Owner Pose
Carol Danvers About a month ago, an AIM facility was raided by some of the Avengers. As one might expect, all sorts of contraband was captured. Everything from exotic weapons, to dangerous compounds and chemicals, machines that needed to be analyzed to see what they do and how to dispose of them safely. Even a couple of 'what the hell is this?" items and boxes.

After sitting in the secure section of the Avengers Mansion basement, and the more immediate threats amongst them dealt with, the remnants were shipped off this morning, destined for a government facility that would complete the disposal of them.

Unfortunately, a distress call just came in from the Avengers Foundation staff who were moving the items in convoy of four trucks with two SUVs of extra security.

"This is Convoy Zeta, under att- *static* ... lead vehicle disab- *static* *sounds of gunfire over the radio* ... need immediate assistance, high level threat-" The radio transmission cut out of after that. An Avengers alert went out to all members for anyone in the area able to respond to the convoy's current location in Upstate New York, a short flight out of the city by Quinjet.

Smoke is rising into the air, the convoy being on a small two-lane highway that is winding through a forest. A clearing in the forest seems to be the sight of the ambush.
Sam Guthrie Sam Guthrie was heading to work this morning. Harry's has a day shift, and Sam was tapped for it. Luckily Harry knows that at times things come up. Sam calls in letting them know he will be a bit late getting in as he sees the smoke raising on the horizon. He will find a place to park his truck out of the way, and a quick change and he is bringing his goggles over his eyes to take off and head to see what's going on and if he can help. So we find a man surrounded by a orange blast field heading into the area.
Natasha Romanova The distress signal is received and Natasha Romanoff is one of those that are scramblin to respond to it, along in a Quinjet, perhaps with some others or just taking the nearest available transport. Of -course- the convoy had to be publicized, or at least enough it was able to be hit. She's going to speak into the comm <<Widow en route. What's the status report on the ground?>> Aware she might not get a response back if no one was left on the ground to respond..
Billy Kaplan Billy was at Avengers Mansion to meet with some people about an interview. He's been coming around trying to talk to any Avenger who will listen to him about membership. He is really geeked out for this group. Then the alarm went off. There a distress call! Nobody told him to get on the jet exactly. In fact, nobody even hinted at it. But there was a lot of chaos and lots of people moving fast, and there was plenty of available seating! So at some point or another perhaps someone might notice that Wiccan is on the jet.
T'Challa <<Acknowledged. On my way for support.>> T'Challa's voice comes in over the comms, adding, <<I will not require the Quinjet.>>

This is because, while he has designed the Quinjet, he also has his own Wakanda technology and plane. Of course he does. Shuri is not the only one in the royal family capable of inventing and engineering.

A dark jet speeds into the area, a figure dropping out of it into the trees near the clearing where the ambush was set up. The plane continues on while the Black Panther begins to hunt.
Steve Rogers     Steve Rogers is going to notice the kid on the jet, at some point. Steve also remembers being 19 and overly eager to get in on the action, so he just reminds himself to keep an eye on Billy while suiting up. He follows Black Widow out of the quinjet, frowning toward the smoke.

    <<All we're seeing is smoke from here,>> he notes over the comms. <<Anyone have a better view?>>
Carol Danvers It looks like the SUV that was leading the way was hit, as well as the lead truck. The SUV is burning ferociously, while the lead truck is missing it's rear axle, the back of the truck resting fully on the ground. The other 3 trucks and SUV have pulled into a defensive circle with the disabled vehicles, and the drivers and security staff have taken cover in the middle of the circled trucks.

The drivers are armed with pistols, while the men who were riding security have shotguns or assault rifles. They are firing into the surrounding forest, where men in the distinctive full-body suits of AIM can be seen firing back at them. The attackers must number near twenty or thirty at least, it's difficult to tell with them using the forest for cover.

The AIM attackers are using a wide variety of armaments. Machinegun fire riddles the ground in front of the trucks, keeping the men pinned.

There's a soft "whump" sound that Cap, Natasha and T'Challa at the least will recognize as a mortar. Soon the shell hits, missing the circle of trucks by about 40 feet as it sends dirt and concrete fountaining into the air as it hits.

