102 Meeting

March 11, 2014

The morning after the party, I woke up with a groan. While I hadn't partaken in the alcohol I still stayed up forever, so I was reluctant as hell to wake.

I sighed, spun onto my back. "Hey X, man? Can you tell me what time it is, please?"

"Of course," X said from the living room. "It's… 9:40 am."

"Thank god for late mornings," I said with a sigh. Then I blinked. "Uh, X? Are the speakers in my room busted?"

"No sir," he said again. It sounded like his voice was coming… closer?

Suddenly, a being stepped into the room. I stared at it, shocked. "Uh… X?"

"Yep," he said.

"W-What?" I sat up and stared at him. "Dude, you'rehuge!"

X quirked his head to the side. The robot body he was currently inhabiting was about six feet tall but somehow looked squat and powerful despite that height, almost like a dwarf, with steel coloration across his form and black highlights. He had the build of a robotic bodybuilder, conveying strength and durability. Like a miniature Hulkbuster. His eyes were big and round blue lights, with no other features on his 'face'. Metal eyelids slid shut in a surprisingly expressive blink, and he chuckled. "Well sir, this is how I decided to design myself. Reckoned it was the best way to perform my duties."

"In a robot body?" I rose from the bed entirely, still staring. "I mean you look cool as shit, don't get me wrong, but… how long have you been doing this for?"

"For quite some time," X said watching as I circled him. "Jarvis and I planned this after we realized that AI such as us may become commonplace one day, and would need some established trust to prevent fear from causing issues. Plus, the idea of building a body tickled me pink, to be honest."

Once again I couldn't help but smile at how X had developed over time. He really had grown fast. Then again, he was an AI… now.

I rubbed the back of my neck. "X, this is gonna take some getting used to."

"I know," X said simply. "But in the meantime, I made you breakfast, and you have a meeting soon."

I had to take a moment to remember what he was talking about. Oh yeah, the vacation was over.

"Damn, you're right," I sighed. "Thanks for reminding me, X."

After a quick cleanup in the bathroom, I sat in the kitchen and started eating the breakfast X made for me. Omelets, yum. With extra time to think, I started asking questions.

"So, powered by an arc reactor?"

"Yep. I have one in the same spot my heart would be if I were organic, and one more for redundancy just in case."

"And what capabilities do you have?"

"Nothing," Tony suddenly strode into my room, surprising the hell out of me. He strode up to a cabinet and pulled out a snack bag that I didn't even know I had. He opened it up and walked up next to me, glaring at X. "Your AI buddy decided to make himself the most boring body of all time."

"I disagree," X replied.

"Then you'rewrong," Tony said sourly.

"Wait, no capabilities?" I asked while looking between them.

"I reckoned I'd go for a body that was focused on durability and strength," X said simply.

"And no cool toys," Tony waved a hand at me. "No repulsors, no catom tech, not even a taser! This guy is nothing but raw physical power! He's INSANELY strong and tough, nothing else!" Tony scoffed. "Only half as a much as the Hulkbuster at that."

"Coooool," I said in awe.

"Boring!" Tony sighed sadly. "So very, very boring."

I had to disagree. While I wasn't a genius, I was a comic book nerd, and I could see the appeal of making a robot that, while not super advanced, was instead insanely tough. In some ways, that carried its own versatility. And being so strong? Hell, some robots made a living off nothing but those two things.

"I apologize for disappointing you there, Mr. Stark," X said, sounding like he meant it, his metallic eyelids blinking. "Keep in mind, however, that I am more than capable of carrying my own weaponry as needed. I reckon that's more than enough for me. I'm a simple AI."

"Boring," Tony's near depressed sadness had me busting out laughing.

Later I was in a room with the 'leaders' of BRIDGE and the Avengers. Technically, Maria Hill was the only leader, and she answered to the Council, who answered to the UN. But among us, an unofficial group had been made for those who made the decisions. And I was nominally part of the group.

We were all sat in her briefing room on the Enterprise floating over New York, sitting in chairs as we discussed the matters of the day. Victoria Hand was speaking then, while Steve, Fury, Maria, and I listened closely.

"We took out the entirety of the weapons dealers," Hand said confidently. "But we found some more advanced weaponry we aren't sure of, things involving alien tech. I've got Doctor Foster seeing if he can track down where it came from."

"Keep me posted," Maria said seriously. "But in the meantime, you said you were having issues with the team makeup?"

