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Kwassi Asokho

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Location: 616 169th Street, Queens
Skills:

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Kwassi gritted his teeth as the cold metallic arm clamped around his wrist, twisting it in an uncomfortable manner. He spoke through his clenched mouth at Bucky simply saying "I didn't start the fight either I thought the plan was to talk" Soon after all hell began to break loose. He couldn't quite see what was going on indoors, only hearing the sound of Caps sheild bashing into someone and then suddenly watching as an arrow flew past him and Bucky towards another building. Hawkeye and Cap had escaped to another roof and his fight was ended with the help of Falcon. Earlier it seemed as if they had the upper hand but in one fell swoop the avengers turned the tide and had fallen back. He blinked in disbelief and admiration as he watched what he could've been escape into the distance.

Agent Reed was quick to act,taking the only line over towards the building and shooting down Hawkeye. Moss had tried to slow down Falcon but his shots seemed to just roll off of him. Kwassi didn't know what to do and then suddenly remembered he brought one of the sci-techs uktra bright flash bombs. Figuring that might be disorienting enough he pulled it out and was about to throw it when a quinjet lowered itself and began peppering them with suppressing fire. Kwassi held the grenade back and tried not to get hit, watching as the team got away. This mission was a failure and they were unequipped for what needed to be done. Agreeing with what Agent Moss had said, Kwassi entered the window and began looking around for the dart that made its way into Captain America.

The search was quick as they were looking to leave before authorities arrived, leaving Kwassi unable to find his target and feeling the failures of the mission weighing heavier than before. He made his way down the fire escape, meeting up with Agent Moss and the others. " I had hoped to find the dart that hit Rogers so that I may analyze his blood and work on a stronger toxin. Its hard to develop a drug against an unknown source. Aside from that I'll see if I am able to get some tracer shots so that if this ever happens again, we can atleast track them for a short while." His hand was clenched in frustration as they awaited Hills orders.

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Oliver Sullivan

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Location:St. David's Hospital - Cardiff
Skills: Molecular Oscillation

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Oliver glared at this evil, older version of himself. The way he was talking, it made it seem like he was actually him from the future. But that had to be impossible; time travel aside, going back and interacting with yourself like this? The paradoxes seemed almost unresolvable with any kind of linear time model. If he was him from the future, he wasn't really Oliver, he couldn't be. It would have to be some kind of alternate timeline, or more complicated system Oli couldn't parse at the moment. Either way, he'd rather this Oli not die, in case his instincts were wrong. He didn't want to seal his own fate.

Watching Niah run off towards the scream, he was left with him and his evil twin alone. Oli didn't like having to deal this this himself; he wasn't a fighter, but that did actually balance out here, if this person was the same as him. Closing the distance between him and Evil Oli, he grabbed him by the shoulders, and phased both of them to the floor below. Sure, he had already done that earlier today against the skrulls, but if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Taking advantage of the shock of having the floor knocked out from under them, Oliver pulled his fist back, and clocked the doppelganger right in his stupid scar, knocking him out cold.

Pulling his fist back and shaking it, he looked down, a little disappointed at himself on the floor. "Honestly, I'm glad you're down, but come on, I'm embarrassed for us." Oliver said, a sneer of derision in his voice. Not taking a spare moment, Oliver ripped the shirt off the unconscious body, and tied it around his waist. When they got out of this, he'd want Niah to be able to get them answers, and he wasn't about to count on this asshole not waking up and disappearing. Oliver walked over to the door, only to find it locked. Not deterred by simple things like physical obstacles, Oli phased through, only to find the hallway absolutely freezing cold. Thoroughly confused, Oliver muttered under his breath, "What the shit is going on...", before heading off to look for the source of the scream.

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TO: jjj@dailybugle.com
FROM: jewel@thepulse.com
SUBJECT: [Pulse] Iron Man's Press Conference
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Jonah,

This isn't going to be pretty. I can cover this beat for you, but you need to promise no civvies will be out on reporter duty. I'm sure you've seen the conference - Captain America is public enemy number one. The Avengers are going to war.

Also, my usual fee will be doubled for this - let's call it hazard pay.

Keep it sleazy,
Jewel

P.S. I mean it. If I see a single civvie pounding pavement for this, I'll break your face in :-)

---

Despite Niah's fears, she and Oliver would run into each other - literally. They would collide at an intersection in the hallway, just a few feet away from the source of the screaming. It was so incredibly cold there that they would see their breath in front of them. Oliver would begin to feel sluggish, his natural super speed ebbing away - perhaps speedsters didn't like the cold? Anyways, the lights in the hallway in front of them would start to flicker, turning off completely, before coming back on. Niah and Oliver would both see Dalisy's severed head.

Horrifyingly though, the head was still screaming.

---

Captain America's allies had put out the call. They knew that it was only a matter of time before they would have a full out brawl with the Pro-Registration team, so they decided to pick the time and place more or less. They had mustered in a large open field on Ellis Island. There was hardly any tech there, which would put Stark at a disadvantage. And more importantly, Captain America felt that it was symbolic of everything they were fighting to protect - the freedom of individual citizens against oppressive governments. He wasn't happy to be fighting one of his closest friends, but Cap wouldn't let his principles be ignored in the name of friendship.

He had to do this - he had to protect everyone's liberty.

He was a little disappointed with how few had come in the end. The Scarlet Witch had been a no-show. Same with Doctor Strange. Captain America looked at the small group that they had assembled, briefly registering for a moment that the only woman there was Agent 13. He gave her a slight smile. "Looks like it'll be just us. That's fine. Tony's people will be on their way soon. They're still our friends, so pull your punches - no kill shots. We're going to fight clean and fair. As long as our conviction is stronger, then we will win this fight - and more importantly, when the sun rises tomorrow, it will shine on a stronger America. We will get through this. I'm counting on each and every one of you, so Avengers.... assemble."

Team Captain America

• Captain America/Steve Rogers - super soldier
• The Winter Soldier/Identity Unknown - super soldier
• Falcon/Sam Wilson
• Hawkeye/Clint Barton
• Agent 13/Identity Unknown
• Black Panther/T'Challa - super soldier
• Wolverine/Logan - healing factor, adamantium claws
• Spider-Man/Identity Unknown
• Breacher/Identity Unknown @The Man Emperor
• Sparrow/Kwassi Asokho @TrainerBlue192
• Alchemy/Elizabeth Flame @Natsu
• Woolf/Identity Unknown @Morose - image

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Maria Hill had messaged the team, instructing them to report to Stark Tower and take whatever orders Iron Man gave. Bonnie felt slightly out of place amongst all of the heavy hitters - so many people here had fantastic, terrific powers. She knew that something had happened to her back in Cardiff, but she still didn't know what. The only clue she had had so far was when asked for what codename she wanted to use, she felt a compulsion to answer Athena. It hadn't even been a choice. It was like some other force or being had already decided for her. But as terrifying as that had been, she didn't feel violated or dirty. Primarily, she just felt angry and sad.

