Thomas Morgan poured everyone a glass of wine (or water or whatever you prefer) then raised his own. "In my career as a hero, I found friends and ... lost them. You'll need to learn about each other and hopefully, you'll come to be more than just a thrown together collective of heroes. Hopefully, you'll make a family for yourselves here in the Guardians. You'll come to rely on each other; you'll come to know that your life is safest when your teammates are at your side. You will learn to give of yourself and that everything you give, will be given back to you by your teammates. I hope that you learn to laugh, love and cry with your teammates. To the Guardians! May you find friendship even in the face evil!"

The toast rang warmly in Shimmers' ear. She remembered her days on the Chicago PD fondly and craved to have that kind of comraderie again.

Morgan escorted them into a well-appointed dining room with a table set full of food. In the room was a short, slightly round man in a black suit. "Please allow me to introduce you to Jon Wright, he'll be taking care of the living side of the house and attending to your needs. He's a close friend of mine and I hope that you learn to enjoy his Italian cooking skills as much as I did. Remember, you'll need an extra hour of practice to burn off his Cannoli." He looked over the table, "The spread looks excellent, Jon."

"Thank you, Mr. Morgan." Jon replied with a short bow. "Please, Guardians, have a seat, the eggplant and veal parmigiana will be ready shortly." He turned on a heel and walked back into the kitchen.

"Rod and I are going to be leaving now, you each have a room here - in case you need to stay over." Thomas began, "Rod has an early morning for you tomorrow. This might be a good night to use them. Otherwise, hotel accommodations can be made for you in Aspen, or Denver. Rod?"

"At 0900," Rod announced, "there will be a practice session. Nothing all the difficult, just the six of you against our practice room. I'll be here to supervise and at 1100, I'll bring over your liaison for you to meet." He nodded to each, "We're going to leave you to get acquainted. Until tomorrow."

Thomas stopped and looked back at them, "I am very proud to know you and very happy that you decided to join the team."

Ivan stepped into the dining hall and surveyed the room and its occupants dispassionately. Finally, he removed his sunglasses and slipped his duffel from across his shoulders to drop it heavily on the ground before sitting.

After Morgan and Bellar had left, Wild Lotus relaxed back in her chair and looked at her five companions -- teammates now, she supposed she must think of them -- wondering how many had planned to stay the night.

"In the name of new friendship," she murmured, "I can offer almost instantaneous travel service to wherever you say, if you'd like to return home tonight to pick up some things." She smiled warmly. "I know I did not come so prepared. Depending on how far `home' is from here, the trip itself can be accomplished within a heartbeat or two, then back in the same time."

Jack flicked an eyebrow; he'd thought of a lot of things, but preparation for a sleep over - heck, a move - was beyond his planning skills. All he had were a change of warmer clothes, should the climate turn sour.

"I may take you up on that offer, eventually. I won't lie; right now, I'm interested in the food." He rubbed his belly sarcastically.

"It's excellent," Paladin's modulated voice commented from where he stood. "I'll give these guys one thing for sure, the kitchen staff knows their stuff."

"Mind if I ask ... well, how?" Jack asked. "I mean, we've got to get to know what we can all do, right? So how can you get us home almost instantly?"

"I have the ability to enter a mass of foliage at one point and emerge at another mass some point distant." Lotus smiled, sipping her wine. "I can take at least one person and some gear through at a time. I've not yet tried more than that. My longest range seems to be about 1200 miles."

Leah listened to the conversation with a faint smile. She knew all of this already. She and Amrita had done considerable experimentation over the last few months, though some of their experiments had gone better than others. The trip to Hawaii (via numerous stops around the Pacific Rim) had been a lot of fun. Their unexpected arrival in a heavily armed encampment somewhere in Colombia...not so much. Exciting--but not much fun.

Paladin considered for a moment and then asked, "Does the foliage in question have to be natural? What I mean is, could you make use of a potted plant or a tree inside of a resort foyer, for instance?"

"I can, and do," she nodded. "I'm still experimenting with the minimum amount needed to do this -- it really doesn't seem to be much. I have sunk down through lawn grass, for instance. Or flowed into an ornamental vine in my home. As long as it is alive and healthy, the passage is possible."

