Work Text:
The phone was ringing.
Tony groaned and pushed himself out of bed.
The light through the window let him know it was an indecent hour.
The phone stopped. Then it started again.
He rushed to get the phone.
It had to be either Lisa calling about the kids. Tony had spent two years dating her and acting as an unofficial stepfather. The kids had liked him. They’d grown on him. Harley was a little genius. Tony had plans for his future. Lila didn’t like science too much, but that was fine. He’d still pay for her to go to school or whatever.
Or it was Rhodey. He often forgot about time zones. As smart as he was, Rhodey was his best friend because he was a smart asshole like him.
Tony grabbed it.
It was neither.
Unknown number.
Gotham, New Jersey.
Gotham.
He didn’t want to answer.
A part of him worried a Gotham psycho had gotten his hands on one of the few people he cared about.
He answered.
“Hello?”
“Hello, Mr. Anthony Stark?” The voice was British and tired. The voice on the other end did not sound like a psychopath. Tony did not make it a habit to hang around them outside of work.
“Speaking.”
“My name is Alfred Pennyworth. I work for the Wayne family. We require your expertise.” Wayne, Gotham. Tony had no idea what those socialites could have with him. They didn’t make weapons. However, they did make defensive products.
If they bought any offensive equipment, it was to test their defensive products. Gotham was crazy, but the crazy also meant they needed good stuff to go up against it. Tony owned a few of their bullet proof vests.
“Uh, I’m available to consult, but it is costly.” The Waynes could pay. Tony was rich, but he wasn’t “ fuck you” rich like them.
“That is no problem.” Pennyworth replied as he expected. Cha-Ching. “I can have a flight ready for you this afternoon.” Tony blinked. Uh. He had work.
“I have to work.” He said. “I’m free this weekend—“
“Mr. Stark, I will pay your two million dollars to come this afternoon. That is on top of your normal rate.” Two million dollars. Tony’s net worth was worth two million dollars. Most of it was in his house. Having it in fungible assets was a bit shocking.
“Uh.” He answered like a genius. “How can I guarantee this is actually the Wayne family?”
“Master Bruce and I will greet you. You can recognize him, can you not?” Yes, he could. The offer was tempting. He had some loans. Dad had had money before the nursing home had taken it all.
“I’ll call into work.”
“Excellent. Give me ten minutes. You can call Wayne Enterprises in New Jersey from this number. You will be transferred to our legal department to get your payment.”
“Once I’m on the plane.”
“Of course. You can discuss your additional rates with them as well.”
“Okay.” Tony pulled up their main website and the NJ headquarters.
“Excellent. Please give our lawyers your email. I will send you the information there.” The phone call ended. Tony stared at the phone. It was four thirty in the morning. It was seven a.m. in New Jersey.
Freaking Jersey.
Tony sent his work an email that he was taking today off. He’d get some chastisement, but he was a highly sought-after contractor. If they fired him, it wouldn’t take long to get another job. This place didn’t pay him two million dollars.
Tony sent a text checking up on Harley and Lisa. It was seven a.m. in Tennessee as well. Harley, all of the eleven-year-old he was, sent him some monstrous emoji string. It made him smile.
Lisa simply thanked him for checking in. They were fine. Lila sent him a ‘hi’. Lila was seven and didn’t have anything more than an emergency phone.
Tony was one of the contacts. Harley and Lila’s dad was a piece of shit. Howard had been a piece of shit sometimes, but he’d been a present piece of shit. He hadn’t wanted kids, but stepkids weren’t so bad.
Once he was reassured they were safe, he waited the ten minutes and called the number to the New Jersey office in Gotham. Someone answered. Oh, right, it was morning there. He needed to go back to sleep.
He was transferred.
The call was legitimate.
He was so getting fired if it took a few days, but screw it.
Two million dollars.
Maybe he could take the kids to Disneyland for summer vacation. He’d have to talk to Lisa about it. It was looking like a good day.
Well, after he got some sleep,
He set an alarm.
A few hours later, Tony was boarding a plane to New Jersey, flying first class.
He paid for Wi-Fi. Tony was amazed that once the flight took off, his bank account had two million dollars in it. Someone had called ahead of time to make sure his bank didn’t hold it as ‘suspicious’. Fuck you, rich, could move a lot of things.
The flight passed quickly.
It was night when the plane landed.
Tony did not remove his trademark ‘I’m an asshole, but I’m right. What you gonna do?’ sunglasses. If the Waynes were willing to pay for his expertise, they would have to put up with his personality. He made two million dollars already. He had very little to lose.
He exited and saw Bruce Wayne with an older gentleman in a suit next to him. Wayne looked relieved to see him. Huh. Tony was even more curious.
