2234/Epicenter: Part 3 - Hey HYDRA, Happy 4th

Epicenter: Part 3 - Hey HYDRA, Happy 4th
Date of Scene:	26 June 2020
Location:	Great Lakes Medical Research - Westfield, New York
Synopsis:	A head of HYDRA is crippled, but not cut off. Epicenter is captured and a HYDRA base is secured, but Whitehall got away.
Cast of Characters:	Bobbi Morse, Daisy Johnson, Gothic Lolita, Jane Foster, Jack Nolan, Clint Barton

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Bobbi Morse has posed:
Three quinjets cuts through the skies with purpose and intend. Thanks to intelligence gathered at Rochester University they narrowed down the location of HYDRAs operation to a seemingly benign little laboratory called Great Lakes Medical Research, nestled in the Westfield Family Physicians offices in Westfield, NY. Previous investigations had made it apparent that HYDRA were experimenting on Inhuman subjects and they needed a laboratory or hospital to cover for all the supplies they would need to conduct such research. This little research facility was pulling in all kinds of unexpected inventory on a weekly basis for months now.

"Agents, I shouldn't need to remind you that this is HYDRA we're dealing with now. Not some yokel fist pumping neo nazi online chat group. It'd be easy to compare them to cockroaches, but these cockroaches are highly trained, fanatical, and in some ways every bit as skilled as you and me. Make no mistake, we are walking in to their trap. It is rare we can capture a HYDRA agent, so ICERs - but if you find they are ineffective, do not hesitate to swap ammo to armor piercing rounds or more lethal munitions," Bobbi warns.

The sleepy little town of Barcelona not far away is setting off fireworks along the waters edge of Lake Erie for their Canadian neighbours to admire across the way. Similarly, Westfield has set up a display of fireworks at its baseball field several blocks away from the quiet facility they are raiding.

"We have very little intelligence on how many HYDRA agents are inside, how many hostages they might have. But we do have satellite footage of Daniel Whitehall entering the facility two days ago. Imagery shows an underground facility beneath this medical centre <here>, but our satellites could not penetrate deeply enough to get a layout of the facility. We are going in effectively blind," warns Bobbi.

With a team of 18 well trained agents, SHIELD is bringing all the tops and they need to make this as unfair a fight as possible. The raid agents have their black SHIELD armor on, helmet, visors, balaclavas on. They look like a regular paramilitary albeit with a SHIELD logo on their arms. "All teams, check in, we breach the facility in 5," Bobbi commands.

Daisy Johnson has posed:
Daisy has been a busy bee while they are travelling by quinjet, all dressed up in her SHIELD uniform, gauntlets on, ICER. The visor is already on and with comm devices all tested and ready to go all that's left is give the last few tinkerings to a particular object that appears like a portable .., lightning arrester? Lots of insulation material, a rod of metal. Apparently SHIELD has brought the tricks to fight against this guy.

Agent Thornton, her supervising officer, has come on this mission to her dismay. So he has been keeping his stare on Daisy because.., look.., they never really saw eye to eye. Still, professionalism will be maintained so she tries her best to keep her mind occupied with different things. In this case looking up at Jane, partner in crime in developping this contraption. "Think this is ready to go..?" she asks.

As for the rest of the team she asks. "Any alternatives to a frontal assault? Any back doors or alternative entrances?" She questions, looking over the rest of the team for suggestions.

Gothic Lolita has posed:
    Lolita is actually in agent's gear, though she completely lacks the body armor most of the agents around her are wearing. It's likely her uniform might be shot up after all, but unlikely the standard armor is better than her natural design. "Wednesday, ready to go." Of course Bobbi named her team probably. The agents assigned to move with her chime in as well. "I can make you a back door and an alternate entrance to the first basement floor, though there is some danger that I won't know what's under the floor until I make the hole." the mecha pipes up. "None of the material of the building on the surface suggests its reinforced in a way that would slow me down."

Jane Foster has posed:
HYDRA. The real thing with the real octopus arms, infiltrating real corners of real existence. Jane's skin still crawls along the back of her neck even while the Quinjets zip through New York airspace, though she pulls the collar of her fitted coat closer to her body. The better for her to sink into the heat, a reminder, her eyes shut until they land. Details spun over in her mind commit Bobbi's plans to memory and then some. ICERs and medkit make her sufficiently capable as a battle medic, her training sufficient to compare with any licensed doctor as they might require. Hopefully the effort won't be needed.

They are near enough to stand on an international border, the stub of land laid out there. Barcelona slides away off their side, and she tries not to watch the fireworks. Visor overlaid with infrared sensors with a touch, her expression almost unseen, it would burn too bright and she needs her natural night vision. Every so often she checks on Daisy's creation, giving an occasional smirk. "Furies on the field, exciting, isn't it? I think this looks good, but remember the kill switch and the grounding charge. Push the blue switch and it immediately deploys the rod for you to discharge into the floor," she advises softly. Lolita's questions -- and stellar style, honestly -- gets a nod.

Evidently she has no issues with mecha sorts, body blind. "We don't have blueprints on this one and I tried bringing up a schematic for any utilities. Any records were scrubbed, probably at the municipal level. In that case, assume all standard exits are reinforced."

Jack Nolan has posed:
Agent Jack Nolan is fully decked up in his Stoneclaw gear, the stone skinned mutant wearing a SHIELD tactical outfit, with several peices of gear that R&D has been kind enough to resize for him. He has his ICER, redesigned with a larger grip to accomidate his clawed hands. He had also brought a massive riot shield, figuring that it was better than getting shot directly.

