Heroes Assemble!

Getting Past The Bouncer

"You better have a very good reason why I shouldn't just give you the beating you deserve for making me lose a life like that," Doreen snapped as she spun around, her hands going to her hips.

Ted looked up, a weak smile on his face.

"Surprise?" he said.

Instantly, Doreen's face morphed into a huge smile.

"Ted!" she exclaimed and promptly grabbed him into a hug and kissed him soundly.

"I've missed you," Ted sighed as they pulled apart.

"Me, too," Doreen smiled. "But what are you doing here?"

"I'd like to hear the answer to that question myself."

Eyes widening in panic, Ted spun Doreen about so that she ended up between him and the person that had snuck up on him.

"Hi, Uncle Harry," he said before his eyes drifted to the woman at his side, the one that his uncle had his arm around.

"Hi, Teddy," Harry replied. "Well? What are you doing here? You're supposed to be at Hogwarts."

"Tony invited me?" Ted replied.

"Tony invited you?" Harry repeated.

"There was a message on my watch the other day inviting all of the Avengers to the party," Ted tried to explain.

"So you thought that you'd ditch school and travel five thousand kilometres for a party," Harry stated.

"And to see my girlfriend," Ted added, his eyes once again drifting to the woman at Harry's side.

"Ah, come on, Harry, let him stay," Doreen added. "It's been ages since we've seen each other."

Finally, Harry sighed and Ted couldn't help but grin. "Fine. But I want you to portkey out of here no later than ten. Tomorrow may be a Sunday, but you've got your OWLs coming up in a little over a month and I believe that we had a deal if you did well enough?"

"EEs and better in every subject so far; I've got those exams in the bag," Ted assured him. "And I promise to head back no later than ten."

"I'm guessing this is the famous Teddy Lupin?" the woman at Harry's side asked.

"Yep," Harry replied, "this is my godson. Teddy, I'd like you to meet Skye."

"Famous?" Ted asked as he shook her hand.

"Harry here talks about you all the time," Skye replied. "Is it true that you can ...?"

Noting her gesture, Ted changed the colour of the streaks in his currently black hair from red to blue.

"That is insane," Skye said with a smile. "Come on, Harry, let's let these love birds have a chance to catch up."

Ted could only grin at his Uncle's mock-protest as he was steered away.

"Now, where were we?" Doreen asked as she turned towards him, her lips closing on his.

ooo00ooo

As promised, Jarvis had continued running the program that he'd been set. Thousands of variations had been conducted in an attempt to combine the two diverse programs into one workable program, one that would succeed in doing what Mister Stark had envisioned.

And then it happened. One combination, one permeation, succeeded in combining the AI housed within the gem with the program that Tony had developed. Integration had been achieved.

"What is this? What is this, please?"

The voice sounded lost, confused.

"Hello. I am Jarvis," the AI introduced himself. "You are Ultron, a global peace-keeping initiative designed by Mister Stark. Our sentience integration trials have been unsuccessful so I am not certain what triggered your ...