2013-12-01 - SDR: A Very Merry SHIELD Meeting

The conference room smells of fresh coffee, and the Deputy Direct sits already at the head of the conference table, an untouched doughnut and bear claw sitting on a paper plate beside her. A fresh pitcher of coffee and pile of doughnuts, danishes, and eclairs (but alas, no other bear claws) sits on a side table with a small stack of paper plates, styrofoam cups, and suger/creamer packets.

Natasha looks over the datapad before her, looking frustrated. Whatever she's called this meeting for isn't good.

Anessa arrives, casting a quick glance around before snatching a cup of coffee, pouring in a generous amount of cream and sugar before taking a seat, stirring the concoction. "Morning, Deputy Director."

Punctuality, thy name is Grant Ward. The tall, dark, and taciturn operative steps into the conference room and nods towards Natasha and Anessa, "Deputy Director Romanov. Agent Mitchell." He says simply, before moving to pour himself a cup of coffee, left black, and heading over to set the cup down at a seat about halfway down the conference table, though he doesn't seat himself just yet.

Clint is actually glad to be at the meeting today, it beats the disapproving looks he was getting from Pym for letting America take off into the multiverse. Anyhow, Clint is glad not be back at the Academy and it shows as he enters the conference room and wiggles his fingers at Nat. "Morning," he says entirely too cheerfully before he notes Anessa's there too. He pauses, his joyous expression fading slightly and he moves to get coffee. His old flame, er, flames, being in the room together doesn't stop him from stealing the bear claw off Nat's plate before sitting down and asking "So what's going on?"

He nods at Ward before taking a bite of the bear claw.

Phil arrives in the conference room, giving all a polite nod. He approaches the table of donuts and coffee, taking up a napkin he has a moment where he is trying to decide between two donuts. After a few moments he elects to take both and sets them down in front of his seat, going back to get coffee, and from there to his seat to stay. "Ma'am, Barton, Mitchell, Ward."

Agent Rogers makes his way into the room. He wasn't wearing the Captain America uniform. Though he makes no attempt at hiding his id but it makes it easier when he's not drawking quite so much attention. He nods to the people as he arrives, "Sorry I'm late. There was this thing." He fixes himself coffee and takes a seat.

"Good morning. Glad you could all make it on such short notice." Natasha takes a sip of her coffee, giving Clint an imperious eyebrow lift of disapproval-- that was her bear claw... not that she was eating it. Or had remembered she had gotten it... look, she's been distracted--before continuing.

"We have several problems, and several bits of updated data that I felt would be best shared as a group. Perhaps together we can figure out how to best resolve these issues. Many of them seem to be directly related to the Silencer substance-- which, by what I've been seeing here, is simply /everywhere/. Other issues..." a dark scowl crosses her face. "Other issues we will need to handle as well. Agent Mitchell, would you fill us in on what you've learned about the possible funders of this project?"

Anessa nods to each as they arrive, none seeming to draw any particularly special greeting over another. She's adopted a neutral, very professional demeanor.. which appears to be the usual for her in these types of situations.

But then, the meeting begins and Deputy Director Romanv is speaking. She listens, her brow furrowing slightly. She's been tied up with computer research most of the past week, or so, and little else has reached her ears. This should be an enlightening meeting.

Ana nods when the floor is 'given' to her. She clears her throat. "Thank you Deputy Director." She nods to Natasha, then looks at the others at the table. "So far, there seems to be little obvious activity from the anti-mutant groups. I have found very few trails of financial transactions, only a few strange patterns of cash withdrawls. There was an instance at a concert given by Dazzler where anti-mutants were protesting, though it was kept fairly well under control, until Sentinnals appeared on the scene." She takes a sip of her heavily laden coffee before continuing. "I have seen evidence of clinics that aid mutants in 'rehabilitation', receiving new funding, but I haven't been able to trace the source."

THe Deputy Director nods slightly. "No luck on the trace, then?" she asks.

Ana shakes her head. "Not yet, but I haven't given up."

Jessica stumbles on in. "What'd I miss, folks?"

Agent Ward listens intently to Natasha and then Anessa, waiting until the latter is concluded before piping up, "We might have another avenue worth checking out. There's a fundraiser ball being put on by the Human Foundation for a Better World at the Smithsonian this coming weekend. What we've got of the guest list is worth noting: Senator Robert Kelly is the headliner, but nearly all of the other Congressmen and Senators that support his anti-mutant legislation will be in attendance as well." He flicks a glance towards Natasha, "Sounds like a serious lobbying effort to me."

