6109/Blackbird Spying in the Dead of Night

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Blackbird Spying in the Dead of Night
Date of Scene: 02 May 2021
Location: Washington DC
Synopsis: Agent May wearing Agent Morse's Mockingbird gear goes in to the belly of the beast: Washington DC, to get answers from the SecDef. The SecDef has a trap waiting though and reveals he is HYDRA to May. Setting the entire police, FBI, and secret service after her.. May is tracked down by Nightwing and Batgirl in the Batwing. Escape seems unlikely until a favour is bought and May made it to the second exit plan: steal the Bell 14-X from the Air and Space Museum.
Cast of Characters: Bobbi Morse, Melinda May, Dick Grayson, Stephanie Brown




Bobbi Morse has posed:
    In to enemy territory, the belly of the beast. Washington DC. But SHIELD needed answers. The President handed the mic over to the Secretary of Defence who then relayed a heap of intelligence that had been twisted to a new narrative. SHIELD setting off nuclear bombs in the Amazon.. that was really bad optics. SHIELD robbing a Saudi Arabian vault using the Inhuman hero Quake.. that was also really bad optics. SHIELD raiding the home of a foreign diplomat.. extremely bad optics.

    Why was it suddenly so hard to pin crimes on the actual bad guys? They had to understand where the SecDef got that information from. Was he just out for himself, perhaps he had a grudge against SHIELD, may be HYDRA had leverage on him, or may be he's HYDRA.

    Bobbi paces back and forth in the chief's office. It's quiet in there, the door is locked, the lights are low, the white noise scramblers are on. It's secure. One whole wall is lit up with the body camera Blackbird is wearing, "This is your window, Blackbird. The mission is a go. Infiltrate the SecDef's home. If the alarm trips his safe room is through the pantry downstairs off the kitchen."

Melinda May has posed:
"Do we have someone hacking his security?" May asks, sliding her goggles up onto place and moving toward the big red button on the cloaked quinjet wall. "It'll be easier not to trip his alarm if it isn't active." Just sayin'.

She hits that button and the hatch lowers. Three quick steps later and she's airborn, letting suit do its work and rolling with the gravity and lift the strange wings create. Wings outspread, she soars over the man's neighbourhood until she can spiral in over his property. Aware of the goggle's situational feeds, she scans for hints of the security setup and the best way in to meet the man she needs to 'interview'.

Bobbi Morse has posed:
    Jensen gives the nod to Bobbi and she relays, "Jensen has just informed me the external alarm is now silenced for the next thirty minutes. The internal alarm we can't do anything about.. or any secret service who might get curious about what's going on inside."

    The quinjet had to land a far way away from the SecDef's residence because there's just no where to land the thing let along the possibility of being discovered. Right now the US Government quietly believes they may have quashed SHIELD completely as none of them had blipped on any of their radars.. yet.

    "How is my suit handling Blackbird?," Bobbi asks as she watches the birds eye view flight over the neighbourhood. Outside the building is a secret service van. Agents ready to deploy as private security if the alarm suddenly tripped.

    "I always thought Denver Maelstrom knew what he was doing, but you can never tell. We've been mislead with false information ourselves more than once. Though - Fury told me Maelstrom didn't even reach out to Fury about the allegations.. so.. someone is pulling strings," Bobbi chats as May makes her way in to the three story home.

Melinda May has posed:
"Five by five," May tells Bobbi. "I'm still airborn." So, as far as she's concerned, the suit is great. May doesn't chat, simply accepting the information and relaying what she needs to. This has more to do with wanting to make sure she doesn't trip any sonic alarms or simply find herself overheard by security than anything else.

She lands silently directly behind the van, in its blindspot. Then, she attachs a small locking device to its back door. Staying low, she does the same thing with its side doors and even the two front doors. Because, really? Why make the Secret Service's job easy? Then, again in a blindspot, she takes off swiftly into the air again, circling over the property and looking for what may be the easiest or safest way inside.

Off the ground, away from easy prying, she notes, "Whoever's pulling strings here, they've gone to a whole lot of trouble. We find any leverage out there on this guy?"

Bobbi Morse has posed:
    "Sadly no," she remarks, "SecDef background is classified once they take the position. Even we'd have trouble stealing that from the Pentagon. We know he went to Yale, but there's no photos of him from his time there. No social media. The guy was a bit of a ghost before he get the SecDef position. I'd love to know his story, it'd make this so much easier."

