Heroes: Endings and Beginnings

[rhoenix]

"Yeah," agreed Agent Templar wearily, "with everything else that happened this morning, I didn't lose yet another Ultima-issued vehicle, and the mission's technically complete. Things could be...worse."

[LadyTevar]

Going to tell him to butt out?
"That was for the hole," Heidi growled, looking over at Gordon. "But it sounds to me like you're paying for the beer afterwards, Mr Moneypants."

Oh. Wonderful. You're going to go out, get drunk, and probably fuck him tonight.
Heidi pulled the laptop over and typed a single word.
== Maybe....

Great. Just... just great. Don't get so drunk you pass out in his bed. I do NOT want to wake up with him in the morning. You and I do NOT have the same taste in men, dammit!
Whatever Jerri had said to Heidi, it made Heidi smile very evilly before looking sidelong at Gordon.
== I don't know, sis. He at least seems to have a brain.

That would be a first with the guys you've slept with.

[Agent Fisher]

Mike Gordon chuckled, nodding. "Never had someone call me Mr. Moneypants before. Does sound nice though." He said, starting to write up his version of today in his notebook. "As for buying the beers, it would be my pleasure."

As he wrote, he looked up from his notebook to the team. "So, how bad are we going to get chewed out? I've got five bucks says that just a couple people get yelled at."

[LadyTevar]

"Like we'll be that lucky," Heidi snorted. "But I'll take you up on that beer ... although Jerri says she'll take a pass."

[Charon]

Inferno saluted Agent Hawk, "Yes, sir." He turned to Mark 25. "Escort the perps to the holding cells, including Agent Starfighter, then come back for debriefing." And I'll hope I'm not trying to dislodge Hawk's foot from my ass by the time you get back.

Inferno made his way to room 318 and then waited outside while the others talked amongst themselves.

[Dark Silver]

Legion nodded as Hawk gave orders, and he went off to turn in the keys to the van.

Instead of taking the elevator this time, he took the stairs, taking his time as he pulled out his Blackberry, checking some messages and glancing over dispatches and memo's from his office.

By the time he reached the debriefing room, he had placed the device back in a inner coat pocket, tightened his gloves again, and found a chair near the door.

Wait outside the room for Agent Hawk he was told, and he was going to do exactly that. After a minute, he pulled out his Blackberry again, and began browsing the Internet.

[SirNitram]

Al was reviewing all that cameras had caught of it. He was shocked, primarily at Starfighter and somewhat by Templar. He saw dozens of other mistakes, but the outright antagonization by Starfighter was a little distracting. He made a note in his front-ends to be ready to have to reprogram an orbital weapons platform if this guy kept it up.

NeXT's avatar appeared in the briefing room. "Self-diagnostics complete. All systems well within acceptable parameters."

[rhoenix]

The seats inside the debriefing room were rather comfortable, Agent Templar thought idly as he browsed random news websites on his tablet, taking gulps of his large coffee all the while.

He just hoped that the team-building, or chewing-out, or whatever else that was supposed to happen soon would happen quickly, so he could go home and try (and fail) to sleep.

[Hotfoot]

Mark 25 took all of the restrained individuals and carried those who could not walk, leading those that could. And while he treated them with some care, he was not overly gentle with any of them, especially Starfighter. He read them their rights and put them all into cells, hooking up power limiters to all of them before leaving the guards in charge.

Before long, he made his way to the meeting room. He nodded to Legion and Inferno outside before whispering in a low tone, "Good luck." Upon entering the room, he looked around at the assembled team and stood at attention. Finally, he spoke. "I've had better days."

[LadyTevar]

The hole in the wall behind Heidi was very noticeable. "Hell, Marcus, I think you were the only one who DIDN'T screw up something today."

[Agent Fisher]

Mike grinned, raising a hand. "Point of order, I didn't either."

[Charon]

Inferno looked over at Legion, who seemed amazingly relaxed, and couldn't help but be envious. He didn't say anything though, just returned to staring at the wall, secretly thankful that he had a meeting with his psychologist today.

[SirNitram]

"This units requests feedback to improve field operations. Please identify relevent mistakes." NeXT spoke simply. "I am not programmed to emulate human quality designated 'pride', and this is the first field operation I have undertaken."

[LadyTevar]

"Might be easier to list what went -right-," Heidi bitched. "But I think we can all agree that everything Flyboy did was on the fucked-up end of Stupid."

[Hotfoot]

Mark 25 looked at NeXT and started listing his problems with the mission. "One, lack of established chain of command, rookie agents bickering with experienced agents over simple orders, and chaos expanding from that. Next, NeXT, threats from one team member are frowned upon, especially ones involving lethal force. Also, severely nonhuman individuals should refrain from direct public contact whenever possible unless immediate loss of life is at risk. Following that, no field agents are authorized to recruit individuals, and doing so in public with potentially hostile AI-controlled military grade robot can create a public relations nightmare," his words were said somewhat more slowly, as if with deliberate intent. "There are still those mourning the dead from the Omni-Corp incident, and isolated conflicts are still occurring." He looked at Templar as he said this, his emotions swelling with a seething anger. Many good people died in those fights, even despite his best efforts.

