Bob’s Burger Bistro was said to be one those standards of burger excellence in New York City. A bit eccentric in some places (particularly with the copious amounts of burger specials named after puns) but it was still the it place for the community. It was a small place, though, with seating for only a handful of people on the inside, however the fenced off patio dining area helped to expand the load the restaurant could handle. This was clearly a popular place for lunch but the other reason why this particular location was chosen was for the simple fact that it offered the perfect vantage point.

SUPER made it its business to keep an eye on potential assets. In this case, the asset was a young man, an eighteen year-old college student by the name of Samantha “Sammy” Gregors. She was a mutant, a psychic, telekinetic to be precise. Her powers had developed during a frat party where a couple of guys tried to get fresh with her. Cornered and scared, Sammy lashed out and sent out a telekinetic whirlwind that decimated the room. Luckily no one was killed, but plenty had been shaken up and at least one of the kids ran to tell their parents, who just so happened to have friends in the government who passed the information along to SUPER.

Without her knowledge, within a week of the incident, the young blonde had been tagged, injected with a tracker after she climbed into bed. SUPER should have brought her in right then and there but given how powerful her abilities could potentially get, they wanted to try to long road first. She would be courted, when the time was right, and only if she refused would they have to break out the big guns. So, instead, she was merely under surveillance. Also it was to quell the higher ups, just in case she lost control again, they would rather that SUPER would be there to contain the situation.

Sammy worked in a coffee shop, one that just happened to be across the street from Bob’s Burger Bistro. The shop was small, standing room only, but with large windows so it made it quite easy to look inside, especially from the Bistro’s patio.

Sitting at one of the outdoor tables, a large, bulky man with flaming red hair and a magnificent, full bear sat with a burger and fries sitting before him. He was dressed in a black suit and tie, reflective sunglasses sitting on the bridge of his nose. Despite the messiness of his Look-On-The-Sunny-Side-Up Burger (hamburger with a fried egg on it), he was relatively clean. Even his beard didn’t suffer from the shrapnel of his meal. Instead he chewed thoughtfully as he rubbed the salt off his fingertips and glanced over to his comrade.

She was smaller than him, blonde, very beautiful. Anyone passing by may have assumed that this was a man and his daughter or niece, or one of those May / December romances. However it couldn’t be farther from the truth, as this was a new recruit for SUPER. Iota-Nine had been doing…well…so far. Of course, being from the other side of the dimensional vortex and coerced into joining SUPER for her abilities, it would make her a bit…punchy. However slowly she seemed to be getting the picture – at least enough for his superiors to believe that she could partake in a small, low-risk field assignment.

Besides, if she tried anything, she wasn’t going to get very far.

Plucking up his cup of soda, he took a sip from his Cherry Cola before he shook his head and glanced to the blonde next to him. He was intent to get her honest opinion on a matter that extremely important to him. ”I still say you’re wrong. Red Spider can kick Yessica Yones’ butt.” He grinned, tapping his nose. ”Never underestimate the power for a ginger.”

All of Sveta's hopes of escaping on her first field mission flew out her nonexistent window the same moment this ginger cave bear of a man entered through the door. He was human, as far as she could tell, but even without powers, she knew she would not stand a chance. Training or not, she would bounce off the guy in a very painful way if she tried to throw a punch. Sveta sighed and followed along, deflated, as he led her out of the facility.
At least the weather was nice.

All she knew was that they were keeping someone under surveillance. From what she could tell, it was a young girl, on SUPER's radar, but not recruited yet. Sveta, naturally, felt sorry for the kid, and wanted to tell her to run... but however they were tracking her, spooking her would just make the agents to drag her in by force, like they had done with Sveta. So she kept her sullen silence, munching on a ridiculously overstuffed burger, and let the ginger giant speak.

>>”I still say you’re wrong. Red Spider and kick Yessica Yones’ butt. Never underestimate the power for a ginger.”

"She has no power." Sveta pointed out, based on her vague knowledge of fictional superheroes. She was not at all interested in the thought exercise, but the guy kept trying to get a reaction out of her. And at least he was not trying to brainwash her or anything. At the moment. "Is it company policy to dress so obviously like a secret agent, or is it your own style?"

