The moment I learned on AoS that Area 51 was a SHIELD base, I knew I had to play with that here.
Intersession: That Kid is Mine
Area 51 - Time Unknown
What was once one of SHIELD's earliest bases is now used for their most secretive projects is now being used for lucrative discussions that shouldn't be brought up to the surface. It was imperative that this meeting would be held far from The Academy's campus, where only the top agents were granted access.
Taped to the wall at the end of the dark former laboratory are five photos student ID photos, grouped in a three-way Venn diagram, each circle representing a program. Operations was at the top with Cadets Angela Rogers, Xavier Rogers, and Merida Barton in it. Sci-Tech was at the bottom-right with Cadet Daniel Banner. In the intersection of those programs was Cadet James Pym. Nobody vacated Communications' lot.
Year Three was about to start and they were running out of time. Academy-affiliated agents were claiming the cadets they wanted to supervise. Being a supervising officer, or SO for short, wasn't a desirable role. None of the professors wanted to be in charge of a cadet but sometimes it was beneficial. It was the chance to bestow wisdom from experience on a young future agent's mind, train them one-on-one, give them real views on life and responsibility, and make them do unwanted work. Being an SO was like having an unpaid intern who has to listen to them or else they won't graduate.
But under any other circumstance, it wasn't a big deal picking cadets. Some agents would pick theirs over a lunch break or bargain with their colleagues. Some cadets were given randomly.
Not those five pictures on the wall. Those five kids were eyed since they were born. They're Avenger offspring. The best of the best. Who wouldn't want that? Every agent in Area 51 now is competing for one of those kids. Not only would they have a powerful mind under their wings, but the bragging rights were also unimaginable.
But how do the top agents choose who gets which kid? By clearing all the lab equipment and testing which agent is worthy in the hardest assessments possible.
-o-
Agent Bonnie Moore spins her ping pong paddle in her slender hands. Nobody's seen her for months since she was undercover in the Middle East following a human trafficking cartel. Agents teaching have mentioned her as an example of possible long, abroad, and undercover missions they'll embark on. They didn't think she'd be back to work after her debriefing since SHIELD offered her an extended vacation for her work but she did. She didn't just come back to work, she came back to the Academy to win an Avenger kid.
"You going easy on me?" Bonnie teases as she serves the ball.
"Apparently everyone else has," the opposing agent responds as he returns the ball.
The makeshift ping pong table is a lab station with the next being a pile of textbooks overflowing in the sink. This match is the last of many and Bonnie has one more agent between her and the choice of an Avenger kid.
They rapport the ball back and forth and Bonnie keeps her eyes on her opponent. Where has she seen that agent before? Was he new? He couldn't since he has clearance to Area 51. Maybe he went to the Academy with her. Whatever. It doesn't matter. She'll likely never cross his face after her winning move.
When the ball comes back to her, Bonnie winds her paddle back and whips it. So it's a fair move, she made sure to angle her hand down so that it bounces on the table on his side. Since she struck it hard, it throws him off and he expects to hit it back mid-air but the agent stumbles forwards as the ball bounces past him.
Bonnie smirks as she finishes her shot glass and slams it on the table. Agents pause the other games, turning around and bowing to them as the first victor of the night.
She strides through the competitions, hearing murmurs as she twirls her paddle in her fingers. Bonnie stops in front of the photos, studying her options again although she already knows them. All eyes are on her as she makes her choice, wanting to make sure she doesn't pick one they wanted. She can feel their stares like daggers.
Truth be told, she made her choice a long time ago. She took her time to build the tension. Despite her back being turned to them, she grins as she takes Angela's photo off the wall. Some agents yell and throw fits as she walks to the bar.
-o-
Agent Amory Vander tightens his grip on his end of the rope. Back when he was a student in the Academy, he was the top of the Operations program for his graduating class. The moment he became an agent, he was sent out on field missions. Any mission: recon, extraction, counterterrorism, foreign defence, humanitarian - anything. Ten years and an unfortunate mission end later, he stepped back from the field and became the head academic strategist for Operations. His reputation amongst the cadets is that he's tough on them because of his unfortunate (and classified) mission.
"Call it," Amory says, keeping his eyes on his opponent.
In the middle of their two sides was a lab coat tied to mark the centre. The agent who lost the previous round stands, holding a whistle in her mouth. She looks at both Amory and the other agent before blowing her whistle. Both agents stand their ground and tug as if their lives depend on it.
"I think you've spent too much time away from the field," his opponent taunts.
Amory raises his brows with a small shrug as his boots slide across the linoleum floor. They're some of the highest-ranking agents in the Academy and they're playing tug-of-war for an Avengers kid in Area 51 and spewing playground insults. Times haven't changed from the Academy or field missions, especially the agents. Amory's spent enough time in the Academy with cadets to know that they try to mature while training and plateau once they graduate but plummet when they climb the hierarchy and understand the ropes.
