Pym

January 23rd, 2014

Steve Rogers/Captain America

"Still no sign of him," Maria Hill said, walking back and forth through her office. Phil Coulson and Steve Rogers stood before her, both men sharing a look.

They stood in the Enterprise, which Maria was still using as her main base of operations. There had been plans to repair the Triskelion and return to it, but Maria said she simply found it easier to use the Enterprise as a mobile HQ. Considering the way her work was going, she really needed to be able to work in the field. Maybe one day the Triskelion would return to its former glory, though Steve doubted it.

For now, Maria stopped in the center of the room and looked between them. "The last record we have of Strucker, he was in Brazil, working from some old bases HYDRA had built during the time Nazis fled to the country after the war, but authorities and our own forces there found nothing but dead-ends."

"So either we can't find him, or he was never there at all," Coulson concluded, crossing his arms. The agent sounded frustrated and tired as he spoke.

"Looks like it," Steve agreed. He held back the anger he felt at the thought. Strucker still had Sharon and Trip. Two of their people, in the hands of HYDRA, likely getting brainwashed and experimented upon. It was enough to give anyone nightmares.

"On the plus side, other HYDRA bases have been falling apart. I have our people going over it and it looks like we have quite a few new resources. Quinjets, weapons, materials, fuel, even food we can shift to feed our soldiers."

Steve nodded at that. No matter what else had changed, wars were won by supplies as much as soldiers. It was common sense after all. "Just in case, maybe we should have Dial and Tony update the Hercules App? That might help with the search. Something to make sure that any items we pick up aren't booby-trapped would be good as well."

"Agreed," Phil said. "In the meantime, we have another issue."

"Hank Pym is still refusing to speak with us," Maria said simply.

Steve looked between them, confused. "Hank Pym?"

"A former SHIELD scientist," Phil explained. "He stopped working with us after an incident, but he's known as one of the most intelligent people we ever had. Worked on something pretty damn secretive. I think only Agent Carter knew the full details of it. He was also the founder of Pym Technologies before he was removed by a corporate takeover."

"So why are we talking about him now?" Steve asked.

Maria, in answer, waved her hand. Hologram emitters in the ceiling and floor activated, projecting a screen showing Bill Foster's lab. Steve held back a sigh at the sight of it. He hated most holograms. They never seemed to be as clear as the normal flat-screen tv's of the modern age were. Holograms Steve usually saw were fuzzy and all blue. They were also very tough to discern distance from. A few exceptions, such as the holograms Dial, Fitz, or Tony sometimes made, were much closer to reality, but the one Maria brought up was annoyingly tough to figure out. With a bit of squinting, he was able to follow along with the events of Ava's test, past the moment something went wrong and finishing when Bill asked Fitz to call Maria.

"According to Bill, Ava said 'Janet' was in her mind," Maria said with a quiet solemness. "We believe it's Janet Pym she's talking about, Hank's wife and a former SHIELD scientist. If she is somehow in the Quantum realm like Bill suspects, we need to talk to Hank Pym, but he won't speak with us."

"Let me try. I have a very persuasive personality," Phil said with a smile.

"Are you sure?" Maria asked. "I know you're still getting over... well. Everything."

Phil stilled. After a sad smile, his words came out with a deeply pained tone. "Audrey made her choice. I accept that. And in the end, Ava and Janet are the ones we need to focus on. I can take my team with me to meet with Hank, tell him about what we've found out."

Fury opened the door then, walking into the room. He no longer wore his long coat, instead wearing a blue silk shirt and white suspenders. He strode in and nodded at everyone. "You're talking about Pym?"

"Yes," Maria answered.

"I'd like to suggest not telling him about Janet," Fury said simply.

Phil frowned, Steve doing the same. Phil spoke, turning slightly to face Fury. "Why? Wouldn't knowing we might have information on her help?"

"What do we have?" Fury asked. "A woman who has been in constant pain since childhood, saying a name she might have overheard in the middle of a dangerous experiment with Quantum energy? Hank Pym is the sort of guy who will punch you in the face the second he hears that... come to think of it, maybe you should have May say it."

"Very funny," Phil said, getting a smirk from Fury. Phil sighed. "All right, I'll just go ahead. We need to visit California as is, so this works out."

"Alright," Maria said. "Then we come to your orders: Rogers, Fury."

The two old soldiers looked over at her. "As you know, we need a training facility for the superhumans we've been finding. Somewhere safe, where they can learn in peace and eventually either return to the world or begin working for us. I want you both looking at the old SHIELD bases and finding us a good location for that. Somewhere out of the way, with lots of destructible area around it for the more powerful superhumans we'll find. If it can survive Dial, Hulk, and Thor, you've found somewhere we can work with. Steve, you know the Avengers best, so find somewhere they can all use as a secondary base as well."

"Director for a short time and already giving impossible orders?" Fury asked with a slight smirk. "You really were the best choice."

Maria spared him a smile before waving for them to leave.

