2014-01-07 - He's Not on Fire Anymore!

It is a chilly day in the Bronx near the water, and the streets are mostly clear of civilians. This is good, it seems, for the HYDRA squadron that is unloading themselves from a drill-nosed subterrenean vehicle in the middle of a blocked-off street.

"Zecure ze building!" the goon in the HYDRA-standard green armor that seems to be in charge of this fiasco-in-waiting declares. A handful of men tromp off to secure the alleyways on either side of this otherwise non-descript coffee shop (well, on the lowest floor its a coffee shop). The barista inside looks fearful, but tries to keep her customers calm as these international terrorist types surround the building methodically.

An underling salutes his leader. "Ze building is zecure!" he says. "Hail HYDRA!"

The leader looks around. "Ze area must be cleared and ze building prepared! Ze Zupreme HYDRA's plan counts on it!" He points to the building. "Every floor! Go! Hail HYDRA!"

A few more men begin climbing out of the hole to the secondary subway system, bringing up wooden crates and boxes.

This doesn't look good.

"Great," Clint says as he slams on the breaks. "HYDRA."

It was too good of a day for anything else to happen. He and Adam had gone out for breakfast (again), then had gone to grab a few things for the new place and were heading back when all of a sudden the drill thing bored out of the earth and HYDRA goons started piling out.

Clint throws the car in reverse and backs it into an alley while he says to Adam. "Got your stuff with you?" he asks, meaning his bow and so on. "Cause this is probably going to get messy."

Above, very much above, there is a black-and-white ... motorcycle. IN THE SKY. It looks remarkably like Hawkeye's own. And on it, a young girl in matching uniform to blend in with the color scheme of her rather wicked looking flying contraption. And, she begins to make a dive down towards the HYDRA camp. Yet, no lines or calls come in through the Avenger's comm units. HAIL AVENGER!

---

In the coffeehouse, Molly Hayes looks up from where she's sitting, having bought a big scone. It's sort of stuffed in her mouth. Niko had to go back to the Leapfrog and Molly had wanted to stay.

'Okay, just... just don't get into any trouble' and "mghghgh" with a nod was the response.

So of course 20 minutes later, she's in the middle of a terrorist attack.

"Of course," Adam replies flippantly, reaching into the backseat. He ignores the bow Clint had him practicing with-- he's a fair enough shot, but not entirely comfortable with the weapon yet, preferring to pull his hand crossbow out of the top of his backpack.

"All right, let's do this," the teen says, popping his door open and stepping out, boots on the icy alley ground. "Messy? Puh-lease, not-Dad," he snarks. "A handful of idiots who didn't catch that World War 2 ended and their side /lost/. How messy can it be?"

Three of the HYDRA goons make their way inside the coffee house, brandishing weapons at the people within. The rest, not quite noticing their impending doom yet, march around, still bringing up more boxes.

Finesse sees Clint and Adam entering in the building through the first floor. She guides the cycle around, doing a flip off of it as she parks in a spot that any crossfire out of the windows won't cause wreckage, and then she's moving full speed into the lobby, almost seeming reckless as she does so. Over the comm, she supplies, "I will draw their attention. Come in behind me, and take those that survive me down." As if she were Clint's senior. Regardless, she's certainly not waiting for the old man to keep speed with her, it'd seem.

Clint turns around in his seat and grabs his own bag with a bow and quiver of arrows. He gets the bow out clicking it open then slings the arrows over a shoulder. "Yeah, yeah, smart guy, these guys fight Cap most of the time they're not light weights," he gets out of the car and heads to the mouth of the alley watching the guys head into the coffees shop. "Okay, three are inside, and-" his comms buzz and he puts a hand to his ear. "Finesse, good to hear your voice, even if it is a bit bossy. Sure, take point on this, Adam and I will follow and clean up the mess."

"Met Finesse yet?" he asks Adam as he pulls out an arrow and gets ready to string it.

---

One of the nice workers tries to get Molly behind a counter, since she's a helpless little child after all. And they need to be protected. Molly tries protesting but she still has that scone shoved in her mouth, so it pretty much goes "mghgh! mghghg mgmghg!" with a lot of pointing at herself and hand gestures.

