El!
El has been with the site for nearly two years now and has continued to prove her value. Currently, she is heading up our site event, Battle for Liberterram, on top of keeping up with her own personal plots.
CHARACTER
SPOTLIGHT
Peggy Carter!
Lux's posts are all wonderful to read. She has done a wonderful job of grasping the new universe and incorporating Peggy into it.
CHARACTER
SPOTLIGHT
Peter Parker!
It's good to see Spidey back on the site. Watching him deal with the universe shift in his own snarky way has been nothing short of entertaining.
THREAD
SPOTLIGHT
Eight O'Clock on the Dot!
El and Lux are making magic in this thread. Straight up fireworks, and the way they've played with drawing out the reveal is top class.
"Yeah, I'll clearly need to make some just for you," Tony shot back in relief as Carol finally answered him. He really should've thought of that before, but it hadn't really occurred to him. He had JARVIS make a note to later use his readings of her to come up with a patch designed to work with her abilities in the field so he could monitor her without it going haywire.
With his mind at ease as to Carol's safety, he was able to focus on work again, in this case getting civilians to safety. "I'm good Cap. Nothing I can't handle yet," he called in to the Field Leader's question. Much as he argued with Steve being in charge, he knew to just shut up and accept it in the field. He was narcissistic, not idiotic.
Chiming in his agreement with Carol at the mention of giving the others a lift off the needle if they needed it, Tony was still focused on moving civilians out of the unstable building that he was making his way through. These alien attacks were completely damaging to city infrastructure, and at this scale Tony was a bit worried about the future finances of the target cities. He couldn't fund a full-country re-build, after all.
He could hear Carol having the time of her life on the streets below as he handed one building-worth's of civilians off to SHIELD and zoomed to the top of another building to start all over again. Top-down seemed the best way to go for these things, as it meant that he could chaperon the entire journey out of the building. "Alright, ugly-ass aliens. Do your worst," Tony challenged the Chitlians he found on the top floor. They immediately began attacking him, but it didn't take too long for Tony to shut them down, now that he'd learned better how to do it. "Guys, the main power source for the Chitlians is in the right side of their hip," he informed the others as he performed another scan of the corpses. This was the first time he'd managed that information, after enough observation, "Pull it out and they'll be easier to take out through more normal means. It's not the only power, but it's 83.976% of it."
After Clint decided to throw a serious monkey wrench into the mix, Steve hauled ass as quick as he could without being suicidal. For the 'perfect man', it meant he scrambled fast, made some pretty risky jumps and weaved out of the way at the last second before he squeezed some counter fire. Within little time at all he was near enough to Nat to be useful in case things went pear shaped for her until the archer got his act together and got to where he could be useful.
"How you holdin' up, Nat?" He asked, throwing his shield up to cover them both from a blast that got uncomfortably close. He knew this wasn't exactly her thing. She fought with the element of surprise, not with a thousand enemies swarming her position--which wasn't exactly ideal to begin with. And her stunt in Triji meant she was taking a lot of heat lately, and he knew that things weren't fully resolved between her and Clint. He just hoped to God that all that was going on wasn't eating at her morale.
And then how are you holding up pretty much bit him in the ass as soon she was jerked down by the weight of a Chitlian dangling from her boot. His vitals immediately spiked as he watched her take a tumble, and only restabilized when he saw she hadn't fallen to her death. Unhooking his harness, he let himself into a controlled drop and grabbed either side of the support structure, lurching to a stop. The process was repeated a few times until he was down where she was at, where he latched his harness back on again. Their current position was swarming with charlies, and Steve was doing everything in his power to help clear them from Nat's back.
"Good. Keep using them." Steve replied when the archer came back over the comms.
One Chitlian scrambled fast towards the Russian, its claws digging easily into the metal, but he put a round into the back of its skull before it fell off from the Needle. A moment later, one found his shield arm and attempted to wrench the thing from his grip. For a moment, he could feel his muscles strain, but the tug o' war was short lived before he put a slug between its eyes and then rammed it back with the shield, sending it tumbling to the ground below.
At last Clint dropped down to their position, but by then Nat was short a cable and down a few rounds. "Romanoff, heads up." He slid his extra glock across one of the outcroppings of the support structure so she could get to it and make up for the weapon that had fallen. Steve usually only traveled with one anyway, and if it came down to him or Nat going light, he preferred the idea of him missing out.
"Sounds like you're doing as well as we are," the vet responded back to Carol. At least Tony was doing well--not that that was a surprise.
When Clint's question came, Steve paused only for half a beat before he responded. "You two watch each other. I'm cutting through the center and making my way to the other side." There was a structure he could use to skirt the mess of cables once he climbed past the lattice. He'd be exposed on one side, its corners and to anything tangled up in that mess, but that was the way it needed to be. "We need to get eyes on the machines they're using. We know one side is clear--we'll work our way around to the opposing side until we find it and put the thing out of commission." Shifting the shield back up higher on his arm, he unclipped the harness and clambered toward the center. The wind was even worse once he got past the lattice, with it buffeting from all sides.
Between the wind and the swaying of the cables, the groaning of the structure, the distance noise of battle, the close noise of battle and the whirring of machinery, it was hard to get an audio position on anything. Moving as fast as he could and deflecting what attacks came his way (and firing back in kind), he wasn't the least bit surprised when a Chitlian jumped out of the cables in front of him.
"Great."