Sveta was wearing black too, her new wardrobe's dominant color; it was all clean and practical, and at least they did not make her wear boots with heels.
Unlike they did Red Spider.

Iota-Nine was a chip off the ole ice block. Kristoph knew she and Sabine had a training session together so maybe a bit of his partner had rubbed off on the blonde (heh), or maybe she was just still trying to get used to the fact that she was essentially being used as a weapon against her fellow mutants. Needless to say, he perfectly understood why she was being frosty to him. Still, he had hopes that his charm and demeanor would be enough to at least earn him a smile from the pretty blonde. She maybe a coerced recruitee but that didn’t mean that he could flirt a little.

Sitting back in his chair, one leg crossed over the other, he picked up his drink again for another sip. He had been trying to make polite conversation with her since they got out here, mainly because he didn’t really believe that he needed to scare her into submission. He was sure that she wanted to run, despite how good she was being, but where would she go? The only people she knew in this dimension all worked for SUPER and with eyes on the portal already, she wasn’t going to get within one hundred feet of it.

Besides, she was already tagged so she definitely wasn’t going to run off and hide in the world. Even if she managed to get away, there was no way she would last longer than thirty minutes. SUPER was extremely effective in that regard and she would be scooped back into the fold soon enough. The only tragedy is that, if she proved herself unreliable here, well, there would be no other chose than to let the company psychics have a whack at her. It was a sad but a necessary contingency.

His mind return to the conversation as he picked up his massive burger and took another bite of it. He had been trying to draw her out with talk, namely about a pair of his favorite, femme fatale superheroines. As amazing as Yessica Yones was, Red Spider had way more training and experience dealing with the powered types. Honestly he wasn’t so sure he didn’t just like the character because she reminded him of a redheaded SUPER agent.

Huh…he wondered if that meant she was just a female version of himse--

>> "She has no power."

He turned back to the woman and smirked a bit. Shaking his head, he took in another pair of fries and munched on them thoughtfully as he took her comment under consideration. At least she was finally engaging.

”Powers aren’t everything,” he said with a sly grin and then sighed. ”I guess that’s just art imitating life.”

Silence descended upon them again. Lifting his gaze, he looked across the way towards the café. The young woman they were watching had stepped into view, delivering coffee orders to a couple of people who were waiting near the closest window to the street. She had a happy, practiced smile on her lips and, for the most part, looked no different than anyone else. It only those people whom she trusted, and of course SUPER, that knew precisely what she was.

>>"Is it company policy to dress so obviously like a secret agent, or is it your own style?"

He turned his head towards Iota-Nine and grinned a wide grin. With his large beard it only made it stretch and look fuller than it did before. ”Nothing obvious about my clothing at all,” he said with a dismissive wave. ”Besides..." he smiled. "...I'm sure that people would much rather pay attention to you than me."

>>”Powers aren’t everything... I guess that’s just art imitating life.”

Sveta rolled her eyes. He was not wrong... she was a mutant, with powers that were stunningly strong, and yet also completely useless on their own. She was a force to be reckoned with, but her mutation did not help her survive (quite the opposite, most of the time), and everything else she knew, the tactics and the fighting styles, came from training and hard work. Powerful mutant or not, this guy would have take a whole ten seconds to knock her down if needed. It was almost more frustrating this way, than if she had not had any powers at all. At least in that case she would be left alone...

She glanced at the girl at the coffee shop. Did she know the danger she was in? Did she realize how valuable her abilities were?... Did she spot the guy in the suit across the street?

>>”Nothing obvious about my clothing at all. Besides... I'm sure that people would much rather pay attention to you than me."

Sveta rolled her eyes again. "Look, I've done the whole undercover ops thing before. I don't need training wheels. And I don't think you brought me along for people to look at me." Better not have, anyway.

Kristoph was actually enjoying this. Not only for the fact that he got to sit next to an extremely attractive woman, but, also, because he liked to work with the new recruits. They still had that bit of fight and sass in them to try and make things difficult. However he was not a man who was easily put off by such things. He had a charming attitude, a ginger bear like smile, and more often than not, that actually worked to quell the fears of the newbies. It was effective at least…seventy-five percent of the time. Of course, there was that small number who held on tight to their beliefs that they would get out. Those were the ones that made him sad because he knew that the only way out of SUPER was either with compliance or forced compliance.

