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Field Trip to the Golden Age for ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
rekindledtitan
There's a whole lot to like about Steve's new place in the Nexus.
It's in a quiet part of the multiverse, plenty of open air and room to train or scout undisturbed. It's a bigger place with a lot more room for furniture and a spare room that Natasha has already commandeered for a makeshift safe house including a bug out bag all ready to go at the drop of a hat. Ready for missions or trouble and ready to come back and have a safe place if her own place is compromised.
The other nice thing about it is having a perpetually warm doglike creature napping over her leg as she cleans her weapons next to one of the windows. Thanks to the Accords and Steve's determination to have that all go sideways and the fallout because of it they'd be on the run a lot more if they were frequenting their home. Having a safe place to escape to in the Nexus for a breather is every kind of good for the soul.
Natasha spies the bots PINpointing to the front walkway and tosses a look over her shoulder toward where Steve's sitting with his sketchbook in lap.
"Looks like the party's about to be started, Rogers."
She'll let Steve worry about getting up and answering the door for Blaze and Ghost. It buys her a minute to finish with her guns.
It's in a quiet part of the multiverse, plenty of open air and room to train or scout undisturbed. It's a bigger place with a lot more room for furniture and a spare room that Natasha has already commandeered for a makeshift safe house including a bug out bag all ready to go at the drop of a hat. Ready for missions or trouble and ready to come back and have a safe place if her own place is compromised.
The other nice thing about it is having a perpetually warm doglike creature napping over her leg as she cleans her weapons next to one of the windows. Thanks to the Accords and Steve's determination to have that all go sideways and the fallout because of it they'd be on the run a lot more if they were frequenting their home. Having a safe place to escape to in the Nexus for a breather is every kind of good for the soul.
Natasha spies the bots PINpointing to the front walkway and tosses a look over her shoulder toward where Steve's sitting with his sketchbook in lap.
"Looks like the party's about to be started, Rogers."
She'll let Steve worry about getting up and answering the door for Blaze and Ghost. It buys her a minute to finish with her guns.
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"I'll be her--"
Bip.
The Avenger's compound in upstate New York isn't as lively as it once was, but Natasha's room at least hasn't been given out to anyone else. The spy lets go of Blaze's shoulder and immediately heads to a computer outside her room to alert FRIDAY that everything's fine and not to summon all the Starkbots onto their location.
"Welcome to New York, circa 2018." Natasha calls out from the hallway. "I'm sending Stark a message to let him know we're here. FRIDAY's saying he's not here yet but that's probably for the best. Means he hasn't gotten distracted by any pet projects."
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"We land in someone's quarters?" she asks as she follows Natasha to the hall. Despite her tension she's genuinely curious as she looks around. Whichever way it goes, this is a chance to meet more of the people Steve talks so fondly about. People who sound to her like the Iron Lords of this Earth. And all that wrapped up in a snapshot of an Earth long past.
She's a Guardian on an adventure, with a mission to fulfill. If she keeps her mind on that, she'll be all right.
"Guess we're not in a hurry. FRIDAY's the local AI?" She's looking out for a terminal interface, maybe a holo-avatar although she can't remember if Steve mentioned them having holograms here. It's been a long time since she encountered a proper AI.
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Natasha barely looks up from the computer station she's at while she relays the information Steve's kept from everyone in the Nexus as casually as if they were discussing the weather. Hiding it won't change anything and Blaze needs to know this before they meet Tony Stark in person.
"That's why Steve can't come. Tony wanted us to sign on to keep the team together. Steve threw that away to save a friend the government viewed as a national security threat. And....I helped him get away."
She finishes typing and turns back to face the Exo properly.
"I'm sure Boss would say you betrayed the team, Agent Romanov." The voice that clips in is pleasant enough. Vaguely Irish sounding and female and decidedly no nonsense.
"F.R.I.D.A.Y. this is Blaze-37 and her Ghost." Natasha doesn't seem surprised about the dig. She is Stark tech after all.
