"I've never worked with a PR team," Frank said, and then rolled his eyes at how stupid that sounded out loud. "...but there are a lot of 'nevers' in this situation, so I guess that's not remotely surprising."

"I'm not saying it's unreasonable. And I am certainly appreciative. I'm just saying it's a scale above a scale unheard of in my family, so it's going to take me a while to wrap my mind around it."

Still looking out the window at the beautiful scene she asks, "Is that Colonel Price? Do we salute him? I don't have any idea what the protocol is."

“No, there’s no need to salute – we’re not in the army, and you aren’t soldiers.  Don’t refer to him as a Colonel either, though I wouldn’t go as far as to call him by his first name”

The chopper has landed, and Valerie waited for the rotors to stop spinning, and the engine to quiet down, before reaching toward the door and sliding it open.

“There” she graciously waited for the two of them to get off first, before doing so herself; she needed Frank to get out first, so she could reach out to his hand for assistance, not wanting to risk twisting her ankle disembarking off the chopper in her high heels.

Douglas Price was standing some twenty feet away from the chopper, munching on his cigar as he observed the two mutants.  He was dressed in plain clothes; a simple black shirt, and a pair of jeans.  Old habits die hard, however, and he could not let go of his handgun, holstered against his leather belt, and the combat knife, the handle of which was sticking out the side of his boot.
This message was last edited by the player at 03:49, Wed 05 May 2021.

Ana Sofía hops out of the helicopter with some eagerness, though she does duck overly low under its blades. Then she has to hold her hair out of her face as the whipping winds send it into a frenzy. She's still a little hesitant to fully stand up by the time she gets to Price, but he's taller than she is so she does so. She goes for southern and safe, and loud to overcome the background, "Hello, sir. It's good to meet you. I'm Ana Sofía Garcia Méndez."

Frank helped Ms. Cooper out of the helicopter, then turned to follow Ana Sofia over to where Colonel Price was standing. No, not Colonel, he reminded himself, taking Ms. Cooper's advice. Mister Price.

"Frank Guberman," he said to introduce himself, and stuck out a hand. "Also known as 'Tank'."

Douglas accepted the gesture and shook Frank's hand.  Although he was stronger in comparison to most men, his arm still felt like a wet noodle.  Had Frank not paid much attention, he could have easily yanked Price's arm right out of its socket, or pulverized every bone in the palm of his hand.

"That's quite a grip you got there, son" he said gruffly as he closed and opened his fist repeatedly to improve the blood circulation after the tight squeeze, that nearly left him disabled for life

"And its a pleasure to meet you as well, Ma'am"
This message was last edited by the player at 14:00, Thu 06 May 2021.

"Sorry, sir," Frank said, putting his hands behind his back where they'd do less harm. He hadn't thought he's squeezed that hard. "My strength keeps growing, so I literally don't know my own strength from one day to the next."

Ana Sofía offers her hand as well. "Don't worry, I'm normal strength."

"Should we talk somewhere quieter?" Ana Sofía asks loudly to be heard over the roar from the helicopter. She's clearly peaking around a bit while mostly paying attention to Douglas Price.

“Yes, go ahead and interview the hell out of each other. I’m going to need to make a couple of calls, and catch up with Fiona and Mistress.  I’ll see you all later”

Price cordially shook Ana’s hand with his right, while holding his still burning cigar with his left.

“Right,  Follow me”

The Helipad was a very short distance away from the back entrance, but the rotors were already winding down, enough for them to carry a conversation without raising their voices.

“Valery tells me you used to be X-Men” a straight shooter, Price started his interview before they stepped foot inside the HQ.  The statement was made as he pressed his thumb against the scanner to open the back door, but he did turn to face them for the follow up question, to better judge their response

“Why did you leave?”

"It's complicated," Frank said, not so much trying to dodge the question as he was trying to make sure her prefaced his answer to explain why it might be less than articulate. "But — for me — it basically boils down to: we were put in a situation where I didn't like the morality of the decisions being made. One of our leaders was basically able to fix a bad situation with a wave of his hand, but that would be too unethical for his tastes... and it left us in a bad spot with no way out."

He wasn't sure how much he should reveal about the X-Men. Even mentioning 'Professor X' could be revealing more than Price already knew about them.

