8255/Sentinels: Advisory

Sentinels: Advisory
Date of Scene:	10 July 2019
Location:	Stark Tower
Synopsis:	Phil Coulson brings questions to Tony and Steve about Sebastion the Sentinel.
Cast of Characters:	Iron Man, Captain America, Phil Coulson
Tinyplot:	Sentinels

---

Iron Man has posed:
When Agent Coulson shows up for his appointment in Stark tower, there isn't, for once, a giant delay. Coulson is ushered up immediately by one of Stark's assistants, who introduced herself as Lisa; a peppy dark haired young lady that is polite but upbeat. She'll bring Coulson up to Tony's office. She looks down at her mobile device, and then suddenly opens the door to Tony's office. "Ah! He's ready for you, now," Lisa says, standing aside.

In the office, there's not just Tony, but a Captain Rogers, as well. They appear to be talking: Tony seated on the edge of his desk flipping a water bottle in his hands. His attention is drawn by Coulson's arrival, and he gestures him in, with a friendly wave. "Agent Coulson, right on time," Tony observes, after glancing at the time.

Captain America has posed:
Steve has just finished sipping from his own water bottle when he hears the arrival of the assistant Lisa and her escorted party. He looks over from Tony to see Phil step in and smiles professionally -- no dimples just yet.

"Agent Coulson always has impeccable timing," the Captain comments as he turns in place to better face the arriving Agent. He's civilian today in a grey t-shirt and jeans, though combat boots are inevitably present on his feet. "I won't be here for long, just had something to discuss with Tony."

Phil Coulson has posed:
For his part, Phil Coulson has a decidedly neutral expression as he comes up the elevator. He gives a nod to Lisa in 'goodbye', before his hands pat his suit briefly, as if looking for something as he walks. It takes just a moment before he's heading over to Stark's desk.

"Mr. Stark. Mr. Rogers." Phil greets a bit formally, his eyes flitting to the two respectively before he steps in front of the desk. "I'm also great at parties, when I have the time for them." Phil quips, before he offers a hand to Steve. "A pleasure to see you again, Cap."

Iron Man has posed:
"Make parties a priority, and there's always time," Tony advises evenly, flipping the water bottle again with a smile, entirely relaxed. He observes the handshake between the official agents, but doesn't dive in to get one of his own, just gestures towards the other chair, should Coulson like to sit. It's entirely optional. Tony's commander of the room, though it doesn't clash with his relaxed manner.

"I keep them just under 'save the world'," Tony says, lifting his other hand to show a few subtle levels of priority with flat hand, palm downwards.

Captain America has posed:
Steve returns the offered handshake with his usual firm and friendly confidence. "Same to you, Agent. It's been some time." The Captain remains standing as he is beside the desk rather than taking up a seat for himself anywhere nearby in the room.

"Figure it's easy enough to find a reason for a party, especially if the prerequisite is 'saving the world'," he adds drolly to Tony's comment in good-natured tease. "But I'd guess what you want to talk about isn't a party." His attention shifts back to Phil again and the momentary light-heartedness fades to his usual stoic attentiveness once more.

Phil Coulson has posed:
"No. It isn't." informs Steve as he moves to sit, his arms and legs relaxing into the posture as he looks to Tony. "I'm here to discuss matters relating to the Sentinel situation." Phil looks to Steve, then back to Tony. "We've recently come across intel on an entity calling itself Sebastian, and have reason to believe the Avengers had contact with it. I was hoping you could fill in the blanks."

The warm smile he gives as well as the casual tone makes it clear it's a friendly visit, at least. Phil is looking for answers, "I have a feeling there's a story there."

Iron Man has posed:
Tony lifts his eyebrows and sends a little 'look' over to Steve. He lifts his hand to itch the side of his cheek near that eyebrow. "Well, I've submitted a handful of info-shares to SHIELD," Tony begins, offhandedly. He looks down at the water bottle, setting it aside on his desk for the moment. It is entirely full: perhaps it was just something to fiddle with in his hands.

"The quick version is, yes, we took him off of Trask's hands forcefully at an airport, and had him in an Avenger facility in northern New York for a while. He wasn't a prisoner, exactly, but clearly needed to be kept away from Trask's people. We've determined he's future tech; the X-Men have some pretty bleak apocalypse viewpoints that include things like him. He's a murderbot from the future, in a nutshell."

Tony shifts his weight against the desk. "Anyway. Steve was on point with handling him directly; he seemed to really like Steve, for SOME reason," Tony chuckles, with a pointed look to Steve. "Captain inspiration over here reaches robots too."

Captain America has posed:
"Never expected the Golden Boyscout routine to reach beyond my fellow man, that's for sure." Steve smiles, but it doesn't reach his eyes. He sets aside his own water bottle on the desk and then folds his arms, rarely a good sign in conversations. His eyes flick from Tony and to Phil.

"Tony's submitted a few reports. So has Hank Pym. You'll find my opinions align with theirs. At the very minimum, extreme caution needs to be used in handling Sebastion. He's one half smooth-talker, one half machine. Whatever future he came from, he gained enough knowledge to run his programming in almost flawless mimicry of human nature. He's a sleeper agent at best, Agent Coulson, and at worst? A time bomb." The Captain's thins his lips and glances down to one side, taking a moment to rub behind his ear.

"Look. I want to believe in him. However, the cons are outweighing the pros at this point. He injured an Avenger upon initial extraction to the point of hospitalization in an ICU ward and another Avenger is dead."

