8834/An Overdue Meeting

An Overdue Meeting
Date of Scene:	27 November 2021
Location:	Boardwalk - St Martin's Island
Synopsis:	Cap and Superman have a chat about Thanos.
Cast of Characters:	Steve Rogers, Clark Kent

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Steve Rogers has posed:
The other day, Captain America had a sit down with Captain Marvel, recently returned from outer space. None of the news was very good. Things out in the galaxy are a mess, and some of the problems might start looking this way.

This is why Captain America reached out to the other biggest Boy Scout on Earth. This information needs to be shared with the other protectors of the planet. Especially given what they concern. He hemmed and hawed about how to show up for this for a bit. It's not like his identity is a secret, but it's also important enough that showing up In Uniform, as it were, might add just a bit more gravity to it.

This is why Steve is currently standing at the end of the fishing pier, staring out into the ocean, arms folded across his chest. To his credit, he doesn't look pensive, just serious and occupied.

He does his best to ignore people walking by and taking his picture, which assuredly happens. Cap isn't in Metropolis too often.

Clark Kent has posed:
"KILL SUPERMAN!" The fish man screamed, sitting on a pearl throne attached roughly to the writhing, twisting squid monster. "THE PESCINE UNION WILL NOT TOLERATE HIS INTERFERENCE IN OUR PLANS ANY FURTHER!"

"This is about Lori, isn't it." Superman says, struggling with a tentacle capable of crushing a skyscraper like an empty beer can. "Look, that was ages ago! Amicable! We parted as friends!"

"YOU'LL PART THIS WORLD, AIR BREATHER, IN LORD POSIDEON'S CLUTCHES! SQUEEZE, MONSTRO, SQUEEZE!"

"Come on, man, I've got a thing." Superman says, and notices a figure on the dark. "Darn it." The Man of Steel's muscles flex, and the tentacle breaks off with a horrible snap! Monstro looks shocked for a second, when Superman shoves the tendril back into its place and flash freezes a makeshift cast on the monster, saving the limb! "Listen, just take your boss out of here and come back in a week, ok?"

The giant octopus sort of nods, despite its rider's furious protests, and sinks back into the deep. Squeezing the salt water out of his cape, Superman hovers down towards Captain America, putting on a pleasant face. "Afternoon! Sorry about that, this sort of thing happens sometimes." Superman lands, brushing some seaweed off of his cape. "Beer? Doughnut?"

Steve Rogers has posed:
A tussle with a giant squid monster is not something you see everyday. Then again, it's not so unusual as to make Steve think twice about it. Big names call in big monsters and this is just an example.

When Superman lands, Cap nods in greeting and holds his hand out for the good, old-fashioned, professional handshake. Steve is a master of the handshake. Perfect pressure and speed to exude confidence without ego coming into it.

"Thanks for agreeing to meet, I know you're a busy man. Busier than I am lately, anyway." He considers beer and doughnuts. "Honestly, given the topic, I think beer makes the most sense. The news I'm sharing is not good, with the potential to be very bad for us on a planetary scale."

Clark Kent has posed:
Superman meeting with Captain America gets a few gawkers, even in Metropolis where usually the madness is part of the experience. People take pictures, whisper, and point. No one gets too close, though; they're obviously meeting for a reason. This could be a statement on the average Metropolitan's politeness, or genre savvy awareness that giant robots could attack at any second.

Clark's handshake is a little softer than you'd expect, likely because he does not want to break any fingers. Superman leads the Captain a bit further into the boardwalk, nodding and smiling at a few people before getting to the 'food cart' of the local craft brewery.

"I'll take a Gangbuster, please." Clark orders, "My treat, Cap." There are a few cheesy looking names but a generally good assortment of east coast 'lets get serious about our beers' choices.

"Space, huh? Worse than the Shi'ar showing up and humiliating us for a week?" Superman says, taking a swig of his drink and ignoring the icy stab of dread at his first awful thought: Brainiac. "What's the story?"

