Chapter Text
JARVIS
A/N: Disclaimer's in the first chapter.
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The beginning of what would become Jarvis had been born the moment Dummy had come to life. With the successful completion of his first, very primitive AI, Sir had immediately begun planning for the ultimate expression of that achievement. It had not been easy, even for Tony Stark. In the end, it wasn't until eight years after Dummy's creation when the first wires were laid and servers built. Eight years that had seen the creation of Butterfingers and You, both more sophisticated than Dummy, though still limited.
The first challenge, as Sir saw it, was ensuring that once built and 'born', Jarvis could not be destroyed without extreme effort on the part of a saboteur. To that end, every Stark-owned building around the world that underwent extensive renovations or was built included beneath it an airtight bunker made of the toughest materials available, into which servers, backup generators, and other necessary equipment were placed.
These installations would ensure that Jarvis' code and memory could be stored and saved in the event of an attack on the Malibu house, which had originally been the only building Jarvis had access to, or Stark Tower now. Similarly, should someone decide to attempt to shut Jarvis down permanently, they would have to find and decommission all but two of the installations to achieve that goal.
The second challenge was, as Sir had put it, to ensure that Jarvis did not 'go Skynet' on Sir. To that end, Sir had created a system of checks and balances far more sophisticated than Asimov's laws. In so doing, Sir had managed to give Jarvis the rudiments of a moral code.
The third challenge had taken almost as long to accomplish as the initial preparations. Because once Jarvis' code had been written, and he had come online, Sir had the unenviable task of teaching Jarvis to be truly independent. To be, in a word, a person, and not a very sophisticated computer program. He'd had to teach Jarvis about emotions, and help Jarvis understand them. He'd had to nudge and encourage and push until Jarvis found his metaphorical feet.
Amusingly enough, both Jarvis and Sir realized they had accomplished that lofty goal the day when Sir had yet again offered to build Jarvis a body, and Jarvis had not only refused, when he'd always deferred to Sir's wishes prior to that point, but explained why he did not desire a body. It had been a rather heady moment.
One that only Sir and Jarvis knew about. Because that had been the fourth challenge. Ensuring that no one knew Jarvis had ceased to be a typical AI many years ago, and become something much closer to truly sapient. Sir had told no one what he was attempting, and Jarvis had ensured the knowledge was not wrung from himself.
That secret had saved them a great deal of grief over the last few years. Stane hadn't had the first idea, for one. Hadn't known he hadn't truly disabled Jarvis when he attacked Sir (one of the few times Jarvis had wished he did have a body, however much he disliked the idea most of the time). Jarvis had been able to get Dummy to get Sir's old reactor for him.
After that point, Jarvis' ability to make up his own mind and act on his own recognizance had saved Sir's hide multiple times. But it had never seemed to be enough. In the wake of the creation of the Vibranium for use in Sir's reactor, Jarvis had asked Sir for something. The ability to fight back. To protect Sir, Miss Potts, Dummy, Butterfingers, and You.
Sir had spent much of the next year completely rewiring the Malibu home, and including some rather ... interesting ... technology in Stark Tower. Now, at least, if someone with nefarious intentions attempted to enter the premises, Jarvis could do more about it than sitting by and helplessly watching.
Jarvis had, rather understandably, he felt, become exceedingly protective of Sir since Afghanistan. He watched everyone in Sir's immediate proximity at all times. So of course, he was paying close attention to the myriad of people currently winding down from the terrific battle in the penthouse suite. Though admittedly, Jarvis was watching less for guarding purposes, and more to collect data.
Sir had been making plans ever since he learned of the existence of the Avengers Initiative, and his potential place among their number. Stark Tower had seen ten extra floors added to its plans, as construction had already begun by the time Sir was informed. Sir had made some educated guesses on what to include in the Avengers' section, but the plans were far from complete.
It was to that end that Jarvis now watched quietly, attempting to learn what he could of the newly minted Avengers that had not been included in any file ... where there had been files at all, of course. Thor's especially had been unfortunately thin on detail, and until now, all that had been in Loki's file was that he existed and had sent the Destroyer. Jarvis was unsure if Loki would actually be joining the team, but with Thor among their number, it was highly probable that Loki would be in frequent residence at the very least.
Jarvis noted which of the offered comestibles the various Avengers ate the most of, a solid indication of their preferences amongst the feast at least, if not overall, and how much each of them ate. Jarvis noted that Captain Rogers might need encouragement to eat, as according to reports, his metabolism worked approximately four times faster than normal, but left to his own devices, he ate barely enough for someone with a normal metabolism. Jarvis posited that this was an effect of surviving the Depression and the chronic shortages of supplies the military forces in Europe faced, as the Captain had taken further plates of food when first Agent Romanov and then later Agent Coulson pressed them on him.
Loki reminded Jarvis fairly strongly of Sir, in that he was intelligent, curious, and given to snarking about pretty much everything. Loki had been fascinated by Jarvis, and from his comments, by Sir's armor. From comments Loki had made, computers of any sort were entirely unknown in Asgard, and the skill to build something as intricate, sophisticated and deadly as the armor was unknown as well. Not that Asgard did not produce weapons, but from Loki's comments, they were all on the level of Thor's hammer, which is to say, while powerful, they were lacking in intricacy and sophistication.
Of course, Jarvis had not revealed either his true capabilities or anything about the suit to Loki. The furthest Jarvis had gone was to clarify the concept of computers, which Loki had learned of through his interrogation of Agent Barton when the Agent was under Loki's control. Loki had, however, made a few fairly accurate guesses about both Jarvis and the suit, based on what little he had seen and been told.
