16013/Seeing Red: Lab Under Attack

Seeing Red: Lab Under Attack
Date of Scene:	14 October 2023
Location:	Secret Government Research Lab outside NYC
Synopsis:	Mercenaries attack a secret government lab. The Avengers respond along with help from Vintridr and Power Girl. Though unbeknownst to our heroes, someone makes off with something from the lab.
Cast of Characters:	Steve Rogers, Karen Starr, Natasha Romanoff, Janet van Dyne, Lara Croft, Bruce Banner, Vintridr
Tinyplot:	Seeing Red

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Steve Rogers has posed:
The general public who live or work in the area never knew what the nearby facility was. Set on a large enough piece of ground to ensure some privacy, the thick wall and the guardhouses with uniformed personnel at the heavy looking gates at the very least suggested a high level of security. But it had always been quiet enough there that no one really gave it to more than the occasional, casual thought.

That changed today as three large dump trucks with ramming wedges at the front rolled down the street, followed by an assortment of SUVs and trucks, some with tarps draping the top. The sound of helicopter rotors drew more attention than the trucks, at least until the vehicles turned, accelerating across the grass to ram the wall in two places to breach them, blowing apart the concrete barriers.

The third dump truck drove down the gate, the guards pulling assault rifles and opening fire. The tarps were pulled off the trailing vehicles, revealing machine guns or even grenade launchers mounted on the roofs. Soon the sound of gunfire and small explosions sent anyone near the area running, while two helicopters swooped down, tracers firing into the compound before both vehicles touched down to add more men in dark pants and tops to those swarming out of the vehicles.

Authorities notified SHIELD and heroes that a top secret government secure lab was being assaulted, and requesting help as the defenders were quickly being overrun. Moments later, another message went out:


                      A V E N G E R S  A S S E M B L E!


Now the Avengers and possibly other heroes who may have heard the gunfire and explosion are arriving on the scene. The attacking mercenaries have set up a defensive cordon with their vehicles and heavy weapons, while others are apparently inside assaulting those within the secure labs themselves.

The two helicopters circle overhead protectively, armed with machine guns and door gunners. And higher up a few drones loop about the area providing an even higher view for the attackers!

Karen Starr has posed:
Power Girl isn't often involved in Avengers operations, since she's not a part of their core membership. But she's certainly happy to help when they put out the call. She gets a good look at the scene with her telescopic vision as she starts to fly in, taking a look at the situation. Military hardware can often make for a lot of casualties, and she's going to do her best to minimize those. She picks up the speed and does a high-speed fly-by on the two helicopters, giving each a tap as she flies by. It's enough to put them into a spin, that the pilots will have to fight to stabilize and control...which means they aren't firing at the facility, and won't be in an immediate position to shoot at any approaching Quinjet.

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
Natasha Romanova is currently sitting in the deploy chute of the Quinjet. The attackers are unkonwn. She's going wiht a full loadout. Even as she goes to scan rapidly through databases, trying to see if the attackers have any sort of heraldry to indicate who they are. AIM, Hydra, Kobra, the League of Assassins.. She's just rapidly scanning to see if there's any sort of familiarity with who they are and what they're up against.

And she's scanning along to see if one of the men with them wears a skull for a mask, has a cape.. And a variety of familiar, darker versions of eqiupment over on him as she gets ready for combat drop.

Janet van Dyne has posed:
Janet's in the other deployment chute, ready and raring to go. When the Quinjet passes overhead she drops out of the chute hugging her knees and letting gravity do the work of taking her down to ground level. There's too much rotor wash for her to be able to get to the helicopters, so she just shrinks down to a barely noticeable size and freefalls the entire distance down to the building's rooftop.

"<Can confirm, both helicopters are armed and loaded with bad guys,>" she reports over the communication net. "<Making my way into the lab.>" It's child's play to find an egress point for Janet to slip into the building, and she's soon buzzing along the ventilation systems at full speed. Data starts to flow back to the rest of the team, marking hostages, guards, and patrols as she clears the building floor by floor.

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara wasn't an Avenger. She wasn't a military soldier even. She was a survivalist at best. But along those lines, she'd been a trained chopper pilot since she was a teenager, and in her time with SHIELD she'd been on many Quinjet flights across the world. Her curious nature lead her to talking to many of the pilots while in-flight, and her ability to remember most everything she wishes to learn, is arguably her most impressive trait. Thus, in a pinch, she's a reliable pilot.

Or so the team should hope.

The British Explorer gets the Jet in to the proper flight pattern to send it weaving through the sky and curving around the complex that is under assault here tonight. She drops speed, she activates the VTOL systems, and she gives a green light for people to get out of their seats, if they even pay attention to those alerts.

