4528/ZZGU: Those left behind

ZZGU: Those left behind
Date of Scene:	29 December 2020
Location:	Operations: Triskelion
Synopsis:	SHIELD actives the new dimensional breach detector just in time to catch a massive dimensional breach by thousands of people from another Earth to ours.
Cast of Characters:	Bobbi Morse, Lance Hunter, Melinda May, Steve Rogers, Nadia Pym-van Dyne, Phil Coulson, Hank Pym, Nick Fury

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Bobbi Morse has posed:
News had certainly spread around that an alien creature attempted to invade our planet from a parallel version of Earth. Another timeline? another dimension? people are still debating just what to call these places. They've been known about for a long time, but until recently, hadn't presented a considerable threat.

    The Operations floor is abuzz with people gathering around for the big unveiling of a new piece of technology. There's a ceremonial button in the middle of the room with a small ribbon hanging in front of it. The large screens projecting the world map is eerily quiet for the Triskelion, but it hasn't changed a tall.

    The appointed time for the ribbon cutting is nigh and faces many rarely get to see are making appearances. Divisions that usually don't have the time or the need to talk are seeing each other for the first time in months (and in some cases years).

Lance Hunter has posed:
Smiling, Hunter flashes his badge to the guy on the door for ops. He'd just got the thing back before he'd been sent off on a series of deep cover ops that made good use of the fact nobody outside of SHIELD didn't know he wasn't a former agent any more. It'd been fun, one last hoorah as a mercenary, his own boss, before heading back into life as an agent. Which included fun little meetings like this one about what sounded like your ^standard ceremonial bollux Dressed casually, light jacket, jeans and a t-shirt, Hunter leans up against a wall arms crossed taking in the room, nodding to those few agents who recognize him from his time as an agent three years earlier.

Melinda May has posed:
It's one of the joys of being an upper level operative. You end up being invited to all sorts of 'special events'. Agent Melinda May isn't really one for ceremonies or ribbon cuttings or other such nicey-nice events. But since this one doesn't involve dancing, dresses, or heels... And she can stay in a tac suit with an ICER on her hip... Yeah, she's making nice.

She takes up a place near the back, but on a slightly higher level. It means that even though she's short, she can still see. And she can watch the perimter. In Ops, you wouldn't think that would be important, but... This is SHIELD. Crap happens. Regularly. Paranoia is a survival skill.

Steve Rogers has posed:
The door opens to admit one Steven Grant Rogers. He's wearing a pair of black pants and a dark grey shirt, and has a jacket slung over one shoulder. The other hand is occupied with a coffee mug from which he takes a sip as he steps into the room.

A little look around is given. A few people here and there seem to take note of him, and whenever his eyes meet someone Steve gives a simple nod of his head towards them with a genial expression in greeting. He moves over to the side, staying along the wall for now rather than going out to mingle with everyone else as his attention goes over to the decorated button. From that, back to the rest of the room as if trying to work out what equipment is associated with it.

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
There are generally two reasons Nadia comes to the Triskelion, getting a lecture or providing scientific assistance to some project. Today is thankfully more of the latter, having helped her father Dr. Henry 'Hank' Pym to develop the technology that everyone is gathered to see.

The elder Pym, who she is practically dragging through the SHIELD base. "Come on Dad! It won't kill you to be social! It will be fine. Just smile and let everyone clap and say 'wow he's so brilliant'." In the back of her mind, Nadia is really hoping that nothing explodes, but that thought is pushed aside for the moment.

Consultant badges are flashed at the door. Even the sixteen year old has one, they just keep getting younger every year. "Look Dad! There's ribbons! Nobody ever put ribbons on something I worked on before!" She is a veritable bundle of positive energy.

Phil Coulson has posed:
Phil Coulson steps in through the doors a bit slowly, looking around at the various people present, offering them all a nod for now. He steps to the side of the door so he won't be blocking the entrance, before he makes himself a little further into the room.

Hank Pym has posed:
Hank Pym takes his hand back. "I was merely straightening my tie!" He's wearing a charcoal gray suit with a dark red shirt and black tie; which he straightens to prove his point.

