Angela Irons (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
maidofiron) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
mdc_universe2013-01-20 12:28 pm
maidofiron) wrote in mdc_universe2013-01-20 12:28 pm
IM chat log ahoy!
Who: Angie and Tony
What: Having their first meeting in a while
When: Afternoon
Where: New York (initially)
Interactions: None
Warnings: Tony's mind is about to be blown >D
On J Avenue in Brooklyn outside of Totonno's Pizzaria a line had built up that actually led out the door and down the sidewalk outside. Some people had bottles of water while they waited; a few even had a chair. Most of them on their phones texting or playing games in the cool mid afternoon. At the very end of the line a woman heard a question directed at her. "Excuse me; is the line for Totonno's?” She turned to see Tony Stark standing on the balls of his feet to look over the heads of the people in line. Before she could think of an answer despite it being a yes or no question Tony said "Yep, this is it. Pardon me." and with that he left her looking at him as he walked past the line.
Any remarks of recognition or verbal calls were met with either a quick "Thanks." or Hey." from him as he walked into the pizzeria. He immediately grabbed the attention of an older man behind the counter. "Hey DeMarco." Tony said casually. "Mind if I cut in line, I gotta meet with someone but I don't want to go empty handed." he explained as he whipped out his phone. "But first I need to know what I'm getting." Dom DeMarco, who Tony addressed, nodded enthusiastically with a smile. After setting up the call to Angie Tony held his phone up to his ear and waited patiently through the first few rings when it finally picked up. "What do you want from Totonno's?" he asked the instant he heard phone pick up, without any regard to the fact that he was already 20 minutes to the meeting he had arranged with Angie days in advance.
Angie was standing in the well lit marble tiled top floor office of the Resilient building, hands placed casually on her hips as she looked out the window. She had planned in advance for the man to be late. Despite Bleeding Edge having an internal clock as accurate as any time recording device could possibly get. So when she heard his voice she wasn't all that surprised about it. The pizza sounded nice though. "Hm. Pepperoni and Olives." She responded. "It's not going to be cold by the time you get here is it?" Came the follow up jab at his lack of time keeping.
"What is it with you and olives." he said rhetorically. "The two usual pies." he said to DeMarco who clapped his hands loudly and turned to go to hand make Tony's order. The person who was waiting first line just looked from Tony to Dom to Tony again without saying anything, his mouth slightly open. Apparently a surreal moment for him.
"And what do you mean? Of course they'll be hot. Do I sound like Spider-Man to you?" he asked, again rhetorically. "Am I picking up any drinks, some kind of bread, or sides? I'm kind of leaning towards breadsticks" said Tony as he ogled the menu hungrily. "What is the meeting about anyway? Please don't tell me it isn't a pizza friendly meeting. I missed dinner last night." The dough itself looked good enough to eat.
"Olives are an aphrodisiac you know." Okay that wasn't proven science but she liked the idea just the same. "Breadsticks sounds good. Get some of that buffalo ranch to go with them. And Orange Soda." She gave a slight nod to herself as a few thoughts passed through her head about Spiderman and how cool it would be to meet him. Nothing she mentioned out loud though and instead she addressed the meeting.
"Nothing bad. Just a personal meeting actually. Have to brief you on current events and I'm pretty sure you're going to have questions. And yes, this is a very pizza friendly meeting." She imagined she'd have some questions for him as well. She hadn't heard anything from him since they took down Strangefate and Tony not checking up on her every day or two was never a good thing.
"They are not. The martini they're in is though." he said in reference to the olives. With the oven fired up Tony watched DeMarco slide the pizza in to cook. "Get me a buffalo ranch dip, and orange 2 liter and some breadsticks." Tony said to another employee who wasn't even at the register, but she smiled and nodded just the same when Tony gave a smirk and winked at her. "Current events? Isn't that what the news is for?" after a pause he stopped all of his movements and said "Oh my god, please tell me you're not going to be a news anchor."
"What? No why-- " Stopping mid sentence, Angie managed to prevent herself from going into an almost Pepper-like rant. Instead She just commented "You're not half as funny as you think you are" and paced back and forth in front of the impressive office windows as she spoke. "There've just been some things going on recently that I'd rather talk to you about in person." Oh how she hoped that didn't sound like some kind of 'I'm bringing you here so I can dump you' comment. Because putting aside that they weren't 'together' in any sense of the word; she just really did not want to give him any more joke material. The man could come up with enough of that on his own.
"Oh, I see what this is about. You know I'm not much of a gossip; BUT I heard that Stanson in IT is secretly seeing Marilyn in the Sciences division." he half whispered as he covered his mouth and phone with his hand. The smell of cooked pepperoni with olives as well as sausage and bacon notified him that his order was almost done.
"All right. I'll be over there in a few minutes." he said as he watched the employee’s box up his order. "And if this is a surprise birthday party, or boss appreciation day or some other wacky holiday or something like that I am going to be so upset." he said as he handed his card over to pay for the meal. After a quick swipe he grabbed his order and mouthed thank you as he walked outside where the line had hardly shrunk at all. "Oh my god. It isn't your birthday, is it?" said Tony as his clothes melted into the Iron Man suit and his boot jets turned on, rocketing him into the sky.
"No no that was uhm...a few months ago." Angie shook her head wondering if she should have been mad that he missed it. On the bright side though Babs and the other birds had thrown a bitchin' party for her on the Carrier. Which had been nice enough to enable a dance club light show feature they hadn't known she had available. This brought her to the realization that she hadn’t told him about the Carrier either for that matter. She heard him take off though so soon they'd have the meeting and she'd work it all out then. "Alright I'll be hanging up then. See you in a few" She told him and then made her way out to the balcony. There was a large metal ring there that she was sure used to be armor removal apparatus but now that it was no longer needed the thing provided a certain architectural flare to the building. Gleaming in the cold December sun just like her metallic teal covered body.
With Stark Tower set as his destination, Tony held onto the large bag holding his dinner for the night. In the past few weeks, Tony had felt the need to eat, as if he had lost some energy and needed to refuel it somehow. Normally Tony stuck to a rather strict, and some would say eccentric, diet and exercise regimen. Not that Tony didn't have the occasional pizza, it's just he didn't often get a whole one just for himself. Naturally he had been doing test and analysis on himself but everything had the same result. All within normal parameters.
"I think I'm mutating into a pig."
As he sailed through the air, clouds wisped though his slipstream, Stark Tower came into view over the horizon. It was always the easiest building to spot. At least for Tony it was, but that's because he designed it himself. He lowered himself onto the platform where the large ring that once unsuited his clunkier models stood. Upon successfully making the Bleeding Edge suit, Tony left it up as a reminder of how far he had come in the evolution of the Iron Man. But that only held his eye for a moment.
"What the hell is this?" Tony asked as his face plate withdrew itself to show his face. Even though it was gone, a transparent microscopic screen over both his eyes analyzing the metallic layer of skin over Angie. "You are aware I can see everything, right?" he asked as he waited for the analyzation to be complete.
