The Rescuers...Abroad?

It had been a hard few weeks since Safi had left. Hard, but Chris had managed, right up until Safi had started to draw more and more healing from him, needing it. It was constant and exhausting now and Christian was worried. Had been worried, really, but alone, he knew he wasn’t much of a fighter, and so yes, he had known that he should grab someone who was. Tony had presented the perfect option; he was awesome in combat, every bit as capable and competent as Captain America in his suit, and a genius to boot, not to mention everything else he could do!

Tony had needed some time, so Chris had taken the opportunity to go to his room, gather his things, arrange everything neatly in his satchel, and waited on the couch. And fell asleep. But Tony woke him, and helped him get himself back in order so they could leave.

It was fortunate that he just happened to have a portal already created that would lead to his room. Portals weren’t easy to make at the best of times, and this was hardly one of those. Traveling within his world would be easier and faster anyway, so he led Tony to what he affectionately called the portal room. It was a surprise that they weren’t going alone, but Christian accepted the added assistance without complaint, simply offering a grateful smile as he brought everyone to the room and activated the portal before stepping through, Jonah hovering over his shoulder as he did so.

The other side of the portal was rather unimpressive. The portal led directly to Christian’s bedroom in the apartment he shared with Safi, quiet, soft, quaint, there were a few pictures on the walls, a couple of pieces of furniture, and the door that led to the rest of the apartment. He moved with confidence here, with the purpose of someone who knew this place and belonged here, leading them out of the room toward the living area. They could all hold out there while Christian determined where to go next via the amulet.

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Silver gossamer thread spilled out from his needle, slipping through the folds in space and time, the rip in his goddamn universe. What would be great, just super was if mages would stop playing the fabric of reality, or if they really felt the need to do so maybe NOT in the middle of an apartment complex!

James ‘Jimmy’ Buchanan tied off the complex web of light and magic hooked to the material focus of a plain 99c store sewing needle. His hands were tied, oaths given stopped him from doing what he really wanted to, so all he could do was the one thing Rob couldn’t even if he wasn’t-

Right focus, cover the tracks of the moron that got Rob into this mess, he wasn’t even trapping the loser, the Gotham portal was ‘naturally’ created and being monitored by the US department of Mysteries so Verglas could deal with them when he got back, and register like a good little mage. Right now Jimmy needed to clean the apartment the Rob would never be coming back to, he’d already taken care of the personal effects; boxing things to go to Sara and Rachel along the Wassem’s when they were finally told something like the truth.

The careful spell work was ripped apart when the portal decided to pick NOW to open just when he was about to close the thing fully.

Jimmy sprang back, silver ripples of magic covering his arm giving it a nearly armored appearance, a hint to the shields and protections tattooed onto it hidden by his long coat. “Well fuck.” he commented seeing who had come to visit.

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Tony stepped through the portal, focused but not entirely on edge, yet. Chris was beside him, radiating worry under his usual calm facade, while his pet roomba hovered near his shoulder. Tony was keeping a bead of attention on the ache in his leg, sending it Chris's way, and he hoped it was doing what it was supposed to. He hated magic. Justin beside him was more familiar, and he ignored the tug of nostalgia for days before registration. They had work to do.

On the other side of the portal was Safi's and Chris's apartment, which he'd never seen before, and couldn't help be a little curious about. Not only was it his (ex) lover's apartment, it was going to be a picture of a life he could've had. An alternate universe where he and Steve had-- nope, not going down that road either.

He certainly wasn't expecting to step through the portal and see...Bucky?

Not his Bucky, obviously, who he'd sent on his way with Steve's shield a few months ago. A rather manic-looking Bucky with something shimmering over his arm (where his own would have had a limb of metal), who swore as soon as they stepped though.

Yeah. Not suspicious at all.

Tony immediately raised his hands, repulsors pointed at not-Bucky. "Chris?" he said. "This guy supposed to be here?"

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A few weeks working as an interdimensional doctor had done Justin some good, but he'd missed being suited up. He was a good doctor, and he'd always liked being a doctor, but he'd always been a soldier at heart, and it hadn't been until he was an Avenger that he'd really felt alive. Now here he was, backing up Tony and... well, a guy who looked like another Tony to save a guy that looked like Steve. The cape, the blaster, the staff... he'd forgotten just how wrong it felt to not have them with him, and he was amazed that he could forget something like this.

