Chapter 1
His world was one of pain. It was something he wasn't too unfamiliar with, given all the times he had been shot, stabbed, beaten, bludgeoned, electrocuted and filled with shrapnel. That list probably was incomplete, but even a mind like his was just a smidgen distracted by having the power of the almighty in one's hands.
A power that was currently dismantling his very body, strings of absurd cosmic power burning through his veins, torching more and more of his nerves. It was only by pure willpower that he hadn't been rendered an incoherent screaming mess.
The Mark LXXXV -he needed a better name for it- was helping, as was F.R.I.D.A.Y. pumping every single bit of pain killer and other helpful drugs as possible into his system, but it was like trying to extinguish a star with a drop of water.
Still, he couldn't help but to feel some joy at the sheer dumb fondness on thanos's face as the mad titan observed that the gauntlet he wore was empty.
There were many different things a man could say as his last words, but Tony Stark, proud father and husband, thought that his choice was fairly decent.
"And I…" A heavy breath of air left his mouth, as the energy of the stones ran rampant dealing undoubtedly fatal damage to his innards. "Am Iron Man."
Tony thought he would go poof immediately or shortly afterwards, leaving this world on a high note. Maybe he would be dusted along with Thanos and his army? Would have been poetic of sorts.
What he did not expect was a sensation like being yanked on a bungee rope on every molecule of his body, while being simultaneously burned alive and frozen into ice cubes. Flashing lights of every color flashed across his eyes, his ears screaming with every noise possible, imaginable and otherwise. He screamed as he fell through what felt like a brick wall and a cloud simultaneously, tumbling into…
Why did this place look like one of Morgan's cartoons? He saw a glimpse of the Avengers battling the Chitauri in New York, except they looked stiff and slow, and there was Tony himself flying around… why was he shouting out his attacks?
Another barrier slammed into him, he was tumbling towards a new wall, and another, and another, each impact making his body less and less stable. He felt himself disintegrating, losing parts as he fell. Random thoughts guessed that it was something physics related, but he couldn't tell what, and it didn't matter.
His remaining fingers stretched into rope, parts of his legs fragmented into cubes. Eyes appeared where there shouldn't be, blinking out of existence a heartbeat later. His whole view narrowed to a razor thin edge, immediately widening across a galaxy, plunged into a realm of darkness and grasping hands, passing through water that wasn't water.
Staying conscious throughout the experience was too much even for him, and with another barrier rushing up to meet him, his mind gave out. Everything went dark right as he collided with the wall, his last sensation was a feeling like when he first tried to fly, a desire to hurl as if his lungs were trying to escape his body.
...
"No idea who this choom is." A voice stabbed into his brain like a hundred knives
Tony grunted in alarm, yanked out of a dreamless slumber very rudely if he did say so. The ground was hard, not very comfortable, the air tasted like smog and ozone, and he was simultaneously hot and sweaty. Everything was so hazy…
Warmth spread on his abs, he smelled burning air from a torch. Just like his favorite cutter in his auto shop, only this was too close. His body was being jostled, a couple pairs of hands were working on his armor. Who, why… he was so exhausted…
"What do you think? Definitely miltech."
"Might be Arasaka tech, but why would they leave it here? This isn't like anything I've seen so far." The voice was female, middle aged if Tony had to guess. She sounded nothing like Pepper, and yet, he couldn't help but think of her. Overworked and yet honest.
"Maybe some experiment went wrong? Choom's torched pretty badly. And he isn't on any insurance list, despite all the high gear, which makes this stink." A man, muffled. Perhaps his mouth was covered by something? Stark attempted to open his eyes, but found the task incredibly difficult. "Damn, look at the arm. That ain't conventional."
"No shit. Hope this guy has some samples backed up, I know we got the barest minimum of kit, but the geiger counter here is going off and my scanners say it's mainly gamma. Well, some of it is, there's some stuff here that I can't even begin to tell what it is."
"Wait, rads? Like nuclear stuff? Where did a choom like this get a hold of that kind of gear?"
"Knock it off, it's at safe levels. We'll know more once he's in the ambulance. As for his worth, we'll find out from the appraisal, assuming the ripper doc doesn't stiff us again."
"But didn't you say that you had no idea what radiation this even is? How do you know it's safe?"
There was a clink reaching his ears, doing the job where nothing else did. His eyes snapped open with a loud grunt, shifting at the sudden rush of cool air hitting his torso, right about where the arc reactor was placed-wait, no, he had that-
"I say we call it, he ain't worth the trouble. The payout isn't good enough to be here." The man suggested.
"Hang on, maybe we-" the woman tried to say something, but a gasp stopped her. "Hold up. He's awake!"
Forcing himself upright with an undignified gasp, Tony blindly swung his left arm, hitting something with a thunk that skidded something metal across the ground, the cutter he hoped. Both of his 'rescuers' backed away, the man yanked up a pistol from his belt.
Not bothering to ask, a clump of nanites formed a repulsor, a blast of energy and force shooting forward. He fired on the lowest setting and yet it still ripped right through the weapon, the force enough to wipe the man's hand back, his aim just barely good enough to not shave off his fingers.
Yelping in pain, the otherwise normal looking man in a mask, clad in a jumpsuit with a bright yellow jacket that had white stripes on his sleeves, was thrown to the side, stumbling into a trash can.
"Stay away-" Was what he wanted to say, only to be disrupted by a sharp and incredibly intense pain erupting from his chest, almost as if he had been punched by Banner. Inside and outside. His words dissolved into a splurge of coughs, spit and blood splattering over the ground before him.
Trying to use his right caused a wave of blinding pain, it was so bad he could feel himself dipping out of consciousness. His eyes watered, making aiming virtually impossible. It wasn't by choice that he lowered his limb, he simply couldn't keep it raised in his condition.
For only a moment allowed himself to twitch his view over to his arm and if he hadn't been in quite so many fights yet, the sight would've been enough to make him vomit.
His arm, up to his shoulders, had, for the lack of a better word, melted. It was like a blob of hamburger coated in wax, with sagging clumps around his wrist, peeling off enough flesh that his bones threatened to stick out. In fact a chunk of his wrist bone actually was exposed to open air, a spot of blackened tissue surrounded by burned nanite blobs, barely containing the damage before they were destroyed. On his forearm there were spikes of metal sticking up, if he had to guess all the energy from the stones made the nanites go haywire. It would be an interesting data point if they weren't fused to his muscles or sticking up at random, like some junkyard hedgehog.
"Painkillers, now!" He demanded through gritted teeth at the two medics, if they were that in the first place. Yes, they had just now obviously considered stealing his stuff as well as potentially dumping him into some alleyway to die, so getting some injections from them was not his brightest idea, but he had precious little options if he didn't feel like getting completely and utterly incapacitated by even a twitch of…. What once had been his right arm.
