El!
El has been with the site for nearly two years now and has continued to prove her value. Currently, she is heading up our site event, Battle for Liberterram, on top of keeping up with her own personal plots.
CHARACTER
SPOTLIGHT
Peggy Carter!
Lux's posts are all wonderful to read. She has done a wonderful job of grasping the new universe and incorporating Peggy into it.
CHARACTER
SPOTLIGHT
Peter Parker!
It's good to see Spidey back on the site. Watching him deal with the universe shift in his own snarky way has been nothing short of entertaining.
THREAD
SPOTLIGHT
Eight O'Clock on the Dot!
El and Lux are making magic in this thread. Straight up fireworks, and the way they've played with drawing out the reveal is top class.
Carol had gotten out of the habit of driving places since she'd gotten back. Her car was back at Cape Canaveral, where she'd originally left it. These days she really didn't need a car to get around, since she could just fly. But if she wanted her hair to stay at all in place when she went somewhere... well a more traditional conveyance was necessary. That, or just a stop in the bathroom with a brush once she got there.
So Captain Marvel swept down out of the sky on the outskirts of the Expo, making sure not to sneak in over what she HAD to imagine were some sort of Stark security systems. She didn't want to see what Tony had put in place to protect his baby in that way, she was fairly sure. The guy may have gotten out of weapons, but he certainly hadn't gotten out of things that could hurt people, apparently. The Iron Man suit was proof enough of that. She landed behind a building and powered down, willing the Kree uniform away. It vanished in a flood of light, leaving behind the close fitting dark gray pants, black boots, and blue blouse she'd picked out. She did have to spend a few minutes trying to get her long blonde hair to behave after that (muttering darkly about needing a haircut while she did), but it still beat having to take a train and a cab here from New York.
From there, she went about wandering the grounds of the Expo. A lot like the last time, she was struck by just how massive the place was. There were so many things to see, so many booths to hit, that while she'd come for a very specific purpose... Well she still found herself wandering into booths where they were demonstrating new aircraft. The problem she found was that so much of aerospace work these days was drone based. She couldn't think of a worse hell for a pilot to end up in than a drone operator's chair, and there were more and more of those in the USAF anymore. It was enough for a lady to want to run like hell, some days. So when she saw the drones, she tended to leave immediately - brought up dark thoughts for her.
She'd come tonight anyway because the billing said that Tony Stark would be there, and he was the one she wanted to talk to. Probably she could have gotten an appointment somehow, but... what, she was supposed to just walk up to Avengers tower and ask for a meeting? Maybe now that she'd met and helped out Captain America she'd have a better chance, but it seemed like Tony was pretty much never 'home', and so if she knew where he was for sure, she was going to have to strike. Hit the target when he was out in the open, right? Classic strike plane tactic.
The worst part, of course, was the crowd. She should have known a personal appearance by Stark would draw a crowd, and she spent almost an hour doing her best not to power up and shove people out of the way while she made her way through the crowd. Tony put on a damn good show (as usual), and she only just managed to get to the front as he started to come down from the stage. Shit! No you don't, dammit...
"Tony! Stark!" she called, leaning over the barrier and waving to try and get his attention. A nearby security guard came up and tried to push her back over the line, but he found himself moving more than she did, and she just gave him an exasperated 'really?' look before she went back to trying to catch his eye. "It's Carol!" She pointed at herself, rather obviously it had to be said.
It did occur to her that he might not remember her. He had a reputation for not remembering his sexual conquests, but despite how he had often looked at her in a flight suit (and hey, why wouldn't he, she looked pretty damn good in a flight suit) THAT had never happened. And she'd flown six of his prototypes, for crying out loud. Then again, with a guy like Stark... she supposed you could never really know.
Well, if he tried to sneak off, she supposed option two was powering up and crashing his party elsewhere. Always had to keep an option B handy.
Ah, presentations. They were really the worst part of a thing like Stark Expo, all the gymnastics they had to go through for vendors and the like aside. Tony was great at presentations, a performer at heart, really. That didn't change the fact that it was often the most trying part of the day. He did love the feeling of being on stage, but the worries about everything going off as planned kinda outweighed that, perfectionist that he tended to be about these kind of things. Most people wouldn't think him the type, but most people didn't know the real Tony Stark either, so they weren't exactly well-informed enough to make those kinds of judgement calls.