Steve Rogers has posed:
Steve takes in the Metropolis board walk. It's nice, kind of reminds him of Coney Island from when he was a kid. It's the same vibe. Honestly, he likes Metropolis, it's a much ... brighter town than New York. The kind of place that, despite all the modern trappings, still feels like the town he grew up in. Where people are, more or less, on the same page.

As they hit the craft beer, Steve looks for something relatively simple. He orders the Sir Veza. It makes him smile a little. Who knew he likes puns? He sobers quickly after taking a sip of the beer.

"Captain Marvel just got back from an extended trip out in the depths of space. A lot of it was dealing with Kree stuff and the rest of it was saving the Guardians of the Galaxy." He takes another sip before asking a question.

"Have you ever heard the name Thanos?"

Clark Kent has posed:
Superman outright rolls his eyes at the word 'Kree', for what he feels should be obvious reasons.

Seriously they even have the shirt shield thing, what the hell.

"Those people get around." In regards to the Guardians; he's not sure if he owes them one or now from his own Oan misadventure, and has honestly been avoiding space nonsense since then. Plenty of things to punch on earth. The name though, Superman raises an eyebrow.

"Sounds a bit like 'thanatos'. Is this another alien that visited the ancient world?"

Steve Rogers has posed:
What Steve knows about the Guardians is that they're all a bunch of misfits who have found family in each other. It's nice, but they're still a pack of weirdos. "I don't think so. He's a genocidal lunatic fixated on Balance. He conquers planets, kills half of all the life on them, and moves on. From what I was told, his followers are all religious zealots. Call themselves the Black Order."

He takes another drink. This one longer, probably about half the glass. These are craft beers, Steve. You're supposed to savor them!

"He's hunting for these artifacts called Infinity Stones. Captain Marvel says they're incredibly potent cosmic artifacts when apart, but when brought together their weilder can do literally anything. Given what I've been told about Thanos's M-O, it's clearly not good."

Clark Kent has posed:
The Man of Steel looks visibly distubed by this description. He's run into his fair share of extraterrestrial tyrants, but something about the idea of just murdering half of a planet to prove some philosophical point is particularly disgusting to Superman. At least Lobo's insane, at least Brainiac's acting on some twisted logic, at least Mongul's honest. This sounds almost nonsensical.

Superman's fists itch. He drinks his drink instead of expressing this.

"Sounds like a real sweetheart. And you think he thinks one of these, ah, stones is here?" Superman guesses, because of course one of them is here. "He and this Black Order must be something to have not been put down by one of the galactic powers by now, if they're going around wiping out halves of planets."

Steve Rogers has posed:
"That's the thing," Steve says. "I'm not sure. It wouldn't surprise me if one is here, but I don't know. I don't know how to figure it out, either. I'm just a soldier. A little tougher than most, a little stronger than most, but all of my experience is here, on the ground. I'd love to leave space to the Lanterns and Captain Marvel, but my gut is telling me I won't have that luxury soon."

He gives a shrug. "I don't really know anyone who deals with things out there besides Marvel. I've met a couple of the Lantern Corps, this does sound like their kind of problem. Wonder why they haven't stopped it."

Clark Kent has posed:
"That is an excellent question I guess I'm going to have to ask my two Lanterns. Doesn't Thor do space stuff? Maybe he can call his dad." Superman says, crossing his arms. "Did Captain Marvel give you any more specifics than 'watch out', though? We've had alien raids before, and a treasure hunt isn't much to go on."

And the Shi'ar, which was humiliating. The X-men didn't even send a damn thank you card.

"Maybe we should all sit down. Avengers, JLA, X-Men if we can get them to show up, Titans, Fantastic Four. Figure out some kind of coherent strategy so what happened this October doesn't happen again." Superman finishes his drink. "I know we don't all get along on every political talking point." This is putting it lightly. "But I think we can all agree on some space preacher showing up to blow up half the planet because of space calculus is a bad idea. And if we don't start talking about it, the other side will."

Steve Rogers has posed:
Steve shakes his head. "Ca--Captain Marvel said she fought him and beat him back enough to rescue whoever it was that needed rescuing, that he keeps his ship perpetually in Hyperspace, and that he can do "weird" things with Hyperspace." He pauses. "It's all greek to me. I just know that he's a threat out there and that if he even thinks one of these rocks is down here, he'll bring his whole army down on us to get it."

