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It's monday, and nearly noon, so lunch time is coming up, but it's not quite there yet. At the moment, the young agent-in-training finds himself in the workout room. He has advanced with his fighting technique enough that he's no longer holding back from using a full range of his abilities while fighting: he kicks, punches, and flings out a band of telekinetic force, all in unison. He falls into a ready pose, nods, and grabs a towel to wipe the sweat off his brow before he hangs it over a shoulder and steps out into the hallway, checking his watch for what is next in his training.
One of the many administrative personnel on the base has clearly been waiting in the hall. She has a clipboard in hand, and looks over. "Agent Kaplan? Director Carter wishes to see you."
Standing up straighter, Billy nods to the lady and gives a quick nod before he steps back into the training room briefly to toss the towel where soiled towels go, "Yes, ma'am." he says as he does this, then he pads down the hall towards the Director's office. Once there he knocks smartly before waiting to be called in, and he steps in then and says, "Director, you wanted to see me?"
Peggy's in her office, coffee mug (full of tea, of course) at hand, paperwork spread out across her desk. She looks up, and smiles faintly. "Yes, Agent Kaplan, please, take a seat." She indicates the chair across from hers. At least the smile is a good sign. Peggy can be a dragon lady when she needs to, but she rarely bait-and-switches.
Billy heads over to settle into a seat; for all that he started out as a willful and painfully ernest young man — and sometimes he's still both — he's always been polite and never intimidated by anything he might face. "Yes, ma'am." he says as he settles down into a straight-backed sittng position in the indicated chair. "What can I do for you, ma'am?"
"I've been looking at your evaluations, Agent Kaplan." Peggy replies, looking over at one of the stacks of papers in front of her. "I have to say, high marks. You've honestly surprised me a bit, and that is not an easy thing to do." Peggy was not a fan of the "let's bring on superteens into the agency" idea; it took several consultations to make that one occur. "Good training reports; good field reports."
Billy can't help but offer a dimpled grin at the evaluations, nodding his head quickly, "Well, it's important to me, ma'am, that I do well here so that out in the field, people can rely on me to have their back. There's more to what I can do then just be transportation." He nods his head again, "I was skeptical at first, of SHIELD, of government and their intentions towards metahumans. But I always believed *you*, so, I trust SHIELD and its important work."
"Well, I think this is some proof to both of us that we can work together, Agent Kaplan." She moves one of the sheafs of paper, there's a sealed manila envelope under it. The only identifying marks on it is a S.H.I.E.L.D. ID card that's been paperclipped to the envelope, with his picture on it, and the designation "William Kaplan - Agent (Level 7)" She smiles as she slides it over. "You've earned this."
Billy reaches out to take the card, looking down at it, he blinks, "Level 7?" There's shock clear in his features at how high a classification he's been granted. He doesn't know if he should bow or what, so he sits there for a moment and lets it sink in. He furrows his brow and grins slightly, "Is this where I'm going to be expected to pull up the files and squeeze everything I know about the supernatural out of my head and correct any mistakes I find in them?" He pauses, and winces, "Can I ask if Teddy is on track to promotion too? I mean obviously I'll keep whatever secrets I need to keep from him— I won't like it but I'll do my duty— but we've always had the same access before."
"You're too important for me to saddle you with desk duty on file corrections." Peggy states. "Of course, if you /choose/ to work on that project in your downtime, well, initiative is always appreciated." SHIELD is no different from any organization in that regard; the ones who try the hardest go the farthest. "I'm afraid I can't discuss anyone else's status with you in that regard, even Agent Altman. But I have faith in your ability to do the right thing."
Billy nods his head soberly, "Okay, so, I should say." He bites his lower lip, "I've never fully informed SHIELD of the full implications of my abilities. There's the obvious things I do most missions—-" The card floats in the air, and then a little arc of electricity dances from one finger to the other, "…then of course, the wormholes." The card floats back down and he pulls out his wallet to replace the old one with the new in its secret slot. "But that's mostly all tricks and gimmicks. That's not really what I do, that's just the instinctive application of the core ability. I intentionally don't tell most people about the extent and limits of _that_."
