Marvel, Rebirth:

IC: Lynae

She rubbed the young girl's back gently and sighed softly. "It's okay... I'm sorry for yelling. You're too young to really understand.. But next time, call me. I'll come get you and you'll be okay." Her voice was now gentle and the storm in her eyes had faded.

IC: Abigail

Abigail nodded, hugging Lynae. "Okay, it won't happen again!" She promised, she told herself mentally she'd just take a cab next time.

"Do...do you think it will actually be on tv?" Abigail had never been news before, it sounded exciting.

IC: Lynae

"It's not a good thing if it is." She said with a frown. "It is very dangerous."

IC: Abigail

"Uh-huh." Abigail said, nodding stupidly. "Yep. Very dangerous."

"I don't think anyone saw my face, I had my hood and shades on. Though just in case maybe I should wear this..." She put on a pair of Groucho glasses and grinned at Lynae.

IC: Lynae

"....you're staying in the mansion. This whole floor is mine." She said flatly. "I'm not letting you go out and cause more trouble."

IC: Abigail

Abigail took the silly glasses off and pouted slightly. Though being stuck in the mansion didn't seem so bad...it was really big!

"Soooooo....who was the guy you were with? Is he your boyfriend?"

IC: Lynae

Lynae's cheeks flushed and she shook her head. "Ric is a coworker and friend..." She said with a flat voice.

"So... How is the coven?"

IC: Persephone's memory searched for any reference of the woman addressing her, swiftly coming up with the name 'Jennifer McCoy'. No clue as to why she was wearing a wetsuit indoors. Did she plan to go swimming after this?

"Persephone Ellis," she said, holding out a hand, "Is this your first time on the helicarrier?"

IC: Abigail

"Oh I see...just friends..." Abigail grinned impishly, before shrugging. "The coven is pretty much how you left it...only more boring. Nothing really exciting happens...though there was a mutant that gave us trouble a couple months back. It was nothing serious though."

Abigail fell back on Lynae's bed, so soft! "With all this HYDRA stuff going on we're pretty much left alone or otherwise ignored by everyone else..."

IC: Lynae

"Since when did you all have problems with mutants?" She asked with a raised eyebrow, a hand on her hip.

"But yes... The HYDRA issue.." The word HYDRA dripping from her mouth like poison. "They're more an issue than I'd like."

IC: Abigail

"We don't have a problem with mutants, it was just...one misunderstanding with one haha..." Remembering that particular incident was her fault anyway she decided to let the subject change.

"So...are you planning to do something about HYDRA? Is that why you live in this super cool mansion with all these mysterious people?" She found it all exciting.

IC: Lynae

"If I was, Abigail, that would be confidential." She replied as she looked at her. "I am here because I belong here."

IC: Abigail

"I'm a really, really good secret keeper!" Abigail sat up and batted her eyes innocently.

IC: Lynae

The elder vampire gently patted the girl on the head. "In due time Abigail... You will find out in due time." She then walked over to a window, hands clasped.

"...though I worry that time is one thing we do not have."

Ic:

"Why do I exist?" A man once cried out. Right at the start of the shitstorm that was the phalanx invasion, "if god is in his heaven, why is everything wrong with the world!?"

He died. I saw him die. Along with a good deal of the rest of the world. Now, however many years it was later, I stood in front of the mirror, ready to rip out the replacement arm and scream to the rest of the mansion, "why the do I exist?"

I took the other route. I was just seconds from ripping out the wires that connected my nerves to the arm, ripping them out and letting the pain override my mind. Instead, I crumpled onto the floor and broke down in tears. I didn't deserve to exist... Did I? After all the pain I'd caused...

A curious thought struck me, in that moment. Was I still sane? Was all this, another dimension, vampires, alien invasions, mutants- was it all real? Or was it some figment of the mind?

'Im still sane,' I assured myself. But then I realized, saying that you're sane is what insane people did. I probably was still mad... But I also was still able to think properly... It's not simple, insanity isn't, life isn't, purpose isn't. I wish it was. But when I realized I could still think, I realized I could still ask for help.

