Summary:Clint comes to the Avengers with a task. Log Info:Storyteller: None |
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Note to self: Check if Apartment is finished with repairs. Clint Barton makes that mental note even as he's getting out of the black SUV that had set off the alarms in the driveway, the vehicle cleared but not an official AVENGERS vehicle so it still gets tagged, scanned, noted.
But once the driver is identified as one Clinton Francis Barton, Agent of SHIELD, then the auto-alarms downgrade a tick. And then the front doors open as the archer pushes on inside, carrying a valise in one hand and a gym bag in the other. He lifts his voice, "Stark! Banner!" The gym bag is tossed aside and he thumps a fist on the panel.
"Hey, locate…" He pauses then just asks, "Who all is in the house, computer?" And even before it answers he's striding down the hallway with a purposeful gait.
Tony had just finished perhaps making some modifications to the Mansion's security systems, keeping JARVIS ascertained of everything, of course. Update was a success! Still in the Iron Man suit and hearing a muffled yell, Stark sighs. "Hey JARVIS, gimme a visual of entryway camera 3?"
"Of course, Sir."
And he sees Clint apparently making noise and calling his name. So, Iron Man lands on the ground and hovers on in. "Yes dear?"
He says with no small amount of humor and sarcasm, before the suit opens up like a canopy, with a suit-wearing Tony stepping out and the Iron Man armor going into a sort of stasis, closing and waiting for Tony's instructions as it stands there like a statue.
"Whats up? Long time no see Legolas." then JARVIS interjects. "Currently yourself, Mr. Stark, and a few others, Mister Barton."
Appearing from the kitchen in a button-down shirt overtop a white tanktop and jeans, interestingly enough in socks rather than shoes, is Steve. He's got a plate in his hands and what appears to be a sandwich of some sort, one-third consumed. The super-serum eats calories like a wildfire, poor guy's always needing to eat.
"Y'know, you remind me of old Mrs. Lebowitz next door, Barton. You holler enough like that 'nd you're gonna make me start wanting blintz," he says by way of greeting.
"Looking good, Tony," he says towards the genius-inventor and his stationary suit. "The system, I mean." The clarification comes before another bite of the sandwich. It's apparently peanut butter, Nutella, and two halves of a banana, by the smear left at the corner of Steve's mouth.
Following Steve from the kitchen and typing into a tablet computer, Pepper — currently also casually dressed in a key lime green ankle-length sundress — joins the welcome committee at the entrance. "Hello, Agent Barton," she offers when she looks up from the tablet.
"Steve, I know a deli where we can get blintzes if you want. I heard it's been owned by the same family since about 1953." She is completely unperturbed by the presence of the motionless suit of armor that Tony just stepped out of. Likely, she' sused to that kind of thing.
A rough grin slips almost grudgingly onto Clint's features as Tony makes his arrival in that broad sweeping foyer and entrance hall. Shaking his head, "Yeah well, I told Fury and the rest of the brass that we'd be better off talking to Richards, but I guess we're stuck with you." His eyes widen at that last as if the people in command were crazy. But then he thumps the entrepreneur on the shoulder affectionately.
"Hey man," He stops for a moment, arm's length away with his hand still on the Tony's shoulder and looks at the other Avenger. Might even be about to say something else but then says, "It's been a dog's age, Tony."
But then Cap emerges and the archer smirks crookedly, "I'm sorry, Cap. I would respond to your cruel attempt to impugn my conduct, but I'm distracted by the fact that you're eating an eight year olds box lunch you musta stolen." Then he points at Cap while asking Tony, "Can you believe this guy? Oh hey, Pepper." He tosses a nod towards Ms. Potts.
"Ugh, I told Nick that I wasn't interested in fixing up another Helicarrier for him." Stark says with a grin. "Yep, I can actually. Fifty-two moral debates and he still dresses like its the forties." He gives a good-natured smile to Steve. "Of course it looks good. I worked hard on that don't you know. Now it should be much harder for us to be caught off guard. Thank you Jarvis."
"Your welcome sir."
Then to Pepper. "Hey Pep. I don't have any reservations tomorrow do I?" He's kinda hoping she says yes so he can dodge Nick Fury.
Then he looks at Cap again. "But, up to anything interesting these days Cap, Barton?"
The god of Thunder, while in possession of stupendous hearing, can be a little selective about what he actually takes in. "A lunch /thief/ is here? Having stolen from a child?!" Thor asks loudly from the upper hallway. The voice projects, regardless of the distance. Thor comes down the stairs two at a time in a comfortable, loping step of long leg. Thor ends at the bottom step, giving the group a confused, and overly judgemental look. He doesn't exactly know where to /aim/ the judgemental look, so it ends up around at the group and finally on Stark. That's the most reasonable place to put the puzzled stare. Often when Tony talks, that's where Thor ends up squinting. It's a default.
