2013.07.13 - A Visit From Some New Friends

Sue Storm wanders into the lab quietly, her almost ever-present grey cardigan pulled tightly closed. She stands just inside the doorway for a while, listening to the music and watching Reed.

As the song switches from 'Women', Reed pushes himself across the lab on his wheeled chair to another workstation. Upon reaching the workstation he stops and waits for a a heavy drum beat solo followed by the intro to a song, to which Reed sings along with, almost in perfect pitch with it. "White light, strange city! Mad music... all around. Midnight, street magic, crazy people.. crazy sound..."

"I'm sorry, sir, what did you say your name was?"

The receptionist eyes Vorpal. The purple cat presents her with his BSA card. "Vorpal, ma'am. Miss Storm should remember me. Just in case, mention the purple cat part." He gives her a grin.

A few seconds later, there'd be a phone call to announce the visitor.

As the call comes in the music in Reed's lab automatically lowers as the voice of Roberta come on over the speakers. -Excuse me Doctor Richards, I hate to interrupt you while youre working, but there is someone here looking for Miss Storm. And I'm not sure if she is in or not.- Reaching over to a panel, Reed hits pause. "It's alright Roberta. I'll track her down and bring her there." As he stands from his seat he rocks his head from side to side as if trying to work out some kinks.

Sue Storm startles at Roberta's voice, but doesn't slink out of Reed's lab. She's here, and she doesn't have anything to hide. She's about to answer the voice herself but Reed beats her to it, likely because he hasn't yet realized she's in the room. He was rather engrossed in his work. So, she waits. Because.

The cat lets the receptionist speak with whomever she needs to speak to announce his presence. He does make a point of taking back his ID... because he has almost lost it several times already by handing it over to officials or pertinent people. It would be an incredible embarrassment if they had to call him from the Baxter Building. What would they think?

Upon removing his lab coat and tossing it on the workstation he was at, well it's more of his way of reminding himself as to which project he was working on. As he straightens up Reed turns and stops seeing Sue in the door way. Something is different about the worlds smartest man. Is that some kind of style he's in? It seems that Reed has learned the chic style of clothing. He's wearing gray slacks, red All-Star chucks and a black t-shirt. "Oh! Sue. Umm how long...?" he takes a moment before quickly changing the subject. "W..we have a visitor." Nice one Richards.

Sue Storm shrugs one shoulder at Reed's slightly awkward question. "Not long. We should go check in so he's not left waiting. Roberta, would you please see Vorpal up to the family room?" She glances up at the ceiling as she says this, force of habit. But then she waits for Reed before heading to the aforementioned room herself.

"Thank you, ma'am." The cat says, being led to the family room by Roberta. When she leaves, Vorpal does the 'waiting room shuffle'-- he stands for a little bit, looks around, sits down, stands up again, then sits down again, trying to look like he's cool and at ease. It doesn't work.

Reed follows Sue, however he notices something seems off. As they board the lift, he hesitates to say something, but knowing his timing it's not the best moment. Then with a shake of his head he just figures what the hell. "Susan?" He says to her before placing a hand on her shoulder. "Is everything alright?" And with that said the doors to the living area open.

Sue Storm glances up at Reed briefly. "I'll talk to you about it later," she says softly, the steps out of the elevator and approaches the somewhat fidgety Vorpal. "Hi."

The cat looks up- he had been trying to check his messages on his phone, and he smiles "Miss Storm, you remembered me--" he blinks and notices the man she is walking with. He stands up to extend his hand to the lady in greeting, and the to Reed "Vorpal," he says, offering his hand in introduction.

Reed's eyes go wide upon meeting Vorpal. "Felis Sapian, fascinating." As he stands still Reed's head starts to stretch around Vorpal, visually studying the creature. "Absolutely incredible."

Sue Storm shakes Vorpal's hand, closing her eyes for a second as Reed immediately goes for serious creep-out factor. "Hello again, Vorpal. Sorry we didn't have much chance to really talk the other day." She was visibly upset when all of the heroes that accompanied Superman to Louisiana parted ways, and even now she seems more subdued than usual. "What can we do to help you today?" At least she's making some effort, right?

Alright, that was a better reaction than 'Oh My God What Is That????'- but it was a little creepy to be scrutinized. "You think *that's* fascinating, just wait until you hear me have a go at the Karaoke!" he gives Reed a Cheshire Grin.. and decides to play a little prank, nothing too bad. But his neck does stretch just like Reed's, anglingg his head a little around the elastic man, and returns to its natural length a second later.

It was all an illusion, of course, but he didn't need to tell him right away.

