13725/Operation WATCHFUL: Biohazard

Operation WATCHFUL: Biohazard
Date of Scene:	11 January 2023
Location:	Industrial Park, Edison New Jersey
Synopsis:	The biolab is raided, with simultaneous infiltration and a gun battle at the loading docks, with Toni Ho, Carin Taylor, and Zinda Blake facing off against heavily-armed mercs. Shi'ar involvement, in supply of hi-tech weaponry - and Agent Romanoff's encounter with a rival agent - seems undeniable. Fortunately, Richard Stadler is able to secure a sample from the facility's clean lab before a self-destruct is triggered, offering a chance to analyze whatever was being developed there.
Cast of Characters:	Darcy Lewis, Natasha Romanoff, Richard Stadler, Zinda Blake, Toni Ho, Carin Taylor

---

Darcy Lewis has posed:
It is, by most measures, a straightforward OP.

They have intel, they have a target location. The lab is in New Jersey, close enough to the city to be accessible to the thefts targeted there, but also... well, in New Jersey. Maybe it's just a little easier to hide a criminal operation there. Ask Gotham! Although the original structure is a much older warehouse, the space was repurposed for lab work and production by a sketchy Theranos-like Pharma startup that went bankrupt in 2020. After that, it was sold off in asset liquidation, passing through several owners to the current, a Delaware registered shell company.

Which is all to say, it's a fairly private place to do your bioweapons research, if you're into that.

The WATCHFUL algorithms identified the location based on a number of other factors: the limited set of facilities that could produce materials in line with the hospital break-ins and Dr. Stadler's assesments. Traffic cameras were able to track a vehicle from another burglary. Are there dangers to this kind of all-seeing AI-enabled justice? Maybe. But it works.

The mission is clear. They have a field team assembled, ready to enter the site. They have schematics on the building: a typical warehouse in a larger industrial park, with the majority of the interior a huge, open floor with 32 foot clearance, and just a small portion of the east end of the building sectioned off to provide several floors of work and office space. The latter includes large clean lab, several smaller workrooms, and a main office. There's multiple access to the main floor, including a large loading dock, as well as a direct staff entrance on the east side. On arrival, they're all covered by cameras. There's roof access, but only into the upper scaffolding.

They also have a van! Yeah, SHIELD has fancy stuff like Quinjets, but the low profile seems preferable here. Darcy is set up in the vehicle rather than on the strike team, because she got hired for her brain and the rest of her is squishy. And someone has to play 'gal in the chair.' She has comms, all the schematics and intel at her fingertips, and they've even got one of the satellites dialed in. "I've got eyes on you from above. Move in when you're ready."

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
As the group readies themselves and deploys, Natasha evaluates what information they have. Cameras are of limited value as are thermals. They know the place is active and people are there, just not how many. And this is a sweep and investigate so they can't just sweep and clear an dneutralize anything. That means they at least up front have to go in and can't move for a full breach.
    She gives a quick series of orders to the group. "Give it a full scan." That's said to Toni as she looks over to Zinda, "Coordinate with Taylor and do a quick sweep around." The superspeed person is there to secure the perimeter/be backup very quickly if they need a hitter or they get hit from outside. She would gesture her hand at Richard. "With me." She hates going in the front door without a blast charge, but it is what it is. She's expecting things to likely get hostile quick.
    Glancing at Zinda, "If things blow up, you cover the flank of us and help us secure the interior at your discretoin." She trusts the blonde. "If our consultant gives orders you are to obey them." Then going forwards towards the entrance, making a point of not having a gun in hand.

Richard Stadler has posed:
Stadler had... a multitude of feelings running through him, something he tried to gauge in himself in the odd moment of freedom they had before entry. He was still a rather temporary consultant for this operation; a source of expert advice who collated a report that was being used in... somewhat overreaaching algorithms. He had halfway expected his involvement to end after that excitement at the UN; getting called back had him debating if he would have been better in the van with Doctor Lewis, or even on the other end of a STU being piped in by a communications sat. SHIELD had access to those, they had to. But after some thought he had considered that they would need an expert on site, and this was a dangerous operation so he should bring some protection, and given the last outing that protection should be substantial, one rationalization after another...

Which is how he found himself with his old plate carrier under a combat vest, chaffing the worn dress shirt he had been wearing as some sort of consolation to his position. The Mark 17 rifle had the short barrel attached to it, today, the suppressor affixed at the front; appropriate, for an urban area and the reletive close quarters of the warehouse they were going into. The combat helmet fit snuggly over the M50 mask that he had already cleared, and he felt those mixed feelings war as he realized how strong the sense of deja vu was, even though he hadn't been on a real operation in years... not including Ireland. He would have thought there would have been more rust to blow off, more adjustments to be made from the classroom. The fact that there wasn't was... honestly concerning.

The position was an irregular fit, at least. It took a conscious effort not to check in with the team around him and give orders; he'd never been an NCO, and had little enough experience truely operating under anyone tactically. He'd seen what Romanoff (he made sure he got the name down this time) could do, however, and this was SHIELD's show. Nothing to do but tag those feelings for processing later and stop whining in his head about it.

