Disclaimer: I do not own any movies set up in the Marvel Cinematic Universe or Star Wars movies, cartoons, games, books, or comics. They belong to their respective copyright owners. This story is not created with a commercial aim. It is not for sale or rent.
Phase 6: Fantastic headaches
=SI=
Part 4
=SI=
SHIELD facility White
location classified
Victor looked suspiciously at the nurse, who held a cup with pills and one with water in front of him.
"Mr. von Doom, if you want to negotiate an arrangement about your situation today, you will drink the relaxants and wait forty minutes for them to kick in." The nurse patiently explained.
"This is Stark's fault, isn't it?" Viktor grumbled.
"Wasn't he one of the few people you actually respect?" Sue shot at him.
"That lasts for as long as he opens his mouth in my presence. Or until I see how he wastes his potential in the news." He grumbled and kept glaring at the cups.
The nurse didn't seem perturbed. She just raised an eyebrow and stared back.
"Victor, do you want to risk losing your hands?" Sue huffed in frustration.
He clenched his fingers in irritation at the reminder and fought to keep a wince of pain off his face. It was frustration and anger at Richard's blithe comments that made him furious in a way he had seldom experienced. The next thing Victor knew, lighting cracked over his fingers and exploded in an arc that crackled over a nearby beframe, lighting the covers and mattress on fire. The sheer shock of what happened ensured he had no control over the lighting, and it arced between his hands just as he felt something within him drain.
He was lucky—just first and second-degree burns. With therapy and a potential visit to the best doctors money could buy, he should recover the full motion of his fingers.
The thought of going to Stark groveling and asking for training burned and infuriated him. Victor closed his eyes, took a series of deep breaths, and then slowly exhaled. Sue's hand gripping his shoulder in reassurance helped him restore his composure.
"I'll listen to what Stark has to say." He bit off.
"That's how negotiations start," Sue pointed out.
If Victor had his way, he would always negotiate from a position of strength. That was one of the things that irked him the first time he met Stark in person. The bastard acted as a typical rich playboy with no care about anything in the world, yet controlled arguably the most powerful corporation Earth has ever seen. Any talk between them, any negotiation, wouldn't have been one among peers. Then Stark opened his mouth, and it was as if he was doing his best to rile him up. Victor knew he was a prideful man, and on that day, he couldn't help himself.
It was petty, it was stupid, and it might have meant the ruin of his company if Stark didn't just get drunk and then slept with his latest conquest. That should have been a moment to bring relief to Victor. Instead, the sheer indifference Stark's inaction implied that hurt. It was like neither Victor nor his company mattered at all.
In some ways, that was worse to his pride than if Stark tried and even perhaps succeeded in ruining von Doom industries, forcing Victor to start from square one.
Now, Stark again held Victor's fate in his hands and…
The nurse cleared her throat and shoved the cup with drugs in front of his face. He rolled his eyes but opened his mouth, took in the damned pills, and then washed them with the offered water.
"Hey, what about us?" Reed had to open his stupid mouth.
"I have drugs for you, too, Mr. Richards," the Nurse stated calmly.
Victor had to give it to her. She was perhaps the only person in the room who could ignore Richards' antics as if they didn't matter.
"At least we'll get out of here and be away from Reed for a bit." Sue patted his shoulder in encouragement.
There were moments Victor wasn't sure what he might do if she wasn't here to help keep him grounded. He might have already fried Richards. Not that would be a bad thing…
=SI=
A guard let them to the nearby mess hall, where Stark sat at a table in the corner, fiddling with a phone. He had a steaming cup of coffee on an otherwise empty table. Sue squeezed Victor's arm above the bandages, and he could swear he could feel a wave of reassurance wash over him.
"I'll behave," He muttered and escorted his girlfriend to meet with Stark. If nothing else, Victor was curious to hear about what memories that device gave the irritating man.
As they approached, Victor focused on Stark, trying to look at him the way he looked at Sue earlier when she went invisible. He got the vague impression of a solid wall of darkness shaped like a human sitting across the table. At the same time, Sue shone with bright, warm light. Victor shook his head, and the world came back into focus.
