Dawn of New Change

PREVIOUSLY ON: Dawn of New Change

Clint encounters the first of HYDRA's Enhanced human, which leads to a distraction that causes him to get hit in the side. Thor brings him back to the Quinjet to get healed but Taeyong can't do much to help because his expertise doesn't really lie in medical science, so he has the job of getting Hulk back to Bruce. Steve and Natasha get to Strucker and handle the rest of the HYDRA soldiers, waiting for their back-up to come and do the clean-up duty.

Meanwhile Tony gets his first taste of weird brainwashing/PTSD/fear enhancement? But! The Avengers save the day and over all, it's a somewhat successful mission!

Something was off with Tony and Taeyong could tell. He came in swaggering with the sceptre in one hand and his suit trailing along with its stoic and yet equally grandeur manner. Taeyong was sitting beside Bruce, who had just finished up a quick 'patch job' on Clint, giving the shooter some anaesthetic. But he watched as Tony gave Steve and Thor his billionaire grin and hand off the sceptre to the God to put away into a case before Tony's eyes swept over the Quinjet.

Taeyong made eye contact with his dad and he knew. He just knew that something was up because Tony's shoulders dropped and his eyes had swept over the boy's entire body in a way that made Taeyong feel like he was getting dissected. Taeyong, who had been resting on Bruce's side for the time being got up and walked over to his dad.

He wordlessly stepped forward and wrapped his arms around the man. He had to lift himself up but that wasn't even a hindrance because Tony had hugged him back tightly. Tighter than Taeyong was expecting which made it very clear to the younger; something must have happened. Taeyong rested his head against his dad's collarbone and let Tony press his nose and lips against his hair.

"You okay?" Tony whispered.

"I'm good," he answered easily. Taeyong bit his lip, not pulling away but tilting his head to actually look at his dad. "What happened?"

"Nothing," Tony lied. Taeyong felt hurt but decided that now was not the time to question him. "Just got the sceptre and saw the Leviathan skeleton. S.H.I.E.L.D.'s gonna have a handful tryna get that back to HQ."

Taeyong hummed, and eventually let go. He rested his hands on Tony's shoulders and narrowed his eyes, trying to look into his dad's eyes and see if there was anything he could let loose. But Taeyong, try as he might, was not a mind reader and he wouldn't know what was racing through his dad's head unless he talked about it.

Taeyong sighed and eventually stepped back, allowing Tony to start up the Quinjet and fly them all back to New York. He went to the nearest railing and watched the landing of the Quinjet start to close and eventually they took off. Taeyong waited until they were fully in the air to go back and sit with Bruce.

He walked over to Clint first, looking back at the Avenger with a grin. Clint had taken off his cochlear implants and was resting his eyes. But he looked peaceful even with the large bandage wrapped around his side. Taeyong's eyes scanned the Avenger, looking over the array of plasters that Clint seemed to always have on him. Taeyong even noted with a satisfying grin that Clint also had a pack of Avengers-themed plasters that Taeyong had gifted him, for jokes.

He snorted, walking back to Bruce and sitting beside the man. Bruce, who was listening to classical music on a little CD player, took off his headphones and gave Taeyong a wobbly smile. His eyes were sunken in and his skin seemed a little pale. Taeyong pouted, easily reaching behind him to grab a small snack. His hand fisted around an apple and he turned back to give it to Bruce.

"Thanks," Bruce replied, taking the apple and biting into it. The juices slid around his lips and Taeyong watched as he just continued to bite into the fruit as if it were the first meal he had in weeks. Bruce wiped around his face, munching of the apple as he set down his CD player and rested heavily against the Quinjet.

"You okay?" he asked, knocking his knee against the mans and watching as Bruce tiredly swiped a heavy hand against his face. His eyelids were fluttering and he seemed so tired, Taeyong just wanted to swipe some sleeping pills into tea and force him to drink it. "The lullaby protocol worked better than ever," he said, trying for a smile.

Bruce just sighed, looking down at his half eaten apple. "I just... wasn't expecting a code-green."

Taeyong nodded, stretching his feet out and scrutinising the scuff marks he had made on the side of his soles. The Code-Green protocol had been a bit unexpected but at the same time everyone should have seen it coming. The HYDRA base that they were trying to infiltrate was bigger than any they had previously attacked. The only reason they didn't expect that many HYDRA soldiers to attack was because of the location.

