6871/N.O.W.H.E.R.E. is up to N.O. good

N.O.W.H.E.R.E. is up to N.O. good
Date of Scene:	10 July 2021
Location:	Yucatan, Mexico
Synopsis:	The Outsiders travel to Yucatan to capture the Three Deadly Brothers. The interrupt N.O.W.H.E.R.E. attack on the crimelord Xavier Cujo, survive the Troika trying to blow them up, and escape with a prisoner. NPCs: H.A.R.M., Attica and Slag.
Cast of Characters:	Conner Kent, Nadia Pym-van Dyne, Tim Drake, Laura Kinney

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Conner Kent has posed:
Independent mercenaries are not easy to find, particularly the ones that are wanted by the law in several countries. Like it is the case of the so-called 'Triple Brothers', a.k.a. the Deadly Trio, a.k.a. the Three, and several other rather unoriginal nicknames. Apparently he is wanted in eight countries for murder, arson or terrorism.

Tim has tracked them. They are strong, fairly competent in hand to hand and armed combat. And also able to teleport to each other, which presents some tactical problems. What is their range? No one knows.

Information dragged from the Dark Net is rarely reliable or complete. They do most of their contracts for N.O.W.H.E.R.E. anyway. So, it was perhaps luck a few days ago they fond some interesting intel about him. Looks like the trio are in Yucatan, and they are recruiting thugs for some kind of operation. Looks like a bit of the usual gang warfare between drug lords. Nothing to do with N.O.W.H.E.R.E.? That is strange, but it is the first trace on the group in week.

Something is going to happen in the Mexico jungles. A field trip in the jet is due. And Conner invited Nadia since N.O.W.H.E.R.E. is also after her.

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
Ever eager to stay one step ahead of criminal organizations (yes, plural) trying to kidnap her, it was not hard to convince Nadia to come along. The young scientist presents an enigma, clearly taking after her father and brilliant enough to be sought by N.O.W.H.E.R.E. and yet at some point clearly trained to do whatever it was she did to Bright Eyes in that video footage from the attack on her lab. All the same the combination of traits makes her perfect for both investigating and tackling mercenaries with mysterious powers.

At the appointed time Nadia shows up in her Waspette armor. Rather than suddenly appearing as she is prone to do, she actually makes a full sized descent out of the sky, telegraphing her approach for those who are not yet so familiar with her.

"Hello! Hi!" She waves, boarding the jet. "I'm here!~ Oooh can I fly the jet? The Titans never let me drive..." And with good reason.

Tim Drake has posed:
    Someone else is in the pilot seat tonight. Not Nadia! Sorry, she gets waved towards one of the passenger seats. But it's not Red Robin either. "Thanks for joining," he tells her.

    Given how difficult it'd been to get a bead on the Trio beyond their apparent relocation to Mexico, he'd called for a team to head out within moments after getting the confirmation on a fixed location. They don't have time for a proper pre-mission briefing, here, and so Tim's giving it on the fly.

    As in, literally, they're flying. In the jet.

    He's already shared the pertinent information from the file he's put together on their target. Extra emphasis on the list of known crimes, to give a good sense of the danger they pose and, from that, the extra care the team should show in engaging.

    "I don't know how N.O.W.H.E.R.E. fits into this, but that doesn't mean there isn't some angle we're not seeing here. And even if they aren't, we could very likely end up in the middle of a drug war. Let's try to avoid that."

Laura Kinney has posed:
Ahh the jungle. No need for dressing up in fancy clothing or the airs & graces of society here.  X-23 is dressed in jungle fagitues and camo, including make-up that covers just about all of her skin, like a diminutive Rambo. Albeit with fewer weapons.

After all most of the Outsiders don't really approve of guns!

So she only has a pair of tranq dart pistols and some CS gas grenades. Maybe a few throwing knives hidden away too but they don't really count...

