16154/Seeing Red: Booms For Banner

Seeing Red: Booms For Banner
Date of Scene:	27 October 2023
Location:	East Side
Synopsis:	A bomb goes off on the East Side of New York. A call into J. Jonah Jameson's radio editorial claims five more devices have been planted. The Avengers and Reed Richards track down the bombs. Only they proved a diversion for the abduction of one Dr. Bruce Banner by unknown foes.
Cast of Characters:	Steve Rogers, Natasha Romanoff, Tony Stark, Reed Richards, Sara Pezzini, Janet van Dyne, Bruce Banner
Tinyplot:	Seeing Red

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Steve Rogers has posed:
The news of the explosion on the East Side of New York went out quickly. And right on its heels were reports that someone had called into J. Jonah Jameson's radio editorial show, Just The Facts. Not only did they claim responsibility, but said they had planted five other bombs in the area. Including one somewhere within the Daily Bugle newsrooms.

(see: https://heroesassemble.mushhaven.com/index.php?title=Just_The_Facts_with_J._Jonah_Jameson_(Seeing_Red_plot) )

The city streets quickly become a gridlock from people trying to flee the area in their cars. Heroes who hear about the situation start to arrive to try to help. There is a police presence, though the demolition squad is still on their way. And 'the East Side' is a pretty large area to search.

The explosion that already took place was at the Parrington Mansion. Along with the Daily Bugle it is a rather high profile building in the area. Which might have made it a high profile target. There are a half dozen other locations in the area that might stand out as being desirable to someone seeking publicity. Including the UN, though they have their own security teams on site and are locked down and sweeping the facility, not needing hero help.

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
Natasha Romanova is racing along on her bike, weaving in and out of traffic <<This will have to be handled quickly. Damage at the United Nations will have catastrophic diplomatic results and spillover. Or in the general area.>> She does however also have another thought.

<<And these events are likely a distraction. No name or cause was given during the threat. If they were truly seeking attention there would be a cause and persona advertised. This is to get us out of position.>>

Tony Stark has posed:
    Tony wasn't listening to Jameson's show. Mainly because he hated that guy. He considers buying the Bugle and firing J.J.J. about once a week, but he just hasn't gotten around to giving it serious thought yet. The explosion, however, gets his immediate attention. He tosses four different channel's coverage into the air around himself, then adds an open channel to the Avengers as well.

    "Homer, bring up the Snapper, load it with bomb sniffers and cutting tools. And add on the fine manipulation gauntlet" he says apparently to nobody, at least until a disembodied voice replies "Of course sir." Thirty seconds later an iris in the floor opens and one of the Iron Man armors raises up from the workshop. It's a little bulkier that the usual suit and looks a little more like a utility suit than a combat one.

    "Transfer the channels into the suit." he says as he walks over and steps into the back of the suit, which seals behind him. Another iris opens in the ceiling and with a blast of repulsors he's into the sky and headed towards the column of smoke from the first bomb.

    He circles the blast site, scanning with various sensors to try and pick up traces of the explosive used. "Got it. Transfer the explosive's signature to the sniffers. Have we got a incident HQ yet? Never mind, open the Avengers comms." Tony's voice goes out over the Avenger network <<Ok, who's in town today besides Nat? I've got bomb sniffers for anyone who needs one, landing near the first explosion site.>>

Reed Richards has posed:
Reed Richards descends on the blast site in one of his fabled Fantasticars. He wears his usual Fantastic Four suit in blue and black, trimmed in white. He's wearing a trimmed beard and the fabled white at his temples may have grown a little whiter, but not much. For all of his age and experience, he remains a vital and capable man, in mind and body.

Floating behind him is the mechanical visage of HERBIE, his robotic helper and primary tool when the other members of the Four were otherwise occupied. "Give me a materials analysis of the blast residue, HERBIE. We'll see if we can get a significant enough molecular signature to be identifiable."

One hand continues to work on the FantastiPad that hovers infront of him as the rest of his torso and his head stretch over to greet Iron Man. "Tony. I presume the caller masked his location too much for conventional tracing. Should I task one of my satellites? I can backtrace a scan to find the specific radio wave broadcast that connected to Jameson's phones."

