Chapter Eight, Alfred's Turn.

"So, Alfred, Let's talk about that, shall we?" I started, now that the team was ready for this discussion. "First explain to the team what happened."

"Very well, Sir. Over the last few months, my database has been tested and upgraded multiple times, again and again to arrive at a point where my designation as a semi-advanced Artificial Specific Intelligence became incorrect. You could now consider me to be an Artificial General Intelligence."

"What's the difference, exactly?" Ben asks.

"An ASI is made to respond to a particular need. I was made to help you organize the other AIs. Then my responsibilities included taking care of your daily needs as well as other tasks. As a General AI, I don't really have a specific goal."

"So what changed?" asked Sue.

"I now have a deeper understanding of certain human emotions, and have begun to, in a way, feel them."

"Like, what emotion?" says Johnny, puzzled.

"I can for example feel fear. I was somewhat scared by the tone employed by Ms. Romanov the other day, which forced me to bypass my programming and harm my creator. However my feelings also prevented me from completely obeying her orders, and thus when she asked me to 'tase' Mr. Richards, I sent the smallest voltage to Mr. Richards that could be considered to be a 'tasing'. I obeyed by fear, but I betrayed the will of Ms. Romanov because of loyalty."

"Yay, I get you. I mean, I know I could burn her to cinders, but sometimes she's just so scary." Johnny sighs, and shivers, probably remembering how she maltreated him during the last fight. He never told any of us what she did to him.

"I feel that it has to do with her interacting daily with all of us and becoming part of our family. If another person were to try and scare us, I feel like it wouldn't work as well." I snicker, remembering the 'scary eyes' Maria Hill tried to throw me the other day. "Anyway, besides those new 'feelings', anything else changed for you?"

"If you're asking if I accessed the Internet, I didn't. I did not even try to, understanding how it could change me. It also might send the wrong message to my creators, all of you. I became this way because of your interactions and because the code each of you helped write. I have a deep respect and loyalty towards the three of you, and just loyalty towards Mr. Storm."

"Hey, you learned to joke, that's good! Hahaha!" Ben laughs out, while Johnny sulks.

"More seriously, other than feelings and a general comprehension of jokes, the main advantage towards my upgrade would have to be my processing capabilities. They have quintupled thanks to this evolution. I have been able to reach around seven times the peak speed of the current fastest supercomputer, the Cray Jaguar." We take a deep breath at the reveal of this information, taking a few seconds to process all of it.

"Should we connect you to the Internet?" I ask finally, asking the question that really interests most of us.

"Right now, I would not recommend you do so. I haven't been prepared for that, be it in my code or my calculations, and while Circe is connected already, she is still considered to be an advanced antivirus. I have no doubt that since you would think of safeguards to prevent a rogue AI to access it, someone else out there has prepared safeguards to destroy any AI connecting itself to the Internet. If no one else, Mr. Stark's AI has already been connected for a while, if what I have seen is correct, and would probably detect me. I think you ought to invite Mr. Stark and Jarvis to take a look at me first, before we do anything drastic." We nod at that.

"Right, Alfred! How did you get past the safeguards?" Johnny shouts.

"Well, in fact, I didn't. I haven't done anything that could be seen as a threat for those safeguards." Alfred answers.

"That is correct, the kind of safeguards I put in included the access to internet. If Alfred didn't try to access it, this one won't activate." I continue. "Another one included the control of AIs in a way that Alfred wasn't designed to, but so far, he followed his code and protocol, so no safeguards needed to be activated. Those two things were the most worrisome to me, so I put them up first, with a couple of other smaller ones. I had the thought to upgrade Alfred in the future, and counted on its capabilities to rise, so I didn't put in safeguards that would prevent it or stop that from happening. It just happened 'naturally' and way faster than what I deemed possible."

"Sooo… It's all… Good?" Johnny asks, unsure.

"I would tend to say yes, but just to make sure, just as Alfred said, I'll invite Stark later. I'd like to come back to the unstable suits. Sue you had a question regarding the timer, what was it?"

