Summary:Isis and Nick visit Pepper to see if there's some way to help the mutants in the Zone. Log Info:Storyteller: None |
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Pepper might have been surprised to get a request for a meeting from Isis but that request had certainly come through a few days ago. It wasn't clear if Nick would be coming with her, so Pepper might be forgiven if she's a bit concerned about it - the feline-like mutant has been a bit scattered brained the last times she was here.
Approaching the reception desk, Isis looks *almost* normal. She's in a Paragon Investigations polo shirt that actually fits her and a pair nice-ish jeans. "Uh hi…" she says to the person behind the desk. "I'm Isis Marik and I have meeting with Miss Potts, I'm a bit early."
A bit early. Try twenty minutes!
She's also carrying a box from a bakery that smells are delicious. It's a guess at how much is really in there, though.
Nick had not expected to be available for this meeting and indeed had not come with Isis. However his talk with some of his other contacts had wrapped up early and he found himself in the area with spare time. So as Isis is talking to the receptionist, the big brown werewolf comes in. He's in a polo shirt which is possibly one of the strangest things ever seen by anyone anywhere. Especially for the fact that it's logo'd. It has a wolf's head on the right chest. Discrete but, you know, branding. It's a thing.
He doesn't wear this to stakeouts, obviously.
Normally, Pepper would not at all mind someone showing up early to an appointment. So many people are typically late. But today … today she's just started in on her lunch when the call comes up from the lobby. She looks panicked for about a second before JARVIS adds helpfully that the young woman from Paragon Investigations is carrying a box with the logo from the nearby bakery. She mentally breathes a sigh of relief, then sends a message down for Ms. Marik to come on up to her office.
She'll apologize for eating while they talk once the catlike young woman is in her office.
Wait. Catlike.
Now Pepper's looking around at ALLLLLL of the breakables. Hastily abandoning her lunch, she hurries over and closes the doors on the small cabinet where she keeps her teapot and teacups, looks around again, then rushes across her office again to scoop up the small orchid with yellow and red blooms and stretch up to push it onto the top of a bookcase. She'll probably have to get a stepladder to get it back down, but hopefully it'll be safe up there.
One last quick look around her office, and she sits back down to take up her fork again. Only to set it right back down and open the bottom drawer of her desk to get out a yellow cotton canvas banana with red stitching on one side.
"Nick!" Isis looks a little relieved when Nick walks in. She couldn't have possibly seen him though, her back was to the entrance he used. "Let's go up."
Shown to the office, Isis knocks politely - which possibly shocks Nick as much as anyone. "Hello Miss Potts. Thank you for seeing m—-" her eyes fall on the womans lunch and then up to Nick "Was I supposed to bring lunch? I bought donuts, instead."
She can be on her best behaviour, if she tries, really, really hard.
She lets herself in though, juggles the box and holds out her hand.
Nick just smiles when Isis greets him. How did she know he was there. She felt him, probably. Being an empath has its advantages.
"No, that's her lunch. It's lunch time. You can get lunch later." Nick murmurs quietly. "Hello Miss Potts. Nice to see you again." While Isis can probably just about manage to not take Pepper's lunch it's best to keep an eye on her.
Again Pepper abandons her meal — salmon with steamed vegetables — to greet Isis and Nick when they arrive. "I'm sorry, I was hoping to be done with my lunch by the time your appointment came around. If you like, I can ask the kitchen to send up plates for you both?" Apparently, in Stark Tower that's a thing.
"Please, have a seat." She gestures to the chairs facing her desk.
Isis glances at Nick at that offer, letting him answer. He just finished saying she can eat later and this is serious. Which is why she's trying so hard to be 'good'. That's supported by the way her mind keeps a steady flow of 'calm' emotion flowing.
"I uh … we've come to ask about getting some help, maybe. You know those … weirding … modules we found?" She starts in without further preamble. "We've found that mutants in the Disaster zone are being targetted by those werewolfs and we're going to take them out there, give them somewhere else to live and … food."
Because food, in Isis' life, is very important. Speaking of which, Peppers lunch smells amazing.
"We … need help though and I saw the posters downstairs for the help Stark gives others…"
Maybe that will make sense to the astute redhead. Though she might be thankful that Nick is here to translate.
"You have a kitchen here? Like, a restaurant?" Nick quirks a brow. They probably have a cafeteria or something like it? That would make sense, this is a big place. Still. He's not used to kitchens that do the cooking for you.
