In the past few days, people were transferred over to the Bus. The jet was grounded on the academy grounds, since the team needed the facilities in order to train, yet Fury wanted them to become accustomed to their new surroundings. There were several rounds of rigorous sweeps of the academy, including polygraphs, "truth serum," personality profiling, and even telepathically aided interrogations. None of them managed to find anymore remnants of HYDRA within the school or within the Phase Three program itself.
Of course, that wasn't to say it was an uneventful time of transition... "And you're sure about this, Agent Johnson?" Fury asked, standing behind his desk as he spoke with
Daisy Johnson, one of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s finest agents. Johnson nodded and Fury sighed, handing her a file and quietly informing her that they'd speak more about this later.
"Send in Agent Rhodes, will ya?" he asked, rubbing his forehead. He wasn't sure if it was time to cut off a finger or not - but he was less and less confident in who could really be trusted lately.
Sami stifled a sigh as he was requested to see Fury. Now was the time to mingle more with his new teammates, get to know them a bit more before they started training, but it seemed that the Director had different plans. He sure wouldn't be happy if his Uncle had gone through the wrong channels again for yet another lecture. Agent Johnson's face hadn't given any clues as to what the talk would be about, anyway.
Heading off towards Fury's office once given directions, Sami let a quiet groan in the hallway, releasing what pent-up irritation he could before entering the room. Upon entering, Fury's face didn't give much clues either.
"Sir." He addressed Fury in a more respectable manner this time, not wanting to toe the line as much as before.
"Have a seat, Sami," Fury said, his tone more gentle than angry for once. He opened a drawer on his desk and pulled out a few cheap pieces of candy, setting them down in front of Sami. Some people liked to do things with their hands. He wasn't going to give him a box of tissues - he figured that Sami could take this news like a soldier.
He froze as he closed the door behind him, eyeing the candy, then Fury, then the candy again. This was an unfamiliar and uncomfortable territory. Stepping cautiously towards the desk, he sat down warily.
"Is uh... is this supposed to soften the blow of getting fired?" He asked with a nervous chuckle, motioning towards the candy pieces. If this was another test, it sure as hell was a weird one.
Fury chuckled slightly, shaking his head.
"If you were fired, I'd be screamin' at ya," Fury pointed out. He then took a seat as well and sighed. There wasn't a good way to put this - so he figured it'd be good enough to just come out and say it.
"Your uncle is compromised." Sami felt only a brief moment of relief before it was shattered at Fury's final words. His back stiffened, and his mind scrambled around those words. He wasn't Army, but he knew that "compromised" was never a word one wanted to hear. Still, it was left vague... it could mean James was injured, captured, or just stuck in a really bad situation. And then there was the alternative that Sami didn't even want to consider.
"What happened?" He asked stiffly, wondering how things could have gone south for his Uncle so quickly after they'd spoken on the phone less than a half hour ago.
Fury stared at Sami for a moment, as if he were sizing him up, determining if he was someone that could be trusted with vital information. He then pulled out another folder - identical to the one he had given Quake - and placed it down in front of him.
"Your uncle hasn't been seen in two weeks," Fury explained flatly.
"Mission details are in there. But Sami, I need you to tell me - what did he say to you on the phone? Anything we should know about?" The answer was something Sami definitely hadn't expected, but his shock was mingled with relief. James being MIA was bad, especially for a fortnight - but he'd spoken with him not an hour ago, so he was clearly alive. And okay enough to give him a lecture like he was 15 years old again.
"I- he didn't really say anything. I mean, berating me about messing up the simulation, mainly." He replied with an confused frown, picking up the file and opening it.
"Don't use lethal force, Pietro is a nice guy now, pay more attention, phone your mother, blah blah blah." Nothing had stood out, barring the last one. James had always understood Sami's relationship with his parents. Mainly, one didn't exist anymore since he was turfed out at the age of 12 over something he couldn't control. Sami paused as he realised something, looking back to Fury.
"If he's been missing for so long, how come you didn't speak to him? You had him listening in on the whole thing, right?" Fury sighed slightly, looking at Sami. He had hoped that Sami would be able to clue him in on anything out of the ordinary - just one small piece of intel that would help them. Quake hadn't been able to trace the phone call and with other troubling developments, Fury couldn't help but assume the worst. Colonel Rhodes wouldn't be the only one to disappear - he was certain of it.
