13395/Power To The People

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Power To The People
Date of Scene: 19 November 2022
Location: Bushwick <Mutant Town>
Synopsis: Pepper has JARVIS track down who hacked some NY city systems that solved a problem SI was having connecting with them. Tracing it back to Kitty Pryde, a job offer is made.
Cast of Characters: Kitty Pryde, Pepper Potts




Kitty Pryde has posed:
The Stark Industries green energy initiative had been quietly underway in Mutant Town. The kind of project you want to get it successfully working before doing too much advertising about it. A series of solar panels, low-profile wind turbines that blend into the cityscape, and an ingenious system that uses solar to augment heating systems. Though electricity generation was the main thrust of the project.

Maybe it was good to keep it quiet to start with, because lately it has been running into all sorts of problems. In particular, the city grid and the software that balances load, prevents spikes and provides a consistent sine wave for the alternating current doesn't seem to be playing nicely with the Stark systems.

The first tests went poorly. Revisions were made and the next set of tests blew out the test gauges. A team from the city works department was on hand but progress had been minimal.

A trip to the site they day before by Pepper hadn't helped make progress, though it was clear they were all working hard. The Stark engineers reported those from the city were cooperating, only they didn't seem to be able to solve the problem.

A return trip today did not seem like it was likely to produce tangible results. But the project manager had said Pepper's presence had helped with the two teams working better, so maybe it would be worth it.

Pepper's coffee is waiting for her when she arrives. She's barely had time to get settled in when there's a knock at the door. One of the Stark lead engineers. "Ma'am. It seems to be working now," he says, in a way much too matter of fact for the size of the news he's delivering.

Pepper Potts has posed:
Miss Pepper Potts actually isn't a stranger to Mutant Town. She'd been there when it came in to land, literally, with Tony (and others) making sure the connections were all there and were at the very least serviceable. Then came the relief efforts. One could tell that it all was actually a genuine granting of aid as it stayed mostly out of the newspapers. The Stark Industries PR team didn't have the Times headlines lauding the efforts of Tony Stark aiding 'those in need'.

That time, all was quietly done, guided by the direct hand of the red-head.

As is this time.

Since turning away from weapons productions, 'green energy' has been one of the main projects born of SI. Ultimately the goal is to be able to power at least a small neighborhood before moving on; after all, the first step had been the Tower, and it works beautifully, as does the house in Malibu.

Pepper's visited the site the other day, a word of encouragement here, a promise to bend Mr Stark's ear there in the just cause. She's read the reports, studied the budgetary lines, and with the aid of engineers, had the difficulties explained to her in brief. She's a smart woman, but she's no genius engineer.

Day two, then, is again on Pepper's schedule, effectively holding everything else off until she's satisfied things are moving in the direction they should be. A tight-lipped smile of gratitude is given in return for the proffered coffee, and cradling it in two hands, she rolls her shoulders forward slightly and blows across the top before that first tentative sip is taken.

"Okay, good," Pepper begins slowly, brows rising slightly as green eyes take in the engineer. "You look a little puzzled.." and as the words trail off, the obvious fill-in word is 'why'?

Kitty Pryde has posed:
The engineer, Hank Anderson, actually scratches his head at the question. "Well, it wasn't working last night when we knocked off for the night. And then when we came in this morning and started with a fresh diagnostic to put a stake in the ground to proceed from... it just worked," he says.

He has his laptop in hand and he motions towards the table in the table in the room with it, to check it's ok for him to open it up there. Assuming it is he sets it down and gets logged in.

"We don't have administrative access on the city's servers, but we have a guest login that's used to pick up some data that's needed on our end," he says. "And I went looking this morning after the test," he tells Pepper.

He projects the laptop onto a larger screen for Pepper to be able to see more easily. "So this is there code there, and they knocked off last night, you can see the file timestamps mostly end between 11 and 12 when the last set of changes went in. Ones that didn't work," he says.

He goes into a subdirectory. "But I found this whole new set of functions and interfaces. Says they went in this morning at 4 am. This user that the files were logged in under, doesn't work there anymore. He passed away two months ago, the city guys said. But they hadn't locked out his account yet. So they are perplexed where this code came from."

He opens up one of the files. "It's great though. I mean whoever wrote this, really tight. I mean this part," he says, scrolling down to a particular section, "I sent that to one of our guys back in the office as this is much more efficient than some similar code we have. Probably cut... oh, 50 milliseconds off the execution. But then it can get executed hundreds of times a second, so it adds up," he tells Pepper.

Pepper Potts has posed:
Pepper's attention is on the engineer, and she nods slowly and consideringly as her gaze shifts from presenter to presentation; back and forth. "I see," she begins slowly, and make no mistake, she actually does understand. At least it's put to a level where she can easily put the pieces together.

