| DC/Marvel: Age of Infinite Heroes | ||||||||||
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Chicago, Chicago, that toddlin' town. Weasel-face's information led to an old apartment building supposedly under renovation in the Boystown district.
Who would put a damned secret lab base in Boystown? Really? What were they thinking?
The exterior of the building looks as one expects an apartment building that's under some heavy-duty changes: half of it is covered with some sort of tarp and plastic, the other is chunks of exposed brick and piping from where the exterior looks like it may be refinished soon.
There's a front entrance and a back entrance, but if Weasel-face's intel is even halfway right, they probably aren't the only ways in and out, and the place is probably wired, guarded, and otherwise a pain in the ass to get into and out of.
Isn't that nice?
Enter one Captain America (II). Grim. Angry. And, not someone you want to cross. Not today. There's a gun, holstered on one side of his belt. A knife on the other. And, of course, the shield. Cap's shield. Now, his shield. And, his expertise in infiltration is currently being utilized, as he studies the buildings, looking for one of those alternative points of entry. "We need to at least get in without them knowing. And move quickly, once in," he instructs the other two. "Once they're breached, they will likely try to purge any and all information, or any evidence." And by evidence, he may just mean Natasha.
Hawkeye crouches next to Cap II, bow in one hand binoculars in the other. He scans the building then looks to Cap. "The getting in quietly part sounds like a job for Wasp," he says turning his gaze in the chairwoman's direction. "Figure you can get in and disable some alarms?"
A hand brushes aside a wisp of auburn hair as Jan looks over the building as well, her eyes flitting over various nooks and crannies for possible access points that the other two may not necessarily think of. The answer for Hawkeye is given with a firm voice. "I can get in. That shouldn't be a problem." From the way Jan's jaw is set, she is none too happy. "You two pick a point where you want to come in at. I should be able get the entry point cleared to get you inside."
"Without knowing how they're setup inside? I'd say rooftop. That's our best bet, and likely least watched area. People don't expect incursions from mostly inaccessible areas, on general principle," states James, matter-of-factly to the other two Avengers. "You disable their security. Hawkeye will get us up to the roof. I imagine he's got a grapple arrow, or a hook-and-line arrow that we can get across on. Or up by." He looks to Clint for confirmation.
Hawkeye puts the binoculars away and produces a grapple arrow. "Got us covered," he says. "Get us a way in from the roof, Wasp and we'll meet you there in a minute." Then he heads off get into a position to fire off the arrow and make the trek to the building's roof.
Now you see Jan...now you don't. The black and gold-clad Wasp drops her size nearly instantly, adopting her usual half-inch height as translucent wings emerge from her back. Without a word, she takes off...heading up towards the roof to scout. She is soon blended in the background, a insignificant speck darting like an insect to a central point just above the roof.
A quick survey proofs James right. There isn't much in the way of security upon the roof. Just a couple of cameras that actually point downward and a single door for rooftop access, a camera situated right over the door. The door is a solid metal door, but the air vent located on the side of the roof access isn't. It is through this vent that the diminutive Wasp flies through. The tell-tale sign of an alarm is easily visible, the wires connected to the upper corner. A quick tug takes out that alarm, as well as a light power surge to take out the camera above the door.
A few moments later, Jan returns from her little excursion to Hawkeye, opting to not use her commlink. She settles down on his shoulder, murmuring softly in his ear. "Aim for that roof access door, just to the left of the far corner. The only cameras working are not pointing at that door."
As Clint fires off the arrow, the 'new' Captain America nods. "Good work." And then he's following Clint on the line, moving to the rooftop. And, once upon the roof, he moves over to the door, and begins to pick the lock, rather than smash it open. It is, afterall, right now at the very least, all about stealth. The quieter, the better. As the lock gives way, James looks towards Wasp, then to Clint. "We stay quiet, until we're discovered. Then, do whatever you have to do to keep them from purging their information, or anything else."
Clint adds his own nod to Wasp "Right," he says and gets an arrow out when they reach the roof. The access door she pointed out is treated to a quick tap of an acid arrow that melts silently through the lock despite leaving an acrid scent behind. He draws a new arrow, a Taser one, and then pushes open the door "Ladies first," he says to Wasp letting her take point.
Stairs greet the Avengers-- a long winding stairwell, dimly lit, going down far enough that it seems to fade into the blackness. Except...
There's a light in the distance below, as if a single bulb lights a single landing many, many stories down.
"How sweet..." There is a little play in that voice, just enough to break the tension as Jan takes flight from Clint's shoulder. She hovers in the middle of the stairwell, so that she can get a 360 degree view. "I'll keep an eye for surveillance. As it is, looks like the upper floors don't get much use at all."
James' eyes are alert, though. The man is keyed up, and ready for -anything-, the way that very few people in the world can be. He moves to follow Janet down the stairwell, every fiber of his being expecting, waiting for some measure of resistance. Or, some alarm to go off. Some visual clue, beyond that one lone light or some sound, some smell. Something. But, he treks down the winding stairway, slowly, letting the distance DPS guy take the back, and the scout take the frontline.
