A Complicated Web

Chapter Four: This is Tony Stark

Hiro couldn't help but gawk at the scenery. San Fransokyo was impressive in its own right. New York City was even more so. It had a weight of years, despite some newer construction, mostly post Battle of New York when the Avengers had saved the planet. Man, what it must have been like to be there, he thought.

They'd made good time, mostly due to GoGo hitting the gas while Wasabi was sleeping. The fact that they'd employed the use of Benadryl, which knocked him out, helped. While he'd slept, they'd switched off during the night while the others slept. Even Fred took a turn, though no one wanted to mention that experience again, ever. Not even GoGo.

Wasabi yawned, alerting those who were awake to the fact that he was rejoining the land of the living. "Whose turn is it to drive?" he asked, still not quite with it. Then he did a double-take. "How on earth are we already in New York!?"

GoGo smirked from her seat in the back. She'd switched off with Honey Lemon only an hour outside of city limits. Of course, the fact that Fred had greatly reduced the whole amount of time during the night didn't exactly come up either. "Wondered when you'd wake up,. You snored like a lawn mower most of the night."

"What did you do?" Wasabi demanded as he stared at her. "Did you slip something in my coffee? Because there is no way I would've slept over twelve hours without you slipping me something!"

Fred took that opportunity to interrupt things by violently waking from a bad dream. He struggled against the seat belt of the front passenger seat like it was some kind of chain holding him down. "No monsters! No monster!" he called out, decidedly not with it. He'd stayed up a little too late on his shift and was paying for it.

Almost impatiently, GoGo reached over and smacked him upside the head. "Will you stop that? You've going to distract Honey Lemon!" she complained.

Honey somehow managed to avoid hitting the car in front of her as it braked for a red light moments later. "Could you guys please stop that? I'm trying to drive here!"

"Will someone please tell me how we got to New York without me realizing it!?" Wasabi yelled. He strained against his seat belt as he waved his arms to emphasize his point. "Because there's no way we could have gotten here if someone hadn't driven through the night!"

Hiro started to giggle. He couldn't help it. The whole situation was just so ridiculous. "Oh my gosh, guys!" he crowed. "Do you have any idea how funny you sound?" He was more than happy to have slept through most of Fred's driving.

Everyone stopped what they were doing, except Honey Lemon, who continued to drive after the car behind them honked loudly. "You know," Fred spoke up, now fully awake, "I think that's the first time I've actually heard you laugh, outside of your birthday, since you know when."

And it was true. They'd all had a lot to process through after the two Doctors had returned to wherever, whenever, they'd come from, along with their alternate dimensional future friends. It had taken a while for Hiro to even begin to explain what he'd gone through, the extra memories from various attempts to save his brother and so on. No one blamed him, of course. Having to live through multiple deaths again, on top of all the feelings—physical and emotional—associated with them couldn't have been an easy thing. He'd almost died, for real. They all hoped this trip would be a nice escape from all the craziness they'd had to deal with. In a way, it wasn't totally surprising he'd forgotten about his birthday, until they'd practically thrust it in his face with that surprise party.

"Stark Tower's just ahead," Honey commented as Hiro's giggles died down.

While they were still technically a good ways off from the building, they could now easily see it towering above all the neighboring structures. And it was quite the sight, with the letter A proudly adorning the upper floors like a beacon. "Wow," Fred breathed as he stared at the megalith. He hadn't been out there since before the Battle of New York.