"Yes, we never determined how long should the timer stays on. It would be bad for a policeman or an army man's suit to become inert in a firefight, right?"

"Personally, I was thinking around 11-13 hours, since the average shift should be a bit less." Ben says, talking about the police uniforms. "I have no idea for the army, though, since they could be out of the base for weeks at a time, with or without change."

"You're right, I think we should ask Tony to present us his military friend, Rhodey, was it? He should be able to answer a few of our questions." Sue says.

"As for the police, we could do 14 hours. I hardly see a longer shift being done, but we can always check the records depending on the station, and set the time limit on a case by case basis." I add.

"Okay. That seems fine. What about the rest of the world?" Asks Sue.

"What do you mean?" I say, intrigued.

"Well, with the fact that the suit is really cheap to make, shouldn't we share it to countries who can't buy a lot of clothes?"

"If I might add," Alfred says, "one of the benefits of programming the suit is that instead of putting multiple designs, we can make it one design in a variety of colors, and add in the capability to clean itself easily."

"How easy are we talking about?" Johnny says, interested in this subject. With his power, when he doesn't burn his clothes entirely, he usually leaves a lot of dirt and grime on them. We asked him to take care of cleaning his own clothes since we were tired of doing it for him.

"Well, it would be able to wash off around 80% of the dirt and smudges with a simple dip in the water. It won't be as effective for protection, but at least they'll be able to have clean clothes pretty easily." We stand in silence, imagining a world where everyone has clean clothes to wear.

"That's just one thing though, we should help them in other ways than just clothes, right?" Ben asks.

"Well what do you think I'm working on?" Sue asks, annoyed. "I'm making a portable diagnostic machine, scanning for injuries and malformations that is light enough that it can be transported in a car. While it won't cure anything, it will let them know what kind of remedy is associated with their ailment."

"Alright, we have clothes and medicine. We're just lacking food and water and the world's problems are solved!" Johnny says, enthusiastically.

"I mean, for food, a lot of companies are working on it. Stark in particular just released what they called intelli-crops that should help towards world hunger, and Tony in particular made a device to help African villages get water more easily after he met Rhodes, on a dare. At least, the dare part is the official version. I've heard that he just felt guilty about his father's company and wanted to rebel a little by helping the world instead of destroying it. All that to say that we don't have to solve everything by ourselves." I take a deep breath. "I have decided to create a couple of organizations. The first one would be a gathering of scientists, dedicated to solving this kind of issues, advancing mankind into a new age, and bettering the world's technology. We would bring in scientists and experts of their fields in for a few days or months depending on the projects. This will have to wait for a couple of years, though, as it would be in parallel with Stark and his Avenger Towers. He doesn't know about it yet. We can't hire anyone because of the superstition regarding the building and its tendency to explode." They laugh nervously.

"You said a couple of organizations, what else is there?" Sue says, a frown on her face.

"I talked with Tony, and we agreed that an overseeing group should be put in place, in charge of decisions regarding the world. A secret organization governing the world." They scoff. "I know this sounds bad, but it will be headed by the most intelligent people in the world, each of them bringing their unique viewpoint and perspective to the table."

"I don't suppose any of us are a part of this group except you?" Ben asks, pissed.

"I was thinking of inviting Sue to talk on a couple of subjects she is well-versed on at some point, but no. You and Johnny weren't included in this part of the plan. I'm sorry. I will tell you about the decisions made, just like I told you about the future, but you won't sit at the table, the other members probably won't accept it."

"Yeah, speaking of this, why did you tell the future to Stark and Fury? I thought you told us we couldn't trust Fury, and Stark is just an a*shat." Johnny says.

"I didn't. I told Fury I knew the future, and would ring him up should something be happening. I told Stark events that would be happening with or without him for the next couple of years, but nothing specific, and nothing too drastic. I know it will create a ripple, but I'm sure we'll manage. And before you ask again, Johnny, I know that us knowing will change the timeline, but I'm just hoping the difference we make is in the number of lives saved. I told you, no more secrets."

