2013-04-20 - The Meaning of Self-Importance

The communication came via the Avengers Academy channel that mentors of the Avengers have access to. It was a summons for Iron Man about some time traveler named Nathaniel Richards. Needless to say, when Iron Man's voice comes on com it states: 'Do not let him into any secure areas.' Yes, because Avengers are just so friendly with time travelers, considering they were originally founded because of Kang the Conqueror the answer is very much a 'not really'.

If She-Hulk isn't on com, Iron Man will reach out via her Avengers PDA about summoning her to Avengers Academy to meet this mystery guy.

While Julian went inside to take care of some things, Nathaniel was left outside to awake the Avengers, which included Iron Man flying in from above in his black and gold armor and She-Hulk in one very glaringly obvious pink Cadillac. No kidding.

And of course the first thing Iron Man does? Run his sensors on the young man, along with a facial scan.

Iron Man would have a very unhappy moment if he know how much information about the Academy Nathaniel's suit is gathering just with him waiting in the visitor area. The young man is rather nervous, but he hides it well. Meeting the Avengers would be great if they didn't have so many reasons to beat him to pulp, really.

When Iron Man scans him, he finds the readings garbled. There are some electrical micro-signals and hints of nanotechnology, but it is well disguised by some kind of camouflage field. The facial scan is inconclusive and possibly unreliable.

Pink Cadillac. Gorgeous pink Cadillac. Sexy green goddess. Of course, if Nathan IS from the future, he'll probably know exactly who she is. It's not like she is easy to ignore...or forget. Especially in the bright pink Cadillac. Iron Man, of course, goes first. She-Hulk stands behind him, folding her arms lightly across her stomach, and watches the young man.

Oh, and it is flying after all. In either case, Iron Man lands with a light thump in the courtyard, the closest area for visitors they have. The suit clad man is silent as She-Hulk gets out of her Cadillac behind him and soon joins him. "..." The readings are off the scale for his normal scans, though well hidden. He learned nano-tech to such a fine detail thanks to the Extremis Serum inside him, which was Maya Hansen's creation. He heard rumors of others having operational nano-technology, but this is the first time he has really seen proof outside of Labyrinth and Kang the Conqueror.

The voice that speaks is mechanical sounding though vaguely masculine from the Iron Man suit, "Impressive clothing; but I doubt that is all it does, otherwise it would be a waste." Over the comlink, She-Hulk would hear Iron Man's voice within her ear, << Nano-technology was picked up, well camouflaged. If my sensors were not some of the most powerful in the world, I would have missed it. Avengers PDAs wouldn't have been able to pick it up. >>

The good news for Nathaniel though? Iron Man isn't fully powered up into attack mode, though he did go heavy on the shields and unibeam, sacrificing everything else except sensors which he knew he would need. Obviously they are suspicious, but they are far from attacking first to say the least.

"Er... good afternoon. Iron Man, and you must be She-Hulk," he removes his glasses and looks at both heroes slowly. "It is an honor to meet you in person. I have read about you, even seen some pictures..." but that is not important, right. "Nevermind. Yes, I am wearing a neuro-kinetic armor. It changes shape at my mental commands. It is based in 40th Century Terran power armor technology. This particular suit includes a time-travelling device."

She-Hulk simply nods to Iron Man. She doesn't have the capacity to respond silently. Instead, she's focusing on making her own judgment of the young man...from the 40th century at the very earliest? Or the armor is. Doesn't mean he is. Hrm. "She-Hulk," she agrees. "Not sure who else I'd be."

Alright, Iron Man has to look at She-Hulk for that little spill of information from the young man before looking back at him. "Perhaps Hulk?" Hardy-har-har. But then more seriously, "You are not about to start describing your big grand mastermind supervillain plan, are you? Because you seem very forth-coming. And usually when someone is that forth-coming, they are about to bore the Avengers to tears with how they are going to conqueror the world or do something equally annoying."

Right, would a time-traveler really be that forth-coming? Then again, he has heard of Booster Gold. "..." Iron Man then adds, "Then again, I think I rather have a supervillain in disguise than a Booster Gold showing up at my door." Who knew Iron Man could be so sarcastic?! "What do you want with us?" Straight to the point finally.

Nathaniel was about to comment there are a few other green heroines, like Miss Martian, but decides to bite his tongue in that issue. "I am not going to conquer the world. Actually I... want you to help me so I won't ever conquer anything. Because, well, it involves a future I want to prevent." Pause, "it is a long story and involves time travel. You might want to get whatever remedies you have in this age to prevent headaches right now."

"So, what...your future self conquers the world and you need help not turning into that person?" Jen sounds a little suspicious of this, but his honestly at least is refreshing. Time traveler. Conquers the world in his personal future. Ow. This is going to get tangled.

"..." Poor Iron Man, cause seriously, how often is he turned speechless? He decides against speaking, cause every time he decides to say something, he thinks against it. Cause either one he will put his metal foot in his non-mouth mask, or he will serious do some smack talk, either of which he doubts would be proper behavior, let alone for Iron Man right now. He just hopes his silence is taken as a polite 'Please continue', cause he doesn't think he can say it.

"That is right!" Nathaniel is surprised She-Hulk got it so quickly. "My own older self appeared to me, gave me this armor," which does not look much like an armor right now, "and tried to talk me into murdering some people. Instead I hit him and fled through time and space. To come here, to a time where I can find allies against him. I am sure he will be coming to fetch me, to try to make sure his past, my future, happens. The Avengers are among the few beings that have defeated him. Perhaps the only group of people that has defeated him more than once."

