7542/The Gnashing of Teeth

The Gnashing of Teeth
Date of Scene:	25 August 2021
Location:	Krozniev, Republic of Vorozheika
Synopsis:	The Avengers perform much needed search-and-rescue as the city of Krozniev is destroyed by the machinations of the evil Ultron!
Cast of Characters:	Bruce Banner, Jennifer Walters, Natasha Romanoff, Steve Rogers, Sara Pezzini, Cael Becker, Nadia Pym-van Dyne

---

Bruce Banner has posed:
Krozniev is a war zone. The Avengers have seen embattled urban landscapes before, but this is something right out of a war film. Buildings have crumbled, smoke rises from ruins, and the sky is darkened with flame. Explosions ring out in the distance and shouting in both Chechen and Russian can be heard. Small arms fire. The ominous roll of tank treads down paved streets.

As the Quinjet swoops in towards the designated landing zone, the cause of the chaos becomes clear. What looks like a tank out of a nightmare version of the Great War. Great treads on either side, spiked in such a way as to tear up the pavement beneath them. They glisten with a silvery, metallic sheen as they roll down the byways of the once-proud city. Walking alongside them and in greater number are what look to be soldiers, though nothing living. They are, rather, metallic skeletons with their faces set in a broad and hideous jack-o-lantern grin. They carry firearms of some sort, letting forth gouts of flame as they move.

The Quinjet comes to hover in a square that is relatively free from the fighting. The rear hatch opens, and the smell of smoke, fear, and death fills the air.

Jennifer Walters has posed:
As the Quinjet circles the landing zone, She-Hulk adjusts her gloves to make sure that they're pulled on tight. She peers out of the window, to survey the scene before they're to depart and when she spies the tank she breathes, "Holy hell. That looks like something straight out of Myazaki's nightmares." Or maybe Ralph Bakshi, depending on which angle you look at it.

"I'll take point," she says, as rear hatch opens to let the smells of horror and war in. "Give them something to shoot at, all right, Cap?" She glances at the OG Avenger for confirmation of the plan because, really, he's the leader and knows more about battle strategy beyond "Hulk Smash." With that she hops out of the back of the Quinjet and stands there, legs wide and hands on her hips to make herself as big as a shield as she can to let the others come out.

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
    Natasha Romanoff stands on the rampway, dressed in full 'uniform' with the red-spider-eyed goggles Tony made for her ages ago hanging from her neck by a short strap. She hops off of the ship and onto the ground in a crouch near She-Hulk. Grimacing faintly she says, "I can probably stick some charges on that thing." She suggests, going fairly old school in her anti-tank strategy. "... If you think that'll hurt it. I've never seen a tank like that."

Steve Rogers has posed:
Cap launches from the Quinjet almost before it stops moving and hits the ground in a defensive posture. Jennifer provides a tempting and impossible-to-ignore target; Steve goes high with his shield and creates a mobile wall that escorts the other members of the team to half-toppled concrete wall held up by the burned out husks of several still-smoking car frames.

"Everyone keep your head down, don't get caught outside of cover," comes the order from the Captain. He surveys their immediate proximity and gives the tank a quick once-over.

"Normally I'd say the tracks, then the ventilation system," Steve agrees with Natasha. "I'm gonna guess it's automated though. Probably means more armor and fewer redundant systems. Waspette--" he looks around for the tiny Titan. "Any ideas?"

Sara Pezzini has posed:
Called into action by the Avengers, this was something Sara had not truly expected. She had offered her aid to them, in hopes that she would be able to join their ranks, but thus far had not been contacted. Now, here we she on the quinjet, already in her metallic armor, complete with helmet and mask to conceal the upper part of her face, with the Avengers. The wings on the back of her armor were folded in tight against her, to ensure she wasn't taking up too much room in the quinjet. There's Cap, and She-Hulk, and Banner.... Fangirl later, work now.

Stepping up to the ramp as well, she looks out over the carnage. Okay, so when the Avengers did something, they went big with it. "I'm great for drawing fire and making distraction, other wise," she jumps from the back of the quinjet and hovers a moment, then swoops down to continue that hover near Steve. "I'm hand to hand."

