4910/Another You: May Be Time For A Search Engine

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Another You: May Be Time For A Search Engine
Date of Scene: 28 January 2021
Location: Ready Room: Triskelion
Synopsis: May calls Lara and Jane in for a consult on how to find her own version of the rage staff. They make it seem way more complicated than she wants. But they're SHIELD. Impossible is just another day at the office.
Cast of Characters: Melinda May, Lara Croft, Jane Foster




Melinda May has posed:
A couple of weeks ago -- shortly after she arrived home from 1949 -- Melinda May discovered there was a doppleganger of herself from another world running around on this one. To say the Asian Agent was Not Impressed is putting it mildly. She took three of the best agents she knows and went after the interloper, fully intending to beat her ass and send her packing back to the hell that spawned her.

What May didn't count on was that, somehow, that doppleganger wasn't just her equal... she was *better* than her. Like, better enough that May ended up in medical for a week after. (And if you don't think *that* pissed her off, you don't know May.) To be fair, May's pretty sure it's because the doppleganger had some sort of unnatural superpower she was using. May knows *she* doesn't have any superpowers. But the weird staff EvilMay was weilding was covered with old runes and symbols that looked a lot to the *real* May like stuff she's seen on 0-8-4's she's handed over to WAND. Ergo, EvilMay must somehow have gotten her weird emo-mojo and impossible resiliance and strength from the staff.

All of which tells May she needs to find something to counter that staff. Because she's still willing to bet that, skill-for-skill, she can *still* beat EvilMay's ass. She just needs to level the playing field first.

Consequently, she has called the two agents she suspects may be best able to help her in this search to the Ready Room, hoping they may be able to give her someplace to start.

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara was in the WAND offices area when she'd gotten the call from Agent May. She'd had to disconnect herself from the work she was doing with a pair of other Agents that were investigating magical activity spikes in the Chicagoland area. Lara has yet to visit the city of Chicago, but she was fairly familiar with the types of magic that was being summoned in Chicago... namely, necromancy.

It certainly hadn't been a field of study that Lara expected to fall deeper and deeper in, but it's 'part of the job' as they say? Her first big adventure in life resulted in a rather large event of an ancient spirit trying to push its way back in to reality after all.

Here and now, Lara is arriving at the ready room, carrying a cup of hot tea and wearing a SHIELD-issued jacket over a light grey tanktop, cargo pants and a pair of black boots, she seems duty-bound as ever.

Slipping in to the room, Lara offers a smile to those within and finds a place to seat herself.

Jane Foster has posed:
For a while, Jane has not been at her desk. Not entirely weird, of course, because a woman with a visible public profile unlike many SHIELD agents requires access to the very market they can leverage as her strength. Shows, podcasts, her presence in the Hayden Planetarium, all normal. All absent of Doctor Foster. So too have there been other minor anomalies, like that hasty Out-of-Office message slapped up by Darcy Lewis, intern extraordinaire and girl-about-town.

Something a bit unpredictable in this, then, for her to actually show up outside of working hours for a message after being apart from things, but sometimes it's better not to ask the woman who makes black holes and rifts in space those more significant questions. Unless an eyepatch is involved. Arguing with the man with the eyepatch statistically has not gone well.

It helps, at least, to be the resident expert on a certain set of realms beyond Earth. Being the first to name them, define them, probably contributes to all the hardware not in the office. Hence, Jane shleps a coffee up from the cafeteria and brings two more for her counterparts in case they might want it. The fourth drink is tea, in case coffee is too much a sin. Maybe bribing Croft and easing May's mood factors into a good strategy.

Ready Room it is, and the drinks, if discarded, shall go to happy techs. Still, her footfalls are light, decidedly so.

Melinda May has posed:
Since Lara brought her own tea, May is happy to take the extra tea on Jane's tray. Melinda May hates coffee. She nods her thanks to the astrophysicist and greets the archeologist in kind. "Glad you could make it," she says.

That's about as much preamble as they're going to get, before she's tossing some images up on the screens around the room. There are pictures of the rooftop parking deck battle she, Carter, Coulson, and Morse engaged in, in their efforts to subdue her evil counterpart. (It's pretty clear that fight Did Not Go Well.) But there are also some close-ups on the staff the other May was using. They've been enhanced to try and clean up the details. And there's enough of them that a crude 3d render can be made of it, too, and suspended above the holotable -- though at the moment it's nothing more than a slowly twirling blue wireframe about the size of a pen, awaiting expansion and exploration later.

