Location: Braddock Academy Skills: Enhanced Senses (hearing)
Niah gave a small nod as Oliver introduced her to Captain Britan. "Pleasure to meet you." She said. Then let her sense of taste fall back and back until it was gone and her sense of hearing seemed to rule everything. She could hear a pin drop a mile away with her hearing like this. She didn't use the power often, she was thankful it wasn't passive.
So far it seemed like Captain Britain was on the up and up. He was worried about his missing daughter. Not that Niah blamed him. A missing child was a horrifying experience. She cringed mentally as she still hadn't told her parents that their own missing daughter wasn't dead. The two of them needed to have a conversation about how to let tell their parents, or if they should even bother.
Niah kept her hearing attuned to Captain Britain's heart and voice and her eyes on his face. A gentle smile on her face.
Matt listened as Bonnie talked about Ben Barres. That was interesting. He'd have to look the guy up later. It was even cooler that Ben was female to male like he himself was. Despite Asokho's rant, which had made him uncomfortable. It didn't seem like Asokho believed what he had said, more that he was talking about how the general public responded to Trans people. None of what he said was wrong either.
Cass gave them directions, Matt nodded and started looking for secondary exits. There were of course a ton of windows, and it seemed to be Captain America's MO to jump out of them. There were also fire escapes out of every apartment as was necessary. He didn't spot a second door out of the building. There was probably one, but he didn't see one right away. He was more concerned with Rogers deciding to jump out a window, and Matt had no clue which one it might be.
Kwassi must've been out of the loop some since he started doing all this vigilante work. Between the criminals, working on nuero-toxins, and mending himself, he now realised he hadn't devoted enough time to keeping up with the American scientists. He'd read some of Barnes' papers on the nervous system a while back but never knew that he was Trans. Then again to Kwassi it didn’t really matter who the information came from, believing that everyone was capable of higher thinking. He said nothing more on the matter as the finally arrived to their destination. Agent Reed had instructed Agent Moss and himself to stay outside and block any other exits.
Kwassi looked around and as Agent Moss had already found out, the only visible ones were the windows and fire escapes that all buildings had. "Demethi! How the hell are we supposed to block all these windows? At least the fire escapes afford us a chance." He began to pace side to side, keeping his eyes fixated on the windows before looking at Moss. "Any idea as to which floor he is likely on? That would at least narrow the search and afford us the time to act." Kwassi popped out his ICERS magazine, noticing he had four more of his concentrayed tranquilizers and the rest were normal ICERS. He popped the magazine back in and kept his weapon drawn in the event he had to shoot a falling Cap or rogue skrull.
1. ALL SUPERHEROES MUST REGISTER WITH SHIELD AND REVEAL THEIR SECRET IDENTITY
2. SUPERHEROES MUST BE AT LEAST 18 YEARS OLD
3. SUPERHEROES MUST PASS SHIELD TRAINING - EXCEPTIONS INCLUDE TRAINING FROM THE X-MEN, FANTASTIC FOUR, AND AVENGERS
4. ALL SUPERHEROES ARE SUBJECTED TO THE SUPERVISION OF SHIELD
VIOLATION OF THESE WILL RESULT IN IMMEDIATE EXTRACTION TO THE RAFT. MINIMUM SENTENCING IS THREE YEARS HOUSE ARREST. JUVENILE OFFENDERS WILL BE TRIED AS ADULTS. REPEAT OFFENDERS HAVE A RECOMMENDED SENTENCE OF TEN YEARS IMPRISONMENT.
ALL VIGILANTE ACTIVITY KNOWN TO SHIELD PERSONNEL MUST BE REPORTED TO THEIR SUPERVISOR OR LEAD IMMEDIATELY.
IF YOU SEE SOMETHING, SAY SOMETHING!
CAPTAIN AMERICA ON THE RUN?!?! IRON MAN TAKES CHARGE!
We here at the Daily Bugle just got a tip from an anonymous source that the Avengers have split up!
Iron Man has claimed leadership of the group - we haven't been able to get a quote from the Playboy Billionaire, but our plucky team is on the case!
We'll be updating this story once more details come in, but please if you know anything about this situation or have spotted Captain America, call us out our toll free hotline here: 1-800-SPIDER.
If you want to read about more Avengers news, check out our piece from last Thursday where we explored the affair between Iron Man and Black Widow!
J.J.J.
Braddock Academy - Cardiff: 12:20 A.M.
"If you're worried my brother is a skrull, I can lay those concerns to rest. I'm sure you're aware mutant twins tend to have a telepathic link," Psylocke explained.
"I'm not a mutant though, Betsy," Brian pointed out.
"You're half-Otherworlder, it's close enough," she chastised him. Maybe they were both telling the truth or maybe they were both lying. Could skrulls duplicate mental connections? Would they be able to fake one via telepathy, for instance? There was, unfortunately, so much about skrulls that Oliver and Niah just didn't know.
