69/To infinity...

To infinity...
Date of Scene:	22 February 2020
Location:	Garage in Harlem
Synopsis:	Tony comes to visit Riri after tracking her down... He is not a cop.
Cast of Characters:	Riri Williams, Tony Stark

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Riri Williams has posed:
Riri is still hyped up after the test run, going over the data on her tablet once she hooked the damaged, but easily servicable armor back into the housing built off to one side of the spacious garage. The skylight is broken, glass littering the floor, and there's a romba (a suped up romba) with a heavy duty vacuum attached to a secondary container pulled behind it on its own propelled wheels.

"Okay, definitely need thicker armor..."

Music is playing on the sound system and she's once again put a jacket on over her insulated body suit because it's cold as hell in Harlem. Kneeling down beside one of the legs of the six and a half foot tall armor. A black suit covered hand running along the dented metal with a huge, ear to ear grin.

Tony Stark has posed:
It didn't take HOMER all that long to zero in on the unique energy signals emitted by Riri's armor. It was so easy because they were almost identical to his own - or, more accurately, a version several iterations in the past. A Stark Industries satellite in orbit had managed to zero in on Harlem, after which some launched drones were able to triangulate and pinpoint the exact location. From high above, Tony can see the broken skylight and the rudimentary (by his standards) armor beneath it.

Then he's there, the roar of the repulsors built into his armor filling the garage as he descends through the skylight and lands right there in the middle of it all. He doesn't move at first, the red and gold armor catching the sunlight in such a way that it almost gleams. When he speaks, his voice is given an electronic timbre and projected through the speakers built into the outer shell of his suit.

<Knock knock. Uh, hi. We need to talk.>

The suit itself doesn't move, simply standing there. The helmet is canted slightly to one side, glowing blue eye-slits regarding Riri and her armor through a dispassionate faceplate.

Riri Williams has posed:
Riri doesn't have security on par with Stark Tower, but she's got some... motion sensors and energy fluctuation scanners mostly. It's necessary to have these things when you've commit, essentially, corperate espionage snatching bits of protected pieces of equipment to reverse engineer into a dime store fusion reactor. The suit alone could make her a millionaire in her own right if she'd sold it...

Nevermind the money she could make working for that company afterwards.

Now Iron Man is here... and her alarms never went off.. At least not timely enough that she could respond to it with more than a startled yelp and equally surprised blinks in the Gold and Red armors direction. "Holy /crap/..."

It's actually him.. Well maybe.

"I...." Glancing at her armor.. then at Tony's... then at hers. She sliiiiides closer to the jury rigged Ironheart monstrocity and pulls the tarp over it as if Tony Stark will forget he saw it if it's hidden.

Tony Stark has posed:
<No, no,> Iron Man says, taking a step towards the suit as Riri covers it with the tarp and waving a metallic finger through the air, <I definitely saw it. On the news, actually. I thought maybe it was just some cosplay taken to the extreme but now that I look at it ...>

The Golden Avenger reaches out one hand and clasps the tarp, whisking it away in a singular motion. He casts it onto the ground, causing it to drape over the Super-Roomba which beeps indignantly and continues to roll around beneath it. Able to see the armor properly now, he leans in for a close look.

<Where did you get this? Who do you work for? Just ... how?>

Riri Williams has posed:
Riri blinks up at him. He's a lot taller than she'd imagine, but figuring for the engineering required now that she's actually finished her own suit, she knows that can be rather deceiving. Her own suit would make her almost seven foot tall and she's almost certainly not that... more like two whole feet shorter.

The tarp flies away and there's a deep frown on her face, arms intermittently crossed and rubbing the back of her neck on both sides. Kind of awkward, maybe anxious, at least until he suggests maybe she hadn't built it herself.. "Huh?" Glancing up at her armor, then up at Tony..

"I /built/ it.." Frowning deeply, more defiant now than anxious. "I found ..." wiggling pointing at his reactor in the center of the red chest armor, ".. after the battle of New York.. and.. I don't work for anyone.. I mean I work for M.I.T.. I guess. Kind of.. I work for my scholarship money." Frowning all the more.

She's /maybe/ sixteen. Maybe.

"You're not going to take it are you?"

Tony Stark has posed:
<Well, it's mine. The design, anyway. This reactor is proprietary. I could take it. I /should/ take it ...> Tony trails off within the suit, his brow furrowing. Inside, he calls up facial recognition software that spews out information on the girl. An MIT student profile that matches up with what she's saying, on top of a laundry list of achievements far beyond what would be expected of someone her age.

Suddenly, the front of Tony's suit peels away with a clatter-clank. It shows the man inside, dressed in a suit with a SHIELD visitor pass still clipped to his breast pocket. He steps out, the armor sealing shut behind him and standing at attention. He strides right past Riri - definitely shorter outside the armor - and examines her suit closely.

"You built it? Just - just because?" He reaches out for the helmet, holding both hands just alongside it as though he is going to take it off and look closer but then glances sideways to Riri and asks, "May I?"

Riri Williams has posed:
Riri doesn't know trade laws, but she's actually done her homework, "Technically it's not." Pointing up at him, speaking in a hushed voice when he points out that he /could/ and probably /should/ take the reactor. "I didn't use the core that I found, I used it to model my own, nor am I suggesting that I discovered the technology myself.. It's like I used your design as a blueprint for my own." A quiet whisper, rubbing the side of her arm and looking down at the glass scattered on the floor around them.

