The director of the Visalia PRT, and subsequently the person directly in charge of the Visalia Wards, was a small, yet stern man. Standing at around 5' 4'' and 120lbs the man had risen to his lofty position by being shrewd, cunning, and firm, and though Thomas towered over him, he still found himself shrinking under the gaze of the director.
Granted, Thomas thought with chagrin, that's what happens when you grow up with someone perpetually in charge of you. They become a fixture of power that's difficult to face down.
Thomas shook himself from his idle thoughts, pushing forward. "Director Warren, the Boston and New York Wards do this kind of joint training all the time, if we want to keep up with them then it only makes sense for us to try and start doing the same with the Sacramento Wards."
"Sounds to me like a blatant attempt at shirking your responsibilities as members of the Wards for a field trip." The rebuttal had been obvious and Thomas was prepared for it.
"Two of us would stay here and two of us would go to Sacramento, at least for the first few rounds of joint training, that way there can still be relatively regular patrol schedules."
"And I suppose you would be going on this trip first?"
"Actually I was going to suggest sending Ja- Iron Fist and Sparrow. Iron Fist is still relatively new to being a group leader and I think working with a large group like they have in Sacramento would be good for him."
"I see. I see." Director Warren paused for such a long moment that Thomas thought for sure he was going to refuse. "I will approve the joint exercises," Thomas nearly jumped out of his seat with excitement. "-with three conditions."
"Oh- Of course sir, what are they?"
"First, you will have to get approval from the Director of the Sacramento PRT and the Leader of the Sacramento Wards. Second, any continued joint training exercises will be approved, or denied, based upon the relative success of this exercise." Done and done, Thomas thought wryly, he and Jack had already discussed it with Director Shafer and Solid Oak, and they had both agreed no problem. Not to mention Jack and Sparrow could handle just about anything the Sacramento Wards tried to throw at them with a little bit of forethought. "Lastly, Iron Fist is to remain here, along side Voice. You and Sparrow will be leave for Sacramento tomorrow, if you get approval."
Okay. That threw Thomas for a bit of a loop. "Is there a problem Versatility?" The director asked, "I thought you would be excited. I approved of your idea, and you get to go to Sacramento." Director Warren was wearing an almost mean smile.
"Ye-yes sir." Thomas stammered. "I'll let the team know, Sparrow and I will be ready to leave by the morning."
"And getting approval?" He asked snidely, raising one eyebrow.
Thomas winced. "Ja- Iron Fist and I have already gotten approval from Director Shafer and Solid Oak."
"Very well. You had best go and inform your team." Thomas turned and left the director's office, closing the door. He stepped through the hallway and then headed directly for the elevator, the cloak of his costume rustling behind him.
Once inside the elevator Thomas leaned against the wall, and let out a long sign. "Well, shit." He mumbled to himself as the elevator reached the third floor where the Wards base was. He walked down a long metal alway, reaching a large heavy framed door, and leaned in to let an optics scanner get a good read of his right eye. "Voice confirmation. North-West-Center Zero-One-Nine. Versatility."
The door slid open to reveal a large open front room, cut a pool table off to one side, and a conference table on the other surrounded by spinning office chairs. He glanced to the back of the room where alcoves and hallways lead to living chambers for each member of the current wards, and several set aside besides, the rec-room, two training rooms, and workshop.
Thomas could guess where two of his three other teammates would be and hollered as loud as he could. "Team meeting!" He strolled to the conference table, collapsing into one of the chairs, waiting for the others to come out.

If someone told you that Jack if anyone said that Jack Marshal would be a cape, he would not believe them. If they then continued and said that he would be a Tinker then he would deck you in the face. There was no way that he could ever be all that intelligent but here he was. He was the strongest Tinker on the team. Course that was a bit of an oxymoron but he there.

Jack had a lot of work to do today. He had work to do on his suit and he had some physical training to do. He knew that he couldn't slouch off in case his suit failed or he couldn't fix it in time. So right now he was upgrading his gauntlets to be able to take more punishment. He also needed to fix his power supy since it was fluctuating wildly. Again this was something that the original Jack would never know about.

Then he heard Thomas hollering about a meeting. Jack juggled his gauntlet and his tools before catching them both. "Noli turbare circulos meos" He complained in Latin. He found that the last words of Archimedes made sense right now. Everyone was always disturbing his circles. He got up and took his gadgets with him. He trusted them all with his face so he left his mask.

He walked into the conference room and flipped down into his chair. "Can you please not yell when I'm in my workshop? You know I'm working with dangerous stuff down there and the slightest provocation could cause the whole place to go up in flames!" He yelled not sounding angry but bothered. "So why did you call for me?" He asked looking at his gloves messing around with them.

