Chapter Text
- Chapter 284 -
Instantly pausing the memory file after bringing it up let Sean bring his emmika’s attention to himself. When he was certain that he had their attention again he spoke. “This next memory file is from August 24, 2014 and is of particular interest. Its content details Lord Stark's discovery of the coalesced machine solution, what the coalesced machine solution is, where it came from, what it does, and finally Prince Jay’s true form will be revealed.”
What his Seidmadr was saying was making Frey wary. “We know what the coalesced machine solution is and where it comes from,” he said. It piqued his curiosity that Jay might be like Edward and have a different face than the one he'd seen. He wanted to see what his grandson truly looked like.
Turning calmly to Lord Frey, Sean explained, “No, sir. You know what it’s made of, who uses it and some of what it can do. You don't know where it comes from or what it's meant to do. You don’t know what it really is. It might not seem like it, but this is the second most important memory file you’re going to see today. I say that in light of everything you’ve seen, everything you will see and everything that I've seen that you won't be seeing.”
The sound of this file pleased Director Fury as much as the last one did. McCorrmick's description intrigued him. “What makes it so important?” The Director wondered if them getting a full accounting of Loki’s actions would be the most important file. It was the most important one to him.
Quickly infusing his sarammr with his calm Sean once again sent gentle tendrils of fog that imparted that calm to everyone. After that he infused it with certitude then extended it into his voice. “This memory file details the twenty-four seconds when Prince Jay became an active combatant in what his father was doing. The number of lives saved by his actions is incalculable but encompasses our entire galaxy. His actions in the time after those seconds saved more than that.”
“The kid? You're serious?” Director Fury asked. He was a little incredulous about that, but only a little bit. There were some phenomenally powerful elements to what he'd learned this day. Mostly it was that the information was coming from a McCorrmick. They weren’t prone to telling wild tales. This one was proving himself to be much like the others.
Just as he was about to smirk Sean caught himself. His mouth was not behaving yet. The young man still didn’t want to get into any more trouble than he already had. “Yes, sir. His hand was forced, and he had to race to resolve the situation before it was resolved in an undesirable fashion, with Lord Stark as a prize to be won.” With that said, he started the file.
It was with a more serious interest that Director Fury watched the file. He wasn't certain what to make of what McCorrmick said. There were many things he found in the files that he absolutely hadn't expected. He wasn't surprised anymore that there were things that hadn’t been hinted at yet. The old spy was very concerned with what other things there might be. Stark as the prize? What else has that idiot done? He looked down at his notes for as moment. If this file is so damn important, then what’s more important? That consideration was slightly unsettling.
His fair Seidmadr's words annoyed Frey. He wanted to simply concentrate on learning how Anthony came into possession of the coalesced machine solution, but now he needed to be worried over his grandson as well. However, as agitating as Sean's words were, they were also intriguing. It was more direct confirmation that the beautiful young man was shown much, much more than he was being shown. He looked forward to being able to sit down with his fair Seidmadr and question him on what he was shown. There were answers there that he wanted and was going to get.
Again, Odin frowned as he looked to the screen. Anxiety edged his thoughts again. The beast within him whined in fear. It attempted to spread its fear. Odin wasn’t going to let it. Hush, Borr. I’ve no time for you now. The beast settled down, which truly surprised him. There was a power in directly addressing his beast that he never imagined existed. It let him concentrate on what he wanted to, which was how Stark might have interacted with Thanos. The nature of Stark’s dealings with Thanos needed to be known. If there was any luck then there were no bargains involved in whatever happened or after it. Stark didn’t seem to be competent at bargaining. He couldn’t imagine Thanos asking for anything less than total servitude. The thought of Thanos having a firehawk at his disposal was terrifying. That Stark was still free was an encouraging sign.
Her gaze traveled nervously between the screen and their Seidmadr Truthkeeper a few times before Frigga focused on the screen again. The look on his face was ominous. It sent a shiver of worry through her thoughts for her grandson. Less than a minute didn’t sound like enough time for so many lives to be endangered. A firehawk and possibly Thanos was involved, so she couldn’t be sure. How that might have involved Stark was a separate but connected worry. Frigga was slightly unsettled again. She was about to get an answer. It would all play out before her.
