10426/Red Menace IV

Red Menace IV
Date of Scene:	11 March 2022
Location:	Hidden Installation Near Vista Verde
Synopsis:	Natasha Romanov and Jessica Drew, after following the missing Hulk and She-Hulk's trail with the help of Thaddeus Ross, aka Red Hulk, infiltrate the Leader's hidden facility, the Cube, and discover him constructing some sort of powerful gamma radiation device. Unfortunately, they're discovered!
Cast of Characters:	Betty Ross, Natasha Romanoff, Jessica Drew

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Betty Ross has posed:
    New Mexico, while not a desert as it's often portrayed, is still a whole lot of open land with only a few major population centers. Much of it is ranching land built around small villages, some of which have been around since the days when Spain was still in control of the area. But it's dry, it's gritty, and the plants, when you get away from major waterways, tend to be tough, short, scrubby trees, especially when you get out into the sort of areas where the U.S. government prefers to put its top secure bases, such as Area 51.

    But no aliens today. Instead, a different trail being followed. Approximately five hours ago, the tracer Natasha put on the Hulk abruptly went silent. Attempting to contact Jennifer Walters, who was with him to attend a funeral of a friend, Betty Ross, is likewise missing, or at least you haven't been able to contact her.

    Trying to track them down in town has led to an empty hotel room that still has their suitcases and such, as well as the vehicle they arrived in parked outside. No one seems to know precisely what happened to them, but there's obviously been trouble...the so-called "Hulkbuster Base" is currently on lockdown and looked to have some sort of damage done to it recently, as well as being on alert.

    But asking around, you did stumble over one person who was just as interested in tracking where they'd gone as you were.

    Just you weren't expecting it to be former general Thunderbolt Ross, Betty Ross's father.

    Moreover, he wouldn't agree to help unless you took him with, but did suggest he had a way he could track the Hulk by his gamma emissions, as long as the trail was still warm. Radioactively speaking.
    And also, somehow....he's...changed a dad. In that he appears to have gotten the ability to turn into a Hulk himself. A Red Hulk. He's currently in said form, with a fitted combat vest and trousers and boots actually made to fit him, so this isn't an immediately recent development. He's got a tracker that he's using, poking at it with an oversize finger from time to time as he grunts. "Gettin' close...the decay is a lot more recent here."

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
There's only passive distaste expressed between Natasha and Thaddeus 'Thunderbolt' Ross. The man is good at his job.. Unfortunately, his job is his personal paranoia and obsession. Which has made things far, far worse for far too many people and caused far more casualties and suffering than many supervillains have. the benevolence of an official position.
    Natasha is going along with the other two on the ground while they were tracking the last known position.
    "Ross, what happened?" Natasha does not bother to call him 'General'. He no longer has that title, and Natasha sees no particular mood to humro him on this. She's not -stating- that she's sure it's his fault. The man is with them and hopefully his cooperation will be ensured.
    "And what information can you give us on what we're up againstforces?" And -really- hoping that he won't try and rampage as soon as they run into Bruce and Jen. One thing at a time here. One thing at a time. She's going with Jessica Drew as her 'ace in the hole' given Jessica's abilities. Leader would probably be familiar with her.. but Jessica, far less likely. A nd hopefully her powerset and skills giving her a very effective route as a trump card.

Jessica Drew has posed:
It's not often that Jess finds herself on a mission with a Senior Agent alone. Much less, senior agent Romanoff whom she respects. Even stranger company awaits her in the form of a man she had only seen on television.

Arms crossed, the dark-haired mutant agent leans in the doorway, careful to keep her amusement at Natasha's attitude toward the ex-General behind a bland expression. She listens with eyes downcast, not contributing for the moment while Natasha asks the questions.

Betty Ross has posed:
    Ross grunts with annoyance at the question, glancing up from the device screen. "All that Ruskie spy questioning coming to the fore, huh?" He looks annoyed, but after a moment where he's obviously mulling over answering, he finally, grudgingly says. "Fine. Short briefing then. I was in charge of a project at Hulkbuster Base, looking into gamma radiation and super soldier effects. Wasn't getting anywhere. There was an accident and one of the workers there, Samuel Sterns, got irradiated by a gamma battery. Mutated him, gave him super intelligence." He huffs out. "Most annoying son of a bitch I've ever had to deal with, but he got results. I...bent a few rules to get those reults, let him work on expanding the project."

