2012-08-17 - The Winter Sheathe

The SHIELD Dropshift blasted through the air, "Mission is against an Advanced Idea Mechanics facility. Idea is get in, blow some things up to get some attention, and create a hole for our intel team to hack their systems. Intel just identified it, so we'er not quite sure what the security will be, but it's AIM." Natasha quickly goes over the 'finer points' of 'land and shoot everything'.

"Got it." Land and shoot everything? She can handle that...and grenades are fun. And Zinda...brought grenades. True, the Bat might not approve, but she hasn't forgotten her combat pilot days. Not entirely, anyway.

Yes. Yes they are. The Dropship banks around, the two being launched in stealth parachutes once they're in the launch zone, and heading down towards the surface.

Okay. Hangar down there. And...the goons haven't noticed them yet. They will, but they haven't yet. The blonde forces herself to focus on the mission. Oracle...is both pleased and not pleased by her relationship with SHIELD. Neither trusts the other, after all. And she can't blame them...but sometimes, things have to be woven together, somehow.

The two make a landing in the open hangar. Somehow, not noticed yet. Natasha skims around the area, holding up three fingers to indicate a guard patrol going past. She scans about, not seeing any sign of technicians about the half dozen or so AIM craft undergoing maintenance.

Lady Blackhawk eyes. "Would be a waste of a good plane," she murmurs. "But...oh...ooh." Uh oh. She's seen something to blow up that's even better than the planes.

Long distance to Sawyer: Natasha snugs

Natasha glances over at Lady Blackhawk. Not knowing -what- the woman is planning, but knwoign that look on her face.. As the patrolling guards go by, Natasha goes to take them down with three quick blasts of her Widow's Bite at close range, the trio toppling, one only able to moan out, "Stings like hygiene.."

Lady Blackhawk is moving in a low crouch towards...the fuel tank right outside the hangar. Yeah. Seems she's decided that there's no sense making a *small* bang. Question is the best way to do it without singing her eyebrows.

Natasha whispers over to herself, "Bozemoi." Yeah, the blonde is going to fit in -just- fine with her. She goes to tug the trio of guards away, silencing their communicators and tying them up in an empty munitions box.

Long distance to Sawyer: Natasha snuggles.

In the distance another figure hidden at the tree line of the base lays hidden in a gilly suit. A sniper rifle before him as he watches the base. He watches as the shield team invades the base. He reaches to the transmitter at his throat. Then there are whispers of very quiet Russian. His voice never getting over a whisper.

Long distance to Sawyer: Natasha hugs

Aha...perfect. There are always leaks...leaks which can be lit and then a rapid retreat made. And jet fuel burns in a highly satisfying manner, the blonde fading back into the shadows. Waste of good fuel, mind. She'd RATHER be doing something else with it. And then...boom.


 * BOOM* The base rocks, the team inside unaware of the threat externally. As the explosion rips through the facility, AIM training kicks in. The commlines chatter, "EVERY MAN FOR HIMSELF!" "WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!" "RUN FOR YOUR LIVES"

Another goes on a moment later, "THE KILLOBOTS HAVE COME ONLINE!"

Further chattering is, "Prepare for your obsolescence and extermination, Meatbags. Fall before our mechanical superiority." The sound of laser guns chattering can be heard along the commlink. It seems the distraction.. Has been had.

The figure raises his rifle and there's a crack like thunder and a KIlllbot dies before it can shoot Natasha. Then the rifle trains on the Black Widow and a hair breath something stops the figure from firing. He then turns and fires at a shield agent taking off the officer's head with a sniper round.

Lady Blackhawk now moves over towards one of the jets. Hrm. It seems to still be intact, and somebody said something about killobots. For them? She'd rather have something bigger than a pistol. She rolls under it, incidentally dodging more fire. Let's see here. Oh, this is a nice machine. She's NOT blowing it up!

