Another day, another meeting with Ross and his group of yes-men. Just like the day before, and the day before that one… Tony wasn't sure why Ross demanded so many meetings; Maybe it was to wear Tony out, or to try and get a tighter grip on the Avengers than he already had. Tony didn't know.
The only thing he did know for sure was that he hated his life.
Ever since he came back from Siberia, things had gone completely downhill. Rhodey was struggling in therapy, Vision would vanish for days on end, Pepper didn't speak to him unless absolutely necessary, and he had become nothing but a tool and scapegoat for Ross.
Some new tech gone haywire? Blame Tony. A meeting with public officials didn't go well? Blame Tony. A sighting of the fugitives known as the Rogue Avengers. Definitely blame Tony.
But when hadn't it been that way? First it was his father, then Obidiah, then Fury and the Avengers, and now Ross. He was nothing more than a human shield to them all, and it left him feeling completely empty.
In fact, it made him wonder… Was there ever a time where he had been free to do what he actually wanted to do? Had there ever been a time where he'd had control of his life? Would he ever be gifted with such freedom?
"Stark!"
Tony jolted upwards, his brown eyes quickly turning to face the source of the noise. Across from him sat an angry hologram of Ross, along with the displeased looks from the other officials at the table.
Once Ross saw he had gotten his attention, he demanded,"Were you listening at any point? This meeting is important, it's not some fancy project you can drop at a moment's notice. I expect responsibility."
The genius took a deep breath in order to pull back the rage that had started to build up inside of him, and forced once of his many for-the-press smiles on his face. Giving a thumbs up, he confidently replied,"Sir, yes, sir! Upgrades for the raft, rogue Avenger details, and Accord business. I heard it all! Genius, remember?"
This seemed to only irritate the man even further. He narrowed his eyes, and sneered,"For someone who claims to be a genius, you are incredibly slow whenever I try to work with you."
"I'm not just working with you, Ross," Tony reminded him,"I'm also working with doctors on Rhodey's prosthetics, working as the new leader of the Avengers, and the-"
He cut himself off, and gave a few short coughs to hide the mistakes. "And the- You know, the Stark Industry business?" He finished, while his heart pounded inside of his chest. He almost spilled the beans about his project to revise the Accords right then and there, in front of the very person who would want to stop him. How much more foolish could he get?
Ross stared at him suspiciously for a moment, but seemed to accept the answer. "I understand that, Stark, but I am a government official giving you an order. My orders are first before anything else. I want these projects done, and done by the end of the week, understand?" He declared.
Tony's eyes widened as he recalled the other dozens of things Ross had ordered him to do. "That isn't enough time! I have other deadlines and projects! I can't finish all that in just seven days!" He exclaimed.
"If you prove to be useless, I can replace you easily. Just because you signed the Accords doesn't mean you are safe!" Ross snapped at him, with eyes that burned with power. "Get. It. Done."
With those final, threatening words, the holograms cut out, and left Tony completely, utterly alone. He stared at the empty chair for a full minute before he let out an exhausted sigh, and slumped forward.
His chest felt tight with anxiety, shoulders weighed down by the impossible tasks with an impossible deadline that Ross had just given him. He buried his face in his hands and shook as he fought to hold back tears of frustration. "What am I going to do?" He whispered aloud.
"Perhaps, Boss…" Friday carefully interjected,"Before you begin any of the projects currently on your list, you should have some food? According to my calculations, you haven't eaten in two days."
Tony ignored her concerned suggestion, just he ignored the agreeing growl of his stomach. He abruptly stood up, and firmly said,"I have a lot of work to do... "
Friday went silent, and only gave weak protests as he got into the elevator and rode it all the way down to his workshop. There he spent the next four days frantically working through all the projects that had been assigned to him. He never ate, he only drank coffee (until he ran out) and Dum-E's smoothies, and only slept for thirty minutes in between those days.
It wasn't like anyone cared, anyways. He received no calls or texts from anyone during those four days… Not even Rhodey.
It was on the fourth day that the stress finally caught up to him. He had been in the middle of a coding session when, out of nowhere, a burst of rage hit him. He stopped, and turned his eyes down to the keyboard. The sight of it… Suddenly made him angry.
"What's… What's the point?!" He yelled, and flung the keyboard off of the workshop desk. It crashed to the ground, pieces of it tumbled all over the floor, which made Dum-E, U, and Butterfingers jump in shock.
He jumped to his feet and shoved the chair aside as he began to pace. "Why am I doing this?! Why am I even trying?! No matter what I do, Ross will just give me more shit to do! If I make more Stark-Tech, people will just want more. If I fix the Accords, the Rogues will all still hate me! What's the point of it all?!"
"Boss-"
"A-and when they come back, what do I expect? The friends I once had? Ha! Bullshit! They'll hate me, just like the media and Ross. Who knows? Maybe for old times sake, Steve will shove a hunk of vibranium in my chest! Maybe this time he'll actually kill me and I can have some fucking relief!"
"Boss!"
Tony gave a laugh, a hateful, tortured laugh. "Who am I kidding? Even in death I wouldn't be free…" He croaked,"I'm a murderer, a monster… All I do is hurt the people I love. I'm going to hell… I'm going to burn in hell. But I deserve it! I deserve it all!"
"I know that! B-but…" He threaded his fingers through his hair. "I know I don't deserve it… But still… I just want to be free… Why can't I just like my own life? WHY CAN'T I BE FREE?!"
"Boss!"
Friday's frantic voice finally managed to break through his panicked rambling. He jerked up while he gasped for air, looking towards the computer. "W-what?" He managed to force out when he saw the red flashing on the screen.
