Owner	Pose
Melinda May	An hour ago, the Amtrack train from Newark to Philly left the station. Thirty minutes ago, SHIELD discovered it was carrying a small HYDRA team protecting a hacker who has been using the train lines (and their wifi) as his base of operations. His name is Kevin Medroff. He's 38 and looks like he should be a midtown hipster rather than an elite cybernerd. His laptop is slim and innocuous, but crammed full of the latest tech, capable of taking control of any electronic system connected to either the internet or a wifi in range of his repeaters -- which are spread throughout stations and along tracks all throughout the east coast and midwest. Credible threat analysis suggests Medroff is getting ready to release a computer virus that will co-opt the power grid for then entire Easter Seaboard... and probably compromise every high level security facility from New York to Lousianna. Including several meta-level federal prisons. Needless to say, SHIELD wants that stopped. And to do it? They've sent the two agents they had on hand to do so. Melinda May and Peggy Carter. Thus, May find herself, not in the cockpit of her beloved 'bus', but on the back of a slick black motorcycle, careening over bumpy tracks, chasing down the caboose of the slick passenger train several klicks down the track. Oh, yeah. This is going to be fun. >Insert sarcastic eyeroll here.<
Peggy Carter	It's been a bit since Peggy's been out in the field proper, but she's been training as hard (if not harder, really) as she did on the day she got out of physical therapy and was cleared for full duty. While Melinda seems less than thrilled at the assignment, Peggy seems almost relieved. She's happy to be out in the field. She doesn't look anything like her old photos from the files, not when going on assignment nowadays. Her dark hair is tightly twisted back then braided close down the back of her skull, keeping it fiercely out of her face in a way that makes her look a little more stern. She's all in those comfortable body armored blacks, that SHIELD provides to most field agents, somehow not bulky but still life saving in their layers of protection. Usual issue weapons in place, and her own personal gun which might cause trouble, but she doesn't leave home without it. Not where HYDRA is concerned. They're speeding along, Peggy pressing a bit closer to do her best to let Melinda get up to speed with the train. "If you can maintain speed, I'll make the jump... Then be there to get you aboard as well. Sorry for the bike, but... we didn't have time to waste." They've destroyed more expensive assets in the field. Then they're getting even with the train. Peggy shifts, not quite transferring all her weight to the opposite side of the bike until the very last moment and then she's *jumping*. No hesitation. Sure hands catching back railing and boots only slipping a moment before she clings her way onto the back of the train's little outcropping. Success.
Melinda May	It's not Melinda's bike. And, hell, she's crashed planes. A bike is nothing. "Not my bike," she says, her tone dry, almost amused over the com channel. "They shouldn't pass it out if they expect it back in one piece on assignments like this." Though, really... it's a SHIELD bike. It's probably got some sort of autopilot on it to keep it from crashing when riderless. After all, if the Gotham Bats can do that with their bikes, why can't they? Nevertheless, the field leader gives a short nod to the rest of the statement. She guns the motor and leans down to slim their airframe some, the bike rocketting up the track towards the caboose. "Okay. Hang on... this is gonna get bumpy." The bike leaps off the track, racing along loose gravel beside the track in the back end of a rundown town. Small stones spray, pelting them occasionally. Which means the black armour comes in very handy indeed. As does the helmet May wears. Finally, though, she's guiding the vehicle alongside the back rail, keeping pace with the locomotive that speeds along.
Peggy Carter	The leap from bike to back of train is not fun. Peggy's hands, gloved with black leather, grip enforced pieces, keep her in place on the back end of the train even as her boots scramble at the edge of the little back ledge that she slightly missed. It's only a few inches, but those inches matter. Still, it's a matter of seconds before she scrambles up the last few inches and onto the little steel ledge, a few whisps of curls ripping out of her tight braids to pelt against her forehead as the train keeps speeding along. "I'm headed for the roof. When you get on, go in the back. We'll see if we can sandwich him in before he realizes what is happening." It means they're split up as well, but is far less likely for the man to get away. So, Peggy gives that offered plan over the comms and then starts scrambling up the little ladder to make it to the top of the train. She's moving fast and keeping low, every muscle engaged to keep herself balanced as she makes her way down to another entrance as quickly as possible.
