5961/The House of Broken Mirrors

The House of Broken Mirrors
Date of Scene:	17 April 2021
Location:	Camp Century, Greenland
Synopsis:	Natasha infiltrates a completely off the books 'Red Room' facility looking for Epsilon Red only to find more than she ever bargained for including an army of her own clones. Calling in the Avengers for extraction things only get more complicated when Yelena Belova appears as well. Meanwhile Steve, Bobbi, and Carol confront a definitely not Red Room super soldier of tremendous strength and recover some data about the mysterious backers behind all of these events, before destabilizing the ice sheet and ultimately bringing down the entire facility in the center of a 100 mile sinkhole in the ice.
Cast of Characters:	Nadia Pym-van Dyne, Natasha Romanoff, Wanda Maximoff, Steve Rogers, Bobbi Morse, Clint Barton, Sara Pezzini, Carol Danvers, Yelena Belova
Cast of NPCs:	Arkady Rossovich

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Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
It has been scant hours since the radio signal appeared the obscure radio signal appeared, an old signal used between Clint and Natasha, and there was no mistaking what it meant. Natasha had found something, something big and she was calling in help. The signal pointed towards northern Greenland near the arctic circle and a SPOT Team immediately sprang into action, but not without calling the Avengers for aid first. The last Red Room facility had resisted with a lot more than super spies and assassins, what little that managed to be salvaged pointed to something called Katyusha behind the advanced hypertech assets.

What little intel SHIELD's researchers managed to piece together points to a place called Camp Century and Project Iceworm, a top secret attempt by the US Military to place mobile nuclear weapon launch facilities beneath the ice sheets in order to be able to strike at the Soviet Union with relative impunity should the need arise. The project had to be abandoned due to several engineering impossibilities created by the ever shifting ice, but it seems like someone else may have managed to overcome them afterall. Now Quin Jets race towards the source of the beacon at many times the speed of sound, the vast white planes of the ice sheets coming into view.

Meanwhile, deep below the ice, a gunshot rings out echoing through the depths of the deepest underground lab. Smoke rises from from Natasha's gun but the Otchayaniye seems to have disappeared. The old wizzened face of the cyborg woman on the screen simply smiles at Natasha. "My dear, you have already given me everything I desire, as a dutiful child should." As she finishes talking an alarm begins to sound in the lab deep underground and the liquid in the closest set of tanks starts draining out.

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
    Natasha's face remains stony, but her piercing eyes are blazing as she tersely says. <Not everything, Mother. Not yet.> as she takes the moment to re-attach her Widow gauntlets, stashed away to suit her disguise. <It is stiill my duty to bury you. You've put it off for far too long.>.

    When the tanks start opening, Natasha pivots to look at them coldly, before aiming her pistol towards them with her right hand, and bracing the soldier's stolen rifle against her shoulder with the left, ready to unload as soon as any of the tanks open.

Wanda Maximoff has posed:
Wanda had been deathly serious about coming along. While they'd sort of neglected their friendship a little, she still counted Nat as one of her friends, and that says a lot for the Sokovian; she of few friends and more wary acquaintances. Luck or no luck, when the signal came through, it was due to Clint that she'd been 'invited', or rather, she'd invited herself and all the plans that they'd spent making as to how to work as a team now looks to have its first real serious application.

'Five feet to the right.'

There is no telltale red on the Scarlet Witch for this mission. Her auburn hair is tied back, tucked under a dark billed hat. She's dressed in fatigues, boots; which looks completely and totally out of place on her. (It almost looks as if she raided someone else's closet.. which she might have!)

Wanda rides the Quin, silently considering, alone with her thoughts in the midst of a cargo hold undoubtedly populated by those whom she knows and respects, if not trusts. While she waits, however, thin crimson wisps emenate from her hands; those hands that are never still, manipulating the energies there. Green eyes are held to the sight, concentrating.

Steve Rogers has posed:
Steve Rogers has been standing behind the pilot's chair, watching the instruments and looking out the cockpit's canopy at the frozen Artic passing by. If he's honest, not exactly a favorite place for him to be. Though as low as the plane is flying this is much closer up than he'd seen it the last time he came this way.

Captain America turns, picking his helmet as he moves through the plane, looking at those who have chosen to come on the mission. "We're not far out now. Time for final prerations," he tells them.

He takes his shield from where it's secured and moves it to his back where it locks into place. Steve glances towards Wanda and jokes, as if to keep the moment light and help drain away nerves, "A little too cool for the normal costume?"

Bobbi Morse has posed:
    Bobbi stands behind the pilot of the quinjet she's in. Her eyes on the prize. "Remember. Our primary goal is the recovery of Agent Romanoff from enemy territory. She is unaware of what has happened to SHIELD since she's been gone. Probably best to mention that after we've got her out of there safely."

    Bobbi turns to the team in the quinjet and says, "There are clones of Natasha and they may well be in this facility. The so called False Widow looks and sounds like Natasha, but she is not our friend and definitely not our ally. Capture is preferable. Remember the call and response codes to verify that you're talking to _our_ Natasha, rather than a clone."

    She double checks her gear and powers up her wings in to automatic deploy mode. The last time they took on the Red Room they were heavily armed and only thanks to the Titans were they able to sneak in the back way. All systems are nominal. She fits the part, Mockingbird, with her black armored uniform much like Natasha's, since it is SHIELD issue. Yellow glasses and belt with an M buckle. A long split black cloak hangs down her back.

Clint Barton has posed:
Clint is dressed in a stylized ninja outfit, black with dull gold highlights, with armored gauntlets and shoulder plates. His torso carries ballistic plates, and a double bandolier of throwing knives crosses his chest. A katana hilt stands up above his shoulder.

He looks around the quinjet at the others and speaks up, "Ok, I want to let you know what Wanda and I have worked out. She's going to make me invisible once we're in and also put up an illusion of me. The illusion will always be five feet to the right of me, so I'd appreciate if nobody put a bunch of lead through the spot I'll be standing. I'll be doing a lot of ambushing, I don't feel; like giving these guys a fair fight."

Sara Pezzini has posed:
Sara didn't need to know Natasha, in fact she had no idea who the woman was. All she needed to know was what this organization had done to Nohl, and others like her and the knowledge they would do it again if given the chance. She was hardly a SHIELD agent, barely a Hero, but she had convinced Bobbi to bring her because she knew she could help.

Dressed now in a set of fatigues that would not last the mission, and she knew it, she sat on the Quinjet absently turning the silver bracelet on her right wrist around and around and around.

When Captain Rogers announces they were getting closer, she stands up and literally starts to strip out of the fatigues. No, she doesn't seem to give a damn about anyone else there, but she keeps her back to them and once the fatigues are safe, it happens.

The silver bracelet becomes numerous metal tendrils that form into a the Witchblade gauntlet. From there the tendrils wrap around her body, at first forming nothing more than a skimpy armor, but she concentrates and spreads the tendrils into thicker, more covering armor. At last the metal wraps up and around her head, and across her face in a mask and metal wings sprout from her back.

"Right then, I'm ready."

Carol Danvers has posed:
Carol is doing her part to keep their profile lower, by not flying alongside the quinjet as it soars through the Sky. For all she knows that energy signature might be picked up by the Red Room right. They are amongst the people who would have the technology for it.

She is sitting in one of the jump seats, somehow someone managed to talk her out of piloting the quinjet, something she enjoys when she can't fly under her own power. Her eyes closed as she just listens and sits for the longest time.

The uniform is a dark grey and black version of her Captain Marvel look, sporting a strange symbol with a SWORD on it instead of the usual SHIELD logo in this configuration.

When Bobbi reminds everyone of the clones she just sighs and mutters "Ugn.. I hate clones and cloning technology. Once we go from infil to dealing with their super science agents and.. or if we need a distraction. Hit me up on comms. Until them I am going to be running pretty rev'd down in case they have energy sensors tuned for my sort of thing." in layman's terms she is going to be avoiding photon blasts until the shit hits the fan.

A phrase she avoids so the other Captain doesn't chide her about language.

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
Quin Jet stealth is a marvelous thing, it is not perfect, but in this case it certainly seems to have done its job, that or maybe this facility just doesn't go in for flashy external responses. Either way the Quinjets are soon just above the target point for drop.

Somewhere between the Quin Jets and the ground though the team seems to acquire an extra member, one moment they weren't there and then they were in a black and red armored suit with bio-synthetic buzzing wasp wings, because if there is one thing a Red Room trained individual with shrinking powers is good at, it is stowing away places. "Um, hi." Nadia says when the group reaches the ground.

On the ground the beacon is found by a twisted metal chute damaged by the shifting ice and forgotten to time. It looks like the least safe way to enter an underground facility that one could imagine and likely exactly where Natasha went judging by the evidence of ice having been forcibly melted recently.

Deep below the alarms continue to sound and the screen Natasha was talking to goes black, leaving her seemingly alone in the depths as the tanks finish draining. Then there is a stillness from the tanks a moment that feels like it is stretching out forever.

<Are you ready to meet some of your sisters?> Asks a familiar voice in Natasha's mind.

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
    The silence is oppressive, and the situation behind it is worse. All the same, Natasha works to keep her composure, her honed senses keeping lookout for any sign of ambush or disturbance from where her eyes can't see. She begins to creep slowly around one of the tanks to get a better look inside.

    On the way, she nearly fires a shot when Epsilon Red speaks in her mind. Grimacing outwardly, Natasha thinks, <That depends, are you ready to make yourself useful; or is this too entertaining for you? You're not getting out of here if I die.>

Wanda Maximoff has posed:
Wanda looks up from her magical essence manipulation to turn green eyes to the Captain. For a moment, she's got something of a middle distance stare before she focusses a little steadier on Steve, and when she smiles, the red wisps blink out and her fingers cease their movement. "I am trying to be undercover? I have coat for my outfit." Is that a complaint? Nah.. she's taking it in good humor. Still, his banter is quite appreciated.

When Bobbi mentions clones, Wanda does nod slowly in acknowledgment. She's got her own way, or fully believes she does, to discern truth from false. Maybe.

Emerald eyes move to Clint, however, and the smile relights, her expression warm as she listens to him. Once he imparts that bit of information, she does chime in once more, "I may also use images of others if needed for distraction. Each image is physical and can do what original can." An illusion with a physical presence and ability to boot? Yup.

Sara's change, however, causes Wanda to lean back; it's bright in her eyes, and it's all she can do not to shield herself from the view. It lights up the little cabin, even if no one else can see it, so she pulls the bill of the hat down a little further over her eyes.

The fact the Quin didn't come into problems could also be that little luck streak of a particular witch; it's the little things that make life easier, right? Cloaking, luck.. not overt, not anything that would or could set off alarms unless one was specifically looking for it. Right?

As the Quins fall into place for disembarking (from a height), Wanda rises from her spot, and glancing at those she knows, she nods, her lips pressed into a line. She reaches out quickly for a brief hand squeeze to Clint; it's contact, there and gone before she's out, a figure flying briefly into the air to a controlled landing. Immediately, she turns around to cover the descent of the others, her hands waving and weaving in the air briefly. It won't be permanent, but it's enough to shield them from any camera view.

Steve Rogers has posed:
As Clint explains what he and Wanda have in mind, Steve nods slowly, glancing between the pair. "That should come in handy," he agrees. He watches as Sara Pezzini's armor spreads across her, expression a little curious, though he doesn't ask her anything about the Witchblade.

