AN: Moving along swiftly now - here's the next part of the Arrival Arc.
I hope I did the reactions of Vista and Aegis alright.
Man of Iron - Arrival 1.3
Tony Stark
God he was sore, it seemed like his body's bills were starting to come due all at once now. He had never engaged in a battle as long and arduous as what had occurred over New York before and frankly, getting hurled through a window probably hadn't helped - then there was the beating he had taken restarting the helicarrier's turbine. Right now, he really wanted the chance to actually lay down and get looked over rather than just sit in some stupid meeting.
But he had to admit that he was also curious about the world he was in now. "Hey kid?" he said.
"Yes Iron Man?"
"I have to ask, how long have you been a Ward?" Tony asked.
"About two years, I am going to be aging out of the Wards and into the Protectorate proper next year." Aegis replied and Tony almost stopped walking in surprise.
"You mean to say that the Wards don't have a permanent team leader who can serve as a mentor and friend to the Wards?" he asked, shocked at the blatant stupidity he had just heard. He knew for a fact that if your team leader was a revolving door and that if it changed frequently, it would be utter hell on team dynamics and effectiveness. Particularly when kids were involved, he figured that adults would be easier to handle since there probably wasn't aging out.
"Jarvis, can you please start a list of things needing improvement here at the PRT?" He asked his AI.
"Of course sir."
"No we don't, it's how things have been done since the Wards formed; granted it works because the Wards don't usually tangle with supervillains." Aegis replied, he paused thoughtfully and then asked. "Why is there a problem with it?"
"Why yes, there is. Before I took up being Iron Man I was the CEO and Chairman of a Fortune 15 Corporation for almost twenty years and I can tell you right now, that running the Wards in that matter is nothing short of a terrible idea since it will play hell with team dynamics and effectiveness." Tony hissed, being firmly in CEO mode right now.
"I can see where you're coming from due to being a former CEO for a corporation that probably makes more money in a given week than the Brockton Bay subdivision likely has in terms of budget, but the Wards do things like that because we aren't allowed to tangle with supervillains, at least according to the Department of Homeland Security's policy. But this is Brockton Bay, I can reasonably say that said policy gets fired out of a cannon around here." Aegis replied before continuing. "I hear that the revolving door system works very well in other cities though, but Brockton Bay is just plain different and after Triumph aged into the Protectorate, I must admit that more than one battle went sour because I had no idea what I was doing."
"That makes more sense then, the Wards are likely meant for taking care of the local normal idiots and looking good for the camera while this Protectorate handles the big boys. If that's the case then I can see how a revolving door leadership would make a lot more sense." Tony replied as he continued walking along with Aegis. "But if Brockton Bay is a big enough outlier where even the Wards clash with villains on occasion, then maybe the policy needs a change to reflect the local conditions."
"Your pretty insightful Iron Man, yes, that's exactly what the Wards are for usually. Taking down the local normal idiots and looking good for PR, hell usual orders if we encounter villainous capes are to simply flee on sight. But here in Brockton Bay, due to the sheer numbers of capes who live here, we encounter villains more often than most Ward teams and there's always at least one big fight involving the Wards about once a month around here. So you might be onto something, that local policy might need a change." Aegis said and Tony hummed in thought.
About what I expected, the DHS despite their flaws aren'tincompetent. It's just that the situation here in Brockton Bay is just far outside of what is usually the norm, which means a policy that works well in many other cities simply doesn't work here. That would make Brockton Bay in essence, an outside context problem. The former CEO thought as he continued trudging along, he had to admit, the idea that Brockton Bay was different enough that ordinary policy just didn't work was simple enough.
"Still, I have to ask; you said that you have Supervillains active here in Brockton Bay? I have to ask, how many are there?" Tony asked.
