Disclaimer: Marvel is running the show. I think.
Alright, you're back for the next installment. Let's get started with... what? You didn't read The Invisible Cell? Well... uh... okay. I think you should read it. Go read it.
You still don't want to read it? You want a summary? Oh fine. Here's what happened:
Following the Apocalypse crisis, Wanda begins having nightmares that only Pietro and Toad recognize as being flashbacks to her real memories. Around this time, Magneto has decided to join the Xavier Institute (as per the visions in Ascension). Mystique, disguised as Magneto, commands Toad to have Wanda's memory restored. Before he can do this, Wanda learns about her past, but doesn't believe it. Toad, finally deciding to do the right thing, takes her to see Mastermind, who restores her memories... and is promptly attacked. Wanda is so angry and disgusted that, even though she doesn't hurt Toad, she never wants to see him or his friends again. Following an attempt to confront Magneto at the Institute, Wanda is neutralized by Xavier, but suddenly kidnapped by Lucas, Xavier's son. Lucas convinced Wanda that Xavier and Magneto together are too strong, and with their respective vendettas against their fathers, their combined power could defeat them. Wanda agrees and joins him (also, Pyro happens to have joined up as well). By now, Xavier is aware of what Magneto had done to Wanda.
Mystique returns to the Brotherhood with a new plan. Pietro, furious that she had Wanda's memories restored, leaves the team. Lance, tired of being used, decides he's had enough and leaves. Fred does as well, and finally Toad follows. Now homeless, the boys decide to go their separate ways: Lance wants some time off from the superhero/supervillain thing, Fred intends to go back home and work on his uncle's ranch, Pietro doesn't state his intentions, and Toad is undecided. Toad ends up going to the Xavier Institute, hoping that being there might eventually bring him back into contact with Wanda. After some thought, Xavier agrees. Toad's job: Magneto's assistant. Bummer.
Flash-forward four and a half years. The Xavier Institute has expanded into a full school, with a second franchise on the west coast, run by Angel and the New Mutants. Lance is working at a gas station and he and Kitty didn't break up so much as just drift apart. After meeting her again and realizing she's made a career for herself as a teacher at the Institute, Lance rethinks his life (working at a gas station) and looks into the possibility of enrolling in community college.
Fred, meanwhile, found out that his uncle is a mutant-hating bigot. He found work instead in Dallas, working as a bouncer and then as a bodyguard for wrestler Unus the Untouchable, who needs personal security as one of the few openly mutant pro-wrestlers. He also finds runaway Ellie Harsaw, and points her to the Xavier Institute (pretending that he's got influence there).
Toad has adapted rather well to being Magneto's assistant, learning how to use both Xavier's technology and Magneto's own inventions (including Magneto's secret mutant detection system). He doesn't regularly interact with the X-Men, few of whom mind how little they see him.
Wanda has remained with Lucas, with whom she is now romantically involved (for lack of a better term), and together they've been training for their showdown with their fathers (they've attempted this several times, but due to the combined strength of the X-Men, Xavier, and Magneto, they've been unsuccessful). In order to counter the X-Men, Lucas has even recruited himself a new mutant team to spite Xavier: Pyro, Black Tom Cassidy, Juggernaut, Psylocke and Sack. He has also started building a duplicate of Cerebro, again for spite, and once Xavier is dead, intends to share Xavier's fortune and estate evenly among his new hires (but curiously, is so single-minded that has not thought about his own future following his revenge on Xavier). Having spent so much time without reward and watching Lucas continue to act irrationally (so much so that even Juggernaut questions the point of his plans), Wanda has long had misgivings about the situation, but remains both loyal to Lucas and hindered by the idea that Magneto and Xavier are watching each others' backs. Lucas finally stages an attack on the Institute (involving both Magneto and Toad). Wanda and Lucas confront their fathers, and Wanda's hex powers cause Magneto to age several years. Xavier subdues Lucas, but it's Toad that makes the difficult choice to attack Wanda from behind and knock her out. Before anything else can happen, Lucas flees with Wanda and his team.
