2014-06-30 - Trust and Lies

Ancient books are such an amazing thing. Even those that are modern editions are interesting. Of course they had books in the 40th Century. In museums. You could also buy a copy on pseudo-paper for almost nothing, but it was not the same. A good number of books never made it to his time, or were considered irrelevant and forgotten. In the library he can read genuinely dusty, old tomes. Obsolete encyclopedias. Books on failed scientific theories and weird philosophies, even comic-books.

Most people come with a laptop. Nathaniel doesn't need one, but really, he comes for the books, not for the information in the books. He has a huge library in his armor computers, but these are books. And he is reading early American history in one of the reading rooms.

Kang the Conqueror has his mask off, and currently has his armor transformed into a normal, simple suit. He isn't trying to stand out, trying to appear casual, but respectable right now. His black hair, mustache, and goat-tee is streaked with a bit of white.

Kang is moving through the library, nodding and smiling to a passing librarian as he goes into one of the back study rooms. He opens the door quietly to see his younger self, Nathaniel Richards. Ah, he was so naive back then. He smiles slightly, almost fondly however. They weren't all bad memories, and yet the smile fades as he also remembers the pain of the philosophical differences between himself and his very much ex-girlfriend.

Still, Kang's expression quickly smooths over and he clears his throat, "Nathaniel," drawing the young man's attention to himself. "It is a pleasure to see you again. May I enter?" So polite too!

Nathaniel looks around, is he the only one left in the study room? Seems so. Then he looks up at the man, failing to recognize him for a few seconds. He looks a lot like his father, though... weird. His eyes widen and he stands up. "You? How..." How did he find him? Not too important! But he is sending a SOS message to the Academia and the Avengers Mansion, as he armors up.

Except the armor comes back that the message has not gone through, something is blocking it. Kang raises a bare hand up, palm out, "Be at ease. I am only here to talk. I wouldn't wish to fight in the library anyway. Damaging these books would be a sin," Kang states with seriousness.

Kang then waves that hand toward a chair, "May I?" Still asking for permission before he finishes entering the study room.

Agh. Blocked. How can you block a neutrino stream? There are some theoretical ways... obviously not theories anymore for his older self. Nathaniel tries to switch to other communication ways, more primitive ones that Kang can block easily. Meanwhile, now all silver and red, he glares at Kang. "Go ahead. It is a free country. No one has conquered it yet."

"Sometimes, freedom can be provided that way, a true freedom without the lies and backstabbing." Kang then moves to have a seat, "Oh, do stop trying Nathaniel. As long as you do not pick a fight with me today, there will be no fight. I just came to speak with you. Did I not give you that armor myself? Do I not know your potential more than any others?" Kang pauses a moment, though he then asks, "How is Hope doing?" Kang drops the question as a tidbit, to try and draw Nathaniel into the conversation and spike his interest to the true ties between him and his younger self.

"You gave it to me so I would murder a boy," replies Nathaniel. Hope? What does he know about Hope? Oh... no. He wanted to believe Kang was erased from his future already, that he had gone too far in a more honorable path. But if he knows about Hope, then he hasn't.

"Leave her out of this conversation, or you will have a fight anyway," he replies. "What else do you want to say?"

Kang sighs at that, "A pity. In either case, that is only a side mission." He relaxes in the chair, his expression thoughtful, "Tony Stark's children. You have noticed they have strangely gone missing, haven't you? And that Black Widow has also gone mission along with Tony from the public eye?" Kang sounds serious, his gaze intense as he looks at his younger self.

"And do sit down and go back into clothing before people get suspicious and call the police. Seriously, what are you thinking? I gave my word I'm not going to attack you, and I will not go back on it."

"Hmm, yes?" But Tony Stark private life has always seemed pretty complicated to him. He dates Hydra agents and unaging Russian super-spies. That is bound to cause some weirdness. It is not as if he dated a time-travelling mutant messiah. Er... okay. Nevermind.

"And Captain America died," he points out. "But the Avengers have many enemies and have vast responsibilities. I am not surprised the Black Widow has fallen out of radar. Why are you interested in Stark's children, anyway?"

