1568/The Hunger: Breakout

The Hunger: Breakout
Date of Scene:	08 May 2020
Location:	Abandoned WGTV Station, Brooklyn, NY.
Synopsis:	The Avengers and their allies stage a daring rescue of Tony Stark from an AIM facility deep beneath New York!
Cast of Characters:	Tony Stark, Natasha Romanoff, Rachel Summers, Pepper Potts, Karen Starr, Thor, Diana Prince, Steve Rogers

---

Tony Stark has posed:
The information had come from a very unlikely source.

SHIELD analysts had narrowed the possible location Tony Stark was being held to several known or suspected AIM installations throughout the western hemisphere. It was slow work, with no sign from the terrorist organization that they wanted anything in exchange for his safe return or if he was even still alive. It was as though he'd disappeared off the face of the Earth.

But then Pepper deciphered the message. A message broadcasted on a disused frequency to an old, homemade radio kit Tony had constructed as a small child and Pepper had put on display for posterity in his lab. The signal was enough of a thread to follow back to him, and so here everyone is.

The building itself was once a radio station - the tower is still affixed to the roof with WGTV in unlit neon down the side. The offices inside are mostly empty, though part of the building has been let out to the offices of a company that manufactures the rubber fixtures on car doors. The offices themselves are empty on a weekend, giving the building a bland yet eerie and deserted vibe.

It's hardly anything at all like where one would expect a technocratic terrorist group to hold a high profile prisoner captive.

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
    <<Given the line-up...> Natasha says, voice filtered electronically through her head encompassing mask, the lights in the red eyes of her goggles turned off, <<... Stealth may not be on the table here.>>
    She has been... very quiet and very studious in the days since Tony's disappearance, devoting her efforts to aiding in the search when she could, and... waiting very quietly when she couldn't. With a task at hand, you wouldn't know it to look at her, though; checking over her guns once more and speaking with the composed poise of an agent on the job.
    <<We're all clear on the situation? Our goal is the retrieval of Tony Stark, and his armor if possible. We're dealing with a powerful force capable of challenging Kryptonians. Their defeat is not our objective. Once Stark is secure, we go. If everyone in AIM colors is has stopped moving by then... all the better.>>
    She inclines her head just slightly and eyes Karen. <<Can we get any direct recon on the building before we move in?>>

Rachel Summers has posed:
    In recent days, Rachel has been having issues. Well she always has issues. But she's been having funky dreams, and feeling like she was coasting and losing cohesion with her people and the dreams kept her from sleeping well.
    She kept waking up with a clear-as-day image in her mind. Something that faded to total vagueness that she could not even recall in any level of detail at all.
    But this morning... she was sucking down coffee when she got a migraine out of the blue. It hurt, and it hurt bad. She dropped her coffee and brok the cup on the floor.
    Gripping her skull as she collapsed, she looked skyward and begged, "What?" And then she knew. She KNEW. Stupid psionic cosmic entity bullshit. The headache eased and she launched herself out of a window... racing along through the sky as what can only be called a fiery comet with the occasional flicker of wings peeled back like the Silver Surfer's arms when he is at top speed.. . . aimed where this annoyingly precognitive cosmic prankster in her mind thinks that she should be going. (note: She is not on scene. Just aimed that way.)

Pepper Potts has posed:
It was that one thing that scared Miss Pepper Potts the most; disappeared with no sign of ransom, no sign of any demands. Fitful sleep to no sleep, it's been something of a rough go for the erstwhile PA, but with the spark of that little transistor radio came the spark of hope.

It's the fact that Pepper had been the one to receive that simple message with the almost complete set of coordinates that she'd parlayed it into a place on the rescue team. That, and, how could she get hurt, given the roster of those to help get him?

Pepper is decked out in 'undercover black', outfitted by SHIELD without that obviously personal connection to Janet. They'd insisted on ballistic cloth, which is heavy in places where it shouldn't be and chafes... where it shouldn't. She looks every inch a 'spy' but for the fact that she doesn't have a gun. But! She does have her pepper spray (and other various aerosols!)

"Rescue. A person retrieves bodies. A person rescues a living person," Pepper corrects sofly. "And frankly, I don't care about getting the armor back." Not her concern.

Karen Starr has posed:
    Kryptonians are cheaters. There's really no more or less serious way to put it. They're just not /fair/.

    Power Girl folds her arms, rocking her shoulders back- "Right, recon." She replies, turning her angle upwards before she just takes off, straight up- a small thunderous boom audible from her position outside of any likely sensor range. Before Natasha's finished with her next sentence, Power Girl isn't in the atmosphere. She's still visible in those next few seconds: Specifically, of a glimmering line that slips through the sky, like a shooting star.

    She reaches the target in fractions of the time it had taken for her to breach the atmosphere, and her descent is slower still. Detecting her is difficult when she's pacing herself, and she'd made sure that she hadn't come from a likely-expected angle. Unless they've got eyes in space, she expects not to tip off their arrival.

    Miles above ground, not even visible to the human eye, Power Girl stares at the ground rather intensely- before, swiftly, looking -through- it. Though nobody can see it, her frown deepens quickly.

    "I sure hope everyone likes going in blind. I can see the elevator shafts, but I can't see anything else. Too dense. Not lead, but I seriously doubt that's up to code."