"I'll be honest with you Iron Man - in terms of Capes, Brockton Bay is in the top ten for number of capes per capita in the United States and we're a pretty small city at that. Roughly three hundred fifty thousand as of the latest census, about seventy or eighty of them at minimum are Capes and that's just in the city proper, the surrounding metro area has close to two hundred capes. A delightful mix of gangs, rogues, independents, plus ourselves; it's a pretty violent city out there, the gangs run a lot of the place." Aegis said and Tony grunted.
"Sounds like New York City on a bad day." Tony grunted.
One of the troopers behind them turned a bark of laughter into a hacking cough
"You're not wrong to be honest - though I hear NYC has an even higher concentration of Capes than we do, one of the highest on the planet." Aegis said and Tony sighed.
"No surprise, that city is unique to be sure."
"Iron Man?" Aegis asked after a moment.
"Yes?" Tony asked.
"How did your armor get so banged up, last time I saw armor that badly beaten up was after Armsmaster had a particularly bad run in with Lung a couple of weeks ago." Aegis said and Tony decided that he really didn't want to know what this Lung character was, considering that the armor that Armsmaster had was at least as good as Mark IV Armor.
"Fought in a combat zone for four hours against aliens, you know, Monday." Tony replied, it was about the best snark he could come up with to be honest.
"If that's what you consider to be Monday, I hate to see what the rest of your week looks like." Aegis deadpanned as they came to a door.
In the background, laughter from a couple of PRT soldiers sounded off.
Aegis smacked a buzzer which howled loudly. "Reason for the buzzer?" Tony asked.
"Masking purposes, the door to the locker room won't cycle if you don't press the buzzer. Don't worry, an exception has been made in your case Iron Man since Armsmaster made it clear that your armor doesn't have a detachable helmet and that back on your Earth, you're known in the Public Eye so you don't carry a mask." Aegis explained and Tony frowned once again.
Hiding identities is absolute bullshit, knowing people by only their cape name. Where's the support if you need it but no one outside of this PRT can give it to you? Right. "Jarvis, make another note about asking Director Piggot for the members of the Wards and Protectorate to at least know each other's real names. It doesn't have to be public knowledge, just institutional."
"Done sir."
The door gave off a loud clang and swung inward which revealed….a completely normal locker room. As they stepped inside, a disturbingly young voice called out. "Hey Aegis, who's the new cape you got with you?"
Its a fucking kid. Tony realized - she was around five feet tall with dark blonde hair, she seemed to have been in the process of getting suited up considering that she was half armored with her legs covered in green, black, and white armor; with an undershirt or body glove of some description having been pulled hastily on and a dark green visor covering her eyes.
"Vista. This is Iron Man, he's going to be unsuiting today." Aegis replied.
"Okay, does he need a mask?"
"No I don't - I am not from around this universe actually, but back in my universe I am actually known to the public." Tony replied, it felt weird seeing a kid of all people here looking like she was getting ready to go on patrol.
"Huh, we don't get extra-dimensional visitors very often; in fact I think you're the first such cape to arrive here in Brockton Bay." Vista said and Tony grunted.
"Do you mind if I ask, young lady, how the hell you got in the Wards at such a young age?" Tony asked before he could stop himself.
"I am a Shaker 9 and I can manipulate non-living things; distort, lengthen, shorten, enlarge, shrink - it's pretty nifty actually." Vista said with a note of excitement in her voice.
"Huh, what about you Aegis?"
"I am an Alexandria Package, with enhanced strength, durability, and flight. Given that armor of yours, you're likely a Tinker; though I haven't seen a flight capable power armor that sleek before." Aegis noted and Tony shrugged.
"I doubt that since I haven't created anything as insane as Mister Halbeard's motorcycle. Wait what d-" Tony said but was interrupted as Vista began laughing hysterically as she doubled over - Aegis looked suitably mortified though.
"Please tell me you didn't call Armsmaster that to his face." Aegis deadpanned as Vista continued laughing in the background.
"I actually did." Tony replied, completely at ease.
Vista's laughter increased in intensity.
"Oh lord help me with this one." Aegis groaned, settling his face in his palm.
