Sunshine | Pietro Maximoff

CHAPTER 2

"You sure he's gonna be okay?" Natasha asked Dr Cho. "Pretending to need this guy really brings the team together."

I stood beside Natasha, watching as Dr Cho's invention healed Clint's wounds.

"There's no possibility of deterioration. The nano-molecular functionality is instantaneous. His cells don't know they're bonding with simulacrum." Dr Cho explained.

"Amazing..." I said in awe.

"She's creating tissue." Remarked Bruce.

"If you brought him to my lab, the regeneration cradle could do this in twenty minutes." Stated Dr Cho.

"Oh, he's flatlining." Said Tony, walking in with a tray of drinks. "Call it. Time?"

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

I chuckled at Clint's words. Tony handed me a drink before passing one to Clint.

"You'll be made of you, Mr Barton." Dr Cho reassured him with a smile. "Your own girlfriend won't be able to tell the difference."

"I don't have a girlfriend." Clint sipped from his drink as he spoke.

"That I can't fix." Dr Cho said. "This is the next thing, Tony. Your clunky metal suits are gonna be left in the dust."

"Well, that is exactly the plan." Tony replied. "And Helen, I expect to see you at the party on Saturday."

"Unlike you, I don't have a lot of time for parties." She paused for a minute before speaking again, not meeting anyone's eyes. "Will Thor be there?"

~*~

"What's the rumpus?" Bruce asked, as he walked into the lab with me and Tony.

"Well, the scepter." Tony answered. "You see, we were wondering how Strucker got so inventive. So, I've been analysing the gem inside."

By now, we had reached the centre of the room and Tony brought up a 3D model of Jarvis.

"You may recognize.."

"Jarvis." Bruce and I chorused.

"Doctors." The AI answered.

"Started out, Jarvis was just a natural language UI." Stark began. "Now he runs the Iron Legion. He runs more of the business than anyone but Pepper. Top of the line."

I nodded in agreement.

"I suspect not for long." Said Jarvis.

Tony brought up a second 3D model from the centre of the scepter into the space in front of us.

"Remarkable.." I breathed in awe.

"It's beautiful." Commented Bruce.

The only thing I could compare it to was some kind of brain, yet even that failed to comprehend the astounding technological feat in front of us.

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

"Like it's thinking." Answered Bruce.

I stepped closer, studying the model, utterly speechless. Bruce began to circle it and I could tell by the look on his face there were a million thoughts swirling around his mind.

"Stark, this could be it.." I remarked, giving him an awestruck smile.

"It's not a human mind. I mean look at this," Bruce gestured to the model. "They're like neuron's 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."

As Tony spoke, Bruce continued to circle the model, eyebrows drawn together.

"Artificial intelligence.." I almost whispered.

"It's like short stuff said," Tony clapped a hand on my shoulder. "This could be it. This could be the key to creating Ultron."

Bruce chuckled softly. "I thought Ultron was a fantasy."

"Yesterday it was. If we can harness this power, apply it to my Iron Legion protocol?"

"That's a man sized 'if'."

Bruce removed his glasses and began walking away in thought, Tony and I at his heels.

"Isn't that all we do? Everything comes down to 'if' around here." I said.

"Our whole job is 'if'." Tony stated. "What if you were sipping margarita's on a sun-drenched beach, turning brown instead of green? Not looking over your shoulder for Veronica?"

"Don't hate. I helped design Veronica." Said Bruce.

"As a worst case scenario, right? How about a best case?" Tony began. "What if the world was safe?"

Bruce looked down, deep in thought. From beside Tony, I nodded my head slowly in understanding.

"What if, next time aliens roll up to the club, and they will, they couldn't get past the bouncer?" Proposed Tony.

Bruce stopped and looked at Stark. "The only people threatening the planet would be people." He said in realisation.

"The world would be.. safe.. or at least, safer. No more extraterrestrial threats." I said.

"Exactly." Tony clapped a hand on my shoulder again. "I want to apply this to the Ultron program. But, Jarvis can't download a schematic this dense. We can only do it while we have the sceptre here." He looked between Bruce and I before continuing. "That's three days. Give me three days."

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

"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 made to meddle" medley."

"I'm with Stark." I said. "We don't have time to win over the rest of the team. Like you said, if the only time we can do this is while we have the sceptre, we can't afford to waste a minute of it debating ethics."

"You're on board with this?" Bruce asked me.

"Why wouldn't I be? We have in our hands the opportunity to protect the whole world from whatever's out there. Why would we not take that?"

Tony took a few steps away from Bruce and I before turning to face us.

"I see a suit of armour around the world." He said.

"Sounds like a cold world, Tony." Commented Bruce.

"I've seen colder. This one, this very vulnerable blue one, it needs Ultron. Peace in our time. Imagine that?"

Bruce remained silent, clearly thinking over everything Stark had said.

"Peace in our time." I repeated. "Let's do it. Are you with us, Dr Banner?"

Bruce lifted his head, his gaze moving between me and Stark.

"I am." He said, with a nod of his head.

"Then let's get to work."