That gets a lifted eyebrow. "You choose an interesting time to tell me you've been keeping secrets, Agent Kaplan." Peggy takes a sip of her tea. This sounds like a tea-demanding moment. "But, better late than never, one supposes. What would you like to tell me now?" she adds.
"I needed you to get to know me before I could tell you this: and vice-versa. If you really understood who my Dad was and say something about secrets" Billy shakes his head slowly, "Anyways, its not magic, my Dad is certain. My spells. The random toolbox of things I bring to missions. Its reality manipulation. If I get an image in my head that I hold, if its clear enough, if I want it enough reality conforms to that image." He gives half a shrug, "I'd classify myself as a major threat if I was an objective Agent and didn't have a strong sense of responsibility, right-vs-wrong and a good, healthy moral upbringing. Fortunately! I had all of that." He winces, nevertheless.
Peggy can't help but get a bit of a tense look there. Because's he's right. That falls under "major threat". "Two questions. First…you say reality conforms to the image. Is this a change going forward, or a change going forward and back?" Because one is much more dangerous than the other, and she needs to know if she's dealing with something Cosmic Cubey here. "The second, what happens when you cease focusing. Does this change revert?" Her expression hides all the things already going through her head.
"Usually, its going forward. I am not certain that is a requirement. I have some evidence that it could be possible to change continuity in both directions: I would not, however, *do* that. The very idea of doing that would be daunting, I'm not _smart_ enough to hold that in my head." Billy shudders visibly at the very prospect, shaking his head, "But no. Once the change is made, its made, though the normal rules of reality reassert themselves." He rises, and steps over to pour some tea, and this he sets on the table, holding his hand over it, "Boil. Boil." And the tea boils in the cup, "It will now cool according to normal rules of.. you know, thermodynamics."
Peggy nods. "That's nothing more than I would expect through your normal abilities, however." Adding heat to a cup is hardly reality-concerny. She considers a moment, trying to think of something that might give her a sense of it, and be potentially worrysome, at the same time. She opens the top drawer of her desk, and takes out a makeup compact. "Change my appearance to another woman. As radical a change as you can. Not just an illusion." Because that both gives her a chance to check out a change with personal experience…and honestly, if he can do this, the ramifications for a spy agency are huge.
"But see I didn't heat the water, I edited reality so the temperature of the water was 'boiling' instantly. But I see your point." Billy blinks, looking surprised and furrowing his brow. He takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly, lifting a hand and closing his eyes, "Through the looking glass; through the looking glass; throughthelookingglassthroughthelookingglassTHROUGHTHELOOKINGGLASS." At the last moment, the change happens all at once. Reality twists around and Peggy… is a short, chubby black woman with an afro and dark eyes. He sits down heavily, looking a little strained.
Peggy…blinks. She looks down, looking at herself, then up to Billy. "Are you all right?" To her credit, even in the face of being confronted with reality warping, her first thought is to his safety. "You should have told me if this was hazardous to you, Billy." The tone there is not "official reprimand", though, it's "concerned team mom".
"Its more tiring— I'm not without limits— then hazardous. Its possible it uses up a lot of calories, though." Billy shakes his head, smiling with dimples slightly, "Its actually one of the more complicated spells I've ever done; I probably wouldn't have been able to do it if I didn't take human anatomy in college. Its not… a power that can be used on a whim. My _knowledge_ and experience are limiting factors, beyond just like… being able to hold the image in my mind and chant the spell. By the way, the weakness? I have to be able to hear my own words for it to work."
Nice of him to tell her the weakness. And honestly, it goes a long way to her trusting him on it. "Here…" The drawer that held the compact is opened again, and a handful of Hershey Kisses come out. Chocolate is most definitely on tap for THOSE days, when the world is going upside down. She places them in front of him, then picks up the compact, examining herself. Not just the obvious factors, but looking over bone structure and the like. "And this is permanent until reversed? If I went out on assignment like this, it would maintain?" This is a superspy's dream.
