2013-10-07 - A Discussion of Deathstroke

A relatively unremarkable evening at the Avengers Academy finds Julian Keller seated over near the ping pong tables. Playing with himself.

Playing PING-PONG with himself, one might amend. He's spent a fair amount of time challenging Jeanne to "TK vs. weapon of Jeanne's choice" ping-pong, and his reaction time and skill have improved to the point that he can actually provide something of a challenge in that particular arena. For now? He's working on multitasking by manipulating the paddles on both sides of the table, and seems to be doing a reasonably decent job of it, volleying the ball back and forth at a pretty rapid clip.

Julian actually challenges Jeanne to all sorts of physical contests, and while he always comes out on the losing end of them, he has noticeably improved as the months have passed. He'll never be in as good of shape as she is, but he's definitely in -better- shape than he was, and he was pretty good to begin with.

But anyway, there he sits, somehow seeming both absorbed in his task yet bored at the same time.

Jeanne comes into the room, concentrating hard on her new starkPad; the starkPad that's been issued, so far, only to the R&D department, the next-gen. She seems intent, and her fingers fly across the touch screen as she seems utterly fixated. Then again, ever since Tony started installing the Shi'Ar tech from Xavier's school, she's been utterly absorbed in studying it, and hardly sleeping.

So much so that she practically bumps into Julian, blinking up at him. "Julian," she greets, in her 'conversational' tone. "I did not see you there." A pause, to look towards the ping-pong table. "You are improving."

"Thanks. You gave me a good foundation to work off of." He lowers the paddles to the table after "catching" the ball, then turns to face Jeanne more fully, smiling pleasantly, "What're you up to? You've had your nose buried in that pad for the last few weeks." He tilts his head, the smiling growing a bit suspicious, "You look a little tired."

"I am studying the alien technology that Tony has brough in and is installing in the Academy," Jeanne states practically to Julian. "It is extremely advanced. In time, I believe that I can learn how to not only code in it's language, but duplicate it, and expand upon it into other factors, or applications." You know. In case she needs her own Finesse Computer, or a Finesse Mobile. "I am also working with Hawkeye in determining the location of the next attack by Intergang. And working my job within Stark Enterprises. I am well."

"You are well and tremendously overworked." Julian notes with a touch of a wry grin, "But I'm not your dad, and it hasn't gotten in the way of trainnig or you watching my back when you need to, so..." Julian shrugs, "Alien technology...trippy." He shakes his head slightly, "Guess I should've expected it sooner or later. What all is it going to do for us? Better training facilities?" Clearly someone didn't watch the briefing.

There's a noise from above and then Clint Barton is sliding down the fireman's pole. The Avenger is out of costume dressed in a rumpled shirt and jeans and looks like he just rolled out of bed. He lands easily, and smiles a little before he spots the kids and puts on his mentor face. "Hey guys," he says as he lets go of the pole and walks into the Man Cave. "Don't suppose you've seen anyone sneaking around here tonight? Because we sort of had a break in."

"This is the first time I have been here in a day and a half," answers Jeanne, to Hawkeye. "I require nourishment." At least she's not so distracted with everything, she's not forgetting to eat. "As I was telling Julian, most of my time has been spent with the new computer systems." She shows Hawkeye her starkPad, which has a ton of diagrams on it that she's drawn, made, annotated notes upon. Jeanne is teaching -herself- how to build, and program Shi'Ar technology. Someone be scared. "Who broke in? Did they steal anything?"

"They...did?" Julian glances around, a look of concern shifting to a scowl, "That's getting REALLY old really fast." He looks back to Hawkeye and shakes his head, "Sorry...I've been down here most of the night and didn't see or hear anything out of the ordinary." He nods to Jeanne's question, "Any idea what they were after?"

Clint gives the diagrams a quick glance. He may have built the Skycycle but that stuff's all Greek to him. "Great," he says. "It was a mercenary from the other world by the name of Deathstroke, he wanted to have a chat with America, broke into her room," he says frowning. "And wait," he looks over at Keller. "This has happened before?"

"Is she uninjured?" Asks Finesse, pointedly to Clint. Almost like she cared. Maybe she does? It's very hard to tell, though. But, as the question is asked to Clint about prior incidents, she'll let him answer those questions.

