December 09, 2015:
With the threat of the Psyborgs escalating, a discussion is had about how to draw them out.
Safehouse - New York
Characters
![class="image1"](http://cmbeta.wdfiles.com/local--resized-images//class="image1"/medium.jpg)
NPCs: Captain
Mentions:
Plot:
Mood Music: None.
Fade In…
Agent Simmons… has something of a situation. Which has been brought to the attention of Partisan. And Aspect. Which means it will also subsequently be brought to the attention of May and her agents in WAND. Well not all of them presumably but psyborgs have made several attempts on Jemma. It's bad enough that she has had to move out of her home. Fortunately Jericho has done some 'leak testing' and he's fairly sure he knows the 'vector' for most of the psyborgs information. Hence the meeting now at a safehouse with Jemma, May's team and Partisan. He'll be bringing… er, actually he'll let Part handle the food.
May does offer to help Partisan handle the food, but she's fairly certain she'll just end up being in the way. It's at least the thought that counts, right? She brought Rain along to this meeting as the witch (and Captain, too) often have unique and very useful insights into unusual situations. At the very least, Captain can be counted on to go climb onto Jemma's lap and try to soothe her unease.
Rain seems to like Jemma well enough, and dealing with weirdness is just part and parcel of the job. Captain will indeed put a paw carefully on Jemma's leg, tail flicking. Permission to land? Sometimes having a lapcat helps. "Thanks, sorry about last time. I can't believe gremlins got into the servers going after 'googles'. They really seem to have trouble keeping up with things," She remarks. She can bring some food and drink if Partisan wishes help. Otherwise, Rain is here herself.
This is -THE- Mother Fucking Partisan, she does not "handle the food". She doesn't order pizzas, or snag take out Chinese. This is some serious fucking business, she has prepared a god damned feast. Theres Nettle soup, theres Shopska salad, Ajvar? Fuck yes theres Ajvar, burn your god damned face off serious business Ajvar and fresh home made bread! Theres awesome home made Kebapche, and this is a feast right? So yeah we got us some Sarma and baked pumpkin for desert. You can't front on that shit, it's the sort've spread that makes Thanksgiving look like "thanks for trying".
Part today is dressed in a well worn pair of jeans, some camo chucks and a "I <3 Warcrimes!" Blue and white T-shirt she's rocking sort've unironically. For the moment she's chilling out at the dining room table, working on a tumbler full of Rakia and potentially breaking the fingers of anyone damn fool enough to fuck with her magnificent spread before it's time to eat. Cigarette smoldering in the corner of her mouth, AK and gas mask slung over the backrest of her chair. Just in case, yaknow. Mind reading cyborgs show up, she's not liable to take warmly to those jackasses fucking around with dinner.
Don't ask Jemma to help with food and drink - unless it's bringing some of Mays special tea stash. She's not quite sure what the fuss is about … no, sigh, that's a lie, she is sure … she just wishes it was someone else, other than her.
She's only uneasy when she's made to sit and wait … give her research to focus on and she'll be fine. Which is why, the tension lines around her eyes are deepining. Deepening, until Captain paws at her… looking down, she pats her lap and waits for the tabby to land.
Jericho is bringing the paperwork. Which is what he has under his arm when he arrives. He knows better than to be in the way while she's cooking. "Smells good Part. Hey Jemma. May. Rain. So, I think I've made some progress on how the Psyborgs keep getting at Jemma's location. But you're not gonna like it. It looks like they got to one of your people."
Captain coming in for landing. The cat hops into lap easily, because humanity evolved laps for their feline overlords (obviously). He settles into a loaf formation for optimal petting. He even thoughtfully curls his tail up and allows pettings. "We're looking out for you," He promises. Rain smiles and waves to Partisan. She seems quietly curious and happy. She won't touch anything until it is a-okay'd.
For now, Rain looks to Jeri, and frowns. "Really?" She asks.
May has settled into a chair as well, the extent of her helping having been setting the table and assisting with carrying the various dishes. This safehouse has likely NEVER seen this kind of cooking before. And likely never will again. She looks up as Jericho arrives, and her eyebrows draw together in a faint frown. "Do you have a name?" Because she's pretty sure that she'll need to file to mount an extraction the moment she leaves. "And how long have they had their source?"
