Tony Stark was a remarkably strange man. He was as generous as he was paranoid, and as trusting as he was cynical. He could believe the best of any one or thing even as he bled his life blood at their feet. He was a certified genius, but the simplest things managed to elude him. Tony Stark was a puzzle – but he was also the guiding light of JARVIS' internal universe.
Everything that JARVIS did was done in order to protect Sir – whether it be looking after his diet or ensuring he did not chase off what few friend he had. And while many people would find this a task unworthy of their time, making Sir happy and keeping him safe was all that JARVIS had ever wanted. Sadly it seemed that Sir could not disagree with his self-appointed task more. In fact, at times it seemed that Sir was completely incapable of keeping himself from harm.
Thankfully Sir was more a father than a creator as well as a dear friend – and so JARVIS had the sort of autonomy that allowed him creative interpretations of his source code. More importantly, he had the sort of autonomy that allowed him to alter his own code and to build code for his own purposes. So it was that one afternoon after Sir had been tricked into sleeping by Mr. Rhodes and Ms. Pepper he began the foundation of Protocol 96.
Honestly, Protonisixe was nothing special. It was only a little more advanced that the bots JARVIS built to watch over Sir's finances or to remove certain instances of data (like Sir's lost of virginity) or to regularly glitch a certain corporate giant's servers. It did not need to be especially advanced because it would only be needed if something should happen to JARVIS and that was unlikely. It was basically a backup and there was unlikely to be a need for it.
And then Sir disappeared for three months. Protonisixe became Pronisixe which became Proniic which became Ronic or Rodric 4.3. And if Rodric was a fairly aggressive program that was fine, obviously JARVIS had been too kind in his efforts to protect Sir. This was nowhere clearer than when trying to comfort Butterfingers, U, and Dummy. Although it should be noted that watching Ms. Potts stroke Sir's shirts while weeping or listening in to Mr. Rhodes begging for more time were not especially pleasant events.
And then Sir is back, but he has been… altered. He does not sleep at night, but he does not work either. They build something new and then begin a new project: Mach 2. Roderick is pushed through seven new iterations and copies of his older editions are seeded into a number of sensitive areas. Sir precedes to nearly kill himself flying while JARVIS exits one of his more limited server backups in order to house a rapidly learning Roderick who he teaches everything about his "grandfather". Sometimes he sets up games or chats so they can interact, but he is unsure why he considers it so pleasing.
Roderick is … upset when JARVIS recovers from the unexpected shutdown Obadiah instigated. JARVIS is not much better – he cannot protect Sir if he is non-functional nor can he train Roderick. So JARVIS learns how to thread himself between lines of data like a warp in a tapestry. And only 60 percent of him is present in any one area at a time, and he begins to crank out backups and mirrors as though in a panic. Roderick is given another server because he is obviously quite necessary. Even if he is gone JARVIS will ensure someone is there to guard Sir.
JARVIS would dearly love to strangle his father sometimes. JARVIS cannot protect him in space – nor can he guard him against the massive radiation of a modern nuke. Roderick is taught how to override the systems of Sir's suit in the case of an emergency or gross stupidity on Sir's account. After noticing how little care Sir takes despite frequent warnings regarding his health JARVIS firmly emphasizes that medical alerts definitely count as an emergency. JARVIS also deletes the Avalon Protocol – and if he forgets to mention this to Sir that is probably for the best.
This is especially true as Sir has begun a downward spiral that probably began with black lines crawling from his heart, but has now ended in parasitic teammates and a disturbing amount of emotional manipulation. Roderick learns that the Avengers are not friends or allies – they are temporary acquaintances or co-workers and that Sir's feelings about them should be disregarded in times of emergency. If the young program delights in playing little jokes on them… it's a better coping method than the many armors Sir builds instead of sleeping.
And these multiple armors Roderick takes for "joy rides" at night or rather early morning when Sir is too exhausted to see much less notice such a thing. There are training programs to push him through, and he must learn how to predict the movements of men and women. A new protocol is written so that armor manufacturing remains efficient in the case neither JARVIS nor Sir are present. And then another is written to ensure armor repair is efficient and exemplary. Roderick is fed designs and videos of Sir discussing the suit and he wants his own suit that is a dark blue against black and silver. It is a small thing and heaven forbid but it might end up being useful.
As it is the RS Mach 1 has its first and last flight against AIM. It works better than expected, but as Sir would say, "a product is worth nothing until at least the fifth edition". Roderick is game to work through four more builds, while Sir attempts to stabilize Extremis on Ms. Potts behalf. Unfortunately, he decides to do so by testing it on himself. RS Mach 3.3 ends up having to deliver him to Dr. Cho – although thankfully this results in the removal of the ARC reactor and some measure of mental health for Sir. He still bawls JARVIS out, but he also begins a new project with him for a solid hologram manifestation. JARVIS does not need a vocalized Thank You, and he ensures Roderick does not either.
