Galactic Savior | Avengers✔️

✮ 𝟎𝟏𝟏 ✮

"I knew you were still alive!"

"Come on in. Close the door," Tony said, making the man shut the door all of the way. The man's eyes flickered to Marlene's before going back to Tony.

He was smiling so big. "Oh, wow. Can I just say, sir–"

"Yep."

"—I am your biggest fan."

Tony waved him off. "Okay. First, is this your van? Is anyone else gonna come in?"

"No, no, no. Just us," he answered.

"Great. What's your name?"

"Gary," the man said.

Tony asked, "Gary?" to make sure. "Great, this is Marlene. Marlene, this is Gary, my biggest fan."

Marlene waved half-heartedly as Gary got closer to Tony. "Oh, wow."

Tony pushed his hand out. "Right there is fine."

"Okay."

Tony smiled reassuringly as Marlene watched the awkward exchange. "Okay? I get a lot of this, it's okay."

"Oh, good. Can I just say?"

"What do you want?"

Gary laughed. "Yeah. I don't know if you can tell, but I have, like, patterned my whole look after you. My hair's a little—" he said as he gestured to his face. Marlene smirked at Tony's grimace.

"It's fine," Tony said as he waved him off.

"It's not right, 'cause there's no product in it."

"Right," Tony said with a nod.

"I don't want to make things awkward for you, but I do have to show you," he paused, lifting his shirt sleeve to show a tattoo of what was supposed to be Tony's face. "Boom!"

Tony rose a brow. "A Hispanic Scott Baio. I'm sorry. Is that me?" Marlene could not help the laugh that escaped her lips.

Gary nodded. "Yeah. It's... I mean... I had them do it off a doll that I made, so it's not like it's off a picture. So it's a little bit—"

"Tony," Marlene called with a smirk.

Tony nodded. He grabbed Gary's shoulders. "Gary. Listen to me, okay? I don't want to clip your wings, here. We're both a little over-excited. I got an issue. I'm chasing bad guys. I'm trying to grab a little something from some hard-crypt data files. I don't have enough juice. I need you to jump on the roof... Right? Recalibrate the lSDNs. Pump it up by about 40%."

Gary nodded with wide eyes. "Got it."

"All right? It's a mission," Tony reiterated.

"Yeah!"

"Tony needs Gary."

"And Gary needs Tony."

Tony cringed a bit again but nodded. "Be quiet about it. Go."

When Tony typed on the computer once Gary had gotten the signal to reach, he was able to log in into the files using Rhodey's credentials. Marlene leaned over his shoulder as he opened up a file about Chad Davis.

"What would you regard as the defining moment of your life?" a man that was listed as Aldrich Killian said.

Chad Davis was the one who answered. "Well, uh, I think that would be the day I decided not to let my injury beat me."

Tony typed again and another video showed up.

"Will you please state your name for the camera?" Killian said.

"Ellen Brandt," the woman replied.

"I fought her," Tony said with a scoff. "That's the one I blew up like popcorn."

Marlene cringed as Killian continued, "Okay. So, the injections are administered periodically. Addiction will not be tolerated. And those who cannot regulate will be out from the programme." Tony went to another video. "Once misfits, cripples... You are the next iteration of human evolution. Everybody, before we start... I promise you, looking back at your life, there will be nothing as bitter as the memory of that glorious risk you prudently elected to forego. Today is your glory- Let's begin."

Marlene watched with wide eyes as Brandt's missing arm grew back as she glowed red. The other volunteers glowed red and began to scream as well.

"We gotta get out of here! We gotta get out of here! Get her out! Get them out of here!" Killian screamed as one of the volunteers exploaded.

Tony began to mumble to himself, "A bomb is not a bomb when it's a misfire. The stuff doesn't always work. Right, pal? It's faulty, but you found a buyer, didn't you? Sold it to the Mandarin. Got you, pal."