"Welcome to New York and the Stark Complex, Blaze-37 and Ghost. Please be advised that this complex is under strict observation at all times. Tony Stark would like you to know your privacy in this matter is being taken very seriously but any threats or disturbances will be picked up by government teams outside of our control."
Natasha snorts and shakes her head while her heals click down the hall from the living quarters.
"She means we're all on a short leash these days, so no matter how irritating Tony is, don't pick a fight with him please. Last thing any of us wants is the government declaring us all a threat again."
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She gives a synthetic grunt. "Just like old times. Understood." A nod toward the terminal. "Good to meet you."
A few short years and already she's gotten too used to the Guardian way of operating. Used to heeding commands and taking instruction by choice and duty and little more. She remembers the outline of how this works, but she can feel the flickering annoyance at all the surveillance and demands and restriction. She's no Hunter: she appreciates discipline and sound precautions. Even so...
This isn't the world Guardians were made for. Exos, maybe...
"Plenty of Guardians who like to run their mouths," she says as she follows Natasha, the heavy sound of her tread a counterpoint to the spy's sharp footsteps. Never mind that her brethren tend to consider her chatty, for a Titan. "I can handle that. Besides, even if this was the place for a match, it wouldn't be honorable." Speaking of the place, though- she's never been to this part of Earth before. She's veering over to the first window that comes up and taking a good look at their surroundings. It's nice out there - green and pleasant-looking
and not at all irradiated.no subject
Steve's reply to Ghost is brief but as reassuring as he can manage. Tony's interface AI have always been extraordinary to the super soldier. He considered JARVIS to be a good friend. The circumstances that lead to FRIDAY replacing him however meant that Steve never did get much of a chance to get to know her.
This being one of Stark's places means there's no shortage of floor to ceiling windows showing off the sprawling complex of the former Avengers' compound. The neat green courtyard gives way to a long warehouse on one side of the complex and a landing site for some kind of ship on the other. Beyond all of it they're surrounded by trees and hills as far as the eye can see.
"Used to be housed in the middle of Manhattan but the population density and risk for collateral damage was too high, so we tucked in somewhere a bit safer for the general public." Natasha's never seen even photographs of Blaze's world, but she's heard a general idea from the time she's spent with the Exo and Ghost. She knows all too well how rare this kind of a sight would be to Blaze.
"Boss says to head to the East wing research lab. He'll meet you there."
Natasha nods at the AI's helpful message relay. When Blaze pulls herself away from the window Natasha will turn and start heading that way.
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Well, she's a lot more welcoming than the other AI we know. So far so good, I think.So long as Ghost doesn't have to go toe-to-metaphorical-toe with her. Which really shouldn't happen. But all he can do to back his Guardian up right now is watch and weigh up all the possibilities he can think of."You picked a nice place," Blaze says before she turns from the window, scenery admired (and cover evaluated, as always). Most of the Earth they know is long since reclaimed by nature of one sort or another; although these two don't spend a lot of time in Earth's woods, it's less the green spaces that are weird than... well, small things, in their way. The juxtaposition of greenery with an intact, old-style building that's clearly living and lived-in still. The subtle tang to air laced with a strange mix of trace pollutants. The absence of the shadow that pervades their wilds and weighs on the soul.
That's the strange part. The strangely familiar parts lie in the clean lines of glass and concrete and trim furnishings. Household electronics humming behind polish and leather, functional tiling that damps the edges of their footsteps, the polite, watchful presence of a facility AI with a near-Golden Age dialect... it's neat and modern and it rings unnervingly, tantalizingly familiar. Or maybe that's her purpose here playing on her mind.
Maybe Natasha was very wise to warn her about fighting. This is exactly the kind of thing she usually picks a fight to avoid dwelling on.
"Must be strange coming back here," she says as Natasha leads the way, the Exo keeping pace at her flank. There's a touch of apology in her voice - she's feeling a new-found appreciation of how awkward this is for her friends.
