Xavier Institute

His phone was ringing. Luke sighed as the soft, insistent buzzing raged through the silent room. This bed as not something he wanted to get up from. His companion supported that line of thought, curling up against him with a luxurious groan. Good God her feet were cold. He reached past her and grabbed his phone from the nightstand. Emma slapped lazily at his hand as he took the call.

"Kapra."

"Jesus Luke, you gave us a bit of a scare." Kyle did not sound amused. "Pick up your damn phone."

"I just did."

Emma pushed against his shoulder. He rolled back and sat up, giving her room as he settled into business mode.

"On the third try. Listen, we have some news. The kid is stable and her recovery has got her weeks ahead of schedule. I think she'll be out and about in a couple days."

"Okay, that's good. Is that what made you so worried?"

"No, it's the fact that some shit went down in New York yesterday and we got a call from Agent Hill demanding to know what the hell was going on with the New Orleans report. What's the deal, Luke? Where are you?"

"I'm…" He glanced at Emma. Her pleased smirk was all he got in reply. "I'm okay. I got a touch sidetracked, I'll be back in New York in a couple hours."

"Sidetracked? Damn it" Kyle's irritation could be heard clearly. "So you were in the middle of that tussle."

"Well you know how it goes." Luke couldn't help but chuckle. "Walk into a gas station and see some thugs about to wreck a kid for being different, ask them to stop, they start threatening..."

"This is why we can't have nice things. Are you okay? Is the kid okay?"

"He's being taken care of."

"That's at least good to hear. So where are you?"

"He's occupied right now. Call back later?" Emma asked, darting in to the phone before Luke could stop her. Luke drew the phone out of her reach.

"Oh…" It might have been a whistle he heard on the other side. "Alrighty then, Luke. Glad to know you're working hard over there. Let me know when you get around to reporting in to Hill. I'm already starting to get headaches from that woman."

"Kyle." Luke scowled as Emma made another playful grab for the phone. "Long story. I promise I'll tell you everything that happened in full."

"Just spare me the details" Kyle said. "But… is that chick British?"

Luke ended the call. Tossing the phone on the bed, he shot a glare at Emma that had sent Army corporals scurrying for cover. It did not work so well on her. Winking saucily, she slipped out of bed and went to fetch her robe. The instant her robe was back on she reverted to business mode too.

"Give me a minute or two before you leave. I don't want us seen together."

A dry chuckle eased out of Luke's throat. He began climbing into his own clothes.

"Call me sometime?"

His tone was light and joking. Expecting a smile or something along those lines, he faced her and began pocketing his phone and other key items. The glare he received stopped him cold.

"This changes nothing" Emma said. It struck him as odd to see how quickly she changed between angry-bitch-mode and grinning-like-a-fool-mode. The woman was borderline bipolar. "Do not mistake this for more than it was."

"What was it then?"

She hesitated, eyes darting away to the door. Luke did not push for an answer. He strode past her and put his hand on the knob. Motioning for her to go, he started to turn it. Emma shot a hand out and stopped him.

"This was…" She refused to look him in the eye. "This was a one-time thing. You had something I wanted, and now it is over. Our lives go on, and I never have to see you again."

There was disgust in her voice, but it lacked any real conviction. Luke withheld his smile as she attempted a fierce scowl. Throwing the door open, she stormed out and let it hang behind her. He flicked the door with his hand and returned to the bed. The first thing he did was call Kyle.

"That was fast" Kyle said on picking up.

"Sorry about that. Do you have a minute?"

"Yep."

"Right, well here's the situation. It started in Middletown…"

New York City, Manhattan

Marti greeted him at the door. He was still wearing his shades, even though it was inside and the sun was clear of the windows.

"Was wondering when you'd get back. How was Salem?"

"Depends, should I be ducking for cover?"

The suit shrugged indifferently. He pointed to the kitchen, where a steaming carafe sat next to three mugs. Luke took the offer and grabbed himself a cup.

"Caught a wire on the SHIELD network from the Xavier Institute. Someone by the name of Scott Summers wanted to make sure you didn't have an ulterior motive for the visit."

"That was fair of him. What was the reply?"

"Oh, Hill assured him that you weren't there as part of some evil SHIELD plot, and that you would not be stopping by uninvited again."

