Chapter 20 Age of Ultron Part 2
A/N: I will be in Sydney for the next two weeks celebrating my Gran's (Great-Grandmothers) 105th birthday! So I may not post in that time so here's the next two chapters :-) (Continuing with Avengers: Age of Ultron. I do not own the parts in italics, they belong to the writers of the film) Enjoy :-)
"What's the rumpus?" Bruce asked as they entered Tony's lab.
"Well, the scepter," Tony said as though that we're explanation enough, "Y'see, we were wondering how Strucker got so inventive. So, I've been analyzing the gem... inside...you may recognize…" Tony used his touch pad to throw the inner core of J.A.R.V.I.S into a physical technical ball in front of them.
"J.A.R.V.I.S," Bruce acknowledged.
"Doctor," J.A.R.V.I.S responded.
"Started out, J.A.R.V.I.S was just a natural language UI. Now he runs the Iron Legion. He runs more of the business than anyone besides Pepper," Tony emphasised.
"Oh," Bruce responded.
"Top of the line," Tony said proudly.
"Yes," Bruce agreed.
"I suspect not for long," J.A.R.V.I.S informed Bruce.
"Meet the competition," Tony said, again throwing out an inner core by means of his touch pad only this time the inner core was of the inside of Loki's scepter.
"It's beautiful," Bruce said without hesitation.
"If you had to guess, what's it look like it's doing?" Tony asked his colleague.
"Like it's thinking," Bruce responded in awe.
"I mean this could be, it's…" Tony started lost for words, "It's not a human mind, it...I mean, look at this? They're like neurons firing. Down in Strucker's lab I saw some fairly advanced robotics work. They deep-sixed the data, but... I gotta guess he was knocking on a very particular door."
"Artificial intelligence," Bruce said in realisation.
"This could be it, Bruce. This could be the key to creating Ultron," Tony said excitedly.
"I thought Ultron was a fantasy," Bruce said uncertainly.
"Yesterday it was," Tony said in a tone that Bruce knew meant that he wasn't going to let the idea go, "If we can harness this power, apply it to my Iron Legion protocol."
"That's a mad-sized if," Bruce said hesitantly, he wanted it to work as much as Tony did but he was worried about getting to excited in case it didn't work.
"Our job is "if,"" Tony said trying to convince Bruce, "What if you were sipping margaritas on a sun-drenched beach turning brown instead of green. Not looking over your shoulder for VERONICA."
"Don't hate, I helped design VERONICA," Bruce defended halfheartedly.
"As a worst-case measure, right?" Tony said still trying to convince Bruce that this was a good idea, "how about a best-case? What if the world was safe? What if next time aliens roll up to the club, and they will, they couldn't get past the bouncer?"
"The only people threatening the planet would be people?" Bruce agreed.
"I want to apply this to the Ultron program. But Jarvis can't download a data schematic this dense. We can only do it while we have the scepter here, that's three days, give me three days," Tony half pleaded.
"So you're going for artificial intelligence and you don't want to tell the team," Bruce stated uncertainly, he thought of what Natasha would think it she found out and he was worried that going behind the teams back was a very bad idea.
"Right. That's right, you know why, because we don't have time for a city hall debate. I don't want to hear the "man was not meant to meddle" medley. I see a suit of armor around the world," Tony explained.
"Sounds like a cold world, Tony," Bruce said still not convinced.
"I've seen colder," Tony told him, "this one, this very vulnerable blue one? It needs Ultron. Peace in our time. Imagine that."
Imagining peace in their time is exactly what Bruce did. He thought about how they could all retire without having to worry about being attacked from species out of this world. He thought about how he and Natasha could be together without worrying about something setting the other guy off. With all of this thinking Bruce came to the conclusion that he was going to help Tony figure out a way to make it work.
Tony and Bruce spent the next three days working on making Ultron work. In that time Clint was fully recovered and they had all been preparing for Saturday's party.
Saturday came and Bruce and Tony had reached the end of their struggle to make Ultron possible.
"That's it, we've tried everything," Bruce said in annoyance.