Steve's eyes go hard. "Vision is not beyond saving, but his last words echoed our sentiments. You know me, Agent. I'm the last person to go to my cellphone for anything and the first to complain about the latest selfie technology. However, I'm not going to push aside multiple reports about dangerous technology in the literal hands of a malfunctioning cyborg because maybe I see a glimmer of what could be moral aptitude in it. We've got the brightest minds in the modern age telling us that Sebastion should be shut down and dismantled. If it's not a thing of personal safety as well as hamstringing Trask himself in the process, it's an act of mercy."

Speaking of his cellphone. That's a particular chiming ring and the Captain glowers as he pulls it out of his pocket. The expression softens immediately, almost guiltily, and he sighs. "Sorry, gentlemen, duty calls. If I'm late for lunch again, I'll be grounded." There's the unspoken quotation marks around 'grounded', which should give away that it's none other than his signficant other in turn. "Agent Coulson, good to see you as always. Tony, keep me abreast of things." The request is couched politely despite its terse wording and Steve then excuses himself from the office.

Phil Coulson has posed:
Phil sits there, listening to both of the Avengers. There are no interruptions... not even a twitch to show his own personal views as the two talk.

When they're both done, Phil simply... nods. "So in a nutshell, murderbot from a future that's beyond advanced in comparison to current models, but ultimately isn't human." Phil takes out a tablet from his suit jacket, and begins to type.

When Steve leaves, Phil gives a friendly, "See you later, Cap."

After about ten seconds of typing into the touchscreen keyboard, the tablet is placed in his lap. "So you're sticking with Sebastian needs to be dismantled?" Phil looks to Tony, getting a read on him.

Iron Man has posed:
"Yep. And I'll tell you why, stick around." Tony sobers up a little bit into slightly more serious mode, and slides off the desk. He gestures across a group of monitors and hologram bays to the left, and they spring to life.

"The John Doe malfunction scans, JARVIS," Tony addresses the air. A moment later, the screens adjust, showing a mapping of a human-like skull: the same mapping Vision had shown to them when he analyzed Sebastion's programming.

Half of the 'skull' is flashing red, with a few sections that are yellow, and small ones shown in green. "Graphical representation is off, but you get the idea. Red is corrupted files he can't access, yellow is partial, and green is usable," Tony says; he likes his visuals. "Vision got this for us. So yes, we've got Sentinel tech, outrageously advanced from what Trask is doing now, and most of the programs it is running are corrupted to hell. We know why, now, too; Dr. Pym was part of the group to start him up, while hostage in Trask's facility, and deliberately sabotaged the project, so that we didn't have Ultron mark 2." Tony zooms in and gestures in on the malfunctioning areas.

"Pym's on this in more detail, but most of the systems are shutting down over time. I'm guessing Sebastion has held on this long with some clever self-repair; we know he started to, yuck, attach human parts to become more of a cyborg, less robot. Bought him more time. We're not a fan. We have some weapons available if he's found, to force a shut-down, enter him into a dormant cycle, at least long enough to disconnect his power. If he's salvageable, that can be after he's not able to blow a hole in a building, murder an Avenger, or command a Sentinel army. All of which we've seen him do."

Tony's eyes harden, with a sharp intelligence, but also the anger of what was done to Vision.

Phil Coulson has posed:
"I'd like a copy of that." Phil gives in his best 'casual command' voice as he gestures to the scans, "Is there any chance he was once human at all, or are we looking at a seriously advanced human mimicry protocol?" Phil stands and walks over to the screens, drinking in the detail visibly.

Phil might be old... but he knows technology well enough to follow what Tony is saying, it seems.

"How would you recommend it happen, assuming someone found him? You said you have weapons for the task. How would they work?" Phil asks, his attention not veering from the scans JARVIS has provided.

Iron Man has posed:
"Yeah, happy to share," Tony answers evenly to the request about the scan. "JARVIS, prep that," Tony tells the air.

"Of course, sir," JARVIS replies evenly from the ambiance of the office.

"THAT is really a Dr. Pym question." A shrug follows. "It could go either way. We know there's some biological matter in there. He defeats most scans, it's a bit maddening, but Pym saw him offline." Tony turns a little to look at his screens, then back to Phil.

"I have some blasts that work similar to an EMP. We hit him with one when he tried to go on a murder spree. Calibration was off, he got loose. I've fixed that. If he needs to be taken down, we can do it. Dr. Richards has a gun version that causes message relay blocking, if you prefer more temporary means." A smile follows.

Phil Coulson has posed:
"We're working on it on our end. You've definitely given me plenty of useful information on the subject, and I'll let my superiors know that you strongly recommend shutdown ASAP." Phil informs Tony, finally turning away from the scans to look back to the industrialist, and placing his hands in his pants pockets.

"So I should talk to Dr. Pym about the details, then?" Phil continues.

Iron Man has posed:
"Yeah, shutdown. If you find him, we can contain and get him turned off, before anyone else dies," Tony says, moving back to his desk, but he leaves the images up, since Phil was looking at them.

"Questions about how his brain works exactly or how his software was damaged are Pym's zone, but I should be able to answer just about anything else," Tony smiles.

Phil Coulson has posed:
"I'll keep that in mind. Meanwhile, I have some calls to make." Phil approaches Tony, offering a hand. "I'd love to catch up, but I'm afraid I'm on a time crunch. I have a lot of ground to cover, and very little time."

Iron Man has posed:
"Yep, I've got Vision on my plate; had to split the work up a little, so, use the hell out of Dr. Pym on this one. I shouldn't have to solve /everything/," Tony says, but his smile is his usual arrogant, confident one. "Lisa'll show you out." Tony accepts the handshake, and then heads towards his desk, speaking to JARVIS: "I'm thinking Greek, JARVIS."

"Very good, sir."