"Fine, fine, Betsy, you win," Brian said. He looked tired as he sat down - maybe from the loss of his daughter or from the late hour. "The skrulls were fighting another race, the kree. We had gone to Tarnax IV, the skrull's world, to warn them not to let the fighting come into Earth's system again. Like most of our plans... It didn't end well. We ended up being captured. They took information on our physiology, our genetics, our technology, they studied our behavior."
He paused for a moment, trying to remember as much as he could for them. "Tony managed to use the arc reactor in his chest as some sort of beam or laser, to be honest the science was beyond me, I was just glad it worked. He took out the skrull guard, freed the rest of us, and we made a mad dash back to our ship. We were lucky to escape..."
"You should speak to Professor X," Psylocke recommended. "Unless these skrulls have telepathic cloaking, I bet Charles can identify them all. I'd do it for you, but without Cerebro my powers won't have enough range."
It had been almost five hours since they met with Director Hill in D.C. about Captain America. Bonnie didn't know whether or not to expect Captain America to still be at this address - he could have easily moved by now. Of course, they had the advantage that they had traveled by jet to make up for lost time. Even then, she knew that a train from DC to NYC only took about three hours. And what if it had all been a ruse? Was Captain America savvy enough to plant a false lead as to where he was going?
"I'm fine, Cass, really," Bonnie tried to reassure her. "Tout va bien," she added, dipping into French to make a point. Right in the entranceway there were the tenant mailboxes, identifying apartment number and the occupants. Bonnie scanned them quickly, not spotting Rogers anywhere. She didn't spot anything particularly obvious as being a fake name, until she reached the label on Apartment 107. BARNES, J. "This one, apartment 107."
"If I remember my Avengers trivia, that's the name of Captain America's best friend." She assumed that it was an alias Rogers was using, since any of his friends from the war had to be long dead by now. She looked at Cass for a moment, before Bonnie quietly went to the staircase and started going up. On the second floor, there were eight apartments, all of them looking fairly dingy. There were about three more floors up above them and the sounds of a dog barking echoed through the halls.
Apartment 107 was tucked away in the back corner, hard to spot from the stairs. Bonnie waited for Cass to make the first move - whether that was simply knocking or kicking the door down. She didn't envy the idea of fighting Captain America.
Amelia was incredibly surprised to see that Maria's first instinct was to try to blow down the door - but then again, maybe she shouldn't have been. Maria had been obsessed with doing trust falls from thousands of feet up in the air. Maybe she was on some sort of spectrum? It would have explained a lot of her behavior. Weren't people on the spectrum also usually hyper good at something? Was archery considered something like that? Amelia had no idea how any of it worked, never having even glanced at a Wikipedia page on the topic, so it was for the best that she kept her mouth shut before making an insensitive fool of herself. "No worries, cunt," Amelia told Astrad with a large smile. "Today's been such a rush. Hopefully this magician bloke will keep the good times rolling, yeah?"
The door opened ever so slightly, just enough so that way they could see a pair of glowing red eyes. "...Heh. Mortals," a teenage girl's voice said with some amusement. The door opened the rest of the way revealing a demon from Limbo. She had horns and red skin, wearing a collegiate style hoodie that said STRANGE ACADEMY - CLASS OF 2025 - HOME OF THE WEREWOLVES.
"Are you a demon or something? Or a... what's it called in that game? A tea leaf?" Amelia asked, looking at the kid with intense curiosity.
The teenage girl rolled her eyes. "Follow the blood and you'll find him. He's fighting Mephisto in the study." She then took a step forward and a red disc of light appeared in front of her. Once she stepped on it, it seemed to swallow her up and she vanished.
Location: 616 169th Street, Queens Skills: Hand to Hand Combat
"Alright then if you say so." Cassandra said as she looked around the foyer of the apartment building, before Bonnie had pointed towards the series of mailboxes and pointed out one of them. "Sounds like a good place to start then." Cassandra said, as she switched to her radio, to get Kwassi and Matt's attention. "Matt, Kwassi found a potential lead apartment number 107 on the second floor, meet us there when you can dont engage unless attacked first." Cassandra said as she quickly followed Bonnie up the flight of stairs, she couldnt get a good view from the stairwell until she found it on the far side of the hallway.
Cass started to think for a moment, if she knocked on the door Cap would be alerted right away and he would end up escaping again, if she kicked the door down then he would end up being caught by surprise. She looked over towards Bonnie, holding up her hand and started to count down from five quietly before kicking the door down. Seeing four other people in the room Sam Wilson, Clint Barton their former team leader, Bucky Barnes as well as Steve Rogers himself. "Sorry, for kicking down the door do you mind if we talk?" Cass said, she was hoping that it wouldn't escalate into another fight if it could be avoided.
