Chapter 2
"Nothing. No answer either from Stark Industry offices, industrial sites, the Stark towers or black boxes. Even the orbital assets are not answering the signal, Sir." F.R.I.D.A.Y answer was clear as the ambulance rumbled under them, running over a street that was kept in a truly abhorrent state. The holographic street lights were fancy, but apparently nobody could be bothered to fill in potholes. The back window he peered out of showed that much, in between the frequent jolts.
The painkillers were already losing their effect, so he felt every crack and pothole that the ambulance rolled over, despite the driver's frequent weaving around the worst spots. Medicine that seemed highly addictive and a short effect heavily incentivised repeat purchases, so to say. It was the sort of business tactics drug dealers and gangs resorted to.
It was charming to see that the medical corporation in this world was on a similar level.
And yes, he was in a different world. Or rather, the same world, in another dimension and potentially in the future. Actually, he was not quite certain about the last one.
Tony Stark was not a stupid man, far from it. People having no Idea who he was, no Stark Industries properties responding to F.R.I.D.A.Y. and loads of technology he had never seen before.
The possibility of an Alien world - space had a far higher human population than one would expect at once at first glance - was considered and quickly rejected. The star formations he could see through his helmets HUD... they were Earth's.
So, he was in another Dimension. This made his situation drastically more difficult than expected.
He had acknowledged the possibility when he was helping build the time machine in the first place, and Lang's ramblings had hinted this was something that could happen, but the math, the variables, they all checked out. Of course, that hadn't taken into account that the stones could do something totally random.
His eyes wandered to the two people in front of him, driving the car. He was fairly sure they were doing this mostly because they feared he was going to kill them and not because of any grand repayment that he had promised.
They may just drive to the police instead, though given that they had attempted to rob him firsthand, he'd guess they didn't want the attention of whatever law enforcement there was around here.
He didn't have access to his money - billions and billions in cash, ten times that in stocks and he was fairly sure he could make it to trillionaire if he actually ever sold his more exotic technology -, nor access to the security forces protecting his business, his personal laboratories and instruments or his friends.
He was an entire dimension if not universe away from Pepper and Morgan.
A headache began to fight itself to the forefront of his skull. It wasn't the worst situation he had been in yet, but on the scale of annoying wannabe competition hounding drones on him to being lost in the infinite expanse of space with neither food or water in a broken space ship right after most of his allies were butchered and he had failed to prevent a cosmic genocide, this was leaning more towards the later.
Rubbing his temple with his good hand, he looked outside the windows again, ignoring as much of his right arm's aches as possible. He picked up on the duo chatting up front, using a mix of recognizable english and a bunch of nonsensical slang. Although not all was gibberish.
"Cmon, take the exit. Its another twenty minutes but-"
"I know. This is the fastest route, and I'm not chancing street samurai catching us on the freeway." Gloria interrupted, from here he could see her sweeping her eyes around the street, like the grunts in Afghanistan all those years ago.
"No, instead we have gangs here to catch us. At least step on the gas." The guy threw his hands up, glancing at Tony over his shoulder.
The ambulance did drive a bit faster, though not fast enough to keep him from looking out the windows. This neighborhood looked shoddy, plenty of cracked or boarded up windows on the buildings, themselves sporting a wide variety of graffiti. Its inhabitants looked no better, the range of gear and stuff they had was impressive -did that guy by a burning trash can have a robotic third arm?- but their overall condition was not.
Seeing a group of thugs hanging around a dry fountain, tracking the ambulance driving past, Tony was sure this was the kind of place Stark Industries would target for urban renewal plans… and he would not feel comfortable bringing Pepper along in anything less than the MK. 45 and Happy in the same.
Right now, they weren't here, and neither was his equipment. Or anything else. There was him, F.R.I.D.A.Y. and what was left of the suit, and his wits. He crushed a pang from his heart, he needed treatment first. After that he could allow himself to feel homesick, and do whatever he had to in order to get home.
Even if that meant looking forward to the guy climbing into the back, at the second guy climbing in the back with him. He flinched when Tony turned, hesitating before taking a seat opposite of him.
He didn't need his hud to hear the gunshots occuring not too far away from here, nor to notice the fact that no one seemed to be bothered by them.
"You know, if this doctor you are bringing me too thinks about having a try at my other organs besides my arm, I'll be quite upset." It was only partially a quip. This did look like the sort of area that would have organ harvesting going on.
Gloria took her eyes off the road to peer into the rearview, he saw a raised brow. The guy across from him did a double take.
"Who wants a choom's meat? I know there are some weirdos who pay for that shit, but we usually don't deal with those types. The ripperdoc ain't exactly a nice guy, but he ain't no cannibal." He assured him. "Really. I know we tried cutting you up, but we were just after your chrome."
"Why's that? Don't tell me, lots of interested buyers." Tony rolled his eyes. This wasn't even the most aggressive attempt to steal his tech, or the most incompetent.
