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Tempest wrung her hands a bit. What Pym said made sense, but it still rubbed her the wrong way. It felt real and it felt like something she shouldn't have seen, but was meant to. "That's fine and good then, but I don't like being able to see the future of this reality or any reality really. I don't need that kind of pressure added to what I already have on my plate trying to keep everyone alive." The normally happy-go-lucky hacker of the group appeared to be under intense stress.

Tinley thought it through and Pym was right, but that didn't take away what Tempest saw. What Novikova saw. "Even so, it is something to consider. For now, we wait on that, but it is something we should speak to as a group. Let's just handle this situation first. Raynor seems fine for now, I don't know what that spider girl person is doing here but we need to help her out, and Novikova needs...something done."

Tempest nodded and turned back to the others. She would be there to help heal Novikova should she require it, but she did so with a tentative hand. She didn't like what she saw, even if it was a future that promised world peace. No one needed to have that kind of pressure put on them to see what will happen.

Tinley thanked Pym before turning to the others to relay orders. They had, more or less, been successful though they needed more time to rest and lick their wounds. And her mind raced to this reality Tempest and Novi saw. What did that mean anyway? It nagged at her.

Niah was relieved when Pym suggested that what Tempest had seen was because of Novikova's powers. That meant Psychia could die with the other timeline. Her hand went up to touch her necklace that was no longer there, then quickly dropped. She sucked in a breath of air and tried to relax. It didn't happen. Her nerves were on end and she still half expected Vision to start murdering them all. What had Pym changed in the programming to make Vision as opposed to Ultron? "We'll do our best to help you find a way home Gwyn. It is likely Pym will be able to help." Should she warn Spider-Gwyn who their Spiderman was? She decided against it for now. She should tell Tinely what happened first.

"Tin- Uh Agent Abercrombie." Niah corrected, it felt odd and stilted after so long of calling her Tinley. The two of them weren't on a first-name basis anymore. Her shoulders were tight. "May I speak with you as well. Pym can stay, he can back up what I'm about to say." She glanced over at Flynn and then Raynor, wondering how much Raynor remembered at the moment since he was back to the physical state the quantum realm has put him in.

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Flynn was still not too thrilled that Vision was in the room, and the words that he was saying were starting to annoy him. He rolled his eyes slightly, deciding that it was better to just ignore his existence then actually talk to him. Since he still didn't want to trust him, and likely never would. He still blamed Vision for everything that had happened in the other timeline, considering the fact that Vision in that timeline was created by Ultron to essentially kill everyone. So who was to say that this Vision was any different?

Sparky let out a sigh of relief when she heard Raynor starting to stir, and she threw her arms around him, smiling. They had made it out of the Quantum Realm. She had no idea what he had said, but she recognized what he called her, since that was the name that he constantly would call her, though she still wasn't sure whether he tended to do it on accident or on purpose. Considering how often he said it it was getting a bit hard to tell in general. "I've told you before Ray... My name isn't Lana," she said with a slight laugh.

Glancing over at Cass, Flynn was trying to figure out the best way to tell her exactly why it was that he didn't like Vision. He was still not too thrilled that Hank Pym was still alive in this timeline, but they ended up with the same result. "Well let me tell you, my reasoning for hating the android is a lot more complicated and would take a long time to explain it all," he settled with saying, not really wanting to go into it at the moment.

There was the sound of something hiss and growling nearby, and Sparky turned to look over at Goose, who was not too far away from them, staring at Raynor. The cat's fur was standing on end, and his mouth was open, a few tentacles lashing out ever so slightly, but not enough to try and hurt anyone. Goose was staring right at Raynor, clearly not too happy to have the cat around. "...I wonder why the cat doesn't like you or something, since that's a bit strange..." she muttered.

As she asked her question of clarification, the black widow earned herself a confused look from the young man. He was fairly certain that he had just explained the circumstances of his escape. But she seemed sure of herself as if she wanted him to re-explain the circumstances of his escape yet again. She didn't seem to be budging on the whole 'check to see if you're not HYDRA' thing, and so Roman settled in for the long haul. Hopefully not all that long though, this damn limiter really was starting to make him feel sick to his stomach. As much as this interview was going on, Roman was fairly certain it would be mutually agreeable to both to finish up the thing before the limiters actually made him get sick. If they did go that far.

"Like I said, Captain America himself saved us all. Got rid of the grenade the Chitauri were going to use, and defeated the bastards. Then after he left, local police forces came by and protected us in the bank until the battle was over and we could be safely evacuated." He said, going into a bit more detail than he had previously in case that was what the Black Widow had been fishing for just now. After a few moments, he let out a small sigh and sat back in the chair, wondering what came next. He more wanted to get back to work, and definitely write down a bit more details on his whole time travel experience. He wanted to try to remember the details of how they made Time Travel work, at least before the experience was far enough off that he forgot the mechanics of it all.

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"I believe his distaste for me comes from the primal instinct to seduce and woo a mate - his body temperature spikes when he looks in the direction of Dr. Chase. As I have an intelligence far superior to his, it is natural that he feels threatened - I am additionally capable of physical feats that he will never be," the Vision concluded, aiming to help alleviate Cass' confusion.

Novikova meanwhile nodded slightly at Maria. "Я люблю вас...," she whispered, before closing her eyes and quickly drifting back to unconsciousness. Maybe it was for the best that she wasn't awake at the moment to be aware of her surroundings. But then again, maybe they wanted her to be conscious - it was hard to tell the ramifications of sleeping with this sort of undefined brain injury. No one had ever been injured before attempting to pull people out of the Quantum Realm with a robot.

Bonnie bit her lip slightly. The X-Men weren't the most friendly of organizations when it came to S.H.I.E.L.D. - which was understandable. Mutants and the government had never really gotten along, especially with O.M.E.N. attempting to massacre the students of Xavier's Institute not too long ago. Flynn had been a part of that organization, channeling his inner darkness. "I'll call the Institute, maybe they'll be able to help but... You have to prepare yourself for the good chance that they won't be willing to send anyone out here. The X-Men terminated the partnership with SHIELD on bad terms."

Spider-Gwen blew a gum bubble and it popped. "So what are you supposed to be?" she asked Harry, looking at him with a raised eyebrow. "You don't look very super... You don't even have a cape."

Pym nodded, agreeing with Tinley's assessment of the situation. "I don't work for SHIELD, but... I am willing to consult on the issue of your vision. I'm also going to take Spider-Gwen in - we have old things of Hope's that she can have and Janet and I can find a way to get her home. No offense, but if SHIELD takes her they'll treat her like a lab rat and she'll never get home," he said bluntly. "I also doubt there's anyone there smart enough to crack the Quantum Realm open who isn't already in this room." Speaking of one of those few people, Niah had come on over and Pym had a sense of trepidation about whatever she was about to say.

Raynor smiled slightly at Sparky. "Sorry... You just remind me of her. You would have liked her," he lied. Sparky wasn't ready to know the truth just yet, so he wasn't about to tell her. And it was perhaps for the best that Tempest hadn't mentioned her vision to Raynor, as he was one of the only people in the room that would recognize the reality she had described. He wasn't from this reality - in his reality, SWORD ruled a land called the Iron, mutants lived in Genosha, and Captain America founded the epitome of the Wild West, the Blue... Asgard had been destroyed and they lived in Norway, renamed New Asgard.

And for the life Raynor led there? If his fellow agents knew the crimes he had committed, they would have locked him up in the Raft years ago. "The cat's just being dumb..." he muttered, hissing back at Goose mockingly. He couldn't really take his gaze away from Sparky though - he was so happy to have her back, safe and well.

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Natasha Romanoff was no fool - she could plainly tell that Roman was hiding something from her, something huge. An amateur interrogator might have just gone out and asked Roman for his secret, to demand that he reveal what he was holding back, but Natasha was adept at playing the long game. She would learn far more if she let Roman go and had his actions monitored, his activity scrutinized. Her mind flickered to a conversation she had had with Acting Director Hill - Barton was retiring and his mentee, Abercrombie, was taking his place.

She had a gift with minds. A plan fell into place. "Thank you, you can leave," Black Widow told Roman, removing the power dampeners and taking the various cables off of him that were connected to the polygraph. "Don't leave the Triskelion - you'll have your new assignment by the end of the day."

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Cassandra looked between Bonnie and then Flynn for a moment, and then over at Vision and snorted slightly shaking her head slightly, she knew her friend did really like Flynn. But to feel threatened by Vision was a little bit funny sighing slightly and rubbed the back of her neck slightly. "I don't think Flynn is threatened by you." Cass said while looking over at him, things seemed to be settling down now as well so he certainly did have the time to try and explain a few things now.

