Sons of Mutancy - Logs 1 & 2
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xp_logsA visit from Agent Brand from SWORD results in an uneasy truce and a potentially dangerous bargain.
“Let’s get this straight. You think a Maggia Don named Costa is moving demonically infused weapons over the border and into the hands of Mexican cartels through The Huns MC.” Kane flipped the file closed. “Even if this weird acid take on ‘Sons of Anarchy’ is real, why us? ATF must have The Huns under surveillance. With SWORD’s resources, you’ve got plenty of firepower to go after these guys. Hell, thanks to SHIELD’s increased powers, you could round up everyone you suspect and drop them into a legal void until someone is willing to make a deal, US Attorney’s office objections or not.”
“Maybe I’m feeling nostalgic?” Brand’s tone was whimsical, but her eyes were cold and hard as ever. “Perhaps I miss the good old days when it was you and I against the forces of evil?” At his less-than-impressed expression, she shrugged. “Fine. The West Coast shop of the Maggia has connections and the powers that be want this done quietly to avoid attracting too much attention before the arrests are made. Plus demonic influence is fucking hard to prove in court.”
“Enough to drag the Director of SWORD out into the field? I don’t think so, Brand.” He tossed the file back on the table. “Duncan might have been willing to sign off on this if you were pursuing RICO or something, but I’m not seeing that. Instead, I’m seeing some kind of cowboy independent operation in the works here. The kind that ends a career if it goes wrong, and I know that’s not your MO. So why don’t you tell me what’s really going on, before I kick your skinny ass to the curb?”
Brand rolled her eyes. “I liked it better when we were both FBI – you were still annoying, but I had more leverage. Okay, my ‘mutant status’ got the attention of some bigoted congressman asshole. I’ve been told to lay low and make myself useful until it’s taken care of. Plus, if we manage to make this work, being directly involved in stopping The Huns’ arms dealing would do a lot to make people forget my genetic makeup.” She gave Garrison a look that was almost pleading… if it had been anyone else. “You’d be doing me a solid. I wouldn’t forget that.”
“See, you seem to have missed the whole thing about me hating you. I mean, you losing your position and influence at SWORD sounds like an excuse for a celebratory bender at Harry’s. Hell, maybe they’re hire Barton back and give him your job.”
She smiled. “Oh, but if I was gone, who would conveniently ignore that little magical community of Xavier’s at the mansion? The blonde witch and her coven? If I’m replaced, the new SWORD director would find all sorts of evidence of a renegade magical outfit operating on American soil. A group that includes a woman responsible for not one but two demonic possessions and the recent wide-scale destruction across the world; four foreign nationals on student visas whose actual academic status is questionable; and a woman whose immigration status is totally bogus, not to mention the particularly shady organisation she works for. Do I need go on?”
“If you want to limit your life expectancy to less than 24 hours, sure.” The thing that Brand didn’t know was just how Kane had been brought back from the brink and the changes that had resulted. “You’re on the outs, which means if an equally shadowy group of former operatives and spies decided that they’d had enough of your threats and made sure your body was found weeks later in an abandoned sewer tunnel in Queens, the government might just look the other way. See, you think that you can threaten me because of my better angels. But I remember a young woman raped and sacrificed that might have been saved if you hadn’t fucked off. So, maybe you want to try again.” His expression was nothing she’d seen previously; the law man of a different era, ready to mete out his own idea of justice.
Her eyebrows raised. “Hmm.” Obviously, this wasn’t the Garrison she thought she’d known. “You’ve certainly changed, Agent Kane.” She tapped her lips with a green nailed forefinger. “I won’t insult us both by attempting to buy you off. The truth is, I need help and you’re the best agent for this job. The only agent I’d trust to bring in, to be honest. You might hate my guts, but at least you’re honest about it. So, what is it you want? What can I do or say that would get you to join me?”
“I have a list of things that SWORD can do for us. And I’m sure that Amanda has an even longer list, which is why she’s on her way in.” He checked his phone, seeing her ping that she was close to the mansion from New York. “But after everything, what do you think you can do?”