Sara Pezzini has posed:
There was one nice thing about being a New York City detective, as well as being an Avenger... you got the news pretty quickly. Sara was already in the area with her Special Investigations team, working a scene for the police department involving a gaggle of imps that had 'accidently' been released into an apartment complex. Nothing like troublesome little demons to help train normal officers in how to deal with the supernatural.

Thankfully, they had already managed to round up all the trouble makers when the news about bombs came across the radios. No sooner at the report ended than her own team was shooing her out the door with 'orders' to go be an Avenger now. Leaving them to finish up the task at hand, then help with evacuations of the complex itself, she darted outside as Stark's voice came over the Avenger's comms.

<"I'm about twelve blocks from the location of the first explosion and on my way now,"> she reported, even as the suit she wore became tiny shreds of cloth on the sidewalk. Witchblade was always ready for action and any excuse he had to armor up his Wielder, he took.

Leaving her motorcycle and scraps of her suit behind, she sprang into the air to take flight even as the wings were forming. <"Witchblade has no way to detect explosives, but I've had training in disarming explosives... give me a location and we'll do what we can.">

Janet van Dyne has posed:
"<I'm incoming with Nats,>" Janet announces over the comm 'net. She's hugging the redhead's waist from her seat on the back of the bike, wearing lightweight gold armor rather than her usual yellow-and-black catsuit. "<I'll take the Windsor. I've got my babies with me.>"

A bit of a cryptic answer; Janet pats Natasha's spine twice to let her know this is her stop, and reaches back to grab two thermos-sized containers strapped to the back of the bike. The vehicle slows just enough for Janet to be able to take a stumbling dismount, and she waves farewell at Natasha before she faces the imposing old New York icon.

The socialite starts humming under her breath and unscrews the thermos caps. Hundreds of winged carpenter ants fly out of each container and she directs them to start their way to the building.

"Ok babies, make mommy proud," she mutters to herself, and looks down at the tablet in her hand that marks where her ants are searching in the building.

Bruce Banner has posed:
Meanwhile, not anywhere near any potential bombs, Bruce waits to meet an old friend and a few of his consituents. They haven't seen each other for a while and so he waits patiently. Ordering a coffee, he turns his attention towards a TV in the cafe and frowns. He checks his phone, no requests and on Code Green, so he decides to stay far away from this circus.

Steve Rogers has posed:
As the various heroes arrive, one of the policemen runs over to where Tony and Reed have set down. "Iron Man, Mr. Fantastic, we're really glad to see you," he says. "There were a bunch of people hurt in the first explosion, though we got kind of lucky it was a small crowd there today. If they hit some of the other places around here," he says, turning to look down the street at the variety of East Side buildings, "It could get really bad. We've got bomb sniffing dogs on the way but there's only three in the area so far. The rest of our men are trying to evacuate people, get as many out through the subways as possible."

The cop looks at the streets that are hopelessly snarled with cars. And some people are abandoning their vehicle to flee on foot, completely stopping traffic. Though Natasha's motorcycle makes a way through the traffic. Though she may have to dodge some cars opening their doors. Doesn't anyone teach the Dutch Reach here!?

"Anything else we can do to help?" the cop asks, looking between the fabled heroes. One of the other cops greets Sara when she arrives. She is easily one of the higher ranking police on site.

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
Natasha Romanova would speak through the comms <<Appreciated Janet. We need to try and cover as much ground as possible.>> Bomb sniffing ants and Mister Fantastic's drones, and Tony's sensors will hopefully give them an advantage in tracking.

<<Any you can locate I can hopefully disarm. We have to deal with them quickly. The terrorist will likely be detonating them if he detects we're disarming multiples of them, so we have to act quickly>> Weaving in and out of traffic going along, deferring to Tony on his orders.

Tony Stark has posed:
    Five small drones float up out of sockets in the armor and come to a hover above Tony. When Sara says she has no way to detect bombs, one of the drones takes off in her direction at high speed, coming to a hover just over her shoulder and beeping quietly. <<The little guy will let you know if it detects the explosive used Sara, so you're good to pick a spot and start looking.>>

    Turning to Reed, he sighs and says "That stretching thing is still just so disturbing, you know that, right? But yeah, work on the signal. We need to stop this guy before he sets any other bombs as well as finding the ones in place already."

