Summary:Riri drops out of college, goes for a test flight, Meets two of her idols, and ends up with her dream job. Log Info:Storyteller: None |
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Given that this was ESU, tinkering noises were normally tolerated. However, the noises of power drills, ratchets, and occasional loud thumps and clangs were a /bit/ much. At least three noise complaints, plus some discrepancies in scrap inventories, all in labs that a certain grad student had access to… All that has lead to the head of Campus Security, the dean of students, and a campus police officer clustered outside her door. The officer firmly knocks on the door. "Riri Williams? This is the Head of Campus Security. May we speak with you?"
Inside, Riri looks up from her laptop, a cable running from the computer into the open helmet of her armor. "Uh… I'm not dressed!" Tapping enter, a progress bar starting to run across the screen, and she ducks over to her bed, shoving a few final suplies into it.
"Please open the door, Miss Williams." There is a frustrated sigh, and muttering.
"What's this about?" Laptop charger goes into the bag, along with the clothes she particularly cares about. Wallet, phone, keys…
"Well, you haven't showed up at class for two days, We have multiple noise complaints from your dorm mates… And then there's the matter of the security footage." "Security Footage?" "Were you in the Robotics Lab two nights ago?" "Uh, Hold on a sec."
Progress bar finally completes. Laptop goes into the bag, which is zipped shut. "Miss Williams?" Since she pried the safety stops out of the window frame last night, it's now able to open all the way, and does so.
"Miss Williams…" "Look, you have the key, just open it." From inside the room, there's a muffled whirring noise, followed by metallic clanking and a rising whine. The three men look at eachother, before the key is turned. "We're coming in, Miss Williams." The dean mutters under his breath before exclaiming "Do you know the /jeopardy/ in which you have put your academic… career?"
The door swings fully open, and the trio is greeted by an imposing figure in matte greyish silver armor that looks rather like the offspring of Iron Man and a gundam. Its eyes are glowing blue, it's carrying Riri's backpack, and it's standing by the window. "Yeah, I figured. It's okay. I think I'm done with school." They stand there, mouths hanging open slightly as they process this, while the armored girl sits down on the windowsill, gives them a wave, and topples backwards out of it. There is a crackle of shrubbery meetings its fate.
Riri climbs to her feet, brushing dirt and leaves off her faceplate. "I'm okay!" She calls up to the three heads sticking out of her window, still looking extremely shocked. The teen swings the backpack on, cinching the straps tight as she straightens up, hands by her sides, palms down. 'Okay. Maiden voyage.' She activates flight mode, and the suit boosts into the sky, joyful laughter trailing behind it. The younger officer looks to his superior, shrugging. "…Well, I think we win for "Weirdest contraband in a dorm room this month…"
Tony Stark, having already had one flavor of security breach, is perhaps being a little paranoid when he goes out flying in his suit after picking up an energy signature that Should Not Be There. He does a lazy pass over the university. "Can you narrow it down any further, JARVIS?" he asks.
The AI in his suit replies, "Well, sir, whatever it is, it's coming closer."
That's when Tony sees… something, rocketing into the air. "Got it." And he gives chase at speed.
The weatherlady predicted that it would be a possibly rainy day to day! In truth, it should be pouring across the city in patches at least. Instead, it mysteriously has remainded overcast and a little rainy, but none of the clouds overhead seem willing to drop their load of raindrops until they're farther inland, passing over the Big Apple completely.
Which is due primarily to the young woman floating in the sky above, , seeming to almost be perched on a low-lying cloud as she watches the city below.
Rainmaker can't remember the last time she was able to do this. Just….feel the wind and the rain flowing through her, the shifting pressure of the clouds both nimbus and cumulonimus flowing through her attention, shuddering and bloated with rain ready to fall.
Of course, it's not like New York needs the rain, per se. So she's letting it just…drift by for the moment while she relaxes.
That is, until what looks like a missile seems to lift off from the direction of the university, her brow furrowing as she floats up, standing on the mist below her booted feet. It's not red…so…what exactly is that? Oh wait, THERE'S the red one behind whatever it is…
And with her curiosity aroused, the Apache weather witch starts to fly towards the objects in question.
