[oom] make up some simple lies and compromise

[from_the_outside]

They gather, bright and early, back in the conference room that's beginning to feel downright familiar: T'Challa, Nakia, Shuri, Okoye, Ayo, Steve, Bucky, and herself, with a speak in the middle of the table for Fury's call. With the celebration behind them, everyone looks a little tired but focused: there's no time to lose. The first meet is tomorrow, and they have to be ready.

But first, they need to get everyone on the same page. 

Once all the attendees are sitting with their choice of coffee or tea or water in front of them, and once Fury has called in, T'Challa looks around the table, meeting everyone's eyes briefly before speaking. "Thank you all for being here," he begins, and nods to Steve. "Particularly you, Captain Rogers. Your assistance in this matter is much appreciated."

Sitting back again, he looks to Okoye and Ayo. "General. Where do we stand on the intelligence we have gathered and analyzed?"

Comments

[nerves_of_ice]

"Really?" Shuri brightens instantly, delight and curiosity intertwined. Bucky swallows a laugh as she latches onto Steve's arm, and notices that beside him Ayo is doing the same.

"Do you have it with you? Here? Now? Oh--" To Sharon, as she suddenly realizes she's left her unanswered. "Of course you may ask. Even if it is not fun I am sure I can do it."

[from_the_outside]

"Um..." starts Steve, looking down at Shuri with faint bewilderment, and Sharon has to fight the impulse to laugh. "No? I – "

"We can bring it to the lab," Sharon tells her. "We'll probably need your help outfitting Steve for the missions, anyway."

Shuri, hugely disappointed, blows a dramatic sigh and lets go of Steve. "Fine," she says, with a hefty dose of if you insist but this is all very annoying tacked onto it for good measure. "Sharon, we can talk about your suit then, too. I've been making repairs and I have some updates for you."

"Perfect," Sharon assures her, and waves as she heads out of the room, walking quickly despite already focusing on her tablet. Turning to Steve and Bucky, Sharon puts her hands on her hips, considering them.

"Let's go get that tech. And then, Steve? It's time for you to learn how to be a spy."

[nerves_of_ice]

"Find me after," Ayo murmurs beside him. "To discuss the transport, and surveillance." "I will," Bucky tells her. "Thanks."

She goes to join Okoye, and together the two of them leave with T'Challa - probably to contact M'Baku, Bucky thinks. Nakia walks up to join Sharon and Steve. "Did I hear you mention spy training, sister?"

[from_the_outside]

"You sure did," Sharon tells her, folding her arms as Nakia comes to stand by her and does the same, both of them now looking at Steve with critical academic glance of the professional who knows their work is cut out for them.

He glances from one to the other and instinctively puts up his hands. "Ladies?"

"What do you think?" Sharon asks, and Nakia tsks, frowns slightly. "I think it's good we met in the morning," she says, before her grin dawns, brilliant and warm.

"But we can do it."

[nerves_of_ice]

Steve gives Bucky a look that's slightly alarmed, and he smiles as he strolls over to stand beside his best friend.

"He'll do fine," he tells Sharon and Nakia, then turns to Steve. "You'll do fine," he repeats. "They are good at what they do, though."

[from_the_outside]

"We know," Sharon says, and pats Steve's shoulder as Nakia laughs. "We're just giving you a hard time, Steve. Come on, let's get that tech and get to work."

[nerves_of_ice]

It doesn't take long to grab the duffel from Steve's room. Bucky volunteers to retrieve it and makes his way quickly through the halls and back to join the others on the platform. The train to the lab is already waiting.

Nakia's careful to darken the windows, although it's unlikely that any of the suspect miners would look in and see them - still, better safe than sorry, especially when the stakes are so high. When they reach the lab, Shuri is waiting, excited and, to her credit, only slightly impatient.