    Looking over to the policeman, he gestures at Sara and says "She'd be the one to give you orders, but my guess would be mainly help the injured and clear the area while we look for bombs." Another of his sniffers shoots off to hover above Nat, easily keeping up with her cycle.

    <<Guys, let's spread out and find those bombs. We know one is somewhere in the Bugle building, but we have no idea where the others are yet. Cover as much territory as you can, we don't need more people hurt.>> There's a sigh, then he continues <<I'll go save that dink Jameson, I guess, so the Bugle is out of your search areas. Let's find some bombs.>>

Reed Richards has posed:
Reed Richards smiles slightly to Iron Man, "Tony, you have to expand your mind a little bit. My physical distortion is only a manifestation of my underlying molecular structure. You're missing the forest for the trees, lost in aesthetics. I am Mr. Fantastic, after all, and I assure you, my powers are very much just that."

Reed has on contacts with a heads-up display that allows him to manipulate HERBIE from afar with precision eye movements, running through a series of menus at the speed of his hyper-acute mind. "I'm correlating the most likely target areas to see if we can narrow down our search. It would be easier if we had an understanding of their message or mission. Unfortunately, Jameson's loud mouth makes him an easy target - too many potential offenders to use him as a starting point."

Bruce Banner has posed:
The ones Bruce is waiting on show up. He nods to them, but he doesn't engage too much just yet. There is a lot going on and he shouldn't be there, but it is difficult knowing someone might need the Hulk, but not wanting to let the monster out of the bottle.

Sara Pezzini has posed:
For most of Sara's career, before Witchblade became a part of her life and before her identity went public, she was just a hard working New York Detective on the lower rungs of the ladder. Now however, all that was the past as some how she ended up with the authority to actually make decisions that mattered. That was something she had never expected in her life, but was a mantle she would wear to ensure the safety of New York and the world.

Stopped traffic would be an issue, but assigning officers to clear now parked cars would be a waste of manpower. They would need to choose specific vehicles to get out of the way.

"We have standing traffic," she says to the officers as she hovers near their location, already looking for signs of another senior officer. "We need those cars checked for elderly and the disabled, those who can't move on foot to get away from this area." She pauses to listen to a series of reports, and to listen to the sirens now stopped a few blocks away. "Fire department and EMTs are blocked, you and you, try to get them a path in to the site, tune your radios to channel 23 and give me updates until another senior officer arrives."

Shifting her attention to Tony, she spots the little floating drone then offers a nod as she says,  <"I'll take your little friend into the Shaw Building... got a friend who will never forgive me if I let that place go up.">

Putting words to action, she lifts into the air again, checks to ensure the drone is following, and heads toward the Shaw Building.

Janet van Dyne has posed:
Janet's eyes are glued to her tablet, and anyone who tries to talk to her gets one-word answers at best, or else, an outright dismissal. The carpenter ants are buzzing into the building; they're trained to enter the air ducts and follow the scent of the chemicals used to make explosives. They can go anywhere, crawl into every room, and are difficult to distract once they're on the scent trail.

Sure enough, after a few minutes, a little cluster of them forms in the building's sub-basement. Janet's sensor equipment can pick up the subtle radioactivity that marks each insect and the more concentrated they are, the more likely they are to have found a bomb.

"<Wasp to all points. I think I've found the Windsor bomb. It's in the sub-basement, near the center of the building,>" she announces. Janet puts her tablet up and vanishes into the air, buzzing towards the building with best speed and making a (literal) beeline for where her ants have found their quarry.

Steve Rogers has posed:
As Tony heads for the Daily Bugle, his suit picks up J. Jonah Jameson still broadcasting his radio show. "... and I will not leave this building I know that my fellow New Yorkers are safe!"

There is a reasonably calm evacuation going on, people taking the stairs down. The newsrooms are in disarray, a sign the initial reactions weren't quite so calm. There is a lot of equipment in there. A lot of cabinets and spaces that could easily contain a device capable of the size of explosion that hit the other building already. With multiple floors just to the news rooms, Tony has some searching to do!


As Sara Pezinni reaches Shaw Studios, there's an employee out front, wringing his hands. "Over here!" he calls to her. "We got so much new equipment in lately, I'm afraid maybe it could have been an opportunity to sneak something into the building. Our security is normally pretty good," he tells her. "There's a new server in back, and some new audio boards in the recording areas. Oh, and new furniture in some of the office space," he says. "I'm trying to get everyone out still!"