"J.A.R.V.I.S. just got a hit for Cap - they're on Ellis Island. Once we get there, we try to convince them to register and surrender. If they don't, we hit them hard. Everyone happy with that? Good, great! Let's roll then. You'll love the new tricks the quinjet has," Tony said, chuckling slightly. His armor's helmet snapped down and he led the way outside onto a hangar of sorts where the jet was waiting. "Widow is going to fly this thing. I recommend not pissing her off," Tony added.

He then took off, flying via the Iron Man suit to Ellis Island. Captain Marvel, the Human Torch, and the Wasp flew after him. The rest of them would have to take the quinjet, since they hadn't been graced with the power to fly. People tended to stick together with those they knew - the two Fantastic Four members huddled together, and the She-Hulk went and sat next to Black Widow at the front. The S.H.I.E.L.D. crew were in the back. Bonnie couldn't help but wonder how the others were doing. Niah and Oliver hadn't gotten in contact with them yet. Neither had Sparky and Maria.

Team Iron Man:

• Iron Man/Tony Stark - genius billionaire playboy philanthropist
• Black Widow/Natasha Romanoff
• Captain Marvel/Carol Danvers - power cosmic
• Mister Fantastic/Reed Richards - elongation
• Human Torch/Johnny Storm - flame on!
• She-Hulk/Jennifer Walters - hulk form
• Invisible Woman/Sue Storm-Richards - invisible energy manipulation
• The Wasp/Hope van Dyne - size manipulation
• Angstrom/Andrew Rossi @BlueSky44
• Titanium/Cassandra Reed @Nallore
• Paralyzer/Matt Moss @Kirah
• Athena/Bonnie Chase @Morose

---

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Amelia took Astrad's hand and stood back up, giving him a look. That was an incredibly stupid idea to her. If they had learned anything from talking with Doctor Strange, it was that he didn't really seem to care what happened to Maria. How could being stuck in another dimension without back up not be dangerous? Sure, it sounded like loads of fun to Amelia, but there was the matter of choice - Maria hadn't chosen that at all. And it was pissing her off that no one here seemed to actually care about the lives of those around them.

Her irritation faded though when Sparky had a gigantic meltdown. She didn't know if it had been caused by pregnancy hormones or what. She didn't know what she could say to comfort her, since most of Sparky's ramblings honestly hadn't made sense at all. So Amelia did the only thing she knew - she walked up to the crying woman and pulled her in for a hug. Amelia's body was naturally warm and she had been complimented on her hugs before, so she hoped this would help Sparky some. "It'll be okay, mate," she said softly. "Just have yourself a good cry, okay? And then we'll figure out why your shiny ring is glowing..."

She was relieved to see Maria reappear. She wasn't going to touch the cube she was holding out though - that was a bad idea. "She's having a wee breakdown," she explained to Maria.

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Sparky was sniffling slightly, managing to stop crying (at least mostly) now as she didn't seem to really move away from Amelia's hug. Yup, Sparky's life typically was hell it seemed like. However, she was incredibly glad that Maria was back now, that was one thing checked off on her list of problems to deal with. So that was at least something. However now she was dealing with once again the whole how the hell was she supposed to get to Asgard thing. Yup no that was a big problem, and she glanced at the ring on her hand that was still glowing. An idea formed in her head, one that seemed a bit insane really.

But then again, she had nothing left to lose, so why not?

"...I'm fine now, I think..." she said calmly to Amelia as she stood up, still looking at the ring on her hand. "...Take us to Asgard," she said, specifically to the ring.

At first, nothing seemed to happen, and Sparky felt a bit like a big idiot because of it. However, after a moment, the ring began to glow brighter and brighter, before it engulfed the entire group, and soon, they'd find that they were no longer on a street in New York City. No, instead, they found themselves in the middle of a meadow of sunflowers. The group could hear someone singing not too far off, and listening the the words, to Sparky it sounded like Old Norse or something like that. "...Did the ring actually listen to what I asked and took us to Asgard?" she couldn't help but say out loud, before she followed after the sound of the singing.

Eventually, she found who it was, a woman was there, and unfortunately Sparky was not too sure who it was at all, so that was something. "...Um, hello?" she called out to her, walking forward, "...Um... I'm Theresa Sparks, and I was wondering if by chance you could by chance... Tell me who you are and where we might have ended up? I mean... Where am I?"

---

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To say that he had been surprised by Tony Stark approaching him regarding this whole Civil War thing and going after Captain America over this whole thing. Especially considering the fact that he and Stark have had their... Differences, in the past. Actually he was pretty sure the only real thing Tony Stark and Hank Pym agreed on was how much they kind of hated him. Yup, his mind was never going to forget the whole lawsuits thing that might have happened regarding the tech he had made for his suit (at least in regards to Stark, with Pym he kind of got fired from Pym Tech for figuring out a way to shrink without using the Pym Particles). He figured though it wouldn't hurt him to create some sort of goodwill towards Stark by helping him out, since he was sort of the acting CEO of Serval Industries (while the actual CEO was off doing who the hell knows what).

Andrew decided not to fly along while in his suit (maybe a bit of paranoia that Stark would shoot him out of the sky, not to mention Pym's daughter was flying along outside of the jet too, so he figured the safest place for him at the moment was probably on board the jet itself. He was off a little aways from everyone else, since unlike most everyone else here, he wasn't exactly in line with any sort of team. Well, technically he was, with X-Factor, however none of his teammates were there, so he was kind of off by himself. He was messing with a few things on his suit, and didn't say anything. The main reason he was here was because he thought he was doing the right thing. So here was hoping that he was.

"You got to be kidding me."

Astrad gawked at their surroundings, his eyes being seemingly drawn by the flowers. To be fair, they looked beautiful... and smelled very nice too. He almost tumbled over as he hunched down to sniff at their sweet scent, though he quickly stood up after inhaling a fair share of pollen and sneezing. He chose to remain content in silence as Theresa Sparks asked the mystery lady who she was and where they were. But Astrad already had a good guess. It was probably Asgard.

Asgard... this would be absolutely wild if it really was the home planet of the aliens that his Viking ancestors saw coming down from the heavens through the rainbow bridge. But again, Thor and Loki had already made their mark on Earth, and of the two of them, only the latter likes to be worshipped, as evidenced by Loki's unruly behaviour in New York City. Either way, Astrad looked back at Amelia and shrugged, as even though he was a Swede, he wouldn't get any of the Old Norse that the mystery woman was speaking when they arrived.