Natalia Romanova was thinking of starting to bring down the Needle my next post, with it falling toward the side Steve's about to come out on. So if you want to start having the saucer make weird, horrible groaning noises, go ahead.
Last Edit: Feb 10, 2016 10:16:01 GMT by Steve Rogers
Post by Natalia Romanova on Feb 11, 2016 8:05:16 GMT
“Of course,” Natalia purred, grunting as she dodged the swipe of a Chitauri. “This is fun. Are you not having fun?” Shooting a quick smirk in the Captain’s direction, she turned her full attention to the aliens swarming their location. Of all the Avengers, Steve was the one she needed to put on the mask of ‘a-okay’ for. He’d been there in Triji, and had all but been by her side with moral support during the fallout.
Yes, the world was under attack by vicious extraterrestrials. But as far as Steve Rogers needed to know, she was… well, as good as you could be surrounded by aliens intent on murdering you.
Natalia’s face was a mask of anger, but her jaw was set with determination by the time Clint finally managed to land near her. Holding up the sheared line as evidence, she shrugged to the archer. “No. I’ve still got my ‘chute, though.” There was no time for any attempts at chivalry - Chitauri were still clambering up and around to their position. “Big guy, four o’clock!” Case in point.
The sound of Steve’s voice drew Natalia’s attention after she managed to sling a few bullets into a trio intent on climbing up to their platform from below. Instinct caused her to lift her hand; experience ensured she caught the weapon without hitting the trigger at an inopportune moment. Twirling the weapon around until it rest easily in her palm, she leveled both Glocks at some aliens up high before sending them down below.
Not one to question Steve’s commands, Natalia spared a quick glance towards her long-time partner and nodded to him. They’d worked together so long words weren’t always necessary. She knew he had her back, and he knew she had his. Keeping herself steady on the platform, Natalia shifted so that her back was pressed gently up against Clint’s quiver, her head just out of his reach for when he needed to pull arrows. Her body remained fluid, shifting every time she felt him do the same in order to keep from hindering his shots.
How Tony expected her to rip a large portion of the Chitlians out of their body was beyond her, so she focused on the task at hand instead. In no time, the area around herself and Clint was clear enough, and after shoving the second to last batch of clips into the weapons, she holstered them. Despite not being attached to the structure by a cable, she moved swiftly along the platform, but stopped as the entire thing shuddered. A loud groan filled the area, drowning out most sounds of battle. Something wasn’t right…
Natalia’s heart plummeted as she finally figured out what the noise and the shaking was: the Space Needle was going down.
“Shit! Clint - jump!”
Natalia hesitated at the back of the platform nearest the center section of support beams as she realized in which direction the landmark was falling. It was falling towards Steve. Fear tugged at her gut, but her natural survival instinct kicked into gear and sent her racing towards the edge as the platform began to slide vertical. “Steve! The Needle is going down!” she shouted, hoping he heard her or noticed in time to get away. If there had been any way for her to surmise she could get to him, she’d do it, but for now, she needed to keep tabs on herself and Clint.
Thank god he’d given in and worn a parachute.
Thick soled boots thudded on the metal planks as she raced to beat the tilt. Pushing off of the edge, she hurled herself out into open air for the second time in ten minutes. This wasn’t a terribly far drop, all things considered, but with the number of enemies nearby, she waited until the last possible moment to pull her ‘chute. Black silk erupted into the sky above her, and her body jerked with the sudden decrease in speed. Her eyes skimmed the area around her, but if Clint had made it with his parachute, he was somewhere in the large blind spot caused by her own ‘chute.
Her landing was smooth, as was her detachment from the parachute. Spinning on one heel, she wasted enough time to confirm visual on Clint’s well-being before sprinting in the direction of the Space Needle. A wave of dust and debris hit her, but she shielded her eyes with one arm and covered her mouth with the other without stopping. Her shoulder connected with something solid, and by the time the dust settled, there were three dead Chitauri surrounding her feet as she gripped one of the glaives.
“Steve!” she called out again, her heart pounding furiously in her chest as she resumed her race through the dust to find the Captain.
There wasn't time immediately to finish addressing Nat's lack of a line, as the Chitlian coming around the corner took precedent in that moment. After putting an arrow in his face, Clint quickly unhooked his safety line from his own harness and into Nat's before she could protest and then directed his attention to Steve for direction. He hadn't been using it anyway, as it wasn't yet clipped into the structure.
He nodded at the instruction, sketching an incredibly out-of-form salute in the man's direction to show that he heard before he was nocking another arrow and taking out another couple aliens with it. "Here," he said, extracting a couple of the extra arrowheads he kept in his suit and passing them to Steve, "Slam it into the machine and the electroshock'll take it down. If I don't get a shot." Better safe than sorry.
Nat was soon at his back as they fought off aliens while Steve made his way through the needle. They'd fought together for so long that they moved as one automatically. It didn't matter how long it had been since they'd been in the field together; they were still the best damn partners in SHIELD.
The structure was beginning to feel precarious and Clint braced himself as he took down a Chitauri that was flying by the structure. Then Nat was telling him to jump. "Jump where?!" he shouted back as he twisted towards her before cursing and following her across the structure. Running up a structure that was falling in the opposite direction was really almost normal for Clint, and he carefully affixed his bow to its place in his quiver to free up his hands.