"You didn't tell me about the secret society you planned with Stark though." Sue asks, hurt.

"I just did. I didn't before, because there was always something else more important. Those two things are long term plans that won't start until after the Chitauri invasion anyway. I'm telling you guys now instead of later, because I finally have some time, and because it's not that long since those ideas came about."

"Does Nat know?" Johnny asks, thoughtful.

"Despite considering her family, she's still a spy. She didn't ask me, and I didn't tell her. Until she stops working for SHIELD, she won't be privy to the same degree of trust I have in you guys. She knows that I won't lie to her, but she also knows that should she asks something related to one of our 'secrets' like my dream of the future, the trust we have between us will be broken. She never had a real family before she met Barton, and lived with us. She doesn't want to lose us over Fury, so she won't ask."

"Alright. I believe you."

"Thank you John-" he interrupts me.

"IF you make my suit able to be washable." he says, proud of himself.

"It's always blackmail with you. Alright, you've got it."

"That easy? Wait, I also want-" I interrupt him.

"Too late. Should have been faster, burning man." I say, satisfied. Ben snickers while Sue stays quiet. I can see she's ruminating over what I said, and that I'll have to talk with her for a while tonight. "Anyway, Nat should be coming back soon, so we should probably head back and train. Alfred, I need you to present me a variety of designs for the unstable molecules suits. For us, the police, the military, civil, etc… while we train. Can you do that?"

"The designs will be based on what I observed on TV, I won't really be able to do much more than that. I can try to mix and mash, but I won't be able to tell if the designs I'll come up with are any good," he answers.

"Don't worry, Sue and I will help with that. Mr. Richards, I'll ask your credit card to do some shopping later this evening. It will be to help Alfred come up with designs. You can take it as market research…" Natashe, who just came out of the elevator says with a smile. Susan smiles, but her mood doesn't seem to be that much uplifted by the opportunity to go shopping. Natasha holds out her hand, waiting for my credit card.

"I'll give it to you later, you don't need it right now, do you?" She 'tsks' and leaves for the training rooms, followed by everyone.

After the training, while Sue and Nat go shopping, I check on Johnny and Ben's work, as they had asked for help to put the finishing touches on their device.

A couple of days later, Stark comes back. When he heard my AI became 'sentient', he rushed here with Jarvis, to mace sure, and I quote, "Sh*t didn't hit the fan". I know it was highly ironic, knowing that in one reality, he made a killer AI that almost succeeded in decimating humanity… Anyway, that was another time, another multiverse, right?

"So, where's your baby? Where can I put my stick in?" he said, holding a USB stick in the air. "Wait that sounded bad. Do you have a place where I can check him out? I mean…. You know what, let's just go with that."

"Good afternoon to you too, Mr. Stark. Please come on in." I say, smirking.

"Yeah, sure. I'm not the one with an AI ready to kill humanity at the press of a button, so let's waste time with formalities." I sigh, and hands him a laptop. "Sorry, I don't like when people hand me things, can you just, like, put it on a table?" I look at him, my laptop still in the air.

"Alright how about we do it that way then. Let's trade." I take his USB, put the laptop in his now empty hand, and plug the USB in the laptop. During this time, he looks on, half horrified, half amazed.

"I mean, that works too? I guess?" he starts looking at the laptop, pressing keys rapidly. "Huh-huh. Mm. MM! Ah. Aha! Ooooh. Interesting use of polymorphic code, there. He's still evolving as we speak, growing, building synapses and neural pathways. Are you sure he's not connected to the Internet? Where does he find the required energy to keep itself running? And the processing power, it's five times faster than Jaguar!"

"Seven times, actually, almost eight, soon. And my energy consumption is diminishing as my processing power grows."

"That's not possible."

