Fic: Expo(sed) 1/?
Just before the old year ends and a new one starts... part one of a new fic! took me long enough. Somehow Real Life had the braincell go comatose...
So, without further ado! The story!
TITLE: Expo(sed), part 1
Kind of a crossover, faintly based on 'Thirteen'
SERIES: Imperfection Deviation
AUTHOR: Macx
RATING: PG-13
DISCLAIMER: None of the characters belong to me, sadly. They are owned by people with a lot more money :)
FEEDBACK: Loved
The whole series can be found here: http://home.arcor.de/macx/tfmovie/tfmoviemain.html
info on Warehouse 13 is here: http://www.syfy.com/warehouse13/about.php
Note: The Expo was taken from the second Iron Man movie. The Matrix Key is copyrighted to the second Transformers movie. Some elements appear in my story.
Note 2: this idea came to me after writing ‘Thirteen’ and thinking of the mechs as artifacts in the eyes of the Warehouse agents. Then the last sentence of the first scene of this story came to mind. Everything else wasn’t planned. Well, as you can see, it happened anyway.
The area was the size of several dozen football fields. It was huge; gigantic even. People could get lost without a map and spend their lifetime trying to find home. Futuristic buildings rose between pretzel and waffle stands, refreshment booths and ice cream parlors. There were stylish plants along the foot paths, intrinsic statues and future-tomorrow art that defied gravity. Lights dotted the paths, illuminating the snaking lengths that disappeared between the buildings.
Agent Pete Lattimer stood in the shadow of the Cars of the Future expo building, which housed several large US, Asian and European car companies. Car company logos lit up the roof.
A soft whistle had him turn to his companion. Claudia Donovan, her hair featuring teal blue stripes today, looked around wide-eyed.
“So cool!” she whispered. “So cool! I wanted to come here if I could get away from Artie for a day or two. This is THE event. The Stark Expo is the most prominent media hype. Do you know just what he has here?”
“No, but I guess I’ll know soon.”
The place to do the impossible. A place to unleash ideas, was the motto of the event. From the looks of it, it was dead on right for the Expo.
Claudia scowled, but her attention was immediately back on her mobile pad. Her flingers flew over the computer, which had been her creation. Lattimer had no idea what she had done to the original pad, but now it interfaced with Warehouse systems and it hacked into whatever Claudia wanted it to.
Except Stark’s systems, it seemed. She had had no luck getting into the systems, aside from the Expo ones. She had disabled certain routines, so they could slip in undetected.
The Expo was undergoing a last security check, which had the area locked down for twenty-four hours while security was run. No one who didn’t have to be here was around.
Okay, technically Pete and Claudia had no official clearance to be anywhere around here at any time, but this was Warehouse business, so the clearance was a given.
The pad emitted a soft beeping sound and Claudia whipped out a handheld device with moving antennae at the side. Pete had jokingly called it her ‘PKE meter’,
Her frown deepened.
“What?” he asked.
Claudia turned in a half circle and walked off to an open pavilion-like construct that was the size of a good-sized church. It was lit up in an electric blue, the dome roof was transparent with more dots of blue light, and there were dozens of screens everywhere that explained the development of eco-friendly engines.
“This can’t be right,” Claudia said.
“What?”
“You know how I made this so it picks up residual artifact energy?”
“Sure.”
Claudia sighed and gestured at the silver car that sat outside the pavilion.
“That’s an artifact?” Pete asked.
“According to this, yeah.”
It was an Audi R8 Spyder. A sleek convertible that cost more than Pete would ever be willing to spend on a car if he had to pay for it out of his own money. It was also a lot more than he earned for a living.
“We need a bigger bag,” he only remarked wryly.
* * *
The plans for this world-wide event had been in his drawer for ages. Tony Stark, CEO of Stark Industries, billionaire, certified genius and creator of the Iron Man armor, had wanted the Stark Expo to happen ever since finding the original plans from his father’s drawing board. Back then it hadn’t been humanly possible to make it happen. Times had been different. Smaller scale Expos had been the annual event, but Howard Stark had made it his goal to create a gathering place of a different kind. The Stark Expo had been held every ten years and Stark senior had leveled the playing field for inventors by building a city. An idealized city. A city of the future. Every ten years, five months were set aside for the minds of tomorrow, for the creative thinkers, for scientists, CEOs and world leaders to come together to pursue one goal: to advance mankind.
But it had never become what Howard Stark had wanted it to be, what had been in his drawers. It had never been so enormous.
Today, decades his death, it was different.