    Oddly the van didn't have any emotional senses in it, like it was possibly empty. Or may be they were asleep. The house itself has other houses on either side. They're filled with families. The SecDef's house has two emotional minds active in there, somewhere.

    "Best point of ingress - try third story bedroom window," she suggests. "You're right, they clearly prepared their response in case we ever got too close to the truth of their operation. Heck you guys walked right in to their holy temple. I've got some agents trailing Jason Gyver too.. just to see what other interesting threads we might be able to pull on. He's acting like he doesn't own a warehouse that was filled with knock off quinjets. May be he didn't know, it was built during his dad's era."

Melinda May has posed:
"We got sat imaging?" May asks amidst the chatter. "I'd love a heat map. That van was either empty or manned by synthetics. I'm picking two signatures in the main house. A handful on each of the outlying properties. Either this guy isn't employing human security or someone knows I'm coming."

She'd pick up on sleepers. Sleepers still have basic emotions -- they play out in their dreams, after all.

As for the third floor window? "Acknowledged." She maneuvers her way to hover alongside the window, inspecting it for the signs of how the alarm system is set up before she needs to attend to either disarming it or circumventing it. The disabled external alarm will get her in past the window pane, but that internal alarm is the one that concerns her.

Bobbi Morse has posed:
    The alarm is there. A wire. It's not too hard for an experienced agent to bypass with a small cut in the glass. The window opened - the upstairs bedroom appears to be Denver's but he's not in there. The lights are off. The layout of the house was studied, with a more bedrooms and a study below, a living area and kitchen on the ground floor and a basement.

    "Heat map coming online," she replies. An overlay appears for May on the Mockingbird heads up goggles display. The heat signatures are blocked by the floors but there's a faint warmth from the kitchen area - and fainter still in the safe room. The flanking houses have much clearer heat signatures.

    "There's no way they could know you're coming. This mission was approved by Fury. Only the three of us know this is happening at all, let alone tonight," she says with confidence. "But it does seem like may be they're in the safe room. At least he's not getting away or calling out for help. The system has an intercom, may be he'll be willing to talk."

Melinda May has posed:
"Yeah," May acknowledges softly. "But why is he in the panic room, if he doesn't know I'm coming?" Who else is here? Or, perhaps, who else *was* here.

She takes a moment to sweep the bedroom, and then the hall, carefully clearing as she goes. But her suspicion is high, now. This feels like an operation just begging to skew sideways and she doesn't like it.

She makes her way first toward the kitchen, listening for signs of life or the sense of an alert mind. She doesn't broach the room, but rather looks for reflections or some indication of occupancy first. Only if it's clear does she move on.

Bobbi Morse has posed:
    There's a faint emotion of apprehension from the building next door as May sweeps through the rooms. The occupants in the safe room seem to be a mixture of boredom and a slight touch of fear.. the kind of fear one gets around a superior rather than life threatening.

    The kitchen, reflections and all, is clear. There's evidence that cooking had taken place. "Is it just me or .. does something feel off?," Bobbi says, her jaw tightening as May progresses in further. "Jensen can you get me a higher resolution of the surrounding buildings?" There's the sound of one of the tech agents, Jensen, replying, "Yes Ma'am."

    Bobbi picks up a tablet and starts to pinch and swipe about looking at the night time images of the buildings. "Stay sharp. Proceed," she says to May. The pantry is also clear, and at the end of it - a big steel door with a touch pad security lock and intercom system.

Melinda May has posed:
"This whole thing stinks to hell," May opines, making her way silently across the kitchen. She activates the Mockingbird harness to allow her to float a few inches above the floor -- just in case there's a squeaky floorboard. "I've got spikes of intimidation down here," she notes quietly. "I can peg at least two in the panic, but there's something going on next door. You think that's where security evacuated to?" 'Cause she's willing to bet on it.

She looks at the security pad and the intercom. "You sure you want me to just buzz him?" She focusses her camera on that lock. "Nothing to circumvent this thing?" She could probably try shorting it out with a taser disk, but that might cause more of a ruckus than she'd like.

Bobbi Morse has posed:
    "Blackbird?," Bobbi asks and then looks to Jensen and then the video feed cuts out. "Blackbird we've lost video. You were clear to proceed, confirm..." Her lips press together tightly and she grips a little too tightly on the tablet. It bends but somehow stays operational. "Shit," she says as they've lost video and audio with May.

    Jensen says, "We have the high res Ma'am." Some good news. Bobbi looks down at the images on the screen and notices the odd connections between the buildings. Her eyes widen and she crushes one edge of the tablet entirely, "SHIT!"