"Once we reach the target drop me downwind of where we expect them to be," she states. Then after a slight pause she adds "Please. I'll approach with stealth to confirm numbers and any possible traps."

The arrival of Waspette gets a raised eyebrow, although it's tough to tell with all the make-up, and a cautious sniff. "Hello." She's clearly the eloquant one of the group.

Conner Kent has posed:
"Hey Nadia," greets Conner, inviting the girl to seat by... oh, the co-pilot seat? Hope is usually there. But the redhead is not around today. "Well, if there is a drug war, we will break it, right? But the main goal is capturing one of those guys, or all of them."

The trip to Yucatan is a couple hours long, so they have time to plan a strategy, read the (little) info on the tree mercenaries and even get bored.

Only fifteen minutes to the closest landing strip to the town where the mercenaries have been hiring thugs the last week. Then they receive the radio report that the team is, perhaps, too late.

A huge gunfight has started on the outskirt of the town, at the villa of one of the local (alleged) crimelords. The cops are on the way - the cops are not on the way, they have called the army - the army will arrive in three hours. Which means the authorities will arrive only to pick up the corpses. Unless the Outsiders do something first.

The 'villa' would better be described as a fortress, albeit a luxuriously one. And it is under siege, too. By dozens of armed men brandishing old assault rifles, machineguns and all kinds of small weapons.

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
Nadia does not need to be told twice and excitedly plops herself down in the co-pilot's seat. It manages to keep her entertained for awhile, even as in the back of her head she is considering all the ways she might be able to upgrade the jet. Really Cyborg's paternal nature towards the Titan's various vehicles is the only thing that keeps her from really having her way with the T-Jet.

She is leaning back in her chair daydreaming about vectored anti-gravity thrust when the radio reports of the gun battle come in. "Huh? What?!" The Waspette sits bolt upright in her chair pulling her helmet on. Secret identities aren't really a thing in her family, so it came off as soon as it started getting a bit stuffy. "That can't be good." She looks towards Red Robin and Conner, she is the guest here after all.

Tim Drake has posed:
    "As best we can, but we don't want to destabilize the region either. It's a bigger problem than the Outsiders can handle over the course of a single mission."

    Tim isn't the type to put much stock in things like bad luck or jinxes, so he just acknowledges what Conner said might have been a little prophetic and nothing more as the news comes in over the radio. "Change of plans," he says, and calls for an adjustment to their heading. "We'll drop in from overhead, land near the outskirts and see what we can find out while they're busy shooting at each other."

    The first drop will be Laura, per her request. "Do you need a ride down?" Red Robin asks. He tries not to assume these things!

    As for the rest of the team, Tim indicates a drop point that should hopefully put them in a flanking position on most of the hostiles. "SB, you're on point. Waspette, keep an eye on our six and make sure no one gets the drop on us; you've got the advantage in the verticality department on this one."

    He stands up, doing a couple of routine gear-checks before he nods towards the team. "Keep comms open."

Laura Kinney has posed:
"Don't worry," Laura says confidently. "I can't hear anything louder than assault rifles.. And.. I'm about eighty percent sure this is the right location." Her head tilts slightly. "As it sounds like some of the NOWHERE rifles are being used too, will confirm once I'm on the ground. They're very rapid firing but nothing which can kill SB." A subtle hint she thinks he'll need to take decoy duty. "And it wouldn't be the first time I've snuck into a fortified compound during a gun battle."

It's best not to ask how many of those gun battles she caused as cover.

  To Red Robin she replies "No just get me low and I'll let gravity do the work." Falling isn't exactly fun, but she should be able to slow herself in the trees and any broken bones will have healed by the time she needs to move into position. Once she's on the ground she can make a stealthy approach and subvocally update the team on everything she's discovered.

Conner Kent has posed:
Of course Conner is used to 'tank' through hordes of gun-happy minions. As Laura pointed out, it is unlikely they have anything that can hurt him. "Got it," he says as he opens the jet's hatch as soon as the airplane starts the landing descent. Sorry Laura, no waiting! Of course it is a VTOL jet, but landing in the jungle might be tricky even for Red Robin.

