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Summary: The Avengers pull out an old initiation script to test whether or not Kaji is ready to be an Avenger.
Date: June 21, 2010
Log Title Lesson in Teamwork
Rating: R (LV)
NYC - The Avenger Mansion (Training Room)
//The training room is just that. There is a large, springboard floor, weights, punching bags, yoga mats, a shelf of practice weapons, and the ever important sound system. Anything you could possibly wish to train for, physically speaking, can be done in this room. //
It's been a long, long time since anybody had to actually go through the interview process to be accepted into the Avengers. Usually what happens nowadays is a bunch of the team gets together and takes a vote and like that you're in. Not today. Whether or not today's formal tryout is brought on by nostalgia or by a twisted sense of revenge is hard to tell. Still, She-Hulk has dusted off the old tryout material, and reconfigured the training room. Considering the state of the equipment it looks like it just hasn't been used in over a decade. Right now the room itself is empty and there's a table and some chairs set up behind a bullet (and power-proof) glass that looks in on the room. She-Hulk is sitting in one of the chairs, with a small stack of papers and a laptop.
A conversation can be heard coming from upstairs and down the hall leading toward the training room. One voice in particular would be known to anyone who lived and worked there. The other belonged to the poor sap that was about to be put through the ringer by the Avengers that were on hand. Tony walked into the training room explaining to Kaji that the interview was at least better than a hazing. He spots Jennifer sitting in the room off to the side and tosses her a wave.
Kaji lets out a soft ah as he walks into the room with Tony, nodding a bit as he listens. When he spots She-Hulk, he gives her a wave as well and falls silent as he follows Tony over towards her.
A rush of air, usually the sort of thing that would accompany Quicksilver, instead reveals a gold-tinged blur as Keld comes in at something below the speed of sound, but just barely.
"SorryI'mLateIHadToDeliverACatAndHelpABabyOutOfATreeAnd…" pause for breath, "It seems Pietro has been called away for some sort of family thing."
He looks around for the "where do the onlookers sit to look on" location.
Jennifer waves the full time Avengers over to her. "Over here," she says, instructing them to sit down. She sizes up Kaji for a bit before nodding at him. "You go over there on that side of the glass." She rubs her hands together with obvious glee and explains, "You're in for a real treat. We used to run this program for everybody who wanted to be an Avenger but we've gotten a little lax recently," she says, giving Tony a meaningful glance. Meaning Tony is the one being lax. "So I dug it up, loaded the program into the training facility, and as soon as you tell me you're ready I'll start the thing."
Tony tosses Jennifer an amused glance before he says hello to Keld. "Right, sack up fuzzball," he says to Kaji with a clap to the anthrowolfs shoulder. He leans in close to whisper, "Honestly, I haven't a clue what she's cooked up but she's a bit pissed at me. Keep that in mind!" Tony looks cheerful and full of mischievous glee as he walks past Keld tapping the man on the shoulder in greeting then slides into the room to pull out a chair next to Jennifer. "Hello dear, miss me?"
Kaji clicks his tongue a bit as he walks into the room on the other side of the glass. The mutant currently in his human form, clad in normalish clothes. Save for the vest that's covering his T-shirt. That has knives a plenty lining the back. A sword attached to his hip as he just moves into the room and idly looks around. He looks at the window and just gives a thumbs up. Might as well get this started.
Keld takes the time to catch his breath - running at that speed, sure, but sustaining it is kind of exhausting - but does spend the necessary moment to look at the setup, with professional interest. "Is this set on 'kill' or just 'humiliate'?"
She-Hulk gives Tony an exaggerated roll of the eyes, and Keld just a knowing grin before giving Kaji the thumbs up. "All right," she says. "Let's get this started." She taps a few things on the keyboard of the laptop and then, ceremoniously, presses the enter key. At first there isn't anything that happens, but then a panel in the room opens up and six small drones pop out and start dispersing themselves evenly about the room. One of them wobbles a bit, and then suddenly sparks as smoke belches out of it and then falls unceremoniously to the ground. Then there's a popping sound as the holographic projectors turn on and the scene inside the room turns into a city block, empty save for a man who looks for all the world like the Sargent in Full Metal Jacket who's dressed up in a SHIELD uniform.
