18068/RoT: A General Unhappy With The Avengers

RoT: A General Unhappy With The Avengers
Date of Scene:	29 May 2024
Location:	Avengers Mansion - Assembly Room
Synopsis:	General Ross expresses his displeasure with the Avengers over a government lab that was destroyed in a fight. The team discuss matters and how to investigate further without the government on their back.
Cast of Characters:	Steve Rogers, Natasha Romanoff, Greer Grant, James Barnes, Wanda Maximoff, Clea
Tinyplot:	Reign of Terror

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Steve Rogers has posed:
The video call hadn't so much been long, as heated. It had started with JARVIS announcing over comms that there was a call for the Avengers from the Pentagon. As members had gathered in the Assembly Room, the video call was already underway.

General Thaddeus 'Thunderbolt' Ross hadn't taken long to express his displeasure about the destruction of a secret government science lab, which AIM and the Wrecking Crew had assaulted. Members of the Avengers and SHIELD had responded to stop them. Some pieces of gamma-powered technology had been taken by AIM. And Bucky and Steve discovered another lab centered around a Vitaray machine, the device that Dr. Erskine had used to turn Steve Rogers into the first super soldier.

In the ensuing fight, a gamma reactor was damaged and began to go critical. T'Challa, a gifted physicist, said he didn't believe he could prevent it, but was willing to try. Steve Rogers made the call to focus on evacuating everyone from the building rather than trying. The building blew up, with Clea containing enough of the blast to avoid much collateral damage to nearby buildings.

Steve Rogers has posed:
"Rogers!" General Ross bellows from the screen that holds his image. "I'm not insinuating anything!" he says as the argument continues. "I'm flat out saying you let that facility blow up because you saw the research that was being conducted!" The conversation had been running for a dozen minutes already, most of it General Ross chewing out the team for allowing the building's destruction.

Steve Rogers crosses his arms. He has been straightforward but calm. "No General. One of the premier physicists on the planet did not think the reactor could be stopped in time. I made the call to save the facility's staff. And I'd do it again."

"Hogwash! Don't think I don't know what this is about. You want to deny the Hulkbusters the equipment that was being worked there. And you want to preserve your legacy as being Abraham Erskine's only creation!" the general and commander of the Hulkbuster unit yells back. "You saw the research being done and you didn't like it, and so you let millions of dollars of government research be destroyed."

Steve glances around at the other Avengers as if drawing strength from their presence, his lips pressed into a line as he turns back to General Ross. "No sir. That is not what happened. We had moments to make the call. I made it to save lives."

General Ross leans back in his chair. "This isn't over, Rogers! You hear me!? This isn't over, if I have to go all the way to the Oval Office to see you held accountable!" He stabs at a button, the screen going blank.

Steve lets out a soft sigh and glances around the team again. "Is there a fresh pot of coffee?" he asks as he picks up his mug and moves over to fill it, knowing other members of the team might have questions, or comments.

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
Natasha Romanova would fold her arms together and lean against the wall, "The man has very little to stand on if we wish to respond aggressively. HIs projects have a track record of consistent security breaches, research failures, and facilities and data being seized. At least three occasions in the last two years we have seen widespread seizure and utilization of Hulkbuster facilities, technological assets, and research material by aggressive parties. This most recent breach involved a full security breach of said facility. Furthermore projects associated with Ross have created at least three known gamma irradiated beings in the last few years." Red She-Hulk, the unknown Red Hulk, and the Leader.

"We have firm ground and a great swathe of material to utilize against him."

Greer Grant has posed:
Making sure to stand out of view of the camera, or trying to make sure at least, Tigra rolls her eyes, sticks out her tongue, and in general acts less than respectfully in response to the general's bellowing. She waits until the call is ended to step around and flip a bird at the deactivated screen. "Definitely sounds to me like he's trying to shift blame for his problems onto someone else. And someone who's doing a lousy job of it, at that."

James Barnes has posed:
Everyone knows Buck is not a 'joiner'. He's trying to do better, but he's not quite there yet. Teams are just still not his scene. Team meetings? So incredibly not his scene. What most don't know is the surefire way to get Bucky to at least pretend to be a joiner? Well, it's the promise of Renquist and Sons pies. How many will Steve owe him after this one?

Probably not many honestly. All thoughts of pie went out the window when General Thunderthigh's Floss started in on Steve. He's smart enough to know that anything he would have said would have just made it worse for Steve, so Bucky kept his mouth shut. Man was it difficult, so incredibly difficult. But he managed, by clenching his jaw and only letting out a few growling sounds probably too low to be heard by General Tosser from Bucky's position at the back of the room. "Hogwash..." he grits out between those clenched teeth. In the words of General Thunder*insertinappropriatwordthatstartswithchere*, it's all Hogwash.

