The five finger, CPU and super strength discount

[Karima Shapandar]

{desc=Mid day, on a Saturday (OPEN)}Karima usually doesn't steal food for herself or her cat. Occasionally, she has enough money to actually buy what little food she needs to eat. Today though, she has finally run out of cat food and has gone long enough without getting any money from an odd job here or a hand out there that she needs to steal to feed her cat.

She is wearing a black duster that's just a little to big for her, it's usually closed, and keeps her gorgeous feminine curves and assets totally hidden. Under the duster she's wearing a simple pair of gym shorts and a tank top, tennis shoes that have seen better days and a bra that was given to her by a boy that 'barrowed it' from his ex girlfriend on Karima's behalf. Never mind the lack of style though, the main reason for the duster is to conceal all the weapons she's carrying around. The hand gun is holstered in a holster she bought in a pawn shop, the M16 has an old guitar strap keeping it swaying with her movements at her side under the jacket. The extra ammo for both is kept in a backpack on her back along with everything else she owns, which isn't much.

Her shoulder length brown hair is hanging at the sides of her face in a messy unkempt manor. Her face is speckled with grime and dirt, as is the rest of her, she looks about as homeless as she is. Still, she's very pretty. She never steals from big name retailers, or main thoroughfares, she sticks to off the beaten path places. Places that in reality, can't really afford it. At the end of the day, Karima always rationalizes prolonging the life of her cat statistically out weighs the marginal loss any business might suffer from her relieving them of a few cans of cat food.

So she approached a gas station that's privately owned, and does not have any kind of major brand name attached to it, save for the actual gasoline they sell. She walked inside and ignored everybody and everything. Her eyes down, but still, she saw everything, she heard everything. She knew there's a clerk in the cooler restocking the 20 ounce soda's, another one at the counter, and likely a third, a member of managerial staff, in the office. She noticed five camera's, three on the counter and two looking up four isles. The catfood is plainly visible to the camera, but Karima is fairly sure if she moves fast enough and precise enough, no one will even see anything. It always looks suspicious when you walk into a place, walk around, and leave without buying anything, but Karima had no choice.

At first, everything looks clear. She nabbed the cat food, pocketed it like a professional thief, and then headed for the door. But as she is pushing it open, the manager in the offices noticed she hadn't bought anything. He only noticed her at all because she's so pretty. He rewinds the tapes a bit, and watches her closely. That's when he saw it. He jumped out of his seat, swung the door open and shouted.

"Hey stop her! Thief!"

It was catfood! Did they really need to make such a big deal of it? Karima didn't really bother sticking around, one glance behind her is all she needed. She had pocketed three cans of cat food, one of them would now serve as a distraction. She tossed it at a display on the counter which held novelty ball caps, at the base, with exacting precision, which sent the entire thing tumbling directly into the path of the manager who was chasing after Karima. It was enough to slow him so she could run out the door unaccosted.

Unfortunately, when she got to the street, a cop began to drive by. She stops in the middle of the concrete lot where the gas pumps are located and begins to slow her progress. Rushing out of a gas station was just simply a dead give away. Especially since she calculated in around four point seven seconds, the manager would be past her minor diversion and out the door shouting after her.

True to the math of it, he was hauling ass out that door just as Karima had made it to the side walk. Shouting the whole way. New York is a pretty loud city, but a scene like that doesn't go unnoticed by New York's finest. The lights buz on and Karima stops. The solution was simple. Jump.

She eye's the nearest rooftop, crouches slightly, and leaps. The concrete cracks a little under the pressure she exerted as she escapes gravity for a breif time and sails through the air, almost like flying. Almost.

She lands out of sight and takes off, leaping from roof top to roof top. It would take a helicopter at this point to keep track of her, and she was almost certain one of those would not be called in for 'cat food' theft. She disliked using her extra human abilities in the public eye, but either way it was a winless situation. She was not interested in adding assault to theft, and the only other escape option was running away at 65 miles an hour. Up here, there's just less stuff in the way.

All the while, several blocks away, Karima's cat sits unassuming, grooming herself, watching some near by pigeons. Karima decided in advance to leash her to a pipe on top of a three story building. Keeping up with the cat is hard enough without doing illegal things. She'd return to claim it momentarily.

