Forged Heroes

A Mass Effect & Iron Man Crossover Challenge

A/N: For those of you familiar with me and my work, I tend to have a lot of ideas and not have time to get to all of them. I in fact announced as much today in that I've placed all my fics on hold for the time being so I could properly. This little thing has been sitting in my computer for the past year (and in one of my fic's chapters) and I thought I'd put it out there to see if anyone would take it up.

Details behind this one shot challenge will come at the end.

Everything that has a beginning has an end.

Tony Stark, multi-billionare, genius, ladies man, Iron Man, never thought that those words would apply to him. Especially once he figured out a way past the pallidum poisoning he was getting from his mini-Arc reactor in his chest. Using an element his father had designed but couldn't produce, he was able to increase the small power devices out put by several factors. Enough so that his mini-factory in his house and JARVIS, his AI/butler would have enough power to run continuously for several years.

Now 5 years after proclaiming that he was Iron Man, as the papers dubbed the armored hero, he realized just how foolish he had been. He had fought several 'villians' if a person could call them that, but always outsmarted them and used the flaws in their tech against them. Also acting as an adviser for SHIELD he had fought some other nasty things, but always came out ahead...

He always came back to her... Now he would never be able to see her beautiful red hair or gorgous green eyes, all because he thought his tech was perfect. The nano-bots that were now swarming inside his body were shutting down every major organ and were impervious to EMP's. Thankfully, Tony was close to a SHIELD base, and JARVIS had them prepare the only other solution to the problem...

Let the nano-bots batteries die... By putting himself in a recently discovered alien cryo-stasis tube, he would remain frozen. The nano-bots, being with out power provided by the body itself would have to use their batteries to try and accomplish their goal, but with Tony's organs 'frozen' they would do no more harm. The only problem was that JARVIS didn't know how long the nano-bot's batteries would last.

Damned if you do, damned if you don't...

As Tony took apart the Mk. VI armor that had served him so well in the past years, he realized that he would effectively disappear. "JARVIS, make sure Pepper knows whats happening..."

"Of course sir... I will be here for you when you wake up sir." The AI's voice resounded throughout the helmet before it came off. Tony handed it to the SHIELD agent next to him who put it in a safe that was across from the cryo tube. The only left to do is to throw all I know and love away and hope some alien technology that we don't understand will save my life.

"JARVIS... Execute order 198247-Alpha..." Tony spoke.

"Sir?"

"You are to upload your personality files here to this SHIELD base, destroying your backups along with destroying anything related to the Iron Man armor, and the Arc reactor. Be sure to keep Stark Industries going, within the parameters I've given to you in file #83209375-Beta." Tony said to a small micro reciever in his watch as he stepped inside the cryo-tube.

"Anything else sir?"

"Yeah... Besure to have a cheeseburger waiting for me when I wake up."

"Of course sir, wouldn't want you to starve as soon as you unthawed."

"Thanks JARVIS... Be sure to tell Pepper to not wait for me... and that I love her."

"As you wish sir..." That was the last thing he heard as the SHEILD agent activated the cryo-tubes controls, sending the great Tony Stark to a dreamless sleep.

A/N: Alright so here was the general idea I had behind this fic. In this AU fic, there was no Avenger's Initiative, no Captain America, no Thor, no Hulk, no 'super heroes' to come and save the day. Just Iron Man and the people at SHIELD. I set it up this way because I wanted to explore what kind of awesome tech Stark could create in the Mass Effect universe and how he could potentially aid Shepard in the fight against the Reapers.

This is purely a one shot that I hope will inspire someone else to write along these lines. The Marvel/Mass Effect fics that I have read are alright, but it's tough to focus on just one person when there are ~10 people to have to include in detail.

So basically, this is a 'What would happen if Stark was sent to Mass Effect?' challenge. All I ask is that if you decide to go through with it, that you PM me so I know someone took up the challenge.

~DN7

P.S. (11/12/12)

A group of four authors has started their own story based off this one shot, titled Displaced Hero. If you haven't already checked it out, please do so! Here is the link: fanfiction s/8697988/1/Displaced-Hero