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Bobby is sitting at his desk with a book open in front of him that he's studying. Next to him is an ice sculpture which he's looking back and forth between it and the book. Each time, it becomes a little more refined and more recognizable as Michaelangelo's David.
*
There's the knock-knock, pause, knock, and then Alex is nudging open the room, carrying a tray with him. The tray has a small pile of grilled cheese sandwich triangles, half with bacon, half just cheese. That and four beer bottles. "Booooby. I made lunch. And I didn't want to share with anyone else.. so." He gives a careful shrug as he makes his way in, glancing around and blinking a moment at the sculpture, grinning, "What in the name of the ionosphere are you making a David for?"
*
Bobby looks over at the knock but then sits back as it continues into Alex' signature. Then he oooos as he sees what gifts are being born. "Grilled cheese and beer. You want something. And you'll get it too." Looking over at the statuette, he answers "Because I can. Or rather, I can but not very well. I want to be able to get them looking like actual people and not mannequins."
*
Coming over, Alex settles the tray on the edge of Bobby's desk, perhaps nudging a book a little bit, "I found I was in something of a mood— for no good reason, really— and the best thing to do when in a mood, make grilled cheese, and drink a beer or two. Better with friends." He grins, grabbing one of the triangles that's just cheese and taking a bite, "That's an awful lot of detail you're expecting of yourself, but I'm sure you'll get it. The hair is, I imagine, quite hard. Then again its hard to make stone look like hair. You more have to… imply hair."
*
"Well, I don't expect it to look perfect." Bobby says, reaching for one of the triangles with bacon. "Just much than a man shaped lump of ice and this is a good way to practice. I usually don't need to care about detail so this is harder than just making an ice slide or something. And you never know when that kind of thing will come in handy. I was thinking the other day about making a key out of ice."
*
"I thought you'd be a bacon on your grilled cheese kind of guy." Alex nods his head, grinning a bit, "I don't mind it, but find bacon a little bit much, considering I use sharp chedder and gouda mix. You might not like the cheese, people are… picky about grilled cheese. They like whatever it is they first had as a kid, really. Even if its completely culinarily crap." He laughs softly, "But I decided to start simple and see what you liked. Its important to know what kind of grilled cheese a man likes." Then he nods his head more soberly, eyeing the statue a moment, "Practice is good, and you're right, you never know. A key?" He looks thoughtful, "If you push some ice into the hole then make it push down as far as it'd go in each spot, it might push all the tumblers separately. Then turn? LIke that? Would that work?"
*
"I've never met a grilled cheese sandwich I didn't like." Bobby says before biting off a corner. At the question, he shrugs. "I don't know. I need to read how locks work. But there's no reason I can think of that I couldn't do it once I do know how. I think. Quieter than breaking the door in, which is what made me think of it."
*
Alex reaches up for the beer, and grabs the bottle opener to tug off the cap. The beer is handed over with a grin, even as he goes to grab his own and de-cap it as well. "Now that sounds like a challenge. I am a huge cheese fan and have never met a cheese I didn't like, but I know some are… intense. I'll have to see if I can either widen your experiences with regards to grilled cheese, or finally go so extreme you're not into it." He nods his head then, "I don't actually know quite how locks work myself, bu quieter would be good, sometimes. Then again I'm not exactly the subtle and quiet type."
*
Bobby slowly grins as Alex gives himself a challenge. "Seems you make a habit of doing that. But speaking of widening experiences, I met with Cap the other day. And yet another SHIELD negro so the first doesn't seem to be just a token. They're setting up a base on Governor's Island in an Army base that's empty. And our first mission is to retrieve some stolen H-Bombs. Right in the deep end, huh?"
*
Alex pauses, and blinks for a long moment, "Wait, did you say stolen H-bombs?! Someone stole some some thermonuclear fusion bombs? Shouldn't… I don't know, the military be on this? The whole military? At once?" He is totally forgetting about grilled cheese and beer, because, whoa. "Hydrogen bombs are… a lot more intense then the little baby bombs we dropped on Japan in the war, comparitively."
*
Bobby nods, looking serious. He can't even think of a joke to make about it. "Yeah, I know. I'd guess the military is doing what they can to find the damn things but they're probably worried that if it becomes obvious they've been found, they'll just set them. So far it's been narrowed down to Detroit."
