"Ah, Director, thank you for coming in."

"Not at all, Mr Secretary," said Forge as he took a seat in front of the United Nations Secretary General to discuss the current situation with regard to Project: Excalibur. Things had changed since the project had first been introduced. Nick Fury was now working for Hydra, Hellios was dead, Tsunami was dead, Sabra was recovering from serious injuries and the Armory system was being redesigned after being damaged beyond feasible repair.

"How have you found your first few weeks in charge of SHIELD, Forge?"

"It's been trying. Very trying, but I'm getting to grips with it. I've made a few changes, and altered things here and there, but the organisation is in very good shape."

"How have the repairs to the Helicarrier gone?"

"The Helicarrier is back in operation," confirmed Forge, thinking back to the Godzilla event. "There have been a few security measures that were not initiated, though and it allowed Nick Fury to hack the systems."

"Yes, I read that report. You have X-Force working on that, I understand?" asked the Secretary, picking up a paper from the desk and glancing at it.

"Yes, they're working on a way to counter him. X-Force seems the best team to work on this, as they don't have a loyalty towards Fury like the other groups," Forge answered his superior.

"I understand," said the Secretary General. "However that's not why we're here. Project Excalibur."

"Yes, sir," said Forge.

"The Excalibur initiative was set up to provide the United Nations with a team of operatives who could and would react to any foreign problem that our normal peacekeeping officers could not handle. They were not a part of SHIELD, however the lines seem to have become blurred, and while it has happened on your watch, I am of the opinion it is not your fault."

"Thank you," said Forge.

"However there does need to be a degree of separation between SHIELD and Excalibur. They have access to your systems and are housed when on active duty by SHIELD, but they do not participate in unauthorised missions, nor do they gain special authorisation."

"I'm not sure I understand, sir," said Forge.

"I understand Hauptmann went on one the recent missions to assist with Godzilla, and the recent trip to the Darkness Dimension was not authorised by the UN."

"I see, sir," said Forge. "You decided what the team and the operatives are involved with."

"Not me personally, but the Security Council. They realise, as do I, that the recent mission was designed to rescue one of your own, however it was fraught with risk and from your report you almost didn't make it back."

"That is true, sir," admitted Forge. He wasn't sure he liked this attitude towards these heroes, but then again he worked for the United Nations and so did they.

"Plus your decision to accompany them was... misguided, though you have proven yourself to be a man of action many times before and it is forgivable."

"Thank you, sir," replied Forge. "I will endeavour to... keep myself a little more restrained."

"Good," said the Secretary. "Now, let's discuss the personnel. Starting with Colonel Bridge."

"Well," said Forge, adjusting his position in his chair. "There was friction between us at first, due to his loyalties to Fury, however we have reached an understanding about SHIELD and Excalibur."


"Please, GW, not now," said Forge as he sat back in his chair. "Tomorrow, when things are less hectic..."

"You said we needed to discuss the new people for the project, and I think we need to do that. We were short two people in the dimension and it showed. We need people to succeed Leyu and Niko. Plus I need to talk to you about Armory as well."

"I know this, Bridge, I do," said Forge. "However now is not a good time. X-Force have been fighting in lumps due to being drugged by Viper, we've lost contact with Letchi Island and Nick just hacked the computer systems."

"So now's not a good time?" said Bridge.

"You could say that. I'm also going over my own notes for the recommissioning of the second Helicarrier. We've been down one since the Onslaught incident and I've managed to pull some strings and with luck the second Helicarrier will be rebuilt and reactivated in the next few months."

"Good idea," said Bridge. "We do need a second one."

"Yes," said Forge, his thumb brushing over the left side of his moustache. "Plus there's this." He showed him a piece of paper and Bridge examined it intently.

"The new Armory system?"

"Yes," said Forge. "With Dr Horton's demise, we've had no chief engineer for the project so I've taken it on myself. My mutant powers help design things and I've worked on this a while. What do you think?"

"It's... different."

"Yes, well I don't copy, I reinvent," said Forge. "The command centre idea's been revamped. I was thinking that a virtual reality interface would work better, so you could use the system from closer to the action."

"Interesting. It would mean I could operate it from anywhere..."

"And have immediate access to the SHIELD database. Your support staff would also be able to help you out as well."

"It won't have room for a passenger this time," said Bridge, looking at the specs, and Forge shook his head."

"I've looked at the risks and they're unacceptable, however it will contain more systems, which with luck will eliminate some of the other problems you've seen. No more piggybacking of signals, of the systems being corrupted, things like that, as well as state of the art technology that will make even Tony Stark look up and go 'cool'."

"Tomorrow then?" said Bridge, relieved that Forge wasn't pushing them to one side.

"Yes," said Forge, looking down, then he looked back up. "Unless another crisis occurs..." Then he winked and Bridge knew he'd keep to it.

"Thank you, Director," he said and took his leave. It had been a long few days.