Melinda May	May holds the bike steady until she can see Peggy is firmly aboard the train. "Roger that," she says in response to the direction. When she sees the other woman start her climb, she pushes the bike closer to the train and reaches out to grab that lower rail. Grabbing hold of it, she feels the bike tilt beneath her. She curls her legs and swigs towards the step as the bike falls away into some brush. Her toe catches the step and she thrusts up enough to lift her body, her own leather gloved hands gripping the metal rail tightly. A soft mutter is barely audible across the comm. "I'm getting too old for this shit." But she's up and on the train now, easing her way in the back door. Inside the train car, she finds a crowd of people packed in like sardines. There's probably close to a hundred. In one single car. They are alone. There are no gunmen within. And they are conspicuous for having been stripped of purses, brief cases, backpacks, jewelry, belts, even shoes. These are people who have been placed together for a purpose and given no means of ready escape. "I found the hostages," May says clearly over the comm, now. "No sign of opposition. Moving forward."
Peggy Carter	"Come now. I've got a few decades on you. That line doesn't work with me." Peggy mutters over the comms, having definitely caught that last utterance and she's not having it. She might be one of the few people in the world that can get away with that sort of back talk because she's not *wrong*. Or maybe, after all this, May will firmly ask to never work with Peggy again. Either way, the moment the report of hostages comes, the teasing all stops. Work begins. "Can you disconnect that train car? At least get them free? Keep eyes out. We can drop a small charge, if nothing else. I'm about halfway to the front." Peggy's comm is still slightly drowning in wind as she keeps the uncomfortable, quick run along the top of the train going. She's got her center of gravity lower than normal, knees bent, fingertips hovering just a few inches off the roof so she's ready to drop, flatten, and cling at any moment. Be it a threat, or the train suddenly shuddering and trying to buck her off. She looks down at the display of her SHIELD watch as she's going, trying to trace where the signal from the hacker is coming from the strongest in the train. If she can zero in on it, they'll better know their target. "Trying to pinpoint the car the signal is from. No luck... wait...Spike in wireless activity. Car 7."
Melinda May	"You have the body of a thirty year old," May retorts. "I'm still stuck with the original factory settings." Then, she realizes she's talking to the woman who was Director back when she was a probie. She'd laugh, if it were still a part of her natural emotional repertoire. As it is, the snirk that follows is a close approximation. Nevertheless, she moves through the people to the far end. A woman grabs her pant leg. "They're out there," the woman says, pointing to the door. "They have guns." May glances down to her and nods. She takes off her helmet and lays a finger to her lips. Her dark eyes examine the door. Then, she lays her hand on the handle and pops the door open. Stepping through, she slams the helmet into the face of one man and then both the helmet and the man into the body of the second. What follows is a quick, sharp exchange of blows that sees the two HYDRA agents face first on the deck, unconscious. She pauses long enough to zip tie them and then looks for the manual release mechanism for the car. "Two down. And I think I've found the release." She looks back into the crowded car. "Hang on, folks. You're going for a ride. Some of my friends will be along to pick you up in a bit." Then, she closes the door and pulls the manual release. The caboose drops off and falls away backwards down the track. "Moving forward. I'll meet you at 7." She picks up one of the HYDRA agents' weapons and starts forward again. It won't take her long to catch up, providing there's no more interference.
Peggy Carter	Car 7 it is. "I'll be here. Do my best to leave one or two for you to clean up." Peggy shares well. She also probably shouldn't try to take on the whole cell that's body guarding their hacker at once, but she's not letting him get past that car. Smooth as silk, and a little relieved to be not on the roof any more, Peggy drops down between cars 7 and 8. She makes it fast and goes low, hoping her head wasn't seen quickly going past the window. She plasters herself to the outside of the door, listening for anything she can get over the wind. No one's shooting her through the thing yet. "Let me know when you're almost at 7. Hit'em on both sides at the same time. Least likely to lose the chap." And it gives her just a few moments to catch her breath, pressed on the outside of that door. But the moment May says go? She goes. She's pounding the door in fast with her shoulders, remaining low as she sweeps the room with her ICER, shooting anything and everything in her wake. ICERs were a bit nicer, because if she hit wrong, there was less guilt. She's still a disciplined marksman, focusing on targets and not just spraying the place as she looks for a fast piece of cover and takes in the scene.
