124 JARVIS

From Seoul, Harry, Steve, Wanda, and Pietro apparated into Avengers Tower. Harry and Steve, who were used to this form of transportation, didn’t feel any adverse effects from the travel. Even Pietro didn’t feel much of the effect due to his constantly zipping around at high speed. For Wanda, though, it was something completely new. As such, she started to vomit immediately after materialising in the tower. Steve, being the gentleman that he is, offered a towel and a bottle of water to Wanda while Harry waved his hand to clean up the mess.

“You will get used to it”, Harry said as he patted her back without much remorse on his part. Pietro helped his sister out, but the smirk on his face was very prominent. It was the kind that any brother would have when seeing their sibling suffering unintentionally from something insignificant.

In and around them, SHIELD agents in repair uniforms darted through the halls as technicians worked to restore power to the tower to full functioning after Ultron had attacked the tower. The agents did pause to see the commotion that Harry and the rest’s arrival had caused. But, as the consummate professionals that they were, who were used to Avenger’s quirky behaviour by now, continued what they were working on. Hence, no one stopped them as the team headed towards the lab.

The lab itself was a mess. Not from the destruction that Ultron had created, but by Bruce and Tony rummaging through their notes on holographic screens that floated in the air, scrolling with fragments of corrupted code, schematics of the cradle, and Ultron’s protocols. Bruce was hunched over a table that was cluttered with papers, his hair sticking up from hours of restless study. Tony stood beside him as he surveyed Ultron’s initial codes to figure out where they had gone wrong.

Neither man looked up when the group entered, too engrossed in the problem than what was going on around them.

“What do you think Ultron’s endgame is, Tony?” Bruce asked Tony without even looking up from his notes.

“By throwing a giant asteroid onto Earth. A clean slate… just like the dinosaurs.”

The voice didn’t belong to either Tony or Bruce. It was distinctively feminine. Both men froze mid-thought, and slowly, they turned and found Wanda Maximoff standing there beside Steve, Pietro at her shoulder, and Harry calmly behind them.

Instantly, Tony’s posture shifted, his hand darting towards the wristband that could summon a repulsor gauntlet. Bruce tensed too, his breathing hitching as though he was already preparing himself for the possibility of losing control. Their gazes narrowed suspiciously at the new entrants.

“What the hell are they doing here?” Tony snapped, already sliding half a step in front of Bruce. Bruce said nothing, but his shoulders were rigid, his eyes never leaving Wanda. Wanda didn’t flinch under their scrutiny. She had expected nothing less than hostility. Pietro bristled at their tone, stepping forward protectively, but Steve lifted a hand to stop him before things escalated.

“Guys, they’re with us,” Steve said firmly, stepping in between the twins and the scientists.

Bruce’s eyes narrowed. “How do we know she isn’t already in your head, Steve? Making you say exactly what she wants.”

“I know you’re angry,” Wanda said quietly, trying to placate Bruce.

Bruce’s expression hardened as his fists curled against his sides. “Oh, we’re way past angry. I could choke the life out of you before I even turned green, and never change a shade.”

Pietro was already ready to run away with Wanda on Bruce’s threat, but Wanda squeezed his hand reassuringly.

 “Bruce,” Steve called out to reason, but Tony didn’t let him. His eyes flicked between the twins, filled with bitter loathing. “Really, Cap? You’re going to stand there and play babysitter? You’re actually giving these punk-ass kids a chance? Did you forget what they’ve done? What she put in our heads? How she is a pawn in Ultron's grand plan?”

Steve met Tony’s glare head-on. “I haven’t forgotten. But they’ve chosen to fight Ultron.”

“Or maybe they’re just playing us,” Tony shot back. “That’s how she operates after all. Pull the strings and watch us dance to it.”

“Enough.” Harry’s voice cracked through the room like a whip. The tone wasn’t loud, but it carried the kind of authority that froze everyone in place. The lab went silent. Even the hum of the machinery seemed muted as all eyes turned to him.

“There will be no more infighting,” Harry said, his green eyes flashing dangerously. “Not when Ultron is on the edge of accomplishing his plan. We can’t afford to be divided when he’s preparing to wipe out the entire human race. Steve trusts them, and I don't sense any compulsion or magic making him act that way. Their fight was against us because they thought we were the villains. But now, having known Ultron's actual plans, they have decided to defect. The least we can do is give them the opportunity to redeem themselves.”

Tony’s guilt flickered across his face, his earlier bravado fading as he rubbed the back of his neck. Bruce’s jaw tightened, his glare still fixed on Wanda, though he didn’t say anything further. Pietro smirked faintly, impressed at how Harry had shut them all down without breaking a sweat.

