"Welp, I'm checking out, you can clean out my room for the next drifter and/or serial killer who passes through"
The motel clerk looks up from his newspaper as I toss a few crumbled bills on the counter, "So, finally moving out, kraut? Almost sorry to see ya go, always nice to have renters who pay the damn bill, even if they spend most of their time out in the desert doing god knows what."
Huh, he's a bit more observant than I gave him credit for.
"Well, I appreciate the sentiment, but I've found somewhere slightly less terrifying to live."
....
Pretty much the first thing Iron Man did once the initial rush of post-battle victory had settled was to offer up his... I mean, his "employer, Mr Stark's" mansion as a club house for the new team, and a place to live for anyone who wanted it. Honestly, I can't think of a worse cover identity, considering that the whole point of a bodyguard is to, you know, GUARD your employer, which is a bit of an issue when you can't be in the same place at once, but I can't exactly point fingers in that department. While both Hank Pym and Janet Van Dyne have their own homes, and so does Thor in his Donald Blake identity, I for one was not going to turn down the chance of moving out of the motel/future meth lab that I was currently stuck in.
As such, after a quick dash across the state to pick up the few things I owned in this world, I found myself standing on the lawn in front of a massive, gilded-age mansion in the middle of Fifth Avenue in New York City. Moving from the middle of Bumfuck, Nowhere Arizona to one of the biggest and most iconic cities on Earth was a bit of a shock, to say the last. I wonder if having the Avengers and Fantastic Four living here would offset the frankly terrifying amount of urban decay New York went through in my own world? I mean, living here will be cool and all, but I could do without getting a personal tour of The Warriors in ten years...
"Quite a place, isn't it?" Iron Man's echoing voice brings me out of my thoughts "This is Mr Stark's family mansion, I'm afraid it hasn't seen much use since... his parents died, but he seemed quite happy that it will be inhabited again."
I nod "Sure as hell beats my old apartment, not to mention the place I was staying before. So it'll just be me and Hulk staying here then?" I like my space, but a six-level mansion seems a bit much for two people, even if one of them is a giant gamma mutate.
"Well you and Edwin Jarvis, he's Mr Stark's butler and caretaker of the mansion, if you need anything and neither me nor Mr Stark is around, just ask him." he pauses "I admit I'm surprised The Hulk was willing to move here as well, he's not too fond of cities from what I've heard..."
"Well, he wasn't happy, but..."
.....
"HULK HATE CITY OF TINY MEN! TINY MEN SCREAM AND CHASE HULK"
"Dude, I get it, believe me, New York is big, and it's full of very breakable things, but I think this could be good for you! You spend all your time all alone out in the middle of nowhere, it's no wonder you're anti-social. Well, that and people try to shoot you whenever you go anywhere, but you get my point. Besides, it's not like I'm asking you to take a stroll down Time Square, just come along and hang out at our new clubhouse for a while!"
Hulk thinks on it for a moment "HULK STAY, BUT HULK NOT HAPPY ABOUT IT!"
"Fair enough! Now, as of moving you in, I have a suggestion of how to do that quietly, but you might not like it..."
....
"Tell me, Iron Man, what exactly do you know of the Hulk's origins?"
He thinks of his answer for a second "...surprisingly little, now that I think of it. All Mr Stark has managed to find out was that he first appeared on a military testing ground last year, after some sort of secret weapon test, but anything else was buried so deep in the government files even he couldn't access it. Other than that, I doubt I know anything they haven't shown on the news. Why do you ask?"
"Because, since your employer opened up his home to us, there's someone I think you should meet." I lift my sunglasses, allowing my eyes to glow with light for a moment, and a slightly built, unassuming man with brown hair and glasses, dressed in a plain grey suit, suddenly rises from a bench outside the gates and makes his way through the opening towards us.
"Ah, hello, Iron Man, it's a pleasure to meet you..." He offers his hand, and Iron Man takes it after a moment of confusion.
"Um, hello... Are you the one Mr Sunshine thought I needed to meet?"
"Hrrm, well, yes. Sorry for my rather abrupt arrival, but Mr Sunshine suggested it might be better I arrive this way. My name is... Dr. Bruce Banner..."
I notice Iron Man's eyes widen in recognition through the lenses of his helmet.
"...but you know me better as... The Hulk."
