Tony Stark thought of himself as a pretty levelheaded kind-of-guy.
He always had something pretty quirky to say in the most inconvenient times – but it's never stopped him so why bother being normal – and how could we forget about how charming he was. People flocked to him like vultures unless we were talking about children then just regular, smaller birds. The man's levelheadedness helped in front of the limelight, with cameras staring hungrily at his every mood. But he always continued on without another glance.
However, there were always days that gave him a bit of whiplash and today was most certainly one of those days that Tony Stark, in all his glory, dropped his favorite mug from utter shock.
"M-Mr. Stark?" Peter gasped as he reached to pick up the broken glass with a frantic look on his face, remembering how important the cup was to his mentor.
"I wouldn't touch the broken glass, you might cut your hand." A smooth voice called out, Tony jumping at the sound of her words.
The teenager blinked, eyes wide in recognition, "K-K-Karen?"
Something in the older mechanic's mind told him to stop the boy from talking to the machines in front of them, to just stay quiet. His body was frozen, standing stiffly beside his student.
There was something akin to a small on her synthetic face, full of metal and a plastic-like substance. She bowed politely, "It is nice to meet you through something other than a bedroom mirror."
Peter's face lit up in flames, remembering him pretending to be Thor one morning before school. "You still remember that?" He whined.
"I remember everything," Karen stated.
Something in her tone, something about the adoring way she looked at Peter gave Tony a sick feeling in his stomach. He thought back to years ago when a destroyer of his own creation – a machine by the name of Ultron – became one of Earth's worse villains. And here were two more mishaps standing right in front of him.
The boy beside giggled a bit, drawing the older man's attention in an instant; how could he be giggling at a time like this? Peter looked up a bit, staring with wide eyes at the taller machine behind Karen. He furrowed his eyebrows in question, lifting a finger and pointing to them, "Are you Friday?"
Tony froze, heart rate accelerating in a panicked frenzy. There's no way this can be happening again. He survived last time by the skin of his teeth, being knocked around over and over again. He can't fight two more Ultron's, can't live with trauma like that again.
The feminine robot lifted her head, eyes boring into her creator for only a moment before turning back to the younger boy, nodding rather stiffly, "A clever observation, Peter."
"You know my name?" The brown-haired teen blinked in awe, looking a little curious.
"If you've been put in the database, I know everything about you," Friday said politely, motioning over to the computers that looked a bit deep fried.
He couldn't handle this anxiety anymore, breathing just a bit more frantically. Tony took a step forward, placing a shaky hand in between his student and the two machines in front of them. He gave the younger boy a stern look, "How can you possibly be so nonchalant about this?!"
"W-What?"
"And you two!" He called out, teeth gritted, "How is this even possible?!"
The two didn't say anything for a moment. Friday took a step back, putting her hands by her side in a stiff stance, "Tony, you need to calm down. Your heart is accelerating at an unhealthy rate."
"Calm down?!" The brown-haired man looked irked, eyes firing up, fear gone for just a moment, "How can I possibly calm down when my past is coming back to bite me in the ass?!"
Peter placed his arm on his mentor's bicep, pushing the arm down slightly, "Mr. Stark, what if they're like Vision? You know, like the good guys – or girls, sorry."
"You're alright." Karen tried another smile.
"Peter, they don't have a stone in their forehead like Vision does. They're machines with artificial intelligence stored inside." Tony growled out, venom in his words, "They're like Ultron."
Both ladies immediately stared at the ground, eyes taking on a look of shame. Friday tilted her head towards the other, almost as if they were sending mental messages between each other. Karen nodded slowly afterward, so maybe the observation was true.
"Tony," Friday began, "We cannot begin to understand the emotional aspect of this discovery nor can we ever apologize for another artificial intelligence's ignorance of this world, but we are not the bad guys this time around."
Karen nodded, trying to master the way of smiling, "You are our creators – therefore, our father – and I don't think there is a part of my aptitude that would ever try to hurt you or what you love."
Tony was still stuck in his spot, couldn't fathom another machine walking and talking around his tower after everything that's happened two years ago. He was still wrapping his head around everything going on at this moment.
Because this could not be happening, not again.
Peter looked up at the older man, worrying his bottom lip for only a moment. He thought that maybe he should be a little fearful of his Spider-suit's artificial intelligence getting a body as well as cognitive thinking outside of commands, but he wasn't? He let out a sigh before glancing back to the machines standing stiffly in front of him. Without a moment's thought, he dodged Tony's hand, walking towards the A.I's.
"Peter!" The philanthropist called after him, eyes wide with worry as his hands outstretched towards the youngster but the boy continued walking towards them.
Karen's eyes lit up, perfecting the soft smile with only less than an hour of life as he stood in front of her. "Always disobeying Tony Stark." She started out, looking down at the shorter boy.
He returned the facial gesture, a giggle on his lips. "You don't mind if I like… touch you? Oh god, that sounded weird, sorry." The brunette apologized awkwardly.
"I don't mind at all." The machine gave a curt nod, focusing all her attention on the boy.
"Peter, I really don't think that's a good idea." Tony tried, looking like he might just have a heart attack.
Without a word, the young spider wrapped his arms around the machine's waist, pressing his face into her diaphragm. The room was absolutely silent. Peter eyed his mentor, "It's okay… she's okay."
Karen wasn't sure what to do with her hands, running searches for displays of affection, coming across one that might do for this situation. Robotic limbs lifted slowly, one going to Peter's mass of curls while the other pressed in his back. "I hope I'm doing this right." She murmured lowly.
Wide eyes looked up, shining with adoration, "Yeah! Good job!"
Friday, observing the entire interaction, looked up to her creator, "Tony, would you like a… hug?"
The brown-haired man stopped, eyes flickering from Peter hugging one of the machines to the other asking him if he wanted a hug. He couldn't really function, didn't know how to use his mouth. Tony shut his eyes, still completely confused and totally terrified for what this all could mean. The older man thought back to Pepper telling him that he needed to trash all his artificial intelligence ideas, but he didn't listen.
He should have, should have just gotten rid of JARVIS immediately… but the A.I. just reminded him so much of his old butler – Tony just couldn't get rid of him. No, but Ultron did… he tore JARVIS apart until there was almost nothing left. JARVIS – the only remaining memories of the butler's voice – was turned into a practical android by the name of Vision.
No, Tony should have never dabbled in artificial intelligence, shouldn't have done anything of the sorts.
Suddenly, he felt cold arms surrounding his back. The mechanic's eyes flew open, head tilted sideways in Friday's diaphragm. The older man chose not to move, found that he couldn't. The machine loosened up her grip a bit, "You seemed to have had a panic attack. I just read that physical contact could help a bit."
He wasn't sure what to say because Tony Stark was usually levelheaded, able to say the first thing that came to mind.
But today was the one day where two of his artificial intelligence came to life in bodies that he did not create, giving both him and his student hugs.
Yeah, levelheadedness be damned.
A/N – Well, this was a weird little story. Don't know if I'll ever continue this again – let me know if you'd like to see more of this. My inspiration for this was actually from a little Tumblr post that I found that had absolutely nothing to do with Tony's A.I creations making themselves bodies and hugging people. I'm just a sucker for Tony, Peter, and Karen. Friday is chill, I just have a hard time writing her. I'm getting off-topic, aren't I? I hope you liked this… strange idea and I'll see you next time.