He looks around at the people sees Fury and tries to look inconspicuous. "I'm not used to this. I usually get called up here to explain what I did and or swear I won't do it again under pain of death. I... this is nice. Yes there are ribbons! Well ribbons. Obviously you will push the button, my love." He gets a hug in before Nadia streaks off. Hank grabs a flute of something nonalcoholic and boring.

Nick Fury has posed:
    The Director of SHIELD, Nick Fury, can hear the hubbub outside his office growing. It was time to officially accept the new technology from Pym Tech. Dressed in a turtle neck sweater with gun holster keeping his ICER under his arm and a loose unbuttoned jacket. Nick takes a moment to inspect himself in a mirror and then shrugs.

    Opening the door, he steps out on the walkway set above the operations sunken area. Hands on bannister he peers at all the agents in this organisation. He knows every one of them, even if he hasn't met some of them face to face yet.

    Faces that have risen through the ranks and done extraordinary things over the years. He smiles in anticipation and claps his hands three times to get the people to hush.

    "Agents of SHIELD, it's so good to see all your faces in one place. We don't do this kind of thing often enough. With good reason. It's not often a new threat presents itself that shifts our understanding of the world," he says and motions to the big screen showing a map of Earth.

    "We protect this world of ours from the unknown, the unexpected. We do it before most people even know something terrible has come their way. We do it from the shadows, so no one needs to carry the scars and trauma. Now we know there are other Earths out there with the ability to travel between them. Something horrible tried to come to our planet and we stopped it," he says and lifts a finger.

    "We were caught flat footed. We need to stay ahead of the threats. Today we add to our arsenal of sensors - a way to detect breaches between the worlds. Pym Tech have provided us with a ground breaking device which can detect and map out incursions so that we may respond rapidly. Doctor Pym, would you like to say a few words? then cut the ribbon and turn it on."

Bobbi Morse has posed:
    Bobbi casually rounds up next to Lance and says, "I see you dressed for the occasion." She points, "See, even Agent Fenter is dressed in a suit for a change." There's a touch of a tongue in her cheek as she needles him about pointless things. "Would you believe I actually have no idea what this meeting is about? There's a lot of agents here. I'd guess someone retiring, but.. fancy button with a ribbon. So, may be we're finally launching our own netflix show."

    She raises an eyebrow and folds her arms. Dressed in her two piece suit, pant legs and jacket, a white blouse and her hair tied back in a ponytail. An ICER is on one hip, her staves are on the opposite thigh. It's business casual Bobbi.

    "Did you just get back? ...wait are those the new lanyards?," she asks and tugs on Hunter's ID to get a look at the pretty hologram. Though hearing and seeing Fury talk about other versions of Earth, she pauses and hmms softly. "Okay then, I guess our job description just got marginally weirder. At this rate, WAND is going to become redundant..."

Hank Pym has posed:
Hank Pym tries to speak. It takes a try, "Ahh thank you Director Fury. It's an honor to work with you and your fine agents. We had our misunderstandings in the past... but fortunately none of the charges would stick." He waits for nonexistent laughter. "I've had direct experience with a terrible alternate Earth and am only here to day because of my daughter, Nadia. Step up here for the people to see you Nadia. Say 'hi'. She's not only a hero, she was not my help on this... we worked on it together, as equals. She is a fine scientist and I'm proud to be her dad." He swallows a minute before continuing. "Okay Nadia, do you want to cut the ribbons or push the button?"

Lance Hunter has posed:
Lance grins as Bobbi appears at his side giving him grief for his choice of outfit, "That's because Fenter is a nerd," he says in a stage whisper loud enough for Fenter to hear him. The agents exchange tight taunting smiles. There'd be payback later for sure. Then Lance looks back to Bob, "Yeah, just got off the quinjet when they sent me up here," he says before letting her play with the new Lanyard. "Yeah, first time I've got to wear the thing." There's a nod about things getting weird. "No kidding, makes me pine for the days of just fighting super-secret Nazi terror organizations," he says keeping his voice pitched low so as not to disrupt the presentation. "Get the gift I sent?" he asks her then, smirking a little. It was marbles because of course it was. Inside joke.