Zap of laser blasts reach out for the defenders, one hitting a man in the arm and taking him out of the fight. A trio of disc-like drones each about the size of a large pizza fly out from the surrounding trees, each deploying weapons beneath it as they fly forward. One has missiles, another has a rotating barrel for a small cannon, and the third has some sort of futuristic blaster looking thing.
Natasha Romanova Natasha Romanoff would call along the comm <<THis looks too conventinoal for an AIM attack. Take care, they probably have some sort of different weapons loadout that they're going to be dropping soon.>> A setpiece ambush is more along the line of Hydra. The drones are.. Now, those are definitely AIM.
    Natasha goes to deploy from the Quinjet, dropping towards the ground and putting the Quinjet on 'autopilot' to disengage from the area. Hpoefully not noticed, she's going to stealth mode to ready to pull out a long sniper rifle, darting along through the trees to some nearby cover.
Sam Guthrie Sam Guthrie sees the mortar about the time it lands, and was about to head to where it came from but then the drones are rising. He sees the quinjet and knows the Avengers may have flyers but not all the time. So Cannonball, heads for the drones, the first one upon seeing the comet coming towards them fires it's missile at said comet. Sam gets hit head on with the missile, but he has been trained for this type of stuff, and the missile just explodes on his blast field. He continues on and flies through the one that fired upon him, leaving it a ball of smoke and debris to fall to the ground.
Billy Kaplan When the back of the jet opens, Wiccan simply unbuckles himself from his seat and jumps out. No gear. No parachute. Nothing. Just a kid in tights with a red hood and cape. He lets himself fall for several moments just because falling feels good and it's fun. But he reminds himself that this isn't a joy ride and people's lives are in danger below. So he immediately controls his descent and starts flying.

When he speaks, his voice takes on arcane power. Each syllable is like a verbal assault to the very air around him. "Shield me, shield me, shield me." An energy barrier suddenly forms all around Wiccan as he alights on the ground. Two AIM operatives appear and start firing at Wiccan with automatic weapon fire. The bullet deflect harmlessly off the energy barrier.

"I don't /think/ so!" he says with a smirk and holds out a hand. Electrical energy courses from the hand into the attackers, putting them stunned and unconscious on the ground.

Wiccan looks around to see how he can be most useful here.
Steve Rogers     Cap definitely recognizes the sound of the mortar, and instinctively brings up his shield to deflect shrapnel as it hits the ground. He follows up the motion as the dirt starts to clear, throwing the shield at one of the drones--the one with the fancy laser attached. It's always satisfying when one of those high-tech contraptions explodes from sheer application of force.

    He's already running as the shield comes back around toward him, heading for the convoy. He's visible in his suit, and maybe seeing him will boost the morale of the defenders. Also maybe he'll draw some fire from the AIM folks. (He definitely draws some fire from the AIM folks.)

    <<Looks like we've got some extra help!>> he calls to the other Avengers as Cannonball explodes another drone. No need to tell them to watch their targets; they all know what they're doing.
Natasha Romanova Along the line are a half dozen AIM Agents some distance away from the melee. They have large suitcases that are festoned with skulls and Poison Markers. From each of the suitcases they go to draw out a cartoonishly oversized needle. then htey go to pose along like characters from a shonen anime as fast paced.. Music plays. "Carl, do we need this!? We agreed in advance!"
    The AIM Agent going by the name of 'Carl' would grumph, "It's needed! Besides, MODOK said if we didn't he'd kill us!"
    Another agent goes, "He said he'd kill us if we did too." A third nods, "Well, this will probably kill us too." The group would nod and come to a consensus."
    "DEATH!" They would each go to some sort of riidculous shonen pose. "BY!" Moving to draw their hands up and over into the air.. "SCIENCE!" Right as they would move to inject one another with hte needles.
    Then, like crass oversized tumors, the AIM Agents would start to grow.. Bulging.. Swelling.. Turning into misshapen green freaks of nature.

    "SCIENCE SMASH!"
T'Challa Stealth. The element of surprise. A hunter in his element. Lethal in daylight or the dark of night.

As the shadows grow longer and dusk approaches, AIM soldiers in the woods begin to learn just what Black Panther is all about, as the Wakandan King uses diversionary tactics along with the direct approach. Footfalls make no sound whatsoever, but there is the crack of a bone here, a yelp there, and a number of thumps and thuds as the hidden attackers fall one by one. A group of them huddled around some of their weaponry? Distracted by a sound effect from a pellet-sized emitter, and then he is upon them. Heads are bashed together, claws strike to cut through weapons, and the strength of the attackers begins to dwindle.

For the moment.
Carol Danvers A cheer goes up from the beleaguered members of the caravan, one of the shouting, "The Avengers are here!" The arriving heroes are definitely drawing fire away from the men huddled inside the circle of vehicles, though the latter continue to fire back, but holding fire whenever they see one of the Avengers engaging the person they were shooting towards.