[from_the_outside]

The pride on Shuri's face when Steve whistles low and impressed as he strolls through the lab, hands in his pockets and head on a swivel, defies easy description. Sharon can't help but grin at it. "This way, this way," she says, ushering them to a free table and casting a greedy look at the duffel Bucky puts down. She doesn't even let Steve open it for her, just snatches at it to pull open the zipper and root around inside, coming up with a blaster that wouldn't look out of place in Star Wars.

"Yesssssss," she says, beyond thrilled, before she keeps digging, apparently having forgotten all about the rest of them standing here patiently waiting.

[nerves_of_ice]

"I don't know what all of it is," Steve says, watching as Shuri pulls out a cylindrical cell. "I brought one complete weapon, something that we think might be an energy source, something that has some kind of weird wiring--"

"Hush," Shuri tells him. "I will figure it out. That is why you brought it to me."

Bucky says, a little dryly, "And then she'll upgrade it several levels and start her own criminal empire."

Shuri's head jerks up and she stares at him, then beams in delight. "You are joking! Do more of that."

[from_the_outside]

Next to her, Nakia stifles a giggle into her palm, and Sharon gives Bucky an amused look.

"Whatever you can find out will be helpful, Princess," Steve says, polite as ever. "Especially if you think it's something someone else might try with your stolen vibranium."

This return to reality brings Shuri back to earth with a nearly audible thump, and she nods, looking fierce. "I will," she promises. "Though I will have to pretend I am an order of magnitude less intelligent than I am to figure out what those people might be imagining is possible."

She glances at Sharon next, eyebrows lifting. "And you were asking about your suit?"

"Right," Sharon says. "Do you think it would be possible to program it to a necklace or bracelet or something, like T'Challa's Panter habit? I won't be able to wear it to the auction, but it would be nice to have the option of activating it."

[nerves_of_ice]

"Yes, of course," Shuri says, dismissively. "Although I might have to make some small modification to the fabric, but the principle is already established. Do you not remember how your gloves unfolded when you were testing the earliest prototypes? This will be a variation of that."

"Oh," Bucky says. "Of course." Shuri makes a face at him, then turns back to Sharon.

"Which do you want? Bracelet or necklace, or something else? I would not recommend a ring, that is a little too small, but perhaps a belt or --"

[from_the_outside]

Sharon shakes her head. "Whatever you think will work best," she says, "as long as it's relatively unobtrusive."

Shuri waves her off. "Fine, fine, I will come up with some options and you can pick. As a matter of fact, I wanted to rework the fabric anyway, to make it more resistant to cutting edges and punctures."

"So I won't get stabbed again, you mean?" Sharon asks, dry, and Shuri grins at her. "So you won't get stabbed again. But it will come at the cost of the chameleon circuit – at least for now."

[nerves_of_ice]

"I like the sound of that," Bucky puts in, and Steve nods. "So do I."

[from_the_outside]

"You didn't see how cool the chameleon circuit is, though," Sharon protests, but relents after Nakia gives her a stern look. "All right," she says, though not without a slight sigh. "Stab proof it is."

Shuri pats her hand and makes a note on her tablet before looking at Steve. "And you will need some kind of body armor, I suppose," she says, casting a critical eye over him. "Was there anything in particular you wanted?"

[nerves_of_ice]

"... I guess I can't wear the usual gear, right," Steve says, a little blankly. "Um. Whatever works?"

Bucky doesn't sigh. "He's got to look like a thug. Tough, I know, but..." He gives Steve a once-over and turns to Shuri. "Something that doesn't look like tactical gear. Under-the-clothes layer. A little bulky around the middle, but it can't interfere with mobility."

"Hey," Steve protests, and Bucky tosses him a quick grin that fades into something more serious. "Most thugs of this type are steroid-bulked goons. The more you look like what they'd expect, the less you'll be noticed."

[from_the_outside]

"He is right," Nakia says, looking at Steve. "Most of the bodyguards like the one you'll be portraying are ex-military, sometimes ex-mercenary. Big and intimidating. And you are..."

"A Dorito," Shuri says, tapping at her tablet, and Sharon very nearly bursts something as she swallows her laughter while Steve says, blankly: "A what?"

