4111/ZZGU: Preparing for the worst

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ZZGU: Preparing for the worst
Date of Scene: 12 November 2020
Location: Avengers Mansion - Meeting Room
Synopsis: Kara explains that once again the world is on a knifes edge to Tony. Luckily Tony is already working on anti-brain-melting technology.
Cast of Characters: Tony Stark, Kara Danvers




Tony Stark has posed:
"Yay us BOTH for being on time; sorry to reschedule you...." Tony trails off, checks his note. "...Two times. Hey, just two, that's not so bad." Which may beg the question of how many times other people get rescheduled when vying for his time.

Tony snares a sandwich out of a box set for a future meeting, gesturing loosely for Supergirl to help herself if she'd like, and slides towards one of the meeting room's head-of-table seats, pulling a mobile tablet towards him with his free hand.

"So, I have another emergency eating my time, but what can I help with, Supergirl?"

Kara Danvers has posed:
Kara stands tall. She's had practice talking to important people. Tony is important people. Tony was also very nice to her when they fought Brainiac. "I can see you're knee deep in emergencies," she says wryly, "but I'm in an awkward situation. The DEO is in a state right now."

She lifts a finger, "I'll just straight to the point." She folds her arms, "A gigantic tentacle slug like blob monster on another version of Earth is attempting to invade our Earth and destroy us as it did on the other Earth. It has the long fancy name one of its followers told us is Zhed'Zhud'Ger'Uth. It has tried twice to enter our world and we barely stopped it both times."

She frowns a touch at the memories of the DEO research facility, "It leaves behind an ooze like substance that, when humans come in contact with it, they become subservient to its will or go insane. I accidentally crossed over in to their version of Earth.. it was not good. The creature is as big as a city and it psychically attacked me. I barely made it out alive."

She lifts her chin a touch, "There are three problems - detecting dimensional breaches. Your Dr. Banner is researching that on behalf of SHIELD. The mind controlling ooze. SHIELD is working on that problem too. But the third, the psychic attacks... how can we fight this thing if we're all screaming on the ground with our brains melting."

She walks around the table and approaches Ironman, "My tech expert, Caitlin Fairchild.. she is.. out of town. I thought you might be able to help."

Tony Stark has posed:
"Well, that's not awesome," Tony answers evenly, smoothly, as Supergirl explains that the creature is trying to destroy the planet or reality or both. He does mean it, but this is just Tony's general cavalier manner when faced with impossible odds. They'll handle it. Probably.

"So, mental shielding against this baddie's particular brain-screaming frequency," Tony says, drumming his fingers on the edge of his tablet, while pausing to have a bite of sandwich and chew it.

"Actually, I'm working on handling another mind-melter right now, so I could expand current project to include what you need, too -- depending on what you've got for me. I need data and information on how this thing is frying brains; do you have something like that for me?"

Kara Danvers has posed:
Kara stares off just past Tony for a moment as she remembers crashing in to the Gotham Apartment where the device had been activated and landing on the other side where the monstrosity was. "Oh yeah," she says as she is reminded of how it felt like her brain was on fire, "I've got data for you."

She untucks her T-comm from her golden belt and places it down on the table. "I was wearing this when I ended up on the other side. It recorded all kinds of strange things. I'm still very human technology illiterate. Usually Caitlin helps me translate my understanding in to words that help people. But the data bridges that gap for us this time."

She takes a breath, "It was suggested that we deliberately open a portal to their world and go on a scouting mission to find out what happened there. How they tried to fight it... how they lost. But there is zero chance of success doing that without some kind of mental protection."

She folds her arms again and tightens her jaw at the unpleasant memories of this thing. "A DEO facility was destroyed by its own security and scientists studying this creatures ooze. We still don't know how it actually fights. I hope whatever we can come up with doesn't have the same flaws that lead to defeat on this other version of Earth."

Tony Stark has posed:
"Yes, the funny thing about doors is they open both ways. Let's not invite this thing in," Tony says, with some measure of critical alarm to the arch of dark eyebrows. "I'll send a feeler out to SHIELD on this one as well, no sense doing the same work in some areas where we may have overlap. If I find anything interesting I'll share that along, too," Tony says, open and willing to cooperate.

"Within limits of sharing my personal tech, obviously." Sort of.

Tony picks up the device but doesn't plug it into anything yet. He has procedures for that, closed systems made for such activities. "I'll give you a timeline on this later today, when to expect answers-- or, ideally-- some specialized equipment for keeping it at bay. How much time do you think we've got before it pushes at us again?"