Clint leapt from the slowly-tilting side of the Space Needle into the air, adjusting his trajectory just slightly so that he landed on a passing Chitauri chariot. He didn't stay long, instead driving the chariot off-course and diving off to another, which he also pushed off-course before bailing out onto the roof of a low building, rolling easily to his feet before hopping off to slide down the side of the few-story building and running towards where he saw Nat's chute landing.
Retrieving his bow again as he ran after Nat to search for Steve, Clint really hoped that Cap was okay. "Stark, Nat and I are safe but we might need you or Marvel over here to help us dig out the rubble," he informed the other part of the team.
• @capmarvel • clint's an idiot but at least he's talented?
Steve was surprised but grateful at the offering of Clint's arrows. First instinct was to argue that he wouldn't be able to put them to much use but... haha. He kept forgetting that he was strong now. Strong enough to get the same effect of a bow by punching something with an arrow. "Thanks." He replied before he took to cutting across the lattice so he could make his way to the center of the tower and beyond.
He'd been making pretty lackluster progress from the wind and how damn disorienting everything was, but it got a lot worse when the Chitlian jumped out at him.
This one pulled a long-knife out of some storage space that was embedded into its forearm. Yeah. That was attractive. Steve brought up his shield when the knife's blade flashed. The sound that the collision made as the blade scraped against the shield's surface was nothing short of awful. Fortunately the Chitlian didn't seemed to like the sound, either.
Not quite as effected by the sound, Steve powered through it and kicked out and down with his foot, smashing the sole of his boot against the Chitlian's knee. A grotesque popping noise followed, along with a metallic sound that the veteran didn't want to think too hard about. As soon as the thing buckled, Steve plowed forward and then pushed his shield arm out. His shoulder screamed as the Chitlian resisted, but it was pushed off the side of the platform and went tumbling a long ways before it smashed against part of the lattice work.
"He's not gonna be getting up anytime soon." Steve thought to himself and proceeded slower than he'd like across the center until he was out the other side.
Hooking himself up to the side opposite Nat and Clint, he began to climb and crawl across the exposed structure in search of the damned machine. Unfortunately this side was swarming with just as many Chitlian. Wait... there were even more on this side. Some of which were stationary and concentrated around the top of the structure, just under the lip of the saucer, others of which were scoring the lattice work.
"Think I might've found the machine. Check and see if they're on your side doing something similar; it'd be just under the lip of the saucer." He called out over comms.
Getting to where he thought it was was easier said than done. The amount of charlies in the area was nothing to sneeze at, and it wasn't long before they spotted him. After that, almost all of them were gunning for him. Blasts of energy weapons flashed in such rapid succession that Steve was bogged down, barely even able to move. Every single inch was damn well earned as the enemy swarmed him like a plague of locusts. One Chitlian even clung to his shield, weighing it down enough that he couldn't shake it loose before talons sank into his side, working through his suit. Grimacing, he struck out with his free hand, pistol whipping one across the jaw.
And then, he heard a groan and felt a shake. It was the final one of each, the others too faint to hear over his pounding heart and the gnashing teeth of the Chitlian. They had been playing interference and tossed their own survival instincts out the window to keep him busy.
No, damn it! Driving himself forward, he smashed the shield against the lattice with all his strength. His shoulder felt like it was ready to pop out of place but the Chitlian was shook loose. Firing in rapid succession, he cleared a small enough path to climb a little higher when the structure shook again. There was no saving it.
Steve's vitals went through the roof when he felt his body get pushed back two feet even as he kept a tight hold on the structure. He watched in horror as the metalwork bowed above and around him. And then he saw it. The saucer slipped, angling toward him as the structure screamed a shrill, metallic sound that vibrated through him. Immediately, the Captain undid his cable and went into a controlled fall, gripping the structure down a ways. There was no way he could get across to the middle, now, too many Chitlian on this side had cut across. Using the 'chute would kill him--there was no way he could clear the falling zone in time. And there was no telling how the saucer was going to fall. Everything came down to judgment and timing.
Everything.
Snatching the side of the structure in his hands, and reconnecting his cable, he watched as the saucer slipped a little farther. More shrieking sounded as the metal support bent with it. The tower swayed again and he felt every little vibration with hyper-awareness. And then, one final noise that was so short lived it was closer to a pop. For a moment, the saucer teetered. And in that moment, a Chitlian's blade imbedded into him with enough force that it tore into the suit, prying up the patch that was detecting his vitals. The readings went from critical to nonexistent in the blink of an eye.
Snarling, Steve twisted up his arm that the alien had its claws imbedded into, and fired a few rounds point-blank into its gut. It fell but groped for purchase and dug into the edge of his shield. His abused arm gave out from the weight, shoulder popping before the Chitlian and the shield both went down some several hundred feet below.
And it was just in time for the saucer to slip. Watching it, every instinct in his body wanted him to dive to the Chitlian in the center of the swaying tower; risk them rather than the saucer. But he ignored it as he watched the shadow grow larger and the saucer get closer. Either he was going to clear it, or he was going to adjust so he would clear it. And this didn't look like that time. Undoing the cable, he again went into a controlled fall and snatched up the maintenance ladder after plunging a few dozen feet. His shoulder felt like hell when he caught himself with both arms, but he powered through it, not even bothering to hook up a cable as he kept his gaze skyward.
