Prelude
Tony Stark just wanted to have a good day and waking up in a mysterious movie theatre was not the way he’d intended it to begin. He was laying on the slightly sticky floor of the lobby area, the smell of salted popcorn making his mouth water.
Groggily, he lifted his head and was surprised to see he was surrounded by many other bodies on the floor, each slowly lifting their own heads to gaze around in confusion. Some of them he recognised like Rhodey, Happy and Pepper. He immediately shuffled over to her and placed a hand on her shoulder, causing her eyes to snap towards his in confusion.
“Tony?” She whispered out. “What’s going on?”
Tony didn’t quite know how to answer that, but before he could say I’ve got no idea in hell, the very familiar, very annoying, and the very voice that he’d both wished and dreaded to hear again for the past two years, answered for him.
“I have no idea. But is everyone all right?” Steve Rogers, aka Captain fucking America.
Tony rolled his eyes, of course Mr Noble wanted to know about everyone’s health, even if they’d been on opposing sides for the last two years.
Tony eyes flickered towards him just as Steve did the same, the two maintaining awkward eye contact for well up to thirty seconds, before Tony shamefully dropped his gaze to the floor.
“We’re alright over here.” He mumbled.
“Speak for yourself, shell-head.” Came the sarcastic flat tone of Natasha Rominov as she lifted herself off the floor clutching her head. “Anyone feel like they’ve been zapped by a hundred volts?”
A few groans came in response by the others all struggling to stand up. There was Steve and Natasha, both helping Sam Wilson and Clint Barton to their feet. Tony also helped Pepper and Rhodey up. He saw Vision present as well standing hand in hand with Wanda Maximov - no guesses where Vision had run off to for the past few months.
There was something so off about them all being in the same room as one another. These once friends not having seen each other for two years. Something was definitely off.
“If someone would please explain what in the hell is going on here?” Nick Fury himself came into view, followed by Hill and… was that Coulson? This day could not get any weirder.
“Hey, man, we got no clue!” That was a new voice.
Tony turned to see the weirdest group of people he’d ever seen. The guy who spoke looked like a complete ass-hat with a red jacket and… was that a Walkman? Beside him was a green-skinned red-head, a blue-skinned woman with a robotic arm, and a big hulky dude with tattoos and no shirt... Okay? Then there was a… racoon? A girl with… antenna? And… was that a walking tree?
God, Tony needed a drink… or maybe he’d already had too much.
“Who are you?” Tony asked, exasperated.
“What d’you mean who are we? We’re the Guardians of the Galaxy!” Ass-hat said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. “Who are all of you?”
“We’re the Avengers, man.” Came the whining voice of Peter Parker.
Wait… Peter Parker???
“What in God’s name are you doing here, kid?” Tony asked, anxiety and fury building up inside him.
Perter held his hands up in surrender and took a step back. “I dunno! I just woke up here, same as you!”
“Does Aunt May know you’re here?”
“No! At least, I don’t think so! She’s not here too is she? And how’d we even get here?”
“If we only knew where here is.” Wilson pointed out.
“Well it doesn’t seem like any of the nine realms.” Thor’s booming voice rang out next to… was that Bruce Banner? Where’s he been all this time? God, this was becoming the most exhausting reunion ever.
“Neither does it feel like another dimension. It also doesn’t appear to have any links to the Mystic Arts.” Said the over obnoxious guy with a goatee and a red cape. What was he… a wizard?
“Sorry, are you here to sell balloon animals, magic man?”
“I’m here to protect you’re reality, doche-bag.”
“Well you’re doing a great job at that.”
“Maybe this is another scheme of Loki’s.” Thor said, trying to change the subject.
“Now I would most definitely not have brought everyone who hates me together, brother, that would be a terrible plan.”
Most of the Avengers froze in place, glaring at Loki.
“Loki?” Steve says disbelieving.
“What is he doing here?” Natasha accuses.
“Never mind that, how about we just kill him now.” Clint says sharply, his hand immediately reaching for his arrows that… weren’t there? “Shit! Where’s my bow!”
Come to think of it, where was Tony’s armour? And Steve’s shield? And Thor definitely doesn’t look like he has his hammer.
