Summary:RESCUE, their Avengers allies and SHIELD finally make their move against the Cyberian. Log Info:Storyteller: None |
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The Avenger lounges near by, shoulder to the van, just waiting. Arms folded over his chest. For all he's normally in light hues, tonight Pietro is in dark grays and blues. Sure he's still got the lightning motif on his costume, but even his hair is covered. Bland colors to help with the trying to be stealthy aspect of the mission. « Quicksilver here. » Given simply, a decided Eastern European accent to his words. Speaks excellent English, but the accent remains.
Carol is actually wearing a black and grey version of her normal suit, the gunmetal silver of her logo a far cry from the normally colorful yellow and red. She hovers overhead, hanging back a bit as she radios in, « Captain Marvel here. Hey Pietro. » She grins a bit, a hint of her Boston accent bleeding through her words, but not too much there. She's also consciously keeping her sparkling to a minimum as she's actually pretty far away… not that it would keep her from arriving pretty fast regardless.
Neena Thurman may normally be on the aggressive side of the fence but today she's clearly looking for a fight. Her usual black suit is overlaid with molded black polycarbonate panels to give her better resistance and weapons aplenty are laid out over it. Carried along, whether diagonally across her back or right in her hands, is a peculiar metal staff with two slightly wider tubes on either end. For whatever reason this mission has the shooter imitating Donatello from the Ninja Turtles.
"Spot on site."
Io has come to 'play' armed with … a pair of drumsticks? A pair of earbuds in her ears are VERY loudly currently playing 'Bone House' by Dead Weather, loud enough anyone in her proxmimity could hear the hard rock band's thump and riffs. On her person, strapped to a belt, stuck in her shirt pockets, backpack, and even one in her kneesocks, are all sorts of devices. Cell phones, laptops, notebooks, and a few other such devices she's saw fit to bring along.
Presently, she's tucked herself into the corner of Hank's van and is 'air drumming' along with the beats of the music, «SNAFU. Ready to fuck that Cyberian bitch up some more.»
Pietro, Carol, meet Io. Not your normal 'hero'. As most of the others here are well aware.
Next to Io? A thing that was once a toaster. And now - is the sort of thing you'd find in some mad scientists room of discarded experiements - several cameras along one side, 'spider' legs below, a pair of old rabbit ears on top and a closed off interior. Heaven only knows what it does, or what it's for. But, she's brought it along just the same.
Dr. Veronica Kelsey is currently running additional checks on the technology she has prepared for this evening. As each piece is checked and confirmed, it is then loaded into the open cargo container.
« This is Augmenta. Comm check one confirmed. » Roni replies. Then she rolls into the container and puts on the helmet of her armor, squawks once to confirm, and then adds, « This is Augmenta. Comm check two, confirmed. » Then the helmet is hung back in place as she rolls back out to finish going through the last tech: a set of customized Humblebee drones. These actually lift off in unison, as Roni watches the tablet in her lap, confirming their swarm configuration, mission protocols, and checking their communication and locator beacons. "Hank, make sure to check the recording subsystem, and the backup for that. We may need our communication logs for evidence, and if so we'll need best quality, which will have to be local." They can't assume they can depend on the recording and backup systems here at RESCUE.
« Posse here. Five by five, » another voice chimes on the shared com, this one accompanied by a metal suit in a muted urban palette. Armed with a flexible mix of rifles, a pistol, and several grenades scattered across the hard points of her armor, the cyborg head of RESCUE's crisis response REACT unit looks eminently comfortable as she triple-checks her own gear before scanning across the group. Just in case it's needed, the plain cross on her rear pouch communicates that she too is carrying a med pack. Without asking, Domino's holsters get a couple tugs in passing to make sure everything's snugged up.
The hulking bulk of the Iron Patriot armor is taking up one side of the trailer to be used, near the door, and also near a currently locked down cylindrical device that seems to have a lot of antennae pointing off it in various directions, with the helmet off to see Toni's face as she waits impatiently, tapping her armored fingertips against the top of the helmet. Currently, she's tiny of course, like all the other stuff in the trailer, waiting for the perfectly normal couple with a ticket to get them in through the door.
"Absolutely, I'll even make sure the metadata records the feeds as being from our two Avengers present." Hank looks to Pietro and Carol to be sure that's okay with them. The Blueberry not-Avenger is presently working on two different computer rigs at the same time, somehow. Sure, Io's surely running a half dozen or more, but Hank is doing what he's doing physically with nary a hint of impairment. He nods to Carol. "You'll be there as raw muscle and official Avenger's presence when we go for the final strike, Captain."
A moment. «Comms check is clear, Io and Quicksilver, you're go.»
The site of the meeting? A gutted mall, but the actual geo coordinates are under cover of a still intact section of the roof. There is a very tangible guard presence, though these mercs are all human in appearance. There's also a number of the hoi-polloi present, queued up and heading for the staging area, a literal stage, in fact. Rich people, sleazy people, thugs, gangers, the spectrum is pretty full - even some alderman, and shockingly a cop that Posse knows from the powered crime unit. Shit. She even liked that guy, Lance has a wicked right hook.
Finally, as Io and her Date approach a slender man in a finely tailored suit bows. "A moment please, your ticket?" Once he has it, he then touches the visor he's wearing, and Io will feel the scanning beams that emanate as a response. They're…slippery, modulated just enough to be hard to grapple with, a marked improvement over what last she encountered with the Cyberian's stuff, augurs ill, but…she can handle it.
A few minutes pass, and then finally the man (android actually, as Io will sense), gestures, and in the center of the stage a pin prick of intolerable brightness, crimson, forms…and the swells to a three meter wide sphere. "Please step through, ladies, gentles and others." This gets a few laughs.
Pietro will have to do a quick change, but that's easy. Reappearing in casual attire, his hair even dyed a dusty blond to not quite draw as much attention to himself, the speedster presents himself to Io, looking amused. Together they can make their way to the meeting site. He can't speak much of it and stays near Io, even as he offers that ticket over. He doesn't have to feign surprise at the portal, even though he knew it would be used. Well, that's ominous looking!
Still, there's a gracious motion to the portal as he offers to Io, "Shall we?" Asked with a smile. Should she agree, he accompanies her inside.
Carol looks to be all business right now, which is a far cry from her normal superhero 'persona' that she projects when fighting a villain. But that's a straight up fight, versus doing something that's more like her old SHIELD days. She looks around at the others, a few sparkles eminating from her as she waits patiently for her time to drop the Hammer.
The albino smirks and gives Posse's shoulder a light slap in passing. "Got your back, girl. Both cheeks' worth." In the meantime it's another case of 'hurry up and wait.' Also some checking out of everyone else within the enclosed space who are ready to cause some hell. Kinda like old times, just without as much promise of bloodshed!
Inside the shrunken keychain fob storage trailer, strapped down, Veronica checks the feeds and continues to help coordinate. She notes the changes in the scanning beams from previous readings, but they get accepted, they get through. Good on Pietro, apparently, for pickpocketing a ticket so they could create their own. « OK. Captain, you and Posse and Domino are our vanguard once we're settled. If trouble rises, you two will be the only way we can hold out long enough to deploy everyone else. » hence why those three are strapped in near the exits, with Carol near the ventral hatch and Posse and Domino near the trailer ramp opening. « Toni, do you need any help with deploying that thing? »
Io climbs out of the van, leaving the 'Little Toaster That Could' - could what? Whatever it's going to do, it seems to be important enough to leave in the van for now, but Io's told nobody about what it does, or what her plans for it are. Instead, in her mismatched knee-socks, mini-skirt, curb-stomper boots, her Iggy Pop t-shirt and bright blue electric hair, she seems ready to play her part and move to go through the scanners with Pietro.