"So," May says dryly, gesturing to the battle images. "That happened. It wasn't fun. I don't know if either of you have encountered other dopplegangers," maybe even their own, "but I got say: I'm not a fan."

Funny, that.

She zooms in on an image of EvilMay standing between Morse and Carter. The image is from Bobbi's point of view, evident from the display readings in the corners of the image -- clearly from the Falcon control system in her goggles. The advantage of the angle, though, is that it gives an exceptionally clear picture of the staff, which is held upright in EvilMay's right hand, planted on the the asphalt. The woman's face is turned away from Morse, looking at Carter in the background. Her left hand is extended, clenched in a fist -- palm side up. Carter's face looks agahst, horrified even. It's a very visceral moment, to be sure.

But the focus of the image, the way May has cropped it, is all on the staff. She points to it. "I don't know what this is, but I'm hoping the two of you can help me figure it out. I'm *guessing* it's the source my evil twin's strength, resiliance, and mind powers. But I really don't know."

She shifts her jaw and runs a hand along the side of it, remembering the pain of being hit with the butt of that staff. "All I really know is that she just about broke my jaw. It still hurts to eat steak. And she disabled all of us. Almost without breaking a sweat. I need to stop her. And I need need to find this world's version of that thing to do it." A beat. "Or, you know, anything else you can think of that might counter it."

She can be flexible. Really.

Lara Croft has posed:
When Jane arrives, she garners a reactionary smile from Lara who's happy to see her. The drinks she brings garners a quick exchange because, mmmm fresh drink! Lara does drink coffee, it's just rarer on occasion than her tea-drinking ways.

With that settled, May's quick jump-in to presentation has Lara's attention instantly grabbed-- and to be fair, that's one of the things Lara admires most about Agent May, the complete lack of preamble. A sip of the new drink is taken, Lara's brown eyes roam over the presented imagery and her focus ultimately falls upon the images of that staff as provided.

She even moves to stand up, setting aside her belongings she'd brought with her to stand up and get a better look at the finer details of the Staff. "I recently came across something similar to this." Lara says then, taking a moment to look back at Jane then to May. "In the incident in Central Park, with the Avatar of Set arriving via a summoning spell from his loyal cultists. I'd... acquired the Staff of the lead Summoner in Cairo. It's powerful, it it's own rights, even Zatanna Zatara was seemingly impressed by it."

Lara pauses, turns to look back at the images, sips the coffee and then finishes her thought. "Magic is... finicky. Would the Staff of Set work in counter to this one? I'm not sure. At least we have it in our inventory though." She says directly to May then with a soft smile. "Options."

Jane Foster has posed:
Drinks for the company must be worth something. Jane will rue the loss of the tea later, possibly after having a good cuppa somewhere not on SHIELD time. "We should meet up for drinks after this, and not even wine," she dryly says, her chestnut hair pulled back from her neck by a scarf that suggests it's not a regular accessory. It rather hangs there in an infinity loop, half caught up with her collar, half slinking down the front. Not nearly so chic as when Frenchwomen wear it, but they don't have a Frenchwoman around to outshine or take lessons from. Do the best you got with what you have, endlessly the motto of the rest of Europe and America.

Lara's reaction mirrors Jane's when the rundown begins. Nothing in her demands additional attention her way when she can give the wireframe in particular closer scrutiny. Not enough to interrupt any projections, but there's a sharp eye towards shape and dimensions there. "You make it sound like such things just spontaneously appear all the time, Agent Croft. Staves of Set, the Holy Grail, the Ebon Blade. At least I know where the latter is." Singular or plural, a failure entirely of English to distinguish. Tsk, tsk. 0-2, English.

Her throat tightens a little in watching the responses of their peers facing that combatant, May's alter-ego in some respect, striking out against some of the senior agents in detail. No more descriptions are needed, though she leans forward slightly. "This life is pretty nice. How unfortunate that some would appear not to agree." The cold weight of an image is purely imaginary but it calls her to regard it, thoughtfully.