There's a quick nod to Natasha, as he moves behind her. "With you." All that needed to be said, at the moment; trotting behind her with his rifle in a tactical ready.

Zinda Blake has posed:
It's not often that Zinda Blake does a ground OP. Granted, her skill in an aircraft are legend, but Lady Blackhawk has also done her share of legwork. She has years of combat military experience, which means she's good at things besides yelling 'Duck, Blackhawk, Duck', even.

Right now she's dressed in full black commando attire under a black jacket, including a double-holster rig and extra mags. They checked headsets before deploying. "Roger that, Chief." she replies to Nat.

Looking over to Carin, she offers. "You heard th' lady, now. We're doin' perimeter recon first. You go right an' I'll go left. Watch them cameras, an' keep tellin' me what you see. Meet ya' around the other side."

Toni Ho has posed:
Toni is not in the van. She was never in the van. She is, instead, in the sky, on approach in the Iron Patriot armor. Unluckily, this is not the scanning, information gathering suit. That one's back at the lab. This is the 'Don't die and make sure the bad guys don't either' suit.

Also the fly around suit.

She takes a sharp turn, entering a holding pattern up a good ways, out of immediate visual range. <Entering holding pattern. I'm not really able to do much looking today, but if you need a distraction, just tell me when.>

Carin Taylor has posed:
    One of the beautiful blessings of the horrid piece of machinery that is Carin's Brain Box is that it wasn't at all difficult to sync it with SHIELD communications hardware and encrypt it. The rest of the blessings are more apparent, marking things on her integrated HUD, even projected sight cones for digital hardware--like cameras. She's dressed less like a commando and more wrapped in something closer to 'functional office attire', plus those red running shoes. And the knife gloves. She still hadn't had time to acquire something... less stabby and will need to ask SHIELD's quartermasters if they can help once she gets the training wheels off.

    Training wheels that have her feeling a tiny bit impatient, but she's still the junior here. "...right... um..." she bites her lip, looking Zinda over, and then nods again. "Right." And then. With a rush of air chasing in her wake, she's gone in a blink. Ever thankful for some clothes that won't disintegrate at speed, she's on her task, dancing between sight lines and doing what she does best: Moving and observing. Cameras are pinged and forwarded to the comms van, as are other things.

    And it's only a matter of seconds before she's reporting in verbally. "...no.. patrols.. there's lots of cameras.. and... the loading dock in the back is open. There's... some folks loading up a truck and they've got some really high tech weapons on them... I can't tell if they're... energy or solid?" She isn't exactly going to run circles around the dock and find out what the guns do, opting to zip back to the group quickly and carefully.

Darcy Lewis has posed:
"Remember, keep your eyes on the Doc. We brought him because we need someone qualified to tell us what we're looking at in there, assuming we find it." And as Darcy has to keep telling people, she's not that kind of Doctor. "Plus, it'll look really bad if we bring him back with holes."

She's also always happy to lighten the mood!

As the team moves in on various vectors, she tracks them on her own display, which echoes the information they're taking in from all those various sources. Cross referencing, compiling, building their comprehensive tactical view of the entire situation. Carin's upload capabilities are especially useful there, as she zips around the perimeter, populating a bunch of additional screens inside the with ground-level, POV imagery. When her eyes go past the guys with the guns, Darcy's fingers dance over the keyboard, bringing up enhanced stills of the weapons.

"Shit." Was that supposed to be on the comm? "That's some sci-fi tech you're looking at for sure. Supposedly we've been able to stop too much of the Shi'ar salvage from reaching the black market, but... Well, heads up. Means you're contending with energy weapons on top of the normal concerns."

When Nat picks her target, she swivels in her chair to another keyboard. "Alright. I'm gonna try and take down the cameras. They'll notice, but you should be inside by then. 3... 2... 1..."

When Nat hits the door, it opens into a simple hall. There's a large lab to one side, with large windows and a very complicated looking entry (it might be an airlock?). On the other is a lockerroom of sorts. Another door at the end of the hall continues on toward the main warehouse floor. There's no one 'on guard', but one poor fellow is sitting on a bench in the changing area, half-in, half-out of a white hazmat suit. He looks up with a rather baffled expression.

Zinda Blake has posed:
Zinda Blake hasn't gone more than a few steps when Carin return, the blonde offering a wry smile. "Good goin', Taylor. Stay with me, now." She lowers her voice and touches the headset. "Okay, folks, y'all heard the report. Initial recon shows some loadin' activity happenin' at the docks in back. Armed security. We'll head around back an' watch the docks for movement."

Toni Ho has posed:
Toni, thanks to the armor, gets fed everything that Darcy sends her. Visuals are nice. She circles a bit more, waiting on the proper time. Her repulsors start to spool, building power for a burst of speed when she thinks of a question to ask.

<Should I go ruin that truck's day? I can take it, at least for a few minutes. I'll hold off on crashing through the roof for now til you tell me what to do!>

She holds that power, stopping her circling and just hovering. Waiting. She really wants to punch the truck.

