5179/Channeling: Loose Ends

Channeling: Loose Ends
Date of Scene:	15 August 2018
Location:	Unknown
Synopsis:	Summary needed
Cast of Characters:	Oracle, Quake

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Oracle has posed:
The invitation comes via text in a single-word request. ~Coffee?~ It's accompanied by an appropriate emoji, of course. No name, but Skye would recognize the number. And she also has an access card to the Clocktower.

For her part, Barbara Gordon likes having someone else in her 'inner circle' to talk to. Someone who she doesn't have to play coy and secretive with. Someone who isn't a Bat. It's also why she's invited Skye for coffee. Friends like this are rare, and she tends to be protective.

Quake has posed:
The response comes back >>..Tea or Me? Be there with bells on.

Skye's not unfamiliar, and hey, she likes coffee. She thinks. She's pretty sure she does, anyway, even if most of the time liking coffee involves remembering she has a cup after it's gone stone cold. But Skye's not entirely certain she'd know she was hacking if that weren't the case.

Still, she makes her way to the Clocktower in casual fashion, careful not to draw attention to herself or her arrival.

And Babs isn't the only one particular about friends. Growing up in the system, and then later on the run, Skye could count her *friend* friends on the fingers of one hand. Though that hand was running out of fingers lately.. she might soon have to say on the fingers of two hands. Even so, those Skye let in past the cursory were few and far between. The girl had learned to distrust early.

Babs? Skye wasn't sure what it was about the woman, but she liked her. It went past the trust they'd built.

Skye arrives; uses her key; and exits into the tower room once the elevator makes its way there.

Oracle has posed:
Barbara Gordon grew up the daughter of a cop, so... coffee. But she has a nice assortment of tea as well, thanks to well-travelled friends and the Internet.

The redhead is waiting more or less near the door when Skye arrives, dressed in comfortable stretch-pants and a Superman t-shirt. She offers a smile by way of greeting. "Thanks for coming, Skye. Let me put the kettle on." Into the kitchen she goes.

"I won't beat around the bush with this one. I've come across something that bothers me, and I want your opinion. Especially since it concerns you, too."

Quake has posed:
"Hey." Skye grins impishly. "You actually meant coffee. Cool. Just with cream, please. Or milk. I'm easy." A pause. "But not cheap."

Skye laughs at herself. "Not sure why I feel compelled to say that. And about me, huh?" The laughter fades into something more serious. "Should I be worried? I mean, pretty sure most of what there is to know about me got dug up with the Rising Tide affair."

It hasn't occurred to her yet to consider what 'other' things there are to know about her - especially as she's got such limited information about her background still; still wrapped up in a level 10 clearance file.

"Should I make myself comfortable?"

Oracle has posed:
Barbara Gordon flashes a grin at the 'easy, not cheap' comment, but it's an expression that's very close to an inaudible groan as well. "Yes, please do. And I can make tea if you prefer. I recently came across a couple of interesting varieties from Tibet."

Which is apparently an entirely different conversation.

Water. Kettle. Burner. So.

"Also, we've acquired a new recruit, mostly by accident. Her name is June, and the Shadow and I rescued her from The Foot. You may run across her here. But that's not why I called you. I wanted to show you some video footage from a camera feed."

Quake has posed:
"Enh, coffee is better. Though May makes some awesome tea.. Actually, surprise me."

Her easy grin comes and goes, but when things turn to discussion of a new recruit, Skye is much more serious again. "Foot, huh? Let me guess - another ancient Asian ninja gang spread worldwide, seeking domination?" Skye takes a perch on the nearest seat. "I thought the Hand was bad enough. And she knows about the rest of us? Or will I be a surprise to her." Skye's not sure given current status of secrecy - especially given the Shadow.

The other, though, draws a full on frown to Skye's features. "Video footage? About me?" She's truly perplexed.

Oracle has posed:
With the kettle on, Babs walks over to the computer array. "May, hmm? She the one you were telling me about before? And yeah, June left the Foot under... strained... circumstances. They want her dead. We disagreed. So she's bunking here for the moment."

Moving the mouse lights up a few screens in the array. Babs touches about 3 keys, and a variety of pictures pull up. She steps closer, waiting for Skye to join.

The first image is from Instagram. "I found this from vacationing tourists in Markovia." she begins. Rolling the mouse wheel, the image zooms in to show a missing SHIELD agent from the team that recovered Skye.

The next monitor shows video footage of the same agent entering an apartment building in a quiet corner of the city.