Of course the cop will call it in. He can't just not report an obvious super human related theft in New York. Soon enough there will probably be a tabloid news paper article about it.

Somebody with keener abilities that a beat cop might be able to follow Karima from the street though, she isn't going faster than she needs to, and it's mostly the whole jumping 45 feet at a time that's probably a little unnerving. Still, not many eye witnesses in the Bronx that are watching the roof tops.




She made her way roughly four blocks south and hid. She used every sense she has but her sense of sight to scan the area for any pursuers and when she found there are an acceptable lack of them. She returned to her roof top jumping movements.

She quickly returned to the roof top where she left her cat, who is by this point, quite starved. She landed with a thud and the cat perked noticeably, pouncing from it's perch to move as close as the leash will allow it to towards Karima.

Karima removed a can of cat food from the pocket in her duster with her left hand, while her right index finger grew a small claw. She used this silvery metal claw to tear open the cat food and then set it down before her cat, who she pet as the cat ate. After a few moments of petting the cat, She stood and moved over towards the nearest wall, which is part of a small structure protruding from the roof which houses the stairs that lead up to it.


She leaned against the wall and slid down. The butt of the M16 connected with the concrete and made a slight tekat sound. Her duster ruffled and spread, opening to reveal sparse glimpses of her figure. Her legs spread, knees bent, elbows on her knees with her hands crossed and her head leaned back against the wall. Her bare thighs are silky smooth, perfect, petite knee's, thin ankles, worn out tennis shoes, ankle socks.

She made no effort to hide the assault rifle, there's no one else up here and she'd hear any one coming long before they got there. Early reconnaissance of course would see the weapon, but Karima wasn't worried about that. She is staring blankly ahead, but her eyes see a great deal more than the rustic skyline of the bronx. She's also surfing the web on a hijacked 4G internet connection. A few of them actually, interlaced together to give truly impressive amounts of bandwidth. She's covering her digital feet of course, no one would know she was even siphoning the bandwidth. It would take a skilled technical analysis to track it down, and even then, they'd probably still not be able to get a lock on her GPS location. The bandwidth would simply be in a void. Nearest tracking would be by cell tower only.

She's also monitoring Police scanners. She knew the cop she encountered called the incident in. She knew they were looking for her, but a girl in a long coat with brown hair and brown eyes are quite a lacking description. Again, she was not worried.

She wont move from this place for awhile. Not one bit, actually. She is barely breathing, she does not twitch, she does not even blink, she does not fidget, or squirm, she is suddenly a statue. The cat eventually moves over to her and curls up between her legs and falls asleep with a nice full belly. After a few long moments, Karima reached her hand down to pet the cat, but made no other movements. Not any. Quite uncanny.

She'll be here in this place for the next few hours.

[Cheryl Harrison]

Cheryl had been in the gym when she got the call. She had a recruitment to do, apparently. Mr. Stark had spotted some girl shoplifting from a gas station where he was filling up, and then witnessed her jump onto the roof of a building. Not exactly a normal kid. Normally, something like that would be simple police matters, even if a mutant was involved, but Stark had decided to get involved personally. Paid for the stolen items and everything. But since he was too important and busy to track the girl down, someone else had to go find her.

Cheryl was a little annoyed that her gym time was cut into by something so minor, but recruitment was still recruitment. Besides, she had been stealing cat food. Not really a sign that this girl was some master criminal. She was probably just some homeless girl that happened to be a mutant. Granted, Cheryl couldn’t exactly say that she was a fan of theft under any circumstances, but it was probably just a matter of desperation. If that was the case, then the Tanks would be more than willing to offer her a stable job and a place to stay. That was where Cheryl came in. She’d done more recruitment than anyone else in the Tank program, on account of her personality and public presence. Cheryl didn’t mind, really. It was one of her favorite parts of the job. There was very little that was ethically questionable about meeting people and helping them.

And if this turned out to be more than just some homeless girl...well, that was were Cliff came in. With their combined abilities, he and Cheryl were easily the strongest team the Tanks had to offer. If this turned out to be a not-so-friendly visit, they were still the best to handle it. Cheryl hoped it wouldn’t come to that, though. As far as they knew, this wasn’t some hardened criminal or international terrorist. If Mr. Stark’s account had been correct, then this mutant was pretty young. Besides, she seemed to be a cat person. How bad could she be?

