2012-10-17 Repairs and Teachings

It's an odd time of day for Pepper to be in the private garage of the Stark Tower. But, she's here for a reason. The ... older car, the one that's black with red and yellow flames and no roof, Tony mentioned in passing that he was going to have to do some work on it. Being fluent in Tony-ese, Pepper knew that meant it could use some kind of repair, and rather that let the poor car wait for Tony to finish whatever he's currently tinkering on, she called to have a mechanic stop by and check on it. And of course, she specifically asked for Ms. Li.

...a 'Thirty-Two Ford Flathead Roadster. When that call came in to Mack and Co. Automotive Repair, Tanya leapt onto it. She didn't even realize who the job was for at first, so rather overjoyed was she at the chance to work on a true classic. Popular car to modify, too, so she was curious to see what the owner did with it. Thus it is that this mid-afternoon she pulls up to the guard station she was told to go to, handing over her identification and job order. The service that Mack and Co. offers, sending a tech out to a job, is one that's gotten them plenty of business, and Tanya is perhaps the gladdest she's ever been for it. The guard station should have the information Janine sent to the indicated e-mail address, so hopefully they know to expect her. She sits in the cab of an old Chevy Silverado, light blue and emblazoned with the repair shop's sign on the doors, arm on the door while she taps her fingers to polka music playing softly from a C.D. in the stereo.

Tony has way too many private garages. There's the one at his place overlooking the ocean, one at his place overlooking the other ocean, one at his place overlooking the Med, one at his place in Tiree in the westerly inner Hebrides, and only God knows where in the world that is or for that matter if Tony's ever visited there before or if he even remembers that he bought it. And, of course, in Stark Tower... where the garage is located on the forty-fourth floor and you have to bring vehicles up via a special freight elevator. Sigh. Engineering genius on par with Leonardo da Vinci, but the world's most impractical human being. Still, there are plus sides to it. It being a private garage, it's pretty well isolated from the rest of the world. Staff knows better than to bother people in the private garage, and between that and Stark Towers' guards, well... it's almost a refuge, really, a sanctuary against ringing cell phones and endless streams of people who want 'just a minute of your time, Ms. Potts'. Idiots. Yes, it's very relaxing in here, getting away from problems and people and everything else, and -- -- and -- -- and why does it smell like cigar smoke all of a sudden? When people look around, they'll note that Fury is standing behind Pepper by a few yards, and judging from his demeanor he's been there a good while... long enough that he's decided to light up. He waves the match vigorously through the air to extinguish it as he takes these first few puffs off the newly-lit cigar, waiting for people to notice his arrival.

The guard looks at the documentation, then turns to verify it against the email sent earlier in the day as Pepper had said it would. Everything matches up, so the guard hands the papers back to the pink-haired woman in the Silverado and directs her to the garage level housing Tony's cars. Of course, seeing as it's a private garage, the Silverado's not gonna get to go up there. Pepper may be away from office phones and people popping in to her office, but she's still busily keeping up with emails on her tablet, typing with the rapid ease of much practice. But then her typing falters and she raises her head to turn look at the garage area with a faint frown. "JARVIS? Why do I sm..." She gasps in clear surprise, one hand flying toward her mouth. "Director Fury? How did you get in here?" "Miss Potts, Director Fury is here to see you," comes JARVIS's reply. Of course AFTER she's caught by surprise.

Well, Tanya isn't going to argue. It'd make things easier, but what the heck. She can run down to grab anything she might forget, so whatever. It really works. She'll head to the parking structure and and park where indicated, head around to the back to open the tailgate and the cab door, and start packing things. By the time she's done, she's hauling a large toolbox with every tool she thinks she'll need. And after numerous checkpoints, searches of her person and her toolbox, so on and so forth, she steps out of the person-sized elevator. "Hey, Tanya Li from Mack and--holy crap..." she says, eyes widening as she looks at all the cars. The corner of her mouth twitches as she takes them in and tries to hide a shit-eating grin of pure glee. And there he is, the red and black Roadster, just begging to be worked on. Oh, the glee. The glee. It's only then that she notices the others in the room, and a bit of color comes to her cheeks as she tries to remember that she's an actual professional, and not a kid in a candy store, though she sure as hell feels like one. She goes over to the red-headed woman and the man in the--holy crap S.H.I.E.L.D. She can't help but stand a bit straighter as she approaches them. Seems like she's running into S.H.I.E.L.D. a lot lately--and she has to wonder what her file in their data banks says. Ah, well.

