Iowa Bros in Space! The Spacening. Starring James T Kirk and Clinton Barton

[smartass_captain]

Fighting with Verity had done something for Jim despite all the vitriolic feeling swimming around his system. It had made him determined to go home. It wasn't as though he couldn't anymore. He knew exactly where the doorway leading back to the Enterprise stood. It was just...making himself open the door. Jim stands in the long hallway lined with doors to other worlds, staring intently at the 'Caution: Radiation risk' etched into the glass of his world's door. Shaking fingers reached for it, to push it open. Retracted.

He couldn't do this. No, bullshit. He was Jim Kirk, he could open a stupid door. Just. Not at the moment. Apparently. Jim shouts a string of fluent Orion curses at the door before stalking back off into the Nexus. To the plain door with the sideways 8 on it that leads to CLint's world. He pulls up a chair and waits. Clint would come sooner or later. He'd ask him to come with. Been meaning to show him around the ship anyway, might as well do it now.

Why couldn't his time have comms anyway? Jim smacks the back of his head against the wall while he waits, idly replaying the argument between himself and Verity in his head. What better way to kill time than to hate yourself?

Comments

[brave_heart_verity]

"At least it was good news." She glances over at the computer, then looks down at the coffee preparations. There's not much to do but watch it brew, but that is so much better than seeing the plans to destroy countless other worlds full of people, and the equations ending in the probability of it not working someday. She understands enough of it to understand what's happening. That's enough.

[aw_hawkguy]

Clint starts reading and blows out a sigh. Then something catches his eye, and he opens another file, and another, and another, skimming rapidly through them before swearing softly. "I'm gonna hafta get the whole team in on this. Damn it, guys, why didn't you tell us?"

[smartass_captain]

Jim stays out of the conversation this time, watching intently from where he's leaning against a counter.

If there was something he could do, they would ask him. He didn't want to overstep any boundaries by demanding to help too. Because that had gone so well earlier.

He shifts his gaze between Clint and Verity slowly. This looks a lot worse than he thought though.

[brave_heart_verity]

"Because they know what you'll all do when you find out?"

She'll pour their coffee when it's brewed, fixing it the way they each like, but her hands are starting to shake a little. "Jim, you're good at science stuff. Can you help Clint? Please?" Save your brother, Jim.

[aw_hawkguy]

"You said these files are from two years in the future? Then they've known about the problem for a while--Reed and Tony and their little club." He sighs, taking the coffee with a murmured thanks, swiping a hand through his hair as he reads.

"I thought those guys broke up after shooting Hulk into space turned out so great. And they had Steve come in to be their conscience until they booted him for being their conscience--this is crazy!"

Jim. Jim could maybe help. "You said you're already from an alternate universe, think you could help us figure out how to keep two from crashin' into each other?"

[smartass_captain]

"Hey wait. Isn't Tony supposed to be part of your group?" Jim remembers that name. He couldn't turn a goddamn tv on staying with Clint without hearing about something or another concerning Tony Stark and his company.

Jim takes his coffee with a quiet, thanks, before moving closer to get a better look at the screen. Coffee is then set down on the counter as he pulls Verity back into his left arm without even looking down at her and holds her head against his shoulder. All while never dropping his Captain Face.

Verity's already losing her world. CLint's got about two years before his goes next. Jim just fucking found out he had more family, he's not about to go losing it already.

"Depends on what is happening. Do I know how to stop a giant seismic drill that turns planets into swiss cheese? Absolutely. Anything else? Not so much. Upside, I don't believe in no-win scenarios. We'll figure this out." They have to. It's either figure it out or lose another planet.

"Are all of the versions of your world about to go pop? Because seriously that shit is messed up. CLint's might not even go. We have whole planets destroyed or around that weren't in whatever original reality Spock came from. Old Spock." He's still holding Verity to him while he stares down at the screen.