"I could use a drink and I doubt Isis has had lunch yet." Nick offers. "Thank you."
"To sum up, we've found some people who are in immanent danger and they need to be relocated out of the disaster zone immediately. But I don't have the resources to house or feed them. I don't know if you've dealt with numbers as small as are on my balance sheets in some time." The werewolf jokes. Because, you know, he makes ends meet. But that's about all he does.
Pepper nods and slides over her tablet to the investigators as the display changes to show menu options as if at a restaurant's online ordering app. "How many people are you wanting to relocate, and how quickly?"
Just like that, she's mentally tallying things up, knowing that this can be easily funded by a disbursement from the Maria Stark Foundation. I'd been a while since they'd made a huge gesture that wasn't related to repairing city-wide building and infrastructure damage.
Has Isis had lunch? It was probably elevensy's. Or second breakfast. Or both. It's part of her mutation that she needs to eat more often than others and can eat a lot.
Putting the box of donuts - or what's of left of them - on the corner of the desk, Isis looks at the menu. "Do you have cheeseburgers? I'd really like one, if you do." There's so much high end food on that menu and she wants a … cheeseburger. "And fries. I really like fries as well."
She's not noted the handstitched banana Pepper got out earlier. The feline-like mutant is very focussed at the moment.
"We're not sure, really. We have to go in and find them first. We've found one, Felicia. She's staying at the office at the moment. She said she's twelve or so." But there's possibly more. "And we want to go in as soon as we can, right Nick? These werewolfs, they went after Nick."
Nick is tempted to say that Isis will have a salad but he wants this to go well, so… he doesn't. What he does instead is point to the kobe beef patty melt. That looks good. He almost wants to order it himself but he'll just have something fizzy. After marking out what they'd like with a nod of thanks to Pepper he gets back down to business.
"Somewhere around a dozen, plus or minus two or three. Groups in the disaster zone don't really get larger than that. And we're looking to move them soon. They're being actively hunted for some kind of illegal experimentation that is, or at least was, taking place there."
SHIELD may have hit the lab but Nick knows a thing or two about AIM and knows that if they don't have a backup running, they will soon enough.
"They simply won't be safe in there. We've got to get them out of the area that's being actively hunted."
Pepper nods as Nick elaborates on Isis' slightly thin explanation. About a dozen at a time, that seems in keeping with her thoughts, and is easily doable. Much more easily than the major mobilization she was mentally calculating via the MSF.
"That I can help with right now, then. JARVIS, please assign the silver passenger van to Mr. Gleason and Ms. Marik, and ask Dmitri and Becca if they'd be willing go on some special errands for me."
"Done, Miss Potts," the still-disembodied British voice replies.
Not more than thirty seconds later, there's a knock at the door, and an employee wearing kitchen attire rolls in a service cart with a polite nod and a smile before disappearing again. The order was a simple one, and considering it's lunchtime, the kitchen was already in full swing. Plating the request took no time at all. And next to the covered plate that is not sufficient to hide the aroma of freshly arrived food from those with good noses, there's a separate tray with a tall glass, a small bucket of ice, and an already sweating bottle of fizzy beverage.
'
Isis blinks as Pepper makes things happen. "We need somewhere to house them. They can stay at the office for a night or two but it's going to get crowded and …" It's an office. "Nick says we'll also need papers for them. Many of them avoided registration and don't have ID's."
Maybe Pepper's already been approached by Captain Rogers and Bucky about that. Putting pressure on the Mayors office to actually get the official process in action and not have people just sitting on it.
"What do you need from me, Miss Potts?" She's curious about the 'special errands' that Dimitri and Becca will be doing - both Nick and Pepper can feel that.
When the food arrives, Isis blinks. "Does your kitchen have a replicator?" because that's the only way food could be ready that quick, right?
"Some day you'll have to introduce me to your mysterious assistant." Nick murmurs. Because JARVIS is totally Pepper's assistant. Maybe her pet hacker. Why would he think anything else, after all?
"That's quick." Nick notes as the food arrives. "Thank you. So, about these people. They're going to be traumatized. None of them have ID's, none of them have jobs. Some of them will be mutants. I have no idea at all how in control they are of their powers. Stress and mutants don't typically go well together and these people have been under a lot of stress. Felicia was climbing the walls."
Beat. "Literally."
Still waiting for Isis to start in on her own meal, Pepper considers the pair's words. Hm. Housing for upset, stressed, and likely very disconcerted people with powers. That does bring up a bigger logistical problem. Of course, hotels are always feasible, but may not be far enough away or secure enough to truly protect them or equipped to handle someone's powers going out of control. What about…
"JARVIS, what's the current state of the hotels in the Flushing Expo Center grounds?"