Carol, meanwhile, was flying in the neighborhood when she saw the flash. Blinking in surprise, she angles over in that direction. Rain fizzles against the energy aura surrounding her, making her sparkle moreso than normal as she doesn't go at full speed, loitering a bit to get a better grasp for what's happening…
Which is when she spies out her fellow Avenger also in pursuit. Angling a little closer to fly in formation, she speaks into her comlink, "Hey Tony, friend of yours?" She grins a bit, looking to be glad that something broke the tedium of just keeping an eye out for your Typical Alien Invasion.
Unlike certain other people in possession of flying armor, Riri doesn't have an AI micromanaging all her control surfaces and precise thrust vectors. She flies straight and true in her vertical climb, but shen she starts to level off at around 1500 feet, she wobbles. Biting her lip, she does her best to level out, spreading her arms slightly. "No /wonder/ he goes everywhere in his…" The grin on her face fades somewhat as a buzzer sounds, shifting into something more curious.
"Transponder signal detected on intercept course. Registered: Iron Man. Additional Energy Signature detected." Riri's armor control software is basically a slightly dumber version of Siri. She'd had time to get basic voice and flight control, and some audible reading of alerts in before Campus Security had been knocking on her door. And now she's aware that the Avengers are after her. Sarah R, however, is undetected. A single human who isn't in flying power armor or full of cosmic energy is a lot harder to pick up. Riri peers over her shoulder, wobbling a bit as the flight systems try to keep her on course. "…Crap." Yeah, definitely Tony Stark and Captain Marvel. She'd been hoping to meet them, but hopefully in a slightly more… impressive way. Dialing back on the power, the armored teen shifts into an upright hover, balancing on the thrust in her feet and hands. Wobbling a bit less, at least, as the algorithm learns how the suit /actually/ flies.
"Hey, Danvers," Tony says, as amiably as if they were meeting on the street all casual-like. "To answer your question, I'm not sure yet. JARVIS, get ready to blow this thing out of the air just in case the new neighbor isn't friendly."
Then Riri shifts upright, and Tony relaxes somewhat. His voice, translated through speakers in his helmet, calls out, "Good call. Hey, hows it going? I'm Iron Man, and you are…?"
He hasn't seen Sarah yet, either. He's so focused on Riri, he's not looking at much else. At least JARVIS is still scanning the area, while opening a series of missile ports along the shoulders of Tony's suit. Just in case.
Rainmaker is pretty good with being undetected…being a bit gunshy around government-oriented superheroes after recent experiences. Still…she's with the Young Avengers now, right? And she knows the Fantastic Four…well, most of them. She's probably where she should be doing something about this, as long as she's careful. After all, Iron Man and Captain Marvel are well known heros…and she's pretty sure they can handle more things.
That said, she might be able to help, so she soars down on an oblique interception course, a girl in jeans and a t-shirt showing a woman in 1930s clothing raising a fist with Soviet style workers raising their fists back. Underneath, the shirt reads 'My Marxist Dialetic Brings All the Boys To the Yard.' in orange on black. The most striking part of her is the leather fringed boots she's wearing, that definitely have a Southwestern flair, and the pendants resting over her cleavage as she slows as she approachs.
She wasn't really expecting trouble, mind. So she's not in her fighting costume. But then, she shouldn't need to fight with the other two here, right? And she's not accelerating nearly as rapidly since she's not in a chase, but slightly in front of where the trio is now going.
Captain Marvel slows to a hover, sparkling in the rain as she grins over at Tony, "Well, imitation is the most sincere form of flattery, right?" She tilts her head, making a note of Rainmaker, but keeps most of her attention on Riri, waiting for their reply.
Riri bites her lip inside her helmet again. Tony sounds calm, but… The sudden buzzing alert and HUD warnings of a target lock aren't exactly friendly. …Yep. Definitely Captain Marvel too. "External speakers on." There's a beep, and then the harsh buzz of the targeting warning resumes. "Uh… Hi." ~Great, Riri. Juuuust, great.~ The teen turns her head as Sarah arrives as well, before looking back to the two Avengers. "Still… Kinda working on that. But it's kind of hard to hear you in here over the lock alarm, and I'm kind of using all four repulsors I have to keep flying and there aren't any other weapons so… Mind pointing the missiles somewhere else?" Somehow, the armored teen manages to look embarassed and a bit sheepish.