The woman, now that his eyes were sort of working he could see that she was a pretty, mid to late thirties hispanic, flinched but held up her arms. Her red hair was tied up as she took a breath, forcing a calm look as she opened her palms, showing that she was unarmed. She wasn't, Tony saw a gun on her belt too, but she didn't go for it, even waving her partner down when he tried to grab his own weapon.
"Sir, I don't know who you are or what's going on, but I am going to try to help you." She tried to sound convincing, but that was a rather hard task given what he had heard before. He was fairly sure that his suits' painkiller injectors had been wrecked along with, well, most everything else of it.
The fact that could at least still use his nanites to form the repulsor did show that the control implant hadn't been damaged, small miracle that that was. Then again, that would probably have meant that his brain had been fried along with it.
Still, he wasn't going to like how the woman palmed an injector from her toolkit, snapping at her partner when he tried approaching. Each step closer was slow, measured, her eyes on the repulsor for the whole time. Except for the glances at Tony, panting as hard as he was. She had a gun on her waist, but she seemed sensible enough to know that she couldn't draw her gun faster than he could wave his hand.
When she raised the injector he suddenly asked, "Hey, what's your name?"
"Ah, Gloria. Gloria Martinez. You?" She asked, searching around before carefully bringing the tip towards his neck.
"Tony. Tony Stark." He raised an eyebrow at her lack of reaction. That was…. Hmm. Was it narcissistic to think that everyone on the planet would know him? Being fair, he was world famous even before he announced that he was Iron Man. "Genius, multi-billionaire, philanthropist? Iron Man?" He tried his old line, leaving out the playboy moniker.
"I'm sure you're famous back home, Mister Stark. Now hold still…" she pressed the needle against a vein, hitting the plunger.
Another eyebrow joined the already raised one. That was…. hmm.
Something to think about later.
He gestured for her to back away as the drug began to run into his system, stemming the tide of pain…. Somewhat at least. Things got blurry, turning his head felt nauseating all of a sudden, and thinking was challenging… he poked his bad arm repeatedly, he couldn't feel a thing. Good enough.
Tony hadn't been drinking in years, but old tricks weren't so easy to lose. He once delivered an entire lecture while stone faced drunk, he could handle this. Although…
There was a nauseating squelching noise as he pulled the first spike from his arm, there was a tugging sensation before the nanite clump was yanked free. He looked at the solid lump, sending a few commands before the stuff started flowing. This chunk was easy, it was just in a few muscles.
The next few however, those were messier. Peeling off an entire chunk of his skin just to get a handful of nanites was a nasty thing, when the stuff finally reacted to the commands he was left with a chunk of fried meat, like his first attempt to fry a steak by himself.
When he had enough to make a helmet he sighed, bringing it to his head. Gloria and the man swore while helmet formed, covering his vision with displays, and letting him fully access F.R.I.D.A.Y.
"There you are boss. I was getting worried. Where are we?" The AI's irish accent sounded puzzled.
"Still working on that. Do a full scan, how bad a shape am I in?" Tony grimaced as the information ran over the display.
It was… bad.
"Heart rate is accelerated boss, your blood pressure is too high, your stress high but that isn't that abnormal. But… There's critical damage to the right arm, it's a write off. Critical damage to nerves, bone marrow, muscle tissue and flesh, all equally bad. Imminent risk of failure for your right lung, your liver, your heart isn't doing so good either." F.R.I.D.A.Y. told him, sounding as grim as the information.
"Yeah, it feels that bad." Tony shakily nodded, seeing the duo looking at him with confusion.
"I'm using the remaining nanites just to keep you alive boss, I can't even begin to repair the damage here. There isn't enough to keep this up for long. Afraid to say it, but your only option is to get rid of the irradiated tissue." And the good news kept coming. Perhaps grabbing the…
Tony suddenly blinked. "F.R.I.D.A.Y. Where are the Stones?"
"Not in your arm boss, or your body. Already scanned." An icon popped up, showing that the energy signatures in his body were normal…ish. "Current hypothesis is that whatever sent us here scattered them. I can't begin to guess where they are."
"We'll cross that bridge when we get there. First thing's first." Tony retracted the helmet, seeing Gloria looking at him with confusion, stopping her partner from doing something, he guessed making a call.
"Thanks for helping me out." How much help they gave was debatable. "But I need a doctor. A real doctor. You help me out, I promise you won't ever have to rob anyone again."
AN:
Rewatched edgerunners recently and this idea didn't leave my head.
So here it is, looking forward to what you guys think.
Credit as with all my stories goes to Hapless Anon for both beta reading this a
Chapter 2
"Nothing. No answer either from Stark Industry offices, industrial sites, the Stark towers or black boxes. Even the orbital assets are not answering the signal, Sir." F.R.I.D.A.Y answer was clear as the ambulance rumbled under them, running over a street that was kept in a truly abhorrent state. The holographic street lights were fancy, but apparently nobody could be bothered to fill in potholes. The back window he peered out of showed that much, in between the frequent jolts.
The painkillers were already losing their effect, so he felt every crack and pothole that the ambulance rolled over, despite the driver's frequent weaving around the worst spots. Medicine that seemed highly addictive and a short effect heavily incentivised repeat purchases, so to say. It was the sort of business tactics drug dealers and gangs resorted to.
It was charming to see that the medical corporation in this world was on a similar level.
And yes, he was in a different world. Or rather, the same world, in another dimension and potentially in the future. Actually, he was not quite certain about the last one.
Tony Stark was not a stupid man, far from it. People having no Idea who he was, no Stark Industries properties responding to F.R.I.D.A.Y. and loads of technology he had never seen before.
The possibility of an Alien world - space had a far higher human population than one would expect at once at first glance - was considered and quickly rejected. The star formations he could see through his helmets HUD... they were Earth's.
So, he was in another Dimension. This made his situation drastically more difficult than expected.
He had acknowledged the possibility when he was helping build the time machine in the first place, and Lang's ramblings had hinted this was something that could happen, but the math, the variables, they all checked out. Of course, that hadn't taken into account that the stones could do something totally random.
His eyes wandered to the two people in front of him, driving the car. He was fairly sure they were doing this mostly because they feared he was going to kill them and not because of any grand repayment that he had promised.
They may just drive to the police instead, though given that they had attempted to rob him firsthand, he'd guess they didn't want the attention of whatever law enforcement there was around here.
He didn't have access to his money - billions and billions in cash, ten times that in stocks and he was fairly sure he could make it to trillionaire if he actually ever sold his more exotic technology -, nor access to the security forces protecting his business, his personal laboratories and instruments or his friends.
He was an entire dimension if not universe away from Pepper and Morgan.
A headache began to fight itself to the forefront of his skull. It wasn't the worst situation he had been in yet, but on the scale of annoying wannabe competition hounding drones on him to being lost in the infinite expanse of space with neither food or water in a broken space ship right after most of his allies were butchered and he had failed to prevent a cosmic genocide, this was leaning more towards the later.
