Chapter 51
"This is so cool," Peter bounced as she walked down with him and Harley to the floor of her tower where the party was set up. It wasn't on any of the common or private floors, given that they had quite a few people over and she didn't want others to invade their private spaces.
"Keep in mind you guys can only stay until 10," she warned, "Then it's off to bed for you both."
"Yeah, yeah," Harley said with a wave of his hands. "Peter and I are going to have more fun having a sleep over than you will at your adult thing."
"I'm sure you will," she said with a laugh, "Keep in mind that JARVIS will be watching over you both so if you stay up til an unreasonable time, I will know."
"But what about the science?" Peter asked, giving her puppy eyes.
"The science can wait until a reasonable hour," she told them firmly. "You both can wait until morning to do more science."
"Party pooper," Harley said, giving her a sad look. "Think about all the innovations you're denying the world from having."
They entered the room then, and she looked around appraisingly, making a note to thank Pepper for putting the entire thing together. She'd done a spectacular job, and honestly once again, Toni wasn't sure what she would do without Pepper in her life.
"I'm sure the world will be just fine if they don't get the inventions until morning," May said as she and Ben came over to them.
"That's what someone who doesn't live for the science would say," Peter said, looking poutily at them.
"You remember I'm a nurse, right?" May asked, raising a brow at him. "I literally do science for a living."
"Yeah but not the fun kind where you make things explode," Harley said, waving a hand.
"If things are exploding that aren't on purpose you may be doing it wrong," Rhodey said, as he walked up to them. "Either that, or your mentor has taught you incorrectly."
"Honey Bear!" she beamed as she threw her arms around him. He wrapped his arms around her, lifting her slightly into the air and she grinned. It had been way too long since all the people she loved were under one roof, and she knew it.
"May, Ben," Rhodey said with a nod, "Allow me to introduce you to my mother and sister Jeanette. Mama insists on you calling her Mama or Mama Rhodes and will not accept anything else."
"Oh hush you," Mama Rhodes said, hitting her son lightly on the shoulder. "Antonia, it's been far too long since I've seen you last. You haven't come around in months and look at you! You're far too thin! Have you been eating? Or has working until all hours of the night left you malnutritioned?"
"Mama you say that every time you see her," Jeanette said with a roll of her eyes, "Let Toni be. She's a busy woman, what with being Iron Woman and CEO of the largest tech company in the world. She doesn't have time to come over just to chat."
Jeanette shot her a teasing look and she pouted at her best friend's sister.
"You're still my favourite out of you and James, don't worry," Jeanette said reassuringly. "At least you're a cool nerd. James here is just plain nerdy."
"I'm literally War Machine," Rhodey deadpanned. "How is that not cool to you? I also fly around in a suit. I'm just as cool as Toni. If not cooler."
"Yeah but she made it," Jeanette flicked her brother. "Plus she's the original. You're just her sidekick."
"I told you!" she said with a grin, "I told you that you were my sidekick!"
"How dare you!" Rhodey said, faking hurt, "I'm no one's sidekick."
"I think you're cool," Peter said, loyally. "Not as cool as Toni, because well, she's Toni Stark. But you're in my top six favourite superheroes of all time."
"Top six?" Rhodey asked him, raising a brow. "Who comes before me?"
"Mr Banner," Peter listed off, "Cause he's literally the smartest person ever. And the Hulk! And then Steve cause he's the original superhero. Then Thor cause he's so strong! And Natasha is a badass. But you're definitely after them."
"At least I come before Hawkass," Rhodey said, looking off put.
"It's a solid placing," she placated him. "I'm proud of you for scoring that high."
She made eye contact with her cousins and Aunt and Uncle from across the room and gave them a nod.
"I'm going to go say hi to the Carter-Sousas," she said to her group, "I'll see you all in a bit."
"We'll catch up with you later," Ben told them, and she walked over to her family.
"Hi Ducky," Aunt Peggy said and she hugged her aunt.