With a tilt of her head, Lotus placed her wineglass on the table and addressed Paladin. Iron Maiden recognizes the small smile (good humor that's almost irrepressible) flickering at the corners of her friend's mouth. "Now I have a question for you: Is it possible for you to eat, wearing that helmet, and maintain any mystery as to your identity?"

Shimmer laughed abruptly at Lotus' comment but stifled it quickly with her hand and an apolgetic look at the armored hero. She did feel bad to poke fun at him but she'd been wondering the exact same thing.

"No," the armored avatar replied in a matter-of-fact tone that was either great sarcastic humor on his part or a complete lack of appreciation for the same.

"Morgan didn't design this suit with dinner in mind. I can fly, I've got more variable firepower than a military assault vehicle, I'm protected from most harm and radical environments, and my TSC systems are beyond state of the art. But a burrito is completely out of the question."

Shimmer smiled warmly at Paladin, appreciating what she perceived as his dry humor.

Apparently Wild Lotus thought it was funny, for she laughed lightly. "A design flaw, to be sure, then," Lotus chuckled, relaxing back in her chair. "Until it's remedied, I'll forebear the niceties of social dining as well -- in the spirit of comradeship, if you will. Since food is an option for me, not a necessity, it's the least I can do."

"Not me," Sniper said with a wry smirk. He gave a sardonic tip of his wine glass before downing the rest of his merlot.

"Which brings us to one of the first big decisions this group--this team-in-the-making--should consider," Leah said. "Are we going to keep our identities secret from one another? We could all agree to maintain any secret identities we have, all agree to share them, or I suppose we could leave it up to each individual.

"I'm inclined to say we should share them. It's one thing to keep my name out of the papers, but quite another not to trust my name to the people I'll be fighting beside." She glanced over at Paladin and smiled. "And then Paladin would be free to join us at dinner."

Lotus grinned at her. "I agree completely. I'm going to be trusting you all with my life, after all. And you'll be trusting yours to me. I'd prefer to de-mask right now -- and as the Maiden says, it would allow our Paladin to join us in what looks to be an exquisite meal."

The Russian couldn't help but chuckle with mild amusement. This fascination with masks and hidden identities always struck him as duplicitous. Just on the fairer side of cowardly. Recognizing that his opinion was obviously in the minority, he said nothing and quickly schooled his humor.

"Wow..." Shimmer considered the proposal aloud. "I hadn't really thought about that, but it would make sense to share our identities. I can't imagine maintaining it for very long...and to do so, in my opinion, would go against the spirit of trust that the team is aiming for. ..or at least that I'm aiming for."

Sniper looked at the costumed woman with unveiled intensity. "Dah," he said finally, skeptically, and leaned forward over the table. He knew her from somewhere. Even her voice was familiar.

He gave a winning grin. A casual shrug. "In ze spirit of trust, right?"

An impish grin found it's way to Shimmer's face, all but confirming Sniper's suspicions.

"Indeed," Lotus said. "Since it occurs it's not only my life I'm putting in trust here, but that of my family as well." Her bright green gaze turned to where Singularity Man was eating heartily of veal parmigiana. "Which leaves only you to state your preference, good sir. Oh, and Paladin as well. What will it be?"

Singularity Man looked up, his cheeks pressed out with a mouthfull of food. He didn't eat savagely, didn't eat as if it were his last meal. He did, however, eat quickly. A sign, one of many to come, that family time in his past meant something entirely different than sharing a meal.

He took a few cautious, slow chews, as if the question had filled his mouth with caltrops. He swallowed, slowly. He was biding his time.

"I ... well, I don't know. I guess I never really thought about that. And, uh ... well, I mean, yeah, I'm going to trust you guys with my life and all, but my identity is kinda a failsafe, you know. It's how I keep myself from being found. And no offense, but I kinda think that the fewer people who know who I really am, the safer I'll be. I think.

