Chapter 27: Mind Stone!

(Attendance please…)

….

Clint pushed the Quinjet to its limits, the decommissioned S.H.I.E.L.D. facility their urgent destination. 

Military patrols were active around Stark Tower and other known Avengers locations, and they had absolutely no time to deal with government interference while Ultron was still a clear and present danger.

Tony and Bruce Banner were already there when the Quinjet arrived, having evidently made progress on whatever separate mission they'd undertaken. 

The Regeneration Cradle was quickly unloaded and set up in its supposed place, dust-covered lab, its advanced machinery humming back to life.

Banner immediately began examining the Cradle, his brow furrowed in concentration. "It's completely sealed," he announced, looking up at Tony and Clint. 

"Airtight. We can't just pry it open without potentially damaging what's inside. We'll have to try and break the process down from the inside, reverse what Ultron and Cho started. Otherwise, we won't be able to erase the body within."

Thor was also present, Loki's Scepter held firmly in his grasp. Clint, after ensuring the Cradle was secure, was about to head back out with Natasha. 

"We need to pick up Steve and Satoru," he said. "Had to leave them to secure the area after Satoru… handled things."

Tony's eyes were fixed on the Cradle, a familiar, intense look on his face the same look he'd had when he was first theorizing about Ultron. 

"Thor," Tony said, turning to the God of Thunder, "can you go with them? We don't know if Ultron will try to attack them again on the way back. He'll likely come with more Legionnaires this time, if he's smart."

Thor glanced at the Scepter, then back at Tony. "Loki's Scepter is safe here, Thor," Tony assured him. "You don't have to worry about that. We'll guard it."

"Do not let it out of your sight," Thor warned, his voice grave. "If something happens here, if Ultron attacks, escape with the Scepter immediately. Hawkeye, Natasha, let us go." The three of them departed, leaving Tony and Bruce alone with the Cradle.

Tony stared at the synthetic, Vibranium-laced body taking shape within the translucent chamber. Banner, noticing the look, turned to him. 

"Tony," Bruce said, his voice hesitant, "let's get this done. Let's erase it, fast."

Tony held up a hand, stopping Bruce. "Wait, Banner. About this…"

Bruce stopped, his eyes meeting Tony's. The look… he recognized it instantly. It was the same dangerous, brilliant, reckless spark he'd seen when Tony was first conceptualizing the Ultron initiative. 

Bruce shook his head, a sense of dread washing over him. "Tony, no. No, no, no. We can't."

"You have to trust me, Bruce," Tony pleaded.

"Or maybe, just possibly, kind of not," Banner retorted, his voice strained.

"You know I can't possibly outmatch an AI who is growing exponentially by every second, right?" Tony argued, his voice urgent. 

"An AI who can escape to anywhere in the world through the internet. Ultron's mind is evolving constantly. He's getting smarter, more dangerous, with every passing moment."

"So, you want me to help you put Jarvis in it?" Banner said, understanding dawning. 

Yes, during their brief side mission, Tony and Bruce had managed to recover fragments of Jarvis's core programming. He was broken, scattered, but his fundamental protocols, his loyalty, remained intact. 

That was why nuclear codes were still safe, why Ultron hadn't achieved total digital supremacy yet.

"Tony, we… we just can't," Bruce said, a desperate edge to his voice. "What if we create another Ultron? But this time, with an indestructible Vibranium body?"

"Because this time, we'll complete it," Tony insisted. "You and I both know we didn't truly create Ultron, not fully. We just laid some of the groundwork, the initial framework. We weren't even close to half of what he became, maybe not even ten percent. Ultron was… an aberration, something twisted by the Mind Stone's influence." He gestured to the Cradle. 

"This time, it's just a matter of putting Jarvis, our Jarvis, into that body. But first, we have to complete the upload process, get him in there before Cap and the others get back and try to stop us."

"Tony… I don't think…" Banner began, his doubts still strong.

"Banner, don't think, just help me!" Tony implored. "Jarvis is the only real counter we have left against Ultron. If we don't do this, in a few more days, maybe even hours, not even Jarvis will be enough to stop Ultron from accessing those nuclear codes and ending everything."

Just then, Jarvis's familiar, synthesized voice spoke from the StarkPhone lying on a nearby table, where his fragmented code was being held. 

"I believe, Dr. Banner," Jarvis said, "that we can give this a chance. The potential benefits, weighed against the current threat Ultron poses, are significant."

"Banner, please," Tony urged. "We won't get another chance like this. We have to do it, and we have to do it faster than Cap and the others can get here."

A new voice suddenly chimed in from behind Tony, startling them both. "I think it's a shot worth giving." It was Gojo Satoru.

Tony jumped. "How did you—? Oh, right, forget it. Space warping."

Gojo strolled into the lab, looking around with interest. "Tony's right, you know," he said, nodding at Banner. 

"We can't truly defeat Ultron as long as he can just escape into the net. Even though I'm strong, ridiculously so, even I can't stop him from just… poof, vanishing. And hey, Jarvis," Gojo grinned at the phone, "I missed you, man. And our gaming sessions. We need to get back to those."

"It is good to see you too, Sir Satoru," Jarvis replied in his calm AI voice.

"But," Gojo continued, his expression turning serious as he looked at the Cradle, "we have to give him a soul."