As Reed's probe HERBIE goes through the Goodman building, it gets varying reactions. A woman screams. "It's a flying bomb!" she yells, pointing at the poor drone. A man pulls off his jacket and leaps at Herbie, trying to ensnare it in his suit coat and yelling, "Run!" planning to cover Herbie with his body like a grenade in a war movie. Not that his body on top of a device of that size would do -anything-. But hey, he's trying!


The security guards are waiting for Natasha as she arrives in Croft Center. "Thank god, it's the Black Widow! We have people out searching the floors but we don't know much about finding bombs. We're looking for anything that looks out of the ordinary. There was a painting crew in here yesterday, up on the fifth floor, other than that we haven't seen anything suspicious," he tells her.


Janet's mighty ants seem to be homing in on a likely bomb. She's able to whip past residents who are evacuating. There's a crying kid being dragged by his arm by his father, the kid whining, "But I wasn't done watching Frozen yet, Dad! This is so unfair! Why do we have to leave!" He tries to stomp his feet which just results in him being dragged behind his father, who mutters something about the boy's mother that would probably lead to a big fight if she was around to hear it.

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
Natasha Romanova would arrive over on her motorcycle and ignore the 'thank god' moment. "Help create a perimeter and evacuate the area." It's left unsaid in case seh fails. Natasha doubts she will, but thinking that one will always succeed leads to sloppiness and arrogance. She goes to key in a chemical sniffer, which goes to start taking air samples and going to try and scan for electronics or substances that would tie in to a detonator.

"Who had the painting purchased and delivered? Where did they get it from?" It's the only event that's thought of by the security guard, so it's a possible lead. However with how wide and open this area is, infiltration and planting explosives would be simple.

But, it also will hopefully help the security guard calm down and focus.

Sara Pezzini has posed:
Witchblade wasn't fond of technology, he had always preferred more 'in your face' methods, but working with Sara had given him a least a tiny bit of acceptance toward it... that didn't mean he wasn't rambling away in Sara's head about this whole thing being a waste of time and energy. To him, the people should be leaving and thus if the bombs went off, problem solved.

Sara zipped right up to the building and the man outside, and while the red 'eye' watches the drone, she focuses her attention on the man. "Do what you can to get everyone out of the building as quickly as possible," she stats with authority in her tone. "Then get out of here yourself. The few people at risk the better."

Wasting no more time, she chooses a route inside that won't interfere with people trying to get out... she goes through a window on the second floor. "Alright little drone, do your... well shh..." moving to follow the drone as she speaks, she spots a band in a recording studio who apparently have no idea they are in danger. She can't hear the music, but she can see them still jamming.

Moving through the main studio room, she notes that whom ever was running the session had left and not bothered to inform the band. Muttering to herself about selfish low lifes, she tries the door to the sound proof room and finds it locked. "For fuc..." she snorts, then punches the thick sound proof glass to shatter the window. "You need to be evacuating now!"

Reed Richards has posed:
HERBIE emits a low level forcefield to keep the potential attackers at bay, a mimicry of Sue's infamous invisible bubble. The robot activates a holographic projector which creates a giant floating Reed Richards head above his digital interface...er, face.

"Please refrain from striking HERBIE. He is here to help. Evacuate the building in a calm and reasonable fashion. Please be especially on the lookout for elderly, disabled or children present to make sure they get safely. Do not panic. The Avengers and I are hard at work."

Once disengaged, HERBIE's sensors should hopefully lead him relatively quickly to the bomb's location, as his systems are more than capable of penetrating conventional walls and security systems.

Tony Stark has posed:
    Tony still has three of the sniffers with him, so they are tasked with search patterns around the Bugle building, meaning that he can basically search four floors at once. Knowing there's a bomb here makes the search a little less tedious however. Always nice to know you're not wasting your time. He sends a sniffer into the basement, then has the others cover three floors at a time. Tony himself heads right for the newsroom to start his search.

    Displays light up, modeling his surroundings in 3-D as he drifts through the halls and rooms full of desks, computers and file cabinets. The suit's sensors are cranked up to maximum sensitivity since he'd like to find the bomb before it manages to go off. He wouldn't miss Jameson that much, but he'd feel bad about the producer who's also stuck there.

