IdleMuse0307
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The Old Hydrokinetic (MCU AU) : #22
🕑 Added 2025-07-13 19:01:09 +0000 UTCDisclaimer - All the usual Yada Yada Yada. I don’t own any rights to any characters in this fic save for my OCs. Don’t sue me.
Anywho, without further ado - read on.
Earth-6161 [May 2012]
Bayonne, New Jersey
–Tony Stark–
“You know,” he said, chewing on the very chewy Shawarma that Jarvis had ordered for them, “I don’t think my palate is suitable for Shawarmas. It definitely makes for a great after battle snack though, full of protein and carbs.” He said, slightly defending Jarvis’ decision in choosing this specific meal, based on one of his previous comments and on their current dietary needs.
Everyone here could eat meat, they all needed energy and shawarma were known to be packed full of them. More importantly, however, this place was the one place that had the necessary staff as well as the fresh ingredients to get them the best possible food quality.
All other places were closed down because of people just leaving due to mass panic and also due to the very real possibility of the invasion spreading from the Stark Tower as its epicentre.
“It’s fine,” Cap said, a sentiment that was apparently mirrored by Thor, as well as Loki, whom they had brought with them for the trip because leaving him behind was not an option. Why? Because Thor said so.
In his opinion, beings who can survive a thrashing from the Elder Menace, Weber, herself were more than capable of surviving without supervision for a couple of hours on top of a tower with no functioning elevators or even stairs since much of the tower’s overall integrity was shot to hell.
In all likelihood, he would have to demolish it all and start anew, which would not take nearly as long as the first one, courtesy of better tech that he has built now. It should only take a year now, to get the entire building up and running, [plus, he had some new ideas as to what he could do about the Tower.
He was thinking that, instead of the high tower, he would go deep, building a dozen floors underground. It would be best in terms of security as well as privacy just in case he needed to get out of the tower without anyone noticing his suit flying out of the penthouse.
“Eh,” Clint said and moved his hand in a so-so motion. The hand was quickly shot down by Romanoff when he heard the chef enter the private room that was offered to them.
“Hello! Hello! I saw you all on TV! How is the food?” The middle aged Middle Eastern man asked them with a blinding smile on his face. He did not have the heart to do anything but shower pure praise on the food, as the man beamed even more, violently refusing any form of payment from them, as they finished the food and entered the streets.
Loki was awfully quiet, which was very unusual of him but then again, he did encounter the single scariest woman on the planet, so maybe the event changed him for the good? If so, Odin must take parenting lessons from Weber because she did what Odin did not do in a thousand years or so?
He got a ping from Jarvis that the authorities were now moving back into the city, and the people from SHIELD were trying to make their way into Stark Tower. He had already told Jarvis to not help them in any way, which would add a couple of minutes to their ETA. Even if he wanted to, all Jarvis could do was brute force operate a couple of machines in the upper floors to clear some debris in the path so that the agents could reach the roof a little bit faster.
“Alright guys,” He turned around and waved at the restaurant owner, who was also their chef, “the spooks have arrived. We might want to get back before they do anything rash.”
All of them agreed as they all went airborne, with Bruce still unconscious back in one of the rooms that was intact in Stark Tower. He wondered what exactly happened for the man to stay like that despite some light shocks not waking him up.
They couldn’t risk the spooks trying something on him and them having to clean up the mess left afterwards so he ordered Jarvis to go as fast as possible. On the way, he already located the man, his address, his bank account and transferred a couple thousand dollars for the food as the Manhattan skyline came back into view.
The agents, from SHIELD as well as the FBI along with some UN Forces? Were now halfway through, with them being two minutes away.
“Jarvis, any luck on Weber?” He asked Jarvis about the massive task he had assigned his buddy, to track down someone who could become water itself, submerging herself in a large water body to essentially disappear from every single tracking method on the planet.
The massive Gamma signature she emitted while performing her moves? Disappeared. Apparently, that was only a consequence of her massive, city wide movements. If she wanted to just disappear by herself, no Gamma Radiation.
“None, sir. SHIELD has no digital files on Ms.Weber, nor do any other government agency on the planet. I have begun the frankly impossible task of scanning all the available water bodies for any gamma spikes, in hopes that Ms.Weber might do something drastic with the Cube or the Cube might react to her powers in some way.”
Oh, well. “Okay, keep doing it.” It was a long shot anyway. If someone like Weber could be found just like that, most of the world’s governments would have known about her by now. There was no doubt most of the world was scrambling to look for the single person who turned things around when it seemed like they would lose.
Interestingly, it was not the One-eyed himself who was at Stark Tower but someone else. Alexander Pierce?
Jarvis, as if hearing his thoughts, pulled the file for the Secretary of the World Security Council, an organisation that is responsible for monitoring as well as guiding SHIELD.
Wow, why was this person and this committee completely unknown before this?
Soon, they reached the penthouse and the agents were only two floors from Bruce and 7 from the top, as he dropped the agents and then cut off the flow of energy to the thrusters as he dropped down, courtesy of gravity and let the repulsors re engage as the correct floor before bursting through the window.
No point preserving anything when he was just going to claim insurance on the whole thing anyway. Man, the premiums for the next building were going to be wallet bleeding. The assholes in that industry would never let him get the insurance payout without reducing their profit margins for even a single quarter, ghouls that they were.
The door burst open, as he landed in the middle of the guys’ mad scramble to reach the top floor, finding himself face to face with a bunch of high calibre automatic guns, with their safeties unlocked, ready to shoot first and ask questions later.
“Relax, boys,” He said, without raising his hands because he was not about to make them think that this suit was not impervious to gun fire, not completely anyway. Like he said, a prototype.
“Mr.Stark,” The completely armed agent in the front said, “May I ask why all the elevators in the building are non functional?”
He gave the man a deadpan look that must have been felt even through his metal mask because one of the men nearby shoved him for asking a clearly stupid question.
“I will just ignore that. Also, I am assuming you guys work for the old white guy waiting downstairs?”
He didn’t wait for a response before plowing through, “Now, I want you to, very carefully, wouldn’t want you guys to trip on your way down, go back down the same way you came up and wait.”
The men were clearly about to protest but the whine of his hand repulsors being charged and the subtle glow around them stopped their words in their throats, “Am I clear?”
Man, the sight must have been pretty scary because all the guys’ vitals spiked at the same time. Someone spoke into their comms, as the people slowly shuffled behind, keeping a clear eye on him, as they finally left his vision.
He exited through the same window and reached the top floor.
Faceplate open, he took the offered glass of wine from Romanoff and asked the one question that was burning on the minds of everyone here.
“So, what do we tell the government?”