The saucer was a ways above him, and already he knew he wasn't going to clear it this time, either. Releasing again, he repeated the torture a final time, leaving his shoulder to feel like ground beef. Finally, there was a wide enough gap for him to clear the falling saucer and the more substantial portion of the drag its descent was generating. Hooking back up his harness, Steve dug himself tight into the spot he was at and watched the saucer fall.
They failed.
((I wanted to do an "omg, Steve's dead" fakeout with the shield and monitor. Figure he'll be too bogged down by Chitlians on the tower to say anything through comms after he recovers. Feel free to have Nat/Clint spot him since the fake-out wouldn't be much good if Tony couldn't get in "his vitals are gone".))
@capmarvel well HELLO gorgeous, new posting order. Stuff is explained in Skype.
Last Edit: Feb 13, 2016 8:57:22 GMT by Steve Rogers
"Hey, guess I'm some kinda diva after all." Carol replied to Tony's comment, bending down and pulling a manhole cover up before hurling the disc into (and most of the way through) a Chitilan as it came around the corner toward the group of fleeing civilians. "Huh, so that's how Steve does it." The aliens seemed to be holding back from her to some extent, and she wasn't sure she liked that. It probably meant they were working out some way to deal with her power, and she would really rather prefer they never came up with any kind of decent plan, since them throwing small groups at her was working pretty damn well - for her, at least.
"Oh man, is that all? I don't get out of bed for less than 85%, you know that." Carol deadpanned over the radio after Tony went to entirely too many decimal places for any kind of practical use. Leave it to the engineer to always use exactly three decimal places at all times. She'd been at Pike Place long enough now that SHIELD's people were beginning to group back up, and as she saw them start getting their heavier guns in place, it was probably time she went to see where else she could be of use.
"You think you folks can handle this AO?" she called, landing next to the woman she'd seen calling orders earlier. When the officer nodded, snapping a salute, Carol returned it in crisp military fashion before blasting back off into the sky. "Alright, who's got a target for me...?" She angled back toward the Space Needle, intending to link back up with the majority of the team - which was about when the six chariots converged on her at once.
"Son of a-" a blast from her right hand took one down in flames, then she blew apart a second with her left, and plowed shoulder-first through the one most directly in front. She couldn't take all six of them at once though, and while she avoided the first two shots will well timed jukes to the side, the third hit her square in the back and disrupted her flight. The hit sent the pilot tumbling through the air toward the ground, but she righted herself and fired back, beams from both hands knocking another pair of chariots out of the sky. They hadn't sent enough - or so she thought, before the shadow of still more descended on her, and almost a dozen of the things began firing at once.
What happened next was a blur - trying to keep her powers active enough to absorb the shots while firing back took all the concentration she had, and when the Chitilans began firing from below, it was more than she could handle. A fusillade of hits sent her spiraling to the ground, where she hit the concrete with a sharp crack - not enough to hurt her, not anymore, and she was back on her feet in a second, but the Chitauri were running in, firing all the way. Carol hunkered down, focusing everything she could on absorbing the energy - until she heard the distinctive clatter of one of their grenades hitting the ground near her. And then another, and another...
"Shit!" She had to take off, now - but when she tried, a Chitilan's bulk hit her and drove her to the ground again, then another, and who even knew how many of the Chitauri, sacrificing themselves to keep her in the blast zone. And then the Leviathan came out from behind the building, curving and angling its way toward her, while the discordant beeps of the bombs became almost the only thing she could hear.
Is this it? This is how it's gonna end? No... You're not taking me down this way... not a chance in hell! Carol reached out, gripping one of the bombs and crushing it like a toy - it seemed to interrupt the detonation, but the energy cell ruptured all the same, sending a violent jolt through her system. But it told her what she needed - she could soak these things... and that meant... A grin crossed her lips, even as one of the Chitilan squeezed tighter around her throat.
The explosion tore through the pile, killing the majority of the Chitauri outright, just as they'd planned. What they hadn't planned for, however, was the real scope of her ability to absorb exotic energies - just like the ones they preferred to use in their bombs. Carol wasn't prepared for how much it would hurt - but the violent blue eruption of the bombs faltered when it got near her, halted and then twisted by an aura of golden light. That bubble expanded, capturing a portion of the blast and drawing it back in, while Carol floated to her feet, wreathed in a halo of golden fire. The energy pouring off her put out a great deal of interference - she didn't even realize that her comms had stopped working.
"You're gonna regret that..." she hissed, reaching up and grabbing the lone Chitilan that still had a hold on her before tearing its arm clear away with a flick of the wrist. The energy from the bombs still coursed through her, still burned - she felt like she might burst if she tried to hold it any longer - but fortunately, she had a good target in mind...
The leviathan was still coming, fins shattering windows and concrete as it crashed its way down the narrow street, but Carol stood her ground, lifting both hands out toward it. "Alright... you all gave me this... how about I return it!?" The blast she put out was the largest she'd ever produced, energy pouring out of her in a torrent. The Leviathans could take an enormous amount of punishment, true - and apparently, charged up as she was, she could put out more. The beam flayed the armor clean off the monster's head and kept right on scorching, while the force of it slowed and then brought the monster to a stop, folding it back in on itself while it fell to the ground, trailing smoke.
Carol grinned. "Damn... I'm good." she remarked - before dropping to the ground and falling to a knee, gasping for breath. Okay... so that was going to be a one off.
Tony Stark --- that'll probably register on the sensors....
