6509/The Framework: Lars is terrible at this

The Framework: Lars is terrible at this
Date of Scene:	10 June 2021
Location:	The Krazy Kanoe, New York City (Framework)
Synopsis:	Lars's daily trips in to the framework finally pay off when Carol turns up at the Swordfish Bar. They talk and she finally agrees, possibly because of alcohol, to humour him. It turns out the playground is crawling with SHIELD resistance though and Lars artfully uses parts of the truth to talk them down from simply shooting them both. Carol makes a bold decision to step in to the unknown and be the first to escape the framework.
Cast of Characters:	Bobbi Morse, Carol Danvers, Melinda May
Tinyplot:	The Framework

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Bobbi Morse has posed:
    What was once a successful bar and prior to that the local haunt of SHIELD agents, The Krazy Kanoe is all but abandoned. Dust on the floor, boards over the windows, police tape across the back door. There's still bottles on the shelves and money in the register.

    Lars has dusted down some bar stools and had a bottle of whisky off the shelf. Two cleaned cups later and as far as he's concerned, he's saved the bar. Not that anyone comes here, not after SHIELD fell. It was the perfect place to meet up with Carol again.

    A second glass is poured in anticipation that he's not about to be murdered, arrested, tortured, who knows what this crazy virtual world has in store. They're all risking their lives to save their team mates from here. But they risk their lives like that every day in the real world too.

Carol Danvers has posed:
That has to be stressful.

Not knowing if Hydra Soldiers will kickdown the door at any moment.

Not knowing if the whole building will just be suddenly atomized leaving an empty block there.

Alarmingly there is a low level pulse of energy that does remarkable things to fry and confuse any surveliance devices.

Then the back door knob down the hall by the bathrooms could rattle a couple of times. Turning first one way. Then slowly turning the other way.

Carol eases the back door open and ducks in under the police tape so she can enter letting the backdoor shut behind her. Every bit of movement is cautious as she stands in that darkened hallway studying the hall and the main room beyond it.

The Captain Hydra armor is missing. She is wearing an NYU hoodie, jeans, and a METs cap over it all. The classic disguise which is way more about body posture than anything else and obscuring one's face from the near ever present facial recognition systems.

The look is pretty flat and hard to read though.

Bobbi Morse has posed:
    Lars has always wanted to try this. He slides the tumbler of whisky down the bar toward Carol. Is a life goal accomplished when done in virtual reality? Hard to say, that'll be debated at the real SWORDFISH later. He seats himself down on one bar stool and takes a long hard drink.

    "I wasn't sure if you were going to show," he says. A hand runs through his blonde hair and he motions to the free seat. "Nice disguise," he comments. Today was going better than he thought it would already. If he's lucky, he might be the first to pull one of their agents out of this hell hole.

Carol Danvers has posed:
There is a skeptical look at the tumbler then at Lars.

I mean it was a pretty slick move though.

She eases the door shut quietly behind her and walks slowly down the bar. Glancing around slowly as she looks for the trap or catch or hidden agents. Which shouldn't be entirely surprising because this could all be a Hydra test after all. A loyalty test.

There is another light pulse of the scrambling energy before she pulls her hands out of her pockets.

"So. Actually here alone." she muses as she walks to the end of the bar and picks up the tumbler. It is sniffed cautiously.

"You actually come here every day Lars..?" it has been more than one since the encounter.

Bobbi Morse has posed:
    "Not alone. You're here now," he says and takes another long gulp of the whiskey. He nods his head, "Yep. Every day. Waiting to see if you're come back. I understand now how confusing and difficult this must be for you. It's a bit of a stretch to tell someone their entire reality is a lie."

    "But you of all people know truth in your heart when you search for it," he says confidently. He has such faith in Carol that no one in this world has ever had. Quite the opposite under HYDRAs gaslighting tutelage.

    "You know when I first started at S.W.O.R.D. I thought.. this is a waste of time. What more can we do that astrophysicists using satellites can't already do. We're legitimately going to be looking for E.T. which was what I like to do in my spare time anyway - but at least I was going to get paid for it," he says.

    "And then you came back to Earth. You completely turned SWORD upside down Carol. We went from being a bunch of conspiracy cooks with authority and badges to having a real mission. If it hadn't been for you, I'd never have even left our solar system," he says with a smile and another big gulp.

Carol Danvers has posed:
"That was corny." she notes dryly and then sighs and takes a sip of the whiskey that was offered. Mostly she doesn't have a horrible feeling about it and it isn't like conventional poisons stand much of a chance with her supersoldier nature.