"Alright, we're here," Cap says as the planes drop down to hover a half dozen feet above the icy surface. He walks over and lowers the back ramp and drops down and lands on the frigid surface. A quick look is taken around for any signs of threat and then he moves over to the metal chute. "Check your fire, watch for friendlies. If you're not sure if it's Nat, taken her down without harming her," he says once everyone is assembled.

Bobbi Morse has posed:
    There's a small nod from Bobbi to Carol. She makes a sound point. The Red Room would freak out massively if suddenly there was a heat signature of a Kryptonian, or the radiation signature of Carol. Massive power houses that they are. She gives her a small smile.

    "Well, that's.. a plan," she says to Clint and Wanda. Her brow furrows slightly as she glances away from Sara changing personas and costumes. Reading it in a dossier is one thing, seeing it in the field is another. Not that she hasn't seen wild transformations before. She's seen the Hulk after all.

    Bobbi jumps out of the quinjet and her two loose cloak halves snap in to the shape of wings, with a glow of purple hidden behind black fabric. She lowers down on to the ice and then walks over to where it looks like Nat made her infiltration. She makes a motion to the team, "Looks like this is our way in."

    A long shoot dropping down to who knows where? sure, why not. She does a jump and turn to drop down the chute in to the facility. The anti-gravity wings kick in part way down to slow her enough that when she reaches the bottom she isn't barrelling out. She emerges and draws an ICER, then checks both ways to cover the entry of the rest of the team. <I'm in, infil is a go>

Clint Barton has posed:
Clint pulls a mask over his face and hops off the ramp at the rear of the jet to land beside Wanda in a crouch, already looking around to mark any enemies or dangerous devices. He looks to Wanda and nods, "Ok, do it. Time for me to fade off the radar, I think." Watching Bobbi enter the chute, he takes a grapple gun from his belt and fires it into the wall of the shaft and hops in.

He lowers himself down after Bobbi, a throwing knife held in one hand as he lowers himself with the other. Upon reaching the bottom, he releases the line and moves silently into the complex.

Sara Pezzini has posed:
Non-lethal is not normally Witchblade's wheelhouse, it is right there in the name... blade, but she can manage by forming a solid metal in both hands. She is not used to working with others in her armor, but that is something she will manage as well. Captain America, Agent Morse, whom ever gave the command, she would follow. Sara was used to that, Witchblade was not.

Leaping from the Quin jet, she catches the wind but hovers above the ground to follow the others in.

Carol Danvers has posed:
Carol glances at Nadia "Hey kiddo." then she quips to Steve "I'll hold them down until we can verify them." she is probably kidding, she doesn't actually want to try to hold Nat down in case she has the real one for instance. There is a bit of a smirk too.

Then the blond stretches and grabs an ICER which amuses her like nothing else too, well it is non-lethal right and she heads out to join the others dropping down instead of floating or flying with them. This is good practice honestly. Never know when your powers might be snatched away from her.

Something Carol knows better than most.

She idly wonders if Fury would count this as weapons certificaiton hours, which for some reason she is required to do every year still. Seee above for the reason she supposes.

Regardless she gets some practice with a grapple line next. Dropping down.

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
Nadia gives Carol a quick smile though her ever exuberant self seems weighed down by this place and what is probably waiting below, she has a friend to find though and she isn't leaving without her.

Once Bobbi disappears down the shaft, Nadia zips after her close behind. It is a harrowing journey down and far from a straight line in any sense as shift ice has wrenched different parts of the descent in different directions, leaving all sorts of jagged metal on the way down as well.

The other end of the shaft opens up into a larger tunnel beneath the ice, likely the first layer of several sub-strata. It does not seem to have faired a whole lot better than the shaft, with everything in one direction already collapsed and the rest probably not too far behind. Coming this far one might almost think the place was still abandoned, however in the uncollapsed direction a few hundred meters down there seems to be light and activity in a larger tunnel that bisects this one. Faint sounds of voices echo from the distance.

Meanwhile deep underground, the humanoid forms within the closer tanks begin to stir, perhaps twenty of them and then the glass rises with a fwoosh sound.

<You're right, I'm not getting out of here if you die..>

Even as the voice is speaking in Natasha's mind they are rudely interrupted. Suddenly behind her Otchayaniye, that girl who looks far to much like Nadia, appears attempting to thrust a combat knife hilt deep into Natasha's back!

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
    At the last moment, Natasha pivots in place, but not so quickly that the blade doesn't carve a thin line out of her waist through her (slightly retro) Black Widow outfit. "*Aah!*" She barks in pain, and - rather perplexingly for those in ear shot - calls to no one in particular, "You're *distracting!*"

    Natasha carries the momentum of her turn to step quickly backwards and around while whipping to the side, stopping to point the gun directly in... *Nadia's* face.

    Some part of Natasha sincerely appreciates the effectivness of this little project, as she hesitates for a split second.

Wanda Maximoff has posed:
Wanda stays to the rear until the last person is off and the Quins are clear and safe. Only then does she turn around and look to Clint, her head dipping in silent inquiry first, then a definitive nod. While this was planned, it hasn't actually been //practiced// before.

First on the mark, then, is the quick invisibility for Clint; it's a perception based bit of a spell. While he may not be invisible per se, the way he's perceived? He's not. At all.

And it does take something of her in order to keep that particular little trick going.

Adding to the power useage, then, is that illusion of his. But, that's after she slides down the shoot, her hands going out in order to slow her passage, and even though she really does try, she doesn't land very.. gracefully.

"Ugh.." is softly complained before she gets up, wipes herself off, then looks around for 'her' Clint before the illusion is built.

Red wisps rise from fingertips as she forms the illusion, and within a minute, there stands another Clint Barton, identical to the one no longer within view. He looks, and moves like the original that it may be a touch unsettling if anyone gave it too much thought. All controlled by the Scarlet Witch.

//Now// the Avenger looks as if she's concentrating, green eyes searching everywhere, her game face firmly in place.

She'll be following Clint in order to keep his magicked defenses up and active.

Steve Rogers has posed:
Steve Rogers slides down the chute, arms held in close to his sides to avoid snaring them on any of the metal protrusions where the shifting ice has had its way. He arrives at the bottom, stepping forward, head swiveling about for any danger, for any signs that their intrusion has been noticed.

As he hears the sound of activity from the down the one direction remaining to them. Steve looks about to make sure everyone is ready before moving quietly forward. He stays nears to the walls to, moving quickly but quietly towards a location they can see what awaits them at the junction.

Bobbi Morse has posed:
    Bobbi gives Nadia a wry little smirk and says softly, "Couldn't resist hm?" She does a quick head check, then ducks down low and moves behind Steve. There's a reason he's the figure head for this kind of thing. He has a fancy shield for one thing. Her ICER out, though she expects she'll be swapping weaponry quickly enough if it turns out there's heavily armored adversaries between them and Natasha.

    The one lonesome dwarf she brought with her and takes from her thigh pocket and tossed up in to the air. The little quad drone puzzles and starts to shoot down the corridor ahead of Steve. Just as it passes him, it reveals its newest tactical secret.. it shimmers and cloaks, going invisible. Stealth drone.

    <Linking everyone in to Stealthy> she says having named the drone. She reroutes its feed from just her heads-up display to all the Avengers that can gain access to the technical feed.

Carol Danvers has posed:
Carol probably should have just slid down after Steve now that she thinks about it. She passes a hand over her eyes and her helm extends a visor which can tap into Stealthy there so she can see the read out and a tiny little HUD in the corner of her vision.

<<Thanks Bobbi>>

Regardless of her entrance just not being as cool as Steve's she dusts some ice off her outfit and looks around once she is at the bottom, before falling in, crouching down a bit as as keeps on Steve's six.

Sara Pezzini has posed:
Witchblade drops slowly with the others, making sure no one gets caught up or needs assistance on the way down before she lands silently on the ice below. This place looked like it already had the party and they were to the morning after when the parents got home. About to check her comm, she hears Bobbi 'introduce' Stealthy and nods. The armor didn't effect it, now she knew.

Listening to the sounds that come drifting through the ice to them, the baton in the right hand mophs into a bastard sword about as quickly as someone could blink their eyes, then blinks back to a baton. Check, and check, she was ready.

Clint Barton has posed:
Clint draws the katana with his left hand while still holding the knife ready in his right and continues down the passageway, letting Steve pass him. He stays against one wall so he's out of the way should anything (bullets, energy, tossed guards) go flying down the hallway. The mask on his new outfit has the electronics built in to allow him to take advantage of the drone's feed as well, so he moves forward confidently, aware of what's ahead already.

<<Remember Wanda, if it's too much, drop the double first, be sure you can defend yourself. Now, let's get our Nat and ruin this place for good.>>

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
The larger well lit corridor is full of soldiers in snow white arctic camoflage wearing unmarked Spetsnaz tactical armor and carrying long guns. It would appear that they are on supply duty as they seem to be unloading all manner of goods from a large snow treaded transport vehicle and hauling it over to a freight elevator that presumably leads down into the layers that form the heart of the facility itself.

"I'm not losing her again." Nadia tells Bobbi with a serious expression, "Before anyone else, she was my friend, who knows if I might have made it out without her. And Natasha, I can't leave her either, she trusted me." Whether Natasha actually did or just listened to Bobbi only she knows, but Nadia has decided that she did and for her getting Ying and Natasha back is personal. She zips ahead behind Captain Rogers, ready to throw down once the signal is given. If there is one thing the Titans have managed to teach her, it's working in a team.

<Command this is Ursa One, we are almost finished unloading the new supplies.> One of the soldiers standing by the truck says in Russian into a walkie talkie.

The soldier doesn't seem to get a response at first and then suddenly starts barking orders. <We have an infiltration in the lower levels! Secure the elevator! Prepare to descend, Ursa Seven through Twelve remain topside just in case.> The tunnel is suddenly a scramble of action and preparation.

Down below, that split second of hesitation is all that it takes and Otchayaniye is gone again.

Natasha is still not alone however as five brand new False Widows from the closest tanks move to attack her. The nearest aims a vicious kick at her head while the others begin fanning out to surround her. Luckily for Natasha, at least they don't have weapons. A small blessing.

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
    Natasha's lucky to be alive. Nobody's harder on Nat than Nat, and surviving on *luck* is... incredibly frustrating. Luckily for her, she doesn't have much time to dwell on it.

    Natasha ducks and pivots under the kick, sweeping her leg out as she turns to try to take the clone's leg out from under her, before rising up and firing a bullet straight down at her head.

    Assuming that worked, Natasha's still in a... tense position. If they're *anything* at all on her level, it is NOT safe to even extend her arm to aim that pistol, as three more would just take her down, assuming her target didn't just disarm her. She keeps her arms close to defend herself, deflecting strikes with her forearms, the butt of her pistol, even using her stolen rifle not unlike an arm, firing rounds as it sweeps across her duplicates, usually to no avail.

    Once again surrounded on both sides, Natasha decides to gamble. With a heavy click, the rifle's magazine is ejected and falls out of the gun, where Natasha kicks it towards the head of one clone, before whipping around and hurling the now-empty rifle at the other two, leaving only one with the absolute freedom to react in that moment where Natasha's back is turned.