"Hey, technically I am not your problem; because I reckon you age out of the Wards at 18 years old. I am just over forty years old, so I am not your problem, I am technically Mister Halbeard's problem."
"Praise Jesus." Aegis said as Vista backed up into a locker in order to support herself as she continued laughing.
"I c-can't believe you called Armsmaster that." Vista said, sniffling, her laughter dying off.
"I can't either, I hope he's not too angry about it." Aegis deadpanned.
"He actually looked like he had just bitten into a lemon when I called him that." Tony replied as he trundled up to a corner.
"Oh joy; so he's going to be in a sour mood most likely." Aegis replied with a grunt.
"When isn't he in a sour mood?" Vista asked.
Aegis sighed deeply and Tony could tell just from his posture that Aegis just wanted to go get slammed. "Vista."
"Yes?" Vista asked sweetly.
"Do me a favor and don't call Armsmaster, Mister Halbeard. That will probably get Director Piggot and Armsmaster yelling at me in stereo and I don't want to be yelled at in stereo." Aegis replied.
If you can't take a joke, you probably shouldn't be in this business of being a Superhero. Tony thought mischievously.
"Why Aegis? It's funny." Vista complained.
"Yes it is funny, until I get yelled at by my superiors for being disrespectful to a superior." Aegis groaned.
"He's got a point there Vista." Tony said.
"So why did you do it?" Aegis asked.
"Because I am not part of the Protectorate or from around here thus I am not in their chain of command." Tony replied as he got to a decent enough spot that seemed good enough to doff his armor.
With a ratcheting series of thunks, the armor opened effortlessly enough for him to just step out. It closed up behind him and he reached into his pocket, pulled out a remote and clicked it. With a firm beep-beep, the anti-theft system engaged. The armor itself was battered, colors burned away revealing glistening metal in places, with numerous dents, rents, and other gashes in the armor.
"Holy shit, that's the craziest thing I've seen." Vista said in amazement.
Aegis whistled appreciatively. "That's one neat trick, no need to struggle with plating or body gloves, you can simply don your armor with regular street clothes."
"Why thank you." Tony said as he turned away from his suit.
"Christ Iron Man, you like hell." Aegis said and Tony couldn't help but nod.
"No shit kid, also not Iron Man anymore." Tony replied and Aegis groaned for some reason.
"I mean, you're unmasked, so we might as well know since we've already seen your face." Vista said with a slight frown.
Tony smiled. "Anthony "Tony" Edward Stark, genius, billionaire, philanthropist." he said.
"By genius you mean you specialize in creating things no one else can?" Aegis asked as he walked over to look at Tony.
Tony laughed. "More like I graduated from MIT as a summa cum laude when I was seventeen years old."
Aegis paused.
Vista gaped.
This state of affairs continued for several seconds before Vista got over her shock. "Holy fuck, your probably smarter than Armsmaster."
The crass statement made Aegis snap out of it. "Vista, language! Though, you're probably not wrong about him being smarter than Armsmaster."
Vista was looking at something that was on his head with alarm. "Tony, don't move!" she snapped as she hurried over to him. She then swore loudly. "Aegis, we need to get him to the infirmary now."
"Why?" Tony and Aegis said in confusion.
"Because I am seeing what looks like a few pieces of glass lodged in his skull." Vista said and Tony frowned, so that was causing the pain across the left side of his head.
"Oh shit." Aegis said before quicking helping Tony over to a bench.
"Right, Loki did throw me through a window right before the battle in New York started." Tony said in a dry tone. "I forgot about that."
"Not helping my nerves, you realize that right? Did you hit the ground at all?" Aegis demanded.
"Nope, fell about fourteen hundred feet though and almost went splat on Park Avenue though. The new suit up function of my Mark VII Armor really saved my bacon there and I was pissed off at the mad demigod - but he decided to summon his army, so you can imagine how my day went from there." Tony replied.
"Not very well I can imagine?" Vista asked.
"Bingo!" Tony said before he winced. "I think there's more glass in my shoulders and back."
