Reinforcements Arrive

"Friday, scan the entire hotel for biological signals," Tony commanded after a brief moment of contemplation.

Friday's tone was somewhat peculiar, "BOSS, they haven't harmed anyone else. I'm mapping the Angels' movement based on surveillance. It seems these Angels are specifically targeting you or Miss Wayne."

In the mapped-out route, a cluster of red dots was converging towards Tony's location, placing them both at the heart of the storm.

"Well, that's a relief," Tony sighed.

For whatever reason, these Angels had trailed from Manhattan all the way to Brooklyn, most likely because Tony had discovered their presence. If they were to wreak havoc in the city due to this, it would be his responsibility.

Baia also relaxed a bit at the news, "I was planning to wait until daytime to go to the Winter Harbor. Nighttime is their playground. But since they've already come knocking, there's no other choice. Are you confident we can resolve this tonight?"

"Let's give it a try. Otherwise, it'll be us who'll be resolved," Tony replied without hesitation.

Without further ado, Iron Man's armor, with Baia in tow, disappeared into the New York night sky.

It wasn't Tony's idea to dive into the thick of it with a small entourage, but under the circumstances, leaving her alone would be even more dangerous.

At least they had what they needed. Baia mentally calculated. Stable lighting and night vision equipment were essential, and Tony had informed her about the existence of the expanded energy shield. The shield on Iron Man's suit, powered by the core reactor, had no significant battery life issues. But the portable device Tony gave Baia wouldn't last for more than a few uses.

Tony had also brought the device to close the fissure.

As for how to deal with the Angels that had already arrived in this world, they could only take it one step at a time.

Winter Harbor.

As the name of an apartment building, it sounded quite cozy. But its gloomy and dilapidated appearance indicated that it was not friendly to the two. Various stone sculptures hid in corners, stealthily watching them. Tony hovered in the air temporarily, not touching the ground.

"Speaking of which, what are you wearing?" Tony asked.

"A uniform!" Baia detected the disdain in Tony's tone, and her words carried a heavy warning.

Tony, who had originally planned to offer some constructive criticism, clicked his tongue. Without needing any instructions, Friday scanned the biological situation in the Winter Harbor.

"Can we just blast it flat?" Tony asked.

"Probably not." Friday unfolded the floor plan after scanning. "There's human activity at the following locations."

Baia paused for a moment, then immediately realized, "They're clever; they have hostages."

"Yeah," Iron Man said, landing with the Sparrow. He surveyed the surroundings, finally resting his gaze on the partially open entrance to the apartment building, dark inside, revealing nothing, "It seems the stone men have written us a script. We must play by the rules... and you know how much I hate rules, especially those set by others."

Angels could control light sources to some extent, but to Tony, it didn't seem like a big deal. At least they couldn't do anything about the light source from the reactor.

"Come on, Padawan, hold my hand," Tony said.

Baia grabbed Iron Man's gauntlet and was surprised to find that it wasn't cold.

They walked into the darkness together.

The light source developed by Tony was very stable, casting a blue-white glow inside the apartment. As Baia stepped through the doorway, she heard that sound again—the sound of waves.

She suddenly remembered a dream, where a wizard stood by her side, and beneath their feet was the surging River of Time.

Was it because they were too close to the fissure? The last time the system shut down abruptly, leaving her in a critical situation, would be a fatal blow if something similar happened now.

"System?" Baia quietly called out in her mind.

No response.

Baia was truly speechless. This system could only assist, and every time it came to a critical moment, it dropped the ball. She didn't know what it was good for. Last time when the system crashed, she could still use her skills, but because of the system's warning earlier, she didn't dare to try recklessly.

Besides, she felt that something wasn't quite right.

"Tony, there's a problem," Baia frowned. "We must go out and take a look first. I feel... something's off."

"This is the enemy's lair; nothing's right anywhere," Tony remarked.

"Trust me, this is different," Baia insisted.

Iron Man looked at her, paused for a moment, then nodded, "Okay."

Outside the apartment building, the densely packed statues seemed to disappear within a few minutes, and the tranquil moonlight enveloped New York. "This... this can't be possible," Tony murmured. With the rapid development of technology, light pollution was prevalent in big cities, and the hustle and bustle never ceased with the onset of night. But now, everything had returned to the appearance of decades ago. The familiar outlines of the buildings vanished.

"We haven't been touched by the Angels; the apartment building itself is a trap," Baia picked up a newspaper from the ground and shook it. The year written on it was 1983. "We're now in the previous century."

"What's their purpose?" Tony asked.

"Their purpose?" Baia questioned.

"2019, New York, Manhattan, Winter Harbor." A golden lightning bolt, the same color as the Canary, struck an invisible ripple in front of the apartment door.

System: ...Damn it.

2008, London, Bad Wolf Bay, near a rather cozy two-story detached house. In the morning, a blonde woman named Rose Tyler Smith was cooking in the kitchen. Her handsome husband, John Smith, still in his pajamas, followed the scent and walked into the kitchen, pulling her arm to exchange a kiss. At that moment, John Smith heard a knock on the door.

