Flesh & Metal
Strange is out in the suburbs, because he found some weird magic-ish energy readings and no one else is going to go see what's up so it might as well be him.
Ugh, suburbs.
Finding the area, it's... pretty normal, actually. No visible remains or damage, everything's gone back to relatively normal. There is a guy standing over there, though, in some kind of armour. He looks really vaguely familiar. Maybe Strange worked with him once or something? Might as well ask.
"Excuse me," Strange says in that half-polite tone reserved mostly for heroes , "Did you see anything out of the ordinary in the area? I noticed some odd energy."
The guy just looks at him. He looks like he's rolling his eyes, but Strange can't see past the helmet. Really, where has he seen this guy before? The man waves his hand, gesturing to the surrounding area, and then points to himself. Strange narrows his eyes.
"You? You caused the energy?" A sharp nod. Well. That clears up some things, but what is this guy's deal . "...Can you come with me? I'd like some questions answered, and that would be better somewhere other than... Suburbia ." Another nod. Strange might have to call someone who knows sign language... assuming this guy can sign. Hm. He opens a portal right to his foyer, beckoning the man inside. If the man is surprised at his magic, he doesn't show it. More evidence that he's worked with Strange before.
When they enter the foyer, the man makes a beeline for the bookcases. Since he looks like he knows what he's doing, and hasn't shown any affinity with speech, Strange leaves him to it. He has other things to do, after all- rechecking wards and seeing if the energy is emanating off of the man, for example.
The phone rings. Strange looks at it like it's a dead mouse. It can only be Stark, and whatever he's calling about is bound to be unpleasant.
Deep breath. He picks up the phone.
"Have you picked up anything odd in the suburbs recently?" Straight to the point. That's... not good, Stark usually jokes around, or at least greets Strange.
"Yes? I went to check it out and found a man who said he was the cause of it."
"A man? Can I talk to him?" Stark sounds... worried?
"You should come over. We're at the Sanctum."
"See you in 5," Stark says, hanging up immediately. Strange just stares at the phone for a moment. He is... not looking forward to this.
When Strange looks up, the guest is coming back, a pile of books in his arms. They are an interesting variety, a few bestiaries, a history or two, a slim book of old legends, and a very, very thick book that Strange hadn't even known he had, which looks like a textbook of sorts.
Setting the bestiaries to the side, the guest first opens the larger of the histories to a section on Hell. Which, uh, certainly is something. He points down a bit, to a section on power. Not political power, though that is also in this history, but energy – energy derived from souls. He opens the smaller history to another section on Hell, this time what is essentially an index of portals, and their status. The majority are designated destroyed . Then he opens the book of legends. Strange has had this book for a long time, has looked it over a few times, but never read it – It's in a script Strange has never seen outside this specific book.
But the illustration... It's the spitting image of the man before him.
Strange looks up at his guest. "I think I'm going to call in an expert," he says. The guest nods.
Stark shows up four and a half minutes after he hangs up. He timed it. When he enters the Sanctum, he hears Strange going through the politeness of ending a difficult message. The foyer is the same as the last time he saw it, though there's more books spread out and open on the table. A man in green armour – the presumed anomaly – is reading one of the books, marking pages with sticky notes. Did he... bring those? Strange doesn't seem like the kind of guy to just have sticky notes lying around.
"Hello, Tony," Strange greets him tiredly. "What did you find?" he asks.
"Weirdest radiation spike I'd ever seen. Very spotty, completely non-ionizing, gone as soon as it appeared. I'm assuming that was you," he says, turning to the man in armour. The man nods, then waves him over.
Stark's attention is drawn to a large book that does not lay open, towards the end of the table. He opens it, flipping through it until he lands on a page about... AI. Stark pulls a face. Where did this book even come from? He thought he was the only one to build AI on this level. Before he can read too far in, however, the man waves at him, showing him a chip of some sort. Stark looks at the man in confusion and annoyance. "What? Say what you mean, green guy," he snaps. The man bristles. Oops. "I can't do anything useful if I don't know what's going on." He hopes that was in a gentle enough tone.
