Players:
Summary: Iron Man calls a meeting of the Avengers to discuss Ahab and to devise a strategy to seek and protect.
Date: July 22, 2010
Log Title: A Plan of Action
Rating: PG
NYC- Avenger Mansion - War Room
//The War Room holds the heart of the Avengers tech. Monitoring systems, computers, networks to SHIELD and their other allies, as well as holding their various devices when not in direct use, such as comm units and so forth. //
The Avenger Mansion was a bustle of activity early Thursday evening due to the fact that a meeting had been called that summoned all available Avengers in New York to be present. As it stood, the War Room had been setup a day in advance, the message directing everyone to head directly to the War Room upon arriving. As it was, Stark was the first person there, and dressed not in full armor but a business suit as if he had left the Towers not long ago.
Rather like Tony, Pietro appears in a suit instead of the costume he normally sports. That and he walks in rather normally, opting not to appear out of no where as is his norm. "Tony." Is offered pleasantly as he chooses himself a seat and takes it. Unbuttoning his jacket, he rests back and crosses his legs. Had business in town as well, and didn't bother to use super speed to change. If there's a need he can do it later.
Speedball has come, encostumed, showing his new logo to combine his previous and current teams. Glancing around, he can't help but grin. First official Avengers meeting. He's with the big dogs now. "Bow Wow." he mutters as he looks to see if seating matters. He does try to tone down his bubbly light show, though.
Appearing in a suit as well, a red and yellow spandex suit made for superheroing, is Spider-Woman aka Jessica Drew. Walking into the room with a sort of non-chalant attitude about her she stands against the wall with her arms across her chest. "Hello Tony, Pietro, Speedball." She says with a polite nod, but holds no warmth to it. She waits to take a seat to see exactly who is going to be here.
"Evening everyone," Tony says in greeting as he takes a look about the room while tapping a data pad lightly against his thigh. "I think I will start as I only know of one other that is going to arrive, and she has been passed along some of the information all ready." With a gesture to the available seating he walks across to the middle of the room, pausing to activate the various computers.
Pietro offers greetings to those who arrive, but doesn't say much beyond that. He's curious as to why the team has been called.
Moving to take a seat, Speedball shrugs. "Hola." He offers as he waits for the news. Raising an eyebrow, he crosses his legs beneath him as he sits. "Yay. Information. Much easier to get here than back at the crashpad. But then, I think Thrash was still using a 486 and dialup."
Now that the meeting is called on, Spider-Woman moves to take a seat next to Pietro, crossing her legs in a ladylike fashion as she listens to see what this meeting is about. Luckily the eyeroll at Robbie is unscene as she knows the boy is gonna give her a headache. "What's going on since I doubt this is a morale meeting."
"Firstly, I'd like to say upfront that I'm inviting an outside party into the meeting. Due to the fact that this person is a corroborative witness to what I'm going to have to explain to you all, I feel it necessary. When they arrive I will explain in more detail but I felt you needed a heads up." Tony turns towards the large monitor and pops up an image of a man, and two others. "I am sure you are all aware of the attack in Central Park not too long ago. If you are not this will be a crash course."
The doors to the War Room burst open and a giant green blur rushes into the meeting breathing to herself, "Ohmygodohmygodimlateimlateimlate!" She-Hulk is dressed in her Avenger costume, purple and white, and she's still pulling on her gloves as she rushes in. She stops, just short of the table blinking around the room. "Did I miss anything important?"
Pietro opens his mouth, but Jen ruins his chance to ask something. That's okay, it wasn't really important anyway. The speedster looks back, and arches an eyebrow at the woman, but then shakes his head and settles back into his chair. "This is about an attack that occurred in Central Park. That's as far as we've gotten. Hello, Jennifer." Amused at her for the most part.
"I've heard vague mentions, but no particulars. Then again, there are attacks in Central Park all the time." Speedball says with a bit of a shrug. "What's different about this one?" He asks. Hey, he's trying to be professional and find out info and not be snarky! WOOT! That's growing up for ya. Or something of that nature. Of course, it's hard to be too grown up with multi-colored balls of light frolicking to and fro around one's body.
"I've heard a bit about an attack in Central Park from Nick, seeing that one of Barnes students went missing. But we don't know much on that front." We meaning SHIELD as Jessica does work closely with them as well. "But this could be something completely different for all I know." Looking at Jennifer as she runs in, Jessica gives her a polite smile. "Nice to see you again She-Hulk."