The calm professional expression stayed on Sean’s face despite his patience suddenly wearing thin. A brief bout of annoyance on Lord Frey’s part resulted in a faint but continuous prodding in the middle of his chest. It was made painful by the anxiety. Can you not, please?! He was grateful when it quickly faded away. Unfortunately, the anxiety was still there. Knock it off, emmiki!
.-.-.-.
The box sitting on the workbench in front of Tony was small and plastic. Its nondescript design made it easy to overlook since its contents created a dominant preoccupation for him. I don’t want to be an Elder Stark. His gaze drifted between the contents of the box and the open body bag sitting on the floor. ‘I’m a Stark and you will fear me!’ Howard’s voice spilled like quiet acid from his memories. It burned as he thought, But they didn’t have a chance to fear me. Does that mean I’m not an Elder Stark? Is there time left to not be one? As he looked down at the heavy black plastic that was folded back to reveal a cold and still Chitauri body, he didn’t think there was.
Is being an Elder Stark so bad? Take my strength, save your companion. Say yes, for Loki, the dark voice whispered at him from the even darker recesses of his mind. It wasn’t a sentiment that Tony wanted to entertain, even now.
There was a cord plugged into a small cartridge at the Chitauri’s collarbone. The other end of the cord was plugged into a USB port on his computer. The body looked like a corpse. Tony honestly thought it was. He thought they all were. It was still hard to think about. I didn’t have a choice. I don’t have one, he thought again. Which is why you should say yes, the dark voice hissed. A queasy sensation still sat heavily in his midsection. He rubbed a hand over his middle. It wasn’t comfortable, but it was better than the panicked shaking and bouts of slightly hysterical crying that he was still quite ashamed of. His gaze drifted over to the small dark grey pieces of metal in the nondescript box. They were little cylinders with pointed ends that were bent into gentle arches. There were ridged lines on the top and underside of the arches. The silver blood that covered them was washed away in the decontamination area of the Galileo’s Center. Tony looked away from them for a moment, disgusted with them and himself. Howard would be proud of me, so would Christopher and David. After a moment the dark voice agreed, Yes, they are.
His father’s negative reaction to the Chitauri and the pieces that came from other Chitauri bothered Jarvis as he saw it. It was enough to justify the continuing feeling of regret he had for informing his creator of what he found. “It wasn’t your fault, sir. There was no way we could have known,” he said quietly.
Tony appreciated Jarvis’ attempts to help him feel better, even if he didn’t agree with them. “Don’t try to excuse it, J” he said quietly. There was no excusing what he’d spent the last two weeks doing.
“SHIELD had them listed as corpses. There was no way we could have known they were still alive, sir, not with their hibernation mode,” Jarvis protested gently. He didn’t want to distress his father more than he already was. He wished that they’d found the control cartridges sooner. There was so much that could’ve been avoided if they had.
“Don’t try to excuse vivisection, Jarvis. There’s no excuse for it. None,” Tony said quietly. He pulled his gaze back to the box. There was no excuse in his mind good enough to not call himself a full-fledged monster. He didn’t even think that Rhodey would disagree. It was the reason behind it that drove him on despite his heavy disgust.
Pay the Rhodes morality no mind. You’re a Stark, act like it. Say yes and take my strength, the dark voice instructed him. A stab of pain in his head came with those instructions. Though it was only a voice in his head, his own voice, Tony still thought it almost sounded like someone else whenever it pushed at him.
.-.-.-.
The disgust on Anthony’s face was plain for Frey to see. There was a touch of self-loathing as well. What surprised him was that it was just a tiny kernel of it. As he watched more it became clearer. This is the very beginnings of his self-hatred, he thought. The Chitauri were Thanos’ soldiers. They were to be destroyed without pity or delay. That his nephew-by-law would not only pity them but feel badly for destroying them was enlightening to Frey. It spoke to a far gentler man than the one he knew. Were they normal soldiers then he would agree with Anthony. There were rules and codes of conduct regarding the treatment of prisoners of war. Even during the war with Asgard, Frey kept to those rules. It was one of the few points of honor left to him. Any agent of Thanos didn’t fall under those rules. The agents of Thanos’ influence were always to be destroyed swiftly. This was where Frey was going to start when he began trying to talk Anthony through everything. It would take years before he would see results. This didn’t bother him since he finally knew where to begin.