*
"Yeah, wasn't really sure if you were up to the difference between fission and fusion weapons. The bomb we dropped on Hiroshima had like a 15 kilotons of TNT, and while the weapon on Nagasaki was another five kilotons… A little thermonuclear bomb is usually like at least 50 kilotons. I am not up with my nuclear physics enough to track what the more scary yields are." Lifting a hand up to rub at his face, Alex notices he has a beer in it, so switches hands, rubs, and takes a loooong swig, "Man, and here I thought we'd have to do something serious like capture a rogue mutant terrorist or you know, something. Something less freaking serious … stolen hydrogen bombs. Detroit, huh? Any idea what the plan is?"
*
Bobby shakes his head. "None that I know of. Once they find them then they'll come up with a plan. Or I guess we will since it needs to take into account all our abilities. I guess they weren't kidding about protecting /all/ the people. This is a lot bigger than what I was expecting." But he's had time to get used to the idea so just continues to eat.
*
"Yeah, we need to sit down and talk to the Captain about… abilities. Huh. The fact that my body metabolizes radiation might become a lot more.. relavent, then I ever really thought it'd be." Alex blinks slowly, sees his sandwich, so finishes off his triangle with a slow shake of his head, "But yeah, this is a different sort of scale of problem then I was expecting."
*
Now that's a comment that makes Bobby pause and he lowers the sandwich to look at Alex. "Do you think you could absorb the radiation from a hydrogen bomb? You can't… deliberately draw radiation into you, can you? You just do it from whatever happens to hit you."
*
"The radiation? And heat? Yes." Alex nods his head easily, "I mean, the sun? Is one giant ball of fusion reacting, and that's my power source, radiation— in the form of alpha, beta, gamma, particles and heat. Its still something of an open question if I have an upper limit, but… Radiation and heat, no problem. Now if a bomb goes off I'll still get very dead from the concussive blast, unfortunately I can't do anything about kinetic energy. That'd be nice: imagine that, being immune to being stabbed or blown up." Then he shakes his head, "No, I can't draw it in, I can just absorb what i come in contact with. Still might be useful if there's a containment issue, which considering the wrong people have the h-bombs might be a thing."
*
"So the radiation won't kill you but you can't save anyone else from it if it does go off. Got it." Bobby finishes his triangle as he considers their options. "Well, we've just got to make sure they don't go off. And from the sound of it, we're going to be the powerful ones on the team. Cap is awesome and all but he's just a really good fighter. And I think they mentioned the other guy I met flies or something. Fun but…"
*
Alex grabs another triangle, takes a swig from his beer and nods thoughtfully, "Flying is good, don't get me wrong. It doesn't quite beat Crystal's giant puppy, but not everyone can have a giant teleporting puppy." He sounds a little wistful at that, "I imagine they'll be trying to add more mutants to the team, then. Ones they recruit from outside our circle. We have tbe really careful with those: they're our people but they might be loyal to SHIELD first, so we can't immediately trust them with knowledge of the Institute."
*
"Oh, that reminds me." Glancing at his bottle, Bobby chills it down to just above freezing and takes a swig. "I told them I had a teleporting dog we could call on in an emergency. Not to count on it since it's just a chance but if they're about to go off in ten minutes or something… Well, can't hurt to see if Lockjaw is available. Crystal will insist on coming though. I didn't tell her what was happening since 'national security'." The air quotes are audible. He just nods at the last point Alex makes.
*
Alex hesitates, wincing, "I think we should keep to our personal, individual abilities; we shouldn't mention what anyone else is capable of or brings to the table— including weird magic pets. We don't know really if Crystal might want to keep Lockjaw a secret for some reason. I don't know, a teleporting dog is weird to a level that normal mutant weirdness doesn't explain, so I'm trying not to analyze that too closely." That said he nods his head a bit, "I'd never turn Crystal down in a fight, so if she wanted to come and SHIELD let us vouch for her… then again them telling us about the h-bombs is a pretty big show of good faith, trust-wise."