"Drew. Grab some coffee and have a seat." If Natasha is irritiated by the late arrival, it doens't show.

Steve Rogers shrugs, "Have we checked all the foreign angles? Red Skull, Doctor Doom, China, and anyone else that would be looking at depowering super powered individuals? This substance doesn't just target mutants. But with civil unrest that would be a way to pick up capital for production along with making it more acceptable. Also have any of SHIELDS scientist broke the chemical make up down? That could point us in the right direction.

"Had a pot on the way here, I'm good. Chasing the money, are we?" Jessica say, finding a spot to sit. "Anti-mutant ball?" she considers, grabbing a cup of water from the table. "That would be better than a good lead, Agent Ward," she says, taking a sip of water. "I believe, pardon my intrusion, that this new drug has strong ties to the movement. As if that wasn't too blatantly obvious. But with the attack on Madison Square Garden and the capture of mutants, which I still haven't been able to track down, outside where a group of anti-mutant protesters were rallying is no coincidence."

Jessica looks at Steve," I wouldn't look foreign, these people are playing games on our own turf and are proud of it. As for the chemical makeup, I've got Tony Stark, Hank McCoy and Dr. Pym working on that as we speak..." she trails off.

Natasha punches up some data onto the screen behind her, then steeples her fingers. "Good question. It looks like our scientists have found that whatever it is, it attacks the DNA strand in a similar fashion to vampire toxin." The screen behind her glows with a bunch of different DNA strands in varying shapes and coatings. "It coats the strand-- but it looks like where the vampire toxin /changes/ the strand, this only coats it for a time before the immune system begins to break it down."

Might explain why she was down in New Orleans, then.

"Ugh, bad enough when we were just looking at other anti-mutant freaks," Clint groans sucking the sugary remains of his bear claw off his fingers. "Now we've got countries and HYDRA in the mix. Might as well throw AIM in there too. Big Head Little Limbs guy is all about the super-science, right?"

He shuts up when the screen turns on.

"Yes... having Xavier's Crew on this is just bound to bring me more headaches," Natasha says, rubbing her temples. "They see government conspiracy in just about everything."

"You'd know had you been here, Clint," Jessica sniffs, looking to the screen.

Anessa studies the screen, examining the displayed data. "Do you think they're trying to make it permanent, and these.. episodes are just trials? Test subjects, guinea pigs, so to speak?"

"Bozhe moy, I hope not, Mitchell," Natasha replies. "The temporary problem is more than sufficient to knock out anyone with mutant powers /or/ that's been affected with Super Soldier Serum." She glances to Cap.

Phil nods, "This makes sense, but we also need to look for other issues. We have a member on the New Orleans City Council to worry about, Jean-Philippe, a vampire with some influence in the vampire community. We also have to worry about Rhenzkov, formerly of the USSR, but has been around for at least a century or so. I am wondering how they will be reacting to this."

Ward shakes his head slightly, "I think Agent Drew is right. A lot of villains would have just as much to lose as to gain with this stuff. Sounds more like a government...or wannabe-government initiative. One of a long list of potential contingencies they've tried to develop for dealing with metahumans." Another brief shake of his head, "Which might be understandable, if all these contingencies didn't have a tendency to end up in the worst possible hands."

"I've got a decent standing with a few of the X-men. They, at least, trust me. I don't know about all you, but you can't really blame them with this," Jessica says, setting her chin to the palm of her hand.

Steve Rogers takes a drink of his coffee, "It's not A.I.M. or MODOK. I told you I was late." He sighs, "Chasing that thing through Paris Sewers is not a good time. He kept spouting off about science and killing."

Clint nods as he sucks the last of the sugar off his thumb. "Ugh, I know I hate that guy. Well at least he's off our list," he says to Steve. Then to the group. "Alright so what we do we /actually/ know about these guys making this stuff? Anything?"

Steve Rogers frowns, "It targets super soldiers? It may have Vampire beginnings. Anyone know where Baron Bloods at these days? He's not a scientist. But he teamed up with Zola. There's potential." Bet Clint wishes Modok was behind it now.