Nathaniel stepped out of the portal, hands in his pockets and head held up high. The man squinted at the warm sunlight, as he had been holed up in his house for the last few days due to being unassigned for the time being. He turned towards Captain America as his breach portal closed up behind him, leaving nought but a trace signature of quantum particle energy in its wake. Carefully, he took off the cigarette that he had been smoking, stashing the burnt remnants of the narcotic product into his leather jacket's pocket.

He looked at the assembled group, one by one. There were those members of the famous Avengers; Sam Wilson, Steve Rogers, Clint Barton. Then there was the king of Wakanda, the Black Panther. Nathaniel was surprised that he was here, given that he was a king. Either way, there was this mysterious character with a metal arm, which had a red star on it. There were a bunch of others that he did not recognize. And as far as he could, he and Clint were the only SHIELD agents here... well, former agents, that is. The moment that they had disagreed with the registration of abilities, they had become fugitives. And while Nathaniel had the privilege of having intradimensional travel as a power of his, the rest of them did not. For all it's worth, this will be where the two sides will clash. This place was not exactly somewhere to hide in, after all.

One thing that bothered him, though was that there was a... girl in here. She looked really young. Too young to be in a crossfire. But surely, everyone was here by their own volition?

"Alright Cap.", Nathaniel said to their de facto leader. "If things go really down south, I guess I will portal us out."

A pause. 'We'll always be right behind you, Cap."

---

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Cassandra followed Iron Man and the rest of the Avengers and other heroes who were on his side, she remained close to both Bonnie and Matt, she was still mentally beating herself up about her botched mission earlier. Cass sat down next to Bonnie looking at her two teammates, they were the only people that she had personally knew and trusted. Bonnie being her best friend, and Matt being her boyfriend she knew that they had her back and she would have theirs. Kwassi's betrayal was a bit of a surprise as well to, and she didnt understand why he chose now to just get out.

As Cass sat there she started to wonder if spreading out her team to thin was a good idea or not, she could understand why Sparky wanted to leave to find Raynor. She would have probably done the same and leave the team if she lost Matt or Bonnie as she listened to Iron Man and nodded slightly as the team members who could fly took off, and the others like her who couldnt got into the Quinjet. "We should stick together and watch each other's backs." Cass said looking at both Bonnie and Matt as well, figuring that it would work better for them if they continued to work together while fighting against those who were on Captain America's side.

---

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"It's okay Sparky." Maria said gently resting a hand on her friend's shoulder and gave her a slight smile hopefully she would be alright and nodded towards Amelia. She looked at the new guy for a moment as Sparky started to ask the glowing ring to take them to Asgard which was going to be a bit hard to get to as she thought about it. As the ring glowed brighter and brighter, the light eventually got way to bright as Maria shielded her eyes.

Then a few seconds later they werent in New York anymore, as Maria looked around they were in some kind of field of sunflowers. "Hey wait up Sparky." Maria said as she quickly started to run after her hearing some kind of singing in some language that she didnt event know or understand. They eventually ran into a woman as Maria looked up at the hippie looking woman tilting her head to the side slightly eyeing her up and down for a moment. "So, whos the hippie woman?" Maria asked looking at everyone else.

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Niah screamed. Both at bumping into Oliver and at the severed head of her sister. Anger flared through her. She felt like she was in a horror movie suddenly. She had to figure out what was going on. Had to find the clues. Niah shut down the part of her brain that saw dead people as people but instead were just dead things. It was hard considering this was her sister's severed head. "Watch my back, I'm going to turn on my enhanced vision, I won't be able to hear anything."

She closed her eyes and let the screaming fade away. When she opened her eyes she was deaf, but she could see in impeccable detail, many times magnified what the normal eyes could see. Niah leaned forward kneeling and pulling from her field kit a set of gloves. She set to examining the head. The vocal cords were flexing under her fingers, though for now she blissfully couldn't hear the screams, the head was definitely the source of the scream.

Whoever had cut the head from the body had done so badly. The cut wasn't clean, as if someone tried to use a butcher's knife and didn't know what they were doing. She frowned. There was a trail of blood leading from where the head had been to Oliver. Her stomach twisted. Had he done this when they were separated? He did have super speed. Had he been replaced too? Blood dripped from his hands. Had that been there before? Niah set the head down gently, removed the gloves, and tried to keep composure. She had to consider her options very carefully.

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Matt was antsy. His leg was shaking, and his fingers were fiddling. He was also mad. Matt was having thoughts that Asokho had been a mole. Asokho had left them and joined Rogers when the group was meant to go to Stark Tower. For now, though Matt sat next to Cass. He rubbed her should subconsciously. "Yeah, we've got each other." He nodded firmly. He understood why the others had split off. But he knew if Niah, for example, had stayed she would have betrayed SHIELD too. How could they be trusted to come back even if they did sign Hill's law?

His eyes went around the group. Could they trust them all still? Would anyone else decide, at a critical moment, to join Rogers? Or were there more double agents? Matt's stomach twisted a bit at the thought. He got why the team had been so stressed by Hydra for so long. How were you supposed to trust people like this? It seemed part of the group had been replaced by aliens and the other part was defecting from SHIELD. At least he still had Cass though. And he hadn't been with the team that long so he didn't feel as betrayed as he was sure Bonnie and Cass did.

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Oliver Sullivan

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Location:St. David's Hospital - Cardiff
Skills: N/A

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Oli felt slow, which was almost a nostalgic feeling at this point, which might have been nice if not for literally everything else about the situation they were in. Looking down at the head, Oli was so confused. Initially, he thought this might be some kind of hallucination, but everything felt so real. He rubbed his eyes for a moment, almost thinking what he was seeing had to be some kind of trick, an LMD, or anything, but it was too real. What was in front of him was a screaming severed head, and by everything he knew about the world, that was impossible.

He turned to look at Niah, wanting to say something to her, before it was too late, and she was deaf to the world. He was almost jealous of her, not having to hear that anymore. He was perfectly fine, however, with the fact that she was the one who got to play with the severed head instead. Keeping a close eye on the situation around them, Oli tried to hear anything that wasn't the screams, and a look of confusion crossed his face. He could hear under it the sound of ocean waves crashing. Oliver was just confused at this point, nothing was making a lick of sense.

---

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If Elizabeth was being totally honest with herself, she probably would want to be with Mister Stark; she felt like she owed him for the arm, but apparently he wanted to stop her from being an x-man, and that wasn't going to happen. If she was gonna be stuck with these godforsaken mutant powers, she would at least get to punch evil things in the face, or more accurately, shoot them with her Starktech Gun Arm. This wasn't gonna be pretty but hopefully there would be a resolution that didn't end with her having to stop doing this or go on some registry.

