Summary:The regional science fair brings together a crowd of super nerds. Log Info:Storyteller: None |
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The New York Regional Science Fair is no small time event. Hosted by Columbia University, it's home to the very best and brightest of New York's up and coming scientific minds.
The level of the projects is well above and beyond potato power sources and baking soda volcanos. Electronics, programming, research, even early looks at medicine and horticulture, you name it and one of New York's resident geniuses will have a project related to it.
It's not uncommon to see representatives from top universities, tech firms, large companies, and government organizations visiting the fair like NFL scouts looking for the next big talent. The winner is almost guaranteed a scholarship offer from several schools.
The fair has been going since nine in the morning, as judges have been going from exhibit to exhibit, scoring and asking any questions they have about the project. The students who haven't been judged yet are…getting understandably antsy. Helena Wayne is among them at the moment, pacing in front of her display in low heels, dark trousers, and a white sleeveless blouse with just a simple pearl necklace for adornment. Every now and then, she stops at a laptop on the table, checking the code for the eight millionth time.
Peter was setting up the box in his spot near the wall when he heard, "PETESKY!"
He turned to see the broad grin of Harry Osborn, a teenager as rich as Croesus but always looked forward to Aunt May's apple pie. Perhaps it was the home cooking, maybe it was because he was around people that didn't give a single damn about how many zeros his bank statement had.
Aunt May was with him, and was thwapping his arm. "Hush, Harold. There are other people trying to set up here."
Harry looked sheepish. "Sorry, Aunt May," he said, and the return smile she gave him seemed to make him…more himself, less puffed-up to Peter.
"You're forgiven, Harry. There are many people here deserving of recognition."
"Yeah, but Pete's the favorite." Harry winked to Peter.
Peter raised one eyebrow. "What about the guy from Columbia Prep, the one who had built his own clean-burning engine?"
"DissssQUALIFIED. It came out he bought it from one of his dad's friends. You're the odds-on favorite. I've already got your acceptance speech written." Harry pulls out a sheet of paper. To the Science Fair Council, it's a good thing you recognized my genius and tossed the others out. And to everyone else, I'd like to thank everyone who lost.' It practically writes ITSELF."
"Yeah well, I haven't won yet, Harry. So hold off on the gloating. Is everything in place?"
"Yep. Just like you asked, Pete. Hey, Pete…thanks."
"Like they say in England…you're my 'mate.'"
Having decided to not add more pressure to the pressure that Helena is more than enough putting upon herself, Bruce Wayne is dressed down. A black turtleneck, tan trousers, black leather shoes. It doesn't help that he carries his own natural presence of confidence and that air of 'old-money' that surrounds him. Noting his daughter's presence, the elder Wayne approaches.
"It looks pretty fierce." he comments to his daughter. "You know. The competition." There's a smile offered to her. "But I know you put everything into doing this." When she wasn't sneaking off to be a hero.
Glancing over at the young man with his own cheering section, he gives Helena a gentle nudge. "Perhaps you should get to know some of the others? One of the advantages of this being regional, and not just the prep school?" he asks, a touch of warmth and pride in the father's smile.
NYU's representation includes one of the university's top students, a young Latina senior by the name of Anya Corazon. Double Majoring in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, the young woman is here to show what NYU is capable of, by displaying her senior thesis project; a self-recharging portable battery system built into a commercially purchased drone, made possible by using AM Radio waves to power an inductive charging system.
Her work is not to be judged, but rather a promotion of the school's programming. As such, she's ditched the countercultural attire in favor of a smart purple blouse, jacket and skirt combo, with low heels and a lanyard identifying her and why she is here. For the moment, she's stepped away from her exhibit at the NYU table, so that she can walk around and look for interesting projects or familiar faces.
NASA and DARPA went, because of course they did. So then NOAA and the CDC felt obliged to go, and the NSA didn't want to feel left out. So the CIA went, because the NSA went and well the DIA wasn't about to be the only ones who didn't show up. Not that anyone at the local office actually wanted to go, the Human Resources dude "accidentally" had his vacation starting on the exact same day. So for weeks a notice has been circulating the office, but well nobody signed up.
This was supposed to have been a day off, hell Florence doesn't even work in a department that would ever have anything to do with any of this. Unfortunately when they rang her in a rush this morning with "Urgent tasking", she was too groggy to have put up a servicable defense. So empowered metahuman DIA operative Florence, is at a science fair.
She's thrilled of course, just thrilled beyond words. Her little plastic ID worn in a lanyard around her neck, badge clipped to her belt. Her ear-piece is a buzz with the nerds back at the office arguing about if "Rogues" are cooler than "Rangers, and yeah it's just totally the complete package as far as she's concerned. Hands thrust in her pockets as she prowls the periphery, breaking away from the rest of the alphabet soup as soon as she's able.
This gets her away from those CIA jocks arguing about hockey, but it has an unfortunate side effect of course. It leaves her as the first "government type" to openly move about the floor, and well who doesn't want a future government research grant right?
"That's Peter Parker," Helena replies to her father, catching her lower lip between her teeth as she looks over. "You can usually tell from Osborne's hair. He's the competition. Seriously. As long as he gets his entry in on time, it's pretty much guaranteed he-" She cuts herself off, forcing a deep breath as she tries to compose herself.
The display at her table is…well, it looks complicated. There are an awful lot of electronics on that table, and the board at the back contains a novel's worth of code and pictures. The main attraction seems to be a volunteer from Wayne Enterprises' security team with a collection of leads attached to a helmet of sorts on his head. On command, he… It looks like he does nothing, but words scroll across the screen of the laptop next to him.
"You're right," Helena agrees with her father. "Standing here is not helping. Can you watch the table, though? In case they show up?"
"Don't sell yourself short." Bruce reminds his daughter. Though in his mind, really it doesn't matter if Helena wins or not - yes, it's pride for her. And the accomplishment of doing this herself - but he's pretty much guaranteed that she's going to any college of her choice.
And No College is not an option.
As she makes the offer to move along and greet others, he gives a nod of his head, and a smile of support. "Of course, Helena. Though I have no idea what this does." Even if he totally does - but it's not his place to present. The billionaire persona is on full display tonight.
Peter unfolds the box to reveal his project. It is kinda ugly, a flying-wing drone with fans in the wings. Peter takes out a tablet. "I have a few things to check out, some diagnostics to run. After that's done, I could probably check out the rest of the exhibits, but I'm worried about interference. Last year one entrant sabotaged another one for a friend."
Harry smiles confidently, then gives a sharp whistle that the entire auditorium can hear.
Peter is startled. "HARRY…"
Harry shrugs as a large guy with short red hair and the build of an MMA fighter steps up. "Thud? Watch over this for my friend, okay?"
Peter fires up a software process on the tablet, one with a hairline crack running from top to bottom. "Geez, Harry…"
"Nobody's messing with your work here." He grins.
Anya's exhibit at the NYU table features a modified consumer drone, it's drive mechanism designed to output more power for greater speed and maneuverability. To further enhance the power output required to run the item, it's constantly streaming HD video from an HD camera and is playing music from a powered speaker built into the device. It's also been hovering in the air since 9am. A laptop nearby shows all sorts of information, including total power output, and data showing how much energy is being transferred from ambient AM radio waves into the inductive charger, and in turn, into power output the drone is using. The data is impressive, proving that the technology just might be viable for consumer adoption.
