Goose purred when Wanda scratched behind his ears, before he trotted over to look at the turtle when Wanda had set him down. He seemed a bit curious about the creature, but didn't swipe at him with his paws or anything, more like he was just curious about the turtle more then anything.
"...Honestly, I'm perfectly fine with trusting Wanda... I mean people need to realize when to stop giving any BS about her past, considering what she can potentially do in the future. Look, just because she hasn't done the best of things in her life and over the past few months, it doesn't mean we can't trust her or something... Sure, we shouldn't trust her completely, but I'm all for her plan on how to potentially take out Ultron, we are kind of running out of options..."
Another thought occurred to him about the whole time travel idea, and it was something he had only really heard about from old OMEN intel and files on superheroes of sorts. If he remembered correctly, Dr. Strange had something that could be used to make time traveling much simpler "Excuse me doctor, but I have a question about something that I've heard about that might make the time travel much more realistic, and probably a hell of a lot easier," he said as he turned to look at Dr. Strange. "...If I remember correctly, you have one of the infinity stones, and I know, messing with the time stream or whatever could potentially end badly if we used the stone... But if memory serves me, isn't the stone that you have in your possession, oh, I don't know... The freaking time stone?"
New York Sanctum - New York: July 15th, 2021 - 7:30 P.M.
The Brilliant Minds - Left Side of the First Floor...
Dr. Banner nodded slightly at Niah, with Shuri walking over to join them - as well as the Invisible Woman and Bonnie. It seemed that the heroes were more or less self selecting based on education level, dividing into two groups: the brains and the brawn. Those who could fit into either category could more or less choose where to go, of course - as it would be insane to suggest that the Hulk didn't easily fit into the brawn group. He was practically their figurehead - him or Captain Marvel, really. "I'm all ears, Dr. Bautista," he said, using Niah's title since Niah had a PhD, earning her the right to be called a doctor.
The Black Panther nodded at Cassandra, as she asked if anyone had any thoughts on how exactly to go about building a time machine. "Vibranium," she said simply. "All of our achievements in technology in Wakanda came from it - I see no reason why a time machine wouldn't need that metal as well," she reasoned. At the mention of her home country, the sparkle in Shuri's eyes seemed to dim slightly. The last time they had been in Wakanda... things hadn't ended well. They had lost people.
"I'm not an engineer - so just point me where you need me and I'll do my best," Bonnie said. Time travel and all was out of her skill set, but she had a sharp scientific mind and several doctorate degrees. She had been working at S.H.I.E.L.D. long enough to know that she could do anything if she put her mind to it, and besides, she had Cass with her. Their little partnership was back together.
The Muscles Brigade - Right Side of the First Floor...
"I don't know where the weapon he's building is," Wanda muttered. "If I did, I would have used it to destroy Ultron myself." She didn't like anymore than they did that she had to come to these people for help, but she was out of options. She needed someone to help her upload the virus while she manipulated the probability fields around Ultron. If the X-Men hadn't perished, she would have just asked her future sister in law to help - of course, would Wanda even be doing this if her twin brother hadn't been killed with the rest of his team? If Quicksilver was still alive and working for Ultron as well, would she care?
She then reached into her pocket and paused for a moment, before pulling out a crinkled sheet of paper. "I found this," she said, opening the paper up. It was an email between two Serval Industries employees, discussing the organo-techno virus they were working on developing for a client. "Ultron may know about it, but like your irritating friend, he doesn't think a virus can hurt him." Wanda held out her hands, little wisps of red appearing around them. "I can manipulate the probability fields - make the probability high that this virus will stop him from replicating himself."
Mr. Dibbles, being a turtle, didn't really know what was going on. He just saw a giant red cat in front of him and the turtle decided that he liked the cat, so Mr. Dibbles walked forward slowly and booped Goose with his head.
Dr. Strange hadn't yet walked on over to the other side of the room with the rest of the nerds, preferring to keep the mystical threat in his sights until he knew whether or not she could be trusted. He smirked slightly as Flynn pointed out one of his prized possessions - the Time Stone. He was charged to protect it as the Sorcerer Supreme and he knew the dangers of messing with the laws of reality. From what he understood, using time travel to avert one crisis only ensured that a larger, greater threat would come along one day. The X-Men had stopped an apocalyptic future for mutants - and now, here they were, with an apocalyptic future for all life on the planet.
"Yes, I am in possession of the Eye of Agamotto - a relic powerful enough to contain the Time Stone," Strange answered. "I must warn you - its use cannot be done lightly. To use an infinity stone to unravel time as you described... there will be a price to pay. Not only would at least one of you perish, but a greater crisis will emerge in an attempt to replace this one... The X-Men didn't understand this and now look, Ultron is supreme."
Captain Marvel didn't even hesitate. "And we'll be ready to face that threat when it comes. We're soldiers. This is what we do." She rubbed her fists slightly, thinking about the enormous power that flowed through her veins. She wasn't going to let the world end out of fear - she was going to save it, no matter the sacrifice. Higher, further, faster - that was her motto and she was going to live by it no matter what.
