2013-05-14 - Mission: Intergang: Not My Duty

Alright, Hope is now seriously tired. She flops down on a broken bench near an empty parking lot. Her hood is pulled up, and she's in uniform, an energy rifle over a shoulder and resting against her back. There are energy handguns strapped to her thighs. There is blood on her gloved knuckles, and there is a burnt energy hole in her cloak. "Intergang." This is going to explode soon, she fears, and there is no way she's going to be able to handle this alone.

Since the time he saw Hope, Nathaniel has been trying to find her again. He is curious about the redhead and her time-travelling. But the sensors of the armor are a complicated thing, and even more the add-ons Kang created to navigate through time. Those didn't come with an instructions manual. So he can't find Hope easily, but ended up setting up a specific scan for her chrono-signature that should warn him if she is nearby. For two or three weeks, it was quiet.

But now, as Iron Lad patrols over Hell's Kitchen, the scan started blipping. There, on that parking lot. The Iron Lad armor is surprisingly quiet. One would expect rocket jets from something that looks so much like Iron Man, but no, the glowing jet exhausts on the feet are just for show. Anti-gravity is relatively quiet as he descends slowly, but the armor is shinny and flashy.

And Traveler moves. The girl is quick and fast, her handguns coming free of the thigh straps and being raised toward the armored Iron Lad. The hood is drawn forward to help shadow her face. "Who the hell are you? Or do you want blasted?" There is a sneer to her voice, as she knows this isn't Iron Man. Iron Lad...she never knew he was a time traveler, or perhaps in her timeline he was a mere footnote that soon disappeared into the timestream once more to fulfill his twisted destiny. In either case, those guns are pointed and the girl is ready to dodged at any moment, with the stance of a fighter.

The sudden appearance of the hooded woman surprises Nathaniel for a second. He has no experience facing this kind of situation. But he has good instincts, and instead of panicking he cuts off the gravity drives and falls several yards down, landing on a three point stance. The energy signature identifies Hope, even though he can't see her face. "I am..." dramatic pause, totally accidental, as he almost said his real name, "Iron Lad. Relax, I am with the Avengers," it is almost true, technically. His voice is distorted by the armor, so it is difficult to identify him even if Hope remembers Nathaniel's voice.

A snort at that, "A little small for Iron Man, so what, he got a sidekick, named Iron Lad?" Distrust. Hope grew up hard and rough, and when on a mission, when there isn't a recognized hero she is highly distrustful and the 'young Hope' trained by Cable shows up. "You have got to be kidding me. Never heard of you."

"Not surprising, I started a month ago," admits Iron Lad, standing up. He has yet to do something worthy of a first page in a newspaper. "I am not Iron Man's sidekick, although I admit he was an inspiration for the armor design and codename." He takes a good look at Hope, notices the blood and frowns. "Do you need medical assistance?"

"Not me, some Intergang riffraff does though. Not that it do much good, reinforcements came in, so I ran. I know when to pick a fight, and when to retreat." A pause then, but Hope then says, "If you really know Iron Man and the Avengers, then you can warn them." The energy handguns are only somewhat lowered, but can be whipped up in a moment's notice. "Intergang is on the move. With Kingpin dead, they see New York as easy pickings now. I don't know the details of this street, but things are about to get messy."

"A gang?" Iron Lad goes to check the databanks about them, then goes on as he reads. "Ah, not just any gang. Are they chasing you?" He sweeps the area looking for energy weapons. The stuff he got first is that Intergang often uses advanced energy weapons, which should be very rare in this age in the hands of petty criminals.

"No, though I left enough dead behind. This isn't my job or duty, it's the Avengers. So they need to buck up and do their job. Tell them Traveler said so, because if they don't, death is sure to follow at their heels. Intergang is planning something big, but other than that, I didn't catch a single clue of it since my investigation was interrupted by battle." And almost dying, but Hope has had tons of close calls ever since she was born, she does not dwell on them too much.

Dead? But heroes do not kill! "Perhaps you should come with me and tell them in person. If you had to kill some of those men..." he is pretty sure they send people to jails for killing other people. Jails being a pretty primitive idea and all that. "If it is not your job, why did you come here to investigate?"

