Imagine: The List
Fic posted by members of Vo's Imaginings YahooGroup


 

"Reed?" Johnny asks several days later.

 

"Working on something to clean the air. The air is almost solid in England. They swear it's better with so much of their industry shut down and plants everywhere but. . ."

 

"It's something that will be needed in a space colony."

 

Reed nods as Johnny heads out of the lab. "Working on something to clean air, he said the air was almost solid while they were in England."

 

"We'll need it if we ever have to make the dome solid." Ben rumbles. A beeping has Sue looking at the computer screen. "Tony, with boxes." Johnny unlocks the elevator and he pushes everything in, sending it up.

 

"Food from the other dimension harvest." They quickly empty the elevator and Tony comes up next.

 

"This is the first batch, we've got three more coming." Johnny nods and starts putting the boxes on carts to take to the tesseracted rooms.

 

"Tree crops?"

 

"Should start coming in year after next. Next year we'll be getting something, but not a full harvest." Tony taps on the door of Reed's lab and he smiles as he looks over, stretching his neck to see what the others are moving. "Harvest?"

 

"First of four batches. What are you working on now?"

 

"Air cleaner, China's smog is bad, London's air was nearly solid."

 

"and other cities are nearly as bad."

 

"Plus we'll need one if we have a domed colony. Right now we have fresh air being filtered by the shield. . ."

 

"Normal air scrubbers wouldn't be able to keep up."

 

Reed nods.

 

"Spaceship?"

 

"Ready to go on a test flight after the first of the year."

 

"Next trip to . . .see how many have been lost?"

 

"Nine weeks?" Tony says, checking his schedule.

 

"I'll have the first prototype of the air cleaner finished by then."

 

The schools reopening are all over the news, the morons who'd wanted them kept shut because 'well, he had to have had a reason to close them, a good one. . .we just don't know what it is' wail like babies when they're not allowed to protest at the openings. They try saying this will hurt the economy as the students should be working instead of wasting their time at school and are nearly lynched by parents.

 

"How fucking stupid are you morons?" The vice-president sighs as they whine in congress. "Trying to stop schools from opening. . .we need children to have an education."

 

"But they can learn on the job."

 

"Moron. . .nobody's going to be hiring a ten year old. Especially one that's never had any schooling. Unless they had some schooling in day care they'll be in their twenties when they graduate."

 

"I. . .I. . .I guess so." he whines. "But they used to work."

 

"Whole families had to work, they still do in some countries. Not here. Not anymore." The vice-president says firmly. He stares the old fool down and he subsides gracelessly, still grumbling that they could be working.

 

He wails when the economy shows so signs of trouble with students in school and he gulps when a congresswoman threatens to knock his fool head off, her kids just started school again and she's glad for it.

 

The universities open less than a month later and he's sure this will affect the economy, wailing like the baby he is when it doesn't. He's icily reminded that most of these people are already working.

 

"Yeah, nobody goes right into school to sit on their ass for four years anymore, even those kids who are living in dorms are working around their classes."

 

The news of the schools opening and people wailing it's not fair dies off after a couple of weeks. Clint comes back from a textbook expo, dropping the receipts on Pepper's desk. "Everything will be arriving in a few days. A good number of new history and sosh books are coming out, dealing with what's been going on the last few years."

 

"We'd been expecting them. Are there 'biographies' about that fool Trask?"

 

"Yes, they're either praising the fool man and ignoring everything he did or trying to say he knew what he was doing or calling him the devil incarnate. Have there been books about the New York situation?"

 

"Yes, the ones who didn't know what the hell they were talking about were quickly disappeared when the government threatened to sue. The attack books against Tony were also dropped thanks to lawsuits. The ones who actually looked into what was going on and what we were doing are going to be out soon."

 

The Avengers, X-men, and Fantastic Four are called out to deal with a group of bored young adults who wanted to come into the city and take it over, they gulp and run off screaming when Tony fires up his repulsors and Ben knocks his fists together.

 

"Damn fools." Bobbi mutters as they beg SHIELD to save them.

 

"But we don't like how everything's running so smoothly here." One of them wails. "It's . . .it's boring."

 

"Enjoy prison then morons.. . everything's going to be boring there." Tony calls after them, chuckling at the wailing they set up. They didn't think they'd actually be arrested, it was just a prank. Things were boring running so well.

 

Their parents refuse to bail them out, leaving them wailing behind bars.

 

In early November Tony and Reed set off again, returning just before Thanksgiving.

 

"Bad?"

 

"Yeah, some smaller countries are. . .gone. Oh we knew a lot of places had lost a good portion of their population thanks to that damn disease but. . ."