"Mr. Stark," Sue offered in greeting.
"Stark." Doom somehow managed to make the name sound neutral.
"Ms. Storm, Doom," Stark noted and put his phone away.
"It's von Doom, as you well know, Stark."
"Then it's Mr. Stark to you, von Doom."
"Boys, that's enough dick measuring." The redhead who arrived with Stark came from behind, carrying a fresh cup of coffee. She sat beside him and gave him a pointed look.
"I'll behave if von Doom finds it in him to do the same."
Victor stared at Stark until Sue poked him in the ribs with her elbow.
"I'll try my best to remain civil." He bit off.
"Richards' stunt made the five of you a problem I frankly don't have the time to deal with." Stark began.
The sheer arrogance was unsurprising, yet it stoked Victor's temper. If it wasn't for the drugs, he was sure he would be quickly getting angry right now.
"How much do the two of you know about our situation?" Stark looked tiredly at them.
That was new, Victor noted.
"From what I know, they didn't get a full briefing and haven't signed the relevant NDAs." The redhead explained.
"There's more to finding a random piece of alien technology?" Sue sounded less than impressed. "Who would have thought."
"In eighty-nine, a small alien commando team took out a US Air Force base seeking some alien artifact. In the mid-nineties, another group of aliens, shapeshifters this time, attempted infiltration and subversion of multiple global governments. We aren't alone. At least two species we're sharing this galaxy with are hostile." The redhead woman explained. "That's where Mr. Stark and the memories the device gave him come in."
Victor's mind ran with the provided information. If it was true, what happened to them implied it might be… He thought about everything that had happened over the months since Stark came back from Afghanistan. The investigation that should have crippled SI if not been the end of it, the sudden influx of new military contracts, Stark's fusion tech…
"You're uplifting Earth with government backing. Not just the US, the world." Victor declared as the pieces fell into place in his head. SI's new contracts in Europe, even with China, all pointed to the same conclusion.
"Yes, and thus I don't have the time to deal with five fledgling Acolytes who don't know the first thing about their power. I'm already swarmed, and the moment the foundation is in place, I'll be busier than ever."
This was different. There was no trace of the Stark he had met before. Hell, this wasn't even the man he met earlier today, or perhaps was, and Victor's own bias made him misread the situation poorly.
"You've got access to alien technology. How much? What kind?" Sue vibrated in excitement.
"I know what's possible. I have a century of experience working with alien technology and a few degrees in fusion and other useful tech. Sadly, I don't have actual alien technology to reverse engineer directly. That might significantly speed things up. There are huge gaps in my knowledge. I wasn't a scientist then, and even if I were, I still wouldn't be able to recreate a technology base thousands of years more advanced by myself."
"Supporting technologies, fields, and equipment that we now take for granted." Victor nodded along. Suppose he found himself a few hundred years in the past. In that case, Victor could do much, but getting anywhere near modern technology would be the work of a lifetime, if not longer. That would be especially true if he wanted to spread it worldwide quickly. The gap would be too big. Too many missing pieces would have to be reinvented, even if he could otherwise rapidly improve the world.
"Fusion will eventually mean practically unlimited power. That by itself will have a great positive effect on the economy and environment." Sue nodded rapidly, making connections as well.
"Metallurgy. The building materials you patented in such quick succession. It all makes sense." Victor nodded. "Where does that leave us?"
"You get training and work with me to make up for the time I need to dedicate to train you."
"Victor, this is an opportunity to work on technology and theories that are literally out of this world!" Sue shook with excitement. Despite the drugs, she shimmered out of existence and gasped.
Stark sighed and rubbed his temples. "Now imagine this was you, accidentally throwing lighting all around." He nodded at Sue.
Victor glared at Stark but then looked at his aching hands, then at Sue, who slowly became visible. The last thing he wanted was to hurt her by accident.
"Let's talk details, Stark."