The remaining drone turns, moving in a fast arc to try to stay away from Cannonball. The rotary cannon may be small, but it fires armor-piercing rounds as it sends hundreds of rounds flying through the air towards the mutant!

"Swarm him," an AIM commander of some sort says, motioning towards Wiccan as he takes out a pair of men. Two more men open fire, one shooting rifle, but the other seems to be firing some sort of dark energy bolts Wiccan's way.

"Deploy the golem!" the commander, who has a different shaped head covering than the rest, bellows to the rest of his men. One of the AIM soldiers steps forward, wearing metal bands on his arms and legs. They glow and he begins to grow, like he were inflating. He looks kind of soft, actually, but he's quick as he charges forward towards Captain America, swinging a gigantic fist towards him.

On the other side of the clearing, a three-man team drag some kind of tripod-mounted weapon forward. Two of them bolt it into the ground and the other then mans it, taking aim. A beam of energy shoots out. Anyone near to it can fee it's heat. It slices completely through the back of the disabled truck from bumper to the top, the back falling off. More AIM soldiers rush forward towards the now-opened truck.
Natasha Romanova One thing at a time. Natasha Romanoff goes to line up the barrel of her sniper rifle over with the heavy tripod cannon. That thing will suppress the entire area and pick off any of the convoy guards. It has to be neutralized quickly or it will make a mess of everything. She geos to carefully line up a shot on one o fhte gunners.. But after a moment, goes to switch the weapon's point along to aim at the center of the tripod. Looking down until she can identify where the power pack is.. Lining up a shot.. Then going ahead to fire the bullet over to hopefully hit in dead center of the power pack for a small mushroom cloud!
Billy Kaplan The bullets are meaningless to Wiccan. He's so used to conjuring a kinetic shield that he could literally maintain it in his sleep. But those AIM attackers with the energy weapons give the young hero a moment of pause.

"Shit."

He glances around the battle field and sees the shield-slinging Captain America. Oh man, his friends are NOT going to believe him when he says he was in a firefight with Captain Frickin' America!

"Captain America, sir, could you lend a hand...or a shield?" Wiccan calls out to arguably the most famous Avenger on the planet.

He raises his arms in the air. Again his syllables are laced with arcane energy as he speaks, "Fly to the Captain," he calls out. The three men with the energy guns lift off the ground and sail in an arc toward Captain America like they were forgotten toys tossed by a petulant child.
Sam Guthrie Cannonball sees the drone starting to fly away from him, and firing upon him. Sam is neigh invulnerable while blasting, so armor piercing bullets are not a big thing for him. A few years ago the drone may have been able to out maneuver the young man, but these days, Cannonball can turn quicker than he used to. So he moves to grab ahold of the drone making sure to keep it outside of his blast field. He was going to target the gun nest, but as it goes up, he looks for one of the AIM vehicles and zooms towards it, releasing the drone in the last moment, to crash into the vehicle in a modified Very Fast Ball special. He cuts up into the air, getting a look of the field, and seeing where help might be needed.
Steve Rogers     Steve's used to fighting guys bigger than him these days, although 'giant inflatable guy' isn't usually on the menu. Still, he knows how to handle the situation in a general sort of way. He ducks the incoming fist and goes to punch the guy himself--though it's like punching a balloon. Not much damage done. Maybe it won't be that easy.

    He's about to swing his shield at Giant Blorbo Man when the kid that he's been keeping half an eye on calls out to him. Politely, even! Thinking fast, he tosses his shield at one of them at an angle to deflect the flying body into the Stay Puft Marshmallow AIM soldier, to give himself some breathing room. The other two he dodges by doing one of those nifty tuck-and-roll manuevers people usually only see in video games.

    He comes up on his feet facing the now /four/ attackers he's got in range, his shield about ten yards away. Outnumbered, but hardly outgunned. "If any of you wants to surrender, now's the time," he offers, because of course he does. Just in case. Even stupid AIM soldiers deserve a /chance/.
T'Challa Still within the trees, Black Panther maintains his bearings relative to the clearing. The sounds of the fight easily reach his ears, but the numbers are thinning when it comes to the AIM members who are taking shots from what they thought were safe places.

Roars of some kind draw more of his attention, and when he sees what the source is? <<Switching targets. Do not worry if you see me flying without wings.>> What he means by that might be unclear, though the ones more familiar with him might sense a measure of mirth in the words. Why? When he turns up, he is leaping from the branches of a tree, coming down toward one of the hulked up AIM soldiers. That is not what he was talking about. One of them turns and slugs him in the chest of his suit, altering his trajectory into the trunk of a nearby tree with a heavy crunch.

