As Sami watched their attempts fail once again, he found himself distracted by a new wave of sensations via his newfound power. Some have dropped off his radar, but different ones had popped up. He could only guess that barring the superspeed, they were all coming from the group of hostages, unless he and Grif had been lucky enough to gain such a diverse amount. Sami himself wouldn't have been pleased with the plant one. He was never much of a gardener himself. Wherever the powers were coming from, they weren't all that much use to him. Thankfully, during his distraction the glitches seemed to have begun affecting the simulation itself, with the hostages and Pietro glitching out like a game of COD that had too much lag. Sami was weirdly reminded of Resident Evil when the blonde one spoke, telling them of how much time remained in the game. It was reminiscent of the creepy little girl AI, and he wouldn't have been surprised to hear "YOU'RE ALL GOING TO DIE DOWN HERE" in a shitty British accent.

Disregarding the warning, Sami collected himself as he noticed Grif attempt to attack Pietro once more, only to be knocked down by his previous injuries. Hoping his friend hadn't punctured any major organs, Sami took aim at the no longer glitching Pietro, squeezing off a few bullets only for the guy to slip away again. His temper flaring in sheer annoyance, Sami gritted his teeth.

"Would you FUCKIN' stay still?!" He snapped, darting a glare upwards to where he assumed those in the real world would be watching. How in the hell did they expect him and one other guy to be able to put down such an overpowered little bastard, while trying to keep a bunch of useless mutants alive, and also while trying to find a cure? He sure as hell hoped the other groups were making some headway, because he and Grif were stuck in a sucker of a hard level. Casting another irritated look towards the group, he found himself snapping at them too, not particularly holding back for anything. They weren't real, after all. "Could y'all maybe stop lying around and do something useful?" They were beaten up, not fucking paralysed.

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"Hold on a second, Miss Isley," Agent Kennedy said, raising a hand to the ginger haired plant manipulator. They had been about to get to the final two that would need help - Griffin and Sammi - when he noticed people starting to exit the Framework. "Ya wanna know what's fucked up, Isley? They weren't supposed to succeed at this mission. Fury wanted them to fail." At least Agent Johnson had a cheery disposition, but he doubted that could be healthy for her psyche.

"Once you've finished with the director, please come see me for a physical," Simmons added, giving Johnson a smile. Ideally, now that they had gotten some experience in the Framework, they'd be able to better handle their powers and not accidentally kill anyone. Of course, that could easily turn out to be wishful thinking.

"They only have ten more minutes," Ridgeway mused, continuing to monitor vitals and charts.

"I'm going to let them go over - it'll count against them in the evaluations for not achieving any of the three objectives before time was up, but whatever. Fury's being a dick to them anyways."


Outside in the hallway, Fury was pacing back and forth. He stopped before he heard Agent Johnson come out and let out a sigh. There were a million different things he could have said to her, but none of them conveyed his sense of disappointment. "Have ya lost your goddamn mind?" Fury snapped, staring at her. "Because if so, I'll help you fucking find it!" He took a breath, pacing back and forth again.

"Is that what top performance at the Bulgarian Military Academy gets me? A cheap fucking weeabo approach to breaking an illusion? What the hell were you doing in your combat classes here, agent? Sleeping with the teacher? Because based on your idea that hurting yourself was a good first choice, I'm guessing that must have been it! Go on, explain, let me hear your excuses. I'm older than I look and bitch, I've heard them all."

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Team Glitches (@Peridot@17th Day):

Sami would pick up the following powers currently. Any previous powers he detected aren't coming through, unless noted on this list:

• Super Speed - Extremely dangerous and powerful, almost at max potential
• Chlorokinesis - Extremely dangerous and powerful, well developed, always holds back
• Pyrokinesis, Cryokinesis, and Thermokinesis - Raw power, not much development
• Astral Projection, Astral Suggestion, Possession - Powerful, highly skilled
• A Latent Mutant - potential unknown
• Accelerated Probability, Precognition, Telekinesis - moderately developed
• Shifting to avian and beast forms - incredibly dangerous and with vast potential
• Super Speed - Dangerous, moderately developed
• Photokinesis, Self Sustenance - Raw, no development
• Tattoo image projection and manipulation - moderately powerful, very developed

Pietro looked at Sammi when he shot at him. He turned the bullet around, and raced over to Sammi, punching him in the face. "Bet you didn't see that one coming, why don't you hold still!" he snapped before using his speed, he aimed the bullet right at Sammi's heart, before flicking it slightly to give it more momentum. The bullet went straight through his heart, and out of his back, making him collapse to the ground dead. Sammi would wake up outside of the Framework, with Agent Ridgeway glancing over at him. "Director Fury's out in the hallway, he's expecting you."

"S-stop!" Framework Guin stammered. None of the hostages were in any shape to come and help Sammi, and thanks to his and Griff's actions, the glitches had all ceased. She couldn't help but stare at where Sammi had fallen. Sure, she was irritated that he had screamed at all of them to help him, but she was freaking out. They were running out of time to deal with the virus and humanity itself was at stake. "Pl-please Pietro stop!!!!" She then strained against her bonds and they snapped, as she looked at Griff. "You need to go get the virus now, stop wasting your time with us!"

"It's for your own good Guin," Pietro said, before he tied Guin up again. Mary was having problems, and she finally started to give into her injuries, passing out completely, her skin was deathly pale.

Team Abercrombie (@FantasyChic@ihinka@McHaggis@BlueSky44@Nallore):

Once Hale and Nikolova made their way down to the lower level, Sabretooth decided it was the time to strike. The other three agents seemed to have turned their backs on him but honestly, he was a beast and he was going to act like one. He let out a roar and Tinley would feel a snap, as if a mental leash she had had on him broke. Sabretooth charged at Tinley, grabbing her and swinging her around like a rag doll before letting go. Tinley would land in the staircase and fall down due to the momentum, sliding to a halt in front of Hale and Nikolova at the base of the staircase.

