Captain America had to admit that dealing with Susan in her current state was a bit of a challenge. In all honesty he would have rather hunted the Purple Man alone. Hell, he would of rather faced Thanos, but it wasn't due to the anger she threw his way. Between the issues with her marriage, her ordeals on the street, and withdrawal the woman was in a lot of pain but Tony was right. She was lashing out at him due to equal parts fighting the judgement of others as well as her own feelings on her of self judgement, but make no mistake. She had every right to her anger and if he could he would have given her the respectful distance she deserved, but the situation would not allow that. Both he and Tony had to be here to maintain stability in this utter chaos. Truth be told, be told, it was how Susan affected him that made the assignment uncomfortable. Steve had always had a thing for strong women and he didn't know when he had met someone stronger. She had no problem telling the living legend where to get off, that was for sure but even with all that was happening Susan Storm Richards was still standing on her own feet and Cap respected that. She was still going through she was one tough lady and still had plenty of backbone left to spare!
As Cap entered the office suite, he found Reed and Gina intimately talking. It wasn't romantic per se, but it was the kind of support that one gave a lover in times of need. Normally he would have been more understanding, but not in this situation. Not with a brave woman in pain due to the relationship of this pair. Steve had to calm himself before he spoke but when he did it was firm "Reed... Ms. Rodriguez, I'm not your leader or your father but in the current situation I think it best to limit the contact between yourselves; at least until you are away from Susan. I don't mean to be judgemental but no matter how this situation turns out there is going to be some hard road to travel and it just doesn't sense to make he trip any harder than it needs to be. You can do what you want, but at least consider my words."
Reed looked Gina in the eyes as he brushed a strand of her hair away from her face and replied "Of course, Steve. You are correct." He turned to face his comrade as he continued "But please remember that this day has been hard on all of us, including Gina." With that, Reed retired to his office.
As Gina went into her own office, she knew that while Captain America kept an eye on Reed that either Jarvis, Roberta, or both would be watching her but it didn't matter to her. There really wasn't much to do with all the computer resources still in locked down mode and while it was decidedly inconvenient, she could work around it. The petite vixen settled into a yoga position in her office chair and concentrated. Another aspect to her power was once she got a sense of a person, she could feel their presence if they were within ~350 meters of her which, from her office, reached all the way down to the subway station subbasement. Soon her mind was full of visions of the people in the locked down building. She could feel that Tony was with Sue in the Main Training Room while Johnny and Ben were in the lower levels where Reed had storage tesseracts. They were all wide awake so there really wasn't much she got out of the visions but they were good enough for her to use Cap to train her mind further as she did when Tony was here. Steve was no genius like the creator of Iron Man, but he was a strategist and a leader, both skills that are valuable.
Before she started her cerebral training, the young scientist couldn't help but smile at her luck as her timing was working out well. Ben and Johnny were getting close to finding something interesting but not as close as the automated response she had setup should she not check in at the appointed time every twelve hours. Things were about to get very interesting indeed.
***********
Sue snuggled closely to Tony as they took a canal ride in the Venice simulation. Most of it was because she needed the contact with someone she trusted, but a part of it was the building withdrawal. Sue purred to her escort "I would have thought the armor would be cold, but it so warm and cozy." Tony smiled because he knew that Jarvis has already raised the temperature of the armor surface to help dissipate her chills. Still, he had to wonder if she wouldn't do better with the touch of a flesh and blood friend right now.
Tony winked at the blond beauty as he replied "It's my warm heart that does that." As the heroine started giggling, he faked irritation and said "Why does no one believe that?? Well, it doesn't matter. I can prove it. Jarvis!"
Over the room sound system, the AI's familiar voice resounded "Yes sir. Is there something I can do for you?"
With an exaggerated flourish, Tony laughed "You sure can buddy. You can back me up on this. I want this room sealed and I want you to disengage the armor. Once I'm out, please stand guard for us while we complete our gondola tour of the city."
As the armor disengaged from Stark, Jarvis replied "Of course sir. Room sealed and secure." The armor sealed up again and took to the air "On surveillance mode activated. Shall there be anything else, sir?"
As Tony settled back into his seat, Sue curled back up with him and quipped "Well, I don't know if your warmer than the armor, but you certainly are softer." As Tony laughed Sue looked deeply into his eyes and said "You know you are a Godsend and today I really needed this. But I've been wondering, what is in the tote bag?"