Steve finishes the beer, because thinking about this stuff is terrible. "I agree, though. The whole community of us need to have a sit down. A summit of sorts to share information and discuss how we're going to connect and react to a, well, extinction level threat." He glances out at the water again, thinking. "We'll have to find some neutral ground. Set some ... proceedural rules down so no one gets angry and blows up the building in a tantrum." He's not even talking about Bruce. ... Either of tem.

Clark Kent has posed:
Of course Captain America already had a plan half worked out.

It's an OBVIOUS plan, but there's a reason the Avengers listen to Steve Rogers, Superman reflects, despite his worries about being just a grunt. Cap thinks deeply, anticipates tactical problems well ahead of time, and is humble enough to let someone walk into the place he wants them to go thinking they're in charge. If he ever got into politics he'd be a dangerous man.

Good. They need some danger on the right side, Superman thinks. "Also a place where Doctor Doom isn't going to just nuke us. Maybe reach out to Reed? He knows all sorts of weird bolt holes we could all sit down at for an hour."

"What kind of rules did you have in mind?" Superman says, and smiles a little. "I'm not calling Nick Fury 'general'."

Steve Rogers has posed:
"Reed is a good idea," Steve says with a nod. "I think I will. And I wasn't going to invite Fury, because he'll just show up anyway. It's an old joke between us." He smiles a bit. He just finds tweaking Fury's nose about the little things entertaining. What a prankster.

"As for rules, nothing complicated. There's a meeting outline, a chance for discussion, everybody gets a vote. We just need to get on the same page. Set up lines of communication. I know it's not possible, but we all want the same thing. We want to keep our homes and families safe. I'd like more of us to be friends rather than allies of convenience."

Clark Kent has posed:
"Very democratic." Superman says, but ultimately it's as good an outline as any. Things will probably go wrong but it's not a bad start regardless. Things going wrong just gives you more things to fix, right?

"I'll talk to the League, while you're doing that. Brief them on what you've told me and what we're planning on doing. I think a sit down'll do us good, we've all been an army of individuals lately. And the League should be that to a point, but we can't be frustrated forever."

"Pot luck?" Superman offers. He's mostly kidding, though it's not the worst idea in the world. Ma's cherry pie's cooled heads before, during the League's tempestuous early days.

Steve Rogers has posed:
"You'd be surprised at how many good cooks are in the Avengers," he says. He pauses a beat. "I'm not one of them, if it doesn't come in a C-Ration, I can't cook it." Steve laughs at his own self-depreciating humor. Some would be amazed that Captain America is self-depreciating, but nothing's really changed about the kid from Brooklyn.

"I'll do my best to get this organized quickly. It shouldn't be too hard on my end. I'll let you know when I have all of it nailed down."

Clark Kent has posed:
"My mom stuck a packet of recipes in my suitcase when I first moved to the city." Superman says, winking. "I think she left stuff out, because I still can't do any of them like her. Green Arrow's our real gourmand, though. Back in the early days he'd show up with a pot of chili, a tray of cornbread and make us sit down and eat before we could start screaming at each other."

"Might be why we all stuck around." Superman says, a bit wistful. Back when they were all friends.

His ears prick. "Trouble." Superman says, and there's a flash of something on Clark's face. "The Parasite. I've got to take this, Rudy can do a lot of damage if he works up a head of steam."

Clark offers a hand in case Cap wants to tag along, because sometimes adventure is fun. "Up, up-!"

Steve Rogers has posed:
Steve was pretty sure this successful meeting was done. Despite whatever hangups that the Avengers and the League might have with each other (Let's be fair, it's probably all Tony and Bruce since they're almost the same person), Steve has always respected Superman. They are, after all, quite a bit alike. He's levered up from his lean, ready to mosey off when--

"Sure. Happy to help. I could use the workout anyway. I'll follow your lead."

He takes Clark's hand, not quite Scott Lang grinning like an idiot, but close. He doesn't get to fly like this much. Carol hates being a shuttle.

"And away!"