#shieldhrfacchino

[rbl-m1a2tanker]

Fem!Facchino by Inspector97 is not impressed with this sudden development.  The effects of that ray gun that Agent Zingari messed with clearly are far reaching.

[demcorps]

AU: Sleeper Agent: Contemplation

Josie, with a pack on her back, armor fully deployed and her helmet over her head once more, was in the air, flying as fast as she possibly could without pushing herself to the next level, the air and clouds visibly parting around her in passing.  Her helmet visor ticked off the distance to her target, even as she held a silent conference with her two most trusted lieutenants, hundreds to thousands of miles away. Small video windows provided some satellite feeds, letting her check on Lin, and anything that Dustine pointed out.

“Doc, did you get a triage location set up?”

“Yes.  Think it’s an old asylum building, about two miles away from here.  I’ve got the three you tasked to me straightening things up right now, and another team ready to drive a load of injured over there. Mind if I take the Huey you sent with Zin?”

“Go ahead.  How many survivors?”

“Two hundred, give or take.  Out of a crew that had to be in the thousands.”  Lin’s voice was bitter in Josie’s head.  She took the loss of life personally, even though there was nothing she could have done.

“Better some than none.”  Dustine interjected. 

“Maybe, would have preferred to get more.  They’re pulling themselves together, and I’ve been pulling some of their usable Quins out.  We’re going to need the transport capacity.”  On the video dedicated to the helicarrier, a Quinjet was slowly brought upright and gently placed on it’s wheels.

“Agreed.  Dustine, any changes in your A.O.?”

“Not yet, but teams that are close to their targets are picking up increased traffic on the  GUARD freq.  Firefights have broken out at a couple of them, so I’m guessing there’s survivors.  Who they’re fighting though, I can’t tell.  The transmissions are garbled.  Likely still diminished from what Zingari did to their network.”  Dustine’s video shifted to a grainy shot of a structure, smoking and on fire, with flashes of light appearing from several directions, both near the building, and away from it.

“If there’s firefights, verify and engage targets that are attacking the survivors.  Take’em alive, if possible.  We need information.”

“You got it boss lady. Hit’em hard and fast.  So what next after that?”

“A very good question.  Lin, any ideas what Facchino is planning?”

“Not sure, I think he’s still wrapping his head around the problem.”  A pause, then, “You know if they scatter we won’t be able to get them back with any ease, if at all.”

Josie gave a slight nod to herself as she agreed with her distant doctor.  “No, we won’t.  But they’re S.H.I.E.L.D.: we’re not.  They might have resources we don’t.”

Dustine snorted.  “As compromised as they appear to be, I wouldn’t trust those resources if I were them.”

“Agreed, but I’m not going to fight the man on it.  Suggestions on what we can offer?”

Silence followed as Lin and Dustine thought it over. 

“We could bring the survivors here.  After a thorough screening.”  Dustine offered.

“They’re already being checked, nobody’s shown blue blood yet.”  Lin groused.  She had been hoping for a fight to relieve some pent up tension. 

“That’s not all that I’m worried about.”  Dustine’s voice became more contemplative, and concerned.  “Think about it. How does S.H.I.E.L.D., one of the most secret and stringent organizations become so massively compromised?  If it isn’t shape shifting Skrulls, there’s gotta be something else making the sleepers awaken.” 

Josie’s eyes narrowed as she followed Dustine’s track.  “Either they had someone, or several someones, already in there that weren’t sleeping at all, or there’s something that’s activating them.”

“Exactly.”  DEM’s computer whiz sounded more concerned as she named off possible activators.  “Nanotech, chemical inducers, parasitic biologics, hypnotics, mind control, hell, even magic could be setting them off.” 

“Say we offer to bring them to Home.  What do we need to screen them?”

“Use the analyzers from the New York ‘house on their blood.  Those can detect nanotech, chemical and biologics, if there are any outside the norm.  Can’t do much on the other three, so we’ll have to find a trusted mind reader to scan them for at least hypnotics and mind control.  If we can find one.  Magic…”

“Yea, let’s not go there.  I’m short a goddess or a witch to call on for a verification, and I have no idea if Doctor Strange still lives.”  Josie started to slow down and decrease her altitude as she closed in on her target, tilting her body so that her feet were to the mountainous ground below.  “We’ll just have to take precautions on that last one.  Ok, we’ll offer them sanctuary, let them pull themselves together.  We need pickup points.”