    Natasha catches the clone's punch under one arm, trapping it against her body; and gets a knee to the stomach for her trouble. Doubling over forward, Natasha puts one hand on the ground and gets her body nearly vertical as her leg snaps out over her head, and into the clone's face, staggering it back enough that Natasha can put a bullet in it's head, before she immediately has to dodge the remaining three.

Wanda Maximoff has posed:
Wanda does have the latest in Avenger wear, and so has the earbud for coms. To find the frequency the drone is on takes a moment, but soon enough, she too is patched in with the group. Unlike the others, she doesn't hold a weapon in hand; she has no sword, no ICER, nothing overt that would be identified as 'threat'.

Unless one counts the illusion as one.

As Clint moves, so moves the physical representation of him, fully armed with katana and blade, just like the original. It's not that she uses it/him as a shield, no.. he is purely for distraction.

<<I will. Promise. Do not worry for me. Let us get Natasha and destroy facility.>> Scorched earth, well.. ice.

Wanda walks carefully now down the corridor, keeping an eye out for Steve, for the rest, but mostly for her archer turned ninja. Her back is against the cold wall, green eyes watching and concentrating on those illusions, so she's not all together 'present', as it were. Now, more than ever, she's got to keep it all together.

Steve Rogers has posed:
Steve's head tilts, not understanding what is being said in Russian. But he understands them going on alert. And since they appear to focus on the elevator instead of the tunnel, that tells him it isn't the Avengers and SHIELD that they are reacting it.

Steve looks over towards Bobbi. He makes a hand signal that means to scramble their communications. If she can. He doesn't know what all that little flying machine can do. Then he gives another gesture the team will know. Attack.

Captain American darts forward, shield off of his back. He hurls it at the far wall, throwing it harder than a professional baseball pitcher throws a baseball. It bounces off the wall and caroms towards one of of the special forces soldiers, hitting him in the head. It bounces off two more soldiers, downing them before spinning back to Cap who snatches it out of the air.

Sara Pezzini has posed:
Witchblade stayed toward the back, mostly because she new she could be to the front, or above them, or behind them in a matter of seconds.

As the posture of the soldiers changes, her eyes immediately go to Captain America then to Bobbi, she still isn't sure which is the one in command over all, but she will respond to both. She has no idea what the gesture the Captain gives means, but very quickly learns as the others react.

Show time.

Leaping into the air she takes flight along the ceiling of the tunnel, the height doesn't matter, it isn't wind or flapping really that propels her, it is the power of the Witchblade. Her sole intent is to make every soldier freak out and start shooting at her, because she knows the armor can take the shots and they will be distracted by it.

Clint Barton has posed:
Both visible and invisible Clint let fly with the throwing knives they are holding. 'Non-lethal' is apparently only going to apply to Natasha lookalikes today as the knives *THUNK* into two different soldiers heads, dropping them both to the ground. The Clints rush forward, visible Clint taking a number of bullet hits but not wavering in the least. It's the invisible one that really ruins a lot of people's day however, as he carves into the crowd, katana slashes apparently just appearing out of nowhere on guards who drop, trying to figure out what just hit them and failing.

<<Ok, let's clear the trash and keep moving.>>

With Wanda's magic blocking perception of him, the poor soldiers can't even notice any footprints he might leave on the floor, they just really have no chance. He's well into the 'scorched earth' policy Bobbi talked to him about a couple weeks ago, even if this isn't a HYDRA facility.

Bobbi Morse has posed:
    Straight in to action. It'd be her call on the situation too. A glance in to the heads up menus in her goggles and she brings up the drone menu. White noise broadcast. "Here we go..," she mutters under her breath and activates the signal jammer in the dwarf. It won't get the whole base, but it'll get enough.

    She flies out past Steve and tackles one of the guards. A stun baton is pressed to his neck and a shock delivered. She rolls up with his ragdoll body in her arms and tosses him toward another of the guards, then charges in with a flying - literally - kick to the head. As she lands she disappears behind a support beam and takes a breath.

    <These aren't their biggest baddest, be on the look out, things could get real messy real fast> she warns the rest of the team.

Carol Danvers has posed:
Carol wanders after Steve, not worried in the least about being shot it seems. She is strolling and watching the agents and Avengers go to work.

Still there are squads up here left behind <<They left Ursa Seven through Twelve up here, so plenty of trash to take out Barton>>

She pops the ICER up and aims and then starts to fire as she walks, getting shot back a couple of times as she pops people with the fancy zats.

<<If they do Bobbi, we can handle it. Need to get below, there is an infiltration on the lower levels and that I bet is where we need to be.>>

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
The whole thing is over in a matter of moments as Captain America leaps into action, the iconic shield taking the soldiers completely off guard as several are laid out in an instant. Many of those still standing turn their fire on the Witchblade, bullets bouncing off as these soldiers clearly were not expecting someone of with a suit of magical blades. Meanwhile Clint goes full ninja slicing down one soldier after another from the relatively safety of his invisibility. While Mockingbird is going to Mockingbird with flying stun baton acrobatics and a vicious head kick that sends the unit commander flying backwards into the wall, he's probably not getting up any time soon. By the time Carol wanders in most of the good targets have already been taken but there are still a few to be had. When all is said and done an entire unit of what appear to be Spetsnaz though oddly without unit insignia have been laid out on the ground in vary degrees of unconcious to deceased.

Meanwhile with the Avengers having things well in hand, Nadia diverts to the elevator and sets to work. Once the bodies finish hitting the floor there is a *ding* sound and the doors to the secure freight elevator slide open, "Next stop, wherever this goes."

It is a valiant fight that Natasha puts up, five become three but then three becomes eight with another ten not far behind. There is no chatter, only an endless stream of fists and feet, blow and counterblow.

<They are incomplete> Comes the voice in Natasha's head at perhaps the worst possible time, <Only your muscle memory and fighting skills were finished being implanted to this generation, but let me see if I can help you...>

In the midst of Natasha's eight on one melee against her army of duplicates, the ten further back suddenly become motionless. They stand there for a long moment before they start blinking. A chorus of "Where am I? What am I doing here?" Soon follows.

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
    Natasha's a hurricane, but she's fighting an uphill battle against a growing legion of people who are, roughly, as good as Nat is on a bad day after being woken up suddenly by a gunshot.

    Which many dead men could attest is still pretty scary.

    Natasha's head is bounced off of a closed tank, and her leg is kicked out from under her dropping to one knee. With a clone on her left, Natasha's right hand aims across her own body and puts two bullets in the clone's stomach, and one in its head as Natasha rises.

    The next pull of her trigger results in a dry click, after which she hurls the empty pistol at one clone who simply whips it back at her, forcing Nat to deflect it and open herself up to a blow to the ribs, knocking her backward.

    Bruised and bloodied by a long fight, breathing heavily, Natasha mentally responds <What are you talking about?>

    Natasha's eyes go wide with dawning horror as she sees what spreads through so many of her clones, and Natasha can't subdue an expression of disgust and pain as she breathlessly speaks, aloud, to Epsilon <You're a monster...>

    She wants to a throw up... but she needs to survive this. Finally speaking in english to redirect their focus, she calls out to the altered clones, "*Help me!*"

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
The elevator trip down is a fast one, ending in a very utilitarian area for sorting freight off to various other locations. The three soldiers in the room don't look up from their posts at first as they were expecting some of the soldiers from above to be joining them. It is a lapse in judgement they may not live to regret. From the room itself there are branching corridors with helpful well marked signs in Russian because they were definitely not expecting to be invaded under the Greenland ice. Once the soldiers are dealt with Nadia translates these as Barracks, Central Command, and R&D.

Clint Barton has posed:
The Clints clean their katanas off on their latest victim then head for the elevator. As they go, one barely concious soldier raises a pistol towards visible Clint, but a slash of red energy disintegrates the pistol, and the soldier finished passing out the rest of the way. The Clints can't stay the agreed on five feet apart in the elevator, but one moves to either side of the door as the elevator descends.

Wanda moves over into a back corner of the elevator, a chunk of her attention still on keeping up her illusions. Still, she brings up a shield in the door to block any bullets sprayed their way when the elevator opens on the lower level. Since she doesn't have to move at the moment, she can manage a third effect running. It's one of the good ones, solid to anything trying to enter the elevator, but allowing those inside to shoot, throw or dive out through it.

Bobbi Morse has posed:
    Bobbi redirects her drone to follow after her and walks toward the elevator. Her wings go loose and flop back in to a split cloak on her back. She enters the elevator and shuffles back to give people room. A small clearing of her throat as they share the elevator ride down.

    "So... anyone have plans for the weekend?," she queries to break the awkward silence. Ding, the elevator is opening in to the base below and she draws her staves, giving them a twirl. There is no mode switch, just straight back in to violence as she rushes out and trips up a guard, thwacking him hard on the head with a baton, then rolling back up to hug against the wall.

Carol Danvers has posed:
Carol humms softly on the elevator ride down, just hmmming along with a tune that is recognizable as some AC/DC really.... strange elevator music as she rests the ICER rifle on her shoulder and leans against one of the walls of the ride. "Probably going to get this a specialty pizza from this place in LA actually, you need to try it Bobbi."

Once out though she fires one shot into one of the soldiers, leaving the other two to anyone else who wants to pick them off. She imagines they won't last more than a breath or two honestly.

<<So I imagine R&D. If I was betting. It is always R&D... it is never the barracks or even CentComm...>>

Steve Rogers has posed:
Steve Rogers picks up one of the radios from the fallen Russian soldiers. "Who speaks Russian?" he asks before handing it over to Nadia. "In case we turn off the jamming," he says.

As they ride the elevator down, he turns to everyone else. "Let's move quickly, but quiet as long as we can. With any luck they won't know we're here yet. If we split up... Wanda, Clint, Sarah, and Nadia in one team, Carol Bobbi and myself in the other. Be ready when the elevator doors open."

As soon as the elevator door opens, he's moving into the room rapidly to take down one of the soldiers, felling him quietly.

Steve peeks out the door, and gets the translation from Nadia. "Alright, my team goes to Central Command, Clint take your team to R&D. Stay in touch," he says, giving the motion to move out. This one is a simple finger gesture, an easy one for Sarah.

Sara Pezzini has posed:
Witchblade skids across the ceiling, checking to ensure there is nothing left moving. One twitches, perhaps a last move before death, but to be certain she slides in for a landing, impales the man with the bastard sword, then continues to slide right into the elevator, where the wings just retract back into her armor as a part of it.

She hums a little, like the muzak most elevators play, the Girl From Impanema. "Back to work for me," she answers to Bobbi, then goes right back to humming.

Doors open and she darts out, leaping into the air once gain and the wings spring back into existence. She's once again ready to draw fire, but the Captain sets the plan in motion and she moves to hover near Clint, well one of the Clints, and Wanda.

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
The teams split up racing down their respective corridors. For Clint, Wanda, Sarah, and Nadia their trek through the facility leads into an area of lab spaces. This wing of the complex ultimately seems to house six large labs, three on each side of the long snaking corridor. Further down the corridor ultimately terminate in another set of highly secure elevator doors, getting there will be a challenge, however, as the corridor is filled with more arctic camo Spetsnaz soldiers. Two of them seem to be preparing a med-evac for two guards that have been laid out on the floor by the elevator. Its hard to guess that Natasha /probably/ went that way. However, another six soldiers with what appear to be energy rifles and a more high tech loadout than the ones above stand between them and the elevator doors.