"Enhanced strength, in the class of any agents in our agency or no? Did any of you try shooting her, or was it strictly hand-to-hand combat? An ICER?" Her eyes narrow a little, as she checks off the possibilities. "Sorry if I have missed the AAR on that one, though it would possibly indicate genetic enhancement or a variation of serum or experimental drug, though we might want to run that past Agent Simmons. Doubtful we can get a good biochemistry report on her. There are one too many arcane or eldritch staves out there, though. I can account for a few from mythology, just as a start. So, the basics. Writing? Material composition? Design reflecting anything we've seen?"

Melinda May has posed:
"Oh, she shrugged off at least two mags worth of ICER rounds," May says. There's begrudging respect there. On a really, really good day, May *might* shrug off one single round. If it hit her tac suit and not her skin. But generally? Nope. One shot and she's down. Just like every other unenhanced agent in the organization. "*And* she shrugged off stun blasts from one of our high end plasma rifles." The same rifles they used to take out giant animated alian rock scorpions in the desert, rescuing Agent Kendra Saunders months ago. Not a low powered weapon. At all.

Apparently, when May told her friends to bring whatever firepower they thought they'd need as if they were going to take May herself down, Peggy Carter decided to skate right past ICERs and go for the big guns. Evidently, her respect for May's abilities is immense. May's not sure whether to be flattered or terrified. Or maybe both.

"I'd judge her strength and speed to be that of someone hopped up on serious adrenaline or steroids. Not *quite* superstrength level, but certainly competitive. It was more that she just wouldn't lay down and die. It didn't mattter what we did, she just wouldn't give up. And the worse the fight went for her, the more berserk she went."

She considers the questions raised. "I held on to to staff briefly." A dark look comes into her eyes as she says that, jaw tensing and shoulders bunching just subtly. "I'm not sure what it was made of. Bone. Petrified wood. Something else. I don't know. What I do know is that when I touched it..." She trails off, her lips pressing together. She's clearly uncomfortable. "I got angry. Really, really angry. It made me relive the absolute worst moments of my life."

She takes a moment to inhale a deep breath and let it out slowly, picking up the cup of tea. "If she's seeing that, the whole time she's holding it, it may explain both the adrenaline and the emotional manipulation abilities she expressed." Again, May shakes her head. "She was able to project emotions on us like some sort... dementor." Has May seen Harry Potter? Huhn. "Fear. Anger. Guilt. Despair. If there's a dark emotion out there? She used it on us." That probably explains the horror on Carter's face.

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara is quick to show a smile toward Jane again at the comment about these things just suddenly appearing. "I should hope not." She softly replies. "We'd get less sleep than we already do." She adds, finding her way back to her seat, with her cup of coffee held between her hands and up close near to her chin as her eyes remain on the images of the Staff while the two speak on the details of the combat involved, and the Staff's visible attributes and potential abilities.

"It's Asgardian, as I imagine you both have already gathered." Lara comments from her seat. "And that ability to simply absorb that much power, from ICERs, or from the Plasma Weaponry even more-so... I'm curious if the weapon was designed to counter the abilities summoned by Mjolnir. But... that might be a bit far-fetched, since it appears to be of royal heritage itself. The finely crafted handle, as you said, for instance."

Lara gently shakes her head and glances over to Jane. "What are your thoughts on it?" She asks the other.

Jane Foster has posed:
Coffee to her lips gives a sparing, limited spike of caffeine. But even that much will do, all said and done. Jane puts the cup to the side, trusting it not to fall over and spill on something precious, incontrovertibly fragile, or bound to get back to her superiors. All apply. The staff in its luminous, nearly real detail reflects off them, and she circles around it for a view of slightly distant angles. "That's funny."

"See here? The knotwork gives away something rather indicative. Patterns like that exist in our culture, though you wouldn't be making them without an etching tool of some kind. If it were actually shaped and formed by hand, you're talking entirely beyond metallurgy in Christianized Scandinavia or before," notes the doctor with something of a wan kind of smile. "Certainly not with the concentric ring pattern here that you see in the middle part, down here. Much more common to have it be grooved or smooth, but not together. Which puts it squarely outside our technology for any period but the present, though that is not to say about people from other places. Making judgments on parallel cultures with different developments is unwise. I've played Civ or that kingdoms game, and I know better." Also, the other reason for knowing better is a towering blonde man, so there's that.