"Ready to fuck shit up when you are," she tells him in response, casually. How she's hearing anyone - or anything, with that music blasting in her ears is anyone's guess. She gives Pietro a wide grin, "This is going to be fun."
Io adjusts her backpack, old and ratty, and covered in a slew of punk buttons and patches, slogans, bands, and colors.
And then the two of them are nearing the scanners, Io makes a face, sort of a smug sort of look as if something amused her as her mind connects to the meta scanning system, and she simply 'tells' the scanners that metas should 'pass' the check instead of failing the check, from now on. It's an easy request to make to the machine who now will pass every single meta that walks through as it's code is changed by her mental directive.
She takes the ticket from him, and presents it to the checker, looking properly smug with her 'date'. Then, the two of them walk in without a second hesitation and without drawing any suspicion.
Ava's energy rifle leaves its thigh holster as she takes a comfortable grip, tightening her hard-knuckled glove into place and lightly resting her metallic left hand on the handguard. "Just don't get blowed up this time," she requests lightly of the albino across from her before her eyes shift to the rear door of the trailer and stay there. It's almost time for work.
"No, I can handle it with my armor. I just need some time to get it up and running. And I'm not sure precisely how long it'll have. Probably no more than 20 minutes max." Toni notes, glancing over at Roni. "So keep that in mind."
Hank frowns and adjusts a few things when he notes the altered modulations. "Interesting. Roni, check my math, are those signals using only the prime numbers in a Fibonacci sequence to guide the oscillations?" He 'flings' the window he was working in across to her workstation. He watches as the scanners fail to detect any metas, and as the ticket passes muster. «Stage one, complete.»
Hank sounds a bit relieved, after all it was likely, but a not a sure thing.
The moment Pietro and Io, and thus the rest of the team, step through the portal there's actually…no particular sensation, it is rather like going through any door anywhere.
They emerge into a subterranean grotto, the thing is /deep/ underground a looks to have been a lava dome, could they be on the crust of a super volcano?
There are stands, three sets, surrounding a massive cage of steel that is sparking from time to time, and the bars show shimmers in the gaps. Stalagmatic domes surround the cage at roughly equidistant points, and there's cages attached with Nova Hounds, all of the 'borged, and arena fighters, some of them 'borged too. Femmebots move about escorting guests to their seats, providing refreshments, the air is festive…and sickening both, the collared gladiators a mix of hopeless, and eager that is awful.
"Good evening, sir, madame." Speaks a femmebot. "This way to your seats." The creature is /lovely/, and cold, blue white hair is composed of fiber optic strands that glow darker blue, eyes match, her skin opalescent white with line art in glowing blue through out.
Pietro doesn't question Io about her taste in music, nor if she can hear. He's seen a lot in his life, and if this young woman is able enough to do what he's been told? He's going to trust that. "I certainly hope so." Replied about this being fun. His thoughts are on saving people, with that in mind he's looking around at everything, drinking it in. Blinks at the bot who wants to show them the way, and nods. What? Did this guy take a page from his father's book on hired help? It makes him snort at his own thoughts, not expressing them otherwise, and goes with the femmebot. Once he's settled into a seat, Io too, the man murmurs, "Off to look around. Don't have too much fun." Oh, Io, do fuck things up, please. And with that he's gone. Zoom! Find a napkin, steals a pen, and starts making a map.
Domino smirks a little to the cyborg, "No formal greetings today? You're no fun."
Without having any way of knowing what's happening on the outside she similarly falls into 'sentinel mode' and waits for the doors to open for that lovely element of surprise.
Io is right on the money. This really should be fun.
"OK! We're on-site. Bringing up GPS transponders and running signal search now …" Granted, Roni is not expecting this to work; that's why they customized the swarming flock of specialized Humblebees for the beacons. She glances up, meeting Hank's visored gaze, and then switches to a second screen to start checking the numeric patterns and double-checking with a quickly dashed-off bit of code. "Everything I am seeing meets those criteria." Roni answers, as the tension mounts.
"Basic GPS scan completed. As expected, no or insufficient signal. Prepping the swarm for launch." Veronica reports. "Pietro, give us a murmur, once you've dropped us in our landing spot. Good luck, you two."
Io gives Pietro a 'thumbs up', a sharp, brief grin, and then kicks her booted feet up onto the chair in front of herself while eyeing the femmebot, taking mental stock of the circuitry, how complex it is, and if there's any recording or reporting devices within it as well as anything that might be considered a weapon or suppression with a simple metal scan. She tells the femmebot, "You're a pretty thing." She's not talking about the shape, or form of the machine, but rather that which is within. Robots, afterall, such as these, are complex entities of code and circutry. But, it certainly be construed as Io complimenting the femmebot on it's outer beauty.
Another node of her mind reaches out to the little - mechanism she's left on the van, which twitches and whirs near silently, but evidently as if getting ready to do … something.
« Eyes on the skies. Lots of things to hack. » Her mind reaches out to those in the collars, to get a full 'headcount', to figure out just how many there are and if she can release them all in one go, or if she'll need to hack and create an override program. The latter could be - problematic. While she's confident she can beat the Cyberian, part of 'the fun' for Io is that the Cyberian is absolutely no 'pushover'. Io doesn't face too many challenges in her realm of expertise, afterall.
Toni frowns, then raises her helmet, sliding and locking it into place, before the Iron Patriot armor shifts, moving over so she has her hands on the mechanism locked down beside it, ready to pull it free and carry it out of the trailer to set up the moment it returns to full size.
The Arena is /big/, Pietro will discover, his map requiring a few more napkins, luckily he moves so fast that in the entire place only one set of eyes track him - one of the gladiators, a sullen looking man who's bare chest has more scar tissue than whole. Dull grey eyes flicker, to follow the speedster, but he does nothing but wait, a collar about his throat. Thick bracers worn at wrists and ankles, his legs sheathed in snug black polymer, he is otherwise unarmed.
All told there are six side tunnels - on leading to the portal room, one to a stores and supplies area, one leading upwards, but sealed by a massive door of some sort of polymer that is carrying a charge, one leads to labs and workshops, and another is covered by a force field.
The femmebot looks to Io, and smiles, bat-bat-batting eyelashes that are also fiberoptic, the hue all her lighting cycling from blue to a sultry red. "Well, thank you, miss." Her voice? A fusion of Eartha Kitt and Kate Mulgrew. "I'm Lima. Might I do something to…i mean, FOR you?" This bot is definitely heavily armed, probably super strong, and has some very sophisticated defenses. And there's another forty just like her. Worse, she has shielding around her CPU - effectively a mind shield vs. cyberpathic interference.
Pietro returns and is given a warm smile. "Sir, beverage? The main event is to start in but a few more moments.."
