#hydrafeels

"Simmons, didn't you say this one preferred using his powers?"

"Yes, ma'am," Agent Simmons' voice responded in her ear. "Preferred is the operative term, though. He has also been known to use guns, knives, and explosives, when his powers weren't enough to get the job done."

"Al, vith," Faern'ya muttered under her breath. "No question about his use of guns. Now I just have to hope he doesn't start throwing ..." she reacted without thinking, her scythe moving in a swing that met the incoming grenade and batted it back toward its point of origin "... grenades."

"Was that an explosion I just heard, ma'am?" Agent Simmons asked.

"Yes," Faern'ya grated out, while sprinting from cover toward her target. "Later. Moving."

Her target, a dark-haired man who looked as if he would be more comfortable being interviewed by Inc. Magazine than wielding the MP5 he was waving unsteadily toward Faern'ya, threw a hand in her direction. An impact, like a disembodied fist, struck Faern'ya in the chest. The force of the blow was spread by the scales of her armor, so instead of shattering her sternum and caving in her chest, it merely knocked her off her feet and left her feeling as if several ribs had cracked under the blow.

"Where's ... my ... backup?" Faern'ya gasped, then winced and let out a soft whimper when she tried taking a full breath. No doubt about it, those were broken ribs she was feeling.

"Caught in a firefight two floors below you," Agent Simmons said. "HYDRA sent a team after him, too."

"I guarantee," Faern'ya hissed through clenched teeth, "Chath zotreth!" A column of fire slammed into her target, filling the space between ceiling and floor, and a good ten feet in all directions from where he had been standing. "They're not getting him."

She slid to the floor, only her grip on her scythe preventing her from falling on her face. "Tell the Commander ... I'm sorry ... I couldn't ... bring him in."

"You can tell her yourself," Agent Simmons said. "Faern'ya? ... Faern'ya! ... Abbess! ... I'm sending a pick-up!"

So, Agent Meadows is certain that one of his team of analysts has broken the security of their secret facility by accessing a newspaper website.

What he doesn't know is that unless their facility has its own internal MP3 database, people have been violating security for weeks, downloading songs.

Just goes to show that it doesn't require an infiltrator to expose you - just a lack of thought while doing things you wouldn't even NEED to think about under normal circumstances.

What surprised her was the number of people who found excuses to drop by her workshop and watch her work. You'd think they'd never seen anyone forging steel before! Or maybe it was that they'd never seen a drow in what Meadows had laughingly referred to as a BGSB when he first saw her at the forge. She'd have to find out who this Gabrielle he had mentioned was, but there was no rush on that. Still, some of them were good enough to chat while they watched her work, which gave her more opportunity to learn about this world. When someone brought a 'boom box' to her workroom and showed her how to download music files into it, then showed her where to find files to download, it gave her a chance to learn about the kinds of music that were popular in this society. She was rather appalled to find how many songs seemed to glorify stalkers and bad or harmful relationships, but somehow managed to find songs she could enjoy, too.

He had to admit, Bindi was good for Sallis. The creature the papers called a Man-Thing was actually a decent man under all that muck and greenery, and being admitted into the family had brought out his human side. Bindi's delight in playing with him had especially given his human side a boost. Lately, he had begun assembling lab ware and talking about finishing the project he'd been working on when he was killed.

Sure, he still vanished every so often, and come back missing pieces often enough that Jim and Bindi had dug a channel from one of the farm's wet spots to the larger swamp around them, so water and swamp muck could fill it in and give Dr. Sallis a place to regenerate, but he had become a part of the family despite his responsibilities as the Guardian of the Nexus.

"Penny?" Sallis asked, giving Jim an amused look. Jim wasn't sure if it was the influence of the Nexus, or just the fact that he had been one of them for a few weeks now, but it was becoming ... well, maybe not easy, but at least possible ... to get a feel for his facial expressions.

"Not sure they're worth that much," Jim laughed. "Just thinking about family. I was noticing that you're a lot more human now that you're one of us."

"Or ... you ... are ... more ... strange," Sallis shot back, his body bubbling in that way Jim had learned to think of as his version of laughter.

"Hey!" Jim laughed. "I've always been plenty strange!"

"Truth," Sallis said, with an amused snort. "Between ... jobs?"

"Yeah," Jim said. "Ever since SHIELD collapsed, I've discovered just how many of my contracts were for SHIELD fronts. I guess they were more paranoid about me than I realized."

"SHIELD ... collapsed?" Sallis asked. There was an expression Jim had never seen on his face. "How?"