"Well things have settled down, now and we have everyone back I think we have the time for you to explain." Cassandra said when she heard Goose hissing at Raynor and a few tentacles sticking out. She wondered why that was as well but she decided to not ask and let Sparky and Raynor have their thing, when she heard Bonnie mentioning the X-Men. "I don't think they would be willing to help us, I partially am responsible for the X-Men hating us for agreeing to the Phase Three experiments." Mary pretty much threatened her she'd be attacked if she even set foot in the mansion.

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Maria smiled towards Novikova and nodded towards her. "I love you to, Novi" She whispered back towards her, though she didn't know Russian she knew what her girlfriend said, and let her rest. She turned to look over at both Bonnie and Cassandra, she knew that the X-Men didn't practically like SHIELD either. Still it was worth a try to get their help anyway, she leaned back slightly while still holding onto Novi's hand while looking at everyone else in the room for a moment.

They were all back together now and safe as well which he was glad for as well, and so far nothing was happening which was a good thing as well. When Niah walked over to speak to Pym, she started to wonder what they were going to bring up now as well, Maria really wasn't to interested in Flynn's petty squabbles with Vision though she did find Vision's explanation a little bit entertaining and shook her head slightly.

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Harry smirked a little bit while listening to Vision explaining to Cass a little bit which was kind of funny, before turning his attention back over towards Spider-Gwen when she asked him what he was suppose to be. He looked down at his hand and then pressed a spot on his hand and turned into a small laser canon. And then gestured towards the others that were in the room, he pretty much made the gadgets and weapons for the team.

"I might not have fancy powers, or anything like that but I make most of the weapons and gear for the team been with SHIELD for the last twelve years or so." Harry answered, as his hand turned back again he made the weapon for his hand himself though with Bonnie's help after having it removed helped make it look realistic. "Long story short about my hand, I got into contact with a terrigen crystal briefly and that wasn't fun really."

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Once she was finished, more or less, with the conversation with Tempest and Pym, Niah had come up to them just as Tempest walked off to take care of Novi. Tinley would never admit it, but she had a sinking feeling she was about to be told something that would affect her, especially if Niah was so worked up about it to the point where she needed to speak to her alone. The two of them had never been "close" per se, but she had respected Niah's abilities and drive. To see her tense worried Tinley greatly.

"Sure, you can always talk to me. What's up, Agent Bautista?"

Niah nodded and stepped in closer so Tinley could hear her. "The postcard from Goose, it was right. Mind you it took a bit longer to get to it then I hoped. Instead of Vision, we used Ultron and he went nuts. By now he had already escaped our attempts to kill or disable him. That's why Flynn and I are so tense right now. We just spent six months losing members of our team slowly in a fight against an unbeatable enemy that came from this very moment. Flynn, Raynor, Susan Storm, Doctor Strange and an agent that you don't know Roman Carter and I went back in time. I spoke with Pym and was able to convince him to change Ultron's code and he made Vision." Niah pointed over her shoulder at the machine that was talking with Flynn. "There is more. A lot more, but that's the basics. Pym can attest I was there in 1984, he remembered me. He wouldn't have seen the rest of the team, but I suspect Fury could back it up."

If anyone other than Niah told her about some alternate reality where something called Ultron went on a rampage, killing off their team and the only way to save it was to go back in time to alter its code, she would have thought them insane. She still felt it was insane, but at the same time, possible. "Yeah, she was there - Dr. Bautista told me what would happen to my family if I didn't listen...." Pym responded. Tinley took a beat to collect her thoughts.

"Ok, I have probably a million questions. What is Ultron and do we need to worry about Vision pulling something like he did?"

"Sorry if I came off more threatening then I actually am Doctor, but time was short." Niah apologized to Doctor Pym. Then she looked at Tinley and thought for a second. "I think the Doctor held up his end of the bargain and Vision is not a threat. Well maybe to Flynn's family tree, but not to any one's actual lives. Ultron had some sort of secondary code that activated after he pulled everyone from the Quantum realm. Doctor Pym didn't know what it was at the time so I figure he didn't put it in there, which means Vision's code should be clean of it. But Ultron was basically the same thing as Vision just...evil." She didn't know for certain what was different in the coding, her knowledge of robotics, while expanded recently, only gave her conjecture on the issue rather than exacts.

"Ok, well this is a lot to take in. I believe you, of course. There's no reason to lie about something like this. So what happened after Ultron turned evil? You said we lost agents. Who did we lose?" She wanted to ask more. Was she a casualty in the war? What happened to the other heroes? But she would start small. Give Niah time to process it and tell her. She wondered who else knew.

Niah gave a small sigh of relief when Tinley said she believed her. "Do you mean in the first fight? Or before I time traveled? Cause in the first fight Novikova was dead at 3:15 am." She remembered Bonnie announcing her time of death just after Ultron had blasted her.

"Then we blew up Ultron but he had uploaded himself to the internet by then. After that, it was months of fighting between us. There was maybe a dozen of us left, and I mean between SHIELD the Avengers, anyone. They had all gone to work for Ultron or died trying to kill him. We made two plans. You took a few people and a virus to upload into Ultron to hopefully destroy him. You had the Hulk, Captain Marvel, Wanda, Cass and Maria." Keeping that version of Vision out of it for now so it wouldn't get confusing. In her full report, she'd explain how the team had broken Vision to the point where he broke off from his programming.

"The other group I was with Flynn, Raynor, Susan Storm, Doctor Strange, and Carter, we went back in time. I don't know if your team succeeded, but we did." It felt weird to list the names of the only people she knew was alive at the end. Such a shortlist of people. And that wasn't even mentioning her promise to Doom, which she hadn't forgotten, but wasn't particularly looking forward to keeping. She would though.

Upon hearing the names of those who remained, Tinley's heart sank knowing they had lost so many people, most likely mourned their deaths and moved on, and now here they were. Here she was with no recollection of any of those events or what happened. Niah's team had succeeded, sure, but did her's? Who would know, if any of them? "I have to know what happened with my team. I won't be able to rest unless I know. There's a part of me, however small, that feels like this is missing. Would Cass or Maria remember?" She was talking to herself, really, but she shook it off. "For what it is worth, Agent.....Niah. I am glad you spoke to me about this. We'll need to debrief everyone once we take care of the injured fully. If you are up for it, I'd like you and whoever else remembers the alternate timeline to present the case, but I also understand if you don't feel comfortable doing so, in which case someone else or even I can state what you told me. Up to you."

Niah hadn't expected Tinley to call her Niah, it felt like a tiny piece of what had happened was still there. "You can ask them, but I suspect they remember as much as you do. I don't know Wanda's powers well enough, but she might remember? Or maybe Novikova's powers would allow her to see what happened? But it might be a while before she should risk something like that." She took a deep breath. "I can do the debrief. I would appreciate Flynn, Ryanor and Carter's help with it. They can fill in some blanks. I also have some things I need to do. Promises I made I have to keep." She glanced at Bonnie, sadness written deeply on her features. She looked as if she expected everyone to just drop dead.

Tinley nodded her understanding. "Seems we all have things we need to do. We'll see about Wanda first, give Novi some time to rest. Good work Niah." She patted her on the shoulder, giving her a warm smile before she turned to walk back towards where Novikova rested, allowing Niah to do what she needed to do.

"Thank you Tinley." She winced slightly as she said it hoping it wouldn't be overstepping. Her hand went for her necklace again. She closed her eyes. That was something she needed an answer for, but that could wait. She couldn't change it anymore. Niah opened her eyes and looked at Vision, begging the universe to just let this workout.

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"I'd rather not talk about it right now Cass, at all, got it?" Flynn said, almost snapping at her slightly, getting more then a little annoyed with her. He hadn't just said that for his health, though that probably would have something to do with it. If he spoke about what happened while Vision was standing there, odds were he'd probably see about ripping the android apart. That was something he really didn't want to talk about, his mind going back to what had happened in the Age of Ultron timeline.

"If you say so Ray," she said, shaking her head slightly. Sparky was just glad that they weren't stuck in the Quantum Realm anymore. Another thought crossed her mind though, "...Also am I the only one who wants actual food... I definitely was not eating those spider things, and I'm kind of hungry. We should go get out of here once you're feeling better and get some actual food if you don't mind..."

