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cap_ironman2010-05-26 11:15 pm
3490 AU fic part 2
Well, don't celebrate too soon. I'm notorious at being a terrible updater. When I'm inspired, sure, it's all well and good, but when the inspiration stops coming, BOOM.
I'm a baaaad bad fanfiction writer.
Though right now, I'm as drinking up inspiration like Tony Stark drinks coffee.
...... well maybe not that much, but yeah.
Although I may lose my juice, just an FYI, comments make me post faster ;)
Here's part two.
Title: Bridged Gaps (a 3490 fanfiction)
Author: Mozzarellaroses
Rating: For now, PG.
Warning/Spoilers: Alternate Universe, Original Characters and Stark-Rogers kids. And partial canon Pym-bashing and character death.
Pairing: For now, seemingly one-sided Steve/Tony
Word Count:
Beta: I AM a beta. (.... no one. Mistakes are all mine)
A/N: Just to be clear, this is post-Civil war, post-Invasion, post-Dark Reign and such, and Hank's already Scientist Supreme, near the Heroic age, although let's slap continuity in the face and pretend Steve's still Cap. Also, Clint's back to being Hawkeye, although the mighty comics haven't told me what'll happen with two Hawkeyes. A little Steve/Tony here, though I'm terrible at that xP Also, Hank.
Summary: A hero codenamed Super Soldier appears out of nowhere from another universe to stop her world's Hank Pym. Unfortunately, she wasn't the only one who took the bridge.
Enjoy!
Part 2: "A jest falls from the speechless caravan." --Hart Crane, "To Brooklyn Bridge"
~~~
The day wouldn’t be complete without an attack on Midtown Manhattan, but usually, two or four or even six of them could handle it.
Today was not a usual day.
It was the Young Avengers who took the assignment today, a few hundred robots amassing from seemingly nowhere. Shots were fired randomly, structures and cars plowed into. It didn’t seem like there was a point to the attack, all ordered chaos. No supervillain had appeared with ridiculous demands and a twice-as-ridiculous costume, no message delivered by the oddly insect-like machines.
“Don’t you think this seems a little off?” Wiccan voiced the collective concern of the team, searching the swarms for any sign of change as they subdued as many as they could manage.
“You kidding? This is easy.” Speed said, blowing up a number of the human-sized machines that were crawling their way towards the more populated area.
“That’s what he meant, Speed.” Patriot shouted over the explosions. “These are low-grade. They’re not actually trying to do anything.”
“Smell like a distraction to you?” Hawkeye commented.
As though Hawkeye’s words were a trigger, the machines began to shift suddenly, uniformly halting and attaching themselves to the concrete, making various noises that could widely be considered as—
“It’s a countdown! We’ve got bombs, people!” Speed informed loudly.
There was a few dozen of the robots left standing, a few dozen that were viable to explode. They weren’t entirely sure what might be the magnitude of the bombs, but they weren’t ready to find out the hard way.
“Speed, think you could get some of those things out of here?” Patriot asked urgently.
Speed hadn’t replied, taking the final seconds to throw half the swarm into the
The detonation was right on the dot, pushing against the force field that Wiccan had improvised. It was difficult to keep at bay, but he was able to filter out the force enough to keep civilians safe.
Hulkling caught Wiccan as he fell. “Look there!” Stature called out.
The crater that the blast had made seemed to take in what was left of the machinery. Living metal, it seemed like, gathering into a sphere.
“I think we’re gonna need some back up for this one.”
~~~
“Tony, you may want to come see this.”
Tony peered at the screen Clint had pointed out. “It looks like the kids have it under control.” Tony said, surveying the incident in Midtown. “Not that. Look there.” Clint continued, pointing out the crater which housed what was now a dome of something unidentifiable. What was clear, though, was a human figure perched on top of the dome.
“Bring us Ironman! We will only speak to Ironman.” an unnaturally mechanical voice demanded, both male and female overlapping each other in tone.