She grimaces a little and side-eyes Melinda, measuring up the response to the firepower and the grueling endurance. No need to quite dwell on that, though she slides her fingers through her hair. "Did you touch it to block it or to grab it? General word to the wise, picking up stray objects with suspicious markings can go badly. Too many stories that end that way. So you have the uncontrollable anger. It sounds a good deal like the Ynglinga Saga. Let me check." SHIELD sanctioned phone to the ready! It takes her a few moments. "'Odin's men went armourless into battle and were as crazed as dogs or wolves and as strong as bears or bulls. They bit their shields and slew men, while they themselves were maimed by neither fire or iron.' Common to mistake them as something like animals, but it's rather a kind of ritual dehumanization, associating themselves with a higher sacred status. Battle frenzy goes with their role, and they are singularly aligned with the warband of Odin. Our sources are horrendously broken, but we have no instances of Tyr -- another battle god -- having them dedicated in his name, and scathingly few of Thor. Their weapon and their garments are intimately wrapped up in who they are, which begs the question why this woman," a gesture at the screen, "acquired it. Legitimately or not?"

Melinda May has posed:
May can't help but chuff a noise of agreement when Lara comments on things suddenly appearing. For an agent who's NOT formally associated with WAND, she has dealt with magic and magical artifacts WAAAAAAY more often than she really thinks is fair. But, it's SHIELD. WAND or not... she's always been an 0-8-4 hunter. Weird is a normal day at the office.

Her head tilts at the idea the staff is Asgardian. *She* hadn't put that together. That's why she called in these two. All she knows is that it's dangerous. Pretty, maybe. But dangerous. And it looks a whole lot less pretty when it's coming to smack you in the face or the ribs.

She's still got the bruises on her torso to prove it.

"I grabbed it to yank it away from her," May says in answer to Jane's question about the context of her contact with it. "She was using it as a pole vault to kick Peggy's face in." A perfectly valid reason to take it away from her, in Melinda's books.

Then, however, she's listening to the recitation of the berserkers and a frown comes to her face, brows knotting above dark eyes. "So, what you're telling me is that this is some sort of Asgardian berserker weapon given out by Odin to his soldiers. And somehow my decidedly non-Asgardian counterpart from that horror show of another world got her hands on it." She shakes her head. "I can't imagine how, since I've never seen anything like it. Presumably, though, if it turned up on their world, it may have turned up here, too."

She looks between the two. "Frankly, I really don't care how or why she got her hands on it. I want to know either how to stop it so she doesn't have it any more, or how I can get my hands on some sort of equivalent to it so that the next time I fight her, it's a fair fight and *she's* the one bleeding on the pavement, instead of me."

Lara Croft has posed:
"Jane is quite right about the dangers of touching artifacts like this." Lara adds on to that, for the safety of their senior Agent's sake. "Some dark sorcery is imbued with protective runes that can quite literally instantly deliver death to anyone who dared lay hands upon the item without the permission of the weapon's wielder. But, yes, it's best to exercise caution when possible."

A look is given to Jane, her rundown is thorough and impressive as to be expected, it gets another light smile from Croft who then looks back to the images and hears May continuation. "If the Staff is also from this other-May's alternate reality. It's possible, however unlikely, that she acquired the Staff after coming here to our reality. There may not /be/ a second version of it in our world. But, I'll happily start digging."

Lara sits up a little straighter in her chair and lowers her cup down to the top of her knees, her hands clasped around the base of it. "I would suggest we do the most simple of approaches first, though, and reach out to Prince Thor. It hasn't been that long since I saw him here last, he was... dealing with relationship problems, so to speak. Relationship problems mixed in with, dark magic problems, all of his own."

"But still. If these weapons are of Odin's Berserkers, it seems feasible that Thor would be our best bet in finding them in a hasty fashion. Perhaps a last known location of a Berserker here on Earth, or some equivalent way to narrow our search focus."

A look is given between either of them, before Lara adds. "But beyond simply asking our local Asgardians for assistance, with these images, and the wire-frame model, we can start to map out options immediately."

Jane Foster has posed:
"Some are tricky enough to lay curses and nasty effects to punish people, or for their own amusement," Jane replies. "The kind of mindset that delights in pulling legs off insects or frying them with a magnifying glass, writ large with forces they should not have. Sadly magical licensing isn't a thing." She circles her thumb around her wrist, alleviating a light itch there without aiming to draw any attention to it. "Either way, caution duly noted."

