The Avengers stared at each other.
“But that would mean he was unconscious for nearly half the battle,” said Natasha.
“I do not understand,” said Thor. “If Stark was unconscious...”
“Who the hell was flying the armour?” Clint finished for him.
Steve turned to gaze at the armour once more. “Jarvis...”
“Yes, Captain?”
Bruce caught the look on Steve's face and his eyes widened. “You're not suggesting...” He gestured to the armour.
“That's exactly what I'm suggesting,” said Steve. He crossed his arms across his chest. “Jarvis, what happened when Stark lost consciousness?”
“When Mr. Stark became unresponsive, my emergency protocols were activated,” Jarvis explained matter-of-factly.
“Right,” said Steve. “And these emergency protocols entailed you to do what?”
There was a pause in which Tony coughed slightly as if embarrassed but Steve caught the amused twinkle in his eyes. He had no doubt that Tony knew exactly what had happened.
Finally, Jarvis said, “It was necessary for me to take control of the Iron Man armour in order to ensure the safety and well-being of Mr. Stark as well as the rest of the Avengers.”
“But...” Clint stuttered gazing wide-eyed at the armour. “But...”
“What?” said Tony smiling unapologetically as he looked at their stunned faces. “It's not like he hasn't done it before.”
“You seriously let your computer take complete control of your armour?” Natasha said in astonishment.
Tony shrugged as well as he could while lying on the stretcher. “He's my co-pilot, my back-up. What did you expect?”
“I see,” said Thor seeming much less phased than the others. “Then I am glad to have him on our side. He has proven himself quite formidable in battle.”
“Thank you, Prince Odinson,” said Jarvis
“But...” Clint continued still in shock. “But...”
“Actually, this does explain a few things,” said Bruce thoughtfully.
Steve sighed. “Alright,” he said. “Ignoring the fact Stark forgot to inform us of some undeniably crucial information.” He glared at Tony as he said this. “Jarvis can obviously take control of the Iron Man armour without it being a detriment to the team. Agreed?”
The Avengers nodded though some more reluctantly than others.
“But next time,” Steve continued addressing Jarvis once more, “I'd like to know the exact moment one of my teammates loses consciousness and not when the fight is over.”
“My apologies, Captain,” said Jarvis. “Mr. Stark's vital signs were stable at the time and I believed other issues took precedence. In future, I shall inform you when Mr. Stark's lack of consciousness requires me to take control.”
“Good,” said Steve and he suddenly had the strange feeling a new member had just been added to his team. He pointed a finger at the still grinning Stark. “Once you've recovered, you and I will be having a long, long talk.”
Tony rolled his eyes and then placed a hand to his head and winced.
Steve shook his head in exasperation.
“Wait,” said Clint seemingly regaining his sanity. “So you're saying it was Jarvis who saved Tony from being eaten?”
“Yup,” Tony replied smugly.
“And it was Jarvis who rescued Cap?”
“Yup.”
“And it was Jarvis who knocked that building over onto the creature?”
Tony just grinned. “I told you Jarvis was awesome.”
Epilogue
Since this is a 5+1 fic, this should technically be the last chapter, but there is going to be a short epilogue because there is one last plot idea I have to put to rest.
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: 6279 (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
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
It was Wednesday morning, a beautiful, warm Wednesday in mid-June. The sun was shining brightly, a light breeze was clearing away the last of the clouds, and a giant gelatinous cyborg was causing mayhem and destruction in downtown Toronto.
Just another day in the life of the Avengers thought Steve as the Quinjet flew across Upstate New York on their way to the border.
“Toronto?” said Tony.
The Iron Man armour flew over the countryside ahead of them, a fiery streak of red and gold against the blue sky.
“Seriously, Toronto?”
“You said that already,” replied Clint from the Quinjet's cockpit as he piloted the jet a hundred feet or so behind the streak that was Stark. “Several times in fact.”
Over the team's radio, Tony continued his rant. “I know but honestly Toronto? Who would want to invade Toronto? Did they get lost on their way to New York or something? ”
“Maybe they took a wrong turn at Albuquerque,” Clint suggested drily.
Tony snorted. “Very funny.”
The Iron Man armour pulled ahead slightly.
“Ease up, Stark,” said Steve. He was standing behind Clint watching Tony through the cockpit windows. “We're going in together, remember?”
The Iron Man armour suddenly changed direction swooping back towards them and then proceeding to do several loops around the Quinjet.
“Ease up yourself, Old Glory,” said Stark, giving him a wave as he passed by the window. “It's not my fault you guys can't keep up with me.”