About a half-hour after Mr. Stark had called in the theft, Cheryl and Cliff stood outside of an abandoned building, waiting for confirmation from SHIELD. The few pedestrians on the street were giving them a wide berth. One of the downsides of their uniforms. The building itself was three stories, and had obviously been abandoned for a while; although the front door was boarded over, most of the windows on the first floor were broken. There were only a few spots where the brickwork wasn’t covered in graffiti. She couldn’t hear or see any signs of someone inside, but that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. It meant this girl was probably alone. Maybe she was preoccupied. Or she was hiding and waiting.

A voice came in through her earpiece. “That’s the place. Satellites have a steady view of someone on the roof, but there’s no visuals on the interior. Police have been called off. “

Cheryl sent back a quick confirmation before glancing to Cliff. It was time to do this. If the girl was still on the roof—and had super jumping abilities—then there was no real way to get to her quickly, or make sure she didn’t flee again. Hopefully she’d be willing to stay and talk. Cheryl really didn’t feel like chasing down someone with super-jumping just to try to recruit them. Instead of breaking down the front door, she picked an already-broken window to vault through. The interior was dusty, but showed a few signs of somewhat recent human activity. Broken bottles, namely. “Hello?” she called out loudly, voice echoing through the building. She really hoped she’d get a response that didn’t involve chasing.

[Karima Shapandar]

Karima's minds eye was a deep and vast thing. It wasn't simply a heads up display inside her eyes, she had that, but it was more then that. She could read information like human beings read text, except she can read it a lot faster pace. Generally speaking, visual modes of communication are extremely inefficient. Karima can view web pages at the speed of light, she can communicate at the speed of light, and think at the speed of light. She was browsing about two hundred different web pages when her advanced sense of hearing picked up an early warning for potential danger.

First it was the subtle whine of car breaks, car doors. That was the first indicator she'd been followed. But close to a hundred other processes began launching in the same moment. She noticed radio signals and immediately piggy backed them. She heard the communication sent to the agent's ear piece down below, and then arched her head, to look head upwards.

Karima has impressive zoom on her eyes, two hundred times magnification, but with the way the light strikes the atmosphere, and the lens flare from the sun, she can't clearly see the satellite that's spying on her. It was foolish of her to assume such a thing wasn't likely to happen.

Still the same, she'd figure out where it was and have it disrupted in short order. She followed the radio signal to it's source, then followed that source back to the Shield mainframes. That's where she hit a sizable brick wall. Hacking into shield's front end would take even her time, especially on such a limited bandwidth connection. She abandoned the effort in short order and went on the offensive.

At the same time as all the previous was taking place, she was also picking up two individual GPS and radio signals coming from each agent, signals that she herself had never felt before. She's used to seeing cell phone, blu tooth, radio and various other broad band wireless communications jumping through the air like wind. She can see it when she needs to, otherwise, it's just one of her many extra sensors, she notices it, analyzes it, discards it if needed, or attempts to acquire more information if needed.

The connection in these chips were different though. She followed the connection to their source in both directions, back to shield mainframes, and to the little implants in each of the agent's heads. She knew right away she wasn't dealing with Sentinel, but shield could very well be acting on Sentinel's behalf. It's unlikely, but still possible, she knew the department of Sentinel that had been responsible for her creation was illegal and off the books, and thus were obviously not shy about spinning lies and telling tales to get what they want done. Sending Shield agents would've been something Karima herself would do, it was logical, why risk a resource when you can risk some one else's.

But beyond that, there was something very special about these chips. Karima stared down through the building, she couldn't see with any sort of x-ray vision, but she can see biorhythmic patterns with her infrared sensors. Body heat, pulse, blood pressure, heart rate, vague amounts of neural activity. The chip only amplified this extra sensor perception, as it was feeding a sort of real time information itself, which Karima could integrate into her own senses to enhance them.

These chips weren't all together nefarious, but they informed Karima of a few discrete and important details. She was dealing with mutants, extremely powerful mutants. And these mutants are on a leash. She would need to be exceptionally careful in the following seconds.