The lab spaces are all highly secured, with thick reinforced metal security doors and ballistic glass windows. Looking through the glass though, the scientists within are not the sort of older tenured individuals one might expect but... teenagers, teenaged girls. "The Science Class." Nadia says stopping short, before her thoughts are interrupted by an energy blast. "Once we deal with these evil science men, you guys go on ahead. This is the Science Class. I need to find her, she has to be here. Don't worry, I'll catch up." And with that she returns fire with an energy blast from one of her own gauntlets.

Meanwhile the corridor pursued by Steve, Carol, and Bobbi leads into a very different area full of mostly offices and meeting rooms until it terminates into a large central command planning room with all kinds of technology and communications equipment lining the walls. In the center is a massive table projecting a holographic planning display above it and on the opposite side of the table, the man (if he can be called that still) who is currently in charge of this facility Arkady Rossovich. Standing nearly seven feet tall, he is completely albino, with piercing red eyes and decked out in red and black carbonadium armor. At first it seems odd how empty this area is, until one breathes the air closer to the meeting room and sharp convulsing pain begins to spread through the body as they come into contact with the spores of Arkady's 'Death Factor'.

What was becoming a one sided fight is now a grand melee of Widow on Widow action. The ten who were suddenly confused, and suddenly talking, seem to get their bearings pretty quick and something in Natasha's cry for help seems to resonate within them as they turn on their silent brethren. "Someone really owes me an explanation when this is over!" They all shout nearly in unison, it's pretty creepy.

Even as they are fighting, there is a ding and fwoosh sound from behind Natasha as the elevator starts ascending again.

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
    Natasha backs away slowly as the melee grows in size and complexity, eyes wary and confused. She no longer knows who's on her side and who isn't. She's not even sure how or if the clones on her side know. But she knows she's essentially out of this fight, at least for now; and just as well. Sinking to one knee, she takes the opportunity to at least catch her breath as she tries to process the staggering implications of what's happening in front of her, and whether she has any right to her clinical idea of needing to kill them all.

    Hell, if they're really all her, they'll consider it too. But will they fight to survive? To be the one remaining?

    Would *she?*

Bobbi Morse has posed:
    It's as good a plan as any. She nods to Steve and gives another nod to Sara. "You'll be okay. Stick with Clint," she tells the newer agent who looks more bad-ass than most agents do in their first year. Bobbi moves quietly and swiftly with Carol and Steve toward central command. Answers are needed and this is the only place they're going to get them.

    Then suddenly they are face to face with the man in control of this place. "Who the heck is this guy...," she says sizing up the seven foot tall albino. She then side whispers to Steve, "Also, I know Russian."

    Bobbi takes a fateful step toward the man speaking in Russian, "Greetin~~" she says and hits the spores. Not that she could see them, but the moment she's in contact with them the pain shoots through her body and she stumbles back away from him.

    Gasping for breath and shaking all over she says to Steve and Carol, "Some.. kind of.. force field? pain field?" Two super soldiers and a super-everything.. and Bobbi has never felt such pain in her life. Grimacing, she pulls herself back up to full height and shudders. "Careful.. this is.. new."

Clint Barton has posed:
The visible Clint relays his hand gesture to Sara, motioning to one of the soldiers on the left. Following that, Wanda's illusion tosses a knife into the neck of the soldier beside Sara's designated target, dropping him. Invisible Clint stabs his katana into the floor and throws knives with both hands, putting down two more of the guards.

Sara skims just below the ceiling, spinning to avoid directs hits from incoming fire, the Witchblade forming angled armor to deflect glancing hits. The sword in her hand turns into a metal whip that lashes out, wraps around her target's arm, and with a powerful yank, launches him face first into a wall. He goes down and stays there. Sara zooms past the guards and spins, the whip becoming a mace that she bashes down on another's head from behind, leaving just one guard standing.

Steve Rogers has posed:
Steve Rogers eyes Arkady Rossovich, moving forward beside Bobbi but letting her take the lead. He walks into the range of the spores as well, not knowing what they are. Perhaps he's less affected than a normal human would be, but they still affect him noticeably.

Captain America looks about for a cause, not having ventured quite as far as Bobbi. When she backs up, he does too, finding some of the pain that was seizing his body seems to let up. His eyes dart about still, not seeing anything obvious in the way of what caused it.

Steve straightens fully, a hand going to the ICER that he has strapped on, but hasn't used yet. Nor does he draw it yet. "The time for this facility is over. It's known now, and we're shutting you down," Steve says towards Arkady.

Carol Danvers has posed:
Carol is mostly following the other two, they are both more in charge of the mission really than she is. Higher Agents, Avengers Field Leader and Captain America. Commander Bobbi Morse. You know. Also she is way more rusty at being sneaky and not just punching things or blowing them up.

She is covering their six as it were.

She pivots around from looking behind them to looking into the command center and the big. Really big. Guy in there looking very pale and in charge. "Hmm." is all she says as Bobbi goes to parley and is hit by the spores.

She honestly doesn't go off half cocked either, she lifts her hand and a scanner goes to life from her left hand as she scans the area in front of her as Bobbi staggers back by her now. <<Be careful Steve>> not that she needs to warn him but for the moment, she is letting him try the talking route while she tries to figure out what is going on with this guy.

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
A well placed energy blast from Nadia's other arm gauntlet, followed by her legs wrapping around the soldier's neck and a flip-slam into the floor finishes the last of the soldiers barring the way for Clint's team.

"Go!" Nadia calls, already working on the lock to one of the lab doors, "I'll be fine!"

Of course there is no way she could have predicted what happens next. There is a ding and the elevator doors slide open with a fwoosh to reveal ...Nadia, but in a wicked all black alternate version of the Waspette armor with what appear to be several new innovations. "Sorry, I can't have you going down there just yet." The second Nadia informs them with a bright smile and a wicked look in her eyes.

Elsewhere in the command wing, Arkady glares at the trio before him, taking his time as he steps around the large holographic planning table. As he gets closer, so too does the radius of the spores. "Is it? Or do I simply need to eliminate some annoying mice that have scurried in?" He studies them for a moment, before tapping a button on the table. From further down the hall the way they came, the clomping of running boots can be heard from what sounds like a lot of soldiers, a pincer attack ambush. "Now why don't you tell me who you are and why you have decided to invade this facility before I kill you all?"

The clones really don't seem to have a perfect idea who they are supposed to be fighting, other than attacking the ones attacking the one in clothes. What their thoughts are on the question of killing all the others is an open question, but for now they seem to be working together well enough and are gaining ground against the seemingly more instinct driven clones. One of the clones attacking Natasha does manage to connect with a vicious knee before being pulled off by another. There is a sickening crunch and another clone body hits the floor next to Natasha, lifeless.

Meanwhile somewhere above another spider has crawled her way in. Nothing has added up, the Red Room is clearly hiding things from Yelena and she still has her orders to eliminate Natasha. Having tracked her all the way to Greenland and infiltrated a facility that to her knowledge shouldn't exist, who knows what thoughts are running through the head of Natasha's successor. Worming her way through ventilation ducts she has found herself above the R&D wing with eyes on Clint's team through a grate.

Yelena Belova has posed:
It has been much in thanks to the upgraded version of Widow's Gauntlet that Natasha took from Yelena in their last bout, that Yelena was able to pick up the trail of Natasha again. This time, rather than rushing to engage, she kept her distance, to see where the trail would lead. Turns out it was a secret facility in Greenland, which to all intents and purposes read like Red Room, and yet she, the supposed Black Widow and prized asset, wasn't told about. Ever since Natalia Romanova came back to life, and a rendezvous she thought was to bring a hero home, turned out to be the take down of a traitor, life was thrown in a belender. Worse than usual.

For that reason alone, Yelena choose to avoid engagement until she had a lock on Natasha. Using ventilation ducts, and her own Black Widow tech for wall crawling and stealth, she kept out of sight and out of mind. For now tracking the group in pursuit of Natasha, and lo and behld, a certain Clint Barton was with them.

Using her nayk-7 goggles, which her the look of a spider with all the cameras covering the face, Yelena kept in the duct while survey the field through the wall. There was no reason to reveal herself at this time. Best to let these idiots draw all of security to them, and should they succeeded, maybe they help her get to Natalia.

Carol Danvers has posed:
Carol finishes waving her scanning hand in front of her and says over comms <<Spores in the air coming off the Russian Agent, either hold your breath or put on a rebreather now.>> and well Carol has it easier than the other two, she just wills her suit to seal up the rest of her mask and stops breathing for now. Just in case te suit seals over all of her skin, not sure if it is a contact toxin yet as the Kree computer keeps diagnosing it.

Cheater.

<<Bobbi how about you kick some russian butt behind us so we aren't pinned down and I'll talk to our Russian friend a bit?>> and Carol steps into the spore radius now and thanks to her translator in Russian says "Are you honestly telling me you don't know who the two of us are... this would be the time you surrender and spare all of your men a real solid ass whupping. Yourself included bud."

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
    Natasha is on the backfoot; a situation she hasn't found herself in awhile until now, despite dealing with gods and monsters with increasing frequency. She was pretty sure she appreciated the Avengers enough before now. She may have to give that a re-think, if she lives.

    Rest, however brief, didn't turn out to be an option. It seems that despite the chaotic melee, the less intelligent clones still see the original's death as their primary objective. Frankly, she's grateful not to have to focus on the newly-absorbed image of her own dead eyes staring up at her after the nearest corpse lands.

    Natasha deflects two fists one after the other, then bodily pushes an swinging leg back the way it came. True to form, the clone merely uses the moment to turn sharply and drive an elbow towards Natasha, but Nat's already horizontal by that time, flipping sideways, locking her knees around the clone's neck, and helicoptering her around before driving the clone's head into the ground, followed by a sharp snap as Natasha wrenches at the clone's neck with her legs. This could go on all day, and that's not even counting what could happen with the 'programmed' clones once they run out of 'ferals'.

Bobbi Morse has posed:
    Bobbi dips a hand in to a pocket and pulls out a rebreather. She tosses it to Steve and nods to Carol, "Good hunting." There's a small smirk as she draws out her stun batons and turns from the other two and charges down the hallway. The sound of boots beating on the floor approaching gives her the timing she needs.

    The first guard around the corner is met with Bobbi flipping through the air, grabbing his head and pulling him hard against the wall. She lands and spins down low underneath an energy blast from another guard, as she takes out his legs with a baton to the knee, then another to the face.

    The heads of display, running the falcon OS, activates combat mode and starts overlaying augmented reality lines of threat assessment and projectile vectors.

    Bobbi tosses a baton at one as she uses the wings to power herself out of the way of two more shots and runs along the wall to catch the baton as it bounces off of his face. The action is only just beginning though and she knows this is going to be a hard slog.

Clint Barton has posed:
The visible Clint tosses a knife at the Nadia copy in the elevator, starting forward with his katana held ready in an uneven, dodging run. The real Clint, meanwhile, continues to use both hands for knives, throwing one to each side of the elevator. He's not aiming for clone Nadia, but rather just to either side of her. Both knives explode when they hit the walls with the force of full sized concussion grenades.

Sara drifts back away from the elevator as the explosions go off, then reforms the metallic whip, lashing out at the copy in the elevator.

Steve Rogers has posed:
Steve catches the rebreather and uses it, though as the albino Russian approaches, he feels the effects starting up again. "Seems to move with him," he says, pulling the rebreather out to talk.

