Chapter 15) – Promises

"I told you this place had to be good if it was on that map Natalie! The pork belly burrito was sooo good! What did you think of your quesadilla?"

Sat on a picnic bench, under the shade of a metal roof and some trees, Mara and Natalie were finishing up their Mexican food. They were eating at a popular, local, restaurant called El Ranchito that Mara had selected from the recommended eateries on the colourful tourist map Natalie used to distract her earlier in the day.

Swallowing the last bite of her food, Natalie answered, "It was nice, good choice Mara. Do you want to try anything else while we're here? It's all going on the Stark Industries company card, so don't hold yourself back."

Still absolutely ravenous after the eventful day she had so far, Mara let go of her restraint and requested another helping of food, "Thanks Natalie! In that case can you order me a barbeque beef torta and a chicken quesadilla please? For some reason, all the gore made me hungry. Now that I say it out loud, that doesn't sound normal, right?"

Shaking her head, the assistant affirmed my host's speculation, "Yeah that isn't normal, Mara. The vast majority of people are more likely to avoid food after witnessing what El did earlier. There would be some that could still eat, but very few would actually eat more than usual and those that do, typically have some… issues upstairs, to put it politely."

Pleased that her guess was correct, Mara nodded her head, evidently not realising Natalie had indirectly told her she had a few screws loose, "I thought as much, and it's not like I don't have a voice in my head speaking to me."

*Rumble*

Rubbing the back of her head my host apologised to the undercover agent for her loud stomach, "Hehe sorry Natalie, would you be able to order that food now. It seems I underestimated how hungry I was."

"Sure thing, I'll go order now. I also need to go back to the car and use my laptop to check my emails, so I'll be a bit longer coming back. That's if you're okay to wait on your own for a bit?" Natalie said as she got up from her side of the bench.

Hoping that Natalie leaving her alone for a while was the signal she had been wanting all day for, Mara happily agreed, "Yeah, no problemo, don't worry about it.-" Pointing to her temple she added, "-It's not like I'll be completely alone either with El up here."

"That's true. See you shortly then." Saying such, the assistant made her way over to the counter that had a sign saying 'Ordene Aqui' above it, so that she could order and pay for Mara's food. Before she made her way around the side of the restaurant, to where she had parked her car.

With excitement practically overflowing from her being, Mara began speaking to herself through me, [Oh my Stan It's happening, It's happening! Stay calm El, STAY FUCKING CALM!]

Not needing to follow her advisement, as I wasn't the one she was trying to keep calm. I tried to temper her expectations and calm her down as much as possible, just so that if Natalie genuinely only went to check her emails, Mara wouldn't be too disappointed, <Don't get too excited, dear. We haven't seen her contact anyone the whole day we've been together, so there's no clear evidence that you'll what you want just yet.>

Unfortunately, Mara was extremely preceptive at times, and thus did not relax at all, [It's definitely happening El, just look around. This restaurant was at least half full when we arrived and now it's only us here. You really think that a popular restaurant like this, around the lunch time rush, would be completely empty? And don't think that just because we couldn't see Natasha communicating with anyone, that she hasn't. S.H.I.E.L.D. literally has invisible aircraft, making some kind of tiny, or hidden, communication device shouldn't be too hard for them.]

Mara continued to bubble with expectation for a couple more minutes before her theory was all but confirmed by the arrival of her food on the table. This, in itself, was not particularly out of the ordinary, but considering that the restaurant didn't deliver food directly to customer's tables, that the chef's had left the kitchen, even when the restaurant was open, and the fact that the person delivering the food didn't work at the restaurant, anyone could tell that something was going on.

"You must be Mara, and/or Elysium. My apologies, but was Elysium the other you or your superhero name?"

Sitting down opposite Mara was a mid-40's looking man with cool, very lightly tanned, skin – more-so representing working outside in hot climates, rather than it being his natural tone. He had very short brown hair, styled in a slight combover that exposed his rather sizable forehead, and green eyes. With a height of around 5'9" – 5'10", before he sat down at the bench, he was wearing an all-black business suit and tie with the only differing colours on his entire outfit being his plain white shirt and the white, pin sized, polka dots on his tie.

Somehow supressing the smile threatening to split her face, my host replied to the new face, "Both. Now, you clearly know me, but I don't know you. So, you going to introduce yourself or do you need me to guess?"

Donning a slight smile, the man replied, "Why don't you take a guess?"

Mara put on a faux thinking expression for a few seconds, as she already knew the man's real name and affiliation. This time, however, she was unable to hide her smile as she had spent the time thinking about where the conversation was inevitably going to end up.