Molly sucks at Pantomime.

Finally she swallows the pastry that's in her mouth and runs out from behind the counter. "HEY! YOU GUYS BETTER GET OUT OF HERE BEFORE I - WHOOP?" she is interrupted as the barista again tries to 'protect' her by covering her mouth and pulling her back around the counter.

---

"Nah," Adam says, checking his crossbow.

"Yeah, but those goons outside are gona start shooting /into/ the coffee shop when you bust it in, risking the people inside--" he argues over his comm. He reaches back into the car, quickly snatching the bow and a quiver of regular arrows, which he flings over one shoulder hurridly. "Unless someone distracts the clowns outside. Guess that's me--" and before Clint can prevent it or say anything, Adam takes off running down the sidewalk, surprisingly agile on the icy sidewalks.

Until he begins skidding. Instead of fighting it, though, he just hunkers down some, barreling down in a skid towards the HYDRA cordon, grabbing an arrow from his back and nocking it.

"YOLO!!!!!!!!" he whoops, firing at one of the goons with a twang.

He misses, of course, but the arrow buries itself into one of the boxes behind the guy he was aiming at.

All hell breaks loose.

Weapons fire towards Adam on the outside of the building, and the three men inside towards Finesse. The barista hugs Molly close, trying to shush her and protect her from the flying bullets. The other patrons and any nearby civilians hit the ground, screaming in terror.

HYDRA. They all ... fight the same. Trained by the same people. Predictable. At least, to someone of Finesse's caliber. Before they even shoot, she knows where they'll be aiming. And, she isn't there. She uses a scatterburst zig-zag pattern to throw them off their game, and then she's not only disarming them, she's ... incapcitating them as well in smooth, flowing, perfect motions. Some limbs may be broken along the way. One question is pertinent in her mind, however. "YOLO? What attack manuever is that?"

Clint has to pry his hand off his face and pick up his arrow. "YOLO? Really?" he says as he grabs said arrow and sends it down range to knock a gun out of a guy's hand before he can shoot Adam in the back. "Watch your six," he shouts to his Not-Son. "And /this/ is a battle cry, AVENGERS ASSEMBLE!"

As he shouts he springs from cover knocking three explosive arrows to his bow and letting them fly at the bulk of the HYDRA goons not currently threatening the frappaccino lovers of the world. The arrows are aimed to explode in front of them of course, knock them on their asses and by Clint time to get across the street and set up a cross-fire with Adam. "It's about tradition Raptor, c'mon," he says still on about the battle-cry. "Can you explain that Jeanne?" he adds to the girl over comms.

---

Molly Hayes gets away from the protective, well-meaning barista. "It's okay I'm a..." And again, the barista tries to keep her behind the counter, making shushing noises.

Again she gets away from her. "Look I'm a-" And again, the woman's trying to get her back behind the counter, telling her she needs to be quiet and hide. Geez! It's so much easier to get away from people when you can punch them instead of when they're nice people trying to protect you!

Finally she gets out of the reach of the barista. The next thing the HYDRA agents inside see is a rather large cappachino machine hurtling at them with an excessive amount of force, and a 13 year old with glowing purple eyes where it was launched from. "I'm a superhero okay?"

The kid that could win the Clint Barton look-alike contest with Clint Barton competing laughs and whoops again, his feet finding traction as he springs into the group of HYDRA goons and parkours his way on top of the drill-vehicle. He draws and fires again. It's a sloppy shot, only winging one of the goons.

They fire back, at Clint, at Adam, and at Finesse. Two are clocked from the side by a flying cappachino maker.

No one expected /that/ one.

Finesse slides under a table, as the bullets fly, rolls into a smooth somersault, and one leg is streched out and swept, knocking one mug onto his back. In the same flowing motion she rolls over him, elbows him in the gut, grabs his gun from him, and shoots the gun out of the hands of another HYDRA goon who'd been pinning sights on Adam. "I fail to see how YOLO references a predatory bird's attack," Jeanne returns to Clint, flatly. She adds, almost as a sidenote, "Your sky cycle is fixed. I also managed to reverse engineer it, and have made my own. It handles very well and should be able to speed up my response time significantly."

