2014.01.29 - Tony On The Case(s)

Tony is in the Penthouse. Usually, he takes meetings in either his or Pepper's office, but Pepper is working from home today since the events of last night, and Tony's schedule has been pretty light. Besides, it's Oracle asking him to take the meeting, which means it's something important if she's resorting to code names. He knows the difference between that and not.
Having given security the heads up, and keeping the flight deck outside the Penthouse open, he leans against the bar's counter, sipping coffee and looking at the 'renovations' he made before going to bed last night. No pun intended, it's sobering.
Black Canary drove her beat-up old Chevy to Stark Tower and was surprised by the warm welcome from the staff, who assisted (and insisted!) her with the equipment she brought, placing it onto a cart. Dinah really only known of Tony Stark and the Avengers much in the same way most people had: through infamy. Relations between her allies at the JLA and the team hadn't been stellar, and while Dinah made her best effort to stay out of the politics, she'd still heard many of the group's, and Tony's, activities through the grape vine. Most notably her best friend, Barbara, who'd recently gotten her 'legs' back: this was thanks to Tony. Having met Mr. Stark only a week ago at Wally West's birthday soiree, she'd already gotten a taste of his gallantry, as many of the younger JLA members nearly chanted his name with his fashionably-late arrival. In truth, it reminded her quite a lot of Oliver Queen, but turned up to volume 10.
She gazed out at the luxury of the building, and reminded herself that she was essentially just the delivery person here. So, this was partly a social visit... to see how the 'over half' lived. When the elevator reached the penthouse, she pulled the cart out. It held a very large, wooden crate along with an over-sized, rectangular, silver briefcase. Dinah herself was dressed in her classic Black Canary costume, though it was covered by a thin, frilly trench coat.
"Sir, Black Canary is on her way up to the penthouse." - JARVIS advises the CEO, as Dinah gets on the elevator downstairs. "Thank you, JARVIS." Tony says, and makes his way to the living room that the elevator opens onto. When she enters, Tony is quick with a warm smile. "Canary!" he says, warmly, "Great to see you again." Moving to help her bring the cart with the cargo in, he asks, "How's everything been, okay I hope?"
"Mister Stark," Dinah said, smiling at his appearance, "Thanks for being available on short notice. I've been doing a bit better, all things considered," she enigmatically added. Dinah took a moment to look around and admire the tall windows, and the brightly lit view of Manhattan and Central Park. What would it be like to work with such a magnificent view every day, she wondered to herself, thinking it might be like eternally flying. While Dinah's wide-eyes revealed her awe, she opted to not float Tony's ego verbally--something that he'd no doubt heard at endless refrain from any newcomer to this floor. "Looks like we were destined to become acquainted after all," she said coyly, both referencing Wally's party and the Barbara connection. Dinah slipped off her trench (revealing a recent bullet-grazing scar on her shoulder), and hung it on the nearby coat hook. She then pivoted to give Tony a look at the contents of the cart.
"As Oracle no doubt told you already," Dinah said, using Barbara's codename under no presumption that Tony knew who she was, even though it was likely he did, "These are one quarter of a set of high-tech weapons we collected in South Gotham. Plasma powered." Dinah ran her hand over the crate, her fingertips sliding up and over to the silver luggage next to it. It had a shipping label that someone had attempted to scratch out with black sharpie-marker, but it was still legible: origin Japan, passing through Turkey. "The luggage is titanium, and it took Oracle *six minutes* to get open," she noted. Six minutes was like two years in Oracle Years.
"These were being stockpiled by *Maggia*," Dinah continued, hinting at her concern over a bunch of mobsters having access to high-powered gear. "Up until a few weeks ago, they'd only had a minor presence in Gotham. Too much competition. Looks like they're trying to change the game with these."
It's no secret that the Avengers and JLA had different methods, and much of this had to do with those who lead the teams. Tony and Captain America at the reigns of the Avengers, with Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman forming the Trinity of the JLA. It often pit them not at odds, but with different views on how to handle things. They've worked together loosely on occasions in the past, but there's other things recently occurring that have brought them closer together.
Tony smiles at Dinah when she mentions they're destined to meet and says, "Well, you know, when destiny and fate go out for drinks we often become the subject of a wager."
He notices the bullet-graze on her shoulder. On a woman like Dinah, it's something that might stick out. "That looks like it hurt, looks like it's healing okay, though." he says, motioning to the wound as he makes his way to the crate and suitcase. Nodding, rubbing his chin when it's said that it took Oracle that long to open the suitcase, "Probably a digital combination, 512k bit matrix. I could see that putting up at least a couple of minutes fight. That means whoever sent this parcel is no slouch." and looks in the crate and suitcase when they're opened. He finishes listening to Black Canary before looking up, "So a second string Godfather knockoff in Gotham is suddenly getting custom high end tech out of nowhere. Someone has an ulterior motive."
"Point of Origin, Japan. Routed through Turkey." he says, walking over to the large coffee table with what happens to be a glass top. Waving a hand over it, it lights up and appears to be a workspace of some kind. "JARVIS, get a breakdown ready." - and on that command, a digitized box appears on top of the workspace, holographic in nature. "Ready, sir." the dry British voice responds after a moment's pause.
