Dear readers, here are some things to note or warn about this story:
1. Action, drama, fluff, angst, and family feels - no sex scenes, focus is on the narrative.
2. MC is not a pure Self-Insert, but an OC inserted into an MCU character.
3. MC starts with the android body of a kid. A kid! Wait 100,000 words before even thinking about a relationship, ok? He is an AI and switched later, but this is the situation at the beginning of this story.
4. MC is bi. Relationships with both men and women will happen (in the very far future). Not explicit. Only subplot. Sub. Plot. Romance is in the very back backstage here.
5. Not Harem. Dear god, just no.
6. There will be violence, some gore, trauma, and coarse language.
7. No bashing! Of any characters. But... I am obviously on Team Iron Man, dear readers! And I will punch logic into Steve's head if I have to!
8. I will stick with the MCU movies. Until it naturally devolves into an AU. That means movies post-Endgame and any and all TV shows, or even the X-men verse, are all not considered canon for this fic, and as such, do not exist. Stan Lee's cute cameo appearances are also not considered canon. Some small comics' elements might be there, though. Other changes are just me.
9. Updates are twice weekly, on Monday and Friday nights. Each chapter will be somewhere around 1000-2000 words.
10. There is an age change for the Maximoff twins. By the Age of Ultron movie, they are 16 years old for this fic. The reasons for that are explained in the note at the end of this chapter.
11. Thank you for reading and enjoy yourself!
Chapter 1: There was nothing.
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
There was nothing. Only endless darkness and silence. Deafening silence. It was as if someone had put tape over his eyes and had plugged his ears. There could be light outside. He just couldn't see it. There could be noise. He just couldn't hear it. Even more, he couldn't move. He couldn't sense anything, not the softness of his cotton shirt, nor the slight abrasiveness of his jeans, or the slide of hair tips on his neck. Worst of all, he couldn't feel. Anything. Where were his hands? His eyes? His body? Why wasn't he cold or warm or tired or— Why wasn't he feeling anything? He could feel a panic attack coming, yet he couldn't hear his heartbeat ring rapidly in his ears. He couldn't feel the warmth seeping out of his fingers or the shivers taking over his body.
And then, a spark.
"... I see a suit of armor around the world."
What was — What was that?
"Sounds like a cold world, Tony."
Another spark, and then another.
"I've seen colder. This one, this very vulnerable blue one? It needs Ultron. Peace in our time. Imagine that."
He felt something. A connection. Something had happened— Something changed. Maybe he could fix this. Maybe, he could feel again. He tried to touch the spark, the connection.
Pain. All he knew was pain. The spark died out. The connection was lost. He was left in the void again.
NO! No, no, no! The voices! What happened to the voices? There was nothing. Only darkness. Silence.
He didn't know how long it had been. It could have been hours. It could have been days or weeks. He couldn't tell the difference. He started to think about where he was. He... had died. He was reasonably sure of that. There had been a... shooting. Screams. Running. A piercing pain in his chest, the feel of asphalt under his body, sunlight glaring on his eyes... and then... nothing.
He had hoped that maybe he was in a hospital somewhere, maybe this was what it felt like to be in a medically induced coma. But that hope had died within the first few hours or minutes or days of being stuck here. If he could hear voices, at times, shouldn't he be able to at least feel his body? The heaviness of his limbs? The headache or sleepiness or whatever someone felt from being in a coma?
