14783/Operation WATCHFUL: Queen's Gambit

Operation WATCHFUL: Queen's Gambit
Date of Scene:	30 April 2023
Location:	Medical Ward: Triskelion
Synopsis:	SHIELD brings in Emma Frost to mentally communicate with the would-be Brood Queen, and Dr. Stadler assists. During the interview, the Brood Hive Mind seems ready to telepathically overwhelm SHIELD's safeguards, while Tanya tries to communicate from inside her transforming mind. She claims she can help 'find' and deal with the rest of the Brood... but only if they work quickly, before she loses herself to the new Queen persona, and that killing her will only see her replaced. Fixating on Stadler, she communicates that she need 'someone' to help her keep control, and they eventually realize she may be seeking Karl Lykos. Or maybe she just has the hots for Rick! Also Darcy and Lara discuss scenic Savage Land vacations.
Cast of Characters:	Darcy Lewis, Emma Frost, Lara Croft, Richard Stadler

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Darcy Lewis has posed:
Since their recovery (at the Roosevelt Island and Savage Land sites respectively), two Brood infection cases have been kept under secure medical quarantine at the Tirskelion; even the meta-security procedures at the Vault were deemed insufficient to handle both the rigorous contamination safeguards required, as well as the equipment necessary to attempt treatment.

Subject #1, Aleksei Sytsevich, has remained heavily secured and sedated. His progress has been similar to the bulk of the animal specimens in the Savage Land, mitigated by his own radiation-enhanced physiology. He is not the primary subject of interest today.

That would be Subject #2, Doctor Tanya Anderssen. According to intel (from SHIELD's friends over in the X-Men), she is both a kind of 'patient zero,' and also the architect of the genetically-modified Brood strain. As a research (and personal?) partner of Doctor Karl Lykos, after attempts to secure his aid failed, she was kidnapped and aided rogue Shi'ar research under durress. In that process, it seems that she was also exposed.

However, where all other infected have taken on 'drone' characteristics, hers is suggestive - as much as anyone on Earth is familiar with the topic - of transformation into a new Queen, the center of the Brood 'natural' reproductive cycle, compared to the retroviral version.

Held under medical stasis, there's been significant discussion of what to do with her. The grim necessity of her destruction is certainly on the table. However, quite a few believe that she will house information useful to dealing with the larger threat.

The question becomes more pressing as the extensive suite of monitoring equipment focused on her begins registering increased brain function. After initial security clearance that she isn't about to wake up and destroy the room, SHIELD calls on its best specialists - and outside consultants - to try and make sense of what is happening.

Also Darcy and Lara are here.

Emma Frost has posed:
And of course that dratted bird isn't here and he's on whatever little side game he's got up. So Emma Frost has to go in, having spent as much time reviewing the extensive files the X-Men have on the Brood, some long distance telepathic chatter with some of the experts on the team.. And now it's to go by and talk to the would-be Queen in person. Or at least talk to her mind.

Emma's plan is so far to just try and scan her consciousness. It puts them at hpoefully less risk of having the Queen's activity pushing her transofrmation along. But of course, if she's already there then SHIELD doesn't have any real chance.. And just has to work with it as they can.

So Emma's there, quickly scanning whatever final files she has, keeping a telepathic uplink with some others off-site.. Now the fun begins.

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara had come straight from the Savage Lands. She'd spent a week there, collecting data and even delving in to the infected jungles. It hadn't been pretty, but a lot had been learned, especially up close and personally.

Here and now, Lara is wearing a SHIELD duty jacket that is closed over a dark navy blue shirt, black slacks and matching simple shoes. She's holding a tablet computer with a wealth of her Savage Lands research already pulled up on it. What did she expect to learn from Tanya? Who knows, but all together after seeing this 'lost' region herself, she's gotten quite intrigued by it, and what it's currently going through.

Lara's brown eyes look around at the others before going to Tanya's readings shown on one of the nearby screens, she glances toward Darcy then and leans over to whisper something to her. "Do we know how much time she spent in the region? Or are we completely blind on such a thing?" She asks in her soft English accented voice.