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FRIDAY says nothing about the circumstances of Natasha's being here and being welcomed in any capacity but that's really as positive as the spy expected from Tony after everything has gone down. The talk they had Before she showed up with Blaze was a minefield of hurt feelings and egos but Natasha's confident she's mended the bridge at least well enough to see this through for Steve and for Blaze.
She understands modern technology a bit better than Steve does and everything her friend has told her about the Exo's predicament has Natasha on edge. It sounds like Blaze is barely holding it together and able to function. That's not going to be self sustainable forever and if her crashes are becoming more frequent then getting a diagnosis from Tony Stark is probably the best thing anyone can do for her right now.
Especially because no one in Blaze's world understands how the heck Exos are meant to work anymore. And god if that's not horrifying to think about. Blaze must be terrified about it.
Down a floor from the personal quarters and through a large set of reinforced steel doors sits a small dimly lit lab. Unlike the rest of the compound this is not meticulously cleaned and polished. Tools sit atop half finished pieces of machinery and crumpled up bits of paper litter the floor next to a trash can (which houses several more crumpled up paper balls). It's easy to see this place is lived in and well used. Even most of the chairs are piled with boxes and discs of various things. Natasha clears aside a box of spare coils and strangely glowing parts and makes room for herself to lean against one of the counters off to the side of the room.
There's a human bent over one of the tables at the far end of the room soddering a chip into the lining of a suit who looks up when the doors shut behind Blaze and Natasha.
"Holy shit. When you said 'Ultron but prettier' I thought you were joking, Romanov."
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But once she steps inside and glances around the room, Blaze finds herself relaxing a little. This lab is almost homely. If there's any familiarity to it, it's a quiet kind she can easily ignore. Mostly she just has the impression that a very busy mind lives here, before the man himself speaks up and her optics land on him again.
"Hah!" Her chuckle carries her surprise: that's not the kind of reception she expected. Natasha's standing aside, so the Exo steps into the middle of the room, stopping there and tilting her head at Stark. This is the man who drove Steve into exile. The man they have to be so wary of approaching. The man who holds her best and only chance of overcoming the Nightmare that haunts her.
He doesn't look that bad. Or that dangerous, though she's heard enough of him to know better. Odds are he and his security are sizing her up pretty effectively, and she almost wants to know what he could pull if he had to. Still, right now the scariest thing about Tony Stark is how much she might be going to tell him.
"I'm not sure if that's flattery," she says. "Wasn't Ultron the guy who tried to kill you?" She'll ask Ghost for a picture later. Now is the time for courtesies, so she gives Stark a polite salute. "Blaze-37. Pleased to meet you, Mr. Stark."
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"Sorry, that's the closest thing to an Exo in our world I could think of. That or Zola."
"That's just insulting her." Tony points his tweezers accusingly at Natasha before dropping them unceremoniously atop the suit he's been tinkering with and crossing the distance to approach Blaze and shake her hand. The philanthropist and CEO has forgone the usual three piece suit and tie and is dressed down in his 'workshop' clothes for this meeting. Taller than he is. Everyone is always taller than he is. Irritating. Not important right now.
"Tony Stark. Strange to be introducing myself to someone who doesn't already know my name--"
"She does." Natasha's interruption earns her a scowl from Tony but he continues on without missing a beat.
"So, what's uh...what seems to be the problem. Please don't ask me how you make babies."
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"Nah, I'm not good with kids." Although come to think of it, that question is sort of related to her problem. She glances at Natasha, almost looking like she's drawing a deep breath before she explains, voice steady.
"Short version first, then. Exos like me have this... problem where we reboot every so often. Full shutdown, memory wipe and starting from scratch. Hnh. More-or-less. Doesn't seem to be a set time-frame, and far as I know there's no trigger condition. We don't know why it happens. Some of us don't reset very often anyway."