Flynn glanced over at Bonnie, knowing fully well that they weren't a thing in this timeline yet, he'd never even asked her out on a date or something yet. All that had happened between the two of them currently was when he had kissed her back when they went to go deal with HYDRA. Damn, that felt like an eternity ago, well, to him he supposed it had been an eternity ago. After all, it had been almost a year ago or so for him in the other timeline.

"...I don't think the cat would be mad at you for no reason Ray," she added, looking over at Goose, who didn't seem to be all too thrilled about what it was that Raynor was doing. He started hissing and growling at Raynor even louder, ignoring just about everyone else. "...He really doesn't like you for some reason... Like, he looks like he wants to throw you around or something... Which is a bit strange considering the fact that it's a cat..."

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Tempest tentatively made her way back to Novikova. "Sorry to break you up lovebirds, but I just want to try again and get you healed up as best I can. Don't mind me, continue kissing and canoodling." With that, she healed up Novikova again. She managed to get her better, but she still felt something off in her. Novi at least knew this so she wouldn't have to break the news to her. She then made her way over to Raynor to get him healed better, then Spider-Gwen, then Janet. Once she was satisfied her party was at max health (or as close to it as possible) she stopped.

She still felt off about seeing that vision or other reality. What did she do about it though? What can she do? It seemed Niah and Tinley conversed, perhaps about it seeing as Niah was in the vision. She would et the sciency people deal with it while she kept to her technology. She made her way over to Pym again and the others, in case she needed to help them monitor anything, but she assumed all was safe now that they had everyone back.

The man was sitting quietly while the Black Widow seemed to consider something, and he worried that she might be suspicious of him. Not over the secret of time travel he was thinking about, as that was simply too absurd for her to guess out of the blue he would think. Instead, he worried that for some reason she had grown suspicious of him for being a part of Hydra as a part of their talk in there. Although she had really only asked him about his past, and he had not lied. She would know if he had. Yet it seemed so unnatural to Roman for Agent Romanoff to just be sitting there for a few moments if something wasn't up.

Then she thanked him, and started taking off his power dampeners and the cables for the Polygraph. It once more struck him as odd that she had literally just asked him the baseline questions, then decided it was over. Once again, Roman wondered about if there was some sort of problem. He definitely felt like something was up after that brief of an interview from her. Still, he definitely couldn't complain about getting those damned dampeners off. They were so uncomfortable and made him feel physically ill, that he didn't really know what to do with himself while they were on. Still, she had dismissed him and told him not to leave the campus. With a small nod, Roman left the room before going off to find something that had been on his mind besides time travel since that interview started. Without a moment of hesitation, he started heading towards the cafeteria.

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It had been less than twenty four hours since Janet van Dyne, Theresa Sparks, and Raynor Blake returned to the land of the living. The team had been asked to report to the nearest S.H.I.E.L.D. facility in San Fransisco, the Hub, for a full debrief on everything that had happened. Black Widow had been brought in from Washington D.C. to assist in the interviews. Some of the agents had given more than others, but even then there was still enough for S.H.I.E.L.D. to take action on. Dominika Novikova had used illegal technology with Dr. Hank Pym - she had also stolen materials from Stark Industries. Acting Director Maria Hill didn't have much of a choice - Novikova was fired.

"Agent Abercrombie?" a woman with short, curly red hair asked as she walked up to the field leader of the Secret Warriors. "Agent Romanoff, we're ready for you now."

Tinley had been prepared for it. After Niah had told her about their alternate history and the events that led them to fix it, she knew it would only be a matter of time before Novikova faced repercussions for her actions. On paper, Tinley was against it. She went against S.H.I.E.L.D and that was a no-no. Outside of files and bureaucracy, Novi had earned her support and her efforts brought back their people from imminent danger. She wasn't about to forget that.

Dressed to the tens, Tinley sat and waited as the redheaded woman approached her. She stood up. "Pleasure. Lead the way." Tinley followed Agent Romanoff to what she hoped would be a painless interview. But when did that ever happen?

Romanoff walked into what appeared to be an ordinary conference room, but the woman sitting at the end of the desk was anything but ordinary. Maria Hill, former Deputy Director and now Acting Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. rose from her seat and extended a hand to Tinley. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Agent Abercrombie. Please, have a seat." Romanoff took the seat to Hill's right and on her left, Barton was sitting there, looking a bit contemplative. There was a folder in front of each of the agents and a few glasses of water.

Barton was thumbing his S.H.I.E.L.D. badge. "I guess I can get this started, then?" he asked, fidgeting a bit with his hearing aid to make sure that it was working properly. "I'm retiring from active duty with S.H.I.E.L.D. - my kids are growing up and I need to make sure I'm there for them... which means that my job is open."

"You would be reporting to Acting Director Hill until the president makes an official choice of replacement," Black Widow explained. While Alexander Jakobsen was the President-Elect, he wouldn't be sworn in until January - the Twitter monster was still in the Oval Office.

"I just have one question for you before we make the offer official, agent," Acting Director Hill said, looking at Tinley dead in the eye. "There's a spider in a shower, and it's been there for days, trapped. And every time you turn the water on, it tries to run for its life to escape, but it can't get out. So what do you do? Do you move it to safety, do you kill it, or do you let it be?"

Tinley had sat where she was referred and sipped the water in front of her as the others spoke. What she had not accounted for was that promotion was up for grabs. Once Barton brought it up Tinley nearly choked on her water. She set it down on the table again before she looked around the room. So a spot would be open and they had brought her in here to offer it. Or to, at least, test if she would be ready.

She had wanted to move up the ladder since she started. This would be a nice step up. A way to still manage her team, but have more authority. The spider question was a bit...odd, but she imagined there was more to it than that. "Well I won't sugarcoat the fact I do not like spiders, but it's not like it is doing me any harm. I would attempt to free it. After all, spiders are integral creaturs, protecting homes from all manner of creepy crawlies out and about." She spoke the truth, she hoped it was what they wanted to hear.

"Is that what the spider wants?" Agent Romanoff posed. Hill's expression was neutral but calm as she watched Tinley, whereas Barton was clearly trying not to smile too much at his second in command. He couldn't help but be proud of her, despite the events of the last day or so.

"Well I imagine the spider wants to be safe. Possibly why it is in my tub for a reason. But it's not like I can ask it and get a response. If I could, I would see what it wants and reach a compromise that worked for both of us. But as it stands, it cannot, and I don't want to bring harm to it for no reason. So I take it upon myself to ensure its safety to the best of my abilities."

The three agents exchanged wordless looks for a moment. Black Widow's expression was calculating, Barton was pleased, and Hill was as frustratingly neutral as ever. After what felt like at least a ten minute pause, Hill nodded at Barton and Barton stood up, holding out his badge to Tinley. "Congrats, Agent. Welcome to Level Seven Clearance - the coffee is just as shitty for us, but at least you get the option of tacking on a cool codename to use... And you now have full control over your own team. You can recruit as you wish, within reason of course."

"You can't reinstate Dr. Novikova," Widow informed her bluntly.

"We also will be relocating your team to San Fransisco. You'll be based here in the Hub," Hill added. "You'll participate in weekly meetings with me and the other Level Sevens."

Tinley breathed a sigh of relief and stood up, accepting the badge that was offered. "Thank you all for this. I won't let you down." She had figured that there would be no way to reinstate Novikova to the team. That was fine with her. She had other plans in mind anyway. But at least now she had authority. Another step up the ladder. She wanted to call her family. She wondered if her mother would be proud of her.

"I'll make preparations for the relocation then. Anything you wish for me to do before then?"

"That'll be all, Agent Abercrombie," Hill said. "I'll be in touch."

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Maria had finished unpacking some of her things into their own place since Novikova had gotten fired, Maria decided to get an apartment for the two of them near where she worked now at Pym Technologies. She heard the doorbell ringing and walked over towards the door. Maria had ordered some pizza from a local pizza place, she paid and tipped the driver giving him a friendly smile before closing the door behind her. After everything that had happened Maria still chose to stay with SHIELD, but did manage to make some time as well to spend it with her girlfriend.

Novikova snuck up behind her girlfriend, putting her hands on Maria's hips, careful not to make skin contact. She was wearing a long black trench coat and her (by now signature) ruby red shades. "Not to say that you're a horrible cook but... Ordering take-out was a good choice," Novikova whispered in Maria's ear with a playful smirk.

Maria smiled softly when Novi snuck up behind her and turned around to face her setting the pizza down on the ground. "It's certainly a whole lot better than Harry's cooking." She said smirking back, she leaned forward for a kiss but stopped before pulling away. "How has your day been?" Maria asked.