"Oh, get over yourself," Traveler says, scowling. "I'm a soldier, not a hero. Obviously, I kill people. People die all the time, it's just a blessing when it's bad people instead of good people, and that's my job. Save the good, stop the bad. Maybe you can go around punching a bunch of people with strange energy weapons," that's saying a lot when Traveler uses energy weapons, "But I'm not energy weapon proof," the sarcasm obvious. "And I came to investigate, because I make a point to keep an eye on things. I also keep an eye on things in a number of places around the world, and my prime objective is in the Middle East. I can't be in New York City a lot. So, you got enough information to know I'm not full of shit? Or do you need a list of references too, to know that if you piss me off, I will find a way to kick your ass?" Yep, highly aggressive and combatant. Hope is nothing like you would have discovered in the future, she's rough, overbearing, and...busy saving the world."

Traveler then snorts, "I don't have time for this, tell them or not, the innocent deaths be on your head," working to guilt trip Iron Lad. "I have a world to save, a single city will have to wait." In the past, she would scream at herself for saying something like that, but as she is apart from her dad...ironically, in some ways, she becomes more and more like him.

"No. People do not die all the time," replies Iron Lad. "And if you want to be a soldier, you should consider joining an army. If you go alone into a troublesome area, armed to the teeth, and end up killing people, even criminals, you should answer to the law. I am aware there are times and places where there is no law, little justice and killing could the only option. But New York right now is not one of those places. There are policemen, there are super-human organizations, there are efficient non-lethal weapons for someone with access to high tech weaponry as you obviously have."

Ooooh, that does it! And the guns are tucked away and Hope actually stomps right over to Iron Lad and pokes you right into her nano-technology metal covered chest glowy thingy! "You don't know nothing! I come from a place where everything failed. Law, order, humanity, compassion, and even hope! It all failed, and you know what happens when it all fails? If it isn't fixed, the world -ends-." She shouldn't reveal this much. "So I'm going to patch the holes, so that law, order, humanity, compassion, and even hope can exist. Am I happy having to do it this way? No. But I sure as hell am not going to turn myself over to some law enforcement because they don't realize how blind they are, and how they sit on their thumbs while letting the world go to hell because they are too busy making war with their allies instead of their enemies. So, go be a hero, and stay out of the shadows and away from me." She sounds angry, but also pained. She's still just a kid, a teenager, and the amount of death, destruction, and suffering she has witnessed has long made its toil. "Because, only those with the purest hearts, can survive the shadows without being consumed by them."

"I come from a place where crime is almost unknown, where hunger, disease and violence are something we see in old holos." Iron Land glowers over Hope. "You can not fix the world problems killing everyone. We have order, humanity, compassion and hope now. Here. It is not perfect, but it is better than has been, perhaps worse it might be, but America is not in anarchy. Maybe before you kill someone, you could show compassion, show hope this person can repent his crimes and reform, trust the law and order to deliver justice and safety." Pause, "please? I did not came here to arrest you or even argue with you. But I am concerned you would resort to killing so easily."

"No, not everyone, never everyone. But I can do it by doing what needs to be done by stopping the few most dangerous people in existence. Intergang is the Avengers issue. I tried to help, but I'll make things worse. This isn't my kind of job, this one goes to heroes. So go heroing, hero." Traveler shakes her head, "Did you miss the fact I'm not energy proof! Ugh! I'm not friggin Captain America. You know, forget this." Traveler then turns about and starts to leave.

"But you do not need to be Captain America to fight crime without resorting to killing," replies Nathaniel. Well, now she is leaving. He should stop her, it would be the righteous thing to do, but he really doesn't want to see her in trouble. Sighing, he starts after her. "Look. All I am saying is that although you had to survive in a very harsh environment, the methods you learned back then are not the most suitable for now. Here, now, you can stop being a soldier and be a hero."