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
Natasha Romanoff would muse lightly over to herself and then consider over and speak to the comms to Toni <<Not yet. Let the rest of the team get into position. Be ready to neutralize it quickly if we're spotted or they seem to be getting ready to depart. For now, we want to keep surprise available.>> She would then speak to the comm <<Blake, use your discretion on positioning and whether to breach or sweep. Team assets, listen to her orders>> If Zinda calls for a quick hammer, go with it in other words.
     At the isolated man, she gives a low nod over to Richard, gesturing at the corridor around for him to take up a position of overwatch and to look for anyone coming along. This is where she has to make an evaluation. Whehter to take the man down quickly and whether they can get information from him that's useful in a qiuck interrogation or that it's ar isk.
    Ultimately, in the span of where they likely only have a few minutes at most to come to action, by the time they get anything useful from him and put him ina state where he can't yell, they'll only have a few sentences, and no chance for anything complex.
    So Natasha quickly approaches the man, goes to land a quick chop on his neck to drop him unconscious, drag him out of the way and to the side, and then quickly restrain him before going forwards again. <<Front end entrance secure. Single individual unconscious>> Tagging her comm. <<All assets, consider the locale requiring seizure. Use your discretion for assault positions>>

Carin Taylor has posed:
    Thankfully, unlike many other speedsters, Carin doesn't seem to have any issues keeping still. She's not restless when told to hold position, and using the recon, takes up a position to keep eyes on the truck and the individuals loading it. She keeps a live feed streaming from her hardware for Darcy as well. <<Just a handful, nobody seems to be leaving yet...>> she shares, biting her lip as she stays under cover. <<Shi'ar weaponry...?>> she asks, as if she's been living under a rock for the last while. Well. Not far from the truth.

    <<I -think- I can disarm them but they look really wierd.>>

Richard Stadler has posed:
"None of my contingencies involve me dying in New Jersey." He notes on the radio. "Or getting anyone else killed. If I need help, I'll ask for it. Otherwise suggest discipline on this net." That was a suggestion. See? Playing nice, he could do that. God, he forgot how glassed fogged up under a mask. Energy weapons? Great. He really didn't like hearing that after the UN incident. At least they cauterized. A quick speak on the radio. "Confirmed on enemy loadout." What else was there to say? Net discipline was needed, esspecially given that Natasha was giving the orders.

He quickly moves over to the designated location after giving his own nod of confirmation, bringing up the rifle and pointing it down range of the corridor. He knew this one well enough. Eyes on his own sector, and trust Natasha to do the job. There was a bit of relief that he didn't hear a gunshot behind him, or someone trying to aspirate through blood. He didn't quite know how SHIELD planned to operate here. Though part of it did leave him to pause.

"Lead," That seemed like the right word to use, "Civilian was in clean room gear. Suggest masks."

Darcy Lewis has posed:
Darcy leaves the command calls to Nat. The sneaky-fighty-shooty stuff is definitely her department. Though she does echo an agreement of the last point: "Most important thing is they don't leave. We want to contain things on site."

The unfortunate guy in half a hazmat suit is swiftly incapacitated, leaving things quiet in the immediate vicinity.

"Aliens," Darcy adds, for Carin's benefit, and quite dryly given the subject matter. "Ones we're trying to sign a treaty with, at that. But they've got some crazies doing terrorist stuff to make that NOT happen."

Out back, as Zinda and Carin observe, one of the guards loading up reaches to touch his ear, a fairly recognizable gesture among this security operations-focused bunch. He's on the radio. Are they 'busted'? He speaks for a moment, but doesn't leave his post, instead turning to make a gesture toward one of the containers yet to be loaded. Two others quickly move over to hoist it up.

"Get the Doc whatever he needs. I don't know if he'll need inside the clean room or..." Taptaptap. "The offices are above you, but the stairs are in the main warehouse building, up from the floor. Gotta figure most of their people are in there."

Zinda Blake has posed:
Zinda Blake makes her way around back to get a good, discreet view of the loading dock while leaving Carin free to circle and reconnoiter. <<Roger, Chief.>> she replies to Nat, while slinking around quietly... and a lot slower than Carin. <<Taylor, you jus' keep an eye on them fellas with the fancy guns. For now, all y'all need to know is that Shi'ar weapons cuts through concrete same as butter.>>

So stay out of the way.

<<Right now, lemme know if anybody on th' dock does anything other than what they're doin', alright? We can still keep this nice an' quiet, so nobody gets fried...>>

Then the guard taps his headset and the others start loading more quickly. <<Taylor, Ho, we don't want that truck leavin'. Disarm an' disable. Copy?>>

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
Quickly defering over to Richard as she goes to take a mask on her face as they had all gotten the point on 'hazmat', Natasha goes to clamber along over towards the second floor. But rather than taking the stairs like a normal, insane person.. She goes to take out a small, silent power saw and goes to start to work along the flooring. Going to cut a hole over in it big enough for a person to get through, she moves to quickly flip her way up. Staying in the darkness, and remaining invisible and stealthed. Up here she can quickly assess how the brawl is going to shape out and where everyone is in this higher traffic area. Then she can simply take them out in pockets in that period where they're still disoriented and reacting. It loses the ability of a total ambush, but it gives her the positions of everyone around.
    An acceptable tradeoff.