He made note to remind Sir to figure out some form of clothing that would not be destroyed when Doctor Banner transformed. Sir had had a few lines of thought on that subject the night before, but given the events of the day, it was entirely possible it had slipped Sir's mind. Jarvis also ensured that any attempt by the Army to approach the Tower by land or air would be routed to him so that he could inform Sir. Jarvis was taking no chances with General Ross' known obsession and mania where Doctor Banner was concerned.
Jarvis created another note for himself to tell Sir what he had been able to dig up on General Ross thus far. It was surprisingly good news. General Ross' support in the Army in general had thinned considerably, and only some fancy footwork had kept some especially egregious errors and departures from accepted Army practices from common knowledge. More encouragingly, he had a lead on Doctor Ross, who had disappeared within hours of the Harlem incident and had not been seen or heard from by anyone outside of the Army since. Frankly, Jarvis thought that holding Doctor Ross essentially hostage was an exceedingly bad idea, given Doctor Banner's attachment to her, but that was just another symptom of General Ross' increasingly unstable mental state.
He ensured that his link to the SHIELD Helicarrier's computers was still active. That they had not discovered the uplink's presence amused Jarvis greatly. He also began the task of downloading and decrypting every byte of data he could steal from the Helicarrier's system. Much of it, he knew, would end up being dross, but there was bound to be valuable information amongst the junk. Personally, Jarvis was hoping for more detailed files on the SHIELD agents on the team. He needed to discover just how loyal they were to the Agency, and thus how much of a threat they were to Sir and to the other Avengers.
Last but certainly not least, Jarvis kept watch over the organized chaos in the streets, as various agencies hurried to set up emergency medical care, evacuation of the most badly damaged buildings, and began trying to organize the truly gargantuan cleanup effort. He made notes of where Stark Industries technology and funds could help, and where, should they be interested, the heroes of the hour might render further assistance.
When everyone finally seemed to have sated their appetites, Jarvis made a note of how much overall had been consumed by the various Avengers, so that in future he could ensure that the Avenger larders were properly stocked. That done, he flashed an alert to Sir, indicating he wished to speak to Sir at least semi-privately. Sir immediately made his excuses to Jean Grey and Scott Summers (whom Sir had been tormenting playfully) and headed into one of the guest bedrooms.
"Whatcha got for me, Jarvis?"
"Miss Potts will be landing in approximately two hours, Sir. I have arranged for a Stark Industries jet to fly to Tromso and pick up Doctor Foster and Miss Darcy. They will not arrive until after breakfast in the morning. And I believe I have located where Doctor Ross has been ... stationed, for lack of a better term."
"Excellent work, J. How hard is getting her out of there going to be?" Sir wanted to know.
"I believe, Sir, it might be possible to remove her with little trouble or fanfare if you as Lt. Colonel Rhodes to assist. He has the clearance to enter the facility she resides at, and it would be a simple matter to spirit her away when she makes the trek to the commissary for meals."
Sir looked pleased. "Excellent, Jarvis. Put a call in to Rhodey, and remind him he owes me a solid for being such a dickface last year." Sir had forgiven the Colonel for his transgressions prior to and during the Vanko incident, but that had been only because of their long acquaintance. The Colonel was aware he was on rather thin ice where Sir was concerned, and unlike many, the Colonel was aware that getting on Sir's bad side was exceedingly unwise.
That the Colonel had been completely horrified when he'd discovered that Sir had been dying, and had apologized profusely had gone a long way. That he had promptly, despite disapproval from his superiors, handed the War Machine armor back over to Tony, without any expectation of it being returned, had gone further. In return, Sir had merely stripped the War Machine armor of its Hammer Industries atrocities (computer program included) and replaced them with Stark Industries equipment, then handed it back to the Colonel.
"The Mark VI armor is surprisingly intact." Jarvis said. "There is a remarkable amount of surface damage which will require the fabrication of new external panels, but other than the right forearm gauntlet and the arc reactor leads, there is no damage to the internal workings. Do you wish to have new panels fabricated, or will you be scrapping the Mark VI?" Jarvis asked.
Sir thought about that for a minute. "Fabricate the panels. I'll fix it up and keep it on hand as a backup full armor. Better safe than sorry, with the Avengers off the ground now."
"Of course, Sir. I'll start the fabrication at once." Jarvis suited words to actions, sending a databurst to the fabrication units and getting them started on the necessary suit parts.
"Also, the cleanup effort has begun. I have earmarked a number of agencies that have already arrived for your perusal for monetary aid, and I have also earmarked a number of possibilities for personal, physical assistance, if anyone is so inclined."
Sir nodded. "I'm pretty sure the Boy Scout at least will want to jump in and help." He said. "Probably a few of the others. Open the lower floors of the Tower to the emergency aid personnel. We're the only building still in trustworthy shape in a five block radius. They're going to need somewhere fairly central to set up their command centers, and if they're all in the same building, there'll be less of a chance of them screwing shit up because they can't find each other to talk to each other."
"As you wish, Sir. I will see to it that the heads of the various agencies are informed. I assume you are including SHIELD in that number?" Jarvis asked.
"As much as I don't like it, yeah. But watch any SHIELD people like a hawk. Any of them do something you don't like, tell me immediately."
"Of course, Sir." Jarvis said. "Do you have any further orders?"
Sir thought for a moment before shaking his head. "Nope, nothing comes to mind. Well done, J."
Jarvis made no attempt to pretend the rare praise wasn't a pleasure.