There's a couple of agents flanking to either side of him, as he checks over his gear one last time, "Just stay behind me." He notes to them, "I'll make sure HYDRA is so focused on the giant, angry dinosaur they'll never even see you. It'll give you a perfect opporitunity to hit them."

While he does have the non-lethal rounds loaded into the ICER, he has a customized assault rifle on his back that is loaded with armor piercing rounds, since he knows HYDRA doesn't like to go down without a fight.

Clint Barton has posed:
Clint's in standard SHIELD combat gear today instead of his custom stuff. Not that he's overly low key with a bow in his hand, but he's here as part of the team and on serious business, it felt like the right move.

He looks over his team, "Okay, we've got the roof, we'll be going in hard and quick, Gorman and Shaw you blow the doors, Tomas and I will take point and follow in after. Watch your fire and pay attention to comms, we don't want to hit any friendlies and we don't want to hit anything that's going to go boom. Got it?" he asks his team and they nod. Message received.

Bobbi Morse has posed:
One quinjet swoops over the top of the building for aerial assault, another sets down in a green space between the trees across the road from the facility, the third hovering over the alley next to the building, with drop lines deployed. <<All teams, we are go. Good hunting,>> Bobbi says over the comms.

For her part, she nods to her little tactical team of Triplett and Cody. She has worked with them before. "Like we planned guys, we're going in the front door, quick burn through the floor in to the south-east corner of the facility."

As agents deploy out of the quinjet, those who enter the civilian front of the operation find a relatively normal Physicians facility. Rooms for doctors, waiting room, examination rooms. The lobby has access to the Great Lakes Medical Research which has a secretary station with front desk, some offices and a fairly standard lab. There is, however, a hidden elevator that goes down to the facility.

Bobbi is in full tactical combat gear, with machine gun clipped to her front, ICER rounds in it and armor piercing on her belt at the front. She has a knife on her calf, her staves on her thighs, SHIELD goggles giving her heads up display and thermal vision. Her team deploy a ring on the floor with a bolt gun to secure it. They light it up and look away as it spins and burns a hole through the floor and in through to the first layer of the facility below. She drops down followed by her team.

Daisy Johnson has posed:
"It always is." Daisy grins back to Jane, one last check on the switch and then the device is slapped inside a backpack, she slinging it over her shoulders. "Alright, hopefully this will give us some time if Epicenter starts flinging his electricity around." keyword 'hopefully', because SCIENCE is never exact! But then she offers, "Quake ready."

A last look towards Gothic Lolita, "Time for the real thing. Lets see if your scores on the target range weren't a fluke, mmm?" well, she certainly knows they weren't! A wink is given towards GL before she gets her game face on, an exhale, then one last shudder to expel last minute nerves. She was ready. "Open us a way in, GL." she then suggests.

And there was a riotshield to protect them. Life is good.

Gothic Lolita has posed:
    Lolita's team rope down fro the Quinjet, dropping to the roof. The mecha just jumps off, landing with a crash that craters the roof slightly under her, before she gets up and moves in a quick circle, smashing a hand through the roof in a clocks direction, then steps out onto the circle and raises a fit before she smashes it downward, the fifteen foot circle dropping with a crash to the interior. A moment later as she tilts her head, scanning over the ground, then she replicates the same feat, this time with a smaller ten foot diameter, her fist pulverising the concrete and piping as the whole mess drops into the next floor with a crash.

    Below is a large mostly empty room, fortunately, dominated by a large industrial furnace. Less fortunately, also containins several dead bodies of civilians, in the process of being fed into said furnace by a surprised group of HYDRA agents, who promptly open fire. To add to the chaos, one of the broken pipes spill water over the top of the furnace, a hiss of steam filling that side of the room as it engulfs the hole and Lolita, ricochets bouncing off the walls and the metal hull of the furnace.

    A moment later, that fire is returned precisely by the team following Lolita in as two of the Hydra agents promptly go down, with Lolita bursting out to head towards the last as he raises his hands and goes full Palpatine on her, lighthing streaking from his fingers to play over her body as she twitches, stutter stepping then hurls a hunk of concrete from the fallen roof at his legs that break with a wet crack and a scream as he drops, his focus broken, before walks past him towards the main door, drawing an ICER and shooting him twice in the chest as she goes by.

    "Wednesday in. Three hostiles down, one metahuman." she says crisply as the agents with her move forward in a leapfrog. "Entrance clear for you, Agent Johnson."

Jack Nolan has posed:
Right through the front door. Stoneclaw smashes the doors down with the riot shield in one quick motion, and strolls inside rather casually. He takes a moment to look around, before glancing at the other two agents, "Reynolds, Cooper, stay up here until I give you the all clear. I'm going to go have a look around." He hauls back and slams a fist into the ground, the linolium cracking under the impact. He hits a couple more times until he punches through, nothing but darkness below.

He jumps down into the hole, landing in the darkness. He stands there for a moment, and then movement. Four turrets light up around him. He raises his shield, and tries his best to use it to deflect against two of the turrets. He takes a knee, absorbing the hits as best he can on his back, "Cooper, take out those turrets!"

The agent that stayed up in the lobby leans down into the hole, feet held by Reynolds, as he takes shots at the two turrets hitting Jack in the back. Using a high powered rifle, he disables both of those turrets, before Reynolds swings him around and he takes out the other two.

Once all four turrets are down, Jack raises back up to his feet, smoldering a bit from the laser impacts, but still alive, "Okay well that wasn't fun." He mutters, as he motions for the two agents to come down into the hallway, before he heads for the door, smashing it down and moving deeper into the facility.

