[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/wJtcA1x.png?1[/img][/center] [b]SHIELD Outpost Nineteen, New York[/b] [color=#ffffff]It was the middle of the night and a routine arrest during a guns bust had resulted in the acting director of SHIELD being woken from her sleep. The cause? An eighteen-year-old boy named Michael Holt. Maria Hill stood behind reinforced two-way glass watching the young man who was currently handcuffed to a table. By her side was Reed Richards. The hair around his temples had greyed somewhat and he looked to have lost some weight but otherwise he seemed in rude health. In fact, he seemed positively excited by the prospect of sitting down with Holt.[/color] [color=#674ea7]“You want to explain to me what’s so important about this kid?”[/color] [color=#3d85c6]“Michael Holt is much [i]more [/i]than just a kid, Maria. He scored higher on SHIELD’s APTI-SMRT test than I did – on his first time of trying.”[/color] [color=#ffffff]Maria made next to no effort to disguise her tiredness. [/color][color=#674ea7]“Is that meant to mean something to me? Because I’m drawing a blank.”[/color] [color=#3d85c6]“The boy didn’t even finish high school. Can you imagine how intelligent you have to be to produce the kind of technology he does without the benefit of a proper education? It’s incredible.”[/color] [color=#ffffff]Reed could barely hide his enthusiasm. Had he not been so focused on Holt, he would have noticed that the tone of his voice had managed to rub Maria the wrong way. Reed had never been a field agent, or law enforcement of any kind for that matter, so the technology was fawning over was still abstract to him. He had never seen it used up close and personal on innocent civilians like Hill had.[/color] [color=#674ea7]“No, Reed, I think ‘criminal’ is the word you’re looking for on this one. Did you read his file? We picked Holt up selling weapons out of his friend’s to some small-time crooks. They were planning a heist. People could have been killed using the weapons [i]he [/i]designed.”[/color] [color=#3d85c6]“I’m under no illusions about the boy’s past,” [/color][color=#ffffff]Reed saif a grimace.[/color][color=#3d85c6] “But it’s not his past I’m interested in, Maria, it’s his future. There’s still time for Holt to turn things around with the right guidance.”[/color] [color=#ffffff]The super scientist meant to provided that guidance. Richards was listless for all of about a week after the Fantastic Four had gone their separate ways, but he soon found his calling. It had been the message from the [i]other [/i]Reed Richards that had given him the inspiration he needed. He drew up a list and saw to it that it ended up in Maria’s hands before the hour was out. Michael Holt was at the top of it.[/color] [color=#674ea7]“You know, when you told me you wanted to start a school, I thought your intake would be a little more distinguished.”[/color] [color=#ffffff]Reed looked to the acting director of SHIELD with a grateful smile.[/color][color=#3d85c6] “Does that mean you’ll let me take him?”[/color] [color=#ffffff]Hill let out a weary sigh.[/color] [color=#674ea7]“It means that if Holt so much as forgets to pay his cell phone bill, he’s going to be seeing in his twenties from the inside of a padded cell in The Raft. If I agree to this, there can be no mistakes. Do you understand me?”[/color] [color=#ffffff]Reed considered the statement. Everything that had gone wrong for him and Ben, Johnny, and Sue since they had arrived in this world played through his head – being tortured in Latveria, the incident with Namor, and Hector Hammond's destroying not only the Baxter Building, but the timecraft too being chief among them. He figured he was due some good luck. And if anyone was worth taking the risk for, it was Michael Holt.[/color] [color=#3d85c6]“No mistakes,” [/color][color=#ffffff]Reed promised. [/color][color=#3d85c6]“You have my word on that.”[/color] [color=#ffffff]Hill signalled to a nearby SHIELD agent and Reed followed after them. He could feel butterflies in his stomach as the agent unlocked the door to the cell and gestured to Richards to step through. Holt turned expectedly towards the door and scowled in Reed’s direction, who in turn responded with a collegial smile and sat across the table from him.[/color] [color=#3d85c6]“Good afternoon, Michael. You don’t mind if I call you Michael, do you? Mister Holt seems a little formal and … well, given the circumstances, I don’t think that we need to trouble ourselves with formalities.”[/color] [color=#ffffff]Holt looked as bemused by Reed’s easy charm as he was by the super-scientist’s sudden appearance. [/color][color=#999999]“What the fuck do you want?”[/color] [color=#3d85c6]“I want to help you, Michael.”[/color] [color=#ffffff]Holt nodded his head gently as Reed spoke. At first his dark brown eyes appeared as if they were fixed on him, but after a second or two it became clear that Holt was staring straight through him, almost as if he wasn’t there at all. He seemed agitated. His knee bounced up and down beneath the table restlessly as he tossed and turned Reed’s statement in his head.[/color] [color=#999999]“Help me, huh? Well, why don’t you start by doing what I told that dyke behind the the glass and getting me my fucking lawyer?”[/color] [color=#ffffff]There was no malice in Holt’s words. They were designed to shock, not to offend. Even his swearing seemed put on, affected for Reed’s sake, like a performance that Holt slipped in and out of with ease to keep people from getting too close to him. Reed had seen it before. Breaking through Holt’s barriers would be a difficult task – but he knew where the young man would end up if he didn’t manage to.[/color] [color=#3d85c6]“The woman behind that glass is the only person standing between you and a prison cell.”[/color] [color=#ffffff]A derisive snort escaped from Holt’s squat nose.[/color] [color=#999999]“You think I’m afraid of doing a little time? I’ve got more family in prison than I do on the outside. I ain’t got shit to be scared of in prison. Go ahead and put me in there. Lock me up and throw away the key for all I care, man. Just stop wasting my fucking time.”