Tony's quiet for a moment as he just processes all this. Alien invasion? Sure, he'll buy that. Terrorists? He's dealt with them before. But this? This is new. Finally, he says, "You're just a kid." The missile ports close and retract back into the suit. "How is a kid flying around in one of my suits? No, wait. That's not one of mine."
JARVIS pleasantly tells Tony, "There's someone else in the area, sir." He's picked up on Sarah, at least.
"Noted," Tony says. Then, to Riri, "Okay, kid. Out with it. Where'd you get the suit?" Between him and Carol Danvers, here's a mom and pop who could give 'grounding' a whole new definition.
Rainmaker slows, her dark hair whipping behind her like a dark flag as she slows to a hovering stop, frowning a bit at the standoff. "Maybe its her suit." the native girl says, pitching her voice to be heard. "If it's not one of yours." She stays relaxed, hanging in the air seemingly effortlessly as she looks between Riri and Tony and Carol. "Thougn maybe you want to have this conversation on the ground?"
Carol doesn't look like she's gonna blast anyone, really, and she looks over at Tony, "What, you think she got this off of eBay?" She grins and looks over at Sarah, then glances at Riri, "Good idea, actually. Think you can get down without crashing?" She says it nicely enough, but there is a bit of concern there for the pilot.
"Definitely not one of yours." Riri would fold her arms right now, but… Hand stabilizers. And then Sarah speaks up, and says something that makes a lot of sense. "She's right. I built it. You built the first one in a cave, I had ESU's entire machine shops and robotics lab at my disposal. …Plus a little bit of dumpster diving. And I wouldn't mind landing somewhere. Flying's fun, but hovering… I just kind of feel silly. And yeah, I can land." She nods, voice a bit more determined now. "Lead the way, Mister Stark."
Tony Stark's mask tilts toward Carol, and he says, "I'll tell you why that isn't funny in a sec." He glances over at Sarah and says, "According to your shirt, the suit belongs to all of us." The mask can't wink, more's the pity. "All right, down we go." He pivots effortlessly in the air and descends. It's not just the suit he's got figured out, but moving in it is like second nature to him.
"Depends, by everyone are we talking 'we the people' or 'we the goverment on behalf of the people'?" the Apache woman says dryly, then nods a bit, before floating over towards Riri.
"Here….I'll help you a bit." she says to the girl in the suit, her eyes glowing briefly as the air around the suit starts to swirl, holding it in the air to help stabilize it. She glances towards Carol. "…wait, so is he claiming people are selling armor on Ebay now?" she wonders, following them down.
AFter all, no one has told her NOT to, as of yet.
Carol descends down last, and looks wryly at Sarah, "Hey, I just got back a few months ago, I'm pretty sure I don't even have an account there anymore." She shrugs a bit, hanging back just in case Riri needs a bit of a hand on the descent. "Though, if you built that yourself… that's definitely an A for effort."
Riri leans forward a little, staying significantly more upright than her earlier flight as she follows Tony down to the landing platform at Stark Tower. She stiffens a little when the shifting air causes her control surfaces to 'ruffle' a bit, wobbling again before she manages to stabilize. "Okay… That's new. …Aerokinetic? I don't think I've seen you around before…"
Once she's down to about three feet above the landing pad, Riri cuts power. She lands with a clang, only wobbling a little, and resumes a more confident stance. "Sooo… Introductions. I already know two of you." Her faceplate lifts up, revealing the mind behind the armor. "Riri Williams. It's an honor to meet you all. I'm a huge fan. …I'll probably be a fan of you too, once, you know…" She nods to Sarah, biting her lip again. "Once I actually know who you are."
Tony Stark lands on the pad and steps onto the belt that will mechanically remove his suit as he continues walking forward into the lounge. By the time he gets there, he's in jeans and an AC/DC t-shirt. "Drink, ladies? And, uh… what do you drink, apple juice?" So Riri looks a little young to him. He pours himself a gin and tonic, regardless. He studies Riri's suit, but he doesn't comment just yet.