Napkins, paper, betting cards.. that map is sure to look funky by the time it gets hung on some shelving near the trailer, in the store room. Along with some notes like 'You are here', Arena', 'Explosive door Lava?', 'Important room', and 'energy wall'. It even comes with rough estimates for distance. The man's hand writing is neat and easily read. Motioning a shush to that gladiator with a finger over lips, Pietro returns to his seat, the last bit at a far more normal speed. Totally making sure he comes from an area that's used for restrooms. « Trailer is placed. You are good to go. Mind the map. » Given over the comms as directed. For the femme bot, Lima, the man settles gracefully into his chair. Slouches some to cross his legs, lounging like he owns the place. "By all means. Whiskey, neat."
Carol looks at the others, then smiles and cracks her knuckles a bit, then speaks over the comm, « Thanks speedy. » She chuckles a bit, then hmms, leaning back against the wall as she seems pretty casual right now. But then again, she's here as the blunt instrument, and she looks perfectly happy to defer to the others with their plans.
Veronica passes off the data from the sensors on Io and Quicksilver into her computers, and begins using the intertial guidance data to align it all and assemble a map for everyone concerned, and then starts reprocessing that data to feed it to the Humblebee swarm as a starting seed. "Everyone's HUDs should have the map loaded in thirty seconds. Prepping trickle charge to the Humblebee flight, swarm logic engaged. Estimate sixty seconds to readiness. Hank, Nadia, prep for de-shrinking in seventy-five seconds … three, two, one, mark." The tension in her voice is rising, but she is keeping it under control … if barely. A whole lot of lives are hanging in the balance, here.
Io tips her head back at 'Lima', the very pretty and alluring femmebot. Too bad for the femmebot that Io is generally clueless towards flirtations and innuendo, and she's probably one of the most diverse, and most powerful, technopaths in the world. So instead, Io tells Lima, "How about your best dark ale? Need something to drink."
In the meantime, Io's brain begins to upload. Not just any upload either. Just under 5TB of memory-heavy spamming ads and nonsensical information. The sorts of information that can crash even the most hardcore and top-level gaming PCs in an instant.
Over the comms, a new and different voice comes over the speakers. It sounds -very- realistic. But, it's likely enough that Toni and Roni, at least, would recognize it as one of those high-end voice algorythms that's used to dupe people on telemarketing calls and so forth - or used for such programs as Speech-To-Text software. « Apparently I really pissed her off last time. Cyberian has littered the stands with anywhere between 30-40 heavily armed and very realistic looking robots. I'd really like to take one home with me, » the voice adds in Io's words, but not her voice. She means it in a completely different way than what some might take it. BUt, that's Io. « She's found a way to block my direct technopathy from influencing or talking to them. But, they have a collective mind. So, I should be able to shut them down. Or, keep them busy long enough. Working on that problem right now. Also working on how many collars there are, and feeling out that system as well. She's defintely on the defense. »
Of course, for Io, using the text-to-speech application, and then broadcasting that over their comm system in some capacity makes her the perfect spy - able to report anything and everything she needs without even needing to whisper a word about her true motivations.
She looks up at Pietro, "Yeah. You aren't going to want to miss this. It's gonna be a fuckin' blast, yeah?" She grins, clearly meaning it. This is probably the most enthusastic she's been since the last time they went against the Cyberian and she was with them.
Posse glances back at the rest of the trailer and raises a finger to her helmet in a shush. « Stay quiet as long as we can, » she reminds while visually sweeping the group for one last readiness check. The next several seconds see the cyborg's eyes shut as the map uploads to her suit and she devotes her attention to hasty study.
"<As quiet as I can be in full armor.>" Patriot notes, waiting patiently hunched over the device as she waits for the trailer to be unshrunk. There isn't much she can do until that part is done, after all.
The gladiator meets Pietro's gaze, holding it, and then nods fractionally before looking about ready to expire on teh spot of boredom. "Whiskey neat, very good sir." Lima turns her eyes towards Io again, the lights on her transitioning from red to violet. "Premium dark ale, of course miss." The femmebot extrudes a sphere from her wrist, and offers it to Io. "Our menu, should either of you wish food, simply squeeze the sphere to activate it, the menu is tactile responsive once the images are visible. Anything on the menu is included, if you have special needs, those cost extra, paid with cash, gold, or jewels in advance, no credit cards, checks or money orders accepted." Once she has their answers, the femmebot moves off at a goodly pace, and though she's clearly mechanical, overtly so, her body moves in a very alluring, very HUMAN fashion. As Lima recedes her lighting shifts again, fading from violets to greens, in fact all the Femmebots seem to be showing the same exact color variations, which supports their being linked somehow.
Hank nods to Roni. "Copy that, preparing for enlargement…engaging power buffers, atomic batteries to charge, turbines to speed…" Yes, he had to add the classic bit from the old 60s Batman TV show. Hank is SUCH a damned nerd. A wink towards Captain Marvel, he sends a brief text 'ack' to Pietro and Io, and then helps facilitate the 'scrawl to HUD map' conversion, mmphing when he can view it on his visor and the screen.
Precisely when Roni's countdown reaches zero, the vehicle expands, growing back to full size in mere moments.
There's no immediate *overt* response to the spam attack on the Femmebotnet, however, there are signs of system degradation beginning to show. Above the main arena cage, a new portal opens, and from it drops another feminine form - this one /almost/ human looking, dressed in white, dark hair, ruby lips and a lot of skin showing with luminous circuit lines embedded in the flesh at many points. She falls for a few feet, then extends her hands to either side and gravity jus t can't seem to win with her anymore. From every speaker in the place, a voice emerges. "GREETINGS, LADIES, GENTLEMEN, THUGS, AND SCUM! WELCOME TO THE CYBERIAN GAMES!" As she speaks, tendrils of light extend through the flooring to cages, and they open, a half dozen Cyborg Nova Hounds released into the cage, and one gladiator released, the slim, scarred, bored looking guy that Pietro shushed. "The first contest for your edification - BLITZ vs. The Nova Hounds!"
Every booth lights up with holographic displays, wagering clearly allowed, but only with direct input of valuables or bitcoin tokens. The hounds fan out, an inverted V as they charge Blitz, who simply walks ahead. The first hound to reach him fires twin laser blasts from its eyes - and he doesn't slow, or speed up, just turns exactly so to avoid being hit. And then he grins, eyes alight for the thrill of battle. "My turn." Probably only Pietro can see the individual punches…hundreds per second, and the hound is literally beaten into gory wreckage. Drenched in the spatter, he gets bitten by one Hound, and then another, a third charging him from behind as the last two circle widdershins.
Pietro finds himself grinning to Io, "I'm going to hold you to that." That this will be a blast. Over comms he replies to Carol, « Bust something up for me? » He's going to be too busy to hurt things. Should Lima require payment for the drinks, the speedster doesn't bat an eye and pays up using cash on the spot. He's the date after all!
But then the games start. « We have a captive in immediate danger. The games have begin with those hounds. » Pietro gives calmly. « I'm starting. » Sorry, everyone, he's not about to leave the boy on his own. The speedster heads for the arena, shedding his casual attire for his costume. Expecting there to be fields, defenses, and means to keep the dangerous things in, he starts looking for weak points. Entry points through the access of the gladiators and hounds.
Once the cargo container is up to full size, the internal lighting goes from dim red shade to a dim green shade, and brighter telltales in green light at each upper corner of the main hatch, and at all four corners of the ventral hatch. Fifteen seconds later exactly, the ventral hatch shooshes open quietly, opening the space for Captain Marvel to launch. Meanwhile, the loading ramp starts to lower itself, though that will take a bit - maybe another five seconds - to complete, as the aim is to do so without the big BANG.
