2678/Tech Bridge

Tech Bridge
Date of Scene:	29 July 2020
Location:	Mutant Town, Temporary Lab Space
Synopsis:	Wherein there is a technology relay, Brainiac stuff, fun little robots, and pizza.
Cast of Characters:	Tony Stark, Pepper Potts, Victor Stone, Nadia Pym-van Dyne

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Tony Stark has posed:
Tony Stark has been doing his part to prepare for Mutant Town's resizing. Should ideas related to resizing the people separately from the town work or not, there's a need to deal with the city itself, returning it physically into Bushwick. Tony's focus is on the relay for the device, to avoid having to mount the whole giant thing up in the air on some kind of moving platform. Instead, he's working through the physical creation of adding to a device he'd already had in orbit.

It's come down to needing a lot of specifications from what the Titans are working on, and an invitation was extended to bridge those gaps between the relay and the device further than what has already been set up.

Tony has recently launched the physical equipment, but it's come down to a lot of the code, and exactly where the device itself will physically BE. The Mutant Town Lab space overlooking Bushwick, where the previous meeting was held, is as good as any to meet up, instead of just virtually.

Besides, Tony's willing to share, and offer control of the relay to those working on the device itself. He's present in the lab space, though he's actually partially in one of the long computer groups, physically making some adjustments in the mechanical components. So it is that just his expensive, fashionable sneakers are currently in view, while some robot drones stand around helpfully - as if he were working under a car, not an insanely complex computer console!

Pepper Potts has posed:
Pepper sits on a rolly chair a little further in a corner in a stylish green midi-sundress, enough to be out of the way, her legs crossed with her tablet on her lap. She's got the latest and greatest iteration, so she's got several windows open, each with a bit of information that she needs. News to listen to the publicity the Benefit garnered, waiting on a conversation from the accounting office, and some basic schematics that Tony's asked for in relation to his receiving device. There's been a lot of theoretical science before the man disappeared to his sneakers, and she's got a lot of that data available. Green eyes flicker from her tablet to the legs and back every few moments.

Victor Stone has posed:
Victor Stone comes into the lab with a large steel case tucked under one arm. It has casters on the bottom, like a large piece of luggage, but they're spinning helplessly in the air; with the kind of strength his metal frame allows, he has decided that it's more convenient to carry the thing than worry about the tiny little wheels' tendency to snag on every bump, tile gap, and loose cable within the tri-state area. He sets the case down on the nearest open counter space with a weighty thunk, which takes a while considering the number of surfaces already in use.

It actually takes him less time to locate the sneakers that indicate Tony's presence, and he sneaks a peek around the corner of the server farm. He gives an appreciative whistle, with a trill of vocoded distortion underlying it, and comments, "Man, have those even been released yet? I thought they were only out next year!"

That said, he gives the man a moment to finish up what he's working on. Instead, he approaches Pepper with a broad grin, extending his metallic hand. "Hi, Miss Potts! I'm Victor Stone, or Cyborg, if you like that kind of thing. I'm not sure you remember me, but it's great to officially meet you."

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
Nadia follows Victor into the room, as usual she has a bright sunny smile for everyone. "Hello! Thanks for meeting with us!"

She's not wearing her Wasp armor for a change, dressed far more casually in a fashionable dark red bomber jacket over a sleek V-necked black T-shirt and a pleated red and black plaid skirt that reaches just about to her knees. One can almost see Janet's hand in her evolving fashion sense.

She doesn't seem to be carrying anything when she enters the room, but that means very little when one is dealing with a Pym.

Tony Stark has posed:
"Not officially," Tony's voice echoes out of the console while he's being asked about the release date. "A benefit to my presence, you could say," Tony adds. "One of many." It's cheeky, arrogant, but non-aggressive. Tony's on a sliding little cart - sort of an adapted footstool, and he uses his feet to draw himself out most of the way.

A few things are going on; while Tony is dressed very casually (ACDC tee, jeans!), he has some high tech glasses on, with a moving HUD display on them... and a mix of cables trailing with him that connect the console behind him... and disappear up under the front of his /shirt/. Kind of odd.

