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"Great news, Booster," her handler and Roxxon PR Manager Sandy Vincent smiled at the hero as she landed on the roof of the Roxxon Building. "Your battle with Blackguard has raised your profile ten points in the biggest markets on the east coast. Great job making it look so easy, not to mention the quips. People love quips. Saving the guard at the last minute? Brilliant. And hitting the guy with the car he tried to use as as weapon!? Man, people are loving you."

The PR executive's long, red hair bounced excitedly as she swiped her finger on her L-Pad, scrolling through statistics. Sandy was short and thin, and relatively young for her job. Black rimmed glasses hung on her freckled face. She told Booster she just looked young, but Gold put the woman's age at twenty-five, almost the same as her. At least Booster thought her own age was around twenty-five. Sandy had been nothing but nice to Booster ever since the hero had come on board, but Booster couldn't say if that was anything more than normal PR fakery. Sandy seemed nice enough, but there was really no way to be sure.

"Even better is the fact that Mr. Agger was able to sell even more sponsorships for you during the battle. Three more high profile clients have agree to come on to the project," she nearly squealed in delight. If nothing else, she was damn good at her job. "We're going to turn you into the next Captain America."

As the words left Sandy's mouth, a flash came over Booster's vision. She saw a red, white, and blue uniform in tatters, the white stained with blood. The words "Go! Now!" echoed through her ears and she heard a metal disk clang to the ground. As the vision passed she had to steady herself by leaning on the wall. Her breath felt like it had been stolen from her, and her head swam and swirled. 

Sandy, worried, placed her hand on Booster's shoulder, "Hey, are you okay?"

"Yea," Booster flashed her trademark smile and waved the PR employee away. "Just a little lightheaded. Must be dehydrated from earlier. Saving the world is tough work, you know."

"Sure," she motioned towards the water cooler near by. "I'll grab you a drink and then we can go meet Mr. Agger. He's go big news."

"Ma'am," Skeets's voice came through the comms. "Your heart rate has risen and your breathing is erratic. Are you okay?"

"Fine, Skeets," she tried to calm the robot down. "Just another vision...or memory or whatever."

Booster had no idea what that news was, be she figured as much when Agger had called her in the same day as she had a battle. Usually he gave her a few days to rest up before giving her the rundown of how much it had helped the bottom line. 

The PR Exec returned with a cup of water that she downed, making it seem like she really needed it. So far she hadn't told anyone about the visions of the future she was having. At least she had figured it was the future. Without her memories that was nothing more than a hypothesis to work on. Better not to worry anyone until she knew what to worry them about.

"Whenever you're ready, Booster," Sand smiled broadly.

Booster nodded back and they headed for Dario Agger's office.
[hr]
Spymaster walked confidently into the communications room of Onslaught headquarters. While his outward demeanor was calm and collected, inside he had to admit he was nervous. He was unsure as to how The Director would react to the loss of Blackguard. The experimental suit the bank robber had been given wasn't cheap, that much was sure. Not to mention the effort it took to even get the suit out of its holding place.

As he took his seat, the screen at the front of the room came alive and the shadowy figure of The Director came up. Spymaster had no clue what the man truly looked like. No one with Onslaught knew, in truth. All the organization knew was that he supplied the funding and its direction. Anything else was above all their significant pay grades.

"Sir," Spymaster nodded to his boss politely. For longer than he could remember, Spymaster had never been with the same employer as the months he had worked for The Director and Onslaught. Most of them couldn't afford him for long, so he performed a single, high-paying job before he left for the next one, sometimes working for the same people he had previous been working against.

"Spymaster," The Director sounded far more chipper than the espionage agent expected him to be. "I saw the report on Blackguard."

"Yes, sir," he nodded. "I wanted to apologize. We never should have sent the suit in the hands of such an unprepared operative. I shouldn't have been so literal when you said you wanted a bank robber."

His benefactor chuckled, the voice modulator he used masking his true voice under a deep baritone, "No, my friend. That was exactly what I wanted. Now our grand plan can be put into action."

"Grand plan, sir?" Spymaster was confused. 

"We need to get the engineer. Now."

Under his mask, Spymaster's eyebrows raised, "Well, that certainly is the escalation, sir."

