We took the damn promotion. Not just me. The whole damn team. While I might be lead, in no way could I do any of this without all of them by my side, so I bargained for all of us and those higher up the food chain caved quickly.
We would still be doing ops, just not as often and definitely not ones the other Tier teams could handle. The cross-training and modification to the hierarchy within the teams had turned out to be the easy part and had been going well, however, there had turned out to be a factor for my team that could not be replicated as easily.
Me.
Or my weird-ass memory anyway. I had an encyclopedia of knowledge in my brain that I could call up with ease. Did I know everything? Oh hell no, I'd be a drooling mess on the floor, but I knew a fuckton. And more I could use the information. Yes, I still had to learn, to be taught how to use the knowledge, but once I did I never forgot and could expand upwards from the base.
Not everyone understood that. Not even Steve, I think. The biggest advantage was that I could really learn anything and, while not necessarily an expert at all of it, I found I could handle myself more than adequately, often with above average skill. And once I learned it I never forgot it. That included physical skills. So, while I would never be a world-class surgeon I could manage a quite neat stitch when needed.
It had been needed more than once during my comparatively short career.
Since my forte had never been programming, least not of the detailed kind I would need for this project, Hill had set up a meeting with Stark.
I didn't think it would go well at all. Somehow it managed to exceed even those lofty expectations.
Hill outlined what we needed and he laughed at us.
"You what?"
I sighed and glanced over at Hill who shrugged at me. "I want to create a program that can duplicate the data in my head and make it accessible to the other teams on ops."
He sat back in his chair with far more violence than necessary. "Not possible."
"Bullshit," I challenged. "Your butler programs shatter Turing tests on the regular. This would be similar, but not necessarily require the human-like interface, though that would make the search and requests simpler and potentially more responsive."
"My programs were never designed to handle the variable battle conditions you tend to face." He shook his head. "No, it'd be a waste of my time."
"So, Vision learned tactics all on his own? FRIDAY running your suits for training sims is sheer luck?" I knew he didn't like me, though I had never understood why. "The Tier teams need to be able to analyze faster, that appears to be the major difference between my team and the rest. The skills cross-training is going much better than predicted, but they need something more."
"Tony, this has been authorized at the highest levels. The Captain would like this done ASAP." Hill had her work voice firmly in place, but that had never moved Stark at any time that I'd observed so I didn't see it working here now.
"Of course, if the Captain wants it done ASAP..." Stark snapped off a damn near perfect salute, but the sneering tone wouldn't have been missed by a deaf man.
I pushed slowly to my feet. "Sorry, Mr. Stark, I didn't mean to interrupt your oh so busy schedule." It hadn't been, busy, that is. In fact, according to Hill, he'd proclaimed boredom which had made him willing to take this meeting. "I'll manage. I can take a few classes. I should have the basics down in a day or two if you can clear my schedule."
Tony snorted. "If you think you can begin programming an AI in less than a week-"
Hill cut him off at the knees, "Yes, we do."
The emphasis on we seemed to grab his attention. "You all really think the sun rises and sets on her pert little ass, don't you?"
I simply raised an eyebrow at him.
Hill's look darkened noticeably. "Mr. Stark, I would suggest you change your tone."
Tony frowned for a moment then nodded slowly. "I guess what the Captain wants the Captain gets."
I gave up right then. Deciding it would not be worth the effort to make him understand. "Is Constantine still available. He should be able to get me through the basics quickly."
Hill got to her feet, every line of her body telegraphing her unhappiness with how this meeting had gone. "He should be. He seemed quite excited to meet you."
"Wait. John Constantine? Works for TechEdge?" Tony sounded decidedly affronted at the mere mention of the man's name. "You think he can write this program for you?"
I snorted. "No. I intend to write the program. Just need him to teach me the basics of the coding language."
Tony blinked. Twice.
"Rogers is dating a crazy-lady." He glanced over at Hill who remained perfectly enigmatic. "Hill, she can't do this."
"Why not?" I asked. I didn't care if the man liked me or not, but to impede the job I had been tasked to do because of it annoyed the fuck out of me.
"You're a grunt. No way you're smart enough to write a program of this type."
Hill shrugged when I looked her way. "And you're just a rich brat with a god complex. Yet here we both are. Playing hero."
His eyes widened for a long moment. He slowly got to his feet, borderline glare never moving off me. "Ouch. I've been called worse names, you know."
"Names? Pretty certain I was quoting that Times article from 2010."
He froze for roughly half a second. "Huh. Oh, you're the one with the memory. That doesn't actually make you smart, you know."
I rolled my eyes, catching the twitch on the lips of Hill before complaining. "Does no one actually read my file?"
"Apparently not. I'll have a meeting set up with Constantine by the end of the week." She pushed to her feet, clearly considering this confrontation over. Much as I did.
Together we headed for the door to the conference room, only to be cut off by Tony who seemed disappointed that I'd given up the fight so easily.
"Stop."
HIll aimed that death stare first at his hand and then at him. "Mr. Stark, I actually do have work to do, so if you will excuse us..."
"And you think I don't," the put-upon tone about as fake as one could get, and just firmed my opinion of the man. Not a good one, for the record. "And just why do you think I should be the one to teach you?"
