This time the mission took her away for five months, and it had not gone well.

As she walked into the reception area of Heroics HQ, heads turned to look at her. She grimaced as she stepped into the elevator to attend her debrief; word had clearly gotten around about the shit-show that had gone down in Peru.

Exiting the lift on Granada's floor, she went straight to the director's office, mildly noting that someone else was sitting at Marcus's usual station, and checked in with Granada's assistant.

This meeting was not going to be pleasant.

Granada eyed her over her steepled fingers as she entered her office, and gestured for her to take a seat.

"Well."

She grimaced, "I know, Ma'am. Everything is in here." She placed a document file onto the desk between them.

Granada didn't even acknowledge it. "We have larger matters to attend to."

"With all due respect, Ma'am, I think I should be resigning after this clusterfuck."

Granada raised an eyebrow at her colourful choice of language but did nothing to dissuade the sentiment. "Oh I think you'll be wanting to go back out one last time." She pressed a button on her keyboard and the large wall-mounted screen behind her shifted image to show something quite different to the customary tactical readouts.

Her breath stalled in her chest and her blood turned to ice at the photo now being displayed above Granada's head. "Is… is that…?" Her heart kicked into adrenaline fuelled overdrive as it caught up with what was going on.

Granada didn't move, simply raised the eyebrow again, "Yes." She leaned forward, propping one elbow on the desk, with the other arm braced against the surface out to the side, her elegantly manicured fingers curled into a frustrated fist. "He went in after you when you broke contact. Against orders I might add." Her eyes narrowed at the other woman's surprised expression. "Did you think I didn't know what you two were up to? I run the most advanced surveillance organisation on the planet, I've known what you were doing from the moment that the thought formed in your incompetent little heads. And now my best hero is trapped behind enemy lines, captured by the very villain that you were sent in to deal with!" She sat back in her seat again, conscious of how her voice had become raised. Pursing her lips in anger, she drummed her long, red, talon-like fingernails into the desk surface. "You're going to do it again, and this time you will do it right. Take care of that disgusting piece of work and bring me his head." She leaned forward again, dark threat radiating from her in waves, "And if Marcus Moreno is not brought back here in one piece, then you will suffer the consequences."

She grit her teeth; if only she knew. "Yes Ma'am."

Leaving the tactical floor, she went straight down to the procurement level and assembled the resources she would need for this mission.

Let it go smoothly this time, please God, let it go smoothly.

She would have to take a different approach this time, so she added a few unorthodox items to her customary shopping list and handed it over to the procurement clerk. As he read down the list his eyebrows disappeared into his hairline and he looked at her questioningly, "Are you sure?"

She nodded. She'd never been more sure of anything in her life.

Pulling out her phone, she sent an encrypted message to her team mates of choice for a mission of this type. Not the usual Heroics-endorsed team this one; desperate times called for desperate measures, and those measures took the form of hardened mercenaries.

24 hours later she and her team were at the drop zone in Peru, jumping out of the company Huey and disappearing into the surrounding foliage as the bird ascended again, having not bothered with an actual landing, then disappeared into the clouds.

She tapped her ear piece, her throat mic transmitting her whisper to her team, "Alpha 3, flank left; Alpha 4, flank right; Alpha 2, you're with me. Keep your eyes open out here, it's going to get messy." With her rifle pointed at the ground, and her most trusted Number 2 at her back, she set off into the jungle to find her man.