Fanfic #130 Convergence by Saucy(WormXMCU)

This fanfic is a crossover between Worm and the MCU with Tony Stark in the world of Worm. I really like this fic because it's a type of crossover I've never really seen before and it's doing really well of developing the crossover world.

Synopsis: The universe is filled with an infinite number of possibilities, an infinite number of 'what ifs'. Some for the better. Some for the worse. In this world, Thanos made one choice that changed everything for Two Earths.

Rated: M

words: 44k

https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/convergence-a-worm-mcu-crossover.964973/reader/

Here's the first chapter:

As Tony went for another flyby, trying to shake the cobwebs out of his head and ignore the fact that, oh, the suit was compromised yet again, and the nanites weren't self-replicating fast enough to keep up with the amount of damage the suit was taking, only one thought filled his mind. One single sentence dominated his consciousness.

"This sack-chinned asshole threw the moon at me."

Indeed, he'd known from how everyone talked about Thanos that the Stones were gonna make him a toughie to deal with, but holy shit. He'd flown through space. He'd held up a nation that was literally forced into the air. He'd busted his ass for YEARS trying to prevent this exact scenario, or at least preparing for it, but what Tony Stark had NOT been prepared for was having an entire moon land on his head.

The suit was not going to be able to take that twice. Not that he could see another moon within short range of Titan, but frankly, Tony wasn't even sure that would restrict Thanos.

Below him, Grimace the Purple Milkshake Thief was clenching his fist for another big move. Might even be the one that he'd been warned about, the whole 'erase half of the entirety of existence in the snap of a finger' thing. He wondered if Thanos was about to literally snap.

Because Tony sure was. For a given definition of 'snap' anyway.

Casting off some of the nanite armor, Tony watched as the microdrones closed in on Thanos' pimp glove, holding it open as the Purple People Beater looked back up at him like one would look at a particularly disrespectful child. With what wasn't the most awe-inspiring superhero landing he'd ever pulled off, Tony stated his feelings on the matter succinctly.

"You throw another moon at me," he seethed, as he stood back to full height, "and I'm gonna lose it."

There was the briefest of pauses. Thanos squinted at him, before something dawned on him. Realization. Familiarity, even.

"Stark..." Thanos muttered, and oh, shit, Tony did not like it when a guy who could literally throw the moon at you knew you by name before you even introduced yourself.

"You know me?" Tony asked, keeping the impassive mask presented by the suit up for as long as he could. He wouldn't be rattled that easy.

"I do," Thanos replied, his expression cold steel as Tony's own. "You're not the only one cursed with knowledge."

Well, Tony would be touched if it weren't for the fact that the knowledge he had been cursed with was not imparted to him by and/or regarding this genocidal, wrinkled purple thumb that had been haunting him since New York. Years, now, he'd been stuck wondering when the other shoe was gonna drop after the Chitauri got knocked off Earth. While Ultron threw his toys out the pram, while Cap went gallivanting off on some moral crusade, Tony waited. He watched, and he waited, he tapped his foot impatiently for the end of the fucking world and now, said end of the world had the audacity to compare himself to Tony Stark.

Tony had pulled himself out of the wreckage wrought by his own hands with a suit of armor made in a cave from a box of scrap metal, live wires, and a heart hooked up to a car battery. He had saved the world, repeatedly. He had privatized world peace, and then given it away for free. He had given up on merchandising death, and started selling the world on heroes, all without asking for anything in return, even as his friends turned on him, even as he had to accept that no matter what he did, all of it was in service of this moment, a moment that he wasn't even sure he was going to make it out of alive.

And Thanos thought he had anything on him.

"My only curse is you."

And with that, the micro-missiles he'd been locking in launched. It wouldn't be enough to stop Thanos, not even close. But it'd distract him for a moment, give him an opening. That was all he needed. He didn't doubt that if he survived the particularly creative interpretation of 'moon landing', the others had too. He just had to hold out long enough to ensure that they could jump back in.

