Berlin, Germany...
Above Berlin, Germany actually...
Icarus Sidewinder soared blissfully over the city of Berlin, soaking up the sun through the open visor of his helmut. His father had told him to warm up (and reacquaint himself) with the auxiliary jetpack while he continued to work on the primary. Though Icarus was a bit put off by the prospect of flying the lesser pack, given his lack of other acceptable options, he had no other choice. And, while this pack was not quite as fast or maneuverable, it was able to suit his purposes fine.
A beeping noise within his helmut interrupted his up-'til-now peaceful flight as Icarus rolled his eyes and quickly pressed a button on his chest console. Almost immediately, Icarus' breathing apparatus deployed from his pack, which the pilot detached and placed over his face. Sidewinder, however, was not short of oxygen. Rather, he was receiving a phone call.
"Sidewinder," he almost sighed into the microphone located within his breathing apparatus.
"Icarus, it's Paragon." The voice of Doctor William Paragon entered the pilot's ears through the speakers mounted in the sides of his helmut.
"William!" Icarus called, seemingly elated to hear from his friend and employer. "What an unexpected surprise! To what do I owe the pleasure?"
"Unexpected?" came Paragon's dubious reply. "Did you not receive the page I sent you nearly twenty minutes ago?"
Icarus laughed in spite of himself. "Of course, I did! I merely wanted to test my equipment before heading to Munich. That is alright, yes?"
Paragon's reply was immediate and decisive. "You can test your equipment on your own time," he answered, his tone a touch scolding. "Right now, we have a client requesting your presence alongside your teammates. Understood?"
"Crystal, William!" Icarus said, smiling as if at some private joke he'd just told himself. "I'm over Berlin at the moment in the secondary pack. I should be about ten minutes, okay?"
"The rest of the team is waiting, Icarus."
"Ta, William!" Icarus answered, severing the connection. Then, sliding his visor down, he began to accelerate, veering in the direction of Munich...
Twenty minutes later...
Paragon sat at the head of the meeting table, drumming his fingers against the dark wood surface rhythmically. The other members of Vanguard Europe sat around the table, displaying varying degrees of boredom.
Edmund Gaunt's mind flowed back to his earlier dealings that morning almost as an involuntary impulse. Drake Marshall kept rubbing at his face, making sure he'd gotten all the make-up off. Adem Different rechecked his figures, trying to acertain how long it should take for someone traveling from Berlin at Icarus' speed to arrive in Munich. Lady Lykopis kept squelching the urge to tackle the next thing that moved in the room as she fought her boredom probably harder than anyone else in the room realized. And, Link Fox - who'd just arrived a few minutes earlier - was wondering to himself why he hadn't bought that extra croissant.
"Hey, everyone!" came a voice from the doorway. The entire team looked over to see Icarus Sidewinder standing in the doorway, dressed in form-fitting designer jeans, a vintage t-shirt, aviator sunglasses, and Converse high-tops. His hair, as always, was perfectly coiffed. He wore a black duffel bag slung over his shoulder and carried his jetpack's carrying case in his hand.
Dumping his 'luggage' on the floor, he turned around the seat next to Edmund Gaunt and sat down, clapping the man on the back. "Hey, Perry! How's it going?" The Shadow Chancellor glowered as his face seemed to become more shadowed than usual.
"Icarus..." Paragon began. "Where have you been?"
"Oh, right," Icarus said, laughing a bit. "That. Well, I arrived ten minutes ago, like I said, but I can't sit very long in my flight suit, so I had to change out... obviously. And, then, I realized that I had the worst case of helmut hair you've ever seen which my vanity simply cannot allow!" He shook his head a bit with a flourish as he made that last point. "So... yes. Sorry, everyone."
Everyone stared at the pilot blankly. Then, Drake Marshall leaned in to the person next to him. "Dang, this guy's way more effeminate than Lyko--" Marshall stopped short and his eyes widened when he realized that he was talking to the She-Wolf herself. The Amazon arched an eyebrow, as though daring him to finish. Drake gulped audibly. "--pis..." he finished weakly.
"Is that so?" the warrior said. "And this from a man who does not know how to wash his make-up off properly?"
Drake swore silently to himself, pulling a mirror out of his pocket and checking his face again for any cosmetic remnants that might still be lurking.
"Alright," Paragon said, rising from his seat. "Now that everyone's finally arrived..." He shot a glance over at Icarus, who was obliviously chuckling at Drake. "...we can begin."
