| DC/Marvel: Age of Infinite Heroes | ||||||||||
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Editors Note: To see how this all got started check out: 2017-09-02 - Reassembled. Excelsior!
Exiting the elevator into the Avengers Quinjet hangar with Clint after asking him to contact a couple more trustworthy heroes to accompany them to South America, Tony waits while a black square shaped device that looks a lot like a shipping crate with windows attaches itself to the top of the jet before boarding the craft himself. "Clint, whomever you get, get their coordinates and let them know we'll pick them up along the way. Once everyone is on board, I'll let them know what we're up against. And it'll give me time to check the satellites over the area. Like I said before, I'm sure we're not the only ones aware of that element. It's imperative that we get there first." He sits down in the pilot's chair, which slides forwards so he can reach the controls better. Not long after that, the jet leaves the hangar.
Hawkeye makes his way into the Quinjet and drops off his gear bags, there would be time for those later. He grabs the co-pilot seat, straps in and gets out his ID he had some texting to do.
First up, Spider-woman: Yo Nancy. Time to Assemble, where are you?
Next up, Nightwing. It's a bit of a stretch but what the heck: Hey Rube. Avengers need a hand, you game?
Clint sends a couple of other messages as well and then waits to hear who gets back to them.
Nightwing texts back to Clint, "Sure, count me in." Oracle takes care of making the communications both possible and untracable. Nighting also text the address of a building in Bludhaven on ofhte taller ones and he will be there on the roof waiting, in shadows of course.
The text is met with a roll of her eyes and a chuckle. "Assemble my arse. Where do you think, Circus Boy? Office roof. Be up there in 5," Jessica Drew texts before tossing her phone to the bed and finishes putting on the Red-Widow suit. "Bloody thing is beautiful, but a pain to put on." With mask on she flies up to the roof for pickup.
"Hmm, got Nightwing and Spider-woman. Swing out over Brooklyn for SW and then we're heading to Bludhaven next," a smirk there. "Seriously, who named these places in the other world?"
With the speed of the Quinjet, Tony arrives at Jessica's building first to pick her up, only staying long enough for her to board before he's zipping off to Bludhaven, landing on the roof of the building Nightwing is on. With the group gathered, Tony sets the jet to autopilot before turning his chair around to greet Spider-Woman and Nightwing. "Thanks for coming, guys. I really appreciate it. I'll get down to business."
A holo projector activates. "We're heading for the jungles of Brazil. About a week ago I detected a trace element with some interesting properties. I funded a small team to retrieve a sample for study at STAR labs. The results suggested that this mineral could be used to amplify the effects of arc energy. As you can imagine, this got my attention." The image shows the side of a mountain with a large hole in the side that's way too high up to be a natural cave. "This mineral doesn't originate on Earth, so it's likely that it comes from a meteorite. As you can imagine, I kind of want to get to it first. It helps that I already know where it is. I asked for your help because I'm positive that sinister forces might want to get to it first. Mainly Advances Idea Mechanics, or AIM. More specifically..MODOK."
The image changes again, showing guys dressed in what looks like yellow hazmat suits using high tech equipment to burrow into the bottom of the mountain. It seems there are a LOT of them.
Spider-Woman hops on the Quinjet with as much grace and speed as expected of her, this isn't her first rodeo. Though the Bludhaven stop was a bit of a surprise for her. "Hey there Bat or is it Bird-Thing?" she says to Nightwing waving the question off, "Spider-Woman," she says shortly turning to Hawkeye with a slightly satisfied grin. "Circus Boy," there is amusement in her tone as she greets the bow-strung hero, "cause any serious damage lately? Bust and coffee makers?" She snorts before settling in and listening to Tony.
"Whoa whoa whoa, Tin Man. You mean to tell me we're talking Alien bits?" There's an audible sigh and a crossing of the arms that happens with this slightly unexpected revelation. "I'm all about a vacation to Brazil but I'm not so sure we should be playing around with alien minerals." Thanks to the clear lenses on her mask her eyes are clearly visible, equally visible is the roll those emerald green eyes make. "MODOK? That bucket of bolts and brain? So AIM is involved then? Lovely. Let's just tack on HYDRA and call it a party!"