"Then again, it's hard to trust someone who won't tell you their name. I can't expect you guys to tell me your names if I don't do the same, right?" Jack pushed peas around on his plate. "Shit, I don't know. No warming up to the idea, right? Just dive right in?"

The good-humored tilt of her eyes softened just a bit. "I apologize," Lotus said quietly, the smile still not quite disappeared from the corners of her mouth. "None of us intended to push hastily. It is a large decision and there's no need for you to make it now if you need more time. And if Paladin agrees with you, well, it may be that none of us will reveal our secrets this night."

Leah observed Singularity Man struggle with the idea and felt sympathy for his position, as did Amrita, obviously. Leah had thought about this before. Long before the meeting, in fact, she'd thought long and hard about the implications. Though it might have sounded like a spur of the moment question, she'd already thought about the potential consequences of revealing her identity to her team mates.

Three people can keep a secret--if two of them are dead, as the saying went. She'd shared her secrets with Amrita early on, and then with Rachel. AEGIS might or might not know who she really was. She wasn't sure she believed it when Bellar said they hadn't tried to find out, but even if they hadn't, they could.

The secret was already out of her control. Others could share it, accidentally or otherwise, at any time. It would be inconvenient. Troublesome, even. But ultimately she could live with it if she had to. And someone had to go first.

Leah took a deep breath and blew it out. "On other hand," she said, "Some of us just might dive right in after all." She pulled her mask off with one hand and met Singularity Man's gaze. "Don't feel obliged to follow suit if you don't want to. This is my choice." She extended her free hand.

"Leah Wright," she said. "Pleased to meet you. "

There are few times when a young man of confidence, intelligence, wealth and power can be caught off guard. Most of them involve surprise events in unexpected scenarios. This, while an odd scenario to be sure, was not an unexpected event. To unmask here made sense, given the nature of the conversation and such.

Yet somehow, despite the logic of Iron Mai - no, Leah's - actions, Jack was caught totally off guard. He had to check to make sure food hadn't slipped from his pins-and-needles lip.

A second passed. Jack reacted with a sharp shake of his head. What now? Take off the costume? Dont' think about it, it'll disappear if you do. Focus on the food. No, can't do that, gotta think about something else.

"Follow suit and you're a dead man," his father echoed.

Dont' listen to him. Focus on the costume. Focus on Leah. Focus on whatever it takes to keep your guard up.

"Dead," his father echoed. More a threat than anything else.

Again, Jack shook his head. His hand followed suit, taking Leah's hand in a firm, short grasp.

"Pleasure to meet you, Leah. I'm ... ya know what, I'm sorry. For now, I'm just Singularity Man. I need time to process this, but, uh ... it's cool that you trust us like that. All of us," he said.

Shimmer's eyes widened and then her face fell into a wince at Singularity Man's unintentional slight. "...um...Singularity Man? That's an unusual name. May I ask what your powers are?" Anna spoke quickly eager to move beyond the impending uncomfortable moment that dared crash their evening.

Leah glanced at Shimmer for a moment. She appreciated the attempt at diplomacy, but it wasn't necessary. "Singularity Man it is, then," Leah said. "I was serious when I said that this was my choice. I thought about it before I got here. I'd rather my real name didn't become public knowledge, but if it gets out--and there are people who aren't in this room who already know it--I can live with the consequences."

"That being said," Leah continued, "Is anyone else game to fess up?" She made a show of looking around the room before settling her attention on Wild Lotus. "What about you, Lotus? Are you game?"

"If my friend has acted with an honorable heart, how can I do any less?" Lotus was smiling that smile, warm and gentle and slightly bemused, the one that always let Leah know that her friend was being guided by a principle taught to her by either her late husband, or her father -- and usually by example. Her long fingers tugged gracefully at the fabric at her neck for a moment, then pulled the partial facemask off and over her head, spilling loose red hair over her shoulders.

The face revealed there was... beautiful. High, delicate cheek and brow bones framed large, brilliant green eyes. Gently sloping nose. A strong yet feminine jaw, rounded chin, full lips that still smiled in a way that made you feel as if you'd been intimate with her for years. She stood, placing her palms together at chest level, a traditional Hindu greeting. "Namaste," she murmured, then reached out a hand to Paladin. "My name is Amrita Singh."