That all being said, Captain America was a god damn inspiration to be around. Something about the Star Spangled Man With A Plan just hit Elizabeth different. She wasn't much for role models or leaders, but even she had to admit that it was easy to just kind of fall in line for him, or at least, mostly. She already had a couple of ideas for how to be useful in this fight, especially if they were aiming for non-lethality. She wasn't about to start transmuting chemical bombs, but turning Iron Man into Lead Man sounded like a perfectly good option. Considering her options, Elizabeth crossed her arms, waiting for Team Iron Man to show themselves.

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TO: jjj@dailybugle.com
FROM: jewel@thepulse.com
SUBJECT: [Pulse] Iron Man's Press Conference
---
---

Jonah,

This isn't going to be pretty. I can cover this beat for you, but you need to promise no civvies will be out on reporter duty. I'm sure you've seen the conference - Captain America is public enemy number one. The Avengers are going to war.

Also, my usual fee will be doubled for this - let's call it hazard pay.

Keep it sleazy,
Jewel

P.S. I mean it. If I see a single civvie pounding pavement for this, I'll break your face in :-)

---

Nothing seems to be making sense, is it? Oh well.... Let's get on with the story!

The ocean sounds were still coming off from somewhere in the distance, although Niah would not be able to hear them. The head stopped screaming, growing still in Niah's hands. Perhaps the universe realized that such a thing shouldn't have been possible. Had her hearing been operating, she would have heard footsteps before the face loomed into view - a dark skinned man, one eye covered with an eyepatch.

"Any of you motherfuckers want to tell me what's going on?" Nick Fury, ex-Director of SHIELD, demanded. And had Niah been using her super hearing, she would have noticed that he had no heartbeat.

---

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The quinjet touched down on Ellis Island in the large and expansive field, about a football field away from Team Captain America. Bonnie's heart was beating incredibly fast, knowing that they were about to do something that they couldn't turn away from - they couldn't just take this back. The events happening today would be brief but their consequences would ring for years, maybe even decades to come. Even though Flynn had been replaced with a skrull, she could imagine what he would have done - he would have defected to Cap's side, throwing his flames in a rage.

As they got off of the plane, Bonnie let out a slight sigh. No one had made a move to attack yet. Iron Man and the others were all assembled into a line - on the other side, she could see that Captain America's side was all in a line as well. It looked like the start of a sporting match, as if this had just been a friendly skirmish and not the first (and hopefully last) superhuman Civil War. "I've got a bad feeling about this," Bonnie mumbled to Cass. The group then moved forward, decreasing the distance between them and Captain America's group until they were only twenty feet away.

Something was really bugging her, eating away at her. She recognized a lot of people who had sided with Captain America. Hawkeye was the only one that hurt. The only one she felt an emotional connection to.

"Last chance to surrender, Cap," Iron Man called out, wearing his full armor.

".... You didn't assemble a small army to come here and talk, Tony."

"Neither did you."

---

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Folly's life had fallen into a bizarre rhythm since she escaped the mental hospital. She had fled the country and went to her ancestral home, Romania. She had stayed there for a while, until the voices got too much and she woke up covered in blood - for the safety of those around, she moved. She kept on going from place to place, having a complete breakdown that resulted in a need to move, and so the cycle repeated. She made a bit of a name for herself as a mercenary, ending up in Madripoor at one point.

It had been by chance that she was in New York when all of this went down. Wolverine had found her in a dive bar. He had asked - no, insisted that she join them all on this quest, pointing out that if registration went through, she'd be put back in a mental ward. Or even worse, she'd be taken into SHIELD custody and placed in a coma for the rest of her life.

"Are you actually that young?" Folly asked Elizabeth. She gave her a strange sort of smile. Her life had started going odd when she was young. The ugly, prominent scar on her neck was proof of that. She hadn't bothered covering it up with a scarf today.

A screech sounded off in the air, as Iron Man's uni-beam fired off, slamming into Captain America's shield. The first shot of the war had been fired.

---

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"Mate, you sure she speaks English? I never like it in the movies when everyone just assumes the aliens or whatever can speak English, it seems kinda silly that our language should be the universal standard," Amelia said softly to Sparky. The singer's image looked rather strange to her - her form was shifting. Her hair seemed almost animated, reminding Amelia of cherry blossom trees. The woman's eyes were a glowing amber and she radiated warmth - Amelia's heart couldn't help but feel light and airy, filled with joy.

As if they were in some sort of Disney movie, a trio of hummingbirds - or what Amelia thought looked like them - flew on over and landed lightly on the flower crown in the woman's hair. She laughed and it sounded like the peeling of bells. "I am afraid you have me confused with a different goddess," she said, smiling at Maria. Her smile would fill Maria with joy and bring up all of her favorite memories, the things she held most dear. "My name is Nanna, Goddess of Joy and Devotional Love. Welcome to Asgard."

Amelia's jaw dropped slightly. The glowing ring had worked then - they had had the answer all along, just like Dorothy with the slippers in the Wizard of Oz. She wished that she had brought a little primer or something on the who's who of the gods and goddesses of Asgard, as she had no idea who Nanna was beyond what she just said. Devotional Love sounded a little weird, a little stalker-y to her but maybe it was just an old stuffy way for something innocent, like normal Love. "Uh, thanks! We're looking for this bloke, her husband... I guess she should probably be the one to tell you, uhhhhh, yeah."

Nanna nodded seriously, walking up to Sparky and taking her hands in hers. An intense feeling of love and warmth would wash over Sparky. "Who is your husband, little one? Marriage is within my dominion and such bonds are sacred to me."

"Thor certainly knew English.", Astrad answered to Amelia. "So I think one can assume that his friends could understand the same language as him. Oh, and if everyone speaks English, does that mean the British also colonized the galaxy?" Astrad then snickered at that last bit, watching as Amelia began to talk with the lady. He too felt happy in her presence; the reason why would soon be clear as the Asgardian spoke.

"I guess we can find Frigga and Odin and Heimdall and everyone else in the mythos here then.", Astrad commented whilst taking out a Hershey's chocolate from his inner pockets. Swallowing the sweet and putting the wrapper back in his pocket, he winked at Amelia. "You like?"



And so it begins. Nathaniel looked towards the foes that have assembled before them; some of whom he had at least seen as an agent of SHIELD when he was still loyal and obedient. But now... well, shots have been fired as Iron Man struck the first blow, landing a blast upon Captain America's shield. Both of these men were people that he admired, and now, they had just proven to be of most different mind. And they were willing to go to war for it, to fight each other in a grueling match to settle their differences of opinion about that bloody registration.

