I've been waiting to get to this chapter.

Year Three: Meet the SOs

Operations' Faculty Building - 11:36 AM

Angela wasn't sure what to do when she would meet her SO. She didn't have anybody to join her since she didn't know who else had Agent Bonnie Moore. She didn't even know if she was supposed to wear her training uniform so she didn't. Instead, Angela wore jeans and a simple long-sleeve with boots. After she found out about her SO, she emailed her later that day about scheduling a first meeting as they were supposed to and Agent Moore responded with times to choose and a location.

And that day is now.

Angela walks into the Operations faculty building and takes the elevator up a few floors. Once she steps out, she follows the signs on the wall down the hallway, stopping in front of the door that has Agent Moore's name on the adjacent wall. The door's open and Angela peeks in, knocking. She watches Agent Moore spin around in her office chair, standing when she sees Angela, and walking towards her. A few confident strides and an outstretched arm with an open door later, she smiles.

Angela smiles, noting that Agent Moore is the same height as her. She glances at the office behind her, noticing that it had a few desks all empty. Angela's known from visiting past professors during their office hours that some of them shared offices if they weren't full-time or tenure. Most Operations professors didn't have that status since most dedicated time to the Academy between missions. Angela knew that Agent Moore just got back from a long undercover mission so she didn't expect a fully decorated office. For all she knows, Agent Moore wasn't even planning on spending much time here.

"It's an honour to meet you," Angela says. She hopes she didn't sound so eager.

"You're more charming in person," Agent Moore responds, "exactly like your mother."

"You knew my mom?"

"I knew of her." Agent Moore gestures for Angela to come inside her office, offering the office chair in the neighbouring desk. The two women sit at the same time. "She was a fresh agent when I was still a cadet. I heard Captain America married her and had twins so we know he's doing well."

Angela smiles. Most agents have said her mother was the lucky one. "He is."

"I'll be honest with you. I read your file and your upbringing was more, normal, than I expected it to be."

"That was what they - my parents - wanted for us."

"That's good." Bonnie smiles, pushing her thin dark hair over her shoulder. "Okay, so we won't start anything yet but I do know about your, let's call them, advantages. The Academy does recommend Operations students train with other people which is why most Operations SOs take a few cadets, and you're lucky to have one with your exact situation."

"So I'll be working with Xavier." She isn't surprised but excited. "Do you know his SO?"

Bonnie nods. "We talked the night we picked you and your friends. I had my eyes on you and he had his eyes on Xavier."

Angela nods slowly, unsure of how to react and respond.

-o-

Just a few floors above Angela and hours later, Xavier sits outside Agent Amory Vander's office waiting for his appointment. He figures Agent Vander's in there talking to someone else, possibly another cadet since Xavier saw someone in a training uniform when he walked by. As Xavier expected, he had an office at the top floor in the, as other cadets called it, the executive's wing, aka where all the high-ranking important Academy agents reside. When people found out Agent Amory Vander was Xavier's SO, his entire floor pitied him but they weren't surprised that Xavier Rogers got him. Xavier didn't pity or fear for himself until he entered the executive's wing.

Xavier waited for a few minutes, looking up at the clock. The moment the second hand hit the 12 and his appointment should start, he isn't surprised to see Agent Vander's door open right on time. Xavier stands as he sees a cadet walk out. They exchange small smiles as he leaves before Xavier is faced with Agent Vander.

"Rogers, come in," Agent Vander says.

Xavier walks in as Agent Vander closes the door behind him. Xavier isn't sure what to do so he stands in the middle of Agent Vander's office, waiting to mirror his actions as a form of etiquette. If Agent Vander went to take a seat, he'd follow since he would be shown where to sit.

Xavier thinks that maybe Agent Vander isn't that much of a hard-ass. Maybe other cadets have gotten on his bad side or they didn't like having their dorms inspected. He knows he and Ashton don't.

"Sorry about that, the cadet before you, Nichols, broke his arm a while back and had to be excused from training," Agent Vander explains. Xavier wasn't curious about the cadet before him but he figures it was nice to know. "He came to ask how to catch up."

"What do you do if you break your arm?" Xavier asks. "You know, while it's healing. What happens to your classes?"

"You're excused until you return to classes. Mind you, you'd have to catch up to your class and hope to God that your arm or leg, or whatever, is healed." Agent Vander eyes him. "Why?"

"Just curious."

"You planning on breaking your arm on me?"

"No, Sir," Xavier shakes his head.

"Have you broken arm? I'm asking about the healing given that you're -"

"My sister did once," Xavier says before Agent Vander finishes. "It healed after about four weeks rather than six, and she had PT for a week before she could go back to cheerleading."

"Interesting … so, I assume you've heard about what you may go through under my watch."