This one had gone well despite, or perhaps because of, all his worries, so he was leaving the stage with a smile, waving at the people that were crowding in to greet him and fawn over him and generally be in no way interesting. The 'fangirls' were part of the job, really, and he'd been getting more and more of them lately; especially with the whole Steve thing in the picture. He would never quite understand that, but hey. It wasn't like he could complain much, since he liked the attention. Or was supposed to like the attention. It was hard for him to keep these things straight sometimes. Heh. Straight.
There were plenty of people calling out to him as he made his way off the stage, but one in particular was making a fool of herself and Tony squinted at her for a second, trying to remember where he knew her from. Something finally clicked in his brain as she pointed at herself and the motioned for the guards to let her through.
"Carol. The pilot, right?" he asked as she was allowed to step closer to him, looking her over. She looked good still, though he hadn't heard from her since the last time she'd done a test flight for him, and that had been a while ago by now. He wondered vaguely if he'd ever managed to sleep with her, but he figured he'd remember something like that and it wouldn't do to remedy that situation now, as the thing with Steve, however fake it was, made such things difficult. He actually felt guilty hitting on people sometimes and it was patently awful.
"What can I do for you, Major Danvers?" he asked as he began moving away from the crowd, grabbing her elbow in order to direct her to come with him. The security detail was beginning to get antsy about the crowd, he could tell; though he figured they should relax seeing as the suit could be there in seconds should something go down.
Well hey, he did remember her after all. And here she thought she might just have to do something stupid as well as embarrassing. That, she had hoped to avoid. Still, she got more than her share of dirty looks as she was let past the barrier, and she gave the guard a light knock on the shoulder as she passed. "Sorry there, big guy." The man still looked at least a little confused as to how she'd been able to just stand up to his pushing her back. At nearly six feet, Carol was pretty tall for a lady (even taller, actually, for a fighter pilot), but he must have had at least fifty pounds on her, probably more, yet she hadn't moved at all.
"Major Carol Danvers, USAF, that's right - though I'm not here in any official capacity." she said, nodding. She could have listed the prototypes she'd flown for him out of Groom Lake, but knowing him, he'd remember the planes a lot faster than he remembered her. He'd always seemed like the sort to treat his technology like a living creature - which might have seemed odd to anyone but a pilot. Planes were always living things to her, and she'd loved the ones he made. Pity most of them never made it to the front lines, budgets being what they were. Now even SHIELD was getting saddled with that VSTOL-compliant piece of crap F-35. Put her up in her F-15 and she'd shoot down a dozen of those overdesigned clunkers.
But Stark's planes? Those had been things of beauty. Once she'd figured out how to shut off the auto-assist AI, that was. Let someone else test his automated piloting systems, she was there to put the airframe through its paces, and she didn't need some computer trying to tell her how to correct a stall, or that she was flying too low, or any number of 'unsafe' maneuvers she happened to be making. One of the reasons she'd liked Tony (and thought to ask him for help now) was that he was probably the one manufacturer who never scolded her for stressing the airframe. In fact, she had a private theory that after he'd given half the engineering team heart attacks with the first plane, he'd requested her.
Then again, that could be her ego talking, and also could have had more to do with how she looked. But fighter pilots, it so happened, thrived on ego.
She let him take her elbow (boy would THAT not probably end up on the internet) and matched strides as they left the venue, noise mercifully dying down as the doors swung shut. The security people didn't seem too pleased with all of it, but she supposed that was their job. Though it did occur to her to wonder why on earth Iron Man needed a merely human security team. Then again, you probably didn't want suits that could crush tanks holding back crowds. That was asking for an accident, as well as bad optics.
"Sorry to catch you like this, but it turns out getting an appointment with you is a pain in the ass." she said, glancing his way, then taking a breath when he asked the obvious question. "Well, I'm not flying for the country right now, and it occurred to me that your... extracurricular team might be able to use a pilot." She wouldn't mention the news footage of Avengers jets crashing, but hey, the roster was getting to be a public thing these days.
"And as far as what you can do for me, I was hoping you could build a medical imaging machine that will actually work on me." She glanced around to see if there were any civilians in the area, then she held out her free hand, angled away from him a bit. Golden light flared up around her fingertips, flickering as it coalesced into an orb that surrounded her hand. It vanished a second later, and she looked up to catch his eyes. "Things have gotten a little... weird for me, lately. Considering you've got this Avengers thing going on, I figure it might be your kind of weird. And I don't know anyone at SHIELD that I can trust, so... here I am."