 

"Seeing it is still hard." Coulson quickly arrives once he heard Tony and Reed were back. Tony gives him the latest figures, updating the list of the lost countries. Coulson sighs and closes his eyes.

 

"Did you and Richards use test the air cleaner in England?"

 

"Yes, and you could tell the difference even with just running it for several hours. London has commissioned us for a permanent air cleansing unit."

 

"Any word on China?"

 

"Down to less than half a billion people. Factories are all shut down. Every warehouse is full of stuff they want to export but can't."

 

"And they're not selling it to their citizens."

 

"Nope, if they give it to their citizens it just proves they can't take care of their own citizens *and* have surplus to sell to other countries." Tony says quietly. "They might say this damn epidemic is what we deserve for not embracing communism, but it's the other countries that are recovering. . .they're not."

 

Various decorations start coming out after Thanksgiving, stores have stopped getting Christmas stuff out before Halloween anymore. Stores begin to be decorated for the holidays, groups of merchants getting together and planning themes instead of trying to outdo each other.

 

"But students are being pulled out of school." Somebody in congress wails.

 

"The only students being pulled out of school are bullies. Schools have a zero tolerance policy on bullying, drugs, liquor, gangs, and violence. Their parents can wail but since they're as big a bullies themselves, they're wailing because everybody knows what kind of fools they are." the vice-president snorts."We're protecting the students, not letting kids be assholes. They were warned once the first time such behavior was not tolerated, the second time they were warned and suspended for several days, being told that if they kept continuing their behavior they would be expelled. If they're expelled they're tutored on the job .. .just like you wanted, right?"

 

He gabbles. "You can't have it both ways moron." Somebody else snorts. "About damn time they put the hurt on bullies. Little bastards want to act like that, they can go to reform school."

 

"That's the only way they learn. He's only complaining because his precious grandson is as big a fool as he is and repeatedly bullied the younger kids."

 

Tony looks over at the door of his lab at the getting ever so louder buzz. It's one of Agent's pet minions. . .he thinks they called her Skye. "Yes?"

 

"Mr. Stark, there's an emergency meeting in DC. Director Coulson says you have to attend. I'm been ordered to shoot you with a dart, have your robots strip, scrub, and redress you .. .while the others take embarrassing pictures." Clint cackles behind her. "Put you in an outfit like Hannibal Lecter, and wheel you into the meeting room."

 

Pepper cackles somewhere down the hallway.

 

"Can I at least ask what the meeting is about?" Tony asks dryly.

 

"I . . .I don't see why not." That wasn't in the script Director Coulson had given her. "The president wants an update on what you and Dr. Richards found in China. The Chinese delegation was recalled back to their homeland earlier this week."

 

"Huh, what brought that on?"

 

"The president has no idea. China petitioned the world courts again to try to call in all debts but was denied. Rumor is it some people were going to businesses trying to get new contracts but so far that's just a rumor."

 

"They'd have to be desperate if they were, that's not how it's done. Give me an hour to finish this up. Otherwise the damn thing will blow us all up. Pepper would not be happy if she had to kill me for killing all of us."

 

Skye repeats the last couple of sentences slowly then shakes her head. The others had told her not to pay too much attention to anything Stark said while he was inventing unless it involved the words 'oh shit' or RUN.

 

An hour later JARVIS shuts everything down and Tony heads to a shower, Pepper having laid out clothes and telling him to scrub. She shoves him back twice but he's finally clean enough for her and she drags him out to where Skye is waiting.

 

"They must have been in worse shape than we thought." Tony says when he's shown into the oval office later that night.

 

"Is there any way to tell?"

 

"May I?" he motions to the phone. Pepper had tried beating some manners into him over the years and he's trying to behave. He can see the glint in Coulson's eyes. . .he'd love tazing Stark in the oval office.

 

"Johnny? It's Tony Stark, if you can get Reed out of his lab. . .I need to talk to him. Yes, this is the white house. They called me out because China recalled all their personnel here in DC." Johnny can be heard yelling that and soon Tony puts the phone on speaker.

 

"We knew they were in bad shape." Reed says in the Baxter Building.

 

"Can you run a scan from the ship?"

 

"Yes, give me an hour."

 

"Okay, I have some bad news." Reed says seventy-five minutes later. He's in the ship hovering over China. "The government is .. .gone. I'm hovering over the capitol and there should be somebody here. I'm sending down a probe."

 

A sigh on the other end of the phone a few minutes later. "I'm seeing bodies everywhere."

 

"Was it the epidemic?"

 

"Not from the weapons everywhere." Reed sighs. "I'm surprised nobody has found the bodies."