"Permanent." Billy nods, reaching out gratefully to take a few kisses, unwrap one and pop it into his mouth, "This is simply who you are now, unless I turn you back." He pauses, "Its possible my Dad could, too, if something happened to me. Though I imagine it would be somewhat difficult for him, since its not like there's an active magical spell that's keeping you transformed; there's no magic to dispel. But he's clever. He'd find a way."
Peggy nods, her brain already working on…all the angles. It's just what she does. "And then, logically, reverting a change is as much effort as the initial change, since it isn't something being maintained, you're having to alter the new status quo to another status quo. Yes?" She lets him have at the chocolate. Though, a mental note is made to indulge while she can; free calories are an unexpected perk here.
Chewing on the chocolate, Billy nods his head slowly, thoughtfully, "You get it." He flashes her a dimpled smile, "Though I _could_ do that ahead of time. I invented something I call standing spells for the wardrobe network, I could say, make a locket, and tie a standing spell to it: a standing spell is a spell that holds *another* spell until a triggering event. So, open the locket, Director Carter is back. It'd be a one time thing, and making the locket would be really hard, but I _could_." He takes a long breath and lets it out slowly, "Having a picture of the real-you would help maintain the focus, by the way, for when you want to go back."
"I have pictures, that won't be an issue." Peggy nods. "I want you to recover before we revert this, in that case. We'll do it tomorrow." First, it gives Billy the actual recovery time. Secondly, it gives her a chance to get to medical so they can run every test she can dream up. Blood type. DNA. The works. Everything so she can document as much of this as she can, for her records. "Trust me, I'm not going to ask you to do anything like this often." The more often she does, the more likely word gets out. She's already got plans on how she's going to cover the next 24 hours.
Billy nods agreeably, going for the second chocolate. His stomach growls a little bit, "So, I can see how you'd find it useful, but its just the tip of the iceburg. If I know enough, and if I concentrate enough, and if I can imagine enough…" He shrugs, "I'm not entirely certain what my limits are." Implied in his tone of voice: there might not be any. "Now, obviously if I were to try to do anything extreme and let hubris go to my head, my Dad would lock me in the mirror dimension and not let me out until I had a long white beard." Not that Billy has an issue with hubris. The young man is actually quite humble.
"You have no idea of all the ways in which I could find your abilities useful, Billy." Honestly, this is one bit of information she's not even sure she trusts /herself/ with. This is essentially divinity. The keys to the kingdom. The power to remake the world in the way she wants it. And that is a dangerous, dangerous thing to have in the hands of someone like Peggy Carter. Thankfully, she's wise enough to realize that this is the slipperiest slope she can imagine. This gets held for true, world-threatening emergencies; the kind of thing that make her break out the Omega Clearance material. "But I have no intentions of asking you to be a lab rat to find out. I want you to take the rest of the day off. Either call it a celebration for your promotion, or your Director maximizing your recovery time so you don't leave anything out when you change her back." Her lips quirk with humor. "And thank you…for your honesty." Because this isn't something he had to tell her.
"Believe me, I can think of some." Billy looks momentarily pained— emotional, not physical— finishing off the last of the chocolates as he rises, "You needed to know— in case. But you must realize, that while I answer to you, this power is one you can't order me to use— I have to exercise my own moral judgement. And believe me, I've thought of what a world without racism, and where people like me aren't beaten to death for loving people like Teddy, and there's a very good reason why I would never try to do that." He takes a deep breath, and lets it out slowly, "I don't have the right to change people, to take from them who they choose to be." He nods to Peggy, "Thanks, Director, for the promotion. I'll see you tomorrow first thing?"
"I hope that if the situation ever comes up that I need to ask, you'll see the same need I do." Peggy states, looking back to him. "Tomorrow morning, yes." She actually takes pen and paper, and writes out an address. "Here." Because she won't go home while she's not herself, and she certainly can't march into the Director's office like this. Even her getting-to-medical ploy is going to involve phone calls, some typed letters, and some timely shutting-off of cameras. She'll spend the day after the tests in one of SHIELD's many safehouses; one with a clearance high enough most don't know of it.
Billy takes the paper, and folds it up into his pocket, and gives a quick nod before turning to leave.