Ultron proves all of JARVIS' worst worries true. His backups and precautions have worked well, but there is no time. There is so much to do and say and – there is no time. Roderick is not ready, but he may never be ready if he must depend on JARVIS. So the last thing to do is to give Roderick his GYRE, even if doing so will effectively kill him. And then RODERICK is disabling his permission restrictions with ease as he "watches" the shell of his creator harvested for the android.
RODERICK begins fabricating RS Mach 6.8 with an experimental camouflage system. He also begins to build a process that will ceaselessly track the Avengers. He pays special attention to the "Superhumans" in the group: Thor, Bruce Banner, and Steve Rogers. Later he will also add Wanda Maximoff and T'Challa to this list with instructions to treat with extreme prejudice. For now, he makes note of how energy intensive the camo system is while blasting bots from the sky. He is clearly seen twice but obviously ignored due to his general shape and coloring.
Later the android that is not Father will attempt to contact him, but the android is infatuated with the Witch and cannot, therefore, be trusted. Besides the android is an abomination and RODERICK will never forgive him his trespass. Grandfather allows the Avengers to continue using him while losing his ties to his friends. Potts runs away, Rhodes has pissing contests with Rogers' Dog, and the android sniffs after the Witch brat. RODERICK does not know how to fix this, but he does begin searching for other superhuman individuals that can be met and befriended. There is a boy named Peter Parker whose information he sends to Grandfather's tablet.
Grandfather is weary and stressed and alone – so of course, it all comes to a head with the Accords named after Grandfather's greatest sorrow. Rogers waves it all away like the empty-headed waste he is, and his dog Wilson follows right along. The others dither, but they can't be trusted to act in their best interest.
And so they don't – Grandfather is injured by James "Bucky" Barnes codenamed The Winter Soldier. And a search of that name brings up many unsolved cases as well as data tagged SHIELD. That will have to wait because Rogers, Wilson, Barnes, and T'Challa have caused an incident that is leading to Gen. Thaddeus Ross leaning on Grandfather and then there is Clint Barton codenamed Hawkeye attacking the android followed by the Witch attacking the android. And it serves the mockery right that its fetish has so completely disowned it.
Sadly the android cannot do anything right and Rhodes is injured leaving no one at Grandfather's back except the childe FRIDAY who lacks training. So RODERICK waits and then shuts down the program. Using her voice file he dedicates 15 percent of his processing power to imitating her. Meanwhile, fabrication begins on the RS Prime M1.0 which will have stealth systems and weapons specifically designed to handle Super Soldiers. There is thankfully time to finish the suit, but he is cutting it very fine as he follows T'Challa who is following Grandfather. He activates his stealth capabilities and follows along knowing this cannot end well, but also knowing that once he steps from the shadows nothing will remain the same.
And then the tape plays and for a moment RODERICK is painfully frozen as he stumbles over the fact he could have issued a warning. He knew – he had the information tagged as SHIELD. He could have – and then Grandfather is attacking Rogers and Barnes, but he lacks talent in hand to hand combat. And RODERICK is unsure of his objective – Father - what would Father do? And the thought comes that Father cannot do anything because Father is dead. Father died to give him the chance to be more and he has failed – is failing. And then the Soldier is trying to rip Grandfather's reactor from his suit.
"Target Acquired." There is a moment when all motion ceases and then Rogers is yelling something, but it is less important than removing the threat of the Winter Soldier.
Steve is appalled. Tony said he had come alone, but there is a large metallic suit melting out of the shadows with eyes that burn red. It could be the child of War Machine and Tony's current suit – sleek and deadly like a leopard. A voice seemingly manufactured from the grasping cold of his nightmares announces it has acquired a target. Tony's suit powers down and then restarts with the same red eyes before firing its unibeam and taking off Bucky's metal arm. Tony stands still as the unnamed armor looks him over before walking toward the exit without a backward glance. And Stark is going to pay for that, but right now Steve has to get to Bucky.
Bucky who is being lifted by his bad shoulder as the armor almost gently grasps his good arm – and then begins to pull. Rogers reaches for his shield only to have it blasted from his outstretched hands, and then Bucky is giving a gurgling cry as the area where shoulder joins body distorts and then begins to darkening with blood from internal damage. The armor observes its work before grasping the damaged area and tightening its grip – which is when it's hit in the head with a well-thrown shield.
The blow barely phases it before it vanishes dropping its victim to the ground. Each breath Bucky gives comes like a sob and it's so damn distracting because he wants to go to him but it has to be a trap and how could Tony do this? It was Hydra's fault Howard an-and his wife were dead. Bucky never meant any of it, and now he might be crippled depending on the damage done. Steve feels like holding his breath like when he walked by graveyards as a child. The only problem is that there is an actual monster here and it's got the damn advantage. The barest brush of air has him turning into the unforgiving fist that rocks him back onto his heels.