Luke looked up from the coffee. "Bad?"

"I think your success in New Orleans mellowed her response a bit. In lieu of a direct report from you she had me send in all the operational data I had to some analysts. So far, you've got yourselves a glowing report."

"Huh, imagine that." He pushed off of the counter and followed Marti upstairs. "A glowing report you say?"

"Well, I might have spun it a bit in your favor." Marti stopped and held up a warning finger. "As far as we are concerned, you directed the assault on Don Marko to take out his bodyguard. The man, as I'm sure you found out, is a mutant. Jackov, goes by the name Serkr. Relatively low key, but he's got a mean streak and a habit of selling out his talents to the bad guys."

"Serkr." Luke rolled the word over in his mouth. "Viking, right?"

"From Berserker. I assume it has to do with his shapeshifting abilities."

"Viking berserkers related to bears." Luke let Marti take the main seat at the computer. "He went after me as a grizzly bear, then as a shark in the water."

"Two things I would never want to meet." Marti tipped his head. "I told Hill that you would call her around 1000. You've got an hour to freshen up… although you do smell quite nice. I take it you cleaned up at the Xavier Institute."

"Would have been a shame not to." Luke studied the screen. The collection of images, reports, and schematics were way over his head. "What are you working on?"

"This is a little project of mine that I've had on the side." Marti clicked a few keys and one particular image bloomed across the screen. It was a simple image: a shimmering, coal-black rock with all sorts of jagged angles and contours. "Voidstar fragments. SHIELD picks these up from time to time in meteorite debris. Best we can tell is that it is waste material spat out of a Black Hole. The material is too dense to crack, and its elemental signatures are all mixed and confused."

"In English?"

He gave Luke a funny look.

"In dumb-dumb English."

"Ah." Marti shook his head. "Voidstar is a completely new material. The elements keep lining up in incomplete fragments, and the leftover energy makes it change itself constantly. Simply put, it isn't a single material. It's a thousand different solids that are constantly switching."

"Black Hole rocks." Luke cocked his head to the side and examined it as the image started turning. He did not understand any of that. "What's your interest in it?"

"Purely theoretical." The man gave a wistful sigh. "If we had the tools to crack it, SHIELD would be all over implementing it into weapons tech. As I said, the material is impenetrably dense. Bullets, blades, anything made with this weapon would be unstoppable. A nifty tool for when SHIELD has to go up against supervillains. But we can't even scratch it. They've been trying since the Fifties. Me, I just fiddle with it and dream."

"Should you be doing that?" Luke patted his back. "We're pretty busy out here, Marti, and it's only going to get busier."

"I can afford it." He tapped the sides of his head. "That's my thing; got two minds in here. I can fully devote myself to two things at a time and not be slowed down in the slightest."

"That's… that's pretty damn useful."

"Tell me about it." A bit of a grin appeared on his face. "Not the most glorious of abilities, but hey, I like computers and this lets me enjoy them twice as much. For example, while I was helping you out with your little excursion in New York I was also coordinating between Agent Hill and Agent Saunders. Bet you didn't notice any time lag there."

"Marti, my estimation of you just went up." Luke grinned and patted the man on his shoulder. "I'm going to go prepare the report for Hill. Let me know if you need anything."

"Oh, there was one more thing."

The keyboard clacked madly as Marti switched two of the screens. A file-folder image rested on the top right corner of the screen, colored red to mark it as Security Level Two. He opened it, keyed in the password, and threw the contents across the screen.

"Now that we know to look for it, the Deck has started popping up on radars. This map holds all of the reported sightings or encounters with Deck operatives. Pretty low level stuff for now, but look at how far spread out that is. It's a real time image."

One of the files held a map of the United States. There were over twenty red dots scattered across the nation. Two he recognized: Blacksburg, VA and New Orleans, LA. Luke stared at the New Orleans one. The men with the cards.

"What I can't figure out is this one." Marti highlighted the New Orleans dot. "Serkr might be Deck, I wouldn't put it above him, but I haven't been able to contact the man SHIELD knows down there. It's a rogue mutant, a mercenary if you will. Goes by the name Remy. Anyway, he passes information to SHIELD from time to time for a generous finder's fee."

"But he didn't tell SHIELD about Charlotte."