"Perfect timing," Tony smiles as Jen rushes in to grab a seat. "Yes, there are attacks in Central Park all the time but this one was a bit different," Tony replies to Speedball's question as he turns to point at the large image in the center of the three pictures displayed for everyone to see. "The man in the middle is known as Ahab, the two flanking him are known as Tracker and Jeremy Inada, no alias for the last fellow. I had the displeasure of witnessing Ahab fire off these," and Tony cycles the pictures on the screen to show a modified harpoon device. "At several kids, after that they disappeared along with Ahab."
Tony lets this bit of information sink in and leaves the image of the harpoon up on the screens for people to take a close look at. As he's about to continue the lecture he receives a message that his witness has arrived from Jarvis. "Send her in please Jarvis, thank you." His attention goes back to the Avengers seated about him, "I will get into technical details later but as of now we have a problem. Ahab is in New York, taking people from the now and using them in the future. Yes, more time travel. Don't we love it?"
"Hey everybody," says She-Hulk congenially, as she finds a seat facing Tony. She watches Tony and the video with interest but, for now keeps her opinion to herself.
The information has Pietro sitting up, and leaning forward somewhat. "Does this have to do anything with a girl named Heather? Xaviers is having trouble with some missing students." He can assume it's related, but is isn't totally sure. "One of theirs is a time manipulator of some sort and she was taken. She left a riddle of sorts for her fellows to follow, but no one has made any sense of it that I'm aware of."
"Oh hell. I hate time travel. Last time I got involved in something related to it, I got stuck in the kinetic dimension for what felt like years." Speedball says with a bit of a grump before shaking his head. "Wonder what his White Whale is." He says as he watches the images. "And today's lucky contestant on the Price is Right is…?" He pauses. "Too bad Timeslip's not around. I'd call her to check on time." Of course, he doesn't know that the Xavier's student has the same codename as his friend.
Al heads in, looking just a touch nervous. Red hair is twisted back with silver hair sticks, in her almost uniform of black button down shirt and black dress pants with heeled boots. Eyes glance over the room, taking in as many details as she can as she heads over to Tony.
"Wait…if this is related to Jeremy and this Xavier's student, tracker, and Jeremy is a Barnes academy, we've waited on this information how long to look into it?" Jessica says as she knows it happened well over a month ago. Hands folded on her lap, legs crossed she looks at the harpoon on the screen for a bit before looking over at Tony. "So, what kind of information do we have on this Ahab? Surely there must be something in our database?"
When Al appears in the room, Tony nods his head in greeting and waves a hand towards any of the available chairs if Al chooses to sit. "This situation does deal with Heather and several others over at Xavier's. It goes beyond that as well, and that is the reason I have called you all here. I have been looking into this matter for a month now and just recently I was paid a visit by someone from our future." The screen changes to reveal an image of a current Xavier student named Connor Blake. "I was paid a visit from Volk here, and given information as to what Ahab's abilities are, who he might be targetting and why. All of this of course happening in front of my head of security over at Stark Towers and why I have invited her to sit in on this meeting as Volk took considerable time explaining to me what the situation was in front of her."
Jennifer purses her lips thoughtfully. "So I've been meaning ask you this ever since I got ahold of your datapad," she says. "How do you know you can trust the information this 'Volk' gave you?"
There's a snort from the white haired man as Alessia appears, but Pietro doesn't chide Tony about it. This time at any rate. Head of security. He's sure smirking though. Doesn't actually say anything though. He's no relevant information to give.
Checking the stuff that's told, Speedball looks to the new entrant and then to Pietro. If he knew the man, he'd give him a knowing look, but he doesn't. And he's not allowed to make the cracks he used to make at the crashpad. That would be… childish. Oh who is he kidding? He lets a grin out.
"So, why isn't this Volk here? Did he go back to his 'future' or can we not get a hold of him now?" Jessica asks as she's kind of thinking along the lines of Jennifer of unsure if to trust this Volk. "And time travel is always a pain in the rear." She mutters. "Okay, so what are the details, I'll see what I can piece together." After all Spider-Woman has spent many, many years as a P.I.
Alessia locks eyes with Tony as she moves further into the room, before eyes flick away again. A nod to Pietro, before she's glancing back at Tony, one eyebrow arched in silent question as her lips press together. She opts to remain standing, her back to a wall for the moment, hands folded behind her back in a parade rest stance. "He knows he can believe it because the guy wasn't lying. He knows that because Ah would have told him if he was. But he utterly believed it, he had the memories to back up what he gave to Stark."
Just the slightest sonic boom, really, as Keld Jonahl forces his descent time to be faster than it should. He sends a quick message via the Avenger comm channel to Iron Man indicating that he'll be there shortly, and then about five minutes after he SHOULD have been at the meeting, he enters the room, unlatching a helmet from the custom descent armor he's wearing: the same pattern as his regular costume but most of the colors muted and saturated to dark. He places it on a counter near the door, and looks across the assembled team. "Very sorry I am late. Apparently, couldn't break the laws of physics."