"Also I don't thyink you have any idea how difficult this entire situation or prospect honestly is."

Despite that statement she watches him, and listens when he starts in on the whole saga. She does lean against the bar and listen though.

Honestly if shock troops stormed the place she could just say she was trying to see how big the network or resistence cell or whatever this mess was... is before dealing with it. She is Captain Hydra and all.

"Have you left the solar system?"

How is that the question. After all that.

Bobbi Morse has posed:
    He nods his head, "Just the once. We retrofitted one of the quinjets for space. It's how we take stuff back and forth from The Peak. After the Chateau incident in Southern France, the Nova Corps wanted to talk to representatives of Earth. So you towed our ship to the rendezvous. The people of Nova seemed.. nice. I don't think they thought much of us Earthlings, but with you there they were paying attention to what we had to say."

    "It's hard to say if anything will come of it, but it would be nice for Earth to have some allies out there in the stars," he says with a smile. His glass emptied he pours some more.

    "What is it you've come to ask about Carol?," he ponders. He can dig a deep grave for himself but he must stay focused on what this is all really about.

Carol Danvers has posed:
Carol toys with the condensation on the whiskey glass then slams it back and slides it back down with an easy flick empty.

Testing Lars's reflexes honestly.

"Nova Corps are basically space cops. It makes sense they would get on fine with earth cops."

What questions does she have. Many.

She has spent several days and nights mulling over the jumbled memories. The Supreme Intelligence. Star Force. The X-Men. The Brotherhood of Mutants and Mystique.

That last part is honestly Jean's fault for mixing up some of Rogue when putting Carol back together after returning to earth.

Still it is a lot on her mind all tossed in a blender with at this point years of simulated memories of being a Hydra Super Soldier and rising up to be one of the deadliest weapons, both metaphorically and really, in their arsenal here in The Framework.

"How do I know this isn't you projecting a lot of bullshit into my head. It sounds unbelievable."

Bobbi Morse has posed:
    Lars fumbles the tumbler, almost drops it, but manages to stomp a hand against it and the table top. He puts his down and fills hers up again. It's obvious he's not a fighter.

    "I wouldn't call us Earth cops..," he says suddenly curious about whether that fits or not with SWORD. "Though I suppose you have a point. We're more like a defence force. A really specialised defence force," he says.

    He blinks a moment and peers at her, "Huh. Interesting question. Well, I haven't been near you recently. Honestly, my skill set involves computers not telepathy. I don't expect you to take this all in a leap of faith. I'm hoping you'll remember things on your own, or may be this crazy virtual reality won't be able to contain the truth in your heart."

    "What's unbelievable to me is you siding with HYDRA for any reason what so ever. But.. here we are. You're part Human, part Kree. Where do you think the HYDRA line is drawn once they're done with Inhumans and Mutants hm? you might be useful now but the moment you express your own free will they will crush you. Guaranteed they have figured out some way to break you if you disobey them. The real world.. you're not some lapdog servant. You're a damned intergalactic hero. It's not just Earth you saved..."

    He folds his arms and says, "I tell you what. You tell me what'd convince you and I will try and do it. If you're still not sure, we try again. Short of me walking you out of this simulation and back in to the real world when you're ready I'm not sure me telling you stories of who you really are is going to help."

Carol Danvers has posed:
Carol listens once more and then catches the refilled glass when it is returned to her and turns it in a slow circle on the bar as she just stays ominiously silent and soaks it in.

It has to be pretty nerve wracking for Lars. She isn't giving him a lot to go by expression wise other than brooding.

"Hydra saved me from the Kree when I stumbled onto one of their operations on earth. I'm not Kree ... just exposed to some strange energy from an explosion and then given training and a modified version of the same serum Rogers was given."

Which. Explains a lot.

"Which ... is contricted by the memories I have of .. a lot of other things right now. All of which could be your machinations." okay Carol never uses the word machinations. For the record.

The drink is picked up and another gulp. "So. How does one walk one into the 'real world' then. Fancy portal. Magic." okay it is obvious she isn't entirely sold on this. I mean a magic portal could be a trap.

"The magicians tried a lot of stuff before they were brought in line, come to think about it. None of it worked well or wasn't able to be overcome."

Bobbi Morse has posed:
    There's an incredulous look as Carol uses the word 'machinations'.. and he repeats it. "Machinations? really? wow this place has really done a number on your noggin ya," he says with a grin on his face. He picks up the whisky and takes a sip.