"All right," the hologram says, "I would like to first say welcome to all of you potential AEF members for coming to this test! I'm Agent Murphy of S.H.I.E.L.D. You are the trainees. Now, let's quit fooling around and get down to business. The Avengers are looking for a few good super heroes, so they've asked S. H. I. E. L. D. real nice to send me out here. Those things floating up there are cameras. They are gonna take pictures of every move you make. Every blunder and screw-up will be preserved on film. So, understand one thing, if you do not have a special power, whether by luck, grace of god, or your own genius, you cannot take part in this test. This test is DANGEROUS! You must all sign waivers releasing the Avengers from any damages if you should be hurt.
Agent Murphy continues, "now, we don't make the test to intentionally cause you harm. However, you are gonna be on the field with a number of your potential teammates. I'm gonna put you in dangerous situations! If you are not careful and working as a team, you could be hurt by one of your own teammates. This would look bad for both of you! So, rule number one - if you want to impress me, don't get hurt and don't hurt your teammates!
"Then, there's rule number two," shouts the hologram, "… at this tryout, you do what I tell you! Now the Avengers encourage independent action and initiative - BUT YOU ARE NOT AVENGERS! Is that understood? If I say jump, you jump! If I yell at you to bend over and roll in the dirt, you bitches better do it! So, line up! Sound off! I wanna hear some names, trainees! It's time to show you some real action!"
Tony looks far too relaxed at the moment. He notices the drones appearing in the room, particularly the one that keels over dead before it was even breathed upon. "Hmm, must be Hammer Tech." As the hologram tries to act intimidating Tony pulls various snack foods and a sealed bottle out of the pockets of his cargo pants. "Ante up, ladies and gentlemen!" He pushes some of the snack food around so his fellow Avengers can enjoy the proceedings.
Kaji just blinks at the hologram, a brow quirking slightly as he just tilts his head to the side. "The name is Kaji, Kaji Aldewolf." It's just spoken, he's unimpressed. He isn't a military brat, else he might've responded differently.
She-Hulk's grin gets even wider as the program gets up and running. "Man, I remember when I did this. It was just a cheesy back then." She gives Tony a shake of her head. "Sorry, Tony. I didn't bring anything to bet with. And you're supposed to be paying attention to your protg."
Meanwhile, the holographic agent continues to shout at the trainees (who's only Kaji right now). "OK, you trainees," he sneers. "This is what we call the shooting practice. Each of you is gonna get to walk down this street. The idea's real simple-you shoot the bad guys and don't shoot the civilians. In fact, we decided that's too simple so we rigged the bad guys to shoot back. You get shot and you'll get hit with a mild charge, enough to make you tingle. And probably make you nervous. The more you goof up, the stronger the charge gets. So you gotta act real quick."
The hovering camera drones swoop down to record everything Kaji does, including figuring out how to shoot things when he obviously haven't been given a gun. And so the first test begins. When Kaji starts walking down the street, various bad, and good guys start popping out of the woodwork. At first it's fairly easy to identify who's who, and there's plenty of time to make that determination. But as he goes down the street, the time between decisions get less and less, and the distinctions between the two diminish.
"You two are no fun, none at all." Tony comments as he breaks open a small bag of animal crackers. He remembers this test vaguely. Mostly he remembers making fun of it because it reminded him of those old Nintendo games like Hogans Alley. "I think this is a bit unfair," he mumbles around a few cookies thats been stuffed in his mouth. "Not saying he can't handle it but clearly you're not going to see a laser show. We're saving that for another time."
Kaji sighs a bit, pinching at the bridge of his nose. "Why does it have to be shooting practice." He reaches behind him, and unhooks several throwing knives as he starts to walk down the streets. The first few were easy, too easy really. Then they started to become harder and harder, and as they started to get quicker and quicker. The mutant started to run; throwing knives at each bad guy that he thought was the right one. Near the end though, the mutant had run out of throwing knives so he improvised by picking up a manhole cover and throwing that at one of the bad guys. Optimistically? He hopes that he at least got 80% right.
Keld watches this whole process with some curiosity. "Huh. This takes me back. So, this is your baseline qualifier?" he asks Tony. He doesn't take food - no room to carry it on his person in this uniform, and thus he cannot participate in the exchange - but he did nod his thanks earlier, and if pressed, will apologize that he ate yesterday and isn't hungry yet.