Hawkeye does his best not to hum that song from Mulan when Tony mentions getting down to business and is only moderately successful. Though as soon as he sees just how many Bee Keepers are involved he shuts the hell up, well except to give a low whistle and say, "Don't worry Tin Man, we've got your back. What's the play?" he shoots a look to Spider-woman about the alien stuff. "Better us than MODOK, right?"
Nightwing climbs on board an adopts his Bat-persona, his voice dropping low though not as gravelly s his mentor's, "Nightwing." He answers with one word. He gives the assembled Avengers a not and listens to the briefing, "I think i can bring in an expert on alien life to help." He activates his Titan's communicator with out waiting for approval. "Wing to tower, Strfire you available?" sassuming she is, "I could use a hand in Brazil, in route now, I will leave the comm channel on so you can home in on us."’
Starfire goes to fly along then through the air, somewhere off on her patrol of the west coast on a long spiral. "Yes, I will meet you there." She offers to the Titans Comm. "Give me coordinates." Starfire goes to then fly up into the air, reaching supersonic speeds and heading up to low orbit.. From there going to reenter then to do a quick 'skip' through the amtosphere to minimize travel times as she leaves a streak of fire behind her through the atmosphere.
Tony just grins at the banter between Jessica and Clint. Man he kind of missed that. Then he comments, "We can't rule out Hydra won't be there. This is something that might interest them, too. Let's hope they pass this one up." He runs a hand through his hair and then nods at Nightwing. "I've met Starfire. Good call on that. For a minute I thought you'd call up the cheerleader...but she's probably busy holding Spider-Man's hand." Shots fired. Anyway he exhales softly. "I don't have to tell you how dangerous MODOK is." He brings up the cyborg's profile from the Avenger files. The display lists his known powers and abilities.
"Not only does he have the resources and technology of AIM at his beck and call, but he's a cybernetic being with fantastic psionic abilities and superhuman calculating ability. Can form force field barriers effective against energy attacks, mentally produce heat and mental blasts of pure psionic energy, probe the minds of others, and recall any fact he has ever known. His only weakness is that he will bolt if he feels like he's lost the upper hand." He looks over at Nightwing. "You think you and Starfire are still up for this?" Starfire's com unit is able to hear the conversation inside the jet so she can stay in the loop, which means Tony kind of hacked the Titan com. He'll apologize for that later.
At the mentio of 'MODOK' Starfire's comm chirps. "He is the adorable little giant head in the chair that floats!"
Spider-Woman scoffs heavily at Hawkeye. "Better none of you, to be honest. There's a //reason// that stuff usually disappears before either Tony or the baddies get it," she doesn't speak from first hand knowledge, nope, not at all. A look is given to Nightwing, "Okay, Bat-Boy, the more the merrier. Besides, if what the Tin Man says over there is correct there are plenty of baddies to go around and I want to get back before the Golden Girls re-runs come on. That Blanche, oh how she makes me chuckle," Spider-Woman says with her English accent and a wink.
"Yeah. HYDRA always seems to stick it's many heads where it doesn't belong," Spider-Woman adds with a nod, "one could only hope." She eyes Nightwing's comm, "I wouldn't use adorable as a word for MODOK," though she snorts either way. "Tony, if I can get close enough I should be able to make him afraid enough to think about turning tail. It's a long shot, but these pheromones aren't for nothin'."
"Blanche? Rose is way better," Hawkeye chimes in as he gets up and starts making his way to the back of the Quinjet, pausing on the way to offers a fist bump to Nightwing as he passes. "Well if you want to get close there Spider-woman, I'm going to need to bring enough arrows for everyone," he says as he begins suiting up and getting as many arrows as he can out of the bags he brought with him.
