Avengers fic - Another Day Like Today - Chapter 2
Title: Another Day Like Today
Fandom(s): Avengers MCU, Doctor Who
Characters: Steve Rogers, Tony Stark, The Eleventh Doctor (more to come)
Pairings: None; Steve & Tony friendship (references to Steve/Peggy)
Rating: Teen
Warnings: Canon-appropriate violence in later chapters, very mild angst in later chapters
Spoilers: Any and all MCU movies through The Avengers (2012) are fair game, as is anything through Series 6 of NuWho (though there isn't much spoilery of the latter)
Disclaimer: I don't own the canon characters, no intellectual property violation is intended, etc.
Chapters: 2 of 9
Series: Part One of Only Time
Word Count: 1505
Summary: Tony is vexed by the sudden appearance of a time-traveler on his roof, and Steve gets the call to Assemble the team.
Beta: cygna_hime -- Thank you! <3
Chapter 1
When he'd first woken up to find himself in this strange future, Steve had been overwhelmed. He'd broken out of the almost-perfect replica of the 1940s that SHIELD had built for him and run, trying frantically to find a scrap of something that made sense in a world that was too fast, too loud, too big. Since then, he'd had other confusing and overwhelming confrontations with the world he now inhabited, but he'd adopted a new tactical approach to them: Wait and observe. Eventually, something would happen that would allow him to connect up what was happening to the things he already understood, and enable him to put the rest of the picture together.
So when the man in the bow tie and the British accent walked out of the London call-box on Stark's penthouse roof, Steve just stepped back and watched his teammate confront him.
"As a matter of fact, it's not Cardiff; it's my roof," Stark repeated. "Which, now that I mention it, how did you get up here?"
The odd stranger ignored the question, wandering to the edge of the roof and peering down at the city below. A broad smile crossed his face. "Are we in New York?" he asked Stark, looking at him over his shoulder.
Steve watched irritation war with confusion across Stark's features. There was no clear victor by the time Stark spoke again. "Yeah, this is New York City. Specifically, the roof of Stark Tower. My roof."
The stranger's smile grew even brighter. "Smashing! I love New York! I even prefer it to New New York; it has a certain quaint twenty-first century charm."
Steve blinked at the notion of the twenty-first century, with all its fast-paced futuristic trappings, as "quaint." Still waiting for things to start making sense, he told the universe. Any time would be good. Oddly, though, he wasn't experiencing the uneasy tension he usually felt when things took a turn for the strange. Steve had a well-developed danger sense when it came to other people. However bizarre and unpredictable the man in the bow tie was, Steve was confident that he was entirely without malice.
Unsurprisingly, Stark wasn't nearly so content to sit back and wait when the world around him needed a good dose of logic. "Okay, let's start again. What the hell are you doing on my roof?"
As though hearing the question for the first time, the stranger turned to face him. "You know, that is an excellent question. I can't imagine what could have pulled the TARDIS off course." He turned his head to regard the blue call-box, then snapped back toward Steve and Stark. "There hasn't been any sort of enormous discharge of energy around here, has there?" he asked, making an incomprehensible gesture with his hands. "Something that might have disrupted the fabric of time and space?"
There it was: the one detail that made the picture start to pull into focus. "The Tesseract!" Steve exclaimed.
"Yes, that would do it," the strange man agreed. "Any significant discharge from that would have eclipsed the energy output of the Rift, pulling the TARDIS here instead of to Cardiff." Then the man blinked, as if he'd only just heard everything that Steve had said. "The Tesseract? Little boxy thing, about so big? Generates more energy than every power station on this planet, combined?"
"You know about the Tesseract?" Stark demanded, stepping forward.
"Certainly, though I'm rather surprised that you do; it should never have been on this planet to begin with. What was it doing here?"
"Causing trouble," Steve put in.
The stranger smiled at him. "Well, yes, it would do, wouldn't it? Is it still here?" he asked, glancing around.
"It's gone," Stark told him, steel threading through his voice. From the tense lines of his body and the suspicion burning in his eyes, it was clear that Iron Man didn't share Steve's assessment of the stranger's motives. "But I'd still like to know who you are and how you got here."
