Doctor
Tony stood at the back of his private jet in its kitchen, his mind was still running over what Vanco had just said at the cell. And just like the past 3 hours, he had been trying to cook. He looked down to more burnt food.
He sighed. At least this one is somewhat eatable. He put them on a plate and put on a covering on top of it, taking a spoon and a fork along with him.
he walked to where pepper was sitting looking at the television hearing the recent news talking about the iron man suit.
"mute," he said, and the sound of the television was instantly muted.
"he should be giving me a medal," he said as he walked to the table and set the food down.
"What is that?" pepper asked.
"This is your.. flight meal." he said as he opened the lid, revealing the 'food'.
"did you just make that?" she said apprehensively as she looked at the food.
"where do you think I've been for 3 hours?" he replied, looking outside the window.
"tony."
a pause.
"what are you not telling me?" she asked. he looked back at her contemplating what to say.
after a few moments, he decided on what to say, "I don't wanna do home. at all. let's cancel my birthday party and go-go to somewhere elsewhere it might be a great place to be healthy" he said, tone low. below the normal tone of speech, but above a whisper.
"Well as great as that may be, I don't think this is the time for going out," she said voice low as well.
"w-well every one needs a break-"
"Tony, I'm the CEO. pretty sure I should say something and give an appearance."
"even CEO needs a break, you know - just - just somethin to recharge your batteries."
"not everyone runs on battery Tony," she said, and just like that Tony knew that that was probably the end of this conversation.
currently, Stephen Strange is questioning his sanity as he flies following the jet that houses Anthony Stark.
as a Ruppell's griffon vulture, which can fly up to 37,000 feet. so he could fly high enough for the jet that flew somewhere between 30,000 feet and 40,000 feet.
he needed to be something that draws less attention than a man with a cloak flying 30,000 something feet in the air. it may still be suspicious as especially with the speed he's going, but an animal is still an animal, right?
for the speed problem.. well as long as you have magic and the cloak of levitation, you can do anything. the cloak also protects him from the cold air, reduces dreg, using an illusion to make him forgettable, and everything in-between. that's why you should never underestimate the cloak of levitation. it's rather OP if you ask him.
but back to the main point, he had decided that following Anthony Stark was the best option, so that's why he was now following a jet that goes 930 km/h, several thousand meters in the air.
yep, Stephen is questioning his sanity.
Tony looked into the mirror seeing the marks of the poison spreading through his chest around the arc reactor. It looked terrible, the black lines are more prominent than ever.
Tony sighed. this would most definitely be his last birthday unless some sort of miracle happened. he buttoned up his clothes and turned around to see Natalie preparing a glass to drink.
"should cancel the party," he said, as Natalie turned around to see him, glass on hand.
"probably" she answered walking to him."
"yea, cuz it's um.." he trailed not sure what the right word would be.
"ill times?" she said hoping to complete the sentence.
"right, sends the wrong message."
"made it for you," she said as she hands him the glass. He took it and drank it.
after a little bit more silence he asked, "can I ask you a question hypostatically?" he pause for her answer, but she just looked at him. so he continued, "if this was your last birthday, how - how are you gonna celebrate it?"
she looks at him and answered, "do whatever I wanna do, with whomever I wanted to."
then she walked away. leaving him with only his own thoughts as company.
he thinks about what she has said over his head and Pepper came to mind, Rhodey, Happy, and for some reason, that stranger also appeared in his mind.
he had searched for the stranger with JARVIS's help but even with all the videos on the internet, they were all only blurry pictures or videos of him.
and Tony has never been good at description, so with the little information he gave JARVIS it still didn't help much.
Tony wonders if he was ever going to see the man again.
Stephen still questions his sanity - actually, when he thinks about it. he thinks that the moment he decided to stay as a sorcerer he just threw his sanity out the door...
he was currently standing outside of Stark's house, as one car after another passed by. inside the house was the sound of parties, music, and the like.
he stood outside, in the cold, in the darker part of the parking lot - the front entrance till visible - casting another illusion of himself wearing a black suit and some white gloves and of course the spell that makes him forgettable.
after a while, he questions his decision on staying as nothing happened. Cuz he sure won't be going in there unless something happens.
just as he was about to leave, he saw all the people coming out of the house. All at once. if they came out one by one, it wouldn't have been suspicious, but they all came out at once and some even have disappointed faces.
that piqued his curiosity. so he stayed and looked at what was going to possibly happen.
then he heard more glass breaking inside. it wasn't surprising, there had been the sound of glass breaking on inside before, but it was accompanied but party music and the sounds of people cheering before.
now? the people were out, so that can't be any sort of party. he frowns.
