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Alarms blared through the ARGUS compound, causing Booster to nearly fall out of her bed. Skeets was skittering around the room in panic, and nearly rammed into her as she stood up. A red light blinked on and off, illuminating the darkened room slightly. If she didn't feel so tired, she would have assumed it was a nightmare.

"Skeets," she said as she extended the armor, "time to link up. Whatever's going on I have to figure we're going to be wrapped up in
it."

Almost as soon as the words left her mouth, the door to her room slid open and she found Citizen Steel staring back at her. He motioned for her to follow, "Come on, we've got a situation."

"Yea, no shit," she rolled her eyes as she followed him. "I didn't think this was just the lights out warning."

"Very funny," Steel grumbled.

"Thanks, I thought so," Booster chuckled to herself. She liked pushing Steel's buttons. "Something to do with Irons?"

"You'll find out during the briefing," was the government hero's curt response.

"Oh, the briefing, huh?" Booster nodded sarcastically. "How official."

"Do you have a problem with procedure?" he shot back at her, giving a, ugh, steely look in the process. 

"Oh so many problems," she smiled back sweetly. "Mostly that if there was something really wrong the two of us should already been on our way to stop it. Not pow-wowing with the generals or whatever the hell we're going to now."

"That's exactly the problem and why ARGUS is necessary," Steel shook his head. Around them the alarms continued to blare. They walked by the helicopter hangar, where Booster saw a bunch of preparation going on. Groups of ARGUS troopers were heading into their designated aircraft for the coming conflict. "Your kind just head out and smash into anything in your way. No thought of what might get in your way, or who might be in your way. We're here to keep the peace and keep you in line."

"Whatever you have to tell yourself to sleep at night, pal," Gold shrugged. "But in reality ARGUS just means that one day when you're gonna want to help, and they're gonna tell you no. Because some Senator's business is involved, or some tinpot dictator the government is propping up doesn't want egg on his face. Whatever the reason, people are going to die because you had to follow procedure."

Steel turned away from her and was silent as they passed into the briefing room. She may have been a bit overzealous in her critique of him, sure. But she had been cooped up in this sterile environment for days, and still hadn't heard back from Sandy about her suspicions. Not to mention the fact that what she said to Heywood was what she felt. The more time she spent around ARGUS the more she was sure that their end goal had nothing to do with keeping people safe. No militarized government body was ever going to have that as an end goal when they worked on the homeland.

No, ARGUS was all about control. She was sure of that. All she had to do was find out what their angle was. Once she had that, she could bring this whole house of cards down with a puff of air.

Taking a seat next to Heywood in the briefing room full of ARGUS troops, the ARGUS officer began, "Twenty minutes ago there was a disturbance in Chicago. The local office there reported unusually high levels of seismic activity on the heart of the city. The strength of the tremors continued to gain strength until they peaked, causing a whole city block to collapse in on itself. From the resulting crater, this emerged."

He pressed a button and a screen sprang to life behind him. On it appeared the armor that Irons had been working on in his lab, except massive. Whoever was piloting it was turned into a near twenty foot giant. It was tearing through concrete and asphalt like they were made of paper and cardboard. 

"It doesn't make any sense," Booster whispered to herself. "He had barely finished the smaller version."

Steel looked over to her, confused. She caught his gaze and shook her head as the commander continued his brief.

"We've tried hitting it with a controlled EMP shock, but it didn't do anything," he shook his head. "Which is why we're sending Steel and Booster in to take care of it. She's the reason this thing is even around to begin with, and it's time to show the world what our boy can do."

The group of soldiers cheered. Some of them clasped Steel on the back. She could tell he enjoyed the attention. She could relate, obviously. There was nothing like the dopamine hit from people cheering your name. It was the reason she had taken all those endorsement deals. Why she had pimped herself out to an oil company the first opportunity she could. Fame and fortune. The pull was irresistible.

Maybe Steel's conviction to the cause he believed in wasn't all that odd after all.

"Now, squad up and head out. We've got a bad guy to catch."