"...I'm on my way to check it out," a female voice says as a door opens a couple flights down from where they are. "Yeah, yeah, yeah."
Hawkeye stops when he hears the voice. It was familiar. He frowns and shifts forward so he's only a little bit behind Cap. "Don't know who it is, but I know that voice," he whispers.
There is a glance cast over towards the two on the stairwell. Jan catches James' eye, and indicates silently that she is going to drop down to take a look. She really doesn't wait for a response, but Jan seems to know what she is doing. The tiny form drips down, just low enough to scope out the open door and the owner of the female voice, then zips back up, mimicking her namesake as much as possible.
"Damn things short out every other week," the voice mutters, rough but feminine with a slight southern twang. She's blonde, with a catsuit of black and white hugging her curves, a pair of escrima sticks tucked into her belt. She moves up the stairwell-- in a few moments she'll be within site of Cap and Hawkeye.-
"Taser," responds James, back to Hawkeye, pointing at the ascending female figure. It's the quickest way, presumably, for them to take her down. He could, of course, but up close and in this manner of approach he'd have to utilize to do so? She could sound a warning.
Clint sees the woman and swallows. "Birdie," he breathes surprised to see her here. He doesn't fire. "This place might be SHIELD," he warns as the woman gets closer. "Let me talk to her." He starts to move around Cap to go do just that.
Jan's voice whispers in between James and Clint. "We just broke in and you want to go talk?" She isn't going to stop Clint....but she is drifting to the left to take up a flanking position. She isn't going to take any chances.
"Well-- hello there, boys," Bobbi says, dropping a hand to her hip and regarding Clint and... his friend? In Captain America's costume... kinda? "Hawk, were you up on the roof breakin' things again, darlin'?" A faintly amused grin pulls at the woman's lips. "Didn't have to break things if you wanted to see me again-- could have just called."
That hand on her hip is right next to her escrima. Just in case.
James isn't trusting her, either. The man eyes Bobbi with about as much trust as one might have with a rabid pitbull. "Ask her. Before I do." No. He's not been in a good mood, this entire trip. Not at all. And this wrench in the works is not helping his disposition, any. And he's not a fan of Clint talking to the proverbial enemy. But, since Natasha trusts the guy - and since he's got a decent collection of westerns, James is willing to extend him the chance to get this done without bloodshed.
Clint lowers his bow, but he doesn't take the arrow off the string. "Hey Bobbi, you know me, full of surprises. Anyhow, we heard Nat was here, came to pay her a visit, think you can show us the way for old times?"
"Mm." Bobbi tsks. "You want to see the facility?" she asks. "Gonna need some clearances..." she teases with a slight lilt.
She doesn't move towards them. But she's also not moving to show them anything.
The dimly lit hallway does well to keep Jan in the shadows. As does the fact that she is rather tiny. As she observes the exchange, something strikes Jan as odd. On a hunch, she drops down to the lower levels, where Bobbi came from, while she risks the commlink, tapping it on so both James and Clint can hear her. "She's waiting for backup. Only reason she hasn't done anything yet. Be ready..."
Escrima sticks are not a match for a gun. And James isn't playing games. He's pointing it at Bobbi's skull. "This," he states, firmly, "Is my clearance. We want to see Natasha. Now."
Captain America really should think twice before he asks for things in such a manner. He really should.
Because that gun is kicked from his hand by a swinging very feminine body clad in black-- exactly who he asked to see. Lithe. Svelte. She disattaches her line from the ceiling as she lands on the landing near Bobbi.
"That," she says with a chilled tone to Bobbi, "is /not/ Cap."
"No," Bobbi replies. "Someone killed the old one. Terrible, isn't it? Still, he'll do /nicely/, mm?"
The dim light had obscured him from seeing the black-clad woman up in the ceiling. But, he doesn't allow the moment, the thought to distract him. Just because he's lost his gun hardly means he's thrown off his game. And in that instant, the shield that once belonged to Captain America is thrown with a cybernetic arm's full force towards the lithe black figure whose decided to tag along for the ride. Captain America (II) might not be Steve - but he can still fight. And give orders. "Take them down."
"Well that tears it, they're clones," Clint says when Nat lands in front of them. "Or Skrulls," there's a growl with that word and then Clint flings himself at Bobbi he throws a combo of moves Bobbi should be familiar with, ones she taught him, but changes up the end to drive a kick up hard at her face.
The darkness has hid the tiny Wasp well. However, upon James' orders, lances of yellow light streak out from behind both the evil doppelgangers. A pair of bioelectric stinger blasts...one for each of them. "Well...damn. Here my bet was rogue LMD's."
A green form shimmers in front of the two women, catching Wasp's blasts with a grunt and then throwing a mental shield up to protect the two... more stealth oriented types. Clint would have seen him before-- he and Arsenal took down the Martian Manhunter once.