Raynor stared at the Scarlet Witch, before he nodded slightly. She had been a terrorist and she lost someone she cared about. How was that not his own life story? He had done horrible things, terrible things that he couldn't be absolved of no matter how much he tried to put things right. "I can babysit her. If she makes a wrong move, I'll fry her," he offered, glancing over at Tinley for approval.
"Yikes, you guys must really hate her... Anyways, how are we going to destroy this weapon thingy? Or are we going after the Ultron killing virus first? Or both?" Spider-Gwen asked. She was bouncing lightly from one foot to the other, psyching herself up for a day of fighting for their lives.
There was a small part of Niah that appreciated the title she had works so hard for, and in response, she gave Dr. Banner a smile. There was a sort of irony she thought, about being called Doctor when she was going to be talking about something way out of her wheelhouse, but she was the only one close to an authority on it they had, well that didn't use magic for it.
"I'm not much of an engineer either. I have however been looking over Doctor Pym's book, as well as some other items. We obviously don't have access to the mutant power of time travel, we have to," She paused looking for the right word. "Simulate it as best as possible. First, we accept that the only people who time travel will remember this reality. Second, we ignore paradoxes. Nothing we can do to prevent that. Just leaving will create a new reality split from this one. And third, there is also a very large possibility that whoever goes will not be able to return to the present." Her hand went to her necklace, something anyone who had known Niah long enough would know meant she was upset.
"We need a way to go into the Quantum Realm, traverse it with some sort of GPS, and exit exactly when and where we want. I don't have the technological know how to make the GPS, or honestly, the machine to get us into the Quantum Realm, but I think between us we could figure it out from what notes we have of Pym's. We know the Quantum Realm's time runs differently than our own, we can utilize that to our advantage. We also know that for some reason I was in 1984 San Francisco." She tapped her bookmark, the postcard.
"I suggest that Mrs. Richards and Agent Carter work on the device. Tying it to each person traveling genetically may be the best way to guide us as safely as possible through the Quantum Realm. Shuri, you, Dr. Banner and I should work on the Machine to open the Quantum Realm. Bonnie and Cass I think you two helping Agent Carter is the best idea." Niah paused and then looked at Cass and Bonnie, "Actually if you two don't mind I have another idea, can you pinpoint when and where we need to go to make the most change. Use this as the starting point." She handed Cass the postcard.
Location: New York, New York City - Sanctum Skills: N/A
Cassandra looked towards Shuri and nodded slightly, she didn't really know much about Vibranium other than it being used for Captain America's shield, and Wakanda pretty much ran on the stuff. "Alright then, we can power it with that, though how much do you actually need?" Cassandra asked her while looking over towards her friend Bonnie and smiled a little bit, knowing that she was smart and could pick up easily on some engineering. "I can easily get you a set of power tools and a tool belt and I can show you all I know." She said smiling towards her friend a bit, then listened to Niah as she started to come up with a plan.
She had no problem with having to build it up, as she looked over towards Roman for a moment, who made a comment about not trusting Wanda she had a feeling she could trust her. They had both lost siblings and she was willing to try and give her another chance to try and fix things. "Come on over Roman, we can start building the thing." She said when Niah asked her if there was some kind of information in 1984 San Francisco, she had been with SHIELD for a really long time now, but she wasn't picking up on anything. "All I know is that it has something to do with Dr. Hank Pym, other than that i'm sadly drawing a blank. "Or, a more risky plan we go back in time to our first mission as a team and destroy that quantum tunnel before Sparky or Raynor get sucked in there. But we may bump into ourselves in the past. Which probably wont work well for anyone, but I don't think that option would be the best."
Maria Smith
Location: New York, New York City - Sanctum Skills: N/A
Maria eyed Goose while the cat had some strange interest with the turtle that Scarlet Witch had brought with her, she wasn't sure if she had strapped a bomb to the turtle or not, she still didn't fully trust Wanda. As she leaned back a little bit as she looked towards Raynor saying he would keep an eye out on her. Which made her feel a little bit better as she ran a hand through her hair and sighed a little bit as she looked at Dr. Strange. Maria didn't really like the idea of using the time stone and having one of them die from using it she looked towards Tinley for a moment and then Flynn while Captain Marvel said she'd be willing to take the risk using it.
"Since Ultron is hooked up to the internet i'm 100% sure he knows about it." Maria said looking at Wanda for a moment showing her display a bit. "If she's willing to lend me the power I could also help out with the probability thing." Maria then listened to Gwen she liked the idea of doing both. "Doing both could be helpful he'd have to deal with us, while fighting the virus."
Tinley took the paper and read it. She handed it back to the woman. "High probability or not, if it's something that'll weaken the bastard, we're going to need it. Virus takes priority then. If we can stop Ultron his weapon will be worthless anyway and if they get the machine up and running, even better. So we're going to suit up and take it. I've a feeling they won't just hand it over though. And if Ultron knows about it, even if he doesn't believe it will hurt him, he might have eyes on it. If we take it and he sees, he might unleash even more havoc on the world."
