They knew it wouldn’t be long until the agency had tracked them down. Ranger thought that their random movements would have bought them more time. Big Brother was watching and he was very observant it seemed.

When the knock came on the door, the cabin was surrounded by agents and the man at the door had asked, “Are you done with this nonsense yet?” He did not appreciate Ranger’s response of, ”What, our vacation? I put in f’r two weeks.” Ranger said as he leaned on the door frame. While the agent was taller, Ranger was more physically imposing. Even though Ranger was willing to comply, he wanted to see the agent sweat a little first. He was lucky Ranger answered the door with pants on. Noel had stashed them in the oven for some reason…

From the cabin, they were driven separately. Ranger was taken to a facility in Austin. He didn’t know where Noel was taken. Ranger could understand them being seperated. Last time the pair were together they went off script and holed up in a cabin for days and days.

There was no sitting in the waiting room. Ranger was taken straight to an interrogation room. It wasn’t bad. They agents were nice enough, he wasn’t handcuffed. He was searched but poorly, or they just didn’t care about the knife he had in his boot. Hell, Ranger was offered coffee. He took a cup of black coffee to drink while he waited for… whomever.

According to the file Noel had given him from the agency, Ranger and her had worked for them for a while. Their most recent mission had been as undercover agents inside of Haven. A group of mutants who overtly acted for goodwill and to extend mutant rights, Ensure equality, etc. Ranger and Noel were the agencies eyes into the covert operations of Haven. The dark underbelly of the organization.

The files did not answer some of Ranger’s questions though. Chiefly, why had Noel and him lost ten years? It was not just a memory wipe of ten years, it was a full blown loss of ten years. They both looked the age they thought they were compared to the pictures of them.

Someone had some explaining to do.

Ranger sat on the table, his feet on one of the chairs, sipping his coffee as he waited.


((Sabine Sang ))

Sabine had enough to worry about without being tasked with wrangling agents who decided to run off for some kind of joyride vacation. She was not in charge, and she wished people would stop acting like she was responsible for all the problems that kept popping up. Unfortunately, her superiors had mastered the important managerial strategy of delegation, and they loved delegating to Senior Agent Sang.

This time, she was cranky from a flight that took her down to Texas of all places. The agent was Michael Hunter, who Sabine had no previous experience with. In fact, the paperwork on him seemed flimsy-- another reason not to trust some of the other senior agents when it came to documentation.

Not wanting to waste time, Sabine entered the room where the agent who played hooky awaited her. This could be a good opportunity for her to gather some intel on who he actually was so she did not have to trust questionable reports.

”So,” she opened coolly as she entered, flipping through sheets on a clipboard, ”Agent Hunter, correct? Any chance you’d be willing to debrief me on how in the hell you and that girlfriend of yours ended up at a cabin in Texas?”

Ranger sat in the room, drinking his coffee. He idly wished he at least had a magazine to thumb through. Instead he sat and reviewed the past several days in his mind. Everything from when he woke up in SUPER custody to where he sat. Again in SUPER custody.

It was as Ranger was nearing the end of his coffee that the door finally opened. Ranger looked to the door and saw a woman somewhere around the mid five foot range entering the room. Ranger slid from the table to his feet.

The woman who had entered was all business. She started by confirming that Ranger was Agent Hunter. Rather than get into any long winded story yet, Ranger simply said, ”Correct” And the woman carried on. No self introduction. She wanted a debrief of how he and Noel had wound up in a cabin in Texas. ”Short story. Amtrak t’ Texas. Borrowed a car from there.”

Ranger turned the chair near him so he could sit in it. ”Long story… We needed space t’ think about everythin’. We woke up, thinkin’ it was ten years ago an’ bein’ told we work f’r SUPER. We were supposed t’ go t’ a safehouse an’ hang out while awaitin’... This meetin’ I guess? I didn’ like the thought of bein’ surveilled while I try t’ figure out what t’ believe. We skipped out on the free plane ride. Hitched an amtrak, removed our trackers -- literal pain in my ass --, switched t’ another train, an’ drove up t’ Morgan’s Point Resort. Somwhere we could get off grid for long enough t’ work though everythin’.” Ranger leaned back and asked, ”Now y’ have me at a disadvantage. You are?”

Ever since SUPER made a push to integrate themselves into this universe, recruitment was up. With that, Sabine found herself constantly dealing with unfamiliar faces, generally quite young for agents. For someone who was good at committing faces to memory, this was a new and annoying experience.

Documentation on Hunter and Gage was limited, which meant they were potential opportunities for Sabine. She had to be cautious though; she had enemies inside and outside of SUPER. Without research, she had to use her judgment and watch the young man carefully.

Michael, to his credit, was quick with his answers. Too quick, earning a raised eyebrow from Sabine. He was not expecting to get away with a cheeky non-answer, right?

