The Conceptual Deck

I stood up on the roof of a short abandoned building, located on the opposite side of the Bronx as my apartment. I slowly worked through the different motions of a modified Wing Chun stance, moving and stretching, working my muscles before releasing the final form with a soft groan, walking to and dropping down to a chair I had brought up with me.

"Impressive" Ema commented softly, darting from the far side of the building to my side. "Especially considering you had no martial arts training eleven hours ago."

"It feels like the information is getting easier to access as I practice." I said with a shrug. "And I'm pretty sure my body is adjusting itself. It's hard to say for sure but I feel a tiny bit more flexible than I normally am."

"We will run a more detailed scan tomorrow and compare the one I did earlier." Ema said, still a bit miffed she hadn't scanned me sooner. "I will be able to compare the two."

For a while we watched down the street I was facing before Ema floated away to scan the alley and the street behind me. Our first night of our "hope we get lucky plan" was turning out to be pretty boring. Although, to be fair, practicing handstands and standing backflips was pretty entertaining.

Eventually I stood, stretching my arms up high before walking closer to the center of the building. I started to stretch more seriously, working through all of the stretches I now knew were suggested for a gymnast to increase flexibility over time.

"Carson, do you mind me asking… how old are you?" Ema asked after about ten minutes of me stretching.

I stopped what I was doing and looked over at her, eyebrow raised. She was still floating on the opposite side of the building, but had turned to look at me.

"You don't already know?" I asked. "I thought you got a pretty big info dumb when I made you."

"I did, but it was primarily information about your reality and what your situation was." She explained, the center piece of her body faintly pulsing green. "I learned nothing about you."

"Oh… I didn't know that." I admitted, before moving back to stretching my legs. "There isn't much to know honestly."

"Truly? Or are you just saying that to get out of talking about yourself?"

"It's about fifty fifty." I answered with a chuckle. "Well… Since you're curious I'm twenty-six. But you already knew I was around that old."

"True. I could tell your approximate age from the in depth scan we did after you put on your ring." She admitted, slowly floating bobbing towards me. "In truth that is what got me interested. I was asking your age as an opening to inquire about your history further."

"Ah, fair enough. Like I said, there isn't much to know. I've lived my whole life in New York City. To be honest I don't think I could voluntarily live anywhere else."

"You like living in the city?"

"On good days, sure." I answered with a chuckle. "But no, it's more like the city is part of me. The good and the bad."

"I see." She responded. "I'm sorry I don't quite understand."

"I'm not surprised. I'm not sure you have the frame of reference to understand Ema." I admitted before continuing. "Do you hate the color blue?"

"No, not particularly. Why?"

"Well, would you mind if I painted you blue then?" I asked, starting a different stretch before continuing. "Not for any reason really, I just feel like making you blue."

"I would not like that at all." She stated, indignation leaking into her voice. "I am green."

"So even though you don't hate blue, you really don't want to be blue, 'cause it isn't green?" I asked, gesturing as she bobbed in confirmation. "Being a New Yorker is like that for some people. We don't hate other places or types of places, but being anything but a New Yorker would just feel wrong."

"I see… I think." She responded hesitantly. "Thank you for the analogy."

"No problem"

"... anything else you want to share?" She prompted after a minute or two of silence.

"Uh…I'm an only child? I don't really have any family left, even before the reality crossing." I explained, pausing a moment before continuing. "To answer the question everyone wants to ask after hearing that, my parents died in a house fire not long after I moved out."

"My condolences."

"Thank you." I said, before coughing and continuing. "I'm glad I didn't leave anyone behind, as horrible as that might sound."

"No, I think I understand." She assured me, floating closer, watching me stretch. "What about friends?"

"That's… a complicated question" I admitted with a wince.

"We aren't going anywhere for a while." She insisted, pulsing a light green for a moment.