Nightwing fist bumps with Hawkeye, and answers Tony, "I think we can handle it." He shakes his head at Starfire's exclamation about MODOK, "Could be woe the first time we fought the Brotherhood of Evil she wanted to keep Monsuier Mallah as a pet." He smirks and adds to the Golden Girls convo, "Trust me the one to watch out for was Sophia, Sicilian women are always dangerous."
Starfire pouts over then along the comm, and even without her face being visible the sound of the pout is audible. "But he would have been the most adorable little monkey ever! Other than Garfield." She considers, even as she races through the air towards Brazil.
"Yeah, adorable isn't the word I would use for him, either." He then idly comments, "I always thought Dorothy was a classy lady." He then steps up onto a circular platform. "Armory, prepare the Mark VIII variant."
A compartment in the ceiling opens up and an arm with a computerized eyeball peeks in before a voice in a distinct New Jersey accent comments, "Ya got it, Boss. Though I think the Hulkbuster might be better at bustin heads, tho."
Tony replies, "No thanks." The computerized voice replies. "Whatever, it's your funeral." Tony facepalms. "I still need to get around to fixing his personality protocol."
As pieces of his armor descend and then attach itself to multiple places on his body, the helmet locks in place as the eyes and chest piece glow as the armor comes online. Tony nods faintly. "Alright, Spider-chick..MODOK is yours. Hawkeye and Nightwing will help you get to him, because I promise he'll be well guarded. Starfire, if you can hear me, I'd like you to focus on the heavy machinery and the guys in the power armor. With that kind of distraction, I'll try to get the meteorite out." He walks over to the flight console, the soft tink of his armor is heard against the deckplate. "We're on site in three minutes. I'm setting us down in a clearing a few clicks south of their site. Any questions, concerns, or comments?"
"Rose is overrated," Spider-Woman snerks, "Sophia on the other hand... Well, if I ever met my grandmother I'm quite sure she'd be a Sophia," she grins at Nightwing. "Hey, Circus Boy! Best bring the ones that go BOOM!" she says with explosion hand-movements. "Monkeys are not adorable, they stink and they throw poo."
"Of course you'd like Dorthy, she was always a control freak," there's a laugh for Tony before she sets her mind to a battle beat, shaken slightly by Tony's New Jersey accented rude machines. "Well, you know, I think he fits right in." Spider-Woman nods solemnly to the command. "Right-o, Tin Man, you bet. Circus Boy, Bat-Boy, you're with me. Try to not get my armored ass killed, hmm?"
Hawkeye pulls down his cowl and grins. "Yeah, I agree with Nancy for once, Armory is perfect as she is," he chimes as he stands up and starts adding a second quiver to his belt to go with the one on his back. "Got lots of explodey arrows," he says patting the quiver on his hip. "Actually, Stark, is the alien rock going to be okay around stuff blowing up?" he asks before moving over beside Spider-woman and Nightwing. "We'll get your back, and hey, if any of you don't make it," he pauses and grins a bit wider. "Thank you for being a friend."
As she nears the rendezvous area several miles up, Starfire dims her glow then so as to not set off alarms by streaking fire through the air, heading to the point the QUinjet is going down for a landing. At that point, she would be going to sweep the area with her enhanced vision, trying to look ahead for signs of alarm or threats.
Nightwing makes sure his gear is ready for action and he nods, "Shouldn't too hard right just scientists with gizmos I am sure we have all fought folks like that before." He draws his escrima, "Holy reruns that was a bad joke." He smiles to himself.
Iron Man replies to Spider Woman. "On a molecular level, it's stable, though it does have a slight radioactive signature. That's how I can track it. But my suit protects me from the radiation and I'm going to store it in the Amory..which is why I brought it in the first place. So all of you and it are well protected. I'm sure Starfire would be immune, but don't quote me on that. Course, we have to get to it first."