The area the Expo had been built on was owned by Stark Industries and would later, after the final day of public access, be converted to a technology park. Tony had plans for that already, too. For now, though, he was busy with checking last minute details, shaking hands of a hundred and one representatives, and schmoozing his way through parties. Not something he was bad at. Actually, he excelled at it. He was charming and suave and exuded money and sex and power. He had good-looking models hanging on his arms throughout each reception or party, but he didn’t take them home. There had been two quick occasions, but nothing that required him to show the arc reactor in his chest.
Actually, this was more about getting into Tony’s pants than ripping his shirt off. He was fine with that. It was an arrangement he could live with.
This Friday would be the opening of the Stark Expo and four days prior to that had been scheduled for the final security checks. Only trusted personnel was on site, though the numbers were small. The security was run almost on automatic, with a few live controllers present.
So Tony had used that set-up to invite over some friends who would normally not have the chance to move this freely among the exhibits. At least not in their natural forms. Jazz, Bumblebee and Rodimus Prime had immediately taken him up on the offer. Jazz was rather excited to see some of the pavilions and buildings. Sam had come along with Bumblebee, which had been no great surprise. Will Lennox had arrived without Ironhide, who was on a special mission with Optimus Prime to Washington. For Lennox it was a unique opportunity to be himself. He didn’t need to cover up his rune-riddled skin and Tony had smiled to himself when he had seen the man in a black t-shirt and without a jacket.
Their relationship had changed in the past years. It had turned into a friendship that, if asked about, Tony couldn’t really define or start to explain. Like Rhodey, Lennox was military and Tony understood military, having worked with them for all his life. He understood their thinking and their goals and, while he didn’t live it himself, he understood the life-style. But Will Lennox had ceased being military a very long time ago, even if the bearing was hard to get out of the man, and he had turned into something different.
It was the difference that had forged this friendship.
Tony had Extremis that set him apart from humanity and that had, as it turned out later, made him a Prime. Lennox was the embodiment of all things Cybertronian. He had absorbed the last Allspark shard - completely by accident and rather violently. He was by now far less human than anything Tony had ever done to himself, and with it changed his own body, and despite the powers accompanying that change, he had suffered from being set apart.
Things had gotten weird and also very interesting a few months ago. The Expo had been primary on Tony’s mind and he had appreciated Will’s input on security matters - making him his consultant - but they had also found time to hang around the basement lab and go over different schematics and test new additions to Tony’s Iron Man armor.
It was when Stark had tried out a few gimmicks that he had discovered something new. Something really, absolutely impossible new.
“Will?”
“Hm?”
“Do you feel something?”
That had gotten Lennox’s full attention. “Feel what?”
“Scanning?” Tony elaborated carefully.
“No… Why?”
“Because I’m scanning you right now and fuck, it’s surreal!”
It had been. Still was. Looking at Will Lennox, human hybrid, Avatar Prime, had been like glimpsing what surrealist H.R.Giger would make of the whole Cybertronian-human hybrid thing. It hadn’t been repulsing, just… not normal. No one had been able to scan Will since the accident and no one knew what he looked like inside. His skin or the runes or whatever else was reflecting scans back at the one doing the scanning - and never in a good way. Those backlashes hurt.
This moment had launched a flurry of experiments and weeks of dogged work on Will’s part, together with Tony when he could cut the chain Pepper had on him. He argued it was for a good cause - and no, he couldn’t tell her - and she pointed out that playing with toys in his basement wasn’t a good cause.
In the end they had a lot of data that was on Jarvis’ server and heavily protected, and not really a lot of answers. Will still didn’t want any of the mechs to know about this new development since he was showing signs of further changes. So far Tony could scan him, look right into his hybrid body with any and all means available. X-ray, ultra sound, CAT… you name it, Tony’s Extremis-enhanced sight had it. He had to interface with the Iron Man armor to reach his full potential, though.
Nothing Will did changed the facts. They had tried fully human looking, altered skin, Protoform, even while pulling energy to defend himself. That particular test had shown Tony more than anything how powerful the other man was. The scan had been blinding, all readings off the chart, and for a second there had been nothing human to see.
Scary. Fascinating.
And no one but Tony was apparently able to see this. Jarvis was blind to Will in that regard, even after Tony had patched him into the suit’s systems and gave him access to the data. Apparently it was the uniqueness of Extremis plus Tony plus the armor, all channeled through Tony’s brain, that gave him this ability.
Rodimus Prime had been the first to get wind of the new developments. Mostly because it was hard for Stark to keep a secret from his guardian/baby-sitter/best non-human friend for long. Knowing Tony gave Rodimus an advantage he used when he had to.