after a few more moments he saw a crowd gathering and the sound of metal hitting metal. he decided to see the commotion and joined the crowd.
once there he saw, 2 iron man armor hitting each other. one of them was the usual red and gold, the other has the normal color of the metal.
after some more hitting the metaled color iron man suit was down for a bit, but enough for the normal iron man one to face the crowd.
it effectively scared all of them and made them nervous. he - of course - screamed at them, causing the crowd to run in fear.
he, well he wasn't scared. he simply rolled his eyes and went along with the crowd as to not be suspicious.
as they ran - or walk casually in his case - out and left. they could hear more hitting inside from where they came.
just as everyone manage to leave, he could feel energy built up in the place where they had just left. so he pauses in his movement, waiting for what was to come. and just like he predicted.
boom.
an explosion.
he sighed, at least the other people had left already or were on their way to leave. he looked up as the other iron man armor took off to the skies.
with another sigh, he walked in through the breaking glass and broken furniture to see the red and gold iron man slump on the ground.
he walked closer and the sounds of his boots walking on top of shattered glass were the only thing in the room.
he stood in front of the iron man suit, not wanting to get too close, just in case the man inside reacted violently.
"you awake in there?" he asked looking at the iron man suit, which had been damaged in the explosion.
with a groan, Anthony - he presumes - looks up.
after a second or 3, he replies, "it's you again. what are you doing here? pretty sure I'd known if you were invited." his words were slurred, so he was drunk.
Stephen shrugged, "plus one wasn't even supposed to come in here in the first place." he said casually.
seeing as the other man was still confused on why he was here he spoke again, "explosion, the other iron man armor flying off seconds later." he said to the other man as if the other man were dumb.
"yea I get that, but most people would have stayed away from an explosion like that," Anthony said, as he struggles to get up.
Stephen walked closer to help the other man up and smirked at him, "well, I'm not most people, now am I?"
as Tony saw Rhodey flew off with one of his suits he groaned and looked down once more.
after a few minutes, he heard of a footstep coming closer to him, the sounds of shoes walking on top of the broken glass shards.
Tony didn't know if this was a threat or something else. but he was too tired to care.
the sounds of the shoes stop just a few feet away from him.
keeping his distance, Tony thought. smart.
"you awake in there?" a baritone voice said from in front of him.
The voice... it was familiar.
He groaned and looked up.
A little buzz here and there. And the screen cleared up enough for him to see.
It's him again. How-? Why-?
"it's you again. What are you doing here? Pretty sure I'd known if you were invited." he said.
The man shrugged, "plus one wasn't even supposed to come in here in the first place." he answered casually, not like he just appeared in front of him in his house when everyone else had left and said he was a plus one.
Tony must have stayed quiet for too long as the man continued, "explosion, the other iron man armor flying off seconds later." the man had said it as if Tony was a child, and he most certainly is not a child.
"yea I get that, but most people would have stayed away from an explosion like that," Tony said as he tried to get up, groaning in the process.
The man stepped closer to help him up and smirked at him, "well, I'm not most people, now am I?"
He groaned again either from his muscle complaining or about the fact that this man might just be as much of snark as he is.
Tony finally managed to get up with the other man's help and took off his mask, so his face was exposed.
"so, where you wanna go?" the stranger asked, "you probably have a minor concussion on top of being drunk, your muscles are strained and probably torn from the sudden use of it. In conclusion, you'd be experiencing hell in the morning." he finished off.
Tony's eyebrow rose at him, "Oh, so now you're a doctor too?" he said sarcastically.
the man still kept the air of indifference around him answered, "former doctor actually."
Even though he had the air of indifference around him, Tony could see his eyes became clouded. As if he was recalling some terrible memory. although it did disappear as quickly and suddenly as it came.
Tony frowned at that, he wondered what happened to make him a former doctor.
Tony cleared his throat and went back to the original question, "Right, well-" Tony briefly wondered if this was a wise move or just simply stupid. "-you could help me bring me to my lab, it's just down those stairs." he nodded towards it.
The doctor looked at the staircase before nodding at him and they both continued to walk down there in silence, except for a few groans from Tony and his heavy breaths.
When they arrived in front of the door to his lab, JARVIS silently opened it. It would be best for JARVIS to open it rather than Tony typing the code and risk the doctor seeing it.
Tony also noted that JARVIS had decided to trust Tony on the decision to trust the doctor and chose to just observe in case he would be needed.
They both went in and Tony went for one of the machines to help take off the iron man suits.
When the last piece of it was off, Tony staggered to his knees. He no longer had the support of the iron man suit to help him stand.
The doctor went straight to him and helped him up to one of the chairs.