"So you believe that Colonel Bridge is well suited to continue leading the project?"

"Yes," said Forge. "I don't think there's a better man in or out of SHIELD for the job."

"Of course. Now what about the other personnel? Let's start with Savitar."


"Neal," said Lindsay McCabe as she put her arms around him. "I missed you."

"Been hectic, Linz," said Neal as he sat down next to her in the SHIELD medical hospital, where she was visiting her friend Jessica Drew, who had been catatonic since the X-Force attack on Hydra. "How is she doing?"

"She's still not doing anything other than lie there," said Lindsay, looking back at her friend. "It's as if her mind has shut down."

"Isn't there anyone who can help her?" asked Neal, putting his arm around her shoulders.

"There are plenty of telepaths," said Lindsay, putting her hand on his hand, "but none with the experience of skill of Charles Xavier."

"Yeah," said Neal, wondering how different his life could have been if he'd met Xavier before he'd joined with Fabian Cortez. He could have been an X-Man, maybe, instead of being a criminal who now worked for the United Nations as part of the repayment of his debt to society.

"How are you though?" said Lindsay. "I saw the news of Greece and things... it was horrid to watch."

"Worse to live through, because not everyone came back," said Neal, softly. "We keep forgetting for all our great powers, we can die as easily as everyone else."

"Sometimes people come back though," said Lindsay.

"Not this time," said Neal. "I've never really seen death like this before, not... I don't know. Maybe I should speak to Jim. Tachyon understand I have priorities, but it's just to get away from it all, to have a proper job."

"You've not seen him?" asked Lindsay.

"No," Neal answered. "I was involved in this Darkstar thing, and by the time I checked in, he'd gone to Vegas for a few days and they said he'll be back soon enough."

"Neal," said Forge as he entered the room. "Lindsay."

"Forge," they both said in unison, which made all three smile.

"I was just checking on some things before I make my reports to the UN about what's been happening, and I heard your voice so I thought I'd check in."

"Have we heard from Laynia yet?" asked Neal.

"No, however the Russians have let us know she is alive and well and currently being looked after at their department of the interior, and she will be back soon enough. However the dark-force around Kalymnos has dissipated and we're returning Leyu's body to Japan for burial." Neal nodded.

"Thanks," he said and Forge nodded. 

"Bit more work to do, I'm afraid," he said and smiled. "I'll catch you later, oh and Lindsay?" She looked at him. "Nice work on the pilot." She smiled.

"Thanks," she said and Forge took his leave of the two. It was nice to see two people in the first stages of love like that.


"Neal's turning in to a model member of the team. I not only think we have a mainstay, but a valuable member of the United Nations. We can only hear of big things for Neal Sharra." Forge liked the young man, he liked him a lot. All he'd needed was a chance.

"Good," said the Secretary General. "He was the person we were most worried about conforming, given his recent past, but that is all behind us now. Now, John Walker, the USAgent..."


"The lunatic, the lover, and the poet
Are of imagination all compact:
One sees more devils than vast hell can hold,
That is, the madman: the lover, all as frantic,
Sees Helen's beauty in a brow of Egypt:
The poet's eye, in a fine frenzy rolling,
Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven;
And as imagination bodies forth
The forms of things unknown, the poet's pen
Turns them to shapes, and gives to airy nothing
A local habitation and a name.
Such tricks hath strong imagination,
That if it would but apprehend some joy,
It comprehends some bringer of that joy;
Or in the night, imagining some fear,
How easy is a bush supposed a bear!"

"I can't believe you've made me sit through this," John Walker whispered to his date Elisabeth, as he sat next to her in the box at Pearl Theatre, in New York.

"I can't believe you sat through it," she replied with a grin. 

"Hey, I like you," said John. "A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do. How long we got left?"

"Not much," said Elisabeth. "Besides Dream's one of the easier Shakespeare plays."

Walker nodded and concentrated on the play again, thinking on what Forge had said to him earlier, that he needed to be open to new things and that time working on the various projects he'd been involved in should have done that. Walker hoped that this was the start of something wider. Lord knows, they needed something different.


"John's coming around. He's not the most accommodating of people but he's getting the idea that he's part of the team, like it or not."

"Good," said the Secretary General. "Darkstar we know about, Tsunami is deceased," Forge wanted to flinch at the casuality with which he said that, but didn't, "any thoughts on a replacement?"

"I was thinking perhaps one of the former members of Big Hero Six. I've to review the files on them as soon as the Japanese send them to me."

"Yes, that would be acceptable. Hellios, well we've received word from the Greeks that a replacement will be sent across soon. They won't say more than that, which is rather annoying, but given the state of the country after the recent attack we're giving them leeway."

"I see," said Forge.

"So, Hauptmann?"


Hauptmann opened his front door and looked at his apartment - just the way he'd left it. Jorge sighed as he sat down in his living room and flicked on the television. There was a match showing but he wasn't really interested in the soccer game right now and it was just making a noise in the corner, while he considered things in the comfort of his own home.