Brand was seldom surprised – or at least, she didn’t show it. But the news that the very “blonde witch” she’d been trying to use as a bargaining chip was on her way to their meeting threw her. “Kudos, Agent Kane. You actually threw me a curveball there. As for what I think I can do… you have the Avengers on your side, but if anything, that’s brought the X-Men even more under scrutiny. Their activities during the Cul incident didn’t go unnoticed outside of SHIELD. Help me with this and I’ll take responsibility for the ‘consultants’ hired by SWORD to provide extra firepower.” She gestured. “Yes, I’m under a cloud right now, no need to remind me, but dealing with The Huns MC and Costa with a minimum of collateral damage? Washington will be falling all over themselves to be my ‘friend’ as soon as the arrest warrants are executed.”
“So if we help you… do the right thing, the end result is that you gain even more power and influence? You are something, Brand.” Kane said, leaning back in his seat. “Here’s the deal. If we do this, we get looped into SWORD’s intel. Both Sefton and the mansion. We get looped into your operations. Not as allies or resources, but at least understanding what is going down. I don’t care what political capital it takes.”
"See, if it was up to me, there'd be some weird kinky threesome," came a new voice at the door. Amanda let herself in, dropping her bag on the floor and stuffing her hands into the front pockets of her jeans as she appraised the situation. "So SWORD's personal bitch needs some help, huh?"
Brand glared at the blond, but had to concede. "...Yes," she replied at last, the word wrung from her. Asking Garrison for help had been hard enough, but at least they'd had a previous relationship to leverage. Sefton? She had nothing and she knew the woman hated her almost as much as Garrison. "Kane can give you the details, but there's a demon pushing weapons into Mexico. Magically infused weapons."
"And I guess the magic users on your payroll are way over their heads?" Amanda looked over at Garrison. "I can see why you called me in."
"You think your people could use a direct intel pipeline from SWORD? Because that's our pricetag for helping." Kane said to Amanda. "The tech sounds particularly nasty. You got any ideas?"
"I think Angie will be very happy to get something like that," Amanda replied with a brief grin before she turned her mind to the second question. "I might have some thoughts, but it would help if I could get a sample. Any chance of that?"
Brand nodded. "We've managed to get our hands on one or two. I can arrange for a loan."
"Alright, so what's your play going to be? I can't imagine Costa's easily tied to the guns. Otherwise, you'd already have him arrested."
"Double deal. I'll offer Costa a deal he won't be able to refuse - that SWORD will buy his next shipment. In the meantime, the Secret Empire rides again - your people will go in and seize the shipment and we'll leak the location to the Huns and the cartel and arrest them when they come to claim it. Between Costa making a deal with me and the physical evidence of the shipment, we should have enough to arrest him." Brand looked from Garrison to Amanda. "Does this mean we have a deal?"
"You're asking my people to accept an awful lot of risk here, Brand. If anything goes wrong, we're going to be a long way from support."
"That's the point," Amanda added quietly, meeting Brand's gaze. "If things go to shit, she'll be able to walk away while the leather brigade takes the fall."
Brand shrugged a little. "Then it better not go to shit."
A mixed group of X-Men are briefed on their mission and the Secret Empire Motorcycle Club is reborn.
The briefing room in the basement of the mansion was new to a few of the people who filed in. It was a sterile environment; steel chairs arranged around the large holo-table with the 3D liquid metal environmental simulator, screens arranged on the outer cubicles for personal review, and a tablet at every seat to follow along with the presentation. It was the first time Brand had been allowed into the room, and it surpassed anything that she had at SWORD, to her surprise.
“Thank you all for coming in. We have a… side job, I guess. A Maggia group has been using a biker gang to send weapons to Mexican cartels. The weapons are demonic infused, which means nasty magic. If you take a look at the write-up Amanda provided, it’s really nasty what these things can do – tear people apart in minutes with aggressive cancerous growths, turn all the blood in their body to acid, drive them murderously insane. It’s nasty shit and the Mexican authorities are losing the fight against them badly. Unfortunately, the source of the weapons is unknown, and the Maggia Don who is selling them is both politically connected and utterly clean in terms of his record. Nothing… not even a parking ticket, has ever stuck to this asshole. So, we’re going to dust off our old friends, the Secret Empire Motorcycle club to go after the pipeline – an MC called The Huns.”