“We’ve got the barn, and the asylum as natural points on the East Coast for now.”

“And if they scatter?”

A brief moment of silence before an inset map appeared on Josie’s HUD, replacing the video stream from Dustine.  It zoomed in on an old airstrip on the west coast of the United States.  “If they change their mind, have them strike for this location.  It’s a decommed AF base, but the strip looks good.  We can set up a comm relay so they can contact us to pick them up, and some basic gear.  Nothing that can track back to us.” 

“Do it.  Try to find similar pickup points in other parts of the world so we can make recoveries.”  Her armored boots clicked as she landed and took in the sight of the rising black smoke and roiling fire over the Greenland outpost.  “I’m at my target now.  Now, say we find someone with any of the previously mentioned things in their system.  Suggestions?”

“If they haven’t been awakened, try to save them from that fate.”  Lin replied instantly, predictably.

Dustine’s response was rather more atypical of the platinum blonde woman, surprising both Lin and Josie.  “Kill them.  We lack the equipment to detox blood of chemicals and biologics, and we sure as hell lack the technology and equipment to counter nanotech.  It just doesn’t exist in the levels we’d need.” 

Josie thought it over as she walked around the outpost: both were valid options, and she would prefer to save them.  Still… “We’ll have to leave it to Facchino.  His people, his call.  If we happen to find someone with at least some understanding of what to do with nanotech, maybe we’ll have a shot of saving them, if that’s what they’ve got.”  Focusing on the moment, she reached out with her senses, while her cybernetic eyes shifted through several modes, seeking survivors.  “Greenland outpost is pretty trashed.  Not finding much here to save or salvage.  Head-wait one.” 

She gazed slowly, head turning as she tracked what she was looking at, her senses focusing on a weak life sign.  She then jumped, and landed several feet away from her previous location, landing near small shed.  With her eyes set to detect chemicals and biological traces, she had picked up on a significant amount of blood, and a switch to infrared allowed her to follow the blood trail to the shed.  It wasn’t much of a shed, but from what she could tell, it was likely for storing tools and other items for the small patch of garden that was nearby.  Focusing, her hearing picked up on labored breathing inside.  Josie switched her eyesight to X Ray, and detected a man inside, an arm around his waist, and a pistol in a hand, propped up on his knee. 

Moving silently to the side of the shed and kneeling, she let her tail slip out of its’ armored slot in her belt, and tap lightly on the door.  “Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., my name is Josie Acken.  I was sent by John Facchino to find and recover any survivors.”

The man could be heard shuffling inside, and the pistol was cocked.  “S-stay back! How do I know he sent you?”

“UN authorization, Section 45, subsection E, paragraph 32 allows S.H.I.E.L.D. to deputize police and military forces in instances of an emergency, and buddy, you’re in one hell of an emergency right now.”  Josie replied, giving a little bit of a white lie.  The new Director didn’t specifically deputize DEM, and she wasn’t about to go along with that anyways.  Still, having O’Neal provide that was useful, since she didn’t have any other real way to verify her story to a wounded and frightened agent. 

“I’ve also got some medical gear with me and I can get you out of here.  Are there any others here with you?”

The man didn’t reply right away, and she was half afraid he was slowly passing out.  Still, she thought she could still detect some slight shifting inside.  Finally, as if he had made a decision, he replied, “Not anymore.  Agent Falco was inside with Agent Stewart.  I don’t know what happened to Stewart, but Falco came out and opened fire on me.  I managed to get him, but before he died he set off the charges.  If Stewart was alive before, he isn’t now.” 

Josie nodded.  It seemed to fit the pattern.  “What’s your name, Agent?”

“Swartz.  Jim Swartz.” 

“Ok Agent Swartz, I’m going to open the door to the shed, and I’m going to ask that you don’t shoot me.  I take offense to that.”  She slowly stood up and started to creep her way to the door. 

“Yea, I know the feeling.  I’m not disarming though.” 

“Not asking you too.  Will you let me help you?” 

The man sighed, and she heard the pistol become uncocked.  “Yea, sure.  Though I’m going to ask that you don’t kill me.  I take offense to that.” 