Tony wasn’t sure how to take this. The machine, or whatever it was, didn’t seem at all familiar, but how many times before had he pissed off people (or otherwise) without knowing it? If whoever was behind this was powerful enough to have a robot armada, maybe it was worth taking a look at.
“No.”
“You can’t seriously believe I won’t at least try to take a look at this.” Tony said, almost surprised at Steve’s reaction.
“If someone or something of this caliber, powerful enough to take out Midtown—” “Well not technically the entire—” “THEN-” Steve continued stonily, “you know it’ll be dangerous. It might be a trap, Tony, and you’d be flying straight into it. We have to find out more about this…. this newcomer before we act.”
“So I take it you want to drag the rest of the team into it.” Tony sighed.
“You know me too well.” Steve murmured. He might have been smiling if not for the situation.
“Well then let’s go. You’re not going to force me to stay here.” Tony said, holding a hand up when Steve tried to protest. “If it makes you feel better, Cap, I’ll keep my distance. I just need to scope out the situation, see what we’re dealing with. If you’re so concerned, then you can protect
Okay, sensitive subject there.
Tony suited up, willing away the thoughts that came with that look on Steve’s face that he couldn’t erase from his mind.
He looked too worried. Cared too much. Tony appreciated it, craved it, but after everything he had done, he deserved nothing of Steve’s concern. People assumed that just because Tony had forgotten, he could move on. Somehow, they had done so, but not Tony. He did not regret his decision, but everything that had happened as an outcome to what he had chosen. Steve dying—
He had come back. Steve and so many others had forgiven Tony, but he wasn’t so ready to do the same.
It was something that left Steve wondering why Tony seemed afraid to meet his eyes at times.
~~~
“What’s the situation?” Steve questioned as soon as they arrived at the scene.
Spiderman had gone ahead, as had Luke Cage, only a little before the rest of the Avengers who had been spared for the mission had arrived with Cap.
“It’s asking for him.” Luke responded, jabbing a finger in Tony’s direction. “Has been for the past twenty minutes. Hasn’t done anything yet, though. You sure it was a good idea to bring him along?”
“I wouldn’t have brought him along if it was my call. Tony says he has to examine it if we’re going to find out what it is and why it’s after him.” Steve responded.
“It hasn’t moved since it formed that sphere.”
They looked up and saw Spiderman hanging from one of the streetlights, tossing up a stone and catching it with one hand. “Far as I’ve seen, and I haven’t seen much since it’s kind of got issues with personal space…”
To demonstrate, he threw the stone as hard as he could in the direction of the dome, watching as it seemed to combust ten feet away from the metallic figure. “The figure looks female, and it’s covered in some living metal. Something’s happening in that dome but I have no idea what it might be.”
“So it wants Stark and won’t be moved til it gets him.” Clint reviewed. He shot an arrow at the figure, one that burned up upon crossing the threshold of the crater. “Got any ideas?” he called up. Ironman landed among the rest. “My scans show that some parts of the tech are very similar to my Extremis armor.” he said, sounding an unnatural mix of intrigued and horrified that only mad geniuses like Tony (and by extension, Hank Pym, Reed Richards and others) could pull off.
“But wasn’t that…. I mean, during the invasion…”
“It was. I was able to regain some use of it, at least for my armor, but not by much. The one there…. It’s much more advanced. By ten years, maybe more.” Tony sounded breathless underneath the armor.
“So… is this a time travel thing?” Spiderman quipped, breaking the silence. “Tell me this isn’t a time travel thing, because seriously— WATCH OUT!!!”
It wasn’t an explosion this time, but it sounded like one. It was deafening, a release of something that wasn’t damaging but threatening all the same. The limbs charged almost too quickly for them to spot. Peter’s spider sense warned him only a second sooner, in the very least warning them before they were injured in the attack.
Steve had jumped out of the way, landing near Luke and Clint. Tony had taken off, hovering at a safe distance. Peter was the first to dodge, giving him enough time to survey the situation.
