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It's evening, and in an effort to Build Bonds and what not, Johnny and Mike have come over to the mansion. Johnny, magnamanous man that he is, has brought three pizzas and arranged for Mike to carry a couple boxes of imported beer. At the moment, Johnny's in a dark blue t-shirt and jeans, both of which are fitted enough to be slightly pointless as far as clothing goes. "Let's see who all is here, and that'll determine how much pizza we're responsible for eating." Teams don't endure just on training and fighting, after all, but also bonding.
Mike Matthews follows Johnny in with the beer as they make their way inside, holding the door with one arm to let them both in, the beer gathered up in the other easily despite the fact that the cases must be heavy. He's dressed in a pair of jeans and a plain white t-shirt, comfortably informal though not nearly so painted-on as Johnny's. "Sure, sounds good to me," he chuckles as they make their way in.
Ava is a little light on the whole 'boundaries' thing. It's just polite to test the security, after all. And despite her status as an agent of SHIELD, she's too cagey to have a nice place of her own. So slipping into the mansion and sitting around waiting to be noticed is about as close to a good time as she can come up with. She's sitting in the kitchen, her feet propped up on one of the chairs as she flips through the paper. At the sound of voices, she pops her head up, letting the top of the paper flop down.
Upon seeing Ava, Johnny arches a brow a moment, then offers her his killer grin, "Hey." The pizzas are set on the table, "I'm Johnny." He says it with such confidence that, of course, she knows who he is. "We haven't met. We have pepperoni, the works, and a five cheese with extra cheese… and beer. Good beer, not piss beer." He nods his head over to Mike, "This is Mike, he's new to the team." Then again, Johnny hasn't been on the team for more then a few months.
Mike Matthews lifts the cases of beer by way of greeting to Ava as they make their way in to the kitchen and he sets them on the counter, going over to the fridge to start setting them inside to keep them cold, finding space wherever he can. He glances over his shoulder then and says, "Hey. How's it going?" Once he's got the beers put away, he turns and leans up against the counter. "Anyone else in who might want pizza?" He grins amiably.
"Nice to meet you, Johnny. Mike." Ava dips her chin in a nod to both, folding up the newspaper and setting it aside. She drops her feet to the floor, chin tipping upward with a sniff at the mention of pizza. Never one to turn down free food, she steps over to help set out the boxes. "I am Ava. I haven't seen anyone yet, but that doesn't mean they aren't here," she adds to Mike. "I understand Mister Stark is given to getting wrapped up in his work."
"'Mister Stark'?" Johnny turns a slightly incredulous look at the young woman before he laughs, "Please don't Mister Stark him too much, or it'll go to his head. Tony. Ava, you want to Tony it up. So. Are you on the team and we just haven't met or I don't know, the help?" His tone says he's teasing, before he heads over to grab some plates, and then a beer.
Mike Matthews pops open one of the boxes and finds the super cheesy of cheesiest pizzas and reaches in to grab a slice. If others want some, well they'll need to wander down to the kitchen to find it before it's gone. He glances between Johnny and Ava and then chuckles a little bit. "I wouldn't be surprised if everyone gets a little bit wrapped up in their work around here."
"You could say that I am…a consultant," Ava chuckles, helping herself to a slice of pepperoni, folding it in half all the better to eat it more quickly. "But I am a friend of Sergeant Barnes, who I understand is staying here and is also at least sort of part of the team. It sounds as though most of the membership is 'sort of' part of the team," she observes with a smirk, taking another bite.
"It's true, we aren't exactly formal around here." Johnny goes, sets a plate out, and pulls out a slice of the works. He tilts the beer back for a chug, "A consultant? What's your area of expertise? Mine is being hot." Yes he said that. "But mechanics, too. Though around the likes of Tony, that's largely kind of irrelevent." He nods to Mike, "Mike here is a utility man; useful in almost any situation."