"And no one on your project did it." She's absolutely positive Tony didn't have a hand in it. There are other projects that he's working on at the moment, and Mutant Town is more a 'plug and play'. They have talented engineers on staff, electrical, software, mechanical and civil after all.

Once the information is set upon the screen and the show truly begins, she's nodding her head slowly, looking at the numbers, the time stamps and such. "I see," and the words drop slowly. "If you don't know who's done it, then it wasn't anyone on our team." JARVIS would have mentioned it; he, like Tony, does like to call out his little successes.

"I think.." and she lets her words drop again before she brings her tablet to the fore and taps an earbud.

"JARVIS, can you do me a favor please?"

It's uncertain if Hank has ever truly heard the voice of the (legendary) AI, but he does get to now.

"Miss Potts?" It's a polite question that is filled with not only an unspoken 'yes of course' but also 'what would you like?'

The sound of the clipped English accented AI's 'voice' always makes Pepper smile, and she nods, continuing now, "I need you to look at the time stamp of file MT0576-22. There are numerous possible inputs, and I would like you to track their origins, please." That'll account for her team and the unknown.

"Yes, Miss Potts."

Bringing her attention back to the engineer, Pepper exhales softly but audibly, "We'll see who offered their skill." If JARVIS can't find it? No one can.

Kitty Pryde has posed:
Hank looks a little bit awed. He doesn't work on projects that would get anywhere near JARVIS, but of course much of Stark Industries is aware he's there in the background even if they never interact with him directly. Just the rumor mill is enough to have spread that.

"Well, if you find them, the city should probably hire them to go clean up the rest of their code," he says with a chuckle. "I mean, it's not horrible, what they have, but it wouldn't pass muster with us."

He closes up his laptop then. "Going to go start our round of final tests then. Should take the rest of the day. At tomorrow's status update I'll have the results. If nothing else is found, I think we're ready technically," Hank tells Pepper. If she's done with him he heads off to get back to work then.

It takes about four hours for JARVIS to get back to Pepper. Which in JARVIS time for a task like this, is unusually long.

"Miss Potts? I have had quite the difficult time tracing the origin of the files in question. I was able to obtain the IP address that connected as the deceased user, and track it back to a virtual machine in the Osborn Cloud. It's account is already closed and every attempt to trace it back further, by the means purchased or systems that accessed it, were a failure."

JARVIS isn't done yet though. "When all of those options were exhausted, I did a brute force search for mention of the IP in other systems. Whoever covered their tracks this well would generally be smart enough not to have used the system for any other purpose. SO I considered it unlikely to succeed, but proceeded anyway. And surprisingly, I did find a site the computer had connected to," JARVIS tells her.

The screen of Pepper's tablet comes alive. "The computer was used to access Moviester, which is an open source streaming service of a somewhat dubious nature. It was used to log into an account named 'RogueOne' to watch the movie Hot Fuzz. Three times in a row, early yesterday evening."

The screen, which had showed some graphics on Moviester, and even a little clip of the cop movie itself, then shows a depiction of a network, and a graphic like something is tracing back along the line. "I was able to tell that this account has been logged into from other computers from Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters. Though their security is high end and I did not try to trace it further as they might be likely to detect me. I did put together a list of names of those connected with Xavier's and the X-men who were capable of this sort of hack. One of them, a Katherine Pryde, known as Shadowcat, had worked for Janet van Dyne previously. I have compared the code in question to code written while there, and there is an 84% probability Miss Pryde is the one responsible for writing the code in question."

Pepper Potts has posed:
In common parlance, this is what is known as 'pulling out the big guns'. Pepper is used to knowing things, and if she doesn't, she certainly does her best to find out. It's how she keeps abreast of not only Stark Industries but the world of business as a whole. No doubt that's partly the reason why she hasn't been lambasted in the gossip pages for 'sleeping with the boss'.

She offers a smile to the engineer; it's genuine, if not a touch empathetic. "It took me years not to look up while talking to him." Him.

In a curt exhale now, she first checks her watch, but it's not dismissive. It's more a 'on to the next' for her. "Sounds good. And thank you, Hank. I appreciate the work, and it's good to know what we're dealing with in terms of the City as well." Nothing like a little bit of leverage for SI when dealing with the City's infrastructure!

Once the engineer is gone and presumably back to work, Pepper takes up the cup of coffee and sits back in her spot, cradling the cup in both hands. It's quite cold out, and the chill easily catches in the core of her bones.

JARVIS' timing is such that the coffee is done, and her notes on a few matters have been saved and sent out to their respective recipients. It's very close to 'close of business day' for most people, but for the red-head, she simply brings work home and continues it in the Penthouse over takeout, or whatever it is chef chooses to send up.

