InsaneJournal

Who: Sharon and Zari
What: Checking in
When: Recently? (Circa 11/13)
Where: Sharon’s place
Warning: Low (but plotty)
Status: Completed via Gdoc

There were a lot of great things about living in New Asgard. One of them was her proximity to the ocean. One was the beautiful architecture, gardens, and scenery. One was how close she was to the people she cared about. And one was the farms. Clark had done an amazing job working the farm. They had crops and animals and all sorts of things. There were little baby sheep running around, and Sharon couldn’t wait to go see them. She’d sent a message to Zari to see if her friend wanted to go see the baby sheep with her, then put the kettle on for a cup of tea. While she waited for Zari to arrive, she pulled out her files on the second portal in Madripoor on her laptop and started scrolling through to see if she’d missed something.

A whirlwind the exact shape and proportions of Zari Tarazi came bursting through Sharon's door in dramatic fashion, and was already shedding various layers as she walked through the house to find her friend. Boots by the door, hat and scarf laid across the back of the couch, overtop her coat. The area had gone through a cold snap, so she wasn't being absurd at all. She didn't stop until she was standing at the door to the kitchen, where she announced, "Girl! I have news."

Sharon was buried so deep into her computer that she hadn’t noticed her friend coming into her home--into the room. When she heard the voice, though, she gave a little jump and looked up. “Zari! Hi.” Sharon popped up out of the chair so she could greet her friend with a hug. “What news?”

The hug was met with as much exuberance as her entrance had been, and then Zari was sitting at the table perpendicular to her friend. She leaned in, face alight with a conspiratorial smile. "All right, confession time. I've been keeping an ear to the ground on the Madripoorian side of things—because, you know, invested—and you will not believe what I heard just this morning. So, there are news reports coming out of their own little Wall Street-esque attack, and there's some pretty big names who got hit, including our mutual friend. This is the one time where I might actually be cheering the bad guys on. Oops."

Sharon took a seat at the table after grabbing a couple of mugs of tea and setting one down in front of her friend. She settled in her own chair and gave Zari her full attention. "Zari," Sharon frowned a little, her pulse picking up. "The Madripoor stuff is dangerous. You should be keeping your hands and nose clean when it comes to everything Madripoor." But she was curious about what her friend was talking about. "Wait. You're saying that the Wall Street attack is related to Madripoor?"

While Zari appreciated the concern, she was quick to dismiss it, and did so with a flippant wave of her hand. "It's not anything you can't pick up with a simple Google alert. Never fear, babe, I leave the espionage enterprise firmly in your hands. I don't know if they're related, though. This was all from financial news reports, and it looks there's been a similar scramble to cover a lot of collective asses. On top of that, someone leaked some truly shady business dealings in Lowtown by a conglomerate of local corporations. I read they wanted to buy up the area for pennies on the dollar, force the locals out, and raze it so they could build highrises. Can you imagine that? No more Princess Bar. Quelle tristesse."

Sharon raised an eyebrow. If Zari was looking into it and didn’t find the Powerbroker’s fingerprints all over this transaction, that was a good thing. At the same time, maybe she would instruct Karli to start spreading whispers of the Powerbroker’s name. Afterall, how would Sharon regain the Powerbroker’s power if she didn’t take credit? It was good to know that everything had gone according to plan, though.

“And you think that the financial crash here in the States is related to the shady business dealings in Madripoor?” Sharon’s face lit up a little, though it might be obvious to her friend that it was somewhat forced. “Maybe there’s a new undercover superhero doing good dealings in the world. Taking down corruption.”

"I… really couldn't say," Zari was slow to actually say while she gave her friend a very quizzical look. Sharon's reaction was frankly bizarre, and she had no idea what to make of it. "Babe, you know I love you, and I say this with all the love I have in my heart for you, but what is happening with your face right now? It's trying to show me one thing, but I'm not buying it for a second."

Sharon actually felt terrible about lying to her friend. She sighed, letting her face fall, and shook her head a little. “I’m sorry, I’m just… distracted. I was looking into the intel I collected when we were in Madripoor, and the additional information I found when I was there with Fury and Loki, and… well, I… I think…” She had to give Zari something to take the heat off of herself and why she might have been acting so strange. “...I’m trying to figure out where the thing--Jabberwocky--where it was moved. It wasn’t there when we went back.”

