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Captain America's large motorcycle rumbles onto the campus where Alex works. After some recent events, Steve has decided to move on the Avengers Initiative. Fury felt strongly he wanted these two mutants in the fold, and Steve frankly agreed after looking at each of their dossiers. Once he got a tip that they were together, he decided to bring Drew along on the back of the motorcycle to make them his pitch.
He shuts the key off and knocks down the kickstand. "Nice looking school," Steve mutters over his shoulder towards Jess. He only passed the 8th grade, which was pretty normal back then.
*
Jess didn't even go to school. Tutoring from scientist parents, then from HYDRA goons. There are probably some disturbing holes in her knowledge. But she kicks back off the motorcycle, the tight leather pants she's wearing drawing more than a few looks from the locals. "If you say so," she replies to the Captain, head tipping back as she looks around the place. "So what's the plan? We just…going in and telling them it's an option?" She does pause though, giving him a look. "Hey, you cleared my participation in this with the Director, right?"
*
For the moment, Alex finds himself in the Commons of the Physics Department, going over some research notes for his dissertation, the Great Dark that looms in the future that he's not yet even vaguely aware of. If only he had something else to occupy his time that was perhaps less frightening and dangerous as facing off a dissertation board and defending his research.
If only. As is his habit of late, ever since someone-someone showed up and set off the alarm bells, he finds himself dressed all dapper like. Slacks and a gray-black turtle neck. Its really not the weather for turtle necks, but he doesn't mind the heat at all— there's not a hint of sweat— but more importantly a turtleneck covers his action suit pretty well. He's just finishing up some notes, showing that he has at least one terrible habit— chewing on his pencil as he thinks— even as he reaches over to grab his soda pop and lift it to take a swig.
*
Bobby is sitting in one of the chairs, angled so he can stretch his legs out in front of him, crossed at the ankles. "I can't understand a word in this." he complains, turning the magazine so Alex can see the cover of the newest Scientific American. "Can't scientists speak in English? You'd think an article titled 'How Slime Molds Communicate' would be easy to understand. It's not like they have a language."
"It's probably fine," Steve says with a wave of his hand and a wink towards Jess. He holds the door open for her when they get to the building in question. "I figure being blunt is the best way. Most people don't like idle chit-chat. Those that do make it bad for the rest of us." Steve removes his sunglasses and clips them to his white t-shirt's collar as he walks the long corridors. Not long later, as they are strolling through the commons, Steve spots the young men they're looking for. "Over there."
*
"So, that's a no. Great. That's going to be a great conversation," Jess says glumly, though she puts on a straight face when Steve indicates the pair. "Oh good, outside. Should limit the property damage if they panic." She smirks, tucking one hand into her back pocket as she follows half a step behind the Captain. "I was working when you know who came back from the last meeting. Sounded like it didn't go so well for our people. Good thing you're so personable," she grins, clapping a hand to his shoulder.
*
"Aaactually, no, they can't exactly speak in English, not always, because most the science words are either in greek or latin. Especially in the biological sciences. That said, technically, most of those words probably are english." Alex grins at Bobby, "They just use the… superset English, which takes the common words you use and adds all the scientific terms, and each different field has its own set of terms. I bet I'd only understand half of that article myself, since my background is entirely in physics and math, except for that one class I took as an undergrad." Alex notices someone seems to notice him, and he arches a brow a little, looking up at Steve and Jess as they approach. He sits up a bit, shuffling his papers into an orderly pile, and though he has no idea who they are, he sees that look of: found who we're looking for. That means someone's going to wanna talk. Maybe its a new fellow he isn't aware of.
*
Bobby closes the magazine and tosses it down on the table. "Next time I'll just bring a copy of Hot Rod instead of expecting I'd find something to read here." Seeing Alex is suddenly looking past him, Bobby half turns to see what's up. Or in this case who. "Army recruiter?" Cause Steve just has that look even in civvies.
*
"Stick close to me kid, and it'll be alright," Steve says about the rest of SHIELD knowing she's here. Captain America gets away with a lot. Being frozen for 23 years and having the reputation of always trying to do the right thing for the right reasons gets you a lot of rope. "Sounds like the suits muddied up the issue to me," he adds.
"Mr. Summers. Bobby." Steve nods. "This is my associate, Ms. Drew. My name is Steve Rogers and I work for SHIELD. I wanted to talk to you both about that meeting a few weeks ago, if now is a good time."
*
"Kid?" Jess echoes with a smirk, rolling her eyes and raising a hand to Bobby and Alex when Steve introduces her. Steve may look like an Army recruiter, but she certainly doesn't. Leather pants, leather jacket open over a tank top. And absolutely nothing regulation about her. She doesn't even look like an agent. Bond girl, maybe. "Hey," she greets simply, letting Steve steer.