It isn't public knowledge, the arc reactor Tony has. Very few actually know about it at all. Someone with enhanced vision like Victor Stone may end up with a hell of a lot of unanswered, weird questions from the sight of the thing, which ... possibly could power something ridiculous. Such as all of the consoles and some of the city? Hard to tell, exactly, though Victor may pick up right away he's not the only cyborg around.

"Victor it is. Nadia, hey; mind if I use you /right away/? If you shrink without your suit?" Tony asks, keying on her really quickly, and turning his hand to wag a finger at her to come over and be useful. His smile is immediate, charismatic.

"And would one of the rest of you monitor those /warnings/ that are maybe about to show up on that console over there?"

Pepper Potts has posed:
Pepper looks up at the newly arrived, and with a smile, sets her tablet down behind her on the seat as she rises. She, too, extends her hand in introduction and greeting, inclining her head briefly in a quick nod. "I remember you from the other day." She even remembers names! "Victor. It's a pleasure to actually meet you rather than sharing a meeting space. It's nice to see everyone working together on this." It's not a judgement thing, really! The words come out so easily with a pleasant lilt, it's nothing but an observation.

"So glad you could make it and we can finally do this."

Nadia's entrance gains the woman the same sort of greeting. "Nadia," is seconded.

When Tony rolls out again from his spot, and the robots shift a little to allow him room to do so, Pepper looks back at her employer and green eyes linger a moment before she nods at the rest of the instruction. No doubt Victor might be used to better ability, perhaps, than just watching the warning lights.

"At what point are we //listening// to the warnings?" How many times has there been 'ignore that!' with the red blinky warning lights flaring?

Victor Stone has posed:
Vic shakes Peppers hand, still grinning. His expression is as warm and human as his grip is unmistakably mechanical: smooth and cool, yes, but carefully calibrated for that perfect 'firm handshake' squeeze. "Yeah, on something this important, we can't afford to go it alone," he agrees. "And I gotta say, after the panic and pressure of the big fight, it feels great to just get the chance to help so many people, all at once."

Releasing Pepper's hand, he turns to look at Nadia, all sunny and innocent and completely unburdened by cares and/or heavy equipment. "Wait a minute," he says, lifting one finger, natural and artificial eyes narrowing alike. "Did you just let me carry that giant thing in here when you had your shrinky beam on you the whole time?"

He sounds flummoxed, not angry, and there's a hint of kidding in even that. "Why didn't you say something? I'm not one of those Boston Dynamics mule-bots! Although I did try to make some of those mule-bot legs with the tennis ball feet once? Oof. /Not/. A /great/. /Look/." This last is delivered to no one in particular, but it's enough to bounce him from that topic back to the task at hand.

He moves to hover just behind Pepper, keeping an eye on those readouts along with her, ready to jump in to assist if there's anything someone with impervious limbs can help with. After a second, he turns to peer surreptitiously at Tony again. Curious about those anomalous energy readings? Wondering what, exactly, the cables are connecting him to? Interested in another modified human running around? He mutters a hint as he turns back to the screen: "Man, it's enough to make me wish I still had feet."

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
Nadia claps her hands together in front of her mouth positively grinning from ear to ear, "Vic, Tony Stark knows my name!" A whisper excited enough that it is not really a whisper at all.

Victor's questions bring her back to reality and laughs for a moment bringing her hands away from her face again before regaining something resembling composure, "You didn't ask! I'm not a telepath!" a pause before she grins at him. "You would be amazed at what I can bring with me Vic. I could fit the whole array in my pocket." She didn't, did she? Did she?!

"Hello, Ms. Potts!" she waves at Pepper, a sunny smile for her as well.

Only to be once again momentarily distracted when she see's Tony's glasses, but eventually manages to focus. "Oh right, sure, okay, yes I can do that. I mean I have the suit with me but it's not really needed for that." Tony Stark is talking to her, get it together Nadia, "What do you need me to do?" She asks curiously, walking in Tony's direction, quite willing to volunteer.

Tony Stark has posed:
"You're going to replace M-25 here, because unfortunately, she cannot be trusted at this small of a scale," Tony explains to Nadia. M-25 is a small robot that trundled over next to Vic to look at his feet. Then her feet. Then Vic's feet. She spins a little in place, like a strange little Wall-E bot, before chirping at Tony.

"Ping?" asks M-25, confused.