Rubbing his temple with his good hand, he looked outside the windows again, ignoring as much of his right arm's aches as possible. He picked up on the duo chatting up front, using a mix of recognizable english and a bunch of nonsensical slang. Although not all was gibberish.
"Cmon, take the exit. Its another twenty minutes but-"
"I know. This is the fastest route, and I'm not chancing street samurai catching us on the freeway." Gloria interrupted, from here he could see her sweeping her eyes around the street, like the grunts in Afghanistan all those years ago.
"No, instead we have gangs here to catch us. At least step on the gas." The guy threw his hands up, glancing at Tony over his shoulder.
The ambulance did drive a bit faster, though not fast enough to keep him from looking out the windows. This neighborhood looked shoddy, plenty of cracked or boarded up windows on the buildings, themselves sporting a wide variety of graffiti. Its inhabitants looked no better, the range of gear and stuff they had was impressive -did that guy by a burning trash can have a robotic third arm?- but their overall condition was not.
Seeing a group of thugs hanging around a dry fountain, tracking the ambulance driving past, Tony was sure this was the kind of place Stark Industries would target for urban renewal plans… and he would not feel comfortable bringing Pepper along in anything less than the MK. 45 and Happy in the same.
Right now, they weren't here, and neither was his equipment. Or anything else. There was him, F.R.I.D.A.Y. and what was left of the suit, and his wits. He crushed a pang from his heart, he needed treatment first. After that he could allow himself to feel homesick, and do whatever he had to in order to get home.
Even if that meant looking forward to the guy climbing into the back, at the second guy climbing in the back with him. He flinched when Tony turned, hesitating before taking a seat opposite of him.
He didn't need his hud to hear the gunshots occuring not too far away from here, nor to notice the fact that no one seemed to be bothered by them.
"You know, if this doctor you are bringing me too thinks about having a try at my other organs besides my arm, I'll be quite upset." It was only partially a quip. This did look like the sort of area that would have organ harvesting going on.
Gloria took her eyes off the road to peer into the rearview, he saw a raised brow. The guy across from him did a double take.
"Who wants a choom's meat? I know there are some weirdos who pay for that shit, but we usually don't deal with those types. The ripperdoc ain't exactly a nice guy, but he ain't no cannibal." He assured him. "Really. I know we tried cutting you up, but we were just after your chrome."
"Why's that? Don't tell me, lots of interested buyers." Tony rolled his eyes. This wasn't even the most aggressive attempt to steal his tech, or the most incompetent.
"I hope there are. That doesn't look like anything I've ever seen before." He frowned, peering at the metal armor that is covering his torso, his eyes flashing for a moment.
Hmmm…. now that was interesting.
"F.R.I.D.A.Y. scan those two please… for any irregularities." They were apparently not talking about wanting to steal his organs, then the cutting up part was obviously about something else. Mix that in with what seemed like clearly mechanical parts for the both of them and several other options arose.
"Hang on boss… done. You know my sensors are a wee bit damaged, but as far as I can tell this man has some subdermal wiring under his skin, a transmitter in his skull, and a complex interface system between his eyes and his frontal lobe. Only weapon I can find is that one on his belt. If he has other augmentations, they're either too deep for me to scan, or not there. The woman is the same way." F.R.I.D.A.Y. Hummed for a moment. "She's been sending a lot of outbound messages, haven't cracked the encryption yet but they don't look all that official."
Tony raised a brow. Some people had weird ideas, but he had to admit that adding glowing lines to their skin was a new one for him, when they glowed they almost seemed like sections of armor plating. He was no stranger to glowing parts on his body, but his old implant served a purpose. This just looked like a fashion statement.
He was not…. that surprised by it, to be honest. People were already giving themselves replacement arms in his world…. he should know.
He had been punched repeatedly by one. If the earth of this dimension was more advanced than his - in general, they seemed rather confused by his armor - than this kind of stuff was likely normal.
And if Tony were honest, he liked this over people copying his hairstyle.
While he himself was unlikely to do such a thing beyond what was necessary to keep him alive, he might get an idea or two for his world. Rhodey would've appreciated such things right away.
Shifting in his seat, he winced at his arm. He had no resources outside of those on his body and he had his doubts that health care here came free…. meaning he needed a way to somehow pay the person they were driving too.
And maybe it was just his biases but "ripperdoc" did not sound like the local doctor title.
Meaning he had, oh, maybe a couple minutes to somehow get enough money to pay for an amputation that'll hopefully not kill him.
"Say…. are there any gangs nearby? Thugs brutalizing people, selling drugs, human trafficking, that sorta thing?" He had once, long ago, begun his new career by "stealing" the property of terrorists and repurposing it for himself. Kinda poetic to do that again.
"Around here? The Maelstrom." The guy answered, huffing. "They're a bunch of tech obsessed weirdos, they have a damn near religious fascination with cyberware. I'm good with chroming up, but they take it to the next level."
"And they pay for it all by drug smuggling and illicit meds. Around half of the OD cases we respond to are from them. It's better than the hit jobs they do. They get…" Gloria shuddered. "Trust me señor. You don't wanna tangle with them."
"Ahu, I've dealt with worse." After months of smashing arms dealers with the Avengers, and cleaning up many of his own messes, not to mention the chaos during and especially after the battle of New York, he had a pretty high tolerance for nasty stuff.
While they scoffed Tony pinched his fingers, forming the nanites into a small chip, adding a small transmitter as a finishing touch. It was a little more complicated than the stuff he usually made, but after a couple diagnostic checks he was satisfied with the result. He had the vessel, now to fill it.
"F.R.I.D.A.Y. Copy yourself into this bit. We're gonna rob some criminals." Tony directed.
"On it boss. Creating a firewall in case the copy is corrupted. There's no guarantee that this is going to work, just so you know." F.R.I.D.A.Y. Reported while the progress bar filled. It only took a few seconds, finishing with a little ping.
"Step one, done. Step two, what can I hook you into…" Tony eyed the guy. "Where is the nearest internet link?"
Both the guy and Gloria shot him a weird look, the latter peering over her shoulder for a worryingly long moment.
"The more you talk, the more confused I am." Gloria put her eyes back on the road, shaking her head. "Do you mean the net? We can connect you over the van…." She sounded hesitant, likely concerned he was going to put a virus in or something.
Which, to be fair, he kind of was.
"No, more like… there." He crawled to her seat and pointed at a roughed up building, as he predicted -experts never just guessed- Gloria did a double take.
"That is a Maelstrom property. See the signs?" She pointed at the graffiti on the outside. "No way are we going in there."
"We don't need to. Isn't everything wireless or something?" Wired connections were already going the way of the dodo in his time, he saw no reason why the future should backtrack.