Thor looks like he rolled out of the gym training room shower not long before, and didn't finish drying his hair before he dressed himself. It's a zipped-up dark gray hoodie (with clearly apparent dark water on the shoulders where Thor's wet hair is down against it), some jeans that are a little short in the leg, and some repulsively yellow timberland boots.
"I'll have to take you up on that, Pepper, thank you," replies the Captain to the red-headed woman, giving her a smile still impugned by the small smear of Nutella at the corner of his mouth. Clint gets a flick of wheat-gold eyebrows.
"I've got better taste in food than you, Barton, given last I checked, your favorite is week-old pizza left out of the fridge. Didn't even have a fridge when I was your age, but knew better'n to leave food out like that."
He leaves off his razzing of the archer, however, to address Tony's question. His mouthful of sandwich is swallowed, leaving only the half-moon remnant of crust to be finished. "Money down he's here about the Reverbium."
Thor's arrival is not to be missed, not at his volume. Steve simply shakes his head, wearing a small smile. "Clint's a go-fer today," he says to the Thunderer by way of explanation before shoving the rest of the crust into his mouth. No more talking, time to finish this damn sandwich.
Oh, the Reverbium. Just the mention of the word has Pepper looking more serious. "Has SHIELD picked up any more leads about that?"
And then, Thor. There's no other way to describe his arrival. Just … Thor.
Smiling at the tall warrior, she offers him a small nod hello before looking at the others. "Perhaps this is a discussion best held somewhere other than the foyer?"
She gestures toward the main living room.
At Thor's bellow, Clint grins to the others, "Oh man, Thor's here." He looks between Tony and Cap and Pepper as if looking for them to verify it one way or another. But then any illusion as to his absence is dispelled with the presence of the God of Thunder himself.
"Thor, you big lug. What is this no love for your favorite archer?" He spreads his arms, "Bring it in, buddy. Bring it on in." And he'll even dare to go for the bro-hug with the double thump on the back if he'll allow it, then steps back. "Aw man, I missed you guys here. Watch me, all verklempt with nostalgia."
"But yah, living room?" He thumps Cap on the shoulder as he nods to Pepper and starts to walk back to where he left his valise, but doesn't get very far. "The whole Yellow Jump Suit gang with the Reverb…"
Tony hears Thor bellowing like the sound of Thunder itself, before he chuckles a bit. "Why ya looking at me, Lebowski? If your looking for a sandwhich, its currently in the stomach of our strong leader." he pats Steve on the shoulder and will totally throw him under the bus here.
Then he looks at Pepper, before he looks at Clint. "Speaking of SHIELD, whats Fury want with me, Clint? Last time I had a conversation with him….lets just say it had to do with him 'keeping his eye on me'." He grins a bit. Then to Barton. "Oof, he's right Clint, at least Steve knows how to take care of his meal."
"Barton, eyes sharper than the Thunderbird!" Thor exclaims in return, with immediate warm pleasure. As if he'd turn down a bro-hug? Any confusion left on his face about children's stolen sustenance is swept away with the new distraction in the form of Clint's request for a hug. Thor responds to it with his honest, open-armed welcome, and changes the hug into a 'bearhug' rank very quickly.
On the release, he follows it up with a brighter smile and a heavy clap to Clint's back. Thor was distracted, starting to look towards Steve, and that friendly 'pat' aimed at Clint has quite a bit of force in it, likely enough to knock the wind, literally, out of Clint.
Thor has a lot of wind, though. "A go-for you are, I hear, but you must not dally: we shall drink again upon your return; I will bring spirits appropriate to a grand reuninon!" Thor declares brightly.
The 'Lebowski' label seems to go over Thor's head, but instead of questioning it, he chooses to assist Clint: "I do also enjoy pizza of varying age," Thor loudly whispers at Clint, as if Thor's support would be of value against Steve's tease. "But never stolen from innocents." /….Steve./
Apparently, the plate's coming with Steve, even if it contains only crumbs. Pepper's suggestion to move the entire affair to someplace other than the foyer is a wise one.
"Living room," he echoes of Clint in particular, nodding in the direction of the large space before beginning to migrate there himself. "You wanna talk sandwich stealing, you ask about what Barnes used to do back in '39. Learned from the best. Security's lacking in the kitchen though, Stark, better make sure it's working in there too," he adds back over his shoulder towards Tony.
Once they're all in the living room, complete with enough sitting spaces for double the number as well as wet bar tucked into the corner, Steve walks over to the latter. Setting the plate on its counter, he then turns and leans, arms crossed. "Alright, let's hear it, Clint, what've you got for us today?" The Captain's all ears, quiet, solemn — still sporting that Nutella smear at the corner of his mouth.
