ɪʀᴏɴ // 𝕞𝕒𝕟

    an eyebrow raised in obvious interest. “alright, i’m listening.” who would lois lane be if she didn’t go after not only one, but two clearly fascinating news stories? “it’ll be nice to work with some new partners for a change.” billionaires she’d worked with before, but not ex-dead ones. “you and me and the flash. it won’t be a boring investigation, i can tell you that.” she took a sip from her own coffee as well — just the right temperature. “i think i’ll take you up on that exclusive. even if it’s not interesting to new york city, it’ll be interesting to metropolis. and probably also gotham, if you still want anything to do with that city.”

“great! knew you would - alright, where do i begin, probably with the most important and scary detail;“ tony began to motor mouth before stopping and inhaling sharply, giving lois a long look before bowing his head and shaking it. “you’re not going to like this or what i’m about to say; but please know that what i know is kept very secret and i won’t tell a soul. just because i’m public about who i am, it doesn’t give me the right to make public anyone else, okay?” he glanced back up and met her eye, “this fisk person and cobblepot? they know. lois, they know.” he spoke earnestly, letting her know that they know everyone’s aliases and who they are. “we gotta stop them.” he gave her a quick smile in addition to her other words. “i like gotham, it has its charms; it’s dark, dirty mysterious charms.”

steve wouldn’t say he was avoiding tony, absolutely not – right? he just wasn’t sure where to start. he and tony shared a long history of ups and downs, the downs being particularly rough for anyone involved – splitting the team apart. then thanos happened, time travel, they were able to be a team again. but this wasn’t the same tony, he hadn’t lived through all the turbulence that got them to that point. steve nearly wanted to spare him from it, but he tried sparing tony from pain before – it only made things worse. his brow raised as he overheard the code name spoken. “please tell me it doesn’t actually say that,” he started with a sigh as he moved into room, offering his hand out in return. “i’ve heard, it’s good to have your here.” that was true, the world wasn’t the same without tony stark, regardless of the time he’s pulled from. “i guess so, coffee sounds good. how are you doing, tony? being here? catching up on what you’ve missed, i take it?”

“oh would if i could, captain handsome - which by the way is all i’m going to call you from now on.“ he added pointing over at the taller, prettier, blonder man and internally telling himself that yeah, he can see why the avenger got the nickname. but steve’s very ‘white picket fence’ sort of attitude was the giveaway for the other parts of the files that tony wrote in encryption so that any of the avengers couldn’t call him out on being a ‘mean girl burn book’ situation. well, natasha apparently could, but he figured that his world’s version was probably on the fence side of ‘who gives a fuck about tony stark’ and thus made him pretty happy and safe in his secure little world. shaking his hand, tony made a ‘wow’ sound before pulling his hand back. “got a grip to you, rogers - ” he added, raising a brow and rotating back around the counter. “coffee? alright, let’s see.. where’s the coffee...” he hummed as he glanced over his shoulder while digging through the pantry. “yup - pretty much all caught up now aside from a few dark areas that dead me - that’s what i call him - apparently didn’t want me to read. sometimes i’m too clever even for myself.” he paused, purposely ignoring the ‘how are you’, “what’s good with you?”

Mister Stark. Mister Stark was in front of him (oh my god), Mister Stark was taking the glasses and wait, wait, he probably wasn’t supposed to just let anyone have them, but this was literally Mister Stark himself, just not the same version, what did he do what did he do–

He raised his wrist, ready to grab the glasses back with a web, when Mister Stark was already putting them back on his face. Only split second reflexes stopped him from webbing himself in the face. “Oh my god. That is – it is better. You’re a genius! Well, of course you’re a genius, you’re him, I’m Parker Peter, by the way. I mean, Peter Peter. I mean. Peeker Parter–”

He swallowed, exhaling quickly. “Sorry, I’m just so excited, you know? I used to work with the other version of you. He made me these glasses, which – honestly, too good for me, there’s so much, and I’m still not sure I’m the right person for it. In fact, maybe you should take them back. You’re him, right? You’d know what to do with them? The last time I used them I nearly shot a classmate, but not intentionally I just… probably shouldn’t have said that, right?”

He paused for breath. “Sorry, can I – can I hug you?”

oh. tony totally saw parker raise his wrist to whap him with his web fluid and boy was that kid going to be in for it if he glued him to the nearest wall. but he didn’t . thankfully.  “i know, it’s crazy right? i still have all the brainpower and the looks - glad i kept both, anyway kid, listen i...” tony paused in sheer amusement as peter tripped continuously over his own name.