    "Fancy portal," he says casually and adds, "SHIELD has this hacker who has broken in to this virtual reality. That's how I was able to get in here to contact you. She added a way out. But it's in a physical location you have to walk through. I have no idea what it'll look like. A door may be?"

    And the crazy thing is.. that very same hacker is a vapid pop star who dangles off the arm of head of HDYRA. That'd be a hard truth to swallow. It was for Daisy. "You're not the only agent stuck in here. We're trying our best to get you all out. The rest are SHIELD though. I came for you," he says and lifts up the whisky, "Because you'd have done the same for me ya." And drinks.

Carol Danvers has posed:
"That is ...very un-Hydra-Like."

The concept of coming into something for one agent.

"Okay. Who else is trapped in this thing if it is a simulation."

Which may be a hard question for Lars. OpSec and all.

"Honestly though this seems to be coming down to a situation that is almost impossible to sort out. Either this is a a test, the truth, or a trap." the whiskey is eyed.

She finally looks up and stares into Lars eyes. "It doesn't feel like a trap or a test though. In my gut."

Bobbi Morse has posed:
    He pauses when asked who else. "Ya see now you get the conundrum I'm in too. This could be a trap or the truth from you. You're not exactly yourself right now. You could be lying through your teeth to get me to spill secrets, then turn around and have your fellow agents killed," he says with a sigh.

    "I can't tell you who else is trapped in here, not until you're out of here. You could, in theory, come back in once you're out - the same way I've come in. But there are risks and you may.. not be so inclined to come back to this place once your head has cleared," he says.

    "You can trust your gut and I really want to trust mine. So... where do we go from here?," he says. Usually he doesn't feel quite so nervous around Carol. Her kind heart puts others first and she's someone he can stand beside proudly. In here, she's a raw nerve and he imagines this must have been what she was like when she first escaped the Kree.

Carol Danvers has posed:
"At least you have some sense of OpSec in your head. Only risking your own life."

Muses.

"Well that or you are lying and there are no other agents in this 'simulation' and you are a nutter."

Fuck this is a conundrum. Probably one she would flash fry if it wasn't for the other jumble of memories leaking.

Little known fact. Hook Carol up to electrical cables and systems and she will leech energy continiously like a cosmic battery. Back to our current show though.

"Fine. Either you're somehow lying and it is a trap... and I'll destroy you and your conspirators." seriously who talks like a movie villain like this. "Or.. it isn't. Either way I am not at much risk." she downs the rest of the whiskey.

"Lets see your magic portal."

Bobbi Morse has posed:
    He nods his head, "Easy right? I know I'm right.. but it is a bit of a drive." He puts the cap back on the bottle and offers it to Carol. "My car is parked around the block. Let's head off now. You only have to trust me for a little bit longer. I promise you, everything is going to be alright."

    Well, he has faith in Daisy and her ability to hack things. The tolerance monitoring program didn't show any significant deviations yet. As far as he knows, SHIELD here is almost dead, the playground should be abandoned and possibly untouched since the SSR days.

    The trip across the land requires several stops with identification checks. Lars seems to have acquired fake identifications since the last time Carol saw him. They seem to be holding up too. Eventually they have made it to an unassuming building and he parks just around the corner from it.

    "This place should be empty," he says and gets out of the car. It's good he could keep things on the down low but this is it, the moment of truth. Either Carol is being honest with him or he's been played. He was never great at this spy stuff.. but then neither was Carol. In here she seems much more vicious and whiley.

Carol Danvers has posed:
Well. Everything might be all right.

That is if Daisy knows what she is doing of course.

Otherwise Lars will have a very tragic case file and a star on the wall of the Fallen.

The hat is pulled down a bit and hoodie adjusted. The bottle, not turned away though as she carrries it with her as she follows him out the back door and around to his car.

She most kicks back and nurses the bottle for the drive. Letting him handle the identifications because she doesn't want anyone back at the Triskellion asking why Captain Hydra is traveling in a Civilian Car with some yahoo.

Shutting the door to the car she looks around unimpressed really. "It isn't much to look at." she notes dryly. Okay she is a bit meaner sounding after drinking most of the whiskey too.

Melinda May has posed:
The approach of the car to the base has not gone unnoticed. "What have we got?" The grizzled old man, a cane at his side, stands in the ops center looking at the screen.