Clint Barton has posed:
It all goes by the numbers at first. Clint and Tomas dropping to the roof of the building first and covering Gorman and Shaw as they dropped down next and rushed to the access door. Changes are placed, the door blows, and in goes Clint and Tomas, the four agent team makes its way down the stairs to the first floor, Clint kicking in the door and leading the-

An energy beam cuts through his bow and the door.

The archer throws himself backwards into the stairwell, as more beams blast down the corridor beyond it. "Shit," Clint curses as he picks himself off the ground and gestures for his men to freeze. Pulling an arrow and a mirror from his kit he pulls the cover off the adhesive on the back of the mirror and sticks it on the arrow and thrusts it into the hallway.

"This looks bad," he mutters, as he gets a look at six Hydra goons with laser weapons, coming two by two, up the corridor towards their team. <<Contact at the stairs from the roof, Six Squiddies with tactical gear and lasers, watch yourselves, they've brought out the toys and training for us, >> he calls over comms before he looks to his men. "How about we rig some Fourth of July Fireworks for these guys, huh?" he asks as he begins drawing explosive arrows from his quiver.

Daisy Johnson has posed:
With the 'way' being open in such a dramatic manner by GL Quake nods approvingly. Nice. Destroying your way in certainly gets Daisy's stamp of approval. "Great job, GL." she sends through the comms. Yet she doesn't take too long following through with her team, Thornton and Fong. The supervising officer seems just fine with letting Daisy take point in this. He knows she has her powers afterall..

So that's right what she does, dropping in through the entrance provided by GL and charging ahead. Because a surprise attack is always the best. She jumps over the poor meta that got their legs crushed and sends a concussion blast wave against the nearby door. It blasts the door off it's hinges, giving room to a hallway that leads towards an elevator. The door hits an hydra agent who barely seems to feel the impact, ripping the door apart and stepping into the room, moving real fast and towards the shooting agents ..

As for the other, it sends a concussive blast very similar to Quake's, one that she intercepts in a measure of forces, the room suddenly starting to shake. "You got nothing on the original." she snarls, then with a blast of concentrated power she sends the guy flying back and against the elevator doors, leaving a dent there. The man doesn't get up.

The other metahuman continues to dodge in and out of both Fong and Thornton's cover shots, starting to near in.

Jane Foster has posed:
Serious business ahead. When it comes to serious business, Jane does her best not to be an open target and stays with the group. Anyone saddled with tactical protection from her can be certain of her passing physical tests, but the fluttering cloud of anxiety in her stomach won't settle until boots are on the ground. All is in place to disembark after Daisy and Clint, and she hastens out with her gear stowed against her spine. Agents Smith and Welsh shadow her, or she shadows them, slipping through a facility familiar in superficial ways to a medical eye.

There all similarity ends, given the front serves to guard terrible secrets as part of an evil organization. White-washed walls and pleasant signage, probably even some ancient magazines stowed on a table in a public waiting area. Walking quietly means covering ground slower, with Smith offset ahead of her and Welsh veering behind her. Accompanied by living shields doesn't help her, but she gives thorough surveys of the walls to note lighting fixtures, possible cameras, and other electrical devices. A click echoes ahead of her.

Then beams manifest in sharp relief, webs filling up the hallway as it stretches away. Welsh grabs Jane, but she's already going flat to a wall and recoiling around the corner. Something faster than she can make out whips by, a nightmarish burst. In the flurry of motion, a chunk of fabric goes fluttering, the slithery scrabble of rubber boots on the ground and bodies falling. << Go /flat/. Something shot out, not sure of what. >>

She palms the bag, looking for a smoke cannister to fling if need be.

Bobbi Morse has posed:
Bobbi and her team find themselves in a laboratory. There is a person suspended in liquid in the center of the room. Lots of research stations and computers. Emergency decontamination shower. The group spreads out between the benches. Cody gargles and drops to the ground. Triplett and Bobbi turn around instantly and fire at.. a ghost.

A shadow runs past and they track it. A moment later it phases back in to the physical plane and Triplett fires again. It phases out once more and runs across the benches like a blurr in their vision. As it phases back in Bobbi jumps, engaging in hand to hand combat. She punches the guy and then kicks as he phases out again, her kick goes through the blur as he moves back toward Tripplet. As he phases back in, Tripplet hits him with an ICER and the dark clad HYDRA agent drops.

Triplett pulls out his medical kit and tends to Cody, doing an emergency tracheotomy so she can breath. Bobbi checks all the quarters of the room and joins them, then gets on comms <<All teams, we just encountered a HYDRA agent who could phase in and out of.. uh.. a solid state of matter. Be careful.>>. Triplett gets Cody stable and says quietly to Bobbi, "I'm going to get Agent Cody back upstairs and to the quinjet." Bobbi nods her head and gives him the go ahead as she moves on forward.

As the different teams push in to the facility the all enter a large circular staircase leading down to the lower level. It is a big laboratory, with lights on and Flight of the Valkyrie blasting from the sound system from the floor below. There are HYDRA logos on all the walls, the squid is sitting over the top of Earth with tentacles wrapped about it. Underneath that it says ~~Project Supremus~~

Some 'motivational' posters say things like "Make Earth Great Again" and another says "We must police ourselves, before we destroy ourselves" and even a picture of a cat dangling from a tree branch "Hang in there."

