Summary:A SHIELD team goes underground to rescue the captive animalistic mutants. Log Info:Storyteller: None |
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SHIELD couldn't quite pinpoint the phone. Its underground position broke the GPS signal, so the best they could do was find the closest cellular tower — and in the Disaster Zone, the remaining towers pull triple duty or more, giving them a wider territory to narrow down.
So Jimmy went in to search, in his own unique way. Now he's found something and called it in, bringing the team to gather near a collapsed building near the eastern edge of the Disaster Zone's northwest quadrant.
Jimmy himself — or perhaps we should call him Heavensent while he's on the job — wears a borrowed tac vest under his coat and carries a medical kit. He still moves a bit stiffly, hinting at bruises underneath, but he's mostly recovered. "They're right below that building," he says, pointing. "Ms. Potts and Jarvis got back to me already. With all the collapses in the area, the only way down is into the drainage system, through there, and then a long tunnel. From this distance, I can't get anything exact… just the stirred-up fear and anger of cornered animals." He shivers. "That's too loud for me to hear anything else." Deep breath. "Everyone ready?"
Nearby, a passage irises open out of thin air, shaped like a vertical oval roughly the proportions of an ordinary doorway, and edged with yellow-golden tracings of eldritch runes and mystical geometry. Jimmy, of course, has seen this before. As soon as the portal is fully open, Sarah Black steps through, wearing black-on-black SHIELD tactical dress with a WAND logo shoulder patch. Behind her comes a second figure…
Emerging from the portal, Agent Barton looks backwards over his shoulder a bit at the element of magical transition, crinkling his nose for some reason before turning his attention to their surroundings. Then when he gets the brief from Jimmy he gives a slow steady nod.
"Mmm," Is offered succinctly, then he takes a few steps to crouch at the lip of one of those depressions, casting his gaze down towards the best point of ingress for the drainage system and fights off a scowl. "Stick with me, Agent Black, you get the glamour assignments."
He rubs some of the dirt and grime of the debris between thumb and forefinger, gloved hand sifting through the remains briefly before he regains his feet. In his black tactical uniform he seems to match most other SHIELD agents, except for the collapsible bow over one shoulder and that quiver.
"Thanks, Baxter." He looks at the man then quirks an eyebrow, "You coming with us?"
Thea has her hair, currently a bronze-blonde, is braided back. She too, is dressed in tac gear, with a bag with medgear slung comfortably to rest at her lower back. The portal will get a curious look and a raised eyebrow, but she's not one to throw stones. Glass houses, and all that.
She will nod politely to Clint and Sarah, before she will look at Jimmy at Clint's question.
"Hey, Jimmy," Sarah greets, as she closes the portal with a gesture. "And I'd heard that about you, Barton," she retorts, with a roll of those expressive eyes. "So. Any bloody idea of just what we're about to walk into, besides assorted shite I'd just as soon remains unidentified?"
Thea also gets a polite nod from Agent Black in acknowledgement as she's waiting to hear what Jimmy has to say.
Jimmy smiles when the portal opens, giving Black and Barton each a nod of welcome, and a wave for Thea as she approaches in a more normal fashion. "We don't have eyes underground, but this group has a history of using lupine-type mutants — in short, wolfmen — as their enforcers. The one I encountered had what we called a weirding module." He taps his throat. "A collar with a reverbium-enhanced voicebox, so his barks and howls produced enough force to push parked cars back. Even without, they're still big, mean, and strong." He nods to Clint's question, too. "I'm coming with you. I'm basically your radar to find them, I can assist Agent Harman with medical, and it's always good to have another pair of hands down there. If they're focused on the big glowy target, it gives you more chance to flank."
"'Weirding mo—' Someone's a Herbert fan," Sarah says, with a slight tone of exasperation. Yes, she's a magician. Doesn't means she doesn't read science fiction.
"So Hudson to my Hicks, awesome." Clint says as he nods towards Jimmy. The bow is slid off his shoulder and makes a whisper of compressed hydraulics as it extends to its full size, the string tightening with a faint whir. He thrums a leatherclad fingertip over the string causing it to reverberate faintly.
"Alright, I'll take point. Baxter you feed me what intel you get. River, Black, back me up on the flanks?" An eyebrow is quirked as he looks at each as if asking if this suited them. "I know this ain't exactly in everyone's comfort zone but we stick together, we communicate, we'll get through it and do some good."
