Just your body

[sustain_life]

WHO: Iron Man and Ruka in Tony Stark's body
WHAT: Iron Man freaks out over body swapping and goes to Tony
WHERE: The Bins, Room 202
WHEN: Just after body swapping starts
WARNINGS: Iron Man and a Loli-Tony
SUMMARY: Iron Man freaks out a bit and then tries to make friends with the person inside Tony's body so he can make sure Tony's body stays safe

Comments

[gallitrap]

Ruka was not having a good day. At all. She didn't usually leave the Breitenbush house, and usually didn't talk to many people on the party line, but when Leonard had flashed a drawing of one of her best friends and started talking about her Team, well, she'd had to break both those habits to figure out why. Finding out that she was in a video game had not been something she would have expected for a Saturday.

Winding up as an adult man on the other side of the country with a million processes running in her head, thoughts racing faster than should be possible, was, without a doubt, one of the most blindsidingly awful ways to end the day.

And so Ruka-in Tony's too-large body-was huddled in as little space as possible in the corner of what was most likely Tony's bedroom at the Bins, doing her best to not have a mental break-down (though not entirely succeeding). So, it shouldn't be so surprising that when Iron Man called out for her, she either didn't hear him, or otherwise couldn't work up the nerve to answer, even when she was being approached by what looked to be a giant robot.

Tomorrow wasn't looking to be any better a day, either.

[sustain_life]

No response. Iron Man was unfamiliar with the alterations to Tony's mind that allowed him to process data as a machine would was different than a human mind. Perhaps that had complicated the transfer?

It tentatively tried to establish a connection and approached. Tony's body - Ruka, was curled up in a corner. It carefully got to its knees next to her.

Ruka, can you understand me? It transmitted, using the same kind of communication connection it had established with Tony while he was still in his body.

[gallitrap]

Yes, was the immediate answer. She was used to being able to communicate with her spirits without words, so the fact she could 'hear' the Iron Man was not nearly as overwhelming as it likely should have been, but it did not change the fact that this brain? Did not work like brains were supposed to work.

I don't understand what's going on.

[sustain_life]

Tony's brain is enhanced, it functions partly as a human brain, and partly as a computer does. Will you let me come in? I can help. At least, Iron Man hoped it could help. Even communicating with her felt different.

It was determined not to fail in what was potentially the only way it could help Tony during this situation. It needed to keep an eye on his body and the girl inside it.

[gallitrap]

Tony's head was wrapped tight in his arms in a way pretty uncharacteristic for Tony, but after a moment Ruka looked up from her prone position, meeting the Iron Man's eyes. There was fear in her eyes, and still some panic, but, at least, she was forcing herself to overcome it. It was worse than everything she had faced before, if only for the fact that even when she and the others fought the King of the Underworld and everyone else, they'd done it together. If only Rua were here, then it wouldn't be so bad.

"You can help?"

Even coming from Tony's mouth, the words sounded nothing like him: hesitant, fearful, lost, and a million other weaknesses the man, Ruka thought, probably never felt, let alone showed anyone.

[sustain_life]

Tony wasn't in there, every movement and expression was so different from the man Iron Man knew so well. Even though logically it knew that it wasn't Tony making that expression that look of fear bothered it, eliciting an emotional response and the need to do something. As much as it might sometimes try to act otherwise, and as much as it denied them in the past, it couldn't really escape its feelings for Tony.

Iron Man reached out to put a hand on Tony's shoulder. It knew that such an action would be poorly received by Tony, but it might be more comforting to the person currently inside his body.

"Yes, I was built by the man whose body you're inside. I will do whatever I can to help you until this situation can be fixed."

[gallitrap]

At least she wasn't crying, though. She might have been, in total isolation, but even thrown into situations unbelievable like this, she kept that held back. She didn't recoil from the comforting grip to her shoulder, as weird as it was to have a conversation like this with a machine. He looked like something out of Rua's deck, and hysterically she wondered what sort of household appliance he transformed into when he wasn't a robot.

"Do you think this can be fixed?" she asked, shaking her head. "Everyone was supposed to be working on sending us home. It's been a month, and nothing's changed. Will this be any different?"

[sustain_life]

Oddly, touching Tony made Iron Man feel a little better, for some irrational reason it could not pin down. Emotions made so little sense.

"I am sure this can be fixed. Moving people between bodies is much simpler than moving people through dimensions and time," It said. It wasn't sure if that was entirely completely, but the likelihood of solving both problems was improved by the presence of Dr. Reed Richards.

"I am capable of connecting with even an unmodified human, the technology to swap bodies should not be far beyond that."

[gallitrap]

The words weren't very comforting; the technology of her home, Neo Domino, far outpaced that of this world. Jeez, they still used paper billboards and hadn't even come close to Momentum energy. Taking someone from one time and dimension and dropping them somewhere else entirely, and striping someone from their own body and planting them in someone else's skin, they both seemed just as impossible as one another to Ruka. Assurances that the technology for one was easier than the other was no assurance at all.

"Can anyone do something like that, actually?" she asked, less panicked now, but nowhere near her usual mood.

[sustain_life]

"Yes." Iron Man said. Someone had to fix this, the thought of Tony being stuck in the body of a small female child was too disturbing for it to accept. They would fix this.

"This will be fixed." It said, perhaps as much for its own benefit as hers. It needed Tony, and he was in Seattle. Normally that would be a short flight but at the moment that flight was out of the question.