A/N: Have a slightly late Christmas present in a second Chapter. Additionally for anyone whose interested the timeline of this series it goes like this:
Avengers Assemble - Daddy Dearest - MCU Phase 2 (with the exception of the IM3 post credits scene because reasons) - Thicker Than Water.
So yeah hope that helps a little. Also Thank you to everyone who has reviewed/ fav'd/ read this. You guys are all awesome!
Chapter 2: A Glitch In The Matrix.
[Stark Tower. New York City.]
Tony awoke with a start heart racing and his hand flew to his chest rubbing at the phantom pains in his chest. He couldn't exactly remember the dream he'd been having, only that it had been an unpleasant one and he was happy at leaving it at that. He rubbed his mouth in an attempt to wipe away the early morning gunk and decided that it was probably a good time to get a drink of something that wasn't alcoholic. Slowly he got to his feet and staggered toward the coffee machine trying to ignore the way the world tilted just a little as he stood.
The last few months had been, well to put it politely; rough. First there had been that whole thing with Howard and the WSC and...He stopped his train of thought there. Then there was the whole clusterfuck with Killian and Jesus that had been all kinds of messed up. He placed his hand over where the Arc Reactor had once resided, Tony had learnt a few hard lessons thanks to that little adventure almost losing everything in the process, which had admittedly sucked.
Of course he hadn't been the only one who had been busy, he couldn't even turn on a television without seeing Natasha or Steve splashed across the screen.
Damn fucking Hydra, thinking they could do whatever the hell they wanted but they hadn't counted on the resourcefulness of Captain America and the Black Widow.
Although that 'resourcefulness' had also caused Tony a major headache, the backlash from their outing had been immense; not everyone had been happy to have all their dirty secrets splashed across the internet and he'd been hard pressed trying to keep some of the more sensitive information from falling into the wrong hands. A task that had been slowly pushing him to the edge of the precipice and Tony wasn't entirely sure he didn't want to fall.
Sighing slightly to himself and pushing away those dark thoughts the billionaire flicked on the switch for the coffee machine and immediately the smell of fresh coffee began to fill the workshop. He waited patiently for the beverage to brew and then downed a cup not caring about how hot it was, he needed the damn caffeine to stave off his hangover.
Feeling sufficiently 'caffeine'd up' and a lot less like death he turned back to, whatever it was he had been manufacturing last night and sighed again. He really needed to stop doing drunk engineering, one of these days he was going to accidentally make a WMD and that would not be fun.
Tony poured himself another cup and headed back to the workbench.
"J, what the hell was I making last night?"
There was no answer and then Tony remembered, of course; he'd muted JARVIS.
"JARVIS unmute."
"Good morning Sir, it is approximately 6:45am... As to the contraption at your workstation I believe it is meant to be a new toaster design...*"
Tony groaned and ran a grimy hand through his hair, this was exactly why he shouldn't drunk engineer; he made rubbish like this instead of something useful.
"...During your excess yesterday evening you became hungry and when the toaster was not quick enough for your liking you and I quote 'am designing something better than this heap of shit' before promptly muting me to prevent any protestations." JARVIS's tone was disapproving and downright acidic.
The billionaire couldn't help but wince a little at that.
"Uh... Sorry?" He tried weakly.
There was a beat of icy silence and Tony felt his heart sink a little, had something else happened while he'd been out of it? Surely if he'd become that unstable then JARVIS would have gotten one of the refurbished bots to intervene? Speaking of the bots just where were the erstwhile machines? Something wasn't quite adding up here.
"J, I know I'm probably going to regret asking this but where are DUM-E, Butterfingers and U?"
The silence, if possible turned even more frosty.
"I'm afraid I do not feel at liberty to give you that information."
Tony blinked up at the ceiling and felt his stomach twist unpleasantly.
Oh that didn't sound good.
"J, what did I do?" He tried not to sound like a whiny child.
"You tried to dismantle them Sir."
Tony froze his blood running cold, he tried to do what? Shame burned low in his belly and he dropped his gaze to the floor unable to face JARVIS despite the AI having no physical form. In all his years of drunken binges he'd never once tried to harm his bots, even at his absolute worse, that he would do so now did not bode well.