    The pantry light suddenly turns on and a voice from the intercom, Denver Maelstrom, says "Days and days I've been waiting for soooome one to come break in to my home after my little speech about SHIELD. Do you know how boring it gets night after night waiting and waiting and waiting? Oh, yes, sorry, how rude of me. I'm Secretary of Defence Denver Maelstrom and welcome to my trap."

    May can feel other minds closing in. They are determined, they are menacing, they are feeling slightly hyped up and on equally on edge. They are approaching through building connections that shouldn't exist. They aren't, however, coming with guns. Instead, they are carrying dead bodies and they begin to arrange them in the living spaces and some in the kitchen, replacing them where they were originally killed it seems. Days ago. Preserved just for this moment. If this is a trap, it sure is an odd one. Usually there's more guns involved, or doors locking, or pit traps and poison darts.

Melinda May has posed:
May doesn't know the camera feed has gone dead, but she's damned sure the comms cut out. So, it's a safe bet the camera's gone, too. Well. This sucks. It doesn't completely surpise her, given how wrong this whole situation has been from the start, but it definitely sucks.

She very quickly considers her options -- stand around talking to the asshole behind the door while the goons get closer or try to get the hell outta Dodge before those menacing presences cut off every escape route. Either way... she's going to get blamed for this, very likely in Maelstrom's next public address. SHIELD is going to get blamed for this.

"What makes you think I'm SHIELD, Mr. Secretary?" she replies, holding on to her own calm with an expert's control. She knows she's being baited. She knows she needs to escape. She pulls out the batons, circling her wrists. She can probably hold out for quite a while in here. Maybe, once she gets away from the pantry, Bobbi will pick up the signal again.

"You said you've been waiting. But, really? Why the hell would they be stupid enough to come here? Too obvious, don't you think?" She sure does... Stupid, stupid, stupid idea...

Yes, it's entirely possible to be both irritated and calm at the same time. May is a pro.

She's just hoping she's pro enough to get out of the trap once it's fully closed, too.

Bobbi Morse has posed:
    Bobbi frowns as alerts seem to be going out to every police precinct in the district. "Blackbird if you can hear me you need to get out of there now. Abort," she says expecting nothing will get through to her.. not while-ever there's something blocking the signal.

    Maelstrom says, "Oh, you might not be SHIELD. But it's the most obvious - come find out why I went on TV and sold the worlds best spy agency out. Unfortunately for you, you're going to be in jail before the night is out. Every law enforcement agency with guns is going to be after you. You did just kill everyone in my household after all. Jason, show the woman."

    A panel opens up on the door and there's a screen there. A smug looking Maelstrom in a dressing gown holding a cup of coffee and behind him another man, briefly, before video footage - digitally constructed by Jason - of May entering the apartment. Though, in this footage she's holding a gun and shooting people in the house as she progresses through the rooms. Maelstrom and an aid escape to the panic room just before May enters the kitchen and shoots one more person.

    Already the people who brought in the bodies are leaving the way they came.. they've set up the crime scene to match the doctored footage. "Amazing what Hollywood computer graphics can do these days. What do we call you? the news tickers will want a pithy name for you. This is all for optics. The country will think the foundations of their society are being attacked.. by SHIELD.. by supervillains. I don't care to be honest. Either works for my agenda."

    The footage ends and even in the pantry the distant sounds of sirens can be heard approaching. "Don't worry you didn't kill anyone important, just some personal assistants and secret service agents. Oh my. You're going to be America's Most Wanted. Enjoy your fifteen minutes of fame.. this beautiful bit of footage will be on every tv in America in minutes.... and let's cut to the chase shall we.. you're SHIELD.. you've lost. It's over. Welcome to the new era, one controlled by perception, by public opinion, by twitter threads and reality tv shows,... one controlled by HYDRA."

Melinda May has posed:
See? May should've gone with her first intinct. It's a trap, therefore, he is HYDRA. Next time... she brings the Rage Staff. It can't possibly make her any angrier than she is right now. "Thank you, Mr. Secretary," she says, turning away, now. "You've just made my job a whole lot easier."

She walks away from the pantry, emerging back into the kitchen.

Her mind starts working. These guys didn't come in through the doors. Or even the windows. They came in some other way. And where they came in... She can get out.

And if she happens to take a few of them with her? So much the better.

"Sorry," she says to thin air, vaguely hoping her comm might be transmitting back to Bobbi. "I think I'm going to ruin the suit. You can bury it with me, if you ever find my body."