Josie smirked.  “Humor.  I like that.  It’s a good sign.  Ok Agent Swartz, I’m opening the door now.”  She reached over, and pulled the door aside, slowly.  Inside, the man, with close cropped black hair, sat hunched over in a blood soaked uniform.  His skin was pale in the light of the fire of the outpost. 

He looked her up and down briefly, and shook his head slightly.  “Like I could have hurt ya with this peashooter in that getup.”

She held her gloved hands to the sky.  “Needed you to trust me.  And I really do dislike getting shot at.” 

He gave a weak smile as she moved inside and brought her pack around.  “Fair enough, ma’am.”

It took twenty minutes to bandage Swartz wound (and having to temporarily relieve him of his firearm in the process so she could patch him up) before they were ready to leave.  An oxygen mask and goggles on his face, neoprene wrap over his head and hands, and his weapon secured in his holster, he clasped his hands behind her head as she cradled him effortlessly in her arms. 

“Doc, I’ve got a survivor.  A casualty.  I’ve patched the wound for now, but he’s got shrapnel and at least two bullets lodged in him, far as I can tell.  I think he’ll make it, but I’m bringing him right to you anyways.”  Her power flared around her, before she pushed off the ground into the sky.  He didn’t even question the fact that she could fly.  She turned in mid-air, threw a hand out from under Swartzs legs, and unleashed a golden energy blast that brought part of the mountain down on top of the outpost, burying it completely.  “Target’s been cleaned, best I can do anyways.”  Josie turned back and took off at her fastest speed once more, heading for Lin and most of the rest of S.H.I.E.L.D.  “Speaking of being clean, I’m thinking that if any of the agents there turn out clean, we should offer more than sanctuary.”

Dustine’s voice was curious, if a little disbelieving.  “What, like offer them a job?”

“Nothing is more motivated than a merc with a personal mission, and since we’re working on the same goal right now anyways...might as well bring some of them into the fold.  Temporarily, if they want. Help give them some further cover.  I’ll ponder it further on the flight and get back to you.”  She looked briefly at Swartz’s goggled face, and through the lens she could see his eyes, while wincing and full of pain, were also determined and focused. 

“Definitely bring your man directly to me. I’ll check him out before sending him on for more medical attention.”  Lin inserted into Josie's thoughts. 

“Will do.  ETA is thirty, maybe forty minutes.  O’Neal?” 

The heavy weapons specialist responded quickly, his thick brogue coming through clearly.  “Aye, Lead?”

“Inform Facchino that I’m on my way to your location.  Get his approval to move the wounded now, but don’t let him send the rest of them to the four corners just yet.  We have business to discuss.” 

“Aye ma’am.  I’lla let the lad know.”  

Josie put on an extra burst of power, and plowed through a cloud formation, the sonic boom bouncing off the distant mountains behind her.

[alastor-the-executioner]

Shattered SHIELD Drabble: Back at the Barn

Alastor was lucky, in that he passed out of such exhaustion that he really did not dream, at least at first. There were momentary flashbacks, images that stirred him, caused him to shift. As time went on however, the images became more vivid, and more recent, until finally a memory of Maria jarred him awake, his head slamming forward into the dash of the car.

Cursing loudly he held a hand to his forehead, there was a bit of blood on his glove from the edge of the dash cutting him but he could feel the wound healing quickly. Still he cursed loudly and fumbling with the door he and pulled himself out of the car. Groaning his stretched, his neck and back popping loudly from being cooped up in an unnatural position for so long. Only then did he realize where he was, and where he was looked to be rather, normal. “Am I… in a barn?”

Josie, her armor retracted into its base components, turned to Alastor, arms crossed under her armored chest.  "Why yes.  Yes you are.  One of the others had purchased a farm out here in the middle of no-where, with the intention of having it when he retired."  

The smell of old hay, feed and animals permeated the wooden structure.  Straw littered most of the barn floor.  A few DEM mercs were in the barn, moving equipment and other gear to various places.  A couple were setting up a heavy weapons mount at one end of the barn in an upper loft.   Josie gestured with her head.  "Come on, got something to show you."  She led the way towards an open hatch in one of the livestock stalls.   

