7157/Homecoming

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Homecoming
Date of Scene: 07 August 2021
Location: Brooklyn Navel Yard
Synopsis: Getting to the cargo was the mission and it left more questions than answers for most present. Except Wade, he just stole some shit and left; typical Deadpool.
Cast of Characters: James Barnes, Wade Wilson, Dinah Lance, Cael Becker, Natasha Cranston, Wanda Maximoff




James Barnes has posed:
    It's nigh on three AM, the witching hour.

    This isn't SHIELD, this isn't the Avengers, this is personal. There were no calls put out, no requests for back-up, Bucky intended to do this one solo. Of course solo becomes more difficult when there's a wicked witch spending most of her days up in your head, comfortably seated and carrying on mental conversations about tea and borscht.

    "You shouldn't be here," he murmurs to Wanda from his perch a few buildings down from the docks themselves and directly across from the the target building - manufacturing for Sokolov Sporting Goods.

    It's a mix of Winter and Bucky that's shown up for this, it might be noted, dressed head to toe in black, save the olive green service jacket tossed over it all, left sleeve missing to let that metal arm shine. His Master Sergeant stripes are in the wrong place, right sleeve, had to be. "Just go back to the house," he adds before leaning down to scan the docks themselves through his scope.

Wade Wilson has posed:
Wade Wilson has been doing some pro bono work lately, in Bushwick, in Yugoslovia, and at Ben and Jerry's Icecream lately but that doesnt pay the bills. You know who does pay the bills? Organized Crime. Fortunately, Deadpool has a rep and right now that is from several local organizations for a month or two including the local Russian Mafia. He isnt opposed to working for guys like that, but he likes to check them out; are they kitten jugglers or slavers or something? Its happened before and it sucks because blowing up your employer ruins that carefully nurtured rep. So here he is, in a lofty tower overlooking the same building James is looking at with a sniper rifle. Not that he is PLANNING on sniping anyone, but if they spot him accidently or are wearing a Nickleback T-shirt or something, its an easy fix.

Dinah Lance has posed:
Dinah Lance is riding her motorcycle, not so much on patrol as cruising just in case. She tends to reside in Gotham, but had been in New York on some Justice League business. Something about alien warning beacons being set off.

In the meantime, though, the fishnet-clad crusader is moving almost silently through the night, the custom engine of her bike purring so low as to be almost inaudible and a pair of goggles over her eyes that also serve as nightvision, letting her peruse the shadows for any trouble that might break out.

Cael Becker has posed:
    It was late - and it's been a long night for Cael. She'd won the race she'd been in tonight, and therefor had been obligated to celebrate with some of the others involved in the illegal racing scene she was investigating for the FBI. But a message from Cap about Bucky - something about him being out so late, and probably being up to something, and wouldn't she mind stopping by and-
    "Am I bloody babysitter?" she mutters to herself after managing to excuse herself from the party to drive across town to Brighton Beach.
    Her Corvette was rather flash, thogh - especially at this time of night. So she parks it in a quiet alleyway, and makes her way on foot towards the location Cap had given her - an armored vest on under her shirt and leather jacket, and a pair of pistols hidden in holsters as well.
    Just... don't let it be fish people. Or melty people in tubes. Or a sea of twitching corpses with cherry red faces. She has enough nightmares already, doesn't she?

Natasha Cranston has posed:
            Who knows what evil lurks in the heart of Man?

    The Russian Mob had been making overtures with its usual MO -- a blend of keeping operations in-house to maintain operational security and violent intimidation and in some cases elimination of people unwilling to accomodate their presence, both to reduce the opposition and to sow a climate of fear so that fewer people will dare oppose them.

    Unfortunately for them, their activities did not go unnoticed. A member of one of the gangs that had been brutally displaced to make room had been an informant for quite a while, and with most of his gang now dead, he no longer had divided loyalties to worry about, so he placed a call to an unlisted number to report in... And now, The Shadow Knows.

    New York is the City That Never Sleeps. Even at this ungodly hour, there's still some traffic -- people heading home from a truly exceptional night's worth of clubbing; people traveling to their workplace for the early shift, and still the occasional cab for those who can't afford a ride of their own.

    There's no reason at all why anyone would pay particular attention to one of the latter passing by the docks, slowing down briefly to negotiate a corner -- and even if they did, they wouldn't notice the passenger door briefly opening and closing, or the shadow flickering along the pavement under the streetlight...