"I hope there are. That doesn't look like anything I've ever seen before." He frowned, peering at the metal armor that is covering his torso, his eyes flashing for a moment.
Hmmm…. now that was interesting.
"F.R.I.D.A.Y. scan those two please… for any irregularities." They were apparently not talking about wanting to steal his organs, then the cutting up part was obviously about something else. Mix that in with what seemed like clearly mechanical parts for the both of them and several other options arose.
"Hang on boss… done. You know my sensors are a wee bit damaged, but as far as I can tell this man has some subdermal wiring under his skin, a transmitter in his skull, and a complex interface system between his eyes and his frontal lobe. Only weapon I can find is that one on his belt. If he has other augmentations, they're either too deep for me to scan, or not there. The woman is the same way." F.R.I.D.A.Y. Hummed for a moment. "She's been sending a lot of outbound messages, haven't cracked the encryption yet but they don't look all that official."
Tony raised a brow. Some people had weird ideas, but he had to admit that adding glowing lines to their skin was a new one for him, when they glowed they almost seemed like sections of armor plating. He was no stranger to glowing parts on his body, but his old implant served a purpose. This just looked like a fashion statement.
He was not…. that surprised by it, to be honest. People were already giving themselves replacement arms in his world…. he should know.
He had been punched repeatedly by one. If the earth of this dimension was more advanced than his - in general, they seemed rather confused by his armor - than this kind of stuff was likely normal.
And if Tony were honest, he liked this over people copying his hairstyle.
While he himself was unlikely to do such a thing beyond what was necessary to keep him alive, he might get an idea or two for his world. Rhodey would've appreciated such things right away.
Shifting in his seat, he winced at his arm. He had no resources outside of those on his body and he had his doubts that health care here came free…. meaning he needed a way to somehow pay the person they were driving too.
And maybe it was just his biases but "ripperdoc" did not sound like the local doctor title.
Meaning he had, oh, maybe a couple minutes to somehow get enough money to pay for an amputation that'll hopefully not kill him.
"Say…. are there any gangs nearby? Thugs brutalizing people, selling drugs, human trafficking, that sorta thing?" He had once, long ago, begun his new career by "stealing" the property of terrorists and repurposing it for himself. Kinda poetic to do that again.
"Around here? The Maelstrom." The guy answered, huffing. "They're a bunch of tech obsessed weirdos, they have a damn near religious fascination with cyberware. I'm good with chroming up, but they take it to the next level."
"And they pay for it all by drug smuggling and illicit meds. Around half of the OD cases we respond to are from them. It's better than the hit jobs they do. They get…" Gloria shuddered. "Trust me señor. You don't wanna tangle with them."
"Ahu, I've dealt with worse." After months of smashing arms dealers with the Avengers, and cleaning up many of his own messes, not to mention the chaos during and especially after the battle of New York, he had a pretty high tolerance for nasty stuff.
While they scoffed Tony pinched his fingers, forming the nanites into a small chip, adding a small transmitter as a finishing touch. It was a little more complicated than the stuff he usually made, but after a couple diagnostic checks he was satisfied with the result. He had the vessel, now to fill it.
"F.R.I.D.A.Y. Copy yourself into this bit. We're gonna rob some criminals." Tony directed.
"On it boss. Creating a firewall in case the copy is corrupted. There's no guarantee that this is going to work, just so you know." F.R.I.D.A.Y. Reported while the progress bar filled. It only took a few seconds, finishing with a little ping.
"Step one, done. Step two, what can I hook you into…" Tony eyed the guy. "Where is the nearest internet link?"
Both the guy and Gloria shot him a weird look, the latter peering over her shoulder for a worryingly long moment.
"The more you talk, the more confused I am." Gloria put her eyes back on the road, shaking her head. "Do you mean the net? We can connect you over the van…." She sounded hesitant, likely concerned he was going to put a virus in or something.
Which, to be fair, he kind of was.
"No, more like… there." He crawled to her seat and pointed at a roughed up building, as he predicted -experts never just guessed- Gloria did a double take.
"That is a Maelstrom property. See the signs?" She pointed at the graffiti on the outside. "No way are we going in there."
"We don't need to. Isn't everything wireless or something?" Wired connections were already going the way of the dodo in his time, he saw no reason why the future should backtrack.
"Well, yes, but you would need to be a savant with the best hacks in the world to get it from…" Gloria trailed off as the ambulance stopped, gripping the wheel hard enough that her knuckles were white.
Tony gripped the chip. "F.R.I.D.A.Y.?"
"On it boss. Establishing a connection, processing the architecture… I'm in." The chip pinged, right as the light through the window flashed with an all too familiar thump. "Finding the financial sections. The protection here is lacking boss, it is unacceptably bad. I don't think you even need me for this."
"Since you're there, mind withdrawing some cash? Not that much, but keep it quiet." Tony leaned away from Gloria, covering his mouth and mouthing just loudly enough for the AI to hear. "Check the other data while you're at it, check their other records. How much of what these two said was true?"