Underneath was a large, basement, easily as wide and long as the barn above.  Golden light filled the area, revealing several old military cots, blankets and pillows.   As well as a few people, dressed in the dark uniforms of S.H.I.E.L.D.  A medic was working with them, treating wounds, helped along by a couple experienced mercs and former combat lifesavers.

Alastor’s helmet clicked and sealed shut around his head. He’d downloaded SHIELD’s roster before shutting down the network, and the armor already had facial recognition software. The HUD showed a line wiping past the screen, each Agent being highlighted with names and ID numbers. There were names he recognized, but none were people he knew directly. Sighing he let the helmet fold back up behind him. “This all who’s come through to us so far?”

Josie nodded.  "All we managed to recover, yes.  Lin's still at the Helicarrier wreckage.  Probably twice the number of survivors than this, from her estimate, but they're pretty banged up."

She took a seat on one of the old cots, the nylon creaking slightly.  "So as it stands, we've recovered a few from SHIELD HQ, a couple at random outposts that were outside when charges went off.  Dustine's picked up some kind of jamming field at a place in the Midwest.  Could be more there."

A dampening field? He turned to her and raised an eyebrow. “Where in the Midwest?”

She shrugged.  "Somewhere in Kansas.  The field is actually making it difficult to pin it down further than that."

“I can’t think of any facilities out there off of the top of my head.” He shook it as he mentioned it and sat down himself. “Has there been any other updates from teams elsewhere?”

Josie shook her head.  "The teams we had sent out in the Pacific area have a much larger area to travel in, so nothing's been updated.  Plus we don't know where all their outposts are there, so they're going by what Dustine could find.  Still, a couple teams are bringing back a few folks from the Philippians."

He nodded, “There are people I, still hope to find alive. I’m just… I don’t want to hope.”

"Best to save it till later."  Josie stood up, and was about to head back up when she paused.  "Oh, Dustine and Tsano have some good news for you.  They think they can reconstitute your 'Alice' program, but it'll take some significant patching.  If it happens to be on any of the equipment that they're working to pull from the Helicarrier, should make it easier for them."

He looked back up at her and nodded, that was something. “She’ll be of good use.” He pulled himself up as well, “What sort of transport do we have here, and how far away are we from the Helicarrier? I’d like to help, if I can.”

Josie thought for a moment.  "Well, besides the car, we've got a couple of the trucks here.  The rest are out.  Air assets aren't present at the moment, but we have a Huey coming this way.  Could get you to the ship in about thirty, maybe twenty minutes?"  

She paused, and gave a slight smirk.  "Or I pull a Lin and carry you there.  Only way you'd get there faster."

He shook his head, “No, you should stay here, keep things coordinated. DEM’s your company, I’m just borrowing it. Besides…” He took a deep breath and looked back up at her. “I’m going to need to carry a box. There’s someone I can’t leave behind.”

She met his gaze and gave a single nod.  "Understood.  Bird lands in about five minutes, give or take.  It'll be out back, we marked out the LZ with infrared markers."

He nodded in thanks and stepped past her, patting her on the shoulder. “Thanks. I’ll bring it back without a scratch.”

"You better, it's a rental."  She replied as he started up the stairs.  "Also, one of our teams at the carrier made contact with a man named Facchino."

He turned and looked back at her, “John?” Slowly he nodded, accepting the good graces that was this news. “Good, SHIELD needs someone who isn’t me as the highest ranking officer right now.”

"He may have mentioned something along those lines.  Expressed a sincere hope we didn't let you go running off."  She looked at him with an eyebrow raised, as if suggesting 'like we would have stopped you anyways.'

“No, I’ve done all the running I’m going to do for this one.” He turned and headed back up the stairs. “Now is the time to regroup, and then we can march off to war.”

"We'll have to have a discussion about that when we're done regrouping."  She followed after him, adding, "Speaking of which, everyone present has been tested, and they're already doing some checking at the carrier.  So far it's clear."

“Good,” Once they were back upstairs he turned to her. “So, where can I find a box?”

She gestured with a thumb over her shoulder to the back of the barn.  "Already had a small shipment brought from the county coroners.  Nothing fancy, just a heavy plastic case, but they'll get the job done.  No pines boxes for this bunch."

