She had officially been interrogated out of her ass, making her momentarily wonder if dying would have been simpler. With her track record of teammates dying on her missions, speaking of an 8 year old mutant who had managed to kill an entire cell of S.H.I.E.L.D agents had been a hard concept to grasp. Especially when said child was now dead she had been the only survivor… if one would call it that. Anomie had lost nearly 27% of her blood due to her injuries, and as soon as she was strong enough to walk, she had been whisked away into interrogation where they molested her mind.

By the time she was actually allowed to go, the whole ordeal felt like a lifetime ago and all she wanted to do was collapse into bed.

Dying would have been smoother and less stressful, but the desire to live was what had made her abandon her dying comrades and ultimately kill the unfortunate mutant who had followed her. The boy had lost control of his powers, being used as an experimental puppet for a terrorist organisation. She had tried to make up for her cowardice by downloading all the information on the terrorist group - which had ultimately led to the arrest and fall of a national threat, but she had a feeling that wouldn’t be able to get rid of the stain on her name.

“Ah, look at that, it’s the Shadow of a Coward.”

“For someone with nine lives, she was afraid to spare even one.”

“I see she still landed on her feet though, even if the blood of her comrades is on the ground.”

Anomie supposed she did see the taunting coming, but nothing could prepare her completely for the whispering. The wound was fresh and every word brought a further sting her skin. She could tell the other agents had no care for her, most calling her Coward in hushed tones as she strode down the hall, attempting to keep her head held high as their words clouded her mind.

They always left the dirty missions to her; the gritty immoral ones that nobody wanted to touch, and then judged her for carrying them out. And as she read over the file for her next mission, she raised a single eyebrow at her supervisor who went by the same of Soren. “Is this S.H.I.E.L.D’s nice way of telling me I’m suspended? Putting me on a team of children?”



________________________________



Her amber irises slid right, glancing towards her fellow newcomers, lingering for a fraction of a second before flickering back to Fury’s famed heroes. She had been waiting there for some time by this stage and she had to wonder if this uneventful security detail was some kind of sick joke handed down from the Director - she definitely wouldn't put it past him. Restlessness was an unusual feeling for The Shadow... but then again, everything about the mission felt unusual.

Her lips parted slightly so to voice these strange unusual feelings to Soren, only to be bitterly disappointed as she remembered he had not accompanied her. She slightly released the unnecessarily tight grip she had unconsciously held her forearm, only for the feeling of absolute muscle exhaustion to seep down her wrist and flood into her fingers like her body had been poisoned. Her eyes narrowed and she stretched her fingers before hiding the tremble once more by dropping her folded arms and placing her hand on her hip, her fingers digging into the denim material of her high waisted short-shorts.

It seemed quite often nowadays that she found herself wondering just when she'd grown so weak... mentally and physically. The lack of sleep and insufficient amount of food were rapidly catching up with her, but the thought of any substance in her body caused the burn in her throat to creep upwards and the idea of sleep sent shivers down her spine as the screams of those who once were echoed through her memories, the same way they plagued her dreams every time she dared close her eyes. Too many times had she jolted awake in the dead of the night - coated in the blood of innocents, only to find, after hours of scrubbing, that it had only been sweat.

She had once wondered whether or not she'd ever be able to wash the blood off. She had since found the answer... and it was no.

She hadn’t much to say about The Libertist’s explanation, nor did her expression change much, save for a slight frown of distaste in the team name. Her eyes narrowed into a small glare for a moment as her gaze found Fury; for some reason she felt like she was being punished… but the thought would exit her mind as soon as it came, interrupted by the flashy entrance of the Wakandan King. She shuffled to place her weight on her other leg, her oversized white sweater falling off her shoulders slightly, allowing the milky white skin to peek out, dipping into shadow as it stretched over her collarbone.