Doing an admirable job of ignoring the antics of these immature lugs who call themselves superheroes, Pepper follows along the main living room, though she detours briefly to snag a napkin from the kitchen island which she then offers to Steve. As amusing as it is to leave him with a smear of peanut butter and nutella on his face, she's polite enough to NOT do so.
"No, Tony, please don't increase security in the kitchen. Having the electric water boiler actually try to aim steam at me the other day was quite enough."
She then goes to claim a seat, settling her tablet on her lap, clearly ready to hear the news that Clint has to share.
Stumbling from the light /clap/ to his back, Barton coughs a few times and looks over at Pepper as he whispers, 'medic' but that pained look shifts into a smile as he takes up the valise. Then he gives Thor a thumbs up for the support. "Thanks, buddy."
But now as he draws himself back together, he opens that case as they move into the Living Room and starts to hand out a few folders. "But yeah, Tony. This ain't so much Fury as me askin' since we've dealt with this sort of stuff more than SHIELD has."
A look around is given, "OK, So, Reverbium. Unstable Vibranium knock off. Right? Advanced Idea Mechanics doing their thing." He slaps a manila folder to Cap's chest and says, "Here you go, catch up on the reading. There'll be a quiz tomorrow."
Another folder is given to Tony and he's left with a third. For a moment he looks at Thor. Smiles a little, then hands it over to Pepper. "We're looking for a Virtual Intelligence that is most likely located in East Asia. Probably going to be a facility around it. Probably going to be a mess. Figure," He looks to Tony. "You might have a good way of tossing a ping out there and seeing what pings back that might be one of these VIs, right?"
Tony smirks when Clint is clapped on the back by Thor, kinda hoping the archer would fall over, but then he looks at a folder thats handed to him. "I don't like being handed things." and he turns his head away, but perhaps Pepper might take it, knowing Tony's psychological peculiarities.
Reverbium. "I feel like you should be going to T'Challa or Shuri about this. Case people missed it, I'm not particular in that game, nor do I actually know that much about it aside from this guy-" jerks a thumb at Steve. "Used a shield made out of it to punch nazi's for years. Nigh unbreakable." but he listens anyway.
"But I'll see what I can poke around, have JARVIS search the net for anything that looks like AIM's fingerprint and test the waters on the black market to see who has what."
He can already feel his fellow Avengers stare at him. "There are conventions, okay? I don't sell anything but it lets me know who's got what up their sleeve."
Then to the chatter about kitchen security. "No, because I don't want Cap knowing I sometimes steal his food." he says comfortingly to Pepper.
"Of course!" Thor answers Clint. Thumbs up in return!
Then, Steve is moving them. Ooh, storytime. Thor's in. Thor follows the group, bringing up the rear, to the living room area. He looks attentively at those sharing information, but clearly has no idea what is going on. Thor's still positive, though: he takes a seat in the middle of one of the couches, both arms up and draped against the backrest, legs out. He somehow dominated the couch without laying across it.
Thor offers no pearls of wisdom yet, he just appears, mostly, to take it all in. Thor does not even show a bit of interest in having a folder, or looking on at anyone else's.
"I am available to dispense justice," Thor declares, in case anyone wasn't sure.
The splotch of Nutella-butter might have been there for hours but for Pepper's intervention. Steve takes the napkin with a perplexed frown before realizing what the intent is. He wipes at his mouth and pinks a little at the ears, giving the woman a grateful glance. He crumples it up and turns at the waist to deposit it on his empty plate.
The swat of a file folder into his broad chest is then taken in stride, along with the file itself, and he eyebrows at Clint before opening it across his palm. Papers make soft sounds as he flicks through them, skim-reading and knowing he'll be able to recall it later without flaw: joke's on you, Clint, and your proposed pop-quiz.
"Figure that's the best place to start," he agrees with both Clint and Tony. "Can't make a confident plan of attack without intel. Contacting Wakanda is also an option. Dunno how involved T'Challa can get, he's up to his ears in something…weird right now," the Captain reports, glancing around now at everyone.
"You think my shield does some acrobatics, you should see the Reverbium in action," he says at Tony in particular. "Somebody was throwing around a fake shield made of it. I saw it blow an entire van backwards over half a failed bank robbery crew and remain intact. Something about releasing potential energy. SHIELD R&D's got it."
Pepper stands again and accepts both the folder she's handed and the one intended for Tony. The latter she sets on the the arm of the chair nearest to him, and the former she offers to Thor. She's pretty sure she already knows what the folder contains and most likely will end up with Tony's copy anyway.