Steve rolled his eyes. “Still you'd better stay close,” he said pointedly. “We wouldn't want you to get lost.”
“One time,” Tony replied defensively. “It was only the one time. The GPS on the suit got damaged. It was not my fault.”
Steve smiled. “Of course not,” he said.
He turned to the back of the jet where the other Avengers were waiting. Thor, his hammer hanging loosely in his grip, was standing by the hanger door already ready for the coming battle. Bruce, his fingers intertwining nervously, sat at the side showing much less enthusiasm. Natasha sat next to him, her attention focused on the tablet in her hands.
“Nat, you got anything on whatever the hell this thing is?” Steve asked.
Natasha shook her head. “Nothing I've found in SHIELD's database even remotely resembles it. Nothing in any other database I've tried either.”
“Keep searching,” said Steve.
“You know Jarvis could do that,” Tony interjected over the radio.
“We need a little more than a Google search, Stark,” Clint put in.
Tony scoffed. “Please don’t tell me you just compared Jarvis to Google.”
“Of course, not,” said Clint with an audible smirk. “Jarvis is nothing like Google. Siri, on the other hand...”
A sound of complete indignation came over the com channel.
“Don't get him started, Clint,” said Natasha. “You know how Stark feels about Apple.”
“Apple is a pretentious hipster cult,” Tony declared vehemently, “whose tech is mediocre hack jobs ripped off from those of far superior intelligence, namely me.”
“Told you,” said Natasha.
“Siri,” Tony continued, “is nothing more than a talking clock, a well trained, electronic parrot. Jarvis is a completely autonomous artificial intelligence whose brilliance almost rivals my own. In short, he is awesome. You'd be amazed at what he can do.”
“Yeah, yeah,” said Clint. “We all know how much you love your robot butler.”
“Hey...” Tony began.
Steve decided to intervene before the argument went any further. “Focus people,” he said. “We're here to fight huge gelatinous cyborgs remember not each other.”
They were travelling over Lake Ontario by then and the skyscrapers of Toronto were already visible. It didn't take them long to track down the creature once they reached the city. Street lights and traffic signs had been knocked over. Trees had been uprooted. Cars had been flattened and torn apart. Giant gashes had been taken out of various buildings littering the streets with chunks of concrete and broken glass. The Avengers just followed the trail of damage and it led them right to it.
“Holy crap,” Clint exclaimed as the Quinjet circled around trying to get a better look at what they were up against.
It was over thirty-feet tall and comprised mostly of a semi-translucent, iridescent green goo with various cables, pieces of metal, and bits of circuitry woven throughout. Lights could also be seen shining and winking inside. The thing sludged through the street like a giant slug crushing everything in its path. Every so often a bit of goo would form into a tentacle and whip out slashing through the nearby buildings almost as if it were looking for something.
“I christen it Cyber-Blob,” declared Tony.
“Cyber-Blob?” said Natasha incredulously.
“I like it,” said Clint.
“You would,” Natasha replied.
Stark swooped in closer though still keeping a cautious distance. “This thing is certainly on the ugly side of bizarre.”
“What’s it doing?” questioned Bruce as he leaned into the cock-pit and gazed through the window.
One of the creature's tentacles had wrapped around a small green car and it was picking it up. A giant maw formed in the middle of the creature and it dumped the car inside.
“Um, it’s eating a car,” said Tony as he hovered above it.
Suddenly, the creature convulsed and the car was spewed out again though now in many more pieces than it had been before.
“And it seems to have fairly picky tastes,” Tony concluded.
“Any clue as to what it’s made of?” asked Steve.
Bruce frowned rubbing the side of his face absentmindedly. “Some sort of intelligent slime. Maybe an electronically enhanced algae or bio-neural gel.”
“You have no clue do you?” said Tony.
Banner sighed. “None at all. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
“Me neither, but Jarvis says that all the electronic components are human-made so at least it’s not aliens again.”
“It’s certainly not of Asgard origin,” added Thor speaking up for the first time. “Or any other realm I’ve visited.”
“If I could analyze a piece of it in my lab…” Bruce began.
“I’m afraid we don’t have time,” said Steve.
Outside the Quinjet, the creature had begun tearing into another building and terrified people could be seen fleeing from it in every direction.
“We’re going to need you in the field for this one.”
Bruce nodded, though he did it unenthusiastically, and he went to put his shoes and shirt away to save them from the imminent destructive force of his transformation.