She's quiet for a half-second, gaze dropping before she looks Stark in the eye again. She's not trying to keep the urgency from her voice when she speaks again. "I do it a lot. I want it to stop. That's why I'm asking for your help."
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Blaze isn't reacting badly to the comment though and Natasha's sure Ghost is busy keeping Steve in the loop so she hums thoughtfully herself and settles in to make herself comfortable as Blaze's moral support. Makes sure Blaze sees her nod slowly when the Exo glances her way.
You can trust Tony Stark.
"Who is, really?" Tony quips back, vaguely distracted trying to place the metals he's touching, understand the scope and depth of the artificial mind he's speaking with. Giving himself time to think before Blaze gets down to business. The short explanation answers at least one question he'd been sitting on and he nods while he walks round her in a circle. One hand is stroking his goatee thoughtfully while the other taps and fidgets at the bent arm constantly.
"So you're Blaze-37 because you've wiped thirty-seven times? Over how long, do you know? Full memory wipe and reboot--what do you keep in between resets? Your motor subroutines, but Nat mentioned you were a soldier. Do you keep all your combat specs?"
Strange. Everything about this is strange, but it's the fun kind of strange and not 'the world is going to explode if I don't fix this' strange. A nice change of pace, really.
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They're getting right down to business. He doesn't seem very patient but I think he's just interested in the problem. Agent Romanov doesn't seem worried.Blaze twists to watch Stark curiously as he circles, the tattered hunk of cloth at her side swaying with her. She's been on the receiving end of plenty of scrutiny, but from a reputed genius from another universe, it's something different. Though her fieldplate is currently programmed white on black to match its wearer, up close it's not the same style or material as she is. Solid, but not seamless; efficient but not particularly elegant. It's mostly plasteel plate with mesh-lined cloth in strategic places, ensuring the bulk doesn't actually hinder her movement. A Striker is meant to move.
At his first question she nods. This is already more than she tells a lot of people, but they're only getting into the serious parts now.
"No way to be sure of the timeline. I can take a guess and say a couple hundred years, but I have a feeling that's generous. There just aren't any records to say otherwise." She shifts her weight uncomfortably. She just needs to relate the facts, but this is the first time she's stood and laid out the problem out loud, and so completely.
"I retain practical skills, yes. I remember how to fight, how to fly old ships, how to repair equipment. I keep my name and my purpose. I, uh... remember faces. People I've met, I think, but I don't remember who they were. Everything else... I get fragments. Flashes of déjà vu, emotions out of nowhere, bits and pieces that don't make any sense. It's not so bad when I'm in combat. Worse after I resurrect." Oh. She'll have to explain that at some point, though it's probably not very relevant. And where's- is Ghost still hiding? Stark's not that scary.
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Steve sets his Starkphone aside and gives Sarah an idle headscratch from where he's holed up at home. This is kind of nerve wracking, sitting back unable to help if something goes wrong. Well, not unable to help exactly. He can always PINpoint in if he has to. It just won't be an immediate response and that doesn't sit well with him. He's got to trust in Natasha though. Trust in her and in Tony.
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"So you're basically left in the dark about your maintenance and upkeep because no one's left who understands how the hell you work. Typical government efficiency. Good to know it's still recognizable in the future or wherever you're from."
Tony takes a step back once he's gotten a decent look at both Blaze and her armor before turning on his heel and heading back to the table he'd been working at before they arrived. He picks up a screwdriver and flips it end over end with a little toss before turning and pointing at Blaze with it once he's caught it.
"Full disclosure-- I have a few theories as to what could be causing the problems but I'm going to have to do a full scan to try and figure out what exactly I'm looking at here. Uh, I have no idea how that's going to feel to you. Do you have a sleep mode? I'm not sure you're going to want to be awake for this."
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"I can sleep." Does she want to? Not by preference, but Tony raises a good point. She figured on her brain getting probed at some point, but does she want to be conscious to find out what that stirs up? She doesn't like being so vulnerable, but that's going to happen one way or another.
