Demon's A/N: This is going to be a co-op project with The Bluefire Phoenix. This story is going to take place after the first Avengers movie and pre Age Of Ultron. Lain has been sent by an Oracle to warn the Avengers about the uprising of Ultron and the destruction of humanity. So the oracle has gifted Lain the task of gathering the Avengers along with Tony Stark to help fight against the powerful A.I. This story will be rated T for action violence, some mild language, but will subject to change if we want to add some adult stuff. Disclaimer: We don't own Lain for that is rightfully owned by Yoshitoshi Abe along with Universal/Geneon entertainment along with Funimation, and the Avengers are rightfully owned by Marvel comics. So anyway, let's get to the action.
Layer 1: Wake Up
Tony Stark always prided himself on his work. He was the best of the best when it came to any and all things mechanical. While he enjoyed the life of a billionaire playboy as well his job as Iron Man, with the women, the cars, and the attention: he preferred the solitude of his workshop. Things were simpler there.
No underhanded business partners trying to usurp his company; no psychotic Russians looking to settle a secret family feud; no maniacal gods from mythology trying to take over the planet via alien invasion. In his workshop there were only problems and solutions.
As of late, the complex problems of the outside world had started to creep into his place of simplistic bliss. His thoughts were preoccupied with the conclusion of the battle in New York. He had nearly sacrificed his life, evading death's ice like grip by a hair. Once the dust had settled, Tony got to work on a project that would bring security to the world. Security made in his own image. Stark had been characterized as egotistical almost since the day he was born after all. Why would his vision not reflect him?
His project for global security started not long ago after he made a deal with Shield to build and outfit a new series of helicarriers. It was a good start, but Tony needed something smaller. Something capable of dealing up close and personal; something that could fight the battles he couldn't. Do the things he couldn't do.
The man put down his spanner for a moment. He was currently working on a giant suit with heavy plating. He rubbed his eyes and went to his office for some coffee. For the life of him he couldn't remember how long it had been since Thor and Loki left for Asgard via the Bifrost. Since he and Banner parted ways. Since Cap and Black Widow returned to Shield. The only reference to time he had, was the clock sitting on his desk in his workshop's office. It currently read a quarter-past-midnight.
Tony took a small swig of the bitter drink and cringed a bit. He went over to a cabinet and scrounged through the bottles that were inside it. His hand stopped on a particularly large container and pulled it out. It was a particularly rare Irish cream liquor. He walked back over to his desk and took out a shot glass. His eyes moved between the glass and the bottle a few times before he set the glass aside. He liberally filled his cup with the alcohol and added the rest into the coffee pot.
Something moved in his peripheral vision. Tony looked up. A girl in a white spring dress was sitting on the shoulder pad of the suit he was working on. Her head curiously bobbed side to side. Her rusty brown hair was bizarrely cut; trimmed above her neck all the way around save for a long forelock that ran the length of the left side of her face. She had deep brown eyes that seemed to read into Tony's very soul.
The man felt his heart rate spike. He instinctively blinked only to find the girl had vanished after his eyes were opened. Was she just a figment of his imagination?
"Jarvis?" Tony hesitantly called out.
"Is there something wrong sir?" Jarvis asked in his cool London accent.
"Run a security sweep," the man ordered.
"Again, sir? This is the third time in ten…"
"Just run the damn sweep Jarvis," Tony growled.
"Yes sir, beginning security sweep," the computer faithfully complied. Tony nodded and went back to working on his suit. He climbed up to where he had seen the girl just moments before. He ran his hand all over the spot, looking for just the slightest hint of something.
"Tony," a girl's voice called to him. The man shook his head.
"You're losing it, Stark. You're losing it," he whispered to himself.
"Tony," the voice called out again. Tony dismounted the suit and started to look around the workshop. He turned around to see the girl from before standing in front of him. "Wake up Tony." The girl snapped her fingers.
The man launched up off of his bed, covered in sweat. His mouth was crying out for water. He took in a gulp of air and looked out the window. It appeared to be midmorning. Tony found himself shirtless as well.
He looked towards the door to his room to find Pepper Potts dressed in a frazzled business suit standing in the doorway. Her expression was rather grim. She had two bounded files clutched in her hands. One was significantly larger than the other.
"Pepper, what…"
"I found you collapsed in the workshop at about one in the morning," she quickly explained.
"Thanks but what are you doing here…exactly?" Tony asked.
"Well aside from the fact that I live here, I have some bad news," Pepper answered.
"They canceled Firefly again?" Tony asked in the vain attempt to be like is old self again. Pepper shook her head no and tossed him the larger of the files in her hand. Tony caught the paper and began to go through it. "What is this?"
"Someone hacked into Stark Industries last night," Pepper said.
