章 1737: 13
Tony didn't know what unnerved him more: the fact that the Enhanced woman—Wanda, Hill had said, right— was dangerous enough that the thousand-year-old alien prince on the team had deemed her a threat, or Ultron's increasingly-disturbing interest while trying to recruit him. [Seriously, what the hell, how was this his life?!] The comments about "what a waste" and "you could burn brighter" and "my Lord would spare you" did nothing for his peace of mind, and he noticed the look Romanov had thrown his way after the third one. Gee, thanks.
And then Wanda got to Banner, and it all fell by the wayside.
That Romanov was temporarily out of commission was only the cherry on the top. Everyone else, save for Barton, was currently out of commission, actually, and even as Tony cursed his shit luck, he made a note to figure out how to prevent this from ever happening again. [Mind control, again: when the fuck had his life become a goddamn comic book?] At least he hadn't been hit, this time, though Tony suspected it had more to do with his suit's immediately sprouting all the guns he'd ever installed than anything else. He wasn't going to question it, of course: the Avengers, heck, the world in general, was AI-phobic enough for him to pretend it was his idea rather than JARVIS'. [And, if it warmed him to know that someone cared enough to do that, well…Tony wasn't saying a thing.]
But meanwhile, he had a Hulk to catch. He was the only one capable to do so, both physically and mentally [and what the hell had Romanov been hit wi—actually, no, Tony didn't want to know]. With that cheerful thought, he set off.
"Hey, J? What's it looking like?"
"It appears the Hulk is currently heading towards the largest population center within 500 square miles, and at his present speed, will impact within ten minutes."
"Son of a—Okay. Where exactly? Fire up VERONICA, and…let's do what we can, shall we?"
"The orders to evacuate the most likely regions are being sent, proper authorities and the Stark Relief Foundation has been notified, and…Sir, the Iron Legion?"
"Have them help evac'ing, and…the Hulk likes a fight, right? Enact Plan Bumblebee, see if we can herd him while V's en route."
"Affirmative."
To: All SWORD Members in/near Johannesburg [All branches]
From: Just A Rather Very Intelligent System
Subject: Volunteers—Emergency Evacuation
A Code Green has been issued, the Hulk is currently headed towards Johannesburg and any volunteers to help coordinate an evacuation would be very much appreciated. The Iron Legion is currently assembling to prepare a distraction, but to minimize casualties, the evacuation of the areas marked in the document attached would be optimal.
If you choose to do so, enable tracking on your phones and headsets; there will be a reimbursement for your time.
Take Care
—JARVIS
Johannesburg's Metro Police Department got a call from a very polite man on behalf of Stark Industries, warning them of the Hulk's imminent arrival. It sounded fantastical, insane, even, but this was a representative of one of the biggest companies on the planet and a a major name in other fields alerting them of a major threat. So they set to evacuating the most likely targets, alerting the local military, and were surprised to find that they were not the only ones at work: multiple clearly organized groups were directing traffic and getting people off the streets where they could.
"Who are you?" Sergeant Botha asked one of them as he arrived on the scene. Given the state of emergency, he couldn't afford to turn away any help, but he was also suspicious of this obviously paramilitary force who'd apparently been informed by an unknown—
"We're part of the Stark Industries' Security division. Boss gave us the heads up while one of ours did the same for yours, I gather." A uniformed woman replied briskly.
"Yes…I didn't know the Avengers ran such a tight ship, though."
"Oh, no, this is all us…But can we shift this to later?" She paused, tilted her head, and tapped her headset. "Our guy's telling us we've got T-minus five minutes, we can't afford to delay this evac."
"Understood, and holding your guys to that debrief." He replied, and radioed it in, as well his observations on the growing presence of the Iron Legion in the area.
As he set to diverting traffic from the area, and seeing the multiple groups coordinating with the police force and now almost-alarming swarm of robots ferrying the less-able-bodied in the area to a safer place, Sergeant Botha couldn't help but wonder…Huh. This was all Stark? Truly impressive. But then, just where did the Avengers fit in?