"Yes," Hand tapped at the table, bringing up a hologram of her little group. "The biggest issue, as it is, is temperament. You've asked that this group take care of things from the shadows. And so far, they have. The only publicity they've gotten was during the Rio incident, and they've done good work across the world. However, Wanda Maximoff," here, she highlighted the hologram of Scarlet Witch. "Isn't a soldier. She is powerful, but she's not a killer. I'm worried that she isn't suited for the darker aspects of the work."

Maria frowned. "I see. Anyone else?"

"Ghost," Hand highlighted my nemesis. "She only works for us because, since joining, Foster has managed to make vast improvements to the technology that staves off her pain. But she doesn't like working for BRIDGE. SHIELD spent a lot of time using her as an assassin, with HYDRA doing the same from within us. The fact she's doing it again, even as a hero, is making her feel trapped. Once again she's killing people for the promise of being healed."

"I told her she doesn't need to do that," Maria protested.

"It's a psychological thing," Hand sighed. "She knows she doesn't have to. I think, on some level, she's just so used to having her powers that she feels she has to use them."

Fury and Steve looked over at Maria, who raised a hand to her chin thoughtfully. "Okay… well, the fact that we may need therapists for our team members even faster than I thought aside, I've been thinking we might have to do a changeup on the team lineups for a while."

"You have?" I asked, blinking.

Maria nodded. "Not the original Avengers of course, since they are technically contractors, and the lineup is too publically recognizable to mess with. But we may need to change team makeups."

Steve leaned forward. "We should talk about it with Davida and Sam. As team leaders, they'll want to know about it."

"Don't forget the Graveyard survivors," Fury noted. "There are a lot who are willing to become BRIDGE operatives. If we can fold them into our ranks, BRIDGE gets a lot of firepower."

"As long as they're willing to join, we can find space for them," Maria agreed. "I'll set up a meeting."

"Deathlok will likely want to change teams as well," Hand agreed. "He's almost too conditioned for the darker aspect of this life."

"I'll keep that in mind," Maria dismissed the hologram and brought up another, a tiny one of Rio, with color and details enough that I felt like I was literally seeing it. Like someone had shrunk the whole city down. I could see a street where I'd fought some knights and the clearing where Ulik had punched me.

"Now, I'm going to need to request some people to head to Rio to continue to aid in the recovery efforts," Maria said. "First things first-"

"I volunteer," Steve said immediately.

"You've gone enough times," Maria said with a smile. "If you actually took a vacation correctly I'd be more inclined."

Steve shrugged, not the slightest bit offended.

"The Grapplers, Bobbi, Sam, and Barnes have all volunteered. That's more than enough to cover the city at the most critical points," parts of the miniature Rio hologram glowed. "We'll be sending them in tomorrow. But there is something more."

Hill dismissed the hologram and looked around. "Lately, BRIDGE has been… well, winning an arms race. Unintentionally at that," she put up another hologram, images popping up as she spoke. "We got a leg up from the start. Catom armor and weaponry might have been enough to worry certain generals, but then we started adding enhanced members. Dial for one," I let out a little 'ah' sound at the sight of my own face. "Creel, Barnes, Jen, the Maximoffs and the Grapplers. That is a rapid increase to the numbers of superhuman operatives we got along with advanced armor for our more skilled operatives. Then the Graveyard..."

"But that was just us trying to help people," Steve noted. "We didn't even know they were there."

"I know that. We all know that. But the world is full of paranoid generals, and they aren't so certain," Hand pointed out.

Maria nodded. "With the Graveyard survivors, we got alotof, what does do you call them again Dial?"

Everyone looked at me. "Uh, metahumans? I mean, it's the coolest one."

My reasoning got rolled eyes from Fury, Hand, and Maria, though Steve smiled.

Hill sighed. "Well, fine. We suddenly have a lot of metahumans available to us. Overall, we now have what looks like an army of power armored and metahuman soldiers, with Tony Stark and our scientists giving us more advanced tech beyond that, even with Tony refusing to make actual guns or sharing Iron Man armor. And there are people who are working to make their own."

"Can they do that?" I asked. "I mean, they probably can but are they allowed to?"

"They are," Fury noted, his one eye focusing on the image of a globe that popped up. "We can't exactly stop countries from developing gear and powers of their own. It was always going to happen."

"The problem we're having reports that they've succeeded," Maria said, worried. "No evidence just yet. But the fact is, some places might end up with superpowers in their control that we don't want. North Korea already has been rumored to be trying to make their own Hulk and have been… well, failing, miserably."