"Something quite terrible is happening." She says over the internal comms of the Quinjet too, giving only a moment's glance toward the display of other vehicles in the air. "I can't hold this pattern for long either. Landing would be suicide!" She calls back as her hands rapidly move across the Jet's controls, sweat droplets trickling down her brow toward the sides of her face, her hair tied back in a braided ponytail.

Bruce Banner has posed:
Not a pilot, clearly not smart for being along at all, Bruce does watch Lara fly the ship. He studies how she does things and maybe someday he will figure out how to do that better.

He gets up and goes to the portal to look out over the would be battle field and mutters to himself,"Really should have stayed at the mansion. What were you thiking about?" he chides himself and moves to the edge of the hatch to look closer. That's a good idea.

Steve Rogers has posed:
The Kryptonian flying in disrupts the helicopters which gives Lara flying the Avengers Quinjet an easier entrance than it would have been otherwise.

Though it still isn't easy. As the jet is spotted, some of those grenade launchers mounted on vehicles begin to fire, the payloads intended for aircraft as they detonate after a certain distance.

The Quinjet is rocked about as Captain America grabs his shield and walks to the back. "Can take the jet away if you need to after we're out," he says to Lara, all business as he watches Wasp fly out. "Let's neutralize the threat and rescue the personnel in the lab," Steve says over comms and then he's trotting straight out the back of the jet, dropping the couple dozen feet to the ground where he lands on his shield, making a wide divot in the grass.

The machine guns open up on him, Cap covering himself with his shield as he runs at the kind of speed only a super soldier or powered individual can attain, getting behind the wall that is pierced in two spots plus at the gate.

He leaps across the hole, throwing his shield which caroms off a soldier with an assault rife, ricochets up to take out a man on one of the vehicle-mounted machine guns, and then flies back to where he can catch it and then duck back out of the line of fire again!

Inside the building, the mercenaries have moved forward methodically. Blowing open secure doors. There are bodies of researches, security and other staff who failed to flee elsewhere into the building yet. The sounds of gunfire and shaped charges indicate they are continuing to move through the large structure that consists mostly of labs of varying sorts.

Karen Starr has posed:
Power Girl put the helicopters into a tailspin, and with the Avengers deploying, she's a little less worried about the ground vehicles. A little, at least. She taps the comm bud in her ear. "I'll clear the skies, Cap. Call me if you need me." The Kryptonian loops up in front of the first helicopter, her eyes glowing red a moment.

Searing beams of heat vision hit the rotor mast, cutting through it like the high-powered lasers they are. As the thing starts to drop, she flies towards the helicopter, punching through the outer skin of it to grab one of the main chassis supports her x-ray vision shows her. "Don't give me a reason to drop you, boys. Make nice and surrender." She tells the mercs on board the first chopper, as she starts to swoop towards to the ground to ground the chopper.

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
As the group deploys, Natasha goes quiet. She moves to switch up to the Avengers comm network. <<Moving to head to the interior>> There's a silent hsst as she goes to click on a mirror-mesh put into her outfit. It goes to operate like a chameleon field, an array of mirrors matching her to the background scenery as she goes to stalk her way inwards. Sensor buffers built over into the outfit to make it less likely for an electronic system to alert her.

She goes in near silence, heading within the facility's interior going along an interception route. Trying to avoid engaging any clusters that she can. Letting the rest of the team deal with the external threats and hold off reinforcements.

Janet van Dyne has posed:
Janet comes to a halt in the second level of the building, and folds her buzzing wings to listen carefully before dropping into one of the abandoned offices. "<C'mon Croft, where's your sense of adventure?>" she chivvies Lara. "<Worst case you crash the Quinjet, and-- what, they'll take it out of your salary?>"

With a little leap off the desk Janet flies into the air and starts silently going from room to room. While Hank Pym prefers stomping around in Size 100 shoes, Janet favors fast and decisive strikes that make almost no noise. She appears in midair behind one of the patrolling shooters and touches the back of his neck with an electrical surge sufficient to paralyze a grown man. There's just a little, almost silent *crackle* of static electricity and the shooter goes down for the count. Applied to the spinal column, the injury is mostly non-fatal, but will certainly leave him crippled for life.

The shock applied, Janet shrinks again and vanishes from sight, buzzing away near the ceiling away from view. They'll start finding their wounded comrades soon enough, but the Wasp is certainly doing her part to take out a tithe of them before they realize a fight is even properly going.

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara had been in a number of tense situations inside of various aircraft. Rarely was she in the pilot's seat during it though. This was a bit of a new territory for her. She heard Janet's chiding over the communication network, and a nervous expelling of short laughter bursts from the Brit. "I think there could be worse results than that..." Lara replies. "But I'll refrain from pointing them out right this minute..."