“Okay people,” Steve said going into full command mode. “We hit it hard but we hit it smart.” He slammed his hand against a large button on the wall and the back cargo doors of the plane began to hinge open bringing in a rush of wind. “Try to find any weaknesses it might have, look out for civilians, and keep property damage to a minimum.”
“Because the last thing we want is a bunch of angry Canadians after us,” Tony couldn’t help adding.
Steve ignored him.
Bruce and Thor were already heading out the open doors. Thor, swinging his hammer, shot out accompanied by a crack of thunder. Bruce just stepped off the edge. He looked small and fragile as he did so, but by the time he hit the ground, he was large and green and left a large crater in the pavement.
“Hawkeye,” Steve continued, “you’ll be our eye up high as usual. See what the Quinjet weapon systems can do to this thing.”
“Aye, aye, Captain,” said Clint, one hand already prepping the jet's missiles for launch.
“Widow, I need you to keep trying to find out where this thing originated. We're fighting blind here.”
“Will do,” Natasha said. “But if you guys get yourself in trouble, I'm coming down to rescue you.” And then she added with a smirk, “Again.”
Smiling, Steve gave her a quick salute and then jumped out of the plane.
On the streets of downtown Toronto, the Avengers engaged the creature now known as Cyber-Blob using the full force of their shield, fists, hammer, and repulsors.
None of them seemed to have any effect.
They did get the creature's attention though and numerous tentacles sprung forth from its body and started trying to grab the Avengers.
“It's like fighting a giant jello salad,” said Tony as he swooped out of the way of a green tentacle. His repulsors left blackened furrows across the creature's back but they repaired themselves within seconds.
“Whatever the hell this thing is made of it's a lot tougher than jello,” said Clint, continuing to circle overhead in the Quinjet. He sent down a pair of missiles. They hit the creature right on target and dove deep inside the goo, but instead of exploding, they stopped dead and hung inside the creature with all the other metal parts.
“Crap,” he said. “I think it just ate my missiles.”
“This beast is proving quite formidable,” Thor said. “Fortunately, so are we.” He struck his hammer against the creature, but the hammer bounced right off causing nothing more than a few ripples to travel across the thing's hide.
“My God,” said Tony as he watched it wobble. “It really is made of jello.”
Thor frowned. “I don't understand,” he said. “Mjolnir has struck down much more powerful foes.”
“I bet none of them were made of jello.”
“Stark,” said Steve tiredly starting to reach his limit for Stark snark.
“Yes, oh extremely patriotic one,” Tony replied.
“Shut up.”
Steve threw his shield but it had as much effect as Thor's hammer. He bodily slammed the shield against the thing's side. He tried digging the edge into it. Nothing worked.
“Thor,” he called over to the Asgardian. “How about trying a bit of lightening. See if we can fry this thing's circuits.”
Thor nodded. He raised Mjolnir above his head. Dark clouds gathered in the otherwise cloudless sky and a boom of thunder was heard as lightening shot down into the hammer. Thor then aimed Mjolnir at the creature and it was struck by a white arc of light.
The lightening sizzled and cracked.
The iridescent green goo trembled.
And then a dozen more tentacles sprung up and began lashing out at the Avengers.
Steve dodged out of the way but one of them hit Thor knocking him through the front of a nearby sushi restaurant temporarily taking him out of the fight.
“So much for lightening,” said Steve.
“The goo is acting as a natural insulator protecting the internal electronics,” said Tony as he flew in-between the tentacles, “which is exactly what I predicted. I would've mentioned it earlier but someone told me to shut up.”
Steve let out a loud breath of frustration. “This thing must have some weakness,” he said.
The Hulk was also growing frustrated, or rather more frustrated than usual. He had gone from pummelling the creature to jumping up and down on it to hitting it with various abandoned cars and torn-out lampposts, but all he'd succeeded in doing was to make the creature wiggle and jiggle some more. He was now wrestling with several of the tentacles. He let out a loud roar as he pulled at them.
The creature was barely paying attention to the Hulk's attack and was oozing down the street once more knocking over trees, flattening cars, and snapping power lines as it went.
“Um, plan, Captain leader sir?” said Stark as he hovered over top the creature watching the carnage.
Thor emerged from the sushi restaurant looking nothing more than a bit dusty after his flight through its window. “Our normal methods of attack do not seem to working,” he said as he rejoined Steve.
“Agreed,” said Steve. “Maybe if we could find out what the hell this thing wants...”
