tushanshu_logs | Talk about a crash landing [Closed to Gene and Tony at first, open later at request]

Entry tags:

Talk about a crash landing [Closed to Gene and Tony at first, open later at request]

Characters: Pepper Potts, Gene Khan, Tony Stark
Date: May 14
Location: Metal Sector, possibly the Midnight Hotel and/or the Welcome Center
Situation: Pepper gets pulled to onto Tu Vishan, and someone she's familiar with happens to find her
Warnings/Ratings: N/A

This isn't the first time Pepper has experienced the teleportation of the Mandarin, but it definitely feels like it. Normally she ended up on her feet, or at the very least in the same position as before being beamed out in a giant bubble of light. It always made it hard to see properly afterward, like a huge camera flash going off, and she had to wonder how the Mandarin avoided developing photophobia. Maybe that was why Gene always wore sunglasses, even indoors? she thinks idly.

Her head is spinning - she can tell even though her eyes aren't open, and all the bumps and bruises from the fight with the Makluans are already starting to hurt. Slowly, Pepper peels her eyes open. Her armor's display is still on, which is good, but it seems to be very dark outside for some reason. Oh - she's lying facedown, which is weird, because she was definitely standing up a moment ago. Groaning, Pepper rolls over and sits up on her elbows. She's lying in the entrance of an alley between two tall buildings; her view of the city beyond is...confusing.

Did Gene give Times Square a makeover after destroying it? Makeovers were her territory, how dare he! Either that or he took her to a completely different city, which was almost as offensive.

"Owww." Pepper's head is displeased that she's sitting up fully to look out of the alley. She's glad she's still got her suit on - wherever she is, Pepper does not want anyone to know who she is. She needs to get home, like, right now - Manhattan is still in danger, and even worse, Tony is still in danger. Right now, though, she's just going to lean up against this nice wall here until she trusts herself to stand.

"God, Gene, the least you could have done was drop me off in one of the boroughs!" she complains loudly. "Computer, location."

"Unknown," the interface replies inside her helmet. "Power levels at critical."

"What? Check again."

"Error. Unable to comply."

Pepper is starting to get a little worried now. What's going on?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

That is absolutely, 100%, exactly the reason that Gene wears sunglasses all the time. Definitely.

All talk of sunglasses aside, Gene is minding his own business when he hears a very familiar strident voice complaining. Complaining, quite specifically, about him.

Oh, no.

He turns down the alley, wary of approaching, but makes sure to keep his hands open and visible, and braces himself for a repulsor to something painful.

"Pepper?"

Pepper is busy having a minor conniption inside her suit - she doesn't know where she is or what happened, and the headache pounding behind her eyes isn't helping. She doesn't notice when Gene approaches, even though he's pinging her radar.

"Waah!" Pepper yelps, startled by his voice and flailing a little. "Who are you? How do you - Gene?"

She retracts her faceplate and looks at him, her expression full of confusion - and anger.

"Gene! Why aren't we in New York? Where did you take Rhodey? Take me back right now, Tony is still on that ship! Take me back! Or I'll..fight you! Or something." She blinks at him for a moment. "When did you have time to change clothes?"

Gene blinks. He'd quite forgotten - or at least, gotten used to not dealing with - Pepper's rapid-fire interrogation style. "Um."

Eloquent.

Give him a second to parse all that before he attempts to respond.

"Okay, this is going to sound all kinds of wacky, but...you're not exactly on Earth anymore, and I can't send us back. And Tony isn't on the ship. Or - maybe he still is, back home, for you, I guess." He remembers how Tony had been from a point further in Gene's future than he'd yet experienced when he arrived. "But he's here, too. In Keeliai."

He braces up for a million more questions, and wishes someone else had been the one to find Pepper, if only to spare him the headache he knows will soon develop.

Gene's explanation does nothing to ease Pepper's internal turmoil. In fact, it only makes it worse. He's just saying words, and none of the words are lining up into a clear picture of reality. Is this what everyone else feels like when they talk to her?

"That's not wacky, Gene, that's insane. You're the one who teleported me here, so take me back," she snaps, pointing an accusing finger at him. Pepper starts to stand up so she can yell at him directly in the face, but she's lightheaded and only gets to her knees. "Tony is on the ship, you were just there with him!" She heaves herself up onto her feet, leaning heavily against the wall. "If this is some crazy plan B for world take over, it is not funny, Gene! Super mega uncool! 'Keeliai'-," Pepper says, making air quotes, "-sure, yeah, whatever. Where are we, really? Tell me the truth!"

Her head throbs, and she closes her eyes, muttering, "Why does my head feel like it's been deep fried.."

"Okay, just--" He takes a breath. "Tony's there. But he's here, too. Just like you're both getting teleported off the ship, and here, talking to me. Just like I'm teleporting you off the ship with Rhodes, and I'm also here, talking to you."

Is he gonna? Oh, he's gonna.

"You really want to know where we are? We're in a city on the back of a giant turtle, on another planet, in another dimension, and we're stuck here."

Pepper glares at Gene with as much intensity as she can manage.

