「2」

· ───── ·𖥸· ───── ·

Alyssa leaned her head against the cold metal walls of the Quinjet, glancing around. No one else seemed to be as riled up as her, well, except for Bruce, so she didn't think anyone else encountered the two figures.

What the hell was that, anyway?

Thinking back to the distraught face of her father, she was alarmed about what he had seen. She had never seen her father's eyes so afraid and teary and only adding up to her anxiety was the fact that she had never in her life seen him cry.

Looking over to the cockpit area where Tony was punching in some numbers on the screen, she ultimately decided to not ask him about it. He seemed to ignore what had happened, so Alyssa wasn't going to mess around.

She stood up with a sigh and walked over to Clint, since she did blame herself a bit for him being hurt, giving him a small smile as she leaned against the rigging next to him. Natasha and Bruce were sitting together on the floor a couple feet away from her and she watched as Natasha swiveled her head around to face the others.

"Thor, report on the Hulk."

"The gates of Hel are filled with the screams of his victims," Thor said confidently.

Alyssa had to hold back a laugh as Natasha looked at the god with a 'what the hell' look, and Bruce buried his face in his hands, groaning.

"But not the screams of the dead of course. No, no, wounded screams. Mainly whimpering, a great deal of complaining, and tales of sprained deltoids and gout," Thor trailed off, and Alyssa had to bite her lip hard to not burst out laughing.

"JARVIS, take the wheel," Tony said, standing from his seat.

"Yes, sir."

He made his way over to Thor and Steve, who were admiring the scepter.

"Feels good, yeah? I mean, you've been after this thing since SHIELD collapsed. Not that I haven't enjoyed our little raiding parties, but..." Tony said.

"No, but this... this brings it to a close," Thor stated, smiling at the victory.

"As soon as we find out what else this has been used for. I just don't mean weapons. Since when is Strucker capable of human enhancement?" Steve asked, suspicious of the glowing scepter.

"Banner and I will give it the once over before it goes back to Asgard. Is that cool with you? Just a few days 'till the farewell party. You're staying, right?" Tony asked Thor. Alyssa believed the 'farewell party' was just an excuse to throw a party at all. Not that she complained, she loved parties just as much as her dad.

"Yes, yes, of course. A victory should be honored with revels," Thor replied.

"Yeah, who doesn't love revels? Captain?"

"Hopefully this puts an end to the Chitauri and HYDRA. So, yes, revels," Cap said, agreeing.

Soon the Quinjet landed at the Stark tower where doctor Cho and Maria Hill were already waiting. Clint was brought to Banner's lab where he would be taken care of, and Maria went into the jet.

"Labs all set up, boss," she said to Tony.

"Oh, actually he's the boss. I just pay for everything and design everything and make everyone look cooler."

"What's the word on Strucker?" Cap asked and went over to Maria.

"NATO's got him."

"The two enhanced?" he asked. Alyssa piped up at that question and followed as Steve and Maria went out. She gave the girl a friendly smile before opening her tablet.

"Wanda and Pietro Maximoff. Twins. Orphaned at ten when a shell collapsed their apartment building. Sokovia's had a rough history. It's nowhere special, but it's on the way to everywhere special," Maria explained.

"Their abilities?"

"He's got increased metabolism and improved thermal homeostasis. Her thing is neuroelectric interfacing, telekinesis, mental manipulation."

"He's fast and she's weird," Alyssa stated at Cap's confused face.

"Well, they're gonna show up again," he said and pressed the elevator button.

"Agreed. Files say they volunteered for Strucker's experiments. It's nuts."

"Right," Steve said. "What kind of monster would let a German scientist experiment on them to protect their country."

"We're not at war, captain," Maria said, tilting her head.

"They are."

As soon as the elevator closed, Alyssa said goodbye to Maria and made her way to Clint to see how he was doing.

"So, how is my favorite teammate doing!" she exclaimed when she stepped foot in Bruce's labor.

"I'm honored..."

Ignoring Alyssa, Natasha worryingly stood at Clint's side. "Are you sure he's gonna be okay? Pretending to need this guy really brings the team together," she said, smiling at him.

"There's no possibility of deterioration. The nano-molecular functionality is instantaneous. His cells don't know they're bonding with simulacra," Doctor Cho assured, typing something.