Calculating eyes looked at him, the blue eyes were cold but at the same time not. Tony can't help but get mesmerized by that beautiful blu-
"what do you need." Tony jerked at the sudden voice.
"Oh, eh, that box, there're chips in it. I need it." Tony said pointing at the box on his table.
The man stood back up from his crouching position and walked to where he had pointed.
Tony could see the man open the box and was about to take one of the chips, but decided against it and took the whole box.
He walked back to Tony and gave him the open box. The doctor waited in silence as he switched the core. The doctor may not be saying anything through the whole process, but Tony could feel his calculating eyes on him. Calculating, not judging.
when he finished changing the core he breathe in deeply.
Tony looked up to see the doctor's calculating eyes looking at the black mark of the palladium core on his skin. His eyes looked like he was contemplating something.
The man finally sighed. "Anthony you're going to die if this keeps up."
Of course, the other man would know what those marks mean, he's a doctor. Tony chose to ignore the other man's comment and instead changed the topic.
"'Anthony'? Who calls me that? Just call me Tony." he said waving it off, speaking as casually as possible.
The doctor narrowed his eyes. "Fine, Tony. You can't keep this up."
What the hell does he think he knows? Tony already knows that he didn't have any more time left.
Tony stood up, "I know that. What do you think I've been doing all this time? I've tried all the combinations and nothing works!" Tony fumed as a hologram of all the combinations he tried appeared in front of them.
The doctor seemed to be taken back a little at this, but then he inspected the hologram in front of him and frowned.
Tony wasn't sure what caught the other's attention, but it seems as if the man had decided something.
"I could get the palladium poisoning out off of your system."
just as Stephen finished saying those words, the air stilled around them.
He wasn't lying, with magic it would be child's play to get the palladium poisoning out. The only problem would be how suspicious it would be.
But right now Tony needed the hope and time for him to find the new element that he had founded in his previous timeline too.
after a few seconds, Stephen could see as the words register the other man.
"Wha-what? y-you can?" Tony said with all the disbelieve and surprise on those words as his eyes widen along with it.
Stephen nodded, "A... A reset you might say. I could get the poisoning out, but as long as you still use the palladium core it won't change much. I just bought you more time, I suppose."
"Right, right. as long as the core stays the same... even if this could be somehow reset..." he mumbled to himself as he looked down on the ground in thought.
"It's better than nothing, and besides, if nothing that had already existed works... then why don't you make a new element? I mean you are a genius, I'm sure that would be easy for you" Stephen said, he needed to push the man more, to make sure he would actually do something about it and not just get Stephen to fix it every time.
"a new.. you sound so sure that I could do it." Tony said looking at him with a grin.
Stephen just shrugged. of course the other man could, he did it in his timeline. So what's stopping him from doing the same thing now?
"Alright then, Doc. So what should I do to get the poisoning out?" tony asked. he seems to be more excited and calm now that there is an actual chance he might survive this.
"Just sit down and take your clothes off... and... ehh... close your eyes. please just trust me." Tony looked at him suspiciously but seems to decide to follow his instruction.
he set down and took off his clothes, and narrowed his eyes. "relax, I'm not gonna attack you or something."
"sure.." Tony said as he close his eyes.
Stephen sighed and gathered the necessary magic on his palm. he guided his palm to Tony's chest and felt the poisoning through the body's system.
"kinky" he heard Tony say but didn't reply. he was too busy concentrating gathering all the palladium poisoning, every inch of it. pulling it out of the other man's system.
he could see as the black lines slowly disappear as the poisoning got cleared out of the system. after a few more seconds, Stephen was finally sure that all the poisoning was out. he retracted his hand.
"there, that should do it for now," he said looking at the other man's surprise and curious face.
Tony's eyes were still fixated on his now normal-colored skin.
"How-? How did you do that?" he said as he looked up to Stephen.
Stephen smirked, "A magician never reveals their secrets now, do they?"
"but you a doctor!" Tony said bemused. Stephen merely gave him a smirk, not answering the other man.
"now, then... since we're done with that, you should rest, sleep or eat or whatever. you could try figuring out the core tomorrow. I've given you the time, I'm not going to let you die just because you didn't sleep enough."
Tony pouted. "of to bed with you now. I need to go anyway." Stephen countered.
Tony suddenly smirked, and Stephen knew at that moment that the other man was planning something that he wasn't going to like.
he suddenly stood up and took hold of Stephen's hand.
"c'mon doc. It's already late, you can just stay here for the night. after all what kind of host would I be to let you go home alone way past midnight." he said as he dragged Stephen up the stairs to what he presumed was the bedroom.