Rumor has reached Anya's ears of the kid named Peter Parker, the supposed genius who's probably gonna win this thing, and she's definitely keeping an eye open for his exhibit. However, Helena is familiar to her from, what, two nights ago? When she spots the young woman, she forms a big grin and walks on over, waving her hand in greeting. "Helena? Hey!" She's completely unaware that a known multi-billionaire is nearby, but she rushes over anyway, happy to have found a familiar face so quickly. However, she's distracted by the sharp whistle, and bats her head around with an expression of irritation. "What a douchebag," she utters.
Ian meanders through the exhibits in plain clothes for a change. If there's security, he does set off the metal detector, but he shows off the medical disabled card for such situations and can come right on in. Hands in the pockets of a dingey hoodie, he squints his eyes here and there, making them tinier than they already are.
Some people are definitely /not/ looking to attract the attention of obvious government types. The redheaded teen in the Captain Marvel hoodie and skinny jeans isn't one of them. She pulls the garment a little tighter around herself, biting her lip a little as she gazes at the experiments. Drones, medical tech, If it's cutting edge, there's probably some of it here. What to look at first….
There's one guy at least there that doesn't look like an entrant, parent or official. He's a middle-aged man iwtha sort of lanky build. Nothing particularly memorable about his looks or physique. His suit is kind of rumpled, and frankly very cheap. He's wearing a pair of sunglasses and a ballcap, like many people trying to avoid attention. And he has a fake full beard that's realistic enough you'd have to be very observant to realize it is fake. He's wandering from exhibit to exhibit, making no real efforts to talk to anybody. Just stopping, examining what's on display, then moving on. It's hard to say why he's there. Those who are able to see past the obvious attempts at annonymity and make out his features with the beard there might recognize Doctor Bruce Banner, nuclear physicist. And also the Hulk, thought might be slightly less commonly known. He makes sure to steer clear of any obviously official types, occasionally glancing around with a little bit of nervousness in his eyes. Now and then, the scientist absently washes his hands against one another.
"Hey, Anya!" Helena smiles swiftly in relief when she sees the other woman, the expression warm. "Fancy meeting you here." The comment on the whistle gets a smirk and a shake of her head. "Just ignore him, everyone does." She leans over enough to look past her to the university's display. "So that's the sort of thing you've been working on, huh? Pretty cool."
Of course, in the process of leaning around Anya, she lowers her voice enough to add: "So, that's my dad over there, and if you could not mention the gap year thing around him, that would be great."
Important message delivered, she takes a step back again.
|ROLL| Ian +rolls 1d20 for: 6
Ian doesn't notice that Banner is faking it with the beard, though he does notice just…older dude. Helena's excitement draws his eyes for a moment and he drifts over to look at the university's display to see what's going on there. Trying to be a little smoother than usual around the science-types, he grins amiably enough at the ladies and kinda /lurks/.
Tucking his hands into his pockets, Bruce Wayne (because of two Bruces), remains near his daughter's project. He takes a closer look at it - to most, he's probably just trying to figure it out. Though he may just be looking to make sure that there wasn't any Waynetech proprietry items snuck into the project itself. Not that he doesn't trust his daughter. These things could just happen.
When he catches sight of Helena talking to someone and looking over at him, he raises his hand in a greeting.
He's not reading lips.
Maybe.
Harry drapes an arm over Aunt May's shoulders, grinning to her. "C'mon, let's give the genius some space before he smokes them all."
Aunt May nodded, but touched Peter's cheek. "Ben would be so proud of you, Peter."
Peter's face is pleasant, but almost carefully so. He wished Uncle Ben was here…but he's not, and we all know why, don't we folks?
Peter rubbed his face. Enough misery. Time to scope out the competition.
He steps away, looking along the wall. Hybrid plants, alternative energy improvements…it was going to be a tough year. But he had to make this work, or say goodbye to Kane Enterprises.
Peter stopped at the NYU exhibit, noting Anya and Helena's presence. He pauses at the periphery, looking on at the exhibit from a few feet away, but getting no closer. Last thing he needed was to gat called a "creep" and tossed out.
Ignore the douchebag? Easy. Anya smirks in a conspiratorial manner at that, but it's short lived when Helena makes a remark on her work. "Senior thesis," she says, feeling a bit shy about it. "Gonna keep loading the drone up until power output can't compete with the charging mechanism, at which point I'll either keep working on the tech, or just, ya know, call it there. Depends on time and all."
She's tactful enough not to look over at Helena's dad straight away, but she does cast the other girl a wink to acknowledge: message received. "So, you're in the competition?" she asks. "What about this Parker guy, everyone says he's gonna steal the show." As she turns to look around, only then does she try and catch a glimpse of Helena's dad, at which point her eyes widen a little. "No way," she whispers under her breath, then offers a forced smile and waves back. Feeling suddenly very self conscious, she looks around nervously and wrings her hands a bit, eyeballing the other people who are checking out her exhibit.
Okay, drones are interesting… Especially interesting power harvesting ones. Marissa makes her way over to the NYU table, which also seems to have collected a crowd. Blending in is good, right? She manages to slip through the outer ring of people, eyes widening a little as she examines the specs. That… looks pretty impressive. She scratches one ear, one sleeve slipping down far enough to reveal some of the faint circuit tracery on her arms.
Bruce Banner notices some famous faces among the crowd. Like Bruce Wayne. Kind of hard to miss him. He doesn't make too much effort to avoid him though, since he's just some rich guy. It seems like people are clustering more around Helena's exhibit at the moment, so he takes the opportunity to check out peters. Examining the design of the thing, leaning in a bti closer and lowering his sunglasses to see better. He mumbles quietly to himself as he does, the sound faint enough you could be standing right next to him and not hear it. He also doesn't happen to be facing the direction of any lip readers. Other than avoiding some people, he's not really paying any attention to other fair goers.
"Awesome. Give Stark a run for his money on the clean energy front," Helena grins to Anya. That statement has a little bit more to it after she's pointed out her father. "Parker, yeah," she sighs, half-turning to look toward his table. "He's…" At which point she recognizes that he's actually right there.
"Speak of the devil," she smiles faintly. "Anya, this is Peter Parker, the genius who makes us all look like chumps when he gets around to showing up." It's good-natured teasing - she's been across more than one science fair floor from Peter over the years. "Hey, Peter."
Helena's exhibit requires either reading the research or an explanation - it's somewhat lacking in showmanship. But the papers and the security tech in the chair can tell the story. Basically, the leads in the helmet are picking up thoughts. Or rather, they're picking up what they've been programmed to recognize as specific thoughts. In this case, it's limited to terms that might be used by military or police teams. Left, right, forward, hold. Numbers. As the security agent "thinks" the word, it scrolls across the laptop screen. Another display next to the laptop shows how it can be adapted to a HUD or bone-conduction headphones for silence.
SHIELD send their best and brightest. Or Beau Sartre drew the short straw and the wheelchair using doctor got to be the guy to slowly weave about, staring at potato batteries. But hot damn if that isn't Bruce Wayne, so the man straightens up a little and attempts to look more professional. Maybe once upon a time, he dreamed of Waynetech. Either way, he's trying not to /stare/ and do what he came to do. Cherry pick some teenagers.
When the ladies keep on talking to each other, IAN pulls out his phone and takes a couple pictures of things that interest him at the university booth. Then he spots Sartre and gives the agent a little nod of familiarity before noticing that its Bruce Wayne over there. Well holy crap. He takes a picture of him too, and almost runs into Bruce Banner while doing it.