"Is there a way to reverse the damage from the weapons provided people live?" Jean said. She already wasn't a fan of magic. This definitely didn't help. "And I can't exactly ride right now," she added, tapping her bandaged leg. It was on the mend but not enough to climb on a Harley wearing a leather jacket.
"Seriously? Magical weapons?" Nica echoed Jean's distaste of magic, with a dose of skepticism. "What can we even do about them?"
Brand ignored Nica's questions and turned to Jean instead. "At this stage, no-one's lived long enough for us to try, although my people think they might have a potential counter-spell if they can get to someone in time. In the meanwhile, we need to focus on stopping the supply of weapons before they make their way out of Mexico and onto American soil. Which is why I requested assistance from your people. The X-Men have some experience in these sorts of things." She didn't add that they were also expendable and came with plenty of plausible deniability should things get messy.
Kyle raised a hand. "So, you need people who can pass for bikers? I mean. I'm hoping it's not "Hey you've got people who can get horrible tumors and probably come back from that, because not volunteering, thanks."
"Yes, and am I here because I seem grungy enough to rock biker chic, or because we need Mexicans?" Gabriel chimed up between sips of an iced coffee. Though he was unfamiliar with Brand, he had a hunch that mildly bitchy directness was the best mode to deal with her. "Potentially happy to be included, but as a non-X-Men, with a magic IQ of the rabbit that gets pulled out of the hat, I'm just trying to clock how I'm being pigeonholed today."
"We need some potential speed, a Spanish speaker, and someone who can pass undercover in a heavily Hispanic part of LA if needed. Actually, Mister Sydney specifically volunteered you." Kane responded. "The operation is designed around a two pronged approach. A group of us disguised as the Secret Empire MC will ambush The Huns during a weapon shipment, seizing it. A second team, posing as SWORD agents will approach Costa with a deal. The Secret Empire will take over distribution of his weapons, and SWORD will 'seize' them, passing the weapons into SWORD's use and paying Costa secretly without damaging his criminal connections. If he agrees, the second he takes payment for the seized weapons, we can link him directly to them and prosecute him. So we need two teams - agents and bikers. Callisto, based on your background, I'd like you to take the lead for the MC."
The scruffy woman had rocked onto the back two legs of her chair, but she brought all four to the floor now with a clang. She glanced about herself, head slightly tilted, her single sharp blue eye sweeping across the company. Some she knew by sight, or to nod to. Others, she'd never met. She wasn't sure how many had known that other Callisto, the woman she tried not to think about too often. Certainly Kane had, though he didn't seem to have any trouble remembering which was which.
The slim shoulders beneath her worn denim jacket lifted and fell in an elegant shrug. "Sure."
"I'm guessing you want me for one of the agent parts. Since I have no idea how to ride and I don't really look the part." Sooraya folded her arms and examined what she had heard from all sides so far. "What can you tell us about Costa and where he fits into the world? You mentioned something about criminal connections, but that's about it. And how do you want to approach him?
"Carefully. This isn't going to be one of your usual 'smash everything and damn the property damage' sort of X-Men missions." Brand's words were laced with contempt. "If I wanted that, I'd have requested the Avengers get involved. We have some intel about the Maggia connection, but nothing that will stand up in court. We need to gather that evidence without starting an all-out war - there have already been casualties and I'm damned if Costa is going to slip through the net again."
“For someone who asked for our help, you aren’t being particularly respectful.”
Maya had never trusted those others considered authority figures, that went double for any kind of Government agency. Brand’s obvious contempt just made that distrust double. Why were they helping someone who obviously disliked them?
Before Maya could continue, Kyle's hand wrapped around her mouth. "Sorry, we're still housebreaking this one." His free hand fingerspelled a quick "xpln later" where she could see it out of the corner of one eye.
~You better.~
Maya’s hands flicked quickly through the words as she held them behind her where Kyle could see. She had to keep her eyes on those talking, given she still hadn’t replaced her implants yet. Reading lips was only as easy as the hearing made it.