"Well, yes, but you would need to be a savant with the best hacks in the world to get it from…" Gloria trailed off as the ambulance stopped, gripping the wheel hard enough that her knuckles were white.
Tony gripped the chip. "F.R.I.D.A.Y.?"
"On it boss. Establishing a connection, processing the architecture… I'm in." The chip pinged, right as the light through the window flashed with an all too familiar thump. "Finding the financial sections. The protection here is lacking boss, it is unacceptably bad. I don't think you even need me for this."
"Since you're there, mind withdrawing some cash? Not that much, but keep it quiet." Tony leaned away from Gloria, covering his mouth and mouthing just loudly enough for the AI to hear. "Check the other data while you're at it, check their other records. How much of what these two said was true?"
The connection hummed for a moment, there was a worrying moment when a car drove past them.
"Boss… I'm looking at some recorded footage right now. People being cut up… experimented… its live if you want to go loud-"
"No." Tony exhaled. As much as he wanted to, all the justifications he could make, he had to take care of his immediate problems. "Just… drain some cash."
"…on it boss. Done. You now have five thousand euro-dollars and change." F.R.I.D.A.Y. Sounded as displeased as he felt.
"Good enough. On second thought, wreak some havoc on their systems." The connection died, allowing Tony to stand up straight and ripple his fingers. Above there was a faint shout, flashes of gunfire.
He closed his eyes for a couple moments. His arm came first. He was of little use if he was dead.
And his nanites could contain the radiation poisoned blood in his arm only so long.
"Can we go now? I don't want to overstay our welcome here." Gloria warned.
He just nodded.
They took off from there, avoiding any bystanders or watchful eyes. Just in time too, the ambulance sped away while a convoy of cars raced towards the building, looking like they meant business. Gloria didn't relax until they left the block, turning into another district… that looked just as shoddy and run down as the last place.
"How much further?" Tony looked around, seeing that it was fully night. The aches were catching up to him, he didn't have much time,
Right on cue the ambulance slowed, entering a dark garage where the vehicle shut down. "We're here."
The other guy got the door for him, allowing Tony to climb out with a hiss of pain. As for the space itself, it connected to… an operating room? In all its hobo quality glory, what with its filthy surfaces, tanks of parts and organs bubbling under glowing lights, racks of limbs, parts, and god knew what else dangling from the ceiling. There was no rust that he saw, the best he could say about its overall hygiene.
"Homey." Tony muttered.
"Hehe, don't you know it."
Whipping around to an operating chair, Tony did a double take at the sight of an armless man with a headset and wild hair, looking weathered as he grinned, sitting upright wearing just a pair of dirty pants. He chuckled as the racks slid along in a chattering clank, robotic manipulators attaching a pair of arms to his stumps.
"Gloria, who is this choom? He has chome I can scrap?" He talked with a heavy accent, sporting a grin Tony did not like.
"Not this time Doc. He needs a replacement arm." Gloria sent her partner a look that silenced him.
"Mm. Let me see." He weaved upright, half stumbling towards Tony to peer at his arm. "Ooh, yeah man. That arm is fooked."
"Yeah, I could've told you that. Can you help?" Tony was feeling a little less charitable than usual at the moment.
"Help? Oh yeah, I can help. I got a replacement arm round here somewhere. But I don't work for free. Payment, up front." The doc showed off his misshapen teeth.
"Fine." He pinged the chip, transferring most of the contents to an open port. "But if I die on the operating table I'm suing you out of your profession." Tony dropped himself onto a table, wiggling to as comfortable a spot as possible. "So you do know that dipping your tools in boiling water first works as a basic disinfectant-"
Clamps wrapped around his chest, locking him in place. He grunted in alarm, and even louder when the doc's arms split apart into a dizzying array of tools, all of which started whirring to life.
"Good news choom, you have enough eddies for preen service. Bad news, you don't have enough for painkillers. And more good news, the spots I'm operating on should be numb." He grinned with his cooked teeth.
"Now, let us begin."
Amputation without anesthesia was a lot less terrible than one would think, considering that his arm had been roasted through and through by gamma radiation. It was still terrible enough that he had almost passed out, but through force of will he stayed conscious, allowing him to see the fascinating process of getting a robotic limb attached to his shoulder.
Despite the overall skeeviness of the whole affair, it was over quickly and surprisingly cleanly. When he finally sat up he withheld a groan, flexing his new, shiny arm. It responded quickly, and he could even detect some touch sensation.
"Hehe, you're welcome." The doc slinked off with a laugh, going back to whatever he was doing.
Hopping off the operating chair, Tony steadied himself. Step one, done, now… he glanced up. Gloria was leaning on the wall, arms crossed and observing him moving around, testing the new arm.
"You know, half expected you to leave while the crazy guy get's his arm cut off." He eyed the redheaded woman with a bit of new respect, all things considered. He knew he wasn't lying, but he sure had to look like a loon. And he had, through implication of the threat of force, coerced them to this place.
She shrugged. "I am still an EMT. Kind off my job to make sure you don't flatline…. even if you are not insured." Her colleague simply sighed from the entrance.
There…. weren't many people who'd stay around and do that for a stranger, much less in context. He was honored that he knew many of his friends were that very type.
"Thank you. I'll keep my promise, but first….." He began to walk towards a building in the distance, he memorized its location rather well, his feet still wobbly but carrying him off. "I got some business to attend to."
AN:
And this is the next chapter. Huge thanks to Hapless Anon as always and to you guys for reading!
Hope you had a nice time and feel free to point out inaccuraties and the like out to me. I mainly know cyberpunk through the anime and game, so I might make mistakes!
Have a nice day, you all!
Chapter 3
Objectively speaking, what he was about to do was pretty dumb. Tony had just within this day - as far as he had experienced it at least - traveled back in time, mugged himself, traveled again back in time to steal classified material, met his father as a young man, then traveled forward in time, fought an omnicidal tyrant from space, his giant army, was nuked from space and then had to use a makeshift omnipotence glove to save the day, which resulted in him being tossed through time and dimensions to a different universe all together, where his arm had been amputated and he himself drugged with shifty painkiller drugs.
Drugs that were wearing off right now.
Normal people would seek a bed to get some goddamn sleep while waiting for the gigantic bruise that was his organic body to get better.
"F.R.I.D.A.Y. run a diagnostic on the suit. What am I working with here?" Tony sucked in a breath when he poked a chunk of his shoulder, where the metal met his flesh. It didn't hurt that much, in his current condition however it felt like it was burning like crazy. It was probably just in his head, so he hoped.
"Running, done. Good news or bad first?" The AI's tone sounded grim.
Tony leaned against a filthy wall, not exactly needing to take a breather but he wasn't skipping the chance either. "Good news first. Make it longer."