Melinda May has posed:
May watches the procedings from her own elevated perch. The typically taciturn agent doesn't say anything to anyone, really. But that's not really a surprise. She's not exactly known to be loquacious. As the scientist begins to speak, she moves slowly, casually, around the perimeter, angling to meet up with Phil as he moves further into the space.

Steve Rogers has posed:
An agent or two come over and greet Steve, who greets them back with little comments like, "Glad I could be here for a big day," and "Interested to see it all working."

He sips his coffee then, listening to Nick's small speech. Steve's transparent demeanor makes it difficult for him to not show any reaction to Nick's comment about SHIELD working from the shadows. Eyes dropping for a moment, mouth drawn slightly on one side as if not sure if he can decide whether that is for the best or not.

Steve looks back up as Hank Pym speaks and introduces Nadia, flashing the young woman an approving smile for her accomplishments.

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
Nadia looks around with a 'wait what who me?' expression, not really having expected to be in the spotlight and certainly not having prepared any kind of speech. "Um hi. Yes, thanks Dad, he's really brilliant and it was really interesting working with my Dad on this and figuring out how to detect entangled photons in two different dimensions resulting from polarity shifts tearing the fabric of space/time." A pause, as she looks around perhaps realizing most people don't so much care how it works as long as it does. "While we shouldn't necessarily assume these dimensions are automatically dangerous, due to the quantum fractal nature of alternate choices and outcomes, they could really be just about anything and it's better to be prepared and with this device we can be, for whatever may come." Her eyes track around the room as she speaks, looking to her father, and Bobbi, and Steve, and a fair few faces she doesn't actually know, and even the director who she only knows by reputation. Her little speech is very off the cuff, but its entirely earnest.

"Okay, right, the button." Nadia takes a deep breath, in her head thinking 'don't explode, don't explode, don't explode' and reaches down to push the button and bring the device online.

Phil Coulson has posed:
Phil Coulson's gaze goes up to Fury as the man speaks, nodding a bit as he hears the words said. There's a momentary frown, before his expression goes back to normal, as his attention turns to Hank as the man speaks, along with a half-smile at the man's words. As Nadia is introduced, he looks over at her, listening carefully to what's said. There's a glance around at the rest of the people in the room, offering a nod to May as he sees her approach, before he looks back to Nadia as she moves to push that button.

Nick Fury has posed:
The ceremonial button doesn't actually do anything. It's not connected to anything. The agent sitting at the console nearby presses the activate button on his screen. There big screens have several modes of operation. This new one world and has a line sweeping across it slowly. It makes a full sweep across the planet and begins its journey again from the other side once more.

    There's a bleep in London. Then another in India. One in Japan.

    The line continues to progress across the planet. Two bleeps in Los Angeles. One in Las Vegas. Four in Ohio.

    As the line hits the eastern seaboard - Metropolis, Gotham, and New York City.. dozens of little bleeps scatter across the board. The line moves on out over the ocean.

    Fury frowns and grins the bannister tighter. "Check the diagnostics. Is it working properly?"

    An agent who has been involved with the installation of setup of the machine rapidly sits at a terminal and swipes his lanyard and begins to type quickly. He looks back to Fury and nods his head affirmative.

    The line continues to sweep across the planet. Dozens of little dots appearing in the major cities, the numbers keep going up. A counter on the side of the big screens labelled 'unidentified breaches': and the tally has already hit 1,317 by the time the second sweep of the planet has finished.

    "Damn. Get me eyes on one of these locations. Any of these locations," he says as the patience in his voice evaporates entirely. Techs quickly start typing and bring up live camera feed from Metropolis Plaza Park, Superman's statue and people mingling about. But also, for the briefest moment, a flash as a doorway between worlds opens and closes and out steps a man.

    The camera 'zooms and enhances' on to the person and it comes with an ID of a man who works at a Deli five blocks away, 'John Granger'. Another studious tech brings up footage from the deli and.. it's the same person.

Bobbi Morse has posed:
    Bobbi stares uncomfortably at the little blips on the screen that keep appearing. The number keeps going up. 1317.. 1765, 2600, 4528.. the blips start to slow down though. Like it was a massive incursion from another world, with other people. "You've got to be kidding me," she murmurs more for Lance's ears than anyone else. She's leaning forward with rapt attention. "Other versions of people? Genuine doppelgangers?"