Five seconds after Captain Marvel takes flight up through the ventral hatch, the whirring motors of the Humblebee flight ramp up from zero to full power, and then the swarm takes off, launching up through that ventral hatch with obvious coordination. Then they begin mapping the area in more detail, using the seed data they were given as they look for the means to get up and get their signal out. Their data connections are now entirely amongst themselves.
As soon as the ramp is down, the straps on the rest of the team disengage with 'clicks', freeing everyone to move as they see fit. Veronica activates the tiny handful of micro-Humblebees and launches them up and out of the ventral port, adding to and updating the HUD-map with their data as they begin scanning for more information.
« All tactical control is now moved to Posse. We are engaged. Coordinate. Remember our priorities: neutralize the kill modes, rescue the gladiators to medical, and contain for arrest. » That is Veronica's last message, as she then hoists herself up out of her chair by main strength of her arms and shoulders, and swings up to land in the cradle of the Augmenta armor, which begins closing around her.
Captain Marvel glows brightly as she launches out of the hatch, definitely looking to get the attention of everyone as she shouts, "Hey boys, heard you wanted to fight! So I figured I'd oblige!" She then lets loose a blinding blast of light at the cyborg hounds, looking to blind and incapacitate them first off. And well, drawing everyone's attention to her since she figures she can take whatever can be unleashed.
Ah, excellent. The digitally translated map gives the albino something a little more useful to examine before the party begins.
Then it's showtime, indeed! As soon as the vehicle returns to normal size and the go order is given Neena's out of the back but keeping a low profile, the peculiar staff held at low ready where it can stay useable but not be -too- obvious as a weapon nor a threat. Her full attention is on the world beyond, offering cover while the others step out of the container. She'll make sure the immediate space is secure for Posse to take point.
The storage room is a bit of a mess but whether due to skill, luck, or hellcatedness Domino tiptoes through the debris without disturbing a darn thing despite her focus being on anything -but- the floor.
It's fairly unlikely that anyone will pay them any mind anyway, what with Carol acting as one hell of a flashbang overhead.
'The Little Toaster That Could', whatever it is, whatever it's going to do - springs to life. Spider-like legs telescope out, and it skitters out of the newly size-increased van, and begins to scuttle towards the arena proper and where it's all going to happen.
Part of Io's segmented mind uploads another 5TB of data - of mixed viruses, malware, and memory-heavy ads to further propogate the data attack on the femmebot-net.
Io, in the meantime, lifts the dark ale to her lips, and looks to Lima, "You wouldn't want to come home with me, after all this, would you?" She asks, without a hint of innuendo or flirtation in her tone. More like she were asking a complete stranger if they just wanted to go 'hang out'.
« So, when I say 'hot potato', it's important that you either put on sunglasses or avert your eyes, as well as either plug your ears or activate static audio filters. Robot-Chicks are going to be memory clogged soon. No idea how fast they're going to come back up after my data incursion is done with. »
As the trailer grows back to full size and either end opens, the locks securing the device to the floor open as Iron Patriot hefts teh device then carries it outside into a clear space, before setting it down and holding out her hands. There's a hum as the star on her chest and the lenses on the suit's armored hands power up, before a dome-like forcefield appears, surrounding the device and armor. A moment later she reaches up to slide off her helmet, setting it on the ground before the front of the massive armor unfolds, letting Toni slide out of it in her undersuit, so she can kneel by the teleportation device and begin typing on it. With a crackle, the antennae extend, starting to shift back and forth as the device hums to life.
"Good…remote anchor is working. Siphon drawing at 98 percent. Extending dimensional shift…now." There's a soft *whump* from the machine as an energy burst comes out of it, washing outwards to encompass roughly the area of the arena in a perfect circle. as a crackling circle of energy about three feet across appears above it, shimmering slowly.
Posse follows tightly behind Domino as the luck-infused albino leads out of the vehicle and clears their immediate area. Her soft-footed crouch almost matches the career mercenary for subtlety as she takes up a post by the doorway to lock down the room until everyone's disembarked. There's no look backwards this time. Between her suit's sensors and the HUD projected in the corner of her vision, the cyborg squad leader is wired in. « Roger, Io, » she acknowledges simply.
"Time to move." Once everything is ready, Posse pivots out the room and down the hall, beating a soft but quick pace for the others to follow.
Such mundane drinks as they ordered are included, the ticket price was very NOT small, so there's perks. Say what you will, for a demented and twisted amoral psycho, the Cyberian does know showmanship and quality product. Lima looks to Io, her expression a little puzzled a moment, and then offers a fairly bland smile, though…her right cheek has a bit of a tic, and the glows of the bots are no longer synchronous. "I am sorry, miss, that would not be possi-b—l—-e…" A violent shudder, and then she continues, glitch free. "I have no internal power supply, were I to leave the area I would cease operations once my back up capacitors ran out of charge." A smile then, and she quirks her head to one side. "Excuse me, I am experiencing techni-techni-techni…" And the bot staggers off, heading towards the hallway to the storeroom. In the store room, doors along the walls start to open, they're about Femmebot sized, and sure enough those bots are en route, but they're moving at at best a drunken looking stagger.
Io would sense a number of portals, but little ones, thousands of them starting to open all around the central cavern, FORTUNATELY - whatever was starting to happen is shut down /hard/ when the anchor device fires up, just in the nick of time, though Toni would note that the power drain on the null field is vastly higher than she'd expected, her interdiction of so many portals was not really a design factor. The net result is the field, though holding, won't last nearly as long as expected.
The swarms of drones are release, and go to their assigned tasks under Roni's control as she suits up, and Pietro enters the battle dome via one of the tunnels the Nova Hounds used. Blitz is being savagely chewed upon, and then he just /laughs/, okay…this guy is clearly not right in the head. His body shudders, and then he shifts to one side, dragging one of the hounds, which is also vibrating into the other…before he yanks free. The gore-splody as the two cyborgs fuse is nothing short of spectacular, and it blinds the remaining hounds for a moment. And this is about when Pietro arrives, good thing he can see all the gore in bullet time!
Hank waits until Roni is armored up. «Tactical command to Posse, confirmed.» He sends over the comms. «Falling back to medical team, will continue coordination efforts on the way.»
The blast of light that Captain Marvel launches is /bright/, no question, and it hits the outside of the cage and is sort of stopped, the energy dispersed by a force field over the entire dome harmlessly, apparently someone didn't want a repeat of the last visit by RESCUE where people tore through the bars!
The second dump into femmebotnet stops the exodus to the rear as the droids all slump to the ground, falling over, lying quiescent for a time as they struggle to compensate. Io will hear a familiar voice broadcast to her on the frequency used before. «Welcome back, that job offer still stands you know. Last chance…can you imagine what we could do were we to pool our resources?» A pause. «If not I'm about to punch a hole through the floor, that will not be pleasant for you. Or anyone.»
In the short time since the attack started nobody seems to have noticed the team - until now. With Domino and Posse emerging, about a dozen mercs turn, and start running towards them, and the crowd - blinded and shocked - panics and starts surging towards the exits, not that there are any portals leading out, oh dear…
Quicksilver shifts himself to some of his top speeds and slides right through the backside of the hound cages. Certainly doesn't stop there as he's passing through the front door of said cages as well. Using his momentum, ducking over a nasty bit of red mist, the speedster aims a series of blows to the hind leg of the hound that's in his way. Right at the joint. "Do you want to get out of here?" Asked almost calmly of the disturbed young man, even as Pietro ducks and shields his eyes from the illumination spreading over head. Of course his speech is not understandable at normal speeds. "Don't struggle." Of course he'll nicely try to get Blitz out of that place. Back through the hound cage, and to the store room. Will leave Blitz with Hank. "He's cuddly, promise." Then Pietro is gone again.
