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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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."

"I kinda like it when people blink twice at me. Well –" he gives her a smirk, "– depends on who's doing the blinking.

"But, if you insist..."

She smiles back and, yes, it's flirty. She's Josh.

"Okay." She steps away from him, her wings appear and then she leaps into the air, easily spiralling up into the sky.

Oh, so that's it, then?

If Josh wants a race, she's got a race.

Tony brings his feet together. Internal systems, powered by his chest-mounted miniature arc reactor, flicker to readiness as he brings the helmet down once more.

Then it's a simple matter of thrust.

Oh yeah.

He can fly.

He gets a whooop! of joy, and Josh speeds off.

Logically, no one with a bird's wings should be able to go that fast. Not without diving.

Luckily, Josh tends to ignore logic.

Tony's down with his string theory – if this place is pulling people in from different universes, they could be places with different basic laws of physics. Of course that doesn't explain why both her wings and his suit function here. He'll have to work on that one.

Meanwhile, he's just going to enjoy having a proper challenge.

Kicking up the speed a bit, he brings himself to match the girl's pace, and calls over, "You never told me your name!"

Laughing,

"Neither did you!"

"Well how could I tell you your name if I don't know it?"

He could be grinning under the mask. With the voice distortion, it's hard to tell.

But after a moment, he adds, "Tony Stark."

"Call me Josh."

A brief pause of thought, and she goes faster. Lets how fast you can go, Mister Tony Stark.

(not to mention, flying over ocean is boring)

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its-ironic.livejournal.com - 2008-05-16 02:33 (UTC) - Expand