Roll With The Changes [Mary!]

[Danii "LadyLiberty" Washington]

[style=font-family: times; font-size: 12px; letter-spacing: 1px; text-transform: lowercase; color: #989898; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;]533 WORDS FOR MARY hope that's a good start 8) She's quite direct when it comes to these things You're such a strange girl I think you come from another world [/style]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=width,450,true][atrb=cellSpacing,0,true][atrb=cellPadding,0,true][atrb=style, background-color: #6d6d6d;] [style=padding: 10px; text-align: justify; font-family: arial; font-size: 10px; height: 475px; overflow: auto; color: #1e1e1e;]A few weeks ago, around the same time that the world got tossed headfirst into an impressive amount of chaos, Danii had been in the process of moving into a new apartment in New York, Battery Park Manhatten to be exact. It had a hell of a view of the New York Harbor and a clear shot of the real Lady Liberty from the living room window, even better, considering the limited space to most NY apartments, it was rather spacious. The downfall was, of course, that since it had such a key and highly sought after location, it cost a boatload of money. Even though Danii made enough to be able to afford it and still go on living her life, even she had to cringe at the sight of that many numbers. So she had put out an ad looking for a roommate. Then the proverbial universe was tossed upside down, but in all the chaos and confusion a pretty brunette that seemed a lot more capable then some of the other potentials showed up to answer her ad. She seemed nice, honest, and not mildly insane, better yet she had the money up front. Danii helped her move her stuff in that same day and decided to worry about a background check later, only to find later on that she wasn't from around these here parts, so to speak. Which of course automatically sent little flags running through the system when she popped up on something called an HJLA database. Danii had no idea what that was at the time, neither did any other SHIELD member, and immediately the blond was keeping a sharp eyed watch on her new roommate. And when Mary didn't think Danii or her job was watching, they managed to learn a few interesting bits of information here and there. No one was especially wary of the woman though, as Danii had found she was quite a pleasant woman to live with and they had a few things in common, such as the fact that neither would stand for someone innocent being hurt. After another week or so of watching, and with a certain level of trust being brokered between SHIELD and the Justice League, Danii got the green light to sit and have a certain chat with Mary. Sitting in the kitchen, sipping a cup of coffee and playing pac man on her phone while she waited for Mary to get home, Danii pushed her dark sunglasses back up the bridge of her nose and asked the other woman to meet her in the kitchen, "Mary dear, you and I, we gotta talk," Slapping her SHIELD and Avenger identicards down Danii decided it was best to just be direct, "We know, so you know, about your abilities, and we think they could be quite useful," Her lips quirked into a small smile, "I'm sure you've noticed the mess everything has turned into, and we need all the help we can get," Oh she hoped being direct was the right way to go on this, but that was normally how she played her cards when it came to this sort of thing. [/style]

TABLE BY CALIFORNIA DREAMING @ CAUTION 2.0

[marvelous]

3 years ago Mary Marvel had been part of the JLI along with her roommate Bea, Guy Gardner, Booster Gold and others, had n adequate apartment in New York City and was enjoying the thrill of finally having a larger measure of independence It wouldn't and didn't last long as Mary Bromfield and Marvel found out. That version of the league went defunct before long, Bea went to work for Checkmate and Mary? The rent was too much for her to handle alone but the path that took her back to Fawcett City had a light at the end of it's tunnel.

She went about working for her father's company and in the last few years made enough cash which, when added to her already substantial savings, provided enough cushion for her to now seek out her independence yet again as well as begin the quest of a lifelong dream.

Ever since she was young enough to remember, she had a love for animals and the great outdoors. Putting 2 and 2 together was a natural fit and her dream for the future, after the purpose of using her alter ego's powers to benefit humanity of course, was to someday buy a farm and raise animals, grow plenty of crops and live in high cotton. The hunt for that dream began a couple months ago as she spent every free moment that provided itself scouring craigslist in a search for a decent amount of land somewhere that would suit her needs.

Funny how life is so often capable throwing twists and turns into your road when you least expect it. "Days go to minutes and minutes to memories. Life sweeps away the dreams that we have planned. You are young and you are the future, so suck it up and tough it out and be the best you can.

She hadn't yet found the pot of gold she was seeking but she was intrigued by an unexpected nugget of joy thanks to the modern wonders of technology & craigslist. A woman had placed an ad on the list for a roommate in a luxury apartment in Manhattan's Battery Park. Nice location. Excellent view of Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty. The building even had a fitness center, pool, and hot tub. The cost was steep but with someone else paying half the rent, and if she could find an odd job to supplement her savings during her search to buy the farm, it could all work out.

