50 Shades of Tony

by Virodeil

Tony chooses to think differently, see the little details, in the aftermath of the Battle of New York. The arc reactor in his chest is failing for the second time, at that. These, coupled together, sees him pelting down quite a different road than what anyone expects, including himself. An alien family, a pre-made romance, some inherited species change… oh, my! – *(MULTICROSSOVER)

31. What Comes Next

50 Shades of Tony
By Rey

Chapter 31
Tony Stark and What Comes Next

General warning for: mild swearing

Warnings for: Piece 755: Heavy Teens: implied sexual content

The Rescue on Orbit of Earth, Beginning of May 2016 (Ctd.)

745. Syntax
Learning the syntax, phrasing combinations and other nitty-gritties of magicwork runes falls flat, faced with the recent battle and all the unpleasantness that came after. Tony meant to distract himself with studying, after soothing Lolo and stowing them away in bed, but Hermione Granger's stricken look won't stop haunting him.

746. Curtain
Tony critiques Fié's present floor-length, undefined-but-decorated robe with a wan smile: "It's a curtain, not a dress, Leaf." The exasperating-but-sometimes-adorable milaða only has eyes and voice for their subdued Lolo, though. Well, Tony doesn't mind it, this time. Lolo's condition is his fault for the most part. Damn Hermione Granger.

747. Cage
"We escaped our cages and now you're putting us into cages here?" Granger hisses like a scalded cat as a pair of milaðen usher her into the single-occupancy isolation room. Tony shakes his head. "For your protection until we reach Earth and can provide you with healing," he explains exasperatedly.

Malibu, California, United States, Beginning of May 2016

748. Playful
Tony persuades Fié to loose Lolo among the other children on disembarkation. What convinces the overprotective mum isn't his persuasion, though, but the sight of the hybrid children gathering warily but hopefully by the ramp leading out of the Rescue, and the other children playfully jostling each other farther back.

749. Chatter
"Come home, Afa," Fié wheedles for the umpteenth time, masked by the subdued chatter of the diners and the rumbling-and-shushing of the waves. And again, Tony shakes his head. He can't visit Ýmirheim yet, and the prat knows it well. His grim business with the British magical world is on-going.

750. Duration
In the end, Fié gives Tony an ultimatum: Be in Ýmirheim for the duration of an Earth's month by next week, or be abducted to spend two months there. Tony doesn't cave because of the stern tone, though, but the pleading in those green eyes. "Damn you, Leaf," he huffs.

751. Daunting
Assisting the remnants of the British magical community to recover is just as daunting as doing the same to Ýmirheim, in Tony's opinion. This community's much smaller, true, but people are yet too shaken to move the recovery along themselves, while there's no time to let them grieve. Damn ultimatum.

752. Shield
While on a break from brainstorming what to do with the British magical community, Tasha snoops round SHIELD and finds more unknown-but-interesting things. The projects seem benign, thankfully. But Ýoluti, who is there to fetch Tony and all the sprogs on the deadline, gasps when they spy a particular image.

Ýmirheim, Middle of May 2016

753. Hard Snow
"What were you surprised about?" Tony prods when he and Ýoluti descend the ramp and tread on the coating of hard snow in their milaða forms. The granny pretends to be busy herding the kiddies, though, and doing that in so obscure a manner that Tony can't confront them outright.

754. Veil
Fié's equally surprised, when Tony describes the image that Ýoluti freaked out about. And they're equally mute, when he asks what it's all about. Damn. And they're equally wily, too, because they then spirit him across the planet via ship, to witness moonrise from behind a veil of half-crystalised water.

*755. Naked
Tony returns to his earlier train of thought, after witnessing the admitedly spectacular view of rich silvery light glimmering and glinting off and through the thin curtain of ever-flowing water. But his thought-wagon's derailed again when he notices that he and Fié are naked, now, and Fié's busy exciting him.

756. Tell
"You've got to tell me soon, you know. I'll never stop. You'll run out of excuses long before I give up," Tony purs smirkingly into Fié's ear, nuzzling it for added effect, as they lie entangled in each other in the thankfully empty-and-already-homified cave hidden behind the veil of water.