Svetlana, as she stubbornly refused to be called by her handle, was quiet for the most part but at least she wasn’t trying to starve herself. Even if her appetite was almost nonexistent, she still picked at her food often enough to keep herself alive and fit. He’d seen people try to starve themselves but the blonde, well, at the moment she was just a stubborn child trying to not eat her veggies. But she would…eventually.

At his comment about why Red Spider could defeat Yessica, she rolled her eyes and the man grinned. He could see that she understood he had a point. Powers weren’t everything in this world and SUPER was the reminder of that. There were many uber powerful mutants that these agents had been able to take down, against every odd imaginable. They were a living example that power didn’t meant everything.

Observing the blonde across the street, Kristoph sighed as he picked up his cup and took another sip. He had an addiction for this particular type of fountain drink. The bottled stuff never tasted the same. As he sipped, he was stopped when his blonde comrade questioned his garb, to which he shot back a compliment wrapped in a smile. Apparently Svetlana here was a fan of rolling her eyes.

>>"Look, I've done the whole undercover ops thing before. I don't need training wheels. And I don't think you brought me along for people to look at me."

”Ooooh, apologies Agent Jane Bond,” he paused and turned back to her. ”Unless you’d prefer 006?” he smirked a bit before he faced forward and into the café again. ”Alright Miss Super Spy,” He gestured across the street. ”Without looking at her file, tell me about our target today. Consider this a pop quiz.” He grinned as he pushed his basket of fries over to her to share. ”And please, take your time.”

>>”Ooooh, apologies Agent Jane Bond. Unless you’d prefer 006?”

"Dat's sexist." Sveta noted with a deadpan face. She had had a lot of names and codenames over the years, but she never really hit the level of fancy (and government sanctioned) that would have merited a Bond analogy. Or a number. She hated being numbered, anyway. And getting one less than the guy? Nope.
The red giant was hard to rattle. He was in a position of power, in many ways, and Sveta was still trying to stare down her burger, willing it to shrink to a manageable size.

>>”Alright Miss Super Spy. Without looking at her file, tell me about our target today. Consider this a pop quiz. And please, take your time.”

Sveta looked up. It was clearly a challenge, and also a test. She had been playing the disgruntled recruit (mostly because she was a disgruntled recruit), but she knew that if she refused to cooperate at all, they would break out the psychics. So, this was a moment to give a little. She sighed, turning in her seat slightly to get a better angle of observation, and considered her answer for a moment. A short one. She did not want to give the caveman the satisfaction.

"Well, she is young, so she must have recently manifested." she tilted her head "She is probably already tagged, or we would be trying to get closer to her. And if she is tagged and we are here, dat means she is useful to us, otherwise we'd only show if she made trouble, and she is clearly not making trouble. She is minding her own life. You know, like a person." she added with a healthy dose of sarcasm. "So... she is useful, she does not have a physical mutation. And she has not been grabbed yet. She is working and being nice to people, so she is not hiding, or on the run. She doesn't know she's tagged, does she."

>>"Dat's sexist."

Kristoph chuckled heartily at that. To be fair, he really didn’t know what was sexist about his comment. He called her Jane Bond, a female version of the name “James”. And the “006” was just because 007 was already taken. Besides, 006 was closer to 001 one, which, rank wise, would be higher. But rather than blast the new recruit with all this information, the agent simply bided his time, shrugged it off and turned his eyes back to the young woman across the street. Iota-Nine certain was the sensitive type, wasn’t she?

Still, her comment that she believed herself to be so experienced was something that gave him pause. The higher ups wanted her prepped for field service as soon as possible because of the usefulness of her abilities. Why not speed up the process and test these so-called “skills” a little bit? With a nod of his head, he turned back to the woman, pushing some fries over to her for her to sample as he inquired: what did she make of the scene? Surely if she was as super-spy as she believed herself to be, it would be an easy enough task to follow.

Arms crossed over his massive chest, he watched the woman with an arched brow as he asked her to describe what she saw, mainly of their target. There were a plethora of things that she could have said but, surprisingly she went into a dialogue that he truly hadn’t expected.