Wanda Maximoff has posed:
When has ever telling a witch not to be somewhere actually worked, when the witch fully intends to be there? Like telling a cat to do something. The result backfires. Wanda is present but not in any flash sort of get-up. She passes as a civilian in a grey hoodie and dark pants that could be Lululemon's best heroic leisurewear. The whole point is not attracting attention, and as far as that goes, she's hard to keep in the mind's eye anyway.

"You won't even know I was here." A promise or a threat it isn't. She sticks low, looking over the factory in question. The motorcycle attracts her attention only for movement projected against the night. That's a nice bike, no wolf whistle though. Dinah has excellent taste. Pity the Avenger will need to express that some other way.

She taps her comms in her ear. A link should link her to Cael and Bucky at least. <Tap your shoes three times.>

James Barnes has posed:
    "There it is, pulling up to dock now," Bucky tells Wanda. "Gotta be it, coming in this late." See, he has a plan, sort of, the big old honkin' grenade launcher of death and doom was the first part of that plan, after the ship was spotted. A carefully aimed shot when it's close enough, explosions sparked across the thing and then Bucky picking off the bastards running out of the building to see what the commotion was. Easy peasy, in and out.

    But his last scan of the area has him pausing, a beat, two, brow furrowed.

    Can Cael feel that deadly weight on her?

    "I know her..." Reach for it Buck, reach. "Fuck, Shelley... the fuck is *she* doing here?"

    So much for plan A, he can't risk getting her caught in a crossfire. On to plan B: Sorry for not explaining there was a plan B, Wanda, it just sorta came up.

    He tosses the rifle aside takes off like the super soldier that he is, leaping one building the the next, then the next and on the ground and still running. His end goal? The deck of that incoming ship, hopefully before anyone there even notices him. But that's gonna be a long leap from ground to deck. Can he clear it?

Wade Wilson has posed:
Wade Wilson is considering folding up stock due to lack of nickleback T-shirt wearers when there is an explosion. Well. HELLO. He begins to scan around and thinks he sees a door shut by itself....what the...he literally drops the rifle, wipes his eyes and checks to make sure there is no rebar in his head. He sees the darndest things when that happens and looks again. Oh. It's Vigilantes doing the Vigilante thing. WEEEELLL...he could help them...or get a prebonus and impresss one of the people trying to bid for his services....for now, he watches....keeping an eye out for nickle back T-shirts. There's a super soldier...likely the source of the splosions. Wait, silver arm? Clad in Black? That's that guy from Guardia...wait no he still HAD his arm...that's the Winter Soldier...wait, was he a good guy or bad guy now? And....frankly was Wade a Good Guy or a Bad Guy today? This was all so morally grey and confusing. Fun!

Dinah Lance has posed:
Dinah Lance turns her head and sees the running super soldier. Well. THat's definitely not just an ordinary pedestrian doing ordinary pedestrian things. Her fists clench around the handlebars of her bike and her engine flairs and she veers her bike in that direction, inferring his target from the direction of his geometry. That is to say, she's heading for the ship, too, now. She's not sure why, but she's never had a problem shoving her nose in wherever she feels like it. If anybody has a problem, she can handle it.

Natasha Cranston has posed:
    Most people rarely look up. It's a truism that Natasha has made excellent use of herself more than once, which is why she /does/ look up -- and why she spots the super soldier sprinting across the roofs toward the ship that is her own destination. She shifts to a sprint of her own, drawing her guns as she goes.

    Odds are matters about to escalate significantly beyond what she'd anticipated; so be it. The Vory like to instil fear into their enemies; turnabout is fair play...

Cael Becker has posed:
    Wanda's voice coming in over the comm causes Cael's steps to slow for a moment. Why the fuck should she...? But sure, yeah, why not. Cael taps her foot three times before catching sight of Bucky leaping overhead. It's the movement that catches her eye naturally. The movement, and the faint glint of moonlight off a metal arm.
    Why does he keep the thing so damned shiny? You'd think he'd dull the metal down to help him stay hidden. But noooo. I mean, she could talk to him about it - but it's like he's unaware of this shit. It's obviously a choice he makes. She just doesn't get it.
    Even while she's grumbling out these thoughts, she changes her directory to follow Bucky, trying to play that game where hurry without //seeming// to hurry. Wouldn't do to draw the wrong attetion.
    "Had my eyes on him for a second. No clue what he's up to," she speaks quietly into her own comm.