He takes a moment to look each of them over and then smiles with a faint twist at the corner of his mouth, "Everyone good with that?" A glance then spared for Jimmy if there aren't any objections. He'll then murmur, "Whenever yer set, Baxter."
Thea will just look at Jimmy, a smirk that doesn't quite hide her snort. He should know she's more than just a healer. She's also loaded up with a pair of guns and more than one knife. She looks Barton over from head to toe and back up.
"I don't know if everyone is fully aware of my whole skill set. I'm not just a medic. I can.. for lack of better explanation we don't have time for, I can see biological signatures. I am not as good as Heavensent here with some methods of detection, of course, but I too might be an early warning beacon."
Jimmy gives Clint an odd look. He apparently doesn't get the Hudson and Hicks reference. But that's not the important thing right now: with Clint suggesting they get moving, Jimmy gives each one a quick glance. Not seeing objections, he nods. "This way."
He goes down into the tunnel. Though the ceiling sags in places, the tunnel itself is remarkably spacious, enough for three people to walk abreast. Once they're out of view of the street, Jimmy changes, skin and eyes giving off a bright glow. A sword and shield, seemingly made of solid white light, appear in his hands. And he continues forwards. The tunnel takes a couple of turns, with other sections branching off from it, but Jimmy remembers the intel. The glowy one will be our leader.
Until he comes to a stop, and ducks against a wall. His glow fades and his eyes close, though his weapons remain. "Guards," he says. "Feels like two of them, just around that corner." Both of the wolfman type, if they peek around; they must be in the right place, if the mystery organisation is guarding things.
Agent Black asks, "So shall we take them down, or try to slip past them? If they have the senses to go with the ugly snouts, it might be a bit more challenging to hide us with a glamour than if they were ordinary blokes. Or we can try to take them quietly, so we don't blow our chance at surprise. Any other suggestions?"
The archer gives a quick nod to Baxter as he motions for the man to swap places with him, letting him get close to the edge of the wall from which he should hopefully be able to get a line of sight on the sentinels. But he doesn't look himself, instead he pulls down his purplish visor and then extends a wrist around the corner, small fiber-optic camera in his glove giving a brief feed of the image to his visor.
Drawing back he looks between the other operatives and gives a nod. "Don't know how tough they'll be to take down, and no sneakin' past dogs is never an easy thing, werewolf dogs seem like they'd be worse." He chews his lower lip for a second then adds, "Alright, move when I fire. Take 'em down fast and hard." A quick look around to make sure everyone is ready.
If he gets agreement he'll twist the selector on his bow, the quiver humming softly as it affixes several arrowheads into place and then Clint draws four of them, nocking them into the string to make ready.
Thea glances at Jimmy, then at Clint. She looks like she's about to speak, before she shrugs. "Sure." She needs to look around the corner to see them, to see their biological system to work at it. "I might be able to weaken them, perhaps try to keep them from being able to howl, if the collar thing only amplifies."
Jimmy nods to Sarah and Clint. "Can't expect to just sneak past hounds like these, but if we let them call for backup, there are plenty more where they came from."
With the signal, Clint spins around the corner and fires off all four arrows, which electrify as they leave the string. Two strike the collars, which burst and fizzle out; the other two go low, aiming for the legs. One wolf takes a hit on the shin and rears up hard, the howl made softer by the lightning still arcing through his vocal cords. The other takes it on the ankle, but lets instinct take over. It pushes onto all fours, rushing forwards with jaw open and front claws clicking, fighting through the jolting pain.
|ROLL| Jimmy Baxter +rolls 2d6 for: 5
%f And on cue, Sarah steps around just behind Clint, to gain line of sight and take action if needed. Which would seem to be the case with the charging wolfman. A quick two-handed gesture and a few rapidly-spoken words from some ancient tongue, and a hammerblow of plain concussive force streaks away from the WAND agent's hands, leaving a ripple distortion in the air as it flies toward its target.
Once those arrows are fired, Clint rolls back and to the side, back into cover as he slams his back against the wall and keys the selector on his bow again. Several more arrowheads are loaded and he draws one, bringing it to the string and nocking it quickly.
Thea will step aorund the corner, a little further out from Sarah. There's a motion of her hand, as she tries to do two things - paralyze vocal chords by making the throat muscles clench like anaphylaxis, while pulling blood to run faster out from where they were hit.