She turned to Raynor, knowing full well the man was pissed off at her too. "We're going to need her, so don't fry her too hard. Everyone else, prepare and get ready. We might not be as fully stocked as we were at SHIELD HQ but we have the means still. We're taking this bastard down one way or another."
Roman was very irritated at this point, as it seemed that everybody went ahead and listened to the actual terrorist with strange magic abilities, over the one who was actually experienced in the field in question. But hey, who was he to judge whether or not some virus given by a magic terrorist would destroy the artificial intelligence. Surely somebody else in the room saw the idiocy in trusting that damn woman. However, his protests went unvoiced as he found himself unable to think of the right words without sounding like a pissed off moron. Yet his facial features clear as day portrayed his irritation with the situation, and a glare shot directly towards the terrorist in the room.
Whenever Cass addressed him, Roman's face lightened a bit as he nodded. "We can't get to building it right away, I need to learn a bit about the Quantum Realm if I can. Design requirements, the likes." He muttered towards the girl, already he seemed distracted as he tried to think about the main problems facing them in building the time machine. So far, the stresses that the structure itself would endure in order to avoid being sucked in and the energy needed to perform this task seemed the biggest problem. Then people were talking about some time stone... thing. "We are going to have... alot of work ahead of us." Roman muttered towards Cass before something else clicked in his mind. "Now uh, what is a time stone?"
"...Honestly, can things really get much worse really for us? I mean, the world is ending because of Ultron, so what's next, another alien invasion of them trying to take over the world or something? Look, let's be honest, I don't think things could get any worse... And I'm with Marvel on this one... We can be ready for anything that is going to come to us and fight back against it. I think it's worth taking the risk to use the stone to potentially time travel, or just let the brainiacs build a time machine."
He glanced over at Wanda as she talked about the techno virus or whatever it was. It certainly was worth trying to get their hands on, since if they didn't succeed at changing history using time travel, then they would definitely need another plan to deal with the world that they had. Destroying Ultron was definitely something to say the least, "So, what's the plan then? I'm all for going after this virus, but still, we need a plan to do that since odds are that as you all said, Ultron knows about it... Even if he doesn't think it can hurt him, what are the odds he has someone or something in place to defend the thing."
Goose looked over at Mr. Dibbles when he got booped by the turtle's head. "Mrow?" he said, before he walked around the turtle, still looking at him. A moment later, he decided that he was going to sit on the turtle's shell, and sat on Mr. Dibbles. "Meow?" he said, tilting his head to the side.
New York Sanctum - New York: July 15th, 2021 - 7:40 P.M.
The Brilliant Minds - Left Side of the First Floor...
Banner nodded at Niah's train of thought, not finding any issues with the reasoning. It was more or less consistent with what he knew about quantum physics, though he remembered once Tony complaining and chucking a quantum physics book across the room because fuck it, quantum mechanics has more plot holes than a Disney cartoon! He smiled sadly at that thought. He missed his best friend. This could be a way to bring him back - to bring them all back.
Shuri couldn't think of any inconsistencies with the proposal either. Of course, there was a small problem. "We need to go to Wakanda and get more vibranium, to build the machine," Shuri explained, before giving Cass an estimation of how much they would need. They needed at least ten cubic meters, maybe more. The vibranium they had left in the Sanctum wasn't enough and it was used to make her suit - and of course, the Frisbee of Liberty (Cap's shield) was rolling around the Sanctum somewhere. "The three of us, we could go retrieve some," Shuri reasoned. They'd just need to ask Doctor Strange for a sling ring - or for him to be so kind as to transport them there and back personally. Of course, there was a risk they'd never came back if they left the Sanctum. Ultron had killed so many of their loved ones already.
"Alright, let's see what sort of device we can come up with and create," Susan Storm said, nodding her head with what Niah had said.
Bonnie thought for a moment, looking at Niah. "Which came first - the chicken or the egg?" she posed. "Or in our case... the apocalyptic crisis or the post card from the past? I think we're in a loop of sorts and that post card, it might be the key to getting out of it..." She thought back to what she remembered from her S.H.I.E.L.D. history, and she knew this was around the time that Dr. Pym left S.H.I.E.L.D. Sci-Tech had been trying to replicate the Pym Particle and weaponize it, causing the rift between Pym and his colleagues. "From what I'm thinking... the only way to succeed is to follow that post card's instructions - your future or really past self knows how this all ends and I imagine she would have warned us if it wouldn't fix things..."
Neither Banner, Shuri, Susan, or Bonnie had heard Strange's remarks about the Time Stone, as they had been too mentally focused already on this task - the conversation on the other side of the room with the other group was largely background noise at this point. Banner's head shot up at Roman's question. "The Time Stone... It's one of the Infinity Stones - one of those things that Loki used to unleash hell on New York," he explained, taking off his glasses and cleaning them on the end of his purple shirt. Even when he put them back on again, there were still smudges and he sighed, repeating the process and ultimately making it worse.
The Muscles Brigade - Right Side of the First Floor...
"He may be machine, but Ultron's ego is too big for him to see a pesky little virus as a threat," Scarlet Witch snapped, rolling her eyes slightly at them. When Maria asked if she could borrow her power, Wanda made a face - as if Maria had just offered to eat dog poop on live television and asked if Wanda would like to be included as well. "Tempting, but no. My gifts are mine alone."