Toni Ho has posed:
<<Roger, roger,>> Toni replies. There's a pause before she adds, <<Good luck, Carin, and be safe!>>

Gotta encourage the newbies. Especially when you share space with them.

Repulsors flare, and the Iron Patriot spirals upwards, rocketing from a hover to nearly the speed of sound in seconds. With the grace of a dancer, the armor twists and pivots into a stooping dive, building a shock-cone as it dances near the sound barrier.

Only about fifty feet from the surface, Toni cuts her repulsors and flips her feet downwards. She crashes into the engine compartment of the truck, the shockwave of the impact blasting body panels from the vehicle and shattering any nearby windows.

Cue distraction!

Carin Taylor has posed:
    <<That sounds. Unpleasant...>> Carin frowns at the mention of the power of the energy weapons. Dodging bullets? Child's play. Projected energy traveling at lightspeed? ...she's not Rave. But she does have the luxury of the front row seat view of her roomie in power armor dive kicking the truck in slow motion. To her eyes anyway. The rest can watch the recording later, if they really wanted. <<...got it! Erm. Copy!>> she responds to Zinda over the din of shattering windows and crumpling truck.

    She's off in a blink herself, using that distraction to get up in the business of one of the armed guards and... begin failing to disarm him. Her weapons database comes up blank and anything vaguely resembling the weapon is missing too many details. It leaves her in the face of the guard, both hands on the rifle, staring him in the face as they wrestle for the gun. She's not exactly very strong, built for speed that she is.

    "Um... um... hi?" she flashes him an awkward smile, lopsided and apologetic. "Sorry!" she just about squeaks, surprisingly sincere, before giving him a lightning-fast punch to the gut. Her other fist goes for the rifle, blades springing out from her gauntlet and cutting into the metal. If she can't take the guns apart, she'll just. Have to do it the hard way.

    The hard way involves, before she gets blasted by the others, resuming her zoomy self and giving the rifles the old stabby high-speed one-two, kicking up a shockwave of her own to send the guards sprawling.

Richard Stadler has posed:
"Ops, I'm good to split into elements. We've got the clean room on this floor. I'm going to clear it." It wasn't the best option, by a long shot. He'd rather have a fire team with him at this point, but there were only so many of them and so much facility. Besides... he saw Natasha drill into the flooring and then simply flip her way up, and there's no way he'd be able to do that without making a hell of a lot of nose and being an /awfully/ big target for what would be an obscene amount of time. And, like he had mentioned, he had no plans drawn for dying in New Jersey. Edison, of all places; as if the man deserved a city named after him. Focus.

He moved toward the clean room door, opening it and walking inside. Air lock, as he might expect. Not that he didn't mind getting a quick decontamination before walking into a place like this, but he was well aware this was essentially a mantrap. He timed it, knowing that it would activate, decontaminate, lock the door behind him, and-

When the door in front of him opened, he dropped prone, bracing himself for the sudden smack of battle rattle mixed with suit seperates onto damp tile below him. Best case scineario was he just looked stupid and would have to deal with his knees acting up before he stood up, but he wasn't about to present a man sized target for whoever might be waiting on the otheer side of that door.

Darcy Lewis has posed:
The truck, unlike the guns, is very much an Earthly model, and stands little chance against the heroic assault! They're rewarded with the sound of crumpling steel, crunching glass, and sputtering fluid.

Obviously, the guys on the nearby loading dock very much take notice! It's those that were standing guard with the larger weapons who react first, one immediately opening fire on the armor with several lances of blue-white energy while another has to maneuver a little around the truck on the other side. He's intercepted by Carin, looking quite surprised as she's suddenly there in front of him. The quick punch causes an exhalation, and a moment later...

Her blade nicks off the side of the rifle. Yeah. Definitely make 'em better in space. The punch hasn't totally deterred its owner, either, who gives it a jerky twist trying to get her with the butt of the weapon, although just as quickly she's just GONE, leaving him bowled over in the enusing shockwave.

In the meantime, the pair carrying the container have been bowled over by the shockwave, but scramble for sidearms on the ground. One is a normal gun! But another is a more miniaturized alien weapon. They take some pot shots, but are are more significantly joined by a volley from just behind and above as several more emerge from the warehouse interior toward the open dock. The majority of the initial fire ends up focused on Toni, because of the obvious profile of her armor, although there's certainlly a few attempted shots on Carin.

Richard... does indeed end up looking stupid, as he hits the floor. Well, kind of.

There's no one in the clean room. The man outside might have been the last one working, unsuiting at the end of his shift. However, the room is still very brightly lit and covered in windows, and from inside he can see the interior space of the warehouse. It's full of (presumably less sensitive) chemical processing equipment as well as the usual cargo logistics stuff, racks of pallets, a forklift, an empty shipping container, etc. It's also where all the reinforcements are charging out toward Toni and co from, so they COULD potentially see him, if not both for his graceful flop and the distraction outside.