Richard Stadler has posed:
Stadler had remembered Roosevelt Island, and what exactly had come out of the pods there. He had seen what the disease they were processing had the potential to do, and it would not have been hard to determine exactly what sort of response he favored with the new 'queen' that was sealed in the medical stasis device.

He was in the same room, too. The hazmat suit wasn't sealed up at the moment, the orange suit and boots pulled up almost all the way. The orange hood loosely hung around his shoulders, the M50 mask pulled above his head as he stood with the rest of the professionals. It had taken some... negotiation. Some haggling, but no one could doubt the result, or ignore the Browning Hi Power in a holster strapped to his thigh. It doesn't seem llike he was going to leave any of this to chance.

"I haven't been able to do much more than skim through the extraction report. I just know what the lab results so far are saying, and I'm honestly not sure if questions are going to help us compared to other options."

Darcy Lewis has posed:
Darcy's actual role here is of something of a case-coordinator. She's not really in charge of anything, but since it was her AI surveillance tools that helped start off this whole investigation, she gets saddled with the paperwork. There's a lesson here kids: being good at your job is a quick way to end up with more work!

The medical suite, of course, includes a completely isolated observation room, which is where she's hanging out. It gives her a place to meet everyone and review. "We've been monitoring her condition since you brought her back from the Savage Land. The doctors have reported her having steady but low brain activity, consistent with the protective stasis. Even her dreams should be limited - there was concern even that might be psychologically damaging. But these new readings are way above that."

Lara stopping by earns a bit of a quirked smile. "Didn't expect you. Bored? Or think she might actually say something useful. You turn up anything good on your trip?" SHIELD has been VERY active in the Savage Lands, since all this happened. So they're getting back new data all the time.

"We have a last transmission for the Tierra del Fuego research station," she goes on to answer Lara, after pulling something on her own tablet to check. "That's... last November. Before the X-Men surveyed the site. We can assume she was there since, but we don't know when she was infected. They had a stasis pod for her, too, so that complicates the biological timelines."

There's a slight hitch for Emma, which Stadler's preparation hints at. She can probably guess, as she gets all of _nothing_ mentally from the containment room. "Miss Frost, we have psi-dampers around the contaimination chamber, because we have no clue what their hive-mind can do. Couldn't risk her communicating her position and calling a whole swarm to rescue her. So you'll need to suit up with Dr. Stadler, head in, and relay your results back to us on comms." Fun for Emma! Hazmat suits are very fashionable.

"Doc," and this is clearly directed at the more experienced scientist in the lot, "I know this is all new territory. But orders are just to monitor her as closely as possible as we attempt the psychic contact, in case there's any kind of biological response. We have retroviral samples on hand as well, if it's helpful. Plus, Miss Frost needs someone qualified with her."

Emma Frost has posed:
Emma Frost would just look over at the group with just a faint trace of irritation. "Well, then I"ll be staying up here then. And thank you for having me." Well.. It gives her also a double bonus. She's relatively certain she /can/ get past any sort of SHIELD psy-dampeners.. But if she can't then it gives her a rather good idea as to how well they work..

But on teh other hand, tha twould come from just personal pettiness and they do have something of actual stakes here. Emma would let out a sigh, "Very well. And I do hope that you've got a lead containment unit around her as well so she can't just spit acid to tear her way out hopefully."

Emma goes over towards the bulky hazmat suit with an expression of total distaste while going along to start to suit up with whomever else needs to go in. Actually knowing how to put one on properly which might surprise some that had read her file.

Lara Croft has posed:
The question from Darcy garners a momentary half-grin from the Brit. She considers a response for a second before she just lightly shakes her head. "A completely untouched land from the outside world's influences of black markets, tomb raiding, and general greed over history?" She quietly asks the other woman back in return, taking her eyes off the situation in front of her to spare another glance to Darcy. "We've found enough to make Howard Carter even be taken aback... Now we just have to try and make sense of what we found, and then go find more." She finishes that with a smirk before her eyes go now to Emma, and then to Richard.

She nods softly to them both. "Good luck." Lara quietly offers, holding her tablet computer against her stomach for the time being as the situation progresses.

