Sup everyone? I haven't written any fanfiction in a long, long while - since 2006, actually. But after marathoning IM:AA, I thought I'd give it a try. If you're here for fluff, though, steer clear, I'm writing an action-y story just to see if I can write the characters at all. If I can, then I'll try other stuff, but for now, I'm sticking to the easy stuff.
Anyway, this is something I thought of at random, thought it'd be a nifty idea. Please do review if you like! It's not going to be chapter based, it's more like a long one-shot that I'll be uploading in parts. That way, I don't wind up trying to commit to chapters and then running out of motivation and stopping. ( ̄▽ ̄)ノ
Also, obviously, I don't own Iron Man. Can we start yet?
Steel and Venom
Part I
That night was going to be yet another sleepless night for Tony Stark. He was once again up in the lab working on new gadgets for the Iron Man armor, carefully crafting away as the news buzzed on low volume, on simply for background noise to break the silence.
"In local news, crowds are gathered around Central Park this evening after what's suspected to be a small meteor landed this afternoon. We take you live to the scene, where NASA scientists are currently discussing the origins of the space rock with our anchor…"
Tony wasn't listening to the news of course, rather paying close attention to his work. He was just about ready to work the blowtorch when his phone rang. With a sigh, Tony pulled the phone out of his pocket and checked the ID.
"Hey Tony!" chirped the caller, "You still wor--"
"Pepper, can it wait a minute? I'm in the middle of some calibrations." Tony responded to his friend with a bit of agitation – and prepared to get talked to death.
"You're always in the middle of some calibrations. It's Saturday and you've been in the lab all day, you really need to settle down with the work, maybe have some fun once in a while. Ooh, so hey, have you been watching the news at all today? Or reading it? Or listening to police communications? Or--"
"No, Pepper, I haven't," Tony interrupted, "I've been working all day."
"Ugh, I should have figured. Anyway, something big's going on over in Central Park! They've got NASA trucks and a SHIELD helicarrier! We should go check it out!" Pepper declared, excitedly.
"Woah woah woah, did you say SHIELD?" Tony asked, "I thought it was just a mete-"
"So you have been paying attention to the real world then?"
"The news was on in the background and I heard something about a meteor landing. Why would SHIELD be involved?"
Just then, Tony heard the lab doors seal as Rhodey walked in.
"That's what I was here to ask you, Tony," Rhodey said. "Pepper on the phone again?"
"Yeah, Rhodey. Pepper, I think that is worth checking out. Get over here as fast as you ca--"
"On my way!" With that, Pepper hung up.
Confused by that discussion, Tony placed his tools on the work bench.
"Rhodey, why would SHIELD be looking into something as trivial as a fallen shooting star?" he asked.
"No idea," Rhodey replied, "but whatever it is, it's probably something big. And something you shouldn't go anywhere near."
"Why not?"
"Tony, it's SHIELD. They hate you."
"I'm sure it's no big deal. Besides, it's been plenty of time since I last ran into them, maybe they've dropped their little thing with me."
"Does Nick Fury look like the kind of guy who doesn't hold a grudge?"
"Good point. Better take the stealth armor, just in case."
"Yeah. And stay out of their line of sight. Remember, you're just investigating and coming back."
"Right."
The lab door once again opened and Pepper ran over to Rhodey and Tony.
"Hey guys!"
Rhodey gaped at her, then looked at his watch.
"That didn't even take you two minutes!"
"Yeah, I was sort of already on my way here when I called. Anyway, are we going to Central Park or not?"
Tony sighed. "Yeah, I am. You two stay here and monitor the video feed, I'm going to get whatever I can. I upgraded the optics in the stealth suit with a newer camera, so you'll be getting every detail in the highest possible quality you can get it. I'll try and run analysis on the meteor if I get close enough to run remote analytics, but at the very least we'll have some clear images and won't have to rely on what they're showing on the news."
Nodding, Rhodey added, "I wouldn't even trust the news on this one, they 'conveniently' left out the detail about SHIELD. I found that part out from Nick Fury's future wife here."
"Hey, I just like the jetpacks and the whole 'global arrest' thing," Pepper quipped back, "Fury's kind of a jerk."
"Kind of?" Tony asked.
"Well okay, he's a major jerk. Anyway, are we going to get going?"
"Yeah. Rhodey, get to your station--"
"On it!"
"--and Pepper, you just… you do what you normally do when I'm not here."
"Doing!"
Tony activated the armory and got the stealth suit loaded and ready to go.
"Remember Tony - just get visuals and get out!"
"Don't worry about it, mom."
Tony then suited up and flew off towards Central Park.
Meanwhile, on the helicarrier, SHIELD scientists scurried about. A lot of work needed to be done – for these researchers, that meteor was a major find, and the first of its kind in a long time.