Pepper had risen to her feet, but at the sound of that English accent, she settles back into her seat to get the report. "Oh dear. Did you close the dead man's account, then?" Just to close the door behind him, of course. It's not that important, but should keep others from logging in on the poor man's credentials. She frowns briefly, her brows creasing when 'Osborne net' is mentioned, but it's quick, and the really pertinent information is coming. Pepper watches, then, as her screen is taken over by the AI, the data scrolling as the narration across it continues. "Of course you did.." brute force in an AI.

"Xavier's School," is murmured in echo of JARVIS' words, and she nods slowly and deliberately. "Thank you, JARVIS," comes again before she smiles and cants her head, looking at the information that is now settled upon her screen.

"Connect me with Miss Pryde, please?"

Kitty Pryde has posed:
"I have not closed the account used, but I have flagged it to the city," JARVIS replies. Followed by, "Of course Miss Potts," at the request to make a call. The wireframe for a video call comes up. The middle of it has a little old fashioned phone, the handset vibrating with little lines emanating from it to signify the other end of the line is 'ringing'. Those words are going to stick around long after those kind of phones are gone!

After about five or ten seconds the call connects. It looks like it has gone to Kitty Pryde's cell phone and she's holding it up to capture her face for the video chat. "Hello, Pepper Potts at Stark Industries," she says, that apparently having been sent along so the call wouldn't go unanswered for not knowing who it was from. "What may I do for you?" she asks. Though from her expression Pepper might get the impression Kitty is already guessing at the reason for the call.

Pepper Potts has posed:
"Thank you," is dutifully responded, and when the little phone pops up center screen, Pepper can't help but smile. When exactly was the last time she'd actually //dialed// a phone?

Too long, no regrets.

When the call connects and Miss Pryde is taking center stage, or at least screen, Pepper sits up slightly, her posture, manner and mien impeccable. Kitty might even recognize the fact that she wears almost exclusively Janet's designs, and spot at least the little tell-tale cuts, hems and such.

"Miss Pryde," Pepper begins in greeting, "How are you?" It's only a breath away from, "I'm sorry if this is an inconvenient time, but do you have a few minutes?" She knows exactly how she's worded things. "I promise it won't be long."

Kitty Pryde has posed:
The young woman on the other end of the line looks the age of a college coed. Her dark brown hair is pulled back into a ponytail. She has on a fleece top, and Kitty's ears and nose are a bit red. Along with the backdrop of a snowy road behind her, it looks like she is out for a jog during a lull in the multi-day blizzard that has been hitting New York.

"Of course Miss Potts. And please, call me Kitty," she says, flashing a warm smile back through the video. "I'm good. Just taking advantage of a stretch it looked like the snow has let up for a bit. Those big wet flakes really add up," she says, turning the phone to show the trees that look like they've been topped with big fluffy clouds or something.

Kitty turns the phone back to herself. "Apologies if I'm breathing a bit hard," she says. Though she's stopped jogging to talk, little clouds of steam can be seen on each exhalation or as she speaks.

Pepper Potts has posed:
The smile that had been lurking in the background comes forward, filled with warmth and a touch of empathy. She was raised in Connecticut, after all. "I love the trees with the snow on the branches. I do miss it." Pepper actually lets out a soft laugh soon after, "Make sure you get your sledding in." And, of course, hot chocolate goes without saying!

"However, not the reason I called." She brings herself back on task; it's easy to make light conversation with the pleasant young lady, it seems. "And, Pepper, please." Keeping things casual, even in the face of something that is really a great deal more business than pleasure. "Now, I have a question for you." It's one of those 'I have a question' when she already knows the answer; it's how business runs, after all. "You may or may not know that Stark Industries is working on the electrical infrastructure beneath Mutant Town in preparation for integrating green energy into the neighborhood power grid." It's a statement; of course Kitty already knows. "My engineers quit work last night after coming to a problem they didn't foresee and thus didn't have a fix for last night. They were going to work on the issue this morning, but it seems that it's been resolved." Who would have guessed! "Do you know anything about that?"

Pepper's tones are so light, conversational, and her entire manner and mien is a mix of professional and casual.

Kitty Pryde has posed:
"Wow, that sounds like a great project. The people there in Bushwick can definitely use some improvement on their infrastructure. I've heard the city often drags their feet when it comes to spending money and fixing things there," Kitty says in a pleasant enough tone.

At the question about if she knows anything about it, Kitty says, "Huh, so it was one of those situations where deciding to sleep on it really did help I guess?" she asks. "Probably had the solution before they went to bed but just didn't realize it until they had clearer heads the next morning and were able to connect the final dots. That's happened to me a couple of times, turns out I was onto the solution but I just couldn't see it until I'd stepped back from it for a breather."