"Oh, it's merely a social call, Miss Storm. I wanted to thank you for Louisiana. I haven't had a chance to speak to anyone else after that... incident..." he shivers visibly. After all, he HAD gone into the body of a Loa of the dead. How could that have been pleasant? "I wanted to see how you were doing afterwards. I haven't been able to find out how Aquaman is...I'm pretty much an unknown so I don't have connections with the League to find out where he is, or how his recovery goes."

Upon the 'illusion' Reed raises a brown and returns his head to his body. As they speak Reed looks between Sue and Vorpal a bit confused. "What happened to who?" This is what happens when he locks himself in his lab to do thinks like build space ships and find a cure for cancer.

Sue Storm looks sadder at the purple feline's words. Aquaman. That was Aquaman that she failed to protect. She mentally files the name away for later. "I haven't been able to find out either, and I don't have any way to ask or I would have already." She huddles a little further into her grey cardigan, crossing her arms as if cold.

The cat looks at Reed. "Miss Storm and I helped Superman and some other assembled heroes to defeat a supernatural entity known as Baron Samedi, Loa of the Dead. We were sucked into his realm and fought an eight-storey version of him. In that fight, Aquaman lost his hand." There you have it, the cliff notes version.

It is in the midst of Reed's confusion that the intercom system is activated. It seems there is a visitor for Doctors Richards and Storm, or more for their current visitor, who is dressed in a form fitting red suit with a picture of a spider on it.

After appropriate measures, whatever they are, for the building are taken the hero known at the Iron Spider is sent up to the laboratory. Dressed in his full crimson colored costume the hero in question offers by way of greeting not a wave or a word but a salute directed in the direction of Reed Richards. "My apologies if I am interrupting anything. I know that Vorpal was going to be here and I wanted to stop in and check how he was doing."

Reed's gaze turns to Sue now realizing what's bothering Sue. "I see." Reed says as he continues to observe Sue. "I think I can pull in some favors and some strings to find out his condition." His tone is somber before looking back to Vorpal. He's about to say something to the Catman, that is until a Spider makes his way into their vicinity. That isn't Mr. Reilly. The suit is too low-tech and more armor then what Reed designs.

Sue Storm nods to Reed, then looks confused when yet another guest is announced. But the Spider (not Ben? this is so confusing) says he knew Vorpal was going to be here and she accepts the explanation with a faint 'oh'. "Would either of you care for something to drink?" It's an almost visible effort for her to play hostess, but does so because she was taught that it's just plain good manners to do so.

The cat looks over his shoulder, and gives Patrick the warmest smile he's given yet. "I'm fine, Iron Spider. Mister Richards, this is the Iron Spider, he and I work together a lot of the time." He makes an effort not to go over and hug him. Secret identities were secret identities, even if he didn't have one, Patrick did. He notices Sue's expression "I'm sorry... Miss Storm, have we come at a bad time? You do't need to worry about things such as drinks..."

He hadn't had any nightmares about their encounter--- but only because he was still having nightmares about the Joker.

Patrick shakes his head at Sue as she offers. "No, thank you." He takes a second to look the room over, part of his training he can't stop constantly on the search for possible dangers and places that things likely to shoot him might pop out of. He nods to the cat and adds, "We have a very good working relationship, and since I knew he was going to be here in a follow up to the events we were part of in Louisiana I thought I would stop in as well." After a second he makes a decision, and his costume starts to change. The mask slowly melts away revealing his face and the rest of it alters so that instead of the faceless masked hero he appears as an auburn haired young man in a blue t-shirt and jeans. "I have reason enough to trust everyone in this room, and as comfortable as I am in costume it is easier for people to talk to me when they can see my face." Is all he gives by way of explanation.

"No it's okay, I got it Susan." Reed speaks up quickly as he moves away from the small group. He doesn't hear them turning down the drink offer. There's a reason for that. He's thinking of whom he can contact for new on the Aquaman's status. As he walks to the kitchen he gathers some bottles of water. Tony may know something. He is an Avenger after all. He doesnt really know anyone in the Justice League for help. As he leaves the kitchen he returns and hands out the waters.

Sue Storm gestures vaguely towards the sofas, inviting both young men to have a seat while Reed fetches the beverages everyone declined. For her own part, she claims one corner of one sofa, tucking her feet under herself. "I wish I had more to tell you," she tells Patrick, which is pretty much what she already told Vorpal. "Reed's offered to find out what he can, though." And there's one thing about Reed, if he offers to do something, it WILL get done come hell or high water.

"I'm sorry, I should have kept my big mouth shut..." Vorp tries to think quickly, sitting down and looking at Patrick for an idea "... At least we were able to prevent a lot of potential catastrophes..."