"I wonder if you'll fry like chicken," Sabretooth grunted, snapping Sparky's neck just like he had snapped Oshea's in real life. Unfortunately, her body emanated a massive bolt of electricity as she was going down, knocking Sabretooth down for the count. His fur was smoking as he hit the ground, Sparky's limp body falling to the ground next to him.

In the real world, Sparky would wake up and notice Agent Raynor entering the room. "Hey, you supposed to be up already or something?" he asked, before Agent Ridgeway would give Sparky the usual drill - telling her to go talk to Fury out in the hallway.

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Agent Rivera woke up shortly after Kelley and Reed had picked her up off the ground - as if she had been waiting for someone else to lift her up, that way she wouldn't have to. Novikova was a bit glad that she had woken up, not liking the idea of them dragging around someone that was unconscious in this mission. From her estimate, they couldn't have much time left and they hadn't gotten close to the virus yet. There would be more Brotherhood members to encounter, she was certain of it. "We need a way to make up for the time we've lost..." Novikova muttered, thinking.

No one seemed to be out of place as she made her way onto the first sub-level with the others. "Rivera...Can you get us another level down?" Novikova asked. She just saw another staircase at the end of the hallway and she couldn't help but have a horrible feeling that there'd be someone down there. Rivera nodded, the ground in front of them shimmering as she beckoned for them to jump through. Novikova smiled slightly, before she jumped through, hitting the ground.

"Honestly, Toad, these people are so irritating..." a voice came distantly, belonging to none other than Wanda Maximoff, the Scarlet Witch. It seemed to be coming from beyond a set of metallic doors in front of the small group. Behind them, the only exit route seemed to be an elevator. No stairs went down to this level. If Novikova was right and the virus was beyond those doors, they'd have ten minutes to retrieve it and gather all of the information related to its use, as well as destroy the lab.

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Z nodded at Tinley's instruction to accompany Arc to the security room. "Yes, of course." She simply said as the two of them made their way down the stairs. Nik was walking in front of Arc as quietly and carefully as possible, scanning the walls, ceiling and floor for anything they might have missed in their rush to get to the second floor. Nothing new or missed popped out at her and for some reason Z felt really sluggish and not all that stealthy as she was trying to be. Did that bump on the head just now do more damage than I thought? Nik wondered as she stopped for a second to do a quick self-assessment. Everything seemed to be in working order. Though she did feel a slight discomfort in certain areas of her body. Z glanced back at Arc. Nothing! Yeah, had he been a woman I'd be feeling way more uncomfortable right now.

The twosome reached the security room unobstructed, however to Z's utter horror the door was open and there was a security guard inside, staring right at them. Bollocks! Time seemed to slow down as Nik realized what he was about to do. And that she would be helpless to stop it. Still, her body sprang into action. If I can't stop it I can damn well try to remedy it. Adapting to changes was kind of her thing as bombs were unpredictable and more often than not you had to think on your legs and never give up. You just had to push on because lives depended on it. Z was on the guard in a flash and had him in a choke-hold compressing slowly but steadily. "If you want to live you'll turn it off and call out to say it was false alarm!"

The guard struggled for a bit, but Z was well practiced with choke-holds and knew what she was doing. The guy wasn't going anywhere. Oh, Nik had no intention of killing him. She had him in a sleeper hold, but he didn't have to know that. "Today, love!" Despite the ruckus from the alarms Z continued compressing calmly, unhurriedly, sure the guard would be seeing spots by now. And, indeed, just moments later he frantically tapped on Nik's arm in agreement. The man did as requested and Z unceremoniously tied him up and gagged him. She then promptly turned to Arc, but could not make herself to look the man in the eyes. The explosives engineer felt responsible for that cock up with the alarms sounding even if she'd managed to make the guard claim it was a false alarm. I mean, who'd believe him anyway, right!?! Considering the situation.

"So, um..." Z approached Arc, her eyes shifting left and right until they finally settled on a spot on the wall somewhere over Arc's left shoulder. It was funny how she never had problem talking with him and making eye contact whenever it was her, Niah and Arc together. But when it was just the two of them... "D'you think you can get anything from this guy he might not want to volunteer." Z whispered to Arc, alluding to his telepathic powers. Her skin was flushed with the shame she felt over the failure from minutes ago, but her eyes still burned with determination. "And if you need help with anything else in here. I'm not a complete novice with tech."

"I'm sure you're not. You SciTechs always impressed me with your transferable skills," Arc reassured her with a stray glance to the guard, who had been deftly tied up in what was quite a magnificent display of combat prowess. The telepath had immediately rushed to the control panel once the alarm was called off, observing first what was on the screen: images of the different screens, including the fourth, where the hostages were held. "That was very impressive, by the way––do you do that to all the boys?" On auto-pilot, he shot her a wicked grin (absent of any kind of heat) before he returned to inspecting what he had available to him. Then, there was no more time for little asides like that. The system was of a uniquely irritating design. High-tech, but designed without the usual frills that made it easy to take over.

After a few moments of reaching functions locked behind passwords he didn't know, he dropped his hands away from the controls and muttered a curse. He was so sure he could do it. It was just an unfamiliar system. S.H.I.E.L.D took an interest in him in the first place because he could operate these with ease. And he wasn't going to fail in front of another agent, that was for damn sure. If only he had more time, he could seize the intercom and all of the other trappings of the comms room the natural way.

But he didn't.

Arc turned his frustrations on the security guard, crouching down next to his bound form. In a quiet, strained voice, as if he was forcing the words out, he asked, "How do I access the intercom?"

The man did not answer. Granted, the fact that he was gagged would normally pose some problems to an interrogation, but in this case, actually voicing the information was unnecessary. Whispers in Arc's head gave way to knowledge, the image of a flipped switch and a key combination to access the universal comms that ran the length and height of the building. From there, finding a digital copy of Uptown Girl to play and loading it into the system was comparatively easy, and with a brisk nod to Nikolova, the first notes began to play over tinny speakers.