Thor has posed:
    Down upon the streets before the building itself, all was quiet for the most part. A perfect setting for one such as the Widow to take up station, a calm weekend in that part of the city with the radio tower swaying faintly with the wind. The wind picks up, causing the rust on the metal infrastructure to creak, and the old dead neon lights of the station's call sign to flicker just a bit.
    Then there is a greater rush of movement, fast and from the East, with a blur of red and black across the skyline that slices across leaving a faint twist of vapor in the clouds. It's one moment of utter peace and quiet, and then a sudden impact with a /WHUMPF!/ as the armored figure hits the ground right before the front door of that building, crackling asphalt and cement, with windows shattering inwards, then rising to its full height.
    Brilliant silver armor muted by the black and the burgundy of his cape, Thor rises and sets his hammer whirling with a steady whum-whum-whum as he holds out his empty hand foward and raises his voice, echoing off the walls of the neighboring buildings as he calls out.
    "MODOK! I would have words with thee!"

Diana Prince has posed:
Diana was close-by. Using the gifted alien technology was unseen precisely where, but she's on the Avengers comms.

<"I am almost there."> Diana's voice says about the time that Thor is making his grandiose declaration.

Down the street a high pitched whine of a strange alien engine can be heard along with rolling of heavy wheels upon pavement. But there's nothing visibly there. The sound grows ever louder as the unseen 'arrives' outside of the building in question.

Diana steps out of otherwise empty air and onto the pavement beside the building, her armored right boot arriving first, followed by the rest of her, as she dismounts the Invisible Bike. The Morphing Disk falls silent as it's engine is deactivated and she starts to walk toward where she sees the God of Thunder ahead, her sword and shield on her back.

Tony Stark has posed:
Ever the party pooper, the building does not seem to react to Thor's challenge. Indeed, this late and on a weekend there's not much around to react to it. This part of the city is mostly office buildings and stores that don't stay open late. Though somewhere, off in the distance, a distinctly New York voice demands 'a little peace and quiet' with no small amount of expletive embellishment thrown in.

The doors themselves are not heavily locked. In fact, nothing about the office building itself seems overly secure. The elevator shafts, hidden as they are inside and separate from the rickety old things that the office workers must use, seem technological light years beyond what the rest of the building has to show. There's a simple lock and key, though given that the doors are floor-to-ceiling glass there may be even simpler ways to pass through.

Sensors both biological and artificial detect no signs of life in the building. Whatever security it uses (and those accustomed to breaking and entering will see it's very light on that) does not involve actual guards.

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
    Natasha lets out a very slow breath as Pepper speaks ans says <<It's a secondary objective I'm sure Stark would appreciate. They don't need HIS technology on top of everything->>
    Thor makes his booming arrival, and for a split second, Natasha wishes she had heat vision. <<... else.>>
    Granted, between Karen's report and the lack of response, it may be a moot point. <<Roger, Power Girl. Hard way it is. Someone durable break down their door. If there's more life inside than advertised, knock it down. Try not to swing too wildly until we've confirmed Stark is either no-longer on site, or has been...>> Natasha glances at Pepper, <<... rescued.>>

Rachel Summers has posed:
    Down there below Karen's high altitude self... the fiery comet descends out of the sky. However, it slows as it approaches the intended building, and then resolves into the shape of a young woman in a red bodysuit.. a spiked red suit. Okay so it looks like the sort of thing a villain might wear.
    She slows to a stop above the building, hovering in mid-air and surrounded by an aura that... well, anyone briefed on some of the events of the world involving those crazy X-People couldn't help but notice a full on flaming Phoenix aura up there as Rachel scans below her, searching for a few things. One, the minds of those here to perform a rescue. Also.. the mind of the one she linked with in his captivity. The odd thing is she doesn't even really realize she'd linked to him. She's just trying to reach out to whatever it is that lurks in the back of her mind as something familiar that she can't place her finger upon.

Pepper Potts has posed:
"Secondary," Pepper confirms, her expression determined, green eyes on the actual spy. Nodding once at the 'rescued', she seems confident enough that she is understood in all of this.

It's Thor's arrival, however, that rocks her back on her heels, though to her defense, there's no squeak from her this time in surprise. She's getting better!

It's the report of not seeing anything that doesn't really register as a 'thing' from Karen (she hasn't read any dossiers!), and Pepper frowns, glancing back to the dark, desolate building. "I know this was... this has to be."

Karen Starr has posed:
    There is a sudden lack of patience from Power Girl. There's nothing on the upper floors that she can see- no heartbeats, no moving mechanicals, nothing making the office building currently dangerous. Nat's statement is all it takes to get her to descend at something nearer to dogfighting speed. To say that there's a pink streak in the sky making itself into a form of awkwardly targeted bunker-buster would be... Accurate.

    "That comet in the sky is friendly, saw her on Genosha. Not sure why she's -here- but if kicking up the Hive results in a response like the Expo, we might not be in the position to turn down the help."

    Power Girl touches down alongside Thor after only a moment, and she starts making her way in, pointing towards the back of the building and then lifting off into a float as she makes her way towards the rear. "Let me get the door for you."

    There's the sound of a door being torn off of its hinges, as Power Girl comes to a halt outside of one of the unused studios. She apparently didn't have time to pick the lock, and the sound that follows is the noise of twisting metal and ripping foam- as her fingers pierce the breach of the elevator doors and pull them not just open, but apart- it takes more effort than none, but even so, the heavy steel is naught but putty when she rips it asunder, the doors tossed callously aside in the empty room.

    "If they didn't know we were coming, they probably do now. After you," she states, turning her attention to the direction of Thor. "It was a good challenge, I'm sure they won't mind hearing it a second time."

Thor has posed:
    Upon the comms, Thor's voice is heard as he steps forwards into the building, ever so gingerly navigating the broken glass and stepping inwards. "No contact it seems, so far. Is there aught you can see from above, Power Girl?"
    The STRONGEST Avenger steps around the entryway, and further into the building, keeping his hammer at hand and ready, boots clinking upon this piece of glass or that part of the door's frame that's fallen inward. With those slight tink-ta-tinks of sound accompanying him, he advances and considers his surroundings.
    "I imagine there is an underground installation of some sort. There is almost always an underground installation. Or a castle." A few more steps as he moves in, looking for the elevator now but then joined by Power Girl's arrival. He gives a nod sharply, "You have my thanks, Power Girl." With a polite but focused tone.
    "Avengers, we are descending." And with that he will step into the void to do just that.

