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Oct. 18th, 2016 09:47 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
starkingenuityWhen the battle for humanity started, it was in a small castle in Scotland, well removed from Tony Stark’s usual stomping grounds. His world had been one of espionage and terrorism, of opposing government factions and super humans all jostling for control. No one, not SHIELD or HYDRA, not AIM or the Ten Rings, not the kingdom of Wakanda or the United States president had ever truly understood that their petty squabbles and races for technology meant nothing in the grand scheme of things.
When Voldemort won, when the Boy Who Lived lived no more and the powerful wizards who might have faced him were slaughtered, it took some time to trick over to the other hemisphere of the globe.
But once it did, the changes happened almost overnight.
Tony was never happier to have had the arc reactor removed a year before. A silence charm that functioned like an EMP over the muggle world stopped the use of all electronics at once. Planes fell out of the sky. Cars crashed. Lights and elevators stopped working. The internet went down. Satellites burned up in the atmosphere.
High on the 98th floor of Avengers Tower, Tony sat in the dark for a long while, feeling the presence of a friend who had only just returned from wherever it was his sorrow and betrayal at Black Widow’s hands had taken him. “Uh…” Tony frowned. “So, this is cozy. FRIDAY? How’s the rebooting coming?”
All was quiet. All was dark. The city was black.
When Voldemort won, when the Boy Who Lived lived no more and the powerful wizards who might have faced him were slaughtered, it took some time to trick over to the other hemisphere of the globe.
But once it did, the changes happened almost overnight.
Tony was never happier to have had the arc reactor removed a year before. A silence charm that functioned like an EMP over the muggle world stopped the use of all electronics at once. Planes fell out of the sky. Cars crashed. Lights and elevators stopped working. The internet went down. Satellites burned up in the atmosphere.
High on the 98th floor of Avengers Tower, Tony sat in the dark for a long while, feeling the presence of a friend who had only just returned from wherever it was his sorrow and betrayal at Black Widow’s hands had taken him. “Uh…” Tony frowned. “So, this is cozy. FRIDAY? How’s the rebooting coming?”
All was quiet. All was dark. The city was black.
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Date: 2016-10-19 06:54 pm (UTC)His mind could only assume that a plane coming in for a landing when this had happened would have crashed, but an EMP going so high as to be able to knock one out in flight hadn't even fully occurred to him yet. He rubbed a hand down over his mouth and chin, trying to think it through. "If it was an EMP, we should be able to go down into the lab and rig something up that'll work for now. At least as a light source - and after that, contact. Even a basic radio should be able to get us contact to someone outside of the city."
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Date: 2016-10-20 01:20 pm (UTC)“Yeah… Well unless the Chitauri came back,” Tony answered. “Or…something worse.” He had to kick around a little to find the edge of a desk and he crouched to pull out a flashlight, the heavy duty kind that looked more like a gun than anything. The LED bulb was safe and, thankfully, so was the battery. “Thank you unintnded faraday cage,” he muttered softly as a clean white-blue light shone from the lens. He had no idea what else might be working, but he was going to guess very little.
Nodding towards Bruce, they headed out of the room and to the corridor. The ground was a very, very long way away and they were probably going to run into a few dozen late night scientists and janitorial staff still hanging out in the Tower. His inner hero told him to find them all but what he really needed to do was assess the damage and he could only do that outside.
Without air circulating through the building, however, by the seventieth floor, the stairwells were getting uncomfort. They were too insulated from the windows to hear sirens or sounds of panic but Tony could imagine them already. He was silent for once as they walked before he felt the whole building shake beneath them.
Two landings below was a light. Having never seen a real wand at work, he had no idea that these weren’t just flashlights and he called out. “Hey! Everyone all right?”
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Date: 2016-10-20 02:03 pm (UTC)The warmth of the stairwells didn't bother him, but the thinning oxygen without circulation would grow uncomfortable as time went on. There was a brief thought that ran through his mind, thinking of another famous building with long stairwells and people trying to get down them, but he pushed that aide. When Tony called out to someone, he moved over and peered down over the side, trying to see who was down there, assuming it was some of the late-night staff. They had their own elevator up to their floors, pass keys and ways to handle security, so typically they didn't run into each other too much.
However, something wasn't right when he saw the faces of four people look up towards them and in the faint light, something seemed off about their faces. He couldn't put his finger on it with the distance and the lighting, but he actually reached out to Tony. He had no idea yet that he was looking at masks on their faces. "Tony..." he said in warning before suddenly, those four figures started coming up towards them at speed.