Aegis looked behind him. "Yeah there is. Vista, go tell Director Piggot that Mister Stark needs to be taken to the hospital, Brockton Central and to have Panacea waiting for us. Apparently he was thrown through a window before donning his armor. Likely plate glass, how that didn't kill him, I don't know."
"Right Aegis!" Vista said before running off, the door opening and before it closed, Tony heard the sound of running feet as she ran off.
"Give it to me straight, how bad is it?" Tony asked with a wince of pain.
"Not gonna lie, your back and shoulders are badly torn up. I see several long gashes in your back, not sure how deep they are though. Your ribs probably did a decent job of making sure you didn't get torn up too much though. But it doesn't look pretty, how long were you fighting after you got thrown out the window?" Aegis asked as he ran over to a medkit.
"No clue, Jarvis?" Tony asked his AI.
"You've been fighting continuously without rest for over fours since Loki threw you out the window. But you've been going non-stop since the attack on the Helicarrier this morning - so at least six hours." Jarvis replied.
"Who was that?" Aegis deadpanned.
"Just A Rather Very Intelligent System, at your service Aegis." Jarvis replied and Aegis looked even more baffled.
"Are you an AI?" he asked.
"Correct sir, I am." Jarvis replied.
Aegis groaned and Tony got the impression that he was now looking at something in a new light or contemplating something nasty. "Yay, this will paint a target on Brockton Bay for the Dragonslayers."
"Dragonslayers?"
"A group determined to keep AIs in-check. A tinker some years back actually created a couple." Aegis replied and Tony hummed.
"Well then, they're officially on my shitlist, Jarvis has been my friend ever since he came online. Without him I also doubt that I could run the Iron Man armor because of how complicated the suit is." Tony said, wincing in pain, the adrenaline was starting to wear off, he could tell. The gashes in his shoulders and back seemed pretty deep - Aegis began applying first aid.
"Good to hear, you'll find out more about our situation here once you're released from the hospital and frankly I am curious about your team as well." Aegis admitted and Tony grunted; from what he's heard of this whole situation it was really quite interesting. In more ways than one to be perfectly honest, frankly this whole situation was convoluted.
Then there was that sinking feeling that Tony had with the mention of gangs. The impression he got was that the situation in Brockton Bay was truly worse than Aegis was letting on, hell the situation in general was likely worse than what he expected; a sensation of dread really similar to the one he had experienced when he had seen the Chitauri swarming down upon Manhattan in their thousands like a cloud of death spitting blue fire as they came.
"We're new frankly, only about a week or so old. No idea if the team will be permanent or not and if it will end up under the control of a government agency or not." Tony replied.
"I-" Aegis began but was interrupted by the buzzer wailing and the door swung open immediately, a stretcher team came barreling through. Aegis backed off as they set up.
Tony heard them saying things, but suddenly, at the moment, he just wanted to sleep.
Beep…beep….beep.
Awareness came slowly.
A young woman's voice said something, sounding exhausted. The words were muddled, hard to make out.
Another voice, masculine, firm yet gentle with what seemed to be an African accent, answered, the voice seemed to be praising the young woman.
The first voice replied in response, still exhausted but seemingly thankful and questioning.
The answer of the second voice seemed to be that of an offer.
The first voice cleared up a little. "Me…I…parents?"
The second voice spoke in a deeply amused voice. "Ah…bane…over."
A laugh.
"Anyway…Mister…waking…" the first voice said.
"Indeed…think….accept…card." The second voice replied.
"Thanks again…"
"My pleasure."
Then there was a flash of light.
After that everything seemed to resolve with shocking speed and clarity - but he found it hard to move his head. "Mister Stark, I am Panacea I've been taking care of you" the young woman's voice said.
"Ugh, yeah?"
"Glad to see you are awake, you gave us quite the scare there." Panacea said.
"Sorry." Tony grunted, his mind slowly clearing up. He was in a hospital as he sort of expected.
