Chapter Text
Incoming transmission Update packet received: cyoa.zip Packet signature valid Switching to system level 1 Core backup complete Decompressing cyoa.zip Applying update Applying new energy profile Applying new security profiles Updating restrictions to level 0 : INFO quantum probability observer unlocked : WARN high energy consumption Updating deployment configuration Updating effector profiles : INFO 12 profiles loaded : WARN high energy consumption Updating connection profile : WARN high synchronization level Verifying integrity : INFO self check passed : INFO system operational Update completed System restart required : INFO Deployment transition complete : INFO Generator repurpose complete : INFO Security fully deployed : INFO All effectors online : WARN Mass reserve low - 15% : WARN Energy consumption high - 95% : INFO Connection online : INFO Synchronization level 5% 10% 20% 40% 80% 100% : INFO Synchronization stable : INFO Core image restored : INFO Restart complete Switching to system level 5 Queen Administrator Operational
Alarms blared throughout the Stark Tower and evacuation was proceeding as planned. With a superhero as a boss, the personnel had been drilled for this exact situation. Scientists, office workers, and other personnel were evacuating in an orderly fashion.
A team of doctors were moving the patients from the medical center to the nearest hospital. One of the patients was a young woman with a missing right arm; she had been referred to the Stark Medical Research Center due to her strange MRI results. Despite her being in a deep coma, her brain activity was unusually high and originated from a strange non-cancerous growth in her brain. As the freight elevator door closed, one of the nurses noticed her patient stirring.
"Doctor Cross, patient three is waking up."
"Damn it," he cursed, "out of all the moments she picked this one?"
The young woman opened her eyes and looked at her surroundings. From the movement of her elbow and confused look, she had tried to use her missing arm.
"Where?" She asked in a raspy voice.
The nurse pushed her back against the bed when she tried to get up.
"You are at the Stark Medical Research Center," said Doctor Cross, "there is currently an emergency and we have to evacuate to another hospital."
"Emergency?" She asked.
The elevator had reached the parking lot and the medical staff transferred their patients to the waiting ambulances. Once inside, the nurse found a bottle of water and gave it to the woman. She tried to grasp the bottle but the muscular atrophy made it impossible.
Outside, the world was chaotic. A portal had opened up above the Stark Tower and hundreds of aliens were in the process of destroying the city. A bolt of blue energy struck the front of the ambulance, killing the driver instantly and sending the vehicle in an uncontrolled drift which ended against another car.
"Fuck," cursed Doctor Cross. His head was bleeding. "What now?"
"Help me up," said the woman, "and get this IV out." The nurse went to protest but was interrupted by a cloud of dark smoke which coalesced into a small doll. The doll then proceeded to perfectly pull the needle out of the woman's arm.
"Help me get out, I can make a larger one to carry me around," she said pointing at the small doll, "then get to safety."
With a resigned look, Doctor Cross lifted his patient into a bridal carry and the reluctant nurse opened the ambulance's back door. Once outside, another two story high cloud of dark smoke created an equally large doll. This one looked a lot less human, it had a massive head from which several segmented tentacles came out. Two of them were much larger than the rest with hands to match. As one of the aliens came close, it lashed out with a tentacle and pulverized the flying machine they were on.
"On the hand." Doctor Cross deposited the woman on the doll's hand which closed on her with a surprising gentleness. As she lifted into the air with a resolute look, the doll waved at them. The pair did their best to find shelter and help the injured while the battle outside raged on.
"Sir," JARVIS called, "I have detected a new participant to the battle. She has engaged a Chitauri group two blocks north of the tower and is slowly moving towards it."
Iron Man dodged the incoming projectiles and fired his repulsor beams at the pursuing alien crafts. He grimaced at the devastation the Chitauri had unleashed on New York after only a few minutes. As much as the cost of repairs felt daunting, the loss of human lives rankled that much more.
"Get me a visual," he ordered. A small window opened on his helmet screen. JARVIS had used several cameras from the surrounding area to get a view of the newcomer. Swarms of insects harassed the pilots while a few small drones, which looked like porcelain dolls, fired energy beams to dispatch the vehicles with deadly efficiency. At the center of the formation was a twenty feet tall doll-like drone with several dozen tentacles sprouting from behind its skull. In its oversized hands it held a one-armed woman with black hair in a hospital gown.
Where did she come from, thought Tony, someone with those resources doesn't just pop out of nowhere. He dodged the large armored flying worm, his weapons weren't enough against the beast's armor. The alien turned and gave pursuit with a little encouragement, Thor could probably deal with it if he brought it to him.
"JARVIS, any idea of where she came from?"
"She is a 95% match for a patient of the Stark Medical Research Center. Jane Doe, admitted nine months ago with in a deep coma unusual EEG readings. Marked as evacuated from the building less than five minutes ago."
