Aug 18, 2022 - Chicken Little (FR-13)
Aug 18, 2022 - Chicken Little (FR-13)
Author: mmooch
Summary: Buffy tells Tony she believes him when everyone else is calling him “chicken little”.
Crossover: MCU, Avengers
Rating: FR-13
Word count: 1230
Challenge: for the livejournal 2022 August Fic-a-Day Challenge
Timeline: post BtVS but NO COMICS! Post AU Avengers
A/N: So many plot tribbles running around in my mind!
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.
Stark Tower
“Sir, there is a young lady requesting an appointment to discuss the next alien apocalypse,” Jarvis informed his beleaguered creator. Ever since he went through the portal and saw the alien armada, he knew stopping this invasion wasn’t the end of their troubles. Only problem was, nobody would believe him.
Fear-monger, delusional, attention-whore…the nicer terms he had ascribed to him when he told others what he saw. SHIELD and the Avengers assumed it was some sort of PTSD-related issue. The military - possibly still pissed about the weapons shutdown - thought he was pulling a ‘typical Tony Stark’ diva move. Something about wanting to seize the rightful attention from the pair who actually stopped the invasion: Black Widow, who shut down the portal, and Captain America, who gave the order.
It didn’t stop somebody from leaking video of him trying to convince them to the press, who instantly leapt on the idea that he was mentally unstable and trying to incite panic. Never mind that he never mentioned this to civilians, only to the people he thought would be of use when the next invasion came.
Now he was dealing with nut cases on both sides; those that thought he was dangerous, and those who were creating bunkers in the middle of nowhere and learning to drink their own urine…just in case. “The end is nigh!”
“How unhinged is this one?” Tony asked tiredly.
“She isn’t foaming at the mouth, Sir. Her name is Buffy Summers and was one of the last to escape the Sunnydale collapse of 2003.”
“So a survivalist nut,” Tony concluded.
“Only if Dolce makes survival gear,” Pepper interjected, startling her friend and former lover. “We’re different sizes, but her outfit could have come out of my closet.”
Hearing approval and something else in his CEO’s voice, he asked, “You think I should talk to her?”
“I think…” she hesitated, knowing how hurt he was by the rejection of people who quote matter unquote. “It might be okay. If you’d like, I’ll bring her down to a public conference room and sit in on the conversation.”
“Sure, why not? It’s been a couple days since somebody’s sneered at me,” he replied half-heartedly.
Conference Room
“Dr. Stark, thank you for agreeing to meet me,” Buffy said with a smile and a nod. To his shock, she made no attempt to shake his hand or get into his personal space. Her friendly demeanor indicated it wasn’t due to dislike though.
His confusion must have shown on his face, and she quickly guessed the issue. “I’ve seen enough post-Afghanistan videos of you meeting new people and the slight flinch you give when a new person gets too close. I’d rather not make you uncomfortable…and I just realized that being so blunt about this might do that, so I apologize. Can we pretend I was more diplomatic?” she pleaded.
“If that’s the worst thing you say, we’ll be fine,” Tony assured her, liking her despite his better judgement.
Buffy nodded again and jumped right in, “I know you are an extremely busy man, and woman,” she added with a glance at Pepper, “so I’ll skip the attempt at small talk. My colleagues and I want to offer our alliance when the next invasion happens. It’s a little out of our normal area of expertise, but bad guys are bad guys, whether they’re human or something else.”
“Something else?” Tony asked warily, wondering if this is where the conversation was going to head into Crazytown.
As if she could read his mind, Buffy smiled wryly. “You know the else from above; I’m referring to a different kind of else. Keep in mind that I can prove my claims before you call security,” she quickly added before they could react. “There is a special unit within the government that works in the same arena and are allies for us now.”
Pepper caught the last bit and wondered aloud, “Now? Meaning you weren’t at one time?”
“They’re previous management and I had a difference of opinion. She thought I was better dead than alive, and I disagreed. Plus, I thought she was insane, but only after she died, and I learned about all the experiments she was doing. Let’s just say she’d make General Ross look reasonable by comparison.”
“I think I’d prefer to see your proof before I accept your offer of an alliance,” Tony said, pondering who could possibly make Thunderbolt Ross a better option to deal with.