    The camera sources change as it follows the new John Granger and he starts heading down the street toward the deli. Bobbi picks up her phone and says, "Patch me through to Metropolis PD." It takes a moment and she says, "This is Agent Morse from the FBI, we have a person of interest we're tracking on 7th street. Can you send a local LEO to pick this person up. John Granger. We will send through a photo immediately." She gives a small nod.

    The big screens focus on that one dot and 'LEO responding' appears beneath it. The man turns the corner and enters the deli. The camera angle is bad but he's clearly carrying a gun.

    There's no audio, but there's a muzzle flash and then a police car pulls up and the officers exit the car with tasers drawn. The alternate John Granger starts sprinting down the street. He doesn't get far as one of the officers tase him. It doesn't take much longer for an ambulance to turn up after and the original John Granger is treated on spot.

    Bobbi hangs up and says, "What was that. Did his doppelganger just try and kill him? An evil doppelganger? seriously??" The heart rate monitor on her wrist starts to flick up and down more wildly.

Lance Hunter has posed:
Watching as the alternate John Granger tries to kill the other one, Lance blinks, "Well that's unfair," he says about the evil dopplegangers. "I understood the rules were they had to have a goatee." Though as glib as his remarks are his expression is one of disbelief. "Don't suppose we can give them a red card for unsportsmanlike conduct and send them all home?" he offers to Bobbi.

Melinda May has posed:
May returns Phil's nod, but turns as the blips start appearing. Even as Bobbi is starting forward, she moves towards the agent at the console, too. It's a hazard of being L7, barging in like that. She glances to the other woman's wrist as she eventually ends up beside her. "Breathe," she suggests in an undertone, thumbing another agent out of the way at a second console.

"Give me access," she tells the tech beside her. Sat down before the second console, she starts splitting feeds, trying to isolate sites in New York, since they're closest. Which means those are the ones they're more likely to get eyes on and boots on the ground to see. She starts running facial rec on several at once.

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
The ceremonial button does nothing, because of course it does. Nadia is mentally kicking herself like 'you should have known that doofus' when she begins to pick up on the agitation in the doom and her eyes go a bit wide seeing the counts on the screen. She reaches into her purse pulling out her suddenly full sized Waspette helmet and slipping it on to her head as she activates the HUD and begins cross-checking readings against other data sources but it all seems to check out. "Well it looks like we finished it just in time." Perhaps the understatement of the century.

Lifting the visor of the helmet, she then reaches into her purse again, this time retrieving her T-Comm. "Do you mind if I make some calls? This seems like something the Titans and Avengers and probably the Justice League should know about." She asks first, lest she get in trouble for violating SHIELD's myriad rules, /again/.

Hank Pym has posed:
Hank Pym is hurrying to the console, watching the readouts. Beads of sweat form on his upper lip as he checks readings, but all is functioning. There are no glitches, no hiccups. The machine works very well and apparently in the nick of time. He tentatively touches on diagnostic. No still working. He is already pondering a means to detect doppelgangers. Variations in chemical composition? Some oddity of quantum physics to tweak to their advantage. For all her skill, intelligence and technology he fears for his daughter in all this.

He looks at Nadia and then Steve and though he knows it will be said many times in the coming days, he says it now and with feeling.

"Avengers Assemble!"

Steve Rogers has posed:
Blue eyes track the sweep of the electronic graphic across the screen. The first few dots that pop up cause the smallest of frowns from Steve. Though that is just the start, and as the number continue to multiply, his brow furrows in concern. Steve glances to one of the analysts beside him and asks in a concerned tone, "Is it supposed to be showing so many?"

And that is well before the number has finished. Steve starts to take a step forward, but then stops himself as Bobbi Morse begins calling in the matter to boots on the ground, and other members of SHIELD are starting to act.

Steve looks back to Hank Pym and says, "What level of threat are we looking at here, Hank? Are these people off the street primarily?" he asks, looking at the footage of the deli.

Phil Coulson has posed:
Phil Coulson grimaces as he sees the numbers on the screen. "What the..." he begins, going silent again as he hears the various people. Nodding a little to himself as people spring into action. He pauses as he hears Steve's question to Hank, moving a bit closer to them to hear the answer, his gaze still on the screens as he waits to hear the man's answer.