Nathan sat on the bottom floor of the Renegades' house sprawled across a supple leather couch. He casually flicked through the eyes of the birds in the area, the images in his mind skipping from dozens of different angles both inside and outside the house and through to the streets outside, at the edge of his range about four blocks down the birds saw empty streets.
As he opened his eyes he did his best to refrain from being startled. A man in a fine, Italian silk suit stood holding a manila envelope. Some how the man was invisible to Nathan's birds. He was still struggling to get used to his employers curriers. Always different individuals, always capable of slipping past his birds, even when they were staring right at them. "Welcome." Nathan spoke casual, a Cajan drawl slipping from his lips.
"Your employers have a task for your group. A van, carrying some particulars from VitalTech Industries, will be leaving the city in exactly thirty six hours. Your employer would like the contents of a safe in that van, and would prefer if the contents remained within. The rest of the contents of the van can be kept or sold to the employer." The man handed him the manila envelope to Nathan.
"Okay. Will do. Kind of a hassle. You couldn't have given us a little more time to put this together?"
"Would you like me to inform your employer of your dissatisfaction?" The question was asked without any hint of humor, and no way for Nathan to figure what was going through this guys head.
"No, no, no, no, no." Nathan said waving his hands semi-frantically. "No dissatisfaction to speak of."
"The amount your employer is willing to pay is in the manila envelope."
Nathan glanced down at the envelope. "Alright, tha-" The man was gone, "-nks. Well that was creepy." He finished mumbling to himself.
Nathan pulled the sheet out and was staggered by the numbers, $10,000 a piece for each member of the Renegades for this one job. "Yo, get your asses to the kitchen. We got work, and a big payday!"

Lila-
"Yeah, you don't have to yell," Lila muttered in agreeance with Jack. Her voice came out of thin air, at least it would seem that way to Jack and Thomas. It took Lila a second to realize that she was using her ability because she had gotten so used to it that it was second nature to her now. "Sorry," she apologized, pulling back her ability. She came into view less than a foot from them. She was still in her PJs- a pair of oversized sweats and a fitted tank top- and her hair was still mussed from sleep. "So what is this meeting about?" She questioned, looking up at Thomas as she nursed an oversized mug full of hot coffee between her small hands. One thing was for sure, no one would ever mistake Lila for a morning person.

Diana-
Diana poofed into existence in the kitchen in an oversized sleep shirt, with a cigarette already lit between her lips. She hopped up to sit on the bar. She sat there quietly, swinging her legs idly while she waited for the rest of the group to arrive. "How does everything on the streets look this morning?" She asked Nathan. She reached over the countertop to put out her cigarette so she could pop a few of the grapes from the fruit bowl into her mouth.

Abigale was resting on her back, on the floor, on a mat. She was looking up at the ceiling, not seeing it, as she took a few deep slow breaths, before shifting, balancing on one foot, arms in front of her, and her other leg behind her, holding the pose. The young girl enjoyed yoga, and enjoyed the way it made her feel.

She drew in a deep breath, before releasing the pose. She stretched out, and was just about to tidy up, when Thomas called out for everyone. She let out a soft sigh, but chuckled under her breath. "Well, I didn't want to clean anyway" Amused, she headed out, seeing that Jack was already there, complaining about being interrupted. Something he was always doing.

Tinkers she thought fondly, as she sat down, glancing over as she heard Lila enter, and was just about to speak up, when she seemed to notice that she was using her abilities without, it seemed realising it. "I don't mind the yelling, but of course, the yelling is needed to get everyone's attention" She gave a shrug.



Iggy was pretty much doing nothing, eyes closed, trying to sleep, after a sleepless night. Iggy had a large frame, a compensation for when he had been a small, slight boy. Iggy didn't care. He grumbled as he was told to get his 'ass in the kitchen'. He growled, rising, and pushing back his hair, heading to the kitchen.

"this had better be good. I was trying to sleep" He said, in an annoyed tone, as he sighed, and grabbed a cup of coffee, grumbling under his breath.

Protozoan (3, 4, 5)

Protozoan stared at himself in his room's mirror, admiring his newest form. Around six feet tall, mottled brown carapace, rigid arms almost as big as tree trunks, insect-like head complete with mandibles and iridescent segmented eyes. Nice, he thought to himself; first time in a while he'd had an insectile form. Those tended to be smoother, chitin tended to cover up the rougher edges.

A sound from the kitchen caught his ears - or whatever he had grown in place of them. One of the their employer's couriers had made his presence known, talking about a task. The condescending attitude of these people absolutely pissed him off. How dare they speak to the Renegades like that. If Nathan wasn't there to hold him back, he might just-

"Yo, get your asses to the kitchen. We got work, and a big payday!"

That snapped him out of his internal tirade. If Nathan needed something done, he needed to be there. With a huff he tossed his blue sash over his shoulder and started lumbering his way towards the kitchen, careful not to knock over any of the bits and bobs in his way. "I'm here, what'dya need?" His voice cracked, the mandibles were clearly not designed for human speech.