Then he launches to the thickest of the fight, landing like a meteor. The other Outsiders can feel the loud boom. Trees and armed thugs go flying, some windows of the villa shatter. For a couple seconds, the shooting stops.

Then there is a loud crushing sound and a ten foot tall armored warsuit steps out of the main building (taking a chunk of the wall) and releases a volley of missiles at Superboy as he was getting off the crater he just had created.

The explosion's shockwave almost makes the Outsiders jet crash.

So much for 'no weapons that can hurt Superboy' down there.

That warsuit is H.A.R.M. One of the most dangerous (and expensive) mercenaries alive. Up there with the Crymson Dynamo in sheer firepower.

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
When the drops begin Nadia jumps out of her seat, bio-synthetic wings extending from a metal plate magnetically adhered to the back of her suit. She is making her way towards the open hatch when unexpected shockwave hits the jet. She looks back to Red Robin for a moment and seeing that he apparently has things under control disappears in the blink of an eye. In the span of a micro-second the Waspette goes from girl sized to wasp sized. As she zips through the air, she looks down surveying the scene and the new situation. The expression that crosses her face when she sees H.A.R.M. isn't fear, it probably should be but isn't, it is more akin to admiration even if she knows it's an enemy. 'That is SO COOL!' floats through her head but she doesn't actually vocalize it over the comms given the thing just fired missiles at Superboy.

Swooping into a tactical overwatch position, Nadia begins tapidly assessing a new strategy for dealing with the situation. From the top of her helmet little deely bopper antennas extend as she reaches out mentally to the members of Order Hymenoptera within the surrounding jungle, commanding them to 'SWARM'.

Tim Drake has posed:
    The shockwave from the explosion hits the jet and Red Robin leaps swiftly from his seat to the pilot's, taking control of the yoke. "SB, give me a sitrep!" he calls out onto their open comm-line as he fights to stabilize the jet as it careens out over the jungle, more than once clipping tree limbs with a wing.

    It takes all of his strength with both hands to pull it back under control, and when he does the jet has swung almost all the way back around, nearly a full 180 degrees. Which means Red Robin has a clear view of H.A.R.M.

    A heartbeat passes. "Well, there's our confirmation of N.O.W.H.E.R.E.'s involvement," he says to no one in particular.

    There's no time for him to try and find a clear landing zone. Tim toggles the jet's autopilot and syncs it up with his suit's onboard computer before he's deplaning, out the cargo bay doors and into a low glide over the treetops. His grapple hook shoots out and within moments he's taken up a position on an outstretched branch.

    The hard-light monitor flickers to life over his gauntlet and he taps at the screen, aiming the jet's EMP weaponry at the warsuit. "Team, get clear, I'm going to try and disable the suit!"

Laura Kinney has posed:
The shockwave hitting the plane is as good a time as any for Laura to jump out. Those few moments between Conner leaping out and the missiles exploding will have put the Outsiders VTOL jet far enough away her landing point won't be where everyone is looking. Besides it's better to get out now than risk being blown up and /then/ falling to the ground!

It's not the kind of landing you'd wish on anyone though. Even with a healing factor it's a wreckless leap.

Subvocally, while she lets herself heal, she asks <Want me to proceed with infiltration while everyone is distracted?> It won't take her long to cover the ground to the main compound. And then either climb the walls or make a hole. <Or do I move to engage the armoured threat?> No matter how tough the mechanised warrior might be it's probably not adamantium proof.

Either way she'll need to get closer. So once her legs are functional she begins sneaking forward, keeping the tranq pistols ready, taking time to sniff the air as she goes in case there are any other surprises lurking inside.