"The audacity of those ungrateful simpletons. . ."began the beginning a long-winded ranting session as the individual made her way to her destination via swinging from one web to another.
"For two years I've leant my aid to them whenever they called. When they needed me, I was there. Now, I'm being treated like some accident-prone rookie who couldn't differentiate their posterior from their own head? The n e r v e. . ." Though on the surface of the stagnant blank-stare of her mask, Paris wore quite a scowl. The way the pitch of her voice dropped with distaste could've made it a dead give away, nonetheless. She felt entitled to be seen as an equal & superior amongst the team of Avengers. She had it all. Cunning, intellect, speed, power, skill, and good judgement.

Sure, she may have taken a life or two, but one was a psychopathic serial killer, and the other was under the process of going through with his death sentence. . . She merely helped in making certain it all went accordingly.
She may have also beat a dozen or two of criminals to an inch of their lives, but she knew enough restraint. They didn't die, but definitely required a long visit at a hospital.

There was also that one time the Avengers had suspicions of her possibly being a. . . {Skrull, I believe the Libertist said?} beings capable of assuming the appearance of anyone.
They demanded to run a test on her. She refused. Then they fought. {I remember hearing a strange, ominous voice.. Then taking the Libertist's shield to the face. Whose voice was that, anyways?}

As she traveled down memory lab within her subconscious, she maneuvered through the city. It was like second nature, she didn't need to put forth much focus to it. A routine well drilled into her mind, which had brought her within range to see the tower.
"Hmph." upon seeing that large "A" built into the upper level of the building, she was reminded of her disdain for her so called "team". Still, she kept on her merry way toward the agreed meeting place. Left, right -- she fired two more lines of web at two buildings adjacent of one another before shooting the third & final at the Avengers Tower logo for a powerful tug. Properly managing the trajectory of her body, her efforts led to her descending from about ten feet in the air, and down over the helipad-region of the roof. She landed into a crouched position, a hand clasping upon the solid surface.

She rised and made her way over to join the ever-growing crowd of vigilantes. For now, she would heed what they had to say. Maybe.. Just maybe this would turn out to be bigger than she expected.

His training felt like it was getting tougher. Longer sessions focusing on his powers, longer sessions on the punching bags and with throwing weapons. After his training all he wanted to do was shower, eat something and sleep.

He headed upstairs to his small room in this safe house. This wasn't his home, but it was as close as he would get for a long time. He plopped his bag of training gear next to his bed and took off his gym shirt when a small folder caught his eye on his night stand. Kev looked around the room just to make sure he was alone and sat on the bed next to the folder. "So... What do they have planed for me now..."


Kev stood with his new team in front of these famed heroes, it was inspiring to him! These were the heroes who saved the world before, they did so much good and now here he is, right in front of them. though some of the speeches he expected were short and sweet, they were to the point. Kev looked over this small group of heroes he would get to know better. He never head a steady team and this may be it.

Kev was a floater agent. Moving team to team as he was needed for his abilities. To be on a steady team and work with them closely was exciting. The name could use some work though...

Kev looked up as the jet landed and the prince walked out to meet them. He never met royalty before and something told him he wasn't going to today either. Either way, Kev knew this would be a great experience... Well he hopes so at least!

"Rise and shine, Alex! Today's the day!" Thomas called out form the stairwell as he was coming down for breakfast. He knew there had to be breakfast, because the smell that spread from the kitchen was heavenly. The staff really outdid themselves today! Except... we don't have a personal chef... Why don't I have a chef? he thought, wandering lazily into the kitchen to see the most peculiar thing.

A fully operational and armed ASTRA, covered head to toe in flour.

"You're up early! You weren't supposed to see that." Alex said flatly, with what seemed like an attempt at a look of guilt on her face. She brushed the bit of flour form her face, pointing to the table by the sofa in the living room. "I've made pancakes for you. To celebrate. I guess." she felt like she needed to say more, but no way how she could explain the abysmal mess in the kitchen came to be for just one plate of pancakes came to mind. "Sorry I made a mess..."

Thomas looked back to the table, then back at Alex and smiled. "My girl's growing up so fast!"