Not giving away any indication she knew the man's real name, my host gave out a seemingly random one, "You look like a Gregg. Nice to meet you Gregg, I'm Mara as you know." Punctuating her words with an outstretched hand in the recognisable gesture for a handshake, on Earth at least.

Accepting the invitation, the man Mara called Gregg shook her hand and told her his actual name, "Close. I'm agent Phil Coulson with the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division. Before you say anything, yes, I am aware it's a mouthful so just call us S.H.I.E.L.D." 

Not dropping her smile or showing surprise at the ridiculously long name she was told, Mara continued the conversation with agent Coulson, "So not close at all then. Well then Mr agent, what can I do you for? I doubt you came to visit little old me just for a chat?" 

Letting go of the handshake, both set their arms back on the table to continue their talk. However, sooner than agent Coulson probably anticipated, due to him being interrupted before he was given the chance to speak, Natasha turned the corner wearing what Mara recognised as her Black Widow suit, and proceeded to walk over to the bench they were sat on.

Standing at the side of the picnic bench, Natasha placed both her hands on the table and leaned forward on them as she spoke, "We want you to join S.H.I.E.LD. Mara. But truth be told, we know nothing about you. We've done a background check, which turned up nothing. You say you've got amnesia, so we've got nothing to go off there as well. I'll be frank with you Mara, you could be an asset to S.H.I.E.L.D., but from what we know about you, you could be an equally great threat."

Nodding along, Mara agreed, "That makes sense, yeah."

Making her colleague shuffle over the bench, Natasha sat down next to agent Coulson and continued, "Now as you can probably guess, the main reason we decided to reveal the existence of S.H.I.E.L.D. to you was that we believe that the benefits of recruiting you outweigh the risks. We were content with monitoring and evaluating you for a while longer, but with what we've been through today, we decided to give you the benefit of the doubt… for now. You won't be made into an official S.H.I.E.L.D. agent for the time being, and instead you'll be on a type of probation if you accept. This probation period would be until S.H.I.E.L.D. can determine that you don't pose a threat to Earth or its innocent inhabitants. What do you think?"

Not wanting to appear too enthusiastic, Mara quickly gushed over the Black Widow outfit and asked a few questions, prior to officially deciding to accept, "First off Natalie, if that's even actually your name, you look amazing in that suit, 11/10." *thumbs up* "I've just got a few questions though before I consider accepting. First, what would happen if I don't accept? Would you somehow erase my memories, or something, since I could blow your cover to Tony?"

Instead of Natasha, it was agent Coulson that answered her first question, "No we won't erase your memory. We wouldn't do so normally, and it would leave an especially bad taste in everyone's mouth if we did it to someone who's already an amnesiac. We have some contingencies in place for if you decide not to join, so that Natasha's cover wouldn't be blown. Don't worry about this being some illusion of choice and us strong arming you into joining S.H.I.E.L.D. against your wishes. If you don't want to join the organisation you don't have to, but I would say there are plenty of benefits for someone of your calibre joining up."

Appreciating the answer, Mara nodded her head towards the agent and proceeded to ask her next question, "What exactly would I need to do as a S.H.I.E.LD. agent? Would it be fighting or something else?"

Again, it was agent Coulson that answered, "For a standard probationary agent, they would typically be assigned to a team that would evaluate both their performance, as well as their psyche during their day-to-day operations. This would include field work, possibly combat, and the official, paperwork, side of things. For you, there would be… special considerations. For starters you wouldn't be put into a specific team and would instead be brought in for missions where field work is almost a guarantee. It would be wasteful to have you in an office environment with such field potential. To counter this, however, you would have an assigned handler. Said handler would be with you nearly all of the time during your probation, assuming the role of an assistant for you, while also conducting the evaluations I mentioned. When it's been determined that you have sufficient experience within S.H.I.E.L.D. and there are no doubts you're one of the good guys, in the grand scheme of things, you would be taken off probation to be inducted as an official special agent. After you become a fully-fledged special agent, you will have a choice to keep your handler and take them on as an official assistant, to take someone else on as your assistant or go solo as it were." 

Thanking the agent, Mara continued on her questioning spree, "Thanks for the detailed answers, Coulson. Do you mind if I call you that? It just feels better than Phil and I don't wanna go with your full 'agent Coulson' title."

Acquiescing to Mara's request, she received an; "Of course you can, Mara. Any more questions?"

