16470/Gothic saves the universe!

Gothic saves the universe!
Date of Scene:	02 December 2023
Location:	AIM Lab - Southern New York
Synopsis:	Singularity is rescued from AIM by Gothic Lolita and Black Widow! Singularity makes a new friend!
Cast of Characters:	Singularity, Gothic Lolita, Natasha Romanoff

---

Singularity has posed:
The first ping had been about three hours ago. Wherever Gothic Lolita was, she would feel something akin to a 'tickle'. But not a physical one, something just inside of her head, a light touch, and a single word. 'Help.'

The AIM lab was set up as a large labratory complex, research nuclear science. Deep inside the lab, a pair of scientist and several soldiders, dressed in their familiar yellow containment suits are looking down at the main floor, where inside a large glass containment vessel, a girl made of the literal fabric of the universe is trying to fight her way out, smacking against the glass and floating backwards, a frown on her face. "You are not. Friends." she decides, finally.

"No, but we are going to research you and find out what you are and how to use you." the scientist responds with a smirk. "You will advance AIM by decades!"

"Am person. Not experiment!" Singularity declares, and she reaches out once again.

She shares her location, relative to Earth. And again, there is that plaintive, quiet, 'Help.'

Gothic Lolita has posed:
The smashiest, most adorable mecha around (since her sister Social Butterfly has been missing) has been continuing the goals of Project Livewire on her own. Clandestine projects without oversight, ones that are wicked and harmful, are to be destroyed. Dark money, black book, and dangerous, AIM qualifies. Maybe not as secretive as her usual targets, but definitely wicked enough.

Luckily for the living universe that is Singularity, Gothic Lolita was already in the area. She'd been hunting this AIM cell for weeks. The ping to her tacnet was weird and it made her nearly stumble. It was familiar, and yet so foreign by this point. She had been in constant contact with her siblings until they disappeared, and now an unfamiliar pleading comes across it. It could be a trick, but even she can't just leave someone in danger.

Now, she's casing the facility in the shadows, dressed not at all for this kind of thing. Most infiltrations aren't done in a black skater dress with a square neckline, fishnets and a pair of chunky soled Mary Janes, but, well. GL.

She waits for a guard patrol to pass before she leaps the fence in a single bound, landing as quietly as she can on the concrete inside. She heads for the nearest door and begins to hack her way through the lock if it's electronic, or she just breaks it if not.

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
Advanced Idea Mechanics is always something that SHIELD is on the alert for. They're always dangerous - research without safeguards and ethics can almost always only bring about bad things. So when an area suspected of being an AIM base is confirmed by an agent that's been tracking it for some time, SHIELD sends in reinforcements. Whether this operation is expected to be a reconaissance operation or a sabotage one, the Black Widow is here. Rendezousing with the agent that's been tracking the facility for weeks, the Black Widow meets up with her in the shadows.

She goes to use ASL to 'speak'. <<Report on target>> Arriving, not knowing what sort of defenses or sensors the place had operational, best to assume that sensors could track noise.. And so go in as silent as possible.

Singularity has posed:
To be fair - Singularity was reaching out for a friend. Vivian Vision had been her intended target; but Gothic felt so familiar tio her, she had assumed. It's sometheing she will probably have to work on in the future.

If there is a future. "Okay, child. This may sting a bit..." the scientist announces and he starts to fill the chamber with unfamiliar energy, Singularity feels it and she frowns. "What is?" she asks, trying to understand it, but it does not feel right and she frowns, her hair floating up behind her. "Unfamiliar." she decides. But it doesn't hurt. Not yet.

Outside, the guard passes by the pair of SHIELD agents, not realizing that they are there. Gothic's landing goes undetected, leaving a path open to a side entrance that is usually used for smoke breaks and various other 'Need to step out for a second' moments.

Which explains the two AIM soldiers, guns slung over their shoulders as they're passing a vape pen back and forth. "It's the latest flavour. Dressing and cranberries, they're wanting to tap into that Christmas market, you know?"

"It tastes like onions. Ugh."

Gothic Lolita has posed:
GL is nowhere near as good at sneaking around as, say, the Black Widow or her brother Hollowpoint Ninja, but she manages, even weighing what she does. Her eyes flicker towards Natasha, her own fingers moving in the sign language with machine precision. <<No contact. Unsure of identity. Suggestion: Smash Everything.>>

She's not afraid of AIM. They are, as clandestine orgs go, Little League. They would have to try very hard to hurt her. Still, the longer they can be stealthy, the better chance they have to get away with the target. Whoever it is. GL tries to match the frequency that the transmission came on, and transmits her own.