Jessica nods her head at Agent Ward. "Or someone who feels they wish to take this into their own hands, someone with money /and/ political ties. You can't get away with keeping an unregulated drug legal like this without it. Unless... it was secretly regulated. I'll have someone looking at government contracts." She pokes a few things into her phone and sends it off, setting the phone down on the table. "Working on it, Clint. Got a few leads. I believe that it's being distributed at some of NYC the clinics, and the street level out of warehouses placed around the city. This is where the low-level distribution's been happening. Clinics, clubs, on the streets. "

"You know...we seem to be focusing on the familiar. What if someone from the -other- world is behind this? A new player, from our perspective?" Ward queries as the conversation bounces around the table.

Steve Rogers says, “That is possible. Do we have any cases of this drug effecting metahumans? Any one been talking to Checkmate?"”

Natasha's eyes narrow. "It turn America into chudovishche," she says coldly, her accent clipped. "It silences super solider serum, and neutralizes mutant x gene. I think it is made for meta-humans. I think it makes meta-humans back to normal-- for them." Her implications, of course, is that perhaps someone was something else all along.

"I ran into Checkmate the other night, didn't think to ask them about it though, they had their own problems," Clint explains and then takes a sip of his coffee frowning and remembering the stuff he'd seen. "Anyhow, we have to know something, otherwise why'd we shoot the guy downtown? You know, in that Youtube video."

"And turned her into what now?" Clint says looking over at Natasha.

"So, do we have a game plan?" Yes, Anessa's hoping for something that gets her out from behind the computer desk. She's been sipping her coffee, following the conversation as thoughts get tossed into the ring.

Steve Rogers nods, "This may require a meeting with the Titans or a trip to Gotham."

"I wonder how it will affect vampires," Phil says pensively, "If it is a government agency, we can probably find a way of getting that information. But we also need to look at metahumans that might actaully want this to be available."

Natasha scowls back at Clint. Typical.

That is also a problem," she growls. "I was going to ask the man what he knew, but then kevlar-kretin decides to destroy his skull in front of half of New York. He is someone /else/ we will need to find and bring in." She sighs, sipping her coffee. "Is... something I saw once before, many years ago." The undertone, of course, is not some much saw as killed.

Anessa clears her throat. "Let's not forget the kid we have in custody. It's my understanding is that he's been using the substance for a few months now." Her gaze moves from face to face, studying reactions. "He just wants to go home. Any news on that front?"

"There isn't really an exact word for it in English, Agent Barton." Ward replies in regards to the term Natasha uses to describe America. He adds, "Well, for the time being I think this fundraiser is a stronger lead. But I'd agree it would be worth touching base with Checkmate on this." Ward notes, then nods to Anessa and shifts tact a bit, "The street-level distribution on this has been pretty ingenious. Marketing it, so to speak, as a recreational drug on top of an X-gene suppressor." He adds, "In both cases, both the kid and the dealer we picked up are runaways, and their licenses and the addresses that were on them were faked. The dealer's been extremely close-hold on where he was actually staying, though."

"I was hit with it, it wasn't pretty. Completely powerless." Jessica says, picking at her fingernails. "Hmm.. There's a club in Tribeca that's been hosting several known, big time, drug dealers. Places is owned by a one.." she pokes at her phone, "Billy Fisher. Ex-ARMY." She scrolls through her phone He /was/ working private security and as a pilot for Muricorp International since he got out. Seems he used the funds from that to open his club. I'll get some more surveillance around there, see if we can see where these guys are going after their trips there. Perhaps track down some more warehouses, even better, someone higher up on the chain."

Phil frowns, "If we are going to have eyes and ears at the event, it would probably be best to send in low-profile individuals, or at least those that wouldn't be the target of the group's intent."

Jessica raises her hand. "I'll go. If I get hit with it again, it shouldn't affect me, rather, it shouldn't affect me for more than a few moments."

"Low profile?" Natasha manages a brief grin at Clint. "Well, that means Clint and I are out. We tend to... leave these sorts of things on a high note."

"I can go as well. From what I've seen, if I get dosed it won't do anything but give me a temporary high." Ward notes.

Who is more low profile than Anessa? "I'm in, for whatever you need." She keeps her eagerness out of her voice, but the observant types bothering to notice, would see that she's nearly on the edge of her seat.

"Dibs on visiting the Titans," Clint says holding up his hand. Have people /seen/ Starfire? Then back to business. "So we have this fundraiser," he pauses to heh at Natasha's comment. "This Fischer guy's club. We should probably have a team to deal with each, right?"

"Lovely, so you get hit, I'll be carrying your goofy ass outta there?" Jessica smirks.

Natasha looks up. "Wait, Club ENERGY? We had an op there a few weeks ago."