    He taps his broad chest. "That's how I got to be Big Red here. First volunteer for the new process he had. Proof of concept. And it ain't bad to get some of my get up and go back." He flexes, showing off a massive bicep briefly with a grin, then sobers.

    "My daughter Betty was working at the base, on the same project. She thought it was just radiation treatment. Always looking for some way to cure Banner. She warned me not to trust Sterns, but...I fucked up. The backstabbing murdering asshole poisoned her with gamma radiation, then again with gamma radiated blood. Made it look like we had a infiltrator who's done it who was still on base. I was....pissed. Not thinkin' clearly. And why I was out tearing the base apart, he stole all the research, and a truckload of equipment, AND Betty's body, just to add insult to injury. Fuck up that big, it was either take early retirement or dishonorable discharge." He closes his eyes for a moment. "Hell, I'd be fine with the latter, if it'd meant Betty was still..." He trails off, then grunts. "Anyway. I want the bastard. I want him bad, and if Banner and Walters got in a mess looking for him too, then I'm fine you finding him too. He's already infused a new subject to be his right hand. Don't know her name, but they'll calling her Red She-Hulk. Similar process to what he did to me, likely."

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
As they would go along, Natasha Romanoff would just give Ross a look of passivity. "Very well. We're going into the unkown, General, against someone that clearly has technology up their sleeve and has been able to replicate your experiment at least once and produce their own Hulk level being." Red She-Hulk. "And with the number of raids they've made it's likely that they're in the process of trying to make more of them."

Natasha is not -directly- saying that all this is Ross' fault nor is it coming off in her words. It's just a matter of fact thing from her. "Our priority here is to rescue Bruce and Jennifer and our -secondary- one is stopping him. THe Avengers can handle the heavy hitting if it needs to be. Our priority is getting -our- friends back." The tone for show with Ross. She wants to make sure that he's getting hte point and will be cooperative. And won't try and run off and do his own thing -or- try and go to attack Bruce first opportunity he gets.
    "We're all wanting the end result here. Stearns be stopped and the harm he's working on undone. Don't lose sight o fthat. And odn't let him anger you and play you to his own schemes."

Jessica Drew has posed:
Swallowing hard to not bristle at Ross's brusque reference to Natasha's origins, Jess straightens, dropping her crossed arms to let one hand balance on the ICER at her hip. Though, Jess can empathize with a father's grief. Even if she almost instantly dislikes the blustering stuffed shirt whose mistakes have caused so much grief.

"How will be going in, agent Romanoff? Over the fence, so to speak? Sir, have you had eyes on the compound where Stearn is?"

Betty Ross has posed:
    Ross narrows his eyes at Natasha. "I got no problem with you wanting to put your pals first. But Sterns killed my girl, Romanoff." he says, his voice gravelly and harsh. "Her blood is on his hands, and by God I will have my pound of flesh from him for that." His brow furrows. "But even setting that side, I know first hand how dangerous he is. If he's been stealing equipment like you've said, then he's building something big. It's more than he'd need for just setting up a lab somewhere and restarting his experiments. He could very well be a threat to more than just Banner and Walters. If that's the case, I *will* be putting him down first before he can kill anyone else."

    The device in his hand distract him as it bleeps, before he slows to a stop, looking around. "...why does this...look...familiar..." he mutters to himself, then snaps his fingers. "The Cube. Damn, forgot that project was out here. That'd explain the trail...if he found records of it, Sterns might have found a way to get it working again." He turns in a circle, then points to a nearby mesa. "There. It's a secure facility, hidden. Was intended to be where we'd hold the Hulk if we ever captured him."

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
Natasha Romanoff would walk along with Ross, "I'm well aware that he'll get his fate from you." Her not calling him by 'Ross', 'Thaddeus', or other. "Just that if you go for that straight off the bat then he'll be manipulating you. A leader on the battlefield does not let himself be lead along by his adversary. You act according to the way he wants, then the only one who will benefit from it is the killer of your daughter. The mission comes first." She's trying to now add some other bait ou tfor him. Fortunately Ross could still be called out on his professionalism and discipline.
    There was a snap look from Natasha to Ross, "The Cube?" This kept on getting better and better. "Explain -quickly-. And if this is a secret facility for storing the Hulk, then you should know the interior layout of it. That will be useufl. I also presume that there are some secondary tunnels for evacuation in the event of ane mergency if the facility goes into lockdown. Can you get us to them?"