"Hmm, more for me then," Tony smirks. He watches the proceedings from his position leaning back in his chair precariously. "If I recall correctly its a three part test. We haven't employed it in ages but I suppose we're feeling a bit nostalgic, Keld."
She-Hulk nods in agreement with Tony. "Three parts. This was just the warm up." She swivels the laptop around so Keld can see the readouts. "See? This tracks his performance, and we can see through the drones here." She watches as Kaji manages to make it through most of the course without getting zapped, but in the end, zapped he gets.
When the course is done, the hologram agent pops up again and yells, "Well, well trainees, it looks like some of you screwed that up a little bit. Tsk, tsk! YOU GOTTA DO BETTER THAN THAT IF YOU WANT TO BE WITH THIS OUTFIT! Do you understand!? This ain't no place for sloppiness!" The street fades from view, leaving the empty training room. "Now, Mr. Avengers representative here is going to ask each of you a few questions. You gotta answer them and explain your answer quickly! To keep things from getting dull, I'm gonna be monitoring a few things like your heartbeat, voice, and stuff. You know, like what they use for lie detectors. So, don't get nervous!"
"That's us," says She-Hulk taking over. She shuffles the papers in front of her around until she finds the questions in questions. "Here," she says, handing a sheet of paper with a question and a place to jot down notes to both Tony and Keld. "Just ask him the question, and see how he responds."
Tony reads over his question while sipping from his drink. "Do I really have to ask this? Who comes up with this stuff?" With a heavy sigh, as if he's feeling his brain cells die off one by one, he asks his question. "You, the wolf with the ninja arsenal! A powerful alien race has dedicated all its people to one goal- the destruction of the Earth and everyone on it." Tony pauses, blinks and turns to Jennifer. "Well if the Earth is destroyed doesn't that mean everyone on its dead? Honestly…" He shakes his head back and forth, "Several times heroes have battled against the forces of this race, driving them back. Now the entire race is coming against the Earth. They will never surrender. Do you let them carry out their plans or wipe out their entire civilization, committing genocide?"
Kaji looks around, noting at the spots where his knives are before Tony starts to speak up. He looks over at the window, and the voice as he listens to the question. He just gets a 'What' look on his face at the question and is probably asking the same question in his mind before he hms a bit. Only taking a moment before says, "Speaking from a hero point of view, I'd have to go against them. I'm protecting the Earth and all life on it. If there's any threat out there that goes against the planet and the people, I will try and go against it. While I don't particularly agree with wiping out an entire civilization to do so, but if it actually takes that much to make them back off and leave us alone. Then so be it."
The question is answered by the man on the spot and Tony takes a moment to consider what he thinks of the answer. "Hmm, they are in route to Earth. Do you not think its at least worth a shot to try and turn them around before it comes to that? What does it speak about our planet if we drop down to their level?"
Kaji shifts his stance a bit, getting slightly relaxed as he speaks, "My answer was as if they were already on our doorstep, ready to assault. But if they were on route, then I would definitely be all for trying to get them to turn around and leave us alone. I'd rather not have to go against them if I didn't have to. Stooping down to their level would only end badly on both sides."
Tony seems pleased by this answer and pretends to be writing something down on the table, which he isn't. He turns to the side to where Keld is sitting. "He's all yours. Don't go too easy on him, he's got to make me look good after all."
Keld nods to Tony. "For some reason they didn't run me through this — I did get to set up a standard PT course for my zukta… uhm… platoon is the closest word."
He takes the page he got from Jennifer, glances over it, and grins wickedly, then waits for Tony and Kaji, after which he shakes his head.
"I hate it when that happens, the cleanup is a pain," he says.
"OK, sho-dakz-clanst, wolf-with-steel-fangs, you have just survived a vicious adventure," and the alien Avenger grins at the next line, " in which super villain agents, working for a multi-national corporation, did their best to kill you and begin a global plot to gain control of all nuclear power. However, before you could stop things, a lot of innocents died. In court, your case is thrown out for lack of evidence and tricky lawyers. They will try again. Do you take matters into your own hands, since the law cannot touch them, or do you let the matter end?"