He didn't know the stakes here, but his understanding was that the world they were going to at least had the same sort of super-hero setup as theirs (if not as extensive). Probably they were going to be up against something comparable to an Avengers-level threat, which suited him just fine. That this was a personal mission and not a save-the-world mission... well, that was nothing new either.

The guy trying to stitch up the portal from the other side, though? Well, that was sort of new.

"You know, the thing I can never figure out is how we can see world after world, but it always comes back to the same faces," Justin commented, hefting his staff as he took a spot next to Tony. It wasn't like he was calling any shots on this mission, but if this was someone who needed a repulsor blast, a whack from a magic staff probably wouldn't be out of order.

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James Buchanan 'Bucky' Barnesl would be the last to call himself a tech genius. Literally the last, since he believed even Stark would say it before he did. What he did have however, was a lot of training in espionage, and a girlfriend who was fully capable of giving him access to the tower's video feeds when he confirmed he just wanted to make sure Tony didn't hurt his friend. The point being that he heard about the mission to rescue Safi, and showed up to help out.

He wasn't going as far as the weird artificial face masks shield had created, but he still had the baseball cap and scarf combo that he knew from practice was pretty effective at hiding his face. It was just another reason that Bucky was grateful for winter. Not only was it more comfortable to him now, after years spent in the cold, but it was also the one time a year that he got off with wearing thick gloves and no one even thought to question it. And considering this friendship with Safi had started when Bucky got punched for looking like Jimmy- He figured it was pretty important to hide his identity.

He'd even made the sacrifice of stowing his rifle in his backpack. Sure he still had three pistols and fourteen knives strapped to various parts of his body without even mentioning the lockpicks- but the rifle and even the shotgun were packed. For the time being. Bucky expected that would change.

He followed through the portal. Not going first, since it wasn't his place to, but as soon as he did go through, he launched himself at the man standing in the room without thought. Assassin training kicked in, moving to put a knife to his doppelganger's throat, and attempt to pin him where he couldn't hurt any of the others.

Bucky growled, winter soldier instincts in play before he knew what else to do. "You're not supposed to be here." His mind offered automatically. Another facet of the first meeting with Safi- unless this guy was on shore leave, Bucky was pretty confident he was supposed to be on deployment.

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Small, often vulnerable, nearly always overlooked and discounted, Christian was beyond what might have been reasonable fury. He had logic behind everything he thought, behind his suspicion that this man, this intruder into his home, was at least partially responsible for Safi’s continuous injury. It was all in what he knew about the James Buchanan of his universe: he had been Safi’s best friend, and he had betrayed him horribly. What else was Christian supposed to believe, knowing what he did?

“You!” The word came out as little more than a growl, spoken even as the little man moved forward. Chris was small, but he was fast and determined, listening to the voice in his head that told him that he needed to hurt James Buchanan back for Safi. That this man didn’t deserve kindness or pacifism, or understanding. That he deserved it hurt even a fraction of what Safi was....

Bucky, as he closed in on Jimmy, would find himself unable to move forward, as though his feet weighed more than he was able to move. Jonah stopped when Bucky did, the little roomba beeped and chirped at him rapidly. The moment Christian made contact with Jimmy, the spell broke, but until then, Bucky would find himself unable to move any closer.

He saw the protections the other man wore, and on another day, under other, better circumstances, he might have eagerly started a friendly conversation, offering some of his own spells to learn some of those this man already knew. Perhaps a shield that didn’t have to hurt someone attacking you, or that darn invisibility spell that he seemed incapable of making work. But now all Christian saw was this man who had hurt the person he loved dearly. The little magician wasn’t alone, far from. He had two Avengers with him, and meek as he was, he was far from helpless. Instead of a friendly conversation, however, Christian threw himself at the man, trusting his own shield to protect him from what magic it was on the other man.

It wasn’t like Chris didn’t know how to throw a punch. He absolutely knew how. He just... didn’t. Until today. Until faced with this man who had done so much injury to Safi, and was even now trying to keep him from healing and saving the soldier turned bodyguard turned something so much more. Even as he rushed the bigger man, Christian swung, his aim good, putting everything he had into the blow to Jimmy’s jaw, enacting the violence he abhorred that the sphere and his own rage pushed him into. His concentration on his magics, the shield was cast and done, it would last few a few blows before he’d either cast it again or take whatever Jimmy threw back at him. The magic he couldn’t let go of, however, were two threads of magic; a thick cord of energy that were constantly flowing to Safi directly from Christian, and the thinner, weaker line of what little Christian was actually taking from Tony. Enough to feed him, to keep him going, but nowhere near enough to hurt the other man. Even affected by the orb as he was, Christian wouldn’t hurt Tony, he wouldn’t come anywhere near it. But he couldn’t stop healing Safi, either.