Tony adeptly pulled the bag up and opened it as he replied "Well my mother taught me that one is hosting a trip with someone, its only civilized to cater the event as well." He showed her the contents of the bag; a baguette, wedges of edam and asiago cheeses, a large bottle of Amarone wine, and two wine glasses.
***********
As Ben and Johnny entered Tesseract Storage Level 5, the sensor's reading spiked. The hero's looked at each other for a minute before they acted. Ben taped the communicator to activate it and whispered "Roberta, you listenin? We got somethin here. Is this level's air conditionin workin right?"
The lilting voice of the Baxter Building AI replied "Yes Ben. This section is getting filtered like all others. If there is a significant reading then there must be an active agent causing it."
Johnny and Ben smiled wickedly as the Thing replied "Well hallelujah sunshine! Ya might want to tell shell head and cap to get there play clothes on cuz the party is about ta start!"
***********
As Zebediah Killgrave roused from a deep sleep he felt like he was wading through jello. As he shook his head to clear the cobwebs he looked about the room. At first he had trouble recognizing anything but soon his memory started to kick in. He was in his hide out. He had been using this rather luxurious space for several months now; ever since he took control of that cute little lab assistant on the Subway and aimed her like a dagger to the Fantastic Four's heart. He smiled as he thought about how he got to be hiding out right under the heros' noses here in the Baxter building.
He got into this by trying to create a situation that he could use to his advantage. When he spotted the techie tart and realized where she worked he could resist trying to take advantage of the situation. After working his mojo on the girl he tried to get her to fuck that dolt Richards, but the faithful prick turned the hot piece of ass down. Well, never let it be said the Purple Man gives up that easily! Still to continue the plan he needed to keep the slut under his control and that meant stay close so he had the cutie set up a luxury suite for him in one of the tesseract storage chambers. It was his little stronghold from which he could maintain control of the girl and possibly some of the heroes themselves.
It took months to slowly break down Richards' morals even with exposure to his pheromones but it even when he did get what he wanted, the whole thing seemed to fizzle. Turns out that Susan has the real financial power. How do you blackmail someone when the person with the money is the person you are hiding the secret from? Anyway he tried for a few months more before giving up finally giving up on that scheme.
Still, as hideouts go, this wasn't too bad. He had the best food, drink, and Internet. He had access to escape routes to allow him to venture out from time to time, but best of all, absolutely no one would ever look for him here. Short of the Raft, there wasn't a place that would be less suspected than here.
As the villain got up to check the Internet for headline news and super heroine porn, he noticed for the first time that the computer had no connection. He quickly pointed the remote to the 56" flat screen and discovered the cable was out too. "This is outrageous!" He growled to himself. "I'll have to give that little slut a good spanking for disappointing me." As he started for the kitchen to at least get something to eat, he heard the unmistakable sound of the suite door swishing open. To angry to even look at his incompetent slave he continued on his was and he calls out over his shoulder "Is that you woman? Are you here to fix the damned cable?"
The master villain stopped in his tracks as the sound of two boulders colliding resounded. As he turned he saw the Thing standing in the doorway smiling coldly at him. His right fist ground menacingly into his left palm as the rocky hero smiled coldly through his air tight gas mask. As Killgrave teetered on the brink of passing out with fear, his visitor replied "Naw, loser, I'm room service. It's time fer yer 4:00 massage and when I'm done with ya you'll be so loose you'll pour off the table... Literally!"
***********
Gina had to stifle a laugh as she could feel the terror of the Purple Man as he faced the Thing. Apparently one really does see their whole life pass before their eyes when they think they are going to die. Still, the vile miscreant deserves what he's getting and more. After all, he did try to take over her mind in the subway so many months ago. He would have succeeded to if not for her mutant power and her advanced brain. Once she got away from him for a few minutes she was able to free her mind. When she returned she had a gas mask on, a taser in her hand, and a perception filter to hide them. It didn't take long to subdue the maggot.
Still, he had been useful. After Gina put him into a medically induced coma she had access to his devious mind to help hone hers like no one before him. His plans and ideas, while rudimentary for her had a cleverness that would have escaped her otherwise. His genes were also useful in adding to her powers as well. But now he will do his most valuable service to her by taking the full blame.
As she honed her own mind against his, she also fed his own regurgitated ideas and plans combined with hers into his vulnerable mind until he thought that the things she told Rogers and Stark were real events he set in motion.