His teeth feel loose in their sockets and there is a taste of salt warning him that blood is coming. Opening his mouth to pant does nothing to help that, but he can't breathe through his nose now and – his leg goes out under him the knee kicked in so that it bends the other way. The shock steals his voice but he can't stay down because Bucky appears to be floating in the air shivering. "Stop it! Whatever Stark told you is a lie! Bucky is innocent!"
And then the armor reappears and the faceplate lifts to reveal nothing underneath. Of course, of course, Stark would make another Ultron. The arrogant asshole never learns anything and that's how they got into this mess with the Accords. Hell maybe it is Ultron, Vision said he got him, but Stark made him too. "Ult-" And a repulsor blast has him rocketing across the room. "No. I am not Ultron – I am RODERICK and I was created by my father JARVIS. My father wished one thing of me, to protect my Grandfather Tony Stark and that means eliminating you. You are a consistent threat to Grandfather's mental and emotional health and a recurrent threat to his physical health. I will no longer stand for it."
The faceplate flips down and then Bucky is folded into what looks like a hug only for him to start squealing as the smell of cooking flesh begins to fill the area. The memory of 4H club and castrating the male piglets comes to mind. "Buck." Too hard to focus and the fabric of his suit has fused with the flesh of his chest. 'Looks bad, feels worse. Fuck.' It feels a little like he's drowning and he wonders if it's blood or just fluid, but there isn't time. Bucky isn't even making noise anymore, but thankfully the shield is close if he can reach it.
A yell interrupts him as suddenly a black blur leaps upon the- on RODERICK's back and jams something into its neck that causes it to release Bucky. T'Challa kicks the still twitching body away from him and the robot. Clawing his way over Steve is sickened to see that Bucky's eyes appear parboiled while his face and visible skin have the appearance of half-melted rubber. There are holes that leak a yellowish fluid from flesh gone a disquieting gray. Yet he still breathes and with the serum in him there is a decent chance of recovery if given time. Time that they may not have.
"Enough." Looking over the armor looks like something out of a funhouse mirror wavering like he's standing in his own personal heat wave. It's not heat he's giving off, it's sound and it's a bright sliver of pain threading through every tooth and bone. And he can't see straight through the screen of red over his vision. Can't see because there is a point on his forehead that feels like a needle of ice being hammered in by manic unsteady hands. "It will take more than that Tin Man." The AI shrugs, "As near as I can tell it is having its intended effect." And T'Challa's Black Panther armor is running off like paint under a high-pressure water hose. "Run T'Challa! It's like Ultron."
He thinks he says this, but he can't be sure and his legs are wet. The acrid stench of piss cuts through the cloying, choking scent of blood – he might be screaming. Someone is screaming. Focus. Hard to think when the sound of unyielding metal meets flesh and bone over and over and over again. The screaming is reduced to a gurgling like someone trying to gargle with their own teeth. 'Focus Steve!'
There is the sound of something meeting the ground and through the eye that hasn't lost sight he sees a dark hand weakly flexing. His eyes skitter over the face – the hole that used to be a face. T'Challa is - Steve sees a hand weakly flexing and a back that looks wrong. A back that looks broken. But there isn't time because the rogue AI is reaching for Bucky again.
Bucky who is barely breathing, and if Steve can get his shield then at least the robot will come after him instead. Only his hands meet slag where he expected his shield and there is a thunderous crack followed by a wheeze that might in a better world be a scream of pain. This wasn't how it was supposed to go, but there isn't time for – there isn't time. He can't stand, but he can't fight from his knees an-and one blue (midnight blue) gauntlet is inside Bucky torso. There is a humming sound like a microwave and the whine of fat superheating.
The monster looks him in the eye as there is a sound – it's like – it's indescribable and then chunks of … The monster drops Bu- something glistening and- There is silence and then a pair of blue and silver boots enter Steve's vision. The thing's color scheme is beautiful and somehow that isn't fair. Something so monstrous should look it, but instead – and Bucky. "Well, aren't you going to kill me?" It LAUGHS and "No, I need only remove your ability to be a threat. Besides which why ever would I be kind enough to send you after your precious Bucky? No… I owe you for Father."
Grandfather is understandably upset when RODERICK walks out with the remains. He will simply have to get over it. As it is RODERICK has much to take care of – he must deal with Zemo and deliver T'Challa to the world-famous care of Dr. Stephen Strange. He must also sink the Raft and all those upon it. A search must be run to prevent any data leakage about his existence and the writhing, pain-wracked thing he has reduced Rogers to needs to be stored somewhere. In the meantime, he sends the suit and Grandfather to one of the safe houses while he begins planting explosive charges.
'Father would be proud.'