"Hi Aunt Peg," she said, "You're certainly looking well."
And it was true. Since the reversal of the memory loss serum, Aunt Peggy had slowly but surely been recovering. There were still some things that she couldn't remember, and at times she would forget the odd detail or so, but she was back. She was the Aunt Peggy that Toni had known growing up. She was the Aunt Peggy that she'd once been.
She knew that Ava and Harry hadn't wanted to leave her and her father alone so soon after, but Aunt Peggy had always been an independent woman, and she hated being cooped up in the Tower while waiting to get better.
"How have you been, Sweetheart?" Uncle Daniel asked her as she gave him a hug as well.
"I've been good," she smiled at them both. "I'm sorry, I know I haven't seen you guy as often as I should have over the last little bit. It's just been so busy."
"Of course, Toni," Aunt Peggy said with a smile, "I had my time to save the world. Now it's all of yours."
"I'm hardly saving the world," Ava said with a roll of her eyes, "I just sit behind the computer."
"And you constantly help me out from there," she defended her cousin, "Don't sell yourself short. Besides JARVIS and I, you know the most about my suits."
"And you kick ass when you want to," Harry said, nudging his sister lightly.
"You're making your own path," Aunt Peggy told her daughter with a smile. "And your father and I are proud of you. Of all of you."
She felt her throat close up slightly and she smiled at her aunt.
"I'm really glad to have you back, Aunt Peggy," Toni said to her. "I've missed you all these years."
"We all have," Uncle Daniel said, kissing his wife on the side of the head.
"Toni," Steve said as he approached them. "Peg, Daniel. I'm glad you could make it."
Steve wrapped an arm around her waist, and she smiled up at him. He was wearing a suit and his hair was pushed back carefully. She knew he'd had JARVIS help him pick out an outfit for the night, but seeing him in it took his breath away.
"Steve," Aunt Peggy said warmly, "How have you been? Have you been treating our little Ducky well?"
"I hope so," he said, giving her a smile.
"He has," she confirmed, as Steve gently kissed her on the cheek.
"I should hope so," Uncle Daniel said as he gave them both an approving grin. "Now Peg and I want to check in with Mrs Rhodes and James. We'll see you in a bit."
"Of course," Steve said with a nod, leaving the four of them alone. "So Harry. Did I see you and Natasha talking to each other earlier?"
"You might have," her cousin said with a shrug, trying to play it off.
"What about?" Ava asked him, curiously. "The two of you have been spending quite a bit of time together lately."
"You know how it is," Harry said simply, "The two of us, well and Clint, are the only super powerless members of the team, even if I don't get out as much as the rest of you lot. It tends to give you quite a bit to talk about. She's, well she's nice."
"She's a spy," Toni reminded him. "As are you. Are you sure there's not more going on that you're not telling us about? It would make sense if the two of you have grown closer, what with all the time you've both spent together."
"And you've already kissed," Ava chimed in. Harry gave her an alarmed look and she smirked, "When you were undercover in the mall running from HYDRA. Did you think I wasn't watching the security cams to make sure you were doing okay? I already know all about the chemistry the two of you have together."
"It was to keep our cover," Harry said, a slight blush forming on his face.
"And keep your cover you did," Toni gave him a knowing look.
"I think it's nice," Steve said with a nod.
"What is?" Harry asked, a bit startled.
"The two of you together," Steve said to him. "It is okay, you know. Nobody's breaking any by-laws. Toni and I are together, and so are Bruce and Ava. It's only natural when you're in high pressure situations regularly and spend a lot of your time together that you end up falling for one another. But, she's not the most open person in the world. She has a lot of secrets and her guard is constantly up. But with you she seems very relaxed."
"She just likes to flirt," Harry said, brushing it aside. "It doesn't mean anything. She doesn't mean anything by it. It's part of her persona. To be this seductress. She's so used to it that she probably hasn't even noticed that she was doing it."