Mockingbird dodges and slams back with her escrima, though Clint's changeup at the end catches her off-guard and she takes a solid hit to the face. Streaming blood from her nose, she backs up, heeding the Manhunter's telepathed order to retreat, with Widow.
A man in green slams the door by Captain America open, throwing his weight behind it to throw off James's throw. He is... minimally successful. He lifts a ringed hand and focuses, but to no avail.
"Damn, he's /useless/," Mockingbird snorts as she and Widow disappear into a dark corridor.
As the shield ricochets off the wall, James catches himself and stabilizes, catching the shield on the bounce-back as he'd intended to do - just off Natasha's body instead. He uses the shield's thrown momentum, and the strength of his cybernetic arm to attempt to slam the shield into Hal Jordan's face. And in a smooth motion, his other hand is extracting the knife from his belt, following up the shield attack with a slash of the knife that's intended to kill. No play. No taking prisoners.
Clint flinches when he sees Bobbi's bleeding. "Head in the game Barton," he chastises himself, but then the Green guy from Madripoor is there along with the guy with the ring like Kyle's. He grabs a flare arrow and it off at Manhunter. "Green boy is vulnerable to fire!" he shouts to the others.
The appearance of the green figure does give Jan a surprise. Him taking both blasts with little more than a grunt? Definitely more of a surprise. "Well, that's new."
Jan makes a split decision. She doesn't have fire and just watched Mr. Green take two of her best shots. So....she goes after the pseudo Lantern. The flight is quick and direct. There is a black streak as Jan zips around, behind the fake Lantern, then darts down, towards the back of the knees. Blasts of electricity target the joints and...for good measure, the tiny form zips in to throw a hard punch right at the back of the right knee.
Hal Jordan drops. Gurgling. With a knife in his throat and a shattered knee. Martian Manhunter deflects the arrow with his shielding, and sends a mental call out as Hal falls, though uncaringly.
"Fallbackwehavesupporthere!" a voice that may be familiar to Wasp and Hawkeye, at least, echoes in the stairwell. "FuckleaveLanternhe'suseless."
James extracts the knife, not even phased by the fact he just left Hal Jordan's neck open like a pez dispenser. The voice unfamiliar to him, he nevertheless gets information on it. And, from those foes they've faced, so far. "We need to move. The longer we linger, the more support they draw. They have obviously had time and resources to build a clone base of some of the best."
The man in the Captain America suit pauses only to pick up his gun, sheathe the bloodied knife and moves to the forefront. And he's moving down the tunnel, where the voice came from. And where Natasha, and Bobbi disappeared.
Clint grabs an arrow from his quiver and ejects the head, then slaps a new one on before he fires at Martian Manhunter the shot is wide, that's how he aimed it to keep the martian from blocking it. When it's past, the arrow's course will impossibly start to curve and come back around to attack the Martian from behind. Boomerang arrow for the win!
Jan is a bit taken aback. It...isn't every day you watch a person die. And, even though it is shocking to her, she is snapped back to reality as she hears James speak. After all, he is right. They need to move quickly. They need to move now.
Jan's voice is heard over the right shoulder of Cap, no longer holding any of the snark and mocking tone. Only cool and flat. "They have to use the stairs. I don't. I can flank your position."
As Captain America strides into the hallway, a blast of energy barrels down it at him. The light from the blast reveals a scarlet-clad woman with long, curly auburn hair held back from her face with a leather partial mask.
A blur of silver and green shoots down behind the blast, fist reared back to deck the man in the Captain America suit in the face.
The boomerang arrow curves around and hits J'onn in the back. He's durable. But he's not durable enough for the…
"Tick tick boom," Hawkeye mutters under his breath.
And the boom. Fire and explosions and the Martian Manhunter is down. And not moving again.
Captain America (II) hunkers down, the shield planted in front of himself to weather the blast of energy, and keep his team from taking it. To Wasp, "Take the woman out. Fast. Do not hold back. Or we'll be cryo'd, and cloned. And replaced." His voice is grim. Fierce. And, while Martian Manhunter is down, and out, and on fire? Bucky lowers his gun to the alien's head, and puts two bullets in it. Just to make sure. Clean, efficient. Soldier.
And he's moving again, racing, down the hall, likely just behind Wasp to draw fire, and take attention away from her attack.
Clint hops the burning corpse and follows Cap and Wasp. As soon as he's out the door an arrow is on the string and he is watching their back. Nat and Bobbi were out here somewhere and they didn't play fair.
"Wanda..." The solitary word hangs in the air, the tone in Jan's voice a mixture of amazement and reservation. Yes...Jan knows that face well. It takes only a second, though, before Jan acts, and she takes action silently.
The flying form darts forward, the body almost a blur as Jan pours on the speed. She dips down, about an inch from the steps until she is nearly upon the faux Wanda, then suddenly pulls upward, swarming the red-clad form. The stairwell is glowing with the light show that Janet puts on, each bioelectrical blast aimed at a joint. Knees, elbows, shoulders...all are targeted quickly and with as much force as she can muster.
