nextgenerationmarvel

When Bruce got to the door, he would find a Post-It that read 'Running a little behind today. My apologies. Come meet me in the garden instead -- K'

Okay, so torture delayed. He could deal with that.

So Bruce headed out to the garden.

Though the garden was outside, it was enclosed, and heated, biting back the February chill.

She smiled at Bruce when he joined her and then offered him a mug of steaming coffee. "I thought it might be better to have our meeting out here as opposed to my office. It's a much friendlier environment, I think."

"Yes, ma'am," Bruce agrees, taking the coffee. "Thanks."

"Ah, Ma'am," she said with a chuckle. "You really can call me Kitty." She picked up her own coffee again and took a sip. "I gotta tell you, Bruce. I really liked what I saw from you in the field. You keep a clear head, can make a split-second decision, and you keep abreast of your people. What made you decide to take on the responsibilities of leadership?"

Well, okay. Not so bad then. He'd been a little worried about some of the calls he'd made, but looks like he'd done all right.

"Well, honestly, ma--Kitty," Bruce began, providing a little self-correction along the way, "nobody else wanted the job. When we were getting this thing started, we didn't really have a lot of direction or anything. I'd been pretty close to Cap to begin with, so I'd picked up some things, and, well, it just kinda happened."

"Right, you grew up around the Avengers, didn't you? You're still so young, though. Nineteen and the field leader. I know you are more than capable, but have you ever thought about doing something else with your life? Ever wanted to do anything else with your life?" Between height and demeanor, Bruce didn't come across as a nineteen year old to her. Maybe twenty-two, twenty-three.

Bruce nodded. "Yeah. Hardly anybody in the community who doesn't know me or I don't know about."

Another nod. "I'm enrolled at the Joe Kubert School of Cartoon and Graphic Art. I wanna work in comic books, or maybe animation."

"Also like Cap, huh?" She smiled. She's done her homework on all of the Avengers, too. After she got the position, she wanted to know a little more about the players in the world that she was stepping into. "I would love to see some of your artwork. But definitely later." She sipped her coffee. "So I have a question for you. I'm here to offer support and to teach. How can I help you? What do do you need from me to help you perform at your best?"

"What can I say? After Dad, him and Uncle Bruce are pretty much my heroes. And since I don't have the brains for nuclear physics..."

He gave a small shrug.

"Well... I do pretty good when the team's in the field, but when it's off it... it's like herding cats. I don't really know how to keep track of all the drama, and how it's going to effect the team dynamics."

Like a demigod throwing a hissy fit.

"Stick to your talents, and what you like to do. Nuclear physics is a bit dense. Now theoretical physics, on the other hand, that's for me." She nodded.

"When there isn't one objective, everyone is sort of wandering off and doing their own thing? What sort of relationship do you have with them outside of the field?" She sips her coffee. "I think one of the tricks for the leader is to cut through the crap. It's never brought to the field, and you try to keep it down to a minimum. So do you guys do anything for fun? What about training together too? How often do you guys do that?"

Bruce sipped his own coffee. "Well, Jay, Marcus, and I are best friends. The Three Stooges, they call us. Them, I get. Even if Jay gets a little weird when she's all green. And I grew up knowing Sarah, of course."

He went on. "But the rest? Can't say I know any of them all that well, really. Vincent's always been kinda moody and off to himself, Erin's new, Susan, I know a little, Nicky not much at all, and Roxie... It's complicated there."

Kitty needed to know the interconnections between the students too, so Bruce volunteering this information was going to be very helpful.

"I would suggest perhaps taking a city trip some time. Team bonding experiences are critical. I would think it would be easy for you to get to know Erin, too. Take her under your wing as it were." She raised her eyebrows slowly when he spoke of Roxie. "Ex-girlfriend?"

"What?" Bruce asked, surprised. "Oh, geeze. No. She's Vincent's ex. The two of us just got shanghaied into space by the Kree who wanted us to use for breeding stock to reignite their evolution."

"Ahh. And that has made things complicated between you and Roxie? Lasting complications, I mean?"

"Some," Bruce said. "See, the thing is... they had us on their ship, had some kind of device going on that sapped our powers. I... convinced her to try and tap into the part of her heritage she got from her father, Ares. Her demigod side."

He frowned. "It got us out of there, and the others showed up to rescue us, so it all worked okay on that end, but... It kinda set off a whole domino effect of reevaluating who she is. She broke up with Vincent--which caused all kinds of issues on his end, she left the city to spend time training herself, and, well, you saw her in the field. She's totally got a demigoddess thing going on now."

Another frown. "That's on me. I sent her down that path. And I don't know where it's going to lead anybody."