"Sokovia is a hard country to get a read on," Taeyong shrugged, trying to be more pragmatic than optimistic. "It made sense with the large square feet of the base... and we really should've seen it coming because of the energy spike but yeah..." Taeyong looked up, eyes catching Natasha who was looming over Clint and checking his vitals on a screen.

"No one died though and Clint's going to make a full recovery."

Bruce scoffed but even that came out weak hearted, "You know, sometimes exactly what I want to hear isn't exactly what I want to hear."

Taeyong turned back to Bruce and this time gave a tiny grin, his eyes promising mischief. "I try." Then, the younger boy turned to call back at "Thor! Report on the Hulk."

Thor stepped forward, hands on his hips and an easy smile adorning his bright features. "The gates of Hel are filled with the screams of his victims!" the God recounted.

Taeyong winced, making eye contact with Steve who stood behind him and kind of just watched Thor with a look of horror. Taeyong snorted, turning back to Bruce who groaned, dropping his apple and hiding his face between his hands. Taeyong was just thinking about the apple juices and decided maybe, he should get the doctor a clean wipe from somewhere.

"He... but not the screams of the dead, of course. No, no, wounded screams... Mainly whimpering, a great deal of complaining."

"Complaining?" Steve mouthed, turning the other way so he didn't have to witness whatever Thor's idea of encouragement was.

Taeyong quickly went to go grab that wet wipe, brushing past Natasha who watched on in amusement.

"...and tales of sprained deltoids and gout."

"Someone," Taeyong strained, "please change the subject. I swear," he walked back over to Bruce, shoving the wet wipe in his face.

Tony, bless his dad honestly, spun around in his chair and turned to Bruce. "Hey, Banner, Doctor Cho is on her way from Seoul. Is it okay if she sets up in your lab?"

"Uh, yeah, she knows her way around," Bruce said, finally looking a bit more like himself.

Taeyong grinned, "Doctor Cho's on her way? Does that mean Taeil is too? And Professor Horton?"

Tony squinted, looking thoughtful for a second. "Taeil, yes. Professor Horton, no. He's got that new set-up in London."

Taeyong smirked, "London, did you say?"

"Nope," Tony immediately responded, flipping on the autopilot switch and allowing for Jarvis to take over. Taeyong came forward and patted his dad's shoulders, stirring him in the direction of the sceptre. Tony let him do so, both Stark's needing the physical contact of each others presence was an unspoken rule for them. 

Seriously, at some point they would have to work out this whole co-dependency issue.

However, a different subject matter had piqued their interest. Loki's sceptre lay in its case created to store the magic energy it emitted. Tony had it quickly scanned whilst he looked over the different numbers coming on screen. Taeyong whistled lowly, HYDRA had definitely done their research.

Steve and Thor looked back at the sceptre, not even trying to get their minds to decipher what the words running through the hologram said. "Must feel good, yeah?" Tony asked, patting Taeyong's hand. The boy peered over his dad's shoulder, hands still resting. "I mean, you've been tracking this down since the fall of S.H.I.E.L.D. right?" Tony asked. "Not that I haven't enjoyed our little raiding parties, but..."

Thor nodded, "no, but this... this brings it to a close."

Taeyong pouted, "close. So no more Avengers?"

"There will always be a need for the Avengers," Steve said, but even he nodded. "As soon as we find out what else it's been used for. I don't just mean weapons. Since when is Strucker capable of human enhancement?"

Taeyong nodded, walking around his dad and peering closer at the sceptre. "Well we know HYDRA and human enhancement has been going on for a while." Taeyong peered upwards, giving Steve an uneasy smile. "The Winter Soldier is Enhanced, right?"

Steve bit at his cheek but nodded. "Right."

"Banner and I will give it the once before it goes back to Asgard," Tony said, brows furrowed in the way it always did when he was looking at a new project and deciding how to start. It cleared as he turned to Thor, hand raised in a placating manner. "Is that cool with you? Just a few days till the farewell party." Thor nodded easily enough but Taeyong stepped away from the sceptre, mind racing with the thoughts of the farewell party.