"Well, I suppose in a way he did," Kang says mysteriously. "That is a little complicated. Time itself, will fix that." Wait, what?! But on to more important things! "Because, Tony is being manipulated," Kang states.

"Tony doesn't know the truth, and he is being lied to even now. Honestly right now, he can't know the truth. He has lost...much. The point is however, I need your help Nathaniel. Not for myself, but for Tony."

Kang then sighs, "Not that we don't have our problems and haven't tried to kill each other. But in this case, I am with Tony. He deserves to know the truth, to have the children freed."

Nathaniel frowns, folding his arms. His armor flows off him and turns back into the dark clothes he was wearing while he was reading. He keeps the gauntlets, however, not wanting to be unarmed with Kang. "Wait, you want to help Tony Stark? I find that pretty difficult to believe. What is your angle?"

"Easy, his children. They could shake the very foundation of the world Nathaniel. As you learn more about Tony, you will realize he is resourceful and unpredictable in many ways. His nano-technology armor already operates almost on the level as the ones in the future. Now imagine what his children could achieve and how the world could benefit from it? My goal has always been to help Earth and humanity."

"I have read history," replies Nathaniel. Helping humankind? He is crazy. Of course he already knew Kang was crazy. "You think his children are in danger..." or he has seen in the future. And he wants to change it. Unlikely it is for a good reason, though. "Assuming I believe you, why not to tell Stark directly?"

"Because, he wouldn't believe me for one," Kang states, holding up a single digit. "Second, because it would mean telling him that Mr. Fantastic himself has betrayed his trust which would make it more unbelievable. And three, he would tell the clone of Black Widow who is currently running amonk with S.H.I.E.L.D. which would complicated things or get in a fight with her, one or the other."

Kang sighs at this, "Life is rarely so simple or black and white. I certainly wish no harm to my ancestor, I rather like the idea of being born myself. As a result, I can't get close to Dr. Richards without causing a lot of destruction and problems and perhaps destroying the one chance to rescue Black Widow and the children."

That is quite the information dump. Black Widow's clone? Reed Richards deceiving Stark? "Explain all that slowly. Who has cloned the Widow and where is the real one?" Tony Stark and Reed Richards are not the only ones that wouldn't trust Kang. But Nathaniel is trying to put himself in his older self shoes and trying to figure out his goals. So listening, when he probably should be running.

A mild disgruntled look comes from Kang. "Of course." He does rephrase things. "It took a lot of time traveling to figure all this out, so be appreciative. In either case, Black Widow was announced to have Tony's twins at the Stark Expo, very public knowledge. However, what isn't public knowledge is that The Agenda cloned her for their own infiltration purposes and to fine-tune their memory transference techniques. They have swapped them out, and cleverly had it appear to the Avengers that the swap was already done. So the Avengers themselves took the clone under wing, and the real one with unborn children was put in cryo-statis in a pocket dimension by Dr. Richards. There are two potential futures. One has the children born and taking the future to the next level, or the other has them never being born and a darker future comes to pass. Tony really has no clue what is truly going on, and would upset things if he found out as he is like a bull in a China shop. I do like that ancient saying," Kang confesses.

"That makes no sense," points out Nathaniel. "Why would Mr. Fantastic help the Agenda and keep the Widow captive?" He is also accessing to the files on his armor about The Agenda. "I am aware where the future will take us. For our future to come to be, the second dark ages will begin within a decade or two. But... if it does not happen, it only means there is a divergence, and we are in an alternate timeline. It is not that important." Well, not for Kang. It is important for Nathaniel.

"Because he doesn't realize he accidentally helped the clone. He thinks he helped the real Black Widow and the Avengers put a clone in cryo-statis. How do you really tell them apart when they have the same genetics and the same memories Nathaniel?" A question meant to challenge.

"Time is flexiable as you will soon learn, it is built to bend. Though one does have to be careful, because it is possible to break a timeline entirely. That could cause very destructive results," and his brow wrinkles in deep thought, as if something is bothering him about that.