Notes: rude, phe. like 6 hours? really? Tagged: carol
He hadn't figured that she was there for the USAF, as if they needed to deal with him, they typically sent Rhodey. While he knew Carol, they weren't exactly BFFs and him and Rhodey had been friends for far longer. The USAF apparently figured they could use all the help they could get when it came to dealing with him, which was accurate enough and he really didn't blame them for that thought. He could be a handful, and protecting their own people from that was probably a good idea.
Tony remembered the first time he'd hired Carol to test his planes. He'd been suitably impressed. She was more daring than most test pilots, willing to test the complete limits of something, which was what Tony really needed. If the test pilot backed off at every warning, then he wouldn't effectively know how far his creations could be pushed. That was why he'd enjoyed having her around to test things, when she was available.
Snorting a bit when she mentioned getting an appointment, he nodded in agreement. He'd been so busy with things leading up to the Expo that he hadn't had time to take any meetings not directly related to it. There had been a list of about fifteen people allowed to actually take up his time sent around the office for the past month, and Carol's name hadn't exactly been on it. Once they'd finally broken out of the crowded venue, Tony dropped his hold on her elbow. He really didn't need paparazzi deciding that he was cheating on Steve with the stupid man literally somewhere else on the grounds.
"Could we ever," he laughed when she mentioned the Avengers, "I mean, Barton's good and all, but he's not a pilot by trade. Sometimes they make me fly the things. Me." Good as Barton was, he was an archer. Cross-trained though he may be, he was an expert marksman. Having an expert pilot around would be pretty badass. Think of all the things they could do with that.
"A Medical Im-" he was cut off by Carol holding up her hand, gold flaring around her fingertips in a kind of power display that wouldn't be out of place from their resident God of Light, although it wasn't quite the same. "Well, damn," he muttered, reaching out for her hand and pulling it close to examine it after the light flickered away. "Okay, yeah, that's kinda weird," he admitted as he dropped her hand, looking back up at her.
Nodding a bit as she continued to speak, he wondered about the creation of such a thing. He'd need to do more tests. Lots of tests. Possibly hack into SHIELD a bit. It sounded fun. "Yeah, we can see what we can do," he agreed, "So, how'd you get all superpowered? Science experiment? Gamma rays? Radioactive waste? Aliens?" Grinning, he waggled his eyebrows over-dramatically and motioned for her to follow him again. They could do a walk-and-talk. He had part of JARVIS over at the Stark booth and they could see if his scanning implements would work to get a better idea why medical imaging wasn't.
Yeah they really didn't need it getting on the internet, did they? Though something about him taking a blonde behind the ropes would probably end up on TMZ or Gawker by the end of the night anyway. No sense adding any fuel to it though, if they could help it. She wondered idly if Tony had figured out some way to prevent people from always taking cell phone video of him... he could make a lot of money off that technology.
She was just a little bit surprised to hear him agree with her on the pilot front, but it seemed that he hadn't been super impressed with the archer's performance at the jet controls anyway, which made sense. SHIELD's quinjets weren't exactly the best-performing planes, but that was what you got with something that was more personnel carrier than air-superiority fighter. Facts of aerodynamic design: you just couldn't do everything at once.
"Kinda thought you fancied yourself a pilot these days, what with the flying suit and all." she asked, lifting a brow at his admission. Heck, he had insisted before on driving his own race car, and clearly he'd gotten a taste for flying in the suit. Maybe for him a machine as big as a plane was second to what the suit could do. She supposed that might make sense, considering she didn't need a plane these days either. But still, few things beat a good airframe and a pair of jet engines at your back... At least, for her. But then, when it came to aircraft, she could occasionally get a bit old fashioned.
She was a bit surprised when he grabbed for her hand - how did he know it wasn't going to be superheated or something like that? - but she let him, even though there was really nothing to see. Carol was pretty certain of that, actually, since she'd spent a whole lot of time checking herself for any physical differences, and at least on the outside she LOOKED exactly like she always had. But considering all the things she could do now, there HAD to be something different inside. And what that was.. Well not knowing was enough to make her a little nervous. Not knowing if your equipment was in proper working order, skipping preflights or maintenance... these things got pilots killed. She had to imagine that it wasn't too different with superheroes.