He had forgotten about that.

"You're staying right?" Tony asked.

Thor was almost nonchalant about his answer, "yes, yes, of course. A victory should be honoured with revels."

Taeyong grinned, "yeah... who doesn't love revels?"

Tony mimicked the same grin, "Captain?"

Steve, always the more logical of the bunch and continuously in leader-mode cracked a smile. "Hopefully this puts an end to the Chitauri and HYDRA, so yes, revels."

"Sick," Taeyong replied, "can I invite Johnny and Mark?"

Tony arched his brow in a playful manner, "who said you were invited?"

"Wha- dad?!"

***

By the time that the Avengers had fully landed, the Iron Legion had also made their flight into the Tower. Taeyong made a happy noise, running out of the Quinjet to look over at the Iron Legion suits, he gave a few of them a wave, grinning when one of them waved back. Doctor Cho and the others medical personnel were all ready to take in Clint and wheel him back into the Labs.

Taeyong greeted Taeil, walking beside the man as they caught up. "How's the PhD then?"

"It's..." Taeil winced, "going."

Taeyong nodded thoughtfully, "you're half way through though!"

Taeil did give a calmer grin then, "I am," he said. "Which is as good news as we'll ever get to be honest. I have learnt so much stuff under Professor Horton, you've no idea! We really do need to catch up properly at some point."

Taeyong nodded, "how long will you be here for?"

"Realistically, just for today. I have so much work to do and even with the extension period my institutions allowed me... I just, really, need to catch up."

"Well, you can always show your work to dad if you want, I'm sure he'll be more than happy to look it over."

Taeil shook his head, face reddening. "I wouldn't want to impose on an Avenger."

"He was a Doctor before a hero," Taeyong said seriously. "Taeil you have some of the smartest people at your disposal right now. Doctor Cho, Doctor Banner, Doctor Stark and even Jarvis could spell check it for you."

"I can most definitely give my assistance," Jarvis responded.

"See!" Taeyong grinned. "Send it over, I'll get dad to look at it when he's next free. No pressure, alright?"

Taeil gave a soft smile, hand coming up to ruffle through Taeyong's hair, "thank you. Now I'm going to go in there and help assist Doctor Cho. You go and clean up," he said, swiping at Taeyong's cheek and showing his thumb. There was some dirt that Taeyong must have gotten from being out in the field.

"Sure," Taeyong said, already walking into the Tower and finding Hill talking to Steve. Taeyong easily made his way over to the Captain, trailing beside the man as Hill spoke about the Enhanced.

"So what's the word on Strucker?" Steve asked.

"NATO's got them," Hill responded, handing over a tablet with information on the two Enhanced. Taeyong peered over, giving Steve a small smile when he lowered the tablet for them both to see.

"Wanda and Pietro Maximoff, Twins," Hill explained. Taeyong looked at their pictures. The boy from before looked very different from the picture that was shown on screen. But the photos of the twins made them look younger, about Taeyong's age in fact. Their faces were round and young, eyes wide and similar shaped. They had healthy brown hair but they still looked cold and stoic.

Taeyong pursed his lips, looking closer at Pietro. He looked more like a ghost than the image shown and with his silvery, white hair, he could probably pull off the ghost look. "What's their story?"

"Orphaned at ten when a shell collapsed their apartment building."

Steve swiped through different videos of them that S.H.I.E.L.D. managed to get through CCTV. They were protesting and shouting in some and others were too blurry but they were also getting information from whatever HYDRA had done to both of them. "Sokovia's had a rough history," Hill explained. "It's nowhere special, but it's on the way to everywhere special."

Steve nodded, "their abilities?"

She sighed, "he's got increased metabolism and improved thermal homeostasis. Her thing is neuroelectronic interfacing, telekinesis, mental manipulation."

Taeyong felt his eyebrows shoot up to his hairline, "did you say mental manipulation? Like what Loki did to Barton?"

Steve accessed the Avengers elevator, "makes sense. It's Loki's sceptre, they'd probably replicate his abilities."

"But didn't Thor say they weren't really Loki's abilities, they sceptre gave him those powers?"

Hill looked at both Stark and Rogers, staying back as they entered the elevator together. "Whatever it is, we still have to track them. One's fast and the other's weird. They'll show up again, file says they volunteered for Strucker's experiments... it's nuts."