"Alright, William, I think I've let my daughter torture you enough." Bruce offers to the poor Waynetech employee that got somehow shanghaied into the whole idea of being the test subject and 'control' for the experiment his daughter's running. "When she comes back over, you're welcome to take the rest of the evening off, I'll fill in."
Not that Mr. Wayne had bothered to /tell/ Helena that he was willing to sit for the experiment. But it will certainetly draw people over, at least, that's the hypothesis.
Peter's drone looks a little spartan and clunky, really. Like it was made in a machine shop in the course of an afternoon. The display behind the foot-wide drone reveals a covered pedestal made for something, but it is currently empty. The backboard, which turns out to be three 32-inch color monitors, have a message saying POST-DEMO DISPLAYS in white on the black screens.
Peter looks to the two women as his name is mentioned. Wow. Science has no shortage of women, but these two have…a presence somehow. Which reminds him of The Black Cat, and suddenly his cheeks flush red.
"Uhm…yeah, hi, I'm Parker Peter." He stops. "Peter Parker, Sorry." Now he has a public reason to be blushing. "Hello, Miss…" He stops. She knows him but he has NO idea who she is. "I'm…sorry, miss, I don't…really know your name…"
Peter…you GOOBER.
Kitty Pryde makes her way through the science fair, a brunette of about eighteen, with her hair pulled back in a ponytail. She is wearing a pair of faded jeans that are fraying at the knees and a dark blouse. The color of the blouse provides a contrasting backdrop for a small gold Star of David hanging from her necklace.
Kitty's hands go into her back pockets as she looks around the science fair thoughtfully. "I'd have thought sure he'd have been here," she says to herself as she looks about for someone. But not spotting whomever it is, Kitty turns instead to the exhibits. She walks over to where a girl has an exhibit with home-built circuit boards that are quite large by most standards, hooked up to a monitor.
The girl sees Kitty and says, "This is a computer I made with all recycled materials pulled out of trash cans on my street. It has similar processing power to an iPhone 3 despite being made from old cans, tinfoil, and the like."
Kitty smiles at the explanation, leaning over to look closely at the circuit board. "Wow, that's great. What is that you're using to insulate the layers of the capacitor?" she asks, motioning towards a few components. The question gets a big smile from the girl as she says, rubber which was melted and compressed between tinfoil."
Kitty gives the girl an impressed nod. "Very nice. Great example of conservation," she tells her before moving on. Looking for a SHIELD representative, but not the one actually in attendance it appears as she doesn't seem to recognize him.
"Oh I don't know about that," Anya answers Helena in regards to Stark. "AM radio has some pretty big limitations, but it's got much more power behind it than FM, and considering how many cellular networks use the AM bands, there's a ton if it out there to harvest up."
She's yet to have a chance to go and actually look at Helena's exhibit, and when it turns out that the Big Star is actually looking at her display, she seems surprised. Instead, she snickers a bit at Peter's bumbling. "Hey, I'm Anya," she says, and taps the lanyard on her jacket. "NYU. Don't worry, I'm not competing, so you're still probably gonna win." She glances Helena's way with a mischievous smirk. Noticing Ian from the corner of her eye, she passes the man a brief upnod, before looking back to see if Parker is still a nervous wreck. She may know him, but she hasn't put two and two together.
Since the Wayne exhibit seems a bit hot for him, Bruce Banner moves on to another exhibit, brows twitching as he considers it. ….radiations effect on vegetables. Okay. He scratches absently at his fake beard with one hand as he considers the somewhat oversized brussel sprouts. Damn glue was itchy. He gives his head a shake eventually and moves on. None of the entrants seem to particularly care enough about his opinion to talk ot him, since he's clearly not a recruiter. He glancs over towards the thought-reading machine froma distance, squinting his eyes to try and read some of the display.
She hasn't noticed Beau just yet, though Florence has been expecting SHIELD to grace them all with their presence sooner or later. She has actual work to do here, right? Indeed Florence all but melts from the crowd, finally lifting her hands from her pockets to give her cuffs a delicate little tug. "Well Mr Wayne, budget cut backs in the advertising department?"
The smile is fake, but it's a -good- fake. She does at least swivel her gaze to study the booth mutely for a moment before finally giving a little nod. "Oh goodness I'm being terribly rude, I'm Merideth King with the Defense Intelligence Agency, would your project lead like to give me her executive summary?"Badge and ID lanyard right out in the open for everyone to see, though she may seem way too young to be running purchasing programs…right?
With Bruce looking at the display, the other Bruce decides to speak up as he movees over to introduce himself. "Evening. Bruce Wayne, Wayne Enterprises." he offers in greetings, extending his hand to the bearded man - taking a look idly at the name badge for the other one. "Recruiting?" he asks curiously, trying to get a read on the man.
Because something doesn't quite feel right.
"It's cool," Helena smiles ruefully back at Peter, shaking her head. "I'm pretty sure I've heard your name from the podium more times than you've heard mine. I'm Helena," she introduces herself. "Anya's got the drone with the power display. I've got…"
Helena starts to turn to point out her own display when she sees her father taking over for the display. "Oh my god, Dad," she groans, scrubbing a hand over her face. "DAD. It has to be cali- Please excuse me, one minute, I have to- DAD! Sorry, be right back."
And then she's jogging over to her table despite the heels to try to intercept the display. "It has to be calibrated, Dad. Brains work differently. If you put that on, it's just going to be…gobbledy-gook."
It takes a second for it to register that Bruce Wayne is talking to him, the other Bruce glancing briefly around the room to make sure he's actually addressing him. Apparently so. He clears his throat and takes his hand, shaking it. "Ah, hello there. I'm… also Bruce." Yeah, that's not an awkward way to put it at all. "It's nice to meet you Mr. Wayne. Your ocmpany has been doing some interesting things in tech development. I'm not sure why I rate your attention, however." Oh god, did somebody see through his disguise already? Dammit it, he shouldn't have worn that cap. That just drew more attention to him.
Lessee… Who's running this display… Marissa peers around a little, before pulling a cheap smartphone out of her pocket and taking a few pictures of the drone, and the displays behind it. "Huh. I thought AM Radio was dying out…."
"Ah. I was just trying to figure out what company you were representing, Bruce." There's a friendly enough smile. Though if /anyone/ can see through the disguise, it would be the Bruce in front of Bruce. However, whatever Bruce Wayne was going to be saying next is interupted because /Helena/ is about to lay eggs if he keeps letting people take the night off.
Right now, he's more concerned that Bruce Banner may be here to kidnap someone. Or something. However, his attention is stolen. "Helena, you've had the poor guy tied down all day." he offers to his daughter, before holding his hands up in mock-defeat. "But it's your show." comes the response to the young woman, moving out of the way so that Helena can do her adjustments.
Peter may score negative numbers in social tests, but his brain is still working. There is something familiar, but he can't….
Then his eyes fall on the backpack behind the table, and a light flares on in his mind—connection made.
His brain nearly turns INTO a lightbulb with "ANYA IS SPIDER-GIRL" glowing in blue neon.
Don't stammer. Don't lose composure. For the love of Jim BELUSHI, don't lose composure.
He maintains his sheepish bearing with a control that is literally superhuman.
"Drone, huh? There's a drone obstacle course set up along the east wall. Maybe your drone and mine can face off?"