As for Pietro... he's gone back to his old vandal ways, going cross-country on crime sprees for the hell of it. After a brief run-in with the Morlocks and Spyke, Pietro learns some tips in leadership. He'll have a chance to apply them, too: he's such a nuisance that SHIELD has to come in to stop him. Pietro is captured by Commander Bishop, a fellow mutant, and given two options: jail, or cooperation in the capture of Lucas. Pietro is offered the chance to choose his own strike time. He tracks down Lance, Toad and Fred, and convinces them to help him out. Pietro's only reward is that he'll go free, but the others are offered monetary rewards. Lance intends to pay for college, Toad intends to find Wanda, and Fred is going along because everyone else is.
Magneto, meanwhile, has decided to find Wanda himself and confront her. Wanda visits Agatha Harkness to discuss her situation, but before any meaningful advice can be given, she is interrupted by Magneto, seeking reconciliation, and Lucas, who warns against it. Magneto pleads for forgiveness, and for a moment Wanda almost pities him. She's brought back to "reality" by Lucas. Wanda returns to Lucas, but lets Magneto go, warning that she will not be as forgiving next time. Soon, Magneto finds out about Pietro's plan with SHIELD, and agrees to let Toad use his mutant detector to find Wanda, but makes Pietro promise to kill Lucas if given the chance.
The Brotherhood re-assembles and goes to Ireland, following SHIELD intelligence. At Black Tom's castle, Lucas and his associates have an argument over Lucas's weird and senseless plans. The Brotherhood arrive and quickly wrangle Pyro to help them (simply because he's offered a chance to kick Lucas's ass) and fight Black Tom and his thugs. Pietro confronts Lucas and attempts to kill him, but fails miserably and is nearly strangled before the fight is broken off by Wanda, who insists that Pietro is her business. To the surprise of both, Wanda agrees to go back with the Brotherhood, on the condition that they go see Magneto. She explains that she's been having second thoughts since seeing him again, and wants to confirm her beliefs- and secretly, she has had enough of Lucas, who is more obsessive and maniacal than she is. Lucas is reluctant, but agrees not to stop them, hoping they will lead him to SHIELD (though Black Tom would rather the Brotherhood stay and accept punishment for trashing his castle).
Upon arriving back at the SHIELD base, Bishop orders that Wanda and Pyro be taken for questioning. Furious, Pietro attacks Bishop, and the Brotherhood flees with Wanda. They go to the Xavier Institute, where Magneto intends to shelter them (and Xavier agrees on the grounds that he can deny responsibility, for the sake of the school). Fred is reunited with Ellie, and the Brotherhood entertains her friends with old stories (though the X-Men have perpetuated the Brotherhood's reputation for sucking). Wanda confronts her father, who confesses his mistakes and his sins- including his indirect responsibility for Wanda and Pietro's mother's death. His confessions emotionally break the usually stoic Magneto, but do not change Wanda's view.
SHIELD arrives, and Toad leads the Brotherhood through tunnels beneath the Institute, with Wanda departing once they're out. Magneto confronts Bishop and his agents, and is even aided by Ellie (despite his insistence that she stay out of it). Bishop's men use a power-nullifying weapon and capture Magneto as Xavier watches, disappointed.
The Brotherhood continue fleeing, and while arguing over the situation, Wanda rejoins them, reluctantly realizing that they need her, and she needs them, at least until they're far enough from SHIELD. Soon, however, all of them are captured. Bishop now re-issues the deal, no longer allowing a choice: serve SHIELD, willingly or unwillingly. Once again, the target is Lucas. Also, they've been saddled with Pyro, much to the team's annoyance.
When his incomplete version of Cerebro fails to track Wanda, Lucas gets into a final argument about his situation with Black Tom and Juggernaut, and leaves the team. Lucas's temper flare also causes his personalities to bleed into each other, and he seeks out Mastermind to help him sort it out again. Mastermind also gives him a telepathy-blocking helmet designed by Magneto.