"HYDRA, apparently," Jim said. "From what we saw in the news, Captain America discovered that HYDRA had infiltrated right up to the top."

"Bad," Sallis said. "Very ... very ... bad."

Jim started to worry. Sallis was getting worked up in a way that had him worried.

"Ted? What's going on?" Jim asked. Meanwhile, out in the elephant paddock, Bindi stopped tormenting alligators and turned toward the house.

"SHIELD," Sallis said. "Project ... Gladiator. ... Super ... soldier ... project. ... Lab ... near ... Nexus. ... AIM ... killed ... me. ... Serum ... and .... Nexus ... revived ... me."

"So if this was a SHIELD project," Jim mused for a moment, and his eyes opened wide. "Fuck. HYDRA." He stood and called, "BINDI! BOBBY! Meeting at the house!"

Bindi had already started toward the house, so when Jim called, she jumped, landing close enough to bounce things off the porch tables. Bobby, meanwhile, finished his walk from Sallis' lab to the house, sat in a chair near the steps, and set his laptop down on the table next to his chair.

"What is it, Daddy?" Bindy asked. "And why is Uncle Ted worried?"

"Remember the bad people from the flying ships, sweetie?" Jim asked.

"The tentacle skull people?" Bindi asked.

"That's right, sweetie," Jim said. "They might know why Uncle Ted is here in the swamp, and they might come to try and take him away."

Bindi's eyes lit up with a dangerous green glow, and she growled, "Bindi will keep Uncle Ted safe! Bindi will make tentacle skull people into ashes!"

"They might not come," Bobby said gently. "If they do, then you can burn them, sweetie, but I think they've got too much on their plate in New York and Washington to have anyone to spare for bothering Uncle Ted."

"Good!" Bingi roared, her voice causing trees to bend. "Bindi will keep Uncle Ted safe!"

"Thank ... you," Sallis said, and rested a hand on Bindi's ankle. "Bindi ... is ... strong."

Jim noticed that Sallis was shaking, and frowned, then looked up at Bindi. "Bindi, sweetie? Do you want to show Uncle Ted what you've been coloring?"

"But - " Bindi started, then looked down at Jim's smile and gave a happy squee. "Bindi will show!" She bounded toward the performance barn, which had been turned into her bedroom / playhouse / personal sanctuary.

"Thank ... you," Sallis said, as the shaking slowed. "She ... angry ... emotions .... too ... strong."

"Thought so," Jim said. "That's the problem with her age. She feels everything, like a five-year-old should. But anyone threatens her family, and she feels that, too."

"So," Bobby asked, a resigned tone in his voice. "How many trail cameras do you want to buy?"

"Let me get a map," Jim said, and pushed himself to his feet. He took a map from the pickup and spread it on the table Bobby's laptop had been on. "Ted, which areas are impassible? No point in putting cameras there?"

The voice of Deputy Director Hill suddenly breaks through every bit of static, simultaneously on every frequency that the HYDRA traitors have been using, without the slightest trace of encryption - as if someone really WANTS the traitors to hear the message:

"If they’re HYDRA scientists, I want them as alive as possible to interrogate. everyone else Zingari can kill. Relay that order."

The transmission ends immediately after that. Message delivered. HYDRA agents sufficiently panicked.

((in reference to this post))

Alastor was mid trek through a corridor, stepping over the body of a STRIKE member and reloading his revolver when the message came through. Interesting. He thought to himself as he stepped around a corner, brought the weapon up and planted a round in the chest of another STRIKE officer's chest.

Lets play it up. His comm cycled, opening up on all frequencies. "Well boys and girls did you hear the good new?" He slipped a new round into the cylinder to replace the just spent one. "Executioner's been let out to play, and let me tell you, that's relief to my ears. See, just now one of your fancy little STRIKE traitors shot my Sig. My favorite gun. Do you know how angry that makes me?"

Song o the Day (with a history lesson)

We! We will resist and bite! Bite hard 'Cause we are all in sight We! We take up arms and fight! Fight hard! Resist and do what's right!

Gloria fortis miles The Wehrmacht closing in adversor et armorsus The boar against the eagle!

The Bataillon de Chasseurs Ardennais (French; Battalion of hunters from the Ardennes) is an infantry formation in the Land Component of the Belgian Armed Forces. In World War II the Chasseurs Ardennais took part in heavy fighting after Belgium was invaded on 10 May 1940; the Germans noted the fierce resistance of the Belgians and the Chasseurs Ardennais were no exception. In one engagement a 47mm antitank gun destroyed or disabled five German tanks.