"In answer to your question, She-Hulk, I don't entirely trust him but I would rather play the proactive game than the reactive in this case." Tony turns away from addressing Jennifer to cast a glance over towards Alessia. "Based upon what she saw in his mind, and my own personal experience with Ahab, the tech, and witnessing the timewarp, the odds are starting to stack up in favor of this being truth." He faces the group once again to relay a rather bleak view of things. "Ahab's goal is to exterminate the mutant population from the face of the world, and he has high powered help to accomplish his ends. Volk himself is at Xaviers with others that are all ready searching for Ahab, and his men. I was sought out due to the fact that we, as Avengers, have better means to search for individuals. Particularly in this case as Ahab is able to mask his activities thanks to the abilities of his erm henchmen." Tony offers a brief welcome to Keld, as the man arrives and waits for everyone to chime in again with questions.
After a while it starts sounding like 'Plan d to eliminate mutant kind this week', and for that jaded feeling Pietro sighs. Doesn't discount this however, as all the other attempts were honest as well. "What's the plan then? Search for both? Ahab and those he targets?" Mostly, the speedster wants a direction. The details will work themselves out later. Then again, he's always been more action than fore thought, but that's what his power is all about.
Now there is a nod towards Alessia. "How can we trust her, she's just saying she knows the truth but I don't know her from Moses. Right now, I see us trusting a lot of words on some Xavier kid." She plans on seeking him out and talking to him about it, as much as she dislikes…kids.. "And what do you mean by 'she saw in his mind'?" That's kind of a vague statement for Spider-Woman. "And what exactly are these abilities of these henchmen?"
Jennifer nods at Pietro. "That's the gist I was given. One of the targets is my new intern, Rashmi Franklin. I've got her working full time with me, but I can't be with her all day." She drums her fingers on the table as she continues, "She lives out in Hell's Kitchen. I'm thinking we might want to fill in Dare-Devil on what's going on so he can keep an eye on her." Her jade eyes flick to Spider-Woman as she speaks her concerns, which mirror her own, and nods.
"It means that in my duty to try and protect Stark from an unknown intruder, Ah went into his mind looking to find his intent towards Tony. Ah saw the future as Volk knows it, felt the fact he was telling the truth. Tony hired me from the NYPD, and Ah am quite sure he had a rather extensive background check done on myself before letting take the position as head of Security." Alessia says, her voice pitched to be polite, but all business.
While the others talk, Keld walks over to stand next to She-Hulk, murmuring a question quietly to her, then places his left hand on her right shoulder, and his eyes glow pale violet for a count of five, as he tunes his borrowed Starsong into rapport. Much faster than making someopne go over it all again. The memory of the last few minutes, the briefing, time travel, Ahab, he picks up quickly, then nods to Spider-Woman.
"I asked the NYPD about our witness here when I first saw her acting as Iron Man's civilian-phase bodyguard; they told me she was an officer," Keld says quietly, then looking to the man in the iron …suit, "What's a Hound then? It's not clear to me what that means."
With all of the questions being tossed at him, Tony moves to sit down on the edge of a metal table that is just underneath the large monitor still depicting what it was on previously. "Bear with me a minute as I try to address all over your questions and concerns. Firstly, Al is indeed an officer of the NYPD and a telepath. As I have chosen to trust her I'm letting that line of questioning drop for now. As for Volk, you are more than welcome to seek him out at Xavier's as he is willing to speak to any of us. In regards to DareDevil, I am holding a meeting with him later tonight to discuss several matters, one of them being this situation."
Tony takes a moment to make sure that he remembers all of the questions that have been asked of him. "As for what we are doing, we are going to be searching for Ahab, Tracker and Inada to the best of our abilities. She Hulk is all ready in a position to keep tabs of Rashmi who in the future, is one of the leaders of the mutant rebellion. The other two are Jericho Mayfair-Parker and Robyn Larkin. Both Jericho and Robyn currently attend the Xmansion where they are fairly well protected. My initial concern is for Rashmi as she is the least protected at the moment. I have others that I need to talk about but as for hounds?"
Tony pauses again and seeks out everyone's gaze briefly. "Hounds are those that have been turned by Ahab's nanotech harpoons. Once struck by the harpoon the individuals dna is rewritten making that person effectively bound and faithful to Ahab's will. I will not reveal who are hounds in the future, nor will I reveal what has happened to everyone in this room and others. As this future is not set in stone and none of us can afford to be paranoid about our actions."