“All of you need rest,” Harry continued, his voice gentler but still leaving no room for argument. “When Natasha and Clint return with the Cradle, we’ll regroup.”  He checked his watch before looking back at the room. “That’ll be in about two to three hours.”

“But Stark—” Wanda started.

Harry cut her off instantly. “But nothing.” His words were iron. Wanda froze, surprised at the way he’d overridden her.

Tony smirked at seeing Wanda reprimanded, but the look Harry shot him immediately shut that down. Tony coughed awkwardly and looked away, chastised like a schoolboy caught out of line.

“Wanda has already given me enough to know what’s on your mind, Tony,” Harry went on. “But this team decides things together. No one is running off on their own half-baked ideas while the rest of us pay the price. We’ll talk it through as a unit, and only then do we act. Understood?”

Tony swallowed hard as he nodded. Wanda’s lips curled into the faintest smirk instead, finding some satisfaction in Harry holding Stark accountable.

Harry sighed before continuing. “Everyone’s had a long day. Get some food, get some shut-eye. When Nat and Clint return, we’ll have our team meeting. Until then, I don’t want to hear another word about Ultron and anything around it. Clear?”

There was a ripple of nods. Slowly, the Avengers began peeling away from the confrontation, each heading off to regroup, rest, or quietly brood.

Harry excused himself first to take a shower. A hot shower did wonders to relax the edge he had from the fight. Once finished, Harry headed to the kitchen with his sleeves rolled up and started pulling ingredients from the fridge. Within minutes, the rich, savoury aroma of minced meat being seared began to fill the Tower, a homely warmth that softened the tension lingering in the air.

Pietro, restless as ever and someone who couldn’t resist an enticing aroma, couldn’t sit still long enough to wait. He zipped around the kitchen like a hungry hawk, opening cupboards, checking the pantry, raiding the fridge, only to groan dramatically at the lack of ready-to-eat snacks. “Do you ever buy anything instant?” he grumbled, before swiping an apple and munching on it with exaggerated displeasure. His antics drew the faintest smile out of Harry, though he waved the speedster away with his spatula before he could steal from the pot. Harry gave Pitero a $100 bill and asked him to get himself food from the local convenience store. Pietro smiled and zipped away to buy himself snacks until Harry was done preparing food for all of them.

On the other hand, Bruce, Tony, and Wanda all sought the escape of sleep. Bruce retreated to his room to rest, though his rest was uneasy. He tossed and turned as his mind circled back to the Hulk and Wanda’s presence.

Wanda, meanwhile, went for a nap in one of the couches; Pietro’s occasional whoosh past her made her scowl in her sleep, but she didn’t stir further. Tony sprawled on a chair with his arm draped dramatically over his eyes. He let exhaustion drag him under despite his mind still turning over Ultron’s words, still replaying Wanda’s whisper in Sokovia.

Steve lingered the longest before heading out. He quietly dismissed the SHIELD agents stationed in the Tower, telling them they’d done more than enough for one day and deserved to go home to their families. Once the Tower was quieter, Steve grabbed his jacket and slipped out into the New York night. The city was alive with its usual rhythm, with taxis honking, people laughing, neon lights painting the sidewalks, but Steve barely noticed. He walked with no destination, just letting the night air cool his thoughts, trying to get away from his haunting nightmare of what his life could have been with Peggy if he hadn’t been frozen in ice.

Three hours later, the Quinjet descended smoothly onto the Tower’s landing pad. Harry stepped out of the kitchen just in time to see Natasha and Clint walking in, both shaking off the remnants of the nap that they took as the Quinjet’s autopilot flew them here.

“Right on time,” Harry said, wiping his hands on a towel.

The smell of spaghetti Bolognese had already filled the air, rich and savoury, and Pietro had practically been circling the kitchen like a restless hawk. The moment Natasha and Clint set their gear down, Harry motioned everyone toward the long table where plates and bowls were already waiting.

Clint cracked a grin at the hot food that was ready for them. Slowly, the rest of the Avengers trickled in and took their seats on the dining table. None of them spoke, but the second and third helpings of their food signalled to Harry how much they enjoyed his cooking.

Once the plates were empty, Harry set down his fork and looked around at them. “Alright,” he said softly but firmly. “Time to get back to business.”

With Harry’s magic levitating most of the weight and Steve steadying the bulky frame, the two of them carefully manoeuvred the Cradle out of the Quinjet and brought it to the lab. The team was already waiting inside. Clint stood tall, arms folded, as he kept his eye on the Maximoff Twins. Bruce looked restless, shifting from foot to foot, his eyes already scanning the Cradle as though he could peer through its outer shell. Tony leaned back against a console, arms crossed, lost in thought.