Florence watches the Bruces meet, chin lifting just a touch as she watches. She tugs those cuffs again, pressing at a cufflink. Back at the office theres a blinking light somewhere indicating that something is happening, people are supposed to be running facial recognition and stuff. Instead they're arguing about feats, for this weekend's game because..well Florence doesn't much care to be honest.
When Helena shows, well she shifts her attention to let Bruce&Bruce play out. "Hello there, I'm Special Agent Merideth King from the Defense Intelligence Agency. You've got quite the interesting exhibit here, would you be so kind to take me through it?"And out comes that smile again. "Tough competition this year, I take it?"
"Oh, me? I'm not representing any company. Just a fan of science, really." If it wasn't this particular Bruce talking to the other Bruce, the very cheap suit and the like might make somebody suspect he might be some homeless guy that just came into the science fair to get off of the street. Which… isn't 100% inaccurate. Then the brief brush with greatness ends, and he hurries off to another exhibit. That was close! He glances around, seeing if anybody is watching him. Which is likely to make people more apt to notice and watch him, since it's kind of suspicious looking. And for a school science fair, there seems to be a surprising number of superfolk there, the sort that are more likely to be attuned to odd behaviour. Particularly the skill-fueled Bat Family members. He doesn't LOOK like he's about to kidnap anybody however, and actually ends up moving to the concessions. Pretty soon he has a sandwich in each hand, quietly eating.
Kitty wanders over to another exhibit. She stops to look it over, while the student is talking to someone that a bit of eavesdropping reveals is from GE. She gets a little bit of the gist of the exhibit from listening. "Interesting," she says as she takes out her phone from her back pocket and snaps a photo. She taps out a message with the speed of someone who lives on her electronic devices and sends the photo off through the ether.
Kitty glances up then and moves on to the next exhibit. She ends up standing beside Marissa Wheeler and looking over at Anya's exhibit. Kitty glances at Marissa, sees her looking at the same thing and offers Marissa a friendly smile as she asks, "Any idea what this one is about?" If there is lettering explaining it, someone is standing in front of Kitty, blocking her view, so it won't sound a stupid question.
When Florence approaches Helena, Bruce starts to say something, then stops himself. He can hear the NO DAD in his head. He doesn't need the helmet, see? Let the girl stand on her own merits.
There's a subtle proliferation of government agents into the science fair now… not enough to really be that noticeable, but those with trained eyes can easily spot the spooks that are stationing themselves in the Fair.
After a few moments, a rather professional looking redhead comes in, whose entire demeanor screams 'Scientist' as she might be one of the people reviewing the projects on display. Her business suit is a conservative cut, forest green jacket and slacks with a white shirt. Her name badge has "Dr. P. Isley" printed on it. Currently she's just walking by the exhibits, asking a few questions of each of the presenters, working her way down the line.
"Yeah, maybe," Anya tells Peter, laughter in her eyes. "Something tells me yours might have more juice, mine's amped up and all, but I'm still working on the power transfer ratio. Also, AM radio is finicky, with the walls and such, but that's why it's got a reserve battery to provide latent power." She reaches up to scratch at her head a little, clearly having a moment of science brain. "Then there's the weight problem, which… nevermind. Anyway!" She reaches out to clap Peter on the shoulder. "Best of luck. Once you win, come grab me and we'll give that course a swing."
PUN NOT INTENDED. Anya has no idea she's been had.
The young woman casts a glance toward Helena's exhibit, noting that she's giving dad a hard time, which causes her to grin a little. Then, her professor is clearing his throat, so she hides a scowl and walks back over to her own exhibit at the NYU table. "Hey!" she says to Marissa and Kitty. "Got any questions?"
"Well, the judges haven't been here yet," Helena rolls her eyes at her father, gently guiding William back to his seat. "Sorry, Will, I know it's been a long day. But you know you get dibs on the prototype, right?" she smiles crookedly as she adjust the feeds.
She turns toward Florence as she approaches, offering out a hand with her professional smile in place. "Helena Wayne, a pleasure to meet you, agent," she greets politely. "I'd be happy to." It's like practice for the judges, right?
"The basis premise is that thoughts are simply electrical impulses in the brain. The medical community's made excellent use of it for patients affected with speech disorders and limb replacement, but it hasn't really been implemented with something as specific as words. This device, with the accompanying programming, can be trained and calibrated to recognize specific electrical impulses as specific words. Right now, the simplest use is in military and police actions. Teams that need to be working in concert often need to be able to work silently, without the risk of commands being picked up by radio signals or bystanders. Once one of these is calibrated to each member of a team, a set can be used to communicate movements silently through either a heads-up display or bone-conduction headphones."
Startled by the sudden approach behind her, Mars fumbles, nearly dropping her smartphone, but managing to catch it at the last second. "Oh, Uh… Broadcast power, I think. Or at least passive harvesting…" She tries to step to the side a little, tugging her hoodie sleeves down again. And then she jumps for a SECOND time as Anya accosts her. "Ah… Isn't AM on its way out? I didn't think people still listened to it."
The thing about cheap spirit gum, besides it being itchy, is that it sometimes wears off too fast. As he eats his sandwich, Bruce Banner doesn't notice that his beard is starting to….slump, a bit. One flap of it hanging down. It doesn't help him look less suspicious. He's still observing various booths, though from a distance to try and not get pulled into conversations with somebody that might recognize him. Not realizing that he already talked with the person there most likely to figure out who he is.
Peter is about to speak, but he looks back and sees…holy cow, it's Dr. Curt Connors!
"Uhm…" He is about to say, "I have to go," but it comes out as "…me go now." He steps back and is halfway back to his spot before he realizes what he just said.
Dr. Curt Connors of the Science Department on Empire State University is giving his drone a skeptical appraisal. He looks up as Peter arrives, putting on a polite smile. "Hello, Peter Parker."
"Yes! We spoke on the phone. Well…?"
"It's not very impressive, Mister Parker. I hope you have something more than this."
"I do, sir! I had a dron obstacle course set up along the wall there. Let me take the drone through it, and I'll show you."
Dr. Connors nods, idly scratching the other arm, just above the pinned-up sleeve. It had been an IED, his bio said. "All right, Mr. Parker. I'm here for a show. You had better have a show to put on."
Kitty Pryde sees Marissa Wheeler start and nearly drop her phone. "I'm sorry, didn't mean to surprise you there," the brunette says with a soft smile to Mars. The explanation seems to have enough meaning to Kitty that she gives a soft, "Ah, I see," and a nod of understanding as she looks back towards the exhibit itself.
Kitty glances up as Anya comes over to where she and Mars are standing. "Hello. It's an excellent project idea," Kitty says, giving the Latina a friendly smile. "How do you find the signal strength to be? What sort of amplitudes does it require to achieve enough power generation for practical use running on it?" she inquires.
Mothers call at the /worst/ times. Beau returns to exhibits looking like a guy who just got his ear nagged off. Meaning, he looks tired. But he perks up as he seems to spot someone he knows. Maybe? He moves with purpose now towards Helena Wayne. He heard 'medical community' and as he SHIELD badge says, he is a doctor. He rolls up just in time to hear the latter half of her presentation. "My goodness, is this the melding of technology with the body I am hearing? That happens to be my specialty. Beau Sartre, Miss…?" He is pretending Bruce Wayne isn't right there. As it happens, he looks to Florence and goes, "Have you ever been to Nova Scotia? Or..uh, shit…pardon me." He smiles. "Costa Rica, maybe? I know that face."