“yeah? you done? ahhh... almost had it, and you skid straight past home and just kept running.“ tony teased gently as he placed an affirming hand on peter’s shoulder giving it a squeeze. “you’re peter parker, probably the most brilliant person in this room, besides myself, and only like... a third of as handsome as me, but it’s okay, you’ll grow into your looks.“ he grinned, patting him before stepping back.

being the equivalent of that meme of the guy blinking and being taken aback, tony held up a hand to stop parker from motor mouthing just so he could motor mouth right back. “i do know, i saw how much you meant to him, but let me break it down for you okay? here; the glasses were meant for you not me, you. i know, i read the notes. secondly, i don’t want them, they’re yours but i’ll tell you what - i’ll help you learn how to navigate them so you don’t accidentally kill one of your classmates, good?” he asked raising his brows.

only to momentarily freeze before deciding that yeah, maybe he could use a hug too. putting on a bit of a facade, tony sighed before opening his arms, “come on, let’s go - don’t have all day.”

     lois took a moment to study tony before she accepted the coffee with a dip of her head. he was interesting to say the least, being dead but not-dead in his own world and having to navigate all that. to be fair, she had first hand experience with people not staying as dead as they should, so she shouldn’t have been that surprised. “i’d be honoured,” she grinned, mock-bowing at his offer. “you probably already know i’m not one to back down when i smell a good story.” she had no doubt that they’d make a good team - she could most certainly handle her own in front of superheroes, and it would be refreshing to be working with someone who didn’t have superhuman abilities for a change.

“nor should you - “ tony started with a smile as he started to head forward, “back down that is - a good story is always worth following, and i happen to find myself in the center of quite a few of them,“ his eccentricities always played out to the best of hands when it came to him and he was never sorry for them. “which is exactly why i trust you enough to go on this quest with me - i got a flash wiling to work with us too, in fact the very same one that was stuck with us when penguin did all his dirty deeds.” he added, giving a shrug and sipping at his own coffee. “maybe after all is said and done i’ll give you an exclusive about myself and the dead me and how i’m trying to live up to his legacy, that is if you want it - not really sure how valuable i am these days.”

Wally tugs at the ends of his red hair, leaning over the top of the table. “He named it SHELLY actually. I have two eight year olds — twins actually. My daughter is a speedster like me, but my son can temporarily grow his muscles to have superhuman strength. He usually needs a nap after though his body goes back to normal.” They aren’t allowed to do anything related to being a superhero, he forbidden it as letting them just be kids was more important. Once things get more serious, Wally stops himself from laughing. “You mean Batman? MANBAT is someone else entirely. If identities have been compromised that’s serious — I don’t care about what happens to me, but there’s the matter of my kids. I’ll help you make sure they don’t tell anyone. It isn’t their business to make anyone’s identity public. It should be a personal choice. Did you have a plan in mind?”

tony blinked at wally’s words, not entirely expecting to hear from the man that his kids had powers too - but finding it oddly adorable in all the same sense. “shelly’s a cute name - better than what i thought of,” he agreed giving a bit of recovery and a smile. “your kids sound fun - i apparently have a daughter who’s a genius like me but i haven’t gone to see her as she’s technically the dead version of me’s kid and i don’t want to scare her, her name’s morgan.” it was the first time he’d really spoken about her and settling bit of discomfort crept up within him over it. “there’s... two of them? batman and manbat? wow, gotham sure is something - ” tony added with a incredulous huff before giving a very serious nod. “yeah, which is why i wanted to get to you before you heard the bad way around - and your kids... i agree are top priority, i’ll make sure they’re safe too.” he gives a guarantee before sighing, “right now we need to find these asshats and then put the fear of god into them so they don’t think they have power over us. so the next thing for you and i to do is to start hitting the streets and finding oswald and fisk.”

“How much experience do you have with drawing blood, Tony?” Stephen asked, giving his … partner? date? … giving Tony an inquisitive smile. “My impression was that I was the resident doctor in the area.”

He was learning more about the man by the day - the way he liked his coffee (anything from black as sin and sugarless, to a Starbucks java chip frappucino with whipped cream and every syrup known to man), the fact that he apparently couldn’t sit still to save his life, to … a surprisingly wide and varied skill set.

“I don’t think the toxins are responsible for the pain,” he explained, not realising that Tony had, in fact, switched tracks of thought. “It’s an old injury, nerve damage. But it’s fine, really. I’ll just be sure to wear thicker gloves next time.” 

He tilted his head, frowning at Tony’s mention of where the money had gone. “That makes… little sense. Why would he go through all this effort to raise funds? There are easier ways of doing it. Ways that would make fewer enemies.”

He sighed. “Still, I suspect we don’t have enough information. Will you continue to investigate? Or will you leave it to Gotham’s usual vigilante crime fighters?” He couldn’t help but look over, reaching for Tony’s free hand, placing a hand over his. “Incidentally, I was hoping to enlist your help with the bigger problem of the colliding universes.”