Hope turns about, "I can't!" There is frustration and tears in her eyes within the shadows, but they don't fall. "You come from some freaky paradise! I didn't! I kill, yes, and I'm not happy about it, but I can sleep at night! Because I know, I know if I fail, there will be no heroes. You, everyone, will be gone, Nathaniel Richards!" Yep, she figured it out. The time traveler, the one that picked her out. "I don't know what alternative timeline you came from, or where things differed, but the one I come from, it dead-ends. There is no happy ever after. There are conquerors that rule with an iron fist, there are billions dead, and then there are acid rains, and then there are more conquerors, and more death, and more war, and then there is no one. Humanity ends!"

Yes, his 'secret identity' needs some work. Not that Nathaniel cares much about it, at least not yet. "I can see you are driven," he replies, "but also that you can not sleep well because of that dark future you came from. But the events that lead to your future, or mine, are not going to be determined by a few random deaths now. Killing some petty criminals is not going to make the world better or worse in the long run."

Hope say, "I -can- sleep well, the deaths of evil people don't bother me, the living evil people are the ones that give me nightmares," Hope struggles to explain. "And that's why I need to get uninvolved with Intergang! Tell the Avengers, I'm -serious-. I have more important things to do, but innocents will die if the Avengers don't do anything. I want to help, but I should have been in Egypt today, not Hell's Kitchen.""

Iron Lad nods hesitantly. "I will report to them. But the Avengers are the most powerful heroes of Earth. If something more important is going on in Egypt, that is where they should be," see? Raw logic. Avengers = world mightiest heroes. Hope = Lone girl non-energy proof.

And Traveler just laughs at that! "You have so much to learn stranger. So innocent. I don't think I was ever that innocent." But Hope is smiling softly, even if a bit sarcastically. "This is not for them, they already failed Iron Lad. They all did. No one saw it, until it was too late. And this is my destiny, one I choose to fulfill for the good of humanity, even if it leads me to my death. After all, some things are worth living for, and dying for, Nathaniel, because they are good and beautiful things."

"Now you are not making sense," Iron Lad shakes his head. "The Avengers cannot fail until they try, and their record of successes against impossible odds is nothing short of amazing. That you can do what they cannot is hard to believe."

A shake of her head, "I'm not going to explain it," Traveler says. "And I won't be alone. I'm creating a network of allies, slowly, but surely." She then reaches her knuckles up and knocks them aside your metal head. "Knew you were hard-headed." But there is a smile on Hope's face. "And I still don't trust you," and that was...stated very bluntly. "I'm still waiting for you to remove your mask and be like Apocalypse or something." Least she didn't say Kang this time.

"That is something I want to avoid," admits Iron Lad. "I was born in a bright future, but my own future might be rather less bright. You might be right at fearing another Apocalypse. But I am going to be hopeful."

"Well," and Hope finally figures something out. You want to change something in the future for the better too. "If it gets too much, come to me. I can't promise a happy solution, but I'll figure something out." After all, she was born to save the world, right? Traveler then sighs softly, "Just don't tell anyone alright? It's a -secret-. If people knew...it would crush them, their hopes, their spirits...they have to have -hope- Nathaniel." She seems to like Iron Lad's first name after all, she uses it often enough. "Without it, nothing I do will make a difference."

It is difficult to read expressions behind the silvery faceplate, even though oddly it seems to have some range of expression. Iron Lad, though, looks skeptic. "You are not making sense. Again. I am a time traveler and a scientist, I know how the future can branch and split, when and why. I am not worried for the future of the world. Mine is a more personal problem. Perhaps I will tell you when... if I get to know you better. For now I will trust the Avengers."

"No, it's fine. They are good people from what I understand." Traveler folds her arms over her chest, and glances away from you. She still isn't very happy, but she finally says, "Sorry." And that's it, she ends it at that.

Iron Lad nods and shrugs. "Just try not to kill, alright? Not in New York. It is almost always unnecessary and definitely not what the world needs to become a better place. Safe travels, Traveller." He hovers over the ground again, but giving Hope time for the farewells before he is gone.

Hope just nods, nothing more, and with a tap on her chunky metal bracelet, she digitally comes apart and bodyslides away.