Mary entered into the SHIELD headquarters, knowing what was going to happen in her time there. After all, this was something that needed to be discussed. She also knew that Cassandra would be involved in this conversation, since for the most part, it would effect her. This was not going to end well, that much she knew, it wasn't going to be fun talking to Fury. She was directed that way, and found herself in Fury's office, now just waiting for Cass to show up.
Cassandra had been at SHIELD headuquarters for about an hour now, as she was going over a few reports she looked up at the clock seeing that it was time for the meeting with Mary and Director Fury. She wasn't sure what the meeting was going to be about really, but the meeting probably wouldn't end up well either. As she started to head to the elevator and then pressed the top floor, where she would meet in his office, as soon as the elevator came to a stop Cass walked down the hallway. There she looked to see Mary was already there, she gave her a slight smile and nod.
"How are you doing Mary?" Cassandra asked.
"I'm alright, could be better, but things have been going well," she said, nodding as Fury entered the room and took a seat in a chair.
"Isley already knows why the two of you are here, so it should be obvious that it involves SHIELD's relations with the X-Men and the school in general," he said simply, looking over at Mary.
"Yeah Fury, you definitely are right on that one..." she responded with a slight shake of her head.
"That's good to hear." Cassandra said, as she turned her attention towards the door seeing Director Fury coming in, and gave him a quick nod as she went to take her seat as well next to Mary. She eyed Mary for a second getting the feeling that she did not like him at all, as she bit her bottom lip before turning to look at Fury.
"I have a feeling that Mary doesn't like whats going on then?" Cassandra asked.
"No, more of the whole thing just really bugs me and I don't care much for Fury... Especially considering at this rate the X-Men are basically doing SHIELD's job. I mean really, OMEN last I checked was one of your bigger problems and you didn't think to find anything against it at all? Thanks to the team, with some help from the one active SHIELD agent with us," she said, adding the last part with a slight nod towards Cassandra,
"OMEN is no longer a problem. But you see, generally the way that partnerships, or cooperatives work is that usually both sides benefit from it, not really what has been happening at all." Cassandra looked back at Mary as she spoke, she could understand where she was coming from but SHIELD couldn't really actively go after OMEN.
"I tried calling for more backup, but at the time OMEN had taken over half of SHIELDs funding from what I understand." Cassandra looked over towards Fury for a moment.
"But if given more time we can work together now that OMEN is gone we can still benefit from one another." "I believe that as well, however that decision isn't up to me Agent Reed." "No, both sides would have to agree to it... And right now I'm still leaning towards not continuing on like this. It is getting just a tad bit on the ridiculous side, and at the moment the only side benefiting a lot from this partnership is SHIELD, and that is not, as I said before, how things like this work. I can't really justify keeping this partnership Cass." "I think the X-Men and the mansion would still benefit however, we can give you proper funding, updated gear and tech to help aide in your missions against groups like The Brotherhood and any information and intel that we can share." Cassandra said trying her best to try and convince Mary that it would be able to work out with them, she rubbed the bridge of her nose a bit.
"...You do realize that our training room literally was built with alien technology that had been adapted, not to mention a room that you guys could only dream of having access to. Also known as Cerebro, so I don't really see any benefits. Not to mention think Hank would feel a tad bit insulted at hearing you think that the stuff we have is outdated." "SHIELD could use something like Cerebro, or the Danger Room to help out with our own agents training, and getting intel as well." Cassandra said looking at Fury for a moment, for any kind of help.
"And I did not mean to insult Hank, he is a very brilliant man. But I am sure that we have something at least to help the X-Men with your missions." "...Problem is that we weren't getting any sort of SHIELD support, for anything, aside from you, so basically we, a much much smaller group, was basically risking our lives to prevent something that technically wasn't even really our business until OMEN attacked us, while SHIELD basically say back and did nothing... Look, I'll admit, maybe you guys do have things that would be useful to us, but risking our lives to solve your problems while throughout this entire thing, we basically were on an island by ourselves to fix things, you have to admit Cass, SHIELD hasn't exactly been the most helpful. Even when Magneto was threatening to basically wipe out humans around the world, SHIELD didn't show up until after we had solved the problem, not to mention saving the skins of most SHIELD agents in the process. Add that to the fact that apparently your so called "inescapable" prison, the Raft, resulted in the Brotherhood breaking out anyway." Cassandra stared at Marygold as she spoke and nodded a bit, true that they didn't have much SHIELD support during their time working together. But Magneto and The Brotherhood did attack The Triskelion, and they had their own problems as well but they could have used the help during some of the missions together.