“Where is he?!” The little man roared the question at Safi’s once-friend. “What are you doing to him?!” The second question had an ache to it, a desperation that Tony would recognize as the same panic Chris had expressed when he had realized he’d fallen asleep.

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Do you know what it is to be doing you job, doing a favor for a friend and have a littleral horde jump you from a multidimensional portal? Sad thing was that Jimmy wished this was the first time something like this happened. “Down!” the word was a focus for the vibrant scarlet snakes of power spinning out around the limbs of the Avengers, formed from the shards of silver threads still wrapped around where the portal sliced into his reality. The group walked right into the web, and Jimmy was a good enough combat mage to change the intent of the power from binding the portal to binding those that came through it. He hardly felt the rip into his soul at the unexpected spontaneous magic tearing another tiny piece of his memories away.

His first hint at what exactly was coming to separate his head from his shoulders was when the vibrant red strands slid off the heavily built man with the FUCKING FAMILIAR VOICE. “Neither are you!” Jimmy snarled, realizing instantly why his magics, magics he’d crafted by habit to not affect him slid off his doppleganger.

Of course this being his life and combat Jimmy ALSO had to worry about Rob’s boy toy and fucking mage, his web almost bounced off the ass hole- light flared as the shields meant to bounce the attack back met-(where did Chris think Safi learned the spell?) harmonizing audibly in a painful ear splitting shriek-

Jimmy was good, one of the best, but he was caught off foot, and his concentration was split between the man attacking him with familiar magic, the guy that was slipped through his web because his magic recognized him, and the pair of he guessed capes already fighting the web-

“I didn’t do SHIT to him! THIS IS ON YOU!”

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Tony had thought bringing Bucky--another Bucky that was not his Bucky--was a terrible idea. He'd wanted a team he could trust, with team members who were stable and not murderous and able to pull off a potentially delicate mission. But, he'd deferred to Chris's judgment, because maybe this other Bucky wasn't like the man Tony knew.

No such luck.

But then everything else was going to hell, Bucky was frozen and Chris was punching the Bucky lookalike and screaming in his face and magic energy was flying back and forth, and Tony figured there probably wasn't much else to do here except damage control.

He glanced at Justin, then nodded to the aside, indicating that he was heading around the room to surround not-Bucky and that Justin should do the same.

He used the suit to analyze the energy signature of the webbing surrounding them--a real pain in the ass to do without Extremis--then sent a nullifying jolt of his own through it. Hard to tell how the magic would respond, since not following the laws of physics was what made it magic in the first place, but he hoped for the best as he jetted around to hover behind not-Bucky, repulsors at the ready.

"You're surrounded!" Tony barked, then turned his attention on Chris. The short flight had sent savage pain through Tony's leg and his voice came out rougher than he'd intended as he talked through it. "Chris. We need him to talk. Can you restrain him or are we going to have to get creative, here?"

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Well, this was bound to be productive. Justin had seen spur-of-the-moment villain fights, and this? This wasn't what they were seeing. This had 'personal' written all over it. It was sloppy, it was emotional, and it probably had nothing to do with what they were there for. Still, he might be wrong, and this might be relevant, so Justin kept his mouth shut and just worried about the fact that he was caught up in some kind of magic web. Of the four of them, only he and Tony seemed to be caught up in it, which was patently unfair, but then Justin wasn't exactly without resources here, He worked his hands into his cape, grabbing onto it tightly and flexing the enchanted fabric out away from his body, straining it against the magic of the web. Once he had enough room to move it, he braced his staff against his foot, swinging it the few inches he could into the silvery magic threads and focusing the staff's impact-enhancing magic against it. A small charge from the staff could break down a solid metal door, he'd found. He used considerably more than that, of course, but it was still enough to snap the threads of the spell that it hit, and the pressure from the cape flexing out from his body unraveled it further until Justin was gliding away from the dissipating silvery vapor.

He flanked on the other side of Tony, drawing his blaster as he did. Whether he was going to fire at the even-more-emo Bucky or at Christian remained to be seen.