"Dunno, sir." The tall, bulky black man usually acts as a mechanic. Right now, given how down their numbers are, he's playing watchman. "The alarm tripped three minutes ago. Whoever they are. They shouldn't be here. They shouldn't have any reason to be here."

"Can we identify them?"

"Not yet. We're working on it."

The old man grunts softly. "Okay." He turns to the tall woman with the bob. "You're up, Hartley. Take a team." He looks at the man watching the screen. "Go with her, Mack. Grab Idaho and Trip. See what they want. Get them to go away."

"You got it, sir." Hartley pushes off from the console she was leaning against.

Mack gives a sharp nod. "I'll get my shotgun."

Within five minutes, they're easing up into the supposedly abandoned building. Hartley glances to Mack and gives a faint nod. He smiles humourlessly. The sound of his shell sliding into place is loud. It echoes in the open space. "That's far enough," he calls to the pair at the car. "Who are you?"

Bobbi Morse has posed:
    "It's not.. on the outside. But down below is an old SSR base. Made by Peggy Carter back after World War 2," he says. "I've never actually been inside it in the real world. There's not much call for random SWORD technicians to visit. They have their own geniuses to bother after all."

    He takes a step toward where the lift is and pauses when the sound of the shotgun echos past his ears. He holds up his hands and says, "Hello?," he says.. slightly recognising that voice. He had been to the Triskelion plenty of times in the past though.

    "Agent MacKenzie?," asks the Scandanavian. "Uh.. Lars Anderson, Agent of SWORD. You probably don't know me..," he says and then calls out, "Who else is with you?" He looks to Carol and says, "Just play it cool.. I don't know why he'd be here. We only need access to one of the rooms in the base."

Carol Danvers has posed:
The amusing part is, Carol's whole danger vibe doesn't really go off. Cause. Well. Shotgun.

The sound of the shell sliding into place though does get her attention and she stops. She just breaths in and then lets out a slow sigh. "I mean. Old SSR base that only Carter would know about from the old days. It is pretty obvious why an Agent would be here Lars." okay wow she sounds really surly about it too.

It could damage Lar's self esteem. Which to be fair is way better than actually damaging him... .. or damaging MacKenzie yet.

"This better now have been the whole idea all along." she notes with a bit of bite.

Frankly she has seen better traps. The payoff though could be deep at this point if it is a trap.

Melinda May has posed:
"SWORD doesn't exist any more." Mack says, stepping out of the shadows, his shotgun raised and pointed toward Lars. He doesn't bother revealing who's with him. That's not his call, anyway. It's Hartley's. And she doesn't seem to be in a hurry to expose her people to an unknown threat.

Mack, though, he makes a pretty good wall. "So, who's your friend, Lars Anderson of SWORD -- or whoever you really are? Neither one of you should be here."

Meanwhile, down in the Playground, computers continue to run facial recognition scans. "Sir?" The man now manning the screens. "We just got a match on the blonde." He points to Carol.

"Let's see it, Ward."

Ward brings up the image of Captain HYDRA from a propaganda piece. "Computer gives a probable match of over 90%."

"Shit."

Bobbi Morse has posed:
    "Ahh.. well.. if we're playing semantics like that, SHIELD doesn't exist any more either ya," Lars says. "I wasn't expecting anyone to be here," he says to both Carol and Mack. "So.. we're just here to check something in one of the rooms down below and then we will be on our way. Easy peasy ya?," he adds.

    "Whatever it is you're up to here, that's a-okay with me. Go team SHIELD," he says.. this is probably the resistance movement. He just brought Captain HYDRA to the resistance movement. Ahhh shit.

    He whispers to Carol, "Whatever happens ... our goal is the cupboard door in Rec Room 3 okay? just.. I know this guy in the real world. He'll come around. It's not a trap I swear it to you on Wodyn."

    Clearing his throat he says, "She's someone in need of my help and that is what I'm going to give to her. Her name is Carol and that's all you need to know. She and I mean you no harm..." He slowly lowers his arms and then offers his hand to Mack, "Alphonso MacKenzie. Mack to your friends. You're a mechanic ya. Lars.. SWORD, SHIELD, we're still allies ya?"

Carol Danvers has posed:
Carol pinches the bridge of her nose and just sighs deeply. "You.. are really honestly bad at all of this Lars."

Like. He is absolutely honestly so bad at this. Either he is absolutely crazy and he just managed to stumble on a SHIELD resistence cell. Or maybe hillbillies with shotguns, she isn't going to rule that out either at this point. Or maybe. Just maybe he is who he says he is.