He agreed though, and she let out a relieved breath, walking after him. "Thanks." she said, almost at the same time as the breath, glancing around at the various sights of the Expo as she followed, listening to his list of fairly glib shots in the dark until he got there.
"Actually mine is aliens. Is that new? Any aliens involved with the others?" She was half-joking. From what the public knew, she actually didn't think there were aliens involved with the rest. "Kind of a long story, but there was a superweapon involved, it was supposed to do one thing, instead it did this. I can fly, punch through walls, pick up cars, that sort of thing... show you sometime, if you want. But I'm not exactly sure that it's not going to kill me. And every doctor I've talked to says my X-rays just come back blank - nothing's getting through my skin. Just gets soaked up."
It was an awfully cliff-notes version of the events of the last year and a half of her life, but she supposed it was the essentials.
Tony Stark --- There were these aliens, yadda yadda yadda...
He shook his head a bit at her reply. "See, the suit flies through neural inter-phasing. It's essentially like walking or running. Planes don't do that. Much as I can enjoy flying the things, I'd rather be in the suit. Having an actual pilot around would be a great thing," he explained. Plus, if one of the Avengers was stuck piloting the plane, that was one less Avenger out in the field where they were really needed. It could be difficult to work as a team when one of the team was stuck behind.
It was interesting to consider that the whole superhero phenomenon seemed to be getting more widespread. Sure, mutants had been around for a while, but more and more people were getting powers through more unconventional means than a trick of genetics. With Carol, there didn't seem to be obvious physical differences. It was slightly disappointing, but he was sure that he'd find more interesting things with more thorough scanning.
Stopped in his rambling by her actual response, he chuckled a bit. "Aside from the fact that some of them are aliens, I don't think so," he replied, "I mean, for a given concept of alien. I'm pretty sure the Asgardians aren't legitimately gods, at any rate." He lifted an eyebrow in her direction as she shortened up her origin story for him.
Humming thoughtfully as they walked, he pondered what she'd told him. "I'd like to see what you can do, but I agree that it can wait. If the X-Rays are coming back blank that probably means that something about the way your physiology has changed is soaking up the energy needed for the process. Could be difficult to get true scans if that's the case, as pretty much anything I can think of requires that kind of thing."
Leading her into the back of the Stark displays once they arrived, he went to turn on JARVIS. "Hey buddy," he greeted, "We're needing some scans of Carol over here. Apparently X-Rays aren't working."
"I'm not sure what I can do in my limited capacity, but I shall try, sir," the AI replied, booting up the limited diagnostic scanners in the back area of the booth.
Tony turned back to Carol as the AI worked, crossing his arms over his chest and leaning against the table behind him. "So, is there anything of importance you can think of that could help me figure out what's going on?"
Carol considered for a few moments when he explained the difference between the suit and the plane - but still... "You don't mean to tell me you couldn't make a plane that works the same way, do you? Ah forget it - I just hope you haven't gone and slacked off on your aircraft since you've been buried in building suits and whatever else it is you get up to these days. Like 'dating Captain America'." She delivered that last part in deadpan, throwing up a set of air quotes as she did it, making the clear suggestion that she found the idea ludicrous. Which, of course, she did. Anyone who had known Tony Stark for any length of time would, in her mind.
Not that Rogers wasn't a heck of a specimen, if one DID like that kind of thing. But Stark? No.
"I guess that would count." she allowed when he mentioned Thor, nodding. Though considering he was a legend of human metahistory... Did that sort of make him an honorary Terran? This was probably the thing she was doomed to spend a lot more time considering these days.
She actually did frown a bit when he agreed that her showing off could wait. Fighter pilot that she was, showing off kind of came with the territory. "Yeeeah probably nothing around here that you'd want me to go punching, now that I think about it. Someone obviously put a lot of money into all this and is hoping no one blows it up with a buncha drones this time, I presume?" Carol arced a brow as she looked back over to him with that comment. Obviously this Expo was, so far, going a lot better than the last one.
