I was going to a matinee of Wicked because that was when I could get the best seats. The first time I saw Wicked, it was from the second to back row on the second balcony at an off-Broadway production. I was in New York though, so I was going all out with third row seats. Though normally a thrifty person, what was fifty more dollars compared to the already hundred dollar ticket let alone the flight to New York and hotel cost?
Of course, the second time watching Wicked was even better than the first. During intermission, still hyped on Defying Gravity, I looked around the theater. I noticed two people sitting in a private balcony to the side of the stage. I wouldn't have thought that people normally sat there. I could kind-of see the people's faces and they looked like Tony and Pepper from Iron Man. Actors want to see musicals too, if it even was them-it probably wasn't. I snickered to myself at the idea that if it was the real Tony he would have just dropped a bunch of cash so that he could sit wherever he wanted. Pepper probably would have to talk him out of a seat on top of the mechanical dragon.
Not far from the theater was a restaurant called Ellen's Stardust Diner. Feeling particularly brave, I entered the diner to find it had a retro 50's theme. Even better, I learned the staff was famous for singing. As Broadway performers, and Broadway hopefuls, sang Broadway and Disney songs, I ate my burgers and fries. Suddenly, the speakers asked us to sing happy birthday to one of the customers. The whole diner broke into song. That was so cool! I wanted to do that. I mean, I was here as a birthday gift, but my actual birthday was still a couple months away. I probably could have asked to be sung to anyway, but it wouldn't be as special if it really was my birthday.
As I ate, I thought about all I had learned about New York in three short days. I had taken a tour and was amused by what I learned. First off, the Empire State building was supposed to be a office complex, but the cubical were so small, and there had been the depression, that there wasn't enough business to keep it running. Having the building in King Kong had actually been a publicity stunt! Even today the building makes a profit not by renting office space, but charging tourists to visit the top. If you want a view of the Empire State though, you want to visit Rockefeller instead.
The twin towers also had a surprising history, but some background was required. Before you go to New York, you would think that all skyscrapers are the same-tall, rectangular blocks. They are not. Exhibit A: Some rich guy started a stone building with Gothic architecture, but his money ran out, so years later a very modern glass building with steel helix structure on it was added on top. Exhibit B: All the cool tops of skyscrapers: the Empire State building, the Rockefeller, and numerous others. Exhibit C: Lots of stone buildings with lots of little windows. Exhibit ect.: Look at pictures of New York. All the buildings look different.
So with this in mind, look at pictures of the mourned twin towers. They stick straight up and dominate everything around them in height, even the beloved Empire State. This might be the reason why New Yorkers were angry, yes angry, when the twin towers started being built. However, when they were almost finished, a tight-roper sneaked into the construction site with a bunch of his buddies and tied a tight rope between the tops of the buildings. Then, the guy proceeded to tight rope between these super-tall buildings! Before he got to the other side though, the police showed up, so he simply turned around to go the other side. The police had come up on that side as well, so he simply walked back and forth for a while before taking a five minute cat nap, on the tight rope! When he finally came down, no charges were pressed because of so much positive media on the towers. The towers had become human in the eyes of New Yorkers leading to the emotional attachment that would affect many when they got struck.
No matter how many cool things I learned, I wouldn't call myself a New Yorker by a long stretch, but I consider myself significantly more educated.
Happily, I exited the diner, but stopped in my tracks as I realized there was a new building on the skyline. One that was physically impossible, yet the letters STARK looked back at me. I could see someone just sticking the letters on their building for fun, but like I said, all skyscrapers look different. This was definitely The Stark Tower, yet it couldn't be! Tearing my eyes away, I convinced myself I had made it up and continued my way toward Times Square. A smile lite my face as I entered the giant Disney store found there. Yes, I am almost 21, but the Disney store is timeless.
I browsed for a while before deciding to see if I could find a cool Avenger's T-shirt. I had been wanting one for a while. However, I could find no Avengers merchandise in the large store. Thinking about all I had 'seen' today, I decided not to ask the employees for help. I had a strange feeling they wouldn't know what I was talking about, and that word was not to be used lightly if even an infinitesimal part of what I feared was true. Stepping out of the store, the word STARK once again stared at me, and there was even an Iron Man billboard up. Then I saw it, a little streak of red and gold go in front of the tower. It circled again and again. The sheer impossibility of it all threatened to explode my brain. I decided to head back to my hotel in New Jersey.
I walked away from the busy center of the city as much as possible. When traffic seemed less dense, I wearily hailed a taxi. It was just as weird the fifth time as the first. However, my hotel was way too far to walk. The car ride was still ridiculously long, so I had plenty of time to think. How in the world had a stark tower been built? Awkwardly, I began to talk with my cab driver.