He backs away, putting the rebreather back in, in case it helps. A glance towards Bobbi tells him she is holding her own for now. Knowing this might be an opening they need. Steve moves across the room to the side, gradually feeling the effects diminish. He gives Carol a nod, one towards her and another towards Arkady. He holds his shield at the ready, and moves to circle around Arkady, focused on him for the moment like he's just trying to flank the man, but staying out of the range he feels the effects of the spores. Each step brings him nearer to the control consoles and electronics that ring the room.

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
Nadia just turns and stares at well 'Nadia'. "Are you kidding me?! Another me, again?! I swear you better not call yourself Ant Girl!"

When the knives start flying in Otchayaniye's direction she seems to simply vanish into thin air, knives impacting upon the elevator doors with their concussive explosions. Only to reappear moments later up near the ceiling firing an energy blast that passes through the illusion of Clint, "Clever clever." She says in a singsong voice before vanishing yet again.

"You guys should go find Natasha, I can handle her." Nadia says before seeming to disappear herself and zipping through the air as a very tiny battle begins between Hope and Despair.

In the command center, Arkady sneers, "You are clearly Americans, only Americans would be so noisy and what is your word 'Gung-ho'? I will enjoy this." Even as Captain America begins moving with a flick of his wrist Arkady lashes out with a metallic carbonadium tentacle towards carol from his left hand, while another from his right hand shoots out towards Steve attempting to wrap them both up and begin draining the life force from their bodies.

Down below, both sides have taken losses at this point and there are at least eight dead Natasha's laying on the ground, four of them ones that had been attacking Natasha and four of them from the newly enlightened ten, though the numerical advantage of Team Save the Original is growing.

<Finish them quickly and push ahead, what no!> The voice of Epsilon Red seems to be interrupted and then cut off.

Bobbi Morse has posed:
    Bobbi droprolls in to a sweeping kick for the next guard and uses his body as a shield as several others shoot at him. The energy weapons sizzling through his armor and biting in to his body. She hefts and tosses him at the ground and charges at them. Scooping up one of their rifles she shoots one and tosses the gun at the next.

    Bobbi ducks past a door briefly and forces one of them to come after her in to the darkly lit room. She yanks him in and his cry of surprise draws in the neck who she clothes hangers. Pulling his weapon around she shoots out of the room at the next guard coming after her.

    Bobbi is given a brief respite as the guards start to try and reorganise themselves for fighting what to them appears to be a black widow level threat. She cracks open the circuitry in the gun and shortcircuits it. The power core begins to heat and she makes some quick guestimates then leaves the bomb on the floor to be used later.

    A guard gets a surprise hit on her side and she turns, engaging him in hand to hand - until she realises it's hand to knife. He stabbed her but the shield armor weave protected her from the blade. She finds him surprisingly skilled at hand to hand combat and eventually grapples his arm, squeezing the dagger out of his hand and then tossing him at the wall.

    Bobbi spins out in to the corridor to kick the energy rifle turned bomb past Carol, past Steve, past Arkady, so that it hopefully detonates behind him and gives her allies a nice distraction. <Heads down!> she warns them even as she catches a glimpse of their situation, more guards are moving in toward her. She can't stay still.

Yelena Belova has posed:
Yelena uses the chaos of a conflict down low to make her way out of the ceiling vent while the others are preoccupied fighting amongst themselves, and she proceeds to crawl along the ceiling, edging towards the elevator. It's when Despair and Hope engage on a far more microscopic scale, that Yelena drops a smoke bomb to cover her own tracks by the elevator, as she drops down and tries to make a quick getaway down low. Meaning to beat all other takers in the confusion, having the advantage of her goggles assisted vision to see through the smoke screen she created.

Steve Rogers has posed:
While Steve is hoping to get to the controls, he didn't need to feign having his attention on Arkady. An attack was not unexpected, though the exact form of it is new.

Steve swings his shield, the star-spangled vibranium knocking aside the tentacle. His other hand comes up with the ICER in it, firing it repeatedly at the Russian.

He only manages a few shots as the tentacle snakes back towards his legs. Steve jumps over it and jams the ICER back into the holster before reaching over and ripping a flat screen monitor off of the bracket that mounts it to a desk. He sends it hurling towards Arkady's head about the time that Bobbi's exploding rifle is going off.

Clint Barton has posed:
Clint motions for his team to take to the elevator, trusting Nadia to deal with her clone, since none of them can really do much against someone who can shrink at will. Both of him, visible and non- are almost there when the smoke bomb goes off. Clint switches to thermal to try and see through the smoke, katana in one hand and knife in the other, ready to let fly if he can make out a target. The visible Clint rushes into the elevator and spins, ready to attack as Sara hovers near the elevator, flapping her wings to try and move the smoke away.

Carol Danvers has posed:
They never really seem to listen and she replies in Russian. "Your intel is really really bad." a bit surprised really about how bad this guy's intel is honestly.

The tentacle trick is fascinating though, the guy is faster than a human. Not fast enough though.

She starts to snap a hand out to grab the tentacle before it can connect with her, when her seventh sense suddenly warns her of the danger of that course of action and she instead shoots to the side with the first real use of her powers since she entered the base.

Cheating precogs.

"Well okay then." she notes surprised and well.... cat is out of the bag. Figuratively. Goose is technically at home.

Carol glances at Steve to see how he is fairing. Well at least he isn't in the tentacles clutches yet. <<Don't know what this guy's schtick is Cap but you don't want him to snag you with those>> which from Carol is a strong warning.

She focuses in on Arkady though and gestures at him firing off a Photonic Blast right at him, trying to move to pin him down between her and Steve. She also aims to time it with the flat screen distraction Steve is providing.

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
    Wounded, and panting with exertion, Natasha's movements gradually grow more sluggish as Epsilon's aborted command is given. Natasha's eyes widen and she puts some distance between herself and the battle, mentally calling out <Epsilon? *Epsilon!* What's going on?!>

    Natasha frustratedly growls <God damn it!> through her teeth in Russian and swiftly punts one of the clones in the head, and stomping on its neck. The time for caution's gone out the window. Natasha dashes into the middle of the chaos, letting the clones focusing on her chase her into the middle of an increasingly confused war zone, and within reach of the clones helping her.

    Natasha ruthlessly takes advantage. If one clone kills the other, she stabs it in the back of the head before it can recover. When a Clone gets knocked away, Natasha throws her knife into its heart. The last left is one clone, kneeling on the ground and throttling the life out of another. When the deed is done, Natasha simply reaches out with both hands and breaks its neck with a sharp twist.

    She doesn't know if it was one of the ones helping her. It doesn't matter any more.

    Moving towards the doors, Natasha 'loudly' thinks <Hold on.> to Epsilon. <I'm-> Natasha grunts sharply and falls to her knees, shaking and bleeding, the last several minutes catching up to her all at once.

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
The microscopic battle between Hope and Despair continues as both Clint's team and Yelena move for the elevator amidst the chaos and smoke.

Arkady draws back the tentacle that was menacing Captain America, using it to slice right through the monitor even as the rigged up energy rifle bomb explodes behind him causing him to stumble and preventing him from quite dodging Carol's photonic blast, yet while he is knocked backwards towards the holographic display table, he manages to catch himself against it and perhaps surprisingly his carbonadium armor seems unbreeched.

Arkady sneers in Captain America's direction like he knows something the other man doesn't. It may just be their imagination but as this fight continues, Arkady seems to be getting faster, reflexes quicker. Reassessing the threats before him both tentacles now lash out towards Captain Marvel attempting to ensnare her as the huge surprisingly fast and agile albino moves in for the attack.

Somehow Natasha has survived the melee, though one can only wonder at what scars killing yourself over and over again might leave behind. The trek through the rows and rows of clone tanks towards the doors on the far side is a regular house of horrors, there are still so many more Natasha's being grown, there is also a section of Yelenas, and many other 'top agents' Department X felt they could use more of. Curiously there do not seem to be any more Nadias here. Finally she finds herself kneeling before the far door shaking and in pain with who knows what waiting beyond... Epsilon Red? Mother? Something worse?

Bobbi Morse has posed:
    Bobbi scoops up a rifle and throws it at the approaching guards, then lifts up a second one and shoots the first. It's like a grenade going off as the energy wave balloons out the walls and blows in doors. While the guards are scattered and confused by the explosion, those standing are suddenly met with Bobbi and her staves.

    As the latest unit drops around her she feels a sharp pain shooting up her left arm. "Oh no," she whispers to herself and looks at her heart rate monitor. It's starting to spike up and down. She clenches and unclenches her left hand even as she feels herself breaking in to a cold sweat.

    "Cap n' Cap! any time now!," she says almost beggingly for the most superest of them all to explodify that albino man. The sound of boots approaching has her shoulders sag with determination as she picks up one of the metal doors like a shield and charges down the hallway once more. Unlike Steve, because of her heart she cannot keep this up all day.

Yelena Belova has posed:
Yelena has the advantage that essentially nobody in this room that isn't already Red Room even knows she exists. Further bonus, nobody who is Red Room in here has any inkling she's anywhere near the vicinity. Since her transponder would show Moscow if any checked, and lord knows Mother checks often.

Her fall from the ceiling is graceful, with a roll back into the elevator amidsts the smoke and chaos. Visible Clint rushing to the elevator gets greeted by a precise shot of Widow's Bite, crackling with electricity. Sara is ignored because Yelena doesn't care about the smoke screen being dispersed with her already in the elevator, but just for good measure, moments before the elevator door closes, she tosses out a grenade for the others to worry about more than catching up with her in this very instance.

With the smoke dispersed before the door closes, if any looked her way rather than the grenade rolling on the floor, they'd see a remarkably close approximation to Natasha, definitely a Black Widow, only she's blonde. The goggles she's currently wearing gives her the look of a spider, a set of faint red lights giving the impression of eight eyes. She gives a small wave as the door closes before turning to face what's on the other side.

When the door opens to a scattering heap of dead Natalias, even the usually emotionless Yelena gives a slight gasp. This was a horror show, more so to her than most. One the one hand it was her greatest idol, on the other hand, it was many of her, and finally all of them dead. She starts to walk out into the clone hall, not caring about pursuits as she doesn't sabotage the elevator. Too distracted as she needs to catch up to Natalia, assuming she's still alive, or Natalia at all.

Along the way down the path of bodies, Yelena spots one clone that seems to still be alive, quickly resuming the cold nature of a proper Black Widow, she records on her goggles as she positions herself in a way that only shows her target. "Mother," she speaks for the recording's sake, "mission accomplished," and with a single shot she blows the clone's head. Recording ends, and there's her evidence that her mission was done. Now to get to the bottom of it, she picked her pace down the trail of mangled bodies.

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
    Natasha is only just starting to shakily rise to her feet when the sound of a gunshot rings out, and she drops again, twisting as she falls once more to her knees so that this time she's facing Yelena - bruised, bleeding and kneeling at the end of a trail of her own corpses - seeing her at last.

    "... Ah." There is a palpable beat of silence before she softly sighs, "... Neudobnyy." A Russian word she uses enough that even Clint - and obviously Yelena - would recognize as '... Awkward.'

Clint Barton has posed:
Clint curses and dives away from the elevator to put distance between him and the grenade. Wanda drops the illusion Clint to snap up a shield over the grenade to protect the team. Sara zips away from the grenade, the armor suddenly forming a solid suit around her to protect her from the blast. It's not needed, however, as Wanda's shield holds when the grenade explodes, it's only effect to put a hole in the floor.

