4294/Mutant Kidnappings: Beast SMASH

Mutant Kidnappings: Beast SMASH
Date of Scene:	17 April 2018
Location:	New York
Synopsis:	Beast has a small meltdown over some new evidence in the case.
Cast of Characters:	Iron Man, War Machine, Beast, Hulk, Slipstream
Tinyplot:	Mutant Kidnappings

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Iron Man has posed:
    It is about four pm, edging out of afternoon into the evening. It is quiet: a godsend potentially to those such as Dr. McCoy who had been in and out of the labs, and were right on top of the demolition noise that Tony was causing. Mostly he stopped when others were trying to work. Mostly. But the whole back of a laboratory is now blown open and is being refurbished. That pushed a lot of the work into the other smaller labs and the medical space.

    Earlier that day, Dr. Banner had rolled in, and was seen doing work on the residue of the fear gas canisters, and antidotes for that weapon. That, though, was unrelated to the rest of the samples and work already in progress by Dr. McCoy.

    Tony has been in and out, checking in, now and then, when he isn't knocking walls down with noisy drilling. He's returned now, with James Rhodes in tow. "Dr. McCoy should be around now. I'm hoping we'll get some headway on the rest of what he was looking into. And, I have to fill him in on the Scarecrow thing." Tony explains as he exits the elevator. They're fairly easy to hear in the hallway, from the labs; Tony isn't quiet. "He probably can help you, too: he knows the politics on those people you mentioned, I'll bet."

War Machine has posed:
     "He's the blue guy right?" Rhodey asks still holding his jacket over his shoulder with a single hand as he waits for the doors of the elevator to open. "I think I might have read one of his books if it's the right guy I'm thinking of." He's calm and collected as he waits bobbing slightly up and down with the musac since he can enjoy a good jam as much as the next guy. "Remember there used to be a time when 'blue guy' would be a descriptor that could focus you on just one person instead of one of fifty?"

Beast has posed:
Yes it was quiet.

The operative word there being /was/. As they got closer to the lab which the furry blue X-man had taken over during his on and off again time here the past week or so that quiet was definitely shattered by the sound of.. well... shattering. The sound of glass being broken, quite a bit of it, can be heard from the laboratory as can the sound of something heavey being dropped of flipped over.

"NO!!" echoes a roar, filled with what coud be only considered as rage. "NO NO NO NO NO NO!" Each repetition of the word grows in volume, and is followed by something else being broken by the sound of it. "HOW COULD YOU! YOU

One would think that perhaps the good doctor banner had hulked out, but the dulcet baritone behind that raging voice is not the famous gamma radiation scientist. "Indescribably parasitic, mediocrity-afflicted neophytes with glacially slow cognitive faculties!" And Hulk doesn't tend to be quite so verbose.

*CRASH*

"Feculent and degenerate money-addicted malodorous MORONS!!"

Iron Man has posed:
    Well, so there's this now. This may as well happen. "I wasn't really thinking of knocking down one of these walls to expand this lab, but since you've started, I guess this could combine with the storage unit behind it," Tony observes constructively of the room as he stops in the doorway and takes in the extreme level of general damage. Tony isn't upset: he's done worse, though usually through explosions rather than rage. Still, similar design of destruction.

    Tony questions, loudly, "So, you found something, huh?" Yes, Tony's keying something into his mobile in a subtle way. Just in case. The labs are rigged with some security, of course, though he doesn't expect to need to use it.

Hulk has posed:
"Hey! Some of us are trying to sleep up here!" One Bruce Banner yells down from his room as the sound of a not-Hulk throws a tantrum. His tone, from anyone else else, would sound like frustrated venting, but Doctor Banner is well known for his remarkable calm; infamous for it due to the consequences of /not/ keeping that center.

"You give someone guest privileges and they think they own the place...." Bruce grumbles as he closes the door to his room, heading back to his nap.

War Machine has posed:
     Rhodes doesn't really know what to say, he just puts his free hand down into a pocket and clicks his lips quietly once. Looking first to the wall and then back to Hank, and then to Tony. "On the bright side" He trails off for a moment taking a better look at the wall. "Saves time on expansion?"