Notes: tony's so worried about his stebe Tagged:Natalia Romanova
“Of course that’s all. My calculations are both exact and accurate,” Tony scoffed in reply, completely ignoring the fact that she was likely joking. He didn’t do well when his math skills were called into question, seeing as he didn’t enjoy being questioned in general. There was a reason that he’d gotten the reputation he had, after all.
He was still working his way through the building systematically, pulling people from wreckage and whatnot as he moved. The suit was holding up well in the face of the heavy useage and Tony wasn’t worried about power flickering out anytime soon. The fact that he didn’t have to worry about his heart stopping if it did any longer was also a welcome relief. Carol’s vitals were still behaving completely ridiculously and Tony silenced the alarm bells on the upper ends of the register so that he’d only know if they dropped to unconscious or dead levels instead of flashing every time she absorbed energy in the battle.
“Whoa!” he called suddenly as the vitals blared brightly enough to catch his attention, “You alright over there, Carol?” He was sure that she was, since she was still breathing and all, but the amount of energy she could create was still a shock to him, even after studying it for a bit now.
He didn’t have much time to focus on Carol, however, as he heard Nat shouting about the Needle coming down. “I’m a bit stuck, guys,” he called back to them, watching as Carol went practically nuclear nearby to take down a Leviathan all by her damn self. He was still fighting off quite the army of Chitlian in the building to get civilians to safety. The rumble of the Space Needle’s descent to the ground wasn’t missed as Tony reached the bottom level, and neither was the spike in Steve’s vitals.
And then… nothing.
“Fuck,” he cursed, “I lost Steve’s vitals! I lost them. I…” He cut himself off and shoved the civilians off to the SHIELD medics that were nearby before taking to the sky, seeing Carol kneeling on the ground but still breathing below he cursed to himself as he tried to figure out what to do. Steve was hurt, at least. He probably wasn’t dead. Oh god, please let Steve not be dead. “Nat, Clint, tell me you can see Steve,” he said, some amount of desperation seeping into his voice as he landed next to Carol to make sure that she was okay, helping her to her feet and blasting an approaching Chitauri from behind right through the chest so it fell to the ground. “We can be there in a minute,” he added, “Please tell me you see him.”
Post by Natalia Romanova on Feb 18, 2016 3:26:52 GMT
Natalia was relieved that Clint trusted her assessment of the situation and focused on the quickly approaching Chitlian. Turning away, she gave her own attention to the Chitauri swarming their location still, each one earning a specialized nanite bullet. The feel of something tugging at her belt caught the assassin’s attention and she spun, ready to defend herself by shooting the alien who’d managed to slip between herself and Clint. An additional sensation struck a chord of fear inside of her as she noticed her leg getting wrapped in some form of thick cable, but she managed to stop herself milliseconds before her finger brushed the trigger.
There was no alien there beside her, trying to wrap her up and take her down - it was just Clint… and his cable.
“Dammit, Clinton!” she hissed as the archer turned to hopefully obey Steve’s order this time. Was the battle getting to him? He seemed.. different. First, all the whining after Steve had given him a direct order in regards to the parachute. And now he didn’t even trust her to make her own decisions? She hadn’t even so much as second-guessed Steve’s directions to grab a parachute, so she wasn’t in any danger up here even without her own cable (not from falling, at least).
Still seething, she ripped Clint’s cable off of her belt as quickly as possible before disentangling her left leg from it so that she could make herself useful again once the archer returned. Fighting back-to-back was nothing new for the pair, even doing so atop a precarious structure. They’d toppled scaffoldings together, and buildings, and even a government or two. The Space Needle was definitely on the larger scale, but it was nothing they couldn’t handle.
At the call from Steve, Natalia worked her way towards the edge of the platform in order to get a better look in the direction the Captain suggested. “I see them,” she responded into the comms, tearing her eyes away from the machine in order to put down two more Chitauri. “I think I can make it up there, but it seems to be quite the happenin’ spot.” The Chitlian seemed especially happy to keep themselves occupied in that general area.
Not long after that, the Space Needle seemed no longer capable of handling them. The groaning wasn’t such a bad noise as the saucer leaned precariously, but the shriek of metal on metal as it was finally rent from its place atop the structure was an entirely different beast. Natalia cringed inwardly, trying not to imagine just how much louder it was inside the dish, where tourists and workers were probably making the same noise as they began to slide towards the ground hundreds of feet below.
“Just jump!” she called out to her old partner, finally making the leap herself.
It didn’t take long to figure out why she didn’t see Clint’s parachute behind her as she spied him go whizzing past on one of the chariots. Showoff. Oh well. At least he was safe… for now. While he moved on to keep things clear from the air for a bit, she turned her attention to the city landmark tumbling down. Hopefully Steve had heard her warning, or at least noticed himself that the structure was giving out. She didn’t see another parachute anywhere on that side of the destruction, but maybe he’d managed to deal with the fall in a different way like Clint had. He was resourceful like that.
She was already in motion, running towards the collapsed structure when Tony’s call came through about Steve’s vitals. The world around her disappeared, not only because of the dust surrounding herself and Clint, who’d managed to reach her side in record time. Her voice lifted above the echo of the collision between saucer and cement, but she didn’t hear anything in response, save the din of battle filling the city.