Quake has posed:
Skye gives a little shrug, it being terribly disingenious at this point to pretend otherwise. "Yeah. May's who I was telling you about. I think you're going to like her, though if I'm not mistaken you've met her before. She just doesn't know it's you I'm bringing her to. But she's interested. It's just a matter of when."

There's nodding as Skye listens to the rest, about June. "So what else is news. Why is dead always the way out of those things?" Of course if Zola had his way, Skye would be a walking, talking agent of Hydra right now. complete with a little device in her skull made to guarantee her best behaviour or *boom*.

The footage, though, has her rapt attention. "I know that person. They're supposed to be dead. At least I thought they were. Markovia?" She wracks her brain trying to place where that is, even as she tries to still her now accellerating heartbeat. She's not sure if it's nerves or anticipation, but either way, the footage has Skye aggitated. "It can't be the same person, can it?" The question imploring of Babs to make some sense of it, Skye not sure if she can trust her own gut in this matter.

Oracle has posed:
Barbara Gordon looks over and adjusts both images, freezing the video for comparison. "I think the images are close enough to warrant some action." she offers. "And somehow this not-dead person is now wandering around in Markovia. But that's only the 'good' news."

A third monitor shows an image of St. Molly's Bar in Madripoor. A fourth shows a nondescript building in National City.

"I'm not the only one snooping camera feeds, apparently. I traced two other sources to these locations, and they weren't easy to find. These guys were good, too. Judging from the tricks and code used, it 'felt' like the Benefactor."

Babs lets that sink in for a moment.

"Our agent may not have a lot of time. Thoughts?"

Quake has posed:
Skye considers the two stills of the probably agent. "Given interim years? I'm betting facial recognition software would pop a positive. Though why wouldn't they try to disguise themselves more that way? Plastic surgery or something.." Her thoughts wander off as moot, given they clearly didn't do any such thing, and if they were one of the agents who had found her, they were clearly in danger based off of the other feeds.

"You're sure they feel like the Benefactor?" That was a bit of a puzzle. After all this time, given what she knew of her own Index file, and the likelihood that between the Benefactor's people, and the mess she and Clint had made in China, the Benefactor should already know who she was. That she, Skye, was connected to that small village in Hunan province, and the items retrieved there, now in her possession.

Of course that might be part of it too - using the agent as leverage against her. Still, there was the small, small chance the Benefactor hadn't put two and two together yet, and if not, wasn't she obligated to save that agent? And not just because they might have more information on her past.

Skye's lips purse over consideration. "It's not like we can really leave them. The question is who goes in? Us, or SHIELD?"

Either answer had its own pros and cons.

Oracle has posed:
Barbara Gordon nods to the question about the Benefactor. "Pretty sure. I'll let you poke around the programs and algorhythms that were used to cover their tracks, if you want. But we've got at least two listening posts following this guy, and that's not a good thing in my book."

Barbara listens, then the kettle starts to whistle. On her way to the kitchen, she calls out. "I definitely agree that we can't leave this guy alone. I wanted to discuss the options with you." The whistling stops and Barbara preps the coffee.

"I've got plenty of time in the field, although I'm really reluctant to have Batgirl make an appearance on this one. The Shadow definitely proved himself when we rescued June, so no doubts there. I think June is healed up and ready for this. She's competant and she's smart. The real question I have is, what about you?"

Apparently Babs already has her mind made up on who should handle the retrieval.

Quake has posed:
Skye's nose crinkles. "I told you? Why they were looking for me? That I'm not fully human?" She exhales heavily as she admits that. It still isn't getting easier to say it. "May would buy into this. Might be able to sping it as a proving herself mission, though not sure she has to prove herself with her record."

There's a nod from the young woman. "If we're in field, having someone monitoring noise is still valuable, and I'm best used talking to them, given I'm the reason they're in hiding. That's if they'll talk to me. But we can't just leave them there in danger."

Of course that all leaves one lingering bit, "So if we go in, the four of us, with you as backup, we still need a safehouse. You have ideas on that, or do I pull the strings I have to get one off the record?" Because Skye knows Fury would pull those strings faster than she could get the request out of her mouth asking for it to be done. In his own words, SHIELD owed her.

Oracle has posed:
Barbara Gordon faces Skye directly now, looking thoughtful. She chin-taps, a small smile touching her lips. "I've been meaning to talk with you about the 'not fully human' thing at some point, but it doesn't color our situation here." she offers.

"Consider me on operational intel and support, then. Everybody gets an earpiece. You know SHIELD better than I do, as well. It might be less obtrusive if Fury provides the safe-house for operations. Keeps our little group off-the-grid."