"Right, of course." The stranger faced them, still smiling broadly. He offered a friendly wave. "Hello. I'm the Doctor."
He said it as though the word were explanation enough. For Stark, it clearly wasn't. "Okay, Doc, how did you get up here? After yesterday, this building has a bigger security detail than the White House; there's no way you slipped past them and my electronic security measures."
"You're quite right about that," the Doctor agreed cheerfully, crossing his arms and leaning back against the blue booth. "I didn't come through the building. I came in the TARDIS."
Stark stared at the Doctor for a moment. "You'd be surprised how unhelpful that explanation is."
The Doctor gestured with one hand in a vague shrug. "Unfortunately, the more detailed explanation might be a bit over your heads. The TARDIS is a stunningly complex device, well beyond your human technology, and requires a truly brilliant intellect to operate or understand."
"I'm a pretty smart guy," Stark deadpanned. "Try me."
The Doctor bristled. "Very well, then. TARDIS. Time And Relative Dimension In Space. A dimensionally transcendental biotechnological capsule capable of traversing the time vortex."
"It's a time machine?" Stark blurted.
That snapped Steve's wandering attention back to the conversation in front of him. While Stark battered the Doctor with questions about the many-worlds hypothesis and quantum realities and space-time geometries and wormholes other phrases that made no sense to Steve, the blue police call-box drew Steve's focus to it. A time machine. Possibilities swam before his mind's eye: Dr. Erskine. Bucky. Peggy...
He didn't have long to dwell on the image of dark eyes, full lips, and perfect brown curls that flashed through his mind, however; an insistent beeping noise at his hip yanked him out of his reverie. Someone was trying to contact him on his SHIELD-issue telephone.
People always expected him to be baffled by twenty-first century technology - and in fairness, a lot of it was rather overwhelming - but he didn't understand what was so surprising about his ability to operate a telephone. The basic function of a telephone was the same back in his day, and the ways they had changed actually made them easier to use, not harder. Touch-tone number buttons were a distinct improvement over the rotary dial, for one thing. Sure, the telephones were smaller and didn't need a cord, which was impressive and all, but "push the green button and talk" was an instruction a dancing monkey could follow. Well, except for the talking part, he amended.
He pushed the green button and brought the telephone to his ear, taking a few steps away from the spirited discussion between Stark and the alleged time-traveler. "Rogers here," he told the phone.
"Captain," Nick Fury's voice was hard and sharp over the telephone line. "Assemble your team. We've got a problem. Get to Penn Station, ASAP."
"On our way," Steve replied automatically, already moving toward Stark. "What's the problem?"
"Our intel is sketchy, but you'll know it when you see it. Get ready for a fight," Fury warned, and then the line disconnected.
Steve slipped the telephone back into his pocket. Stark was embroiled in some sort of argument with the Doctor, but from the tone, Steve could tell is wasn't the angry, distrustful, get-off-my-roof sort of argument he'd been expecting before. They were tossing around a lot of science words that Steve couldn't have defined for love or money. Stark seemed to be having fun, and Steve almost regretted the need to interrupt.
He clapped Stark lightly on the shoulder. "Time to suit up. We've got trouble."
Stark half-turned to face him, part of his attention clearly still on the other man. "No, no, no, Cap. Trouble was yesterday. Time travel is today."
For the first time since meeting the man, Steve found himself willing to believe that Tony Stark was actually significantly younger than himself. "Time travel can be for later. Right now, we have a job to do, Iron Man."
Using the name did the job. Stark squared his shoulders and nodded, before pulling out his own telephone and pressing a button. "JARVIS, are those new parts done yet? Good; prep the suit. I'll be right down." Then he turned and pointed at the blue time machine. "That thing better be here when I get back, Doc. I still want a look inside."
"I've got an even better idea," the Doctor replied. "Why don't I tag along with you lads?"
Steve shook his head. "It's going to be dangerous; we were told to expect a fight."
The Doctor waved off his concern. "Don't you worry about me! After eleven hundred years of time and space, I've learned a thing or two about looking after myself."
Steve chose to ignore that bit of information until he had the time to process it. "All right, but stay out of our way." He turned and headed for the door back inside and the elevator beyond, with the other two men following close behind.