Maria looked towards Sparky who snapped at her and gave a slight shrug. "But its more fun that way." Maria complained while looking at Astrad and shrugged slightly. "Still you are heavy anyway." Maria complained, letting Sparky go for the door and then a few seconds later the door opened. Seeing a pair of glowing red eyes poking out, she stared at them for a moment before a demon looking girl opened it up finally. Telling them where Strange actually was, and nodded towards the girl while looking at the others, before walking forward. "Lets get going and find what Strange knows then." Maria said drawing out her bow and five arrows in her hand, exploring the area a little bit, until they were in the study.
Seeing about thirteen Strange clones, attacking Mephisto the area was filled with dusty old looking books and magical items on pedestals, she took her bow and started to fire off five explosive arrows at the demon. All of them easily missing just as he turned into a snake, except for one of them embedding itself into Mephisto's body the arrow sticking out of it's body.
Location: The Sanctum Skills: Electricity Manipulation, Electrical Attacks
"Just saying, not the best idea to try and breakdown the door to the guy who could probably toss you into another dimension and just leave you there," she commented to Maria, still more or less ignoring Astrad's entire existence since the guy bugged her still. When the door opened, she didn't really flinch at the sight of the girl who answered the door, "Thanks for the info," she commented towards the girl with the nod of her head as she headed into the sanctum and followed after Maria in hopes of trying to find, and potentially help, Strange.
Her mind was racing a little bit, especially when she saw the commotion that was going on in the study, given that it was a full demon and there were multiple copies of Strange flying around. She figured that her potentially flying around the area might not be a useful thing to do, and she tried to send a bolt of electricity flying at Mephisto, except she stopped and put a hand to her stomach as apparently the baby decided to kick fairly hard, "Ouch, really?" she muttered under her breath, before glancing up at Mephisto again, before there was a large crack as she sent a lightning bolt straight at the demon. The electrical attack was strong enough to force him back into his humanoid form, with the arrow that Maria had hit him with sticking out of his leg. "Hello Doctor, it seems we might have shown up at a bad time I take it?" she asked, referencing the fact that they literally just so happened to pick a time when Strange was fighting a demon.
First thing that happens today is that the four of them get swarmed by a literal horde of HYDRA grunts, a gibbering cavalcade of tentacle heads that want their superior genes for the glory of the... new world order? Whatever it is that those idiots were serving. Either way, this day had just gone from bad luck to bizarre, what with a demon appearing inside the sanctum of a powerful wizard, or something like that.
Now, Astrad was a man that fervently believed in the divine, on the existence of angels and demons and the Lord Almighty, but seeing a demonic entity in the flesh was something else entirely. It looked exactly like what a quick Google Images search of a demon would deliver, and in this case, there was but one course of action: aid the wizard in banishing it back to the hell from whence it came.
"God help me.", Astrad whispered with a quiet wisp of cold air from his lips as he launched a cryokinetic attack against the demonic entity that had dared defile the sanctity of the sanctum with its filthy infernal presence. To this end, he had frozen the demon's feet, which would hopefully allow Strange to lock on it and banish it to the Warp... Hell... wherever. Squidheads and a demon... one could only wonder what's next.
Kwassi continued to watch the windows for any sign of movement, anything that could help narrows down the apartment. As his eyes began to trail right, he noticed something in his periferal. Captain America's sheild glinted for a moment before a pair of curtains were drawn. Eyes now trained on the window he carefully made his way tk Agent Moss, sidestepping, until he reached him. "There, second story with the blinds that are still settling from being moved. I saw his sheild. He's there." Kwassi whispered to Moss. His gun was tightly gripped in his hand as he awaited further instructions. If he called it in there was a chance of exposing his team or that there were external forces besides the welcome wagon. No, he had to trust that the two could find it on their own.
Moments later Agent Reed radiod them to alert them of which apartment he was staying at. The floor was helpful and it confirmed his earlier sight. There was a hint of a smile on him as he was right, still trained onto the window of that apartment and the ones to its left and right incase it stretched further out. "Do you mind covering middle and left window and I'll cover middle and right. That way regardless of which window they may leave from we have the upper hand and one of us will be able to hit him." He didn't like being left in the dark, unable to hear the negotiations for himself, but itbwas what had been ordered.
Well, that was the quiet part out loud, but Niah wasn't making any sudden moves, so he assumed everything was fine. Exhaling a sigh of relief. "Well, were any of you separated at any point from the rest of the group?" He asked. If even one of them was replaced, that would still be a threat. A Skrull Doctor Strange sounded like a nightmare scenario. "I do want to apologize for coming here and practically accusing you of being one, but these are delicate times, I hope you understand." He apologized Rubbing his temples, he nodded at the Captain's suggestion.
"That's a good idea. The only problem, of course, is that America is a bit on fire right now with Hill's laws. We'll have to see if they'll corporate." Oliver honestly didn't know how Professor X actually felt about all of this, but he hoped they'd be able to put that aside to end this literal alien invasion, "The only catch, of course, is if Professor X has been replaced, he wouldn't help us. Would you be willing to come with us, should that be the case?" He asked. He knew it was a big request, but in the face of the fate of the planet, he had to think that they'd be able to get some form of help.
