Champion

The First of Many

Waterway Park
Greenwich Village, New York

Tony was walking hand in hand with Pepper Potts in Waterway Park. It was the first time in really long time that they had done something simple, something completely by themselves. There were no paparazzi around, no looming security guards and best of all, Pepper Potts thought, no horrible life threatening event that might take Tony away from her again. The past two years had been blissfully quiet. Pepper ran Tony's enterprise, Tony fiddled in his garage with one invention or another and occasionally, Tony would be called in about a lead on Steve Rogers, Willow Peterson, Natasha Romanoff, Sam Wilson, and Wanda Maximoff. The leads always went nowhere as Tony's former teammates always disappeared.

Currently, Tony was blabbering about some dream he had where they were expecting a child. "It felt so real. It felt like it was actually happening."

"Oh really?"

"Yes.." Tony said adamantly, glancing towards her. "That's not crazy right?" Pepper smiled.

"No, it's not crazy." Tony smiled back. "So you don't have anything to tell me then? Do you?" Pepper shook her head, trying not to smile to widely.

"Nope, nothing. Except that maybe you should stop carrying this dumb thing around." Pepper said, flicking the metal chest piece connected to Tony's shirt.

"I need it to protect you." Tony insisted, which is the same thing he said when they stepped out of the apartment.

"What do I need protecting from in a park?" Pepper asked with a laugh.

"Wayward seagulls, an impending typhoon, chewing gum that might get stuck on the bottom of your shoe." Tony said, pulling on her hand so she would step around the grossly spit out gum on the sidewalk. Pepper wrinkled her nose but squeezed his hand as they continued on down the sidewalk.

"Nothing's going to happen to me Tony. I'll be fine."

"Yeah, you're always fine." Tony said with a smirk before leaning in and kissing her. Pepper kissed him back as she heard an unusual sound, it was like a low swishing and then a rush or air moved past them and the pair split apart.

"Oh Jesus." Tony grumbled, getting in front of Pepper and preparing to activate his suit so he could fight... Whoever the hell just stepped out of the weird swirling vortex.

"Tony Stark." The man called out. The cape around his shoulders seemed to have a mind of its own because despite their being little to no wind, it was blowing out behind him, flapping around. "I have a friend who wants to see you." Pepper squeezed Tony's shoulder, his hand was hovering over the plate on his chest.

"Do you know him?" Pepper whispered.

"No, I don't know him. Look Magic Man, I don't think I really want to meet any friends of yours. So you can go back through your hole and make yourself disappear if that's alright with you." Stephen Strange rolled his eyes.

"I really do have one of your friends at my house. Dr. Bruce Banner ring a bell?" Tony clenched his fist.

"What did you do with Bruce? How long have you had him!" Tony shouted at Stephen who sighed heavily.

"No, I didn't do anything to him. He just arrived."

"Dr. Banner has been missing for nearly three years and you want me to believe that he just showed up at some strangers doorstep?" Tony demanded.

"Well, I actually kind of smashed through his window." Bruce said, slowly stepping through the portal Dr. Strange had made and walking out onto the grass next to him.