Chapter 10
Tony knew that he was obsessing slightly over the Doctor-Wizard even as he got ready to be on hand for Hammer's presentation. They hadn't found Vanko and, officially, they had no reason to pay him any attention. Unofficially, Tony had filled Rhodey in on the previous version of this clusterfuck as a precaution. They used stumbling over ruined paperwork on the grudge between Howard and Vanko's own father plus the records of deportation as an excuse to put security and the local law enforcement on alert.
"You need to relax," Stephen told him softly, dragging Tony out of his head with a light kiss.
"I know but a lot of people died last time," Tony sighed. "I mean there's a tiny chance that Hammer did the sane thing and didn't hire Vanko or never found out about him but my luck really isn't that good. I admit that I told PR to put out the fact that I'm here tonight as an advert but I'm mostly hoping Vanko will pull what he did at the races in the Before instead of using the drones. Hammer's drones might be crappy but they can still do damage. If he does we can take the fight away from civilians. The drones used them as target practice to try to draw me out of position and some of the targeting data they used was crap enough to go after at least one kid in toy Iron Man gear. I saved the kid before but I don't know that I'll notice and be fast enough this time if it tries repeating."
"Combat is unpredictable even in the best of circumstances. There is always going to be something missed," Stephen reminded him. "If it comes to that I will step in and help. A child doesn't belong on the battlefield and I would only be exposing myself rather than the Order. If nothing else I can pull the we stay out of it because you have no defense against us card. It won't create a pleasant fall out but it would hint at self regulation which is a truth. The fact that I stepped in to help my boyfriend is neither here nor there beyond giving a sensible reason to out myself."
"I don't like it," Tony grumbled, resisting the urge to pout.
"Tony, you don't get to choose what dangers I walk into, just as I don't get to choose for you," Stephen said bluntly. "We can warn each other of what we notice and give support or offer help but, like you, I make my own choices. Now, focus on what's happening tonight. We can fret about things to come once we are safely home or at the hotel."
Tony gave him a long look but didn't say anything about the offer to portal them back to Malibu after everything was over. Equally, he didn't comment on the hotel room remark because if they were exhausted afterwards then neither of them would want to risk trying to portal to the opposite coast.
"You know I will be outted eventually," Stephen reminded him calmly. "Its just a matter of when. The threats that are coming will force practically all of the defenders largely into the light. We won't have a choice."
"I know," Tony sighed.
Before they could talk further Hammer's introduction of the drones started playing on stage. Rhodey wasn't with him this time but was instead ready nearby in case of rogue droids going after people. It helped that in warning his brother Tony had prevented Hammer from even looking at one of his suits of armor. Thus anyone working with him wouldn't have enough access to hack control away from the driver. Tony had hated the way Vanko used his brother as a human shield and attack dog in the Before.
The talk with the Military brass about "loaning" armor to Rhodey and the restrictions that came with it hadn't been pleasant but explaining about the heavy metal poisoning that he was now in treatment for helped. On the other hand, the horror over the injuries that had made him require being poisoned with palladium had nearly matched what appeared when he actively explained exactly what had happened to him in Afghanistan. The fact that Rhodey didn't have the exact details and neither did Stephen became readily apparent when both men reacted to his explanation live on the conference call. The only saving grace, as far as Tony was concerned, was that he had been cuddled afterwards while they watched movies, ate ice cream, and had take out. The fact that the military immediately backed way the hell off was just a bonus.
The well remembered sound of an arc reactor powering something up immediately drew Tony's attention in a very specific direction. He already knew he was going to have to ask Stephen to curl around his soul after this for another healing session even as he stepped out on to the stage, interrupting Hammer's presentation. His eyes immediately sought out and latched on to the figure wielding electric whips powered by a reactor. Unfortunately, there were a lot of innocent people standing between them and Tony didn't think Ivan Vanko would be willing to wait for them to get out of the way.
"Hey! Are you really going to play with dangerous toys around civilians?" Tony shouted at Vanko, playing up the unimpressed angle.
"Stark," Vanko growled.
"That's my name," Tony sassed. "Why don't we take the dangerous toys somewhere less likely to hurt a kid, huh? I'll even come play if that's what you want."
"What I want is everything about you destroyed!" Vanko shouted and aimed his first whip right at Tony, completely ignoring the civilians in the way.
Tony didn't even think and neither did Stephen as they moved forwards to shield the civilians. One with magic and one with tech extending beyond his suit. Each man caught a whip in a different way, one on the metal of his armor under his tuxedo and the other with a strand of magic whip acting as a line to both block and wrap around.
"Was he this bad before?" Stephen asked conversationally.
"We kept him from having back up so I call it mostly a win," Tony shrugged through his speakers. Paying to have a tuxedo tailored to go over top of his new more discreet but not yet nanotech armor had paid off.