>>"Well, she is young, so she must have recently manifested. She is probably already tagged, or we would be trying to get closer to her. And if she is tagged and we are here, dat means she is useful to us, otherwise we'd only show if she made trouble, and she is clearly not making trouble. She is minding her own life. You know, like a person…So... she is useful, she does not have a physical mutation. And she has not been grabbed yet. She is working and being nice to people, so she is not hiding, or on the run. She doesn't know she's tagged, does she."

Sipping at his drink, Kristoph turned away from Svetlana as she went into her explanation. He eyes locked onto the woman in the café, smirking a bit at the narration that Svetlana provided him with. No words or sounds were even uttered as just listened, letting the blonde dissect the situation they were observing. When she had come to the end, he smirked a little. Framed by his beard it just made it appear both diabolical and cuddly.

”Not a clue,” he confirmed with a nod. ”Samantha Gregors. Eighteen. She was attacked by drunken, lust-filled frat boys, Unleashed a telekinetic wave…or…at least that is what one of the kids managed to describe.” He sighed. ”We found her. Put a tracker. And now are just keeping an eye to ensure that she stays on the up and up.” A slight grin as he finally turned back to Svetlana. ”Very good. We’ll make a field agent out of you yet.”

Sveta stuck to the basics without making any wild guesses, but from the smirk lurking under the red beard, she knew that she was not wrong. It made her both proud and sad. Proud for herself, and sad for the girl, and wondering what she might have missed from the picture.

>>”Not a clue. Samantha Gregors. Eighteen. She was attacked by drunken, lust-filled frat boys, Unleashed a telekinetic wave…or…at least that is what one of the kids managed to describe.”

Psychic, then. Sveta sighed. She already knew how SUPER treasured psychics, and also how dangerous they held them to be.

>>"We found her. Put a tracker. And now are just keeping an eye to ensure that she stays on the up and up... Very good. We’ll make a field agent out of you yet.”

Sveta considered the information for a moment. The girl had a tracker, that she did not doubt, and she was also a fairly powerful psychic... but they were just 'keeping an eye on her.' Suuuuure.

"You hope to recruit her the nice way, huh." she arched an eyebrow at the beard "You're not gonna let a psychic walk around just like that. And we are not here to grab her or I wouldn't be here. Too risky. So... you gonna court her or something?"

Kristoph smirked as he watched the blonde out of the corner of his eye. He knew that she wasn’t happy to be here but, to be fair, he honestly didn’t care. He was just doing his job and he was showing her the ropes. If she was going to be an asset to SUPER then she was going to have to get used to this kind of thing. She would eventually need to learn how to comply if she was going to make it in this world...or she would be forced to.

In the meantime, there was bound to be some hard feelings. He got it, of course, It was a tough situation for anything to have to accept. Her freedom was essentially gone, but people were remarkable when it came to getting used to a new state of things. All she would need is time and consistency.

Sitting next to her, Kristoph took another bite of his burger as he watched the waitress across the street step back into the cafe and continue about her work. As she did so, his eye drifted back to Svetlana who had just finished giving him the rundown of her observations. He had to admit that she really was good at it and he praised her thusly. Of course, this lead to the young woman to the evitable conclusion about the waitresses fate…

>> "You hope to recruit her the nice way, huh…You're not gonna let a psychic walk around just like that. And we are not here to grab her or I wouldn't be here. Too risky. So... you gonna court her or something?"

He smirked. Behind his glasses he gave the blonde a knowing look as he casually tilted his head towards her. ”Oh, she’s going to be courted all right...just not by me.” He gave her a sly smile, the beard only making him look more diabolical. ”A big part of field work is recuiting, sweet stuff. By the end of the day,” he nodded across the street. ”You’re going to speak to that young woman and you’re going to praise the organization up and down.” He smiled again. ”Under my very close supervision, of course.”

>>”Oh, she’s going to be courted all right...just not by me. A big part of field work is recuiting, sweet stuff."

Sveta smirked at the man. He was unbearably sarcastic, not to mention overly confident for a human in a world full of mutants who were - at least in his thoroughly messed up and SUPER-published book - mortally dangerous. Sveta could not even begin to fathom why he would end up in a situation like this, playing secret agent with a reluctant powerhouse while also eating a burger wit admirable accuracy.