Pietro was perched on the edge of a table, drumming his fingers, while Wanda stood silently beside him, her gaze fixed intently on the machine as though she could already sense the strange energy within it.

The Cradle was placed in the centre of the room, and one by one, the team began to circle around it, inspecting it from different angles.

“This is sealed tight,” Clint muttered, tapping the smooth casing of the Cradle.

Bruce’s brows furrowed as his mind raced on ideas for deconstructing the thing inside the cradle. “We’re not cracking this open with brute force. We’re going to need to access the program, break it down from within.” He adjusted his glasses as he pulled up a cross-section of the synthetic structure. “If I can map out the tissue degeneration rates, I might be able to collapse the biological systems without triggering a failsafe.”

He glanced toward Tony, who hadn’t moved from his perch. “That only works if you can fry whatever operational system Cho implanted into this thing.”

“Yeah, about that…” Tony started, rubbing the back of his neck with that sheepish grin that usually preceded an insane idea.

“No.” Bruce cut him off flatly, not even glancing up from the diagnostics.

Steve pinched the bridge of his nose with a groan, already too familiar with this routine. Pietro let out a theatrical eye-roll, muttering something under his breath. Wanda sighed, seeing how Tony was adamant about creating another Ultron.

Natasha arched a brow and glanced at Harry, as if silently asking, 'Do you want to handle him, or should I shoot him in the leg?'

Clint looked between them all, confused. “Wait, no for what?”

Tony raised his hands defensively. “Look, you have to trust me on this.”

“Kinda don’t,” Bruce replied without missing a beat, like an older brother shooting down a reckless sibling before he could burn the house down.

“Wow,” Tony muttered, pointing at Bruce with mock offence. “That’s cold. I thought we had something special.”

“You do,” Natasha said dryly. “A habit of giving the rest of us headaches.”

“After everything that’s happened, you really want to roll the dice again?” Steve pressed.

“That’s nothing compared to what’s coming,” Tony shot back.

“You don’t even know what’s in there!” Wanda snapped.

Tony met her glare without flinching. “I know exactly what’s in there.”

Tony glanced around the circle of sceptical faces. “Our ally? The guy protecting the military’s nuclear codes? I found him.”

With a flick of his phone, a 3D projection shimmered into being above the cradle — JARVIS’s familiar lattice of glowing nodes, pulsing softly.

“Hello, everyone,” JARVIS said, his calm voice filling the room like an old friend walking through the door.

Clint blinked. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

“Ultron didn’t go after JARVIS because he was angry,” Tony continued quickly. “He attacked him because he was scared of what he could do. So JARVIS went underground. Fragmented himself. Scattered, dumped his memory, but not his protocols. He didn’t even know he was still in there… not until I pieced him back together.”

 “So, you want me to help you put JARVIS into this thing?” Bruce asked, disbelief plain in his voice.

“No, of course not!” Tony shot back. “I want to help you put JARVIS into this thing. We’re out of my field here. You know bio-organics better than anyone.”

Bruce rubbed at his temple, shaking his head.

“This isn’t a game,” Steve cut in. “The last time you tried this, we created Ultron. We don’t know what’s going to happen if you roll the dice again.”

Harry and Natasha exchanged a look but stayed silent for now, weighing the argument. Pietro, meanwhile, had already zipped to the kitchen. He reappeared with a bowl of blueberries, casually munching as though the world-ending debate was free entertainment.

“Captain Rogers is right,” Wanda agreed. “I looked into the creature’s mind. It’s consumed with destruction. Ultron has programmed it that way. All it wants is the end of everything.”

Tony’s jaw tightened. “Ultron’s already out there. And no matter how many tin suits we scrap, if there’s even one shred of code left, he comes back. We can’t hunt him down manually; humans aren’t fast enough. We need an AI to fight an AI. It’s the only way.”

“Are you even listening to yourself?” Steve sighed exasperatedly.

“No!” Bruce snapped, running a hand through his hair in frustration. “I’m in a loop! I’m caught in a time loop, this is exactly where it all went wrong the last time!”

“Please—” Tony cut in, his tone almost desperate. “I beg you. Just hear me out.”

Natasha crossed her arms as her gaze fixed on him. “How can you just assume that JARVIS’ operational matrix can beat Ultron’s?”

Tony turned to her, and for once the sarcasm fell away. His eyes shone with conviction. “Because JARVIS has been beating him, from the inside, without even knowing it. Ultron thought he’d killed him, but he couldn’t. JARVIS adapted, hid, and countered him at every step. Just look at how JARVIS has been keeping Ultron away from the Nuclear Arsenal of the world. That’s the opportunity that we have. We can create Ultron’s perfect self without the homicidal glitches he thinks are his winning personality.”