Mike Matthews cracks open a beer to go along with his pizza and settles himself comfortably into a chair, leaning back a bit in it comfortably and listening to the pair. He smiles and says, "I'm pretty new so I guess I qualify as sortof a member, myself." He chuckles when Johnny states his area of expertise, and takes a bite from his slice of pizza. When he finishes chewing he says, "I have some diplomatic training."
Ava takes another bite, chewing and swallowing before she answers Johnny. "Infiltration." It should probably be disturbing, but she takes another bite and follows it up with a chipmunk-cheeked smile. No comment on being hot. "It is…complicated," she adds after a moment, lifting her hand and wiggling it from side to side.
"Infiltration." Johnny chuckles, and folds his own slice in half just like Ava does, and goes in for a big bite. He tilts his beer back again, "Diplomacy, I must admit, is _not_ one of my strengths." he remarks to Mike with a quick grin. "Okay, I was being sort of coy. I was curious what your position would be on the team. Do you fight or plan? Or, apparently, pick locks and sneak in."
"My guess would be that she breaks in, convinces the other side that she's harmless, and that they should share pizza and beer and then makes off with their plans and wallets on the way out," Mike says with a grin over at Ava. He lifts his beer in her direction and then glances over at Johnny, chuckling and saying, "No, perhaps not. But then, it'd be boring if we all had the same skills."
Ava winks at Mike's guess, saluting him with what remains of her slice of pizza. "More or less," she agrees. "But all of the above," she adds to Johnny. "It is a long story, but some of the knowledge is mine, some of it is not. But I have decided that what I do with it will be mine."
"Hey, sounds like your job is to make it so I don't have to do my job." Johnny says gravely, before grinning, "I am totally okay with this." He grins over at Mike, "True enough. I mean, how many people do we need to do this?" He reaches a hand up and draws a circle: as he draws fire floats there where he left it. The circle gets a smile and eyes. And it just hangs there. "We do not need more then one of me, though, of course, if there were all kinds of me the world would be a better place." Pause, "Then again I could say the same for several others." he says with some small amount of humility. Kinda.
"Well if we had a team of people who could do that, we could put on one heck of a light show," Mike says with a bit of a sidelong grin before he finishes off his piece of pizza. Then he looks over at Johnny and says, "I'm not sure that the world is ready for all kinds of you." He says this with an expression that reads as though giving it some serious thought, before it breaks into a smile.
Ava tilts her head as she watches the fire show, something decidedly calculated in the look. She's certainly considering the tactical ramifications. "That is a very fine control," she finally says, sticking her pizza crust close enough to let it warm up just a bit before taking a bite. "Huh. Interesting. And you, Mike Matthews? Do you have skills other than diplomacy?"
"Oh yeah, that trick can be useful, but." Johnny shrugs, considers a moment with a grin over at Mike, "It would overwhelm them, I know. That said, it'd be fun." He laughs and looks back to Ava, "So, obviously, you've heard of the basics." Fire engulfs his hand, burning lightly, "Control of fire, flight through shooting fire outta my ass…" But then his arm changes, and _becomes_ flame; oddly there's no heat felt from it. "In plasma form, bullets are funny, they melt going through me. But its the subtle applications that get interesting— like my arm's heat is contained because I'm keeping it contained. Temperature control is also a thing." His hand goes out, but he holds it steady, and lifts it. The room grows warmer. He lowers it, and the room is as it was, but he keeps lowering it, "This one surprises people, because hey, fire guy? Can make things _cold_? Sure. I take the heat away." And it gets chilly, before the room is back to normal. "For reasons Reed and I can't figure out I'm also extremely durable even in regular guy body. Dunno how that happened. It annoys Ben." He grins between them, "That's the Human Torch's basic skill set. Like I said, I'm good at being hot."