"How are we on analysis, Johnson?" asked a gruff voiced scientist from behind a terminal.
"We've got some great figures on this one, sir," another scientist replied, "She's a real beaut alright. Came in clean and appears to be of the same strain as the last one."
The terminal scientist folded his hands together, pleased. "Do we have the area completely secure?"
"Almost, sir," Johnson dutifully replied, "we'll be ready for pick up in about twenty minutes."
"Brilliant. This is what we've been waiting for since the last incident. If our work here goes as planned, we'll not only know how to effectively eliminate this kind of thing, but how to control it. This could be the new Super-Soldier serum!"
"Colonel Fury will be pleased, sir!"
"Oh I hope so – I've been begging for a promotion for months, and this could be my chance."
"And me, sir?"
"You'll get your time, Johnson. Get back to the comm room and let them know I want a complete media shut out, now," the scientist barked. "If they have any questions, tell them to send the press over to the NASA people, cover ups are their specialty."
"You got it, sir."
Tony was getting closer to Central Park – he could tell simply by the crowds that had amassed. But something didn't seem right. The crowd was dispersing, no worse, being dispersed. With a word, Tony activated the stealth systems on his armor and kicked up the boosters. Not even SHIELD's most advanced radar systems could spot him now.
Looking down, Tony noticed that the crowd, and members of the press, were being forced away by men in uniform – and not police blues, either, but SHIELD gear.
"Rhodey, Pepper, it is something big. I don't know what, but SHIELD's obviously got something going on here that they don't want people to know about."
"Oooh! I knew it was something exciting! Aren't you glad I told you to go, Tony?"
"Tony, how can you tell? What's going on over there?" Rhodey asked.
"SHIELD agents are getting rid of any people or reporters on site. Sending you video now."
"Got it. Oh yeah there's definitely something going on down there. Looks like a total media shutout. You'd better get some altitude, they're going to be on high alert."
"I'm already on it, Rhodey. I'm way up in Central Park airspace – the SHIELD helicarrier is a good distance from me, and I've got a good view of the area. Sending you video now."
Tony took his place in the sky, quietly. He set the boosters to hover and sat waiting, watching. He had a clear view alright – he could see the whole crater investigation site. Scientists and soldiers gathered around a medium-sized crater. A few portable labs had already been set up and were buzzing with activity. It occurred to Tony, however, that some of the meteor was already moved, as what was left couldn't have possibly made a hole that big. SHIELD trucks were rolling up and he could see research tents inside, meaning he didn't have much time to get video before they covered it all up.
"Computer, run remote analysis program R1 on that black rock in the center," Tony ordered.
"Remote analysis up and running. Program R1 loaded. Networking enabled. Stark International chemical and mineral research database online and connected. NASA and Smithsonian meteor research servers online and connected. Scan commencing."
The computer dutifully scanned the strange object for chemical composition and mineral content, as well as possible origin and otherworldly contaminants. In his seemingly endless spare time, Tony had been beefing up the research components of the Iron Man software in order to allow faster analysis of buildings and enemies, and put in scientific research programs like R1 just to see if the armor could do it, without thinking he'd actually ever take use of them himself.
"Scan will take approximately twelve minutes," the computer announced.
"Rhodey, you get that?"
"Got it Tony."
"So you got suited up and flew all the way across the city just to be out there for fifteen minutes?" Pepper lamented, "You're so boring sometimes, Tony."
"Pepper, don't encourage him."
"You're boring too, Rhodey."
"Ugh."
Meanwhile, on the ground, the crowd was dispersing without protest, and most of the media trucks had vanished. All except one.
"Action News reporting live from Central Park, the scene of today's mysterious meteor crash! Sir, what can you tell me about the sudden press lockout?"
The reporter and her cameraman shoved themselves into the face of a SHIELD soldier.
The SHIELD soldier, now thoroughly annoyed, replied, "Miss, all members of the press are to have left the immediate area as of four minutes ago. Continuing your report and ignoring the press dispersal is a violation of the law. If you have any further questions, please go speak to the NASA scientists at their press tent."
"What law? I'm a reporter, the people deserve to know what goes on in their city. I've never even heard of you, what authority do you have? The right of free press will be held!"
The valiant reporter turned to her cameraman, and declared war on the SHIELD soldier.
"We will continue to report live from the scene regardless of what this musclehead tells us to do. Action News is here for you, New York, always--"
The SHIELD soldier walked in front of the reporter, blocking the camera.
"If you do not leave the premises at once, I will be forced to break your equipment. If you continue to infringe upon the research zone, you will be held to the fullest extent of the law."