First impulse? Lynae. Whenever I began to distress, I've started to think about going to her, letting lynae fix all my problems for me... But she was talking away again, and wasn't available...

There was however, a phone nearby. And Dal was still alive. That meant that I could still ask someone for help... And ask him the most burning questions I had.

I called his cell, praying- no, after what I've seen, I couldn't pray- hoping, that Dal would pick up his phone for once...

IC: Abigail

Abigail pouted again, it seemed like what Lynae was doing here would have to remain a mystery for now. Abigail sighed tiredly.

"I'm hungry."

IC: Lynae

"In the fridge there are packs of blood. Don't drink the B-.... And don't touch anyone that lives here." She said flatly.

IC:

When the door swooshed open, all heads immediately turned towards it, a hush falling over the assebled agents. The first glance, from somewhere on the arrival's left, had probably been to see who had arrived; What poor agent had arrived late, and would be subject to the Director's ire. When they fell silent, however, the rest of the room had followed suit, one by one.

Director Nick Fury tended to have that effect.

The man, hands clasped behind his back, crossed from the door to the front of the meting room in a few measured strides, turning a sharp one hundred and eighty degrees to regard the agents before him with his one good eye. Unlike most of the world, he barely seemed to have aged a day since the Phoenix Incident. Fury seemed to the civilian populace, and to his enemies, a universal constant, a fixed point in time, and it was an image he made no attempt to dissuade. Even those who knew better acknowledged one simple fact; He was a man who had been involved in every major crisis over the past few decades, and unlike countless others, he was still standing.

The still appraisal was interrupted, however, by a rabbit hopping across the floor to look up at him from his feet. The director glanced down, then back up, right eyebrow arching up a few degrees.

"How many times do I have to my agents that pets are to be kept off of my Helicarrier? Unless you're intending to lop off the furry capitalist icon of Easter's foot and hand it to me for good luck, get them off of my ship once you're dismissed."

Without skipping a beat, he pressed a button on the panel next to him, a large-screen display flaring to life, showcasing a detailed aerial surveillance photo. Nothing seemed inherently amiss, but a few points were quickly highlighted and enlarged.

"The American midwest. Once home of the ideal of manifest destiny, now the setting for every d*** horror movie to come down the pike. Fitting." Without looking behind him, he triggered another button, bringing up a copy of Harken's earlier report.

"Two days ago, two Hydra experiments escaped, and were subsequently picked up by our agents. Once they were safely in custody, I diverted a few assets to investigate where they came from. They found evidence of an underground compound of uncertain size, with a small handful of entrances on the surface."

"Normally, this would be dealt with according to protocol." Fury crossed his arms, gaze panning about the room. "A recon team would be sent to gather intel, the facility would be monitored, and once the situation had been assessed, we would act."

"Our friend from the cigarette warnings kindly threw out the rulebook yesterday. The Red Skull knows his experiments escaped, and he knows we have them. He's going to either evacuate that facility, or get ready for our usual tactics."

"So we're not going in standard. You all are the most ragtag, randomly picked team I have ever seen, but you're all competent at what you do. You're also the only units that aren't occupied dealing with yesterday's incident."

"It will be your job to infiltrate the facility, learn what you can, and if possible, capture it intact. If not, take your intel, and get out. Collateral damage is to be nonexistent."

"Any questions?"

IC:

The instant Aella moved to poke her side, Tera was no longer there. In a movement that was shocking fast for someone awake for so short a time, she had switched to the other end of the couch, yawning sleepily.

"Don't you even dare."

John Harken- SHIELD Helicarrier

IC: "Sir, do we have an extraction plan in case things go bad?"

While it was hardly a certainty that things would go bad, one look around him told Harken that he had better find out if there was a backup plan.

IC:

It's been a week without me

Ic:

I'm pretty sure my heart stopped for a minute when he said that. I certainly did my best to avoid crumpling down again... But I felt my legs go weak, and I was forced to support myself by leaning against the wall.

"Dal... I've been around... And I'm confused... And sorry. Sorry that I wasn't there... But- are you my friend Dallas?"

IC:

...