Bobbi looks around the room, "Okay. We've taken some hits getting here.. we're missing Agent Barton, Agent Foster, Agent Johnson and Agent Wednesday. Let's circle back around this floor and find them before we proceed any further." Bobbi looks everyone over, seeing a few singe marks on Nolan and she herself is without Triplett and Cody.

Gothic Lolita has posed:
    Lolita raises a brow as Quake goes to town. "Impressive." she says, starting down the hall at a jog towarsd the growning HYDRA agents under teh door as she brings up her ICER to fire precisely, putting bolts into soft tissue where she can, then cocks her head. "It sounds like the other groups may have been held up. We should-"

    And then she disappears as a massive armored fist comes through the wall to her right and puts her clean through the wall on her left, leaving a Lolita-shaped hole, before a massive armored figured just comes right through the wall. He's hunched down, but could easily stand eight or nine feet when he straightens up, with armor covering his freakishly oversized chest and biceps the size of trees, ending in oversized fists covered in metal gauntlets with raised impact points along the knuckles. Along his back are what look a lot like rocket engines..which is proven true when he rounds on the agents in the hall and Quake, then fires them, shooting forward with his arms pulled in like a football player to slam a armored pauldron into a pair of agents, sending them flying backwards with the sound of breaking ribs, before he smashes a massive fist into the floor, the shock knocking some of the agents right off their feet or into the wall.

    All in a span of seconds. Fast AND strong....and with a relatively tiny head in a conical helmet that is the only part of him that looks normal sized. "SHIELD! You have come here to die at the hands of ze PULVERIZER!"

    ....yeah, he's got a high pitched squeaky voice. Just ruins the mood.

Daisy Johnson has posed:
Poor Thornton, a pair of broken ribs to compensate all the nastiness that he normally brings on Daisy. But he isn't out just yet, letting out a blast of his rifle that sends this PULVERIZER to stagger back momentarily..

And that's just the opening Quake needed to move in. Because if there's danger to be had Quake is certain to be running head first against it. "Big mistake trying to hurt my Lolita." she -jumps- and remains airborne as the shockwave Pulverizer attempts to bring on her passes by harmlessly underneath.

And yep, go for the normal sized part of his body. Which is exactly what Daisy does, superhero punching the guy squarely in the face. A punch that carries a bit of 'extra' juice in the way of her vibrational powers behind it, blasting that helmet right off.

It doesn't save her from being swatted by the PULVERIZER, sending her sprawling across the hallway while he falls back down unconscious. <<Ugh.., Quake here.. Way appears clear on my end.. Are you in one piece, Wednesday?>>

But not forgetting the warning through the comms she rolls to one side to rest against a wall while she recovers her breath, readying herself to go further into the facility. As for Thornton and Fong, they get a nod from her. Seems like they got this!

Jack Nolan has posed:
After smashing the door down, Jack finds himself face to face with a trio of HYDRA agents. The stone dino man frowns a bit, "Great. I don't suppose I can ask you guys to surrender without a fuss, can I?" One of them immediately shoots him in the head, the laser deflecting off his stone head and burning a hole in the ceiling.

He growls deeply, and drops down, bringing his shield up, as he draws his ICER pistol, "Reynolds, Cooper, hit them!" He calls out, advancing on the trio as his two agents come around from behind him and open fire at the two guys to the flank. The one who shot Jack in the head is his, as he fires a pair of ICER rounds into the torso of the target.

In a rapid flash of action and violence, his group has taken down the trio of HYDRA agents. Once they're down, Reynolds moves up to Jack, to try to check his wound. There's a pretty nasty gouge out of the stone on the side of his forehead, "That doesn't look too good, Jack." He shakes his head, "I'm fine. We'll get it checked out afterwards. Secure the area, I'm going to go meet up with the rest of the team."

Clint Barton has posed:
Clint delivers on the fireworks, zip tying his explosive arrows into a single charge and chucking it at the advancing Hydra goons. The concussive blast knocks the men on their asses giving Clint and his team a chance to burst into the hall and take them down. Even then it's a hard fight, Gorman and Tomas both take hits, leaving Shaw and Clint to carry on, the others going down to rendezvous with Cody and Tripplet as they evac the building. Clint presses onwards with Shaw at his back, having 'borrowed' one of those Hydra laser weapons to replace his broken bow.

<< Sorry for the noise, problem's resolved upstairs, coming down to you guys >> Clint announces before he and Shaw carefully make their way to the lab on the sublevel.

Jane Foster has posed:
Try not to crack under the stress. Welsh has an open wound on his bicep, but he doesn't make any complaints as he gets to a crouch. Opportunity for Jane to hand the smoke cannister back to Smith, exchanging her role to rapidly wrap up the bleeding cut with a slurry of sticky goo that can form a liquid bandage and aid clotting. Assuming they have a moment to do even that, kept on their toes by the apparent calm and normal corridor stretching ahead of them. "Well, we're not going down that way," notes the scientist in a low whisper, grimacing as she loads the injectory round.

The gleaming floor and the occasional pleasant shine to the walls project an air of innocence that isn't, yielding none of its secrets. "Smith, take a shot waist-height, live ammunition," she advises the uninjured one. He isn't stupid, nodding but taking his time to use the corner for coverage so he can line up a shot without being backbitten by another of those laser bursts.

