The Turing Test Day: 428 - March 23, 2013, 12:48am, an avengers fanfic

Day: 428 - March 23, 2013, 12:48am

"Bryn, hurry!" Jarvis' frantic tone sent a shiver down her spine and Bryn jumped the last few stairs to the landing, her sweaty palm slipping on the rail as she used it to slingshot herself around the corner and down the next flight, taking the steps two and three at a time.

"Hurrying!" she barked out breathlessly. Her shoulders hunched up over her ears involuntarily as the sound of gunfire reverberated up the stairwell from the floor below and she gritted her teeth, increasing her speed toward the threat.

"Be careful!" he pleaded in her ear.

"Be careful and run toward the loud noise of dying!" Bryn snapped back, her feet almost slipping out beneath her as she rounded the next landing. "I'm so glad you're here to give me advice!" Whatever Jarvis might have said in reply was drowned out by the sharp stutter of automatic weapons and she made a dive for the stairwell doorway, the door hanging half off its hinges. She pulled her taser from her pocket, raising it to take aim as she scurried between the rows of cubicles. She could just make out a flash of uniforms in the next junction and she popped up over the top of the cubicle wall, firing off three quick shots before ducking back down. Bullets whizzed overhead and she curled in on herself covering her ears with her hands. There was the slightest pause and then two loud shots from a handgun followed by total silence. Bryn lowered her hands slowly, her eyes wide.

"The area is clear," Jarvis reported.

"Phil?" Bryn shouted, scuttling on her hands and knees to the corner of the junction. "Phil?!"

"Bryn, my god, what are you doing here?" he demanded in shock. Bryn scrambled to her feet, tripping over the intruders sprawled in the hallway before half crashing into the SHIELD agent, her hands fisting desperately in his jacket.

"Phil! Oh my god, Phil you're shot!" she gasped out, her hand hovering over his bleeding shoulder as tears welled up in her eyes. "I don't know what to do. What do I do?"

"It's okay," Phil insisted firmly, pulling his tie free and wrapping it over the wound. "It went clean through the muscle, missed the bone entirely. I'll be fine." He reached out, his hand settling gently on her neck, his thumb brushing against her cheek.

"Thanks for the assist," he added with a hint of pride. "You did great, you did perfect." Bryn fell into his unwounded shoulder with a half strangled sob and he wrapped his left arm around her, pulling her closer.

"Just like you taught me?" she murmured into his suit jacket as she clung to him.

"Damned brilliant," he nodded, his hand settling on the back of her head as he shushed her softly. "If you ever get tired of working for Stark."

"After tonight I don't think I'd work for SHIELD if it was the last job on earth," she answered vehemently.

"Fair enough," he agreed with an amused smile.

"I hate to interrupt," Jarvis sounded off in her ear hesitantly.

"Steve!" She jerked back from Phil's grasp, her eyes wide. "Doctor Ross has gone after Steve. Jarvis says he's really bad."

"Damn it," Phil hissed, his brow furrowing. He looked down at the console he'd been working at and winced at the screen peppered with bullet holes. He let out a resigned sigh turning back to Bryn. "I don't want to do this, but I don't have a choice now. I'm going to need your help."

"Me?" she asked, giving him a bewildered look.

"I managed to reboot internal communications and door security," He stated, leaning into the desk against the wall with a grunt. Bryn hurried to his side, helping him shove it out from the wall. "I still need to reboot the security control servers on fifty-six."

"Fifty-six is shut off," Bryn declared, as Phil knelt on the floor, pulling the handle on the small door marked plumbing access. "Jarvis said something about emergency bulkheads."

"It's a safety precaution in case someone attempts to do what Ross and his men are doing now." Phil nodded sticking his head through the opening. "It's why they haven't been able to completely take over. But there's an access ladder here that isn't on any schematic. I need you to climb up to the server room, Jarvis can talk you through it." Bryn clambered down on her hands and knees beside him, peering into the near pitch darkness.

"Phil, I should tell you," She confessed. "I can't even customize my own Tumblr theme."

"Do this for me and I'll help you with that later," he promised, his brow knitting. "Bryn, I can't get up that ladder with my shoulder like this, even if I could, I'd never be able to make the climb fast enough. I need to go and make sure Betty and Steve get clear."

"Yeah, okay, I get it," she nodded with a sigh, crawling into the access shaft.