"I mean really bad at this. What did you do in SWORD, were you a desk jockey or something....?" a bit mean. She looks past him towards the guy with the shotgun he is going to shake hands with.

She is watching very close.

Is he about to be cold cocked with a shotgun or is he about to spring the trap.

She isn't even sure what she intends to do about it yet either.

Melinda May has posed:
Hartley agrees with Carol. Lars is really bad at this. Whatever 'this' is. But she's distracted by a gravelly voice in her ear. "Hartley, that's Captain HYDRA. Carol Danvers. We're intiating lockdown. Pull your team back."

"Copy that," the woman says. She steps partially into view, her own weapon raised. "Mack, pull back," she orders. "They're HYDRA."

That's enough to make the man start moving. Even a good Baptist like him is willing to swear with that revelation. There's sound of a scramble, now, as they retreat back into the shadows. Notably, they don't fire a shot -- just in case that might set the Captain off.

Down below, however, there's a full evac underway. Families and kids first. The agents -- resistance fighters -- they stay. They're setting up barricades and doing everything they can to buy the families time. They hope.

"Director Gonzales? The bus is loaded."

"Get it out of here," the old man replies, fitting a tac vest on over his shirt and finding himself a weapon. Cane or no cane, he'll go down with the ship. Always has. Always will...

Bobbi Morse has posed:
    Hand shake rejected. Dang.. may be he IS bad at this. "I do hardware and software. I'm not _always_ at a desk," he says defensively back to Carol. "Mack.. come on. Hartley? is that you?," he says taking a step to follow.. slowly though, he doesn't want to get a shotgun to the face.

    "I swear we're not here for that. Carol's.. not really HYDRA. She's SWORD. It's a long story and if you stop panicking for just a moment - we can come inside and I can explain it to your boss... who is..." he ponders.. it's definitely not Carter, or Coulson, not Morse, not May.. "who is your boss? Is it Victoria Hand? Ooh is Fury down there? ..." he's running out of names, "Gonzales?"

    He turns to Carol and shakes his head, "I guess I am bad at this. See normally this is your shtick but you've been drinking so I figure a bit of honesty can go a long way." He calls back to the retreating agents, "Look.. check the area. There's no drones, no vehicles, no quinjets. No one followed us, we used fake identification papers at checkpoints. It's just us. Just Carol and Lars." He folds his arms with a sigh, "Clearly we need your help."

Carol Danvers has posed:
Definitely not hillbillies with shotguns.

Though it really genuinely does not seem to be a trap. She peers at the car though with the empty whisky bottle.

Sigh.

She looks back at the retreating figures and then just shakes her head slowly. "Lars." she considers the next part, but not very hard. "I don't really need drones, vehicles, or quinjets you know?"

Which is not at all helpful. "Anyways. Carter is a civilian. Sky Commander Morse is one of the top commanders in Hydra. Hand and Fury if there aren't dead somehow managed one hell of a Houdini." she glances towards the way the two with guns retreated. "Honestly I have no idea who could be leading an actual resistence out of an old SSR facility."

"Also yes you are very bad at this, why on earth would anyone send you in to rescue me." pause. "IF that is really what is happening."

Melinda May has posed:
"Wait." A dark hand is laid on Hartley's arm as they start to retreat. "Look," Trip says in urgent tones to the squad leader. "I get it. HYDRA... but, really. That guy sucks at making up anything remotely plausible. And she looks three sheets to the wind. This... *could* be an opportunity." If they play it right. His dark eyes are expressive as he tilts his head in Carol's direction.

"We've got our orders, Trip."

"So? That's never stopped you before. C'mon, girl. You know I'm right on this." Trip lowers his voice so it doesn't carry to Lars and Carol. "Besides. It could be a chance to lock her in the Vault and get answers out of her." Because Captain HYDRA is not Captain Marvel. No crazy alien superpowers.

Hartley eyes him for a moment, and then eyes Mack, before she finally settles her gaze on Lars and the super-soldier. A quick jerk of her head towards them and both Idaho and Mack are stepping out of the shadows with their weapons trained on the intruders. "Hands where we can see them. Let's go."

Only once they've complied do the SHIELD agents approach. They're not overly gentle when they pull the pair's hands behind them and zip tie them. But, then... does anyone really expect them to let them in without taking precautions?

They're led through a hidden doorway, down a steep ramp into the back of the base where, clearly, evacuations are underway.