That said, she squares her shoulders and starts moving towards the closest of those receding emotional signatures at speed. If there's any way to slide in after them in their escape route, she's fully going to take it. Consequences be damned.

Bobbi Morse has posed:
    Denver laughs a touch, "I'm so glad. You've made mine a great deal easier too. Yes.. run away. It helps sell the story." He smirks and the camera shuts off, the panel slides back in place. Bobbi catches the last bit of May's message as video and audio come back to her, "Find your body what? Blackbird you need to get out of there the police are on the way."

    The men in overalls were not expecting May to suddenly slip in to the adjacent building with them and for a split second they aren't sure what to do. Two of them in the small corridor with May, two more in the living space of the building. The two not next to May rush to get their machine guns. The two next to May attempt to grapple and punch at the intruder.

    Jensen says, "Ma'am you need to see this." In a subwindow on the wall another video pops up from prime time news on several channels of the 'Breaking News: Home invader attacks Secretary of Defence Denver Maelstrom. Seven dead. Secret Service, Police, and FBI are responding. Washington DC streets are being locked down'.

    The news casters are eager to get the scoop and information out as well as the footage of a dark clad person with wings entering a home and shooting people. There are many video camera angles as the intruder moved through the house. The police radio waves are filled with units mobilising to block off streets and race toward the SecDef's home. One newscaster has even nicknamed the intruder 'Deathwing' and the name is starting to catch on other channels.

    "Blackbird.. I'm seeing a lot of police units moving in from North West.. you're not going to be able to circle back to the quinjet. It's time for plan B.. plan 1-XB that is. Head further in to DC toward the Capitol Mall," Bobbi instructs as her pacing intensifies. Being the shot caller back in base is extremely nerve wracking. Out there she can do something physical to help. Here she's just eyes in the sky and a voice in May's ear.

Melinda May has posed:
May is still moving even as she slides through that door. The two men that take the moment to blink at her? Yeah, they end up with batons across the skulls. Hard. Before they've finished registering her presence, really. Because May isn't pulling her punches.

She ducks low, looking to kneecap or even to groin them. She's really not fussy. She wants them out of the fight and she doesn't particularly care what condition they're in when she's done... as long as she's still moving. As the other two go for their guns, she rolls and comes up onto her knees. She throws the batons, one at each of them, aiming to take out the guns and holding out her hands with the hope those magnetic returns really do work.

Bobbi's voice comes back to life. "A little busy!" May says, retrieving the batons and starting to move again. "But hey. Newsflash: Maelstrom? Totally HYDRA!"

Bobbi Morse has posed:
    "Yeah I was getting that impression when it became clear they'd created secret tunnels in to his house just to move dead bodies in to place and frame you for murdering them on the off chance one of us went to talk to the damn guy," she says - the anger in her voice palpable even if May can't feel it via proximity.

    "Exit through the back door. There's a court yard. There's an alley way over the fence leading to the back street. You can take flight there - keep real low, like we practiced. Weave through the buildings. Take the collector south and then east when you see the second round about," Bobbi instructs with her birds eye view of the situation.

    Jensen says, "Commanders, I have police transponder overlay coming online now." A small map adds to the overlay in the Mockingbird heads up display and on it, little blue dots indicating the local police. Unfortunately, not the FBI and secret service.

Dick Grayson has posed:
To the north of the capital a rather unusual craft is cutting through the sky. Matte black stealth plating keeps it off the radar systems that scan the sky, and the color keeps it difficult to see in the night sky. Should it be silhouetted against the moon or something, the stylized bat shape will give a good hint who it belongs to.

Not that the Batman is at the controls this night. In fact, his first protege, Nightwing, is currently flying while explaining systems and controls to the other occupant of the Batwing. She's paying fairly close attention, given that he's going to be handing the controls over to her in a few minutes. He's covering a few of the less used systems when the police band comes alive with federal and local calls regarding the attack on the Secretary of Defense.

Flipping a few switches, he brings a news station up on one monitor while dialing in other federal and police frequencies on speakers. Turning to look at Batgirl, he says "We might as well stick our noses into this, we're right here and we've got some fairly good tech at our fingertips."

Stephanie Brown has posed:
The hours spent in the training simulators were grueling on top of patrolling and keeping up with her full load of college classes. But then Stephanie Brown hadn't gained the approval of Barbara Gordon without being able to handle intense amounts of training on top of her other schedule.