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Later, when he came to his sense, this was going to hurt. There was, when he swung at Jimmy, very little rational thought going through his head; the magician was tired, having barely slept in days and to top it off, he was furious. This man had no right or reason to be in Safi’s and his apartment, in his room. He was part of the group, the vague ‘them’ that was hurting Safi, he had to be, or he wouldn’t be here, trying to cut Chris off from coming back home. Later, once he’d had rest and wasn’t worried out of his mind and trying to heal a man who felt like he was dying, Chris would feel terrible. Now, though, the only regret he had was the horrible noise the shields made as they collided.

That wasn’t what stole Christian’s breath away as though he’d been punched, though. It wasn’t the actions of the Avengers, or Tony’s rough question. It wasn’t even the flood of energy Tony’s pain threw at him. It was the simply shouted line from the man Christian had tried and failed to hit.

I didn’t do SHIT to him! THIS IS ON YOU!”

There was a brief pause while Christian sucked in another deep breath, a war being fought in his eyes between anger and the fear that this man was right, that this was Chris’ fault.

Had he been too selfish? Had he pushed Safi into doing something that he shouldn’t have? He didn’t know. ”How?!” The word wasn’t screamed or shouted, it was a question that demanded an answer, yes, but it was still a question nonetheless. ”How is this my fault? I haven’t done anything!”

Could he restrain the man? ”I’d have to get through his shield first.” He almost sounded calm, and he was proud of that, regardless of the fact that he was all but shaking. Looking at Jimmy, Christian asked again, “Where is he and what are they doing to him? He’s hurt.” Safi was hurt, and Chris wasn’t certain how much longer he’d be able to keep his healing up with the injuries.

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‘You’re surrounded.’ Jimmy’s toothy feral smile showed what he thought of that proclamation; the jokers might be good, damn good to react that quickly to his webs but this was his world.

And Jimmy Buchanan had been taught in a brutal school to never surrender, to always find another way.

Half a blink of thought was all it took to slice open his palms from the inside, he slammed the bloody handprints down on the hardwood, staining the once living material with his own life force. Sullen scarlet zipped out no one in the room would feel a thing, in fact no one in the building would either but - “Mine.” Jimmy looked up at the ‘leader’ which was either the tin can or capey face - “All of them.” the eyes that looked up at them were pupiless black. “Every life in this building is tied to me now. Knock me out, they die.” an orb pulsated between his upturned palms. “I could be bluffing-” he wasn’t at least not completely, he hadn’t grabbed everyone, only those that had lived there long enough and were currently touching something part of the building that had once been living...like the hardwood floor.

Jimmy was a combat mage, more specifically he was a what in another world would have been called a Death Druid. Everything that was once living was his bailiwick. The magic he used was was also inherently unnatural, and he paid for the power with pieces of his own mind...and body.

“But If you guys are as goodie as Rob said-” he nodded towards the other side of the room, “Ya’ll listen ta reason and get over there and out of your armor and weapons.” he flashed that manic grin at Chris. “Than maybe we can have a little ‘chat’ before I kick your asses back out of my universe.”

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And wasn't this whole thing just going from bad to worse.

Justin had pulled free, finally, and seemed to be the only other person in the room even remotely interested in containing the situation.

Chris... Chris was not helping. Tony understood his rage and fear--god, did he--but he'd learned a long time ago that emotions like that were only good in a fight if they could be channeled. Chris was all over the place, throwing his power around and yelling and in another breath begging for answers and then demanding them. And Tony had felt the pull on his energy, could still feel it as his lower leg ached.

"Then get through his shield!" Tony snapped at Chris.

Meanwhile not-Bucky--Jimmy, apparently--was enchanting the fucking floor. Or something. God, Tony hated magic.

So they couldn't knock Jimmy out. Or so he said. That left several other options.

"Let us go," Tony said coldly, hovering so that he was directly in front of Jimmy, his repulsors aimed at Jimmy's bleeding palms. "You want to keep those hands you do your magic with? Let us go. Or we'll find out just how strong this shield of yours really is."
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Oh, is that how this was going to go? Fuck that. When they were done with this, Justin was going to make sure to give himself a good grounding in magic and what to do about it, because this was just getting so. Fucking. Old. Also, he was done with this little dick-measuring match that Chris and More-Emo-Bucky seemed to be stuck in.