We all winced. Gamma radiation, at the best of times, had really bad effects on the human body. At HULK creating levels, it just did not end well. Without the gamma gene and a stable mental outlook, you'd end up with some horrific effects.

"Victoria, can you go ahead and make a report for me?" Maria interrupted my thoughts. "I need to approach some of the world nations with this. I also want to make sure we have everything we may need for the Russia mission today."

Oh right. I had to go to Russia with Creel and… and Coulson's team. Which included Skye. Oh boy.

Victoria Hand nodded, the pink stripe in her hair bouncing with the movement before she walked out. The second the door closed, Maria looked at me.

"Mahmoud, has anything like this happened in the multiverse?" Maria asked. I winced.

"Okay… keep in mind, while I got a LOT out of that little dimensional viewer, it's not like I remember all of it," seriously. Shoving dozens of universes into my brain was enough to drive most people crazy. But then, my information came from slightly less mind-bending 'dimensional viewers.' AKA, comic books and associated media. "But yeah. This did happen a few times. To say the least. China, Britain, Japan, they all had teams."

"Any idea what we'd be in for, then?" Steve asked.

"Not even a little," I said sadly. "The fact is, I can tell you the names and the powers that I'm used to. But there are no guarantees it would be the same."

"Any information whatsoever would be helpful," Fury noted.

"As long as we don't let it inform our 'first' impressions," Maria said. "In fact, only powers, names, and countries. Nothing on their alignments. We can't go in expecting someone who was law-abiding in one universe to be the same in this one, or vice-versa."

I nodded. "I'll make a list. Like I said, it won't be perfect-"

"It's better than nothing," Maria rubbed her chin. "But in the meantime, we should work on getting our own forces trained and ready. Nick?"

I swear it took me a full moment to remember who she was talking about. Then Fury spoke.

"I've got a good location for training our assets ready to go," he pressed some buttons on the holograph emitter, bringing up a location somewhere in the middle of nowhere. "We're already using it, per your orders. But we do need more supplies. We are partially running a zoo there."

"How is Battle Cat, anyway?" I asked curiously.

"Actually, the researchers are calling him Garfield," Fury said. "You know, the big grumpy orange cat?"

"I know, and they're wrong," I said firmly. "For one thing, he's green. But seriously, how is it going with the super animals? I mean, what's our plan for them?"

"We aren't making a Pet Avengers team," Maria noted.

"Spoilsport," I joked. I looked around at everyone. "What is the plan with them?"

"Well, so far it's been seeing what exactly that watch of yours did to them," Fury gestured at the watch. "Somehow, the Omnitrix turned a small army of animals with horrific mutations into healthy and very powerful animals. And then of course, we also use the pictures of the way they used to look to warn our more idiotic scientists about how things like gamma radiation shouldn't be fucked with."

True enough.

"We have started training the dogs though, just doing some basic stuff, to see if we can build K9 units," Fury's single eye narrowed. "Overall, we don't have any plans for them other than running a zoo."

"That's as far as we'll take it for now then," Maria said. "So far it's working, and I don't want to have trouble with Creel or Hulk-type animals running around."

Aw man. No Pet Avengers. For now, at least. Though knowing my luck, I'd end up trapped in Wildmutt form so I could join the team.

"In the meantime, we also have this," Maria dismissed one hologram for another of Antarctica. "Since you told us that the dinosaurs we encountered must have come from this, 'Savage Land', I've had a team hunting for it. They've been… reluctant. Are you sure about this?"

"No," I admitted. Maria gave me a sour look. "Hey, it's a big multiverse. Maybe those dinosaurs came from somewhere else. All I know is that Savage Land is a thing, and it's chock-full of resources in some universes, even being one of the only places you can get vibranium," That got them interested. "At the least, we should make sure a whole lot of endangered species haven't been killed because of the Rio Incident. Hopefully those scientists you sent find something soon."

"They will," Maria said confidently. "We also have a consultant from Africa ready to head over when we need it, and we'll inform you as soon as possible. The consultant has been… busy, taking down poachers in the brush. But she's eager to assis-"

"It's Shanna, isn't it," I interrupted with a sigh.

Fury and Maria looked surprised. Maria nodded.

"Goddamnit, Marvel," I mumbled under my breath before speaking a bit louder. "Okay. Let's hope for the best then."