Conner Kent has posed:
Superboy would love to give a sitrep, but his comm just got blow up. Along with his starkphone, and most of his leather jacket. The rest of the outfit mostly survives because it is inside his kryptonian bioenergy field, which makes them as invulnerable as he is. Which doesn't mean they don't have a few holes.

Conner stands up coughing. Bruised, maybe some cracked ribs, but he is already healing. The thugs closer to him have not been so lucky. Who brings a tank into a gunfight? Oh right. Bad guys.

H.A.R.M. turns to the jet, raising an arm full of canons. Batman is not going to be happy if he blows up the jet. Or Red Robin. But before the mechanized menace can open fire, someone else does.

Two amored N.O.W.H.E.R.E. troopers step out of the jungle. The red numbers in their faces are 23 and 24. The shoot at H.A.R.M. with massive pulse plasma projectors, each about four feet long. The bolts pepper the warsuit side and actually cause some real damage, punching through the armor and shattering gun mounts and components.

"Guys. GUYS! I need help!" Screams the robotic thing.

And help comes. Attica. Another expensive mercenary. Bargain Iron Man, really. He jumps through a window, shooting forceblasts at the N.O.W.H.E.R.E. soldiers. And Slag follows, a giant made of stone that becomes incandescent the second it leaves the house. It is a wealthy crimelord that can afford the Troika mercenary outfit.

Meanwhile the thugs attacking the villa are reorganizing, but not as well as they should, as the jungle is home of all kind of nasty ants and wasps. A VERY large number of them, and they are coming by the thousands. Maybe by the millions.

A little offside, where she has landed, Laura can see another N.O.W.H.E.R.E. operative. This one is a bit more sneaky, trying to slip into the villa by the back, where only a dozen or so thugs are exchanging shoots with maybe three or four minions inside. The man wears only partial N.O.W.H.E.R.E. armor, and fits the description of one of the three brothers they re seeking.

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
A Troika of super mercenaries to the left, N.O.W.H.E.R.E. goons with future weaponry to the right, this situation seems to have more twists and turns than an M Night Shyamalan film. Nadia's mind races as she tries to deduce the best course of action. The Mercenaries attacked Superboy, but N.O.W.H.E.R.E. is who they're really supposed to be after.

In the end she decides to split the difference. <Are you okay Superboy?> She calls out over the comms, not that it does any good since all of Conner's communications gear has been destroyed. When there is only silence she pulls out an electro-magnetic pulse grenade and lobs it into the midst of the Troika hoping to at least cause some confusion and buy some time for her to zip off after the N.O.W.H.E.R.E. goons with the fancy guns.

From below she flies full speed staight upward toward number 23's jaw, suddenly becoming full sized at the last minute in the mother of all uppercuts to make any street fighter afficianado proud. Her other arm aiming a well placed shrink beam at the shiny gun that she'd love to take home for analysis.

Tim Drake has posed:
    No sitrep is forthcoming, which is always a little concerning for Red Robin. Sure, he has faith in the abilities of his teammates, but he's a worrier at heart. Thankfully his new perch hidden amongst the treeline is close enough that Tim catches sight of Superboy standing up within the crater.

    "Stick close," is the answer Red Robin gives X-23 over the comm line. "This is a whole lot messier than we assumed from the initial intel."

    H.A.R.M. is apparently not with N.O.W.H.E.R.E. which is really upsetting because that's just too many acronyms. So, as soon as Tim gets confirmation that there won't be any friendly fire, he sends the signal from the hard-light screen displayed over his gauntlet. Above, in the air, the jet's electromagnetic pulse rifle deploys from its underbelly and fires on the warsuit.

    As soon as he hits the button, Red Robin drops from the trees on a grapple line, hitting the ground running. "Waspette, X-23, engage any and all hostiles! I don't think we have any allies on the field right now. Take them out before they realize the whole 'the enemy of my enemy' thing."

    The cryo grenades on his belt don't pack quite the same punch as, say, Mr. Freeze, but they're still an impressive (and expensive!) bit of tech that Red Robin lobs overhand towards Slag.