Tali mouthed something or other, and Dal put a finger to her lips and rolled his eyes with a sigh. "Alright, look, Card we talked about this. Familia. Dimension hopping. Etcetera etcetera. Now, where are you? Who've I gotta put in a coma? Are there going to be giant robots, mind control devices, or any sort of long-thought-dead-acquaintance who pulled off a shock villainous turn?"

-Tyler

Ic:

"Dallas... Do you think I'm crazy?"

IC: Abigail

"No worries! I wouldn't even think of drinking anyone..." Abigail got up and started heading toward said fridge, she'd used a lot of energy just getting to the mansion and her desire for blood was overriding anything else on her mind.

IC: Krystal

Krystal subconsciously hid the two bunnies in her arms inside her shirt as she listened to the briefing. "Seems pretty straightforward." The mission was no doubt dangerous, but Krystal had survived worse.

IC: Aella

I had a disappointed look on my face, I shrugged and sat down next to Tera, giving up for now. I'd catch her when she wasn't looking....

"So...judging by how fast you just moved...you're ticklish." It was a logical conclusion.

IC:

Dallas took a deep breath and flicked Tali's nose again. "You're tellin' me. So you hear voices. So the what? It seems like nobody else on the team besides me is even convinced Bekah's human, we have to water Ashley three times a day to keep her from dying, Tali survived a year in Terminator Abu Ghraib, John might well still be a god wolf for all we know, and I freeze people for weeks at a time with my power just because I like to watch them try and scream when they me off. Not to mention we're all stuck in this little pit of a universe until such time as Alec quits napping at the controls and teleports us back. Yeah. You're crazy. We're all crazy to these people. Different strokes for different folks, eh."

Tali rolled onto her side and kissed Dallas' neck softly, trying to fix his hair. Calm him down. Cool the rage she could feel burning in his chest. He surprised everyone with his next words - soft, quiet, almost sweet.

"Kristen...c'mon. Tell me where you are, I'll come pick you up, we'll get breakfast, it'll be like whatever happened never happened. We'll fix it. That's what we do. Fix the unfixable. Just gimme an address."

-Tyler

Ic:

"I- I'm not supposed to tell you..." I remember saying. God, that sounded stupid, like I was some sort of immature little kid.

"Dallas... I'm going to call you back in five minutes," I said, giving him, and myself, the time to gauge, just how long it would take me to fully collect myselves and try to split, "in five minutes... I'll give you an address."

IC:

"Card, do not hang up this phone. Just stay on the line, alright?" Dallas asked, already sitting up, half-dressed again. "Give me a name. A street. Anything. Tell me who said not to tell. Tell me how hot I am. Tell me how great I am at everything I do. Tell me what an I am. But do not hang up. I'm coming to get you, alright? We'll sort this out."

-Tyler

OOC: Gonna try something different and mix up my usual post structure with some thoughts from Vivus responding to Fury.

IC: TLAW-001 Vivus

"How many times do I have to my agents that pets are to be kept off of my Helicarrier? Unless you're intending to lop off the furry capitalist icon of Easter's foot and hand it to me for good luck, get them off of my ship once you're dismissed."

No bunnies? Aw... That's dissapointing.

"The American midwest. Once home of the ideal of manifest destiny, now the setting for every d*** horror movie to come down the pike. Fitting."

I wouldn't know because I don't watch horror movies. They frighten me...

"Two days ago, two Hydra experiments escaped, and were subsequently picked up by our agents. Once they were safely in custody, I diverted a few assets to investigate where they came from. They found evidence of an underground compound of uncertain size, with a small handful of entrances on the surface."

Escaped experiments, underground base, I think I know where this is going.

Yep... Definitely know what's going to follow.

"So we're not going in standard. You all are the most ragtag, randomly picked team I have ever seen, but you're all competent at what you do. You're also the only units that aren't occupied dealing with yesterday's incident."

We're not that ragtag, are we? I mean, we are, but still. Oh well, Director Fury called us competent. Might as well take that as a compliment.

"It will be your job to infiltrate the facility, learn what you can, and if possible, capture it intact. If not, take your intel, and get out. Collateral damage is to be nonexistent."

Okay... No collateral damage is fine by me. Yep, just fine.