"Well… your shields are functional. Based on the current readings you should be fine against conventional small arms. Repulsors are functioning, flight mode is a no go but you should be able to use them offensively. The Arc Reactor is stable, no risk of cracking." F.R.I.D.A.Y. tried sounding happy about the information.
Seeing a couple hunched pedestrians scurrying away on the opposite side of the street, Tony groaned. "And the bad?"
"Erm… flight mode is a no go, as mentioned. Any heavy explosive will crack the shields. And the nanite supply is at a critical low point, there aren't enough to fully build the armor. Best I can do is 67 percent coverage. I recommend holing up until you can acquire or construct more." F.R.I.D.A.Y. reported.
"However…." Was there uncertainty within her voice? "I withheld information about maelstrom beforehand to avoid complications with the surgery. There are four captives currently held at the gang outpost we are headed to, all in various stages of…. Experimentation."
Tony blinked a couple times.
Then he sped up his pace.
He was not a normal man.
Formulating a quick calculation in his head, he began to divert his nanites across his body, covering crucial body parts while spreading thinner sheets to where it was less necessary.
Getting shot in the ass would suck and Pepper would complain later about the scar, but he'd survive it in the short term and nanites were amazing at making sure he didn't bleed out. He was not anything in what he'd usually refer to as a combat ready state, but then again.
He wasn't about to fight the Hulk either.
And nor was he in the state to stumble across a slum, slowing when he saw the well lit yet run down warehouses lining the street, with tents and makeshift shelters on the sidewalks.
Despite the late hour it was still lively, relatively speaking. Quite a few people, several with visible cybernetics on their bodies, a noticeable number of those sporting rust, warily tracked him as he moved past them. Some people were drinking, many were smoking, most just lounged around regardless of the evening darkness. In the alleyways he saw movement, he didn't need to take a closer look to guess what was happening.
The place reeked as badly as any slum he had ever visited, this time he didn't have his armor filters to block the stench of grease and unwashed bodies, along with chemical scents he couldn't begin to identify. There was a constant background hum of television programs, chatter, and occasionally a thump of a gunshot ringing out. All with an air of hostility at his presence.
Just by looking up Tony was awestruck by the contrast between this pit and the city skyline looming over them. Towering skyscrapers of metal and glass, lit up like a constellation in the evening sky, flickering with holographic projectors dozens of meters wide. No two were exactly alike, each was customized in some fashion. Whether it be the paint, the displays on the buildings, or the spires rising from their rooftops, all were unique.
Those blocks stood like giants over the slum, imposing titans that declared their superiority over the common folk just by existing. These people meant nothing to them.
For a moment Tony wondered if this was what pedestrians felt about Stark Tower, before he shook it off. Before he was captured by the Ten Rings, perhaps he would be like the owners of those buildings, but ever since he had been working to better himself and the world around him. Not always done well -though he would be hard pressed to admit it- but he tried. He had made Stark Tower a beacon of clean energy, he had funded schools and urban renewal projects around the world, he put his own life on the line when the Chitari invaded. He supported the Avengers to the hilt, taking the necessary actions Rogers was unwilling to accept, as much as it had cost them all.
He wasn't going to ignore a white bearded man in a ratty jacket, hunched over on a wall with a hole studded helmet in hand, extending it out. "Some eddies for a veteran? Don't need much, just a bite to eat."
"I have no money I could give you." Tony answered, truthfully, yet he still felt dirty at seeing the man's face forming a clear grimace for a moment. Heh, in his position he wouldn't have believed him neither. Not with all this fancy gear on him.
His eyes wandered over him.
His body was deformed, perhaps from combat injuries or…. No. This man had sold a large chunk of the cybernetics that had made up his body.
With well practiced ease he crushed the bile that rose in him, simply noting this for later.
That list was growing increasingly big, so it was about time he solved one of the problems that beset these people, if only a little bit.
"F.R.I.D.A.Y., what did you do to the Maelstrom guys before my operation?" He probingly flexed his new arm, noting with a frown that it responded in a more sluggish and delayed manner than his natural limb. It also introduced an uncomfortable itch right where the metal connected to flesh and nerves, the latter of which sent trembles through the entire right side of his body.
It beat dying, that was the best he could say about it.
"I turned several of their own turrets on them, and caused friction and malfunctions within the mechanical components of various cybernetics inside their bodies, inciting spontaneous combustion with a dozen of their men." Various pictures flashed over his screen, including one particularly gnarly one.
"F.R.I.D.A.Y., if I ever get the harebrained idea to mod my junk with cybernetics, assume that I'm being mind controlled and restrain myself for my own good." He would rather fight Thor, butt naked and armed with only a knife than undergo that. "Can you do it again?"
"Unfortunately not sir. I have tried, but they have shut down the internal system they have been operating on. I may be able to access the wireless ports on their bodies, but that would require me to send such a strong signal that it may be detected by other powers."
"Fine, it was too easy anyway." Tony approached the goal, a decrepit building that may have been a store at some point, but was now a bricked up miniature fortress, decorated with graffiti announcing who it belonged to.
A few hours ago he imagined the guards up front would have threatened him by now, if they hadn't jumped to mugging and/or murder. Right now however, the leather clad gangsters who sported a lot of freakish looking cybernetics were staggering, unable to stand upright. As he walked closer one dropped his gun, grabbing the wall in a vain attempt to keep from collapsing, slapping the metal plate on his forehead while his eye flickered.
Only a couple looked aware of his presence, trying to stand up to wave their guns in his direction. Tony tensed but they didn't, or more correctly couldn't aim at him, one man's barrel weaved around like a weather vane while its owner staggered.
Up close these guys were a lot uglier than he thought. Aside from the horrible taste in fashion, like who still wore leather like that? Past that however, the gangsters had sunken, waxy skin, like it was a combination of malnutrition and drugs hitting them hard. Which made their augmentations all the more obvious.
Several of the men had their eyes replaced, outright scooping out chunks of their foreheads to fit arrays of glowing optical sensors. One man had a simple rectangular bar over his eyes, another had seven glowing spots underneath a metal plate on his scalp, where wires dangled like hair. All of them had metal sticking out from their skin, whirring machines moving in place of muscles.
Or they did, right now it was a different story. The guy who tried to shoot him had half his eyes melted into slag, while a chunk of plate on his shoulder was burning the skin around it, the same went for a thick sheet on his chest. His pals were in slightly better condition, like one who twitched when an electric discharge rolled over his body.
F.R.I.D.A.Y. had obviously done a number on them, as had them shutting down their network, but… could it be that easy? He narrowed his eyes as his well tuned intuition jumped into action.
Directing additional energy to his helmet, he kneeled down behind a sack of trash, some hundred ish meters away from the "entrance" of the gangster compound. And to say that he would've been surprised by the multiple dozen or heat patches in the far back. Even discounting the dumpster fires he was unfortunately smelling, plenty of the bastards had obviously survived.