A flash of color and the glint of metal caught her eye as she alighted atop a small pile of rubble. Steve! Throwing down the glaive, she pulled both guns back out - they would be easier to wield while running. Hope swelled up in her breast and without a word, she pushed off from her momentary perch in order to pick her way hastily in that direction, both guns firing mercilessly at anything and everything that stood in her way. Dread quickly sunk in as she reached the spot and found nothing but the super soldier’s shield.
Both guns were empty now, and her stores of ammunition gone. She dropped them both as she sunk to the ground, her hands scrabbling for the edge of the vibranium disc. Rage slowly bubbled up within her small frame and she spun into a crouching fetal position in order to dodge the blast of an approaching Chitauri. Steve’s body wasn’t here, but so help her, if he was dead…
For the second time in six months, Natalia slid the shield onto her forearm and surged headlong towards an enemy. The Chitauri were considerably more durable than Trijian soldiers, but now that she knew what to expect from the iconic escutcheon, they fell just as easily. She lost herself in the fight for the time being, glad to focus her grief and rage into something equally productive and destructive until something happened or someone came along to stop her.
Nat quickly got rid of the cable that Clint had so helpfully provided her with, but that was her deal. All he knew was that he wasn't planning on using it, so he might as well have given her the option to, if she so desired. Not his problem if she didn't want it. Though she did seem unnecessarily angry with him over it. He could deal with that later though. For now, they needed to fight; it didn't matter if they were frustrated with each other at the moment, they still fought together like there was nothing else they'd rather be doing or anyone they'd rather be doing it with.
It didn't take long for things to go up in flames; though thankfully not literally this time. Once Clint was safely on the ground again he was disoriented for a long moment until he managed to run over to Nat, attempting to get Stark on the comms. The other man sounded extraordinarily upset at the revelation that he no longer had Steve's vitals, and Clint's eyes began scanning the rubble of the disc to hopefully spot the man.
He caught sight of the shield around the same time that Nat did, running for it right behind her with his bow in hand and arrows flying as she began frantically searching for Steve nearby. But he wasn't there.
She took about two seconds to arm herself with the shield before running at the Chitauri that had come upon them and Clint backed her up from his spot where the Captain's shield had been. "Negative, Stark. No signs of him yet," Clint replied to Tony's desperate-sounding demand in his ear as he shot an exploding arrow into a Chitlian that was running at Nat from behind, right into the power source that Tony had identified earlier.
The alien fell and Clint took that moment to scan their surroundings again, catching sight of something handing on the Needle. That was... that was definitely Steve. "I found him! I have an eye on Rogers! He's clinging to the side of the standing needle like a damned koala!" Clint exclaimed happily, firing more arrows into the remaining few Chitauri on the ground with him and Nat in the area.
For a minute, Steve just sat there, getting his bearings together. In all his years in the service, he'd never experienced anything quite like that. He'd been swarmed by charlies and in hostile territory. He'd never been swarmed by charlies in a hostile territory with basically a mountain coming down around his ears with no accessible backup, no shield and a dislocated shoulder. That was all new.
Finally catching his breath, Steve took a glance around to figure out where the hell he was relative to everything. He was probably two-thirds up the tower from what he could figure, and the sounds of gnashing teeth and talons on metal meant that he wouldn't be alone for long. He didn't know if they already found him or were fanning out for him, but he wasn't going to take any chances. Which meant he had a moment of truth. Lifting up the climbing harness, he positioned the shoulder strap to where he could bite into it, and kept the harness right between his teeth. Shifting his hand from the strap, he lifted his dislocated arm with no small amount of discomfort and then placed his shield arm's palm flat against the wall of the outcropping once it was stretched perfectly straight. Taking a sharp breath of anticipation, he jerked his body towards his arm, and a loud, wet pop-crack followed as the ball of his shoulder was shoved back into its socket. The pain was brief lived, but pretty incredible.
He was ready to shrug off the climbing harness and make a jump with the 'chute when the first Chitlian came into sight. Lightly pulling the trigger of his glock, he popped one round into the Chitlian's skull, in the center of its forehead. It fell off to the side, free falling from the structure. Unfortunately it was one of many that had enveloped the recess in the structure that he presently occupied. Claws and weapons came into view. Most hung back, clearly forming a quick tactic to overwhelm him as they got eyes on his hopeless position.
There would be no jumping, now. They could slash and claw at the chute. He'd need to make a break in their line and start climbing down until he thought he could make the jump.
The first one that came out actually slashed at him, as a stall so the ones up top could open up. Ducking to the side of the blade, he moved just fast enough to sidestep the energy blasts, then put the barrel of his gun to the side of the Chitauri he dodged, unloaded a few rounds of led into it. Not even giving it time to fall, he pulled it against him, using it as a shield as he took to firing at those that came his way.
If he did this just right he'd maybe have just enough ammo without needing to reload to make a break and get somewhere where he could clear the distance and jump. Reloading would be a death sentence. And if he didn't do this right... well, he was going to have to use a Chitauri as an improvised weapon.
"World's smartest man, ladies and gentlemen, missing the point." Carol deadpanned at Stark's scoffy reaction to her joke from earlier. "And yeah, fine... I've got this, don't worry." That might have been a slight exaggeration, depending on how you looked at it. But in the end of things, she did end up having the matter under control... and there was one less Leviathan by the time she was done, too. Even if she did hurt approximately everywhere afterward. Well, that was the price of growth, right? Like the day after squat day.