"Boss, something strange is happening in the sky outside. I'm getting readings of magic, but it is unlike magic we have scanned before," She told him.
Tony's curiosity returned, which helped him push aside the panic that still burned within him. "Seriously?" He asked as he called for his newest Iron Man suit. "You're not shitting me?"
"I am not," Friday firmly declared,"It is spreading all throughout the sky, boss. Our scanners cannot seem to identify eighty-seven percent of its contents."
Suited up, Tony quickly flew out of the compound and turned his eyes to the sky. Instantly, he stopped in his tracks, and let out a gasp of surprise.
The sky was filled with streams of rainbow colored light, different colors melded together and starting to spread all throughout the sky. It looked like the northern lights, but if felt… Warm… and comforting.
"Friday… Are you seeing this?" He whispered as he slowly flew closer to the streams of magical light.
The AI sounded just as curious as he was when she replied,"I am, Boss. So is all of the world… Apparently it can be seen from everywhere."
Tony whistled inside the suit. "Damn… I wonder what is causing it," He whispered to himself, and flew alongside one of the streams towards the green trees nearby. "Can you get a scan?"
Friday attempted to scan the light, but the results were inconclusive. This time, it was ninety-six percent unknown. "I would need to be closer in order to get a better reading. The distance is causing some malfunctions with the scanners, but I would advise against-"
"A front and center view coming right up!" Tony eagerly replied. He ignored the AI's protests and flew right up to one of the blue and gold colored lights, and continued,"Full scan, Friday, take your time. I wanna know as much as we can."
"...Yes Boss…" Friday replied in what sounded like an annoyed tone, but Tony ignored it in order to continue his admiration of the strange lights.
Even though they were so close to them, he felt no hostility. There was no immediate sense of danger. The streams of light were comforting, almost like being wrapped up in a big blanket. It made him want to reach out and touch it, he wanted to get closer to that amazing feeling.
When he started at those lights, however, he felt something even more. It was like he was the closest he had ever gotten to the true desire in his heart… The ability to be-
"BOSS!"
A red light flashed on the side of the screen, and Tony tried to turn around, to fly out of the way, to do anything… But it was too late. Something burning hot slammed against him, as if it had completely ignored his suit, and hit him straight on.
Suddenly there was a burning fire in his body that felt like it was tearing apart his bones and muscles and overwhelmed his senses with the extreme pain and boiling heat. The wind howled in his ears, he was falling towards the ground, and then he knew no more.
Rhodey had been at one of his many physical therapy appointments when the commotion started. The room he, his doctor, and therapist had been in was suddenly doused in rays in a myriad of colors as the strange streams of light outside spread out across the New York Sky.
"What in the world is that?" His physical therapist exclaimed, backing up towards the door and pressing her clipboard against herself in a weak form of protection.
The Colonel found that he couldn't seem to come up with any idea, all he could think of was that it was the next big threat for the Avengers. Surely it had to be, what else could cause such an anomaly? But who caused it, and why?
Tony might know! He realized, reaching into his pocket and pulling out his phone. I know Ross has been keeping him busy, but he wouldn't waste any time trying to figure out what is happening.
But when he listened to the phone, it rang and rang, and then went to voicemail. Instantly, Rhodey frowned, Tony never let his calls go to voicemail, he always made time to speak to Rhodey, even when he was extremely busy.
He tried to tell himself that he was likely distracted by Ross and his bullshit projects, or maybe he was already hurriedly studying the strange appearance of the lights… But the appearance of the lights in the sky and Tony not answering his calls couldn't be a coincidence. It made him feel like… Something bad had just happened.
He flew through his contacts, pressing a different familiar number, and rolling himself towards the exit. "Hey, Happy? I'm gonna need a ride to Avengers Compound…"
When Tony woke up, he felt warm in a very strange way; It felt like he had a nicely stoked fire inside of himself, that kept his whole body at a high, but perfect temperature. It actually felt rather… Comforting.
But that comfy feeling was only able to distract him for less than a minute, as his mind quickly began to recall exactly what had happened before he fell unconscious. The lights… Friday was scanning them and then they hit me and…
He forced his heavy eyelids open and had to blink them several times in order to clear the blur. When Tony could finally see, he found himself laying stomach-down in the middle of some luscious green trees.
As he looked at the nature around him, he noticed something else. His vision was suddenly extremely sharp, and allowed him to see almost everything around him to the tiniest detail. He could see the mice that dashed quickly through the grass, the bugs that climbed up the side of the tree trunk that was several years away, and the details on even the smallest leaf.
Curiosity took over the man instantly, and his mind rushed to come up with ideas on what had happened. I bet those lights in the sky, and the one that hit me, had something to do with it! He thought excitedly. I need to get back to the lab and do some tests!
He shifted his position, placed his arms in front of him, and was about to push himself up when he saw it. His hands… No, what he saw below him wasn't hands at all. He saw long, blue limbs with flecks of gold, and at the end of the feet were sharp black claws.
What? Wait, what?! Tony thought in shock, slowly willing his brain to lift his left arm and flex the claws. To his horror, the arm responded… Oh my god.
Heart pounding, Tony turned around to look behind him and squeak in shock. His back now had golden and black spikes, along with appendages that looked exactly like wings, and a long tail with fins at the end. He lowered his head, looking between the arms and seeing a blue scaled stomach and black legs that painfully resembled the front ones.
He looked around frantically, and found the remains of his iron man suit nearby. He stumbled towards it as he nearly tripped over the blue wings several times, he shoved his face against the reflective surface, desperately hoping he would see his face.
The face that stared back at him in the suit shard wasn't his reflection, it wasn't even human, not even close. It was… A dragon.