Bobbi Morse has posed:
    Lars tilts his head as they start to whisper amongst themselves. He looks back to Carol and shrugs his shoulders. Clearly the base is not empty.. and that becomes more evident once they're brought inside. "You know these zip ties are just show ya?," he points out. Every agent learns how to get out of these things and Carol is.. well. She is Carol.

    "In my defence," Lars says, "Who knew that the remains of SHIELD would come here and hide out." In retrospect, though, it does make a lot of sense. He looks a little hurt though at Carol's accusation, "I volunteered Carol, that's who would send me in to rescue you.. the gratitude," he says and then says. "It's okay. I understand you're under a lot of stress right now. You knew who the Nova Corps were even though you shouldn't have. Keep that in mind."

    "Excuse me Agent Hartley, we're really sorry we've interrupted what you're doing here.. which seems to be mostly leaving. But we can be out of your hair in no time at all. We need to go to Rec Room 2, it's very important SWORD business."

Carol Danvers has posed:
Not crazy levels alien superpowers. That does not mean no alien influenced superpowers beefed up with Super Soldier Serum. She is still pretty blasty after all, which Lars learned the hardware at the SWORD listening post several days ago after all.

"Listen." she raises a hand. Then just sighs. "Fine." and well she doesn't really have the bad vibe sense about all this. Which is odd.

"You better damn well know what you are doing Lars." she is still, quite confident that she can probably snap those flex ties and whup everything in sight. "I'm aware Lars. It is called a polite fiction. They are also gambling to buy time to evac the base."

Yeah still not helping much.

Melinda May has posed:
Gonzales steps out into the hallway as Hartley and co bring Captain HYDRA into the base. "Are you out of your ever living mind?" he growls, his weapon raised as he sees them. "What the hell do you think you're doing, Hartley?"

She thumbs over to Trip. "Listening to his gut, sir."

"We can use this, sir," Trip says, stepping forward quickly. "Look this guy says he's SWORD. And, frankly, he's a *terrible* liar, sir. I believe him."

"SWORD fell before SHIELD did. HYDRA blew the Peak out of the sky."

"I know, sir, but..."

Gonzales cuts him off with a look, even as Lars is babbling to Hartley about Rec Room 2. "Who the hell is this?"

"He calls himself Lars Anderson," Mack says, stepping forward. "That's about all we know."

The look Gonzales fixes Trip with now *should* be good enough to melt steel. But Trip's a pretty upstanding guy. He meets that gaze. "I got a gut feeling, sir." He glances to Carol. "And... she hasn't started killing anyone yet. You gotta admit, that's *way* outta character."

Gonzales turns on Lars, now. "What the hell is this all about?" Yes. He's totally buying time for the evac to continue.

Families. Children. Priorities!

Bobbi Morse has posed:
    Lars's eyes widen in distress as they casually mention The Peak being blown out of the sky. He doesn't even need to get a confirmation to believe it'd be true. He lets out a small huff. "I can't even begin to count the number of times I've been on the other end of this conversation," he says.

    "I understand you're afraid for your lives but there's more going on here than you understand.. weird SWORD things. Very weird SWORD things. Our responsibility doesn't end just because HYDRA took over. Carol and I need to go to Rec Room 2. In that room is a closet. You are free to go and inspect the closet before we go there. It is imperative that I take Carol through that cupboard door," he says starting to look exasperated and slur his English more than usual.

    "Then, I promise you, all will be revealed... I will answer any and all questions you have. To you sir, Director Gonzales, as the highest ranking person I still know of. She's not who you think she is.. I mean, yes she is Captain HYDRA but Captain HYDRA isn't who she actually is..."

    He pauses and looks a bit exhausted, "No one was supposed to be here, in this base, that's why Daisy chose it.. and if Agent Carter had known she'd have prepared us better for this.. conversation. I'm begging you, Director, please give us enough rope."

Carol Danvers has posed:
This is probably one of the top ten oddest things Carol has ever been through at this point. She just is looking around the base as she is escorted down with Lars and makes thoughtful noises.

"I have no idea how they managed to hide this. I mean. The mothballed facilities were scrubbed I thought." still not very helpful to be honest.

When Gonzalas starts to confront the crew that actually brought them into the facility. Well she looks him up and then down. "It's been a really... really long week. It is his fault. Honestly he is either nuts or he is onto something."