“Sorry,” Justin said, and as Tony focused his aim, so did he. His blaster aimed right at Jimmy’s head, and he even cocked back the hammer, just to make it click. It’d fire regardless, but priming the charge always got the point across better. “Now that you’ve made it pretty clear you’re the bad guy? Forget it. Not our world, so let me make the introductions. Us?” He nodded at Tony. “We're the Avengers, and yeah, we're the good guys. Maybe we aren’t going to just do something to kill a building full of people, but if you do?” His smile grew seriously nasty at that. It might not be what Steve would have done, but Justin’s tour of duty in the military had been in a much more savage age in many ways. “You don't want to give us something to avenge. You kill a single innocent bystander here, and we will fucking end you, whether or not this is all a big misunderstanding or not. The soft touches got left behind in there,” he said, nodding at the place they’d come through. "We're the ones that do whatever the fuck it takes." And oh god, he hoped that Tony backed his big talk here.

Then, for good measure, he glanced over at Chris. “And that goes for anyone that does something stupid that gets someone killed right now.”

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Bucky had been only a little shocked to be locked in place by Chris's magic- certainly not enough that it kept him in place for anything more than the second necessary. Bucky had been fighting control in his head for years now- and having his mind back, being controlled physically wasn't anything he was unprepared for.

And then there was more magic- and Hell. Buck was fairly confident he was well and truly out of his depth. Even though the spell slid uncomfortably past him- catching only for a moment on the artificial limb- Bucky had already switched postures. From aggressive to cautious. He may have spent nearly eighty years as an assassin, but he had been a soldier before that, and so even though part of his mind was categorically marking every passage out of the room as well as what present would make the best improvised weapons- Bucky was standing still and waiting for instructions from someone smarter about magic.

Well, short of the blood magic. See- Bucky could be a loose cannon, but he was an avenger too, and that meant trying to do right by the innocents. It was easy enough to read his doppelganger's face for signs of deception- Bucky knew that face better than almost any other, and he knew how it moved. He could see in Jimmy's words that while it wasn't the full truth, it wasn't a full deception either.

Looking at the others, Bucky shifted to a more casual stance. The others had their weapons trained on Jimmy- and those who had met a Bucky knew he didn't need to be aiming to react fast enough. Bucky instead flipped the knife in his hands idly between his fingers before starting to throw it up and down, catching it in his flesh hand. "I won't pretend to know- but what would happen if I were to bleed on your careful spell work? According to your net spell, we're the same down to our cells, so I'd think it would be interesting." Bucky shrugged slightly and looked at Chris.

"Could you pull apart his spell using his dna?" He asked, coolly, one eye still trained on Jimmy, the knife continuing its cycle of being thrown and caught while he waited.

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Jimmy could have been bluffing, but Christian was a magician, one trained in magic by a master of the mystic arts. Agatha had only had Chris for a few months, but she’d taught him a lot about magic. There was still plenty that he didn’t know, of course, but he knew when someone was casting serious (and dangerous) magic. He knew that while Jimmy might be exaggerating about just how many people he had in his grasp, he wasn’t bluffing that he was indeed holding people’s lives hostage. Innocent people, even. “Stop.” The single word wasn’t precisely a command, but it wasn’t a simple request, either.

He moved, straightening up, eyes taking in the terrible magic Jimmy had cast. “Stop the spell. You don’t need to do this.” He kept the cord of nearly golden energy steadily feeding into Safi, healing him as much as he could afford. Keeping Safi alive. But while Christian slowly regenerated his magical reservoir, that took time, which was swiftly running out. “As terrible a person as you are, there has to be something redeemable about you or Safi would never have called you a friend. So let these people go.” I hurt to even talk to the man, this man who had hurt Safi, who didn’t even seem like he cared about what was what happening to Safi now.

“I don’t really care about talking to you past you telling me where Safi is.” Chris frowned at Jimmy, “All I want, the only reason I’m here at all, is because he’s hurt. I want to help him. Free and heal him. Then I’ll leave our universe.”

Justin was talking, but the thing was… Christian didn’t know Justin. To the magician, the caped Avenger was just some friend of Tony’s he’d never heard of before. So, the guy making threats against him for…he didn’t even know why? Not welcomed. Chris narrowed his eyes at the man. “Just to be clear?” Avenger or not, this was ridiculous, “I’m here to save Safi’s life. This place? This is Safi and my apartment, in our world.” Because he wasn’t going to be threatened in his home when he was trying to get Buchanan to not hurt anyone. “Not to mention that this guy already spelled out for you that if you kill him, the people in this building are going to die. So the one doing something stupid would you be when you’re threatening to end him.” His voice was even, not a threat, but pointing out what Justin should already have figured out. This man had walked into Christian’s home, hell, they were standing in his bedroom, and he was making threats. No, Christian hadn’t missed the gun being pointed at him, thank you ever so much. He was well aware of the situation they were in.

