Agents and Marshals and Mutants... Part II (Conclusion)

Posted on Thu Sep 28th, 2023 @ 5:07pm by Administrator Myz Phoenyx & General Dyami Bentley (Tribal : Bent Leaf) & Level 10 Minamoto 源 Takashi 崇

Mission: HYDRA: Another Head Rises
Location: Small Cult Compound, Southern Idaho/Ranch, Oklahoma
Timeline: Present Day

When the boy returned to his mother Talon spoke again, this time in English, “Director, allow me to see to these three and, when I return, we will discuss how we should handle the other victims. I will only be gone for a few moments.” Dyami waved his hand dismissively to the bound men, “Some time in a federal prison would do them some good. I am sure you could arrange that.”

Takashi nodded at the boy when he confirmed his suspicion about Marshal Harrison then turned to face Talon when he started speaking. While Tak didn’t know him, his finely honed instincts were telling him that he could trust the large man dressed in Native American garb, eagle feathers included, seemingly out of time. He considered himself to be a fairly good judge of character, and so far, he had done nothing to alter that. Yet.

“I have a team inbound with a mobile command center,” Tak said finally after a quick moment of appraisal, the barely imperceptible click of his katana’s *tsuba* locking into place within the *saya* with his left thumb. “ETA, five minutes. I will gladly take these men into custody. There is also a medical team aboard The Bus, as well as a full surgical suite. They will be able to check these people out and take care of any injuries. They will also need to be debriefed; they have as up to date information on HYDRA as I am likely to get.” His voice sounded only slightly annoyed at that last.

“Likely there are other operating compounds with other kidnapped victims,” Tak said after a few seconds, his voice filling with steel as he looked over at the boy and his family, all hunkered together in the middle of the black, silicate covered indentation. “They need to be saved. And the longer they are out there, the more HYDRA will hurt innocents and indoctrinate them against their will.” Takashi then took a few steps toward Talon and stopped well outside of melee range, then looked into his eyes, gauging him.

“After that,” he said finally, his Japanese accented voice calm and collected once more. “If they choose to go with you, we will not stop them. Agreed?”

Talon chuckled slightly, and sighed. “I have no wish to be contentious, however, the woman and her children are my only concern. I can guarantee that those three know nothing of HYDRA, and I will not allow them to be further traumatized today. The woman is not fully indoctrinated, nor is the boy, so I am assuming that they have not spent their entire lives here. They are victims of this man’s poor life choices.” He nodded his head towards the father.

“The blood on the girl is the same that is coming from that stinking corpse, and they all bear some scratches and bruises that I can heal before your team even arrives. The child is newly awakened, it is screaming from her spirit, and getting her to a safe, skilled environment is vital. My village is set up for these types of needs,” Talon explained, his voice even, calm, but with an edge of worry and sternness. “I will not deny you access, however, securing their immediate safety is more important than your questions.”

“Very well,” Tak said after a brief pause, nodding once in the affirmative. “If you give me the coordinates, I will have my men diverted to that location and provide any assistance necessary. As I said, we have an extensive surgical suite and a crack medical team aboard. I can also have any other supplies or assistance readily available at that location in short order, as well.”

Takashi was hoping that the man would be amenable to accepting. As Director, he was ready to order whatever manpower and supplies were necessary to render aid, and make sure that they were also well protected. No doubt, Talon already had whatever protections necessary in place, but Takashi didn’t want to take the chance that HYDRA would come calling and ruin everyone’s day.

“I greatly appreciate and welcome your aid while we are on site, I can however greatly speed up the evacuation of the survivors.” Talon said a single word in ancient Tsalagi motioning to the air near the mother and her two children.

A shimmering silver portal opened hanging in the air. Its rim surrounded by leaves that appeared to have recently fallen for an autumn tree, the surface of the portal was like silver water rippling in the wind.

Talon said, “I will send these three to my village, once they are safe, we will extricate the others and send them to SHIELD headquarters. I have been there many times. When all this is completed I would like to have dinner with you to discuss our future endeavors. Is this acceptable?”

