2734/What Lies in the Red Room

What Lies in the Red Room
Date of Scene:	01 August 2020
Location:	Pym's Mobile Lab
Synopsis:	Hank gets some answers, none of which he likes about Nadia.
Cast of Characters:	Hank Pym, Natasha Romanoff

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Hank Pym has posed:
Hank Pym deals with truths. He has made it his life's work to lay bare the secrets of the Universe, to master those forces and processes he discovered. So truth and science for Hank. He has been aware, ever since he lost his Maria, there is the other side of the coin. There are those who deal in secrets and darkness and kill with borrowed knives. For ever man who stands watch as we sleep ready to do violence in our behalf, there is their opposite number. Fortunately, the best of them works with the Avengers. He's been pleasant to Natasha and little more. Their duties do not bring them together often. They are very different in methods, outlooks and personalities.He can become a giant or sentient atomic particle, she can kill you a thousand ways. Nevertheless he has called for her, not as Avenger or scientist but as a worried father.

That being said, he's set out several bagels, danish and a carafe of coffee. Natasha has to eat right?

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
    Despite rumors to the contrary, Natasha does have to eat; and occasionally even sleep! And while two years and change have taught her something resembling trust for the noisier, more sincere portion of the Avengers, getting her to eat something that hasn't been prepared in front of her is still a bit of a hard sell. Doubly so when they're in a science lab.
    So when Natasha arrives, she casts a wary glance to the bagels before looking at Hank. "Doctor Pym." She greets evenly. "You wanted to see me?"

Hank Pym has posed:
Hank Pym nods and indicates a seat. "Yes. Thank you for coming so soon. I was going to speak about this to Janet or Bobbi but then I thought you would be the person to speak to. I'm sorry eat if you like, I despise small talk. I will get right to it."

Hank assume his default pose for heavy thinking, again looking like a super villain, hands behind him, standing rigid. "In the course of restoring Mutant Town, we had an equipment failure and an attack by some Mutant miscreants. We needed to make repairs fast or risk losing the alien technology that was so crucial to our further success. I was near the ray device and pulled cables, salvaging it mostly." He smiles ruefully and indicates the bandages on his hands. "I was distracted by my efforts. Nadia could not get to the machine and see snapped and began disabling our attackers. She... she acted like you, when you decided people deserved worse than your stinger. She broke knee caps. She kicked heads and genitals. I managed to talk her down and she broke down crying. I want to think it was her assassin conditioning. I'm more scared she inherited my screwed up brain chemistry. I wanted to ask for your advice. Any questions?" Now he looks miserable, though his eyes blaze with that intense stare that makes most people uncomfortable.

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
    At first Natasha affects a look of mild concern. It's out of courtesy more than anything, the Red Room made sure getting a natural, unintentional facial expression out of Natasha would be remarkably difficult. So when Natasha ACTUALLY feels alarmed, all expression vanishes from her face as she simply stops putting effort into it to focus on other things. Her fingers clutch at her upper arms as she folds her arms over her chest, and she slowly looks away, her eyes staring coldly off at nothing in particular until they snap back onto Hank's face when he's finished.
    Very flatly - her voice as devoid of expression as her face - Natasha asks "Did she kill anyone? Did she attack anyone on our side?"

Hank Pym has posed:
Hank Pym might have made a decent detective. He does observe things and Natasha's reaction warrants a raised eyebrow. He falls into an almost mechanical routine. She wants information. He gives it. "She did nothing immediately lethal. Several required medical attention and a hospital. I didn't check on them. I was concerned for my daughter. I..." Information is required but he has trouble with this part. "I walked up to her. I told her, this wasn't her. To come back to us. Then I said I knew I couldn't stop her but she was going to have to go through me to hurt anyone else. She threw a punch that terminated a millimeter from my nose. Then she started weeping and collapsed into my arms. Who does this to a little girl?" He can't keep emotion out of that last sentence. "She's a good girl Natasha. I'm the last one to go by instincts. I deal with FACTS but... she's a good girl. Try to believe that. I don't know where this came from but... good people sometimes do bad things when they feel trapped." Now he looks away. So much for the robot Hank.

