August 14, 2016:
Starfire and Bluebird visit (sneak upon in the second case) Nathaniel at the SHIELD junkyard
A SHIELD's depot near New York
Descripted on log
Characters
![class="image1"](http://cmbeta.wdfiles.com/local--resized-images//class="image1"/medium.jpg)
NPCs: None.
Mentions:
Plot:
Mood Music: None.
Fade In…
Nathaniel has been keeping Starfire more or less up to date with the Avengers’ development. Which has not been as good as he expected as Nick Fury decided to give them just some cover support instead of a the more official thing he wanted. Small wonder, though, since Fury barely knows Nathaniel, and although Falcon and the Black Widow are in, they barely know Nate either.
Maybe he was too optimistic, but he had a few backup plans. For now, though, he has been spending a good deal of time in the SHIELD’s depot/junkyard, working on some kind of flying device and checking the rather archaic pieces of Earth tech they have been given. Today, though, he invited her to come in, so when the young woman materializes she can see the old hangar with the Quinjet, or rather, the shell of a Quinjet, as Nathaniel has pretty much torn it apart and is replacing engines, fuel tanks and most electronics with advanced mechanisms he is building with his armor.
Said armor doesn’t look much on armor. Nathaniel wears the gloves and a headpiece. Holographic screens surround him, datastreams flowing at high speed and pieces of circuitry floating on anti-gravity beams get cut, fused, modified and rebuilt. Looks like he is a one-man electronics factory.
The beam that deposits Starfire to the location Nathaniel requested leaves a backdrop of blue iridescence. It fades, with the contours of a voluptuous silhouette and leaves behind the Tamaranean Princess, tawny skinned, flame huen hair that shifts in every motion, a red to orange, to yellow and heated with every motion.
Though every step among the scrap yard, Kori is swerving and sweeping around edges, picking up a piece of scrap..
"Be careful, earth bacteria is dangerous."
"Tetanus K'tten.."
"I don't recall asking you.."
"I do not want to administer the shots..or is it rabies?"
Key clacking..
Starfire sighs and spins the oval-shaped pan upon fingertip, an as it moves and picks up pace it becomes heated, reddening and reforming against cool air.
"So, what is it you want of this old ship?" Pupilless green gaze slides from the jet to Nathaniel with a perk of brow.
“I am quite sure Earth virus and bacteria cannot interact with Tamaranean biology,” interrupts Nathaniel. He steps out of the whole holographic chaos, and the hardware slows down to halt, missing the architect. “I am building a… an anti-grav shuttle. Because the Avengers need a signature vehicle and because the Starfire will not always be suitable, or available. Also, I need to impress Fury and SHIELD’s engineers with high-tech machines they can build with current Earth industrial capabilities yet are well ahead of anything they have.”
"Annnd probably try not to piss off the team leader while you're building it. If he -is- the teamleader. The other bird." Harper rather liked that guy. But..
..just where in the hell did she come from? How long was she there? Who in the hell let her in!
The batkids/folks were considered mutants of the ilk and their uncanny ways of doing things, though where one would expect a cloak and ears, all most got was a leather jacket, a belt full of bobs and ends and things of that nature, a Really Big Gun (tm) strapped to her back and a pair of leather gloves. Nevermind the helmet off to the side. Her bike is around here somewhere.
And she was crouched, no less. Which was laughable, but she was busy picking up washers from the ground, rubbing them with her hands to check for decay. Washers are a girl’s best friend.
Starfire frisbees the super-heated disc towards Nathaniel, flicking it from fingertip just before she dips around the old disabled quint's side.
Bluebird's appearance and words stop the pace, bare feet ringed at the enkles in purple bangles reform, a digitallized sudden streth of amrmor to mid-thigh, the same gloving hands from gauntlets that suddenly glow perse.
Nevermind the trigger happy, gun-shy alien. She has been dealing with high tension and it has become her like a demon with the hatred avidly spreading with the phobics. But at least here she is a bit safer? Who's to know, after SHIELD and the DEO's approach she has still been skirting them both and avoidant. So coming here is a step, one step on an edge that has her levitating from the ground in a tail of flames beneath armored feet to stare eye to eye with Harper.
"Who's this?" The narrowed emerald gaze of Starfire's upon Harper, widens a bit in a curiousity that almost seems feline if it did not come with that comet tail of heat in circumference as she circles…
"Doesn't matter, rabies looks as bad as tetanus and we are not all set to immunity against everything. Fleas suck."
"I don't have fleas!"
"No… But you could…"
"Don't touch me!!"
*CLATTER*
Starfire sighs and turns down her comm, once more looking to Nathaniel and then to Harper. "Stop me if I am wrong… But if we outdo anything Earth's SHIELD has…. They'll not be happy with us." Pause. "Then take all our toys."
Touch her ship, she dares them…
Nathaniel catches the disk with a magnetic field. “Careful there, if you fry something important I will not make it in time for dinner,” he protests. “Starfire, Bluebird. Blue is from Gotham and she is still thinking about joining. But she is shy, I think.” He beams a smile to the bat-person.