Her fingers still being a bit bloody, the brunette unslings the firearm she really prefers not to use. Unlatching the safety, she takes up the spot on the other side of the corner, breathing out to calm herself. A bit of motion to peek around the corner until she can see a wall, then she fires. Accuracy doesn't matter so much as she nods to Smith. The ricocheting crack of one efficient shot and its retort, squeezed off twice with definite gaps, strikes roughly shoulder-high and then higher still. Light explodes out again and she drops, Smith already smoothly in retreat. Hers is more of an ungraceful backpedal to hide behind the wall as the lightshow builds up to a painfully bright degree accompanied by a loud succession of pops, cracks, and sizzling noises.

<< I may have broken a few things down here. Someone bring me a catsuit for the lasers? >> Jane sounds a bit breathless, grimly amused, very quiet.

Bobbi Morse has posed:
Down the stairs, the second floor. Large doors open, invitingly, and inside is HYDRA Agent David Keen aka Epicenter. He's a muscular guy wearing a sleeveless black build armor with a HYDRA logo on the front. At his hips are two laser pistols. Short cropped blonde hair and an arrogant smirk on his face, he's sitting on a swivel chair on top of a table, like it's his throne. He does a twirl and then stands up. Almost immediately, behind him, a large hologram of Daniel Whitehall appears. The caucasian man is well dressed in a grey suit and wearing round glasses.

"Welcome, welcome," the hologram of Daniel says, "To my testing arena. In one corner we have Humanis Supremus, Epicenter.. and in the other, sad face, we have SHIELD." He doesn't even try to hide his old German accent today, since he knows SHIELD knows he is really Werner Reinhardt. "Look at you all, barely survived just a handful of HYDRA agents and you think you're the ones who will be saving the world hm? foolish. Today SHIELD will learn a valuable lesson, that they are inferior, an ill fit to the world as it has become and will be. Great, glorious. HYDRA shall save humanity from itself."

Epicenter flexes his muscles, his sleeveless muscle shirt letting his bulging muscles show. "WooooO," he says as he struts back and forth, beating his chest to pump himself up like a pro wrestler ready for a fight. "That's right SHIELD, come at me. There's nothing you can do! this is //game over// for you." Then he takes a more martial arts like pose, fists and posture and makes a little 'come at me' gesture with his hand like Morpheus in The Matrix.

Bobbi lifts her gun up to point at him and says the first thing that comes to mind, "What the fuck.." mentally imagining Agent Rogers saying 'Language'.

Jack Nolan has posed:
Jack rubs his head a bit as he enters into the room, spotting Epicenter and the hologram. He looks at the others that have gathered, wondering why they're even letting this guy ramble and say his bit, "Shouldn't we just, you know, rush him?" He says, in a hushed tone to one of the agents next to him.

Seems like he's not the only one who had that idea, though. He rushes forward, lowering his shoulder behind the riot shield, with the intent to slam the shield into the HYDRA agent and knock him down to the ground, maybe even pin him down.

Gothic Lolita has posed:
    Lolita finds herself...well, inside a testing lab, on her back, mentally rerunning what just happened, before she sits up , resting her hands on the floor. "Rude." she murmurs, then blinks as she looks over at Epicenter, then Bobbi's unit as they come in. "...Agent Morse." she says, idly dusting herself off as she gets back to her feet. <I'm fine, Agent Johnson. I'm sorry I did not detect him in time.>

    She dusts herself off a bit, shaking her head to dislodge some concrete dusty, then studies Epicenter as he makes himself known. "Human supremus?' She inwardly tags him on her HUD as <Wiley Coyote, Super Genius> before she tilts her head, walking over to stand about fifteen feet in front of him, making herself the most tempting target as much as she can. Whatever he can do...she probably can take a hit from it better than most of the agents here. And better to let him show what he can do so Bobbi and the rest can plan for how to deal with it, right? "Well, you certainly have HYDRA's self-centered and overblown naming convention down." she says conversationally to HYDRA metahuman.

Daisy Johnson has posed:
With Thornton and Fong now staying behind to recover from being knocked around by the PULVERIZER, and wisely so, Daisy moves on to gather with the rest of the group when they step in to get head to head with EPICENTER and Whitehall's hologram. "And here I was thinking you wanted to form SUPER Shield..." she says in way of taunt to Whitehall.

Yet she does seem a bit battered up when she gets in the room, sliding the backpack she was carrying out her back with a wince. Damn that guy could hit. Hopefully the device didn't get messed up with all the fightin' even if most likely some of her ribs did.

And while the others prepare for fighting she sets the insulating device on the ground and flips on the blue switch. Time to ground it down! SCIENCE!

Clint Barton has posed:
Clint has "Shaw, cover our exit," Clint tells his fellow agent as he draws near the final lab still familiarizing himself with the Hydra laser weapon. Sure, the smart play would be move to either the ICER or the conventional pistol he had riding on his hips but he had a personal code, if you get a chance to use a laser, you damn well use that laser! Still the test fire into the 'Hang in There' poster seemed to go alright (he missed the kitty, he wasn't a monster) and so when Epicenter makes his big entrance Clint is right there Hydra laser gun in hand.

Watching Epicenter beat his chest and boast, "Wood," Clint can't help himself. He lifts the gun, aims at the man's knee and says, "Wood, meet fire," then squeezes the trigger. Here's hoping the thing still works!

Jane Foster has posed:
Look at that, a destroyed hallway leading to the ultimate prize. With a quick survey at the destroyed laser array, Jane and crew stay low while zigzagging their way to rejoin the group. Never can be too cautious about HYDRA-designed deathtraps -- and long, long fieldwork adventures proffer many opportunities to play D&D and other games infamous for wicked, party-destroying traps. But everything is set in motion for the big bad, complete with monologue. Daniel Whitehall's image might as well have a twirling mustache for the skeptical look it's given behind the visor, as good as invisible. Smith and Welsh keep her shielded and shadowed, jarred a little by Epicenter, and doing their finest to keep her protected against someone with definite superhuman abilities.