Nath, for one, did not favour the registration for one simple reason: strings will always be attached. Bureaucracy has always been something he disliked, and the registration process was going to do that. Plus, it was a system that would be easy to manipulate, as a list would mean that any person with superpowers was vulnerable to being hunted down and... used for nefarious purpose.

Just like how the Breacher was a feared agent of HYDRA.

As the battle unfolded, Nath scanned the field for those he could fight at less than equal terms that favoured himself. Alas, he found his eyes glancing towards Cassandra Reed, Titanium. As he found his opponent in this fight, Breacher ripped open a portal to his side, jumping inside to land upon the rooftop of the nearest structure; a building that was no less than two hundred feet from his target. Hit or not, it doesn't matter, as his objective as of the moment was to scatter the ones that were on the ground. Still, there was still one prime target.

A beam of purple energy erupted from his hands, missing the mark by a rather large margin. He fired again, missing again. "Here's to hoping that Angstrom does not decide to pick me up from here."

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Sparky partially wanted to correct people, since Raynor wasn't actually her husband, at least not yet anyway. However she thought nothing of it, as when Nanna introduced herself, Sparky instantly recognized her name. It also helped that she knew that Nanna had a connection to Raynor, which meant she literally landed in front of one of the few people who could likely help her find out where Raynor was. That was lucky, and now she was wondering how the hell it was possible for her ring to have transported them there in the first place. Oh well, no use really thinking about it now. "Um... His name is Raynor, I heard that he was here and I've been trying to find him for a long time now..." she said softly to Nanna, looking at her. She really did want to know where Raynor was, and was really hoping that Nanna could help her.

Nanna tilted her head again, deep in thought. "I have not heard of anyone by that name. However, my husband may. He should be returning home from work shortly. You can come and take supper with us, although you will all need to bathe - nothing unclean may enter our halls."

"Oh..." she said, not too sure what to think about the fact that Nanna didn't seem to know who Raynor was or anything, but she was glad that she seemed willing to help her. Of course given what she knew about the goddess, that did make sense. Her words though about them needing baths was a bit strange, but she figured that since they were on Asgard and Nanna likely knew quite a few people there, she probably could help her find him and saying no to her one request was insane in her mind. "Thank you, any help that you can give me would be useful... And I am fine with your one request in order to see about talking to your husband to see if he can help me..."

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"Well this is going to be interesting," he couldn't help but comment, since after all, they were more or less going against other heroes, it was an interesting thought to have when he stepped off the Quinjet. That didn't matter though, as he noticed someone was seemingly shooting at the group, from far far away off on a different building. The one building within several hundred feet from around them. "Well isn't that lame, what type of person decides to go try and play sniper? That's just rude, but oh well, this will be interesting..."

Within a moment, he disappeared from easy view for everyone else, but in reality he was flying along at great speed, just small enough so that no one could see him. His goal was to see about knocking the guy down and hoping that he wouldn't get back up again. Flying up to Nathaniel he shifted back to his full size just in time for him to slam his fist into him, sending him flying backwards and knocking him onto the ground, giving him a decent black eye in the process. A second later he was gone, having shrunk down and was now just flying around and very hard to see at this point, "Playing sniper when you can't hit anything is not a good idea." he called out to him as he zipped around.

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Kwassi Asokho

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Location: Ellis Islanf
Skills: Anatomy, Acrobatics, Escrima Fighting, Mixed Martial Arts

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Kwassi listened in to Captain America's speech. Looking at the man as the Statue of Liberty shone behind him like the symbol of hope he was. His words were well put together and inspiring, but they weren't what drove Kwassi at this moment. They weren't what extinguished the flames of doubt in his stomach and filled him with a river of courage to do whats right. No, that was thanks to the man standing beside him. A hero of Wakanda, The Black Panther. Knowing he stood by his side and that this was where his loyalties laid told Kwassi all he needed to know about where he stood. This was worth fighting for, and this was worth the betrayal. For as far as he could see, the real traitors were those standing beside Iron Man. Before the others had arrived Kwassi gave a polite bow to the King of Wakanda, for he was his people no matter where he moved. "Ndihamba ekukhanyeni kwakho"

As the others began to land, standing tall by the misguided billionaire, Kwassi stood proud, chest out as he looked at his former allies. There was a screeching blast that signaled the first hit. Kwassi quickly did a motion with his arms, doing the Wakanda Forever salute as he placed his domino mask on and ran towards his target. He'd had time to study some of his foes, finding Bonnie Chase to be the most fair fight for him. She didn't have the same abilities as her Agents, dermal skin, paralytic touch, psychometry. All useful in a fight in their own ways. He began by extending his stick into a half staff, using it to propel himself forward and kick Bonnie. She blocked him as she placed her arms up, deflecting the blow and throwing one of her own. The fight raged on, each blow getting closer than the last. To anyone outside the fight, they appeared to be ready to kill. Strike after strike they matched, mirroring a Greek tale but with a modern twist. Athena did not beat Pallas this time, it was Pallas that struck down Athena. One small opening, and a well placed blow, Kwassi punched Bonnie's stomach, knocking the air out of her ans stunning her.

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Cassandra turned to look at Matt as he rested a hand on her shoulder and gave her boyfriend a smile, she was glad that she had the two people that she could truly trust were with her right now. "Thank you Matt." She whispered towards him, as she followed everyone else off of the Quinjet and started to follow shortly behind Iron Man and the others on the team. "I have a bad feeling about this to Bonnie." Cass said towards Bonnie. Captain America and Iron Man exchanged a few words, before Iron Man threw the first punch and everything started to go a little bit crazy. One of them used a portal and started to try and take pod shots at the group but missed, and then Andrew going over to take care of the portal guy.

Then Kwassi went to attack Bonnie, seeing that her best friend was holding her own was good at least she gave Matt one quick glance before running forward. She recognized two faces rather quickly Elizabeth who she recognized at Guin's wedding that she was invited to go to, as well as Folly Valeska. She remembered meeting her back during her brief time during her assignment with the X-Men, back when the issue with Jakobson and OMEN attacking the Xavier's Mansion. Cassandra ran forward towards the two of them, managing to land a punch on Folly, hearing something break seeing that Folly's nose was now broken.

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Maria looked at Nanna as she introduced herself, and couldnt help but smile some as she started to get a few flashes of some good memories she had growing up. As well as her family to, both her wife and sister were the people that she was really close to shaking her head slightly for a moment turning to look at Sparky as she told the goddess about Raynor. "He was replaced by a group of aliens called the Skrulls to if that helps." Maria said as she looked over her shoulder towards Amelia and Astrad for a moment before turning to face Nanna and nodded.