Still, all before Cheryl has time to utter the word 'Hello' Karima has piggy backed on the encrypted transmission being sent from the chip in her own head back to Shield Mainframes, and used it for backdoor access. After she was in, narrowing down the internal cell responsible for monitoring her was simple.

Just as Cheryl was speaking her greeting, Karima stood, her advanced cybernetic mind in a full tilt flurry of activity. She couldn't be tracked, she wouldn't go back, and as a machine, she has no qualms about acting relentlessly and to the fullest of her ability. She wont kill any one, in fact, she would go out of her way to ensure no one died, but that wont stop her from being the monster of efficiency that she truly is.

All at once, the satellite feed to the shield helicarrior will die, the satellite itself will become utterly unresponsive to Shield Agents. Both mutants down stairs will find their powers no longer work at all and any connection Shield has to those chips in their heads will be severed. Voice communication to their ear pieces wont be disrupted, as Karima lacks the ability to jam radio signals, but back on the Hellicarrior, both agents will appear to be dead or at least, what ever OFFLINE might stand for, according to their implant monitoring software.

At the same time, Karima untied the leash her cat was fastened by, and picked up Esha, her scruffy pet tabby cat, and then moved towards the ledge of the building. She doesn't waste time, she knows that after the black out she's just issued, the hammer will come down fast and hard. She has calculated that by putting the agents in a situation beyond their control, they will feel desperate enough to tell the truth, especially after she tells them what she intends to say. She is utterly rutheless.

She leaps from the building and lands with a thud that leaves a spider-web pattern of cracks in the concrete sidewalk she just landed on. She turned around quickly, faster than a human could at least, dropped her cat, which is leashed to her backpack, and thus unable to run far, while pulling both guns.

"I mean you no harm, but you must understand, I will not allow you to take me prisoner. I have taken control of your mutant abilities via the circuitry installed inside you. If you do not cooperate, I will detonate Cheryl Harrison's abilities and level this city block."

The threat was a bluff, but there's no way they would know that and Karima is counting on it. Fortunately, she understands shield operates on a selection of protocols and rules, Something Sentinel does not, or rather, does, but is less interested in the personal safety of civilians. If indeed sentinel did manipulate shield into coming for her, it was a mistake.

Her demeanor is empty, she makes no movements other than those that she needs to make, she does not twitch, fidget or sweat, she does not blink. Her tone of voice is full of volume, it is not subtle, it's as loud as it needs to be, but lacks inflection. There's something subtly uncanny valley about her. Something mechanical.

[Cheryl Harrison]

For a second, there was silence. No sign of the girl, and no immediate reply. Hmm, looked like they would need to actually go up to the roof. The stairs looked like they were about to fall apart; hopefully they’d hold Cliff’s weight. Cheryl grinned to herself at that thought, and began walking towards them. That’s what he’d get for skipping out on her late-night gym sessions.

There was another voice coming through her earpiece now. “What the hell’s going on down there?”

Huh? What was that supposed to mean? Cheryl stopped. “Nothing,” she replied, now thoroughly puzzled. “Just initiating contact. No resp—“ A loud thud from outside the building made Cheryl cut off, and she whirled around to face it. Oh hey, the girl. The briefing hadn’t mentioned that she was pretty. And…she was armed. Okay, so that wasn’t the best way to start this conversation. Cheryl was many things, but bulletproof wasn’t one of them. She reached for her powers, ready to make a heat shield, and froze. Oh no. Not again. SHIELD had cut off access to her powers on a mission about a month back, but that had been justified. She knew that she’d been cleared for power use this time.

The girl’s warning a second later explained what had happened. She could do that?! Cheryl stumbled a step back, and shot Cliff a panicked, helpless look. What had she done? They hadn’t threatened the girl at all. They were just here to talk, and now they were both going to die here. This was supposed to be a homeless girl, not…a terrorist, or something. None of her training had covered what to do when her powers were used against her. She didn’t even know that was possible. This couldn’t be happening. Losing control had been bad enough in a rural area. If her powers were set off at full here, there would be thousands dead, and many more with radiation sickness. The entire city would probably need to be evacuated.