Marti shrugged. "He doesn't work for SHIELD. Probably didn't think it was our business. I've been trying to get a hold of him to see what he knows about the Deck."

"I know someone who might have more info." Luke turned away and headed out of the room.

"Who?"

"Charlotte." He stopped at the door, looking back one more time at the map. There were two dots in New York City. He studied the locations and filed them away for later. "She's had contact with them. Also, Marti, find out everything you can about those two. If they are operating here in the Big Apple, that's right on our doorstep. Might as well pay them a visit."

"Sounds like a plan."

Later that day

Hill was only slightly bothered by his incident over at the Xavier Institute. It was more of a side note in the debriefing. What drew her attention and the bulk of her inquiry was the operation down in Louisiana. Which made sense, considering one involved a brawl at a gas station and the other involved a joint-FBI assault on a privately owned yacht in the middle of the New Orleans bay. Luke had studied Marti's report beforehand to know what had and had not been said. He decided to stick with Marti's spiel, because it made for better reading than he could have done, and it made them sound a lot better than things had actually gone. He wasn't willing to lie about their actions, but in hindsight it had been a bit of a shoddy affair. A little bit of makeup never hurt.

He was glad he kept his comments accurate, if slightly incomplete. The impression Hill had formed based on Marti's data was scarily good. She knew where the reports were polished but she did not interrupt him. Luke took those subtle cues and always made sure to explain things that drew a frown or an eye twitch in detail. He spoke bluntly and clearly, and waited for feedback when he finished. When she had listened and digested his news she addressed him directly. There was no beating around the bush with this woman. Luke liked things better that way.

"You are doing well so far" she told him. "I know that your team is still in the works and you have to improvise quite a lot as you go. You are undermanned and underequipped for the job as is. All that considering, Director Fury and I are impressed with how you have handled the Specter team. Your missions have not been pretty, but that comes with experience. It's a whole new ballgame you are learning, and right now you're keeping the coaches happy."

"Thank you, ma'am."

"How is your recruitment going?"

"Well, actively we still only have myself, Agent Saunders, Agent Callahan and Sahara. Neal Morris is deployed with the Avengers B-team for training, we have a man in the Marines ready to sign on when his enlistment ends, and a third potential recruit is convalescent in the hospital. Agent Saunders and Sahara are with her. She should be out by the end of the week and will return to New York then. We'll continue her treatment here and assess if she is up for the job."

"It is proceeding then." Her face soured a touch, as if disappointed. "We were hoping you might have had some more progress, but at least you are on your way. These three recruits will double your team strength. That's better than nothing."

"With respect, ma'am." Luke braced himself in case she took offense. She did not. "Every time we've gone out to recruit we've ended up with a fight on our hands. We don't have superhuman healing factors or toughness like a lot of the heroes you are used to do. It takes time for us to recover, not to mention we have to put up with SHIELD paperwork as well. All that severely limits our response times."

"I know, and we are allowing for that. As I said, for what you have you are doing a lot. We aren't expecting miracles out of your team, and the progress you have made is commendable. There are… SHIELD is dealing with some heavy hitters right now." She sighed and rubbed her temples as if a headache had suddenly kicked in. "I apologize if I offended you. I am not questioning your abilities here. You are only one of a dozen branches of SHIELD that I am personally involved in, and you're the youngest by far. It is easy to forget that you have only been around for a couple months."

"Understood." Luke relaxed and shrugged. "I think I get where you're coming from."

She held up a dossier and offered it to Luke. He took it and flipped through.

"We've had a request to join your team. His name is Jeremy-"

"Fahlsing." Luke shut the dossier. "I know him. He's former CIA."

Hill made a face that told Luke he was not quite right. "He's always been with SHIELD. His time in the CIA was spent as an… asset."

"You infiltrated the CIA?" Luke huffed. "Don't you have open access to their network?"

"I am sure you understand the difference between sharing information and showing information." Hill dismissed the line of thought. "Are you interested in his offer? He's got plenty of experience with the inner workings of SHIELD, familiarity with our technical systems, and he's a hotshot field agent."

"Sure." Luke left the dossier on the counter. "As long as you aren't placing him here as an infiltrator. I'm open with you, and if I get the feeling that I can't trust my team then we're going to break down pretty fast. And I don't trust men who deal two ways."

