"Black Bird Singing In The Dead Of Night"


Anthony Edward Stark's story was always meant to be a tragedy. In an infinite number of multiverses his presence would appear and tragedy would follow him.

He was known as a prime among mortals and the base natures of the universe flocked to him. Destruction, creation, knowledge, burden all attached to him to create an armor that could not be seen by any. But still was recognized by the most attuned to the multiverse and its workings.

Knowledge attached itself to the babe first. Wrapping around him and settling in his mind and in his eyes, a helmet of knowledge that would be core in all his decisions. Genius the mortals would call him. Futurist, virtuoso, the list would continue and Antony would bask in these words. Bask in knowledge and seek more. Continually seek more, and as he reached out knowledge would reach back. Flocking to its host caring not for the pain it caused him. Caring not for the way it was used. Flocking to him so that it was no longer a secret rather it had a home in him.

Knowledge attached itself first and that rarely, if ever, was a good thing.

Destruction followed next, it's tendrils curled around him like a blanket taking what it willed claiming his left hand for its swords and his right hand for its shield. But unlike knowledge, destruction did not attach itself to a host easily. To hold destruction one must know destruction . So destruction would start carving into his flesh while he was still a child. Would carve out new pounds of flesh every few years until the boy, playing at being a man, was so filleted by loss that destruction could sneak into his bones.

By the time he was able to realize what destruction had done; it was too late. Always too late. Destruction was too closely entwined to leave him.

So he feared the destruction in himself. Fear the capability destruction was granted by his hands. And pleaded with destruction to be given control. He would bend on a broken knee begging it to take from him rather than those he loved.

Knowledge helped Anthony Edward Stark understand much, but it kept from him secrets that his mind could not know. So Antony Edward Stark offered his body as a sacrifice not understanding mere mortals could not survive being claimed by destruction.

That those he loved faced no fall out from destruction itself, rather from Anthony's handling of it.

Knowledge helped Anthony Edward Stark understand much, but it never showed him that destruction could manipulate the creation that would soon follow him, and poison the life inside him so that it could gain a new harbinger.

A new merchant of death as many universes called him.

Creation would follow destruction closely, it's purpose as a salvation. A penance for the pain that knowledge and destruction would cause him. Creation was a tool able to be used by knowledge so that a mind did not go mad. It was a medicine to help heal the pounds of flesh that destruction took so freely. They worked in tandem as Creation patched the crevices created when destruction passed through. It would settle in his skin, hardening it to metal, to iron 'Stark men are made of iron' and using it to project innovation and life. Flitting around him, itching under his skin. Pulling him away from the land of mortals and into a land of creation where base needs were useless and he could thrive.

A da vinci of his time.

Unlike destruction and knowledge however creation met the most resistance. Met the most resistance from his flesh and from the mere mortals around him. Because accepting genius was not beyond their capability, facing destruction was harder but something built into them from birth, but sparking life out of thin air spurring the conventions of existence further than any other being had the ability to see, that was not revered it was feared.

Last came the burden. And unlike its predecessors, the burden did not seek him out. It did not skower and search until it found him. In fact, it actively tried to avoid him in most words.

Because nothing in the universe, besides burden itself, had the scope to understand what burden did to its host. How it cast a devastating weight each and every time it was laid on their shoulders. How it chipped away at them until it broke them and then crawled its way back into the multiverse.

So it found him in every universe without trying. For burden was hurled at the feet of the boy every time that Howard spoke. Every time Obidiah looked at him, every time the press took note of his presence. Burden was piled on him and crushed him under its weight.

He was different from many of the others who carried the burden. His burden heavier than any being had the strength to carry, and still despite being crushed with each breath he never broke. Somehow despite the weight he always learned to adjust his footing, grit his teeth and bear it. He wasn't the only stubborn bastard burden had come across in its existence but somehow he had managed to endear himself to the burden. So burden did something that it hadn't since Atlas. It stretched from where it sat atop a shoulder ready to crush and covered his bones. Tightening his hold on them and making it so they wouldn't fail him. So that like Atlas it would not be his body that was crushed under burden.

But that did not mean he would not be crushed in others ways. Because, Anthony Edward Stark's story was always meant to be a tragedy. In an infinite number of multiverses his presence would appear and tragedy would follow him.

In some corners of the multiverse Anthony Edward Stark was saved from his normal tragedy by mercy and fate. Mercy who took pity on Maria Stark and carried her away early, before the life she lived and the love she held destroyed her completely. Fate who cut the string of his life early before breath entered his lungs and knowledge entered his mind.

In some corners of the multiverse Anthony Edward Stark was saved from his normal tragedy and this was one of those universes.

One in which Anthony Stark is born with no breath in his lungs. A soul taken back to the great beyond before a moment of pain or torment could befall him. As he left this world he took his mother by the hand and carried her away as well. Away from the fury of Howard's words and the weight behind his fists, to the great beyond where both were safe.

Both free from the monster in sheep's clothing who existed on a moral high ground due in no small part to the mass murder people in enemy cities. Not of enemies because Howard never quite cared too much as to who pointed his weapons just that the checks cleared.

But knowledge, destruction, and creation would always lash out in these universes. Not happy that their prime was taken from them. Nor having the patience to wait until another suitable prime was born. So they scoured those blessed few universes for a new prime.

And in this universe they found one in a hydra base in New York and they led their afflicted to collect her.

Because Mercy and Fate may have saved Anthony Edward Stark but each universe demanded balance, and every Howard Stark, well every Howard Stark demanded an heir.

Knowledge came to the new babe like the flash of a camera. Bright and startling, as the babe was held forward for the press to begin tossing burden onto its fragile form.

The next day newspapers and tabloids across the globe showed the Babe in its pages. The headlines were varied and many but the sentiment was the same.

Welcome to the World Antonia Marie Stark.

We have been waiting for you.