"You meant tried to hack into Stark Industries last night," Tony said, his brow slightly ruffled at Pepper's words.
"No someone was able to get in," the redhead reaffirmed her original statement.
"That's…I built that security myself. There's no way…"
"I'm sorry Tony, but someone, somewhere was able to get in. What you have in your hands is the list of all the files the hacker accessed," Pepper said. Tony paid closer attention to what was listed in the file. Most of it was out dated junk that was just taking up space on the servers while others were new schematics for the latest projects. Pepper walked over and took the file away from Tony and gave him the other one. "This is everything we have confirmed was stolen."
Tony's heart sank as he read off the second file. Everything on it came from his private company server. Fortunately his true secrets remained safe at an offsite Shield facility. Tony rolled out of bed and headed for his bathroom. "Who knows about this?" he asked.
"Just IT, you, and me," Pepper answered.
"Good, if anyone in the department isn't under an ND, get them to sign one or send them to Aruba indefinitely," he said. He looked over his face. A rather thick beard had grown in. Tony took out his trimmer and began to remove the growth.
"Of course, anything else?"
"Get me a meeting with Colonel Furry. Tell him it's urgent."
A girl with rusty brown hair was sleeping in a pure white room. She wore a white spring dress. Her chest rose in fell in a quiet rhythm. All around her were pages upon pages of schematics of Iron Man suits. She tossed and turned over the papers. Floating above her were hundreds upon hundreds of translucent colored lines. The lines danced and curled and formed an amorphous yarn ball that stretched in and out almost at will.
Black dress shoes started to materialize into existence in a corner of the room. It was followed by an accompanying suit and finally a male with piercing eyes and slicked back hair. His eyes shifted around the room, finally focusing on the layer of documents on the floor. A frown crawled onto his face. He began to walk over to the girl, who began to stir. The male's frown first faded into a look of slight discomfort then stone stoicism once the girl had gotten onto her hands and knees.
She rubbed her eyes before standing up. Her eyes locked onto the male. The brown orbs lit up with excitement. She skipped over to the male. "Mr. Krieger, did you see? Did you see?" she said. She joyfully danced around the male. The ball of colored strings followed her around, rising and falling with the girl's every move.
"Yes Lain. You did well, but I told you not to take anything," Mr. Krieger scolded. Lain stopped dancing in front of the male, eyes glued to her feet.
"I'm sorry, but this Tony Stark…he seems like he could help me build something for me to interact with the real world," she said. Her excuse did little to soften Krieger's expression. He reached out and gently cupped the girl's chin, forcing her to look at him.
"Tony Stark and his colleagues will never help you, my dearest Lain. They would have you locked away for study and dissection," Krieger said. He released the girl, running his hand through the strange colored strings that floated around the girl. They slid right out of his grip. "They fear that which they don't understand."
Lain looked up at the male, her head slumping to the side with a skeptical look on her face. "And you do understand me?" she coyly inquired.
"I know that you are beautiful and powerful, something Stark and the goons he works for can never appreciate," Krieger said. "Now be a good girl and await further orders." The male began to fade out of the room. Once he was gone, Lain sat down and drew the floating lines to her. She began to weave through them, creating thousands of sparkling lights around the string. The smaller a section she handled, larger the lights got.
The girl finally stopped at a particular stand. She stretched out her arms, expanding the string. The lights turned into various web pages. Lain started to examine them. They were all articles and videos from the Daily Bugle.
Videos started playing and the articles began to be scrolled through. All the while Lain's eyes moved at a lightning pace from panel to panel. Most of them had to do with the attack on New York only a few months ago. The others she examined specifically had to do with Tony Stark.
Lain stopped her lightning research and returned the string to its normal size. The girl started to weave over to another section of the strings. This section contained video feeds from Stark's security cameras in his private workshop.
The male had ceased working on the massive suit for the moment and was in his office. He was drinking that black liquid Lain had seen so many humans used to energize themselves. She recalled that it was called coffee and that a good number of humans suffered from "addiction" to it. Her head started to bob from side to side as she curiously watched Stark add something to the drink.
Stark looked up from his mixture. He took a step back and called out for his own Artificial Intelligence. He was called Jarvis and Lain began to take precautions as the other computer entered the picture. Lain wrapped the strings tightly around her like a blanket.
Lain felt something as the older computer began a security sweep. Her attention was diverted to an incoming cellphone call. It was from Pepper Potts, Tony's girlfriend and current head of his company. No doubt she had been informed of Lain's handiwork and was going to inform Tony of it.
The male was in no state to interact with other humans, especially his female partner. He hadn't preformed the human ritual of sleep in days.
"Tony," the girl mouthed. The male confusedly looked around, mumbling to himself afterwards.
