2012-09-05 Avengers Initiative

Second verse, same as the first. Clint Barton shows up at Stark Tower. Again. He got the suit on. Again, though he did leave the sunglasses off this time. He is carrying a rather plain looking manilla envelope. Again. And he is lead through the labyrinth of help desk smiles, though this time he comes armed with a memo for a meeting this evening, so he eventually does get directed towards the offices of one Tony Stark. Straightening his tie, he gives a short series of knocks on the outer door of the office.
Pepper Potts looks toward the door from where's she's seated in front of Tony's desk with her tablet computer in hand. Then she stands and goes to answer the door. It's probably Agent Barton, right on time. Good thing, too. If he'd been late, Tony would probably have skated out or gone back to that computer game he's been working on. She opens the door to see who's out there.
Tony Stark is doing the only thing he can do at this moment... play with his phone. Controllers have been confiscated. And he's already looking more bored than he normally would looking as the person scheduled to arrive... actually arrives. This pretty much means that he's not going to get the chance to skate out of here. Not that he was planning to. At all. Really. Honest.
When Clint turns towards the door, he blinks a few times as he sees Ms. Potts. Still, he offers a professional smile and nods his head. "Ms. Potts," he says evenly. "I recieved your summons, glad you could find somewhere to squeeze SHIELD into Mr. Stark's busy schedule." Yes, he's maintaining a professional tone, all the while attempting to peek around Pepper at the man in question.
"Agent Barton. Thank you for being prompt. Come in." Pepper steps aside to let Clint step into the room proper, and waits so she can close the door behind him. She knows Tony was hitting his boredom limit, so she really hopes that this guy isn't going to play the role of some pedantic paper pusher. 'Cause Tony will blame HER for wasting his time. She suspects that won't be the case, though. This guy still makes a little part of her brain go 'DANGER, WILL ROBINSON! DANGER!'
"Ugh! Lost again!" Stark narrows his eyes at his phone and drops it down to this desk. Angry Birds. Apparently, they call it that for a reason. Anyway, he's looking up and leaning back in his chair to get even more comfortable since this meeting is finally about to get underway. "Alright. Let's get this ice cream truck on the road, right?" He grins and tosses his hands behind his head. "What do you want and how much is SHIELD willing to pay for it?" It obviously has to be about his genius.
"Absolutely. I am nothing if not punctual," Clint says with a hint of pride and a smile. As soon as there is any room for Clint to get through, he does so and crosses the room, extending his free hand to Stark. "Tough loss there, sir, I'm sure," he says, giving a bit of empathy before transferring to business. "This will be a quick meeting if you need to get to some social gathering, sir. And this is not Stark Industries business. This is Avengers business," he says bluntly. A momentary glance is given back towards Pepper, as to suggest 'Can the dame be trusted?' Only...more politely. Probably.
Pepper Potts closes the door after Clint then returns to the chair she'd been in before, tapping at her tablet as she walks. She's starting up a voice recording program and then a word document type program over the top of the voice recorder, in case anyone is sharp-eyed enough to pick that up. Once she's settled in her chair, she opens another little window, into which she types with the speed of much practice. She's asking JARVIS to monitor everything about the room while the SHIELD agent is present.
Stark is smiling. "... The Avengers?" Tony is almost ready to play dumb but since this is not the time to be doing that, he's more than willing to give this Agent the time of day. Not to mention Pepper wants to be kept in the loop about this kind of stuff so he might as well let it all happen right now. "What about them?" Tony obviously doesn't seem to mind if they talk business in front of Pepper because he doesn't even budge at Clint's glance towards her. Stark also ignores the handshaking foolishness in favor of getting right down to business.
Clint quirks and eyebrow at that. "Okay," he says before setting his hand back down and shifting his hands such to open his folder and pull out a few sheets of papers. Field reports. "As it should go without saying, this is all highly confidential. If it leaves this room, I was never here. Understand?"
He doesn't pause for a second before he starts to set out the reports, followed by a rather...gruesome set of pictures. Full color photographs of various corpses with large holes carved out of their chest, as well as mechanical heart looking devices that have suffered major damage. A final picture is displayed showing a New York back alley with severe explosive damage.
"Mr. Stark, have you ever heard of the Jiang Jixie?"
Pepper Potts looks up from her tablet as the papers are pulled from the folder, but luckily Clint does try to offer them to Tony directly so she doesn't have to run interference. Her eyebrows draw together slightly at the name 'Jiang Jixie', but it's completely unfamiliar to her, so she says nothing.
"Not legally."