His chest-beating gets a roll of her eyes, a statement bitten back. "Someone's jealous of Cap." While she could bother translating it properly, she doesn't, English is perfectly fine. Nonetheless, combat is going to be left for those with excellent endurance and prepared abilities to face him down. She, on the other hand, bravely stays out of the way. The moment shots start flying and the fight begins in earnest, she's darting off to hide somewhere even better.

Following a given cord, for that matter. Team SCIENCE!

Bobbi Morse has posed:
Daniel Whitehall laughs, "Super SHIELD, what a fun distraction. Or, is this the distraction. Wouldn't that be a shame, to gather you all here, perhaps fill this lower facility with explosives if things don't go my way." Epicenter looks over his shoulder at the hologram and throws up his arms, "Hey!." He is ignored.

Several SHIELD agents raise their ICERs when Bobbi does the same, and in unison with Clint firing his laser pistol, Epicenter phases out. Agent Nolan charges through the vapour trail of the enhanced human. As he reappears he laughs and uncurls one hand. Lightning lances out of it toward the SHIELD agents but redirects in to the aerial, then down safely in to the battery. It reads 15% capacity filled.

He tilts his head and says, "Well look at that, someone at SHIELD has half a brain cell." The floor begins to rumble as he begins to build up quaking energy and walk toward Gothic Lolita, "And you brought a pet robot, how sweet." Jane and her team go unseen as they sneak around and behind to the holographic projector on the floor, a large circular metal device giving off a great deal of heat with a long cable snaking in to the wall for power.

Hearing the threat of explosives, Bobbi steps back and rushes off out a side door to see if he's telling the truth or not.

Gothic Lolita has posed:
    Lolita turns as Epicenter shoots past her, but is already in motion as he stops to build up a charge, stepping in in a rapid series of low h punches followed by a hard straight kick at his chest as she dives in, trying to keep him from concentrating. "I find robot very...." *PUNCH* "...pejorative considering its.." *KICK* "...linguistic underpinings as a word..." She's hitting hard...but not full strength yet. It would be bad to splatter a target when attempting to arrest them and for the moment it seems he can't get through the SHIELD defenses. "But I DIGRESS!" The last punch comes as an uppercut, trying to knock him flying.

Daisy Johnson has posed:
The mention of explosives does worry Daisy. A frown, she looking about but right now there is the big guy to focus on. "I already told you guys you can't beat the original.." when EPICENTER starts to bring what are her telltale powers she begins to concentrate. She knows she is in little condition to fight on, specially someone as strong.

Yet disrupting is fair game, and one of the things she -can- do is to absorb vibrations. Even earthquakes! So, vibrations, come to mama! Her hands open and she extends them towards their adversary, attempting to absorb the vibration attacks in order to give the others a chance to take care o' business.

Clint Barton has posed:
"Cheater," Clint says as Epicenter phases and his laser passes harmlessly through him. Not put off, Clint raises the weapon again circling so he can get a clear shot and not end up hitting Loli. Once in place, he waits for one of the others blows to land before squeezing the trigger.

"C'mon laser gun, don't let me down."

Jack Nolan has posed:
This guy's not psychic. Or at least it doesn't appear that he is. Jack crashes hard behind Epicenter after passing through him. He waits, however, instead of charging in again. Instead he's going to wait until the other agents attack, and then the guy will no doubt phase out again. Once he phases back in, Jack hauls off and hurls the riot shield at the back of the HYDRA agent like a cut rate Captain America.

Jane Foster has posed:
Moments when trouble presents itself encourages a strategy of flight and hide, not necessarily in that order. Jane keeps low to the ground, advantages of wearing a black suit demonstrated by slipping around a cord on the ground, bringing her up to her given target. There she hunkers low, flat beneath it, giving Smith and Welsh freedom to take up positions also hidden. Not the most fun babysitting a Nobel astrophysicist, but surely they knew that going in. Out comes a set of electronic tools and a multitool from her bag, and she starts working the plate off the device to expose its innards for messing about with. Her tablet waits to be used as an interface if it doesn't already have one, but she works with care. Anticlimactic in every way, she's off on the side fiddling with a hot device while everyone else fights.

All she needs is a peanut butter sandwich and she can join the Justice League as the representative of Atlantis!

Bobbi Morse has posed:
Epicenter is surprised by the advance by Gothic Lolita and he takes the first few punches with small shuffles of his feet. The vibrations he's creating escalate and he grins taking the punches from her. As the vibrations from his quaking powers start to become cancelled out by Quake herself he frowns, then takes the upper cut to the face.

He stumbles back and draws his two pistols out. He fires, hitting two agents dead center mass, though their armor takes the hit and they are merely knocked to the floor.

At this moment Clint's shot and several more ICER shots land on him in his temporarily stunned state. He pauses a moment, the burn from the laser starts to heal up as he rises once more and shrugs his shoulders, "Is that it?"

"ROBOT.. Czech, humanoid slave, is that not what you are, their pet punching tool. In HYDRA, AI are truly" He smirks and punches Gothic Lolita in the face with the backup of a quake pulse, just like Quake did to Pulverizer moments before, "Free". Then Jack's giant RIOT shield hits him on the back of the head making him stumble. He instinctively phases out and his blur moves off to the other side of the room.