The situation being that they were suddenly engaged by giant metal tentacles that had formed from the dome.
“It’s after Ironman!” Spiderman warned. “Ironman, get out of here!” Steve ordered, throwing his shield at one of the offending limbs. It cut through, but only for a moment as the metal liquefied at the separation and regenerated, barely slowing down as it ascended toward Ironman.
Tony blasted at the approaching appendages, going farther and farther upward until he was a safe distance from the ground. To his dismay, they still came after him. The machine constantly generated material for the limbs, something Ironman was finding difficult to escape from.
Also, the altitude was getting to him, and it was becoming increasingly difficult to fly at that height. He had to find another way before this machine forced him into the exosphere.
He dove down, away from the attacking appendages, going instead for the river, where he might be able to divert the machine from populated areas, at least.
Unfortunately, the limbs seemed to gain velocity, inching closer as he sped up.
“Shit.” Tony muttered just when he felt something strike his left heel. It was all that registered right before he was caught, whipped down by the force of the grapple. He crashed, making a sizeable crater in the side of a building, as material slipped off the limb and formed into what was decidedly female.
No face, though. Only cold, unfeeling metal. It reached for him, uttering “Stark” in that strange voice. Tony felt pain immediately as it brushed its hand against the helmet, his armor systems malfunctioning hazardously. If he couldn’t break out of this, who knew what could happen to his body systems?
The thought was cut clean off when the being in front of him began to degenerate, suddenly, melting into the ground and retreating. Where it had been standing, a bullet was deposited onto the ground in front of Ironman. The round was glowing blue, made up of nanomachinery that was feeding signals into it. It must have been what stopped the living metal’s movement.
Tony struggled to regain control of the armor, getting up with some difficulty. He was surprised by a grip on his gauntlet as he was pulled up, something that a normal person shouldn’t be able to do. He found himself face to face (or helmet to mask) with a female who wore dark blue, decorated in the front with white and red stripes, leading up to a star surrounded by a circle on the center of her chest.
Her mask encompassed her whole face, hair and all. Only her build could clue anyone in to who she might be, but nothing came to mind for Tony.
“Are you okay?” she asked, her voice sounding somewhat raspy and low. Like someone who was used to shouting, maybe.
“Yeah, I’m fine. Thanks for that.” Tony said. “How did you—” he began. “We’ve faced this threat before. Well, my mother did, anyway. She made these bullets as a precaution in case it might return.” was the quick reply.
In truth, Tony wanted to ask how she was able to lift the armor, and him in it, without any difficulty. “Who are you?” he questioned instead. “Me? I’m y- I’m Super Soldier.” the other responded. “Where’d you come from?” Tony asked.
“Far as I can see?” Super Soldier surveyed the area, watching as the rest of the team approached. “From the future.”
Tony was tempted to laugh at how seriously she had said it, but with what they had faced before, it shouldn’t be a surprise to him now. Super Soldier. If she was from the future, she might have a connection to Cap. She’d helped him, but they had to be sure of her intentions before he could trust her.
“Ironman, are you all right?” Captain
“Yeah. The thing, woman, whatever it was; it appeared here when it caught me. It was trying to do something to my systems when Super Soldier here saved me.” Ironman said, gesturing to the dark-clothed super beside him.
Super Soldier nodded as if in greeting.
“Super Soldier?” Clint said questioningly.
“She’s from the future.” Ironman responded shortly, as if that explained everything.
“I suppose I should explain in a little more detail.” Super Soldier said quickly, holding her hands out placidly. “You must want to ask a few questions.”
“More than a few, Super Soldier. But not here.” Captain
~~~
Tony was feeling a little out of it. He had been since the blow their opponent had dealt him. It was disconcerting. The pain, the damage it could have caused…. Such advancements were something he should have been ready for, but it was something years before his time.
They were still in costume in the meeting room. They were there to question Super Soldier, about herself AND the thing they had fought earlier. She was surprisingly cooperative, eager even, to help out. There was a guarded air about her though, and Tony knew that if the information had mattered to her, she wouldn’t have given it up so easily.