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Fandom(s): Avengers MCU, Doctor Who
Characters: Steve Rogers, Tony Stark, The Eleventh Doctor (more to come)
Pairings: None; Steve & Tony friendship (references to Steve/Peggy)
Rating: Teen
Warnings: Canon-appropriate violence in later chapters, very mild angst in later chapters
Spoilers: Any and all MCU movies through The Avengers (2012) are fair game, as is anything through Series 6 of NuWho (though there isn't much spoilery of the latter)
Disclaimer: I don't own the canon characters, no intellectual property violation is intended, etc.
Chapters: 2 of 9
Series: Part One of Only Time
Word Count: 1505
Summary: Tony is vexed by the sudden appearance of a time-traveler on his roof, and Steve gets the call to Assemble the team.
Beta: cygna_hime -- Thank you! <3
Chapter 1
When he'd first woken up to find himself in this strange future, Steve had been overwhelmed. He'd broken out of the almost-perfect replica of the 1940s that SHIELD had built for him and run, trying frantically to find a scrap of something that made sense in a world that was too fast, too loud, too big. Since then, he'd had other confusing and overwhelming confrontations with the world he now inhabited, but he'd adopted a new tactical approach to them: Wait and observe. Eventually, something would happen that would allow him to connect up what was happening to the things he already understood, and enable him to put the rest of the picture together.
So when the man in the bow tie and the British accent walked out of the London call-box on Stark's penthouse roof, Steve just stepped back and watched his teammate confront him.
"As a matter of fact, it's not Cardiff; it's my roof," Stark repeated. "Which, now that I mention it, how did you get up here?"
The odd stranger ignored the question, wandering to the edge of the roof and peering down at the city below. A broad smile crossed his face. "Are we in New York?" he asked Stark, looking at him over his shoulder.
Steve watched irritation war with confusion across Stark's features. There was no clear victor by the time Stark spoke again. "Yeah, this is New York City. Specifically, the roof of Stark Tower. My roof."
The stranger's smile grew even brighter. "Smashing! I love New York! I even prefer it to New New York; it has a certain quaint twenty-first century charm."
Steve blinked at the notion of the twenty-first century, with all its fast-paced futuristic trappings, as "quaint." Still waiting for things to start making sense, he told the universe. Any time would be good. Oddly, though, he wasn't experiencing the uneasy tension he usually felt when things took a turn for the strange. Steve had a well-developed danger sense when it came to other people. However bizarre and unpredictable the man in the bow tie was, Steve was confident that he was entirely without malice.
Unsurprisingly, Stark wasn't nearly so content to sit back and wait when the world around him needed a good dose of logic. "Okay, let's start again. What the hell are you doing on my roof?"
As though hearing the question for the first time, the stranger turned to face him. "You know, that is an excellent question. I can't imagine what could have pulled the TARDIS off course." He turned his head to regard the blue call-box, then snapped back toward Steve and Stark. "There hasn't been any sort of enormous discharge of energy around here, has there?" he asked, making an incomprehensible gesture with his hands. "Something that might have disrupted the fabric of time and space?"
There it was: the one detail that made the picture start to pull into focus. "The Tesseract!" Steve exclaimed.
"Yes, that would do it," the strange man agreed. "Any significant discharge from that would have eclipsed the energy output of the Rift, pulling the TARDIS here instead of to Cardiff." Then the man blinked, as if he'd only just heard everything that Steve had said. "The Tesseract? Little boxy thing, about so big? Generates more energy than every power station on this planet, combined?"
"You know about the Tesseract?" Stark demanded, stepping forward.
"Certainly, though I'm rather surprised that you do; it should never have been on this planet to begin with. What was it doing here?"
"Causing trouble," Steve put in.
The stranger smiled at him. "Well, yes, it would do, wouldn't it? Is it still here?" he asked, glancing around.
"It's gone," Stark told him, steel threading through his voice. From the tense lines of his body and the suspicion burning in his eyes, it was clear that Iron Man didn't share Steve's assessment of the stranger's motives. "But I'd still like to know who you are and how you got here."