Clint is over to the elevator in an instant, hammering the call button, but hitting it multiple times doesn't make the elevator come any sooner. Once it finally does, the three of them enter the car and start downwards, following the blonde woman down into the depths of the base.

Steve Rogers has posed:
As Arkady pulls the tentacle back from attacking him, Steve Rogers turns, eyes scanning across the banks of computers, monitors and other electronics. He spots a set of monitors rotating through different camera feeds, and what he sees on one causes his eyes to widen.

<< Team, I've got Natasha sighted on Level 5. A lot of Natashas, fighting each other >> Steve says into his comms as he turns back towards their Russian opponent. He winds up and nearly flips forward as he puts everything he has into a hard throw of his shield, trying to knock Arkady's aim off as he goes after Captain Marvel with the tentacles.

Carol Danvers has posed:
Captain Marvel is in a word very fast and almost preternatural in her ability to dodge those tentacles. She ducks and then leans back before firing off a couple more photonic blasts to deflect the next salvo of tentcles.

With Steve's help she manages to avoid them for the moment at least. She is also starting to get the feeling she needs to get this guy away from Rodgers if they are to continue this tussle.

She pulls back a step and looks straifght up. <<Steve. You want to get out of here and help Bobbi.>>

Which is when she directs a large blast straight up above Omega Red. Like she intends to bring the whole room down on him, and maybe herself in the process.

Hell it is either that or tunnel to the surface.

Still she makes sure that Steve is clear before really bringing it all down.

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
In the lab area small flashes of light from the clashes of two tiny Wasp girls flash through the halls as Nadia and Otchaya clash. With Otchaya advantage of rapidly manipulating her size nixed by another with the same ability it has become a full on aerial brawl between the two tiny young women.

Meanwhile Mockingbird has been weathering an onslaught that would make any of the Avengers proud. Bodies are literally beginning to pile up she has taken down so many and the pincer attack has begun to fall back to long range cover positions, firing from the side rooms further down the corridor and keeping their distance.

Arkady dodges out of the way when Captain America's shield comes flying at him but the Captain's goal is accomplished anyway as the Soviet super soldier is forced on to his back foot and needs to redirect one of the tentacles to bat the shield away when it richoets back at him again off one of the walls. Between this and Captain Marvel's preternatural ability to dodge she manages to evade the other carbonadium tentacle even when the thing seems to have a mind of its own changing directions and adapting mid-flight. The differences in Arkady are becoming quite noticable, he's getting harder and harder to hit, moving faster and the steel and reinforced structure of the room can be seem denting and cracking under the force of the tentacles.

When Captain Marvel shoots the ceiling instead of Arkady though, for the briefest moment he is surprised before he realizes what she is doing. "American Wench!" He curses as the ceiling begins coming down. Thunderous cracking can be heard above sounding like the entire kilometer plus thick ice sheet over them has begun to destabilize.

It's a quick trip down for Clint and the remaining members of his team, the elevator is quite fast and efficient, though the real question is if they're prepared for the grissly sights that await them at the bottom. The bodies of dead 'Natashas' are strewn everywhere, killed in what appears to be mostly brutal hand to hand combat, they stare glassy eyed into nothingness. It seems to have turned into a running battle as a literal trail of bodies leads from a lab area where the elevator opened, through a vast open chamber full of cloning tanks containing still more Natashas as well as what appears to be some other individuals and finally to the space before a heavily secured door in the opposite wall where Natasha and Yelena have met again at last.

Yelena Belova has posed:
"Eto pravda," Yelena agrees with Natalia that her word of choice to define this unlikely moment is nothing short of truth. It's as awkward as it can get. With only the two of them for now, they of course naturally converse in Russian, and Yelena is pointing her pistol at Natalia for the conversation, likely against sudden movements, "<so there's many of you, maybe a bit less many now,>" she says with a smirk, "<there's many of me, and...>" she pauses, "<we are all expendable.>"

Because that is the bottom line, with multiple Natalias and multiple Yelenas, what does it matter if it's the real issue or some well made clone. Apparently she really paid attention to her exchange with Natalia on their first alteraction, because seeing all of this made her realize just how right Natalia was. There was no point to anything.

"<It will please you to know my mission is complete,>" Yelena notes to Natalia, explaining the shot she heard moments before Yelena caught up to her. To punctuate her point, Yelena shifts her gun arm downwards, no longer pointing at Natalia. She doesn't need to explain, it's quite obvious what she came to do when last she fought Natalia, and it's clear as day just how much evidence she could produce here to show success. More so as she doesn't need to retrieve a body, easily claiming she disposed of it per protocol.

"<So what are we now...? Sisters? Enemies? Friends? Traitors? Ghosts...?>" It's clear Yelena is quite confused herself, perhaps overwhelmed by what she discovered here, and very much uncertain how to proceed. "<I should kill you, Natalia Romanova, but you spared me...so I spare you, we even, I kill clone instead,>" Yelena smirks under that eerie spidery visage of her goggles. "<but I want to talk, and this is not place or time, so...you tell me why you're here, I decide if I help or stop you, fair?>"

There's the sound of Clint and his team approaching, and Yelena holds a finger to her lips, "<don't tell...>" and with a quick motion she fires a widow line to send her up to the ceiling, where she clings and looks down, prepared to attack if must be, from her new advantageous perch. Assuming Natalia doesn't tell like she asked. She has no clue if Clint and co are friends, enemies, or what...this is the worst situation she ever waltzed into. Okay, second worst. Make it third, but it's high up there!

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
    Natasha eye Yelena warily in that long silent moment, kneeling at gunpoint, in position to pay for her ill-advised mercy they way most spies would. The lower of the gun is a... welcome surprise.

    Natasha lets out a bitter huff of a laugh when Yelena claims they're expendable. <Yes. It would seem that Mother is finally as tired of hurting little girls as I am. This is... so much more efficient. Just copy the ones that worked.>

    As Yelena goes on, as she seems to beg for a lable to define herself by, Natasha can't fully subdue a look of pity. <... We are-> Whatver Natasha's answer was going to be is cut off as Yelena shushes her and vanishes upward. Natasha silently hangs her head as the elevator reaches their floor.

"... Hey guys. Thanks for coming." She says, her voice heavy with exhaustion and emotional weariness, leaving her with a bland, dry, dark humor as she gestures vaguely with one arm "If you're here to kill me, I, uh... beat you to it."

Clint Barton has posed:
Clint just stares for a minute, cause that's a lot of dead Nats. Following the trail of bodies, he spots Yelena and the remaining Natasha, which he certainly hopes is the correct one. Since Wanda has dropped his visible double he can't do hand signals, so goes to comms instead.

<<Move in, Sara go right, Wanda and I will go left, take out the blonde and lets see if this is our Nat>>

Putting action to words, he moves around to the left of Yelena, katana and throwing knife at the ready. Wanda follows him at a distance, keeping an eye on Yelena and a red aura of arcane power surrounding her hand, power at the ready. When Yelena ascends on her line, he glances to Nat and then says on comms <<Wanda, let her see me.>>

As he fades in, he looks to Nat and says, "Caviar is expensive."

Sara Pezzini has posed:
Witchblade goes after Yelena, no hesitation, no pause, flying straight for the ceiling because that is where she was indicated to go. For the moment she has the batons in hand, but she does ask over the comm. <<I assume this is non lethal?>> Even as she is taking a swing at the woman on the ceiling, not even asking the question or how or why, merely attempting to knock her back to the ground where she needs to be. <<I'd prefer something more permanent, but she may have answers to questions.>>

Bobbi Morse has posed:
    It's the super soldier team up no one expected. Instead of Steve and Bucky, it's Steve and Bobbi. Now that the security forces have fallen back, Bobbi doesn't have quite so easy a way to get at them without outright killing them. And that's not what they're here for. Shutting the place down? sure. Saving Natasha? absolutely. Murder hoboing? not so much. "About time," she says with a smirk at Steve moves forward behind his vibranium SHIELD.

    Bobbi dips in behind him and the energy weapons fire showers off of the shield dancing over the walls like a disco light spreading its colorful rays. When they reach the battened down guards Bobbi leaps over Steve and shoots past with wings spread and punches down on one of the guards from above as Steve rolls forward and tosses his shield at another crippling his legs and dropping him following up with a swift punch to the head.

    A second guard turns to take a punch at Steve but the shield gets in the way and the guy cries out in pain as he punches one of the toughest most magical metals on the planet. Bobbi jumps up, one foot to the shield and grabs the guards head, using gravity to drop him down to the ground with a loud thud that even his helmet can't entirely protect him from.

    Looking around Bobbi gives Steve a sly smile, "I guess those gym sessions have been paying off." Steve replies, "You worry me sometimes Agent Morse." He looks back down the corridor and says, "Carol, the way is clear, let's move."

Carol Danvers has posed:
"Is Russian Dog the appropriate response?" Carol asks as she jerks back and then to the side, her feet not really on the floor at this point as she hovers about two inches above it. She has more precision control this way anyhow as she weaves back from the carbonadium tentacles.

Also yeah she is totally cheating. There is a crackle in the air as she ratchetes it up another notch there, one hand pointed at the ceiling above the room, mostly over him but she figures he may move out directly from under it.

Which is why her other hand pivots down and a lance of energy flares out blindingly bright and hits the floor beneath him.

If all else fails release enough cosmic energy to punch through a Kree Battlecruisers hull.

She is mostly hoping to drop his tentacle butt down from the command floor and send literal tons and tons of ice sheet after him.

<<Heads up. I'm dropping the ice sheet on a...>> there is definitely the noise of blasting and a pause <<Problem... it might destablize.. things.>>

What the hell did they run into in the command center may be a good question. For later.

Right now though she zips back from the command room still blasting ... well all of it ... less than just blasting the bad guy. "Coming." she notes chipperly.

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
The cracking sounds above intensify as Captain Marvel continues to battle the carbonadium clad Soviet super soldier. At first it seems like Captain Marvel's attempt to crater the floor out from under Arkady would be successful until one of the tentacles shoots out and embeds itself in the wall pulling him to safety even as another sweeps in her direction. Destroying the battlefield itself however is clearly winning the day as massive chunks of ice begin falling in the center of the room even as Captain Marvel retreats to rejoin the others, Arkady cut off by what is rapidly becoming an avalanche in the center of the room. As Captain Marvel exits the command center a massive chunk of ice falls just in front of the entrance blocking it off completely. It doesn't seem that the base commander will be pursuing them any time soon, if he survives. The cracking sounds have intensified though and taken on proportions more akin to ripping cracks of thunder that are only growing louder as the entire structure shakes under the strain, metal doorways beginning to buckle, granular bits of disintegrated building material raining down from the ceiling here and there.

Even far far below where the cloning facilities are distant rumblings can be felt, though at least for the moment the collapse of this section of the ice sheet hasn't reached quite that deep yet.

Meanwhile in the lab area an exhausted Nadia and Otchaya are staring each other down, both currently at their regular human sizes and breathing heavily from the exertion, when the shaking begins and the base seems to start coming apart.

"Why are you doing this?!" Nadia practically pleads with her double.

Otchaya just laughs at her, "Because you are a failure who could never live up to Mother's expectations. I am you, only better. I am her perfect daughter. We're going to change the world."