"I am the same height I was-"

"As a person, honey, as a person." he patted her over to get the white powder off of her. "Thank you. I can smell they will be delicious. FRI-"

"No." Alex stopped him form calling up the virtual butler, undoubtedly to arrange for a cleanup. "I caused this, so I will fix it. With great cooking comes great responsibility." Alex smiled weakly.

"Well, actually, I thought you might want to see your 'getting in' gift too." Thomas teased.

Alex raised an eyebrow. Thomas knew that to elicit such a reaction, he must have really surprised her. While in a normal conversation Alex's personality matrix did fairly well already, under pressure the machine still came to the surface. "You didn't think I would just send you off into the big bad World empty handed, did you? what kind of a father does that? Come along." he said and grabbed Alex by the wrists, leading her to the elevator and down they went into the workshop.

"I was thinking about just giving you one of mine to tinker with, but excuse your dad's profane Ego, there can only be one Titanius. You're going to need to be your own woman." he said as she dragged a cloth cover off of what Alex assumed correctly was an armor suit. Now, her face was positively surprised, all with the wire eyes and gaping jaw, making Thomas warm up a little on the inside. I knew I made you right.

"It's... different!" was the first thing aLex managed to squeeze out of herself, laready having ran the suit through the variety of her sensors.

"Yeah. Noone but you can fly it for once, it's just armor modules, there is no power and no operating software. It's the perfect anti-theft solution, but the catch is that like that, it can't exactly fly to you. Hopefully, you'll take less than forty two tries to figure that one out." Thomas grumbled silently, still a little bitter about his inability to build the ultimate suit. Then, THEN he would show Rodgers that heroes aren't born, they are built. Either that, or let Alex prove herself, whichever came first. His thoughts were scrambled, when a set of arms wrapped around him from behind, accompanied with a girly giggle.

"Best dad ever!" Alex laughed.

Yeah, you will do just fine. "Come on, what are you waiting for, try it on." he encouraged.

Nodding, Alex let him go and turned to the suit, approaching it with reverence. She wasn't kidding. The sheer bulk put every Titanius suit save for Veronica and Igor to shame. That was where the similarities ended though. ASTRA modeled her exterior appearance as quite a petite girl, and she could see the humor in the irony of her wearing this jagged, rough, brutish looking thing to battle. Time to get on with it. She raised her hands to look at them as the surface of her 'skin' shimmered, flattening out the texture of skin it assumed and the folds of the clothing, changing back to it'S natural silver color, save for a pattern of what looked like golden printed circuit running all over her surface. "Ready."

Nodding, Thomas set the robotic arms to motion. It may not have looked like it, but the suit was heavy, and even the arms struggled with it until the inner layer interfaced with Alex's skin and received power for the first time.

The whole operation took about five minutes, longer than it normally would because of the first time engage. Alex would later struggle to describe the feeling. Her powerplant was more taxed than usual, but that only meant that it was finally needed to operate at more than borderline on levels. The armor's mobility suit was clanky. But the imporoved sensors and all the new equipment? "I can't wait to see what this can do!" she squealed excitedly.

"Then don't." Thomas said, clapping his hands and the launch bay opened, leading straight up through the helipad. "Take her for a spin, just be home for the meeting!" he called out to her encouragingly.

Alex smiled and nodded before putting on the helmet and engaging the multifield generators, creating a point of gravity above herself and launching into the air with nothing more than the gust of wind.


I'M LATE! Alex thought for the umpteenth time, having to dodge passenger air traffic and face the wind on her way back from halfway across the globe. She had to slow down even further over the land, lest she sonic boom everyone deaf. Finally she saw Avengers' tower in fornt of her, and sure enough, the gathering was already on the helipad. She focused the microphones in the helmet, just in time to catch Logan asking for a kid. Damit damit damit! she panicked, immediately aligning the kid reference to herself.

She switched from repulsors back to gravity, gently gliding to a landing on the pad with just a soft thud. It turned out her panic was for naught, as Logan was apparently referring to Black Panther Junior. Good. Perhaps Alex wasn't in too much trouble then. Turning around, she took a first look at some of the people she would be spending the next days with.

