Enter Titania

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters, Marvel in general does.

Note: 'Catherine' is not really general Hale's name, but that is what I am calling her all the same.


…As Carl Creel, (also known as 'Crusher' and 'the Absorbing Man') was settling into his new digs, general Catherine Hale was feeling something akin to satisfaction: at last her plot was developing into something constructive, and her team was forming, so 'yay', as Ruby might say.

Thinking of Ruby made Catherine frown: so far, her daughter was still underperforming, which was more worrisome than the usual – the general's next recruit might be more responsive to someone like Ruby…though if he wouldn't be, but still would go along with her pitch with as little positive reinforcement as Creel had, the older woman wouldn't mind, Ruby was underperforming, after all.

That said…general was having her doubts; her next potential recruit was a very different man from Creel, so Catherine doubted that his recruitment would be as easy. No, Ruby was much more likely to participate far more in that interaction than in the interaction with Creel, and-

Catherine Hale's mental train derailed, as the door to their secret hideout/training base got punched off from its hinges and into the room came the biggest redheaded woman that Catherine, at least, has ever seen.

"And who are you?" she muttered, fingering her personal firearm and hoping that it would work on the intruder and that the intruder wasn't a gifted of some sort, because otherwise things would be even worse than they are already were…

"Oh, she's my old lady, Mary," Carl commented cheerfully, completely unimpressed by the newcomer's intimidating entrance. "Guess she heard about my new job and decided to muscle in. Sign her up!"

"…I didn't know that you were married," Ruby muttered (at an extremely inopportune moment, in her mother's opinion). "I mean, you don't look the part," she added, as the grown-ups in the room who were not related to her, looked at her impassively. "Well, you don't!"

"He doesn't," the intruder – Mary, – agreed, surprising both Ruby and her mother. "Nor does he cheat on me…though it would've been better if he had – anything would've been better than working for that man Whitehall and his corner of Hydra!"

"But Whitehall is dead, right?" Ruby asked carefully, and for once, Catherine couldn't blame her – the info that they had on Daniel Whitehall had been rather dark, even by their standards, which were a-ok for dismembering people live.

"…We hope so," Mary muttered, as she sat down next to Creel. "But Horton and his people are around, and they seem to be taking orders from someone else…which is bad. If the rumors are true, no one can really go toe-to-toe with Whitehall anymore, and that's really bad."

"So why aren't you working for him?" Catherine could not help but to ask.

"This is the better deal," Mary shrugged.

"…We sometimes cut limbs off people," Ruby, apparently, just couldn't keep quiet, the general detachedly thought, even when she was outnumbered two to one, (and while Ruby was good, Catherine wasn't sure that she was ready to fight two seasoned InHuman fighters).

"We know," Carl answered with a smile of his own. It was not a very nice smile, but then again, the Absorbing Man was not a very nice person. "So where do we sign Mary up?"

"Please, call me Titania," the latter smiled gamely, with just a hint of Irish accent in her English.

"…Right, so you're the…Absorbing Woman?" Catherine carefully asked, hoping that 'Titania' will not be set off.

She was not, but it was a close thing. "No, I'm just extra-strong; the strongest there is now that the Hulk is gone, as well as all of those Norse aliens," was the reply, reinforced by the redhead crushing one of the reinforced chairs with just one of her hands without any effort. "See?"

Catherine did, and her hand did not tremble as she signed Mary/Titania up for her team. Hopefully, her next recruit would not be as troublesome as Creel apparently was…