16434/Camp Olympus Pt2: Deployment

Camp Olympus Pt2: Deployment
Date of Scene:	15 July 2024
Location:	Office - Fury
Synopsis:	Alex catches Nat up with the mission and the two head out.
Cast of Characters:	Phobos, Black Widow (Romanoff)
Tinyplot:	Camp Olympus

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Phobos has posed:
    As soon as Alexander left the office he was in motion with the task set to him, going hands-free with his phone as he moves down the hallway. One hand lifts to the security team on duty at the checkpoint just before the stairwell. First he hits the number he knows will be voice mail.
    "Dad, hey. Call me when you can. Just checking in, have some questions about the house. Seeya." A quick message, likely sent to just establish the location of his father, make sure he has no clue about what might be going on.
    Then as he's taking the steps two at a time, the second flight sliding down the railing, he lands with a thump and then shoulders open the door into the motorpool. He lifts a hand in greeting to the security officer there at the monitoring station, then gestures to his ear indicating he's on the phone. This call, however, goes along more secure lines back to a particular safehouse in the city.
    "Hey, it's me. Got a thing. How's your schedule looking? I'm..." He checks his wrist, then says, "Twenty two minutes out from the house. Call me if you're not there."
    Then he's walking along the long line of black SUVs, one of them lighting up with a faint chirp as he gets near it, the doors unlocking as he steps closer.
    A minute later and he's already gone.

Black Widow (Romanoff) has posed:
Through the same secure line there was no response. Letting him know that she was indeed at home. She'd only gotten there about fifteen minutes before his call. Which is why she didn't answer because Nat was taking a quick shower to wash the work off her before heading into the living room. She was dressed comfortably in gray yoga pants with a white tank top, the sports bra beneath the same color as the top. Her feet were bare. She checked her phone and saw the missed call on the secure line. That was enough to have her listening and she didn't both responding. She was home and he'd be here soon enough.

For him to call her like that was unusual and it had her nerves on edge. She went back into the bathroom to run a quick comb through still wet hair. Then back to the kitchen to grab a bottle of water then back to the couch. Which is when she paused, glancing toward the old fashioned answering machine they had setup on a secure land line at the house. It had been insisted upon by a certain parental figure. The blinking red light caught her attention and she moved to listen. Only to frown once she had.

She waited on the couch, phone on the table in front of her, legs crossed tailor style.

Phobos has posed:
    On that message she just heard the familiar rough and gravelly voice of John Aaron, his words short and cryptic as he growls. "Make yourself ready, boy." And then *click*. A very short few seconds of words that likely do nothing to ease the tension affecting the former assassin.
    Then, roughly 23 minutes after his call, Natasha would hear the subtle rumble of the SUV pulling up into their driveway and the slight /chunk/ of the emergency brake automatically clicking on from that slight incline. There was the sound of footsteps on the front walk, then the thump of the door opening.
    No call out this time about who or what kind of fictional invader was arriving to once again accost the safehouse. Instead she heard his voice lifting, "Heya. I'm back."
    There's the jangle of keys tossed into the ceramic bowl nearby, then the thump of shoes upon the stairwell as he heads up, reaching the height of the second stairwell and stepping out into their shared living area. "We got a job."
    Then he steps towards her, hands spreading a bit. "Well, I do. Was going to tell you and you can decide what you want to do."

Black Widow (Romanoff) has posed:
If the cryptic message wasn't already something to have her on edge, the call ahead from him to ensure she was there, that lack of comedic comment upon his entering their domicile was enough to set her teeth on edge.

Natasha lifted her gaze as he arrived, locking onto him as she gave a brief nod. Then with that grace of a dancer and gymnast combined, she rose easily to her feet and padded silently over to him. A moment on tiptoe, a stolen chaste brush of lips. And even as she lowered her heels to the floor and took a single step back, her right arm extended to hit the play button on the answering machine. Letting him hear that voice that he knew intimately since it was his father. The odd words and nothing else.