"It wasn't too bad. Pym's been teaching me about how to synthesize Pym Particles," Novikova explained. The little light in her eyes that always came up when she talked about her research was dimmed thanks to the ruby shades. "Though I don't know whether Scott or Gwen is the real child there... They both were trying to play table tennis today in the lab while Pym, Janet, Hope, and I were working... but enough about me, how was your day?"

Maria laughed slightly, she got the feeling that both Scott and Gwen would do that just to get under Pym's skin most likely, as she started to grab some paper plates putting a few slices on. "Sounds like it's been an interesting day." She said as she handed her girlfriend's plate over. "It's been kind of busy, the team's been getting restructured since everything happened."

"Oh fun, so you've replaced me already then?" Novikova teased, picking up her piece of pizza and folding it in on itself, so that way it almost resembled a tube. She took a bite into it and she couldn't help but relish the slight warmth the sauce provided. "I doubt they're even nearly as pretty as I am," she joked, winking slightly at Maria.

Maria laughed slightly and shook her head. "No one could replace you." She said as she started to pick off the pepperoni off of the pizza and started to eat them, before going to the actual slice, she leaned back slightly as she took another bite. Maria was still worried about her after pulling everyone out of the Quantum Realm. "How have you been physically?"

Novikova rubbed her hand slightly. She hadn't really talked to Maria about this yet, only Pym knew, but she had been experiencing what could only be best described as tremors. Her hands would just start to subtly shake and soon, that vibration would spread into the earth and the metal around her. It had been relatively minor and infrequent so far, the main concern was whether or not that would increase. "I've been fine, really Maria... You don't need to worry about me - I'm Russian, I'm genetically programmed to be tough as fuck."

Maria stared at her for a moment as Novi answered her question, she had a feeling that there was something else still bothering her but she didn't want her girlfriend to push her away either she knew that Novikova was tough as well. Maria gently reached out resting her gloved hand over Novikova's setting her plate of pizza down. "I know you are, you know I always have your back just let me know if something is bothering you."

Novikova took Maria's gloved hand and placed it over Maria's mouth, before pressing a kiss up against Maria's hand. It was the closest thing they could get to kissing. "Eww, god, clingy much?" she teased, trying to lighten the mood ever so slightly. "I'm fine, honest - and I know that I can always talk to you hun."

Maria smirked slightly and gave Novikova slight nudge and messed with her hair a little bit. "Well someone has to be the clingy one in the relationship." She said jokingly and returned the same gesture as well. "So, what do you want to do?"

"Naked Twister?" she suggested with a smirk. "Or launch an effort to take over the world? Your choice, but one of them is definitely the right answer and the other is the wrong answer, so be prepared to be viciously mocked if you get it wrong..."

Maria laughed slightly. "Well naked twister would probably be out of the question, global domination would be really nice though." Maria said as she started to eat the pizza crust that was on her plate.

Novikova shook her head, mimicking the sound of a buzzer before shoving more pizza in her face. "Sorry, that was the wrong answer!"

Maria smirked playfully as she finished the other slice of pizza before going over and pinning Novikova to the ground while looking down at her. "I could always just cheat and make you trip if we played that."

The Russian-American scientist couldn't help but giggle as her girlfriend had her pinned to the ground. "Yes and I could always send all the spoons in the apartment flying at your annoying beautiful face."

Maria laughed slightly. "I could always do the same you know, and my face isn't annoying either." Maria said softly getting a little bit closer towards her.

"Your face is so annoying! With your perfect little teeth and your cute little smile, it's a wonder anyone can stand your presence," Novikova giggled.

"Well apparently you like it every day and night." Maria giggled back as she ruffled up Novikova's silver hair before releasing her and sat back up.

"I tolerate it," she replied, sticking her tongue out.

"But you cant deny that you love it though." Maria smiled playfully and gave her a little playful nudge.

Novikova raised an eyebrow, before something occurred to her. "Maria... Where do you see yourself in ten years?" she asked, looking at her girlfriend seriously.

Maria looked towards her girlfriend when she asked her the question, and thought for a moment before realizing that it was a question for their future together. "I see myself with you, and no one else, even if we cant really have physical contact anymore."

"What about a dog?" Novikova asked with a smirk.

Maria smiled at her she did like dogs quiet a bit and she did grow up with a few as well. "You get to house train it though, and as long as it's not a chihuahua or something either." Maria said to her.

It had been less than a day since they had returned from the Quantum Realm and in that time, both of them had been debriefed by some of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s top agents. While Sparky had talked with Agent Melinda May, Raynor had been assigned to Agent Phil Coulson - drastically different experiences for the both of them. May was harsh where Coulson was soft and compassionate. The team had been put up in housing at S.H.I.E.L.D.'s San Fransisco base and Raynor's room had been outfitted with a large number of high intensity therapy lamps used for those with S.A.D. But for him, the rays bathing his skin seemed to be helping to accelerate his healing rapidly. The Asgardian was lying in bed, discovering the unfortunate side effect of all that light - it made it almost impossible to sleep.

Sparky wasn't really able to sleep all too much herself. She was still not used to being outside of the Quantum Realm, not used to being in the real world. Definitely she wasn't too used to there being a lot of people around, as in the Quantum Realm there had effectively been only a few people, herself, Raynor and Janet (and technically Spider Gwen but she didn't count as she hadn't interacted with her ever). Figuring that she might as well see if Raynor was awake, Sparky left her room and went off to Raynor's to see if he was awake. She knocked on the door, "Ray? Are you awake?" she called softly.

"Sounds like someone couldn't resist me, huh?"

Sparky rolled her eyes slightly at that, poking her head into the room, "You are kind of ridiculous... I was wondering how you were doing..."

"These lamps aren't nearly as effective as one of Idunn's apples, but they're helping," he informed his sweetheart, figuring that was the information she was after. "But they are so bright... Too bright which is saying something since my dad is the actual God of Light." The color had returned to his skin, but there were still prominent lines in his face from the physical toll the Quantum Realm had had on his body.

Sparky nodded her head slightly, walking into the room now. "That's nice to hear," she said, referring to the lights helping. She couldn't help but giggle slightly when he said that the light was too bright even for him, considering the irony.

Raynor got a sly look on his face. "You know what else would help though?"

"Based on the look on your face I could probably guess."

"Alright, why don't you guess then?"

"Now why would I do that?"

"Because if you don't guess, I'm not making pancakes for you in the morning!" Raynor threatened. It certainly had to be the least menacing threat he had ever made in his life - and after a moment of reflection, he recalled that the most menacing one was likely when he had held an opponent over a vat of boiling acid and threatened to drop him into the ghastly depths.

"Since when have you ever made me pancakes or anything like that Ray?" she asked, giggling slightly at his words.

"Well I guess now I never will," he said, crossing his arms.

"Probably for the best, I bet you are a horrible cook."

Raynor rolled his eyes. "Sticks and stones can break my bones, but your words can never hurt me, Sparks."

"Well it's true, pretty sure you are a horrible cook. Wonder how you've survived this long if you can't cook anything," she said, sticking her tongue out at him for a moment before she couldn't stop herself from giggling even more.

"Believe it or not, but we pretty much had feasts every day on Asgard so there wasn't much of a need to cook - I learned when I came down to Earth from X..." his voice trailed off for a moment, before he forced a smile onto his face. "Now I'm going to go make myself pancakes, since I doubt anyone here can force me back into this bed, and you'll just have to suffer the consequences of not having pancakes."

"Nope!" she said, before she walked over to him and zapped him with a bit of electricity, "You need to lay down!"

The color drained from Raynor's skin slightly, turning his warm complexion to something more ashen as he fell back into bed. His chest wasn't rising and falling anymore - his heart had actually stopped beating from the electricity Sparky had sent at him. That much electricity had never bothered him before - the Quantum Realm had really done a number on him.

"...Ray?" Sparky said panicking slightly as she went over to him and put her hand on his chest before she sent another bolt of electricity through him.

Raynor gasped, his heart beating once more as he struggled to rise.

"S-S-Sorry Ray, I didn't mean to do that," she said instantly to him, before she she gave him a hug, still somewhat panicking from the thought that she almost killed him.

"It's fine, Sparks," Raynor wheezed.

"N-n-no it isn't! It clearly isn't! I'm sorry!" she said again, shaking her head rapidly.

He rolled his eyes slightly, managing to regain his breath. "Then I forgive you, luv.... It's all fine."

"See, you keep saying it's fine, but my brain keeps saying otherwise!"

He raised an eyebrow, never quite getting that Midgardian expression despite all of his years there. But even as stressed out as Sparky was, he couldn't help but be happy to see her. Reaching up, he put his arms around her and pulled her down onto the bed with him, snuggling her.