Jessica Drew has posed:
The Cube. Jess supposes she will learn what other top-secret project that should have been under close supervision has gotten loose.

Still primarily ignored by the blustering man, give Jess time to run through scenarios for entering a base with hi-tech surveillance around it.

"Are there any sat images of the base?"

Betty Ross has posed:
    "Yeah yeah. I won't run off half-cocked at him." Ross grouses at Natasha's comment, then gets a pensive look. "Mm, yeah. Kinda. The Cube's basically a self-contained holding facility, meant to keep the Hulk from being able to concentrate or be able to really get mad. It's also modular and can be rearranged at need. Sort of a never-ending series of rooms if it's done right where he can never find the way out. There's an attached facility to it though. Was too expensive to keep running when we didn't need it so it was shut down years back when Banner ended up being under the loving care of the Avengers." There's a slightly sarcastic edge to the last.

    "Anyway. It's a secure facility, so only one way in or out. I can get to the door, and my biometrics should still be on the lock. The tunnels...tunnels, tunnels..." he mutters, thinking. "Mm, there's an evacuation tunnel for research personnel. Comes out just outside the base. But it's got alarms on it, if it opens from this side."

    He glances over to Jessica. "Nah, wouldn't be any good if it was that easy to find. It's built inside of that mesa there, completely covered."

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
There are so, so many ways that can go bad. Natasha doesn't bother to comment on them. "Then it will have at least been tested by Stearns to put the two of them in. If so he'll have made some improvements to it that we can't think of. so if we can locate it we'll try to figure out if we can disable it or not." Presuming that Stearns hasn't made even nastier things present.
    "We'll go in and see what we can find. Will you be able to fit in there with us?" She would respond over to Ross and think over. "The two of us can handle any alarms the way we go down. If there are alarms present then that will give a sense of safety."

Jessica Drew has posed:
The spider-agent shrugs, it won't be the first time that they go into a base the hard way with alarms, no less. Jess nods at Natasha's assessment of the false security alarms can give and shifts in place, impatient to be on her way if no further intelligence regarding their objective is forthcoming.

"Any idea what kind of alarms they have on the tunnels...ah, sir?"

Betty Ross has posed:
    Tucking the scanning device at his belt, Ross shrugs. "Should be big enough for me, just might have to bend down to not hit my head. It was designed for a rapid evac, because it would mean the Hulk was loose inside." He looks thoughtful. "Huh. Think so? Would be interesting to see if it actually worked on them..." He pauses. "I mean, not that I'd want your friends to be in that condition. Of course."

    TOTALLY believable tone.

    Glancing back to Jess, he thinks. "Mmm, should mostly be around the door, linked to it being breached without the right codes and/or being opened from this side. There's motion sensors scattered along the route. Normally we'd have some security troopies watching the monitors for that, no idea if Sterns has set something up like that."

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
Natasha Romanoff would nod, "If he's tkaen ove the facility then he'll have come up with something. Electronic likely or automated. He's already showcased that he has the abilities to make more Hulks. He'll have had the time if eh's been setup here for several weeks if not months to have accessorized it personally. We can only hope going in that we can bypass what he has."
    She would gesture at Ross to lead them towards it, "No codes; he'll have changed them and they'll be set to an automatic lockdown and alert and likely to release somehting nasty. We go in with a full bypass and making sure there's no traces." She would lgance at Ross, "And that means you stay still and do what we tell you as we go in. We're the experts."

Jessica Drew has posed:
The barest smile lifts one corner of Drew's mouth at Natasha's last words. Indeed. Well, they can't fuck up now after that boast. Complete by-pass, penetration, detection, grab and go. Natasha's paranoia around security systems will likely prove right. It has kept her alive this long.