Angie was standing in that "I've grown impatient waiting" way. But she still smiled broadly when he finally landed. "Of course I know you can see everything. You've got digitally enhanced eyeballs." She replied with a coy little smile. "Most people though can't see through the metal and I've got thicker layering around some areas than I do on others. Like I said; current events. Ohey is that the pizza!" In a blink Angie snatched the bag and turned around to head back into the office building, the dark coal colored metal cords of hair swishing behind her as she moved.
"So a few months ago I got insanely sick and I seriously thought I was going to die. But instead it turned out I'm a metamutant and my genes just went active. I have control over this crazy metal. Then a while later my AI Claire started filling up with all this supplemental data on the technology I was working on".
"Yeah, but that's the everything I meant." Tony said right before she snatched the bag from his hands. "Careful with the soda." he said as she turned to go back inside. As he followed her his suit transformed itself into a white dress shirt and blue jeans. His bare feet stopped making a flat padding sound as they began to hit the carpet, the glass door automatically sliding shut behind him. "And I wasn't even trying to look, you kind of just have everything hanging out there." said Tony as he went to the bar to grab two glasses with one hand and a serving dish with the other. "First one you see is mine. I'm always on top." he said smartly as he walked over and set the glasses and dish next to the two pizzas and breadsticks.
"So current events are you having innate tech that I've been spending years building towards? Cause that's what I understand thus far."
"What? I thought you liked looking" Angie retorted with a short giggle. She set the food down and separated the pizzas accordingly before folding her legs under her. "This place needs a couch or something" the woman mused for a moment while Tony brought the glasses over and commented on her skin. "Something like that. The data packet Claire received lead me into this new innovation which is -and you can probably already tell since you're no doubt running diagnostics on the whole thing right now- that I replaced my blood with nine pints of liquid machinery built out of the metal that my body produced when my meta gene went live." Concluding, Angie shoved some pizza in her mouth and made a little noise of happiness about it. "Thash no even all I'f been up chew" she said around her mouthful.
"I'm always laboring under the assumption that women don't like me looking. Not that that's ever stopped me. I just thought you might not be aware of it. Emperor's new clothes and all that." Of course she knew he was running diagnostics on her, he would have been disappointed if she didn't know. Those tests concluded with the results matching her description succinctly. "Well that's definitely a new one for the Stark record." Tony said trying not to linger on the thought that he was not the only one with bleeding edge technology anymore. instead he changed his focus to the pizza at hand, which his stomach happily encouraged. First he opened the 2 liter of orange soda and poured it into both glasses. "Now this may sound mean but most women, and you are old enough to qualify as one, usually have a somewhat modest approach to their design of clothing. Not that I'm complaining." he stated as he put the cap back on and lifted his pizza over to his lap. "Hot, hot!" he said as he lifted it off his lap, his jeans changing back into armor. "You know I never use the property of the armor while it is in the form of clothing, it would just be too weird." explained Tony as he opened the box and grabbed the biggest slice of pizza.
"Now tell, what else qualifies as current events? Current events being you apparently." asked Tony casually as he took an incredibly large bite of pizza that made his cheeks look like an angry blowfish.
"Well most women don't have metal skin either. So they have to worry about what men will do to them if they aren't careful. If someone tries that with me, I can scatter their atoms to the wind. So I can afford to put personal comfort ahead of social caution." She picked up her second slice and dug in with gusto. "And this is supposed to be covert I think, but you deserve to know anyway; I've been recruited to Oracles Birds of Prey. It's been a pretty great gig so far and hasn't cut into my duties at the company or anything. The new base of operations is something you really have to see for yourself though."
She sipped on her glass of soda for a bit. "Clothes are something I haven't tried using this for yet. I mean I really am literally naked under here. Pretty sure this thing is EMP proof though so I'm not too worried. At least for now."
After four or five bites Tony had already moved on to the next slice. He had no idea why he ad been so ravenous the past couple of weeks, but the closest thing to an explanation was that it felt like he hadn't eaten for just that long. Practically inhaling his first two bites of the second slice he cleared his throat and said "You'll do fine, Babs'll make sure of that." he paused to take two more bites. "And since it's not conflicting with your work here, clear up my schedule for Friday." he said before he folded the crust and shoved into his mouth, grabbing another slice with his free hand as he did so.
"And find me a companion for the weekend; I plan to be home for most of it unless an emergency comes up." There was something that had been bugging him lately and he wanted to look into it, and the weekend might just be the perfect time to do it. He took a drink from his glass of soda before going to work on his third slice of pizza in the last few minutes. "Anything else going on that I may have missed?"
"Ooh planning on staying in huh? Should I mention anything to the JAS while I'm at it? And also; Do you have something in mind or should I just surprise you?" She strung questions together casually while the schedule was updated. Also while she get to work on another slice of pizza and tried to decide if she should make the attempt to explain to him about Iron Bat and the fight with Strangefate. Those events were a little tricky since apparently not many people remembered them. Oh how she hated magic.
"Nothing new to report for now. Unless you're ready to see that new base of operations I mentioned. It's pretty easy to get to and all."
"I'll handle the JAS." he said as he finished his third slice. Picking up three breadsticks he said "Surprise me. But please make sure she looks like she's had a sandwich." he said as he work on eating two breadsticks at once. "Damn they make good food there." he said as he chomped away those two and started on finishing the third.
"So does that suit, if that's what I can all it, have your AI installed or does it respond to mental commands?"
"It's all me. I have Claire here for consultation mostly but she's contained in my wrist unit. You just can't see it right now because of the integration. When I redress you can see the bracelet is still there." She wasn't sure what else to call the receding of her metallic coating at the moment. But at the same time she didn't think of it often because she rarely removed it these days. Being more comfortable with it on than anything else. And people loved her shiny coating at clubs and raves so things were pretty good all around.
"Well" said Tony as he went for yet another slice of pizza after finishing a breadstick. "Let's see this headquarters you all are using." After he finished the last bite of that slice he closed half empty pizza box and he stood up, his clothes changing back to armor. Before his helmet fully encompassed his face he took a chug of orange soda straight from the bottle. "And I'll have some snacks for the trip." came his voice from under the helmet and he held the box with both hands. "Lead the way. And please don't tell me you guys are using a cave. I mean sure it's energy efficient, but I'm not a big fan of torches. Especially with the free energy stuff in the works for mass production."\
Angie stood up but she didn't seem like she was set to go in any particular direction. Instead she just grinned and replied "Are you kidding? Caves are so last season. Everything is sci-fi now!" If there was one thing she enjoyed about her job it was that there were plenty of chances for witty banter. Finally she turned so that her profile was toward Tony.
"Door. Carrier Bridge." She said.
With a silent flash a large glowing golden rectangle the size of a door large enough for two people to walk through shoulder to shoulder appeared in front of her. No buttons pressed, no devices activated. Just a few words spoken apparently to no one and nothing.
“Okay. Now that’s impressive.”
Not only did Tony feel incredibly dorky holding a pizza box in front of what seemed to be a dimensional door to these headquarters, but he also felt a rush of brain activity, the kind that he craved. Wasting no time at all, his mind had already begun working to explain how such a thing came to be upon verbal command.
