2014.07.10 - Meeting Of The Minds

The office doors opened up and a man with dirty blond hair strutted in. On his person was a long red coat with various accents that looked out of this world. One of the shoulders had what looked like armor, same went for the same arm's forearm. Black boots stuck out of matching jeans and he wore a blue t-shirt. In a sea of people wearing power suits, he stood out like a sore thumb.
Walking up to the front desk Star-Lord gave an award winning smile, "I gotta talk to the boss. What floor is he on?"
The desk jockey looked unmoved. People walked in all the time acting like they owned the place, "Do you have an appointment?"
"Don't need one," Pete was quick to respond. "Alien royalty, all that fun stuff. Just tell me where he's at," he was speaking as if it was all true.
An odd look was given by the desk worker and he began to call security. He talked about the guy claiming to be an alien prince but looking quite human. Chances are an incident this strange was reported to Tony himself, or passed along a com-channel that he monitored.
Meanwhile, up in Tony's office, looking over some new data on Extremis - almost the last iteration before his next step: Experimentation. The security desk informs him that "Alien Royalty" is coming up to visit him.
Sigh. The last time "Alien Royalty" visited, he ended up dead.
He walks over to a recessed area in his office, and accesses his armor. He quietly slips on the left gauntlet and activates it and returns to his desc. If he has to scramble at least he has the option of shooting first.
Something he learned from a fellow scoundrel somewhere.
"I assume he's already on his way up, Jimmy, thanks."
Nothing to do now but sit back and wait for the King, Prince, or whatever they were calling themselves.
Heading into an elevator Peter smiled. "Can't believe that worked," he said for the cameras he knew were rolling. Opening the door he was all smiles for Tony, "You need better secuirty. I can't believe that actually worked!" Peter liked to poke holes in his own story. People were very skepitcal to believe emails that an Israeli Prince needed money was a real Prince. Using that same mentality, Peter would flaunt the credentials then made himself look like a conman with a bad cover. It was perfect because the conman presumptions were his cover. In truth he was an alien prince, but the world didn't need to know that.
Sitting down opposite of Tony, "So I need a spaceship. I'm sick of flying my clunker out across the milkyway and into places like Daxam. By the way hands off She-Hulk, I met her out in space and I'm...well...Green is my favorite color," putting his feet up on Tony's desk, Peter leaned back. Placing his feet on the desk he asked, "So, how much would one cost?"
Tony. Just. Blinks.
After a moment, Tony replies, "It worked because you're not the first Nigerian Space Prince to flounce through my office door. When someone comes in with a story like that, they skip Go and come directly to me because I'm a little better equipped to deal with an alien threat than my security is, which is more accustomed to dealing with more native threats."
Tony sits back in his seat, relaxes a little. "So. Spaceship. Well..it's not like I'm the local intergalactic JD Byrider. I don't have 'em lying around and I don't happen to build them for funsies. I'm more into custom builds and single seaters if you know what I mean. Congrats on She-Hulk. She's good people. I'd say she's not my type, but hell, if you know me you know that's not exactly the case."
He steeples his fingers, fully mindful of the gauntlet on his left hand. "So let's start with your name. I promise I won't laugh."
"How far out have you been? I can tell you how to get to a few dive stops on some asteroids and moons. Good food, better drinks, and all at a cheap price," for a moment Peter ignored Tony's question. He just wanted to see how far Tony had been out in outerspace, if at all.
Whatever the answer was it didn't stop Peter from a follow up. His voice became serious, "Ever since some of the first stories came up about you...it's clear you have a knack for science and have all the right reasons motivating you. You do it for the Science. Look at your competitors," Peter waved his hand about while speaking, "Wayne is into defense. Luthor only recently got into really moving ground with inter-planetary potential, and Hammer is a man that can't dance then has the gaul to call himself a scientist," then he stared Tony in the eyes. "Maybe it won't be you, maybe it'll be a son or a daughter, but if anyone finds a way to get in on the space game they'll have Stark in their last name. It's why I came to you. Plus you're the guy that introduces himself at public events with seven scantly clad, dancing Ironets, Iron-Ladies..?" he stumbled over what to call those dancing girls. "So chances are that's the guy that would find a way to equip the ship with a fully stocked mini-bar. Space travel is long and kinda boring sometimes. The drinks help," how he spoke so casually about space travel told a story. The story was quite simple, this "prince" saw space and he saw it often yet he looked human.
"Name's Peter Jason Quill by the way," his feet slipped off the desk and he extended a hand to Tony. The gauntlet was noted, but Peter kept his hando out there. Yes, Peter was trying to shake the armor-coated hand.