Wanda Maximoff has posed:
The ship easing up to the docks is forgettable like most cargo haulers are, only impressive particularly close up. Wanda smooths her hands over her hoodie and tugs the bottom lower, the better to fade into the background as smoke and fire bloom. Plan A falls apart as soon as the Winter Soldier decides to spring-pounce a target. "Who?" That was the idea, staying low and smartly concealed until the situation calls for her emerging. This 'Shelley' isn't apparently a known reason.

Bucky shifting plans quickly requires that she adapt, but he is already leaping over a staggering distance to their target. Her sigh might be audible to no one but the night. The rifle's no good in her hands, and she simply drags it with her sleeve into a darker corner of their nest. The attached sight will help, at least, peered through from that high lookout, showing other converging marks. After a big bada-boom, the Scarlet Witch doesn't go sprinting in. Glass cannons and all that. <You're the only new ping by proximity. Helpful, isn't it?>

James Barnes has posed:
    No one here, not even Cael, has ever truly seen James Buchanan Barnes, super soldier, Winter Soldier, in action before. There was always something there, holding him back, a line drawn that couldn't be crossed. But these days, he's coming more and more to terms with the fact that, well, the line? It wasn't of his own making; that line is much more blurry now. It's freeing, it really is.

    He does make that jump. He lands on the deck with a surprising amount of 'quiet' about him. Just a soft thud that turns the attention of one of the armed men milling about to him. The man's jaw drops open, they're *Russian*, they've all heard tell the tales. "Zimniy Soldat..." It's all the confirmation needed to unleash the beast.

    A step in, a snag of the man's rifle while he's distracted, leverage to pull him in and spin him about. *SNAP*, a neck broken and one guard down.

    Good for now, he moves on, creeping in the night shadows as only a HYDRA trained assassin could, but anyone paying attention would know that he's WAY out numbered and up a creek without a paddle at the first sound of alarm; an alarm that's like to happen quickly, or a least as soon as that first fallen guard is spotted by one of the others. It's a big old boat, but sheer number; dozen at least, maybe more and that's just out here in the open, means big old boat doesn't mean a long time before the fallen are discovered.

    <<Who the fuck was that?>> Inside Wanda's head, not over the comms. <<Going radio silent, distracting...>> ... and maybe flickering memories to the front of his Swiss cheese mind that he hasn't the time to think on right now.

    His comm goes dead.

Wade Wilson has posed:
Wade Wilson boggles, well that was NEAT. The sheer perverse in him is tempted briefly to shoot The Winter Dude just because he's taking advantage of those poor...aw cummon, its the RUSSIAN MAFIA, the least cuddly of the Mafias except maybe the Imaginary Mafia. Man, those guys were rough. Karma and all that. Still, in theory, he is supposed to be getting PAID by someone, somewhere and shooting the Winter Soldier now would likely be $$$$$ but...Wade's been doing this a loooooooong time now and takes a second look. He'd heard rumors lately that the Winter Soldier had some kind of redemption arc thing going on and the plot immunity on that...Wade shuddered. Bad guy of the episode? He could regenerate by why get beat up...on the other hand, maybe he could be surprise twist ally...or mysterious stranger...the possibilities were limitless. He did switch to the night scope however and started looking around for...WHY exactly was The Winter Dude beating the crap out of these guys again?

Dinah Lance has posed:
Dinah Lance is speeding towards the ship at a pretty good pace and, seeing as how there are numerous ramps there for the loading and unloading of cargo, decides to take advantage. She steers at a bit of a different angle than Bucky and bends forward over the handlebars, hitting the boosters on her bike right at the right time.

And flies up and over the edge to land in a skid on the ship, wheeling to a halt. Not exactly as stealthy as a Hydra assassin. But, then, Dinah Lance might just be looking for a fight tonight.

Cael Becker has posed:
    And then there's a motorcycle roaring onto the boat, and Cael is left a bit baffled. Friend or foe? And what //is// Barnes' objective here?
    Being officially part of SHIELD had its perks - and one of those was the ICER tucked into place in the holster under her jacket. The ability to shoot first and still ask questions later was a plus. The gangplank is dropped unceremoniously, a bit akilter, as the men on the ship turn towards Dinah - and Cael uses this moment to dash up the ramp, firing off a quick round as one of the men spin back towards her while starting to draw his own weapon.

