The Air Force base designated as Area 51 was normally a fairly calm place. Since it was primarily a research and development site that was not very surprising. The only spurts of excitement came when a new artifact was delivered from the SGC or when one of the researchers made a breakthrough. Today was the rarest of events, as the warehouse where recovered items were stored while not being studied began to rattle. Considering that this structure was built to withstand missile strikes and remain intact, the amount of force that had to be exerted to rattle it was significant. A guard spilled his coffee in his hurry to hit the panic alarm as procedure required for any event originating from the storage room.
Unfortunately for Airman Alexander, he was the curious sort. That was fine for the scientists that worked on the base, but decidedly dangerous for a simple guard. He swiped his keycard, unlocking the massive door that swung open at a touch due to the large counterweight. The red alarm light was flashing inside, lending a crimson cast to the vault. Most of the smaller artifacts were stored in secure containers, but some of them were too large to store that way so they'd just thrown sheets over them to keep the dust off. In fact, the sheet over one of the bulky objects was flapping as if from a breeze. The flapping grew stronger and the sheet flew off the device and shot across the room, landing right on top of Airman Alexander.
When he freed himself from the static charged sheet, Alexander looked at the uncovered object and stifled a groan as he recognized the mirror. It had caused problems before when survivors of the SGC from another dimension had come through it running from the Go'auld. The mirror flickered as the scene shifted from dimension to dimension. When it finally stopped, there was a figure standing on the other side. The other room was dark, but Alexander could hear the soft whirring of motors as it started to move through the mirror.
"Holy crap," the Airman exclaimed, unable to hold himself back as the armored form walked into the room and the mirror faded to a dull grey behind him. The armor had streaks of red and gold where it wasn't scored black by what was probably staff weapon fire. Sections of it were visibly sparking as the figure moved forward, while Airman Alexander shakily drew his sidearm and brandished it at the intruder.
The armored figure paused and turned its head to look at him. "I wouldn't do that if I were you," it said in a synthesized male voice. "I am not here to harm anyone."
"You…You're trespassing on United States Air Force property," the Airman stammered out, his gun shaking. The armored figured sighed and raised a hand at the shaking guard. Alexander let out a squeak of fear and his finger tightened convulsively on the trigger, as shots glanced off the armor. A pulse of blue energy shot out of the figure's hand and engulfed the Airman, sending him flying back and landing on the floor unconscious.
The armored figure moved out of the vault and ducked into a deserted lab. One of the computers had been left on and a wire extended from one of the fingers, plugging into the USB port on it. The figures eyes glowed briefly as the computer logged itself on and flew into a frenzy of activity as windows opened and closed so fast the human eye could not follow. The computer shut down after five minutes and the armored figure retracted the wire back into its hand before turning to the window and blowing out the wall around it with another energy blast from the palm of its hand. The figure stepped out through the hole it had made to be greeted with automatic weapons fire that pinged off the armor as it spread its arms out to the side and jets flared from the hands and feet, launching it into the air.
It didn't take long to gain a significant distance from the base, as the armored face's eyes glowed blue while it accessed the data gained from the base's computer. A sharp turn banked it to the west and it rocketed towards the coast at high speeds, leaving small sonic booms in its wake. It flew over the foothills of the rocky mountains and homed in on a suburb of Los Angeles, nestled within Orange County. It was a pretty ratty neighborhood and few people looked in askance as the armored figure landed in the parking lot of a rundown apartment complex. A few looked around for the movie cameras, but just shrugged when they didn't see them figuring that the director was going for a realistic effect as the figure entered the complex.
"How the hell did you let this happen," Colonel Jack O'Neill asked irritably. "That mirror was supposed to be locked up in a high security vault…"
"It was, sir," Major Samantha Carter interjected to defend the hapless head of Area 51 security. "After the last incident it was moved into high security storage. According to the logs, the mirror's activation produced an energy wave that shook the building to its foundations before Airman Alexander sounded the alarm. He broke protocols when he opened the vault to investigate alone, but the hostile that came through couldn't have been predicted."
"Was any security footage recorded, Major Carter," Tea'lc asked in a serene voice.
"What we have is fragmentary," the head of base security, Captain Dallas, answered. "Apparently it had some kind of EM cloak around it that made it all but invisible to our surveillance. Most of what we have comes from when it blew out the lab wall and took off into the air…"
"Were you able to track it," Jonas Quinn asked curiously.
"I'm afraid not," Captain Dallas replied with a shake of his head. "Either his EM cloak protects him from radar or he was flying below detection range. There've been a few reports of a UFO heading towards California, but we have been able to check up on them yet."
"Well, let's see whatever image you managed to get," Col. O'Neill said with a sigh.
"Yes, sir," Major Carter replied and brought up an image on a laptop that had been set on the table in the conference room. The picture was slightly blurry, but it was easily identifiable as humanoid.
"We don't have much intel about it, but Airman Alexander says he think that a lot of the black on it is scoring from staff weapons," Captain Dallas told the group. "It hit Alexander with an energy weapon that had a similar effect to a zat gun and our armor piercing ammunition bounced off its surface without effect."