As the Quinjet touches down, Starfire's vision doesn't alert her to anything in the immediate area. The hatch opens and Tony walks out in the newest version of his red and gold armor. "Activating sensors. I got a lock on the meteorite. I suggest we move on foot so we don't tip them off that we're coming. Not to mention flight under this dense canopy of trees is going to be difficult in it's own right. Though that should clear up once we get to the AIM site." He waves a metallic hand at the pretty alien girl. "Hi, Starfire. Glad you could join us. Let's move out." His now computerized voice says to the group. "Oh, and someone shoot Hawkeye for that horrible joke."
"I don't entirely care about the rock so long as it doesn't get into the hands of the baddies. If it blows, it's of no consequence to me," Spider-Woman says bluntly. "I'd rather //not// die today over a silly rock... Hawkeye... really?" her attentions snap to Barton " Har Har Har..." she says of the Golden Girls theme song.
She moves out of her seat and off of the Quinjet. "I'll shoot him later, it'll be fun. PEW PEW, Hawkeye." She shoots Starfire a wave and a short greeting, "Spider-Woman, pleasure."
Starfire dips her head to Spider-Woman, "Hello it is a pleasure to meet you." Starfire lets her eyes sweep the area, then quietly focusing as her green pupiless eyes glowed. "I am not picking up anything ahead of immediate threat or danger."
Hawkeye is still grinning as he exits the Quinjet "What? I thought it was funny!" he says to the team before he draws an arrow and puts it to string. He does a quick scan of the area and nods, "Looks clear down here too," he says to the team. "Also, hi Starfire," he doesn't look up and that's probably for the best Starfire and her lack of a costume would be a bit of a distraction.
"Let's start moving up, SW take point, Starfire keep flying, Nightwing and I will be right behind SW," he says. Hey all that time as Field Leader when Cap was gone seems to have paid off.
Nightwing nods to Hawkeye letting himtake command as he falls in behind Spider Woman and his asks, "Any tactics they like to use I should watch out for?"
Starfire floats up a few dozen feet in the air, nodding to Hawkeye's instructions. "Understood." She maneuvers and floats through the area, dimming her glow as much as possible and sweeping ahead of the group going through to be ready to give cover if they run into threats.
"I can't be completely sure until I get it back to my lab, but the scientific implications of that rock could change the world as we know it. Imagine it. It amplifies arc energy. I could supply the entire planet with clean, cheap, inexhaustible energy." A pause. "And beat out that kid from J-Tech that showed me up at the Expo this year." Yeah, he might still be a little sore about that. He's moving along with the group, using his scanners to make sure they're moving in the right direction. In the meantime, he answers Nightwing. "They're not much when it comes to hand to hand fighting, but it's their tech you have to look out for. They'll be using powerful lasers and personal shielding...which they stole from me when I was their 'guest' this past year. However, their shields are mostly tuned to protect them from energy blasts..which means they're prepared for my repulsor energy. But arrows and good old head bashing will do just fine."
Spider-Woman nods and falls in with Nightwing and Hawkeye. "Really, Nightwing, anything goes," she shrugs as she speaks over the comms, "we never know what we're going to get with AIM, worse with MODOK. MODOK will try to control you, and believe me if he gets his hooks in you it's hard to tell friend from foe." There's a sharp glare sent in Tony's direction. "Haven't we learned the implications of 'world changing' tech, Tin Man?" She doesn't wait for a reply, with the 'all clear' given she moves out. "Distract the hell out of him, boys, I'll try to get the drop on him. Taking out MODOK is priority numero uno."
Hawkeye nods. The others have this covered pretty much. "They're not much in hand to hand these AIM guys, so Nightwing if you can get past their guns and shields then all you need to worry about is getting swarmed, there's always a ton of these nutjobs, must have a great benefits plan or something."
Starfire hovers in the air, maneuvering along, "Understood. So try and engage them at short range then." She's seen the kind fo heavy guns that gruops like these can carry - some of them can even hurt her. "If they are in numbers I can go in front to draw their fire while the rest of you deal with them." She offers to the rest. An offer that if they do have heavy weapons will be quite painful for her..