Maybe it was a little selfish, wanting to hoard Tony for himself, but… he couldn’t bear to see the man run headlong into danger. Not again.

“you’d be surprised with the experiences i have with medical procedures, doc.“ he stated lightly, giving stephen a small shrug before sighing. he’d been in his fair share of situations where having some medical training was absolutely necessary to saving his or someone else’s life. plus the fact that he had a hard time trusting anyone with his chest - aside from pepper and rhodey, mostly. and now stephen.

giving a bit of a smirk, he slyly looked over at stephen and leaned in, “you still are - i’m a doctor, but not that kind of doctor - i operate medically without a license.“ he added, feeling like if he told anyone else that, that they’d chastise him and give him a very stern talking to. with stephen it felt different, it felt like he wasn’t being judged for who he was and random sometimes idiotic crap he’s done.

it was nice.

“i read a bit about it from ... other me’s stuff, i’m sorry - if it helps i saw he was working on something for you, i could see if i can finish it?“ he asked, carefully measuring stephen’s reaction to the offer of help for his hands knowing that it was entirely a sensitive subject. “i mean, if it helps with the pain and the sensitivity to cold, it’d be worth it, right?“

tony was pretty certain that even without permission from stephen that he’d launch into working on it anyway. “besides, you’re the one who suggested to me to start leaning into healthcare, this is a good start.” he lightly teased, giving him enough of an angle to make it seem like it wasn’t entirely for a ‘selfish’ reason.

giving a shrug about penguin’s motives, tony smiled warmly at the touch the other provided, giving his hand a look over before clasping his other over it, an attempt to warm the scarred hand and a happy chance to touch him. “i’ll help you - gotham has a lot of heroes with capes, i think they’ll be fine without me - i’ll happily do what you want me to do - let me back into the fold.”

    the thing about being a reporter is that you have to know the right timing to interview someone and even feel when that front page story or picture will come up. at the time during the previous events at gotham, tony stark had managed to dodge brock’s attempts to get an exclusive very cleverly, but that wouldn’t work again. eddie had noticed the man a few moments back, how not to notice the owner of the stark industry and ironman himself walking around in broad daylight? but in order to avoid getting avoided, he had to use a bit of his tricks. a jump high to a near rooftop with his symbiote’s multiplied strength and then back to behind the man helped him get closer.  “hi, yeah, i’ve alway been this way…”  a lie. he offered the man a smile.  “i believe our conversation got interrupted last time…”  he commented, shaking his head.  “so, what brings you to this part of the city?”

      tony narrowed his gaze at the man, curiosity instantly taking the lead in his notice of eddie. interestingly enough about him - the guy wasn’t small, but rather tall with a bit of a muscular frame - either he was trained to be the world’s quietest investigative reporter. “did it? weird, i’m pretty sure we ended it - i have nothing to say -” he stopped after trying to get around the guy and paused to think, “actually I do have something to say - oswald cobblepot a.k.a. penguin, i know what you’re up to and i will expose you - hell, i might run for mayor in gotham too.” he grinned, “you can write that down, much better than me telling you why i’m in this part of the city, right?” 

Dick sighed through his nose, leaning his head back against the car seat. “Yeah, that was me- I was at the party as Bruce Wayne,” he deadpanned. Couldn’t tell him he was overheating cause he had an extra suit on underneath his stuff. He held up the breakfast sandwich he’d bought from the closest fast food joint, “I’m eating. And what’s wrong with what I’m eating? Egg McMuffins are good! And cheap!” he also gave Tony an incredulous look, “I’m twenty-nine. I’ll be thirty next March. I’m not a kid,” he told him. Tony was a little close to the car, and while part of him wanted to roll the window up so he could eat in peace, the more chaotic part of him smirked as he reached over and turned on the police sirens for no real reason other than the fact that he could. He’d always wanted to do that.

      tony had to think about who bruce wayne was before realizing it as the boring billionaire. “oh yes, him - good choice, you got to be boring and wear your own clothes, congratulations.” he had to give it to the gotham cop, mcdonalds was good and cheap, “i prefer their mcgriddles - love that sweetness to it.” he added giving him a wink from behind his glasses and a grin. “good lord you’re almost thirty? what’s your skincare routine? any tips? i’d love to look 39 when i’m fifty.” he thought about it and about himself and what he’d look like when he was ‘old’ and decided he had good enough genes to never have to truly worry. blinking in surprise as the sirens erupted, tony held up his hands in defense as a reaction before slowly realizing that dick was being well, a dick. “JARVIS, turn off the po-po machine - you know what? scratch that, play party music from it.” he grinned, waiting as the sounds of despacito began to replace the sirens. “two can play at that game officer.” grinning he slid his glasses down before stepping back and beginning to dance to the song.