"He won't be a stooge, if that's what you are asking." Hill offered a reassuring smile. "That's Marti's job."

"You- that's not funny."

"Sure it is. Learn to relax, Luke. If you don't this job will quickly become your own personal hell. The kind of work we do here, it isn't normal. People aren't designed to handle the things we face. It'll eat away at you soon enough unless you find a way to let it go."

"Is that how you do it?" He called out after her as she walked towards the door. "You get through this by playing your subordinates?"

"That's one way." She looked over her shoulder and grinned. "And it is by far the most entertaining."

The door slid shut behind her. Luke picked up the dossier and started reading through it again. He took a second look, a more serious look, this time. Jeremy Fahlsing, the CIA spook that had worked alongside their team in Afghanistan. He had been a shadow among shadows, always appearing out of the blue and knowing more than he should have. His intelligence had gotten them the mission against Holy Warrior. In the aftermath, he heard that Agent Fahlsing had gathered a team together and gone to town on the Taliban in… not revenge, Americans didn't do revenge. But he used his team to hunt down Taliban outside of the red tape and wreaked all kinds of havoc. His team took down multiple compounds and over a hundred Taliban in the course of three months. He also found the spies who had sold out the operation and made sure they wouldn't sell out the Americans again.

Having Fahlsing on his team could prove very helpful. He certainly knew what he was doing. The revelation that he was, and always had been, a SHIELD agent made him wonder though. Had he known that Luke was a mutant all along? Is that why he had always been the point of contact? The thought made him shake his head. Coincidence was a rapidly fading phenomenon in his world. If they had been keeping tabs on him, waiting until they could snatch him up, it made him feel very unappreciated. Made him feel like a tool, not a person.

"Marti!"

The voicebox in the kitchen squawked. "Yeah, boss?"

"I need you to look up something."

"Hold on… okay, shoot."

"Jeremy Fahlsing. And," Luke glanced at his laptop. "Send me everything that SHIELD has on me. And I mean everything."

"Got it, boss. I'll flash drive it so that it's not floating for SHIELD to pick up. Don't want to make them think your suspicious or anything."

"Do I have something to be suspicious of?"

"It's an Alphabet Soup Agency" Marti said. "If you're not suspicious you might as well kill yourself now."

Three days later

The others returned to New York City a day ahead of schedule. Charlotte was still stooped and weak, but she kept up a brave face as they introduced her to the loft. The posh furniture and spacious layout astounded her, as Luke thought it would. What drew her more immediate attention were the couches, which she plopped down on as soon as she could to rest her back. From that vantage point she lounged and drank in the sights around her. A contented smile formed on her face. Luke could imagine the thoughts running through her head.

"So big" was all she could say. When they pulled a drink from the refrigerator her eyes practically popped out of their sockets. "That is a… huge fridge. Could I fit in there? I think I'm in heaven."

"Not quite, but we've got a nice spread here." Luke handed her the Coke. She practically giggled with delight at the sight of a glass-bottle soda. Twisting the lid off with practiced ease, she began sipping as if afraid it would be gone too quickly. Her eyes began to wander again.

"I've never been up this high before" she muttered between sips. Pointing suddenly, she asked "Is that the Empire State Building?"

"Yeah."

She made a quiet noise that might have been a squeal of delight. "This is awesome. I'd joke that I could see my house from here…"

"You're in a lot better spirits than before." Luke sat down opposite her and looked at the others. Sahara had gone to the bathroom to clean off after the drive. Since Luke was the only one actually living in the loft, they had converted the spare bedroom into a storage room for the team members. Everyone had a go-bag in there, along with spare clothes, personal gear, toiletries, and whatever they thought they might need if an extended stay or rapid deployment came up on short notice.

"She's a mite more chipper, yes." Kyle remained standing. "Couldn't get her to shut up on the car ride."

"It's not my fault." She shot him a pouty look. "I'd been stuck in a hospital for a week, what did you expect? I hate lying around. I want to go do something!"

"I almost tranqed her" Kyle admitted. "She kept wanting to play with the car radio."

She beamed. "First time I ever got to touch an Ipod. Glorious."

"Good for you." Luke suppressed a laugh at Kyle's expense. "How're you feeling?"

