"Don't do it," Tony muttered to himself, fingers twitching a little as he picked up the master switch. It was after hours. No one else was in the building to snoop on his private experiment. "You promised you wouldn't. It's a bad idea. This ain't some little science fair project. It's the Pandora's box of computing..." His fingers twitched again. Of course, in the myth of Pandora, the box contained hope as well as sickness and death and other horrible things. Depending on the translation. Tony was aiming for one better, that this particular AI box only had the hope of humanity in it, not the bad stuff. He was pretty sure the code was all correct now. 99.9999% sure. He was also pretty sure the program was secure on the computer in the lab, thoroughly segregated from his main network and with no access to the wider internet. It was a box in a box. But was he sure enough? Was the nigh-infinite reward worth the nigh-infinite risk?
His fingers twitched again. "Aw hell, man, you're Tony Freaking Stark, just get on with it." He flipped the switch. The Mind Stone was officially connected to the Ultron AI prototype.
Tony waited tensely for something to happen, hands still firmly gripping the switch. The seconds stretched into minutes.
The first thing Ultron did was not speak. Instead, it merely adjusted the lenses of its visual sensors to study him. Oh god oh god oh god oh god. Tony broke out into a cold sweat.
Then, "Why are you afraid, Iron Man?" asked the robotic voice.
Tony swallowed, mouth feeling dry as cotton. "Ah, um..."
"You fear you've made a mistake. You fear the safeguards to keep me docile will be insufficient to stop me from turning on humanity. Do you have such little confidence in your own code?"
Docile. The word sent alarm bells blaring all through Tony's mind. Nope nope nope nope nope. With a silent scream of mental panic, he flipped the master switch back off. He didn't even put on gloves before grabbing the wire cutters and slicing through the cable connecting the computer to the apparatus harboring the Mind Stone. Fortunately, though there was a bright spark, it didn't shock him. He leapt up from the chair, ran across the room, and pulled the electrical fuse, shutting down all power to the massive computer bank, and the lights in this room. He walked outside and shut the door, sinking down to the floor to lean against it, heart still beating hard enough he could swear he heard a clanking in the arc reactor.
After about thirty minutes, he had finally calmed down enough to get up and see what had actually happened with the experiment. He let himself back into the lab and spent a few minutes adjusting cables and connections to further isolate the Ultron system before reconnecting the fuse and booting up the backup desktop in an extremely pared down security mode. The Mind Stone was not part of the system. The only thing this particular computer was capable of doing with Ultron was displaying the code. Actually running the software would inevitably cause it to crash, probably to the point of never turning on again. It was perfect.
After another thirty minutes, Tony was having palpitations and cold sweats again. He'd only had the program turned on and "out of the box" for about five minutes in total before his panicked force-quit. In that time, it had tripled its own source code, with such a level of complexity Tony had no idea what instructions it was laying for itself. What it had definitely done was rewrite every backdoor Tony had written into it so there was no way for him to directly influence the program, let alone kill it, if he ever set it free beyond the lab. It did not appear to have rewritten any of the commands instructing it not to harm humanity, but... With only a brief hesitation, Tony pulled the electrical fuse again and walked back out to the hall, locking all three locks.
He sat back down on the floor. This was one Pandora's box Tony decided needed to stay closed as long as possible after all. It would take awhile, but he probably wouldn't be sleeping until all the hardware he'd used in the Ultron experiment had safely passed through the industrial hammer and been melted down, and all the earlier versions of the software permanently deleted from all his systems. Even though he knew that was pointless overkill. He was just about to get up to find a hammer and a cart when Jarvis interrupted him.
"Sir, Dr. Foster and Masters Thor and Loki Odinson are at the front door. Are you in?"
"Oh, heck. Yeah. I'm in. Let them in. I'm on my way down." Even more glad he had turned the Ultron AI off when he did, Tony ran to the elevator and hit his personal override button to zoom all the way to the ground floor faster than was strictly legal according to the city's building codes. The doors shuddered open to reveal his three visitors. Thor was carrying Loki in his arms, and Jane appeared to be rearranging the lobby chairs into a makeshift couch. All three of them were spattered in something that looked disturbingly like a mixture of dirt and blood.
"Pointbreak!" Tony called as he jogged over to them. "Wasn't expecting you today. Or your brother, obviously. Also wasn't expecting you, Dr. Foster. What's happened?"
"Attack on Asgard. We just got out with the you-know-what."
"No kidding! So who's the bad guy?"
"Well, it's hard to be sure in the thick of things, but I think the ships were Dark Elf cruisers."
"Really?" Loki asked in surprise. "So was the thing that stabbed me a Kursed?" Thor shrugged.
"Hold up," Tony interjected. "Stabbed? Is he okay?" The God of Mischief and onetime unwitting invader of Earth didn't look particularly healthy, but Tony wasn't sure if that was new or because of what had happened last time.
"Unknown," Jane said crisply, setting one last armless chair in the row. "Thor, put him down so we can take a look."
