I landed at a brisk trot, dismounting my broom halfway across the balcony on the way into my office. Directly behind me, I heard the clink of the Iron Man suit touching down behind me.
"So, Vuur. What is it?" Tony asked, flipping up his faceplate.
"So far as I am aware, the most advanced medical facility in the galaxy. They would make the doctors in Star Trek seem like barbarians in comparison," I answered. "I studied alomancy for six years, before I caught on to Writing, and found I was something of a genius at it. My alomancy skills are incredibly basic, enough for me to know that you have a rather sharp bit of metal about three centimeters away from piercing your heart, held away by the blindingly powerful force that is your arc reactor."
"How can you tell that?" Stark asked, quietly charging his weapons.
"Sensing." The elevator car arrived, and I stepped in. "I have the ability to sense metal at will, up to a range of about twenty five feet. Masters of the arte are still tracking the Voyager I and II probes." The elevator dinged, trying to remind me to allow the doors to close. "Are you coming?"
Stiffly, Tony boarded the elevator. "Could these 'masters' build something like my suit?"
"No. They could build the armor, but not the power source, weapons or propulsion. They could build a car in their sleep, in fact, there was a competition a few years ago in which several of them did exactly that, but they couldn't replicate your suit if their life depended on it," I answered.
He breathed a sigh of relief, and powered down his weapons. "So, what cars did they build?"
"The Audi R8, the Rolls Royce Ghost, and the Lamborghini Aventador."
"Those are seriously high end cars," Tony said, looking impressed. "Who won the competition?"
"A guy by the name of Erik Lehnsherr. They judged on time and accuracy, where an inspector was actually watching the cars seemingly assemble themselves. Erik took nearly thirty minutes, and missed nothing, due in part to a highly creative technique involving spare nuts and bolts as the method to pick up non-metallic objects, like hoses and glass. The other two took nearly five hours, and had trouble with anything that wasn't metallic. Oh, and I nearly forgot. All three of these masters were sleeping on the opposite side of the planet when this happened."
"No shit?"
"No shit," I assured him.
"That's insane. How do they do that?" Tony asked.
I shrugged. "Alomancy would be incredibly difficult to explain, so I'm just gonna say it's Magic, just like my Books, but directed differently."
The elevator opened silently, and I walked out into the hall. At the door to room 101, I entered a PIN code, and the door clicked open.
"Not much for security," Tony commented.
"Yeah, most of the security I have is for high value Books or just for show. Most people can't get in anyway, so why bother with a thousand layers? I'd need to keep a code journal, which is a security breach waiting to happen." I gestured towards the Book sitting in the middle of the room. "Shall we?"
"Sure." After a brief moment of hesitation, he placed his hand on the Linking Panel, and disappeared from my view. A moment later, I followed.
"Can we do that again?" Tony asked, a moment after I'd arrived. "I got a ton of interesting data during the…what do you call that transition period?"
"Linking," I answered. "And yes, we've three more trips to go. After we're done here, then I'll give you the keys to a little wonderland of mine called the Clockyard."
"That sounds kinda steampunk-y," Tony said.
"Yeah, that's the way I'd originally envisioned it, but about fifty years after I'd built the place, the citizens went through a five year period of intense pressure, because the world wasn't exactly stable. They managed to stabilize it, but now there's much more than steampunk in the Clockyard," I explained.
"Alex? Is that you? Is it really you? You were due for routine physical six months ago!" A man exclaimed, walking towards us. "And who is your friend? Wait…" he turned to look at Tony more closely. "Anthony 'Call-me-Tony' Stark! It has been long time. How are you?"
Tony had a confused look on his face for a moment, then his face lit up with recognition. "Dr. Wu? World renowned cardiologist, Dr. Wu? I've been doing great…how did you get here?"
Dr. Wu waved his hand dismissively. "Alex gave me Linking copy of this place. I have been studying medicine here for nearly eight years, learn something new every day. I've been taking notes, and bringing them back with me, trying to drag Earth from dark ages. So, what brings you here?"
I saw that Tony was about to deflect attention away from himself, so I answered before he could. "I'm here for the physical I'm late for, and he's here to get a bit of shrapnel out of his heart."
"Hey!" Tony protested. "I'm fine! Really, I am!"