"I make a really good margarita?" Mike says to Ava with a flash of a grin. His own skillset is not so well known since he's generally unknown. "I'm strong and fast and durable." He reaches into the works pizza box and grabs out a slice and begins to eat that one. "Mostly I'm fun at parties. A number of my skills aren't particularly useful." He works on eating his pizza, quieting as Johnny goes on to demonstrate his various skills.
"Strong and fast and durable are useful skills," Ava shrugs to Mike, finishing her first slice of pizza and reaching for a second without hesitation. Eat when you can. "Those are mostly Captain America's skills, and I do not think anyone would accuse him of not being useful." She watches Johnny, nodding thoughtfully. "It makes sense, sort of. Though the changing into fire is…interesting. If you stayed fire forever, would you need to eat?"
Johnny laughs softly at Mike's deprecating his skill sets, "Utility man, he's always useful to have around. Trust me, you need someone to have your back, it's Mon-El you want. Well, besides Reed, Sue and Ben of course." he declares again, but he's brought up short by Ava's question, "That's actually a good question— its a question that Reed asked too." Which sounds like a High Compliment in his tone, "So we tested it. I can maintain the plasma form for seventeen hours and fifteen minutes at a minimum level. During that time I don't feel hunger or any bodily needs, and when I come out, I don't feel hungry — so its like when I return, my body reverts to exactly where it was when it entered that transformation."
Mike Matthews nods his head in agreement that those things can be useful. It's not likely he was referring to those particular skills as not so, but he instead turns his attention toward Johnny once more at the question, since he may have heard part of it before but doesn't seem to recall all of the details. He does nod though a little bit, as it seems to match what he remembers. He says, "Which is convenient if you're stuck somewhere without food or water for a time."
"I am something of a science experiment myself," Ava smiles ruefully, lifting one shoulder in an awkward shrug. "My parents were a doctor and a scientist. The government in Russia wanted to use their research. They did not really give them a choice." She considers the information about how long he can maintain the form as well. "Seventeen hours is a full waking day," she muses. "You could spend an entire day in space. Or would the vacuum cause the fire to go out? My apologies," she adds quickly, waving a hand. "It is none of my business either way, really."
Johnny nods to Mike easily, "Its useful— but temporarily. That said, if I'm stuck somewhere… staying stuck is problematic." He then looks at Ava a bit more seriously, "The Four are my family, and with the head of that family being a scientist— he wanted to quantify our abilities. Measure and understand them. But… we were never used. No one forced anyone." But he shakes his head, "I don't actually know about that, about space. That's something we never measured. I don't know if my fire needs oxygen— I know water is somewhat problematic. I suppose I can set up a test lab, where we withdraw all the air and see if it extinguishes me. We could quickly repressurize if I showed any distress." He muses on this, thoughtful.
"I'm not sure how I feel about this whole, sucking out all the oxygen thing if you're made of fire and it does extinguish you. Would the repressurization happen fast enough?" Mike doesn't seem to be keen on this idea and his expression is one of concern as he considers that, forgetting the pizza that he was eating for a moment or two.
"I will leave you to think on that," Ava chuckles as Johnny goes into science mode, folding up one more slice of pizza for the road. "I should be going. It has been nice t meet you Johnny, Mike. I imagine we will be seeing each other again." She smiles then, stepping backwards toward the front door. "Be well," she calls, then disappears.
"Pressurization is the wrong word on my part. We could pump in nitrogen as we pull out the air, and I expect we'd see a distinct extinguishing sign— or not— before it gets dangerous. If the fires gutter, we open up the chamber, get oxygen. I'm sure we can get a protocol that's safe, and its better to know then not know. In theory, though, you don't start getting permanent damage for a few minutes of no oxygenn." Johnny's thoughtful, though. He nods to Ava as she departs, then looks to Mike, "My general thought is its better to quantify risk if possible: if someone can neutralize me in a chamber that sucks out the oxygen, then I know I need to act FAST and burn a hole through the wall. If its not a concern? Different tactic."