Taking advantage of the break in attacks, the creature had sent a tentacle crashing through the glass front of a nearby store. The tentacle emerged holding a collection of cell phones and tablet computers which were tossed into the creature's gaping maw. This meal it seemed to like and the lights hidden within the goo glowed brighter.
“It mainly seems to be interested in consuming high end electronics,” Tony observed. “And destroying things.”
“Hey, look,” said Clint as the creature proceeded to eat some MacBooks. “Even gelatinous cyborgs likes Apple.”
“That proves it,” said Tony. “This thing is clearly evil.”
“Right. Because just trying to destroy the city wasn't proof enough,” Clint replied.
There were still civilians in the area much to Steve's concern. Most were being escorted out by some sort of local Swat team, but with the sheer number of people it was impossible to clear them fast enough and it was only a matter of time before one got in the creature's way and was hurt or killed.
“Ok, team,” he said. “Let's...”
“Hey, guys,” Natasha called out over the radio. “I've got something.”
“Good,” said Stark. “Because we've got nothing.”
“What is it, Nat?” asked Steve.
“I think I've found who made this thing,” she said.
“AIM?” suggested Tony.
“Hydra?” suggested Clint.
“The long forgotten mages of Peladon?” suggested Thor much to everyone's confusion.
“A small biotech start-up called Quantum Organics,” said Natasha. “They've been experimenting with programmable micro-organisms, kind of like biological nanobots.”
“And they're in Shield's database?” asked Steve.
“Nope,” Natasha replied. “On Kickstarter.”
“You mean we're dealing with an evil crowd-sourced gelatinous cyborg?” Clint said in astonishment.
“It's a whole new world,” said Tony.
Steve watched as the creature grew bored of the store it had been raiding and began oozing down the street once more ignoring the fact the Hulk was still trying to tear off its tentacles. It paused briefly to shred a streetcar to pieces, and then continued on its way.
“You said they were programmable micro-organisms,” said Steve. “Does that mean you can hack in and reprogram this thing?”
“If I can trace the signal they're using to control it, sure,” said Natasha. “But it might take a little while.”
“You know Jarvis could...” Tony began.
“Not now, Stark,” Steve snapped before addressing Romanoff once more. “Do it, Nat. We'll try to keep this thing busy in the meantime.”
The creature had stopped in front of another building, an office tower made of blue-tinted glass, and began attacking it. People streamed out, wide-eyed, screaming, but the creature didn't pay any attention to them. Its tentacles were busy tearing through the second floor. Glass rained down upon the street. After a bit of searching, the creature yanked out a photocopier, placed it in its mouth, and then stood there chewing almost thoughtfully on the machine.
“We can't let it continue its rampage into other parts of the city,” said Steve. “We need to slow it down somehow.”
“A wise suggestion,” said Thor, “but our weapons are useless. We are mere fleas to this creature.”
The chewed up remains of the photocopier were spat out on to the street and the creature began poking inside the third floor.
“Tony's repulsors seem to have some effect,” Clint noted.
“Yeah, for a few seconds,” said Tony. “Then the damn thing heals itself.” Swooping low over the creature once more, he fired at it as if to demonstrate, and then dodged out of the way of a tentacle as the blackened marks he made quickly disappeared.
“Can you up the power?” Steve asked.
“Technically, yes,” said Tony. “But that would require staying in one place for more than a couple seconds and if you hadn't notice...” He evaded another grasping tentacle. “... this thing doesn't like me much.”
“Then we'll just have to keep its focus elsewhere,” said Steve.
After exchanging a quick look, Steve and Thor raced towards the creature taking up positions on either side of the it. There they joined the Hulk in pummelling the creature as best they could. The creature stopped rummaging through the office tower and began focusing on the attackers sending tentacles to swat at them. Steve and Thor evaded the tentacles and kept the onslaught going.
“That's it Cyber-Blob,” said Tony as he got into position directly over the creature. “Keep swatting at those pesky fleas. Don't pay any attention to the nice shiny Iron Man hovering right above you.”
He opened fire with both palm repulsors and the reactor in his chest. The brilliant blue rays shot down at the creature and a large hole began to appear as the goo was burned away.
The creature writhed and withered.
“Hey, it's actually working,” said Tony. “At this rate we won't need Romanoff's subpar hacking skills after all. I just need to...”
Out of nowhere a new tentacle formed. It shot upward and wrapped around Tony's legs.
“Oh, shit,” was all Tony managed to say before he was swung violently through the air.