Straightening up, she clasps her hands in front of her rather than behind. "Staves like that should stand out, won't they? We might cross-reference any disturbances at museums, private collections. Art theft is depressingly common and underreported, I've heard. It might at least give a start. Maybe we have a fantastic contact at Interpol specialised in the field and eager to prove themselves." There's a wry tone there, tracing a path that no doubt has netted a visit from a redheaded Russian or an invite to liaison, if not join.

It would be prudent to speak more, but she doesn't. Not quite, casting a curious look to Lara. Not every day her most famous ex's relationship problems come up, though she adds, "Dark magic would be troubling. Chances are good he would be aware of them. Asgardians in plain sight aren't exactly high in number. Odin has strong opinions about Midgard and the might to back it up."

Melinda May has posed:
"Yeah, okay," May says dryly, crossing her arms as they lecture her on the danger of weird artifacts. "I got it. No picking weird crap up off the floor." Not that any of that will stop her from doing it again in a heartbeat, if she thinks it will protect someone else.

She's The Cavalry. Doing stupid things like that is hardwired into her.

"So, what if your Asgardian isn't in plain sight? What would cause one of these berserkers to give up or lose their weapon? I mean, it's got to have come from somewhere."

She glances to Lara. "I can say with some authority that she *didn't* acquire the damned thing here. It was on her when she emerged from her portal." Something she saw writ large on the operations command center screen when the whole crisis began. "So, if there's not another one of these things here on our Earth, how do we stop it?" A beat. "I mean... I suppose I could try power armor." Or shooting her with a quinjet's missiles, but that'll leave way too much collateral damage and probably make Fury yell at her.

She inhales another deep breath and lets it go, arms still crossed as she leans a hip against the table. "Look. You two are the experts at this sort of thing. Point me in a direction, and I'll go. Or if you prefer to go yourselves -- with or without me -- that's fine. But time is of the essence here. She's got my face. She's got both a weapon and a disposition that makes it clear she's more than willing to take whatever lives she feels like if she doesn't get her way. I need her stopped sooner rather than later. And she kept going even with slugs in her. So, I don't care how we take her down. I only care that we do."

Lara Croft has posed:
Both of them are again regarded in-turn, and sitting straighter in her chair, Lara holds her cup between her knees. "Since time is of the essence in this hunt, I think we need to reach out to as many members of the magical practitioner community as we can. From Strange, to Zatara, to even ... Constantine." She says that last name like he has a bad taste to him! "There are quite a few others about as well, who I've had the fortune of getting to meet here and there in my year here in the country."

Lara takes a second, her glance going to Jane, then back to May. "Finding lost artifacts... as Jane noted, it isn't easy. It could take years, or a lifetime, to find even one item of any noteworthy value. That Staff, that this version of you has, the powers that you've described it having? This item is as dangerous as they come, the very essence of what I was hired on to bring in to SHIELD, for their protection. I'll start my search, and hope to come across something quickly. But, I can't make any promises of it being a fast find, not without help from others who may have first-hand knowledge about it."

Jane Foster has posed:
"A few choices out there. You're making me sincerely glad no one added an Enchantress to that list," Jane speaks softly enough not to be overly loud. "Strange might be our best bet to start. He at least keeps reasonable hours and we can expect the fewest entanglements that might prove problematic. Because there is, unfortunately, a problematic angle to consider. Forgive me for bringing it up." She isn't smiling, tasting the weight of a pebble on her lips. "But there might be the messy business that something like this could be viewed as missing property that rightly belongs to Asgard. Finders keepers laws may or may not apply."

She goes back to lacing her fingers together and looks up at the staff again, scrutinizing it with detail typically reserved for tiny particles or massive galactic ecosystems dancing around in the local supercluster. "Or lost. A staff that was abandoned because its owner was fatally injured, damaged and unable to reach it, or lost. Tossed overboard, stolen, on the wrong boat, even looted. With any of those particular situations, it could be out of its typical location, even stuck in a burial tomb. If that's the case, your best bet would be northern Europe, Russia to Ireland. Just narrowing down the sorting spots slightly more, but hardly satisfactory. Mundane methods are probably off the table unless we have supercomputers to crunch through records of staves, stafflike objects, burial goods. Assuming they are where they were left. So many aren't. I don't like the odds, not on that method. The casters actually might have a better chance of feeling it out, as much as I hate to admit it."