"I'm okay." Her face lost its glee and she started toying with a pillow. A good portion of her enthusiasm vanished. "It's weird. Marko's gone, my sister is still dead, and I'm…well, safe for once." She looked up at him with earnest eyes. Luke felt a pang of warning in his gut. "Kyle and Sahara helped talk me through it. The shock of everything finally being done is hard to process. I've wanted Marko dead for so long that there's an emptiness now. I don't quite know what to do without that… that hate. He was why I lived. Now I don't really have a purpose."

Luke cleared his throat. She glanced up sharply, cheeks flushing a little. "They talked to you about working for us?"

"For the Specters." She chewed on her lip. It was a very kidsy gesture, one that was not lost on Luke as he shot a glance towards Kyle. His partner had a touch of tension on his face. He wished he knew what was making the man uneasy. With Charlotte's case, there could be a half-dozen different reasons. Pinpointing the correct one would help him guide this conversation. "We talked about it in the car. It's a good deal for me, I guess. I don't have anywhere to go and without you all I'd still be scrounging around the streets of New Orleans. I always hated that place. And the work you do, saving people like me. That's a good thing. Helping people is good."

She tucked her legs up against her chest and rested her chin on her knees. "But I don't know if it's for me."

"What do you mean?" Luke held up his hand to stall the answer. "We're not trying to force this on you. I am merely curious."

"I've only done bad things in my life." She stared at her feet. "Growing up on the street I stole, I fought, I hurt people, I… killed people." That last one made her flinch. "You're all good guys, you've grown up helping people. I don't belong."

"That's…" Luke thought better and changed what he would say. "Don't be hard on yourself, kid. You have a tough childhood and you did what you needed to. We aren't knights in shining armor."

Kyle coughed in mock indignation. It brought a faint smile to Charlotte, and she looked back up at him.

"Okay, well Kyle is, but I'm not. I've made bad decisions in life. I've killed lots of people."

"But you were in the Army. Kyle said you were. You fought bad guys like those bastards who bombed the Towers. Those kind of men deserve to die."

"Death is still death. It doesn't matter what kind of person is getting killed, it leaves scars." Luke moved over to sit down beside her. She did not pull away, but she did not move closer either. Brushing her hair back, Charlotte, watched him with that deer-in-headlights caution he had seen back in New Orleans.

"We're not asking you to be perfect. No one is, and that's the thing, kid. You join us and we'll take care of you. We can help you, we will work with you through everything. There's plenty of good in there. You just have to find it." He poked her lightly in the forehead. "Besides, if you were truly bad, you would leave Sahara to be the only female on the team. She has to deal with three guys all the time and that'd just be plain evil to make her endure that any longer."

Charlotte laughed and butted her shoulder against Luke. "After all she's done for me, that would be pretty evil, wouldn't it? Us girls have to stand together."

"Only the worst supervillainess would make a fellow woman endure such torture."

"Well, I can't have that." She made a face. "I don't have the laugh or the costume to be a supervil- Do we get costumes?"

Her face lit up expectantly and she sat bolt upright. Turning from one to the other, she clapped her hands.

"Do we? And can we pick cool names, because there's this one that I've always wanted to be known by and I would totally badass."

Sahara poked her head out from the bathroom. Her fur was wet and matted down as if she had just stepped out of the shower. Damn but that woman had good hearing. She eyed the young girl for a moment with something that amounted to disinterest. "Your kind's obsession with individuality and trademark is amusing. Though it speaks to the hubris of the human race that you must find these meaningless titles as something for boasting. You are like puppies at play, all silliness and little action. May the gods help you if you ever have to fight the Kree or the Shi'ar."

Luke tipped his head in acknowledgement. "That's a good name for you. Pup. What do you think, Kyle?"

Kyle spent a moment appraising Charlotte as if in deep thought. Her face went slack with horror and she shot the Marine a venomous glare.

"Don't you dare answer that."

Dismissing her ire with a casual bat of his eyelids, Kyle leaned back in his seat and spent a plong moment pretending to consider. When he finally nodded and spoke, he sounded just as serious as a scientist discovering a new element.

"Pup it is."

A mortified whine slipped from Charlotte's mouth. Her jaw dropped and she whirled on Sahara, eyes blazing with horror. "You horrible little… I take back what I said. Supervillainess it is, I'm out of here if my name is going to be something as ridiculous as Pup."