*
Alex's expression turns a little guarded at that, but only a little bit. He glances around, eyes Bobby for a long moment, and rises, gathering up his stuff and makes a 'follow me' gesture, heading to a door to the side of the Commons. Soon enough he's stepping off into one of the smaller classrooms, used for graduate studies where classes might have only a dozen people (if that) counting the teacher, so its largely a a conference room with a bunch of chairs around a table. That and bookshelves full of books. Once everyone's inside, he shuts the door and leans on it a moment, "Any relation to the Captain America Rogers?" Since that guy totally died decades ago, right? Alex is sure that's how that story went. "I wasn't sure if there'd be a follow-up meeting… or some kind of follow-up confrontation. I can't say that… meeting… went splendidly." His expression, at least, looks somewhat apologetic. Somewhat.
*
Steve Rogers? Why does that name sound famil… Captain America? Bobby sits up in the chair and leans forward to look more closely at Steve. "Alex, didn't you see the news? They found him frozen in an iceberg or something and defrosted him. If this is him, it really /is/ Captain America."
*
Steve chuckles at Jess' comment. "Could call you something else, if you'd prefer."
Steve nods to Alex, "Yeah, that's me. Long and short of is I crashed a plane into an iceberg and the serum they gave me to turn me into Captain America kept me alive." Steve nods when Bobby explains.
"Look, guys. I know you're busy. I'll get right to the point. I don't care what a bunch of suits have to say back and forth. I'm putting together a team, and I think you'd both be great for it. Whatever your needs are, I'm willing to meet them. Within reason, of course. But that's what I'm putting out there."
*
When the group moves into the classroom, Jess takes up a spot by the door, casually leaning against the wall by the light switch with her arms crossed over her chest. "From what I heard, that meeting went abysmally on all sides," she chimes in with a small smirk. "But points for not just folding, I guess."
*
This… is a different approach. Alex blinks in some surprise, casting a long look at Bobby before he looks back to Steve, "Our only real need is the safety and security of the Sanctuary. That you don't go trying to find out where it is or who is in it, and that while we would be happy to make such an offer to anyone there, if anyone doesn't want to come forward… they get to live in peace. Left alone. Safe. True or not, the mutant community at the Sanctuary believes that only through secrecy can we hope to live our lives in peace and without suffering prejudice, if not outright hostility and violence."
Alex frowns a bit, "The Mutant Town enclave is not something we look very kindly upon: we're, frankly, expecting barbed wire fences to go up any day now. We won't let the Sanctuary turn into a second Mutant Town. That, and I'm not trying to be overly dramatic here, but we will not be this generations Jews and end up on lists to be dealt with and checked off one at a time. Lists are the first step along a road that we are actively trying not to go down."
He looks between Jess and Steve, then a long look at Bobby before focusing on Steve again, "Can you respect that?"
*
"So you're with SHIELD. Huh." Bobby perches on the corner of the desk. "And I don't know. I think it went kind of well, actually. The P… Mediator was able to determine that they were mostly sincere but also proved that they weren't the only ones who could use leverage. "So what do you mean by team? I thought they wanted us to be spies or something. What exactly do you want us for?"
*
"Well, all that stuff about the sanctuary is really none of my business. Seems fair to me. And for the record, I agree with you one hundred percent.""As far as a team, I'm looking for people who want to defend our people from evils all across the world. To be out there front and center."
*
"Wow. You guys have watched too many James Bond movies." Jess snorts softly, shaking her head. "Look, I used to work for people who worked with the Nazis. This?" She points a thumb back toward Steve. "This ain't them. I get it if you're afraid. That's normal. That's smart. But you can't read the situation if you're letting your fears decide what you expect to see. Nobody on Captain America's team is going to be setting up concentration camps. Especially not when most of us would end up in them."
*
Alex turns a long look at Bobby, seeming taken back: this is going quite a bit differently then the previous meeting went. "Well." He pauses, thoughtfully, but he eyes Jess a moment, "Our concern is not aimed at… Captain America's team, per se, but the government in general. And one way or the other, SHIELD is government: so there's only so far we'd be willing to trust you with things like names, powers, weaknesses. Because eventually, government leaks from one agency to another, and SHIELD might be the good guys, but I don't know about the CIA or military intelligence. That said." He makes a dismissive gesture, "If you're content to not pry into Sanctuary and allow us to come to you with volunteers, then.. I'd volunteer, speaking only for myself. On a trial basis. No one knows yet why some children end up mutants and some end up human, but I for one consider my power a gift, and since my power is useful only to fight, that means I have to find the right fights to give it meaning."
*
"Tell that to the Japanese when they were rounded up and put into camps." Bobby tells Jess. "By Captain America's team." That being the good old USA. "And I'm curious about who 'our people' are." he says to Steve. "Americans? White? Human? Heterosexual? We need a definition of terms so we know just what it is we'll be defending. And conversely, who we'll be defending them against."
*
Steve says, "I have no interest in furthering anyone's desire to harm you or your family," Steve responds to Alex with a shrug. To Bobby, he adds, "In fairness, I was out of the country at that time. I didn't know that was happening." He shrugs, "All different kinds of people."