Julian rubs the back of his head, frowning, "America? Is she OK?" He pauses, looking a bit awkward when Clint asks his next question, "Well uh...yeah. I mean, not a break-in like this, but Loki popped in a few weeks back just to spend an hour or so trying to screw with America and My head." He pauses, then adds, "I did a report on it and everything..." He didn't flag it as a priority, though.

Clint sits down on one of the couches and lets out a breath. "It's America right? I mean we're lucky we're not cleaning this guy's insides off the walls. She's just taking a shower right now and then we're off to go see Tony about this," Clint explains without getting into details then he looks over at Julian "Huh, Loki. Guess he's still mad about that Korean BBQ place," he murmurs as much to himself as anyone else. "I'll read that report, and talk to Tony about beefing up security here while he's doing all these upgrades, it sounds like this place gets more villain traffic than the Vault. Finesse, he'll probably want your take on that." Then to Julian he adds "And hey, Clint Barton, good to meet you," he says by way of very belated introductions.

"You are not ready to engage him in sparring," Jeanne informs Julian, practically, just in case he was thinking about it. "He is very resourceful. And dangerous. He defeated me the first time we sparred." It's as high a praise as Jeanne can offer anyone, truthfully. She nods, then, to Clint. "If he wishes my apprasial or aid, I will contribute. I will also see if I can find anything on Deathstroke. I can search a few databases that are not available to the public." She means, of course, hack.

"Julian Keller. Likewise." The dark-haired teen extends a hand to give Clint's a firm shake, "Yeah, America and I have uh...had a few issues with getting kidnapped or otherwise sucked into traps. Jeanne was there for the last one. Some nutjob that called himself Arcade. I think America broke a few things before we handed him over to the authorities." He looks to Jeannette, then smiles, somewhere between amusement and affection, "Thanks, Jeanne. I'll keep that in mind."

Clint gives Julian's hand a firm shake in return and smirks a little bit at Jeanne's appraisal of his combat abilities. "Thanks, Jeanne," he says as he sits back shaking his head at all the other stuff that's been happening around the Academy. "Huh. Sounds like you guys are already up to your ears in weirdness, well no better way to learn to Avenger than that I suppose. Sort of par for the course." He turns and nods at Jeanne. "Yeah, if you could find any details about this creep it'd be appreciated, same for you Julian, if you know anybody who might know where we can find him. He's going to be around town for at least," he checks his watch and makes a surprised face "Sixteen hours or so. I kinda want to find him first and give him a bit of a beating."

Jeanne walks over to the fridge. She pulls out a package of cold cut deli turkey, and sets it on a plate. Then, sets a package of cheese on the plate as well. Followed by a jar of mayo, a head of lettuce, and a tomato. She carries all of these things over to the table, and starts building a huge sandwhich, a quadruple decker that it seems she'd ahve to break her jaw to eat. "I will begin after I eat," she promises Clint. "It might take me a few hours, as I do not have a specific target," she warns.

"You said he's from the other universe?" Julian says, then looks to Jeanne, "We should call the Titans and see if they know anything about the guy." He glances towards Clint, "Do the Avengers have a line to those Justice League guys?" Hey, if you're looking for a guy from the other universe...ask someone from that other universe!

Clint watches Jeanne build the super-sandwich with a shake of his head. "Great, thanks Jeanne. We do know people on the Justice League, plus our very own Green Lantern, but he's not picking up the phone, I am going to see what Tony can get from the League since he actually knows them," Clint explians. "But if you know the Titans, then give them a shout, never hurts to have too much info."

"I do not know any of the Titans. However, Julian went to Hawaii with Kon-El, who is a Titan. It is likely he can contact him." Jeanne finishes building the sandwhich, which is nearly perfect in symmetry. "Did he say what he wanted?" Jeanne wonders, curiously. "What was the purpose of his visit, if all he wanted to is talk?" Manipulation of emotion, psychological games is something Jeanne is unfamiliar with, and often utterly unaffected by. It tends to happen, when you think like a computer.

"Yeah, I'll give him a call. What'd you say this guy's name was, Clint? Deathstrike? No...Deathstroke, right?" Julian pauses, "God, that's cheesy..." He shakes his head, pulling out his StarkPhone and bringing up his contact list.