    The sniffers on the lower floors make fairly quick work of them and begin working their way up as he searches through offices on the Bugle's main floor, talking to himself all the while. "It's gotta be up here somewhere. There's so many people going in and out and equipment being moved around that it would be a fairly easy thing to get a bomb in here someplace." Jameson's voice continues to play over the speakers in the newsroom, trying to figure out a way that this is somehow Spider-Man's fault. "Man, that guy is a serious one-trick pony." The search takes him past the radio booths, including the one Jameson is in. As he goes by, he smirks a little, says "Is that part of the bomb?" and sweeps a cutting laser over the connection between the booth and the transmitter, taking Jameson off the air. "Ah, oops, that wasn't it."

    He continues to search the floor, still hoping to find the bomb before it goes off.

Bruce Banner has posed:
Bruce watches things on the television. Angsty folks annoy him, but he doesn't show it. Finally he moves his attention to his old friend, giving the others his attention and looking for a seat to talk with them about why they brought him here.

Janet van Dyne has posed:
Janet flits along inside the building following her ants until she finds the room in question. It's a non-descript supply closet with a broken door latch, marked 'closed for maintenance'. A little wriggle under the door gap and Janet's face-to-face with the liquid fuel bomb.

Smart enough not to just walk up to it, Janet elects to fly up atop a shelf so she's got a better bird's-eye view of the situation.

"<Reed, Tony, I've got eyes on mine,>" she informs the scientists. A moment later a view from her helmet camera clicks on. "<Looks like a binary explosive with a... I think that's some kind of mixing pump between them, and a detonator on top.>" She frets her lip. "<It's pretty complicated looking. Any advice on disarming it?>"

Steve Rogers has posed:
The members of the band at Shaw Studios are in a groove. This is no doubt going to win them a Grammy when they put down this inspired-

CRASH! The soundproof window shatters and they all jump, one guitarist falling over his seat backwards. One starts to argue with Sara, but the others see she's some kind of hero or something with that mystical-looking armor on, and they drag him out with them.

As they are heading out, the drone from Tony begins to beep a few times and dart forward more rapidly towards a doorway labeled "Servers". Once inside, its laser will start up, pointing at one of the server racks that can be opened to reveal the bomb inside.



At Croft Center, the guard tells Natasha, "It's a painting crew, they were repainting the hallways on the fifth floor. So everyone had to clear out their offices since they couldn't get to them, plus the smell of the paint fumes would have driven them out anyway." He hands her his security ID that will let her access all of the building without having to break through doors or pick locks.

The hallway on five still has painters tape in places and covers on the flooring. A nice shade of taupe, if those words are allowed to be used together. Down at the end of the hall are a number of paint cans stacked together. The sensor that Natasha brought starts to beep, and a laser emits to point over at the cans, as if maybe they are concealing something behind them. The bomb, two liquid agents that when mixed will result in catastrophic results!



The holographic Reed head is enough to stop the office worker's attempts to snare HERBIE. He puts his coat back on with a sheepish look, and moves to accompany the office worker who had screamed. She looks over at him as they head for a stairwell, saying "Geez Gary, you're such an idiot."

HERBIE continues on, navigating the building as valiantly as his Volkswagen-vintage namesake. Eventually he detects particles of the same type of explosive, leading Reed to a stairwell. There on the roof of the elevator car below, is a device with two tanks of liquid that when mixed, will go boom. There is wiring and a timer attached!



At the cafe where Bruce Banner sits watching the news coverage, the TV is showing helicopters flying over the East Side. Showing the snarl of traffic. Where Bruce is not too far away, the traffic is at least flowing, just far enough away from matters that the police using both directions for fleeing traffic is keeping things moving.

A waitress comes over to him, pausing to glance at the TV, then back to Bruce Banner. "Want coffee?" she asks him, holding a cup on a saucer. "And, regular or decaf?"



Iron Man's inappropriate use of a laser at least saves some of the city from having to listen to the man's ongoing diatribes. Though so far the bomb has eluded him.

Though up ahead his sensors spot something out of the ordinary. A printer that has lights on it and is plugged into the wall, but his sensors say is drawing no power through the plug at all. Printers don't normally have batteries.

And next his sensors detect there is indeed a battery inside the large office printer's case. And more as traces of the explosives are detected!