It's strange that Isis hasn't gone looking for Jarvis. Maybe she's just pretending he doesn't exist. That would be very Isis. Or she just assumes it's a person in another office. It makes sense to her, given the building she's in.
Very carefully she starts in on the burger, blue/grey eyes widening slightly in pleasant surprise. "It's very good…" she says with her mouth full and then swallows.
"Some of them will be like me … like I was … too." She adds, very quietly. "More in touch with their animal natures than their human sides and if they're scared, they'll some space to … just chill."
Which is also why they might need to speak to the Institute. Not that Isis says that.
"Those are really nice hotels, Miss Potts. Are you sure?"
An Isis stamp of approval. That's a good sign. She's much better behaved when she's not hungry. The catch, of course, is that she's always hungry. He can set a clock by her really. He'll give her half an hour before she's hungry again. And don't even try giving her chinese food.
"The Courtyard Mariott and Ramada are both showing vacancies but they are both at approximately 65 capacity. The Wyndham Garden is presently undergoing renovations to its exterior and is consequently largely empty at the moment. May I ask what you are looking for Miss Potts?"
"Of course I'm sure. They're owned by a joint venture between Stark Industries and the Maria Stark Foundation, and they should be far enough away for people to feel safe from those attacks. And, the Expo grounds are secure." But, knowing this, she's now thinking the silver van AND the black one. Dmitri and Becca can each drive one instead of one driving and one being shotgun. Possibly literally.
She listens to JARVIS' report, her eyebrows drawing together in a faint frown as he notes that the Mariott and Ramada both have people already staying in them. Ah, but the Wyndham. "Mark the entire Wyndham as reserved, JARVIS, and send the address to Mr. Gleason and Ms. Marik." Maybe she should stick with the one van for the moment, and earmark the second if it seems necessary.
"All right. Two people Tony trusts to go with me on business trips will be driving a passenger van for you, to pick up the people you indicate for them and drive them out to the Wyndham Garden on the Flushing Expo grounds. Sound good?" She finally takes a forkful of her salmon. It's cooled a bit, but it's still every bit as good as she knew it would be.
"Sounds like more than we would have either hoped for or expected. Thank you Miss Potts." Nick says gratefully. "That will help us get these people to safety. Those that will come anyway. They can be remarkably stubborn about that."
Still all they can do is try to help. And this group that they're looking for right now will come. They're being hunted, after all, and they damn well know it.
"Was there anything else, Isis?"
"The requested bookings and messages have been completed." JARVIS informs Pepper.
Isis just sort of blinks, her blue/grey eyes so very bright at the moment. The sense of 'wonder' and 'stunned' seems to come from her. "I uh … " She quickly eats the rest of the burger and wipes her hands on her pants.
She still needs some polishing clearly. But she's trying.
"That's uh That's … more than I expected." She manages to say. "I … nothing else, no. Thank you Miss Potts. Nick." The stunned feline-like mutant stands without being tempted to climb on anything or knock anything from the tables.
Nick should probably get her out of there, whilst it's going so well.
"Oh! I bought you donuts!" she nudges the box across the table to Pepper.
Pepper nods to Nick. "It's the least I can do. Those weirding modules are dangerous, and everyone deserves to be safe." Also, she intentionally waited until Isis finished the Kobe melt before replying to her comment from earlier. "And yes, we have replicators." She's clearly joking.
Having just barely finished her salmon when Isis nudges the box over, she smiles and accepts the container then looks inside at the pastries offered. She's … not entirely sure what to expect. "I got you something as well, Ms. Marik." She slides the toy banana across.
Nick's eyes go slightly wide. "Does that happen to be…"
It is. He can smell it. Oh dear. Isis is going to be so, so very stoned for the next several hours.
That DOES mean she will sit still though. Which is more than she usually does, truth be told.
"Uh, you can play with that in the car, Isis. Thank you Miss Potts. We'll be in touch."
Come on, kitty.
If Isis' eyes could get any wider, they would. "You do? Can I see them sometime? That's so awesome." Then she realises that Pepper is joking and she pouts a bit.
The pout disappears when the catnip toy is handed over though. "Oooooh… thank you…." beat "Alright Nick."
Clutching the toy banana, the feline-like mutant follows Nick out. He's not expecting much from her this afternoon, is he?