[The Human Element] Delta Division HQ

Mr. Drake, you know we have shadow fae as Delta Agents?


It was a quick text she sent as the elevator whisked her from the research section to the conference room. This was supposedly the large ones, as opposed to the ones they normally met in. That didn't mean it had more room, judging by the number and size of the people she saw as she approached.


"Cool! They are letting the dragon out." This was an event. She had heard some whispers about him, but wasn't sure if they planned to make him an agent or send him back through some rift they found him in. Or maybe it was someone else they found in a rift. She wasn't sure.


She entered the room in costume. She wore a reinforced gold top that clung to her like a second skin with capped short sleeves that left her arms bare until you reached the gold gloves halfway up her forearm. A set of gold-finished braces covered the gloves at the wrist. Her tights were a pale blue with a pair of matching boots to her calf with a small 1 inch heel. It made her feel a little taller than her normal frame of 5ft 2in (158cm). A thin gold-metallic circlet rested on her head and held back her shoulder length brown hair. She didn't have a cape, she didn't feel the need. People who flew would do well with a cape, but she couldn't fly, like her mother.


She wasn't gifted with shape-shifting power, or a suit that could change itself with the press of a button. She had to rely on a changing room and lockers for her abilities. It made her late, Drake would just have to accept. "Sorry Mister Drake, but I met a shadow fae Agent of Delta in the locker rooms. Do you know about him?" She doubted he met everyone that joined Delta. But he was pretty much the head of security, so if we were hiring shadow fae for our side, someone should know that.


To the people she knew she nodded in greeting. "Vlad, did you forget your 'wine' glass?" It still creeped her out that he drank the stuff. To the rest of the new faces, she almost considered going to each one of them, but the room to move around the room was pretty tight. The dragon was a lot smaller than she had imagined him to be, even so, she didn't know what each of the powers were, so best not to bump into anyone. "Hello... I am Girl Prodigy. What's the sitch?"
 
Still occupied by his pacing, Jay nevertheless glanced up at Ouroborus, and his lips twitched in something of a smile at the dragon's enthusiasm. Meryl Allison entered, dressed in a baby blue scoop-necked blouse with a lacy pattern and bell sleeves. The matching crimp skirt she wore with it was a few years out of style, but her petite frame and angelic appearance managed to pull it off without being ironic. Her long blond hair, the same color as Strykers, hung loose about her shoulders. Those gathered would recognize her as Delta's resident therapist; in fact, a condition of Cassandra's employment with Delta was regular visits with the woman. The rest had met her at least once to form a psychological profile for Delta to have on file.


Even her shapeshifting powers couldn't hide the fact that she was falling apart on the inside. She maintained a quiet dignity as she crossed the room to embrace Jayson; for the moment, she wasn't Delta's shrink--she was Jay's wife and twin sister of Stryker. They kissed, an unusual display of public affection as they were both professionals, but then it was time to get down to business.


Drake entered the room shortly after Grace. It seemed he was making sure any stragglers found their way to the room. His eyes met Grace's with a look of genuine confusion. Apparently, he didn't know. The baffled look disappeared behind his usual wall of emotion, and he glanced down at the tablet. With a flick of his fingers, the contents floated into the holographic display in the center of the table for all to see. The image was that of satellite photography, mapping a three-dimensional image of the planet. He continued tapping. This news from Grace was disturbing indeed, and he had to look into it.


Sam had been sitting with regal composure as the conversation spiraled around her. She reacted little, even when Ouroborus and Vlad began to measure size. She seemed content, instead, to merely observe; though her ability to regain control of the room when necessary had been well demonstrated a number of times. This was one of those times, as she spoke with a voice that instantly gathered everyone's attention, though she didn't speak loudly. "Mr. Allison. If you please."


Jayson nodded, disentangling himself from Meryl's embrace to stand at the edge of the table. He didn't take the head, but found a place where all could see him well enough. "I'm sure you're wondering what caused the sonic wave that blasted over the city. And the world. The whole planet was affected. The Northern Hemisphere actually got the least of it." The image displayed a rendering of the soundwave as it blanketed Earth. "It originated here. In Antarctica." Under his control, the image zoomed in on the southernmost continent. Now everyone could clearly see something that hadn't been there before. On the icy surface was the tall, twisting spires of civilization--and an advanced one at that.