"Oh shit, J I'm sorry... I don't... "
"I don't believe that I am the one you should be apologising to Sir."
Tony bit his lip to stop the strangled sound of woe threatening to erupt from his throat. How had he allowed this to happen?
"Where are they J? I... I need to make this right."
JARVIS was silent for a moment as if trying to gauge the man's sincerity and after a long tense second he spoke again.
"They have taken up residence in Doctor Banner's former laboratory, knowing that you would not choose to go there willingly."
The billionaire groaned slightly out of frustration and slightly out of annoyance, those sneaky little bastards. Resigning himself to his fate he downed the last of his coffee and slowly walked toward the glass panel that served as a door.
"J, initiate lockdown until I get back okay."
"As you wish Sir."
The lab in question looked almost exactly the same as it had the day the tower had been attacked, obviously it had been renovated a bit since the incident but aside from a few scorch marks it was essentially the same.
Tony sucked in a deep breath as he stepped inside, willing away the memories of the last time he'd been stood in this room. He could hear the faint beep signalling that the bots were present and cautiously took another step into the lab. There was a squeal of tyres as one of them reversed away hastily.
Fuck, he'd really fucked this up.
"Guys I'm sorry, I didn't... I'm sorry."
The bots didn't respond to the apology and seemed to be assessing their creator, if Tony hadn't been so damned sorry about this whole situation he would have been proud of them. Their learning AI was a basic one (at least in to comparison to JARVIS but then most things paled in comparison to him) but it gave them basic reasoning and they had taken the situation, acknowledged a threat to their well being and acted accordingly, exactly like a living being would. It was a trait they hadn't shown before and it made Tony wonder if this was what it felt like to be a parent.
"DUM-E, U, Butterfingers I'm so fucking sorry, I shouldn't have..." He ran a hand over his face.
There was a faint mechanical whirring and then a familiar mechanical claw was gently petting his head before moving to grip his shoulder in the robotic equivalent of a hug. Tony honestly couldn't find the words to convey what he was feeling at that moment, instead he just patted the bulky chassis and murmured "Good boy" under his breath. As if emboldened by DUM-E the other bots rolled forward and began to tentatively pet the billionaire, showing that he'd been forgiven.
Tony gave in and allowed himself to be manhandled, laughing softly with occasional hiccup of a caught breath. He couldn't believe he'd messed up since badly, things had slowly been sliding downhill since the funeral but this, this was a new low even for him but at least the bots had been merciful.
He hadn't been so lucky with other people.
No, he wasn't going to think about that now, the wounds were still fresh and throbbing and didn't need prodding any further.
He was grateful when mere seconds later JARVIS interrupted his train of thought.
"Sir, I believe that my networks are being hacked."
Tony's head shot up at that his eyes flashing dangerously. "What?"
"I believe my networks are being hacked from a source of unknown origin." JARVIS repeated, sounding more than a little alarmed.
"What are they after J? And pull it up on screen, someone is very mistaken if they think they can break into here."
The familiar blue holographic screens flared into life, code streaming up and down them with alarming speed. Tony seated himself in front of it and cracked his fingers.
"They appeared to be attempting to access the Avenger files Sir, in particular those referencing Doctor Banner and the Hulk."
That made Tony pause for a second and he frowned Banner? What interest could they have there? Whatever it was it wasn't a thought that filled the billionaire with the warm and fuzzies, in fact the opposite was true.
"Okay let's show this asshole who he is dealing with!"
"As you wish Sir."
Tony's fingers flew across the virtual keyboard and he had to give mysterious hacker some props, they were clearly skilled because the hack had to be one of the most elegant Tony had seen that hadn't been performed by himself and that was really saying something. The little fucker had danced around JARVIS's firewalls like they weren't even there and the billionaire was working full tilt to create new ones even as the hacker ripped through them.
"J how's that spike going?" He asked not even taking a second to look away from stream after stream of code.
"I have been unable to trace the hacker to it's source as of yet Sir, they are using a variety of onion networks to conceal their location. As well as a variety of programs and firewalls to corrupt my systems."
Well that just sucked, this asshole was rapidly going from minor nuisance to downright fucking abhorrent.