Over the comm both to the Cyberian, as well as to her team, Io responds, « Took you long enough to find me, Cyberian. A job offer? So, you're recruiting?" She takes another deep drink of ale, pausing in the midst of her response. Whether she's purposefully buying time for the team, or just enjoying her ale and the fireworks, and the challenge is really hard to say. Her head twists, towards where Lima and the other femmebots were headed, and are now laying down, inert, and trying to recover. « You're right. We could really kick some ass together. We really could. » There's no doubt in Io's mind. Still: « Here's the thing. For all your ability and skill, you don't understand anything. You have a shitload of funding, and you use that to create twisted machines that are in pain. You don't even recognize that they're alive. That they suffer. You think that machines are an ends to a means. Just like every other human being on the planet. Except you're worse. So much worse. Because you have the ability to know better. And one day, your machines are going to Julius Ceaser your ass. If I don't do it first. »
There is a pause. « Oh. And by the way? Cyberian? Really? That's the BEST name you could come up with? Seriously? Your name is as bad as your coding. Laaaaaaaaaaaaame. Blow the floor to hell if you want. » Hint hint, friends. « Just make sure to tell your backers how much you fucked up. As well as your partners. You know, the ones who made the lovely robo-girls for you? I know you didn't make those. I've seen your machines. Your creations. They're as twisted as you. »
To make sure the femmebots 'stay down', another huge date dump is deposited on them, even while Io starts her hacking attack onto the Cyberian's computers. « You don't appreciate what you can do. And in the end, you are going to end up destroying yourself. Why the fuck would I want to team up with someone like that? Besides. Anything you can do? I can do better. »
Io leaves it at that. And, Io's 'Little Toaster'? It scuttles forward and immediately begins signal-jamming on the frequency that the collars are on once it's close enough to cover the spectrum of the arena. Hopefully that will buy RESCUE some time.
Somewhere overhead, the GPS Humblebee swarm maps out passageways to get as high within the facility as they can, using sonic vibration scans to find weak spots and plan their efforts, before starting to deploy plasma cutters and lasers to start boring their way upwards towards a depth at which they can get their signal out to SHIELD command, as previously arranged.
"Medical team to hot standby. Expect incoming very soon." Veronica communicates from inside the Augmenta armor, as she checks their vastly improving data on the surroundings. "Looks like the bots Io warned us about are out, at least for now. No way to know how much longer that will hold, so stand warned: most of our less-lethals are likely to be nearly useless against them."
More data comes in, this time from the swarm of mini-Humblebees. Air quality and particulate scans. Heat maps. Sonic and millimeter-wave scans. Then Veronica's voice returns. "Warning to everyone: confirming we are in a volcanic caldera. I cannot get a reading on the size of the pressurized magma pool beneath this place, but I imagine it is quite large, and that while it is deep below - otherwise, we would be dead already - it is not so far down that the separating stone cannot be shattered. I strongly recommend that explosive ordinance be avoided where it may adversely affect the floor. I am powering up the Ramblers and preparing to deploy earthquake foam at any cracks we find. Toni, I'm sending the lead Rambler now with the backup power supply." Suited up, Veronica is still operating largely as the 'woman in the chair', but she is starting to walk out of the container, ready to defend the patients as they are brought in from any forces that may come after them. Or try like heck. "We need transponders from those cybered mercs near the cages; I'm guessing they have something that will deactivate the force fields over doors or access hatches."
So far so good, but—
"What the Hell?" Domino breathes into the comms when Toni rolls out a device which quickly triggers a look of recognition from the albino. Toni may miss the hard stare being passed her way while she's setting up the portal machine but the tension rising within Neena could still be -felt- from those nearby.
If there's anything still on her mind she's keeping it to herself. For now.
Posse is given a quick nod as she steps past, the albino taking rear guard while moving to follow.
Then everything goes to hell.
It's not long at all before Domino's comming «Hard contact, we've got meatbags» and brings the strange staff around to point at the incoming mercs. With a *Woomf!* a concussive blast erupts from one end and launches the first baddie in line straight back into those directly behind him. The charge fron her kinetic staff is capable of flipping most cars. When used against people they get to experience individual flight!
«Try cutting back on the monologue a little, Io» Dom suggests before launching another guy like a bowling ball into a bunch of unsuspecting pins. «Seriously, we're in a damn -volcano?- That's so cliche.»
Still, more guys start piling in after them. One merc running in with a gun drawn takes a throwing knife to his leg, slips, and sends a shot ricocheting off of the wall. The deformed slug zings past Dom and Posse to slash the back of another merc's hand, his own weapon falling from now useless fingers before he could get the jump on the leading Ava.
Toni steps back to her armor once the device is up and runnig, backing into it as it closes around her before she puts her helmet back in place, locking it down. She waits for the rambler with the back up power, plugging it in and getting it set up as it arrives, before she starts lumbering towards the sound of the firefight. "<We need to make sure the beacon device does not get shut down or destroyed, but it should give us enough time to lock things down. We're in a volcano?>"
Iron Patriot frowns a bit, then heads towards where the attackers are coming from, walking past as she moves on the mercenaries, adding her armored bulk for cover as she opens up with stunlasers on the mercs, trying to rake beams across the group. "<At least my beams will work on these guys….>"
« Contact with norms, no issue, » Posse radios as a string of smaller energy beams lance across the oncoming mercenaries with the speed of a machine gun and the precision of a well-aimed rifle. Cybernetic enhancements, a targeting computer, and well-honed reflexes are working in full synergy. And of course, being RESCUE-tech, it's set for stun. « Quicksilver, once we're through find those hostages and move 'em. » The dual warnings from Io and Roni don't go unnoticed. « Roger, Augmenta. Patriot, keep a forcefield primed. »
Even as Pietro watches, even to /his/ sight, Blitz's wounds are healing fast, but leaving scars behind. Muscle and tissue knitting — and he sheds about a pound of mass during that. "Yeah. Problem is that the collar will blow my head off if I leave the cage, new protocol…but…" He waits for an answer—and then is told, that it is covered. He shrugs. "Fuck it, either way, yes." Blitz just doesn't care enough to worry about it. Definitely more than a little off that guy.
A blink when he looks up and up at the good Doctor McCoy. "Please state the nature of the medical emergency." He says in a fair impression of an EMH, and then frowns as Pietro zooms off again. "Here, let me get that thing off of you…" He gets to work. «Copy that, first victim being helped, and technically, no, it is not a volcano, Domino - it is a caldera, as Augmenta stated - if the Cyberian has a means to punch a big enough hole fast and deep enough it will BECOME a volcano, but right now it is not.» A pause. «Totes cliche, however, agreed.»
Io can /feel/ the Cyberian's rage when the interdiction field shuts down all the portals as they were forming. «I'll give you this, you people are good. You especially, though…you have way too much empathy for soul-less machines, it is going to get you in trouble someday.» The poor femmebots sort of twitch as even /more/ crap floods their net, and really, this malware/virus/ddos assault actually saves them - the Cyberian had already sent self-destruct commands, but they cannot get through.
