By the time the door opened back to the room Tony and Bruce were confined in, they'd had a meal drop off from a Turk that Tony recognized as Elena's sister, far too serious and nowhere near as inclined to blab all her superiors' secrets. (To this day, he couldn't help but think that someone who scored as well as Elena supposedly did in training must have been playing AVALANCHE, instead of being legitimately incompetent, but that was neither here nor there.)
And then they were left alone again, for hours. It was actually quite a bit past lunch when the door opened again, this time leaving a familiar redhead leaning casually in the doorway, all long limbs and a shark's grin. His trademark electro-mag rod hung from his hip, sticking out under his unzipped jacket. "Boss wants a word."
"Is that right?" Tony got up, looking Reno over quickly. It was weird, seeing him without the rattail he had from the original game on, he didn't look quite right. It was hard to figure out how old he was for sure, wiki would have said he was eighteen but he had absolutely no idea where they were pulling that number from. As far as he knew, only the original AVALANCHE got full birthdays.
"Yep." He popped the 'p' with a lazy smile, pushing off the door with his shoulder. "C'mon, yo. We're not goin' far."
"You heard the kid, Bruce." Tony waited for him, before leading the way. Stripped of his armor he might be, but he felt a little better having Bruce with him. Two heads were better than one, and there was no overlooking the Hulk's help either. But hopefully it wouldn't come to that. "I don't suppose you know anything about what we're going to talk about?"
"Maybe." Reno led them deeper into the floor, down a long hall that opened up into a bullpen, currently occupied by some silent, tense Turks that Tony vaguely recognized from Before Crisis. Reno waved casually, heading to a closed door and rapping his knuckles on it. "Hey Chief, I got 'em."
After a beat of silence, there was a low murmur and Reno opened the door, waving them in with a grin.
The office was fairly good sized - nothing like Lazard's, much more reasonable than that, not the sort of space where you'd be having big meetings but just fine for a handful of people. Veld was behind the desk, chin resting on gloved hands as he watched them enter. To the side, Tseng had a tablet in hand and was eyeing them thoughtfully.
"I'll go ride herd, yeah?" Reno offered, nodding back towards the bullpen.
Veld nodded, waving him off and sitting back in his chair a little. "Mr. Stark. Mr. Banner."
"Director." Tony nodded, stopping in the middle of the room with Bruce and trying not to look around too much. "Something I can do for you?"
"We need to talk," Veld said.
"I am all for a good conversation," Tony said. There was an odd feeling prickling at his neck abruptly, that cliche I'm being watched feeling, which was ridiculous because he had two Turks literally staring at him of course he was being watched.
And then another familiar figure was suddenly there, in the corner of the room where he could have sworn no one had been. Holy shit. "I, uh, see you found Vincent."
Red mako eyes were far more unsettling in person than they had been on the TV screen, staring at them with quiet curiosity. "This is the one?"
"It is," Veld agreed, and his small smile said he had not only noticed Tony's reaction but was pleased with it.
"So… you're gonna take me a little more seriously?" Tony ventured, forcing himself to look back to Veld. Vincent was undeniably a predator, but not an impulsive one. Besides, if Veld was taking him more seriously, he was fairly safe. Probably.
"I'm still not ready to believe why you've said you know these things," Veld said. "But the fact remains, however you do, you do. You were right about Vincent. And I'm not going to risk ignoring that you could be right about the SOLDIERs, or Felicia."
"Great! That's great. I'm here to help." Tony clapped his hands together. "So, what's our next step?"
Veld was silent a moment, tapping his fingers. "I'm interested in seeing any proof you have. And a full report of everything you know."
"Right, okay, I can do that." He nodded immediately. "If you get me some blank paper I could sketch you out a machine and some software to help with the proof. Get someone like Reeve Tuesti behind it, and I can show you one of the games."
"You've got a lot of faith in Reeve," Veld said.
"Well yeah, genius recognizes genius." Tony grinned. "So, I can work that up for you, and do a report?"
"Tseng." Veld inclined his head towards the door.
Tseng nodded, setting his tablet on the desk. "Excuse me."
Tony watched him slip out. "Or did you mean, like, typed up? We're both talking English, so I'm assuming I can read whatever you guys use."
"English?" Vincent arched a brow.
"…right, no England here. Uh, Midgarian?" He tried.