“She’ll get one later…” He took a deep breath and started towards the boxes, his helmet hissing and sliding into position, because he didn’t want the tears he could feel coming to be seen. Hefting one of the boxes he started out the back of the barn to the LZ, the sound of the chopper already faint in the distance, at least to him. “Leave a light on for me Josie… I’ll be back.”

[alastor-the-executioner]

AU: Sleeper Agent Drabble: Broken Chain of Command

*drip*

*drip*

John's eyes opened with difficulty, and his entire body seemed to be made of pain. He could feel the sharp edges of filing cabinets digging into him, and the sickening sensation of his body healing around them.

*drip*

It was dark, and there was water, and he just didn't know. Breaths came to him in short and panicked gasps, the reality of drowning eclipsing his fears of everything else for a moment. In the darkness, alone, with no one to hear him but the other damaged souls, John Facchino opened his mouth and screamed. The filing cabinets came apart at the joints, files scattered, and the furniture in his crushed office was reduced to their component parts.

And the door, when he looked at it, ceased to exist, the metals reduced to their elemental state in a heap of dust. There was light out there, and Sub-Director John Facchino of SHIELD crawled for it like a crazed animal, huddling near the broken body of the intern and the fire burning merrily in the remains of the copy machine.

He needed to find the others, assess the situation, get orders. Deputy Director Hill was on bridge duty; she'd know what to do. He put the fire out before he left, and made his way cautiously through the wreckage, navigating more by scent than sight.

It took him the better part of an hour, and he might have had to ease a few souls that couldn't be helped otherwise along their way. He was leading a group of five walking wounded when he kicked the door that led to the bridge in, aided by the dissolving of the hinges into base metals. He was getting the hang of that, but he felt more like passing out each time.

He swept his eyes over the unfamiliar pair running a search and rescue op, and growled. He was tired, sore, scared, and didn't know what the hell was going on. The feral in him was not playing well with others.

"Who are you, who sent you, and where are Director Fury and Deputy Director Hill?"

The two people standing in the bridge, one a large burly man in heavy armor with bright red hair was pulling up a piece of debris. The other was checking a fallen Agent who was alive but had a piece of shrapnel through her shoulder. The second, a young woman spun and drew her side arm, aiming it at the group.

The man dropped the chunk down, supporting it on his knee and held out a hand. “Oy! Wait lass, look at the Uniform. They’re SHIELD.” The woman looked over at him, then back to Facchino and nodded, holstering her side arm. The man straining again against the debris pulled it aside and let it drop. “We be your rescue crew lad.” He shook his head slowly however, “We dunna know where your Director be but…” He nodded over towards a body covered in a black tarp near the center of the bridge. “Yer Deputy Director I’m afraid is no longer with us.”

He could smell it, but he had to see. It couldn't be. Behind him one of the more impressionable of the rescued crew at least had the decency to throw up away from those needing rescued.

John crossed to the tarp, and though he could have moved it out of the way without so much as a blink, he knelt and pulled it back from her face. The angle of her head, no pulse... the baby would have had a longer time of it, and a slow and painful death it would have been. There was no life within, neither of them.

Someone would pay dearly for that.

"I am Sub-Director John Facchino, Human Resources.  Have any other senior agents been located?"

The man nodded, “Aye.” Kneeling down he checked the pulse of the agent that had been under the rubble and sighed. Nothing. “Know the name Zingari?”

Facchino shot a horrified look at Maria's corpse and swallowed hard. "Please tell me, oh God, please, that you didn't let him wander off after telling him the Deputy Director was dead?"

He shook his head, “No, he came to us. ‘S why where here. Last report I got he was about thirty miles west of here, beating the living tar out of the woman who killed that poor lass right there.” He pulled a bottle of water off his belt and approached the agent who’d blown chunks. “That was about forty five minutes ago.”

"Shit."

The unnatural swearing, torn from the lips of one of SHIELD's more uptight members, had agents pausing everywhere, looking at him in shock. "He was the father." He said simply.

There was little to no hope of catching Zingari now. There was too much to be done, and Facchino was the highest-ranked and thus had to do it. "Who are you from, anyway?"