A second after she says that, one of the explosive grenades catches the side of the Jet, causing her anxiety to spike as she feels the entire Quinjet bank forecefully to its starboard side, with its ramp open up, this will likely dump anyone out of the Jet's interior who isn't tied down!

In the haste of trying to recover, with the bulkheads of the Jet making very disturbing noises from the pressure of the very close blast, Lara struggles to get the vehicle back under control. In her haste, she accidentally triggers a emergency comm beacon that hits both her comm bank, and her own personal cell phone inside of her jacket pocket. As it so happens it picks a random series of numbers to send an emergency alert too...

Vintridr is one of those numbers who gets pinged with a series of Coordinates, that just so happen to be not too far away, along with a message that Lara is in dire need of emergency assistance!

Back behind the controls, Croft grips the flight stick with determination, and yanks it to the port side, sending it veering off in toward the north, as Power Girl arrives to draw fire away from the Avengers personnel transport!

The Jet's engines blast to life and the vehicle shoots off toward the northeast!

Bruce Banner has posed:
All the athletic prowess of a beached whale, Bruce should not have gotten close to the door. Tonight seems to be a night of dumb decisions. The hard bank of the QuinJet is basically an invitaion for Bruce to get off the plane and see the world, up close.

There is a soft urk sound and he goes head over heels towards the embrace of gravity. No real time to yell or be terribly scared because the die is cast. Unfortnate for everyone in the surrounding area most likely.

Vintridr has posed:
    Vintridr looks at her phone with a puzzled expression for a moment, until she notices the sender and reads the message, and then she smiles.

    It's not a terribly hidden secret that the Choosers of the Slain can move in the space between seconds and places. It's the only way they could get to where their duties require in time to perform them. But most of them can't do so at will -- there are rules and traditions to adhere to. Only when called. Only when duty requires... Or when a debt, formally acknowledged, is invoked.

    The furball above the facility is chaotic enough that it takes a moment for anyone to realize that it almost seems like the sun changed its mind about setting. For just a moment, a second sun seems to shine in the sky as a lone figure on a winged horse comes riding out of it. A moment later, the second sun is gone again, as if no more than a mirage - but the figure is quite real.

    Vin takes in the battlefield with a glance and nudges her steed, then leaps off just as it banks, letting gravity carry her down toward her quarry.

    Just before she falls into the helicopter's spinning rotor her blade flashes out, and spelled Asgardian steel carves through the blades with nary a pause, sending four rotor blades flying off in separate directions, and a helicopter in the sudden unforgiving grip of gravity.

    Vintridr gives the shocked pilot inside a wicked grin as she kicks away from the cockpit, the push giving her enough altitude for Bragi to get under her and catch her as the helicopter plummets to the ground below.

Steve Rogers has posed:
One man in the helicopter goes to point an assault rifle towards Power Girl, but another person inside quickly slaps the gun away. "It's a Kryptonian, you want her to drop us!?" she can hear him shout to the other. The men inside hold up their hands in surrender.

But that doesn't mean the fight has gone out of everyone. One of the drones dives towards Power Girl, shooting a small missile her way. It's probably not enough to do more than hurt. But more worrisome, another drone above it turns towards some office buildings and apartment complexes a block or two away, as if lining up on them as a target!

The other chopper falls from the sky, the pilot doing the most he can to try to soften its crash onto the grass below!


Ahead of Janet there's a small blast as from one of the breaching charges being used to blow open secure doors on the labs. Followed by a woman's scream. A man's voice can be heard crying out, "Please, don't shoot us! Don't shoot us! We didn't do anything!"

Meanwhile Natasha sees a pair of men in black fatigues and tactical gear. One of them shoots a security officer who turns a corner, dropping the man. The other pulls out a breaching charge and begins attaching it to the door to reinforced door to another lab.


So much gunfire is coming through the gap torn in the wall by Cap that instead of trying to go through it, he backs up and moves along the wall a distance. Then sprints at it and leaps, one hand helping him at the top of the wall as he bounds over it.

As the guns near him try to reorient on him, Captain America is already sprinting forward to close the distance. A flying kick takes down one gunman and then Cap bounds up onto the top of a pickup with a mounted machine gun. His shield bashes the man in the chest, knocking him off the vehicle, and then a spinning slice with the shield tears through the gun's mount.

Before he can pick it up though, a grenade is launched his way, bouncing beneath the truck and exploding to send the truck flipping end over end, and Cap flying free. He lands with a grunt, looking up at how many gunmen and weapons there are just on the outside still. Time is of the essence if they are going to save lives.

<< Bruce, Code Green. Code Green. >>

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
And Natasha goe sto stalk over towards the men. Invisible, even as they focus on their job. Professionals. But so is she. She goes to appear behind them, Widow's Bites in front of her. SHe goes to quickly snap out one baton to smash the man over in the neck, rapidly dropping him with enough electrical energy to give him a grand mal seizure. He drops about as quickly as a politician does a promise.