Hill glanced down at her smartwatch, I knew she was on a tight schedule. "I've got this. I'll let you know within the hour if I need that meeting with Constantine."
She gave me a nod. "Works. Mr. Stark." Then she was gone, out the door and heading back to the control center or one of the dozen other meetings I knew she had scheduled for the day.
Tony hadn't moved an inch, still awaiting that answer to his smarmily asked question. "Because using one of your existing butler programs for the base of the tactical version seemed to be the most efficient use of everyone's time and energy. It is not a requirement. And given the teams have already worked with either JARVIS, FRIDAY or both, one done in a similar style would hopefully ease the transition."
"And why are you doing the coding?"
"My brain. My unique ability to translate vasts amounts of information into coherency is what we're trying to duplicate, might help if I'm in the same room when it's being designed."
A brief look of interest crossed his face. He waved at the table. "Sit, please."
My afternoon had been freed up to work on this and while I would have preferred starting the actual work, I decided to give Stark a few more minutes of my time. I permitted him to escort me to the nearest chair, which he pulled out for me and tucked in properly as I sat.
He waved the holographic display to life over the table, using the watch on his wrist to control the data. Within seconds I saw the majority of my life appear in the air. Reports and files and tests all the way back to the initial hospital records covering my injuries. "How the hell did you survive that?"
The remains of the vehicle I'd been in when a fully loaded dump truck had plowed into us hanging before me. "Not a clue. I have no memory of the two weeks prior to that day."
"I'm not surprised." He swiped the air and x-rays appeared, showing the damage to my skull. Still, even I knew it didn't really reveal the true extent of the damage. "How smart were you prior to the head injury?"
I shrugged. "Above average for my age, but nothing special. Had a decided interest in social media and youtube. Oh and math. Enjoyed athletics without excelling at any of them."
"A generalist then."
I nodded. "Typical kid before being pigeonholed. After, however..."
He changed the x-rays to MRIs of my brain from what appeared to be a few months after the accident. "You knew everything."
"Not exactly. I remembered everything. They thought it was a simple eidetic memory at first until they realized that I could do more than remember. I learned. I knew. And I could extrapolate from known data. And it was more than knowledge. It was physical reactions as well. I earned a black belt in aikido in six months at the age of fifteen."
"Eidetic muscle memory."
"That's what they called it, but it was unheard of. I'm an anomaly."
"Do you need to learn a full language to posit the interpolations?"
I shook my head. "There are exceptions. Arabic is one of them. But those that follow logical steps? No. This isn't something I crow about, Mr. Stark, but I do use it to my advantage whenever I can. This program they want me to write, it'll save lives, I hope."
"Including the Captain's?"
"Maybe. Though he's far more likely to jump on a live grenade to save the rest of us." I feared that one day he wouldn't come back for that exact reason. Giving his life to save the rest of us no matter how little we might be deserving of it. "The reason we met is because I did that for him. I took his bullet, so to speak."
"I remember. Never seen the man so focused on a goal." The sneering had eased somewhat but still remained buried in his casual tone.
"For fuck's sake, Stark. I get you don't like me-"
"You're his Yoko Ono," he snapped, thrilled with the fact he'd gotten me to show my emotions.
"Exactly how do you figure that?"
He narrowed his eyes and leaned in. "I'm impressed. Figured a millennial wouldn't get that reference."
"I've read Wikipedia."
"All of it?"
I laughed. "Well I don't check for new additions daily, but yeah, all of it. Now, I'm not as up on my PornHub as I could be, but I've trolled large portions of the 'net."
"And you don't need to go back to verify your data." He waved at the screen and a scan of my brain function appeared. "Your brain is weird. Wired completely wrong."
"And?"
"And I need to know more. What advantages does having all this knowledge and abilities available for instant access."
I pondered how best to explain what I simply did instinctively. "You know how Cap and Nat train us to be aware of everything around us?" Tony nodded. "I just do that. All the time."
"And you can run scenarios based on the cues to predict the outcome."
"Outcomes would be more accurate. It's why we're so adaptable." I pointed to my scans. "I've run sims through FRIDAY. Somehow I can beat her."
He looked up at the ceiling. "FRIDAY?"
"She's not lying, boss. Even scenarios I generate, she wins. I don't even play chess with her any longer. I can't beat her."
Tony frowned, clearly having issues with that. "That... that shouldn't be possible."
"Not disagreeing with you, but she does it. It's bloody annoying."
Tony snorted. "Huh. Well, now you've made this a challenge."
Which is exactly how Steve had suggested I approach this. But he had also warned me to be subtle, to let Tony come to the decision to assist all on his own. Between Romanov and Hill, I'd become quite adept at permitting the mark do the heavy lifting and giving me exactly what I wanted. I didn't often need to use those covers I'd created, but I had never failed on those occasions when I did. This time I let Tony manipulate himself into deciding to help. I gave him a tired sigh. "And that means?"
"I'm in, but only if you're serious about me teaching you."
There was something in his words, in his posture that I could not quite interpret. "And, what exactly are you planning to teach me?"
He gave me a wide grin. "Everything."