[/color] [color=#3d85c6]“That would an incredible waste,” [/color][color=#ffffff]Reed sighed. [/color][color=#3d85c6]“You’re a very intelligent young man, Michael, and I think you know that. The weapons you designed? Quite impressive. Not perfect, but then again what is at your age? Some of my designs were as rough around the edges as yours.”[/color] [color=#ffffff]For the first time Holt’s guard seemed to slip – if only by an inch. Whether he knew it or not, there was a flicker of exhilaration in his eyes when Reed had mentioned his designs. Since SHIELD had gone public with the ‘return’ of Reed Richards and co., he’d barely been able to travel in public being mobbed. He was one of the most famous men in the world. Or at least, he’d assumed the place of one of the most famous men in the world. The regard that Holt held Reed in wasn’t [i]his [/i]regard to own, but he used it to his advantage nonetheless. Perhaps sensing the ploy, the young man slunk back into his seat and shrugged his shoulders casually.[/color] [color=#999999]“Rough around the edges? What the fuck are you talking about? My designs are airtight.”[/color] [color=#ffffff]Reed smiled. He looked towards the two-way glass and made a gesture to the SHIELD agent waiting on the other side. The agent re-entered the room with one of Michael’s designs in hand. It was a handgun that had been confiscated earlier that night. Except instead of packing snub-noses, it dealt out the kind of repulsor blasts that Tony Stark had made use of as Iron-Man. Reed made a show of inspecting the weapon.[/color] [center][img]https://i.imgur.com/SvzyJIM.png[/img][/center] [color=#3d85c6]“Oh, I don’t know about that. The makeshift arc reactor you designed is impressive given it was made out of used car parts – but inefficient. These weapons wouldn’t have lasted longer than maybe a week or two. And then what, Michael? What would you have done when your customers came looking for a refund?”[/color] [color=#ffffff]Holt seemed tickled by the suggestion his designs were less than perfect.[/color][color=#999999] “See, now I know you don’t know what you’re talking about.”[/color] [color=#ffffff]With breath-taking ease, Reed took the weapon apart. In three swipes, he removed the arc reactor and set it down on the table between the two of them. Holt stared down at his weapon, now in several pieces, and gulped hard. Reed could sense the young man starting to realise that perhaps not everything he’d read about the world’s most famous super-scientist had been hype. In fact, most of it had done him a disservice.[/color] [color=#ffffff]He was about to ask Reed a question when the door to the cell opened. In the doorway stood the woman Michael had described as a ‘dyke’ only moments earlier – Maria Hill – and the SHIELD agent that had brought Holt’s weapon into the room. It was clear from the look on Hill’s face that this time they had designs on more than the weapon.[/color] [color=#674ea7]“Come on, Richards, it’s time to leave. The boy’s obviously not interested in joining your little school. I don’t know why you insisted on meeting him in the first place – I told you he didn’t have what it took. Do you believe me now?”[/color] [color=#ffffff]Reed stood up from his seat abruptly and placed a paternal hand on Holt’s shoulder.[/color] [color=#3d85c6]“It was a pleasure to meet you, Michael. I wish you the best of luck in your future endeavours.”[/color] [color=#999999]“Wait, what?!”[/color][color=#ffffff] Holt shouted. [/color][color=#999999]“Where are you going?”[/color] [color=#3d85c6]“What was it that you said earlier? ‘Lock you up and throw away the key’? Well, I can’t pretend to be an expert in law enforcement but I believe this is the part where they do that.”[/color] [color=#ffffff]There was panic in Michael Holt’s eyes. For the first time since he’d been dragged in by the SHIELD agents, he appeared to realise the extent of the trouble he was in – and that he had squandered his once chance at redemption. He shouted to Reed as reached the doorway in a desperate attempt to stop him from leaving.[/color] [color=#999999]“Whoa, whoa, whoa. Just [i]wait [/i]a second, alright? You didn’t say anything about a school. Look, I know I fucked up, man. I know that. I was only running those weapons to get the hell away from the group home they have me staying in. That place is a hellhole, man. I can barely breathe up in there, let alone think.”[/color] [color=#ffffff]Hill shot Reed an impatient look. He acknowledged it, but looked back towards Holt, and let out a disappointed sigh. Perhaps in preparation for his looming career change, Richards body language became less that of a scientist and more one of a teacher that had been let down by one of their students.[/color] [color=#3d85c6]“With a mind like yours that is a great shame, Michael.”[/color] [color=#ffffff]Holt shrugged his shoulders. Suddenly all of the aggressiveness that he had been affecting began to melt away and the real Michael Holt came into sight. Instead of putting on a front or performing, he seemed to give true consideration to what Reed Richards was offering him – and what the ramifications of accepting it might mean. It was a welcome step towards progress.[/color] [color=#999999]“So if I go with you, then what? I gotta walk around in a dumb blazer and shorts? Because I think I’d rather do the time than sit in some dusty ass classroom looking like the Fresh Prince.”[/color] [color=#3d85c6]“There won’t be any blazers,” [/color][color=#ffffff]Reed smiled as he extended his hand towards Holt.[/color][color=#3d85c6] “And there [i]definitely [/i]won’t be any dusty classrooms.”[/color] [color=#ffffff]A resigned look appeared on Michael's face and he reluctantly shook Reed’s hand. [/color][color=#999999]“Fuck it.”[/color] [color=#ffffff]The nod that passed between Reed and Hill confirmed his gratitude for her intervention. He had worried for a second there that he might not have been able to reach the young man. Saving the world wasn’t enough anymore, Reed needed to [i]teach [/i]them – and to do that he needed a white knight. Though Hill had her doubts, Reed was sure he had found the leader his project needed in Michael Holt. For the first time, Richards spoke the name of his project outloud.[/color] [color=#3d85c6]“Welcome to the Future Foundation, young man.”[/color]