Wanda Maximoff has posed:
The Scarlet Witch, much in her style, had remained silent during the convo with Ross. It's not as if she had been in that particular mission yet when Ross accuses Steve of having let the facility get destroyed on purpose it's when a finely-trimmed brow arches up, fingertips tapping on the table in that kind of manner most of them will know the Witch is irritated.

When the call ends is when she finally speaks up, "I feel the General's priorities are unaligned to what is the real problem here." her eastern european accent showing, "And that is that an actual lab existed with that kind of research." she gets up to go fill up her own mug of coffee too.

"What do we know so far about what they were doing there?"

Clea has posed:
Clea is for once not floating around the room like some well dressed specter. She's seated at the table and listening to the General lay into Steve and things. When the screen goes black there is a moment to look around the room and then back to the screen. "He reminds me of someone..." she trails off, shaking her head.

"The fact that he is so upset over the research being destroyed instead of focusing on the lives that were saved and the radiation not running rampant is very telling." the sorceress states in a quiet tone.

Steve Rogers has posed:
Steve pours the last of the coffee pot into Wanda's mug, then replaces the filter and starts a new pot brewing before he rejoins the others at the table. "Probably best if we can avoid making things with the Avengers political," he comments to Natasha. "Though it's not always something we can prevent. If it was the right call, it should be enough to stand on."

Sliding into his seat again, Steve moves his mug to take a sip and then realizes it's still empty, waiting for the new pot, giving little nods here and there to comments that others make. Wanda in particular gets one of those nods. "The gamma lab had these metallic devices, about two or three feet long, only a half a foot wide. They were hooked up to the reactor as if it was powering or fueling them somehow. But I'm not sure what they were," he says, shaking his head.

"As for the other lab, Bucky and I got knocked through a wall. And there was a chamber that looked just like the Vitaray chamber that Dr. Erskine put me into. That process was more than just the chamber. There were compounds he injected. I know others have tried to duplicate it, but without success as far as I know. If Ross was trying to get that going, it's quite likely the gamma lab was working on some kind of... advantage, weapon, something of military use at least."

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
Natasha Romanova would fold her arms over, "It is not political. It is not letting ourselves be used for the man to transfer responsibility for his own failures onto. That leaves us weak and strengthens his own position. We responded to a distress call from his facility after it was actively breached. If security had been adequate then there would have been no breach in the first place, or we would not have arrived to find them having already breached the reactor and seizing materials." Natasha makes no move for the coffee.

"Ultimately I shall defer to you but we do not operate within his chain of command. The responsibility for the chain of events is his own, and him placing it upon our response merely absolves him of responsibility."

Greer Grant has posed:
Tigra sits cross-legged in a chair as she listens to Steve explain what they saw, and her tail flicks unhappily at what she's hearing. "I suppose the devices might've just been batteries or power supplies of some sort, but more likely they'd be weapons of some sort, but that's what the military does," she says with a slight shrug. "And I can understand the army wanting to replicate super-soldiers somehow, but the thought of gamma powered ones makes my fur stand on end."

James Barnes has posed:
"Why? Why is Tosser so up in arms over that research over lives?" Bucky honestly doesn't get it. The entire super soldier thing hasn't done overly well by him - and perhaps not Steve either. "What're they trying to accomplish? A fucking army of super soldiers? Yeah, that'd be peachy." He's no longer clenching his jaw, now it's just the metallic sound of his left fist grinding gears. "Then someone inevitably steals the research. Yeah, crazed super soldiers for /everyone/, sounds like a plan. Fuck that, Steve, you did them and the /world/ a favor in blowing that shit up."

Opinionated much on the subject? Opinionated and /pissed/. They'd have every Lil' Steve in the world lined up for it and if they couldn't find enough willing, well - unwilling never seems to stop them when it's all about a power grab.

"I don't think it's all about passing the blame, not entirely."

Swear jar total - ten bucks, five per fuck.

Wanda Maximoff has posed:
"That's the military for you." Wanda says over to Clea, emerald gaze on her, "They only care for results not lives." clearly she not having a high opinion of military forces, "Apologies to the military boys, of course." a brief smirk given over to Bucky and Steve afterwards. She returns to her seat with her new coffee mug after a smile of thanks to Steve, taking a drink.

"Curious devices, I imagine none was recovered..." she letting out a sigh, "He's mad enough about his project having been found, that's true. Specially by a group that doesn't answer directly to him. I imagine we want to find out more about it." eyes settling on Steve now.

"Because I would if the government was investigating something directly related to me. And you know we will help."

Clea has posed:
Clea sits back in her seat and frowns a bit, her violet gaze flickering back to the screen once more before then looking to Wanda and there is a nod of agreement there, "Sounds like it." she tells her.