"Humanity is dooming itself to destruction. Pollution, war, disease, famine, libertarianism, neo-liberalism, communism, capitalism.. all the ism's in the world just eat away at us day by day. What this world needs is vision, leadership, the true smarts of the world guiding it before we consume ourselves who--," Daniel Whitehall monologues as the fight continues but his image starts skewing and scrolling weirdly as Jane hacks in to the device, then disappears entirely midsentence as she takes control of the holographic emitter completely.

Gothic Lolita has posed:
    Lolita takes the hit, skidding back as she takes several steps to control her spin back from the hard punch, her head tilting slightly as her vision wobbles at the quake field shuddering through her, leaving a noticeable dent in her right cheek, that fills in after a moment as her eyes flick over, switching from their normal human appearance to glowing red power symbols she chirps. "Oh good. You're not fragile." she says. "Other than your sorry little snowflake 'only we can save the world' attitude. Freedom come swith responsibility and duty. I hold no grudge for following both."

    This time when she moves, the floor audible cracks as it craters under her back foot as she shoots forward, swinging both hands in a double fisted punch, trying to hammer Epicenter with a LOT more strength..this time it's like being hit by a semi. "And I prefer mecha!"

Daisy Johnson has posed:
"About time ..., hate monologuing villains.." Daisy mutters, clearly relieved she doesn't have to be listening to some longer list of ism's from Dr. Whitehall. But with the fight going on full force there is no time to lose! With punches, shields, lasers being tossed aside along with hologram tampering on the back Daisy focuses on what she can, and that's keeping those quake powers to a minimum, even if she -does- start to fight back some, attempting to send a concussive blast of her own to knock EPICENTER around a bit.

"We are SHIELD. While we exist you will never take hold and dominate this world as you wish." conviction on her tone. A grimace as she is starting to go over some of her limit after all the intense fighting before.

Clint Barton has posed:
That Epicenter could heal those laser wounds made things a little easier morally speaking and so when Clint squeezes the trigger again, he aims higher this time, for Epicenter's eyes. Or eye at least since he was shooting from the side.

If he hits he just keeps shooting trying to keep the man blinded as long as he can manage.

Jack Nolan has posed:
Jack is actually a bit surprised when he actually manages to hit with the shield. It's a good hit, and he can take advantage of that. He plants one of his feet, and drives forward. With everybody firing and attacking at once, he has to be careful.

But if he manages to keep himself from getting hit by any of his team, he'll try to strike at the back of Epicenter's legs. He has to time it right to hit him when he phases back in, otherwise he'll swing and miss yet again.

Jane Foster has posed:
Still at it, the technological work that requires Jane's attention means fully diminishing the feed into the hologram first. From there, she can start reworking her own messages or purposes, though the immediate cessation of that German voice from all around might suggest when the gig is up. Just a loophole of time for her to exploit, and all that practice running around playing with Science! in the field may help only so much. Time cannot be accelerated without some kind of superpowered, and super-mutant or metahuman scientist she is not.

"Come on," she whispers to it, working through a few options to control the sound array. If she has any luck, it gets piercingly loud, a vibrato squeal distorted with the tramping noise of...

Yes, that's the Ride of the Valkyries, but *really* loud.

The lights come flashing and crashing in random rainbow pulses as she wiggles around a tiny screwdriver and presses two fingers onto the device's interface, creating arhythmic shockwave pulsations of light that blast and bleat out all kinds of imagery that isn't particularly clear.

Bobbi Morse has posed:
Epicenter phases back in to physical being, but SHIELD is on to him now. They've learnt to track the time it takes for that to happen. He lashes out with lightning from his hands, some of it licking against Gothic Lolita as she launches toward him, while the rest redirects back in to the lightning rod Quake is carrying.

The laser pistol rips through the side of his face from Clint as SHIELD agents swap to lethal rounds and pepper his body with holes. That's a lot of heeling as he is smashes in the face by an almost literal rocket punch from Gothic Lolita.

Jack's sweep of the legs topples Epicenter to the ground. Some of his wounds immediately start to heel.. until Flight of the Valkyrie's turns up real loud and is mixed in with a truly inspired psychodelic display of lights and pulses. His healing suddenly ceases.

Bobbi walks back in to the room carrying a bunch of detenators dangling from chords in her hands, "Oh you mean these explo... oh come on." She witnesses the haywire of the holographic emitter, the music up loud enough no one could hear her quip anyway and Epicenter down. "She walks over to him and nudges him with a foot, then looks around the room and shouts, "Why isn't he healing?"

Gothic Lolita has posed:
    Lolita moves up as Epicenter goes down, grabbing his arms and pinning them behind his back as she helps Jack keep him down, frowning as she starts to scan along the prisoner. "Unsure...suppressor?" she says, glancing at the other.s HOpefully someone brought one! She smiles as she sees Bobbi wandering in with the detonators. "Oh, very well done...' she calls over.

    Hey, at least someone noticed!
    

Daisy Johnson has posed:
"I .., don't know." About why the man stopped healing. A good question though. Yet the flight of the valkyries does make her wince, it's loud enough! And she was all attuned to vibrations right now. "Did the guy reach his limit or something..? Or maybe the serum only works for that long.."

Though not being provided with a suppressor Daisy instead searches around the rest of the room. Something should be bound to be about here that may lead them further to that ilusive Whitehall!

Clint Barton has posed:
When Epicenter goes down, Clint blows on the barrel of he laser pistol and tucks it into his belt before going to check on the fallen villain. "He going to be okay if his healing stopped?" he asks, checking his vitals. After all this guy was owed a long stay at the Raft he wasn't going to die here and get the easy way out.