In fact…. Had they pushed the particularly hard hitten members of their group out to make for a distraction if not bait for their attackers?
Sure they looked bad, but even basic medical attention might save at least some of them!
Tony made up his mind. "You said flight was a negative. What about a boost?"
"I'd recommend caution-"
Angling his repulsors, Tony shot upwards with a blast, almost misjudging his force when his foot caught on the ledge. He nearly tripped but a wobble saved him, allowing for a nearly stylish leap into a sprint. He actually wasn't trying to, but that little stunt let him get moving faster than a normal landing, eating up the distance between him and his goal.
According to thermals several of the goons inside were scrambling, moving too fast to be in the same shape as their pals outside. However, they were rushing towards the entrance, not looking upwards where he was now located. He had a moment to-
"Boss!" F.R.I.D.A.Y. warned a moment before holes ripped through the roof, making him jump in alarm. Did they have sensors on their bodies that could detect him? Passive detectors? Then again he wasn't exactly being stealthy.
Shrugging off the speculation, he blasted a support strut holding up a chunk of the roof, seeing the whole thing collapse in a tremendous crash, tearing through the softer parts of the roof to fall inside. That scattered a few, and alerted several more to his location.
Two men hopped up the floors, jumping and moving not unlike Rogers did when he was in a hurry, though that was a bit like comparing a world champion athlete with some stoked up addict.
They were barreling towards him, brandishing such things and tire irons, crowbars and chainswords, screaming and laughing simultaneously.
He didn't even honor that was a dismissive quip, instead simply dropping them with quick successive repulsor blasts to the head and chest. Freaked up with metal as they were, having their brains and spines ripped through seemed to kill them just fine.
Really, what was the point of such excessive disfigurement if better results could have been archived by a helmet? That might have added more protection AND not disqualified them from ever getting laid again.
A warning flashed up on his HUD causing him to throw himself aside, as multiple rounds of something big smashed into his side, the kinetic force dispersing over his chest area with little effect. Snarling, he fired a couple of quick blasts wherever that had come from, even as he began to move again, the nanites on his arm changing again.
Up close and personal was traditionally the suit's weakness, something the Bleeding Edge fixed. The nanites on his arm extended, forming a half meter long blade that glowed with the sonic charge, able to slice through steel like a hot knife through butter. Its razor sharp edge was probably overkill, but when was that a problem?
There was a certain nostalgia to him stepping into the building, to be greeted by a hail of gunfire, blinking off the front of his armor and helmet even as he quickly moved to fire at those who actually possessed something close to threatening calibers.
"Alright, let's play." Tony allowed himself a quip before he lunged, using a boost to leap over a metal wall right into a quartet of surprised gangsters.
Landing on a goon's face cushioned his landing, swinging backwards slapped a man into the wall, freeing him up to slash at the next target. He was just a little slower than his current foe, but unlike the man screaming and trying to hit him with the butt of his rifle, his weapon could carve it into confetti. And its owner next.
However fearsome and brutal these guys were, he had the advantage here. Tony cut open a wall, letting him stab a guy with a big machine gun before he could poke over cover. A swing lopped off the arm of another gangster, morbidly noticing how much the limb sparked when it fell. He couldn't focus on that, not with more goons trying to swarm him.
A baseball bat shattered against his shoulder, the assailant stumbling back with his arms both removed over the elbow, a knife broke off against his armor, the guy responsibly screaming a war cry that ran out into a choked gurgle as his new hand closed around his throat.
As imperfectly made as his new cybernetics were, they still managed to crush Adam's apple and air pipeline alike, the tomahawk haired punk falling back and desperately clawing at the bloody pit that had been his throat, not realizing he was already dead.
Tony attacked as quickly as he could, trying to end this fast. Both for his own safety, lest these goons summon reinforcements if they weren't already on the way, and to get to the captives. They were in danger and the clock was ticking.
Finishing up with a backhand that flung a man into the wall, Tony moved to head up a floor. But when he did, he saw a glint in the corner of his eye, a heartbeat before his helmet's sensor went off. Someone had apparently waited for an opening, which he had unwittingly provided.
Tony whipped his arm around, but he was just a bit too slow to stop his attacker, wielding a katana of all things, thrusting his blade forward. He was clearly a newbie at this, wielding his weapon in a manner that would have had Clint scoff…. But that is what allowed him to do more than all his peers.
All things considered, the pain that flashed up from his side was minor, nothing compared to so much he had to endure in his life till now. The burning sensation that followed immediately however.
He blasted the man while he yelped, a max output repulsor impact that sent him tumbling into a pillar, missing a jaw, a flood of shattered teeth, gums and blood exploding out of the ruin that had been his mouth. His cry turned into a pained squeal, one that ended upon impact.
"Boss, biometrics are reading a reaction." F.R.I.D.A.Y. warned.
"Noted-" Tony gasped, punching his fist against a nearby wall, his blade sinking into the stone like it was mere butter. He felt his nerves burn, not just from the poison but from the almost total exhaustion that began to set in. This had been a long fucking day.
Gritting his teeth, Tony began to walk forward, commanding the nanites closest to the cut to enter the wound and to destroy the toxins.
"Where are the captives?" He halted for a moment, catching his breath, both his suits and his own senses searching for any more attackers, which… it did not seem like there were any left.
The most were those he had already dealt with, groaning and moaning as they bled out, some trying to crawl away from him. They had at most minutes left. Broken bodies, busted weapons, misshapen cybernetics made to intimidate and not to survive his attack… but he doubted their comms were offline.
"Upstairs, second door on the right." F.R.I.D.A.Y. directed, sending him in a vaguely dignified stagger up the catwalk stairs, fighting his blurry vision until it cleared.
Groaning again, he tried the knob for a second until he realized it had none, and with a roll of his eyes he kicked it open using a blast of his foot repulsors. The whole door collapsed onto the floor in front of the frame, he was surprised that it didn't go flying into the far wall.
"I was about to suggest hacking it…" F.R.I.D.A.Y. hummed.
Rolling his eyes again, he stepped through to look around. He spotted four figures tied up on chairs not too dissimilar from that butcher's seat the 'doctor' had used around what looked like a makeshift stage, red markings on the ground and bright searchlights blinding the main spot.
The first looked like an average pedestrian before these freaks got to him, slumped over and not breathing. Nothing he could do about him, damnit. The other three were still alive.
An older man clad in a ragged jacket and pants, they could have been military issue gear once upon a time, looked up, narrowing his eyes until he blinked.
"You, you're not with them." He coughed, hissing at a patch of blood spreading from his stomach. That alerted the others, a dirty looking beggar who squirmed in his seat, looking clearly terrified, and a young lady of japanese persuasion, who gasped and thrashed with fearful whimpers. Both had scars too, the girl had a patch of metal on her arm, and the guy's bare legs had bulges under his skin that leaked blood from bandages.