Kara Danvers has posed:
Kara draws in a breath and nods her head. In that Tony was, it's a comfort. He's putting his mind to the problem and committing to it. She affords a smile and says, "I fear it's coming one way or another. We must prepare for the worst and hope for the best. I can't help wonder how many different versions of us over there fought and lost to this thing."

"I haven't personally ever been to the SHIELD base, but they have asked me to come in and talk to them. The DEO reaches out to them when we lost our main research facility. SHIELD helped us re-take it. It was... a blood bath. Those turned seem to either go insane, attempt to infect others, or attempt to bring the monster to our world.. which is just a worse way of infecting others."

"As for timelines. One of the DEO researchers popped up on our radar in Gotham four days after the research facility incident. He built a new portal device and activated it; and while we were dealing with it he got away. That was two cancelled meetings ago now," she says with the slightly raise of an eyebrow. "We're getting better at stopping the portals, but if we don't even know where it opens we might lose by default. So, within the week.. is my best guess?"

Tony Stark has posed:
"Yeah. Sounds like this could also come with some way to remove influence off of those already snared. Do you have any captured people, or know if they were, say, getting added to a mental collective, with this goo?" Tony questions. "Like, was something controlling them. If we could block that, the goo would be less of a problem. But if the stuff is just implanting an agenda... well, just a different treatment. I guess my question is, what happened to the 'turned'?"

Tony seems to focus on his sandwich, which is possibly a little off-putting, but he's a master of multi-tasking, and his gaze is not /actually/ on his roast beef and swiss, it's through it, into other concepts and ideas.

Kara Danvers has posed:
"The first group were refugees from the other Earth. They geared themselves up like militia and opened a portal. Once we'd shut the portal, they surrendered peacefully. I took them in to DEO custody. Only one of them has been talking, their scientist. He rambles on endlessly about the glory of Zhed'Zhud'Ger'Uth and that it will come to consume us all..."

There's a touch of sadness in her eyes as she continues, "Those that didn't die in the battle at the DEO research facility either avoided touching it or fled, or fought to the death. So far, from what I've been told, it seems to be some kind of parasite. Like the one that cats infect in to mice, making them seek out their doom at the paws of a cat instead of fleeing."

She sighs and turns away a moment, her cape swishing as she looks around the meeting room. "So far no solutions have been found, but SHIELD has picked up where the DEO left off. Luckily the ooze has had minimal effect on me. It did mess with my brain briefly. I was very disoriented and forgot how to speak English."

Tony Stark has posed:
"Is this a skin-to-skin contact problem with the ooze? I mean, I know this is the simple question, but maybe just restriction of contact could do a lot, at least until it could be neutralized." Tony is almost done with his sandwich, but is mentally chewing over what she's given him verbally so far.

"And that you did fight it off, coming out of it, gives good hope that others could beat it, too: that it didn't do irreparable harm. After all, you didn't permanently forget how to speak English. The knowledge came /back/. So it wasn't destructive in that sense, yes?"

Kara Danvers has posed:
Kara turns back to Tony and nods her head, "As far as we've seen on the security footage from the DEO. It was an accident, they were exposed to it during testing. Skin contact. It was everywhere on the other world. Like a snail leaving trails, except the snail is ...very very big."

"Mr. Stark I try not to attribute my own biological reactions to things as being similar to a humans response.. but that is my hope, that the prisoners will snap out of it eventually. They have likely been exposed to its mind controlling effects for many years. There's a lot we don't know about this creature, even the basics such as why it does what it does. I hold hope that if it doesn't wear off, scientists will find a cure."

She clasps her hands together in front of her and adds, "Thank you for seeing me. When facing these kinds of threats, we're all stronger together. When I first realised it had a psychic attack, I thought the Martian Manhunter could help - but when I realised this other Earth had already lost, there must have been a reason. I put my faith where it belongs, in the ingenuity of Earth's people. You've never let me down yet."

Tony Stark has posed:
"Well, you've given a whole week. Should be fine," Tony teases her, trying to keep things lighter, with the ease in his tone. He can worry about it on his own time, when he's not giving hope to other heroes. Some find it arrogant... but Tony often does pull something out, so it's an earned quality.

"Okay, let me bat this around. Keep up the good fight, Supergirl, and don't be a stranger about any of this. I'd hate for the world to end when I could have done something." With that, Tony finishes his sandwich, collecting his items, and offers her a cavalier handshake. "Now let's get out of here, I don't want to go to the meeting after this..."