Nat comes up into the darkness, and is not immediately attacked! With Darcy's schematics, its easy to come up right in the office. The lights are off, but she can make out a desk, computer, file cabinets, etc. And just briefly, the shadow of a figure on what is presumably a walkway in front of said office, backlit against the window.

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
There's not much time to evaluate the situation. There's a figure over there that she doesn't have much information on besides their location. Figure outside nearby.. Spotter, someone on overwatch.. Well, not important. The point is to try and take them down quickly and neutralize them before they can be a threat or flee. Or if they have something heavier than it looks.
    Natasha goes to line up and charge her Widow's Bites.. Then goes to simply line them up and fire them through the window in an arc at the figure! An electric 'stinger' is flipped out towards the figure, which would hopefully land over on his body, have the stingers 'latch' onto them to give them the full power shock to hopefully render htem unconscious!
    Then Natasha is leaping out a quarter second after to finish the takedown or be in a position to follow up on it if the target isn't down.

Zinda Blake has posed:
At the sight of Toni destroying the truck engine, Zinda draws both pistols and watches for the response. This is no longer a silent op, and the loading dock is about to become a very popular place. <<Jus' 'cause they know we're here don't mean we can be sloppy. Smooth an' easy, now.>>

Then Carin gets bogged down with grappling one of the guards. Well, shoot! Zinda is almost out of her hiding place when Carin figures out she can stab the alien rifles, and gets control of the situation again.

<<Or y'all can jus' do it that way, I guess. Take 'em down! We got us a firefight at the shipping docks!>>

Zinda knows what to do in a firefight. While the attention is focused on the speedster and the armored suit, she zig-zags towards the open dock. BLAM!BLAM!BLAM! BLAM!BLAM!BLAM! The pilot is as accurate with pistols as she is with an airplane, and quickly drops three of the reinforcements as they rush out onto the dock. <<Get their earpieces once everybody's down.>> Yes, remove command and control capability.

Carin Taylor has posed:
    Not optimal. At all. The best Carin can do right now is dodge. Her punches on their own aren't enough, and those blades of hers aren't going to leave more than a scuff on Shi'ar metal. And even then that's just from the blade's surface itself coming off on it. She can feel the heat and see the near-blinding brightness of the energy blasts so close. All she has to go on, since she can't exactly dodge the shots, is to watch their hands. Watch their sights. And make sure she's not in the way. With how fast she's moving, that's at least doable. And the poor man with the regular handgun? That's an easy target.

    Not that it remains that way for long. A handgun is so much easier than a rifle, too. Drop the mag, lock back the slide, and tear it apart. It comes to pieces in his hands in the space between heartbeats and she's off again. Despite her toxin-purging metabolism, though, she feels something rising in her throat. A sick sensation. She knows what she has to do and doesn't like it.

    The redhead dances between Zinda's bullets as they tag several more targets, giving her the opportunity to focus on others. This time, her blades are out, and she's jamming them into soft flesh and bone. It's a sickening feeling at normal speed but she gets to experience it in nanoseconds as she stabs into a hand grasping grip and trigger, then through the palm of the bracing grip. There's barely time for the splash of blood to chase her blades as she's off to the next one for a similarly quick, painful, but effective disarmament. If the soldier can't fire the gun, then it's effective, right?

    Just because this is what Carin was trained, and built to do, doesn't make her enjoy it. Not in the slightest. But people will get /terrible/ hurt by these terrible weapons if she doesn't do everything within her power. That's why she signed up, right?

Richard Stadler has posed:
Richard Stadlergrunts annoyingly at the lack of heavily armed assiliants with high powered plasma cannons ready to cut a swath through the very building right above him. Certainly would have made him feel a little more clever, but safety first meant he didn't die when it did matter. He works his way to his feet at first, before his eyes notice the window heading to the warehouse itself, and the chaos just outside. It meant he should keep low, and lord if there wasn't anything worse for his back than crouching. But he was able to get over to the windows facing the warehouse and peer above them.

The tactician in him warred with the scientist, as this was a wonderful position to lay down supporting fire for those inside, but the scientist won out; the area looked... disturbingly empty, but there was simply no way of knowing if what remained might represent a hazard to those outside. Even if they were masked, he only saw one person in sealed armor, and the suit pants he was wearing may be for active use, but wasn't about to block a biological agent laced with DSMO from leaking into his skin.

"All on this net, do not direct fire to the windows on the far side of the warehouse. Unknown what we're dealing with inside this room. Clean room is clear, for the moment. Headed out toward the warehouse at this time.

Toni Ho has posed:
Toni giggles, she positively titters inside the helmet of her suit. That was so freaking cool. She clambers out of the wreckage, immediately being fired upon. She cranks the forcefield up and takes a direct hit. The punches into the barrier, burning through it and singing the actual armor underneath.

'Hull Integrity at eight five percent, Doctor.'

"I know, I can read, Pat!"

'Of course, Doctor.'

Toni ascends, the eyes of the armor glowing as she zips closer to the dock. Hatches open on the armor, and what look like little warheads start slotting into holes. The PA on the suit goes live.