'We are coming. Hold tight.'

At the sight of the guards, she decides to use some of her sister's tricks. Fingers flicker again at Natasha. <<I'll distract. You put them down.>>

Her head tilts, and, well, her bust grows at least two cup sizes, the square neck of her dress suddenly showing a lot. The stretching of the fabric, because Physics, makes her dress just that much shorter. She steps into the guards' line of sight, and bends slightly forward, giving them an eyeful.

Hopefully her boobs are a good enough distraction for Nat to do the Widow thing.

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
It's super effective! Thankfully, most of AIM is made up of nerds. Nerds that can't even creep things on the Internet thanks tot he eternal monitoring of MODOK. So when they get a chance it's no doubt that they're going to be on it like people yelling about Mary Sue in a conversation about fan stuff. It's a strategy as old as unconventional warfare and intelligence gathering itself. So with the distraction well in hand, Natasha Romanova is going up behind each of the targets present. She goes to smoothly take out a suppressed pistol,w here she goes to dart on in past the rather distracted sentinels. Rather than get into a firefight with them, she's going to bypass them.

She's putting down a facemask while running, taking out a series of small gas grenades in a hand which she's moving to drop behind her while running that are filling the area with a thick, heavy chemical morass that's heavier than air. It's also extremely.. Messy to anyone that's breathing it.

Fortunately, the rest of her team doesn't need to breathe and Advanced Idea Mechanics insulatory attire is rather bad at keeping out noxious agents so hopefully that neutralizes anyone that might get in the way of Natasha's way on in. It saves her having to fight her way through them and then back on out and most AIM troopers have little useful information to share.

She's at a quick trot so long as she's not having anyone get in her way.

Singularity has posed:
"Dude, did you know there was a hentai convention in town?"

"That's not hentai, that's moe."

"Moe isn't st..."

Natasha ruins the conversation of the two guards, taking them both down before they could get any further into the debate of what Gothic Lolita represented. With them down and easy to bypass, the gas that Natasha lays out starts to spread. As the AIM soldiers are taking it in, it induces coughing, watery eyes, sneezing, nausea, and other loss of bodily functions.

As it was said, messy. It also sets off alarms in the base, the klaxons blaring, with bright yellow HAZMAT lights flashing, adding to the confusion.

The main doors are just ahead, and when they are opened, the pair come across the large chamber where a young woman - at least she appears that way - is floating in the middle of the glass. She is nude, but that doesn't matter, as her skin, hair and nails seem to be made from the very fabric of the universe. Her eyes are pure white stars.

Up above, the scientist frowns. "Nien! We're very close to a break through! Keep those SHIELD fools out!"

Gothic Lolita has posed:
Nat does Nat things, and GL seems almost satisfied. Almost, because that conversation was going to be hilarious. She only sighs a little as she straightens, her proportions settling back to normal as her nanotech exoflesh does what she tells it to. She shakes her head, puffing a breath upwards into an errant bit of hair that's dropped over her eye.

"Too easy. Heh. Humans."

She trots after Natasha, ceasing her breathing for the moment. She'll need to ventilate some heat, but, well, that's a later problem. As they get deeper into the complex and she spots the lady in the tube, her expression darkens, her eyes switching from human to black with a glowing orange symbol.

"Nat, if you could handle the goons, I'm gonna get the girl out. Because if we switch roles, I'm probably going to make a huge mess."

The mecha blurs as she darts at the tank, drawing a petite fist back before striking the containment tank with everything she has.

And that's a -lot-.

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
Natasha trusts her fellow agent, "Understood. Make sure to disarm any.." Right as the fist goes out and smashes through the tank. Natasha goes to quickly check around just in case it doesn't trigger automated lockdown procedures. AIM can be rather inconsistent with that. She spends several moments looking for the senior scientist present, ignoring most of the guards and doing a quick check on them if she can to try an dget out any sort of keycard or biometric passkey that she could use on the main computers.

If there is anything, she'll go over towards the computers to try and do a quick download of whatever contents are on the mainframe. As a backup, given this is AIM even if the password isn't on a post-it it's going to be something like password or temp1234. At least it had been either of those the last five times she'd snuck into somewhere AIM was running.