"I agree with you SHIELD did lack the help that you needed, but The Brotherhood ended up attacking The Triskelion and took the Index as well, we were hit hard and had to scramble and get things fixed there, and what happened at The Raft wasn't our fault that they escaped. Mystique snuck in and broke the others free from there, if we would have had her in custody then they wouldn't have escaped. And OMEN had nearly all our funding we couldn't spare the man power at the time." "Other thing... SHIELD seems to be all about excuses... Because here's the thing with that Brotherhood thing... You'd think, knowing that a known associate of Magneto's wasn't caught and was a shapeshifter, you'd have thought you would have been prepared. Look, there isn't any real point in us continuing this partnership, alright?" Cassandra lifted up her hands, as if she had given up trying to convince Marygold the merits of them continuing their partnership.
"I still think we should continue working. But that decision isn't up to me it's up to you and Director Fury, though we do need people with experience with powers for the Phase Three experiments." Cass said looking over.
"Wait... What the hell are you doing?" she asked instantly, that was something that she hadn't been told about, at all, and she turned to look at Fury, glaring at him now, but he just said nothing, leaning back in his chair and staring right back.
Cassandra looked at Mary for a moment as she rubbed the back of her neck a bit awkwardly.
"I thought you knew this already, that is my next assignment, we need more people to defend the world like the Avengers. We are planning on putting our next group of willing graduating cadets to go through it. To see whether they are inhuman, mutate or mutant and train them on their powers, and then send them out into field missions." Cassandra answered.
"You want to make MORE people like us? Are you people idiots! You do realize that based on everything that has happened in the past week or two, you want to make it so that more people have powers? Unlike the Avengers, people hate people like us who are super powered and we are treated like absolutely nothing. Reason why we do what we do is to try and bridge that gap, and make it so that there is peace between both sides. But I can't believe what it is that I am hearing, this is just completely ridiculous." "I get and understand the issues that you and my own sister face on a daily basis, but SHIELD has faced a lot of threats we need some of our agents to be able to better combat other threats." Cassandra glared at Marygold trying to calm down.
"We barely survived the Battle of New York during the Chitari invasion, who knows if theres going to be another threat like that. We need more people with powers to help defend the newer threats that are coming out. "No, trust me, people don't like being saved and protected by people like us. I know that first hand, and this is proof that SHIELD doesn't care about anyone, not the people who are a part of it that's for sure, since otherwise you wouldn't even be considering something like this. I know basic genetics Agent Reed, so let me tell you not everyone would survive experiments like that. It is simple enough to understand that. You also just for sure confirmed that those of us want nothing to do with SHIELD if this is the current course of action. Oh, and if you are perfectly fine with this, don't exactly come back around the mansion either, no matter what. You can meet up with your sister outside of the school grounds, but you stay far away from it, got it," she said, snapping slightly as she turned and left the room. This was not something she wanted anything to do with. Who the hell in their right mind would even do something like that at all?
After Mary had left the room, Fury turned and looked at Cassandra.
"I didn't think the partnership with the X-Men would last forever, they don't exactly see things the way we do, the big picture if you will... I expected her to have walked out before that, though I do appreciate your attempts to get her to reconsider it." Cassandra was about to open her mouth again to say something before Marygold beat her to it, as she bit back her tongue she watched Marygold getting up and leaving Director Fury's office. She leaned forward rubbing her eyes a little bit letting out an annoyed sigh, she knew the risks for the experiments as well but the subjects as far as she knew were more than willing to go through it. Looking up at Director Fury and nodded slightly.
"I thought she'd be willing to at least help train them once the experiments are completed. Is there anything else you'd like me to do sir?" Cassandra asked as she leaned back in the seat looking up at him.
"No, that'll be all Agent," he said simply, nodding his head at her.
"Yes sir." Cassandra said as she finally stood up and started to head out of Fury's office and started to make her way down the hallway.
Things at the mansion were going better now, at least as well as things could be considering that they had to rebuild and replace everything. The Danger Room, as well as Cerebro, the two rooms that likely would have taken years to rebuild thankfully had survived the entire attack and were still standing, however the hallways connecting them, all the rooms in the lower levels aside from those two, and everything above ground was completely gone.
It did help that Xavier was rich, though it was debatable whether or not he had any sort of agreements with insurance companies or any architects or things like that. Considering how quickly work began, and was completed, it did make one wonder just what he did to get help like that. It also helped that there were people at the school who were able to help out the builders as well when it came to the actual construction of the school.
It helped that Tony Stark was kind enough to let the students stay at a house that he had outside of New York that was effectively collecting dust and wasn't being used anyway. Dean was able to actually get the prom that he had been wanting to do, and it didn't end to badly. Now he was going on to the next project that he was wanting to do, which was to have a musical of sorts, and settled on doing Beauty and the Beast. So that has kind of been taking over the school for the moment, even though a few people were slightly annoyed at the idea.