He was thinking a little of his brother Stan and his uncle Wilhelm, about the day they died. There had been so much death on the team and only now was he beginning to put in to perspective with the rest of his life. He hadn't really known either Tsunami or Hellios, but they had been part of the team and had counted on him and those around him, much like the soccer team counted on the members to see them through. He should have made it his business to get to know them, he should have been more like Rock and made the best of it, instead of just accepting it all.

In doing that, like the others, he'd put himself in to the same place he always did, taking too long to find the real people and by the time he had it was too late for some of them, and he promised that wouldn't happen again.

Except he'd made those promises before and, yet again, he'd failed to save people and they'd nearly lost Darkstar because of it. He looked at the photos on the mantelpiece and sighed. He would give this one more chance and then he would see what happened. Perhaps being a super-hero was for someone who wasn't as emotionally scarred as he was. He enjoyed football, he could do that, he could run and shoot and score and it wasn't life or death.

"GOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!"

Well, he thought with a wry smile, maybe to some.


Forge considered the German. "He's a good member of the team. He tries, which is good, and is always willing to go above and beyond. There's a distance to him though..."

"I see," said the Secretary General. "Not really a team player, but he knows that and is working to correct it?"

"Yes, that'd sum it up," said Forge, not sure if they were doing him a disservice or not.

"What about Sabra? How is she coming along after her injuries?"

"Sabra is slowly adjusting to the neural rod system, which is allowing her walk. She's taking some time to get used to the things after the surgery, but it is made easier by the doctor we have working with her."


"Day?" asked Ruth, her voice containing concern.

"Yes?" called Doctor Day Vangela.

"I'm not sure I can get used to the weight of these things." Vangela smiled.

"It's not like they're solid steel," she said, looking at Ruth Bat Serpah. "The rods are made of aluminium, connected to the muscles by needle thin wires which feed the information from your body to the visor."

"Yes, but it's different, it's... not the right balance. How am I ever going to fly like this?" She was close to tears, but she was too proud to do that in front of someone else.

"Ruth, you need to take small steps. Flight, even running, is something for later. I want you to be able to stand without problems and walk. Then we'll do something advanced like steps. One at a time, both feet to a step before you go to the next one."

"I feel like a child."

"To all intents and purposes," Vangela said, shaking her head, "you are."

"How long will it be before I can go back to work?"

"It all depends on you," said Day. "Bitching won't make it go faster."

"I understand," said Sabra. "What's next."

"Walking," said Day. "As soon as you prove to me you can still stand without the pain registers flaring. We can make as many adjustments as we need until we get this right." Ruth nodded. This wasn't exactly a miracle cure, but if she maintained her patience it might be.

Day looked at her patient and smiled. Soon, very soon...


"Excellent news," said the Secretary General. "She has done much good not just for Mossad but for the world at large as well. Which leaves us with Union Jack. His sponsor in the British Government checks on him from time to time."

"Sponsor?" asked Forge, unaware of such a person.

"Yes, a Brian Braddock, member of parliament for one constituency or another. Never paid much attention to the internal workings of the British Government. The names change, but the story remains the same."

"I know of Mr Braddock," said Forge, repressing a smile. So the former Captain Britain still had a hand on Excalibur, no matter who it belonged to. "However of his charge, Union Jack has been the most enthusiastic, the most involved of the members of the team. British heroes have a tendency to be enthusiastic in their goals."


"Rock," said Forge, as the Project Excalibur member was about to leave for home, going back the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

"Director," said Rock as he looked back at the man who was in charge of SHIELD. Brian had been surprised and pleased when it had been told to him and said there was nobody better, and Rock had accepted the recommendation. "Is there anything I can do for you?"

"No, I just wanted to say goodbye and thank you."

"Thank me?"

"Yes," said Forge. "You've been a constant help over the last week or so, and it has been appreciated, though the time have been quite trying."

"I'm glad you think so," said Percival, shaking the other man's hand. "It's not been easy for any of us. I have to thank you for getting us all some time off from the project. It's helped us immensely."

"Not a problem," said Forge. "Make good use of it. I..." The comm system cut him off as it paged him and he called back. "Forge here."

"Sir, there's a problem in the holding... It's Snowstorm, he's become a human torch. We've put him out..."

"I'm on my way," said Forge thinking it hadn't been too long since they arrested him after his big battle with Iceman. "I'll talk to you later, Rock." Rock nodded as Forge started to run down to where the holding area was and he turned to wait for the shuttle to the airport to get him back home. There was much he needed to consider.


"Well," said the Secretary General, "that about concludes the meeting. I..." He put his hand to his face as he closed his eyes

"Sir, is something wrong?"

"I felt something," muttered the Secretary General, and he looked out of the window. "What in creation?"

"Lord no," said Forge as he saw the advancing wave of crystal and before he could say anymore they were coated in it and everything changed.