“Mr. Stark, I’m Bruce Wayne. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
“I can see the same, Mr. Wayne. Can’t say I was expecting a call from your company.”
“That was me, I’m afraid. Alfred Pennyworth.” The British dude said. Tony introduced himself again.
“Please follow me. I’d like to speak to you in private before we begin.”
“Sure. I’ll start charging once we’re in private.” Wayne smiled. Well, at least he wasn’t offended. Pennyworth made no expression if it irritated him or not.
Tony had a carry-on only and a backpack with his laptop. He didn’t carry his normal suitcase. He didn’t want to be robbed by Gotham criminals spotting an out-of-towners.
The luxury vehicle was not a limo, but it was spacious. Tony was impressed by the pickup. They must really need him to shell out so much for him with Wayne at the helm to greet him.
He wondered if it had to do with his master’s thesis. Renewable energy was still a precarious topic, even with the alien-based technology on the market. Conservation of energy and such. Dad had had some interesting ideas but had turned to weapons manufacturing after his own failed attempts at getting something into the market.
“Right, hit me up with what you need.”
“This is a rather delicate situation,” Wayne started. Wayne reached out to a briefcase at his feet. He pulled out something from it. “Tell me, Mr. Stark, do you recognize these designs?”
“Please call me To—ny.” Tony looked at the designs. He grabbed them from Wayne’s hands before he had any real awareness of doing it. “Where did you get these? These are private designs. These are mine.”
“So you do recognize them? That’s good to hear. I was worried we’d have to work off your general knowledge.” Wayne sounded relieved.
“Where did you get these?” He repeated. “Some of this has changed, but this is my design.”
“So you wouldn’t have any idea who would have created it?” Pennyworth called from the front seat.
“What?”
“We’ll get you caught up in a few minutes, Tony. Please call me Bruce. Look over the design and see if you see anything unfamiliar.” Tony did. The design was more efficient than the drafted ones he had. The energy capabilities were stronger than those he had as well. Whoever had modified it was as smart, if not smarter, than him.
He was already thinking about lawyers he could hire. Maybe Wayne and the Bats had come across some idiots stealing his stuff. Wayne was one of the few decent billionaires. Fuck knows he would’ve not met Luthor for this even with two million dollars.
Honestly, he was furious by the time the car stopped in an underground garage. This was part of his life’s work, and some idiot had just taken it from him. Tony knew corporate espionage was a thing, but these were on his own private servers. His JARVIS program was great at defending his system. Most of it was closed from outside connections.
Pennyworth opened the door. Tony stepped out. He was about to ask a million questions but was taken aback at the sight of Superman and the Flash in front of him.
“Hi,” he said. “I didn’t build this. By the way. It’s my design, but I haven’t constructed anything more than hypotheticals. So if anyone was killed with these or had a stockpile, it wasn’t me.” Superman looked bemused.
“We know who made that, Mr. Stark. We know it wasn’t you.” Superman said.
“Master Bruce, I think we should just be curt. It will save us time.”
“I agree, Al,” Wayne said.
“Who made it? Why do you need me?” He could think of countermeasures. He’d designed his weapons with the knowledge on how to stop them too.
“That would be my grandson,” Wayne said. “Peter.”
“Grandson?” Tony didn’t really follow a lot of gossip sites. Lisa loved them. Tony kept up with high society enough if he had mingled, but he didn’t pick up every little detail. A baby was not something he’d note unless he was meeting the new parents or family.
“That’s our cue,” Flash said.
“Mr. Stark, what do you know about time travel?”
“It’s not my specialty in any way. It involves quantum physics and mechanics that are not my strong suit.”
“They are one day,” The Flash said.
“I’m not being punished for something dumb a future version of me did, right? Again, I haven’t done anything—.”
“You invented time travel to bring my grandson from the dead,” Wayne broke in. “It might not be your strong suit, Mr. Stark, but you made it your strong suit to bring him back. And that caused a lot of issues.”
“Start from the beginning,” Tony demanded.
They took him to a small office. He saw the designs for a metal suit. It had arc reactors on it. That was his father’s dream. He saw a video of it. He saw himself in a video. Older and tired.
Tony would become a superhero.
After he got kidnapped and had to have an arc reactor put in his chest,
After he’d become “ fuck you, rich,” Wayne rich. From the weapons he designed,
After a lot of cities were destroyed,
After all the superheroes had been killed,
Tony would become the first person to publicly take up that role again.
The Avengers were the next Justice League. Only smaller and less powerful. No space heroes to help them.
The Flash and Superman went through a production of the facts. Of what they knew. Infographics were built. Tony was focused on Tennessee, Los Angeles, and Gotham. Gotham was just gone.