It's then that she points out, unaware, perhaps, that Adam may be in on the comm talk -- then again, it is Jeanne, so it probably wouldn't matter much anyways. "Perhaps he should choose another weapon that he is useful with."

"Egh, will explain later Jeanie," Clint says about YOLO crouching down behind a car as HYDRA blasts the crap out of it trying to get to him. Fortunately for him, the two guys doing the blasting just got caffeinated by someone in the caf. "Jeanne you been working out?" he shouts as he stands up and starts running over top of the car he had been hiding behind a moment ago.

He fires, one, two, three arrows at some HYDRA goons taking out anyone who turns a gun at Adam. He's aiming for limbs and weapons only of course. "Raptor, get down from there," he shouts over comms and nearly facepalms again. Gawd that sounded parental.

He slides down the hood of the car and fires off one more arrow, an EMP one aimed for the drill-thing, it had to be bad so best to take it out right away.

---

Molly Hayes notices the other customers and workers inside are pretty much having their mouths open agape. Of course!

She shouldnt be destroying coffehouse property - that must be why! Molly runs out of the coffeehouse and looks around for something to throw that wouldnt belong to any innocent bystanders.

Maybe the big vehicle with the big drill on it that had come out of the ground.

So the next thing, Molly's running over to it to grab at it and lift it up.

"Hey!" Adam's voice snaps over the comm. "Gimme a break, I just started using this thing a couple weeks ago." And for only using a bow for two weeks, he's not half-bad with his aim. "And got it, /Dad/," he grouses over the comm.

...and then, "WHOA WHOA AHH!!!" as the drill he's perched up on like a bird of prey is lifted into the air. Bow forgotten, clattering to the ground, Raptor drops, scrabbling for a hand-hold on the vehicle before tumbling off into the hole in the street.

You think that /looked/ bad? I promise you, it felt worse. He lands on two HYDRA mooks with a heavy thud. "Oof."

HYDRA's reaction to the lifted drill is similar surprise though they train their weapons on the child lifting the vehicle, firing.

"When I was eight years old, I was in competitions where people shot better than that," Finesse informs Adam, mildly. "You should practice more." And, when he falls? Is there real concern for his health? Probably not. Her concern is more the guys firing at the small girl, able to lift large drills in a single bound. Or, whatever it is Molly's doing. To the HYDRA goons, "Bad choice." She shoots the gun still in her possession, this time not just aiming for the guns. But, the hands, as well. Neither man will be shooting for long. Or, for a long time even if HYDRA breaks them out. Then, she's dropping the gun, eyes scanning the room looking for the 'head' goon of this particular raid. Over the comm, she calls, "We need to find out why they are attacking. HYDRA does not randomly attack cafe's on whims. There is either technology here they desire, or they have brought it here as a focal point to launch an attack from."

Clint doesn't bother to track if the arrow hit or not, the thing starts to levitate, or so he thinks, and Adam falls. Clint rushes after his Not-Son, and when he reaches the edge of the hole he glances to see Molly is the cause of the flying drill-machine. "Hey Mols, can you cover me. Gotta get my kid," he says before he shoots a cable arrow into the ground and then jumps down after Adam. "Not now Jeanne, we can ask questions when we've kicked their asses."

Molly Hayes stands there holding up the drill machine over her head while guys fire bullets at her. She sees Raptor fall off it (and onto the two HYDRAs in the hole, she goes "Ooops!" - main;y because she didnt notice he was ON it in the first place. Chase was always saying she needed to pay more attention.

She starts yelling, "HEY STOP THAT! STOP DOING THAT!" referring to the shooting at her. She really didnt want her hat getting a hole in it! Then sees Finesse disable the men firing at her, "Thank you!"

When Hawkeye jumps in after Raptor, "Okay!" she responds.

And apparently Molly's idea of 'covering them' is to shake the drill machine overhead, then throw it at whatever HYDRA agents are nearest to her without holes in their hands.