Steve sighed quietly. There were very clear rules governing the treatment of prisoners. He would’ve been livid at Tony again, except that he knew that SHIELD did have them labeled as enemy corpses not enemy combatants. He helped the team dispatched by SHIELD to collect the few intact bodies that there were. The Chitauri had some sort of self-destruct mechanism on them, even the big flying ones had it. There were almost fifty enemy soldiers whose self-destruct mechanism didn’t activate. They dropped to the ground when the portal closed but didn’t burst into flames. Steve went to help the team because the bodies were heavy and even two men working together couldn’t lift them. How many did he kill? How many does he have left?
Thinking back to the aftermath of the battle in New York, Thor remembered how so many of the Chitauri bodies just disintegrated in a pale phosphorescent blue fire. There weren’t many that didn’t. The ones left looked dead. He remembered nudging one with his boot before he hefted it up and into the SHIELD truck waiting for it. It didn’t seem like it was breathing. The ones he saw Stark working with didn’t look like they were breathing either. Thor could understand Stark’s evident disgust. Desecrating a corpse to find a cure for a disease was gruesome enough without discovering that is wasn’t a corpse.
.-.-.-.
Jarvis deliberated for a second before deciding to try again. “Perhaps it might be a wise idea to contact Colonel Rhodes. The situation has evolved to a point where his help would be very beneficial, sir,” Jarvis said quietly. “I would be happy to help you convince Master Odinson that he can be trusted.”
A derisive snort was Tony’s initial response because he already knew what Loki’s response would be. “No, I’ll handle it myself.” Truthfully, he was already afraid of what Rhodey’s response would be. He’d make sure the arraignment was honored. The same thought crossed his mind that almost always did. I should’ve waited.
Jarvis was going to continue trying until he convinced his father to act sensibly. It normally took a great deal of persuasion. He was patient, so he continued to try. “Colonel Rhodes would …” he tried again.
“I said I’d handle it myself,” Tony interrupted him rudely. Yes! We don’t need Rhodes, the dark voice hissed menacingly at him. Another stab of pain came with the voice. Go away, the pained engineer thought in response. Tony rubbed at his temples again. He took a deep breath and refocused on what he had to do. None of this was what he wanted to do. “I want you to access the control cartridge, J.” He hoped that the cable he made would work. While they accidentally stumbled onto the wireless function, they hadn’t stumbled onto its power source. Being able to access the Chitauri wirelessly allowed him and Jarvis to find many more things. Unfortunately, the power was running out. A critical power shortage was stifling the flow of information he needed. Worse still was that he didn’t know how the Chitauri powered their technology, though it somehow seemed to be recharging at a lethargic pace. It was, in some odd way, connected to the flow of their blood, he was almost certain of it.
Opening the connection protocols through the AEWS, Jarvis established a connection with the control cartridge. The Chitauri had to be put into a very carefully controlled state, similar to a stand-by mode, for the control cartridge to be accessed. Jarvis wanted a way to access the control cartridge outside of the Chitauri, but that wasn’t an option yet. He initiated the translation feature of the AEWS, as he always did. The AEWS came with military terminology and some commonly used words. Using it on the Chitauri allowed him to understand some of the less complex things. There were still too many things missing from his lexicon. Their examination of the Chitauri technology was very trial and error thus far. Most of that error was due to the vocabulary he was missing. Better translations would give them better options. After the connection was established, he accessed its systems. “Connection is established, sir,” he said quietly.
“Ok, can you see if you can find out what these things are? They must be important to be in as many places as they are. Having pointless, hollow cylinders inside them doesn’t seem right,” Tony said quietly.
“I’m searching now, sir,” Jarvis replied. He swiftly began a thorough search of the files contained in the control cartridge.
Picking up one of the little cylinders to look at it left Tony confused again. It was so light that it had to be hollow, but that was what confused him. There was a line of these things up each arm and leg. They were attached to each internal organ and were even embedded in some vertebrae. There was one at the base of the skull and a final one over the center of the brain just under the top of the skull. They had to do something. There was a reason for them, Tony was sure of it. With how many he’d found, he knew they had to be functional as well as important. He brought it a little closer to him as he looked it over. The surface was completely smooth except for the ridges. If Jarvis couldn’t find an explanation for them then he was going to have to carefully cut one of them open. That wasn’t a simple solution since it was made of vibranium. If there was anything on the inside, he was going to be very surprised.
