The Metahuman Agency: The Superhuman War

Before the Fall

After staying the night in D.C., the team was flown back to base after six o' clock in the morning, arriving at seven. Jason rose as The Panther landed in the hangar, slipping off his mask. He sighed, scratching his hair, waiting as the doors hissed open and let him out. He strode into the hangar, Laureen limping next to him, Audrey carrying James's sleeping form behind them, Hiroshi walking next to her, and Max bringing up the rear.

They strode into the hangar and Max suddenly moved ahead of the others, pushing past Jason. Jason glanced at him and said, "Hey. Where you going, man?"

"Gonna take a shower, " Max mumbled, not stopping or turning around. "Think I have a headache."

Jason opened his motuh to protest but then let his words die away. Probably pointless anyway. Laureen stopped next to him and sighed. They exchanged a silent look. Jason could see she was thinking the same thing as him. "Was he ever going to be okay?" He hoped so but...it was seeming kinda a long time before that seemed likely.

The Director strode out of The Panther behind them, lighting a cigarette. She looked over all of them and nodded. "That was a good trip." It was the first bit of praise she said to them since the conference. "Especially from you, Audrey. That improtue speech of yours just won us a lot of fans." She held up her phone. "In fact, you're trending."

"Me?" Audrey's voice cracked. She turned bright red. "Oh." She stood stock still for a moment and her knees wobbled. "Oh wow. Um...I...um..." She rubbed her head, her antennae waving around. "I feel dizzy..."

"Just nerves!" Laureen gave her a pat on the arm. "They'll pass. You did great! Fuck, I think we all did. We kicked the shit out of that press conference!"

Audrey nervously smiled. "Uh...yeah." She nodded, adjusting James on her shoulder. "Yeah." She rubbed her head, Jason notcing her massive legs were still shaking. The Director put her phone back into her pocket.

"Anyway," She continued. "You all must be exhausted." She waved her smoking cigarette at the exit doors. "Go get some rest. We'll see how this public unveiling goes in the morning." Everyone nodded. Jason stretched, his muscles complained. Yeah, he felt about ready to hit the hay.

Everyone turned to head off but suddenly, the doors opened automatically and a man strode into the hangar. He was an overweight African-American man, wearing a business suit, and carrying a suitcase in one hand. He had a stern, no nonsense expression and nodded to the Director as he approached.

"Who's that?" Hiroshi whispered to Jason. He pulled off his helmet and shook his sweaty face. "I haven't seen him before but he looks important."

"He's Beckett Axel," Jason muttered back. "He's in charge of the Agency's GHOST program. It's in charge of scrubbing compromising data about us from the net. Anything he finds could be trouble or a security risk, his unit takes care of. He generally doesn't visit us in person unless we really screw up though..."

Beckett approached the Director. He nodded to her. "Ma'am. Congratulations on the conference."

"Thank you," The Director replied, raising an eyebrow. "I didn't think you of all people would be happy about it."

"Hey, if making my job harder gets me that raise I've wanted, I'm all for it," Beckett's expression turned serious. "We've got a situation."

"A situation?" The Director echoed, narrowing her eyes. Jason narrowed his own. Uh oh. That didn't sound good. He walked a little closer, listening intently. The whole hangar went quiet as well.

Beckett glanced at the team. Then he said, "Approximately seventy two hours ago, the Cage was attacked." The Director stopped dead at that. Her cigarette dropped from her mouth and hit the floor. She didn't appear to notice.