Natasha is ducking behind some munitions crates for cover then, and curses as the heads begin exploding. She doesn't have the range to return fire without exposing herself to the sniper, and she's pinned down where she's at. As she sees what Zinda is up to, heading towards the jets, she whispes again, "Boisemoi." Then pops up to fire quick bursts from her SMG's, popping up to fire three round bursts in the vicitinity of the shooter, ducking down, and yelling over the SHIELD commlink for units to take cover.

Long distance to Sawyer: Natasha snugs

The sniper is gone when Natasha fires. He'd already moved. If she can track him for a split second she would have sword she saw a male figure dressed in black heading towards the hanger. But almost as soon as she seen him, he's gone.

Long distance to Lady Blackhawk: Natasha grins.

Lady Blackhawk waits for her moment before climbing into the cockpit. Okay. Time to hotwire herself a jet plane. She's done it before...let's not mention *when*...but it's still going to take a few.

Natasha curses under her breath, and she speaks into the commlink "Enemy appears to be using some sort of stealth technology. Is confirmed weearing black, humanoid, figure appears male." She fires a quick pair of shots at the silhouette as it moves, missing before it vanished.

There's another explosion at the base deeper into the base almost as if somebody else had planted another boom there as a distraction. Natasha would get another flash of the man as he opened up with a HK M-5 on Lady Black Hawk and her fighter jet. His left hand dropping the donator and bring up a Sig Sauer and opening fire toward the Hunter killer droids. It was the Winter soldier.

Aha. There we go...and just in time to fire the jet's cannons right at that so-annoying drone. She doesn't yelll banzai. Out loud. Any telepaths in the area will hear it though. Loudly.

Natasha lets out a suppressed yelp as the heavy cannons of the jet kick in and fire. Natasha whips up, firing a pair of grenades off from her low slung belt as well at the firing Winter Soldier, then spraying with her own SMG's as fast as seh can get off shots, intent on getting him in a crossfire with her mixed shrapnel and concussion grenades. Speaking to her commlink, "Confirmed sighting of the Winter Soldier. All units, on alert." Meanwhile, the infiltration team sends the confirmation deeper within the complex the download was completed, ahead of schedule. Natasha can be heard (less than yelling-thinking, but still thinking) musing on what Jessica said, that AIM tech has more backdoors than an escort service in DC.

The Winter soldier was no droid. Though he did have one robotic arm. As the whine of the guns start up he moves to duck behind cover. As the mini guns start to chew the cover to shreds. A small orb goes flying toward LBH's fighter. A cooked grenade.

Sadly...a jet on the ground can't really dodge. Lady Blackhawk bails, rolling away from the plane right before the grenade hits. Okay. She's going to hurt him for THAT if she can get her hands on him. Waste of a perfectly good plane...and she didn't even get to FLY it!

As the plane goes 'boom', the Winter Soldier, who's right in range of it to be able to toss the grenade, should be hopefully stunned by the explosion and the shockwave.. Which is when Nat pops up, and fires both of her Widow's Bites from medium range at cover at the center mass of his torso!

The shockwave sends Winter soldier tossing and turning and rolls him up. He comes up on his feet as quickly as he can. His robotic arm moving faster than a normal man's should it intercepts the stings. He grimaces in pain from the voltage but the arm takes the blunt of the attack. He raises his gun and fires at Natasha but pulls at the last moment. Then he frowns and asks in Russian, "Who are you!"

Lady Blackhawk is also thrown away by the shockwave. She lands in a heap of legs to one side of the hangar and oofs, trying to get up as quickly as she can.

Natasha keeps her Widow's Bite aimed over at the man, responding in Russian to him, "I am the Black Widow. How do you know me?" She keeps her weapons aimed at him cautiously, keeping him centered in them, and to the side where if he goes to draw a weapon again, she can get to cover.. And hopefully, give Zinda an opening if the Winter Soldier makes a move to hit him wtih a concussion grenade. "Stand down. WE can help you."