As the redhead enters the room, there's a lift of Bruce Wayne's head. Who wouldn't notice the gorgeous young woman, a doctor to boot. But for Bruce, this is a little more personal. "Doctor Isley. I didn't realize that you had decided to come out to check the exhibits for yourself." he greets her. "I am glad to see you doing well."
Florence, or rather Special Agent King listens with rapt interest to Helena's little presentation before giving a little nod. "Have you serving your country?"She's supposed to be sneaky about recruiting, right? Well she clears her throat, leaning in just a touch. "The bald guy back there with the alphabet soup, see the ugly glasses?"Those aren't glasses mind, they're cokebottles.
"Thats Doctor Lambert, runs the neurological technology labratory for DARPA."Theres a grin and a wink there, as Florence leans back. "I'd suggest you bring up it's potential off label use for Football players to make calls, he's got something of an unhealthy obsession with college ball."See this is what happens when you send a Fox to do a recruiter's job.
Beau gets a look, before Sophie's smile fades just a touch. "Ah yes, SHIELD. Costa Rica indeed, quite the weather if memory serves yes?"Theres a story there, of course but it isn't one for such a public place of course. She offers a hand, half turning to expose that plastic badge and the blue bordering around it. "How nice to see you again, I hope you've been well Doctor?"
Dr. Isley smiles a bit at Bruce, "Well, thanks to your efforts, I was able to be here, Mister Wayne." She nods slightly, "And to be honest, I have to admit this is one of the more… pleasant perks of my current situation." She glances over towards some of the exhibits, "They do appear quite innovative. But, well, how have you been?" It's rare for her to talk anything other than business these days, so this is a welcome occasion for her.
"I've been well. I'm here for my daughter." There's a glance towards Helena and her mind reading helmet. "She's quiet proud of her acomplishments. As am I." he says with a small smile. Though he waits for Helena to respond to Florence, before guiding Pamela over to the table. "Helena? I have someone I would like you to meet."
Helena has her projects - well, Batman has his own - and well, Pamela is flourishing at the moment.
Helena glances briefly toward her father for some reason, but she's shortly back to paying attention to the others. "I've been told SHIELD is an excellent organization," she answers Florence's question with a wry smile. By no less than Captain America, even. Which leads her directly to Beau, stepping forward to offer a hand once more. "Helena Wayne, a pleasure to meet you, sir. It's…a work in progress."
She looks back toward her subject and her father alike, smile crooked. "You see, the current complication is that it requires calibration for each used. Brains and brainwaves are unique. It could be programmed to function on hand signals or something similar, which would make it more applicable for mass uses. Or football players, maybe. But I'm hoping that the more people it gets calibrated to, the better the information will be and the more commonalities we can find, which could eventually lead to actually being able to read thoughts."
As Bruce draws her attention, she looks over from the agents, polite smile still in place.
"No way," Anya answers Marissa. "There's a lot of AM radio, and a lot of the cellular networks are using the non-broadcast bands," she explains, before looking toward Kitty. "Well, it fluctuates, which is why I installed a reserve battery to handle backup power when the receptions are down. So it kind of fluxes between using the passive power, the active power, and when there's a lot of AM going on, it charges both. The toughest part was designing it to read the entire AM spectrum, and grabbing the five strongest frequency ranges, but." She smiles, feeling proud of her work. "I figured it out."
Bruce Banner does eventually notice his sagging beard. When it falls entirely off of his face and lands on the ground. He jumps slightly at this, quickly bending down and snatching it up, stuffing it into a pocket. Then he glances around the room warily, and eyes the exit. Hmm. Maybe he should go? Though nobody is coming towards him, so maybe none of them noticed. He sighs, and starts on the second sandwich. At least things could be worse. So far, no supervillains have broken in to steal some of the tech for evil purposes. Maybe school science fairs aren't enticing enough for that.
Peter reached into a nearby box and pulled out what looked like a very large set of wraparound sunglasses. Harry had helped, a little, with resources, but Peter had done all the work himself. He put the wraparounds on, then pulled on a hiking glove with thin fiber-optic lines running along the outer fingers into a small box at the wrist, which now had a green light. He took out the glove's mate, then pulled it on. He checked the fit, then looked to Dr. Connors. "Ready?"
The one-armed man nodded.
Peter tapped the ON/OFF button on the tablet, and the three screens lit up. The one on the right displayed gauges and virtual buttons in line-drawings. The one in the middle displayed the room from the drone's point of view. The one on the left was a GoPro camera, aimed at the drone, giving an observer-position view.
Peter lifted his hand, and the large drone rose with a hum of turbines. Peter angled his left hand slightly and the drone rose over the heads of the people in the area, flying to the northeast corner of the room, where a sign marked DRONE COURSE STARTS HERE is placed…
The 12-inch-wide drone hovers there for a moment, then barrels forward towards the clear plastic tube…a tube that is eight inches wide.
"How much power do you actually get out of it?" Marissa peers closer, entirely unaware that someone also unaware of her plans is ready to counter them. Good thing she's only casing the joint… She turns aorund at the sudden buzz of rotors, standing on tiptoe to see what the next Drone pilot is up to…
"Yeah! Costa Rica! The mud was almost up to my axles and I swore I would not let another person talk me into working adjacent to a rainforest. They lied about me never having to leave pavement, by the way." Beau is about to give Helena the SHEILD speel as she shakes her hand. "A pleasure to meet you Miss Wayne. You are doing amazing for a work in progress. I mean, thinkin' brain waves as a teenager. More than I was doin'. Keep it up." Her /father/ is about to pull her away before he can give the canned speech so he quickly gives Helena his card. Beau Sartre, MD. SHEILD, etc, etc. "Please, don't limit your options. SHEILD could use tech like this and I /happen/ to be their Biotech go-to." He speaks quickly, with an odd cadence that doesn't match his generic accent.
Pamela blinks in surprise, "Your daughter? I had no idea." She turns over towards Helena's direction, giving the young woman a warm smile and a wave, though she then looks a bit distracted by the impending Drone exhibition.
Kitty Pryde smiles to the explanation from Anya. "It's a wonderful project. Best of look in the judging," Kitty offers to Anya with a friendly smil. She glances over to Marissa as the other woman focuses in on the drones. Before Kitty has a chance to look over there, a beard falling off of a face catches her eye. She looks from the fallen faux-whiskers to the man himself, one of her eyebrows rising slightly in a brief explanation of surprise.
Kitty gives Anya another smile as a way of saying goodbye, and then drifts over across the science fair, until she's standing over near Bruce Banner. "Hello," She offers Bruce. "I should have brought one of those myself," she says of his sandwich. "There's this one at a place I love. Smothered in chipotle mayo. I haven't had a chance to eat one since I got back," she says with a shake of her head. Bought one, yes. Ate it, no. Damn Lord Plokta.
"Oh I don't know, I rather fancy the jungle."She offers in retort, retreating somewhat to scan the crowd. "So what are you cradle robbers up to, not enough kids in capes under drinking age?"Zing, right to it. Delivered without any venom, thankheavens. Pausing as she steps away, invitation for Bo to tag along. Field agents should have better things to do right, like sleep for a few more hours and drink a heroic amount of cheap wine? "You believe they dragged me out here, rather than somone from Sci-tech? See this is why I should just start unplugging the phone on my days off."