Thankfully, no. Claiming her own seat, she studied him carefully as he offered up an explanation. Sabine tried not to tip off her surprise when she found out about the de-aging of Michael and Noel. It explained why she was coming up with dead ends in her search through personnel files.

They were being asked to go to a different safehouse location before dropping off the grid. He assumed she was the one to arrange the meeting, and she wished that were true. Who exactly was handling these agents? It dawned on her how lucky she was; they were discovered by one of her personal colleagues who transferred out to the Texas branch office. Had he not been the one to find them, who would have? She had not seen any reports of missing agents.

”Not a fan of being caught with your pants down, I take it.” Whether they were trying to run off or just figure out where they stood, it was hard to stay off SUPER's radar forever. ”Senior Agent Sabine Sang. And no, I wasn’t the one who was going to meet you. That said, until we piece things together here, you’re dealing with me now.”

Looking over her shoulder to the personnel that accompanied her, she waved them off to stand outside the door of the room, leaving her alone with the mystery man. ”We’re aware of the de-aging phenomenon. It’s a problem we’re looking into. It explains a lot, but still… your files, SUPER or otherwise, are limited. I also don’t like playing at a disadvantage, but I guess that’s where we’re at, Agent.”

Sighing, Sabine propped her elbow on a nearby table and rested her chin against her knuckles as she inspected Michael. ”I’m glad to help you two fill in gaps where possible, but I have to ask: are you planning on working with me or running off to goddamn Moscow?” Admittedly, more dramatic than hopping an Amtrak, but she had no reason to underestimate him yet.

Not a fan of being caught with his pants down? Metaphorically, Ranger was not. He was used to it though the government had always treated him like a mushroom. In actuality, it wasn’t such a big deal. In fact, in certain situations it gave him the upper hand. Someone running at you with their junk outline swinging visibly around in their silkies tended to kill your desire to keep fighting them. ”We weren’t plannin’ on stayin’ lost anyway. Knew y’d show up eventually..” Ranger shrugged.

The woman introduced herself as Senior Agent Sabine Sang. She let Ranger know that the meeting he and Noel were supposed to have at the approved safe house was not with her. Different regions having different agents who would handle this? Either way, as she said, Ranger was dealing with her.

”Nice t’ meet y’ Agent Sang.” Ranger held out a hand. Sure this was an odd situation for it, but he was SUPER or was in his future and he had decided to give them a go. Good working relationships had to be built on something. Why not a handshake after a running off reservation for a while forcing them to come find you?

Agent Sang dismissed the others who had accompanied her. Ranger decided to take that as a sign of trust. If not in him than in the ability of the people at the facility to stop him. Both were good reasons not to do anything had he been planning to. When she spoke again, she led in with the deaging issue. It was something SUPER was looking into, that made sense. They had no less than two agents affected. The odds were high many others were as well. From what he had gathered regarding SUPER it was right up their alley. What was interesting though, was that Ranger’s files were light. ”Can’t help with what I was doin’ workin’ f’r SUPER. An’ if y’ don’t have much on what I’ve done before SUPER y’ must not need t’ know. Most of my work has been TS/SCI where y’ need t’ be read in… I was CAG.” The last was added as a last second explanation. CAG, another name for Delta Force, was outside of the normal military chain of command and went through USSOCOM. Essentially Ranger answered to the President and the Joint Chiefs. As CAG missions were largely Counter Terror or Direct Action in Non-Permissive Environments the missions were closely guarded state secrets. It did not surprise Ranger that most of the missions were outside of the reach of an intelligence agency that focused on homeland threats.

The next question Agent Sang asked had Ranger smiling. She was willing to help fill in gaps, but she wanted to know if he was planning to run off again. ”нет.” Ranger answered in Russian. ”No, I’m plannin’ t’ hang around an’ do my duty. Maybe I can help yall fill in some gaps on me where I can.” Ranger tapped his fingers on the table for a few moments, thinking. ”There was a file. Noel had it when I woke up… In the future from my perspective. It detailed some of what we were doin’. Looks like we were imbedded into an organization named Haven. I have mission reports on my laptop. They had a darkside.”

At least the two runaways were not planning on dropping off the grid, at least according to Michael. That was an easy thing to say after you were found, but they showed no signs of making a grand escape. They were just… well, hanging out? Not exactly plotting their careful desertion.

It was a tenuous start, but she was comfortable enough with the premise of their meeting to accept a firm handshake. He was willing to talk to her and she was willing to listen, because whoever his so-called-contact was before her, they were suspicious or flat-out shady. Perfect lead for her to chase.

As expected from a de-aged person, Michael lacked many of his own details, but he did give her some insight into his experience. Extensive military background. The CAG was no joke; she had a capable asset on her hands. Yes, he was not as covert as most of her key assets, but she could put someone with skills like his to use.