"An appropriate title for such an exuberant young girl." Sahara's fangs bared in the hint of a smile. She disappeared into the bathroom and shut the door with a firm hand. Before it closed she called out "And I hope you learn a feline form soon. Wet dog is the most horrible smell I have ever had the displeasure of encountering on your planet. I do not understand how your kind appreciates those foul creatures."

Charlotte fumed in her seat, glowering at the now-empty hallway. Both of the men looked away from her to hide their smiles, and Luke stole the opportunity to stand up and head for the counter.

"Where do you think you're going?" Charlotte demanded. Her tone made it clear that neither of them would have a clean exit.

He turned and offered his most innocent face. "Hey, at least we're not calling you Lassie."

Evening

Lucas breathed a sigh of relief as the others left. He collapsed on the couch and loosed the stress and exhaustion that he had been holding back. Melting into the cushions, he purged his mind and thought of nothing. The bliss of darkness was a welcome relief from the day's events.

"Long day?"

"Damn it, Kyle, I thought you left." Lucas opened one eye and shot his partner a glare. "This whole week has been nuts."

"It has. And you don't look any more rested than when you left New Orleans."

"Xavier's place didn't give me much time for that."

"Didn't it?" Kyle nodded knowingly. "Sure sounded like you had some good company over there."

"It wasn't as nice as it sounded." Luke rubbed his throat, remembering the claws on Logan. "Between almost getting skewered by an Edwards Scissorhands wannabe and getting mind-attacked at dinner, they didn't exactly give off a friendly vibe. Marti warned me that they weren't fans of SHIELD; he didn't warn me just how unfriendly they were."

"Not all of them were that way though." Kyle tossed him a cold beer. "You said you saw Doctor McCoy there. Haven't met him, but I heard SHIELD uses him from time to time for legal counsel and area expertise. And that British chick. Who was she? Don't tell me you banged a student there."

"God, no!" Luke felt his headache worsen. "No, she was a… she's the one that took a dip in my memories."

"Oh, so… make-up sex?"

"I really don't want to talk about this right now." Luke pressed the beer can against his forehead. "She's a teacher there, but not an X-Man, if that's what you're wondering."

His second-in-command slipped down on the couch opposite and sighed. Neither said anything for a minute. Luke just enjoyed the soothing chill of the beer can easing his headache.

"How's she doing?" Luke eyed Kyle. "Really, how's she doing?"

"Charlotte?" Kyle's face soured. "Honestly, not so good. That chipperness you saw here…wasn't in the car. I think it was because you were here."

"Is that going to be a problem?" Luke grimaced.

"No, I think that danger has passed. Being away from you for a few days, and having Sahara around, broke whatever attachment she was forming. She probably still likes you, just doesn't 'like' you."

"Okay. I can live with that." Luke breathed a sigh of relief. "Poor kid."

"Yeah. As far as how she's going though, this is going to take her some time to get over. She didn't sleep much on the car ride because she was having nightmares. Kept muttering about the men-"

"With the cards" Luke finished. Kyle hesitated, then nodded. "I've had Marti started looking into that."

"Think she had contact with the Deck?"

"At some point, somehow, yes." He finally cracked open his beer and started sipping. The headache was fading. "What's the state of our access to SHIELD specialists?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean we should consider sending Charlotte to a psychiatrist if we can find a good one. Not even SHIELD necessarily, but someone who can help her get through this. That girl's got more damage than Hiroshima and we aren't nearly qualified to walk her through it all."

"Marti would know." He shrugged. "Can't think of any that really stand out."

"I'll add that to his list of things to do. Do you know about his power?"

"The two-minds thing? Yeah, I talked to him about it once."

"What do you think of it?"

"It's weird to wrap my mind around." He chuckled at his own joke. "But then again, what's normal with our kind? The fact that he can have two fully functioning minds going at once without any lag or distraction is one heck of a gift. Makes him twice as useful in support. Why are you asking?"

"I don't know. It's probably nothing." Luke stood and stretched. "Just something Hill said; I'm not sure if she was just screwing with me or telling the truth. She said his job is to spy on us for her. Like an Internal Affairs or something."

His partner did not reply immediately. Face scrunched in concentration, he scratched his jaw and followed Luke to the counter.