"Depending on how much has changed from her world to yours, Clint....I don't know if the problem will even be the same as hers is. Her bringing you those drives could have already changed something."

[brave_heart_verity]

"Tony Stark is an Avenger. One of the founding members," she explains quietly. "Also an alcoholic and a fan of terrorizing people into registering their powers with the government to 'keep people safe'. I'm not hugely surprised he's willing to blow up other planets. I wonder if this is why Valeria's so pissed at her dad..."

Verity leans against Jim with a little sigh. It's nice to have a friend to be strong for her right now. She listens to the conversation without much to contribute. Everything useful is, she thinks, in those files. She has a far more personal knowledge of what happens when Doom goes time-traveling, but she hasn't read far enough to realize his part in this.

"If it's that easy, I will take the win." On the other hand, for all she knows, her coming here has brought the incursions with her like a contagion. "Does it say how they started, Clint?"

[aw_hawkguy]

"Yeah. It looks like Tony, Reed, some'a the smart guys, and... Namor? For some reason. Got their little club back together and didn't tell anybody about this until... a fleet of pretty much all the aliens came to wreck Earth and save the universe? Seriously?" He groans and grumbles, thinking dire things about if the Kree kill him again.

"Uh..." He digs through the files. "It looks like... the Beyonder's got something to do with it. Destroying all the universes as... an experiment?" More skimming. "Beyonders, plural? Aww." Then he remembers Jim and maybe Verity don't know who that is. "Sorry, he was a guy who pulled a bunch'a good guys and bad guys to another world a couple times, to fight it out and see which one was stronger. Good or evil, I mean."

[smartass_captain]

Jim's entire face has tightened, his lips drawn into a thin line as he gnaws at the bottom one still deep in thought. Group of scientists make a scientist club that pisses off pretty much every other race in the galaxy?

That doesn't sound very heroic.

"Destroying universes as an experiment? To learn what exactly?" Jim glares down at the computer. "To see if someone can stop him? Because I've got a dick punch with that guy's name on it if that's seriously the reason. That's not how science fucking works." He's stewing hard, now.

"Any way to trick that guy into getting stuck in a different world and leaving his sorry ass there? How the fuck is he even destroying them this is bullshit."

[brave_heart_verity]

"To see what comes next." She gives a little shrug. "To see if new universes will be born out of the remains of the old, to see how many, how they might diverge and when... It would be interesting if there weren't so many deaths required."

She's not going to try to defend the people with the secrets because they clearly didn't do a good job with it. "Didn't Namor go Phoenix-crazy a couple of years ago?"

[aw_hawkguy]

Clint gives a shiver. "Hell. The Phoenix, yeah." He had a really bad time with the Phoenix, personally. Emma Frost set him on fire with her mind and kept him that way, maybe alive, maybe not, for who-the-hell-knew-how-long. "That, uh, was just last year, for me." Not long before he moved into this place, in fact.

"But yeah, Namor flooded Wakanda--so how the hell do he and T'Challa sit down at the same table, much less go in together on all this?" Clint is scratching his head again. "Okay, it looks like... part of the group gave up on saving the world, right at the end, and started work on a life raft to carry the best and brightest and also them through whatever happens. And part of the group... teamed up with Doom? To go try to kill the Beyonders?" He sighs. That's not going to be a popular option.

[smartass_captain]

"Okay but...how are they destroying planets. How is...whoever is doing this...getting worlds to collide. Or explode or whatever he's doing." Jim doesn't know who these people are. What they're capable of.

What he does know is that barring any major timeline changes Verity may have set in motion here, the countdown is two years to save Clint's world. Before that goes up too and Jim just moves both of them onto the Enterprise where alternate realities seem to be more stable.

"Find that guy and kick his ass. Or take a planetary core plasma drill and blow his planet up first with it. Or....fuck, I don't know, give him something else to do with his goddamn boredom."