"Might need some help getting there," she says, decision made. She holds out her left hand, palm upward. "Enough hiding, Ghost. Come on out." The little bot materializes above her palm, looking up at her, then round at Tony with an uncertain spin of his shell. "Ghost's my partner: he knows my internals better than anyone."
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Hi."no subject
"This isn't the same, Tony. She needs help. She's giving you permission." Natasha knows the demons that crawl in Tony's mind because they're the same ones Wanda unleashed on her own years ago. They might have experienced different things, but they both know how it feels to have something else intruding in your head.
"I know, I know." Tony's head jerks up at the unknown voice speaking up and his eyes widen considerably when he spies Ghost. "What th--you brought another one?"
"He's Blaze's Ghost. Friendly guy." Natasha extends one palm toward Ghost's spinning shell and then moves it toward Tony. "Ghost, this is the Tony Stark who invented the Starkphones you've scanned on multiple occasions." Mostly Steve's but she leaves that part out. "Tony, this is Ghost. He watches over Blaze and acts as her eyes and ears in the field."
"Wow. Okay, I was impressed before? And then you brought in another bot? This is unreal." Tony sounds more amused than anything though, and it looks like he's fighting back an urge to smile. "Right! So. Let me uh..huh. I hate to ask a lady this but how much do you weigh? Trying to figure out the best place to set this up."
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"
Oh, yes." Ghost perks up a little bit at Natasha's reminder. He floats up to Blaze's shoulder. "I, um, I like your phones." Very smooth, Ghost."He's shy," Blaze explains, in case they didn't deduce that. Stark's positive reaction toward Ghost obviously pleases her, and she chuckles when asked about her weight. It's a small point of pride: the more weight a Titan has, the harder she can hit. "Hah, more than these benches would tolerate. But... if I'm honest, most of the mass I carry is in my fieldplate. If it's necessary I can ditch it and just use the undersuit." She glances aside at Natasha. "So long as it's close by."
She's seen Tony Stark now - for five minutes, but it's enough for Blaze to form some conclusions about him. Besides, both Natasha and Ghost will be keeping watch over her.
"Think you can get me under for this scan?" she asks Ghost.
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Yes. I think so. But you'll have to let me. If you fight it you'll never get to sleep.""Whatever it takes, Ghost."
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Focus, Tony.
"One of these things here it rated for the Hulk so, I'd hope it could hold you. But better safe than sorry. Ditch the plate and hop up on here and we'll get this show on the road." Stark's unaware of whatever talks Blaze and Natasha might have had before now about the subject, nor does he know why it might be a point of issue if she's the one bringing it up.
Off to Blaze's left side Natasha offers another slow minute nod of her head. She's got your back, Guardian. If something happens someone will be there to fight for her sake. And Steve's only a PINpoint away.
While the two ladies are having a Moment, Tony heads to his sturdiest workbench and begins clearing it off so there's a place for Blaze to settle herself. He barks a few orders to FRIDAY to initiate some protocol or another and soon there's several large holographic screens at Stark's fingertips that he's manipulating to get the right systems online for this. He hopes it works. First time for everything though, right?
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Most of the interesting parts are hidden from the outside, though. Blaze stacks her gauntlets and main armor neatly to one side of the bench, reluctantly putting it out of Tony's way. Even with the padding of the black undersuit, the sudden loss of visual bulk makes the Exo beneath look almost delicate in comparison. Around the shoulders, anyway. Thin white-plated fingers work briskly as she pulls off the rest of her plate, then swings herself up onto the bench. She thought she'd feel more vulnerable like this. But it's hard to feel that through the overwhelming unease about what Stark is going to find in her head... and the growing flame of hope that he really can find a solution.
"Do you, uh, scan a lot of people's heads like this?" Artificial or otherwise. Were she honest with herself she's not sure where she falls, but neither Tony nor Natasha knows that.