"Don't know. Regardless of whether it's true, as long as we do nothing that needs hiding, we have nothing to worry about. Besides, I wouldn't hold it against SHIELD if they kept a subtle hand on their own teams. SHIELD deals with all kinds of unnatural things; it would be negligent to not focus on internal oversight. One bad egg could unleash all kinds of chaos with the powers and gear we have access to."

"You're right." Luke shook his head. "I'm just tired and I need to get some rest."

"Right on, brother." Kyle tossed his empty can in the trash. "I'll see you in the morning."

"Hey, Kyle?"

"Chief?"

"Where are you staying at?" Luke frowned. "I know you can go for quite a while on your natural energy suction thing, but you've got to be racking out somewhere. Are you still seeing Jeanne?"

"No." Kyle shrugged. "She was only in town for a week. Got to spend some time with her then, but I've always been staying in my own loft. Not nearly as swanky as this one, but I don't spend so much time in there and it doesn't double as a base of operations either."

"Oh, right. Well then, have a good night."

"You too, Chief."

Luke retreated to the bedroom. He did not bother undressing. Falling against the bed with a giant sigh, he closed his eyes and let himself sink into unconsciousness.

New York City, Central Park

Irony was a factor that Luke had always found comfort in. Perhaps that is why he found himself completely relaxed on one of the many benches that decorated Strawberry Fields. He spent a moment people-watching the mobs of fans as they crowded around the John Lennon plaques. Half of them were foreigners, the other half were flower-power-wannabe cokeheads. Ridiculous.

His contact sidled up beside him and sat down. Neither made eye contact, not out of an attempt to be subtle, but because their attentions were on the people. Luke waited patiently for her to begin.

"Captain Saunders."

"Ma'am."

"Danvers." Her head shifted towards him. He faced her and shrugged. Her face was sharp and utterly serious. Brilliant blonde hair was tied up in a military-style bun that matched her quasi-civilian pea coat and suit pants. Reflective Aviator sunglasses covered her eyes. Whoever this was, she had her priorities figured out on business. It was a very intimidating outfit. "Major Danvers."

"Major Danvers then."

She cleared her throat and leaned back against the bench. She snuck a hand along the back of the bench and casually dropped a flash drive into his waiting hand. Luke caught it and tucked it in a pocket.

"That is the information you requested, everything SHIELD has on the Deck that isn't in the central databanks."

"Why is that, if I may ask?" He snuck a look at her face as she glanced away. Her bearing was extremely professional, extremely military. He recognized it well. What branch had she been before joining SHIELD?

"Despite the fact that SHIELD has one of the most advanced electronic security networks on the planet, there are certain things that we keep to the side just in case we ever get hacked."

"That a threat?"

"If it's not some evil superorganization, it's the Chinese. Or the Russians. Or any nation that wants to pick up on what we know. It pays to be prepared."

"Gotcha. Thanks for the info."

"One thing, Captain." She put a light hand on his shoulder to stall him from getting up. Curious, Luke glanced around to see if anyone was watching.

"What's up?"

"This Specter initiative, it's a pretty bold step by SHIELD. SHIELD has always done popular things, publicly. Eventually the Specters will become public. Once that happens… everything you've done and will do is going to be treated with the utmost scrutiny. You know what that means."

"Means we're supposed to play nice and walk a straight line" Luke muttered. He huffed. "And you know that doing so when we're up against superhumans is basically a non-option. Things go to hell in a handbasket in the time it takes Pinocchio to say 'Jiminy Cricket.' If you've read out past mission reports-"

"Are half-cocked showdowns the norm for the Specters then?" She returned her hand to her lap. "Because so far you have shown a remarkable tendency to get into fights you aren't ready for. Your New Orleans report states that you went in to get that Serkr cretin. But I have a feeling you didn't even know he existed when you set foot on the ship."

"Do you now?" Luke kept a straight face. "What makes you think that?"

"One of your team left in the hospital and you nearly killed. I sincerely doubt that a man as experienced as yourself would have been so trounced by someone you knew about. Especially by an animal shapeshifter; you took down the rogue mutant with hardly any effort." She tipped her sunglasses down and gave him a knowing leer. "You aren't the first team I've dealt with that fudges the mission reports. Whoever wrote that novel is talented, but I saw right through it."