Diana Prince has posed:
Diana is approaching Thor and Power Girl now that PG has landed and is moving toward the building. Her eyes are up on the sky when the fiery form is spotted. "That is a Phoenix. I have never seen one in person before." Diana speaks as she approaches the Asgardian and Kryptonian, now standing behind them.

When they start forward, she reaches behind her to pull her shield from her back. Her shield in her left hand and her lasso coiled-up and held in her right. She looks to the two blond bombshells heading for the elevator. "I will remain up here to keep this area clear for your return." She tells them both.

The STRONGEST AVENGER now holds her shield up and starts to wander the main level.

Steve Rogers has posed:
Having parked his motorcycle off the immediate block and one or two blocks away as it stands, Steve hears the arrival of Thor and smirks to himself even as he jogs the last alleyway distance.

<<All the signs point to it,>> comes the Captain over the coms in calm reassurance. <<Let's show 'em how deal with kidnappers.>> Gung ho, apparently, as the man in his stealth suit arrives on-scene with his spangled shield tucked to his back. Nods for those on-site in immediate view, a salute for those above, and a pause to consider the Phoenix in particular.
Hmm. That's new and unexpected, but not necessarily a bad thing. Not yet anyways, in his estimation.

Power Girl confirms friendly and/or ally status and the Captain nods, following Thor into the building. "Cozy place," he comments to himself in bland humor at the spartan interior. Down he goes as well into the elevator shaft in a series of angled leaps, sliding down the wall rather than dropping straight down. Superhero landings are hard on the knees, after all.

Tony Stark has posed:
The elevator shafts themselves are empty, the carriages resting at the very bottom. The descent itself is a long one, well below even the deepest delves of New York City. There are ladders and other such fixtures built into the side, but for the most part the descent is a controlled fall. Slowly the everpresent din of the city and the warmth of the season begin to fade away, giving way to antiseptic cold and earthy scents.

Gathered now atop the elevator carriage at the bottom of the shaft, it is dark and quiet. Only dull, red emergency lighting provides any illumination beyond what the interlopers bring themselves. The elevator itself bears a heavy, locked hatch atop it that is easily wrested free under the might of those gathered. From there, it is easy to slip inside and step into the corridor.

The corridor itself is white and brightly lit. It stretches for over a hundred feet ahead, before branching off left and right. A man in a yellow bee-keeper suit that is quintessentially AIM stands before the elevator, staring at the group through the silvery visor of his headwear.

"Uh ... "

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
    Natasha stares warily up at Rachel for a long moment but meets Karen's appraisal with an even <<Copy.>> before she moves into position, telling Pepper <<Stay close to me.>> and disappassionately watching the varied feats of strength, giving a nod to Diana when she stays behind, and striding confidentally behind the assembled living bulldozers asthough no harm could come to her in this exact configuration.
    When she gets to the elevator shaft, she adjusts something on the gauntlets around one of her wrists, and fires a sturdy wire with a metal tip into the ceiling that stays attached to her gauntlet. <<Here.>> She offers to Pepper, and, if she goes along with it, grabs hold of her with one arm around her wrist and then simply walks off of the edge, letting the wire extend ever outward to lower them to the floor until they land, wherein it detaches and recoils all the way back into her gauntlet.
    Adjusting her goggles for the light, Natasha steps into the hallways and... sees a man!
    During that palpable moment of awkwardness, Natasha is simply adjusting her gauntlet again before she reaches that arm out towards the man and fires an electric 'widow's sting' blast in his direction. <<Get searching.>>

Rachel Summers has posed:
    THERE! Rachel's eyes flash with psionic flames, and she sends a burst of knowledge to the mind she found down below. The prisoner. The troubled mind. Friends are here. Rescue is at hand. Do not give up. These are the thoughts she sends the man held down there. And then she afixes the precise location -of- that mind, and then picks out the most organized, tactically minded mind below on the side of the rescuers (That means Captain America, no debate here!) and basically imprints his forebrain with what can only be described as a telepathic HUD with one thing on it. A targeting dot of -where- his target is, despite obstacles in the way. It's a pinpoint target to show this leader where his objective is in the most precise manner she can give.
    Then... then Phoenix proves that she is just as good at subtle as Thor or Power Girl. She begins moving in a straight line towards the prisoner.
    While she is no Kryptonian or Asgardian, her telekinesis is rather ludicrous. She isn't charging at full throttle. She is going at basically a jogging pace, but anything like walls, doors, floors, desks, a stray computer server. Anything that isn't alive at least, in her path.. is being shoved aside, pushed through or ruptured as she becomes a fiery drill. Not literally, but you know.

Pepper Potts has posed:
Pepper's into the building as well, though not without taking a look up into the sky to see the bolt descend. Wincing at what she believes might be another *crash*, she's pleasantly surprised that there isn't. Until, of course, the door is pulled from its hinges, and, well.. there's the entrance.

Pepper slips through, and looking around, seems to follow in the wake of general destruction. Steve's appearance to the mission does allow for a breath of relief, but then he's there and gone... down the elevator shaft. And Thor, and.. and.. "Uh... stairs?" Not powered, not at all!

Once again, Nat to the rescue, as it were, and Pepper takes the offer of the quick way down, during the descent she's trying not to hold on to the point of blocking blood flow to extremities. She's held on to Iron Man doing a power ride, this should be easy, right?

