Universal Displacement

One Steps Forward & Another Steps Back

Tony was trying his best not to be irritated at the return of Axel Ladino, SHIELD agent and general annoyance. He'd almost forgotten about the boy's existence in his absence off on "a temporary mission", but he was back now and meddling anew. It wasn't good for Tony's blood pressure. He had enough to deal with processing all the new data that had come in without having to maneuver around an interfering obstacle that contributed absolutely nothing.

Data was still being sorted even now. Tony and Reed were doing their best to process it all and set up computer simulations. A few were looking promising, but nothing was concrete. And Tony really needed something to be concrete.

Luckily, for the moment, Axel was hovering over the shoulder of Reed and out of his own hair. He might've felt bad for the young doctor if he wasn't so exhausted. But, as it was, his mind was running on fumes and he didn't have enough energy to spare on things like sympathy.

Tony shuffled out of the lab and over to the kitchenette located on the same floor. His stained mug was empty, the pot in the lab was empty, and he was in a desperate need of a refill. He reached the kitchen and sat his mug on the counter before he realized there was a wrapped package sitting on the island in the middle of the room. Tony froze, retraced his steps and eyed the package with suspicion.

"Jarvis, where'd this come from?"
[I am not sure, sir. I have no records of a delivery being made or of anyone entering this room before you. Current scans do not detect any imminent threat from inside the package.]

Tony grunted and eyed the box. It was a mailing box that had no visible postage stamps, and only a label that read:

Tony,

Hope this helps.

Jane

Except, from what he remembered, Jane's handwriting looked less like it was straight from Jane Austen's diary, and more like a doctor's chicken scratch. Grabbing a knife from a nearby drawer, he slid it under the perfectly placed shipping tape and opened it at the top. Inside was a notebook, and several different energy-wave and molecular readers. Tony flipped through the notebook and would have dropped his coffee mug had he been holding it.

The numbers were astounding. They should have been impossible. But if they were accurate, if they were accurate and could be applied to the simulations that they were trying to run?

Maybe they could actually find Sutton after all.

Completely forgetting his quest for caffeine, Tony scooped up the box and rushed back to the lab as fast as he could with the possible missing link in their calculations. When he entered his code and the lab doorswhooshed open, he bolted straight for Reed. Knocking Axel out of the way, he sat the box down in front of the younger scientist and pulled out the notebook.

"Take a look at these numbers."
Axel grumbled from behind him.

"Yeah, no problem. Excuse me."

Reed scanned the notes rapidly with ever widening eyes and ran a hand through his hair.

"Where did you get this?"

"What? What is it?"
Tony sighed and rubbed at his own bloodshot eyes.

"Supposedly Jane," he said. "But I have suspicions otherwise. Regardless of where it came from though, it will help. This is the data we've needed."

Reed nodded, but remained subdued in the face of the breakthrough. He kept flipping through the notebook pages and then peered down into the box of other gadgets.

"We'll still have to run all the numbers, but it does look promising!"

"Let me see."

Axel reached for the notebook and Tony snatched it from Reed before the agent could touch it. He snapped the cover closed and glared at the kid, not feeling particularly friendly at the moment.