A voice emerges from what seems to be thin air. "What? Letting all the boys have the fun? And here I find out I stowed away for nothing." One of the flying denizens of the jungle seems to be flying a little too purposeful to be any ordinary pest. The voice picks up again, rather close to a certain female of the arachnid persuasion. "I mean, really... You want someone to run a distraction ploy, then there's nothing the boys have that I don't sweetie. You and I both know this."
Janet hovers in the air...but still in her half-inch form. Because that is where she is best at. "But...I will let the boys have fun, too. I promise."
Nightwing glances toward the disembodied voice and shakes his head, "Wow it is not often someone stay hidden from me." He says intending it to be a compliment, "Alright stay in close and don't get shot. Sounds like a plan."
Hawkeye doesn't take his eyes off the tree line as he advances slowly but he does smile when he ears that familiar voice. "Beginning to feel like old times," he says fondly and it was. Good friends, near suicidal danger, all in a days work for an Avenger.
Tony pauses at the familiar voice. "Wasp!?" He turns until he spots her, which is kind of hard being as snall as she is. "Well, alright. Course you didn't have to stow away. I did send out an Avengers Assemble calll. Though I guess you had your own reasons for staying quiet until now. Still, glad to have you. You and SW can take out MODOK. Cause you know what will happen if he gets a mental hold on someone. Though we are going to have a conversation later, Jan."
Another thirty minutes and the group reaches the base of the mountain. AIM really seems to have taken this area over. There are tons of the yellow clad guys walking around with pulse rifles and a few in power armor. MODOK himself is supervising their work as the burrow into the mountain side. They're already close to where the meteorite is from the looks of things and MODOK is guarded by four power armors and about ten of the regular guys with guns. The others are spread out over the area, forming a perimeter that doesn't look easy to breach. Starfire just frowns, "There are many of them. A frontal attack is inadvisable." Brawling their way in and out of the base will pose a problem, based on her assessment of the heavy and seemingly multilayered security. "Do you think we should form some kind of distraction?" Starfire quickly tries to assess the security, looking for weaknesses or things that could be bypassed.
"Wasp?" the tiny voice raises a genuine smile out of the arachnid. "My dear, it has been too long. Of course your expertise would be most welcome here. Though don't damage their egos, they don't like that much, and frankly I couldn't deal with their whining," she grins to the air where the tiny specter hovers about. "A bit of fear pheromones should make MODOK turn tail and run. Just be careful not to be directly next to me when I drop that particular bomb, folks. We need your wits about you," Spider-Woman says, turning her gaze forward and putting her 'business face' on. "Don't get shot is a good way to go about this, young one."
"Jesus, Mary and Joseph," Spider-Woman says of the compound. "Looks like there are four with power armor, folks, and an arse load of AIM employees of the month. Shit. Thoughts, guys and gals?"
"Promises, promises, Tony." The voice is coy, as the speck that is the Wasp just bobs to the cadence. "Looking forward to *that* talk." That...was definitely snark. Wouldn't be Jan without a little of that. "I just love to watch you work. Figured you didn't need me to throw that off. Besides, you know how I just love to throw in a surprise or two." The mini Avenger flutters over towards SW. "Not to worry, I will try not to bruise too many egos."
The banter silences as Jan does get a wasp's eye view of the situation. With a flip of a switch, she shifts to business tone. "Power armor isn't exactly easy to deal with. I mean, I could try my hand in getting close and finding a niche or two to work my way in and short out some systems...but 4? That is a little much. Even for me."
"Okay, this looks bad," Hawkeye says as he surveys the acre of yellow suited AIM goons in front of them. "Best first move I can think of is fire an EMP arrow at MODOK and his four power armour guards. They're likely shielded but it might slow them down enough to get a drop on them, let Wasp do her thing to one or two of them while Iron Man and Starfire hit the others. Also, I've only got the one of those arrows so we might as well make it count." He looks back at camp. "As for the rest.. I'm open to suggestions."
