2012-09-15 - Invader Skrull: Off Grid

The location that false Kitty McGee has provided Richard Dragon and Lady Blackhawk, has taken them to the Gotham City Harbor. The dark alleyways are dangerous in this area to say the least, though that is not what Kitty fears. The warehouse in question is located and Kitty picks up some broken pieces of debris and trash, and actually uses that to break the weak lock on the warehouse. She opens the door and leads everyone inside.

Her movements are slow, her expression thoughtful. She leaves one of the others to close the door behind them, but her eyes close as she moves about and she points at seemingly nothing and mmmms, "We are in the right place," and her eyes open as she heads toward the back to the warehouse as if knowing where she is going now.

Richard follows Kitty, he scans the room quickly as he enters. Apparently content with what he sees he finds a quiet place to settle on the floor. He seems almost to be set on meditating for a moment, but then he speaks. "This place, was it set up by your associate? Or is it somewhere you set up?"

Lady Blackhawk frowns. There's something about this that triggers all of her suspicions from working with both the Bat crowd and, more recently, with SHIELD. Neither are inclined towards trust. She moves to one side, and then starts to prowl the place, clearly checking it out.

The place appears empty and abondoned, with spiderwebs and dust...but there are little spots where the dust was distrubed in the last few months, where it is not as deep as other areas. "My associate." She then stops at the back wall, and tilts her head at it. She start moving her fingers around and finds what she is looking for, "Ah-ha!" She pops open a hidden pannel and mmms, "Code protected. I don't have the code. Is this a test?" She grumbles. She then wiggles her fingers and interlinks them, pushing them outward as she stretches her arms out to crack them. She then rolls her neck, "Well, this is easy pleasey!"

Kitty then goes to pick up some dust and blows it onto the panel. "No fingerprints or oil, go figure. Gloves?" She then moves toward a panel in the floor, pointing out the design about the boards. "This actually is an elevator." She closes her eyes and thinks. "Man, I wish I had my equipment." She returns to the panel, and finally says, "I'll be right back. I know there will be some local tools here I can use to get the panel off and jerry-rig this, as American's say." She speaks with such an American accent, yet she says that?

"Then I advise we stay here a brief time only. It's my understanding that your associate could have been compromised. In fact if he is your superior it would stand to reason he will become, if he isn't already a prime target." He shakes his head slowly. "In a situation where you can't trust the organization you're working for, I think it's best to work without their facilities, oversight or resources."

Lady Blackhawk frowns...and starts to make her search rather less perfunctory. She's not sure *what* she's looking for, but anything out of place would likely be it. She's too far from Dragon to attempt to communicate with him...and for all she knows he's compromised too. This is not good...but she knows she can't do anything significant on her own.

"This guy is...terrifying. And this may be a test of my skills, to prove I am who I am," Kitty says, starting to get into the thought process, but then shrugs. "Then again, I'm a thief, not a spy expert." A quirky smile on her lips, but she then slips away. She only takes about eight minutes before she is back with a number of items. "Scounger still! Never loose the touch." She puts the things on the wooden floor and then picks up what she knees and starts working, she only has one abondoned work glove, a dirty thing on one hand. But she soon starts rewiring when she gets the panel off, and given about twelve more minutes, and the thief has the elevator lifting up to reveal the group. She grins. "Test passed with flying colors, I'm totally awesome." She then will scatter the items outside after fixing the panel so there is no evidence left behind - least obvious evidence. "Let's go, and then we can make decisions."

"Fear isn't a good reason for trust." Richard rises and follows Kitty. "How much contact do we have with your superiors here?" Richard frowns. "It seems a place like this would be on someone's grid."

Lady Blackhawk follows as well, having found nothing, but keeping a slight distance from both. She just, overall, doesn't like this, although she's not nearly as...well...cautious outwardly as she might be.