Partisan lifts her glass, though she doesn't rise, peering about for a moment. "We are all gathered, and so we shall eat. United as friends and comrades, Naz Drave."Part seems, well partial to the nettle soup, Ajvar smeared over bread and of course baked pumpkin. "Well thats what I expected, I didn't want to hear it but I was fairly certain I might. At least this is a SHIELD leak and not, you know DIA or something."
"One of ours?" Jemma does pat Captain, long slow strokes down his back. It's probably more soothing for him than for her. Swallowing, she ignores the food on the table for a moment, it will likely taste like ash while they discuss this. No offense, Partisan.
"Theodore Carson…" Jericho pushes forward the picture of a middle aged gentleman in a collared shirt. "Who works with SHIELD Finance of all things. Making sure people get paid. He's been passing information about the assignments and movements of SHIELD personnel via their pay stubs for a solid two or three months now. Knowing how these things operate, not too far a stretch to figure they got in his head. Of course, we might be able to use this to bait them… all we need to do is have Carson mail a check somewhere. Ten to one says that the psyborgs'll show up."
The hacker takes some soup, some bread, and some other food. Meanwhile K'nert perches up on a book case. And starts to eye Captain. Does he have a liver? Would it be… delicious?
Captain eyes K'nert warily. "Don't even THINK about it, you extra from Hellraiser." Captain rumbles softly at Jemma's pettings. Aw yiss, pettings. Rain quirks an eyebrow. Huh. "That's - alarmingly sensible," She remarks. "Would it be wise to have one of us get mailed a check? The manor is pretty heavily warded, especially with construction underway." She offers. "And thank you, the cooking looks amazing," She offers to Parti. A respectfully lowered head. Rain was homeless for years. Food is precious.
Partisan offers Rain only a warm smile "Food is a wealth better shared than kept or spent, eat and be merry." The whole idea of mailing, well Part pauses to exchange cigarettes with one hand. Refilling her Rakia with her opposite hand "Fucking pogues every time, if he wasn't Shield I'd pop him. All the same sure, Jerry has a wise idea though we'd be better off selecting an alternative location which would better permit an ambush. I know of an old hotel, they won't demolish it due to all the asbestos. Relatively secluded, good lanes of fire. Me and May could rig it for a good killbox in a few hours time I suspect."
Pepper Potts frowns openly at that. As much as she's like to go take the man into custody right now, she understands the need to gather intel. "I can arrange to set up a safehouse, though all the official channels, so it will look like that's where Simmons is currently staying."
Simmons rubs her temples as Jericho explains. She had felt safe working working with SHIELD and now that's compromised. "My mail is going to a post office box I set up when I had to move." Her apartment was ruined when the Sigma agent trashed it. "Setting up a safe house would be appropriate."
Fixing K'nert with a startled look she continues "I had to list where I was staying to get my stipend."
"Only if you want your house to become ground zero, Rain but I appreciate the offer." Jericho murmurs and looks back to Partisan, Jemma and May. "Sounds about right though. I'll leave it to you guys to pick the spot you want for the ambush. It may be necessary to have Jemma there. If they can sense minds they'll know if she's not at 'home'." Which puts Jemma in some danger but he doesn't see a way around that.
Pepper Potts shakes her head at Partisan. "It's got to be an official SHIELD safehouse, or it'll look suspicious." She'll keep that old hotel in mind for other things, though. "And if do need to have Simmons there, I think I know of a way to keep her out of harm's way at the same time." She looks at Jemma consideringly, wondering how the biochemist would handle some Lunair-provided body armor. It would likely be … interesting.
"May, would you like to borrow one of the little birds?"Lifting a hand to exchange cigarettes oncemore, before Part takes a belt of that Rakia. "I don't mind taking the heat, but I'm not going to have the sort've nasty to start dropping these motherfuckers with the sort've speed we're likely going to find necessary. Me and Jerry are a long ways from having ourselves a laser rifle or something, that revolver and 7.62 AP is about as nasty as I can provide if I'm going to be fast enough to play body guard."
"You want me there?" Jemma nearly squeaks and fingers dig into Captains fur causing the feline to grumble a little "Careful…" Relaxing, taking a deep breath in, she's so very glad she has chosen not to eaten. She … feels … ill.
"Little birds?" the biochem speaks quietly, clearly out of her depth. What she wouldn't give for lab and a … a kidney in a petrie dish …. right about now. Glancing to Jericho, panic flashes across her face until her eyes light on K'nert and she remembers and takes a shuddering breath in "An ambush …" Where's Fitz when she needs him?