Sweet stuff. That was his second strike.

>>"By the end of the day, You’re going to speak to that young woman and you’re going to praise the organization up and down. Under my very close supervision, of course.”

Sveta felt like her insides just froze. She managed to look less scared than she was, but at least she did not have to fake excitement about the prospect... when she promised herself to get through this by any means necessary, she was naive enough to imagine that she would get away with not dragging any more innocent mutants into her own messed-up situation along the way... And yet here she was. She would have to talk to the girl who did not suspect yet how valuable she was to a clandestine government organization.

"And what if I fail?" she challenged, fully aware that it was not an option "Do I get put back in my cell or something?"

It probably wasn’t the most concrete plan, to just send a newbie in to try and convince a possible recruit of the joys of SUPER, especially not when she was being held against her will. But the fact of the matter was that, with Kristoph, he was never one for training wheels. He was a firm believer in the teaching method of “Sink or Swim” and believed that the attractive blonde next to him was either going to learn to comply, or she was going to just be another memory-wiped pawn. If that were the case, it was fine by him, but it was always better to just comply than to fight a fight you’re going to lose anyway.

Still, the superiors probably didn’t care for his method but, if they did, they never sent him a memo. Truth was that Kristoph’s method was like weeding: he brought out those people who wanted to live to see another day and removed those who would just be a problem. If anything he was the most cost-effect agent trainer that the organization had. You’d think that would afford him a raise of some kind but, it’s the government. What else could be expected?

Iota-9 didn’t seem the most pleased at the this prospect. It was understandable. Even though she had been playing nice thus far, there was still going to be that resistance until she either embraced the SUPER way of life willingly, or she was forced to. Still, he hoped that she wouldn’t be stupid and either make a scene or flat out refuse. That would be an instant failure. It interested him which route she would take…

Skewing up her courage, she gave him a firm look before she finally spoke to him, not in any angry tone, but there was still a bite of challenge to it.

>>"And what if I fail? Do I get put back in my cell or something?"

Truth was that if she wasn’t able to convince the young woman to join the ranks, there was really going to be no negative repercussions. It would be have been ridiculous to assume that a new recruit would be able to approach a new target and convince them that SUPER was their end all, be all on their first try. However the organization also needed to impress upon prospective field agents the folly of failure. It was all about the mind games, after all.

Kristoph, in a very deadpan voice, eyed the blonde. ”Failure would be best avoided.” He gave her a hard, scrutinizing, almost imparting with just his gaze that not succeeding would lead to terrible things. Another second later, a small grin pulled at his lips as he nodded to her. ”I’ll give you ten minutes to get your thoughts together. Then we’ll both head over and have a discussion with our new friend.”

Sveta could not quite get a read on this guy. He was a practiced agent, and a human, and weird in all kinds of ways. Maybe that was his whole thing, throwing people off to keep them on their toes? Either way, Sveta did not like it, and she definitely did not trust him. This was some kind of a test her first field assignment, but the target seemed way too valuable for her to botch the recruitment. Sveta briefly wondered if she was even a mutant at all. Maybe she was an actress hired by SUPER to test her.

>>”Failure would be best avoided.”

An ominous statement.

>>”I’ll give you ten minutes to get your thoughts together. Then we’ll both head over and have a discussion with our new friend.”

Again, with the mood change. Sveta sighed, and rolled her eyes. If she had to do this to get out, she would do it. She had to. She had to play along, and she had to play the part of the reluctant newbie convincingly. She was nailing the reluctant, so far.

"Okay, so in then minutes... what's the sales pitch? I mean, I clearly can't open with 'you'll have a private cell with a view'. Seriously, what's the offer? For those that get one?"

So the task wasn’t all that difficult. The blonde next to him simply had to cross the street, chat up a pretty waitress, and convince her that joining a secret government task force that controlled the mutant threat was a good choice. Really it was a piece a of cake; well it was for an old pro like himself, for Svetlana, it was a totally different story. She was still green, rebellious, reluctant to participate, however she was participating. This would be a defining moment for her.