Dr. Wu nodded. "Very well. Tony, your operation won't take very long, and it will be painless. You, Alex, should not have delayed so much."
"Don't I get any say in this?" Tony asked. "It's my body we're talking about here, you know!"
"Tony," I started to explain, "When he says it won't take long, he means about ten minutes. Imagine your level of genius when it comes to building things, like your arc reactor, or your repulsors. Now, instead of weapons, it's medical science, and the doctors here have at least that level of genius, and usually more. You are in more danger sleeping in your bed at home, than laying on the table here."
"Fine, but no more than ten minutes." Tony grumbled.
Within minutes, Tony was watching via a mirrored ceiling as one of the nurses waved a device across his chest. She waited a moment, and then removed the arc reactor and magnet assembly, securing it a few feet above its socket.
A moment later, Dr. Wu entered, and picked up a set of medical pliers, which he then used to reach into Tony's chest, and remove the shrapnel shard. As soon as it was clear of his chest, Wu released the fragment, and the nurse poked a device into the cavity for a moment. It pinged, and she placed it to the side before reinstalling the arc reactor in its socket, and waving the first device across his chest once more.
True to my statement earlier, the process hadn't taken very long at all, and was completely painless. My physical on the other hand, left me tired, sore, sweaty, and cranky. I knew for a fact that Dr. Jameson had relished in the opportunity to torture me in the name of good health.
At the linking point, there were a number of Linking Books on pedestals, roughly half of which had 'Earth' followed by a latitude and longitude set. I opened the Book with W 73º 57' 58.4982 N 40º 47.00607, and placed my hand on it.
I materialized in my office, and moved towards the elevator, both because I didn't want the Iron Man falling on me, and because I wanted the elevator ready to go. I also wanted a bottle of two hundred year old scotch, but that was a vice I could ill afford to indulge in at the moment.
A moment later, Tony arrived, carrying his suit in the suitcase mode. "You look happy," he said.
"Oh, just peachy," I muttered. "They like to torture me if I delay my physical exam. I keep forgetting to deal with it before I'm late. Get tired of wearing the suit?"
"Well, the doctors needed it off so they could operate. How the hell did they do that, anyway? They didn't inject me with anything, just waved a device around, and I could still feel stuff, but there wasn't any pain," Tony said.
"There's a net in the head section. When the nurse waved the first device over you, it was just the area they were working in, right?" I asked.
"Yeah…and?"
"Well, that device is tied to the net. It told your brain not to receive pain signals from the area they were working in. It also affected blood flow, so there was less blood to deal with when they pulled the shrapnel free. After that, a deep tissue regenerator provided energy to your body, and told it to use that energy to make a specific set of repairs, which, due to the energy levels provided, happened almost instantly," I explained. "After they were done, they waved the first device again, right?" At Tony's nod, I continued. "That was to re-enable the pain signals, so that if you get hurt, you feel it. It's kinda like taking the connectors off the battery before performing any kind of major work on your car."
"It was impressive how quick it was," Tony said.
"Part of that was because of the work you'd already done in that area. With such easy access, all they had to do was pop out the reactor and pull out your shrapnel. Without that hole, they would have opened one, then put everything back together when they were done." Once again, we walked down the hall where I kept my Books, and I entered a PIN code at room 115. Sitting in the center of the room, with reliefs of pipes and gears covering the front of the Book, sat the Clockyard. I touched my hand to the panel and materialized in my penthouse in Skyre City. A moment later, Tony materialized behind me. "Well, here we are. Welcome to the Clockyard," I said grandly, sweeping my arm outwards. As far as the eye could see, there was a city filled with tall buildings that could have passed for alien sculptures. "This. This is my candyland, the culmination of everything I've learned prior to Writing this. There's a pretty strong time-dilation in here, about twenty minutes outside is a year in here."
"Wow. So I could spend three years in here, and Pepper wouldn't have time to miss me?" Tony asked.
"Correct. However, I noticed in one of my previous labs that this kind of thing can cause insanity, so I put people here. Every single person here could have graduated MIT when they were eight years old. Some of them even sooner than that," I replied.
"So then what causes the insanity?" Tony asked, suddenly wary.