The concussive blast knocks the charging wolf right on the snout, his head snapping back. He continues to fight with sheer, animal rage trying to overcome the daze… but Thea puts a stop to that. He doesn't even manage to snarl with how his throat seizes up, and the accelerated blood loss from neck and ankle soon make him slump over.
The remaining wolf gets a double-whammy of continued electrocution and that biokinesis weakening him, putting him on the edge. Jimmy comes around last. With a flare of light, he throws his sword as soon as he's clear of the corner. The sword turns into a hammer in mid-air, to strike the wolf on the forehead and knock him the rest of the way out.
Next moment, the hammer's gone, and Jimmy has a sword back in his hand. He spends a moment listening, in more ways than one. "Nobody caught that. Cover's still clear. Next problem…"
The door behind the wolfmen is small and sturdy, solid steel and locked up tight.
"Bad doggies, no treats for you," Sarah quips, before stepping forward to take a closer look at that door. "This could be a problem," she comments. "Maybe one of our friends here has keys on them? Not that I'm expecting anything quite that convenient, but."
"Mebbe check 'em, Black?" Clint say as he shoulders his bow, though it doesn't compress into its smaller form. He closes the distance, stepping around the fallen wolfmen. Over his shoulder though he does take a moment to tell the team, "Good work, by the bye."
It's up to the door he steps, kneeling to run a glove over its surface along the edges, checking for the locking mechanism, possible security mechanisms, perhaps considering dealing with the hinges if they're on this side.
Rising he'll check the door jam and frowns to himself, "Usually this is Nat's schtick…" He shifts to the side to examine the electric passcode portion of the lock, perhaps having hoped for a more mechanical solution. "But gimme some time and I might be able to get it. If you good folks don't mind covering me."
The biokinetic will move to crouch next to one of the wolfmen, wrinkling her nose. Electric shock and hair - eww. She will feel around for keys, keeping quiet a moment before she speaks softly. "Maybe if Heavensent brings his light just right, you can see marks on the passcodes?" She's not sure Jimmy's full range of light or abilities. If no one moves to check the other wolfman for keys or other useful things, she'll turn and duck walk over to do it.
The door is solid construction, with the hinges set on the other side — whoever built this place is too smart to leave an avenue like that, which means dealing with the lock itself. The wolfmen just have those voice boxes, now very much disabled, which look like they'd had radios built into them too. No keys on them, unfortunately.
Jimmy chews his tongue. "They'd have regular check-in. The longer we take out here, the more likely that door comes open because they come for us. Anything I can do to help speed things along?" He positions himself near the wolves and starts to glow again, giving the others the light they need for a full search. They have pants, at least, and… is that a pack of dog treats in one pocket?
"If I could see past that door, I could portal us in," Sarah says. "A gap, or a drilled hole, or something that would let me see clearly to the other side."
"Got a torch might do the deal. Would take a good chunk of time, though. Too long than I'm comfortable with." A pair of wires are extended from a small data display in one of Clint's belt pouches. He lowers his eyes, pulling his visor down so he can see clearly and starts to work on the lock, brushing his thumb over several options and commands, keying in a sequence of detection arrays. If he's not able to get any easy information he might have to move to an amnesiac brute force approach, robbing the lock of its memory each time to prevent it from locking down due to the infiltration attempt.
As Jimmy asks if he can help, Clint says without looking at him, "Sure. Think happy thoughts." A glance over to the side, "Ask Black what she did last weekend. She wouldn't tell me for some reason."
The data display hums a little bit as it goes through the sequences.
"My weekend was full of happy thoughts, thank you very much," Sarah comments, with a smirk.
Thea will check the pockets, feeling a little useless. "I never did really get the lessons I wanted in electronic lock picking." She sounds wistful, shoving her braid back behind her shoulder where it had slid forward when she was searching wolfmen.
There's a glance at Sarah, a hint of a smirk as she looks away. She's certainly not going to ask. "Why, Barton? Didn't have enough excitement in your own weekend?"
Jimmy considers the question of drills or torches, looking down at his sword. With an effort, he shapes it into something more spiralling, more like a drill… but it still only has the simple handle, no power supply or moving parts. He shakes his head and turns it back to the simple longsword shape. When Thea finishes searching, he turns his glow back off. "Can't help with that here. As for my weekend, I got spiked like a volleyball. Not so fun." So that's why he's a bit bruised and stiff.