Steven chuckled some as familiar wall-crawler appeared in similar fashion to the Panther. "Nice of you to drop by." Starke jested to the bug-themed hero.

This gesture is good in nature, T'zarri was sure of it. However, with morale low like this in his homeland, his people needed him there more than this Avengers needed him here. To be 'housed' here would appear to be more like a cowardly move and his people needed strength and reassurance. His mother stated she would look after things when she was going to look after them as their queen in his absence to become better here. The machinations of the young man's mind didn't come to an expression on his face. Steve could see the boy's father in his eyes.

The lad reminded Steve of himself when he was much younger, before he was drafted into the military, or given the serum and training. He was a kid with good intentions and a sense of responsibility to what he believed in. This gave Steve some hope that, given the proper lanes, that he'd be very effective. Steven knew that he was probably going to have to convince him that he'd be needed on this team and that it would ultimately benefit his people for the better. T'zarri already had his 'serum', so to speak, all he had to do was put it to work. He'd probably best fit the leader role for this team.

Thomas looked on the team that was set up. He was preparing ways in his mind as to how to train each of them, and what ways would be effective. He didn't really worry too much about the Spider, so as just making sure she knew how to play a team game. He hoped they could get this team up and running before Lord Sin decided to strike over here. It was full of uncertainty, it was what he hated most about Lord Sin, and the likely involvement of magic. It couldn't be scientifically measured and was a bitch to try to counteract without some sort of magical interference of their own.

Dark Mystic was around, and he knew theoretically where Ethereal could be, but there needed to be some kind of fail-safe option. Variables, Variables, Variables....What the team had in skill and energy projection, they needed in strength and potentially magical energy. While the puzzle-piece for the magic base was yet to be found, he knew of another route he could take to find strength. Alex was probably the physically strongest one on this team, and while that was nice, they'd need more than that.. Though, the question was, should he go that route...Was it worth risking it...?

Thomas nodded in the direction of each of the recruits but with a hand on his chin in thought, started to head back inside the building. Black Bird had already went inside after Thomas and Steven went with her.

"Alright guys, follow me and we're gonna get started on getting you guys settled in." Lance said with a gesture for the young team as he walked toward the door.

T'zarri looked up at his bodyguard whose eyes gave a poised but fierce inquiry. He gave her a casual nod of confirmation, to which she lightly pounded a fist at her heart and a slight bow of the head before retreating to the jet. He watched her begin to take off as he followed the Archer inside of this building.

Lance led the small group down the stairs, followed by Logan and took them to the war room first. Opening the door to it, he didn't step inside, but simply allowed them to look. "Here, is the place where you recruits are going to go if you are being called in for a mission. Nothing too special, just some chairs and the table with the Avengers brand on it, but the symbolic meaning is heavy. Director Fury doesn't just pick up people off of the street to put them in this room, or in these chairs. You're gonna have to earn and show him that you're all as capable and willing to do the job, as you appear to be."

Logan adjusted his Stetson hat, and Lance continued on down the hallway, taking them to a rather large elevator. While on it, he used the technology on it to show them all of the floors significant to them in the tower. The main residential area where they are going to be staying on the 17th floor, and the Mess hall on the eighth. Then there was the third basement where the group would be taken to a special room in which for them to be trained the next day. From there, Lance coaxed Logan to explain how the floor works, as he had been in the original one with his involvement with Mutant hero group known to be the X-Men.

Logan grumbled a bit as he leaned against the wall of the elevator, with his head aimed downward and his lips releasing a puff of smoke every several seconds. "Th' room can take any possible situation you could think of, and then play it out. While you're in there, ain't no robotic lookin' parts or anythin' that'll make you think it's fake. That's the point while you're in the room. It's all real, and that's how you're s'pposed to treat it. Shell Head's gonna have you all do it one at a time so that he can get a feel for ya, and then he's gonna try with you in a group to see what happens." He finished.