Betty Ross has posed:
"Yeah, yeah. You're the spy, you lead the way, you and Spider Lady here." Ross says, holding up his hands palm out as he shrugs. "Mm. I do know that Sterns probably has some gamma mutated animals. He sent a few to attack Betty's funeral. But I don't know how many he has. He didn't take off with experimental animals so it's stuff he caught out in the desert somehow if there are any more. And I know he's got some of the Hulkbuster weapons...scuttlebutt says the red girl busted in to the base and made off with a truck of equipment and weapons that was being transferred to another base."

    Speaking of which, Ross himself is carrying an almost comically oversized rifle himself. It's Hulk scale, at least, but the weight doesn't seem to bother him any.

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
Natasha Romanoff would just look at Ross, "What a reputable and tightly run organization you left in your wake." That comes out diretly and with actual irritation. "But we'll make do." She would glancea t the rifle. "Isn't that model the Leifeld-Titan? I never thought they were produced. They kept on getting stuck between doors and on ceilings." Wherever that particular comment came from as the grou would hopefully be approaching the entrances.

Jessica Drew has posed:
Enjoying the little spark of irritation that Natasha showed, Jess goes back into bland non-com mode. She shifts her attention to the over-sized bag she had carried in earlier, considering the HUlk-deterrent weapons it carries. Mentally, she ticks off the list: cryo-grenade, an EMP grenade, a flame grenade. Then there are also her personal weapons which she looks forward to trying out on a Hulk mutation.

Betty Ross has posed:
"Heh, yeah, but we still had the prototype. Little bit of remodeling and it fits perfect when I'm carrying it like this. Should pack a punch for any gamma critters we run into." Ross says, with just a hint of glee at the prospect of being able to fire it.

    He pauses, looking around for a moment, then walks over towards a cactus standing near one of the walls of the mesa, fiddling with it, until a panel comes off, revealing a keypad underneath. "Not sure if you can disarm things from this terminal, but give it a shot. Door's right there." he adds, nodding towards the rock face. "Camo'd."

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
Natasha Romanoff would nod at Ross, "Veyr well. I suppose we'll get to see if it's useful or not. I take it that the sword they made to go along wiht it never got out of the prototype stage eitehr?" S He would query over as the group would go along.
    "Good, we can work with this." Natasha goes over ot the console, then moves to rapidly start working her hands over it and type in some test overrides. then she'd move to take out a small contact to pop it up and over her eyeball, and look into the console.
    <<PRESIDENTIAL OVERRIDE ACCEPTED>> Then it would pop open.

Jessica Drew has posed:
In a pinch, Jess has the strength to carry a weapon capable of punching mutated ravening coyotes. Super-hearing has not brought her the pitter-patter of coyote feet, closing her eyes she concentrates, listening for anything on the approach either subterranean or on the ground while Natasha performs her magic.

She moves toward the door then looks back expectantly.

Betty Ross has posed:
    "Oh, it exists. I'm more of a gun guy though." Ross says simply, idly watching as Natasha works. Then gapes when the door rumbles open moments later, squinting at the screen. "How in the *hell* did you get - but that's - " He snaps his mouth shut, then rubs his face. "Hell, I probably don't want to know."

    Inside the rough-hewn rock tunnel, lights begin flickering on one after the other, leading deeper into the mesa.

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
Natasha Romanoff is going to slide on down, moving to pull on a facemask with an ultraviolet visor that would flicker to life. the design meant to track power flow and hopefully tos how where the main power cluster o fhte base was. The two brightest areas going down should be the generator..
    And wherever Jennifer and Bruce were kept. She would click her tongue over to switch to the comm.
    <<Line of sight only comms. Presume we'll be jammed as soon as an alert goes off>>

Jessica Drew has posed:
"No, you don't," Jess murmurs smugly. "Really."

Doors opening with no opposition are too good to be true. Hyper-vigilant, she looks behind them before letting the tunnel engulf her.

Tapping her ear, she replies under her breath, <Copy that. Generators, first objective?">

Betty Ross has posed:
    Ross grunts, reaching up to touch the headset he's wearing as he adjusts it. <"It's got a gamma reactor powering it. Lotsa stuff in there doesn't react well to bullets, but it's pretty sturdy. There's backups though, scattered around the perimeter of the facility that'll kick in to restore power to the Cube in a power outage.">

    With all the rock, it's hard to get a good reading this far out, but walking in, the visor certainly helps for picking out the motion tracker lasers set about ankle height in the walls every so often, enough that they can be bypassed or disabled. Eventually, the group come to the door at the other end, a currently sealed bulkhead with a terminal beside it and a light currently glowing redly.