/That/ might be what he meant.

As he pushes back to a hand and knee, parts of his suit begin to glow purple, a latticework pattern of tribal design to it.
Natasha Romanova Several of the AIM Soldiers are also rapidly taking what looks uspiciously like Lego blocks out and are using them to rapidly build what looks like some sort of weird robot about the size of a human. They're moving faster than they really should be able to as they put it together. The large, humanoid looking brick thing made out of plastic looks like an AIM Brick Man.
    "KENNY BOT KILL!" It goes to unfortunately.. Advance on the AIM Troopers that made it.
    "OW MY SPLEEN!" "WHY ARE YOU KILLING US KENNY YOU $##!!"
Carol Danvers As Wiccan provides Cap with targets, the latter's indestructible shield takes down one of the AIM soldiers. He lifts his hand feebly after the blow. "I might... sit this one out," he says before his arm falls to the ground too.

The inflatable AIM soldier lets out a bellowing laugh. He's really loving the fact he's not even feeling any of these blows. He is hit by the shield and it does knock him about a bit, though the shield comes off even faster than a normal ricochet, having gotten the most of the impact.

Blorbo lets out cackle and charges at Wiccan swinging his fists left and right in front of him in big sweeps as he goes to hit the youth.

Meanwhile Natasha shoots the power pack for the big zappo-slice-a-matic laser. "Look out!" the gunner yells, taking a few steps and diving away from it, as do his allies, just before the thing goes up with a loud blast, and a concussive blast of air that blows smoke across the battlefield.

The mutated AIM soldiers rush into the fray now. "There's a sniper!" the commander yells, waving one of them in the direction the shot came from. One of the mutates leaps into the air, fully thirty feet up. Is Natasha's hiding spot proof against being seen from above? Another soldier moves to help against Black Panther now that he's been spotted.

The AIM commander pulls out a pistol that ends in little dish antennae rather than a barrel. He points it at Cannonball and a screech of disorienting noise is launched at the flying superhero that seems to be shrugging off the weaponsfire.
Natasha Romanova Now is when Natasha has to go evasive. SHe goes into her comm <<I could use someone giving me some air support here>> As the group is going to leap towards her, she would drop on the ground a very small sphere. the sphere would hit the ground, and start to rapidly blink and flash faster and faster as Natasha would dive over to the side as the mutate would jump with intent to hopefully smash over wehre she had been..
    Presuming her timing was good, it would lbow up in a large plasma explosion right where the mutant would land, hopefully sending it flying and blasting off again!
Sam Guthrie Sam Guthrie is scouring the field, and pondering heading for the inflatable goon, but as he turns to head that way, he is hit by a beam of sound, not meant to hurt but disorient, and confuse. Luckily his field stays up, but the vertigo and such causes him to veer off target, and a trench about the length of a football field is dug into the forest with tress falling to either side as they are uprooted, from the "landing".
Billy Kaplan Wiccan was NOT expecting Blorbo to charge him! He leaps up in the air. Fortunately, flying is one of the things he can do without casting an incantation. Unfortunately, he isn't seasoned on the battlefield, so he flies up too late. Blorbo grabs his ankle and twirls him around like a rag doll and throws him into a pack of his allies.

Wiccan grunts with the effort as he attempts to fly against the tremendous force with which he was thrown. He manages to alter his trajectory enough to miss the Avenger Foundation members. He flies ass-over-tea kettle into an AIM mortar station. Fortunately his kinetic shield is still up or he would have been shredded to piece by the impact. The mortar launcher is destroyed immediately. The crew are scattered by the force of the landing. Wiccan ends up sitting on the chest of an AIM soldier to who looks up at him, barely conscious. Billy smiles down at the man. "How cute am I?"
Steve Rogers     One guy sitting it out is better than no guys sitting it out. Steve's gonna take that as a win. Unfortunately, his attempt to knock down Blorbo just led to the guy converging on Wiccan; they've essentially swapped targets. He focuses his efforts on fist-fighting the two who are still up and fighting, dodging and weaving and moving himself around to a place where he can grab the shield again.

    Maybe it's the hulking guys and robots turning on their creators, or maybe it's people flying across the battlefield like rag dolls, but it all kind of reminds Steve of something cartoonish. Which isn't the /whole/ reason he winds up putting himself between the two AIM soldiers and then ducking just as they go to punch him, so they knock each other out, but it does put a satisfied grin on his face. For just a second.