"Yes. Last time there was a fire, and you haven't gotten an upgrade. I put saving the world first," Tony talks to the bot like she's a strange little human. She looks up at Victor as if seeking support. Look at what she has to deal with on a daily basis?!

"There's a tray over there, the blue one. I need those all plugged in all through this section. We're going with safety this time. As you do it, please make sure the power fluxes well. We won't be ignoring any of the warnings, because I'm supplying power personally. I have a stake in this." Tony shows forefinger and thumb, to show a tiny little amount between them. A very small stake really. That was at Pepper.

"But that should wrap this thing up, to hook into what you've got. Pending modifications, but. We'll be online here to make those changes." Tony is still seated on his little rolling butt-cart, entirely relaxed to speak from the floor. Tony Stark doesn't even need to stand to draw together a room with his smile and manner. It's like he's done this before.

Pepper Potts has posed:
Pepper retrieves her hand once the greetings and brief introduction is done, her smile remaining behind easily. "Well, it's behind us, and this," she gestures at the array, and all the requisite tech and engineering needed, "in front of us."

Nadia's less than whispered whisper of the star-struck is met with a breathy chuffed laugh, though she doesn't say much on the subject. Instead, she moves to position herself by the console, her attention flickering back to Tony, and then down to the M-25. "Oh stop," she adds to the robot, "He promised." Though the upgrades were going to the little cleaner bots first!

The sound of safety is music to the PA's ears, and to hear it come directly from him, well.. that hint of a smile shifts to something of relief. "Right." Once set up, she's more than willing to let Victor do the wire thing. She looks at the younger cyborg, brows rising, "You good?"

Victor Stone has posed:
Vic flashes a grin at Nadia, his exaggerated annoyance at lugging the case already forgotten. "Don't fangirl /too/ hard, Nadia. You're a superhero, too, now, remember?" He doesn't comment on her joke about having the array handy. If an extra projection test will give them even slightly more accurate readings before the real thing, he's willing to wipe a few hundred megabytes from his internal memory backup.

He also flashes a grin down at M-25, stoops, and stage-whispers to her past a cupped hand: "I found out there's a lot less waiting if you learn to build your own upgrades." Great job, Vic. Now the next potential apocalypse can be a droid singularity among the mechanic-bots.

He rises and gives Pepper a quick, self-assured nod. "Not a problem, Pepper. I do stuff like this all the time." Not to mention stuff dumber than this, which he does even more often. Moving to flick the latch on the case he brought in, he retrieves what looks like a handheld scanner, only to pop his hand /off/ and screw on the scanner in its place. Just a hand scanner, then.

He makes his way over to the blue tray Tony indicated, passes the first few cables through a gap in the scanner, and then passes them to Nadia. "With this setup, I can directly monitor or regulate the current," he explains. "So you can focus on getting in there and getting the connections just right."

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
"Aww! She's adorable!" Nadia exclaims kneeling down to get a better look at the small robot examining hers and Vic's shoes, "Hello M-25, I'm Nadia. I'm sorry for taking your job. I promise to do it really well though and then you can have it back okay?" The girl apparently has zero issues with talking to robots like they are human children, maybe it runs in the family.

Nadia may not be in her suit, but apparently she still has wings. From what seemed like just a fashionable metal decal on the back of her bomber jacket sprout the same bio-synthetic wings often seem emerging from the back of her suit.

With zero hesitation she does a little hop and then blink and you missed it, she's gone. Except she isn't gone just much smaller as the now insect sized teenager flies over over to the tray and stands on the edge assessing the field of parts before her, while she listens to Tony.

She gives a very small thumbs up and taps her communications gear to send a message to cyborg to also relay to Tony 'Okay, I'm going to get started, shouldn't be any trouble at all.'

And with that the less than pint sized teenager flits up to take the cables from Victor and hefting them up with her comparatively prodigious strength at that size, begins flying them into the mainframe section indicated by Tony. She even has tiny tools to help her install them and check the power fluxes as she zips back and forth making a few more runs until all of the cables and parts are where they need to be and the readings are coming back okay.

Tony Stark has posed:
M-25 adores Nadia. She spins and ping-pongs and lifts her left wheel to do ... a slow wheelie. IMPRESSED?!