Now Sam spoke. "Ladies and gentlemen, we have just witnessed the return of the Lost City of Atlantis."
 
"OH SHIT OH SHIT OH SHIT REALLY DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH HISTORY MUST BE THERE FOR THE TOUCHING HOLY SHIT" It's hard to know how to punctuate Oracle's expression. The pitch keeps bending up and down with her pace; her excitement seems to be frantic enough to give her difficulty keeping to the present. Her chair explodes against the wall behind her, launched backward by the force of her sudden leap to her feet. The sunglasses suggest wide, excited eyes already. With her tone, and the quivering body language, it's nearly cartoonish.


"When do we leave? I'll wait for you then."
 
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"Return?" Miriam says with mild curiousity rather than Oracle's enthusiasm. "Do we actually know that this is a return and not an appearance? With the well documented existance of teleportation, dimensional and temporal travel, is that a safe assumption?" She glances at Oracle and smiles, "though I agree that this is an extraordinarily momentous even regardless of its historical origin. If it is convenient for you, we can arrange transportation there in half an hour or so."
 
"hmm, sounds like it might be a rather interesting event.. SO I assume delta, and pretty mutch every other organization on the planet is sending a dignitary in some attempts to use them against their opponents? or is their language proving rather difficult to translate? Actually since we seem to be dredging every manner of heavy hitting beast history and fantasy has told stories of to this briefing." Vlad said pointing a thumb at the dragon. "Should I be assuming we are thinking of kicking their teeth in?" Vlad Asked continuing to pace on top of the table.
 
"Our translation protocols should be able to manage the issue of communication," Miriam offers, "and I would argue against an overly aggressive attitude in our first encounter with them. But..." she glances at Vlad with a slight smile, "I believe the phrase is 'you can get more of what you want with a kind word and a gun, than you can with just a kind word.'"
 
"What did the sonic boom do to the Southern Hemisphere?" Desmond asks, panic briefly showing in the widening of his eyes. "What are the odds that PSO had something to do with this? Or whoever they fae are serving?" He glares at Vlad and Miriam briefly.


"Yeah, lets go threaten an ancient and presumably powerful city-nation. And every single other person who gets sent there for the exact same reason as us. We may just be the worst group for diplomacy here, especially since I can name twelve people who you'd end up attacking within minutes of meeting Vlad."
 
"I did not say we should threaten them. I am merely pointing out that giving them a sense of our strength is likely to be beneficial in our negotiations." Miriam glances between Vlad and Desmond, "that said, anger management issues may well do more damage than the benefit coming from a show of strength."
 
Grace just looked around the room at the little argument springing up between them all. They had more important things to discuss than how they were getting to Antarctica and if they were going to snuff the Atlanteans.


"We have shadow fae in the compound. They killed one hero, nearly killed a second, and left another in juvenile regression. Now they are signing up as Delta Agents. Who cares about Atlantis? Unless we expect Shambala and the Pleasure Dome of Kubla Khan to come back soon, and shake the world, shouldn't we be trying to defend ourselves against the current threat?" And her parents. She had to find her parents before the clues were gone.


"Besides, Plato said they were wizards that tried for too much. They probably just translocated through time as well. We should just hope they had windows and closed them. It's cold down there." Grace pulled out her phone and started scanning the web for someone to post that Atlantis was back.
 
Now Jayson did smile. Cassandra's enthusiasm was infectious.


Sam wasn't overly amused, but that had more to do with Vlad than anything else. "Mr. Brodavitch, you're blocking everyone's view of the holographic display. If you truly wish this 'crazy train' to keep moving, then stop hindering it by standing in the way.


"I had a quick conference call with the United Nations a short while ago. They agreed that Delta should take point on contact with the Elves of Atlantis. Not only have some of our members had prior dealings with them, we are also technically a multinational organization. Delta has branches in Great Briton, much of Asia, Australia--and now Russia. As of this afternoon, they have officially signed the paperwork. The mission in St. Petersburg has much to do with that, so well done there. If I may be so cynical, there is more than a possibility they've signed to make sure they get their piece of the proverbial pie when Delta makes contact with Atlantis, but it matters not.