Laura Kinney has posed:
<One of the targets located> Laura subvocals through their encrypted comms channel, adding in location and estimated heading. <Moving to engage.> Hopefully the brother she's spotted will be focused purely on the threat he can see and not on her.

She makes sure to sniff the air deeply. Given the brothers work together and seem to teleport to each other it's extremely likely they'll have residual scent markers from each other. And once she knows those finding the rest should be much easier.

The tranq darts are risky, only his arms are bare which aren't an ideal shot, and shots to what's probably the weakest points at the back of the knees. Also not ideal. So X-23 moves to engage close up. Fast sneaking until she can drop the pistols and deliver a rapid take-down or if he's alert or the men on the walls give her away opening up with the tranq darts. Although it's not her preferred outcome she's still an excellent shot with enhanced mutant biology. There's still a reasonable chance she'll tag him with at least one of the darts.

Conner Kent has posed:
The pair of N.O.W.H.E.R.E. soldiers stand their ground and are happy to trade shoots with Attica. In fact, them force the mercenary suck for cover. "What the hell are those armors made off?" He grunts.

H.A.R.M. was hit by Robin's ECM, so he has crumpled, but his backup systems are starting to pick up, the robotic mercenary is twitching.

Slag, on the other hand, ignores the plasma bursts, despite the holes they made in his molten stone body. "That tickles," he grumbles, German accent. And as Nadia punches 23 (barely making him pay attention) he grabs 24 and casually tears of an arm. The soldier screams in pain and terror as magma falls on wound.

23 steps back to shoot at Nadia, but suddenly he is missing his fancy plasma cannon. After a second of confusion, he aims a punch at the young woman.

Meanwhile Slag gets hit by the cry-grenades. Now, that -does- hurt him. "Hell... owww. That... won't... work... for... long... boy..." he grunts, struggling to raise the temperature so he can move again.

Superboy is not really able to listen to the comm. system. Even his super-hearing is half-gone due to ringing ears. But he saw what Slag did with the N.O.W.H.E.R.E. soldiers, and Slag is looking at Robin, so he charges. Conner hits the half-frozen slag at nearly supersonic speed, shattering him in a million chunks of rock. "Woah, sure hope that didn't kill him or anything..." he says, slowing down to float over Tim. "You okay, Red?"

Meanwhile, at the other side of the villa, Laura chases one of the Three. There are a few mercs in that area, and they are slowing down their gunfire as a swarm of nasty, black wasps the size of an adult thumb are angrily buzzing and diving towards them. Soon there will be less gunfire and more cries of anguish.

Undaunted, the mercenary brother throws a grenades to the wall of the villa. Whatever it was, it was neither a frag grenade not a normal explosive. It pretty much opens a large hole in the wall, casually incinerating the pair of gangsters shooting through a window. Then he is hit by Laura's darts. "Ow, damnit, what now?" He spots Laura and growls. "No time for you, girl, but meet my brother," he -splits-. That is what the teleportation looks. One of the brothers heads inside the building, not realizing he has been poisoned, and a new one, clad like the first but armed with two heavy submachine guns, charges Laura while firing short bursts.

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
<Roger Roger.> Comes the Waspette's voice over the comms, incredibly chipper even in the throws of battle it would seem. She may have a few screws loose somewhere.

With her prize acquired, the now not so large plasma weapon is quickly stowed away in a pocket. Nadia vanishes out of the way of the punch preparing to zip off. That is of course until Slag lumbers over and proceeds to rip off an arm from one of the soldiers. Nadia has seen a lot of gruesome things in her life but part of her still manages to be horrified by the sight and she suddenly finds herself in the odd position of wanting to help the N.O.W.H.E.R.E. goons, even if Slag is one of the worst possible matchups for her.

