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Chapter 33 – Use My Name
"We're going to need to access the program, break it down from within," Bruce said, unaware of the consideration on Tony's face as he stared down at the cradle.
"Any chance Natasha might leave you a message, outside the internet, old school spy stuff?" Tony offered to a worried Clint, both in part to find his long-time friend, and to get Clint out of the labs.
"There's some nets I can cast. Yeah, alright. I'll find her." Clint nodded, taking the bait and leaving Tony and Bruce to their own devices.
"I can work on tissue degeneration, if you can fry whatever operational system Cho implanted." Bruce relayed as Tony bashfully scratched the back of his head.
"Yeah, about that." Tony drew out, catching Bruce's attention as the scientist looked up to see an expression of familiar resolve on the billionaire.
"No." Bruce abruptly announced, stoutly shaking his head as he backed away from Tony, knowing exactly what he wanted from him.
"You have to trust me." Tony scrambled to explain as Bruce remained wary.
"Kinda don't." Bruce shot back, treating Tony like a wild animal as he kept a distance from him.
"Our ally? The guy protecting the military's nuclear codes? I found him." Tony revealed, bringing up a 3D rendering of Jarvis' consciousness.
"Hello, Dr Banner." Jarvis politely greeted the bemused scientist.
"Ultron didn't go after JARVIS because he was angry. He attacked him because he was scared of what he can do. So, JARVIS went underground. Okay? Scattered, dumped his memory. But not his protocols. He didn't even know he was in there, until I pieced him together." Tony tried to explain as Bruce became increasingly more and more guarded at the idea.
Back and forth the scientists went in their arguments, with Bruce's distaste for making the same mistakes again and Tony's hope that he could salvage something great out of the mess that birthed Ultron.
"I believe it's worth a go," Jarvis interjected as Tony tried yet again to convince Bruce to go along with his plan.
"No, I'm in a loop! I'm caught in a time loop, this is exactly where it all went wrong." Bruce incredulously cried out, throwing his hands up in exasperation as Tony walked to stand in front of him.
As he spoke, the scientist brought out his phone and started scrolling through his contact list. When Tony came close enough to realise what he was doing, the Stark billionaire frantically slapped the phone out of his hands, sending it flying to the lower level of the lab.
"What the hell-" Bruce yelped before being cut off.
"We tell anyone now; they will never let us finish this." Tony cried out.