"This is a planet-wide crisis. Both this sonic wave and the threat of the Fae, as you've pointed out so elegantly, Miss Romanelli. Mr. West, I inquired after the state of the more southern countries. All of New Zealand and much of Australia's costs are experiencing severe flooding. Our contingent out of Melbourne was hit hard, but they are handling it. As soon as we can spare the resources here, we'll be sending more help."


Drake interjected, "Looking at the security footage, GP, I think you were talking to a half-fae. Full-blood Fae don't get that tall, and besides, you probably would have seen through any mental image it tried to project, so I'm going to guess it wasn't even trying anything beyond a mundane disguise. Also, there is no record of him in the database." Intended for Grace's eyes only, Drake replied to her message with the words Be careful. Almost as if he knew what she was about to be getting herself into.


Meryl reached across the table and put a hand on Grace's. "We're not forgetting what the Fae have done to my brother. Or to Charity. But trust me, the people of Atlantis can help."


"Elves are not normally hostile--though calling them self-important, egotistic, and xenophobic wouldn't be wrong," Jayson supplied. "When we fought Kronos and his army of Shadow Fae a few years ago, it was in the world where Atlantis comes from, called Mya--Myrth--" He stalled on the word.


"Myrathelle," Meryl supplied.


"That's it. When we talked to them after the battle, they seemed disinclined to have any further contact with Earth. Something tells me their presence here is as much a surprise to them as it is to us. And here's the thing: the Elves are at war with the Fae. Without jumping to conclusions, the suddenly increased Fae activity here on Earth...well, it's a stunning coincidence."


"Elves will not involve themselves in Earth politics, of that I am sure," Sam said. "As I understand it, that's what caused them to disappear in the first place. According to the information gathered from our last contact, the Greeks requested their help in the Peloponnesian War. They refused, and the Greeks instead turned to the Shadow Fae. Together, they enacted a plan intended to force the Elves to help them. That backfired, of course, and the Elves retaliated by wiping the existence of Atlantis from the planet. All that remained is the allegorical tale of hubris studied in classical literature."


"We've got our foot in the door, in terms of diplomacy," Jay said. "We fought a battle for them, and buried an enemy that was a threat to both our worlds. At heavy human casualties, I might add. We don't really need them to help fight a war among ourselves--we do that just fine on our own--but there's a good chance we can convince them to work with us to fight the Fae."


Sam turned to Miriam. "Is it possible for you to open up a communications channel with Atlantis? We'll have a far better chance of convincing the Elves we mean no hostility if we talk to them first."


"Ask for Rio'kir," Meryl said. "He's the Elven Chancellor, their political leader. If anyone knows what's going on there, it's him."


Myriad could sense the broken remnants of dying computers interspersed here and there around the continent of Antarctica. Their purpose was to gather, sort, and store data from the various research stations around the icy wasteland, but now they were entirely destroyed by the sudden displacement of air brought on by the arrival of the massive city. Atlantian technology was...strange, but perhaps with sufficient time and focus, she could interface well enough to send a message.

Myriad needs a Computers roll
 
"I'm honestly debating sticking around here for this or flying home and helping." Desmond confessed. "But the whole AMI business is enough to tilt the scales. What's our next move"
 
"Elves, fairies, dragons, and vampires. Really? Are you guys just fucking with me? That's pretty low, especially when you had me so worked up about Atlantis. Look, Sam," and she turns to almost face the director. "I'm grateful for the training and the imprints from the Jones boys. But why am I here? I do digs and libraries, not diplomacy."
 
"Of course," Miriam replies without any apparent hesitation, in the moments between Sam spoke and her ambassador replied, Myriad had plenty of time to understand Atlantean technology sufficiently to communicate fluently. "We can open a channel at your convenience, their system is fully compatible with all our available forms of communication, and quite a few we would have to make upgrades to use." She smiles, "upgrades we of course would be happy to provide as well."
 