“Your suit’s able to do that?” Another question that he tried to answer mentally. Having the capability to do so would require a power source, a very strong one. “Please don’t tell me you gals set up shop in the Negative Zone.” Came Tony’s afterthought and he turned to Angie. “After you.”
The Woman was already walking towards the door as he started asking questions. On the other side were the bridge; all steel and chrome with a sunk-in area that housed the soft red circular couch and the huge windshield in front of the computer terminals and digital monitors. The light coming in from them just then was soft and red. Showing that the Carrier was currently tacked into the Bleed. "No not from me. It comes from the Carrier's junction room. Right now she's cruising the higher dimensions but we've got her anchored to Earth." She glanced around and noticed that Babs was plugged into the network. She gave the woman a wave.
She almost couldn't wait to show him the rest of what they'd discovered so far.
Waiting a moment after she walked through Tony opened the box of pizza and grabbed one of the three slices left and opened his mouth as his face plate for his helmet opened. "One for the road." Eating it hastily, the helmet closed and he stepped through. Looking from one end to the other Tony simply said "I think I saw this in an issue of Heavy Metal when I was growing up." Like the machine it was, his mind kept going as he let all of it sink in. Seeing Barbara was interesting, she rarely left her place. Giving a similar wave, he placed the box holding the last two slices of pizza on the red couch.
"I'm getting the statistics" he said as he looked at the read out the suit was projecting to him holographically. "And I need to know if this place is really that big. Because if it is, I can see a back up Stark Tower fitting in here easy." Part of it was a joke. That building had a death wish thanks to the constant collateral damage caused by various scuffles.
Barbara gave them a slight wave back and then turned back to the monitors. "I think she's sending some intel to Cir-El about some guy with a flaming skull for a head tearing up some property in New York" Angie said as she left the woman to her work. "50 miles long and 35 miles across!" She replied. "We haven't even been to a fraction of it but there are some places we know pretty well. Like the Junction Room where the door operate out of and the main power source. Oh man you have got to see that." She was so excited about the whole place. "Oh yeah and we've found lots of living quarters. They're really huge like...entire apartments. And the ship is alive, and-"
"Sounds like Ghost Rider. Don’t worry, he's good." after a moment's pause he added "Usually." Every once in a while his readout, which was still going, would show a insufficient data and the reason for that came up and he had to interrupt Angie's oration on what was within their headquarters.
"This whole thing is alive?" exclaimed Tony as he adjusted his scanning parameters to include biological components of the base and widen his search to encompass the whole base, which was the size of a city. "Oh man. What's to stop Monstro here from tolerating its use as a ship?" Everything was coming back as part machine, part life. A gigantic cyborg creature. "Whole thing might be a natural anomaly." he said under his breath as he looked over to the windows that showed where creature was nestled in. The Bleed. "And it's just sitting here in the separation of entire dimensions." Space within space.
"So you gals haven't covered all its ground. Living quarters sounds like a good starting point." said Tony looking back to Angie. "And here I thought Stark Tower was impressive. I think I'm ready for my tour.
Barbara turned from the monitors when Tony told her who it was. On the screen a dossier popped up. "Oh wow, I never even got to look at his file since we updated my database" She exclaimed. "By the way the Carrier is scanning you too" The woman gave him a sly smile before turning back to the monitors to give Cir-El the updated information. Angie was standing a few feet away giggling when Barbara suddenly turned her head slightly back toward Tony "By the way; you're going to put the pizza over here where I can reach it aren't you?"
Which was cause for a few more giggles as Angie looked from the chair bound woman over to the box lying on the couch. "The reason the Carrier lets us use her as a ship is because she's a ship Tony. She's always been a ship. She doesn't always stay here either. We can move her into the higher dimensions or even into Earth space. And because of the reality anchor we're using she's in and around pretty much any location on Earth. Which is why the Doors allow us to go wherever we need to."
"What, this thing can't just teleport pizza to you?" remarked Tony as his boots put him into the air so he could get the box off the couch and hover over to where Barbara was sitting. "Always tip your pizza guy." said Tony offering the box to her, the sound of two slices sliding on the cardboard could be heard.
Now Tony always wanted to create the best tech, but he had a bit of ache in his biomechanical soul when trying to think of a way to replicate the Carrier's door ability. Granted his tech was top notch, but building anything that could have those kinds of dimensional properties was out of his reach. Even his ego couldn't deny that truth.
"Yeah, but it does it have Playboy bunnies?" asked Tony ever so snarkily. "Who's all in on this thing, any JAS members? Because if there is, they forgot to put this under any of their reports."
Barbara couldn't help rolling her eyes. But the mans snark was endearing to her nonetheless. Angie meanwhile was speaking again "We'll start with the central power. This thing is incredible. She's told me that an alien race built her ages ago but it's still a lot to take in. I don't think we'll ever manage to explore the entire thing." She stopped for a moment and turned to the open space next to her. "Door. Central Power". The glowing rectangle appeared again and Angie waited a little impatiently. "Whenever you're done being a jackass to your girlfriend Tony." After the bunnies comment, Angie wasn't feeling too bad about picking on her boss. Not to mention she had a sense of what he might be feeling. She'd wracked her brain for weeks the first time she'd come there trying to gain the amount of advanced intellect needed to fathom technology this far beyond what they were currently capable of.
"Built. Okay." said Tony slowly, but his voice picked up after Angie harassed him about his comment. "So we're going steady?" asked Tony looking from Angie to Barbara, his voice teeming with the amusement level of a twelve year old.
"Reed is going to be so jealous." added Tony as he hovered to where Angie was and landed silently near her. "All right, let me see this thing's CPU. I fed my stomach, time to feed my brain."
"What, you mean we're not?" Barbara said with an amused tone as she took the box out of his hands. "Knew I should have asked for a promise ring". The woman sighed in fake wistfulness. Of course a little part of her was impressed that he hadn't cringed at the word 'girlfriend', but she decided she'd let Angie do most of the teasing today. "Is Cir-El on the JAS?" She asked and then waved her hand a little "Wait never mind. She hasn't been here yet so it doesn't matter. So far it's been me, Angie, the guy who showed us how to get here, and you." Angie was almost beside herself with amusement. The door didn't seem to have a time limit, and remained stationary as she waited for Tony and Barbara to finish chatting.
"I'm not sure we should tell him just yet. It's a pretty big ship and you know what can happen if too many people find out about something like this too soon."
"Hold on; does this mean I need to update my Facbook status from single?" proclaimed Tony, not passing up the chance to keep the gag running. While Tony was itching to see Reed go into a stupor while he told him about the Carrier, there definitely was truth to what Barbara said. "Yeah, I know all too well." Simply thinking about the hazards that have occurred because Stark tech had gotten into the wrong hands was a firm enough reminder to Tony why keeping advanced technology under wraps was incredibly important. Even with Reed Richards the potential for harm was too great.
"I think it's my turn." Tony said to Angie right before he walked through door that had so patiently waited for them to go to the central power room.
