2394/It's an...upgrade...

It's an...upgrade...
Date of Scene:	10 September 2017
Location:	Stark Tower, New York City
Synopsis:	Natasha is called in so Tony can give her a new pair of wristbands he designed. Testing the function of them has unexpected results. Pepper to the rescue.
Cast of Characters:	Iron Man, Pepper Potts, Black Widow (Romanoff)

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Iron Man has posed:
It's early on Sunday morning. Why early? Because for Tony it could also still be described as late Saturday night. And so Tony is likely to be joined soon by his two favorite ladies. The first was probably in the ahem...er...guest room...and may hear the music blaring not just in his office but in all of Stark Tower. A little bit of the 'Ten' album from Pearl Jam gracing the airwaves today. The other was likely sent a message that Tony had something for her a while ago.

And so the remnants of what he's eaten for the last 20 hours or so...a pizza box...some fizzy bottled water...chewy chips ahoy...they're scattered around the office along with some of his tools. And, for those paying attention, a model of something similar to Nat's energy bracelets.

Pepper Potts has posed:
Sunday. The day of rest. The one day Pepper forces herself not to take ANY meetings or phone calls. (Or, well... unless it's a REAL emergency.) She was up late last night handling another emergency in Austria, so she ended up just crashing in the guest room. THere is always an excuse, even on a weekend. She can't really remember the last time she went to her own condo up in mid town, but they haven't talked about that. So, she was sleeping rather soundly until that blaring music broke through the vague dreams. Now, mussy headed and haired, the strawberry blonde comes down the hall.

It's rare that Pepper actually looks not put together, but it's also rare that she gets woken out of a dead sleep by Pearl Jam. She's still in what she wears for sleeping -- a pair of booty shorts and some oversized ACDC teeshirt she stole from Tony god knows when. Still blinking sleep from her eyes, she winces as she looks into the office. "...Tony?"

Iron Man has posed:
I really hope Pepper means she stole the t-shirt, and not the booty shorts, from Tony. Otherwise, we really have to worry about what will happen when the press finds out. As Pepper blearily makes her way in, he looks up, a piece of crust sticking out of his mouth like a cigar, and his eyes covered today by blue tinted glasses that don't conceal then, just alter the shade of what he's looking at. "Hello, Dahlink!" he speaks a bit like Natasha from Bullwinkle, but does rise, hopping up to fix his clothes which resemble very much the same thing he was wearing when Pepper excused herself. Only...now with crumbs!

"Why aren't you in bed? I mean, you're up late....you've only been asleep for what, an hour or two? Oh hey...I think I found a solution to your Austria problem." And he briefly goes into a short explanation of how she could probably fix the issue with moving some of the resources from Germany and Turkey over....which is excatly what she likely came up with on her own last night and relayed on the call and his psyche is just relaying the information to him now in some causal relationship type thing at seeing her. He does hop over though, putting the 'pizza-cigar' (they're going to be a thing) down and walking to the door to...take out his phone and take a quick picture of a mussed Pepper. Then he slips it back into his rear pocket and slides in for a good morning hug.

Pepper Potts has posed:
"Yes...but pearl jam is a remarkably effective alarm clock." Pepper rasps out, giving him a little glare as she realizes he's taking a photo of her, "Don't. Delete that. I haven't even showered. Come on. You're ridiculous... Delete that, TOny!" She grumbles, but allows herself to be pulled into a muss hug. She smells like sleep and coffee from last night. She doesn't fight the hug, even if she doesn't dare do more, though she might be breathing a bit deeper to get a taste of his scent too. "And I already figured out Austria, that's why I was up that late.... Have you even slept?" She grumbles against his throat.

Black Widow (Romanoff) has posed:
The ride up in the elevator is rather entertaining in that Pearl Jam is not the typical elevator music she's used to hearing. Not that anything at Stark Tower really is typical. She's learned that the more time she's spent with the power-couple. Power-Couple-In-Denial maybe is more like it. Natasha has her hands tucked in the pockets of her lightweight leather jacket as she watches the numbers ding past on the elevator console.

The PING of the elevator arrival will warn they are no longer alone a moment before the doors open.

Natasha wanders out, dressed casually in black slacks and a red button up top with low heeled boots. She looks wide awake and basically like she always looks. "Good morning," she says in a pleasant tone as she walks across. Her green gaze flicks to the bracers then back to the pair. "Sorry I couldn't get by sooner. Been busy the last few days."

Iron Man has posed:
Oh how fun. He enjoys the hug and the playful lecture from Pepper, kissing her temple as she leans in, mussed and all, and he grins, wide smile. "Right, well, I'm glad II could help then," though there is absolutely no deleting of any photos happening right now that is clear. That photo will likely make it into something private and important at a later date. "Sleep? It's only...what, three....four?" Ok, more like 8:30 or so. "Well then...." he says and is about to answer when Nat comes in.