"Right, of course." The stranger faced them, still smiling broadly. He offered a friendly wave. "Hello. I'm the Doctor."
He said it as though the word were explanation enough. For Stark, it clearly wasn't. "Okay, Doc, how did you get up here? After yesterday, this building has a bigger security detail than the White House; there's no way you slipped past them and my electronic security measures."
"You're quite right about that," the Doctor agreed cheerfully, crossing his arms and leaning back against the blue booth. "I didn't come through the building. I came in the TARDIS."
Stark stared at the Doctor for a moment. "You'd be surprised how unhelpful that explanation is."
The Doctor gestured with one hand in a vague shrug. "Unfortunately, the more detailed explanation might be a bit over your heads. The TARDIS is a stunningly complex device, well beyond your human technology, and requires a truly brilliant intellect to operate or understand."
"I'm a pretty smart guy," Stark deadpanned. "Try me."
The Doctor bristled. "Very well, then. TARDIS. Time And Relative Dimension In Space. A dimensionally transcendental biotechnological capsule capable of traversing the time vortex."
"It's a time machine?" Stark blurted.
That snapped Steve's wandering attention back to the conversation in front of him. While Stark battered the Doctor with questions about the many-worlds hypothesis and quantum realities and space-time geometries and wormholes other phrases that made no sense to Steve, the blue police call-box drew Steve's focus to it. A time machine. Possibilities swam before his mind's eye: Dr. Erskine. Bucky. Peggy...
He didn't have long to dwell on the image of dark eyes, full lips, and perfect brown curls that flashed through his mind, however; an insistent beeping noise at his hip yanked him out of his reverie. Someone was trying to contact him on his SHIELD-issue telephone.
People always expected him to be baffled by twenty-first century technology - and in fairness, a lot of it was rather overwhelming - but he didn't understand what was so surprising about his ability to operate a telephone. The basic function of a telephone was the same back in his day, and the ways they had changed actually made them easier to use, not harder. Touch-tone number buttons were a distinct improvement over the rotary dial, for one thing. Sure, the telephones were smaller and didn't need a cord, which was impressive and all, but "push the green button and talk" was an instruction a dancing monkey could follow. Well, except for the talking part, he amended.
He pushed the green button and brought the telephone to his ear, taking a few steps away from the spirited discussion between Stark and the alleged time-traveler. "Rogers here," he told the phone.
"Captain," Nick Fury's voice was hard and sharp over the telephone line. "Assemble your team. We've got a problem. Get to Penn Station, ASAP."
"On our way," Steve replied automatically, already moving toward Stark. "What's the problem?"
"Our intel is sketchy, but you'll know it when you see it. Get ready for a fight," Fury warned, and then the line disconnected.
Steve slipped the telephone back into his pocket. Stark was embroiled in some sort of argument with the Doctor, but from the tone, Steve could tell is wasn't the angry, distrustful, get-off-my-roof sort of argument he'd been expecting before. They were tossing around a lot of science words that Steve couldn't have defined for love or money. Stark seemed to be having fun, and Steve almost regretted the need to interrupt.
He clapped Stark lightly on the shoulder. "Time to suit up. We've got trouble."
Stark half-turned to face him, part of his attention clearly still on the other man. "No, no, no, Cap. Trouble was yesterday. Time travel is today."
For the first time since meeting the man, Steve found himself willing to believe that Tony Stark was actually significantly younger than himself. "Time travel can be for later. Right now, we have a job to do, Iron Man."
Using the name did the job. Stark squared his shoulders and nodded, before pulling out his own telephone and pressing a button. "JARVIS, are those new parts done yet? Good; prep the suit. I'll be right down." Then he turned and pointed at the blue time machine. "That thing better be here when I get back, Doc. I still want a look inside."
"I've got an even better idea," the Doctor replied. "Why don't I tag along with you lads?"
Steve shook his head. "It's going to be dangerous; we were told to expect a fight."
The Doctor waved off his concern. "Don't you worry about me! After eleven hundred years of time and space, I've learned a thing or two about looking after myself."
Steve chose to ignore that bit of information until he had the time to process it. "All right, but stay out of our way." He turned and headed for the door back inside and the elevator beyond, with the other two men following close behind.
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8