*
"Oooh, no wonder they were so pissed," Jess chuckles as she looks between Bobby and Alex. "Seriously, you two are a trip. You've figured out enough of this spy stuff to do a decent job at disappearing if anyone causes you trouble. And that's assuming that you couldn't just put it off with a brute force return attack. Which, if you're a community full of mutants, you could. This? You get inside. You find out what SHIELD knows, what it doesn't know. You control the information that gets out, which means you shape it. You track what's there. And you're in a better place to defend yourself than you are by staying on the outside. Sure, it could put you personally in danger. But you guys want to be heroes, right? So worst case scenario is, you put your lives on the line to give the rest of your people a better chance to live. Not the worst way to go out, is it?"
*
"And you get to be the mutants out in front as heroes. For once not looked at as villains by bigots and people who want to sell newspapers," adds Steve.
*
"What's with this spy stuff you keep mentioning, Miss… Drew, is it?" Alex shakes his head, bewildered, "Remember, I'm the one person you shouldn't be talking to about that. I'm the one guy whose name you have. I can't simply disappear without throwing away my life. Years of hard work I've put into my masters, and now my doctorate: I have a life here, a life that matters to me. Alex Summers isn't an alias, its not a spy's persona: Alex Summers is my life. Havok is the secret identity you weren't supposed to know, my mutant identity, that I thuoght I had kept entirely isolated from my human life. Then a suit shows up here and gets be my name: I've failed the spy thing entirely, Miss Drew. Entirely." He wrinkles his nose and squints at Jess then, "Yeah. If push comes to shove the community of mutants could act to defend ourselves, but what we do not want above all else is to start a war between humans and mutants. We want to avoid that at all costs." He lifts a hand up to rub at his face a bit, "Guys, careful you don't go from me saying I'd volunteer, personally, on a trial basis, to turning into a hard-sell and making me want to reconsider. Take a breath and pause a moment. I have no fear of my personal safety: I'm not invincible but I'm well trained and dangerous. My fears are entirely about the children of the Sanctuary. But we've already established you won't pry. So, that's okay. And I already said: personally, I'll volunteer. Provisionally. Bobby has some more questions, but don't over-sell. For me, between you having negros and Captain America, I'm fairly satisfied with the idea that 'protect the people' will be pretty broadly applied."
*
Bobby nods his agreement with what Alex says. "Yeah, if 'our people' means everyone who just wants to live and let live, I can get behind that. And the proof will be in the actual missions. If they're always about putting down some brown or black people who the government has decided is a threat to the American Way, it'll be obvious pretty quickly." He looks over at Alex a moment before turning back to Steve. "Yeah, I'll give it a shot if Captain America vouches for them. My dad talked about you. You saved his ass once during the war."
*
"Glad I could help," Steve says to Bobby with a chuckle. He holds his hands up towards Alex, "Alright-Alright-Alright, we got it." Then to Jessica, "We'd better get going before we talk him out of it. Listen, guys, we'll contact you once we get our headquarters and team established. If you have any questions or need any help with anything, I have a card." He hands each of them a simple card that says "Rogers - 555-1872."
*
"Jess." Jess doesn't move from her spot by the door at Alex's question. "Jessica Miriam Drew. British citizenship, born and raised in the shadow of Mount Wundagore to a pair of scientists doing top secret work for HYDRA. Trying to come up with something like him," she points a thumb toward Steve. "Most of that's more than I told SHIELD. So now you know something about me." As Steve wraps things, she pushes back off the wall, uncrossing her arms and stepping back with a nod. "Look forward to seeing what you can do."
*
"We should go out and have a couple beers and burgers and talk about… specifics, at some point." Alex glances around them, in the middle of his academic sanctum, and takes the card and slips it into a pocket, "If we're going to work together there's certain things we have to know about eachother. And it'd be good to just… get to know each-other a bit. Plus, I have an idea I'd like you to think about. But that doesn't have to be here or now." He looks to Jess and flashes a quick smile, "Alex, then. But to be honest, some of that I don't even know the meaning of. HYDRA?" He grins and shakes his head, "But after a beer or two, maybe. I'll tell you guys my story." He glances at Bobby, a brow arching curiously, questioningly
*
"Plus you have no idea what we can do." Bobby points out then tells Alex "Nine headed dragon thing and two heads grew back if you cut one off. Hercules killed it by cauterizing the stumps of the necks. Not sure why he didn't just stab it in the heart instead but I guess he was strong and not so smart." He shrugs. "And yeah, beer and burgers sounds good. Catch you sometime, Cap. Jess."
*
"I keep trying to tell her that making another me was an impossible task. She doesn't seem to agree," Steve says with a smile. "Burgers and beer are two of my favorite things. You guys name the place and I'll get the SHIELD expense account." He asides, "Spend a couple decades in an ice cube and they owe us a night out."
*
"Cut off one head, two more will take its place." Jess smirks back at Steve when she says it, knowing at least he'll get the joke. Sort of a joke, at least. In its own creepy way. That's something that's going to take some explaining later.