"Millennials, they just get everything handed to them..." Jim joked, finally getting up from his seat. He went over to Marygold and extended his hand, before he turned completely to stone. He looked similar to the Thing - or a less shiny Colossus.
"Agent Kennedy, hope we haven't gotten off to too much of a rocky start here." He flashed her a grin, before his body shifted back to normal and he winked at Mary.
"Nice to meet you," she said with a smile, shaking his hand.
"Honestly, I'm used to the bad puns from other people over the years," she added, shaking her head.
Jim shrugged. Fitz-Simmons had gone over to the corner, doing some diagnostics on the equipment running the Framework. Although they had one hour in the simulation, it wouldn't cut off then. The simulation would only end when the agents either failed the mission beyond repair, succeeded at their task, or simply gave up. Chloe was making her rounds around the room, making sure that everyone was still showing steady vitals - though a few of the heart rate monitors had picked up from stress.
"It's what's kept me sane - ever since I became whatever this is," he said with a chuckle, his hand now turning to stone.
"When I first got my powers, it was 2 years before I went to the mansion. I was not allowed to set foot on any sort of grassy surface, or dirt. I was basically stuck on cement because otherwise if I walked on the ground there would be a trail of flowers bursting into bloom behind me... Not everyone likes having their powers, or can control them completely, just depends. Some members of the X-Men have slight problems controlling their powers still, even if they've had them for years," she said simply, looking at him.
"Covert ops, Eastern Europe. Ever heard of Mount Wundagore - near Serbia?" Jim asked her.
"They had some experimental tech...Science goes over my head, but I should've died. Instead, I could give the Rock a run for his money these days." He chuckled and gave her a smile, pulling a pack of gum out of his pocket and offering her a piece.
"But instead I try to clean up Fury's messes for him and avoid his bullshit...Like putting these people through this? It's madness. At least I can try to make the transition easier for them....Can you imagine if some random person was in charge of helping them? It'd be a fucking nightmare." "Yeah, probably... A lot of people still can't control their powers at the mansion. One guy, Lance, he kind of turns into a free laser light show when he loses his temper, or his emotions get out of control. Having someone else here that knows about powers probably will help them out." Jim couldn't help but grin hearing that.
"Sorry, that's uh...That's my nephew's name."
The Framework: 30 Minutes Remaining
Team Glitches (
@Peridot@17th Day):
So far, there was no sign of the others for Griff or Sami, leaving them on their own on the top floor of the building. It was entirely possible that the rest of the team didn't even know they were there. The glitch could've made it so they didn't even register on Agent Reed's tablet - only a computer expert would really be able to determine the extent of it, of course, and anyone skilled with computers just so happened to be on Team Reed or Team Abercrombie. But by no means are these two agents truly alone. The relative silence was broken by a radio going off.
"Quicksilver - we've got enhanced hostiles coming in. They're S.H.I.E.L.D. agents. Do you need reinforcements?" If Griff or Sami glanced around the corner one more time, they'd finally be able to get a good glimpse at the hostages. Roughly half a dozen X-Men members were tied up against the wall. One of them would look familiar to Griff - and Sami ought to recognize her, as they share a godfather.
"...What did you do to me..." she mumbled, her skin incredibly pale and she was sweating at the same time. It was as if she had been drugged.
"No need," he replied in the radio, before looking at Guin Stark, the only (known) daughter of Tony Stark and the heiress to Stark Industries.
"Don't worry, nothing major, just kind of something to keep you living, so don't worry too much about it," Quicksilver said with a slight smirk.
Of course, she wasn't the only one that seemed out of it. Oshea Jackson, another speedster, was gravely injured and partially slumped over as he sat next to Allison Andrews. Ayita Dyrkin had been knocked unconscious and Damon Fawkes had severe burns covering his body.
"Why'd you betray us..." Guin murmured, feeling like she was going to throw up and she had a massive fever. She was sitting next to Marygold Isley, the badly battered leader of the X-Men.
"Well, you aren't going to end up dead from this virus thingy, so that's the plus side of this." Mary was kind of out of it. She had been hit pretty hard over the head, and at the very least had several ribs cracked. Coughing slightly, a little bit of blood coming from her mouth, she tried to focus on what was going on around her, but she was finding it to be really hard. There was blood coming from her head, and she closed her eyes to stop the world from spinning. She didn't know really what to do in this situation, and she wasn't going to be much help to the others either.