"Yeah - it's not just X-rays, it's a lot of stuff. I think I kind of feed off it now. Still working on the limits of that though. Magic, apparently, really hurts." At some point she was probably going to have to bring up that she'd had a knock-down-drag-out with Namor and his magical Disney prop, but this maybe wasn't that time. Though Tony was taking this whole thing almost alarmingly in stride. Then again, that was part of the reason she'd come to him - if anyone could be so blase about the sort of thing that had happened to her, it would be Stark and Co.
The voice of the AI should have come as a bigger surprise, but she did know Stark. Back when she had worked with him though she didn't think the AI assistant had been so... well, everywhere as he was these days. "Hello Jarvis. Ah... Is there somewhere in particular I should stand?" she asked - was it just scanning whereever? She had been expecting at least something a bit more obvious, it was somewhat disconcerting that he could apparently just scan from wherever the hell he wanted. Then again, she supposed that was Tony for you, too. He probably had toys the NSA would kill for. Or SHIELD, for that matter.
"Um... No, not really. Honestly I feel fine - better than fine. Like you said before, being able to fly without a plane is a trip, and it's not as though I feel sick, but... It's disconcerting. I don't know if what that machine did was a bug or a feature, if that makes sense. If I got superpowers but they're killing me, I'd really like to know about it. And besides which." She paused there, rubbing at the back of her neck a bit awkwardly. "It's kind of a good excuse to hunt you down and figure out if you could use an extra hand. Fist. Whichever."
"USAF is pretty freaked out about it all. I've had my clearances suspended... Flying was everything to me, Tony, and they've gone and grounded me. I can do more than I ever could before, and they're telling me to sit on my ass and wait while seventy goddamn committees decide how compromised they think I am. I need to do something."
Notes: NO MORE PANCAKES FOR YOU, PHE Tagged: Carol
Giving Carol a careful, studying look, Tony wondered how many other people were thinking along the same lines of his former test pilot. He bet that only the people that bothered to get to know him remotely well, seeing as he'd always been somewhat of an enigma to the general press, and there were all those rumors he'd intentionally started back in college backing up that he could be dating a dude, although probably not Captain America, if anyone was really being perfectly honest with themselves.
"I could, but it wouldn't be as fun," he replied, "And pilots like having the controls on the outside, not in their brain." Pausing again, he lifted an eyebrow. "And aside from dating Captain America, I've been doing plenty of aircraft design. Not for the military though." No, SHIELD was pretty much monopolizing his time, with all the updates he'd been doing to their tech since signing on in a more official capacity.
He snorted a bit at her dig at the last Expo he'd thrown. "I have a couple suits here you could beat on a little," he offered, "But it can still wait." He carefully avoided responding to the Expo dig, though, as the thought of the last one was still enough to make him somewhat angry. "Or you could hit on Cap a little. And I mean that in both ways. He needs a little variety in his life," he added, smirking a bit. Yeah, Carol and Cap. He could see that. He needed to set the guy up after all this anyway, 90-year-old virgin that he was.
Humming a bit at the new information she provided, he stored it away for use in his calculations later. So she was absorbing energy; feeding off it. Likely using it for things like the little light-show that she'd put on for him, among other things. Like a solar panel, but with more things than just the sun.
"You are fine where you are, Major Danvers. My equipment is set up in the scaffolding that makes up the top of this exhibit. I am everywhere here in the Stark Industries tent," JARVIS replied helpfully to her question, even as he worked.
He snorted a bit as Carol voiced her complaints. "Yeah. That sounds like the government," he replied. He'd never really had the flair for government organizations that his father had, mostly because he didn't have the patience. "Well, we could always use some extra hands. I mean, starting with the pilot thing until we figure out what, exactly, the machine did to you. We should definitely figure out if its causing harm. This isn't really my forte, so we should probably get Banner's thoughts. He's pretty good at this kind of thing." Plus, the man could use more human interaction.
"I'll also see what I can do about the USAF in the meantime. I have a bit of pull with them still, since they're scared of upsetting me. We'll see what we can manage." He gave her a smile, still waiting for JARVIS to get him information. Limited processing power meant more wait time.
"Heh. You're telling me. Kind of my problem." she said, knocking lightly on her own skull. After all, now she could fly with ONLY her mind, more or less. It was quite a switch from the HOTAS system she was used to, or even the more advanced flight control systems. So was flying through the air without so much as a composite canopy between you and the the wind, and having to break through the sound barrier with your freaking face.