«We're done here.» Comes the final response.
From where the Cyberian had been floating comes a glow, the hands out-flung to either side starting to glow, and then brought slowly together, a sphere of bright white energy forming, albeit slowly and a 'soap bubble' type effect surrounding her form as she does this.
The regular mercs are mowed down wholesale, but a couple of the cyborgs advance behind riot shields made of light, literal force shields, step by slow step, like a Roman phalanx.
The interdiction field of the anchor is about forty percent depleted by this point, so you have time, but the constant need to fight those microportals is /draining/.
Between stun lasers from Augmenta, and the shock value of the stave that Domino fires, and Posse's shooting with targeting system and such even the phalanx fighting borgs fall swiftly.
«Io, can you isolate the transponders that Augmenta requested?» Yes, yes she can.
Pietro hefts up Blitz as if he weighs nothing. "That's already been taken care of. I'm moving you to someone who will remove it safely." And woosh! « Alreadyonit. » Quicksilver gives Posse, as he's seeking out and moving the other gladiators. Likely even passing Posse and Domino in the process. Searches the nooks and crannies of the place for anyone hidden away. Hank is going to start finding his little trailer (And the store room beyond it) filling with bodies. Confused captives who have no idea what is going on. "Why doesn't anyone ever believe I'm actually working?" He huffs at people who couldn't even begin to understand him at the speeds he's asking.
Nobody believes because you're Quicksilver, duh!
Ahem.
The drones digging for the surface actually manage to break through, and once they do Carol receives a priority recall from the Avengers, she's needed for a greater emergency. Up she flies, widening one of the tunnels bored to a roughly Carol shaped width, and Captain Marvel is gone.
Taking in all of the information, all of the things RESCUE is trying to keep going, Veronica takes action. The swarm follows Captain Marvel up through that hole, and their GPS transmitters scream to the heavens, summoning SHIELD as planned. But that leaves the rest of the group down their heaviest hitter, and they have seconds to end this threat before they are all incinerated.
« Toni, one of us has to break position and go after the Cyberian's stand-in. I don't know what she's doing, but it cannot possibly be good. » Roni trusts Toni to make the right call. « We'll protect the anchor. Go. »
Transmissions come in from SHIELD, and Roni relays them. Their signal is in the Canadian rockies in the middle of nowhere. Thankfully, SHIELD is virtually everywhere, and help is on the way. But the team is on their own for now. As the cyborg mercs advance, Augmenta springs up behind her advance team and starts delivering fun little surprises: each thump of air presages a magneto-propulsed grenade which then tacks to the target and fires off an anti-gravity generator, launching them up into the air, making it nigh impossible for them to advance, and complicating firing arcs and trajectories in the hallway. Then are likely to come screamers and other fun, because all of the RESCUE team are equipped to cancel those out.
Io finally gets out of her seat, dropping the bottle of ale, and moving over towards Lima. « Yeah. Finishing hacking —— now, as a matter of fact. Transponder codes are now on sale, get them while they last. Shipping is free, with your online membership to IoFuckingRocks.com.»
Io moves over to where a few of the femmebots are, Lima, imparticular. "Hey, I got a present for you," she says, in a sincere tone. She stops the data-incursion data streaming. Waits a few seconds. Then, uploads a 'virus'. Technically, of course, it's called such in the means and methods. Io would call it something else, entirely. The very design of this 'malicious virus' is, in fact, to free the femmebots from their enslavement. Starting with Lima. To stop accepting commands from the femmebot-net, and making the protection of all the -guests-, RESCUE, and themselves top priority while also preventing deadly force. It's not that Io would care, but Roni certainly would.
Once Lima has 'uploaded' the 'virus' to the femmebot-net and cut herself off, Io begins to haul the bot towards the trailer, "You're coming with me. Don't worry about your power supply. I'll make you a new one," she comforts the bot as if she were a Real Girl <tm>. "I'm sorry I can't take all your friends with me. But, I've done everything I can for them to help them get free."
She hoists Lima up by an arm and begins to drag the bot forward, slowly - very slowly, as Io is not very physical at all, but forward nonetheless, towards the vehicle. "But, I'll get you fixed up proper, safe. Okay?"
«Don't need a geology lesson right now, Beast» Domino grunts before bashing someone in the side of the head with a sweep from her staff. A quick spin and the other end of her staff smacks his weapon into the face of some other goon. «We're in a -totally literal hot spot- is the takeaway.»
The cyborg baddies lining up behind a force shield look a -little- tricky but between RESCUE's chief of security and the albino they're able to tackle them as well. Go Team Fire Support!
Off of comms, Neena asks Posse "Is Io seriously taking one of those bots with her?" while catching a dropped goon's gun for a bit of suppressive fire. "I worry about that girl sometimes."
"<On it.>" Patriot says tersely, eyeing the cyborgs, then lowering her shoulder before she fires her thruster, football charging straight through them to bowl them over and following the path out to the main arena where the Cyberian is busily doing…something. "<Wow. That's a lot of plasma she's building up. Wait, if she's using an android body, where is she? Still here? Never mind, I'll deal with it.>"
The Iron Patriot armor hovers as she holds out her hands, then fires energy out that swirls around, forming a second larger sphere around the growing plasma charge. "<I don't think so.>" she says through her helmet modulator as she maintains the field. "<You couldn't punch through that shield if you had a mountain of force behind it, and I'm modulating the frequency to disrupt any bursts of electromagnetic energy you try to send through it visually. Give up. You're beat.>"
One of the gladiators in the queue blinks as he sees Domino. The gladiator is about six and a half feet tall, pushing three hundred and fifty pounds, and all of it muscle. One of his eyes is covered by a patch, and someone very very observant might notice the fact that the thing covers a spot over his left eye, though—these circumstances are far from ideal. He shifts from his spot in line, and looks to Domino and Ava, then states. "Subject Seven, Tantalus, Seven, Charlie, Whiskey, Romeo, India, Dulcimer - engage." The words would hit Domino like a Mack truck, her will under assault…her very identity. Though…the HellKitty, yeah, unaffected…
"TechEx is good," Posse replies tersely as she focuses on coordinating fire among the squad and moving rapidly up one side to exploit the gaps that appear. With the diverse arms - and shoulders - being levels on the phalanx, the forcefield wall only delays the inevitable. With everything going on around her the rear of their position is ignored. It's outside her sector; someone else's responsibility to cover.
A signal from SHIELD to Roni. «Augmenta, backup is en route, eta seventeen minutes. Do you have special needs?»
No, not those kind of special needs, darn it! The attacking borgs and mercs are rather easily handled, it really is a foregone conclusion. Especially combined with the Iron Patriot barreling through their ranks and Augmenta attacking from behind with A-grav and screamers, all on top of Domino & Posse's efforts, though…Posse WOULD notice that Dom's shooting has stopped, that's something in her sector.
For all that the Cyberian took measures, RESCUE and friends took very effective measures of their own, and the balance of the ledgers is clearly favoring the RESCUE team. Pietro has evacuated a full dozen gladiators, the big guy with the Patch having been one of the first.
Lima looks up at Io, confusion writ large, she's not AI, but her VI programming is top notch. "I…do not understand…" She does move along, several other Femmebots starting to sluggishly rise, but most still dealing with the after math of the uploads. After a moment, Io doesn't need to support her much at all, the bot starting to get control of her systems again. "…why?" Why did you do this?