A memory flashed through her head. Cheryl had just turned eleven, and was surrounded by glassy slag and fine ash. There were dark outlines of humans and equines along a stone wall, but no actual corpses. They had disintegrated immediately, filing the air with the smoke that she was now breathing. Farther away, she could see a dark row of pillars where a forest had stood. The worst part was the silence. She had destroyed everything she’d known and loved. And unless Cliff managed some kind of miracle, it was about to happen again.

There was shouting through her earpiece, but Cheryl could barely hear it, much less make out any words. The buzzing in her ears was drowning it out. She needed to get out of here. She glanced around, trying to find another exit, but found that the only ways out would go straight towards the girl threatening them. No escape. She trembled, finding herself frozen in place. Her lungs weren’t taking in nearly enough oxygen, and she found herself gasping for air. Years of training and therapy were useless now. Mandan was about to happen again, and there was absolutely nothing she could do to prevent it.

[Cliff Hale]

Cliff Hale was used to these recruiting. Though he was usually required to sit back and let Cheryl do the talking, while he just pulled some half-assed excuse of SHIELD protocols requiring two agents at the scene. He found them boring and though Cheryl was a good talker most mutants just walked away or joined SHIELD as either Avengers, or agents, not that he could blame them. The process for getting the chip implanted was complicated and for him required two 6 hour surgeries. One for getting the chip in and making sure it wouldn't kill him. The other to actually get the chip to work with his powers.

As they approached the building Cliff was reading the latest issue of Guns & Ammo trying to ignore Cheryl's usual preparation where she talked in a mirror for some time making sure everything sounded perfect. The magazine did have a nice review of America's ban on guns, which made Cliff really happy that he was Canadian, and not dealing with American politics.

Then they finally reached the building, a big three story abandoned apartment building. Cliff immediately looked around the building, but even an entire entry team wouldn't be able to secure all the exits from this place, especially if she could simply jump through the roof to escape them. He decided to enter with Cheryl, but not in the same manor, he saw that the door was already crumbling so a quick hard push made the door break down easily. If the mutant didn't know that they were here from Cheryl's greeting, that was sure to get their attention. That was also when things went wrong and Cliff lost contact to his powers. And his earpiece was buzzing with everyone trying to talk at once about the problem. Before Cliff could call for help the one they were looking for was right in front and boy was she pretty, by the look of her Cliff thought she might be from the middle east. But even beautiful people could be deadly and she was threatening to blow the city. He noticed now that Cheryl was very worried about what could happen, he knew her story, killing everything she loved in one fell swoop. Could he use that to their advantage? It was a long shot but right now they didn't have a choice. "We aren't here to take you prisoner, we are here to offer you a job. You are a high level techno-path and scared, we can help you, but only if you want it." It was shaky at best and would get them killed at worst, though he was curious why she wasn't concerned about herself, surely she wouldn't want to turn to dust, but maybe she was suicidal. Cliff would have to figure out why she wasn't concerned but at a later time. Fury words of advice rang through his head right now "One crisis at a time, but always look for a weak spot."

[Karima Shapandar]

Cliff's logical conclusion was the only fallacy in Karima's argument, but it was a calculated risk. She had assumed that the agents would be so panicked by losing control of their powers, and by Karima's threat, that they would be unable to call her bluff. Her strategy had been exceedingly effective on the female agent, she was stricken with terror. The male agent kept his cool, and that bothered Karima a little. It could be a trick, but Karima was not interested in making war or killing people, if they weren't here with a gigantic EMP or some kind of high tech titanium alloy faraday cage, then she had nothing to worry about. As she began speaking, she piggy backed off the Agent's ear pieces so that all of the Shield agent's monitoring their specific frequency could hear her speak as if she had an ear piece herself.

"If that is true, than I am in dire need of your help."

Karima admitted, before she released the handle on both of her guns, offering the assault rifle to cliff and the hand gun to Cheryl. They were in completely neutral positions, all the two agents need do is reach out and take the guns that now hung by the trigger finger on each of Karima's hands. Additionally, the satellite feed back at Shield would be restored, and both mutants would find their powers restored.