Her new roommate was so eager to have someone assist in footing the bill she even aided Mary in moving her things in. She still had alot of belongings stashed in a storage locker in New York City so it wasn't an overly complicated process. A bigger concern, though again not that much of one, was who her new roommate might be beneath the surface. Mary was often too trusting but she wouldn't just move in with someone without finding out at least a little something about them. When her own search to learn about Danii had failed, there was only one place to turn. The same person everyone else with a costume turned to when they needed answers to life's most pressing problems: The urban legend behind the green mask. The all seeing, all knowing Oracle.

Mary wasn't expecting any big skeletons to come tumbling out of Danii's closet when Oracle opened the door but she certainly wasn't expecting the answer she received. She wouldn't have pegged someone as admittedly attractive and seemingly innocent to be...

A government agent?

That secret Danii had kept was a pleasant one but it also created a problem or two. After all, Danii wasn't the only one in this luxury flat with secrets. The thought of Danii being a government agent meant that if she was as cautious of Mary as Mary was with her then she by now had uncovered things Mary wanted kept secret. That was why she hadn't pressed the issue.

Her subtle fears were confirmed this afternoon while Mary was out in a park && campground doing some horseback riding. An unexpected contact from O confirmed that a certain someone had found their way into old JL files & had been digging for loose threads.

It wasn't often, with all the action she saw while in costume, that Mary Bromfield got to be normal, let her hair down and relax while going giddy-up so instead of calling the rest of the day a loss, she hung around and pushed the inevitable confrontation to the back of her mind until the sun started to set then hopped in her car and drove back to Battery Park where Danii was sitting at the kitchen table sipping coffee and wasted no time in laying it all out for her.

After pulling a comb out of her purse and adjusting her dark brown locks, all the while listening nonchalantly while Danii laid everything on the line, Mary casually filled a coffee mug of her own, turned and leaned against the counter. Cool, calm, and collected while her inner thoughts became sentences.

"Direct as always, it didn't take you long to get to the point, not that I thought it would, Danii. Or should I call you Lady Liberty now?" She queried her roommate, making no effort to hide from the truth and play cover-up. Something about the offer intrigued her but she never really considered herself agent material.

I say a magic word and I go beat up bad guys. On a good day I help save the world but I wouldn't know the first thing about doing your line of work if that is where this conversation is headed. Why me?"

Okay so her month old roommate liked being direct when it came to expressinjg her thoughts. They bioth did apparently. It almost made Mary wonder, now that she stood at such close proximity and indulged in the magnificent view, what else her roommate liked being direct about.

Holy moley, where did that thought come from?

[Danii "LadyLiberty" Washington]

[style=font-family: times; font-size: 12px; letter-spacing: 1px; text-transform: lowercase; color: #989898; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;]571 WORDS FOR MARY 8) You're such a strange girl I think you come from another world [/style]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=width,450,true][atrb=cellSpacing,0,true][atrb=cellPadding,0,true][atrb=style, background-color: #6d6d6d;] [style=padding: 10px; text-align: justify; font-family: arial; font-size: 10px; height: 475px; overflow: auto; color: #1e1e1e;]Danii chuckled softly, she should have seen that one coming. The information highway did work both ways after all, "Hmm, either someone's been leaking information, or you happen to know someone that is very good with a computer," And the blond was going with the latter as opposed to the former as SHIELD agents generally knew how to keep their mouths shut, unless they went rouge of course. She automatically thought back to the stories she had heard about Agent 9, who had gone rouge and taken control of the Helicarrier to deliver it to Hydra. A momentary frown marred her features, quickly wiped away as she had a sip of her coffee and focused on the task at hand. "I was just waiting for the green light," She said with a smile, chuckling softly, the blond was well trained after all, and didn't do such things unless he was given the go ahead from her boss, "Well direct is always best right? No good getting wires crossed," She didn't like over-complicating things that didn't need to be complicated at all, that only made for unnecessary messes that he didn't feel like spending time cleaning, or getting a tongue lashing for. Pushing her sunglasses up again Danii had another quiet sip of her coffee and outright laughed, leaning back in her chair and giving her roommate a charming smile, "You can call me whatever ya want, but I gotta say Danii is less of a mouthful ain't it?" There was definitely a double entendre somewhere in there, as she tried to make light of the generally serious situation. "Really, is that how it works?" She had to lean forward again at that, rather amazed that it actually worked like that. And here she thought she wouldn't be fascinated by very much anymore, "But honestly, a magic word? That like something outta a comic book," Danii couldn't help but put that out there, it was really like something from fantasy, utterly amazing though and she definitely planned on badgering her roommate for more details eventually whether she joined up with the agency or not. Granted taking no for an answer wasn't really something Danii did very well or very often, so this was going to be good. Resting her chin casually on her hand, the blond quirked her lips in a smile again, "Because we really need all the help we can get, it's not a very hard job really, you get told to do something and you go do it," Alright in all honesty it was a little more complicated then that but that was essentially what it broke down to at the end of the day, "Do what you have to in order to get the job done, basically," She added more in an after-thought, "I'm sure you've noticed how crazy things have been getting lately, the crime rate is soaring so high it's almost impressive in a terrible way, riots, general chaos," Danii sighed, motioning to the paper at the end of the table, like every other paper in the country the front page had some cringe worth headline about the crime rate, "I'm not at liberty to discuss this in detail, but it wont just be you, we really need all the power we can get, as many hands as humanly possible," [/style]