Not her first time up in the plane, though the first time she's going to get behind the controls. She's spent the flight so far watching the movements of Nightwing closely and soaking up the advice he's giving her in addition to what she's learned in the simulator. "Hmm, didn't know that the autopilot had that much autonomy," she comments after one of his earlier bits of knowledge he'd shared. "But I guess it makes sense for it to know what conditions to step in if the pilot doesn't seem in control anymore."

The news report pushes those learned lessons into the back of her head though. "Secretary of Defense? Yes, that's serious, we'd better get over and take a look," Batgirl agrees. She begins pulling up maps of the area, both above and below ground, and routing them through the Batcomputer to their heads up displays in their cowl and mask.

Melinda May has posed:
That May is not swearing audibly is very likely because she's fully focussed on just getting the hell outta Dodge. She gives a crisp, "Copy," and then just starts moving. Anyone that gets in her way? Yeah. She spares a moment or two for a little aggression therapy.

In short order, however, she's out that door and pelting across the courtyard. She vaults the fence, her feet hardly touching ground before her eyes flick to the wings' grav controls and she's airborn. Hardly an arm's length above the ground, she darts through the alley and hugs the walls of the buildings.

Her awareness flicks briefly to the police overlay. It's helpful, but it doesn't pant the whole story, she knows. She can sense the fresh horror some experience when the news starts rolling out over the airwaves and internet. She can also, occasionally, sense a flash of anger and determination from law enforcement officers closing. When they're in range, anyway. She tends to make sure they don't stay in range whenever she senses them.

The speed setting on the wings is high. Not beyond her ability to handle, especially now that she's channelling anger into calm awareness. It sharpens her perceptions, in some strange way. It always has. But she's definitely not wasting time. Before too long, she's coming up on those collectors.

Bobbi Morse has posed:
    Bobbi picks up the coffee she left cooling on the table and takes a sip. Now that May is airborne she's got a moment to reflect on what just happened. "So the asshole set up a trap and waited days to spring it keeping bodies on ice the whole time..." She can almost admire the tenacity but it tells her something important: Denver Maelstrom is not the highest in the food chain, despite being SecDef. He was forced to follow through with this plan. Why? to gain public sympathies.. to draw attention to villains? perhaps to pave the way for HYDRA to act the hero.

    "Probably best to fly under the bridge, just make sure you check for trains first," she suggests as the dark winged Blackbird aka Deathwing zooms through the city blocks. The townhouses make for a maze of buildings in this part of town. The moon is thankfully only a quarter and it's a cloudy night - Bobbi picked the day just for that in case things went wrong. Things went wrong.

    "I don't think the police or secret service have anything that can pick you up below 10 feet above the building skyline. So long as no one else has something fancy .. unfortunately they will be looking for someone flying. I'm just going to say it - that information cache, HYDRA's plan that Vogel told us about, it's sounding mighty tasty right about now. I hate being on the back foot. Just when we thought we had them figured out we start learning about senators and diplomats and Russian spies and computer simulations design to bring about world manipulating change."

Dick Grayson has posed:
Nightwing routes info from the Batwing's lower turreted camera to the screens by Batgirl, giving her control over the camera and it's various vision modes. "Take the camera, see what you can spot. I'll concentrate of flying us over the area the attacker is suspected to be in. Looks like we've got someone with wings, so keep an eye out for fliers. The radar isn't going to be a lot of help with all the buildings around, but I'll get the computer to 3D imaging and see if we spot any anomalies."

He banks the Batwing towards D.C., easily slipping into the capital's airspace. He uses police reports to get the general area of the search and coasts overhead, giving Batgirl the chance to scan with the camera. He loiters overhead in the search area, keeping an eye out for police helicopters and the like to avoid collisions.

Stephanie Brown has posed:
Batgirl brings up the camera and sensors. She flips between a couple different modes. "Too much heat in the rest of the buildings for them to stand out," she murmurs, then goes to infrared and just regular low light visions. "This is going to be tough unless they get up high enough the radar can pick them out above the buildings," she says as she scans for a few moments.

She looks thoughtful for a moment and then says, "Go into a hover would you? Keep the Batwing still." She begins setting up for what she has in mind, waiting for Nightwing to bring the plane into a stationary hover. Once he has, she pulls up some of Oracle's programming. "Granted I'm not Oracle, but, she's got some routines I know how to use," she says.

The blond Batgirl grumbles, tongue just visible out of the corner of her lips as she fights the computer. After another twenty seconds, "Ok, I got it," she says.