"I don't care about any of that! I just want my friend back!" Nadia practically growls.

Otchaya just laughs at her, "Oooh, looks like it's time to go. Well, maybe you can find her in what the next minute or two, because it looks like this place isn't going to last much longer than that. Or you could just die here, that'd be really convenient." And before Nadia can get in a retort, Otchaya vanishes and zips off leaving a frantic Nadia to begin zipping around trying to disarm as many of the lab locks as she can frantically searching for Ying while gathering up the rest of the Science Class as well to try and get them to safety.

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
    Natasha heaves an exhausted sigh that sounds a little bit like a humorless chuckle. "... But the borsht is good." Back to spy business.

    Natasha looks up sharply as action breaks out again, holding up one arm, "Don't- don't hurt her! Not if you don't have to. I-" Natasha stops sharply, looking up as the base shakes violently above her. "... Ah you're busy. I wanted to have a little bit more of a lead on my demolition plan."

    Natasha grimaces and starts to rise on shaky legs. "Clint. I- there's someone... back here. Told them I'd get them out. I don't-... I don't know if I can get there by myself right now..." Nat's not good at asking for help - especially not for someone to literally prop her up, but that's what she's doing.

Yelena Belova has posed:
Yelena Belova says, "<Efficent.>" Yelena repeats the word, as if tasting it, she's not combative to Natalia's arguments anymore. Not after what she's witnessed here, in this supposedly non-existing Red Room facility.

Hearing the voice of Clint giving commands, Yelena realizes she took too long to get cover, she frowns angrily to herself. She can almost hear the words of Lyudmila ringing in her ears . o O (Romanova would have done better) O o . it irks her even now. But thanks to being spotted, it's too late to get a drop on Clint, Wanda and Sara.

Yelena was about to reassess the situation, when Witchblade surprises her by pretty much flying up at her, she only hopes Witchblade isn't familiar with Natasha, because when you go for the Black Widow, you get it's bite. Instinctively, one arm shoots a widow's bite at Witchblade, meant to stun her momentarily. Even as Yelena herself drops to the ground, so even if Witchblade does get hit, she at least accomplished what she meant to accomplish.

Pistol in hand, immediately pointed at Clint, Yelena still keeps to Russian, talking to Romanova, "<Natalia...is this your Hawkeye? Clint Barton...the man who supposedly killed you? He's sharp eyed...it's annoying really.>" Turns out her decision to shot or not rests with Natasha, unless of course Clint knows Russian, which he probably does, and than he can interject into the conversation.

But when Natalia describes to Clint what she wants, assuming nobody is about to get more hostile than things were, she turns sharply towards the door "<it only fair I help you with that much...anyone they want to keep in here, I want to bring out, if only for the questions...>"
"

Clint Barton has posed:
Clint nods to Nat, "About time we got you back. We're gonna have a long talk." He goes to comms <<Witchblade, let her go>> then returns his attention to Nat, reaching down to take her arm and help her up. When Yelena drops down pistol in hand, he finishes pulling Nat to her feet and replies in Russian <If you're going to help, get the damn pistol out of my face.>

Speaking over his shoulder to Wanda, he asks, "Can you get rid of this door? I want to get out of here." The witch nods and gestures at the door witch the hand that's already glowing red. The energy flows from her hand to the door, which shimmers, glows, and disintegrates. The look in her eyes at a pistol pointed at Clint is not a happy one however, and a little tendril of that energy branches off to strike Yelena's gun, which vanishes the same as the door does. In her Eastern European accent, she says, "You need to not point gun at my friend." while still staring at Yelena.

Sara Pezzini has posed:
The armor defends on it's own, tendrils of metal moving to ensure that any hit that Sara might take, Witchblade absorbs instead. Punches, weapons, even gun shots rarely make it through the armor, if ever. The impact of strike can still effect her, but it takes something pretty powerful to do that. She was already preparing to move to place herself between Clint and the gun when Agent Barton's command came over the comm, so she stopped there, hovering in midair above them.

The very briefest of nods and she moves in to land beside Clint and offer assistance with Natasha if needed, but her eyes stay on Yelena. "Never a good idea to point a gun at our friend." She adds to the conversation.

Bobbi Morse has posed:
    Steve hands over a hard drive to Morse and says, "Is this what you wanted?" Bobbi, slightly bloodied and sore and trying to catch her breath even as she holds her left arm to her chest tightly, simply nods her head and takes the drive slipping it in to her jacket. "Thanks Steve," she replies wonder just what crazy secrets they're going to uncover on this one. Daisy is going to have a field day and so is analytics.

    The crackling sound and rumbling reverberating through the structure has Bobbi giving everyone a look.

    <Hawkeye, time to wrap up whatever you're doing.. this place is going under. Evac asap, meet you all back at the elevator. If you need more time, we have a Captain Marvel as an emergency exit strategy. Don't be heroes, the ice is going to crush this base> Bobbi says making the call. Steve settles his shield on to his back and they nod to Carol, "It looks like this place is going down like the titanic." Bobbi stares for a moment at Steve's attempt at reference humour and then judges him, "3 out of 10." Bobbi and Steve start running back down the hallway to the elevator they came in on.

Carol Danvers has posed:
"Sorry not sorry?" she offers casually as she glances back at the slab of ice in the doorway to the command center. "That... Russian Agent was exuding some sort of lethal spores and I am pretty sure he was feeding off Steve's vitality in the process. Powering up. At least based on the data I have on hand."

She glances back once more to make sure he isn't breaking free then starts to head back the way they came. "If need be I can cut us a path and fly people out... hopefully we won't need that." she jogs now flies to keep up with Bobbi now.

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
That reinforced security door is made of pretty stern stuff, such that even magic seeking to unmake it at the molecular level takes a minute for it finally succeeds, revealing the chamber beyond and standing not far inside, as if waiting to greet them, is the wizzened cybernetically enhanced form of Lyudmilla Kudrin, a body first pushed to its limits of longevity through genius chemical enhancement and when that failed began having pieces replaced with cybernetics until she is now practically more machine than woman. <Oh how nice, my darling girls have come to visit me. You didn't need to be so rough with the door though. Would any of you like some tea?>

Several things are wrong with this picture. The most obvious being Mother exposing herself like this without being surprised. Epsilon Red is also nowhere to be seen at first. The space behind Mother seems to be a lab of sort sort with all manner of exotic equipment whose purposes are not immediately apparent but based on everything else already seen one might hazard a guess some of it is related to programming or working on the clones in some manner.

It isn't until anyone looks deeper in, beyond Mother and the equipment, if they even do, that they might catch sight of another figure with a feminine profile and blonde hair carrying an unconcious figure slung over their shoulder. They seem to be settling into the seat of some sort of tube car set on a track dug into the far wall, the sort of vehicle that might be used for rapid transit between multiple sites under the ice. The air in front of the strange subterranean tram system also seems to have an odd shimmer to it reminiscent of heat distortion in the air.

Up above Nadia cracks the door on the last lab, things have really started to come down but she can't leave yet. Inside though her perserverence is finally rewarded as she is reunited with Ying. The two take a moment to hug before being jarred back to reality by one of the light fixtures above crashing down right next to them.

"I knew you'd come." Ying smiles at her.

"Let's get out of here." Nadia returns her smile before reducing her only childhood friend in size and safely adding her to the Pym Capsule where the rest of the Science Class is already waiting before zipping off to join Team Cap's evac at the elevators.

"I found her! I found her!" She cries as she zips up, ecstatic to the point of tears, "All of them!"

Moments after Nadia arrives, the doors to the freight elevator they all used to enter open. "They're still down there and this place is going to come down any second, what do we do?" A wide eyed Nadia looks between Bobbi, Steve, and Carol.

Yelena Belova has posed:
Wanda is a wild card, a complete unknown, and distinctly a meta human, if not outright Baba Yaga herself in a nicer form. Yelena has no time to deal with any of that, but having all of her Black Widow gear on, it's not like that was her only pistol. She just shakes her head, "it used to be super strength and simple things like that on metas..."

Witchblade gets a look, but nothing more, Wanda was easily the biggest threat in the room. But to Clint, she does whisper, "another time, another place, Hawkeye."

With the door made to vanish by Wanda, she looks intently with those vicious blue eyes of hers, wondering just who it is that Natalia was trying to extract from this hellscape.

It's when the door vanishes to reveal the mostly cybernetic form of Lyudmilla, that Yelena freezes on the spot. There's no doubt Lyudmilla was aware of just how Yelena accomplished her task if she's right there, she has monitors, no doubt, and there's a slew of dead Natalias all around them to point out at any old possibility.

Funny how Yelena's first concern is punishment from Lyudmilla, over anything else, when instead she and Natalia can pretty much end Lyudmilla on the spot. Not that it occurs to Yelena right then and there. After all, one always listens to Mother.

<You never answered my questions, you left me no choice but to track Natalia to the end...only to find...this> Yelena dares to speak, not bothering to answer if she'd like tea or not, she knows it wasn't a serious question. <Am I expendable? Was I made Black Widow for no reason? You knew Natalia was alive all this time...? You let me bring her back, only to make me watch my hero being punished...not even telling me for what!?>

Yelena is about as stable as the ice about to bring the whole facility down, she's angry, she's lost, she wants to help Natalia like she promised, and yet at the same time, she has a deep urge to please Mother and be forgiven.

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
    Natasha doesn't like any of this, but she's come too far to back down now. She'd hoped to be finished or dead before her friends could get involved with... this aspect of it. But the plan's always the first casualty in battle.

    <I will decline.> She says in Russian. <I can not stay.>

    Natasha's piercing blue eyes fixate on Lyudmilla, and she can not long keep up any pretense of verbal cat and mouse. <I told you I would bring this place down on you, Mother. Have I not always kept my word? Your work was for nothing.>

    Natasha grimaces at Yelena's outburst; at the familiar pain that Natasha felt herself over several long cold nights. She can only imagine what it's like to have this thrown in your face all at once.

    But there's no time.

    "Clint." Natasha grunts in a pained voice as she leans herself against the doorframe, bracing herself and holding herself up with one arm. "The man being carried away. That's him. Stop them. Be careful, it's not safe in here. Yelena?" Natasha allows herself a deep pained breath, and continues, "... Shoot this awful old hag, or give me your gun."

Clint Barton has posed:
Clint doesn't hesitate when Nat tells him to stop the people loading into the tram, pulling two knives from his bandolier and letting fly. As is typical for him, the knives fly true through the equipment and both strike the back of the pod, exploding when they impact.

<<Sara, make sure they don't get away, but be fast, this place is going down.>>

Wanda gathers power around her hands again, preparing for whatever action she needs to take.

Sara Pezzini has posed:
Witchblade had been studying the room beyond the door since it was opened up, looking for the traps and signs of troubles. The old cybernetic hag was not her concern, but she had been looked over as well.

When Agent Barton gives the word, she jump through the door and darts ttoward the ceiling to skirt along it toward the men and the tram at the back. <<On it.>>

The baton becomes a large two handed sword that she wields as she comes in toward the vehicle they were attempting to get into, and drives it into the vehicle itself in an attempt to 'kill' the tram car before it can go anywhere and buy more time to get her hands on the man in question

Bobbi Morse has posed:
    Bobbi smiles as Nadia arrives and excitedly with her prize, rescuing her friends. She rests a hand on the wall as the building suddenly shakes again. "What we do, Waspette, is trust in our team. If they need us they will tell us over comms. If they don't - we have to assume they are sticking with the plan. That's the way it works. You have to trust in them, pick great people and cross your fingers."

