It All Started In A McDonald's...

ffs, there are other ways to make a sandwich

A/N - AHHHH I'M LATE, SORRYYY

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Two hours either flew by or dragged by – I couldn't really tell. But they passed nonetheless and Stark was, as predicted, finished. This was the moment of truth.

"Ladies and gentlemen? It's the moment of truth," I said, under my breath, quoting a BMTH song to myself. I'd had it stuck in my head along with Shoot To Thrill by AC/DC and Sweet Emotion by Aerosmith most of the day, in some kind of very random remix that should totally be a real song. No one really paid attention so I just sighed and watched my hair flutter in front of my eyes before flicking it out my face because it was business time. "OK. So. What now?" I asked, shrugging, because I had no idea what he'd done.

The gun thing looked exactly the same to me, and I genuinely couldn't see what Stark had done to it.

"Now I need your suit," Stark said, eerily like/unlike himself. If not for him being polite to both me and Loki, I wouldn't be able to tell he was under Maximoff's mind-control. That and the whole glowy red eye thing. I shrugged off my backpack, reached inside and handed him the hoodie. Then he activated the arm panel and swiped and tapped and stuff so quickly I couldn't keep track. Then, before I could even think to ask, he'd handed it me back to put on. "Put that on and we'll test it."

"Test going to D.C.?" I asked, in disbelief, not putting my suit on. "Uh, can we try somewhere closer to here first? Just in case?"

Stark shrugged. "Fair enough. Where?"

"Um," I said, thinking quickly. "My apartment? No one's at home."

I got told to type in my address, and was also instructed how to use the keyboard properly so it didn't end up like number 5555000033333. Once that was done, and Stark had programmed the Tower in so I could come back, I was cleared for testing.

"I'll teleport straight after you to make sure nothing goes wrong," Loki assured me as I hyped myself up.

"Good," I nodded, shaking my head because all of a sudden the adrenaline was taking over and I wanted to run. This whole teleporting thing sounded a lot like magic to me and I was really weird around that stuff. I don't know what it was – fear of the unknown, I suppose? No, I wasn't afraid of magic (unless it was being used against me, I suppose). I had no problem with other people having it. It was the very prospect of using it myself which puts me off.

I shook my head again, then took hold of the gun. "Pull yourself together, Jamie," I told myself. It wasn't magic, it was fully reliable Stark science. I hoped no one would point out that Stark had never done this before.

"Are you alright?" Maximoff asked, which I think woke me up. I was a bit weird with people checking on me.

"Yep, let's do this thing," I decided, and before I could rethink it, I pulled the trigger.

Then I was in my bedroom. I blinked, looking up, and yeah – I was in my recently remodelled bedroom (hell yeah, I finally replaced that My Little Pony poster with a bunch of swanky eBay-bought Hunger Games and AC/DC posters and I'd even invested in a corkboard which I was slowly adding photos and MJ's art to) and the lab and Stark, Loki and Maximoff were nowhere in sight.

"Holy shit," I said to myself, my voice, as always, sounding echoey through my mask, but it always sounded weird in silence. Hey, maybe I'd wear the mask whenever I was in my room because it really filtered out the weed fumes. Couldn't even smell it.

I walked into the sitting room, fully expecting it to be some kind of trick and I'd walk back into the lab or something. But no. It was the same two armchairs, same threadbare rug, same small kitchen at the back of the room. Crazy shit. Then I remembered Loki was supposed to be teleporting directly after me, and just as the thought came to my head, he appeared right by my side, and I didn't even jump. Guess I was really getting used to it. "It works," I shrugged, feeling the build of adrenaline disappear a little as I said it.