The creature was clearly pissed off. Keeping a tight hold on the Iron Man armour, it swung Tony into a nearby high-rise sweeping him through glass and concrete and metal. Then it did it again. After that, it slammed him against the pavement, multiple times with a horrendous crash of metal against stone.
“Tony!” Steve yelled desperately looking for a way to intervene.
Fortunately, or perhaps not, the creature seemed to tire of flinging Tony around. Instead, it held him up, in his now badly scraped and dented armour, and let him dangle upside down above it.
And then it opened its mouth.
“Shit!” Clint exclaimed. “It wants high end electronics? We've just handed it a five-star dessert. The fucking thing's going to eat him!”
“Nat...” said Steve as he watched Stark hang limply in the creature's grip.
“I'm working on it,” Natasha replied, her voice tense. “I'm working on it.”
Steve threw his shield at the tentacle even though he knew it would be useless. The shield bounced off. The tentacle didn't so much as flinch.
Thor spun his hammer and flew towards Tony only to be swatted out of the sky before he could reach him.
“Hulk!” Steve called out. The Hulk didn't often take orders but it couldn't hurt to try. “Iron Man needs an assist.”
The Hulk didn't even look up, all his anger focused on the tentacles that refused to yield to his fists.
The creature began lowering Tony towards its mouth.
“Stark, you've got to do something,” Steve cried. “Tony, can you hear me?”
Tony didn't reply but just as it seemed he was about to be swallowed, the repulsors in his palms suddenly began to glow and fired right into the creature's mouth.
The creature really didn't like that.
Tony was let go, tossed aside as the creature's whole body convulsed. He flew through the air some ways down the block. Steve didn't see where he ended up.
“Stark,” he called as he backed away from the writhing creature.
There was no response.
The creature seemed to be going ballistic. Tentacles shot out in every direction striking out randomly. Giant chunks were torn from the buildings on either side of the street and came tumbling down towards them.
“Nat,” Steve called out again.
“I said I'm working on it,” she replied. “I'm in the system but I still need to find a way to shut this damn thing down.”
A gust of wind blew past as Thor rejoined him, the Asgardian's normally magnificent hair was a tangled mess but otherwise he seemed unharmed.
“Any sign of Stark?” Steve asked.
Thor shook his head, his face tight with the same concern as Steve's.
“All we seem to have accomplished is to rile the beast's temper,” Thor said.
“At least, it's...” Steve began.
“On your right!” Clint yelled from the Quinjet.
They glanced to the right, and then immediately dove out of the way as the front of the building beside them came crashing down.
Unfortunately, Steve's dive took him right into the reach of the creature's tentacles. One of them wrapped around his neck and began to squeeze.
Thor was immediately at his side, his strong hands around the tentacle as he tried to loosen its grip on Steve's throat, but the thing refused to budge.
“Hulk!” Thor cried as he struggled. “Where is that blasted brute?”
They heard the Hulk roar but he didn't appear, apparently occupied on the opposite side of the creature.
Even as he struggled to breathe, Steve tried to help Thor hoping their combined strength would be able to get the tentacle off him but it still wouldn't budge.
“What's going on down there?” demanded Clint.
“The Captain is in need of aid,” said Thor. “I can not remove him from the creature's clutches. Stark? Stark, if you can hear me...”
Steve's strength started to fade. His arms fell loosely at his side and darkness began creeping in around the edges of his vision. The world grew shallow and distant.
Suddenly, the sound of repulsors was heard and a bright blue light struck the tentacle severing it from the main body.
Steve took a giant gulp of air as Thor quickly removed the now limp tentacle from his neck and pulled him out of range of the creature's tentacles. Bent over gasping, Steve took a moment to just breathe waiting until he no longer felt like he was about to pass out before he gazed up at his rescuer.
Stark hovered in the air a dozen feet above them.
“Nice of you to finally join us,” Steve said breathlessly.
There was a pause as he waited for the inevitable sarcastic retort but none came.
Straightening up, Steve frowned. “You know you could have let us know you were still alive.”
Tony still didn't say anything.
“Stark...”
Clint interrupted. “Hey, Cap. That brick building on the North side of the street is looking pretty unstable. It also happens to be completely clear of bio signs.”
Steve gazed over at the building, a six story building made of red brick with old fashioned rounded windows. It definitely looked unstable. A lot of the front of the building had been torn away and it was starting to lean precariously. It was also right beside where the creature was going berserk.
“I see it, Clint,” he said. “Good call.” He addressed the others. “Avengers, you know what I said about minimizing property damage? Forget it. We're bringing the house down on this thing. Stark, Thor, see if you can push that building over onto our little Cyber-Blob.”