Patrick nods and moves to stand beside the sofa instead of actually taking a seat. He holds himself almost like a soldier at ease in the company of superiors, proffering to stand and focusing his attention mostly on Sue and Reed since his assessment of the room its self is over. "Thank you sir." He says with a nod as he takes the offered water. "I...unfortunately am unable to help with much when it comes to information on how to contact Aquaman. He is amongst the nearly sixty percent of known active super humans I have no information on at all from my native reality." If there is anyone on the planet that would understand and accept him as an inter dimensionally lost clone, it is bound to be Dr Richards so Patrick is at least fairly relaxed mentioning it to him and Sue.

Native reality? Uh, you shouldn't have said that. Sue tilts her head at Patrick as she takes one of the water bottles, then squints one eye shut as she can already predict that Reed is gonna be all up in the kid's grill any second now. Cue a Reed-squee-attack in 3... 2... 1...

Taking a seat close to Sue, Reed stares at the floor. The talk of realities is tossed into the fray, but is he listening? "Uh huh." That's all Reed says. Is that high water rolling in? He's in thinking mode which is no big surprise. And while he may not be leistening, Reed has come to the conclusion that he can say three phrases and keep up with any conversation. The phrases being: Uh huh, Okay, and Yes sir/ma'am.

The cat decides he should better stir the conversation out of depressing areas.

"Doctor Richards?" he speaks up, voice clear. "My boyf--partner comes from a... well, Booster would call it an alternate reality. He has been looking for ways to" he pauses for a second, "find a way back to his world. I thought that maybe you might consider helping him.."

Patrick had a good enough idea that Reed Richards would have an interesting reaction to his being form another reality. He has done his research on the Dr Richards of this reality and while he can't make heads or tails out of the man's published papers directly, he does know where to look for plain English descriptions on what they are about. The non-committal he is not really listening reaction though, not one he was expecting. He looks down to Vorpal sitting on the sofa with a single eyebrow raised questioning look. If he had something more like a sense of humor he might go on about purple space whales, getting his information from the mystic alien God Boogie, or possibly the planet eating golden dragons that live in his pants just to see if Doctor Richards really is paying attention.

Sue Storm looks at Reed a bit confusedly, then to see if he's mentally wandered off to his lab, she takes the chilled water bottled and touches it to the back of his neck. You know, to see how far off the sofa he jumps. "Ground control to Major Tom," she offers, along with an apologetic glance toward the two young men. He's not usually like this, honest.

"Gah! Cold!" and with that Reed jumps off the couch and wipes off the back of his neck. "What was that for?" Reed asks as he looks to Sue before sighing and loosening up. "Did I space out again?" yeah he knows he did. As he looks to the other two gentleman he looks embarrassed. "My apologies."

Patrick is honestly not bothered, in fact has a slightly nostalgic look on his face. Blame it on his formative period being around a mad scientist he calls Father. There is a slight grin as Sue puts the bottle to Reed's neck. "It is ok Doctor Richards. My father was the same way, especially when presented with some interesting biological or genetic anomaly."

The cat chuckles at this. "Sorry, Dr. Richards. My partner here is a dimensionally-dislocated stray. With your sterling reputation, we thought that maybe..."

As Reed continues to wipe the back of his neck he replies. "You two thought that maybe I can figure out his home dimension might be?" Reed says as he sits back down. "I'm already working on it. That is if you came up in the lift then you've been scanned and my supercomputer is working on your point of origin." While he likes to give people their privacy, Reed likes to be informed on everything that comes through the doors of his home. Yes it's unsettling, but it's how Reed works.

Sue Storm smiles at Reed apologetically for resorting to the cold container trick to snap him out of his thoughtful spot, and is honestly glad to hear him talking with Vorpal and Patrick, but for her own part she stays quiet, turning aforementioned water bottle around in her hands.

Patrick nods lightly with a small smile. "It was a hope. I do not know if even it is possible, the negative zone gates were not meant to send people to alternate timelines. Or to explode in general." He shrugs a little, and shows no sign of being bothered by the scanning. "I...do not know how accurate the scans will be. It is possible that the suit I wear might have blocked some of it. St...Its creator put a number of things into it that were not in the specs given to him or in the ones he handed over with them. He is one of a handful of people I know of with a mind to rival your own and has a...perverse sense of humor at times when it comes to little surprises in his technology."

Leave it to the inestimable scientist to think ahead. The thought of Patrick being one step closer to leaving gives him a cold feeling at the pit of his stomach, and a fleeting expression across his face betrays it. Fortunately, Patrick is standing behind him so he has a moment to compose himself. "That is wonderful, Doctor Richards. I really couldn't think of anyone else... that didn't use magic. Although my origin is magical, I rather have a mistrust of magicians opening portals." The last time, he had gotten sucked into a death vortex to the Haitian version of hell.