I know it's been a while but life has been punching me from left and right. Work has been ridiculous (Preparing for a sale of all things in the midst of a second wave). And now that schools have gone back I also have to look after my nieces and nephews nearly everyday.
There hasn't been a lot of time to write but I hope that I find enough to keep this going.
Their surroundings were a kaleidoscope of the unfathomable and the uncanny. A great swathe of colours that seemed simultaneously too bright and too alien. Colours that were usually beyond the visible spectrum. Their human eyes could barely comprehend the aether that they shot through.
It twisted and writhed, seeming to collapse inwards on itself. The inside of an implosion. A continuing, ceaseless expanse that was both nothing and Everything. The same substance that made up the whole universe, the stars, the planets. As well as the unending void that stretched across space.
They were completely surrounded. Submerged and drowning. Could one suffocate under so much nothing? That's what it felt like.
Tony was completely conscious, vehemently aware of everything. Yet his mind refused to document it. When this ended-If it ended-Tony had the feeling that he would not be able to recall even a second of it. A defence mechanism to protect his soft, vulnerable brain from melting under the knowledge of the very fabric of the universe.
This shouldn't have happened. They were at the mercy of the quantum realm. Bare and defenceless. No armour to protect them. No barrier between it and them.
There was a constant pressure bearing down around him. It compressed and crushed and suffused into his bones. It seeped and surged until he no longer knew where he began. Did he even have a body anymore? He was too paralysed to even glance down and check. Not that he really wanted to.
He thought at some point he might have screamed. Yelled out and had his own fears echo back to him. But there were no sounds in a realm this small. They were smaller than an atom. Smaller than a soundwave.
Instead the screams twisted out of him in a whirl of colour. They spread out around him and blended into the great tapestry he now found himself in.
Something pushed and forced its way into him like a great shockwave or a violent gust of wind. Without any protection, time was being pushed through him. Changing him. Altering him. The very thing he had warned them about when they had first started testing on Lang. Yet here he was succumbing to his own stupidity.
If he hadn't been so lackadaisical with the machine or severely sleep deprived he would have realised his mistake before he'd told Thor to switch it on. He would have lamented his own idiocy if he had any room left in his mind for the notion. But he currently wasn't sure if he even still had a mind at this point.
Lang had mentioned being able to feel the passing of time in this strange place. Granted it was warped and inaccurate but he still had a grasp on reality. Yet Tony could not tell whether it had been seconds, minutes or days. Hell it could have been years and he wouldn't know.
But even this peculiar new hell couldn't last forever. He felt something change. An odd tension, a shift in the water, a disturbance in the air. All at once his surroundings began to brighten-blindingly so. The force that had seeped into him began to burn. It felt as if he was being torn apart.
The vast expanse around him had ceased its endless imploding and instead exploded outwards. Reality shattered at a single point and they were surrounded and suspended in an ethereal light.
For one second they were nothing, nowhere. A cloud of matter and soul. But all too quickly the pieces of them shot back and melted together. Remodeled and reformed.
They were shot out of the quantum realm in a ceremony of sparks and fireworks. A show that would have dazzled and terrified anyone who had the bad luck of being there. Thankfully they were very much alone. They landed, rather unceremoniously, on the cold wet ground.
For a brief moment Tony's mind was filled with the wonders and terrors of a world he never should have been in. Then in the next second his mind had cooled and the alien colours faded until it was nothing but a distant memory. A dream.
Then he promptly passed out, face first, into the mud.
oOo
Tony groaned. The sound was muffled by the damp ground and wet grass. One particularly annoying strand of grass kept tickling the inside of his nose whenever he breathed in. However his body still felt half paralysed. Like when your mind wakes up before your body has had a chance to get rid of the hormone that paralyses you in your sleep so you don't act out your dreams.
Tony's mind was also struggling to catch up. Why am I face down in the grass? I can't remember-
"Oh Shit!" Tony shot up as bits and pieces began to make their way back into his frazzled brain.
The right side of his face was spattered with mud. A few blades of grass were embedded into it like a leafy growth.