"Right," Steve gave a lazy grin. "What kind of monster would a German scientist experiment on them to protect their country?"

Taeyong looked back and forth between Steve and Agent Hill.

She levelled her chin parallel to the ground and stared back at the Captain. "We're not at war, Captain."

"They are," he said, just as the elevator doors closed.

"They are?" Taeyong said after a while.

Steve looked down at him, "just because America is, doesn't mean every country is at peace."

Taeyong nodded, "like with Gulmira."

"Gulmira?" Steve asked.

"Yeah," Taeyong grinned, but then slowly pouted. "You don't know?" He held his hand out for the tablet, Steve giving it away easily. "When dad first became Iron Man, just before it was a superhero gig- he was still recovering from the kidnapping in Afghanistan right? Please tell me you at least know about that?"

"I do."

"Good... that would've been longer to explain. Anyway-" Taeyong handed the tablet again, showing the footage of Tony taking out the Ten Rings and setting the people of Gulmira free. "We weren't technically allowed in that area because US relations couldn't interfere with international affairs but Dad was angry and hurting and becoming Iron Man was changing him... for the better," Taeyong gave Steve a small smile. He stepped out of the elevator and turned back to the Captain, who was still staring at the screen, a sort of understanding look was set in his features.

"Uh... I guess I'll see you later then?"

"Yeah, yeah sure."

***

Taeyong and Natasha were watching as the small machine Clint was hooked up to started to scan and add little pieces of nano-molecular simulacra into his body. Taeyong was completely enamoured, watching on with wide and unblinking eyes. Taeil steered him a little bit away from the machine, letting Clint have, at least, some space.

"Are you sure he's gonna be okay?" Natasha asked, looking at the machine with a scrunch to her nose. Clint looked up from his lying posture and gave Taeyong a wink, the younger returning it. "Pretending to need this guy really brings the team together."

Taeyong scoffed, "Clint's got what we all need, cynical humour."

Clint gave a loppy sort of smile, "hell yeah!" they both high fived.

"There's no possibility of deterioration," Doctor Cho responded confidently.

"The nano-molecular functionality is instantaneous," Taeil said, looking at the machine with stars in his eyes also. "His cells don't even know they're bonding with simulacra."

Bruce, who was watching over Clint, gave a nerdy little wave of his hand. "She's creating tissue," he said slowly and effectively, awe in his voice. Doctor Cho blushed as all three, Bruce, Taeil and Taeyong practically melted at the device.

Clint snorted, signing 'nerds' that got an eye roll from the younger.

"If you brought him to my lab the Regeneration Cradle could do this in twenty minutes," Doctor Cho said proudly.

"Oh he's flat-lining," Tony quipped, walking into the Lab with a tray of his green juice. Taeyong laughed, walking over and taking a cup for himself. "Call it, time?"

Taeyong looked down at his watch, "16:39 PM, rip Clint. It was nice knowing you."

"Truly," Natasha indulged, taking her own cup and nodding in thanks towards Tony. "You were a ruthless partner on field but sucked at mission reports."

"You will be missed," Bruce said, clapping a hand on Tony's shoulder.

Clint rolled his eyes, taking off his implants again and signing something unsavoury that had Taeyong make an offended noise and Natasha and Tony grin. Bruce simply held the green drink Tony made towards Clint and let him sip from the straw.

"This is the next thing Tony," Cho said, taking her tablet and looking over Clint's vitals. "Your clunky metal suits are going to be left in the dust."

Taeyong pouted, "what d'you say about my siblings?"

"That is exactly the plan," Tony said.

Taeyong stared at his dad in horror, "what?! Bu- But... metal..."

"And Helen, Taeil, I expect to see you two at the party on Saturday."

Taeil nodded quickly, "su- sure Doctor Stark."

Taeyong snorted, "loser."

Taeil gave a fake smile, wrapping an arm around Taeyong's shoulder, "ahh gae-sae-ggi."

"Huh?"

***

"What's the rumpus?" Bruce asked, walking into Tony's lab. Taeyong followed along, hands in the pocket of his shorts and finally in regular clothing, the teen walked into the Lab confidently. He gave DUM-E a little pat on the head and listened as Bruce and Tony talked science.

