Darkness Characters: Iron Man and 'Hellcat' Setting: Queens, NYC, midday Content: Blood! Violence! Magic! Summary: One of many operations to suss out the missing cosmic cube leads the New Avengers to a local mystic and his followers.
There was no evidence of any actual magic taking place, Tony was quick to observe and point out in the efficient brief he delivered to his very modest team of 2.5. In all fairness, S.H.I.E.L.D. didn't seem to keep the resources for reading that kind of energy output and they might be shocked by some abracadabra, despite employing quote unquote 'the Scarlet Witch' and having every goddamn reason to track this sort of event (deep breaths, it was fine, there was no reason to get worked up over something you know Justin Hammer isn't capable of considering). Hammer himself (the .5 in Tony's assembled task force, present but effectively incapable of tying his own shoes) didn't seem aware of Tony's frustration and was more than happy to send him and his partner in with these blinders on, as long as it got him results.
So there they stood, baking in the afternoon sun up against a gleaming perimeter wall in Queens, with the information thus far: a guru, building a following for years now under the pretense that he had achieved and could dispense the method to achieve spiritual enlightenment, suddenly upped his convert count by the hundreds overnight despite the ill-conceived target market of New York City. The word was this guru had, through yogic or divine or mutant intervention or, if Tony was correct about the timeline, a cosmic wish machine falling into his hands, developed the ability to perform miracles and was materializing jewels and riches and gifts for his worthy students. Whatever he was actually doing, he had very rapidly built an empire on it, including a three-acre ashram right smack in the middle of New York City to bring peace and serenity to his followers in their meditation. That, or it was a fortress. The goal: quietly infiltrate, do not disturb the alleged army or their general or incite an incident in the middle of the city, and find out if this guy was the real deal or a great, big, dangerous phony. Iron Man maybe wasn't the best suited to this sort of task, but Tony Stark didn't do so bad in his unassuming street clothes, hood (in this heat, god, if something in there didn't kill him it was going to be the dehydration) and mirrored sunglasses, and his chosen partner might fill in his gaps.
"Patsy, you hear me, everyone online, check-one-two," Tony muttered to himself, watching their unmarked SUV smoothly glide away and leave them loitering and officially on their own. "Coulson, focus up, we're doing this quick. Hellcat's going over the wall in three, two..."