Then she looks around to the others, before settling her gaze on Steve, "What can we do to help?" she asks him.

Steve Rogers has posed:
Steve Rogers lets out a small sigh and nods at Greer's comment about the thought of gamma powered soldiers. "Mine too. You'd think with what's happened with experimenting with it, that we'd have learned to stay away from it, by now," Steve replies to her.

The coffee pot is filling up, so Steve rises to go back over with his empty mug. "You might be right, Bucky. But I'm sure Ross is also looking at it as the Avengers having denied him equipment he can use against Bruce, should the opportunity arise for him to. It can be a compelling story he can try to sell. Especially throwing in the lab with Dr. Erskine's work in it too."

Armed with his cup of black coffee, Steve returns to his seat again. "I imagine after the lab was lost, they'll want us to stay even further away from anything else they have going," Steve comments. "But, AIM got away with at least some of the devices. They tried to take some machines that I think were fabricating them, and were stopped. But did get away with the devices themselves." Steve looks over to Clea at her question about how to help. "Dealing with them would be a way we could investigate at least the gamma research, without crossing the military. And prevent AIM from developing the research for their own uses. Two birds with one stone?"

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
Natasha Romanova would nod for a few moments and then add, "And we should consider if we do recover anything having it be inspected to see how far the military has gotten with their experiments." She's not asking Bruce to do that; mind. And that requires them to get enough things intact. It's also something that might be easier to just steal the old fashioned way.

Bucky's well aware of Natasha's methods - same as Clint. If they recover 'something' it makes for an excellent cover for whatever they get from hitting one of Ross' laboratories themselves.

Greer Grant has posed:
"Technically, what Ross is doing there might not be illegal," Tigra says with an unpleasant look. "Unethical, irresponsible, unwise, and a host of other things, but possibly still legal, pursuing him or the project directly might be a non-starter. Going after what AIM took, though, that's something else. And no reason we have to hurry to report anything that we've recovered, at least until we've had a chance to study it."

James Barnes has posed:
"Whatever you need, Steve." Of course Bucky's willing to do whatever. But - "But, don't leave me alone in a room with General ThunderThighs - or even let me in the same room with him period." He might lose his temper.

It's never good when Bucky loses his temper - he tends to turn a little frigid, like Winter.

Once again, things roll back to Bucky not being a 'joiner'. He's said his piece and unless someone brings up something else that needs his piece, he's content to stand, arms crossed and generally scowl about it all. Give him a plan, load him up and aim him at something that needs unalived or, at the very least, on the ground. Otherwise, he'll just stand there being the staring, scowling super supportive friend he always is to Steve.

Wanda Maximoff has posed:
"Going after AIM is what makes sense now." Wanda nodding in Greer's direction as if in agreement before she also gets up to her feet, "Good talk. Let's make sure to get Bucky and the General together some time." this last part added in a oh-so-casual tone.

"Do we have any leads to follow on that AIM group?" she asks, eyes moving over to Nat and then Steve again.

Clea has posed:
Clea gives a look to the others and listens, while she is good at leading, this is not her show or her task. "I'll assist in however I can. I do not want Ross to come down on one person in particular. Seems like he has a grudge against Steve." she frowns. "Or I might be reading it wrong. Though I am willing to do the research for that." she states.

Steve Rogers has posed:
There are nods of agreement from Steve Rogers as Natasha and Greer discuss potentially recovering the research from AIM, and then studying it. "Yes, while the government could ask us for it back, if they find out... well it's not like we took it from the government anyway," Steve says. "They can't really complain we kept it out of AIM's hands. Who knows where it might end up if they can work out the technology, or even advance it further. Whatever it is."

The freshly brewed cup of coffee's aroma draws Steve's attention back to it, and he takes a sip. He doesn't usually get involved in the selection of the coffee in the mansion, but Tony seems to do a good job with it.

He looks to Wanda at her question about what they have to go on. "We have some sightings of their vehicles departing, but that's just a direction. I'm afraid we might have to start beating the bushes for information. I don't know if Tony and Bruce can do any of their science to somehow track down anything associated or not. Might be worth asking them," Steve suggests.

He looks to Clea and says, "Well, he has a thing against Dr. Banner for one. And since the Avengers protect him and cut a deal with the government that we'll help keep everyone safe, we're not his favorite group either."

Steve rises to his feet. "Clea I don't know if you can do anything to help track as well. I still am amazed by your magic but am not sure what all you can do. But if there's something you could to help us find AIM..." he says, trailing off with that. "Sorry you all had to hear the General yelling. But I'm glad you had my back." He flashes a grin over to Bucky before the group breaks up and heads back out.