Bruce will be in the next chapter, I promise. For now, you'll have to be satisfied with Iron Man.

Chapter 2. A Broken Door

As easily as she slipped into unconsciousness, Stephanie became conscious again. Light glared at her, causing her to squint at her unfamiliar surroundings. She was alone in a room. Looking down, she noticed that her clothes had been replaced with a set of pajamas. She gingerly got out of the bed making sure that she wasn't injured. No broken bones, but her head was a little fuzzy. She silently padded across the white fluffy carpet laid on the hardwood floor towards the door. She put her ear against it to see if anyone was waiting outside. It was silent. She touched the doorknob, twisted it, but discovered that it was locked.

Scowling, Stephanie surveyed the room for other exits. There was a window that spanned the length of the room, but breaking it would mean alerting whoever owned this building that she was awake. Besides, the room she was in looked to be about a hundred floors up from the ground. Turning her attention back to the door, she decided that she could unscrew the hinges and partially remove the door from its frame. She just needed something to unscrew the hinges. Surveying the room once again, she discovered that the lamp on the nightstand would do; it had a loose screw that she could use.

Fifteen minutes had elapsed until she could pry away the door and sneak out. Her hands had become a little raw from using the tiny screw, but she paid no attention to her aching fingers just yet. Carefully, pulling the door off of its frame, Stephanie stepped out of the room and saw someone lounging on the sofa, their back facing her.

"Finally! You slept for fourteen hours. I know that women need beauty sleep, but my god." the person, a man, spoke without turning around. "You owe me a new door."

"I didn't break it. I just detached it from the frame," she replied defensively. "Who are you?"

"Better question is who you are." The man got up off of the couch, turned around, and started walking towards her. She immediately recognized him as Robert Downey Jr. "The ID cards that were in your bag didn't match any records in America. Or in any other country for that matter." He stopped a few feet away from her.

Stephanie cocked her head, staring at him. "This must be a dream. This has to be a dream, or I'm in a coma and you're a figment of my imagination. The Grey Gargoyle thing was weird enough, but now you're here with me in some random building pretending to be Iron Man and interrogating me about my identity."

"It's not a random building; it's my building. My name is on it." Tony said.

"Your name is on it?"

"Yes. You know, those big letters on the front spell out Stark," he said gesturing towards window.

She studied him. He was wearing his black Sabbath t-shirt and a pair of jeans. A faint light was glowing from underneath his shirt. He looked real, but her mind could be playing tricks on her. Without really thinking, she poked him to check if he was an illusion. "Hmm, you seem real, but why are you so adamant about remaining in character? Is this some sort of weird actor thing?"

"I'm a billionaire, genius, playboy, philanthropist, but I'm not an actor."

"Not an actor? C'mon, you're Robert Downey Jr.!"

"Robert? Do you really see me as a Robert? Robert Stark…Nope, don't like it. "

"You honestly believe that you're the real Tony Stark?" Pausing, she added, "Take off your shirt."

"So this is how it's going to go? Kinky. Only if you lift up yours."

"No, I'm serious. I want to see that your arc reactor chest piece is real, not just a movie prop."

He sighed, and took off his shirt. It was there, a shiny, silver object in the middle of his chest. Stephanie went to gingerly touch his chest while trying not to blush. Who hasn't entertained the thought of a shirtless Robert Downey Jr. now and then?

"Ah!" Tony shouted when she touched the area around his arc reactor, causing her to jump back. "Your hands were cold," he smirked.

"Not funny. Is...Is it possible for you to take it out a little, just so that I could see if there actually is a hole in your chest?" She asked, remembering the scene from the first Iron Man movie when Pepper had to reach through the hole to connect Tony's arc reactor to some wires. To her surprise, Tony he did. "…You're the real Tony Stark...I…"

"Impressed by my handsomeness or my incredibly personality? Or both?" he smirked as he popped the arc reactor back into place.

They were standing very close to each other, Tony still shirtless and Stephanie close to him, when the elevator pinged.

"Pepper. Great timing. Now, the fun can begin; I already have my shirt off." Tony joked while Stephanie quickly moved her hands away from his chest.

Pepper rolled her eyes as she went to stand next to Tony.

"If you are the real Tony Stark then she has to be the real Pepper Potts," Stephanie said, stressing the world 'real'. "I must be dreaming."

Tony pinched her.

"Hey! What the hell?" She hit him.

"Guess you're not dreaming." He flashed a smile to annoy her. "But I actually think this has something to do with your situation. You see this," he said holding up a black compact object, about the size of a paperback book, "can cut through the dimensions of time and space. Look familiar?"

"You shouldn't take people's things without their permission."

"And you're avoiding the topic." Tony replied. "How did you get this?"

"Found it. On the street."

"She's lying, sir." The voice of JARVIS said.

"Figures that your rather very intelligent computer system includes a lie detection feature." Stephanie grumbled while looking at Tony.

"How did you find this?" he asked again.

She sighed and decided to tell him the truth. "I made it."

"You built that?" Pepper, who had been silent up until this time, asked genuinely surprised.

"Yes."

"JARVIS?" Tony asked.

"She's telling the truth, sir." JARVIS confirmed.

"You would have to know more about astrophysics than I do to have created this." Tony looked at her, his eyes slightly wider than usual, showing his astonishment that she built the device.

"I read a lot." She shrugged, trying to avoid Tony's inevitable probing about her history.

"How did you come up with those calculations?"

"I started thinking of time as more flexible rather than linear which lead me to…" Stephanie went on for a little, explaining to Tony the theories and physics behind her device.

"When you turned it on, how di-," he began to ask before Stephanie cut him off.

"That's the thing. I didn't turn it on. It somehow started automatically even though I equipped it with numerous safety measures. To turn it on, I need to press about ten buttons, enter a password, and then enter the coordinates for where I want to go. I…I don't know how this could have happened." She confided in him. For someone who usually had trust issues, she felt comfortable enough around Tony and Pepper to tell them this.

Tony paused thinking.

"We'll go examine it in my lab."

"You can do that later. Both of you need to eat something before you pass out." Pepper ordered.