"The sheer amount of technology here is almost enough to give me a headache." She can...sense that? But Kitty leads the way into the open elevator, and motions you two forward. "And there is technology to block technology, constantly developing in this dog eat dog world. As for interactions? I often interact with the Director, because of my position." Lady Blackhawk won't be able to keep much distance inside the elevator as Kitty waits for everyone to join her before pushing the down button and the doors close and take them sub-level to a bomb shelter with tons of technology, monitors that reveal the warehouse fully above and around it as well. There is also another room, that appears to be for storage with all sorts of of grey, long boxes. There is also crates of food in the main room and bunks, along with a door that leads to a full bathroom, showers only.

Kitty steps out after you two when the elevator stops and the door opens. She glances about and hrms. "Alright," hands on her hips. "Let's explore, and I need a change of clothes. Let's see what we have in stock here. I'm sure the Director will contact us briefly." Her fingers twitch and she struggles to hide a wicked grin over finding what is stored down here.

"We should take the equipment we need and go elsewhere." Richard begins to search through the food, giving the items some consideration. "We shouldn't leave the Director with any means of contact us. We should make sure we can contact him. And only when we need to." He shrugs a shoulder looking at the two women. "Assuming that none of us have been taken over by the invaders that's the most reliable means of ensuring our security."

Lady Blackhawk hrms. "And I'm not sure how we can assure *that*..." They'll just have to assume it, for now, but she can't help but hope for some kind of clear indication.

"Look, there is no way we are doing shit without the Director," Kitty says bluntly. "Tell me, what can we do without his assistance? Do you know how to find the S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters? I know where one is out of how many around the world, and I have a high rank. The primary headquarters is moveable, so I don't know where it is without going through secure S.H.I.E.L.D. channels to find out, which means if there really are Skrull impersonators, they can find me if I go through them. I cannot do anything to S.H.I.E.L.D. without a back door, it's that simple. It is why I joined them, because I couldn't esacpe them without losing everything I built worthwhile in my life." She shakes her head, "I'm scared, but being paranoid about the very one asking for help is not going to get you anywhere escape in a fox hole afraid to come out into the light of day. Which by the way, I'm scared enough to do; the only reason I haven't is I...for the first time in my life, I have an lifestyle I want to protect. I'm happy for the first time in my life, and I'm not going to lose that unless I'm absolutely sure there is no other way and I have to go into hiding."

That is when Kitty about jumps out of her skin as a shadowry figure appears on a computer monitor and starts speak, "Well said Agent C.A.T." A shadowry hand raises to pull away what appears to be a cigar, smoke blowing out. "Welcome to one of my safe houses Lady Blackhawk and Richard Dragon. I am the Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. I don't expect either of you to trust me; one of you is an experienced agent, the other working for a mysterious figure known as Oracle." Another drag of his cigar is taken before he blows more smoke out. "Would you like to see what I have as proof that things are bad?"

Richard looks at the figure. His expression neutral. "I suggest we go dark." He shrugs a shoulder. "As for proof. I'd like to know what you can tell me about the invaders as well as proof they're what you say they are." It's the more paranoid side of Richard, he doesn't trust such organizations, he's been burnt.

Lady Blackhawk ahs. "The famous Directory," She's heard his position...and nothing more. As for Oracle...she won't reveal her to SHIELD. And if she did, would *Fury* be able to trust her? An interesting knife's edge indeed. "And I would very much like to see the evidence." Another set of eyes and brain, if it happens to be real.

The screen then moves even as Kitty watches, suddenly nervous.

The screen leaves its shadowry perspective and reveals a Skrull hanging from a ceiling by her wrists, her flesh green and her S.H.I.E.L.D. uniform messed up, boots also missing. Her chin is large with lines along it vertically. She looks messed up and bloody. Her eyes are closed, and she does not respond.

The screen then turns shadowry again and returns to the Director.