"It's time. And let's embarrass the bimbo in blue and gold while we do it, shall we?"
[hr]
"Booster! Sorry to keep you waiting!" Dario Agger smiled broadly and flung his arm around her shoulder as they walked to his desk. If Sandy Vincent's friendliness's sincerity was hard to read, Agger's was the complete opposite. Agger was a slimeball through and through. She knew he was using her to make money and didn't care a spit more about her. But that was fine. She was gonna bleed him dry just as well. In the end, Skeets said his company would be dead, and she would be rich. "Great job today with that bank robber! We've been getting sponsorship offers left and right!"

"Sounds like I should be looking for a bigger loft," Booster smiled weakly and moved to sit down, getting Agger's slimy arm off her. "Sandy was giving me all the numbers. Seems like our business partnership is bearing the fruits you thought it would."

"I'm not the youngest CEO of a Fortune 500 for nothing," he smiled devilishly. Dario Agger was the definition of corporate greed. He didn't care that his company would continue raping the natural world. He didn't care how many native people he had to displace to get what he wanted. He didn't care how many endangered species he destroyed. But he was her meal ticket. "But I didn't bring you in to talk about how much people were impressed by you today or for a drink or anything. I mean, we can have a drink if you want a drink. Do you want a drink?"

"I'm good," she waved him away. The last thing she wanted was to get friendly with this guy.

"Okay," he shrugged and poured himself a glass of a dark liquid. "I'm gonna have one. But anyway, we didn't bring you in for a normal meeting. No, this one is about your battle from earlier today. About Blackguard."

"What about him?" her eyebrows raised.

"Well, the armor he was wearing, it was ours. It came from Roxxon Experimental," he smiled weakly after taking a sip from his drink. "A prototype. Take from our testing grounds in North Dakota."

"You're creating weaponized power armor?" she asked angrily, she felt her blood boiling with anger below her skin. She had seen what weapons of war could do in the wrong hands since she came to this time. If an energy company dipping their toes into that field meant they could be sloppy. Clearly they were sloppy. They wouldn't have lost the suit if they weren't.

"Oh no!" Sandy tried to reassure her. "We don't arm them! Ever since Iron Man-"

The words triggered another vision. Tony Stark flashed in front of her, older, but not by much. He was hunkered over some sort of machinery. He turned to her and smiled warmly. "What do you think, Booster? Is it gonna work this time?" As soon as it came to her, it disappeared and she tried to control her breathing. At least she was sitting down this time.

"-our armors are only designed for mining and extraction. Not for offensive capabilities."

"That's right!" Dario clapped. "But that doesn't mean people don't want them for nefarious purposes, as we've seen. Which is why we're sending you to defend the man who's been designing them for us."

"Excuse me?" she looked at him with trepidation. "I'm here to save people, not protect assets."

"I know, I know," he assured her. "But if he's captured by the villains who stole Blackguard's suit, imagine what they could force him to make? And that is far more scary."

She considered what he had to say, and had to admit it made a lot of sense. She motioned for him to continue.

"His name is John Henry Irons, and we moved him from the Dakota testing grounds down to one of our facilities in Houston last week. You'll rendezvous with him there, and then head to a safehouse in Arizona while we figure out who's after Irons and our armors."

"Sounds like a solid plan," Booster nodded. "I'll head home and pack."
[hr]
As Booster headed for the exit of the building, she heard Sandy's voice echo through the lobby, "Booster! Hey Booster! Wait up."

She turned to find the ginger executive racing towards her, waving. When the other woman reached her, she smiled, "So I know you told Mr. Agger you weren't interested in a drink, but you [i]really[/i] seem like you need one. I have to finish some things up in the office, but do you want to meet up after I'm done for happy hour?"

Booster studied Sandy carefully. She was being genuine after all. Surprising. And, to be honest, Booster could use some friends that weren't artificial intelligence if she was going to have any semblance of a life in this timeline. Plus she basically didn't have anything to pack. She hadn't gotten around to buying anything with all her money. Except for a Tesla. Why did she need a Tesla when she could fly? Because shut up, that's why.

"Sure, what the heck," she shrugged and smiled at Sandy. "Call me when you're done."