"Nat!" He was waiting for her. So if Pepper -was- leaning against Tony, she's sort of unceremnoiously left there as the cause of what he's been working on, the reason he was up all night, walks in. "Nat! Come here, look, I did a thing. Well not a thing but several high tech important things....but we'll just call it one so the other tech people don't get all jealous."

Pepper Potts has posed:
Well, this was the LAST thing Pepper needed. Tony can see her like this, she guesses, but not Nat! Hearing that familiar voice behind her, Pepper's eyes shoot open wide, a spike of adrenaline helping to kill well the last fingers of exhaustion as she pulls away from him and whips around, embarrassing photos momentarily forgotten. "You didn't tell me Natasha was coming over!" She smacks the back of his shoulder as he walks away, both playful and completely miffed, which is a common look upon her face.

Then she's giving Natasha her best corporate smile, fingertips coming up to comb back through her hair and try to smooth it down. She stands stiff and proper, doing her best to pretend she's not in a shirt and booty shorts, "Natasha, good morning! I am... so sorry, Tony didn't... ah... I mean, would you like coffee? Breakfast? Anything? It is good to see you. I'm...sorry for the state..." Pepper is now just completely flustered as her mind tries to catch up even if her body is in no way to receive guests.

Black Widow (Romanoff) has posed:
Natasha moves forward to claim a quick hug from Pepper if she is able to do so. Then she steps back with a smile. "Nothing to apologize for. You look just fine. And no, I don't need any coffee. I was curious why Tony left me this babbling message about things he did but I see he's still babbling," she says with a wink to the other woman. Then she moves toward those 'things' he did, giving them a once over before her attention goes to the maker.

"I see you did a thing. I'm just not sure what I'm seeing." She pulls off her jacket, revealing that she does have her bracers on her arms. She's rarely ever without them. She also has on a double shoulder harness, her pair of Glock 26s riding on her ribs on either side. All that is why she wears that jacket, even in warm weather. "How are they different from my current ones and, perhaps the more important question, why? Because I'm used to you making your own toys instead of mine."

Iron Man has posed:
We prefer Power Couple in Training! "Hey, I can share. Top of my class at Harmon Valley Kindergarten, thank you very much." He pauses, and then petulantly adds, "Mrs. Cotariu. She was a saint," he says, and he holds up the gauntlets and hands them to Natasha. "These are different cause they may help keep you alive a little longer rather than just letting you annoy the hell out of poeple with your little zappy power," he teases, knowing full well that Natasha's skill set goes way past 'annoying' people. The gauntlets actually help her keep people alive. "I've added an upgrade. Try them on..." he says as of course, she'll have to take off the ones she has on already but still.

Pepper Potts has posed:
The red head still seems a bit out of sorts as Natasha says she doesn't need coffee and that Pepper looks fine. She's just firmly smirking at that, "You are too kind and that is a lie, I look like I woke up five minutes ago, because I did. But..." She shakes her head and sighs, not protesting any longer. Pepper just takes another step or two closer, now quite curious as to what Tony's been doing, though also happy the attention is off of her. Her arms remain folded in front of her chest, prim and proper, also trying to hide the fact that she's not wearing a bra.

Black Widow (Romanoff) has posed:
"So they have all my other goodies still? Explosives, gas, and so on?" Yeah, a bit more than just zappy things. Zappy just happens to be her favorite. Everyone has their thing after all. Natasha takes off her current bracers and lays them on the desk. She wraps the other pair around her arms and they automatically lock in place with a hidden mechanism. A shift of her wrist position or hand allows for her to cycle through the various weapons systems. It all feels the same, which is good. Hate to be trying to fire a gas pellet and send off a grenade instead, after all.

"Keep me alive...how?" comes the cautious question as she swings her arms a few times, just getting that feel for things. They are a little stiff but that's to be expected with new material that hasn't been worn for years.

Iron Man has posed:
To be fair, you could set off a grenade and no one would know that it did anything to Pepper since she's...you know...all done up for this special occasion *ahem*. Tony grins a bit though as he pulls out a chair, sending a spinning chair wheeling over towards the strawberry blonde. He's not goign to make her stand, not unless she wants to. Pepper getting to be the live studio audience, he turns a dial on his watch and a glove of one of his suits covers his hand, the propulsor glove showing as he looks over to nat. "It won't last long...and you probably only have three, maybe four of them at best...less if you have to sustain it or such but yeah. I've basically managed to get a bit of a repulsor type tech into there so if you needed to deflect a punch or a blast of energy or a bullet....you can. At least in theory. Just bring them up like so...." and he makes an 'x' in front of him with his wrists, the right in front of the left, something the detail-oriented Miss Romanov would likely pick up on. If Nat looks she can see now two sensors of sort that obviously connect which is what likely triggers it.

