Issue Three: I (heart) NY

After a delay of several seconds, Cap speaks.
"Oh, my word. Someone let me know when he's done."
He then proceeds to another part of the cabin. "Here I was thinking Pulsar was the only one capable of inflicting pain through the use of audible energy. Good thing I have Protected Senses."

Jim sits silently throughout all the byplay between the heroes, merely taking in information, observing the human condition. Occasionally he glances out the window, wearing a strange expression, almost rapturous. Illogical, I know. But flying brings me... joy? Is that the word?

"The name of the organization is Advanced Idea Mechanics, Captain," Jim responds in an oblivious manner, "and the only unethical activity that I know of is that they were going to murder my friend here."

Friend. Still sounds strange. Can robots have frinds? Can they feel Joy?

Pulsar takes a step back then, utterly shocked, and kicking himself for not being clearer about the "not mentioning I'm an ex-terrorist" thing.

Ummm... yea. I was pretty much just in it for the tech originally. Shield wanted to mind probe me before hiring me, and I just wasn't OK with that. I really didn't understand the consequences of what I was doing until I upgraded my brain with cyber-electronics. As my perceptions expanded, I began to realize that I was really on the wrong side. So I went to my superiors to tender my resignation. They ... didn't accept it. In fact, they sent thugs to my room right afterwards. I managed to dive into my suit, grab Jim, and the two of us blasted our way out of there.

Thank goodness they weren't keeping track of my free-time projects- or they would have known that lasers are the last thing you want to send against me. We pretty much left that base a smoking pile of rubble. Hrm. I suppose I should have done some sort of paint job on this suit or something to disguise it...

Beorn looks up from his reading with a searching gaze and then stands and comes over beside Pulsar. "Hello. I'm looking at this formula here and it seems illogical. Kind of backwards, you know? I just realized you might have some expertise with this stuff. Listen, I'm trying to get my head around the possibilities of field inversion and this Einstein fellow's absurd theories on matter/energy transparency and I'm having a bit of trouble. Do you have a few minutes?"

"AIM?!?", Cap asks.

"You worked with AIM?!??"

Cap looks towards the cockpit and shouts "'STAR, YOU MIGHT WANT TO BE IN HERE FOR THIS!"

"…upgraded your brain…?"

"…you don’t say?"

"…ya think?" Cap says, raising his eyebrows. He seems somewhat disturbed to be stuck on a long distance flight with a couple of super-powered AIM agents. He begins to say something to Pulsar when suddenly…

Cap stares at Beorn, who seems completely unphased by what was just revealed and unaware that he may just have prevented an uncomfortable conversation. Cap closes his mouth, straightens up, and you can almost hear him counting to ten in his head...

Jim looked back and forth between Pulsar and the Captain as the conversation escalated. "What? What's wrong?"

Rad moves as if ready to talk but then appears to second guess his actions and says "ummmmm....Why did Magneto dump his girlfriend?"......... He was feeling attracted to a refrigerator."

Cap glances over at Rad with that look he always has when he's annoyed about something before turning his attention back to Jim and Pulsar.
"AIM is essentiall a technologically-advanced terrorist organization, on par with groups like..."
Cap pauses, somewhat flustered, trying to find a suitable example "...Hydra."
Cap spends what seems like forever querrying Pulsar and Jim about what they did, as well as any locations, names, projects, dates, contacts, etc. that they might be able to provide.
Cap is so focused on this new revelation, he is completely unaware of Bova, who has come up behind him with a tray of baked sweets she was probably just about to offer everyone. Seeing that Cap is...ummm...busy...she stands there waiting patiently for him to finish. Since Rad, Beorn, and Blue Marvel are not directly impacted by the current conversation, they are free to swarm Bova and the sweets tray as Pulsar and Jim watch its contents continually dwindle during Cap's version of 20(+) questions.
Beorn, Jim, and Pulsar's players: check your PMs.

The beans having been already spilled, as it were, and hoping to get a bite of Bova's tasty treats, Pulsar begins to relate all the knowledge his perfect recall can provide, which is quite a bit, reaching for a bite now and then as he talks.

Well, you see, to the people on the ground, working for AIM is really no different than working for SHIELD or any other secretive organization. It's not like we torture puppies for fun in the rec room or anything. Most of the recruits tend to be young, intelligent and amoral, rather than evil. The higher-ups, on the other hand, are a pretty nasty bunch. But really, who hasn't thought their boss was evil at one time or another?
So most of the AIM scientists cope by keeping their heads down and staying absorbed in their work. That's how I got along. They hit you with some heavy propaganda in their recruitment videos downplaying the whole terrorist thing and emphasizing the incredible access to technology. Since they have such strict limits on the amount of information that any individual can know about the organization as a whole, I really can't tell you much besides what my teams were personally working on, and who my immediate supervisors were.

And Hydra? Oh man did we razz on those losers. I mean, really. Does anyone take them seriously? A.I.M. made a freaking Cosmic Cube! Not our fault that putz the Red Skull got ahold of it later. What did Hydra ever do? Just make a dumb chant.

But hey, I'm on the winning team now, anyway.

And he proceeds to relate all the information he knows regarding the terrorist organization.

Beorn's piercing blue eyes are hooded beneath his shaggy brows as he hears this talk of AIM. Strange to find so quickly after years of searching both Avengers technologists and now AIM, for whom he had long searched. He had read in a paper about this cosmic cube some time back and it drew him.

Beorn quickly took the tray from Bova with a shushing and carried it about the cabin. His pat obsequiousness was changed now into a sly manner and once having delivered the treats, he sat in a nearby seat to listen very intently.

What else do you know?