HESTIA ━ marvel

0.7 | PEACE IN OUR TIME

"ARE YOU SURE he's gonna be okay? Pretending to need this guy really brings the team together," Natasha said when they got back to Avengers tower, smirking at Clint who was lying down.

"There's no possibility of deterioration. The nano-molecular functionality is instaneous," said an Asian lady, who Anastasiya learn to be Dr Helen Cho. "His cells don't know they're bonding with simulacra."

Anastasiya was confused, but that must have been apparent because Bruce smiled at her and said, "she's creating tissue."

"If you brought him to my lab, the Regeneration Cradle could do this in 20 minutes," Dr Cho added.

"Oh he's flat-lining. Call it. Time?" Came a voice from the door, as Tony walked in holding drinks.

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

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

"I don't have a girlfriend."

"That I can't fix," the doctor said, whilst turning away, "this is the next thing Tony. Your clunky metal suits are gonna be left in the dust."

"That is exactly the plan," the billionaire nodded. "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 said, whilst Tony raised his eyebrows. "Will Thor be there?" She added, quietly, but Anastasiya couldn't help but smile.

"Hey, Anastasiya, want to come down to the lab with me and Bruce? We could use an extra pair of hands, and maybe we can show you some of the stuff we're working on?" Tony asked her, and Anastasiya was taken aback.

"You're trusting me in your lab?" She asked.

"Yeah. Just try not to explode anything."

"That makes me feel loads better," she said, folding her arms.

"Come on. It'll be fun," Tony said, and grabbed Anastasiya by the arm and lightly dragged her out the door.

As they walked down to the lab, Tony and Bruce began talking.

"What's the rumpus?" Bruce asked.

"Well, that's the sceptre," Tony replied, and Anastasiya butted in. "Wait, the sceptre as in the thing that you were trying to get when you were fighting those guys at the Hydra base?"

"Exactly. You see, we were wondering how Strucker got so inventive. So, I've been analysing the gem inside," Tony stated, picking something up from the table and waving it in the air as if he was tapping it on something, and Anastasiya was shocked when she saw what came out of it. "You may recognise..."

"Jarvis," Bruce said.

"Doctor," it replied, and Anastasiya was puzzled. She'd never seen anything like it before.

"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. Top of the line."

"I suspect not for long," the voice came again.

The billionaire turned around, "meet the competition," and just like he did before, waved something around in the air and a blue light erupted.

"It's beautiful," Anastasiya exclaimed.

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

"Like it's thinking," Anastasiya interrupted. Bruce began circling it, in total awe by the scene in front of him. "I mean, this could be..."

"It's not a human mind," Anastasiya added.

"Mmm," Tony murmured, nodding at the redhead.

"They're like neurons firing," the girl said again, and Tony and Bruce looked at her. "You didn't say you knew science," Bruce said, and Anastasiya smiled.

"I don't, really, but before... Hydra... I enjoyed science, and whilst I was there I tried to keep up with it as much as I could."

"You're a smart kid," Bruce said, and Anastasiya just smiled.

"Down in Strucker's lab, I saw some fairly advanced robotics work," Anastasiya told them.

"I saw it too. They deep-sixed the data, but I guess he was knocking on a very particular door."

"Artificial intelligence," Bruce pointed out, understanding.

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

"I thought Ultron was a fantasy?" Bruce asked.

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

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

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

"Sorry to interrupt, but what's Ultron?"

"Ultron is, or what we would like to be, a peacekeeping program," Tony said.

"Yes but it was all just a dream, Tony. Also 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, the next time aliens roll up to the club, and they will, they couldn't get past the bouncer?"

"The only people threatening the planet would be people," Anastasiya stated, catching on. Tony nodded at her again. "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 sceptre here. That's three days, give me three days."

"So you're going for artificial intelligence, and you don't want to tell the team?" Tony sighed. "You know what, that's right. 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. I see a suit of armour around the world."

"Sounds like a cold world," the young girl said.

"I've seen colder," Tony told her. "This one, this very vulnerable blue one, it needs Ultron," he began walking off down the lab, but Anastasiya and Bruce stayed behind, giving each other a look.

"Peace in our time. Imagine that."

A/N this is so long omg but I want the story to be detailed. Of course I won't put every single line in there but I want to use most of them. Chapters will probably be around this length, maybe longer but I'm not sure. I have so many ideas for Anastasiya's story line and I'm honestly so excited, and i hope you are too!