Tony could mostly walk normally again, deciding that the girl needed help first, though not without putting his hand on the old man's arm, getting another hiss before the nanites swarmed into the wound. He cursed, trying to hop away in his spot until he realized that the stuff wasn't harming him. Quite the opposite.
"Calm down. As for you, konichiwa." Tony rattled off a phrase that made the girl do a double take.
"You, you speak japanese?" She blinked.
"Hai." Tony smiled. "I am a man of many talents."
Of course Tony knew some things. Back in the day he attended a meeting between Stark Industries and several prominent corporations in Tokyo, hammering out a lucrative defense contract. One CEO had objected to the deal on moral grounds, but after a few nights of drinking with his business partners, he discovered that his daughter simultaneously hated how controlling her father was, was trying to enjoy her early twenties in freedom, and was mind numbingly beautiful. After some… private visits… she helped convince his shareholders to go along with the plan.
Tony was ashamed of his old self, his deeds for that affair were pretty scummy even by his old standards. It said a lot that Pepper was pretty frosty for weeks afterwards.
That said, a few lessons from then had stuck on his head, and now they paid off.
Freeing the girl and then the beggar, he clapped his hands together. "Alright, can anyone here call an ambulance?"
All three sent him flat looks.
"I cant…"
"I'm not insured, can't afford it."
"Do I look like I have insurance?"
Closing his eyes, Tony blew out a breath. "Fine. Gotta do this the hard way."
Balling up nanites in his hand, he gestured for them to come closer. Although none of the three looked enthusiastic about it, exchanging glances with each other made them reluctantly step towards him, allowing Tony to form small armored sections that he put on them. First the girl, then the beggar, and lastly the old man, the last tapping his protection.
It only cost Tony half his own armor, he had his chest and head covered, and that was all. But now they wouldn't die because of his own shortcomings. A worthy trade off.
"Alright, let's get out of here." Tony pointed towards the door.
AN:
Mealstrom is quite the antithesis to what Tony is and what his ideals as iron man stand for. I'd say they make for a fitting "first" villain. Either way, thank you for your time. As always, I wish you all a happy day and welcome your feedback.
Thank you Hapless Anon
Chapter 4
Running away at top speed was the plan, but the simple fact was that none of the captives was in any state to flee. All three needed a moment to recover, catch their breaths at the very least. Tony had to allow it, finding a small room out of sight to let them do so.
The three before him were quiet, apprehensive. Or no, that wasn't quite accurate.
The young girl, seventeen or maybe eighteen by her looks, was keeping back, her eyes pointed at the ground. Short, straight black hair, smooth features, she even had the small stature of a usual lady of that country. The only odd details were her eyes, showing large red irises when she risked peeking at him, although he needed a couple looks to make sure. Probably due to the same process that added metal lines to her face, following the contours of her expression, though he had no idea what purpose they served. Her entire appearance was submissive, trying to present as little threat or challenge to him as possible.
Dark possibilities flashed through his mind but, for as little as this may mean, her outfit, damaged as it may be, was still intact around her nether regions. It was more likely that she was simply intimidated by the carnage he had inflicted on the gangsters, though she did not seem shocked by it.
An eyebrow rose under his helmet. Neither did her two accidental companions. Was gore and bloodshed common here? As ugly and run down this region was, what little he had seen from the city scape had not made it out to be some burning war zone like New York, though it obviously had issues with crime.
Careful not to make any sudden movements, his observations shifted to her companions.
He met the gaze of the vet, slumped on a crate and nursing his injuries, showing no sign of giving up the rifle he plucked from a Maelstrom gangster's hands. Now that things were calmer Tony observed how his right arm and both legs were mechanical, much like his new arm but not as sloppily applied. They weren't in good condition either, but like his wounds he would live.
In comparison the homeless man was on the floor, back resting on the wall as he took deep, uneven breaths. He was a bum, that much was obvious. Ragged appearance, the smell… his cyberware reflected it, showing visible rust at the edges, and looking at a sensor on his face, visibly broken. The light on his eye was cracked, it looked to be that way for a long while.
He was breathing hard too, sweat was on his brow. Tony frowned, was he sick? Although more likely it was something more mundane.
"Are you okay?" The vet asked before Tony could, his brow narrowed.
"Yeah, just…" he gasped, slumping further. "Hate this part. Shakes will let up in a while, then it gets bad." He sounded weak, mustering a little chuckle. "Don't suppose, ow, that any of you are holding? No? Worth a try."
Even the girl sent him an askance look, although he refrained from scowling, let alone commenting.
Whatever he was on had to be potent stuff. As much as curiosity gnawed at him, Tony had greater priorities, like getting them to safety. Once he was sure they would be okay, then…
He pushed that aside. In time he could ask as many questions as he needed, start planning his next move, formulating a plan, everything. Right now, they needed to find somewhere else to be.
"Alright, nap time is over. We gotta move." Tony stood up, rolling his shoulders. They shouldn't have spent so long resting anyway, the gangster's friends had to be on the way.
"Hang on-" the vet stood up, sucking in a breath as he clutched his side. "Arg. Don't tell me about the reinforcements, I know. But while I can't speak for my lady friend here, I could use some extra supplies out there."
"These crazy bastards don't need their eddies." The bum lit up, finding the energy to climb to his feet.
"And since every turret and defense emplacement around here went crazy, your doing I'm assuming, though hell if I know how, their comms should be knocked out. We have more time than you think." He shrugged with only a small hiss, eyeing his replacement limbs. "Besides, you look like you need some extra cash too."
Tony groaned, peeking out the window. "Fine, but make it quick. Nobody get greedy."
Moving out, Tony directed them to the storerooms first. As repulsive as these freaks were, he didn't feel comfortable looting their corpses. Besides, there had to be more supplies back there than with the dead, it made sense.
What he found were several lockers and a few crates of assorted junk, along with stacks of solid cash, he didn't recognize the markings but he assumed these were the so-called eddies. There were also chips of what were probably more cash stores, he grabbed them anyway. If nothing else he could fiddle with the electronics. Some weapons were there too, this city looked like some place where someone could sell random firearms with no questions asked.
Passing some smaller stuff to the girl who was looking both nervous and a bit puzzled by the whole situation, Tony picked up a round container shaped like a thermos. He looked it over, it didn't look like a bomb, so what-
He did a double take at the label. "Nanites."
This world had nanotechnology? He doubted it was up to his standards, but still, it was better than nothing.
"FRIDAY, test this stuff." He formed a spike on his finger, pressing it on the lid. On the small chance that this container was actually a bomb, he was ready to seal it up tight.