"I suppose you're right." I said with a chuckle before sighing. "I was in between friend groups when I ended up here. The last group were rowdy partiers and to be honest I fit right in at first. But the group started drifting into heavier stuff. Booze and a little weed is fun but when people started bringing harder drugs… I tried to convince them it was a bad road but all that did was piss them off. Eventually I was the only one who wasn't hooked on something bad. Every conversation turned into a talk about how to get the next hit, how to get more money for more drugs… When one of them bragged about mugging someone for some cash I realized if I stayed I would eventually get pulled down with them.. so I left."

"Well… I'm glad you did."

I nodded, standing and easily dropping into a Mauy Thai fighting stance. I could feel how much more predominant and easy to slide into it was than the Wing Chun stance. I threw a half dozen kicks and punches, feeling the knowledge flow and ebb, feeling more natural as I used it. I dropped the stance and looked over at Ema.

"We definitely made the right choice in the order I combined the books. Mauy Thai is the easiest knowledge to use, it's almost as natural as anything I already know." I explained, eager for the change in subject. "It's also the most extensive."

"Wouldn't it have been better to have all of them like that?" She asked, facing out towards the street.

"I'm pretty sure it was a trade off. Either we got one coming through perfectly with everything else being secondary, or we got them all coming across poorly. It's better to have one be perfect than have them all slightly better than decent."

"I can see that logic I suppose."

"I am going to have to find someplace to practice though. I can feel that these practice stances and shadow boxing just isn't gonna cut it."

"Perhaps a nearby dojo will have people willing to spar with you?" The green construct suggested.

"Not a bad idea, though I'll likely have to join in order to spar." I pointed out.

"I suppose that's true."

The two of us were quiet for a while, even when I stopped practicing and sat down in my chair, watching the street. I was still nervous about being seen, a symptom of my last escapade in this suit. I slid my seat a bit further back, making sure I wasn't visible from the street. After a few minutes Ema floated over again.

"When you're satisfied with your progress, do you wish for me to remain a secret?" She asked, floating around in the dark. "Or at least how advanced I am?"

"That depends on what situation we find ourselves in. If we are voluntarily talking to Stark or whoever, then we should probably be honest. Otherwise I have to admit you would make a great backup plan."

"I agree. Perhaps I could pretend to be some sort of mindless drone?"

"That's a really good idea." I agreed after a moment of thinking. "Would let you stick around but they wouldn't expect you to act on your own if I'm in trouble. Solid plan Ema."

I helded out my fist. After a moment she bumps it with her frame, chuckling softly.

"In a similar vein, I was thinking about how much I should reveal about the Deck." I continued. "I know it could be used to do some pretty broken things with the right resources. What do you think about me pretending that I'm making this stuff another way?"

"Like through technology? No offense but I think you lack the technical know-how to back that claim up."

"Well first, with the right books and another piece of jewelry that wouldn't be the case." I pointed out before continuing. "We don't know if it's true here, but magic is all over the place in the main Marvel storyline. I could hint at being some kind of enchanter but ultimately stay mysterious about what I'm actually doing. That way I can explain where I get my toys and nobody assumes I can just churn them out constantly from normal everyday stuff."

"With organizations like Shield around that would require you to keep your real identity a secret. They wouldn't hesitate to invade your privacy to discover the truth about your abilities."

"True… I hadn't thought of that." I admitted. "But like all my other problems, maintaining this illusion is temporary. Eventually if I make enough allies and gain enough strength there won't be a reason to have to hide."

"Allies?" Ema asked. "Do you plan on forming alliances or…?"

"If there is one thing I'm certain of in any Marvel universe, no matter how strange and different it is, is that people with powers, talents and abilities get pulled together, usually to deal with bigger threats. It is as inevitable as death, taxes and sunsets. Eventually someone is going to reach out, or I'm gonna get pulled into some sort of shenanigans. I just hope that I'm strong enough to help, and to keep from getting myself killed."

Ema looked at me, not saying anything for a while. I shrugged, standing from my chair and pulling it into a card.

"And on that note I think it's time to call it a night. We can keep an eye open for anything on the way home."

Washington D.C. - Triskelion - Nick Fury's Office

In a different state, in a large government building, Nick Fury sat behind his desk. He was leaning back in his chair, waiting for his second in command to make her way to his desk. Behind him was a rather impressive view of Washington DC at night. Being in charge seemed to have its perks.

