MARVEL One-Shots

"in which the world needs saving (and tony has zero shits to give)" pt. 3

3821 words

ships: parley, pepperony,  stucky (mentioned), stony (mentioned)

tw/cw: death (mentioned), grief, language

__

previously...

He'd been there for three days, according to Karen.

Three days since he'd lost Tony.

Three days since everything had gone wrong.

***

"Peter, it's come to my attention that you've spent the requested 72 hours in the safe house, and it's time for you to follow through with what Mr. Stark asked."

"Chart a route to Stark Industries."

***

Clearing his throat, Peter continued. "So, R.A.L.P.H. sent you here? Why?"

"Same reason as you, I'm betting. To work on the AD/U project."

***

"Is he serious?" Harley asked in a whisper, as if speaking too loudly would make everything disappear.

"I don't know," Peter responded. "In theory, Mr. Stark's work checks out, but this is— this is far from what human science should be able to achieve right now."

"But it's Tony Stark. If nobody else could do it, he could." Harley ran his hand through his hair.

"But alternate dimension and universe travel?" Peter pointed out. "That's complicated stuff, for anyone."

"Then we'd better get to work and finish what Tony started."

***

"Are you sure this'll work?"

"Hell no," Harley scoffed. "But it's the best shot we've got."

***

"Let's do this thing," Harley said, offering his hand to Peter.

Peter grabbed Harley's hand. "All or nothing?"

"All or nothing."

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the same day — earth 199999

It was supposed to be a normal day.

The sun was shining, bright enough for some comfortable heat, but not so hot that Tony couldn't go out on a walk in Central Park. He'd had five and a half cups of coffee, the perfect amount. Plus, Pepper had woken him up with a gentle kiss on the cheek, and that was more than enough to get through the day.

So imagine Tony's surprise when two scrawny teenagers appeared in front of him on his way to a press conference, preceded by a blinding green flash of light. Startled, Tony stopped mid-walk, and the pair of teens ran straight into him, spilling his sixth cup of coffee on himself.

"Dio Cristo!" Tony swore, tossing his now empty cup on the ground and frantically trying to wipe off the coffee that was beginning to soak into his freshly pressed suit. "This is a $5,000 suit!"

Whatever answer Tony was expecting to receive, he didn't get it. Instead, he was met with silence, and the stunned faces of the teens, as if they'd seen a ghost. Sure, Tony was famous and therefore had experience with fans who were stunned speechless, but this was different. They looked almost... terrified. And suddenly, Tony wanted to know what had happened to them, what had been so terrible that they stared at him like that.