But admit it she does, trailing after Lara, coming to conclusions that can be teased apart in a different angle. "If Asgard wants it back, that opens the doors to methods to locate it. Ones that don't involve the other Odinson." A careful tap of her finger there. "So conveniently removing it from the playing board could be a case of intervention, though it's a favour I understand SHIELD not wanting to owe. Especially to someone who might collect three centuries down the road. How do we get rid of it or counter it? Overloading with power is a possibility but not a nice one. It could well just absorb it until it explodes, or maybe it never does. Endless battery effect that is discharged later at will sounds only a little alarming. We can't really test how it reacts to different extremes: hot, cold, ice, acid. Best guess, it's reinforced against heavy blows given the strength of whomever would have wielded it. Bear class strength would mean it's meant to dish out the damage of whatever person fighting had, or take it. We don't have any substances immediately on hand that Asgardian items have ever shown a weakness to. Honestly, were he an option and risking it, I'd tell you Agent Whitman. His sword would end it as a problem, but possibly wise to keep that in reserve. Separating this woman from it would be ideal, and that might call for overwhelming force. More people than she can fight, at least in the short term, means multiple adversaries. She can't fight them all, but surrounding her is going to come at the risk of others getting hurt, right?"

Melinda May has posed:
May completely agrees with Lara about Constantine. She grimaces at the mention of his name. "Carter has a connection to him," she says, suppressing her distaste for the sake of her friend. "I'll ask her to reach out. Can I leave you to reach out to the others?"

Nevertheless, May doesn't have years to search for this woman or to counter this staff. "Do what you can. Find me alternatives. In the meantime, I'll look into requisitioning some powerarmor and a psychic shield." Because those emo attacks were devastating to all of them.

She has no intention of putting any of her friends back in the line of that fire ever again. They may feel differently, of course. But, regardless of whatever help she receives along the way, May fully intends to complete this hunt alone.

"We're SHIELD," she tells Jane. "You want supercomputers to crunch historic records? I'll get them for you." There's an advantage to being an L7 with really good connections. "But, yes. Let's avoid Thor's brother if we can." The expression on her face suggests she dislikes him even more than she dislikes Cosntantine. Given the fact she's tried to shoot him twice, that's probably not a surprise to anyone. "I'm happy to involve mages you trust. I know a few, myself." She's been around the block a time or two. "But unless we're going to be allowed to arrest him, let's leave Loki out of it."

She snirks softly. "And I don't really care if Asgard wants their property back. They can have it -- just as soon as I've neutralized the threat."

She regards Jane bluntly. "You could be right; it may be we need numbers to overwhelm her. But, that's not an option. I'll lure her out to an abandoned property and drop a payload of missiles on her head, first. No one else gets hurt because of this woman. Because of me. I'm going up against her, myself. That's not negotiable."

Her face. Her responsibility.

Her eyes flit between the pair. "That doesn't mean I want to go in unprepared. I have no intention of committing suicide to do this." Unless killing her doppleganger counts as some sort of weird form of suicide. Then... yeah, she's absolutely open to the idea. "So, like I said: Any help you can give me, I'll take. Leads, hunches, crazy shots in the dark. I don't care. I trust you both. You know your stuff and you have contacts I don't. And if you need additional resources, you let me know. I'll get them for you. All I ask is you keep me in the loop and give me a fighting chance."

Lara Croft has posed:
"I would recommend being very cautious with pushing her buttons too." Lara chimes in again as she reaches for the messenger bag she'd brought with her to pull it up on to her lap. "We don't know the extent of what that staff she has is capable of doing. If you..." This is at May, of course. "Start to escalate the military power you throw at her, she may in-turn escalate the magical power she pushes back with. It. It would be prudent to observe her as much as possible, but remain as passive as we can possibly be until we have a 'punch' that we really believe will do the trick, so to speak, of ridding her of this item she has."

Lara's phone is pulled out of her bag and she starts to bring up a text, apparently already set on reaching out to some others. She starts to stand as well. "I'll get to work on contacting Zatara, and Strange." She gives a glance toward Jane, not having any idea that the woman has a history with Thor. "Could you reach out to Thor, and possibly Constantine?" Possibly. Not required. He smells like cigarettes!

To May again then. "Will these images, and so forth be sent to my desk?" She asks, already knowing the answer to that, but still!