With a loop of wrist, Tony draws in the cords coming out of his shirt and brings in the cords twice with easy twist, making a languid looped coil of them. Tony observes Vic with M-25, and teases in a deadpan, "You want a second Ultron? That's how we get second-Ultrons." It's 'serious' but absolutely not really, and ends with a smirk. "Joking of course. My tech doesn't go that route; that was more of Pym thing. The whole 'could' but maybe not the 'should'."

Tony glances at Nadia. It's rueful but not apologetic. "Maybe you can help him with that." Just a SUGGESTION. "Also, don't eat his specially marked sandwiches. It becomes an issue. I can tell you a /lot/ about your father," Tony comments, while giving Pepper a sort of 'look'. She's familiar with that look. It reads approximately of 'tee-hee, remember when I put campaign posters all over Pym's lab to mess with him?'

Tony drops back flat, and wheels with a shove of foot back into place, looping the power cords once more around his forearm as he does, and tapping the side of his glasses with his other hand. "I could fry all this progress, ha ha, your scanner, and the building ... so let me know when that's all golden," Tony's voice requests from his spot. Nadia will be able to observe the (comparatively) giant Tony while she plugs in her items near him, putting in a few other components and then glancing towards her.

M-25 comes to Pepper, bringing the host of two other robots to sit with her, like an odd tool-holding-helper peanut gallery. One of the robots actually HAS peanuts (because Tony), and taps Pepper's hand to offer her some. Peanut?

Pepper Potts has posed:
Pepper actually rolls her eyes at the way the kids are talking to the bot. Still, M-25 is like an intelligent dog; it can listen to commands and carry them out (to the best of their ability), and in some cases, adapt. "You both are going to spoil her."

From the way the kids and the bot interact, Pepper looks over to where Tony sits, that //look// that he gives her making her smirk. There is definitely a lot of history there, and yes, Tony could tell Nadia a lot about her father.

Though, she's got to keep an eye on the control panel, looking for those anomalous lights, that is, red, blinky warning lights as they would be //bad// in the general, overall health of her boss. As M-25 rolls up, with the other two, Pepper looks down at them expectantly, as if she fully understands whatever it is they may want to ask her.

"Hmmm? Oh, no. Save it. Thank you, though."

Victor Stone has posed:
Vic monitors his sensors, occasionally piercing through a cable's insulation with a current tap, to bleed off excess energy and keep everything steady on Nadia's end. "How's this: I'll do my best not to Ultron your robots, you do your best not to fry me," he answers Tony with dry amusement. The scanner is hooked into his internal power system, after all. Below the banter, he saw the power readings Tony is putting off, and he knows exactly how much that wasn't a joke. But he didn't get where he is today by losing his sense of humor in the face of that kind of risk. "Everybody wins."

He leaves the topic of Dr. Pym alone -- he's aware of how big a deal it was for Nadia to get her dad back, and personally, he's never met the man, so he could only distract there.

Instead, he grins over at Pepper. "You think that's spoiling? You should see my Roomba army. Suction feet, wiper attachments, solvent blasters -- you'd be amazed how many plate glass windows you can fit on a giant capital T."

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
Nadia makes a face at Tony when he makes the 'more of a Pym thing' crack but at her current size one would need a magnifying glass to actually tell.

Once everything is in place and she flies clear she is suddenly back to her full size, like some sort of teenaged pixie with the wings still extended. The entire transformation requires only a mircrosecond to complete. For anyone familiar with Pym Particle effects it is blindingly fast, a seeming improvement in the technology over that of her father.

"Having met a Parallel Earth Ultron that was torturing my father just recently, I would rather not. He was kind of terrible." For all of her endless upbeat nature there is also a fatigue to Nadia like she's seriously been burning the candle at both ends for quite awhile now. "Those sandwiches are amazing, he made me one the other day. But please don't steal my father's lunch." Nadia is either becoming more comfortable around Tony or the Pym cracks are cooling her off a bit, but she still seems cheerful enough either way.

"Oh there was something he wanted me to tell you, speaking of my father. He came up with a way to use a neutron reaction with Pym Particles to create a controlled cascade Fission effect that should greatly increase energy efficiency and reduce power requirements for a magnetically contained energy stream that it's used in." In many ways she is different than Hank, but in many ways she is also her father's daughter, "I think I can get it working, if you want to try it or you can see if he's willing to come in himself. He's been isolating while he gets back on his medication though after Ultron kept him off it."