"What are you doing Ray?" she asked, clearly sounding confused. "What's going on?"

"Punishing you."

"Uh, what?"

"You've been bad, so your punishment is you have to snuggle with me in this horribly bright room."

Sparky giggled slightly at that, giving him a slight smile, "Well it is incredibly bright in here, maybe we should get you a sleep mask to block out the light for you or something."

He chuckled. "I'm sure Dr. Chase would find some way to fight me on that - and Fireball would back her up. He was totally in love with her in that other timeline, Sparks, it was kinda funny."

"...If you don't mind me asking Ray... What was the other timeline like? No one has really told me much about it..."

"... I don't really want to talk about it, Sparks..." Raynor then told her quietly, the smile gone from his face.

"...Why not Ray? What happened there?"

He avoided looking into her eyes, staring at one of the therapy lights as he tried to think of a way to put this. "...Nothing good happened there... Talking about it just makes it realer than it needs to be."

"You can't just pretend like it didn't happen, or you don't remember it... That will make things worse for you in the long run."

"I've been alive for a long time... I've done horrible things... I tried to become a better person, someone worthy of you Sparks, but... In that timeline, I almost became the beast again." He then fell silent, not wanting to say anything else on the subject. There was a lot of his past that he hadn't shared with her yet and he didn't want to add anything.

"...If you say so, but to me I think that you are worthy whether you believe it or not Ray... I love you..."

"I love you more, Sparks..."

"Nope, I disagree with that, I love you more."

Raynor gave her a kiss. "So... Do you think Dr. Chase would get mad if you helped me break in this bed?" he asked with a slight smirk.

"I feel like she would considering you are supposed to be resting."

"Yes but speaking as the only Asgardian in this facility, you can't say I'm lying if I say that some physical activities help to get our healing process going," he teased.

"Wow Ray, you are honestly ridiculous."

He kissed her forehead. "Is that a no?"

"You are ridiculous!"

Niah had paced about for a while before making the decision to follow through on her promise to Bonnie in the other timeline. She hadn't actually ever told Bonnie, because Bonnie had died quickly trying to protect her. She owed her. Niah just hated that it required talking with Flynn. Of course, theoretically, she could do it without talking to him, but that made things difficult.

First, she decided to talk with Flynn and make sure it was what he wanted. She looked for him and once she found him she asked, "May I speak with you privately?" She realized it probably sounded ominous considering how much she had avoided him as of late so she tried to smile at him. Knowing that it probably looked forced, though most of her smiles of late were.

"...Alright, what is it that you want Niah?" he asked her, not too sure why of all people Niah was wanting to talk to him. She'd been avoiding him like the plague, that much was obvious. "You can drop the forced smile Niah... Why have you been avoiding me and just now decided to talk to me about something or whatever?"

Niah cringed, yeah she hadn't been subtle. She was just going to avoid answering why she was avoiding him, that would add some weird things to this conversation she didn't particularly want to have."When Bonnie..." She trailed off knowing he would know what she meant. "I, uh, promised myself that I'd help the two of you get back together. Do you want my help?" She felt guilty for Bonnie's death in a way she couldn't express, but with fixing things she might be able to make sure her friend was happy again. Bonnie deserved that.

"...Sure, thanks Niah..." he said, nodding his head simply, not sure how she would think about accomplishing that goal.

"Right, I'll go talk to her." Niah nodded, not bothering to smile at Flynn. She left the room and went to the lab expecting to find Bonnie there most likely. She didn't know that Flynn was wondering the same thing she was.

Bonnie was indeed in the lab, sitting at one of the desks with her laptop out. She was reading through some recently published articles. She liked to do her best to stay on top of her field and be aware of the cutting edge research being conducted around the world. Besides that, she always found reading to be a calming and relaxing activity, only bested by drawing. She still hadn't made up her mind about Flynn. She did like him, but she wasn't sure if she was ready to move on yet - her husband's death still felt so raw.

"Hey Bonnie, how are you doing?" Niah asked as she entered the room giving her friend the small smile she had adopted as of late.

Glancing up from her laptop, she smiled as she saw Niah and she set the device into sleep mode, before closing the lid. "Oh, just recovering a bit from the late hours and catching up on the literature - what about you?"

That was a loaded question, and Niah knew Bonnie would be able to tell if she was lying. Or maybe not? They hadn't spent quite as much time together this time around. She sighed slightly, "I've been better, but I'm pulling myself together." There was the weight of sadness about her sister now having gone missing, and the odd guilt she felt that she couldn't have prevented that. "A lot happened in the other timeline. I need to talk to you about something specific that happened."

She frowned slightly but nodded, pulling out a seat for Niah and gesturing for her to take it. "Is it something medical?" she couldn't help but ask, wondering if Niah was going to warn her that she would develop Stage IV cancer or something equally horrible.

"No, I mean sort of. You took a hit for me." She paused and looked down at her hands. "You died and I sort of blame myself because if I had been better at...this then you wouldn't have had to." She sighed then continued. "Flynn didn't take it well. I can say at least it doesn't seem he has ever blamed me for it, which makes one of us. But anyway." She felt like she was rambling. "I thought maybe you should know I think he loves you." She finished. God that was probably not the best way to go about it.

Bonnie was silent for a moment - it was a lot to take in, learning how she had died in the averted future timeline. Her skin felt cold and clammy thinking about her death, but at least it had been to save someone she cared about. She liked Niah and wanted to see her succeed, to grow and flourish into all she could be. "Hey, don't blame yourself," she told her friend seriously. "If I sacrificed myself so you could live, it's because I believe in you - and you did it, Niah, you changed the timeline and saved the world. That version of me might be dead, but she died a hero... All you need to do is live your life, it's what she - me - would want for you." She gave her a smile and then hugged Niah, sensing that she could use one.

But then there was the matter of Flynn... To say hearing that he loved her was overwhelming was a bit of an understatement. She had been making tentative steps towards moving on from her dead husband, enjoying the little start of a romance with Flynn. "... I don't know if I'm ready to be in that serious a relationship," she then admitted. "Especially with an agent, after what happened to James..."

Niah sank into the hug. "Thank you Bonnie. That means a lot to me. You mean a lot to me. I know you don't remember anything but we became good friends. You are a very good person." She wiped away a tear that was threatening to fall. "I'm not saying that you have to step into a serious relationship, but you were happy with him. It was cute." Niah smiled at the memory of them. "What I am saying is you should give him a chance."

Bonnie kept her arms around Niah, not minding sharing a long hug with her if it was what she needed. "Okay, I'll make a deal with you," she offered. "I'll give Flynn a chance, but Niah... Promise me you'll go and talk to someone, okay? Don't make the same mistake I did and think you can tough it out. SHIELD has some great therapists in house you can talk to - or even get a referral to one off base if you'd prefer."

Niah tightened her hug and then released stepping back but keeping her hands on Bonnie's shoulders. She gave her friend the best smile she could muster. "I promise. Honestly, I've been thinking of taking a sabbatical or something." She dropped her hands to her sides. "Thank you, for talking and giving yourself a chance for happiness."

She nodded. "You should - give yourself a chance to go see the world and rest. You saved every living creature on this planet... I think you've more than earned a break," she confessed, giving Niah a smile. "... I'm not really sure how to approach Flynn, but I will talk to him," she promised.

"Yeah. I don't necessarily feel that, but I understand. I'll see you around okay. Good luck." Niah left the lab and went back to where she had left Flynn. "She'll give you a chance. Don't fuck it up." A glint of anger flashed in her eye at Flynn before she turned and went to her room.

"So nice to me Niah," he muttered after her with a bit of an eye roll. He wasn't entirely sure what he was going to say to Bonnie, as what happened in the Ultron timeline wasn't exactly the best of circumstances.

In the lab, Goose had wandered in, having heard what Niah was saying to Bonnie, "Mrow?" he said to Bonnie, before a tentacle shot out of his mouth and grabbed Bonnie by the arm, starting to drag her towards the door.

Bonnie had been deep in thought and she jumped slightly as Goose wrapped a tentacle around her arm. "Goose, stop it," she said sternly. She knew the cat likely could kill her if he tried to, but she still was going to try to teach him some manners at the very least. "If you want me to go somewhere, let go of me and I will follow you - otherwise I'm going to watch Perks of Being a Wallflower and eat chocolates."

"Mrow!" Goose said, letting her go and heading out the door, and turning to look at her expectantly. Flynn was still trying to figure out what the hell he was going to even say to Bonnie, and he started making his way towards the lab now. He was really hoping he didn't make a fool of himself, but knowing his luck he probably was going to.