“Also, I want SHIELD wanting the Quinjet,” which won’t have five jets, or even one jet. But he is going to try to make it look like a Quinjet. “I will gladly pass them the blueprints. I want SHIELD having a hefty technological advantage over Hydra, AIM and whatever else comes. Oh, Spider-Man told me Alchemax is currently called Allen Industries. Which is very interesting. Alchemax would be the most powerful, most vile megacorp at the end of the century. It is good to have them identified.”
Inspections were abound, It wasn't that Bluebird already had the beat on them but she was already there cleaning up the place. Sometimes people come and go, in which she would steal off into the shadows, and even if they knew that she was present she wasn't always /there/. Wrap your brain around that one!
(SPOILERS: She probably bugged the place.)
'Bluuuuuueee..' Cullen says over their own personalized comms. '..So I think I burned the chili mac, can I go out with my friends for dinner?'
Harper eyes shift to the left though it may be unseen through the lenses, keeping quiet on that subject as she focuses upon the odd looking duo. As Nathaniel makes introductions, Bluebird stands and turns, drawing her head downward as she opens up a pouch to dump a few washers inside. "I'm not .. threatening.. or whatever you people call it." Flick of the wrist! She was busy. She had no clue what Alchemax was, or why SHIELD wanted whatever Nathaniel was building.. all of this corporate stuff was for the birds.
"Honestly, I'm with tall fiery and pretty here. I don't think it's best for you to show your hand to those folks.."
And there she was, ducking down behind a mound again, the sound of clatter the only thing giving notice that she was there.
Starfire slips aside when Nathaniel identifies Bluebird, watching here and there as the dark woman (reminiscent of K'tten but… Blue) slips off to still converse from behind piles of outdated refuse.
"Program it to downplay to them, it can do whatever off screen. I don't trust them." A deep breath and elaborate! "Any of them." There.
"She reminds me of Dick.." Another glance to Blue and then away she lowers back to the ground, the digitallized formation of armor running off her like a techno-water to remain simply decoration and jewelry but shown to be anything but.
"I do not know the places or people you speak of, but this planet is boiling down to vile and corruption. It's my home, so who am I to argue? I'll settle for fighting in it's stead." A flick of wrist in a gesture just before she plops down on the hood of an old Hum-Vee, a hand smoothing over the dented surface, making it glow red before she sinks fingers into the bow and pulls the dent out, sealing the surface so she could recline back in comfort with the windshield as a backrest.
"I still do not know what you want of me in your Avenging."
“I hope we can trust SHIELD,” replies Nathaniel. “Otherwise we are not going be able to do much. Kori, I told you, if we want a good place to live, we need to change the way events are developing. We need the people to have heroes they can trust. We need a team of people able to fight on all fronts against world-spanning organizations. We are going to need SHIELD. You are a powerful warrior, and you are my friend, so I want you at my side. Avenging? Ah, hopefully we will protect more than avenge. But if we cannot protect, there will be avenging, yes.”
"There's things like that? You'd only see that shit in Star Trek!" Harper comments from her little hovel, the top of her head seen briefly, then not at all.
"Dick? You know him?" Harper surely does, though what she knows of him is kept quiet. She hasn't seen him in months despite traveling around the same circles. Ooh, another piston, but it was ruined, she settles back upon her bottom to carefully twist off the top, fingers digging in to pry off the chain that surrounds the circle to soon hang upon her wrist like a bangle. The metal is tossed behind her, and she was yet again on the prowl.
Her head pops up, watching as Kori affects the hum vee like so, her brows raising and head ducking off again. Hearing his speech however, it -nearly- moves her. Nearly. Though there was one catch to it all, the avenging. It was a slippery slope that she's never really had to discuss with another. The killing part of avenging.
"Eventually SHIELD is going to do something that we don't like. What then? We.. no you guys are better off solo.." She rises from the depths with a muffler, which was ruined and rotten. And with that, she walks over towards Starfire, holding it out towards the woman as if it were a peace offering. "Help? Please"
D'aww, it was so cute.
"I…" Kori's lips part and then close, a crinkle in brow that seems to affect her in finding the definition. "..have know Dick since my first time here. Well." A glance towards Blue's direction and then towards Nate as he speaks up.
"There is never an easy way with politics and right or wrong. Lately even going out is a battle for me and mine because of this…xenophobia and all the hatred. Fear. When I have done nothing but want to help. I have no other home now to run to. Dick… was part of making me feel like this was home my first time here. This time…"
A pause as Harper presents her the metal exhaust, touching over it and turning up her comm. "K'tten. Blueprints." A whir and the headset produces a visor over one eye and it projects much akin to Nathaniel's before she so poorly interrupted him…
"It's primitive construction Koriand'r. You can fix the shell but the fumes are still beyond date and not healthy for the ozone because the converter that will connect is beyond even current day emission standards for Earth…"
"She asked, nicely."
Sigh.
The shell heats, metal reforms as the perse glow begins to pop and bubble the surface and fingertips sweep over it to slowly stroke the rusted bits to metallic flakes in her lap and what is left is a layer of reformation, like pottery in the hand-kiln.