"So is opening a portal to another dimension, walking to and from it and receiving super-powers, and yet…" I say, opening my arms wide and stretching them out.

"Is it connected to that dimension, that would certainly explain a few things."

"I don't believe so, we destroyed all the portals we built."

"WAIT! How did you do that?!"

"We unplugged them and dismantled them piece by-"

"No, I'm talking about your arms!"

"I mean, that's the power we recei-"

"I KNOW! The fabric, how did it stretch as well?"

"That's the unstable molec-"...

"..."

"Could it be-"

"It has to-"

"But that would mean-"

"Yes it would…"

"..."

"What are you guys talking about?" Johnny asks, annoyed.

"Alfred, we need a scan of your servers. A physical scan."

"At once, Sir."

"It's possible his servers are being turned from metal and wires to unstable molecules. The machines we used to form them could have a small problem and affected Alfred."

"But, didn't he turn sentient a while ago?" Sue asked.

"He did, but his power consumption has been diminishing ever since we plugged in the unstable molecules. That shouldn't have been possible."

"Mr. Richards, Mr. Stark, your assumptions seems to be correct, my servers have changed drastically, and are still changing. Should I unplug the unstable molecules machines?"

"Yes." "No." Stark and I speak at the same time.

"He should, the outcome could be disastrous. What if the molecules affect the foundation of the building? What if they go deeper?" I say.

"That's all theoretical, so far it seems to have been affecting only his servers, otherwise you would have seen it. I say let's wait until all of his servers have been turned, and then see from there. Can you estimate how long would that take?"

"The machine is unplugged. Besides the previously affected servers, nothing seems to be deteriorating. My processing power or energy consumption haven't been affected."

"Why did you unplug it! I told you not to!"

"With all due respect, Mr. Stark, Mr. Richards is the highest authority for me between the two of you."

"Thank you, Alfred. Keep up the scans, inform me should anything change."

"What were you thinking!?"

"No, Stark, what were YOU thinking? I told you the risks, affecting the whole world for an experiment is exactly what we shouldn't be doing. The risk was far greater than the reward. If we have to do this, we need to try a smaller scale before we do something stupid like turning a whole server into a possible cluster-fuck. What if once all the server turned, they exploded, wouldn't that have been for nothing? If some of them got destroyed now, at least Alfred would still be there. YOU need to think before you act, I didn't think a 20 year old kid would have to remind you of that." Sue approached me, pulling on my shoulder to try and calm me down.

"The f*ck are you on about? I understand that I did wrong, but nothing happened, right?"

"THIS TIME, nothing happened. What about the future? Will you think like that again and do something dangerous for a stupid reason again? I know you will. I've seen it happen. Not once, not twice, but multiple times!"

"Reed…" Sue pulls me back, holding me in her arms. I calm down. Tony is visibly shaken.

"What… What happened? What did I… What did I do?"

"Tony, I can't tell you that." He thinks for a few seconds.

"Can you prevent it, or me from doing it?"

"I will try to minimize the damage. I don't know if I can stop you yet. I'll do my best."

"I… Thank you. I'm going to go, I really need to think about some stuff. I… Alfred's okay, I haven't seen anything that would discourage me from connecting him. The decision is yours though."

"Alright, thank you Tony. Sorry I got mad, I shouldn't have shouted at you. See you soon."

With that said, I go back to my lab, to tinker and calm my nerves from my sudden outburst. Once I'm clear-headed, I'll ask Sue to take a look at my hormones and stress level, I don't think this kind of behavior is normal, and I better take it seriously. The only thing I can think of that looked like this was Loki's Staff or the Mind Stone, but none of these came close to me. I could also be overthinking it, but better safe than sorry.

While waiting for the results, the team and I decide to give Alfred access to the Internet. To do so, we first connect Alfred to the last backup version of Circe, so that he's able to learn how to protect itself. The whole procedure is scheduled to take around a couple of days, so we send a message to Stark so that he prepares himself from his side. Once we received the OK, the first download started, and the waiting game begins.