Down, into the darkness, and feet landing on solid ground is yet another relief. Once there, however, Pepper looks to Nat, her memory of the briefest of conversations returning. "Nat.. Tony said to follow the trail." Green eyes look toward the target before them, and at least has the courtesy to stay out of the way, inching forward. "He said to follow the trail." What does that mean? If she sees it, she'll know, she's sure...

Karen Starr has posed:
    Karen lets Thor go first, and then just as suddenly as they'd appeared, Steve, Natasha, and Pepper have all descended the shaft in their own ways. Karen blinks a few times, before casually stepping into the metal box-tube and lowering herself down with the magnificently cheaty power of FLIGHT. She descends past Pepper and Nat first, slowing down as her half-cape flutters up in the air above her.

    "Ride? Anyone? No?"

    She picks up speed then, slipping past the hopping, controlled-fall expert that is the Captain. "Ride? No? Okay." she offers, shrugging emphatically as punctuation before she pauses at the top of the elevator, and with a firm tug, opens it up like a can of tuna. Floating into the elevator car, it lets out a whimper-like Ding as the doors crank themselves open, revealing... Some Dude. She steps off to one side, clearing the way for Natasha and the others.

    Leaning against the frame of the elevator, Karen folds her arms in silence while Nat slings her way in and gets to work incapacitating the soldier. The AVENGEREST STRONG is waiting for the inevitable regroup before delving further into the facility- so she doesn't mind just letting Rachel do her thing- or, you know, the Phoenix do -its- thing, as the case may be.

Thor has posed:
    That descent for Thor is an abrupt terminal velocity sort of thing, with the heavy landing and the resonant /THUMP!/ that echoes up and down the elevator shaft. He rises and drops further into the elevator car, then out. A quick glance is given to the AIM operative...
    And then the Widow bites.

    With the man handled, Thor sets his hammer spinning and nods sidelong toward Natasha, "I'll take the left branch," A glance toward Power Girl, "You have the right?" And with that said he snaps the hammer forward and is gone in a rush, setting off at a blurred pace and flying down the hall with the wild burst of wind and that shift of air pressure.

Diana Prince has posed:
As Pepper and Natasha start their awesome descent down the elevator shaft, Diana is wandering a little further down one of the hallways. Her armored boots are crunching on the glass that litters the floor from Thor's violent arrival.

When the two women start down the shaft, Diana is glancing over to them, then over to... a vending machine.

It is an ice cream vending machine.

"They make these?" Diana quietly says. She glances back to the elevator shaft to see everyone had gone down already. Her shield is put on to her back.

---

A few moments pass by before the Princess of Themyscira gently glides down the elevator shaft with her hair flowing around her bare shoulders. In her right half-gloved hand is a partially unwrapped ice cream cone with bright pink and blue paper torn open, the ice cream is encased in chocolate with peanuts around it. She's taken one bite so far as she brings up the rear of the team.

Steve Rogers has posed:
Steve lands and rolls out into the hallway. That poor sap in the beekeeper suit: the Captain knows how much that widow's sting...stings. He would wince, but suddenly, there's a fiery flicker of information before his mental eye which has him pausing, eyes distanced.

Far -- across the installation -- vast tunneling -- walls and doors and -- but he's there.

Steve blinks a few times, hard, and then gets into the comms: <<'s'a rat nest, folks, but he's there, far end of the compound. Do whatever you can to continue through. Walls don't matter, doors don't matter, remove any AIM or winged troublemakers in your way. Due north.>>

There they go and here's Diana exiting from the elevator. With shield on his arm, Steve pauses and gives her a hint of a smile.

"Where's mine, Princess?" he asks halfway over his shoulder as he breaks into a fast jog on the tail-end of the swirling heat of the Phoenix's path.

Tony Stark has posed:
The man in front of the elevator collapses with a muffled 'oof', falling in a splayed heap. No alarms sound, and nothing comes running. It's quiet. Weirdly quiet for what amounts to the 'top secret lair of an evil organization masterminded by a genuine supervillain.' Funny, that.

With Tony's location telepathically pinpointed, there's little left now to do but get to him. But as the group reach the nexus of the corridors where they branch off, there's an audible hum of electricity and suddenly what look to be mounted cannons of some advanced make and model descend from the ceilings both left and right.

There's an ominous red glow from their housings, the low drone turning into a near-deafening whine as they prepare to fire and ...

<<No, no. Wait, I got this ... >>

A voice, Tony's voice, crackles over what must amount to the installation's PA system. The guns cease to glow, and after a moment retract haltingly back into the ceiling.

<<I can't hear you, but I can see you. Wave if you can hear me.>>

Though not readily obvious, a cursory inspection will show what look like mirrored half-spheres built into the corners that must be security cameras of some sort.

<<You brought ice cream? What kind of rescue mission is this? I mean ... besides the tasty kind, I guess.>> A pause, <<Can you hurry up and get over here? Go right. I think. I was blindfolded but I remember a right.>>

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
    If a look could communicate an ellipses hovering in the air, Natasha gives it to Karen as she effortlessly floats past them. This intensifies when Diana brings ice cream.
    It must be nice, being invincible.
    Natasha draws in a sharp hiss of breath when the canons appear and starting winding up, firmly directing Pepper safely... behind Thor... when they suddenly stop.
    Natasha actually audibly sighs in relief when she hears Tony's voice, her shoulders falling for a short moment. She waves one hand when prompted by Tony. That same hand gestures vaguely at Diana when ice cream is mentioned as if to say '*I* dunno, man...!'
    To the right, he says. Natasha looks to the right, and then... squints slighty. <<Hold on.>> She says, and begins tapping the side of her goggles. <<There's something... some kind of reading my goggles are picking up that leads that way. An isotope, or...>> Natasha draws closer to the turn in the hall as she speaks, peering down that way to see if it goes any further.
    She smiles just slightly at last behind her mask, and turns her head to Pepper. <<A trail, you said?>> then looks to the others. <<I think we can follow this. This way.>>