Natasha Cranston has posed:
    As the gangplank comes down on the dock, the people operating it are startled when it suddenly starts shaking noisily as if someone is running up it. One of them points his flashlight down the plank for a better view, but he only catches a glimpse of a blurring shadow moving faster than he'd have thought a human could, already entirely too close as it solidifies into a black shape --

    His partner has slightly more time to see a tall dark figure lash out with a running kick, sending the flashlight-bearing thug flying backwards and the flashlight itself clattering uselessly to the ground -- and in the resulting gloom, he realizes to his horror that he's lost track of the figure, right up until a blurry fist slams into his temple and sends him to join his comrade in unconsciousness... And an eerie, sinister laughter begins to ring out over the decks...

    "<Heh heh heh heh HA HA HA HAA... <Little rats. Did you think you could scuttle into my domain unnoticed? That I wouldn't see you? That I wouldn't KNOW!?>" an inhuman voice calls out mockingly in near-flawless Russian -- and two gunshots ring out, and the boat's two main searchlights explode in a shower of sparks.

Wanda Maximoff has posed:
A sliver of Wanda's conscious mind resides along an established link. Innocence not already shredded by watching the Winter Soldier turn back on the Russian underworld would be tattered based on the questions he projects at her telepathically. <<Another SHIELD to Avengers liaison. New acquisition.>> She won't distract him further other than that, considering trouble threatens to bubble out from the deck-level doors as the crew gets in gear.

The ship isn't exactly at arm's reach, but close enough for grenade launchers and significantly more firepower needed. She ducks against the crumbling parapet and curls her fingers. Bloody energy opens like a poppy in Flanders' fields, but it doesn't remain there long as she flings a back-handed bolt for the nearest door to Bucky visible from her position. Slender red motes might not really come to be seen until they collide with aging metal, wrenching the odds against the door operating the way it wants to.

Follow up comes quick: another spell hitting the deck, not the participants dancing around the soldier. It clearly goes wide of the mark. Or does it? What traces the veiled Scarlet Witch intended to achieve aren't visible at all, and she must be cursing her name.

But that's not how chaos works, and the succession of little unlucky moves can pile up particularly quick with experts. Misplaced footing, a weapon drawn a second too slow. Someone sliding into another. A bullet grazing instead of striking true. She marks the Russian crew one by one as damned, accursed by Lady Luck.

James Barnes has posed:
    "*Fuck*." It's not even a whisper, just a barely a breath when the sounds of that bike draw his attention. So much for the element of surprise, yeah?

    And it's not only his attention that's been caught. There goes that alarm. It goes up in cries in Russian, "Protect the cargo!" from all sides and all that attention is on Dinah. Buck hasn't even been seen yet.

    He takes two down silent, with throwing knives that hit dead center jugular, blood spurting. Dinah might even get caught in some of that immediate spray, nothing like a little blood to the face during the Witching Hour.

    The ship's deck falling into darkness doesn't panic the men, in fact not much seems to yet, they have a job to do and, well, given their boss - dying doing the job is the preferential choice.

    From around the other side of the deck, from inside the boat itself - other than that one sticking door - thanks Wands, they swarm like - rats.

    Alarms have also been sounded on land via radio contact with the building the delivery is destined for. More rats, armed, scurry out from that hole too. They're *everywhere*.

    A bullet, clearly meant for Buck's head, is batted away like an annoying gnat, but the second one hits; off target - thanks Wands -. It's just a graze to the right shoulder that he shrugs off as a bee sting.

Wade Wilson has posed:
. o O "HOLY BIZATCHI BALLS!" There's a ...maybe Shadow, and there's a Wanda and there...OK, VERY glad he did not shoot Bucky, this would have been an ass kicking. So...just like that time in jail, if one guy is getting kicked join in the OTHER guys to not get kicked...wait, was that how that happened? Ah who cares. The Vory really were jerks. He snipes down two Vory soldiers trying to sneak up behind the others. Surprise twist ally! Awesome PR....terrible pay.

Dinah Lance has posed:
Dinah Lance sees herself faced down with a rather impressive onslaught of violent talent. Well. Any fears she had of misunderstanding the situation have certainly been dispersed. Her instincts were right on. Barbara will never believe it.

As for the attack itself? Dinah's been training to be a superhero since she was a wee sparkle in her mother's mascara-streaked eyes. She's not about to flinch away at the sight of a few Russians raising arms in her direction. Especially when all she has to do is shout.

The Black Canary inhales deeply and unleashes her shattering cry in the direction of the thugs, thankfully away from Bucky and the others, the force of her sonic attack enough to physically batter them back like a superhuman blow.