While waiting for Clint to finish with the door, Thea has time to pay full attention to her ~special~ senses. Jimmy's empathy may be overloaded from the prisoners, but Thea can more easily separate some things out: beyond that door are a number of living beings. Some ordinary people; another several, at least three or four, who feel 'differently healthy' like the mutants they've already taken down; and arrayed through the space beyond, a half-dozen signals in a shockingly poor state.
Picking electronic locks being far, far outside her wheelhouse, Sarah isn't about to try to 'help' but just stands by, keeping a wary eye out for anything unexpected.
A small snort is given to Thea as Clint works on the door, "I like to live vicariously through people who have actual social lives. S'why I didn't ask you, River." He touches a hand to his lips then his eyebrows rise as if he said something oh so mean, which he did, but in a nice way. He grins at her sidelong, then refocuses on the security system.
There's then a faint /kachunk/ as the lock disengages and Clint kneels beside it. He'll take a moment to open it verrrrry slightly, gesturing for quiet from the other folks, enough to snake the fiber optic camera underneath the door to try and get an eyeball on the contents of the next room.
Thea snorts, as she turns towards the door. "Mmmm sure, Barton. Just because you can't get into the clubs I frequent doesn't mean I don't socialize. I don't just spend my time healing people and trying to help save people from the weird and crazy ass things we see." There's just a faint lift of her chin, a hint of teasing to her words. "See, at the clubs I frequent, there's no two drink minimum and I don't have to pay girls to dance with me." There's a wink there.
She will step forward, a hand slightly out towards Clint. "Normal folks, but there's.. mutants of some kind, like the dog boys." A thumb jerks back towards the two downed guards. "Be careful. There are some folks in a bad way, but I can't tell how."
Despite the long and lauded history of smashing into and through things, Steve can, in fact, be sneaky. Or, at least, as sneaky as he can manage with the shield on his shoulders. In his stealth-suit of navy-blue and silver spangled star, he's managed to make his way into the ventilation system through an access point in the ceiling. It's also been the most difficult way to get down, given he had to pause multiple times to avoid discovery by the wolfmen guards.
However…above the group waiting outside of the door…is that…shuffling? Scuffling? The faintest sound of a heel knocking against metal. Then, issuing through the grate above,
"…should've just walked."
Yep, that's Steve in the ceiling, prying back the grate with a smooth motion. "Thought I heard it unlock?" With fingers gripped on the shaft's bottom edging, he sommersaults down out of the metal shaft and drops to the floor before dusting off his palms.
The door is in good enough repair that it doesn't creak as Clint pushes it inwards. That gives him enough room to snake the fiberoptic camera through. Beyond is a spacious chamber, the ceiling a little over two stories high. One glance shouts the word 'lab': several of the walls are lined up to the ceiling with mainframe computers; men in unmarked white coats go back and forth between sample examination and the desk terminals; and several sections of floor have been stocked like operating theatres taken from a 21st century Victor Frankenstein. The space is patrolled by three more wolf men, plus one with no nose and yellowish, scaled skin.
And the objective. One wall is occupied by nine cages, stacked three high and three across. Six of them are occupied, each one by something between animal and human — a feline prowls back and forth in one cage, bladed claws and tail glinting in the light; another has a blonde with wasp-wings buzzing on her back, compound eyes unblinking as they stare out between bars.
Jimmy manages to avoid getting star-struck this time. He nods to Steve at his arrival. "Captain." Then, to Clint. "What do you see, Agent Barton? Any way you can share with the class?"
Well, Sarah had been waiting for the unexpected. Steve Rogers dropping out of the ceiling is certainly not something high on her list of Probable Next Things. She's partway to a reaction stance before the new arrival's identity registers with her, and she straightens up a bit sheepishly. "Captain," she says by way of both greeting and acknowledgement, with a nod.
And by that point, Clint has the door unlocked, and is seeing what he can see, and the WAND agent goes silent, waiting to hear what the group may be about to have to deal with.
As Clint watches the video feed on his visor he says over his shoulder without really looking, "Captain." He draws the fibre optic back from the gap and clicks it into place out of the way of his gauntlet. Rising to his feet, he turns to the rest of the team and looks at each in turn.