Xavier, aside from working to get the mansion rebuilt once more, has been dealing with much of the backlash from OMEN's sudden closure. There were a few other things he was dealing with, aside from the chaos on the political side, and was trying to figure out the best course of action for them to continue. It wasn't going to be easy, especially considering all that was happening in the government towards mutants and anyone with super natural abilities.
He decided that in order to effectively do this was to try and get into contact with a few others for aid in figuring out the best way to move forward. However, those who he'd trust most to be helpful weren't exactly too willing, or trusting anymore, of him, which didn't help matters at all. Which is why he enlisted in the aid of someone the group seemed to trust a little more than him, hopefully anyway, and that was Pietro Maximoff.
Pietro was called into Xavier's office, alone. He wasn't too sure what exactly this would entail, considering the fact that he was almost positive that he hadn't caused any trouble recently, or done anything bad like that aside from maybe teasing the wannabe speedster.
"So... Mind telling me what exactly this is about?" he asked as he shut the door behind him, yawning slightly.
"I have a bit of an errand that I need you to do for me, and it can not wait any longer... I know that you were going to race off for something anyway, so I thought you might be able to help me while you were gone." "I hate it when people get in my head or read my mind... But shoot, what is it that you need me to do?" "As you likely have heard, or have figured it out by now, most of the older X-Men team, well, we don't exactly see eye to eye anymore." "Yeah, no kidding? From what I can tell most of them hate you just about as much as they kind of hate me." "Anyway, I need you to go out and find them, this won't be a simple task, but I know what general area they are in. As you know, Hank and Wolverine stay here, or close by to the mansion..." "Wait, let me get this straight. Knowing perfectly well that several of them hate me, you want me to be the one to go after them or whatever? Do you want someone to kill me?" "I believe Gambit might be the only one you need to worry about. He and Rogue are down south in New Orleans, while Scott and Jean are in New York City. Now, the first one you'd have to go talk to is Storm..." "Why? Because she's the least likely to want to kill me? Just start with her and work my way to New Orleans then where there's a guy who likely wants me dead." "No, that is not the reason Pietro... Storm currently resides in Wakanda, she has been there for the past few years or so now." "Wait, I have to run across the Atlantic Ocean?" "Yes." "...Fine, I'll do it, I guess I'll likely be back later tonight. I've got my own things to do, but those can wait until after I likely nearly get killed. So, what do you want me to tell them exactly?" "I need you to convince them that they should come back to the mansion, for I need to talk to them. After the OMEN downfall, there are likely to be repercussions around the world." "So... Find the old team whose phone numbers you don't have, get them to come back here to talk about some anti mutant hate that could cause problems worldwide. Is that it?" "Yes." "Alright, well, guess I'm off then, wasn't planning on doing too much today anyway, so thanks for providing me with something to do," he said before he took off running.
Several Hours Later - 7:00 PM
In a Car Driving From New York
"Well, never thought we'd be going back to the mansion again." "Yeah, but you have to remember, a lot has changed since we were last there. I understand the Professor's concerns with OMEN's downfall." "I know that, it's just a little strange. We haven't exactly been around for a few years now. Closest we ever got to getting called in for anything was when your niece called us a few months back after the mansion was destroyed... Yet again I might add." "The mansion does seem a bit accident prone doesn't it?" "At least once every couple of years at this rate, to think that place is a school, you'd think that someone would have tried to shut the institute down years ago because of it." "Actually, as I recall someone did try to shut the school down, it's just been about 10 years or so since then." "That's besides the point Jean and you know it." "Well I for one am curious as to what it is the Professor wants to tell us about. Besides, it'll be nice to see everyone again, it has been a while since we all were in one place." "Yeah, it will be... Hank and Logan still hang around the school don't they? I understand Hank wanting to stick around after what had happened, but I would have thought that Logan would have been the first one out the door." "That was a bit on the surprising side, I will admit. He generally does not take things like that very lightly. A little surprised that he's still around, but well... I suppose he likely didn't have anywhere else to go. The mansion has been his home for a long time now you know." "I know that."
In the Sky somewhere heading for the Mansion
It had been a crazy past few hours. One minute the two of them were at their place down in New Orleans, the next minute Quicksilver of all people comes racing up and wants to talk to them. Was a little difficult for her to stop Gambit from trying to kill the speedster or something, but now they were finding themselves flying back to New York, back to where the mansion was. Not to mention catching Gambit's cats and giving them something to make it so that they slept the entire time. In Rogue's mind sometimes those cats were way too much trouble.