“We’re DEM Corporation. Problem solvers. You lot tend to call us Mercenaries.” The younger woman moved over to the Deputy Director’s body and re-covered her. “We got special orders to make sure her remains are cared for so she can be buried. Beyond that we…” The man paused, and put a hand up behind his left ear, eyes defocusing for several moments. “Well, Zingari has been a busy boy."

"Update?" He moved to a heavy desk resting against a bulk head and moved it aside with minimum effort, kneeling to check for a pulse. Thready, but present. He motioned one of his men over to care for the agent, who he vaguely remembered had a mild addiction to Galaga. "And at the moment, I wouldn't care if you were Hydra as long as you were helping."

“Aye we’re getting a report now.” He waited a few moments before his eyes refocused and he put his hand down. “Well Bitch who did this is dead, Zingari apparently blew her to high hell. Brass, our brass is heading to a rendezvous point, and we got another team heading this way to help with the evacuation. Job’s simple. We get you out, we regroup, and then we hit the bastards who did this to ya.”

"Who did this?" He looked around the ruined room, glass and metal everywhere, and his eyes hardened. "Because it sure as hell wasn't one woman." He should call his family. He should call Kri- oh God. "Are there other teams, working in here?"

The man nodded, “Aye, we got about 8 people here, divided in teams of two. We couldn’t dedicate all of us here. But now that the initial threat seems to be waylaid we’re moving as quick as we can. And we’re deploying members of our teams from other parts of the world too. As for who did this,” to his credit, he didn’t shrug. “We don’t know yet. Zingari apparently got the woman who did some of this’ files, our top hacker is currently all over it.”

"I need to know... science labs, have they been cleared yet? Any survivors?"

“Lad I don’t know where the Science Labs are, so I couldn’t tell ya.”

Torn between wanting to find Kristi, but knowing her mutation would save her, John Facchino did what he knew best; his job.

"In the absence of any other Sub-directors, I'm taking charge of SHIELD. Can you patch me through to Zingari? He's the next-highest rank I know is alive."

“I’m afraid we carry our Comm’s in us lad, not on us. Unless you got something with I can adjust the frequency on I’m afraid I canna do it. And if you do I’m gonna have to listen in, just how our Tech works.”

"Tell him I'm alive, and I'd appreciate it if he at least waited for backup. It's more a friendly request, and if he feels he can't wait, to at least make sure they suffer for a few seconds"

One of the agents gaped at him, and decided not to say anything.

"I need the dogtags off the bodies, so I can figure out who's unaccounted for and who's alive."

He had far to many in his belt pouches as it was.

The man pulled a pouch off his belt and handed it over, it was heavy with the tags he’d already taken. In the meantime his other hand was up by his ear again. “Zingari is currently unconscious in a car being driven towards a rendezvous. Bastard fell asleep.”

Facchino nodded and took the bag, adding it to his belt. I have the full SHIELD roster on me, undamaged. I always do." He cast another glance over at the shrouded body of his superior, and for a moment there was an emotion more akin to grief that fluttered across his face.

"If he can, let him. He deserves a moment of peace, God knows he'll allow himself none when he wakes."

“Can only imagine what he’s goin’ through. Most of us in this job don’t go for families cause of this.” He looked down at the body and sighed to. “Man’s somethin’ though. Never seen the entire Corp volunteer for a job. Not like this. Ya dun fuck with family.”

“Wait... what? "You know him? From before SHIELD?"

“No use in keepin it secret I guess. He worked with us, before he left to work for you.”

"I know they allowed a fair amount of vagueness in his file, and some outright lies, so I never knew much about him before-hand. It makes sense, I suppose."

“Vagueness and lack of information is how we make a living.” He unfocused again, and there was a sound of engines outside. “Second teams here, and they brought air transport. We need to get the survivors we have out of here. Then we can sweep what we haven’t, we got orders to clear as much equipment as we can to, cause much as it might hurt for you to hear lad, not much of SHIELD at the moment, and we can make use of it.”

He nodded. "Consider it payment for services rendered. There's some things I can't let you have, but they mostly would have self-destructed anyway. If they say "Stark" on them, that's not ours and you’ll have to give it back to Stark Industries. Dr. Stark can be litigious

“Mr. Stark is dead.”

That was a punch to the gut. "W-What?"

"That's not... I mean... What about the rest of the Avengers?"