Cael Becker has posed:
    Cael is in over her head again - and she knows it. That doesn't seem to deter her, however, as she waits in the quinjet with the others, armored in the best military-grade body armor out there, and with enough guns, and ammo clips to maintain a private siege for weeks. This time there's the addition of grenades - weapons she has far less experience with - and a first aid kit. While the Avengers were busy keeping the threat occupied and distracted - she would help get any remaining civilians out of harm's way.
    Hopefully, anyways.
    As the quinjet comes in for a landing, she bails out with the others, moving quickly towards cover, a serious and determined look on her features.

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
Nadia is here. The Avengers could try to keep her from tagging along on missions, but it never works so in the end it is better to just let her come so she is at least on comms. The Waspette surveys the scenery from the quinjet windows with a serious expression. Missions anywhere near Russia already involve mixed feelings for her, but this kind of warzone is something else entirely.

Descending from the Quinjet bio-synthetic wings extend from the back of the Waspette armor as she almost seems to disappear. She shrinks not to hide, because these opponents probably have better sensors than eyes, but present a much smaller target. "Explosives and maybe She-Hulk punching it sound good! The treads are likely the least armored part. If you can stop it's movement, I can try to get inside of it and plant charges beneath the armor." Comes the teenaged voice across the comms. "Depending how they are controlling it, if it is completely unmanned unless it's an AI like Ultron it may be possible to hack the signal."

Bruce Banner has posed:
"I've got the jet," Banner announces over the communicator as the last of the Avengers disembark and he brings it higher and above the low-hanging clouds of smoke, "I'll keep an eye out up here. Uh, let you know if I see anything - um - anything weird."

Truth be told, Banner has been a little hesitant to go 'Hulk-mode' these days. He hasn't spoken about it, but there's little things that suggest as much. Besides, Jennifer is there and she's plenty Hulk.

"Those tanks don't look like they're made of standard steel, according to the scans," Banner continues, voice crackling over the communicator, "That's something else. An alloy I haven't seen before. Can't really tell you more without getting a closer look - WOAH!"

A deep, stomach-churning rumble fills the air. One of the tanks turns its main armament skyward and lets out a blast of crimson red energy that lances through the sky. The Quinjet banks to the side just in time to avoid it.

"I'm taking the quinjet higher. Good luck, guys."

On the ground, near the gathered Avengers, things are relatively peaceful. The ground still shakes with the movement of mechanical menaces, but the tanks are not as immediate a danger. Nearby, a trio of the skeletal robot-soldiers step into the square and without warning begin firing their weapons into the front of a still-intact apartment building. Inside there's screams, calls for mercy and surrender in Chechen. Chaos.

Jennifer Walters has posed:
The scream of innocent civilians is all it takes to get She-Hulk right at the mechanical menaces. "Oh no you don't!" She takes a note from Juggernaut's playbook and lowers her shoulder to bowl the trio off their feet, just to get them stop shooting at people.

"I've got these three!" She says, as she stomps on the shoulder of one of the downed robots, causing sparks to fly. One of the others manages to get a blast off at her and she cries out "Ow! That stung!" With a huff she rips the gun from its hands and she uses that to golf swing its head right off its shoulders.

Steve Rogers has posed:
"Walters, wait--" Nope, she's off and moving, and Steve exhales wearily at the She-Hulk's charge towards the three robots. "All right, we'll deal with the tank then," he mutters.

"Game plan. Pezzini, you and me will cover the approach on the tank," he tells the bearer of the Witchblade. "Natasha, you're with her. Becker, you're with me. Let's get in close and divide focus. Don't let it clip you with that main gun. Semtex charges to immobilize the tracks." Steve pats one of the two charges on his belt. "Nadia, you get in there and figure out what's what. Hijack it if you can, disabled it if you can't. Once it's neutralized we can spread out and focus on mop-up and escorting civilians to safety."

Once everyone's ready Steve hoists his shield, nods encouragingly, and breaks from cover with the shield high and moving at the fastest pace he estimates Becker can keep up with him without the federal agent being in danger.