She stayed where she was for a minute or two, trying to catch her breath, and the Chitauri seemed momentarily content to let her - afraid, perhaps, that she could conjure another blast like that. She absolutely could not, of course, but probably they didn't know that. It didn't take long though before she was berating herself. Come on, Danvers - you're the superhuman around here. If you sideline yourself, who looks after the big stuff? You can't be leaving all the heavy lifting to Stark. Gritting her teeth, Carol shoved herself back to her feet, and when Tony called out for Steve's location, her eyes widened a touch.
"I'm fine." she insisted, turning to give Tony a grateful nod before she leapt back into the sky, angling back toward the now-ruined Space Needle. There wasn't much of anything in the way of good news, until Clint shouted the location, and Carol spotted the ongoing and more than a little harrowing scuffle still going on at extreme elevation. Screw her exhaustion - she still had work to do. "Coming in hot." she growled over the comms, the golden streak that signaled her flight zipping on straight toward the Needle's remaining structure. She turned herself into the projectile at first, zipping past just behind Steve when he was focused on one alien, making another that had been trying to sneak up on him effectively disappear - flung off toward the ground with considerable speed. Carol broke, turned back, and closed back in for the tower, blasting another pair, then turning as one leapt from the base toward her, meeting it midair with a headbutt that shattered its helmet (and part of its skull) before letting it fall toward the museum at the base.
"Heard you could use a lift!" she shouted over the wind, coming to a hover with one palm against the steel and flashing Cap a tired grin. She moved to his back then, hooking her arms under his, and took off again away from the pillar. She dropped quickly down toward Nat and Clint before she slowed, setting Steve down before she hit the ground herself, taking a coulple steps before she leaned a shoulder against a mostly ruined SUV. "Hero delivery - thirty seconds or less or your defrosted hero is free." she quipped, then she ducked as another Chitilan fired on them, before she grabbed the underside of the SUV with both hands and half rolled, half threw it onto the alien.
Tony Stark --- the bad jokes, of course, are always free
Tony was glad to see Carol getting to her feet, and he briefly considered that they'd really have to do tests on the energy that she could release. It had been incredible to watch, but they needed exact measurements so that he could calculate when such a thing would be too dangerous to attempt and when it would be the only thing to get the job done. Tony liked having all the variables that he could.
He watched Carol take off towards the Space Needle and quickly followed behind, scanning for Steve until JARVIS locked his location on the thing - currently being attacked by every alien in the vicinity. Dammit.
He zoomed in with repulsors, taking out a few of the little guys before using the last of his laser juice to cut through a couple of the Chitlians that were getting too close to Cap for comfort. There wasn't enough energy left to do anything useful with them anyway, and he ejected the cartridges. He might be able to get replacements to himself at some point. Hopefully. He had some in the jet.
Watching as Carol got hold of Cap and took him back to where Nat and Clint were holding their own against a large group of creatures on the ground, Tony turned his attention back to the sky.
Thank god Cap was okay. Tony would've died if he hadn't been.
Setting his focus on the remaining aliens surrounding the needle, they were taken care of rather quickly and he went to join the other heroes on the ground in order to assist with the beating back of that large group, who seemed fairly intent on attempting to overwhelm the heroes there.
"I was worried there for a sec, Cap," Tony said to the man as he touched down next to him, grinning under the mask.
Post by Natalia Romanova on Mar 1, 2016 6:11:46 GMT
As soon as her leg was free from the cable, Natalia resumed her defense of the Space Needle, both guns barking out with each tug of the trigger. She forced herself not to focus on her irritation with Clint for right now - maybe he hadn’t heard her tell him to his face that she didn’t need or want the cable. He was mostly deaf, and if his eyes were focused on aliens, he wouldn’t be able to read her lips. She doubted that was the case, but having the possibility there helped to quell her irritation so that she could resume working beside the man as seamlessly as they had during the first invasion.
The fight on the ground was considerably less smooth, at least where their working together was concerned. Natalia gave in to her rage and lost her sense of direction as she spun and kicked and slammed the shield into alien after alien. She vaguely knew that Clint was somewhere behind her and to the right, but still, she continued forward into the rush of Chitauri. Much like the Trijian soldiers, she intended to make every last alien pay for the damage dealt to Steve. At least the Trijians hadn’t managed to actually kill her friend, though. The Chitauri, however, no longer had any possibility at being offered the luxury of mercy.
An excited shout from behind caught Natalia’s attention, but she couldn’t make out the words over the sharp clang of a Chitauri glaive connecting with the shield as she brought it up to defend herself. Her ears were still ringing by the time the last Chitauri in the general vicinity dropped, but she wasted no time moving on to the next wave. Hopefully Clint followed. If not…
What the hell was that?!
Natalia’s eyes shot open as an SUV came tumbling from behind her, slamming into an aggressive Chitlian - and then the Chitauri behind it. Was Bruce here? She was certain he’d been sent elsewhere with Thor, but… Ramming the shield into the neck of a Chitauri, she quickly yanked it back and spun just in time to defend herself against another’s attack. Once that one had been dispatched, she turned to glance in the direction the SUV had come from and found Carol standing there. Not Bruce. That was somewhat unfortunate. His other half was decidedly effective against the hordes. Still, the Major had proven herself more than a little handy during this invasion thus far.
The arrival of Tony on the scene drew Natalia’s attention next, and she finally realized what they must be doing. With Steve’s death, the team needed to regroup. Swiping at her tear-stained cheek with the back of her free hand, she hopped down from a piece of upturned rubble and trotted back towards the others. What she saw there, she almost couldn’t believe. Steve. He was still alive!