Beast has posed:
Once the lab doors open it is obvious there is quite a bit of damage. It's like a tornado had blown through the place with equipment over turned, glass beakers broken, tablets thrown and cracked and paper torn up and scattered EVERYWHERE. And at the center of it all, now quiet, is Doctor Henry 'The Beast' McCoy.

The feline simian mutant sits on his haunches, hunched over, the digits of his paws clenched in his mane-like hear. His breathing is hard and labored and he clenches his fingers in his fur as if he were about to tear it out as he tries to regain some semblance of control. He doesn't look up, though he knows he is no longer alone. He barely registers what is being said, however, even Banner down the hall (good hearing). When he finally looks up, his catlike eyes are wide and.. almost feral.. Anger? Panic?

"It's MY FAULT!" he hisses, and his voice is loaded with self recrimination and disgust. "Oh my stars and garters.. IT.. IS.. MY.. FAULT!"

Iron Man has posed:
    "Hey now, leave some credit for the rest of us," Tony automatically jokes, and weaves his way in around part of an overturned table. "C'mon, Hank. Talk me through it," Tony invites directly, trying to direct to get Hank thinking, not just emotionally reacting.
    A little cleaning droid was collecting some bits of paper debris in the hallway, with a little rolling siphon collector bin, and angles in near their ankles. It scans the room and has a little droid panic attack in beeps and servos, trembling and buzzing. Tony kicks out idly at the side of it, hitting the reset with his shoe, and the little robot reboots-- and then begins to slowly vacuum up bits of broken wall near the entrance. Whiirrrrrrr... Crunckle-crunckle (some bits of glass).... Whirrrr...

Slipstream has posed:
The doors open up to reveal Drake, who is wearing a pair of loose fitted jeans and a simple black with an overwatch logo on the chest. At the sound of the yelling and smashing, he pauses to take a look around, head tilting over towards the sight of the big furry beast. ".. Uh.. I just.. was looking for a bandaid. I sorta fell off one of those really awesome floating hover skateboards and I wrecked my elbow. If it's a bad time, I can um... go... stare at a wall or something." He trails off as he gives a curious look to Rhodes and Bruce as well.

Beast has posed:
Beast clenches his eyes shut.... his nostrils flaring a moment as another surge of anger races through his bestial body... then he wavers a bit, his shoulder as drooping, and he slumps backwards and sits on his ass amid the chaos and destruction.. and ignores the cleaning droid all together. He looks like a lost, forlorn cat-ape and would possibly make a passable meme on pinterest. probably entitled 'Sad Beast'.

"I apologize, Anthony.." he rasps, looking at his paws.. then clenches them tightly. "I.. I'm so angry right now.. So damned angry.. and disgusted.." He swallows hard and looks up at Tony and Rhodey and.. the kid he doesn't really know. Not yet anyways, since he's been sort of a recluse since he's been here. He looks between them, as if he is afraid to say anything while anyone but Tony is here but.. then he slumps again. He can't lie about this. He deserves whatever happens..

"I isolated the non-hallucinogenic compound.." he whispers. "It should have taken weeks but almost right away there was something.. familiar about it. I couldn't understand it at first, like it was on the edge of my memory, but as I proceeded to analyze it..."

He finally looks up again and he looks like he wants to cry. "I recognized it because.. I created it. It's based on /my/ work, Tony..."

War Machine has posed:
     "We all have things in our past we're not proud of Hank." Rhodes says out of nowhere walking over hand in his pocket. He gives a nod to Drake. "Tony used to make weapons, and I used to napalm villages from a jet fighter for the government." He's speaking a bit from the heart still partially looking over towards the hole in the wall, as he keeps that relaxed posture about him. "It's not what we did that makes us who we are, it's what we're doing right here and now."