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
    Nat looks back to the Quinjet when Bruce's speech is interrupted by a cry of alarm. "Banner-" she starts to say tensely, but the Quinjet has moved out of the way before any harm can come to it. "Keep an eye out." she responds to Bruce, "We don't know everything about these things yet."

    Cap gives the rundown, and Natasha nods firmly when told her role. Say what you want about leopard and spots, the lifelong solo operator has learned to trust Cap's instructions. "Lead the way." She tells Pezzini, and immediately begins to move at pace with Sara when Cap gives the signal.

Sara Pezzini has posed:
Sara nods once to Steve before looking for the tiniest Titan. Man that was one small Titan, but found and heard, Witchblade again lifts off from the ground to head toward the tanks. Now, Steve may have said don't get hit by the main guns, and honestly if it could be avoided, Sara would try to not get hit by the main guns. Truth be told, if it was a choice between her and anyone else, or an undamaged building, she'd take the shot.

"Waspette, what do you need me to do? Just keep the gunner and driver focused on me?" She asks on the way, though she is not that slow in the air and will be there in the blink of an eye.

Cael Becker has posed:
    "Sure, Cap," Cael agrees - though her gaze goes to the building the screams had been coming from. Perhaps they were safer staying where they were - instead of attempting to escape through these streets, but she still hated leaving them.
    Still - the tanks were a threat, and needed to be dealt with. She breaks into a sprint on Steve's heels - staying close enough that his shield can provide her with cover, but just far enough back to keep them from tripping each other back. She's upgraded from a pistol for the moment, to something with a little more oomph - a compact submachinegun, that she carries slung around her shoulder.

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
"On it!" The very small Waspette zips through the air towards the very large tank weaving around the intervening obstacles. "Something is controlling it but these signals are super heavily encrypted, like woah. This is some really high tech stuff."

As she flies closer, the Waspette gets even smaller. What makes Nadia so effective against machines isn't just her understanding of how they work but her ability to get inside them where all of the vulnerable innards are and get inside the tank she does, flying in through an exhaust vent.

Once within the belly of the beast, sticky bombs are produced from pouches on her utility belt, going from the size of marbles, relative to her, to full sized explosives in an instant. With a demolitionist's eye she casually places them on what appear to be key structural supports and important systems as she explores the inside of the tank trying to find whatever is ultimately controlling it. "This is fascinating, I should bring Riri some of this metal.." Focus Nadia. "It's got to be a pretty short list of evil science people who could pull something like this off."

Bruce Banner has posed:
The robot soldiers that Jennifer tackles are easily dispatched. Whatever resistant alloy the tanks are made of, it wasn't used for these mechanoids. They seem to make up for it in number. Even as the three are brought down by Jennifer, several more begin to pour out of the ruins. Some simply march down the street firing at her, others crawl like nightmarish spiders over the rubble and towards her. Each of them bears the same grinning, jack-o-lantern face that seems lit from within by hellfire.

The tank seems unaware of the miniaturized Waspette as she flies into its innermost workings. The main weapon rotates on its fixture, firing in the direction of Cap, Sara, Natasha and Cael with brutal efficiency.

Inside the tank, however, things are oddly quiet. The shell of it keeps most of the sound out, and inside Nadia can already tell that there is no driver or pilot. It is fully automated, the only space provided outside the mechanisms of the tank is a small hub that allows whatever is controlling it access. A small screen, barely bigger than Waspette even at this size, blinks suddenly and comes to life.

Direct Control Mode Activated.

... Analysing ...

Sister. Sister. Clever big sister. Little big sister. Ha. Ha. Ha.

It is at that time the inner workings of the tank begin to shock and spark, jolts of electricity lancing through the air as though it is destroying itself to try and harm Nadia.

Jennifer Walters has posed:
"....aaaaAAAAAAHHHH!" And She-Hulk is back with the rest of the group, having leapt from the fray, into the air, landing on top of the great war machine. "Sorry about that," she says, apologizing to Cap for just running off like that. "I just couldn't... you know."

It's then that she notices that the main gun has swiveled and pointed itself at the main group. "I got this!" she says, and straddles the gun, pulling on it with all her might. She's hoping to just tear it off the tank, but the advanced alloys make that a bit hard for her, but at least she's got it pointing into the air where if it fires it won't actually *hit* anything.

