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Booster shifted restlessly in the lab as she watched Doctor Irons buzz around the lab like a very large and muscular bee. She had never seen a scientist that also looked like an NFL linebacker. He told her he had played football in college, not that it came as much of a surprise. Still, it was interesting to watch him work. For someone as large as he was, he worked on the machinery with incredible touch and delicate percision. She watched as he worked on the helmet for the suit he showed her when she walked in.

Then the edges of her vision began to blur, and she was back in the time she came from. She was in a lab, but totally different from this one. While Irons's was a bit disorganized, this one was sparking like someone was following the man working it constantly cleaning. Actually, there was. A tall, one-armed robot was following the salt-and-pepper-haired man like a puppy.

"Would you stop?" Tony Stark snapped at the robot. "You're like an orphan following Daddy Warbucks around. Except I have more money than he does."

She giggled. Booster wasn't sure if that was from her fractured memories or from her now. It was a good line.

The genius inventor put his head up and looked right at her, answering her question for her, "Can you grab that power core for me? Dummy here would probably drop it and vaporize us all."

Booster watched as she got up and grabbed a glowing blue cylinder and walked it over to the inventor. He took it and smiled at her. Again, she wasn't sure if it was her memory, but he seemed larger than life. The great inventor smiled warmly at her and took the part. He put it in the new suit of armor her was working on, "Thanks, Booster. I would be lost without you, you know that?"

From behind her a door slid open and Steve Rogers, Captain America stepped through it, smiling at the two of them, "Looks like things are going well here."

"Splending, El Capitan," Stark mock saluted, which drew another laugh from Booster. "We're just finishing up here."

"Good," Rogers, whose blue eyes had begun to pale slightly at his advanced age, turned to Booster. "Because we have a mission, Gold-"

She was shaken and came back to the present, where John Henry Irons was rocking her shoulder back and forth, "You okay?"

"Huh? Yea," Booster nodded, shaking the cobwebs out of her head. Skeets was hovering worredly next to her. "Was just lost in my own head there for a minute."

"You seemed to be in a trance, ma'am," Skeets responded with a hint of knowing.

"I'm fine, Skeets," she beamed back at the robot. "Tip top shape. I'm a superhero after all. Nothing gets by me."

"You sure?" Irons was unmoved. "You definitely seemed like you were somewhere else."

Her smile said she was fine, but she was beginning to worry. Her visions seemed to be becoming more frequent. So far they had failed to materialize during an engagement with an enemy, but she had begun to wonder when her luck would run out on that front. What happened when someone tried to kill her and she was paralyzed by some nonsensical flashback?

"So you really think Roxxon isn't going to sell your tech as weapons?" she asked him, quickly changing the subject away from her. She already felt uncomfortable as-is.

He looked over his glasses at her, "Seriously? You're the one asking me if Roxxon would use my work as a weapon? Isn't that exactly what they're doing with you?"

She probably should have saw that one coming. It's true, she was a hired good for Roxxon. A very well paid hired goon, but a hired goon none the less. 

"Touche," she tipped her head to him. "That being said, I can leave whenever I want. They tell me to do something I don't agree with, I'll walk. It'll hurt to leave behind all those zeroes, but hey, that's the way the cookie crumbles. But they're going to own the patents for these things. You don't get to choose when and where these suits will go once you meet your deadline and hand them over to the boss man. I dunno, I'd be worried that they were going to do some shady shit."

"I can't think like that," he waved her away and went back to work. "If we all assumed the worst things could happen with our work, there'd be no scientific progress at all. We'd still be sitting in caves heating ourselves with meager fires. Plus, in a world where teenage girls can lift a skyscraper, I think we owe it to people risking their lives for natural resources to make their jobs easier. My inventions can do just that."

He made a lot of sense. She could see his passion regarding the suits as well, "This means a lot to you, doesn't it?"

"My grandfather died in a cave in," he responded, not looking up from the helmet. "My dad never even knew him. Was too young to ever really remember his old man. My grandmother barely was able to keep food on the table. My dad worked himself near to death in order to get me to a place where I could even think of college. Now that I got that education, you damn well better believe I'm going to do my best to help the kind of men that helped me get here. Paying it forward is the most important thing we can do. Way more important than padding your own wallet."

That was aimed squarely at her. She was tempted to fire back, but there was no need for it. He wasn't all that wrong. There was probably more that she could be doing to help. But there was also so many other heroes out there. They could take care of the people for now. She'd lend a hand if they really needed it.

"I think you could be great," he added. "You've clearly got all the tools. But something's holding you back. You gotta get out of your own way, kid."

Before she could really ponder whether he was right or wrong, and alarm started to blare through the compound. Booster sprung to her feet as two guards burst into the lab, "Booster, there have been explosions going off throughout the city. We have no idea what's going on. Orders from Roxxon are to stay put and protect Dr. Irons."

She recoiled at that. They wanted her to protect the investment. They didn't care about the people in the city. She was sent here to guard the guy that was going to deliver astounding tech to them, not play hero.

Irons caught her eye, and she knew exactly what he was thinking. This was the time to help people. If she listened to what the company wanted, she'd be the ultimate hypocrite. But more than that, she wouldn't even be a pretend hero. She'd just be a good, and that's not what she was.

"Yea, well, you're going to have to tell Mr. Agger that he can take that order and shove it where the sun doesn't shine," she said through gritted teeth. "There's no way I'm going to let innocent people die while I sit on the bench. Doc, looks like you're gonna have to look after yourself for a while."

"I think I can manage," he smiled warmly and went back to work on the helmet.

"Well, my number's on the fridge if you need anything," Booster winked at him.
[hr]
One of the roof guards watched with a smirk as the hero speed off towards the smoke rising from the city. The plan had worked exactly as the Spymaster said it would. The hero would take the bait, because they always did. They were all so predictable. 

In a flurry, the guard drew his weapon and fired a successions of shots that killed the other two guards he was stationed with. As their bodies fell, the guard began to morph and warp. In mere moments, what was once a Roxxon private security member was now an exact replcia of Booster Gold.

"Booster" made "her" way towards the entrance to the building, ready to take what was Onslaught's.