"Alright, looks like a lab, high ceiling. We got possible non-com researchers at 10 and 2 o'clock." He gestures in the direction they'll be, then goes on. "4 tangos, patrolling the area, and a bank of cages of… test subjects."
"We're gonna need ta check targets. On my mark I'll breach, flash bang, then you guys hit 'em and I'll cover."
The visor is pulled down over his eyes and he waits for agreement, "We good?" Then he thumps Cap on the shoulder and says quietly, "Don't worry, Rookie, I got ya."
Thea clenches her jaw, hands curling into loose fists and then relaxing, as is just stretching and loosening the muscles. She presses her lips together in order to not state what's on her mind. "Got it." She will take a deep breath, forcing her shoulders to relax. She's got work to do.
"Agents." The short greeting from the Captain is curt and professional, as he always is outside of the office and within his suit. He slips his shield from behind his back and clicks it into place with an equally curt nod.
"Dunno where I'd be without your wisdom, Barton. You should start up one of those pod-casts." Steve smirks to himself even as he takes up a readied stance. "You heard Agent Barton, team. Non-lethal contact if it can be managed. We want answers, not body-bags."
Jimmy settles into stance, standing near the door. "Let's do this fast." Once he's ready, he lights up again — including the sword and shield which appear in his hands. "Ready." His voice sounds like two speaking almost at once.
Then Clint makes his move: the door bursts all the way open, and two flashbang arrows shoot out, light and noise striking all those in the room. Including a howl from one of the wolves — an enhanced howl which blasts apart one of the computers — but also especially pained shrieks from two of the cages.
One of the scientists falls from his seat, but scrabbles towards the desk to slam his hand on a big, obvious button. "Recall! All units, return to base!" Great, so there's reinforcements incoming.
And they still have to deal with the four already here. The snake needs to recover, but even blinded, the three wolves can work by scent. Sniffing the air, they turn to the doorway… and then howl as one, the thunderous force focused by the narrow doorway.
Often, in such a situation, Sarah would be casting an invisibility glamour over herself before entering a breach situation like this. But as previously noted, such a measure might be less effective than she's accustomed to, if the wolfmen get the keen senses to go with their appearance.
So instead, her last-minute prep is to cast a defensive spell, causing a trio of round, convex shields composed of runes and geometrical traces of light to form around her, not unlike the Captain's shield in their shape, if of somewhat larger diameter. In response to that howl, all three move to interpose overlappingly in front of the young mage, though the force of the sound striking them, even indirectly, still pushes them, and her, back a few steps. "Bloody Hell," she mutters.
The arrows in and rolling to the side to clear the doorway, Clint slams his back against the wall beside the door, reaching over his shoulder for another arrow as the quiver hums with the attachment of another arrowhead. He grimaces as the heavy wall of sound impacts against the doorway and causes the entire frame to shake.
"Son of a…" He quickly pulls the earpiece out of his ear as it squeals with feedback, wincing and losing a moment but then once the others are through he spins back into position with his bow coming up and the arrow tracking. Holding it in case one of the others gets in a bad situation.
Thea will move forward from behind the wall, hands reaching to grasp at what seems to be nothing. Instead, she's trying to pull at the blood of the wolfmen, to pull it away from their lungs and shove it into their throat muscles to clench them too tight to howl again. That of course, leaves the snake untouched, but the four wolfmen are taking up her focus with how the howling can slam them back.
Steve's in like the professed mad-man some people claim him to be, heedless of potential injury to his person. After all, he bounces. With the wolfmen taken care of — he can see they're enduring some form of capacity reduction in those amazingly-horrifying sonic attacks — he goes instead for the snake-hybrid.
The shield swings around, aimed for the flat face, and intends to knock the stunned reptile-chimera out cold.
|ROLL| Jimmy Baxter +rolls 2d6 for: 10
Jimmy moves to the side, but doesn't quite avoid the howls' echo; it knocks into his back and sends him forward, against the wall beside the doorway. It was more a stumble than really being blown off his feet, but it still takes a second for him to recover.
Thankfully, the wolves won't get another attack like that out again. They try, but they just sound like they're trying to bring up furballs, and they're the wrong species for that. But even without their voices, they still have their teeth, their claws, and they attack. One bites at Steve's heels, while the other two go for the doorway.
The snake recovers enough to rear up, jaw open wide to show teeth that glint like metal. He dips down, moving with cobra speed and only take a glancing blow from the shield. Instead, he tries to swoop in with a bite.
