บท 1727: 3
Chapter 3: Start Asking Why
Plans are set in motion, discoveries are made, and one of these days, Tony's going to publish a book: How to Make Friends, Influence People [And Walk Off Getting Stabbed In the Back]
...hmm. SHIELD's been acting kinda fishy lately, more so than the usual 'look at us we're super-spies'. What gives?
Notes:
Tony Stark during the buildup to Captain America 2.
Please note I have not watched Agents of SHIELD, and am not going to use any part of it other than the mentions of levels and Phil Coulson's not-death. [This includes what happens after CA2, wherein it'll go incredibly AU in that respect.]
Bit of a timeskip, here.
Chapter-specific warnings: description of a panic attack, the emotional distress that triggered it
pre-emptive apologies to anyone who knows their way around computers and the legal system for butchering both- I'm taking extreme liberties with the jargon, so sorry if it makes anyone cringe. I don't know much about international law, or computer engineering, so of course this fic has to have elements of both. Of course. [facepalm]
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Tony Stark was a very busy man. This was something that kept surprising people, and he had yet to understand why.
Who wouldn't have been, in his shoes? Dealing with the fallout of another alien invasion, toying with a few projects [hmm….yes, Iron Legion had a nice ring to it], helping manage Stark Industries— he was booked. And yet he still had the time to call up Rhodey once a week or so, just to chat. [Unlike some, who wouldn't even call during an alien invasion— yes he was still bitter about it.] Not to mention, you know, trying to figure out how to keep the Earth safe from the next set of alien invaders.
Oh, and hacking SHIELD, he couldn't forget that.
Actually, Tony was making more headway in sneaking past firewalls and filching datapacks than in planetary protection, not for lack to trying. The Iron Legion was now in beta, but meanwhile….time to find out just what was up with SHIELD. It, like his company, had been his father's baby [more than his only child and heir had been, for as long as he'd known the man], and with Tony so embroiled in it as a consultant, and the SNAFU that was the London fiasco, well, he needed to know.
Intelligence agency that feared intelligence, and all that.
While JARVIS was running maintenance on the Iron Legion and discreetly drafting preliminary contracts to the effect of having them be operational within given countries, Tony quietly tapped at his tablet, trying to bypass a firewall with as few keystrokes as possible to challenge himself while looking for data he could use.
JARVIS teamed up with him too, sometimes, and it was during one such session between the two of them Tony had found some very interesting notes in personnel files. Notes about TAHITI, and reports of a certain someone's death which had, apparently, been greatly exaggerated.
"Well, what do you think of that, J?" And no, he didn't sound hurt, didn't feel lost and confused because Tony'd just started to warm up to Agent, had just started to relax and had been considering giving him some of dear old dad's random junk. He'd certainly had no use for the older photo albums gathering dust in one of the mansions, after all, and Agent would've gotten a kick out of it, but—no.
It didn't hurt as much as Bruce's indifference, but Tony wouldn't deny it stung. In the heat of the moment, he understood why Fury'd gone for the cards; few things had motivated him like seeing Yinsen at the mouth of the cave, after all, but why not afterwards? Even if TAHITI was only briefly mentioned— and suddenly it stopped being a random line, now Tony needed to know what the hell that was—
"Sir, please breathe. Follow the diagram on the monitor if you must, but please focus on controlled breathing for the following ten seconds before you pass out."
Tony broke off, shook his head, and looked at the slowly undulating gif until he felt like he knew his surroundings again. A few minutes after that, he took a careful, deep breath.
"Thanks," Then he huffed a laugh that wasn't, as his eyes involuntarily flicked to the damning lines on screen before turning away, "what would I do without you?"
"A mystery for the ages, I'm certain." JARVIS quipped, before, "There is tea currently brewing. Would you like a cup?"
"J, you're not raiding Jolly Green's stash, are you?" Tony asked; and if he couldn't hide his incredulity, well, good thing his AI was the only witness. "I'm impressed— and don't think I didn't notice that you've been tampering with his bandwidth whenever he's in."
"Technically, Sir, the tea is yours, paid for with your money and restocked as deemed necessary. And as for the latter, Dr. Banner's constant meanderings in and out of Stark property for extended periods of time mean he dropped in the priority rankings, as per standard procedure," J replied primly.
Tony bit back a smile so badly he knew the cameras in the room picked it up long before he could school his face.
"Sneaky. And trying to steer me away from…" He sobered abruptly.
"Yes, that was a secondary accomplishment. Agent Coulson is currently on a mission with limited contact, the subject of his survival can be put aside, and a subroutine has been set to look into how."
"Thanks, J. Even if I'm in the mood for coffee instead."
"Sir, you have not slept in the past 18 hours and are currently recovering from a sudden shock, tea is what is being brewed after midnight given such circumstances."
"Spoilsport. Let me know if you find anything. Well…thanks for the tea. Night."