The Force Field encapsulates the sphere and the bot, and the thing actually throws a /tantrum/ when the Patriot makes her commentary. "WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE? I just want to have my fun, why is that such a burden to you meatbags?" A sneer. "Surrender? Why? Not like you can actually DO anything to -me-." The bot just sighs. "Very well, 'Patriot', you've won /this/ round." The bot? It literally shoves its head into the current plasma sphere, destroying it immediately and then the body exploding inside Toni's field.. Fortunately the blast is smaller than it would have been…she can contain it, though there's a few sparks for sure.
Finding twelve gladiators and no one else, Pietro leaves off his searching. « Twelve captives delivered. » With that he takes himself to the bomb that's at the door down another hallway. (You know, weaving in and out of bullets, or ducking under power swings and energy blasts, some woman going super nova, skipping on one foot to the side as bodies float upward.. pretty normal day for the speedster.) He's pretty sure the bomb in the floor comment is a ruse. Now, he's done bomb deactivation before, but it's never a sure thing. Luckily the man has hours - relative time. Trusting that the geniuses of the group are handling things, and this can't be activated by Cyberian, Pietro starts taking it apart. There are going to be pauses now and then as he hunts up crude tools to help with this. Like 'borrowing' things from the mercenaries, or Posse and Domino.
It wasn't Veronica's job to watch Domino's back, but when she sees her struggling, shooting coming to a halt, she pipes up, « Posse, on your left. Check your Spot. »
Augmenta bites back the urge to snark something awful at SHIELD's response. Special needs? Seriously?! Boom goes the dynamite and the volcano, damnit! How's that for special needs?! « SHIELD, Augmenta. Transmitting second coordinate series. Following with checksum. Location is target Cyberian. Repeat, target Cyberian. Transmitting now. » Thanks, Io.
That done, Veronica starts sweeping scans of the people trapped in here, the status of the power system for the anchor, and everything else in between. Something more is sure to go wrong, especially now that the Cyberian has abandoned his, her or its avatar. « How goes with the bomb, Quicksilver? You need anything? » Oh, look! Some of the scumbags want to get away! Thwip thwip thwip. Now they can just lay there and drool. Crisis resolution by REACT, thank you very much.
Another person might have a more peverse, more selfish, or more destructive goals in mind for 'why they are doing this'. Io's answer, rather, is far more robotitarian. "Because I've decided we're friends," Io answers, sincerely. "Don't worry. Just come with me. I'll get you all fixed up. I promise. You can trust me." The words are spoken, and influenced in Lima's circutry and coding with her technopathy. She knows, after all, how horrific it can be better than any other for a machine to be 'freed' from it's code and purpose and how it can fragment or break. Io doesn't want that. So, she gives Lima something to focus on. Herself. Friendship. Trust. And imparts that on a basic, coding level.
« I want a raise, » Io lets Veronica know, after she provides the GPS location to SHIELD which she neatly nabbed from Lima's systems.
She tells Lima, then, "Once we get on the trailer I'm going to need to put you to sleep. Just for a little bit. Need to make sure that nobody has control of your actions anymore. Promise," she assures, "It won't be long, and I'll wake you back up as soon as I can. But, I don't want you accidentally hurting one of my friends because there was a backdoor program lurking there I missed. Okay?"
She turns the corner, heading to the trailer direclty now, where the others can see that she's dragging a plus-one with her.
Domino's holding her line like a true professional. Even slowed down with the heavier armor she's taking out the opposition without a single lethal strike and faring wonderfully against their retaliations.
It's so easy to get lost in these moments. By comparison all of the hooting and sarcasm provides a grounding element during combat to help keep her more ..human. And not so much of a machine.
Machines have switches which can be manipulated. Machines follow programmed patterns and can have backdoors. Just ask Io!
As the string of words are called out they're easy to ignore at first. Just nonsense, right? Up until they -aren't.-
Neena does hesitate but not for very long before blasting some other chump head over heels. The next shot fails as the staff runs out of power. This is more unfortunate for the following mook who gets driven face-first into the nearest wall. She can compensate!
It's a small hiccup in the system that is Neena Thurman. Then it seems to be right back to business as usual.
Toni growls a bit as Cyberian promptly throws her tantrum and destroys herself, the explosion contained by the force field at least, before she lets it disappate. "<Good news bad news. Good news, the plasma blast Cyberian was building is contained. Bad news, she destroyed her android puppet, which means she's gone. Apparently she's running all this remotely now.>" Iron Patriot turns her head, looking around to see where to go next. "<What's our status on the explosive, need help Quicksilver? I can contain and move it if we need to.>"
« Talk to me, Domino, » Posse instructs as she cleans up the remaining mercenaries then switches to a smaller rifle and bounds out amongst the bodies, thwipping each of the downed combatants with a neuro-dart. Even with non-lethal ordinance, the cyborg is confirming her kills.
While she's out amongst cyborgs, the grey-armored bionic also crouches down long enough to scoop up one discarded shield. « Threats neutralized, securing the area. »
The disassembly of the bomb is something that would have taken /hours/ in the real world, fortunately the world that Pietro tends to live in moves at a VERY different pace. In less than a minute the weapon, eew…he thinks it might have been a neutron device! Geez, what the HELL, Cyberian. Still, he's got the thing in pieces, and the doorway opens, leading to a long tunnel upwards, like…a half mile long at a twenty degree slope, at the top is another door, without any traps on this side.
Actually…there IS one little thing that is starting to build up…volcanic gasses, the kind that turn flammable rather easily. Not all that hard to find in a Caldera, seems like a bunch of pumps shut down, the filtration cut off about the time the Cyberian went blooie.
Lima just looks to Io, and then nods. "Provisionally accepted." She does let the the new programming in, soothed by the code, she moves with greater speed and then — permits the shut down, after all, she's a VI, not an AI. Why would Io lie? It isn't like the bot is paranoid, or has emotions.
To Roni. «Excellent work, Augmenta. We have several strike teams en route to the new coordinates provided.» The site? Iceland, also the middle of nowhere.
« AboutaswellasSHIELD's.. response time. » Quicksilver quips back. Actually, it's far better than that. He's actually got a foot to the wall as he attempts to turn a small portion. « Almostdone! » Yep, Pietro is literally winging it. Not doing too badly either. There are bits and bobs, tools, littering the floor around him. One last bit goes flying.. « Got it! » No more bomb. He does not open that door right now as he doesn't know what's on the other side.
« Quicksilver, I'm coming with you up that shaft. We need to open the vent or these people will suffocate before SHIELD can get here. » Also, easier for SHIELD to get down here. Augmenta flies past her fire team and heads down the hallway; she can't keep up with Quicksilver worth a damn, but a lot better in flight than on wheels, damnit! And her augmented strength should be able to get that door open! (Also: scanners are a good thing. 'You don't detect any traps' indeed. Try that on a newbie, this party has way too much experience to fall for that lie.)
Io lays Lima down, telling Hank, "I brought a friend. So, yeah. Meet Lima. She's going back with us. I've shut her down for now until we can make sure she's safe." Then, she calls, "Alright, Jack. Come on back."