"What do we have here..." he says, beginning to look through the box. He takes out some of the smaller components. "Custom built - that much I can tell you right away. I know every L.O.W. on the planet, and not one has designs like this even in the prototype stage." he begins placing them "in" the box. Above the box, a 3d holographic representation appears, and begins to break down to an exploded view, showing it's components and layout.
"Also, Plasma, yes. But the means of achieving the plasma is different. Usually a gas and high wattage or temperature reaction occurs to produce the plasma. In the past, you're looking at something akin to a flame thrower - but this is all self contained in one neat package. So whoever designed this is no slouch. I haven't tested yet, but if it doesn't try to explode in my hands, I can safely assume it's not Hammertech."
"You keyed on the most critical question," Dinah noted, "Who's making these?" Watching Tony work, she thought it reasonable that he'd go for the payload first, the crate. Directing his attention with her hand, she slid the heavy, silver luggage to the floor. "And take a look at this," Dinah said, flipping open the silver luggage. Inside was a disassembled, sleekly polished, black sniper rifle... it's design looking almost like a top secret military aircraft. The scope's dark, thick lens ominously sat in the middle of the bundle. "Only one of these."
Stepping back, she marveled at all the holographic instrumentation like a child who saw their first visualization screensaver. To say technology was not Dinah's forte would be like saying a pair of beat-up jeans were perfect formal wear. "How do you sleuth technology origins?" she asked, but then remembered something. She slipped a small, round device from her pocket. It looked like a sticky-microchip. "Found this attached to the case. A tracker. Oracle said she couldn't detect where it was connecting with, but it's still a clue. Damn thing took me a half hour to find and disable. Had to do it via communicator."
Tony Stark looks over to Dinah, "It's kind of like international travel--how European electrical outlets are different from American, are different from Japanese, are different from Australian. So on and so forth. Everyone does their circuit patterns and the like just a little bit different. Fortunately, it's just different enough that to the right eye, you can tell what belongs to who." he says, looking back to contemplate the break down of the weapons. He reaches out, and spins a couple of the components that have been broken down, actually able to manipulate the holograms. When she mentions the sniper rifle, she re-captures his attention and he walks over and crouches down, peering into the case. He rubs his chin. "One of these things is not like the other.." he says, without looking up. "This..this is highly customized. Like command performance customized. This was made for a specific person. It's like a tailored suit for an assassin. Twice the payload, digital spotting enabled." he looks up, "You could do the spotting with one person, using a wifi connected tablet." he explains, before looking back down. "This is nasty." his tone turning grave, "And it was made for a nasty person."
He stands up and takes the tracking device and turns it over, looking at it, before exhaling deeply. He looks back to Canary, "Can you afford to leave this stuff with me for twenty four hours?"
Dinah nodded to Tony, "Of course. Oracle has an incredible level of faith in you," she said, a hint of warmness passing over her, "I'm just the delivery girl. The muscle. The JLA has the rest of these at a safe-house, but I suspect there's more out there. I'm going to try to find them." Dinah sounded rather determined, and fearful that she'd discovered the beginning of a very serious situation. She sat back, leaning against his desk, and glanced again towards the window.
Tony Stark hmms, looking back to the scanned devices, the crate, and then back to Dinah. "I'm not sure if you know this, but finding people who've been using arms dealt under the table is kinda my thing." he says, a smile slowly spreading on his face. "Want some help?"
"Sure. I'd just been following half-baked leads from street-level contacts--" Dinah replied with some excitement. "Hold on," she said, lifting a finger while fumbling into her pocket. After about twenty seconds, she slips out two sheets of paper full of printed text. "I ran a little research through Oracle and JLA systems. Most of the goons we'd run into made their escape, but we've apprehended a few. They don't seem to know much information. Do you have a way to track the devices themselves?"
"Not unless someone's already tracked an energy signature tied specifically into their gear. I can try and work up an algorithm to find them." he holds up the tracker she gave him, "This will probably be our best bet, because there's a better than even chance these will still be active. If the weapons are cold, that is off and unfired, we're not going to find them. It'll be a needle in a haystack."
Dinah nodded at Tony, understanding roughly ninety-percent of what he was talking about. "When you find something, you have my cell number," she said, heading back to her trench coat. "I've no problem with working with you to knock around some heads." She sighs. "I have no idea how far this rabbit hole goes, but let's hope we're catching this before it starts." Dinah lifts her hair a moment to slide her coat back on, "Thank you, Tony. It's nice to know you're not the prick the newspapers make you out to be," she says with a little wink, and moved towards the elevator.
Tony Stark hmms, "It's probably the kind of rabbit hole that leads to international intrigue and espionage..or something like that." he says, smiling and giving his theory. Then she says the thing about the newspaper and smiles fully, that megawatt smiling coming to bear, "Well you know what they say, even bad publicity is still publicity." and before she exits fully he asks, "Dinner, maybe?" - it's hard ot tell if he's being serious or playful.
As the doors of the elevator shut, Dinah's eyes twitch in surprise. Without even thinking, she quickly said: "Maybe Friday." Just as she felt the tug of the elevator's sudden, rapid descent, she also felt her cheeks flush. Then she just shook her head.
Category:Log