This was one instance where having your face hidden behind a full helmet was a godsend. Amrita Singh, Paladin marveled. I knew there was something familiar in her manner and attitude.

He'd always considered her something of a shrinking violet, and for the first time he pardoned his own pun. But Amrita Singh, a superheroine? He'd never have imagined it. Oh, she had the heroic values and ideology in spades, but he would never have placed her as someone who overtly courted and confronted danger. Not like this.

It only added to his difficulty in deciding to maintain his secret for now. He took her hand again, just as gently as before but perhaps with a bit more warmth, if such a thing could be noticed through an indestructable metal casing.

"It is my sincere pleasure to meet someone as forthright and loyal to her friends as you are, Ms. Singh," he replied, grateful for the modulation which masked his own voice. If she'd heard it, she was likely smart enough to ID him.

"I hope you'll soon feel able to trust us all enough to join us," she replied, understanding in her sparkling green eyes. "This is only going to grow more awkward for all of us, the longer it goes on."

Amrita released his armored gauntlet then turned to the man known as Sniper, her perfectly shaped eyebrows raised in polite inquiry. "You do not wear a mask to hide your face, and yet we do not yet know your real name, sir. You are...?"

Ivan turned his full attention to her, a sly smirk spreading. "Ivan Chekov," he replied by way of introduction. And that was it -- he left it at that.

Leah turned to Singularity Man. "And now that that's settled," she said, "Shimmer had a good question. What is your power? I assume you don't shrink down into a gravitational point source."

"A, uh ... what? No, I don't think so," he stated, slowing his chewing to a snail's pace. "No, I seem to be able to affect matter on a molecular level, be it my own or that of others. It's ... well, it's really hard for me to quantify exactly what I can and can't do. Even I'm still learning my own limits and edges. I know I can sense where other people are, if I try ..."

'Shut up', his father begged him. He continued without missing a beat.

"I've walked through walls, I've turned myself into a cloud, and I've changed the forced of gravity around me. Really, the name is more of a credit to how I got my abilities than anything else, but that's another story for another time. Mainly cause it's a long one."

He took another bite of vegetables and looked up at them, with all the doe-eyed bravado of a teenager who, for a moment, had been the center of attention. Now, his father still screaming in his mind's ear, he did the best he could to force a smile, and to keep his chin up.

"That sounds interesting." Shimmer could appreciate Singularity Man's discomfort and did what she could to help. "I'm a mentalist...but please don't mistake that to mean I'm a brainiac." She chuckled lightly at that. And my real name is Anna Disalvo. You probably haven't heard of me, but I'm an ex-cop from Chicago.

It was the mention of Chicago that did it. Sniper looked at her anew, this time with instant recognition, and a grin spread. That would figure, he mused. It certainly shed a whole new light on the events of last night.

Paladin was grateful for the change of subject. He'd thought long and hard about the issue of revealing himself. In his case, it was much more complex than just removing a mask. The helmet did keep him from doing certain things like eating or drinking with his teammates, something he'd long ago learned was a great way to engender that special team spirit when made part of the routine. But his personal identity carried with it a special set of circumstances.

There were a few in the media who still questioned his decision to skip the obvious career path and make the choices he made - or appeared to make for the benefit of the media. Those people would want to do follow-ups, and interviews, and feature stories on the cable network shows with a "where are they now" kind of angle.

So he'd made the decision to keep his helmet on, and more than that, to maintain a residence outside the headquarters. It wasn't conducive to the bonding process, but it was necessary, at least for now.

He'd never regretted the fame that had come with his success until the success was over.

Shimmer turned her attention to Paladin and addressed him. "It seems as though you were the first recruited. Do you have any insight on our new employers or their expectations of us? Any idea if they want us to follow a chain of command since we chose to be sanctioned?"

"I'm fairly certain that there will be someone chosen to make decisions in the field," Paladin replied, "but I'm also fairly certain they first want to see what our tendencies and inclinations are when working as a team. As for expectations, they expect us to give 100% every time we're tasked and to work together as a team, and not a group of individuals. Planning and precision of execution are important, so expect some training dedicated to that as well."