Melinda May	May snirks softly again at the promise. But, really? She'd say the same thing. So, onward she goes. The train is remarkably empty. Everything is centered on car 7, it seems. "Coming up on it, now," she tells Peggy over comms. "Can you release the car on your end? I can release here and we can isolate them entirely." Because, you know, there could be more up front. Probably guarding the engineer, if he's not already on the payroll. Nevertheless, isolated or no, when Peggy's exploding in one end, May's exploding in the other. Her ICER flashes as well and between the two of them, there's a serious bit of crossfire at work. The HYDRA mooks are taken by surprise to be sure. "Stop!" Medroff yells, half rising from his seat, his finger poised over a button. "Stop or I swear I'll blow them all up!" His hostages in the last car, no doubt. Question is: Can he make good on his threat at a distance?
Peggy Carter	"Got it." Peggy calls about the release, right before she crashes into the room. She waits until that very last second, to hopefull not alert their enemies inside. But the connection pin is jerked up and rustily out of the cars, so the one that is soon to be the sight of a fair amount of fighting is on its own. Now or never. Peggy's disciplined shooting, as trained as May, helps the whole thing not be a total mess. Yes, they're cross firing, but they both know what they are doing and Peggy's keeping low enough to not be anywhere near chest height for anyone's guns. Even if her knees might hate her after this. She mentally swears as the man holds up a button. But it's not a dead drop. His hand would actually have to press it, and with May across the room from her, he can only keep eyes on one of them at a time. So, Peggy puts on her biggest eyes. Her most scared, appeasing, *loud* face, and she starts talking to the man. "Look. Medroff. You don't want this either. All those innocent lives? Please... lt them go, give us the button, let them go, and you can take me. Whatever you want on SHIELD, I'm going to be a far larger asset and temptation than a bunch of no names on a train." Peggy takes another step towards him, trying to make herself quite the distraction. Hopefully Melinda picks up the play.
Melinda May	Oh, May picks up on the play, to be sure. She's no longer the wet-behind-the-ears probie she was when she and Peggy first met. Her greater challenge is the pair of mooks that are still standing, guns in hand. Her eyes dart around the car, that is slowly decellerating as inertia takes its toll. As Medroff's attention moves to Peggy, who really looks like the least threatening of the two, he says, "Drop your weapon." A shakey head nod to May. "Her too." May considers the request and it becomes evident a moment later why she got recalled from self-imposed desk duty. She crouches down as if to place the weapon on the floor. Halfway down, she fires into the meat of Medroff's leg; Fitz' neurotoxin bullet will be as effective there as anywhere else on the body. Her hands hit the floor of the central aisle and her legs flip up and lash out. She slams one of the gun men back against a window. Though his weapon goes off, the shots are wild, hitting only the ceiling, including a repeater embedded there. She's relying on Peggy to take out the last guy and make sure Medroff stays down.
Peggy Carter	First goal? That button. Second? Make certain the last of the enemies are taken out. Peggy uses her angle of view, where she can watch both Medroff and May, to her advantage. As May starts lowering her weapon, Peggy begins to do the same. She needs him to drop his guard just one moment. "...Do as he says..." Peg mutters to the woman. And a second later there is the slightest of nods. And May's weapon is going off. Peggy's jerks up and follows the split of a second later, pin point shot on his hand. The button drops to the floor. Then she's jerking to the side, trying to quickly pull out of the way of any other bullets as her gun comes around to land two of those ICER rounds into the center mass of the last of the HYDRA agents on this train, at least. It all happened in the space of five seconds, chaos and then the strange quiet that follows. She leans down, reaching for the untouched button on the floor. "SHIELD. That train car we let loose... what's it's status?" Peg calls back over her comm unit, as she nods quiet approval to May, looking the woman over for injuries.