Richard Stadler has posed:
Stadler looks over to Emma, peering through glasses at the sound she makes about irritation. "Don't get me wrong... Ms Frost, correct? I'd rather not have you in there. The more potential vectors we give, the greater the chance of an issue, and there is no way we can get close enough to zero for my tastes. But, well. I'm not an expert in the field of psionics... psychometry? Going to put a pin in that. But I imagine that your experience will be invaluable. Just make sure you're ready for the sweat." He notes, before moving to pull his mask down, pressing it against his face, hand covering the filter, before clearing it of air and having it seal on. The hood is flipped up, over his hair, and sealed, as he wattches Emma move to change. Taking the time to lean over to Darcy with a lowered voice.

"The biological response is what I worry about. I'm... concerned about how much of an active vector these Brood or their 'queen' might be to the unprotected. I'll take a look at those samples once we're done here, but I'm hoping we have enough sampling equipment to tell if anything goes airborne in there."

Another pause. "I'm assuming there's a more permanent santization option you have. If so, be liberal with it's use. If not, for the love of God, why not?" He says, looking at the other Doctor for a moment, before approching the airlock. "Whenever you folks are ready."

Lara get's a single nod in appreciation. Hopefully she too was armed.

Darcy Lewis has posed:
Once Emma is suited, she and Dr. Stadler can head into the airlock, waiting as it cycles before the door opens on the far side. Dr. Anderssen waits in the center of the room, laid out in one of their own glass medical pods and surrounded with equipment. The blonde-haired woman looks peaceful, despite the oddity of the chitinous ridges that have grown on her face, indicating the progression of her transformation.

"No acid or venom sac growth yet," Darcy reports chippily. There are, indeed, constantly updating full-body scans that show the progression of her transformation, and while she is definitely gaining some new physiology, none of the most weapon-like features have developed yet. It also monitors particulate count in the air. Really, if there's something SHIELD does well, it's cutting edge tech like this.

As they head in, the instructions continue over the comms. "On the odd chance something happens, step back from the marked area on the floor around the pod and we'll drop down a security barrier. Dr. Stadler is trained and armed, and we have backup waiting if necessary... as well as the more 'permanent' option, if it becomes necessary." She doesn't elaborate.

They presumably get to work, and so she turns back to chit-chat with Lara. "I've heard there's a lot of advanced technology, despite the societies there all being pre-industrial, developmentally. If you've brought back any of that, I'd definitely love to take a look." All this alien goo stuff is really not her department, so she sounds far more excited for such prospects!

Emma Frost has posed:
And Emma Frost snarks at Richard, "Psionics is the art of reading minds. Psychometry is the art of reading objects. They're quite different things." She wuold deadpan over about the divergence in the confidence only someone on the Fortune 100 list of CEO's could manage over.

"And that's why you hope that however they plan to sterilize here if things goes out of control is thorough." Then they go in and Emma senses Tanya pushing against the barriers. She goes to speak to the comms.. "Whatever you'er using to keep her suppressed. Double them in strength." Because, as Richard just says..

And Emma goes to resist rubbing at her temples as she feels Tanya pressing in confusion. "Forgive me for the intrusion." She speaks this verbally and then goes to add it mentally as they answer. "This is very disorienting, no doubt. Please, calm yourself as much as you can and we'll try and explain things." One thing at a time. Establish contact with the individual. Try to help calm them down. Then start questions.

Lara Croft has posed:
Being that Lara is one of the top marksmen in the Agency who had never served in the military, or law enforcement... she was always armed, so long as she could be armed. Especially with how the past 5 years of her life had gone, she really only felt comfortable now when she had a weapon on her, make that what you will in the Agent Psych Reports.

"We've brought back quite a few crates of items, yes. They're in the labs already, awaiting to be viewed." Lara says back to Darcy whilst she watches the two go inside. She knew nothing about who Emma Frost was, beyond admiring the superficial information picked up just by Emma's 'being'. She knew Richard enough from around the Triskelion to respect his style of being professionally reliable.