Nightwing looks at the situation, "Well the ones spread out aren't too much of an issue but the large group by the meteor will be the issue, we could always try to get them ot hit us where we ain't, create a distraction in one directions then hit them from another. Starfire nods lightly, "Nightwing carries similar things." She ponders, "We can try and delay the ones further away while the rest of you go for the group protecting the meteor so we can extract it. They are, if you said, not extensively trained so it should be easy to bait them to chase some of us and get separated."
Tony chuckles, his computerized voice comments. "Watch this. Clint, you're in charge." He takes to the air, firing repulsors towards MODOK. "Hey, MODOK, your mother was a toaster!" He then turns and flies away. True to his nature, MODOK exclaims. "Iron Man! I calculated that you would be here! Swarm him!" Most of the power armors, save for two fly off in pursuit of Tony. But it does two things. It gets rid of most of the armors, and now the AIM guys are watching the chase going on in the sky..along with MODOK.
"You are more than welcome to bruise as many egos as you'd like, just so long as you take whining duty," Spider-Woman grins, listening to Wasp's assessment. "Yeeah..." She says with a slight bit of uncertainty. "Bugger it all, Stark. Honestly. We should just blow that alien rock to bits and walk away," Spider-Woman's irritation on the subject of alien rocks/tech is quite clear in this moment. She sighs at Hawkeye's game plan. "Ugh... adrenaline junky. Sure, we could always do that too. The only thing they're vulnerable to when it comes to myself, is pheromones, mainly because you all make holes in their little yellow jumpsuits. Forget venom, they'll absorb the energy I toss at them. Besides kicking the ever-lovin' snot out of them... I've got nadda."
Spider-Woman's jaw simply drops at Tony's actions. "That pompous idiot!"
"Well that settles that," Hawkeye says as Iron Man goes all Leeroy Jenkins on MODOK and company. "Okay looks like Iron Man is our distraction, going to EMP MODOK and co then we close in. Spider-woman get to MODOK everyone else clear her path the best you can," he says with haste and puts his EMP arrow to string. "And guys," he pulls the string back and looses. "AVENGERS ASSEMBLE!"
Starfire lets out a swear, "I will back him up. Good luck to the rest of you, may X'Al guide you." She's flying up and over past Iron Man, trying to keep up with him now then and going to fire off her high powered Starbolts over at the rest of the Power Armors if she can in quick bursts of glowing fire, her own temperature rising as she glowed with fire and engaged in battle.
"TITANS UNITE!"
Janet actually laughs...which is certainly heard over the coms. "That's Tony. And...speaking of idiots...." A plan seems to formulate in Jan's mind. "Okay. I got the Big Bad Banana on the right. Feel free to take on the one on the left and the floating head. I have an idea." And...with that said, the flying dust mote that is Janet van Dyne darts off, directly to the Power Armor on the right.
"For the love of!" Spider-Woman says of Hawkeye's battle cry as she takes off down into the wall of yellow hazmat men. "I swear, they should all audition for members of the lollipop guild!" And fists be swingin'. "Another one?" she says when Nightwing shouts. "I am //actually// from England and the only time you hear this stuff is during football games, and I don't mean your 'hand-egg.'" Haughty sounding as usual, the arachnid swings arms and legs in graceful yet damaging arches. "You've got it, Wasp. Hawkeye, give me that distraction, Circus Boy," the grin on her face is wide and full of mirth.
Nightwing shakes his head as Tony and Kori take matters inot hteir hands nad says, "Well only one thing to do now, rush them and pray." He takes off towards the AIM goons shouting the proper Titans battle cry as an escrima stick slams into the skull of ones of the Beehive hats, "Titans Together."