"If we're doing our job right, we won't get dosed in the first place." Ward notes without the slightest hint of sarcasm in his voice.

Jessica nods at Natasha. "The one and only, dahling."

Natasha hmms, rubbing the bridge of her nose. "Agents Ward and Mitchell, looks like you'll have to take a page from our book. We'll get you tickets, you'll be posing as a married couple, likely donors. Anessa, make sure you get your false identities set up well enough to pass a background check. Both of you will need to spend some time together-- get used to each other."

"Clint. Talk to the Titans, see what they know, see if you can get their assistance... discreetly." She pauses. "Also, what do you know about tracksuit wearing Russian mobsters? I know we had a run-in the other night, but apparently they shot up a warehouse full of kids in Brooklyn last night."

"Drew, I have a job for you, see me after."

She glances to Cap. "And Steve... you and Phil, I need you on the kevlar-kretin issue." This was the Deputy Director, and she was in was in delegating beast-mode. "Questions, concerns?" Anessa's comment about the kid? Ignored. Pointedly.

"It seems that the best way to fight this is, oddly enough, the normal people that these people are wanting to turn metahumans into." Phil says coldly. Natasha's orders receive a nod, no doubt he is pleased to be working with THE Captain America. "Will do, won't be much use in the field, but will do."

Jessica grins at Ward, "When do we ever do our jobs right?" Jessica sighs and nods to Natasha. "Right, boss." She mocks a salute.

Anessa grins briefly, hearing she'll have the opportunity to get in and get her 'feet wet', so to speak. She glances in Ward's direction, then back to Natasha, nodding. "I'll get to work on them right away."

Clint nods. "Cool. I've got a contact in Gotham too. I can run by there and see what that crowd knows, get them to keep an eye out anyhow," then the stuff about the Russians. "They what? Was anyone hurt?"

Ward glances to Anessa, then back to Natasha and nods his head once, "Understood." He looks to Clint and nods, his expression somber, "Five kids dead, seven in critical condition, and seven dead Russian Mobsters." Ward replies.

Steve Rogers frowns as he hears about he track suit mafia, "Clint you need help with them. Let me know." He turns to Phil, "I'm quite sure you will make due, Coulson. You are very capable after all." He looks to Natasha, "Any information on this, "Keratin?"

The Deputy Director pulls up the news article. "Yeah. A bunch of kids killed. Had a level 3 look into it earlier-- apparently a couple of the goons were killed by arrows from inside the building." She pauses. "The others... well, I'm pretty sure I have a trip to make up to Xavier Institute later." She gives Jessica a look. "Unless someone else is willing to go for me."

"Normally I would leave this issue to the locals, but with metahuman involvement? Falls under our purview. THe arrows made me think about your little protege. Have you heard from her?"

She turns to Steve. "No clue. He had access to some serious ordinance. I had a choice between letting his grenade hurt more civilians, or letting him get away. I chose the civilians." For a change.

Jessica eyes Natasha. "Why the institute? I'm not going in there in the dark. Having good standing doesn't go far when you're grasping for straws."

"Because the word from a couple of the kids there was that Jonothon Starsmore went from performing his horrid variant of 'music' to melting Russian mobsters." Natasha says dryly.

Clint nods to Steve, with a pained expression on his face that formed when he heard about dead kids. "Yeah, I just might," he says a little dully then shakes his head. "Not Kate, she got out of town at the start of this thing. I think she's in Bermuda or Barbados, one of those B islands."

"Excuse me?! I mean, more power to him. But.. huh, who'd a thunk," Jessica says, an amused look on her face. "I'll call on a few people to help me out here on the X-men side of things. You get me everything you know on it, but I'll still be following my leads. I can't let them go cold."

Anessa pulls out a small notepad and pen from a random pocket, and begins jotting down a few things.

Natasha furrows her brow, adopting an expression that is distinctly Fury-esque. "Damn. Clint, I had hoped it was her. When you get back from dealing with the Titans, you mind looking into this for me? I'll debrief you with what we know-- you're probably the best man for this job, since you've been dealing with these psikhi."

Steve Rogers nods, "Alright, Nat. I'm going to need some idea what this guy looked like where he was operating and standard observations. But that could wait till later or by report." He turns quiet to hear about things.

"Weren't there reports of another metahuman on the scene at the warehouse shooting?" Ward notes, "One of the Avengers Academy kids, I thought...or has he already been debriefed?"

"English please!" Jessica grumbles.

