2014.03.15 - Heads Up

At first, Booster Gold is only able to exist in a particular time and place for a few minutes at a time. But with every time-place hiccough, his stays become fractionally longer.

The first time he realizes he is within spitting distance of the era he had inadvertently left, he immediately flies for Stark Tower as fast as he can, which is unfortunately sub-sonic--he has not had the chance to recover from the battle with Darkseid. The building is within his view before everything changes, and he finds himself in dinosaur-infested swampland.

The eras continue to flip and Booster suffers this frustrating tease in three more instances before the time-place duration allows him real breathing room. He finally ends up close to the era he left, and it is fortuitously a few weeks before the big battle.

This time, there is a sonic boom when Booster flies for Stark Tower, unwilling to waste this chance. He aims for the windows of the level where Tony Stark has his office, but at the last moment he does not crash through. Something in the back of his mind is nagging him to keep things unintrusive. The problem is that he wants, very much, to make this intrusive but settles for slapping his palms hard against the windows and peering in, desperately searching.

There's Tony, in his office. Working. What he's working on looks..biological in nature. On the worksurface he's so fond of, there is a hands on model of a DNA strand. Tony is working with a probe, scanning part of the genetic code and then grabs what looks like an oversized beetle. He makes some adjustments, and then plugs the beetle into part of the genetic code he was scanning. Every once in a while, he'll run the sequence and get data. He makes a note, starts working again. It's like this for several minutes.

Then he hears a tapping, a gentle rapping on his office window..He turns to look and sees Booster. He motions to the other window and nods, waving him in.

Although Booster is in mid-air, he visibly seems to sag, as if with utter relief. He lets himself in through the indicated window and when he lands on his feet, he stumbles slightly. Normally, Booster looks sleek and well groomed; at the moment, his powersuit is torn and sparking, his goggles are cracked and even his hair is ruffled up. He looks as if he had just left a hell of a fight.

Once he has taken a few steps closer, Booster looks Tony up and down as if he'd never seen him before. "Mr. Stark," he manages to say, "I'm from your future." There is a brief pause and then Booster rubs one eye with his fingertips, through the broken side of his goggles. "Okay, I mean... yes, you know that. To clarify, I'm from... I think a few weeks from now. I really need to talk to you."

Tony Stark blinks, "Well, what's the matter, Doc? Do my kids turn out to be assholes or something?"

He pauses and laughs, "Have seat, Mr. Carter. What can I do for you, besides be from your past?"

This makes Booster smile, and then almost immediately he looks as if he might start crying. He does not even try to sit in a chair, he just sinks to the floor as if he were exhausted, arms resting on his knees.. "It's this situation coming up, with Darkseid, and Apokolips..." He lifts his hands, then, as if he were briefly struggling with what to say. Some part of him knows you are not supposed to meddle with the past. Or the future. Or... but you know what? Screw it. "Mr. Stark, you're going to die. I'm um. Hoping you'll elect to not do that."

Tony Stark pauses, "What situation with Darkseid and Apokolips?" he asks, curious. He puts his work away and gives Booster his undivided attention, "And I die? Well, that sucks."

"Ah geez." Booster pushes his broken goggles up onto his forehead and removes a torn glove so he can rub his hand over his face. It looks as if he might be developing a black eye. "I hope this isn't going to cause a time-line branching. My telling you this, I mean. I dunno how much time... heh... I have here, I'll try to make it brief. Darkseid hassled Superman and took his powers. Then you helped Superman. Then we attacked Apokolips so Superman could get his powers back." He looks up at Tony from his seat on the floor. "That's when you were killed. I'm not sure about how, exactly. There wasn't a lot of time to ask questions because we had to keep fighting and Darkseid blasted me and I think that blew me out of the timestream." After another pause, he admits, "I mean, I'll figure that last part out, I'm here about -you-."

Tony Stark listens solemnly, then nods. He takes it all in, and his mind starts whirring. "I take it this Darkseid and Apokolips are a couple of badasses, then." he says, steepling his fingers. He holds up a hand, "Don't say another word, Booster. You're right, you might affect things more than you have already. Concentrate on getting yourself home, and trust me to do the right things, okay?" he says, looking at the young man, eyebrows raised.

"But..." Booster knows he has already said too much, but he also wants to elaborate, tell Tony everything about it so that things will turn out differently. And then it occurs to him that even now, this might not change anything; there was something Superman had said about the situation, something Booster did not have time to reflect on due to the chaos and horror. "I do trust you, Mr. Stark. I know you did... will do the right thing." Getting unsteadily to his feet, Booster extends his bared hand to Tony, for a handshake. "It was an honor working with you, sir."

Tony Stark takes the hand, and nods. "Michael, it's been a genuine pleasure. The honor is all mine." he gives the young man a wink, "When you get back to your time, come find me. I'll tell you how I did it." the voice confident and cocksure.

"I will. I'm holding you to that." Booster grins faintly in response. He still looks tired and sad, but now there is a touch of hope. He refuses to believe it could be false hope. His eyes widen, then, and he hurriedly steps back from Tony. His irises are glowing, faintly at first, and then so brightly that the light glints from nearby reflective surfaces. "Oh boy, here I go again..." Booster manages to take a few stumbling strides backwards before the pale blue light coruscates over him, and he vanishes. There is a 'whoomf' of inrushing air, the friction causing a small flicker of fire to hang there for a second before it fizzles out.

Tony blinks at the man who whoomfs and leaves, "Gotta admit, that's one helluva light show."

Still. There was a lot to think about. So he died, eh? Well, if it was saving Superman he couldn't ask for a more noble way to go - and everyone's gotta do it at least once, right? Sounds like he just has the luxury of knowing when his number is up.

"JARVIS -- find me a good probate attorney, someone who can make expedite my last will and testament and power of attorney."

"Yes, sir." the AI replies and after a moment, "I have found a local firm, sir. The offices of Murdock and Nelson. Shall I ring them for you?"

"Yeah, but before you do that, I want this kept private. Lock out everyone else, including Pepper, and I want to start a new project. Call it Project Arsenal. You're to build one of every prototype advanced weapon we've got ready for production stage. When you're done with that, call the lawyers, and then we've got some recording to do..."