The Dragon stay's quiet, almost nervous and intimidated by all the strong feeling and discussion- slipping more of his body in to the floor and wall.
 
Sam smiled at Desmond. "I want you to know that's appreciated, Mr. West. I understand this is difficult for you. This is difficult for all of us." Her gaze fell on Jay, Meryl, and Grace in turn. Then she turned to Cassandra, meeting the place where her eyes were beneath the blindfold. "This is not a joke, Miss Zabadou. The Fae is but one other-worldly threat that Delta protects others from on a daily basis. On the positive side, Atlantis is as much of a wonder as you might imagine." A note of understated excitement crept into her voice, and a small smile graced her regal features. "At least, so the reports say. I was here on Earth last time a connection was made. You can be sure I will not miss such an opportunity this time. As you so...eloquently articulated, there is much history for the touching."


The smile disappeared back behind her professional mask, and she was all business again. "The Elves are highly intelligent and respect knowledge above all else. A show of intellect will make as much an impression--if not more so--as a show of strength. They will appreciate your unique perspective."


She turned to Miriam. "You are, of course, entirely correct: giving them an impression of our strength beyond intellect will be beneficial. However--" And now she glanced at the others, her hard gaze lingering particularly on Vlad. "I cannot stress enough the importance of diplomacy. I am confident you are all capable enough of it. Please understand that you now represent, not only Delta, not just the country of the North American Amalgamated States. You represent the people of Earth."
 
Penelope Urbain


The Fuelrod


From down the hall and around several corners came a faint series of clunking sounds. The pattern of clunks would echo for a few moments, then stop then continue on again. This continued for a few minutes only to be interrupted by faint conversation. The voices, one distinctly human and the other heavily augmented. As soon as the conversation ends, the clunking resumes before stopping outside the door.


Ducking under the frame and nearly splintering the door in the process, steps in a large robotic figure. The domed head ignored any pretense of a neck as it interlocked with the chest and shoulders, a sick green glow emanating from a small view port of the thickly built containment suit.


A heavy hand is raised by the suit, surfaces a dark blue and cold bronze, into a very recognizable, very dorky 'hi' gesture.


"Umm...hello?" The voice crackles out through the onboard speaker system. "I'm the Fuelrod. I filed the paperwork about a week ago and they said report here"


The arm drops to the side of the suit, internal engines thrumming loud enough to break the the temporary silence of the room.
 
Vlad was sitting in a chair, his left hand thumping on the arm, while his right hand propped up his head while thumping a finger against his temple. "Mss Clive, every time the "shit" as the term has been coined, hist the fan, I am usually the one trying to find a solution that doesn't involve smashing what ever it is we are dealing with, for lack of a better term, Bits. While I understand my behavior in the more, social setting, such as those in this room, tend mark me as some what, Eccentric, I assure you I am the least of your problems. I prefer to bide my time and find solutions that don't require extreme uses of force, or at least wait until such force would simply overwhelm my opponents. Besides its rare that I get an opportunity to study a peace of history that I didnt live threw." he stated eyeballing the room.
 
"Nicholas, we seem to be running short on space around here, with the new arrival and the dragon and all. Make some room, will you?" Nicky nods and converts back to his familiar cute-Russian-kid form (who apparently resembles somewhat Anakin Skywalker in Episode 1), looking torn between standing by the dragon or cozying up to the big robot/suit/guy. He ends up taking a place next to Ouroboros, though on his way he shoves Stefan toward Fuelrod, apparently trying to get them to touch. Stefan glares at him for a moment, before looking back at everyone speaking and very deliberately not looking at Drake.


Nicky attempts to nonchalantly lean against Ouroboros, in a "you're really big so I'm going to use you as furniture" moment, before swiftly discovering that the dragon is neither material nor does it possess a gravity-nullification field. The heavy clang of robot meeting floor is a little jarring coming from the eight-year-old-looking human disguise. Stefan smirks - he'd noticed Ouroboros was immaterial, of course, but Nicky lets his guard down in places he considers safe.
 
