《A Twist Of Marvel || Infinity War》27. Video Chat
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"I've gotten a decent sense of Tony and yours' plan, but I need to make a few adjustments." Strange had recovered from his use of the Time stone swiftly, and had wasted no time in moving them to one of Tony's relatively empty workbenches for planning purposes. Naomi hung onto his words, thankful to have someone else who understood exactly what could happen should they lose against Thanos. It felt like a weight had been lifted from her shoulders, though she still very much planned on being involved in and aiding the information department. Thor and Loki had followed the two of them over, but were less knowledgeable of the future, and poor Loki had never even been told what was really happening. Things got too emotional for him before Naomi could explain anything. Thankfully, Thor was there to paraphrase what he remembered from Naomi's lecture under his breath to Loki as they watched the prophet and the wizard converse.
"Okay. Where do we start?" Naomi found herself more confident in the doctors presence now that they were in an element she was more comfortable with. She still had the most invasive and private knowledge of the heroes, but Strange now knew much more about the events of the future.
"Wanda Maximoff and the Vision." Strange said, gesturing across the bench to Naomi for her to explain their roles in her and Tony's original plan.
"Wanda can destroy the mind stone, so we wanted her to come here and attempt to destroy the space stone in the Tesseract- but not the time stone, I know you won't allow that." Naomi moved her hands as she spoke, a habit she had never quite gotten rid of. However her words immediately attracted Loki's attention, who had previously been learning about the Infinity gauntlet from Thor. Upon mention of the Tesseract, and Wanda's possible ability to destroy it clearly piked his interest. "It's not a guarantee that she can, but we need to eliminate as many stones as possible. After that-" Naomi was cut off as Strange interjected, having heard what he needed to. It wasn't rude in Naomi's mind- though it might have been in Thor and Loki's, who were raised as gentlemanly princes.
"You're going to send them to Wakanda. Right, that needs to happen first; Wakanda is the priority." Strange stressed, staring at Naomi with an intensity that intimidated her a bit, but went appreciated. It meant that he was just as passionate about saving everyone as she was- which she knew he would be. She nodded in response, looking over to where Tony was finishing up his phone call, taking the phone down from his ear and staring at it for a moment. He turned and met eyes with Naomi, immediately making his way down to the rest of the group.
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"Rogers is coming." He affirmed, declining to say anything else on the matter. She knew how difficult things were between them after civil war, and in the back of her mind, she felt sorry for asking Tony to make the call. But not everything would be easy, and without Team Captain, the avengers would lose- again.
"Lovely." Loki smirked, drawing an unappreciative stare from almost everyone in the room. Tony quickly pulled his attention away from the trickster, his version of dealing with the man being to simply ignore him. Loki had unofficially become Thor's responsibility once they landed on Earth, though Naomi would be more than happy to spend time with him. Her idolized opinion of Loki was mostly washed away, her view now much more grounded and personal- however he was still Loki, how could one not want to hang out with him? Naomi didn't know.
"So whats new? Strange, you alright?" Tony asked, leaning his elbows onto the bench as he took as seat.
"Yeah, but we need to make adjustments to the plan." The sorcerer replied, looking between Naomi and Tony. Thor and Loki were making a habit of being left out today, though Naomi might have been the only one to notice. She made a mental note to try and explain everything better later so they could be a bigger part of the process.
"So far we need to bring Wanda and Vision straight to Wakanda from Scotland- we can't bother with the space stone." Naomi explained, leaning forward in her seat. Tony drew in his brows, thinking it over with a frustrated air. He was still shaken from the call with Steve, though Naomi had no clue what had been said. In a way, it was refreshing to not know something important about the Marvel heroes.
"Are you sure?" The question was directed at Naomi, not Strange. Tony looked to her for approval on Strange's plan, swelling Naomi's heart with prideful delight. Compared to a wizard he barely knew, Tony Stark trusted her decision over his. Naomi nearly grinned in the middle of a serious battle-planning session, but she controlled herself enough that only a joyful smile slipped out.