Betsy winced. While she had no love for the government Brand represented, she understood the value of favours and having friends in high places – even when those friends actually hated your guts. She tried steering the discussion back to the topic at hand. “I’m afraid that I also don’t have any experience on motorcycles. Do we have enough people with those skills and no temporary handicaps – “ she gestured at Jean’s leg “– to form both teams?”
"I think so. The Huns are career criminals, not super-villains. And if we end up in a massive firefight in Costa's place, it's because the plan broke down completely." Kane replied confidently. "Once team A takes the guns and stashes them, team B will make the approach to Costa. We'll move in to seize them later as SWORD, putting on a good show for Costa's men and his cartel counterparts. At that point, even if he walks, we'll at least have shut down his pipeline for the time being and disrupted the flow of guns until he can find another way to move them. We want him most, but even a partial win saves lives."
Matt had concerns that any evidence they got wouldn't hold up in court given who they were and how it would be acquired, but that wasn't his problem. He wasn't the prosecutor in this and he saw the logic in the disruption even if it didn't lead to trial or conviction. The plausible deniability was also high if things went south. Then again, they were X-Men, the lack of government oversight was part of the appeal. He nodded, mostly to himself, as his fingers skimmed over part of the file in front of him. This was doable, though likely messy.
Wanda leaned forward - she'd stayed quiet during the briefing and the back and forth. This wasn't her show, after all; she'd been asked to join the X-Men and she'd volunteered. The write-up had been truly vile and she'd been happy to help. "Any chance that there'll be something else equally as nasty but more unexpected in that shipment that we're disrupting?" she asked, already working through the probabilities in her mind of something else popping up.
"With Costa, expect anything. And everything." Brand looked around the group, her eye falling on Maya. "Costa is unlike anyone I've dealt with before and if you don't take him seriously, you won't get a chance to try again. You'll be dead."
"Anyhow-" Kane cut in, not wanting Brand and Maya to distract them. "Take a look through the materials, let me know if you have any questions about your individual assignments. Otherwise, we meet in an hour for outfitting and departure."
“Let’s get this straight. You think a Maggia Don named Costa is moving demonically infused weapons over the border and into the hands of Mexican cartels through The Huns MC.” Kane flipped the file closed. “Even if this weird acid take on ‘Sons of Anarchy’ is real, why us? ATF must have The Huns under surveillance. With SWORD’s resources, you’ve got plenty of firepower to go after these guys. Hell, thanks to SHIELD’s increased powers, you could round up everyone you suspect and drop them into a legal void until someone is willing to make a deal, US Attorney’s office objections or not.”
“Maybe I’m feeling nostalgic?” Brand’s tone was whimsical, but her eyes were cold and hard as ever. “Perhaps I miss the good old days when it was you and I against the forces of evil?” At his less-than-impressed expression, she shrugged. “Fine. The West Coast shop of the Maggia has connections and the powers that be want this done quietly to avoid attracting too much attention before the arrests are made. Plus demonic influence is fucking hard to prove in court.”
“Enough to drag the Director of SWORD out into the field? I don’t think so, Brand.” He tossed the file back on the table. “Duncan might have been willing to sign off on this if you were pursuing RICO or something, but I’m not seeing that. Instead, I’m seeing some kind of cowboy independent operation in the works here. The kind that ends a career if it goes wrong, and I know that’s not your MO. So why don’t you tell me what’s really going on, before I kick your skinny ass to the curb?”
Brand rolled her eyes. “I liked it better when we were both FBI – you were still annoying, but I had more leverage. Okay, my ‘mutant status’ got the attention of some bigoted congressman asshole. I’ve been told to lay low and make myself useful until it’s taken care of. Plus, if we manage to make this work, being directly involved in stopping The Huns’ arms dealing would do a lot to make people forget my genetic makeup.” She gave Garrison a look that was almost pleading… if it had been anyone else. “You’d be doing me a solid. I wouldn’t forget that.”