Lucas proceeds to give the X-Men a dangerous workout- he attacks Stokes County Maximum Security Facility, now a SHIELD-operated prison for the most dangerous criminals, mutants in particular. Immune to Xavier and Jean's telepathic attacks, Lucas causes significant damage to the prison, freeing all kinds of dangerous mutants and forcing the two X-Men teams to deal with them, as well as with Lucas. Just as it looks like Lucas has won, the Brotherhood arrives. The Brotherhood and Pyro fight against him while Wanda hangs back. With his helmet removed, Lucas is weak to Xavier's power. Wanda attacks Lucas, but also attacks Xavier, insisting that this is her battle. When Lucas taunts that she's too afraid that of their similarities, Wanda responds by using her powers to instantly snap every bone in his body. Wanda explains that by sparing his life, she didn't sink to his level. Xavier notes this, saying that Wanda is very much like her father- not entirely as a compliment. SHIELD takes the battered Lucas into custody, and Wanda reconciles with Toad (though she lets him know she still doesn't want to be anything more than friends). Lance has also gotten back together with Kitty.
Among the chaos, though, nine mutant prisoners managed to get away.
Nick Fury and Commander Bishop are so impressed with the Brotherhood's performance (though the Brotherhood realize that a great deal of their victory came from Lucas underestimating them), that they offer the team full positions (except Pyro, who remains on probation). They would become SHIELD's first mutant team, publicly acting much like the X-Men, but secretly backed by and answering to SHIELD. The Brotherhood agree- except for Wanda, who has unfinished business.
Professor Xavier visits Lucas at Stokes Maximum in a specially designed prison, hoping to help re-form Lucas's shattered mind and awaken his true self, David Haller. Lucas resists, but Xavier refuses to give up on him. On his way out, he finds Wanda, who has come to visit Magneto in a plastic prison, and reacts a little coldly towards her. Wanda intends to kill Magneto, but stops herself. She still does not forgive him for what she did, but she refuses to become like Lucas, and decides to abandon her plans for revenge and move on with her life. She explains to Magneto the Brotherhood's new jobs. Magneto warns her that SHIELD has many dark secrets. Among them is one Wanda overheard: Codename Polaris. Magneto realizes the significance of this, but does not share it with Wanda.
The Brotherhood's first mission is to contain a riot at an anti-mutant rally. After five years, the Brotherhood is finally back together. That's the end of the story.
Now, on to the meat.
"Bishop," Nick Fury called, entering a long hallway where Commander John L. Bishop waited, looking out through a glass window. Colonel Fury approached his subordinate, who offered a salute. Fury waved him off, rarely in any mood for formality. "How's the project coming along?"
"It's coming," Bishop grunted. Muscular and bald, Bishop was an imposing figure, even next to the gruff, older Fury. Though Fury wore his own preferred outfit, Bishop kept a more standard SHIELD uniform. "They're no X-Men, but we could be doing worse."
Through the glass, Fury watched as six agents sparred in a large gymnasium lined with laser canons and robotic arms. Cameras lined the ceiling and sensors along the walls collected data from the exercise session, to be analyzed later by Bishop's men.
A large robot arm burst from a compartment on the floor and tried to grab the first agent: Pietro Maximoff, alias Quicksilver, dressed in a form-fitting blue-green outfit. He crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow, smirking at the approaching arm. In the blink of an eye, Quicksilver ran around it, ran up its side, and disconnected the cable connecting the hand to the controls. The arm swung around, but the hand remained frozen like a metal hood ornament. Quicksilver stopped only briefly to admire his work before running at the arm and taking hold of the wrist, pulling it with him as he ran around it. Quicksilver spun the arm at a speed it wasn't built to withstand and the axle snapped; Quicksilver let go and came to a quick stop, but the arm's inertia sent it skidding across the floor and crashing against the wall.