“The only thing I want from you right now is that you don’t share this with SHIELD. If they don’t already know about us, I’d rather not put my people on their radar,” Buffy replied, pulling a flash drive out of her purse and sliding it to Pepper. “That’ll have the commander’s name for the government group on it. She knows I’m approaching you on this and is expecting your call. If you require live proof, I can swing it, but just keep in mind that there is some risk involved to anyone that is with us. You’ll understand when you see the videos.”
“You’re being very cryptic, Miss Summers,” Tony pointed out, not bothering to tell her that SHIELD and him were not really on speaking terms after the way they blew him off and made him look like a psycho to the public.
She rolled her eyes and said, “I know, and it’s pissing me off. I hate it when people are cryptic with me, but in this case, seeing really is believing and I’d rather not end up in a white, padded room hugging myself. So I’d prefer to be out of the Tower before you look at that, or at least in the lobby.”
Tony smirked. “That almost makes me want to look at it right away, but I’d prefer to do this on a protected computer, just in case you’ve added a nasty surprise on the drive.
“All I ask is that you remember two things; you just fought against and with aliens alongside one man who was defrosted after spending 60+ years in ice and another who can grow beyond what physics say he should able to. Just keep an open mind to certain possibilities, please.”
Several hours later…
It surprised Buffy when Stark called her back the same day - if you count 2 am the same day, which since she hadn’t been to bed yet, she did.
“Not saying I believe you, but I’d like to go out on one of your ‘patrols’,” he told her. “Colonel Rhodes will join us as my backup.”
“That’s fine. Do you want to do it right away or schedule something?” she offered.
“The sooner, the better, before I realize how crazy this is,” he snarked.
Buffy laughed, “It’s been over a decade for me, and it’s still crazy to me sometimes. Can you get to Plattsburg, Virginia before sunrise? I’ll take you for a tour of the newest Hellmouth.”
“We’ll be there in two hours.”
“Meet me at the Grandview Cemetery on the south side of town; we’ll start there,” Buffy said, still surprised that he wasn’t immediately calling the cops for an order of protection against the crazy woman talking about demons and vampires. He must be really desperate for someone to take his claims seriously.
That was never a good thing when it came to world save-age.
A/N: I don’t know why the world assumed there wouldn’t be another attack, but I have to think it was mostly due to SHIELD convincing people Tony was delusional or something.
Author: mmooch
Summary: Buffy tells Tony she believes him when everyone else is calling him “chicken little”.
Crossover: MCU, Avengers
Rating: FR-13
Word count: 1230
Challenge: for the livejournal 2022 August Fic-a-Day Challenge
Timeline: post BtVS but NO COMICS! Post AU Avengers
A/N: So many plot tribbles running around in my mind!
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.
Stark Tower
“Sir, there is a young lady requesting an appointment to discuss the next alien apocalypse,” Jarvis informed his beleaguered creator. Ever since he went through the portal and saw the alien armada, he knew stopping this invasion wasn’t the end of their troubles. Only problem was, nobody would believe him.
Fear-monger, delusional, attention-whore…the nicer terms he had ascribed to him when he told others what he saw. SHIELD and the Avengers assumed it was some sort of PTSD-related issue. The military - possibly still pissed about the weapons shutdown - thought he was pulling a ‘typical Tony Stark’ diva move. Something about wanting to seize the rightful attention from the pair who actually stopped the invasion: Black Widow, who shut down the portal, and Captain America, who gave the order.
It didn’t stop somebody from leaking video of him trying to convince them to the press, who instantly leapt on the idea that he was mentally unstable and trying to incite panic. Never mind that he never mentioned this to civilians, only to the people he thought would be of use when the next invasion came.
Now he was dealing with nut cases on both sides; those that thought he was dangerous, and those who were creating bunkers in the middle of nowhere and learning to drink their own urine…just in case. “The end is nigh!”
“How unhinged is this one?” Tony asked tiredly.
“She isn’t foaming at the mouth, Sir. Her name is Buffy Summers and was one of the last to escape the Sunnydale collapse of 2003.”
“So a survivalist nut,” Tony concluded.
“Only if Dolce makes survival gear,” Pepper interjected, startling her friend and former lover. “We’re different sizes, but her outfit could have come out of my closet.”
Hearing approval and something else in his CEO’s voice, he asked, “You think I should talk to her?”
“I think…” she hesitated, knowing how hurt he was by the rejection of people who quote matter unquote. “It might be okay. If you’d like, I’ll bring her down to a public conference room and sit in on the conversation.”
