Tony Stark
"Mr. Stark, you need to see this. Now."
Maria Hill's voice cut through the workshop where Tony Stark was elbow-deep in a gauntlet repair, music blasting through the speakers. He did not look up. He acted like he did not even hear it for the next few seconds as his fingers dextrously twisted wires and ensured power cables and connectors were at peak performance.
"Mr. Stark."
The former SHIELD agent called out once more from behind him, and the tone in her voice was enough to finally make him pay attention. It was not quite like Pepper. The red-haired woman had a voice sharper than a whip. However, Maria was close enough to at least draw him from his fugue.
"Hill, unless the world is ending, I'm busy."
He began with only a glance at the woman, partially regretting why he gave her access to his workshop, then remembered he had not. Pepper had. That made more sense.
"This gauntlet ate a Quinjet engine and I'm trying to figure out why it didn't digest properly," he replied with a joke as he went back to focusing on the gauntlet in front of him. Some of the ports had been overloaded as well, which was understandable. However, he was almost done fixing it all up, and as soon as he was done, he would return to streamline his new Mark 50 armor schematics.
"The world just grew forty percent larger."
Tony's hands stopped moving. Slowly, very slowly, he turned away from the gauntlet and looked up. "I'm sorry, what?"
"FRIDAY, kill the music," Hill ordered, already pulling up holographic displays. The AI complied immediately, which told Tony exactly how serious this was. Giving the woman access to his regular workshop was one thing, but after Ultron and the loss of Jarvis, Tony had a firmer hand on his artificial intelligence, which meant that FRIDAY did not take orders from anyone but him unless it was an emergency.
The holographic display showed Earth from satellite view. Except Earth was wrong, and he did not need to have a PHD in geology to figure out or recognize why. The planet was bigger.
"Okay," Tony said slowly, setting down his tools and walking closer to the display. "I'm going to need you to run that by me again, because despite the image before me, my brain is telling me that planets don't just grow."
"Seven minutes ago, every sensor we have went haywire."
Hill pulled up comparative imagery, before and after shots that made Tony frown.
"Seismic activity spiked globally. It happened so fast that there were no true or real damages. Then the satellites recalibrated and showed this. Earth's landmass increased by approximately forty percent."
Tony stared. "That's not possible."
"I'm aware."
"No, I mean that's physically impossible."
He started gesturing as he walked around the two similar yet vastly different images before him, his mind already racing through calculations that were more suited for a computer.
"You can't just add billions of tons of mass to a planet without drastic gravitational consequences. The tides should be going crazy. The orbit should destabilize. The ozone layer should be stretched thin from rapidly spreading to acclimate to the wider landmass. Solar winds should have scorched parts of the Earth where the ozone layer would be weaker. We should all be dead right now from over a hundred random things that such a change would cause."
"And yet."
Hill zoomed in on various locations.
"There are no new continents. It seems like the resident continents just grew bigger. There are new islands that seemingly just sprouted out of the sea. Analysis states that they have always been there but had sunk as the water level rose millennia ago. There are entire geographical regions that were empty and are suddenly not, around the North Atlantic and Pacific and Mediterranean. Now most of them are inhabited."
"Inhabited?" Tony repeated, knowing fully well that he was beginning to sound like a broken record.
"Thermal imaging shows humanoid life signs. Thousands across all the new landmasses. Multiple cities have been changed. Thankfully, not the major ones. Those like New York just suddenly have new trees and plants sprouting around, giving more life to the dense concrete jungle. It's not all very drastic, but more than a few other areas are reporting new structures, mostly pre-industrial, and especially isolated and older areas. New people as well. But you have to understand the information we have is tentative. It's only been seven minutes."
Tony turned away from the woman and looked at the empty air. "FRIDAY, what can you tell me?"
The artificial intelligence was silent for a second before it began to speak in its preprogrammed Irish female voice.
"Most of what Miss Hill has reported has been compiled by me, sir. I'm watching and detecting everything in real time, but there is little to add unless further on ground investigation is made. GPS systems worldwide are automatically updating, and so far, this growth has not been catastrophic or apocalyptic despite the odds. All that's left is the last report I sent to Miss Hill."
Tony turned back to the woman, and she pulled up energy readings.
"There has been a massive energy reading." She highlighted a landmass in the North Atlantic. "Someone or something is putting out massive energy signatures consistent with what is recorded as Asgardian."
Tony felt his brow ease only slightly. "Asgardian."
"Yes."
"That doesn't make sense. Point Break has been away for the past two years and after the whole catastrophe that was Sokovia. What does Asgard have to do with all this?"