 

"They lost face when Communism fell, they probably committed suicide and nobody would come looking. Probably the last person alive locked the building down." Since Brandon had been a sociologist before he went into politics, he has a good idea what he might be talking about.

 

"Is it just the building deserted?"

 

"No, the whole city is deserted. Which doesn't make sense."

 

"It does if the economy has collapsed. The attempt to call in their loans was their last ditch attempt to stay afloat."

 

"Do you . ..want me to bury the bodies?"

 

"Please. And see where any remaining chinese citizens are located. If there are any local governments, we can see if they need or want any help."

 

"Richards. .."

 

"Yes Agent Coulson?"

 

"China and Russia are the largest communist countries. . .if you can do it safely you might see how Russia is faring."

 

"What about North Korea?"

 

"I haven't heard any posturing from them lately, they might be gone."

 

Several days later Tony, Reed, the president, and Coulson are back in the oval office.

 

"There are scattered communities. . .but as I was coming back from checking on Russia and North Korea I did another scan. It was already half of what it had been. By the time you could get together teams and supplies. . .they'll be gone."

 

The president closes his eyes and sighs. "The other countries?"

 

"Russia is nearly as bad, there's scattered settlements. . .probably smaller towns that were already pretty isolated."

 

"Fuck. . .instead of four billion we're looking at five billion deaths. If not more."

 

"I'm afraid so. . .either from the illness or the economies collapsing."

 

Pepper shakes her head and sighs when she gets the news a couple days later, Clint saying a silent prayer at his farm and hugging his wife and kids until they complain. He just holds them longer. He turns on the news and they just stay curled together on the couch for the rest of the night.

 

"Why didn't they ask for help? Was it so damn difficult?" More than one person asks in various rooms as the news begins circulating.

 

"Communism had to be the only way to go, asking for help would have meant that it was a failure. And they couldn't have that. We were showing that democracy was surviving while they were dying."

 

Christmas is quiet as most people are busy thinking of all the deaths.

 

"Gentlemen, I know this is the holidays but we cannot allow all that . . .stuff in China to go to waste." The president says after the first of the year.

 

"It would be a slap in the face of all the employees at those factories." Tony says quietly. The others in the room nod.

 

"It would take years to remove all those. . .and we don't have anywhere to store them but .. ." Reed begins to say slowly.

 

"Stasis on the buildings?"

 

"That would give us time to empty all the buildings. And not overwhelm the rest of us with supplies."

 

"And sort out everything."

 

Peter is shoveling the paths outside the houses when May comes back from picking up the few groceries they can't grow. Frank's wife had went shopping with her and helps her unload her bags before she drives up the block.

 

Peter clings to the ceiling by his feet as May hands up food to go on the top shelves, flipping down to the floor when all the bags are folded and put away.

 

"I hear that Chinatowns across the world created a fund?"

 

"Yes, they want to put up momuments to their lost country. I know most of them left before the communists took over but. . ."

 

"It was still their country." May thinks of her small village on Asgard. "You never forget your home."

 

Phil smiles at Pepper when he comes out of the elevator. "Is Stark in?"

 

"He's going over lesson plans with the tutor Xavier arranged for Pietro and Wanda."

 

"You've heard of all the research of AIM's we've been going through."

 

"Yes, is that some of it?" She waves a hand at the flatbed behind him.

 

Phil nods. "We're slowly passing it along to people we trust."

 

Tony arrives about twenty minutes later, finding Phil looking out the window at the falling snow. SHIELD's headquarters doesn't have windows for their protection and he misses being able to watch people going about their day.

 

"Agent?"

 

"Morning Stark, we're parceling out AIM's research. Against my better judgment I'm giving you some."

 

Cackling can be heard from the ceiling.

 

Phil just rolls his eyes, he's used to Barton hiding in various ceilings. "I thought you and Richards were going to be testing your spaceship?"

 

"Next week. He's working on something with McCoy and Essex. Genetics isn't my field, they'll let us know when everything's said and done." Coulson sighs but nods.

 

"Have you been looking into a way to get rid of the arc reactor?"

 

"Not recently, why? Something else the precogs are seeing?"

 

"Yes, something called Extremis."

 

"And what is that?"

 

"Turns you into a walking computer, but it heals you too."

 

Tony shudders. "I work with computers, I'm not becoming one."

 

"Allows you to access all sorts of technology."

 

"Nope, Tony's bad enough now." Pepper snorts. Tony is looking at the wall and snapping his fingers. "Though I think at least one of the others who talked to us might have had it. I didn't notice it then but his shirt looked like he had an arc reactor but it wasn't glowing."

 

Phil closes his eyes and thinks back, nodding in agreement.

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