Speaking of jumping back in, the moment the missiles detonated in a cloud of smoke and dust, Tony launched himself feet-first at his target. He formed a landing pad between his feet to brace his legs and add a little extra spice, but even with the extra padding the thump of hitting the wall of muscle that was Thanos reverberated through his body. Thanos quickly rebounded, standing back up straight and rearing back for a shot, but Tony was quicker. He'd already formed up a ram on either arm, launching them forward with repulsor fire and slamming Thanos back into the rock outcropping behind him.

'Press forward, press forward, don't let him-'

Thanos' hand shot out as Tony went in for another hit, and the big guy quite simply, for lack of a better word, ripped his face off. Tony's helmet was gone, his eyes meeting Thanos' directly as the genocidal maniac reared back for another punch, one that Tony was only barely able to block. And by 'block', he meant catch it with the helmet that formed starting at the side of his face instead of with his face directly. Lucky him, for judging by how hard he'd hit the ground, Thanos probably would have broken his neck like a twig if he'd landed flush.

"Ow." He grunted, wincing as he scrambled to his feet, hearing Thanos rip the nanite 'glove' off his hand as he readied himself for the follow-up.

"Armor integrity at 80 percent, Mr. Stark." FRIDAY chimed in.

"Thought it'd be lower," Tony replied as Thanos wound up, his power glove once again glowing purple. Power Stone, or at least that's what Tony thought that one did. It certainly felt accurate. Tony threw up a shield just as the beam made contact, the suit immediately flashing warnings and failsafes in front of his face as he tried to hold back the beam, a futile effort at best. He could feel the dirt grinding away beneath his feet, watch the nanites burn and fall off his shield.

Okay. New plan.

Taking a quick spin, Tony allowed the shield to separate from the suit, the beam still connected to it as he charged in and redirected some of the remaining nanites to his foot, creating a 'root' around his foot as he swung for the fences, catching Thanos' glove with the kick and pinning it to the ground.

'Snap this, asshole.'

Another ram, and another haymaker. This one rocked Thanos, at least as far as Tony could see it, and left a trail of purplish-red liquid on the end of his arm and on Thanos' cheek.

He'd hurt him.

Barely.

"All that for a drop of blood," Thanos noted, and Tony's heart sank with each syllable. If this is what it took just to nick him, how much was it gonna take to win?

More than Tony had, he realized. Way more.

'Any minute now guys. Any minute now.'

And then he was flying. Not under his own power, mind, no, Thanos had literally just thrown him head over heels like a small child and slammed him straight into the ground with his fist, knocking the wind out of him.

"Suit integrity at 75 percent."

Another fist came down, then another, each punch harder than the last. 71 percent. 67percent. 62 percent. 59 percent.

Then, his gauntlet started glowing. Thanos reared back slowly, or at least, it seemed slow, but maybe it was just the pain dulling his senses.

Tony had no idea why the fuck Thanos was taking so long, but, as it stood, it was clearly apparent that he could do nothing about it. He tried to put his hands up, to stop the blow, but it landed flush, and Tony felt as if he'd been sent into a garbage compactor, everything around him slowing down and distorting as he met Thanos' eye, and the gigantic purple asshole cracked him a grin. A grin. He tried to pull up a nanite blade, going for a last-ditch stab at Thanos that he just barely mistimed, and the blade broke, goddammit and now-

Pain.

Searing, blinding pain, starting at his stomach and spreading outwards instantaneously.

Tony looked down. Saw the blade jutting from his stomach.

'I just got stabbed with my own arm.'

"You have my respect, Stark," he said, and then, Tony saw stars. His vision went fuzzy, his hearing went dull, and he felt something grip him by the shoulder. He could vaguely make out Thanos speaking to him, barely see him looking down at him like a parent would look at a misbehaving child.

'God, I hate you, you smug purple jackass.'

"When I'm done," he said, "half of humanity will still be alive."

Oh, like that was supposed to be reassuring. 'Oh, I'm about to murder three and a half billion people or so, but it's cool, I'm sparing the other half. I'm a nice guy!' Of course.

Thanos took a step back, the gauntlet charging up as Thanos moved to finish him off.

"I hope they remember you."