"Well, that's that," he offered, smoothing down the front of his shirt and running a hand through his hair to right it. "Let's hope that works, for the hostages' sake. Now we need to secure an exit––for the others too, of course––and we don't have much time left. All we've got to go on are these cameras, though, and I think only he can change what angles we can see." Arc jerked a thumb then rubbed absently at the scrape on his forearm, which was beginning to scab, lost on what to do. Try and raid his mind again? No, it was likely surprise that allowed him the answer in the first place. Force him by physical means to do their bidding?

He shot an unsubtle, assessing gaze on Nikolova. That could work. It did work, in fact, to get him to shut off the alarm.

Z chuckled a bit nervously. "Yeah... that's us engineers. Jack of all trades." She shrugged observing Arc trying to penetrate the security system of the building. He seemed to not be having the best of luck. God, what is it with this place?! Nothing we do seems to make a dent in this sim! Arc's next words made her snap her eyes off the screens and settle them onto his profile. She stared at him for what felt like an eternity. How do I react? What do I say to something like that? Feeling somewhat put on the spot Z glanced at the guard, than back at Arc. Eh, what the bloody hell! Things are all at sixes and sevens anyways. She cleared her throat. "Boys would not be my first choice. But they do make for good practice!" Z returned in what she hoped was a brazen attitude she usually couldn't pull off.

Nik couldn't help but feel a bit apprehensive at her words just now. She wasn't particularly worried she'd basically outed herself to Arc. She wasn't really hiding her preferences. She didn't necessarily broadcast them either. But that brazen attitude she'd tried for wasn't her thing and now she felt self-conscious.

When Arc stood up from the chair suddenly Z snapped back into full attention and watched her teammate crouch down in front of the guard demanding to know how to activate the intercom. The man remained silent. Though, had he wanted to answer, his bound mouth would have prevented it. But all the same Arc stood up and went to the console again, manipulating some switches and buttons. And before Z knew it 'Uptown Girl' was sounding over the intercom. Guess he got his answer anyways. Nik thought as she watched Arc smooth down his clothes and hair and listened to him suggest ideas for escape route for both teams.

Z pinched the bridge of her nose. She was tired. They had all just survived a grueling ordeal. They had hardly had any time to recover from the experiment before they were stuffed into a barely tested, recently vandalized virtual reality system, that had to be recoded over night. None of them had a good grasp on how to control their powers or how to work as a team. Z felt a familiar surge within her. As the rage filled her Nik closed her eyes and called to the familiar calmness. When she opened her eyes again they were burning with something that would make any sane person take a step back. Z approached the guard slowly, stalkingly. "Be a good lad and show us the lower levels of the building on those monitors." The explosives engineer urged with an even voice that sounded so cold and yet somehow filled with a burning rage so wild and hot, that it could scare all the hairs off the guard's body.

The man could not comply more hastily!

Arc smiled weakly as the guard set about changing the on-screen cameras after some 'prompting' from Nikolova, which gave him a few seconds to collect his thoughts. He'd never been this exhausted before, not even during the worst of the S.H.I.E.L.D's gruelling courses––but at least the scenario would soon be finished, no matter the conclusion. Observing the new angles of the building, he saw Reed's team closing in on the lab.

And he saw the lab itself, filled with faces he recognised from his academy's training. While two of them took a few heartbeats to identify, the mere sight of the others drained all colour from his face. "Not good. That's what Reed's group are about to walk into. I need to try and reach them––"

AGENT REED, he thought, before cringing away from the loudness of it and aborting the attempt. Even though they were distant, he had a feeling that he didn't need to perform the mental equivalent of yelling to reach them. So he tried once more, praying that his telepathy could bridge the gap of several floors and managed to catch all of his fellow agents in its net. Agent Reed and others––we have taken the security room. There's many hostiles in the lab ahead of you: Magneto, Scarlet Witch, Toad. Plasma's prepping the virus right now. I'd say be careful, but there's no time.

When it was over, Arc rubbed at his forehead in an ineffective attempt to quiet the voices. "It's done. God, I need a stiff drink after this one."

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When Agent Rivera finally did come to she was relived now it made things a whole lot easier for her and Kelley to move now. "You good agent?" Cass asked her, and looked towards Agent Novikova it was true they did waste quiet a bit of time already dealing with Wonderland which made their time limit much less now. She watched Agent Rivera use her ability and created a portal for them to go through to one of the sub levels that would take them to the lowest floor where the virus was. Cassandra took a step through and looked at the very familiar door that was there.

Cassandra could hear the voice of Wanda Maximoff on the other end of the door, she wasn't sure if they were expecting them now at their floor now or now. But they were very close to the virus now, and they would need to get to it now looking at the time they only had ten minutes left. Cassandra then froze when she heard Agent Hale's voice go through her head, which did feel uncomfortable to her at least, but Professor X had done the same thing with her as well to communicate on the other end of the mansion during her last mission. It was good to hear that they had taken the security room as Cassandra looked at Kelley, Novikova, Bautista and Rivera. They didn't have time to drag their feet now.

"Novikova, I want you to punch a hole through that door with your power, Kelley you open up on them once the clearing has made. And Rivera I want you to get in there with a portal in front of the dispersal unit and try and take the virus before its put in there." Cassandra said while looking over at Agent Baultista. "And you are with me, I will protect you from them as best I can." Cassandra said, since she could take a bullet she would at least be able to handle whatever is going to be thrown at her unless of course if it is a mental ability. Then Cassandra stopped for a moment as she could hear Billy Joel's Uptown Girl starting to play over the building's security system.

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Maria wasn't really paying attention to Sabertooth, it seemed that he was subdued at least in her eyes right now as her attention turned towards Hale, Maria sarcastically rolled her eyes towards him. "Well of course I do care I wont have my competition partner with me." Maria said jokingly, as she listened to him with his plan that was being projected into her head. Maria looked directly towards Tinley who agreed with the plan. It seemed like it was a good one in her eyes as well, seeing Nikolova leave with Hale that's when Sabertooth decided to strike out again. Maria quickly took a step back when he went straight towards Agent Abercrombie and went in and flung her like a ragdoll where Nikolova and Hale had just gone down from.