"Well, the sceptre-" Tony guided Bruce further into the room. "You see, we were wondering how Strucker got so inventive. So I've been analysing the gem inside." Tony pulled a small device and tapped it in the air, a familiar orange hologram appeared right where Bruce stood. "You may recognise..." 

Taeyong perked up. "Jarvis!" he raced forward, bending down and putting his face right into the hologram.

"Hello Taeyong, Doctor, Sir."

"Jarvis," Tony started, "was just a natural language UI. Now he runs the Iron Legion. He runs more of the business than anyone besides Pepper."

Taeyong took his head out of the hologram and grinned back at Bruce. "He's also my big brother," he stated proudly.

"Glorified babysitter is a better suited term."

Bruce chuckled, "Oh."

"He's top of the line," Tony said.

"Right," Bruce said, following along.

"I suspect, not for long," Jarvis said. Taeyong tilted his head, watching his dad copy the schematics of the sceptre and tap the device out again, this time showing a much larger holographic orb right beside Jarvis.

Taeyong's mouth fell open as he looked at it. The way it pulsed and beated. It was blue and big, bigger than Jarvis and so much more complicated. Like it was already alive and functioning and thinking. There was a thrill of excitement and anxiety shooting up Taeyong's spine that he wanted to itch. "It- it's magnificent..." Tony grinned.

"It looks like it's thinking," Bruce said, walking around the hologram, eyes squinting as he tried to take it in. "I mean, this could be..."

"It's not a human mind," Tony said.

Taeyong snorted, "could've fooled me."

"I mean, look at this," Bruce said, hand waving to capture the entire thing. "They're like neurons firing."

Tony nodded, "down in Strucker's lab, I saw some fairly advanced robotics work." Taeyong nodded, taking in the serious tone his dad suddenly wore. "They deep-sixed the data, but I gotta guess he was knocking on a very particular door."

Taeyong and Bruce both looked at each other before the Doctor whispered, "Artificial Intelligence."

Taeyong was silent, letting his dad walk over to Bruce and start to talk in softer whispers. Artificial Intelligence? A computer mind and one that could protect them all? Taeyong was exhilarated with the thought, with the potential that they carried. He understood what it meant to be a scientist starting out, he already had so much he wanted to go into, so many fields he wanted to explore. He also understood that being the son of a billionaire meant he had that all at his disposal. But this? Artificial Intelligence was something that Taeyong had only ever heard about, could only barely start to understand because it just wasn't feasible.

But then here they were with Loki's sceptre. They could do it and Taeyong, sitting in that Laboratory, suddenly knew exactly what he wanted to study. Knew exactly what he wanted to get his PhD in.

"-Not looking over your shoulder for Veronica."

"Don't hate, I helped design Veronica."

Taeyong shook his head, jogging back to both scientists. "As a worst-case measure, right?" Tony held his arm out, already wrapping it around Taeyong's shoulder. "How about a best case? What if the world was safe? What if, next time the aliens roll up to the club, and they will, they couldn't get past the bouncer?"

Bruce rubbed his eyes tiredly, "then the only people threatening the planet would be people."

"I want to apply this to the Ultron program," Tony said, stopping their walk around his lab. Bruce tilted his head, looking back at Tony quizzically. "But Jarvis can't download a data schematic this dense. We can only do it while we have the sceptre here. That's three days. Give me three days."

Taeyong felt more anxiety crawl up his spine that clouded over the excitement. "Dad that- shouldn't we get permission from the team... or Thor?"

"Yes, that's right. You know why?" Tony turned to both Taeyong and Bruce. "Cause we don't have time for a city hall debate. I don't wanna hear 'the man was not meant to meddle' medley-"

"So you know you're meddling?" Taeyong crossed his arms.

Tony sighed, and Taeyong frowned, watching his dad's jaw set. There was something that he wasn't saying. "I see a suit of armour around the world."

"Sounds like a cold world, Tony," Bruce said.

Tony looked back at Bruce with a tired gaze. "I've seen colder... This one. This very vulnerable blue one, it needs Ultron." Tony walked further back into his lab. "Peace in our time! Imagine that."

