11277/At least it's little

At least it's little
Date of Scene:	31 March 2020
Location:	Conference Room - Stark Tower
Synopsis:	Pepper encounters an interdimensional rat creature. Tony's fault.
Cast of Characters:	Iron Man, Pepper Potts

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Iron Man has posed:
The meeting ended, maybe ten minutes ago, and the various people have since cleared out. The catering is still present: what's left of it, along the wall, and there are still some papers and extra items around left behind.

But something more unusual appears. With a flux of blue light, a small, glowing blob of blue, about the size of a baseball, arrives out of nothing amid the leftovers. With a squeaking sound, the strange creature, with a look similar to a long, tailless blue weasel-newt, begins to inhale a sandwich.

Pepper Potts has posed:
Pepper was still present, sitting in her seat at the table as she looked through the documents on the datapad she was holding. She still had a half eaten croissant on a plate in front of her and a half-full cup of coffee. It was always half-full, after all. She pushed back her rolling chair, rising to her feet and smoothing her skirt with her free hand. Then she reached for her plate to take it off, beginning clean up.

As she turned toward the trash, she froze at the blue light. It doesn't make her scream or go running for the door. After all, there are new things appearing all the time when Tony's been on a creative kick.

When she sees what materializes out of the blob, she blinks. Twice. "Well, hello there. I don't think you are one of Tony's..."

Iron Man has posed:
"Sort of, in a 'yes I'm the reason it exists here' kind of Tony's. ....Hey, Pep," Tony says cheerfully from the doorway. "So glad you're here to help. Here," Tony says abruptly, offering her a stick. It's more than a stick, it's a long rod with a glowing, electrically charged end, about two feet long. "Fan him my way with that," Tony suggests. "And don't, um, touch anything with it," he adds, with a gesture of hand to the room in general.

Tony himself has a small net, as well as a little robot with him with a stick as well, which he taps on, and then directs into place like a second hockey player. He flashes a thumbs-up at Pepper, and begins to unroll his odd, mildly glowing net. Just another Monday, right?

Pepper Potts has posed:
Felt more like a Tuesday. Mondays weren't nearly as interesting.

"You're the reason he exists...here." She caught that phrasing. "Is this not where he would normally exist then?"

As she is handed the stick, she jumps ever so slightly and eyes it suspiciously. "Should I ask why you even have something like this or is that the one of those don't ask, don't tell types of things?"

She moves to try to do what he suggested, carefully easing up to one side of the little creature and using the stick in a shooing manner, while being very careful not to electrocute something. Or worse someone.

Iron Man has posed:
"Usually he exists in his own dimensional rift," Tony says usefully. "I mean, I presume. Could be a fluke, but I'm going with usually that's the case," Tony answers. HE looks at her with the stick, and then considers her question with a lingering thoughtful look. "I can't tell if you're asking about the dimensional prod or the critter," Tony answers. "Which... probably the latter for both things. To cover all the bases."

The creature entirely ignores Pepper's shooing. Tony'd had the net all ready, but he relaxes it down a few inches when Pepper's clearly so ineffective.

Pepper Potts has posed:
"I meant the dimensio..y'know. Nevermind. I'll take your advice." Pepper glares at the lizard-thing, not wanting to hurt it at all but finding it to be completely ignoring her attempts to make it move. "So I can touch it and it won't hurt it? Just don't touch anything else?"

She wants to confirm because, honestly, with a Tony invention? It's important to be sure she knows what the red button on the bottom of the weapon might do, to choose an example from an old movie. Not that this had a red button.

She double checked to be sure there was no red button.

Then she carefully used the zappy end to try and encourage the critter toward the net. "I'm sorry."

Iron Man has posed:
The button is green. That's probably better.

"Touch it?..." Tony calculates mentally. "Sure." That's a 'sure' of extreme reassurance. That's gambling man's 'sure'.

When the sparking end gets close enough to the glow of the creature, it shrieks shrilly, and.... /sticks/ to the stick. It wriggles and shrieks again, bits of sandwich flying everywhere!

"...Well, that'll work, then," Tony observes. "Bring it over?"