"Yeah. I trust Dr. Strange." Naomi glanced to Strange as she said it, her high from being trusted by Tony overriding her embarrassment. However his returning stare was much different than her own. His eyes were softer than they had been, and as she studied him, his features were heavy; laden with a mixture of determination and guilt. Naomi was struck with deja vu, it was the same stare Strange had given Tony in Infinity war, after he had looked into the future and seen the only outcome in which they could win.
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Shaken slightly, Naomi drew her eyes away from Strange and ignored it for the time being.
"So we need to call up Vision and Wanda, right?" She asked, directing the question at Tony.
"They haven't responded to my messages yet, but a call is worth a shot." He shrugged, pulling out a different, much higher-quality phone to check his messages. After scrolling and tapping on the screen for a moment, Tony swiped up across the length of the phone, and a hologram appeared over the bench. In the fashion they were seated, Tony on one side with Naomi and Strange across from him, Thor and Loki bunched together at one end- only Tony was facing the screen. On her side, Naomi could view the bright trademark blue of the back of the hologram as FRIDAY's voice rang out over the room.
"Video chat pending." The robotic voice announced. After a minute of tense silence, everyone watching Tony's reaction as he stared up at the screen, the disembodied voice spoke again.
"Video chat accepted."
Without a second's hesitation, Naomi could hear the connection spring to life, the various background noises of wherever the couple was filling their silent lab.
"Tony Stark." The Vision's voice came from the hologram, his face hidden to Naomi. Tony didn't seem overly surprised at the formal greeting, deciding not to bother with small talk himself.
"You need to reply to my messages." Tony admonished, pointing a threatening finger at the hologram. However his usual energy was lacking, the genius somewhat drained by everything going on.
"Wanda and I are not keen on leaving on account of a cryptic message." Vision replied, his voice monotone, his words measured. Tony rolled his eyes, unsatisfied with his explanation.
"I would hardly call them cryptic, there's only so much you can write when you have to hack into a person's system." He was exasperatedly bitter, his eyes suddenly darting to the edge of the frame, as though he had seen some movement.
"Is privacy a crime?" Wanda replied this time, no doubt having moved into the view of the camera. Her accent from Age of Ultron was mostly dissolved, the only trace of it found in a slight thickness of her words.
"You've had two years to be private. Now we have a war on our hands."
"What war? You make no sense, Tony." Wanda countered, Naomi imagining her leaning closer to the camera in angry confusion. Tony sighed stubbornly, throwing his head back before peering under the hologram at Naomi.
"Then why don't you talk to someone who does." He stated plainly, waving at Naomi for her to come over. For an instant, she was struck with a strange sense of stage fright, and fervently mouthed objections to Tony. The billionaire was having none of it, however. "Get over here, Hepburn. I need your prophetic knowledge." He waved his hands dramatically at the last words, a trace of his humor shining through his current downtrodden mood.
His demeanor swayed Naomi enough to hesitantly rise from her seat, throwing her gaze over the princes as she moved around the table. Thor, bless him, sent an encouraging thumbs-up to boost her confidence. However it was shattered when Loki decided that a wink was the best course of action, and completely threw Naomi for a loop. Thus, when she finally came into the camera's view, she was blushing and stiff, not at all a good impression on two of the most powerful Avengers. Peering around the edge of the hologram, she sent a dirty look to Loki, which settled her nerves a bit. The God only grinned good-naturedly in turn, enjoying himself.
Directing her attention back to the video chat, she was met with the sight of Wanda and Vision in his Paul Bettany form, which was the only way she could think of it. They were obviously sitting at a desk, a small living room in view in the space behind them. They both peered at her curiously, no doubt intrigued by Tony's mention of 'prophetic knowledge.'
Taking a secretive breath, she drew in the available chair by Tony, settling and staring between the two superheroes. With a moment's hesitation, she blessed them with her prophetic wisdom.
"Everything's about to turn to shit."
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