"Fireless" (Chase Adams)

​



Chase had been running through the various ways he could introduce himself to the people in the room but social situations were not his forte and he was coming up with blanks. He ran a hand through his white hair, the motion distorting the thin wispy line always drifting upwards from his hair when his powers activated. His eyes were hidden behind a pair of black goggles and his clothing was a simple white jacket over a pair of combat pants, mixing with his generally square features to add a slight military flavour to his appearance.


Releasing a deep sigh and ensuring his expression was neutral, Chase moved through the doorway just as Nicky fell through Ouroboros' incorporeal form. The metallic clang went unregistered by Chase who was almost instantly kneeling by the apparently young child's side with a gloved hand outstretched. "You alright?" Chase asks, his voice slightly gravelly despite the minimal impact his favoured cigars had on his body.
 
Nicky's embarrassment is his only suffering, and the fact that someone came to his aid makes it worse. "I'm fine, I'm fine, no need to panic." He finds his feet with a little assistance from his gravitics, then after avoiding Chase's eyes for a bit, looks up and realizes he doesn't recognize him. "Ooh, another new person? I'm Nicky. That's Stefan, my big brother; that's Vlad, he eats people; everyone else but the dragon sucks. Well, I mean, of the people you might need introduced to; I'm guessing you know them," Nicky finishes with a flourish toward the Delta Division leadership in the room. "But in case you don't already know, that one," he indicates Drake, "is a complete asshole." Nicky smiles as brightly as he can. Stefan rubs his face with a gloved hand, glad that at least Nicky (and Vlad, for that matter) keeps his (their) social ineptitudes to the briefing rooms instead of making them obvious on missions. "And I'm still making up my mind about robot-suit-guy. Not actually sure if he's a robot or a person yet, either."

you have no clue how close I came to having Nicky make a REALLY bad joke about Drake... technically true, but worded to make it sound much worse than it is, if you know what I mean.
 
Chase withdraws a hand with a noncomittal grunt, standing back to his full height upon seeing Nicky is unharmed.


Glancing about, his neutral facade slips a fraction when he lays eyes on the dragon in the room ("That is amazing!" he thinks gleefully) but it's soon repressed. "Fireless, part of the big recruitment drive," he says by way of introduction, the hint of a French accent playing at his lips despite his best efforts to repress it.
 
Penelope Urbain


The Fuelrod


"Robot guy?" She stands as dejectedly as possible in her suit.


"It's just the suit. My name is Penelope! Nice to meet you all."


The hand she extended earlier lowers. It's upsetting though her spirt is not daunted.


"I'm just stuck in it for now. I can walk around normally and stuff at home."
 
Sam met Vlad's gaze. "Mr. Broadavitch, if i was not completely convinced of your ability to make the desired impression, you would not be here. Nor would anyone else."


As if fate and Nicky conspired together to belie her words, the small robot boy clanged to the ground. The somber mood broke entirely as the two new people arrived; Meryl smiled a little, and Jay even chuckled--even more so when Nicky called Drake an asshole. It was hardly his usual full, optimistic laugh, but it was more than anyone had heard from him for days. Drake retained a stoic impression, but even he couldn't repress the amused twinkle in his eye. He shrugged, unoffended when Nicky insulted him. He'd copped to worse.


Jayson relaxed into a mode a little more like his usual charismatic self. He offers a handshake to both Penelope and Chase. "Glad you're both here. To summarize: we're going to Atlantis, yes as in the Lost City. Yes, it's real, no it's not simply traveled through time--I don't think--and it's populated by Elves. Yes, that may seem a little strange, but we've got a dragon and a vampire in the room, so...ya know. They're as magical and intelligent as you'd expect, and are particularly impressed by smart people." He took a sidelong glance at the others in the room. "Seriously, we're not as doomed as you might think."
 
The Oracle laughs at that line, a single harsh bark of amusement, quickly choked back. "Sorry, nevermind," she mumbles, blushing, and bends down to rummage through her knapsack.
 
Vlad continued to eye the room. "SO when do we set off? Is there any more information pertinent to this mission you might have, and do we have a dragon sized transport?"
 
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