Steve walked out with the group, thinking carefully. A training base for superhumans. One that could survive most anything, had room, was out of the way, hidden, and was comfortable. Tough combination to figure out. Tony might have some ideas about that. For some reason though, Steve felt as though the Avengers and other superhumans would need something... specific. Something was calling him to make sure the base would be...

Best to keep that idea on a backburner. If it ended up being viable, he'd take it. For now, he turned to Fury.

"What do you think about asking Tony about financing the base?"

"I think he'll be an insufferable asshole about it. But sure," Fury said with a sigh of annoyance. "Let's go ask Tony Stark for money."

Mahmoud Schahed/Dial

In the gym of the Avengers Tower, in the boxing ring set aside just for the occasion, I unleashed a series of punches at my opponent. Skye ducked around them, swinging her leg to try and sweep me off my feet, but I managed to leap over the attack. I came down with a wrestler style elbow drop, so she dodged to let me hit the mat instead. She kicked at me and I blocked the blows on my shoulder, grabbing her leg in return. With a quick spin, I heaved her up and tossed her aside. She rolled with the toss, landing and facing me when I followed up with a cross punch. Ducking, she grabbed my arm, pulled it forward while twisting to bring her back to my chest, then flipped me over. I landed hard on my back, grunting at the pain, before bringing my legs up to kick at her. It was a rough attack but one that drove her to run back, allowing me to spin to my feet and follow by punching her in the gut. She backed off.

For a moment, Skye and I faced each other. Natasha, who was watching from the ropes with her arms crossed, simply eyed us.

Then a loud shout brought our attention to the doors. Ruby was brought in by May, the older woman pushing the tiny teen into the gym with the same sort of dismissive attitude one would use to shove an unruly puppy off a bed.

"Caught her, huh?" Natasha asked easily.

"She's getting better," May said, sounding almost reluctant. "Only realized where she was when the cardboard box moved."

"What, did she go all Metal Gear on you?" I asked, almost shocked.

"It almost worked," Ruby mumbled to herself, only scowling at the frown that comment got from May.

"Hey, aren't we still fighting?" Skye asked me.

"I've gotten my ass kicked by tiny badass women all day, give me five seconds," I grumbled in response.

"Aw, poor baby," Ruby said, the petite teen grinning at the scowl I gave her.

"Hey," Natasha clapped, getting out attention. "Focus. May, can you go over where Ruby went wrong with her?"

May nodded, turning to Ruby.

"In the meantime, Mahmoud, you're fighting both of us now," Natasha said, hopping into the ring.

"...This because I complained, isn't it?" I asked in despair.

"If you have to ask..." Natasha said in sing-song, moving in with Skye.

Together, the two women started to punch me like I was filled with sand and not gooey, bruisable insides and crunchy bones. I tried my best to fight back, but even with Skye as the weak link, I was getting beat up bad.

In the meantime, May spoke quietly with Ruby. For a brief moment, I could see the two talking, Ruby asking questions earnestly. Tough nut to crack, that one. She was confident, but in the way a lot of teens are. But also, she was like... well, an X-23 who actually wanted to be a killer. Raised her whole life to be the ultimate badass. If Skye was slightly above me in skill as a human, and Natasha might as well have been the sun, then Ruby was smack dab in the middle.

She was also an abrasive little brat.

I focused on fighting once more, my breath heavy, and sweat pouring from me as bruises covered my body. Natasha added to them with a kick to my thigh that forced me to drop to a knee. Skye followed that by punching me in the chest, sending me to my back. I rolled up and kneed Skye in the stomach. When I followed by trying to punch Natasha, she easily slid around the blow, shoved my head to the side, then wrapped an arm around my neck and twisted me around to toss me into the ground, where I crashed with a loud slap of flesh on the mat.

I lay there dazed, trying to understand just how much my ass had been kicked.

"Yeah, that's good enough," Natasha walked up to me, looking down. "You getting better. That was a good flying knee. But you aren't defensive enough. I think fighting as invincible aliens so often has you used to being able to take a hit."

"Can you blame me? Diamondhead and Rath can take a tank shell without a scratch. Well, maybe a small bruise in Rath's case, but he'd be okay with that," I rolled up to my feet as I said that, thinking about Rath. Yeah, he tended to see pain in combat as a reason to fight harder. Because Rath was badass.

"You need to remember as a human you can't survive a real beating from a skilled opponent," Natasha said, helping me up. "Thankfully you've at least got real experience in a fight. You can't beat anyone who really knows what they're doing, but you can at least fight off street thugs easily. With some more training, you'll get better. Also, this training will make fighting in your alien forms more effective."

She turned to Skye. "You're a little further along though. I can tell you've been trained by May... and Ward."

Skye flinched at that. "Y-Yeah. He was my SO. Before he turned out to be a traitor."

Natasha nodded. "Well, they trained you well... Now, I believe you guys have an appointment?"

"Right," I struggled to my feet and walked out of the ring. "See you in the lab, Skye!"

"See you there!" she said, heading to the women's locker room while I headed to the men's.