“See, you seem to have missed the whole thing about me hating you. I mean, you losing your position and influence at SWORD sounds like an excuse for a celebratory bender at Harry’s. Hell, maybe they’re hire Barton back and give him your job.”
She smiled. “Oh, but if I was gone, who would conveniently ignore that little magical community of Xavier’s at the mansion? The blonde witch and her coven? If I’m replaced, the new SWORD director would find all sorts of evidence of a renegade magical outfit operating on American soil. A group that includes a woman responsible for not one but two demonic possessions and the recent wide-scale destruction across the world; four foreign nationals on student visas whose actual academic status is questionable; and a woman whose immigration status is totally bogus, not to mention the particularly shady organisation she works for. Do I need go on?”
“If you want to limit your life expectancy to less than 24 hours, sure.” The thing that Brand didn’t know was just how Kane had been brought back from the brink and the changes that had resulted. “You’re on the outs, which means if an equally shadowy group of former operatives and spies decided that they’d had enough of your threats and made sure your body was found weeks later in an abandoned sewer tunnel in Queens, the government might just look the other way. See, you think that you can threaten me because of my better angels. But I remember a young woman raped and sacrificed that might have been saved if you hadn’t fucked off. So, maybe you want to try again.” His expression was nothing she’d seen previously; the law man of a different era, ready to mete out his own idea of justice.
Her eyebrows raised. “Hmm.” Obviously, this wasn’t the Garrison she thought she’d known. “You’ve certainly changed, Agent Kane.” She tapped her lips with a green nailed forefinger. “I won’t insult us both by attempting to buy you off. The truth is, I need help and you’re the best agent for this job. The only agent I’d trust to bring in, to be honest. You might hate my guts, but at least you’re honest about it. So, what is it you want? What can I do or say that would get you to join me?”
“I have a list of things that SWORD can do for us. And I’m sure that Amanda has an even longer list, which is why she’s on her way in.” He checked his phone, seeing her ping that she was close to the mansion from New York. “But after everything, what do you think you can do?”
Brand was seldom surprised – or at least, she didn’t show it. But the news that the very “blonde witch” she’d been trying to use as a bargaining chip was on her way to their meeting threw her. “Kudos, Agent Kane. You actually threw me a curveball there. As for what I think I can do… you have the Avengers on your side, but if anything, that’s brought the X-Men even more under scrutiny. Their activities during the Cul incident didn’t go unnoticed outside of SHIELD. Help me with this and I’ll take responsibility for the ‘consultants’ hired by SWORD to provide extra firepower.” She gestured. “Yes, I’m under a cloud right now, no need to remind me, but dealing with The Huns MC and Costa with a minimum of collateral damage? Washington will be falling all over themselves to be my ‘friend’ as soon as the arrest warrants are executed.”
“So if we help you… do the right thing, the end result is that you gain even more power and influence? You are something, Brand.” Kane said, leaning back in his seat. “Here’s the deal. If we do this, we get looped into SWORD’s intel. Both Sefton and the mansion. We get looped into your operations. Not as allies or resources, but at least understanding what is going down. I don’t care what political capital it takes.”
"See, if it was up to me, there'd be some weird kinky threesome," came a new voice at the door. Amanda let herself in, dropping her bag on the floor and stuffing her hands into the front pockets of her jeans as she appraised the situation. "So SWORD's personal bitch needs some help, huh?"
Brand glared at the blond, but had to concede. "...Yes," she replied at last, the word wrung from her. Asking Garrison for help had been hard enough, but at least they'd had a previous relationship to leverage. Sefton? She had nothing and she knew the woman hated her almost as much as Garrison. "Kane can give you the details, but there's a demon pushing weapons into Mexico. Magically infused weapons."
"And I guess the magic users on your payroll are way over their heads?" Amanda looked over at Garrison. "I can see why you called me in."
"You think your people could use a direct intel pipeline from SWORD? Because that's our pricetag for helping." Kane said to Amanda. "The tech sounds particularly nasty. You got any ideas?"
"I think Angie will be very happy to get something like that," Amanda replied with a brief grin before she turned her mind to the second question. "I might have some thoughts, but it would help if I could get a sample. Any chance of that?"