After recovering from hitting the wall, Jimmy rushes through the doorway and kicks off, into the air. He goes for the uppermost occupied cage. Inside is one of those felines, who sits in the corner, rocking back and forth, mumbling to himself. Jimmy tries the cage door. "Locked," he calls. "Mechanical." Meaning there's a key.
Heading into the room, Sarah fires off another concussive-impact spell at one of the wolfmen, then turns her attention momentarily to Jimmy at the cages. "Don't worry about that, Wings — I can see in, I can get them out," she calls out toward him.
The archer rounds back and he tracks one of the rushing Wolfmen with his arrow, "Guards first, key later." He says quickly as he unblinkingly follows the movements of that one furred creature, then looses the arrow straight towards the critter's foot, trying to pin it to the ground even as he reloads.
Moving further into the room he frowns at the data on display, but as he launches the newly readied tazer arrow at that same first target, perhaps expecting that to take care of it, he'll lift his voice. "Get down on the ground if you don't wanna get hurt!"
Since it's important to split up the people who want to tussle from the ones that don't.
Thea will spare Clint any sort of snarky comeback or strange look, and she instead just drops to her knees. She can do her best to keep the wolfmen silent from the floor just as well as on her feet. "We need to get those collars off!" Or the wolfmen will effectively start to suffer from lack of oxygenated blood soon.
Harried by more than one of the chimeric guardians, Steve's evasive motions become a thing saved from Stooge-manship by dint of his athleticism and kinesthetic knowledge of his body. The wolfman aiming to sink incisors into his heel is dealt a solid mule-kick. Boot-sole, meet face; bones crackle under the impact and the creature tumbles away, down for the count without having died.
Unfortunately, the moment of required balance means sacrificing coverage on his non-shield arm. His teeth flash even as the snake-man sinks fangs into the meat of his lower arm, in and out, leaving behind puncture holes that rapidly fill with blood. The shield is swung once more in defense at the flat-faced reptilian-humanoid. Already, numbness is spreading rapidly through his arm like ice along a windowpane.
|ROLL| Jimmy Baxter +rolls 2d6 for: 7
At the word 'out', there's a rush of activity from two of the cages. The blonde, waspy woman slams forward against the bars. "Out!" she shouts. "Get me out!" In another cage, a man covered in black and white feathers rattles at the cage with his metal-edged foot talons, scratching the bars. They're not the calmest of people right now; get them out of the cage, and what happens to everything between them and the sky?
The snake hisses with pleasure at getting the visceral feeling of his teeth sinking into flesh, the release of toxin — albeit, into one of the two worst people to try injecting. His overconfidence leaves him less than wary — Steve should be barely conscious by now, right? — and the next shield-swat connects, knocking it out as heavily as the wolf behind Steve.
Speaking of wolves, one puts his foot down and can't bring it back up, not with an arrow pinning it down. He would howl, if not for the thick paralysis of his throat; instead, only a gurgling sound comes out — and then the next taser-arrow jolts through him. His lupine constitution would probably weather it better without Thea just outside, making everything hit that much harder, hurt that much worse.
Seeing how much business the SHIELD agents mean, the scientists hit the deck. "It's not my fault!" One calls. "They made me!" A real defence, or just trying to shirk responsibility? Interrogation will tell.
That leaves one wolf still up and kicking. He's moving fast, and Sarah's attack spell clips him, but he twists and recovers, still heading onwards. Jimmy interposes for that one, touching down and putting a shield between himself and the snarling jaws. "Get The Captives," he says — and then his gaze tugs towards a wall. "More Incoming." Damn reinforcements. But they're not here yet, and with the winding nature of the underground tunnels, they should have a little while yet.
The fight seemingly mainly in hand for the moment, at least until those reinforcements arrive, Sarah nods to Jimmy and goes for the cages — which, since she can see past the bars just fine, she can pull the trick she could not back at the locked door. Stepping up to the first cage, she opens a portal from just outside it to just inside, neatly bypassing the bars, and loosk through, saying, "Come on, it's all right, you can get out now." Once that captive is free, she'll move on down the line, repeating the process. Hopefully by the time she's done this two or three times while the remaining captives watch, she'll have less trouble persuading the victimes to step through the glowy doorway in the air.