Bucky’s question was a good one, and Chris considered the magic, the magician, involved before he shook his head slowly. “It might work. Maybe. But it’s very possible that a lot of people die that way, too. The spell’s cast. We need him to drop it without letting it kill people here.” He turned his gaze back to Jimmy, “So, you have a choice here. You can prove yourself a villain and keep threatening innocent bystanders, or you can let your spell go harmlessly and we can discuss how to proceed peacefully. I’d prefer the second.”

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Jimmy Just chuckled; “Love guys that take the high ground of casualties they caused to die.” Because he laid out the path, and from aromor guy to Sir capes a lot they were putting that on HIS soul. Like they had no choice.

Fucking Hypocrites.

The fluid orb in his palm cast a sullen bloody light on his features; features that were shared by another - “Wanna risk it? Might just trigger the spell. Since it’s hooked to my health.” He sneered at the man wearing his face.

He’d been trying not to look at him, not see him with eyes more than human; because he could see the dead flesh, the grafted and broken places.

There was something unnerving even for him about reading the decay of his counterpart on another world. One where he wasn’t a mage, but hadn’t escaped being a soldier, and experiment.

Robs boy toy took his temper in hand, which was more than he expected - “You don’t get it. Your world? You gave up this world. Safi-“ pain flashed across his eyes - pain for a friend lost, one who wasn’t coming back - “He told me to clean up. And that means everything. Even your pissant home.” The hardness returned to his features “So do it. Knock me out. Kill me. Kill them and blame it on me. But i am not letting you further into my world.” He’d offered his compromise and they’d refused. Bucky might be able to read his expression, this was him on a mission, the tight expression held worlds for a man who knew his face. James was doing a last favor for his oldest friend.

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Justin's posturing made Tony want to roll his eyes and point out that they all knew this nutjob Jimmy had all the power in this situation and, more importantly, Jimmy being a nutjob meant he was infinitely more likely to call their bluff and kill every person in the room regardless.

But, hey, big picture. If Justin wanted to go this route, it would be counterproductive at best to point out the reality of the situation. It wasn't like they had a considerably better option.

"What he said," Tony said, nodding at Justin.

Then Bucky had to go ahead and make things interesting.

And Chris had to--damn it. Didn't he know a bluff even he saw one? All this touchy-feely shit was exactly what Tony had been hoping to avoid: counterproductive.

Which seemed to be Jimmy's take as well, except...

"Safi told you to do this?" Tony asked, genuinely curious. "What the hell does that mean?"

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Christian was nearly always polite. In fact, like most gentle-people from the south, the more polite Christian was toward you the less he actually liked you. If he were comfortable enough to snark and tease, then you were in his very best graces. The only exceptions were happening in this very room: he had punched a man unprovoked, he was all but scowling at the entire situation playing out in his bedroom, of all places, he was practically bristling. But the candy-sweet, simpering smile he aimed at Jimmy? It was the most polite of smiles that were usually reserved for the likes of Gabriella and Camilla Espinosa, “Pots and kettles.”

He had given up this world? Christian’s confusion showed on his face, he didn’t understand what Jimmy was talking about. Christian hadn’t turned his back on his world; he came back regularly, went to work just like always… Jonah stayed in Hub, but that was primarily because the little roomba was safer and more accepted there. He didn’t have to hide in Hub.

Something cold and dark and barbed wrapped itself around his heart when Jimmy said that Safi had been the one to tell Jimmy to ‘clean up.’ “Wait,” it was a request, quiet and gentle and confused, “What do you mean, I gave up this world? I have a job here, a home…” Chris frowned, “Don’t insult our home. It’s only an apartment, but it’s…” Christian met Jimmy’s eyes, “It’s our home.”

Sighing, Christian held himself straight with the air of a man who was struggling to do that much. “I don’t want to hurt or kill you or anyone else. All I want,” he reiterated, “All I want, is to see Safi. To heal him, and make sure he is free and safe. Why is that such a problem for you? What is wrong with me wanting to see him?” His tone was even and calm, confused but willing to listen if he’d get actual answers.

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