Patronizing. Reminded Tony of someone he knew, a long time ago. Except Obie didn't want to erase half the universe, but hell, what was one last throwback before the end of-

"S-stop!" the wizard- or sorcerer, or doctor, or whatever he was- Strange. Strange interrupted him. He sounded weak. Battered. Evidently, he'd only just gotten back up from getting Moon Dropped.

Thanos looked over to him, and Tony did the same.

"Spare his life..." he continued, gulping in a deep breath and leaning back against the broken mantle behind him, "...and I'll give you the stone."

What? No, no no no no no, bad idea. Not that Tony wasn't for bad ideas that would save his skin, but just this once, his skin wasn't that important. Bad idea. VERY bad idea. He was literally about to be one stone away from being able to complete his plan, why would you just GIVE him another stone, just run, teleport away, do anything BUT reveal that you're still alive and give him the damn stone.

Thanos seemed incredulous, quirking his brow at the Wizard of Oz over there. "No tricks?" he asked.

Strange nodded.

Tony tried to protest, but all he could muster was a weak, gurgling 'Don't'. He could taste the blood in his mouth, feel it splash over his lips. Shit, shit, shit, shit shit he was going to die anyway just don't give him the stone-

Thanos extended his gloved fist, and Strange lifted his own, conjuring the stone from thin air in front of his face. As the big guy extended his other hand, Strange let the stone go, allowing it to travel towards Thanos as Tony weakly tried to protest, barely managing to get out a choked gasp.

The stone fit into the groove over the gauntlet's thumb. A green pulse washed over Thanos, causing him to wince, and underneath the buzzing and thrumming in his ears Tony heard a low hum that most definitely was not part of the blunt force trauma or the onset of shock.

"Oh, boy."

Sounding distant, yet right next to him, Tony watched arcs of light pass over his head. Star-Lord was back up, taking a few last potshots at Thanos, but all that really did was piss Big Purple off.

Rather than just walk away, though, Thanos looked down at Tony, scorn filling his features.

"So be it."

The Time and Space Stones began to glow, and beams of light shot out from the gauntlet in all different directions, one of them smashing directly into Tony's face.

The world went white.

Later

Wakanda

​

"BRING ME THANOS!"

It was the roar of a beast starving for blood, of a man too-long denied his vengeance.

For too long, Thanos had rampaged across the Nine Realms. For too long, he'd killed, ravaged, and destroyed, a swathe of destruction long and deep betwixt him and his inevitable goal. Half of life in the universe, gone in an instant, should the Mad Titan have his way.

Thor had faced him once, on the Statesman. There, Thanos had tried to take everything from him. He had slain Heimdall and Loki, laid low the people of Asgard, who now struggled to find a home on Earth safe from destruction and further devastation.

A manuscript of Men he'd read once, said to be penned by the inspiration of a god, claimed 'Vengeance is mine'. Whoever that god might be, Thor could not help but identify with him. The rabbit and the tree were right beside him as he stepped out from the charred earth that bore the scars of the Bifrost. However, he could not wait for them. Thanos breathed, Thanos walked, and that alone was a great offense to him. He would not allow it to stand any longer, and the fury of the storm coursed through his veins, the God of Thunder living up to his lofty title as he soared into the air, Stormbreaker ablaze with thunder and Hel as he swung to the ground. One of Thanos' foot-soldiers crumpled under the weight of the blade as a shockwave burst from the point of impact, dispersing most of his comrades. What few were not slain outright were struck by bolts of lightning that seemed to descend from Heaven itself. None would escape Thor's wrath this day.

One by one, body by body, war machine by war machine, the Avengers tore through Thanos' hordes. They would sing songs of this battle, perhaps, if they won. The old Thor, the one that had been banished from Asgard to live among mortals and learn humility, would have loved to hear those songs. The Thor of now, wounded and wroth, had no desire to hear anything save for the breath of life leaving Thanos' lungs.

Stormbreaker swung true, the heavier haft and sturdier stave of the greataxe as familiar and comfortable as Mjolnir had once been, if a bit less elegant. The God of Thunder sailed through the wind, lightning crackling and thunder booming around him as he called upon the storm to guide his blade. His friends charged on, the path cleared for them as they sought out the answer to the only question on Thor's mind. Thanos. Where was he?