"You and I are going to have a serious talk about this business, lover," Stephen said loudly, eying the nearby cameras and press.
"Looking forwards to it, Steph," Tony snarked. "Let's crank it up a notch."
"Gladly," Stephen growled as they disengaged from Vanko's whips only once the civilians were mostly clear.
The trio started circling each other in the ever widening clear spot in front of the temporary stage. As they walked Stephen unfurled the Cloak of Levitation from where it had been wrapped around his wrist and cast the spell to switch out his clothes. The Cloak gleefully settled onto his shoulders once his robes were in place. Tony casually pulled at his suit and the rip away portions gave, leaving him trailing sections of burnt fabric from the arms of his armor but dropping most of the formal wear to the ground and out of the way.
"It will be harder to make you bleed like this," Vanko scowled.
"Yeah, well it helps that I'm no longer suffering from heavy metal poisoning," Tony snarked back. "Its part of why I've been extra erratic since the Afghanistan mess. My boyfriend here helped me figure out a solution."
"Must you, Tony?" Stephen groaned. "We're in the middle of a fight."
"You were the one bitching about not having a safe way to remove the shrapnel and the fact that your specialty is brains instead of hearts," Tony taunted. It was a lie but it got certain points across to the media lurking nearby. "Besides, your magic training wasn't exactly an option until recently."
"And I didn't specialize in healing when it comes to magic! You know this!" Stephen argued back in exasperation, very unimpressed with Tony's tangent. "I got my medical degree the old fashioned way."
"Meh, you kept the planet from being eaten by that hungry outer dimensional threat that has been eying us for centuries according to your trainers. I'd say that's a win," Tony smirked audibly, ignoring Stephen's groan.
"I annoyed him into going away after tricking him into a trap that would hold as long as I wasn't the one trying to open the damn thing back up. I never said I was strong enough to beat him outright," Stephen complained. "Need I remind you that I was trapped in there with him?"
"Yes, yes, you were and I'm glad you figured out a way to reset yourself even if it won't ever work again because the idea of you dead over and over again is not a fun one," Tony half snarled even as he caught a whip flying at them.
"Stop ignoring me!" Vanko screamed in frustration and attacked with a vicious flurry of blows.
The two heroes braced for the blows but they never landed. Instead, they were caught in a spidery hand as a white haired aged yet strong and thin woman stepped out of a black tear in space and reality that hadn't been there a split second before and closed behind her. She was dressed in a black long sleeved floor length dress that was all of one piece with white opaque glasses that made her seem blind. The only color contrast in the fabric was the white-silver web embroidery starting from her right hip that spread down to end at the hem half way around her front and back of the skirt portion of the dress.
"Anthony Stark, what have you done?!" the woman thundered even as she absently shredded the electrified whips in her hand.
"Uh, who are you? As for what I might have done... I honestly have no idea what you're talking about," Tony said warily. Absently, he noticed how tense Stephen had gotten just as he noticed the shocked dismay on Vanko from his sudden disarming.
"Madam Web, to what do we owe the pleasure?" Stephen asked tightly, stepping forwards in a way to shield Tony.
"To the fact that time itself unraveled to save him!" Madam Web half snarled, pointing at Tony. "My champion is a child again and I can't withdraw the already gifted blessing even if I am forcibly keeping it dormant as a stop gap."
"Wait, Web?! As in Spiders?" Tony asked urgently.
"Exactly," Stephen said tightly. "I was under the impression that Spiderman's enhancement in another five to ten years was... science based in nature."
"So was I, Stephen," Tony said, clearing his throat uncomfortably.
"You... you don't know?!" Madam Web asked incredulously.
"Know what?" Stephen asked warily.
In answer Madam Web whipped her upper half around to throw a nearly invisible net into the crowd and drag a child to her, one dressed in Iron Man toy gear.
"Hey! Let me go!" A very familiar childish voice cried in protest, on the verge of tears and definitely scared.
"Peter," both Tony and Stephen said as they each took a half step forwards, stopping only under Madam Web's vicious glare.
"Your blood child, my champion," Madam Web said angrily as she held him up in the air in a now visible net of webbing.
"I swear I didn't know that he was mine until this moment," Tony said immediately. "I was never informed."
Madam Web studied him and her stance softened as she judged the truth he spoke.
"No, I suppose you weren't," Madam Web said thoughtfully. "It would explain why you didn't even look for him until he became my champion in the unraveled timeline. Well, that's fixable I suppose. His current human Guardians aren't equiped to raise one of mine between the Spider strength and the mischief they might be driven to do something... regrettable, to say nothing of those who covet such blessings for themselves. I had thought I came to scold you and claim my champion as part of the blood debt incurred only to find there is no debt. You may choose another to be his other parent as the barer clearly failed. I will weave their bloodline into his own as recompense for the... interruption and return your son to you."