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Date: 2016-10-20 02:54 pm (UTC)Despite the danger – or maybe because of it – Tony had frozen. “I had a dream like this once, Banner,” he murmured, well aware that they needed to get up to the last landing and through the door immediately. “If this is a zombie apocalypse, we have got to exert our dominance immediately over the toilet paper rations.” He had to have Bruce hiss his name again to get him to actually start moving and by that time, the four strange figures were on the landing just below them.
Tony scooted through the door behind Bruce and since the doors no longer had electricity to them, it didn’t automatically lock. “Help me!” he grunted, trying to shove a metal filing cabinet in place. It wouldn’t help of course. The people pursuing them were not easily dissuaded by doors or furniture. In fact, not much after Tony and Bruce had blocked the door and rushed through the room and into the hall, filing cabinet and door and the wall across from it were taken out by a well placed curse.
“Be careful,” Tony could hear someone with a British (or Scottish?) accent say behind them and he grabbed Bruce’s arm to duck into a secondary staircase.
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Date: 2016-10-20 03:21 pm (UTC)"Where does this go?" he breathed, trying to hear their pursuit as they started on the stairs as quickly as possible. Already he could feel the Other Guy shifting just under his skin, but he had more control over the Other Guy at this point in his life than he ever had combined. It wouldn't stop if he was put into immediate life-or-death, as Natasha had gambled on and won in a sense, but even in this situation he could keep it together.
He thought he heard something - caught the edge of something that almost sounded latin, when suddenly there was a flood of light in the stairwell that left him blinded.
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Date: 2016-10-21 03:25 pm (UTC)“Oh? Oh, do you have familiarities with zombies?” Tony barked back, glad he’d kept up his cardiac training all of these years. He still didn’t really like to run, but he had to admit that it was useful when being chased. They were forced to quiet down once they were once again bathed in darkness, though Tony carried on the snarking in his head for quite a long time, oblivious to Bruce’s potential issues. He generally felt himself to be perfectly safe around the scientist, though just about everyone else still hesitated a little. Poor Bruce. Always a potential death threat.
Tony was dragging his feet as they hit a landing and was about to mention that he was getting tired of left turns when he was blinded. He had to catch himself on the railing with both hands before he toppled over, though his hands released their grip immediately as the light had it’s effect upon him. He landed in a heap on the landing below, head on Bruce’s calf, completely unconscious.
One Death Eater turned to another and smirked, her voice childish. She had only just entered or perhaps was in the middle of puberty. “That was too easy,” she cooed, accent posh and British. “I told you the proper jinx would keep that one under lock and key!”
She hopped down a flight of stairs and gave Bruce a little kick. Out cold.
What Bruce Banner had spent a decade trying to do, wizards had managed to figure out in a few hours. “Go on Petunia, let’s get this beast in his collar and bring them both to our Lord.”
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Date: 2016-10-21 03:39 pm (UTC)"Well it all worked out." The other female said firmly, kneeling down and wrapping the leather around Bruce's neck before dusting off her hands. "I don't understand why he wants either of them, though." She shook her head, pulling out a small compact from her pocket. Having portkeys around to deal with this made everything so much easier. She used the edge of both Bruce and Tony's shirts to plop their hands onto the portkey.
"We have to find the others he spoke of and quickly. You know he doesn't like to be kept waiting," the fourth member of their band said in a rough growl. "Neither do I. I thought this would be a challenge."
"How much of a challenge could it be to deal with a Muggle?" The one kneeling asked, that verbal roll of the eyes audible.
The fourth glared at her through the eyeholes of his mask. "I thought he was supposed to be some kind of hero. Turned out to be nothing."
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Date: 2016-10-21 04:11 pm (UTC)Tony, had he been awake, might have made an argument that it was pretty standard for the Avengers, when solo or in a group, to just so happen to get their asses handed to them in the first reel to make a better come back in the second. Instead, he would wake up on the set of some vampire teen flick with Bruce’s head in his lap, head swimming and mouth dry. The room was beautiful, dark brocades in purple and black lining the wall intermixed with heavy framed mirrors and velvet drapes. He could barely make anything out save for what hovered near ornate gold candelabras.
“Branner?” He somehow mixed Bruce’s full name into that, head full of cotton, as he lifted it from the back of a decidedly comfortable but somewhat dusty couch. “Think we got roofied.”
Or shot. Or…what? Stolen by the cast of Twlight? No! He was not going to participate in the Hunger Games. He was not going to be forced to sit through any more sullen emo films-- He flopped a hand into Bruce’s face somewhat accidentally and straightened up as best he could.
“Gittup.”