Iron Man has posed:
    "Yes," Tony agrees with Rhodes. "One thing I've learned, you can't beat yourself up over who gets inspired by you," Tony advises, in a way that is screamingly Tony Stark. It might not help, to drip that style of relaxed arrogance right now that is all over his tone. Or maybe it will. "It comes with good, and bad, being inspiring."

    "Anyway. People are going to make their own bad decisions. Whether it's some mountain of evil robot eating a bridge, or this. "

While Tony talks, he moves to one of the cabinets, pulling the rest of the door aside, and removes a kit of first aid things. He brings the good kit over and hands it to Drake, in an autopilot manner. Tony absolutely knows where that stuff is. He flips it open, taps at one of the unlabeled mecidine ointments in it with two fingers, and then heads fearlessly over towards Hank, hands slid into his pockets, relaxed. "Sounds like we're way ahead of the game, having the master himself here to identify and deal with it." A pause. "You, I mean." Not himself.

Slipstream has posed:
"I once accidentally leaked the strats to a scrim we had coming up against Seoul because I had my stream on when I was doing a vod review. The Koreans totally kicked our ass the next day." Drake says as he peeks at his bruised and scratched elbow. "So, we all screw up once in awhile you know? Just gotta pull a try-hard seven and try not to be a potato next time. No kappa. You feel me?" As Tony hands him the ointment and the kit, he gives a sheepish smile, then flops down on the ground and begins to apply it on his elbow. After applying the bandage, he takes the kit and puts it to the side.

Beast has posed:
Beast's eyes narrow at Rhodey for a moment. "You did what you had to do because you were given orders, Colonel Rhodes. Tony made weapons because it was his father's legacy, which just happened to make him and his shareholders profits.. Which, as reprehensible as that is, is still acceptable within certain capitalist parameters." He then looks at Drake and seems about to say something.. but.. really can't since he has no clue what half of what he said.. so....

He looks back to Tony now. "Tony, I am not a master. This compound, at least the original version, was originally created by me for the most selfish of reasons. Because I was ashamed of what I was." he then lowers his eyes. "It was when I was at university. I was working on a number of projects that were being funded the Roxxon Corporation. I..." he sighs. "I used those resources, without their knowledge, to do some of my own research. That's when I isolated the.. X-Factor." he swallows hard once more. "It's linked to the expression of the 23 chromosone.. which in turn determines, among other things, gender expression and sexial diamporhism and the production of certain protein-based hormones. In a person who is, let us call them X positive, they produce an extra and exotic protein, which is what triggers and expresses Mutation."

He draws his paws down his face. "It wasn't long after that I was outed as a mutant.. In my paniced state I isolated the protein, let us call it Mutant growth Hormone, and tried to re-engineer it to.. essentially.. vaccinate myself against my mutation. But I failed. And it triggered my secondary mutation and made me.. a true beast."

War Machine has posed:
     "What did you just say?" Rhodes attention locks on Beast for a moment. He repeats the word himself "Roxxon." A light clicking on in his head for something else as he moves over to a desk pulling out his tablet and sliding info around for a moment. Yet he stops at the rest of what Hank has to say. Slowly he sets the tablet back down, looking back over to the blue beast. He rests one hand on the table the other still holding his jacket in place. He's not really sure what to add to that.

Iron Man has posed:
    Tony isn't very equipped to comfort people. "Yeah. I remember when my first brilliant invention turned back on me. I think I was twelve," Tony rambles, digressing, like he always does when he isn't comfortable. So this is going to get awkward. Or, more awkward.
    Tony looks over at Rhodey in a sort of flash of 'ideas?' in his eye, but then studies Hank. "I'm not going to argue that situation isn't the greatest," Tony ends up with. "Okay, suit yourself, not a master. But you're what we've got to rein in the damage to a lot of people's lives. So, I'd rather look at that, then focus on your depressing backstory. It's what we make today, not yesterday. That's what we can do something constructive about. Are you up for that part?" A pause.
    "Or at least, a drink, to start?" Tony suggests, with a sly smile, turning to sit down on an overturned medical processor next to Hank.