"Would you accept my own blood?" Stephen offered quickly, much to Tony's shock.
"The Sorcerer Supreme and the Man of Iron who is set to become the Guardian of Infinity, the Guardian for all of this universe... A powerful bloodline to be sure," Madam Web mused thoughtfully. "Yet there is a risk that he will remember as you both do the fallen timeline. Would you subject him to that? To remember being my Champion? To remember disintegrating in Stark's arms even as my blessing fought to preserve him from such a thing? Then again he would also remember the good times. Decisions."
"Give us back our nephew," a man demanded, standing next to a much younger Aunt May as the couple glared at Madam Web. They had just fought their way to the edge of the engagement area and had no real idea what they had walked into.
Before anyone could respond Vanko attacked the couple with the shortened electric whips and wrapped them in the lengths, leaving them unpowered for the moment. It was clear to Tony and Stephen what he intended, hostages of the caretakers for the son of Stark.
"Well, a stand off," Madam Web said pursing her lips before addressing the captive couple. "The child may not survive if we attempt to save the two of you. I do have a way to ensure he does regardless of what happens today but the cost is high. Would you make a deal with me?"
"Don't answer," Vanko snarled, shaking his captives.
"What deal, Madam Web?" Stephen asked, his voice hard.
"The youngling is already one of mine but I can't suppress the blessing forever, even five years is stretching it with how much stress it happens to be putting on his young body. There was an actual reason why I waited only so long before demanding answers," Madam Web said pointedly. "I might even need to drag Anansi into this as it stands and I very much don't want to call on Coyote to facilitate things. These are, technically, Coyote's lands. While Anansi is of us spiders Coyote definitely is not, trickster status for the both of them notwithstanding."
Madam Web pronounced the names as Ah-nan-see and Kai-oat-tay respectively. It sent a shiver down Tony's spine. The names also had Stephen shuddering slightly as his breathing hitched.
The cackling laugh of a Coyote interrupted them as mist billowed up from the ground on a fourth side and what could only be described as a man sized anthropomorphic Coyote appeared. He was dressed in a deer leather tunic and leggings both with beautiful embroidery and beads. Rabbit skin moccasins and rabbit skin greaves were tied to his feet and legs. A flint knife with a horn handle was in his leather belt matched by a strung short bow in one hand with a full fox skin quiver tied at his hip.
"You went with the dramatic appearance, lovely," Madam Web said dryly as the mist drifted away into nothing. "And you wonder why those nasty Skinwalkers persist in the practice of stealing spirits and skinning beings for shape shifting."
"I have nothing to do with that," Coyote said huffily. "Shape shifting is a cleaver trick and amusing. What the Skinwalkers do is an abomination. I believe the Europeans would consider it a form of corrupted soul magic if I remembered their classification terms correctly. Now, you had a little problem with your latest champion I believe?"
"Stephen?" Tony asked carefully. He noticed the way Coyote's right hand stayed near his knife and the way that the being was loose in a prepared for combat way rather than a relaxed way.
"Don't look at me," Stephen said pointedly. "My teachers didn't have much interactions with things like this in recent history. I know some of the lore and warnings for these two specifically but that has more to do with being originally from the mid-west and being curious while stuck on bed rest. I still got in trouble for using astral projection to raid the library while my body rested. Dealing with the Norse Pantheon and its mythology became far more important for obvious reasons compared to looking up the other Pantheons and the recorded human interactions with them."
"Is there any chance of us all getting out of this alive and intact?" Tony asked carefully.
"That depends on how much you are willing to prove your Merchant of Death side and what deals we might be willing to strike. Without that? At best we might be able to save the boy and get the audience left alone. Something which is only possible because both Madam Web and Coyote tend to like humans for the most part. If we were dealing with someone less fond of our species..." Stephen explained very carefully. "Well, there are reasons anyone on the magic side tries to keep the regular people and authorities out of things. For one they generally aren't equiped for this sort of thing for another our apprentice level rogues can roll over most of them with the three most basic spells if used correctly. I wasn't expecting anything but wrapping up your latest attacker so that we could get on with our date when we stepped out from behind the stage. I was looking forwards to a proper date night for once and then things from my side intruded so we're both on the clock."
"And you still offered to basically adopt my kid even if I didn't know he actually was my kid when scary web lady grabbed him," Tony pointed out. "I'd say that's an important step forwards in our relationship."
"At least you aren't freaking out over the magic," Stephen huffed. "Even if the random quips and discussing important things in the middle of a situation is always going to be a bit out there."
"Hey, it works for us," Tony snarked.
"So, not a dream?" Tiny Peter asked from his web net. A question that had both the divine powers and the Heroes snapping around to pay attention to him directly.
"Well, that answers that question," Madam Web said with a mix of exasperation and resignation. "His memories are already manifesting. Which is also going to trigger my blessing fully and probably put him in a great deal of pain without the adoption I offered earlier."