    Then he puts his game face on again, picks up his shield, and then throws it at Blorbo in such a way that it'll bounce back so he can catch it this time. <<We've got inflatable men and mini-Hulks on the ground here. We got any air support for Widow or no?>> Do they even have air support?
T'Challa Black Panther rolls his neck this way and that. The suit absorbs a lot, but it does not completely protect him from feeling the impacts. The glowing sections pulse, akin to a heartbeat, and as he charges back into the fight with the Hulk-like soldiers, he shows he is capable of giving as good as he gets. His quickness and swift reactions prove to be a boon, luring two of the enhanced fighters in to the point they nail each other instead of him, but he is still tagged again by another and sent spinning, sprawling away.

The purple glow becomes brighter, pulsing faster than before, building. <<Give me a few more moments. I will help level the playing field.>> He says this through clenched jaw.
Carol Danvers The handful of AIM soldiers who made it to the vehicle pull out some boxes, while one opens fire to keep the remaining drivers and security pinned down. They make a run for the treeline while the fight continues.

Blorbo gets knocked forward by the shield to the back of the head, landing on his belly and then bouncing forward, heels over head. He tries to stop himself but he bounces again, crashing into the trees and getting stuck between two of them. "ARGH! Let go," he yells at a tree, smacking with a hammer-first only to have it rebound from the thick tree trunk and hit himself in the head!

The flying mutated soldier lands right on Natasha's explosive and goes flying as it detonates. He ends up lying there motionless.

Meanwhile, the other 'Hulks' continued to pound away at Black Panther. As the men return laden with boxes, the commander calls out, "Excellent, now cover our treat, there are too many cursed capes here! Glory to AIM! Glory to MODOK!" He turns and dashes into the trees with the soldiers carrying what few goods they were able to retrieve.

A few moments later, a very un-aerodynamic vehicle rises up out of the trees. It is box with rounded corners on top, and then a slightly wider base at the bottom and back which seems to be some form of propulsion. It resembles a larger scale, flying outhouse in a way. It takes off up into the sky, streaking away from the battle.
Billy Kaplan Billy stands up off of the now-unconscious AIM solder. He brushes dirt off his tights. "Oh man, this thing is really hard to clean." He waves one hand and mutters arcane syllables, "My suit is clean!" And just like that, it's as good as new. That didn't...that didn't seem that hard to clean. He turns to survey the battlefield, trying figure out how he can "help" the Avengers here. Kid's really jazzed to be fighting with the biggest names in superheroing around.

"That was some awesome teamwork, wasn't it, sir?" Billy says to Captain America. Teamwork! With Captain America! Can today even get any better than this???
Sam Guthrie Sam Guthrie sits up from the rut he carved into the local forest, he shakes his head and picks a bit of grass out of his hair. At the flying outhouse, he cocks his head a moment "What that, well that can't be Avenger standard. He will stand up, and with a thought his field ignites and Cannonball is in the air again. He could fly through the outhouse, but one there maybe people in there and two someone could have used it. No, he will fly towards it, and clips it to take out it's propulsion, and then as it starts to fall, he comes around and grabs it, guiding it back towards the fight, and letting it crash into a clear spot on the road. He does make sure the door is on the side, where if someone sticks their head out he can swat it. He will hover over the box, and calls out "Someone loose this?"
Steve Rogers     For a moment, Cap is distracted by the AIM soldiers getting some of what they came for--but then the retreating ship is destroyed and he relaxes a little. Phew. "Over here!" he shouts toward Cannonball, waving an arm.

    He glances at Wiccan and can't help but smile at the kid's enthusiasm. "That it was. Don't think I caught your name...?" Prompting, gently. Maybe he can get that interview he's been looking for after all!

    He's still got an ear out to be sure his teammates are mopping up loose ends.
T'Challa It looks like this could be the end for the Black Panther. The 'Hulks' gang up on him, and there will be bruises to deal with later, but he has not called for help or gone into a panic. On the contrary, which his attackers don't seem to realize, he is allowing all of this. <<Brace yourselves.>> He gives the rest of the Avengers, and those joined in over the comms, a warning.

By this point, his suit glows with an amount of purple coloration that makes it look like it's undergoing a shift in appearance. Curling up, it is a herald of what comes next: a massive shockwave of force, expelled in all directions around him, directly hitting the AIM soldiers who'd shot themselves up. It is felt as a concussion blast, and they all fly away from him in different directions, at different angles. It turns a couple vehicles onto their sides, but given his location and lack of direct proximity to the others with him, they are spared more than feeling like a heavy gust of wind passes by them.

It is enough to put the soldiers down for the count, and as the Black Panther rises to his feet again, he laments, <<I fear I may have strained a muscle or two. Are we finished here?>>