"Say goodnight, boys!"

The little rocket looking things launch and stream around the dock area like bottle rockets. They impact the walls and the floor in bursts of a mostly opaque, rising gas. The men might find themselves suddenly unable to keep their eyes open.

Darcy Lewis has posed:
The stinger hits, somewhere on the figure's back, below the neck, and it goes off with a crackling of electric discharge.

A moment later, the target reaches back across its shoulder to rip it free. She may enjoy a moment of deja vu, before the figure turns around. "Your techniques were more impressive the first time around. You would think, given such well-executed surprise, you would be more creative. But this is getting a little one-note."

The discharged weapon is casually thrown aside, and the figure leaps at her, gracefully through the same open window. It? He? Is still tall, very tall, still fully suited in black, including the balaclava and goggles.

And then it's on her. The first blow hits her hard. She's trained with Cap - and it's like that, clearly well beyond any human norm.

On the docks, the battle is intense at first, dangerous with the full brunt of the enemy force turned against them. But the tides turn fairly quickly, evidencing the superiority of training and execution to raw technological power. Zinda's expert sharpshooting takes several down, as does Carin's more in-your-face approach. They don't really know how to deal with her speed, turning awkwardly in attempts to track, even spraying some rather dangerous crossfire!

Its still Toni's armor tanking the majority of the shots, which is good, as the shields do seem to hold up against alien fire. And then she proceeds to return fire with a trick of her own. The cloud of gas definitely causes a bit of a scattering panic. Perhaps not shockingly, some of them do actually have masks - presumably out of concern for whatever hazardous material inside - but not all, and some have to scramble to put them on. It's chaos enough, as a result.

"There any working material left in there doc? If there's something with a good seal, and they have a decontaminating airlock, you're clear to remove it. Otherwise we'll have to wait to get a full team on site." She leaves him the ultimate discretion, as it's his area of expertise!

At the docks, they've seemingly taken the day, amidst the haze of smoke...

...until one last sudden barrage of blasts comes ripping out, cutting holes through the clouds and lancing across the parking lot beyond, and the heroes scattered there. An alien automatic weapon? Maybe there's return fire, and here, the final surprise: a bubble of blue light pushing through the cloud. A... shield? Guess Toni's not the only one!

Zinda Blake has posed:
Zinda Blake is ready to shoot some more when the armored suit starts firing gas rockets. Many go down, although a few are scrambling for masks... scrambling, being the operative word. Zinda shoots a couple more, the ones who manage to get masks on, and the docks are rapidy clearing.

She's about to give the 'all clear' when the rapid pulses of blue light tell her otherwise. <<We got us a machine-gunner, ladies. I'm out-gunned, but I'll sweep for stragglers an' keep folks from gettin' away. No heroics, now! Quick an' neat.>>

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
This is less than optimal. Natasha is fast, but this thing has her by partial surprise. And she's clearly not loaded with sufficient things to drop it down normally. The swing slams her away, but gives her a precious few meters of space. She would grin ferally, and taunt him over in Shi'Ar "Good then, I was hoping for a show less pathetic than last time from you".
    Taunt given, she goes to switch to her batons. THey charge up with energy and flash. Their use against the armor will be limited, but they're there moreso for distraction. Her guns won't do much against him.. <<Engaging hostile from the attack at the hospital upstairs. Update files>> That warning given out..
    Natasha goes on the attack, moving to go for rapid strikes along her opponent. Going for quick hit and runs to try and batter along his armor. This is a cover for her to in turn try and flip two small micro-explosive charges onto him if she can, using the strikes from her weapons to conceal them.
    So hopefully this ends with him having several small micro-detonators applied over along his form without him noticing it, and him too mad at her for taunting and striking him quickly as she took and traded hits to notice.

Carin Taylor has posed:
    That is. A lot going on at once. The blood on her arm-blades is still wet and not even sticky yet when she yanks the last one free amidst a studden rain of sleep-laced micro munitions. Carin holds her breath and continues to work, switching from stabbing palms to yanking masks off of gunmen before they can get them on, or ripping off ones already in place. All before her movements can end up swirling the gas away. So she slows down. She has to. It wouldn't do to leave an avenue of escape or clarity. She's about to finalize a departure jet herself when the lances of energy come out of the cloud.

    Maybe it's because she can't dodge beams of light, or that the fire is so indiscriminate that even if she could it would be impossible, but the redhead takes a part of that burst in the side as she's darting off of the loading dock. Her forward motion is cut but her momentum slams her into the side of the truck, making her gasp out and fill her lungs with a nice, healthy dose of that knockout gas. <<...ah! O-ow...!>> The burning beams tear through cloth and skin, the kevlar sheathing under her flesh only doing so much to mitigate them.