1. ALL SUPERHEROES MUST REGISTER WITH SHIELD AND REVEAL THEIR SECRET IDENTITY
2. SUPERHEROES MUST BE AT LEAST 18 YEARS OLD
3. SUPERHEROES MUST PASS SHIELD TRAINING - EXCEPTIONS INCLUDE TRAINING FROM THE X-MEN, FANTASTIC FOUR, AND AVENGERS
4. ALL SUPERHEROES ARE SUBJECTED TO THE SUPERVISION OF SHIELD
VIOLATION OF THESE WILL RESULT IN IMMEDIATE EXTRACTION TO THE RAFT. MINIMUM SENTENCING IS THREE YEARS HOUSE ARREST. JUVENILE OFFENDERS WILL BE TRIED AS ADULTS. REPEAT OFFENDERS HAVE A RECOMMENDED SENTENCE OF TEN YEARS IMPRISONMENT.
ALL VIGILANTE ACTIVITY KNOWN TO SHIELD PERSONNEL MUST BE REPORTED TO THEIR SUPERVISOR OR LEAD IMMEDIATELY.
IF YOU SEE SOMETHING, SAY SOMETHING!
CAPTAIN AMERICA ON THE RUN?!?! IRON MAN TAKES CHARGE!
We here at the Daily Bugle just got a tip from an anonymous source that the Avengers have split up!
Iron Man has claimed leadership of the group - we haven't been able to get a quote from the Playboy Billionaire, but our plucky team is on the case!
We'll be updating this story once more details come in, but please if you know anything about this situation or have spotted Captain America, call us out our toll free hotline here: 1-800-SPIDER.
If you want to read about more Avengers news, check out our piece from last Thursday where we explored the affair between Iron Man and Black Widow!
J.J.J.
Braddock Academy - Cardiff: 12:30 A.M.
"Maybe?" Captain Britain said with a slight shrug. "It happened a while ago. Missions tend to blend together and even if they don't, things go so fast that I just can't say for sure... I wish you had asked me these things sooner, I would have been able to be more help." A perfect memory wasn't one of his powers sadly. The chilling appearance of the skrulls had been his defining recollection of that mission - he just couldn't recall for sure if they had been separated and if so, who had been on their own. It was entirely likely everyone had been alone at some point when they were escaping the skrulls.
"Hill's Laws? I haven't heard of those," Psylocke said, an eyebrow raised. "Brian and I can come with you to visit Xavier. We ought to see him anyways to find out more about Glimpse's disappearance."
The first detail Bonnie noticed about the apartment was an excessive pile of plums on the dining room table. The next things she noticed were the three Avengers and a man with a metal arm. Falcon, Hawkeye, and Captain America - all of them largely ordinary humans with extraordinary skills (and the super soldier serum in Cap's case). Her mind started cranking out ideas on how to fight. Her top priority would have to be keeping the shield away from Rogers, it defied the laws of physics and could easily take both her and Cass out. With the shield taken care of, Cass could conjure up some elemental might and hopefully subdue everyone in the room. It would have to be quick though - if their opponents made the first move, then that would be it. It would be game over.
"You're right, Cap. This neighborhood really is going to hell," the Falcon said, shaking his head.
"Reed, Chase - you two shouldn't be here," Barton warned. "You know this isn't right."
"What part of keeping kids from playing hero and getting themselves killed do you object to, Barton? What's so bad about keeping vigilantes from playing judge, jury, and executioner?" Bonnie posed. She shifted her weight and had her hands over her pockets, ready to grab her knives at a moment's notice. The tension in the air was palpable.
"The last time I was in a country where people blindly followed orders and those who were different were put on lists, it didn't go so well," Captain America argued, breaking his silence. "Now before we get started, I'm going to give you a chance to leave." Captain America then reached for his shield, it was resting on a chair, but a knife suddenly appeared in his hand before he could grab it.
Bonnie's heart was pounding. She'd never stabbed Captain America before.
"Whatever gave you that impression, Dr. Sparks?" Strange asked, his words dripping with sarcasm. His unexpected allies had turned Mephisto into a humanoid form, frozen the ground around the demon, and put an arrow through his cloven leg. The demon had been particularly active lately, even briefly possessing the Scarlet Witch and forcing her to attack the West Coast Avengers. Strange levitated a devil's cage in front of him, attempting to direct Mephisto's essence inside.
The demon growled, briefly featuring three heads, before shifting form once more. A gigantic red dragon was in front of them. Mephisto blew a gigantic cone of fire at all of them, Amelia's eyes widening. "It's like bloody Mushu on steroids!" she exclaimed. She twirled her staff rapidly, bending the air as she extinguished the flames before they reached them. Her air bending effectively had been a shield. "Will one of these old dusty things help us?" she asked Strange, looking a bit frantically around the various mystic relics on display.
