Super Secret Meeting Spot that's Definitely Not Starbucks [Somewhere on the Mainland, Saturday]

[heroic_jawline]

Steve had reached out to Natasha (through several layers of encryption and burner phones because Natasha, at least, understood how to lay low) and was now in his very best incognito outfit (beard, jeans, baseball cap, sunglasses) with Tony (in generally the same outfit), trying to appear casual as they walked around one of those giant outdoor outlet malls waiting for Natasha to make contact.

"She said she'd drop a pin with where she is in--" Steve glanced at his watch, "--eight and a half minutes. You've got the test with you?"

He'd asked that about four times already, but he was anxious.

Comments

[imafuturist]

"Well, it's what lead me to coming to Fandom," Tony replied.

[heroic_jawline]

"I don't think I knew that," Steve said.

His head had been a little, um, traumatized, when he'd arrived himself.

[imafuturist]

"It was less important to talk about then." Meaning Tony was totally living the repression lifestyle.

[heroic_jawline]

Steve squeezed Tony's fingers. "Okay to talk about it now?"

[imafuturist]

"It's not really too much to tell," Tony insisted. "He showed up. We all sort of banded together to make it seem like the planet wasn't worth the effort..."

[heroic_jawline]

"How'd you do that?" Steve asked.

[imafuturist]

"We distracted his heralds and then trapped him in the Negative Zone," Tony said like any of that made a lick of sense.

[heroic_jawline]

"I'm going to need translation for all of those words," Steve admitted.

[imafuturist]

"So, he had these people go and scout suitable worlds for him to, uh, eat?" Tony said. "The would place these devices on the planet that would allow him to absorb everything he needed from the planet."

[heroic_jawline]

Steve nodded, following along. "Did you find the devices?"

[imafuturist]

"Oh yeah," Tony replied with a triumphant grin. "We pulled in help from everyone. Because they were really no joke to fight."

[heroic_jawline]

"Well, world-ending events will probably do that," Steve agreed.

[imafuturist]

"And the Negative Zone is an extra-dimensional plane of anti-matter that Reed discovered." Also a prison for villains. Totes normal and fine.

[heroic_jawline]

"And the what now?"

[imafuturist]

"I didn't name it," Tony said, possibly misunderstanding the confusion there.

[heroic_jawline]

"That wasn't what I bumped on," Steve said with a smile. "Extra-dimensional plane?"

[imafuturist]

"So, like how Thor's home has a bunch of different, well, sort of planets, connected by the Bifrost?" Tony said. "There are things like that connect to us."

[heroic_jawline]

"Got it," Steve said, nodding once. "So Reed found one and used it like a spare closet?"

[imafuturist]

"...yep. That sounds like Reed." Be glad you're missing him, Steve.

For now.

[heroic_jawline]

"I'm sorry I haven't met him yet," Steve said.

[imafuturist]

"We'll see where this goes and maybe you can meet mine."

Since Reed probably had ideas to fix it.

[heroic_jawline]

"That might be helpful," Steve said. Because he didn't know Reed. "Was he there for your Skrull invasion too?"

[imafuturist]

"Oh yeah," Tony replied. "Sue? His wife. She was one of the ones replaced."

[heroic_jawline]

Steve hissed in a breath. "How quickly did he notice?"

[imafuturist]

"Reed is... Reed is very bad at socializing," Tony ventured slowly. "He's probably on the spectrum somewhere if he cared to get tested for it. So it was more he thought she was mad at him during that time."