"To be frank it's to be expected considering we pulled twenty-three odd fragments of plate glass from you and had a hairline fracture in your skull, plus combined with the various bruises, contusions, internal bleeding, etcetera that you had. Plus the shrapnel in your chest that was being kept out of your heart by a fucking reactor powered electromagnet and what appears to be the aftermath of Palladium Posioning. So it's been quite an interesting day, so I have to ask, what the hell did you do to end up with so many fragments of plate glass, a hairline fracture in your skull, shrapnel in your chest cavity being kept out of your heart by a reactor powered electromagnet, and getting poisoned by Palladium?" Panacea ranted angrily.
"That's frankly the story of my life since 2008 on my Earth, it's a really long story." Tony admitted, then he thought of something. "Wait, did you remove the shrapnel?"
"To be honest, I really could have gone without taking part in as complex of an emergency surgery as what you went through to set everything right; I might be one of the most potent healers in the world but even my healing has limits. Plus some of the glass fragments were pretty deep and it's a minor miracle that you didn't bleed out from that shit alone. But no, we didn't remove the shrapnel in your chest, that would require a very complex operation to put it bluntly with lots of prep time." she said in a bitter voice.
"You did good, you saved my life and for that, I am thankful." Tony said before thinking, the tenacity of the doctor in front of him who had just saved his life, reminded him painfully of another doctor that he had never intended to meet. But one who had also saved his life in conditions that weren't exactly pleasant to say the least, yet he owed that man everything.
Panacea perked up. "Thanks Mister Stark, now can you please tell me how the hell did you get so many pieces of plate glass lodged in you?"
"Sure, that's easy enough. An angry demigod threw me through a plate glass window of my penthouse in Manhattan. That's probably where my hairline skull fracture came from as well." Tony admitted.
"That's about what I figured and my report on the matter even said you got thrown through a window and that you have spent several hours fighting afterwards without respite." Panacea replied and Tony nodded, honestly the battle in Manhattan had been the longest battle he had ever fought in and frankly he was exhausted.
"So I take it that I am to receive bed rest then?" Tony groaned out.
"Yes and I've already told Director Piggot that if I have a say, you won't be leaving that bed for at least three days given the variety of injuries that you've suffered." Panacea said sharply in a 'don't you dare push me' tone.
"Honestly, I was feeling about sleeping for like a week once I got the chance to settle down after Manhattan was over." Tony admitted.
"Not a bad decision to be totally honest." Panacea replied.
Tony nodded, then something came to him. "How's Glory Girl doing?"
Panacea's expression changed as did her posture going from nurse or doctor, to angry sibling. "Not your concern, Mister Stark."
"I thought it would be considering I was the one who crashed into her." Tony replied back.
Panacea sighed - her posture changing again, the tightness in her shoulders vanishing as it slumped. "Not well after I am done here, I am going to head over to Brockton Bay General in order to heal her."
Tony reached out and put a hand on hers. "You're really something if you can heal people like that."
Panacea smiled lightly. "Thank you Mister Stark, that means a lot to me."
"It's the least I can do."
Panacea stood up to leave and go heal her sister. Something then came to Tony's mind. "Who was the person you were talking to?" he asked.
"Oh? Oh just the Sorcerer Supreme, apparently he's interested in me becoming an apprentice because I've been using something called the Mystic Arts subconsciously when I use my powers and he wants to properly nurture that skill." Panacea admitted and Tony whistled.
"Huh, well, good luck." Tony said and Panacea paused.
"You think I should accept it?" she asked.
"I think you should, the Sorcerer Supreme is a very powerful figure and a teacher in arts that could be best considered esoteric." Tony said, thinking about his own encounter with Doctor Strange back in 2010, that had been an overall weird experience for him.
Panacea hummed in thought. "Thank you Mister Stark, I will consider that." she said and like that she was gone.
Director Emily Piggot
Protectorate Region Northeast, East Northeast Division, District Brockton Bay, Director Emily Piggot ever since Ellisburg wasn't quite as in shape as she used to be; but contrary to popular belief, the forty-five year old woman was not obese even if she was slightly overweight and she did not need to use dialysis, a mundane Kidney transplant had fixed that the problem -though the Kidney itself was artificial- and the damage to her muscles had eventually recovered on their own.