Camp SHIELD? RA? Both? Xavier pauses. He doesn't know if this answer is a trap. He isn't surprised that Agent Vander knows what the Operations cadets think because, well, he's in charge of them. Of course, he knows what's happening within the walls he controls.

Xavier shrugs. "Maybe."

-o-

Sci-Tech Faculty Building - 13:12 PM

Daniel got looks from other profs as he walked down the faculty hallway to meet his SO. He wouldn't look directly at them since they'd turn away immediately but he caught some of their disdain. The only reason he knew it wasn't targeted towards him was that he heard his SO's name. That lucky BV or goddammit BV, she isn't even an agent! Daniel assumed he and his friends would be top picks for cadets and he can't help but wonder how decisions were made.

He arrives at Dr. Violet Byrne-Vargas's office and the door's open but she isn't there. Daniel waits outside and can't help but peek. Her office is decorated with photos of her published research, photos of her graduations and their diplomas framed next to it, certificates, news articles about her research or time in space, magazine covers. She has shelves of books, organized by subject and publication date with the latest works at the top because geologists read from the bottom-up.

Despite a lot of stuff in her office, it's pretty organized.

"So, how many dirty looks have you gotten on your way here?"

Daniel turns around and sees Dr. Violet Byrne-Vargas stand-in behind him. She's a few inches shorter than him, smiling like a child as she pushes her bright red and oversized cat-eyed glasses up her nose.

"A couple," Daniel responds, "I didn't bother to count."

"Smart boy, but you and I knew that." She gestures for him to enter her office and he does, closing the door behind him since he let her in first. "So, tell me what's your least favourite class?"

Daniel isn't sure if she's curious, starting small talk, or wanting to hear him chew out a prof. Dr. Byrne-Vargas catches onto his hesitation and smiles as if she planned this reaction and prepared for it. Daniel reasons that it's from her scientific background and education to do things for expected results. For instances like that, he's used to it since his parents did the same to him.

"Just asking since I didn't go to the Academy," Violet whispers. "I won't tattle."

"Sci-Ops," Daniel says without hesitation.

She scoffs a laugh. "Don't like physical activity? The violence?"

"Everything about it."

She nods. Her face softens as she pushes her glasses up her nose. "I get it. I've read your Academy file, minus the redacted parts and I didn't pry since they're redacted for a reason, but Director Fury told me a bit more about you."

Daniel pauses. No wonder she asked. He feels the colour leaving his face but tries to keep himself together. " … what did he say?"

"Your secret's safe with me."

That doesn't make anything better. " … which one?"

Violet leans in to whisper, "Emily Stark."

Daniel is relieved, smiling. He feels so much better about being here. For a moment, he thought she connected the dots about his fear towards his Hulk and disinterest towards Sci-Ops, figuring Fury told her about it as a warning. Violet beams before offering him a seat across her desk.

"We'll get along just fine, Banner," she says, grinning like a maniacal villain with a top-secret master plan, "most envied cadet and prof in Sci-Tech. They won't know what hit them. Call me Dr. BV from now on."

-o-

Communications Faculty Building - 13:20 PM

Merida didn't want to ask for directions so she looked at the blueprints of the Academy on her phone (which Fury sent to her despite still being disowned by her. She knows he did it to help but to mock her at the same time.) Merida didn't want to meet her SO at that building because she didn't want to be seen on Communications turf. She thought she could get through the hallways with her espionage skills but students spotted her from the moment she walked through the doors. They must sense Operations cadet vibes. They must also think she's lost. Merida doesn't bother dealing with them since she couldn't be bothered. She wanted to be in and out of here as soon as possible.

Merida weaves through the hallway. She spots Agent Cynthia Iyu's office and nearly turns around and bolts when she sees James walking out of there. Fuck. Of course. First, she's in Communications and now she's stuck with Pym. Of fucking course.

"Dear Thor, please say you're not with me," Merida begs to the gods.

James is about to respond but stops when Agent Iyu steps out, looking Merida right in the eye with a resting bitch face that made Merida straighten and shut up.

"Relax, Red, his SO is out of town," Agent Iyu says. "Come in."

Agent Iyu walks inside and Merida freezes. She wants to bolt but can't. She doesn't even hit James for patting her shoulder when he walks by and wishes her luck. When James walks away, she heads inside of Agent Iyu's office, taking a seat across from Agent Iyu's desk as her SO leans against the windowsill with her arms crossed.

"Why am I here?" Merida asks. "In Communications?"

"You'll be good here," Agent Iyu responds. "Your file and former profs said you needed an attitude check."

Merida's jaw drops in disbelief. "So Communications will help?" She wants to laugh but her SO's face doesn't budge.