In reality, it wasn't much different than his previous job's expectations. If everybody worked together, as a team, and were focused on executing a plan, things went well. When that didn't happen...well, you typically lost. It was the definition of "lost" in this new context that bothered him. Morgan, with his lost legs, knew all about that.

Ivan allowed another chuckle at that, as if, for the second time at the table, he shared with himself an inside joke. More and more as the evening progressed he was keenly aware of a certain irony -- one that continuously cropped up throughout his career; Sniper was not a team player.

Again he schooled his amusement and kept this oversight to himself. Eventually, someone would figure it out, but until then the pay was too good to pass up.

"Something funny?" Paladin asked.

Once again composed, the reply was emotionless. Simply, "Nyet."

"Not that it's any of my business, but, you sound like you've done this a lot before. I don't know about the rest of you, but I've never really worked in a team setting before. I'm going to need all the training I can get."

Paladin nodded. "It's true, I do have a lot of experience working with teams in high pressure situations." If only they knew, he mused to himself. "If there's anything I can help you with - any of you - just let me know. We're in this together."

Leah had dished up some food for herself while the conversation swirled around her. She pulled out a chair and sat down near Shimmer--Anna DiSalvo. Leah had skipped the lasagna--much as she liked lasagna, as far as Leah was concerned eggplant was a contaminant, not a food. But there was plenty of other food available and it was all delicious.

"Ex-police officer, eh?" Leah said. "Why did you leave the police force--if you don't mind my asking?"

Anna's face lost its good humor and her eyes now seemed remorseful, it was evident that this wasn't her favorite topic of conversation. For Anna this was a more difficult subject to broach than her secret identity. "I loved working as a police officer and I really miss it." Shimmer smiled warmly at the memory.

"I had to take a leave of absence for medical reasons and haven't been able to return." Shimmer was an honest sort for the most part and her answer didn't sit well to her ears. Even though her response was true it lacked the details that her team would need to know if they were going to trust her. A part of her ached for Nocturne, someone that knew her and accepted her for who she was...AND, she reminded herself soberly, someone who chose to walk his own path.

Deciding that it was best to mention her disability now rather than later, Anna took a deep breath wiped her mouth with her napkin and divulged her greatest embarrassment. "Iya...Iya...well, actually in the spirit of confidence and team, I was discharged for psychiatric reasons, us mentalists tend to be a delicate sort." She chuckled lightly but her heart wasn't in it. "I am a mentalist with the unique ability to shift into the forms of others. They used me extensively on an undercover mission and I had an identity crisis where my undercover persona overwhelmed my true identity." Anna shook her head, hearing it out loud brought the true magnitude crashing down on her.

"Trust me. I know this is horrible but I've been on medication for the disorder and theory suggests that the identity crisis only occurred because of the nature of my assignment and prolonged exposure to my alternate self." Anna's tone rang with sincerity and her eyes begged for acceptance. "I would never join a team if I imagined this to be an active issue." After her confession she finished off the rest of her wine in one quick fluid motion.

Leah listened to Anna's story with great interest. Her question had struck more deeply than she'd expected. Leah certainly understood how stressful situations could affect one deeply. She'd been seeing a therapist for over a year herself. She'd started seeing Dr. Gershwitz after her near death experience with the Chimera virus, but he'd helped her see that her childhood had scarred her more deeply than she'd realized.

"I don't doubt it," Leah assured Anna. She laid a hand on Anna's. "And it's not horrible. Extreme stress can have a lot of destructive consequences. If you got help, then there's nothing to be ashamed of."

"And Bellar and Morgan wouldn't have contacted you if they thought it was going to be a problem. That I do know," Paladin reassured her. His inner sense wasn't as sure as his tone let on, though. While their sponsors went to great lengths to pre-screen all of them, the human mind always seemed a great mystery.

'I hope so', Anna thought nervously. The concern had been there since she'd decided to stay that maybe Bellar didn't know that he'd signed up a mental case. Morgan had promised the group that the surveillance had stopped before following them home and assertaining their true identities. Only time would tell.