Only a short distance away, Fred Dukes tore a robot arm from its wall socket and swung it at a laser cannon, shearing it from the wall. For his gargantuan bulk he was called the Blob, a nickname he once found insulting, but now found endearing. His wide arm swung at a second robot arm that appeared from a wall compartment and punched it right off. Several more appeared from the wall; taking a heavy metal crate, Blob held it over his head and screamed as he hurled it towards the robotic arms, smashing them... as well as ruining the wall. Impressed with his own strength, Blob grunted and flexed his arms.
The floor of the gymnasium shook as Blob's crate tumbled back to the ground, along with the clatter of metal parts; but even as the debris settled, the tremors continued. Lance Alvers, appropriately and codenamed Avalanche, held both of his hands out, trembling with the tension running through them. Between his feet, the floor began to crack open and the fissure continued towards a laser cannon mounted on a mechanical arm, and four similar cannons nearby. With the ground beneath it split, the first cannon lost its stability and sank a few feet; the others were disoriented and off-balance, allowing Avalanche to knock them over with a seismic wave. His job accomplished, Avalanche let his hands relax and exhaled.
Jumping across the downed cannons like a game of leapfrog, the agile Todd Tolensky dodged blasts from the active cannons mounted on the wall, spinning and jumping like a mad acrobat. Grinning momentarily, the Toad threw out his long, prehensile tongue and smacked one of the cannons with the force of a bullwhip, bending its mount. Dodging another laser blast, Toad sprayed a stream of thick slime at the cannon's barrel, clogging it for just a moment. The next blast began to melt the hardening slime, but that was enough for Toad to jump up and come down on it with a harsh stomp. Toad landed on the ground with a hard thud, the laser cannon acting as a small perch for him, while the shorted, sparking cannon arm remained in place three feet above him. He flipped back, cracked his knuckles and stopped to admired his handiwork.
At the opposite end of the gymnasium, Wanda Maximoff faced a slew of canons and arms by herself, standing calmly at the center of their attention- her red attire earned her the codename Scarlet Witch. As the blasts came, she raised both of her hands, encircled by glowing blue halos, and produced a hex field around herself; some of the lasers merely dissipated, but several were reflected, most directly back at their cannons. Moving her arms and wiggling her fingers, the Scarlet Witch took telekinetic hold of the robotic arms, twisting several and disassembling the rest. She hadn't physically moved from her spot, but in less than a minute, the Scarlet Witch had neutralized every weapon around her... except one. A lone laser cannon set its sights on her as she walked away. Hearing the laser charging, the Scarlet Witch angrily turned around and created a hex mirror with her hand, sending the blast back at the offending cannon.
The last of the team was the cackling John Allerdyce, amused by his own fiery antics. With a flamethrower tank strapped to his back, the maniacal Pyro shot out twin streams of fire from his wrists, mentally shaping them into whatever his imagination could conceive. Today, he decided to create series of flaming arrows, flying across the room and piercing various robotic arms and laser cannons. Some of the arrows managed to singe the circuitry, and Pyro guided a few so that they remained embedded in the various robotic weaponry long enough to soften and warp some of the metal parts. Pyro didn't seem all too concerned that the weaponry could harm him if his attack missed, but at the very least, he managed to entertain himself.
Though a few weapons were still left, the machines powered down and a loud buzz signaled the end of the session. The six mutant teammates all turned to the front as a door opened, allowing Commander Bishop to enter with a small clipboard. Colonel Fury remained in the hall, watching through the glass.
"That's enough for your warm up," Bishop announced as the team stood before him. "Are you ready for the rest of your training?"
"Are you kidding?" Quicksilver asked. "We're ready for our final exam. C'mon, Commander, we can take anything you can throw at us."
"Good, because I have a surprise for you," Bishop declared. "You took your exams a week ago."