"Any questions?"

"Uh, I'm just wondering when we're leaving, sir." Vivus asked in a quiet tone.

Ic:

I didn't hang up. I was dead silent as I scribbled out a half-assed note for lynae, telling her how absolutely over my head I was... How I needed to check in my friend... And get some fresh air.

"I'm still here," I said to dal, quickly exiting the manor through one of the 'back doors', and doing my best to appear unnoticed as I headed towards the nearest street. This manor mystified me... And I left lynae a note with my number on it, something I'd probably regret... But I needed... Something. And whatever it was, I wasn't going to find it at the manor.

It was only once I was far enough away that I told dal the street name.

IC:

"On my way. Keep the line on - you don't even have to say to me if you don't want, just keep it on." Dal "covered up" the phone (read: held it about six inches further away than normal) when he turned back to Tali. "Opening the window - if you're not going to put clothes on, do at least cover yourself with a blanket. Don't want you catching the flu. Bye, Tal!"

Dallas opened the window and leaped, slipping a pullover hoodie over his bare chest and stalking towards the garage.

-Tyler

IC: Mikhail

Mikhail, through the magic of BZP-time, came back with french toast.

Ic:

I didn't say anything. Like there was anything to say as I waited, hearing the occasional scuffle from dal's receiver as he picked out a car.

IC: Marauder

First, after hearing the bunny thing, he hid his in his jacket. Second, he called basically everyone in the room ragtag. Now to ask the question, "So when do we depart to , sir?"

OOC: its not exactly a wet-suit I just didn't know what else to call the normal sleek black SHIELD suit like Maria Hill wears you know?

IC:

Christine stood behind Seirra. "Um are you okay?" she said to the girl after she'd fallen. "Is that blood??"

IC:

Jennifer shook the 'woman's' hand and shook her head. "No I've been here a few times. I was here right before the Sleeper attack on New York."

She had fallen silent when Director Fury had entered the briefing room and began addressing them. She listened silently as he spoke. Her hazel eyes looked around the room at the other SHIELD agents present when he described them as rag-tag. Fury was right. But Jennifer had a good feeling about this team.

OOC just for reference, a > symbol preceding a paragraph is Fury's dialogue

IC Tokiomi

>"How many times do I have to my agents that pets are to be kept off of my Helicarrier? Unless you're intending to lop off the furry capitalist icon of Easter's foot and hand it to me for good luck, get them off of my ship once you're dismissed."

... No comment.

>"The American midwest. Once home of the ideal of manifest destiny, now the setting for every d*** horror movie to come down the pike. Fitting."

"... Did he really need to say that?" Tokiomi mused to himself.

>"Two days ago, two Hydra experiments escaped, and were subsequently picked up by our agents. Once they were safely in custody, I diverted a few assets to investigate where they came from. They found evidence of an underground compound of uncertain size, with a small handful of entrances on the surface."

Tokiomi didn't give any indication of a response to that statement, staying hunched over his laptop. If Fury wanted to call him out for not paying full attention, he would respond by saying that the Director didn't know what being the offshore secretary for three diplomats to Ukraine was like.

>"Normally, this would be dealt with according to protocol." Fury crossed his arms, gaze panning about the room. "A recon team would be sent to gather intel, the facility would be monitored, and once the situation had been assessed, we would act. Our friend from the cigarette warnings kindly threw out the rulebook yesterday. The Red Skull knows his experiments escaped, and he knows we have them. He's going to either evacuate that facility, or get ready for our usual tactics."

"All warfare is based on deception. Hence, when able to attack, we must seem unable; when using our forces, we must seem inactive; blah blah blah..." Nothing new here...

>"So we're not going in standard. You all are the most ragtag, randomly picked team I have ever seen, but you're all competent at what you do. You're also the only units that aren't occupied dealing with yesterday's incident."

... Okay then. Tokiomi wasn't too happy at the sound of this, but he wasn't one to complain.

>"It will be your job to infiltrate the facility, learn what you can, and if possible, capture it intact. If not, take your intel, and get out. Collateral damage is to be nonexistent."