"I have reprogrammed the chips in your heads to prevent further incidences of the exploit I just used to gain entry. Additionally, Shield will no longer be able to amplify your powers on command, nor will any one, I have disabled the feature locally. While we spoke I read the technical specs I found on Shield mainframes for the chips in your head, they allow for full control, both amplification and deamplification. If there are any other mutants with these chips installed, you should see your supervisor and request the feature to over load your powers be removed. I believe it is in violation of several of their human resources policies."

She said this while she was looking at Cheryl. She couldn't be empathetic, she had no way of doing such a thing, but she could see the girl was terrified, she had at least that much knowledge of human expression. The classified case files contained detailed information about the feature, and so Karima knew that they did not know about it. As soon as she was done informing them that what just happened can never happen again, she turned to look more directly at Cliff.

"I am not a technopath, I am a cybernetic organism comprised of 73% mechanical robotics and cybernetics and 27% organics. I was created by Sentinel as a part of their contingency operation number three subdivision. You haven't heard of this subdivision because it is illegal and off the books. I escaped several months ago and have been biding my time, waiting for the right opportunity to come forward. I calculate that this is that opportunity. My code name and project file was titled Omega Sentinel, and their original intent was to employ me against high volatility risk mutant profiles. I am also a prototype meant for mass production that could be employed to wipe out all mutant life, should it be required. The project was far from completion how ever as I escaped long before they could finish, without me, the project file will likely be closed and abandoned."

As she spoke, the frantic cat finally began to calm down and moved closer to Karima, it had until this point been trying to get away from all the violence. Karima then leaned down and picked the cat up, and held it tenderly in her arms, and petted it. The cat's purring could be audibly heard, it's still small, not fully grown, she must have found it when it was a kitten and has been caring for it ever since.

She looks down at the cat after she finishes speaking, she knows that they will probably take the cat away from her, and that she will be subjected to a wide range of testing, and kept in a cell and under heavy lock and key until they can determine the authenticity of her story and confirm she can be trusted. Some where, deep in her mind, lost to a messy mix of code, this saddened Karima, greatly. But on the surface, she couldn't understand that sadness, the emotional response did not compute, and so for a brief moment, a split second, she might've looked affectionately, and sadly at the cat, but the expression faded quickly, an anomaly in her code that was quickly corrected.

"I submit to what ever judgment you deem fit. I have calculated that you are in fact not being manipulated by Sentinel to return me to their custody. I have broken 29 laws, 15 of which are federal. Please ensure that this cat is given a good home, her name is Esha, after my mother."

The last line was spoken while she looked directly at Cheryl, as if she was trusting this task to the girl alone. There's not a single ounce of emotional expression on her face, her tone of voice was flat, absolutely dead pan, but the words that came out, just their arrangement, the vocabulary itself seemed to be softly colored with sadness. If she indeed was a machine, the subtle nuances here and there might lead a person to believe there's still a person in there.

The reprogramming job she did on the chips inside the agent's heads was nothing short of bafflingly beautiful. Karima saw code like the operators in the matrix saw code, she could pluck it out, rearrange it, replace it. She did not need a compiler and decompiler, she simply conceived the code, and it was written. For her, writing a piece of software is as simple as having a thought. The new software was easily ten times more efficient, it retained complete functionality with the exception of the over load feature. Any hardware associated with that feature had simply been cut off in the code, there was no driver for it. The command would be sent, but the device simply wouldn't receive it. Additionally, if any of their technicians attempted to analyze the software, they'd find that they simply cannot decompile it. It's written in a base number system unlike any on earth. Naturally, if asked, Karima could simply undo the rewrite with a simple thought. Otherwise It would take a mind like Reed Richards, Tony Stark or Forge to analyze and break down the code in order to learn how they could return the software inside the chips to their original state.

[Cheryl Harrison]

Cheryl couldn’t think. She could feel her heart beating in her chest, and her lungs burned. She was distantly aware that Cliff was talking to the girl, but the roaring in her ears masked his voice, and her overwhelming desire to get away overrode any other coherent thoughts. She was trapped here. There was no way to get somewhere safe before detonating, but Cliff still had his sidearm. If she could get to it, then maybe she could make sure the city stayed safe. Cheryl couldn’t do that to Cliff, though. He would blame himself, even if it was the best option.