“Keep it to yourself for now,” Tony told him, voice dead serious. “Don’t tell Optimus. Will wants to work out the kinks first.”
Blue optics regarded him dubiously. “This is something he should know, Tony.”
“I know, I know. But not right away, ‘kay? It’s Will’s body, Will’s life and ultimately Will’s decision. I respect that.”
It got him a half-smile. He grumbled a little to himself, but Tony was secretly glad that Rodimus agreed to keep it their secret for now.
It would come out.
Sooner or later.
Especially when Ironhide would be back from Australia - where he had left for after Washington, to accompany Optimus Prime. Something about the Australian base and security and safety matters. Whatever.
For now the Expo was a kind of distraction, giving Will something else to look after. And he was doing a really good job, working almost seamlessly with the security detail present. Tonight, though, he was off-duty, like everyone else. This was their time to enjoy what would soon be open to the public, roam and look at the different buildings with their different themes.
Sitting on the low-rise building of the Green Lands eco structure, made of recycled wood and ecologically sound products, Stark let his eyes roam over the lit-up Expo. It filled him with pride to see the dream of his father come true. He had finally accomplished it.
“This is a really great place,” Lennox said as he sat down next to him, the light from the many lamps making the slowly moving runes visible.
“Yeah,” Tony said softly. “It is.”
“Thanks for the invite. From all of us. I think Jazz is almost glitching over the whole Planet Earth exhibit. You’ll have to pry him off that with a crow bar.”
Stark laughed softly. “I figured. Sam and Bumblebee are exploring everything all over. I think Roddy is making rounds. And you hang out on a roof with me?”
“Nah. I’ve been over in the Aviation section and got my fill for now.”
Tony reached over into a fancy looking ice box and took out two tubs of ice cream. He held one out to Will, who took it with a grin. Spoons followed.
Halfway through the chunky chocolate delight Tony suddenly stiffened and looked over the area to one of the spectacular buildings, this a free standing dome-like structure close to the unisphere, which was the center of the Expo grounds.
“Tony?” Will asked neutrally.
“Guests,” the other replied.
Lennox put down the ice cream. “Unexpected or uninvited?”
Tony rose. “Both. Roddy’s close to them and keeping an optic on their movements. Wanna come?”
Lennox grinned. “Sure.”
tbc... next year ;)
So, without further ado! The story!
TITLE: Expo(sed), part 1
Kind of a crossover, faintly based on 'Thirteen'
SERIES: Imperfection Deviation
AUTHOR: Macx
RATING: PG-13
DISCLAIMER: None of the characters belong to me, sadly. They are owned by people with a lot more money :)
FEEDBACK: Loved
The whole series can be found here: http://home.arcor.de/macx/tfmovie/tfmoviemain.html
info on Warehouse 13 is here: http://www.syfy.com/warehouse13/about.php
Note: The Expo was taken from the second Iron Man movie. The Matrix Key is copyrighted to the second Transformers movie. Some elements appear in my story.
Note 2: this idea came to me after writing ‘Thirteen’ and thinking of the mechs as artifacts in the eyes of the Warehouse agents. Then the last sentence of the first scene of this story came to mind. Everything else wasn’t planned. Well, as you can see, it happened anyway.
The area was the size of several dozen football fields. It was huge; gigantic even. People could get lost without a map and spend their lifetime trying to find home. Futuristic buildings rose between pretzel and waffle stands, refreshment booths and ice cream parlors. There were stylish plants along the foot paths, intrinsic statues and future-tomorrow art that defied gravity. Lights dotted the paths, illuminating the snaking lengths that disappeared between the buildings.
Agent Pete Lattimer stood in the shadow of the Cars of the Future expo building, which housed several large US, Asian and European car companies. Car company logos lit up the roof.
A soft whistle had him turn to his companion. Claudia Donovan, her hair featuring teal blue stripes today, looked around wide-eyed.
“So cool!” she whispered. “So cool! I wanted to come here if I could get away from Artie for a day or two. This is THE event. The Stark Expo is the most prominent media hype. Do you know just what he has here?”
“No, but I guess I’ll know soon.”
The place to do the impossible. A place to unleash ideas, was the motto of the event. From the looks of it, it was dead on right for the Expo.
Claudia scowled, but her attention was immediately back on her mobile pad. Her flingers flew over the computer, which had been her creation. Lattimer had no idea what she had done to the original pad, but now it interfaced with Warehouse systems and it hacked into whatever Claudia wanted it to.