Sure, it might have been a bit silly to keep a promise to a cat, but Bonnie followed after Goose just as she said she would. She didn't really know what she wanted, but just about anyone who had been around the base for a while knew that Goose was far more intelligent than an ordinary household pet. "If you're bringing me to a dead mouse you found, I'm not going to be impressed..."

Bonnie wouldn't have to worry about being led to a dead mouse. Instead, Goose raced ahead and ran straight up to Flynn who was in the hallway, the cat was rubbing up against Flynn and purring rather loudly. "...Goose you do remember I'm more of a dog person right?" Flynn said with a slight laugh, before he scratched Goose behind the ears, before standing straight up and seeing Bonnie there. "Oh. hey there Bonnie." Goose was staring at her expectantly at this point.

She turned slightly pink, seeing Flynn standing there. Niah's words echoed back in her mind - that she thought Flynn had loved her in that other timeline. A bit of panic crept up in her back of her mind and for a split second, she considered turning around and running back to the lab as fast as she could... but she had given Niah her word and if she kept promises to a cat, she had to do the same with her friends. "Hey... How are you feeling?" she asked him, referring to the extra memories in his head.

"Oh, well, uh, I'm fine thanks, how are you doing? Aside from chasing after a cat..."

"...Niah, she uh, she told me that you were in love with me."

"She did what now? he said looking at her. He had not expected Niah to be so blunt about anything like that, so he wasn't too sure what to say to Bonnie regarding it. "Oh..."

Bonnie nodded, feeling a little bit awkward. "I'm sorry for your loss... She also told me what happened to the version of me from that timeline."

"...Well, that timeline doesn't exist anymore... So it never happened..."

"Just because something didn't happen doesn't mean the pain goes away," she told him softly. "I can't pretend to be in love with you... A-and I don't know if I'm really ready for something intense, I haven't exactly been dating at all since my husband passed away but... I like Disney and if you want, we could watch Hercules or something and share a drink?"

"It's fine Bonnie, honestly... And sure, that sounds like fun," he said, giving her a smile. Goose meanwhile felt like these two were taking too long, so went around behind Bonnie. The tentacles flew out of his mouth pushing her so she ended up running into Flynn. "Damn it Goose really?" Flynn said with a slight eye roll, catching Bonnie slightly and he looked at her. "You alright Bonnie?"

"Yeah, I'm fine.... Goose is just playing rough," Bonnie said, trying not to blush too terribly. She hadn't expected Goose to apparently be a lover of romantic comedies - maybe Niah had somehow recruited him for this cause? There did seem to be a special connection of sorts between those two that was worth looking in to...

"Clearly..." he said with a slight laugh, before he let her go, so he wasn't holding her anymore. "Sometimes that cat does the weirdest things."

Bonnie took a step back, increasing the distance between them. "...Well, I'm going to run on over to the lab, I have a lot of reading to catch up on," she told him, feeling a little bit flustered too. She couldn't quite get the sensation of his muscular arms on her out of her head.

"Okay..." Flynn said simply with a shrug. However, Goose was not having any of this, and the tentacles shot out of his mouth once more shoving Bonnie back into Flynn.

"Mrow." he said to them, and with his tone of voice it sounded like he was almost scolding them.

"Goose, stop it NOW." There was no doubt about it - Bonnie was scolding Goose. She had her limits and her boundaries and just having this conversation with Flynn had been emotionally exhausting. She wasn't ready for this sort of thing, even if the cat seemed to have it in his head that she was.

"MEOW!" Goose complained to her, clearly not too thrilled about being scolded. The tentacles in his mouth flailed about for a moment as he hissed at her. "Mrow hissssss!"

"That is clearly not a happy cat..."

Bonnie didn't have the patience for this. "No," she told Goose firmly again. "You're not going to be able to bully me into playing out this fantasy of yours."

"Mroooooooooooow," the cat whined, quite loudly, before he took off running, clearly more then a bit annoyed with Bonnie, he probably went to go complain to someone else.

"Well that was a bit... Awkward..."

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Niah had promises to keep. One of them was particularly unsavory. She had pulled Dr. Doom's file and spent some time with it. That hadn't made her want to keep her promise any more than before. He wouldn't remember, but he was smart. Very smart. With a sigh, she called Susan Storm. She would need her help. "Susan, it is Niah. I need your help keeping that promise.

"I know Niah, I honestly would rather not have to, but I gave him my word, and I plan to see it through, I'm not too sure how we'll be able to get him to be released, but at the very least we have to try. Though if I remember correctly that was the only thing that we promised really, that we would try to get him released."

"Yeah I was careful about that and only promised to try. I could not guarantee I'd succeed. I have a meeting with Thaddeus Ross set up on the Raft. Meet me there?" Niah asked and gave the time and date she and Ross had agreed upon.

"Alright Niah, but I should warn you, Ross isn't exactly one you want to mess with, he never has been, so we'll have to proceed carefully when it comes to trying to get Doom out of that prison."

"Good to know. I've never met him before. Is there something specific I should be warned about?"

"Thaddeus Ross is if I remember hearing correctly was one of those who were constantly hunting down Bruce Banner in order to bring him in. He was there at the base when Banner's Gamma Bomb went off that resulted in the creation of the Hulk. Still don't think he's too thrilled Banner is considered a hero now honestly..."

"Good to know. Okay. I might have a plan. I told Doom that if he broke any rules I'd hunt him down and bring him back myself. I doubt Ross will trust me with that though." Niah sighed. She had no idea if this would work. "But I think if I suggest a reform program like a halfway house type situation for Doom, maybe Ross will accept."

"Alright Niah, if you are sure about this, I'll meet you at the Raft then."

"Oh I'm not sure, but I'll follow through on my promise. See you." Niah hung up and took a deep breath. Things were so weird but she had to keep going. She gathered her things and made preparations. And then made her way to the Raft.

At the Raft, Thunderbolt Ross was expecting them. He seemed to have a permanent frown on his face as he took in the visitors from the Fantastic Four and S.H.I.E.L.D., his arms crossed in front of him despite the military regalia that he wore. "Dr. Bautista... Dr. Storm... Whatever it is you're asking for, the answer is going to be no."

"Pleasant as always Ross," Sue said to him, shaking her head. "You don't even give us a chance to speak before you give out an answer."

Niah frowned as Ross flat out told them no before even letting them speak. As tempted as she was to just let it stay at that. But she hadn't tried yet. Not really. "Pleasure to meet you too. I would appreciate at least a few minutes of your time still. I have an idea I want to run by you."

Ross looked at his watch for a moment. "You have exactly sixty seconds. Go."

Sue glanced over at Niah, this was her idea, and she wasn't too sure how Niah expected to try and convince Ross of all people to let Doom free. Most people would laugh at the idea, and even just thinking about it, her mind was telling her how ridiculous it was.

Niah nodded, "I made a promise to try. And my idea is offering a rehabilitation program in something akin to a halfway house for Doom. I would bring him in if he steps out of line. And he would be required to check in like probation and promise to not do anything illegal or power grabbing. If he breaks any of those then he would be brought back here immediately." Of course there were some major flaws in the plan, like if Doom decided to just leave. He would not be easy to bring back in. This was much as Niah would push the issue though. This was her trying.

Ross couldn't help but laugh. "....You're actually serious? Listen, doctor, the Raft is a cage for monsters - and I'm not about to let a monster like Doom loose on the world. My answer is no and that's that. Do you really think we can just let him out because our feelings say that we have to believe in hope?"

"As the person in the room who really knows Doom unlike either one of you, I can say it is possible, whether you believe it or not Ross. He's not stupid, he knows that the best thing for him would to not try anything like you are suggesting," Sue said, keeping out the slight part about how at first he'd behave, then he'd try something.

"I'm not here cause of hope or a hunch. I'm here to give him a chance to prove he can be better. That's all anyone can do. Be a little better each day. I agree he has done monstrous things, but what if he turns that intelligence of his to a good cause instead? That could be part of the program. Give him something to occupy his mind and hands and he can do good. Currently he can't even orfer that."

Ross shook his head again. "I don't care what Doom has to offer to the fucking world - how many of you heroes boast super intelligence anyways? Why do we need Doom when we have freaking Mr. Fantastic and Tony Stark around?"

Sue fell silent at that, not really too sure what else to say to Ross about anything. She looked over at Niah, wondering if she might have some other card up her sleeve that could be useful in convincing Ross to release Doom.