Brand nodded. "We've managed to get our hands on one or two. I can arrange for a loan."
"Alright, so what's your play going to be? I can't imagine Costa's easily tied to the guns. Otherwise, you'd already have him arrested."
"Double deal. I'll offer Costa a deal he won't be able to refuse - that SWORD will buy his next shipment. In the meantime, the Secret Empire rides again - your people will go in and seize the shipment and we'll leak the location to the Huns and the cartel and arrest them when they come to claim it. Between Costa making a deal with me and the physical evidence of the shipment, we should have enough to arrest him." Brand looked from Garrison to Amanda. "Does this mean we have a deal?"
"You're asking my people to accept an awful lot of risk here, Brand. If anything goes wrong, we're going to be a long way from support."
"That's the point," Amanda added quietly, meeting Brand's gaze. "If things go to shit, she'll be able to walk away while the leather brigade takes the fall."
Brand shrugged a little. "Then it better not go to shit."
A mixed group of X-Men are briefed on their mission and the Secret Empire Motorcycle Club is reborn.
The briefing room in the basement of the mansion was new to a few of the people who filed in. It was a sterile environment; steel chairs arranged around the large holo-table with the 3D liquid metal environmental simulator, screens arranged on the outer cubicles for personal review, and a tablet at every seat to follow along with the presentation. It was the first time Brand had been allowed into the room, and it surpassed anything that she had at SWORD, to her surprise.
“Thank you all for coming in. We have a… side job, I guess. A Maggia group has been using a biker gang to send weapons to Mexican cartels. The weapons are demonic infused, which means nasty magic. If you take a look at the write-up Amanda provided, it’s really nasty what these things can do – tear people apart in minutes with aggressive cancerous growths, turn all the blood in their body to acid, drive them murderously insane. It’s nasty shit and the Mexican authorities are losing the fight against them badly. Unfortunately, the source of the weapons is unknown, and the Maggia Don who is selling them is both politically connected and utterly clean in terms of his record. Nothing… not even a parking ticket, has ever stuck to this asshole. So, we’re going to dust off our old friends, the Secret Empire Motorcycle club to go after the pipeline – an MC called The Huns.”
"Is there a way to reverse the damage from the weapons provided people live?" Jean said. She already wasn't a fan of magic. This definitely didn't help. "And I can't exactly ride right now," she added, tapping her bandaged leg. It was on the mend but not enough to climb on a Harley wearing a leather jacket.
"Seriously? Magical weapons?" Nica echoed Jean's distaste of magic, with a dose of skepticism. "What can we even do about them?"
Brand ignored Nica's questions and turned to Jean instead. "At this stage, no-one's lived long enough for us to try, although my people think they might have a potential counter-spell if they can get to someone in time. In the meanwhile, we need to focus on stopping the supply of weapons before they make their way out of Mexico and onto American soil. Which is why I requested assistance from your people. The X-Men have some experience in these sorts of things." She didn't add that they were also expendable and came with plenty of plausible deniability should things get messy.
Kyle raised a hand. "So, you need people who can pass for bikers? I mean. I'm hoping it's not "Hey you've got people who can get horrible tumors and probably come back from that, because not volunteering, thanks."
"Yes, and am I here because I seem grungy enough to rock biker chic, or because we need Mexicans?" Gabriel chimed up between sips of an iced coffee. Though he was unfamiliar with Brand, he had a hunch that mildly bitchy directness was the best mode to deal with her. "Potentially happy to be included, but as a non-X-Men, with a magic IQ of the rabbit that gets pulled out of the hat, I'm just trying to clock how I'm being pigeonholed today."
"We need some potential speed, a Spanish speaker, and someone who can pass undercover in a heavily Hispanic part of LA if needed. Actually, Mister Sydney specifically volunteered you." Kane responded. "The operation is designed around a two pronged approach. A group of us disguised as the Secret Empire MC will ambush The Huns during a weapon shipment, seizing it. A second team, posing as SWORD agents will approach Costa with a deal. The Secret Empire will take over distribution of his weapons, and SWORD will 'seize' them, passing the weapons into SWORD's use and paying Costa secretly without damaging his criminal connections. If he agrees, the second he takes payment for the seized weapons, we can link him directly to them and prosecute him. So we need two teams - agents and bikers. Callisto, based on your background, I'd like you to take the lead for the MC."