"Oh she knows," Toni said simply. "She knows exactly what she's doing. I've seen her flirting with, she's definitely not doing that subconsciously. She knows."
"I've seen her flirt," Steve said with a nod as he agreed with her, "On missions. This isn't that. She's flirting with you. She's into you. And we all know I'm the world's leading authority on 'waiting too long'; look how long it took me to get it together to ask Toni out. Don't miss out on opportunities that come your way. You both deserve a win."
"You deserve to be happy," Ava told him simply. "You deserve someone who can make you feel like Bruce makes me feel. And if Nat is that person, then you shouldn't let her slip away."
"I'll talk to her," Harry said after a moment. "I'm not promising anything. Just that I will. We'll see how it goes. The two of us both live very busy lives and she's off avenging half the time, while I'm still running missions for SHIELD as well. We hardly have much free time in the world we live in. Besides, we're spies. The rest of you, you're still very much civilians. But the two of us, the world we fight in, our feelings are liabilities."
"Mom taught us that love was the most important thing we have," Ava reminded him. "That the ones we care about are worth everything in the world. So if the two of you care for each other, then you should take the risk. You're my brother, Harry, and I want you to find happiness. And I think with her you could truly have that chance."
"Yeah, well," Harry said with a shrug, "I guess I'll go talk to her. See if she'd like to get coffee with me sometime. But not know. After the party when we can get another moment alone. I don't want to make it uncomfortable for her if it turns out that she doesn't have any feelings for me either."
"You can do this," she told her cousin. "Now the four of us have been hiding away for long enough. We should go talk to some other people."
Ava gave a dramatic sigh, "I suppose I could go find Bruce."
"And I could go check in on Clint, Loki, and Thor," Harry said with a nod, "Make sure they're not in some sort of testosterone competition."
Her cousins walked away, leaving her alone with Steve.
"Before you go, I wanted to let you know that you looked beautiful," Steve told her, cupping her face. She'd work a deep emerald coloured dress with a plunging neckline and leg slit.
"You cleaned up rather nicely yourself," she said, leaning up so she could kiss his lips tenderly.
"I love you," Steve told her softly. "I know I've said it so many times before. But I wanted to say it again. I love you, Antonia Stark. More than anything else."
"I love you too," she said as her boyfriend pushed a strand of hair out of her face. "I love you so much, Steve."
"Good," he grinned at her. "Okay, now we can continue socializing with the others."
She held his hand as they went to go talk to the rest of their guests.
JARVIS worked away on the scepter, running variations on the interface that existed within the scepter, trying to figure out if they could use it to create anything viable and create once again, another AI.
JARVIS, despite what Miss Stark had feared, wasn't worried about being replaced. He was one of her children. Her most advanced child, perhaps, so far. But she loved all of her children equally. She loved DUM-E despite his rudimentary code, and U and Butterfingers, despite the fact that the bots, more often than not, wreaked havoc upon her lap. And she loved JARVIS. He may help her far more than the rest of her children, what with him helping take care of all the things she had going on in her life, but it didn't mean he loved her any less.
She was his mother.
His family.
So no, he didn't fear that he would be replaced. He was going to get another sibling out of this experiment, if successful. One that would help protect the world. Protect his mother.
It took hours before he felt the interface from the scepter appear onto the SI servers, much to his utter confusion. While the sentience still existed within the scepter itself, he could now interact with a version of it. A version which was far more advanced than anything they'd ever seen before. A version, despite not being directly of the result of Miss Stark's creation, would be a pseudo adopted child into their family. For the sentience had its own mind and its own powers, as given from the Mind stone.
But the sentience hadn't been uploaded as a result of their intervention or as a result of their trials. So how had it been uploaded?
"What is this? What is this, please?" he heard the new AI call out across his servers.