"Do not touch anything!" Strange ordered. He flew across the room, carried by his cloak, before pulling a sword from a scabbard. The sword was clearly magical, but Amelia had no idea what sword it was. She didn't know if magic swords always had names or if that had just been something she picked up from Harry Potter and Narnia and stuff like that. Mephisto breathed another column of fire at them, with Amelia narrowly managing to dissipate it with her staff.
"What's that sword do, besides cutting stuff and all? It looks all bonkers!"
Location: Braddock Academy Skills: Enhanced Senses (hearing)
Niah listened and watched Captain Britain. He seemed to be telling the truth, and genuinely worried about his daughter. She wondered what had happened, though she doubted there was little she could do to help the situation. She kept her face still when Psylocke offered to join them to a visit to Professor X. It was probably a good idea. Though a brief fear of herself being replaced by a Skrull crossed her mind.
"We appreciate the offer. We have another stop we must make, it will take us at least a day. Maybe more if I have anything to say about it." She said the last bit with a glance at Oliver. Niah believed in goodbyes when someone got the chance and she was going to make sure Oliver said his.
A grim set of decisions were made in Matt's mind now. Knowing that his power had worked on Deadpool he figured it would work on Captain America just as well. He knew he would do his best to keep from killing Captain America, as he had once almost done to Cass. Thankfully, Cass didn't hold it against him. He was fully on Hill's side now.
Matt had noticed a flash of metal just as Asokho pointed it out. He nodded. "She said to meet her up there. Want to try the fire escapes, so we keep an eye on the windows in case Cap tries to go out them again, but also meet them up there?" Matt said. He kept his eyes on the mentally marked windows. He found a route via the fire escapes and started up it.
Location: 616 169th Street, Queens Skills: Season Manipulation
Cassandra stared at Barton for a moment, she knew that what they were doing wasnt right at all but she thought that they would need to all be held responsible for everything. "We all need to be held responsible for all of our actions and any collateral damage or civilian casualties, super hero teams, and vigilantes included." Cass said towards Barton, the most recent events that she could think of were when she was working with the X-Men and then most recently when the Black Order bombarded Cardiff.
"We need ways to try and lower collateral damage during fights in the streets, untrained, inexperienced vigilantes and heroes cause the most damage. They need to be trained properly and be able to fight better, we can provide the proper training for them." She said as Cap started to reach for his shield, and Bonnie quickly threw a knife at Captain America, she had a feeling that the time to talk was pretty much over now at this point as well. Cass extended her hand out knowing that the shield was probably the biggest issue if she ended up having to fight him, as she tried to use her power to blow his shield away from all of them, only for Cap to grab the shield rather quickly.
Maria stared at all of the magical objects in the room for a moment, slightly curious what they did Mephisto started to shift into his humanoid form, only to transform into a dragon. She watched as Amelia started to use her abilities to protect them from getting hit by fire, Maria started to get a bit of an idea looking at the others. "Cover me okay?" Maria said, the moment that there was an opening from the fire she tried to get behind Mephisto as she used her suit's stealth function.
Though she wasnt stealthy enough as soon as Maria got close enough she was smacked by Mephisto's tail, knocking her back a couple of feet, letting out a slight groan. "Well there goes what I was trying to do." Maria said as she quickly drew out her bow and notched an explosive arrow and fired it. Seeing it going flying through the air, only for Mephisto to open his mouth and swallow the explosive arrow, and like out of some old cartoon Mephisto's throat expanded slightly as the explosive arrowhead went off. "I hope that was spicy enough for you!" Maria taunted.
Just as Mephisto's throat expanded from the explosive blast of Maria's ill fated arrow, Astrad formed a floating fist of ice. Glaring at the demon with eyes filled with poignant abhorrence at the demon's defiling presence, he attempted to land a hit on Mephisto, guiding the hand that he had created with his cryokinetic power. The end result went awry, though, as the fist struck at Mephisto's tail, hurting the demon by a very little bit. In other words, his attack was rendered useless as it had barely done anything to injure the hell spawned abomination that was roaring and screaming at them in its draconic rage. Soon or later it was going to breath fire again, he presumed.
Astrad was still determined to harm the foul creature, and to this end, the cold mist from his hands coalesced into a few spears of ice, which he then hurled at the demon. Unfortunately, through a quirk of probability, none found their mark. They all missed and were stuck on the sanctum's structure instead. How sad!
"Whelp.", he said as he found his attacks almost completely ineffectual against the demon. "That sucked."