Natasha Cranston has posed:
    Unlike her grandfather, Natasha /prefers/ to avoid lethal violence when possible; in no small part because today's law enforcement is a lot less forgiving about body counts than it was in her grandfather's day. But she's also well aware that sometimes that's not a viable option; not with multiple possible allies on the field and an entirely too large number of heavily armed hostiles.

    The Shadow's guns thunder again, the muzzle flashes briefly illuminating the pistols and the gloved hands holding them before fading back into mist and shadow. Most of the shots are aimed to disable - shoulders, arms, the occasional kneecap - but one Vory soldier drawing a bead on Canary with an AK from out of range of her cry takes a bullet to the back of the head before he can pull the trigger.

Cael Becker has posed:
    "What the hell, Barnes," Cael mutters to herself as she takes cover against the structure of the boat's cabin - firing off carefully aimed, fast shots as man after man streams out the doors and onto the ship. This is madness. Into her comm she adds quietly, <<Everyone's speaking Russian.>> She's pretty sure it's Russian, anyways. So she still doesn't know what //exactly// is going on. But one can assume that somewhere here is probably involved in the history of the Winter Soldier in some way.
    "//Shit!//" she adds under her breath, as she turns her head and it causes a bullet to narrowly miss her. That was close! She soon trains in on the individual who fired on her, hitting them with an ICER round.

James Barnes has posed:
    It says something about these guys and their loyalty to whoever it is running this show that, when faced with The Shadow, a Canary, *and* the Russian boogeyman, the Winter Soldier, that they keep on keeping on, even as one falls and another and another. Cael, poor little newb to it all she is, hasn't really drawn a lot of attention. ...and Wade has yet to show his face along with Wanda.

    Aided by Wanda's 'luck' or lack there of for the other guys, Buck wades into the mess head on and balls out, just like ... he had a mission. Bullets batted aside with left hand, bullets sent flying from the gun that's found his right hand. All raccoon eyes and masked and pale blue eyes a little wild.

    Shouts from land side ring out, "Protect the CARGO".

    On the decks, the ones not fallen by sound, bullet, or otherwise, rush back INSIDE - fleeing? No, seems they're falling back to do as ordered... protect the cargo.

Wade Wilson has posed:
Wade Wilson says, "Ooooooooooo! Valuable cargo to steal and sell to a rival organized crime group? COOL." There was the financial angle to this AND getting to help the good guys. Ca-CHING! Wade takes out a cross bow and shoots a shaft to the side of the building and zip lines down shooting with a pistol and hanging on with the other (because he does not have three arms) into the Vory. The rival criminal organization has won the bid for his services, plus pushing a bus downhill once it was already running...AMAZING!!!

Dinah Lance has posed:
Dinah Lance realizes she's not alone by this point, not that she ever doubted it. Where she spotted the Soldier in action, she figured he probably had a crew of some sort waiting in the wings. At least this one didn't dress like a nocturnal animal. Although maybe she just couldn't see the mask of the Night Vole from here on old metal arm's face.

"I don't know what cargo you're carrying, but I'm happy to pick the lock once we've got you all knocked out. Sufficed to say, I'm betting it didn't get past customs," she says, ducking a blow from a man with a crowbar and swiveling sharply to give him a kick to the throat with a high-heeled boot.

Natasha Cranston has posed:
    As the last of the survivors of the aft deck scramble inside, the one at the door tries to slam it shut, only to find it held firm by a black-gloved hand. Blue eyes glower down at him from above a crimson scarf.

    "<Thank you for waiting>," the Shadow comments almost courteously before slamming the butt of her pistol into his temple, then fading back into the shadows around them before anyone else has a chance to aim, leaving the hold echoing with sinister laughter...

Wanda Maximoff has posed:
Wanda frowns at the deck swarming with mafiya, the Canary cry separating some of that crowd, but not nearly well enough. The abandoned grenade launcher snatched up fits well enough against her shoulder, balanced as she drops into a crouch. Working out the math for the trajectory takes longer than she might like, but she manages. Firing the projectile isn't the hard part. Landing it is.

<Get low, now. Incoming fire.> The broadcast over the comms link goes first to Cael, technically.

