2582/Apokolips...now

Apokolips...now
Date of Scene:	25 September 2017
Location:	Tony's Office - Stark Tower
Synopsis:	Summary needed
Cast of Characters:	Black Widow (Romanoff), Iron Man

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Black Widow (Romanoff) has posed:
Being a friend to Tony and Pepper means that Natasha got a card to allow use of the elevator without having to go through the security checkpoints. There was still security in the form of JARVIS so her arrival was most certainly expected. At least this trip, the elevator isn't blaring music. In fact, it's completely silent. Not even that horrible elevator muzak stuff that usually plays. She's not sure what to think of it but all things considered, she's appreciative of the quiet. It's the complete opposite of the bedlam outside.
    A ding announces the arrival of the elevator before the doors open. She walks into the office and glances around, frowning when she finds it empty. "Tony? You here?" she calls out as she walks through the room. There are quite a few options for where to find him. She stands and considers which might be the best way. Or maybe she should just ask. "Jarvis? Is Tony available?" She didn't think about him possibly being out still fighting.

Iron Man has posed:
Nope, no music. Not as much fun. Downstairs there were stations for people to get food, clothes, medical treatment. Upstairs, it's a busy area with everyone working and things on you know, science and tech stuff. There's no such thing as enough security. And around the building Iron Man suits of different types prepare to fly out to repair buildings in danger of falling, to provide transportation, to ferry medical supplies. A few of them are being controlled remotely and others are being controlled by JARVIS.

"Tony can't come to the phone right now, he's a bit busy." You can see Tony standing at a table, some sensors and a curious target of energy in front of some sort of metal block that's got some scorch marks on it. About 10 yards away are one of the energy weapons the invaders, Apokolips' and Darkseid's troops have been using. He's got on a dirty t-shirt, a bit of sweat and probably some blood noted in it, and a cut on his right brow with some more blood dried near his temple and ear.

Black Widow (Romanoff) has posed:
She'd missed him there behind the gadgetry. Natasha walks his direction, glancing over at the weapon. "Good thing I wasn't calling on the phone then," she murmurs as she comes up next to him. She's wearing her work costume, the black bodysuit with the red hourglass belt buckle. Another belt with straps leading down to the holsters on each thigh containing her Glocks. Her new gauntlets are in place, the ones he made for her. "These things work really well, by the way. Thanks again for them." She has a cut on her upper right arm, the blood already having clotted rather messily, the material of the bodysuit gaping open there. There is another spot on her thigh but it isn't as bad, smaller and more precise in nature.

"What're you working on? And have you gotten that head wound looked at? Don't want your brain rattled too much," she adds.

Iron Man has posed:
He is working a bit, a bit of pizza next to him, though it looks like it's been there for a few hours. He looks over as he hears you peek in, "Oh yeah," he explains. "It got checked. Totally fine." Lie. But he'll say it. He doesn't look up though from what he's working on, his glasses red tinted, the lenses colored as he looks at the weapon and he moves to pull the trigger. The energy in front of him seems to shimmer, but at least a good portion of the blast gets through, hitting the large stone block behind it and the smell of something acrid, burning, singed, easily now filling the senses. "I am trying...to figure out how to...negate...well crap on toast," he says and takes off his glasses and walks to the energy generators again.

Black Widow (Romanoff) has posed:
Natasha watches as he lies through his teeth about getting his head checked. She's been called a human lie detector by some of her fellow SHIELD agents. This is no different. She can tell easily that he never got it checked. "You need to get it checked. If you are working with a concussion, that may be why you haven't solved it yet."

As he fires the weapon, she feels the tension through her shoulders and back. A lot of those blasts were too close to home lately, a few of them responsible for her wounds. So it's a natural reaction. As the blast hits the stone, she arches a brow. It probably wasn't supposed to do that. The rude portion at the end of his sentence verified that fact. "You're trying to figure out how to negate crap on toast? That'll be very helpful although I've never actually had that served to me thankfully."

Iron Man has posed:
Tony Stark looks over to you, his brow raising slightly. "When did you and I switch who the funny one is?" And then he grins, "Oh, that's right, we haven't," he teases, as if to say your joke wasn't that funny but you know it was. You saw him smirk. "Well...perhaps i'll open up a restaurant that specializes in serving it to you. Then youc an tell me what you think of it," he says with a little bit more amusement as he looks back to you and seems to be gladly waiting to see what happens next as he settles back, and looks at the generators. Then he looks back to the weapon and then back to them and just puts his right hand over his head, tugging at his dark hair as the other one plays on his hips.

