In another Omniverse...
A man hunched over his screen, eyes bloodshot from sleepless nights. "Try it again, Friday," Tony Stark muttered, rubbing his temple as he flicked a small, holographic ball across the light runway projected in front of him.
"Testing..." Friday's synthetic voice echoed in the silence. Tony held his breath. He stared intently, watching as the code ran through its sequences. The hologram turned red, then flickered and crashed, dissolving into a cascade of error messages.
"Failed."
Tony slumped back into his chair, frustration weighing down his shoulders. He felt the heavy, sinking pit in his chest, the one that had been growing with every failed attempt.
"Mr. Stark, if I may..." Friday began, her tone calm and measured. "You've been researching the mechanics of time travel without pause. You haven't slept—"
"I didn't make you to think, Friday..." Tony interrupted, the sharpness in his voice betraying his irritation. But almost instantly, he sighed, closing his eyes for a moment. "Forget it..." he mumbled, more to himself than her. The silence between them felt heavy, like the weight of an impending failure.
Then, without warning, a shockwave rippled through the room, shaking the entire foundation of his home.
"Earthquake detected!" Friday's voice rang out, alert and precise.
Tony's eyes snapped open, his senses suddenly heightened. But as quickly as it hit, the tremor passed, leaving an eerie stillness in its wake. Tony frowned, rubbing the back of his neck.
"Earthquake? That's new. But, Friday, check the local seismic data. That didn't feel like—"
"Sir," Friday interrupted him, her tone now concerned, "I've scanned the entire globe. No tectonic activity detected. The source of the shockwave... appears to be external. Beyond the planet."
Tony's brow furrowed. "Wait, external? You mean cosmic?"
"Affirmative. I'm detecting ripples across space-time, originating from an unknown source. But pinpointing the exact location is... impossible."
Tony stood up, pacing toward the window overlooking the night sky. The stars twinkled innocently, but something was wrong. He could feel it. His mind raced. Cosmic shockwaves? Ripples in space-time? He had been tinkering with time travel for weeks, but this? This wasn't part of the equation, he hoped.
"Friday, cross-reference the data. Could this be a side effect of the model we've been testing?"
"No, sir. These disturbances are unrelated to your work. I believe this may be the result of an external clash—forces or energy beyond the observable universe, far beyond anything we've encountered."
Tony blinked. "Clash?" His mind snapped to attention. His first instinct was to brush it off as another cosmic mess the Avengers would deal with, but there was something different this time.
"How big are we talking here?"
"On a scale large enough to distort time itself."
Tony stood motionless, eyes narrowing as he absorbed the data streaming across his screen. The shockwaves had rattled him more than he wanted to admit, but they also triggered something else: an idea. If whatever was happening out there was strong enough to cause distortions in space-time, then maybe, just maybe, it had left behind cracks—small, brief anomalies that could be exploited.
"Friday," Tony began slowly, rubbing his chin in thought. "If the shockwaves are distorting time... could we detect weak spots? Fractures in the fabric of space-time?"
There was a pause as Friday processed his request. "Analyzing... Based on current data, it is possible that the cosmic disturbances are creating temporary vulnerabilities. These could be leveraged to explore—"
"Time travel," Tony finished, his eyes lighting up. "The shockwave may have just punched a hole through the one barrier I haven't been able to break."
Without another word, Tony spun around and raced to his keyboard. "Friday, let's start analyzing the quantum fluctuations from that wave. Focus on any irregularities—if there's even the slightest tear in space-time, I want to know about it."
"Understood, sir."
As the data flowed in, Tony's hands flew across the keyboard, inputting new algorithms, refining the calculations he'd been working on for weeks. He could feel it now—a gut instinct, the rush of a breakthrough that was just within reach. He started building on the equations he'd already had in place, but this time incorporating quantum mechanics on a deeper level. Time wasn't linear here. It was malleable, ready to be reshaped if he could just find the right entry point.
Minutes passed, each one feeling like an eternity. Sweat began to bead on his forehead as he coded with precision, letting Friday handle the smaller computations while he focused on the core of the problem. The room was silent except for the rhythmic clatter of keys and the faint hum of machinery.
"Friday," Tony muttered, barely pausing to take a breath. "We've got to map out the quantum variables. If we can stabilize those fluctuations, we might be able to create a stable loop—a way to pass through time without breaking the universe."
"Calculating... Quantum mapping in progress," Friday replied. "I believe we are approaching a potential solution."
Tony paused, staring at the lines of code before him. He felt it—the certainty that he was on the verge of cracking it. "Just a little more..." His fingers hesitated over the keyboard, trembling with anticipation.
"Almost there, sir," Friday confirmed.
Suddenly, a small, steady beep emanated from the holographic display. The formula was complete, the map laid out. Tony stepped back, exhaling in disbelief.
He'd done it. He had cracked time travel.
But before he could celebrate, another cosmic quake hit—this one more violent than before. The walls of the lab rattled, and the floor vibrated beneath his feet. Tony barely managed to stay upright as the shockwave rippled through the room.
"Cosmic shockwave detected again, sir!" Friday's voice rang out, now with a clear urgency. "Larger than the previous one!"
Just as the tremor subsided, a door slid open behind him. Steve Rogers, Natasha Romanoff, and Bruce Banner burst in, looks of alarm on their faces. "Tony, what the hell's going on?" Steve demanded.
Tony steadied himself and turned to face them, his mind racing. "Something big's going down out there. Bigger than anything we've seen. And it's messing with time—cosmic shockwaves, space-time distortions. The works."
Bruce was already scanning the data projected from Tony's console, his face growing more concerned. "This could tear through the universe if it goes on."
"Yeah, no pressure or anything," Tony quipped, wiping his brow. "But we're dealing with something beyond the usual alien invasion."
Natasha crossed her arms, looking to Tony. "What are we going to do?"
Tony glanced back at his computer screen, the equations still glowing in front of him. "Well, I've just cracked time travel. But I've got a bad feeling that whatever's causing these quakes isn't done yet. And if it happens again, I'm not sure the universe can handle much more of this."
Another tremor, fainter this time, shook the lab, and Tony tightened his grip on the desk.
"Let's just hope we've got enough time to figure out what's coming next."
Steve's brow furrowed at Tony's words, his eyes flicking between the flickering data on the screen and Tony's tired expression. "Wait, did you just say you cracked time travel?"
Bruce stopped mid-scan, his face a mix of shock and disbelief. "Tony, you—what?"
Tony blinked, realizing what he'd just let slip. "Yeah, I did," he muttered almost nonchalantly, still focusing on the data. "No big deal." But his voice, despite the sarcasm, carried the weight of a monumental achievement.