"Let me just say, she is very stubborn with her information. But I have gleened that speaks of truth is that if we do not handle this quietly, S.H.I.E.L.D. is done for along with all the good it does. The undercover agents out there will have no support, and no way to escape either. HYDRA and other organizations like it will have won the day, along with alien races such as the Skrull and Kree." He jabs with his cigar for emphasis.

"The New York City headquarters is in lockdown, it will get cleaned out, I have someone on the job. But the primary headquarters and other headquarters are my concern right now. Not to mention the heroic groups. Your team will be very important," the Director advises. "It will be your job to take the information I provide, and take out the imposters all across the world."

"Whao! I don't like to kill, you know that!" Kitty looks horrified.

Even shadowry, one can tell the Director scowls. "I don't care how you do it, by knocking them out and imprisoning them or with a bullet. It isn't my place to dictate your personal morals and choices. I have agents that, that is what they do; they kill. And I have agents that do everything humanly possible and beyond to spare each life they can. I select someone because how damn good they are, not because they are killers."

Richard nods slowly. "We'll need a means of contacting you once each obejective is completed. As well as the necessary access to ensure our targets are legitimate." Richard looks at Fury for a moment. "I'm afraid that you are obviously a primary target for replacement, this means we'll need means of confirming your information to as great a degree as possible." Richard speaks casually, he does however pause. "But Director, you need to understand that I will prevent the loss of life where ever possible. Even if it's at your order."

"And I'd rather not kill...I'm fine with killing alien invaders, but if we screw up." Zinda's got a point. "No offense, sir, but nobody's perfect. Some might come a lot closer than others..." But she's even seen Superman make mistakes.

"There isn't a way," Fury says. "Let's just say that I'm underground, and the current Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. is what we call an LDM, a Live Decoy Model. If they are replaced, well, the Skrull will be replacing a synethic robot. I will do more good from the shadows, then playing a blazing hero and making myself a damn target."

Though the Director does say, "You can contact me through the system here, and the comlinks in the ashetray, it's a clean one, on the front console." He makes a grunt sound, "I never expected anything less from you Dragon. Like I said, my interest in recruiting you isn't your killing ability, it is because you are one hell of an agent." Then toward Lady Blackhawk, "You will do fine Lady Blackhawk. I've seen your record, you got the potential. All I ask is you keep your mouth shut to the other person that signs your paycheck, just as I won't ask you who they are. Two seperate lines of business, they do not cross paths. But I admit, even if Dragon was planning to join full-time, you would be the greatest risk. One of the reasons I'm not as big a target as I am, is because only a very tiny percent of the world's population knows what I look like or even my name. But you get spies in S.H.I.E.L.D., and this is the shit that happens, the Skrull. Next, I'll be dealing with HYDRA spies," he grumbles. Foreshadowing?

Kitty nods, "Sure, do you have our first mission yet?"

"Go through the supplies," the Director says. "Stay at this location, it is entirely independent with a geneator and everything. S.H.I.E.L.D. does not know it is here, this was my private project. I'm waiting for word from Black Widow on the status of the Avengers before I assign your first mission. And by the way, welcome to the Secret Warriors team. Let's kick some Skrull ass." There is a brief pause, before he adds, "And no outside contact C.A.T. You are the one that is least likely to take an order." He then signs off.

C.A.T. grumbles, "Jerk. Well, let's get exploring. Man, Black Widow gets all the fun jobs." If C.A.T. knew what she was experiencing, then perhaps she wouldn't think so.

"We'll need to make dead drops, places we can store the comlinks so that we can't be traced while carrying them." Richard frowns shifting the bag on his back. "I would suggest we come here or go to the dead drops only to make contact." He shrugs a shoulder. "That way we lower the risk of being followed to or caught at the locations." Richard frowns as he looks at C.A.T. "And we still need to talk. I take it you lied to me while seeking my instruction?" For once there's an edge of frustration to his tone. "But for now you're right we need to see what we have here we'll need."