Everyone else was patting their sides and looking around for their various weapons that weren’t there. Great. Just bloody fantastic. They were unarmed and defenceless.
“Never mind that, I’ll just punch him to death myself.” Clint growled, clearly still on a warpath.
“Hey! No one is killing anyone!” Steve said, moving in-between Clint and Loki.
“Why not! Don’t you remember what he did!” Clint yelled.
“Of course I do, but we do have more priorities than revenge right now.” Steve explained calmly.
A new voice spoke out. “The first thing would be not to panic.”
Tony’s head turned to see the new King T’Challa standing with three other women behind him. One Tony recognised as the Princess of Wakanda, Shuri, and the others seemed to be Wakandan warriors Okoye and Ayo.
“We need to settle down and then find out exactly what happened.” T’Challa was saying.
That seemed to get some people to settle down, until Tony noticed the man standing just behind the Wakandans. A man that Tony has dedicated his life to hate.
Without saying a word, Tony surged forward to wards the Winter Soldier, only to be stopped by Okoye and Ayo who held him in place.
“Tony, stop!” That was Steve behind him, but Tony wouldn’t listen. All he could think about were his last words of his parents and their screams on that fucking recording.
He struggled against their hold as he saw the Soldier flinch backwards slightly, although he maintained eye contact. So he wasn’t a coward after all.
“Tony, please listen.” That was Pepper. Her calming voice and her hand place softly on his shoulder was enough to at least get him to calm down enough for him to back away slowly.
“What is he doing here?” He growled, almost shaking with anger.
“The same reason we’re here, but we don’t know what that is.” Steve said firmly. “And because he’s been recovering in Wakanda. That’s why he’s here with them.”
“Recovering?” Tony spat.
“Yes.” It was T’Challa this time who answered. “As is his right. And he’s been making good progress. You have nothing to fear from him.”
Tony glared at the Winter Soldier, James Buchanan Barnes, or Bucky as Steve likes to call him. Bucky glared back. Through their gaze they conveyed a silent agreement.
Don’t fuck with me and I won’t fuck with you.
Good. Glad to get that sorted and out of the way.
“Now that that’s taken care of,” Steve said. “There are a few new faces here, so maybe we should start with introductions. I’ll begin. My name’s Steve Rogers, also known as Captain America.”
Tony went next. “I’m Tony Stark, aka Iron Man.”
“Pepper Potts, I don’t have a superhero alias.”
“James Rhodes, War Machine.”
“Sam Wilson, The Falcon.”
“Clint Barton, Hawkeye.”
“Natasha Romanov, The Black Widow.”
“Bruce Banner, sometimes The Hulk. Hi Nat.”
“Hi Bruce.”
“Thor, God of Thunder, Odinson.”
“Wanda Maximov, am I supposed to have a superhero alias?”
“The Vision, is this my superhero alias?”
“Hi I’m Peter Parker, Spider-Man, I’m a big fan of all you guys.”
“And we basically make up the Avengers.” Steve concluded.
“Except for me, I’m not a superhero.” Pepper clarified.
“And neither is the kid, he’s still an intern.” Tony rectified.
“And I’m only an Avenger on off-days when I visit Earth, which I have to admit hasn’t been for a while.” Said Thor.
“And I’m Happy Hogen, head of Stark’s security. Not that he ever listens to me.”
“And I’m Nick Fury, but only call me Fury, Director of Shield and founder of the Avengers.”
“Co-founder, Fury. I’m Phil Coulson.”
“Maria Hill, Fury’s Number Two.”
“Can we get onto introducing us now?” Ass-hat said. “Great. I’m Peter Quill, but you may call me Star Lord. The leader of the Guardians of the Galaxy.”
“You wish. Gamora. No alias, no nickname.”
“I am Drax the Destroyer. The true leader of the Guardians of the Galaxy.”
“No I think you’d find it’s me. Rocket. The only smart one around.”
“I am Groot.”
"I am Mantis."
“Nebula. I don’t identify with these idiots.”
Great, so they’re all a bunch of idiots, and the racoon and the tree could talk. Fantastic.