*
"Alex, if we're in New York and a nuclear bomb is about to go off in Detroit, it's not the time to spring a teleporting dog on people." Bobby points out. "Some things just take precedence. Anyway, I didn't say anything other than 'teleporting dog' any more than I told Crystal anything other than 'possible emergency'. Next time we see Cap, we can let him know that the dog's partner will insist on coming along so it's both or nothing."
*
"Yeah… it really is. That'd be exactly the time to spring the teleporting dog on people." Alex shakes his head slowly, frowning a bit, "They don't need advance notice of anything anyone else who isn't joining up can bring to the table, even if those things would be useful. If we decide, its an emergency? We reach out for X-men resources. There's no downside. We're in the City, we need to get to Detroit as fast as possible. SHIELD fuels up a plane while we call Crystal: if she'll help, we wave at the team and say, hey, we have faster transportation."
*
Bobby shrugs. "I don't agree. But's it's already been done. I'm not planning on giving them a list of abilities we can call on. Say, do we get paid? Cause I definitely want to get paid for stopping a nuclear explosion in Detroit. Not that I wouldn't if we didn't get paid but still, it would be nice."
*
"I… have absolutely no idea." Alex blinks slowly, bewildered, "Well, of course we get paid. Right? I mean. We're going to be working for a government agency. Government agents get paid. … something. Probably hourly, because, like, I doubt we'll be full time or anything. And… I have no idea what the going rate for a government agent should be hourly."
*
"We'll have to ask. I didn't think to." Bobby says with a shrug. "Now's the best time to negotiate too. You really think that's high enough? There's a few hydrogen bombs out there and you want to pay us as if we were interns? Leverage."
*
Alex can't help but laugh softly and shake his head, "If we press too hard they might decide we have the wrong motives. But hey, I don't especially need money, the Professor pays pretty well for a teacher, considering room and board. But I'd never mind having some extra. More, I just want to know what sorta resources these people have, and how they're willing to use it. Besides, its the government. Everyone says you can't lose a government job."
*
"Hey, if something's free, you don't value it as much as if it's costly." Bobby points out with a grin. "And sure, we get paid here but it'll be nice to save some money and splurge on things. And if I'm going to get blown up, I want to know I was blown up while being valued." Reaching out, he clinks his bottle to Alex's.
*
Grinning and clinking right back, Alex nods his head easily, "I suppose you have a point: that said, we should try very hard to avoid being blown up. Getting blown up would seriously ruin my week." Taking a swig from his beer, "Another important question, do we get a badge? Can we arrest people? Any special spy equipment? We have all kinds of details we didn't completely clear up."
*
"Well, I /thought/ we were going to be spies. After all, that's what SHIELD is right? That's why no one knows anything about it. But it seems we're going to be a task force instead. Pretty much like the X-Men, I guess. So it'll be good practice." Reaching over for another bacon one, Bobby takes a bite.
*
"I'm not sure I'd make a very good spy." admits Alex with a wry grin, "Especially if my powers are involved. They're a bit on the flashy side. Then again, so are yours. As for SHIELD, I have no idea, really. Agent Sousa seems like a typical fed suit to me, not so much a spy. Fury… I don't even know what to make of him. Solid leader, maybe. And Captain America? He's about as subtle as a nail in the toe." But he nods, "Good practice, and remember hey, we will be spies. Spies for the institute."
*
"Good point." Bobby agrees. "We need to make sure they're not working against us. Though if H-Bombs are an example of what they need us for, that seems pretty likely. Course, who knows what the rest of SHIELD will be doing. You're right about the other guy. Bureaucrat."
*
Alex nods his head quickly, "Just because they do one thing that's all above board, doesn't mean they don't have other, less legitimate purposes. I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt and see how things go, but surely every day can't be h-bombs. Christ, I hope not at least."
*
"Yeah, that wouldn't be any fun at all." Bobby agrees then snickers. "You should have seen their faces when I said teleporting dog." he tells Alex. "They thought I was crazy or joking and weren't sure which. Some day, I want to introduce them to Lockjaw just to watch them."
*
"I'm telling you that dog kinda creeps ME out. Except when its around, then its slightly alarming and cute simultaneously." Alex laughs softly and runs a hand up through his hair, "How does the dog know where to go? Is it a telepathic teleporting dog? And if it can read minds, is it an intelligent telepathic teleporting dog? Is it really just a mutant who had a very severe case of physical abnormality, or something else? Lockjaw raises a LOT of questions for me."
