12086/The Stark Files: Chapter 1

The Stark Files: Chapter 1
Date of Scene:	27 August 2020
Location:	Den and Study, Avengers Mansio
Synopsis:	The Secret Files of Howard Stark are about to be opened.
Cast of Characters:	Iron Man, Peggy Carter
Tinyplot:	Stark Files

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Iron Man has posed:
"I'm having very serious regrets about the choices I've made here..."

The main study of Avengers Headquarters' East Wing is one of the homiest rooms in the fabled mansion. Full of oak furniture and surrounded by shelves of leatherbound books, the study has a sort of Old World charm, reflecting a sort of comfortable opulence that has mostly vanished along with the rest of the Old New York.

Modern touches have been kept to a minimum, and a few mementos of Avengers missions are kept inside transparent display cases. An enormous portrait of Howard and Maria Stark covers a big chunk of one wall, its central presence making it feel like the larger than life tycoon and his wife are looming over everything that goes on in the room.

In the portrait, Maria has a sweet, maternal smile.

Howard is looking off into the distance.

But aside from the old mementos, there's also a complete set of Vintage Iron Man armor. A slightly dinged up throwback to nearly a decade ago, the armor looks as if it should just be collecting dust in a corner.

Instead, it's standing near the large antique desk that's currently covered in what appear to be a bunch of old books full of handwritten notes.

It's these books that the armored hand of Iron Man is flipping through a bit absentmindedly, revealing with each flick of his iron fingers that the 'old' books are actually holographic projections of the original.

"Seriously, I should never have given you all this crap. The guy clearly wasn't playing with a full deck when he wrote this gibberish. Why don't we just forget all about it and have some cocktails?"

Peggy Carter has posed:
"Look, I won't say that Howard was *ever* playing with a full deck, but there was almost always a point to his gibberish." Peggy's clipped accent insists softly as she continues flipping through the book of 'notes' she's pulled down from storage, looking for the other half of some strange message he'd left her. "As nice as a drink sounds, I didn't really...come on a social visit. As lovely as it is to see you, Tony."

She's too restless to sit, stalking back and forward in the room on the old fashioned, T-strap heels she so often wears. The match the deep navy pencil-style dress that hugs her hourglass frame. Now in the house where there are a few photos of her up, she looks identical to how she did in those late 40s and early 50s photos. There's some strange magic SHIELD has managed to work for her. She flips past another page.

"...Look. You father and Dr. Erskine were the only men able to perfect the serum that made Steve... well... Steve. There were other formulas he was working on, well after I disappeared. But he didn't always trust SHIELD. Not... not towards the end there. I suspect even worse without me. If he stumbled on something... Something truly effective... it's very likely somewhere in these lines."

Iron Man has posed:
One of the many benefits of wearing a metal helmet with full faceplate is that nobody can really tell where one's eyes might be at any given time. Not that Tony noticed the 'hourglass frame' or anything, perish the thought.

"Yeah well... Nikola Tesla invented the radio and alternating current, but he ended up in a serious romantic relationship with a friggin' pigeon..."

Tony's voice is slightly modulated through the armor's electronic circuits. It gives him a slightly tinny, artificial sound. But that doesn't keep his trademark sass from coming through loud and clear.

Flipping through a few more of the holographic book's holographic pages, Tony lets out a loud, slightly electronic sigh.

"I mean... look at this here: 'Haircuts have gotten expensive. Need to build a better barber. Maria's birthday. Hidden where the butler sleeps.'"

Iron Man leans forward, and looks very much as if he wants to rub his metal temples.

"It means nothing, Miss Carter. Unless you speak Crazy Howard."

