Tony's grip on Gene's hand tightens as the needle slides under his skin - and then slowly starts to loosen again as the venom takes effect. It's like going under anesthesia, except slower, and Tony finds the sensation quite interesting and unsettling, for the brief period that he's lucid enough to appreciate it.
Then his eyes drift closed, and all his muscles go slack, and he's asleep.
Or, more accurately, he's... elsewhere.
---
The Makluan ship explodes, and Tony blacks out for a few seconds. When he comes to, he's lying in a crater in the street. Oh, good. Not dead.
A crowd is gathering around him, and he groans and heaves himself up off the ground. He's still woozy: everything seems foggy and distant, almost dreamlike. Which isn't terribly surprising, given that he just got exploded. He tries to ignore the feeling, because he still has work to do as Iron Man, and he can't let some minor head trauma slow him down. He feels like he's forgetting something, something about the explosion...? No, he's just imagining things. Must be the head trauma.
"Everyone can relax," he assures the crowd. "The alien menace has ended."
Surprised murmurs of "Tony Stark?" run through the crowd, and suddenly they're cheering him, not Iron Man but Tony, and Tony reaches up to touch his face and realizes that his helmet is gone.
"Oh, man." Shit. Oh, crap. So much for his secret identity.
"Well, the more, the merrier," Pepper says as she and Rhodey land - thank god, they're both okay - and before Tony can stop them, they've opened their own helmets to stand unmasked beside him.
Then Roberta and Mr. Potts are there, followed almost immediately by his dad and Fury and the rest of Team A: Black Widow, Hawkeye, and T'Challa. Everyone is safe. Everyone made it out okay.
Accolades start going around - most of them for Tony - and everyone is smiling and cheering and bursting with joyful relief. They saved the world. Not in secret, not in disguise: not anymore. Tony Stark and Patricia Potts and James Rhodes saved the world, and now everyone knows it. It's the most amazing feeling that Tony's ever experienced.
Everyone is telling him what a hero he is, thanking him for everything he's done, and Tony is giddy with the tidal wave of praise. Soon enough there are reporters, and he says a few things (he doesn't even remember what, but he's sure they were brilliant and inspiring) before Roberta and Howard and Fury get them corralled. As the adults take control of the media situation, Tony and Rhodey and Pepper take the opportunity to take to the skies again. Tony wants to do a flyover of the city, to make sure there aren't any wayward Makluan scout ships still terrorizing the streets.
Tony's high on the thrill of victory, and as they soar over the skyscrapers of New York, he feels, for the first time in a long time, like everything is going to be all right.
Then the clean-up begins.
The euphoria doesn't last long, once they get back on the ground and the scope of the destruction starts to become clear. The accolades keep coming, and Tony takes them with grace, but it leaves a bitter taste in his mouth. There's not much glory or satisfaction in pulling mangled corpses out from under spaceship wreckage.
People want to interview him and get him medical attention and take him to see military and government officials, but Tony doesn't have time for any of that - not when there are still people who need help.
It's thirty hours before Tony feels like the disaster relief is organized enough for him to be able to take a break. He'd probably have kept going anyway, if it weren't for his dad threatening to, quote, 'get a presidential order' to make him go home and rest.
All the emotions he'd felt over the last two days, both good and bad, are gone by the time he shucks his armor. He's too exhausted to feel anything at all. He brain is already shutting down as he stumbles towards his bed, and as soon as his head hits the pillow, he's asleep.
---
And then he's awake.
Tony jerks, and his eyes snap open. The disorientation is intense, but brief, and the vivid immediacy of his life back home fades as his awareness returns fully to Keeliai.
The first thing he notices is that he's lying next to Gene - not on separate beds, like before, but in the same bed, tucked under the same blanket. What...?
He blinks to focus his vision and looks around the room for Milyn, but doesn't try to get up. With Gene still unconscious beside him, he's afraid to move. He doesn't know if disturbing him will disrupt the venom-induced trance and hurt Gene. And he doesn't want to hurt Gene.
