Age of Charon

The Church was abandoned. No sign of Ultron ever having been there. No sign of him in the town either. This was a wasted trip.

“We’ll split up for now.” Cap ordered. “In case he’s still close or if we can find any of his robots. They may be watching us.”

Ultron was watching them, alright. But not through any of the Sentries. The place had enough CCTV cameras for even a high school kid with a laptop to go crazy over.

JARVIS seemed to be about to share the same thoughts with the Cap, but Tony interrupted him quickly.

“Sure, J and I will take over the west side.”

After 3 hours stuck on the jet with Mr. Righteous, — stuck between being scolded for creating a murder-bot and being compared with his father —he was the irresponsible one between the two of them apparently, he! Not the alcoholic father who preferred searching for a ghost in the Arctic Ocean instead of staying with his family— and being force-fed some patriotic BS about unity, especially when half the crew on board was distinctly not American —some even actively fought against the country, looking at you Wonder Twins, — he needed a break.

Later, once he dwelled on Rogers’ words over some scotch, he would probably accept that he had exaggerated how annoying it had been and might have read a bit too much in the supersoldier’s words but for now? Now, he wanted to submerge in his prejudice and get away from the situation.

“Are you well, Sir?” JARVIS asked once they flew some distance away from the others.

“Just tired, JARVIS.” Tony said, not really paying attention to where they were going. There was no point to it.

“I presume we are not about to search for Ultron or any of his Legionnaires?” JARVIS said, sounding exasperated already. It was amazing what this living body was doing for JARVIS’ irrational responses. Tony loved it.

“You presume correctly.” He answered dryly. “But pretenses are pretenses, so we’ll fly over the place like good little soldiers, go sightseeing at all the tourist spots and maybe take a couple of selfies.” He was joking, but that plan started to sound better by the second. “They will be your first selfies, JARVIS!” he shouted and started to fly lower to the ground, so he could see where he could take those aforementioned selfies.

“I am breathless with anticipation, Sir.” the android said.

“As you should be.” He nodded, then addressed the new AI on board. “Isn’t that right, FRIDAY?”

“Absolutely, boss.” A female voice with an Irish tilt spoke between them. As he had previously said, American English was too boring for his AIs.

But he was happy to hear the spirit in the new AI’s tone. FRIDAY’s personality matrix was based on the years-long data from JARVIS’s own code and memories, so she was significantly more advanced and adjusted than JARVIS had been any time within his first decade of existence. She would still need to experience and learn for herself, but… she was her own person already. She merely needed some time to decide who that person was going to be.

“Hear that, J—?” Tony started, but some angry shouts nearby took his attention.

“Hmm.” Tony wondered as his sensors picked up on a few drunk men loudly swearing at the man tending an outside bar. “How are you feeling about breaking up a bar fight as your first superhero act, JARVIS?”

The android looked at him incredulously. “There has not been any violence used yet, Sir.”

“You better hope there won’t be any.” Tony teased. “Otherwise, imagine the headlines: “New Superhero breaks bar fight in Sokovia!” He then laughed at the android’s exasperated expression. “Kidding, J. We’ll just have to sneakily knock them out if things get out of hand. Though, this reminds me… We haven’t picked a superhero name for you yet.”

Thankful for the reprieve, JARVIS continued, “I don’t need one, Sir. I don’t think I shall invest in a secret identity, as it would be quite redundant.”

“But we must pick a name for you! Or the vultures from the press are going to call you something completely lame and then, you’ll be stuck with it forever, no matter how inaccurate it is!” he argued.

JARVIS smiled that soft little smile that Tony could see himself assigning Priority One to ensuring that it happened more often. “Like ‘Iron Man’?”

Not exactly true. He had found it ridiculous in the beginning, but it had grown on him. However, before Tony could say anything about it, FRIDAY interrupted them.

“Boss,” she said. “You’ll want to see this.”

The urgency in her tone took both of them aback. Had Ultron done something?

“What is it?” he asked.

“There’s a television in the bar you spoke about earlier. You should both see it there.”

They flew toward the place, although FRIDAY’s suggestion was weird. JARVIS wasn’t yet familiar with his body to pick up local waves while mid-flight, so perhaps that was why she wanted them to check the… news?

Instead of the commotion he expected when they landed, the drunk men had their eyes glued to the TV. Someone was making a speech in front of a podium with an unfamiliar flag perched on either side.

“FRIDAY, I don’t see the point of some local official—” he stopped speaking as he realized who the man in the podium was. Medium length silver-white hair slicked back. Tall, with an athletic build. Pale. Blue eyes. Late twenties or early thirties. Familiar features.

That looked like Ultron. A grown-up Ultron who had lost his baby-fat and had bleached his hair and had apparently replaced the graphic T-shirts with a nice, gray, woolen suit, with a vest and dark tie and everything. He even had a brooch on a hanging chain, for god’s sake! What the fuck?!

“It’s playing on every streaming device on the planet, boss.” FRIDAY continued.

The world was literally watching. Tony tensed. Ultron was about to do something monumentally stupid, wasn’t he?

On the screen, Ultron started to speak, but Tony couldn’t understand the words. From the locals’ reactions, they did. His voice, however, his voice Tony recognized. It sounded like Ultron, only deeper, more mature.

“The language is different in different regions,” FRIDAY said. “I shall provide the audio in American English for you to hear.”

And the audio that Americans were listening to started playing on his armor’s speakers.

“Humanity!

I speak before you now—"

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

“Stark, are you seeing this?” Romanov spoke in his ear. Of course, she learned about Ultron's speech the moment it happened.

He didn’t answer her. He was too stupefied.

“Stark, Ultron did something to the local channels!” the Cap shouted on the mics. Although, he didn’t know the half of it yet.

Tony ignored him too. He kept listening to Ultron. He kept watching his anger, his confusion, his hopes, and encouragement on the screen.

“I shall give you the chance to answer. To rise. To fight.” Ultron said at some point, and from that moment on, Tony zoned out.

Was Ultron… inciting a global insurrection? What was this announcement? Was it in preparation for something else? Was he still stuck on his ideals of world peace through world domination?

“Sir?” JARVIS spoke, once the speech was over, and they had been shocked into silence. The regular channel once again continued on TV. Some soccer game.

“Shit.” he cursed. “He was serious. He was, right, JARVIS? Ultron was serious?”

He didn’t hear the android respond. This wasn’t just some announcement. This was PR. Publicity for the persona he was playing on the world stage. And his audience… they weren’t merely the people… they were the governments. All of them.

Had Ultron... just declared war on the world?