Janet's device was just hidden away in a storage room, suggesting the apartment building was an easier time getting it inside to not need as elaborate of a facade around it. There is a timer on it that is counting down steadily, with only a few minutes left on it!

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
Natasha goe sto speak into her comm as Janet's signal comes through <<Shrink it and throw it away into the Microverse>> Go with the simplest way if you can. She's reasonably sure with time and effort they can disarm all of them, but just in case.. Better to not leave things to chance. An old analogue style detonator is a bit of a surprise. Bulkier, but also can take rougher handling and less prone to be disrupted.

It's not slapsadasical at all, clearly someone knew their things and how to work.. But it's hardly a mastersmith. More skilled than a group of random terrorists working with designs from the Internet, but also not meeting the bar of Hydra or Kobra's experts.

Natasha doesn't want to risk messing up the device by jarring it - she trusts herself and her abilities, but some things one doesn't want to risk if they don't have to. Natasha reaches down over to a utility pouch, and goes to take out some more specialized equipment for dealing with explosives. This? This one is a small canister of freeze spray. Chilled as much as it can get from available technology.. She would go to then carefully apply it to the detonator, which would 'flash freeze' the core and render it inert with the internal electrons and wires having almost no current transiting along them. And also hopefully preserving the detonator for later analysis.

Still, she's of the inclination that this is purely a distraction by training.

Tony Stark has posed:
    With the bomb found, it's time to go to work. Tony says "Ok, swiss army knife it is." and his right gauntlet sprouts a number of cutters and manipulators as well as a fiber optic cable that snakes into the printer and gives him a look at the device inside. "Well, that's... not as advanced as I expected. Homer, give me a 3-D model of the bomb."

    The AI does as requested, and Tony uses the model to trace wiring until he finds the place he's looking for. A small cutter snakes into the printer casing and snips the wiring junction that connects the detonator to the timer and transmitter. "Great, an amateur. We better find the guy, he's likely to blow up people he doesn't mean to. I mean, if he blows himself up, no big loss, but this thing could have gone off early if someone tried to fix this printer."

    With the bomb disarmed, he simply unplugs the printer, picks it up and flies it down the stairwell and out the front door. <<Bugle is clear, and I've got the bomb to examine for any clues, fingerprints, that kind of thing. How are the rest of you doing?>>

Sara Pezzini has posed:
With the task of interrupting a jam session now complete, Sara turns her full attention to the sniffer drone. The fact that new equipment had arrived that very day did not escape her memory, it was the likely the /only/ way someone could get something into Shaw Studios undetected.

Turning her attention back to the sniffer drone, she notes its excitement, or whatever it was one might call the thing doing its job, so she moves to follow it. Almost to the server room she passed a large man she knew to be Gary, one of Shaw's security guards, and offered him a nod.

"You got a band evacuating studio B," she informed him. "Get everyone out... now, even if you have to carry them out."

Pausing just just long enough to open the door, she darts in after the drone. The laser lights up the location and she stops for one deep breath, then carefully opens the side of the server panel. <"Got eyes on the bomb in the Shaw Building,"> she breaths out in a whisper, already taking in the size, build, wires, what chemicals she can determine to have been used. It was a complex creation, but it lacked the signs of a master bomb maker, which meant it was likely the sort of explosive that was touchy.

As the timer silently ticks down the seconds, a silent command to Witchblade sends tendrils of metal out from the armor to wrap around the server and carefully under it. Sealing herself inside the barrier against a possible explosion, she continues her assessment of the device. <"Good thing I'm a quick study, and determined enough to get learn everything I can," she mutters more to herself than the team.

With another deep breath pulled into her lungs, the armor forms more solid around her entire body and a full face mask covers her face. Witchblade can form all kinds of bladed and hand to hand weapons, so requesting a pair of sharp wire cutters in her right hand actually made the ancient entity start laughing in Sara's head. She might have to hear about this one for a while.

Reed Richards has posed:
Reed Richards speaks into the shared communications channel.

"Better living through chemistry. We need to make sure these particular ones don't mix, thus the living can, indeed, continue to live. HERBIE, please upload an x-ray scan to the data feed. Compare with known detonator types to optimize safety. I'll have him do it in the simplest laymen's terms. Not because I underestimate you, but merely because we don't want there to be any room for error."

