Video;

[manofiron]

[ The video begins with a dark-haired man centered in the middle of the frame. He’s got dark eyes, a precisely cut goatee, and hair that’s a little too styled to be naturally that neat. There isn’t a lot to see beyond his chin, he’s sitting too close to the camera, but what can be seen looks vaguely like a shirt of shiny red metal.

His brow knits almost immediately after the feed starts recording, his expression edging toward disbelief as his lips twist into a mild frown. ]

Look. I get it. In a time of crisis, rationing’s necessary to keep resources moving in the right direction. Perfectly understandable. You guys needed to save your turtle. What responsible citizen wouldn’t do their part for that noble cause?

[ There’s a slight hint f sarcasm creeping into his voice, as though he’s heard the whole turtle spiel already and not only hasn’t been impressed, but also doesn’t really buy it either. Not even after having spent half a day scouring the network for information about what’s really going on here before making this video. ]

But really? Twenty bucks?

[ The low, indistinct murmur of another voice can be heard, though what it’s saying and who it belongs to is anyone’s guess. Whatever it says, it’s enough to make the man roll his eyes. ]

Juulan. Whatever. Doesn’t matter. The point — [ Whether he’s talking to the camera or the unidentified voice is unclear. ] — is that it isn’t enough for a day, let alone the entire bogus adventure.

[ It isn’t so much the way he looks at the camera – his eyes have never left it – but the change of his tone, less querulous and more curious, that indicates that he’s talking to whoever’s on the other end of the console. ]

So really. Turtle propaganda aside. What’s a guy gotta do to get some decent money around here? Sell his organs? Hit the street corners? Scrub barnacles off the bottom of the turtle? What?

Comments

[manofiron]

He who? The guy I talked to? I know. His eyes are blue. And he's younger than me.

[ He can only assume that she means the Tony Stark he spoke with on the network. It had been a surprise, he can’t deny it, and it pricked his ego to realize that he isn’t the one and only Tony Stark in the universe. But it’s not Stark the Younger that’s the problem. It’s the one that he isn’t. The one who looks exactly like him, if the video he found on the console is any indication. The one that he’s been mistaken for and told, in no uncertain terms, isn’t him. ]

Going back to Malibu.

[ The less he says about New York, the less he thinks about it, the better. ]

Messing around with the suit. Waking up here. How about you?

[ Because as far as he remembers, she hadn't been missing for seven months. She hadn't been missing for a day. ]

[manofiron]

Please don't tell me that's something that people have threatened to do to you before.

[ The sad thing is, it's not something that he can actually put past people. Some of them are nuts. Some of them respond violently to anything different from what they know. He's had firsthand experience with this. ]

Is it?

[doesthemath]

That is important to take into account.

[She can't help but smirk a bit, as it's tempting to continue to withhold the information, but she knows a man of his technical skills could probably dredge it up from the network in short time.]

My name is Wanda, also known as the Scarlet Witch. In my world, we're teammates on a team called the Ultimates. In another world there's a similar team that goes by the name Avengers, if any of these names ring a bell.

[the_other_eight]

And he's not you. There's more then just superficial differences between worlds. His whole personality is different; he's not you. You're the one I have a history with, the one I've been missing.

[She's not sure how else she can say it to make him believe it's him that they're looking for.]

Date night. We'd just gone to bed. Then I ended up in the water.

[backwordscompatible]

Not to my face, no.

[urbanmagic]

[Wait, didn't he manage to get off this place by his choice? And now he's back? Aaaand he doesn't remember a thing, it seems. Well, guess that was a bust, thinking someone actually figured it out. Ah well.]

Would you be able to do it if you actually scrubbed the barnacles off?

[definingfuture]

[He's not looking at him anymore. He's not eager to get into this topic, because it burns his ego enough to know someone else managed to copy his work. And managed to copy him, which was what he wanted to prevent. But getting mad won't change anything, so he's grudgingly working with it.]

Yeah. Some magic trick, huh?

I haven't been able to figure it out. It shouldn't be possible. There are features that should make it impossible, actually, but we're still here. You can talk to the others about what they've found if you want to.

[Maybe he should have let Pepper or Bruce ease Tony into this. But once again he dove in and just let his gut reaction lead. He scratches the back of his head.]

You're me, so you already have your own way to check. Security features. Sequences that only you'd be able to reproduce. But if we were really the original versions then a giant turtle wouldn't be able to cut off my power supply. At least, I don't think it could.

[Magic always makes things more difficult to guarantee constants, but he hopes that he's biologically autonomous enough that he wouldn't rely on Asti normally.]

[backinakidflash]

He's an AI only? [Cough cough] SKYNET. [Cough] Ahem.

Unitards are a problem? You're kinda wearing a metal one there, buddy.

[Bart snickers. He has read that book, Tony Stark.] So you're telling me it's a 'how many roads must a man walk down?' solution? Cause the real Ultimate Question was 'what do you get if you multiply six by nine.'

