imafuturist | Lab Beneath Stark Industries, Sunday Afternoon

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Lab Beneath Stark Industries, Sunday Afternoon

The War Machine armor had taken a significant enough hit in a fight that Rhodey wasn't able to patch it up on his own. Which was annoying on a few levels for Tony. One, that Rhodey could have gotten hurt. Another that Tony should have been there to help him.

Tony made a face, rereading the assessment of the damage for a third time before starting to get some tools together.

"JARVIS, has the lab in East Village been touched?"

"No, sir. Shall I inform Lieutenant colonel Rhodes of your plan?"

Tony grinned up at the ceiling. "You know me so well, sweetheart. Tell him I'll be there within the hour. Help him shake any tails if you'd be so kind."

[Expecting one, but open before!]

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Bucky raised his eyebrows, as if to check whether Tony meant it. Still, he was too curious to actually wait for a verbal or any other sort of confirmation before trying the thing on.

And okay. He did go a little wide-eyed this time, when the gauntlet adjusted to fit his hand. "Whoa ––"

He exhaled a little chuckle.

"That's something else, right there."

"Wait until you see the full suit in action," Tony replied. Then added, "I'm going to the East Village to check on a friend's version of it. It's not too much of a hike from Brooklyn if you wanted to tag along."

"To the future?"

Bucky, you're already in the future.

(Shut up, it felt more like the future when it was his damn home town.)

"Sure." He even cracked a smile. "I'd like that."

So... what you're saying is... they're going Back to the Future?

"You'll like Rhodey," Tony promised. "He's the best."

Bucky snorted. "I guess we'll see, huh?"

"No, it's a proven fact," Tony replied, going to retrieve his tools. "Put up with the random teenager... thing like a champ."

Bucky had been about to ask whether he should go grab something from home. But, something else caught his attention. "What random teenager thing?"

"Last weekend?" Tony asked. "Did you miss out on all the 'fun'?"

There was do much bad hair involved in those years.

"I guess so," Bucky replied. Not looking like he minded one bit. "Another island thing?"

Damn you, Barnes. Share his pain!

"Another island thing," he agreed dryly. "Almost got into a fistfight with the seventy pounds of adorable rage Steve was."

"... Ohh."

Yeah. Maybe someone had been repressing that weekend a bit. ~~Also the player was tired and forgot things.~~

"Yeah. Met him."

Repression tended to be the smart plan on this island.

"You... almost get used to these things. Almost."

At least his life involved time travel to normalize it.

"Somewhat," Bucky replied, with some faint wryness to his tone, there. He squared his shoulders, as if to shake the thought off them. "Anyway, there anything I need to grab from my place before we're off?"

Tony gave him a serious once over before deciding Bucky could pass as a hipster if need be.

"Nah, it should be a quick, easy trip."

Oh, Tony. You're adorable.

Tony. Please.

Not that Bucky was about to be any more Genre Savvy right now. He just shrugged. "Okay, if you say so," he said. "Then I'm ready."

Yeah, that genre savviness would only cost him an arm. Too soon? Too soon.

"What are your feelings on portals?" Tony asked with a quick grin.

TOO SOON.

"I'm... more or less comfortable pretending they don't make me uncomfortable."

They were amazing. Weird, and terrifying, but amazing. But what he'd just said would have to do, instead.

C'MON, IT'S LIKE SAYING THE TITANIC SANK IS A SPOILER.

"As long as it's not a 'burn the witch' reaction, we're fine," Tony replied. "Jessica--have you met Jessica?--built it to circumvent Portalocity."

"Don't think I've had the pleasure, no."

He didn't talk to enough women on this island.

"Barely know what Portalocity is, but, good. Okay."

Get on that, Barnes!

"I'll introduce you sometime. Smarter than hell, that woman," Tony said, fiddling with the controls to get the right, out of sight spot to arrive. With JARVIS' help, of course. "Apparently knew yet another version of me. And her Steve was the president somehow."

"Come to think of it, I think you've mentioned that," Bucky replied. Which explained why it wasn't causing as much of an incredulous face as it should have.

He leaned over, though subtly, to see what Tony was doing. "I'm still only barely buying it, even with all I've seen here."

Tony leaned to the side so he could get a better view. "This," he said, pointing to one part of the various equations and numbers. "Is where we are. A nexus of sorts, do the numbers get a little strange. And this--" He pointed to another area further down. "--is my home. Reed calls it Earth-8096. He can be a bit... lacking in creativity."

"Well, if you're gonna have more Earths than just the one..."

Might as well name it with numbers.

"I'll have to figure out which one you're from," Tony muttered, switching through lines of code with a thought. "Another time."

There was a flickering of lights before the portal showed up.

"Still?"

"Apologies, sir," JARVIS answered.

Bucky looked... well, up? That was the best way to describe it, and that was about the instinct he had. For whatever reason, when there was a disembodied voice, the kneejerk reaction was to look up.

"Who the hell was that?"

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