Tony Stark has posed:
"I have a pretty good scope of it, being an owner of a giant tower," Tony teases in answer to Victor, but diverts back towards what they are doing. "Alright, looking great on my end, switching things to full."

And with that, all of the consoles come online with a warm glow of ambiance, small fans, and extremely high-tech odd heat sinks. All of it loads up. "Nobody's screaming or burning, so I'm moving the supply over to this lower amount, and offloading it. I wanted to be sure we got through boot before dropping the power potential." The power does do a big downward flux, and then Tony slides back out, sitting up, sans leads. He also pulls his shirt back down over his bare abdomen. He glances to Pepper, with a brief smile, but then pulls his attention distractedly back to the computers, pushing to his feet and automatically rolling his sleeves up to mid-forearm. "All right, your turn, let's sync with your data," Tony asks Victor.

The Pym cracks seem to be on hold for the time being. "Let's not move on that without Shuri," Tony says of Pym's idea. "I think that's a great idea, though, and can augment what she's doing." A smile is flashed.

Pepper Potts has posed:
Little Roomba bots? Pepper is passingly familiar with them, certainly, as well as little WallE be-treaded robots that look piteously at her on occasion, complete with a plaintive *beep*. She's also made an acquaintance of a bot she now calls Patrick... "I still call that spoiling."

Pepper keeps on eye on the board, the cool blue lights popping up on the board, the readouts looking, to her, stable. It's a breath that she wasn't aware that she was holding, however, until Tony rolls out, clear of leads. The quick flicker of the smile, there and gone, tells her everything she needs to know, and she returns it with a smile that reaches those green eyes, freckles evident on those cheeks.

Nadia, however.. Pepper's not entirely certain how to take her at any given moment. Ultrons. Sandwiches... it's like, huh. So, it's honestly not something she's really going to focus on. Different sort of crazy smart there.

"He was at the Benefit this evening," just in case Nadia wasn't aware. "He was looking okay. Even spoke to a few people." There's a pause before she adds softly, "I'd check up on him anyway, though."

Victor Stone has posed:
Vic's eyes are glued to his scanner's monitor, but the boot cycle causes no particular issues in the current flow. Looks like everything went perfectly, for once. "BOO-yah," he says, grinning with enthusiasm but speaking at a conversational level. Probably a better idea to rein in the full-on whooping for when he's in his home lab, where he makes the rules.

When Tony says he wants to move on to pulling his data, Cyborg nods but replies, "I can do you one better, actually." He returns to his case, swaps the scanner for a hand again, and then starts to retrieve a bulky series of sockets, all built in the characteristic three-pronged style of Brainiac's tech routings, several blackened to a crisp, but many in fairly good shape. "I've got all the readings, but I also brought everything I've tried plugging into the array, so you can take measurements yourself -- see what worked and what" -- he picks up one hookup so toasted that part of it just crumbles off, and stares at the resulting ash pile, chagrined -- "didn't."

Getting down to business doesn't mean he has checked out of the rest of the conversation, though; he gives Pepper a tight half-smile and says, "I'm sorry I couldn't make it to that -- I was getting this stuff together, running a few last experiments... I hope it went well."

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
Nadia nods her head at the mention of Shuri, wings retracting into her back, "Caitlin says she's really nice, I'm looking forward to her visiting the tower. I've never met a Princess before!" She's excited by the prospect, in the way that she is excited about everything it seems.

She seems to relax a bit more with the Pym cracks on hold, "Oh was he? That's good, maybe he's feeling a bit better. He was not doing some great for awhile." she smiles when Pepper says she'll check on him. Thank you Ms. Potts. I really appreciate it."

When Victor brings out his array connections she adds, "We should bring it here soon, so it can be interfaced with everything." a pause, "People may just need a bit more convincing but it's not like it can just stay at the tower, all the pieces need to be fitted together."

Tony Stark has posed:
"I didn't make it either," Tony admits in stage-whisper to Victor as he approaches, and gives Pepper a brief apologetic look. He'd normally commit to it more, with a shameless grin and shrug, but he doesn't do that today, for whatever reason. Maybe just the focus on the task at hand.