Affirming, she stated, "Yeah just a couple more. Will I be forced to go on missions, or do I have a choice? As much as I wouldn't mind fighting all the time, I want enough freedom just in case I develop a personal interest outside of fighting, or I remember something about my past and want to follow up on it."

Nodding in understanding, Coulson helpfully responded to my host, "That's understandable and would also fall under your special considerations. Realistically we can't exactly force you to do something you don't want to, and we wouldn't want to force you to do something either. For the majority of S.H.I.E.L.D. staff, they can't really refuse to do their work as they would lose their jobs. But, since we're the ones recruiting you, it's not exactly like making you work under the threat of losing your job would work. There may be critical missions that we would implore you to take, as they may save multiple lives or be something we couldn't allow to fail at any cost, but for the most part you would be free to choose from what missions are offered to you."

Turning to face Natasha, Mara pointed at Coulson before praising him, "He's a good sell, Nat. I can see why you brought him along; his explanations are concise and answer my questions perfectly." 

Shaking her head slightly, this time in acceptance rather than the vehement denial she previously had when Mara used the nickname, "Yes Mara, Coulson is one of the more articulate and well-spoken S.H.I.E.L.D. agents. He is often chosen to represent S.H.I.E.LD. when it comes to delicate discussions."

With shining eyes at the fact that the nickname wasn't flat out rejected, Mara was about to celebrate, when Natasha interrupted her with an exaggerated sigh, "*Haaah* I'll allow the nickname if we become colleagues."

If she wasn't sat down, Mara would have undoubtedly jumped up in joy. Thankfully though, she kept some semblance of clear-headedness and asked her last question before impulsively accepting the offer without getting all the information she wanted, "Last question. Normal agents get paid, right? Since I would be a special agent, how much would I be paid? I need to be able to afford the stuff I want to do outside of work."

As was to be expected at that point, Coulson answered Mara's final question, "You are correct, normal agents do indeed have set wages. Even special agents would typically have a set wage of some kind. But for someone of your calibre it would be more flexible as we can't really put a price tag on your abilities. Under your probation, all purchases would go through your assistant who would be given a blank card so that you could buy anything you wanted, within reason. S.H.I.E.L.D. already has plans in place if you do accept, so that your daily living expenses, transportation, and housing are taken care of. Essentially, the blank card would be for any personal expenses separate to everything S.H.I.E.L.D. already plans to give you. Things like entertainment or personal effects. To be frank, S.H.I.E.L.D. is prepared to give you a lot without you even needing to ask for it, so there isn't much you would need to use the card for, but it'd be there if you needed it. After your probation, the card would become yours and wouldn't have to go through your assistant, should you decide to keep them. However, since it is a S.H.I.E.L.D. card, all purchases will be traceable by the organisation, so it's not like it would be completely yours. We have a lot of money, but it isn't infinite."

Happy that all her queries were answered in an easy-to-understand manner, and that the conditions seemed more than favourable for her, Mara accepted the offer, "Seems like a good enough gig for me Coulson. So, where do I sign up?"

Both Natasha and Coulson chuckled slightly at Mara's question, with Coulson explaining to her, "You don't have to sign anything Mara. Contracts like that are just a written version of the promise between two parties. With your abilities it's not like we could sue you if you didn't uphold your side of the bargain, same with you against us. The only thing we need is a mutual trust and understanding between S.H.I.E.L.D. and yourself. Since you've accepted the offer, we'll finalise the paperwork internally. Things like your clearance level, handler choices and any immediate requirements you might have, should be organised within the next day or so, since the majority of the prep-work has been completed already. Now that you've accepted, can you think of anything you need off the top of your head?"

Taking the time to eat her, now lukewarm, torta and quesadilla, Mara asked me if there was anything she may have forgot, [Any ideas El? The only things I can really think of are a place to sleep, a communication device to keep in contact, and a car or jet to get around, but Coulson already mentioned that these are a given. Realistically, I don't think we really need anything for now. Ah wait! Popcorn! I'll need a reliable income of popcorn to munch on, for all of the events. Even if I do get involved in them, there's nothing wrong with snacking on the job.]

Not focusing on human facilities or tasty snacks, and instead on combat improvements, I asked Mara for information, <I would like to request documentation about every animal on Earth, so that I could study them and improve our flexibility. have asked for hundreds of each species consume investigate, but does not seem feasible in the immediate short term. Additionally, same data any mutated humans me eat, or temporarily bond with, dissect their DNA increase strength a genetic level. However, asking human list might be something future when they trust us more.>

Still munching away, my host agreed to the suggestion, [Good shout El. With the internet we could research all the animals ourselves, but if we could get someone else to organise it into essential data it would save a lot of time. Plus, I definitely don't think we'd find other super-people through the internet, but yeah, we should hold off on that for now. Lemme just finish up before asking about the animal database, it's rude to eat and talk.]