“It’s called Oedipus. That was what it was called in the files, anyway.” Super Soldier began, rubbing her forehead to jog her memory.
“Oedipus? Wasn’t he the one who killed his father and—” Spiderman started. “I don’t really want to think of the implications of his name. Its name. My mother created it, originally. It was an extension to Extremis.” Super Soldier explained, looking at Ironman.
“How did your mother even know how Extremis works?” Ironman asked. Super Soldier ignored the question in favor of continuing. “It was a Reboot to Extremis. REX was sort of its nickname. It was supposed to widen the use of Extremis. At the time, it was exclusive to Ironman and the armor, but my mother wanted to improve its interfacing capacity. REX was a prototype to a completed program. It was an AI, a mistake my mother never committed again.”
“It went rogue and used Reed Richards’ bridge to escape to another dimension. That was years ago, for me. About fifteen years ago.”
“Bridge? You mean Reed Richards created a machine to travel dimensions?” Spiderman piped up.
“Continuities, universes. Possibilities, yes. We lost mom for two months. My father was able to bring her back then. It must have landed her in a rift in space time. Sent her to the past as well as to another universe. Right now, I must be overlapping with her trip here.” Super Soldier went on, sounding as though she only just found out these things herself.
She cradled her head in her hands. “Oedipus took her here. The one from before wasn’t just Oedipus. It was…. it was my mother’s form Oedipus was using. It has her, but I don’t know how to get her back. The worst part is that I’m not sure if this will resolve itself, because I came here for different reasons. This… this isn’t something I planned for.”
“Why did you come here, then, if not for that?” Clint asked.
Super Soldier looked up. “I came here to capture someone who escaped from SHIELD about a week ago in my world. And I have to find our Reed Richards.” she answered.
“How can we be sure we can trust you?” Jessica Drew said from where she sat at the end of the table. Super Soldier’s mask crinkled. She might have smiled. “I don’t know, really. Whether you trust me or not, though, I know who you all are.” she said.
“Steve Rogers, Captain America.” she began. “Tony Stark, Ironman. James Rhodes, War Machine. Clint Barton, Hawkeye. Jessica Drew, Spiderwoman. Peter Parker, Spiderman. Luke Cage, Powerman, Jessica Jones, the Jewel, and Danny Rand, Iron Fist. The list goes on.”
“I think we’re convinced. What about you, then?” Steve said.
Super Soldier leaned back. “What about me?”
“Any name under that mask? You have to be more specific, Steve.” Came a voice from the door.
It was like Pavlov’s bell, almost. A trigger. Super Soldier suddenly crouched onto her chair and jumped, charging at Hank Pym, who had just come through the door.
“Hank!”
Spiderman caught Super Soldier with his webs, right as she wrestled Hank to the ground, pinning his hands behind his back. “Super Soldier! Stop! What are you doing?”
She struggled against the webbing, but Peter was able to hold her long enough to get her attention back. “It’s him! He’s the one who caused this!” she said viciously, already cutting off the webbing.
“Super Soldier, calm down. It’s not what you think. Hank’s one of us.” Ironman said quickly, helping Hank up with one hand and holding his other hand up to keep her away.
Super Soldier seemed to calm down at that, but the glare she must have donned almost burned through her mask. She removed the rest of the webbing, but she didn’t charge again.
“Whoa. What did I do?” Hank asked, genuinely unaware.
Super Soldier took a deep breath, trying to keep herself at bay. “I’m……. I’m sorry. I must have mistaken you for someone else. Actually, for yourself, but…. I’m sorry. It’s this whole alternate universe thing, it’s getting to
“No, it’s…. it’s fine. I was keeping track of the conversation from the surveillance. So you’re from another world?” Hank said haltingly.
“Yeah. Yeah, I… I’ll sit down.” Super Soldier responded, just as haltingly. “God, this is worse than finding out my godfather dated Squirrel Girl.” she joked under her breath.
