Xaviers!

Intercept leans back in her chair, watching the data flit around the control center. There were monitors, but she didn't need them, so they weren't displaying anything at the moment. New recruits potentially coming in, potential de-stabilizations, a couple of football games from Earth-1723, all wandered in front of her eyes as she propped her feet on one of the consoles.

The Riftgate chamber reported an activation from the team on Earth-887. Within moments, the room's titular device irised open and the forming wormhole briefly billowed outward like a jet of roiling bubbles in water. Upon settling, the deceptively terrifying armored hulk known as Thresh stepped through, 'gently' dragging a prisoner behind him. A hole in his metal exoskeleton oozed a dark blue fluid and a rare spark, but he didn't seem to notice.

"Honey! I'm home!" he announced jokingly for the umpteenth time.

"Do I need to program you a new joke?" Intercept's voice asks over the speaker as several of the cameras in the chamber swivel to look at him from various angles. "What happened to you?"

"Mad science dude here had a goon with a plasma rifle," the machine explained, "It looks worse than it is."

He sighed. "Shiro's gonna be mad at me again."

"You should watch out for the mad science types. I would think you would be intimately familiar with those."

"Pfft. Shiro's only half-mad," he scoffed.

"Well, okay, he did help create this military murder machine he dumped my brain into."

"Your honor, the prosecution rests." In the control room, she smirks, "Toss the crook in a stasis cell and then I'll see if I can give you a look. Might save you some hassle from Shiro."

"Want some quality alone time with yours truly, eh?" he joked flirtatiously.

"You're not machine enough for me, dear," she says, getting up and heading for one of the tech rooms.

"You saw that now," he said with a shark-like grin, the trio of lights on the left side of his head blinking in a makeshift wink. To be fair, it was painted on.

"Come on Doc, time to go to your room." When that was done, he headed for the tech room.

Natalie was leaning back in a chair, the robotic arms of the room moving at her whim. One with a magnification arm approaches and begins zooming in on the hole. "I think we can patch this," she says, her eyes glazed over with her sight elsewhere. "Sorry if I'm slow, I'm monitoring a potential recruit on Earth-1077."

"Are they about to save the world? They're usually about to save the world."

Other arms moved in, beginning to tinker around the hole, measuring and bringing parts for replacement. "She's poised to become a major player in her world. I'm not sure how she got her powers, but might be worth looking into. She's a native though, so not an enforcement target."

"So, not a job for me unless she gets in serious trouble."

"You're not really the recruiter type," she says, "But you might be useful to have along. It looks like her world is in the middle of a war. Soon as I get you patched up, we'll go take a look." One of the arms began sparking as it put patches in places.

"I could totally be a recruiter if I wasn't trapped in a scary robot," he scoffed.

"You should ask Shiro for a friendlier body to inhabit sometimes. I'm sure he'd love to hear that," she smirks, rapidly finishing up the patching. "I need to get changed before heading to 1077. You going or staying?"

"Wouldn't miss it even if I was a giant teddy bear."

"Meet me in Rift Bay 7 then," she says, finishing the patch job and heading off.

Shortly afterward, she enters the bay with her hair restyled and dressed in something more appropriate to 1077. The riftgate begins booting up, locking in on a good insertion position near the target recruit. "Just be on guard, I'd like to cause as little disturbance as possible," she says, adjusting the skirt she's wearing with an uncomfortable look.

"In that outfit?" he asked, a boyish smirk in his voice.

Natalie sticks her tongue out at him as the gate finishes its alignment and ripples into being. She then takes a deep breath and steps through the gate.