He looks over at She-Hulk, shaking his head, "yeah, who writes these?"
She-Hulk points a thumb Tony. "He did. And Captain America. I /am/ a defense attorney so my view on this might be a little biased."
Tony looks offended, "I don't recall writing this but in my defense, I was probably drunk at the time."
Kaji just blinks at the question. And then yells, "WHo the hell writes these things!" He shakes his head, pinching the bridge of his nose once more before he lets a breath out. "I'd never go after the lawyers, even if some of them aren't that nice. Though, there're some who're excellent." He's read stories in the paper. When he's bored. "In the end, I would let matters take care of themselves. Almost certainly find myself my own lawyer who would defend me, and plead my side of the case." He isn't Pietro. He can't be in two places at once.
She-Hulk quirks an eyebrow at Kaji. "So you would let these people go for global nuclear domination again without lifting a finger?"
Keld nods, "If I understand it, you did get off, but they are still menacing you and the world with their evil plan. What would you do?"
Tony throws up his hands in defeat. "So sue me. Its not like anyone else comes up with lame questions to ask candidates." Tony is confused at She Hulks question and then hears Kajis response. "Wait a minute, Jennifer got off? What did I miss? Clearly I wrote a better question than I thought."
"Let me look at that," Says She-Hulk leaning over to look at the question. She scans it for a moment before shaking her head in exasperation. "Jesus, Tony. You must have been /really/ drunk when you wrote that. Okay. We'll just toss that out." She reaches into the stack of papers and finds another question which she, herself, will ask. "Ahem. Is it the end of your team? The government has arrived on your doorstep, demanding your surrender. They have evidence of wholesale burglary and murder committed by your group. You know it's framed, but they accept it as real. They want to arrest and imprison you in a special facility. You want to prove your innocence. Do you go along quietly or do you try to escape?"
Tony shrugs as he takes another drink. "This is why we stopped doing these this way, if you recall." He's not sure if they ever agreed upon that at all but it was an out for him to take. "C'mon, help me out here Keld. At least remind me to come up with something better because I'll forget we've had this conversation in five minutes." Tony, the model of ineffective management.
Kaji rubs his forehead as he thinks over the question Keld had asked, then Jennifer's voice comes up and he lets out a sigh. "That figures." Though that is really muttered. Then he listens to Jennifer's question, shifting his stance as he thinks his answer over. "Framed for murder and wholesale burglary. CAn either escape or go with them. If I escape, I can gather up evidence to prove that I'm innoccent, but that also puts me under avoiding arrest under the law. But if I go with them, I'll have an even harder time at gathering evidence to prove my team's innocence as I'd be behind bars. And last time I checked, you only get one phone call." He shrugs a bit and then finishes with, "I'd have to say that I'd have to escape. That way I have a bigger range of possibilities to prove my innocence, and maybe pulling the ones who framed me into the light. Good chances are that they might take the avoiding arrest charge off of me." CSI helps in some cases! Go late night primetime!
"Please tell me this is the end of the Kobiyahsi Maru questions?" Tony whines as he runs out of animal crackers and moves on to the small bag of circus animals. "Truth is, things like that happen all of the time. Put in that particular situation its best to avoid the local law enforcement and seek help from organizations higher up. You have to take into account that anything you try to prove on your own will be frowned upon as well, made up to clear yourself and your team."
Keld says, in an aside to Tony and Jennifer, "I kinda liked the question, do you go after the bad guys who are no longer legally accessible … I think the answer for me would be 'if they do it again, it's a new crime, but make sure they don't come to trial intact' … but that's legal under Dakkamite law, the third rule of escalation."
He listens to this new question. "It depends which of your governments arrested me and whether they think I'm at war with them. Even super-powered criminals have the right to be charged with a crime and are innocent until proven guilty — in this country — but not in many of them. Right?"
Tony turns to face Keld for a moment. "You've got a a point, well several. I don't really fancy being locked up in a plastic box but that's some people's kink, not mine." He really should be taking this more seriously than he is. The truth being that he hired Kaji to protect him and the rest of the Avengers haven't seen all that his friend is capable of, yet.