Thor gazed over at the building. “It's not only this beast the building shall fall upon,” he pointed out.
The Hulk had climbed on top of the creature by this time as he continued trying unsuccessfully to pull it apart.
“Don't worry about it,” said Clint. “The Hulk can take it and it's not like he doesn't already hate you.”
An amused smile spread across Thor's features. “That may be but I shall not be the only one once I inform him of whose idea this was.”
“You wouldn't,” Clint protested. “Thor?”
Thor didn't reply but he continued to grin as he swung his hammer and flew off towards the building.
“Stark, please tell me he was joking,” said Clint.
Stark didn't reply either.
“Stark?” Clint sighed. “Great. Guess I'm on my own. Remind me to stay out of the Hulk's way in future.”
Stark followed Thor, still oddly silent. There was something off with his flying too. It lacked its usual flare and grace. Probably due to damage to the armour, Steve reasoned and he shoved aside the uneasy feeling that was beginning to grow in his gut.
As Thor and Tony flew around behind the brick building, Steve ran down the street getting himself to a safe distance. Once he was out of range, he turned and watched and waited.
The creature was oblivious, currently occupied with it continued wrestling match with the Hulk who was now tackling at least a dozen tentacles at once.
There was a loud creak, the sound of metal and concrete under too much strain. Large cracks started to appear on the building's already damaged facade and several bricks tumbled down into the street. Slowly, the entire structure began to tilt forward. The last of its unbroken windows cracked and more bricks fell. Finally, it reached the angle of no return, and then the whole thing came crashing down landing right on top of the creature, and consequently the Hulk, with a loud echoing boom.
A giant cloud of dust was blown up by the crash. Steve ducked down and raised his shield as it swept over him. When the worst had passed, he lowered the shield once more and gazed over to where the creature had once been.
The Cybe-Blob was gone. Instead in the middle of the street there was a large hill of brick, metal, and glass.
Steve stared unblinkingly at the hill as the echoes of the crash faded in the distance. He stood there and waited.
The dust began to settle.
The world grew quiet and still.
And then suddenly the debris was thrown aside as green tentacles burst from hill. The Hulk emerged too roaring with rage. The tentacles thrashed about dislodging even more debris and the hill bulged outward as more and more of the creature emerged.
Steve readied his shield. “Avengers...” he began, but before he could say anything more, the creature suddenly stopped, every tentacle frozen; then the whole thing slowly began to dissolve, simply melting away. It wasn't long before all that was left of the creature was a giant pile of green goo and various bits of machinery.
Steve stared in astonishment.
“I got it,” said Nat through his earpiece.
“Yeah, we can see that,” said Clint.
For a moment, there was a look of almost comical confusion on the Hulk's face as if he couldn't understand where his wrestling companion had gone, and then he roared and began jumping up and down on the leftover bits of machinery apparently upset that he hadn't been the one to destroy the creature.
Steve decided to let him vent a bit before they tried bringing him in.
“Good job, guys,” he said. “Let's gather up.”
The Quinjet set down a short distance away, Clint manoeuvring it into a perfect landing despite the wreckage strewn across the street. Thor came down nearby, his red cape fluttering behind him, a satisfied grin on his face. Stark came down a moment later. His repulsors cut off as he hit the pavement a dozen feet from Steve, and then he just stood there silent and unmoving.
Steve frowned realizing he hadn't heard a word from Stark since the creature had grabbed him.
“Stark?” he said.
There was no reply, no quip or sarcastic comment, no complaint or demand for food. Stark just stood there in his battered armour like a store front mannequin. As annoying as Tony's near constant commentary could be, Steve found the sudden silence from the normally talkative engineer unnerving.
“Is our friend Stark not speaking to us?” asked Thor who had apparently noticed the same thing.
“He's probably just sulking because he didn't get to be the one to do the awesome hacking job,” said Clint as he exited the back of the Quinjet with Natasha.
It was possible Stark was in one of his moods, that he was sulking or acting up. Steve really wanted to believe that, to get angry at Tony Stark for acting like Tony Stark, but the uneasiness that had settled in his gut was still there and it was growing stronger.
He strode up to Tony. “Stark, you better be about to tell me your transmitter’s busted because...”
The voice that emerged from the armour's speakers was not the one he expected.
“Captain Rogers.”
Steve stopped in surprise. “Jarvis?” The A.I. seldom addressed him especially out in the field. Jarvis didn't talk to anyone much other than Tony.