"A shower would be really nice actually come to think about it, this would be like the fourth place I traveled to today." Maria said looking down at the cube in her hand for a moment not really wanting to touch any new corners of it. "Lead the way please." Maria said smiling towards the goddess.

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TO: jjj@dailybugle.com
FROM: jewel@thepulse.com
SUBJECT: [Pulse] Iron Man's Press Conference
---
---

Jonah,

This isn't going to be pretty. I can cover this beat for you, but you need to promise no civvies will be out on reporter duty. I'm sure you've seen the conference - Captain America is public enemy number one. The Avengers are going to war.

Also, my usual fee will be doubled for this - let's call it hazard pay.

Keep it sleazy,
Jewel

P.S. I mean it. If I see a single civvie pounding pavement for this, I'll break your face in :-)

---

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Bonnie struggled to get air back into her lungs, stumbling slightly from the massive blow Kwassi had delivered to her stomach. She felt the tempting urge to just surrender, to just kneel on the ground and focus on the pain. But she was never the sort of person to just get up. She forced her lungs to fill with air and then release it, mentally focusing her attention back on her opponent and away from the pain. Her mind cleared as she feinted a jab, only to then swing her knee upwards, connecting with Kwassi's jaw. The force she delivered was not at all proportional to what someone would have expected for a tiny thing like her - it was more on line with what someone would've expected from Black Widow.

She had succeeded in her first move though - to knock Kwassi off balance. A good crack to the jaw met that description. She then threw a swift kick, aiming for Kwassi's stomach in order to return the favor, but he would be able to block her attack. They were fairly evenly matched. Bonnie was mentally keeping a running tally of possible weaknesses that he had. From what she knew, he was just an ordinary human - he didn't have unbreakable skin or anything fancy like that.

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Blood was gushing from Folly's broken nose and she laughed, although with the injury it sounded almost more like a noise a dying goose would have made. Within seconds though, her nose repaired itself and the bleeding stopped. "Does my nose look normal? If not, would you mind breaking it again? It doesn't always set properly," Folly complained. The girl hadn't replied to her questioning, but Folly was used to people not responding to her. And at any rate, she was ready to have some fun.

"Non-fucking-lethal Woolf," Wolverine growled, before he darted off to take on his own opponent.

Folly rolled her eyes. "It's so rude, he has no faith in me whatsoever..." Her gaze focused on a point slightly behind Cass for a moment, before she smiled brightly. "But you heard him - lethal it is!" she cheered. She had strange looking knives in her hands - not because of the shape, but due to the material. Elizabeth would recognize them as being adamantium. Folly went into something that could only be described as a feral frenzy, slashing and jabbing at Cass as much as she could with her knives, spinning around her with graceful movements fit for a ballerina. The blades didn't cut Cass' skin, but they did shred her clothing and Folly couldn't help but giggle. She could see Cass' bra.

"Is all of you unbreakable?" Folly then asked, as if raising her hand in a college lecture and posing a question to the professor. "Even the eyes? And other openings?"

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Amelia wrinkled her nose as Astrad winked at her and she shook her head. "Sorry, mate, I've got a special gal in my life," she told him. Had it not been for Nanna's joyous influence, she probably would have slapped him. Instead, she just moved on and didn't bother elaborating on her comment, not even thinking to clarify that by special gal she meant her quinjet. Romance wasn't really her thing. It seemed too complicated to her and she just didn't understand what drove people to want to smush their faces together.

"Are you and your bloke germaphobes?" Amelia asked Nanna, tilting her head slightly. "I knew a guy in basic like that, he wouldn't let anyone near him unless they misted themselves with hand sanitizer."

Nanna gave Amelia a smile, leading the group through the meadow. In the distance was a gleaming golden palace, it was painful for Amelia to look at even while squinting her eyes. It didn't seem to bother Nanna though and the goddess didn't answer her question about germs. She only spoke again once they arrived at a small river. Sitting by the shore was a basket with soft, fresh towels covered in sunflower petals. Sitting on top was an old fashioned looking brush, as well as a thick bar of scented lavender soap. "Once you have all bathed, we can continue onwards. I ask that the young man avert his eyes to preserve the ladies' modesty," Nanna requested.

Amelia didn't really have any shame when it came to her body. She was feeling a bit sweaty from all of the fighting and traveling they had done anyways, so she stripped on down and neatly folded her clothes up in a pile on the riverbank. She had grabbed the bar of soap and got to work lathering herself up. Nanna must have been used to having to provide soap and whatnot for travelers, or perhaps the basket was enchanted, as there were three more bars of soap available.

Astrad raised both eyebrows at Amelia, as she seemed to think that he was... uh... something. That's not what I meant.", he said to her, rolling his eyes at Amelia, as he too was not too interested on romance; at least, not yet. Astrad was the workaholic type, rarely taking a rest due to being utterly devoted to the cause of their organization. "I literally just asking you if you liked chocolates... you know what, never mind, I'm keeping all of these stuff for myself." He did not like it when people misconstrued his words, especially when said words seemed to have a very obvious meaning, at least for him.

The goddess, or, as it would seem, the alien with magic, led them to a river. The water was crystal pure, so much unlike many rivers on Earth that had been sullied by pollution and turned to glorified sludge pools. It would seem that Nanna had always been prepared for this kind of occasion, as towels were already set in place, probably for any weary travelers that would come across Asgard.

"I'm not that young...", Astrad stammered at the goddess. "Nor too old... whatever..."

The Swede set himself down on the river just like Amelia had done, though was pretty embarrassed. Flustered, he tried to erect a wall of ice to keep prying eyes away, but the wall melted as soon as he had put it up, making him feel even worse. Frustrated at whatever caused his cryogenic powers to fail, he just sank back into the waters of the river, just enough so that only his head remained visible.



Having been blanked out for a few moments by Angstrom's attack, Nathaniel looked at his hands, checking if they were alright. It would seem so, though his eye did hurt quite a bit' probably because the other billionaire playboy had punched him in the face with an armored suit that turns small and big. Scoffing at the man's remark, Nathaniel stood up, albeit with a bit of difficulty, and a pinch annoyance from seeing him zip around like a little insect. "I was only getting started, Angstrom.", he stated as energy once again spiraled out of his hand, forming into a blue breach portal.

Not all was well though, as Angstrom managed to land another hit, as small as he was, shooting Breacher with something between the eyes. For a moment, his head swam with intense pain before losing consciousness altogether, tumbling backwards through the portal to fall on the field below them. It could have been way worse, as he was merely incapacitated for the time being...