    One of Darcy's screens can see it all in first person from Carin's camera feed as she tumbles and struggles. Her hand scrabbles for one of the fallen Shi'ar rifles that they'd helped disarm, and while that gas won't last long on her, it's still rapidly in the process of knocking her out. It's all she can do to bring the rifle up, brace it on her leg, and hold down the trigger to send lances of searing energy at the shielded gunman before she passes out. <<T-Toni... w-watch out..!>>

Toni Ho has posed:
Some men fall over, and Toni grins. <<Just as planned. I love when my stuff works ri--,>> she says over the comms as she's suddenly shot in the back! Her forcefield holds, but barely, as she turns around to see a glowing bubble with someone shooting?

"HEY!" Toni yells, broadcasting outside the suit. "That's my trick!"

Since there's a shield involved, she can hit a little harder. Her hands lift and she pumps out a few repulsor blasts, the whine of the charge ringing through the dock as she, now, starts blasting.

<<I'm good, Carin. Shit, did my gas get you too!?>>

Richard Stadler has posed:
Well, wasn't there a lot happening, all at once? Richard didn't like being out of the action when the threat was real and aganist his temporary teammates... but he had to admit, not getting sliced in half by an alien GPMG was a rather important thing to him. He should enjoy at least 10, 15 seconds of that as he was looking around the lab. "Wait one, Ops. Team will need to sweep this place, but I'm noticing a lot of holes in their equipment. Not a biol engineer, but it looks like they were closing things down. I don't see- Hold." He notes, before turning to a storage section, moving to grab and pull from a rack. "It looks like they have some canisters here... larger. Unsure if it's for research or weaponization. Given how hot this area is, I'm extracting one." He notes, grabbing one from the rack and heading back through to the clean room door.

He winces at the sound from outsidee the windows, and let's the rifle hang on a sling, moving to draw the pistol at his hip that really didn't do anything the last time he had shot at the same sort of people. It was all he could do with the heavy canister in the other hand. Damn if the next time he would bring a rucksack. He swallowed, before grumbling. "Ops, I'm moving toward the exit. How bad is it out there?"

Darcy Lewis has posed:
"Oh? What's this? Is the race-traitor giving lessons?" The figure understands Nat, clearly, but doesn't seem to honor her to -reply- in what is presumably his own language, sticking to English. "Your pronounciation is attrocious. You sound like a Tralaxian mud sow." That insult somehow gets the point across, cultural and language barriers aside!

He presses the attack, and though their last contact was brief, it quickly becomes apparent she's dealing with a rival in the craft, his movements suggestive of complex training, of ancient martial arts from distant, unknown worlds. The electric batons? Clearly, after the stinger's failure, the efficacy of the charge is limited. Maybe his suit is insulated. Maybe the voltage just isn't high enough for his alien stamina. He lifts an arm to block one - with his forearm, not even another weapon - then produces his own, similar weapon, a smooth silver shaft that telescopes into a longer staff, which he twirls against the barrage of follow ups, parrying some, counterattacking others, and being struck in turn. He's silent, giving no indication of pain, almost taunting her with disinterest. Of course, this time it's just a distraction.

Outside, they'll see, hear, the exposison, blowing out one of the office's unopened windows toward the warehouse floor below.

But they have their own trouble. The assault-weapon merc sprays indiscriminately, sending Carin tumbling, and takes that as a 'kill,' turning his attention back to Toni. The volume of fire starts to strain her shields, throwing up angry warnings in her HUD, but the same can be said for his own as they exchange volleys. And then, down but not out, Carin joins in with the stolen Shi'ar weapon. The hard light bubble flickers...

"Good thinking. With all that shooting, there could be damage." Darcy is on with Richard. It's not that she can't see the situation Carin's in, it's just that she's not really in the position to -help-. Well, with the fight. She's already queued up medical Evac for their casualty. "I would advise exiting the way you came in. Warehouse situation is very hot, still."

Back above, the smoke clears. Nat is on the ground, the explosive idea having worked, but gone off close enough that she took much of the bast as well. The front of the office is blown out, giving a clearer view of everything below. But her rival? No contact.

Carin Taylor has posed:
    <<N-not.. the gas..>> Carin mumbles, <<...took. Two. Three? Three.>> Her voice is weak, but not in the wounded and passing out sort of weak. She might be hurt but she sounds very... sleepy. She holds the trigger until the rifle drains, and not even the massive explosion above can shake her from the torpor that overtakes her.

    Then she slumps over, looking surprisingly peaceful with an alien weapon cradled in her arms, blood soaking her arm blades, and about three still-smoking holes in the friction-resistant armored combat uniform she was *just* issued. Still a hundred times better than a lightning bolt-shaped boob window. <<...get... 'im...>> she sleep mumbles in a way that might be cute if not for being in the middle of a firefight.