Tony sighed, "I'm going to check one last thing, you go get ready for the party."
Bruce just nodded and left the lab, heading for his living quarters.
The Avengers were soon joined by an all manner of people for the party.
Natasha found herself talking to Sam about what he had been up to since they had last met. Steve interrupted them wanting to get details for himself from Sam about their missing persons case.
"Sorry Nat we have business to talk about. Why don't you go find Bruce," Steve said in an innocent tone.
Natasha was forced the hold back from rolling her eyes at Steve's lame attempt to force her to talk to Bruce. They had been awkward around each other lately and everyone had noticed. Steve had taken it upon himself to get them together, a kind of payback for Natasha trying to set him up with women he didn't know.
Bruce on the other hand had been trying his best not to avoid Natasha, knowing that they would have to talk soon enough. When he looked across at the bar while talking to Rhodes he realised that Natasha was standing behind said bar making a drink.
Bruce excused himself from his conversation with Rhodes and headed over to Natasha.
"How'd a nice girl like you wind up working in a dump like this?" Bruce asked Natasha as he stood across the bar from her.
Natasha turned her mix for one drink into a mix for two, her way of stalling so that Bruce wouldn't leave her, "fella done me wrong."
"You got lousy taste in men, kid," Bruce said as calmly as he could, not knowing where this conversation would lead him.
"He's not so bad," Natasha said in slight defence of Bruce, "Well, he has a temper. Deep down he's all fluff," Natasha looked at Bruce to gage his response before she continued, "Fact is, he's not like anybody I've ever known. All my friends are fighters. And here comes this guy, spends his life avoiding the fight because he knows he'll win."
They each took a sip from the drink Natasha had made them.
"Sounds amazing," Bruce said uncertainly.
"He's also a huge dork," Natasha said with a smirk, "Chicks dig that," she defended, "So what do you think should I fight this? Or run with it?"
"Rrruun with it, right? Or, did he, was he, what'd he do that was so...wrong to you?" Bruce questioned, he was slightly worried that he had really messed up by leaving and Natasha was going to make him pay for it right here.
"Not a damn thing," Natasha said, "But never say never," she said walking away.
"It's nice," Steve said as he approached Bruce.
"What, what, what is?" Bruce asked slightly embarrassedly.
"You and Romanoff," Steve explained.
"No, we haven't, that wasn't…" Bruce tried to defend. He knew that everyone thought he was an idiot for pushing Natasha away. He also knew that Steve had become a good friend of hers and would probably hurt him for hurting Natasha again.
"It's okay, nobody's breaking any by-laws," Steve said gently, his way of telling Bruce that he wasn't going to hurt him, yet at least. "It's just, she's not the most...open person in the world. But with you she seems very relaxed," Steve explained, even after you pretty much breaking her heart, he thought.
"No, Natasha, she...she likes to flirt," Bruce said uncertain of where this conversation would land him.
"I've seen her flirt, up close. This ain't that," Steve smirked knowing that Bruce was going to freak out after that, he grabbed a drink before continuing, "Look… As maybe the world's leading authority on "waiting too long"...don't. You both deserve a win."
Steve walked off leaving Bruce to his thoughts.
"What do you mean, "up close?"" Bruce asked as he rushed after Steve.
"We had to hide and we pretended for like ten minutes to be a couple. If we hadn't you and I would not be having this conversation right now and you wouldn't have a chance to fix things with Nat," Steve explained.
Bruce realised then that Steve had made a good point. He had heard from Natasha what had happened and knew that if he didn't make the choice to fix things with her soon then he might not ever get the chance.
After all of the guests had left the Avengers remained with Hill, Rhodes and Dr Cho amongst them. Thor's hammer sitting on the coffee table between them. Nat (sat on the couch next to Bruce) and Bruce (sat behind Clint) having a hushed conversation behind Clint who was sat on the floor facing the hammer and staring it down.
"Can we talk later about us?" Bruce said in a hushed tone.
"As long as it's not going to end in tears, sure," Natasha said just as softly.
"But, it's a trick!" Clint said laughing slightly.