The Eternal Colonel stands there silently smoking. Nobody's said anything to him yet, after all, except for one question that he can safely ignore. ("How did you get in here?" Really. Like he'd ever tell.) After a few more seconds JARVIS breaks the silence. "Correction. Director Fury is in Berne." Another pause, and -- "Director Fury is aboard a Gulfstream G5 returning to New York City from Kuala Lumpur." Pause. "Director Fury is not found within this building." Pause. "Director Fury is--" "JARVIS." When Fury speaks it's clipped. Not rude, of course: he doesn't believe in being rude, not even to automatons. "You don't need to try and find me." Is that a note of gratitude in JARVIS's voice? "Yes, Director. Thank you." Fury looks over towards Pepper, giving her a faint nod of acknowledgment. "I'm actually kind of impressed, JARVIS," he says to the artificial intelligence while keeping his eyes on Pepper. "Half the time where I am's so classified my own shadow doesn't know where to find me. JARVIS, why don't you tell Ms. Potts here why I'm not actually here." "Ms. Potts, there exists a ninety-three point six percent chance you are speaking with an advanced SHIELD Life Model Decoy. The Director is infamous for utilizing them. The odds are ninety-seven point one percent that the Director is aware that I have computed it to be a ninety-three point six percent chance this is not actually him. This would seem to imply that it probably is him. Further analysis is inhibited by the the Logical Paradox Fuses that Mr. Stark installed last week." Pause, beat beat. "Sixteen new sets of Logical Paradox Fuses have been ordered. I suspect I'll be needing them." With that, Fury gives a serpentine smile and looks over towards the cars. He walks over towards the Thirty-Two Ford, stroking his hand over it as if it was a particularly beautiful woman's naked form. "'32. I was sixteen the first time I drove one of these. I went driving with Molly..." He pauses a moment. "Molly something. It's been a few years."

Pepper Potts simply blinks at Fury while JARVIS does his version of stammering confusedly. There's just no way she'll remember everything that was just said. Mostly because it's not important to remember it. "Now that I know why you're not actually here, Director, why are you here?" One hand taps at the tablet to turn off the display, and in half-turning to do so, she sees that Ms. Li has arrived to work on the black and red car. She can't keep makes and models straight, and she doesn't have to. She lets JARVIS do that because it's just more details that slide out of her brain. She smiles a hello to the mechanic, standing to greet her. "Tanya, hello. Come in, please."

"Eighty-five horsepowers, hundred and forty torques," says Tanya with a grin, nodding to the man and the car. "Good choice for a first car." Yes, he looks a hell of a lot younger than being sixteen when the car was new would seem to allow, but--she knows better than to assume anything with S.H.I.E.L.D. agents. She's met enough of them to figure that one out. Approaching Pepper, she grins and holds out her hand for a firm handshake, saying, "Nice to see you again, Miss Potts. Thanks for calling about the car--I've got'a admit I jumped at the chance to work on such a fine car." She doesn't really say that she all but literally jumped at it, grabbing the ticket out of Janine's hand before the woman could call on the next available mechanic. She really is trying to be a professional, here.

"And a modern Mustang GT puts out what, three hundred fifty horsepower. We live in a decadent era," the Eternal Colonel muses to no one in particular. He turns then, looking over towards Pepper. "I don't suppose there's any update on that matter we spoke about? The political matter."

Pepper Potts shakes Tanya's hand, then turns to Nick again. She's sticking to pleasantries for the moment, but it's clear by her expression that she did NOT miss his comment about a car like the Ford having been his first car. Manners first, though. "Director Fury, this is Tanya Li, mechanic for Mack and Co. Tanya, Nick Fury is director of S.H.I.E.L.D." ... some portion of it, anyway. She's never specifically been told and she knows better than to ask. When the man asks about the political matter, she looks at him for a moment before smiling at Tanya once more. "Excuse us, please." She then glances at Nick and steps back toward the workbench where her tablet sits.

"Tanya Li, from Mack and Company Automotive Repair," says Tanya, smiling at the director and holding out her hand for a firm handshake, but not like she's trying to have a contest of strength. More like she just isn't one of those dainty handshakers who thinks her hand is going to break if she actually puts some confidence into it. It might also be noticeable that once more she stands a bit straighter, a little bit of nervousness about her which she tries to hide. Director of bloody S.H.I.E.L.D. She has to hope that Pete Wisdom, Doug What's-his-Name, and that Danvers woman didn't write anything too bad about her in her file--and she knows she has to have a file. It's S.H.I.E.L.D., after all; they probably have files on nearly literally everyone.