As he was walking through, Babs couldn't resist one last jab "Don't worry dear; I already did that for you. Facebook's code is full of security holes." She grinned to herself before turning back towards the monitors once more. Angie followed Tony through to the other side of the door then, where they were standing on the railed walkway leading to the enormous containment unit which held the power source. "And there you have it. This entire construct is powered by a Caged Baby Universe". Angie said. And couldn't keep the sound of amazement out of her voice. Every time she looked at the thing it practically took her breath away.
The smirk on Tony's face was short lived as he just barely caught Barbara's final snipe. Once through to the central core room though, it was wiped from his face, the helmet receding as well so he could see it with his own eyes. "A containment unit this big didn't exist anywhere on the planet and within it-
"Have you checked for signs of life?" asked Tony as he walked over the railing to get a better look. That universe would eventually grow, not in their lifetime, and possibly break its cage. For now though, a baby universe probably had no sentient life, not yet; but it didn't hurt to check.
"Makes my arc reactors look like a teething ring." While his arc reactors generated near endless energy they could only power up so much. This on the hand was an infinite supply to an infinite demand.
"I'm sold. Where do I get mine?"
"No life signs. And from what I can tell the containment keeps it uhm...small. For a universe anyway." Angie had moved down the walkway and was now standing fairly close to it. "Whatever race is responsible for this, they are...extremely advanced. But the Carriers records say that they aren't war bringers and pretty much only made these for other races. Like highly advanced car dealers I guess." Angie looked back to Tony. Of course he took off the helmet. This isn't the kind of thing that you looked at from behind a HUD.
"So. I know the rest of the place won't be nearly as impressive as this. So we can hang around here until you're satisfied you've gotten everything you need." She fully expected him to get as much of a readout from here as possible. She'd be disappointed if they couldn't go over their data together and compare notes later on.
A spellbound Tony Stark nodded as his suit began it's scanning. Without the helmet he wouldn't able to see the readouts, and he wasn't sure he was ready to just yet. A little homework for later, maybe something to do if the girl Angie scheduled for him didn't pan out too well. A few silent minutes went on as he looked on, studying it with his own eyes and brain while his scanning went to completion. Coming across something that caused the processing speed of any Stark device was worth waiting for, and it also meant he would be able to update that speed now that he had something to compete with.
"All right, I'll check out this little egg's details later." and he agreed that there was nothing that was going to be more awe inspiring than this. "So where's the chef? I'm kind of hungry." Despite almost eating an entire pizza less than hour ago, he was still hungry. His helmet formed back around his head and he made a mental note to look into why he was able to consume this much food. That and add additional time to his work outs.
"No central dining that we've found yet." Angie commented before speaking to the Carrier again "Door. My Quarters" She said and headed into the door while she spoke. "But every living space we've found so far has basically been a large fully functional apartment. Complete with kitchen and bathrooms. I haven't checked but if I had to guess I'd say the ship gets it water from a dimension that is nothing but fresh water." She said with a slight chuckle. The place was plainly decorated, showing that Angie hadn't spent much time there. Which of course was because she spent most of her time out running errands for Tony and Pepper or on missions for Barbara. With everything going on in her life when did she ever sleep?
Angie rummaged around in the refrigerator and pulled out several boxes of leftover chinese food. "This good?" She asked turning to see if Tony's stomach approved. "You're really hungry today are you feeling alright?" She found herself suddenly furrowing her brow a little in concern.
Tony followed her through the door, which he was starting to get accustomed to now, and looked at the rather spacious living quarters. He was expecting something similar to barracks. "I don't think even Jules Verne would have thought up a place like this if he were alive today."
The aroma of chinese food had always been distinct and was on Tony's list of guilty pleasures.
"Oh I'll be fine as soon as I scarf down some of that." said Tony as just his face plate opened up and he grabbed the chopsticks that were sticking out of the box. While he preferred hot chinese, eating cold was still pretty good. "This isn't too bad." he said between chews and read the side of the to-go box. "Just might have to go there during the week." Seeing her concern actually caused him to stop for a moment.
"Don't worry; I'm going to look into it. I doubt it's anything serious." he offered her one of the boxes he hadn't mentally claimed yet. "Here, have some. It's great." Of course it didn't cross his mind that she just got done eating not too long ago either.
Angie put her hand up and laughed while shaking her head. "I'm fine trust me. That pizza and breadsticks will keep me going through the next 15 errands and whatever missions Barbara has for me. You're the one who's eating like you haven't had anything since the fight with Giganta." Only after the fact did she wonder if this was a good time to bring up things that happened while he wasn't himself. Of course she was too late to take that statement back so the woman would just have to let the comment sit and see what happened next.
In the meantime though she took a seat on a smaller couch that was similar to the one on the Bridge. The cushions were a faded plum color though instead of the bright red they had up there.
While his mouth was full Tony's eyes looked up as if expecting his brain to do something. Giganta didn't bring up any matches in his memory so he settled for an arched eyebrow in addition to stuffed cheeks that expanded his signature goatee. After he was done swallowing his food he dismissed it. "Who's the other guy? You, Barbara and someone else is on this. Who is it?"
"Oh right!" Angie exclaimed, having completely forgotten that they hadn't talked about that yet. "He's called Midnighter. He was on a hero team that's disbanded now with the person who sent the nanite data to Claire. He said she was called the Engineer and the ship recognizes me as the next inheritor of the title. He was working the streets of Gotham for a while but I think he's picked up and moved since then." meaning he'd fallen completely off the grid. But since he had access to the doors for all she knew he'd jumped off to some other dimension to fight crime there.
While she was talking she sent him a file with all the details she could find on Midnighter, including an mpeg video of some of his 'work' taking apart vicious thugs and murderers on the streets of Gotham. "I think he was also looking for his boyfriend." She commented casually.
"Aren't we all looking for Mr. Right?" said Tony sardonically. Finishing up the box of chinese food Tony closed his face plate to observe the video she had sent him. "That's...brutal." The mpeg file showed Midnight taking apart a gang. Literally. "You know I just ate right?" Tony joked as he watched it in its full entirety. Whoever the previous Engineer was, they were definitely on Tony's level, if not above it. Which made him wonder what kind of offensive and/or defensive capabilities the Carrier had on it.
"Mind if I have these?" asked Tony as he palmed two of the four remaining take out boxes. "You know it doesn't surprise me he was in Gotham. That place is like a magnet for people like him. Or Wolverine."
"Go for it.” She gave a quick nod. "Hm Wolverine." She was looking over data for him as well. "I've never met him. I think I'm kind of glad" she said mostly to herself. "He looks like he'd agree with Midnighter's methods though. Which are...I'm embarrassed to say brutally effective. There haven't been any reports of that particular gang making a comeback since that footage was taken."
"Yeah, not exactly the kind of thing I approve of no matter how effective." All too often had he and Logan butted heads. More times than he'd care to count. "That was a whole can of worms he really didn't feel the need to open again.
"Door. Stark Tower, top level." as soon as he finished speaking, it appeared. "You know how long I've been meaning to do that?" Tony asked from behind his helmet. He walked through it to find himself on very platform he handed landed on earlier holding those boxes of fresh pizza.