"I mean, I get that sometimes there are no right answers, and that sometimes you just have to follow orders. But this was a situation with a right answer, and they left that option in the box. They never even considered it."

Ana Sofía listens to Frank and sighs. "Similar for me. I finished growing up looking up to them. But recent events have made it very clear to me a more distinct chain of command and being answerable to an authority are necessary. While our government makes mistakes, I believe in the USA strongly and that the government has been moving in the right direction. Meanwhile, as long as mutants act outside government, not only are they vigilantes, but they'll also forever perpetuate the us-versus-them situation that we see now. Freedom Force having public faces gives the country someone they can stand beside. We'll serve the common good of the USA, and the country as a whole will get to see that." She lets that sink in a little before continuing, "Being Native American and Mexican American I know people can view others poorly and don't change their opinions of others overnight. But we have to be out there, seen by many, if we want to make any progress. And on a personal note, my brother's in the army, deployed in Afghanistan; if I can be working on his side, all the better."

The interior of Freedom Force HQ couldn’t have been more different than the X-Mansion's.  Where the mansion was fashioned in Victorian style, brown, warm woods and old furniture, the HQ was a prime example of brutalist architecture; concrete walls in their natural gray, exposed steel beams, and functional furniture made of aluminum.  They did have an open pool though, right at the very center of building

“Yes, it’s a problem going into combat when you can’t trust your own commander”

The group passed a ‘no-smoking’ sign as they neared the meeting room. The sign was placed there by Valerie, and specifically because of Price.  Grunting, he put out his half-smoked cigar and tossed it into the bin.

“It is a privilege to have been born in this country, with freedoms other nations can only dream of” he agreed with Ana “And though these are trying times, we will prevail”

OOC: I’m letting you interact with Price because you mentioned you want to get to know him better when you talked with Valerie.  So ask your questions, and lead the conversation where you want to.  When you’re satisfied, I’ll move us forward

"Sir, while the gist of the program has been told to us, a lot of questions remain. We've been told the chain of command: you report to Ms. Cooper, the undersecretary of Homeland Security, who reports to the director, who is assigned by the president. But how do we relate to the FBI, the military, and others? Let's say we get involved in a situation the FBI is also involved in. Who is in charge, and how to do we coordinate? For example, do we have the authority to make arrests, or do we detain until they make arrests?"

She stops to hear responses before asking her next set of questions. "If we're operating in foreign lands, how are we operating? Can we be loaned to US allies? Will we be placed in war zones? Will there be covert missions somewhat akin to some special forces missions?"

Another respite before her next set. "When we're not on a mission nor doing a public appearance, how flexible is our time? I would assume we'll always be on call. But with the tracking, how much can we move about on our own, such as to visit family? And will there be doctors assigned to us, perhaps as part of the Washington DC VA Medical Center?"

Price closed the meeting door behind them, and waited for the two to choose their seats before taking the one opposite of them.  He leaned forward once Ana started talking, maintaining eye contact the entire time

"Freedom Force are Federal Agents with authority to enforce the law, and that includes detaining suspects and making arrests.    Regarding jurisdiction, the cabinet decided that Freedom Force has priority when dealing with supernatural threats.  It’s not like the FBI, DEA, ATF, or whatever other three letter acronym you want to throw in there, have the ability to apprehend the type of criminals we are dealing with anyhow, and likewise, we are not going to waste precious resources dealing with problems the other agencies are already equipped to handle.   In short – “ he tapped his fingers on the table “We should have no reason to get in each other way"

”Regarding your questions about operations abroad; the chain of command remains exactly the same.  But since Freedom Force is an arm of the department of Homeland defense,  we only get involved in covert operations outside the USA if persons of interest flee outside our borders, or we have intelligence that they are planning an imminent attack.   Involvement in armed conflicts is currently not a part of our charter”

The last string of questions was particularly significant.   Price couldn’t tolerate any slackers in his outfit, and decided to lay down his expectations without sugarcoating them:

"Look – I’ll give it to you straight. This job is very demanding.  Before we can send you out on the field, we have to train you in the fundamentals of federal law, behavioral sciences, basic and advanced investigation techniques, counterterrorism and forensic sciences.  This can EASILY take half a year, under normal circumstances.  Necessity may interrupt that training, which only means you will have to work ten times harder to catch up.  Add to that public appearances, the time we spend meticulously planning for our operations… “ he shakes his head “I don’t expect you will have much free time at all in the next few years, at least not until we swell the ranks enough so we can rotate agents between missions”

Frank had been coming up with some questions of his own when Ana Sofia had streamed out a whole slew of her own. And they were better than anything Frank had been planning to ask. He just nodded along and listened to the answers.