Carolina slowly opened her eyes and lets out a slight groan in pain her head felt like it was going to explode, she looked around seeing the other members of the X-Men. She could hear Guin and Pietro talking to one another, she knew she shouldn't have trusted Quicksilver at all.
"We trusted you Piet." Carolina had a black eye and a gash on the side of her head.
"I guess you are still like your pops." Allison kept a hand on Oshea, worried the speedster was not going to make it if they continued, but she kept as stoic a face as she could muster. Falling into this obvious trap hurt more than the injuries on her body.
"It's not too late, you can fix this! Those people don't have to die!" Appealing to hopefully whatever kind nature Pietro had left in him, Allison could barely stand.
Team Abercrombie (
@FantasyChic@ihinka@McHaggis@BlueSky44@Nallore):
Unfortunately, the songs on the cassette tape will remain a mystery - unless one of you just happened to be carrying around a tape player. But from the note written on it, it's a safe bet that it'll contain at least Billy Joel's hit
Uptown Girl. As you head for the staircase a few doors down, you'll find another piece of the puzzle. It's an empty syringe and unfortunately, the label has been scrubbed off. There's no telling what it used to contain or who it was administered to - perhaps Agent Bautista could tell, but she's off in a different group.
And while Quicksilver and the hostages are on the fourth floor, your team (of course) doesn't know this. As you exit onto the second floor to begin sweeping and securing the upper floors one by one, you'll realize it looks like an ordinary office area. There are computers all around at several cubicles. There's even cute little drawings parents have pinned up from their children, to give them a burst of positivity in order to get through the day.
Oh, and then there's this man -
Victor Creed, better known as Sabretooth. Your team has been spotted due to its large size and relatively noisy approach up the staircase. Sabretooth doesn't give you a moment to react before he's charged and grabbed one of your teammates - Agent Hale - and thrown him across the room. The telepath hits the wall but he's lucky. Sabretooth has been known to kill his opponents without remorse - Hale is just battered and bruised at the moment.
Sabretooth lets out another roar. Question is - which member of your team will he attack next?
Dominika Novikova
Framework Location: Lab Front Entrance
Skills: Dimensional Energy Perception (Passive), Jack of All Trades (Engineering), Jack of All Trades (Science)
The radio Bautista had grabbed would go off once more, relaying the following message -
"Quicksilver - we've got enhanced hostiles coming in. They're S.H.I.E.L.D. agents. Do you need reinforcements?" Hearing that message sent a small chill down Novikova's spine. She doubted that a speedster would ever need reinforcements. And as she heard Quicksilver's reply that none were needed, she began to be filled with a huge sense of dread. She had a bad feeling about this. She picked at her nails slightly as she thought.
She wasn't an expert in computers, but she had had to take plenty of courses in computer engineering at Sci-Tech. For this program to function properly, it wasn't as simple as Fury saying
"I want this and this, damn it, make it happen" to Agents Fitz and Stark. With such an in depth program as the Framework, it had to be performing advanced probability functions. Novikova felt as if she was on the cusp of understanding something intrinsic about the Framework, when the Operations and Communications agents began to engage the hostiles.
Laine was already down for the count, and Wonderland was gagging on foam from a fire extinguisher. Lizzie managed to spit out the foam and she was glaring and smiling at the same time, looking a bit crazed as she leapt forward. But instead of going for Valencia, the one who attacked her, she grabbed Agent Rivera by the wrist and held onto her tightly. "Go to sleep, babe," Lizzie whispered. Rivera dropped to the ground a moment later, hallucinating profusely. Lizzie then glanced at the others.
"Don't worry, I haven't forgotten about you." She then smirked and suddenly, no one would be able to see anyone else. Lizzie's power over illusions allowed her to create one where everyone seemed to vanish. Novikova looked around, her eyes wide. She took off her glasses, wondering if that would let her see, but nope. She still couldn't see anyone. In fact, only Niah would be able to see through the illusion if she chose to enhance her sight.
"It's an illusion, isn't it?" Novikova asked tentatively, looking around but she still couldn't see anyone.
Member
OfTheValley,
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