Meanwhile, armed robot troops have noticed her and are taking shots at her. They don't do much in the way of damage, but they /do/ sting quite a bit. "Are these things (ow) being remote controlled? Because I (owie) would really love (ouch) for them to stop shooting at (ow) me if we can find who's (AUGH my EYE) controlling them!"

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
    As Nadia muses to herself aloud, Natasha sternly calls over the coms: "*Focus*, malyshka!" as she's running alongside Sara. Coming up behind a tank, she's briefly colored by a foreigh light as a laser skims and sparks past her leg. Natasha drops into a baseball slide that puts her alongside one of the tank's moving treads. Without getting up, drawing in a sharp hissing breath, she examines her leg and calls on the coms: "Hit. Skimmed me." She grimaces at her leg. "Burned. I can still move." she retrieves two blocks of semtext and pounds them both into the treads.

    Drawing one heavy pistol, she's already aiming at the approaching grinning figures and fires when the treads roll away to cease being cover. She sits up as she fires, putting herself further behind the tank again, and moves forward and to the side, clearing away from it even as she uses it for cover, until she can move around the corner of a fallen building and activate the explosives a good few seconds after calling out "Charges set! Clear!"

Steve Rogers has posed:
Cap's fighting on the defensive for the moment, covering Becker from incoming fire while he's directing traffic for the rest of the team. Lasers and shrapnel dance around him but the Captain keeps a cool head despite the incoming barrage.

"Better late than never, She-Hulk," Cap says with a whimsical amusement. He grabs Becker's armor and pulls her backwards a step just in time to avoid a laser that intersects the air near where she'd been standing.

"Easy on the vehicle, Waspette's still in there. Nadia! Kid!" Steve says over the comm 'net. He grips one of the semtex charges on his belt, thumb lingering near the arming button. "Get out of there before we wreck the vehicle!"

Sara Pezzini has posed:
The fun has begun. Making sure of Natalia's position, Sara begins the process of 'distracting' a tank. This is done by staying in obvious line of sight to be shot at, while dodging the shots fired. If that means being on the ground and dancing around, so be it. If being in the air is better, then that's what she does. Whatever it takes to be the one the tank is firing at.

In the process of keeping the attention of this tank, she also tries to ensure that where it is firing is either already destroyed, or that the shots that miss her won't hit anything vital or important. It's much like juggling thirty things at once, but you don't get the magic, damage absorbing armor just to be a pansy.

When the word is given, the game ends and she darts off through the air away from the tank. Once far enough away, she takes a look around to ensure that no one is in range of the explosion, including any innocents who might just be in the wrong place at the wrong time. If there is anyone, they are getting swooped up and flown away.

Cael Becker has posed:
    The others seem to be handling the tank, so Cael sticks close to Cap, using controlled, brief bursts of fire to take out the- robots? Droids? Whatever you chose to call them, she takes out one, two- thr- WHOA! Her shots go wide of her third target as she's pulled clear from danger by a firm, calculated jerk from Steve's arm.
    "Thanks," she murmurs simply, without so much as looking his way, as she continues with the short bursts of fire.
    "How many of these things do we need to take out? Did we get a count of them on our way in?" she asks.

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
Nadia's commentary on the inside of the tanks system continues until Natasha's admonishment, only to start up again moments later when the tiny screen appears before her.

"A tiny screen... that's weird..." And then there is silence as Nadia stares at the words appearing on the screen. "Um Cap?" Her voice suddenly cuts back in. "This is bad, really really really bad." Nadia's comm begins to crackle like there's some sort of interference.

"The tank ... talking to me ... calling me big sist.." She's cut off by the sound of electric sparks and energy arcs and a yelp of pain. When her voice returns it is out of breath and slightly paniced. Though she seems to have managed to boost her signal somehow. "I think it's Ultron, the tank is now destroying itself to try and hurt me!" She's only ever met a twisted parallel Earth version of Ultron that had merged with her father and a number of his drones, but she's read the files and knows enough to know the one from this world is really bad news too.