Launching up into the air at full size and darting this way and that, the Waspette fires off a pair of cutting energy blasts from both gauntlets at Slag trying to draw him off from the brutal murdering and just maybe weaken him in the process. But then Conner is smashing clear through slag into a million pieces and it is raining slag bits all around her as Nadia just floats there in the air for a moment blinking at what just happened.

Tim Drake has posed:
    That trick probably isn't going to work twice, and it's really the only onboard weapon Red Robin feels safe using when the team is on the ground spread out amongst all of the potential targets. So, given that Tim would prefer not to hitch a ride back to the Roost via one of his teammates, he taps the screen, sending the jet off into the distance.

    The Yucatan Peninsula all the way back to New Jersey would be a long and awkward trip to be carried for.

    Alright, time to move, because his cryo grenades have struck home. They've done less damage than Red Robin was hoping for, but enough, and he's about to toss out two more--the last two on his belt--when Superboy makes that a moot point. "Hey, SB. How's it going?" He glances at the bits and pieces of the mercenary formerly known as Slag, but now is not the time to worry about whether or not he can bounce back from that.

    He pulls his grapple gun from its hip holster and aims it high. "I'm good. You good?"

    The line fires, and a split-second later Tim's being drawn along it, back up into the trees. "Big guy's getting back up!" he calls out over his shoulder as he disengages the hook, letting the momentum carry him in a wide arc. He comes down boots-first aimed at the N.O.W.H.E.R.E. soldier that *didn't* just have his arm ripped off. Red Robin isn't that cruel.

    "Anyone got eyes on that other merc?" he asks over comms as he unclips his staff from the back of his utility belt and gives it a quick twist, telescoping it out.

Laura Kinney has posed:
Ah. Yes they can bring in re-enforcements too. At least it saves her looking for another one of them. Tactically speaking that probably means the third brother is at an extraction point so they can all leave the instant the mission is complete.

Still Laura doesn't really have time to consider that. As the new arrival is charging while hosing the air with bullets. She breaks into a sprint of her own. Throwing the tranq guns, no time to reload, straight at Brother 2s head.

It won't hurt him much but instinct usually makes people duck or shield themselves. And it's just distraction anyway. The telltale snikt as her claws pop and she leaps into the air. Whirling her claws in precise arcs to intercept the bullets she can't twist to avoid. Enhanced senses and mutant reactions combining to find a path through the hail of bullets.

Conner Kent has posed:
"The one with the red armor?" Asks Conner. And of course a second later Attica pops up and blasts him off the sky. "I... just... saw him..." grunts the clone from the ground.

Robin charge makes soldier 23 stagger and fall to a knee, but his armor is pretty resistant and he recovers quickly, pulling a large handgun from a thigh compartment. "Superboy and Red Robin are here, as well as..." he glances at Nadia, "the Pym girl, I need to retreat." The soldier steps back, shooting at Nadia and Tim with the handgun. His plan was to put a wall of thugs between himself and the heroes, but the army of local thugs they recruited are screaming and running away from a MUCH larger army of ants and wasps. These are not the relatively harmless New York bugs! Here ants eat humans. And Wasps? The breed their larvae -inside- people.

Slag is clearly not dead. Robin can see bits of magma rolling to join larger bits of magma. But Conner has scattered him over a large area, looks like that monster is going to be out of the fight for a few minutes. Attica and H.A.R.M. are not, though.

But neither of them is the reason why the Outsiders came here. Laura is fighting their real targets. Or at least one of them. A mercenary that chuckles at he dart guns bounce off his helmet and keeps putting bullets inside the dark-haired girl. Then he receives the young mutant aiming a brutal kick to her mid-section.

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
<Aaaaaaaah!> Nadia exclaims as she takes evasive maneuvers against the incoming fire, seeming to disappear and reappear as she darts about, the chaotic situation only getting more chaotic by the moment.

A new command goes out to the swarm, 'Queen in danger' as the Waspette calls the soldiers of Order Hymenoptera to full attack.