Pepper Potts has posed:
"Oh my God, oh my God...am I killing it?! I don't want to kill it!" That shriek and the way it is flailing around has her holding the stick as far away as possible from her body but at the same time just wanting to let it go so it is okay and happy again!

She stands there indecisive for a second the almost runs over to Tony, offering the creature out in front of her and getting that end a little closer than she should. She immediately pulls it back again so it is no threat to Tony but seems completely at a loss. "Help it! Hurry!"

Iron Man has posed:
"Seems like.... a definite maybe," Tony answers, voice lifted over the squalling of the dimensional newt-rat. "Ummm, here, I don't want that stick to touch the net, so... sort of fling it and then touch the green button to throw it at the net. Trust me, I'll catch," Tony encourages, as if they did this all the time.

Then again, this is not, by far, the weirdest thing he's had Pepper do. Not by a long shot. "Ready? One.... two....--" Tony readies his net, and the robot comes around to wave it's stick uselessly like a confused cheerleader.

Pepper Potts has posed:
There are some of his bots she really likes. Right now, that one isn't one of them. After all, she's the one stuck with the screaming blue newt thing.

"Alright. I've got this. I can do it." She is talking low, apparently psyching herself up for the moment. As he counts, Pepper carefully shifts the stick, practicing her arc.

When he says three, she swings the stick and pushes the green button, hoping her aim is true. Or that at least Tony is a better catcher than she is pitcher. Lacrosse is not her game.

Iron Man has posed:
"Ack," Tony says, dropping to both knees on the floor as the newt-rat was engaged a little low in the swing. Mostly because it took as second for the thing to not be adhered to the tip of the stick anymore! So it fell low, onto the floor, but Tony's still able to throw the net over it, instead of catching it.

The robot comes over and accosts the net a little bit, stick also turned off now. "All right! Earth prime one, dimension rat of 45, zero," Tony declares, stepping around the trap to offer a low-five to Pepper: and to take the stick off her hands.

Pepper Potts has posed:
"It's a rat?!" For some reason, that just makes it not nearly as okay as it was when Pepper first spied it. She takes the low five, quickly giving the dimensional stick thing back and glad to have it out of her hands.

She glares at the lizard thing in the net a bit then frowns. "Should we give it a sandwich? For the trip home? I mean, I'm guessing you are sending it home. Right?"

Now a very quick look at Tony as she fears what the answer might be.

Iron Man has posed:
"Not a rat, any more than, say, Thor's human," Tony suggests. "I think it phases through reality. So yes, it'll be going back," he assures her. "We're not big on unrestricted phasing here," Tony winks at her. He orients towards the creature, and keys in a few commands to the robot from his handheld device. The robot adjusts to gather up their little prisoner.

"In about... half an hour, if you want to say goodbye to him, better go ahead and do it now," Tony teases her.

Pepper Potts has posed:
"Take a sandwich."

Pepper moves to the table on the side, picking up another one of the sandwiches and putting it on a plate. "I mean it isn't his fault he's here. I think. Maybe it is. But he just seemed hungry." She puts a second sandwich on the plate then moves over next to Tony, placing it on the table next to him. No handing it to him.

"Just...to make up for freaking him out." Why she would care about the feelings of a trans dimensional newt? Because she's Pepper.

Iron Man has posed:
"Sorry Pep; rather keep a 'no feeding the interdimensional animals' rule. No need for him to tell all his rat buddies where the best tasting treats are, and we end up swamped with them. I'll have to eat his sandwich. I'll take one for the team," Tony teases. He puts both sandwiches onto one plate, and lifts it with a slight salute.

"Let's move that meeting to the other conference room," Tony teases her. "I'll still be there. Don't worry."

Might still be reason to worry: Tony gets distracted when in projects. Interdimensional rats or otherwise.

Pepper Potts has posed:
Pepper looks heartbroken they aren't going to feed the poor thing. Until he mentions its friends showing up for snacks. Seems she might agree with Tony after all as she gives a very terse nod. "Good idea. Enjoy the sandwich."

She quickly moves to the side, pushing a button. "Please come in so we can move everything over to conference room B. No, there is nothing wrong but it just has better light at this time of the day through the windows." With that she disconnects.

"If you are not at the meeting, I will go feed it a sandwich."