Clint, for a moment gives Thea a doubletake, but then he rolls to the side and gives a nod once he comes back up to his feet. "Gonna lock em down." He says as he palms his current arrow from its place in the bowstring, running up quickly to sliiiide across the floor and jab the tazer arrowhead against the neck piece of one of the fallen Wolfmen, making sure its collar stays out of play.
Rising to move quickly to the next, he applies another /zooorch/ of shock to it then drops back, spins, and fires at the remaining target. "Start on the computers and the captives, I'll set up in case we get incoming." He says even as he's hitting the selector button again on his bow to swap to a new arrowhead.
"Cap!" Thea will cry out, as Clint makes her job ever so much easier. Steve will feel a heated tingling start zinging through his arm, as she boosts his already considerable immune capabilities to halt the toxin in its tracks and start clearing it from his system.
"Thanks, Barton." She'll say casually as he takes out the collars on wolfmen to make it so much easier to focus on other things. Like improving the physical conditions of the captives Sarah is helping, worst cases first.
With his attackers out of commission for now, Steve quickly moves to back up Clint in his readiness for the incoming guards. He shakes out his bitten arm and winces at the staining of the blood through the suit's fabric, but the wincing grit of his teeth shifts into an expression of relief. The stabbing pain downgrades to pins-and-needles; flexion of his fingers is possible. Thea is given a quick nod of thanks before he turns his attention back to the hallway beyond the busted door.
"Somebody with a thumbdrive, hop to it!" The call comes over his shoulder.
Jimmy wrestles with the wolfman, his teeth gritted; he gives a reverberating growl as he finally pushes back with everything he has, the shield battering the wolf as he goes. That leaves the last wolfman stumbling, perfectly arranged for someone to take out while Jimmy recovers — and with that, all the present guards are down, with their voice boxes shorted out. He glances among the team — who's got a thumb drive? SHIELD leant him the tac suit, but he's not cleared for that kind of software.
In that first cage, Sarah finds a feline man, rocking back and forth with his whiskered nose buried as far into his chest as he can get it. He's still mumbling to himself, but now Sarah can hear him, or little bits of it. Something about 'Morlocks' and 'wolf cub', but likely, not even the man himself still grasps what he's trying to say. Catatonic as he is, it's easy for her to get him through.
Unfortunately, the cages' positions — stacked atop and beside one another, with solid walls, floors, and ceiling in between — means that the captives can't see one another, and so can't see Sarah's efforts. Some are easier to handle. She finds a man mixed with a gharial, snout long and teeth dangerous… but he's just laying on the cage floor, almost stationary. He goes readily enough. The feline woman with the bladed tail scrambles through. "Thank you thank you thank you." Steve and Sarah might find the voice familiar.
But then she comes to a Problem. As soon as she enters the cage with the magpie man, he squawks and lashes out with one of his talons. He's so far gone that he just sees her as invading what little territory he has. And what if she'd brought that to the SHIELD med bay?
"Ow! Stop it, you bleeding idiot, I'm trying to rescue you!" That would be Sarah, after one of those talons opened up the shoulder of her uniform — and her skin underneath it. She backs out of the portal, hoping that the magpie-person will follow her, all the while trying to avoid any more rips and tears.
Sidelong towards Cap, Clint eyes the other Avenger and says admonishingly, "They tagged you? Does it sting?" Then he just shakes his head and takes aim, drawing the arrow back with a soft creak coming from the bow. Then there's the /twang-pfft-thwok/ of the arrow firing and lodging in the hallway past the door, the arrow quivering as the concussion detonator kicks on, a small red LED flashing.
Once again to the Captain he says, "Five days of combat sims as penance, there goes yer weekend." But after he says that he nocks and fires another arrow, planting another concussion trap from different angle.
Hearing a ruckus from behind, Clint then shouts, "Things alright back there?"
Thea turns her head at hearing Sarah, and Sarah will feel the same tingling heat Cap had earlier. Blood in, not out, and the healing is started at an accelerated pace. Bonus of not needing to be a hands on sort of healer. She also does not have a thumb drive for SHIELD. She'll think of it next time.
"Can't feel my fingers just yet, but I'll walk it off." The Captain flexes and stretches the beleaguered digits. Pins-and-needles is out-right annoying if not uncomfortable, but he's dealt with worse. The sight of Jimmy finally separating himself from his wolfman guard brings Steve to step away from his stance behind Clint. The shield is hucked and aimed for the wolfman's head — CLUNK.