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Date: 2016-10-21 04:53 pm (UTC)His eyes opened, blinking several times until he thought he saw Tony's face above him. There was light, a warm light that was nothing like the flashlight Tony had been carrying. That reminded him they had been running from something, the light- he jerked up, his head nearly crashing into Tony's face if the other hadn't straightened up a moment before, and regretted the rapid action as the world swung sideways. Closing his eyes against the candlelight, he brought a hand up to his hand and groaned quietly.
"Where are we?" he rasped, though his words sounded more slurred than anything else. Had he... imagined it all and he was drunk? Something definitely wasn't adding up.
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Date: 2016-10-21 05:30 pm (UTC)The sound of a temple hitting his nose drew a sort of wet groan from Tony as both of his hands rose to his face. It was amazing what a little bit of pain could do to clear the sinuses and make the world come back into focus. He might have to remember to thank Bruce later, but more likely, he was just going to complain about having a broken nose for the next few hours.
“I don’t know,” he said, as if someone was holding his nostrils shut or he had a cold. “Is this how you use to get by? Smack your patients around and then offer them treatment?”
He leaned forward and used his tongue to feel around for any breaks in his teeth. Damn it Banner, if his face was messed up, you better hope you have a good plastic surgeon on speed dial.
When he didn’t taste blood and he felt a little less dazed, Tony got to his feet with a groan that was more to do with his age than his current state of head trauma. He grabbed one of the candles nearby and, like he was Belle looking for her father, stomped around the room to find a door. He didn’t find one (or a Beast thankfully), just a lot of chair rails and more expensive furniture around a fireplace.
“What the hell? Stop laying around and help me.”
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Date: 2016-10-21 06:09 pm (UTC)His hand came up, brushing along the collar now set around his throat. It wasn't too light nor too loose, but as his fingers skimmed along it, he couldn't feel any way that it could be removed. Not a buckle or catch. That... immediately started to trigger off the feeling of panic in him, temporarily forgotting where he was and their situation. His fingers curled under the leather, trying to pull it, but the material was strong. Where had it come from?
"Tony- there's something- take a look at this." There was an immediate stress in his voice, yet he realized all at once that he didn't feel anything within. Not a stir, not even a voice.
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Date: 2016-10-21 06:54 pm (UTC)Jeez. Why was Bruce always so selfish? Why was it always all about him? Tony turned, holding what had to be the most medieval lighting device he had ever used about eye level and turned to look at... Darkness. Jeez. What useless things. He actually missed his nightlight at a time like this.
He trudged slowly back towards the couch and as Bruce faded back into view, his eyes set upon the collar. Immediately, a hand went up to his own neck. Nothing. Good.
Of course, that didn't help Bruce so he leaned in, careful not to catch anyone's hair on fire, and frowned at the collar around his neck.
Huh. Well glaring didn't help.
"When did you start getting into kink? I'm not judging I'm Just curious," Tony said.
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Date: 2016-10-21 09:20 pm (UTC)There was a bit of a design but nothing else, nothing that indicated it was magical, but how the hell did it get around his neck when it didn't have a way to remove it?
"Something's- nothing about this is right?" He squinted past the darkness, unsure. "Is this a dream?"
He reached out, brushing his thumb over Tony's cheek to wipe away blood. "Guess not. ....Sorry."
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Date: 2016-10-21 10:12 pm (UTC)Tony sat next to Bruce, carefully looking over every inch of the leather. How could there be no seam? There was give to the material and Tony could move it around Bruce's neck, but he couldn't find a buckle or stitching or anything.
"I don't think-- How the hell-- How are we stuck in a room without a door and how are you in Fido's Finest without a break?" This was worrying.
He stood on shaky legs as if he could protect Banner from whoever might suddenly appear.
"If this is a dream, you're in mine. I'm a real boy, Banner."
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Date: 2016-10-22 10:37 pm (UTC)"There must be a trap or hidden door," Bruce pointed out, given that the former seemed the more obvious solution. He looked around, but it was frustratingly dim. Who lived in this sort of place? "And I'm real, too. Still... what on earth is going on?" It was really unsettling.
In particular when suddenly the previously dark fireplace came to life with a whoosh of displaced air, burning bright and sharp which made him narrow his eyes against the sudden light, throwing up a hand briefly before he moved to stand up along side of Tony. "What the-"
As if the sudden change of the fireplace's status hadn't been enough, when suddenly two people... appeared from it?! Bruce's jaw actually dropped, and Tony might have heard a whisper, "this has to be a dream".