Okay, an intelligence grab, and a free base if they were lucky. Nothing too out of the ordinary.

>"Any questions?"

"I'm probably not speaking for everybody here, but we may need a little but of organization time before we depart. Like you said, we are a very ragtag team, and while we are very good at what we do-thanks for the compliment-I don't think we've all worked together before, so we'll need some time to organize our talents and see who will be doing what. Is there any specific plan you want us to follow for this mission or will you be leaving that for us to decide?"

IC:

I slowly pulled myself into a seated position using my good arm before turning to face Christine.

"Please leave." I pleaded. "I migh-aaah!" I screamed suddenly, the pain in my back becoming unbearable. A pair of dark wings ripped through, spraying blood on the floor.

OOC: Catsuits Flex, catsuits.

IC: Bleddyn

Bleddy walked around the Xavier's Institute's cafeteria.

OOC: Open for interaction.

IC: John and Jack

The pair made it to an apartment in Harlem. John knocked on a door with the number 164. The door had a peep hole, and a man on the other side peered through. "Can I help you?"

John recognized the voice. It was the voice of Ivan Raikov, an ex- KGB commander back in the '60s. "It's me Ivan, John. Remember 1964?"

Ivan then opened the door. He was about the same age as John, though a bit younger. He was wrinkled in some areas of his body, and had white hair. It seemes he hadn't shaved in weeks, since stiff short hairs covered his face. "John? It's been such a long time, what happend? And who is this with you?"

"May we speak inside your room, Ivan?"

"Yes, come on in."

IC:

"You might not need so much time, Agent Tokiomi, assuming that's what you're still calling yourself, if you weren't playing on your laptop during a briefing." The Director's sole uncovered eye turned to regard him with an impassive stare the likes of which seemed almost as though it might ignite the machine where it lay. "This is not Freshmen History 101. There is no review session, this will be on the test, and there are no retakes. And if you fail this test, you die. If you're lucky."

"In answer to multiple queries, you will be departing within two hours. And when I say within, I mean two hours is the maximum time you are allotted; If the craft is fueled and ready to go, you are free to leave beforehand."

"Good question, Agent Harken. It builds off of the response I intended to give to Agent Tokiomi's questions." Nick Fury crossed his arms, the screen behind him changing to a roster of all the agents slated for the mission. In addition to the people present in the room, a small number of additional names were listed at the bottom.

"You will be airdropped in three miles from the base's known entrance. There's a commercial flight that was slated to fly over the area at the same time, but I've taken the liberty of having it canceled. You'll be taking a craft of similar size in. A second, smaller craft, will be landing a a short distance from your drop site. That craft is your departure vehicle. It will be manned by severely highly trained operatives, with orders to monitor the comm lines, and keep the craft safe. They're highly competent at stealth insertion, so they should go undetected."

"However," He began, his tone severe. "There is little way for them to help you once inside the base. Once that happens, you're on your own. They can try and support you when you leave if things get hot, but that is the extent of the aid they will be able to give. Knowing Hydra, it is highly recommended that you take a gas mask, and be prepared to defuse a self-destruct mechanism for the base."

"Other than that, your tactics are your own, so long as they fall within the scope of your mission parameters. Agent Harken is to take the lead on this mission, with Agent Persephone acting as his second. Both were present when the subjects were taken into their company."

"Allow me to be perfectly clear; For all intents and purposes, their orders should be treated with equal weight to mine, so long as they do not contradict mine. Accordingly, if you disobey them, I will be very, very unhappy."

"Are there any further questions?"

IC:

"I decline to comment." Tera replied sleepily, picking up one of the plates Mikhail had brought. "Thanks, GI Joe. Any chance you have some coffee in the apartment? I could use the caffeine hit."

"And did your neighbor have any clothes for Trinity?"

IC:

I had watched John from the moment he stepped onto the Institute's property.

Few people ever realize how much of the campus' activity I am aware of. This is for the best. If one's allies are aware of one's capabilities, it is that much easier for an enemy to learn of the same and locate a gap in one's defenses. To my knowledge I have no such gaps. Nevertheless, one should not reveal the scope of one's awareness but to someone that one can trust with their lives. Such individuals are rare in this or any world.