Which is when she wobbles her hand back and forth in the kind of sorta gesture there. "Honestly I would humor him about the Rec Room B... or 2 thing. Whichever that is."

Yes she totally snapped the flex cuffs to hand wobble to emote her incredilousness at the whole situation. "Woah now.. no shooting..." towards someone who freaks out.

Melinda May has posed:
Yep. All five of them raise their guns as Danvers snaps the zip tie. All five of them know she could damn well wipe the floor with any of them. "You need to stay very still, Captain," Gonazales says. Though his eyes remain fixed on Carol, he speaks slowly to Lars. "Peggy Carter hasn't been Director in decades, son. Her husband's dead and she's now a single mother with three kids, thanks to HYDRA."

It's *possible*, even likely, Dottie has told Gonazales of her suspicions that Daniel Sousa may still be alive. But he's not about to say that to these two. And, really, since Dottie herself doesn't really know the truth about Daniel... It's just as well. The last confirmed report SHIELD has is when Mack and Trip went to the warehouse in the dead of night after it was all over and sifted through for bodies. They had to clear out, however, before they could retrieve anything -- retrieve any*one*.

Regardless, it's pretty clear HYDRA isn't welcome here. Not that that's a surprise to anyone.

"Sir," Trip says, his gun as focussed on the pair as anyone else. "Let's take 'em where they want to go. Worse case? We end up fighting there. Best case... We've still got one of HYDRA's top enforcers."

Mack snorts at that. Is he the only one here that thinks the only reason any of them are still alive is because Danvers is playing out some hidden agenda. "For all we know, they're here to paint a target on us, Trip. This is too dangerous. We need to finish this." Once, he was a gentle giant. Those days are long gone. The death of his daughter in the early days of the HYDRA takeover saw to that.

There's movement down the hall behind them. Grant Ward has emerged from Ops, a gun in his hands. "I've got the shot, sir," he calls.

Bobbi Morse has posed:
    "Fuuck me," Lars says as his eyes fall upon Grant Ward. He shakes his head and then looks back to Gonzales, "Not Peggy Carter. Sharon Carter.. look it doesn't matter just yet. There's a lot of things I could say right now that people shouldn't hear and things you wouldn't believe without proof."

    He takes a breath, "But I'll give you some proof if you just let us go to the rec room. And Agent Triplet is right. If this is is some bizarre trap, there's fewer people nearby to get hurt in there. But it's not a trap. This is a legitimate situation that is of the highest priority."

    The awkward gyrations he makes as he attempts to break the tie around his wrists indicates that even though he's been trained in how to do it, he's not had to do it in quite a long whiles. Eventually he does snap and he has impressed absolutely no one. "I promise, Director, full disclosure. You're going to want to hear all of this once I've shown you."

Carol Danvers has posed:
Carol squints a little bit down the hall at Ward. Then she looks casually at everyone all around her pointing guns at her and Lars. "I mean. We all know the zip cuffs weren't actually going to hold me at all right."

Still she isn't grabbing people and breaking guns and throwing Gonazales or Trip down the hallway into Grant. So this is definitely something right.

The snort from Mack gets him a look, I mean it is a knowing look. Like she agrees with his thought. Well maybe not the whole playing out some hidden agenda but ... the whole fact it is remarkable they aren't all on the ground bloody part.

There is another deep sigh. "Look. If Lars is a liar, I'll just assume that Rec Room 2 is Code for some sort of containment cell and we will have a good old throw down and people can be heros and all that. If there is something too all of this... he can.... tell you..." she pauses and just watches Lars.

Yeah okay she is speechless. HE just. The gyrating. "God... who trained you to do that Lars?"

Melinda May has posed:
Ward's stance never changes, his gun never wavers. Gonzales knows the specialist is better than anyone in the hallway -- save the Captain herself. He also knows Ward wouldn't have come out into the hallway unless they needed to buy extra time to fill another bus and get more people away. Probably the ones in medical.

So, he plays for time. "Fine, you want to go to Rec Room 2, let's go..." He doesn't tell Ward not to fire. But he doesn't give permission for him to do so, either. So the specialist is left to play things by ear. And the Commander -- the *Director* is trusting him to use his best judgement.

Thus, for the moment, it's a bit of a stand-off. But they do move in the direction Lars wants to go. Becaue, even Gonzales can see that the supposed SWORD agent is either incredibly inept or a grandmaster in disguise. He suspects the former, but is hedging against the latter.