“What about my family?” He asked. Harley, Lila, Lisa. All of this was about him so far.
“Peter hasn’t mentioned anyone aside from a Pepper Potts,” he said. He didn’t know any Pepper, yet. Yet. Maybe ever.
“Is Peter your grandson?” Tony asked. He was more than a bit shocked to say the least.
“Yes, he’s from the future that was,” the Flash said.
“ He did something that destabilized the timeline,” the Flash said.
“He’s the one that made the bomb. He was your intern,” Superman said and made finger quotes on the word intern.
“Then why can’t we undo it? He should be what, twenty-something?” If he had a business as big as Wayne Enterprises, then he likely had some college internships. Tony had taken some himself.
“He’s nine.” Wayne said. They stopped Tony in his tracks.
“He was eight when he appeared.” The Flash said.
Then unloaded the other half of the story. Tony had found Wayne’s grandchild. Had started helping his aunt, who was the only family he had left. He’d built him a suit of armor and taken him to fight an alien.
They’d lost. Half the universe had died. Including Peter.
Part of him couldn’t believe it.
“Let me see the weapon.” He just needed some proof of all this.
“As you wish.” Wayne seemed to know what he was hinting at. Tony followed him into a storage area. One of his misses was in the middle of it. He recognized Wayne’s oldest son sitting next to it. A boy was on his lap and chatting a million miles an hour to him.
The boy turned to him.
That must be Peter.
He just saw Harley and Lila for a moment.
“Did I get brain damage?” He asked. “Why the f—heck did I teach an eight-year-old how to make bombs!?” He shouted the question.
The boy laughed and jumped up excitedly.
“Mr. Stark! Look, I made the Mark—“ Tony put a hand on his mouth. Wayne’s oldest son looked miffed.
“No talking. Let me think. Let me just absorb this and you. You. My. Intern.” His aunt was his only remaining family. It reminded him of Lisa. He had taken on coparenting with another woman, only this time it wasn’t romantic. He’d just been a lunatic.
He pulled back his hand. Peter grinned. He walked to Wayne.
“Hi, Zeyde! Tati wouldn’t let me make any modifications.” Peter sounded just like Harley when Tony said he couldn’t play with his potato gun again.
“It’s dangerous, chum. We’re here to have it disarmed.”
“But it can level a city block. Can’t you use it for something?” Tony made a noise. “Are you okay, Mr. Stark?”
“No, Peter. It’s dangerous for us to have with our family. At the manor.”
“How did he make it?” Tony asked.
“The Justice League does have missiles to protect against alien invaders. Peter found the supplies for some and made it while my family was visiting the Justice League to get some updates. We wanted Peter to get acquainted with the heroes of today.” Wayne sounded embarrassed.
“We could throw it into the sun, but in case Peter ever rebuilds it or needs to rebuild it, we would like to know how to disarm it.” Superman added.
“I’m not going to rebuild it to be evil.” Peter said.
“You sound just like Harley.” Peter perked up.
“Potato boy?”
“You know about Harley?” Something in his chest tightened in hope.
“Yeah, you talked about him sometimes. Like he was older than me. You said he lived in Tennessee with his mom, but he’d moved. I don’t know where.”
“You stopped the things that wiped out the cities, right?” He asked Superman. Superman nodded.
“Okay. Okay.” He said in relief. “I’m going to disarm this then, Wayne. I need a favor. I need to get out of the weapons industry. If I don’t need to become a superhero, I don’t want to end up needing to show kids about weapons.” Wayne nodded and looked a bit relieved. Yeah, Tony didn’t have any plans of showing kids weapons if he didn’t need to.
“Am I no longer going to be your intern?” Peter asked like it was an everyday thing. He looked gutted. Tony knew that look. He’d seen it on Harley and Lila’s faces when their dad failed to show up.
He didn’t know the exact circumstances that got him into Peter’s life, but he clearly had loved him like Harley and Lila. He’d figured out time travel for him.
Looking at Grayson and Wayne, he knew the kid had a dad right now.
Tony could show him things. And unshow him things like the fact that he should not build a bomb just because. He could be in his life.
“I could use an intern once I’m back in renewable energy. I could introduce you to Harley. He’s eleven.”
“My Uncle Dami is eleven!” Peter said excitedly. “Karen! We have Mr. Stark again.”
“Karen?”
“Hello, Boss.” The watch Peter wore said suddenly.
“You also invented AI.” The Flash said.
Oh.
He could think about it later.
Also, he was clearly squandering his potential if he became a billionaire, superhero, creator of AI, and time travel in twenty years.
He’d aim for billionaire and to create AI again.
But later. He just kind of needed to disarm a bomb first.
.