Maria took a step back as she got into a combat stance as he went directly towards his next victim which happened to be Agent Sparks, seeing the massive mutant pick Sparks up by the neck. She could hear her neck snap, but not before taking out Sabertooth with her, just leaving her and Tinley now with their part of the mission. Maria quickly made her way over towards Tinley and reached over to offer her a hand. "Need a hand there?" Maria asked, it was just the two of them now as Maria looked at Tinley she didn't like the odds of being alone but there wasn't really much of a choice now.

"Lets keep going." Maria said as she turned around and started to quickly make her way up towards the next floor, she hoped to at least make it up there to save their fellow mutants as well, she then paused as she could hear Uptown Girl starting to play over the radio system of the building.

On the upper floor Carolina looked directly towards Sammi asking for help as she watched both SHIELD agents fight miserably against Quicksilver. "Cant really got inhibitors in place, and kind of tied up currently." Framework Carolina said sarcastically towards him, as Griff threw his axe at Quicksilver and watched it fall harmlessly onto the floor. Carolina then watched helplessly as Sammi was killed by Quicksilver only leaving Griff behind. "Go for the virus we will be fine!" Carolina yelled as well.

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Tinley, confident in her team's ability to get to their goal, turned to face the rest of the team, only for her to feel a splitting headache for a moment. Unsure as to why she felt this, she held her head as the pain subsided. She didn't realize it until a moment too late when Sabretooth shot up and charged at them. It seemed her hold on him broke, which was a good learning moment for her, knowing she would have to practice in order to hold a person longer.

But the man got to them before she could defend herself. Soon, she was tossed like a ragdoll across the room. She hit the wall with a loud thwack and crumbled to the ground. She was hurt. Badly. But she was alive. She stood up hesitantly, shamed that she let the beast get the best of her like that. Soon, Maria came up to her, helping her up.

However, Tinley wasn't done. Sabretooth pissed her off and if there was one thing she did not stand, it was being taken advantage of. "Indulge me a moment." Tinley stormed back to the room, seeing the corpse of Agent Sparks on the ground. Thankful this was just a simulation, the beast was there, alive but downed. Tinley picked his head up and had him look at her. "Big mistake." What followed was a volley of punches and kicks as Tinley unleashed her frustration. Sabretooth yelled in pain, but Tinley quickly silenced that with a punch to the side of the head, knocking the man out cold as he fumbled to the ground. Tinely brushed her hands off and looked back at Maria. "Ok, let's get going." She then beelined for upstairs, knowing they had precious little time left.

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"No excuses sir, just observations, logical comclusions and general MO for different events, sir." Valencia replied with calm voice as the leader of SHIELD seemed rather pissed on his own right. Well she wouldn't blame him that was a pretty dumb way to go, but she wasn't even completely sure it was her fault. After all a minor injury on the forearm shouldn't cause near instant death.

"First of all sir, the fact we didn't recieve mission operation gear when entering the Framework put me who doesn't carry a gun within the academy in disadvantage. At the Bulgarian Military Academy we wouldn't carry weapons until given exercises. From there it's the problem with the enemy mutant. The fact is illusions cannot simply be broken from what I've been taught. Optimal strategy against an weaponless enemy with a illusion power would be to let them attack and grab them, but because of her power of deseases I think it was, that option wouldn't be optimal and would likely lead to casualties." She explained without any emotion.

" As for hte enemy, a melee fighter with illusion power would be best countered by waiting for a strike and neutralizing them when a contact is made so you can confirm physical presence, but since I believe the secondary power of the enemy was connected with touch of desease or something similar, such a strategy is unusuable. Beyond waiting for the enemy to neutralize you with a physical touch hidden until the last moment from the illusion, the best course of action would have been to attempt to distrupt the illusion. Given physical pain and injury allows people to focus through mind altering afflictions such as drugs and the like, it was simply the most basic and direct option possible I could think of at the moment in time. As altering the brain chemistry through the release of adrenaline and other compounds during injury should affect the illusion at an ideal situation." She ended her explanation with flat calm voice without any apparent stress or concern. After all she was rather sure something was up with the simulation anyhow, that injury was hardly fatal in normal cases.

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"You know, I'm not a big science fiction geek or anything, but sounds like that one thing from Star Trek, forget what it's called, but the unwinnable situation. Why does it not surprise me that Fury would do that." Mary said to him, shaking her head.

"Whatever you say, I think you'll fry better," Sparky managed to say, before everything went black for her, and she woke up outside of the Framework. She let out a sigh, though she was impressed that she had lasted as long as she had before being killed. There was also the fact that she should have seen that one coming, it was way too obvious. They hadn't tied Sabretooth up, so her death in the simulation was her fault, not just some bad luck. At least she had managed to take Sabretooth down with her.

Sparky nodded when she heard Ridgeway's mention of going to talk to Fury. The other person was not someone she really recognized, but she decided to answer him anyway. "Uh, no, I'm technically not supposed to be... I got killed in the simulation," she said in response, before she got up, and headed out to the hallway to talk with Fury. She was a little nervous to talk to Fury, but she had noticed that she wasn't the only one waking up, so that worked for her. At least she wouldn't have to face him alone.

Niah still had her focus on sound, which made the voices from her teammates almost unbearably loud. She nodded when Agent Reed told her to stay close. She was thankful for that. Before the others could move though Niah held up a hand and closed her eyes. It wasn't necessary, but for some reason, it felt right. It helped too if only as a psychosomatic, especially for trying to tune out Billy Joel. Why was that song playing anyway?

"Two are next to the door, Toad, and Scarlet Witch." She whispered. "A third, Plasma, is by the fume hood. That would be where the virus is. And," she paused the fourth was different. "Magneto. He is in the middle of the walkway. You got this Agent Kelley." She grinned at the guy she didn't know and hoped he really did have it.

She hoped it would be enough to help Agent Kelley. They had so little time left there was no way they would finish within the time limit, which frustrated Niah. She had wanted to prove she had been a good choice for this mission. Her plans to become a better field agent option were being dashed it seemed. Though even as a field agent she would be a non-com. That wasn't going to change anytime soon, and Niah wasn't certain she wanted it to change.