The Winter Soldier probably has enough to worry about without her voice ringing in his thoughts. It's hard to ignore. <<Don't move further than your arms reach.>>

In wizard school, they always warn against randomly teleporting into places. Blind teleporting usually ends up merged fatally with a stone wall or a criminal accessory after the fact. But a small object shot at high velocity at the cargo ship doesn't even need to get that far. Wade might be the only one positioned to watch what really happens when he zips close. The arcane Hand of God opens up on the deck. The grenade detonates in a frenzied elegy of shrapnel and fire where the fight is most desperate among the mafiya. Holes ripped through the explosion selectively carve out safe zones around the Winter Soldier foremost, Dinah if she's too close, others. Narrow columns form where the witch forcibly shoves back concussive force and flames, reflecting them back into the Russian crew, or straight up into the air at sharp angles.

Cael Becker has posed:
    Cael fires off a few more shots at the retreating soldiers as the deck begins to empty - and then there's a voice in her head. She drops into a protective crouch - her leather-covered arm lifting up to shield her face from whatever's about to happen. The explosion is momentarily deafening, and she winces - before climbing back to her feet. "They seem to be retreating into the ship!" she calls.
    "What the hell is our goal here, Barnes?"

James Barnes has posed:
    He doesn't question it, Bucky just makes sure he stays in 'the zone', dealing only with those that come to him until Wanda's plan is revealed. <<That's my girl.>> Through that link, not over the comms, he's turned that off... but in Russian, not that it matters to anyone but Wanda. Once those numbers have been cut down, the remainder of it isn't much of a challenge. He's off toward the belly of the boat, cargo hold.

    Really, all the running rats did was pin themselves into a space where they stand no real chance against the likes of what they're up against. There's a difference though, between the others and the masked Soldier, Buck hasn't left a single one of them caught in his sights alive and breathing. Be it bullets to the brain - one shot one kill -, knives to the throat, snapped necks, every one of them dead, most before they even hit the ground.

    Footsteps pound the gangplanks though, reinforcements from the factory. Whatever's on that boat must be *really* important.

    Important enough to die for it seems. The numbers inside are dwindling, but Buck manages to catch him one more target. He snatches one of them that's about to pop a shot off at close range in the death grip of that metal hand, by the throat. He watches, a little sneer curling his lips, as the man struggles in vain to his dying breath. Buck tosses him aside like a rag doll.

    When the dust settles and the enemy cleared save for those still making their way here from the factory, the group's faced with the cargo hold doors; large steel things, too big, custom designed and rising to the ceiling of the belly of the big boat.

Dinah Lance has posed:
Dinah Lance tosses away the last of her attackers and, likewise, finds herself facing those cargo hold doors. She flexes a leather-gloved hand, shaking it out where she punched a guy in the face, "I think that guy had more metal teeth than Robotman," she muttered aloud.

"I'd say we should knock, but I'm pretty sure that time has past. So in that case, I'll just have to yell and see if they notice," she says, making sure the rest are behind her as she steps forward and unleashes her Canary's Cry on those doors.

Wade Wilson has posed:
Wade Wilson comes running over to those pesky doors and begins planning C-4. "Hello!" He waves to everyone around the doors. "Just here helping to take down TEH BAD GUYS, dont mind me." He begins setting it up to blow up the reinforced door. Then he spots Dinah bout to blow the door off and is like "whoa whoa whoa" and dives out of the way just in the nick of time. "Aaaaaaaaaaeiiiiii!"

Natasha Cranston has posed:
    "Evidently, vodka does not make a good substitute for proper dental care," the Shadow comments casually to Dinah as they maintain a sleeper hold on one last struggling soldier until the lack of oxygen to his brain sends him unconscious.

    The Shadow dumps the limp body on the floor and walks over to stand by Dinah, redrawing their guns.

    "I regret to say my sources weren't able to tell me what these rats were shipping in, but apparently their leadership feels it's worth all of their lives. Be alert."

Cael Becker has posed:
    "More coming up the ramps!" Cael calls - wishing she'd had some way to take the ramps down when she'd come onboard. She fires off a few expertly aimed shots at the men appearing on the decks as she falls back, into the interior of the ship. "No way of knowing how many are coming!" she calls. She keeps a bead on the doors - falling back from them as far as she can while keeping the door in her sights.
    Last thing she wants is for them to toss a flash-bang through, after all. Or a more deadly explosive. Who knows what armaments they have?

James Barnes has posed:
    Doors torn asunder, what could be worth dying for?

    When the dust settles, what's beyond them is born of nightmares, at least the nightmares of one man here. ...and maybe one woman's, Cael's.

    The cargo hold has been transformed into a mobile medical lab, two men in white coats cower under a table. Monitors blip and bleep steady heart beats, even and strong, six in total. The hearts of the six men suspended, nude, in tanks a good eight feet in height. Those tanks are filled with a thick liquid, light amber in color. They appear to be sleeping? Until one's eyes open in a snap to reveal whites that are red, the red bleeding into irises that are, obviously at the center, green.