Jennifer nods at Keld. "True. Here we take due process very seriously, but other countries, especially dictatorships, due process is thrown out the window. Even then, here, there's a lot of grey area when it comes to us and the law, since we really haven't had any kind of legal precedent since before about fifty years ago for this." She chuckles and shakes her head. "Okay. Let's get on with the next test.
"Schoolchildren! Boys and girls, classtime is over! Now it's time to get down to business. Heads up!" At the far end of the room several giant robots suddenly appear between you and Agent Murphy. Their golden, egg shaped form mark them as Mandroids, but clearly they're just roboticized versions of the old relics for when Stane controlled Stark Enterprises. She-Hulk's eyes go wide in surprise as the three robots lumber towards Kaji. "Uh oh."
Kaji looks at the robots as they appear around the room, and he just blinks a bit. "Already, I don't like this idea." He shakes his hands out before starts to run. Aiming to gather up as many knives as he can before they start to attack him, or anything of the sort.
Pausing in mid drink Tony's eyebrows lift in surprise. /Mandroids? For fuck sake!/ The last time he'd seen them was when he pulled all of his tech out post the battles with Stane. This was clearly not a fair fight. "Jennifer, darling…are they holos or are they standing over there because I just re carpeted the room upstairs."
Keld looks back at She-Hulk. "Uh-oh? That doesn't sound right."
He shifts the internal sound-track to something more along the lines of "See Thru" and tries to scan the things. "Are those real or solid-light? What're the capabilities?"
She-Hulk pushes her chair back as she stands up, worry lining her face. "Oh they're real," she says. "There's only supposed to be one of them, and that's supposed to be powered down to where it'd be a challenge for him." She starts to rush around the glass to help Kaji, as the Mandroidbots descend upon him. "Quickly, help me keep them off of him!"
"I knew this was a bad ideas," Tony grumbles to himself. He shoves the chair out from under him, his clothes shredding away as the armor appears, the external bits sailing through the training room to assemble around him as he walks out from behind the glass. "Keep an eye out, don't let them get off the ground."
Keld lifts off the ground, and the papers he was reading from are blown from their neat stack when he moves, FAST, a primary-colored blur heading around the glass, aimed for one of the Mandroidbots.
Kaji grabs about three knives before he shifts into his anthro form, a low growl coming from him as he starts to run towards them. Then he looks back at the two entering the room and he blinks. He seems to take the hint as he hops backwards to get near them in case… well in case things hit the fan.
And things go to hell in a handbasket pretty quickly. The first Mandroid reaches out with a claw to grasp at Kaji, just barely missing him. The second is knocked off balance by Keld's attack, but not before it can aim a neuro-stunner bolt at Tony. The third lumbers towards She-Hulk preparing to meet her in the middle of the room. The woman ducks it's first punch and swings at it full force, making a resounding *KWHANG!* that reverberates across the room. The Mandroid is sent flying back creating a crater in the reinforced wall.
Tony, having designed these things in the past, knows exactly what they are capable of. Hopefully the neuro-stunner was inactive. Having tasted that before he wasn't about to wish it upon anyone else. "Oh hell," he got the warning of the incoming attack on his HUD. Thankfully his systems makes him immune to the stun. "Watch the lasers, this thing has more devices than a swiss army knife!" His hands glow with power as he sizes up the situation. He scans the nearest droid near Keld and fires a shot to its leg just as Keld reaches it.
Kaji reaches down and unsheathes his swords, the blade glowing in a slight nebula-esque blue before there's a click. He separates the swords and readies them against the Mandroid in front of him. If these things could negate a lightning bolt, let's hope they work against this. He does a quick slash at the claw that should be getting drawn back.
With three hostile targets in the room Tony divides his attention between them as quickly as he can. He throws another blast towards Kelds, and another repulsor blast sails towards the target tangling with Kaji. He's lost track of the third that reappears behind him. The magnetic punch blasts into Tony's back sending him spiraling forward to crash into the far wall. Iron Man dropping like a sack of flour to the ground.
Keld is in flight mode, which means that while he landed a punch before, it wasn't anywhere near the She-Hulk's pile driver slam. He strikes at a joint, but the laser erupts in his face before he can react to Iron Man's warning, and there is a waft of smoke and a really FOUL smell… but he doesn't scream, instead spinning to do a low sweep-kick at where he expected the feet to be. That reveals a bit of rather badly laser-burned face in the process. Keld thinks to himself, "I have GOT to start carrying my combat daggers."