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"You could always just surrender you know." Cassandra said towards Folly as she started to get into combat now and started to swing her knives around. She was actually really grateful that skin was unbreakable, as she stumbled back slightly with each cut Folly did however ended up tearing her clothes. "Now why would I actually answer that?" Cass said, she knew that her eyes didnt get the same treatment like her skin actually was. She cringed slightly as she remembered getting a needle pushed into her eye just to get blood samples from when she managed to cure herself of M-Pox.

Cass then quickly ran forward again and tried to aim a few good punches on Folly, but the woman easily dodged each swing she did, getting a little bit annoyed. Cassandra then waited for a good oprtunity and she managed to get a good punch on Folly's wrist as she could hear it break to. So far Elizabeth had been pretty quiet and still during the fight which was a good thing when a portal opened up just by her feet seeing Nathaniel unconscious at her feet.

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Maria started to follow shortly behind Nanna, and the others out over towards a nearby river seeing the palace nearby she had to shield her eyes for a moment. She looked at Astrad for a moment, she really didnt feel comfortable with him nearby while she cleaned herself it kind of felt weird. "If you see me naked i'll make sure that you do regret it." Maria told him as she started to get undressed setting her clothes bow and quiver of arrows down onto the ground.

Maria grabbed herself a towel as well as a bar of soup making her way into the water and started to clean herself off as best as she could, she didnt want to look at everyone else as she continued to clean herself off as best she could. Once she was as clean as she could Maria got out of the water and proceeded to dry herself as much as possible before putting her clothes back on.

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Sparky wasn't too sure about this whole thing, but she also knew that currently this was really the only way that she was going to get at least some help in order to find Raynor. It was better to have some help, then to try and go it alone, especially since they didn't exactly know where they were going on Asgard, it was still technically an alien planet to them. She followed along after Nanna in order to reach the area that she was talking about in order for them to take a bath or something like that. This place and the rules were a bit odd to her, but that didn't really seem to matter as they reached the river. She was in Nanna's world now, so she was going to follow her rules.

However that wasn't making everything any easier for her, since she was somewhat insecure about her appearance and everything, not to mention she hardly knew two of the people there. Amelia was alright, but she really didn't want Astrad anywhere near her still. She still was a bit bitter since first impressions mean everything, and he had attacked her when they first met. She really wasn't all too glad that he had more or less been dragged along to Asgard in the first place. Oh well, you couldn't have everything, and right now she needed to suck it up and go bathe in the river.She undressed and set her clothes off to the side, before grabbing a bar of soap and getting into the water and starting to lather her body with it. Her baby bump had only really started becoming visible in the past week or so, so it wasn't totally obvious yet, though the fact that the baby was already kicking was a bit odd. Then again that might have something to do with the baby being part Asgardian.

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Andrew honestly had not expected to knock Nathaniel out so quickly, but then again, he might have gotten a lucky shot since he had managed to hit him in between the eyes. It was slightly amusing to him to watch Nathaniel fall through his own portal unconscious. "Well that's one down, at least for the moment," he couldn't help but comment to himself as he watched everyone else fighting everyone else. He was trying to figure out who the best option to target would be. Agent Reed seemed alright with who she was combating, but looked like Agent Chase could use some help, so off into the air he went.

He flew off from the building top and zipped down to where Bonnie and Kwassi were fighting one another. The idea stuck with him to try to do what he had done to Nathaniel, growing to normal size, punching him, and shrinking again. Of course, the hard part was the timing, and this time around he screwed it up, activating the shrinking in his suit a bit too soon, so he didn't really manage to hurt Kwassi as he flew around a little more. In the back of his mind, the thought of what Watts would think of his fighting skills popped up, namely that Watts would be lecturing on him screwing up, and honestly he was a little annoyed with himself for screwing up the timing on that.

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The head stopped screaming. She could tell because just as she was going to let it go the vocal cords stopped vibrating. Even without her hearing though she sensed something else. The air was shifting around as someone walked toward them. She looked up and saw Fury. Her stomach twisted again, and her heartbeat rose. Odd that at this moment she was more freaked out by Fury being here than her sister's mutilated head. That probably had something to do with her fear from what felt like years ago now that Fury had been replaced with an LMD. Was that before or after Skrulls started invading?

Niah snapped off her power so she could hear. She had missed whatever it was he had said though. "Sir." She caught herself before calling him Director. "What are you doing here?" She glanced down at the head she had just been examining that now sat silent. "It isn't what it looks like. That's my sister. I think. Actually, I don't believe it is her. We came to the hospital here for Oliver, to visit his mother." She stopped herself before explaining more. He no longer was her boss, Hill was, even if she didn't agree with Hill's policies. Fury no longer had the clearance.

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Matt didn't want to play fair. Taking out Captain America and his team was important. Required for them to move forward. He however didn't want to kill what looked like an actual child. He shook his head. Did Rogers seriously recruiter a teenager? That was the whole point of Hill's laws. To keep kids like her off the battlefield.

He raised the ICER he had on him for just such a situation, borrowed because he preferred more permanent damage. His first shot went wide, he hadn't missed a shot in ages. Not since the Moon at least. He took his next two shots quickly. Still missing the kid. The ICER's weight was different enough from his normal gun and if he was honest he really didn't want to shoot a kid, even with a non-lethal method such as the ICER.

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Oliver Sullivan

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Location:St. David's Hospital - Cardiff
Skills: N/A

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Oliver rubbed his eyes as the man, the myth, the legend, Nick Motherfucking Fury showed up. Oliver had never met the man himself, but he'd pwned enough of his systems that, almost automatically, he said, "Foxtrot isn't a secure password... Foxtrot." It boggled his mind that he was the most paranoid man on the planet, engineering dinosaurs back from the dead, and having designed more defensive protocols for the base than Oliver could ever dreamed of, secured all of it, all of it behind his own codename as a password. That was almost the definition of a cybersecurity expert's nightmare.

Shivering visibly, he said, "Not to be rude, but why are you here?" Oliver's eyes narrowed at him, things weren't right, and Fury showing up made even less sense. He just didn't understand what was going on, and it made him think he could potentially not be the real Fury. He turned his head to Niah, and took a step closer to her. He didn't trust this situation, and he wanted to be ready if he was gonna turn violent. "Things have turned upside down and-" He started to say, before remembering, "Actually, I know how we can get some insight. Niah." He said, pulling the piece of clothing tied around his waist off. "I got this off of Zuko Oli after I knocked him out, can you use your psychometry to figure out what the hell is up?"

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Elizabeth gave Folly a bit of an odd look, "Yeah ,are you not?" She asked, as the chaos unfolded around her and the fight began. What especially caught her attention though, was the adamantine knives, not only because of how interesting that metal was, but because it failed to cut the girl's skin that they had begun to engage with. It was then that she had absolutely terrible idea. Closing the distance between her and Cass, she grabbed for her hand, before saying, "At the end of this, I'll fix you back up. Promise." Before trying to meld the agent's fingers together.

