Rooms

[Public: Posted Anon]

Uh, Superman?

[Bruce B - From Sharon C]

Hi, Bruce.

[Gwen S - From Sharon C]

Gwen? Are you still here?

[Peggy C - From Sharon C]

Hello, Aunt Peggy.

[After this conversation, dutifully.]

I'm looking for a--ugh, I'm looking for a coffee maker for [...] a friend and shoe-hostage-taker. If you have it, please give it to me, so I can wear my boots again. There is so much sand here and now between my toes, and, oh my god, I'm so uncomfortable.

[At the end of this.]

[Locked to Tony S]
You are alive then.

[Locked to Robert B]
I have something for you.

[To Pepper, Faol, Penny, Bruce, Selina, and Bucky. Separately, of course.]

( No card. )

[Selina killed three people before breakfast.

Carefully selected, and not a lily-white soul among them, and it was a necessary evil. Holding the East End, it was all that mattered, and her focus was pinpoint. The only way to hold a territory in this destroyed Gotham was to be respected. Oh, she was lucky; the girls loved her. The girls she'd been feeding, clothing and patching up her entire life, and she was one of them, and they trusted her. They were loyal, and the low-level thugs she took in after the bridges were destroyed, their families housed and fed now, they were loyal, too.

But it was the people who weren't loyal, they were the problem. And, so, three people died before breakfast. Selina sitting there, presiding and with a coffee cup in hand. Murders, rapists, pedophiles, and she chose them well. But, and even still, she couldn't help but think of just how much Bruce would disapprove. But Bruce wasn't here, and Gotham was feasting on itself, devouring itself, and there was no other way.

She had over a hundred-thousand now, give or take, that belonged to her. She wanted to double it by the end of the week. But there was time to breathe, perhaps. Perhaps it was weakness, but she wasn't going to think about it too long. Instead, she propped the door to her room over the clinic, the view outside the windows one of destruction and chaos. She sat on the sill, denim and grey, a black suit jacket tossed onto the mussed bed, and her hair too clean and shiny for the situation at hand, her lush lips sinful red. But controlling a territory? It was about appearances, and the kitty cat was very good at faux exteriors.]

[On a much needed break from Gotham's chaos, and she figures it's been long enough. Tony's name is included on the lock, and maybe that's a tiny little tell, her hope slipping through and making itself uncomfortably obvious.]

[Group: Tony S, Pepper P, James B, Faol R, Robert B, Penny R]
Well?

[Locked to Helena W Hels]
Did Eddie Were you in Gotham?

[Once the plans had been made, the cars came. Each was unobtrusive, sleek and gleaming and the interior smelled like upholstery shampoo and money. The ride to the facility was two hours from the center of Manhattan: long enough to be out of the way of tabloid journalists and scandal, beyond the Hudson and the decimation of the laboratory that lay beneath the iron-grey water. From the outside, the building looked like a home. Modern by design but unobtrusive in a landscape mostly scattered.

The door refused to open other than to an iris-scan, the familiar holographic blue of Stark technology and it would admit only one at a time.

Upon entry to the building, it became rapidly apparent that this was not a home. To the right, what had once been the living room had been stripped out and replaced with a bed: the kind found in discreet and eye-wateringly expensive clinics in Switzerland. Tech surrounded the bed: screens that monitored for signs of life, the majority of which were quietly humming with no apparent significance. A drip hung above the bed, and a ventilator stood by.

The presence of medical staff - the kind who ran the equipment and attended to the man in the bed - was undeniably obtrusive. White coats, and they were within the place. Not by the bedside currently, but Pepper was. There was no press-release to explain absence, but the press were now used to Tony disappearing frequently for unexplained periods and Pepper could run whatever was required from whatever location was required. It was easier than she had thought it would be.

She wasn't business-meeting appropriate now. She was black on black and she sat in the sort of low chair drawn up to hospital bedsides all over the world, except this looked as if enough money had been spent to make it comfortable.]

[After this. Succinctly:]

Require assistance with Stark?

[All these come once she wakes up from her strange dream, and while she's still figuring out what the hell happened in Gotham. Eddie, she assumes, is as hungover as she is, but she hasn't looked around the apartment above Enigma & Graves yet to be sure.]

[Group: Pepper P, Bucky B, Robert B & voice transcript to JARVIS]
So, Tony? Not dead. Apparently, he took some thing his Valentine gave him, and that thing was supposed to make him better. So, if it's magic? Maybe less science to fix it.

[Locked to Faol R]
Hey, handsome. That medical help you offered me once? Does it mean that's your mutant thing?

[Locked to Stephanie B]
Kitten?

[Locked to Robert B]
[Added after talking to Faol.] Robert? I know talking to me might not be on your to-do list, but I have someone who wants to help with Tony, and I need to know if I should have them talk to you, or to some medical women Pepper keeps mentioning. So, let's just have this conversation, shall we?

[Locked to Matt M]
[After spending days reading.] Still not dead?

[Locked to Bruce B]
[After this.] Hey, big guy.

[Gwen S]

Gwen, are you okay?

[Bruce B]

Bruce?

