Aug 12, 2022 - Flowers of Life: Verbena (FR-13)
Aug 12, 2022 - Flowers of Life: Verbena (FR-13)
Author: mmooch
**Part of 2022 FaD challenge** Chapter Summary: Aftermath of the bomb.
Crossover: She-Hulk; Avengers
Rating: FR-13
Word count: 689
Warning: deaths of unknown people due to aftermath of a bomb going off.
Challenge: for the livejournal 2022 August Fic-a-Day Challenge
Timeline: first Avengers movie timeline for MCU and post-series for BtVS.
A/N: Verbena means "pray for me". I am not a physicist and let’s pretend that all the crap I spew is comic book science, okay?
Disclaimer: BtVS/AtS characters belong to Joss Whedon/Mutant Enemy. MCU characters belong to Marvel, Disney et al. I claim no rights to any copyrighted material. Please do not copy or take this story without my permission.
Sky over NYC
All the military and first responder channels along the east coast of North America suddenly squawked with the message, “This is Tony Stark; what looks to be a 50-kiloton nuclear warhead has been fired at New York City. I am attempting to steer it high enough into space to avoid loss of life, but there will likely be at least an EM pulse and some loss of satellites in the immediate vicinity of the detonation. Iron Man out.”
Less than a minute later, there was an orange aurora above them as the radiation hit the upper atmosphere and cell towers went down across the region. Thankfully, the major power plants had been hardened against EMP blasts, so there was little disruption there, which saved countless lives. However, dozens of planes ran into massive turbulence, and a few weren’t able to recover in time. The death toll from those crashes alone reached into the thousands.
Thor, who saw Tony fly away from the battle, followed after the aliens dropped. He felt like there was another enemy to defeat which only the Man of Iron knew about, and he couldn’t allow his new shield-brother fight alone. He didn’t understand what Tony was doing exactly, but it was clear the item he was taking into space was a weapon of some kind, so he went as close to the outer atmosphere as was safe.
After the weapon exploded, Thor looked for his comrade to be flying back to Midgard but didn’t see him. Considering his options, the god of thunder decided to use the power of Mjolnir to exit the gravitational pull of the planet to search for him. It took almost fifteen minutes to find the armor floating among the debris of destroyed satellites.
He quickly grabbed the suit and flew back to where the rest of the team was. Hopefully, they would know how to save the man.
When Jennifer Walters saw Thor carrying Stark, she demanded, “We need to get him to the nearest hospital. I think it’s Metro-General, several blocks northwest.” She started running towards the hospital to lead Thor there. Running, leaping, whatever. They got there in record time.
While there were a lot of people injured, every doctor, nurse, EMT in the building was working triage and Tony was seen within minutes of their arrival. Dr. Strange was disconcerted by the reactor in his patient’s chest, but still did his best to get his heart beating again. Anyone who knew Strange knew that his best was pretty damn good, which was why he was allowed to be so arrogant.
Unfortunately, Tony still had to be put on a ventilator and was sent to one of the remaining beds in ICU. At least until his own people could remove him and set him up at a private location later that day.
Washington, DC
Because of the battle and bomb blast, Pepper’s plane had to divert back to Ronald Regan Airport. By the time they landed, Pepper saw she had a missed call from Tony and a voicemail. With shaking hands, she tapped the buttons to listen to it, “Hey, Pep. As much as I’d prefer being with you right now - even if it was at a board meeting - I have something else I have to do. I’m sorry if I don’t make it. You are the reason I get up in the morning and reason I’m willing to try to go to bed at night. It might be cowardly of me to say this in a message, but I love you, Virginia Potts. I truly-” the message cut off and she started crying.
When she learned about the nuke, she vowed to find out who authorized it and make their life a living hell. It didn’t matter that Tony survived thanks to Thor. He was in a coma and could have (should have) died when the bomb exploded. Thousands of others weren’t as lucky, and she wouldn’t let this get swept under the rug.
But first she had to get back to New York and take Tony home where he could be protected.
A/N: Sorry, several things distracted me tonight. Anne Heche’s death, personal real life stuff (like people coming into my room every fifteen minutes to talk to me about stuff that could wait until tomorrow. I swear, next time I’m locking the door!) squirrels… Meant to get more written, but only managed this. I might come back and edit this to make it better.