"She's creating tissue," Bruce said, admiring the tech.

Alyssa wasn't sure if she should laugh or cringe at the sight of Natasha's smile falling a bit as Bruce continued to marvel at the machine. She decided to just stay silent, for the sake of Natasha.

"If you brought him to my lab, the Regeneration Cradle could do this in twenty minutes."

"Oh, he's flat-lining. Called it. Time?" Tony barged in, setting a tray of drinks on a table nearby.

"No, no, no I'm gonna live forever," Clint laughed. "I'm gonna be made of plastic."

"Here's your beverage."

"You'll be made of you, Mr. Barton. Your own girlfriend won't be able to tell the difference," Helen assured.

"I don't have a girlfriend," Clint muttered and Alyssa tilted her head at his mumbled response.

"That I can't fix. This is the next thing, Tony. Your clunky metal suits are gonna be left in the dust," Helen noted, a pleased smile on her face.

"That is exactly the plan. And, Helen, I expect to see you at the party on Saturday," Tony said, pointing at the Korean scientist.

"Unlike you, I don't have a lot of time for parties," Helen said, before asking more quietly; "will Thor be there?"

Alyssa and Natasha exchanged knowing looks before each of them went out of the lab. Natasha stated that she would go and try to nap, while Alyssa was in desperate need of a big cup of tee. Bruce said he would be right behind her, but before he could, Tony pulled him aside and into another empty section of the lab.

"What's the rumpus?" Bruce asked.

"Well, the scepter. You see, we were wondering how Strucker got so inventive. So I've been analyzing the gem inside. You may recognize..." Tony projected JARVIS' hologram.

"Started out, JARVIS was just a natural language UI. Now he runs the Iron Legion. He runs more of the business than anyone besides Pepper."

"Oh"

"Top of the line."

"Yes." 

"Meet the competition," Tony said and projected another hologram. This one was much more different than JARVIS. It was bigger and looked more complex.

"It's beautiful," Bruce said, astonished.

"If you had to guess, what's it look like it's doing?"

"Like it's thinking. I mean, this could be... it's not a human mind. I mean look at this. They're like neurons firing," Bruce said, waving his hand over the blue hologram.

"Down in Strucker's lab, I saw some fairly advanced robotic work. They deep-sized the data, but I gotta guess he was knocking on a very particular door."

"Artificial intelligence," mumbled Bruce.

"This could be it, Bruce. This could be the key to creating Ultron," Tony murmured.

Bruce chuckled softly, shaking his head once in confusion. "I thought Ultron was a fantasy."

"Yesterday it was. If we can harness this power, apply it to my Iron Legion protocol?" Tony said, trying to convince his lab partner.

"That's a man-sized 'if'," Bruce argued, and began pacing the lab.

"Our job is 'if'," Tony pressed on. "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."

"As a worst-case measure, right? How about a best-case? What if the world was safe? What if next time the aliens roll up to the club, and they will, they couldn't get past the bouncer?" Tony reasoned.

"The only people threatening the planet would be people," Bruce stated.

"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 pleaded.

"So you're going for artificial intelligence, and you don't want to tell the team?" Bruce asked in disbelief.

"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."

The two of them were in awkward silence for a minute, before Tony spoke up again. "I see a suit of armor around our world, Bruce."

"Sounds like a cold world, Tony."

"I've seen colder. This one, this very vulnerable blue one, it needs Ultron," Tony said. With that, Bruce was convinced.

"Peace in our time. Imagine that."

Bruce and Tony soon started working on their secret project. They've got three days to accomplish it, and they were working their asses off. They also successfully hid it, which meant no suspicion of their team could cross their plan. From typing on the computer, to sitting on the floor surrounded by files and construction plans, they worked three days through. But still, in the end, they were unsuccessful. They worked and worked, every minute of the day until it was time they needed to stop. It was the evening of the party, and Tony sighed sadly when shutting down the computer.

"What did we miss?" he asked no one in particular.

"I'll continue to run variations on the interface. But you should probably prepare for your guests. I'll notify you if there are any developments," JARVIS assured.

"Thanks, buddy," Tony walked out of the lab.

"Enjoy yourself, sir."

"I always do."