The Eternal Colonel shakes the hand that Tanya offers to him. If he takes note of the extensive tattooing and ink-work, he shows no sign of it. "Pleasure. Leave your card and I might have some work for you -- 1967 Dodge Charger, bought it new. Getting to that age where it needs almost constant work done on it to keep it running. If you'll pardon me for a moment, though?" With that, he moves over towards the workbench, following Pepper over there -- apparently they have something small they have to discuss.

Pepper Potts looks at Fury more seriously once they've stepped a bit away from Tanya. It's not that she doesn't trust the mechanic, it's that she thinks Fury would be more comfortable talking at least kind of privately. "I did a bit of research on the Senator as you suggested, and, well, when my queries about his campaign funding during the last election were brought to his office's attention, they seemed very quick to assure me everything was fine, and I haven't really heard much about him in the news since."

"I'll do that," says Tanya, smiling to the man. It would be a dream to work on an old Charger like that--fun, even. Classic muscle is just--fun, really, to drive, to work on, and everything else. She clucks her tongue and heads over to the Roadster. The toolbox is set on the ground nearby, then she pops open the hood and leans in over the engine, doing a visual inspection first.

"Yeah, well -- bad pennies always turn up, and you can't keep a corrupt politician down," Colonel Fury quips to Pepper. "Thank you, Ms. Potts." Then, over towards Tanya -- "Nobody's ever made a more aggressive nose than the '67 Charger, you ask me. Thing looks like an old school electric razor. You see that in your rear view and you know you're looking at a world of hurt if you don't get out of its way. There aren't too many cars with genuinely mean noses. Aggressive ones, sure. But not too many mean ones -- and the '67 Charger takes the prize there."

Pepper Potts nods to Fury, then looks between him and Tanya, smiling quietly but not offering any opinions to their conversation. They're talking cars, and that's actually worse than talking science around her. At least science she has half a clue about merely from being around Tony for so long. She glances at her tablet to see if the 'new message' LED is blinking, but for a change it's not.

"A lot of that meanness comes from that Charger introducing the four-forty Magnum, which became the standard engine with the new R''T package," Tanya says as she pokes around the Roadster's engine, the grin audible in her voice. "Dodge did not mess around when it came to the Charger." Ah, here's one of the problems. She leans in a bit further, reaching in to check on something.

As is maddeningly common where the Colonel is concerned ... people who can appear almost by magic can disappear just as quickly, too. His business with Pepper concluded, he takes advantage of a brief moment where no one is looking at him to take a step away -- and if you give a modern-day ninja a single step away, it might as well be a mile. He leaves behind his cigar, still burning, so as to fool the nose into thinking he's still around: but the man is nowhere to be seen.

Pepper Potts looks back toward Tanya and Ni... she blinks and looks around, but isn't overly surprised by the S.H.I.E.L.D. director's ninja skills. She does, though, promptly reach over to put out the cigar, wrinkling her nose in distaste at the smell. "Did you find something?" She asks, mostly to have something to say.

"Think so," says Tanya, standing back and turning around. "Did you--" she says, stopping herself when she realizes that the Director is gone. That's--that's something. S.H.I.E.L.D. training really is something. "Umm--right," she says as she regains her composure. "Hey, if you're free now, did you want those lessons in car repair?" She grins at the other woman, there. "The more you know about them, the less intimidating they'll be, after all." She remembers the--difficulty--the red-head had trying to drive the Shelby, and while she wouldn't mind driving it again, she'd rather teach Miss Potts. Nothing is as enjoyable about an interest as sharing it with someone else.

"Well, I ... " Pepper hesitates, a dozen excuses springing to mind instantly. But, really, there's no logical reason to decline the offer. So, after a moment of deliberating, she smiles and nods to Tanya. "All right. Though maybe I should see if there's a set of coveralls lying around here somewhere?" knowing Tony, there's at least a few changes of clothes in here. Where in here is of course the REAL question.

"Probably a good idea, yes," agrees Tanya, grinning and looking around. She--really has no idea where such things would be, either, assuming they even exist. She can tell at a glance that this isn't a set-up generally favored by methodical gear-heads. "Maybe we should just start with the basics and work on getting dirty next time," she offers, arching a brow and rubbing the back of her neck. "I can bring a spare uniform or two so you can have them on-hand, yeah?"