Pepper Potts has posed:
The fact that Pepper isn't hovering away to get everyone coffee and breakfast is PURE proof that she's still half asleep and not functional. But, she's also curious about the potentially useful mess that Tony has made here, so she just settles a bit closer, leaning her hips against the back of a currently not being used table and sinking in for the long term to watch. Or maybe fall back asleep. Her eyes are in that half lidded state that say falling back asleep might be very tempting. So, she does the one thing she does in boring board meetings where she nearly falls asleep -- she forces herself to participate, "That...could be helpful but... what motivated making these in the first place, Tony? Natasha is more than capable without and that's a lot of power or force to put on someone's wrist. Did... something happen neither of you are telling me about?"

Black Widow (Romanoff) has posed:
Natasha examines the gauntlets a moment then moves back a few steps as he gets that glove in place. She knows how powerful those things are. "You've already tested these things, right?" she asks automatically as she puts them in front of her in the proper position. Right in front of left, sensor spots touching.

Nothing seems to be happening. Maybe it's passive unless there is an attack incoming. That would explain it.

At Pepper's question, she shakes her head negatively. "Nothing has happened with me recently. Or the Avengers. So not sure what did this unless he got shot recently." There, now it is all on Tony to have to get out of that one since Pepper would be perturbed if he had.

Iron Man has posed:
Tony seems to be amused by Pepper's question. "You know, sometimes I can have a good idea without it being a reactin to someone getting punched or shot or stabbed or any other bad thing you might come up with," he tries to explain. "In that very very lovely head of yours, that is full of its own good ideas and is in no way any less of a smart intelligent head than mine," he adds, realizing that his first sentence was likely starting to lead him down his own bad path of talking himself into trouble.

And then Natasha starts to throw him under the bus as well so he just holds up his hand and fires off a bit of propulsion energy at her, the act more thrust, more 'force' than anything that would hurt. The shield should totally deflect it, cause the bracers totally work....IF he had remembered to activate THAt sensor as well and not just the left over right side. Which...he didn't.

Pepper Potts has posed:
Pepper arches a slightly skeptical brow as Natasha insists nothing has happened, "Good..." She echoes, still trying to see if she has missed something, but then Tony starts digging his own grave. Pepper's brows BOTH go up now and he's so close to getting one of THOSE looks, before he mostly digs himself out. Her arms remain crossed and smirk just deepening on her tired expression. "You...are so lucky I'm too tired to get my revenge on you, Tony Stark, but it will come one of these days." She warns him huskily. Then she falls back quiet to return to watching.

Black Widow (Romanoff) has posed:
Listening to the interplay, perhaps Natasha should've been paying more attention to what Tony was doing. When the blast is fired, she glances his way and fully expects his invention to work.

She takes the blast squarely middle mass and goes flying backwards a few feet to land on her backside, hard. She's not really hurt, it was more a very heavy punch to the center of her chest. It's the surprise.

A round of Russian comes from her lips that is not translatable in proper company. The curses are creative and explicit and involved what Tony can do with his inventions. Then she shifts back to English as she gets to her feet.

"I think I'll stick to my old ones, thanks," she mutters as she goes to take off the treacherous things.

Iron Man has posed:
As Nat goes flying a bit like that, he blinks. "Huh..." he says, looking down at his metallic hand and hits a button to retract it, and starts to walk over to Nat. His lips pursed, his first isntinct is totally to check on the person, right? Ok probalby not. he looks to the gauntlets that she's wanting to take off. "Hold on now...." he says and he looks at her wrists, assuming she lets her and he crosses the left over right, and immediately a reflective field comes up and pushes him back a few feet and into his work table. "Well no wonder...you had your wrists wrong," he says, totally dead pan, even though he brings up a screen and makes a note on there by circling the -other- sensors that are inactive and they light up red on a virtual display in the room. "I can fix that," he says, assuredly, and looks to Pepper, who is likely going to be very distraut for her friend. "Don't worry, I'm fine. I just forgot to turn on both sides. Oopsies...." he says before glancing over to Black Widow. "Wanna try again?"

Pepper Potts has posed:
"NATASHA!" Pepper squeaks, dashing after her as quickly as possible as the disaster in the making happens. Panic scenarios run through her brain about just how bad it might be as she comes to the woman's side, about to reach for medical help, but then it's all over. Natasha's still cursing, then speaking in English, and seems to be mostly in one piece. Pepper stares between her and then up to Tony, then back to her, "I...I should get you a doctor, still, someone. Just... just stay stil. Tony... What happened! She knows how to use her own wrists! What... actually went wrong?!" She stares hard at him, knowing when he's covering.