Rachel Summers has posed:
    Punching into a tunnel system, Rachel drops to the floor and begins a fast walk. Not flying now, not running. But more of a stalk, a predatory one. She is on the hunt, and there is a truth of things here, you can take the Phoenix out of the hounds, but you can't take the hound's instincts out of the Phoenix.
    She punches a hole in the wall to step into the tunnel everyone else is in, noticing folks there like the other redhead. She even smiles a bit before she turns and the turrets appear. She was just about to crush the first turret when the voice came through. She inclines her head and lifts red brows. "I can probably hold off those weapons if I focus everything on that. Won't have much left for attacking." she remarks as her hands come up, and the aura about her flares forward, strengthening her shields that way. But as the voice says to keep moving, she nods and keeps moving forward. Now she is focused on following the tunnels, and shielding the group from attacks as best she can. To the exclusion of all else. But she does glance back over her shoulder and ask, "For the record, what flavor is the ice cream?"

Pepper Potts has posed:
Strangest thing ever, watching someone's cape flapping and just.. hovering. But, it's fleeting, there and gone as Karen descends before them.

The highpowered crew that is along is loud, and it does wonders to cheer the woman in a strange sort of way.

It's the voice over the PA system, however, and not over the coms that brings her attention fully around. "Tony?" Green eyes look up at the cameras, the little red lights glowing to show their activities. She can't help herself, but gives an awkward sort of wave, and there's a rush of adrenaline, a need to get to him, and get all of this over with and behind them. She laughs at the ice cream quip, before shaking her head with a touch of amusement. "He's okay," is murmured with a look towards Nat.

The other woman's words to her stops her briefly, and Pepper perks, brows rising. "He did.." a statement. "Then let's go." Now, she's more than happy to follow, keeping an eye out behind them, just in case.

Karen Starr has posed:
    Being invinicible is the NICEST THING. Natasha isn't even kidding.

    When Thor drops down and elects for the left, Power Girl offers a nod. Striding boldly forward, the turrets pop down and there is a minute shift of her position- hard to pick up, at the speed she does it, but Karen is altogether suddenly in front of everyone who isn't bulletproof, using her position further in the hallway to keep them all behind her fleshy, impervious form. When Tony pipes up, there's a roll of her eyes. "If you're in control of the turrets, just open the doors to-" He continues, she sighs. Of course he can't hear them.

    She turns her head, then, taking point at the door on the right. "I can't keep you safe -and- see the radiation that clearly," she comments, reaching to the side of the door and piercing it with both hands, before ripping it open in a way that doesn't seem like it takes any effort. "I need you to guide, but stay behind me."

    That said, Karen steps through the door, and follows Nat's directions to where they need to go. All the while, she's making sure that while Nat's giving her the trail to follow, Power Girl is taking point- and, hopefully, taking all of the fire. None of them have security clearance and, likely, aren't going to have the time to spoof it. Which means loud is the way she assumes they'll need to proceed.

Thor has posed:
    At the change of Cap's tone in the comms, and his statement, it's clear from the years working with the man that he has intel and he knows. And instantly that changes things for Thor. << You are heard and understood, captain. >>
    And as easily as that, the boundaries are no longer of import to him. The hesitation, the gentleness of care, gone as he stops and hovers for a moment with the mighty Mjolnir spinning in place. << I shall create passage for those along my path. >>
    But then the turrets ready with that whir and mechanical hum, only for the welcome voice of Tony Stark to be heard, << Hah, Stark! >> Even though he had just said he couldn't hear. But the Thunderer does lift Mjolnir to offer a wave to the ether, smiling a little curiously to the others. But he then takes the path suggested, rushing along and utterly not worrying about the occasional wall smashing, though offering suitable Pepper cover as needs be.

Diana Prince has posed:
Diana's eyes glance over to Steve when he addresses her and her ice cream. "It's stupid of me, I know. I had planned to stay up there, and it was quiet but I heard noises down here that i thought I should ... well, best to check on." She offers the ice cream then to Cap but then the voice is talking.

Tony's voice? Uh oh, he saw the ice cream. Somehow. She puts the wrapper back around it and finds a place to neatly set it down before she turns to face the rest of those on her team ahead of her...

And... Rachel, showing up from a hole in the wall. At the question, Diana glances to the cone, then back to the 'Phoenix'. "French vanilla with milk chocolate and peanuts sprinkled on. It is delicious."

Diana raises her shield up then at the talk of weapons ahead!

Steve Rogers has posed:
Reaching the nexus of the corridor, Steve immediately comes to a halt and hugs the wall, shield upraised. Oh great: guns.

No wait, not guns -- and that's a familiar voice. His helmet-cowl doesn't hide his face and there's a small grin. A lift of the spangled shield is acknowledgement of Tony's voice. Apparently, there's an isotope to follow.

"We'll get ice cream after this is done, seems fair enough to me," he says to the gathering as a whole. It'll be a celebration in the end. He's a patriotic presence in the group, calm and composed, ready to deal with whatever shows between now and the distant point still locked into his mind.

Tony Stark has posed:
<<Oh, hey, great, yes. You can see that? Good. The whole ... schematic is stored offline, or they just memorize it or something. I was gonna use it to find my way out but ... huh ... but, well, you'll see when you get here, right? Go go go.>>

The corridor the isotope leads down is long and straight, with doorways on either side. The doors made of that hyper-dense alloy built into the sloping walls, and Tony's voice over the PA manages to carry along with them as they go.