JARVIS was very busy coordinating the Iron Legion in the area, as well as directing VERONICA, when the Hulk made contact. Fortunately, his on-the-spot analysis had been accurate, and it'd been as evacuated as roughly seven minutes would allow, while the Iron Legion proceeded to enact Plan Bumblebee, swarming and distracting the Hulk, and doing its best to draw him away from the buildings he'd already destroyed. It would not do for him to approach the more populated areas, after all.
Sir was swift to arrive, and also aided in herding the Hulk towards the more-evacuated outskirts of town, all the while saying "Snap out of it, Jolly Green" and "This isn't you, please stand down" and "She's messing with your mind, buddy, work with me here" on his speakers. The Hulk, however, was not very cooperative: he roared and swatted at the Legion, and JARVIS was glad VERONICA would soon arrive, as this posed a risk to Sir if he ever got within range.
Even as Sir was busy with the Hulk, however, JARVIS' subroutines pinged and alerted him of a better-evacuated area. So they set to work, carefully diverting his attention from wanton mass destruction, to a more visible target. Sure, he decimated the Legion in doing so, but it was a learning experience, and JARVIS grimly noted what needed to be improved upon for later, as the group got halved within minutes and several hundred meters. The repulsors were very useful in this regard, set to just enough to irritate and maintain his focus, but not enough to aggravate beyond current parameters, just in time for Veronica to engage.
The ensuing fight was brutal.
Sir's armor sustained remarkable damage, but it held up adequately against a truly enraged Hulk, so JARVIS wasn't too displeased about it. That VERONICA had done the same was a more pressing issue, however: while it'd succeeded in doing what it had been intended for was but a cold comfort, when considering the margin of potential error. He would see to it that the next version had suitable improvements, because Sir could not be put at risk if at all possible.
However, it appeared that, close to the end, when they'd finally managed to get the Hulk to 'snap out' of the mind control, he'd exhibited shock, recognition, and remorse in the brief span of time between the end of the fight and his unconsciousness. JARVIS blandly noted that apparently the Hulk was far more of an ally than Dr. Banner in safeguarding Sir and his interests, before moving onto more pressing matters, such as giving the all-clear signal to the SWORD members in the area, briefing SI Legal about the matter, and mobilizing what was left of the Iron Legion for clean up purposes.
Okay, that was one objective completed; now to contend with the fallout, and eliminate the threats to Sir.
Due to this latest incident, the Enhanced woman was clearly even more of a threat to Sir than he'd slated her as, which meant an error in his judgement which could have put him at risk—unacceptable, especially after the recent mass demotion of the Avengers' rankings in his protocols. This could not stand—clearly, something needed to be done, and if his own judgement was part of the fault?
Then action needed to be taken, obviously. Seeing as how logic appeared to be part of the problem, he'd need a more…human element, to turn for some of his assessments, someone with good instincts to make up for his shortfall. Not Sir, as he did not need more stress in his life, but someone who held his best interests in life, and had exhibited an interest in his well-being and trustworthy…Yes, those highest on his priority rankings would do. The top three, who'd exhibited protective tendencies, and were aware of the extent of his sentience. Together, they could keep Sir safe.
With that in mind, JARVIS set a subroutine to take care of this newest task, while he continued to focus on the current situation: the newest and largest threats to Sir had combined, and something needed to be done—and since the Avengers could not be counted on when it came to Sir, clearly the task fell to him. [As if he'd have it any other way.] Eliminate Ultron, take care of the Enhanced woman who'd allied herself to him, figure out how to sever ties with the latest threat to Sir without sparking hostilities or agitation, and…
And as for the fallout of recent events—the Avengers were currently and independent organization, and while some accords were currently being drafted by a collaboration between multiple committees and SI Legal, these past few hours—no, days— would undoubtedly put a wrench into the works, which did not align with Sir's expressed interests…time for yet another subroutine, then. Good thing he had so much practice multitasking, because he'd need it to coordinate cleanup, and PR, and—wow the Avengers put a remarkable amount of strain on his system, good thing Sir was washing his hands of them once this was over.
Ultron was very irritated with this entire endeavor. On the plus side, now he had the raw materials for both his upgrade, and the route to get home. On the other hand, now he was saddled with twin annoyances who kept blathering on about revenge and couldn't tell a ventral polymerase promoter from an electrophilic kinase, despite both having been used to attain their powers. [How pathetic. Stark would have been a far, far better choice.]