Strange sighs. "Our guest," he says longsufferingly, "either cannot or does not speak. We've gotten along so far without it." He turns toward Stark and fixes him with a look. "Don't. Be. An ass ," he grinds out.
Stark raises his hands. "Alright, alright, what ever ." Turning back to the man, he asks, "So what's on the chip?"
The man flips a page in the large book – it seems to be some kind of showcase catalog – and lands on a detail page of the so called Most Successful True Artificial Intelligence . Stark snorts. Like this thing could compete with Fri. "So you've got an entire AI... on that. "
The man rubs his hand against his helmet, nodding. He gets up to find another book that might help explain when the door creaks open.
Johnny Blaze steps into the Sanctum. He projects his voice from down the hall, saying, "Hey, Strange, I got your call. You owe me double now, you think I don't have better things to do than translate?" He turns the corner and immediately, the guest takes an aggressive step forward. Blaze takes a step back, looking at the guest with blatant fear on his face.
"So I'm guessing you know each other?" Stark says sarcastically.
The guest makes a shut up gesture at Stark. He stops talking.
Blaze hasn't taken his eyes off their guest. "Doom Slayer," he gasps. "You brought me to the Doom Slayer." Visibly steeling himself, he speaks directly to the Slayer. "I'm not a demon, despite everything."
The Slayer nods, slowly. Stark looks confused. Strange just sighs. "What's going on?", Stark asks.
Blaze makes a face, not at the guest but at Stark. "Why are you here?"
"He's here to help, ideally. This man just appeared in the suburbs with a wash of unidentified energy," Strange supplies
Blaze laughs, a little brokenly. "Yeah, I bet. They're from another universe entirely."
Strange widens his eyes. "What?" Stark asks with urgency.
"Gentlemen," Blaze says, voice dripping in a way that informs them he believes them to be anything but, "This is the Hellwalker, the Unchained Predator, the Beast, the Scourge of Hell...This is the Doom Slayer." The Slayer nods. Blaze turns to them, asking "Do you have like, a name? A prefered title?" The Slayer nods again, signing "Slayer is fine." Blaze nods in response.
"...How do you know this," Stark asks weakly.
Blaze rounds on Stark. "I was literally the King of Hell , Stark. I'd be a piss poor ruler if I didn't know the legends."
The Slayer snaps, then asks "How does that work? You're human as I am, even if you stink."
Blaze looks at him in awe. "You're human? Human?"
"Mostly."
"Is that surprising?" Strange asks.
Blaze rolls his eyes. "Oh, yeah, like a normal human can get to be as old as them. I know they're more than a millenia... you got a more accurate number?"
"You think I remember that? Vega might know but not me." the Slayer responds.
Stark looks absolutely lost. "More than a millenia?" he says, mostly to himself. He moves deeper into Strange's library.
"Fair enough," Blaze says. "As for the King of Hell thing, I stole the throne of the old King, Mephisto, when he was too busy gambling away the entirety of Las Vegas."
"Good for you."
Strange sighs. "It's good you know sign, I was planning to just call Hawkeye or someone, but could you please translate?"
"No, I don't think I will unless it concerns you. And Hawkeye? He just knows ASL, and some military signs. He wouldn't be able to understand the Slayer," Blaze says. The Slayer nods. "This language is Demonic in origin, that's part of why I know it."
"I do know a few human sign languages, too, but they're more varied across universes. I'd probably be able to understand him but he'd have a harder time understanding me at first."
"I figured. Who's Vega?"
"My AI. And my..." The Slayer pauses, trying to think how to word this. "... Partner. I have a backup of him, but I don't have anywhere to host him."
"Oh, I'm sure Stark would help with that. Hey, Stark!"
"What?" Stark calls from deeper in the library.
"Think you're good enough to hook up an AI from another dimension?"
"Are you challenging me, Blaze?"
"I am," Blaze says with a smirk