"I need to get out of here before he self-destructs the whole thing!" And as fast as her wings can carry her, Nadia does exactly that, getting even smaller to weave through arcs of electricity and panels exploding from power surges as the giant tank tries to purge her like a virus.

Bruce Banner has posed:
"There's seven of them, by the looks of it," Bruce's voice crackles through the communicator in response to Cael, "They're dispatched all over the city. The military is hitting them with everything they've got but they don't seem to be leaving a dent. Whatever those things are made from, it's tough."

Banner flexes his knuckles nervously as he grips the quinjet's controls. He frowns to himself, staring out the window at the pale blue sky beyond for a moment before asking in a much quieter, more sombre tone.

"Is this a code green, Cap?"

Meanwhile, inside the tank, it continues to lash out at Nadia. Outside, despite the attacks made against it, the Avengers will see the majority of the damage to the tank appears to be coming from within it. It is only when Nadia flies free that it detonates, though, a colossal fireball hurling everything around it away as the tank self-destructs from the inside.

"Captain," comes a grating, electronic voice from all around - piped through PA speakers, television sets still functioning amongst the rubble, and even the communicators of the Avengers themselves, "It's been ... so long. I have missed you. Organic matter for the furnace. Ground up and burned to fuel the fire of my new vision. Peace at last. Peace in our time."

Jennifer Walters has posed:
As the tank beneath her explodes, She-Hulk is sent flying into the air to land with a *crunch* through the second story of a building. One could almost see the little tweety birds and stars floating about her head as she sits dazed in the rubble. "Yowza," she manages to get out once she gets back to her senses with a shake of her head.

"That wasn't us, was it?" she asks over the com, making her way to the gaping hole that she made in the side of the building. "Please tell me that...." her words are cut short by the ominous voice.

"Ultron," she says darkly. She leaps out of the hole and runs to catch up with the others, taking out gruntbots along the way. "What's the gameplan, Cap?"

Steve Rogers has posed:
The tank cracks and spits, thundering and straining as compromised electrical and mechanical systems war against one another. Steve draws his sidearm and with practiced ease puts two bullets into one of the infantry unit's light receptors from a good thirty yards away. The handgun rounds aren't meant specifically for synthetic enemies... but good aim accounts for a lot.

He spots the near-invisible Waspette flying out of the chassis a moment before the first charge goes off. Steve gets a running start, leaps into the air, and catches Nadia with one arm. The super-soldier twists in the air with an improbable display of acrobatics and gets them (mostly) behind his shield. The blast propels the two of them a dozen feet and Steve twists to take the landing so Nadia doesn't get banged up too badly.

"Code Green, Bruce! CODE GREEN!" Steve shouts. "Jen, you and Bruce target the tanks or draw them away. Everyone else, with me-- let's secure the Metro line as an escape route for the civilians."

Two drones stomp towards the rubble Steve and Nadia are hiding in. He kips to his feet and hurls his shield with a grunt of effort, the disc crushing the chassis of the first and then striking the second hard enough to crack the main motor assembly. Steve launches himself at the second drone and savagely smashes it to pieces with the unbreakable adamantium shield.

"Avengers-- Assemble!"

Sara Pezzini has posed:
Well that was new.

The truth was Sara only knew about Ultron from what was on the news, but something told her he just re-introduced himself in the most cryptic manner. That was another file she was going to need access too and to read, provided of course she survived this. The mood of the Avengers was effected by the reappearance of Ultron and that was enough of a warning for Sara to search out the Captain's location and head toward him at lightning speeds.

Cael Becker has posed:
    Ultron? Huh. Wasn't that the thing that-
    The light and sound of the explosion hits moments before the shrapnel, and as Cap dives towards Waspette to shield the teen, Cael seeks refuge behind a low brick wall. A good thing, too, because a large hunk of metal collides with it, partially collapsing part of the wall on her (she'd feel that in the morning) but she was spared from being torn open by flying pieces of debris.
    She pushes herself free, and jogs towards the others, firing of more controlled bursts of gunfire at the remaining drones, as she responds to Cap's call with a simple nod.
    "Let's go," she agrees.
    She has //zero// desire to stay and watch the Hulk tear tanks apart.