<<Hang on, there's something up ahead. Please hold.>>

Then, against all convention, 'the Girl from Ipanema' begins to pipe through the speakers like so much elevator muzak. A few seconds later, there's an audible crackle as the air before the group flickers with electricity and then goes quiet. The music stops abruptly, replaced by Tony's voice.

<<Uh oh.>>

The doors on either side of the corridor hiss open, and through them pour a cadre of yellow AIM bee-keepers on either side. In their hands they wield batons of a sort that appear to be electrified, and they charge at the group!

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
    <<You heard the Captain.>> Natasha says with alarming straightness, <<Rescue first. Ice cream social later.>>
    She is not including the fact that she said the words 'ice cream' on the job in her report.
    She guides them as best she can without rushing headlong in front of the actually durable members of the party, raising a concerned eye to the nearest PA speaker when Tony hesitates to describe his situation. her shoulders... slump a bit when music starts playing.
    But then the hallways is very, very crowded. Black Widow has no quip for them, no words of alarm or derision, she just knocks her gauntlets together, causing them to whirr to life with humming electricity - no guns right now, vulnerable allies in small quarters, and simply... has at them with her typical blinding speed and ferocity. For a human.

Rachel Summers has posed:
    As for Phoenix, she narrows her eyes. These AIM guys are just.. guys. And she is the interloper here. These people came here to save their friend. So she holds up her shields and says, "Anyone who does not want to engage in fisticuffs can stand behind me and my shields." So yeah. She's totally in support mode here, preventing damage to herself and anyone who elects to let her shield them. Those shields are strong too, about two feet in front of her things just -stop-. Clubs, People, Bullet, shock staves, plasma blasts....

Pepper Potts has posed:
"I'd rather a hot shower and a massage.."

With Thor offering more than suitable cover before her, before them, Pepper is more than happy to follow. At the quip regarding whether or not they can see the trail, she does nod; he's already shown he has some sort of camera access, so might as well give a little feedback, right?

It's that 'uh oh', however; she knows that tone. Not even the hold music surprises her; part of his charm. It's the fact the doors in the corridor open, and she just knew they would! How could they not?

Her aerosol! Pep brings up her spray, and as one steps from the room, she gets him full in the face with a caustic spray, willing him to go down. "No!" and swinging around, she's got her arm outstretched, ready to defend against the next that'll be coming for her!

Karen Starr has posed:
    Karen is stepping through the hallway, and for a moment there's an exhale of breath. "Oh. I thought I wouldn't get a chance to punch something." she offers, taking longer strides and putting some distance between herself and the two she's protecting. "Be careful."

    This is stated before, with her attention off of them, a pair of thugs lunge forward with the electrified ends of their batons, jabbing her right in the chest on either side. They crackle, they hiss, but in the end, these batons are made for humans, not Kryptonians. Her left eye twitches, just slightly. "EVERY, god -damned- TIME." she declares, before her hands wrap around the biceps of the two soldiers. They're like dolls when she moves them, making the pair of them -clap- together at the spine with a definitive noise that denotes their impending need of spinal surgery coupled with groans. They fall unceremoniously unconscious, and Power Girl wades then into the thick of it, striking the soldiers with blows that send them into walls, the roof, and the floor, each one very much out for the count. This, she hopes, will land most of the attention on her- but, all the same, it's rather effectively intimidating, and both Nat and Pepper at least -appear- to be 'easier' targets. With sheer numbers on their side, inevitably Karen can't keep all of them at bay.

Thor has posed:
    Thor releases into the crowd of soldiers, leaping forth at first with the crackle of thunder and a rush of lightning that dances over the crowd once the hammer comes down. There's a whirl of movement as he spins to the side, lashing out left and right as he joins into the crowd with Power Girl at his side. A quick glance is given off to the others, "Go and find Stark! We'll hold them here as we can!"
    And once that is set he turns his focus more upon the yell-suited men and their weapons. A backhand with Mjolnir sends another of the men flying, then a second /zaps/ him with one of the stun batons sending a sharp jolt through the man as he grimaces. "I fault you not your bravery, only your morality, villain."
    Another flick and the hammer sends that man flying.

Diana Prince has posed:
Diana nods once to Cap on her way forward. "Wise as ever, Captain." She tells him before her shield comes up and her lasso is uncoiled at her side. The golden length of silken rope flashes to life as the Princess rushes forward at the Bee Keepers. She had seen the footage of these attackers at the Stark Expo, she'd familiarized herself with their threat levels...

The Princess rushes at them pouring out of another side corridor and drops to her armored knees to glide across the ground at tremendous speeds, the sweep her body out to bowl right into a line of them, causing them all to fly up in to the air above her. Before they even hit the ground, however, she's leaping back to her feet to lash out with her lasso and wrap it around two more of the Bee Keepers! The golden rope tightens around them and slams them to the ground!

These men would much rather be eating ice cream right now, assuredly!

Steve Rogers has posed:
The beekeeper suits clearly don't stand a chance, electrical batons and all. Steve wades in along with the others and goes up against his fair share of AIM thugs. Fist blurs, kicks land here and there to keep distance between himself and the crackling weaponry -- one collides with the spangled shield in a sparkling of impact and resounding CLANG.

There's enough power in this room to level a nearly infinite number of AIM gunmen at this point. Spin-kicking one of them into the hallway's wall, he says into the comms, <<Don't let 'em bottleneck us, we're close! Nat, Pepper, where's the sign telling you to go? Let's move, quick, while they're busy with the power hitters!>>

Tony Stark has posed:
The wave of AIM's murderous soldiers keeps coming, as though they'd been waiting just for this opportunity. It's only by the grace of the heavy-hitting types and telekinetic defenses that they're held at bay, and nearby one of the heavy doors hisses open as somewhere Tony helps pave the way for Cap and his cohort.