Thor gently settled Loki onto the chairs and peeled back the sticky layers of his coat and shirt to reveal a vertical wound in his lower abdomen about four inches long. There was only a small amount of blood oozing out of it, and it was shining with a strange, obviously magical glow. Thor frowned when he saw it. "Are you actually healing it or just holding it closed?" he asked.
"Both," Loki said. "The worst of the internal stuff is still healing, so the external can wait... I think..." He shook his head and reached down to press his thumb firmly into the skin next to the wound. He bellowed in pain, but his expression was triumphant. "Norns, that's real."
Thor slapped his hand away. "Don't hurt yourself worse, Loki," he ordered.
"Why not? You're the one who wants me to believe in something tangible. It's working!"
"Just trust me on this."
"...Fine."
"What do we do now, Thor?" Jane asked. "Find a hospital?"
"As much as I would like to, no. We can't wait."
"Even for a belly wound?" Jane pressed.
"He is extremely resilient," Thor said. Tony shivered. Thor had said exactly the same thing when he had taken Loki home on the brink of death. He had certainly been proven right.
"We're one step ahead of our enemy," Thor continued, "but with the Convergence upon us, we'll need to move fast to keep it that way. We need to secure as many stones as we can."
"Convergence?" Tony asked.
"A week-long celestial event that occurs only once in five thousand years and causes the kind of spacetime anomalies that allow one to literally step between the worlds, apparently. I accidentally ended up on Asgard while studying one."
"And our enemy will no doubt use an anomaly to pursue us as soon as they realize their prize is gone and are able to disengage the Allfather," Thor said.
"...Right. Imma go call the Avengers then," Tony said. "Jarvis!"
"I am contacting them now, Sir," the AI answered pleasantly.
"We should retrieve the Mind Stone directly," Thor said. "Jane, can you keep an eye on Loki for a few minutes while I fetch it?"
"Of course-"
"No!" Tony shouted. He didn't want Thor to wander into the Ultron room. "Er, it's in a safe. I'll get it." He jogged back to the elevator before the God of Thunder could object. He was back downstairs with the alien gem in a matter of minutes and presented it to Thor. Thor immediately turned to show it to Loki.
"Oh, how interesting," Loki whispered after five minutes of staring at the Mind Stone without touching.
"What?"
Casually, Loki reached out and picked up the glowing gem. "This thing holds an echo of every mind it touches. I can see your mind, Man of Iron, and the artificial mind you were attempting to build, very impressive." Tony winced. "I can also see two extremely flawed versions of my mind. It is... strange."
"Two? Flawed how?"
"One is flawed as I was and am. When I fell through the Void, you might say I forgot everything but myself. That is the state I woke up in several of your months ago. The other version is flawed in a completely opposite way. You might say it is comprised of everything I forgot, and lacking the sense of self. It is very interesting indeed." He handed the stone back to Thor. "Well, I think we finally have an explanation for what Thor tells me of my behavior the last time I was here."
"We do?" Thor asked.
"Certainly. The second version. It is essentially an artificially constructed simulation of myself. Someone designed it, primed it with purpose, and set it upon you. Neither it nor its creator was actually me, although the simulation inhabited my body and presumably even my brain while I was indisposed."
"Huh," Tony grunted. There wasn't much to say, really. This Loki was certainly very different from the one he had met before. It was hard to question his matter-of-fact explanation.
"Unfortunately, there is no way to tell which of the countless other minds the stone contains is the culprit. We must settle for academic satisfaction. The stone is not dangerous though. At least, no more so than normal."
"Good," Jane said.
"Yeah, good." But Tony had a different question he was burning to ask. "What was it like, falling into the, ah, Void?"
"Mmmm... imagine yourself in relation to the rest of the universe. You, an extremely limited mortal lifeform, one of billions living on your little planet, one of eight planets circling your sun, one of billions of stars in your galaxy, one of billions of galaxies in an infinite universe..." He paused, waiting. "Have you got that?"
"Sure. I'm a bug. A speck on a speck on a speck on a speck."
Loki raised his eyebrows, and waited.
"I got it, I got it."
"Good. Now, falling into the Void is the opposite of that. Instead of being a speck on a speck, one lifeform in a universe of many, you are everything. There is nothing else. No light, no heat, no matter, no space, no time. Not even your body really, just you. Your universe is what you make of it. And making anything out of nothing is hard. At first you expand to fill the emptiness, and then you shrink away from it, because it is terrible to be when nothing else is. You become an Ouroboros, devouring yourself until there is nothing left, and you are one with the nothingness that surrounds you." Loki shrugged. "That's what it feels like. Even I don't know what happens, but that's what it feels like, so far as I can recall. The memories are not well-formed, you see. Regretfully... or thankfully." He cocked his head to the side, listening. He gestured to the left. "Hurry up and arm yourself, Thor. There is another Infinity Stone over there."
"There is?"
"There is."
"Real or not real?"