"Wanda! NO!" Pietro roars as his 'twin' is shot up by Wasp. His speed had made him a blur, and that blur meets Captain America II head on, driving his fist at the man's face as Wanda crumples-- though not before releasing another pair of blasts at the diminutive Wasp.
And the smash of something in the wall behind Wanda, and the tell-tale clang and hiss of a waterpipe being broken. "Holding position, Mockingbird," a young man's voice states coolly. A literal wall of water slams down in the hallway between him and the Avengers. "Awaiting further orders. Manhunter and Lantern are down. Quicksilver is still with us. Unsure about the Witch."
Captain America (II)'s jaw rocks as Pietro speed-blazes and nails him. Then his cybernetic arm is swinging 'round, and -- well, perhaps to the surprise of Bobbi-Clone and Natasha-Clone, and any others shows he is very much not Steve Rogers. A blast of electric-blue light erupts from his palm, the gun no longer in his hand, having been re-holstered. "Hawkeye, deal with the water."
"On it," Clint says turning. He draws a trio of putty arrows from his quiver and fires them all at once in a smooth motion. The resulting blast of tar like goop should plug up the pipe long enough for them to pass.
The two blasts from the Witch fly at Jan. She does an impressive job of avoiding one, but the second clips her left wing, causing the woman to gasp sharply in pain. The Wasp is decidedly less agile in the air now, but manages to land on the stairwell, increasing her size to that of about 4 foot. Her wings are still visible, and it looks like the left one has a chunk out of the tip. "Damn it...gonna have to do this the hard way." She is not happy at all.
There's still enough water in the hall to play with, and the young man, perhaps a couple years older than Adam, behind the wall of water simply shrugs, before a section of the wall becomes a vaguely fist-shaped object and slams itself towards Hawkeye.
Quicksilver dodges the blast, but instead of swinging back, the speedster blurs back to his sister's side, slamming into Wasp on the way before scooping up the prone (dead? unconscious?) form of Wanda and zipping back behind the wall of water, which parts just long enough to let him through.
Mexican standoff. For now.
Clint borrows a move from Adam's repertoire, and he half runs, half jumps up the wall, flipping at the top of his climb, to avoid the water fist. As he comes back down again he draws and fires, this time it's an explosive arrow aimed at the kid controlling the water.
James eyes the water 'demon', whomever that might be he's unsure of. And, trusting Hawkeye to take care of himself, he switches the shield into his organic arm, and begins to slam the tiled floor, once, twice, three times with a full force of two tons of sheer exerted force, smashing through the floor, and making a hole large enough for his body to fit through. Afterall - if he can fit, so can either of his teammates. "Down," he announces, to the team he's - sort of taken over leadership for, without really intending to. There's not even a glance to the Waterboy as he slides down the hole, landing onto the floor below.
The slam from Pietro doesn't do Jan any favors, but at least it was just one. It could have been worse. It is enough to knock Jan off balance and she is unable to send a shot down after the speedster and his sister. The wall of water poses another problem, though...for the moment. She takes a step back, just in time to catch Clint in the middle of his parkour best.
"Captain America is dropping down one level," the young man comments into whatever communications device he is using. The water wall hardens as the arrow hits, exploding a portion of it into steam, but it is quickly rebuilt with the remaining water from the floor. "Witch is down." A pause. "Understood," and he steps back into the further darkness of the hallway after Pietro, his wall still holding.
"Huh," Clint says as the arrow hits the wall of water. He doesn't pause though, he's already moving for the hole James made, and he dives down to wherever it is below them and then nods at the roof. "Get clear," he warns James as he fires a couple arrows into the floor above them and then presses a button on his wrist. The arrows should explode under Tempest's feet. Hole downward. No problem for Jan. She easily drops through the exit that James had created, her smaller than usual frame allowing her access with plenty of room to spare. She lands lightly and is already backing away from the detonation site, her eyes firmly affixed to the roof, just to see what falls out.
Captain America (II) lands, surveys the area and then is moving, after he scans the area. After Hawkeye drops down, and lands those arrows, he's pressing himself against the wall, crouched, shield up to protect himself as the debris falls. And, he already has a good sense of the layout of the building, telling Hawkeye, and Wasp as she joins, "They're regrouping. Fast. This way."
The thing about apartment buildings, even abandoned ones? Every floor is the same. And once you've been on one floor, you've been on them all. It works both for, and against them.
Clint glances up at the whole he blew in the ceiling, then moves on following Cap II. As he runs he does a mental inventory of his arrows, he still had some good ones left but he needed to be careful if this was going to get messier he'd want to save a few for the way out.
There isn't any word from Janet as Cap tells the group to move. She simply does. As she takes off, her height visibly changes, shifting above the 5 foot mark to her usual 5'4". The wings retract...she isn't going to need them in these close quarters, not at the moment.
Captain America (II) slams the door to the stairwell open - there's no need for stealth. They know which floor the Avengers are on, and likely where they're at. Speed, moreso than guile and evasion, is needed. And easily, he hurdles the stairwell dropping down to the floor below, and slams that door open again. One thing he is, unfortunately, unaware of is just where their operations are taking place. He tells his team, "They're likely to have their base of operations in the basement, or sub-level if this building even has one. But if we can keep them spread thin, we have a better chance of taking them out, and getting out of here with Natalie."