"Simple, there would be signs of accelerated aging," what is he now? His grade school teacher? "So Richards thinks the clone is frozen. Alright, I can tell him how to verify the Widow's identity. Then we can deal with the impostor." Assuming Kang is telling the truth. But maybe Richards will know why he would do this... and Nathaniel is eager to talk with him, anyway.

"And what if that acelerated aging was caused by exposure to Speed Force particles?" A dramatic pause there from Kang before he speaks again, "It has accelerated the pregancy as well and the growth of the children. They would have already been born if not for the cryo-statis." Kang sounds quite serious about this.

"As a result of the Speed Force particles, Dr. Richards is self-assured he has the right individual. Obviously she's aging faster, but it isn't due to her clone genetics, it is due Dr. Pym's little 'failed experiment'."

Kang relaxes back into his chair at that point. "Do you feel so confident now that Dr. Richards would simply see reason?"

"What failed experiment?" Nathaniel assumes the Speed force could make a clone false age seem real. Maybe. He needs to study the problem, but he is not likely to have time. Hah, time. "So what is it you want me to do?" Which is not what he is going to do, certainly!

"That you would have to ask Dr. Pym, but I wouldn't suggest it at this point," Kang states. "The point is, I need you to visit Dr. Richards under your position as an Avengers Academy student and scientist, and gain access to his lab. I will then need you to hack and download the file pertaining to the supposed 'Black Widow Clone' to obtain her location so we can go rescue her. That's it. Nothing too complicated for you, even if you still have a lot to learn."

"Ah, I see," Nathaniel hrms. It is not he can't do it, it is that Kang could do it too, but didn't. He needs to think about it so he can come with something that is not giving Kang what he wants, while still he finding out what is really going on. "How would I contact with you... that is, in the case I go ahead with this plan."

Kang pulls something seemingly out a pocket and tosses it to Nathaniel. "You have a choice Nathaniel, you always did, even from the very beginning. You can't stop fate, but you can choose how you get there," he says. "I want this done with the least minimum harm to the heroes. I'm not out to hurt any of them, I have no need or desire to right now. That silly stunt of assassinating the Avengers before the founded the group? It purposely caused them to form."

Kang is quiet for a moment before he speaks again, "I'm not saying they aren't annoying or a pain at times, or even an inconvenience, or that sometimes I give in to my urge to try and get rid of them. In the end however, I don't because right now the world needs them. Do try to keep that in mind."

Nathaniel smirks at those statements. "I am sure they are just annoying, and not actually competent enough to foil your plans. But I will keep it in mind." He picks the device Kang tossed to him, studying it carefully. "Is there any hurry in doing this? Those children will take many years to become important."

"Yes it's urgent," Kang states. "After all, they still need to be born and grow up Nathaniel. You have five days to carry through with the plan," and he moves to stand from the chair. "The future depends on you Nathaniel Richards, more than you can ever know right now. And," Kang's words becoming warning, "do not be blinded by Hope Summers. Enjoy your time with her, but be careful. She will betray you."

Nathaniel glares at Kang. Mostly at him mentioning Hope. He is sure half of what Kang said were lies, and figuring out which half in five days is going to be the real task. "You know how this turns out already. So we will be in touch."

"Not everything, no, not everything." Kang almost looks tired in that moment, but his shoulders then straighten as he goes to take his leave. However, hand on the door knob he pauses, "Be careful," he advises. "There have been sightings and recordings of Hope's older self in this timeline. She is dangerous Nathaniel, and not to be trusted. She is up to something, and so far, the long-term effects have not been good." He then opens the door and heads out into the main library to leave Nathaniel with those thoughts.

Nathaniel drops back to the chair a second after Kang leaves, letting the tension go with some deep breaths. Of all things... he never expected Kang to appear and instead of trying to kidnap and brainwash him, get him involved into a... mess. Where to start?

Maybe with Pym, another brilliant scientist that seems to be prophetically involved into the problem. Or maybe he should go straight to Stark.

All he needs to do is outsmart himself.