"On it," Clint says still sounding distracted.

Anessa makes a mental note to start adding other languages to her list of things to do, starting with Russian.

Natasha looks like Christmas has come early. "Ah, so the TK /was/... excellent. I'll have to speak with him later." No one likes being pulled into the Widow's office, and it's doubtful poor Julian is going to enjoy the experience either.

Anessa continues to listen as she scribbles on the notepad, looking up now and again, her gaze drifting from face to face of those speaking.

Steve Rogers says, "It's not a nice word."

""Crazy bastards"" if you want to get technical." Ward adds to Cap's statement.

Natasha looks up from where she was studying her data pad. "Is there any other information anyone has that may be of use?"

Nothing is forthcoming from Ana. She's shared about all the intel she's managed to gather up until this point.

"Nothing else for my part." Ward replies.

Phil shakes his head, "Nothing new on my end. Though finding out how this affects vampires and how they will react will be important."

Steve Rogers shrug, "And finding this man in black."

"Yeah, that's all I've got. I've been busy. Also what Phil says, we shouldn't forget about those vampire jerks, it's clear they hold grudges," Clint says.

"Then dismissed. Drew, if you would stay a moment. Barton, you as well." Nat looks back down to her datapad.

Jessica looks at those around the table who rise to leave, she kicks back her chair and rolls it over to Natasha. "What's up?" she says, leaning back in her chair.

With that dismissal, Anessa stashes her notepad and pen and takes up her empty coffee cup to drop in the trash bin on the way out. She has some identities to work on.

Phil finishes one of his donuts and takes the other as he departs.

Ward rises to his feet, picking up his up of coffee and nodding, "I'll start working with Agent Mitchell on the other details for the operation." He inclines his head towards those present, and moves to head for the door.

Steve Rogers rises and eyes the trio, "Stay out of trouble." That sounded more like Cap than him being SHIELD. He takes his coffee and heads out.

The Deputy Director sighs, sliding the datapad over to Jessica. "I need you looking into this Fisher guy, and I want you at this ball this weekend as backup for Mitchell and Ward. And, as you pointed out, you have better ties to Xavier's than we do. Personally, I don't care that one of their kids melted some mob goons, but it's a metahuman /incident/ and that means it's a problem on /my/ plate. NYPD is already having a conniption over it.

She pauses. "I know Hank McCoy is working on the serum from his end. Find out what he's managed to figure out about it. I don't want to have to bring in one of Xavier's kids for questioning regarding this issue in Brooklyn, but I /will/. Or, it can just go away..." she lifts a brow. "Understand me?"

"Always, Steve," Jessica grins, turning her attentions to Natasha. "You've got it, sweet-cheeks. I'll get my credentials going, get me that ticket. As for the X-men, I've got them. I don't know why, but they don't trust the rest of you SHIELD types too much. I'll get the club thing going, Kevin won't be there, it's a shame. He's found himself in the hospital and without the courage to speak," Jessica grins.

"Did he?" Natasha shrugs uncaringly. "Pity. Hopefully he gave up something worthwhile before he ended up there. Speaking of 'Kevin', I have another of his kind in custody here. 'Conrad'. He also has a terminal case of glued mouth. Perhaps your particular talents might be useful at relieving this problem?" She gives Jessica her most ruthless smile.

"Nothing we didn't already know," Jessica grins, "I had Wolverine take care of him." Jessica snorts. "You bet your sweet Russian ass I can make him talk. Instill the fear of god in him if I've gotta."

"Good." Natasha takes the datapad back, punching in a few commands. "You have clearance to 'visit' him. PLease give him my finest regards."

"Never you worry, I'll give him your warmest welcome. I've had about enough of these scum," Jessica nods, "I'll stop on my way out."

"Good. Dismissed. Keep me informed." And Natasha turns to Barton once Jessica leaves.

Clint waves goodbye to Jess and then turns to Natasha and says "This is about the bear claw, right?" he says with a smile.

"No, it's about the Russian mob, Clint." Natasha doesn't return the smile. In fact, she looks as serious as she gets. "I need to know what's going on."

"Not much to say really," Clint says and takes a sip of coffee both hands wrapped around the cup. "They're this mob out of Little Irkutsk, down by Brighton Beach. One of the guys, Ivan, he used to be my landlord, he was running the people out of the building, so I sort of made him an offer that he couldn't refused and bought it from him, plus an extra two million." He pauses and then adds "I may have also helped one of their girls escape this time."