Slipstream has posed:
Standing up to his feet, Drake looks at his bandaged elbow, then puts the kit off to the side on something that does not appear to be destroyed or knocked over. He gives a glance over to the other three. He studies the emotions in the air for a moment, then lets out a slow breath through his nostrils in thought as he heads for the door as his phone pops out of his back pocket to begin tapping along the glass with his thumbs.

Beast has posed:
Beast rubs his face in frustration, the fur on the back of his neck still standing up slightly... but he seems more resigned than anything. "Your grasp of continuity not withstanding, Tony, to make something /implies/ the past. The present is where you try to atone for what you made /in/ the past.." he sighs and looks around now, shaking his head. "And yes. I am up for the part, as you put it so eloquently. But there really is nothing we can do more than.. damage control. This genie is out of the bottle...."

He looks at Rhodey and raises a brow. "Yes. I said Roxxon." he tells the man. "But they never had /access/ to my research, Mister Rhodes. It was, as they say, completely off the books. And I destroyed all the research. I was so certain I destroyed it.." he says. Then he looks back to Tony. "But this compound.. It's not just some random variation that someone came across. Yes, it /is/ a variation.. A flawed one even. But the basis in my research is clear. It's like.. a signature. Whoever developed this may have done a flawed forgery, but it /was/ based on the original. And It is /dangerous/. Mutant Growth Hormone, even synthesized /properly/, could have adverse effects not just on mutants themselves but /anyone/ with a human genome... I can't even begin to guess what the effects would be..."

He watches as Drake walks off, leaving the kit behind, and sighs. "And I could definately use that drink.." he murmurs..

War Machine has posed:
     "No.. I just... I think I just put the pieces together on who had my sister killed." He shakes his head for a moment placing the tablet back into the pocket of his jacket before leaning his back up against the table. "If we spend all our time trying to make the present account for the past we'll never be able to enjoy it while its here, and most likely wind up always having something to atone for." He looks over to the kid, finally introducing himself. "James Rhodes, pleasure to meet you kid."

Iron Man has posed:
    "Atone? Not always; wow, that's bleak. It's always the next /idea/, that's what's really important," Tony answers about his interesting grasp on continuity. "The new upgrade." The view of the forward-staring inventor. Though thinking he doesn't look behind him, well. That's more what Tony would like people to think he functions like. He's aware of the past: very aware. Better if others don't know that, though.

    Fortunately, things are always saved with alcohol. "Great. What's your drink of choice?" Tony asks, getting up, and brushing off the debris from his expensive slacks. He won't stop Drake from leaving, or interfere; Tony's thirsty too.

Slipstream has posed:
Giving a pause before he reaches the door, Drake gives a glance over to James and offers a lift of his hand. "Drake Winters. Slipstream. Um.. nice to meet you too, sir. Big fan." He says as he gives a scuff of his sneaker on the ground. "I hope things go well .. here." He says with a motion of his hand at the wreckage. "I'm gonna go work out. Um.. see yah." He's been living in the gym lately. Should start charging the kid rent. He hesitates, then opens the door and heads out.

Beast has posed:
Beast slowly stands and lumbers over to a chair, which he slumps into. He removes his spectacles and starts massaging the bridge of he leonine snout and sighs. "Drink of choice? Something older than I am and rich enough it has it's own stock portfolio.." he says dryly, then replaces the specs on his snout. Then blinks at Rhodey. "Say /what/ now? Your sister?" he asks, looking a bit startled, then decides it is better not to ask, at least right now, since even Rhodey seems to have pushed past it.

He looks to Drake and is about to say something.. but the young man leaves moments after introducing himself and the furry mutant sighs. "Not the best first impression from me.." he rasps.

War Machine has posed:
     "Long story, but it can wait, the dead already are." That's all Rhodey manages to find to say on the topic as he finally sets his jacket down onto the back of a chair. He takes his time to examine the scenery, one hand in his pocket one hand at his side stepping over the small bot still cleaning away debris. "Important thing at the moment is hunting down whoever's behind this whole mutant capture business, best group I can think of would be The Purifiers, know a little about them but figure you might know a bit more Hank."