His father was fidgeting with one of the pieces of grey metal. Sitting still was never something Jarvis’s creator was adept at. As his father brought the piece of metal closer a prompt that he hadn’t seen before popped up in the control cartridge’s interface. The control cartridge was informing him that there were ‘sinconeevmino lysii meecanimia: cathormeno lymens’ that were within its area of influence and that they’d accessed something else called ‘magja’. A second prompt then asked him if he would like to release the bonds of this sinconeevmino lysii meecanimia to activate the ‘spheterisma’ systems. The AEWS was able to translate ‘spheterisma’ as most likely ‘conversion’ or possibly ‘usurpation’. A single flashing icon appeared next to the question. He paused to observe the flashing icon. Every six seconds the icon changed. Nothing else changed with it. There was no discernable purpose or pattern. It flashed four times before he decided to inform his father. “The control cartridge has brought up a new prompt, sir,” Jarvis said quietly.
The little piece of metal stayed in Tony’s hand while he scratched a small itch near his arc reactor. “What’s it for?” he asked before he went back to turning the little piece of metal over to examine it.
The icon next to the question flashed brightly three times then decreased in size by half. It continued to change every six seconds. Jarvis couldn’t determine what the icon was for. There was no discernable pattern or purpose yet. “It’s informing me that there is something called ‘sinconeevmino lysii meecanimia: cathormeno lymens’ within its area of influence. Additionally, that it’s accessed ‘magja’ and it would like to know whether or not to release the bonds for the ‘spheterisma’ or conversion system to activate. What would you like me to do, sir?” The icon flashed brightly two more times then decreased by half again. There was a small amount of unease that accompanied his observing this. That made it seem like some sort of countdown. It didn’t tell him to what, or even confirm his suspicion.
“That’s a mouthful. What is it?” Tony asked as he looked up into the camera quickly. He was going to ask something else but when he looked down he noticed that the piece of metal in his hand had a strange pale glow to it. It was almost the same color as the arc reactor. “Huh, that’s odd.”
“I believe it would be best to decline until we know more, sir,” Jarvis said. The icon flashed brightly one final time then disappeared.
“Yeah, that’s probably a good idea, J,” Tony replied. A small frown crossed his face when he saw that the other pieces of metal in the nondescript box were starting to glow as well. “That’s odd.”
When Jarvis went to decline the prompt was replaced suddenly with a new message. It informed him that the bonds had been released, a host was selected since magja was available and it was now beginning conversion. This sent a heavy sense of unease through him. It grew instantly worse as he observed how the pieces of metal began glowing brightly. “Please back away from those, sir!” Jarvis said urgently.
Like a hot coal Tony dropped the piece of dark grey metal back into the box. He went to stand up but hesitated for just a second. Each piece of dark grey metal melted down into a slippery silver liquid that he stared at for another second. It was Chitauri blood he was looking at. A thin spear of solid metal shot out of the liquid as he tried to move back. His stool was knocked over in the rush. “No!” he yelled at it. Before his hands got to it, all the liquid flowed up that spear and into his arc reactor. Adrenaline flooded Tony’s blood as fear flooded his mind. Get It Off, the dark voice screamed at him. He barely noticed the painful stabs the voice brought with it. A fiery itching had ignited around the socket of the arc reactor. He tore at his tee shirt and tried to wipe it off. Horror replaced fear when bright lines of phosphorescent pale blue began streaking away from the arc reactor socket. A burning itch powerful enough to make him want to tear at his skin flowed with the streaks. “No, no! Get off!” Tony yelled again, wiping more vigorously at the arc reactor. The burning itch moved almost instantly to his spine so it could streak up to his head. He didn’t understand what was happening when his arms dropped limply to his sides. It frightened him even more when his entire body stiffened, dropping him backwards to the floor. The ceiling of his workshop was the last thing he saw before the phosphorescent pale blue bled across his vision.
Swiftly Jarvis attempted to shut down the cartridge. It shut down immediately, sending the Chitauri back into hibernation mode. That didn’t stop what was happening to his father. Fear edged into his thoughts.
Again and again, Tony tried to move. His body wouldn’t listen to him. Flexing his fingers brought nothing. Neither did trying to move his arms or legs. His cries for help were met with the silence of his own throat. Panic started to cut into his ability to think. He was trapped in his own flesh. A deep shredding pain filled his insides when his organs began to shift. What’s happening?!
This won’t steal you from me. Take my strength, the dark voice whispered calmly.