"That among other things." Rainmaker says simply, flying down to land next to Riri and stepping back to give her room once they're down, the winds disappating as she stops focusing on them, then walks in after Stark as he invites the three inside.
"Water, if you have it." she says after a moment, then smiles a little at Riri, a bit of humor in her eyes. "Never really had fans before, so you'd be the first." she admits, Her arms fold over her chest, a faint moue of a frown on her lips as she looks around, having never really been in a tech billionaire's penthouse tower pad before. There's a phrase she wasn't expecting to be using mentally today.
She'll just be holding up the wall here for the moment, her right leg bending to rest the sole of her boot against the wall absently. All she needs is the cowboy hat.
Carol lands gently on her feet, no superhero landings here as she glances over at Tony, "Water works for me too, Tony." She glances curiously between Rainmaker and Riri, and grins a bit, "Pretty cool powers you have there too. Weather control?" She says that to Sarah, just so Riri doesn't feel the focus of too much attention.
"Orange soda." Riri somewhat awkwardly shrugs off the backpack and sets it on the bar, before taking a few steps back. The entire backplate of the suit pivots up, arms and legs clamshelling open, and the teen steps out, gently rapping her knuckles against the shoulder pauldron. "Close it up." The armor seals itself again, faceplate dropping with a clang again. Riri looks to Tony again, grinning widely. "I don't have all the robot arms, you know. Had to improvise."
Tony Stark tells Sarah, "I think where I stand on the government's ownership of my suit is a matter of public record." He pours her a glass of filtered water, and one for Carol, too. Then an orange soda for Riri. He seems as comfortable behind the bar as in front of it. He tells Riri, "It's not bad. You solve the icing problem, yet?"
Sarah takes the water with a little nod and a brow raised to Carol, before she smiles faintly. "Yes." she says simply, before sipping from the glass. "Name's Rainmaker." she adds after a moment. She feels a bit silly using her last name like it's some sort of super name, but really…it works? And she doesn't know if she feels comfy enough /quite/ yet to be on a first name basis quite yet. For myriad reasons.
She smirks a bit at Tony then nods in acknowledgement. "Fair enough." she admits, then glances over to Riri, letting her talk. And explain, presumably.
Carol grins wryly, sipping her water, "Cool. I'd introduce myself, but I think you both know who I am anyway. But you can call me Carol." She taps on her suit's wristpad, and the suit seems to morph into just a regular NIN T-shirt and blue jeans, so Carol can be a bit casual right now too.
"…Icing problem? …Oh. Altitude. Actually hadn't found that one out yet. This was kind of my first test flight." Riri bites her lip. "I wanted to work on the control software some more. I know you fly with an AI, and I can see why. I don't have anywhere near the amount of subsystems you have, and It's hard to micromanage what I have with glorified Siri." She sips her drink, hopping onto a stool. "Kind of had my hand forced, though. Apparently the college and I disagree on the matter of what should happen to scrap material which I may have… liberated." A longer sip. …Probably best not to bring up blacking out her floor starting her reactor. "Nobody was using it, so… I made it into something useful." It's about now that Riri realizes that she'd picked her Captain Marvel tank top today, and sends a furtive glance Carol's way.
"Yeah, figured it's better to clue you in than have you find out the hard way," Tony says. Of course he's not going to tell her how to fix it, but damn if he isn't interested in watching her expression just now, to see what she might be thinking. "So that reactor powering up was you. Good to know. I was going to go check it out earlier, but I had a thing." He glances around at the other women, then back to Riri. "I'd love to see the schematic."
SArah tilts her head a bit. "Yes, I definitely know you." she says amusedly to Carol, nodding a bit, then frowns, glancing over at Riri. "…so you…built a reactor? Like, a nuclear reactor? I thought something this small couldn't run unless it has Stark's arc reactor thing." she says after a moment, side-eyeing the armor now.
Carol hmmms, "Well, wait, you reverse engineered Tony's design? Or made a new version? Either way… that's pretty impressive." She grins over at Tony, "Come to think of it, I'd love to take a look at it myself." She's no Tony Stark in engineering skill, but she does have some game.