Singularity has posed:
When the two women arrive, Singularity turns to face them. "Friends!" she announces happily, a cheerful wave given to the pair of them. "Wait. Not Vivian. Still friend?" this is is asked of Gothic, as the pocket universe looks down at the robot and how she's dressed. "Pretty." she decides. A wave is also given to Natasha. "Hello!" she greets, as the Widow leaps up on the railing and the scientist flails, woefully unable to defend himself to keep Natasha away from him or his keycard. Taken down, Natasha is able to start her download - mainly related to scans and what information they had gotten about the girl in the jar.

And then Gothic starts to prepare to crack her jar and she gives a slightly panicked eep!

She glows for a moment as she takes in all the ambient energy in the room and everything is plunged into darkness, killing the remainder of Natasha's download.

And in the darkness, the celestial glow of Singularity becomes more obvious as Gothic's punch cracks and then smashes the container.

As the glass breaks, the young woman that was entrapped within flies out and if Gothic doesn't dodge, she will find that she has a celestial starfish attached to her as Singularity /hugs/ her savior.

Gothic Lolita has posed:
"Yeah," GL says through the glass. "Friend. People don't deserve to be experimented on by incel nerds." Her malign gaze sweeps up at the AIM scientists. If she had eyelasers, she'd be using them. Still, she let's Natasha deal with it.

Her fist strikes the containment again and again, thunderous waves echoing through the lab until finally, the tube shatters into a billion pieces. She shakes debris from her hand, only to be latched onto like a koala by a blue girl. Unless she weighs an obscene amount, the mecha is not slowed by her at all. She turns to look at Nat. "Get what you want quick, 'cause I'm blowing this place up."

Her eyes remain the black and orange as she extends her technological will, brute forcing into their wireless intranet, and then leveraging her not inconsierable processing power into hacking into their systems to trigger the self destruct.

Singularity will notice that as she does this, GL gets noticably warmer and breathes heavier, the cool air of the lab rippling around her mouth as she vents heat.

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
With the downloading of the information, Natasha goes to upload it into GIRL's - and SHIELD's cloud for Nadia and Valeria to review later. A few quick pushes of switches as she goes to remove her data stick, before glancing at Singularity. "Are you well enough to teleport us out of here and to somewhere familiar in the immediate area?" Having at least some idea of what the blue woman (?) could do from some previous experience.

"There's nothing else here of any use." An affirmation over to Gothic Lolita that she was ready to go. Whether it was by Singularity or just the normal 'outrun the explosion' method.

Natasha goes to quickly pop fresh magazines into her pistols just in case they need them on the way out - AIM tended to be sloppy and not have reinforcements on standby, but there was no reasont o take chances.

Singularity has posed:
While Singularity has mass... her weight is negligible. It's like having a pocket of air. But when Gothic says she's blowing the place up, the pocket universe releases. "Warm. Nice." she says of the heat radiating off Gothic's body.

And with Gothic making plans to destroy the place, it means that Singularity doesn't have to make a mini black hole and collapse the place herself. Instead, she floats slightly off the ground, the star matter that makes her up swirling around as she places a hand on Gothic's shoulder. "Believe in. Do well."

And with Natasha starting to leave, Singularity /does/ recognize her. "Friend! Natasha is. It's me. Singularity!" Because her greatest fear is that everyone she's met before has forgotten her. Again. "In GIRL. With Vivian. Thought she was." A gesture to Gothis. "She's not. But still. Friend. She said!" she explains as she follows after Natasha.

Gothic Lolita has posed:
GL barely seems to notice Singularity let go with most of her processing power battering every firewall down. She's not as good as her brother Cornfed, but it's easy enough, if focus-consuming.

As the other two leave, alarms start to blare as a countdown begins. She grits her teeth hard enough to throw sparks as she fights off counterattacks.

"Go! I'll be--ngh--right behind you!"

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
The countdown is a strong possibility for any AIM Base - they did have a fondness for having everything go up in smoke. "Yes, I know you Singularity. And she's a friend. She's here to help." That was good enough to run with even as Natasha is silently cursing herself for having not reviewed the sentient pocket dimension's file closer.

"Get us out of here." She would quickly instruct Singularity. "Get all of your friends out of here." Just enough to stop Lolita from doing anything excessively risky on their departure.

Singularity has posed:
'Get all of your friends out of here.'

Singularity understands the instructions, but those instructions are going into direct conflict with the plans that Gothic has. She squints for a moment at the robotic SHIELD agent and frowns, but says. "Be safe."

And with that, blue portals just suddenly coalesce beneath Singularity and Natasha as she teleports them both out with an audible *POP* to just outside the building.