Thomas gave Jack a smile as he walked out of workshop, “Sorry Jack, but you know that you could have to deal with alarms at any moment. Plus remember the whole ‘Non-lethal armaments’ regulation? You’re under eighteen, the PRT would like to hear tat you were working on anything too dangerous.” He responded laughing, and shooting him a wink to let him know he was only joking.

He smiled over at Lila as she appeared. He had been able to tell roughly where she was thanks to his ability, but it was nice to actually see the people he was talking to. He took a moment as the others talked to register the abilities he was drawing from, account for them, and suppress the voluntary portions of them. No need for designs to be floating through his mind, or for the empathic understanding of other people, not to mention that he had to focus a bit on keeping in everybody’s line of sight.

“Well, now that I have everyone here, Jack you remember the joint training we had talked about with the folks over at Sacramento?” Thomas asked once everything had settled a bit from people walking in. “I’ve got a bit of good news on it, and a heap of bad news.

“The good news is we got approval from Director Warren. The bad news is it seems like he is trying his best to set the odds against us. He gave approval, but said we had to get permission from the Sacramento PRT by tomorrow. I let it slip that we had already been in touch with them and I don’t think he is overly happy about that, but here’s the kicker, he’s sending me and Lila. It’s a pain, I had been hoping you would get more of a chance to work with a larger team.” Thomas shook his head slightly. “And I was hoping to deal with recruitment while you were gone. We have reports of two solo heroes that both appear to be in the Wards age range. It would have been perfect, while you and Sparrow were training with Sacramento, Voice and I could have brought them on, and then you two would’ve been used to a slightly bigger team.”

---

“At least turn the smoke to vapor Die.” Nathan commented absent-mindedly as the sharp pungent smell of burnt tobacco filled the room. “The streets are clear from what I can see, but that apparently doesn’t stop our employer from coming and going apparently.” He said walking from the kitchen through a short hallway into another open living space, separated from the kitchen by a bar. The oven clock showed 11:45, but ran about thirty minutes fast, meaning it was more like 11:15.

He tossed the manila envelope onto the counter. “We’ve got a job, ten k per. Gotta figure out logistics though. Iggy, quit your bitchin’ or part of the logistics can be you sleeping here instead of going on the job. And missing out on ten k.” He had gone from New Orleans Cajun, into a Texan Drawl, and then into a form of street slang.

“That’s part of what we need to figure out Proto. My guess is you’re gonna need the wings and some durability maybe some muscles. Mind swapping out to senses and gas for now? We’ll need them to be at top strength for the job.” Nathan started stretching his shoulders. “Die mind grabbing the papers out of the envelope there should be info on the truck and guard rotations.” Nathan turned away from the table focusing on a small flock of birds two blocks over. Something seemed weird. There was a small group of thugs heading down the street, not all together too unusual for this neighbor hood, but they seemed to be running from something… Scratch that. Someone.

Protozoan (3, 4, 5)

Proto's mandibles clattered in deep thought as he considered the feasibility of this request. After a few seconds, he shook his head. "No can do, least not at full strength. I'm sorry, but if I had known ahead of time I wouldn't have gone chosen what I did." His head sagged, clearly disappointed in himself. If only they had two more hours, he'd be able to barely squeeze out a power reassignment and be at full strength for this assignment. "With the time we have, I can change powers in about... fifteen hours or so. I can have strength, durability, and senses at half strength, gas and wings are what I have left that would work at their full potential."

With that said, he turned to acknowledge the two others in the kitchen in his garbled voice. "Diana, Ignatius, hope you two had a good morning." He spared a raspy chuckle. "Pass me a peach, will you? Hungry."

Abigale listened as they talked, for now, content to do just that. Listen. She wasn't particularly one to talk much in any case, nor was she one to interrupt. She thought a lot, and often, she would put out her opinion once she had had time to think. It was simply her way.

She leaned back, looking up at the ceiling, mulling over all the possibilities. She knew that Thomas was just trying to do the best for all of them, but her eyes narrowed slightly. She waited for him to finish speaking, before bringing her gaze down from the ceiling, and around at the others.

"Is there any reason we could not go meet and great these two heroes?" She asked, suspecting she would hear the general comments on recruitment is a tough gig and all that. Abigale found she didn't care. "I mean, if you wish us to get use to a slightly bigger team and all, and if you were going to send me with you to collect them, why can't we, while you and Lila do Sacramento? I promise, we won't screw up"



Iggy rolled his eyes, and debated about commenting. While he was sure that Nathan wouldn't leave him behind-Iggy's strength and skill would always be an asset, he wasn't willing to push it. Not that Iggy actually cared about money. if he did, he was sure he could make more money by himself, then with the group. Iggy had his own reasons for sticking with the group.