Kitty listened intently as Bruce spoke, nodding occasionally. Only when he was finished did she speak. "That's a reasonable decision to make. It was your last resort. The fact that neither of you knew what was going to happen when she let that side out was an acceptable risk."

She ran a hand through her hair. "So tell me this: Roxie. Was she intentionally trying to ignore her demi-goddess heritage before? Because ignoring could potentially create issues too. It's not your fault that she broke up with Vincent or that she isn't sure about who she is anymore. Those are things that could easily happen from other sets of circumstances too. She seemed both confident and capable in the field. She also made the correct call-given the circumstances you guys were facing--to contact Sofia Strange." She studied Bruce for a moment. "Was Roxie's personality radically different before?"

"I don't know about intentionally... so much as just apathy. She was always focused more on her mom's side of things, and those powers."

He nodded. "If anything, she's more... focused, than before. Honestly, she was kind of..."

He made vague gestures in the air. "Can I call her loose without it sounding too judgey? I just mean, she was... very free, with men."

The less said about hand-holding, the better.

"She seems more serious too. Less angry."

"So it sounds like getting in touch with her other part helped her in growing as a person." She nodded. "So, focused, more serious, and less angry. I don't see how these aren't good things. Are you worried about the road she's on now? I haven't spoken with her yet. I appreciate any insight about her, as well as the others you can offer. I also think you and I should have regular meetings, more often than the others. I'm keen on helping you hone your leadership abilities."

"They are, I reckon," Bruce conceded. "I'm not worried about her per say... Roxie's always been pretty good at taking care of herself. But self-discovery's a pretty rough road sometimes. And, let's face it, the Olympian gods are a little messed up. I just don't want to see her get hurt."

He nodded. "Sounds good to me."

When the sign ups for evals had been put up, Jay saw Bruce's name at the top. The sometimes green teen signed his first name at the bottom margin of the paper and walked away. He had no desire for an eval. One had already been given on the field in front of everyone else.

Currently, Jay had picked up Boo and was going to the kitchen to grab both of them a snack. He put the space creature on his shoulder as he ambled down the hallway.

Kitty can already be found in the kitchen, and in fact she isn't alone. She's there making an ice cream sundae for her own space buddy Lockheed. SWORD was giving him some time off and so he had made it a point to come visit Kitty.

"There's some extra cherries for the universe's best dragon," she said, spooning three more cherries into the bowl of chocolate ice cream. The super intelligent alien dragon made cooing sounds.

Jay almost pulled up short. Almost, but he definitely had a hitch in his stride. He shook his head in disbelief. He tried to quietly get to the fridge and out. Possibly because he didn't know if the small, purple dragon was going to eat his miniature giant space hamster.

It was going quietly well... until Boo blew a raspberry at the duo. The small creature got squinty-eyed at the dragon as Jay hurried his pace a little to the fridge.

And Lockheed remained cooing. There was ice cream to be had. Boo wasn't any consequence to him.

Jay had been exceptional at dodging her. Kitty was going to give him the space that he needed, for the most part. There was no point in pushing him by trying to explain to him the purpose of the training exercise.

"Good evening," she offered cordially. "How are you both?"

"Hey," was Jay's response. Boo turned around to keep an eye on Jay's back as his big, tall human dug through the fridge to pull out some raspberries and a 2 liter of Cherry Coke.

"We're good." He wasn't one for talking. Well, not when he wasn't Hulked out.

"Yeah? Well that's good. Haven't really seen much of you guys lately." She gives him a soft smile. "Do you have a few minutes? I was hoping that we could talk." This probably was the only way for her to talk to him at all.

Well, crap. If he had been raised with no manners, he could have easily avoided this. Jay let out a slow breath and carefully shrugged. Mostly being careful not to dislodge Boo, who was making grabby hands at the container of raspberries.

"I got time," he said as he handed the container to Boo. Jay ignored the small creature as it immediately started wrestling with the lid.

And Lockheed was too busy devouring his ice cream sundae to be bothered.

"Grand. Okay if we take a little walk?" She nodded toward the door that led outside. "Just around the property. I don't know about you, but I feel like I think better outside."

Jay glanced at the door to the outside. He almost grimaced. He was from a desert people. February in New York was not his thing.

"Sure." He could just think of it as a warm up to jogging around Central Park later. Boo was covered in fur and could disappear down Jay's shirt if his big, floppy ears got cold. Jay started toward the door. He opened it for Ms. Pryde-Wisdom to go through it first.

Lockheed remained in the kitchen--not only finishing his ice cream sundae, but opening the freezer to get to more ice cream. Kitty smiled at Jay after he opened the door. It was a nice thought, but it wasn't necessary.