Theres a sigh there, as Florence rubs an ear idly "You got better eyes than me for this stuff Doc, you lead and I'll play tailgunner here. Keep the CIA jerks off us."
Must be polite. But- But biotech! Helena is visibly torn between Beau's SHIELD spiel and being polite to her father's friend. "A pleasure to meet you, Dr. Isley," she greets the woman, though she takes advantage of the distraction provided by the drone display to take Beau's card. "I would really like to visit some time, actually," she admits. "I've been, ah." She glances toward her father. Maybe not the time to talk about alternative routes to a college education.
"I'd definitely like to see more of what SHIELD is working on." And not only to rip it off. "Oh hey, is that Parker's project?" she asks then, looking back to the drone demonstration.
When +Finger kitty
When the teen X-Man approaches him, Bruce Banner tenses up. He chews a few more times, then swallows what's in his mouth. He motions towards the concessions. "You can go ahead, Miss. They're not bad. Free anyway." He studies her curiously. He… fails to recognize her, if she happens to be well-known. "Ah, was there something you were wanting help with? I'm sorry to say, I'm not a teacher or anything. Just a science fan that decided to stop in and see the exhibits." He can't think of any other reasons why what seems to be a student would approach him.
"Sweetheart." Bruce says quietly as he glances at his phone. There's a call incoming. Though Helena knows the program he's using to spoof the call - and why. "I'm sorry, it's the office. I should tend to this. I'll have Alfred pick you up when it's over." he tells her, before he leans down to kiss the Babblebat on the head. "Love you." he offers to his daughter.
"Doctor Isley, I look forward to seeing you again." There's a glance over the others, and a momentary pause on Bruce Banner. Wayne was an Avenger. He knows the files well. And later on, when Bruce Banner is alone. He'll have a visitor.
"Oh, I'm not being judged," Anya tells Kitty. "NYU, just here to show off what the university can produce."
She turns to Marissa. "Well it," Anya starts to tell Marissa, but then it seems everyone's eyes are on Peter and his project. She turns and watches, one eyebrow cocked as she watches the drone go.
Connors frowns. "That's not going to fit," he says warningly.
"Right," Peter replied. "Need to make it smaller."
His right hand rises, and a virtual hand rises on the right-hand screen to the STAGE box, tapping the "1" button.
It goes red at the same time there is a sudden "POP" and the drone splits open from the front and spreading backwards. as the two pieces fall away, a small, sleeker drone, now looking like a miniature fighter aircraft, shoots into the clear tube with an inch to spare total. the discarded shell drops into a cardboard box below that point, as if it was there to catch them.
The left screen keeps track of the drone, zooming in to display its maneuvers as it travels through the tube, the middle screen showing a "cockpit" view of the same thing. As the tube curves at the corner of the building, the drone takes the curve at 20 MPH. It says so in one of the virtual boxes.
Dr. Curt Connors is now glancing from the screens to the drone, blinking in surprise.
Beau shoots Helena a smile and a knowing look. "When you are ready, Miss Wayne. Number's on the card." He avoids Bruce Wayne's possible gaze and looks to 'SA King'. "I like the jungle too. And then I visited it from a set of wheels. Good ones too. All-Terrain setup. Then the rains. And the mud. So. Much. Mud." He snots at her cradle robbing comment. "Look, I am not a recruiter. I'm just taking orders. Orders being: 'It's your turn to check the youngsters'. Pfft. Still, A Wayne in SHIELD? That's worth a twenty-five cent raise, don'tcha think?" The cadence is vaguely southern with something else? French? Cajun? Whatever it was, now he sounds a bit like a news reporter. "I'll lead, sure. Science is my thing, I reckon."
Kitty Pryde is not well known, though some heroes that she has teamed with before might know her. Though not the one she is speaking to now at least. Kitty crosses her arms as she watches the drones flying around. She tells Bruce Banner quietly at his question of whether she needs something, "Not really. Familiar with your career though. Appreciate what you've tried to do, and all." Kitty doesn't mention the rampage that happened before Dr. Banner dropped out of sight. "Didn't really expect to see you here. But I'm glad to see you are," she says. "I hope that means things are well for you?"
"Holy sh-"
"AHEM." Seems the professor knows of Anya's potty mouth, and cuts her off at once.
Anya is still staring at Parker's drone as it races along the course, her mouth ajar. She turns and looks at her own drone, and realizes that, while her power management tech is pretty damn innovative, there's no way her drone could accomplish that level of speed or maneuverability.
"One of these days," she murmurs.
"Miss Corazon!"
Anya turns at the Professor's scolding, only to find that there's a representative from Google there, eyeballing her invention. Paling a little, she quietly smiles to Marissa with an apologetic look, and jumps in to start talking with the guy who just might be able to give her a kick ass internship.
Bruce Banner turns his eyes over to the cobbled together drone, that splits into the smaller more manuverable one. He smiles faintly. Those seams had looked a little odd on it. Then the man turns back to Kitty. He tenses slightly at her words, then sighs again. "Well, I appreciate you not making a fuss about things." He's pretty sure she's referencing him being the Hulk. He crosses his arms over his chest, looking down. "They're as well as can be expected." Which from his tone of voice, isn't particularly well. He glances up at her, his brows furrowing. "You seem a little… young, to be that familiar with my work. In any field. Miss…?" She knows who he is, after all. It's only fair.
Beau's accent gets a twitch from Florence, before clearing her throat. "Parlez vous francais, French Cajun is that what I'm picking up on there?"Not that her file specified, but well she makes no attempt at hiding that gutter Paris French of hers. "Better drowned than cooked any day, and the bugs never much bothered me. Though I started out in South America really, so I've had ample opportunity to get used to such things."Theres a little shrug there as she tucks her hands back into those pockets, content to let Beau lead for now.
Helena moves toward the drone display along with the rest of the spectators now, a rueful smile quirking as the drone splits and reveals a much more Parker-likely product. She crosses her arms over her chest with a slight sigh, but, well. This is more what she was prepared for.
Pamela blinks at the drone demonstration, and smiles a little at the surprising stage-separation, "That's… rather impressive. I think. My field is botany, after all." She hmms, and glances curiously over at Florence and Beau, "Jungles, hmm? I do like taking the time to visit those. A nice way to get away from the hustle of city life."
Thr drone shoots out of the tube and towards a series of gates, basic wooden squares. However, the squares can be seen as growing progressively smaller. The drone can make it through the first four, but not all ten.
Connors says, "…Parker…"
Peter replies, "Right…gotta make it smaller."
The virtual hand touches the "2" button.
The top flips off and the bottom drops out, revealing an even smaller drone only four inches wide, built in the shape of a front-heavy plane that shoots through all ten gates, still holding steady at 20 MPH.
Kitty Pryde watches the newly emerged drone with interest, though shares her attention for it with occasional glances over to Bruce Banner as they talk quietly. "No fuss to be made from my standpoint. I can tell someone who has gotten a raw deal but has tried to make the best of it he can," she says with an unconscious confidence that suits her somehow despite her youthful age. "Kitty Pryde," she says, offering her hand over to Bruce Banner. "I just finished up a degree in Computer Engineering, going to start on a doctorate with the new school year," she tells him. "A little familiar with some of your work, but not really my field. Though it was the other work I followed more closely," she tells him. She mentions to Bruce a fairly well known scientist that was one of her mentors.