"...병신 존나 빨라." Grif curses under his own breath in his mother tongue; having not only just stuffed up his axe throw with his Quicksilver-given injuries but witnessed Sami getting downed by one of his fired shots being redirected back at him, courtesy of the same speedster, clean through his heart. Fortunately, this was a simulation with simulated injuries and death, just an apprehension test of sorts to assess our proficiency as newly enhanced agents, the farthest from a life-or-death situation. Still... that looked real unpleasant for Sami.

Never mind that. He needed to keep the mission as the first concern, despite their best efforts the speedster would simply not take any damage if at all, let alone be taken down. And with him in commission, freeing the hostages was out of the picture by a long reach. The X-Men was right: he would need to leave them for now and head for the virus instead, with any luck the others might have already secured it. Less than a moment spared to gather himself, some of the pain shooting through his body had subsided, slowly pulling together before dashing for the stairways downstairs.

As he sprints, or at least attempts to with his worn limping, Grif experiments with his new powers on the fly. A concentrated glow gathers, at the tip of his index finger aimed at Pietro, before shooting off as a focused beam of light that speeds towards its target. Only to fall short and leave a distinct singe mark on the wall behind the speedster, seems that his aim is still set off with his broken ribs. "씨발." He scowls at another miss before retreats into the stairways.

Awakening from the simulation was jarring in the first few seconds, but Sami quickly relaxed. The "death" had occurred so quickly that he hadn't felt pain, nor heard whatever witty comment Pietro had attempted to make. Briefly wondering if the guy was that much of a dick in real life as he was there, Sami straightened up and slipped from the bed he had laid upon, stretching and cracking his joints. Most of the flu-like symptoms he'd experienced when he'd first awoken had abated now, but there was still a severe stiffness to all of his muscles.

"'Aight. At least I'm not the only dead bitch here." He said in response to Ridgeway with a chuckle, throat still husky from sleep. Several other beds either were empty, or held awakening individuals. A brief scan of the room found Niah, though Antoine was nowhere to be found. Had he already been killed too? Hopefully he was outside getting the tongue lashing from Fury that Sami expected straight away.

Stepping out into the hallway with the others, he decided to stay just a tad respectful upon seeing the irate Fury. His motor-mouth wouldn't exactly help him here.

"Sir. Ladies." He added a cheeky wink to the blonde and the brunette in the hallway with him. "Have to say, that Quicksilver bastard is a motherfucker to kill. That why S.H.I.E.L.D hasn't put him down yet in real life?" This question, directed at Fury, had some tones of humour - though was laced with seriousness. Someone like that was dangerous, and they were lucky he hadn't decided to stay with his messed up dad and the genocidal Brady bunch.

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Fury listened to Johnson's arguments, holding up a finger to Sparky and Sami as they entered the hallway. He had a comment for each of her objections. "For the gun, agent, why the hell didn't you grab one from one of the fallen guards outside? If you need a gun, you take one. Then for the illusion - your logic is sound agent, but that's an extreme case. Harming yourself in the field is NEVER a good idea. You could have concentrated, you could have thrown something in the direction of that person, you could have asked your fellow agents for help. But again, those are all lessons you've already been taught at the academy. Now get out of my sight and see Simmons for a physical - you might have a screw loose or something."

Fury then turned to Sparky and Sami, raising an eyebrow at Sami's crass attitude. "Does this look like Comedy Central to you, cadet?" he asked, pausing for a moment to let that sink in. He then threw a phone out of his pocket, showing that this entire time, Colonel Rhodes had been on the line - on speaker. "I'll let you have some privacy while you contemplate the meaning of being a government entity when that comes to proposing to gun down U.S. citizens with a clean record," Fury said, switching the call off of speaker and tossing the phone to Sami.

He then looked at Sparky. "Walk with me, Agent Sparks," he told her, starting to head down the hallway. She was the only one currently that wasn't giving him grey hairs. "Got to say, that's one hell of a name. But that isn't what I want to talk to you about. Unlike the other two, you're not Operations and yet, you did more than both of them combined. So be direct and honest with me - reflect on the mission experience you just underwent. There might be a promotion in it for you."

"Hey there Sami, so, I heard about what happened, and what the hell were you thinking? Just suggesting using lethal force like that, on someone with a clean record? You know you shouldn't use lethal force unless you absolutely have to - not just because you got mad during a training simulation at their hologram... Not to mention the fact that you didn't seem to pay attention to anything! You attacking him again stopped the glitch from working, made it so that there was no way you were going to make it, and Maximoff is my goddaughter's boyfriend, and so I doubt she'd take you saying let's just kill him right now and be done with it! His record was wiped clean by SHIELD, and he has never actually killed anyone, and if we killed him, there would also be a huge legal mess and we'd have mutants who probably would want us dead, so no, we can't do that! And would it kill you to call your mom once in a while? I mean really...Look kiddo, I love you, but I have to go. Please stop suggesting killing people as a solution. It makes us look bad." Rhodey then hanged up the phone.

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Team Abercrombie (@FantasyChic@Nallore@17th Day):

On the staircase, your two groups will run into one another, becoming now a newly formed team of three. Upstairs with the hostages, Quicksilver is just listening to the music. As long as you don't attack him, he'll allow the hostages to go free with you - and he'll even come along with, just so happy to be listening to 80's music.

Team Techies (@ihinka@McHaggis):

For better or for worse, the entire facility is currently being subjected to your choice of music - namely Bill Joel's Uptown Girl. The entire fourth floor with the hostages is glitching out, but at least Quicksilver wasn't coming to attack anyone else. He was just busy happily listening to the music. None of the hostages were in good enough shape to escape as well and every now and then, they'd seem to glitch out and vanish.

Fortunately, Nikolova and Hale will be able to still see everything that is going on downstairs outside of the actual lab. On an additional monitor, they'll even have a glimpse of the panic on the second floor, where only Abercrombie and Reed were left standing. And in even better news, no Brotherhood members seem to be coming to hunt them down! Their luck has finally taken a turn for the better - it's just too bad they're going over time in the simulation.