Reorienting herself Nadia flies straight towards H.A.R.M. in what might normally seem a suicidal move, getting ever smaller as she does. Every machine has seems, places where the various parts join together, and Nadia understands machines better than most people. Rushing headlong towards the giant machine she seems to just disappear. Somewhere within H.A.R.M. sticky bombs are being laid as a tiny Waspette with the training of an expert demolitionist. She darts here and there quickly lacing key structural points within the armored suit with high yield munitions like a parasitic wasp laying eggs in a larger catepillar that will eventually eat it alive from within.

Tim Drake has posed:
    Whoops, that's a gun. Red Robin throws himself into a roll, shoulder curling down so he both puts himself below where N.O.W.H.E.R.E.'s Agent 23 is aiming and also closes the distance between them, so that when he comes back up onto his feet he can swing his staff around, aiming to impact the wrist holding the gun.

    He switches on stun mode at the last second, just in case. Better safe than sorry!

    "That one's on me, SB," Tim calls out, hopefully loud enough that Conner can hear it over the ringing in his ears that Tim doesn't know about, but likely suspects. "Sorry!" And to make up for it, as Red Robin pivots he flings out an exploding shuriken, off in the direction of where Attica was last spotted acting like this is Whac-A-Mole.

    There aren't a whole lot more hostiles that need Red Robin's attention, at least on the scale that he can feasibly do much to stop. Slag is perhaps a concern, but Tim tosses a cryo grenade at the point where the, uh, majority of Slag's... pieces... can be found. Hopefully that slows him down to some degree. H.A.R.M. though? "Concentrate firepower on the warsuit," he shouts. "I don't know what we've stumbled onto here, but it needs to go down!"

    And then, while he starts emptying his belt of whatever firepower he thinks might have even a chance at making a dent into H.A.R.M.'s armor, he asks over comms, "X-23, what's the status of our targets?" When he sees Waspette making a beeline (hehe, insect pun!) towards H.A.R.M. though, he pulls back to give her the chance to make her move.

Laura Kinney has posed:
Well if it's brutal Brother 2 wants he's certainly in the right place. Even as the merc raises his leg for the kick her arm is coming forward, the twirl blending seemlessly into an underhand throw. A throwing blade from an arm holster launched right for the inner leg, where the armour will be flexible to allow for motion, no fighting fair from X-23.

The momentum from the throw twisting her so the angle of the kick can't impart enough power to break anything. And hopefully close enough she can sweep her claws through the barrels of his guns. Or if they're not in range there's always his outstretched leg...

The mission briefing said Tim wanted the Brothers alive. It probably didn't say anything about the state his achilles tendon should be in.

As it's Outsiders tech Red Robin can almost certainly detect the tracking solution mixed into the darts Laura was carrying. Indicating they've been fired and at least one has struck a target. The position matches the rough heading she reported one of the Brothers was taking.

The silence over comms suggests she's probably got company.

Conner Kent has posed:
Soldier 23 is not too worried about Red Robin. Although he almost disarms him with that staff. He was just trying to retreat and he thinks he can do it as long as Superboy is busy. Perhaps he can even kill Robin. He didn't expect to be attacked by the horde of... about ten thousands wasps and ants, according to his sensors. "Holy shit." He is safe inside his armor, but... yes, running right now.

Meanwhile H.A.R.M. stands up, aiming dozens of guns to Superboy. Attica grins, standing behind his huge partner. "Fry the kryptonian, Charlie, it is going to be good for the Troika rep."

Inside of H.A.R.M. Nadia finds a pretty smartly build up mech body, really. Nothing ultra-tech, just some good engineering and a thousand pounds of artillery. And it seems H.A.R.M. is not a man... until she finds the brain. Just the brain. He is a human brain controlling a walking tank.

As H.A.R.M. aims his guns at Superboy, Nadia's explosives go off, damaging the systems that allow the big warsuit move and aim. The robotic body falls to its knees a second before he fires. Attica looks surprised, "what is wrong man?" "I don't know, half the systems failed at once!" Replies H.A.R.M./Charlie.