"Uh, soooo..." Adam's voice comes over the comm from where he is hiding behind a small stack of boxes in the subway below, occasionally exchanging potshots with the HYDRA guys there using his crossbow.

/That/ weapon he hits his target every time.

"When you say 'launch an attack', would some glowy green... uh... thingie..." so technical. "...and it looks like something to shoot it with? maybe?... be what you're asking about?" His voice is strangely calm, more curious than anything else. He pokes a his head out, hitting another HYDRA guy in the shoulder with a bolt, then ducks back behind to reload. The firing and where the goons are shooting /should/ tell Clint his position, but, having seen him when he popped his head out, he says over comm, "Uh, behind the stack of box things." So helpful.

Another group of HYDRA guys storm down the subway tunnel at Clint and Adam's position. There's only a handful left topside after Finesse and Molly take care of theirs.

Finesse nods once to Molly; to her, perhaps, not so surprising that Molly is that strong and capable. But then, Finesse was when she was Molly's age as well in her own regard. So, she merely tells the girl, "Good work. If any more come in, throw objects at them as hard as you can." And, then she's chasing down the HYDRA agents dropping into the lower depths of the subway tunnel as fast as she can, trusting Molly to do the 'cleanup' apparently. Hey, the girl can throw huge drills around -- Finesse isn't too worried. Back on the comm unit, though? "Directions. Quickly. And a description of the device. It is likely powering up. I will need to disable it." She will comment on his lack of - helpfulness later. Because Jeanne is helpful, like that.

Molly Hayes nods smiling. "I can do that!" to Finesse's request.

So while Raptor and Hawkeye are downstairs, and Finesse has gone down to assist, they might be able to hear HYDRA agents yelling out orders, firing weapons ... and getting thrown and punched around, or trying to dodge when cars were thrown at them.

A cacophany of sounds of "OOOF!" "GAAAH!" "EVADE EVADE!" "FIRE FIRE!" "SHE'S OVER THE-AAAAAGH!"


 * POW* *CRASH* *WHAM!* And then one guy falling down the hole and hitting the ground with a thud, unconscious. Then Molly's head poking out over the edge of the hole opening. "Sorry!"

Then back to the other sounds as she goes back to fighting.

Clint drops down behind Adam and crouches down behind the boxes that Adam so carefully described. "Jeanne we're down in the hole the, there's some sort of launcher weapon down here, looks like they're trying to bring it top-side," he says. "Also, there's like a million HYDRA guy down here, so when you and Mols are done playing we could use a hand. See if you can't have Molly rip a new enterance and come in from behind."

He pauses to wave up at Molly when she sorries before he gets down to firing more arrows down the tunnels.

"Princess Punches up there sounds like she has it covered," Adam notes, taking another shot down the tunnel at the HYDRA guys, dropping another one. "Is it good that whatever this ball is, it's glowing? It looks totally cool. I think it would be killer at a dance party."

The last of the goons topside fall to Molly. Jeanne had dropped down just as Clint had asked her to consider it, and was already felling guys left and right on her way.

"See the stack of boxes over by the side?" Adam says over the comm, "Where Clint is shooting guys from behind?"

Molly Hayes's voice can be heard from the top of the hole, "Almost done!"


 * sound of crashing*

"AAGH I'M ON FIRE, I'M ON-"


 * SPLOOSH* (that's the sound of a fire hydrant being broken and the water dousing a HYDRA agent on fire)

Molly's voice: "He's not on fire anymore guys!"

"Northwest side of the building," prompts Jeanne, back to Adam. "Lower level. I see them." Out come the escrima sticks, now. And, she begins pummelling HYDRA agents with them on her way. There is no holding back, no attempt to disarm without injury; if bones get broken, they get broken. She moves fluidly, acrobatics on show in a mixture of martial arts and urgency to get to the position Adam had described. And since she'd already moved down, she can't take up Clint's strategy. As her escrima sticks 'kiss' the side of a helmeted head, and a leg-sweep with the opposite stick is employeed, she lands next to the 'green ball', to eye it, and consider it. She tells the two, "Cover me." While she studies it.