Peggy Carter has posed:
Another flip through a few other pages, to the end of this journal, and Peggy sighs. That's when she looks up to the metal man who has chosen to work with her today. That tint of concern crosses her features once more. He's probably seen it in her eyes before, though she's not pushed. "Tony... Are you in that suit because you like to show off, or because without the arc reactor, that thing is keeping you alive?" It might seem a non-sequiter from the conversation, but Peggy is used to catching people off guard.
    "...and Jarvis slept in the third room on the left of the west wing, when he was here. Though, towards the end, he fell asleep in the side family room on the first level. He loved that little recliner. Howard's hair cuts were expensive because he kept blowing up his robot with trimmings. He needed a better filter on those things. Three in and they'd choke on their own fuel... And your mother's birthday was April 15th." So, apparently, Peggy speaks crazy Howard. But that's not entirely what she's worried about right now, as she stares down the metal man across the room from her.

Iron Man has posed:
The only real response to the agent's concern is a dismissive wave, and an electronically-modulated grunt. Tony does, however, fumble with the latches on his helmet while she's talking, and pulls the old Bullethead brain bucket off, tucking it under one of his arms.

Inside the helmet, he appears to be fine. For Tony, anyway. Hair's matted from all the helmet wearing. Mustache could use a trim. A few days of stubble. And some pronounced bags under his bloodshot eyes. But healthy, over all.

"So... what then? If we decided to treat this like some kind of clue, that means we've got to go check two different spots in the mansion? And what, tear them up? That's just way too much effort to put into... well... I guess 415 IS the number of one of the rooms on the fourth floor. It's the one right across from dad's old lab, which would have been down the hall from..."

His voice starts to trail off, as he flips back a page, reexamines it, and then flips forward again.

"But that's crazy, right?"

"You want to go look?"

Peggy Carter has posed:
She takes another step closer to him as he dares take that helmet off. Even if he's not really giving her an answer, Peggy isn't being subtle about the worry behind her eyes. She studies his face for a heartbeat or two, the bags under his eyes getting a bit of a press to her lips, but he doesn't look sick enough for her to continue driving home the issue.

As he mentions the number of the room, a single brow arches. Peg's matte red lips curl up into a bit warmer of a smile, "Now you're starting to see it. And, this is a big mansion, but it's not *that* big. You let me in the front door, we might as well keep on the hunt."

And with that, she turns on the ball of her foot and starts leading the way out and down the hall. First to Jarvis' room, though she has no clue what it is these days.

Iron Man has posed:
Yeah, uh, right behind you."

It's clear that Tony's regrets about his recent choices haven't lessened much. But there's a bit of a flicker of curiosity behind those bag-laden eyes of his. Enough curiosity to clomp heavily behind his guest in those extremely heavy, old school Rocket Boots that he's wearing.

She's able to get far enough ahead of him that he loses sight of her when she heads up the stairs and down the hall. Tony follows lazily, possibly a bit distractedly, as he tries to remember which room it was that used to belong to Jarvis.

Suddenly, a look of horror covers his face, and the normally pale Avenger goes even whiter.

He picks up the pace, jogging to catch up with her, as he calls out.

"Hey! Don't open that---"

But it's too late.

As he rounds the corner, Tony can see into the room that used to belong to Jarvis, but more recently belonged to someone else.

Someone whose possessions seem to consist entirely of giant statues of himself. Mostly naked. Usually either throwing a discus or slaying a lion.

Fortunately, Hercules isn't home at the moment.

But his statues sure are.

Peggy Carter has posed:
"You have... remarkable taste in... Sculpture. Anthony." It's horribly too late. Peggy's in the room and very, very aware of the various pieces of statue around her. She stares across the place, mildly blinking, trying to keep a bit of a laugh from bubbling up in her throat. "...is that a *lion*?" She asks after a moment, the edge of a laugh on that statement.

When he finally catches up to being in the room, she just shoots him an entirely bemused but not all that shocked look. She's seen worse with Howard, frankly. "...at least they're not live, naked, sleeping women. I've walked into those rooms in this house before too." Things Tony did NOT need to know about his father. With that, she clears her throat and carries on, walking further into the room.

"...The bed was... against this wall..." She crouches smoothly, beginning to run fingertips first along wall panels, then the floor, lookding for any sort of hidden door or false board. Trained, attentitve fingertips have clearly done this before.

Iron Man has posed:
"What!? These aren't MINE! This is HERC'S ROOM!"