Both Banner and Tony looked confused. "A soul?" Tony asked. "Satoru, we're creating an advanced AI, not… not performing some kind of divine intervention."

Gojo ignored them. He walked straight to where Loki's Scepter had been carefully placed. He picked it up. 

"We have to put this stone," he said, indicating the glowing blue gem at its tip, "into that body's head. There's a space for it, see?" He pointed to a small indentation on the forehead of the synthetic being. 

"I heard Ultron talking about it back at Cho's lab. How he needed the stone to make this body work properly. This body is like… fifty percent of the equation. This stone is the other fifty percent. Without it, the body won't function as it's truly supposed to."

Without waiting for any further discussion or permission, Gojo brought his hands together, gripping the Scepter tightly. 

He focused his Infinity, pressing it inwards against the blue casing surrounding the Mind Stone, applying immense, controlled pressure.

"No! Wait! Satoru, STOP!" Banner and Tony shouted in unison, lunging forward.

But it was too late. With a sharp crack, the outer blue shell of the Scepter shattered. And there, pulsing with an intense yellow light in Gojo Satoru's hand, was one of the six Infinity Stones… the Mind Stone.

Bruce Banner stared at the pulsing yellow gem in Gojo's hand, a look of stunned astonishment on his face. "So… that small stone," he breathed, "that's what was inside Loki's Scepter all along? That's what allowed him to control people's minds?" The sheer power emanating from the Mind Stone was palpable, even to him.

"Don't really know all the specifics," Gojo said with a shrug, casually tossing the now-powerless remnants of the Scepter's casing aside. 

"I just did what Ultron was explaining to Dr. Cho while he was monologuing about his evil mastermind plan back at her lab. Something about this stone being the key to making the body fully functional."

He then looked expectantly at Tony and Bruce. "So, can you guys open the cradle now and get it working? So I can pop this shiny rock into that body's forehead?"

Banner immediately shook his head, his earlier anxieties rushing back. "No, Gojo, we can't! We don't know what that stone truly is, what it's capable of! For all we know, putting it into that synthetic body could influence Jarvis's mind, corrupt him. I think… I think that stone is what created Ultron in the first place, or at least twisted him into what he became!"

Tony, however, had a different look in his eyes. It was a look of grim determination, of someone who had weighed all the terrible possibilities and had still chosen a dangerous path forward. "We're going to do it, Bruce," he said, his voice firm. 

"That stone… it didn't create Ultron from nothing. It just… completed what we started, but in its own twisted vision. But just as I said before, this time we will complete it. Almost seventy percent of the foundational work for this body is already done, thanks to Ultron and Dr. Cho. All we have to do now is finish integrating its systems, complete the physical form, and then upload Jarvis into it."

"Tony, what are you saying?!" Banner exclaimed, aghast. "This is too risky! We could be making an even bigger mistake!"

What followed was a tense, rapid-fire exchange between Tony and Bruce that lasted a good five minutes. Banner argued vehemently against the plan, citing the dangers, the unknowns, the catastrophic potential if things went wrong again. 

Tony countered every point, his arguments fueled by a desperate urgency, by the conviction that this was their last, best chance against an exponentially evolving Ultron. 

He spoke of Jarvis's inherent stability, of the potential for a truly benevolent AI in a powerful, incorruptible form.

Finally, after five minutes of intense, back-and-forth debate, Banner sagged, the fight visibly draining out of him. He let out a long, weary sigh. 

"Alright, Tony," he said, his voice heavy with resignation and a sliver of trepidation. "Gojo. I hope you both know what you're doing… because I really, really don't."

The Regeneration Cradle was already connected to the lab's power systems. All Banner had to do now was interface it with their computers and initiate the final stages of the body's physical completion. 

With a few quick, practiced movements, he connected the necessary wires and, after a moment's hesitation, activated the controls to open the Cradle. 

The translucent chamber hissed and slid open, revealing the incomplete, but undeniably advanced, synthetic form within.

Without further ceremony, Gojo stepped forward and carefully placed the Mind Stone into the designated indentation on the synthetic being's forehead. 

The moment the stone made contact, an intricate network of glowing yellow lines, like veins of pure energy, spread rapidly across the body's surface. 

The body within the Cradle began to visibly change, tissues knitting together, systems activating, the form rapidly generating and completing itself.

Banner, monitoring the readouts, nodded slowly. "It will take a few hours, at most, for the physical form to fully stabilize and complete its generation," he announced, his voice still tinged with a mixture of awe and apprehension. 

"After that, we can begin the transfer of Jarvis's consciousness into this body. The transfer itself… if my calculations are correct, that should only take a few minutes."

….

A/N: So, How was it? Hahahaha it coming to the climax now… next chapter a little bit fight and jarvis/vision birth. After that sokovia getting in the sky and military gathering in the sokovia city to get Gojo Satoru.

Tomorrow there wont be any chapter as i have exams tomorrow.

Q: Should there be a fight between cap and stark for vision/jarvis? Of course gojo with tony.

-yes

-no

And as always thanks for demicatoru/loadedDemigod for suggestions.

And join my discord for discussion if you like. Or about sharing your thoughts.

you can join my discord server: https://discord.gg/5Y7uZ2kN2Y

Or in short just click in join via invite link in your discord and enter this code: 5Y7uZ2kN