The thermal view comes up on the screen, and then she activates the processing program, and it removes anything that is stationary, or moving slow enough to probably not be a person in flight. "Car... car... truck..." she says, and then spots a heat blip moving. "This one, not at ground at level. I think this is him," she says, zooming the cameras in on the flying figure.

Melinda May has posed:
May continues to dart through the buildings, emerging onto the collectors. She banks. "What's the train schedule?" she quips, dead serious as she says it. She circles briefly to check the tunnel. Then, hoping it's clear, she darts within, hugging the ceiling... just in case. She pushes her speed to the edge of her capabilities. The sooner she's out, the better.

The Batwing isn't really in her awareness yet. 'Cause, really? That's all she needs... Batman after her, too. "It's not the police or secret service I'm really worried about," she says, the tunnel lights streaking by. "Just wait until local vigilantes catch wind of this and decide that it's Blackbird season. Neither one of us are going to be able to show our face in public again, at this rate."

Bobbi Morse has posed:
    "The schedule is... never mind you're through," she says since the timing was bad on that piece of intel. The thought hadn't immediately occurred to her but she sighs heavily in to the comms, "Great, good point. Vigilantes trying to play bird catcher. Just what we'd need. Take a left at the intersection and you'll be on 9th street. Take that south to the Capitol Mall. When you get to the mall green you're going to have to be quick. Air and Space museum is on the other side to your left."

    It's not that May hasn't been here before - but it's all about context. Night time, flying, being hunted by the authorities. These factors make everything look and feel different. Especially when there's a Batwing watching you.

    "Jensen is getting the lock schematics. Make your way to the loading dock entrance on Independence Avenue, that'll be the easiest way to break in to the museum," Bobbi says and then multitasks. "Agent Tracy, there's two patrol vehicles approaching your position, time to take off and loop back around for plan C if plan B falls apart," she says to the agent who was baby sitting the quinjet for May's return. The relatively new agent is doing well under pressure so far. "On it Commander," she responds.

Dick Grayson has posed:
Nightwing watches the image Batgirl is feeding to a screen he can see, banking to follow the flying figure she picked out as their target. When it goes into the train tunnel, he checks the computer generated map to see where it comes out and boosts over to the tunnel exit to cut their prey off. Hovering overhead, he tells Batgirl, "Prepare the grapple, let's try and grab him when he comes out, then we can take him to the ground and deal with him."

He flips on the autopilot and prepares to exit the Batwing should the grapple give them a target to deal with. "Get ready to hop out. We'll deliver this guy to the authorities and get back to Gotham."

Stephanie Brown has posed:
Batgirl nods and does a few last minute calibrations on the sensors to help the plane follow along overhead. She finishes up and locks it in, and then leans forward, visually scanning for the figure to come out of the tunnel. "Well, nothing like a little live training exercise, right?" she says, grinning though not taking her eyes off the end of the tunnel below as she makes the comment to Nightwing.

She pushes her fingers against each other, seating her gloves tightly, the leather and composite materials creaking just slightly from the motion. Her hand moves over to one of the eject levers, this being one that will shoot her below, giving an extra boost of speed since the plane has slowed to keep an eye out as they wait to ambush Deathwing.

Melinda May has posed:
What the...?!? A blip comes up on the goggle HUD and May finds herself pulled through a complex evasive maneuver by the FalconOS system that leaves the Batwing's grappling hook snapping at the air behind her. She glances back over her shoulder. "Sonuva... Morse! The damned Batman is here!" Like she knows who's actually piloting the thing, right?

She dives low. Too low, she hopes, for the plane to easily follow. She knows planes, after all. There are few pilots in her league. Of course, she doesn't know the Bat plane. But she has to try something.

She she streaks low over top of and sometimes in between cars and trucks. "Just like riding a bike," she mutters to herself, though it might be picked up on comms. "Without the god damned wheels."

Wait. Where is she going? Right. The Museum.

She banks a hard left, just over top of the roof of a delivery van, onto 9th and heading for Capitol Hill, skimming over the roofs of cars and really hoping the cops don't catch wise. "Traffic lights," she says suddenly to Bobbi. "Can we hack the traffic light system and snarl the city?" It won't help her with the airborn bats, but it might help her with the LEOs.

Bobbi Morse has posed:
    Bobbi double takes when May yells at her. Batman? in Washington DC??! Bobbi quickly pulls out her phone and flicks through her contacts. Damn, double keyed because he's a damn vigilante. "Working on it!," she replies and quickly hits the button to unlock the doors. "Jensen don't let anyone in here!" She can just hear him saying 'Yes ma'am' as she runs down the corridor toward her quarters.