*
"Crystal pretty much said he's as intelligent as we are." Bobby answers then frowns. "Or maybe that was Erik but Crystal didn't correct him. But she doesn't seem to know how he does what he does. I asked the same questions, actually. Telepathic? Clairvoyant? And since she said sometimes he takes you where you need to go instead of where you want to go, maybe precognitive too."
*
Alex gives a wide shrug and spreading of his arms, "Its one of the weirdest things I've ever seen. Usually I at least get the idea of what someone's capable of, after a fashion. Or can work my head around.. what's going on. To a certain extent. Oh, the precise mechanisms and stuff is mysterious, but.. telepathic intelligent clairvoyant precognitive teleporting dog? It makes me want a martini with an extra olive."
*
Bobby just shrugs in return. "Maybe it's got something to do with that tuning fork thing stuck in his head." he guesses. "Who knows. So have two. I'll even have one too. Though for some reason that reminds me we should tell the Prof we might be running out of whatever we happen to be doing without any advanced notice."
*
"Yeah, the tuning fork is extra weird." Alex snickers and shrugs, "Do you even like martini's? I got you hooked on brandy alexanders and didn't ever really try to get you to love the intensity that is a good dirty gin martini. Never vodka— we aren't communists, come on— and never clean. Dirty. Dirty means there's a splash of olive brine: it makes it sweet and tangy all at once." He is going to start seriously talking Comparitive Martini Merits any second now, "Yeah, we have to fill him up on our little spy operation. Though if push comes to shove, I'm probably prioritizing emergencies in-house to SHIELD work. Assuming, you know, non-nuclear issues come up."
*
"We can't tell him what's up though." Bobby cautions. "Super duper top secret national security shit. Besides, if he wants to know, he can just read it from us. And yeah, our stuff first, SHIELD stuff second. Unless we're talking global emergencies."
*
"I really fail to see the point in even trying to keep a secret from a telepath." Alex shakes his head, wrinkling his nose a bit, "Besides, I consider myself an X-Men first, and consider this a matter of infiltrating SHIELD. I don't intend on keeping anything from the Professor. No one else needs to know, no, but the Xavier? The more he knows the better for everyone, the whole world over, national security matters included."
*
"I was assuming he'd know. But this way I can say I haven't told anyone." Bobby says with a shrug. "We should go to the base sometime soon and meet everyone. There's gotta be more than just us and the others we met. Least I hope so."
*
"Agreed. Though I got the impression it was sorta newish. But still, yeah, we should go meet. Play show-off. I've already had my backup suit done up in black, so to not show off the X-men colors." Alex snags another triangle, gobbles it down quickly, and after a couple moments smiles, "Wait, do you have contact information? I missed getting a phone number. We totally need to like… do that. Go tot he base. Get orientation."
*
"Oh, that's a good idea." Bobby says. "I'll have to get a black one of my own. I didn't think of that at all. And yeah, I can contact them. We can head over there tomorrow. No telling when we'll need to go to Detroit so we better get as much prelim done as possible."
*
"Really, you don't have to go with your suit: maybe SHIELD has some sorta superhero team uniform they prefer?" Alex wonders, tilting his head to the side, "With me, I just need it still, so I figure I'm no use to anyone on the team if I'm not willing to show up in a suit, and I don't want to show up in the X-Men colors. You though? You can ice up all like… uh… I'm trying to come up with a flirty way to say 'cold' and 'hot' at once and.. oh, all steamily. Yeah." He grins broadly.
*
"Well, that's true. I'll have to ask them about it. I'd look good in a SHIELD superhero uniform I think." Bobby muses and grins back at Alex. "Whatever they are. Compliment taken. Even if it didn't come out well."
*
"You'd look good in anything." declares Alex automatically, devoutly, but sincerely, too. "We might make it part of our negotiation. We'll try to figure out all that tomorrow. Now… when I came in, there was talk of me getting whatever it was I wanted in return for grilled cheese and beer…" Grinning more, Alex reaches a hand out to Bobby, "I've considered my options, come here and let's negotiate."