“So…” Peter said after a moment. “A name?”
Super Soldier seemed to snap out of her self-induced reverie. “Oh. Right. Maria. My name is Maria.” she replied. She reached up to remove her mask. “I…. Well.”
She pulled it back, and it seemed to shift to her neckline, disappearing into the material as though it was made that way. The face that looked back at them was shocking for everyone.
“You look just like Tony.”
Of course, Peter had to be the one to say it.
It was true; Maria had the same cheekbones, the same black hair and well formed face. Even the blue eyes. She was, for all intents and purposes, a female Tony Stark.
“You don’t know how many times I’ve been told that.” Maria said, sighing. She looked expectantly at Ironman, who took it as a cue to remove his own helmet. The expression he was met with, though, was that of alarm, something of confusion.
“I…” she trailed off and stood, sighing quietly.
“Are you my daughter?” Tony blurted out suddenly.
No one called him out for it, though. They all must have been thinking the same thing. The look on Maria’s face resembled that of a trapped animal.
“I mean…” Tony said slowly. “Am I your father? You said you were from the future, and you look…”
“No.” Maria said, her shoulders falling. “You’re not my father.” she said quickly.
Tony didn’t realize how relieved he was until he sat down, and felt ashamed for it.
“Okay. So who is your father?” Clint asked.
Maria glanced to Steve, almost imperceptibly, but Steve caught the glance.
“….. Super Soldier. Maria. Are you my daughter?” he asked cautiously.
Maria nodded. “Yes. My name is Maria Liberty Rogers.” she said. Clint snorted at the second name. “
The tension seemed to shift, at least away from Maria. She smiled. “This is all still too strange, but I hope you’ll trust me on this one. I want to get back to my home, but I also want to help you with Oedipus. If I stay, I might get a lead on Ha- on the guy I chased all the way out here.”
A number of concerns remained unspoken, but the meeting was dissolved with some satisfaction.
Some. Unfortunately, Steve could not take part in that. He looked at Maria with wide eyes. She looked nothing like him, except maybe for the eyes. Now that he looked, he noted that the eyes were exactly like his. Same with her complexion. But she looked so much like Tony that it almost painful.
Steve…. Steve loved Tony. He’d be damned if he didn’t admit it to himself, but he did.
Ever since the war, though, things seemed to have changed. Steve had hoped (selfishly, but still, he had hoped) that Tony’s memory loss might let them go back to their old friendship. He had recorded important events, so of course he’d remember a number of things, but the guilt was obviously eating at him, even now.
Too many times, Steve had almost lost his best friend, and somewhere along the way, every strike out, every moment Tony could have died, Steve counted as another moment he realized that he loved him. That he was in love. In love with Tony Stark, of all people.
And now, realizing he had a daughter… what could have happened? He knew things could change, but he loved Tony too much to find someone else.
“Penny for your thoughts?”
Steve looked up as Tony entered the kitchen.
“I’m just a little…. jarred is all.” Steve responded. He handed Tony his coffee. Steve had mastered the coffee machine (meaning, he had learned how to make coffee and ignored the rest of the complicated settings) enough to make himself and Tony some when they needed it. In Tony’s case, that was all the time, although Steve joked that he needed the practice anyway.
“I get the feeling. I mean, I got it, for a second there. She seems like a good kid, Steve. I mean, technically, she’s twenty-something, but still a kid. She’s obviously well-trained, a real soldier, and her heart’s in the right place, far as I can tell. In some ways, she kind of does remind me of you.” Tony said, some fondness in his tone that Steve may or may not have imagined.
“She’s as strong as you, too.” Tony added as an afterthought.
“It’s just….” She looks like she could be our child if—“… she’s a super soldier. I know it shouldn’t bother me, but it does. My power was transferred genetically, my responsibility put on the shoulders of a kid. I had enough control, but she grew up that way, Tony. She grew up with more power than a kid should have.”