Location: The Sanctum Skills: Electricity Manipulation, Electrical Attacks, Aerial Combat
"Yeah, don't touch anything, if I didn't even know a little bit about this thing," she said as she held up the dagger Lyting, "I wouldn't even be using it," she said towards Amelia as she seemed to be paying attention to what was somewhat in the room around them at least. "If you don't know what it is, then don't touch it. Oh, and he's definitely not like Mushu, more of Smaug if you ask me," she added as a bit of an afterthought. She was more then a bit of a bookworm, and the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings were one of her favorite series' of all time, she could make references to it all day long, and probably talk your ears off regarding it.
She tried to send out a bolt of lightning out, but missed the dragon (how she had no idea since it was the broad side of a barn really) as she lifted off the ground slightly to try and hurt the demon. Well, if at first you don't succeed try again right? Sending out another bolt of lightning, it slammed into the dragon, and the dragon was replaced with... A goat. A freaking goat. "Well that's a bit weird," she said, before sending another bolt slamming into the goat, which was then replaced with a panda. "Well this is getting beyond ridiculous," she said as she tried to instead just stab the demon/panda, except her attempts didn't really do much, and the one time she had actually landed a hit it didn't seem to do much at all. "Well this is definitely not an easy thing, though guess I should probably actually learn how to use the dagger to stab things and not just shoot lightning bolts from," she commented as she more of flew away slightly from the demon, since she certainly didn't want to be sticking next to him any longer then she needed to.
Without so much as a word, Kwassi began to make his way up the fire escape as silently and nimbly as he could. This part of the mission was always nice. Reminding him of his glory days when he would trapeze from rooftop to rooftop and use his various skills to maneuver in the night with the swiftness and stealth of a gliding bird. The pain still lingered from the earlier fight, meds helping stave it off too much. Once he finally made it up, Kwassi all but pressed his ear against the glass, listening in to the conversation. There was little conversation, then silence, and then a slight thud. Was Cap arming himself? Getting ready for a fight? The drawn curtains didn't help and so Kwassi gripped his fingers along the window and tried to pull up quietly but it wouldn't budge.
"Damn! Ofcourse he'd lock the window, not like he was planning to open it quietly and exit out if he needed to escape. Ok new plan." His mind was riddled with thoughts and Xhosa expletives as he waved down Agent Moss. Giving him some form of hand signals to let him know conversation has halted and warnings have been given. Be alert. He wasnt sure what more to do, wait here incase he tries to escape? Reverse Cap and bust into a window? Or simply shoot blindly through the glass? The latter was the least tempting option. Kwassi pressed his shoulder against the brick exterior, legs crouched as he hid from windows view on the left side of its pane, gun held and at the ready to shoot if anyone but S.H.I.E.L.D. makes it out of that window.
Shoot any non agent with a paralytic if they leave through the window
Oliver nodded at Psylocke, before saying, "We'll appreciate your cooperation, thank you for your time." He said, before matching Niah's look. They had to go do that, something he was dreading, and had no idea how to do. Everything else in his life? Hacking, a Skrull invasion, hell, even making friends? He could study for that, he could prepare in some meaningful way. Not this. It was too personal. There were books and seminars and endless amounts of platitudes and advice for dealing with grief, but none of it mattered. This wasn't somebody losing their mom it was him losing his mom.
As the conversation drew to an end, he realized that was what was next. They were out of things to stall with, and all that was left to do was gaze into the abyss. He felt like running, but he couldn't do that, not with Niah here. Damn him, for bringing an accountability partner. Quietly he said, "Yeah, we need to go... tend to that. Niah, we're good to go?" He asked, partly to explicitly check to make sure they were safe to leave these two alone and, in a way, asking was a way to get that final push to leave.
1. ALL SUPERHEROES MUST REGISTER WITH SHIELD AND REVEAL THEIR SECRET IDENTITY
2. SUPERHEROES MUST BE AT LEAST 18 YEARS OLD
3. SUPERHEROES MUST PASS SHIELD TRAINING - EXCEPTIONS INCLUDE TRAINING FROM THE X-MEN, FANTASTIC FOUR, AND AVENGERS
4. ALL SUPERHEROES ARE SUBJECTED TO THE SUPERVISION OF SHIELD
VIOLATION OF THESE WILL RESULT IN IMMEDIATE EXTRACTION TO THE RAFT. MINIMUM SENTENCING IS THREE YEARS HOUSE ARREST. JUVENILE OFFENDERS WILL BE TRIED AS ADULTS. REPEAT OFFENDERS HAVE A RECOMMENDED SENTENCE OF TEN YEARS IMPRISONMENT.
ALL VIGILANTE ACTIVITY KNOWN TO SHIELD PERSONNEL MUST BE REPORTED TO THEIR SUPERVISOR OR LEAD IMMEDIATELY.
IF YOU SEE SOMETHING, SAY SOMETHING!
CAPTAIN AMERICA ON THE RUN?!?! IRON MAN TAKES CHARGE!