"She said. Destroy building. Could not. Teleport." she explains to Natasha when she reappears, floating a few feet off the ground, fists clutched at her sides.

"Fine. Will be." she has to have faith.

Gothic Lolita has posed:
Moments pass as Nat and Singularity vanish outside. Alarms blare and AIM agents swarm, some foolishly going inside, some racing out in fear for their lives. Seconds tick down as finally, finally, whoever was fighting the mecha in cyberspace has given up. Save for the fact that blast doors seal closed from the outside in.

Too bad there's only like five seconds left on the timer. Sucks to be them.

Still, that's plenty of time, right? Heavy thuds begin to resound through the base as GL begins to batter her way out.

Four

The blast door on the lab bows and then shatters as she rips her way through.

Three

Two

One

Zero

Explosions rip their way through the small complex, fire and concussive force shredding through equipment and the structure. Fireballs blast from the roof, casting heat and light for a quarter mile. The inferno rises, but still no--

The main bends and shakes. A split second later, the wall near where Singularity and Natasha escaped explodes outwards in a shower of metal and a wash of fire. Following the fire is a singed, but intact, GL. -She- is intact. Her clothes...well. Her dress is a shredded ruin, barely covering her chest and hips. The sleeves are gone, a great swath of torso is exposed. She's barely safe for work. Her fishnets are a slashed ruin, perfect for a punk show, and in all of this, her shoes have disappeared.

She hits the ground after her leap, buckling the concrete as she straightens, looking at herself with a frown. "Every damn time. I need some of that...molecular cloth or whatever it is the Fantastic Four have."

Still, she seems unconcerned with her near nudity, looking between the Black Widow and Singularity. "You both okay?" She smiles at the floating blue girl. "I'm Gothic Lolita. I'm glad you reached out."

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
If she was capable of showing the emotion, Natasha Romanova might sigh. For those that can tell her expressive quirks, they could pick out the very, very suppressed mannerisms of it. "I'm intact." She can fault the sentient automoton for the spectacle, but if Natasha had to be honest she'd done the same far too many times to get to call anyone else on it.

IT was Barton's fault. He was a bad influence on her. Yes, all his.

"It's good to have you back, Singularity." Natasha doesn't bother to ask any questions on what the sentient pocket dimension has been up to. She rather doubts she would grasp any parts of it.

Looking over to Lolita, "I trust that I can leave the debrief of.. Our friend to you to handle?" Singularity had called Lolita friend, and Nadia and Vivian weren't here. So that left Lolita for Singularity to glomp onto! Because Natasha most certainly would never live it down if she got jumped on and squeed at. Yelena would remind her forever and ever.

Singularity has posed:
There were several tense moments when Singularity heard the explosions that the young woman was ready to rush back inside to rescue Gothic, but she holds her place, her hands folded in front of her, clutched together.

But when Gothic appears, very much toeing that hentai/moe line that was discussed earlier that Singularity cheers, bouncing up and down in the air, before Natasha directs her to Gothic and Gothic introduces herself.

Singularity floats over to the other girl and smiles brightly. "Friend. Gothic Lolita. Singularity. Is me!" she introduces herself happily as she takes in the state of her dress and her complaint. "Do not mind. Never wear clothes. Almost never. Wore hair ribbon once." she explains. "Do not mind. Nudity." She shrugs her shoulders and ohs.

"Have been. SHIELD. Can teleport?" she asks of them, and if she is allowed, she'll teleport the three of them, but not before. "Call before. Alarms loud. Annoying. So many."

Gothic Lolita has posed:
GL doesn't seem to care about her state of exposure beyond the fact that the clothes are ruined. Why would a mecha have any sense of modesty? She just wants to look cute. She looks at Nat and shrugs. "I can call ahead. Let everyone know we're coming in fast with a guest."

Without even waiting for the okay, she does so with a thought. She doesn't need to speak outloud to radio base, just think the words. Which she does.

"I can handle it, yeah. I'll make a recording and upload it."

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
A quick nod from Natasha, "Just set us in the courtyard, I'll make sure they're aware ahead of time. Just give me two minutes to send an alert ahead." She goes to take out her comm to move to send a terse message on ahead. Then to Lolita, "Good job in the extraction." Of the hostage and of the data.

And now back to the Triskelion where she was going to have to file a large number of reports. And wait for everyone's paranoia to kick in about how it would be impossible ot keep the curious cosmic being from going wherever she felt like it.