The other doesn't even have time to whirl around to face her while he's setting up the breaching charge, and she goes to swing both metal batons at him. Quick strike to chin, then to throat. Then shots at the back of his head. He goes to drop a moment later, even as she moves to zip cuff the two of them quickly, yanking away their guns and field stripping them.

Karen Starr has posed:
Dammit. Power Girl sees the missile fire her way, and actually launches herself skywards, crossing her arms in front of herself. If the missile hits her on the ground while she's still next to that chopper, the men in it are probably chunky salsa. So she shoots up at superspeed, intercepting the missile with her own body. She doesn't even slow down, plowing through the explosion, and then through that drone. But it's the other one that concerns her.

As she flies through the exploding cloud of the first, she touches the commbud again. "Hostiles are targeting civilians with drones. Intercepting them, I'm off-site!" And with that, she takes off after the drone, moving after it in pursuit, watching it with vision powers, as she tries to get up to it to prevent any disaster. Her teammates will have to handle the situation on-site. But then, they shouldn't have any problems on that front...after all...they're the Avengers!

Janet van Dyne has posed:
"Shitsnacks," Janet hisses under her breath. She redoubles her flying speed and hits the transmitter. "<I've got an active hostage situation on 2. Nats, I need you here. I see... four shooters and six hostages. In ten seconds, you hit the door fast and drop anyone still standing.>"

The Wasp buzzes into the room and hovers up high, near the drop ceiling. There's a glowing little LED counting down the seconds until Natasha can get across the floor to Janet's location.

Five, four, three.. at 'two', Janet drops out of the air with a heavy kick aimed for the back of one of the shooter's knees. She takes him down and uses his torso as cover while he's off-balance, and launches a burst of crackling green bioplasma at the back of the gunman facing the doorway. The man she's holding by the collar gets a little electric shock to the base of his skull, and Janet rolls to the floor trying to hide behind his lifeless body to protect her until Natasha can storm in and deal with the other two gunmen.

Lara Croft has posed:
"That was a close one, Doctor Banner." Lara says over her shoulder as she pilots the Quinjet off toward the civilian buildings northeast of the attack zone. "I think we're safe now though--" She glances over her shoulder and sees no Doctor Banner. Just an open exit ramp. "Shit." Lara gasps as she spins her eyes back toward the forward viewport. She raises her comm mic up to her lips again. "I think I lost Doctor Banner!" Lara's voice sounds out over the line, as her hands kill the engines and swap back to VTOL. The nose of the jet kicks up, as the wings wobble, and the vehicle spins back around to the southwest!

She doesn't know what Banner's durability is, but she's expecting to find out the worst, when she hears Steve's voice calling for code 'green.' What does that mean?

The Quinjet holds its position, hovering over a set of civilian warehouses, while its pilot watches the second chopper get taken out of the sky by a ... is that a Valkyrie?

"My god..." Lara mutters to herself as her eyes fall to the control bank once more, her fingers rapidly activating system checks, before she hits the ramp button, sealing the Jet back up for the time being.

"Weapons... Defenses..." Lara is talking to herself now, as she continues to familiarize herself with the various systems and capabilities of the vehicle. She tentatively taps a few buttons, before suddenly a series of smoke rounds begin to spray out from under the jet, trails of white smoke behind them as they begin peppering the ground around the north side of the base and over some of the ground forces firing on the Avengers team!

Bruce Banner has posed:
Code Green. What could go wrong? Banner hits the ground pretty hard, but fear and stress are already having their way with the good doctor. It is an uncomfortable sound, a body hitting the ground at height. A sickly, thud.

He doesn't get back up immediately. When the body rises from the ground, it isn't the skinny doctor. Instead a low, growling sound precedes the rise of the Hulk. Tossing the last of a tattered shirt off his shoulders, he looks around the area, walking out of what is left of Banner's shoes. Looking around at all the madness, a noise rises louder than even the helicopter's engine and a scream of rage breaks the night.

The nearest group of hostiles get his attention and he claps his hands together. A shockwave from the impact of his hands throws several off of their feet. Deep breaths, not from fatigue, but from a desire to roar into the night at the nearest flying anything.

Vintridr has posed:
    Vintridr takes a moment to survey the situation. The battle in the air is raging, but appears to be under control -- if nothing else, the Kryptonian she'd spotted on her way in will eventually return and mop up -- but the battle on the ground seems a lot more fraught. Unfortunately her ability to help is somewhat limited by the fact that she's not in the communications loop, but that's a problem she's had to solve before: Simply locate someone who is and link up with them.