“It’s quite alright.” Wally tries to protect his identity, but cares more about doing the right thing. He hasn’t had to compromise himself yet though thankfully. “It’s nice to officially meet you, Tony. CATS are great, but my son was more interested in having a turtle.” He answers while moving to sit down at the table, laughing at his own words. He crosses his arms over the top of the table, curious as to just how the technology works. Wally assumes it’s better not to ask so many questions when they had other things to discuss. “I should have known Oswald would be up to something. He’s always been really SHADY, so him having other plans for all that money? How didn’t we see it?”

      tony still felt pretty awful in the grand scheme of things when it came to someone’s identity. if someone had trusted him with it - and he had the notes for a kid called peter parker that had trusted dead him - then he wasn’t about to spoil it. letting out a laugh at the thought of some kid that might have his dads speedy power owning a turtle, tony sat across from the other and smiled. ”okay you got me there, did he name the turtle speedy? or something obscure like boris?” sighing when things got serious, tony relaxed back and nodded. ”that isn’t what’s concerning - intel from the manbat guy says that identities have been compromised - oswald and a guy named fisk.” he didn’t want to have to tell him - but he knew one thing, sitting forward tony smiled at wally. ”i’m going to do what i can to make sure they can’t tell anyone, ever.”

“That’s because you haven’t met all the bad guys that your counterpart has,” Stephen immediately pointed out, before biting his tongue and regretting it. Had that been insensitive? 

… Probably.

Trying to cover it up, he shot Tony a smile and reached for his slice of pizza, his hands shaking even more than usual. “Nothing that a little rest and a warm cup of tea won’t fix. And a few slices of pizza.” Giving up on his shaking hands, he summoned the cloak, letting it lift the slice for him. “I believe I was drugged,” he said, “A very fast acting narcotic – I highly suspect that it was engineered in-house by Cobblepot.” 

Between bites of pizza, he recounted the scene - the cold, the iceberg, the bomb and the shark, leaving out the details about how much the cold had made his hands hurt. Though he highly suspected that Tony already knew that. “What about you?” he asked. “What happened?”

      tony observed stephen as he spoke, choosing to ignore the unintentional slight in his words and carefully taking in every feature on his face and smiling at the details that made the wizard who he was. like the white tufts of hair at the sides of his head, the way his eyes crinkled when he smiled, and the most telling - tragic one of all, the way his hands shook and how he tried to hide the pain that tony knew he was deeply plagued with.

      “that’s a nasty thing to deal with stephen, if you give me a chance and a needle i might be able to get a blood test for the toxins that went into it out of you,” he chewed on another piece before adding, “might be able to help with the pain,” he said lightly, casting his gaze down as he spoke before taking another bite, putting on a sweet smile, and looking back up at him.. “that penguin fellow is a real piece of work though,”

      nodding along and finishing up his slice and another, he gave a surprised look of awe before finally shrugging at his turn. “found out where he was putting the donated money.” sitting back, tony relaxed and gave a shrug. “fun fact, it wasn’t to any cute penguins that needed it - just to himself and apparently his bid to become mayor slash overlord of gotham.” he leaned back forward and placed his elbow on the table and then his chin in his hand. “not as cool as yours.”

When you’re the fastest person to EVER exist that usually means no one could see you unless they had the proper technology to track his movements somehow. There was a lot to this world that Wally doesn’t know, and so he was surprised when someone calls out to him. He stops in place, standing there in his uniform — red hair falling over the cowl and into his eyes. “I’ll admit I’ve never heard it called ZOOMIES.” One of his hands relax on his hips as something to keep them busy, smiling genuinely looking over at Tony. “It’s a pleasure to properly meet you. Thanks for the coffee.” He took the other cup with his free hand, glad for the warmth coming off of it through his gloved hands. “I’m Wally West, but don’t tell anyone. Secret identities — you know? I’d love to talk about what happened though. You want to sit around here somewhere while we TALK?”

      tony belatedly realized that he might have accidentally almost exposed the poor guy and quickly went into a rapid-fire quip of an apology. “sorry - bad habit, my brain moves faster than my mouth, probably as fast as you skedaddle.” he added, giving a quick grin and a nod. “and you’ve never heard of zoomies? cats do that, i like cats - probably a little too much, anyway - wally was it? hi wally, i’m tony. nice to meet you.” he grinned, pulling his glasses off and clipping them to his shirt. “yup, this table here - and don’t worry about the identity thing, i won’t tell a soul - kinda have respect for you for keeping it under wraps though,” he paused, “yes, onto what happened but first - ” he tapped at his glasses quickly placing him and wally into a ‘dead zone’ so that no one could spy on them. “there we go, free to talk without big brother watching... or listening,”