[Days after the collapse of the underwater lab, Bruce had been too many places. The Hulk had carried him up out of the bay, and didn't stop until he'd traveled far. Far, far. Following some sort of internal compass even in his hurt and grief. He had to stop, sometimes, just to shout again, trying to let out the tightness and awful feeling at the back of his throat, but the sound never worked. Neither did striking anything - trees, old buildings, the ground. Most often, the ground, and never anywhere with people or anything that would lead to anyone being hurt. He followed the compass - north, south, north, west, west, west. He stopped with his feet in the water, salt in his throat, a rocky cliff at his back. And he knew, somehow, that the place he'd found was the right place to be. So he stopped. And sat.

Bruce woke among the rocks, salt still in his throat, feet in the water. The ocean lapped at him, and far above, perched on the cliff - in the cliff - was a familiarly rounded building. Edged in glass and modernly west-coast, even from the strange angle, Bruce knew Tony's Malibu home.

It was awkward, climbing up, finding his way toward an entrance. He was tired and hungry, and thankful for JARVIS letting him inside. There was food. There was a change of clothing. Everything around him screamed Tony, and Bruce did his best to wade through it while forcing back that same raw pain that had driven his counterpart. It was too much to be in Tony's space, at least a space that was so much him. Down to the sometimes-lingering traces of cologne and shop grease in the air. He couldn't stay. If he stayed, the Big Guy would make a reappearance, and he didn't really want to tear the Malibu house apart. He needed to leave, even if the only place he had to go would also hold traces of his friend. It wouldn't be quite as bad as his one-time home.]

[Before stepping through into the DC door to go to the lab in Gotham:]

[JARVIS]
JARVIS? Let me know what people are planning for a funer-- [...] for services, okay? [That's all he can manage to say about that.]

[Selina, Bucky (as James), Gwen, Pepper]
I have to go for a while. I hope everyone's okay. I just [...] have to go.

I'm sorry.

[Once news of this starts to come out. Maybe just a tiny bit worried.]

[locked to gwen s.]

Gwen?

[locked to harry o.]

[Because why not.]

Have you heard from MJ recently?

eta: locked to bruce b.]

[After getting no reply from Gwen.]

Dr. Banner? [...] I, uh, don't know if you can answer me right now, but I'm getting nothing from Cap and I don't know who else Gwen was with. So [...] please be there? I'm so lame

[Bruce B. and Clementine M.]

[Fuzzy timelines.]

Dost thy studies concern children?

After this

[Public]

Steve from Chincoteague, Bruce from Valentine's Day, Gwen who cheats at poker?

[The coordinates that Robert provided were on the water, just at the river and overlooking the murky blue that Selina assumed hid Tony's bay lab from nosy eyes. And, honestly, what had the man been thinking? Building something down there. It seemed the most unsafe thing a person could do, and it didn't surprise her at all that Tony had done just that. Oh, she'd known about the lab when the last version of Robert Banner had been working on it, but looking down at that murky water made her comprehend just how deep the thing had to be.

Alright, so the kitty cat was fond of taking risks, but she was as hypocritical as anyone else. And right now? Right now she wanted to hiss at the tin man. It didn't help that she was tense, and that her mood wasn't precisely buoyant. And maybe she was a tiny bit concerned with what they'd find inside the lab itself. JARVIS had all but confirmed that Tony was inside and not doing well.

Impatient, she settled her hands on her hips. She'd taken a few minutes to change into skinny jeans and a simple t-shirt in black, her whip looped through the jean's beltloops, and heeled boots on her feet. And unlike the hotel lobby, now it was her turn to pace.] What's taking them so long?

[She assumed they'd let JARVIS know when everyone was there, and commence this farce of mortal danger that somehow involved six people who hadn't even been in the same space prior to said mortal danger occurring. And the fact that JARVIS went for that? It was the most worrisome thing of all.]

[Voice to JARVIS, on her isolated channel]
[During this.]

JARVIS? Robert has some questions about Tony's vitals. I'm going to let you talk to him, but be nice. I know how saucy you can be, handsome.

[On his way to pick up Gwen.]

[Locked to Bruce B, Pepper P, Selina K, James B, and Gwen S]
Let's get a plane ready to take us to this lab. Pepper, can you arrange this? Everyone needs to be prepared for what we might find. I'm on my way to pick up Ms. Stacy, and we can convene at Stark Tower. I don't know if anyone else has been to this place, outside of Gwen. If you have, I'll need you to get together and come up with a rough layout for us to follow. Bruce, James, you two gather anything you think we might need. He might have been taken by HYDRA, or any other number of things. James, focus on weaponry. Dr. Banner, on supplies, since we have no idea how long we're to be away. Selina, I assume you have feelers out in Gotham, with no luck?

[Locked to Peggy C]
Stark is missing. I'm off to try and find him. Keep an eye on things in New York for us. Did you hear about Sharon?

[Locked to Tony S]
[Trying one last time.]

Tony, I hope you're alright. We're coming now.

[Locked to Peter P]
Peter, Tony Stark's gone MIA. A group of us, including Gwen, are going to find him. I need you to help Ms. Carter hold down the fort until we're back.

ETA: [Ping to JARVIS]
[Beep!]

[During other messages. From a random room in the hotel.]

[Tony S.]
[His handwriting is messier than usual. And quick.] Is the response going to be any different if I say I'd like to check on you too? Or is this a complete shut out that we're dealing with here?


[Selina K]
[Still with the messy handwriting. Almost worse than in his message to Tony.] I don't know what's going on.


[Sharon C]
[Added after this.]
Sharon?

[Group lock]

Have any of you seen him? I've tried every facility we have and JARVIS is redirecting. I can't find him.