"How long has Stark Tower been around?" He seemed a little startled, but gruffly replied.
"Finished work a couple months ago." So I could just have been wrapped up in school work and never known-yeah right. Everyone at school would have been talking if such a structure was being built. Pondering all I had recently learned about the New York reception of new buildings, I braved another question.
"So what's the New Yorker reception of it?" This time, he gave me a weird look.
"What makes you ask that?"
"Well, I'm a tourist, obviously, and I have learned that several builds weren't particularly well received when the were built, even if they are beloved today." Gruffly, he turned back to the road, but he conceded to answer my question with more detail than bare bones.
"The tower went up surprisingly fast. People have barely begun to make opinions. The speed of the building has put people off, since they wouldn't have been able to protest even if they had figured out they wanted to. The promise of the building going to run on clean energy has earned interest and some building owners have tried to approach Stark to ask if they can get in on this. Of course, Stark, being the way he is, hasn't deigned to meet with anyone yet."
I snorted, trying to focus on the comedic aspect of his comments. However, a darker subtext was there for only me. The driver was speaking of Stark as a real person, not a movie character. If, if-BIG IF-Stark was a real person, I was pretty sure that meant others were real too. But, how could they be real and part of a movie? I mean, that would be a spectacular cover-up, except for the fact that Stark had too big of an ego to remain hidden behind the guise of an actor. It also didn't make a lot of sense since I hadn't heard of Iron Man before the movies or out of a movie context. Shouldn't his company be so large I would have heard something about it? Clean energy was also throwing me off; could technology have advanced that much?
The reality of superheroes and the reality of them being in movies clashed in logic, and that scared me. For my own safety, I had to pretend there was only the reality of superheroes when I started researching the internet. Anything that suggested I had too much information, or gave too much information to those who did not believe in fair play, I would be in a world of problems along with the heroes. Despite how much I wanted to believe that I was just making all this up, the possibility I wasn't just a victim of my overactive imagination meant I had to measure my words and actions very carefully.
At the hotel I payed the taxi driver, before heading directly to my laptop in my room. During the ride I decided 'Iron Man' was a safe thing to search. According to the movie, Stark had revealed himself and was well known as Iron Man. Instead of movie posters on the left, a Wikipedia page about a fictitious character, a Marvel Universe web page, and other movie information-especially about the third one soon to come out- was newspaper articles criticizing or praising or simply informing the populace of his actions. Determined to find something about the movies (and my sanity), I debated whether typing 'movie' after the words 'Iron Man.' It could be harmless enough; it might seem like I was searching for videos of him. Thoughts about simply putting the number '2' instead ran through my mind. What would someone think reading this? A somewhat hysterical laugh was issued from my mouth. Having two Iron Mans would drive Fury mad! Sobering, I had further thought, or it could be referring to Rhodey. Debating between the two, I decided 'movie' was safe enough and more directly what I wanted. However Tetsuo, the Iron Man from 1989, Eight Iron Men, nor Man of Iron from 1981 were what I wanted. There should be pages and pages and pages about the Iron Man movie I was looking for, but there wasn't.
How could the movie be gone? How could the tower be there? My search had confirmed my need for secrecy and carefulness in words and actions. I tried to think of which of the others was safe enough to search for, but none of them were. Natasha and Clint were undercover spies-no one was supposed to know about them-, Bruce was wanted by the military, Steve was Captain America, under the radar and presumed dead, and Thor was a mythological person that confused and frightened SHIELD. I could obtain no further information to aid the paradox in my mind.
I so wanted to go back to when the Avengers were simply movie characters. Its fun to fantasize meeting them, but in reality they were dangerous and that meant the world was also a lot more dangerous with the villains they were fighting running around. It also meant something really, really weird was going on if I had changed realities. I had to accept the fact that there just might be the possibility that what I thought was fiction was now fact or else I was in a lot of trouble though.
There was a knock on the door. It startled me from the thoughts that I had been swamped with inside my head. I really hoped it was just room service. I didn't know anyone else in this town. To my surprise, I recognized the man outside my door, or at least I thought I did. He was alive? If he was, that totally destroyed my theory! I was only insane! My brain reminded me that if this indeed who I thought it was, I needed to open the door before he broke it down. And breaking it down would mean he was suspicious in some way. And I really didn't want SHIELD thinking badly of me if my theory was correct.
"Who is it?"
"This is Agent Coulson. Can I speak to you for a moment?"