Who: Charlie, Clint and Tony What: Realizing that they're stuck at the base. Oops. When: Sunday, after the storm snows them in. Where: Naval base outside of Everett Warnings: Language, but I think that's it? Will update if necessary.
For those that knew Tony, it was no secret that whenever he took on a project he had a tendency of getting wrapped up in it and get carried away in the middle of it all. He lived in formulas and equations, he contemplated possibilities and the way to execute those ideas in the few hours he allowed himself to sleep, and during those projects the billionaire playboy became just the genius inventor he had been born to be.
Out in the wilderness it was hard to work at the pace he liked, though. For one, he couldn't transport Jarvis everywhere he went like before; Tony preferred to leave him uploaded only in the suit and with Pepper in the cabin to not overextend the servers. His work stations weren't like before, with holograms that allowed him to toy around with ideas until he got things right. It was back to working with whatever tools he could find, finding materials out of old equipment or old weapons that he had stored underground when the world started going to shit, and many times he found himself almost grateful for the time he had spent in Afghanistan working on his first suit out of scraps. It had prepared him to live without the perks and high life that came along with being a Stark. Sometimes he even wondered what Yinsen would think about that.
The restoration of the naval base was no easy task, but Tony took it very seriously. It wasn't a project that he had been able to fully dive into, considering that there were other priorities like preparing for a Hell God and patrolling the area to keep people safe, but he worked on it as much as he could. He had been able to work on a communicator to try to reach other military bases, and he had even managed to get generators up and running, but there was still so much to do. Servers had to be restored, along with security systems and more generators to keep the full place running, and that was where Charlie would come in. Because he was convinced that the two of them could at least make a dent on the to-do list, and once they finished they would be able to have a centralized military base for Everett.
After showing Clint the room where he was keeping the new rifles, night vision scope, and the new machine gun he had improved, Tony had gone to work with Charlie in the server room. On the drive over to the base the snow had begun falling at a rate that should have probably concerned him, but Tony figured they would just be there for a few hours and they could head back after that. The weather in Everett always seemed to be cold and gloomy anyway, what was another snowfall?
As he worked, though, Tony was so wrapped up in his work that he didn't even remember to check on the weather anymore. The circuit boards he worked on made it hard to focus on anything else, and the computers that he was trying to make functional demanded all of his attention. The generator provided enough electricity for them to work with, and it kept the temperature leveled despite the chill that never seemed to go away; to him, that was all that mattered.
That was, at least, until the lights flickered for a moment and Tony was taken out of the trance he had been in while working. Blinking up at the lights, he frowned when they flickered again. "Let me go check what the hell is going on," he muttered under his breath, to no one in particular. Part of him even half expected Jarvis to answer back.
The thoughts about Jarvis or even work disappeared, though, when he passed a window on his way to the room where the generators were kept. Because, as he walked, he caught sight of the blizzard going on outside, and found it impossible to even see his jeep parked outside. Or see anything, really; the world outside seemed to be drowning in snow, and Tony felt something in his stomach twist.
Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck.
"Clint! Charlie!" Calling out, he moved along the halls to find them. "I hope you layered up before coming... Have you looked out the window yet?"