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"...It's metal," Novikova mumbled, staring at the door. She knew (mostly from watching the Avatar cartoon) that those who could manipulate earth, theoretically, could manipulate metal as well. However, she also recalled mention that it was a fairly advanced technique. But she wasn't going to argue with her S.O., especially since they were overtime, and she took a deep breath, punching the doors -

"ублю́док!" Novikova screamed, holding her fist which was throbbing. The doors didn't give at all. Rivera laughed slightly at the Sci-Tech girl, and Novikova glared at her, before she went over to the control panel next to the doors. A quick fix later and the doors opened on their own - no powers required, just science. Agent Kelley panicked, not sure what to do when he came face to face with Scarlet Witch - and he flung her backwards telekinetically.

"Ugh, S.H.I.E.LD. agents? Really? So annoying," Wanda muttered. She warped the probabilities around Kelley and a moment later, the agent's lower half was somehow stuck in the floor. Toad's tongue darted out, intending to get Novikova but he missed horribly enough that the Russian agent didn't even need to move.

"Plasma, the virus, now!" Magneto ordered, metal swirling around him as he shot the implements off at the agents. They all gave fairly minor wounds to the agents, except for Agent Kelley. Magneto ended up hitting him over the head with a filing cabinet and he started to bleed profusely. Plasma just nodded at her father, about to put the virus in the contraption that would allow it to be spread, when it shimmered and vanished.

"I win," Rivera taunted. The virus had fallen through the portal, just as Agent Reed described, and it fell into Rivera's hand. She tauntingly held up the virus just as they hit the 0 minute mark on time remaining. Everyone would then wake up outside of the Framework, with the mission complete - mostly. Of the three objectives they were intended to accomplish, they had completed two out of the three.

Sami's lips pursed as he could barely get a word in edgeways at his Uncle's rant. Was he really acting surprised at Sami's hotheadedness? He'd raised him since he was an angry little pre-teen, and he knew fine well he hadn't cooled down in the slightest when he'd suggested the S.H.I.E.L.D Academy training to him. His other comments tickled said temper, and as the line went dead, Sami glared at the phone as he immediately rang back and left his own scathing message in his Uncle's voicemail.

"First things first, don't talk shit to me about my mother. That woman picked a pathetic specimen of life over her own son and you were the poor son of a bitch left to pick up the pieces, so don't fuckin' tell me to call her. Secondly, none of my fuckin' powers are psychic. If the computer starts glitching and messing everything up, I can't guarantee it's gonna last forever, because guess what? It wasn't supposed to fuckin' happen in the first damn place. Finally, if I'm up against some over-powered hot mess with daddy issues and a penchant for genocide, then yeah, I think that's grounds for lethal force. These people are terrorists, and last I checked, our government was permitted to kill terrorists. I don't know your goddaughter, so I couldn't give a flying fuck about what she would think about her boyfriend. He may have a clean slate now, but in that simulation he sure as hell didn't." He paused, taking a deep breath. "You want to talk to me as an Uncle, then phone me in your spare time. You want to talk to me as a Colonel, then you do it through the proper channels. But don't fuckin' scold me like a kid via Fury's spare phone like some kind of fucked up helicopter parent. It makes us look bad." Hanging up swiftly, Sami shut the phone off and made his way back to the room with the others - passing Fury and Sparks and tossing the former the phone back as he went by, whistling nonchalantly. No point in letting them know he was bothered by his Uncle's poor choice of words.

As for the simulation, Sami wasn't feeling too broken up about it. In order to succeed, it appeared they expected him to do something far too risky and unlikely in a real-life situation. Or, they expected him to just know what to do despite it being impossible. Whatever the case, there'd be plenty of missions in the future where he could prove himself properly without depending on glitches and damaged computer programs.

Re-entering the room and shutting the door behind him, Sami was pleased to see everyone else was waking up. He doubted all of them had died at the same time, so something must have gone well.

"Mornin' folks. You guys save the day?" He asked the waking individuals with a grin, glancing at Grif and wondering if he'd have any residual phantom pain left over from the simulation.

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Sparky listened to Fury snapping at the other two, and she honestly was freaking out internally at the thought of talking to him after those two were chewed out. She took a deep breath after he finished yelling at Sami, preparing for him to turn on her and start yelling, but it never came. He actually sounded calmer to her when he spoke, which was a little weird to her, and he actually wanted to have a somewhat normal conversation? This was so strange, but she nodded and followed after him down the hallway.

Hearing what he said, she had to make sure she wasn't going to stutter or something as she spoke in response to his request. "Well Director... To be honest there are a few things I'd change about what was done. Like how we handled the situation regarding Sabretooth. We didn't take into account how quickly he might break free of Tinley's mind control, we should have either knocked him out entirely, or tied him up so he wouldn't cause a problem... I knew when he grabbed me, that I was probably done for, so I thought to try at least taking him out with me so he wouldn't be a problem for the others. We likely shouldn't have split up at the beginning, since the main objective, at least in my mind, was to stop the virus from getting out, and if we all stuck together, then we likely wouldn't have had much resistance getting to the virus and preventing it from being released much more effectively. Then go on to free the hostages, since from what I know, the Brotherhood wouldn't have wanted to kill them, at least not immediately since they hadn't done so already... Not to mention that since the X-Men ended up getting caught, pretty much ensuring that they likely would have chosen for us to save the world and stop the virus as opposed to themselves... That is what I got from the simulation sir, at least from the parts of it I was able to see. With my powers, I knew what they were, since I waited and asked about them, so I knew I could use them in a more effective manner, so it worked out for me in attempting to take out Sabretooth in the end, but that is my personal reflection on the simulation..." Sparky said, nodding her head. It was true, she stated how to her things could have gone better for them, she wasn't criticizing anyone, she was just being honest about it.

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Mary just looked up when the group came out of the simulation. It had gone somewhat better than had been expected, but they lucked out since they had Cass with them, and she had been there on that mission. Honestly, just thinking of Cass made her want to punch a wall. The fact that the woman had literally done what was probably the dumbest thing in the world, it just made her want to pretend she didn't exist. If Cass had problems controlling her powers, there was no way that Mary was going to help her, she'd just have to figure it out on her own. After all, she had seen first hand what happened to mutants and anyone with powers, and she still went through with the experiment? Mary wished sometimes wished she hadn't cut off ties with SHIELD, but she knew it was for the better.