The corridor that Tony's telepathic 'signal' leads them to is vaguely circular, with a glass panel. Behind it sits Tony in the same clothes he was taken in, looking tired and bedraggled. On the table is a strange metallic cube that seems to light up from within, and projected into the air is a holographic video of some sort.

In the video, repeating a few seconds over and over, a great shadow descends on what looks like an alien world from high above. The clouds keep it mostly concealed, but the molten rock of the planet's crust is being drawn upwards to the sky. People - aliens, to look at them - scatter in all directions in terror while spacecraft dart around the sky. A few seconds later, the footage cuts to static and begins to play again.

Tony sits staring at it, eyes wide. As the rescue team arrives he turns, hammering mutely on the glass with a fist before pointing at the door across the way. Inside it is empty save for his damaged armor and what looks like controls for the security functions of the lab he's in.

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
    Black Widow pivots on her left leg and lashes out with her right, sweeping it left into the head of one man, then right into the head of the man besides him; before hooking over his neck at the knee and dragging him to the ground with another turn of her body so that she's sitting on the back of his head and choking him with one leg, while she fires a Widow's Sting into the still standing man. She stands, up and then sharply drives her boot down onto the back of the head of the man on the ground.
    <<Right.>> Natasha replies to Thor, and to Steve says <<This way! Come on!>> Before she moves quickly to lead them, hopefully, to where Tony's stashed away.
    <<Tony!>> She calls out where she gets there; more concerned with him than what's on display right now; though she can't help but take in everything to SOME extent. The report must always be comprehensive. Her head turns to where he's point and she nods. <<Okay. Give me one minute. Nobody break anything unless any of this starts making noise.>> She says and she dashes to the control console, quickly trying to determine how to open the cell, and doing what's necessary assuming AIM's security doesn't extend to unintuitive design.

Rachel Summers has posed:
    And now, Rachel moves forward. She maneuvers to follow in the wake of Captain America. But not like she was planning to chase after the guy. These troops need to be held up. And so she turns in the bottleneck and faces them.
    Two are aiming at Pepper, and she doesn't really -hurt- them so much as... just sends a surge of telepathic energy that short circuits them on the spot, their bodies slumping to the floor unconscious as can be. But then she says, "Go." and gestures through the small gap she is holding. "I will keep this contained here." And yep.. she's got her shields up facing the AIM agents while she allows for any who want to slip out of this fight and to go find their Man of Iron to go.

Pepper Potts has posed:
One thing Pepper is actually good at is running, and she's in sensible shoes to do so. Well, boots. She turns around, spins around once, twice, raising her spray to make sure no one gets close before she looks back over at Nat, catching all the action in sensory overload. She's got the tracker! "Let's go, he's right." She didn't come down here to fight; she came down to rescue. (Huh... Rescue.) Shoe's been on the other foot before, that is, the entire reason Tony's here was because of a rescue, so..

No worry; Pepper is going to keep up regardless of the pace at this point!

Down the corridor, and finally... she sees him. "Tony! Oh thank god!" A step is taken towards him, and then a second before she catches the gestures. Relief is etched on the redhead's face at the fact that he //seems// okay, but she stops in her tracks to turn into the direction he's pointing. "In there!"

Changing her path, Pepper starts towards the controls, and looking up at Tony across the way, she looks back at the panel. This is something she might actually be able to do, and do it right. Who gets there first might be a tie!

"I think I can do this." If Tony (even silently) walks her through this.

Karen Starr has posed:
    Karen follows along- now that Tony has been revealed, and considering how much agency he's had, she assumes that the room he's in isn't necessarily sporting a massive number of attentive guards. This means that there's little threat in -front- of them, but behind, there are plenty of Beekeepers.

    This is why she lags behind, covering the doorway they'd just come through. With a few steps, she's standing alongside the redheaded psychic. "You know, you remind me of somebody." she states, as the beekeepers charge. Alongside the Phoenix, she'll make a stand at the bottleneck, making sure that nothing gets through. "You take the ones on the left, I'll take the ones on the right?" It's coupled with an amused chuckle, followed by the noise of her throttling the soldiers that reach them with what some who don't know just how much she's holding back might call reckless abandon.

Diana Prince has posed:
Diana sweeps around a corner, leaving in her wake a field of yellow suited guards laying on the ground with their batons bouncing on the floor. One of them electrified and shocking the person who'd wielded it, over and over again as the body twitches and causes the baton to roll away, only for it to roll back and shock them again.

Diana moves to keep close to where she can hear Pepper calling out to Tony. She looks to keep the woman safe from other guards following, though she does glance in PG's and Rachel's direction. The Princess has her sword in hand now, having used it in the previous tussel, she keeps it readied at her side, her shield once more upon her back.

Steve Rogers has posed:
Steve enters after the hissing separation of heavy doors and he's immediately drawn to the glass cell. He looks at Tony and then back at Nat and Pepper, back to Tony again, and nods. A finger is upheld: one second. What's a proverbial one or two seconds more after being a goldfish for a while?

With the technological manipulation well under way, he returns back to the parted hydraulic doors and surveils the chaos beyond the telepathic field being emitted as well as the continuing influx of the beekeepers.

"Think they'd figure out we're not leaving without him," he comments, easily enough heard by those holding the bottleneck as well as Diana. "No ice cream for these guys though. Too disappointing."

Tony Stark has posed:
With Pepper and Natasha working together, the security console - while advanced - is able to be understood. The door to Tony's cell/laboratory slides open and there he is standing behind it, the strange cube that was making the holographic display tucked under one arm. He looks from Cap, to Pepper, and then to Nat and lets out a short sigh.

"What took you so long?"