757. Master
"You have to master the current problems, first, before you invite more problems to come home," is Fié's grumpy reply to the veiled demand, which makes Tony interested instead of wary. "The image didn't look like it's a problem. So, 'matter' would be more apt, wouldn't it?" he muses aloud.

758. Convey
The look that Fié gives Tony next conveys many, many things, exasperation and grudging acknowledgement chief of all. In turn, Tony hopes that his little smirk conveys just as many, most of which are triumph and determination. And then, before Fié can distract him again, he immediately pursues more information.

759. Separate
In the end, for all the effort, Fié brings Tony to… somewhere unremarkable some distance away from the Capital, which is a cave amidst so many caves dotting a sturdy cliff formation. There's something quite remarkable that separates this cave from the others, though. "It's the construct from the image!"

760. Gate
"It is a gate, Afa, not a construct. And lower your voice, please. The echo is very annoying," Fié grumbles, while Tony fawns over the huge stone ring standing vertically on a nook far removed from the opening to the cave. He frowns quizzically. "Doesn't look like it," he observes.

761. Ancient
"It is," Fié insists. "A few million years ago, a friendly exploration ship visited us and stayed with us for some time. The crew modified one of their portal generators for interrealm travel and installed one here, as gift." Tony gawks and blurts out, "Whoa, millions of years! Ancient, that!"

762. Move
"The inner and outer rings are moved when one wishes to set up a destination," Fié explains when Tony asks how to activate the strange gate. "One can only go to a place where one of these gates have been installed and still operational. The travel is… quite an experience."

Malibu, California, United States, End of June 2016

763. Cheerless
Having somewhat reluctantly left Ýmirheim and the newly-named babies Belaumir and Belýðar, Tony finds that, as gloomy as Ýmirheim is still after years of effort, his Malibu home – a refugee camp, currently – is practically cheerless. And from the odd damages all round, stress—and-trauma-induced accidental outbursts of power are abundant.

764. Grey
"We can't rebuild till they're all healed," Clint observes when one of the refugees freaks out on being approached with a glass of water by him. "And I'm beginning to suspect they won't as long as they're still here. On Earth, I mean." Tony raises an eyebrow to the assessment.

765. Pure
"They went through pure hell for a long time," Cap agrees to the assessment. "I read the reports, about how Holocaust victims recovered after they're freed. Many of'em became skittish for the remainder of their lives. But, maybe, if they got the chance to live in a planet by themselves…."

766. Better
"Do you honestly think that uprooting them is better?" Tony's flabbergasted. "Won't it traumatise them further?" But this time, it's Laura who pipes in, ponderingly, "An uninhabited planet… temperate climate… not dangerous… far away… well-defended… just for myself and my family…. I'd pay lots for that, and I mean it."

767. Choice
"It's got to be their own choice, though," Clint reminds his wife. "It's been taken away from them all too often. Till then, maybe we could try contact some of their kind over here for some counselling? I could help snoop round to find one. There must be a way."

768. Rumpled
An energetic, sharp, bubbly man in rumpled clothes finds the home-turned-refugee-camp before Clint can conduct his self-appointed mission: Sherlock Holmes, younger brother of Mycroft Holmes, who Tony knows runs the British government behind the scene. Ironically, apparently Sherlock Holmes is also the detective guy Tony got the deerstalker-hat inspiration from.

769. Sour
Sherlock Holmes never shuts up, even worse than Tony himself. In just an hour, he's managed to piss off everyone in the property in one way or another. It turns worse when Fié and the sprogs flood in, unable to keep away for long. Then Fié makes a sour remark….

770. Neon Green
…And dearest, darling, honey-bunny Natalie McDonald acts on it: turning Mr. Sherlock Foot-in-the-mouth-Train-wreck Holmes neon green, from head to toe. Everyone cheers… until the prat changes his trajectory accordingly by pestering all and sundry about how the phenomenon is achieved. Fed up, Tony phones the prat's brother to fetch him.