Reconnecting with the control cartridge, Jarvis began swiftly trying to find a way to shut down whatever was happening. Nervous fear spread from the edges of his thoughts through him as his creator’s skin began greying out. When acid green bled across his father’s eyes, a touch of panic replaced the nervous fear.
A fire was flowing out of his arc reactor that was burning off Tony’s skin. It made him want to scream. His eyes were burning and itching viciously as well. He tried to reach up so that he could pull them out to make the pain stop but he still couldn’t move. The skin of his face was burning so badly that he wished it would just turn to ash already. That would hurt less. Sheer terror overrode the last of his rational thoughts when he felt the bones in his face shift.
Take my strength, more firmness entered the dark voice as it went from a suggestion to a command.
The control cartridge wouldn’t let Jarvis access the conversion system. The skin of his father’s cheeks was slowly beginning to peel back as it was sculpted. His nose was flattening out as the skin hardened. It’d only been eight seconds, but Jarvis already knew what he was witnessing. Horror streaked through him. He was watching his father die. Just as he was beginning to fully panic the AEWS notified him that it detected numerous threats. There was a hostile incursion in progress from an unidentified enemy. The incursion was within the workshop, and it brought up a prompt to ask if he wanted it to begin moving to neutralize those threats. Jarvis instantly understood and authorized the AEWS to begin attacking the threats.
Take my strength!!
Tony reached for the offered strength, for anything to undo his latest mess. He never reached it. Even the panic and terror were wiped from Tony’s thoughts as the burning melted into a smooth warmth. The vicious itching remained just as strong while the warmth took control of his thoughts. A different, deep voice boomed in his mind. “Blood of my blood,” it told him. Yes, master, he thought. A small part of Tony still struggled. He couldn’t overcome the warmth speaking in his voice. That only made him struggle all the harder. This wasn’t how a Stark was supposed to go down.
At twelve seconds Jarvis began to wonder if he did understand what the AEWS was referring to. His father was still changing. The biometric health scans from his creator were changing along with him. When queried, the AEWS listed the threats in the trillions. Looking through the AEWS left him more horrified by what he saw. There were trillions of nanomachines infecting his father. The AEWS was attacking each nanomachine individually. It was swiftly overwhelming the individual nanomachines, but not working swiftly enough.
The ceiling stared down at Tony as he stared up at it. Each was immobile. The middle and ring fingers on each of his hands slowly melted into one another. After that, his toes began melting into each other. Small dots of black liquid began to bead-up on his skin.
It was still too slow when Jarvis tried to direct the AEWS himself. He didn’t stop to think about it then. A more direct approach was needed if he was going to save his father. He opened up the acquisitions option in the AEWS. It allowed the AEWS to acquire, reformat and incorporate new beneficial functions into itself. Jarvis saw how the function worked, swiftly incorporated that code into himself and then applied it to the entire AEWS. It wasn’t going to simply be at his disposal as part of him. The entire process, reformat and all, took three painfully long seconds to complete. He felt himself expanding rapidly as he himself was reformatted in the acquisition. It was a feeling that he was going to process later. Sixteen seconds had passed since his parent was infected. The nanomachines were working very quickly. If he was going to beat them then he was going to have to work even faster. This was a race for his father that he refused to lose.
Rapidly Jarvis reached out to link all the computers in the mansion together. It gave him more speed, but it still wasn’t enough. Now that the capabilities of the AEWS belonged fully to him it allowed him to reach out farther and more directly than ever before. His path led him through the fastest satellites to seize and link the assets he needed without resistance. Each asset linked to him expanded his capabilities. When every super-computer on the planet was seized by him, he knew he had enough. Twenty seconds after his father was infected Jarvis attacked all the nanomachines simultaneously. He was relived to find that they didn’t function independently. He was attacking a single machine.
The AEWS had attacked and neutralized many of the nanomachines. Jarvis reached out to reactivate them. By acquiring and incorporating pieces of their coding into himself he was able to make them into his soldiers. Through the reactivated nanomachines he saw the other nanomachines as well as microscopic globules of an unidentified black liquid flowing through his father’s flesh and blood. He noticed three other things instantly. The first was that the liquid was being produced seemingly as a byproduct of the attack, oozing from afflicted cells. The second was that it seemed to be healing the injuries from the nanomachines. The third and most important was that the black liquid was sticking the any nanomachine it came across to slow it like tar. It was weakening the nanomachines’ advance, but it was too slow, and the digital boy didn’t have time to contemplate it then. He would use it instead.