    Buck's vision bleeds into red as red as those eyes. He doesn't think, he just reacts. One shot, one kill, the man in the tank takes a bullet right between those red eyes.

    He doesn't even remember it, doesn't know why, just that these 'men' have to die, it's an urgent *need* to kill the other five and, if not stopped, he will.

    Someone here knows why though, she's seen this before. Those men are, technically, alredy dead. Or they will be within eight hours or so of being released from their prisons. Killing them is a mercy, it truly is...

    ...and it seems A.I.M. has branched out to selling to the Russian Mafia.

Wade Wilson has posed:
Wade Wilson says, "Seriously?" Slavers or...Frankestein people? Why did there always have a 50 / 50 odds that one of the people he was going to work for was kitten jugglers / slavers? It was ...well, that would explain why they paid well...well stealing this cargo is probably not gonna happen but maybe those high tech suspension chambers might be worth something....situation SAVED...but for now, unsheathing his swords, "SET. THOSE. GUYS. FREE. NOW!" This might actually be a terrible idea if they all came to life and shot them with like laser eyes or something but it FELT good to say so...Why not?

Oh wait. Bucky is killing these guys. Like...clones of him or something? "Or....free...them from life...or something..." Cursed moral ambiguity. Who is he supposed to kill here? Not that it is super difficult to know who to kill re Russian Mafia most of the time.

Dinah Lance has posed:
Dinah Lance flicks her eyes back towards Bucky, "Whoa there, cowboy, ease up on the hair trigger there. I'm not Superman or anything, but I'm still in the god damn Justice League. Try not to just outright murder people. Even bad people. Bad people can tell us about other bad people so we don't have to find them on ships when they've already come here."

She puts her hands on her hips and sighs, "But I'm guessing you're here for some sort of personal vendetta and don't really care, right? Oy with the spy crap already."

Cael Becker has posed:
    "...shit. //Not again//," Cael complains when the vats appear. She winces as Bucky just opens fire on the vats calling out, "Whoa - whoa! Barnes! Maybe there's a way to undo what was done to them! Can't we leave the poor bastards on ice and get them to SHIELD?!" she calls.
    But she has her hands full firing on the men still trying to gain entry through the door she's guarding.
    God fucking damnit.

Natasha Cranston has posed:
    "... Yes. Release them," the Shadow agrees, hefting their guns. "The Vory must report that the pet supersoldiers they purchased at was undoubtedly a great expense were entirely useless. Otherwise... They may very well decide to buy more."

Wanda Maximoff has posed:
Guilt comes later after the flames die away and confused investigators attempt to reckon on why a blast radius possesses nearly circular patches of unburnt decking. Corralling the volume of explosive energy to an upward path takes considerable effort on Wanda's part. She has to force herself to her knees out of that inelegant position on her knees. Getting back up fights instincts suggesting now is the ideal time to lean against the wall and catch her breath. Someone else can fight.

Someone else can potentially die. She wipes sweat from her forehead and watches the group move out of sight. Hazardous, that. The grenade launcher is tossed aside. Over the edge of the building, then, it's time to fly. Scarlet light is unavoidable as a signature, but she can move respectably quick to get to the ship. Not fast enough, but no way is she opening fire in the hole or stepping in unseen.

<<Stay with me. I need a clear path in, James. Can you keep it straight?>> The telepathic bond lights up when she hits the scorched decking, going straight for a doorway. Shots ping off steel from somewhere. She doesn't answer them. "Coming up behind you. I'm an Avenger," seems silly to say into the dark corridor littered with bodies, but no need for Dinah or Wade to filet her.

James Barnes has posed:
    "You aren't supposed to be here, Shelley!" Buck calls out, voice strained. Why the hell is Shelley *here* and... well, there's the first real sign Cael has that there's something not right with the man - not that he's ever been *right*, but this is more wrong than usual.

    One shot, one kill. One more tank busted, one more hole in a head, more of that fluid leaking out to drip to the floor.

    The two white coats still hunker down, maybe thinking they'll escape notice? Until Buck turns his gun toward them. His finger twitches on the trigger. He's ready to do it, kill the two - in his mind - responsible for this atrocity.