Speaking of ropes, he doesn't want to lose and slip, especially to that guy. It would make his opponent's words true which are up to debate.
"Watch your left," Amory says.
"What?" His opponent asks.
"Spill from when Bonnie won and beer was thrown at her."
His opponent looks for a second and that's all Amory needed. The moment they weren't making eye contact, his opponent unintentionally lost focus because everyone would. Amory tightens his grip on the rope and pulls back as hard as he can. When his opponent falls over, everyone turns and stares at him, the second victor for the night. He drops his rope with a proud grin as he walks over and offers a hand to help. No hard feelings were shared as Amory helped him up.
"You cheated, man," his opponent says but with an admirable grin.
"Should've known there was nothing on your left without having to check," Amory responds. "You should go back to the Academy and relearn that."
"That's why you're in charge."
They shake hands and all eyes are still on him as he walks up to the wall with the remaining four photos. He knows this is how Bonnie felt when she was taking her victory walk because he watched her. He was hoping that he wouldn't pick one he wanted and was glad when she picked Angela. He wasn't sure who he wanted but at least his options are limited. Once he's at the wall, he's looking at Xavier's and Merida's photos. He's read Pym's file and, although impressive, his track record with his Operations courses weren't cut for him. He had the marks but that was it.
Amory didn't think choosing between Xavier and Merida would be hard. Both cadets were supreme candidates with different pros and cons. Whenever he had to pick a cadet in the past, the determining question he would ask is if he saw himself going into the field with him because he did with his cadets until ten years ago. His last field mission ever was with a cadet who died. He's had amazing cadets since and they've been on missions with other SOs and excelled.
Amory didn't even want to pick an Avengers kid because he knows how hard it'd be. There would be more pressure on them as SOs and way more on them as cadets. What SO would he be if he didn't join his cadet on the field? That's the reason he came: because he had a hunch that an Avenger kid would be the one to get him back on the field.
And that cadet is Xavier Rogers.
Bonnie cheers from the bar as he takes down Xavier's photo. "Rogers clan!"
-o-
Dr. Violet Byrne-Vargas leans forwards as she positions her pool cue. She's not an Academy graduate but found herself entangled in SHIELD when they recruited her after she completed her second Ph.D. She wrote an exploratory thesis about a new material for space equipment after spending a year at the ISS. They wanted her to use her research for their space exploration project and she worked with that department while getting her third Ph.D. Shortly after she and a space team were sent to test their inventions and came back with successful results, she was brought on as a professor for the Academy and has stayed ever since. Now she's the head professor in Sci-Tech's nuclear engineering department and associate professor in astronomy with five PhDs.
The cheers and protests from both Rogers twins finally settled and that's when she focuses back on the splay of pool balls on the table. It put her on edge to hear two agents win before her but she was calm to see them pick the Rogers twins. She has her eye on two of the kids and hopes nobody takes them. In her peripheral vision, she sees some Operations agents leaving because they wanted a Rogers. She heard something about the Barton girl being scary with an attitude and the Pym boy being too much for a sane agent to handle.
She has five PhDs in unrelated fields: astronomy, kinesiology, nuclear physics, geology, and organic chemistry. She wants more but isn't sure which field to dive into next. Some of her colleagues call her insane. Does that make her qualified to handle Pym? Probably not. Her neighbouring colleague was his teacher and commented that Pym's paper on dark matter energy was surprisingly well-written for someone who fell asleep in the few lectures and labs he attended.
"So, Pym or Banner?" Her colleague asks.
Violet shrugs with a joking smile. "Maybe Barton."
"Oh no. I had her in my kin class."
"How did that go?"
"She'll make you beg for the board to take your Ph.D. back."
Violet laughs as she strikes the ball. She stands back, holding the pool cue like a cane as she watches the balls disperse. She's glad one of the lab stations had a hidden pool table under the countertop because it's a game she mastered over the years. It's simple physics a geometry but all possible outcomes must be factored, creating a long and tangled mental tree diagram where points would cross and connect. Some balls hit each other randomly which changes their trajectory but others find a pattern of movement.
But all that mattered was that all those outcomes led to her winning show and uproars from her other colleagues. She drops her pool cue on the table as she sashays through the agents who now stare at her as she makes her victory walk. On the way, Violet glances at Bonnie and Amory who bask in the glory of winning a Rogers. She never thought she'd have something in common with Operations alumnae but now they have one common thread: an Avengers kid in their watch.