Stark is all for making it known that he doesn't know something but not completely. JARVIS is already hard at work looking up any and all references to Jiang Jixie ever. It's good to have AI Super Computer things at one's disposal. As for Stark, though, he's focused on checking out these pictures. He doesn't cringe or anything. But he does narrow his eyes at each picture that has a hole carved out of their chest. He has a hole in his chest.
Frown.
Clint nods his head a bit at that. "Not surprised," Clint says. "I just learned about them myself. They are..."
And with that, there is a light ding before JARVIS pipes up. "Jiang Jixie are a currently rumored Chinese bio-organic project that animated human corpses, housing small napalm-fueld battery cells. The term loosely translates to Dead Engine. Sir."
Clint raises a brow at that. "So, as I was saying. They're robot zombies. We have taken to calling them 'Zombots'. And we have found cells of them here in New York, as well as others in Gotham and Detroit. So far, news hasn't broekn out, but it really is only a matter of time at this point." He pauses before adding, "This is a clear issue for national security, but we've kept this one close to the chest thus far. We have reason to believe that the Yellow Claw is involved."
Pepper Potts blinks in surprise at JARVIS's words. "Wait, is this related to that strange explosion in Gotham?" Yes, she reads more than the NY Times. And she looks concerned. What she hasn't done, though, is look at those photos. Don't need those images in her head, thank you very much.
Stark is still staring at the photographs while listening to JARVIS and Agent Barton at the same time. This is not good. These things are in his city and his city is under his protection. Well, his and Spider-Man. He does share the city with that wisecracking menace. "We need to cut these things off at the source. Yellow Claw or Blue Velvet. It doesn't matter. These things don't get another chance to hurt anyone else."
Tony looks up from one of the photos, letting it slip from his fingers and down onto the desk. "You guys got a plan? Or shall I make the call?" Somebody's ready to go to work. NOW.
"We're operating on a concerned, discplined approach," Clint says with measured eveness. "We're trying to find Claw, see if we can get close enough to him to cut this off at the head." He clear his throat a bit. "That may take time though, and the Avengers should be on guard for if this blows before we can take care of it." He actually cracks a slight grin. "Remember when I said I was never here? My boss might necessarily know that I'm here either." Pause. "Actually, /he/ probably does, but that's just because of who he is."
He glances over towards Potts with a slight nod. "It was related, yes. According to a friend of mine, a couple dozen of these monsters were discovered. And he can't confirm that there aren't any more free out there. Or here. Or anywhere else."
Clint glances back towards Stark. "So. Can SHIELD anticipate the Avengers support in this matter? I hear you have an in with them, and if you could pass this information on? Much appreciated."
Pepper Potts blinks at Tony's sudden seriousness. She knows that expression and tone of voice. They mean he's prepared to do everythign in his power (which not an inconsiderable amount) to get this fixed. Looking back down at her tablet, she hastily pulls up her boss's appointment book. She's ready to clear his calendar for as long as is deemed necessary.
Tony still looks as though he's ready to jump into action and completely kick all kinds of Zombot ass. But once he hears that there's some sort of plan of attack that's being done, he seems to relax. Just a bit. "The Avengers will be ready to Assemble." is all he has to say about the problem now that he's been filled in. He's sure that JARVIS will finish giving him all the details needed to prepare to take these things out quickly and safely, as to minimize damage and protect innocents. There's nothing wrong with being prepared.
The promise actually draws a wide grin from Clint as he reaches down to sweep up the photographs, but leaving the field reports behind. "Feel free to read those in your free time, should give you a rather extensive idea of how the bastards work, and just how dangerous they are. Spoiler: pretty damned dangerous." He takes a step back. "We will be in touch, and...thank you for your support in this." He turns his head and nods towards Ms. Potts. "And thank you for finding us the time for this meeting."
Pepper Potts stands as Clint looks to be ready to depart, accepting his thanks with a polite smile and nod. "Of course. Shall I keep your contact information, Agent Barton?"
Clint gives a simple nod to Pepper as he starts to turn to leave. "You have my number. If anything comes up or you have a question or...really, any reason at all Ms. Potts, feel free to reach out to me." He offers a snappy salute to both before turning on his heel and moving swiftly out of the room, folder tucked under his arm. There is work to be done, keeping the world safe.
Pepper Potts follows Clint to the door, closing it after him as he departs. Of course, she can't help but mentally replay his comment about contacting him for any reason at all. She consciously chooses to think he meant any /business/ or heroish kind of reason. Because the other option... no. Just, no.
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