Lay down, pup, and stay down.
Catching the vibranium disc as it comes back to him in the usual uncanny manner, Steve then fumbles at his belt. Nope, not the pepper spray. Not the grenade — definitely not that.
Out comes a small thumbdrive, empty, pristine, a back-up in case an instance like this comes to light.
"Here," and he tosses the small tech-piece towards Jimmy. "Full space available on it. Hate being caught off-guard."
A side-mutter for Clint: "I'll buy you coffee for a month if you don't mention it to Barnes."
Jimmy takes to the air to catch the drive, and descends on the nearest terminal to plug it in. Fighter-friendly SHIELD software starts pulling everything it can from the drives, and then he's up in the air again. There's not much simple calm on offer in his surroundings, but he draws on Clint and Steve's professional focus, to push it forwards and into the captives in an effort to relax them.
It at least slows down the magpie, but he's still wild, still aggressive. When Sarah steps back through the portal, he gives chase… which leaves him on the other side, and easy to leave in a holding cell. That just leaves two more captives: the wasp-girl who seems just as ready to aggress, and a canine woman who looks like she's about halfway towards being just as lupine as the guards they've taken out, albeit with white fur instead of grey.
And then comes a pair of explosions, Clint's proximity-triggered bombs doing their work. That leads to a bit more rumbling, some dangerous sounds from the ceiling outside. The reinforcements are here, but with a bit more boom, they might take that tunnel down and win a bit more breathing room.
"Deal," Is Clint's response to the good Captain. He starts to back up from the doorway to get in a better position for the portal when they make their evac, doing a quick check of the people they've got moving out and secured. He then turns back to making sure the entrypoint is secure…
And hen the prox dets go off and he scowls. "Make sure the kids are all in the station wagon, I'll take some parting shots." He most likely says this to Cap but could be anyone really.
With a smoothness of precision he brings his bow up, takes aim, and fires. One arrow into the hallway, /KRUMPF/ with a softer explosion. A second with another /KRUMPF/ ricocheting off the wall to the other side. Smaller explosions made to perhaps shepherd their opponents away…
All in prep for the third arrow that is aimed at the ceiling of the hallway, the explosion a bit stronger with a loud /SHAWOOMF!/
"Let's beat feet." He turns and tries to move to the portal.
"Look. Friend," Sarah says through the bars to the wasp-girl. "We need to get you out of here, and to someplace safe. Please, let me help you…" At that, with time getting shorter, she opens a portal straight from the cage to one of the containment rooms. A clean, well-lit, hopefully much more appealing place than the cage the girl is in now. "Go through," she urges. "You'll be safe. No one will hurt you there."
"Done," Steve echoes back to Clint. He'll stick to the promise as well, no matter what Barton orders. It might seem trite, but humor amidst the scrum and terror of battle keeps sanity in check!
"Double-time, team, you heard the infantry. Tunnel's blocked up and the back-up is bottle-necked." Turning away from Clint, the Captain then gestures for everyone else to make their exit in turn. Stragglers are harried with a firmer motion and the set of jaw. The fingers of his left hand seem to be recovering more and more mobility as the minutes pass, thank god.
The wasp-girl buzzes menacingly at Sarah. She may not even really understand the words the agent's saying… but she hears the tone, and sees the portal into the containment room, and anything's better than the cage she's in now. So she leaves Sarah to that uncomfortable, steel 'territory', and flits her way through, out of the cage and into a different kind of containment.
The miniature explosions pop in the hallway, and then comes the rumble of the ceiling coming down. Good thing they have their own exit strategy, isn't it? Jimmy swoops down to grab the thumb drive, with whatever data SHIELD can get out of it. He looks towards the collapsed wall. "Frustration, But Not Resignation. They At Least Think They Can Get Through." He looks up to Sarah; she, after all, is their exit strategy.
And when all is said and done, the rescued captives are safely evacced to the containment complex under the Triskelion, where they can (hopefully) calm down, receive medical treatment as needed, and also hopefully begin to tell their stories.
And that done, a very tired Sarah at last opens the portal for the team's exfil. "The bus is leaving, lady and gentlemen," she says with a weary smile.
"You heard the lady," the blond super-soldier echoes of Sarah's announcement. That all of this came from one phone call… He lingers by the opened portal, sure to be certain of every one else having passed through it before he too steps through. This will be one hell of a report to submit.