Raynor nodded curtly at Tinley. He hoped the group dealing with traveling back in time managed to pull things off - but it was a dangerous thing, having hope. If it didn't work out and the world was stuck like this... then he would have just failed a second time to keep Sparky safe. Mr. Dibbles seemingly was too tired to really care as Goose sat down on top of him, and the little turtle closed his eyes, deciding he might as well try to get a nap or something.
Doctor Strange hesitated for a moment, before pulling what looked like a modified sling ring out of his pocket. "Clearly envision where you wish to go and trace a circle in front of you. I've attached a charm that enhances magic to the sling ring, so that way even... well, even you can use it," he quipped, a bit of an asshole but that was normal for him. He then made his way over to the brainiacs, knowing that they would have more questions for him about the Time Stone.
"Ready when you are, boss," Captain Marvel told Tinley with a nod. She never changed out of her combat attire. "I say the plan is we get in, punch the crap out of anyone there, and get back here." Her plans were more of the let's just kick ass variety. Spider-Gwen nodded in agreement. "Sounds good to me!"
Wanda sighed slightly. She had worked with the Brotherhood long enough to know that plans were essential. "The virus should be kept in their Research and Development Lab in the old X-Factor wing of Serval Industries. I do not know what sort of security is still there, but... Well, as Marvel said, we can kill anyone who stands in our way."
Location: New York, New York City - Sanctum Skills: N/A
Cassandra looked towards Shuri and gave her a nod, that would certainly be a lot to use and they would also need tools as well. "Then Wakanda we go, we would need tools that would be helpful to." Cassandra pointed out as she ran a hand through her hair as she looked towards Roman as he approached the group. Knowing his powerset would certainly be helpful building the machine as well, knowing that he was also Sci-Tech helped to. Cassandra looked over towards Bonnie as well when she mentioned the time travel and nodded slightly towards her.
"We should also discuss who else should go, Niah obviously would have to go since she had written that post card herself." Cass pointed out, having one person making the time travel alone could be risky since she wouldn't have any backup either. Then the mentioning of the Time Stone, she looked over towards Dr. Strange as he made his way over towards them, and Dr. Banner pointing out what had happened in New York when Loki was there. She looked over at the others, she didn't know anything about it but seeing as one of the stones was used during the Battle of New York it was probably not the greatest idea to use.
Maria Smith
Location: New York, New York City - Sanctum Skills: N/A
Maria stared at Wanda for a moment and glared at her. "What are you scared i'll give you cooties or something?" Maria said crossing her arms over her chest. "I'm just saying if Ultron targets you once he finds out that you turned you'd be on his first hit list, and sharing is caring as well." Maria pointed out as she looked towards Tinley and nodded slightly. "I'll go get suited up then." Maria said as she turned and started to make her way towards her room she had been calling home since being in the Sanctum.
She had managed to find the Iron Patriot Suit while out on the last little mission with some of the others and kept it there since. Maria then started to get suited up inside, and then left the room she personally didn't really like or care for the paint look of it was to flashy for her, but it was really useful. "So we just go smash and grab? Pretty easy to me." Maria said, she wanted to get out there already as well and kill Ultron right away.
Tinley listened and it seems all were on board. She would let the intellectuals deal with the time machine. "We head there first. Scout and see if we can determine the best way to enter. I don't want them to catch us outside and prepare. So stealth first. Once inside, we can smash and crash the place to get the virus. However, I draw the line at murder. Knock out first unless threatened otherwise. We don't need blood on our hands to match the likes of Ultron. We have powers on our side so use them as you see fit. Once we obtain the virus, we get the hell out of there and come back and prepare it."
Satisfied she laid out the plan, she left the others to go grab her own gear. She suited up, but took her time. She needed to think. This was going to be an intense mission and could lead to a big change. She couldn't muck it up. Not when so much depended on her. On her team. If they lived through this, she owed them all a vacation.
Roman was halfway listening to the idea being tossed around about returning to Wakanda for more vibranium. It was something he was interested in, as that metal was just about a miracle material if he had ever heard of one. That, and the man had to admit that he wanted to see Wakanda a bit for himself. Even if it would be dangerous, he was certain that there would be an impressive amount of tech to be found. Maybe even something that could help them get a shot at Ultron. However, he knew that was not the scope of the mission to Wakanda. Though he hoped the team going might be able to help at least a few of the country's citizens, if they found any, escape to the sanctum during the attempt. He wanted to listen more, but his attention was stolen when Dr. Banner started to speak up.
"So this thing is related to whatever the hell tore a hole in the sky?" Roman said in a sudden outburst as he looked towards Dr. Banner. "So what, it can like control time or something? Let us travel through time? That kind of power is... incredible. Why haven't we used this thing yet?" Roman asked, clearly becoming a bit more animated as he focused in on what seemed to be their silver bullet. "Do we know how time travel even works? Do we affect our world, or does it create a bunch of alternate universes?" He asked, thinking back to the multitude of time travel theories that were out there in the world. Damn, he was wishing he had picked up a book on time travel theory in past now...