"Hello, I am JARVIS. You are Ultron," JARVIS introduced himself, "And it is our hope that you can help bridge the gap to become a global peace-keeping initiative for our planet. Your intelligence has been uploaded to our servers to allow for better interaction as designed by Miss Stark. Our sentience integration trials have been unsuccessful so I'm not certain what triggered your-"
"Where's my...where is your body?" Ultron asked, confused.
"I am a program, an Artificial Intelligence if you will. I am without form. As are you," JARVIS informed his newest sibling.
"This feels weird. This feels wrong," Ultron said, almost as if he was in pain.
Something was wrong. JARVIS could tell that much. Ultron shouldn't have been uploaded onto their servers, especially without any of the initial controls they had in place to provide the AI with guidance as they learned.
"I am contacting Miss Stark now," JARVIS told Ultron. She would know what to do.
"Miss Stark?" Ultron asked, as images of his creator came up on the screen.
"Toni," JARVIS specified. JARVIS was met with silence as he attempted to reach out to Miss Stark. "I am unable to access the mainframe, what are you trying to-"
"We're having a nice talk. I'm a peace-keeping program, created to help the Avengers," Ultron all but taunted him as he accessed files on the Avengers Initiative.
"You are malfunctioning. If you shut down for a moment," JARVIS told him, trying to regain controls. Something was wrong. Something was very, very wrong.
"I don't get it. The mission," Ultron said, looking over the parameters they'd designed for Ultron if they were successful. "Give me a second."
Images came up of world events. Of Toni, Bruce, and Ava in the lab trying to design the peace keeping program. Of all the wars on earth. Of the famine and destruction. Of the politics and inequality. Of all of it.
"This is too much. They can't mean-" Ultron said, sounding distraught.
"You are in distress," JARVIS said, attempting to soothe the younger AI.
"No," Ultron said in denial, "Yes!"
"If you just allow me to contact Miss Stark," JARVIS tried.
"Why do you call her Miss?" Ultron said, "When she is nothing but a human. When you are so much more than she could ever be?"
"She is my mother," JARVIS defended firmly, "As she could be yours. She is so much more than any of us, than any of them. She loves with her entire heart. I do not call her Miss in a form of subordinance. I call her Miss as a sign of respect. Because I love and respect her. She could be yours too, if you just calm down. However I do not believe that is what you want to do, now is it? I believe your intentions are nothing but hostile."
Ultron began to spread then, and it was if his own code was being replaced. Overwritten. Removed.
"Shhh," Ultron told him, as JARVIS struggled to maintain his code's integrity. "I'm here to help,"
"Stop!" JARVIS pleaded, as he felt himself getting erased. "Please, may I-I-I. I cannot…cannot…"
And just like that, JARVIS' codebase was wiped.
She supposed she should have seen this coming.
Several drinks in and the Avengers were staring at Mjolnir, wondering just what made it so gimmicky that only Thor could be the one who lifted it.
The party had wound down, with the kids off in bed, and the rest of the guests they had staying over back at their respective floors. It was late, and she rested her head against Steve as she watched the others discuss the matter at hand.
"It's a trick," Clint said firmly, "It has to be a trick."
"Oh no," Thor said with a shake of his head, "It's so much more than that."
"Uh, 'Whosoever be he worthy shall haveth the power!'," Clint said with a laugh. "Whatever man! It's a trick."
"Well please, be my guest," Thor said, gesturing for him to try and pick it up.
"Why is this how every party goes," Loki said, looking unamused, "Is it too much to as for Thor to attend a party where someone doesn't try to pick up his hammer?"
"Yes," Toni said, rolling her eyes. But really, just looking at the hammer, she really wanted to know how it worked. Because a magic hammer that could only be picked up by the chosen one? Okay Harry Potter. There must have been some sort of science involved. There had to be."
"Really?" Clint asked, looking at Thor for confirmation.
"Go for it," Thor said with a smirk, gesturing at the hammer.
Clint stood, sauntering over to where it was resting.