.....
"...I've heard of your work of course, I mean, Mr Stark has told me about it, your work on gamma radiation was groundbreaking, but... no one's seen or heard from you for over a year! Mr Stark thought you may have been involved in a top secret military project of some sort, but..."
Iron Man is giving us a rather spotty tour of the mansions ground floor, though most of the actual touring has given way to his almost fanboyish gushing over Dr. Banners past work. He really needs to work on that if he's going to try to keep a secret identity, since there's no reason for Iron Man to be this enthusiastic about science. My guess is that Iron Man is going to make himself scarce as soon as possible, allowing Tony Stark to make an appearance in person.
Banner looks slightly surprised by Iron Man's enthusiam "Ah, well, I suppose he was right for the most part, I WAS involved in a top secret project... I don't want to go into details, but it involved weaponizing gamma radiation, but there was an incident... I did something stupid-"
"He saved a kid who accepted a stupid dare and wandered onto the test site." I interrupt. Banner turns around, shocked.
"How did you find out about that?"
I raise an eyebrow at him "You've met Rick Jones, right? He's not exactly shy talking about what a hero you are and how much of this is all his fault, that kid would go the whole sidekick route if you let him."
Iron Man chuckles "Mr Sunshine is quite right about Jones, I only met him for about ten minutes, he really is quite taken with you"
Banner pulls off his glasses, and rubs his forehead "That boy... I've told him repeatedly to stay out of the Hulks way, he just doesn't understand how dangerous all of this is..."
I shrug "If he was good at grasping risk, I don't think he'd have wandered onto a test site in the first place. Being a teenager is all about doing ridiculous and dangerous things. In Rick's case, that was a bit of an extreme, but still!"
"Too true, but now, let us speak of more pleasant things!" Iron Man steps in, motioning for us to follow as he stomps down the hallway "On such short notice, Mr Stark has only had time to prepare your living quarters, but he's got some plans for further development of the mansions lower floors that I think you'll both find quite impressive...."
....
Iron Man ends up leading me to a luxurious room that's literally twice the size of my old apartment, filled with old and expensive-looking furniture. Granted, that's not exactly a high bar, but it still feels almost intimidating. I sit down on the huge, four-poster bed and let my backpack slip down by the side, staring out through the panoramic windows that take up most of the eastern walls, overlooking a second-story balcony with a view of the grounds outside, and New York City beyond. It's almost eerily quiet, with only the muffled and distant sounds of traffic coming from the outside, and almost no sound from inside the mansion itself.
I pull the bandana down from my face, and lie back on the bed, staring up at the drapes surrounding the bed itself, probably some silk monstrosity that cost more than I'd make in a year. For a moment I feel so out of place in the room I almost miss the creepy motel. I hold my hand up, letting the light sparkle between my fingers as I let my mind wander.
And I realize I hadn't really thought of what to do after this.
Thinking about it now makes me feel ridiculous, but it's only now, after the dust has settled, that I didn't really think of what to do other than "join the Avengers", because that was the first idea that popped into my head once I realized where I had ended up and what date it was.
It's 1963, I'm a mutant, and as of right now, a founding Avenger. Jeez, when I actually think of it like that, it sounds insane!
Do I tell anyone where I came from? Do I tell Stark, or Banner, or even Pym? They might believe me, it's not like it's the craziest shit that's ever happened in this world, hell it's not even close! But then what? Would that change anything? I mean, I got a bunch of metaknowledge no one else does, but a lot of it is pretty vague...
I sit up with a start, the lights in my hand dissapating. Shit, forget the superhero stuff, what about all the historical events? There's so many good people who are going to die in the future, and I could stop all of it! Martin Luther King, the Kennedy's... wait, did JFK even die in the Marvelverse? I remember a story where he was saved, but that might have been a What If...
There's also Vietnam, but I don't think I can stop a war by myself, even with these powers... Maybe I can convince the other Avengers to come out against it, maybe that would take away some of it's support if nothing else.
Shit, I gotta start watching a lot more news, if I'm going to do this...
A knock on the door breaks me out of my thoughts "Uh, yeah, come on in!"
The door creaks open, revealing a handsome man with dark hair and a goatee, dressed in a sharp business suit.
"Hello there, I'm Anthony Stark! I thought I'd drop by to see my new tenants in person!"