Issue 1 Downtime

Ryan knocked on the door to Dr. Cross's office.

"Come on in!

Ahh, Ryan. Come in, sit down. What can I do for you today?"

Ryan shrugged. "Beats me, I just got your message saying you wanted to see me," he said, taking a seat.

"I'm just hoping to meet with all the team leaders; see how they're holding up after the missions and everything. You want some coffee?"

"Sure," Ryan said, sitting back in his seat. "I... really don't know what to say, though. We went out, we kicked some vampires, we got kicked some, we came home."

"Everything going alright, then? Everything went exactly like you would have wanted it to? Handling having everyone look to you for direction?" Miles said, pouring out some dark Columbian roast.

"Well, the 'everyone looking to me' comes with the territory," Ryan said, shrugging. "My parents were Avengers, I've been doing the X-stuff since I was a kid. So I'm kind of used to that. As for the mission... I'd say it was within the boundaries of 'good,' despite the snags that we hit. I mean, I'd like to not have lost a hostage and not have gotten the hell beat out of me or not have Will shot or Merle hurt or Rachel delerious at the end, but everyone came home and could get better, so I can't complain."

"You have been doing this for a long time," Miles nodded. "To be honest, I believe you were the first person named to the teams--it's a lot to live up to, your parents."

"The snags--just a normal part of a mission, were they?"

"There's no such thing as a 'normal part' to a mission, but you can't really expect everything to go perfectly. I mean, it's great when it does, but you can't go beating yourself over the head because you didn't pull everything off scott-free. If the enemies were that easy, they wouldn't be a problem we needed to take care of, probably."

"It's a good point--if anyone could handle it, we wouldn't need to send your team in.

How IS your team, anyway?"

"In general? Good. Half of them aren't very experienced, but they're holding their own and getting better. quickly. Individually? Various degrees of shaken up. Nothing that I don't think they'll get over."

"It was a lot of their first times out--or their first major time out, at any rate. How'd they handle the stress?"

Ryan quirked an eyebrow. "It wasn't any of my team's first time... the only people I can think of who were on their first excursion were the alternates. And as far as I know, they're dealing with things all right. Haven't really checked much, honestly."

"Your first time out, though, was a minor skirmish--no one got hurt, and there wasn't even a large fight. This was a step up in intensity, wouldn't you agree? How did they handle it?"

"The first time we were out, we had to fight a freaking giant. It doesn't get much more intimidating than that. As far as how they're holding up?" He shrugged. "Zoe seems fine. Anita's still shell-shocked from the skirmish we had in town where she got nailed with those concussion grenades. Hopefully she's getting better. She didn't flip out or anything, but she wasn't exactly being her usual brilliant self. Will..." he shook his head. "Will did great, as usual, but thanks to Runner-Up getting that hostage killed, Will's getting down on himself like it's all his fault."

"Runner-up?" Miles asked, raising an eyebrow.

Ryan smirked. "Usually, you can only call yourself a Champion if you succeed," he chuckled. "I'm sorry... that was juvenile and unprofessional, but I'm trying to cope here."

"This is exactly the RIGHT place to let that out--everything in here is private, so you don't need to worry about keeping, I don't know, an image of professionalism. So, you have problems with Mr. McClintock, then?"

Ryan rolled his eyes. "Not really. I'm not happy with how the mission went down, but thankfully, he's not mine to have a problem with anymore after I filed my report."

"Tell me more about not being happy. Is it just that a hostage died? Because sometimes, that happens, despite our best efforts. It's certainly not desirable, but it's a sad fact of this kind of life."

"That's the root of it, I guess. The guy bum rushes a car where the team's squared off against a vampire. Now... I can think of at least three ways they could have fixed the situation, and I think that Will probably would have come up with them, too, if he'd had a chance. Sadly, Merle decided to just rush in and tear the car open like that wouldn't make the guy pull the trigger on the gun he had pressed to the hostage's head."

"To make matters worse, the guy right away started to try to blame other people for what happened. We get into the helicopter, and he starts trying ot harass Rachel about how it was somehow her fault. Bear in mind, she was half unconscious at the time."

"You've got a lot of faith in Will, and not much in Merle, huh? Were you aware Will leveled a gun at Merle?"

"No one's perfect," Ryan said, shrugging. "Yes, I realize that it's something that needs to be dealt with, but honestly? In my personal opinion, Will doesn't have it in him to kill someone out of anger or revenge. Beside that, Will's more than willing to man up to his mistakes, without trying to split his blame with someone else."

"What did you do? When Merle started blaming other people, that is. How did you react?"

"I told him to shut up. He was badgering a girl that couldn't even sit up straight, after he got someone killed."

"Have you talked with him since then?"

Ryan thought about it for a minute. "Not really. He started getting nasty with Will in the debriefing, so I told him to back off. Not... exactly in a nice way, I guess. More 'keep threatening my teammates and I'll kick your ass,' I guess. But aside from that, no."

"So, you don't consider Merle a teammate. Do you trust him?"

"He isn't a teammate. He got thrown on for that mission, but so far, he isn't on my team. And no, I don't trust him. He's reckless, and his judgement calls are disasters."

"You've heard about the team shuffle, yes? What if Merle ends up under you? You must admit, the idea of placing someone who needs leadership with someone like yourself makes sense..."

"To be completely honest? If I were asked my opinion, and bear in mind that I haven't been, I'd say that it'd make more sense to keep him off the teams until he shows some small amount of promise. We have enough people who DO show promise that we don't need to bring down the existing, successful teams with the people who don't."

"Also, it's kind of counterproductive to assign a person to someone who's threatened them."

"Alright, let's say I AM asking you. Who do you want on your team?"

Ryan frowned, considering. "If I had to pick four or five? I'd say... Will, Sara, Bear, and Anita."

"Why them, if you don't mind me asking?

If you want to know why, I'm kind of trying to draw a psychological profile of the people placed in charge of others," Miles smiled, whispering mock-conspiritorally. "Personally, I think you're just fine--but it's always nice to make sure there's not a ticking time bomb out there, would you agree?"

"Well, first off, because I'm working off the top of my head. If I was really going to pick my ideal team, I'd need to look over the roster. but most of them, I already know I work well with. And... well, I'm not exactly subtle. I'm visible, and I'm public, and everything's partly a PR event for me. And I'd like to have a team that can be a good figurehead team for the X-Men. So far, they have the know-how and they have the right morals for the job."

"The right morals?"