"Break my equipment?!" the reporter yelled. "You'll be doing no such thing! Where do you get off? I've never heard of any agency called SHIELD in my life, and I'm sure none of my viewers have either! We will not stand for--"
"Uh, I think we should go, this guy's going to kill me." The reporter's cameraman stood shuddering, now face to face with the hulking SHIELD soldier. "I'm only 5-4, he's like eight feet tall, he'll crush me like Godzilla on Tokyo."
"Okay, fine, mystery soldier, we'll comply to your demands. We'll get out of your way."
The SHIELD soldier smiled at a job well done. "Thank you. I wasn't in the mood to break your camera, I really don't like ruining perfectly good AV equi-- HEY!"
While the SHIELD soldier rambled on, the reporter and her cameraman had run off into the depths of Central Park. The soldier grabbed his walkie-talkie from his belt.
"We've got a couple of ignorant press jockeys running toward the research tent. I can't see them but they're feisty ones, alright. Stop them before they get too close to the site."
The reporter and her cameraman ran through the park, running through bushes and behind trees to avoid being spotted by the security, who were now on the hunt.
"This is -- Action News, reporting live from --- Central Park, where a meteor crashed --- earlier today. If you're just -- joining us, there's been a -- press lockout, brought on by -- a strange group of scientists and -- security dummies called SHIELD." The reporter frantically tried to keep her pace as the two bolted towards the crater research site. "As you can see, they've got police tape all over the -- crater site, and scientists a'plenty. NASA told us they were -- in charge of researching the meteor but no, no they're just heralding members of the press. Our colleagues settled for their obviously fake explanation, but we're no ordinary news station, we're Action News, and we're going to find out the truth!"
"Tony, how's it going up there?" Rhodey asked over the comm link.
"I dunno. Scan seems to be going fine. Let me see if I can zoom in and get the view a bit closer."
Tony zoomed his optics closer to the ground, and noticed something unusual.
"Rhodey, something's going on down there. You getting this? Looks like a bunch of SHIELD soldiers are mobilized over something."
"I'm going to try to intercept their communications, Tony. Patching you through."
Tony began listening to the warbled radio communications coming from the SHIELD security force.
"Track t--se reporters down! We c-n't let them get any----- near the site! They may harm our chances of recovering the sy--"
"Okay men move -----! -- -ed to protect the cr--r! F-nd th-se press ----!"
"Someone let the guy upst---s know there's a possible security breach. We --"
Tony looked at the comm window. "Rhodey, the lines just went dead."
"They're going into security lockdown, Tony. They just put all communications into some weird frequency, I'm not going to be able to crack this one."
"Don't worry about it Rhodey, they're just going after a couple of reporters – probably those same weirdoes who chase me around in the helicopter. I'll keep an eye out, but I'm sure it's nothing."
"Got it."
Back on the helicarrier, Johnson ran back toward the terminal room.
"Sir, bad news!"
"Is it the meteor?" the gruff scientist asked.
"No, not that. We've got a possible security breach – ground forces are going after a couple of renegade journalists who are running toward the research zone with a live camera."
"Oh you've got to be kidding me. I don't want to deal with this today. Make sure ground forces take them down, and just in case they can't, send out an EMP blast in the area surrounding the crater."
"Won't that interfere with the ground weapons, sir?"
"None of my concern. As long as it takes out that camera, we're fine. They absolutely cannot see what we're doing down there."
"But if the soldiers don't stop them they'll see it anyway, sir."
"The scientists will mindwipe them, it's no problem. They just can't be allowed to get live footage of our research. If they manage to get through security and into the mobile lab, they'll be mindwiped and dealt with by the colonel."
"A fate worse than death."
"Precisely. Launch the EMP."
The reporter and her cameraman kept running. They were getting close to what they thought was the main research building, while dodging SHIELD soldiers left and right. The reporter had her goal in mind.
"Action News is still reporting live from Central Park! We're going to get footage from inside the meteor research lab even if it's the last piece of news I ever report!"
Just then, a strange buzzing sound went off overhead.
"What was that? Chris, did you get that?" The reporter asked, frantically.
"I dunno - looks like the camera just went dead!" The cameraman exclaimed.
"Oh no, not now! No, I'm Action News, and I'm not giving up. I'm a journalist! We're going into that research lab and getting whatever we can, for the sake of news!"
"You know, I've got a really bad feeling about this."
The two kept running.
Rhodey, meanwhile, was losing his mind.
"Pepper, we just lost communications with Tony. Don't tell me SHIELD got him. You know, I knew this was a bad idea from the--"
Thankfully, the comm line crackled to life. "Rhodey, calm down."
"Tony?! What happened? Why did the suit go dead?"
"Relax – they launched an EMP, probably to shut down those reporters. Last I saw they were still being chased by the soldiers. Communications are working in a limited capacity, but I'm sort of in a bad place right now."