“Sure, why not? It’s been a couple days since somebody’s sneered at me,” he replied half-heartedly.
Conference Room
“Dr. Stark, thank you for agreeing to meet me,” Buffy said with a smile and a nod. To his shock, she made no attempt to shake his hand or get into his personal space. Her friendly demeanor indicated it wasn’t due to dislike though.
His confusion must have shown on his face, and she quickly guessed the issue. “I’ve seen enough post-Afghanistan videos of you meeting new people and the slight flinch you give when a new person gets too close. I’d rather not make you uncomfortable…and I just realized that being so blunt about this might do that, so I apologize. Can we pretend I was more diplomatic?” she pleaded.
“If that’s the worst thing you say, we’ll be fine,” Tony assured her, liking her despite his better judgement.
Buffy nodded again and jumped right in, “I know you are an extremely busy man, and woman,” she added with a glance at Pepper, “so I’ll skip the attempt at small talk. My colleagues and I want to offer our alliance when the next invasion happens. It’s a little out of our normal area of expertise, but bad guys are bad guys, whether they’re human or something else.”
“Something else?” Tony asked warily, wondering if this is where the conversation was going to head into Crazytown.
As if she could read his mind, Buffy smiled wryly. “You know the else from above; I’m referring to a different kind of else. Keep in mind that I can prove my claims before you call security,” she quickly added before they could react. “There is a special unit within the government that works in the same arena and are allies for us now.”
Pepper caught the last bit and wondered aloud, “Now? Meaning you weren’t at one time?”
“They’re previous management and I had a difference of opinion. She thought I was better dead than alive, and I disagreed. Plus, I thought she was insane, but only after she died, and I learned about all the experiments she was doing. Let’s just say she’d make General Ross look reasonable by comparison.”
“I think I’d prefer to see your proof before I accept your offer of an alliance,” Tony said, pondering who could possibly make Thunderbolt Ross a better option to deal with.
“The only thing I want from you right now is that you don’t share this with SHIELD. If they don’t already know about us, I’d rather not put my people on their radar,” Buffy replied, pulling a flash drive out of her purse and sliding it to Pepper. “That’ll have the commander’s name for the government group on it. She knows I’m approaching you on this and is expecting your call. If you require live proof, I can swing it, but just keep in mind that there is some risk involved to anyone that is with us. You’ll understand when you see the videos.”
“You’re being very cryptic, Miss Summers,” Tony pointed out, not bothering to tell her that SHIELD and him were not really on speaking terms after the way they blew him off and made him look like a psycho to the public.
She rolled her eyes and said, “I know, and it’s pissing me off. I hate it when people are cryptic with me, but in this case, seeing really is believing and I’d rather not end up in a white, padded room hugging myself. So I’d prefer to be out of the Tower before you look at that, or at least in the lobby.”
Tony smirked. “That almost makes me want to look at it right away, but I’d prefer to do this on a protected computer, just in case you’ve added a nasty surprise on the drive.
“All I ask is that you remember two things; you just fought against and with aliens alongside one man who was defrosted after spending 60+ years in ice and another who can grow beyond what physics say he should able to. Just keep an open mind to certain possibilities, please.”
Several hours later…
It surprised Buffy when Stark called her back the same day - if you count 2 am the same day, which since she hadn’t been to bed yet, she did.
“Not saying I believe you, but I’d like to go out on one of your ‘patrols’,” he told her. “Colonel Rhodes will join us as my backup.”
“That’s fine. Do you want to do it right away or schedule something?” she offered.
“The sooner, the better, before I realize how crazy this is,” he snarked.
Buffy laughed, “It’s been over a decade for me, and it’s still crazy to me sometimes. Can you get to Plattsburg, Virginia before sunrise? I’ll take you for a tour of the newest Hellmouth.”
“We’ll be there in two hours.”
“Meet me at the Grandview Cemetery on the south side of town; we’ll start there,” Buffy said, still surprised that he wasn’t immediately calling the cops for an order of protection against the crazy woman talking about demons and vampires. He must be really desperate for someone to take his claims seriously.
That was never a good thing when it came to world save-age.
A/N: I don’t know why the world assumed there wouldn’t be another attack, but I have to think it was mostly due to SHIELD convincing people Tony was delusional or something.