The room fell quiet for a beat, the weight of his words settling.

Then, softly, JARVIS’ voice broke through. “I believe it’s worth a try.”

Harry took a breath, looking around the tense circle. “Alright. Let’s put this to a vote. Raise of hands, who thinks we should go ahead with Tony’s idea?”

Tony’s hand shot up immediately, confident, almost defiant. But when he glanced around, no one else followed.

Harry’s expression didn’t change. “And who thinks we don’t do this?”

This time, every other hand in the room lifted. Harry’s voice softened as he addressed Tony. “I’m sorry, Tony. But this is too reckless. Not after everything that’s just happened. We will not create another AI to fight Ultron.”

Tony exhaled sharply, dropping his hand to his side. The sting of rejection flickered across his face at feeling alone with his team.

As soon as Harry finished speaking, the glass window overlooking the New York skyline exploded inward with a thunderous crash. Shards rained across the floor as Thor barreled into the lab like a runaway boulder in a cape. His eyes landed on the cradle, and before anyone could speak, he leapt onto it with all the subtlety of a siege ram.

Raising Mjolnir high, he summoned a storm that answered instantly, lightning crackling through the shattered window frame. With a triumphant roar, Thor brought the hammer down, channelling a blinding surge of electricity onto the cradle.

Remembering Dr Cho’s warning, Harry flicked his hand. “Accio Mjolnir!”

The hammer ripped itself free from Thor’s grip mid-strike, zipping across the lab like a pissed-off cannonball. Thor, caught completely off guard, made a strangled noise somewhere between a roar and a yelp as his arms pinwheeled uselessly.

Mjolnir smacked neatly into Harry’s waiting hand. He caught it one-handed, smooth as if it had always belonged there. The room went dead silent.

“Thor, explain yourself!” Natasha snapped at Thor, but everyone’s attention was not on Natasha or Thor but on Harry.

Tony’s jaw worked uselessly. “He—no. Nope. Nope. Someone call Asgard tech support because this is not supposed to happen.”

Bruce rubbed his glasses furiously, like maybe the lenses were broken. “Oh my god, I need to sit down.”

Clint pointed at Harry with a dramatic gasp. “Is there anything that you can’t do?”

Pietro’s eyes went wide as saucers. “That hammer is impossible to lift!” he whispered in shock. Wanda shoved an elbow into his ribs before he got louder. “Shh! Don’t encourage him!”

Thor just stood there, thunderstruck in the most literal sense, mouth hanging open. His booming voice cracked like a teenager’s. “That… that hammer is mine!”

Harry rolled his eyes, twirling Mjolnir like it weighed nothing.

Without a fuss, Harry handed the hammer back. Thor took it, staring at Harry for a moment longer before shaking his head, as though trying to rid himself of the image.

“Destroying the gem could lead to us destroying the whole city. It’s too unstable,” Harry warned, stepping between Thor and the cradle.

“No,” Thor said firmly. “I wasn’t trying to destroy it.”

“Didn’t look like that, Point Break,” Tony muttered.

Thor ignored him as his gaze lingered on the cradle. “I’ve had a vision of a whirlpool that sucks in all hope of life…and at its centre is the gem,” Thor explained

“What are you saying?” Natasha asked quietly.

 The others exchanged glances, unsettled by the gravity of his tone.

“The Mind Stone,” Thor continued. “One of the six Infinity Stones, the greatest power in the universe, unparalleled in its destructive capabilities.”

Harry and Natasha both raised an eyebrow in unison at the coincidence of the gem inside Loki’s sceptre being an infinity stone.

Pietro tilted his head, frowning. “Then why did you do what you were going to do?”

Thor turned to face them all squarely. “Because Stark is right.”

“Wait, hold on,” Bruce blurted, throwing up his hands. He studied both Thor and Tony in shock. Seeing that Thor was genuine about his observation, Bruce continued, “Oh, it’s definitely the end times,” rubbing his face, already weary of where this conversation was heading.

Thor ignored him. “The Avengers cannot defeat Ultron as we are. He is too fast, too vast. We will need this newer artificial intelligence to stand against him. If we don't, then Ultron is definitely going to end humanity if not the universe as we know it.”

A heavy silence fell. Even Tony didn’t quip this time. Harry crossed his arms, eyes narrowing at the cradle as though trying to see through it. Natasha glanced at him, then back to Thor.

“Well,” Natasha finally said, breaking the silence, “looks like we’re about to find out if we’re building a saviour or the thing that kills us all again.”