What: Having their first meeting in a while
When: Afternoon
Where: New York (initially)
Interactions: None
Warnings: Tony's mind is about to be blown >D
On J Avenue in Brooklyn outside of Totonno's Pizzaria a line had built up that actually led out the door and down the sidewalk outside. Some people had bottles of water while they waited; a few even had a chair. Most of them on their phones texting or playing games in the cool mid afternoon. At the very end of the line a woman heard a question directed at her. "Excuse me; is the line for Totonno's?” She turned to see Tony Stark standing on the balls of his feet to look over the heads of the people in line. Before she could think of an answer despite it being a yes or no question Tony said "Yep, this is it. Pardon me." and with that he left her looking at him as he walked past the line.
Any remarks of recognition or verbal calls were met with either a quick "Thanks." or Hey." from him as he walked into the pizzeria. He immediately grabbed the attention of an older man behind the counter. "Hey DeMarco." Tony said casually. "Mind if I cut in line, I gotta meet with someone but I don't want to go empty handed." he explained as he whipped out his phone. "But first I need to know what I'm getting." Dom DeMarco, who Tony addressed, nodded enthusiastically with a smile. After setting up the call to Angie Tony held his phone up to his ear and waited patiently through the first few rings when it finally picked up. "What do you want from Totonno's?" he asked the instant he heard phone pick up, without any regard to the fact that he was already 20 minutes to the meeting he had arranged with Angie days in advance.
Angie was standing in the well lit marble tiled top floor office of the Resilient building, hands placed casually on her hips as she looked out the window. She had planned in advance for the man to be late. Despite Bleeding Edge having an internal clock as accurate as any time recording device could possibly get. So when she heard his voice she wasn't all that surprised about it. The pizza sounded nice though. "Hm. Pepperoni and Olives." She responded. "It's not going to be cold by the time you get here is it?" Came the follow up jab at his lack of time keeping.
"What is it with you and olives." he said rhetorically. "The two usual pies." he said to DeMarco who clapped his hands loudly and turned to go to hand make Tony's order. The person who was waiting first line just looked from Tony to Dom to Tony again without saying anything, his mouth slightly open. Apparently a surreal moment for him.
"And what do you mean? Of course they'll be hot. Do I sound like Spider-Man to you?" he asked, again rhetorically. "Am I picking up any drinks, some kind of bread, or sides? I'm kind of leaning towards breadsticks" said Tony as he ogled the menu hungrily. "What is the meeting about anyway? Please don't tell me it isn't a pizza friendly meeting. I missed dinner last night." The dough itself looked good enough to eat.
"Olives are an aphrodisiac you know." Okay that wasn't proven science but she liked the idea just the same. "Breadsticks sounds good. Get some of that buffalo ranch to go with them. And Orange Soda." She gave a slight nod to herself as a few thoughts passed through her head about Spiderman and how cool it would be to meet him. Nothing she mentioned out loud though and instead she addressed the meeting.
"Nothing bad. Just a personal meeting actually. Have to brief you on current events and I'm pretty sure you're going to have questions. And yes, this is a very pizza friendly meeting." She imagined she'd have some questions for him as well. She hadn't heard anything from him since they took down Strangefate and Tony not checking up on her every day or two was never a good thing.
"They are not. The martini they're in is though." he said in reference to the olives. With the oven fired up Tony watched DeMarco slide the pizza in to cook. "Get me a buffalo ranch dip, and orange 2 liter and some breadsticks." Tony said to another employee who wasn't even at the register, but she smiled and nodded just the same when Tony gave a smirk and winked at her. "Current events? Isn't that what the news is for?" after a pause he stopped all of his movements and said "Oh my god, please tell me you're not going to be a news anchor."
"What? No why-- " Stopping mid sentence, Angie managed to prevent herself from going into an almost Pepper-like rant. Instead She just commented "You're not half as funny as you think you are" and paced back and forth in front of the impressive office windows as she spoke. "There've just been some things going on recently that I'd rather talk to you about in person." Oh how she hoped that didn't sound like some kind of 'I'm bringing you here so I can dump you' comment. Because putting aside that they weren't 'together' in any sense of the word; she just really did not want to give him any more joke material. The man could come up with enough of that on his own.
"Oh, I see what this is about. You know I'm not much of a gossip; BUT I heard that Stanson in IT is secretly seeing Marilyn in the Sciences division." he half whispered as he covered his mouth and phone with his hand. The smell of cooked pepperoni with olives as well as sausage and bacon notified him that his order was almost done.
"All right. I'll be over there in a few minutes." he said as he watched the employee’s box up his order. "And if this is a surprise birthday party, or boss appreciation day or some other wacky holiday or something like that I am going to be so upset." he said as he handed his card over to pay for the meal. After a quick swipe he grabbed his order and mouthed thank you as he walked outside where the line had hardly shrunk at all. "Oh my god. It isn't your birthday, is it?" said Tony as his clothes melted into the Iron Man suit and his boot jets turned on, rocketing him into the sky.
"No no that was uhm...a few months ago." Angie shook her head wondering if she should have been mad that he missed it. On the bright side though Babs and the other birds had thrown a bitchin' party for her on the Carrier. Which had been nice enough to enable a dance club light show feature they hadn't known she had available. This brought her to the realization that she hadn’t told him about the Carrier either for that matter. She heard him take off though so soon they'd have the meeting and she'd work it all out then. "Alright I'll be hanging up then. See you in a few" She told him and then made her way out to the balcony. There was a large metal ring there that she was sure used to be armor removal apparatus but now that it was no longer needed the thing provided a certain architectural flare to the building. Gleaming in the cold December sun just like her metallic teal covered body.
With Stark Tower set as his destination, Tony held onto the large bag holding his dinner for the night. In the past few weeks, Tony had felt the need to eat, as if he had lost some energy and needed to refuel it somehow. Normally Tony stuck to a rather strict, and some would say eccentric, diet and exercise regimen. Not that Tony didn't have the occasional pizza, it's just he didn't often get a whole one just for himself. Naturally he had been doing test and analysis on himself but everything had the same result. All within normal parameters.
"I think I'm mutating into a pig."
As he sailed through the air, clouds wisped though his slipstream, Stark Tower came into view over the horizon. It was always the easiest building to spot. At least for Tony it was, but that's because he designed it himself. He lowered himself onto the platform where the large ring that once unsuited his clunkier models stood. Upon successfully making the Bleeding Edge suit, Tony left it up as a reminder of how far he had come in the evolution of the Iron Man. But that only held his eye for a moment.
"What the hell is this?" Tony asked as his face plate withdrew itself to show his face. Even though it was gone, a transparent microscopic screen over both his eyes analyzing the metallic layer of skin over Angie. "You are aware I can see everything, right?" he asked as he waited for the analyzation to be complete.