"Because they think like heros. Doom knows how a villain thinks. If you can get him working for us he can do more to stop a villain before they take over the world and kill millions then someone who only reacts." That was her last point that she had had planned. Anything more and she would have to hope she could come up with a good response.

"...Isn't that the premise of some dumb movie... Suicide Group or something?" Ross mused, stroking his mustache slightly as he considered what Niah had to say, before he shook his head. "No, I don't know what he promised you but Doom can do no good. The minute you loosen your grip on him, he slips through your fingers like water."

"He has done some good in the past, but then again, you've always been like that right? Once a villain always a villain, doesn't matter who they were before, or what they've done before, all that matters is the mistakes that they've made."

Niah wanted to snap at Ross as she deflated. Thankfully Sue dug in for her. She took a short breath. "Thank you for your time. I hope we don't someday learn Doom could have saved us from something but you prevented that. Of course we will ignore the fact that we are only having this conversation because of his help with time travel." She had done as she had promised and had tried but Ross was unyielding.

"I hope you two have enjoyed your visit to the Raft - don't make this a repeat thing," Ross requested.

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While most businesses allow their employees to enjoy Christmas Day with their families, S.H.I.E.L.D. does not have such luxury. Essential staff has been asked to stay during the holidays and there is no team more essential than the Secret Warriors. In the ongoing struggle against HYDRA, they have been a terrific sword - and with world ending apocalyptic threats, they had been the finest shield that the agency could ask for. And as a thanks for them sacrificing spending a holiday with their loved ones, the Director of S.H.I.E.L.D., Maria Hill, quietly slipped some funds to the Secret Warriors' leader, Tinley Abercrombie, in order to let them celebrate Christmas at the base.

It was a chilly San Fransisco night and the common room was decorated as a winter wonderland. Everyone was encouraged to dress up slightly for the party - there was even going to be a Secret Santa gift exchange. For one of the agents, Oliver, it was his third official day as a member of the team - and with groups like these, fitting in and becoming a member is easier said than done...

And oh, one more little thing... In one corner of this room is the beautiful Christmas tree, where everyone can put their gifts beneath. "Santa" Raynor will then distribute them to their receipients during the party and the lucky soul can guess who their Secret Santa was! And in another corner there happens to be a thick strand of mistletoe...

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Bonnie was Skyping with her parents in her room at the moment, wearing a scarlet A-line dress and a soft white cardigan. "Non, Papa, il est très sympas," she reassured her father. While she didn't speak French much around the team, she usually did with her Québecois father - though with her American mother she stuck with English. "Et bien... Je ne sais pas - il n'est pas catholique comme nous." She was twirling her hair slightly, feeling a bit nervous and excited. It was the first party she was going to Flynn with as a couple.

"Remember to watch your drink, sweetheart, especially in today's society," her mother cautioned.

Bonnie rolled her eyes. "Maman, I will, I will - but it's not like any of my teammates would be dumb enough to try to drug me... You know me, I'd poison them and get away with it as revenge."

"Do you have protection with you?" her mother then asked and Bonnie's cheeks turned bright red.

"I love you guys, have a good Christmas Eve, I'm going to go before I die of embarrassment," Bonnie said, blowing kisses to her parents before ending the call. In some ways, it was fortunate that they no longer lived near enough that they could easily visit - she hardly wanted to have to endure her parents meeting Flynn in person. And besides, things were even still a little bit weird. They didn't just have the missing year or so that Flynn remembered and she didn't from the Age of Ultron, Wanda Maximoff had also temporarily warped reality to make mutants the dominant species on the planet... yet another alternate timeline that Bonnie had no recollection of but Flynn recalled perfectly.

She slipped on her flats and grabbed her purse, as well as the present she had prepared for her Secret Santa. She didn't have a Christmas gift for Flynn, as she had given him Hanukkah presents instead.

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A serious of unfortunate events had caused the Asgardian Raynor, God of Lies and Light, to be forced to wear a Santa costume. Despite living on Earth for a few decades, Raynor had come to the conclusion that being forced to be Santa was a form of public shaming. He had to wear this awful cherry red suit with a fake beard that would make Odin weep with despair, as well as stuff his shirt with a pillow in order to give him a large belly. Yule had begun two days ago and would last until the second day of January.

One of the customs of celebrating Yule included sacrificing a boar - it had been a bit awkward when Sparky walked in on him completing the sacrifice to Freyr, covered in the animal's blood. Of course, the rest of the agents on base would benefit from it - sitting in the common room at the food table was the roasted and seasoned boar, ready to be consumed.

He had already carved a Yule Log and he had discretely placed it against the wall in the common room, the runic symbols a warding against evil. Of course, there was something about the Christmas traditions that clashed with him - the damn mistletoe in the corner of the room. Raynor was hardly the most open person in the world, so naturally none of his fellow agents knew that mistletoe had been the cause of his father Baldur's death in his home reality.

Sitting on a couch in the common room, Raynor was on his third bottle of rum. He couldn't feel the alcohol just yet, but hopefully he would soon enough.

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The Christmas Party was due to start a five o'clock and still, Novikova couldn't help but dread it. She had been fired from S.H.I.E.L.D. and while she loved her career at Pym Tech, she couldn't help but be bitter about the circumstances regarding her dismissal. Yes, her actions had been illegal but she had saved people - and Niah had fixed the Age of Ultron mess anyways, so overall there had been no harm done, right? No one had threatened to quit if she wasn't reinstated... they had just moved on with their lives.

"We could leave, there's probably some rad parties at mutant friendly clubs going on," Novikova suggested to Maria, standing outside of the Hub. Even though it wasn't snowing (and likely would not snow in San Fransisco unless the world was ending), she could still feel the winter chill. She had earmuffs on, a habit she adopted in the winter as her ears always quickly were cold, and in her hand she had a bag containing several bottles of vodka, as well as the gift for her Secret Santa. "Besides, I sneaked a few inhibitors from work, so we could always see about finally playing Naked Twister properly..." she added with a slight smirk.

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Sparky couldn't stop herself from giggling slightly at Raynor dressing up in the Santa costume. She knew that he didn't appreciate the costume one bit, but there wasn't anything he could do about it. After all, she had more or less been the one who "volunteered" him for the job, something she was also partially going to tease him relentlessly for. Though she was a good sport about things, and she decided that in order for him not to really be alone in a costume, she was going to wear a costume too. That didn't mean that she still wasn't going to tease him relentlessly about the Santa outfit, but it meant she was at least trying a little bit to make him feel better about it.

Problem was, most Christmas costumes of any sort for women tended to not exactly be the best thing in the world to wear, and most of them she wouldn't be caught dead in. Eventually, she did find one outfit that she could survive wearing, and went to the common room area in the Hub, and instantly walked over to Raynor, seeing that he was sitting on a couch drinking. She went over and sat down next to him, before grabbing the bottle of rum that was in his hand. "Seriously Ray? Stop drinking, how much have you had already?" she asked him, shaking her head slightly.

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Flynn wasn't someone who actually celebrated Christmas, his family tended to celebrate Hanukkah instead, so he wasn't in too much of a hurry to head down to the common area. However, he has another reason so far as to why he wasn't in too much of a hurry to join the others, and that was at the moment he has had a lot on his mind. Namely the alternate reality that Wanda Maximoff created, combined with the words that Vision had said back with everything that had happened in getting people out of the Quantum Realm. Namely, it involved who his family actually was. He hadn't really talked too much to anyone about it, but one thing that he was working on was trying to figure out why his life was the way it had been in that alternate reality.

How come he was a part of Magneto's family in that world.

It didn't make any sense to him, not really anyway, as to why it was that he seemed related to Magneto there. This wasn't something he was too keen on discussing with anyone else, considering the fact that Magneto was not exactly someone people would want to really know. He was sitting at a desk, looking through stuff on his laptop, before he glanced over at the clock and saw what time it was. Letting out a sigh, he shut the computer, and headed out of the room, making his way down to where Bonnie's room was, before he knocked on the door. "Bonnie? You in there and ready to go to the party?" he asked her.

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While the hustle and bustle of the holidays, complete with music, decorations, deals, and more, made other people holly and jolly, it left Tinley ill at ease. It wasn't as if she hated the holidays. Far from it. Some of her best memories were with her family during this time of the year. It wasn't that Christmas overshadowed all else, even Holloween and Thanksgiving (for Americans). It wasn't because Christmas music blared everywhere.

It was because her mother died on Christmas Eve.