"I'm guessing you did. …Probably changed the alloy, Stark Industries did a lot of Aerospace work. I don't have your budget though." Riri takes another sip or two, before looking up at Sarah in response to the question. "Not nuclear. I built my own Arc Reactor. Once I knew it /could/ be done, I did some research… It's probably not as good as it could be. Budgets, materials…" She bites her lip, looking down at the floor again, a bit embarassed in response to all the praise. "I mean… I'd be honored? No taking it apart and keeping it, though. It's kind of all I have left at the moment. And I've only just gotten started. ….Assuming I can find another lab…"
Tony Stark waves a hand and says, "I'm not interested in taking it away from you. I'm interested in how you did it. I was in a cave, but I had state of the art weaponry to take apart." He glances at Carol, brows lifting. "Looks like I've got some competition." He then tells Riri, "You're definitely going to need bring that suit up to speed if you don't want to get frozen out of the air. It's a quick fix, you could probably do it without any trouble if you've come this far on your own."
"Are you offering to be her wise old master now, teach her in the arts of building powered armor?" Rainmaker says thoughfully. "You don't really have the wise beard for it. It's more…scruffy." She glances to Riri. "…though if she can build one…I guess that means other people can figure it out too…or will want to find out how she did it."
Paranoia, thy name is Sarah. Sometimes, at least.
"There are plenty of of sorts out there that would happily steal it if they could."
Carol grins, "Nah, I'm just curious how it works, more than anything else. I'm not gonna infringe on your trademarks Tony." She chuckles, and looks at Sarah, "Well, that's just how things work. You either adjust to it, or you don't." She gives the young woman a sympathetic look, sensing there's a bit more trouble underneath, but not prying about it either.
Riri looks over at her suit. "I mean… I'd definitely need a new place to work. Don't know if my mom would be happy about me setting up in the garage again. …And deal with ESU." She looks over to Carol. "I could show you if you wanted. He's kind of the expert on arc reactors and repulsors though." She nods towards Tony, before going to take another drink and realizing she's out of soda.
Tony Stark tells Riri, "I can set you up in an R&D lab. You'll get entry level pay, with an opportunity to advance." Stark Industries famously pays its workers well, so entry level isn't exactly minimum wage. "You can start tomorrow. We've got all the neat toys, knock yourself out." He takes a sip fo his drink and glances at Carol and Sarah. "Never let it be said I'm not a nice guy."
Rainmaker hmmmms. "If anyone asks, I'll make sure they know." she says dryly, shifting where she's leaning against the wall. "Maybe a good health benefit though, considering she's going to be testing a suit of armor and be around things that blow up possibly when prototyped." The Apache girl seems wry, but a bit relieved that Tony is being a good guy about things.
Of course, she's also realizing she's all by herself in Tony Stark's penthouse, Captain Marvel, and some genius inventer girl, which is making her a bit unsure if she should be moving on at this point.
Carol looks pure and innocent, "Gee, Tony, when would I ever say that you weren't a nice guy?" She grins, then flickers a glance over towards Rainmaker, "So, how long have you been in action? Weather control is pretty amazing, if you ask me. And you probably don't wreck any walls either."
Riri freezes, eyes widening as Tony speaks. "I… You want to give me a job. /Here/. In /my own lab/. To just… Build things? Work on my armor… Help save the world?" Her mouth opens and closes a few times as she continues processing the dream job that basically dropped into her lap, again going to take a drink from her empty glass.
Tony Stark smiles at Carol. "I can't imagine. I'm a peach." He then tells Rainmaker, "Sure, sure. Full benefits. Like I said, entry level." Hey, SI isn't a bad place to work. He then nods to Riri and says, "Sure. I mean you'll have to work on some of the company's conundrums, but mostly, I want to see what you can do when you're not confined to scraps in a dorm room." He says it all so casually, like it's not a big deal. Sure, come work in a state of the art lab, why not.
The Apache girl tilts her head towards Carol a bit. "…ah…action? I'm not really…I mean, I'm not a, a…superhero or…anything." she points out, frowning a little. "I mean, I haven't relaly done anything yet, I'm still sorta getting used to being in New YOrk and not being-" She cuts that off, frowning. "Free of entanglements." she decides to say after a moment of thought.