Another glance is given to Darcy though. "It's one thing finding ancient relics that are related to a culture that you've spent your whole life researching, as compared to finding what we have now... potentially from a species not even 'of this world'. But still, it's utterly fascinating, as is the Savage Lands all together... though... I highly recommend we come up with a better name for it at some point." That last bit is muttered a bit more under her breath as she lowers her eyes down to her tablet computer's screen which has a active feed of some of the SHIELD tech at-play here.

Richard Stadler has posed:
Stadler peers at Frost through glasses and mask lens as she speaks. "Well, I learn sometihng new every day." He says. Keep it simple, kill them with kindness, all of that. Resist the urge to mention not keeping up with the 'paranormal' sciences, if only because taking jabs at things that were clearly working would be a bit dishonest. Instead, he simple moves through the lock itself, and enters the room, standing next to Emma and peering through the mask's visor to the seemingly comatose woman in front of them.

He was acutely aware that 'trained and armed' simply meant that he was probably the first one to die if something did go wrong. Wasn't that how all the movie's went? The faceless armed man that was first to be taken out to show how much of a threat the big bad was? Life wasn't a cliche, so focus on the situation at hand.

At least they had permanent options to deal with this situation if needed. He'd have expeccted nothing less, but for the moment it was a rather low key experience. He listened to Emma speak out loud, at least letting them no her part of the conversation. And just in case she could hear, it wouldn't be good to be too harsh. More casual.

"How's the particulate level? Any spikes?" He asks the room, assuming it would get to Darcy.

Darcy Lewis has posed:
"The computer monitoring is currently automatically adjusting her dosages," Darcy echoes on the comm. "I'm not a medical doctor so I'm not going to mess with it. Any change is on your partner's say-so. That goes for basically anything medical." Basically, in that room, it's Stadler who is calling the shots - Darcy's just big picture oversight.

Beyond that, much of the medical stuff is going to elude her, so Lara being there is nice. Someone to keep her company! "Yeah, does sound a little colonialist, calling them savages. I assume some British dude came up with it at the turn of the last century." She scrunches up her nose a bit. "No offense, LADY Croft." She laughs. "Its definitely the 'not of this world' I'm interested in. The rest... it's amazing, but I don't even have close to the anthropological background to make sense of it. Still, I'd love to see it."

Pause. "Well, if it wasn't for the rampaging dinosaurs, marauding aliens, and also rampage-marauding dino-aliens, that is."

Stadler's question, nonetheless, she's quick on the draw to answer. Expert or not, an extra set of eyes reading displays is always helpful. "I don't see anything unusual. But that's been one of the consistently -unusal- things about her. They've identified Brood DNA in her waste cells, but we haven't seen viral propagation."

Emma's own probing continues, unseen the them, but soon, the results of it become apparent. A few warning lights goes on, not security ones, but elevated readings in her vitals. And while Emma gets whatever more literal answers, even Dr. Stadler will start to begin to experience a sense of mental 'pressure,' at first perhaps dismissed as the beginnings of a headache.

Psychic communication is quite strange if you've never experienced it. And THIS form is even strange to Emma, so it may go double for Richard.

<< I must. We are. Where? Held? Not before. Different. Where. Where. Absence. But so much. Feel them. Everywhere. >>

Lara and Darcy do not get the communication, but she can see everything lighting up on the boards. "You guys OK? What's happening in there?"

Emma Frost has posed:
And Emma goes to speak quietly. Commandingly. <<Calm down. you are safe. We're helping you rest>> Now Emma goes to try and go ahead and put up a.. Replacement field. The sound of a chorus of chirps filling Tanya's consciousness. The sensation of hundreds, thousands of voices crooning over. She's making background noise to fill the void and give Tanya a sense that she's entirely surrounded by things. Not Brood.. But with enough satisfying background chatter to hopefully take the edge off.

"Calm down, we're here to help. Just breathe. In and out, in and out." Not adding a telepathic -nudge- to get her to calm down. They can't risk it at this point and that would defeat the entire purpose over of what they're trying to do. She speaks into her comm.