Except Stark’s systems, it seemed. She had had no luck getting into the systems, aside from the Expo ones. She had disabled certain routines, so they could slip in undetected.
The Expo was undergoing a last security check, which had the area locked down for twenty-four hours while security was run. No one who didn’t have to be here was around.
Okay, technically Pete and Claudia had no official clearance to be anywhere around here at any time, but this was Warehouse business, so the clearance was a given.
The pad emitted a soft beeping sound and Claudia whipped out a handheld device with moving antennae at the side. Pete had jokingly called it her ‘PKE meter’,
Her frown deepened.
“What?” he asked.
Claudia turned in a half circle and walked off to an open pavilion-like construct that was the size of a good-sized church. It was lit up in an electric blue, the dome roof was transparent with more dots of blue light, and there were dozens of screens everywhere that explained the development of eco-friendly engines.
“This can’t be right,” Claudia said.
“What?”
“You know how I made this so it picks up residual artifact energy?”
“Sure.”
Claudia sighed and gestured at the silver car that sat outside the pavilion.
“That’s an artifact?” Pete asked.
“According to this, yeah.”
It was an Audi R8 Spyder. A sleek convertible that cost more than Pete would ever be willing to spend on a car if he had to pay for it out of his own money. It was also a lot more than he earned for a living.
“We need a bigger bag,” he only remarked wryly.
* * *
The plans for this world-wide event had been in his drawer for ages. Tony Stark, CEO of Stark Industries, billionaire, certified genius and creator of the Iron Man armor, had wanted the Stark Expo to happen ever since finding the original plans from his father’s drawing board. Back then it hadn’t been humanly possible to make it happen. Times had been different. Smaller scale Expos had been the annual event, but Howard Stark had made it his goal to create a gathering place of a different kind. The Stark Expo had been held every ten years and Stark senior had leveled the playing field for inventors by building a city. An idealized city. A city of the future. Every ten years, five months were set aside for the minds of tomorrow, for the creative thinkers, for scientists, CEOs and world leaders to come together to pursue one goal: to advance mankind.
But it had never become what Howard Stark had wanted it to be, what had been in his drawers. It had never been so enormous.
Today, decades his death, it was different.
The area the Expo had been built on was owned by Stark Industries and would later, after the final day of public access, be converted to a technology park. Tony had plans for that already, too. For now, though, he was busy with checking last minute details, shaking hands of a hundred and one representatives, and schmoozing his way through parties. Not something he was bad at. Actually, he excelled at it. He was charming and suave and exuded money and sex and power. He had good-looking models hanging on his arms throughout each reception or party, but he didn’t take them home. There had been two quick occasions, but nothing that required him to show the arc reactor in his chest.
Actually, this was more about getting into Tony’s pants than ripping his shirt off. He was fine with that. It was an arrangement he could live with.
This Friday would be the opening of the Stark Expo and four days prior to that had been scheduled for the final security checks. Only trusted personnel was on site, though the numbers were small. The security was run almost on automatic, with a few live controllers present.
So Tony had used that set-up to invite over some friends who would normally not have the chance to move this freely among the exhibits. At least not in their natural forms. Jazz, Bumblebee and Rodimus Prime had immediately taken him up on the offer. Jazz was rather excited to see some of the pavilions and buildings. Sam had come along with Bumblebee, which had been no great surprise. Will Lennox had arrived without Ironhide, who was on a special mission with Optimus Prime to Washington. For Lennox it was a unique opportunity to be himself. He didn’t need to cover up his rune-riddled skin and Tony had smiled to himself when he had seen the man in a black t-shirt and without a jacket.
Their relationship had changed in the past years. It had turned into a friendship that, if asked about, Tony couldn’t really define or start to explain. Like Rhodey, Lennox was military and Tony understood military, having worked with them for all his life. He understood their thinking and their goals and, while he didn’t live it himself, he understood the life-style. But Will Lennox had ceased being military a very long time ago, even if the bearing was hard to get out of the man, and he had turned into something different.
It was the difference that had forged this friendship.
Tony had Extremis that set him apart from humanity and that had, as it turned out later, made him a Prime. Lennox was the embodiment of all things Cybertronian. He had absorbed the last Allspark shard - completely by accident and rather violently. He was by now far less human than anything Tony had ever done to himself, and with it changed his own body, and despite the powers accompanying that change, he had suffered from being set apart.
Things had gotten weird and also very interesting a few months ago. The Expo had been primary on Tony’s mind and he had appreciated Will’s input on security matters - making him his consultant - but they had also found time to hang around the basement lab and go over different schematics and test new additions to Tony’s Iron Man armor.