Otherwise Clint leaves the searching for clues about Whitehall to the rest of the team.

Jane Foster has posed:
"I can take care of that!" Jane offers over the comms, since the broadcast noise of the Valkyrja marching around the skies borrowed from the office is painfully loud. She pulls her fingers away and the flashing rave party comes to an end, just a big white blotch projected in blank detail on the wall. Her ears may be ringing too, but she isn't yelling. Not much. "Is it safe for me to turn this off? I want to cut the power permanently to ensure we don't have a return from Whitehall."

Her head aches, but it's a good thing, someone not being hurt.

Bobbi Morse has posed:
As the music is turned off and the light show diminished, the man begins to heal. A couple of bullets that didn't make it all the way through him pop out of his body. The cut away section of his face begins to regrow.. but even as his body mends itself, his heart stops and so does his breathing.

Bobbi says to Jack and Gothic Lolita, "Nice moves," and to Clint, "And nice aim." She looks to the other SHIELD agents, some of whom are standing up slowly after having been shot by Epicenter, "Good work everyone."

<<Get a rescue team down here asap, our perp might be crashing out on us>>

It is mere moments later that Sam Wilson flies down a hole made by the team, propells down the hallway with the broken lasers and flies down the stairs in to the 'arena' room. He tucks his mechanical wings in and drops his kit next to Epicenter and begins hooking him up to equipment. "Give me some room," Agent Wilson requests.

Bobbi draws back and nods to Clint, "Good idea, let's spread out and see what HYDRA have left us - be careful, there may be more traps."

One floor down, Clint finds a large computer server room and at its end, a tunnel leading off with rails. There is no train there, it's probably at the other end. It's dark and even shining a torch down it shows a subtle curve but no end.

Gothic Lolita has posed:
    Once Epicenter is safely secure and Falcon is here to treat him, Lolita stands up, nodding simply to Bobbi. "Thank you." she says simply, then hmms, looking around. "I'll scan to see if there's anything that stands out." she offers. "Fortunately you already have the remote explosives they intended to use to destroy this place." She turns slowly, looking around, her eyes flicking back to their normal human appearance. "I'm detecting no extraneous power signatures other than the computers...though the tunnel is too far away for me to detect the other side. Permission to recon?" she says. "I could also try to summon the train here if there's a remote system for it."

Daisy Johnson has posed:
Oooo, computer server room! Say no more! Daisy is all over it when they find the preeciioouussss. So she starts digging into it. Downloading what she can, making sure there is no self-destruct there or countering if there is. Still, something lingers there... "How did you do that?" she asks Jane. Is she associating the lack of regeneration to that psychedelic work of lights? Maybe!

"Go ahead and recon." She then says to Gothic Lolita. It's her trainee afterall! "Scan for further traps too."

Jack Nolan has posed:
Jack keeps Epicenter pinned down until he's secure, and Jack is sure he's not going to phase out of the restraints. Then Falcon shows, and he stands up, brushing himself off a bit and moving to pick up his riot shield from where it landed, "At least we got one of them." He mutters, as he tucks the shield onto his back, and heads back towards Bobbi.

Clint Barton has posed:
Clint stands up as Falcon takes over attending to Epicenter, he gives a nod to Bobbi, then says, "I'll make sure their weapons are squared away, and there's no more resistance in the base," he says. Letting the more tech savvy mine this place for data and clues.

Jane Foster has posed:
With all that, Jane isn't in a rush to hasten over -- Sam being a paramedic has its advantages, and she briefly blows out a sound of relief, leaving Smith and Welsh to do their due diligence, clearing the area around them. Seeing the fallen guy suffer from sound and light leaves her hesitating on unplugging the projector, and the hologram machine might be turned up if she gets a clear. "How did I what?" she asks Daisy in return. "I thought it might be helpful to disorient him. Powers like lightning or yours seem to require control and focus. If I could throw him off, he couldn't use them effectively. It also seemed possible he might have developed superior senses, but I wasn't sure."

She thumbs-up at Clint if he's in sight, and then pats the machine. "Do you need any help?"

Bobbi Morse has posed:
As more SHIELD agents start to filter in to the premises, other HYDRA agents that were successfully knocked unconscious or ICER'd are detained. Falcon waits for the rest of the crash team to arrive, they move Epicenter on to a stretcher and make their way out of the building with him. Bobbi looks around at the crew and takes a moment to rest her hands to her knees and just breath.

<<Any sign of Whitehall?,>> she asks out over the comms. Perhaps too good to be true if he were here, but they certainly took away an important asset.

On the computers Quake finds the most recent logs, the Inhumans they were keeping here - the ones who died from the procedures and the ones that are still alive. The alive ones are marked as 'relocated'. The tunnel is a long one for Gothic Lolita, but with very fast running she does it faster than a train would have. At its end, she finds the train cart and there is a larger area with water lapping at the floor. It is a mini-sub docking port. The sub is gone, but by the way cables and boxes are strewn about it seems as though they left very recently and in a hurry at that.

Other computer techs soon join Quake in the server room and using the access she's got, they begin to copy and isolate the data - who knows what HYDRA tricks are on their servers after all.

"This is like a mixture of every HYDRA base I've been to and no HYDRA base I've been to," Bobbi comments as she looks around. "Let's wrap it up people, if you're injured see a medic. If you want a vacation, take it up with Director Coulson." She smiles to the crew. It was a large team and even though Cody was seriously injured and is in a critical state, no one actually died. That is a small blessing.