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Tony looks up from the screens and gives a small quirk of the corner of his lips toward Ghost but says nothing about the bot inspecting his screens or the system he's currently booting up.
"In your case, I'm not sure if this is going to be the right tool for the job or if one of the diagnostic programs from the Ultron project would be better since there's no way of knowing what you're made of just yet or how your brain works. CPU. Whichever. Point is, I know what I'm doing."
Natasha shoots Tony a glare sharp enough to make him stop from dropping the 'mostly' to the end of that little schpiel before she moves to stand over to Blaze's right on one side of the table.
"Ghost will get all of this down. Don't worry. It'll be over before you know it."
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I've scanned my Guardian thousands of times. If there is a problem I can help you adjust your program." Ghost doesn't really expect that will be necessary, though. Stark looks to be as well-equipped as he says. One way or another, they'll see what's in Blaze's head.That's the easy part.
He floats over the holo-screens and settles beside Blaze, trying not to look nervous. It's just a scan and he'll be watching over her every step of the way.
"Always is," she says to Natasha, quietly appreciating the support even if it makes her kick herself for acting like a twitchy recruit. These tables, though. When's the last time she was up on one of these...?
"Best to let Ghost wake me when you're done." She glances at her partner, ready and waiting, and pushes herself back onto the table fully before peering over the side. "Guess I'd better get comfortable. Does this thing adjust? Kinda weird to sleep lying flat."
Either way, it's all going to end the same. Once settled, she and Ghost share a look before she nods and he reaches out with the blue light that marks his own scanners. He's doing more than scanning, though. He's reaching into her systems, to circuits he's restored and rebuilt a hundred times. Most of them he doesn't understand, but he knows what kind of activity he sees when she sleeps. He can try to prompt the same patterns in the right circuits, lulling the Exo brain into a sleep cycle. Which is what it is - she's not powered down by any means, but sleeping almost exactly the way a human does. From the outside the distinction is invisible, though. The Exo is motionless, the light of her optics dimmed to almost nothing.
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"Blaze's systems keep shutting down and rebooting like they are, she's not going to have a lot of time left. The Nexus needs her. Her world needs her. You're the best chance she has." The spy unfolds her arms while she talks but even now her words are measured and carefully chosen. Just because Blaze can't hear them right now doesn't mean Ghost isn't still here. She can't let Tony get too worked up or he'll scare the poor bot.
"Right, well. Let's see what we've got going on here. No sense in wasting time." Tony grabs a stool from a different table and scoots it over until it's next to the table Blaze is at so he can plop down on it and pull up those holographic screens again. "F.R.I.D.A.Y. give me some images."
"On it, Boss. Initial scans are a bit strange. It doesn't look like any computer I've ever seen."
Tony doesn't bother to agree with her. He's too busy staring at the images coming up on his holographic screens. There's a whole lot of extra stuff in here and connections going to places they normally shouldn't, but there's no denying that this looks eerily like the map of a human brain.
"Nat, what exactly is an Exo?" Tony's gaze snaps up and Natasha shrugs her shoulders. Gestures to Ghost. He's the one from that world, Stark. Not her. Tony turns his attention to the little bot. "Why am I looking at someone's brain?"
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So he's taken a little off-guard when they turn that very loaded question to him. Ghost's single blue optic flits from Natasha, to Tony, to Blaze - why couldn't you be here to answer this? - then back up to Tony. His shell spins one way, then the other.
"
Exo minds are structured very similarly to humans'." He's doing some rapid calculations. Blaze hates discussing it, but Tony could need this information to do his job here. More to the point, if Tony takes an evasive answer poorly, they could be in real trouble. Natasha's right: they're depending on his help."
We didn't understand why," he says quietly at last. "We only discovered recently that they... well, that she was human once." He looks back at his Guardian, almost guilty. "Blaze doesn't like to acknowledge it."This just isn't the time for talking about the things they want to.
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The spy isn't looking at him at the moment, but Tony can read her tension in every muscle and despite what people say about him he can in fact take a hint.