"Well I agree on the killer part," Clint says as he fires another arrow down the corridor, this one rips through a HYDRA agent's hand and sends his gun scattering on the tracks. Clint moves on to the next guy. When Jeanne appears beside him he nods. "We've got you," he promises then glances up at the hole as he reaches for his next arrow. "Thanks for the update!"

"On it," Adam nods grimly, firing at another HYDRA goon, then ducking back to reload. "I'm running low on bolts," he says to Clint, his trenchcoat sleeves rolled completely up. The arm-sheathes are nearly depleted.

THe weapon itself looks like a weapon meant to fire at a distance. Luckily it needs no disarming. But the glow and the packaging that /was/ around the green ball means it's highly likely that it may contain gamma radiation. No fun. HYDRA shouldn't be allowed to keep that.

"They were targetting something. Or someone. This is a weapon, long range. Using gamma radiation. It will need to be confinscated. But it is not ready to fire, yet," Jeanne discloses. She adds, a brief glance up at the hole, "The girl is capable."

The sound effects from the street level are getting fewer and fewer. Finally there's one last *THWAP* and Molly's voice, calling down the hole, "There's no more of those green stupid guys up here! Can I come down and help down there?"

Clint nods. "Yeah, got that much," he says to Jeanne. "Molly, come on down!" he shouts up to the kid agreeing with Jeanne's assessment.

He fires a bola arrow at one of the men, and it wraps around one of the green suited men bringing him to the ground. "Running low too," he says, because why else use the silly arrow.

The remaining HYDRA agents seem to be having second thoughts about things though, and letting loose with a covering burst of machinegun fire they begin to fall back.

Satisfied the weapon isn't a threat, Finesse turns around and begins chasing after the retreating agents. She calls into the comm, "Do not let any of them escape. It is imperative we find out what their target is. Otherwise they will try again, in another fashion that we may not be so lucky to catch."

Molly Hayes looks down at the hole, trying to figure how she should climb down there. "I need a jetpack." she says to herself. Then yells down there, "OKAY! WAIT MISSED SOME!"

There's some more sounds coming from the surface, that sounds mainly like something being broken out of concrete, then some sort of creaking sounds.

Then nothing.

Despite the best efforts, a few HYDRA goons get away. THey always have one or two that get away. But there are a couple of dozen laying around, defeated, in various stages of conciousness, when the authorities begin arriving to book them and take them away.

Adam rubs the back of his neck, sighing. "Well, all in a days work?"

Clint takes aim at the fleeing HYDRA agents, and manages to get one more before the last ones are out of sight down the tunnel. "We've got plenty of them to question here, Jeanne," he says. "And even if we catch them if HYDRA wants to do this again, they will, they've always got more men. It's sort of their thing." Then he pats his pockets. "You guys got a cellphone? I need to call this in to SHIELD. Also, Adam, can you go topside and check on Molly?"

When they eventually come back to the surface, they'll find Molly. She's sleeping on a bench. There are about 3 HYDRA agents who seem to have had a metal lamppost wrapped around them which had been ripped out of the concrete sidewalk, then plunged back into the sidewalk after they were wrapped in it.

Maybe she should have had coffee with that scone.

There's a short nod to Clint from Finesse. "I will call." And she depresses a button near her ear. Gotta love starkTech. And, after a quick relay, the call over the comm unit patches in with the local law enforcement; not that people hadn't already called, but she gives them specific details, including to contact SHIELD to contain the area, and confinscate the gamma-ray weapon. Then, she is heading up to the surface again, to meet Adam - officially, and the snoozing Molly.

Molly is sleeping on a bench amidst a lot of destruction and -

Editor's Note: Hello true believers! Stan Lee here. We'd like to describe the destuction of the aftermath of the sleeping tyke on the bench and the nameless horde of HYDRA agents, but words wouldn't do it justice. As a result, we present to you this picture of this aftermath of a battle in Beirut in the mid-1980s. Just add several dozen HYDRA agents in various states of unconsciousness. Thank you.

EXCELSIOR! -S

http://images.smh.com.au/2012/10/20/3730378/art-beirut3-620x349.jpg