Clint grins at Julian "Deathstroke, and yeah I know right? Sounds like he should be opening for Metallica or something," he says before turning to Jeanne and looking a bit more serious, considering how to answer that question. "He wanted two working Intergang weapons in exchange for information. He gave America nineteen hours to make up her mind."

Jeanne considers Clint, then shrugs. "Is the information worth it?" She asks, pointedly. "It does not seem a difficult decision to me." Then? Then, she's opening her mouth, wide. Protien. And calories. Enough to fuel her body for another all-nighter.

Julian hits the "call" button, lifting the phone to his ear. After a few moments, he speaks, "He Kon, it's Julian Keller. Some creep named Deathstroke broke into the Academy, and we think he's from your side of the universe. You know anything about him? Hit me back ASAP, bro, we're trying to track him down. Later." He shuts off the phone and looks a bit rueful, "Not answering his phone at the moment." Hopefully not fighting evil in another dimension or something.

"America doesn't think so. Plus these trades with badguys, almost always a trap," Clint answers Jeanne, running his hand through his hair, trying to get it from crazy mess to somewhat disordered. He shrugs a little when Julian passes on the bad news. "Must be an other-world holiday or something," he says. "It's cool we've still got some hours left to find this guy. If your friend gives you a call back you can reach me at," he rattles off his number.

"If she does not think so, and he is not going to be in town much longer, then there is no cause for concern. And there is no need to worry," points out Jeanne, thinking in practical terms. "He will not be getting back into the Academy. He knows he will be expected." She shrugs, and then takes another huge mouthful.

"Unless he's just that cocky." Julian notes. "Or less fun, just that good." Hey, can't discount the possibility. He did already get in here without setting off any security alarms. Julian does take a few moments to program Clint's number into his phone so he can pass along any info he might gather.

"I would have said he was that good until I heard how many other guys broke into this place over the last bit, but yeah can't say that he's not got some skills," Clint admits. "As for it being that simple Jeanne, if badguys thought logically, then you're probably right, he'd just move on. Though if he was logical he'd just come up to her on the street sometime and make his offer, but instead he broke in here, came to her room in the middle of the night to make the offer. That says to me there's more to this than this deal, that he wanted to rattle her. So even if she says no, I don't think this is over."

"Did you not already state she was going to tell him no?" Jeanne was sure that's what she heard Clint say. She looks to Julian for confirmation, then back to Clint, curiously. "Either she believes the information is worth it, or she does not. It is not a complicated choice."

"That's not the part that's complicated, Jeanne. Clint's just saying that even if she DOES say no, there's probably going to be more to it. It's not like he's just gonna say "oh well" and...I dunno, break into my room next." Julian shrugs, then glances to Clint and smirks, "Well, Loki's got that whole magic thing going for him. The only other times I wasn't actually here when I got nabbed...or dragged, as the case may be."

"Exactly," Clint says to Jeanne after nodding Julian's way. "The exchange is only part of the plan, I'm pretty sure of it. There's something more," yeah more vague data, Jeanne's favorite kind. He looks over at Julian "Ah, that makes a difference. So basically only the Asgardian god of mischief and this guy have managed to get in this place? I think we're going to have to file him under 'just that good' then."

"It is that simple," pronounces Jeanne, matter-of-factly. "Either you give him the information and sees where this leads while you know where he is, or you do not, and are left to utilize more resources and research to attempt to find his angle and his purpose, if you think he has another purpose in mind." She shrugs, once.

"I think we're going with option two." Julian notes, "Anyway, lemme try to make a couple more calls and see if I can find anything." He smiles towards Jeanne, "I'll catch you later, Jeanne. Don't work too hard, all right?" He inclines his head towards Clint, "Nice meeting you, Clint. Lemme know if you need us to do anything else besides keep an eye and ear out."

Clint frowns a little trying to follow Jeanne's logic. "Okay I think I've got you. You're saying to make the meet is simpler than digging around and finding this guy. Also, you got it backwards, he has the info, he wants the guns. Either way, my thinking is the meet is going to be a trap and even if it's not efficient finding this guy before the meet and hitting him when he least expects it is the safer way to go."

A pause. "Or as Julian said, option two," he says with a smile and then nods to Julian "Thanks, and don't worry, if you guys want it we'll give you a shot at the guy when we take him down," he pushes up off the couch and stands. "Got to get America out of the shower and pay Tony a visit," he explains. "Keep in touch," he says as he makes his way out of the room.