    At her touch, Bragi swoops down to the surface, then pulls back up as soon as she's low enough to leap off. She lands amidst the smoke and debris, then quickly makes her way to the hole that Cap made earlier, blade at the ready.

Steve Rogers has posed:
<<Don't worry about Bruce, Lara. The attackers found him, and aren't happy about it,>> Cap sends to Lara over the comms as Hulk sends a number of the armed mercenaries flying with the shockwave from his clap. More turn to fire at him. A few of them start to back away, and one vehicle actually takes off across the compound. Apparently the sight of a raging Hulk is more than those particular men could take! But others are firing at him, including one of the grenade launchers!

The drones are smaller than the ones the US military flies. But large enough to hold a small missile under each wing capable of devastating an unhardened building. The drone flies a straight path, aimed at a four story apartment structure, and then the missiles under each wing fall from it and ignite to begin racing forward!

Gunners on the ground are alerted to the Valkyrie overhead when the helicopter crashes to the ground nearby, sending a plume of smoke up into the air. Men with assault rifles and some on the vehicle mounted weapons turn to begin firing at her as she lands and heads for the hole in the wall.

Other gunners are still focused on Cap. He's up off the ground and running for one of the dump trucks, diving just ahead of a grenade blast that goes off where he'd been. Cap rolls to his feet, throwing his shield in a bank shot that takes out two mercenaries that run around the back of the truck to get an angle on him.

Steve jumps up to the back of the dump truck, using the cover of the smoke rounds from the Quinjet, running over the load in the back of the dump truck that was added to increase its mass for ramming purposes. He smashes open the roof of the truck with his shield, pulling a man out from the driver's seat and throwing him like he weighed next to nothing. Steve drops inside and soon the dump truck is starting forward, accelerating towards one of the trucks with a grenade launcher mounted on it.

There is another, larger blast from inside the building, the sound reverberating down the halls past where Wasp and Black Widow are fighting. Bigger than one of the breaching charges, probably more likely something in the building that didn't react well to being shot or hit with shrapnel. Smoke can be smelled and before long, seen, drifting down the hallways as part of the facility is catching on fire. But with the heroes there, drawing attention, a group of researchers rush past down the hall, looking for safety.

Meanwhile another of the small drones peels off after the Quinjet fires the smoke rounds. It levels out in a gentle dive towards the Avengers jet as if lining up a shot. Within the Quinjet, an alarm goes off warning Lara that she's being targeted!

Karen Starr has posed:
Awww, come ON!! Four individual missiles are a challenge, when they already have a head start. Power Girl calls on that Kryptonian super-speed, and launches herself forward. Her heat vision locks onto one, and it detonates from the beams. Closer. Another heat vision sweep takes out the second, but that's still two. She's closing on them, but missiles be fast, yo.

With the next couple microseconds, it becomes obvious that there's only one good choice. She flies straight at the two missiles, and as they're about to impact, she's almost reached them. She cuts loose with a massive blast of her frost breath, freezing the air around the missiles, herself, and icing up the side of the building at the same time. When the giant ice cube hits, at least it's a blunt impact rather than explosions, and while the building takes damage, at least there's still a building. As the ice-mass hits the ground, THEN it explodes. Ice explodes in all directions, but it does its job of containing the explosions. However, two missiles with complete overpressure is enough to even ring her bells for a few moments.

The blonde Kryptonian lies on her back, dazed by the explosion. "I'mma take a nap right here..." she says, blearily.

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
Natasha is not the blur that the Wasp is. Janet grows, smashes, and shocks while Natasha goes to launch herself from the oppsoite side. Then as the two frehs gunmen are going off, she has to duck on down while she runs at high speed towards the shooters! Her outfit might be armored, but it won't be taking high end automatic weapons fire. The men are prepared for metahuman adversaries, an dthe bullets are lethal.

Natasha seems to blur in place, launching down two flashbangs with a warning sent to Janet. Fist flies up to the chin of one, leg hook going to strike up to his gut. Arm smashing over to hit him in the windpipe. Hand snapping up to jab a metal baton to his stomach. Body lifted over and used as a shield as his partner hesistates to fire through his companion.

Then Natasha goes to keep the man held, charging in and going to body slam the man over to the wall, giving him several strikes over to the face to keep him down.

Natasha goes to a position to cover the researchers if they need it while withdrwaing. She goes to speak on the comms to Janet <<Well done. You're faster than I am. Scout ahead.>> Janet can locate further threats far more effectively than she can - just as they caught the ones before they seutp a breaching charge doesn't mean that there aren't more. They have to be quick with the fire spreading!

Janet van Dyne has posed:
Janet rolls out from behind the gunman and pushes herself to her feet with a wince. She's wiggling a finger in her ear and trying to pop her jaw. "I'm buying you a new car," Janet promises the redhead. "That was absolutely perfect timing." A little buzzing sound and Janet's wings emerge as flexes them to inspect for damage.