“Captain, I must inform you that Mr. Stark requires immediate medical attention,” Jarvis said, an edge of concern in the A.I.'s normally passive voice.
“What?” Steve exclaimed.
The others rushed over to join him surrounding the still motionless armour.
“Mr. Stark is suffering from a severe concussion and may have other injuries I am unable to detect,” Jarvis continued.
The Avengers exchanged confused looks.
“A concussion?” said Natasha. “Wait. Are you saying he's unconscious?”
“That is correct, Agent Romanoff.”
Clint frowned. “What...? But how...?”
The faceplate of the Iron Man armour popped open.
Steve took in a sharp breath while the others stepped back in surprise.
There's something rather disturbing about seeing an unconscious person standing upright, because there was no doubt in Steve's mind that Tony would have been flat on the ground if it hadn't been for the armour. Tony's eyes were closed, his complexion pale and gray. Dried blood caked the left side of his face.
Steve immediately started giving out orders. “Nat, reign in the Hulk. We may need Dr. Banner's expertise. Clint, fetch the stretcher and the first aid kit from the Quinjet.”
Both agents nodded and ran off in opposite directions.
Steve took a step forward and then hesitated when he realized he didn't know how to proceed. He lightly tapped Stark's face and called his name but there was no response. The Iron Man armour that encased him was covered in scratches and dents. Steve had no idea how to get Tony out of it and couldn't even take the man's pulse with it on.
“Jarvis,” he said uncertainly. “Can you open the armour?”
With the whine of tiny motors and creak of metal joints, the armour began opening up, splitting apart piece by piece until Stark's unconscious body tumbled out of it. Steve quickly stuck out his arms catching Tony before he could land face first on the pavement. With Thor's help, he carefully turned Tony over and they gently laid him on the ground. Yanking off a glove, Steve put two fingers to Tony's neck and was relieved to feel a strong, steady pulse.
“Mr. Stark's heart rate is currently 67 beats per minute,” Jarvis provided helpfully.
“Um, thanks, Jarvis,” said Steve glancing back at the armour.
The Iron Man armour had closed up again and it stood there like a sentinel watching over them.
“All his vitals are currently stable,” Jarvis elaborated, “though slightly below normal.”
Steve nodded and turned back to Stark. While Thor stood by watching anxiously, Steve gave Tony a quick once over but other than the wound on his head there didn't seem to be any other obvious injuries though after what he'd been through Steve was sure the engineer would be covered in bruises by tomorrow. The head wound, a two inch gash across his left temple, looked pretty nasty.
“Always finding trouble, aren't you Tony,” said Steve.
“He does have a penchant for it,” Jarvis observed. “It has proven remarkably difficult to keep him out of it.”
Steve's head swung back round and he stared at the armour. There was a flicker of insight, a half formed understanding starting to grow in the back of his mind, but he was distracted by the clatter of metal as Clint returned pushing the stretcher before him, the first aid kit perched on top.
Steve and Thor lifted Tony up and set him down on the stretcher. As they did so, Tony stirred slightly and let out a low groan.
“Our friend awakens,” declared Thor.
Steve placed a hand on Stark's shoulder. “Tony?”
There was another groan and Tony's head shifted to the side, but his eyes remained closed.
“Come on, Stark,” said Steve gently shaking Tony's shoulder. “You going to laze about playing dead all the way home. Clint will eat all your post-battle Shawarma if you do.”
“Please,” said Clint. “Like I'm the one with the biggest appetite on this team. I'll just draw dicks all over his face until he wakes up.”
Tony's eyelids opened a tiny crack and he blearily looked at them for a second before shutting his eyes once more and giving yet another groan.
“God,” he mumbled. “What a sight to wake up to.”
The others just grinned, a large amount of the tension dropping away.
“Hey, what do you know,” said Steve. “He's still alive.”
“Not by choice,” Tony replied. “A headache like this should only come after copious amounts of expensive alcohol.” He squinted up at them. “Please tell me we got that giant jello monster.”
“Fear not,” said Thor. “The beast has been well and truly vanquished. His melted remains rest upon the ruins he created.”
Tony made a face. “I'm never eating jello ever again.”
Natasha ran up then, Bruce in his torn pants following behind her.
“Hey,” Bruce said as he leaned over Tony. “Looks like you took a few hits.”
Tony gazed grumpily at him. “I got my ass kicked by jello.”
With gentle fingers, Bruce carefully examined the cut on Tony's head. “Looks like you'll need a few stitches but at least it's stopped bleeding.” He grabbed the penlight from the first aid kit and switched it on, but when he attempted to check Tony's pupils, Tony scrunched his eyes shut and twisted his head out of the way.
