I pace in circles so the camera will see

[agentofshield]

WHO: Tony Stark and Nick Fury
WHERE: Tony's penthouse
WHEN: 8/14; backdated like woah
WARNINGS: Two directors of SHIELD in the same room.
SUMMARY: Tony offers to help Nick out with his power dilemma. Here's hoping neither of them regret it.
FORMAT: Para to start and then whatever, I have no preference.



The building was nice, like someplace Val would have picked to live in. There were at least thirty floors, several of them were probably unpopulated or severely underpopulated. Even in a city like New York (whatever they were calling it) there was a problem selling out luxury units to people who would occupy them full time. Nick should know. He owned a few that maybe saw use three times a year and even then, it wasn't usually him using them. That would be too logical.

Sneaking passed the doorman proved to be the hardest part of the venture. Admittedly, the guy was a little suspicious of an elevator that chose to activate itself and head for the top floor. Nick could picture him sitting at the little kiosk, watching the camera. No alarms were sounding which meant that whatever glitch he'd caused in the bodega cameras, and then the ones at the pharmacy were probably happening there, too. At least he knew Stark wouldn't see him coming. It was bad enough that he had to call in this favor at all. He rapped twice on the door, not bothering to actually announce his presence. If the man in the office couldn't put two and two together that was his own problem.

Comments

[liverletdie]

Tony was actually home, oddly enough, and the rapping on the door caught his attention. He'd been, well, looking over his data at the moment, a Starktech tablet (iPad) in one hand, a laptop on his coffee table, running through the scenarios over and over, processing the data he'd been able to pull, and the tablet's screen continued to work through screens, inputs being made without his fingers touching the screen.

On Nick's side of the door, he'd probably spot the camera at the front door, as disguised as it was, taking the place of the peephole. The curiosity was that there was nothing at Tony's door, that he could see. Thinking of his conversation with Fury gave him pause, and he opened the door, holding the tablet toward him, so as not to let the screen face out where the whole world could see.

[agentofshield]

Cameras were always easy to spot when you knew where to look for them. Vents, peepholes, even speakers were ideal places for hiding them, so no, Fury wouldn't have been all that shocked to know Tony had hidden one in plain sight. He didn't particularly care about it at this point, but it meant that lazy security guards aside, Stark hadn't given up on himself entirely yet. That was good.

"Afternoon." Nick chokes out as a typically terse greeting, waiting to be gestured inside if only to give the appearance of politeness.

[liverletdie]

He made a smooth pivot, pulling back from the door, arm extending, the pad winking out to show nothing but the wallpaper before he extended an arm for Fury to come on in.

"Afternoon, Nick," his greeting was much more congenial. Faux congeniality, of course. This was, at the very best, awkward. Nick had lost his job, and Tony had taken his place, no way to mince that and make it a pleasant situation.

"I see you found the place alright."

[agentofshield]

"I did. It's nice." Awkward was a word for it, but at least Fury wasn't known for being particularly chatty. It would have been more awkward to have needed to fill space. As it were, he just had sit tight and try not to get the reality of the last several years get to him. It wasn't getting to him anyway, he'd won. Hydra was done and SHIELD, his SHIELD was back. And Stark hadn't done too terrible a job of it, up until the whole Norman Osborn thing, anyhow.

"I want to know if you saw me coming."

[liverletdie]

"I only have the standard digital cameras out there, so no. I didn't see a thing," he mentioned, closing the door behind him before he started moving further in himself. "Can I get you anything? I'd hate for you to think I'm a bad host."

The lights in the rest of the very modern apartment flickered to life in the background. "Although if you'd want to get right to it, I'll hardly object."

[agentofshield]

Nick glanced around, suspicious of the sudden activity, but not out and out surprised by it. Tony was always far more into his tech than Nick himself had ever cared for. "I'm fine."

"You mentioned a scan." It's a statement that would probably sound nicer as a question, but Nick wasn't really in the mood to beat around the bush and the whirring and clicking of the apartment coming to life was enough to grate on his already somewhat strained nerves. The fact that Tony hadn't been able to see him through the cameras was something, though. It meant that Nick was probably looking in the right direction about those powers, at least.

[liverletdie]

"Well, actually, several scans. We'll see if you're as undetectable as you seem to think you are, or not," it was mentioned with no amount of amusement at the thought. Oh, he wasn't going to give up until he found some way of detecting him, if at all possible.

"Give me just a moment, I'll get them," he paused, feeling odd that he couldn't see Fury. "Actually, you should follow me."

[agentofshield]

"Alright." To be fair, if the tables were turned, Nick would be trying to keep Tony within eye shot. With a very slight shrug, Nick follows him through the apartment, taking note of the layout, the various mechanized aspects, and anything else that seems to set it apart from a typical, upscale New York apartment. "I been through metal detectors and under the usual retail security systems. Nothin' fancy, I didn't want to make waves until I knew more about it. I can't record my voice unless I'm thinkin' about it, though."

[liverletdie]

He kept talking, which was a sign he was actually following. He appreciated the gesture, of course, and responded in kind. "The full gamut's probably going to be a bit more thorough, Fury. You should have come to me first, and saved some time. You know how much expediency can assist in situations like this." It was a cold little addition, but a small little jab, more playful than anything else.

