Summary:If Jeriah can't get Jemma out of the lab, he's going to bring the gym to her Log Info:Storyteller: None |
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Boom
It's not a big boom but it's loud enough that echoes in the corridor outside Jemma's lab followed by the clatter of items to floor.
"Well Darn!" That's Jemma and it's likely the closest she gets to swearing. "I thought we had that worked out…" She's in the lab alone and is definitely talking to herself, collecting the instruments and various paraphernalia that is scattered on the floor.
There's a shattered petrie dish in one of the isolation cabinets, the tiniest sliver of metal sitting haphazardly on the counter. A piece of metal that Jeriah might recognise. The 3D model above the workbench is slowly rotating, showing the molecule formula for … something.
"Clearly not." Comes the voice from the other end of the lab. "I suppose I should be grateful that this time you didn't spray goop everywhere."
Jeriah London, contractor, has something of a technical mind. Not much education to go with it but he's quite good at what he does which is why he IN this lab.
Of course biochemistry isn't his thing unless it relates to human augmentation. There's a scrape of tables though. As if they're being pushed. Which they are. Jeriah is moving stuff around Jemma's lab to clear a space in the center of it.
As a long-standing SHIELD agent, May is only too aware of the random and sometimes loud noises that come from the various R&D labs. What gives her pause, though, is the scraping sound of furniture being pushed. That, in conjunction with an explosion could mean someone was not following proper safety protocols.
Detouring from her path,she heads for the lab she suspects to be the source of the noises and lets herself in without announcing her arrival or asking permission.
There was no red 'Stay out, experiment in progress' LED on the badge reader by the door.
She looks at Dr. Simmons then at the man pushing the table about, not reacting immediately as she tries to determine what just happened in here.
It was a loud-enough sound to make the surface of the coffee in his mug vibrate. Steve glances up and through his holographic interface projected above his desk with a squint of concern. His immediate thought?
Someone's mixing chemicals without thinking. To follow?
Testing an unauthorized weapon without proper clearance.
Then it occurs to him: that could have been Reverbium. It makes him sigh and rub a hand down his face before rising to his feet. He's working casual today in a button-down navy-blue shirt over a black tank-top and jeans, combat boots on his feet. They lead him down to the R&D labs and to the scene of the boom.
"Agent May," he greets the woman with a quirk of concern at his brows. Then, looking around her and into the lab, he asks, "Everybody got their fingers and eyebrows?"
It wasn't a *big* explosion! Nothing damaged except that cracked petrie dish.
"What are doing, Mister London?" Jemma looks up as she collects the last of the tools on the floor, straightening slowly. "I'd really rather that you didn't rearrange my lab." The tone is resigned, and ever suffering.
"Well, we're going to have to find the rest of the information from AIM. I would really like to try and create our own Reverbium." Because that couldn't possibly go wrong, could it?
"Hello Agent May." The biochemist greets the other woman "When did you get back? And Agent Rogers. Yes, all extremeties are in tact. What brings you two here. Oh, do you know Mister London?"
The man that gives Jemma a headache.
"Eyebrows?" Jeriah says as he pulls out a folding padded mat from behind one of the pieces of heavier machinery. It's the kind used in combatives sparring. God only knows what it's doing up here. "Two eyebrows even? Frida usually only has one."
Jeriah is often rather flippant. Jemma of course has two eyebrows and has since he met her. But that doesn't stop the somewhat irreverent soldier from being… irreverent.
"Oh say. You're the one who picked up Barton the other day. He still alive?" That's to May. Whom Jeriah has seen but not formally met. Rogers gets a polite nod. "Captain." Two agents to visit the lab?
"Is everything okay?"
The casual atmosphere in the lab at least reassures May that nothing particularly dangerous went boom in here, but the unfamiliar and flippant man is more of a concern in her eyes. She tosses a glance at Steve as he arrives after her, then focuses on Jemma again.
"Last week," is her reply to the biochemist. "And no, I do not know Mr. London." If her voice weren't Vulcan standard, she might sound just the tiniest bit accusatory about that lack of knowledge. And likely due to that lack of knowledge, her attention then turns to the man pushing lab furniture about.
She studies him for a long moment in the manner of a combatant sizing up their adversary.