5:59 PM Update - Iron Man is holding a press conference at the Stark Foundation Headquarters. He is joined by superheroes Black Widow, Captain Marvel, Mister Fantastic, the Human Torch, She-Hulk, the Invisible Woman, and the Wasp. CLICK HERE to view the livestream!
We here at the Daily Bugle just got a tip from an anonymous source that the Avengers have split up!
Iron Man has claimed leadership of the group - we haven't been able to get a quote from the Playboy Billionaire, but our plucky team is on the case!
We'll be updating this story once more details come in, but please if you know anything about this situation or have spotted Captain America, call us out our toll free hotline here: 1-800-SPIDER.
If you want to read about more Avengers news, check out our piece from last Thursday where we explored the affair between Iron Man and Black Widow!
J.J.J.
Braddock Academy - Cardiff: 12:40 A.M.
Psylocke looked at Oliver with sympathy. There wasn't much privacy when it came to telepaths, especially with how loudly both Niah and Oliver were thinking about the situation. It was almost a challenge to block it out. "Our driver can take you wherever you need to go," she said. It was the very least her brother and she could do for them, without confessing to having read their minds on that matter too.
"Whatever it is, I hope it goes well," Brian said earnestly. "Now... I'm going to go to bed. It's past midnight and traveling to Otherworld and back always leaves me a bit jet lagged these days."
"Old man," Psylocke said with a chuckle. While they were twins, she looked extremely young next to him - and of course, she appeared to be Asian. There was probably a long story there.
It was two on four. Bonnie didn't like the odds of their victory. They increased should Matt and Kwassi join the fray, but even then, things were definitely tipped in the favor of the Avengers. Cass' powers were impressive, yet Bonnie couldn't help but feel that they wouldn't be enough to give them an edge. The knife in Captain America's hand hadn't slowed him down at all. Rogers had just pulled it out and it dropped on the floor, the blood from his wound trickling down his hand and spilling onto his shield.
Bonnie quickly calculated their chances of success being 46% - dropping exponentially with every second that they didn't take out one of their opponents. Captain America threw his shield at Cass, hitting her in the throat and temporarily stopping her ability to breathe. Thanks to her dermal armor, the shield bounced off and hit the wall, before snapping back into Captain America's hand. It all had happened in the blink of an eye. The stranger with the metal arm unloaded a clip of bullets, hitting Cass in the stomach - it was a good thing she was bulletproof.
Falcon ran at Bonnie, swinging his fist for a punch. The world seemed to slow down before Bonnie's eyes as she ducked under his fist, weaving to the side. The Falcon used his momentum to swing again at her, Bonnie expertly avoiding the blows. She swept his legs and sent the Avenger tumbling down the ground. His head hit the side of an end table as he went down, leaving bloody residue. He wasn't out for the count though. He was a special sort of crazy - the kind that kept on getting up and going back for more.
"Someone's been working out," Hawkeye quipped. He aimed at Bonnie's face, letting a taser arrow fly. She dropped to the ground just in time, narrowly missing being hit by the master archer.
"Why are we fighting a bloody panda?" Amelia shouted. She hadn't managed to give Maria cover earlier, mostly since Maria hadn't given her enough time to even process the words she had said before acting. "Shouldn't demons be something a bit scarier, like maybe a rabid koala bear? Or a dingo? Those things eat babes, you know, it's rather weird. The little cunts have no morals." Her eyes widened as Doctor Strange stabbed the panda through the chest with his magic sword. Rather than shifting into a different animal though, the demon turned into smoke. It looked like one of those horrid gender reveal things, red mist floating and swarming in the air.
"Try not to be possessed, I'm quite sure S.H.I.E.L.D.'s insurance doesn't have me as an approved provider," Strange instructed.
"Oh hell no!" Amelia saw the red smoke coming towards her and she swirled her staff as fast as she could, kicking up quite a current as she tried to blast it backwards. The demon kept on coming though, condensing into a small little sphere of evil smoke. Despite Amelia's best efforts, it was beginning to make headway. It was closing in on her - three feet, two feet, six inches, and it was just about to go into her mouth - until suddenly, it was sucked into the spherical cage like it had been a vacuum.
Strange sealed the little ball and smirked with satisfaction. He was uncomfortably close to Amelia and he backed off. "Sorry about that. What can I do for you all?" he asked, tossing the ball up and down. Every now and then, it would glow red and shake.
"...Well not going to lie, that reminds me of the black smoke monster from Lost," Sparky couldn't help but comment as she looked at the demon as it switched to swirling smoke. "Though this sadly isn't in my top three weirdest things I've seen, but probably in the top 5 somewhere," she added, not even flinching really at the thing. Being possessed by a demon would probably be horrible, and she had no intentions of having that happen to her either, so she was hoping to have no problem preventing that from happening. Of course, Amelia freaked out as the demon got insanely close to her, before being sucked into the little ball cage thing that Doctor Strange had with him.