The apartment itself, the penthouse, really, was fully automated in every way. The lights flickered on and off as they passed through, whether from the mental, extremis-driven nudge of Stark, or motion sensors, it was't obvious. (It was both.) The high glass windows too, looked innocuous enough, but even as they headed inward, to one of the lower floors, the glass was already being covered by the metal blinds. He'd gotten special permission for those.

"We'll start with heat sensors, and go from there."

[agentofshield]

It was unnerving, but that was probably the point. Maybe he was old fashioned, but Nick preferred tech to be kept to a minimum in a non-professional setting. SHIELD was decked out with all the latest accouterments, but his own quarters were surprisingly sparse. He simply didn't see the point of motion sensors when, honestly, a light switch did the same damn thing and was more reliable anyway. Besides, he didn't always want the lights on even when he was moving. Sometimes it's nice to just think in the dark. He had to wonder what Stark did then.

"Sounds like a plan." Nick considered further comment on Tony's suggestion that he'd wasted time but decided it wasn't worth it. Time in which you'd learned anything, even the smallest piece of information wasn't wasted. There was no telling what would be important later, and there was no telling what he might have discovered that Stark might have missed. Besides, if he hadn't started out alone, he probably wouldn't have noticed his powers anyway. "Where do you need me?"

[liverletdie]

"Just stand in the middle there," he motioned with an inaccurate hand toward the middle of the room, circling it a few times before he stepped behind a wall. He didn't normally care, but there were things that had to be handled with care, and the extremis, well.

People hadn't seemed to assume that he had it. It was concerning, but he wasn't about to question it. Whatever it meant, it didn't bode well, so he continued to keep it low and quiet. No need to advertise it when people didn't think he had it.

But moments later, from behind the wall he has his helmet poised on his hip when he walks back out to look around the room one last time before he slides it on, with a little adjustment from the small jets and pieces. Normally it assembled itself over his face.

"I hope you're still in the middle, Fury, I don't exactly want to scan the wrong spot."

[agentofshield]

Fury hadn't actually considered whether or not Stark had the extremis. He'd had it explained to him, once or twice by people who understood that level of technology far better than he'd ever bothered to, but the most he'd gotten out of it was the vague knowledge that Stark essentially had a supercomputer inside his head which helped him with that uncanny (and often irritating) ability to know endless minutia about a given topic. Thinking about it now, he probably should have gone into greater depth learning about the extremis, but then again, he'd had bigger (and ostensibly, better) things to worry about. Somehow the phrases 'bio-electronics package' and 'graphite nanotubes' kept running through is head, though. He must have read them somewhere, or maybe it was something Sitwell had mentioned. Either way, it wasn't relevant now and it didn't make a damn bit of sense to dwell too hard on it.

"You should be reading me loud as day." If Tony couldn't spot him with all the tech that was undoubtedly hidden in this apartment, it probably meant he was onto something. "Try another setting."

[liverletdie]

"Unfortunately, I'm not," he mentioned, pausing to think. "I'm running the standard gamut, let me start running through the extras," and that he did, looking not just for the standard sensors of heat, but sound, ultraviolet, particle vibration, running through the plethora he had at his disposal, and he wasn't about to just let this go. Shifting through each one was leaving him more and more determined, as opposed to angry or frustrated. It was a challenge, and he'd be damned if he was going to just leave this if he couldn't find something.

[agentofshield]

Tony's determination was palpable and Nick had to admit that he was enjoying getting one over on his successor, even if he didn't really understand just how it was happening. The personal satisfaction aside, though, every bit of information gleaned from this experiment would be valuable. Whatever had happened to him upon being brought here, it looked useful, if nothing else. He'd been good at disappearing before, but the idea of being undetectable without actually having to attempt such couldn't hurt. It'd save a hell of a lot of time and trouble, anyway.

"Anything? Don't suppose you got a psy-agent hidden in there? I wanna know just how deep this thing goes."

[liverletdie]

"I'm afraid, I don't. Although if you want to try it, I'm sure I could pull some strings, and we could go for an attempt with some medical equipment, but I'm starting to get a feeling that it won't do us much good right now," he mentions, still sliding through every option he has. Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Good thing his face was covered by the mask to hide his grimace, but he knew Fury was perceptive enough to pick up on the way a room felt better than he could, he wouldn't put it past him to know exactly how frustrating it was to not find him.

"Interesting. Fury, I'm starting to get a feeling that this could be a boon for you, because I'm not finding a thing," but to be fair, he wouldn't tell Fury if he could. Tony Stark liked his secrets just as much as any proper Director of SHIELD would, and having one up on the guy who ran it, well, it would've been nice.

Even if it would have been purely for pissing match points right now.

[agentofshield]

"A boon." Nick repeated, shuffling a little under the scanner, for whatever the scanner was worth. "It's convenient, but I dunno that we should go all mystical over it just yet."

Convenient would be an understatement. In Nick's line of work, or lifestyle, as it had become, the ability to completely disappear, to completely go ghost, would be an incredible advantage. It would save him time, effort, the possibility of screwing up. Hell, it would be a boon. But just because Stark was coming up empty handed didn't mean that there was nothing to be found. He grimaced, there was a grain of paranoia in that thought he didn't want to examine too deeply. Oh well, at least if he was going to go old, senile, and paranoid, he had a power that would bring him some peace of mind. "So. Argentina. I hear it's nice this time of year."