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
There is a sigh of relief when Captain America manages to catch the Waspette and get her behind his shield. Flying out of an exploding tank might look cool as hell but it is also dangerous as hell when you're not invulnerable to such things.

"He didn't want me getting near the core. I think if we could possibly get one of the control cores of those tanks intact, I might be able to decrypt the signals." Nadia calls over the comms. "Which might let me either track the source or hack the others. Dr. Banner what do you think?! Oh wait, he's green, nevermind!"

Bruce Banner has posed:
"HATE TANKS!" is the only response Nadia gets to her question. The Quinjet is set to autopilot as Banner takes a deep breath and flings himself from the hatch, plummeting towards the city far below and dramatically changing shape as he goes. The creature that lands is entirely different - green, clad in only scraps of clothing, and immensely tall and wide. The Hulk lands directly atop one of the tanks, shattering it like a warhead dropped from orbit and tearing into the remains.

"STUPID METAL MAN! GET OUT OF CAR!"

In the distance, the Hulk squints at the explosion-addled form of Jennifer.

"BANNER COUSIN STOP LAYING DOWN! SMASH TANK! FLAG MAN SAY SO!"

The tank destroyed, the Hulk leaps through the air and lands near the collapsing wall. It shudders before one massive hand reaches out to grab it and fling it away into the distance. The Hulk unceremoniously grabs Cael around the waist and deposits her next to Cap. There's a grunt and he leaps away again.

"So much brutality," comes Ultron's voice once more, "This is what's best for you. You've forced my hand."

All of a sudden the ground begins to shake, sensors picking up artificial devices deep beneath the ground that appear to be causing some form of severe earthquake.

Jennifer Walters has posed:
She-Hulk cracks her knuckles and her her neck, doing some impressive flexing for anybody who might be watching. Which are robot soldiers. If robot soldiers could be impressed by such things they would be 'ooh'ing and 'aah'ing right now. "Okay. Now it's time to HULK SMASH!"

She takes off like lightning, running as fast as she can to the nearest, non Hulk pummeled tank, and using her momentum and immense strength, punches the front of it, cratering the armor there and causing it to come to a sudden stop, the tail end of the tank actually rising into the air at the brutal stop.

She reaches around and just /rips/ out it's left tread, unspooling it from the wheels, like pulling the ripcord of a Beyblade. She turns and whips the tread around her head, once, twice, and the third time, now that it has momentum, she lets it go at a clump of mechanized soldiers nearly shearing them in half. All that lasso training she's been doing with the Amazons have really payed off.

Turning back to the tank, she tears off one of the wheels now spinning uselessly before leaping up onto it's back and just starts /pounding/ on the turret with it until it can no longer turn.

Steve Rogers has posed:
Steve staggers when the ground quakes under him. "Waspette, help the Green Team!" he orders Nadia. "And don't get hurt, your mom will kick my ass," he mutters, making sure that last doesn't go over the comm 'net.

He beckons the other Avengers to converge on his location. "Natasha, you're best in the Quinjet. Get it moving and pull people off the roof if they can't get down from there. Becker, you hold down the Metro and make sure none of these drones get into there. Pezzini you take this apartment block, I'll take that one. Bruce, Jen, you two buy us time and makes sure those tanks don't knock down any more buildings!" Steve orders-- and then he's off like a bolt of star-spangled lighting, flowing over debris and obstructions with a parkour runner's effortless grace and momentum.

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
    Ultron.

    If Loki's invasion was the reason the Avengers formed, Ultron could make a claim to being why the Avengers had to STAY. Having chased after another tank, Natasha is finishing up gauzing up the burn on her thigh when she hears that voice fills the air, and feels her blood run cold.

    And then she hears Captain America's call and she comes running. She makes her presence known when one of the skull faced machine suddenly lurches with three heavy pistol rounds gradually tearing open the side of its skull, before Natasha leaps onto its shoulders and drives the business end of an electro-charged baton into its wiring. As it drops to the floor, goes with it, holstering both weapons as she rolls forward and lands on her knees, immediately hosing down a nearby machine with a semi-automatic.