"You probably have better lawyers than me, though. So you could lock me up in legislation for years where I couldn't use the reactor, and I'd have to relent when my own pro bono lawyer admits I have no hope of winning despite the legality of what I did..." Trailing off, into.. shrugs.

Clearing her throat as he steps out of his armor and over to the armor in its charging station, reaching out as if he's going to remove its head. "Sure.." What's she going to do? Tell Tony Stark he can't look at something? She's lucky he asked... But she's still a little star struck. A girl like her grew up reading about his projects. "I'm writing my graduate thesis on you.." Perking up slightly, looking owlishly at the brilliant inventor.

Tony Stark has posed:
"What?" Tony asks, turning to look at Riri only at the tail end of her talk about lawyers and lawsuits, "I don't care about that. Shut up a second."

There's nothing about his tone that suggest he is being snippy or rude. It's all just matter of fact, as though his brain is moving so fast that all others should just wait patiently until he finishes his circuit and comes back around again. He removes the helmet from its housing when she agrees, taking it down and holding it at eye level. He turns it over, looking at the inside curiously. He then takes a few steps around the suit, examining it from different angles.

"You made this," he repeats to himself under his breath, as though it were the most stunning thing he'd heard today - and earlier someone told him they'd been teleported through space and had encountered time bandits. But this is still weirder, "You made it."

It's only then that he actually seems to start paying attention to things going on outside his own head. He turns to look at Riri, still holding the helmet as though he can't quite believe it's real.

"Who's your teacher? If it's Mathers you might want to reconsider. Guy hates me."

Riri Williams has posed:
Riri hadn't really expected how cavalier Tony was with... everything. She'd practiced that speech because she knew as soon as he found about the suit, it was highly likely he'd come to take it from her, but then he just silences it to look at her armors head.

It isn't particularly sophisticated as far as HUDs go, but she's done some clever things with what she had on hand. Nodding affirmative to his asking her if she made it, lips pressed together when he does so a second time. "Yeah." Blinking at how interested he seems to be.

She hadn't expected that either.

"Professor Akima..." Stepping over with her hands out, silently requesting the helmet, which she clutches to her chest if Tony gives it back to her. "I didn't mean to .. I just.." She looks down into the helmet, then up at Tony, "I knew I could build it, so I... did?"

The excuse sounds weak now that she's said it out loud.

Tony Stark has posed:
The last words seem to hit Tony like a slap in the face. He regards Riri in silence for a moment, letting her pluck the helmet from his grasp to cling onto it protectively. He looks back to the rest of the suit, something unmistakably advanced even for someone reverse-engineering his designs. He'd left enough fragments of the Iron Man armor all over the globe, he was sure, but nobody - not even top minds - had ever come close to recreating it. Aspects of it? Sure. But never the whole thing. Never like this.

"You just did," he barks, laughing in total disbelief. His hand lifts to run through his hair, still shocked.

"This is - " Tony points at the suit, then back at Riri, "This is dangerous. I - "

It's an unusual situation to see Tony at a loss for words. He's usually got words to spare. But this whole situation is surreal. He's spent time talking with the smartest people in the world, but none of them have ever felt like they had that same spark.

"You need to come with me."

Riri Williams has posed:
Riri rarely knows when she's caught someone off guard because she's just not that good at conversations to begin with. Clutching at the helmet like a security blanket, rubbing a palm along the smooth domed fron where the eyes would be, if it weren't all external cameras feeding data to a HUD screen.

She's staring absently down, paying attention to what he's saying when he starts saying it's dangerous, and knowing for sure that he's about to take it away. She looks up at him, mouth hanging open at the connotations of him saying he should come with her.

"Am... Am I under arrest or something?" Eyes wide, blinking several times.

Tony Stark has posed:
"What? No. What am I? A cop? No."

Tony moves towards his own armor, gesturing at it and prompting the paneling to slide away. He steps into it and it once more seals closed, rendering him Iron Man once more. He takes a few steps towards the armor, regarding it in silence again, and then turning to Riri.

<That talent you have? It's dangerous. You've got the capacity to do so much good, but you can also hurt a lot of people. If you're going to do this - and looking at what you've done, I don't think you're going to stop - then you need to make sure you do it right. We need to make sure you do it right. Together.>

There's a pause and he lift a hand to scratch at the back of his helmet, shaking his head slightly.

<Do we have a deal?>

Riri Williams has posed:
Riri hadn't really thought about what kind of damage she'd actually done, which isn't to say she's oblivious to it, only that she'd looked at it as statistical data rather than empathy for the criminals that got in the way of her tests.. It shows in her frown. As if she's just realized precisely how terrible things /could/ have gone.

She too scratches at the back of her neck, beneath her bush of dark hair, "Uh... yeah.." Nodding a few times and stepping over to replace the head on her armor by way of a step ladder running alongside the charging station.

"I didn't want to.. hurt anyone.. but yeah, I.." Dammit, as if she'd say no to Tony freakin' Stark?

"Yes, we hvae a deal." Nodding emphatically.