"Welcome back everyone. Some of you will find that there is something next to you on a table... This is to help you control your powers until you get a handle on them yourselves," she said, addressing the group, purposefully not looking at Cass, since she was still pissed off about things. Despite how much she hated SHIELD, and how much she hated some of the personnel, she wasn't just going to ignore the mess that Fury had created, considering how bad things had gotten for them only a few months ago. Fury had added to the many problems in her life, especially considering the fact that they had just finished rebuilding the mansion completely, and now there was another group of mutants and people with powers that just popped up all at once out of nowhere. In her opinion, Fury really needed to learn what was a really bad idea.

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Z blinked and carefully took off the Framework headpiece and put it on the end-table besides her bed.

"Well, that could have gone a lot better." She muttered slightly irritated with herself. She always sought to improve herself and she couldn't honestly say she'd improved anything in the Framework. She had spotty control over her powers at best, even though she had a decent grasp of their nature. Not to mention her abysmal physical performance. She'd been slow to react, not entirely nimble and altogether a liability with that alarm cock up. She still felt mortified by that one! If something like that ever happened on an actual mission, they would be done for.

"You still have ways to go, ol' lass." Z chastised herself and looked about the room. People were actively removing their VR helmets. Nik's face brightened as she focused on Niah. She'd been bummed they got put in different teams, but this was S.H.I.E.L.D. and their SO's didn't care for putting best buds on the same team. They cared for optimal assets allotment. As they should! Z knew damn well how difficult it was to have people under you, who's lives were in your hands and at your disposal. Nik's attention was pulled away from her introspection and she turned to look at a woman she only knew by name and reputation. I mean, who doesn't know the leader of the X-Men, right! So Marygold Isley was there to help them with their powers going by what she'd just said. Somehow I doubt the Director called her for a consultation though. I can only imagine the face he'd probably pulled when he saw her coming. Z chuckled. It was well known fact Fury and Isley couldn't stand each other.

The smile faded and the explosives engineer's face donned a serious expression. "Okay, bottom line, Nik!" Z softly spoke to herself under her breath. "If this 'exercise' showed me something, it is that I am in desperate need of powers practice. I can also use some practice on the nimble front. Who'da thunk that with my background in martial arts I would be so piss poor at stealth." Z shook her head in disappointment. She eyed Cass out of the corner of her eye. She is our SO, I bet she wouldn't mind giving me some pointers. The explosives engineer thought. And then there was Agent Kennedy. Z didn't know him well, but she liked his open face and easy humor. He would be a good choice to help her controlling her powers better. Oh, but I also promised Niah to show her some self-defense moves. I guess I'll have to schedule that in as well. Plus it would be a good way to get back into shape after all that time sucking on tubes of chemicals and Gods know what else. Z looked at her best friend and gave her a goofy wave. As she was doing so her eyes caught a glimpse of Arc and they shared a brief eye contact. Nik felt herself blush a bit still shocked at what she'd shared with him in the Framework, but nodded stoically in acknowledgement.

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As he removed the headset and placed it gingerly on what felt like a solid surface to his right, Arc kept his eyes closed and counted down from twenty, soaking in all the new sensations in his head. It seemed like the Framework deadened his telepathic reach to those who weren't in it: a masterwork of programming, if his guess was correct. Either way, there were more agents compacted in the lab than ever before: anxious thoughts over one's performance in the mission, words of relief that it was all over (though those might have been his own), and urgent whispers sounding righteously angry from outside the room.

But then someone greeted the room, and it definitely wasn't in his head. "Morning––and something like that. It almost worked out, but I suppose not well enough to make, 'I love it when a plan comes together,' appropriate," Arc quipped with a rueful chuckle, after identifying the cheery voice as Sami Rhodes, from Operations.

Arc opened his eyes and refocused his gaze on the equipment in the medical lab, shoving the spike of disorientation to the back of his mind. Others were waking up, had woken up already by the sounds of it, and he kept his tone light despite the partial success of the mission. That meant it had also been a partial failure. Catching Nikolova's eye, he grinned in what he hoped was a reassuring way. "Let's do it again sometime, Nikolova. Infiltration was... fun. Yeah, let's go with that."

Arc reached down to absently pick at the injury on his arm, only to find smooth, unblemished skin there. He immediately swung his legs over the edge of his bed as if to get going. Perhaps his next throwaway comment was made with some lingering instinct to 'buy friendship', but he reckoned a night out with Abercrombie would be a hell of an experience, and getting to know the others better – especially Nikolova, a kindred spirit if ever he found one – seemed to be a net positive. While the others were awakening, he offered, "Drinks on me, when we next get a chance. That is, if S.H.I.E.L.D doesn't already have beer on tap waiting for us on the other side of that door." He rolled his eyes and pushed himself up. His legs felt stiff with disuse, but that was unsurprising: he'd been in a medically-induced coma for a considerable length of time, and the Framework was only virtual reality.

Everything snapped and the Framework was gone. Niah kept her eyes closed for a few minutes. Well, she thought, at least I didn't need to try to reverse the virus. Though her performance had definitely been lacking. She needed to get practicing with guns again. Or at least some way of protecting herself. Especially now. She wouldn't always have Agent Reed there to protect her.

She took off the framework interface and sat up. Niah felt a bit queasy as she did. She met Z's eyes and smiled at her friend when she waved. It looked like Arc and Z had become friendly with each other, which was nice considering they were both Niah's friends. Now all three of them could hang out with each other.

Marygold Isley told them there might be something besides them to help with their powers. Niah looked and found a pair of gloves. She wasn't certain how it would help her, but she picked them up. There was a weird buzzing noise that sounded like a radio on the wrong station. She thought she heard someone talking but she had no idea what they were saying. Maybe the gloves would help her with her sense enhancement?

