Dragons, Superheroes and a Tear in Time

Chapter 22: They're fighting again (Peter)

Previously:

Peter returned from patrol and headed to the lab, where Hiccup and Mr Stark were. It was very hectic when he stepped in, but it managed to calm down. Hiccup finished fixing Toothless' gear, sounding very triumphant.

Refer to the last chapter for Hiccup's recollection of the recent events.

Now:

"We need to talk," Dr Strange announces as he walks into the lab. Mr Stark and I pause our repairing of the prototype to look at him.

"What is it?" Mr Stark asks with a sigh.

"Those storms." Dr Strange exclaims like it's obvious. I glance at the tv.

"Yeah? What about them?" Mr Stark huffs. He still hasn't told me why he's angry at Dr Strange. Should I be angry at Dr Strange?

"There's not just two, there's eighteen!" Dr Strange snaps. "This isn't natural."

"Well yeah it's a little weird," I agree, shrugging. "But we don't control the we—"

"This is multiverse stuff. Must I spell it out?" Dr Strange snaps sarcastically.

"Ohh. You sure love doing that, don't you?" Mr Stark shoots back. "Spelling it out, huh."

"You know I—" Dr Strange cuts himself off and roles his eyes with a sigh, "Shut your mouth, Stark. This is more important."

Mr Stark starts to mock him, so I step in. "So, uh, why's it important sir?"

"Storms like these happened when they," he points at Hiccup and Toothless, who've been watching quietly and curiously off to the side, "got here. This means something is happening."

"Wait, so more people could come through?" I ask, wide eyed.

"Great," Mr Stark groans.

"Yes and it could be very, very bad!" Dr Strange ignores Mr Stark. "We don't know why this is happening, the multiverse has never behaved like this."

"What are you, an expert?" Mr Stark asks rhetorically. My head goes back and forth as they snap at each other, my eyes getting wider with every sentence. Are they gonna fight?

"What are you, defending the multiverse?"

"Well someone has to do your job."

"Can— can we focus?" I interrupt timidly. They stop glaring at each other and look at me. "Do you think them being here have weakened the multiverse?" I ask, gesturing to Hiccup and the dragon.

"Maybe, but I'm thinking this is... targeted." Dr Strange responds.

"Targeted?" I ask, more shocked than before.

"Someone has..." Dr Strange sighs, "found a way to unleash havoc."

There's tense silence and my mind assumes the worse. "We... we killed Thanos, right?" I ask, a shiver going up my spine at the thought of the angry space grape. I really don't want to fight him again. I DIED last time.

"Yeah," Mr Stark nods as he walks over towards his desk, "of course we did."

"Just checking," I let out a breath of relief, "So who could this be?"

"How am I supposed to know?" Dr Strange snaps, I hold my hands up in defence.

"You're the wizard, I thought you were smart." Mr Stark scoffs, standing his chair upright.

Dr Strange stares at him, "I am smart."

"So you claim." Mr. Stark retorts, lounging on the chair and absent mindedly tossing a screw up and down.

I feel like I should say something before they start fighting. "So what do we do now?" I ask, "what's our next move?"

"Call pepper," Mr Stark speaks aloud.
"Call connecting." Friday answers.

"Tony?"
"Hey Pep, you need to get in contact with agent."
"You want me to call Phil?"

Who's Phil? I wonder. Wait, Phil Coulson?

"Yeah, agent. Tell him to get his shield lackeys out to all the incidents of the storms, tell them it's possibly a repeat of ancient over here," mr Stark points at Hiccup (who gives an offended "Hey!"), "And tell him to keep us posted. It could be nothing, but it could be something."
"Will do, Tony."
"Thanks pep."

"Call ended." Friday informs us.

"There, better?" Mr Stark looks at Dr Strange with narrowed eyes, who roles his eyes.

"That doesn't solve the problem."

"Oh, please, great sorcerer, do tell us your better idea!" Mr Stark mocks, which gets nothing but a scowl from Dr Strange.

The wizard shakes his head and forms a portal. "Whatever, I should have known you'd be useless." That's harsh. I don't exactly see YOU doing much!

"You hear those words a lot, sparkles?" Mr Stark calls after him, seemingly unbothered, but I step forward.

"Hey, you shouldn't say that about Mr Stark, Sir!" I exclaim, trying to sound stern. I care about Mr Stark! He doesn't deserve the hate, he's a really good... mentor, yeah, mentor. Dr Strange turns to glare at me and I shrink a little under his gaze but do my best to ignore it as I continue, "What happened between you two? It's obvious something has!"

He turns away again. "It doesn't matter,"

"Yeah, cause nothing ever matters to you, huh? You just don't care." Mr Stark exclaims.

"It's funny you say that, don't you think it's sounding pretty familiar?" Dr Strange shoots back, portal closen and forgotten.

"Can you both quit it?!" We all turn to look at Hiccup, surprised. "Yeah, we're still here, in case you forgot."

"Look, Mr Hiccup has a point, we need to focus," I pipe. "We've gotta figure out what's happening."

Dr Strange roles his eyes while Mr Stark shrugs.

"I don't care. Just keep wizard freak away from me." Mr Stark insists.

"I can't believe I have to be the adult in this situation," I mutter, shaking my head, before speaking louder. "Okay, Dr Strange, can you go and see if there's any information you can bring up on what's going on? If there's, I don't know, anything you could have missed. Mr Stark, leave him alone. We should go with Hiccup and see if we can find some of the others while we wait to here back from Mr Coulson." That's his name, right? I think so.

"Fine." Dr Strange snaps, walking through a portal. Mr Stark sits up, seemingly unbothered, as he throws a pen through the closing portal. We hear impact and Mr Stark celebrates quietly.

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I need to end now or it'll never end.
I wonder what's been going on with Stephen and Tony??? 🤔 is it something serious, or is it just them being dramatic?

We may never know. Maybe I don't know. Or maybe I do.

Alright, see you next chapter, with Hiccup's POV!