"I don't believe you. I don't even want to believe you, and I've totally been rooting for you to stop being all Darth Vader 'come to the dark side'."

She crosses her arms, trying to look intimidating, which is a little hard when she has to keep to the wall to prevent falling over. Gene had a habit of lying to them, sure, but something about what he was saying seemed almost too improbable to even be a lie. Gene's lies were scheming and planned out for the long-term; he didn't do the crazy make-up-a-lie-on-the-spot dance. That was totally Pepper's area of expertise, and if he was trying to one-up her on this particular skill, he wasn't doing it very well. Giant turtles and other planets? Really, Gene? She has a sure-fire way of figuring it out whether he's lying, just insane, or actually - somehow - telling the truth.

"Prove it, then," she challenges. "If Tony's really here, let me see him." Her tone suggests strongly that this is Not a Request.

Edited 2015-05-16 00:50 (UTC)

He takes a deep breath. "Okay," he says, and slowly - slowly! - reaches for the radio clipped to his belt. Pepper's always been a bit twitchy, and he doesn't particularly want to end up repulsored for his pains.

Still looking at Pepper, he activates his radio and punches in Tony's code (he's memorized it by now).

"Tony?" he says, keeping his tone light. "You'll never guess who I just found."

That's an odd greeting, Gene. Tony picks up his radio to answer. "What, another version of me?" he guesses, mostly joking. Then, hopefully, "It's not Dad again, is it?"

Pepper watches Gene carefully as he pulls out...a radio?

"What, no cell phone service?" she asks sarcastically. Then: "Wait, seriously, is there no cell service... wherever we are?" Apparently she's temporarily forgotten her upset at Gene in the face of this technological horror.

She's shaken from her reverie when she hears a voice she knows all too well.

"Tony?" she says quietly, fear now replacing her anger. Gene couldn't possibly be telling the truth - this has to be some sort of trick.

Edited 2015-05-16 21:13 (UTC)

"No, it's Pepper," he says into the radio, and looks up at her. "Here," he says, and hands her the radio. "It's him. For real."

He has better things to do than lie to Pepper. And he hopes she'll understand that sooner rather than later.

"What?! It's—" Gene passes the radio. "Pepper? Is that really you? I can't believe it!" This is almost as good as his dad being back! Or, it's just as good, in a different way. Whatever. Point is: THIS IS GREAT.

"Ask Gene where you— no, wait, you're in the armor, I've got your location ping. I'll be right there! Don't move! And, uh... whatever Gene told you, it's all true. So don't punch him or arrest him before I get there."

When Gene hands her the radio, Pepper slowly unfolds her arms and holds it as if it's made of glass. She stares at it, eyes wide and mouth partly open.

That's definitely Tony's voice coming out of the radio, and he sounds thrilled to know that she's here (wherever that is) - and a small part of her is thrilled that he's thrilled.

"Y-Yeah, Tony, it's me," she says a little shakily.

What Tony says unsettles her even more. Tony hates Gene, and yet they seem to be on friendly terms. Tony is telling Pepper not to hit Gene? Maybe they really are in a different dimension. Not only that, he's saying Gene isn't lying, which either means Gene has Tony under mind control again, or she actually is on the back of a giant space turtle, on a different planet, in another dimension...and they can't go home.

"I'm not going anywhere," Pepper replies weakly, and slides back down the wall to sit again.

Gene lets out a breath he hadn't known he'd been holding. Pepper believing him had been a big jump of hope to make, but he's glad that she has a tendency to leap before she looks, sometimes. Because sometimes, it truly serves him. (No - he can't think like that anymore. That's the problem with Old Home Week, it has the tendency to dredge up old bad habits.)

He probably looks a little older, to Pepper's eye; a little taller, a little more mature, less angry, more thoughtful. And he's been through a lot.

Tony arrives barely a minute later - by chance, he'd been nearby, and he'd sprinted at top speed to get here.

"Pepper!" He dashes past Gene and practically dives for Pepper, wrapping her in a fierce hug. And an awkward one, too, since she is both sitting and armored, but one must make do.

"It's so great to see you! It's so great that you're here! Did you just get here? What has Gene told you so far?"

Don't be so sure, Gene. Pepper hasn't quite reached 'believing' yet. She probably won't hit you though. Probably.

In the time it takes for Tony to arrive, Pepper gives Gene a once over. It's definitely Gene, but he's also definitely different than he was about ten minutes ago. For one thing, the perma-frown is gone.

"Tony! You're okay," Pepper says, returning the hug. "I- um. I guess I just got here, wherever that is. Which Gene says is apparently a giant turtle in another dimension and that there are two of you, and me, and Rhodey, and I'm wondering how hard he got hit in the head on the Makluan ship because he's sounding a little crazy." She gives a nervous giggle. "Please tell me this isn't really happening."

You get one free hit, Pepper. Spend it wisely.

Gene takes the opportunity to step back, and feels a not-too-unwarranted stab of jealousy and sadness. People keep showing up from home, and while he's happy to see Pepper - sort of, hes still working out how he feels about this - he's also sad. He doesn't have anyone who trusts him or likes him from home; they'd all greet him with suspicion, like Pepper and Howard, or outright hostility, like Tony had done.