"Point Break?" Hill asked, confused.
"Thor." Tony stopped himself, jaw tightening. "He left Slokovia. He ignored calls about our fight and the breaking of the Avengers. I don't blame him. He has his own people. Our little civil war was not his to fight, still..."
"Do you think he's the one, sir?"
Tony paced, his mind working overtime.
"FRIDAY, confirm Hill's readings. Tell me I'm having a stroke and this is all a hallucination."
"I'm afraid not, sir," FRIDAY's Irish lilt filled the workshop once more.
"Update. Satellite imagery confirms the presence of a supermassive snowstorm in Norway. The country seems to have experienced the brunt of the changes that have happened and accounts for at least an approximate twenty percent increase in landmass."
"That's..." Tony ran a hand through his hair. "That's ridiculous. So it's confirmed then. This is somehow related to Asgard. Though a snowstorm is not what I was expecting. What about the Norwegians? Any contact from the embassy? Or the SWORD and SHIELD agents left there?"
"Not yet," Hill replied. "The country seems to be having some sort of lockdown with the supermassive storm and the weather."
"That's a riot."
Tony let out a humorless laugh as he watched the satellite video that FRIDAY had automatically brought up for the region. Despite the power of the satellite, the image was still grainy. But the snowstorm that the country experienced was clear, as was the intense stormy weather. It reminded him of the first time he met the God of Thunder, only without all that snow.
"FRIDAY, keep me updated on everything, but focus on Norway. I want to know what we are looking at."
"Already compiling, sir."
"And get me..." Tony paused. "Actually, who do I even call about this? Rogers and I aren't exactly on speaking terms. Fury is in the wind. SHIELD is scattered. Rhodey is still in physical therapy. Vision is somewhere being philosophical."
He turned to Hill.
"Please tell me you have a plan, because I'm fresh out."
"I was hoping you had one, sir."
"Great. Wonderful. The world grows forty percent overnight, and I'm supposed to have a plan."
Tony moved to another display, pulling up maps of the new landmasses.
"Okay. Okay, let's think. We need intel. Real intel, not just satellite guesses. We need someone who understands Asgardian tech and culture. Thor is in the wind, so we need the next best thing. We need Jane Foster and Erik. FRIDAY."
"On it, sir. Contacting Dr. Jane Foster and Dr. Erik Selvig."
Tony turned to Hill.
"Contact the world government and liaise with SWORD. Let them know what is going on, and after that, pull back. I'm tired of dealing with alphabet letter agencies."
Hill nodded and moved to reply.
"Sir," FRIDAY interrupted urgently. "We have an object entering Earth's atmosphere. It is moving fast. Energy signature is also Asgardian."
"Asgardian?"
"Yes, sir. It is lightning. Massive amounts of lightning. Readings are consistent with..." FRIDAY paused, which Tony had never heard her do before. "Consistent with Thor's energy signature."
The workshop went silent.
"He's back?" Hill asked quietly.
"FRIDAY, confirm," Tony ordered, his voice sharp.
"Confirmed. Energy signature matches archived data from Thor's previous visits to Earth. But sir, there is something else. The signature is massively above what Thor has been known to output, and it does not look controlled. Underlying the lightning signature is another energy pattern. Unknown. Green spectrum. Not consistent with any known technology or power source."
Tony's mind raced.
"Impact point?" he asked, even though he already had an idea.
"Norway."
"At least it is not New York," Tony muttered, already moving toward his armor assembly platform.
He could have ignored the freak weather in Norway and left it to actual government agencies, but if Thor was coming and hurtling toward Earth after two years in what seemed like a crash landing, Tony needed to be there to see him.
"FRIDAY, get the Mark..." He looked to the unfinished Mark 50 and let out a tired sigh before shifting his focus. "...47 ready."
He turned back to the woman. "Hill, contact whoever is left of our emergency response in Norway and let them know I'm on my way."
"Okay, boss." Hill spun on her heels and power-walked out.
He turned to his gold, silver, and red armor, the gauntlet of the Mark 49 that he was creating for Pepper behind him, as he turned around and allowed the armor to close around him. With any hope, he would get to Norway before anything catastrophic happened.
__
Doctor Strange
Stephen Strange screamed.
It was not something he did often. Years of standing forearm deep in people's guts during surgery had taught him control. Months of mysticism under the careful tutelage of the Ancient One and then Mordo, and finally Wong had taught him discipline. But this was beyond either.
Reality was being reshaped and twisted on such a scale that he felt like he was going to suffer the changes as well.
