[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/oT61jg2.jpg[/img][/center]

ARGUS was everything Booster had assumed it was. A police force that was over-militarized and over aggressive for what they were supposed to be doing. A bunch of military surplus in a country known for having too many guns and too many ways to use them. Body-armored soldiers lined the hall, and the outside of the building. Booster leaned on the sill of a window and watched they run drills in the yard below. It felt oddly familiar to her. She wasn't sure why, and of course Skeets wouldn't tell her. He wasn't good for anything, and being here for a few days had her annoyed with him.

The flashbacks seemed to be at bay, though she was getting more and more inklings about who she truly was. Not enough to make a definitive statement, but enough was coming to her.

She couldn't say the same with her read on her hosts. Nathaniel Haywood was a boy scout, but he was the worst kind of them. All rules, all business, and absolutely no cracks to show in the metaphorical armor. She was good at finding what drove people crazy and using it to really get to the heart of who they were. So far Heywood was about as open as a clam. The longest sentence he had said to her was telling her that the bathroom was down the hall. It was maddening.

"Why are we staying her, ma'am?" Skeets asked from behind her. She turned to see him inspecting the room they had been given at ARGUS headquarters. They called it her quarters, but in reality it was a prison. One she could break out of at any moment, granted, but a prison none the less. ARGUS was all about control. They wanted to make sure people like her were under thumb.

They were here so they could keep an eye on her, and for now she'd let them. She didn't have anything to hide. Hell, she couldn't hide anything about her if she wanted to. 

"We're here because our lovely hosts were kind enough to extend us an invitation," she smiled to the robot and then motioned him closer. "Mind hooking up to the suit? I want to run some diagnostics."

Once the robot was attached, she said quietly, "Okay, that was a lie. I need to send an encrypted email off their servers. You can do that, right?"

"Of course ma'am," the robot responded in the affirmative. "To whom will I be sending it to?"

"Sandy Vincent," Booster sighed. She was with Roxxon, sure, but she seemed trustworthy, and that's exactly what Gold needed at this point. Not only was she under ARGUS's "command" at this point, but the Houston operation had left a sour taste in Booster's mouth. She ran by her thoughts into the messsage. On how that ARGUS seemed to show up exactly when the members of Onslaught got away, and how they knew exactly where Irons was being held. Something about it stunk. She wasn't sure if she was being played, but at least Sandy could look into it for her.

"Message sent, ma'am," Skeets confirmed.

"Thanks, Skeets," she sighed. "Let's go see if we can find some food in this place."

"I do not have to eat, ma'am," Skeets corrected her.

"Yea, I know," she rubbed her temples.
[hr]
John Henry Irons sat in a rusted lab filled with sparkling new equipment. Wherever the terrorists had brought him was ancient, but their funding allowed the the top of the line when it came to actually kitting out the lab. On the one wall hung the armor that he was working on, and next to it, inexplicably, was a larger version of it. Instead of making a man the size of a very large gorilla, it would make him the size of an elephant. 

That wasn't the baffling thing about it, thought. No, the baffling thing was that no one outside of Roxxon was supposed to know about this particular invention. Outside companies had surmised he was working on human exoskeletons for a while now. Hell, some of them had attempted to poach him away from Roxxon. But this one was top of the line top secret. They had wiped the computers in the North Dakota lab after they moved him as well. The only place these plan were kept was on his laptop. It was impossible.

"Admiring our handiwork, I see," a voice from behind him announced its presence. He turned to find a tall, well-built man in a red-and-black tactical getup sitting behind a pane of glass staring into the lab. He almost looked like Captain America, if Irons didn't know better and the colors weren't wrong. His face was also completely covered, unlike the disgraced American hero. But the makeup of the armor looked similar. Made for quick, sudden movements and flexibility. "I'm sure you're wondering how we got it."

"Don't right care how you got it," Irons was unimpressed. "All I know is you're not gonna get me to finish this. That's what you want, right?"

The man in red and black smiled. Irons couldn't see it, but he sensed it. The man had something planned for this occasion.

[i]Of course he did, John,[/i] Irons thought to himself. [i]He's an international terrorist, not an idiot.[/i]

The terrorist stood and motioned towards a screen on the other wall of Irons's lab. He flicked a switch and it came to life, revealing a woman and her daughter sitting at a kitchen table, laughing over dinner. 

As soon as John saw them, he shot out of the cot he was in and smashed his fists against the glass, "If you touch them I will kill you."

The terrorist laughed softly, "Doctor Irons, you are in no position to harm me. But you are in the perfect position to help your sister and your niece. Finish the armor and nothing will happen to them. It's as simple as that. You have two days."