<<She's rousing up and is being rather.. Confused at being cut off from the chorus and doesn't know where she is or what's going on. I'm trying to.. Give her some background minds>>

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara is quick to show a smirk to that response from Darcy. "I wouldn't dream of defending many of the actions of my people in the past. Nor many of the actions of any people across the globe throughout history either. If it was named for that derrogatory intention... today, I just tell myself it's related to the savagery of its mega-fauna. Even still, it could just use a name more befitting a place of such immense beauty as it has. I'd love to see your reaction to it. The SHIELD Outpost is safe, I'm relatively certain." And with that last part, she gives Darcy a grin before her eyes return to the two brave souls within the same confines as Tanya.

"She's speaking to them, isn't she?" Lara asks, seeing the readouts covering Tanya's brain activity.

"Remarkable..." She quietly speaks on it, her eyes looking from her tablet computer back up to the local readouts.

Richard Stadler has posed:
Stadler briefly considers mention he /also/ isn't a medical doctor; He had the same P.hd after his name as Darcy did here. But one didn't deal with public health and not pick up a few things. He moves to peer at the local vital monitors in the room, as close to a reading as they'll give to her morphing physiology, including the EKG, as well as flipping through the screens on the dosages. "Let's... No. Not the propofol. That's already high enough. Look, you want to crash her, I can offer some suggestions, but the only think I can recommend now is upping that tagabine derivative. Key in a 5 unit increase, but not yet. I'll call for it." He notes. This was... uncharted territory. If their only access was mental, upping the inhibators might mean any communication would be difficult or impossible. The mention of the particulate was noted as well, with a nod. "Interesting... retrovirus could have a set lifespan. We've used it before for DNA therepy, so-"

He trails off, grimacing past the mask, and that... was a new sensation. He hadn't experienced it before, of course. Words in your head that simply weren't yours, that were just their and forign... who could tell what that felt like until it actually happened? At least it was... different than his own thought pattern, jumbled enough to be sectioned off as something from 'outside', but his hand moved to his side arm all the same.

"She's communicating. She sounds confused. Deferring to Ms. Frost." He says. What was he supposed to say. That everything was going to be all right? That'd be a lie. But at least he could keep himself calm. You didn't need telepathy to pick up on fear.

Darcy Lewis has posed:
Some of Richard's adjustments help, in terms of leveling out those vital stats, at least in the short term. Whether they slow the encroaching psychic phenomenon? Harder to say. And if so, one can only imagine how bad it COULD be.

The responses to Emma's attempts are, like everything here, unusual. Experienced as she is, contact with an alien mind is precisely that, totally alien, separated by some unimaginable gap from all things familiar. There is a sense in some of it that the amount of 'output' far exceeds her ability to totally, simultaneously grasp, more in breadth than strength. It's somewhat like trying to nab an individual current from a rushing river.

But she does grasp some of them. There are pieces that are clearly more comprehensible, indeed, maybe a bit more 'human.' These blitz through various emotitons, simple fear, guilt, confusion, isolation, longing, and deeper-rooted terror.

And an agonizing sense of self-erasure.

<< I am not.... we are not long here. Cannot stop. Hear them all. Need him. Need them.>>

Darcy, now distracted from the pleasantries of the conversation with Lara, is watching all the readings on the board, and shifting her attention to feedback from the dampeners. "I think so." While the bio-tech isn't her forte, the more theoretical stuff is. And dealing with psychic phenomenon as energy? That counts. "We still haven't really isolated all the frequencies of their hive transmissions, but uh, yeah, these are all way up. Pushing against the-"

It's in that moment that Darcy and Lara start to feel it too. The creeping headache. Not as fast, maybe. But the first sense of something bleeding through.

"Shit I dunno how long these are going to hold."

'Calming' measures from Emma find difficulty in singling out the simple shape of a human mind to manipulate. There's MORE there. But some of those currents she can at least try to shift and manipulate, pushing or pulling from the fore.

Maybe what she's really doing is finding the humanity inside it all.

<< Please... you must. You cannot hold her here. Eventually she will win. And even if she dies... the hive will generate another. >> Nature, uh, finds a way?

