18344/Guess Who's Coming to Visit!

Guess Who's Coming to Visit!
Date of Scene:	16 June 2024
Location:	Penthouse - Kord Co
Synopsis:	Beast comes over for Ted Talk.
Cast of Characters:	Ted Kord, Henry McCoy

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Ted Kord has posed:
Ted Kord gives the bots their orders. "Bobo, turn up the AC. The man is covered with fur, he may be hot. Bingo, make sure the bar nozzle things are working. Bongo, Bodhi, you're with me. The rest of you... continue repairs to the guest bathroom. I don't know what the hell happened there. I just Glad Jenny wasn't hurt.

There is the distinct impression of bots rolling their eyes.

"Reception, send Dr. McCoy up... what? Why yes I've seen pictures. I know what color he is."

Henry McCoy has posed:
Henry McCoy, multiple Ph.D holder, was normally entirely glad to consult with his fellow brother and sister scientists in need. And while he didn't know Mr Kord directly, he did spare the time to do a lookup of the man and his organization. He liked what he saw, even if the tech was occasionally dated and full of odd decisions. Still, when the call went out, he was going to answer. And rather than the Beast, today he was in Dr McCoy mode. Nice suit, tailored for his bulk, shows, ground-down claws on his hands to avoid any unnecessary stress. "Ah, yes, thank you." he told the receptionist as he got into the waiting elevator and took it up.

Ted Kord has posed:
Ted Kord was immediately glad he'd upped the AC. He himself was dressed in corporate casual. He meets the elevator flanked by two bots, a well laid table behind him. After deliberation he went with serving fajitas. "Remind me to up the temperature before Ms. Stavros visits. The square cube law would make her freeze her ass o... you know what? Let it alone," he whispers to a bot.

"Dr. McCoy, I'm so glad to see you. I heard great things about you and your work. Please come in, get lubricated, have a bite if you like. Make use of the facilities as you like. This is Bodhi, and this is Bongo. Two of my bot kids."

Henry McCoy has posed:
Hank smiled, trying to minimize the effect of his fangs on Ted's disposition. "Thank you, sir. That's very kind." he said in a smooth baritone voice, pitched to be soothing and inoffensive. Yet Ted has undoubtedly seen the footage of the Beast in action, and may or may not appreciate the effort to seem less-threatening. He spent a little bit of time with his hands on autopilot, assembling himself a chance to stoke his mutant metabolism, as his mind studied the bots. "Not ducted fans, no. Antigravity? Repulsorlift? Fascinating." he mused to himself as he studied Bohdi. While physics wasn't his first love (that would be biochemistry) he had spent enough time tutoring Miss Pryde to develop a deep appreciation for learning just how the universe worked. Which, he mentally snickered to himself, would be math, but physics was just the practical applied side.

Ted Kord has posed:
Ted Kord supplies, "Ion thrusters. It's a cool exhaust magnetically accelerated. Very fuel efficient, They hardly use their landing gear. He grabs a beer and offers one to Hank. Okay food first. Good sign. He regards the suit analytically for a moment then says, "Dr. McCoy, I am not a person fond of protocol. As a favor to me, could you please doff your jacket and or tie? This totally unnecessary. You can even take a dip if you're hot"

Henry McCoy has posed:
Hank blinked at that. Then, to be accomodating, he removed his jacket and tie, as requested, and set them aside on a nearby chair. With just the button-down on, it became very obvious that Hank had a nonstandard physiology. He had the sort of build that made professional strongmen cry into their protein shakes. "Ion thrusters? How did you overcome the low specific impulse problem in a gravity well?" he asked, then shook his head. "But my apologies. You didn't, I believe, as me here to pester you about your automatons. What may I do for you, Mister Kord?" he asked, then too a bite of his assembled Oops, All Protein fajita.

Ted Kord has posed:
Ted Kord sips and nods as he swallows. "I exploit the paramagnetic properties of oxygen by seeding air with a proprietary mix if chemicals. It's not the caesium or neon version. They'd need an air tank to function in vacuum. Theyir cooling fans do double as emergency thrusters."

"In any case, I am an EOE. I do have Mutant employees. Their nature is kept strictly confidential by me unless they wish otherwise. That'd be Karen in accounting. She's out. Her power prevents her from getting dirty. Anyway, Karen and her fellow Mutants are my employees. I protect my people and they look up to and after me. So I had the idea... I could spoof Mutant detectors. My efforts went into overdrive when those Sentinels showed up recently."