The connection hummed for a moment, there was a worrying moment when a car drove past them.
"Boss… I'm looking at some recorded footage right now. People being cut up… experimented… its live if you want to go loud-"
"No." Tony exhaled. As much as he wanted to, all the justifications he could make, he had to take care of his immediate problems. "Just… drain some cash."
"…on it boss. Done. You now have five thousand euro-dollars and change." F.R.I.D.A.Y. Sounded as displeased as he felt.
"Good enough. On second thought, wreak some havoc on their systems." The connection died, allowing Tony to stand up straight and ripple his fingers. Above there was a faint shout, flashes of gunfire.
He closed his eyes for a couple moments. His arm came first. He was of little use if he was dead.
And his nanites could contain the radiation poisoned blood in his arm only so long.
"Can we go now? I don't want to overstay our welcome here." Gloria warned.
He just nodded.
They took off from there, avoiding any bystanders or watchful eyes. Just in time too, the ambulance sped away while a convoy of cars raced towards the building, looking like they meant business. Gloria didn't relax until they left the block, turning into another district… that looked just as shoddy and run down as the last place.
"How much further?" Tony looked around, seeing that it was fully night. The aches were catching up to him, he didn't have much time,
Right on cue the ambulance slowed, entering a dark garage where the vehicle shut down. "We're here."
The other guy got the door for him, allowing Tony to climb out with a hiss of pain. As for the space itself, it connected to… an operating room? In all its hobo quality glory, what with its filthy surfaces, tanks of parts and organs bubbling under glowing lights, racks of limbs, parts, and god knew what else dangling from the ceiling. There was no rust that he saw, the best he could say about its overall hygiene.
"Homey." Tony muttered.
"Hehe, don't you know it."
Whipping around to an operating chair, Tony did a double take at the sight of an armless man with a headset and wild hair, looking weathered as he grinned, sitting upright wearing just a pair of dirty pants. He chuckled as the racks slid along in a chattering clank, robotic manipulators attaching a pair of arms to his stumps.
"Gloria, who is this choom? He has chome I can scrap?" He talked with a heavy accent, sporting a grin Tony did not like.
"Not this time Doc. He needs a replacement arm." Gloria sent her partner a look that silenced him.
"Mm. Let me see." He weaved upright, half stumbling towards Tony to peer at his arm. "Ooh, yeah man. That arm is fooked."
"Yeah, I could've told you that. Can you help?" Tony was feeling a little less charitable than usual at the moment.
"Help? Oh yeah, I can help. I got a replacement arm round here somewhere. But I don't work for free. Payment, up front." The doc showed off his misshapen teeth.
"Fine." He pinged the chip, transferring most of the contents to an open port. "But if I die on the operating table I'm suing you out of your profession." Tony dropped himself onto a table, wiggling to as comfortable a spot as possible. "So you do know that dipping your tools in boiling water first works as a basic disinfectant-"
Clamps wrapped around his chest, locking him in place. He grunted in alarm, and even louder when the doc's arms split apart into a dizzying array of tools, all of which started whirring to life.
"Good news choom, you have enough eddies for preen service. Bad news, you don't have enough for painkillers. And more good news, the spots I'm operating on should be numb." He grinned with his cooked teeth.
"Now, let us begin."
Amputation without anesthesia was a lot less terrible than one would think, considering that his arm had been roasted through and through by gamma radiation. It was still terrible enough that he had almost passed out, but through force of will he stayed conscious, allowing him to see the fascinating process of getting a robotic limb attached to his shoulder.
Despite the overall skeeviness of the whole affair, it was over quickly and surprisingly cleanly. When he finally sat up he withheld a groan, flexing his new, shiny arm. It responded quickly, and he could even detect some touch sensation.
"Hehe, you're welcome." The doc slinked off with a laugh, going back to whatever he was doing.
Hopping off the operating chair, Tony steadied himself. Step one, done, now… he glanced up. Gloria was leaning on the wall, arms crossed and observing him moving around, testing the new arm.
"You know, half expected you to leave while the crazy guy get's his arm cut off." He eyed the redheaded woman with a bit of new respect, all things considered. He knew he wasn't lying, but he sure had to look like a loon. And he had, through implication of the threat of force, coerced them to this place.
She shrugged. "I am still an EMT. Kind off my job to make sure you don't flatline…. even if you are not insured." Her colleague simply sighed from the entrance.
There…. weren't many people who'd stay around and do that for a stranger, much less in context. He was honored that he knew many of his friends were that very type.
"Thank you. I'll keep my promise, but first….." He began to walk towards a building in the distance, he memorized its location rather well, his feet still wobbly but carrying him off. "I got some business to attend to."
AN:
And this is the next chapter. Huge thanks to @Hapless Anon as always and to you guys for reading!
Hope you had a nice time and feel free to point out inaccuraties and the like out to me. I mainly know cyberpunk through the anime and game, so I might make mistakes!
Have a nice day, you all!