"NOO!" shouts She-Hulk as Keld gets lasered in the face. She rushes over to the Mandroid that he's attacking and manages to slam into full force with her shoulder, only catching it after Keld disables one of it's leg servos. The one she put through a wall comes out again and fires a neural bolt at the green giantess, hitting her square in the back of the head. She screams in agony at first, but then goes limp to the ground. Kaji's swords bite into the armor of the Mandroid leaving deep gouges in the thick armor of the claws.
With the gouge in the armor left by his swords, Kaji gets a grin as he can go on the offensive. He hops backwards for a step before he pushes himself back then forwards, sliding along the ground before he applies a dual swing of his swords from the ground up. Aiming to slash at the Mandroid in two parallel lines going diagonally up the robot's body.
The room is quickly filling up with the smell of ozone and burnt, everything. Iron Man shakes off the cobwebs while rising to his feet. Jennifers scream draws his attention immediately. He's sickened by the sight of her falling like a limp noodle to the ground. He activates the repulsors in his boots to send himself flying across the room to land in front of her. A Mandroid now stalks him as he guards the fallen Avenger. Small panels shift on the shoulders of his armor revealing a small panel of explosives that launch toward the chest of the Mandroid causing an explosion that would knock it back if anything, the armor is too thick.
The mandroid that was attacking Keld was knocked away, but he's blinded for the moment, and the explosions have addled his ability to track by sound - blind fighting is only good for so much, after all. He calls out, "Status! Where's my target?" This may well get him the attention of a Mandroid-Bot, if there's one functioning that isn't occupied. Otherwise, it's simply more noise.
"Keld! Get behind me!" Tony being the only one on this side of the room that has a chance or seeing whats coming at them. She Hulk was still down and he's quite sure that Kelds suffered an injury. "I'm directly in front of you. She Hulks between us. I've got a Mandroid in front of me. Anything from your right is all you man!" Tony has just a moment to see that Kaji is slicing up one and the other thats suffered the explosive blast is now charging towards him. Standing his ground he activates the magnetic abilities of his suit to try and repulse the Mandroid. Sadly, it doesn't go as he had hoped. Instead of repulsing it, it attracted it. The Mandriod and Iron Man clang together and end up flying through the back wall into another room.
After the first hit of Kaji's swords, the Mandroid is quick to learn that it's armor is slightly vulnerable to them. It manages to pop up a defensive force field before the swords can make contact, causing them to skid across it. There's a slight hum in the air that emanates from it as well as the smell of ozone and a static charge in the air. Clearly it's preparing to do something. The one that She-Hulk had knocked down and that had lasered Keld gets back to it's feet. A small pod pops off the back of the robot and speeds towards the fallen She-Hulk, a cutting laser firing from it towards her.
Kaji's eyes go wide as his swords skid across the shield in front of him and he backs up a bit before he gulps. Thinking quick, he bolts to the side; aiming to turn it away from the others as he runs up the wall two steps. He leaps off of it, and aims to sail himself over the Mandroid; turning himself in the air to slash the swords down its back.
The skittering sound of something mechanical and the … well, can't really smell it, the blood is in the way, but that edgy waft of ozone from the laser whipping about alarms Keld, and he calls out, "Tony? You OK? I hear a drone, where is it?"
Of course he stumbles trying to face the thing, trying to get between it and She-Hulk… but he's not likely going the right way.
The blades of Kaji's swords skid down the backside of the Mandroid, barely even touching the surface, the force field still protecting it. The laser beam from the drone cuts through She-Hulk's undefended head, neatly decapitating her and nearly bisects Keld with a swoop of the laser. The Mandroid that Kaji was fighting discharges the electricity that it had been building up into a powerful static electric burst that… only tickles when it reaches the wolf hybrid. "I think we've seen enough," comes She-Hulk's voice over the PA. The Mandroids suddenly stop all movement, and the holograms drop revealing an undamaged training room, and three training robots where Keld, Tony, and She-Hulk were. The trio are still sitting safely behind the bullet and powerproof glass, watching Kaji's every move. "Come have a seat," says green giantess, gesturing to a fourth chair, "and let's talk about your performance."