You want to go down?
A loud, high pitched noise comes from the floor below Cap, and the floor beneath him crumbles to dust.
Clint follows Cap into the stairs. "Sounds like-" then the floor gives way. "Crap!" he fires a grapple arrow up into the stairs above them and swings out to try and grab Cap and Janet with his free hand and legs.
As Clint swings out to attempt to snag James, it seems that Janet has had quite enough, and has another idea. As the floor falls away, and hearing that the voice came from beneath them, Janet doesn't take Clint's hand. Instead, she grows, sending down a pair of now rather large feet right into the crumbling floor and down to the floor below. It might hurt her, but she's betting the voice below is not counting on being stomped on, either.
As James falls, he grabs Clint's hand, and utilizes the momentum of the swing coupled with his own weight to propel him towards the wall. And, he uses the wall then as a launching pad, letting go of Clint's hand in that instant. And, he's launching himself towards one of the individuals down below, full on fast and furious, throwing the shield -behind- whomever is below with the intent of having it bank off the back wall and slam into the back of their heads. And as he lands, he's already moving to upend the nearest body with a dangerous leg-sweep.
Wasp's stomp crashes through the floor, but strangely, those below were ready for it.
But two of them had fought with her before. Widow has a gun lifted, raised and firing a tranquilizer dart as soon as Cap falls through the floor. Canary chuckles as the foot slams down a few feet from her, and lets loose another scream targeting the floor where the Wasp's other leg should be.
Quicksilver is rushing ahead towards Cap, and dodges the shield, laughing.
He stops abruptly as the shield rebounds and cracks the speedster solidly in the skull.
Mockingbird dodges the leg-sweep, barely, and alley-oops herself up, using Cap as a launching pad, towards her ex-husband, escrima sticks out and eyes flashing dangerously.
Clint drops down behind Cap and finds himself facing off with Bobbi. When she comes in with her sticks he sweeps his bow out knock them aside then throws a sidekick at her gut.
Dinah's scream rips through the floor and finds....nothing. Wasp's leg is simply not there. Nor is the foot that just stomped through. The moment that the Wasp's foot contacted with a hard surface, she shrinks, almost immediately dropping from the large form she was back to her fighting size of half inch tall. The wings are out, the left corner still chewed up...but Janet isn't flying. She is falling, with style. The moment she drops into the lower level, two bioelectrical blasts lash out, aimed directly for Canary's open mouth.
The tranquilizer hits -- but, instead of sinking into his chest where it -should- have gone on, the needle on the dart snaps and the dart falls uselessly to the floor. Stark's armor improvement is a far cry better than Cap's cloth suit. James rolls forward, grabbing his shield where it lays now amongst the rubble after hitting Pietro, and in the process pinning Pietro's body to the floor, snapping his neck in cold blood, and he's firing two gunshots off at Natasha from his pistol in the next breath.
Mockingbird deftly dodges the kick, smirking at Hawkeye. "Now I /know/ your heart wasn't in that one," she smirks, letting loose with both escrima and following up with a leg sweep.
Black Canary lets out another shriek, but this one is much less of a combat scream so much as it is one of agony from taking the bioelectric blasts pointblank to the mouth. She staggers backwards, holding her face.
Quicksilver isn't getting back up, and Widow throws herself to the side as Cap (II) fires at her, the first shot missing by millimeters, but the second hitting her in the shoulder. She curses in Russian, bringing her own gun to bear on the All-American hero again, pulling the trigger.
Hawkeye thumps down hard on his back when his legs are swept out from under him. Fortunately, when you're a regular guy in a not-so regular world, breakfalls are one of those things you get good at. He lands, rolls, and comes up with an arrow on a string, this one is a Taser arrow and he lets it go aimed at Bobbi's torso.
"Time to cut them off," states James, to the rest of his crew. And there's a sudden pulse that emininates from his left side. A huge EMP pulse, that spreads out about 20 feet from him; the Avengers comm links were already dead, anyways. But now? Now the remaining party are cut off from their companions, too. And can't communicate - or at least, that's the plan. He raises the shield up with that same arm, as soon as he sees the gun being raised.
"The other clone failed," Captain America (II) tells Natasha-Clone. "Just like you, she's no Super Solider. All of you - are flawed. Impaired. And, dead." His other hand is revealed in that moment, having hid under the confines of the shield, and the dagger is headed straight for the red-head's throat.
Mangled wing and all, Wasp doesn't so much as fly but glides towards the staggering Dinah. There is a wince of pain as the winged woman strains to keep her flight even, at least until she is close enough for a landing. The tiny form grows, the wings disappearing into Jan's shoulderblades as she lands in a combat stance. She does not tarry long, leaping forward towards the Canary, swinging forward with an edged chop towards Dinah's throat, in an attempt to knock the breath out of her and rob her of her voice.