"I thought if Mutant detectors scan for a particular brainwave, I could generate a reverse wave to create destructive interference and hide their Mutant signal. Unfortunately, the technology is currently immobile and... while I'm not sure how well it works, it definitely knocked Karen flat when I did a test run Sunday. So instead of defending Mutants I created a... Mutant stunner. I'm very embarrassed by this."

Henry McCoy has posed:
Hank tried very hard not to bare his fangs. "I .. see. I may be able to assist you, Mister Kord, if you'd be willing to share with me the schematics for your would-be mutant shield." he said. A stunner. Good Lord. If he hadn't had the highest recommendations at the highest levels, he might just have to do something drastic. So to keep him from showing his opinion, he busied himself finishing off his original fajita. Then the other one he'd made. Then he grabbed for one of the offered beers. "One hopes your proprietary mix of chemicals has gone through a full and rigorous EPA evaluation." he commented.

Ted Kord has posed:
Ted Kord nods. "The mix is totally green. I have the schematics on this USB which I hand over to you. I give you my word I have made the system inoperable until this is fixed -if ever. I can't help but think I'm close though. If the hacks who built Sentinels can do it, I can. This technology could be vital to Mutant survival and freedom."

Henry McCoy has posed:
Hank reluctantly nodded as he took the USB stick from Ted. "Well. It will take me some time to review this data - would you like for me to give a preliminary look while I'm here? Mutant detection and masking is, for obvious reasons, a special interest of mine. I think I might know what you did to cause your mutant employee such distress but I need to see the field data to be sure." he said. It might also, depending on how today went, to ask Miss Pryde to do some discreet digital snooping. To vet Mister Kord's word. "There are a number of possible frequencies that resonate with mutant physiology and biology that carry a dual purpose. I suspect your device is overwhelming one or more of those."

Ted Kord has posed:
Ted Kord smiles. "That'd be fine. Karen got the week off in a corporate retreat I keep to recuperate. I thought this was more complicated than I expected. I can appreciate your desire to prove my good intentions. Mutants are curiously vulnerable to exploitation of their neurology and biology. I am Justice League, and work with SHIELD, you can certainly ask them about me... Here, I have the breakdowns (hah) on my desktop." He grabs two more beers, setting one for Beast.

Henry McCoy has posed:
He gratefully took the beer, took a swallow, and then decided to set it aside. Quirk of his tastes, he casually loathed excessively hoppy beers. "Let me speak plainly, Mister Kord. Before I agreed to come and meet you here I made sure to do some deep background on you, your company, and your friends in the League. They all speak relatively well of you, which is why I am here now like this and not in something more suited for action." he said. "So with that out of the way, let's go ahead and take a look at your schematics and at your field data. See what went astray."

Ted Kord has posed:
Ted Kord nods. "Well, I'm glad we're talking like two civilized men rather than fighting it out. As for checking me out, I get flags on people doing that everyday. No harm, no foul. There wasn't a whole lot on you but your team is not easy to find and honestly, I think the Brotherhood would bring down this building on principle... or try." There's a little edge to his voice at that. "Anyway, you are a friend of the Avengers and I found your number online. "Let me say, if we fail to fix this to your satisfaction, I'm wiping the plans and dismantling the device while you watch if you desire."

Henry McCoy has posed:
Hank couldn't help it. "We are men of action. Lies do not become us." he said, sounding uncannily like Cary Elwes. "Or, in our case, men of reason who occasionally must take up arms against the slings and arrows of the world." he said in his normal New-York-by-way-of-Illinois-accented voice. "And for the record, I am a reserve Avenger. Not current roster, but I keep in touch." he said with an easy smile. "Now, on to the data!"

Ted Kord has posed:
Ted Kord brings up the display and leaves the chair to Henry. the image speak of a high degree of detail with components linked to the brainwaves they'd screen. It is a very intricate affair and could be made un readable to less well constructed GUI's. "My friend Doug Ramsey overhauled all our graphics when he worked here. Amazing individual. Sadly I paid him too well and he retired," Ted confessed. "I did design the computer though. That's were my particular gift lies. I can build things in my head, let them run and see where they can fail, or back engineer them from performance and specs but... brainwaves are out of my wheelhouse. Oh, please call me Ted. Could I get you anything else?"

