Sam, I Think This is the Beginning of a Beautiful Friendship

[Narrator]

Shortly after the totally not-inspired-by-British-Intelligence plane landed, Agents Fite and Madd came to speak to the headmistress of the university.

[Samantha McManus]

"Come in, gentlemen," came a voice from the headmistress' office, before they'd even had a chance to knock.

[Narrator]

"Headmistress. I trust all is well on campus, then?" Agent Madd said, in way of greeting.

[Samantha McManus]

"As it ever gets. I presume you're here for debriefing?"

[Narrator]

"More or less. We want to make sure everything went alright, and to touch base on where to go from here."

[Samantha McManus]

"I'm afraid my people are going to need a little bit of downtime, but otherwise I'm sure they'd agree to be interviewed."

[Narrator]

"What was YOUR analysis of the situation? Were you pleased with the performance of your team?"

[Samantha McManus]

"I don't know if there's 'pleased' and 'displeased' here. I understand you needed this, but it was a difficult situation to place them in given the diplomatic issues. I do hope with the evidence we've gathered we can expect more direct support in this issue."

[Narrator]

"Well, perhaps we can help both of our causes, yes?"

[Samantha McManus]

"One would hope. Keeping Mister Stanton's trust in this has been difficult."

[Narrator]

"Well, we have a workaround for Mister Stanton. With further analysis of some of the nanoprobes your team has brought back, we may be able to figure out a more permanent solution, but that's for the future."

[Samantha McManus]

"I'm certain he'll be glad to hear that."

[Narrator]

Agent Fite sat down, rifling through some papers in his briefcase.

"The difficulty we've had, of course, is the fact that the nanoprobes erased any effort to put him into a database. That's why we suggested bringing him in to our custody; we're used to working off the books. That didn't seem to thrill either him or your staff, to be quite honest. And believe me, I understand why--don't think we're entirely heartless over here."

Agent Madd pulled out a small folder out of HIS briefcase.

"In order for Mr. Stanton to stay here, we needed to find a way to, at least temporarily, put him on the books. You see, we can't run interference for you all the time, and then there are the everyday issues with being persona non grata

For your other new...arrivals, this was fairly easy--neither had ever been in the U.K before, so apparently, the nanoprobes targeting them had not had time to worm their ways into the system. Thus, we have your...Miranda Savage and Charles Franklin registered and ready to go. Until we find a way to actually remove the virus from our systems, rather than just stopping the spread, however, we can't do the same for Mr. Stanton.

So, we had to simply register him in a database he never would have been in before."

He placed the dossier on Sam's desk. "The Intellectual Property Office congratulates you and your team on inventing a system of reproducible biomatter. As a private university, you have full license to sell, license, and otherwise exploit your findings. It would, of course, be unlawful for Her Majesty's Government--or, for that matter, any foreign powers or private groups--to attempt to remove your invention from your laboratories."

"An inelegant solution, but it was the best we could do while keeping him under YOUR protection, rather than ours."

[Samantha McManus]

"And what are we defining as 'our laboratories' in this instance?"

[Narrator]

"Anything currently operated by Xaviers University or its trustees, as defined by you.

I suppose we could have gone X-Corp, but we figured you might want to...keep it in the family, you could say."

[Samantha McManus]

"Less than ideal to restrict him to campus, but I suppose needs must."

[Narrator]

"If you have a suggestion that would give him more freedom of movement, we'd be happy to help in any way we can."

[Samantha McManus]

"I'd prefer to see how he reacts, first."

[Narrator]

"We'll let you break it to him, then, if you'd prefer.

We also are prepared to give you any help you need analyzing the information your team liberated from the base.

In exchange, we may like to use your team's services again, in order to counteract Black Air before they can capitalize on whatever it is their plan is."

[Samantha McManus]

"I think it's becoming personal for a few of them. We'll see how they're holding up, but perhaps that won't take much convincing."

[Narrator]

"I don't want you to feel we're taking advantage of your...generosity. We fully intend to work with you on this. It's just, well, sometimes there's advantages to doing things...off the books."

[Samantha McManus]

"I'm sure. No love lost here for Black Air, rest assured."

[Narrator]

"Well, then. Here's to a fruitful ongoing partnership, eh, headmistress?"

[Samantha McManus]

"Aye," she smiled faintly.

"What else can I help you gentlemen with before the debriefing?"

[Narrator]

"Well, is there anything you need? You've been quite helpful to our efforts so far, and we do like to repay our debts."

[Samantha McManus]

"I rather think the big payoff will be when we finally clear up the issues with Mister Stanton, not that the offer isn't appreciated."

[Narrator]

"The offer to absorb him into our department stands. We could use someone permanently off the books."