Tony regretted moving so fast as it caused a sharp pain to shoot through his head and bright colours to dance across his vision. For a breathless moment he was drawn back to a different, endless expanse of colour. But the feeling disappeared almost as soon as it arose. He rubbed at his eyes with one of his hands while he leaned against the other.
Only to reel back in disgust when he realised that it was covered in mud. His nose scrunched up as he wiped the offending hand onto his already filthy shirt. Then he found a relatively clean patch on his sleeve to wipe the crap for his eyes.
Once his eyes were clear again he finally gave his surroundings a closer look. There was barely any light as night seemed to have fallen. There was a significant amount of cloud cover which made it very difficult to see much of anything. But from what he could make out, he was in a very large, empty field. With trees along the outskirts and what could have been a river, maybe? to the left of him. He couldn't see it from this vantage point but he could definitely hear running water.
Right, compartmentalise, What the fuck happened? They were working on the machine. Then he was an idiot and told Thor the wrong instructions. Explosion ensues. Then a rather big blank in his memory where he knows something happened but it kept slipping away from him. Something about flying or falling and screaming. And then he was here in this random field.
Wait, it wasn't just me in that machine…
A loud groan from several feet behind him confirmed his suspicions. Tony's head span in the direction of the sound. He could just make out the shape of a person underneath the muted light of the moon.
"Bruce? Buddy is that you?" Tony staggered as he tried to get up. His limbs were unco-operative and he slid in the mud. His feet threatened to slide out from underneath him and he probably looked like Bambi on ice. But he managed to get them back underneath with some sense of dignity.
He made his way over to the prone lump of what he hoped was his friend Bruce. But for some reason the shape didn't quite look right. It seemed too small and there were weird shadows coming off it at odd angles.
"...Ugh..Tony?"
Oh thank god. That was definitely Bruce's voice.
It was only once Tony got close enough to really see Bruce that he understood why his body hadn't looked right from a distance.
Mean green was nowhere to be seen. In his stead was the image of Bruce that Tony hadn't seen in nearly five years. Tony had forgotten how small Bruce used to be. Especially after always seeing the 8ft tall version of him.
But because of his sudden shrinkage his Hulk sized clothes were now giant on him. He was now smothered in a huge white-well not so white anymore-t-shirt that could have been a blanket. It reached below his knees. His buttoned sweater had been launched off of his body and landed in its own mud puddle. And at some point the poor guy had been pantsed. With both his jeans and his underwear hanging off his left foot.
Now this was no laughing matter. Something serious had occurred that had launched Tony and Bruce into the unknown. An event that had caused Big Bruce to turn back to small Bruce.
A very serious, not at all funny, moment.
Oh who was he kidding it was hilarious. This was Tony after all, he could laugh in any circumstance. He had to brace his hands against his knees to stop himself from falling over.
The laughter must have jolted something in Bruce's brain because he finally lifted his head up and blinked around. His eyes settled on his outstretched hand and he shot up. He almost flinched back when he moved his fingers as if he didn't quite realise they were his.
"What the hell?" Bruce whispered to himself. Then he lifted his head up to Tony. "Is this really the time to be laughing?"
"I know, I know," Tony said, trying to reign it in. "But you know what I'm like with uncertain circumstances I start getting giggly."
Bruce shook his head but he didn't seem angry. He attempted to stand up but got caught in the mound of cloth around his feet. It would have been a one way trip back into the mud if Tony hadn't grabbed him underneath his arms and steadied him. The tent of a shirt now covered him down to his shins. Which was definitely a good thing because the guy was currently swinging free underneath it.
Now they were actually level they could make out each other better. Which made Bruce reel back once he finally saw Tony's face. "What the hell?"
"What?" Tony asked, rightfully concerned by Bruce's tone of voice. Did he now have some kind of alien face after that whole time machine explosion?
But that didn't seem right because Bruce didn't look deformed in any way. Unless you count the fact he had now been shifted back into his human body.
Bruce scrutinised Tony's face. Then reached forward and tried to poke it. Tony just managed to side swipe the hand away before he could get more dirt on his face.
"Tony all your grey and wrinkles are gone." Bruce said.
Tony's eyebrows drew together and he felt across his face, trying to determine a difference. Though he couldn't really tell just by feel. He would need a mirror.