It took every ounce of discipline in her body not to hurl herself at the man in a tiny, Russian bear hug. Instead, she slid towards the side Tony wasn’t currently standing on and shrugged her arm out of the shield straps. “You really shouldn’t leave your favorite toy laying around, Rogers,” she chided, her voice surprisingly calm despite the circumstances. “Never know what kind of monster will pick it up.”
Nat in anger was a site beautiful and devastating and frightening to behold, and Clint could see parts of that ease away as soon as she caught sight of the man in question. The rescue by the other parts of the team had gone quickly and smoothly and Clint really had no complaints about it. Steve was on the ground and they had more backup for the increasing waves of monsters.
Shooting the man a smile, he was still focused on the ground around them and the aliens that were still there. "You gave us a scare there, Cap." he said, forcing as much lightness into his voice as he could.
"Looks like we still have a bit of cleanup to do," he reminded the others as he fired off another arrow into a far-off group of them that managed to take out a couple when it exploded.
"So, what's our count on these things, anyway? Do we still have another Leviathan flying around?" He was pretty sure the airborne duo had taken out a few of them, but he'd thought there'd been mention of others. And there was still a veritable hoard of the Chitauri themselves left and their Chitlian friends.
Clint really wanted to be done with this whole alien invasion thing, though. What was it that made them a target, anyway? What was so special about this planet that it just had to be attacked by gods and titans? Didn't seem all that reasonable to him, really.
"I need to be higher again," he mentioned to the group, "Someone wanna give me a lift?" He pointed to a nearby vantage point that would put him in the center of things with a good view of the field for his attacks and the like. He was better from a distance. He could fight in close quarters, sure, but it was easier to be a ranged fighter when you had actual range.
The dead Chitauri in his arm was pulled back fairly tight against him, but still loose enough for him to pull it around and intercept whatever blasts were coming his way. And there were a lot of them, plus a few that were coming down, getting close. One walked in a semi-circle as wide as the narrow platform could afford, trying to keep his eyes trained on it while another climbed it over the side, ready to flank. Keeping that one in his peripherals, he faked focus on the bait, turned his gun and put a round into the head of the hook Chitlian.
Unfortunately, the bait must've seen what was coming. Lunging forward, he slashed out with a wicked blade. Pivoting his hips, Steve twisted in an attempt to intercept the attack with his meat shield since there wasn't time or room to dodge. Good news was, the meat shield intercepted most of what would have been a devastating slash. Bad news was that the tail end caught on a piece of plating, bounced up and kept going, slashing him across the wrist of his gun arm. And... something went. It wasn't just like he was recoiling from his nervous system being overloaded. The blade was too sharp for that, pain ended before it started, but his fingers just spread open and the gun was out of his hands before he even knew what he was doing.
Son of a bitch!
If that gun was out of his hands, he was done for. Shoving the meat shield into the Chitlian that attacked him, Steve scrambled in the brief pause to grab the gun. Except he couldn't pick it up. His fingers didn't want to move, and that meant snatching it up with his left hand. He'd had some practice shooting southpaw, but it looked like he was going to have to shape up. Grabbing up the dead Chitlian that had been on the two-prong attack, Steve resumed operation meatshield and went back on the defensive even as he felt his hand, wrist and arm getting slick with blood.
But the defensive didn't last long. Carol came in fast, and rose to the top of his personal list of favorite cavalry moments ever. Chitauri and Chitlian all around him started falling to the platform or just past as she made short work of every charlie in the vicinity. "Took you long enough, Danvers," Steve grinned with relief, tossing aside his Chitlian once the coast was clear. "Thought I'd have to take out a few dozen Chitlian on my own."
And there he was, being hoisted up by the underarms. He probably definitely preferred this position to being cradled like a bride. Namor did that one a few times back in the day, and he imagined it'd be a lot different with a woman considering where his head would be about level with... and okay, that was enough post-fight mind rambling for one day. "Thanks." He breathed a handful of seconds before he got set on the ground.
Immediately, Steve shrugged off his climbing harness, cut a section of cord off with a knife, and used that and the clip to form a belt to tourniquet off his forearm. The bleeding wasn't bad enough to suggest a nicked artery, but it was deep enough that more than a few veins had been clipped. Sadly, that meant he missed the SUV being flipped, but the sound of a car being lobbed around was pretty distinctive at this point.
"Guess that makes you a real boy, Stark." Steve quipped back, a little surprised to hear words of worry come out of the billionaire's mouth first. Had he slipped over into... what was that thing that Phil occasionally referenced? The Twilight Zone? "Don't think I'll be playing skeeball anytime soon," Steve pulled an alcoholic wipe from one of the pockets on his belt, clearing off most of the blood that had slicked over his hand. "But I can still fight. What's the situation? Wasn't able to pay much attention to comms up there."
And then Nat was there, getting the drop on him like he hadn't spent the last three years with her. But rather than say anything, she passed off the shield back his way. Guess he was gonna have that on the right forearm, for now. "Yes, ma'am. No more leaving behind the world's only supply of vibranium." Sliding the shield over his right forearm, just past the tourniquet, the veteran switched his gun to his left hand and looked ready to get back into the fray.
@capmarvel 1 WEEK 'TIL PHASE ONE'S OVER. THINK WE CAN SPEED WRAP IT?