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
They'll have to amke it up as they go along as well. Natasha also goes to switch her goggles to showing power -lines- as well. The base would likely be very well built up for internal power structure. So hopefully the lines within the base's walls showing just how overwired it was might also be a backup way.

She would give a nod to Jessica and Ross. <<First objective is generators unless we can find where Jennifer and Bruce are. Then we determine how we can free them.>>

Jessica Drew has posed:
Redundant systems come as no surprise to Jess. They will make the extraction doubly tricky.

Back turned to the door that has stopped them, Jess focuses down the tunnel they traversed, glancing over her shoulder at Natasha.

<"Does that look like the terminal on the outside, Romanoff?">

Betty Ross has posed:
    <"Banner and Walters will be in the Cube itself, likely. We'd need to get to the control room to see the current map of the place. Otherwise we'll be just as lost as they are."> He glances towards the two women with him. <"And it was built for a Hulk. Not sure that'd be healthy for either of you."> Pause. <"I'd be fine though.">

    He continues after a smirk. <"The rest of the facility basically circles the Cube. There's offices, cafeteria, quarters, and an attached lab and research area. An armory too, but it's probably empty unless Sterns restocked it for some damn reason. Checkpoints at chokepoints too, just in case anyone tried to get in to break out the prisoners.">

    He nods to Jessica. <"That's it.">

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
Natasha Romanoff would nod at Jessica and crook her head on down <<It does. Think you can disable it if you get to it and shut down any system recognition on it?>> She would look over to Ross as she would carefully go to travel her way on down, braced and sweeping for more security along the way, crouched low.
    <<And will have been modifeid substantially so we don't know what we're getting into. THe control room is the best call. We'll go there first>>

Jessica Drew has posed:
Ross's attitude reconfirms Drew's opinion of him. Smug bastard. <I'm the radiation girl, in case you haven't heard. We're good.">

Shifting her weapon back over her shoulder, Jess steps up to the terminal and stares at it for a moment. Lessons under Romanoff come to the fore and she lightly runs through the protocols, holding her breath. Even good teachers can't guarantee a student's results. Light go green. The door rumbles open.

Betty Ross has posed:
    Ross just eyes Jessica as she also bypasses the secure terminal, then the door slides open, revealing a rocky corridor outside, with slightly faded signs indicated LAB 1-6 with a right arrow and Bunkroom 1-3 with a left arrow. He then says in a mock high pitched voice <"General, the security is perfect, don't you think you're being paranoid general about wanting to add more? It'll be fiiiiiine. HA!"> He snorts, unlimbering his rifle. <"So, how we doing this? I'm not the sneaker you two are, but I can stay pretty quiet."> He frowns. <"Or I can be looking for the control center while you're dealing with the generator. Faster we are, the better. Sure to be some security here that Sterns has up and working, either the facility stuff or something new if he's got critters or something running around.>"

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
Natasha Romanoff would glance at Ross <<Don't be so sure. Never give your enemy the benefit of doubt in such a thing>> But also don't be paranoid and give them too much credit. <<We'll split up. You're quiet but you're not going to evade active security. You get the data we can from the control room and the two of us will hit the generator or if we can find a secondary computer facility we'll dig up what we can. We want to get our friends out and if ened be we can always have this facility leveled by Thor>>

Jessica Drew has posed:
The idea of Thor leveling the place almost brings a smile to the somber agent's face. Plans made, Jess points at the lab signs. <Safety protocols should have the generators cordoned off from the labs in case something blows. Bet you they put them near the barracks. We'll /sneak/ in that direction then?>

Betty Ross has posed:
    <"It's still a U.S. facility, Romanoff. Don't go blowing up secret facilities willynilly."> Ross points out, resting his rifle idly against his shoulder. <"Fine, I'll go look then. We'll be out of contact if we're using laser, so we'll go with specop clicks. One click means I'm in, two means there's a problem, three means we're blown and to go full rock'n'roll."> He nods a bit. <"And remember. Sterns is doin' something here. Be alert for anything odd, especially if it's gamma related.">

