Location: Avengers Quinjet, somewhere above Europe
Abby sat by her brother's side on the way home, keeping an eye on him.
"Abby, I'm fine!" he kept insisting. "Aunt Bobbi sorted me out. You don't have to keep an eye on me."
"Yes, I do, little brother." she replied. Peter turned to their older sister.
"Lettie, can you tell Abby that she's overreacting and being overprotective?" he asked.
"And can you tell Peter that he's been injured, his haemophilia has flared up and that I can't help being overprotective?" asked Abby. "Oh, and I'm not overreacting!"
"Yes, you are, Abby!"
"No, I'm not!"
"Yes, you are!"
"No, I'm not!"
"Enough!" Scarlett exclaimed. "Abby, you are overreacting and being overprotective. Peter, you've been injured and bleeding. So can you both just give it a rest?"
"No." they replied. Scarlett rolled her eyes and muttered under her breath so that only they could hear her.
"Don't make me bring Mom into this." she said, knowing that her siblings would listen to their mother.
"No!" they both said quickly, shaking their heads. Scarlett smiled.
I knew that would work. she thought. Abby's raised eyebrows told her that her little sister had read her mind. Get out of my head, Abby. Abby tilted her head to the side and smiled. Peter looked between them, knowing what was going on.
"Alright." he said. "I'll stay here. As long as you two don't start being too overprotective."
Abby, Chloe and Izzy stayed next to him whilst Scarlett went over to where Bruce and Nathan were sitting quietly, listening to classical music on headphones. They looked up and took the headphones off as she sat down next to them.
"Hey." she said. "How are you holding up?"
"Ok." said Nathan. "Did we get Loki's sceptre?"
"Yes." she replied. "And we also took down the HYDRA base. Lots of agents dead, Strucker in custody."
"You know, sometimes what we want to hear isn't exactly what we want to hear." said Bruce.
"Uncle Thor, report on the Hulk?" Scarlett called over to him.
"The gates of hell are filled with the screams of his victims." Thor said, enthusiastically. Scarlett turned and glared at him whilst Bruce put his head in his hands, the kids face palmed and Steve, Tony, Clint, Barney and Bobbi trying not to laugh. Thor saw their reactions and quickly tried to correct himself. "But not the screams of the dead, of course. No, no...wounded screams...mainly whimpering, a great deal of complaining and tales of sprained deltoids and...gout."
There was an awkward pause in the jet.
"Hey, Bruce?" Tony called to his friend from the pilot seat. "Dr. Cho's on her way in from Seoul. Is it ok if she sets up in your lab?"
"Er...yeah." said Bruce. "She knows her way around."
"Thanks." Tony then spoke quietly to JARVIS. "Tell her to prep everything. Peter's gonna need the full treatment."
"Very well, sir." JARVIS replied.
"JARVIS, take the wheel." said Tony, moving the seat back.
"Yes, sir."
Tony went over to where Andy, Ben, Erik, Thor and Steve were looking at the sceptre.
"Feels good, yeah." said Tony. "You've been after this thing since S.H.I.E.L.D. collapsed. Not that I haven't enjoyed our little raiding parties."
"No, but this...this brings it to a close." said Thor, smiling.
"As soon as we find out what else it's been used for." said Steve.
"Bruce, Nathan, Andy and I will give it the once-over before it goes back to Asgard." said Tony. "Is that cool?" Thor nodded. "Just a few days."
Andy wandered over to the side of the jet and sat by himself. Chloe joined him.
"Hey." she said.
"Hey, yourself." he said, smiling.
"So... if you want to talk about what happened with Uncle Tony..." she said. "I'm here. My cousin's psychic. I'm used to weird stuff like that. We all are. And you're talking to someone who got brainwashed by both Loki and the Aether so...I sort of understand what happened."
"Thanks, Chloe." he said.
Location: Avengers Tower, New York City, New York
The Quinjet arrived back at Avengers Tower and the teams were greeted by Maria Hill and Dr. Helen Cho. Dr. Cho immediately took Peter off to the infirmary, being closely followed by the rest of the Bartons.
"Hi, Chris." said Maria, hugging her son.
"Hi, Mom." he said. Maria walked onto the jet.
"Lab's all set up, boss." she said. Tony spun round in the pilot's seat.
"Actually, he's the boss." he corrected her, pointing at Steve. "I just pay for everything, and design everything and make everyone look cooler."
"What's the word on Strucker?" asked Steve.
"NATO's got him." she replied.
"And the two enhanced?"
Maria showed him her tablet as the two of them walked out of the jet, followed by Ben and Chris.
"Wanda and Pietro Maximoff." she said. "Twins. Orphaned at ten when a shell collapsed on their apartment building. Sokovia has had a...rough history, it's nowhere special but it's on the way to everywhere special."
"Their abilities?" asked Steve.
"He's got increased metabolism and improved thermal homeostasis. Her thing is neuro-electric interfacing, telekinesis and mental manipulation." He looked at her, confused. The only one he understood was telekinesis.
"He's got super speed." said Ben.
"And she's got telepathy, telekinesis, mind control and can create energy blasts." said Chris.