"EMP? That means you --"
"Yeah, I fell out of the sky. Right into a dumpster. The radar dampeners are physical objects on the armor so they won't be able to find me even without the armor being active, but at this point, I'm grounded with no weapons, and the scan was cut so we didn't get any results either. So much for Iron Man doing detective work."
"So you're fine?"
"Yeah, I'm good – for now. I'd like to be able to get closer but at this point, I have to wait for the armor to reboot."
"What do you think happened to those reporters, Tony?"
"I dunno, Pepper. Probably they realized their equipment shorted out and ran off. I'm just surprised SHIELD didn't get to them."
"They didn't seem very coordinated," Rhodey added, "they obviously weren't prepared for a security breach."
"If a couple of nosey muckrakers counts as a security breach, then imagine what would have happened had they found me."
"Don't even joke, Tony, it's not funny."
"You know what's not funny? The fact that I have to wash all this trash off the armor when I get back. Ugh."
On the ground, a SHIELD soldier almost caught up with the reporter and Chris the cameraman. Chris, in desperation, slammed the inactive camera in the soldier's face and caught up with the reporter.
"Chris we're going to go in, grab something mysterious that might grab ratings, and get out!"
"Right!"
The pair was now right outside the research lab. SHIELD security forces closing in on them, Chris burst the door of the facility down.
"Oh my… God. What's going on here?"
The reporter stood in marvel. Scientists were huddled around computers from the future, and machines never seen before stood working, analyzing something. Pushing and churning. . Inside those machines? A shiny, viscous black goop. Parts of the meteor were scattered across a table, along with a microscope and a couple vials of the goo. The reporter knew her target.
"Get the security forces in here!" one of the scientists shouted.
The reporter turned to Chris anxiously.
"Quickly Chris! I'm going to get some of that stuff!"
"NO! STAY AWAY!" another scientist pleaded.
"Try and stop me," the reporter shouted, "I am the news!"
The reporter grabbed one of the vials and shouted for Chris, only to turn and see Chris lying on the ground, vegetative, and a familiar SHIELD soldier approaching her.
"Stay away from me!"
"This is what happens when you try and fool me, lady."
ZAP! The reporter fell to the ground.
The scientists scrambled and shouted.
"YOU IDIOT!"
The SHIELD soldier stood baffled. He just did his job. Didn't he?
"She had a vial of the specimen! Where is it, where?!"
"Oh, you mean that?" The soldier asked.
He pointed to a cracked vial on the ground. The black fluid began oozing out. The scientists jumped back. One scientist stood and pointed at the forming puddle. The scientist who yelled at the soldier, seemingly the lead, yelled at him again.
"Get back, now! And everyone, slow your breathing! Let it settle and then we'll recapture it!"
"What is it?" The soldier asked.
"Classified. Just get back, get away from it. No sudden movements!"
The black goo then began to move, floating away across the dirt floor.
"Oh no," the lead scientist whispered under his breath. "It's active. Okay, scanners up. Watch its movement. It is probably going to try and find somewhere colder. Once we detect that it's settled and inactive, we'll gear up and grab it like we did on initial recovery. We absolutely cannot let it get out of Central Park."
Another scientist looked up from his scanner. "Sir, it's moving. Fast. I don't know what this is, but I think we had this all wrong. It's not the same strain, it's a new one. Looks like it's been modulated somehow, by our work here."
"What?!" the lead exclaimed, "How is it modulated?"
"Looks like it's responding to electricity in a… strange way. When my scan activity increases it goes faster."
"Then shut off the scanner!"
"But we won't be able to track it otherwise."
The lead scientist looked grim.
"Let it go."
"What?!"
"Let it out. We'll let SHIELD know of the leak. The mission is not a failure, we still have plenty of the specimen here in the hotbox. SHIELD will destroy anything that results from the leak."
"Sir, innocent people could get hurt."
"But we could get killed capturing it."
The second scientist gulped, "I see your point, sir."
"Let us never speak of this incident again. Get back to work and analyze the rest, all of you."
A monster was loose in Central Park. Under the ground. It was searching, frantically. They kept it in the heat, it didn't like that. They did strange things to it. They pulled it apart, toyed with it, teased it. And now, it was lost, and lonely. And dying. It wanted, needed a companion, yet it wanted something new, something fresh. It craved something it had never craved before. The scientists, they fed it something wonderful, something it wanted. It made the creature feel simply electric, and it wanted more. So the monster went off on its search.
I'm sure a few of you have already figured out where I'm going with this. Also, I didn't expect this to be so character-heavy, I apologize for that. Part II brings it back to just the main three, no more random characters that exist solely for plot progression. :3