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
Natasha Romanoff would cluck her tongue at Ross <<I leave htat to the experts>> If Thor wants to blow somewhere up, no one is going to stop him. She merely said it was an -option- and -if necessary-. Of course, she's more htan happy to have that be the first resort. Why let trash like a Hulkbuster armory continue to exist?
    <<Good. Four click means abort and extract immediately regardless of circumstances>>

Jessica Drew has posed:
Eyes alight at the possibility of Asgardian mayhem, Drew nods, <Copy that. Good luck, sir. We'll get her."

Betty Ross has posed:
    Ross nods curtly, then lower his rifle to a ready position and heads to the left, motioning for you both to head right as he creeps along, heel to toe, his eyes scanning for trouble.

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
Natasha Romanoff would go to hold a small plasma pistol in front of her, going to head along carefully. then gentlky pointing up at the ceiling for Jess to go up on to give them a bit space spread out.

Jessica Drew has posed:
After a terse verbal acknowledgement, Jessica snugs the rifle to her shoulder and secures it at her waist to keep it from dangling in the air and giving someone a convenient handle. One foot on the wall she looks back at the other two before her uncanny ability to cling allows her to ascend the rough hewn wall. She crawls silently ahead of them, moving at a quick pace.

Betty Ross has posed:
    The base is a bit eerily silent, other than the hum of power conduits and the lights overhead. From the look of it, ever third light in the ceiling is on, probably to conserve power. The labs in this section appear to be powered down and empty mostly, other than basic furniture and computers. There's a fine layer of dust over part of it. The corridor itself though is remarkably clean.

    It's also quiet enough that you can hear the sound of rapid footsteps (?) approaching from a side corridor as you approach an intersection. The footsteps are coming from the turn to the left, and the corridor continues forward, with another sign having arrows pointing to Labs 7-12. The bulkhead for that corridor has been closed however. There is another arrow to the right indicating Power Station, while the left says Security Checkpoint 5.

    Behind the rapidly approaching footsteps in a deeper rumbling sound...like treads.

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
Natasha Romanoff would glance at the arrows and then imagine the layout of the base. As the sound of treads would come, Natasha would go to silently fire up a grapple gun to latch herself up and over to the ceiling, goign to take out a set of thick 'suction' gloves to use to crawl along it as well; albeit in a much slower style than Jessica. She would wave her hand over to Jessica to switch to take point; the other girl was much quicker up here on the ceilings and more importantly far -faster- if they were going to run into trouble.

Jessica Drew has posed:
The agent slows at each lab, peering into the windows. She keeps her speculations to herself. Jessica's keen hearing alerts her to the approach, she slows right before the intersection, murmuring, <Incoming,> over coms.

At Natasha's hand signal, she edges forward before taking the corridor ceiling to the right but not before looking at what is coming to meet them.

Betty Ross has posed:
    Thus, Jessica is the first to see the oncoming roadrunners. There are two of them. Normally a roadrunner is about a foot high at most. These are closer to five feet and crimson red, with yellowish eyes. Spines run down the middle of their back where their head feathers would normally be, while their wings have razor sharp spur along the leading edges, complete with claws more sized for an emu. Both are wearing high tech collars of some sort and are moving really fast, to where they're in the corridor intersection practically as Jessica sees them, where they stop, their heads twitching back and forth in in quick glances.

    Slinking after them is a range looking and oversized canine, original a coyote perhaps. It's more the size of a mastiff, but has the same slender build, though also oversized claws and patches of scaly skin rather than fur here and there that give it a vaguely mangy look. Also red. It also seems to have what looks like a weapon of some sort slung on either side of its hips, possibly energy based, that track to where it looks. It's currently sniffing the air around it, though it seems somewhat distracted by the roadrunners in front of it, its lips pulling back from snaggly gamma-enhanced teeth from time to time.

    Finally, a pair of robotic combat drones bring up the rear. Each is a good six feet in height, gliding along in a double pair of treads. They're effective roaming turrets, with an armored sensor cluster perched on top of a cylindrical body, with two 'arms' that end in weapons barrels and over the shoulder rockets packs. From the look of it, the top of the cylinder is capable of 360 rotation, as occasionally they seem programmed to just do a quick panoramic spin to check behind themselves.