Ten minutes didn't seem like a lot of time but could be an eternity when concerning something you didn't want to do. Kristoph would normally be fine just throwing the newbie in the water, and in essence he was, but at least he was giving her a moment to collect herself before diving in.

>> "Okay, so in then minutes... what's the sales pitch? I mean, I clearly can't open with 'you'll have a private cell with a view'. Seriously, what's the offer? For those that get one?"

He grinned. She was a smart one. Most would have just spent the whole time cringing and worrying over what to say, Iota-9 wanted to go in with a plan. She wanted to know the benefits, she wanted to be able to organize what she was going to say in order to most effectively present her case. She was definitely a good fit for the organization…so long as she was being genuine.

Sitting back in his chair, he gave her the usual sales pitch. ”Well it's a government job, secure, well-compensating for her time, the usual perks. The best part is that she'll be doing something good for her country, for her people. She'll be ensuring that those who need protecting, will be protected; to build a better life for the future.” He shrugged as he smiled. ”Eight minutes, darling…”

The red giant decided to play along. For a moment, Sveta was worried that he would tell her to make up the pitch as she went along, which was unfair really, because if the whole thing had been for real, and not a test or a training exercise, she would definitely go in with all the information at hand. And if she was running a mission like this, she would definitely already know the perks. Of which she was getting none yet, by the way. Not that she intended to stick around that long.

>>”Well it's a government job, secure, well-compensating for her time, the usual perks. The best part is that she'll be doing something good for her country, for her people. She'll be ensuring that those who need protecting, will be protected; to build a better life for the future.”

Sveta scoffed. That whole spiel sounded pretentious. She did not doubt that there were some people it worked on, but she doubted greatly that the girl across the street would be one of them.

>>”Eight minutes, darling…”

She rolled her eyes.

"And what's the sales pitch for just-out-of-high-school waitresses that could not care less about building a better future with an American flag and a bald eagle in the background?" she smirked "How well is 'well compensated' exactly?"

It all sounded fairly easy when Kristoph said it. Just give the target the notion that they will have a well-compenstated job, security, medical, and they would be serving their country at the same time. Hell, the military did similar ads on TV and it managed to get in a number of new recruits pretty consistently. This was essentially the same thing -- only with a higher chance of being brainwashed if you decided you didn’t like the way things were being run. Still, that was the risk you take.

Svetalana, however, didn’t seem all that impressed with what he was saying. Kristoph was sure that there were more question, that she would rather had a script or something that she could just rattle off from with only the small crumb of sincerity attributed to it. It would probably ease her conscience if she had such a narration to read from. But that was the point of this exercise -- to test how committed she was and how she could think on her feet. SUPER loved consistency, but consistency didn’t always mean honesty. And people, whether they believed it or not, could smell dishonesty on a person like a fine stench.

Kristoph said nothing more for a moment, taking another, final sip of his drink once he was done talking. The liquid coursing down his throat, lubricating the dryness that came from talking. Once he was done, he glanced back to Svetalana, informing her of the time she had left. She seemed intent on wasting it...

>>"And what's the sales pitch for just-out-of-high-school waitresses that could not care less about building a better future with an American flag and a bald eagle in the background? How well is 'well compensated' exactly?"

He shrugged his shoulders. ”Make it up,” he said with a grin. He then turned to face her fully now. Even sitting, he still loomed over the woman. ”Listen, honey, this is your test, not mine. As much as you would like flashcards to go off from, that doesn’t exist out here. You need to think on the spot, you need to speak with conviction, and you need to be able to not only convince others, but force them if you have to.” He gave her a hard look through his sunglasses. ”We do not fail. That mean’s you better not fail.”

He had leaned forward a bit as he spoke, keeping his voice low and speaking to her as one would a smart-mouthed adolescent. It was true, this was her task, not his. If she wanted to make it out of it with her brain unscrambled, she needed to get with the program. However, much like before, his mood instantly switched, probably confusing her further, as he grinned, reached over, and gave her small tap on the nose, followed by a soft ”Boop…” from between his lips.

Sitting back, he glanced at his digital watch again and sighed as he looked back to her. ”Five minutes, my fair haired goddess,” he beamed. ”I’d stop asking and start thinking.”