Iron Man has posed:
    "That doesn't narrow it down very far," Tony answers about the drinks, flipping to his own mobile device, using a hotkey (of course) to pull up a ridiculous list of available beverages, and passes it to Hank so that he can make his own selection off of it. The wine list alone is exhaustive.

    "Well, hang on. I'll bite. Why Roxxon now? What do they have against her or you specifically?" Tony asks Rhodey. "I mean, we thought they were connected to the goon squad, but..." Tony pauses, and looks from Rhodey to Hank. "...Okay, but I'm going to ask about Roxxon later." Tony and his multitasking tends to steamroll. "Purifiers. I have just general information. I still think SHIELD is going to be the gold mine on all the dirt on those people."

Beast has posed:
Okay, THAT was grim. Beast frowns at Rhodey, but then nods in understanding of teh sentiment no matter how grim it is and sighs. "The Purifiers. What can I say?" he says slowly. "One one hand, they are a misguided mutant-fearing religious sect based on an extreme version of Christian fundamentalism. On the other, their militant faction at least, are full blooded a terrorist group engaged in a holy war against mutant-kind. Their aim is the eradication of mutants everywhere. They often have overlap with Humanity First but not always. They've seen an upsurge in membership since.." Since the president was assassinated by Mystique less than a dozen feet in front of him.. and he couldn't do anything to stop it.

He then frowns. "There a politician who came to me, about six months ago... forget his name.. Asking me to look into his claims a cure for Mutancy..." he then shakes his head. "But no... I looked into him. No connection to anything like this."

War Machine has posed:
     "So they're the klan for mutants." It's a gross oversimplification but he's trying to get a basic understanding of what's going on and make sure he's got it clear in his head. "I knew a few guys back in the service who were members but I didn't know much other then that they weren't fans." He places a hand on his chin. "So, might be another dead end then, at least till I give SHIELD a call." He pauses for a long moments thought looking off to the distance trying to put the pieces of two mysteries together realizing they're likely unconnected.

Iron Man has posed:
    The wine list isn't taken, so Tony draws the tablet back, and makes some executive choices on it. While talking.
    "We started to look at Purifiers because... all of these actions? They're leading to helping that agenda. Or one like it. Looking at what they're doing --" Tony checks the items off on his fingers. "--they are capturing mutants. We have lab samples that show they're holding them for a while. And then they reappear at places like malls and rallies, drugged or gassed, and ramped up. And what's the result? A lot of witch hunting. Increased tension. And while I'm really good at media song and dance, this is a hard tune to ask anyone to ignore," Tony says, lifting his hands in a shrug, picking up a broken wheel from a sliding table, and fiddling with it. Tony likes to have something in his hands to mess with.
    "Hmh. M2 says my wine isn't in stock. That's not right. I'll grab that," Tony decides, starting towards the door.

Beast has posed:
Beast Reaches down and picks up one of the few unbroken tablets, brushes it off, and activates it. "Yes, they are The Klan for Mutants." he says, with obvious disgust. Hank has an innate hatred of extreme forms of bigotry even if a case could be made he . It is affront to his sensibilities as a human being.. a furry human being who just happened to once be Caucasian, true,

"And if you are going to contact your sources at SHIELD about the Purifiers, perhaps you can also ask them to look into a few other things.." he taps on the tablet. "Synthesizing Mutant Growth Hormone is no easy task. It requires specialized chemicals. specialized Equipment and specialized knowledge.. All three are difficult to come by..." When he finishes he offers the tablet to Rhodey. "This is a list of resources required and available for all three areas... Perhaps we, and by we I mean SHIELD and their access to lets call it less legal means of surveillance and data analysis, can find some patterns using this information and find out who is acquiring what is required. But..." he points out.. "Do /NOT/ mention to them the actual existence of.. lets call it MGH. The last thing we need is SHIELD trying to come into possession of it..."

He then looks to Tony. "It's enttirely possible there are multiple threads that are unconnected here, Tony, but since they share agendas they have still found themselves tied together in a knot. " And he leaves it at that...