Exhilhirating, yes. But also weird as shit. Even now, with months of practice, there was a part of her that couldn't believe what was going on, and insisted on wanting to panic whenever she took off. It all felt like some bizarre dream she couldn't wake up from - and she was never completely certain that she wanted to. That, too, was hard to get used to.
"Dating cap. Uh huh." she said skeptically, narrowing her eyes in his direction. If there was more she wanted to say about the matter, at least for the moment she kept it to herself, though it probably wouldn't be hard to see through the look she'd shot him. She was not convinced, not in the slightest.
"Sorry - didn't mean to pick at a wound." she added a few moments later - the expo comment had probably been less than tactful. Then again, tactful and Stark went together like aircraft and heavy lead components - not a match that you tended to see in most ordinary circumstances. Though while his next comment could have lent added weight to her earlier skepticism about the honesty of his widely-reported relationship, in Stark's case she didn't really think it would. Especially since she'd been working with him the year he'd been photographed with Maxim's "December" twins.
"Ha - you know I actually met the guy last week? I think he got hit enough, but it wasn't me doing it. Some terrorist group... I punched a couple of them through a building. Cap owes me pancakes one of these days." That, probably, was a few things to absorb for most people, but she'd always found that you could through most conversations with Tony Stark by "bottom lining it", which was a habit he shared with plenty of military types she'd known.
She glanced up then at Jarvis' words, wincing just slightly. "Oh. Good. That's not creepy at all..." she said, trailing off to silence at the end of it. Man, the world got less and less safe for anyone who was after privacy all the time, didn't it? She was quiet still though when he mentioned talking to the Air Force, and for a moment she frowned at nothing in particular, not sure what to say.
"Thanks, Tony, but... Don't do that part. For one, you're doing enough, and I really appreciate it. For two though, if that's all it takes for them to turn on me, I'm not sure I want them to take me back. I mean, tell me honestly, what would they do with me anyway? Pair me up with Rhodey and have us invade a small country by ourselves? I guess I'm still figuring out what I do with myself now."
Snorting a bit as she knocked on her head in demonstration, he wondered what it would be like to fly completely under one's own power. Nah, that seemed like too much work. He liked having the suit to shield him from the high winds and various other things that he could hit while flying. Much safer that way. Of course he wasn't superhumanly invulnerable or anything the way that she was. Gosh, seemed like everyone was getting superpowers and he was starting to feel left out.
Rolling his eyes at Carol's inability to believe that he was actually dating Captain America, he only moved forward and didn't really bother to address it again. She could believe whatever she wanted, really. It wouldn't affect him in any way unless she shared with the press, and she wouldn't do that.
Tony shrugged. "It's fine. Just. Annoying. To be reminded of." It wasn't like he hadn't been reminded of it almost every day in the planning of this event. Everyone was worried that he couldn't guarantee that it wouldn't happen again. He couldn't, but he was pretty sure that everything would be fine with the Avengers always hovering around the fairgrounds. After all, what idiot would take them on willingly.
"And seriously. Hit on my boyfriend for me. He needs it. He still blushes when someone mentions he's attractive," he added with an eye roll. He was a bit surprised when she mentioned that they'd taken down some terrorists together the other week. He hadn't heard that yet. Huh. Well, it wasn't like him and Cap were all that close yet, either. "Well. Make it a date. You have my blessing," he replied, waving his hand a little. He really did like Carol. She got right to the point and didn't take up too much of his time when it wasn't needed. She could be good for Cap, really.
"I assure you, Major Danvers, that I only use my powers for good," JARVIS replied, deadpan. Tony was so glad that he had programmed his AI with a good sense of humor. It made him happy.
Snorting a bit at her words, he nodded. "Yeah, okay. And you're right. They might not know what to do with this. But they'd be idiots to let you go, since you're one of the best pilots I've ever met, if not the best. You can hang out with us until they figure it out, though. I'm sure no one will mind having you around. Romanoff will enjoy not being the only girl around, I'm sure. Just to clarify, though. You're not an Avenger. You're, like, our consultant or something. You can hang in the Tower though. It'll be better that way, since JARVIS can monitor you 24/7."
She lifted a brow at his slightly irritated comment, then decided not to add to it. The guy could stand to be reminded he was human once in a while, she thought. Then again, perhaps with people like Thor and the Hulk - hell, and her - around he had more reminders about that than he really wanted to. But it was a triumph of a real sort that this thing was even up and running again, really. She hoped he realized that. But Stark was not a guy whose ego needed her fanning, she had always thought.