Carol nods, "Well, that's something I can relate to. But hey, if you ever need a hand with that, let me know. I don't really have a lab or salary to offer, but I do know some other people that have weather powers, if you ever want a chance to work with them." She grins, "Just something to think about."
Riri blinks. "I… Excuse me one moment." She steps back into her armor, and heads back out onto the landing pad. Through the windows, they can see the teen pacing back and forth, gesturing wildly, and generally convincing herself that this is not, in fact, a dream, and is actually happening. A few moments later she re-enters and steps back out of her armor again, expression (relatively) neutral. "I'd be honored to accept, Mister Stark."
Tony Stark snapoints at Carol and tells Rainmaker, "What she said. You don't have to go it alone. Danvers would probably be more help to you than I would be. The only powers I really 'get' come from R&D." Speaking of which, he looks back to Riri. One brow arches as she takes a little personal suit time, and he patiently waits it out. When she emerges, he raises his glass to her and says, "Great. Do you need a place to stay tonight?"
The coppery-skinned girl does look a bit intrigued by Carol's suggestion. "Really? I've never met anyone who can do what I do. If you want to hook a girl up, that'd be cool. I've had to figure out almost everything on my own through trial and error." she admits. She eyes Riri as she walks back and forth, gesticulating to herself, a little twinkle in her eyes as the girl convinces herself to join up, but nods as she comes back and accepts.
Carol grins, "Well, you just have to be a bit patient. Thor can be interesting, but he's a really good guy." She beams at Riri, "And hey, congrats. You definitely earned it. And hey…" She lowers her voice, but is still easily heard, "He doesn't impress that easy. You did good work."
"I kind of do. I think my exit might have annoyed a few people. I'm okay with a couch. Or an air mattress in a lab or something." Riri leans back against her armor, grin widening a bit as Carol further praises her. "…Thanks, Ms. Danvers. I'm kind of a fan of yours too. You can drop by sometime, if you want. …Once I know what my situation completely is."
Tony Stark inclines his head to Carol. "You're not wrong." He then tells Riri, "I'll get you a hotel room and have your stuff brought from your dorm. You can sleep on a couch in your room if you want. I'm not going to tell you how to live your life." He takes out his phone and starts swiping and tapping. "I can have a list of openings in your price range tomorrow, if you want to start looking for something a little more permanent."
Sarah adds dryly. "Maybe make sure no one is freaking out over a power armor launching from the university made from 'borrowed' parts, too." She pushes off from the wall gracefully, then finishes off her water. "…well, wasn't expecting this, but….nice to meet you all." she says simply, if honestly. "I've never gotten to rub elbows with geniuses and celebrities before."
Carol laughs at that, "I'm… still kinda getting used to that. Someday I'll be able to get a cup of coffee without being recognized, I swear to God." She smiles over at Rainmaker, "But hey, if you ever need a hand, here… personal line for me. Might not answer right away, but I always check it." She pulls a business card out and gives it over to Sarah.
"…I have a price range now. That sounds good, yeah." Riri nods slowly, before turning to Sarah and Carol too. "I'm still glad I got to meet the both of you too. Maybe we'll run into eachother again while flying some day? I mean… I definitely want to spend more time flying. It's the freest I've ever felt. …Probably shouldn't commute in the armor though. No matter how fun it'd be."
Tony Stark tells Carol, "What's the fun in that? Anyway, just do what Cap does. Wear a baseball hat and a leather bomber. No one will recognize you. It's foolproof." He nods amiably to Riri. "Yeah, you have a price range." He puts his phone away, arrangements having been made. "We'll take you flying," he says. "There's a lot to learn about being in the air. It's harder than it looks, but you'll pick it up."
Sarah smiles easily. "Sure…I'm usually in the air somewhere…it's the best place to have a little quiet when you need to think." She waves idly, sauntering back out to the pad outside, pausing to take the card and look it over, then peers at Carol. "I'll keep that in mind. I'll text you mine back." she says simply, then heads outside. There's a rush of air, then she lifts off into the air, disappearing up into the sky beyond.