Abruptly both women are rattled by the larger explosion that rocks the building. Janet exchanges a fearful look with Natasha, then looks out into the hall at the researchers running for cover. "All right, I'll line 'em up, you knock 'em down," Janet promises Natasha. She walks past Natasha and swats the assassin right on her rear a heartbeat before she leaps into the air and shrinks down to the size of a hummingbird. "<Go, Team Girl Power!>" she declares, and starts buzzing down the hallway.

"<Bruce, PG, could one of you do something about the smoke building up?>" she requests over the 'comm net, unaware of her allies' status from their own battles. "<I'm masked up but the hostages aren't. It's getting pretty thick in here.>"

Lara Croft has posed:
"Copy that." Lara's voice sounds back after confirmation that Banner can handle himself comes over the channel. In the distance, she sees elements of that mighty Hulk Clap taking place too. It causes the Briton to softly shake her head in disbelief at the powers on display down there. She'd seen her fair share of combat on the ground, but rarely did she see this many powerful people all operating in unison together. It's quite a sight on this evening in its dying light.

An alarm goes off. Lara gently jumps in her pilot's chair. She quickly looks over the data displays, and sees the Incoming Warhead warning on one of the flashing panels. Quickly Lara engages the forward thrust, banking the Quinjet to the north again, and raising altitude as she soars up in to the sky!

"Shit, shit, shit..." She mutters to herself with the alarm continuing as the Jet swirls up toward the clouds, banking back around to the west, and further on to the south, the missile clearly visible as it chases the Avengers airship at high speeds, their combined engine exhaust likely shaking the windows of various buildings (and homes) for kilometers!

"Defenses... defenses..." Lara repeats as she starts scanning the systems displays for options before she runs out of time!

In the moment, though, it's clear the inexperienced pilot is in trouble!

Bruce Banner has posed:
Bullets. Annoying pests. Hulk raises a hand to keep them out of his eyes, but otherwise continues towards the shooters. The one with the grensade launcher gets a nasty look. The mechanical popping sound of the launcher sends the explosive projectile at the Hulk.

A glare and then an open palmed smack sends the projectile back in the direction it comes from,"Puny humans..." he shouts over the battle field,"Leave Hulk alone!!!" he roars and starts back towards the unfortunate shooters too dumb to run.

The grenade blows up and sends the shooter flying and disorients the gunmen. He roars at them and again, slaps his hands together to send them flying. This spares them the absolute brunt of his strikes and the body shattering effects they have.

Vintridr has posed:
     Unlike the Odinson, Vin isn't completely immune to bullets - but between the Asgardian armor and shield she wears, nothing short of a shot in her eyes is going to cause her trouble. Still, as long as they're firing at her they're not shooting at anyone who can be injured by the bullets, so she makes herself a tempting target by charging straight for their line, shield held in front of her to cover her face until she reaches their position.

    In deference to Midgard's attitudes, she aims to avoid fatal strikes -- slashing through rifles with her blade before sending one unlucky shooter flying with a backhand from her shield. As he lands in a broken - but technically alive - heap, she turns a glare on the others.

    "None of you will see Valhalla today; Lower your weapons and yield, or face death as it comes for you." Her voice is cold, impersonal, almost unrecognizable to those who know her as it echoes with the implacability of the death she represents.

Steve Rogers has posed:
Cap's dump truck plows forward, crashing into a pickup truck, the mercenary that was manning its grenade launcher diving away from it just in time to not be sent flying with the vehicle itself. The dump truck crashes forward and rams one of the other dump trucks, disabling it.

Watching the bullets bouncing off the Hulk is having a chilling effect on a lot of the mercenaries. They start giving ground, still firing but retreating towards the remaining working vehicles in a measured withdrawal. The appearance of the Valkyrie in the battle isn't helping either. A few turn to run and hop into SUVs or in the back of pickups, while others turn to fire, hoping a near point-blank shot might take the armored woman down!

Bullets ping off the windows of Cap's truck, but it was armored for the assault on the gate. Instead he climbs put of the hole he made in the roof, using his shield to ricochet bullets back at some of the gunmen.

Cap drops down only to find a hand-thrown grenade land just short of him. He ducks behind his shield just as it explodes. The blast sends Cap and his shield flying, his back slamming into the truck he's just left. Steve falls to the ground, dazed, his shield just out of reach. Hulk can see two gunmen run forward as the blast clears, slapping home fresh clips into their guns, intent on being the ones to kill Captain America!

There must be radio communication among the mercenaries, for the ones inside the building also start evacuating. Wasp and Black Widow can see a few men making their way quickly down the hallways, only stopping to shoot at any threats or targets of opportunity. Such as a pair of Avengers!