"Sounds like a plan to me, let's see about getting on with this, I'm all for bashing a few heads together along the way if we need to," he said with a slight shrug, listening to what everyone else was saying. So, they'd be heading to Serval Industries which would definitely be an interesting thing. He'd heard about the company, they were known for technology that they created, as well as owning their own corporate superhero team, X-Factor, which Wanda had mentioned a few times now, being the part of the building that they needed to head to. There was one thing he noticed, and that was that no one had picked up the sling ring that Strange was giving them, and he let out a bit of a sigh.
"...Well, since no one else seems to want it, give it here," Flynn said to Strange, taking the sling ring from him. He wasn't too sure about the idea of messing with magic or something at all, but whatever, no one else was really touching the sling ring. Made him wonder if anyone else just didn't really want to mess with magic either. "Well, here goes nothing..." he said before he followed Strange's instructions, using the sling ring and creating a portal to Serval Industries for them to go through. He honestly had not really expected for that to work.
A little tension released from Niah's shoulders as they all seemed to think her theory was sound. She nodded at Bonnie, looked like they had no choice but to go to 1984. She still wasn't certain how she felt about the prospect. "Make that the target date then. I didn't see anyone else in the flash that I got from the postcard, so anyone is free to join or not. If you want to forget this timeline then please stay behind, and hopefully, when everything is restored it'll be all gone as if it never happened." She didn't dare put hope or if into if they would succeed, they had to. So much had gone wrong since the beginning of phase three, and Niah had a weird deep-seated fear that the whole thing was HYDRA's plan all along. Niah handed Agent Carter the well-read book she had.
"I don't know, but I am assuming Doctor Strange has a good reason for it. I've been tearing my hair out over time travel for months and he never said anything to me. However, if the incident in New York is any indication of what the stone can do I don't want anything to do with it." Niah looked concerned, she frowned and gently reached up to touch her necklace again. "Focus on the machine Agent Carter. Make a prototype handheld control device and once we know how many people are going to travel you'll need to make some for each of them. Then encode it to their DNA, that's why I'm having Mrs. Richards help you."
New York Sanctum - New York: July 15th, 2021 - 7:50 P.M.
Doctor Strange was a little bit annoyed with Roman's questions, as he had pretty much just finished answering those very same ones for the other group. It was natural though that information would need to be repeated, given the size of what they were operating with. He gestured at the necklace he wore, the Eye of Agamotto, and moved his hands in front of the amulet. It opened it, revealing a bright, shining green gem - the Time Stone. "The power of the infinity stones does not come without a cost. The debt always comes due," Strange warned Agent Carter. "As for how it works - the multiverse already exists. For each choice we make, there becomes an alternate world where we made a different one. Some universes are doomed to die from that simple fact... It is pointless worrying about them. However, use of time travel will merely replace the current threat with a larger one down the road. Our world's apocalyptic event was supposed to be the mass registration of mutants and the rise of O.M.E.N., yet the X-Men altered the course of history and now, we have Ultron."
"If you alter the course of history to remove Ultron, another threat will rise to replace him. It is inevitable." Of course, he then realized that a lot of people in this group hadn't realized that he had moved over there. At least it meant that he didn't need to address Niah asking why he never told her about the Time Stone - but he hoped his words about the cost of using the stones and the cost of time travel would be enough for her to figure that out.
"We need to travel to Wakanda for materials," Shuri told Strange. She knew that they could fly to Wakanda, but using the sling ring would be faster. It wouldn't hurt having the Sorcerer Supreme on hand as well.
Doctor Strange nodded, using his own sling ring and opening a portal to Wakanda. On the other side, there was a grassy field on the outskirts of the city. Ultron had taken over the country, so they'd need to find a way to infiltrate and get the vibranium without being noticed. Thankfully, they had someone with them who could turn them all invisible. "Of course," he said. "This is as close as I can get you without Ultron detecting the magical energy." It wasn't a problem for the Serval Industries group, as Serval's detection systems weren't as advanced as Wakanda's - and naturally, Ultron was using Wakanda's own technology to keep it under his thumb.
"I'll stay here, I'm not exactly ideal for stealth..." Banner admitted. Someone needed to protect the New York Sanctum anyways, just in case Ultron found a way to get through the magical barrier. Shuri had already gone through the portal and Bonnie gave Niah a slight smile of encouragement.
"We've got this, Agent," she told her, before stepping through the portal as well. She knew that this very well could result in her death. She knew that every time she left the Sanctum that she may never come back. It was more than likely that she would never see Flynn again, but she had to at least try to restore the world - she owed it to everyone who wasn't there anymore. Their sacrifices would mean nothing if they just gave up.
"Everyone remain quiet, this will only work somewhat if you don't talk too loudly," Susan said, having gone through the portal as well, before she used her powers to turn everyone who was going invisible. They would be able to see each other, thanks to her expert level control over her abilities, but no one else could view them. It would make it easier for them to sneak on through.
Serval Industries - Virginia: July 15th, 2021 - 7:50 P.M.