[manofiron]

Good. That sort of superstitious nonsense has no place in the civilized world.

[manofiron]

[ Only one of those terms is familiar, but Tony can't say that the Avengers is enough of a thing to talk about it like it's a permanent fixture in his life. ]

Uh, Avengers, yes. But only barely. It's a SHIELD initiative. They brought some of us together, we fought the Chitauri, then we broke up the band.

[ Is that good enough? He really doesn't want to talk about New York. He doesn't want to think about New York. ]

So but you're a—You do the superhero gig?

[backwordscompatible]

I'm glad we agree.

Besides, half the population here can do magic, too. It would be a bit hypocritical of them to judge me for basically blending in with the locals.

[Completely forgetting the part where she uses said magic to do a little nightly vigilante justice. She wasn't the only one, after all.]

[manofiron]

No, it shouldn’t be possible. There are—I can’t be cloned. I’m not completely…

[ The arc reactor’s still in his chest. He can feel it. And there are things that only he knows. Things he’s never told anyone. And he remembers them all. Every memory he wishes he could forget, every shameful disappointment, every traumatic experience. How could it be cloned?

It’s not possible. He’s him. He knows that he’s him. ]

There’s got to be some other explanation. You know it’s impossible too. So there’s proof that someone’s found? What if it’s fake? If the kedan or whoever have enough power to involve us in the first place, to reach into other dimensions, they’ve got to have enough power fuck with us and plant false evidence.

Being a clone doesn’t even make sense.

[manofiron]

Probably. I don't see why not. Do you?

[ He's Tony Stark. He can do anything. And he's going to keep telling himself that so he doesn't have to consider the possibility that he can't. ]

[manofiron]

We're talking actual magic here, right? Teleportation. Mind control. Portals to other dimensions. That sort of thing?

[ He's had some weird experiences with magic. ]

[urbanmagic]

I don't think an ice pick works much if the barnacle is as big as you-- and there's the matter of breathing underwater while following a moving turtle. Of course, I'm not an expert of underwater cleaning jobs, so there might be a local solution to that.

[backwordscompatible]

All of the above.

But you'll be happy to know that most of us here are on our best behavior. We've had enough issues with people abusing their powers already.

[Not that she's naming names--COUGHSADIEANDKORRACOUGH--or anything.]

[manofiron]

[ There's a misunderstanding here. Finally Tony sees it and he leans forward in his chair, voice getting subtly softer. He doesn't know how else to break this to her, but he has to try. ]

I know he's not me. But I'm not—The one that disappeared. The one that you and Bruce have been missing? That's not me. That guy's still out there somewhere. Someone's already confirmed that. But it's all right. I told him I'd find him.

[ He's always done the impossible. He can do it here too. ]

And I will, Pepper. I promise. So don't worry, okay? It'll be okay. I'll make it okay.

[manofiron]

JARVIS is actually smarter than Skynet. If he decides that he wants to eradicate the humans from the planet, he's not going to bother with time-traveling robots.

It's a suit. Not a unitard. Do your unitards have missiles? I don't think so.

[ Ah, a fellow geek. Tony grins at him. ] That's exactly the solution.

[manofiron]

Best behavior? Is that fun? I'm not sure that's any fun. The last time someone told me to be on my best behavior I was so bored I fell asleep.

But seriously. Magic users. I've only known a crazy one. What do the rest of you do for fun?

[backwordscompatible]

[You know what, Tony? She's changed her mind. She likes you after all.]

Oh, you know, the usual. Hang out with friends. Go to the park. Bit of crime fighting on the side. Nothing big.

[the_other_eight]

[Jack. Pepper knew it could only be Jack. Besides, she's been watching his network post, making sure that it was really Tony and not another Tony from another dimension.

She frowned, crossing her arms. Tony was stubborn and she knew that.]

Jack was wrong.

[The words are point blank and honest. After all, Pepper doesn't hold punches when it comes to telling Tony things. She's not going to start now. She purses her lips into a pert frown. This whole situation was ridiculous. She could understand it coming about with people he'd met here and who had never known him back home. But with her it was ridiculous and counterproductive.]

He knows the man that was here before, and maybe you'll get to know him again, but that isn't this. I've known you for over ten years, and if I have to choose between you and him; then I choose you.

[manofiron]

I'm not really a normal guy. I mean, if I was, sure. It'd be a problem. But I'm not. Breathing underwater, giant barnacles? I got that covered.

[manofiron]

I do that too. Well, substitute go the bar for go to the park. I don't really go to parks all that much. But I do do a little world saving on the side. You know. Nothing big. Apocalypse prevention. That kind of thing.

We should hang out some time. Can you fly? With your magic, I mean. Because I can fly. We could go flying maybe. That's always fun.

[backwordscompatible]

You too, huh?

[Though no bars for her. Pepper would disapprove, for one.]

Yeah, I can fly. Looking for a race?

[pandoricas]

[More, just for your sake.]

They're harmless, I think, just - hard to control, especially when they multiply that fast.