This close? Bobbi isn't fast enough to dodge, and her eyes widen, and right as the taser hits her chest her voice softens for a second as she says, "Clint, no..."
If it isn't enough for a bit of emotional damage of Clint having to zot his ex-wife, the most dangerous man in the world puts a knife in the throat of the one woman he's ever loved. Natasha reaches up for her throat, feeling the blade there for a moment before dropping bonelessly to the ground.
And Jan? This may be the first person whose death she is directly responsible for, face-to-face. The already damaged Dinah is hit in the throat-- just right to crush her windpipe. Like Widow, she reaches up, though it takes her longer to collapse, slowly suffocating.
Clint gets to his feet and grabs a broadhead arrow out of his quiver. He doesn't put it to string however but wetting his lips he steps forward gripping it in one hand before he stabs it into her chest and leaves it there. He steps away, looking haunted and a little sick. "C'mon," he says turning so he's between Bobbi and the rest of the group hand rubbing over his face. "Alright, let's get this done."
Captain America's own eyes narrow, as he watches Natasha fall. He knows it wasn't her. But still ... he frowns, nods once to Clint. "Good job," he tells Wasp. Yep. Janet just got congratulated for slaughtering another human. Clone? Sure. But still a human. And he moves to follow Clint, leaving the dead bodies behind him without so much as another thought to their disposal. Or at least, by the way he moves, his features, that's what he's doing.
Jan's face pales, as she literally watches the life fade from the Canary. She turns away, as the figure crumples to the ground, and steps over towards both James and Clint. Her voice is hollow...soft and empty. "Let's go." That's all she says. She doesn't want to stay here.
James does stop near Natasha's form. Pauses, briefly. And, with a schooled, flat expression that betrays nothing, pulls out his knife. And sheathes it. And walks on.
Another floor down, and then another. But there's noise below, hurried, frantic noise.
The loud scraping of things being moved; heavy things.
That sound, Clint starts moving. They're moving the real versions. "C'mon guys, time to move!" he calls back as he runs.
Captain America (II) is moving, too. Fast. Eyes and mind alert, shield ready to go up at a moments notice, and ready for nearly anything - aware that at least one, Tempest, may still be around. And possibly others. There were, afterall, at -least- two Natasha clones, one still being alive (and heavily sedated courtesy of James) back at Avengers Mansion. There could be multiples of the others. But, time is of the essence. And so he runs.
Janet does not need to be told twice. She breaks out into a run, close on Clint's heels, heading for the way down. It is hard to tell what has her more motivated...running to free those below, or running away from the carnage she helped cause. Perhaps both.
The next floor is bright. Clean. Medical.
A few burly men are moving equipment-- scientific equipment. Computers. DNA records.
As Clint nears that new level he kicks in the door and fires off a flashbang arrow warning the rest of the team "Fire in the hole!" before the thing goes off. Once it does he slips into the room and charges the first set of guys he sees. He smacks one in the face with his bow, then spinning the weapon around snags a second guy in a choke hold. "Where are the freezer pods!" he shouts in the man's ear.
Bad cop. Worse cop. He and Clint have played this game before, or a much gentler, more original variation of it. And, very well. James doesn't hesitate. He aims the gun, and puts a bullet into one of the other goons brains. Shoots another's kneecap out. Turns, to the one that Hawkeye is questioning. "You have five seconds to answer. Or we look on our own." And, he raises the gun. He doesn't look like he's bluffing.
"I'd answer the man's question, if I was you. I am not feeling in the most gracious of moods." Jan's voice has that snark...but it is also angry. To cap her statement, an elbow is thrown into a charging goon's face, in a way that James and Clint both would recognize as being from Steve's playbook, then a spin as she drops the guy with a leg sweep. She doesn't even look down, keeping her blue eyes on Clint's captive as her foot stomps down, knocking her assailant out. "Answer quickly."
The man with the shot knee only wails and holds his knee. Hawkeye's captive's eyes widen, and involuntarily flit towards one of the hallways.
"Hawkeye, put him down. But leave him alive." It seems Captain America (II) is at least going to leave -some- survivors. To answer questions. His eyes sweep the area, making sure there are no other thugs around, before he moves towards the man with the shot knee. He steps on the knee. Then, leans over the man, and retrieves the comm unit from it. Puts it in his own ear. Never hurts to listen into enemy communications, afterall. Especially if they don't know. He points Clint, and Janet to the alluded to hallway, and then drives a fist into the victim's skull - not killing him, but bouncing his head off the floor to knock him out. Then, he's headed in the direction he previously pointed.
Those blue eyes follow, flickering over towards the hallway. Janet offers a smile, but it is only a thin smile and does nothing to lighten her mood. "Thank you. You have been most helpful." She turns towards the hallway, as James drives home his fist into the flunkie's head.
Multiple rooms with shut doors line the well-lit corridor. Three to a side.
Wait, one door is open. And within, a woman with blonde hair in a lab coat is thumping a syringe, bringing it to the side of a long metal-and-glass pod and injecting it into one of the tubes alongside.