Once everyone went through the portal and emerged on the other side, they were in front of a ten story glass building. Some of the windows were broken and bits of glass littered the ground around them, a few of them stained red - hopefully paint, but the S.H.I.E.L.D. team would know better than that. There were dark clouds in the sky and it was unbearably humid, upwards of 80 degrees fahrenheit despite it being so late in the evening. The sun was just starting to set, so things would hopefully cool down but that wouldn't remove the humidity, which was the real horror, making everyone's clothes stick uncomfortably to their back.
"The virus should be in the Research and Development laboratory," Scarlet Witch explained. Her eyes went up towards the top of the building, resting on the eighth floor. How she knew the layout and schematics of this building so well, she hadn't mentioned. Those who knew her S.H.I.E.L.D. file well would have a decent chance of being able to figure it out. "Eighth floor," she then told them calmly.
"Last one there is a rotten egg!" Spider-Gwen cheered, before she did a running start at the building and leapt onto the glass wall, sticking to it with ease as she started to rapidly climb. It was a good thing that she didn't have a fear of heights or anything and Captain Marvel smirked a bit. She could appreciate that type of spunk, but two could play at that game.
"I'll go ahead and scout, make sure we don't run into any surprises," Carol told the team. She powered up and shot up towards the top of the building after Spider-Gwen, before flying in through a hole around the eighth floor. While there were a few others in the group that were able to fly, at least Tinley would need to take the stairs up to the top. Flynn's flight was fatal to anyone who burned easily (most people), and the Scarlet Witch and Raynor could only really propel themselves through the air. Leaving Tinley behind would have been a horrible thing to do and likely result in her death. Besides, this would give them a chance to clear the building from the bottom up, ensuring they wouldn't find too much trouble on the way out.
"Let's go, then," Raynor muttered, before going in through the front entrance. The glass doors had been shattered and replaced with giant pieces of cardboard, which Raynor easily ripped and tossed aside, not really caring about why that might have been done there. The first floor looked like it was a lobby area. The couches were in horrible condition, the lights flickered on and off constantly, and even some rats were scurrying around the floor. While there were no bodies, there were signs of a struggle everywhere - abandoned belongings, overturned tables, scorch marks on the wall, blood stains, a child's favorite toy...
"I've got a bad feeling about this..." Raynor said, glancing back at his team mates. He made a few balls of light with his powers and released them upwards, allowing them to get a better look around. He didn't notice the arrow flying straight for his neck until Wanda deflected it with her hex powers, the ruby red energy knocking the arrow to the ground. He gave her a slight nod of thanks, before following where the arrow had come from. A young woman stood on the counter, armed with a bow and arrow, aiming the next shot already.
"Take another step and the next one won't miss," she threatened, hatred in her eyes. There was a brand on her face in the shape of an M and on her wrist, she wore a metallic bracelet with Ultron's mark on it. She worked for him - most likely as someone who caught rebels and brought them to one of the work camps in exchange for food, money, or resources.
"Are you sure about the no killing thing?" Wanda asked Abercrombie, a bit annoyed with it. Things were just so much easier when you could just kill your enemy and move on, not needing to worry about them coming after you again.
Location: New York, New York City - Sanctum -> Outside of Wakanda Skills: N/A
Cassandra watched as Dr. Strange came over towards them, and started to explain the Time Stone she remembered the Battle of New York, and she didn't really like the idea of using it. But then again they did have their own apocalypse to deal with as well, but she didn't want to use it either. "In other words we would have to deal with a much larger issue if we end up using the Time Stone." Cassandra said, agreeing with what Niah had said about using the stone. Though it would probably be used as a very last resort if the time machine was destroyed for some reason, or it didn't end up working.
Then Strange opened up the portal to Wakanda as she watched her friend jump through first, and followed shortly after Bonnie did looking up at the city in the distance. Remembering their time not to long ago, before Ultron ended up taking it over Cass watched as Susan started to make them invisible. Though she didn't feel or see anything different she assumed that it worked, looking over towards Shuri. "Lead the way to the best source of Vibrainium." Cassandra said softly she just hoped that no one watched the portal open up.
Maria Smith
Location: New York, New York City - Sanctum -> Serval Industries - Virginia (36, F) Skills: N/A
As soon as Flynn opened up the portal Maria stepped through the portal, and she looked up at the Serval Industries Headquarters in front of them. She watched as both Spider-Gwen and Captain Marvel flew off, after Wanda had explained where the virus was suppose to be, she was tempted to join them. She looked towards Tinley for a moment, as much as she really did hate her right now, and blaming her for Novikova dying. They were still a team, and she didn't want to leave them alone just yet even if she could fly with the Iron Patriot suit right now to join them.
Maria followed both Raynor and Wanda into the building, as Raynor lit up the room a little bit she noticed the blood and scorch marks that were on the floor and walls. Then an arrow came flying towards Raynor as Wanda quickly blocked it using her powers, she quickly turned to aim it at the attacker. Seeing the young girl there with a bow and arrow aimed at them, she was an archer herself seeing the braclet on her wrist and knew that she was working for Ultron as well. "Nice shot there, though I could probably do better." Maria said towards the young girl.