"It doesn't look Goa'uld in origin," Jonas Quinn offered as he moved to the laptop and began to refine the digital image. "They always try and use intimidation as a factor in all of their construction and this is way too plain. Frankly, looks like something that would be made here on Earth."
"But who on Earth has the tech to make something like that," Major Carter asked, shaking her head in disbelief. "This sort of thing is decades ahead of what even the SGC is capable of producing.
Toni Stark slumped down on her couch with a bone weary sigh. She'd just worked the late shift at the ratty diner she'd been working at to pay for her expenses while attending Cal Tech. She'd gotten a full scholarship that covered tuition and expenses, but it hadn't covered all of her living expenses. That's why she lived in a ratty neighborhood like this and worked at a sleazy diner while attending one of the better scientific schools on the west coast. She'd always dreamed of attending a prestigious school like MIT, but there was no way she could ever afford that even with the help of a scholarship.
An odd noise from the hallway drew the young woman's attention to her door. She'd lived in this dump long enough to tune out most of the usual noises, but this was a new one. There was a heavy tread accompanied by a whirring sound reminiscent of the motion assist motors that she'd been working on in the lab. A little nervous, she pulled her dark blonde hair up into a ponytail and reached for the tire iron she kept in the apartment for close encounters. She gulped nervously, her tanned skin paling as the locks on her door clicked open one at a time and the door swung open to reveal a hulking figure covered in scorched metal with glowing blue eyes. It stepped into the apartment and turned, closing and relocking the door behind it before swinging about to face her again.
"Toni Stark," it said in a synthesized voice as it reached up and touched just below where an ear would be on a normal head, causing the faceplate to open like a clamshell and reveal a human face. The face belonged to a man with a small moustache and tanned complexion framed by damp black hair. Blood was trickling from his mouth and from a gash above his eye. "We have a great deal to discuss."
"Stay back," Toni said, trying to sound threatening. The man just chuckled and reached up to remove the helmet he was wearing and set it on her end table.
"You don't have to worry, Toni," the man said with a cough that brought out a little more blood, this time the bright red of arterial blood. "I'm not here to hurt you. Quite the opposite, in fact, as I need you to carry on the fight."
"What fight," Toni asked before catching herself and scowling. "And just who the hell are you? How do you know who I am?"
"Well, that's a long story and I'm not sure I have enough time to tell you all of it," the man said sadly. "Do you mind if I use your computer for a moment?" Without waiting for permission, the man moved over to the personal computer and extended a cable from the tip of a finger that snaked into the USB drive. The computer flashed through screens as it downloaded data from the suit and the man tuned back to Toni. "A lot of the information is being uploaded to the computer, but as for who I am…my name is Tony Stark."
"But that's my name," Toni said in shock.
"Yes it is," Tony smirked. "I don't know f you're familiar with the Einstein-Rosenberg theory of multiple worlds, but I can assure you that it is a fact that there are other Earths out there with other versions of us where we made a different choice somewhere along the way. Some of these Earths are wildly divergent, but many of them are almost identical. On my Earth, I was a genius and the son of a genius who had a massive technology corporation. We did a lot of weapons development for the military, but one day while demonstrating a product to the brass in a conflict in the Middle East, we were attacked by terrorists. Terrorists who captured me and revealed that they were using weapons that I had developed. Their leader wanted me to make them a super weapon, but I tricked him and made the first of what I call my Iron Man suits instead and broke free."
"That's when I discovered how much trouble our world was in," he continued as he leaned against the wall. "Not only was there strife on our planet, but there are hostile aliens out there that will not settle for anything less than our enslavement or destruction. They attacked Earth and we lost. I managed to discover a hidden military base where they'd stored an artifact that was capable of bridging the different dimensions. I was able to successfully come here and destroy the doorway behind me, but I sustained serious injury and damage to the suit."
"Where did you show up," Toni asked curiously, not sure why she was believing what this man was saying.
"At a facility the Air Force called Area 51," Tony replied with a smirk. "I broke into their computers and tracked you down, before setting up a large amount of money for your use under a corporate name of Stark Industries International." He paused to cough up more blood before continuing. "I don't have long, but my body will dissolve when I die. I had to infect myself with a nanite virus several years ago and I programmed them to render my body when I die. The suit is DNA locked and should respond to you, but you'd do better to build a new one with the data I left for you. Please…protect the Earth…."
Toni felt her jaw drop as the other Tony closed his eyes and stopped breathing. The suit locked its joints into place as the handsome male face dissolved into dust. She approached and tapped the armor experimentally, surprised when the chest piece came free and landed on the floor with a loud thump. Inside was a black mesh body suit that sagged forward and spilled dust on the floor.
"Great, now I have to clean up after him," Toni sighed and looked over at her computer. "Hmm, maybe later. He's got me curious about what's in the computer." She sat at her desk chair and started to examine the new files on her computer.