"London," Steve greets the man with professional neutrality of tone. He doesn't let much more than a ghost of amusement reach his lips. May is given another glance, more curious as to her presence than anything else, and then his eyes shift to Jemma.
"Is is the Reverbium you're testing?" he asks of the young woman, shooting straight to the point without flinching. Thumbs hook on the pockets of his jeans.
"Mister London consults for us," he adds in a curt, helpful aside to May as to Jeriah's presence in the SHIELD facilities.
"You're going to train in here?" Jemma sounds … even more resigned as London rolls out those mats. "We've a perfectly good gym, you know!" The relationship between London and Jemma certainly appears to be anatognistic.
"Mister London was assigned to my team, Agent May. The powers that be decided I needed some muscle and someone with some engineering talent." Jemma's team - that would be Contractor Roy Harper, Doctor Kelly Dehaven, Jemma and now London. "Particularly with us going after Reverbium and AIM."
May would certainly be aware of Jemma's brush with death and her Death Lok Conversion, even if the Agent wasn't in The Tri at the time.
"Yes, Steve, it is. I'm trying to stabilise it and, if I can, fabricate it ourselves. I hear you had a successful outing the other day."
"As the lady says, you folks hired me to be her bullet sponge. Well her and a couple of others. And we might not have to, Simmons, if you weren't so awful about actually getting down to the gym to spar." She does get wrapped up in her work sometimes, Jeriah has noted.
"Though we can wait until company's gone if you like." Spar. That must mean he's… training her in some fashion?
The scary asian woman is staring at him and he DOES notice. After a few moments he can't take it anymore and has to say something. "Is everything okay, Agent?"
As he's asking there's a clickclickclickclickclickclickclick sound of claws on tile. A lage canine head pokes around the doorway. A large, entirely metal, robotic canine head.
May relents and nods slightly to Steve when he asides for her about London, then watches silently as the two already in the lab bicker like, well, like an old married couple. Considering she'd been standing just inside the doorway, perhaps she was drawn here by the explosion the same as Rogers.
There's that word again. Reverbium. It's been coming up a lot lately. She's about to ask about it when the bickering focuses on sparring of all things. That elicits a raised eyebrow. He's not wrong that it can be like pulling teeth to get Simmons out of this lab. She managed it once quite handily by simply walking in and making off with the biochem's tea.
She's about to tell London that everything will be fine once she reviews his consultant paperwork, but that's when the robotic head appears and she instantly focuses on it. It's kind of like a cat seeing a dog enter their territory, but with less hissing and fluffing of fur.
Nodding acknowledgement about the Reverbium being tested, Steve eyes what he can see of the petri dish impacted by the metal's somewhat unpredictable reaction to stimulation.
Jemma's commentary has him momentarily revisiting recent escapades before he nods. "Yep. Figure the assets are still resting comfortable and — "
May's pattern of behavior makes him turn to consider the arrival of the canid robot. "That's one of London's, May. It won't bite unless he tells it to." Jeriah gets a glance filled with subtle concern, as if he might silently communicate that this particular woman is not impressed with grandoise displays.
"You could just *ask*, Mister London. I did say I would train with you given you have so little faith with my ability in the field." Honestly, Jeriah's right to be concerned. Jemmas a Scientist, a lover not a fighter - her focus will never to be an elite combatant.
There's a blush though at his words. "The dog is part of a set. That one we call Potsie." Jemma adds. She's not sure if that is the one she named - against Jeriah's protests - or not. She does wonder if this is the Kitty Carrier though.
"I'll stop by and see them, if that's ok? I understand there were some interesting … enhancements?" She's scanned the report and no one has really been able to do a full work up, yet.
Agent May had indeed got the Scientist out of the lab by taking her tea. "Are you up to speed on the latest, Agent May?"
Jeriah might have thought of that particular display, it's certainly within his wheelhouse but alas no. This was just the drone doing what it does when he's not paying attention which is to say wandering around and inexplicably acting like a dog. Which is damn vexing. It's certainly not programmed to do that.
"Psht!" The hacker-soldier waving to the canine who ducks back around the corner.
"Sorry. Combat drones. They're experimental and a bit… willful." Sort of like Jemma, come to think of it.
"I heard a rumor, Captain, that you'd seen some action recently." Less a rumor from SHIELD and more a few pieces of odd information that he'd put two and two together on. That might very well also get May's attention especially now that the dog is gone.