Reed, of course, has no such anticipation for error and has already mentally gone through the defusing sequence in about a thousand different configurations, anticipating possible mis-steps, booby traps and side effects. But he can't just upload his brain. He's tried. He only regrets that he has to use HERBIE to do it by proxy - it would be much quicker if he didn't have to rely on the robot's frankly lesser brain and the explosive likely wouldn't be a threat to Reed himself.

"Begin disarmament sequence," he commands the robot.

Bruce Banner has posed:
Bruce looks to the waitress and nods,"Decaf for now." he replies to her and settles into a seat. Again, he passively notes those in the room getting upset and leaves them to their ways. There isn't anyone that wants to see him upset. He is trying really hard to not think about what is happening on TV and concentrate on the conversation with the ones that came to meet him.

Janet van Dyne has posed:
Things are a little busy for the diverse group, so Janet stares at her problem until she realizes no convenient solutions are forthcoming. Much as she can be a vapid socialite, there's nothing wrong with Janet's analytical smarts. Eight years of associating with super-geniuses (and a few regrettable years married to one) have given her a surprisingly solid basic understanding of electronic systems.

"All right, it's on a timer," she murmurs. "And there's a radio pickup. It's /probably/ tamper-proof. Mercury switch?" she hazards. "Or some kind of trembler."

She looks at her ants, frets her lower lip. "Probably can't have them chew it apart... OK, so, brute force solution."

Janet gets to her feet and digs a few little discs from her belt. They're distributed around the explosive and create a shimmering energy dome. Once it's encapsulated, Janet tosses a shrink-disc at the unit. It initiates a slow, controlled contraction, until the explosive device is about the size of a book of matches.

Janet prompts one of her ants to push it over; as soon as it gets halfway over, it explodes with all the force of a small firecracker.

"<Windsor is secure,>" she informs the rest of the group.

Steve Rogers has posed:
Natasha Romanova doesn't have too rough a time, examining her device and then rendering an important part inert by flash freezing it. When she's done, the device has been secured, and the police demolition squad should be able to handle disposing of it from here. Likely taking into a bomb range to detonate for safety's sake.



Iron Man's deft surgery disabled his own bomb. And while he's in there he probably even has time to replace the toner if he needs. As he's picking up the printer, J. Jonah Jameson comes out of the hallway that leads to the building's broadcast center.

"Don't think I don't know what you did to the studio, Stark!" he yells over at Iron Man, before noticing that he's flying off with a printer. "And I'm going to invoice you for that printer too!" he shouts as the Avengers disappears down the hallway.



Taking maximum protection for her safety, Witchblade makes her cuts of the wires that control key parts of the bomb. The lack of triggers that could set the bomb off when they are cut makes it an easy enough operation. Not that there aren't wires that cutting them would set it off. Just when you know the right ones, that's about it.

And bonus, she doesn't have to tell her friends how their recording studio was blown up.



HERBIE begins the process of disarming the bomb. Though it could be disarmed pretty quickly, if a little more risky of a process, there is enough time on the timer for HERBIE to use the safest procedure. It doesn't take him long before he's managed to disarm the bomb and make it safe for transport, whether by Reed Richards himself or by the bomb squad when they arrive.



Janet might be the least skilled of the group in bomb disposal, but not surprisingly she is the one who handles her device with the most style. Turning the destructive device into something suitable for use by kids during the Fourth of July. There isn't even anything left to clean up for the janitor!



The bombs defused, the heroes are able to make their way outside. As word starts to get around that the bombs have all been found, there is applause for the heroes, though the cops keep moving people out of the area.



Bruce Banner's waitress pours him the cup of steaming hot decaf, and then wanders back over to the counter, setting the coffee pot back on the heating element and watching the TV more closely. The broadcast cuts to a police spokesman who is just stepping away from other police men who are on their radios.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I just received word that a group of heroes including Iron Man, Reed Richards, Witchblade, the Wasp and the Black Widow have successfully disarmed the bombs. We are still conducting sweeps to assure there are no more devices before we will sound the all-clear. But please continue to avoid the area and keep roads as clear for emergency vehicles as possible."