But I digress.

I watched as my former ally approached the building through my customized 30x magnification telescopic site mounted on my long-barreled antti-personnel sniper rifle. Loaded into the chamber was a high-caliber bullet. No special qualities; They weren't needed. I was aware of the extent of John Howlett's, or what used to be John Howlett, healing factor. No special qualities would be needed. My sight hovers on his forehead, as I adjust for his movement and the bullet's drop instinctively. One round through the forehead and into the brain would kill him instantly, before his healing factor could activate.

My finger was on the trigger. I was upwind of him, so he would not smell me. I was perched on the rooftop, prone on my front so he would not see me. I had a clear shot.

I hesitated.

John Howlett, as I last saw him, was a deranged animal masquerading as what was left of a man. The animal attempted to use his guise as a mask, but his body language gave him away. Reading the unconscious cues of the body is almost as good as telepathy; Better, perhaps. It comes without the required empathy with the target. When last we encountered each other, my objective was simple; John had become an enemy, and a liability. He was to be eliminated. I met him on the edge of there grounds, and we fought. The battle raged for quite some time, but I eventually injured him severely; enough to force a retreat. To my shame, he succeeded in his flight. With his injury, I felt justified in leaving the area. The target was, in all likelihood, dead, and that assumption would allow my colleagues to sleep more soundly at night. I kept watch over the grounds for two weeks without making contact before I was satisfied that he would not return.

Less than forty eight hours after I return to the Institute, so does he. Perhaps he has been following me all the while, waiting to exact his retribution. Perhaps it is coincidence. I was not taught for the better part of the last decade to believe in coincidence. An oddity was a plan, and a series of coincidences a conspiracy. Such were the perceptions that have kept myself, and though they may not realize it, my associates, alive.

My objective urged me to pull the trigger. Reason demanded it. So then, perhaps, what stayed my hand was something else. Pity? Mercy? Such were taught to be restrained; It was not their like.

No. It was unwillingness.

Pulling the trigger would add another tint of red to the hands that I've worked so hard to clean. Countless lives on one end of the scale, the ones I've managed to save on the other. Two hundred and seven versus a limitless infinity, one thousand two hundred and eleven bullets to save versus a number so vast it is incomprehensible used to kill and destroy. Which side would this bullet fall on? By taking a life, am I saving more? Or am I slowly sending myself further down towards my demise?

This is... Troublesome.

The rifle is gone, now. I dismissed it the instant I had made my decision. My former ally has now crossed halfway towards the front entrance. I have no time to waste.

***********************

Minutes later, when Howlett opened the doors, I am there. I always am. I stand in the shadowed end of the entrance hall, all others cleared from the area while he arrived. If this was indeed a fight, I wanted the other residents to be long since clear of the region. I am basing my behavior upon a gamble; a hope that perhaps the man has once again conquered the animal, at least as far as he ever had.

How ironic. The Hound must pass judgement upon the Wolf.

"John Howlett." I speak quietly, but I know he can hear me. He can, more than likely, snell me as well. "You are my target. A target that I have, much to my own foolishness, decided not to eliminate on sight. You have one minute to give me a reason not to completely my objective."

I hope I make the correct call.

OOC: Flex; Since Tyler has something for Ultimate Dallas to do, he has requested that I go through with my original plan. This is that. And believe me, it's far more merciful for U. John than the alternative would have been. Use the chance you've been given wisely.

SHIELD crew; Constructman and Snelly will be in charge of the Hydra base's defenses,. I will be monitoring what you do very, very closely to ensure that you do not break the rules. Be aware that while we are not out to kill your character, this is a risky task. It's possible that it will occur if you act foolishly. If you play within the rules and show good character and don't be foolish, you'll probably come out just fine.

John Harken- SHIELD Helicarrier

IC: "No further questions sir."

While it was certainly not the first time he had been in charge of a mission, raiding a HYDRA base with such a scraped together team was a new one. Never the less Harken had no intention of failing or losing any of his team.

"I would suggest that everybody go get any gear they might need for the mission and meet back in the hanger. We can come up with a plan there and go over it on the plane ride."