He doesn't wait for greetings or grateful embraces, shouldering past them towards the armor and tapping it a few times. Once he's inside, the arc reactor on his chest begins to power it. The helmet is scarred and damaged, and he discards it with an irritable click of his tongue against his teeth.

"This thing," he explains, holding out the cube towards Cap, "Is how they teleported me ... as well as a whole lot of other crap we don't have time to talk about. I think I know how to work it, but we gotta go now. Can you get everybody together? Do that heroic rallying cry thing?"

Steve Rogers has posed:
Steve turns when he hears the glass open. "Good job, both of you," is said to Pepper and Natasha, every ounce of the short accolade meant to his bones. He walks over and pulls up short as Tony offers out the cube. There's a moment where the Captain's jaw can be seen to grit -- no doubt he's remembering the Tesseract -- and he nods curtly.

"Heroic rallying cry thing? Something like -- " and the man fills his lungs. "Avengers? ASSEMBLE!" Surely it's loud enough to be heard over the chaos of the bottleneck of relentless beekeeping goonery? Steve readies himself nearby to Tony and the cube, his attention carefully marking each member as they arrive, checking for their current state and hoping everyone's come out unscathed -- or relatively so.

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
    Natasha stands up a bit straighter when Tony is freed, but sees the urgency in his stride, and stands aside, unable to suppress a bit of a smile as that armor comes to life again.
    And something about that cry is still music to her ears.
    She groups up near Tony, and waits; keeping her gauntlets trained on the door and... hoping it doesn't take longer than expected.

Rachel Summers has posed:
    Assemble? What a weird battle cry. But hey, if it is inspiring and it works... she remembers a saying, 'If it's stupid and it works, it's not stupid.' ... but she inclines her head and for some reason, she gets another tingle of what she needs to go.
    So as she holds off the soldiers, she twitches a finger and the safely wrapped up ice cream bar Diana set down earlier lifts off the ground in a telekinetic bubble.. and floats to her hand. She plans to give it to Di when they get to wherever they are going.

Pepper Potts has posed:
With a little fidding, working out buttons, and the ladies have it figured out in no time.

"What took us so long? Tony, do you realize..." and Pepper quiets again, finally smiling again as he brushes past to the armor, turning to track him as he does. Primary mission, a success. Secondary, he's got his armor! And, bonus, that teleportation device; Pep had wondered if Tony was going to find it.

Why did she even wonder?

A happy smile is given to Steve in turn, and as the call comes out, she looks to where Thor is undoubtedly still working on covering them. Even the big guy needs to get here! Pepper gets a little closer, working her way near the 'assembled', and it's easy to see the tension leaving her shoulders.

"I like the sound of that."

Karen Starr has posed:
    As they're thumping guards, Karen can't help but overhear Steve's rallying cry. This relaxes her from her battle posture, and assumedly, means that they don't have long before they're all gone.

    It helps that she can hear the rest of the conversation, too. Even over the fighting.

    One hand finds its way onto Rachel's shoulder. "Won't hold 'em for long, but we don't need that." she states, before looking back at the apporaching guards.

    With one incredibly deep, and somehow -horrifically- unfair inhale, Power Girl lets loose a sudden burst of arctic cold, freezing the water in the air as it congeals around the limbs and, especially, feet of the guards- whom form a human blockade for the others, despite that with the batons and beekeeping suits of the once that -can- move, they won't be frozen overlong.

    Topping that off with a sigh, she strengthens her grip on Rachel's shoulder. "Hold onto something," she warns, though there's nothing -to- hold onto. With a rush of movement, she and Rachel are a blur when they arrive at the rallying point, with the other Avengers.

    "Set it off, Tony. Not a whole lot of time."

    At that point, an ice-cream cone, with some bites taken out of it, floats softly into Diana's hand.

Diana Prince has posed:
Diana had run in to another patrol of guards trying to intercept them and her reaction was to whip out her lasso once more, to grab one of them and sweep them in to the other causing them both to fall to the ground and slide across the floor toward her booted foot which steps up and on to one of the men's chests. She pins him there, the other sliding in to his partner, and she stares down at both of them as they look up at her through their bee keeper masks.

She just points the tip of Athena's blade down at at them and shakes her head in disappointing... she's not mad, she's just disappointed. The Princess looks up when she hears the call to Assemble and she sweeps her lasso up off of the yellow-suited men.

The golden glowing rope whirls around her body, lassoing herself - while also putting the rope away quickly. She joins the others at the point where Tony is and she offers the billionaire playboy philanthropist a nod and a soft smile of seeing him safe and well.

As Diana turns around, her sword is raised up and slipped back into it's leather sheath, she turns her eyes just in time to see Rachel grabbing her ice cream which makes her smile to the redhead, and to Power Girl. "Your icy breath kept it nice and cold." She says softly to the Kryptonian with glee!

Tony Stark has posed:
"Okay, so I just - " Tony mutters to himself, as the cube begins to display holographic writing in some alien language in the air before him, "Not that. Okay, so ... alright, everybody bunch up close. But, uh, not so close that you don't combine your genetic code with anybody else. We don't want a David Cronenberg situation."

A pause as he looks from face to face with an expression of incredible seriousness.

"I'm joking. It ... doesn't work that way. Anyway, are we all together? Okay. Bunch up. Avengers?" He draws in a breath, looking sidelong at Cap as though he might steal his line before finishing with a more relaxed, "Let's get the hell out of here."

There a white, blinding flash of light. A feeling of momentary weightlessness. And then they're there. Standing in the middle of the Stark Pavilion in Flushing Meadows, with the rubble still strewn around them. A moment later, Tony takes the cube and shoves it pointedly into Captain America's hands.

"Keep this safe. We've ... got a problem."