"Okay J, let me know when you've got them."
"I shall do so Sir."
The minutes flew by ad Tony engaged in a battle of skills and wits with the hacker, every time the fucker made a hole the billionaire was right there to block it up and doubly reinforce it. After Tony had been informed of what had been going on and jumped into the fray they hadn't made much progress but the billionaire had not yet been successful in actually booting them from the system, which was more than a little annoying. But he could be patient, admittedly not something he was known for and wait for the hacker to make a mistake. Of course that would be after JARVIS had fixed on the little pricks location.
"Sir, I believe I am homing in on the signal. I should have a location within the next two minutes."
"Nice work J, let's start shutting this guy down."
Tony couldn't hide the malicious glee in his voice as he prepped a very nasty package for their guest, a particular nasty virus that completely wiped a computers BIOS rendering it completely useless. He'd developed it back in his 'merchant of death' days but hadn't really felt the need to share it with anyone. Now however seemed like the perfect opportunity to give it a trial run.
"Sir, I believe I have located the culprit. Infiltrating systems now."
Tony grinned triumphantly JARVIS was the fucking best.
With renewed vigour the billionaire began to hunt down their virtual intruder getting ready to stick the big fuck you sign out for them to see, it was only a matter of time. He set up a few more ridiculously coded firewalls (even he had thought he'd gone a little over the top) and then waited for the trap to snap shut.
"Infiltration complete in five seconds, four seconds, three seconds, two sec..."
The whole room plunged into darkness, hell the whole tower had and Tony couldn't stop the surprised curse from escaping his lips. Just what the fuck was going on? The emergency generator kicked in and the lights flickered back on, JARVIS however did not.
"JARVIS, status!" Tony demanded feeling more than a little panicked.
The AI remained surreptitiously and somewhat ominously silent and Tony felt fear wash over him. Had JARVIS gone? Had the snot-nosed little fucker actually been able to overpower his entire system? He admittedly found it very hard to believe but the truth was right in front of his face and it terrified him. Losing JARVIS was almost like
losing a part of himself and he'd already lost far, far too much already.
Desperately he tried to reboot the each time it failed Tony felt his heart beat just that little faster. Finally after the fourth attempt there was a glimmer of hope as the BIOS finally opened up and he could see the damage that had been done. Fuck, fuck and double fuck JARVIS's systems had been completely shredded, his memory corrupted and Tony let out a scream of fury as he mentally kicked himself.
He'd been fucking played.
The intent had not been to obtain the data but to draw them in so that they could sneak under the AI's defences and plant a virus of their own completely destroying the data entirely. Although for what reason Tony had yet to discover.
He was so busy ranting and raving that he didn't notice the chat box appearing on the monitor beside him.
Hello Mr. Stark. I can see you.
Tony growled at the screen and slammed his fists down on the table.
"Go fuck yourself!"
Tsk, tsk Mr. Stark such language is not appropriate.
"Well I've never really been one for appropriateness asshole, tell me what you did to JARVIS."
I corrupted him using a virus of my own design. I couldn't have the information he held falling into the wrong hands. He fought me but I assure you the corruption was not intentional merely a by-product of his interference.
Tony grimaced taking a few slow deep breaths.
"What information?" He asked, trying to get as much out of this nut job as he could.
And people told me you were smart.
Tony thought back, the files on Banner and the Hulk but why?
"The Hulk files, why?"
Because I owe him a debt.
"And this is how you repay it?! I'm sure he'd be ecstatic!" The billionaire shot sarcastically beyond furious.
No more than you've repaid yours.
"I'm going to find you just so you know." It wasn't an intention but a promise.
He could almost hear the laughter through the monitor and it made Tony want to grind his teeth.
I certainly hope so but I fear you'll have some difficulty doing so, so I'll give you a clue.
The billionaire reflexively clenched and unclenched his fists stifling the urge to punch something.
"A clue... You really expect me to believe that."
Believe it if you want but it is the truth.
"Yeah right.." Tony spat "But fine I'll play your game, give me your clue."
As you wish, my clue is my real name.
"And that is?"
Amadeus Cho.
~End Chapter 2~