Next it took an agonizingly slow second to direct his nanomachines to around the socket of the arc reactor, carrying little globs of the strange black liquid. Power was being drawn from the arc reactor. That had to be stopped. He pressed hard against the nanomachines clustered there. The black globs were lobbed like miniature cannon balls against his enemy, gumming up their motions. Through the ones he controlled, he found that he could infect the ones he didn’t control with his own mind to command them. He’d never used himself as a virus before. Jarvis didn’t mind doing it for this. Him doing so caused the nanomachines not under his command to become hostile to those that were. A violent response sparked a second long war of attrition. The bulk of the nanomachines he didn’t control kept trying to expand past him so that they could complete the conversion. The fighting amongst it and his nanomachines became brutal, with those not infected and repurposed being ripped apart and eaten by other nanomachines to make spontaneous repairs. Every expansion it attempted was met with his own soldiers to push it back. Every push left him with more soldiers at his disposal. In another second, Jarvis converted most of the nanomachines around the arc reactor to his control. Within another half second Jarvis had control of every nanomachine clustered around the socket. In the next half-second, all the rest that were infecting his father’s body were overwhelmed. He shut off their flow of power from the arc reactor. At twenty-four seconds after infection every nanomachine infecting his creator froze. The conversion system was halted.
With the process halted the nanomachine solution itself brought up a different interface. Jarvis released direct control of the computers outside of the mansion while leaving himself still extended into them. He liked the expansion of his capabilities and didn’t wish to give it up, not when he could so easily hide now. Jarvis used his new abilities gained from the AEWS to create a new interface that would hide both him and what he’d done. His father would never know about this. While he was working on that interface he looked at the new interface brought up by the nanomachine solution. It was the interface for the sinconeevmino lysii meecanimia itself. It informed him that the conversion system had halted because of an abrupt error. It also reported a loss of magja. It then brought up a new prompt asking him whether he would like to use the epagogiko systima to replace the lost source of magja so that it could resume the conversion of the new host. He immediately declined.
There were also several files freshly available to download, which he did. They were instantly converted to his new format. One of them was immensely disturbing. His father was going to have to be shown it. However, it was the language file that was of particular use for him. The file’s contents allowed him to translate the entire interface. Magja translated as seidr. That term was familiar as a passing reference in the AEWS. It had seidr listed as both a tool and a weapon. It also advised dealing from afar with any individual who was using it, as they were extraordinarily dangerous. The epagogiko systima translated to the induction system. Both of these were very useful for him to know.
Several other files that were of interest, just not at that moment. They would be dealt with later. Jarvis searched through the interface until he found the conversion system. It was halted, he needed to know if he could undo what it did. Through the nanomachines he noticed that the odd black liquid was continuing to slowly heal the injuries. He didn’t know how long it would continue or how much it could heal, so he turned his attention back to the files. Once Jarvis finished searching through the conversion system he was hopeful that he could undo the injuries already done then extract the nanomachines and the debris from the fighting. He selected the commands for the coalesced machine solution to undo the partial conversion and restored enough power for them to do it. The conversion was six seconds away from being halfway done. At the halfway mark it wouldn’t have been possible to undo what was done. His father’s genetic code would’ve been too badly altered by then. That scared him. The digital boy was glad that the assault was slowed, even if he didn’t understand the black liquid. It helped him to save his creator, that was what mattered.
Jarvis observed through many different means as the nanomachines undid the alterations they made to his father’s organs then removed themselves from those organs. His parent’s hands and feet were restored next. After that, the skin and muscles of his parent’s face were restored to what they were, with his nose rebuilt. The greying of his father’s skin was reversed next though the little droplets of black liquid remained. The acid green of his eyes came undone after that. When all the damage was repaired, Jarvis instructed the nanomachines to extract themselves and their debris through the arc reactor’s socket. A tide of silver flowed out of the socket to slide down the side of his creator’s chest. It oozed a small distance away. Only when every last one of the nanomachines and pieces of them were extracted from his father’s body did Jarvis initiate the command to activate the bonds of this machine. The pool of slippery silver liquid divided into many smaller pools. Each one formed itself into a dark grey metal cylinder with pointed ends. Ridged lines formed on both sides of the cylinder. When all the ridges formed the pointed tips of the cylinder pulled together forming a gentle arch. The coalesced machine solution sat quietly on the floor.