[brave_heart_verity]

The details of what happened with the Phoenix Five are the kinds of things that don't get talked about on the news, but she can recognize that "I don't want to talk about it" tone of voice. She'll lean down to give Clint a hug.

"How it starts seems to be the more important question," she points out quietly. "Can we focus on that?" Going and destroying other planets doesn't seem like much of a solution to her.

[aw_hawkguy]

Clint is deeply appreciative of the hug, and the lack of other inquiry along that particular subject. And while he shares Jim's go-find-the-problem-and-punch-it attitude, he's still reading to try to find the problem's punchable part (which definitely isn't the Beyonder, or a bunch of them--he doesn't have a trick arrow for that*).

"Okay, this might be it," he hazards, opening another file to reveal... a wall of weird math. "Aw, hell, this is probably Reed's work. Bet he made up, like, three new kinds'a science just to write all this down. Getting it to him early might help. Or maybe you've got some future-science guys who could check the math?"

*: ...yet.

[smartass_captain]

"Fuck that cow skrull guy in his elitist neck." Someone still hasn't forgiven Reed for that, or for how he talked down about Verity. And Clint. Hmph.

The cool thing about being two hundred some years in the future is that all that 'invented new maths and sciences' stuff is just...Math now. Jim's skimming it with a thoughtful expression.

"Given enough time I might be able to do this?" Genius doesn't mean goddamn graphing calculator. "But I have a first officer who gets turned on by logic problems and a Russian whiz kid who's the youngest bridge officer ever and loves this kind of shit."

Jim pulls his PADD out and starts tapping away at it.

"We can figure out a way to convert these old ass files into something this thing can read and I'll get my guys working on it."

[brave_heart_verity]

Verity's just going to keep quiet about how much of it she understands. She reads math for fun, guys, she's not as dumb as people assume. "Every kind of science was made up nonsense until enough people had tested it," she reminds Clint.

"There are places in the Nexus that convert computer files. And remember, Jim, there are people to whom you are the backwards one." Jim could not handle Samus. Verity is certain of this. She'll take the spare drive and offer it to Jim. "You go get things converted, Clint goes to warn the Avengers. It'll go faster that way."

[aw_hawkguy]

Clint doesn't assume Verity's dumb, he just doesn't understand much of it (for all they used it, the circus was surprisingly sparse on teaching algebra, geometry, and physics), and Reed does like to mention offhand how he had to invent some new kind of math to deal with a problem irritatingly often. "And you... you've done a lot, Verity. Do you need anything?"

[smartass_captain]

"Yeah I bagged a MILF from like forever in the future about a month ago, I know how weird that feels." Worth it, too. Jim's tucking the spare drive into one of the pockets of his leather jacket.

Considering how often Verity is right around these two genius level delinquents, pretty much no one in the room thinks she's useless or stupid unless she does. Jim's just better at diplomacy (shockingly good at it when he tries) and leadership. Keeping a group together when shit hits the fan is pretty much his primary talent that doesn't involve the bedroom.

"I'll head back to the ship and get Spock and Chekov on this right away. Hell Scotty might be a better idea than Spock, even." Jim likes having so many specialists on his crew. He's always been the guy sort of good at plenty of things but never great at anything. Except leaping before he looks. He's pretty good at that.

"Need anything else, old man?" Jim gives Clint one last lopsided grin, trying to inspire some confidence in the two of them. "Or am I free to go if I promise t'be back by curfew?"

[brave_heart_verity]

There are just some things she doesn't need to know about, Jim. Him and Hips* is one of them. Try using some of those diplomatic skills, it's good practice.

Verity is certain she's useless. The whole purpose of her life was to be one person's friend and she fucked that up. She can't forgive herself for it.

The names he's rattling off mean nothing to her, except she vaguely remembers she's not supposed to flirt with one of them. But it's reassuring there will be lots of people working on it, so she gives them both a fragile smile. "No, I'm fine."

*: pure speculation because Verity hasn't met her and the player hasn't been stalking you. :P