Bobbi Morse has posed:
    Bus after bus is leaving. They're doing a good job. There's no way Lars could convince them not to leave. The purpose for this base may change drastically when they enter Rec Room 2. There's a few personal artefacts left behind by the people who were sleeping in this room. It used to be a martial arts practice room. The hooks to hold weapons still in the wall were being used to hang bags and clothing.

    Lars nods to the cupboard and says. "Alright... Carol, I'm going to go through first. I want you to see this isn't a trap or a trick. I'm going to disconnect. But before I go through - I want you to promise me you're going to follow. Okay?"

    He turns to look her in the eyes and does something he rarely does. He rests his hands on her shoulders. "It's okay to be afraid.. you taught me that. And you taught me how to get out of a those cuffs. You can yell at me about how bad I am with it later ya? This is it.. this is your way back to your real home with people who actually care about you. Oh and did I mention, you also have a cat?"

    He nods to Gonzales and says, "I promise you this'll be worth it. Don't shoot her when I'm gone.. this needs a peaceful resolution." He smiles and without any fear or hesitation, he opens the cupboard door. There's boxes in there, it's nothing special. People have been going in and out of it for weeks. But when he steps through, ... his body sort of .. digitises and disappears. Lars Anderson is somehow gone.

Carol Danvers has posed:
Honestly Carol looks about as skeptical about the whole situation as well. Not worried honestly. Skeptical. Her body has metabolized so much of the whiskey at this point she isn't three sheets any longer and is mostly just surly.

"And... Rec Room 2 is some sort of converted gym that looks like people are sleeping here. This is not what I expected. Have to admit." she looks around the room and steps further in.

"... I am pretty sure I did not teach someone how to Agent this badly." which is ironic, because she did totally show him the cuff trick a couple of times back outside the Framework. To be fair to Carol she was trying to show him how to do it right. Not the show she just had. A couple of times because he is bad at it. "I'm not really the pet owning type..."

Not like Goose is a normal Cat, but that is another story for SWORD at some point.

Then he is just stepping into the closet admist the boxes and .. digitizes. "The hell." she notes in surprise.

Okay she is honestly ready to be shot at, despite Lars begging them to not turn violent, this is the kind of thing that does tend to make people violent.

"Idiot..." is the next word out of her mouth and she twists and then steps towards the cupboard "Better not be a trap!"

Melinda May has posed:
In the Playground, to put it mildly, there's a great deal of confusion when first Lars and then Carol disappear -- though there's no way for anyone in the Sphere to see that commotion, since there's no one left there to be easy eyes and ears on the place.

In the pod chamber, however, there's also a great deal of confusion. Warning bells sound from the computer linkages Daisy installed for the SHIELD personnel. Her hacks are quite suddenly under considerable strain. McLaren scrambles to silence them and understand what's happening to the matrix, while Collingwood is torn between helping the awakening Lars and responding to the alarm on the biofeedback monitor hooked up to Captain Marvel's pod.

In the end, it's Captain Marvel's pod that wins her attention. She's there as the pod hisses open. The blue circuit patterns on Carol's skin begin to fade in color and microwires start pulling themselves out of the woman's skin, nerves, and muscle groups. The reality is, Carol is going to feel like she's got the worst hangover ever possibly experienced by a human being -- super metabolism or not. And those microwires will leave rash-like markings all over her skin for the next several days. The circuit board patterns on her skin, a pale pink as the blue fades, will also remain for a day or two.

She's lucky, though. Her body will heal those injuries a helluva lot faster than May or Peggy will. She and Morse. Still, as consciousness returns, Sarah Collingwood will be the first face she sees, the field agent trying to both pull her from the pod and out to safety and yet not ascerbate any injuries she may have. Because, really? Collingwood has no idea just how badly the woman may or may not be hurt. "Easy, Captain. I got you."

All she knows is that Jemma Simmons damned well better wake up out of her rig, soon. Because they need a *real* doctor on this. Not an S&R trained medic.

Bobbi Morse has posed:
    Lars gasps awake and pulls off the VR. He's disoriented. Coming out like that is not the same as the 'fall asleep' trick that were using before. And usually Collingwood is there to help each of them out of their framework experience. He stumbles up and grabs an arm from Agent Han.

    Stumbling over to the alarm sounds, he sees Carol coming out of the pod and the tall viking lets out a sigh of relief, "Thank Wodyn!." He says and leans against equipment. It might take Carol a while to readjust to normal life.. but the look on Lars's face is one of pure relief. "Carol. You made it home," he says.