"Loneliness. If you spent three years alone, you'd go a bit crazy. The cure is to not be alone," I explained. I walked over to a table, and picked up a badge made of silver working into a 'V' shape. "This is a visitor's pass. Don't lose it, because you'll need an identification badge of some kind to enter any meal hall. This badge gives you permission to access approximately 98% of all files, and 75% of all structures, as well as granting you assistants, should you require them." I handed the badge to Tony. "Well, I think that's everything. When you're ready to come back home, simply use this Book. It will deposit you in my office. Well, I'll see you in an hour, my time. If I don't see you by then, I'll come back and pull you out."
With that, I pressed my hand on the Book, and faded away, solidifying back on Earth.
When I had returned to my office on Earth, I picked up my pen and resumed Writing. With any luck, I'd be finished by the end of the week. I had completed only three characters before Fury arrived.
"You made it," I said mildly, looking up from my work.
"Yes, no thanks to you," Fury said. "I got a broken leg due to your damned swing in Edanna."
"Oh." Well that brought me up short. I knew that problems could happen, but I wasn't expecting something like that to happen. I owed the man decent medical care, so I pressed the intercom button. "Code 9," I stated calmly, then release the button. "I apologize for the broken leg. That was not an intended part of your punishment."
"That was supposed to be punishment?" Barton asked, stepping forward aggressively.
"Yes," I replied bluntly. "He entered my territory with the sole purpose of declaring me an enemy, unless I was willing to be his subordinate. Prior to that ill planned introduction, I had no idea SHIELD even existed, let alone your Director. Had I been made aware of them, I would not have had any quarrel with them, unless they were being hostile towards me. Fury opened the channels of dialogue in a confrontational manner, choosing conscription over recruitment. That said, I'm willing to assist, for a price. The rest of the team showed up. Thor, Stark, Banner, even Natasha and Captain America. I met with them all, in peaceable fashion, and even worked out a deal."
"What sort of deal?" Fury asked cautiously.
"I get paid twenty million for my assistance, or a hundred and fifty ideas, or a mix of the two," I answered.
"Absolutely not!" Fury snapped. "I might have considered that, before your stupid trap series, but not anymore! Not after my leg was broken because of you."
"I suspected you would be unwilling to pay, but as I informed Romanoff, I'm no hero. I do things for my own profit, nothing more," I answered. "Stark felt that you might be unwilling to pay, and has offered to pay the cost out of his own pocket."
"I won't allow it," Fury said. "You have a duty, and decent people do their duty without a thought for the pay."
"You'll force me to be decent?" I asked, arching an eyebrow. "Have you forgotten how much power I wield? True, I can't drop the Thunderer in straight combat, but I could vanquish him with ease."
"Really," Fury said flatly.
"Yes. All I would need to do is Write a Book, Link inside the Book whilst making sure he could see me, and then Link out after ensuring that the Linking Book back to Earth would be destroyed upon my departure," I said. "Then he's trapped for a while, possibly the rest of his life. I could have done that to you, you know. I didn't, because I wasn't looking to kill you, or even trap you. I just wanted you to cool your jets for a while. Evidently, that didn't happen, and you've come back with an even more damaged grasp of reality. Just because your name is Nick Fury, and just because you represent SHIELD…" I shook my head. "That doesn't give you the ability to tell me what I can or cannot do. You have not had, nor ever will have, that level of power over me."
"You are a citizen of the United States of America, one of SHIELD's charter nations. That places you under my jurisdiction and authority," Fury stated. "And you will-"
"No, I won't," I interrupted. "The Writing Nation is a sovereign nation, with all the rights and responsibilities thereof. I participated in the Revolutionary War, and my price, as negotiated with George Washington himself, was to have the right to buy territory claimed by the United States, and claim that territory as my sovereign land. The treaty is preserved in the Library of Congress, and cannot be changed, without both parties agreeing to the changes. James Polk came to me, with a list of changes he wanted made, and I said no. William McKinley also tried and failed. Kennedy came to me, and we agreed on a number of changes, one of which was the clarification that while I am not to be denied the ability to buy property, I was to immediately sell the prior piece of property. No changes have been made since."
"This changes nothing. Your territory is still within the space claimed by the United States, so for the purposes of this conversation, you are a citizen of the United States!" Fury declared.
The elevator dinged, and several people wearing white clothing adorned with the Rod of Asclepius exited the elevator car. Before Fury could protest, and before Barton could knock an arrow and draw back, the medical professionals had completely undone the damage to Fury's broken leg.