Confusion knit itself between Zari's eyebrows, pulling them into lines she'd worry about later when she did her nightly skincare routine. It overrode her kneejerk reaction to telling her bestie that it was okay, and she didn't have to apologize for doing her job. While Sharon's emotional wellbeing was paramount to her, there were more pressing questions to be had. "Wait, so Jabberwocky is an object? I thought it was, like, one of those esoteric project type things. But it's actually a thing? A thing that can be moved? Is it dangerous? Could we be in danger because we were there? I promise, this is me being absolutely calm right now. I just want to know how un-calm I should potentially be."

Sharon realized that she hadn’t shared as much as she could have (should have?) shared with Zari. Now that the topic of conversation was safely away from things that might get her in trouble, Sharon felt a little more at ease. She could tell that Zari was anxious about it, and lifted both hands in a placating gesture. “You’re not in danger. We’re not in danger.” She said, shaking her head. “It… it’s a portal. Another one. That’s what I saw right before I got slashed to ribbons and you--Zee--had to stitch me up.”

To say that Zari's jaw dropped would be a gross understatement. She spent several seconds just staring at Sharon with eyes the size of saucers. "A portal. Like the one we have. In Madripoor. And now it's gone?" Z rocked back suddenly enough that she came very close to knocking her knee into the underside of the table. "Who is doing what about this? Please tell me the people who will actually do something about this know about it. This is insane! Was it working? Did you see people come through?"

"Yes." Sharon felt a little bad that poor Zari was reacting this way. Of course, Sharon had had quite a bit of time to get used to the idea that there was another portal out there--possibly several?--and Zari was just hearing of it now.

"I didn't see anyone coming through. I was working on it with Fury, but... well, then he was sent away, and I was sent away for a five year trip." Sharon leaned in a little, conspiratorially. "I'm not sure who I can trust with this information. The Avengers have too many ties to the government now, considering the deals they all had to sign. I would put together a team myself to go after it, but I don't even know where to start looking." She had some ideas on leads, though.

Zari opened her mouth, closed it just as quickly, and then opened it yet again. Her head was swirling, but a second thought said her knee-jerk offer was the right one to make. "I can help. Well, not me, but other Zari. I have access to her computer engineering skills, yes, but she has actual combat experience, whereas I really don't. She was also with the Legends longer than I was and went through a lot more. Off the top of my head, it sounds like you need access to a tracker than can find portal energy, right? At least to start. I'm sure we could find a way to get into the Facility's systems to see if it's been able to detect anything. It's easier to bring her out now." Some of her grim enthusiasm dimmed, and she took a soft, unsteady breath. "Now that I have both of the Totems."

Sharon wasn't sure what to think about the other Zari. She'd saved Sharon's life, and the blonde would be eternally thankful for that... but the other Zari--Zee?--wasn't Sharon's number one fan. And Sharon didn't want to lose her Zari, even for a minute. Did that make her selfish?

"Do you have access to resources we could use to scan for something like this? I was thinking a satellite might be able to do it, but anything I would have access to would be more terrestrial." Sharon thought almost longingly of the aircrafts that SHIELD built back in the day. They would be able to scan for those sorts of energy thumbprints.

Gaze lifting slowly to the ceiling, Zari stared past it, wondering about the millions of pounds of metal and plastic floating just above their atmosphere right in that moment. "Surely SI has one or two floating up there. Someone has to have access to it around here, or else what's the point? If you or I can find out for sure that something like that exists here, then I can crack it. Or Zee can crack it. Either way, we'd have an eye in the sky, right?"

Sharon paused. “I want to make sure that we’re limiting the number of people who know about this. I…” She tried to find the right words as she lifted a hand to close her laptop. “I don’t know who we can trust with this information.” Loki knew, of course, but he was busy with other things. Fury knew, but he got sucked away by the portal. And now Sharon and Zari were the only ones who knew (and cared) about the second portal. “If there’s a way to use the satellites to track the energy without giving away what we’re looking for, we should definitely do that. But only if we can keep the reason to ourselves.”

The presence of another portal was a shock, but the fact that it was in the wind was simply unacceptable. She found herself half-wondering if it might have had anything to do with what happened to Clint and Jamie, but one crisis at a time, right? Holding up her hand, Zari looked at her friend solemnly. "Leave it with me. I'll get back to you in a few days with anything I find. And if I find nothing, then I'll keep it up until there's some sign. Something like that won't just disappear in thin air." Her face broke into a conspiratorial smile. Even when she was with the Legends, she seldom got to do this part. It shouldn't have been fun—in fact, it probably wasn't going to be, but she couldn't deny getting a giddy thrill from just the possibility. "Girl, between you and me, we've got this."