The scruffy woman had rocked onto the back two legs of her chair, but she brought all four to the floor now with a clang. She glanced about herself, head slightly tilted, her single sharp blue eye sweeping across the company. Some she knew by sight, or to nod to. Others, she'd never met. She wasn't sure how many had known that other Callisto, the woman she tried not to think about too often. Certainly Kane had, though he didn't seem to have any trouble remembering which was which.
The slim shoulders beneath her worn denim jacket lifted and fell in an elegant shrug. "Sure."
"I'm guessing you want me for one of the agent parts. Since I have no idea how to ride and I don't really look the part." Sooraya folded her arms and examined what she had heard from all sides so far. "What can you tell us about Costa and where he fits into the world? You mentioned something about criminal connections, but that's about it. And how do you want to approach him?
"Carefully. This isn't going to be one of your usual 'smash everything and damn the property damage' sort of X-Men missions." Brand's words were laced with contempt. "If I wanted that, I'd have requested the Avengers get involved. We have some intel about the Maggia connection, but nothing that will stand up in court. We need to gather that evidence without starting an all-out war - there have already been casualties and I'm damned if Costa is going to slip through the net again."
“For someone who asked for our help, you aren’t being particularly respectful.”
Maya had never trusted those others considered authority figures, that went double for any kind of Government agency. Brand’s obvious contempt just made that distrust double. Why were they helping someone who obviously disliked them?
Before Maya could continue, Kyle's hand wrapped around her mouth. "Sorry, we're still housebreaking this one." His free hand fingerspelled a quick "xpln later" where she could see it out of the corner of one eye.
~You better.~
Maya’s hands flicked quickly through the words as she held them behind her where Kyle could see. She had to keep her eyes on those talking, given she still hadn’t replaced her implants yet. Reading lips was only as easy as the hearing made it.
Betsy winced. While she had no love for the government Brand represented, she understood the value of favours and having friends in high places – even when those friends actually hated your guts. She tried steering the discussion back to the topic at hand. “I’m afraid that I also don’t have any experience on motorcycles. Do we have enough people with those skills and no temporary handicaps – “ she gestured at Jean’s leg “– to form both teams?”
"I think so. The Huns are career criminals, not super-villains. And if we end up in a massive firefight in Costa's place, it's because the plan broke down completely." Kane replied confidently. "Once team A takes the guns and stashes them, team B will make the approach to Costa. We'll move in to seize them later as SWORD, putting on a good show for Costa's men and his cartel counterparts. At that point, even if he walks, we'll at least have shut down his pipeline for the time being and disrupted the flow of guns until he can find another way to move them. We want him most, but even a partial win saves lives."
Matt had concerns that any evidence they got wouldn't hold up in court given who they were and how it would be acquired, but that wasn't his problem. He wasn't the prosecutor in this and he saw the logic in the disruption even if it didn't lead to trial or conviction. The plausible deniability was also high if things went south. Then again, they were X-Men, the lack of government oversight was part of the appeal. He nodded, mostly to himself, as his fingers skimmed over part of the file in front of him. This was doable, though likely messy.
Wanda leaned forward - she'd stayed quiet during the briefing and the back and forth. This wasn't her show, after all; she'd been asked to join the X-Men and she'd volunteered. The write-up had been truly vile and she'd been happy to help. "Any chance that there'll be something else equally as nasty but more unexpected in that shipment that we're disrupting?" she asked, already working through the probabilities in her mind of something else popping up.
"With Costa, expect anything. And everything." Brand looked around the group, her eye falling on Maya. "Costa is unlike anyone I've dealt with before and if you don't take him seriously, you won't get a chance to try again. You'll be dead."
"Anyhow-" Kane cut in, not wanting Brand and Maya to distract them. "Take a look through the materials, let me know if you have any questions about your individual assignments. Otherwise, we meet in an hour for outfitting and departure."