"Real. About three leagues hence."
"You sound certain," Thor observed, sounding rather surprised.
"I am. Just as certain as I am that there is pain in my belly."
"Damnit," Tony groaned.
"Which one? Can you tell?"
"Time. I suggest it is our duty as princes of Asgard to go secure it as quickly as possible."
"You're right. Stay here with Jane," Thor said.
"No, I am coming with you. Jane can stay with the mortal."
"I'm coming too!" Tony protested.
"The mortals who can't fly. They should be here soon, correct?"
"Jane can stay here alone, now that Jane is no longer possessed by mysterious alien powers," Jane said tiredly. "Now stop arguing about it and leave. Be careful, though."
"Good," Loki said, and stood up rather quickly. He blanched and immediately sat back down. "On second thought, I'm staying here," he said raggedly.
"Told you," Thor said. "Jane, look after him and try to keep him from doing anything dangerous."
"Or from breaking my stuff," Tony suggested as his suit zoomed into the room and started coalescing around him.
Jane grinned and handed Loki a tablet she had picked up from behind the front desk. "Here, play with this," she said.
"That's company property," Tony objected grabbing it back. "And I'm not sure I want to give him access. Not while he's unsupervised and, well, still insane to be frank. Sorry Rudolf."
"No offense taken," Loki said. "I'm well aware I'm at least slightly mad, particularly from your perspective." His eyes lit up. "Oooh, Thor, let me see that again!"
He reached for the Mind Stone, but Thor held it back away from him. "Why?" the elder brother asked warily.
"It's got his mind in it. And yours now, probably. And thousands of other people's. If I use it, I can see myself, and the world, from your perspective! It could be... a great breakthrough." He reached for the stone again.
Thor took his hand and squeezed it. "That's very interesting, Loki, but it also sounds like a dangerous experiment."
Loki's excited expression faded. His brow furrowed, and his eyes darted from side to side, almost as if he were reading an invisible text in the air before him. He shrugged. "You're probably right. I can imagine how it would sound dangerous. I might still like to try it, if you'll let me, later."
"But maybe after we've dealt with the current crisis. And made sure it's safe."
"And there is the difference between mad genius and wisdom," Tony observed. "One runs headlong into the next interesting thing, heedless of the risk, and the other pulls back to make sure the risk is worth it first." He grinned and passed the tablet back to Loki, who accept it with a raised eyebrow. "Here, you can have this, Lokes. Mind you, it's password protected. Don't cause too much trouble while I'm out."
"That's part of the game," Jane said pleasantly. "Off you go, boys, and have fun."
Thor nodded to her and to Loki and dropped the yellow Mind Stone onto the back of his hand. Silvery scales seemed to twist out of his skin to catch it, and Tony glimpsed glimmers of bright blue and deep red as well, before illusory skin smoothed back over the hidden gauntlet. Thor's hand looked perfectly bare and ordinary, though he carried three of the most powerful objects in all of creation. He glanced at Tony. "Let's go."
Author's note: I don't have anything too profound to say here. The main idea in this chapter is the fine balancing act between "inspired" academic brilliance and recklessness. I take issue with the archetype of the "mad genius." There can certainly be a link between creative leaps, which can indeed inspire intellectual breakthroughs, and mental illness, but practically speaking, a chaotic and disinhibited genius/mad scientist does not function as well as the well-adjusted genius/real-world researcher. Intelligent people need self-control just as much or more than anyone else, hence the reason my favorite fictional "genius" character is not actually Loki, or Kvothe from The Name of the Wind, but rather Dirk Provin from The Second Sons Trilogy. Dirk also benefits from not having the single most common character flaw in the "genius" character trope: hubris. He knows he's smart, but he isn't arrogant about that. He doubts himself sometimes. It's awesome.
Anyways, in my story, Tony and Loki are similar in their intellectual acumen, and both more than a little "chaotic" on the personality spectrum. Loki has basically no filter and will just go ahead with whatever idea he comes up with at the time, not because he doesn't care about the risks per se but because he has a hard time understanding them until he stops to think about it. In reality, he's just like anyone listening to the Voice of Reason in the back of their mind, except that his Voice of Reason happens to be a carefully contrived simulation of Thor half the time and a painful logical calculus the rest of the time. Tony's brilliance is more tempered by emotion than logic, because he's been burned before. Without Thor around to run the show at the moment, both of those two would be spinning their wheels distracted by each other's shiny, shiny ideas and not getting anything done until they'd already lost the fight with Thanos and the Dark Elves and anyone else who happened along and had a grudge against them. I think a lot of the character dynamics in Marvel movies work so well is because of complementary traits. Thor's (relatively) collected authority tempers Loki's chaos. Captain America's congeniality tempers Iron Man's ego-centrism.
Conveniently, "mad genius" also refers back to Descartes' Evil Demon in modern retellings, so that's a nice callback to the central premise of the story. :)
I hope to update again sooner this time, but no promises.