Jane Foster has posed:
"See, sensible. I appreciate that about you." Lara earns a compliment, though Jane is still frowning thoughtfully, her brows knit together. "It would serve me well to crunch through some of the research. Can we borrow Agent Johnson for that, stringing together filters and exclusions? Finding references in Danish art journals or anthropological surveys from 1952 digs from Aaland don't sound particularly difficult to go through, as long as we have the analysts and the computing power to do it." If May is going to offer, she will be graciously accepted. It would be very rude otherwise to turn down the suggestion.

"Loki doesn't seem involved in this, so let's keep it that way besides. We gain nothing by bargaining with that chip unless every other last option is gone. I would sooner deal with your mages on the side, in order, telling them there's a prize in it for them," she adds mildly. Elbow to the table, she rests her weight lightly against the pivot hinge, her eyes half-closed as thought careens sideways and long. "I can pay Thor a visit. I'm sure this will give him a distraction from different dark magic, and having someone who can call down thunder or properly avoid a diplomatic incident sounds promising. And Constantine? All right. I might need to ask Peggy where to find him, unless he turns up like a bad penny. A few people have the habit of that."

Melinda May has posed:
May nods to Lara's suggestion, eyes narrowing in thought. "Surveillance, I can do." She's good at that. And it gives her something proactive to focus on. It's sure as hell better than waiting for them to come back with something that may or may not help and only if they're lucky.

"I'll talk to Carter about reaching out to the British Bastard, if you don't get to him first. But check medical. I think she dragged his sorry ass in there a few days ago." No equivocation on what she thinks of John Constantine. None at all.

Finally, she nods. "Any of the information here, you've both been cleared for. It's Eyes-Only, but your access will pull it up. If you want to involve Agents Johnson, Fitz-Simmons, Morse, Carter, or Coulson, go ahead. Anyone else, let me know." There are some people that don't need to be up in her business. But that list contains people she trusts.

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara is gathering her stuff up, slinging that messenger bag over her shoulders once more, and taking both cups of drinks she'd brought in to the room with her, one tucked up against her ribs on her left side, while she holds the other in her left hand. Her right hand has her phone still held, thumbing at it. "Thank you, May... and." Lara pauses, before leaving, to look at the senior Agent. "We'll figure this out. There's only room for one of you in this world after all, right?" She shows a hint of a grin before looking to Jane to smile at her once more.

"Did I give you the challenging ones to contact?" She asks. "Now I'm worried I've given you the less than easy ones to reach out to..." That's Lara for you, concerned about her socially awkward elements.

Jane Foster has posed:
"I'll survive it," Jane tells Lara. "Trust me, if you get through a committee with Director Fury heading it, there's very little to be found that rivals the fear factor. I am pleased to know you are considering it though." She scraps her hair back off her brow, giving a little shake of her head. "Medical? I've been down there enough. Might as well head by and see what's up after talking to Agent Carter. Ought to say hello and see how she's getting on. As one of her four parents, at this rate."

The mischievous smile turns up, a tease that lasts a moment. Genetic contributions being what they are, the Furiae plus one have their little mark in history. Her affection for the subject in question isn't in doubt.

"Let's get this coffee put away, and I will dig about and see what I can. Simmons would be a good contribution for research, Johnson for systems work. The rest of this I need to think on and see what I am missing. Thor should," she stresses that, "give us some insight we sorely need on that thing's limitations before it comes up again. Though if she shows, Agent May? Please let me know. I had to work on containment fields and spikes for surging energy for the realms, which I keyed specifically onto the most obvious signatures at the time. Loki's, for one; the Hunger, for another. I might be able to calibrate something that works against anything that staff could produce, at least for a short period of time. It's a limited containment effect, since the technical specifics are so finicky, but it could be worked on."

Melinda May has posed:
May nods. "I'll her track her down," she tells Jane, starting to condense information and shut down screens. "If you have field sensors I can use from a distance to try to get some readings for you, let me know. I get you some scans." Having no clue, however, what unusually violent and unique talents these Furiae might be hiding, she has every intention of keeping them out of the line of fire. Them, and everyone else.

She gives them both a satisfied look -- it's close to a smile, but more stoic. "Thank you for your help, agents," she says sincerely. "I really appreciate it. I'll keep you in the loop."

But that's as much of a conclusion as she'll give to the meeting, too. Because it's May. Why waste her breath? They all have work to do.