Henry McCoy has posed:
It took Hank a second to refocus from the scientific data back to Ted. "A glass of water would be lovely. Well, that and either a beer with more ingredients than just hops or a caffeinated soda." he asked courteously. "And I'm Hank." he said absently as he returned his attention to the schematics, doing the math, working out the equations. Forge could have done it in a heartbeat but Hank wasn't Forge. And Hank could tell you how his inventions worked, unlike the Maker half the time. Since his primary specialty was biochemistry, he was focused on that part of the device, the interactions. His data wasn't excellent but he was already starting to get some idea of what went wrong.

Ted Kord has posed:
Ted Kord nods and sends a bot to the kitchen, "Get that umlaut juice Jenny likes. Do not put ice in it. Understand?" The bot bobs and heads out. He looks at the diagram but let's Hank work. Doug might have been of use here. Ted wasn't sure HOW, but Doug usually found a way. Sadly, he found a way earn enough to buy a Stingray and a cabin in Maine to retire to for long stretches.

Henry McCoy has posed:
Hank let his forefinger linger on a section of the schematics. "I believe I have a preliminary theory as to what wrong. The good part is that your device's basic math and function is sound. The bad part is that it's basic math and function is sound - in a laboratory. You picked up a nasty resonance from an environmental signal here..." he said, circling a section of Navier-Stokes equations that looked to be more in Greek than they were in English. "Couple this with, say, your typical frequency-modulated signals propagating everywhere in our modern world, and you get this." he said, doing some very rapid and very complex math in the margins.

Ted Kord has posed:
Ted Kord looks over the figures. "I had no idea... those signals would be nearly impossible to screen out: cell phone radio broadcasts. Great. I may as well start over. Back to the drawing board. I'll burn all this to a disk for you, then wipe my plans and records. This could be of some use to you. I'll star disassembly as soon as I can get a crew together. It should be down and crated in a couple hours. Daaaaamn." He rubs at the bridge of his nose as the bot returns with a glass and a pitcher of ice water.

Henry McCoy has posed:
Hank felt sympathy for Ted - he'd been where the other man is, too many times. "If it makes you feel any better, one of the primary on-again off-again antagonists for the X-Men can manipulate the length and breath of the E-M spectrum." he said. "Most infuriating when it comes to trying to find an effective countermeasure." he said. "But take some heart - we know for a _fact_ that it's possible to shield a mutant's unique biosignature from detection. The difficulty comes in finding a safe and effective mechanism that is real-world effective."

Ted Kord has posed:
Ted Kord shrugs. "I appreciate the sentiment. You know... I often feel like a phony when I'm with the Justice League. Like I don't bring anything they can't get from Batman or S.T.A.R. Labs. This, was my domain. I could do stuff here. So it is hard to have something I spent $20 million be a waste of time. I'm sorry to waste your time, Hank."

Henry McCoy has posed:
Hank emphatically shook his head. "You misunderstand, Ted. I know how you feel - one of my team-mates can do what takes me months of research and careful math and hard work in an afternoon. But the takeaway here is not "Well, my device failed, I am a failure." and should be "Well, this doesn't work, but I've learned something I didn't know before." he said. "There's an important difference there. There will always be someone smarter than you are. Than I am." he said. "But that shouldn't dissuade you from doing what you can, as much as you can. Mske _your_ contributions to the world." he urged. "Anyway. Presumptuous of me to give you life advice, and for that I should and do apologize."

Ted Kord has posed:
Ted Kord says, "I'm not saying I'm a failure. But I made a promise to keep someone safe. I take my promises seriously Hank. There's always someone smarter? Yea, Doom, Richards, Pym, Luthor... and none of them have my viewpoint. I may not be able to make what they do, but I make my own things. I'm not concerned about failure. I'm concerned about failure, about Sentinels or Men in Black coming for my people. But I will keep them safe. Trust me."

Henry McCoy has posed:
Hank nodded. He could empathize with that approach. "Then you approach wisdom, Ted. It's not enough - it's never enough - to be smart. To be a good engineer. To be able to do the math, translate that into plastic and metal and circuit. The most important question is the why. And I believe you're doing just fine on that front. Without the why, it's very easy for smart men like us to fall into evil. To be like the people that design the Sentinels, or other world-ending engines." he said. "In the crudest D&D terms, Wisdom should never be our dump stat." he said with a small laugh. "Well, I've given you more than enough to think about. Feel free to reach back out to me if you desire a consultation on the next idea you get to protect your people. All people." he said. "But I would dearly love to continue to graze at your spread of food here. I had a busy morning and have neglected too many meals."