"Oui." Beau says, begrudgingly. "I worked all through college and med school to ditch my accent but people still pick up on it. I'm from Louisiana. Lafayette, to be exact. Cajun on my mother side." Pamela speaks of jungles and Beau throws up his hands, dramatically. "Jungles are amazing! Except when you are a cripple who was promised /no jungles/. Of course, I was lied to. As always. As always…"
Bruce Banner considers the hand, and then takes it. His grip is firm enough, though he's only of average strength for the most part. Which is kind of funny considering. He shakes briefly. "Good field. I have some knowledge there myself. I've not done much work recently though." There's some regret there. He's a scientist after all. It's been years since since he had a lab he could actually work in. His lips twitch at mention of his other work. "Well. That's the work most people find more interesting. Or worrying." His head tilts his at the mention of the scientist in question. "Really. I've read some of his work. I had hoped it might give me some insight into… well. Anyway." He slowly blinks a few times as he considers the scientist in question, then looks her over. "…I suppose you probably can empathize with my situation, to an extent." He IS fairly quick on the uptake after all. Considering who the scientist in question is associated with, it's not much of a leap to figure out she's probably associated with them too.
As someone next to Helena gasps and breaks into light applause with the next smaller drone, she leans over, shaking her head slightly. "Ten bucks says he's not done with the surprises yet."
"Not my natural habitat, I think I'm more of a forest sort've girl but yeah. I like the Jungle, it's got a real wild primal sort've energy."A government spook who spent time in the Amazon, probably shouldn't surprise anyone but well she does at least seem genuine. "I would've stayed, introduced myself to the strip miners and the charcoal cartels but unfortunately duty calls me elsewhere."Theres a little shrug at that, though she does at least offer Pamela a hand "I'm Special Agent King, Defense Intelligence Agency. This bumpkin with me, is Doctor Sartre from SHIELD. Pleased to meet you."
"And Keep the accent Doc, you have any idea how much Americans love honest accents? Just speak a little French, tell them you're from Lyon or something and nobody will know the difference."Theres a smirk, and an elbow delivered of course. Florence, giver of terrible dating advice.
Kitty Pryde shakes Bruce Banner's hand before crossing her arms again overtop the dark blouse. "He's quite a guy," Kitty confirms with a soft chuckle as Bruce mentions his familiarity. "Brilliant. I've been really lucky to study under him as much as I could," Kitty confirms to Bruce.
She glances over as his eyes show how Bruce's mind is visibly whirring and making connections. Kitty gives Bruce a slow nod of confirmation as he speaks of empathizing with his situation. "Yes. If not your exact situation? Quite a few that run in a similar vein as yours," Kitty tells him. "If it is not too much to ask, are you back with any of your old comrades now? Though, I'm kind of guessing not, what with the…" Kitty says, trailing off and itching at her chin meaningfully before giving a head nod towards Bruce's chin that recently had the fake beard.
After the last gate, it makes another wide turn and heads for the finish line. There are two avenues, one clear plastic tube wide enough for the new version of the drone, and another one marked THE GREEN MILEa green plastic tube that is closer to a funnelsix inches wide at the entrance, three inches wide at the exit.
Dr. Connors is nodding, actually getting into it. "All right. Mister Parker, I can see we might have to…"
And then the drone flies straight into THE GREEN MILE.
To his credit, Dr. Connors only looks surprised, then looks to Peter, who is raising his right hand again. On the right-hand screen, the virtual finger rises to the "3" button…and taps it.
Midway through THE GREEN MILE, there is a flare of light, a clattering sound of scattered pieces…and then a few seconds of silence.
Dr. Connors sighed. "You were very close, I must ad…"
And then a dragonfly comes out of the other end.
At first, it looks like a normal dragonfly. The right size, the right shape, It is only when it flies closer that it is different. The insect is colored a poisonous yellow and red, with purple wings. Second, the middle screen is still transmitting, and the view is getting closer to Peter and Dr. Connors, and the GoPro is following it.
The dragonfly lands neatly as you please on the pedestal in front of the screens, and the camera zooms in on the side of the insect, where two words are painted on it:
LITTLE NELLIE.rds are painted on it:
LITTLE NELLIE.
Dr. Connors STARES at the dragonfly. "That is…"
Peter says
Pamela smiles slightly, "Yes, well, I can see where that would be a problem. But that is the hazard of government work, I suppose." She offers a hand to Beau, "Doctor Pamela Isley. Nice to meet you."
Of course, her identity is a matter of public record, so at least one (former) supervillain is currently in the house. And… not really doing much of anything. So far, anyway.
Peter says, "…the drone, yes, Dr. Connors."
Bruce gives a cough and absently rubs off some of the spirit glue still clinging to his face. "Ah, no. Not currently. My release was… not exactly sanctioned by the goverment… so I don't want to cause trouble for my former comrades by intruding on them quite yet." He shrugs one shoulder. "You seem to have been the only one here to recognize me, thankfully." Oh, if only he knew. He considers her. "I've never had an opportunity to work with… your teacher, or any of his aquaintances. I've heard good things about them though." He pauses, considering. "…mostly. But some sources are best ignored, I believe."
Now Helena joins in the scattered applause, stepping ruefully back to her own table with a faint smile. Well. At least she got a card from SHIELD. Which she pulls out of her pocket, flipping it over to read it over now that Dad's gone and she can actually consider it.
Meanwhile, the judges step over toward Peter and Dr. Connors. "An impressive display, Mr. Parker," says the woman at the front of the group, taking a few notes. "Can you tell us about your design?"
Kitty's lips pull back in a bit of a grin at Bruce's comments. "There's a lot of bad press out there. The good things are probably the truer. Though no one is perfect," she says. No doubt Bruce Banner knows, if anyone does, that good intentions can go wrong. Kitty glances about, finding an exhibit that has some handouts and she grabs one and bums a pen. She jots down a number and an email address, the latter just a random string of text from a domain known for their privacy measures. "If you ever need to get in touch," she says as she offers Bruce the information.
Bruce Banner does indeed know. Good inteintions leading to bad things are a large portion of his life. He considers the paper when she offers it to him, frowning slightly. Then he takes it. "Thank you, Miss Pryde." He reads over the number and address, commiting them to memory before slipping it into a pocket. He gives her an apologetic look. "I'm afraid I'm currently without a phone, so it's a little harder to get in contact with me. Though I think some of your friends might be able to manage it. If you ever need help."
"Doctor Beau Sartre. Nice to meet you, Doctor Isley." Beau shakes her hand just as his phone starts vibrating and flashing. "Excuse me." A look at the screen. "Ma. You will really have to excuse me again. Ma never much cared about the actual working part of my job." And off Beau goes, answering the phone and immediately beginning to argue.
"The Doctor Isley, well your file is certainly colorful."She smiles, could that be genuine amusement? "Rather surprised to see you up here in New York of all places, not down in the Amazon? Goodness knows you could probably get away with plenty in Venezuela right now, and Colombia is working on a fascinating plan to halt the deforestation down there. Economic policies, tons of interesting stuff with the use of native plants to insure agricultural activity is less disruptive to the native ecology. Anyway listen to me ramble on, just up for the show?"
Dr. Isley wrinkles her nose a bit at the other agent, "As I'm sure you're aware, I'm currently on a federal government 'contract' to help environmental recovery in the Disaster Zone." Her tone grows icy enough that she could be mistaken for another member of the Rogues Gallery, and then she says, "Pardon me."