Kaji blinks a bit, and then sheathes the swords; the blue glow fading as the anthro wolf walks back into the room. Looking around the room incase something else happens. Once he gets back into the room, he sits down and takes a moment to thread his tail around his waist to have it hang off the edge. Then, he just stays quiet.
Tony has not seen Kaji enter the room as he has a hand covering his face. The entire fight sequence he watched trying to will Kaji into assisting the other members of the team. When it looked nearly hopeless he removed his clone to hopefully prompt the wolf to step in. Watching Jennifers head severe itself from her body nearly caused him to vomit the junk food he's been nibbling on. An air of disappointment radiates clearly off Stark.
Keld stands at the window watching the now-cleaned training room, hands behind his back, in a relaxed 'at ease' stance. "That was an interesting exercise. I would hate to be in such a battle."
He turns and waits for the others to speak, no particular expression on his face.
She-Hulk gives Tony a knowing, if not sad little smile. "And you thought this was lame," she says, standing up and pushing the laptop towards the man. "I've got an appointment to keep, so I'll let you boys talk it out." Turning to the potential recruit she says, "Good luck, Kaji." She, then turns and walks off.
"I have to preface with this. This has been an exercise in some of the things that Avengers face constantly. From the crazy aliens, to the judicial system, and most importantly teamwork." Tony looks at those gathered around him with a fondness he only reserves for those he considers friends. "We may not all get along. We may be a big dysfunctional family but out there," he gestures away from himself as to encompass the world. "You're only as good as those that fight with you. The number one priority is to protect your team at all costs. Your team, the innocent caught up in whatever mess. It may not be easy, you may have to fall back. I think you've got a better picture at least." Not wanting to sound all doom and gloom Tony looks toward Jennifer and then to Keld. "As of now you're in training. There's quite a lot you have to learn before we're going too all agree that you're ready."
A glance over to She-Hulk before she leaves, and Kaji lets out a soft laugh before he looks back at Tony. While his face doesn't express any emotion, his ears do. As Tony talks, his ears just slowly start to lower before at the end of the conversation; his ears are at the lowest they can go. "I know I didn't do well. Nor did I act like a member of the team. But putting it under the guise as a malfunction of a simulation isn't the best way to put me into a team situation. I didn't know anything going in, and I only so little coming out." He reaches up to rub at his face a bit before he mutters, "I do have a better picture." He'd just love more information about things. But somethings you don't get all the time.
Keld glances first at Tony, then back to Kaji. "In order to prepare for this, I did an extensive study of Avengers records, and learned that several Avengers were accepted with somewhat less qualification than you've shown. Hawkeye applied by breaking in, and tying Jarvis up, which you've so far avoided doing." He shrugs. "I believe you have the raw gifts, but are unpracticed. I would like to see you have the chance to learn, and that's my recommendation."
Tony thinks that the point may be getting lost amongst everything that just happened. "Its as Keld says. You have the gifts but not the experience. You won't get to know what you're facing all the time. If you didn't know what I was capable of could you have fought me? Keld? A walking hamster that kills people by spitting seed grenades?" Tony relaxes back into his chair as he considers his words. "There's a lot you can take from what we've shown you today. Build upon that and learn from everyone here. If we didn't think you had it in you we wouldn't have put you through this."
Kaji nods softly, then blinks at bit at the hamster bit before he says, "I am willing to learn. It's just a lot to take in at once. I've never really been in team battles, mainly solo ones. But, I am ready to learn how to be a part of the team."
"I'm fully confident that you'll be able to adapt to combat with a pack rather than solo," Keld says with a dry sort of tone. "I managed it, at an age not too much younger than you are now. And I think I need to find some weapons if that sort of thing is going to be showing up in our real missions."
After a few words of encouragement to Kaji the head of the Avengers offers Keld a slight smile. "Next time make sure your clone doesn't eat a laser to the face. Tho, it really did improve your looks!" Tony hops up from his chair just in case Keld decides to come after him. "Meeting adjourned!" Quickly he runs out of the room heading upstairs calling out that there's pizza waiting in the kitchen.