Black Widow (Romanoff) has posed:
"I'm fine, Pepper. Really. Surprised more than hurt. He had it on a low setting," she offers reassuringly to Pepper as the woman gets as upset as she is. Just in a very different way. Natasha watches as Tony messes with the gauntlets then frowns a little bit. "Fix that? Fix? That means you did something wrong, not me. I held them the exact same way you did."

At his suggestion for trying it again, her eyebrows shoot so high up one might think they are trying to take flight. "You really think I'm stupid enough to let you shoot me again? Wait! Don't answer that." Because he will and then she'll have to shoot him in the face. However, the field did seem to push him back a few feet and this time she can actually tell there was one. If she doesn't get that hum and sensation in her wrists, she knows it isn't on and she'll call the whole thing off.

In other words, she is that stupid.

"Yeah, let's try it again and yes, you need to 'fix' whatever was wrong that had nothing at all to do with me."

Iron Man has posed:
Tony Stark looks to Pepper. "Left...right...they're so confusing. It's a common mistake. I suggest for our resident deadly spider that we not dwell on things like blame or mistakes...." he says, lips still pursed in a bit of a twisted playful smirk, since yeah, ok, this one was all him. If only you knew how many times in the course of making his own devices he's done that to himself. Yes, mistakes are a part of the process but still, usually he only does them to himself. Turning his back to Nat he sticks his tongue out to Pepper cuase, you know...that's mature and about the only thing he can get away with trying to say legitimately that wouldn't be completely BS. And then he turns back to Natasha.

"See, that's the spirit," he says. He hits the button and brings up his glove, and seeing that the shield is working he ups it....so that as the force leaves his glvoe one can see some papers ruffle, can feel a gust of air and without hte shield it'd entirely possible that Nat would be flung the whole width of the room. With the shield...pushed back a little? Sure, probably. But launched? Probably not. More importantly, SHE doesn't feel the actual force of the blow like she did that first time.

Pepper Potts has posed:
"I don't think you..." Pepper starts, initially agreeing with Natasha's hesitance to try it again. But then Natasha changes her mind and just encourages Tony more. Pepper stares at him, that stuck out tongue getting him no recourse. She just shakes her head at them both, "It's too early for this and I need coffee. And a shower. And food. ANd about four more hours sleep. You two...don't get each other killed, alright? I have too much paperwork to file this week already. Just... Just be careful." Pepper states with a small huff, rolling her eyes to the ceiling. But then she does move to leave the room, but stops to kiss Tony's cheek first and squeeze Natasha's shoulder. Once those bits of affection and apology are given, Pepper slips up to find the shower. That is her first priority.

Black Widow (Romanoff) has posed:
As Pepper leaves, Natasha turns her full attention to Tony and that gloved hand. She may regret this.

She puts her wrists together again as instructed and that hum of power is there letting her know it's working. Then the blast comes and she leans in automatically, bracing herself. As such, she is only rocked back slightly in her stance but otherwise there is no effect. She blinks and looks at her wrists, shifting them apart and eyeing them closely. "Now that's more like it. And you say it should work about three times before they run out of juice? It won't effect my other systems like the Bites though, right? I don't want to lose my offensive weapons by using a defensive one."

Iron Man has posed:
"In theory," he says, a crooked grin as he walks over then and takes off his glove, and holds his hand out for the guantlets so he can correct them. "They have their own mini power system. I didnt' want to take away from what you know how to use or expect. You could, in a pinch, or I could, build somethign that lets you draw more power from your weapons system that's already there, it might give youa couple more bursts, but yeah, that would also leave any of your energy weapons pretty much drained. You might still have some things like your bolts...but the stingers, the little electric cord thing you like to use, those would be shot if you did that. There's always a way to add more if we somehow built it into the suit and tried to put a power source into your suit but that would add weight and bulk that goes against what our stealthy little ninja likes to use," he says having at least put thought into how to ake it as not invasive as possible for you.

Black Widow (Romanoff) has posed:
Passing them over, Natasha autmoatically picks up her old ones and snaps them into place around her wrists. It's like being naked to have them off in public. Privately, it's another thing entirely. Course, she keeps a gun within reach at all times then. As her boyfriend can attest. He's gotten a face full of gun muzzle once or twice when she wasn't expected him to show up. It's part of their relationship that works strangely enough.

"No suits for me. I need to be able to move quickly, especially against some of the heavy hitters we face. Three should be enough since I intend to keep dodging unless I absolutely can't."