Tony leans across the desk and offers the armored hand, since Peter was going for that one. "Peter Jason Quill. Sounds awfully New England for being from out of town. Call me Tony." he says, tone growing more friendly and relaxed seeing that this alien Prince isn't trying to kill him. "I've been out there.." he says, "..but it wasn't very long and very localized. Spent some time on Apokolips, if you're familiar. Not exactly club med." he looks around, and then leans in, "I have the capability. I have a space worthy configuration I've worked into my suits, so it's something I can do. It might take some time, though, so I hope you're not in a hurry." he says, nodding. "But yeah, it'll be me. Though someone down the line may be able to improve on what I do. I've been working on some stuff since I got back, and if you've been out there and have seen some stuff, I'd be willing to do some trading if you're interested." he says, tone very matter of fact.
"Ironettes, by the way. Like Rockettes, but with better legs."
Peter openly winced at the name Apokolips. It's clear he was familiar with that planet, "You...I'm sorry," was all Peter could muster about Tony having seen Apokolips. "Poor bastard," was Peter's thoughts. Whatever wrongs Tony had done on Earth didn't merit a trip to that dreaded rocky wasteland.
"Need some help? I stole a ship from a few places. Earth tech is primitive when it comes to space travel," Peter casually dipped his hand inside his coat. Pulling out a gun, it was red and white and lit up at Peter's touch. When he placed it on the desk, the lights immediately died. It was clear from the start he had no ill-intentions.
When Tony held it in his hands the gun looked like a cosplayer prop. "It's DNA coded to me. That's just the tech on my gun. I've seen a few blue prints in my day. If you need some help making something bigger...you can just ask. I've got a Masters to boot if that helps," Peter didn't expect the meeting to turn into an impromptu job-interview.
Tony hrmmms. He takes off the gauntlet. It's surprising small, given the armor - it only went up to his wrist. He sets it on the table next to the gun, "Well, at least I got that part right." he grins to Peter, mentioning the DNA lock. "Prints would be handy. I can make sense of those, Learn how to make what I'm looking at and make what I'm building better. Yeah, I thinkw e can work together."
He sits back in his chair, "Yeah, Apokolips. It needed done. Darkseid was threatening Superman. Earth. All of us. We had to go in there and stop him. It also required a sacrificial lamb, so.." he pauses and shrugs, "Baa." he says. Then he taps his chest, "Came back with a couple of souveniers, so I might be able to work some of that into things. If I do this, I'm going to want your help with something."
"And that something is?" Peter asked. He was curious about what Tony Stark, of all people, needed help with? Planetary travel made sense because Earth didn't have the means. With the right tools Tony probably could have moved planets if someone gave him a year in a place like the Kree homeworld with access to their tech.
All the talks about Tony being the sacrificial lamb caused a shrug from Peter, "What do you think caused the space community to get all uppity? Darkseid, Thanos and a few others move, it causes the stars to shiver. It's why I'm trying to watch the area a little more, be a thorn in a few sides, and all that," yes that was the truth in the matter. Darkseid went after his home so it brought Star-Lord out of hiding.
Tony Stark nods, "Then hopefully you'll be on board for this. I don't have time for government red tape or for SWORD and SHIELD to get traction. I need to defend the planet /yesterday/. That means I need as much help as I can get. If you have a clue on how to do that effectively against the ones that aren't gonna come all the way here to play a concert over Devil's Tower, I'm all ears. I've got some ideas, but I want to know what others are doing on their own planets, and that's intel I just don't have."
"Are you talking like a planetary defense weapon or raising an army to go against something?" as the quesiton came out Peter wondered what had Tony so spooked. Soemthing had to move this guy to make such a request. His eyes just watched Tony's body movements. He was trying to figure out how nervous Tony got over this thread too.
Tony isn't nervous, but he's very focused. This is one of those things that Tony, for all his attitude, takes pretty seriously. "I haven't really told anyone what happened out there, but I got a real good taste of what Darkseid and his cronies are capable of. I want to protect Earth from that kind of threat." he sits back and rubs his chin, "I know we're by and large primitive and backwater here, and it's only gonna be a matter of time before word gets out to the other baddies that we're relatively easy pickings. I'm just out to make those pickings as difficult as possible." he pauses and looks back at Peter, "I don't want anyone else to ever have to go through what I have."
"Gets out? You're talking like it hasn't happened yet," the same focused look was shot back at Tony. "Earth harbors the last traces of a revered race that was rumored to be extinct for years. It's the host home of the last martian, or one of, Asgardians roam the planet side, and this is just what I can think off the top of my head. Like it or not, Earth is becoming the new mysterious kid on the playground and all the other kids are noticing it," Peter tried to set the record straight. Between the Kryptonians, the last Martian, the Spardaxian Prince claiming to be Part-Earther and the Asgardian presence Earth was on a lot of radars.