    The second part about traffic lights gets a reply over comms directly from Jensen, "Yes Commander, coming right up!" ...like the vault opening in Die Hard, a glorious set of green lights alights the way for May down the street. Bobbi skids to her door and dislodges it accidentally ripping the hinge. She barges in to her own room and dives in to her safe box pulling out a special SPOT key card.

    But that's not the last part of the journey. No, they take vigilante identity very seriously. It was one of the high priority things they pulled out of the Triskelion - the cube. Bobbi rushes past several agents, knocking someones papers everywhere in the process.

    Down to Vault E, ahem, which most don't know about. There she enters the room with her passcode, eye scan and keycard. Inside, she types in the code on her SPOT key card and up comes the cypher which she enters in to her phone... and... FINALLY. The phone begins to dial Nightwing.

Dick Grayson has posed:
Nightwing curses mildly as the grapple actually misses, then kicks the Batwing into pursuit mode. It easily overtakes Deathwing, though can't get too close because of the buildings, so ends up pacing the flying figure from above. "How did we miss an ambush? This thing's supposed to be state of the art. Lock him so we don't lose him if he takes cover somewhere, see if you can get a tracer on him."

He flips a switch and launches a high speed drone after the flying figure to help track it among the buildings. As the feed comes in from the drone closing with 'Deathwing', he narrows his eyes a little. "Those wings look familiar." He punches up magnification and whistles, "Yeah, that's Mockingbird. What the hell's going on here?"

And then his phone routes a call though the Batwing's systems, "This is Nightwing, can this wait?"

Stephanie Brown has posed:
Batgirl is just preparing to shoot out of the plane when their quarry turns up the speed and zooms off after evading the grapple. "Shoot, going to be hard pressed to match that speed while gliding," she says. Batgirl cuts the line on the grapple, leaving it behind as Nightwing brings the Batwing up to speed again, starting forward.

The plane swings into line along the same road that 'Deathwing' is zooming down. "Up ahead there I should have a clear shot," Batgirl says, reaching out and flipping a switch to arm a different system. "Preparing the net launcher. Try to keep it steady right towards that intersection and I'll try to lead them with the shot," she says. She gauges their speed and then aims the weighted net ahead to compensate for their opponent's speed.

She doesn't look away as Dick's phone goes into his comms. "Probably calling to offer a new vehicle warranty," she says.

Melinda May has posed:
May doesn't need green lights. She's flying. She can soar over intersecttions without being hurt. She just wants to make sure the cops have to fight through every red light in the whole damned city. Even if that means red lights in all directions. "Snarl that traffic, Jensen," she says to him, silently willing Bobbi to hurry. "I want the city at a standstill so the cops can't get through. Especially around the museum."

She glances over her shoulder occasionally, keeping track of that stealth plane behind her. Notably, her hair is black instead of gold, and her suit is completely black instead of with those white sections. Even so, yes. The technology is the same. That's certain enough.

Bobbi Morse has posed:
    Jensen feels the sweat on his brow. He just let The Cavalry down. Fingers hurriedly begin to type, "Yes Commander!" It's a gentle grid lock. Green lights turn to orange, turn to red just like normal. But, unlike normal.. none of them turn green again. Over the entire downtown of Washington DC. Glorious gridlock as far as the ear can hear and the eye can see. And the ear can hear it because the honking is almost immediate.. as is the emotional swelling from entitled road users.

    Bobbi puts phone to ear as she hears Nightwing's voice. "Sorry no, it can't wait. This is Mockingbird and you're currently chasing an Agent of SHIELD who has been framed for multiple murders by a high level Agent of HYDRA who has infiltrated the US Government as the Secretary of Defence," Bobbi says laying it out for the well known vigilante.

    "If you would oh so kindly stop shooting grappling hooks and...," she pauses as she rushes back in to the ops room and locks the door behind her to see May glancing back at what looks to be Batgirl holding a net launcher. "is that a net launcher? wow you guys really do things the hard way in Gotham."

    "I know we've only worked together a couple of times but please, trust me on this. We're not terrorists nuking the Amazon or stealing gold from the Saudi's. Stuff is way more complicated that it seems and you've stepped right in the middle of it... I'll owe you one, and Batgirl too, if you please let that agent go....."