Thor surveyed the battlefield, his eyes darting between the various cohorts of Thanos' army before finally settling on a distant glow. The Infinity Stones, perhaps. Thor would not allow him to go unpunished for a minute longer.

And so, he flew.

Airships and strange, flying pillars that appeared to act as transports blocked his path, but nothing would stop the raging storm. A single swing of Stormbreaker cleaved those pillars in twain, and bolts of lightning emanating from his body sent pilots sailing through the air, skin charred and blackened. All the while, Thor could hardly be bothered. Thanos was the only thing on his mind, the object of all the rage that had been building over what felt like years, but had only been days. As he searched through the skies for the signs of his quarry, he tore through Thanos' ranks, occasionally seeing Sam Wilson and the War Machine flying past him, their firearms alight as they helped to stem the tide of the aerial assault.

There.

In the distance, the glow grew brighter, a flash of light that lasted but for the briefest of moments.

Thanos.

Thor launched himself higher into the air, twirling Stormbreaker in his right hand and building up a charge as he sought a view through the thick treeline of the outskirts of Wakanda, taking his aim just as he saw the faintest hint of purple in a clearing beneath him. Pointing his weapon to the foe, he fired off the collected lightning and surged forth, the wind whipping in his face and the thunder roaring in his ears as he watched the divine bolt surge towards its target, sending Thanos crashing to the ground and sliding back further into the treeline, struggling to get back to his feet and fight back the onslaught.

Thor could not take any chances. Lifting Stormbreaker over his head, he hurled it down to the earth, a beam of violet energy, no doubt from the gauntlet on Thanos' fist, catching it mid swing but quickly dissipating in the wake of Thor's descent. The axe fell, and with it, the god of Thunder, until he heard it.

A roar of agony.

A blade tearing through flesh and metal.

Thor grinned.

His descent halted, Thor watched as the Titan dropped to a knee, Stormbreaker buried in his chest, and his smile faded. He strode forward purposefully, wondering if he should just end it now, channel his power through Stormbreaker and destroy the fell heart of this tyrant in one fell swoop.

'No', he reasoned with himself, 'that would be too quick. I told him already. I'll make this slow.'

Thor reached out slowly, and wrapped his arm around Thanos' neck, as if he didn't have all the hatred for him that the Nine Realms could hope to contain. Though he grabbed the blade, the Titan couldn't hope to wrench it free in his current state. Thor leaned in, his voice low and seething with rage as he spoke.

"I told you," he reminded him, his voice devolving into a wrathful growl, "you'd die for that."

Then, he pulled. The blade sunk deeper, scraping and scratching against bone and rending flesh, and Thanos screamed. He screamed until the breath left his lungs and it devolved into a low, hollow groan, rasping and weak. It was almost as if, in his pathetic state, he was trying to speak. Thor simply kept his hand on Stormbreaker, watching Thanos weaken with every passing second.

"Y....Y'...shd've..." he rasped, trying to find the breath to say something, anything. Thor didn't care. He could see the life leaving his eyes, the breath leaving his lungs, every struggle for precious air he could feel against the fist he had firmly clenched around Stormbreaker. After all of this... Loki, Heimdall, the people of Asgard... would be allowed to rest. Over these past days, Thor had failed many people many times. This time, though, he would triumph. Earth would not suffer Asgard's fate.

"You should have gone for the head," Thanos finally managed to struggle out, his left hand rising in the corner of Thor's vision. Though the God of Thunder heard him, what was happening only registered as he, of all the things, prepared to snap his fingers.

Not just one stone, but all of them, began to glow.

He had all the stones. The Avengers had failed, he had all the stones.

Snap.

"NO!" Thor shouted, reaching out his hand far too late, the flash of the gauntlet blinding him momentarily as... something happened. Instinctively, he took a step back, covering his eyes and trying to regain his wits until at last, his vision returned to him. What Thanos had done, Thor was not sure... but it couldn't be anything good.

His eyes immediately fell on the gauntlet, smoking and smoldering, its bronzed surface now charred and mangled against Thanos' hand. His forearm was equally scorched and scarred. Whatever he'd done had taken an immense amount of power from the Stones, and yet…

"What did you do?" Thor asked, his eyes shifting from the gauntlet to the steely gaze of Thanos. "WHAT DID YOU DO!?"