Now that he thought about it though, Bruce wasn't looking as gray either. Obviously he hadn't seen human Bruce in a while but even five years ago the guy was a lot grayer than this.
"It's not just me. Look at you" Tony indicated to Bruce. "Not only are you less gray, you're also pink and squishy again."
Bruce brought his hand up to his chest and his mouth dropped open. "Squishy?" Bruce said, affronted. "Are you seriously calling me fat? At a time like this?"
Tony immediately back tracked. "What? No! That's not what I meant. You cut a fine figure. Especially considering your clothes are literally falling off you."
Tony indicated to the jeans next to them.
"Right, right, sorry I'm just a bit wound up" Bruce wrung his hands together. He intermittently flexed his fingers as if he was still getting used to them being his.
Tony took the chance to look at his surroundings once more. Now that his eyes had accustomed to the darkness he could see more around him. There was a vague sense of familiarity but he wasn't sure why. Those trees in the distance definitely look familiar.
"First things first we need to figure out where we are," he said.
"Boss, you appear to be in the exact location that you started in." FRIDAY's voice emanated from Tony's chest.
"FRIDAY!" Tony exclaimed. Holy shit she's still there!
The front of Tony's shirt was completely coated in mud which had hidden his arc reactor from view. He quickly pawed at the dirt and the blue glow began to bleed back through. The mere sight of it made him sag with relief. They may be in one fucked up situation but at least he had his suit and his FRIDAY. As long as he had those he could weather anything.
"You have no idea how happy I am to hear your voice." He covered the reactor with his hand protectively.
"I'm happy to hear yours too Boss. As I was saying, you have not moved from your original location. You should still be within the compound." There was a hint of worry to FRIDAY's voice as she got to the end of her sentence.
The worry was completely understandable considering that there wasn't a building in sight.
"That can't be right, we're in the middle of nowhere." Bruce said
"FRI can you run that test again. Be as extensive as possible. This is not a time to under investigate."
There were a few tense seconds as FRIDAY worked through all of the data at her disposal. Even when she was only contained with the arc reactor casing she had a pretty decent amount of power. She could reach out to various communication towers and even some satellites.
"Er Boss?" she asked tentatively which was never a good sign.
"Oh god what did you find?" Tony pinched the bridge of his nose
"You are still in the same location. 40° 43' 50.1960'' N and 73° 56' 6.8712'' W.-"
"But that can't-"
"-However" FRIDAY interrupted before Tony could go on. "it appears that the time and date is no longer 7:04, April 12th 2023. It is now 2:16, April 1st 2012."
Tony's mind short circuited and he noped out of that one. He began to pace restlessly, the mud clung to his shoes. He felt bad for Bruce with his bare feet.
"Please for the love of God, tell that that was just an April fools joke." Tony lamented.
This could not be happening. They could not be 11 years in the past that just wasn't possible.
"You're right Boss it is an April fools joke."
Tony relaxed.
"It's actually April 3rd 2012"
"What the fuck FRIDAY!" Tony yelled into the desolate night.
"I'm sorry Boss, I thought a little humour could help to lighten your spirits."
Tony's face fell into his hands. He was definitely the one that programmed her if she thought that now was the best time for a joke.
"Are you sure? Like 100% certain FRI?"
"I'm as certain as I can be with the information available to me in my current state. I would need to be plugged into a mainframe to expand my analysing capabilities."
This shouldn't be possible. Sure they were fucking around with some highly sensitive, highly dangerous machinery that meddled with the fabric of the universe but that didn't mean that they should be in the past with apparently deaged bodies.
Tony knew that those trees were familiar. They were the ones that he could see when he looked out of the west side balcony of the Avengers Compound. The compound that wasn't there in 2012. The only building was an empty warehouse somewhere beyond the trees.
"Holy shit," Bruce uttered at a slightly lower volume. "The machine. Whatever we were doing to it, whatever you told Thor to do must have activated it. We're in the past!"
The mention of Thor must have reminded Bruce that there were only two of them currently there. "Crap, Thor! Is he here too?"
Well shit, he was there too wasn't he. But Tony hadn't seen the big guy anywhere. "Thor!" they both yelled and spun around to look for him in the distance. No other shapes stood out to them in the dark.