"Actually, I have a question about our teammates," he said when Price was done. "Ana Sofia and I were almost-but-not-quite under arrest when this offer was made. How exactly did you come by the others? Is ours going to be the standard recruitment method?"

"Fiona came to our attention after she resurrected her father during his open casket funeral.  It was in the papers, if you recall.  Mistress turned the tables on would-be-burglars, and our intelligence community notified us after they picked it up in their routine scans of the police reports"

And more to the point:

"But if you're alluding whether or not we recruit agents under duress; then the answer would be a 'no'.  I need people I can depend on, and genuinely care about this country.   Anything else is only going to cause problems in the long run"
This message was last edited by the player at 12:22, Mon 10 May 2021.

"This all sounds good to me, training especially. I'm not someone who comes from any sort of police or martial arts background. Outside of working on a psychology degree my training is pretty far from what we'll need, so this upcoming training sounds very useful," replies Ana Sofía. "I still would like to hear about doctors, though. For myself, just knowing there are good doctors available if I'm putting my life at risk would be reassuring. But the doctors will need to be more than just good if they're to work on someone like Frank here if something somehow manages to really hurt him."

"I don't keep doctors on my payroll" Price almost seemed offended by the question
"We administer first aid, but if you get seriously hurt in the line of duty you will be evacuated to a hospital, same as any other government employee.  Your hospitalization costs will be covered by the agency in that case. There are also provisions for getting disabled, or killed, on the job.  Pensions, compensations.  It's all in your contract "

"This all sounds pretty reasonable," Frank said, appreciatively. It certainly seemed that the department was getting off the ground the right way. And it was good to know that his and Ana Sofia's recruitment were the exception, not the intended rule. "I guess all that's left to say is: I'm in."

"It still sounds good to me. I'm in as well." She turns to Valerie Cooper since Douglas Price seems to be on a different page than she is. "Can I assume we'll get contracts to read today? Is there some testing you need us to do before we are handed contracts?"

"Yes; there is the psychological evaluation, and I would like to get a better understanding of your abilities.  But there is no reason why we can't send you the contracts in lieu of that"

OOC: Valerie didn't accompany you to the meeting with Price.
Unless there is anything else, we will skip about a week forward in time

Over the next week Ana Sofía spends some time getting adjusted, both to her new surroundings and the new ways her mind has been touching things. She does whatever psychological evaluation is required. And, if he's up for doing the driving, she works along with Frank to find houses for the two of them.

OOC: Are we in VA or MD, or pretty much on their border?
This message was last edited by the player at 14:04, Wed 12 May 2021.

“This is Dr. Steven Adler”

Valerie slides the folder over to the other side of the table. The ink on their contracts was still wet, and here they were, sitting in the meeting room with the other members of Freedom Force, discussing their first assignment.

"Dr. Adler was the chief of medicine at Nomans Land.  He was the one who personally approved the experiments, and vivisection, of the mutant prisoners. "

The portrait attached with a paper clip to the binder looked like a kindly old uncle.  Grey hair.  Mustache.  Slightly pudgy, with a hint of a smile.  Not what your mind conjured up when you thought of a callous murderer.

We have him in custody.  The department of justice offered him a deal; life without parole instead of the death penalty, in exchange for information about his co-conspirators.  But despite the gravity of his situation and the overwhelming evidence against him, he remains uncooperative”

Valerie looks around the table.  Mistress, a heavyset woman, wearing heavy makeup, was sitting upright, listening intently to Valerie’s every word.  She was always dependable, Mistress.  Older, more settled in her mind.  Polite.    Fiona, on the other hand, was busy inspecting her black-colored fingernails, and though she pretended she wasn’t paying attention, Valerie knew her well enough to know that she did.

“Your mission is to interrogate Adler.  Find out everything he knows.  What you uncover may not be admissible in court, but it would still provide us with the opportunity to find real evidence we can use against his accomplices” 
This message was last edited by the player at 17:59, Thu 13 May 2021.