"What?!" Toad panicked. "Why didn't you say somethin'?! We never had a chance to prepare, we probably screwed-"
"You weren't told because we didn't want you to prepare," Bishop said. "This isn't high school. This is SHIELD. We want you to be prepared whether you've got a mission today or not. Never forget that. Now, your scores."
"I gotta sit down, I'm gettin' nauseous," Toad whined.
"Pipe down, will you?" Avalanche scolded. "It's not like we're getting arrested again if we fail."
"Cut the chatter," Bishop growled. "Now, here's the news. You all passed. Not with flying colors, but you all passed."
"Everything?" Blob asked.
"No, we have a few failures," Bishop said. "In some cases, I might as well just list who passed what. On your pilot training, Toad scored highest. The rest of you failed. Scarlet Witch came in second, Avalanche dead last."
"He gets airsick," Quicksilver whispered to his sister, the Scarlet Witch. She rolled her eyes, as she already knew this little fact.
"Toad also came in first in mechanical training," Bishop continued. "Followed distantly by Avalanche. All others failed. Now, medical training. Blob, Toad and Pyro failed miserably. The rest of you better hope you don't need them to perform first aid."
"Anyone does CPR on me and I'm gonna wallop you," Blob menaced.
"Survival training," Bishop announced. "Quicksilver and Avalanche passed. Toad came in third place, but first failure. Obviously the rest of you failed, too. Scarlet Witch, you did worst out of everyone."
"Hmph," was Wanda's sole response.
"All of your scored well on physical aptitude," Bishop said. "Pyro could use some work, though. You almost failed that one."
"I think I've got my bases covered," Pyro mused.
"Let's see here, weapons training... nope," Bishop muttered, flipping through a page. "Recon... deal with that later... stealth, not an issue... here we are. Tactical evaluation. We used this analysis to decide which of you will be the team leader. All of you scored poorly with two exceptions... Quicksilver and Avalanche. Avalanche, our analysis shows that you are willing to plan and carry out a mission, and you will do whatever you can to minimize casualties and provide aid to innocents."
"Nice," Blob said, patting his friend on the back.
"...But Quicksilver showed a greater emphasis on completing the mission, so we're giving the job to him." Quicksilver wiggled his fingers at Avalanche and laughed. "Police and emergency response can take care of civilians. The mission is your primary objective. Everything else is secondary."
"I didn't want to be leader anyway," Avalanche defended.
"Alright, that's it for individual scoring, the rest is confidential," Bishop told the team. "All of you need some improvement, but you've passed the evaluation, and you're ready to begin. When you started training, you were told that space would be provided for you in Bayville. Your headquarters is now ready. We will provide two vehicles for you, a modified Humvee, and a modified helijet. Both are SHIELD standard issue. The modifications are only for the sake of minimizing the connection to SHIELD. Remember, you don't work for us. You're a privately funded team, tolerated but not endorsed or sanctioned by the United States government. All connections to SHIELD must be kept private. You are all free to come and go as you please, with the exception of Pyro, who remains on probation, and cannot use his powers without sanction from either the team leader, a majority of the team, or direct order from myself or my superiors. Your headquarters will not be monitored."
"No cameras?" the Scarlet Witch asked.
"No cameras or listening devices, with the exception of communication equipment," Bishop elaborated. "This is not a right, it is a privilege. If we feel you are abusing your privacy, we will take appropriate action. We will give you exactly one week to get situated in your new home before we will begin issuing orders. As you know, your job is to keep an eye on Bayville and to identify and neutralized any mutant-related threats. In addition, you will be called on to find and capture the nine fugitives that escaped from Stokes Maximum six months ago."
"Question," Toad said, raising his hand. "How come no one's caught them yet?"
"We had a temporary team assigned to the job until you were ready," Bishop explained. "But there was a reason we put them in maximum security to begin with. We were realistic and realized that the chances of our human agents finding them were slim to none, and we would have to wait for our mutant team before we'd have a realistic chance at bringing them in. It was hard enough catching them all the first time. There's a chance that you won't be able to get all of them."