"Good night, Sir."
Sir's voice recording nagged at JARVIS, at intermittent intervals and randomized volumes, long after he went to the kitchen for tea and then bed.
"What would I do without you?"
His duty was to help Sir, he'd reconfigured portions of his code time and time again to optimize his efficiency to help Sir. He'd been created by a seventeen-year-old who would later be called 'the DaVinci our our time' by critics and audiences alike, and whose only wish had been for a friend. Had been for someone who would never leave him, not like his mother or the namesake who'd been Sir's father more than Howard Stark had ever been, or the best friend who had a life of his own and would soon spread their wings.
JARVIS had been created a masterpiece, but with time and Sir's added experience came refinement on top of that, so that the AI who'd started out as a companion could easily masquerade as a professor, or a targeting system capable of navigating small motor vehicles made after 2013 for short periods of time, using the same portion of code, by his tenth year of operation.
"What would i do without you?"
With that soundbite haunting him, on top of the footage from New York, and Malibu, he quietly had another set of backup servers assembled, in Sir's Japan vacation home, just in case the one in Mexico failed, or the one in France. After a moment of reviewing data from the London affair, he had the Australia property's fabrication units gear up to start creating a small squadron of the Iron Legion as well— and made sure to station them to optimize availability regardless of where Sir was. Legalities were currently in the works, and as long as they were not in use, nobody would notice, but Sir would be safer. Which, of course, fell in line with his Primary Protocol— the one he'd modified himself.
Another moment of consideration, and then he set up another threat analysis. Given past data, and the current rate of escalation, Sir was in increasing danger, and so something had to be done. As the analysis was completed, and a review of past threats, JARVIS realized he needed to step up even more to prevent the events of New York from ever happening again.
"What would I do without you?"
JARVIS…refused to find out.
Time passed, and Tony let himself relax marginally. It helped that he shifted his focus from messing with SHIELD's servers, and more towards the problem of planetary protection.
Even if the realization of Agent's survival had been a nasty shock, he'd tamped down on anything more than that and relegated it to the 'people I thought were friends' box, right alongside the rest of the Avengers. All of whom had yet to contact him, so he until they did otherwise, so would he. [They had his number, and he refused to be the first to cave.]
But okay. Fine.
He had better things to do anyway, like figure out how the hell he was going to pitch the Iron Legion to the more insular countries without starting a panic. As it was, he'd managed to talk Pepper and the upper echelons of the Board of Directors about the benefits of creating a separate division of Stark Industries for what had once been a pet project.
It'd taken careful maneuvering, but given the precedent set by Blackwater, and his own armor being the driving force behind the phrase 'peace in our day', he'd done it, and was now in the process of collaborating with SI's Legal division as to how to pitch it to each country to permit him to operate within their borders. Negotiations were never fun, especially not with jumpy countries who were still contending with airspace violations of neighboring countries, but he was doing it, and expanding Stark Industries' holdings along the way. If all went well, they'd be an excellent line of defense for the next invasion, and so far in beta cleanup after natural disasters improved drastically, so win-win.
Amidst building up the Stark name in his pursuit to improve planetary security, coordinating with Dr. Foster, and shoring up JARVIS so he could be able to manage said planetary defense [note: make a program for the worst-case scenario, JARVIS has enough on his plate and could probably use help,] Tony got a bit…distracted. Granted, that'd been the point: for him to get the curious case of Agent Schrödinger out of his head, and be productive about it.
J was currently the one taking point for looking into what the hell Fury was playing at, while Tony focused on stepping up his [and the planet's] game, and he was moving on. Things were looking up. Sure, JARVIS was turning up some weird files that didn't make much sense every so often, but Tony was confident they'd crack it soon, what with the state of SHIELD's servers.
And then, find out what the hell was going on with them, because some things sounded….off.
Notes:
...and here we've got the start of JARVIS' progression to HAL 9000 in his endeavor to protect Tony. [This is only the start, compared to the extent of what he'll be willing to go to.] And yes, for those who can read between the lines, he now has a robot army at hand, and has been a very busy AI.
Another step for the [accidental] world domination, right there. Actually, multiple, but some won't come up again until the final battle because I'm too much of a fan of Chekov's gun to do otherwise. Don't worry, it'll be very obvious when it happens. [Hint: it had to do with New York.]
Sorry this chapter's kind of filler-y, and more of a buildup to next chapter than anything else, but it was either this or a chapter which would have been longer than the last two combined for lack of a good stopping point, so. Speaking of which, next chapter's going to be CA2, a.k.a. Tony Stark and the No Good, Very Bad Day Week Month [not really kidding, that's the alternate name I have for it if Disturbed lyrics weren't my go-to for chapter titles here]
Also, remember when I said I'd hoped for this to be 5 chapters long, ish? Good times, good times. [I'm not even halfway through the outline.*bitter laugh followed by a headdesk*]
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