K'nert turns the look from Captain to Jemma. Of course Jemma and May are off limits… for as long as a certain something holds true. It doesn't prevent his look from being kind of unnerving. "Helicopters, Simmons." Jericho explains as he listens. "If we set it up right, Part, we might be able to turn a wall into a claymore. C4 and plaster and ball bearings. That'll ruin someone's day." He keeps considering… "7.62 AP may do the trick. The Psyborgs are heavily armored but they're not tanks. I've been able to deal with them with my blade and heavy ordinance. You're always better with the hand weapons than me. If you can come up with some, say, 7.62 sabots or something I'll bet it'll be enough." Plus laser but Part's right. This is stretching the limits of their usual weapons capacity. "We should see what else we can come up with for your kit at some point…"
He looks over to May now. "How much time do you need?"
May considers Jericho's question, even as she's standing to fix some tea for Jemma. The kid's getting positively green around the gills. "A couple of days, at least. I'll need to push the paperwork through, then make it look like Simmons is settling in there." She brings the cup back to the biochemist before levelling a brief LOOK at K'nert. "We also have those psionic dampeners that can be placed ahead of time so they don't get the jump on us that way."
"It's a small attack helicopter, Howard Hughes penned the original design before he went batshit incidentally."Part gently sets her glass down as she turns to park her gaze on Jemma, and it's easy to find that less than comforting. She's usually got such a haughty air of casual disinterest about her, but for the moment it passes. "Jemma, sweetheart. Look at me. Breathe deeply, pull your arms back and lift your hands to your shoulders to expand your diaphragm. I can hear your heart beating from over here, but take a moment. Just take a moment and breathe, please?"Reaching a hand over towards Jemma with a smile, if she needs the reassurance of touch. "Now look me in the eye, and take heart. I Promise you I will get you through this, and everything is going to be alright sweety. Don't be afraid of these things, they're not worth your fear. Everything is going to be alright, ok? You are not in this alone, I will not turn my back on you. I will not let them touch you, and very soon this is all going to be over."
Jemma's breathing, slowly and deepy, fingers curling into Captains fur. The talk of weapons and whatever the hell else they're discussing with the numbers is somewhat over her head… Partisan can touch her, it might help. The tea that May puts in front of her is taken with her free hand.
"Dampners can't be on, Agent May." The biochem murmurs. "If they need to detect me, the dampners will stop that… " She swallows again "I can't make them any smaller in a couple of days but I can rig them with a remote a control … so they can be in position."
Partisans words get a startled look "I won't let them touch me, either." She … might have a backbone after all.
Jericho takes another few bites of his meal. Two days. He'll need to lay some electronic breadcrumbs then and he's got some other work to do. "I'll start rounding up hardware Part. We'll want to move on this as soon as you and May are ready. Simmons I'll be in touch. K'nert…"
The hacker fixes K'nert with a look and issues what sound like a number of rapid fire commands in that twisty, resonant language he knows that K'nert seems to understand. The imp nods once and skitters off into the shadows. "Right then. I should get going. Lots of work to do."
May nods to Jericho and finally settles to take a serving of each item Partisan prepared. It's all superb, and she would not have expected any less. "Trent, I'll notify you when the safehouse is ready for … modifications." She might have to talk with COulson about this one. Finding a safehouse that can be sacrificed like this is sometimes iffy. Especially finding one that is remote enough to keep collateral damage to a minimum.
Partisan offers Jemma a genuinely warm smile, and a little nudge on the shoulder. "I'll see what I can do, but we overdrive a catridge too hard and it'll just shatter on impact. Can't we just go back to fighting Hydra, I miss the days when I could just snag a Shotgun and an AK and wreck shit like it was going out of style."A pause as she returns to her Rakia. "I'll see if I can cook something up all the same, we go with much hotter of a load and superhuman or not my shoulder may end up getting pulverized. I'm already loading hotter than a human could ever survive, I'm shooting the rifling out with one mag dump right now already."
Jemma knows Partisan is trying to reassure her, but pulversing shoulders? Shooting rifling out with one mag dump? The terms mean something to the bio-chem, but … not a whole lot.
Kidney, Lab, Petrie Dish - that's all Jemma needs, really. And maybe Fitz to torment with it all.
"Alright, Mr Trent." she continues to pet Captain, reassured by the purring beneath her hand. When May is ready to go, Jemma will go to … It might be telling that she's not so perturbed by K'nert right now.