He doesn't, right?
With Gene's betrayal so suddenly, painfully fresh in his mind again, he's not completely sure.
no subject
Then his eyes drift closed, and all his muscles go slack, and he's asleep.
Or, more accurately, he's... elsewhere.
---
The Makluan ship explodes, and Tony blacks out for a few seconds. When he comes to, he's lying in a crater in the street. Oh, good. Not dead.
A crowd is gathering around him, and he groans and heaves himself up off the ground. He's still woozy: everything seems foggy and distant, almost dreamlike. Which isn't terribly surprising, given that he just got exploded. He tries to ignore the feeling, because he still has work to do as Iron Man, and he can't let some minor head trauma slow him down. He feels like he's forgetting something, something about the explosion...? No, he's just imagining things. Must be the head trauma.
"Everyone can relax," he assures the crowd. "The alien menace has ended."
Surprised murmurs of "Tony Stark?" run through the crowd, and suddenly they're cheering him, not Iron Man but Tony, and Tony reaches up to touch his face and realizes that his helmet is gone.
"Oh, man." Shit. Oh, crap. So much for his secret identity.
"Well, the more, the merrier," Pepper says as she and Rhodey land - thank god, they're both okay - and before Tony can stop them, they've opened their own helmets to stand unmasked beside him.
Then Roberta and Mr. Potts are there, followed almost immediately by his dad and Fury and the rest of Team A: Black Widow, Hawkeye, and T'Challa. Everyone is safe. Everyone made it out okay.
Accolades start going around - most of them for Tony - and everyone is smiling and cheering and bursting with joyful relief. They saved the world. Not in secret, not in disguise: not anymore. Tony Stark and Patricia Potts and James Rhodes saved the world, and now everyone knows it. It's the most amazing feeling that Tony's ever experienced.
Everyone is telling him what a hero he is, thanking him for everything he's done, and Tony is giddy with the tidal wave of praise. Soon enough there are reporters, and he says a few things (he doesn't even remember what, but he's sure they were brilliant and inspiring) before Roberta and Howard and Fury get them corralled. As the adults take control of the media situation, Tony and Rhodey and Pepper take the opportunity to take to the skies again. Tony wants to do a flyover of the city, to make sure there aren't any wayward Makluan scout ships still terrorizing the streets.
Tony's high on the thrill of victory, and as they soar over the skyscrapers of New York, he feels, for the first time in a long time, like everything is going to be all right.
Then the clean-up begins.
The euphoria doesn't last long, once they get back on the ground and the scope of the destruction starts to become clear. The accolades keep coming, and Tony takes them with grace, but it leaves a bitter taste in his mouth. There's not much glory or satisfaction in pulling mangled corpses out from under spaceship wreckage.
People want to interview him and get him medical attention and take him to see military and government officials, but Tony doesn't have time for any of that - not when there are still people who need help.
It's thirty hours before Tony feels like the disaster relief is organized enough for him to be able to take a break. He'd probably have kept going anyway, if it weren't for his dad threatening to, quote, 'get a presidential order' to make him go home and rest.
All the emotions he'd felt over the last two days, both good and bad, are gone by the time he shucks his armor. He's too exhausted to feel anything at all. He brain is already shutting down as he stumbles towards his bed, and as soon as his head hits the pillow, he's asleep.
---
And then he's awake.
Tony jerks, and his eyes snap open. The disorientation is intense, but brief, and the vivid immediacy of his life back home fades as his awareness returns fully to Keeliai.
The first thing he notices is that he's lying next to Gene - not on separate beds, like before, but in the same bed, tucked under the same blanket. What...?
He blinks to focus his vision and looks around the room for Milyn, but doesn't try to get up. With Gene still unconscious beside him, he's afraid to move. He doesn't know if disturbing him will disrupt the venom-induced trance and hurt Gene. And he doesn't want to hurt Gene.
He doesn't, right?
With Gene's betrayal so suddenly, painfully fresh in his mind again, he's not completely sure.