"Thanks." This was her kind of weather. Having spent her winters in Deerfield, New York and England? She was perfectly at home with this. "I want to help you, Jay. I am here to help, advise, assist, in whatever you need help with. But I don't know what your needs are. Could you explain them to me?"

Jay was never going to assume someone was going to walk through the door. Mostly because he wasn't always sure how other people's powers worked. Though he was slightly tempted to shut the door behind Kitty and run away. Instead, he did the polite thing and followed her out.

He crossed his arms in front of his chest as he walked. Mostly to keep his nipples warm. "Uh, dunno. Figured you had me pegged as needing a lot of help since you lumped me in with Vincent."

That might have annoyed him just a bit.

"I don't have anyone pegged, Jay. I have an idea about all of you based on your files and what I have seen in the field, but my knowledge is sparse. I don't really know any of you yet. I don't see how I lumped you in with Vincent, either. How did I do that?"

"Well, if you ever get your hands on Sammy's SHIELD files, you'll learn I have more gold stars than anyone." He did, too. It was his drive to be more funnily dangerous/useful than his peers.

He winced slightly when Boo got the container of raspberries open and whapped him in the head with the lid. Thankfully, the critter wasn't strong enough to do damage. Also, Boo was too busy stuffing raspberries into its mouth.

"On the field in front of everyone. I make one little joke and I'm almost as bad as a moody sorcerer."

"I've put in a requisition for your files already," she said honestly. Her status at SHIELD was still active for the time being. She figured she should use what pull that she had left.

"Ahh, about Boo." She smiled. "I don't compare you to Vincent, Jay. And I don't hold either of your reactions against you guys. I didn't know how what to expect. I'm happy with the results, though."

"Boo still doesn't approve." He glanced at the miniature giant space hamster gorging himself on raspberries. "But he's busy at the moment."

Jay shivered slightly at the temperature. "Just the same old Young Avenger reactions to danger."

"Well sometimes Boo might not approve, but I think he can work with things." It's what Lockheed had to do. To this day, he was still stealing Pete's cigarettes to this day.

"You looked good out there. You make a good team." She raises her eyebrows. "Now how about this: what is your opinion of me?"

"He'll work out how to get more raspberries. It's his favorite past time." Though Jay was starting to wish he was covered in fur. Or Hulked out. Though he'd be more chatty if he was Hulked out. Darn lack of inhibitions.

"With Marcus at least. He's about the only one who tries to help if I'm in trouble." He took a deep breath. "You're from SHIELD and one of Wolverine's gals, so I'm naturally wary of you. Being a former X-Person levels it out a little, I guess. They're mainly okay. No idea what to think beyond that."

Marcus was, as usual, somewhat between his two closest compatriots in how he felt about the evals. He wasn't nearly as avoidant as Jay, but not as quick to jump on it as Bruce. As far as he was concerned, every time he went into the field, he gave it his all. If nothing else, they had to give him that.

He left his name on the list after Bruce's and then headed outside where he summoned Aether and settled in to brush the winged horse while he waited to be called for his evaluation.

Kitty left her office and went to check the evaluation list. The two she had conducted already had gone well. It didn't seem that people were keen on talking with her. She couldn't blame them, really. If she was in their position, she wouldn't want to talk to herself either.

Next on the list was Marcus Whitman. A quick check on his whereabouts and she is soon walking over to him and Aether.

"Good morning. Thanks for taking the plunge. You're one of only a few at the moment. There must be something about me the others don't like." She's not upset about this in the least. It was years ago, but she knows where they're coming from.

Marcus looked up from his work and gave Kitty a polite smile. He tossed the brush aside and wiped his hand off on his jeans before he offered it to her. "Well, I can't be afraid to take plunges. I'm pretty sure it's in the knight's code somewhere. I'm sure the others will warm up eventually. Most of them, anyway."

He nodded to his horse. "This is Aether. He's the brains of the outfit."

The winged horse turned his head around to peer at Kitty and gave a toss of his head in greeting.

Kitty took his hand and gave him a broad smile. "I do believe you're right. And they will, at some point. Once they see I'm not just an X-Man, or a SHIELD agent, what have you."

And what a horse he was. She turned her smile to Aether. "Why hello to you too." She gave Aether a light pat on his side.

"So I wanted to talk to you about a few things. I want to know how I can be of help to you."

"Help in what way?" He asked curiously, giving Aether the nod to wander off and graze. Probably he could have continued to brush the horse if he wanted to, but it seemed impolite not to give Kitty his full attention.

"Would you like to continue talking out here or adjourn to somewhere else?"

Evals

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