Thanos had no answer for him, his expression still a grimace of pain as he stepped back from Thor, Stormbreaker falling from his chest as a portal opened behind him, and he fell gracelessly back into it. Before Thor could even think of following him, he was gone.

Stormbreaker clanged against the ground. Useless.

The funny thing about travelling through space-time was how desolate it was. Tony hadn't realized just how much so, mainly because he'd never thought he'd be travelling through space time up until this exact moment.

That being said, there was, indeed, a first time for everything, and as much as he wanted to try and reverse course and try to go back and hit Thanos from the other side of space-time, FRIDAY and the suit were not exactly cooperating. He was still shedding nanites, likely a side effect of getting hit so hard you broke the universe in the process, and he had no idea where he was going to land. Time of the dinosaurs? Totally different planet on the ass end of the solar system, or even father? The edge of the universe?

He had no idea, and while Tony wasn't the type of guy to admit he was afraid of something, more likely he'd word it as that he was 'aware of it and preparing for it', he was scared out of his mind about where he was going to end up, because wherever he ended up there was no telling how long it was going to take him to get back.

And Tony wasn't entirely sure the rest of the Avengers were going to be able to beat Thanos.

Tony managed to struggle his way into looking at his stomach, and noted, somehow, the wound was gone. Apparently, despite throwing a temper tantrum over Star-Lord taking a potshot at him, he still honored his word. Nice touch, aside from the fact that he was about to, you know, murder half the world's population.

"FRIDAY?" Tony asked, finding his voice in spite of the immense strain his body, and by extension, the suit, found itself under. "How we doin'?"

"Integrity at 52 percent and dropping, Mr. Stark," she replied. Not great numbers, but better than he honestly thought it was going to be. "Unable to get a lock on our current coordinates."

"Not surprised, we're kinda hurtling through space-time right now. Any idea on how we're gonna get out of this?"

"Running simulations now, Mr. Stark. Initial results inconclusive."

"Figures."

A few more dreary minutes passed before, without warning, the pressure lifted, the light dissipated, and Tony found himself staring at the sky. It was somewhat overcast, a bit windy, bit of moisture fogging up the visor on his helmet as it formed to protect his face from the whipping winds.

"Well, that's great. FRIDAY, where are we?"

"Rhode Island, Mr. Stark. I don't recognize this area."

"That's crazy, I gave you a literal onboard GPS, FRIDAY, come on."

"Mr. Stark, I'm attempting to triangulate our position, but I have no access to any global positioning systems. I'm collecting observational data from the nanites in the suit. I think we came out somewhere over Providence, but we're headed towards the coast."

"Right, right, that's something, do I have propulsion?"

"Shifting power to propulsion systems."

With that, Tony could feel the nanites crawling across his battered, frayed bodysuit. He felt the armor form up around his arms, legs, and upper torso, focusing on delivering thrust over protection. Only his upper visor remained on his head, giving him and FRIDAY both eyes, sharing data between them. He wasn't in any real danger right now, anyhow, so he wasn't particularly worried about-

Oh.

Tony watched as, on the coastline, a storm was brewing. That was normal, the Atlantic had plenty of storms, but what wasn't normal was that this storm was approaching the coastline at a pace that was far too quick to be natural.

"Uh, FRIDAY, you see that, right?"

"I highly doubt such a volatile, mobile weather pattern is a result of natural causes, sir."

"Any local chatter that might give us an idea?"

"I... sir, this is all similar technology to our own. Just a bit older. I'm tossing you a feed now."

"You're a doll, FRIDAY. Let's take a looksie."

Immediately, Tony's screen was awash with transparent news displays from across the Eastern Seaboard, but the one Friday gave the most prominence to was a feed from 'Brockton Bay'. Interesting. Not a town he'd ever heard of. Almost all of the feeds said the same thing. Leviathan approaching. Seek shelter further inland if you can, evacuate to designated shelters if you can't. Brockton Bay seemed to be the projected destination of this 'Leviathan', but everyone else was apparently clenching too.