<< You must let me... help. While I still can. >>

In the midst of that, there's a sudden surge of mental energy more focused toward Richard, as though trying to feel him out. Briefly, the emotional tone becomes hopeful... and then falls apart. << You've brought - no, no, no. Not him. >>

Emma Frost has posed:
There's a confusion over from Emma as she tries to help sooth the mind <<What is going on? Just relax.>> She tries to keep up the harmony - it's not being easier, but it's something that the woman can hopefully uase to focus herself on. She doesn't have much time.. As she said. So they need her coherent for as long as possible in her state as her process seems to be accelerating.

The sudden pressure from Tanya, and increasing energy has Emma trying to help separate those strands of consciousness. Humanity and alien. Trying to bring that over to the surface. "She doesn't have much time and is trying to tell us what she can. I'm trying to help keep her centered but short of shutting down large portions of her mind.. And I'm not sure that I can do that either."

Then as the sudden panic goes over from Tanya going over to Richard.. "Richard.. Did you happen to have yourself checked out? Just to be on the safe side.."

Lara Croft has posed:
Feeling the hints of a incoming headache was something Lara wasn't used to, she didn't get headaches. It made her look over to Darcy, where she'd speak softly. "I'm feeling discomfort, and I'm assuming it's coming from this." She feels obliged to say before her eyes go back.

Her eyes go back to fall upon Emma, this whole time a sense of familiarity touched her mind too, and she finally realized from where. She quietly speaks further to Darcy. "What do we know of her?" She asks of Emma, her brown eyes darting over to her fellow SHIELD Agent. "I only ask because I'm rather certain I've seen her at the Hellfire Club in New York... Is she officially with SHIELD?" She inquires, mostly just with curiosity as to why she'd be here now in this situation.

Richard Stadler has posed:
There was danger here, and not the danger that Richard was used to. Those words and thoughts jumbled around, and the power to get them past and into a brain was keenly felt. It was like standing next to magma, or an active radar; the threat coming from the amount of energy it was producing. Not to mention the alieniness of it all. Of course, the fact that his own control over this situation was exceedingly limited was a part of it here. He was catching bits and pieces a garbeled transmission. There was desperation behind it, panic, and it was hard not to be effected by those thoughts as they managed to to resolve into something more... at least understandable.

The words from behind them on things not holding has him grimace. In terms he could understand, that was a transmission, and it getting out to enemy forces would be bad. They need to call this off. "Lewis, if you're feeling it out they're, then we're done in here. Up the diazepam-"

And he's suddenly stopped at the energy pressing around him, and there was just... confusion, before he looked over to Emma. "Once we got back from the mission. It's not the first time I've dealt with infectious diseases of a high magnitude." He notes, before looking to Tanya. A purse of his lips, before he slowly moves his hand away from the side arm at his thigh. "Easy. You're safe right now." That was true enough, if 'right now' was in the next 60 seconds. "What do you mean? I'm just a biologist." He notes, before turning to Emma. "Can you communicate that? Is she getting this?"

Darcy Lewis has posed:
"X-Men associate," Darcy answers, curtly. It's not because she's being rude to Lara, though, but because she's speaking through the 'headache,' trying to keep her focus. "When we contacted them, Miss Frost was suggested for psychic work. She was on the retrieval mission, as well. And uh... the only other choice, uh, is apparently none-too-popular with the Brood."

Jean has a real way with making alien friends. Shi'ar, Brood, Celestials? No one likes her!

As for Emma's efforts? There is no harmony here. Clearly, the woman's mind is... perhaps not split, but in a state of warfare, embroiled in a losing battle against an innexhaustible foe lodged in her own flesh.

Emma doesn't need to translate for Richard, either. Its clear that she's taking in everything now, that she's in both their heads, and... maybe those beyond the glass. << Yes. Scientist. Biologist. Brilliant mind. The wrong mind. She wants- I want him. Need him. >>

While there may seem an intentional elusiveness in the 'pronoun game,' Emma will start to recognize that's not what happening. There's a battle here. And as Tanya tries to communicate one thing, the thoughts are suppressed by that overwhelming tide, swallowed up and hidden away. The 'verbal' ambiguity in the non-verbal conversation is only their simpler interpretation of it.

