TIMELESS ▹ MCU

two: sentient pebbles, okay

"Speedy, Steely, we have run into some minor issues," Tony said as soon as he saw the pair step foot out of the elevator. "It only involves the government, which is why it's minor."

"Uhm, are we in trouble?" Barry asks, sitting down on the couch before his legs gave out. He had been doing so much running the last few days, his legs were aching for some proper rest. Kara followed his lead and sat down next to him, leaning into him.

"Meh, probably. It doesn't matter," Tony pauses, "Okay, it does matter. But it can be taken care of, so it's fine!"

"Okay..." Kara trails off, motioning Tony to continue.

"Right! So since the both of you are from a different universe, you don't actually exist here, which is why the government is iffy. This is easily fixed, I can just ask Pep to create some identities for you, which is partially why I called you here. I need to know full names and dates of birth, I'll take care of the rest."

Barry and Kara stare at him gobsmacked. "You—You'd do that for us?"

"Yeah, it's no biggie," Tony waves it off, "What is a biggie is that the government wants to get your hands on you since the CIA saw you two appear out of nowhere. Which is a no no in my book, since you two are," Tony furrows his brows, thinking of the right word. "Different. And people that are different in the hands of the government is no bueno."

"Anyways! What I'm trying to get at is: What are your professions? Like besides being super or whatever?"

"I'm a forensic scientist, I worked in labs too. That's actually how I got my powers."

"And I'm a journalist, I also used to be a personal assistant."

Tony hums, pacing in front of the duo before turning to them. "Okay, I think I've got an idea. Here," He turns and grabs two Stark Tabs that were sitting on the side table and passes them to Barry and Kara, "Just write down your name and birthdate in the notes app and FRIDAY will have the forwarded to me so I can send it to Pepper and have your identities created as soon as possible. After that you'll get all your paper work and you should be able to start working, but I'll talk more about that once everything is finalized. I think that's all, is there anything I can help you with?"

"Y—yeah actually," Kara says, her eyes wide as she processed all that information. "First, thank you. We're complete total strangers and you're doing this for us. That's — thank you."

"I've done more for people worse than strangers, it's nothing," Tony waves her off.

Barry furrows his brows at that but shakes his head and says, "We also need to talk to you about something really important that's going to happen. And I think you need to sit down for it."

Tony raises his eyebrows at that but doesn't argue, sitting down the furthest away from the two. "Go on."

The two supers look at each other, having a conversation with their eyes before Kara sighs and nods her head. Barry nods back and turns to Tony.

"Okay, I'm just going to jump right it. When we were traveling here, we were given some information. I'd say it was pretty dire, some end of the universe type of shit. They called themselves the infinity stones." Barry noticed Tony flinched at the name, but didn't say anything and continued, "Basically, they said they saved us and in return, we save half of the universe."

"Fuck." Was all Tony could say, "Fuck. I knew it. What the fuck."

"Tony?" Kara asked worryingly, "What's wrong?"

"Fucking pebbles," Tony murmurs to himself then turns to Kara and Barry. "Before you two arrived, I had a vision. These stones you're talking about, they talked to me too. They told me to go to Area 51, that I would meet the help I needed to save the universe. I decided why the hell not, I'm going crazy anyways. But hearing it from two different people makes me feel less insane and more terrified."

The silence that followed was tense. None of the three seemed to know what to say. Hearing that they were the key to the universe's survival was scary. The silence went on for a few minutes, but it was Barry who broke it.

"We're stuck here, so we might as well make it worth it," Barry says. He looks at Kara who gives him a jerky nod. Barry then turns to Tony, "We're here to help."

"Okay," Tony sighs then stands up. "Okay, I need to do a list, a checklist if you will," He says out loud, then, quietly, "I knew 2012 wasn't the end."

"What happened in 2012?" Kara asks, having heard Tony.

"What do you mean what hap— oh right!" Tony exclaims with a snap of his fingers, "Different dimension. You're not caught up in anything. That's definitely gotta change. FRI? Pull up information on the following: 2012, SHIELDRA, ULTRON and the Accords and send it to their tabs. Add anything you deem important for them to be caught up on, I need to make some calls." With that Tony steps into the elevator, muttering to himself.

Barry and Kara watch him leave then look down at their tablets where an influx of information had been popping up.

"In there you will see files of important things that have happened here. Most of these revolve around Boss and are pretty important. If there are other mundane things you want to know, I trust you know how google works. Nonetheless, if you need clarification in anything, I am here to help. Just highlight what you want and I will either pull up more information of talk to you about it. I suggest giving the Boss your names and birthdates first so he can start on your identities as soon as possible."

Barry nods, "Thank you, FRIDAY." He then looks at Kara who was staring at the tablet with an empty expression. "Looks like we've got homework."

Kara huffs a laugh at that, "Yeah. I haven't done much reading since I graduated college."

With that, they got comfortable on the couch and starting reading up on everything FRIDAY had provided them.

•••
tony likes to take in strays, fight me. also heyyy we're in the plot already lmao. this is moving fast bc it's gonna be a shit show :D

anyways! tell me what you think of this chapter?
-jackie 🖤