Karen Starr has posed:
Power Girl is there...barely. She's groggy. Amusingly, it's Janet's comm message about Team Girl Power that starts to stir her. Girl? Power? Wait, that's her, right...and it gets her JUST cognizant enough to recognize the Wasp's request about smoke. <Still off-site. Heading back.> She leaps into the air...and sees the missile heading at Lara's Quinjet. <Or not. Sorry, you guys are on your own on smoke, unless Hulk can handle it!> She arcs after the missile. <Lara, I'll be intercepting the missile in--> Quick superspeed to do some math. <3.2 seconds. Bank hard right!>

She flies at the missile, basically tackling it from the right side, to push it hard to the left. If it blows up, it should hopefully still get it far enough from the Quinjet to do more than a shockwave. And if it doesn't? Then she has a souvenir missile? Maybe something the tech guys can track back. She can easily hold it against thrust till the missile's engine burns out.

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
And the Black Widow is working on escorting the scientists out as the other Avengers fight off the mercenaries and work at handling damage control for the building. She goes to speak to the comms <<If you can, try and prioritize intercepting any officers. They're likelier to have more information than the common soldiers. WE want to take material intact for followup investigation.>> They didn'ts eem to be acting like a normal terrorist group hitting and running.

So to her so far it seemed to be emrcenaries. The lack of any immediate paraphanelia indicating allegiacne or organization was unusual. Even professionals going to try and keep it discrete tended to at least engage in marketing to make sure they had jobs down the pipeline.

She goes to order the scientists to keep thier heads down, weapon up and aimed in front of her and taking the occasional potshot at anyone poking their head in her general direction.

Janet van Dyne has posed:
Janet rolls her eyes at PG's communique. "<Fine, you heard her Bruce, get on it,>" Janet bids the scientist-- still unaware that THE HULK is now on the scene. "<PG, I'll never forgive you for this. At least not until the end of the week,>" she threatens the towering blonde Kryptonian. Take THAT!

It just means she and Natasha are going to have to work a little faster. The Wasp activates a tiny LED on her belt that provides just enough illumination for Natasha's keen eyes to be able to follow Janet through the smoke and debris. It dips and dives, moving forward as fast as a swift wasp but with a human intellect and purpose driving her forward. Three gunmen step into the hallway almost underneath Janet; she doubles back and dithers over them until she's got Natasha's attention. A little preparatory loop-de-loop precedes her going on the attack. Janet dives way down, then rises up from the floor to deliver a full-sized knee strike to the chin of one of the gunmen. It's followed up with a badly-aimed scattering of green bioplasma slung like a pistoleer before she vanishes a second later while they try to bring their guns to bear-- and distracting them from Nats' approach from behind.

"<How do we tell which one are the ringleaders?>" she asks the rest of the team. "<I can barely read US military ranks. Who the hell are these assholes working for?>"

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara really hates the sound of that alarm... With one hand on the throttle, and the other on the Jet's flight yoke, the archaeologist / WAND Agent / several other titles that are utterly irrelevent in this moment pulls hard on the stick the second that Power Girl's voice comes over the comms telling her what to do. She does it instantly, even if she doesn't know Karen she'd caut glimpses of her in action out there and she trusted her to provide her with that backup! That, and she doesn't have a lot of other choices right now!

It couldn't come any sooner either, as Lara's six was about to be blasted by that drone's warhead!

Karen is able to wrangle it however she chooses most appropriate, and in-turn the Quinjet breaks through the clouds, with its bulkheads reverberating violently from all of the speed, and dangerous manuevering that it was enduring.

It's pilot? She's breathing heavily beneath the safety embrace of the crash webbing strapped around her keeping her mostly still in her pilot's seat.

"Thank you for the backup." Lara's breathy voice sounds out over comms.

Vintridr has posed:
    Sneaking to a heavily armored enemy in order to strike at what is hopefully a weak point isn't a bad idea; full marks for initiative. But Vin is Valkyrior -- a veteran of more battles than some mortals have seen Sunday dinners. She backhands the would-be ambusher with her shield just as he thought he was almost ready to get the drop on her.

    She doesn't have time to savor her victory, however, she sees the enemy formation falter and crumble -- but not everyone flees. She dashes after them without so much as a pause to second guess her own reasoning; any enemy that runs into the fray when all seems lost is among the most fanatically loyal, and when they can no longer hope to prevail, they would seek to do as much damage as they can before falling.

    They're running all out, and they're well trained. But their gear is heavy, and Vintridr moves faster than most children of Midgard can dream of. The first sign they have of her presence is when the rearmost is seized by the collar of his armor and thrown into the others like a misshapen bowling ball.