Of course, she had to laugh at his comment about Cap. Who she still wasn't... you know what, forget it. Tony had entirely too much experience denying/not denying these things, though it still didn't feel like a real thing to her. Same way he'd been denying he was Iron Man back when she'd first met him. She hadn't bought that pile of crap, either. Not to say she had Tony's number, necessarily... but there were a few things she tended to pick up on. He had a mentality she wasn't totally unfamiliar with. It took a certain amount of that personality to be a decent fighter pilot, for one. Which meant that on some level, she knew a lot of low-grade Tony Starks.
"Yeeeah - Hit on Captain America. Though he does have a bit too much self-deprecating about him, doesn't he? The guy can NOT take a compliment to save his life." She shook her head at that, remembering how he tried to deflect anything nice said. It went a little beyond the aw-shucks 30's kid thing, by this point.
Her eyes flicked up again at JARVIS' voice, and she raised a brow. "Considering this guy programmed you? I'll try not to worry." She looked back over to Tony then and smiled, punching him lightly - she was very careful about the lightly part - in the shoulder. "Aw, shucks Tony. Wait. The tower?" Her eyes widened a bit at that part. As in Avengers tower? Holy shit. "Damn - I'm not gonna pass that up, thanks! And yeah, yeah, I gotcha. I'll stay out of the way, fly the jet if you want." She held her hands up, as though surrendering the point, but she grinned as she lowered them. "You need me to fight though, you just ask. You're gonna want me on the team."
Tony Stark --- she wouldn't be a pilot if she wasn't a bit full of herself now and then
Tony snorted a bit at Carol's description of his fake boyfriend, as it was really too accurate. Cap wasn't the type that could handle people fawning over him, which made it that much more hilarious that he'd existed as a symbol for people to fawn over for longer than he'd existed as a conscious person. "Yeah, he just does that whole blushing and stuttering thing," he replied, shaking his head, "It's ridiculous. It can be the most generic comment in the world and he goes all 'aww, shucks, I'm just a normal dude with abs like a greek god, you shouldn't think so highly of me'. It's almost obnoxious."
JARVIS was beginning to display his results on a nearby console, but he wasn't quite finished yet, so Tony decided it was better to not interrupt his work and instead focused on Danvers, rubbing at his shoulder where's she'd hit him. "Watch the goods," he grumbled half-heartedly. He could tell that she'd been consciously holding back her new juice due to the scans that popped up, but it had still stung a bit.
"Yeah, the Tower. We have plenty of space. When I built the Avengers levels, I built in room for expansion of the team," he replied carefully, "And I'm sure once everyone gets to know you they'll love having you on the team; I'd just like to figure out what's up with you first."
"Sir, I've completed the scanning that I have been able to perform here," JARVIS interrupted, "Her biological markers have been altered to an extreme degree. They match some odd samples that SHIELD has on-file. I am working on unlocking more information about them for you to look at later. In addition her body is absorbing any energy pulses sent its way, so we will have to find a better way to create a medical scan. I would suggest that the scanners you have been working on would work as they do not pulsate the way other medical imaging does.
"I can say with 73.68% certainty that the changes to Major Danvers' biology will not be deadly to her, however I will need to finish extracting SHIELD's information in order to figure more out about her new biology and we will likely need to create new medical protocols for her."
"Thank you, JARVIS," Tony replied, frowning slightly, "Well, at least things seem on the up-and-up for you. The fact that its not an unknown alien species is actually good. We'll figure this out." He gave her a grin.
Carol snickered at Tony's elaboration on her comment about Steve. "Yeaah he does that. At least he did when I tried. I suppose that'll teach me. He's got entire exhibits to him, and he keeps talking about how he's not all that special." She gave an exxagerated roll of her eyes at that - sure, maybe she could understand getting a bit of a complex since he was on a team with a bunch of superhumans, but... Come on, did any of them have a record like his?
Except Thor, maybe. But he was... how old? Hundreds of years? Thousands? Kind of wasn't fair, that.
"The goods? I didn't hit you in the face, Tony." Was that a knock on his physical conditioning? Maybe, maybe not. Maybe she just wanted to mess with him. Maybe? Certainly.