    But then there's a voice ringing in his addled mind, distant but familiar, comforting. "Wanda," he murmurs to no one. He turns, gun still raised, when the Scarlet Witch enters the hold. Is he gonna shoot her?! For a beat it might seem so, but in the end, his brow furrows in that way it always does, to deepen lines there. He drops his gun hand to his side. "This is unexpected," he informs her, quietly, in Russian, confused. What now? He had no idea what the cargo would end up being, none... and it's totally thrown him for a loop that spirals about a billion times around.

    He's not even aware that Cael is trying to fend off the reinforcements on her own, or that the Shadow's talking to him or Dinah.

Wade Wilson has posed:
Wade Wilson grabs an armful of AIM Technology and shoots another guy in a tank. Easy as shooting fish ...er...super...soldiers.....total metaphor breakdown! DANGER WILL ROBINSON. Its OK because heh shot the guy in the tank....in the LEG! That's the way this is supposed to work right...non lethal damage? He shoots a Vory because, frankly? It is far less confusing and now he's getting just annoyed. He grabs another random AIM doohickey...wait that's a pencil sharpener damn it!

Dinah Lance has posed:
Dinah Lance turns and steps away, stomping down the ship, "I'm calling the cops. Don't be here when they get here. You didn't see me and I wasn't involved. I hate spy crap!" she calls back over her shoulder, heading for her bike.

Cael Becker has posed:
    As an Avenger announces themself - Cael holds her fire with a wary, cautious expression on her features. It does appear to be Wanda, though, so she allows the woman to pass before taking aim on the doorway once more.
    But then behind her Bucky is shouting out a name that //isn't supposed to be used// anymore. Fuck. //Fuck//. What the hell is wrong with him?
    "Who the hell is //Shelley?//" She growls out at him. "I'm Cael, Barnes. //Cael//." She only hopes he takes the hint, and that no one else did.
    "Now stand down."

Natasha Cranston has posed:
    "A misplaced memory," the Shadow replies to Cael as the last of the vat-soldiers dies. "Reinforcements are on their way. Unless you wish to fight off an entire army, this would be a good time to leave."

Wanda Maximoff has posed:
"What is this?" Questions that will repeat themselves in future days come from Wanda. Police might ask, coroners might ask. She tries to get her bearings while Wade shoots things and Dinah retreats back to call the police. In a hoodie and yoga pants, her superhero look is about as plain as can be, the only thing registering as unnatural being the twin handfuls of chaotic energy threading around her wrists to her fingers.

Shots into the tanks haven't been lost on her, and she points her hand at one of them. "I should be able to keep them down long enough to remove them. Are these targets we need to get to hospital, under observation?" English comes accented, lilted by her Transian origins.

James Barnes has posed:
    He blinks, once, twice... the clouds clear some from his pale blues. Buck snags Wanda by he hand and attempts to tug her along with him, "We have to go, now." He's still speaking Russian, until his attention shifts to the Shadow, "Thanks for the assist," little boy from Brooklyn shines through in that... it's an accent all its own.

    He *doesn't* get it. He just looks blankly at Cael and states, "I don't know anyone named Cael, I guess you just look like her..." Shelley that is, makes sense that his mind would go that direction, Shelley was a kid, Cael isn't; there's enough difference in appearance to make it simply a mistake in his addled brain.

    If Wanda comes along, he'll fight them both through anything that stands in his way, leaving more dead in his wake. If not, well... he might just pick her up and carry her at this point. Cops are coming, that's bad. Sirens wail in the distance already. Bad.

Wade Wilson has posed:
Wade Wilson joins in, deciding if all these people are running then of course he will run too. "STELLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" You know, joining in. Because Teamwork! Also grabs some more random crap. BLAM, shot the Vory trying to stop that. Well, can't have THAT. "YAY! Way to go team!" . Wade leaves.

Cael Becker has posed:
    "...the fuck is wrong with you, Barnes? You don't know me?" Cael risks a glance between him, and Wanda, and then fires off a few more shots at another Russian trying to get into the hold. This is a mess, and she's going to have to stay and talk to the cops, and get SHIELD in here to mop up. Why does she agree to do Steve favors at this hour of night?
    Still. With all the soldiers dead, there's no point staying here and holding this ground. She'll stick with Wanda and Barnes on the way out, until she can find a safer vantage point.

Natasha Cranston has posed:
    The Shadow nods silently at Bucky -- and in the same motion, their body seems to fade into the shadows surrounding them, those blazing blue eyes remaining until the last like a scary Cheshire Cat...

    ... And then a blink, and even that is gone, like an afterimage fading...