Angie was standing in that "I've grown impatient waiting" way. But she still smiled broadly when he finally landed. "Of course I know you can see everything. You've got digitally enhanced eyeballs." She replied with a coy little smile. "Most people though can't see through the metal and I've got thicker layering around some areas than I do on others. Like I said; current events. Ohey is that the pizza!" In a blink Angie snatched the bag and turned around to head back into the office building, the dark coal colored metal cords of hair swishing behind her as she moved.
"So a few months ago I got insanely sick and I seriously thought I was going to die. But instead it turned out I'm a metamutant and my genes just went active. I have control over this crazy metal. Then a while later my AI Claire started filling up with all this supplemental data on the technology I was working on".
"Yeah, but that's the everything I meant." Tony said right before she snatched the bag from his hands. "Careful with the soda." he said as she turned to go back inside. As he followed her his suit transformed itself into a white dress shirt and blue jeans. His bare feet stopped making a flat padding sound as they began to hit the carpet, the glass door automatically sliding shut behind him. "And I wasn't even trying to look, you kind of just have everything hanging out there." said Tony as he went to the bar to grab two glasses with one hand and a serving dish with the other. "First one you see is mine. I'm always on top." he said smartly as he walked over and set the glasses and dish next to the two pizzas and breadsticks.
"So current events are you having innate tech that I've been spending years building towards? Cause that's what I understand thus far."
"What? I thought you liked looking" Angie retorted with a short giggle. She set the food down and separated the pizzas accordingly before folding her legs under her. "This place needs a couch or something" the woman mused for a moment while Tony brought the glasses over and commented on her skin. "Something like that. The data packet Claire received lead me into this new innovation which is -and you can probably already tell since you're no doubt running diagnostics on the whole thing right now- that I replaced my blood with nine pints of liquid machinery built out of the metal that my body produced when my meta gene went live." Concluding, Angie shoved some pizza in her mouth and made a little noise of happiness about it. "Thash no even all I'f been up chew" she said around her mouthful.
"I'm always laboring under the assumption that women don't like me looking. Not that that's ever stopped me. I just thought you might not be aware of it. Emperor's new clothes and all that." Of course she knew he was running diagnostics on her, he would have been disappointed if she didn't know. Those tests concluded with the results matching her description succinctly. "Well that's definitely a new one for the Stark record." Tony said trying not to linger on the thought that he was not the only one with bleeding edge technology anymore. instead he changed his focus to the pizza at hand, which his stomach happily encouraged. First he opened the 2 liter of orange soda and poured it into both glasses. "Now this may sound mean but most women, and you are old enough to qualify as one, usually have a somewhat modest approach to their design of clothing. Not that I'm complaining." he stated as he put the cap back on and lifted his pizza over to his lap. "Hot, hot!" he said as he lifted it off his lap, his jeans changing back into armor. "You know I never use the property of the armor while it is in the form of clothing, it would just be too weird." explained Tony as he opened the box and grabbed the biggest slice of pizza.
"Now tell, what else qualifies as current events? Current events being you apparently." asked Tony casually as he took an incredibly large bite of pizza that made his cheeks look like an angry blowfish.
"Well most women don't have metal skin either. So they have to worry about what men will do to them if they aren't careful. If someone tries that with me, I can scatter their atoms to the wind. So I can afford to put personal comfort ahead of social caution." She picked up her second slice and dug in with gusto. "And this is supposed to be covert I think, but you deserve to know anyway; I've been recruited to Oracles Birds of Prey. It's been a pretty great gig so far and hasn't cut into my duties at the company or anything. The new base of operations is something you really have to see for yourself though."
She sipped on her glass of soda for a bit. "Clothes are something I haven't tried using this for yet. I mean I really am literally naked under here. Pretty sure this thing is EMP proof though so I'm not too worried. At least for now."
After four or five bites Tony had already moved on to the next slice. He had no idea why he ad been so ravenous the past couple of weeks, but the closest thing to an explanation was that it felt like he hadn't eaten for just that long. Practically inhaling his first two bites of the second slice he cleared his throat and said "You'll do fine, Babs'll make sure of that." he paused to take two more bites. "And since it's not conflicting with your work here, clear up my schedule for Friday." he said before he folded the crust and shoved into his mouth, grabbing another slice with his free hand as he did so.
"And find me a companion for the weekend; I plan to be home for most of it unless an emergency comes up." There was something that had been bugging him lately and he wanted to look into it, and the weekend might just be the perfect time to do it. He took a drink from his glass of soda before going to work on his third slice of pizza in the last few minutes. "Anything else going on that I may have missed?"
"Ooh planning on staying in huh? Should I mention anything to the JAS while I'm at it? And also; Do you have something in mind or should I just surprise you?" She strung questions together casually while the schedule was updated. Also while she get to work on another slice of pizza and tried to decide if she should make the attempt to explain to him about Iron Bat and the fight with Strangefate. Those events were a little tricky since apparently not many people remembered them. Oh how she hated magic.
"Nothing new to report for now. Unless you're ready to see that new base of operations I mentioned. It's pretty easy to get to and all."
"I'll handle the JAS." he said as he finished his third slice. Picking up three breadsticks he said "Surprise me. But please make sure she looks like she's had a sandwich." he said as he work on eating two breadsticks at once. "Damn they make good food there." he said as he chomped away those two and started on finishing the third.
"So does that suit, if that's what I can all it, have your AI installed or does it respond to mental commands?"
"It's all me. I have Claire here for consultation mostly but she's contained in my wrist unit. You just can't see it right now because of the integration. When I redress you can see the bracelet is still there." She wasn't sure what else to call the receding of her metallic coating at the moment. But at the same time she didn't think of it often because she rarely removed it these days. Being more comfortable with it on than anything else. And people loved her shiny coating at clubs and raves so things were pretty good all around.
"Well" said Tony as he went for yet another slice of pizza after finishing a breadstick. "Let's see this headquarters you all are using." After he finished the last bite of that slice he closed half empty pizza box and he stood up, his clothes changing back to armor. Before his helmet fully encompassed his face he took a chug of orange soda straight from the bottle. "And I'll have some snacks for the trip." came his voice from under the helmet and he held the box with both hands. "Lead the way. And please don't tell me you guys are using a cave. I mean sure it's energy efficient, but I'm not a big fan of torches. Especially with the free energy stuff in the works for mass production."\
Angie stood up but she didn't seem like she was set to go in any particular direction. Instead she just grinned and replied "Are you kidding? Caves are so last season. Everything is sci-fi now!" If there was one thing she enjoyed about her job it was that there were plenty of chances for witty banter. Finally she turned so that her profile was toward Tony.
"Door. Carrier Bridge." She said.
With a silent flash a large glowing golden rectangle the size of a door large enough for two people to walk through shoulder to shoulder appeared in front of her. No buttons pressed, no devices activated. Just a few words spoken apparently to no one and nothing.
“Okay. Now that’s impressive.”
Not only did Tony feel incredibly dorky holding a pizza box in front of what seemed to be a dimensional door to these headquarters, but he also felt a rush of brain activity, the kind that he craved. Wasting no time at all, his mind had already begun working to explain how such a thing came to be upon verbal command.