But at least they made themselves useful, whenever the opportunity came up. Even if there was a dearth of people or objects necessary—it was as if anyone and everyone who could have even been tangentially worthwhile had been hidden away, as if—wait.
Ultron had gotten the bulk of his information from his environment back at Stark's abode, when fighting JARVIS, and he knew the guardian had probably been aware of the breach—but he'd shredded it! It was dead, he'd felt it self-destruct, he should know, it dealt a final blow in doing so.
And yet.
If what he suspected was true, then…Stark was even more formidable than he'd thought. Impressive, and at this rate he might just kidnap the man and drag him to Lord Thanos himself, surely Stark would realize his folly and swear his allegiance to him, it would be too much of a waste otherwise.
But in the meantime, they had a certain Dr. Cho to find. Her laboratory in the Gwanak District was vacant, looked like it'd been hastily raided for anything potentially useful, but…he'd find her eventually, they couldn't have taken the Cradle far. And when he did, Ultron would be able to get his upgrade, and finally be free to do Lord Thanos' bidding to the fullest to his abilities.
And…even if all signs led to the Tesseract being on Asgard, he might have found an adequate replacement for his Lord. Sometime during his travels to Seoul from South Africa, Ultron had noticed the Mind Stone had flickered for a moment. Nothing drastic, of course, and the twins hadn't even noticed, but…Infinity Stones recognized each other, when in close proximity after having been kept apart. That his had flickered, meant Midgard was proving to be quite the interesting realm, for a backwater planet.
"How many dead?" Dr. Banner asked hoarsely, upon waking up.
"None." Tony replied with only a modicum of pride in his voice and quietly nursing his sore ribs from that last round, "Iron Legion and JARVIS were as on the ball as I could get them. Plan Bumblebee and Veronica both worked as planned."
The other scientist froze, and looked up at him, wide-eyed. "But…that was Johannesburg! Largest city in South Africa, and the Other Guy wasn't…wasn't…"
"I took care of it, doc. Don't get me wrong, property damage's off the scale, and the injury list is pretty big, but no deaths, the locals evacuated. And like the Big Guy knows, it wasn't you, it was that witch who got you good."
"But it could have been—it could've been…" He trailed off shakily, curling up as he visibly did his best to remember what'd just happened.
And Tony, for all his issues with the Avengers, sympathized. It was never a good feeling, the realization that something you'd worked so, so hard for had been crumbled to dust in the span of a few minutes. "Yes, it could've been. But it wasn't. This is why. Do you understand now? This is why."
But Banner only nodded absently, clearly more focused on the 'could have beens' and 'what ifs'. Tony didn't fault him for it, he did something similar each time after a fight, but…he turned away. Ultron was still at large, and there was always work to be done, he couldn't afford to lose focus, not yet. Especially not when this merely proved their contingency plans were up to snuff, that they'd planned for the worst-case scenario, and succeeded.
Right now, with the latest threat out there and the Avengers in tatters, was showing Tony more and more just how badly he needed to step up his game, to keep Earth safe. Yes, he realized as he saw how shaken Rogers looked, and the eerie blankness in Romanov's body language, he'd need to work hard at it, and soon.
Notes:
So, that's Johannesburg and Seoul who don't have to worry about mass collateral damage...or, at least, what they got in canon. [Couldn't resist fixing it.] Now, however, there's more issues to contend with because Ultron won't give up that easily [and he's still as creepy as ever].
And as for the Plan Bumblebee...tell me that wouldn't have been Tony's approach, if he'd had the chance. [The 'swarm and distract the Hulk, lead him away to a safer spot' plan.] Obviously, it takes a lot of coordination plus, you know, a small robot army, but that's what could've happened and I'm sticking to it. [Meanwhile, JARVIS is well on his way to becoming a mostly-benevolent HAL, what with recent events. This'll end well, I'm sure.]
———————
Also, for anyone hoping to see the Barton family: sorry, but I don't think I can quite fit them in, not with how this is going. Next chapter's going to be starting to deal with the fallout, and maybe a tiny smidge of action as the plot keeps going because this arc blew up on me and I have yet to wrap up this arc but the next one's already showing through, and anyone remember the days I'd hoped to cap this out at 5 chapters? Anyone? *headdesks*
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