"then what are these logistics" Iggy said, in a mildly annoyed tone.

Lila glanced over at Thomas with a questioning look on her face. "Do you know why he wants it to be you and I? I mean I guess it doesn't actually matter, I just wonder why he would try to be in conflict over this, but oh well. When do we leave?" She asked, as her eyes wandered throughout the room. Lila figured she should probably do some research on all the Sacramento team members so she could best prepare herself for any confrontations.

Diana rolled her eyes before casually waving her hand towards her smoke, breaking the smoke up into the individual elements that combined to create the smoke. "Yeah yeah! Better?" She asked even though she obviously really didn't care all that much. Diana never told any, but she had long ago gotten in the habit of removing all the toxic and carcinogenic factors in the smoke, so she knew it wouldn't harm any of the lungs of her teammates or herself. Diana reached over and tossed a peach to Proto. Diana turned her attention to the envelope. She slipped the information out of the folder and began to organize it. After a second she glanced up at Nathan, and recognized the distant look in his eyes. "What's up?" She questioned, knowing that Nathan was noticing something through his birds. Concern barely made itself noticeable in the way she held herself- her shoulders tensed and her body as a whole became more rigid.

Thomas smiled over at Abigale, "Trust me, it isn't that I think you guys can't handle it, I just wanted to take care of it. It does mean getting out of, your comfort zone and actually talking to people Abigail, and you'll have to get out of the workshop." He said tossing a pointed look at Jack. Having a Tinker on the team was beyond useful, the way tinker's could adapt to any situation and any opponent given the right amount of time to think up a tool or gadget, the value was incalculable, but actually dealing with one on the team? Kind of a pain sometimes. Getting Tinkers to get out and do things other than fight crime or work in their workshops was hard.
"If I had to guess as to why the director wants us to go I would put my money on some combination of genuinely wanting to mess with any plan we come up with, a general distain for us as individuals, and a thirst for personal glory and recognition. At least that's what the empathic ability is telling me." Thomas smiled winking over at Abigale. "We leave at 0800, have a weeks worth of clothes, gear, an necessities ready on the roof of PRT HQ." He said to Sparrow.

---

"A couple of thugs getting a bit of a beat down a ways over. Nothing to worry about." Nathan said turning away from the hallway and bringing his focus back to the matter at hand. He took a couple of the pages from Diana and began spreading them out on the table. "Looks like there will be three vans, two decoys and the target. If our employers info is right we're going to want to take the contents of the van heading down Commons Way." He said indicating the highlighted route on what appeared to be a satellite map. "There will be PRT squads on call, so this'll have to be a quick job. The squads will just try to muck around with us until the heroes can get there, we can't afford to let that happen. Our boss still doesn't want us to enter combat with the Wards or the Protectorate, meaning the minute they show, we scram."
Nathan pulled a pen out of his pocket and looked a the cross section of the map. "Die, I'm gonna want you here." He said indicating a small park. The park was on a three mile stretch of road, tall buildings on all sides. "Fill the area with fog, I'll clear out any civies with my birds, Iggy, you'll be center of the road, and you'll need to be ready to take a hit. Your job will be to stop the van, Proto you'll be set up on one of these rooftops here, ready to swoop in the moment the van is stopped. Take off the doors, and grab the safe, Iggy'll keep the driver and any guards in the van busy, I'll set my flock to grabbing any extra goodies. Once we have everything we make a fighting retreat to the park, meet back up with Die and she'll pop us back to the Incense room, and we will be much richer, happier people."
He finished marking down the positions and movements of everybody in much the same way you would expect to see the marks on a football play sheet. "Questions, comments, concerns, general praise for my sheer brilliance?" He asked grinning jovially at his teammates.

Abigale rolled her eyes, at the comment about getting out of her comfort zone, and said "I got out of my comfort zone when I got into this team. I can deal with talking to potential recruits" she said with amusement, "and I can get the tinker out of the workshop and into some life too" she listened to what else Thomas said, and pondering it for a few moments, said "or perhaps it's just for us to adapt and...get out of our comfort zones" she said with a half smile and amusement, rising when the meeting seemed over, nudging Jack.

"Well, you heard him! I imagine you want some of your tinker stuff" she said, smiling, then looking back to Thomas "so, details about them?" She asked, realising that they needed to know where they were going

----

Iggy wasn't particilarly interest in being happy, but money could give him a lot of options. He just nodded, knowing that stopping the van was going to be a pain, but that was the fun part at least.

Still, chances were he would break a bone or two, which would hurt but be healed quite quickly. A pain, but easy. So Iggy Wasnt going to complain. He just nodded, not particularly concerned about anything in it.

"Just tell me where to be" he said finishing the coffee, and putting the mug in the sink