Then Superboy punches Attica, sending the mercenary flying through a wall and two trees. Very much KO. That is all about the Troika.

Meanwhile Laura faces brother #2. He had a chance as long as it was long range. But his belief he could take X-23 in hand to hand combat was wishful thinking. To be fair, he is twice as strong as the girl, but he is nowhere as fast, and he is certainly nowhere as good a fighter. A brief exchange of blows leaves him bleeding, and her last kick ends with a cut Achilles tendon. After that, he backpedals clumsily. "We have to pull out, retreat," he vanishes.

But brother #1 can't, because he is unconscious due to the drugs. Laura can find him just a few steps into the villa, just in time to drag him out before the gangsters inside shoot him. The Outsiders have their prisoner.

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
'Gross.' Nadia thinks to herself when she finds a human brain controlling the giant humanoid weapons platform. 'You gave up your body, your life for this?' Disgust is written plainly across her features at the thought but still she stops short of planting explosives around the life support systems, sticking to weapons and mobility. With her trap set, or eggs laid so to speak, the Waspette zips back out as explosions ripple through the inside of the machine. A grin and a V sign with her fingers are flashed in Conner's direction as she flies by, returning to normal size again as she goes.

<Outside opposition has been largely neutralized, do we have what we came for?> The Waspette asks across the comms as she flies up to gain oversight of the battlefield again, making sure there are no unaccounted for threats still present. She seems quite ready to pull out of this warzone.

Tim Drake has posed:
    Hey! Tim would be very much offended if he could read minds. As it is, though, he has absolutely zero psychic powers, so all he can do is toss a few more shuriken towards the retreating mercs. A real mixed bag: a few exploding shuriken, a couple stun ones, then some plain, old-fashioned shuriken. Just sharp and pointy, those ones.

    He finds cover to duck behind, and the hard-lite screen comes back up. On it, after he swipes his fingers across it like he's on Tinder and has really high standards, Tim lands on the map. He studies it for a second before he lifts his hand to his ear. "Reading your tracking signal loud and clear, X-23," he reports. She hasn't yet responded, but the blinking dot overlaid on the satellite scan of the area is as good as a comm-hail for Tim.

    "Looks like we've got what we came here for, plus confirmation that N.O.-W.H.E.R.E. is up to N.O. good." Yes, Tim spells out the N.O. both times for the purpose of the joke. It is not a good joke. It was not worth even that effort.

    They should probably do something about the downed mercs, but the jet certainly doesn't have the interior space to fit all of them. At the very least he discreetly plants a few tracking bugs on them, and then encrypts the signal with the public key for a few local heroes that Tim (or more likely some associate of his somewhere in the sprawl of the vigilante network) has contacts with.

    Then, he stands. "Alright, time to wrap up. Jet's overhead!" And so it is, all of a sudden, the cargo doors lowering and a couple of lines descending for quick extraction of any ground-based Outsiders.

Laura Kinney has posed:
It only takes a moment, but X-23 pauses to wipe her claws clean on a cloth. May as well get a blood sample of the vanished brother as well as having the first one. A glance around confirms there are plenty of stray weapons she can borrow up to cover her escape. Not firing to wound, just to make anyone still paying attention duck for cover.

<One target retrieved. Other has fled.> She finally answers over the comms. <Moving to extraction point. Should we search inside to find whatever NOWHERE was after? It must have been important to stage an attack like this.>

It's only now that she allows herself to check the damage from her fight. Clothing damage indicates a few grazing shots. Perhaps even a few direct hits to non-vital areas. Mostly healed now. Drying blood adding a little reddish brown that blends into her cameo pattern.

Once she gets to the pick-up point she makes sure to check for trackers that could lead NOWHERE to them. And remains alert for the Brothers trying a desperate snatch and grab rescue. All the way up to the jet and probably for all of the way home too.