"Wow, all right," Tony says, coming over to look at all of what Victor brought. "How about pizza." Tony questions, clearly suggesting that they're going to need fuel to go through everything. "We can divide this up and get through it. Claim a robot helper if you want one." M-25 comes over to volunteer to assist Nadia, very obviously, and another picks Victor eagerly. Seems the robots are claiming their technicians, not the other way around.

Tony looks amused and not surprised, as the other bot seems to look between Tony and Pepper. It offers peanuts to Pepper again. See? Helping.

Tony reflects on Nadia's words. "Princess, yeah. Hadn't really struck me how many kings and princesses I talk to. But then, I was almost president. Not so odd, maybe," Tony considers, shrugging a little, but returning to the work.

"If we need to bring this to the tower, I can be convinced, though it'd be easier to relay off this spot. Still, if the titan roof is what we need, I can make it work." He's Tony Stark, he'll make it work! "I'll give you my passcodes for the orbital relay part, too. If I get sucked into a wormhole, then you're not hung up on me. Yay redundancy."

Pepper Potts has posed:
Pepper is still by the monitor display, watching the levels and the blue lights, the peanut gallery hanging out with her. The one with the peanuts in offrance, however, is given a look and she shakes her head quickly, "Go to Tony." She'll be fine!

The more this seems to be working, the less concerned she is, and when some of Brainiac's actual tech comes out, in various levels of viability, she's looking hopeful. She waves a hand in the air, her tones kind, her attention lingering on Tony before it settles on Vic. "It was a good turnout. The auction was a success, the venue worked, and people seemed to enjoy themselves." Ultimately, she's calling it a 'win'.

"I didn't expect Dr. Pym, honestly." Considering how much work had been ahead of the scientists?

Tony's own thoughts regarding those he's met, worked with, had work for him... well, it's true. "When you work with someone people consider a god, it's hard to get excited about a lot." Thor. In her apartment.

Brows rise, however, and Pepper gives Tony a //look// regarding that whole 'wormhole suckage', which is there and gone. Let's not!

"From the looks of this, Tony, it looks like it's stable. It's been running for a little while, and even after you brought it up, there's been.. nothing." No alarms, no beeping.. nothing.

Taking a deep breath, Pepper nods her head. "I think pizza. I'll call and you all can work out the next step." As far as she's conerned? She's there for the long haul as well.

Victor Stone has posed:
Vic holds up his artificial hands and shrugs. "Don't look at me, guys. Not a rule I came up with," he says candidly. "I mean, don't get me wrong -- I want the whole array melted down into slag when we're done with it. Earth needs that tech right now, to save lives, but in the long term? We don't really understand it, we don't know who might come after it, we don't know what kind of weapons it might be made into or how it might turn against us. So the way I see it, the faster we work now, the faster we can wash our hands of it completely."

He says all of that gravely, but Tony's offer of pizza perks him up so fast, you'd think he was faking it. "Oh, hell yeah! Now you're speaking my language," he says with a broad grin, lifting metal knuckles to offer a fist bump. A /gentle/ one. He knows what he's doing. "That's great to hear, Pepper. I'll be sure to have a donation wired over from The Family Stone," he says, before showing her a quick grin. "Dad hates it when I sign the checks like that."

He cordons off a little section of the socket pieces for himself -- generally the most embarrassingly disintegrated and disfigured, might as well keep those in the family -- and says to his robot assistant, "Alright, Gort, let's see how your Stark scanners measure up!"

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
Nadia's eyes light up at the mention of pizza, "I love pizza! American junk food is the best!" All of the Pym jabs apparently forgotten for the moment in the face of offers of pizza.

She finds a place to sit with her share of the work. "Did I do a good job with your work?" she asks the little robot when M-25 rolls over to her, "Now we can work together! I hope you're ready, we've got a lot to do."

She looks curiously at Pepper when she mentions 'a god' "Do you mean Thor?! Isn't he the nicest! I like him a lot. He helped me out so much when we travelled to the Parallel Earth to rescue my father. The things he can do with that hammer... I want to understand how all of it works." She is momentarily starry-eyed all over again thinking about the hammer and the Science involved.

Nadia's ever present smile falters a bit when Victor talks about destroying the array. "Technology isn't good or bad Vic, it's the people who get their hands on it. And if this existed in Brainiac's hands who knows what else might be out there." She seems quite conflicted about destroying it.