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Date: 2016-10-25 02:30 pm (UTC)“A figment of my imagination would insist it was real too,” Tony said because he needed to be whiny and dramatic. It was not just in his nature, it was the only way he could cope with this craziness. He didn’t like being trapped. He didn’t like being locked in someplace. Memories of Afghanistan resurfaced, memories of eing trapped in space resurfaced-- No one really asked anyone about his panic attacks and while he had them mostly under wtaps, this was a very triggering sort of situation.
As the whirling purple smoke cleared and the darkness returned, Tony found himself sitting beside Bruce like they were on the bench waiting for the dean to yell at them. Tony’s time at Grantshire School for Gifted Youth was telling in these moments, for his knees were together and he had each cupped in a hand, back straight.
He was afraid and he was trying not to show it.
“I love the customes,” he said to the two masked, robed figures. “Didn’t know it was this sort of party. We’re underdressed.”
“You are. Muggle attire is so… “ The woman addressing them was cast in shadows but Bruce could smell the crazy on her. She was so much like Loki, a mad and wild force. “Okay, all right, let’s take our collared beastie to the Master.”
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Date: 2016-10-25 05:18 pm (UTC)Muggle? That wasn't a term he'd ever heard before, and right now his mind that had felt so fuzzy before was on hyper-alert. The woman almost seemed to fill the room with her presence, a deeply unpleasant one at that, and it only added to his instant distrust when she said 'beastie'. Beside him, Tony would feel Bruce tense up even further.
"I don't know where you're planning to take me-" or how, his mind added sharply, "but I'm not going anywhere without Stark." Really, he 1) wasn't going to acknowledge her term 'beastie' beyond speaking up first and 2) he wasn't going to separate them... despite the fact he felt like he was missing out on a key negotiation point. Everything was happening so fast other than to have that lingering feeling in the back of his head that something was far more drastically wrong right now than just the unusual and damn right impossible situation.
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Date: 2016-10-25 05:30 pm (UTC)[I don’t actually remember who died when in the Battle of Hogwarts so… I’m handwaving most of it. So there.]
A husky sort of laugh that sounded more like a growl came from the second, male figure. “Don’t really know or care who or what Stark is, and you’re not much in a position to dictate nothing,” The muffled voice behind the mask was filled with disdain, as if the whole mask-and-robe thing was beneath him. He strode forward and grabbed at Bruce, right by the collar. He was terrifyingly strong.
And Tony just watched, eyes wide in the darkness, head tilting to follow the way Bruce moved from right beside him to his feet. The woman cackled and tossed something into the fireplace. It sparked to life again, this time with a greenish tinge. That made Tony get to his feet, perhaps to try to bum rush the man beside him. “Stop playing with your food, Fennie,” the woman called out. “We’re late! And you!”
She pointed a stick at Tony and after a small gray-blue whirl of dust and light erupted from it, Tony was knocked back into the couch before the piece of furniture tumbled over backwards.
“You stay! Good Muggle.”
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Date: 2016-10-25 05:54 pm (UTC)Bruce's hands came up to the man's wrist, and to his shock, he could feel how thick around it was and the man had to be a bodybuilder of some sort. Yet what was the far, far more disturbing thing was that nothing happened. In this situation, he knew himself (or maybe knew the Other Guy) well enough to know that there would have normally been no way for him to hold back the Other Guy when this was happening, the fear rushed through him and the immediate threat to his body but it didn't come. His skin stayed normal, though maybe a bit pale in realization, and he hung in that grip trying to find his place in this impossibility.
He vaguely heard that term again 'Muggle', caught that name 'Fennie', but neither really stuck in the face of the fact that one of the few times he had ever actually needed the Other Guy, and Tony needed him as well, he didn't come. How? How was that possible?!
Greyback looked over towards Bellatrix with a snort and gave Bruce a hard shake before dragging him along towards the fire. "Kill the other one. He isn't of any use."
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Date: 2016-10-25 06:13 pm (UTC)“Kill him?” Bellatrix huffed a little, lifting up her skirts around her ankles to parade herself back towards the man peeking over the couch. “No, no, he’s going to be a treat. It might be worth it to keep him here. Like a lead for our new best friend.”
“Enough with the dog humour,” the werewolf snarled and then stepped through the fireplace. The witch was right on his heels and, for Tony Stark, the room once more went dark. Even the candles had been put on by the force of the wind and he sighed and sat back on the floor.
Bruce was taken somewhere else altogether. It looked like a massive medieval dining room. There were the remains of tables and benches and chairs around the room, most of which were partially demolished or used to barricade various arched doorways. The smell of blood was prevalent in the air and some of the trashbag-like lumps on the ground were very likely bodies.