"Alright, what have you got Agent Hill?" He asked, leafing through the file he had just been handed.

"Two days ago, at approximately ten thirty pm an unknown individual was discovered in the Stark Expo center." She began, standing at parade rest, eyes above her superior officer. "We do not know how long they were on site, or what they were there for, but we do know they accessed one of the venues showing off some tech from one of the invited companies. They climbed through a broken window."

"What did they take?"

"As far as we can tell? Absolutely nothing."

"So you're telling me someone wearing unknown stealth technology hopped a fence, evaded patrols and climbed through a broken window… for sightseeing?"

"We aren't sure sir, but we called in the staff of the event to confirm and as far as they could tell; nothing was missing."

Fury shook his head, putting the security tape images down, and lent forward to lean on his desk, motioning for the female agent to continue.

"The individual went deeper into the center before stopping and turning around. Based on how he was described by the officer who discovered him, we think he saw that the rest of the park was lit up and turned around."

"The assumption being that bright lights interfere with their ability to fade into darkness?"

"Yes sir. The police officer described him as being blurred around the edges, like his eyes were sliding off unless he focused. Judging by how close another patrol potentially got to the individual, I'd say it works better when he isn't moving."

"That kind of stealth technology must be pretty advanced. Anyone lost anything like that recently?"

"Sir, as far as I'm aware that kind of tech doesn't exist, at least not for personal or mobile use. I asked around the usual suspects and all I got was requests to study it if we caught them."

"And this smoke spray?"

"The lab is analyzing it right now, but so far they know it's non toxic, a slight irritant and oddly derivative of a powder used in fire extinguishers . Again, no leads on where that came from, though it could be low tech enough to be homemade."

"Any leads on the drone?"

"Again the usual sources didn't recognize it, and we aren't sure but after studying the footage it doesn't appear to be using propellers."

"Well it sure as hell isn't using jets." Fury said, looking at a close up of the small angular drone. "Repulsor tech?"

"Possibly sir, especially if it shared the same stealth technology as the suit to muffle sound."

Fury frowned, closing and then dropping the file onto his desk. He stood and made his way back to the window overlooking the city, clasping his hands behind his back.

"So no leads on what they were after, why they didn't take anything, and where their tech came from?"

"Well sir, we interviewed the officers in the area and discovered that a patrol appears to have been in close proximity to the area where the individual stopped and began to retreat. One of them claimed to have seen something but written it off as a shadow. Apparently they were discussing how the Hammer drones had self-destructed, something that hasn't made it to the news circle yet."

"So someone wanted to get their hands on the drone, and when they heard they all exploded they gave up?" Nick confirmed, before turning back to Agent Hill, eyebrow raised.

"More specifically sir, we think that they were after the arc reactors. According to the plans we confiscated from Ivan Vanko's workshop, the only thing worth the effort was the reactor. Further, the person was by themselves, they had no way to transport an entire drone."

"But making off with a reactor would be much easier. It sounds like we have a tech scavenger on our hands."

"Possibly. Though I will say from the footage we have from the security cameras, my guess is that they aren't combat or stealth trained."

"So a potential civilian in a high tech suit?"

"That's what it looks like so far sir. The irony is that plenty of reporters and civilians have snuck in and been tossed back out without much more than a slap on the wrist. The only reason this is of interest is because of the tech displayed."

"So we have someone who is either new to the game, or someone who stumbled onto some goodies and decided to try their hand at looting more." Fury surmised, pulling out his phone before looking back to the agent. "Either way I'm going to put Coulson on it."

"Coulson sir?" Agent Hill asked, still at parade rest. "Seems overkill for what could be a lucky civilian."

"Coulson is good with civilians. Besides, if something more important comes up I'll just reassign him and pass this off to someone else."

"Very well sir. I'll send the file over to Agent Coulson immediately and inform the lab to send the final results to his desk."

The director nodded, his phone now pressed to his ear as Agent Hill turned and left. It only rang twice before Agent Coulson answered, despite it being around two in the morning.

"Coulson, I need you to come in. I've got something I want you to look into."