Whatever Cliff had done, it seemed to have worked. The girl was holding out her weapons towards them, and saying something. Cheryl was hardly in the right frame of mind to listen, but whatever it was, it made the voices through her earpiece go quiet. She felt her access to her powers return a second later. Okay. They were okay. New York wasn’t going to be nuked. They were safe. Cheryl took a deep, shaky breath, trying to calm herself. It wasn’t very successful. If this girl wasn’t bluffing, that had been far too close. Could her powers be used without her consent? Would the girl have even done it? It would have killed her and Cliff in the process. Without access to his powers, he’d be just as vulnerable as any normal human.

After a few moments of hesitation, Cheryl stepped forward to take the girl’s pistol. She retreated to a safe distance once again, keeping a wary eye on Karima. Even if the girl was surrendering, or…something, Cheryl still wasn’t about to trust her. That threat wasn’t the sort of thing that could easily be forgiven. She’d put the entire city in danger. Her hands were still shaking enough to make removing the magazine difficult, but after a few tries she managed. Not that it mattered much. If this girl could access Cheryl’s powers whenever she felt like it, she had a weapon far more intimidating than a pistol.

The girl was still saying…words, but they weren’t really forming coherent sentences in Cheryl’s head. Something about Sentinels. The adrenaline was starting to wear off, leaving her feeling worn and sick to her stomach. She wanted nothing more than to just get out of here; to find some nice, secluded place to finish having her breakdown. Somewhere far away from this girl. Even now, with the threat of imminent destruction passed, Cheryl was still freaked out by her. She was just…weird. Robotic. But this wasn’t over yet, and she still had work to do. As much as she hated it, her sense of duty overrode her personal feelings. She couldn’t abandon Cliff, and they definitely couldn’t let this girl walk away.

The girl was turning herself in. That was good, wasn’t it? Cheryl wanted as little to do with her as possible, but it wasn’t like they could just let Karima walk away. She looked back to Cliff, hoping he’d continue to take the lead. She didn’t trust herself to talk right now, and he was doing just find taking the lead. It was then that the girl seemed to offer up her cat to Cheryl. She stared back cautiously, but made no move to take it. A cat. What was she even supposed to do with a cat? The last time someone had given her an animal, it ended poorly. At least this one wasn’t a pony.

“All right. Orders from on high are to take her in. And be nice about it.”

Wait, take in the girl, or the cat?

[Cliff Hale]

Cliff was surprised that the girl actually backed down and was giving them her guns. He had expected her to run or possibly just not believe them, not that he wasn't glad that the tense situation was over. Cliff Hale took the long gun from her and placed it on his back with practiced ease making sure that the muzzle was in a safe direction. Cliff moved over to Cheryl keeping an eye on the model, "Are you okay?" was all that Cliff could ask right now. He knew that Cheryl would probably want to talk about it, but not now, now they needed to secure the girl for everyone's safety. Then something very surprising happened, the girl told them that she was in fact a cyborg and was created by Sentinel and her name is Omega Sentinel.

Clips from the movie The Terminator flowed through Cliff's head. Though he didn't see movies often, his father took him to see that one at fourteen and easily got him into the theater. They both left the movie thankful that they knew how to live secluded in the woods and avoid being detected. Cliff hated technology ever since, hell he didn't even trust the SHIELD issue cell phone in case it decided to try and fry his hand off.

Then Omega told them that she had committed almost thirty laws since she escaped Sentinel, and was ready for punishment, though she wished that the cat would have a good home. Cliff simply nodded and waited for the order to bring Omega to the Helicarrier. Cliff simply said "Okay, we'll fly you to a holding cell until we can have someone take a look at you, then you will be given some options and possibly a visit from Director Fury, your cat will be in good hands Cheryl and Dr. Bannor will tend to its every need." Cliff then called in for a shuttle for transport, there was no need for restraints if what she said was true then she could break them and escape easily. SHIELD would be putting a lot of trust into this one.