T'Zarri stood toward the left corner of the elevator from the entrance with his arms crossed. As he had been informed by his father, this apparent threat was killing off super-heroes all over the globe. It was something to marvel at, as some of the names listed to have been either MIA or dead were unbelievable. It made the Prince wonder, just what they were going to be up against...? He assured his mother that everything would be alright as she was still somewhat on the fence about him actually leaving when he did. Though, with the threat at hand they both knew the severity of the situation. His father was one of the most dangerous men on the planet, and the fact that this force could remove him so feasibly, seemed daunting.

The elevator stopped on the 17th floor, the door pulling up to open instead of two separate doors sliding horizontally. Lance was the first to step out. He smiled. "And kiddos, we have arrived." He said, gesturing to the set of rooms. Each of the rooms were rather simplistic in nature, each having a dresser and mattress with a uniform greyish blue color scheme. something to rather take note of, however, would be that each of the doors had locks, both on the inside and outside of it.

"Bathrooms are down the hall and to the left....So, you guys can go ahead and unpack and do all of that, and then we're going to go down to the lab very quickly so that Titanius can scan your bodies so that the machine can calibrate the best train in simulation for you guys tomorrow. I guess you could count this as a welcome? Anything to add Wolvy?" He asked looking over to Logan. He growled.

"Yeah. Anyone else who calls me 'Wolvy' is going to have problems," Logan raised his fist, revealing the three trademark claws of adamantium that came from between his knuckles. "Three to be exact." Lance raised his hands with a light smirk and once Logan was satisfied, he retracted his claws.

"Just a joke...." Lance stated simply, allowing the recruits to take to claiming their rooms. "Be sure to direct any questions to us at any time."

As more and more people arrived on the landing pad, Alex started looking from face to face, scouring all databases she had access to to ge the story, as no one seemed to be making any introductions - she had a suspicion that was at the request of her dad, so she was forced to socialize. Oh well, it wouldn't hurt to have a lead, at least she could judge how much of the story was each of them sharing. Personally, Alex and Thomas had no intention of telling the rest of Alex's true nature as a machine, much less what kind of machines she was derived from. Not while Logan was still present, as his claws were true adamantium unlike her skeleton and he could most likely make short work of her if he didn't like what he heard, and had the temper to do it without asking questions.

Nope, they would stick to her cover story of a lost daughter Thomas didn't even remember the mother of - That one was believable all too easily given how the media liked to pair him up with every woman he ever appeared with, even if it was just a business meeting - that came to live under his roof when her mother's will told her who her father actually was after she passed away. It also nicely done away with explaining the various powers she had, as for all they 'knew', her mother could have well been Mystique - that mutant seemed to replicate like a rabbit, with all too familiar results. If push came to shove, the plan was to keep the origins of her powers shrouded in mystery under the mask of a bit of a jackass personality.

Focusing her thoughts back to the present group, she looked over her results. It was hard not to place the Wakandan, he stuck out like a sore thumb. The new black panther would be joining them for now, albeit reluctantly it seemed form his body language. She made a note to mind the anti-metal claws on his suit, although both her nano skin and her own suit's composite armor panels should be immune, if he sank the claws deep enough, she would be in trouble.

Then there was the she-spider. In another time, another life, it may have well been her that would be ASTRA's creator, having the brains and the money to back such a project up, albeit perhaps not the connections to acquire some of the materials needed. Alex was curious to see just how did her nature in person differ from the one she put up in public, that would be interesting to observe, and perhaps experiment with.

Then there was one of the shield's trainees, someone she made a note to watch out for, as he was one of the few that could rat out her identity if her was to keep his hands on her for too long, should she allow such a thing or need to get into his head for whatever reason with her telepathic link.

Finally, there was a rather normal looking lady - no suit, no tech, not an alien either, a mutant perhaps? Alex caught her making eye contact and flashed her right optic to imitate a wink. It was at this point SHIELD's current on duty technician caught up with ehr database hack and denied her further access... Well, more like Alex didn't want to crash all of their firewalls and leave them vulnerable to someone else's intrusion.