She's still walking along the road, judging by the steadiness and movement of the phone's camera. Everywhere in the background it's just big fluffy snow. The plows have been through on the road at least, giving her a clear path to walk, or jog.

Pepper Potts has posed:
"Mmmhmm.."

It's that same tone that Pepper Potts uses whenever Tony begins his monologue about how and why he (or someone else) really needed to do 'x' and how the result was actually the desired end, even if it wasn't the expected end... and such. There's that ghost of a smile that underscores it, and she sounds just this side of dubious.

"Maybe, but that's not what my lead engineer said."

Nope, not buying it.

"You know, when you get back, perhaps a cup of hot chocolate would be good to warm you up, so you can curl up and watch Hot Fuzz." Pepper sits back in her seat, her head canting, red hair shifting in the gesture. Those green eyes of hers are glowing with that hint of humor that likes just beneath.

Kitty Pryde has posed:
Kitty keeps up her pleasant smile as Pepper tells her that her engineer didn't seem to think that was the case. But at the advice that Pepper gives with even naming a movie to watch, Kitty's eyebrow goes up a little bit and she seems genuinely perplexed for a moment.

And then the wheels spin in her head. Connections are made and assumptions fall into place and Kitty's eyes widen slightly and then a look of exasperation is given. "Rogue!" she says, in a eureka tone not unlike Jerry Seinfield saying "Newman!". But lacking any of the dislike Jerry's voice would have.

Kitty clears her throat. "Well, I'm sure whatever transpired for things to go right in the end," Kitty says, "the important thing is that the poor people of the area are the beneficiaries of it. Right?" she says, the last in a hopeful tone that Pepper will decide to go along. She's not saying anything openly, but from her tone, it's clear she's not trying to convince Pepper any longer that she had nothing to do with it.

Pepper Potts has posed:
Pepper keeps that dubious expression for as long as she can manage, and when that light goes on in her head, she lets out a laugh as Kitty shouts her indignation to the ultimate culprit, even if it's to the universe at large for a moment. Oh, to be a fly on that wall later!

"It absolutely did allow for things to go right in the end. And, to be honest, it's an improvement. So," here, Pepper slows down a little, making sure that she is easily understood, "I believe that things would go even better with the entire project if you were officially on our team." The redhead pauses, and a smile is readily in place after the laugh has passed. "I'd like to offer you a position with us in Stark Industries. We have a good 401k, education and continuing education riders, but all that can be discussed with HR tomorrow." Should she accept, that is. "Think it over, and call me with your answer, please?"

Kitty Pryde has posed:
That wasn't quite where Kitty was expecting the call to go, though to be fair she hadn't quite known how it was going to go. A little mild scolding perhaps?

The young woman breaks out in a grin as Pepper makes that revelation of her intent. "You know I've been debating between putting in an application there, or seeing if there might be room for contract work," Kitty replies. "So this is very timely. I do have some time commitments that I think you are already aware of, and if not Tony could fill you in. The sort of thing that can take one away a bit unexpectedly on rare occasions." Genosha. South America. Off world. It happens.

"If that wouldn't be an issue, as well maybe a four day a week thing as I have some obligations at the school along those lines. If that would be acceptable, I'd definitely enjoy the opportunity."

Pepper Potts has posed:
That gleam doesn't fade from those green eyes; Pepper knows all about time constraints. ALL about them.

"Well, debate no more, please. Consider this to be contact from a headhunter. I'll send your name to HR and have them follow up. If there are any questions regarding scheduling, I'll make sure they understand that we are flexible."

Pepper finally rises from her spot, and she's got her video link with her as she begins to get ready to go back home. It's touching the freezing point, so coat.. scarf. "A four day work week is fine. And, I think you've proven that you're more than capable of working remotely." Is she teasing the younger woman? Most probably. "I will ask one thing, however.. and you can take this as friendly advice as well." She allows a couple of heartbeats before,

"Don't leave your cellphone where people can find it and take embarrassing pictures." It's a gentle way of making sure Kitty logs out of her computer when done!

Kitty Pryde has posed:
Kitty Pryde breaks out in a warm laugh in reply. "Oh, yes. Might have to rethink a thing or two," she says with a grin back to Pepper. "Thank you, Pepper. I'm looking forward to talking to your people then. And also, thank you for the work that you're doing, that project. It's sorely needed."

Kitty smiles and glances back over her shoulder. "I'd better get running, looks like the plows coming through again," she says. She gives a little wave. "Thank you for calling, I'll be in touch tomorrow then," she says, waving and giving Pepper a last chance if she wants to say anything, and hanging up if not.