"Wow, there's no such thing as Galifrey here," he exclaimed as he opened the door, "How can you possibly exist?" Outside the door, a white and gold box, intricately engraved with complex circular patterns, floated in the air. The golden light inside intertwined with a model of the universe, displaying an indescribable harmony and beauty. He furrowed his brows in thought for a moment, "Wait, you're in trouble. Aren't you?" He knew what was floating in front of him; he had once controlled it, had unforgettable and unpleasant memories, and knew its power and danger. Danger, what an exciting word.

Mr. Smith quickly put on his tie and donned the familiar blue suit that Rose knew so well. The pair of white Converse sneakers seemed out of place due to their casualness, but because of his good physique, there was no disharmony.

"Looks like we don't have to wait seventeen years?" Rose raised her eyebrows.

"That's right," he said sincerely, his brown eyes sparkling with excitement and panting slightly, "My incredible girl, Rose Tyler, I'm the Doctor. Will you travel with me?"

Rose smiled, "You know my answer."

The Doctor wrapped his arms around her waist and lifted her up, spinning her around, while the white box beside them went through this inexplicable experience for no reason.

John Smith hadn't called himself "the Doctor" in a long time. He had once belonged to an ancient and powerful race; he had been the last of them, traveling through the boundless universe in a time machine called the TARDIS—in other words, he had been a Time Lord. But those memories didn't entirely belong to him; strictly speaking, he was a clone, a human clone. The real Doctor had left, and he and Rose had settled in a parallel world with fewer adventures and crises. Apart from his body being that of an ordinary human, he was no different from before. He still longed for adventure and possessed knowledge and memories that could make the universe tremble. Before the other him left, he had entrusted him with a seed, a seed of the TARDIS time machine. However, it still needed seventeen years to truly gain the ability to take them on another journey through time and space. But now, their journey could begin ahead of schedule. Crisis always found him; that was not surprising.

1983, New York, Winter Harbor.

"Hi, is anyone there?" Baia and Tony suddenly heard a man's enthusiastic voice behind them. She turned around and saw a man peeking out from the corner of the building. He had a pleasant British accent, very different from the American English spoken by Baia and Tony. The man with big eyes had a tousled head of brown hair. He cautiously took a step forward, "Oh, a time field. No wonder such things are happening. What have you encountered? By the way, I'm the Doctor."

"Hello, Doctor. Look behind you," Baia said.

A menacing angel statue maintained its pouncing posture, and Rose beside it stared intently at it.

"That makes sense, the angels." The Doctor muttered, then he perked up, quickly noticing that not only was Tony, clad in a suit of iron armor, and Baia, in her Kevlar fiber uniform, clearly not from this era, "This is Rose, my companion and lover. And you are?"

"I'm Baia," Baia introduced herself, "and this is Iron Man."

Tony nodded to them both.

"Yan," The Doctor paused, then realized it was because of the girl in front of him that the thing had come knocking. Her name wasn't a traditional human one, and coupled with the threads connecting her to it, she was likely a Time Lord.

But he didn't remember any clues about "Yan," so he just accepted the name.

As a human, he was somewhat indifferent to his own kind, especially since this wasn't his universe.

"Alright, Yan." The Doctor extended his hand. "You seem to have left something behind."

Yan hesitated as she shook his hand, and the Doctor checked her pulse. She was human.

Meanwhile, the system's voice came back cheerfully: I brought reinforcements!

"You say you're the Doctor, which Doctor?"

"Just the Doctor." He said lightly, with a hint of a smile in his eyes.

"The Weeping Angels are a very dangerous species—" The Doctor began to explain.

"We're already aware of the Angels' intelligence." Tony interrupted. "We found this building in 2019, just as we were about to investigate, we arrived here—it's been a while since the Angels were here."

"That's rare, but it happens sometimes." The Doctor said. "New York is a dangerous place, full of chaotic and distorted time. The Angels are a cunning race, and they exploit that."

"What's their purpose?" This was Tony's most pressing question.

The system snorted.

The Doctor and Baia exchanged glances, and Baia suddenly realized that not only did the Angels know about the system's existence, but they also went to great lengths to stop it. In other words, what they wanted might be Baia herself.

That might not be the only reason, but it was highly likely.

Tony and the Doctor exchanged some information, letting him know about the crack. Friday scanned the energy levels around again, finding the crack still existed in 1983.

"That's convenient," The Doctor said. "If we can close this crack in 1983, then the whole thing will generate a paradox, and the Angels who have already arrived will disappear."

"I'm afraid it won't be that easy," Rose said, looking upstairs.

At the window, a statue was looking down at them from above.

"Anyway," Yan sighed, "they're here now."

The four of them re-entered the apartment building, and the Doctor felt somewhat tricky, mainly because he didn't have his sonic screwdriver to detect energy parameters. But Tony assured him that Friday could handle the job, which surprised the Doctor somewhat.

"In the basement," Tony shook his head, "just like a horror movie, I can go alone, you guys just protect yourselves."

"I don't really like him," The Doctor muttered quietly.

"Which means you're a normal person," Yan comforted him.

The door made a creaking sound, and Rose turned around to find that the angel, which had just been outside the door, had somehow blocked the entrance.

"No problem," Tony turned his gaze to the other side, finding that every corridor in the apartment had been guarded, except for the elevator.

The old-fashioned gate elevator creaked open, empty inside.

"Wanna take me up?" Tony aimed his palm cannon at one of the angels. "I'm not going."