"Since he never calls here, I thought perhaps it might be important," she added for explanation of why she didn't ask immediately but instead had played it. "Would you like a drink while you fill me in? Or goign to call him first?"

Phobos has posed:
    When he had emerged she saw he was still wearing his 'work' clothes, though it was the civilian garb variety. For SHIELD agents that meant slacks, brown shoes, a dress shirt, white in color for today, and a brown jacket. Though he was already changing, tossing the jacket aside.
    As Natasha drew near, Alexander's response was just a slight extension of his hand, resting it on her hip as she stepped in, then turned into the kiss, though his eyes followed her after as she hit the button on the player. His eyebrows rose, then narrowed as he heard the words from his father.
    "That's... bad news." He steps further into the room and pulled out his cellphone, quickly tapping out a message to one of the aliases that was set for Director Fury. Just a few quick words sent on their way to give him a status update that Ares was on the move.
    Then he turned back to Natasha. "I need to go away for a few days. There's been a discovery of a mystical site in upstate New York that has a connection to the Olympians. No real details yet, but I was going to head up there and see what's to be seen. You're welcome to join, or maybe you can work the angle on what's up with my father."

Black Widow (Romanoff) has posed:
"That timing seems a bit too much of a coincidence," Natasha observed as she moved back to the couch, settling back in with folded legs and feet tucked under her as she considered.

"Something involving your family and your father leaving a message like that. Sounds to me like he may already be looking into it, if he learned the same thing." She tilted her head slightly as she thought about the ramifications of such a thing. It was no secret Ares didn't get along with his family. He had turned his back on them over 100 years ago. Then he ran amok for a while. Some of it he was bad. Some of it he was good. Then Alexander came along and he had settled.

Well, as settled as the God of War could be.

"I'm intrigued and would love to go with you. But I also want to help you in the best way possible. So would it be better I try to find your father, deal with him and see if I can assist with whatever his situation might be. If it doesn't involved this mystic site."

Phobos has posed:
    "You working my father's angle would be a waste of resources." He says in that clipped tone of his when he's focused. No hint of the casual easy-going youth that he tends to lean into. At the moment he's contemplating the task at hand as he walks toward the bedroom, gesturing for her to walk with him as he heads down that hallway from their living/training area. He talks to her over his shoulder, "I'll ping my team and try to get them to touch base with him, do a check at his house and sweep the area for any evidence why he left. They won't be as thorough as you, but if it's just him being his usual self they'll be able to determine that."
    That said he steps into the bedroom, walking to the wardrobe against the side wall near their bed. He pulls it open and starts to go through the clothes as he steps out of his shoes and starts to change.
    "Anything else happen today or anything out of the ordinary?"

Black Widow (Romanoff) has posed:
"Nothing at all. Been a normal day. Was my day off until we got an Avengers alert. Mole Man decided it was time to try to take over New York again but that went pretty smoothly. Even got to see the Fantastic Four, say hi to Sue.

"Then I came home, took a shower, and here we are." She had followed him to the bedroom where she leaned against the door jam for the moment, not wanting to get in his way as he prepared. When she was certain what he wanted, she would get out her own bag and quickly do the same as he but not yet.

"Do we have anything more to work on outside mystic site and Olympians involved? Anything special I should have on hand or maybe call for some input?"

Phobos has posed:
    He tosses the cellphone onto the bed near her, already unlocked though to be fair she knew his code. "That's what Fury gave me, take a look. Some images. A spooky looking hydra on a gate. That's not ominouus."
    The slacks hit the floor and already Alexander is pulling on a pair of jeans, slipping a brown belt around the waist. Then he unbuttons the shirt and tosses it over toward the dirty laundry hamper, though he misses and it whumpfs to the side. From inside the wardrobe he pulls a plain black t-shirt off a hanger and pulls it on over his head, tucking it into the waist of his jeans before he starts to tighten the belt.
    "Since this is a magical thing any gear you want to take before we head out? We could swing by WAND." As he says that he sweeps a hand over the front of his t-shirt, making sure the lines settle. Then he puts on a pair of white sneakers, sitting on the edge of the bed for a moment.
    Once that's settled he grabs a brown leather jacket and tosses it onto the bed. Then he grins and stands up on tip toes as he digs a hand into the corner of the wardrobe, fiddling with it. There's a slight _click_ as he produces a curved dagger in its sheath, turning around to face her as he slides it open, checking the weathered edge, looking as if it had old caked in dirt and grime on it. He looks up at her then holds up the knife with a slight smirk as if to say, 'See, I hide stuff around the house too. So there.'