"Hey, we saved two-thirds of the day." Niah smiled. In the grand scheme of things, it wasn't great, but it was not terrible for the situation. "Sami, have you seen Antoine?" That worry that had been in the back of her mind came back.

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Val listened to Fury quietly with calm expression still as he pulled counter arguments against her own ones. All things considered he did have a point in a few of those, but some were still on her side and she was stubborn enough to hold to her opinion. That said she did admit to herself that she might have gotten a little too over excited about the virtual reality and failed to realize she wasn't carrying a gun until it was too late. THAT one was on her, she put it to heart that she was slacking off apparently if she had forgotten to pay attention if she was wearing a gun and not noticing the lack of weight from said fact." Alright, I will reflect on my decisions and the possibility of mental affliction." She stated with straight face and left in search of Simmons or rather back in the room where she went into the Framework from to see the others.

Apparently they had exited, mission over seems she was the first to exit and she was still chalking that to defect in the program. A wrist wound shouldnt have killed her like that. Luckily she didn't throw the extinguisher or she might have dropped it onto her head if that glitch had worked the same way.

"No beer on the other side of the door sadly." Val stated to Arc when she heard him speaking. She looked at the rest. Some appeared to be thinking about something, she assumed it was the mission. She had already made her conclusions on her performance. There was a few things she had to change in her regular schedule and picking up a gun was the first one.

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Tinley finally managed to make it to the others and the hostages, enough to see other members having joined them along with Quicksilver dancing along to music. Before she could muster up more energy to grab the hostages and exit stage right, the simulation died and ended. Tinley was rushed back into the lab. She glanced around her, evidently pissed. There was no way they completed all the tasks set before them and she was expecting to get chewed out by Fury for this reason.

However, it would be noted that the team performed....well. She would not have believed that those in Communications or Sci-Tech would be able to handle missions, but she had to admit she had been proven wrong. It may be the new abilities they now have, but they handled themselves well, all things considered. Tinley would not admit such things out loud, of course, but the thought was there.

She did have other business to attend to first. While others exited the simulation, resting and talking about drinks. Tinley took off her tech gear and made a beeline for Emilia. Oh she remembered what she heard in the simulation. Before the girl could even blink Tinley was on her. She punched the girl and lifted her up, dropping her instantly to the ground before she had the girl pinned down, waiting for someone else to finish it up. "So, fun fact. A side effect or something to my new mind control powers is the ability to hear thoughts. Not sure if it was a fluke or not, but I clearly heard the words of Hydra in this one's head. I believe some intense interrogation is in order."

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Just as Agent Rivera grabbed the virus with her ability the mission in the Framework was complete, Cassandra pulled off the VR headset and set it down on the edge of the bed. Then she heard the familiar voice of Marygold, turning her head to stare at her and gave her a slight glare. Cass still did respect her for being a leader of the X-Men, but she had her orders from SHIELD and was reassigned to Phase Three after the X-Men, SHIELD joint operation. "I'm going to get the report set up for Fury and then i'll get the physical done." Cassandra said as she simply pulled herself out of the bed.

She looked among the other SHIELD cadets, they managed to get two of the three of their mission parameters completed to her it was mostly successful. Cassandra gave a slight nod towards Bautista before leaving the room, and made her way towards her temporary room where she was at before going through the Phase Three Experiment. Cassandra searched among her belongings before she found her tablet as well as her clothes and quickly took off the medical gown and went to put on her clothes, as she started to type away on the tablet with everything that she would put into the report and watched a rerun of the mission itself.

Once Cassandra had finished up the file she tucked the tablet under her arm, before making her way down the hallway again just as she saw Fury and Agent Sparks talking among each other before approaching Fury and handed him the tablet. "Here's my file on the members of the teams sir." Cassandra said as she let him take it so that he could see what she had written down on the file.

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Maria slowly opened her eyes as soon as the simulation ended and she was out of the Framework, she looked around before taking off the headset. She looked directly over towards Marygold for a moment as she told them that she had brought them somethings that would help them control their powers. She looked down next to her seeing a pair of gloves next to her, and bit her lower lip for a moment before putting them onto her hands. She looked among the others more towards Agent Reed once she pulled off her headset, and noticed the look that Marygold and Cassandra gave each other.

Maria then turned her attention towards Novikova and gave her a slight smile, though she would have liked to have been paired with her during the simulation it did suck. But then again she didn't have a choice it was the SO's choice to separate the teams, before finally speaking up slightly she was curious what the history was between Reed and Mary anyway as Cass left the room to make the file for Fury. "So whats it with the two of you?" Maria finally asked. "Oh and also thank you for the gloves as well."

Grif had retreated into the stairways and stumbled upon the others before everything went black, the simulation ending right then and there. He slowly blinked his eyes open and removed the headset, the last hour spent in the Framework catching up to his still somewhat dazed mind. If anything he was plain disappointed with his performance, and he was more than sure it would reflect back on his evaluation which he knew for certain was the express purpose of the practice mission. Though the blame didn't lay completely on him; he and Sami were separated from and therefore unable to cooperate with the others. And even the mission itself had pitted us – a team of while trained and skilled individuals but ultimately inexperienced with our powers and each other – against the Brotherhood, a group of mutant terrorists with no qualms about killing. Perhaps later he should bring the matter up personally with the Director?

Interrupting his self-reflecting was Sami who had entered the room, looking none the worse for wear compared to his simulated self as he asked about our mission success. "Yeah, it would seem so by the looks of things," Grif answered while as he pulled himself off the bed and then extended out his right hand as if holding an invisible ball. "We all could have done better, especially with powers like these," A bright glow would light up from his open palm before closing his hand shut, "But that's fine because next time when we're in the field for real, we'll be ready. Stronger. Smarter. Better." His sober expression stretches out into a confident grin, "Some more than others."

By the looks of it, the throbbing pain from his broken ribs in the Framework hadn't followed him from the simulation. Already he felt good, he felt lively. Whatever this light he had wielded was, it must have something to do with this surge of energy. The overall feeling continued to grow stronger, Grif couldn't help but admit it felt improved most of all. He'd be looking forward to the chance to properly hone his powers for sure.