Looks like the sightseeing is about to begin. she thought as she followed behind the others, the thuds of her armored footsteps echoing in the hall. She was starting to be bored - after all, she lived here, and knew this place as well as FRIDAY. She just hoped she could keep living in her room and wouldn't have to move in here - it would be awkward explaining why she never needed any sleep. She would have to require access to the hall of armor anyhow, unless they thought to move heavy lifting equipment into her room so she could dress up.

When the veteran avengers seemed done with their guided tour, she raised her hand. "Can I skip the scans since mine are already done?" she asked, unselaing her helmet with a hiss and taking it off, cutting off the doubts about who she was to anybody who watched news. Someone as scrutinized by the Paparazzi as Thomas Starke didn't suddenly gain a daughter without public awareness. To the frustration of the newspeople though, other than what shots they could make of her, they offered no explanation or interviews to the press. "After all, I already live here." she turned to face the new team, scanning their faces to see how they would have reacted to her.

Kev looked over the team. All of the new faces and one a little more familiar to himself. He smiled, excited to be part of a team and not some floater agent moving from mission to mission. He kept his hands in his pockets as they walked. He tried to pay attention to their tour guide but some of the time he was just lost in his own thoughts.

"This team seems unique... We all have such differences in abilities and powers from the sounds of it..."

He was happy to see an actual room and not the sore excuse of a room he had in the S.H.I.E.L.D. safe house. The locks on both sides of the door made him wonder what the cause for that is, and if there was a story behind it. The colors weren't that bad either. Kev was already thinking of how he could maneuver the furniture to get the most out of it. So far, so good... It's only been an hour-ish but it went well. The two guides didn't make a good duo but my lord were those two funny.

Kev watched as the one that reminded him of Titanius remove her helmet and the resemblance suddenly made more sense to him. He smirked at the realization and resisted the urge to make a Metroid reference. "Well even if you don't go, I gotta move in before the scans start." He looked down the hall then back to the group. "Actually, one of you guys can pick first."

Anomie’s gaze danced around the other members present, it seemed she recognised every person in one way or another. It was kind of impossible to to forget the web-slinger, considering she was the “it thing” around Manhattan of late. The She-Spider was a common topic of interest with many of the S.H.I.E.L.D agents, often corresponded with the title of “hero” - something she definitely was not, echoing the question in her mind as to why she was here. She’d never met the infamous Spider Woman in person, so she’d never truly formed an opinion but if her tardiness was anything to go by, then Anomie had to truly wonder about this teams ability to work well as a unit.

The Wakandan Prince... scratch that, King sparked her interest slightly more than the Spider. His presence confused her a little, one didn’t have to be an agent to know the state his country was in at the moment - the news channels had been happy to report on it. She had to wonder if it was a great idea, him up and leaving his country to come and join a band of supers who called themselves “heros”. His age had been a debate across the world, whether or not he was ready to take his Father’s place. Anomie couldn’t have cared either way, there were many monarchs in history who had taken over their kingdoms at even younger ages; and he had left a well experienced Regent in his stead before heading to America: The Land of Opportunity... the line was laughable now that she thought about it.

Her eyes connected with those of the Iron Girl to receive a wink, which caused a coy smirk to play on her lips. At least someone in this group had a visible sense of humor... but how could she not, being the estranged daughter of Thomas Starke. She had been all over the press, yet she found herself drawing blanks to useful information on the girl; a fact that made Anomie kick herself as the famed billionaire’s daughter removed her helmet. She really couldn’t deny a pretty face, and this girl was one of the prettiest faces she’d seen all day.

Her attention was drawn to Kev as he spoke, she knew his name and she knew his style. She’d had the pleasure of working with him a while back on a raid. The mission had its slipups and as per usual her fellow agents had whispered about it afterwards. Although, it was a plus that he hadn’t died, but she was yet to find out what he truly thought of her. Her amber irises scanned his looking for a hint of judgement or disgust for a moment before she broke away from him,

“Let’s get this over with... I’ll go first.”