"I'm guessing that storm out on the water has something to do with 'Leviathan', then," Tony noted as he watched the news banners. It was May 15th, 2011, and Tony knew he wasn't in Kansas, or rather, his usual Earth anymore, because he didn't hear shit about a Leviathan in 2011.

"Safe bet, sir. Do you want me to patch you in to the locals?"

"No, doubt they'll believe what's happening here, and they've got bigger fish to fry. Can you get any kind of tracking on our position?"

"It would take some time, Mr. Stark, but I could try and breach the area's GPS network."

"Do it, if you can get me an ETA on when the Big One's gonna hit Brockton Bay, I'd appreciate it. We're going down there."

"Mr. Stark, the suit is only going to be capable of approximately 40 percent combat functionality. We're barely equipped to handle an Ultron-level threat, let alone the projected damage being fed. I'm running sims now, but our options don't look good."

"Well, we can't really turn around and go home now, can we, FRIDAY? Can I get some damage calcs while you're at it?"

"Already done. This 'Leviathan' sunk the entire islands of Kyushu and Newfoundland. Tens of millions of dead between the two incidents. About 30 feet tall, 50 from head to tail. This isn't the kind of fight you're used to, Mr. Stark."

"I don't really think it's gonna do me a lot of good to go around asking people to send me home if all the people are dead, FRIDAY."

"Sir, it appears that there are already superpowered individuals on site, according to these reports. Various powers and abilities, various different scales, but there's got to be dozens."

"Well, then, share the love. Besides, that means a non-zero chance there's someone with timey-wimey space shenanigans that can send me home, am I right, Friday?"

"It's a non-zero percent chance, sir. 5.3 to be precise."

"See, what did I tell ya, think about the positive."

Think about the positive, Tony said. Think about the positive, as it was very possible that in the time it took Tony to beat this particular island-destroying monstrosity, Thanos might have won. Half of humanity might be gone. A half that might include Steve, or Bruce, or Nick, or Happy or Pep or Peter-

'Tony, focus, there's nothing you can do right now,' he tried to assure himself, but that just made it worse the longer he thought about it. Nothing he could do to stop what was happening back home, nothing he could do to prevent the very disaster he'd been trying to stop since New York, goddammit, everything he'd done from Ultron, to the Superhero Registration Act, EVERYTHING was to try and prepare for Thanos, to be ready for when he came to make good on the Chitauri invasion, and Tony wasn't even going to be there to make that final stand.

Not that he did much good before he had the Time Stone. Genocide Grimace beat Tony's ass like he owed Ronald McDonald money.

"Mr. Stark, your heart rate is elevated," FRIDAY contributed, concern etched into her tinny, robotic voice. Man, Tony really had gone and given robots hearts, too. "Are you sure you can do this?"

"I'm gonna have to, FRIDAY," he replied solemnly. "I want you pulling up whatever intel you've got on Leviathan's abilities, tactics, how they've beat him before, IF they beat him before, I want an idea of who I'm working with, and, most importantly, I wanna know how I look."

"You have severe bruising and a few cuts, but otherwise, you look ready for an introduction, Mr. Stark."

"And that's why you're my second best girl. No offense."

"None taken, sir. I've found a large concentration of energy that could be a group of the aforementioned locals. Would you like to head to their location?"

"Let's do it."

A digital lens focused in on the target destination, and Tony adjusted his course to match. His thrusters were firing on all cylinders, and systems still appeared to be working, albeit not at full capacity. Hopefully it wouldn't need to be, but if this guy was bad enough to wreck two rather large islands until they became undersea diving hotspots, then Tony wasn't optimistic about his suit making it through the dance.

Not that he really had any other choice. Until Free Willy was done and dusted, nobody was gonna be paying attention to him.

His destination loomed closer and closer, and Tony found his target to be, specifically, a six story building surrounded by military vehicles. MRAPs, maybe. A hill stood next to it, dotted with little specks. People. People that were going to need his help.

"FRIDAY, do I have enough juice for a superhero landing?"

"You would either shatter your ankles, contort your spine, or concuss yourself, depending on where I focused the armor," FRIDAY replied. "I'd rather you not kill yourself."

"Noted, let's go gently then."