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
The weapons aren't very useful. The enemy is too bulky even for her strikes to have kinetic effect, his padding insulates him. He's not human, so nerve strikes won't be as effective. Her knowledge of his species' physiology isn't enough to make up for that. He hits her back, and he hits like a truck. She's playing with someone that's just as skilled as she is, just as fast as she is, is stronger than she is, and that has vastly superior durability and technology. In a straight up fight, Natasha would have a minimal chance of winning.
    In a straight up fight. The Black Widow doesn't fight straight up. She doesn't fight fair either. The strikes are exchanged back and forth, even as he goes to dramatically extend out his staff. That's just a precious tenth of a second where she has a coule meters of distance and he's too busy showboating.
    That's right when she goes to fire off the detonators as she goes to flip and leap away. THey're a bit stronger than she was expected, and she doesn't quite flip away in time! There's explosions, and she's flung over across the melee area, being slammed through a wall. Just as rapidly flipping up to her feet again. Collarbone broken, jaw shattered, shoulder disjointed. She takes a half second to snap her collarbone back into place, then if she's not being attacked, her shoulder as well before going to advance again. He'd been sloppy and arrogant.
    Never get in the way of your opponent while they're making a mistake. She goes to, presuming he's not attacking her, take a quick moment to survey the battlefield.

Richard Stadler has posed:
Richard moves to the exit itself, setting the canister on the ground, and quickly takes a look at his surroundings. Seemed clear over here, but there still was a lot of shooting in the warehouse. A lot of shooting. He was honestly suprised that- no, there was an explosion, right there. This was getting bad and there was just the strongest itch to head in there and assist. Another suprising bit of himself he would have to deal with; maybe being away from the action long enough made him a bit more antsy when it came to being in the action. Thankfully, he wasn't a complete and utter moron. The mission was recovery of assests, not the elimination of enemy personell. Granted, that would be a /strong/ secondary.

"Ops, I'm at the exit; it looks clear. Need to extract the canister. Can you approch?" He asks, before adding, "Oh. Mask up. It's sealed, but if this is what's in the report, trust them but verify."

Toni Ho has posed:
Toni keeps hucking repulsor blasts at the shielded merc, who she assumes is working for the Shi'ar at this point. She groans behind her helmet as she watches her field integrity and hull integrity numbers start to plummet. She starts to swear under her breath as she begins issuing blink commands to her armor, rerouting power from nonessential systems to defense.

And that's when Carin's final message hits through.

Toni takes the chance to swing her head around to look, and all she can see is Carin laying still on the ground. That's her roommate, her charge. Someone she's supposed to mentor and help. And this invader hurt her. Hurt her badly.

"Pat. Reroute half remaining power to propulsion and the rest to the shock system."
'Of course, Doctor.'

Repulsors howl as power is rerouted, and Toni rockets skywards, her HUD feeding her all sorts of warnings about the catastrophic failures that are imminent if she continues to ignore them. She ascends a bit before straight charging at the mercenary. The Iron Patriot impacts his flickering shield and carrys him along, impacting with the wall of the building.

Behind her mask, she growls and snarls, forcing the suit to its limits to pop the bubble, to get her hands on the man inside. She can't fail. She won't. Fingers, then a palm slip into the force shield, pressing closer and closer until she touches him.

The sound that comes out is like if one were to make a bug zapper the size of a Buick.

The armor engages in emergency shutdown, power reserves spent. The downside of this is that it leaves Toni in the silent dark, unable to hear or see anything.

Darcy Lewis has posed:
There's no subsequent ambush or attack on Nat. If she's left that injured, more distant from the blast, presumably even the Shi'ar didn't walk (flap?) away from it unscahted. In whatever condition he's in, he chooses the better part of valor.

As soon as Richard plans his escape route, Darcy swings her fancy swivel-y command chair from the comms area upt to the front of the van, where it locks in behind the wheel. As a fellow scientist all too often drawn into dangerous nonsense, she's gonna make sure he's OK! With no reason to stay sneaky now, she revs the van up and peels out across the empty industrial lot. "I'm on my way!"

On the docks, Carin pumps round after round into the assault gunner's shield, until she loses consciousness and her finger goes limp on the trigger. But she's not alone, with Toni charging in a moment later. The two shields collide with each other, and then moments later, the merc collides with the wall. The hard-light generator finally gives up the ghost, and with a satisfying ZZZAP, the merc goes night-night a moment later.

Out front, Darcy has pulled up by Richard, but doesn't immediately open the door. "You sure the seal on that is good?" Her eyes are just a little narrow in suspicion! But there's no damage to be seen, and after a suspicious moment to confirm it, the side panel of the van slides open to accept her passenger and cargo.

It turns out to be good timing. And a good idea, to bring something with them. Because not long after Richard makes it into the van, there's another, well, not a blast, exactly. Out front, they don't see or hear it, although they might get a camera feed. Toni might see it from outside, before the armor goes dead, and Nat from her vantage on the walkway: a bright flash inside the clean lab. Not an explosion, exactly, but it leaves the interior scorched, without blowing open the windows. In fact, a moment later, one of them starts to grow spider cracks as a hiss of air rushes IN.

"Wow," is all Darcy has to say, with what she sees on the limited data feeds as more and more of her cameras go dead. "Status? Ugh, crap. Everyone, better clear out of there, who knows if there's any other self-destructs or... well whatever. Your ride is incoming."

Richard gets the van, sure. But Toni and Carin will get the Quinjet, which silently wooshes in overhead even as Darcy is maneuvering out of the lot and away. They have medical already prepped aboard. Toni might be a little more work. Borrow the forklift?