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
Up on the ceiling Natasha can only just stare. For once, the redhead has nothing to say over as she would just look down at them, and then slowly gaze over at Jessica with a 'we never saw this at all' expression on her face of confirmation. They never, ever saw this in the slightest. Nope..
    And even moreso she really doesn't want to see what particular nasty combinations that the group beneath them has.. Or if the predator/prey relationship exists.. And also she hopes that the base doesn't also have 'upgrades' from the source either.
    Hopefully going up and along the ceiling would evade them.. Then Natasha catches sight of the rotating turret. All right.. Rotational, sweeping.. She's holding up her fingers in a quick countdown, getting a timing over of the camera rotations and how quickly it maneuvered. Timing hte direction of it.. Then miming over at the opposite side of the hallway, counting down on her fingers to it's sweep..
    And she would go to fire off her grapple gun at the opposite end to try and just launch herself -along- and -above- the ceiling.

Jessica Drew has posed:
What is coming at them deserves a heartfelt swearword from Jessica, albeit silently. She exchanges glances with the senior agent, nodding affirmatively.

The animals are just so wrong, wrong, wrong.

What the Roadrunners don't see, the coyotes will surely smell. In fact, she can smell them from her position on the ceiling, mangey and sickly. Sometimes being a super smeller has its downside.

Hugging the ceiling to minimize her profile, she moves at what would amount to a trot if she were on the ground. And takes the opposite side of the ceiling from Natasha, not waiting for them to catch sight of her.

Betty Ross has posed:
    Coyotes do, in fact, have excellent senses of smell. And as the coyote pauses and starts sniffing around, making a faint growling noise, the drones stop, then just as you dart past them, start to do a slower, more thorough sweep of the area as the roadrunners claw the ground restlessly. After a moment the coyote woofs and takes the lead, starting to follow your trail back towards the door you came in. The roadrunners resume their vanguard position, running ahead as the drones start up, rumbling along on their treads, following as they continue their more slow scans.

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
Natasha Romanoff would just shake her head over at Jessica for a moment and just tense as she would see the Coyotes start to sniff. Then she would go to quickly take something from one of her pouches to -carefully- flip it through the air over towards Jessica for her to hopefully just as silently catch. And.. Itching and sneezing powder?

Jessica Drew has posed:
Well, the animals on the trail leaves the two ceiling-born agents well off, but leaves Big-Shot, the sobriquet she uses privately for Ross, in trouble. She can only hope they don't look up or smell them.

Movement out of the corner of her eyes alerts her to Natasha flipping something toward her. One handed, she makes the catch still hugging the ceiling, snugging the object close to her. She does not give vent to how fool hardy she considers the move to be, instead without hesitation moves on toward their objective.

Betty Ross has posed:
    The patrol continues down the corridor, the coyote following the scent trail back towards the door. Not quite out of sight yet.

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
Now it's just go along qiuetly. Let the gropu go past, hope they were too far along to be noticed further. Thankfully past the first level of uplifted animals, which would be the most dangerou sthings. Robots were predictable, creatures of patterns. Animals could improvise. Hopefully at the other end of the corridor along hte ceiling they would have clear room.

Jessica Drew has posed:
Careful not to sigh out loud, nevertheless, Jess feels momentary relief at the super animals going the other direction. Being pecked and clawed at by razor-edged claws was low on her list of priorities. Now for the generators. The hackles on her neck lower as adrenaline speeds her toward their objective.

Betty Ross has posed:
    Leaving the patrol behind, the corridor marked as going to the power station is mostly unoccupied. No telling if that was the only patrol or if there are others, of course. But neither woman is interrupted, though some bypassing of cameras is needed here and there. Luckily they weren't expecting people crawling on the ceiling. It's not long before you reach the corridor's end, which is capped by a solid looking metal door with a sign beside it marked "Gamma Reactor - Warning: No Personnel Without Radiation Badges Beyond This Point." There's a terminal next to the door.

    But, now that you're close, you can also hear a fair amount of noise going on the other side of the door. Thumps and shrill machine noises from time to time as well as rumbling treads.