"Perhaps Rashmi should return to the school." Pietro offers. "It would ensure that she's some protection until this situation blows over. Or, perhaps, she could join Barnes? If she's left Xaviers it could be because she graduated and is attending college." He does help out at Xaviers, so he knows a thing or two there. "If only temporarily." He shrugs about what happens in the future. That's all fluid anyway, and often to change.
"She has plans on attending Barnes for college," explains She-Hulk. "I'll bring it up as an option for her, and we'll see what she wants to do."
Alessia remains quiet, since she has nothing to add at this point, no questions that she can really address or add to.
"She's already join….Thank you She-Hulk." Jessica says with a smile as she agrees with her. "She will start there in the fall. Currently it will be up to her if she wishes to move into Barnes, back to Xavier's or whatnot. She's eighteen, we can only recommend to her. Now there are several unanswered questions that might help us understand. What is it this Tracker and Inada can do, why were they targets? And why are Franklin, Larkin, and Parker-Mayfair such targets. What is that they can do and did this Volk say why?"
Keld quirks one eyebrow up at the "rewrites dna" comment - that's some very specific editing if it can change macro level behaviors on that level. Still, he's seen some surprising things on Earth. He looks more closely at the display. "That one, Inada. I can't be sure from the image, but I think I met him. He was on the streets during the demon invasion, I was present when some young humans whom I believe were from Xavier's school, saved him from an attack. I got the impression he had a power, something informational, noncombatant, not really useful tactically, but I didn't have time to get a good read of him. If so, he looks rather different."
Tony nods along as the others plan to work on Rashmi's particular situation. With a command Stark sends to the computers the images shuffle back to Ahab, Tracker and Inada. "Finding Ahab will not be easy. Tracker is capable of obscuring himself and others, however, this does not mean they will go unnoticed. We need to keep an eye on the grid looking for anything out of the norm, something suspicious. I would also suggest contacting others if you think you've come across a situation involving any of them. I don't want to find out that one of us has been taken over." Turning toward Keld Tony replies, "Inada has post-cognitive abilities. He is also capable of pushing harmful memories from himself into others."
"To answer your question, Spider-Woman, As I briefly touched upon the mutant rebellion a few questions back, Franklin/Larkin/ and Parker-Mayfair are leaders of the rebellion. They are what is keeping the future mutant population from extermination. If the three of them are taken out of the picture now, the future will alter drastically, and probably not for the better.As for the others I need to mention, I have to bring up Bolivar Trask and Senator Kelly. In the future they are a big piece of the problem and there is a chance that Ahab will be seeking to gain the upperhand on them in our time. As I am the best suited to be hanging around DC without causing any concern, I am going to personally keep tabs on them."
Pietro nods to all this, taking it in. "I'll keep an eye on the city as well as I can." For now it sounds the best option. Scout and watch. The people targeted are already being dealt with, and since he's lousy at politics.. yeah.
"Thank you Tony, I'll be sure to follow up on some things. I have some…ideas…on who to ask. And I'll be sure to let Nick know what you found out as well." Tony would definitely know how Nick Fury is about wanting to be in the know and he'd also know how close Jessica and Nick are as she's also a SHIELD agent. "For now, thank you all, but I am going to go out and see about a few things while the night is still young." Jessica says giving all a friendly nod as she gets up to go before looking at She-Hulk. "Would you mind me talking to Ms. Franklin soon?"
Jennifer shakes her head at Spider-Woman. "Not at all. If you want to stop by and visit while we're at work, just give me a heads up and we'll make sure to leave a window open for you." This is said with all seriousness. "Meanwhile, I'll hang around here to talk with Daredevil. Regardless of whether or not Rashmi decides to hide out at Barnes, it'll be good to have another pair of eyes out there looking for him."
Kend nods, as the sibling-agency to SWORD is invoked. "I have to ask, does there seem to be evidence of them to-be-using or will-attacking extraterrestrials resident on Earth? This would override my directive not to interfere in what appears to be a matter involving your government. Will you need me to assist anywhere in particular? I can be at your complete disposal for several days without disruption." He memorizes the faces, the data, since Brand will ALSO want to know the full details.
As the meeting seems to be dissolving Tony takes a moment to speak with Keld, "There is nothing so far to suspect that their scope is broadening past eliminating those with the X-Gene and those that will fight to see that never happen. If I learn anything in that regard I will let you know. As for what to do? Keep an eye out, and keep doing what you're normally doing." Tony rises from where he's seated and thanks everyone for attending the meeting, "I will keep in contact to the best of my abilities. Carry on, everyone!"