TABLE BY CALIFORNIA DREAMING @ CAUTION 2.0

[marvelous]

Mary's docile tones rang with amusement, a light ripple of laughter filled the air. Innocent smile on her lips as she pushed off the counter and started perusing the kitchen cupboards. Coffee mug still in one hand while the other one opened and closed cabinets in search of something to make for dinner. Her roommate and attractive friend enjoyed the simpler things when it came to meals and though Mary loved cooking and also enjoyed the ground hamburger patty as much as the next person but not all the time.

"Let's just say I know people in high places. I have alot of friends in my line of costumed work. Some of them are pretty knowledgeable when it comes to the information superhighway. If someone had leaked the information I definitely would NOT be standing her considering your offer. Any organization that can't keep it's own operatives in line isn't a place whose operatives I would trust to watch my back. Not that my back normally needs watching." Mary spoke up as she gave up her search for something edible that didn't involve a dead cow. Clearly it was time to go grocery shopping.

"Unless of course the watcher is attractive. There's an exception to every rule." She giggled slightly, turning her head and winking over her shoulder before flipping her hair back and grabbing a refill for the mug.

She let out another slight laugh that was almost followed by the sound of Mary gagging after she unintentionally sucked air down the wrong pipe in her throat. Her thoughts were definitely going south but she would blame her roommate for that. She was experiencing things, thoughts and emotions she never knew she was capable of since moving in with Danii. She was so different from anyone Mary had known before. She was pleasant to be around, they had things in common including their love for the great outdoors and the fact they were both Yankees fans. The topper now had come out of the closet. They were both costumed superheroes. In Danii's previous comment however, the blond had said something about calling her whatever she wanted. All Mary picked up on were the words "mouthful of Danii".

Her roommate was trying to make light of the situation and ease Mary's uneasiness, to which Mary was thankful. Just as thankful as she was when Danii raised questions about how her powers worked. And she had to admit Danii had a point about it sounding like something from a comic book. Imagine what she'd say if she knew that a stuffed tiger came to life to first reveal the magic word to Mary that first transformed her into Mary Marvel No way would Danii believe it, Mary would bet her future farm on it.

She was intrigued by Danii's offer and she loved her country as much or more than anyone else. She considered herself patriotic. Her days of wearing rose colored glasses however, were over the day she first moved to New York. Noone was perfect, not even our American government but she'd stand behind them as often as she could. There was something about Danii, her need for help and the fact that she had picked her she couldn't say no to. Mary knew they wouldn't just pick her without giving her background and past a clean sweep. What else could Mary say?

"Alright Danii, I'm in. What happens next?"

[Danii "LadyLiberty" Washington]