"Ready to see the mansion again?" she asked.
Gambit had a very firm hold on his bag of cats. Inside, there were his three 'children' as he thought of them - Oliver, Figaro, and Lucifer. He had been mistaken by some of his friends as being gay - but his love for Rogue was proof enough that he was bisexual.
"Je ne veux pas voir Charles," Gambit muttered. At least in this flight, he had a first class view - of Rogue.
"English Remy, ya know I don't speak French!" "I ain't exactly thrilled about seein' Charles mon amie...And ya should learn French!" "Are we really gonna have this argument now?" she asked, raising an eyebrow at him,
"And I know ya don't exactly like hangin' around Xavier, but we should at least hear what he has ta say." Gambit huffed slightly, rolling his eyes. They had good reasons for leaving the team - each and every one of them did. Marygold had been the only one of the original team to remain behind. And sometimes, Gambit couldn't help but wonder if they should have made her come with him.
"And freaking Quicksilver...Man, Xavier's just gettin' worse!" "Ya don't know that for sure, and people can change Remy. But it sounds like the others are going to be headin' back there too. So at least we'll see them again too ya know." "He nearly killed Goldie, chère!" "That was several years ago and ya know it! Ya can't hold that against him forever ya know!" "Watch me, mon amie!" She just rolled her eyes,
"Honestly Remy ya are ridiculous! Anyway... Doesn't matter now does it? We're going to the mansion and we might run into Quicksilver again, so be warned that odds are ya can't beat him up over it!" "He ain't that hard to hit - he's a dumbass," Gambit said.
"Just gotta wait for him to trip over his own feet." She let out a sigh, figuring that it was no use arguing. It was obvious how much Gambit hated Pietro Maximoff, so there wasn't any point in trying to change his mind.
"Well anyway... We'll be there in a little bit... So can ya try your best ta behave yourself?" He thought about it for a moment.
"If I can get a kiss, sure." "Ya know why ya can't Remy!"
Marygold Isley
Location: Parlor - First Floor
Mary had been trying to relax, at least as much as possible, since the event with OMEN. She had learn a few things, thanks to her week with Veil and the Mutant Underground, it had helped. Xavier had been right to send her there for a little bit, get away from the group and learn how others were dealing with being in the spot that she was basically in. She vaguely had remembered who Veil was before she had gone, the woman had been at the mansion Mary's first year at the school, but that had been about it, so she wasn't too sure what she was expecting, but her time there had proven useful. She was grateful for that.
Now, back at the mansion, finally with everything having been repaired and rebuilt, she could relax a little bit. It was getting fairly dark outside, so she wasn't out in the garden as she usually was. Instead, she was in the parlor, reading a book on the couch. It wasn't her preferred way to spend time, but it was a nice change of pace from the chaos of the past few months.
Lance Banner
Location: Chemical Lab - First Sub-Basement
Things hadn't gone the best when they had gotten back to Stark Tower after the incident at the OMEN facility. His dad had kind of freaked out a little bit, almost to the point where he turned into the green rage monster again, and that thing got just a bit on the annoying side after a while. Not to mention that since the mansion was destroyed, he was stuck being in close proximity to his father for a little while longer, which annoyed him as well. Lance was glad when the mansion had been rebuilt and he could get away from his family issues again.
He was messing around down in the chemical lab, running an experiment in his spare time. He was worried slightly about Guin, and what had happened with OMEN had shaken her slightly, that much was obvious. It made him debate about checking on her, since he knew that Pietro wasn't there to make sure that she was okay. Though he was starting to wonder where the speedster of all people was, he'd been gone almost the entire day.
Mirembe Adebayo
Location: Library - First Floor
Mira had made a friend or two since everything had turned to chaos with OMEN, well, a friend besides Guin. Though she was a bit shaken by taking the lives of so many people with that shriek at the facility, it still did on occasion haunt her nightmares, though not very often. She had grown up among a group of people who tended to be warriors, so it was only natural for her to be able to deal with the deaths, but that still didn't stop her from having the occasional problem.
She had made friends with one of the other students, Neil Spellman, and had joined his Dungeons and Dragons group, having never played the game before, she hadn't been too sure what to expect, but she found that she rather enjoyed the game. It was fun, creative, and they practically were building their own little world. Sure, Mira wasn't much for being in a group of people, but in this sort of setting she didn't really mind it. Always liking music in some way, and not wanting to be apart of Dean's dumb musical or anything, she had made the Bard for the party, playing a character that was almost the exact opposite of who she was as a person, but that's what she liked best about the game. You could literally be anyone, and not yourself.
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