It was when Stark had tried out a few gimmicks that he had discovered something new. Something really, absolutely impossible new.
“Will?”
“Hm?”
“Do you feel something?”
That had gotten Lennox’s full attention. “Feel what?”
“Scanning?” Tony elaborated carefully.
“No… Why?”
“Because I’m scanning you right now and fuck, it’s surreal!”
It had been. Still was. Looking at Will Lennox, human hybrid, Avatar Prime, had been like glimpsing what surrealist H.R.Giger would make of the whole Cybertronian-human hybrid thing. It hadn’t been repulsing, just… not normal. No one had been able to scan Will since the accident and no one knew what he looked like inside. His skin or the runes or whatever else was reflecting scans back at the one doing the scanning - and never in a good way. Those backlashes hurt.
This moment had launched a flurry of experiments and weeks of dogged work on Will’s part, together with Tony when he could cut the chain Pepper had on him. He argued it was for a good cause - and no, he couldn’t tell her - and she pointed out that playing with toys in his basement wasn’t a good cause.
In the end they had a lot of data that was on Jarvis’ server and heavily protected, and not really a lot of answers. Will still didn’t want any of the mechs to know about this new development since he was showing signs of further changes. So far Tony could scan him, look right into his hybrid body with any and all means available. X-ray, ultra sound, CAT… you name it, Tony’s Extremis-enhanced sight had it. He had to interface with the Iron Man armor to reach his full potential, though.
Nothing Will did changed the facts. They had tried fully human looking, altered skin, Protoform, even while pulling energy to defend himself. That particular test had shown Tony more than anything how powerful the other man was. The scan had been blinding, all readings off the chart, and for a second there had been nothing human to see.
Scary. Fascinating.
And no one but Tony was apparently able to see this. Jarvis was blind to Will in that regard, even after Tony had patched him into the suit’s systems and gave him access to the data. Apparently it was the uniqueness of Extremis plus Tony plus the armor, all channeled through Tony’s brain, that gave him this ability.
Rodimus Prime had been the first to get wind of the new developments. Mostly because it was hard for Stark to keep a secret from his guardian/baby-sitter/best non-human friend for long. Knowing Tony gave Rodimus an advantage he used when he had to.
“Keep it to yourself for now,” Tony told him, voice dead serious. “Don’t tell Optimus. Will wants to work out the kinks first.”
Blue optics regarded him dubiously. “This is something he should know, Tony.”
“I know, I know. But not right away, ‘kay? It’s Will’s body, Will’s life and ultimately Will’s decision. I respect that.”
It got him a half-smile. He grumbled a little to himself, but Tony was secretly glad that Rodimus agreed to keep it their secret for now.
It would come out.
Sooner or later.
Especially when Ironhide would be back from Australia - where he had left for after Washington, to accompany Optimus Prime. Something about the Australian base and security and safety matters. Whatever.
For now the Expo was a kind of distraction, giving Will something else to look after. And he was doing a really good job, working almost seamlessly with the security detail present. Tonight, though, he was off-duty, like everyone else. This was their time to enjoy what would soon be open to the public, roam and look at the different buildings with their different themes.
Sitting on the low-rise building of the Green Lands eco structure, made of recycled wood and ecologically sound products, Stark let his eyes roam over the lit-up Expo. It filled him with pride to see the dream of his father come true. He had finally accomplished it.
“This is a really great place,” Lennox said as he sat down next to him, the light from the many lamps making the slowly moving runes visible.
“Yeah,” Tony said softly. “It is.”
“Thanks for the invite. From all of us. I think Jazz is almost glitching over the whole Planet Earth exhibit. You’ll have to pry him off that with a crow bar.”
Stark laughed softly. “I figured. Sam and Bumblebee are exploring everything all over. I think Roddy is making rounds. And you hang out on a roof with me?”
“Nah. I’ve been over in the Aviation section and got my fill for now.”
Tony reached over into a fancy looking ice box and took out two tubs of ice cream. He held one out to Will, who took it with a grin. Spoons followed.
Halfway through the chunky chocolate delight Tony suddenly stiffened and looked over the area to one of the spectacular buildings, this a free standing dome-like structure close to the unisphere, which was the center of the Expo grounds.
“Tony?” Will asked neutrally.
“Guests,” the other replied.
Lennox put down the ice cream. “Unexpected or uninvited?”
Tony rose. “Both. Roddy’s close to them and keeping an optic on their movements. Wanna come?”
Lennox grinned. “Sure.”
tbc... next year ;)