Nick Fury has posed:
    Fury looks angry, one might even say furious. He says, "Thank you Dr. Pym and Nadia Pym-van Dyne, it's time for you both to leave." He pushes off the bannister and walks over to Phil, "Coulson, round up every single one of these 'people'. Take The Bus if you need it, it looks like we have many visitors overseas. Set up an operation to work on this."

    He claps his hands and says loudly to the crowd, "Parties over people. We have illegal doppelgangers to detain. Get on it." He rubs his fingers together for a moment, then shakes his head and walks back in to his office.

    He pokes his head back out and says, "Koenig, ramp up the new lanyard issuance. I want every agent in every base around the world with new lanyards by the end of the day." And with that, he shuts his door and locks it.

    The line sweeps across the screen again and another several hundred dots appear, then the next sweep.. barely two or three. They seem to be coming in waves at the moment. They could have been arriving for hours.. days. By the twelfth sweep it is slowing down to a trickle here and there across the globe.

Bobbi Morse has posed:
    Bobbi says in a hushed tone back to May, "I'm trying. It's like we can't ever catch a break." She rests a hand on May's shoulder and turns to look at Lance with a shake of her head, "This is a disaster." Hearing Fury tell everyone to get back to work, she sigh. "Redding," she says to an agent nearby, "Have Metropolis PD transfer those two to the Triskelion once the real John Granger is stable."

    Her eyes turn to Phil and she says, "You have me if you need me Agent Coulson. I know you have your regulars but this looks like a big big mess." She thumbs to Lance, "And I also volunteer Hunter. He's good at tracking people down." There's no apologetic look from Bobbi to Lance for that one. "Just tell us where you want us."

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
"It shouldn't be showing any." Nadia answers Steve, "It detects active breaches between parallel Earth dimensions, each of those is a breach. It's mind boggling just to think about. All we know at the moment is there are breaches, and doubles that may have hostile intent are emerging, but there is no guarantee it will just be people off the street. I mean it /could/ be but we just don't have enough data. We should probably be prepared for a worst case scenario like an alternate universe evil Justice League or something similar."

With her question unanswered and against her better instincts Nadia turns to leave. She has learned better than to argue with SHIELD at times like this, and she has some calls to make and research to do.

Lance Hunter has posed:
Hunter glances to Bobbi for a moment his expression fairly shouting 'you what?!' before he quickly swallows his objections and turns to Coulson with a jaunty salute. "Just happy to do my part? apparently," he says, unable to keep that final gripe from escaping as he gives Bobbi another glance.

Melinda May has posed:
May hears the chatter amongst the others. She glances over to Phil as Fury gives him charge of the mission. "I'm your pilot," she tells him. That bus is hers to fly. They all know that. "But we've got serious deployment right here in this city alone." She starts tossing images up on the big screen. Some of these faces are faces of people they know -- agents and enhanced alike. But it's only scratching the surface. So far.

"Worst case scenario," she adds to Nadia's speculation, "we've got evil dopplegangers of *every* superhero on the planet... and every one capable of stopping them." As in... all of SHIELD, too.

Hank Pym has posed:
Hank Pym says to Steve, "Bad. The tech and or desperation of this move are staggering. One wave to soften us up and sow confusion. The next will be for a real beachhead."

He takes Nadia by the arm before she can leave and uses the insect com to speak to her silently.

"We need recognition signals. The password will be 'scarf', the countersign 'hope', please acknowledge before you go flying off... and stay in touch. We need to work on this together!"

Steve Rogers has posed:
The answers given by father, daughter, and the various agents result in Steve looking back to the global map with a determined expression. "So these are all connections between our world and theirs? And can each only admit a single person, or numbers of them?" he asks, eyes going back to the Pym duo to seek his answer.

Though Steve glances at one of the monitors showing one of the recently emerged people. "Is there a way to track them after they are away from their entry point? Any way to tell this man," Steve says, motioning to the one arrested after Bobbi's call, "From him," Steve finishes, gesturing to the man who was working the deli when it all happened.