Author: mmooch
**Part of 2022 FaD challenge** Chapter Summary: Aftermath of the bomb.
Crossover: She-Hulk; Avengers
Rating: FR-13
Word count: 689
Warning: deaths of unknown people due to aftermath of a bomb going off.
Challenge: for the livejournal 2022 August Fic-a-Day Challenge
Timeline: first Avengers movie timeline for MCU and post-series for BtVS.
A/N: Verbena means "pray for me". I am not a physicist and let’s pretend that all the crap I spew is comic book science, okay?
Disclaimer: BtVS/AtS characters belong to Joss Whedon/Mutant Enemy. MCU characters belong to Marvel, Disney et al. I claim no rights to any copyrighted material. Please do not copy or take this story without my permission.
Sky over NYC
All the military and first responder channels along the east coast of North America suddenly squawked with the message, “This is Tony Stark; what looks to be a 50-kiloton nuclear warhead has been fired at New York City. I am attempting to steer it high enough into space to avoid loss of life, but there will likely be at least an EM pulse and some loss of satellites in the immediate vicinity of the detonation. Iron Man out.”
Less than a minute later, there was an orange aurora above them as the radiation hit the upper atmosphere and cell towers went down across the region. Thankfully, the major power plants had been hardened against EMP blasts, so there was little disruption there, which saved countless lives. However, dozens of planes ran into massive turbulence, and a few weren’t able to recover in time. The death toll from those crashes alone reached into the thousands.
Thor, who saw Tony fly away from the battle, followed after the aliens dropped. He felt like there was another enemy to defeat which only the Man of Iron knew about, and he couldn’t allow his new shield-brother fight alone. He didn’t understand what Tony was doing exactly, but it was clear the item he was taking into space was a weapon of some kind, so he went as close to the outer atmosphere as was safe.
After the weapon exploded, Thor looked for his comrade to be flying back to Midgard but didn’t see him. Considering his options, the god of thunder decided to use the power of Mjolnir to exit the gravitational pull of the planet to search for him. It took almost fifteen minutes to find the armor floating among the debris of destroyed satellites.
He quickly grabbed the suit and flew back to where the rest of the team was. Hopefully, they would know how to save the man.
When Jennifer Walters saw Thor carrying Stark, she demanded, “We need to get him to the nearest hospital. I think it’s Metro-General, several blocks northwest.” She started running towards the hospital to lead Thor there. Running, leaping, whatever. They got there in record time.
While there were a lot of people injured, every doctor, nurse, EMT in the building was working triage and Tony was seen within minutes of their arrival. Dr. Strange was disconcerted by the reactor in his patient’s chest, but still did his best to get his heart beating again. Anyone who knew Strange knew that his best was pretty damn good, which was why he was allowed to be so arrogant.
Unfortunately, Tony still had to be put on a ventilator and was sent to one of the remaining beds in ICU. At least until his own people could remove him and set him up at a private location later that day.
Washington, DC
Because of the battle and bomb blast, Pepper’s plane had to divert back to Ronald Regan Airport. By the time they landed, Pepper saw she had a missed call from Tony and a voicemail. With shaking hands, she tapped the buttons to listen to it, “Hey, Pep. As much as I’d prefer being with you right now - even if it was at a board meeting - I have something else I have to do. I’m sorry if I don’t make it. You are the reason I get up in the morning and reason I’m willing to try to go to bed at night. It might be cowardly of me to say this in a message, but I love you, Virginia Potts. I truly-” the message cut off and she started crying.
When she learned about the nuke, she vowed to find out who authorized it and make their life a living hell. It didn’t matter that Tony survived thanks to Thor. He was in a coma and could have (should have) died when the bomb exploded. Thousands of others weren’t as lucky, and she wouldn’t let this get swept under the rug.
But first she had to get back to New York and take Tony home where he could be protected.
A/N: Sorry, several things distracted me tonight. Anne Heche’s death, personal real life stuff (like people coming into my room every fifteen minutes to talk to me about stuff that could wait until tomorrow. I swear, next time I’m locking the door!) squirrels… Meant to get more written, but only managed this. I might come back and edit this to make it better.