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]

"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."

[heroic_jawline]

Steve blinked. "Wow. That's incredibly unfortunate. How did he take it when he found out she'd been taken?"

[imafuturist]

"Well, they ended up having a kid about a year later, so..." Clingy was Tony's guess. As clingy as Reed ever got, that is.

[heroic_jawline]

"Clingy," Steve surmised with a tiny smile.

[imafuturist]

"Just a bit."

[heroic_jawline]

Steve squeezed Tony's hand, feeling a little clingy himself.

[imafuturist]

Tony held onto Steve's hand as he glanced back at him. "Well get this figured out."

[heroic_jawline]

Steve nodded. "I just don't know how much time we have to do it."

[imafuturist]

"If they had plans to do something, they would have used the dissolution of the team for it," Tony replied with a frown. Because, had they also influenced that?

[heroic_jawline]

Steve was thinking along the same lines. "How long has Rhodey...not been Rhodey? He and Sam were sniping pretty hard at each other before the whole Accords meeting went to shit."

[imafuturist]

"I don't think we can say for sure until he question him," Tony admitted.

[heroic_jawline]

"How will an interrogation go?" Steve asked. "What do I need to know about fighting an...unmasked Skrull?"

[imafuturist]

"They're stronger and more durable than humans. It's why the one was able to pretend to be... him," Tony said. "But they can't replicate powers. Not all the time, at least."

Because hopefully there wasn't a Super Skrull around too.

[heroic_jawline]

"I'm going to need to to expand on 'not all the time' a little later," Steve said, heading for the way home.

[imafuturist]

"Some, not all of them," Tony said. "But some of them were genetically altered to have the additional powers of some of the heroes here on Earth."

[heroic_jawline]

"Which ones? Not Wanda?"

Because there was a nightmare.

[imafuturist]

"No, no. The physical powers. Like Reed's stretching. Or Johnny's living fire."