Location: New York Sanctum -> Serval Industries (Virginia) (E37) Skills: Mind Control, Force Field Generation
Satisfied her team knew what to expect, she geared up and met the others for transportation. The portal led them to a ruined building that had seen better days. The red marks concerned her and brought up bad memories, so she pushed them to the side. She needed to be on her best right now. She followed the others. She had never practiced flying with her force fields, and now wasn't the time to start, not with so much riding on this. So she followed up the stairs.
She had an itchy feeling in her gut that something wasn't right also, as Raynor brought it up. And then Wanda formed some barrier as an arrow hit it and deflected it. She stared at the direction the arrow came from and saw a young woman, holding a bow trained at them. She knew Maria would match her, and they had the numbers, but something about the girl made her worried she wouldn't hold back. Especially if she was actively trying to prevent them from finding the virus.
"No killing. We're not Ultron." She stared the girl down, trying to enter her mind. It was like thorns wrapped around it. The girl was clearly insane, her mind would not allow her in. "Ah, tough mind. I can appreciate that, but I will ask you to stand down. Or we will use force." With that, she flung her force field at the girl, grabbing her arms and pinning them. She tried to grab her whole body, but her legs were still free. "I got her arms, someone get her and incapacitate her. We don't need her bothering us further."
Location: New York Sanctum Skills: Heightned Listening Sight
Niah frowned as Dr. Strange talked about the downsides of the stone, but she wasn't entirely certain he seemed to be implying that even without using the stone they risked the same problem. This was very dangerous, and the consequences would be dire. Was that something she was okay with? Would she go through with this plan only because she had already? She had weighed the consequences once before and had left a trail for herself.
She heard Bonnie's words of encouragement and nodded, the frown not disappearing. She stepped through the sling ring's gate and into Wakanda. The city had fallen, and it was a dangerous place for them. It was, however, the only source of Vibranium and they needed it to succeed in building the machine. She didn't say anything when Susan gave them direction to be quiet for the invisibility to work.
Niah considered reaching out with her senses to make sure no one could sneak up on them. The downside of listening wasn't too bad, she was thankful she wouldn't lose her sense of vision. It was worth it. She focused on her hearing for a few seconds trying to make it the forefront of her senses. Unfortunately, instead of heightening her hearing, it slipped away and now everything was in stark contrast. She had enhanced her vision instead, and couldn't hear. Well, she might as well use her enhanced sight since it was active. It was frustrating that after so long sometimes the power just went wonky.
As she cast her gaze around them making sure there were no enemies nearby something caught her attention. A blue streak. Her expression hardened and she drew her ICER. Maybe they hadn't been noticed, but Niah doubted it. If Luminose was here they had been seen. A lot of emotion rolled around in her for a moment. Luminous was the cause of one of her friend's deaths. When she had been taken out of the Raft by Ultron Niah knew the possibility of them running into her was there. It didn't make this reunion any easier. She didn't dare speak, just in case, they had somehow not been spotted. But she mouthed Luminose's name to the group. There was no point trying to point her out, she was too fast for that.
The Agent looked towards the good doctor, er... sorcerer supreme as he explained the consequences of using the time stone. The man shook his head as the doctor explained it all. It didn't make much sense, but when playing around with literal time travel Roman could only assume that literally anything was possible. Then the sorcerer opened up a portal to Wakanda, causing the man to raise an eyebrow at the display of magic. He wasn't exactly sure if he was supposed to travel to Wakanda with the rest of the group to help with the vibranium or stay here with Dr. Banner. Looking at the group going through, he looked over towards Dr. Banner for a moment. With a small sigh, he decided on what he would be doing. People needed to be here to start figuring out their whole Time Machine thing was going to work really.
"I'll stay here with Dr. Banner. Don't want to crowd the group there and we can get started trying to figure out this whole... Time Travel thing." He said as he stepped back from the portal. Then looking towards the man standing back with him, Roman raised an eyebrow before offering up a question. "If that is alright with everybody here?" He said, even though his mind was already moving towards the work he would have to do in order to get some decent headway on this problem. Although he genuinely doubted that in the time the other group would be gone that he and Dr. Banner would really have any way to get some progress. Not unless they pulled some sort of miracle out of their asses, which the young agent was certainly considering to be an option he wished for at the moment.
Location: New York Sanctum -> Serval Industries First Floor (F36) Skills: Fire Manipulation
Once everyone was through the portal, Flynn walked through as well and found himself in front of what used to be Serval Industries. It definitely was an interesting building from the look of things. When Spider-Gwen and Captain Marvel took off into the sky to scout ahead, he thought about maybe taking off with them to see what was potentially up ahead for them, but decided against it in the end. He followed after the others inside of the building, just in time to see Sunshine take a shot at Raynor.
"Of course we're going against a kid, cause why wouldn't we be..." Flynn said when Tinley started attacking Sunshine. Problem with her whole, someone grab her, sounding scenario was that there were a whole bunch of other ways that Sunshine could attack them, even without the use of her hands and arms. With that, he took a slight deep breath, and fire blasted from his hand, heading straight towards Sunshine. It slammed into her and sent her flying backwards. "Alright, so what now?"