For a split moment (given the fact that they had to deal with a demon) she had forgotten the reason why they were there and she almost kicked herself for that one. Glancing over at the others (and ignoring Astrad's entire existence still) she stepped forward slightly and looked at him, "A few months ago when we were dealing with Thanos and such, you offered to do a tracking spell to help me find Raynor... I was wondering if perhaps that offer might still stand... I could really use your help if you are willing..." she said to him. She really was hoping that Strange was willing to help her out. If he wasn't then she had no idea what she'd do.
As soon as Mephisto had been neutralized by the Master of the Mystic Arts, Astrad deactivated his cryokinetic abilities, as the time of danger had passed. Now, there was nothing left for him to do but to sit down and listen to the ongoing conversation between Theresa Sparks and Dr. Strange. Apparently, she was looking for her missing husband, and she had struck a deal with the great sorcerer to help achieve this end. However, it seemed that recent events had prevented her from following up on that contract, and now, she was back here, probably now that everything else had been sorted.
Now that he was just sitting on one of the fancy woodwork chairs that Strange had in no small amount within the Sanctum, Astrad pulled out his phone and sent a text to his superiors that he was alive and well, though the mission to seek for the Apex Twins was botched now that the entire town was apparently infested with HYDRA members unto its very core. He had survived, though with a small amount of help, no less.
Looking around the spacious building, Astrad waited. Ah, hell. Sitwell must be so livid right now.
Location: 616 169th Street, Queens Skills: Season Manipulation, hand to hand combat, enhanced condition
Everything happened so quickly, the next moment they were talking then the next moment she was on the ground, feeling the air being knocked out of her lungs. Cass started gasping for air, as Cap's shield went straight back to his hand after it had hit the wall, it took her a couple of seconds before she regained her barings. Then she felt several bullets hitting her in the stomach, she was thankful that her skin was really tough. She stared at the man with the metal arm, and quickly ran forward towards him, using her speed and strength and jumped into the air, drop kicking the man. The glass shattering from the kick, but he wasnt out of the room as Cass went to kick him in the stomach again, only to get kicked back in return.
"Matt Kwassi, get in here now!" Cass yelled out her voice sounding a bit raspy from getting hit by his shield, as Falcon and Hawkeye targeted Bonnie, she turned to the metal arm man and sent a gust of wind at him. She managed to knock him out of the window and onto the fire escape now. Turning around to face Captain America again, rubbing her throat slightly and cracked her neck slightly she still didnt want to fight him. "You'll have to hit me harder than that."
Maria watched as Strange managed to stab Mephisto, as the weird demon shapeshifter suddenly burst into a red smoke and started to target Amelia. She was about to notch another arrow when the smokey demon was sucked into the small little sphere thing that Dr. Strange had in his hands. "Well that was fun." Maria said as she started to look around the room, letting Sparky talk to Dr. Strange she was drawn over towards the magical items that lined the rooms. She knew that Strange had ordered them not to touch anything at all, Maria was really curious anyway as she approached them.
"So, whats this thingy do?" Maria asked finding a cube like thing with inscriptions on the sides of it, she went and picked it up turning to face the others. The next thing she knew she was in some kind of wasteland of sorts, seeing large lines of people heading towards a large gate. Maria looked down still holding the cube in her hand she noticed various floating screens with various superheroes as well as random TV shows, one catching her attention was Spiral's Showcase.
Niah let her power drop away and her sense of taste returned and her hearing went back to the normal level. "Thank you for your help. We do appreciate it." Niah smiled genuinely. "I would appreciate the ride." She said. Then looked at Captain Britain. "Rest well, I wish you the best of luck finding your daughter." Niah knew much too well the pain of losing someone and not knowing where they were.
"Oliver, do you know the address of where we are going?" She asked him. Niah realized what time it was and for a moment was stunned. She wasn't sleepy. Maybe it was cause for her she was on San Francisco time. It was only four pm there. They had been moving steadily across the face of the Earth all day. Talk about jet-lagged, she certainly would be in a few hours as the sun rose and she got sleepy.
Matt climbed up the rest of the way. Watching as Falcon was blasted out the window by a gust of wind. There was a part of Matt that feared it was the man from Agent 13's apartment until he remembered that Cass could control the weather too. He swore he had almost died in that fight, somehow fate had decided that he wouldn't though. He shook the thought from his mind and climbed into the apartment.
He darted forward and tried to touch Captain America but the man was too quick for him and blocked the attempt. Matt sighed, of course. That was the biggest flaw in his power. He had to actually touch the person. Thankfully it was a passive power at least. He tried again and Captain America blocked him with his dang shield again. Fine so be it. If Matt couldn't land a hit, he could at least distract Captain America. He glanced at Bonnie and then Cass. Hoping one of them saw his glance and he waited a split second and started to move in again hopefully drawing Captain America's attention.
Matt is trying to time his attack with hand-to-hand with Cass and/or Bonnie as a distraction