<< Please. Take me to it. He can... control it. Hold it long enough, for me... to help you. Help you find it. Find it all. >>

Emma Frost has posed:
Emma is not Jean. Jean is good at making friends. Emma is good at makign corpses and ash. So many regrets from life and all those ksills and experiences wasted. But now.. Now,s he's not Jean, and they have to make Tanya's time last the longest, even as she goes to try and work at fashioning a better psychic shield for herself. She goes to focus, tyring to expand it to the others - not that it would likely carry that far. Emma goes to keep up the pressure - or relieve the pressure.

She moves to try and act as a better conduit for the emotions, to try and help decipher them more. "And just to be clear, darling, we're not going to see you switch places with David Bowie wearing Star Trek makeup and declare you the Brood King?" THere was confusion in the air and calamity - but not aggression. For now. Emma goes to try and help keep up the translation as best she can.

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara falls mostly silent now as she stands off to the side of the containment area with her eyes going from her tablet to the two within it. She does spare a glance toward Darcy who offered a response about Emma, and Lara simply said "Ah..." back at her.

The X-Men. They were still mostly a mystery team to Lara who did not grow up around this kind of thing. She didn't even have a television growing up. The immersive lifestyle of being surrounded by Super Heroes didn't come in to play for her until she moved here when she was 22... It's been a learning experience!

Her stare goes back to the monitors, her eyes watching Tanya's face. "Have we considered putting her and Lykos in the same space together? Or would that be nuclear awful?"

Richard Stadler has posed:
Stadler was wincing. It was more of a severe headache now, and their couldn't be much more communication without their being a danger. It was... unknown to who a transmission might reach, but there would be damage. It /felt/ like their would be damage. But at least it seemed like Lara and Stadler might be sharing the same sort of brain cell with it, because things snap into focus at around the same time Lara mentions his name. "That's... I don't know what it is, but that's who she has to be referencing. Docotr Lykos. He had spoken about her before." He said, turning to the glass. "Lewis, we've got what we need. Up the diazepam 10 units."

They needed to have a conversation on the next step here, and they were about out of time with the information they had. Obviously she was confused, too. Stadler was no where /near/ brillant."

Darcy Lewis has posed:
By now, Darcy has started priming the 'backup' procedures. She doesn't know what's happening, but the numbers on her screen are starting to go crazy, with peaks on those psychic frequencies are starting to seriously overwhelm whatever buffers their limiter system provides. SHIELD tech is impressive... but these are aliens who have ravaged across the stars. Like so often of late, they're entering a whole new 'league' here.

Emma as the biological rather than technological counter-measure isn't doing much better. Not any more. She's brought a certain clarity to the would-be Queen's mental emissions, but eventually, she finds a limit in that overwhelming, oceanic current, something that pushes her back and pulls down the Tanya within. The Queen is fighting them.

Finger on the button, Darcy looks over to Lara. "I..." Its hard for her to think through these things, under the psychic strain. She's not as tough as some of these people, and it's hitting her. "Don't know, he's dangerous. They shared the work, I don't know if there's anything more he would... is this some kind of true love thing? Or..."

Thinking through it too hard is probably a mistake. Her thoughts aren't clear, and time is short. It's hard even to bring her mind together, but as Dr. Stadler calls a directive from the other side over the comm, it helps bring her back. "Right." Her hand moves off the 'burn with fire' button and over to the computer controls, punching in the dosage at Richard's directive.

It doesn't stop the thoughts, not right way. << Yes! >> Maybe the Queen wouldn't let Tanya 'say' it, but when she hears Lykos' name, not even spoken, but conjured in Richard's mind? It brings a clear elation of achieving something that was just beyond her grasp.

<< Together! He can beat her. Hold her back. Give me the time... to help you. Help you fiiiind themmm alll.... >>

The mental speech starts to slow, the current's flow losing its volume and speed. The pressure, the pain, starts to decide. The medicine is working. "Her stats are going back down..." Darcy confirms, looking over the readings. "At least... mostly. There's still some that keep elevating. I think we're not going to be able to keep her down long-term, but she's slipped back under the buffer threshold. Gives us time. You two can come out, but we're doing full decon in the lock." She takes a breath, relishing the easing of that terrible weight.

When they're out and safe, she has one last question. "So, are we really doing this. Are we putting these two... on date?"