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
Natasha Romanova would go to speak along to her comm <<All targets disarmed. Everyone rendezous and we'll go over reports to see what we were pulled away from>> Yes, Natasha's expecting that this has bee nsomething to pull them all away. But without knowing what it is they're obligated to respond over to this sort of thing. There hasn't been an alert coming from something like the Mansion is under attack or a Hydra assault going on.

This is definitely a setup. but they don't have enough information to follow up on yet. She goes to get on ehr bike and heads back to the rally point, already going to make a note of things to start to review when the team is debriefed.

Sara Pezzini has posed:
With the bomb inert, Sara finally takes another breath as the tendrils of metal retracts back into the armor. Witchblade could have left her fully covered, but no, that's not his style. As she is backing up from the bomb, the armor reverts back to its usual state of covering only what is has to... and the wings, they're always perfect and on her back no matter how little armor remains.

Snorting softly, and rolling her eyes as she says, <"Shaw Building bomb has been disarmed, moving to meet up now."> then heads back to the window she entered through. The NYPD Detective in her is wants to remain at the bomb, wait for the disposal team, take notes and clues, but that wasn't part of her job today. Today she did her part and now it was time to meet up with the team.

Jumping out the window, the wings on her back spread to catch her from falling to the earth. She can't help but check out the situation with the traffic, and how the other officers are doing as she flies over head to the rendezvous location. You can armor up a cop, but it's still a cop in the armor.

Reed Richards has posed:
Reed Richards sighs as he hears the announcement, "All these years and they still won't say Mr. Fantastic. I would give up, but I don't ever do that," he says.

He'll activate the shared channels, "Thank you all. This crisis couldn't have been averted without all of your help," says the superhero elder statesman. "Now comes the hard work - bringing those responsible to justice. If any of you would enjoy tea or fresh-baked cookies, Sue happened to leave an amazing batch of her cinnamon oatmeal raisin that I managed to keep out of Johnny's stomach."

Tony Stark has posed:
    Touching down at the meeting point with the printer still under one arm, Tony addresses the others. On both comms and out loud (to reach everyone) he says "Ok guys, good work. We got them all, looks like. I'm going to take this one back to Stark Tower to examine, check for fingerprints, clues, basically anything that can help us find the maker. Reed, can you go over the one your little guy disarmed? The more eyes looking things over the better, by my estimation. We need to shut this guy down before he blows up another building."

    When Sara lands with her bomb, he adds, "Might as well give that one to the cops as evidence. Don't want the crime lab guys to get bored. And I'd never say no to a fresh cookie, so count me in on snacks."

Steve Rogers has posed:
The news of the bombs being defused results in anxiousness dissipating in the cafe where Bruce Banner is waiting for his old colleague to show. Understandable they would be running late. While Bruce is just a bit outside of the danger zone, traveling to that area has got to be a nightmare with how many people have been evacuating.

The waitress goes past, carrying a slice of a delicious looking lemon meringue pie for someone. She is stopping to see if Bruce wants anything while he waits. When suddenly the sound of an explosion shakes the cafe's windows. It's much closer than those blasts on the East Side.

People start to rush outside to see what happened. The blast is about three blocks down the street from the looks of it. Maybe it will warm hearts that rather than running from it, New Yorkers are heading towards it, to see if anyone needs help. The one cop that was in the area, guiding traffic, takes off at a run towards the site of the blast.

Bruce Banner has posed:
"I just can't win can I?" Bruce mutters and jumps from his seat. He is a doctor after all, medical and theoretical. He runs out of the cafe and looks around to see where the sound came from. He immediately starts to walk in that direction to see if there is anything he can do to help.

Steve Rogers has posed:
Around Bruce Banner, most everyone's attention is on the new blast. Those who flee from it have done so, and those running to help any wounded, which is the larger crowd by far, have already moved on up the street.

A man walks up from behind Bruce Banner, carrying a briefcase and apparently looking at the new blast as well. As he stops, not even focused on Bruce, there is a sudden puff of air towards Bruce's face. Nothing extreme, but the small blast of colorless gas quickly sedates the physicist, before his body can react with the kind of anger or anxiousness that would summon the Hulk.

The man quickly catches Bruce Banner as he starts to collapse. A van pulls up to the curb with impeccable timing. The door opening and Bruce Banner moved inside along with his abductor. The door closes and the van takes off. The entire kidnapping taking less than five seconds, and seemingly gone unnoticed.