"I am looking to start a magazine with my modelling company, we need people even humans, to model, make statements. Be faces for equality, in that I have to be careful. Solo is not an option." Kori states as she hands the muffler back to Harper once the heat fades to touchable.
Looking towards Nathaniel then as well, a shoulder rises and falls. "I will help, but my aid is my own to give or take. I will not report to corporations bearing too many (or few) letters."
“Eventually I might also do something you do not like. Are you going to ditch me?” Nathaniel looks at Bluebird women with a frown. “No, we need to learn to live with some unpleasantness. Compromise and negotiate when we can, accept what we cannot change, and focus in the task, which more important than our opinions or even our lives.”
Yes, Batman would probably scowl at the very concept of compromising his ideals. But he is the largest fish in Gotham. None here is the largest fish in the Earth. Even if they had Superman, Black Adam and Thor in the team, they couldn’t get away with all they want. “It is not just a question of power and righteousness, ladies. We need the support of Earth’s law-enforcers and law-makers. At least those that have been elected democratically.” Kori got it. Politics. Dirty world in some circles. But she was raised as an aristocrat, so she probably understands.
“A magazine of modeling company as a platform for social statements, Kori?” Would that work. He needs to think about it. “But you did offer to talk for people like us before. I think it is a good idea.” He smiles, “it is easy to love you.”
"He has that way about him." Harper confesses, "You know, making everything seem alright and that everyone has a home. Alls they gotta do is lay down roots." Her lips scrunch up, gaze lingers uncomfortably as she suddenly brightens. "Not that he's ever told me that!" Though there was a certain silence as Kori begins to work on rejuvinating the muffler, her jaw tensing as the molten flakes fall into the womans lap. Drawing back that big sisterly need to shake out a handkerchief and scold the woman with a batting of her lap to clean her off. She 'used' to fuss over Cullen like that; but now that he was a seventeen year old boy it's been too hard to let that part go.
"Uh.. me? Model?"
Her chin lifts to show up the pair of cats claw scars embedded within her flesh as she lifts parts of her mask, not to mention the way her nose is somewhat crooked from being broken too much. Hell, there was even a black eye she still sports and faints of discoloration could be seen beneath the leathers. "Naw. I'll set up your webpage though and make it look awesome. Throw some VNV Nation on the backdrop.." Muffler in hand still doesn't stop that snap of her fingers.
"Oh, you do a lot that I don't like already. You invade Gotham with your fancy tech.. thanks for the help, cutey patootie by the way, and you don't give a girl a reach around with your schematics. I mean, you're a man. You're supposed to read my mind and hand over the blueprints without me asking. And seriously, what's a girl gotta do to get a burger when she shows up in these parts?" Granted, she's kidding.
"Tell you what, metal-head. How about you drop the armor and live with me for a week in the Narrows. You want to know unpleasantness? I was born in it. When you had your first taste in it I was probably already knee deep in my daddy's liquor with his fist smashing against my face."
(Total shitty line-steal from Bane in the Dark Knight Rises. 'Shadows.. blah blah blah born in it blah blah blah).
"Being who I am is a huge ass compromise by the way, totes sure I got that down pack." She shakes the muffler towards Nathaniel, then turns to stalk off towards another high mound. "Honestly Starfire ma'am.. if you do not put Iron Guard on the cover with his chest exposed I will not read a lick of those pages! PHHHHEWWWW!"
And as she disappears behind the mound.. she's gone. Bat people. They're dicks.
A low exhale as Nathaniel reminds her… Starfire has a look, and a voice. A way of garnering attetion if it is wanted or not. A sidelong shifted look goes from Nathaniel to her lap littered in old rust bits. Hands plant upon the hood of the Hum-Vee and she slides from it to touch down on the ground and let it all fall away.
"You can't make everything seem like anything. We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are…" A look from Harper as she reveals the scarring, bruising and battered facade.
"I still see beauty and I came back home. Sometimes the truth, no matter how ugly, is what people need to see. Scars, bruises, and all. You do it for your home and those in it, right? Why not show them. It matters not to me though instead of solo… With us it may lighten the blows."
Nathaniel then gets a regard with a small smile. "Get the girl a burger and some unburnt chili-mac would ya? I want a milkshake… "
Blink.
"Iron Guard? I'll talk to my agent. But only if you consider…" A glance to Nate as well. "Both of you. That's my reach around."
And in a backdraft of heat Kori takes to the sky followed in a flicker of blue light she is gone.
“How about a flying motorcycle, Blue?” Offers Nathaniel. Oh, he would definitely take on her offer to live in the Narrows for a time. He lived in Ancient Egypt almost a year, it was fun. Sometimes. “By the way, you dropped something.” He picks one of the bugs she planted. “Seriously, no need to spy on me, I will also give you the blueprints of the plane. Maybe your boss can afford to build one.”
He doesn’t really see Blue (or any batperson) posing for a modeling magazine, but it is going to be amusing to tease her about it. “You two come back soon, hmm?” He offers are farewell. Back to work.