Melinda May	"I'm good," May assures her, recognizing the behaviour. She is, after all, a field leader, now. Not even just a senior agent. Next step? Field director, if she's ever fool enough to accept the promotion. Fortunately, no one's offered. SHIELD HQ crackles over their earpieces, however. "Response teams are moving in. Car has been secured, they're offloading passengers, now." May looks at the half dozen slumped HYDRA agents around them. "We need a pick up," she says. "And a wagon. Also, send someone to check on the engineer. He's... a little out of our reach, right now." She moves towards Medroff's slumped body and his shiny laptop, glancing to Peggy. "Let's see what he was working on."
Peggy Carter	Here's where Peggy still falls short. Computer technology grew exponentially since her day and while she's had a few months to play catch up, it's not a language she naturally speaks yet. Peg comes up to Melinda's side, dark eyes looking across the laptop warily. "...See what you can find. I'll watch your back. I think that's the lot of them but HYDRA always seems to worm their way into the cracks." Peg might be a little too paranoid about it, but she's going to be useless with the computer. So, she'll keep eyes out and let May do her magic.
Melinda May	May certainly doesn't argue with Peggy. HYDRA are complete bastards that way. Sneaky, creepy, green-dyed monsters. She gives the other woman a nod and bodily pulls Medroff away from the computer, letting him slump carelessly into the seat across the way. Then, she slides behind his odd desk and takes a look at the screen. After several long minutes of clicking and the occasional keyboard command her lips purse and she lets out a soft whistle. "Looks like we got here just in time," she tells the other woman. "He has a list of offenders HYDRA wants sprung from the metahuman supermax near Philly... and the just the worm virus to make it happen."
Peggy Carter	"It's not on a... timer, is it? Couldn't still go off even with him out of the picture?" Peggy asks, fairly lost as to how these things work, but she certain knows how HYDRA thinks and she wouldn't put it past them at all. "Just take the whole thing offline, if you can." And then, to the side of the train, there is the sound of another bike. Peggy has no clue if it's SHIELD or HYDRA, but they're moving awful slow now and it's speeding hard to catch up with them, so she's got her own suspicions. She sweeps the room one last time, making certain no one is going to get up before she steps down to the back door, her ICER raised. "...Back up. Not ours. I'll clean it, you clean that." Fortunately, she's moving slower than the bike and has a far more steady shot. It takes her a few moments, lining up and breathing out quietly as she steadily focuses on the speed of the bike. The there's a sharp shot, and another to follow. The sound of a speeding bike suddenly going very awry and a body flipping through the desert.
Melinda May	May considers Peggy's words. She starts poking around the computer further, quickly investigating some subroutines. Her hacking-fu isn't as strong as some agents; Daisy has her beat for sure. But she knows her way around well enough to check several of the less obvious back doors. Killing what processes she can, she finally finishes the whole operation by flipping the machine over and plucking out its battery pack. It can't send any signals without that. So, as long as she didn't miss something in the cloud, they should be good. Nevertheless, she says into her comm, "Trisk, track all net traffic on the Amtrak network. Medroff aimed a copy of Ultracarnivore at the Penn supermax. I think it's shutdown, but get that prison isolated, just in case." Her head comes up as Peggy makes her shots, but her expression remains neutral. She knows the woman can handle herself well. She remembers the rescue of the Senator and his kid in Virginia. Her concerns about the former Director's return to the field were put to rest then. "Clear?"
Peggy Carter	"Clear." Peggy looks back, a bit of a smile crossing her lips as she sees the battery pack in Melinda's hand. "Effective. I'd work with you any day of the week, May. Even if I'm pawning off the tech work rather ungracefully." Peggy admits with just a bit of self deprication to her voice. She knows where her weakness lie. Then it's the sound of a proper helicopter. The replacement bus, not being flown by Melinda, coming in to give them their back up and extraction. Peggy drops to a knee there, beginning to process the HYDRA agents with quick, practiced motions. Searching for and removing all weapons, zip tying hands, dragging them near the door. This is the fun part of the job. Between her and May, they'll have them all wrapped up in a neat little bow by the time the crew gets to them.