"Was that a vote of confidence? Well thank you, Mister Stark. I'm interested to see how those new jets of yours handle at least. Has to be better than those Quinjets SHIELD seems to think are OK for attack craft. Whoever convinced them it was okay to fly nothing but F-35s and troop transports should have a medal for salesmanship." Those were jokes she could make - Tony hadn't made either aircraft. It was really a pity for the USAF that Stark had quit making weapons - he HAD to have something better than that pile of crap.
JARVIS started talking then and she looked up at nothing in particular since the voice was coming from nowhere in particular. She was going to have to get used to that again... it had happened on the Kree ship, too. She wondered how that AI would get along with Tony's. She decided not to tell him about all the tech the Kree had... it would make him either jealous, sad, or insane with envy.
Hmm... this WAS Stark. Probably the last one.
"73.7 isn't bad." she said, rounding up as she considered. Though the second part... "Surprised to hear SHIELD has run into them before, but... I suppose nothing should surprise me about SHIELD anymore. Thanks, Tony - and you, JARVIS." Where did she look when he talked? Eventually she'd settle on something. Tony's grin was infectious as usual, and she returned it.
"I suppose I'll grab an overnight bag then? What's on tap for the illustrious Tony Stark for the rest of the night?"
Tony Stark --- booth babes? Oh, wait, fake boyfriend. DRAT!
"It's impossible to be nice to him. I hate him for it," Tony grumbled, "I mean, its hard enough for me to be nice in general - you know me, you know this - but then he just gets all... weird about it and it makes me regret ever trying. I can't win." He did snort a bit at the comment about his exhibits, since Tony knew that all the things on display at those came from the Howard Stark private collection; his Father had tracked down everything, even spiriting it away from SHIELD when he had to. Really, he'd been a menace to society.
Grinning at Carol as she protested his comment, he gave a wink. "I knew you thought I was pretty," he replied before going back to the screens JARVIS was helpfully pulling up for him. This was why he liked her; she was exactly his type of person and able to keep up with him on a level that many were not.
He snorted a bit at her digs at SHIELD. "Yeah, well, I'm slowly fixing that. Reluctantly, as far as they know. But it is kinda nice to be working on something like that again, truth be told," he replied, "But don't tell the Air Force or they'll start courting me again and that's terrifying." He shuddered a bit at the thought.
"I'm not. SHIELD is hiding all kinds of dirty little secrets. It's terrifying. Get me drunk one day and I'll 'accidentally' tell you some," he replied, the air quotes evident in his voice. After all, it was a bit ridiculous how much he didn't find out until he broke into their computers even when he was working closely with them.
Nodding at Carol's suggestion, he began shutting down JARVIS' more intensive programming for the night. "Yeah, go ahead. I can take you back to New York with me when the Expo is done. I can get you a room next to Steve and me or something. Speaking of Steve, he's the plan for the rest of the night. I have to go rescue him from the booth again. He gets all quiet and starts hiding away and not doing his eye candy job properly."
"Do you, though? I mean. It's kind of hard not to like the guy. Which... then again that probably just annoys you too, doesn't it?" She let the comment about his looks slide with a rather serene expression - she'd already tossed it underhand for his ego once, as a sort of thanks for all the help. He didn't need any more, now did he?
"And hey, I never said you weren't nice. I would say you tend to put manners on a pretty low priority, but hey... you get used to it." She was, in fact, a lot more used to that than she was to Cap's continued super-modesty. That just wasn't something you ran into very much, not in anyone who was actually sincere about it.
"My lips are sealed. Pretty sure they spent all their money by now anyway. Wouldn't Rhodey be the first guy on you though, if that were the case?" That was another point. She was probably going to have to run into Rhodes at one point or another. Maybe she could school him in yet another aspect of combat now, since he had the War Machine armor and she had actual powers. It was a friendly rivalry, but like most pilots, that sort of thing could have an edge to it.
"Huh... Good to know. Drinks are on the schedule. And go easy on the poor old guy, he's what, ninety? It's gotta be past his bedtime. Give me a ring when it's time, I can only imagine JARVIS already has my phone number. I'm gonna go see if anything's set on fire over at the Hammertech booth this year. His wife tried to bid on part of the SWORD project I was on, thank god she lost it to Rand... See you in a bit, Tony."