"Basically," Veld agreed, watching them a moment. "Do you talk, Banner, or is that an 'only when Stark runs out of words' situation?"
Bruce snorted softly, rubbing his mouth to hide a smile at Tony's offended noise. "I talk. I just didn't see any reason to. Seems you all have this under control."
"I think 'control' is a very generous term for this situation," Veld said. "Stark's made himself fairly clear. I'm interested in learning a bit about you."
"Oh." Well, that wasn't much of a surprise, was it? Tony… Tony was a very 'clear' personality, and had been very up front about everything. Which made him a very lively variable, but at least gave some understanding of what they were probably dealing with. Bruce, in his silence, had given them an unknown. And he suspected the Turks didn't care for unknowns. "I guess I was more along for the ride, than anything. This was Tony's idea. I was interested, but more as a spectator than active participant."
"Uh huh. And you know what he does?" Veld checked.
"Somewhat," Bruce said. "I'm not as familiar with the, ah, source material."
"Right." It was clear Veld was still skeptical of the whole game situation. He didn't blame him. "Why don't you tell me about yourself."
"Me?" Bruce blinked, clasping his hands when Veld nodded. "Alright. I'm a scientist with a background in biochemistry, nuclear physics and gamma radiation. I work with Tony's company sometimes, mostly Tony, on a lot of technical projects. Lately it's been more computer science than anything, venturing around AI territory." All true, but he could feel Tony's gaze at leaving out certain parts. Loath as he was to go into it… he glanced at Vincent briefly, tapping his fingers together. "I, uh. I'm familiar with human experimentation. First person, it wasn't um, no one did it to me. It's not the same as SOLDIER enhancements, exactly, it's… it's a lot more like what your partner went through. The end result, I mean."
Vincent's brows rose, curiosity clear in his eyes while Veld looked between the two of them. "Really."
"Just the one, though," he said.
"And what does that mean?" Veld asked.
Vincent was silent, tilting his head as he debated it. When it became clear Bruce wasn't going to say, a tiny smile curved his lips before he shrugged. "There appear to be other entities sharing my form."
Veld didn't gape, but he was pretty sure anyone else would have. "I'm sorry, you what now?"
Vincent didn't look away from Bruce. "There are at least two beings, with separate form and consciousness, residing alongside my spirit. Transforming to the first beast was proof enough that I ought to be locked up, little that your agents cared to find out."
"You're… possessed?" He said it carefully, not sure if that was the right word.
"It's more like psychic roommates," Tony said. "Who can occasionally take over. Very cool."
"Tony." Bruce sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose before giving Vincent a faint smile. "It wasn't my goal, exactly. If anything I was thinking I might come out more… enhanced, like the SOLDIERs are. Or like they're supposed to be, anyway. The Other Guy just sort've happened."
"You just happened to… fuse yourself with another being?" Veld asked.
"There's some complicated psychology involved I'd rather not get into," Bruce said. "But kinda."
There was a long moment of silence as he processed that. "Right. Okay. So there's three of you."
"I guess that's accurate," Bruce said. "But if everything goes okay, you're only dealing with two of us. The Other Guy isn't a scientist, he doesn't need to be involved."
"And what is 'the other guy'?" Veld asked. "I'm assuming he has a name?"
"He's known as the Hulk," Bruce said dryly. "He fights. I don't."
"Right." There was something about his gaze, some evaluation there. No fear, he wasn't even sure it was concern, just… assessment. "Well. I like to think we're all on the same side here. No fighting necessary."
"That was my thought." Bruce smiled faintly. "So. You let Tony show you the footage he's got, and maybe I can help with the SOLDIER problem. I admit, I am intrigued with the bioengineering behind SOLDIER. And mako in general."
Veld nodded slowly, looking towards the door as Tseng returned with a notebook, several pens and pencils, some blank paper and some graphing paper. "Thanks."
"I wasn't sure exactly what would be needed, but we didn't have traditional 'blueprint' paper," Tseng said.
"No problem, I can work with this." Tony smiled brightly. "Hey, can I see a TV or something? Just to get an idea of what I'm working with, mind you."
Veld arched a brow, but nodded to Tseng, who slipped back out. "We'll set you up in a workroom with a desk. I'm interested in that 'footage' before we go forward."
"You got it."