    Steve checks down the other way and says over comms again <We're at the elevator, status reports everyone> because even if they trust each other, communication is key. "Carol, if we don't hear from them in the next thirty seconds, we have to assume something has gone wrong. Do you think you can still get them out of here?"

    Bobbi rests a hand on Nadia's shoulder and guides her in to the elevator with herself. "If the elevator gives out, we will blast our way up the shaft. It'll be the easier egress."

Carol Danvers has posed:
Carol gives a smile and an encouraging nod to Nadia "Good job Kiddo." then she looks along the halls. She is keeping an eye out for problems. Mostly the kind with tentacles and energy soul sucking sort of powers. That was very not chool Russian Supersoldier Program.

Very not cool.

She looks back to Steve. "I should be able to yes. I can home in on their comms and blow a path down to them. It will be a lot riskier than them getting themselves out of it ... but I assume if they don't respond... like you said an emergency."

It isn't like she intends to leave her teammates behind in a Russian SuperScience Evil Laboratory or anything.

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
The wizzened old cyborg shakes her head and clucks her tongue at Yelena. <I only learned that Natasha was alive not long ago when she showed up in Siberia. As for all of this, you've done remarkably well.> Mother tells Yelena, because of course everything is a test. <You saw your sisters right? You wouldn't be here if I didn't have faith in you. The Black Widow is not expendable, the False Widows are. Don't you see? It was necessary to bring the Red Room into the new Era. Our new backers opened my eyes to that.>

Mother regards Natasha sternly, <You I always had the highest hopes for, but lately you are nothing but a disappointment.> Her eyes return to Yelena, <You always wanted to surpass Natasha right? Well here is your chance. Shoot the disappointment and fully claim your mantle as The Black Widow.>

Meanwhile Hawkeye's daggers fly straight for the tram vehicle, the word miss is not in his vocabulary, until that is they collide with that shimmer in the air and explode against what seems to be some sort of energy field that was set up in advance. The Witchblade gets really up close and personal with said field smashing straight into though the armor is able to absorb the impact and there doesn't seem to be any further effect aside from functioning as a solid barrier to cut off pursuit. What she does manage to glimpse though, from where she is in front of the barrier, is the blonde woman's face just before the hatch closes behind her and her human cargo. A face that bears an uncanny resemblance to a younger version of the cyborg that greeted them at the entrance minus all of the chrome. Once the hatch is shut the tram springs to life and shoots off through the tunnel with a whooshing sound.

Even down below the structure begins to shake and crack now as even advanced structural reinfocement and super science techniques are being forced to contend with thousands upon thousand of tons of ice being displaced. Up by the elevator things grow more tense as chunks of ceiling begin falling in the corridor and large cracks start tearing apart the walls exposing the ice beyond.

Yelena Belova has posed:
At any other point in time, anyone telling Yelena to shoot Mother would be met with the full ferocity that Yelena could muster. She would kill, or be killed trying to kill, the idiot who dared issue such a command.

Unfortunately for Mother, it's not just anyone, but the one woman that Yelena was raised to worship, only so that idolization of Natalia could be used to hammer down her every single achievement. Romanova might be the only person capable of shaking Yelena's resolve to the point of even considering that request, but on this day...? Having found out her life was lie, that she's expendable, so much so that she has to doubt she's even her first self at all...it's too much on one's psyche. Even those that have been shattered, remade, rebuild, remixed, and rebrainwashed time and time again to the point their own memories do not trust their other memories. Even they have their limits. It seems today is just such a limit, and Yelena goes as far as to raise her arm with a new pistol aimed at Mother...but then Mother finally speaks to her.

It's been far too long since she got something more than nominal praise, harsh criticism, or briefing, debriefing. No one but Natasha can really understand what it's like to get words of praise from Mother, what it's like to be given a chance to win her approval. Especially when the title of Black Widow is concerned around the Red Room. It's more than normal competitiveness for top billing, this is life and death.

Her eyes suddenly look empty, her pistol arm starts to turn towards Natasha. It's so easy, just one shot, and Mother would love her the most, respect her the most, she'd be the Black Widow that matters.

But too much happened today, she's seen too much, a lot of what Natasha told her turned out to be true. Mother could be lying, and she could die here on this base along with her. There are so many factors, anger starts seething inside her. She definitely wants to shoot, but she's having something of an inner struggle on whether to go with what she saw in real life, compared to deep ingrained programming. Her hand shifts closer to Nat, then closer to Mother, back and forth, plagued by indecision.

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
    Natasha has barely recovered the energy to stand, and she's still relying on a wall. There is physically nothing Natasha Romanoff can do to save her own life in this moment. Her eyes stay fixed on Yelena's, bright and fierce, partly obscured by the badly tossled red hair around her head. Slowly she begins to speak, voice thick with pain and exhaustion.

    <... Yelena. I am almost eighty years old. I have done... SO many things that would justify... pulling that trigger right now. And it wasn't really for Russia. It was for her.> Natasha takes a pained, wheezing breath. <... It never ends, Yelena. In an entire lifetime, it never, ever ends. It will never be enough. She will never be satisfied. We will never be good enough. She will dangle hope in front of you forever, and tell you that you're living the best life you could hope for, Yelena. It's all a lie. Even Russia is a lie. Every death, all the pain... it's all just for HER.>

    <... That... is why I flew away, little Swan. There is only one chain holding you down... keeping you from being free... and it's her. At the theater you told me... you never get to choose? ... This is the only chance you'll ever have again.>

Clint Barton has posed:
Clint looks between Nat and Yelena, understanding the fight for the younger woman's soul. It's much the fight the ended up with Clint taking Nat back to SHIELD rather than killing her like he was ordered to. With a curse, he clicks onto comms <<Witchblade, come back, we're out of here>>

In Russian he says to Yelena <Nat's living proof you can be a lot more than one of the old woman's puppets.> as he reaches out to take Nat's arm, starting to move her towards the elevator <shoot her and come with us, find a real life>.

He calls out to Wanda, "Hit the elevator button, we're getting the hell out of here."

Sara Pezzini has posed:
Witchblade had already begun to hack through the ceiling with the blade in her hand. <<I can get around it, I can follow the tram... there is another one of those old hag woman things in the tram, only she is young. Verify orders!>> She does not let up on the ceiling just yet, she knows she can get through and follow that tram. She may not be as fast as it, but that tunnel will go some place.

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
The hideous old robotic cyborg locks her eyes on Yelena, watching her hesitation with growing annoyance. <It appears my praise was misplaced. Honestly, I expected more.> Even as the words leave her mouth something in the center of her chest begins to light up, glowing red.

Mother looks back to Natasha, <You might think you are free, but it was no accident that you found this place.> The cyborg old woman smiles darkly.

<It's fine.> Mother tells both Natasha and Yelena, looking between them now. <I always clean up my disappointments.> The glow begins to intensify and energy begins to arc around it, like she is overloading whatever core has sustained her for this long and there is probably going to be a very big explosion very soon.

Yelena Belova has posed:
Natasha didn't look 80 years old, then again, Natasha wasn't supposed to be alive, and Yelena knows how that turned out. Her life was always at turmoil in the Red Room but the last few months had been especially troubling, perhaps even surpassing her nightmare scenario during her 'graduation' test. There are just too many things that make Romanova's words ring true, and when she thinks about it, when has mother not ultimately beat her down for perceived failures, only to have her work harder to regain her favor? And what favor...? A lovely word telling her what a good girl she is? Is that really what she wanted out of life?

If there was a telepath about, they could witness one heck of an inner battle ravaging across Yelena's psyche, as logic dictated by Natalia clashes with deep programmed responses to Mother's words.

Ultimately, it is Natalia's reference to the happiest moment of her life, that dance they shared, on Swan Lake, that jarrs her into a sudden focus. Clint's words may or may not have strengthened that focus, but all at once the hesitation drops.

The pistol, however, is aimed at Natasha, <you were my Charming Prince for one night, and you helped me fly, didn't you? There's a real passion in dance, a real clarity,> and while the pistol is still trained on Natasha, her other arm lifts up to shoot a crackling Widow's Bite at Mother, it's an EMP disc meant to disrupt her and hopefully stop the detonation, before she follows up by shifting the pistol back to Mother and unloading all of her bullets while she lets out a harrowing cry, if one was outside the room, they'd be sure Yelena was the one getting shot.

Clint Barton has posed:
Clint doesn't hesitate, it's obvious this woman is in charge, so if there's another, this could all be for nothing. <<Witchblade, pursue. Don't take unnecessary chances. The rest of you, let's move. Cap, we're coming up, I believe we have a new ally as well>>

He continues moving Nat towards the elevator that Wanda has open, calling out to Yelena in Russian <New girl, you should probably come with us if you like living>

Wanda at this point has formed a large shield overhead to block falling ice chunks, but it's going to be very unhealthy to be in this room soon, it is time to de-ass the area with the quickness.

Sara Pezzini has posed:
Witchblade does not celebrate a small victory for the side of justice, instead she finishes her hacking job through the ice of the ceiling and goes over the energy barrier. <<On it.>>

There is no way to know where that tram tunnel goes, but that doesn't change her mind. She shoots down the tunnel after the pod that left, bastard sword in hand, armor still protecting her.

What comes next, no idea, but she has a comm and can fly, she's strong and has endurance for weeks.

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
    In the palpable moment after Mother's attack being dismissed, Natasha can't resist a bit of a tug at the corner of her lips as she looks at Mother and offers: "Neudobnyy." Or, 'Awkward', in the instant before Yelena unloads on Mother. Natasha feels... shaken watching it happen, but... not in such a bad way. It's oddly... liberating.

    As Clint hauls her away, Natasha calls back to Yelena, <They'll take you with us.> Then adds, quieter, <I'll make them.>

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
As most of the members of Clint's team pile into the elevator, large pieces of the ceiling rain down smashing into the rows upon rows of cloning tanks. They are soon headed back towards the laboratory wing of the upper level and the utter chaos that awaits them there. Outside of the elevator the ceiling has already begun coming down and the walls begun buckling as the destabilized ice sheet presses ever downward seemingly with all of the force that gravity and nature can muster. This level is hanging by a thread at this point. But through no small amount of daring heroics they are all able to make it through, back to the surface, and into the quin jets just before with a final great yawning groan the 'ground' of the ice sheet just gives out entirely creating a massive sinkhole perhaps 100 miles across. Environmentalists studying Greenlands's ice sheets will no doubt have a field day trying to figure this one out.

Meanwhile deep below in the tunnels the Witchblade races after the underground tram, however the sheer scope of Project Iceworm, the abandoned Cold War era US Military project that the Red Room and their mysterious backers were taking advantage of soon becomes readily apparent. The tunnels go on and on and they fork several times though the switching devices for the tracks still allow for a pretty good guess which way the tram went, but as the destabilization of the ice sheet spreads, the tunnel begins coming down behind Sara, and then ahead of her as well until ultimately further progress becomes impossible. Wherever Lyudmila was able to drag epsilon off to, frustratingly beyond reach. With so many miles of tunnels who knows what else they might have had stashed down here. But now buried under thousands upon thousands of tons of ice, all that's left is to dig.