"Well, they're going to turn up again." said Steve.
"Agreed." said Maria, as Steve, Ben and Chris walked towards the elevator. "File says they volunteered for Strucker's experiments. It's nuts."
"Right." said Steve. "What kind of monster would let a German scientist experiment on them to protect their country?"
"We're not at war, Captain."
"They are."
"How's Peter?" asked Nathan.
"Well, he's still Peter." said Andy.
"Good to know." Nathan said.
Tony and Andy walked into the lab.
"Alright! Look alive, JARVIS!" Tony said. "Play time." He walked over to where the sceptre was being contained. "We got a couple days with this joystick so let's make the most of it." He picked up a tablet. "Update me on the structural and compositional analysis." JARVIS scanned it.
"The sceptre is alien." he said.
"Thanks for that, Captain Obvious." said Andy. JARVIS, sensibly, ignored him.
"There are elements I can't quantify."
"But those elements that you can?" asked Tony.
"The sceptre contains something powerful inside."
"Like an arc reactor?" asked Andy.
"Like a computer." JARVIS replied.
"Are you sure he's gonna be ok?" Abby asked, watching Dr. Cho healing Peter.
"Yes." Dr. Cho replied. "The machine heals wounds by re-growing skin tissue."
"Is that even possible?" asked Scarlett.
"This is the same world that has the GH-325." Bobbi reminded her. Scarlett nodded.
"Of course."
"GH-325?" asked Bruce.
"It's a drug that enables rapid cellular regeneration." Bobbi explained. "My other team came across it. Two members were even injected with it."
"What were their injuries?"
"One of them died and the other took two bullets to the stomach, perforating her large and small intestines." said Bobbi. "But they're ok now." She looked down at her nephew. "Just like you're going to be, Peter."
"Well, he'll certainly be ok once he's had some of this in him!" exclaimed Andy, coming in with a tray of drinks which he handed to Peter, Abby and Scarlett.
"Butterbeer?" asked Scarlett.
"Yep."
"Do I even want to know how and why you have Butterbeer in the Tower?"
"Lettie, this is Andy we're talking about." Peter reminded his sister. "It's best not to ask."
"Oh, Dr. Cho, Dad told me to ask you to the party on Saturday." said Andy.
"Unlike you, I have a lot of work to be done." she replied. "And you don't need to be formal with me, Andy. Only your father and Dr. Banner call me Dr. Cho. Call me Helen." She looked at the three Barton kids. "And that goes for you as well." They nodded.
"Ok, Aunt Helen." said Andy. "But you're coming to the party, right?"
"If you want me to." Helen replied.
"Please!" Andy, Abby, Peter and Scarlett all said.
"We need some more females in the room." said Abby.
"Well, when you say it like that..." Helen smiled. "Of course I'll come."
"What's the situation?" asked Bruce, as he and Tony walked into the lab.
"The sceptre." replied Tony. "You know we were wondering how Strucker got so inventive? I've been analysing the gem inside..." he picked up his phone and flicked it. "...and you may recognise..." A ball of yellow energy appeared in the air.
"JARVIS." said Bruce.
"Doctor." said JARVIS.
"Started out as JARVIS' natural language, A.I." explained Tony. "He runs this company more than Pepper does. Now meet the competition." He flicked his phone again and a larger ball of blue energy appeared in the air next to JARVIS. "Give a guess. What's it look like?"
"Like it's thinking." Bruce walked in front of it and looked at it in awe. "I mean, this could be...It's not a human mind...I mean, look at this..." He gestured to it. "They're like neurons firing."
"Down in Strucker's lab, I saw some fairly advanced robotics." said Tony.
"Artificial Intelligence." said Bruce.
"This could be it, Bruce." Tony said. "This could be the key to creating Ultron."
"I thought Ultron was a fantasy?"
"Yesterday it was. If we harness this power, apply it to my Iron Legion protocol. I'm going to apply this to the Ultron program. But JARVIS can't download a data package this dense. We can only do it if we have the sceptre. Three days. Give me Three days."
"So you're going for Artificial Intelligence and you don't wanna tell the team?" asked Bruce. "That's a really bad idea, Tony!"
"Right, that's right. You know why? Because we don't have time for a City Hall debate." said Tony. "I see a suit of armour around the world." He walked towards the two balls of energy. "Peace in our time."
Tony and Bruce then spent the next three days working out a way for them to incorporate the gem from Loki's sceptre into the Ultron program.
The last day, Tony was alone in the lab.
"I'll continue to run variations on the Internet." said JARVIS. "But you should probably prepare for your party. I'll notify you if there are any developments."
"Thanks, buddy." said Tony, walking out of the lab. The lights automatically switched off and the windows turned black.
"Enjoy yourself, sir."
"I always do."
Because I've got Bobbi Morse in this story, there'll be references to Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. - for example, the GH-325. And talking of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., everyone in the Tower knows that Coulson is alive - apart from Tony, Steve, Bruce, Thor, Helen Cho and JARVIS.
The Butterbeer is obviously a reference to Harry Potter, because I imagine Scarlett as being played by Bonnie Wright (aka Ginny Weasley).