"Understood, sir. Shift power to combat suites?"

"Read my mind, dear."

The thrusters began to die down, the armor shifting partially away from his extremities and covering the vitals. Torso, neck, forearms, knees, femoral artery, basically anything that would be a kill on impact, it was covered. The space between his biceps and forearms had no armor, the same with the area between his knee down to lower shin, and his knee to the upper thigh. Thank god, she left him a codpiece. Enough spare nanites to form a weapon or two, and his helmet. It'd have to do.

A small group of locals were standing right where he was about to land. Shifting his course slightly, Tony reoriented himself, his feet pointing to the ground as the group began to look at him. Two, in particular, would be right in front of him as he landed in a couple of-

CLANG.

The landing was... graceful, but not exactly heroic. Tony's visor disappeared, revealing the world to him through unobstructed eyes. The two locals in front of him looked young. Really young, honestly, though maybe one of them was just kind of short. The one on the right was wearing a purple-and-black number with two big-ass 'T's on it, with blonde hair and one of those old-school domino masks that did little other than frame her big green eyes. The one on the left, well... she looked like a goddamn mothman. Long, tangled hair, a mask with pale yellow goggles, and an outfit that looked like it was made out of some kind of shell or carapace.

Just his luck that he ended up on a world where the superheroes dressed like, well, comic book superheroes. Better fashion sense than Steve, at least.

"Hi," he greeted them.

"Uh, hi," the blonde replied, looking between her friend and Tony. "You're not local."

"No," Tony replied. "Out of towner. Call me Tony. Where's the big 'Let's Go Kick Leviathan's Ass' pre-fight brunch?"

The girl jerked her thumb towards the building. "They're holding the briefing there."

"Marvelous, I hope there's quiche. By the way, who are you two?"

"Not important," the bug-girl retorted in a fashion that made it clear she was not going to answer that question.

Tony let out a short hiss and pretended to be embarrassed. "Ay-yi-yi, touchy. See you guys at the afterparty."

With that, Tony strolled between the two, and he could feel the eyes on the back of his head as he made his way to the building, the eyes on him as he passed by. The other caped and costumed weirdos didn't seem to pay him much mind, but the military-looking grunts? Oh, they were staring something fierce. The superhero types might have thought he was just a weirdo from out of town, but something told him these grunts- a quick look at their truck revealed them to be from the 'PRT'. Spooky government organizations, always fun.

As Tony made his way into the building, the looks started coming in from everyone. There were a lot more PRT guys around, and whoever the caped crusaders in here were, they seemed to have a much tighter grip on who was who. Considering the state Tony was in, he was surprised they weren't asking questions yet, but he'd worry about that particular bridge when someone happened to ask a-

"Hey there," a calm, bass voice spoke up, causing Tony to spin around and offer an absurdly fake grin to the speaker.

"Hi, yes, I'm here for the big water monster coming to wipe your town off the map, no, I'm not from here, I'll explain later."

The man he was looking at was... well, he was pretty-good looking, Tony had to say, as a man very comfortable with his sexuality. He was clean-shaven, just enough stubble to accent his stereotypically-square jaw, with a mop of brown hair that was impeccably cut to be as 1990s male romantic lead as possible. He looked like a goddamn stereotype, and he dressed like one too. Big, bright blue and white costume, long cape, lots of lightning bolts or something all over it, and he even had another one of those masks, but ooo, he hid his eyes behind a couple of white lenses. Quite mysterious.

The man smiled at him.

"No need to explain, I'll take all the help I can get, but I don't doubt you already knew that considering you look like you just had a run-in with our offshore friend. I know a few guys went out there to try and get a bead on his ETA." he said, offering a hand to Tony. "Legend. I'll be helping lead our little ragtag band of capes through this."

Tony shrugged, and took the hand with a firm metal grip, noting that he still felt a bit outmatched on the strength front even with it. Thor would probably really dig this guy, lightning, strong, very classical-looking flying brick type by the shake of him. Pretty much had a neon sign over his head saying 'I'm one of the good ones.' Fantastic. Took the guesswork out of it.

"I'm Iron Man," Tony replied, and god, that feeling never got old.