Clint shifts his chokehold slightly and bears the man to the ground unconcious. Once that's done he grabs a putty arrowhead out of one of the pouches on his uniform and drops it on the guy, leaving him stuck to the floor. That done he lopes off after the others coming into the room behind them.
The knife flickers out of James' hand again. Only this time, it doesn't sink into anyone's neck. This time, it's aimed at the woman's hand, with the syringe, seeking to embed itself into her palm, before the full contents of the syringe can be injected. "Scatter," he tells Hawkeye, and Wasp. "They've gotten orders to kill everyone they've captured." That means the originals. Then, Captain America's (II) eyes level on the blonde woman. "Back away. Now," even as he's approaching her. "And no talking on the comms, unless I tell you to."
Only two rooms have pods, and a doctor in each-- one with a bleeding, sliced hand and the other doctor in the room across the way also working on terminating his patients.
The door to the room across the hall is kicked down with rather impressive force, ripping the door from the hinges and frame with a sickening crack. Behind, a 3 foot Wasp materializes from the cloud of flying shrapnel, a solitary blast of yellow piercing through the dust cloud towards the doctor. Janet isn't messing around...as the energy blast was specifically targetted for the head, provided the doctor is still standing after the door implosion.
The doctor crumples, the syringe still in the tube, half injected.
The blonde doctor had managed to inject hers almost completely before Cap had stuck her. Four pods in each room.
Clint follows Wasp into the room, arrow to string. The half-injected syringe gets shot out of the tube by the arrow and Clint rushes over to the tube to get whoever is inside out of it before it's too late.
James moves over to the pod. Initimately familiar with the technology - as it was his home for several decades, or one enough like it, he quickly purges the tank by slamming his cybernetic arm through the wall of the pod. Then, his fingers are typing on the controls, to begin the wake cycle. And only when the wake cycle is complete, does he look at whom is in the pod.
Without looking to the doctor, he tells her, "First, you're going to tell them that you are complete with your task. Then, you're going to make sure she's going to survive. And you might get out of here alive." He looks to Hawkeye, already recognizing the man knows Bobbi. "Check her vitals. And, keep an eye on the doctor. If you don't feel she's helping, or following direction, kill her." He may mean it. He may not. It's hard to tell.
Then he's moving to the next pod. Which just happens to be Natasha's. His expression hardens. And, instead of the emergency flush as he'd done with Bobbi's, this is the more 'natural', or regular process that should be followed. He drains the tube first, and then again begins the wake cycle, opening the cryo-tube, and gently pulling Natasha out. Holding her, in his arms, and slowly lowering her to the floor. Tender, the hand that just committed so many murders, as it strokes through wet hair. "Natalie."
The blonde doctor swallows, holding her hand to her chest oviously in a great deal of pain, but she nods, managing to steady her voice as she murmurs into the comms, "Done, pulling back from the facility now."
Bobbi begins coughing in her (broken) cryo pod, eyes fluttering open, slowly coming to awareness. A single hand lifts, forming a fist, weakly hitting the cover.
Janet jerks her head towards the other room with the cryo'ed girls, her eyes upon Clint. "Go on and check on her. I got the others in here." With that, she moves over towards the first pod for the men...the one that Clint ran to in order to try to save whoever resides within, to at least assist Clint or to flat out take over, so that the archer can tend to his ex. It isn't until Janet is absolutely sure that the green figure within will pull through before she moves on to the other pods.
There is a quiet look of thanks thrown Janet's way before Clint runs to Bobbi's pod. He pops the cover on the pod and reaches out a hand. "Relax, Bobbi, you're safe, I've got you," he says reaching out a hand for her.
The red-headed spy's eyes open, her expression groggy, as if coming out of a very deep sleep-- which she was. Her body tenses as the last few moments of her memory comes back to her, and then blue eyes focus.
"Cap?" That question is immediately followed by narrowed eyes-- the man holding her, the eyes behind the mask are brown, not Steve's blue. The jaw isn't right. the expression--
"Bozhe moi," she says, recognizing the man holding her now. And she pushes away from him, twisting to catch him with a solid kick, going into fight-or-flight-- or in her case, both-- mode.
"Clint?" Mockingbird's voice is cautious, and she coughs again, sitting up weakly. "Oh god. Clint, is it really you?" Her last few moments before being forced into unconsciousness were clear to her that she had been taken to a clone-making facility. "It's /you/, not some other you?" She regards him, as if she could tell for sure.
J'onn and the next one Janet awakens, Hal, both sit up from their pods. J'onn gives her a nod of grateful thanks, seeing the destruction.
Hal sighs. "...saved by a short, cute girl," he rubs his temples ruefully. "Could be worse, I guess."
"The one and only," Clint smiles easily and reaches out to grab Bobbi and help her out of the pod. "Not that they don't probably download memories into the clones or whatever, but ask me anything, whatever you like."
