156 Armor around the world

**Big thanks to Luke Karls for your support**

Banner had walked into the lab glancing at Barton who was lying in the med bay with Dr. Cho working on him. "How's he doing" Bruce questioned Tony who was working on a screen in a lab right next to where Dr. Cho was working on Barton.

"unfortunately he's still Barton" replied Tony in his patented sarcastic tone, "that's terrible" Banner was quick to respond in a faux tone of alarm. "He's fine, he's just thirsty" Tony spoke after the two shared a chuckle.

"Alright Jarvis, its play time" Tony said after he had moved away from Banner and Barton towards his own lab and Loki's scepter, "I've got a couple of days with this joystick so let's make the most of it" he continued to Jarvis.

"Update me on the structural and compositional analysis", he ordered Jarvis as he stared at the device "the scepter is alien, there are elements I can't quantify" Jarvis voice resounded through the a second later. "Sure, but there are elements you can", Tony remarked causing Jarvis to continue his scans bringing out his findings.

"The jewel seems to be a protective housing for something inside, something powerful" Jarvis stated, "like a reactor" Tony stated supplementing Jarvis. "Like a computer" Jarvis corrected Tony, "I believe unsiphoned code" ends Jarvis.

Barton laid on a stretcher with Dr. Cho's machine beginning to work on him. "You sure he's gonna be OK?" Black Widow asked Dr. Cho as she observed the machine at work. "There's no possibility of deterioration, the Nano molecular functionality is instantaneous, cells don't know they are bonding with new items", Dr. Cho explained a smile growing on her face due to her pride at her work.

"She's creating tissue" remarked Bruce. "If you had brought him to my lab, the regeneration cradle could do this in 20 minutes" Dr. Cho continued.

Bruce moved to Tony's lab after Tony had arrived to pull him over. As they drew closer to the lab Tony and Bruce began a discussion about the scepter, "Well, the scepter. You see, we were wondering how Strucker got so inventive. So, I've been analyzing the gem inside-- You may recognize," a 3d holographic construct appeared before Tony with Banner in its midst.

With Banner realizing this he moved to stand by Tony to observe what Tony had brought out "Jarvis" Bruce uttered out as he recognized what was before him. Tony continued "when he 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?" Bruce could not help but let out as he was genuinely impressed. Tony added on, "top of the line."

"Yes." Bruce agreed with a nod. "I suspect not for long", Jarvis spoke out at this moment as Tony brought out a new construct this one even more complex. With an arm stretched to the new construct he spoke up, "meet the competition".

Bruce immediately had his eyes glued to the new construct letting out two words at the sight, "It's beautiful". "If you had to guess, what's it look like it's doing?" Tony asked Banner a grin on his face happy someone else could appreciate what was before him.

Banner stared at the construct more closely before speaking out, "like it's thinking. I mean this could be a... it's not a human mind, it..." Banner soon found himself lost for words as he tried to describe it. "Um-um", Tony's grin even more.

Banner continued regaining his tongue, "I mean, look at this! They're like neurons firing."

"Down in Strucker's lab I saw some fairly advanced robotics work. They deep-sixed the data, but... I've got to guess he was knocking on a very particular door." Tony spoke explaining the source of the construct before them. "Artificial intelligence", Banner spoke out after realizing what Tony was getting at.

"This could be it, Bruce. This could be the key to creating Ultron." seeing the moment was right Tony pressed on. Banner scoffed at Tony's words, "I thought Ultron was a fantasy."

"Yesterday it was. If we can harness this power, apply it to my Iron Legion protocol-" Tony began trying to explain his dream to his friend but was cut of by Banner who had realized just how serious his friend was. "That's a mad-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".

Banner cut in again, "Don't hate, I helped design VERONICA."

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

"What if Ultron decides humanity is the problem?" the sudden appearance of the voice almost gave Banner a heart attack. "Bats we talked about this. You've got to stop doing that" Tony spoke as he Bruce turned to where Batman stood observing them.

"You haven't answered the question Tony" Batman pressed on, "I'll make it so it can't" Tony turned to Bruce and continued, "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."

Batman continued hoping he could talk Tony out of the mistake he was about to make, "So you're going for artificial intelligence and you don't want to tell the team." Tony let out a snort after hearing those words, "That's rich coming from you, you want me to believe you tell us about everything that could be a threat to the world that you have in your possession. You won't even tell anyone on the team who you are under that mask for all we know you could have some sort of contingency plan for everyone of us, because yes I believe you're that paranoid"

Batman remained silent just staring at Tony who let out a sigh, "look this is why I don't want to say anything because we don't have time for a city hall debate. I don't want to hear the 'man was not meant to meddle' speach. I see a suit of armor around the world."

Banner finally spoke up after hearing that, "sounds like a cold world, Tony."

"I've seen colder. This one, this very vulnerable blue one? It needs Ultron. Peace in our time. Imagine that." Tony's last words convinced Banner. Batman looked at the two before he began to walk out, "when this all goes awry, and trust me it will. I will remind you of this moment, of your decision".