"What? How? …" Fury asked.
"I wrote a medical paradise, where medical science advances by leaps and bounds on a daily basis," I said.
"The damage to your leg has been undone, sir," one of the nurses said to Fury. "I recommend you find the time to eat and rest, so as to better replenish your body's depleted resources. Have a good day." With that, the medical team walked into the elevator, the doors closing behind them.
"Now, everything you are 'owed' by me, has been paid. At this point, the chief head high big cheese has grown tired of you insulting him, so the Nation of Writing would like to respectfully ask that you depart Our borders. Immediately," I said evenly. "You are no longer welcome to return."
"You will pay dearly for this, Alex!" Fury promised, even as his legs carried him to the door.
"Sure thing," I answered. "I'd even feel worried about that threat if it wasn't for the fact that your legs won't even cooperate with you right now." Indeed, it looked more like he wanted to leap across the desk and beat me to a pulp, but his legs weren't taking orders at the moment. I had forgotten how amusing watching that scene could be. No sooner did the elevator close behind Barton and Fury than the alarm went off on my desk. It had been an hour and five minutes past the time I had told Tony he needed to return by, so I went down to room 115, and Linked back to the Clockyard.
What I found when my vision cleared was shocking. A nearby manufacturing facility was being destroyed, and not in the 'we need space for something' way, but the 'there's an attack of some kind' way.
"Really?" I whined. Sure, a good night's sleep and the damage would likely be undone by the time I returned, but still… I snatched a broom out of a hidden room, and a mage cannon.
A quick flight around showed that Iron Man was going to town on destroying the place. He hadn't even reached a tenth of a single percent, but I wasn't about to let him do more damage. "Any chance we can talk about this?" I asked. Before he could answer, I aimed the mage cannon at the building Tony was busy firing upon, and fired off a shot of my own, resulting in a rather significant explosion.
Suddenly, Tony wasn't beside me anymore, and he was firing at me. The repulsor shots impacted on my shields, and began quickly wearing them down.
"O-Kay, this ain't cool anymore!" I shouted. I inverted, dodging four more shots and a fifteen second beam, then began flying an unpredictable evasive pattern. Star Seeker Harry Potter had nothing on my evasive tactics. I stilled for a moment, and fired my mage cannon. A hugely intricate web of lines made of yellow light appeared where the shot impacted, then dissipated. "…crap."
.
.
.
In the space of four hours, we'd managed to tear up even more of the city. I had gone through seven cannons, having completely worn out the crystal that focused my energies. Additionally, four brooms, two jetpacks, and an experimental lightwing had been destroyed in the battle.
Tony's armor was scuffed, covered in dust and minor scratches, and leaking sweat. Even with his superior cooling systems, the suit had gone through no less than three flash roasts, in which the heat was well in excess of ten thousand Kelvin, the last of which actually forced the coolant system's shutdown. It would need repair before it could function again. Even with the coolant system's failure, it wouldn't have been a problem, if he hadn't been in combat. At cruising speed, he could have used ram air to cool the interior with. In combat, he never had the chance to get to that speed, as it would have required a relatively straight course.
While the arc reactor itself was still going strong, the rest of Iron Man needed a bit of a break, to the point that Tony had actually landed, laid down, and fallen asleep in the span of a minute. I powered down my hoverbike, which was barely functional at this point, and found a flier with enough space to carry Iron Man back to my penthouse.
Once I hauled him up to the Book, I dropped him face-first against the Book, then touched my hand to it a moment later.
I flopped into my chair in my office, and sighed. I didn't mind having a workout, but you really put more into your exercises when they help you avoid being dead. I was bone tired, and wound up falling asleep in the chair before I registered the fact that my eyes had closed.
It was dark and stormy, with wild winds that would wrench the plane one way, then another. My copilot was skilled though, and we were working together quite well, trying to wrestle the 737 onto the tarmac. In spite of the terrible weather, we were having no trouble with the aircraft, aside from the computer having gone strange, and the whine of the engines was comfortingly stable.
Suddenly, the computer began speaking, though the accompanying 'woop-woop' between vocal alerts was missing. "Pull up! Pull up! Pull up!"
The shaking was intensifying, but with a combined seventy-five years at the controls between us, my co-pilot and I were unconcerned. We'd save our excitement for when parts come off. "Pull up! Pull up! Wake up! Wake up, dammit!"