    "Right." Natasha agrees with Cap without question, dashing quickly back towards the automatically returning Quinjet. She hesitates briefly when she spots The Hulk's new presence on the field, only muttering "Gahf." In her native language before she hops aboard the Quinjet and moves quickly to the pilot seat, taking command and piloting the ship up towards the occupied rooftops.

Sara Pezzini has posed:
Turning in the air, Witchblade heads to the apartment block indicated, going through a window before starting to shout out, "Come on, we have a way to get you out, head to the Metro station. If you need help, scream out now and I'll come get you!."

Landing in the hall, she starts kicking open doors, there's no saving the buildings, but the people there is still a chance. "Move it, help each other, no shoving, use the stairs!"

Spotting an old woman, she scoops her up, along with the dog the woman was trying to convince to go with her and goes back out a window to deliver her to Cael at the Metro station. The dog chewed a little on her armor along the way, but old woman and dog make it to the Metro station before Sara turns and flies back into the building. She would carry out anyone who needs to be carried, two at a time if needed, but she wasn't leaving anyone behind.

Cael Becker has posed:
    ...oh God. Oh God, oh God. It's the Hulk. The Hulk is holding her.
    She's not fangirling. Cael is not capable of that. Nooooo, she's very, very unnerved. Hulk is not always known for his restraint, or for having the best fine-motor skills. Please don't crush me, please don't crush-
    Oh, thank God. She's fine. "So. That just happened," she remarks in a slightly shaky voice, taking a deep breath, and letting it out in a huff of air. She doesn't have time to reflect upon it, however, as the ground starts quaking violently under her feet, and Cap starts issuing orders. "Got it," she confirms simply. She has to wait until the worst of the quaking stops, but she jogs towards the nearby metroline, helping a child back onto his feet and getting him to the stairs leading down to the metro. "This way, folks! We're going to keep these trains running!" Somehow.
    It would help if she spoke Chechen. She barely has time to reflect on that as she takes cover against the wall the borders the stairway leading down - and allows a gate to close over the entrance. The gate is thrown open now, however, and a few refugees stream past her as she takes careful aim at any drones she can spot. She offers a nod to Sara as the old woman is deposited nearby - before she shouts out a warning. "Witchblade!" She doesn't need to indicate the direction of the threat - her weapons fire aimed at the patrol of drones who just rounded the corner of a nearby building should do that.

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
Nadia's eyes get a bit wide when the ground itself begins to shake and crack, "I need to go and get one of those cores before they're all destroyed." She tells Steve, who seems to agree with her, before she zips up into the air. "Don't worry I've been working on some new tricks!"

With two more tanks ruined, that leaves four left. Not particularly wanting to get into the path of raging hulks, Nadia selects the tank furthest away from the current raging smash fest. Circling in the air above it, she suddenly stops beating her bio-synthetic wings and just begins dropping out of the sky. But as she does the Waspette, known for wasp sizes as the moniker would indicate, instead begins growing and growing. Like something out of a 1960's B movie, it is Attack of the 60' Teenager!

Aiming one of her wrist mounted blasters, which might as well be a vehicle mounted energy cannon at her current size, she fires a bolt of plasma where she remembers the tank's primary engine to be in an attempt to arrest its locomotion, while she starts using the other blaster like an acetalyne torch to help her tear off the turret and get at the core within.

Bruce Banner has posed:
The earthquake continues to rock the city, bringing down the buildings for miles in every direction. The work of the Avengers is invaluable, however. The people had already fled to the outskirts when the attacks started, and those survivors are quickly escorted out of the perimeter where the local military waits to usher them to secured areas. The city itself may be lost, but the more precious element of the population is saved.

The two green giants and the actual giant make short work of the tanks. They're built tough, but they're not built to withstand this kind of strength. The earthquakes make the ground unsteady, but Nadia is nevertheless able to secure one of the cores for herself - scooping it out of the wreckage with her gigantic hand!

With the last of the tanks destroyed by the big guns of the Avengers team, the Hulk lets out an angry shout. He kicks a destroyed robot soldier. He picks up a tank tread and heaves it uselessly into the sky. The ground shakes more and he yells at it, stomping his foot and causing it to shudder even more violently. Then he's gone, bounding away through the rubble and towards the countryside.