"Good for you." Luke refused to let his irritation show. "We're still trying to get this initiative going, gathering team members, and establishing a solid information network. There's also that we are all relatively new at this stuff and facing an enemy that even SHIELD is just catching onto. Cut us some slack."

"Do you seriously think the American people will be so understanding?"

"You know what I think?" Luke fought the urge to growl. "Director Fury gave me the authority to run this program and I am doing the best with what we've got. It's a lot easier to make the Specters work without a backseat jockey questioning how I do my job. If you've read the reports, and if you're as good at spotting bullshit as you claim to be, then you know that I am the most capable man for the job. The situations we've run into are so balls-to-the-wall nutty that I may be the only reason we survived them. We're flying blind into a flak field every time we set foot outside the fence and we've only got half a team. All in all, we're doing a damn good job."

"I am not questioning your judgment or your competence" she assured him. "I am merely expressing hope that you are ready to handle the eventual publicity blitz that will hit you. It is going to be a very nasty business."

"Eventual" Luke emphasized. "Right now I am merely trying to get this team operational and running. The politics can come later."

She switched the topics without missing a beat. "As I am sure Agent Hill has told you, we do not think you are doing a bad job. If anything, you are making this working on the fly in a way we were not expecting. Your work is a credit to you."

"Then why the preaching?"

Her face soured. "Captain, when I was in the Air Force I was one of the best pilots they had. Then I went into the Space Program and was one of the best astronauts they had. Can you guess why I'm here sitting on a bench in Central Park talking to you when I could be up there?" She pointed dismissively to the sky. "Because I can tell you now, my planes gave me a lot less attitude than you do."

"Huh?"

She reached up and drew the sunglasses away. Tired blue eyes gazed at him for a long moment before she looked to the John Lennon plaque.

"One thing you can't hide is when you're crippled inside. He said that, Lennon, though I don't think he intended it the same way. My career in NASA couldn't have been any higher. I was a rated security captain, and even was among those who made first contact with an alien empire."

"The Shi'ar?"

"No, the Kree." She sighed quietly. "It was not a friendly meeting. We were attacked, I was captured, and I was… they changed me."

"They did?"

She slipped the leather gloves off of her hand and cracked her knuckles. "I'm not human anymore, Captain. Not completely. The Kree restructured my DNA as some kind of genetic experiment. Now I've got all kinds of superhuman abilities, but it came at a price. NASA dropped me like a bad egg when I returned. Quiet discharge, honorable for services rendered, and tried to get me sent to a government lab for testing. Their plan was to leave me in a cell for the rest of my life. Now I work for SHIELD, because they are the only ones who see my abilities as something worth using, not exploiting."

"You were top of the world" Luke muttered. "Must have hurt to drop so far. Queen of the world to a beggar on the streets?"

"Beggar might be a little overdramatic. SHIELD practically pleaded with me to come onboard. They've given me a great job with lots of perks, and from time to time I even get to pilot their toys. But the point is the same: I was let go by NASA because the directors didn't know how to handle the storm of publicity. Crap hit the fan and they ran with their tails tucked between their legs. And I was left hanging with the bill."

"Well, I can see why you treat this so seriously." Luke shook his head. "My apologies."

"You have nothing to apologize for." She returned her gloves. "Consider it a friendly piece of advice."

"Are we allowed to be friends in SHILED?" He cracked a smile. "I thought that agents had to be cool and collected and professional inside and outside their teams."

The Major returned the smile. She held out her hand and he shook it. "Well, you will probably be seeing me more often. You aren't the only big initiative that Director Fury is working on. He and Hill are, and will be for some time, too busy to have a direct handle on your team. I am your new handler."

"Handler." He let out a long breath. "Because that doesn't raise the hair on my neck. Hope you don't mind if I scoot away from you a bit." He inched away. She chuckled.

"Don't worry, I will be gentle."

"Uh huh." Luke stood up. He stretched his limbs for a moment, wincing as his arm sent a jolt of pain up through his shoulder. His arm was still stiff and sore from New Orleans. "Anything else, Major?"

"Nothing." She nodded. "Except that your little one, Neal Morris, is ready to join you whenever you want him. He has excelled with the B-Team and we're ready to let him go. Say the word and we'll transfer him over."

Luke thought about it for a short moment. "It'd be good to have a full team. Send him on over."