Violet looks at her two options. Banner's top of the Sci-Tech class and James is in the top percentile of both Sci-Tech and Operations. But if Violet will have a cadet who she can see having a similar academic experience to her, it'll make their work together a breeze which is why she picks Daniel Banner.
-o-
Agent Cynthia Iyu. She's in Communications. That's all anyone ever needs to know before backing away.
Cynthia sits straight in her chair at the round table. Her eyes flicker from the cards in her hands, the placement of every chip on the table, and her only opponent left, Director Fury. Everyone knew the stakes were high when Director Fury walked into Area 51 while setting up. All eyes looked at him and they knew they were screwed because he could play his clearance card, but it became an even playing field since he competed like the rest of the agents fair and square. Hell, when the Rogers twins and Banner were claimed, Fury didn't pull his superiority card so the agents knew they had a chance.
Young people, their students, think they're the only ones being bossed around, but that's adult life too unless they're further up the food chain.
Everyone knows Director Fury would win all the Avenger kids if he could but he has his eyes on his goddaughter. (It's a reason some profs were scared of Merida. Her parents were another. The rest of the reasons was that she was just scary.)
Almost as scary as Cynthia. Almost. She's the only Communications agent in the room since none of her colleagues in her faculty saw no point in getting an Avenger kid who wasn't even in Communications.
She keeps her eyes on Fury because she already memorized her cards. She knows her chips and plays she could make but she's trying to predict his. It's been a tough game and they've managed to knock everyone else out. Fury's kept a straight face the whole time with a menacing glare, as always, and Cynthia's been watching for even the slightest flinch, which she found with an unfortunate but subtle eye twitch.
"I'm all in," Fury states, pushing all his chips forwards.
"Are you sure?" Cynthia asks.
"Yes, Agent Iyu. Are you in or am I winning?"
Cynthia uses her free hand to swipe all her chips forwards, spreading them out and making a mess but proving her point to show that the Director of SHIELD is bluffing. She cocks a brow at Fury but he grins, laying down his straight flush. Cynthia purses her lips as the agents surrounding them start gawking at the Director's first shot as a supervising officer. That'd be a first for the Academy.
"Should I claim Barton now or do you want a humble loss?" Fury asks, sitting back with a proud smile.
"I should ask you that instead." Cynthia puts down her royal flush one card at a time in ascending order, keeping her eyes on Director Fury as his one good eye nearly pops out and his smug smile fades. Once done, Cynthia sits back proudly. "So, Director, should I claim Barton now or do you want a humble loss?"
"Merida isn't even in Communications!" Fury yells at her.
"You're not even in the Academy," Cynthia argues. "Relax, Fury, you can see her at the family reunion."
Some agents snicker as Cynthia gets up. They expect her, like the past three victors, to go up and claim her cadet
"You didn't even make a choice," someone tells her.
"Hold on," Cynthia says.
Cynthia strides over to the couches where a set of agents just finished a round of Mario Kart. Cynthia takes the loser's remote and remains standing as the next round starts. Rainbow road? That's it? The quinjet simulations were only a bit easier. A few strategically thrown blue shells later and she crosses the finish line.
"Pym's in Sci-Tech and Operations!" Another agent says.
"Maybe you should've dodged that last shell."
"You can't claim two of them."
"I just did."
Most SOs take on a handful of cadets and often, those cadets end up being a strike team.
Cynthia pulls Merida's and James's photos from the wall, ending the games for the night. The losing agents draw out, leaving the mess for the victors to clean as expected. Who cares about a few misplaced ping pong balls. They won. It's almost like they were back in the Academy themselves.
"Way to go, Cynthia," Bonnie says, sliding her a drink once she arrives at the bar. "You keeping Pym?"
"God no." She shakes her head. "I'm handing him off to Nine."
"Could you do the same for the mess?" Amory asks. He thinks some petty agents, or even Fury, are making more of a mess to spite Cynthia.
"Delighted." Cynthia pulls out her phone and texts a quick message to him.
Violet shudders. "I don't know who's worse off with that partnership, Nine or Pym."
"At least we don't have a Rogers spawn who can kick our ass just by nudging us. I already have a Barton to worry about and her first assignment in mind."
Cynthia and Violet turn to Bonnie and Amory who don't regret their choice.
"Way to go for us," Cynthia says, holding her bottle up for herself, Bonnie, Amory, and Violet. "To the Avenger kids."
They clink their bottles.
And this was the first chapter where none of the main kids were there, but now we know their SOs. Wait for a few chapters for the two worlds to collide (and to meet James's SO).
A little note on Agent Bonnie Moore. It's a coincidence that her name is like Agent Bobbi Morse. It was the middle of the night, I was listening to Bonnie Tyler and an ad for Moore's appeared. That's where Agent Bonnie Moore's name came from.