"That's not going to stop us from trying," Quicksilver smirked.
"Good attitude, let's hope it lasts. You'll be taken to your new headquarters tonight. Report back in two hours. Until then, dismissed."
--
"You see? I was born to lead. Even SHIELD thinks so," Pietro bragged, sitting with his team at a Chinese restaurant. In the early evening, the place was a little packed, but the Brotherhood managed to secure a large table towards the back of the restaurant, partially through Lance and Fred's persuasive methods. Pietro helped himself to some more sesame chicken from the bowl at the center of the table, behaving much like the team boss. Seated clockwise from the Grand Official Leader of the Brotherhood were Wanda, Fred, Pyro, Lance, and Toad, all of whom seemed to ignored Pietro's imagined hierarchy and similarly took their own helpings of the feast on the table. Pietro grimaced. "First order of business is to name my second in command."
"Forget it, I don't want the job," Lance groaned.
"Someone's got an ego. Who said I was considering you?" Pietro scoffed. "Wanda, you're my second."
"I want it even less than he does," she grumbled.
"Okay, so we won't have a second in command."
"Ooh, what about me?" Toad asked. Nobody responded. "Yeah, you guys got a point..."
"So, our pay's gonna go up, right?" Fred asked, his mouth full of rice and motioning to a waiter to bring more of everything. Swallowing, he continued, "'Cuz I was thinking of getting a new truck. I hope we got enough room at the new place."
"Hey, they haven't even told us how big it is," Lance noted. "Or what side of town it's on. It better not be close to Bayville High."
"Home is where you make it, mate," Pyro noted.
"Nobody asked you," Lance snapped. In the six months since the team's commissioning, Pyro had done little to endear himself to Avalanche, or anyone else for that matter. At first, Pyro didn't care, but now he was starting to get annoyed with Lance's constant abuse. Well, at least this time Lance hadn't punched or shoved him.
"C'mon, we're going to be teammates now," Pyro insisted. "We might as well get along, right? No hard feelings about all that other stuff? It's all water under the bridge!" Pyro put his arm around Lance and grinned, though it quickly turned into a sneer when he added, "After all, I've forgiven you for trying to bash my face in way back when."
"I'll do it again if you keep touching me."
"Alright, alright," Pyro said, waving his hands. "No need to get all cut snake on me. We'll do just fine now, won't we?" Still scowling, Lance's phone stopped him from adding any more of his sarcasm. Hearing a ringtone he'd selected specifically for a certain caller, he excused himself from the table and headed towards the lobby.
"Kitty, hey," Lance said, his scowl completely gone. "What are you up to?"
"I was about to ask you," Kitty Pryde told him. "You haven't called in like a week. Everything okay over there?"
"Yeah, everything's fine," Lance assured her. "The brass was just giving us our final exams. We're moving in to the new place tonight. Give us a few days to get settled in and I'll show you around. But I guess you probably won't be impressed since you live at the Institute and all."
"I do want to see SHIELD's take on a comfortable living space," Kitty giggled. "It's going to be nice having another team around."
"Yeah, and we might just outshine you guys," Lance quipped. Kitty didn't respond. "Well, I mean... not that..."
"Lance, listen," Kitty began. "I'm all for this. But... everyone here's kind of anxious about this. We... they really don't know how this is all going to work out."
"They still don't trust us," Lance muttered. "Kitty, you know that was a long time ago. We've grown up. We're not the idiot thugs we used to be. Have a little faith in me, will you?"
"I do," Kitty said, a little irate. "I wish you and the guys luck, but... well, you can understand, right?"
"No, I can't," Lance argued, refusing to let go of the subject. "Yeah, we've been asshole. I admit that. But we're trying to do the right thing here. We lucked out with this SHIELD deal. Now maybe instead of being troublemakers we can actually help out. But you guys just can't let it go. You gotta keep bring it up and throwing it back in our faces. You guys are famous for giving second chances. You let Rogue join you. You've got Colossus stomping around back there. You gave Magneto a fucking leadership position. You let Toad... okay, Toad was a go-fer, but you let Gambit in. Fucking Gambit! And then he-!"
