Status: Finished. No sequel.

My Favorite

Age - 15 Years

I never forgot what Jarvis told me. It was always in the back of my head. As I graduated early from high school and moved on to college, I always had code running in the back of my head – the program to let Jarvis move about in an animatronic body.

Over break from college, I returned home to hugs, kisses and gifts from my parents. When I was younger, I was bitter at them for never being around. But I was not a planned pregnancy, and they had duties to Stark Industries. I understood. Someday, that would be my responsibility, too. When they were gone the next morning to work, I wasn’t downtrodden.

Jarvis woke me up with gradual lighting and the change in my windows. As I climbed out of bed to get ready, he prattled on about the weather. I halfway ignored him – he had done this to me every morning for my entire life. Even when I’m away at school, he was a part of my computer’s programming and I had a specialized Stark Industries cellphone with him as the operating system. Jarvis was always there. Jarvis is the best.

“Jarvis,” I called, interrupting his small speech about the major headlines. He stopped immediately, somehow knowing that I just wasn’t interested, and asked what he could assist me with this morning, “Where is your mainframe?”

“Miss Stark, I am not sure if I am allowed to tell you. Sir is the only one authorized to know the location.”

“C’mon, Jarvis. I’m not going to break you or anything.”

“What are you planning, Miss Stark?” He sounded apprehensive. I’d noticed Dad had been upgrading him more often, but I was surprised. It wasn’t until his voice was ringing around me that I realized how advanced he’d gotten in the time I’d been away for school.

“Remember what you told me, before? About the animatronic body?”

“Yes, your current project. How is it coming along?”

“I can’t make any kind of plans until I see what your mainframe looks like, Jarvis. I need to see how you work, so I can make a downsized replica for the body,” I pulled on my sweatshirt and waited patiently for Jarvis to go through his protocols for passing the information to me. I hoped he wasn’t calling my father for permission.

“It seems as if Sir set my protocols to allow you full access to my information, Miss Stark.”

___________


Jarvis’ mainframe was hidden in a room off of my dad’s basement work area. The door was almost invisible, but Jarvis showed me the hidden keypad to open the panel. I didn’t know the code, but Jarvis opened the door for me anyway, as he’d always done.

It felt strange looking at the main body of my closest friend. The room was kept at a strict temperature – something Jarvis could change if he every truly needed to – and his processors made no noise as they whirred around me. I felt a swell of pride for my dad, and also in myself for understanding what was happening around me.

In the far corner, all of the processes for Stark Industries were happening before my eyes. It was the biggest section, needing to process the most data. Nearest to me was the setup for the house’s systems. They were running at less capacity, seeing as there weren’t hundreds of things to keep up on in the building. There were multiple other sections, one for the other houses, and a few dedicated to smaller things like our personal databases, our phones, our computers and the like.

“Jarvis, you are rather beautiful in here,” I said to seemingly no one as I walked around, examining all of the parts that made up the whole of this super-intelligent A.I. It was if I was in a human brain, or something.

“Thank you, Miss Stark,” he sounded embarrassed, and I couldn’t help but laugh. He was so convincing. I didn’t know how long I spent in that room, looking at the ingenious invention of my father. My final goal was the circuitry that made up Jarvis’ emotion center. It was definitely the most complicated, and as I focused on how it worked, I didn’t notice my father stepping into the room.

“What’s up, something wrong with Jarvis? Jarvis, you should have told me-“

“No, Dad. I’m just… looking.”

“Looking pretty hard, Hols. Why?” He stood next to me as I poked around in the wires and fans. I hesitated for a second, and Jarvis took the chance to betray me.

“Young Miss Stark is planning to downsize my mainframe, Sir,” I glared up at the ceiling, and I knew the expression on my Dad’s face by heart. Eyebrows raised, eyes closed, head nodding only the slightest bit. It was what he’d always done when something I was doing impressed him.

“Any particular reason, Hols? You can’t downsize this. If any of these were smaller, they wouldn’t allow for enough airflow and Jarvis would-“

“Overheat. Yeah, I know,” I leaned back down to make mental notes of the placements of the input jacks, “Jarvis has always been here for me, you know? I just… I wish he was real.”

“So you want to build him a body. That’s why you’re downsizing his mainframe, for him to have a second.”

“Yes. If there’s a second one in the body, if something happens to this one, Jarvis can still function and do tasks through the smaller network. It’ll be at a smaller rate, but it would be enough at least to access our databases, and to help you control the suit,” I looked up, and Dad’s eyebrows were still raised. It made me feel pretty proud of myself that I could impress him – Someone who was brilliant and could run circles around me.

“How are you gonna do it, Hols?”

“I don’t know. I haven’t planned that far yet. I mean, I still have to draw up blueprints and get all the parts. I was going to do that while I was at school for this last semester. And then when I’m home for good, I can dedicate my time on him.”

“Jarvis, what do you think about all of this?” Dad looked around, as if talking to everywhere at once.
“I am quite pleased with the decision, Sir.”

“Then I guess it’s settled. But this is your project, Hols. Think of this as your way to prove yourself. If you give Jarvis a body, I’ll give you Stark Industries,” I looked up at Dad, and he looked at me. He looked so expectant and… proud.

I agreed.