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
Then Natasha would glance over her shoulder, then over at Jessica, and go to ever, ever so carefully pull out a small vial from one of her pouches and a small mirror. She would gesture at Jessica to hit the terminal as Natasha is dropping down by the door. Presuming she can, she would move to drop a few small bits of acid on the door, applying a light spray at some of the glass to hopefully thin out a small pocket of it. then from there she would take ou ta small rubber tube that had a mirror on the end of it, if she could poking it through the hole to try and look through the door to the other roomw ithout opening the door.. Or hopefully making noise.

Jessica Drew has posed:
Dropping lightly to the ground, adding her scent trail to Natasha's, Jess studies the terminal, hoping that it is in fact the same as the previous two. Mouth set in a tense line, she types the override protocol into place, eyes narrowing as she reaches the end of the sequence. The terminal thinks about the request much too long for comfort before it lights green.

Over coms, <We were lucky this time. Three overrrides likely alerted them to something weird going on. We might be out of time. Here we go!>

Betty Ross has posed:
    As Jessica works at the terminal, Natasha is able to get the camera threaded through the small hole in the door to see what's on the other side.

    It is not quite what was expected.

    It's obvious this was a power generation station originally; the original walls and equipment are still mostly in place. What's changed is that there are numerous robots working away at the surrounding rock. A cylindrical hole has been carved upwards into the ceiling, extending the roof, and a lot of the robots are hauling away excess rock and debris, or continuing to widen or smooth out the hole.

    The others are working at constructing the gamma reactor into some sort of...tower? That extends upwards out of view into the widened hole. Large hydraulic systems have been installed in the floor. From several areas of the device, the green shimmer of gamma energy can be seen running through the core of it.

    There are also a good amount of the turret drones patrolling, though none of the animals here. Possibly because the radiation in the room might cause issues over time. It does look like the drones are busily sealing up the device though...it won't be long until its proper shielded again.

    As you watch, there's a faint rumble both of you can feel through the soles of your feet, followed by spidery drones appearing from the upper hole as moonlight suddenly is shafting down into the chamber as they carry large chunk of rock away from what was apparently the roof formerly.

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
Natasha Romanoff would just look and flat out gaze in a rare look of surprise. It's quickly buried back underneath professionalism as Natasha continues to survey it, recording everything in her mask along with the small device she would gaze through.. And then she would widen her eyes as seh would realize that the door was about to open and she would try to quickly wave Jessica off. Of course, she may be a bit late and she wouldn't dare risk using comms in this tight quarters and with the risk of the channel being disrupted by radiation.. So it might be a tossup as to whether Jessica would notice it or not in time or if she might be too slow.
    While simultaneously one hand is holding up the small item that Natasha was using to spy through the small hole, the other is going down towards her belt an dthe various weapons that she ha dput upon it. Coming here without Thor -ready- to smash down as he got bored with waiting is suddenly not as appealing an idea as it was coming in.

Jessica Drew has posed:
It there was a swear word jar it would be full. Bottling up her surprise, Jess's eyes widen. For a split second, Jess's mouth is open in a question, in the next she is frantically trying to override her command. She punches in the sequence with trembling fingers, watching in her peripheral vision for the door to begin opening.

Betty Ross has posed:
    Unfortunately, the opening sequence finish and the door light flicks to green as it unlocks, then slide open with a rumble. This is bad enough. But apparently, someone has wired an independent alert system on the inside, which causes lights to start flashing as it does, making it totally obvious that it is, in fact, opening.
    And leaving Jessica and Natasha right in the door frame as all the robots stop what they're doing and turn to look at them.

    A moment later there's a flicker as a hologram of a slender, but tall man with green skin and a bulging oversized top of the head appears. He's wearing some sort of odd robe combined with a bodysuit, an da little diadem over his forehead right below where his head suddenly expands.

    "Ah! I see installing the independent doorbell was successful, as I calculated." He tilts his head. "Black Widow and Spiderwoman...not the Avengers I was rating as high to appear, but not actually suprising." He pauses, then glances back at the robots, who are still just staring at the two. "Well?! Get them!" the Leader says annoyedly as his hologram vanishes again.

    And a tide of metal legs and treads carry the surge of robots towards the open door....