“My team can have the doors opened quickly when they arrive,” Takashi said, resting both arms upon his Katana hilt, a practiced movement that was for comfort. “They will have them taken out and checked and treated for any injuries, and the others will be taken into custody. What I am more concerned about are these three.” He motioned with his right hand, indicating the mother with her two children.

“Let me accompany you wherever it is you will take them,” he continued in his Japanese accented English, now motioning to the open portal with his right hand. “That way I can make sure that they are well taken care of and I will also be readily available for your dinner. But they really must be questioned, while it is fresh lest they forget details.”

Takashi was very reluctant to let the small family out of his sight as he was very concerned for their welfare and he wanted to keep an eye on the passed out girl, who presumably, has manifested her abilities. Takashi was well suited to deal with many manifestation types so that they were not a danger to themselves or others.

He also needed to question them and try to get as much information as possible while the details were fresh. Hydra brainwashing people was bad enough, but brainwashing mutants before they ‘turned’ was an existential nightmare. First, no one deserves anything like that, much less people who would potentially be going through an extremely stressful transformation of their latent mutant X gene and whatever manifestation came from it. And second, any detail, however small, could give them a good tip to finally stop it from happening. Before everyone potentially suffered a grievous catastrophe.

“That is more than acceptable, it is not my wish to hide these people away or deny you access to them. I am only concerned for their safety. When your men arrive, choose as many as you like to accompany them and to interview them as well. I will see to it that they are all well cared for.” Talon said in agreement.

Standing he looked around the area, “You and I are needed here for the time being, when we have gleaned what information we can from this place, I will bring you to my village. Will you and your men care for a feast tonight? I wish to build more of a rapport with SHIELD in the future as our end goals appear to coincide.”

Almost imperceptibly, Tak slowly relaxed, the tension slowly easing out of his body as he exhaled, exactly as *Sōke* Hatsumi had taught him. With his left thumb, he clicked the *tsuba* closed against the *habaki* of his *saya*.

“*Hai*,” he said as he turned to face Talon, placing both hands against the top of his thighs and bowed at the waist respectfully at a 45° angle, showing the appropriate level of respect to an honored stranger. “*Arigatō gozaimashita*.” Straightening, he looked Talon in the eye. “Please excuse me while I relay final orders to my men.”

Reaching up to his right ear, he gently placed the tip of his gloved, right index finger against the nigh-invisible earwig and silently relayed his commands. He nodded once briefly as he heard the response and pressed it once more, closing the coms.

“My team is one minute out,” he said to the American Indian man, lowering his hand against his side. “They will land the Bus on the perimeter and will bring the medical team and supplies to assist, as well as cut the others out. They will also perform a detailed scan of the compound as they land and will relay the preliminary data to us. That should give us some helpful information as a start, so you and I may focus our attention on what is presumably the most important first. Then myself and a few others will accompany us.”

At that moment, the large mobile command center, or more simply ‘The Bus’ could be heard arriving nearby, its set of 6 VTOL engines growing louder and louder until the landing gear touched down, then silenced. The ramp at the back of the highly modified C17 Globemaster III lowered, and out strode the various SHIELD teams ready to assist in their assigned tasks.

Walking over to Talon, Takashi reached into his Shinobi gi and produced a standard set of SHIELD sunglasses, and held it out to him. “Here is the information on the scan. Hopefully it will give us more information than we already know.”

The boy became agitated again, and the mother and her children huddled together, still unsure as to what their futures held. In the new chaos of planes being landed, and unknown agents approaching, they were eyeing everything with a wary concern. Mom’s hand closed tightly around Thomas’ wrist, keeping him from jumping up again, afraid that these new teams of people might just kill them if they made a wrong move.

Talon accepted the glasses from the SHIELD supervisor then turned and knelt before the three huddled victims, “Do not be afraid, no harm will come to you, I am going to have you go to my village where you will be welcomed like family. You may stay there as long as you wish.” The blue-eyed indian smiled again and added, “You are not prisoners, SHIELD needs to speak to you so they can gather information. You will be able to help us save others that have gone through what you have experienced.”