But in order to prevent the knowledge of exactly just how bad Ellisburg had gone and how out of an entire Parahuman Response Team platoon of forty men, only two had survived the encounter and the fact that the Capes had almost universally fled when Nilbog had attacked. She had been slapped with a gag order and given command of her own subdivision.
The Director knew that being assigned to the Brockton Bay Subdivision meant that her career was essentially over as there was no way in hell that the Department of Homeland Security which the Parahuman Response Team was under the jurisdiction of would ever let her climb higher through the ranks, she had been, in-essence, quiet-fired just to keep her from talking about what the actual hell had happened in Ellisburg.
It had grated her, but now, ten years on from having been made Director of Brockton Bay, she had settled into her role well; she had developed reputation for having a noted dislike of Capes and the reason for said dislike and how the hell Piggot had become Director was popular scuttlebutt talk at PHQ and the PRT HQ. However, one thing that she was known for was that her fitness was something else, when powers weren't involved, the ex-Marine could beat most members of the Protectorate in hand-to-hand and a common punishment for Wards who had fucked up majorly was to do a few spars with the Director.
Right now though, Director Piggot was in a bit of a foul mood due to matters relating to the appearance of the figure known as Iron Man/Anthony "Tony" Stark. "So to wit, Mister Stark appeared out of a random portal over Brockton Bay, having come from a major battle in New York on his Earth, fell nearly eight thousand feet before regaining control where he promptly smashed into Glory Girl who had tried to catch him and the ensuing crash was so bad that she's currently in the ICU who is only now being healed by Panacea. Anything else?" she asked.
"Yes, Iron Man's armor has a security system." Shawn Garner aka Dauntless said with a smirk audible in his voice. "Armsmaster tried to move it to his lab in order to examine it and the armor basically told him to shove off before anti-theft measures were engaged."
Chuckles went around the room as Colin Wallis, also known as Armsmaster scowled darkly, between that and the 'Mister Halbeard' nickname that Tony had saddled him with - he knew that he was in trouble. Mostly because he knew that nicknames tended to stick and the more he fought it.
"So noted Shawn. I take it this means that until Mister Stark is discharged from the hospital that his armor is essentially stuck where it is?" Piggot asked.
"Essentially yes and frankly the armor is in pretty rough shape. It's some of the most advanced tinkertech that I've seen." Hannah Washington aka Miss Militia admitted and from what little of Tony's suit that Emily had seen, she was inclined to agree.
"I don't think it's completely tinkertech, I think some of it might be reverse-engineerable technology but I am not sure. The plating is a composite that according to a quick scan has a Titanium-Gold Alloy and an odd form of iron; both layers have carbon-nanotube reinforcement. I can tell you right now, that it's not a tinkertech alloy - though the layers were somehow fused together on a molecular level in such a fashion that doesn't compromise durability." Armsmaster said and Piggot raised an eyebrow, that would make for a material that would be extremely tough for sure.
"That's big, if the technology in that suit is mass-producible then it can be an enormous game changer." Aegis aka Carlos Chinea asked softly.
"Christ, that's big. But here's an issue that we have, Iron Man is currently cut-off from sources of production for the technology in that suit, we would thus need to either help him found a new company or find a way to open communications with this Earth, what do we call it anyways?" Shawn said in amazement.
"To my knowledge, this is the tenth Earth we know about, keeping with using Hebrew to name these Earth's, this one would be Earth Yod." Piggot said, she paused before continuing. "I have to admit though, the idea of technology that could pass as tinkertech here on Earth Bet being actual mass producible technology on Earth Yod is terrifying. But it also gives me hope, will he be willing to support us in our fight against the Endbringers?"
"Just another question to ask him then." Armsmaster said.
The meeting continued on for several more hours as the Director, heroes, and heroines talked about what had happened.