"...Gambit was a mistake," Kitty said, interrupting him. "We accept that... we've moved on. Lance, for the last time, I'm not doubting you. I'm just saying, you can't expect there not to be a little tension when something like this happens. You don't need to explode every time someone brings up how big a jerk you've been!"
"Maybe I'd stop being a jerk if someone would give me a fucking chance!" Lance yelled.
"You know," Pietro said, watching the display from the table, though unable to hear the conversation, "If you had told me five years ago that those two would still be a couple today, I'd have slapped you. Does anyone get those two? Really."
"Mmm," Fred mumbled, nodding. He seemed more interested in his sixth helping of sweet and sour chicken.
"I'll tell you one thing," Toad said, "The X-Men ain't gonna be too happy with all this."
"Who cares what they think," Wanda grumbled. "If they want to whine about us, let them."
"When did you become such a big X-fan?" Toad teased.
"Oh, shut up," Wanda retorted. "I don't like them any more than you do, but there's no point in worrying about them. We have other priorities."
"Like beating up no-good mutant punks," Fred finished. He paused. "So basically, us."
"We've come a long way now," Pietro reminded him. "What we're doing is cleaning this place up... in fact, we're cleaning the mess the X-Men leaves behind. We're going to be tying up their loose ends. You know why the X-Men were the number one mutant team in Bayville? Because there was no competition. So, let's show them we're twice the team they are." Pietro raised his glass. "To us." The others also raised their glasses and repeated after him. All except Lance, who was just returning from his call, looking a little frustrated.
"Uh, what are we toasting to?" Lance asked.
"Twofold," Pietro explained. "To showing the X-Men that we've grown and matured, and to proving to them that anything they can do, we can do better!"
"I..." Lance rubbed his forehead. He'd just spent fifteen minutes arguing with Kitty about that. He sighed, and raised his glass. "What the hell, I'll drink to that."
--
Commander Bishop entered the command center of his particular SHIELD base, a two-story room lined with monitor screens and control stations, manned by a number of agents under his command. Seated at one of the lower-level stations was Lieutenant Kevin Denti, a thin man in his late twenties, with slightly spiked brown hair. One of Bishop's subordinates, Denti was regarded as the Commander's right-hand man, and often took direct involvement in field missions. Lieutenant Denti took pride in his physical fitness and comabt expertise, and openly wore a holstered handgun as a testament to his field service.
But ever since the Fugitive Nine escaped, Denti had been relegated to sitting at a computer all day.
"Denti," Bishop said. "Anything yet?"
"Yes, sir," Denti said confidently, spinning in his chair to face his commander. He pulled off his headset and let it rest around his neck. "We're tracking two of the subjects. We'll have some concrete intel in the next few hours."
"Alright," Bishop responded. "Good work, Denti, but I'm putting someone else in charge of this assignment."
"Someone else?" Denti asked with some distress. "But sir, I-"
"I've got something else I need taken care of," Bishop continued, ignoring Denti's protests. "Something more important." Bishop handed Denti a small disk. He looked down at it with some confusion. "SHIELD Command has issued a new order. I don't agree with it. In fact, I think it's bullshit. But it's still an order."
"New order?" Denti asked. "Are they sending someone else after those fugitives?"
"No, our team's still on the job. But I'm assigning you to be in contact with our new project and provide all the necessary intelligence. The info's on that disk."
"I... Commander, can't one of the cadets do this? I mean..."
"Quit your whining, Denti, you're not playing telephone," Bishop barked. "This is important. I need someone I can trust. Now do you accept the mission or do I have to force it on you?"
"Yes, sir," Denti reluctantly replied.
Alright, we've got some stuff out of the way. We'll see a bit more of Denti later. But for now... back to the Brotherhood!