DCE = Distributed Computing Environment
Kevin Perrine said:
"Copy that IM... I want you personally pulling the polar orbiting weather satellite images for any other disturbances worldwide. Go on a spiral pattern, "Stonehenge-NPC" is ground zero and sweep the through Washington DC, top priority then move on to world view. Relay data at your descretion...
Once you get a digital map of the structure I want it online for the team and your ass on the ground for Cap's backup...
Iron Man dropped beneath the roiling cloud cover and got his first bird's-eye view of 'Stonehenge.' Despite the tense situation, he could not help but be impressed. Even as he admired the elegance with which this structure had to have been built, he was already going to work.
"Flight autonav, target: Captain America. Pattern Beta-Erratic." Tony called up secure communication relays to Banner, Pym, & Richards and recorded a brief greeting,
"Iron Man here, prep to receive sensor data." Briefly muting the link, he chuckled to himself,
"If Fury wants that info fast, he'll get it fast. Let them wonder how I did it..."
When it needs to be, the Iron Man armor is an excellent communications, sensor, and computational relay. But for this job, Tony needed something more. Relying on autonavigational flight, he linked the Iron Man interface to the nearest Stark Enterprises office and from there, formed a connection to PLATO.
"PLATO, begin task queuing; Priority-1, StarkDCE is authorized. 1. Comprehensive weather sat. view re: my location. 2. Repeat scan, view re: Washington, D.C. 3. Repeat scan, global scope, spiral pattern from my location. Relay final results to me. Tony out." Tony chuckled to himself; by now, every Stark Enterprises computer would seem just a little sluggish, as each one performed a piece of the work that PLATO could distribute.
Computer / Science roll: 23. Pretty sure I've burned a hero point on top of that for extra-effort, though I couldn't pinpoint exactly how.
Iron Man's view of the landscape was already changing, as high resolution images were downloaded and overlaid upon everything in sight. Even the clouds took on a strange texture as his display smeared them with colored lines of predicted movement. Bright, colored lines... that tangled in a dangerous pattern.
Kevin Perrine said:
As Tony begins to work, no truer could his fears become...
In addition to the previously scanned O2 drop, atmospheric events seemed to have exceeded and coincided with a previously unknown funnel singularity!!
It was true to the untrained eye the O2 drop seemed as a unique event and no spiraling is taking place, but as data streams in and analysis is formed by the Ultimates IronMan's data clearly shows a distress in weather conditions suggesting a vortex in Mid-town, the eye in Central Park, "Stonehenge-NYC". As IronMan feared if this worsens at the rate it's forming New England can expect localized tornado activity. Multiple funnel formations are estimated in t-minus 23 minutes at current rate of storm activity!!
Iron Man kicked in a burst of speed, urgently trying to get out of the air and down to Captain America's side before things got any worse. On the way down, he linked again with his allies' clearance-desks and sent them each a copy of the satellite results.
Did the global scans indicate anything else unusual? Were there more of these structures in other cities across the world? Was anything strange going on at Stonehenge itself?