Oh. Dear. She-Hulk's reaction isn't immediate, but it's dramatic when it comes. Her eyes widen and she stares at Nathaniel for a moment. Then she laughs. And it's rather more nervous than her normal laughter...as if whatever she just realized is both funny AND scary.

"..." And it's coming, it's coming, it's coming....and Iron Man actually raises a metal hand and face palms his metal mask with a clang. "..." He just stands like that for a while. Something broke inside him, and it hurts. It hurts so very bad. "I think I need those meds now," he finally says. He slowly, so very slowly lowers his hand from his metal mask with eyes glowing red. "You have to be seriously missing us, because what you are saying is we potentially have the chance to destroy one of our most major pain in the asses up there with Mandarin as a teenage kid, who just blurted out he is Kang the Conqueror, the very one that created his own worse enemies?" Another brief pause of, "..." Then finally Iron Man finally says, "That explains it. He was born with no common sense and a gift for technology," a metal hand waving off to the side.

"Or completely and utterly brilliant, realizing none of us except Black Widow perhaps has the stomach for killing a kid." Iron Man just shakes his head, "I think I just had an error in my brain." He isn't sure how else to express it. "But essentially, you are asking us to train our own pain in the ass and trust you won't turn bad?"

Nathaniel gets a little paler at hearing Iron Man words. "I do not want to become Kang. But if he finds me, I do not think I will be given a choice." His outfit blurs, growing over him, becoming the purple and green armor both Avengers must know already. "I have this armor, but he will have another, and decades of experience using it. You can either help me or kill me, but if you don't do either, you will doom me to become him for sure."

"Nobody likes Kang," Jen says finally, still laughing a little. "Even Kang doesn't like Kang." A pause. "Either way, we risk creating a paradox." Plain and simple, that...that or the universe will protect himself. They're not going to get rid of Kang.

"There are so many theories on time travel, that you could undo the past if you change the future of a time traveler, or you could simply create a split timeline so the past still exists as is, but a new future starts. It doesn't delete Kang from existence as all, it merely creates a separate identity in a new timeline. Still, which one is reality? One never knows. We could even undo the creation of the Avengers by not creating Kang, oh, the ironies."

Iron Man is silent for a moment before he says, "You know, I should honestly care more, but I could give a shit," an unusual phase to use as Iron Man. "In the end, if you do not go with your heart and look after the welfare of others as a shield and avenging sword, then it does not matter if we exist or not. If we make a move that would shame our purpose, what is the point of existing or not to begin with? It is not just our own passions and honor we follow as Avengers, but it is the ideal of the team we operate as and for a brighter tomorrow where there is equality and no "one" above others or "race" above others. Kang the Conqueror works in direct opposition of everything we work toward, putting self-importance on himself when he is just a man to be pitied."

Another brief pause, then Iron Man adds, "No offense to the young man you are now, Mr. Richards. Still, it is a tempting offer, to be given a chance to stop the creation of Kang, or perhaps by training him merely creates a paradox and that is why he really epicly fails in killing us each time instead of being insanely blind to his own failings, or perhaps we create a more powerful Kang that is even more dangerous as there have been documents of many types of 'Kang' references in history when I have performed research on him. It may be the same Kang throughout history, or it may not be, though the one we continually face I suspect is the same one so far."

She-Hulk lets out a breath. "We built this place to help kids. If we refuse to help those likely to become villains then we defeat the entire point." She glances at Iron Man. "I vote to let him stay." Perhaps she just needed the reassurance about massive paradoxes...and it's not like Kang, or a version of him, wouldn't know.

"Surely, he did not tell you to come to us?" Iron Man is verifying that, and when the acknowledge is a 'no', he nods. "Very well. Let us all think on this and gather together later after an Avengers meeting to discuss it more. However, this is not a decision to be held lightly, but nor is it to be dismissed. She-Hulk has a very valid point, Mr. Stark founding this place to keep young heroes alive, and also to save them from darker paths. Furthermore, I am assuming you have no where else to go, so you may use a room in the Avengers Academy Apartments, however you are not permitted access to the servers here at this time."

There is another pause before he says, "I would like Mr. Stark to run a diagnoistic check on your armor for anything Kang the Conqueror may have left behind as a 'thank you' gift that we would very much not like to accept to begin with." Iron Man acts as if it isn't public knowledge that Tony Stark is Iron Man. "There is food in the common room and help sometimes comes in with hot food as well, times are posted on the fridge."

"Mr. Stark, but..." Nathaniel blinks and stops. "I have places to stay, it is easy to obtain lodging. I didn't know about this place, it is not the mansion or the Stark Tower. Hrm, incomplete historical records." He then looks at Iron Man. "I have looked for those 'gifts' already and although I am quite sure they must be there, I can't find them. Stark would not be able to run anything on the armor, though. I am afraid that is like asking Archimedes of Syracuse to do a diagnostic check in /your/ armor using an abacus and bronze tools."

"You would be surprised, Mr. Stark is a leader in much research. He has decoded the Kree programming language a number of years ago by himself, created the first interactive holo-technology game console, and has moved nano-technology to the next level in application to armor; he is the pioneer in what you wear. It would be like asking Einstein to not understand modern physics merely because he was born in an earlier timeline. Do not understatement the human mind, that is one of Kang's greatest flaws. His own self-importance and belief in his superiority makes him fail every time. I am not saying that Mr. Stark will solve the armor, but he may have useful insight from his experience."

Iron Man then moves to leave with She-Hulk, though does pause to look back to you, "The offer for a room still stands. Julian can show you about the Apartments, just the other buildings are restricted for now." He then nods his head toward you, "The first step to becoming a hero is faith and trust." His jets then turn on and he takes off.