"Tony," she whispered again. The male's head began to swivel every which way. "Wake up Tony."
The man gently collapsed to the floor. A little while later Potts arrived and with the help of some of Stark's robots, was able to get the man to his bed. Lain watched the female franticly make calls throughout the night, stopping only to nap on a couch for an hour.
Tony finally began to stir, garnering Lain's attention. She watched as Potts gave him her files, his expression as he read through them. The male was most displeased at what he saw. There was something in his expression that made Lain recoil. Not at Tony, but herself.
Lain listened in as the humans chatted about her work. One thing did catch her attention: the name Colonel Furry. She had heard it many times before. He was the de facto head of Shield. Tony apparently wanted a meeting with the man. The girl created a piece of paper and zoomed out of Tony's life. She went over to Shields twisted and knotted section of her string. For some reason Lain wanted to know what the men were going to talk about. Lain used the paper to create a copy of the section by sliding it over the tangled string.
It started to come off the page so Lain could add all the details to it. Once her representation was complete, Lain began the arduous task of untangling the mess.
A shot rang out. Blood splattered all around in the darkness. Mika Iwakura's eyes shot open, revealing her bloodshot pupils. A cold sweat cocooned her body. She had her long brown hair tied back. She was dressed in khaki capris and a red tank top. Her father was sitting next to her on the train they were riding.
Yasuo Iwakura was not a particularly intimidating man. His slight stature, bad haircut, and thick glasses blasted away any sense of physical security. It showed on his face as a nervous frown. His eyes shifted from side to side, eyeing everyone else in the car. He had positioned his briefcase as a makeshift shield for his torso.
Mika scooted a little closer to her father as the train began to slow for arrival at the station. Her father looked down at her. His nervous frown turned into a resigned smile. "You know what to do, Mika?" he asked. Mika bit her lip. She slid her hand into her pocket and clutched the flash drive inside it, ignoring the folded papers.
She released the drive and grabbed her father's arm with both hands. "Please, there has to be another option. I don't want you to leave," she quietly begged. Her father shook his head, shaking off the girl's grip.
"This is the only way to make sure that drive gets to the US," he whispered. "So what is the plan?"
"I run to the consulate, and request asylum," Mika robotically said.
"And after that?"
"Give them the documents you gave me."
"Then once you get stateside?"
"Find Scott Lang and give him the drive."
Her father nodded. "And what are you never to do?"
"Look back."
The train came to a stop. Mika swallowed a lump that had formed in her throat. The father and daughter walked down the steps to street level. The city of Tokyo rose all around them.
A group of shady men in suits approached them. Mika took on last glance at her father who gave her a smile. She bolted down to the consulate. It was only a few blocks from the station. She heard her father shout some insults at the men.
Mika zigged and zagged through the late afternoon crowd. Her body was pumping with a dangerous level of hormones as she got closer and closer to the consulate.
She felt a wave of relief once she saw the American flag waving in the air only a few dozen meters away. She began to pump her arms harder as she sprinted to the gate. The marine guards looked at Mika with suspicious glares as the girl heaved for air.
"My name is Mika Iwakura, and I request asylum within the United States of America," she said in the best English she could muster between gasps.
The guards looked confused for a moment and radioed someone for a response. After a minute the guards opened the gate and let Mika in. She stepped onto the consulate grounds just as a string of bullet fire erupted over the sounds of the city. The Marines drew their weapons and began to look around.
Mika dropped to her hands and knees. Her eyes widened, the first signs of tears forming. One of the guards grabbed Mika and dragged her inside. Never once did the girl look back.
To Be Continued…
Bluefire's A/N: Hello to those that don't know me. I'm Bluefire, found here: u/6008286/ and I am super excited for this project. I had this idea in my head for a while, but since I have a lot on my plate I had to mothball it. Fortunately Demon was interested in a collaboration and I was able to dig this one out of the pile.
BD did a really good job setting up the initial meeting of Tony and Lain, so all I had to do there was a little bit of beefing up and some polishing. We were able to encapsulate both the weirdness of Lain and bring up Tony's mental state after the whole battle for the Earth thing.
Now to BD's credit the intro he did for Lain was pretty good. However, he went a little too fast. We are working towards Age of Ultron, but I think it is important that we build Lain's place in the world first by using Iron Man 3 and Winter Soldier (but mostly Winter Soldier).
The stuff with the Iwakuras was all me. Think of Mika as our Norman McCay, our moral center and island of sanity as events unfold.
Now since this is my second ongoing Lain related story, I'm going to do my best from keeping the portrayal of Lain in The Serial Experiment different from the Lain portrayed here. Namely I'm going to focus on the otherness of Lain. Hopefully that will work.