imafuturist | East Moline Bus Station, IL

East Moline Bus Station, IL - Friday Morning

So when you got a last minute portal back to the island, you didn't exactly get much choice in the layovers. Or maybe it was because Tony had sued them on behalf of an employee.

That was a definite possibility.

Tony was going with that to explain why he was stuck at a bus station slash the worst Portalocity office he could honestly imagine.

In the Midwest.

This was a version of Hell, he just knew it.

[for she who is being run into]

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"I will take a bus back if I have to," Jessica complained to the person at the ticket counter. "I seriously don't even need a portal. In fact, I'll drive the damn bus if that's the problem."

She had been here for two days on part of a very frustrating journey back to Fandom and she was just about over all of it. Her costume had electrical burn marks and she looked like she hadn't gotten a good night's sleep in a while. "Okay, let's make a deal. I DON'T use your portal or steal a bus but you DO let me borrow a phone charger for twenty minutes."

When this still didn't work - FOR SOME REASON, HOLD A GRUDGE LONGER, PORTALOCITY - she turned around and saw a familiar face. She just nodded to Tony, though. There were so many Tony Starks in the multiverse, she had no good reason to assume she knew this one.

It was in the usual level of Marvel narrative causality that he was one of the Tony Starks she just so happened to know.

He perked up at that nod. "Long time no see, Jessica."

"Fandom Tony?" Jessica checked. She had seen enough of the multiverse to know that Jessica Drews like her were in the definite minority, so if somebody recognized her on a random world, they were actually recognizing her. "Holy crap. I'd ask what you were doing here, but the answer is clearly 'Ugh, Portalocity.'"

Yes, she said that loud enough for the ticket person to hear. Jessica was sassing then indirectly.

Tony politely offered over a phone charge in the hopes his tech was had multiversal consistency. "I think I'm being punished here."

Edited 2017-02-24 17:54 (UTC)

"Thanks. Funny thing is that with you here, it's less important that my phone hasn't been charged for weeks," Jessica said, taking the charger anyway. If something went wrong, at least she'd be able to call someone now. "What are you being punished for? It better be good to end up in... wherever this is. Iowa? It feels like Iowa."

"I was assuming the lawsuit," Tony replied, sitting back in the incredibly uncomfortable plastic seat. "And does it matter? It's the Midwest either way."

It was Illinois, you New Yorker jagbags.

"Makes sense," Jessica said. "I can't figure out if I'm having trouble because of that of because this entire company is bad at getting people places." Slagging off both the company you were relying on and the city you were staying in. Nice. "If you do get a direct portal back to Fandom from here, I'm following you through. I've had enough travel for a while."

They were great people like that.

"Deal. My portal was supposed to be--" He pretended to check a watch. "--an hour ago. Weather delays, apparently."

It sounded fake to him.

"How is weather supposed to ruin a portal trip?" Jessica asked. "We were able to remotely create a portal on an exploding world and we're not even supposed experts."

"Because they're a petty company, that's how." He would do something terrible once he was rich again.

"Damn straight," Jessica agreed. "I have a dumb question. Is it February? I'm pretty sure I've only been traveling through space and not time, but it's hard to be sure."

"February 24th," he replied. "Do I want to ask what happened there?"

"Probably not, but I have to whine to somebody and you're here," Jessica said. "I got called to help out an team of interdimensional Spider-Men, -Women, and -Others, we fought an army of Electros (I don't know if you have one of him), my portal device got busted, I got stranded on a Victorian steampunk world for weeks, we fought the Electros again while realities started blending into each other, and then I've had to deal with Portalocity bringing me the long way home because once again, broken portal device."

"It hasn't been a great time, and I really hope my building doesn't mind not getting my rent for a couple months."

"JARVIS might have taken care of that," Tony said, blinking at all that. Notice how there was no questioning of how this could have happened. Because Marvel. "Well, thank god you're back. You are back, right?"

"Assuming nothing else happens between now and getting back to Fandom," Jessica promised. "And the Web Warriors got some new recruits, so they probably won't need to call on me too often. Especially since one of those recruits was another version of me. Different jacket, though."

"Not the one from my home, right?" Tony asked. Because that would be awkward.

"No, definitely not. There are some very specific differences between me and your Jessica Drew," Jessica explained. "Your style of Jessica is more common, but this new girl was definitely on my side of that line."

"I wonder if there's some version of me out there with enough differences like that," he muttered, thinking it over.

Maybe if they counted that time Rhodey was Iron Man and half the team didn't notice?

"Let me know if you need anything, okay?"

"Of course. Just making sure, the island hasn't gone through any weird changes in the past couple months, has it?" Jessica checked. "I mean, besides the normal stuff. It hasn't changed shape or moved to the moon or been taken over by a dark lord or anything, right?"

"There was an apocalyptic timeline where I was evil," Tony offered. "We took care of that, though. Barton and Steve killed other me."

There was student with a laser sword involved in there too, Tony.

"Was it a thing where you turned into him or a thing where evil versions of people came to town?" Jessica asked because that clarification was needed in Fandom.

"The latter. There were also zombies there." Which had been so fun.

"Meanwhile, I was in a corset babysitting a Faraday cage filled with supervillains," Jessica said. "I think I got off better than you, actually."

"I'd look terrible in a corset," he said, nodding along with her assessment.

JESSICA, WERE YOU IN SOME SPIDER-VERSION OF THE HELLFIRE CLUB?

IT WAS A CORSET ALONG WITH OTHER VICTORIAN ERA CLOTHING. WITH GEARS, BECAUSE STEAMPUNK. DON'T BE WEIRD.

"And the hats ladies had to wear wouldn't look great on you either," Jessica decided.

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