They yelled for a solid minute but nothing stirred. If Thor was truly out there he would have surely woken up and found them by now. He was a literal god, if anything he would have been the first to wake up.
Bruce was beginning to look panicked by the lack of Thor. His eyes were wide and he shouted until his voice started to crack. "Thor, please are you out there?" He sounded worked up enough that it tugged on the heart strings.
Tony reached over and grabbed Bruce's shoulders. He spun Bruce until he was facing him. "Just breathe buddy. It's okay."
Tony emulated some deep breathing for Bruce to copy. It was something he'd learned through his own episodes of panic.
"But Thor…" Bruce started.
"I don't think he's here" Bruce's face fell and he looked dismayed. "He wasn't in the machine with us. I think it was just us two that got caught up in the explosion."
"Oh god, so he's just left there thinking that he's killed us or something. He's gonna be a mess, Tony."
Tony squeezed Bruce's shoulders. "Look, I don't know. I'm sorry but i don't. All I know is that we are in the past of a different universe. We need to figure out where exactly we are and then we can start thinking about how we can get back."
Bruce looked reluctant but he nodded his head in agreement.
Now that he looked less worried Tony felt that he could remove his hands. "And anyway, there's a chance that time has frozen or something. It could just be waiting for us to get back and Thor won't even realise that we'd gone."
Bruce sighed heavily, releasing some of the tension in his body. "That doesn't sound too bad. I could live with that."
As long as it calmed him down Tony was going to let him believe anything. Bruce seemed to have really grown attached to Thor over the years. The idea of Thor agonising over their departure would not settle well with Bruce.
"Now the only place that I can think of within 50 miles of here that has any useful technology is Stark Tower."
Bruce's eyebrows shot up "Tony, we can't risk bumping into your other self. It's too dangerous."
"I know that, Bruce but we don't exactly have any other option here. The tower is the only place with a functioning lab that has any hope of determining which goddamn universe we're even in."
Even though the Tower was still being built in this time, it was already fully furnished with a lab. It was actually one of the first rooms that he had gotten up and running. He didn't feel comfortable in a place unless he had his own lab space up and running.
Bruce still looked unconvinced.
"Look, we'll be careful I promise. No one is going to see us. We'll just be in and out and then figure out the rest then." Tony urged.
Bruce looked at him for a moment longer before sighing. "Ugh, you're probably right. But we need to be careful Tony. Like super dangerous, ultra secret mission careful. We don't have any room for mistakes. We don't want to mess up this world by accident"
"We won't, we won't, I promise." Tony said "And anyway, we definitely can't be seen by anyone looking like we do now."
Tony looked down at his mud coated clothes and then over to Bruce's oversized stained shirt. They looked even worse than some of the homeless people that called the New York streets their home.
"I mean you're currently dicks out for crying out loud. If anyone saw the two of us. They would either: scream, run for the hills or call the cops. None of which are particularly helpful right now."
"It's not my fault that my underwear doesn't fit anymore." Bruce looked down mournfully at the world's biggest pair of boxers. He could now fit both legs into one of the holes. They were definitely no longer an option. He would have to naked from the waist down for a little while longer.
Tony followed Bruce's gaze and grinned. "You know I honestly saw you as more of a briefs kinda guy."
"You know I can't wear tight clothes like you can. I need the space. The maneuverability."
Tony brought his hands up in a surrender motion. "No, no I get it. You've got a monster dong and you can't be contained."
"You said it not me," Bruce smirked and shrugged.
Tony let out a startled laugh and raised a suggestive eyebrow."Well Damn"
Bruce managed to shake out of it first and get back to the matter at hand. "Right so how do you plan to get to your tower unseen when it's in the middle of New York."
Tony gave Bruce a knowing grin and tapped the arc reactor on his chest twice. The nano-bots reacted with zero second delay. A surprising feat considering the ordeal they had gone through within the quantum realm. Even under those unexpected and unprecedented conditions his suit was unharmed.
They formed and molded around his body until he was completely encased. The helmet snapped on last and in a mechanical voice he said.
"We fly in of course."