[style=font-family: times; font-size: 12px; letter-spacing: 1px; text-transform: lowercase; color: #989898; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;]518 WORDS FOR MARY 8) You're such a strange girl I think you come from another world [/style]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=width,450,true][atrb=cellSpacing,0,true][atrb=cellPadding,0,true][atrb=style, background-color: #6d6d6d;] [style=padding: 10px; text-align: justify; font-family: arial; font-size: 10px; height: 475px; overflow: auto; color: #1e1e1e;]Leaning back, Danii crossed her legs and watched her roommate as she flittered back and forth, looking for something in the cabinets, and that was when she remembered that she needed to go grocery shopping. Granted in her defense, the last time she had been poised and ready to head off to the store she had gotten a call from Fury, which meant drop everything and go running to his call. Which of course was exactly what she did, and as such never finished even started getting the groceries. That man just had terrible timing sometimes, but justice never did rest so neither did she, "My bad, I got called out, never managed to finish grocery shopping," Danii said with an apologetic smile when her roommate gave up her search. "Don't we all?" Costumed heroes, although many of them liked to think they were lone wolves, freelancers that didn't have to bother with other people, seemed to have a tendency to band together. Didn't matter what world they were from it seemed, the clique of heroes seemed to stand no matter what, "Granted, I've gotta say I'm curious about this friend of yours," Anyone that could slip into the system and find out information like that without alerting someone was a person to keep an eye on, because that was one very useful talent to have, "We're pretty damn airtight if I say so myself, SHIELD agents are pretty damn trustworthy," They had to be, the agency was no joke, and turning on them was to bring down a something akin to the wrath of god on yourself. The blond cocked her head slightly, did her roommate just.....? The softest of chuckles left her, well Danii hadn't expected that out of the other woman. Though she was flattered, if she was reading the signal right, Danii wasn't particularly into that sort of thing but she was secure enough to be able to appreciate another woman's beauty and honestly, she was open minded enough for anything. Now wasn't necessarily the time to be thinking and analyzing the apparently mutual, light, if on her side attraction that seemed to have just made itself know, this was about work, and Danii was serious about things that came down to business, didn't matter with who. "Ya alright there Mary?" She had to ask when she heard her basically dying over there, alright so Danii was definitely stretching it there, but still, the little wrinkle of her brow in worry was real. The agent sat back when she was sure her roomie wasn't going to cough up a lung and sipped her rapidly cooling coffee, a smile on her face at the question, "Now I think we order out and I answer any questions you have, tomorrow, we head on off to get you all set up with SHIELD," Or at least that was the plan at the moment, "So! What do ya think, Chinese or Thai? Or just pizza, on me since I didn't get the groceries,"

[/b] [/div][/style][/td][/tr][/table]

TABLE BY CALIFORNIA DREAMING @ CAUTION 2.0

[/center]

[marvelous]

Mary's ears hung on every word Danni spoke until the mother of all embarrassing distractions came and she actually dared wink at the other woman. She took everything she did seriously, whether she was in costume, or working in her father's company before she returned to the big apple. She was normally a pretty straight-laced person and intended to take her duty as a Shield employee dutifully and seriously. Taking things seriously also included helping with her share of household maintenance and she wasn't about to let Danii pop for all of the groceries. They shared the place together and that meant sharing expenses too. That was just how Mary rolled, generous perhaps to a fault.

Hoping that Danii Washington hadn't seen what she'd just done, her head turned ever so slightly to break eye contact, staring once more into the nearly empty bowels of the cabinets while confusion, a slight wave, took over. She still had no idea why she had been starting to feel the things she'd been feeling lately and it was before today it just took her til now before realization sunk in. Was she actually attracted to her roommate?.

She shook her head. She knew it was unnatural, she'd never swung that way before but she couldn't deny what was inside. She could however either try to make the most of it or push it to the background...or roll with the changes.

"I actually do have a few questions, Lady Liberty." Mary began, squatting her ass into a seat and crossing her legs. "What kind of training and how much if any of it will I need to go through before I become an official agent? That's question one, and #2? Will this mean having to expose my identity? That's been a closely guarded secret for so long, I assume that if I did it would mean that I, not just my other self but yours truly would have to become more proactive? Just preparing for any scenario I suppose. Sorry if I seem ignorant. I'm really not, I promise."

Sitting now with her legs crossed below the table and her arms folded above it for a moment, she fished into her purse after a quick glance at her watch and slid an envelope across the table to her roommate.

"I apologize if I embarrassed you a few moments ago. I am not normally that forward. I blame you for having that effect on me and I don't mean that in a bad way. I will help buy groceries when the time comes but for tonight instead of buying delivery, I was thinking more about hot dogs and beer. Maybe cotton candy also." Mary added, waiting for Danii to open the envelope and begin freaking out. She did know a few things about the other woman. Things she learned since moving in, among them her roommates undying love for the Yankees, a trait that she shared with the woman.

Her mind was still spinning as she politely excused herself and gave the option to Danii of taking someone else with her if she wanted to. Standing and starting off to her bedroom she had alot to reflect on whether they went to the game together or not.