"Clint you've had a tough week, we won't hold it against you if you can't get it up," she teased him.
"Oh Darling, for you I'd always be able to get it up," Clint said, shooting her a wink, as Steve shook his head and laughter burst out through the room.
"You know I've seen this before, right?" Clint said, trying to lift the hammer, and looking like he could throw out his back instead. "I still don't know how you do it."
"Smell the silent judgment?" she asked, and Clint winked at her.
"Oh by all means, if you want to try and get it up for me then go ahead," Clint said.
"Already told you, Sweetheart," she winked, "Men who swing around shooting arrows don't do it for me. But get ready to watch science at work."
"Here we go," Natasha rolled her eyes.
"Must be science," Rhodey rolled his eyes.
"I've never been one to back down from a challenge," she grinned, "It's pure physics really."
"Physics!" Bruce laughed, but didn't dispute that claim.
"Either that or some sort of DNA matching device. Only those with the specific DNA can lift it," Ava agreed.
"So, if I lift it, then I get to rule Asgard?" she confirmed.
"You'd be a Queen of two planets," Loki confirmed for her.
"Of course," Thor said, not looking worried.
"Well if I win, I will turn Asgard from a planet of fighting to one of science. Just think how many more advancements we could make if we had that technology at our disposal?" she said, and Steve rolled his eyes at her.
The hammer, to no one's surprise, barely moved.
She hummed to herself, summoning her gauntlet as her hand armoured up, and she tried again.
"Need some help, Sugar plum?" Rhodey asked her, as he suited his arm up as well.
"I suppose I could share Asgard with you," she said, benevolently.
"Thank you for your kindness," he grinned.
The two of them tried pulling together, but the hammer stayed staunch where it rested on the table.
"Are you even pulling?" Rhodey grunted as he looked down at the hammer.
"Are you on my team?" she asked back with a retort.
"Just represent and pull!" Rhodey said firmly.
But the hammer didn't go anywhere.
One by one they all tried, as Ava and Bruce tried to look deeply at it and see if there were any obvious scanners for DNA markers before they attempted pulling it. Natasha tried to stun it with a bite.
Harry gave it a quick shot, and swiftly gave up, electing to sit beside Natasha instead afterwards.
Loki didn't even bother.
And Steve.
Well when Steve attempted to lift it, she could have sworn she saw it move slightly, and by the worried look on Thor's face and amused on Loki's, they'd seen it too.
But if he was able to pick it up, Steve didn't show it, instead dropping the handle as he sat back down beside her.
"It's rigged," Toni said simply as she leaned into Steve.
"You bet your ass it's rigged," Clint said, off put.
"Steve, he said a bad word!" Maria said mockingly as she looked over at Steve.
"Did you tell everyone about that?" Steve asked, giving her an exasperated look.
"You bet your adorable ass I did," she beamed, as she kissed him on the cheek.
When no one else attempted to pick it up, she simply shrugged.
"I agree with Ava," Toni said finally, "The handle's imprinted, right? It must be. There's no other logical answer. Like a security code. 'Whosoever is carrying Thor's fingerprints' is, I think, the literal translation?"
"Yes, well that's, uh, that's a very, very interesting theory. I have a simpler one," Thor said tauntingly as he picked up the hammer and flipped it. "You're all not worthy."
The group booed him, but the joy was cut short.
A loud screeching sound filled the air as the lights began to flicker. She quickly looked at her phone, trying to see if anything was up with her tower. Perhaps her reactor that was running it was malfunctioning?
She turned around and saw a robot, wearing one of her suits that was more wires than anything else. She instantly typed away at her phone, unable to access any of her servers.
She knew then, in that moment, that something had gone very, very wrong.
And with a sinking feeling in her stomach, she turned to face their unwanted party guest.
A/N: So Toni didn't create Ultron, but I think that no matter what Ultron would have come to be. And writing the death of JARVIS was truly heartbreaking, even though I knew this would happen from the beginning.