This man could not speak for Noel, but Sabine hoped she could get them both on the same page; her page. Michael was willing to stick around and he even had an interesting tidbit to share. Embedded in Haven of all places? ”What billion dollar international enterprise doesn’t?” she asked rhetorically, smirking at the thought of Sveta hearing this conversation. She… was going to have to navigate that if they really did want to have a cooperative relationship. It’s certainly interesting, though I might be more interested to find out who had you embedded in there.” That had “rogue cell” written all over it if true.

That also brought about another important question upon reflection. ”Haven’s a fairly mutant-focused organization. Are you and Gage both mutants? Or were they taking on buff human receptionists to fill a quota?”

Sabine asked the billion dollar question. Who had Ranger embedded in Haven. ”I can’t say. My files didn’ include a name. Likely for deniability. If I get caught ‘r my files come t’ light it doesn’t reveal the government was lookin’ int’ them.” Ranger shrugged. He had worked with spooks before, not knowing the person behind everything wasn’t new to him.

What did surprise Ranger however was Sabine asking if he and Noel were mutants. That was information Ranger would have assumed she would have had access to. SUPER must be a more decentralized intelligence agency. That, or Ranger and Noel’s information was kept close to the chest by whomever their handler was supposed to be.

Ranger gave a slight chuckle at Sabine’s joke before answering, ”We’re mutants.” Ranger wasn’t sure how much he should divulge considering someone in SUPER hadn’t put a file on them together. ”It’s why I have almost no official history. Durin’ the MRA I was kept overseas. Moved from mission t’ mission. Kept me out of the reach of homeland politics. It also led t’ my being vold I would not be reenlistin’.”

Strong opinions on mutants led to an overall decrease in military readiness. Several mutants were brushed aside as their contracts came up. It had worked out for Ranger. His experience as an always on operator had prepared him for a lucrative career as a contractor… And an intelligence agent it seemed.

”I can lift heavy things, run really fast… Am near uncuttable, apparently.” The latter was still new to him, ”Noel’s a human lie detector.” Ranger gave up part of Noel’s power. His thought was that there had to be a reason for the secrecy. Noel’s memory powers seemed the abilities to keep quiet about until he could sus out who was supposed to be in the know at SUPER.

A de-aged amnesiac embedded agent. How did Sabine keep finding problems like this? What did she do to piss off some cosmic entity? Well, beyond being complicit in a morally questionable government organization.

Actually, that was probably fair.

It would have been great to get a name, but Sabine could understand maintaining plausible deniability if Michael or Noel were caught. Maybe that was how and why they ended up de-aged? A secret worth keeping?

As expected of a potential spy in Haven, Michael was a mutant. It sounded like he had plenty of history working with the government, but in the way where it’s not shocking he might lack records. Nice to see the government was the government, whatever world you were in.

”A super soldier and a human truth test,” Sabine mused aloud, contemplating the assets dropped on her lap. ”Take this as no offense, but she sounds like more of a spy than you. Though maybe you’re sneakier than you let on.” That was hard to see, though. A combat mutation on a guy who was willing to give her actionable information. Why send in a soldier to be a spy?

There were threads to tug on here. ”Well, without you on record, inputting you into the system provides us with a surprising amount of flexibility. I can keep your mutations confidential for the time being; I don’t want to burden you with office politics on day one, but let’s just say you will find more leeway as a potential human than a potential mutant when it comes to figuring out what happened to you.” He clearly had the experience to know how his mutant identity could impact his work. And he would be more useful to her if that was kept a secret to some degree.

”If you’re comfortable with your mutation being need to know, we can still put it to work behind the scenes.” Despite knowing the men posted outside were on her short list of trusted personnel, she still kept her voice low. ”How fast and strong are we talking about? If, hypothetically, I needed some off-site facilities raided, are you a strike crew leader, or are you the strike crew?” Mutant power levels were all over the place, and while that always concerned Sabine, she had to acknowledge when it was useful to have a possible one-man army on her side.

Ranger smiled at Sabine and chuckled softly. ”I’m more of a troubleshooter, sure, but don’t let the doe-dee-doe fool y’. I have plenty of experience embeddin’ int’ places an’ gatherin’ intel. Mostly in Eastern Europe. I am just also able t’ then act on that intel with all due violence. They don’t call Delta ‘darkside’ f’r nothin’.” Ranger provided. It might seem like he was giving away a fair amount of information, but for the most part it was all surface level intel about how Delta operated that Sabine could get with a phone call to Bragg.