"Working, taking a sample… It appears to be a medical aid, used for cybernetics compatibility. Pretty useful stuff." Displays appeared on his HUD, spitting out preliminary results. "I can use it for suit replacements. Be warned, it's nowhere near up to the same quality as the purpose made nanites."
"Better than nothing. Take it." Tony saw how the spike pierced the can, sucking the contents dry. The spike swelled, sending the extra mass towards his arm, then to the rest of his body.
Armor spread out, adding extra protection over his all too exposed form. He still wasn't fully covered, FRIDAY directed the majority of the fresh nanites over existing plates, sacrificing the lesser grade material over the good stuff.
Standing up, Tony stretched his arms. The diagnostics were giving good results, he saw no instabilities or problems yet, and just in case the sections were reconfigured to quickly eject them. His companions were giving him double takes, looking amazed at his appearance.
Shrugging his shoulders, Tony plucked a cup from a bench, popping open the helmet rather than retracting it. He smelled the still warm contents, seeing it's inky black contents. It didn't seem promising, but that lump forming in the back of his throat demanded caffeine. He was getting a little hungry and thirsty anyway, this would tide him over for a short time.
Tony gulped the contents… and spat it out a second later, spraying a poor crate with coffee. He hacked, spitting it out until it was all gone, although the taint of that foul liquid was staining his tongue for a while.
"Gah, you call this coffee?" He sent the bodies a sour look. A man needed his caffeine, especially one who worked as hard as he did. In all his life, he had never tasted something this nauseatingly artificial! And he was saying that as a big proponent of synthesized food. It was perfectly possible to make those taste good after all!
Shaking it off, he muttered a curse as the helmet shut. He had roadside diner swill that tasted better than that excuse of coffee.
"So uh…" the vet stepped forward, taking Tony's mind off that godawful tasting coffee. He looked a little nervous, but he tapped his torso anyway. "My name is Jack. And you are…?"
"Tony Stark." He skipped the rest of the greeting, it wouldn't mean anything to those people anyway, as much as he enjoyed basking in his own glory from time to time. "And you two?" He pointed.
The girl seemed to grasp what he meant, even if she didn't look like she understood a word. "My name is Rei. Inaki Rei."
"Some guys used to call me the Sundance Kid back in the day." The bum wheezed out a small laugh, then clutched his chest with a shudder, nearly dropping a case of parts. "But these days I go by Hank. No surname, sold that for a hot wad of eddies." He tried laughing again, but it was too forced to allow for anything but a quiver.
"Nice to meet you all. Do any of you have a place to crash? Preferably far away from here." Tony repeated the question for the girl, Rei.
"There is a fancy plastic sack with my name on it, unless someone stole it already." Hank stood up when he was steadied, taking deep breaths.
"There is a shop my mom and dad work at, it… umm.." Rei hesitated. "Its a foodstand near Kabuki Plaza."
"Hah, can hardly go there." The vet laughed when he heard the location, the noise being a harsh, joyless sound. "Every bystander around here who doesn't want their face smashed in will rat where we went and given this" - he swayed his arms around the general massacre Tony had committed against the gangsters. "They'll want to make an example. So the meat knows better than to resist." He chuckled again. "Even the Tyger claws won't be a deterrent to that, no." He pointedly knelled down to pull a magazine out of the pockets of the freak Stark had killed with a messy backhand, slotting it into his belt.
"Jack, former Colonel, as little as that means." He eyed him again, grinning to reveal a set of teeth that was half natural, half steel. "I have no fucking Idea who you are, never seen the army use what you got, even against Arasaka. You haven't fucked off already after looting this place, meaning you want something."
"What, I can't just want to help some people about to be torn apart by horror movie rejects?" Tony flopped his hands.
Jack threw his arms up in the exact same way, adding a little twirl to his wrists that was just plain rude. "In this city? No."
Tony dropped his arms, taking a second to check the area. Still clear, but they were pushing their luck. Grumbling under his breath, he snatched up a case to stuff his ill gotten goods, shuffling it to a comfortable spot.
"Okay, I do need the money." Saying that felt strange. And not in a good way.
There were times when he was without Stark Industries' considerable resources, like Afghanistan or the whole Tennessee adventure, and since the Snap he had to scale back his empire, but the idea that his wealth, his technology, his tools, was limited just to what he had on him, that there was no workshop or bank account or legion of employees to help him, felt bizarre. And worrying. In fact, it was starting to gnaw at him.
"But I'm not gonna complain if I help people along the way. The cash is more of a bonus for a job well done."
Truth be told, saving people had been indeed his primary motivation, however, something was telling him that the folk here wouldn't believe him if he told them that much.
Jack just scoffed, shaking his head. "You're a gonk if you think robbing Maelstrom of all people was a good idea. There are much juicier targets - ouch!" In the middle of his berating Rei had snuck over and had elbowed him in the side while giving him a glare, causing him to wince. Apparently she knew more english than she let on, he guessed.
"Eh, I mean, thanks for the save, but I'm gonna find a safe place to hole up until this shitstorm blows over." The man crumbled with surprising speed upon being confronted by the child who he was trying his best not to look at. "And I'd advise you three to do the same. A couple weeks and some other tools will distract Maelstrom with something."
His tone was having an unwelcome effect on his fellow escapees, Hank in particular observing their surroundings. They had left the gangster hideout and they weren't being attacked by anyone outright, but still.
Beggars, drug addicts, what poor and downtrodden inhabited the run down ruins that were the buildings around here, they were clearly being spied on, some throwing glances when they thought no one was looking, others staring openly.
Admittedly the armor he put on them may have been why, cybernetics were a common sight but thick plating he put on them was something different.
At least he'd like to think he looked impressive. If he was the equivalent of Don Quixote, riding around in plate armor, he'd be upset.
But learning more about the tech level of this world was only an intermediate goal. There were other priorities right now.
"You say we should all go our merry way and make us easy pickings for maelstrom, hum? Can't say I like that plan."
"Sure, choom, but what's your big plan then? Go to the badges? They'd laugh straight in your face!" The ex colonel sounded upset.
Hah.
"My plan?" He needed money, resources, intel, presumably some credibility of his own, plus he had to get a horde of teched up barbarians off his and other peoples backs. "Right now, hunker down, assess the threat, and build a few things."
He had been rushing from fight to fight, barely taking the time to catch his breath. Now that things had calmed down to 'merely' tense, he could do what he did best, under his best conditions. He built a revolutionary miniaturized power source from a box of scraps, he was excited to see what these tools could build. And that was against a foe who knew what he was, unlike these freaks. His enemy had no idea what he was capable of, what his tactics were, what he brought to the party.
In short, the situation was excellent. He almost felt nostalgic, in a way.
"Then we attack."
AN:
And here is the next chapter!
Hope you all had a good time! Had a couple things to deal with so this chappy came out a bit later, but that shouldn't be the norm. Credit, as always, goes to Hapless Anon for his wonderfull help in writing this