[Karima Shapandar]

Karima was pleased by the developments, though she did not smile or even raise her eyebrows, she was disarmed, and she could already see based on wireless communications that a small detachment of SHIELD agents and specialists were en route. Wasted resources. Karima realizes in retrospect that her reaction to the agents may have been to strong. But at the time it had just made logical since. Least effort, maximum results. But there had been collateral damage. She looked at Cheryl very intensely. Not that she was focused on her, but the dead flat pan emotionless demeanor left her with a stare that seemed to burn into a person. In reality, she was simply analyzing Cheryl's biosigns. She could see the girl had most likely just suffered from an extremely potent panic attack.

"A low band frequency 20 millivolt EMP will temporarily disable me. I believe your mutant abilities, Agent Harrison, can produce such an EMP. Put your hand on my forehead and localize it to the area of my head and chest if you are able and it will disable me without disabling your communications. An EMP of that magnitude will disable me for ten minutes. Simply repeat the process nine minutes from now to ensure I remain disabled. I will not sustain any permanent damage from this process."

She didn't take a step towards Cheryl, knowing full well the girl would feel further threatened. In retrospect, Karima wondered why she had even made the offer. She had no intention of resisting them, she would give full cooperation, disabling her further would be a waste of energy. What Karima did not know was that it was a blast of remorse and guilt from the emotional centers of the little remaining organic parts of her brain she still had. The emotional response was quickly corrected and shut down by the logic centers of her brain, but not before it could set into motion a series of events that would ultimately lead to the suggestion Karima made. On the surface, it baffled her, but deep down, she felt better for saying it.

If or rather when Cheryl hits Karima with the EMP, her eyes will widen and her voice with crackle like a speaker that's been blown out, then it will make a noise like you might hear on a record that's being played backwards at a high speed, high pitched squeeling like noise. At the same time, she'll immediately begin to collapse, and then simply fall into the floor in a unconscious heap. The percussion of her fall will not be slight. She will thud like you might expect a brick wrapped in a blanket to. She is extremely heavy, and if either Agent attempts to catch her, they will realize this quickly. She weighs in at just under 400 pounds, despite appearing as if she might weigh closer to 120.

[Cheryl Harrison]

Cheryl didn't answer Cliff's question. She couldn't. An honest answer might just make her go back into a panic attack, and she didn't need him worrying about her right now. Let him focus on the cyborg who had just undergone a personality flip. Cheryl would be okay. Eventually. Right now, at least, she wasn't the one threatening to blow up the city. The best thing her partner could do right now was focus on the threat while she collected herself. She could talk about this with him later, when they weren't in immediate danger. Definitely when half of SHIELD wasn't listening in through their earpieces. Were they still broadcasting? She wasn't sure. The chatter on the other end had nearly stopped.

The girl told them a way to disable her, and Cheryl glanced back at Cliff for confirmation before stepping forward. She didn't really like the idea of getting any closer to the cyborg, but she liked the idea of having it arrive at SHIELD awake and able to take over their systems even less. This was probably the best option. As a precaution, Cheryl removed her earpiece and set it down. She wasn't about to trust the cyborg's judgment on that particular matter; without Cliff's assistance, directing her powers once they were external was somewhat problematic. She was, at least, fairly experienced with creating EMPs, and excellent at controlling her output. Releasing something close to 20 millivolts would be easy enough.

Reluctantly Cheryl approached the cyborg, disintigrating a tiny amount of the air in front of her The resulting rush of power would be plenty for an EMP. She'd probably have some energy left over, but Cheryl had a feeling she'd be spending her night in the gym, anyway. She'd need to harass a punching bag for a while after this. Bringing one hand up to the cyborg's chest and the other to her head, Cheryl released the EMP. The immediate noise in response was enough to make her jump back, but once it was clear that Omega Sentinel was staying down, she once again glanced back to Cliff. It was time to get this thing somewhere secure.

[Cliff Hale]

It was nice that Omega would be captured without a struggle but the fact that she actually gave them a way to disable her surprised Cliff Hale. Though he was hoping for a bit easier time trying to drag the hulk of metal and wires. He called a jet explaining their situation and in five minutes the jet arrived along with a way for them to winch the unconscious girl up into the air. Cliff made sure that he was last on the jet and climbed in and took a seat. It would a long ride back to the Helicarrier.

[Karima Shapandar]

[[You two can continue for a few more posts if you want, but I'm guessing Omega is done in this thread, fun thread!]]