So, the computer didn't know we were landing. That's fine, we've got the gear and flaps down, spoilers armed, and reverse thrust ready…wait a moment, that vocal alert was new. I blinked, and the view out of the 737 was replaced with my office in New York…and Iron Man was shaking me with one hand, while his other hand showed a charged repulsor. I thought that whine was a bit high for jet engines…
"Wazzup?" I slurred, blinking repeatedly.
Tony let go, but kept his repulsor aimed at me. "When were you going to tell me you have plans to build an Iron Man suit?" he demanded.
"Wha?...no, I wasn't doing that. Which project did you see?" I asked, blinking away the last traces of sleep.
"SO5.0.1, I believe you called it? It's a very clear imitation of the Iron Man suit, and I can't allow you to have that kind of technology. People would get a hold of it and misuse it," Tony said.
"SO5…" I trailed off. I couldn't think of anything…oh. That. "Exoskeleton space suit. Intended for extreme environmental conditions, in situations that require extraordinary levels of strength. No weapon loadouts. Inoperable, no valid power source for design parameters. Abandoned two years ago, Earth time. Sibling item SO4.9.4, final testing phase. Estimated time of availability for human live testing, six months. Assuming no flaws after human lives tests, the design rights are immediately available for sale, pending approval. No exo, filter system is time limited to seven hours, no weapon loadout. Compatible with SORL," I recited.
"You mean you weren't building a suit like mine?" Tony asked incredulously.
"Correct."
"You have the capability to do so," Tony stated.
"Incorrect. I do not have the knowledge of technomancy required to create the arc reactor, which would be essential for such an endeavor," I answered.
"Technomancy?" Tony asked, bewildered.
"A special branch of magic that is compatible with technology. You're telling me no one ever told you that what you're doing is blatantly magical?" I asked, seeing the bewildered look on his face.
"No, you're making this up," Tony said, chuckling. "I don't have magic."
"The element powering that arc reactor. You found a loophole in physics to synthesize it, right?" I asked.
"Yeah, so? It happens all the time to people. I just happened to get lucky with it," Tony said.
"Tony, physics doesn't have loopholes. What you are doing is magic that seems like technology. Honestly, it almost is technology. That's why everyone just thinks you're a genius." At Tony's affronted look, I hastily continued. "Don't get me wrong, you are a genius. But if we got all the non-magical geniuses together, and added you to the mix, they would refer to each other as normal, and you as the only genius in the group, based on set dynamics of course."
"You mean…"
"Yes, Tony, you are in fact, a super-powered genius. Your IQ runs on rocket fuel, where the other geniuses only used premium unleaded. Your genius is magic."
"You know, that really explains a lot. Your theory explains quite easily exactly why I'm so awesome," Tony preened. "You been working on that theory a while?"
I groaned internally. 'I've just inflated his already large ego, and what's worse, I used the truth to do it!' I whined mentally. "No, I just put the pieces together very quickly. Remember, it takes a bit of a genius to Write entire worlds into existence," I said. "Now, can we put this unpleasantness behind us? I'm not building your Iron Man suit. Even if I had a valid power supply, I wouldn't. I'm busy along entirely different lines, and honestly, I don't do knockoff stuff."
"You swear you're not telling me that just to get me to back off?" Tony asked suspiciously.
It took all of my self-control not to roll my eyes at that statement as I seriously replied "Yes, I swear."
"Alright, but if I ever catch a whiff of anything that reminds me of my suit…" Tony left the threat hanging as he turned and left my tower.
I sighed in relief. "At last. I thought he'd never leave. He's a genius, but the dude's got serious issues tied to that suit. Faith?" I asked, pushing the intercom button.
"Yes, sir?"
"I've had an incredibly long day. Close up the shop, and go on home. I'll edit the clock to show you spent the full day here, instead of the half that I'm turning it into," I instructed.
"I'll get that done right away, sir," she replied. Five minutes later, I felt the wards shift into lockdown, and collapsed onto my desk for some long-overdue shuteye.
A/N: Okay, so real life happened for a while, and I was unable to get this out to you readers, but it's here now, so there's that. Hopefully, I can finish this up soon. That said, I'll get to work on the next chapter shortly. Please leave a review in the box provided below, and have a great day!