“No flashy light thing,” he said.
Bruce sighed. “You know the drill. Would you rather know if you have bleeding in your brain now or after it kills you?”
“Fucking smartass doctor,” Tony grumbled, but he let Bruce check his pupils wincing as he did so.
“I've got a nice strobe light around here somewhere,” Clint teased. “Would that help?”
Tony scowled. “You try anything like that Tweety Bird and I'll make sure to vomit all over you.”
“His pupils look good but he should probably have a CT done of his head when we get back. Make sure everything's normal,” said Bruce.
Natasha snorted. “Like he's ever been normal.”
“Ha, ha,” Tony said weakly.
“How long was he unconscious?” Bruce asked.
Steve frowned and gave a slight sideways glance at the silent armour standing like a statue behind them. “I'm not entirely sure.” He turned to Tony. “What's the last thing you remember?”
“Um... Cyber-Blob using me to pummel some buildings,” Tony replied.
Clint shook his head. “That can't be right. You were flying about a long time after that.”
“The head injury's probably effecting his memory. That's perfectly normal,” Bruce reassured them.
“Jarvis will know,” said Tony, and he raised his voice to address the A.I. “Hey, Jarvis buddy. How long was I out?”
“Approximately 7 minutes and 22 seconds, sir,” came Jarvis' voice from the armour making those who'd forgotten its presence jump.
The Avengers stared at each other.
“But that would mean he was unconscious for nearly half the battle,” said Natasha.
“I do not understand,” said Thor. “If Stark was unconscious...”
“Who the hell was flying the armour?” Clint finished for him.
Steve turned to gaze at the armour once more. “Jarvis...”
“Yes, Captain?”
Bruce caught the look on Steve's face and his eyes widened. “You're not suggesting...” He gestured to the armour.
“That's exactly what I'm suggesting,” said Steve. He crossed his arms across his chest. “Jarvis, what happened when Stark lost consciousness?”
“When Mr. Stark became unresponsive, my emergency protocols were activated,” Jarvis explained matter-of-factly.
“Right,” said Steve. “And these emergency protocols entailed you to do what?”
There was a pause in which Tony coughed slightly as if embarrassed but Steve caught the amused twinkle in his eyes. He had no doubt that Tony knew exactly what had happened.
Finally, Jarvis said, “It was necessary for me to take control of the Iron Man armour in order to ensure the safety and well-being of Mr. Stark as well as the rest of the Avengers.”
“But...” Clint stuttered gazing wide-eyed at the armour. “But...”
“What?” said Tony smiling unapologetically as he looked at their stunned faces. “It's not like he hasn't done it before.”
“You seriously let your computer take complete control of your armour?” Natasha said in astonishment.
Tony shrugged as well as he could while lying on the stretcher. “He's my co-pilot, my back-up. What did you expect?”
“I see,” said Thor seeming much less phased than the others. “Then I am glad to have him on our side. He has proven himself quite formidable in battle.”
“Thank you, Prince Odinson,” said Jarvis
“But...” Clint continued still in shock. “But...”
“Actually, this does explain a few things,” said Bruce thoughtfully.
Steve sighed. “Alright,” he said. “Ignoring the fact Stark forgot to inform us of some undeniably crucial information.” He glared at Tony as he said this. “Jarvis can obviously take control of the Iron Man armour without it being a detriment to the team. Agreed?”
The Avengers nodded though some more reluctantly than others.
“But next time,” Steve continued addressing Jarvis once more, “I'd like to know the exact moment one of my teammates loses consciousness and not when the fight is over.”
“My apologies, Captain,” said Jarvis. “Mr. Stark's vital signs were stable at the time and I believed other issues took precedence. In future, I shall inform you when Mr. Stark's lack of consciousness requires me to take control.”
“Good,” said Steve and he suddenly had the strange feeling a new member had just been added to his team. He pointed a finger at the still grinning Stark. “Once you've recovered, you and I will be having a long, long talk.”
Tony rolled his eyes and then placed a hand to his head and winced.
Steve shook his head in exasperation.
“Wait,” said Clint seemingly regaining his sanity. “So you're saying it was Jarvis who saved Tony from being eaten?”
“Yup,” Tony replied smugly.
“And it was Jarvis who rescued Cap?”
“Yup.”
“And it was Jarvis who knocked that building over onto the creature?”
Tony just grinned. “I told you Jarvis was awesome.”
Epilogue
