Back in the Lab
Tony circled the massive machine dominating the chamber to him it looked more like a gleaming gate of steel and quantum coils, humming faintly. His visor scanned across it.
"This thing's no science fair project," Tony muttered. "What the hell are you building here, Stretch?" Reed stiffened. "It's a bridge. A conduit to another dimension, an empty one. A dead universe. The energy there could be siphoned, stabilized, and converted into clean power for our world."
Tony laughed dryly. "Clean energy, huh? That's one way of spinning it. Another way is: world's biggest doomsday device. Flip the wrong switch and poof cascade failure, dimensional implosion. We all become fun-sized versions of ourselves in the Negative Zone."
Sue crossed her arms. "Finally. Someone who understands the severity of the situation." Reed looked at her, stung. "Sue, my calculations are exact. I wouldn't make a mistake of this magnitude."
"Then why," Tony cut in, "don't you have a containment system perfected? Hm? That's step one in the 'Don't Blow Up the Multiverse' handbook." Sue glared at Reed. "He's right. Your hubris shouldn't be our downfall."
The room grew tense. Tony listed off half a dozen catastrophic failure scenarios from unstable harmonics, gravitic surges to cascading entropy that could spiral out of Reed's control. Reed argued back, citing numbers and equations.
Finally, Tony pointed a finger at him. "Look. I've made more terrible choices than I can count, and I've seen the fallout firsthand. You wanna help the world? Great. But if you screw this up, Reed, the world won't survive to thank you."
The words lingered heavy in the lab. Tony turned, armor sealing back into place. "Think about it." He walked out. Sue lingered, staring at Reed. "Don't let your pride blind you. I won't let our family be destroyed because of it." She then left a while later.
Reed was left alone in the lab till he decided to leave as well and cool off.
The lab fell quiet.
None of them noticed the faint shimmer of a torn scrap of parchment slipping across the machine's frame, vanishing into its circuits like smoke. The gate pulsed once, a dull red glow flashing across its coils, then dimmed back into silence.
Stark Tower – Late Evening
Tony tossed his jacket onto the arm of his couch and loosened his tie after getting out of his iron man suit. "Alright, J, give me the status on reconstruction." Jarvis' smooth voice filled the room. "Reconstruction of the damaged sectors is seventy-four percent complete, sir. Municipal crews estimate forty-eight more hours before normal traffic flow resumes."
"Seventy-four percent," Tony muttered, pouring himself a drink. "Not bad. Guess whatever Gojo scrambled in Fisk's noggin' really stuck. Man went from crime boss to mind-melted vegetable in record time."
He paused mid-sip, frowning. "Wait. Jarvis. The kid hasn't tried that… mental Jedi mind trick on me, has he?" His tone danced between sarcastic and genuinely uneasy.
"Negative, sir," Jarvis reassured calmly. "Extensive neural scans and biometric monitoring show no irregularities. Your synaptic pathways, while unconventional, remain untouched. To put it plainly your brain is as chaotic and brilliant as ever."
Tony smirked. "Flattery from my own AI. That's when you know you've peaked. Fine. New standing order: start a mental health chart for me. If you see any deviation in my brain chemistry, you call it out immediately. Can't be too careful around overpowered kids with glowing eyes."
"Understood, sir. Monitoring protocols updated."
"Good. Now, while you're at it, have some drones keep an eye on the Baxter Building for me."
"Because of Mr. Richards' latest experiment?" Jarvis asked.
Tony chuckled darkly. "What gave it away? Yeah, I know hubris when I see it. If it were me, I wouldn't give up that easy either. Thing is, hubris has a nasty habit of taking everyone down with it. Reed's brilliant, no doubt, but all it takes is one wrong calculation and poof, the Earth goes from blue marble to cosmic dust. And spoiler alert: I kinda like Earth. Good pizza."
"Very well, sir. Surveillance protocols active."
Before Tony could settle back, Jarvis added, "Sir, Mrs. Potts is en route. Estimated arrival: three minutes." Tony blinked. "Wait. Did I miss something important?"
"Only your dinner date with her, sir."
Tony kissed his teeth. "On second thought, maybe Earth getting vaporized doesn't sound so bad."
Pepper stepped in a moment later, elegant as always, her expression carrying that you're in trouble edge.
Tony leaned back. "And here she is, ladies and gentlemen. The goddess of scheduling herself. Go ahead, Pep chew me out. I'm ready."
She didn't even flinch, just crossed her arms. "You're lucky you're cute, Stark. Now get up, you owe me Italian." Tony sighed, standing. "Fine. But if the universe implodes tonight, I'm blaming you."
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