Keeping Ranger’s mutation a secret? Ranger had no issues with that, he spent most of his life acting as if he had no power. He didn’t have the option to bulk up on a whim, it was just something that happened as he needed it. He had dated an adapted for a while with no issue. ”I can do that. My power… It idn’t one I can just command, it sort of just happens when I need it.” Ranger took a moment to think of a way to explain, ”As needed my body adapts t’ what I need. If I need t’ lift an F650 off the ground I’ll bulk t’ the point I tear all my clothes, if I need t’ run fast my muscles change, if I see in the dark I have eye shine, an’ so on. F’r the most part I plan f’r not havin’ a power. Has worked out. Never know when there’ll be an adapted in the OpFor.”

Was Ranger the strike crew leader or was Ranger the strike crew? ”That’s a harder one t’ say. I’ve been part of the strike crew before an’ have been a strike crew on my own f’r smaller operations. Now though… I think I’m more a one man crew. The file I was given when I awoke, it had a picture of me liftin’ a suped up Ford F650. That’s… in the real of, what, eight tons? Give ‘r take a few hundred pounds. I could run faster than an olympian before. Now? … Not so sure. Haven’t tested it. From what I’ve read in my own files, I can run at highway speeds. I also seem t’ be hard t’ cut. A best effort was made an’ the blade couldn’t find purchase at first.” Ranger knew that none of that was super specific, but was the best he had to work on. He also wanted to find that information out for himself and keep the hard limits close to the chest. ”My power is different from what I remember. Ten years has changed it a lot. I don’t have any specifics.”

It was important when working with mutants not to judge them solely on their mutation. Yes, Michael had a powerhouse mutation, but that did not mean his skillset exclusively made him a hammer. She had not committed to what was within his capabilities, though the Texas muscleman did not fit the typical subtlety and subterfuge archetypes.

Thankfully, being well-trained made up the difference between expectations and reality. ”Sounds like you’ve got plenty of talents and a track record. I’ll be combing through any official records and making sure SUPER and the other agencies see a clean version of that.” Though she was willing to bet plenty of those records were already buried and redtaped.

Consistent with reports, Michael apparently returned to a younger age with the same powers that may have evolved at an older age. ”While we’re not going to tip our hand about you or Gage’s mutation, you will be given the resources and opportunities to figure out what limits you have now.” With a relaxed smirk, she added, ”Sounds like you’re planning on putting in good work for me, so it’s the least we can do.”

Ranger nodded. Sabine combing through Ranger’s records to make sure his records were cleaned up only made sense. It would not be the first time someone from a governmental agency went through and cleansed the offical records. There was a time when all records of Ranger’s fingerprints were purged from all databases in the US.

Easier to disavow someone when no agency can identify them.

Sabine wanted Ranger to keep a lid on the fact that he had a power, but she also was willing to dedicate resources to allowing Ranger to test his limits. ”Thank you, Agent Sang. I’m excited t’ get t’ work.” Working for and with agents of the US government was not unfamiliar territory to Ranger. CIA, DIA, FBI, and so on. Ranger preferred working with other tactical units such as GSG 9 or the SAS, but that was a preference borne out of shared experiences. ”What about mission equipment and materiel? If preppin’ f’r a mission, specifically where I am the strike crew, I can’t use whatever resources I have on hand t’ prepare. I would have t’ account f’r what I use an’ that could lead the kid handlin’ my book t’ ask questions.”

Any questions about Agent Hunter were going to be coming through Sabine going forward. The man might think she was making him expendable or easy to dismiss as a rogue operative, but he was going to ultimately be her responsibility. If things went messy, SUPER could disavow him, but Sabine would be taken down with her machinations. At least she finally felt ownership over her career progression again.

Ranger was mentally jumping ahead to the job and what he would need to do it. Sabine smiled, because it was nice to deal with someone who not only understood the job, but loved it. This was a start; something she could work with.

If he and Noel would operate loyally, she planned on repaying that. "You will be on record as a new SUPER Agent, but you'll have access to requisitions through my clearance. If you need something, as long as it's something I have access to, you have access." Agent Sang smirked, adding, "And while I'm not looking to brag, my access will get you far. So Agent Hunter... are you ready to do great things and make SUPER great again?" If it was ever great to begin with; at least they could start.

Requisitions through Agent Sang’s clearance?Ranger would have to take her word that her level of access would get him far. While Ranger would not look to exploit her access, he would need to see how extensive it was. One should be familiar with any tool or weapon they have access to. It was why operators would fire tens of thousands of rounds through any new weapon system to familiarize themselves to it. There was always the chance that Agent Sang’s access could one day save his life.

Ranger nodded, ”I’m ready t’ do my duty.” He was a shooter. He left the politics of who or what was great to others. ”Where do I start?” Ranger could only assume he was headed back to New York City. It would be too suspicious to task him elsewhere given his business. Once in New York City though, what would he be working on to start. He likely wouldn’t be maintaining the Haven cover, that would run counter to playing the part of being just a human. Agent Sang likely had something in mind though if she was asking about his role in a strike team.