Tony's Secret Lab, Abandoned Warehouse District, Wednesday Evening

[dollpocalypse]

Topher flung the door open with more force than he'd ever realized he was capable of, his heart pounding. That was partially from having run all the way here while crying, though the helpless grief and rage battling inside him was also a close second. He couldn't remember ever feeling like this before -- like he'd just lost something completely irreplacable and there was nothing he could do. He couldn't fix it with science or programming or anything without at least a scan of Tony's brain and a wildly undeserved medical degree. It was just... just the worst thing ever.

He kicked the floor, and then, finding that unhelpful, threw the phone and that stupid orb he was still holding onto the ground and hurled a hard punch at the wall.

Fuck, that hurt.

But it did kill some of the helpless feeling, at least. Now there was just... grief.

With a choked sob, Topher collapsed down to the floor with his back to the wall, cradling his bleeding hand and just hating everything.

[[I'M SORRY. HE JUST HAS A LOT OF FEELINGS. for two, and NFB.]]

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[wwiii]

Warren had been hanging out here since... well...

Since he'd decided that accidentally bumping into certain persons in the dorms would be a bad idea, and Tony had been nice enough to offer him a place to hunker down and hide. What he hadn't really been expecting was the flying phone and the crack of knuckles against wall, and...

"Hey...?"

It sounded like somebody was having a day that was kind of like his month.

[dollpocalypse]

Topher... had not expected to be spoken to.

He looked up, made out a blurry winged figure through vision that was compromised due to tears, and choked out, "Hey."

Oh god, he hated today.

[wwiii]

You know, for all that Warren didn't care for being poked at, a crying Topher had a funny way of kind of tugging at his heartstrings. Go figure.

"You... hit your hand pretty hard, there," he ventured, making his way over and crouching down nearby. "What's up?"

He could guess.

[dollpocalypse]

"I don't wanna talk about it," Topher mumbled, screwing up his face as more tears threatened to fall.

And it wasn't like there was one person -- maybe two -- in the whole world who had the potential to trigger this kind of response from him, or anything.

[wwiii]

Yeah. If it wasn't Tony, it was Peter, Warren figured. He wasn't going to pry too deeply. Not if Topher didn't feel up to talking.

Was it bad that he was hoping it was Peter? Selfishly so, granted. Tony was... one of the last friends he had left in the world, really. So.

He made a reach for Topher's hand. After the punch he'd given the wall, he wouldn't be surprised if he'd managed to do some pretty serious harm to his knuckles, and if he wasn't going to talk, the least he could do would be a little first-aid.

"Then you don't have to talk," he promised, softly. "Can I see?"

[dollpocalypse]

Topher swallowed, then stuck out his hand and managed quietly, "Yeah."

Finally, ducking his head to avoid eye contact as Warren went for his hand, he near-whispered, "It's Tony."

[wwiii]

Warren swallowed a lump in his own throat at that, one of his hands balling into a fist tight enough for his claws to break skin.

Tony. He'd been afraid of that.

"... How...?"

He turned Topher's hand over carefully in his own, in the one that wasn't bleeding, and he exhaled. Oh, that was bad. His eyebrows furrowed a little, and then he covered Topher's knuckles with the palm of his other hand, the one that was bleeding, and just held it there. Held it there like some weird mutant with a freaky healing factor, who happened to be bleeding anyhow.

God damn it, Tony.

[dollpocalypse]

Topher stared down and watched Warren work. It was easier than looking up at his face, anyway, even if looking down meant looking at blood and it was gross and there were stupid tears splashing down on his hand like he was some kind of girl or something...

"He, um." Topher cleared his throat. "He was trying to fix... you know. It."

The multiverse. You know. As you do.

"And he touched the, um, the weird cloud thing. And just... disappeared."

[wwiii]

"Just by touching it?"

Okay. So keeping their distance was absolutely mandatory. Good to know.

Warren pulled his hand away for a moment to see if his blood was doing Topher's hand any good. His own palm had already healed, and after a moment's consideration, he pressed his claws into his own skin, and then covered Topher's knuckles again. This time should do it, he figured.

"We'll get him back, you know."

[dollpocalypse]

"Yeah. Just touching it."

Topher watched his hand heal, feeling... surprisingly numb about it. Warren's blood had just fixed his hand through some kind of awesome mutant powers, and Topher couldn't bring himself to be a nerd about it.

"He was gonna fix everything," he said softly, still staring down. "We can't just get him back. No one else knows how."

Inappropriate pedestal-putting-on, thy name was Brink.

[wwiii]

"I know it'll take more than a couple of us to live up to Tony Stark," Warren offered, managing to keep his tone level in spite of the somewhat wry words he was speaking, "but... I think it can be done. There happen to be more than a few of us left. And it isn't like reality hasn't broken around here before, even before Tony was a student here."

... Rapture. Warren suppressed a shudder as he re-claimed his hand.

"People just have to stay safe long enough to figure it out. And then we'll get Tony back, and everyone's homes, and... everything."

The false bravado was pretty much the only thing keeping Warren from suffering a complete psychotic break, yes.

[dollpocalypse]

"No, we won't," mumbled Topher, the voice of optimism. "Nothing's ever gonna be good anymore 'cause he's not here anymore and everything sucks and -- and -- I should've gotten eaten by whatever it was instead, 'cause he's the only one on this whole stupid planet who can do anything useful and he didn't even like me anyway."

You're welcome, Warren.

[wwiii]

This was going well.