Jemma gets a look that says 'the beatings will continue until morale improves.' Or perhaps 'the beatings will continue until you stop giving my dogs stupid names.' "We are not. Calling it. That. Bad enough that DeHaven has a kitten curled up in 015's grenade launcher."
"I suspect that I'm not, Dr. Simmons. Give me the overview." May's eyes are still on the robotic dog even if the others have all explained its presence. And she will continue to watch the automaton until it disappears around the corner again.
Jeriah's question to Steve does indeed pull her attention. She suspects the man is asking about the Camp LeHigh mission, but she's not the sort to speak up and definitely not to offer information. Besides, if he's referring to something ELSE, this could be interesting information as well.
Steve watches the disappearance of the dog-drone with distant interesting. The world gets more and more interesting every day he lives in it.
"'Enhancements' is a kind way to put it." So very rarely does this drop in temperature show in the Captain's voice, but it does, accompanied by a hardening of his eyes. Two guesses as to why unethical experimentation is a hot button for him. He sniffs sharply and rolls his shoulders, seeming to settle his own ruffled feathers to an extent.
"Should be fine, Dr. Simmons," he then continues, far more warmly than before. "Figure you can offer aid to the nurses. The assets were collected at Camp Lehigh." Steve glances to each person in passing. "Rumors of vagrant activity turned out to be an attempt to get into the old SSR offices beneath a particular building — SSR being the precursor to SHIELD," he briefly informs, just in case. "Money down they were after paperwork on the serum." A finger taptaps at his sternum and how stormy is the soldier's face now. "Thank god we had the sense to remove it all years ago from down there. All's down there now is collecting dust. Doesn't make it any less concerning."
Imagine…not just one super-soldier in full mental capacity, and not just another in a state of recovered existance, but a third…? A fourth? Weaponry in questionable hands: a sobering thought.
"It's good see something get under your skin." Jemma mutters "And until you give the creature a better name, *I'm* calling it Potsie. And 015 if Brutus." Yes, there really is one of those drones with a kitten curled up in the grenade launcher. Don't ask - or perhaps do, Jemma will say and giggle while she does.
It takes Jemma a few moments to give May the highlights. The Reverbium laced bio-weapon, the targetted attacks on different groups, what they've discovered so far and the fact that Barton, along with Harper and London were going on some raids. Jemma … might tag along too. On to the second variant of Reverbium problems that Jemma is only peripherally across - physical modifications.
"Assets. I know that's the right term, but they're people and we shouldn't forget that Steve. From what I've read in that report, the modifications were horrrendous." She frowns though and looks at Jeriah "That's … not good. If they were to use the Serum with the reverbium implants." Back to Steve and May "Imagine yourself, Captain Rogers with enhancements like that."
"Are we going to spar, then, Mister London?"
"They could target specific gene complexes for enhancement with the right tech and a particle capable of selectively bonding to the DNA. Which they have." How exactly this soldier knows that is a long story. He's got some expertise though, clearly.
"Well unless you take a break and come down to the Gym yes we are, Simmons. God knows the better you fight the less likely I am to have to do something dangerous and dirty to keep you from buying the farm."
Jeriah likes not being dead, really. All things considered. He falls silent though as Steve seems to stew a bit and watches to see how or if the newly met (for him) Agent May will respond.
The information about Camp LeHigh May of course already knew, as she was the pilot for that mission. But hearing that this Reverbium is likely part of what was used to modify those individuals…. that's disturbing. As is the thought of Assets, considering what she knows of how Barnes was treated while under Hydra control.
"Simmons." She looks at the biochemist in pretty much the same manner as she has since she entered the lab. "Sparring practice in the gym for one hour, then continue working on the Reverbium."
For her own part, she plans to go pull as much intel as she can about AIM facilities from the SHIELD databases.
"Just so, Mister London. The gene technology, the dna identification, the mutative features of the Reverbium. It's horrifying." Clearly Jemma doesn't revile Jeriah's opinions.
Then May and Jeriah are telling her to train. "Yes, Agent May. Just as soon as I finish this ex—- Right away." Jeriah catches a filthy look for that.
"I'll drop by and see the people you recovered, Steve."
It looks like they're about done here and she's going to train.