He had started the day by meditating, as he did every morning, reaching out to touch the ley lines of Earth's magical field. Monitoring threats. Checking dimensional barriers. The usual maintenance that came with being the Sorcerer Supreme.
There had been no change, no difference. Everything was at peace as it had been before those two bumbling gods decided to stroll to Earth seeking their father.
Now they were gone. Odin was dead, and Earth was at peace again, and that was enough for the Sorcerer Supreme.
Then the universe lurched.
Nine realms connected together in mystical ways were forced to warp. The Eye of Agamotto came to life on its own. The intricate mechanical and magical protections that sealed the powerful artifact were all rendered null as the bronze casing flared hot against his chest, the Time Stone within reacting violently to something it could not predict, could not see, could not prevent.
The ley lines he had been touching ignited like gasoline trails, and the feedback slammed into him with the force of a collapsing star.
He saw:
-Two gods. Lightning and savagery. Controlled rage and brutality. Red-haired. Pale-skinned. Standing in defiance to the metaphysical representation of the word End.-
-Nine branches of a great tree, glowing green, uprooting its roots from the cosmos in a working that no man would have ever accomplished.-
-A ritual, hundreds of voices chanting in old Norse, pouring every ounce of power they had into one impossible working.-
-Reality itself being rewritten, space folding like a child given a Lego set and told to play with it.-
-At the center of it all, a crack in creation, a scar that bled raw potential.-
Wong found him on the floor of the meditation chamber, blood streaming from his nose, the Cloak of Levitation wrapped around him like a protective cocoon.
"Stephen. Stephen, can you hear me?"
Wong pulled at the cloak. The red, partially sentient artifact recognized his friend and slowly released its grip on him.
Strange gasped as he instinctively reached out of the cocoon with his hands. His trembling hands reached out and clutched Wong's robes.
"The barriers... Wong, the dimensional barriers... they were shredded then rebuilt."
"I don't understand you, Stephen. You're not making much sense. Take a breath and tell me what happened."
"Something impossible."
Strange forced himself to sit up, ignoring the way his vision swam as he tried to focus his words and thoughts in a way that would make sense.
"Something reached through the space between dimensions and moved. It moved nine entire realms through the void and molded them in a way that anchored them here in our reality."
Wong's eyes widened. "That's..."
"Impossible. You're a master of the Mystic Arts, Wong. Impossible is a word that belongs to the vocabulary of lesser men."
Strange hauled himself to his feet, stumbling to the window. Outside, the streets of New York looked normal. Peaceful. People going about their day, unaware that the fabric of reality had just been torn and stitched back together.
"It happened. I felt it. The ley lines are in chaos. Every protective ward on Earth just took a backlash. There was a break, for a short time, Wong. They were all burnt out. We were exposed."
"No..." Wong said with slowly dawning Horror. He understood what it meant for their defenses to be down even temporarily.
"Yes, Wong. We were exposed to everything."
Strange turned, and Wong took an involuntary step back at the look in his eyes and the horror of that statement.
"Every demon, every dark dimension entity, every cosmic horror that our wards kept at bay, they all just felt Earth become vulnerable for a split second. The wards are back up and feel stronger than ever, but that single second they were down left us vulnerable as dark things slipped into Earth."
Wong moved to the window, looking up at the sky before glancing back at him.
"What now?"
Strange took a calming breath, then pulled the Eye of Agamotto from his chest, opening it carefully. The Time Stone glowed within, but its light was erratic, flickering.
"Even the Eye is struggling to process what happened. It is like the timeline split and merged simultaneously. We are living in a paradox."
"Can you fix it?"
"Fix it?"
Strange let out a bitter laugh.
"Wong, I can barely stand. The magical backlash nearly killed me. Every master in every sanctum across the world is probably in the same state or worse. Whoever did this..." He shook his head. "No, that does not matter right now. I can figure something out later. The most important thing is to find and destroy every demon and dark creature that managed to slip to Earth after the ward was temporarily down. Every incursion, great or minor, we will call a conclave and deal with it, and after that..."
He trailed off, looking out the window once more.
His senses were scrambled, and yet even this far away, he could feel it as something fell toward Earth. A figure wreathed in lightning. If he had been at full strength, he would have gone to confront it first, but he was not. He would leave it to the rest of the world and its heroes, just as the Ancient One had the Chitauri invasion.
Instead, he would do his job as the Sorcerer Supreme and hunt down the monsters that had found their way onto Earth. Only after he had accomplished that task would he have the time to investigate the falling star.