"You're giving up? Just like that?" Warren's brow furrowed a little bit. "Instead of trying to save him, or any of it? I mean, if there's any one person who won't stay down for the count, it's Tony. I'd give him, like, a week tops before he's beating that big dark void right in its stupid face from the inside, you know."

Just keep sounding confident. Keep sounding sure of this. Even if Warren didn't feel it for an instant. Even if he didn't believe it in the least. Maybe it was what Topher needed to hear. Tony was invincible. Tony could do no wrong.

"Maybe he's not even gone, you know. Maybe he's just somewhere else. I mean, what do Auditors do? Normal ones, you know? When they take something, they don't make it disappear. They put it in the bank. They hold on to it. What would the point be in destroying it all?"

He didn't believe that, either. But at least the logic was sound.

[dollpocalypse]

Topher managed to crack the tiniest of smiles at the visual of Tony beating up the whatever-this-was. Because he would, because he was Tony and he could do anything. Maybe he had this.

But then Warren kept going and Topher chewed on his lip, uncertain. "But -- if he isn't gone, then what if they're, like, hurting him somewhere?"

[wwiii]

"Considering the amount of Tony Starks they've grabbed through the entire multiverse? I think they'd really, really have their hands full if they wanted to hurt any one of them," Warren offered. All of the bullshitting he'd done with Wesley and Bobby were starting to pay off, apparently. "But, just to be on the safe side, we'll have to work doubly hard over here, you know? To make it easier for him to get out again."

It was like trying to give a pep-talk to a five-year-old who'd just lost his puppy. Warren kind of found himself wanting to give the kid a hug.

... And decided against it.

[dollpocalypse]

Warren. Honestly now. Topher was the sad, lost puppy. Tony was the five-year-old who'd decided to touch the dark cloud of Nothing.

And the genius who knew better? That would be neither of them.

"There's nothing else to do," Topher mumbled. "His tech -- he's smarter than me. It's too advanced. I won't be able to..."

Or you could go look and see for yourself, Topher.

[wwiii]

Warren glanced over his shoulder at the lab that he'd been trying not to pay too much attention to, really.

"You know that for a fact? I mean, have you gone through any of it before?" A beat. "I mean, if you're still not sure, you could help me research. Ender has me looking up people with genetic mutations, to see if there's any chance that the powers they're using to make that thing out there are biological."

Couldn't be farther from the truth, Warren.

[dollpocalypse]

That was... almost a possibility, but then Topher shook his head.

"I don't wanna touch his stuff," he said softly, even if there was a flicker of something in his expression that said that a part of him did want to. "I mean. It isn't mine. I... if it gets fixed, he'd be pissed if I just..."

[wwiii]

"That's fair," Warren replied, and then reached forward with the hand that wasn't kind of crusty with blood, aiming to give Topher a light bump on the shoulder. "Tell you what, then. I'll let you go through my books with me, okay? I know it isn't quite the same as all of Tony's high-tech stuff, but there's plenty in there about people who have the ability to send things to other realities. And we can, uh, wash our hands, too. They're kind of gross."

[dollpocalypse]

Topher let the bump connect, then nodded. "Yeah," he said, finally managing to slowly get to his feet. "Sinks are back there," he said with a nod toward wherever the sinks were, and he started to make his way over to one.

"Why are you here, anyway?" he asked quietly, once the water was running and the slight waver that still lingered in his voice could be drowned out by the splashing sound.

[wwiii]

Warren waited until Topher was on his feet before following along behind him.

"It's... kind of a long story. I got an invite here after a... falling out with Karla. It seemed like a better idea to keep me out of her way for a while, mostly." A beat. "It's actually pretty comfortable in here. Lots of room. It almost makes me want to invest in my own abandoned warehouse, sometime."

It wasn't even horrifying if he could ignore all the science stuff. And there was a place to put the rabbit cage, over there...

[dollpocalypse]

"I'll go halfsies with you," Topher offered. There wasn't much humor behind it, mainly because, you know, his role model and favorite person in the whole world had been zapped out of reality -- but in some universe where people rarely laughed, if ever, that was meant to be a joke.

"What happened with Karla?" he asked, shutting off the water.

[wwiii]

Warren chewed on the inside of his cheek for a moment, and then shrugged. Why the hell not.

"She wanted to go home," he admitted, stepping up to take his own turn at the sink. The water could be totally fascinating while he spoke. Water was good for that, right. "She left a note, got as far as booking a portal and getting to the Causeway, and I kind of... stopped her. Made her stay behind. Apparently she doesn't like that sort of thing being decided for her."

You know. For whatever reason.

He attempted to sound mostly blasé as he spoke. Even while his insides were tying themselves in knots again.

[dollpocalypse]

"Oh."

Topher wanted to say that Warren should've let her go, because she was Karla and scary and stupid and he hated her stupid guts.

But... today he'd lost someone that he felt pretty strongly for. And he understood, sort of, how Warren must have felt at the thought of losing her.

Even though she sucked.

"Least she still exists," he offered finally. "'Cause of you, I guess."

A beat. Then, in a fit of optimism pessimism realism: "Unless it's gotten her since then. You know."

Yes. This was Topher helping.

[wwiii]

"Yeah," Warren sighed. "Unless it's gotten her since then."

Which wasn't a thought he wanted to entertain, really. If it just snapped her up now, then he really would loathe himself for creating that rift between the two of them. Keeping her away from her people in their final hours so that she could disappear... here.

He frowned, flicking the extra water from his fingers into the sink before turning the water off.

"How's your hand?"