Despite Anna's worries she appreciated Leah and Paladin's support and allowed their reassurance to settle her nerves. "Thanks guys."

'A mentalist', Jack's father echoed in his mind. He said it with the same tone, the same inclined voice as he would've said a bomb, or a disaster, or the specter of death. Didn't matter. To him, they were three one and the same. 'She's going to have you figured out in a heartbeat, and then this whole stupid team fiasco is going to blow up in your face. I warned you.'

Jack tightened his jaw, shuffled in his seat, and resumed eating. Focus on the broccoli. Focus on the fork. Focus on anything, other than the extra voice in your head. Anything.

Amrita nodded, sympathy in her eyes. She'd not had much of an identity at all before contact with the Chimera virus had changed her irrevocably. Anna's difficulties were of another magnitude completely, but certainly must be well within this woman's ability to master. "What doesn't kill us makes us stronger," she murmured. "Your inner strength must be formidable indeed, Anna. I look forward to working with you."

"The feeling is mutual. I'm really excited about working with this group." Anna looked at Sniper and Iron Maiden, "So what do you guys do...I mean special ability wise and such?"

"Well, I'm very strong--and very resistant to injury, too," Leah said. "Which--" she looked over at Paladin in his armor--"is probably the main thing Aegis was interested in. And I fly," she added, glancing at Amrita with sparkling eyes. Amrita well knew how she felt about this.

"Being strong and tough is awfully nice," Leah said, "but as far as I'm concerned flying is where I hit the jackpot. It's the most fun you can have with your clothes on."

Anna laughed knowingly at Leah's exhuberance. "Indeed that is fun."

Ivan laughed as well at the remark. Shimmer glanced at him expectantly. "I am Sniper," he said, as if that was explanation enough.

But then he leaned back in his chair and shoved his hands in his pockets. A mischievious smirk spread across his face. "I am just a man vith a really... big...

"...Gun."

Leah laughed. "I'm sure you are," she said, "but I've known guys with big...guns before who didn't know how to use them. I hate when that happens," Leah said sadly, dropping her gaze.

She looked up again. "Do you?" she asked. "Know how to use it? Your gun, I mean?"

"I vould not be here if not," he replied with a wink.

Leah gave him an appraising look. "That's good to know, then," she said..

Then she turned her attention to Anna. "So what do you mean when you say you're a 'mentalist'? That word can cover a lot of ground. Are a telepath? An empath? Can you create illusions, or influence or control peoples' actions?"

Anna inhaled deeply at the question before replying. She knew that a lot of people were unsettled by her type of mental powers and she hoped that her teammates wouldn't be among them. "My powers are predominantly mental manipulation and telekinetic in nature. I have telepathy and can carry multiple links with various minds as needed. I can also dominate and control other people's thoughts when necessary...but it isn't something that I use willy nilly."

(I certainly hope not,) Leah thought. She didn't think Anna would use her ability capriciously, but the thought that she could was a little unsettling. (Of course,) Leah thought, (I suppose other people feel the same way about me.)

She'd seen it in peoples' eyes on occasion, and in their body language: the knowledge that the woman standing in front of them could literally tear them apart and there was nothing they could do to stop it. That she wouldn't didn't enter into the equation. That she could was enough to make some people visibly uneasy around her. Leah didn't doubt that Anna got the same reaction to her abilities--which was all the more reason to avoid doing the same to her.

"I'm also able to telekinetically shift myself and my surroundings. This allows me limited shape shifting abilities and the ability to fly." Anna continued, her tone almost rehearsed as if she'd answered this question time and time again. "I can also protect myself somewhat with this ability and alter minor things about my physique that can temporarily aid me." Shimmer grinned mischeiviously, "Other than being a mental case I'm pretty cool."

"Well, you can fly--that's cool by definition," Leah said. "At least I think so! We'll have to go out for a flight sometime, compare notes. Maybe tonight, if we end up staying over."

OOC: OK -- consider this free-form RP. It'll start here and continue into the practice session. Please check out the OOC posts for some questions I have about that. AM