Tony's family and friends are showing up now. And if they keep coming...soon he won't need Gene anymore. He'd known if it came to a choice between himself and Howard, Tony would choose Howard, every time. He's not going to kid himself that Tony wouldn't side with his real friends over Gene - love or no.

"You mean after the ship? Yeah, I'm okay. So is everyone else. When did you come from? I'm from a day after the invasion." Still grinning, Tony stands and pulls Pepper to her feet.

"I know it sounds crazy, but it's all true. Different dimension, giant turtle - but there's not two of us, exactly. Time is frozen back home, so it's more like we get pulled into another dimension temporarily and then returned to exactly when and where we left. Which is... almost weirder. But that's how it works."

Now that she's standing, he looks Pepper over and realizes she's looking a bit shell-shocked and unsteady on her feet. Understandably. "How are you feeling? There's a tea shop a couple blocks away. We can sit down and explain everything."

"The day after? Gene just teleported me out of the ship-," Pepper explains, brows furrowed, "-and I thought he took me here."

She looks over at Gene as Tony explains basically the same thing he did. She can probably get over the giant turtle thing, but Tony and Gene being this close to each other without ripping each others' heads off is quite possibly even more bizarre.

"My head hurts, and I'm wondering if I haven't just got a concussion and I'm hallucinating, buuuuuut..." Pepper manages a small smile at them both. "Tea sounds good. Um, I'm not really properly dressed, though," she says, gesturing to the armor.

"Tea will help," Gene says with authority. "And don't worry about how you're dressed. With Tony around, people are getting used to people in power armor."

He decides not to mention the other Tonys. Break it to her slowly.

"You can just leave it outside the tea shop," Tony says of the armor. "It's not like anyone will try to steal it." Well— some might consider it, but they wouldn't get far. Even if they managed to heave it into a cart and roll it away without the trio sitting right inside ever noticing, Tony could always commandeer it with Extremis. It would almost be funny to watch them try. "Sorry I never made a backpack version of the Rescue armor."

He'd been so focused on Pepper that he hadn't noticed Gene's withdrawal - and now that Gene has spoken again, Tony turns his brilliant smile on him, still oblivious. "Gene's right. This will all be a lot easier to take in if you've got something to drink. And... you probably will want to be sitting down." In a proper chair, not on the ground in some grubby alley.

"Um. Are we not keeping our identities secret here?" They had worked so hard to keep Tony's identity a secret, just walking out of the armor seems a little alien."Not that I mind, I love the armor and all, but it's not exactly an outfit you slip into to get more comfortable."

Pepper's voice is a little higher than normal, betraying her discomfort. She's trying really hard not to completely break down now that she's gone through the looking glass and out the other side.

"Oh, man, there's more you have to tell me?" Pepper moans, her face falling. "I'm gonna need a lot of tea."

Edited 2015-05-18 04:23 (UTC)

"Too much of a hassle," Gene tells her, "though mine's still somewhat on the down-low." His armor isn't, and hasn't been for a long time. What the armor means - his status as Mandarin - is still a closely-guarded secret. He's not even too sure why; it wouldn't mean anything to anyone here. Maybe he just needs to have some secrets kept to himself.

"If you're ready to go, I'll lead the way," Gene says. "I was just headed there myself when I found you."

"And I appeared in the suit, like you did," Tony adds, "only there were kedan around to see it. I never got the chance to keep it a secret."

He can tell Pepper's starting to freak out - or, uh, continuing to freak out? so he smiles encouragingly and slings his arm around her armored shoulders (easier than it would have been when he left home; as he had with his dad, he notices the difference that an extra inch or two makes).

"There's a few more things, yeah. But it's not too bad, I promise. It just takes a while to wrap your head around it all. Come on, let's go get that tea."

"Oh. Um. Okay? That definitely makes things easier." Also probably less awkward, because it's starting to occur to Pepper that she's the only one of the three currently wearing armor, and she kind of stands out. It's hard to be self-conscious in a suit of power armor, but if anyone can do it, Pepper Potts can.

When Tony wraps his arm around her, at first she doesn't notice anything different. His presence is a comfort, an anchor she can hold on to so she doesn't fly off into 'arrest all the things, fight all the evil' mode, and you know there's something seriously wacky going on when Tony Stark is the center of normalcy.

"I don't know how much more my head is up for," Pepper says miserably.

She let's Tony steer her along behind Gene towards the tea shop. Not too bad, Tony? Wait until she finds out about you and Gene.

When Tony slings his arm over Pepper's shoulders, Gene feels an unexpected stab of jealousy, of all things. He's no fool - at least, not about this - he knows Tony's his, but it stings all the same. Maybe because he's starting to realize more than before that once they go home, if they ever do, he has nobody.

"We'll go easy on you," Gene says lightly. "Next stop, tea shop."

He really doesn't want to think about how she'll react to the news about them. Not after Howard's...poor reaction.

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject