8 Ch8. The insanity called...

The reporters finally got the hint and left... which meant it was the time for Tony to leave for New York.

He was on his way out for the following few days when Pepper stopped him.

"Tony..." She nervously started, raising Tony's interest in what she wanted. He didn't remember many situations where Pepper was nervous. "I and Happy will not be coming to work tomorrow. Will you be fine without us?"

Tony blinked at her in confusion. "Er... okay? Can I ask why or is it something super secret?" He asked with a teasing undertone.

He knew Pepper and Happy would eventually get together but... it was still too early for that, wasn't it? They got together only after the Civil War last time but...

"Haha, Tony. Very funny." Pepper's nervousness as if disappeared as she rolled her eyes at him. "You know well it is our second wedding anniversary. You were Happy's best man. Anyway, I just thought I will ask... you know... with Afghanistan and everything. Can you handle it here without us for a day?"

Tony opened his mouth but he couldn't find any witty remark for that.

'Married? They are... married? What the hell? What the heck is wrong with this world!' He started inwardly freaking out.

If Happy and Pepper were already married two years ago, then this was certainly not HIS past. That could mean so many things it wasn't even funny!

"Tony?"

Pepper's voice abruptly put a stop to his small internal freak-out.

"Er... yeah, sure. Go ahead and enjoy your day. Don't do anything I wouldn't do." He smartly quipped, but in this case, it was more of a defensive mechanism than his incessant need to be the smartest ass in the room.

"Thank you..." Pepper said in an unimpressed and dry manner before she slowly nodded in uncertainty if leaving Tony to his own devices was a good idea. From his reaction, she surmised it was not exactly 'fine' but Tony was shut in his workshop for the past few days and both she and Happy were mostly free. If that was going to be the case for their wedding anniversary there was no reason to spend it at their 'workplace'.

"Don't worry about me, Pepper. In fact, go and have fun. Right now. It's on me!" Tony suddenly put his hands on her shoulders, turned her around, and started pushing her out of the house where he knew Happy was usually waiting until Tony had a need for his driver.

There was a lot of weak protesting and back and forth between Pepper and Tony but when he delivered her to Happy, they both happily agreed to take a small vacation and make use of Tony's offer to pay for their expenses during it. They even borrowed the car Happy usually used to drive Tony in.

Tony wondered where did the prudish Pepper he knew went...

Personally, he blamed Happy for making her so happy.

When they finally left, Tony shut the door after them, turned around and his back hit the door before he slid down as the shock finally settled in.

"They are married." Tony said in disbelief as if trying to persuade himself that it was actually the truth. "I wonder what else is different..." He whispered before gaining a horrified expression, "God, I pray to thee for the first time in my life, don't let Fury be gender-bent!"

...

Getting Pepper and Happy out of the house served Tony well. He intended to leave anyway and they would worry if he told them he wanted to go alone. He didn't look forward to that session of persuasion but fortunately, it sorted itself out.

Tony was currently driving one of his sports cars... or more precisely, JARVIS was driving one of his sports cars, across the USA all the way from his house in Malibu to New York.

He could have taken a plane but Tony felt he needed a bit of alone time to get his thoughts straight.

Finding out that Pepper and Happy were married shook his theory of this being his past and he spent the time it took JARVIS driving to New York to look for other things that differed from his past.

The first glaring difference, much to Tony's bewilderment, was the absence of the Harry Potter series. He had no idea why because JARVIS confirmed the existence of JK Rowling but it simply wasn't a thing.

Tony was not the biggest fan. Er... scratch that. He was not a fan, period.

He didn't like hocus pocus much but he at least knew of the existence of these world-renowned series. Yet, they simply didn't exist here.

If he wanted any confirmation that this was indeed not his past, then this was it. He was in an alternate dimension or something.

And suddenly, his worries intensified. It took three hours for JARVIS and FRIDAY to get Tony out of his funk during the drive. He just sat in his seat and looked at the passing scenery with dead eyes, dryly laughing to himself while trying to come to terms with these revelations.

Alternate universes... what a concept.

What's next? Different worlds?

Tony really hoped that wasn't the case. His logic-loving mind was having a serious mid-life crisis even without all that 'freakishness'.

Another thing was the absence of some companies he knew were a thing in his past. Instead, there were others. Frost International, for example.

Tony was sure this one didn't exist in his own time and for some reason, it rubbed him a wrong way. So much so he asked JARVIS to get more information about the Frost family.

Not that he got anything important from that. They were just a normal wealthy family. Lots of family problems, a shitty father who is also the company owner, three kids, a drug addict mother... the normal stuff.

Tony eventually decided to get on with his search and found a few mentions about something called mutants. At first, he thought it to be some kind of disease and didn't pay much mind to it but... some humans here apparently already evolved to the next stage.

What. The. Fuck?

How was this not widely known yet!?

By the time Tony arrived in New York, his head was swimming in differences between his past and this world he found himself in. He didn't like it. Not one bit.

Mutants... that meant there would be more conflict later down the line.

Tony knew what kind of reaction a few super-powered individuals prompted in his past. Supervillains were rising left and right to challenge the Avengers and here are actually super-powered individuals that are naturally born as such?

In Tony's mind, there was no way this was not gonna end up in a shitstorm.

Yeah, it was not worth thinking about it anymore. What was supposed to happen will happen and that was that. Forget being a hero. All he wanted to do was make sure he and those dear to him would survive the insanity called this world.