"I tried. He wouldn't tell me anything. I was hoping he said something to you. Techs can't get a lock on the signal and as far as we can tell...it looked like he wanted to disappear. Or more likely, someone wants us to think that." Sami was growing more bemused by the second. Things didn't exactly add up - his Uncle wasn't the kind to go dark, even for the sake of a mission. Even then, if he had done that, why blow his cover by phoning his nephew, via a S.H.I.E.L.D phone as opposed to his own personal one?
"Sorry I can't help, but... he didn't really say anything. Just pointing out how I'd screwed up in the simulation, that the US government didn't kill people with clean records - which in itself is just a joke statement to make, but whatever - that I should call my Mom, he loved me, but he had to go. Said I shouldn't suggest killing people as a solution, as it "makes us look bad", then hung up before I could even say hello or goodbye." Sami shrugged helplessly, wracking his brains for what had been said. Had he said something in code, maybe? Nothing that Sami could point out, not without a recording or transcript of the conversation to look at.
"I'm sorry, but I can't think why he'd ring me randomly outta the blue like that, especially with something like this mission going on. He didn't mention it once to me, even when we last spoke." He then thought on Fury's last words, that someone else was behind all this.
"Could it be a mimic, maybe? Trying to throw you off his scent somehow? Mystique could do shit like that, from what I've read about her." As far as he knew, the shape-shifting mutant was still at large, but he couldn't imagine what she'd be doing with his Uncle. He wasn't even part of the whole mutant side of things.
Fury nodded, a bit disappointed that Sami hadn't had better information for him.
"That's all I needed to ask you about - don't worry, we've got our best and brightest people on this. I'm calling Stark soon, see if I can convince him to help us track down Rhodes. Figured he won't say no to helping out an old friend. And as far as killing people goes...Lucia von Bardas," Fury said, before he opened the door to Sami, signalling that the conversation was over.
Sami stood slowly, looking at the mission file once again in discomfort. There was a lot more he wanted to discuss, but Fury looked like he had clammed up pretty well, especially after stating a name that only seemed slightly familiar to Sami. Nodding stiffly and heading towards the door, he paused as he opened it, looking back.
"Keep me posted, please? I can keep this all quiet... God knows I'm used to it after the job I've had." Struggling to find any more words, he left the room and closed the door behind him, slumping against it and taking a deep breath. These past few hours had been an uncomfortable rollercoaster of emotions, that was for sure.
It was only after he'd stepped down the corridor a few yards before he recalled the familiar name, and a cursory search of Google revealed her to be the Prime Minister of Serbia. He still couldn't understand the connection between her and Fury's statement, but at the moment, he wasn't in the mood to investigate and connect the dots. Right now all he wanted was a soft bed and hard booze... but unfortunately, the training rooms beckoned.
Alright guys, it's training time. Depending on how things go, we'll have 2-3 rounds of training. This training will take your characters one week of IC time -
in real life, you will have 10 days to complete these collabs. So remember, day 10 you need to have your collab up, day 11 it's kicking time. Once all of the collabs have been posted, I'll see what control over your powers you've learned or if you've gained any skills.
Training facilities are located in Building 2 of the Academy, home to Operations. In your collabs, it's just you and your trainer in the room. Most of you are being trained in groups, so trainers, play off of that! You have 10 days once more to get through the entirety of the collab.
This is also a good time to contact me and request changes to your character's possessions. After the training rounds are done, we'll be jumping back in with our first mission.
Marygold Isley, X-Men (
@BlueSky44):
—Dominika Novikova, SciTech
—Griffin Lee, Operations
—Arcturus Hale, Communications
Jim Kennedy, Operations (
@Morose):
—Sami Rhodes, Operations
—Tinley Abercrombie, Operations
Raynor Blake, Operations (
@Morose):
—Theresa Sparks, SciTech
Cass Reed, Communications (
@Nallore):
—Niah Bautista, SciTech
—Zoya Nikolova, SciTech
Clint Barton, Operations (
@BlueSky44)
—Maria Smith, Operations
—Val Johnson, Operations Trainers, please start your collabs shortly. I'll be sending starters for Raynor and Jim's groups in a moment.
RPM
Achronum
kittyluna45
Scrawl Banditta
Not a Sayan
KazAlkemi
Neziul
Kirah
Blizz