Quake has posed:
"Kind of what I was thinking. Fury put pretty much whatever I need at my disposal on this. If we stagger and tier the resources, we can probably keep them safer, and likely get more information to boot." Which might seem a tad counter-intuitive, but the Benefactor expected SHIELD interference, and knew SHIELD's most predicatable responses. What he didn't know was the Birds.

Skye gives Barbara an odd look. "So you already knew?"

Oracle has posed:
Barbara Gordon shrugs lightly. "I've come across a couple of obscure references in some of your information. And I'm pretty good at working puzzles. I'll owe you a couple of free questions sometime." Secrets for secrets, after all.

"And you're right. Using SHIELD resources makes for a great cover as well as a distraction. It's what they'll expect, after all. Call it an old magician's trick; watch the hand flashing cards in your face, not the one behind the back."

Quake has posed:
There's a slow nod from Skye. Given Barbara didn't turn tail and run, or do worse, it was kind of unsettling to the young woman to realize that maybe this skeleton in her closet wasn't so terrible. After all, the few people she'd shared the secret with hadn't deserted her, and here Babs had figured it out on her own and not only hadn't dumped Skye, had kept the secret to herself until Skye brought it up.

It was, she knew, something they could talk about later - as Babs had said, it wasn't relevant to this mission.

"Exactly," Skye agrees. "They'll expect a certain response. We could make more obvious noise. But I'm thinking if we let information about this flit about our systems, just a flagged item maybe? That can be the diversion - watching it move and tracking who gets to see it. Give him what he thinks is information. Only the op isn't going through our systems, and pretty sure if Fury hasn't a way to secure a safehouse off grid and out of system, we can make that happen. Hook him up with a secure line or two?"

Oracle has posed:
Barbara Gordon considers, nodding slowly as her smile returns. "I like the way you think. Keep this routine in SHIELD's systems, but make sure that the response is controlled. The last thing we need is a bonafide SHIELD extraction team bombing down from the sky while we're in the middle of doing the -real- work."

She chuckles, then. "Coffee's up. And Oracle would love to meet Director Fury. I'm sure we'll get along famously."

Quake has posed:
Skye inclines her head. "I have my moments. And Fury knows of you. Just not.. OF you, you know? I think he'd be interested in talking with you. And by talking, I'm guessing you mean over the datastream?"

There's a smirk. "I could set that up for you, but I think you can do that just as easily as I can. If you do it, though, tell him Skye sends her love. Give the man a bone to know you're in there legit."

Oracle has posed:
Barbara Gordon chuckles and splashes coffee into the two mugs. "Milk's in the fridge." she replies. "I'll send him a headset, all mysterious-like. Unless you'd rather hand it to him personally. I was never very big on drama in school." Babs takes her own coffee black, with a little sugar.

"So you'll set things up to make it look like SHIELD is poised and ready. But before they actually can launch, we'll hop over there and have our agent on a plane with a beer in hand." Pause. "Or whatever his drink of choice."

Quake has posed:
Skye shrugs. "I can deliver it to him when I tell him what I need and what the cover is going to be." She makes an enh sound. "So he'll have an idea of what's going down, but that can't entirely be helped. Besides, once they're extracted, SHIELD will probably want to talk with them, if not set them up with something safer." Not that Skye is sure they can provide anything safer. Then again, years had passed since the initial interlude; SHIELD had gotten better in that interim.. even if Hydra had too.

Milk is had and splashed into her coffee until it's a caramel colour, then a little bit more for good measure. "I'll set it up to look like the intel is making its way up the chain. A blip in the system that's flagged, but doesn't make the immediate jump to Fury's eyes - pretty sure I know how to rig that up. I can even set it up so that it looks like I'm the one who flags it to him." There's a grin from Skye. "Hacker tricks. Gotta love us."

Oracle has posed:
Barbara Gordon looks around the Clocktower penthouse, and she nods. "Well I'm not exactly running a boarding house here, so that probably makes the most sense." she offers wryly. "Besides, having them recovered and settled by SHIELD further serves to let us slip back off the radar again."

Taking a sip of her own coffee, Barbara nods at that. "Some people play the game. We play WITH the game." she replies with a wink. "Let's make this look as much like a SHIELD op as we can, only someone else will be running the ball."

Quake has posed:
"I know exactly how to make that happen."

Skye was, as it happened, a very, very good outside the box thinker, as she'd proven on more than one occassion. "We'll have them in SHIELD custody before the Benefactor even knows they're missing."

And that's when it hits her why it was the Benefactor and not Hydra - he was still looking to leverage Skye into his clutches. And he might just be right that she'd be vulnerable to, and interested in, someone who could tell her more about her past.