"I've already spoken with T'Challa about it. He's offered to help narrow down who might be capable of synthesizing Reverbium and where they have access to the materials and facilities to do it. I'll try to get in touch with him again tomorrow to see if he's made any progress." She nods toward Steve. "That's our main concern at the moment. This stuff is already out on the streets, with no less than three replica shields that I can think of off-hand that SHIELD has been able to track and recover. That's a huge amount of this metal in comparison to actual Vibranium. We have to get to the source, and fast."
"Think we'll call you in once we know where the bad guys are, big guy." Clint says to Thor even as he steps back to stand at a central focal point in the room.
"Right now, we just need a cross-section grab as best we can. We've had our clashes with AI/VI weirdness in the past, so SHIELD thinks we might have an edge on whatever it is if it's a thing." Then he points at Stark, "And yeah, Tony. It explodes so hey that should pique your interest."
That said he spreads his arms wide, "That's basically it, gents. A mess, like always. Mebbe we can help 'em straighten it out."
Another pause then he looks around, "Any questions?"
"Doubt I can turn that into armor." Tony picks up the folder when Pepper puts it on the armrest of the chair, looking through it for specifics. "Oh hell, what am I kidding? I can turn anything into armor." He's about to answer about T'Challa before Pepper seems to already be on the case! "Thanks, Pepper." Is all Tony says about that. He looks disturbed about this.
He looks at Thor. "Thanks big guy. If we need anything electricuted into oblivion, I'll be sure to give you call, Point-Break."
"Well…." he grins at everyone.
"Avengers Assemble."
HAH! been wanting to say that one for a while. "Looks like we're on the case then, Clint. Thanks for bringing this to my attention. I'll see what I can find on this Virtual Intelligence and do some source-routing."
Thor accepts the folder with a warm, upbeat smile to Pepper. He draws his arms in to open it. He looks down into it, but to say 'reading' would be a strong word. He looked at it, then goes back to listening - and closes the folder, and begins to use it to fan himself a little bit, returning his arms to rest them at the couch back, again. Better use for the folder is as a fan.
A few pages fall out of the folder, and Thor leans down to fetch them back, and return them into his folder. They are out of order, and backwards, but in the folder.
"My phone has been electrocuted; a call may not work," Thor supplies evenly to Tony, entirely seriously.
Clint's declaration about the use for Thor makes him nod once, firmly. That is acceptable to Thor. But Thor also has a question. "Barton. How long do we expect until location of this adversary? A handful of nights? Longer? I have a personal quest to complete. I would like best to return in time, to assist the Avengers."
Steve nods back at Pepper, silently confirming their shared stance on things. He closes the manila folder and rotates again at the waist to set it beside the empty plate. His arms end up folded once more in his lean. True-blue eyes travel around the room to briefly linger on everyone once more.
"We'll collect intel until a plan can be made," the Captain volunteers as an answer. "Still got a little side trip of my own to make. Nothing big, just visiting old stomping grounds. Figure something'll come of it 'nd feed into the rest of what we've learned. It'll take me some time to organize as is."
As much as it pains her, Pepper leaves that folder in Thor's hands and returns to her seat. "Do we have any other resources working on this Reverbium problem that you've not mentioned yet, Clint? I want to make sure we're not retracing someone else's steps."
She starts tapping at her tablet rapidly, no doubt composing an email or similar in regards to this situation. "Tony, would you be willing to work with SHIELD's science group to help them find out as much as we can about this Reverbium?"
"It's up to how good Tony is, Thor. So a week? Next five minutes? Who knows?" His attention then shifts over to Pepper and says levelly, "SHIELD's on it, but their assets in this area are thin on the ground at the moment. So anything we do will be digging up on new ground." He spares another glance around, "Alright that it?"
"Great," Clint folds his arms over his chest, "Now that that's outta the way, I got some wings in the fridge I'll throw em on the grill. Who's hungry?" And as easy as that, business time is over and Clint swings out of his jacket, tossing the leather/kevlar blend coat onto the arm of the couch and starts to walk on outside.
He leans over to thump Thor on the shoulder, clearly not having learned his lesson, and says. "C'mon buddy, you can help me with the batter. Gonna need your steady hand and steely-eyed determination."
He points over at Cap, "You already ate, you get none." The finger remains there, condemning. "Okay, you can have some."
Liberty.
"You in, Pep, Tony?"
"Sounds it to me, specifically." Tony says as he closes the folder, puts it on the counter and moves over to the Iron Man suit. "Open 'er up!" and the suit opens, allowing Tony to fit easily inside as it closes again, his face mask currently off though to reveal his expressions. "Time to go hunting. Maybe I'll stop by the grocery store on the way home, because Steve keeps eating my strawberries." He looks at Clint.
"You should stop by more often Clint. Yep, I'm in. Lets just hope we find what we're looking for. Feel free to talk shop, I'm gonna finish updating security. Pepper will take my calls!"
Then, he's gone, hovering out and flying into the sky.