shatterverse | (no subject)

[Pre-shatterverse - warning for spoilers for Iron Man]

It starts in the sky, several hundred feet up. There's a light and a bang, and something appears.

It's metal (though not actually iron), and roughly man-sized (and -shaped), and its colouring is a bright mixture of gold (an alloy, actually) and red (hot rod). It's also falling.

And shouting. "JARVIS–!"

As it tumbles towards the Earth various rockets and stabilizers fire and misfire, with pfft! pfft! sounds like fireworks going off. They do very little – something's been knocked about, jumbled. Internal systems are scrambling to pick up navigational landmarks, satellite signals, air traffic transmissions, anything that would give a clue as to where here is and how far down is down. But there's nothing to pick up. It's like the whole world's gone radio-silent.

Locked in an uncontrolled spin, something within the metal man shouts, "Stabilize, damn it, stabilize!" It throws its arms up to fire palm-mounted boosters: coupled with flaring back-mounted spoilers, these halt the spin, but not the fall. Which means that the metal man now has a really good view of the ground that is rushing up to meet his face.

This is going to hurt.

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Gently, he's lowered the last ten minutes to the ground. Josh, on the other hand, just lands in a crouch and rocks back for a moment.

Damn wings.

"Ah, sweet terra firma."

He rocks a bit – the boots are built to be solid, and to hold the rockets, and so aren't exactly flexible. Turning towards the girl, he lets the suit's faceplate pull back, proving that, yes, there is a man in there. He's sweaty, and sorta grimy, with cuts and bruises here and there that still have yet to fully heal over, but a man nevertheless.

"Thanks for..."

He doesn't quite finish, distracted by the landscape. Or lack thereof.

"Where are we?"

Her wings fold back, neat as any bird...and then vanish.

"Earth." Beat. "Just, a really kinda fucked up version of it. End of the world, boyo."

It's a figure of speech, obviously. This is just another part of the desert he hasn't seen before. Tony raises a hand and squints for the horizon.

"How far are we from Gulmira?"

"Kilometers or miles?"

"Take your pick."

She tugs an earlobe.

"I entirely forget. You're in the Sahara at the moment. Or, edge of it, anyway. So, you'd be wanting to head east and north a bit...not there's much point? Different world."

He seems to be only half-listening, if at all.

"But there's no communications – nothing, not even military." He takes a few steps towards the point on the horizon he'd been watching, which is not particularly different from any other point on the horizon. It's all just sand and dust. "But that doesn't make any sense, I should be able to patch in at least to – unless, a nuke, maybe? EMP field, that'd fry everything within a good radius – but that doesn't explain the satellites."

Rocking back on his heels, he stares up at the sky, possibly in a failed attempt to spot said satellites.

Raising her voice, "Should I mention in my world the Sahara is full of swamps?"

Stomp, stomp.

The suit isn't exactly designed to move very fast on the ground. Which is why Tony doesn't quite spin to face her.

"What are you talking about?"

"Depends if you are going to listen this time, doesn't it?"

He waves an armour-clad hand impatiently.

"If you're going to say something useful, do it already."

"You flew through a portal in time and space and landed into another world. Another version of earth. And, trust me, you got an easy landing. I ended up in Singapore while a kraken was dismembering the place. "

Her words hang in the air for a minute or so.

"That's... not entirely all that useful – what kind of portal?"

Because he's going to start figuring out how to fix it now, if possible.

"A rip, maybe? I'm not sure, and they are impossible to find again. It's...it's like this world is a black hole, pulling people, and things, in from other universes."

"Hm."

He turns his face away again, looking thoughtful.

"You say, 'impossible'. I say, I just haven't invented the means yet."

"Someone's cocky."

She isn't saying this as if it is a bad thing.

"How do you find something that is never in the same place twice and vanishes once someone's gone through?"

The corner of his mouth quirks.

"I did say that I hadn't done it yet – but I imagine it'd be a bit like playing whack-a-mole."

"Look forward to it."

Beat.

"Want to get out of that suit?"

"Are you asking to get me naked?"

"Well, I wouldn't say no," she drawls. "I was more leading towards do you want go somewhere that isn't a desert so you don't cook in that thing?"

"Somewhere that is not a desert would be nice. I'll be fine with flying as soon as I get a chance to recalibrate my systems here..."

The faceplate slides back down into place again. From inside the suit, there are some beeping noises, and a hum like a fan starting up then shutting off again. Then a pleasant, if computerized, chime, and the helmet flips open once more.

"Okay! I think we're good."

A brief pause.

"You right to fly to Kansas?"

The look he gives her is skeptical.

"Technically I can, but why the hell would I want to?"

"Last fortress of humanity. Plus, all us out-of-worlders seem to end up there. No one blink twice at ya."

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