"Once you're in the server room, stay there," Phil instructed, his tone firm. "You'll be safe."

"Phil, there are armed thugs invading my job," she declared giving him a dry look. A faint smile curled his lips and he shrugged his good shoulder.

"Good luck," he stated, his expression turning serious.

"You too," She leaned out of the access hatch to kiss his cheek before grasping hold of the ladder and hauling herself up.

"This was not in my job description, Jarvis," Bryn observed as she clambered up the ladder in the darkened access hatch.

"Nor mine," he agreed. "I should tell you, once we start the boot sequence, the entire room will lock down. You will not be able to open any of the doors for seven minutes and I will be unable to communicate with you."

"I can manage for seven minutes," Bryn assured. "There's a hatch here with a keypad."

"The access code is 1113," he instructed. Bryn wrapped her arm around the rail, leaning toward the hatch and pressing the code into the softly glowing keypad. The hatch opened with a hiss and she wriggled though, pulling herself up behind a bank of servers.

"Homey," She observed, her eyes sweeping over the entire floor of disturbingly silent server racks.

"The main console is to your left near the center of the room," Jarvis supplied.

"Can I ask you something?" she questioned as she made her way toward the console. "Isn't it a little weird to have a server farm on the fifty-sixth floor? I thought you were supposed to put the computers in the basement."

"There is, in fact, a server farm in the basement," Jarvis answered. "But there was inadequate space. These servers control only the building's security systems. It was thought that any threat that could destroy this floor would render issues of security moot."

"I'll buy that," Bryn nodded, approaching the console and resting her palms on the desk on either side of the keyboard in front of the darkened screen. "So?"

"I believe I can use your phone," Jarvis declared, his voice coming from the room's speakers rather than her earbuds. She tugged them from her ears, pulling the plug and stuffing them in her pocket as she clipped the phone into the dock. Immediately the screen flashed, then went dark.

"Several of the servers are down," he reported. "turn to your right."

"Yeah, it's dark down that way," Bryn nodded, creeping down the row of serves with careful steps.

"There is a reset switch on the far wall," Jarvis instructed. "Hurry, Bryn, there are intruders approaching Doctor Ross' position." she broke into a run, scurrying to the end of the racks, her eyes sweeping the corner of the room.

"Big circuit breaker looking thing?" she asked, cringing.

"It might spark," Jarvis warned. "Push it all the way down and then back up. Then run." Bryn nodded, grasping the switch and throwing her weight into it as she pulled it toward the floor and then pushing up with her shoulder.

The panel around the switch sizzled and she let out a yelp as smoke and flames shot out, backpedaling with so much force she hit the window. She pushed off, sprinting down through the bank of servers as the sizzled and sparked in her wake.

"Jarvis?!" she shouted in a panic.

"It's fine!" he insisted, his tone tense. "Stay clear of the server banks!" She skidded to a stop at the console, her hands grasping at the desk to arrest her motion as the blank screen flickered to life.

SI - System Reset version 9.75

Initiate Master Control Program [Press Enter]

Initiating MCP...

Welcome:

Just
A
Rather
Very
Intelligent
System

Loading control sequence now...

Bryn's eyes widened to the size of saucers and she scrambled back from the console as if she had been burned, tripping over her feet and landing hard on the floor.

"Bryn get under cover!" Jarvis ordered, his voice sharp but she didn't move, her breath coming in short gasps. Sparks and static shot off the surrounding servers as they flickered to life but she stayed frozen in place, still as a statue.

"Bryn!"

She shot to her feet, her ballet flats beating a rapid staccato against the seamless tile floor, her eyes tunneled on the secure fire doors in the far corner. She let out a yelp as she crashed into them, her hands shaking as she struggled to grasp the handle but the doors stayed unmoving.

The rumble was so deep and low at first she thought the building must be collapsing beneath her but the sound drew out, rising to a bloodcurdling howl and she looked up through the bulletproof glass in time to see the fire doors on the other side bow as a massive green fist swung agains the glass. She caught a glimpse of green eyes and she fell back, running in the other direction, her shoulder landing against the security door to the elevator. She pushed against the emergency release but the door held fast and she beat the bar with her fist, her heart hammering in her chest as the sound of giant, pounding footsteps shook the floor.

She sank to her knees, her arms tangling over her head as she curled in on herself and screamed.