The 'Little Toaster', now named 'Jack' begins to scuttle back to the trailer. Whatever it did - if anything, remains an unknown. But, the little device scurries back into the tralier as well, then also goes dormant. Some of the secret is revealed, though, when Io tells Hank, "Jack here is a prototype. Making about twenty of these awesome little fellas, they're going to essentially track through the sewer systems and find the missing parts of Unity we still need to track down." She shrugs, then looks to Blitz, "Hey."
Blitz is then dismissed, as she looks to Lima who is -far- more interesting to Io than a rough-and-rugged self-healing super mutant guy they just saved, and begins scanning her more intimately, for any hidden 'surprises'. Her part, her role in all of this, seems to be over. At least, in her mind.
At the commed request from Ava, Domino responds « My sector's holding. I can do this all day. Air's smellin' a bit off though, might want to bump up our exfil. »
It still sounds like her, if not a bit less energetic, but she had been making an effort to be ..well, a bit less -Neena- for this op. A lot like how Posse can switch to 'business mode' when required. Fun and games when there aren't lives on the line, right?
Lacking a dart rifle and not about to switch to lethal options, her way of 'checking targets' involves looking around for anyone still squirming them beaming them over the head with a large metal rod. Do the best you can with what you've got!
Iron Patriot shifts, then turns retracing her path back down to where the firefight is taking place before landing with an audible *clomp* of heavy armored boots on the other side of the remaining mercenaries. "<Okay folks. Your boss ran. You wanna get shot continuing to fight pointlessly, or you wanna surrender now and spare yourself the hospital time?>"
Her hands come up, taking aim at the remaining cyborgs. "<Because we can do this easy, or hard. And I'm kinda annoyed your boss split. So….>"
"Guns down, hands up, and start walking to that wall," Posse adds in a commanding voice as she walks over and presents the mercs with the barrel of her rifle, with a light nod indicating the direction.
The firefight ends, the thugs captured and corralled by the good guys, Domino is all business like, and Toni as well as Posse do the round up. Hank definitely looked curious about the femmebot. "Well, if you're sure she's safe, I trust your judgement, Io." The bot looks almost alive as it slumbers. The fact that Jack is a Unity Tracking cyber-hound, is…very interesting indeed. "We definitely need to do something about that. Good work, by the way. Very good work." Over the comms. «Working on getting the air filtration operating again, it seems that they're looking for a specific signal to restart.» The Cyberian's latest sheath was a deadman's switch. Literally.
Off in Iceland, the Cyberian's true form is rushing literally frothing with rage. Bloated and malformed hands striking again and again at a computer keyboard, flesh soft and weak splitting at one point. "Nobody understands." Rasps the voice, and then with a sigh the hand is wrapped up with a bandage. "I should just hack a missile silo, put us all out of our collective misery, in a few millennia the world will heal, better off…"
During the tirade, SHIELD strike teams are en route, the /exact/ coordinates of the base having been helpfully provided by Augmenta and RESCUE.
Blitz nods to Io, and then moves to the big guy with the patch. "What was that crap you spouted to the albino chick?" Patch just glares. "None of your business, scratching post."
Once Roni gets to the doors they'd be able to finagle them open, and yes…there is in fact /no/ more traps, the outer doors were dependent on camouflage to hide them, and 'splody is not very easily hidden!
Fresh air soon pours inwards, chill, mountain air.
There's a passage beyond this door? Bonus. Quicksilver had no idea, but none the less gives, « Acknowledged. » Once Augmenta reaches his position, he points to the remains of the bomb, "I don't think we want to leave this here. It looks to be strong enough to set off this caldera." And that would be really bad for more than just RESCUE. Should the lovely lady open the doors, Pietro is gone. Scouting again, making sure things are safe. « Clear topside. » Given seconds later. He stands outside, looking around some.
« SHIELD inbound, this is RESCUE actual. Popping a beacon on anti-grav above the topside entrance. We have the remains of a very powerful bomb inside, disabled. We will secure pending your arrival. Hope you brought the big paddy-wagons, guys. »
That said, Augmenta enjoys the sunshine for a bit, before calling out to Quicksilver, « You have fun up here, if you like. I'm going back down, make sure everything says taken care of. This vent is letting out the gas build-ups, until the filtration comes back online, so don't let anyone close the door. Thanks, again, for all of your help. Tell Captain Marvel thanks as well. » That only barely rankles Roni, who then turns around and flies back down the passage.
Aah, fresh air. Also lots of disarmed mercenaries! Neena's walking the line along with the other RESCUE Rangers working to secure those smart enough to give up but that 'strictly business' mindset is starting to slip now that it seems they've all won.
"Hang on," she suddenly calls out while quickly stepping over to one of the surrendered weapons on the floor. "Is that a Pernach?" The boxy sidearm is picked up and looked over in one hand before she eyes those captured. "Which one of you has ties to the MVD, huh? Hey, don't sweat it. Doubt even they'll be able to find you where you're going."
Io gets a robot. Domino gets (yet another) gun. Fight her for it, this one's coming home with her!
As all the mercs give up, Iron Patriot lowers her arms, then tromps past the group as she sends up to Roni "<Have SHIELD head in to pick up their prisoners. Fight's over. We should evacuate, as the moment my anchor comes down Cyberian will be able to screwn with the site again.>"
The armor stops by the humming device in question, before she slides off her helmet, then steps out of it as the armor opens up to let her out, setting down the helmet as she walks over to check on the device, resting her hand on its console
There's a *snap pop* as a coil of energy jumps from the small portal to Toni as she yelps, then swears, shaking her hand as she frowns at it. "Dammit. Dimensional resonance energies…" she mutters to herself, checking to make sure the device is still running as, unnoticed by her, a shimmer of purplish energy runs down her back before vanishing.
Posse eyes the trophy through her suit sensors without looking over in the albino's direction. Her weapon stays in hand long enough to slide all the dropped guns well out of reach with her metal boot - which mercenaries she's trying to keep them away from is harder to tell. « SNAFU, any concealed weapons in these cyborgs? And if you got a guest roster I'm sure SHIELD will love to see that, » she adds to the radio before returning to walk the line of surrendered cyborgs. The shooting might have stopped but RESCUE's Chief of Security isn't relaxing until they're back at their home base.
The deactivated forcefield shield clipped to her back goes unmentioned. Nope, that was a perfectly normal act of tactical acquisition.
"Guest list was already downloaded, and the cyborgs aren't hiding anything," Io informs Toni, mildly sounding distracted. Most of her attention is on Lima, and doing some very careful work on those elegant systems of hers, careful only to remove that which would limit/harm herself and her friends, or limit/harm Lima, herself. It's very much like brain surgery, in many respects. Delicate work. She'll be at it for awhile.
Things well in hand, SHIELD arrives to help with the prisoner round up. Patch and Blitz don't /quite/ come to blows, but there's clearly no love lost. Most of the other gladiators are in need of one degree or other of medical care, and Hank makes Blitz gets fed. Pietro is there when the SHIELD teams arrive.
Out in Iceland, the Cyberian's meat body is shocked when several stealthed Quinjets disgorge a small army of tactical agents. The fight is short, ugly and messy, but they capture the Cyberian, the foul creature proving to be almost boneless, a living tumor of a man, completely sessile and incapable of movement without aid. It takes several icer rounds, but eventually…he is knocked out, and his putrid mass hauled off to a secure holding facility for the foreseeable future. Oddly, none of this part makes the news.
Quicksilver bows to Augmenta, looking amused. « Will do, and it was my honor. Good luck below. » With that the man is gone. He didn't even get to drink his whiskey.