WHO: Pepper & Tony. WHERE: Prison; engineering. WHEN: Some point after this. WHAT: Poking at the PUSH ME! box. RATING: TBD. STATUS: thread; IN-PROGRESS.
It might be a fairly generic cardboard box, but Pepper was extremely grateful for its sturdiness as she made her way through the prison. Inside it was another box that she absolutely wanted to avoid the risk of accidental touch - more specifically, accidental push - in as many ways as possible, from plenty of airspace in the box above the contents, to securing a firm promise (and creating a challenge in the process) that the genius she was on her way to get a second (technically, third) opinion from would not activate whatever the hell the "PUSH ME!" box actually contained, to having the helmet of her suit perched on the top of the cardboard box so J.A.R.V.I.S. could warn her of any changes to the box within that might spell trouble, as well as assist and share observational data.
She knew it could have been much, much worse than a puzzle of a box, she could have woken up with a headache from having her future memories crammed into her present mind. Still, the questions this "gift" raised were potential headache fodder that she hoped did not come to pass. At least she had others to share the questions with, like Kate and Tony, and who knew, maybe the box was no more than that, a tech-flashy container for something extremely boring?
Nope, she didn't believe that was a possibility at all, not when her gut was telling her this was Stark technology, and her A.I. had fact-supported observations that lead to the same place as her gut. Who better to be the third opinion than an actual Stark?
She reached engineering, but rather than walk straight in, she shifted the box and helmet to one hip and knocked on the doorframe. This wasn't her space to waltz into either directly by prison profession or indirectly by familiarity, so it was only polite.
"Hey there, Scooby Doo," she said, her smile nearly a grin, "ready to try and solve a mystery?"