The man sighed, “You were not the only people hit, more than the Helicarrier fell. The North East is in chaos. There are riots, some because Mutants have found themselves without their powers, others because… people panic when their heroes die.” He crossed his arms. “Tony Stark’s body was found impaled on his tower, the head of a man identified as Dr. Bruce Banner was found beside him. And there are reports of a hammer that nobody can move, in a crater in midtown. As far as we know, the Avengers are dead.”

"Holy Mary, Mother of God." He should have been a priest. He'd wanted to be a priest. But now... "Fine. Take what you find, any questions on how it works, please do contact me. SHIELD AGENTS!" He raised his voice to be heard by the all too few in the room. "Those of you who don't need hospitalization, and you will not be making that determination for yourselves, will come with me. We're going to go keep the peace, if we have to arrest everyone between here and the Atlantic Ocean to do it."

He did not look again at the body, though his thoughts were on it. "We have suffered heavy losses today, we have all lost someone. We're not letting them die in vain. We swore an oath to serve and protect, and we will damn well do it."

He looked around at the frightened and angry faces, and nodded almost to himself.

"There's rioting, and New York will be worst off, so we head there. We will pick up any SHIELD agents we can find alive and well, hospitalize the ones who can be helped. We will recruit and deputize police forces and military. We have UN authorization to do so under Section 45, subsection E, paragraph 32. It's important, so memorize at least the location in the charter. Let's go save the world."

He nodded to the mercenaries and said softly "I'm leaving you be; I appreciate your work and efforts here. Stay in touch somehow?"

“I’d highly recommend against such actions lad.” He waved his hand around the room. “Your command structures gone, while your network was up, and we had access to it, we saw the ID tags of nearly two hundred agents go offline. Someone is going after you and going after you hard, and marchin’ straight into one of the most densely populated areas in the world isn’t going to help ya at all, ‘specially if what my boss says Zingari is suggestin’ is true.”

Facchino paled even more if possible. Two hundred... "Guess my arguments against tagging agents was valid, after all."  He wanted desperately to crawl back into a hole and never come back out, but SHIELD needed him.  "What about the Council? Any word from them or the UN?" There was a moment, and then he ran the conversation back through his head. "Wait, what was Agent Zingari suggesting?"

“We’re a paramilitary organization lad, not a rightful one, and we keep quiet about ourselves. We don’t know anything about the UN’s response to this, or any Council. Hell for all we know they got hit too, public communications are spotty, we got our own network that’s walled off but, we ain’t got no way of knowin’. As for Zingari’s thoughts…” With no real explanation he pulled a knife out of his belt, and nicked his cheek, his associate doing the same. “Red blood, as you can see, not blue.”

His eyes narrowed, and a low growl was barely heard. "Skrulls. He thinks Skrulls did this. They tried it before, and we stopped them."

“Aye,” He nodded and flipped the knife over, holding it out to Facchino, his other hand very clearly on the grip of his holstered revolver. “So, I’m going to have to ask that everyone prove in some shape or form they’re not a shape shiftin’ alien. Then we can get you outside, cause there are a couple hundred dazed and confused agent’s out there who have no leader, and only a handful of us trying to convince em to board our transports to safety.”

Facchino accepted the knife and drew it over his cheek without hesitation, the cut oozing red for the merest of moments before healing over without a trace. "You heard the man. If you're not already bleeding, shed a few drops. I'll be outside." HE stalked to the broken windows at the front of the bridge, through which he could simply step to the ground. There were people to reassure, and orders to be given. One out of two he could do...

[alastor-the-executioner]

//So who wants to answer Mike's phone call?

[shieldhumanresourcesdept]

ooc:RPing

I have a few threads on-going, with McCoy, Kaja, Jean, Sleipnir/Sigyn, and the sword and Saber crew. 

I will be accepting no more RP threads on Tumblr on this account for a while.

This is not due to any particular event or person, but I am in the process of switching all my RPs for these muses over to sideblogs to return this blog to the halcyon days of uncluttered memos and asks. This has been bothering me for a while, and I am going to fix it.

But it might take a while. If you want John, his is going to be shieldhrfacchino, and I will rp with you there. Maria's will be shieldhrhill, but they are both closed to new threads until I get everything transferred.