Dick Grayson has posed:
Nightwing listens as Bobbi lays out the facts of the matter, still almost automatically tracking his target as they swoop above the gridlocked streets. He thinks back to what he knows about SHIELD, what he's heard from various contacts and friends, and his own opinion of Mockingbird from his time working with her.

"I'm going to trust you on this. Call it a gut feeling, but I want a face to face with you, I think I need an explanation. And if you're telling me the truth, maybe we can help you. Be aware, I'll be leaving info on who I'm meeting with to be accessed if I don't make it back, so you'll have more people after you if I vanish."

He turns his head, "Shut it down, Batgirl, we don't have a target. Must have been a glitch in our systems that made us think we were chasing someone." A flick of a switch calls the drone pacing May back up to the Batwing, which banks right and ascends into the clouds.

Stephanie Brown has posed:
Batgirl sits up in her seat and looks over at Nightwing. One eyebrow goes up behind her cowl. Though even as Nightwing trusts the person he's talking to, she trusts him.

But that also doesn't mean she doesn't put together a few of the details quickly. "That was the Secretary of Defense they were coming from. This had sure better be good," she says, though that comment seems intended for the person with wings down below rather than for Nightwing.

Batgirl reaches out to the complicated console, flipping the switch to retract the Bat-net launcher back into the plane, restoring it's smooth aerodynamic shape.

Melinda May has posed:
May continues on towards the museum, glancing back just in time to see that launcher retract. "Tell me that's your doing, Morse," she says into comms. "Give me some good news..." Because she still has to fly a very old pseudo-stealth plane out of the air and space museum.

She soon finds herself soaring over the Mall, heading for the building where that particular plane she needs is housed.

Bobbi Morse has posed:
    Bobbi furrows her brow a little. He wants more details.. she nods her head and frowns. "Alright, I'll meet you at the safe house on Coney Island. Tomorrow 10am. Bring pretzels," she says just to make sure there's some levity between them. It was a big ask and she's going to have to be careful about how she handles him. The last thing she needs is to bring the US Military fully down on the bat folk by association.

    Bobbi hangs up the phone and she taps back in to the mains comms, "Correct Blackbird, you have clear skies." There's the sound of relief in her voice. Because if anyone out there might take May down it'd be a dynamic duo like Nightwing and Batgirl.

    "Proceed to the Bell X-14 in Storage Hanger B, our agents have previously upgraded and prepped it just in case we ever needed a sudden backdoor out of Washington." Exposition. But more to keep May's mind on the mission. Details she knows, details repeated means they're still on the right path.

Melinda May has posed:
May lands beside the door that is her access point. She works the lock, using the small electronic tool she was sent with for that very purpose. Then, inside the building -- particularly given its hangar like space -- she's airborn again, following her memorized schematics and the prompting of the goggle HUD to find the silver, snubnosed early VTOL prototype.

She lets out a soft whistle when she see sit. Even in the midst of the chase, and with the knowledge that there *are* security guards in this place who probably know someone unauthorized has entered, she has to take at least ten seconds to admire the ugly thing. She taps its body lightly as she ascends to the cockpit. "Let's see what you can do," she tells it before settling into the pilot's seat.

By the time security has finally figured out what's going on, the engines have ignited and May is looking for the nearest, broadest bank of windows she can find.

Bobbi Morse has posed:
    Bobbi folds her arms as she watches with slightly less anxiety now that May has found her way to extraction point B. B for Bell. She stares, with Jensen, at the beautiful experimental VTOL from 50s. Peggy's era. May be she had a hand in funding this work from Bell and later NASA.

    "It's beautiful. Bring her home in one piece Blackbird," she says encouragingly. Even if May does have to smash through some large glass windows to fly the thing up and out of there. Once it's in the air, even the Batwing can see the silver beautiful suddenly shimmer and vanish in the low moon light. Gone from radar, gone from sight, the Bell X-14 has new life and every one in SHIELD who loves flying planes is going to lose it when they see this thing parked in The Playground hanger.

    Bobbi taps out of comms, "Call me back if anything goes wrong Jensen. You have the ops room until Commander May touches down." She looks down at the phone in her hands and ponders just what she promised Nightwing and Batgirl. But for now, the puzzle of HYDRA just got a bit wider and more complex.

    "Tell Agent Gunther I need an extensive facial recognition scan on Denver Maelstrom - dating back to 1990. Deep search. HYDRA didn't just infiltrate us at high levels, it's like they've infiltrated everyone. I'll be in interrogation. I'm going to have another go at Vogel about this.. HYDRA school."