“I am King T’Challa. The Black Panther and protector of Wakanda.”
“I’m Shuri, head of the Wakandan Science and Research devision, and princess of Wakanda.”
“Okoye, Commander of the Dora Milaje.”
“Ayo, her second.”
“Doctor Steven Strange, Master of the Mystic Arts.”
“So you do sell balloon animals.” Tony muttered.
“Hi, I’m Scott Lang, also known as Ant-Man, and I am very confused.” A new voice popped up.
“We all are.” Said a dark haired woman beside him, rolling her eyes. “Hope Van Dyne, The Wasp.”
Okay, so they were also new and weird. What did they use? Some kid of shrinking tech?
Someone very annoying cleared their throat. “Loki, of Asgard.”
“Yes, we all know who you are now shut up.” Clint said angrily.
“Bucky?” Steve said encouragingly, moving closer to stand beside his friend, because, God he look nervous to be surrounded by so many people. If Tony didn’t hate him so much, he’d probably feel sorry for his kicked puppy-dog expression.
He cleared his throat. “Sergeant James Buchanan Barnes. Prefer to go by Bucky. I used to be the Winter Soldier. Now I’m the White Wolf.”
The White Wolf? That’s new. Tony couldn’t help the little looks of pride coming from the Wakandans. He’d have to find out about that later.
“Great.” Tony said, clapping his hands together. “I think that’s everyone. Now all we have to do is find out what the hell is going on!”
ATTENTION HEROES
A voice boomed from the speakers. It was female with some kind of deep southern drawl.
You have been assembled here by the Powers That Be. The Universe is about to face its largest threat to date and none of you are prepared enough to face it. Many of you may die, and that is something we can not have. The Powers have seen the future and now know what must be done in order for you all to survive the coming war. Right now your are separated and at conflict with each other. With this attitude, you will fail. In order to be ready you must venture into the past to fix the future. Through the media of film you will see first hand each other’s experience in order to learn and understand them better so that you can present a united front.
Tony looked around at everyone, they all each looked equally sceptical and suspicious.
You may now enter the first viewing room as indicated. You are allowed to bring snacks from this lobby. Good luck!
A light lit up above one of the doors in an adjoining hallway.
“I guess that’s film number one then.” Tony said sarcastically.
“What’s this about a war?” Steve asked.
“And a threat to the Universe.” Strange said.
“And the Powers That Be? Who d’they think they are?” Quill said.
Tony shrugged. “Well, I dunno about you, but I’m getting some popcorn. Want any Pepper, Rhodey?”
“I will join you on that.” Pepper said.
“Me too.”
After everyone scrambled for snacks and drinks, as well as getting out their various confusions and questions that no one had answers to; they all congregated outside of door Number 1. Above it read.
IRON MAN
“Fantastic.” Tony mumbled.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Scott said, his mouth already full of popcorn.
“I guess it’s about Tony.” Pepper said. “Remember what the voice said? We must venture into the past to fix the future. I guess we’re starting with Tony.”
“Just my luck.” Tony grumbled.
“It’s alright, Stark. We won’t judge anyone by what we see here today.” T’Challa reassured him.
“Exactly.” Sam said. “This is about learning from our mistakes. So we’ll only take into account things that can actually help us in the future.”
“And it’s about uniting us together again.” Steve said. “Getting to understand each other better.”
The others were nodding along.
“Right, well I dunno about you, but I’m going in.” Rocket - that racoon continues to freak Tony out - said impatiently, pushing open the door.
Everyone filed in, taking their seats in the audience. In front of them was a large screen. Tony sat next to Pepper and Rhodey, with Happy on the other side of Pepper. The Guardians and Wakandans took their seats further towards the back, as did Bucky sitting beside Ayo. Vision and Wanda went back there too, as did Dr Strange. Steve and Sam sat at reasonable distance from Tony. Natasha and Clint, and the rest of the Shield are sat on the other side to Tony. Thor dragged Loki and Bruce to sit with him near the front. Clearly Thor was excited, whereas Bruce looked nervous and Loki just looked bored. The new guy, Scott also went to sit at the front next to Hope.
Finally, the lights went dark and the film began.