The kick lands into James' side; luckily the armor absorbs most of it. But Natasha -is- a super soldier. And damn good. He grunts, moving with the force of the blow, and he manages to snag her, push her back down. And, he says the same exact thing that she said to him, when she woke him up. Well. Her clone, anyways. "NYET, Natalie." Except his voice is calmer. More rational. And he's not fresh out of cryo-stasis, like she is. The waking up always sucked. "You're safe. And you're out. The clones are dead." And, holding her firmly, notes, "And I am not your adversary any longer. Or I wouldn't be here, with Hawkeye, and Wasp." Only then does he release her, after his hand again moves to her hair, to brush a few wet strands from her face. "Get your strength together."
Foolishly, then, perhaps, he rises. And, she's opportunity to take him down, as he turns his back to her. And moves to free Black Canary from her confines in the chamber as well. "Doctor," he says, menancingly, "You'd better hope that she makes it. Your survival depends on it."
Hal's comment actually ellicts a laugh from Janet as she moves on to the next pod...this one containing Tempest within. "Would you rather I was a tall average male? Because I am better." There's a little of the normal Jan there...the flirtateous Jan. She falls silent as she works the controls for the pod with Tempest, then looks back towards the other room, to see if Wanda is coming out of cryo-sleep yet before she goes to wakes Pietro. Because she knows what is going to happen if Wanda isn't conscious...
Widow only takes a moment to scan the room-- see Hawkeye with a freshly awoken Mockingbird, the... Winter Soldier... in an outfit similar to Steve's... with Steve's shield... opening another pod, where the woman inside begins to stir.
She looks at Hawkeye, and then at the Winter Soldier, her expression taut, cold, and questioning. No, demanding an answer. She's poised to spring on 'Cap' if Hawkeye so much as slightly indicates something is off.
Bobbi grabs Clint by the front of his costume and kisses him firmly, then lets go, grinning. "My knight in... purple armor," she quips. "You are a sight for sore eyes."
Tempest sits up, rubbing his temples and looking worn out. "Ugh. I think I might be sick," the young man says before leaning over the side of his pod and throwing up.
Hal glances over at him sympathetically. "I did something similar the first tiem I flew a plane," he offers. "If that's any consolation."
Not too many people have Cap's shield. Which may make things even more suspicious. Especially with all the clone-things going on. But after releasing Canary, James goes to do the same with Wanda. After making sure both women are going to make it through, he looks back to Natasha. "Your other clone is still at Avengers Mansion. She's sedated. Heavily." He doesn't mention the pregnancy. Yet. "Your - man - attempted to break into your apartment. Follow your orders. That's how we found you." He adds, quietly, in a tone she'd recognize that he used to use, so, so many years ago, "I'm glad we did." A wary eye still keeping to the Winter Soldier, Natasha glances at Hawkeye. "How long? When is it?" Her questions are asked professionally, business-like. Utterly her.
Wanda sits up, her first word entirely unsurprising. "Pietro?"
Clint is stunned for a second but he returns the kiss. Though, when he she breaks away from him he murmurs "Likewise Birdie, likewise," rubbing his lips. He notices Nat's look and gives her a small nod to say things were okay before he answers her question "End of April, 20XX," he replies to her.
The four cryopod for the men is tended to, as Janet walks through the procedure to wake up Pietro. She steps to the side, lifting her voice to call across the hallway to the other room. "All cryopods are opened or opening over here, guys. Once everyone gets their bearings, I suggest we get the hell out of here." Yes...that's Janet's voice calling out. That should get at least some of the newly awakened people's attention.
"Four. Maybe five months, at the very least," James answers Natasha, back. "Your clone led a mission against Red Skull, into the mine. Cap - Steve - was killed. SHIELD pulled me out. And Stark and Pym managed to - return me back to who I was." He doesn't share anything else. The rest? Is all personal. "We need to get SHIELD in here. Salvage the information in the computer room and the data. Clean up. And get the lot of you back to where you belong."
Widow looks taken aback for the briefest of moments. "...20XX? Nyet, it cannot have been so long." She mouths to herself, 'a year?'
Pietro awakens as well, just as he hears his sister call his name again, frantically. He zooms out of the pod to her.
Hal and J'onn both nod to Janet, Hal closing his eyes and moments later, a green ring appearing on his hand, his body suddenly clothing itself in a green bodysuit and a green domino mask appearing over his eyes. He nods again, zipping into the other room. "She's right. We need to get out of here, report back to the Justice League at once. Black Canary winces, climbing out of her pod. Green Lantern looks at her. "I'll carry you and Aqualad-- Martian Manhunter, you can manage on your own?"
The green-skinned alien nods in agreement. And the Green Lantern reaches out to grab Dinah's hand, and then Garth's, before the three fly out of the facility, J'onn close behind.
Bobbi watches with a slight smirk. "I'm guessin' you're not nearly as useful as that, Hawk," she pokes Hawkeye in the chest lightly before climbing out of her pod.
Natasha just stares at James in disbelief, but agrees for now.
Wanda and Pietro? Zoom out-- mostly because the brother is overly protective of his sister.