“Your suit’s able to do that?” Another question that he tried to answer mentally. Having the capability to do so would require a power source, a very strong one. “Please don’t tell me you gals set up shop in the Negative Zone.” Came Tony’s afterthought and he turned to Angie. “After you.”
The Woman was already walking towards the door as he started asking questions. On the other side were the bridge; all steel and chrome with a sunk-in area that housed the soft red circular couch and the huge windshield in front of the computer terminals and digital monitors. The light coming in from them just then was soft and red. Showing that the Carrier was currently tacked into the Bleed. "No not from me. It comes from the Carrier's junction room. Right now she's cruising the higher dimensions but we've got her anchored to Earth." She glanced around and noticed that Babs was plugged into the network. She gave the woman a wave.
She almost couldn't wait to show him the rest of what they'd discovered so far.
Waiting a moment after she walked through Tony opened the box of pizza and grabbed one of the three slices left and opened his mouth as his face plate for his helmet opened. "One for the road." Eating it hastily, the helmet closed and he stepped through. Looking from one end to the other Tony simply said "I think I saw this in an issue of Heavy Metal when I was growing up." Like the machine it was, his mind kept going as he let all of it sink in. Seeing Barbara was interesting, she rarely left her place. Giving a similar wave, he placed the box holding the last two slices of pizza on the red couch.
"I'm getting the statistics" he said as he looked at the read out the suit was projecting to him holographically. "And I need to know if this place is really that big. Because if it is, I can see a back up Stark Tower fitting in here easy." Part of it was a joke. That building had a death wish thanks to the constant collateral damage caused by various scuffles.
Barbara gave them a slight wave back and then turned back to the monitors. "I think she's sending some intel to Cir-El about some guy with a flaming skull for a head tearing up some property in New York" Angie said as she left the woman to her work. "50 miles long and 35 miles across!" She replied. "We haven't even been to a fraction of it but there are some places we know pretty well. Like the Junction Room where the door operate out of and the main power source. Oh man you have got to see that." She was so excited about the whole place. "Oh yeah and we've found lots of living quarters. They're really huge like...entire apartments. And the ship is alive, and-"
"Sounds like Ghost Rider. Don’t worry, he's good." after a moment's pause he added "Usually." Every once in a while his readout, which was still going, would show a insufficient data and the reason for that came up and he had to interrupt Angie's oration on what was within their headquarters.
"This whole thing is alive?" exclaimed Tony as he adjusted his scanning parameters to include biological components of the base and widen his search to encompass the whole base, which was the size of a city. "Oh man. What's to stop Monstro here from tolerating its use as a ship?" Everything was coming back as part machine, part life. A gigantic cyborg creature. "Whole thing might be a natural anomaly." he said under his breath as he looked over to the windows that showed where creature was nestled in. The Bleed. "And it's just sitting here in the separation of entire dimensions." Space within space.
"So you gals haven't covered all its ground. Living quarters sounds like a good starting point." said Tony looking back to Angie. "And here I thought Stark Tower was impressive. I think I'm ready for my tour.
Barbara turned from the monitors when Tony told her who it was. On the screen a dossier popped up. "Oh wow, I never even got to look at his file since we updated my database" She exclaimed. "By the way the Carrier is scanning you too" The woman gave him a sly smile before turning back to the monitors to give Cir-El the updated information. Angie was standing a few feet away giggling when Barbara suddenly turned her head slightly back toward Tony "By the way; you're going to put the pizza over here where I can reach it aren't you?"
Which was cause for a few more giggles as Angie looked from the chair bound woman over to the box lying on the couch. "The reason the Carrier lets us use her as a ship is because she's a ship Tony. She's always been a ship. She doesn't always stay here either. We can move her into the higher dimensions or even into Earth space. And because of the reality anchor we're using she's in and around pretty much any location on Earth. Which is why the Doors allow us to go wherever we need to."
"What, this thing can't just teleport pizza to you?" remarked Tony as his boots put him into the air so he could get the box off the couch and hover over to where Barbara was sitting. "Always tip your pizza guy." said Tony offering the box to her, the sound of two slices sliding on the cardboard could be heard.
Now Tony always wanted to create the best tech, but he had a bit of ache in his biomechanical soul when trying to think of a way to replicate the Carrier's door ability. Granted his tech was top notch, but building anything that could have those kinds of dimensional properties was out of his reach. Even his ego couldn't deny that truth.
"Yeah, but it does it have Playboy bunnies?" asked Tony ever so snarkily. "Who's all in on this thing, any JAS members? Because if there is, they forgot to put this under any of their reports."
Barbara couldn't help rolling her eyes. But the mans snark was endearing to her nonetheless. Angie meanwhile was speaking again "We'll start with the central power. This thing is incredible. She's told me that an alien race built her ages ago but it's still a lot to take in. I don't think we'll ever manage to explore the entire thing." She stopped for a moment and turned to the open space next to her. "Door. Central Power". The glowing rectangle appeared again and Angie waited a little impatiently. "Whenever you're done being a jackass to your girlfriend Tony." After the bunnies comment, Angie wasn't feeling too bad about picking on her boss. Not to mention she had a sense of what he might be feeling. She'd wracked her brain for weeks the first time she'd come there trying to gain the amount of advanced intellect needed to fathom technology this far beyond what they were currently capable of.
"Built. Okay." said Tony slowly, but his voice picked up after Angie harassed him about his comment. "So we're going steady?" asked Tony looking from Angie to Barbara, his voice teeming with the amusement level of a twelve year old.
"Reed is going to be so jealous." added Tony as he hovered to where Angie was and landed silently near her. "All right, let me see this thing's CPU. I fed my stomach, time to feed my brain."
"What, you mean we're not?" Barbara said with an amused tone as she took the box out of his hands. "Knew I should have asked for a promise ring". The woman sighed in fake wistfulness. Of course a little part of her was impressed that he hadn't cringed at the word 'girlfriend', but she decided she'd let Angie do most of the teasing today. "Is Cir-El on the JAS?" She asked and then waved her hand a little "Wait never mind. She hasn't been here yet so it doesn't matter. So far it's been me, Angie, the guy who showed us how to get here, and you." Angie was almost beside herself with amusement. The door didn't seem to have a time limit, and remained stationary as she waited for Tony and Barbara to finish chatting.
"I'm not sure we should tell him just yet. It's a pretty big ship and you know what can happen if too many people find out about something like this too soon."
"Hold on; does this mean I need to update my Facbook status from single?" proclaimed Tony, not passing up the chance to keep the gag running. While Tony was itching to see Reed go into a stupor while he told him about the Carrier, there definitely was truth to what Barbara said. "Yeah, I know all too well." Simply thinking about the hazards that have occurred because Stark tech had gotten into the wrong hands was a firm enough reminder to Tony why keeping advanced technology under wraps was incredibly important. Even with Reed Richards the potential for harm was too great.
"I think it's my turn." Tony said to Angie right before he walked through door that had so patiently waited for them to go to the central power room.