Sitting on what looked to be a throne on a dais of what Bruce could not know was the reserved seating area for professors and staff of this once-school where they had taken their meals and listened to announcements, was a pale skinned man whose features would look more monstrous the closer Bruce was forced to get to him.
“So this is the great monster of the Muggles. You’re so small.” A man standing next to the one in the throne leaned forward slightly on a snakeheaded cane, face impassive, long hair unphased and worn to his hips.
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Date: 2016-10-25 07:28 pm (UTC)He gave a look towards the blond, easier than looking at the monster that was clearly in charge, but realized anything that came to his mind was a smart answer and in this risky situation, possibly dangerous. Tony was clearly affecting him.
"You of all people should know that size... is nothing to judge on." The monster in the room spoke, clearly to the blond, and it sent the most unpleasant shudder down Bruce's spine. It was almost too cultured, too perfect, too sure of itself. Wrong, as wrong as that noseless face. There was a weird slowness to how the monster spoke, almost like he expected everyone to hang onto his every word.
Cult. Master of the cult.
Let them talk. He was trying to learn as fast as possible about what the hell was going on here. "...where am I? What do you want?" Get them to talk more. He'd long since learned that people in charge liked to hear themselves talk as much as possible.
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Date: 2016-10-26 01:46 am (UTC)A low, disturbing chuckle emanated from the deformed man's throat. He wrapped long, pale fingers around the carved lion head wood armrests of his throne before he stood. He was dressed in all black, like a priest's cassock, and he lifted one hand to smooth over the top of his ghastly head. "We want to secure you. You may yet have your uses. It isn't safe for the ignorant to be outside right now. You are safe here." He didn't sound gracious. He was not a host, but a keeper.
At the least all of the British accents around him could inform Bruce of a place he happened to be at: England. Where exactly was not something this man seemed willing to tell.
He gestured at the blond man to his right. "This is Lucius Malfoy. He is the owner of your prison and is a high ranking official with the Ministry of Magic." That seemed to make him laugh. "Or had been. I'm afraid that the Ministry no longer exists. And neither does your Parliament. Not your presidency. You have already met Bellatrix LaStrange and my dear Fenrir Greyback. They have other tasks now to complete. Other of your... Avengers...to round up. The important ones at least. The ones that might do damage. Perhaps you can help us track down the one named Thor?"
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Date: 2016-10-26 02:28 pm (UTC)Fennie. Fenrir. The snarling man who had the strength to haul him around and the other must have been that crazy woman who was still with Tony. Maybe he would be able to charm her, but Bruce knew it was far more likely Tony would get himself hurt if she was capable of throwing him around the room. None of them was right, and the more it continued, the more he felt like he was missing one very key component.
The important Avengers. Which ones did the monster discount? He would have said that all of the Avengers had their strengths and weaknesses, but the fact that Thor was the first one he brought up suggested the monster believed in raw power over anything else, as Tony had been discredited by that LaStrange woman (very strange indeed).
"...why would I help you do anything?" Bruce pointed out as much as questioned. It wasn't what he wanted to know as much as what had been done to him? Why couldn't he even so much as hear the Other Guy?
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Date: 2016-10-26 03:15 pm (UTC)“You will find that you do not have a choice,” the monster stated, unaware that he ought to clarify for Banner that he did indeed know what he was talking about as various countries use to have various governmental systems. Poor Bruce would find out much later that the entire world had, more or less by this point, fallen to the Death Eaters and to their leader. Their numbers were growing as the resistances they still held were ferreted and cut out, as people changed sides, and as humanity was decimated with one spell or another.
Tony Stark was useless in this new world where robotics no longer worked. Muggle technology was gone. It was magic from other worlds that interested Voldemort and his people. He craved their power, yes, but he also wished to expel it.
Magic existed underground all over the world, of course. They were already hunting down objects from Asgard. It would just be easier to have it’s prince at his beck and call.
“I control the beast within you. And your tongue too.” One wave of a wand, one utterance of the Imperius Curse, and Banner should tell them all they needed to know. “Now tell me about Thor.”
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Date: 2016-10-27 12:04 am (UTC)Bruce caught sight of that wand, bone white and that was in fact what he thought it was to begin with, bone, and heard those two words and the flash of light that followed. His mind would lock it away, but he didn't understand what it did. He felt something, ever so briefly, almost like a tingle down his nerves, and then there was that command. When he felt his mouth start to open against his will, his eyes went wide as could be and he tried, tried to fight it. For a few seconds, it almost seemed like he might be able to do it-
But the words came. Telling them about Thor against his own will. It was terrifying, in particular as someone who kept an array of secrets both his own and others, but it came.
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