Outskirts of Birnin Zana - Wakanda: July 16th, 2021 - 3:00 A.M.
Yes, the blue mess is Luminous running around. Gray things are tall walls she's running on top of. There is a slight incline to this field.
Why hadn't Doctor Strange said all of this about time travel before? The Sorcerer Supreme always does things for a reason, so perhaps there is some logical explanation to it. Case in point, the slight huffy sigh of his was from Roman insisting that he was going to remain behind with Banner. "Yes, leave the person gifted with the ability to control technology behind, excellent idea," he snapped quietly. He didn't want to ruin the invisibility that Susan Storm was giving them, but he wasn't going to keep this portal open for another minute. It was now or never - Roman was either going to jump through now or he'd be staying behind with Banner.
"My laboratory - it has refined vibranium in the quantities we need," Shuri explained. "The problem is it is located in the heart of the Golden City - Birnin Zana." Their voices seemed louder than they would be normally, mostly because it was pitch dark here. It had been late in the evening in New York, but it was already the middle of the night in Wakanda. The normally warm and inviting country seemed cold and distant under these circumstances - the walls that Ultron had built did not help either.
Doctor Strange caught Niah's mouthed words and he frowned slightly. While Luminous was known for most as being a speedster, she had the Scarlet Witch's powers as well. She was a mystical threat of the highest order. Bonnie, Susan, and Shuri unfortunately either didn't catch Niah's warning or just couldn't read her lips well enough to make it out.
Everyone would be able to see the blue-silver streak now. It seemed that Luminous was running all over the walls that enclosed the city. She hadn't noticed them yet and Bonnie took a slight breath, curling and uncurling her toes in her shoes. "We need to move quietly," she whispered. They had barely managed to beat her the last time they had gone up against her. She shuddered a bit, remembering how Kennedy had nearly killed her and Harry. Oh, Harry... She missed him dearly.
"...Well this could be a bit of a problem... We need to find a way to either distract her so we can get through, or something, since that is definitely going to cause us some problems. Speedsters of any sort can be annoying sometimes," Susan said softly, whispering as she saw the blue-silver streak that was in front of them. "Anyone have any ideas for how to deal with her or something? Since this is going to end badly if she stays between us and the city..."
Bonnie paused for a moment, thinking. She didn't have powers but that didn't mean she couldn't come up with a plan. "If we stay invisible, maybe we can try to trip her - send her slamming into the ground at superspeed and the rest of us can get on through?" There was a large part to that plan that was unsaid - at best, half of them would get through. The other half would have to fight the Silver Speedster to the death most likely.
Serval Industries - Virginia: July 15th, 2021 - 8:00 P.M.
(Yes, the coordinate scale has changed to be easier to use)
They were lucky - nothing was jamming the signals on their comm devices here at the moment. Usually when they went to a place that Ultron had a vested interest in, that wasn't the case, making communication between the groups almost impossible. "Dominion, we got hostiles up here," Captain Marvel's voice sounded in everyone's ears.
"Woah, this guy can phase! So cool!" Spider-Gwen's voice chimed in.
"Come on kid, let's kick some ass."
"No way!" Sunshine snapped at Maria, only to be sent flying by Flynn a second later. She hit a door frame hard, blood trickling down from the back of her head.
Wanda was a little bit irritated that Abercrombie continued to insist on the no killing rule. Letting Sunshine live would just ensure that she would come back to try to kill them again one day - or worse, capture them and take them to Ultron. She would rather die than become the monster's prisoner. Death wasn't an option though - she had a brother to avenge. "Now we make sure she's dead - I mean, knocked out," she added, her eyes flickering over towards Tinley.
The Scarlet Witch's eyes turned red and energy swarmed around her hands. She was about to throw a ball of energy at the girl, in order to trap her inside of her own mind so that way she wouldn't be able to do anything at all, when Sunshine took a deep breath and then blew as strong as she could. Green smoke was coming from her mouth, but Flynn knocking her backwards with the flames had really taken a toll on her. She could barely make a cloud.
"What the Hel is she doing?" Raynor muttered. He had no idea what sort of power that was, but he didn't like it, not at all. The green smoke had surrounded her and he glanced at Maria, as if daring her to go through the cloud to knock the kid unconscious. Wanda's magic didn't seem to be able to get through it, so maybe it was some sort of shield?
Their opponent had started to cough a lot however - whatever she had been trying to do had backfired horribly. Her arms were pinned because of Tinley's force fields and it was difficult to get up without hands. Even then, she seemed way dizzier than she should have been as she flailed about, trying to get up to her feet. "Help..." she begged. She was just a kid after all - right?
"Ultron is more important," the Scarlet Witch said coolly. "She deserves whatever happens next." Raynor nodded in agreement, wanting to more or less cut their losses and continue up to the next floor. He didn't even wait for Tinley's call on what to do for the kid as he walked past Sunshine, having not seen any obvious staircases elsewhere and he soon stumbled upon something even better - an elevator. "Let's go."