As he was walking through, Babs couldn't resist one last jab "Don't worry dear; I already did that for you. Facebook's code is full of security holes." She grinned to herself before turning back towards the monitors once more. Angie followed Tony through to the other side of the door then, where they were standing on the railed walkway leading to the enormous containment unit which held the power source. "And there you have it. This entire construct is powered by a Caged Baby Universe". Angie said. And couldn't keep the sound of amazement out of her voice. Every time she looked at the thing it practically took her breath away.
The smirk on Tony's face was short lived as he just barely caught Barbara's final snipe. Once through to the central core room though, it was wiped from his face, the helmet receding as well so he could see it with his own eyes. "A containment unit this big didn't exist anywhere on the planet and within it-
"Have you checked for signs of life?" asked Tony as he walked over the railing to get a better look. That universe would eventually grow, not in their lifetime, and possibly break its cage. For now though, a baby universe probably had no sentient life, not yet; but it didn't hurt to check.
"Makes my arc reactors look like a teething ring." While his arc reactors generated near endless energy they could only power up so much. This on the hand was an infinite supply to an infinite demand.
"I'm sold. Where do I get mine?"
"No life signs. And from what I can tell the containment keeps it uhm...small. For a universe anyway." Angie had moved down the walkway and was now standing fairly close to it. "Whatever race is responsible for this, they are...extremely advanced. But the Carriers records say that they aren't war bringers and pretty much only made these for other races. Like highly advanced car dealers I guess." Angie looked back to Tony. Of course he took off the helmet. This isn't the kind of thing that you looked at from behind a HUD.
"So. I know the rest of the place won't be nearly as impressive as this. So we can hang around here until you're satisfied you've gotten everything you need." She fully expected him to get as much of a readout from here as possible. She'd be disappointed if they couldn't go over their data together and compare notes later on.
A spellbound Tony Stark nodded as his suit began it's scanning. Without the helmet he wouldn't able to see the readouts, and he wasn't sure he was ready to just yet. A little homework for later, maybe something to do if the girl Angie scheduled for him didn't pan out too well. A few silent minutes went on as he looked on, studying it with his own eyes and brain while his scanning went to completion. Coming across something that caused the processing speed of any Stark device was worth waiting for, and it also meant he would be able to update that speed now that he had something to compete with.
"All right, I'll check out this little egg's details later." and he agreed that there was nothing that was going to be more awe inspiring than this. "So where's the chef? I'm kind of hungry." Despite almost eating an entire pizza less than hour ago, he was still hungry. His helmet formed back around his head and he made a mental note to look into why he was able to consume this much food. That and add additional time to his work outs.
"No central dining that we've found yet." Angie commented before speaking to the Carrier again "Door. My Quarters" She said and headed into the door while she spoke. "But every living space we've found so far has basically been a large fully functional apartment. Complete with kitchen and bathrooms. I haven't checked but if I had to guess I'd say the ship gets it water from a dimension that is nothing but fresh water." She said with a slight chuckle. The place was plainly decorated, showing that Angie hadn't spent much time there. Which of course was because she spent most of her time out running errands for Tony and Pepper or on missions for Barbara. With everything going on in her life when did she ever sleep?
Angie rummaged around in the refrigerator and pulled out several boxes of leftover chinese food. "This good?" She asked turning to see if Tony's stomach approved. "You're really hungry today are you feeling alright?" She found herself suddenly furrowing her brow a little in concern.
Tony followed her through the door, which he was starting to get accustomed to now, and looked at the rather spacious living quarters. He was expecting something similar to barracks. "I don't think even Jules Verne would have thought up a place like this if he were alive today."
The aroma of chinese food had always been distinct and was on Tony's list of guilty pleasures.
"Oh I'll be fine as soon as I scarf down some of that." said Tony as just his face plate opened up and he grabbed the chopsticks that were sticking out of the box. While he preferred hot chinese, eating cold was still pretty good. "This isn't too bad." he said between chews and read the side of the to-go box. "Just might have to go there during the week." Seeing her concern actually caused him to stop for a moment.
"Don't worry; I'm going to look into it. I doubt it's anything serious." he offered her one of the boxes he hadn't mentally claimed yet. "Here, have some. It's great." Of course it didn't cross his mind that she just got done eating not too long ago either.
Angie put her hand up and laughed while shaking her head. "I'm fine trust me. That pizza and breadsticks will keep me going through the next 15 errands and whatever missions Barbara has for me. You're the one who's eating like you haven't had anything since the fight with Giganta." Only after the fact did she wonder if this was a good time to bring up things that happened while he wasn't himself. Of course she was too late to take that statement back so the woman would just have to let the comment sit and see what happened next.
In the meantime though she took a seat on a smaller couch that was similar to the one on the Bridge. The cushions were a faded plum color though instead of the bright red they had up there.
While his mouth was full Tony's eyes looked up as if expecting his brain to do something. Giganta didn't bring up any matches in his memory so he settled for an arched eyebrow in addition to stuffed cheeks that expanded his signature goatee. After he was done swallowing his food he dismissed it. "Who's the other guy? You, Barbara and someone else is on this. Who is it?"
"Oh right!" Angie exclaimed, having completely forgotten that they hadn't talked about that yet. "He's called Midnighter. He was on a hero team that's disbanded now with the person who sent the nanite data to Claire. He said she was called the Engineer and the ship recognizes me as the next inheritor of the title. He was working the streets of Gotham for a while but I think he's picked up and moved since then." meaning he'd fallen completely off the grid. But since he had access to the doors for all she knew he'd jumped off to some other dimension to fight crime there.
While she was talking she sent him a file with all the details she could find on Midnighter, including an mpeg video of some of his 'work' taking apart vicious thugs and murderers on the streets of Gotham. "I think he was also looking for his boyfriend." She commented casually.
"Aren't we all looking for Mr. Right?" said Tony sardonically. Finishing up the box of chinese food Tony closed his face plate to observe the video she had sent him. "That's...brutal." The mpeg file showed Midnight taking apart a gang. Literally. "You know I just ate right?" Tony joked as he watched it in its full entirety. Whoever the previous Engineer was, they were definitely on Tony's level, if not above it. Which made him wonder what kind of offensive and/or defensive capabilities the Carrier had on it.
"Mind if I have these?" asked Tony as he palmed two of the four remaining take out boxes. "You know it doesn't surprise me he was in Gotham. That place is like a magnet for people like him. Or Wolverine."
"Go for it.” She gave a quick nod. "Hm Wolverine." She was looking over data for him as well. "I've never met him. I think I'm kind of glad" she said mostly to herself. "He looks like he'd agree with Midnighter's methods though. Which are...I'm embarrassed to say brutally effective. There haven't been any reports of that particular gang making a comeback since that footage was taken."
"Yeah, not exactly the kind of thing I approve of no matter how effective." All too often had he and Logan butted heads. More times than he'd care to count. "That was a whole can of worms he really didn't feel the need to open again.
"Door. Stark Tower, top level." as soon as he finished speaking, it appeared. "You know how long I've been meaning to do that?" Tony asked from behind his helmet. He walked through it to find himself on very platform he handed landed on earlier holding those boxes of fresh pizza.