Steve was concerned about that, but not primarily. Masking the subject of Tony with that of Maria’s power, he was able to convince Tony that that was all he was worrying about.
“She seems to be fine now. You’re over-thinking this.” Tony said.
He smiled when he met Steve’s eyes, somewhat comforting.
“I don’t think you should worry, though. She looks stressed enough as it is without you stressing for her. Let’s try to help her out, how about?”
Hank Pym was a little more than disconcerted, having Super Soldier—Maria—in the same room, sitting across from him on one of the loveseats.
“I’m going to take a guess and say that the villain you chased into that Bridge was me.” Hank said when he caught her staring for the nth time.
Maria still looked wary as she nodded. Hank felt something cold wash over his gut. “What happened? What did I do? You seemed pretty damn pissed with me when I came in the first time.” he asked.
“What you did…. was pretty bad. It wasn’t you, though. Another you. I mean, I’m sure we’ve all got a bad version of us tucked in some weird reality. I…. you wouldn’t want to know.” she said. “Really, you wouldn’t.” she said when he opened his mouth to speak.
“Then… mind telling me about your world?” Hank said, genuinely interested. Maria seemed to brighten up just a little.
“Yes. I mean, no. I wouldn’t mind. I’d like that. I’ve only been here a day, and I’m already missing it.” she said. Hank opened his arms in a gesture of welcoming. “Fire away. I’m all ears. Details about the bridge wouldn’t be too bad either. I can’t believe Reed found a way to bridge universes.”
“Well, as soon as he did, we had to put it away. With the incident with my mother… It was too much of a risk. It released creatures from pocket dimensions which were feral. Some of them imploded after prolonged contact with the high levels of nitrogen in the atmosphere. Some attacked people, plain and simple. It was a clusterfuck of plagues and it took nearly half a year to resolve everything.” Maria said, leaning back into the cushion.
“Put it away. Huh.” Hank tried not to sound too disappointed.
“Well obviously, we should have dismantled it.” Maria muttered.
“But then you wouldn’t have found us here. Truth be told, you’re interesting. Like a blessing, if you’re going to help us with this…. this Oedipus issue. Terribly convenient, isn’t it?” Hank said.
“Yeah. Convenient. Convenience hasn’t been all that kind to me. To my mother or my brothers and sisters.” Maria murmured.
“You have brothers and sisters?” Hank said, surprised.
Maria smirked. “Shocking, I know.”
“How many?” Hank asked.
Maria held up a hand and held up fingers, counting; one, two, three, four, five.
She held up the other hand and continued on until eight.
Hank whistled. “Wow. And you’re the eldest?” Maria nodded smugly. “Steve’s been a busy man.” Hank said, laughing. Maria chuckled. “Well…. he is the director of SHIELD.” she said.
“You’re not joking?”
“No.” she said. And then, “You know, this is giving me déjà vu. I’m quite sure I had alcohol the last time I was this chatty about… anything worth talking about, though.”
“I don’t think Steve would appreciate me getting his daughter drunk, but I think I can spare us a bottle.” Hank said, getting up.
As he got to the door, Maria called, “I’m glad you’re a good person here, Hank.”
By her tone, she meant it, but that just made Hank feel more discomfited.
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thanks
Thanks for the comment and compliment.
Re: thanks
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I can't wait until they find out WHO her mother is...
hahah
.... although it COULD be nine XD Let's just stick with nine. I just picked a number under ten. I only actually have three of the kids made up. I'll make up the others as I go along if they become important.
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This isn't bad (seriously 6 comments can't be wrong)
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I'm trying to keep this going, but it's getting bumpy xP
Thanks for your comment.
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And aw, I like Maria's interactions with Hank, post-realizing he wasn't the villainous version she's chasing.
I like the balance between action up at the top of the chapter, and then exposition, dialogue, and Steve and Tony's inner angst.
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I'm gonna try keeping up the balance over the next chapters, but I seem to be putting in too much dialogue and not enough action XD