Tony Stark has posed:
"The device isn't mine to destroy or make a verdict on," Tony answers, taking the middle road, it seems, between the two opinions. "I avoid making snap decisions on this sort of stuff. But some technology I don't stand behind producing and selling. Things only meant to destroy." Tony glances down at the bin of Brainiac items, but begins to sort through it efficiently, using his glasses heavily. The intuitive inventor is in his realm here.

"I don't know that the device is purely destructive. Maybe it could save a population from the brink of distruction on some planet, sometime, to be relocated." Tony considers that, then flashes a quick grin. "But let's solve the problem in front of us. One step at a time."

"That problem being.. what do yo want on your pizza, guys?" Tony asks, with a flippant wink, as he gets into his own diagnosis.

Pepper Potts has posed:
At the seemingly unanimous agreement regarding pizza, Pepper steps to the side, still watching the monitor, and pulls out her phone from a little pocket in her dress. It's the Stark BEE.. another emergent tech styled phone with very limited release at the moment. "A plain, a couple meat lovers and an everything." She doesn't even have to ask, really. There are standards by which almost everyone lives, right? She'll happily order, then pick up when they're delivered.

"Nadia?" The young girl is going off the rails again, and Pepper's voice is smooth and calm. "There are some things that are better left in the realm of 'it just is'." That's her take on it. A lot of 'whys' will never be answered, and she's content. "I know that runs completely opposite of what you think and how you function, but .. it's like..." Pepper pauses before, "There are lots of principles that have to be taken on faith in order to move to the next level of study. Things that aren't quantified, things that are purely theoretical, but taken on faith that it's true because of whatever measurement was used says it is. So, there's your basis for faith. There are things that are 'just is'."

Here endeth the philosophy of Pepper Potts.

She's not willing to weigh in on the destruction of tech, however... not where she's standing right now. First, as Tony said, time to solve the problem that lies before them.

"If you want something else, you have to tell me now." Before she finishes dialing the number!

Victor Stone has posed:
"I mean, basically anything meaty is good with me," Vic answers Pepper with a grin. "Pepperoni, sausage, chicken, ham... I'm not picky."

Still cataloguing parts, Vic takes the time to explain his position on the bottler ray, without slowing his work. "I'm not saying technology is bad. I /am/ mostly technology," he points out. "What I'm saying is that a weapon that we don't understand well enough to modify, whose only use that we know of is to steal entire cities full of people and hold them for ransom, and that was built by a genocidal AI that specifically puts dormant backups of itself into most of the stuff it builds, is a weapon it would be crazy irresponsible to just leave sitting around."

He laughs, a little bit ruefully, and adds, "As for who uses it? I mean, I'm a pretty nice guy, right? I trust myself. Say I could bolt the city-shrinker onto my arm." He gestures at the scanner that was recently attached to his frame. "Only trustworthy Vic Stone has access! Problem solved!"

But he's not quite done, of course. "One question: What would I actually /do/ with it? I can't shoot it at bad guys without massive collateral damage. I can't use it at small scales to make stuff easy to carry. Unless someday I became the kind of guy who wanted to steal an entire city, maybe full of people, it's almost entirely useless. And if I do become that guy someday? I don't want myself to have access to that tech."

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
"Wait, pizza comes with different toppings?!" Nadia's head snaps in Victor's direction, "Why didn't you tell me this?! What even is there. I mean Caitlin took care of the pizza we had at the tower, that there's more varieties out there, this is amazing!"

She listens to Pepper's explanation of faith, she does, it's questionable if it computes within her brain but she does listen and nod a bit.

She thinks about what Victor says as well as she sorts through the parts and sends M-25 to fetch a few things and run some calculations for her, "We'll never understand it if we don't try Vic. We don't even need to keep it functional, we were very good at making it non-functional. But we've already come so far, we should at least understand it..." There is a burning curiousity behind her young eyes, a need to /know/ things, to figure them out and understand how the universe works.

But she lets it go as they all set to work figuring out the various connections that will allow Tony's technology to interface with the insane jigsaw puzzle that is Brainiac's Space and Mass Manipulation array. The chatter continues as their pizza fueled science binge lasts well into the night.