[Danii "LadyLiberty" Washington]

[style=font-family: times; font-size: 12px; letter-spacing: 1px; text-transform: lowercase; color: #989898; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;]483 WORDS FOR MARY 8) You're such a strange girl I think you come from another world [/style]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=width,450,true][atrb=cellSpacing,0,true][atrb=cellPadding,0,true][atrb=style, background-color: #6d6d6d;] [style=padding: 10px; text-align: justify; font-family: arial; font-size: 10px; height: 475px; overflow: auto; color: #1e1e1e;]She smiled, "As far as training is concerned, a lot of it is in the actual physical training, which you probably won't need to worry about if the stuff in your file is actually all true," Which Danii was guessing it was, or they wouldn't even be having this conversation at the moment. Instead they probably would have been chatting on the weather with Danii making no mention of any of this, ever, "Counter espionage training, and infiltration training, along with just generally being trained in how to handle the paperwork, cause there will be paperwork, and it is a bitch," In fact, she probably had a few reports she still had to get on, but man the woman did not want to. Danii herself had been well prepared for all of that sort of thing since she had been sixteen, the only that stopped her from becoming a SHIELD agent then was because she had joined the army instead, "The only people that really need to know, already know," Just like that, "You don't have to if you don't want to, but you'll likely end up on somethin' more like a reserve list if thats the case, so you wont actually end up on the day to day, where you basically have to give up your identity," Danii hummed a little, "There's a probation period too, just cause ya know, gotta be careful and sure you'd be the right material for the stuff, that lasts about six months," Smiling the woman sipped her coffee again, "Offended, never," The blonde had to raise a questioning brow at the envelope, taking it and slowly pulling out the tickets. And then she screamed like a child and immediately shot out of chair, jumping around the kitchen and yelling this and that about the utter greatness of the tickets that she was holding at the moment. Honestly, as big as a Yankee fan as she was, she had been to numerous ball games with her father, but it was still the most amazing thing ever to open an envelope and find the tickets nestled there like the greatest present ever. Almost immediately she was dancing around the kitchen, until she realized that her roommate wasn't there anymore. Which was probably for the best as her dancing was utterly terrible, still though, Danii went after her roomie, "You gonna go change or somethin'? Come on, traffic is gonna be a bitch and we gotta get there early," There was the momentary thought of bring someone else, but that would have been rude to no end as Mary had been the one that shelled out all the cash for the tickets, and they were great friends either way, "Ooo I'm gonna buy a foam finger, and a giant hotdog with ketchup and relish and come on we gotta go!" [/style]

TABLE BY CALIFORNIA DREAMING @ CAUTION 2.0

[marvelous]

Her heart was feeling lighter the more she bounced around her bedroom changing clothes. Listening to Danii's explanation of what would be expected from her and what her training would involved helped her feel better about it all in a large respect. She was typically very structure oriented. Disciplined and not unfamiliar with chains of command and the like but make no mistake. in for a penny in for a pound and Mary would go all in on this. It might not be a popular decision with her brother, with her family or even with the wizard but this was something she had to do. TYhe possibility the day would come when she would reveal her identity had always been there and she wondered from time to time how she'd respond when it arrived.

Tomorrow would be the day. It would be her first day on the SHIELD helicarrier and she would willingly tell anyone she needed to tht Mary Marvel, the Maiden of Might was in reality Mary Bromfield, that they were both one and the same person.

"I fully intend to make a total commitment to this Danii. I want to be trained as a full agent and that goes for both of my personas. Yours truly and the other face I wear as Mary Marvel." She voiced upon re-emerging from her bedroom wearing jeans socks sneakers and only a bra covering her chest. She was also holding a bag in one hand and a gift box, wrapped in the other. No she wasn't trying to show offer curves or planning to give the ballpark a peep show. She just wanted Danii to open her gift before Mary pulled her shirt for the evening out of the bag she carried, since both items were one and the same but in differing sizes. An authentic New York Yankees uniform and ball cap to go along with the tickets.

"I'm fully prepared to reveal my identity when the time arrives. The present I just gave you and the tickets are all part of the same package. Happy birthday to the best friend I have ever had. Didn't think I would forget did you?"

Mary beamed excitedly, wringing her hands in anticipation of the look on Danii's face while she pulled her own shirt out of her bag and slipped the jersey on. "The hat is optional, you don't have to wear it but you gotta go in the jersey." Mary nearly bubbled over with her own enthusiasm as she grabbed her purse and car keys. "Shall we be off?"

(OOC: Feel free to wrap this up and end it with your next reply)