The confusion doesn't last long as the Winter Soldier doesn't answer. He's already on the move crossing the distance between him and Natasha. He's firing his pistol at Natasha, though it seems he trying to target wrist braclets. Zinda would get one shot at this. Whoever he was this guy was quick, ruthless, and highly trained. He finally responds with a grunt as he goes to knee Natasha in the stomach.

One shot...and she takes it. If she happens to get Natasha with the edge of it, it's non-lethal...and not like she's never been hit by anything like that herself. Zinda seems to be...well, not ENJOYING it any more. Mad about the plane, that's right!

Her adversary is fast, deadly, and an insanely proficient hand to hand combatant, wtih one arm partially damaged and disabled. So is Natasha. Even still, her wrist launchers are disabled, the quick shots painfully twisting her wrists in the process. Her arms snap down, forming a downward twist to take the swung leg and try and turn it away from her gut, to twist it to the side, hold him partially in place as Zinda went for the pop top with the concussion grenade. Swinging her shoulder around if possible to smash him in the face.

The concussion grenade and Natasha's attack send the Winter soldier to the ground. He lays still and doesn't move, his eyes closed it looks like they knocked the assassin out.

Natasha grunts at Zinda, "Good job. Help me secure him!" Given how fast he's been in the past.. That means truss him up and take -everything- off him that could be a weapon. Given her wrists are smashed up.. Zinda will have to do most of the securing!

Lady Blackhawk is moving to help with that. "You hurt?" She doesn't ask if Natasha's okay. She probably isn't, after that...Zinda's rather bruised up herself, although still moving relatively freely. Gothamites.

Natasha grunts, "I'll live. He'll be up again in seconds if we're not lucky.." Her wrists feel like someone smashed them wtih a sledgehammer, but htey'll heal pu in time.

Rumble lays there not moving other than the rise and fall of his chest.

Lady Blackhawk narrows her eyes, moving to try and secure the prisoner. She's wary, though...she may not trust Natasha about everything, but she DOES trust her when she says this guy's dangerous.

Natasha moves over in pain, going to try and take on a small plastic stick a cell scraping of the side of his mouth, "His body's probably booby trapped, the same with his equipment." She's got no clue, but better safe than sorry.

As Natasha moves closers, the soldier's hand moves to his side ot a pouch and retrieves a bomb. But unlike the other ones this one is a pepper spray bomb for crowd control. He hists the button and atomized pepper spray fills the area." The soldir turning his head at the last moment to and bitting down on the dna sampler taking it with him. He struggles to his feet. Then with his good hand reaches up and forces his own red and burned eyes open and takes off at a run to escape.

“Ack!” Military grade pepper spray was not what she was expecting. A punch in the face, sure. Not a pepper spray grenade. She ends up on her butt, a bit away, clutching at her eyes. Arrrrrgh. If she catches up with him, she's going to make him pay for that. And the plane.

Natasha is sent sprawling by the pepper blast. At point blank range, while she has a strong resistance to toxins, even she can't take military grade spray. Natahsa falls flat on her ass, clawing at her face, making a wild, and probably totally useless flail to try and kick out the bac kof her adversary's leg as she stumbled on teh ground, barely avoiding tearing her face off!

The shield agents would find the Winter soldier's 'camp.' But he would leave no signs on who he was working for or why he was here. They would find news reports a car highjacked about 10 miles away. The drive left knocked out but otherwise fine on the side of the road. Before the care was abandoned again."

They're left with a technically successful mission. THe infiltration team got the data, the entire base is a total loss for AIM. It seems that the Winter SOldier, whaever he was doing, had to abort his own mission. But still.. Multiple agents dead or injured, and again they have no useful dat ato show for it. And so, braced on Zinda as the duo go out, Natasha can only shake her head, "YOu were excellent. Truly a professional in the field." She'll be sure and note in her report.