"We're not trying to build her a new body, Tony. Or an artificial replacement brain. We're trying to fix her systems. Similar mapping or not, that is your specialty and you've done it before." With Bruce's help, but Natasha isn't going to be the one to open that door especially when she's just kept Tony from doing the same. There's no sense invoking a man who's years gone by this point to who only knows where.
Tony's left eye and nose twitch with his barely contained emotions but he sighs instead of saying anything again. Settles back onto the stool and pours over the screens at his fingertips again. He's playing around in someone's brain. Not something. Someone. It doesn't feel right, doesn't sit right with him. But it might save a life here and that trumps his misgivings.
Fuck it.
Natasha didn't turn a perfectly good human into a robot and neither did Blaze probably. He's not here to argue the morality of what's been done to this poor woman's identity over the centuries. Tony Stark is there to fix it.
"There's a lot of redundancy here that's probably clogging up her processors. If I had to hazard a guess, I'd say she's struggling to operate because of all the front end strain trying to maintain this much crap. Let me see what I can do here..."
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His optic flits from one human to the other as they talk, but finally Tony sits again. Ghost droops for a moment in relief, then looks back up at Natasha and gives a little spin, trusting she'll understand the message.
For now he edges closer to see what Tony's doing, and whether he can assist. Exo systems are too unlike any extant Golden Age programming for the scientists back home to figure out. Knowing what he does now, Ghost suspects that’s as much down to their quasi-human neurology confusing things as to whatever classified, proprietary systems their creators used. Which means Tony has a double advantage, despite what he thinks: he’s familiar enough with this type of weird that he could identify it almost on sight, and he probably has a lot in common with whoever was behind this. If anyone can follow what they were doing, surely it’s him.
That said, figuring out an electronic brain is going to be a hell of a challenge. Detached from biology, Exo minds don’t have to arrange anything according to human layouts. Detached from engineers’ logic, they don’t need to truck with neatly labeled directories. There are connections that repeat and duplicated files and bits of corrupted data all over the place and some things that are downright inaccessible. And underneath it all is something a lot simpler and much less fragmented: a set of systems that twine around all the others. Monitoring, directing, processing. They’re the ones doing most of the work now, regulating Blaze’s sleep, and the ones likely to react to any changes Tony makes. The core processes. To a man who’s built AI with combat in mind… well, they’re someone else’s style and a couple generations removed, but they’re clearly cousin to systems he knows.
“
I don’t think the reboots ever succeeded in wiping everything properly,” Ghost volunteers. “Um, I repaired everything I could when I first found her, but I couldn’t tell where all of it ought to go.”no subject
Larger than any one man.
More powerful than mere human science. There are no energy signatures cropping up warnings on his screen, but the similarities to such an ancient power are too strong to be ignored.
"Alright c'mere Pint Size. I'm gonna explain what I can here."
Natasha rolls her eyes at Tony's penchant for inappropriate nicknames but otherwise doesn't object to the request. She gives Ghost a tiny nod of encouragement instead. Go ahead, she'll look over your Guardian for a moment here. One of Nat's hands is resting on the tabletop as she looks down at the still Exo.
Just a little longer, Blaze. They'll get you the help you need.
"Sounds like you're the one rebooting and reconnecting her systems when her processor shits the bed and memory wipes. You need to learn what's necessary and what can be cleared out. She doesn't need this extra redundant data clogging up her system. Even just clearing out the redundant files would go a long way toward helping her function at a more optimal level."
That makes Natasha shut up fast and pinch her nose. Are they really going to clear an Exo's cache? It makes a ton of sense to start there, even if the premise is utterly ridiculous to Natasha. Tony's just one of the few who could actually do it to an Exo without getting rid of of anything important in the process.
"You uh...you manage this core program too?" Tony glances up at Ghost out of the corner of his eye.
Unattended alarm going off outside means bonus late-night tag!
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