Black Widow (Romanoff) has posed:
Decision made, she was on her feet and moving around him with practiced ease. Even as he would move, she would do the same to give him the space he needed but take up the spot he vacated as she grabbed her own bag. She already had a lot of gear in it so it would just be a few special items to add to the mix. It was their own personal dance as they worked on prep.

When he started to mess with the wardrobe, she paused in her movements as she finished tucking a holstered gun into her utility style backpack. As he brought out the blade and smirked, she had to laugh as she shook her head. "I should've known. I wasn't aware we were allowed to modify the furniture though. Good to know."

No pun intended considering he as an Olympian, but he'd opened Pandora's Box with that revelation. Now she knew she could get some more hidey places if she wanted. "Unless there is anything specifically off limits?" Since a lot of this was his fathers furniture that had been brought down from the attic when they claimed the safehouse as their home. Not that it started that way but it certainly had ended there.

"Anything you might recommend for dealing with Olympians? Everything I've read up on seems to just get them out of control as opposed to neutralizing a threat."

That whole Hind's Blood thing was just a double edged sword.

Phobos has posed:
    "Nope, feel free to go all out," Alex says distractedly as he tucks the knife into the small of his back and then pulls on the jacket with a smooth turn. Likely hurried words he would come to regret later when Natasha enacts her will upon the house.
    But for now his thoughts are elsewhere. "No idea what we'll be dealing with. Lots of variety with who or what could be doing this. If it's magic it'll have to be sourced from somewhere, powered by someone. So at least one of significant power? But that's all I can say for sure."
    That said he scoops up his backpack and carries it in one hand by both staps, walking toward the door. "I'll grab a roadtrip bag while you get ready. Anythiing in particular you want for the trip?"

Black Widow (Romanoff) has posed:
She was already in the spot he had just vacated, now getting changed herself. Out of the yoga pants and into a pair of soft jeans that were faded from wear. The tank top she kept but she did pull a shirt over it, long-sleeved but the sleeves rolled up to the elbows. SHe buttoned it to just at breast level then tucked in the hem. A belt finished up then boots were pulled out to put on her feet, with a pair of socks she had also snagged.

She hadn't looked over the information on the phone yet. That would wait for the trip up. Which she wasn't sure if that was going to be quinjet or land. Either way, she'd have time.

"Bring a bottle of the good vodka. I have the feeling I'm going to need it."

Phobos has posed:
DELETED SCENE:

    On the road, while Natasha is rooting through the backpack of supplies she finds a single bottle labeled -Vodquila-. Alexander continues driving along pleasantly on the two land road heading up North.

Black Widow (Romanoff) has posed:
That was not what she was digging for. The bottle did catch her attention though as she'd asked him to pack the good vodka and that label wasn't the right color nor was the bottle the right shape.

She pulled it out by the neck to read the label. Then pulled it out so it was visible as she just _looked_ at him.

Phobos has posed:
    Alex glanced over, glanced at the bottle, looked back up at her and quirked an eyebrow. Then his gaze returned to the road as they continued the scenic roll down the way, the cover of the trees creating a steady flow of shadow across them as they drive. "What? Same thing."
    The corner of his mouth away from Natasha curled up slightly, so very slightly.

Black Widow (Romanoff) has posed:
The words that passed her lips at his comment were not fit for polite company. They were all in Russian and probably would make a sailor blush.