"Very fit," says Nakia, brightly, as Shuri turns her tablet so they can see. "Something like this, maybe?"

She's pulled up some base layer body armor which might do the trick; it's definitely a boxier silhouette than Steve sports naturally.

[nerves_of_ice]

Bucky inspects it, then turns to look thoughtfully at Steve before he nods. "Yeah. Something like that. As long as he can move in it."

[from_the_outside]

"Why not give it a try now?" Shuri asks, and disappears through a set of doors, gesturing impatiently for them to stay put.

She reappears a few minutes later with the body armor in question, holding it out to Steve like she's handing him a puppy. "Go on," she says. "Try it on. In the meantime, I will activate the sand spar so you can test it out."

[nerves_of_ice]

Steve glances at Bucky, who nods at a room just across the way that'll give him a little privacy. It doesn't take long for him to change, and when Steve steps back out into the main lab, he looks much less like the nomad Captain America that he's become and much more like a grizzled ex-mercenary.

Nakia applauds, very lightly. Shuri looks him over with a critical eye. "It does not suit you at all, but I guess that is the point. Now."

The sand platform shifts and surges upward into a mirror of Steve Rogers as he normally looks. "Do you wish to fight yourself, or someone else?"

[from_the_outside]

Steve stares at the sand-version of himself with unadulterated surprised delight for a moment before he realizes what Shuri's asking. "Uh, well... who hasn't wanted to go toe-to-toe with themselves?" he asks, and Sharon grins at him.

"It's fun," she promises. "Give it a whirl."

It's clear the testing is necessary; Steve's used to his Captain America suit, used to the way it fits and moves, and it shows in the first few strikes traded between the man and his doubled self. But he's nothing if not adaptable and within thirty seconds he's clearly up to his usual level of agility, backflipping out of the practice ring when the round is up as Nakia and Sharon applaud.

"Seems fine," he says, not even out of breath, which is intensely annoying. "Maybe a little harder to move in than usual, but doable."

[nerves_of_ice]

Bucky is leaning against the wall, his hand shoved casually in his pocket, watching the spectacle with clear amusement. "I think you'll be just fine," he says, studying him with a critical eye. "Been a while since you needed anyone to call the punches in the practice ring for you, huh?"

Steve grins at him. "You offering?" Bucky grins back. "I would, but I think the ladies have some other things for you to try first."

[from_the_outside]

"Not so much things for him to try, I'm afraid," Sharon says, watching them with clear amusement. "But he's right, Steve. We should go work on your cover and nail down any details that might come up."

Hopefully none will, but... it's better to be prepared. She turns to Shuri. "We'll get out of your hair for this part. Thanks, Shuri."

Shuri just waves at her, a little distracted. "Yes, yes. I will let you know when your suit options are ready. And once this is done, you will come back to the lab, yes? There is still a great deal of testing to be done."

"You got it, Princess," Sharon tells her, and tips her head to the others, her smile widening when she turns to Bucky. "You tagging along for this, or are you off to work with Ayo?"

[nerves_of_ice]

He goes unnaturally still for an instant, confronting that choice and everything it means, before he shakes his head.

"... with Ayo," he says, slowly. "You don't... need me for this. You can test out the cover on me later."

[from_the_outside]

She realizes too late that she shouldn't have phrased it like that, but Bucky only pauses for a moment before making his choice.

(A choice. A hard choice, even. One with stakes.)

She can't help it, has to move over to him and take his hand briefly to look up into his face with pleased, encouraging eyes. "Okay," she says, simply. "Come find us when you're finished with Ayo. We'll work in Steve's suite. And we can all head back to the Citadel together first."

[nerves_of_ice]

He gives her hand a quick squeeze and nods.

"Sounds good." Bucky looks over at Steve and smiles, with a hint of mischief. "Afraid I'm gonna have to leave you to their tender mercies," he says.

"Thanks," Steve replies, very dryly.