Spinning quickly, she stalks away from Florence, not paying attention to where she's going… which is how she ends up colliding with Dr. Banner. "Oof! Oh, I'm sorry, I should be paying more attention to where I'm going." Adjusting her glasses, she blinks and tries to refocus a bit, seeing who exactly she ran into, quite literally.
Peter smiles and taps the tablet, and the three screens switch to tables, charts, and diagrams of the dragonfly drone. The center screen begins a video of Peter, dressed in a lab coat, laying out the construction of the drone, his reliance on a recent;y-developed room-temperature superconductor, and the collision-avoidance software he wrote after dealing with multiple crashes of the drone itself. Dr. Connors looks suitably impressed, asking for a copy of the software after the copyright was accepted.
Kitty Pryde imagines Jean Grey could probably get hold of Bruce Banner by means other than a telephone, if needed, so she gives him a nod at his comment. "You're welcome," she tells him, leaving his name off to risk the chance of anyone else recognizing Bruce. "Hmm," she comments as he mentions not having a phone. She pulls her phone out of her pocket and unlocks it with a combination of biotmetrics and a password. She works on it for about a half minute and then opens her list of apps and runs one, which asks for confirmation twice. The phone sits there for a few moments and then goes black and reboots. When it comes back up, Kitty holds it out to Bruce. "Give it a fingerprint and eye scan, and then enter a passcode. Made it myself. Reset it back to default state for you. Connections on its end are fully secured, as well," she says.
Theres a blink, and a hand lifted but well she's not stupid. She lets the good doctor go without anything so foolish as an attempt to restrain her. She just winces, before skulking back into the crowd. "This was supposed to be my day off."And well, she doesn't quite -literally- poof into thin air but she may as well. Off to pretend she's working!
Focused on Kitty Pryde, Bruce Banner isn't really watching those around him now. So he fails to notice when Dr. Isley approaches him until it's too late. He blinks a few times as Kitty offers him the phone, hesitating. "That's nice and all, but I'm not sure if I should…" And then a redhead bumps inot him, justling him a bit and making him take a step forward. He recovers quickly, and then gives Pamela a brief smile. "It's alright, Miss. No harm done." She might recognize him from the papers, even if he hasn't been there for years. He's never operated in the particular neck of the woods she's from, though.
The judges nod along, looking pleased by the presentation as they watch the video. "Very nice, Mr. Parker," the woman approves with a tight smile. "Thank you." And then they're moving on, and it's time for Helena to give her spiel again. Without Dad's moral support. But hey, Alfred made it!
Pamela smiles, "Oh, that's not a…" She pauses, and tilts her head, looking at Dr. Banner, then she hmms, "Problem." She then offers her hand to Bruce, "I should have paid more attention to where I was going. Dr. Pamela Isley." Whose name definitely was in the papers.
Bruce Banner considers the name for a few moments. He recognizes the name. And now that he looks at her, that's a hard face to forget as well. "Ah. It's a pleasure to meet you, Dr. Isley. I'm Bruce." He offers her a smile. "I've read about your work." He doesn't mention the other things that she likely showed up in the newspaper for. He glances at Kitty, frowning. Then he reaches over and takes the phone with a sigh, slipping it into a pocket. He glances around the event. "It was a pleasure meeting both of you. Really. But… I think I should be going." He gives them apologetic smiles. "Another time, hopefully."
Peter looked to Dr. Connors, who smiled. "You do have a flair for the dramatic when you want to, Mr. Parker. Rest assured I will be giving you a VERY favorable recommendation. Better start picking your classes. Fall registration begins in July. Have a good day, Mr. Parker."
And with that, he walks off.
Harry and Aunt May approach him, eyes wide with expectation. "WELL…?" Harry blurted out.
"Peter smiled. "I think I'm college-bound."
"YES!" Harry pumped his fist. "Lady and gentleman, let's BLOW this pop stand. Dinner's on me, and money is no object!"
Peter nodded. "Hang on, I'd like to say something to someone first."
He smiles to them, and then Harry calls Thud and tells him to get the stuff for the dropped drones collected as Peter walks towards Helena. He pauses just beyond the judges, listening, but not saying anything or trying to call attention to himself. This is Helena's moment.
Kitty Pryde glances over at Dr. Pamela Isley as she bumps into Bruce Banner. Kitty falls quiet as the two converse. The phone is handed over to Bruce when he reaches for it. "Thank you for that," she says to Bruce. The older man was probably helping explain some exhibits to Kitty or something. She glances back to Dr. Isley again, giving her a friendly enough smile. "Nice talking to you," she offers to Bruce. "I think I might try to track down that sandwich of mine now," she says.
Thanks to her practice, Helena delivers the speech about her project and how it works without a hitch. The demonstration is slightly less perfect, as one of the commands doesn't seem to be going through. William might be slightly distracted by Dr. Isley. Once he's eyes forward again though, it goes more smoothly. Except for one little hitch.
"And Miss Wayne, is this all…your work?" That, at least, gives Helena a moment of pause before she collects herself. "Yes ma'am," she answers, only a little defensively. "I sourced all of the materials and created all of the code."
"Mmmm," the judge hums, then looks up with a plastic smile. "Thank you, Miss Wayne." And then she's moving on, leaving Helena cracking her knuckles as she watches her go.
Peter waits until the judges have gone before he approaches Helena. "Miss Wayne? Hi. I'm sorry if I got a little flustered. I just wanted to say that I think you've done some fine work here. Really innovative stuff."
Helena turns as Peter comes over, unclenching her fists as putting the polite smile back in place. Even that doesn't last long though, softening into something a little more genuine. "Hey, thanks," she replies, looking back toward his drone. "The drones are pretty amazing, too. Was that Dr. Curt Connors who was watching? You have an internship lined up?" She just assumes he must. That's how it works, right?
Peter smiles wryly. "Actually, he said if I made a good showing at the science fair, he'd write a letter of recommendation to the admissions board for Empire State University…and he's apparently the swing vote. Me, my Aunt May, and my friend Harry are going out to dinner. Someplace hideously expensive, if I know Harry. Listen…if you're not doing anything right now, would you like to join us? If you're busy, I understand, I just wanted to ask you about your work…"
Kitty Pryde makes her way across the science fair. Glancing at this booth and that as she does. One or two get a slightly longer pause from Kitty than the others, but the allure of her sandwich keeps her moving forward before long.
Until she gets to Helena's booth. Kitty pauses there, reading over the information about the exhibit, and looking over towards William, if he's still in the contraption. Kitty gets a curious look and turns back to the written information a second time as if going over it more thoroughly.
"You need a swing vote?" Helena arches a brow, smile wry. "If you need a swing vote, I'm gonna have to lock Dad in the basement to keep him from- Yeah, I'm just not gonna finish that sentence because there isn't an ending that doesn't sound weird." Apparently Peter isn't the only one with a case of foot in mouth. She looks toward his table, then back toward where Alfred is waiting with her mother. "Yeah," she agrees as she turns back. "But I'm not sitting next to Osborne," she adds with a smirk. "Gimme just a minute to wrap some things up?"
The written information is dense, though easy enough for Kitty to interpret. Input is measured as electrical input from the leads, translated to the wireless transmission on the HUD. There's even numbers and algorithms for the iterations of "thinking" the relevant words until the machine can pick them up reliably and translate them.