Thomas looked to Dyami as he spoke, then glanced to Tak briefly, before looking at the woman and speaking to her softly. “She helped us, and she said they’d help us,” he said, trying to convince himself just as much as he was his beaten down mother.

“HA! They’re going to take that demon away from you! Just like we told you, woman!” The previously cowed man suddenly blurted out, his face red as panic over his situation finally settled in, fighting against his painfully tight bindings.

The boy stood and turned his back on his father, putting himself between the terrified woman and the screaming man. He then knelt and took his sister into his arms, and stood there as his mother’s pillar as she pulled herself up off of the ground. Still unable to bring herself to make eye contact with either of the strange men, she cleared her throat and nodded. “Okay,” she said, her voice small, but steady. “Just help us. Please.”

Talon stood from the crouch he was in and while looking at the bound man he spoke to the mother, “She is not a demon, she is a gift from the Great Spirit. Innocent and pure, able to see the truth and not afraid to speak it.” Turning back to the three he continued, “This precious little one is yours to raise, we will assist you any way we can. No one will take her from you, I swear this.”

He then called out to Takashi, “Are your men ready to accompany these three? I will be sending them to a ranch in Tahlequah, Oklahoma.”

Takashi raised the medical team on the comms and ordered them to their location so they could be ported along with the others. “They are ready,” he said as they arrived, walking over to Talon.

Takashi then relayed orders for a security team to take the others into custody and place them in the brig aboard the Bus. He would make sure that they were vigorously debriefed and tossed into some dark hole before their trial. They would not be seeing the light of day for a long time.

Afterwards, he put on his pair of SHIELD glasses and looked over the details from the scans. His encrypt/decrypt team would need to go over all of the data on the computer drives to see what they contained.

As Takashi began his inspection of the area, Talon walked the three victims and the accompanying Agents through the shimmering portal.

The scans of the area were somewhat monotonous, as they showed nothing out of the ordinary. The most reinforced spot was the small fallout shelter, partially buried at the back of the property, where the women and children had been unceremoniously welded in. Most of the compound was almost primitive, in design, as well as function, and had only been around a few years at most. The most high tech item seemed to be a computer hidden in the largest of the small buildings, with a couple of beat-up pickup trucks coming in a close second.

His SHIELD teams were going through the compound with a fine tooth comb, now that they knew how tricky they could be in hiding things in plain sight, but after a short time of searching, it became obvious that there was little else to be found other than small caches of arms and ammo, likely to keep the kidnapped under control.

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When the portal had opened, Nina and Grandmother had ushered the children into their rooms in the longhouse that everyone shared at the ranch, then went back outside to await whoever Talon was sending through. They exchanged worried looks when no one came through immediately and Nina decided to study the field, through the field, and then stepped back in surprise as the SHIELD team gathered and Talon led them through, along with three bedraggled looking people.

The dark-haired native woman was used to such things, as the shaman brought her people all the time. Normally not with a family unit, but such things weren’t unheard of. The SHIELD team caught her completely off guard, however, and she looked at Talon, saying in their native tongue, “These are not your usual strays, Uncle.”

Talon laughed at Nina’s quip. “Please see to it that all are treated well. As usual. The young girl is a seer or a prophet, possibly more. These others,” he motioned at the SHIELD agents, “are for their safety.”

Grandmother was already approaching the family, brushing off the appearance of the agents, her concern for the unconscious child in the boy’s arms. The stooped old Indian woman reached up and brushed away damp red curls, then laid an aged hand on her forehead. “The little one’s aura is strange. Exhausted, malnourished, traumatized,” she said, her features softening.

Then she looked at the boy and the woman, taking in their appearance and state of worry. “You are all safe here. Come, we have a house prepared for just such occasions. Nina, see to the fire and bring food,” Grandmother said, then motioned for the odd group to follow her towards a small cabin that was separated from the rest of the apparently hand built buildings.


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FIN
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Administrator Myz Phoenyx
NPCs - Family, Nina, Grandmother

Dyami Bentley
Talon
Mutant Underground

Minamoto Takashi 源崇
Hypernova
Director of Shield