"All of this is excepting Agent Starfighter's mistakes, of course."

[Comrade Tortoise]

"The mission was a success, a city block is still intact, no one was seriously injured. Hell I remember seeing stories of a team based in New York that, were this to have happened there a significant chunk of the eight million people living there would no longer be. I mean, had it been impossible not to convince the robot to come with us, or had we decided not to try, we would have had more than a panic on our hands. So This mission could actually have gone off a lot worse... On the other hand, had I not fucked up and both misinterpreted the intent of an order and ironically underestimated the response of the crowd it could have gone a lot better and the damage to our public perception would have only been systemic. " Sunrise said, responding directly to Gemini.

"Not withstanding other mistakes of course"

[Hotfoot]

Mark 25 turned to Sunrise and tilted his head slightly. "Other teams have had significantly higher collateral damage rates, true. I worked with several teams in Millennium City, one of which in particular was a disaster. One former team member managed to move an entire species of bat to the endangered species list single-handedly. However, the point is not to measure ourselves to the failures of others, but rather to hold ourselves to the standard we are capable of achieving. It is what the people we protect deserve." Emotion was beginning to leak through the computer-generated voice, somehow. Maybe it was a glitch in the system, but the last word came out with a certain amount of determination.

"Acknowledging mistakes is good. Learning from them is better. Focus on that, rather than what others have done in the past. The Bureau is attempting to make things better than they have been."

[rhoenix]

Through all this, Agent Templar said nothing. He had gotten the hints, subtle and otherwise, and didn't feel like explaining about it twice. Especially considering it would be undoubtedly come up during the meeting, repeatedly, and likely at high volume, if his previous supervisors were any indication.

Until then, he held a certain horrified fascination at the utter catastrophe of their morning unfolding on all the news media sites.

[SirNitram]

"Received and understood. Enacting reprogramming routine to disable lethal force from response to unauthorized countermanding among those within team structure. Shall I tabulate probable dollar-cost of collatoral damage? If so, should I include only Team Omega, Omnicorp police unit, or criminals? Or some combination of the above?"

[Dark Silver]

Legion looked up from his Blackberry, at Inferno.

"Relax," he said in calm tones, "The worse he can do to us is chew our asses for not having established a chain of command, and yeah, it should have been one of us. We have the most field experience."

Legion put the finishing touches on a email, a slow smile coming to his lips as it was sent, then exited the browser. He then opened a IM, routing it to NeXT through the Ultima servers

=WeAreLegion: Agent NeXT, this is Special Agent Legion, requesting damage calculations in US Dollars for today's event. Tabulate by Criminal Actions, Criminal + Ultima Actions, Unit Alpha's actions, and total from all actions. Please forward to my email.

As he waited a response, he looked back at Inferno, "I'm sure Hawk will be a few more minutes, run to the cafe' and get yourself a cup of coffee or something to relax kid."

[LadyTevar]

Heidi looked over at Mark25 with a raised eyebrow. "That... that wouldn't have been Mirage team, would it?" she asked. Rumors of the things that team had done were rife.

[Charon]

Inferno took the idea to heart and disappeared for a few minutes, coming back with a small coffee clutched in both hands, he took a few sips. "The worst part is, I really don't have that much field experience, I've been on a couple missions and been on a few teams, but nothing long term. This is the first field mission I've had in..." he paused as he calculated the time. "About a year."

[Dark Silver]

"Your still senior Field Agent, no matter the amount of time you've actually spent in the field. I could have taken command, but we're just "visiting", until this tour is over. Once Ultima tires of having me around, or my bosses decide I've been allowed enough leash...they'll drag us back."

Legion put the Blackberry face down, looking at Inferno as he nursed his coffee, "Still....things got out of control for a bit out there, and you kept your head straight, which is a good sign."

[Charon]

Inferno grinned a little. "Out of control for a bit? I think that's the worst PR experience I've ever had the displeasure of going through. And those I know. At least it didn't devolve into a fight."

[General Havoc]

Alpha considered the Ultima commander's offer for a few moments before replying.

"Files indicate that the Bureau of Metahuman Affairs purview is restricted to Metahumans. This unit is an OmniCorp Law Enforcement fully automated metahuman/riot supression robot. One of the agents previously stated that Omnicorp property was transferred to BMA authority following the cession of hostilities in the Omnicorp War. This unit therefore extrapolates a reasonable probability that there exist... ulterior motives to this offer. Evidentiary rationales would indicate this is a reasonable assumption."

"This unit requests to be informed for what purpose the Bureau of Metahuman Affairs was assigned to its apprehension. A Force analysis of the Metahumans detained for reasons of grand larceny and assault does not equate to that deployed by BMA authorities for this operation. The only logical explanation is that the purpose of this BMA deployment was the apprehension, retrieval, or other analysis of this unit."

The robot straightened up a bit. "Does Ultima object to the manner in which this unit has been enacting its primary protocols?"