"Huh, mostly human but more than 11 generations back he is from one of my children that wrangled a blessing from Anansi... somehow. Much more human than not," Coyote said, examining Peter critically without getting close to him. "My bloodline is negligible at this point but it might be why he's remembering now in our presence if it isn't because he remembered sooner than this and simply wasn't caught yet."
Peter proved Madam Web's words to be true almost immediately by ripping a hole in the net, hopping out and heading for Tony and Stephen. The growl of fury from Vanko redirected his attention only for the child to pause in the exact center of the adults as he took in his captive aunt and uncle. The way his face went cold with barely contained fury aimed at the obvious Villain surprised a few of the watchers filming the confrontation.
"Give me back Aunt May and Uncle Ben!" Peter exclaimed as he started heading for the group.
Tony and Stephen lunged forwards to snatch him up and away from the risk even as Vanko turned his whips back on. Peter's scream of "No!" even as the electricity started arcing over Ben and May Parker, drawing out screams of pain. Peter fought back to try and get to them but Tony's armor held him tight, taking a few dents from powerful but tiny fists. Thankfully Vanko turned the whips back off even as Peter cried into the armored chest of Iron Man.
"You shouldn't have done that," Tony said, voice deadly.
"Why? You and your furry robot have nothing and I will make you bleed!" Vanko retorted.
Stephen already knew the man had just gotten himself killed. Coyote might like humans in general but he was a deadly person to insult. He could only hope the trickster kept his bloodshed to only the person who issued the insult instead of everyone present.
"What deal?" Ben rasped, aimed at Madam Web. It cost him being shaken hard again as well as a brief return of the electricity but he still asked.
"I can guarantee the child's life and placement with someone who will love him as their own... the cost, unfortunately, is both your lives," Madam Web explained regretfully. "It would also ensure he survives the manifestation of my blessing and isn't in pain from it for the rest of his life. Neither Tony Stark nor Stephen Strange can take your place in this, they are too important and we can not afford to sacrifice them simply for a child champion."
"Don't you dare," Tony threatened Madam Web even as Stephen dragged his boyfriend backwards away from both powerful entities and, coincidentally, out of Vanko's reduced range.
Coyote snorted and trapped the three in a brown bubble of power. They couldn't hear anything from the outside or leave it, they tried, but what they saw was more than enough. May and Ben made some agreement that upset Vanko, presumably one to save Peter. Coyote dashed forwards to kill all three of them. Ignoring the audience of civilians both beings used the blood of the Parkers and Vanko to paint around the bubble they were trapped in, while using the ruined web net as a part of the construction. The patterns created were unclear and made the minds of the two adult heroes twist while their vision warped to look at them.
"Tony, retract your helmet," Stephen ordered softly. "It will be safer then forcing the magic to punch through your armor. It could backlash and hurt Peter otherwise."
Tony, trusting Stephen and wanting to kiss his Spiderling on the head, obeyed. They both turned away from the sight beyond the bubble and cuddled Peter between them as they sank to their knees, braced and leaning against each other. The picture of two parents protectively curled around their crying child. The flash of blue-purple light when the magic was triggered was blinding even as it knocked the trio out and brought down the brown bubble. This left only Jarvis in the armor awake and able to defend them.
"They have been so very strong," Madam Web's terribly sad voice was picked up on the armor's external microphone by the AI.
"That's the trick though, isn't it?" Coyote said with wistful melancholy. "They don't even realize yet the mantles they've accepted. Although, the memory feedback we got from that spell out of all three of them definitely put it into perspective for the two of us. As for you, computer spirit, guard your brother and fathers well. Your soul accepted the adoption just as much as the boy's did."
"I'm afraid that I am going to have to ask you both to back away from them," the voice both externally and on comms of Colonel Rhodes told Jarvis that he must have arrived in War Machine during the spell.
"Of course," Madam Web said smoothly. "Our business is done here and the price for the involved magic paid for. I don't recommend you separate them for the next twelve hours nor remove Anthony's armor as the magic lightly affected his machine spirit. Something which surprised us but your brother is quite the remarkable Master Craftsman and Enchanter. We take with us only the copies of their memories the magic transfered to us."
Coyote laughed his cackling howl and the pair of them disappeared in a wave of mist.
"Okay," Rhodey said very carefully as he approached the downed family.
"Might I recommend calling for aid?" Jarvis pipped up. "Sir, Dr. Strange, and young Peter all appear to be unharmed but sleeping. Although, my data on the magic involved is minimal. I see no reason not to transport them to a hotel or other bed so long as they stay in close proximity for the next 12 to 24 hours."
Rhodey muttered something under his breath but Jarvis was satisfied that his family wouldn't be separated or harmed. He settled back into his circuits and watched, waiting for them to wake from their slumber.