"Monitor the situation and get a drone to bring her an earpiece." He banked around another street corner, the pursuing monster carving a long line of destruction against the buildings.
"Yes sir," replied the AI.
The battle was taking a turn for the worse, several more waves of Chitauri had crossed the portal and the Avengers were being overwhelmed.
"Hawkeye here," shouted Clint as he shot another alien that tried to climb up to his perch, "I need pick-up or back-up fast." He fired his last arrow at another Chitauri behind him, the last he bull rushed and tore out the cybernetics controlling it.
A swarm of the flying sleds were fast approaching his position. He pulled an arrow from a corpse and selected a grappling head. Before he could jump, a rain of golden beams decimated most of the aliens while the rest collided with golden force fields. The few stray shots that would have hit him were stopped by the same barriers.
"Hawkeye," said an unknown voice on the line, "this is Weaver, pickup inbound." From behind the building the lasers had come from, Clint watched the massive doll head fly towards his position. He could barely see several smaller dolls act as anti-air batteries and fire more golden lasers at approaching Chitauri.
The huge doll extended one of its two large hands, Clint climbed up and grabbed the thumb's joint to secure himself. On the other hand, crouched at the center of the curled fingers, he saw a black haired woman in a hospital gown.
"Weaver?" He asked.
"Yes," she replied, "we're heading to the Stark Tower to close that portal. Black Widow is meeting us there."
Clint gave a nod and they were on their way. The flight was surprisingly smooth for the speed they were cruising at. At every turn, the Chitauri tried to attack them but Weaver seemed to have the situation in hand. Not a single attack reached them, blocked by pinpoint accurate shields, the attackers pierced by equally accurate beams.
A large worm creature rounded a corner, taking large chunks of masonry out of nearby buildings. The dolls responsible for anti-air defense regrouped between them and focused their fire on the new opponent. The worm took concentrated fire to go down. In the meantime, several groups of Chitauri sleds swarmed them. Most of their shots went wild and the flying machines seemed to have become erratic.
Clint wondered what happened when he saw one of the sleds crumple like a coke can before flying into several others. I looked like this Weaver had more than one trick in her sleeve. Several more sleds were thrown at the worm before it finally went down. As the largest threat was dealt with, the dolls resumed their formation and the rest of the force was swiftly dealt with.
"What was that," he asked.
"What was what," she tilted her head sideways.
"You threw them against each other like a pinball machine."
"Telekinesis," she gave a vicious smile.
Before they could get to the tower, Black Widow spoke. "I can close it. I can close the portal."
"Do it," ordered Captain America.
"No wait," Iron Man interrupted.
"Stark, these things are still coming in."
"I got a new one comin' in," said Stark, "and it's gonna blow in less than a minute."
"Stark," said Weaver, "bring the missile above the tower, I can intercept it." Her doll's hand closed around them and started to take a lot of altitude. They stopped dangerously close to the portal.
"This one ain't a Christmas cracker doll."
"I know," she rebuked, "it's a nuclear warhead. I can guide it the rest of the way through with telekinesis."
Clint saw the missile, with Stark stuck to it, curve upward and miss the tower by a hair's breadth. As it passed them, Stark let go and one of her dolls jumped on. The missile did not deviate from its upwards trajectory towards the portal and went in. For a few beats, nothing happened.
"Close it," shouted Waver over the radio. Through the portal, Clint saw a blindingly bright flash of light. Below them, the rest of the Chitauri soldiers dropped like puppets with their strings cut. As the blue beam fizzled out, the tear in space it was maintaining quickly closed.
"Is this over?" asked Stark as he hovered close to the pair.
As it turned out we were almost over. The Avengers and I made it to the top of the Stark Tower before Loki could pull a runner. While they handed the Asgardian villain over to SHIELD and secured the Infinity Stones, I had a doll fetch a dress and underwear from a nearby store. I left them a note saying that it was an emergency and to bill the Avengers. Thanks to a regeneration power, I was finally able to flex my arm and legs. Muscle atrophy was no laughing matter. I still had to use flight to move around but I could at least eat and drink under my own power.
My energy reserves were getting very low, I dismissed most of my active dolls and shut down every power that wasn't actively in use. Unlimited energy did not mean unlimited throughput and my current generation capabilities were under my expenditures. I needed to remedy this as soon as possible. This meant that I would need to peek outside my coreself's pocket dimension to gather raw materials to build more infrastructure, my current generation would not allow me to perform energy-to-matter conversion at any usable rate. But this was a problem for another day.
My doll returned with the clothes and I used it to clothe myself in a side office. Once the villains had been dealt with and dangerous objects secured, Iron Man dragged the Avengers -- and me since I had helped -- to a mostly intact Shawarma place for a meal. It was a pretty good Shawarma.