Issue 1 Downtime

Will stood in the Danger Room, looking over the blueprints provided by the military on Black Air's secret Savage Land base.

"Well, maybe if we come in from the side....no, that's too risky..."

((open))

Brigid was wearing her training jumpsuit as the doors hissed open and she stepped in.

"Oh, sorry! I can come back..."

Her eyes widened as it clicked what she was seeing.

"...later. Whoah."

"Hrm? No, no, if you had the room booked..."

Kay was following behind her, having talked Brigid into letting her watch her train.

"Oh. Hi Mister Stanton."

"No, no, I was just going to... er..."

"...does my dad know about that?"

"Your da...oh. Oh, no, I don't think he does."

"Ooh! Is that the Savage Land!?"

"Because that... uhm... looks like a big deal."

"It is. Or it might be.

It's a Black Air base."

"Those sound like bad guys..."

"There shouldn't be an anything base in the Savage Land. Mom and Dad don't even let SHIELD build anything other than a monitoring station right on the border."

"You're right. They very much SHOULDN'T be there.

HOW they've managed to get there is...a bit of a mystery at this point."

"Ooh, a mysterious base in the jungle?"

"It's really not cool, Kay. You don't know how many people have tried to mess with the place."

"And these people are experts at messing with others."

Brigid Plunder wrote:"It's really not cool, Kay. You don't know how many people have tried to mess with the place."

"Not really, no. Everything I know about it is what you've told me."

"Well there's a lot of stuff there that would be really bad if it fell into the wrong hands."

"That's one reason we're going to take them out.

That and revenge. Revenge is good."

"Revenge sounds like a solid plan, I'll tear the place down with my bare hands if I have to," Steph said gazing up at the blueprints as she strode towards Will. "I'm still having nightmares about the North Sea."

"And I'd wager that point," she indicated, grabbing the holographic map and stretching it with her hands to zoom in, "is probably a decent bet, if it's not too heavily guarded."

She then took notice of her students, and seemed to stiffen slightly, "oh, hello girls."

"Uhm... Hi, Miss Kaltiera." Kay says awkwardly, trying to pretend she didn't just hear her teacher talk about taking revenge on someone or something.

"...please tell me you'll let my parents know before you go in."

"Because... er... that'd get really unpleasant otherwise."

"We certainly wouldn't want that. And things will likely be unpleasant enough as is," she agreed.

She almost winced as the sights, sounds, and smells of the North Sea base flashed through her mind.

"Don't worry, we'll clear it. We're not secret agents or anything like that."

"You're going to the Savage Land?"

"Not for pleasure, I'm afraid..."

"Yeah, there's... more happy ways to visit."

"Blowing shit up has a pleasure all it's own, sometimes."

"Of course, there's the bigger problem, Steph--we'll need a way to take ME out, should the worst happen."

"I'd considered that. And I'll bring it up with the rest of the team. Without you."

"Good plan. Good plan.


...Sonics. That or electricity. Either or."

Steph nodded gravely.

"Hey, I'll be fine. I'd like to see you TRY to take me out permanently," he said, with a thin-lipped smile.

Brigid looked to Kay a bit nervously as this talk got bandied about.

Kay gives her bit of a 'whelp' smile, clearly trying to pretend she's not listening to the adults and instead studying the Savage Land map. She makes a head motion towards the door with a questioning look on her face.

Brigid nodded, and started making her way out.

"Right," she smiled weakly.

She watched the girls depart wordlessly.

"I can't tell if we scared them off or just made them want to come with..."

"They're good kids, and they've had enough trouble going places recently. I'm sure they'll be fine."

"They are..." she trailed off.

Shame they don't have a better teacher than you... a nagging voice taunted in the back of her mind.

"Everything OK?"

"Yeah," she lied, forcing a smile.