Tony Stark (in_extremis) wrote in oh_marvelous, @ 2010-01-11 14:15:00 |
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Entry tags: | z: om1: !complete, z: om1: affiliation: avengers, z: om1: character: tony stark, z: om1: location: india, z: om1: past character: nathaniel essex |
Bid
Characters: Tony and some baddies
Setting: Kashmir
Content: Some violence, mostly abstract madness.
Summary: Iron Man to the rescue, gets caught in the web.
It was hazy in Srinagar, the sun bright and the clouds low, making the horizon waver and the roads slither. All of the colours are washed out, and the light glinting off of the lake and pools was blinding, like every crest was the flash of a camera. Nobody stayed inside.
Determining the exact location the e-mail had come from had been the easy part. He left Pepper with a note on her desk-- "Back soon, reschedule the afternoon. T"-- and was a spark that hovered high over New York City for just a breath, then he was gone. Nobody stayed inside there, either. That city was gray, with solid pits of black and flecked with the white of snow, all blending together at the edges and melting into itself. Gray and slushy, dark before the working day was done, and still the streets were crowded to witness the sonic boom over their heads, a flash of red in the gray sky.
Srinagar was gold. A choking, heavy gold that was displaced under the force of Iron Man's landing in the center of a busy street. The people that had scattered like frightened chickens (in all directions, but arcing again towards each other in their comfort in the familiar) stopped 12.4 feet away, watching Iron Man straighten from his heavy landing crouch, fists balled at his sides and slowly turning his head to make eye contact with each of them.
Only one of them ran.
He made it 21.1 yards before he was plucked from the ground, his legs still pumping like they still could find purchase, then sailing limp and unguided over the heads of all those shoppers and tourists and people living their lives in the crowded, golden street of Srinagar like a rag doll; his arms and legs thrown out, his whole body unresponsive, traitorous. When he hit a wall, the crack was heard like the sonic boom above New York City. He didn't know what could have made that sound. Iron Man came and stood before him, towering red with glowing eyes, the light touching his body making him hard to look at or see, a Pishacha he had summoned for himself to drive him insane.
It was validating to find that giving in to their adorable ransom would have just put Tony back a million with nothing to show for it. He could still go blow that in Vegas when they got back. Billy would have a story for Wanda when she got back, but that was the only intrusion on anyone's life this would have. Tony had it under control. He could take care of it. The man in the golden street spoke awkward English, slurred and mumbled with pain from the impact of the throw, but it gave Iron Man enough to lead him to the lake, looking down on a greasy tanker with the sun obscuring him from behind.
If Billy was really on this boat, what was stopping him from getting off? Tony had seen the kid stop the Hulk. This didn't bode well. The possibility that he had not acted fast enough, received the e-mail just a few minutes too late, suddenly increased exponentially. The kidnappers may have made their profit with live merchandise, but whoever was so happy to take the kid off of their hands could have found him more useful without all that messy fighting back and breathing business. Tony, he had to remind himself, didn't know who this kid was back where he came from. Nobody did. He could have powerful enemies who followed him across dimensions to fuck with Tony's even more.
If you're dead, kid, rest in peace. Otherwise, I hope your life is miserable.
He hit the deck with a ringing clang, the dinner bell for a swarm of armed hostiles to surge from every port on the vessel. Looked like the right place all right. Tony didn't stop to chat, he didn't speak Hindi and the translation in his helmet had a lag. They shouted, and the words scrolled before Tony's eyes 1.4 seconds behind,