"Miss Potts, Sir usually keeps spare sets of coveralls in the fourth storage cabinet over from the elevator," JARVIS offers. It's not a helpful tone of voice, heavens no. That would be expecting far too much from the AI. Pepper turns to look at the cabinet indicated by the disembodied voice, then goes to check the cabinet. Sure enough, there's a small stack of coveralls near the bottom shelf. The rest of the cabinet appears to be a slightly haphazard collection of simple medical supplies. "Thank you, JARVIS." She pulls the top garment and starts to put it on over her office clothes, mentally thanking the powers that be that she chose to wear slacks today. Oddly enough, the coveralls don't seem to be excessively overlarge for her except for the sleeves, which she rolls up past her wrists anyway.

"...wow, he's got to be handy," says Tanya, looking up and around the ceiling as if trying to find the source of the voice. "Man, wish I could have one of those." Either it's expensive as hell, or she'd just fry it anyway; either way, it's not something she'll see. When Pepper's ready, Tanya has her come over to look at the engine. "Okay, this is your V-Eight," she says, pointing to the engine. "It's called a V-Eight because it has eight cylinders arranged in a V formation..." She'll go slowly, taking Pepper through the basics of the engine, the Edelbrock heads and a Thickstun manifold with dual Stromberg Ninety-Seven Carburetors, so on and so on, pausing to answer questions whenever necessary.

Pepper Potts tries to keep up, committing as much to memory as she can. It's one of those things that Tony's never even tried to explain to her for no reason she can think of. Though maybe this is why. By the time Tanya's reached halfway through the engine's parts, she can't remember where they started. "Um... sorry, I've lost track again."

With a grin, Tanya says,"Hey, not a problem. I know it can be a bit much; if I go too fast, just let me know, okay?  I can go slower, I promise." She starts over, taking a slightly different tack. She explains the V-Eight, pointing out the four cylinders on each side, then asks her to repeat it. She'll commit it to the red-head's memory if it kills her, damn it. She'll take this tack as long as necessary, pointing out a part to Pepper, then having her repeat it. She'll backtrack as much as necessary, too.

Pepper Potts looks at Tanya for a moment, then quickly starts naming the parts already pointed out to her. She can memorize the names of things quickly, but it doesn't mean she has a CLUE how they work together to make a car a car and not a very big paperweight. "This reminds me of calculus. I could recognize everything on every page in the book, but none of it made any sense to me."

"Well, hmm." Tanya thinks about that for a moment, standing back and furrowing her brows. "Well," she says after a moment, "we can go even more basic than that. If you want, we can schedule some actual teaching-time, and I can bring a few props so I can really show you how the cylinders work to compress the gas, how the spark-plugs work, the whole nine yards.  I figure that way you literally can see how it all fits together, how it all really works.  Would you like to do that?"

Pepper Potts nods. "That would probably be better. It's all just ... so ... convoluted." She looks at the hotrod Ford's engine, and she can't help but imagine how Tony's Iron Man suit is so many orders of magnitude more complex than this, and yet, this is utterly beyond her. It's humbling. And frustrating. At the same time.

"Alright, perfect. Give me a day and a time, and you'll probably want to set aside a couple-few hours," says Tanya as she crouches next to her toolbox and starts poking through it. "And hey, don't feel too bad, you know? I mean, I know I've said it before, but I know office work and such isn't that easy.  Seriously.  You think this is convoluted?  That's how I feel when I watch Janine work, so I can only imagine how tough it is being, well, you." She's quite sincere in that attempt to show that different people "get" different things. She could never do Janine's work, much less all but run Stark Industries, like it's speculated in some of the tech magazines that Potts does, on top of her "regular" duties. No way in hell.

Pepper Potts chuckles softly at that, perhaps a bit bashfully. "True. And good thing too, can you imagine the look on Tony's face if I tried to fix this car for him?" She can, and she can almost HEAR his voice.

"Ha. That'd be something," says Tanya, pausing in her rummaging to grin up at Pepper. "Know what'll be even better? The look on his face when you manage to fix something on this car and have it work." A lift of his brows, there, then she reaches into the toolbox and pulls out a crescent wrench. "Now, for this problem," she says as she straightens and leans back into the car's engine compartment, "as you can see here, what we'll need to do is first remove the fan belt, because as you can see, it's blocking this over here..." And continue the pointing-out of the specific problem and why it's a problem, including what she'll have to do to fix it. All without charging for the full time, too. She takes her work seriously enough to only charge for the time spent actually working.

Pepper Potts chuckles at that. "Hm, you have a point there. I think he might actually be struck speechless." She leans a bit to watch Tanya get back to repairing the '32 Ford, watching her remove items and explain as she's doing things. She's genuinely interested, because even if she doesn't know HOW the engine works, she can understand having to remove items to reach what's behind them.

((Fade Out on Repairs and Teaching))