"So it's always interesting when regular rules of science dont' apply. It gets fun then to try and make new science but usually that takes years, not hours..." he offers, the beam rifle still sitting there, inert when he doesn't use it.

Black Widow (Romanoff) has posed:
"I've always been the funny one. You just don't appreciate me," Natasha returns as she walks closer to the weapon while he continues puttering about. At his words, she glances up from her investigation of the alien technology. "Rules of science don't apply? What does that mean?"
    She looks back to the weapon but doesn't walk in front of in nor does she touch it. She's seen a lot of them left by fallen parademons during the various conflicts and she's even managed to use one once when she had to but she's found that they are succeptible to good old fashioned bullets as long as one aims for the face and not the armor.

Iron Man has posed:
"Sure..." he says to himself chuckling again, that definitley amused little bit of sound as he tries to answer. "We have laws of physics, of quantum mechanics, of all sorts of things that are based upon our experience and our rules of understanding. So we know them to be true, and to work, and to be reliable," he says. "Until you get something that doesn't agree with those laws. Like say, an alien weapon that doesn't mesh with any frequencies or science that I know yet to use to get it to not work. So I am able to hit the corner of it, like trying to see something underwater and you know it's there and you know the shape, but when you try to grab for it you miss because you can't account for how the water itself is altering what you're seeing. And so...." he says, pointing to the weapon and the scorched stone slab. "And so I haven't gotten very far yet, or maybe I'm right there and the next time I'll figure it out. It's what makes this fun....or whatever you want to use to describe it..."

Black Widow (Romanoff) has posed:
As he explaines, Natasha is bending to look at the weapon a bit more closely. When she was in the field, she wasn't really examining them. As he explains this is fun, she stands and turns to face him, eyebrows lifted high. "That is not at all my definition of fun. In fact, it sounds quite frustrating. Then again, I'm not an egghead. Speaking of eggs..."

She reaches up a hand to feel around that head wound carefully, checking for swelling or anything severe. "You sure this isn't affecting you?"

Iron Man has posed:
Tony Stark swats at your hand the first time, and then the second. "Yes it's affecting me. It's annoying the bejeezus out of me," he says as she keeps poking at his head while he's trying to work. "It's perfectly fine until you go to poke at me. we've come to an agreement. I don't pick at it, and it doesn't go bleeding on the work I'm trying to do. See? It seems fair," he offers, his lips pursed, narrowed just slightly as he gives you taht wry stop touching me look. But yeah, he does go ahead and grab a water bottle before sitting down in a chair with a 'flop' of sorts that sends the office chair spinning, rotating, his legs up so that he can let the chair continue it's circle. "What about you? Anything that I need to know about? You're not injured or hurt in a way that you're trying to hide because you want to be one of the cool kids?"

Black Widow (Romanoff) has posed:
She can't help it. Natasha giggles as he swats her hand away repeatedly but she does stop testing the spot. Doesn't seem to be anything broken but only an x-ray would know for sure. He's not likely to be getting one of those anytime soon. "Me? Just a few scratches so far." She doesn't mention the bruises and cuts that are hidden under the uniform. This one is about the third she's had to go through in the last few days of fighting. "No broken bones and no concussions, like some people." She moves away from the weapon, finding a table to lean against as she watches him spinning.

"I'm going to be honest, Tony. I'm starting to get worried. For every hundred we get rid of, twice that many are coming through another of those damn portals elsewhere."

Iron Man has posed:
"Well talk to Strange or the other magic people about that nonsense," he says frustrated. "I don't do portals. Black holes happen naturally, or at least we assume so. There's all sorts of stuff out there that I can't really make bend to my reality cause that's not my cup of tea," he says. "This thing, however, these weapons..." he intones. "These I can figure out and at least give our guy son the ground who aren't from Krypton or part-amazon or you know, filled with radiation a shot at staying in the fight more than 10 seconds at a time," before he looks over to the stone, and then to you, and then back to the stone. The stone that is singed, yes, but neither really cracked nor broken. Then he looks to the weapon, and you can see it. He's trying to piece together the little bit of what he's thinking and he starts to get up and says, "JARVIS, give me the mineral composition of that hunk of rock there...."