This was the start of things going bad, as it turned out. Whatever this girl was made of, Elizabeth couldn't shape it, so now she was holding a trained agent's hand, with almost no tactical combat training on her own part. Thinking on her feet, she put her gun arm on her chest, and fired. She had figured her skin would be strong enough to not be punctured, and in fairness, she was correct. Unfortunately however, she was a bit too correct, and the shot rebounded, throwing Elizabeth back far away from her, disengaging the teen from Cass, but leaving her flat on her ass, on the ground

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TO: jjj@dailybugle.com
FROM: jewel@thepulse.com
SUBJECT: [Pulse] Iron Man's Press Conference
---
---

Jonah,

This isn't going to be pretty. I can cover this beat for you, but you need to promise no civvies will be out on reporter duty. I'm sure you've seen the conference - Captain America is public enemy number one. The Avengers are going to war.

Also, my usual fee will be doubled for this - let's call it hazard pay.

Keep it sleazy,
Jewel

P.S. I mean it. If I see a single civvie pounding pavement for this, I'll break your face in :-)

---

"I was in the neighborhood, got a tip that something odd was going on here," Fury said cryptically. He wasn't the director of S.H.I.E.L.D. anymore, but that didn't mean he was about to volunteer information if he felt it was better to play things close to the vest. With his one good eye, he surveyed the hallway. It was freezing cold, so cold that Niah and Oliver's breath looked more like smoke or steam. The severed head had ceased screaming. He didn't detect any movement. "Do either of you two hunt?" Fury asked.

He reached into his pocket, pulling a pistol. He didn't wait for them to answer. "A good hunter stalks their prey, takes it down skillfully and peacefully... They don't draw attention to themselves, using the natural environment to help them blend in. But whatever's here, it ain't hunting us... The motherfucker is playing with its food."

Fury then purposefully walked down the hallway, going south, as the power in the hospital died and sent them into pitch darkness.

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Bonnie couldn't help but be annoyed when a knock-off Ant-Man flew on up and interrupted the fight she was engaged in with Kwassi. She knew about the CEO of Serval Industries and his corporate superhero team, the Uncanny X-Factor. But Bonnie didn't need to know a thing about him in order to feel that she didn't want anyone coming in and trying to fight her battles for her - especially when they didn't seem to be able to get the timing right on their moves. "I've got this, go help someone else," she told the tiny man bluntly.

She threw a kick at Kwassi, but he would be able to easily block it. Bonnie didn't slow down or take a beat though, continuing in her onslaught of attacks. Her gut was telling her to just keep throwing things at him and eventually, he would have to slip up. Eventually, she would catch him off guard and knock him to the ground, ideally unconscious. She didn't have any hard feelings towards him, there was nothing personal about this fight, but Bonnie hated losing. At one point in her line of attacks, she almost tripped on her own feet - but then, as if the universe decided it was going for an opposite things, the way she ducked down to regain her balance gave her the perfect opening. She was able to punch Kwassi with the hilt of a dagger in the upper chest, the momentum carrying her through and knocking him flat on his back on the ground.

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"Because you don't want to waste my time? There's lot of people here that need stabbing," Folly pointed out sagely to Cass. She whimpered slightly as her wrist was broken. Folly grabbed it with her good hand and forcibly snapped it back into place, feeling the searing pain as her healing factor went to work and quickly mended it. She was back at full strength, meaning that she and Cass essentially were right back where they started. The only difference was they had an unconscious Breacher on the ground near them.

Folly prodded him slightly with her foot. "Are you dead?" she asked. He was firmly unconscious though, and his head was bleeding from the decent whack he had given himself when he fell through the portal. She definitely lost interest in him though when she saw how Elizabeth's plan backfired so spectacularly. Another combatant was shooting at Elizabeth too and she didn't seem aware. "Might I suggest enrolling in a physics course? They're rather educational," she called out to Elizabeth.

She decided not to take care of the shooter though, since how would Elizabeth learn to handle her enemies otherwise? She had to lead by example. Folly did an impressive backflip, soaring over Cass and landing behind her. She then kicked Cass as hard as she could in the back of the neck, knocking the taller, older woman down to the ground. Unbreakable skin wouldn't stop Cass from feeling the strain of whiplash and the difficulty breathing associated with it. Folly then jumped onto Cass' back, wrapping her legs around Cass' neck to keep herself from falling down.

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Nanna laughed, as if Astrad had told her an amusing joke. "I have seen Midgard complete its journey around your star some 15,000 times. To me, you are all infants playing soldier." Nanna gave everyone privacy, not looking at them as they bathed. She seemed to be completely at peace in the meadow, as if she had been born from the flowers and the gentle breeze and the kiss of sunshine.

"Crikey, I don't think we even have a word for your generation," Amelia whistled. She was dressed in her clothes again and she felt incredibly refreshed. She had to wonder if any of the younger Asgardians had started saying okay, boomer to the older ones. And was the longevity of their race an issue - would people just have so many kids that they'd run out of space for them all? Were there several other Asgards for the new generations that just didn't make the cut? Did they have to ask Odin for permission to procreate?

"Our tribe is the Aesir - although we've intermarried with the Vanir so much now, I imagine it's the closest we would have to a generational marker... Although my daughter would call us the Old Ones," Nanna said. Her voice hitched with sadness as she mentioned her daughter. The light in the meadow dimmed and silver tears appeared to stain her face. The goddess sniffled and dried her eyes. "We must be off. My husband should be home shortly and we can see about finding your husband, dear one."

It occurred to Amelia that Nanna must have been really going through something. Had Amelia not been incredibly impulsive, she might have held her tongue - instead, she blurted out exactly what she was thinking as Nanna led them away from the river and towards the gleaming golden palace. "Are you going through something right now? Like, do you want to talk or something?" Amelia asked. "I know we just met and all, but maybe there's something we could do to help you?"

"That's very sweet of you," Nanna said. She didn't say anything else though and eventually, they reached the gleaming golden palace. Darkness had fallen upon the meadow, but the palace was warm and bright - intensely warm, almost unbearably so. The doors were swung open by a jubilant man with sun-kissed hair and an easy smile. It was hard to look at him directly and Amelia found herself squinting her eyes, holding up her hand to try to block out a bit of his image, as if she were looking directly at the sun.

"Husband, I've brought these travelers to our halls," Nanna explained, giving Baldur a kiss on the cheek. "Dear ones, this is my husband - Baldur, God of Light, Love, and the Summer Sun."

"Ah, adventurers! Welcome to Breidablik," Baldur greeted. His voice was thick and warm, comforting and reassuring at the same time.