Since then, the holidays were always a sore spot. Little by little Christmas cheer was chipped away. Soon, her father would just send her a card with a check rather than the annual invitation to the family Christmas party. Her brother would text her his greetings, but he was busy with his own family and his own children. And SHIELD didn't regularly make time for such festivities. They had a world to constantly save.

However, this time was different. With the transition to San Fransisco, along with her new promotion, things were not set in stone just yet, which allowed for more freedom. Funds were offered for her to plan a party, and a party she planned. She kept it holiday-themed (recognizing some among them did not celebrate Christmas). However, she saw that the Secret Santa was still set. She had purchased hers already, had it wrapped professionally, and it was set off to the side. She had no other gifts to buy really, apart from her father and brother. This time of the year also stood to remind her she didn't have much of social life. While normally she didn't mind not having someone to come home to, it was during this time of the year it struck a little harder than she had no one to worry about her. She kept it on the down-low, but she had recent;y been checking on potentially adopting. Once she found more time, of course.

With the room decorated, food laid out, drinks set up (along with a bartender to serve). She went out and bought a party dress for the occasion. And now she stood, waiting for people to arrive. "You'll get through this Tinley. It's one day," she whispered to herself.

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Tempest awoke the day of the party full of holiday cheer. She checked on her brother first, but once that was done she immediately got to work. While she looked like the type to enjoy Halloween (and she did), Christmas was her favorite holiday. She had dyed her hair red the night before in preparation. Gifts were bought quickly. She didn't know what to get her secret Santa originally, but she had more or less hacked them to find out what they liked. She had also done her hacking to send everyone a holiday greeting through their email. She'd repent later. She was sure she was still on the Nice list.

She put on her Christmas dress and checked herself out in the mirror before she headed to the party. She stopped herself from literally skipping to the room, but she was so happy to be spending the holidays with people she enjoyed being around. Plus, considering she had died in an alternate timeline, now was an even better time to celebrate.

She walked into the room and saw Tinley there. "Felix Navidad! You look great! Where do I put the gifts?" She said just as she saw the tree and went over to add her gifts to the pile.

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Cassandra sat on her bed for a moment she read through some of her emails from her parents and her sister Carolina as well, sending them all replies as well along with some money to. She had talked to her sister earlier in the day as well to wish her a merry Christmas as well. Since the whole reality change her sister had been down as well, and Cassandra had been helping and talking to her whenever she had the chance to. She stopped and read through the Christmas email that Tempest had sent which made her smile slightly, before getting up and opened up her closet finding a blue dress, Cass also grabbed her Secret Santa gift as well.

She then left her room as soon as she finished changing, and made her way down the hallway towards the common area, spotting Tinley, and Tempest there. "How are you two doing?" Cassandra asked as she gave the two of them a hug, seeing Tempest had dyed her hair red as well for the holiday which was pretty fitting as well. Over by the Christmas tree that was set up Cassandra spotted Raynor in a Santa Claus outfit which started to make her laugh a bit it was kind of funny seeing him wearing it.

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Maria closed the door to her car and made sure it was locked as well, looking up at the Hub building for a moment standing next to Novikova, she knew that Novi didn't really want to be back here after being fired. She reached over with a gloved hand and smiled towards her with the bag for her Secret Santa in the other. Maria didn't mind going out to some clubs afterwards at all if there were any mutant friendly bars in the area anyway as well. "Just an hour and we can leave and hit some clubs sound good?" Maria said, and then smirked even more at her suggestion and looked at the building for a moment.

"We could always sneak off during the party to, and find somewhere more private if you'd prefer like the good old days at the academy?" Maria whispered back giving her a little wink. Back to when they used to just have a fling every now and then in between classes when all the other SHIELD academies had a class together. Maria adjusted her red dress over her jacket feeling a bit chilly. "At least Cass hasn't made it snow yet."

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Harry had left his room wearing a simple black suit, and white dress shirt he didn't really have anything else going on and the party was a good idea to have some fun. He had his present wrapped for his secret santa in hand as well, and started to make his way down the hallway and then stopped seeing Flynn standing just outside of Bonnie's room and knocking on her door. He was happy for her to finally move on after James. Harry gave Flynn a slight nod before making his way down towards the Common Room, eventually finding mostly everyone was there now except for some people.

Harry looked around seeing the nice boar that was prepped which made him a little bit hungry as well, looking over her noticed Raynor in his Santa outfit which made him smirk slightly. At least it wasn't him this time around, he did it for some family several years ago and it wasn't really that fun for him. "Hows the beard going itchy yet?" Harry asked Raynor still smirking a little bit.

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Niah had a desk job now. A safe away from guns job. It was nice. It was comfortable. But it wasn't her team, not yet. She could have gone back to the Philippines for the break. She was no longer an essential employee since she just worked in a lab that got involved after everything settled. But Niah couldn't go to the place her parents lived. It wasn't home. Not for her. They still lived in the small house she had spent her first ten years in, and there were supposedly plenty of memories between ten and now. Niah just didn't know any of them. She also didn't know how to deal with her sister's disappearance. Her parents still hadn't said anything to her about the letter, thankfully. There was no way they didn't know it was her by now. Were they mad at her? She would have been mad at her so she couldn't blame them. As far as they knew she had convinced them to stay in the Phillippines and lose out on the American dream and their eldest was missing because of that.

All of that led to Niah agreeing to stay at the Hub in her lab and blessedly Tinley had invited her to the holiday party. It gave her something to look forward to, and Niah loved Christmas. She loved the decorations and the love and joy that came with Christmas. Niah had spent some time deciding a gift for her Secret Santa recipient and of course some treats for Goose. She had an odd relationship with the "cat".

Niah dressed in a red top and black slacks. She didn't have much in the way of dress shoes, but she found a pair of simple black flats that were comfortable but looked nice. She had cut her hair, something her therapist said was sometimes necessary when someone had been through something traumatic. It was weird to have her hair at shoulder length, and she honestly couldn't wait for it to grow out.

With three packages in hand, one a heavy square, one a bag full to brim with tissue paper, and the last a cardboard tube wrapped like a tootsie roll, Niah made her way to the Secret Warriors section of the Hub. She pushed the memories of the place from the 80's out of her mind, trying not to get lost in those memories. When she arrived she headed for the common area. Smiling, genuinely, at the group gathered there.

"It is a pleasure to see you all." She greeted them, and placed two of the three gifts she carried under the tree. She kept the bag. "I love your hair, Tempest."

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Matthew felt a little out of his element as he put on a nice suit jacket. It wasn't the suit, he enjoyed those. It was instead spending the holidays with people he only just met. He had been asked to get a gift for someone he barely knew. He supposed it was fair and at least he knew the group better than Agent Sulivan, though not as well as Agent Carter since he had done some time traveling with the group. He was going to meet a few of the people who had left the team, which he was intrigued about. Especially Dr. Bautista. She had figured out time travel and changed the course of history. He shook his head and grabbed the, not that well wrapped, gift he had. It was, in his opinion, much too obvious what was actually in the paper.

Down in the common room, people were starting to gather, just as he entered so did who he could only assume was Dr. Bautista, but she was distracted by speaking with Renroir. The room smelled amazing. Of pig...boar? That was unusual. He placed his gift under the tree and got a drink. It helped him feel less awkward as it was something to hold. "You quite outdid yourself here Abercrombie." He said taking a look at the decorations and food.

On his third official day, things were coming along nicely for Oliver, kind of. He'd finally started to get settled into his room for one, being mostly unpacked at last. This process had been significantly slowed down by the fact that he'd been tasked with a seemingly insurmountable job as one of his first assignments: getting a secret Santa gift for somebody he knew almost nothing about. Thankfully, through his endless amounts of determination and attention to detail, he'd come up with the perfect gift for his new coworker, which was sitting on his desk, wrapped, and ready to go. Everything seemed to be just right for Christmas time; Oliver was even wearing a classic ugly Christmas sweater to make everything perfect.

Plucking it from where it laid, Oliver tucked it beneath his arm, ready to place it under the tree. He'd yet to get to know the others living here, something that he was sure would be fixed soon enough. It was Christmas, after all, and even he had to take a break from working once in a while. Stepping out of his quarters, and walking to the common room, he'd decided now was the time to place his gift under the tree. What he was not prepared for, was Raynor being there in a Santa Claus outfit. Breaking out into a smile, he let out a mirthful laugh, before setting it under the Christmas tree. Waving to the others in the room, he felt a bit awkward, unsure of quite what to say. Finally settling on the rather obvious default, he merely said, "Well, I can see the Christmas spirit truly is here," lightly nodding his head toward Raynor Claus.