When I questioned her last point with, <But isn't that what you're doing right now?>

To which I received a clarification of, [The saying definitely wasn't created with telepathy in mind so it's okay.]

With Mara practically inhaling the food, it was only a few seconds after we had finished our internal discussion when she made the requests to Coulson, "Since you've already mentioned that housing and transport are covered, I will assume that communication is a given?"

Receiving a nod in response from Coulson, Mara continued, "Would it be possible to have a database of every animal on Earth please? Although I haven't exactly had need to use it much, from what I've seen so far, my powers are highly adaptable and can create almost any construct. Having inspiration to increase my offensive or defensive capabilities is never a bad thing. And toffee popcorn on demand as well please! I think it was my favourite food, or at least it currently is, so I've got a bit of a craving for it."

Both Coulson and Natasha had given an understanding nod at Mara's requests. Although they thought the second was a little odd, it was still perfectly doable. Natasha, acknowledged the versatility of our abilities after having witnessed what she did with the dirt and worms. While Coulson more than likely heard about it from his colleague, or witnessed it second hand through the museum CCTV, if it was visible on it.

This time it was Natasha that responded once Mara had finished speaking, "Is that all you want Mara? You can ask for more you know?"

My host confirmed, "Yeah, right now I can't think of anything I need else. What's next anyways? Do I get a tour around your secret base, or do I need to wait for now?"

Coulson, again, took charge of the discussion, "Currently, we don't plan on sending you on any missions straight away, at least until you are somewhat settled into the way S.H.I.E.LD. operates. Like I said previously, we'll organise a meeting with the selected handler candidates for tomorrow if that's okay with you?" 

This time being on the receiving end of the accepting nod, Coulson continued, "Once you've chosen your handler, over the following few days or so they'll give you a crash course on all things S.H.I.E.L.D., so that you're up to speed on what exactly we do and how we work. After that, for the time being anyway, we'll have you doing a similar job to Natasha, but instead of evaluating Mr. Stark's condition like she is, you'll be in charge of assisting him should Ivan Vanko reappear. We did a little digging after what you theorised and we came to discover that you were correct, Ivan has been broken out of prison. For now, we have to assume everything else you said could be true, and with Mr. Stark's current condition, S.H.I.E.L.D. believes that having you on stand-by would be the best option, all things considered."

Since S.H.I.E.L.D.'s plan was also in line with what Mara wanted, she had no reason to refuse, "Sounds like a plan. Will Nat come and pick me up from Tony's tomorrow then or should I expect someone else? Oh, and since you want me to bodyguard for Tony, do you want me to stay at his mansion for the time being?"

Making Mara turn her head again, Natasha answered, "I'll come and pick you up tomorrow, yes. Pepper felt bad about you sleeping on one of the couches, so before you had J.A.R.V.I.S. call me this morning, she asked me to organise some cleaners to have one of the rooms made up for you. That was under the assumption that you would be staying at least until Tony's birthday in 4 days. If you want to stay in separate accommodation, that can easily be arranged at one of the S.H.I.E.L.D. safehouses nearby. One of which is where we'll be going tomorrow to select your handler, as well as where you'll most likely have your crash course."

Standing up from the bench, Mara closed out the meeting with, "Staying at Tony's is fine with me. Thanks for the recruitment, sounds like it could be pretty fun."

Sticking out her hand towards Coulson for the second time of the day, he accepted the gesture again, while Mara thanked him, "It was nice to meet you Coulson, you're a pretty cool guy. If you need anything let me know and I'll help out as best as I can. See you around, I guess."

"Likewise, Mara, it was a pleasure. And I'll hold you to that." Saying so, he left the seating area of the restaurant.

Switching her focus to scan Natasha's outfit from her toes to her neck, Mara commented, "So, do you need to change out of that before we continue our sightseeing, or are you just gonna stick with it?"

Giving Mara a slightly curt reply, she said, "I'll have to get changed, not everyone can change their outfit with a thought."

Watching the spy walk towards the same seating area exit that Coulson had just left through, so that she could go back to the car and change, Mara called out after Natasha with a sly smile on her face, "Jealously looks good on you Nat!"

The red head didn't turn around, or miss a step, as she continued to walk away. All while giving Mara a simple middle finger in response.