"My honest answer: get the Asgardians and the Space Cops to help you with this project too," the words were serious despite any lightness that may have lingered in Peter's voice. Tony was going to need a lot more help than Peter's. Earth had a lot of untapped potential though, so it was probably to make a formidable defense. "Maybe the Kryptonians too. Yeah, Daxam is very interest in Earth...Luckily they're mostly peaceful."
Tony Stark nods, "I plan on doing just that. The Lanterns are easier to tap than the Kryptonians, because there's few and they're more busy. I'm also tight with Thor and his crew so I've got that going for me, which is nice. I'm trying to work indepdently. The League is way busy, and spread thin. The Avengers will want to help, but I'm also most of their resources, which I'm trying to up. I've got a plan, but there's parts of it I'm still fleshing out."
Nodding Peter approved of Tony's plan thus far. In theory the building blocks were there, "I can help out with that. You've got everything going for you," it was an honest assessment. "What are you building?" the million dollar question came out. Well, it was probably a trillion dollar question if people accounted for labor, outsourcing for Thor and Alien tech, but who was counting?
Tony sits back, "Well, I've never done planetary defense before so it's trial and error, mostly. I'm thinking satellite style monitors throughout the solar system so if anything tries to enter or jumps in suddenly from somewhere else, it'll raise an alarm and we can get an assessment. I jacked an AI from Apokolips that I want to integrate into that network. Probably staggered defense grids, and if anything gets close than Jupiter some kind of deployable defense. Nothing manned. I don't want anyone to have to personally engage until it's a necessity. I took some notes from assaulting Apokolips, so there's stuff from both sides of that I want to work into it."
"Careful with the AI. You could create a new boom tube signal," Peter warned before he sat back and lowered his feet. Thinking on, he looked down, "What if you had the Martian's permission to use Mars?" The question was innocent. Yes it was an area that had to be tread over lightly, but a barren planet was a barren planet. Mars had caverns too, places to hide people and things. Strategically it could have been a great location.
Tony points at Peter, "Good point, I hadn't thought about that. I should double check for that, just in case. Good idea about Mars, too. It /is/ kind of a touchy subject, but on the other hand, Manhunter will no doubt know things about Mars that we would never know. It might be barren, but having someone who knows the geography would be great if he's willing to help utilize that space."
He nods and rubs his chin, "Yeah. This definitely is starting to get some traction." he looks back to the alien Royal, "So planetary defense aside, when do you want to get to work on your ship?"
"Only appointment I had today was with that hotdog cart down the street," Peter smirked at Tony. He was ready to work now. Or at least he was ready to work once he had a hotdog with extra onions. "After that I -should- be free if you are." he grinned ear to ear and sat up. "Unless you'd rather wait a day or two," he was teasing Stark. A scietist probably would have jumped at the chance to work on new technology with an alien.
Tony smirks as he sits back, "I can have the hot dogs brought in. As many as we can scarf down while we work. We can talk about everything in the armory while we start laying out systems." he cocks his eyebrow, "Pete. I think this is gonna be the beginning of a beautiful friendship." he says, smirk spreading into a grin.
"So what are we...like Science-Bros now?" Peter asked, agreeing with Tony about the relationship in his own round about way. So far his recent return to Earth was going good. She-Hulk and him spent some time on Daxam, and he was looking to follow it up. Tony Stark had just offered Peter a job with planetary defense. In truth Peter would have happily done this for free, but since it was Stark he had to add, "We should talk about salary and benefits."
Tony Stark nods, "Well, more like becoming a science fraternity. You, me, Banner, Richards...we're like the coolest, most eligible eggheads on the planet." and at the mention of Salary and Benefits, "Sure. Bring you on as a consultant. 250k retainer, bill you out at 1500 per hour, plus a 500 per diem and full company health and insurance bennies sound good to start?"
"Long as you don't mind long absences once we're done. The galaxy is a big place out there and what's life if you don't live a little? There's more sights out there," Peter was still walking through the complex like it was his name on the building. "Just point me in the right direction man." The price was more than reasonable. Again, he was wiling to do this for free, but Tony had the means to pay for this. Also, think of the discount Tony could have gotten from the government once everything was operational.
Tony gets up, "I'll show you my personal R and D space, and as long as you don't mind a passenger once in a while I'm cool with that. Wouldn't mind seeing more than Apokolips or the Moon myself." he says, smiling. Though if he could also come out of this with a suit built for extended, FTL, deep-space travel? Score.
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