"Operations will make it worse because everyone there acts like they're always in a fight. If you want real discipline, you'll learn it here."

Merida can't argue that reasoning. Hell, she wants to fight now.

"Also," Agent Iyu continues, "you're here because I won you fair and square."

Merida sits straighter in her seat, unsure if she heard that right. "I'm sorry, won?"

Agent Iyu nods. "Fury's sole pupil dilated while bluffing."

"So my friends and I were prizes?"

"Yes."

"Huh, okay, so how many of us did you win?"

"Only two. I couldn't be greedy. I won James for Professor Nine and he's away on classified business." She rolls her eyes and curses under her breath in a language Merida guesses is Japanese.

"Okay, Communications, okay," Merida grins. Forget her godfather being disowned. Him losing to a Communications agent over something as small as an eye twitch gives her hope for this program. "But you changed my schedule."

"I know."

"Why, though?"

"As I said, for your attitude problem. Nice meeting you, Barton, I'll see you in class."

-o-

A Few Days Later - Sci-Tech Experimental Laboratories - 13:47 PM

Prof Nine extends a cheerful hand when he meets James Pym. James has heard a lot about Prof Nine, all good things. He was one of the few profs on campus who was extremely chill about lessons, readings, exams, papers, and life in general. Unlike most profs in Sci-Tech, he didn't have a card deck of PhDs. He only had one in electromagnetism so he only taught those courses and wrote the textbooks. Ironically, he was also one of the few profs to have an office where James noticed a name plaque that said Professor Nine on his desk. Upon seeing it, James knew he was blessed to be under this man's supervision. He had to send Agent Iyu a card.

It makes meeting him on a Saturday worth it.

"Sorry, I was away on classified business," Prof Nine says as they walk down a couple of flights of stairs.

Once they reach the bottom, James rubs his arms since he starts to get cold and Prof Nine swipes his ID card to enter this hallway. James follows Prof Nine into the freezer room and he wonders why they're even down here. Maybe for some secretive science experiment he gets to be a part of.

"Like some top-secret super-agent duty?" James asks, teeth slightly chattering.

Prof Nine pulls out a box of popsicles and offers James one. "Not really, just jury duty."

James happily takes the popsicle and they start eating on the way out, both getting brain freeze the moment the doors close.

"Truth be told, I don't really know what to do as a SO," Prof Nine admits. "You're my first cadet. The Academy says it's good for forging connections within the institution, monitoring cadets one-on-one, giving them a closer look at being an agent. My colleagues say it's an unpaid assistant whom we can make do the work we don't."

"That's fair," James says. He hopes he won't be doing unwanted work. "What'll you make me do?"

Prof Nine shrugs. "I'll think of something. I think I have some favours to cash."

-o-

Academy Common Workout Room - 18:54 PM

They met at a weight room since James needed to practise more before taking on sparring and it gave them a chance to talk about their SOs. James tried to convince his friends they didn't need to be here and that he didn't need the training, but it didn't help that he needed so much work. When he successfully lifted a weight, the entire gym applauded him. If James knew he'd get that response, he would've been training outside of class since freshman year.

"I still don't like it here," James says. "It looks like a prison workout room."

"My SO told me she knows about Emily," Daniel says. He was the only one not participating in the workouts since he couldn't be bothered.

"Is she a fangirl or does she want you to sweet-talk your fiancée into giving her scholarship money to her program?" Angela asks.

In the heat of the moment, Daniel didn't think of that. Truthfully, he forgot Emily still had all of her, Apollo's, and Britney's scholarships to give back to the Academy in whatever way she chooses. " … I didn't ask. If I ask now, she'll either get offended and make me go through hell or be blunt and say yes. I'm not taking that chance."

"Because you know what you should've asked?" Merida questions rhetorically. "Our SOs won us over party games so you should've asked which game they played."

Merida expected them to be outraged but they don't react. Maybe it's her pettiness towards Communications talking.

"God I wish I was pin the tail on the donkey," James says hopefully.

Merida points her weight at Angela. "Ping pong." Xavier. "Tug of war." Daniel. "Pool." Herself. "Poker." James. "Mario Kart rainbow road."

They're still unamused except James who was pumped. In his eyes, his SO got so much cooler despite Agent Iyu winning him (actually, scratch that, he's even cooler now).

"None of you care?" Merida asks. "We were fucking pawns!"

"But none of us were won in chess," Xavier says.

Daniel's the only one who laughs which makes Xavier smile. Angela and James are more surprised that Xavier made a chess joke.

"Shut up," Merida says to them.

If you've read The Lorien Legacies, the reason Prof Nine's name is Prof Nine is because TLL's Prof Nine was the muse for James's SO and the name stuck. Also, that's all the names he's getting because I like it that way.