    Whatever they were hoping to do, they'll have to learn live with the disappointment.

    Also probably some broken bones.

Bruce Banner has posed:
Disgusted with the whole situation, Hulk turns from the men he just bowled over. About to look for an exit, Hulk sees the two moving in to shoot the good Captain. Loyalty. Annoyed or not, Hulk is loyal to those that have stood by him.

The hand slap would hurt Cap as much as the two gunmen so he stomps the ground enough to shake them and storms towards them with a burst of inhuman speed.

Most people hold back, but the Hulk is not most people and the slaps the two men in opposite directions. They fly away, one hitting a truck, the other bouncing off the ground several times before coming to a stop.

Looking down at Cap he motions the other to get up, then turns his back to protect him until he is on his feet and carrying his shield once more.

His attention moves up towards the Quinjet and Power Girl. His eyes narrow as he studies the arc of the Jet. He takes a half step forward and prepares to leap at it, should it start to fall from the sky. The com that was in his ear is lying on the ground with the rest of his clothes, so not aware of the chatter.

Steve Rogers has posed:
Steve Rogers staggers back to his feet, shaking his head to clear it from the effects of the hand grenade blast so close even if the shield protected him from its shrapnel.

"Thanks Hulk," he says, touching the Hulk's massive shoulder in gratitude as he looks about to take stock of the situation.

The mercenaries are in full retreat now. A few vehicles start forward, heading for the holes in the wall or the gate. Others are on foot though they don't have much hope of outrunning those who would be chasing them. The fight is out of them though, and if they can't escape they are as likely to drop their weapons and surrender as not.

Steve takes a few steps towards an SUV, whirling to hurl his shield. It sticks into the tire and the SUV swerves and tips over onto its side. Cap jobs over to pull his shield out and point at the shaken up gunmen inside. "Just keep your hands off those weapons!" he says.

If any drones survived the fight, they are already winging away from the encounter in various directions to try to get away.

Lara Croft has posed:
With the proverbial coast clear, the Quinjet once more descends from the sky. It emerges from the clouds above, arching down through the late evening horizon toward the attack zone once more. Lara, behind the controls still, calculates her entry area and within moments she is killing the forward thrust again, pulling the throttle back, until the Jet simply hovers above the main road in to the facility that the Avengers just siged. She observes the carnage outside, seeing no visible signs of resistance the SHIELD agent begins to set the Jet down upon the hard deck of the pavement below.

"I'm outside." Her voice chimes over comms. "Quinjet settling in on the main drive." She says as she begins putting systems in to stand-by mode. She finally takes a moment to lean back in her chair, and let a heavy breath escape between her lips, with one hand coming up to swipe her losoe dark brown bangs from across her sweat dampened brow line.

"Well, that was a learning experience..." The English woman sofftly says to herself, her other hand grabbing the lapel of her shirt to wave a bit of cool air down inside her clothing to help relax her nerves.

Bruce Banner has posed:
The QuinJet under control, the Hulk shifts his attention another direction. He coils the muscles in his legs and leaps away from the chaos. The green behemouth making his way far from the loud, moving north towards the border or at least past the major cities. All he wants is to be alone, so he seems to be on his way to his biggest want. Each landing is an impact tremor after another.

Steve Rogers has posed:
In the aftermath of the attack the fire trucks and ambulances have rolled in. The fire that was in the building fills the air with the smell of ash and smoke. First responders are helping injured staff from the building and treating them for transport to the hospital. Police have sealed off the area to the public, stationed out by the road though by now news trucks and curious civilians have gathered as the gunfire has come to an end. Handcuffed mercenaries sit under police guard as vehicles arrive to take them away.

Inside, a man in firefighting gear and face covered by his oxygen mask lugs his pack down a hallway, emerging outside through the wreckage of the front entryway. His fireproof jacket is smudged as if from fighting flames inside. Outside he looks around at the multitude of flashing lights and police, EMTs and firefighters moving about their work.

Another ambulance pulls into the compound and rolls up to join the others. The firefighter spots the identifying marks on it and makes his way over to the vehicle's back end. The rear doors open and a sturdily built man in an EMT uniform reaches down to help the firefighter into the rear of the ambulance.

The EMT helps with removing the firefighter's mask and then moves to close the door before banging on the divider up to the driver. The ambulance immediately pulls forward again, heading out towards the road. Policemen move aside, making way as it turns to head off in the direction of a local hospital.

The man in the firefighting gear lets out a breath of relief as the vehicle speeds away from the site of the attacked lab. "Avengers," he says, shaking his head at who showed up. Opening a cabinet in the ambulance, he pulls out a sophisticated, encrypted radio and sends a brief message.

"Mission successful. Both packages acquired."

The ambulance disappears off into the night.