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
Nadia nods her assent to her father as he comes up close next to her. "Understood, I will do both." She looks back to Steve though her eyes stray to Director Fury as she was already told to leave. "It seems that way, sending a massive amount of people through a single portal would also be a huge strain on resources and technological limitations like Dad said. Nothing yet, I'll call you." She says making a hand gesture for a phone she must have picked up from someone else in the Titans and with another glance towards the upper catwalk where the director is, starts heading towards the door.

Phil Coulson has posed:
As he hears Fury's words, Phil looks over, nodding at the man. "Yes, sir," he replies, letting out a bit of a breath, before nodding once more as he hears both Bobbi , Hunter and May. "Good," he replies to all of them. "I have a feeling we'll need everyone if those numbers continue to rise." Looking back to the conversation between the Pyms and Steve, he nods to their words, especially Steve's questions. "Excellent questions," he offers, before he looks to Hank again. "You said you had direct experience with one of these alternate Earths, Dr. Pym? World events must have played out different there, right? Otherwise it would be a copy, not an alternate." Frowning again as he looks to the screen, he frowns. "We need teams at work all over the world. And until we can know which one is our world's version of each of those persons, we need to bring in both versions of every person." A brief pause, and he looks over in Hank's direction again. "Do you know if there's a way to close the portals?"

Hank Pym has posed:
Hank Pym takes a final look at the portals indicated on the map. "I need the sensor scans on these portals. Distribution, cycling rate, energy traces. I need one of these people, like Grande to analyze. I'll be gentle-ish. We need to start building portal scanners of this type, less range but mobile. I picked a bad time to stop drinking. You folks start picking your teams and captains, Nadia and I will try to learn the rules of the game."

Lance Hunter has posed:
Hunter nods to Coulson,"Looks like it's going to be a real mess, where do you want us to start?" then unable to resist a quip he adds. "Though if you want my unprofessional advice, I bet Cancun is just lousy with doppelgangers right now," he says trying to keep the mood light, and play some long odds on Couslson actually running with it.

Bobbi Morse has posed:
    Bobbi is a touch tight lipped at the moment. Lance's suggestion of Cancun does lighten her mood just a smidge. Enough that she suggests, "Just not Paris. I'm sick of Paris. Paris is sick of me. Let one of the younger agents do Paris this time." She raises an eyebrow to Lance and says, "And yeah... I got your marbles, lost boy."

    She opens up her tablet and checks her schedule. Lots of things she doesn't strictly need to be a part of, so she starts clearing off the non-essential work. "Someone send a memo to FitzSimmons, we need a way to tell if a person is from another Earth or not. That'll go down real well."

Steve Rogers has posed:
Steve's expression is grateful for the information people are giving. He looks back to the map, likely judging logistics for the scale of the problem they are facing. Not something that Captain American can run around solving. It needs boots on the ground. A lot of boots. SHIELD, and even more so, local law enforcement. But Steve doesn't doubt there will be times that they might be able to use an extra hand.

He turns towards Phil Coulson. "If you need my assistance, let me know. In the meantime I'll make sure some appropriate people out there are mobilized and aware what is going on for if they are needed."

Melinda May has posed:
May continues to flip through images that come up, faces identified by the facial rec program. A face comes up she recognizes. Her nostrils flare as she inhales a sharp breath, body stiffening.

"Aw, hell no..."

She sets the program to continue to run, making sure the identities continue to be cleared. Then, she rises wordlessly, checks her ICER, and heads for the door.

Phil Coulson has posed:
"Let us know when you have learned something. And if you need our assistance for it," Coulson replies to Hank, unable to hold back a half-grin at the part about a bad time to stop drinking. He then nods at Steve. "I'm sure we will need the assistance soon." He raises an eyebrow briefly as he hears Hunter's words, "Cancun, huh. A good thought, but let's start with some of those closer to here." A brief grin is offered to Bobbi as well at her words about Paris. "Probably safest to let someone else do Paris," he agrees. "And yes, if anyone here can find a way to tell people from here apart from people from the other side of the portals, it's FitzSimmons. Get them on the..." He trails off as he hears those three words from May, and looks over to her as she heads out. "What?"

Bobbi Morse has posed:
    ...on the screen is an image, from within New York City, of Melinda May.