Tony suddenly realizes that it's going to be very hard to convince someone that THE actual Greek god has taken over Jarvis' room, and he pinches the bridge of his nose exasperatedly.

"It's... nevermind. Let's just get out of here, he's got the worst habit of showing up... ah... you're already looking at something."

Heavy steps ensue as Tony walks into the room, trying to give all of Hercules' antiques a very wide berth. Most of these are from Ancient Greece, though a few are from space, and one's an Alicia Masters original.

"What is that you're doing? You don't seriously think there's going to be a fake bookcase or anything, right?"

Just then, something clicks on one of the walls, right as Peggy's hands are running along the floor boards.

Peggy Carter has posed:
If the statues phase her, she's really hiding it well. She's processed the strange surroundings and then quickly set them aside for her actual goal. It takes a bit more hunting, but her fingertips finally hit on something. She depresses it a bit more as the wall clicks, ensuring she's hit fully whatever trigger might be there. Then she's pushing herself back up into standing. Of course, not before he probably got a nice glimpse of rather shapely rear in that dress, the way she was leaning over.

"Fake wall, not bookcase. That would require there to be book cases in this room. But yes. Shall we?" She smiles to him and steps smoothly in the direction of that click. Red fingernails trace along the wall, trying to find where the exact opening is before she pulls it back with a smooth, practiced motion.

Iron Man has posed:
"Son of a..."

Tony looks as if he's actually dumbfounded. It's not like him to have trouble keeping a running commentary, but he's clearly pretty flabbergasted by the reveal of the secret door.

"This can't be here. There's literally no WAY that this can be here! I've scanned this entire building, hell, we've practically REBUILT the entire building a couple of times."

He seems to be scanning the entrance now, or at least he's holding his hand out in front of him as if he were doing something techy. Of course, with his J.A.R.V.I.S. destroyed, he'd have a much harder time analyzing any data that he managed to cobble together anyway.

Probably better to just let her keep taking the lead on this one.

You know, so he can follow at a comfortable distance.

"Man... it SMELLS real enough though."

Peggy Carter has posed:
"Scanned the entire building that Howard Stark built. You really think he's going to put a room in here that sensors can get through? He was a drunk. He was a womanizer. He was often a bloody idiot. But he was a *paranoid* idiot." Peggy explains quietly as she makes her way into the room. Tony might be wary but, now that she's found the clue, she isn't. If you break Howard's code, you get the reward of what's behind it. "He almost certainly lined all of these walls with something made to reflect traditional scans. At least, what he knew of technology at the time..."

Behind the door is a long, skinny hall. It smells of dust and abandonment, but not death or decay. It's just... Stale. Horribly stale. It goes back several feet before turning into a small room. About 4 by 6 feet, the walls are lined with thin hanging poster boards, all in a swinging row, so they can be pulled out one at a time and many can be stored.

She starts paging through them. Several are for suit-like technology, a few flying vehicles and other propulsion engines. But then, towards the back, there's a dozen or so that look like chemical formulas. More bioloigcal in origin, as well. She frowns, shaking her head over the too-delicate, anicent pages. "...well... It's... something out of his brain."

Iron Man has posed:
Reaching up, Tony grabs an old pullchain for an old-fashioned flourescent light fixture. The chain breaks off in his hand, and the light remains off. Mumbling to himself, he flicks a switch on his own suit. The light on Stark's chest starts to glow, suddenly illuminating the entire room.

"Oh great. More crazy. We can put it in the pile next to all the other crazy."

But though he's dismissive of his father's peculiar breed of genius, Tony can't help but look over a few of the poster boards himself. Some of it seems fairly rudimentary to someone like Tony, but there's at least one that causes him to let out a low, appreciative whistle.

And there it is.

An innocuous folder, very similar in appearance to the rest of the ones that Tony has found so far in his father's old stashes. This one, however, is stamped TOP SECRET and bears the logo of the Strategic Scientific Reserve.

Inside the folder are a bunch of smaller folders, each bearing a paperclip on the outside.

"I have a feeling I'm going to regret looking into this..."

There, on the first page, is a personnel file for one...

"Zola, Arnim?"