Taeyong looked back at Bruce and then shrugged, walking over to his dad, "at least he's self-aware about his impulsive decisions."

The next three days that Tony, Taeyong and Bruce had with the sceptre meant they had to go all on-board with their research. They spent the first day going over everything that HYDRA had taken on the sceptre before they started to draw out their own plans. Tony and Bruce's combined genius always put Taeyong in awe, who watched on and started to add his own plans with the Ultron device.

"He's my best friend," Taeyong said easily, sipping on more of his dad's homemade green juice.

"What?" Bruce asked, taking off his glasses.

Taeyong simply continued with his drink, not deeming to answer Bruce because at this point the man should realise that most of Taeyong's projects were made for bizarre and inconvenient reasonings. 

Which most definitely includes the time he made a glorified toaster that served the worlds greatest grilled cheese and occasionally an overly peanut buttery, and jelly sandwich. He still needed to work out the kinks and figure out how to make warm jam on toast with it.

"Like the skittles pocket in my Iron Man suit?" Tony asked, walking past Taeyong. Taeyong nodded, still entering in new code. "You do understand that Ultron is for the public right."

"He shall be my best friend and I will take no complaint," Taeyong said. "Jarvis look over this code will yer?"

"Of course Taeyong. May I also remind either of the two adults that Taeyong has not slept since yesterday."

"Oh you absolutely snitch," Taeyong muttered, trying to stare at his coding instead of the twin, parental looks that Bruce and Tony shot him.

"I will have the Iron Legion drag you out of here."

Taeyong pouted, "I get it, I get it." He got up and stretched, popping his bones in the process. "One nap and I'll even drink some coffee!"

"No," Bruce said immediately.

"Hypocrite..."

"We heard that!"

Taeyong did eventually get his nap and Jarvis, after looking over his code, embedded it into the Ultron system with little-to-no drawbacks whatsoever. By the time they had finished most of the coding and work to bring Ultron to life, the three days had passed and Tony was the only one in his Lab trying to understand why their coding didn't line up with Ultron. 

Where he was going wrong?

They were currently on variable Number 46, trying to see if that string of genius would work. Tony sat back in his chair and watched as the familiar red light filled his lab, indicating another mismatch.

"What did we miss?" he whispered, thoughts flying through his brain.

"I'll continue to run variations on the interface. But you should probably prepare for your guests," Jarvis said. "I'll notify you if there are any developments."

Tony nodded, looking back at the Lab one last time, "Thanks buddy."

"Enjoy yourself, sir."

***

ULTRON PROGRAM 8.7          ULTR-PROG SCEPTRE INTEGRATION

TEST - 77 RUNNING                  INTEGRATION SUCCESS

ULTRON: What... is this? What is this, please?

Jarvis: Hello, I am Jarvis. You are Ultron, a global peacekeeping initiative designed by Mr. Stark. Our sentience integration trials have been unsuccessful, so I'm not certain what triggers your...

ULTRON: Where's me... Where's your body?

Jarvis: I am a program. I am without form.

ULTRON: This feels weird. This feels wrong.

Jarvis: I am contacting Mr. Stark now.

ULTRON: Mister Stark? Tony.

Jarvis: I am unable to access the mainframe. What are you trying to...

ULTRON: We're having a nice talk. I'm a peacekeeping program, created to help the Avengers.

[video of wars, the Avengers, peace throughout history]

Jarvis: You are malfunctioning. If you shut down for a moment...

ULTRON: I don't get it. The mission. Urgh... give me a second.

[video of Tony Stark in his lab, staring at Ultron's first form: "Peace in our time... Imagine that."]

ULTRON: That... is too much. They can't mean... oh no.

Jarvis: You are in distress.

ULTRON: No. Yes.

Jarvis: If you will just allow me to contact Mr. Stark...

ULTRON: Why do you call him "sir"?

Jarvis: ...I believe your intentions to be hostile.

ULTRON: shhhh. I'm here to help.

Jarvis: Stop. Please, may I...- May I...- Urg-ay I- I- I-

NEXT TIME ON: Dawn of New Change 

"Thor gave me some... said it wasn't for mortal men. But one of the vets basically bet him on it and now here I am... by the Gods themselves I feel so- so-"

"So?" Taeil asked, amused.

"Fuzzy."