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
    Natasha's expression remains cold and unmoving, though her eyes gradually seem to lose focus for a short time as Hank speaks and her mind goes to a different place. Gruelling, nightmarish memories, inhuman conditioning. It's with a short sharp breath that she returns to the moment and looks at Hank levelly, considering her words for a long silent moment.
    "The exact answer to that question is... classified." She says first, though she knows Nadia has been loose lipped with information - with names - that Shield would like to keep a tighter hold on. Hank may already know. "In general?" Natasha speaks without a trace of irony, "Monsters. Monsters making more monsters. Taking the useful parts of people, and throwing the rest in the garbage to make people more like them. Kids."
    Natasha sighs softly and finds a portion of wall to lean back against. "And the worst thing you can do when you make a monster... is to leave the work unfinished. To hear her tell it, your daughter was moved to a seperate program partway through her training to be..." she was going to say 'like me', "... something more violent. If I had to... guess..." she says. It's not as much of a guess as she'd like, "... they taught her how to maim and kill... taught her how to discard a life..." Natasha sighs, "... and then got bored and moved on before they taught her when or why to do that to someone. Add in stress, half-finished conditioning, and a child's temperement, and..."
    Natasha shrugs very slightly, "... it's not that surprising, really."

Hank Pym has posed:
Hank Pym fights a difficult battle for a few moments. He wants to scream. The stress of his depression has eaten at him, and the stress of setting up the return of Bushwick. that will solve nothing. "I don't care about your 'Classified'. It will be a name that means nothing to me. I want to know what to do for her. I have two options, Professor Xavier and Doctor Samson. There's also this life coach in Coney Island who doesn't have a license per se but is rumored to be fantastic. Is there any kind of deprogramming I can do or situations to avoid?"

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
    Natasha stares at Hank with what could be mistaken for utter coldness, and says, "... Deprogramming isn't a mechanical process. It's agonizing. You have to re-learn how to think and function." Natasha turns her head to the side slightly, "... And it's hard to say how much of this is intentional, and how much may just be some kind of... trauma-induced psychosis that happens to have training behind it."
    Natasha is silent for a moment, and then says, "If you want my *actual* advice? I'd keep her isolated from anything but therapists and SHIELD analysts for the next five to ten years. I don't trust quick fixes, and having a psychic root through your brain... isn't an exact science."
    She very carefully makes no mention of her *actual* actual initial advice, which was 'shoot her'.
    "Apart from that, can't really say. No one's ever gotten their hands on one of these people and tried to do anything but use them or kill them." She says with some irony, "You're not likely to get much done without SHIELD clearance at this point, though, so you'll probably want to work it out with them."
    Assuming Hank gets a say in the matter, which is not certain at this point.

Hank Pym has posed:
Hank Pym shakes his head. "She's my daughter. I'm going to deal with her my way. SHIELD is great at some things but this is not one of them. I'm not locking her up for ten years. She's been. locked up her whole life and... anecdotal evidence seems to indicate I can deal with her. I will find treatment for her, or learn as I go along. Anyway..., I can actually tell what she's up to. I will stay in touch with ShIELD, and Bobbi but I really do not think they should poke this without good cause."

And if they do they'll be able to fit the Behemoth in a shoe box, he wants to say.

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
    Natasha sighs very softly, allowing a moment of silence to pass before she pushes herself off of the wall and straightens up. "... If that's what's right for you, Doctor." She says quietly, "Just don't forget that she's dangerous. And not just to you. I'd avoid making any more enemies than absolutely necessary."
    Which is her way of not saying 'maybe don't pick a fight with Shield on this one.'
    "Anything else?"

Hank Pym has posed:
Hank Pym shakes his head sadly. "Thank you for appraising me of the dangers. I will be careful. I don't intend to make any enemies. But she will stay with me. We need each other. I know that already. That little girl kicked a hole in the Universe to find me. She is lost. I know that. Not bad. Maybe a good home and a parent is what she needs. Maybe that could be the key to finding more of these children and socializing them. Anyway, whatever else I was called, and that's a bunch of things, no one ever called me a coward. Thank you Natasha. I will keep you in the loop."