Battle cry shouted, Hawkeye sets to work in keeping his team alive, switching to his back quiver he pulls a succession of smoke arrows and lobs them high and far at the farthest flung groups of Beekeepers advancing on MODOK and the power armours at a run as he does. As he draws closer to the Bee Keepers by MODOK he switches to broadheads. "Any of you guys play Skyrim!?" he calls and lets fly at their knees.
Flying low, the Wasp is not readily detected, by friend or foe alike. Yet, she doesn't approach the Power Armor directly. Instead, she circles around, and approaches it from the rear. "Let's see...there has to be an air intake somewhere. Ah! There it is!" Travelling fast, Jan shoots up and hits the air intake valve hard. Given the speed and her strength, she punches through the filters rather easily...and finds herself inside the suit. With an unprotected AIM lackey.
And...that's when the fun begins.
The Power Armor suddenly starts to jerk and twitch, as tiny pinpricks of light seem to erupt from various joints. But...the target is not the suit. Oh no...the target is the operator himself. Janet seems to be having a lot of fun, firing stinger bolts from inside the suit. A shot to the knee here...a blast to an elbow there. One particular shot causes the Power Armor arm to jerk, sending a blast of energy that takes out two of his comrades. "Sucks to be you, trapped in a tin can, hmm?"
That's one Power Armor being dealt with. Someone gets to have fun with the other.
The Avenger/Titan combination isn't expected. And believe it or not, the group gets the jump on AIM. Wasp is too stinking small to actually target by the power armor, so she's being missed a lot as she attacks. Hawkeye's smoke arrows makes them difficult to see and he manages to kneecap quite a few before laser fire is returned his way. Nightwing really does find out that these guys suck at hand to hand..and their aim isn't that great either. He makes a couple of them shoot their own guys before taking a few out himself. MODOK realizes that Iron Man isn't alone, and fires a psionic blast towards Spider Woman as the AIM guys around him take aim at her and fire.
Tony Stark is arrogant, can be idiotic at times, and incredibly brave during others. This is not one of those times. He probably should have told the team what he had in mind, but it was a little late now. The Mark VIII Variant armor was his newest creation. It had the shields and firepower of the Mark VI, hologram technology and the stealth generator of his Stealth Armor. The Iron Man being chased is a decoy, as the real one was invisible and currently making his way into the cave. However, Starfire probably notices that even though the Iron Man in the sky with her is flying like he's dodging..most of those blasts go right through him as if he's not there...because he isn't.
There's energy blasts from Starfire then as she maneuvers to flank Iron Man, backing him up then. It's hard for her to track him even as he seems to phase in and out of sight - she's focused on the battle and she trsuts he can keep care of himself. "SURRENDER YOURSELVES!" She goes to try and charge another of the power armors, her hands glowing over with built up energy and fire then as she tries to blast at it from long range then to keep it pinned!
"Smoke bomb, smoke bomb, fist, fist," Spider-Woman ducks a shield as it is swung towards her head. "Hawkeye...Moving into position, let me know when you're ready with that arrow of yours. Don't forget, if he gets in my head we're all fucked. Ouch!" she screeches briefly over the intercom, "stupid son of a.." a series of rapid smacks and 'oofs' are heard over the comms before they click off. "Sorry!" she quickly apologizes to her teammates.
A jerking power armor to her right tells her she's close to MODOK, though the smoke makes it slightly hard to make out. "Good work, Wasp. Keep it up and he'll be doing the Hokey Pokey in no time."
"Anytime now, Hawkeye," and then there are blasts, psionic ones that bring her to her knees and sends her hands to cover her eyes, her ears, whatever she can to make the noises in her head stop. In doing so she clicks the comms and a ear-splitting scream goes over the airwaves. In her head there are untold atrocities replaying themselves over and over. She's down, for now.
Hawkeye vaults out of the way as the AIM guys open up landing behind a boulder and pulling in out of sight. He can see Spider-woman from where he's crouched and he sees her going down. "Jess!"
That special arrow? Already fired. MODOK and his armors were better protected than he thought.
As for Spider-woman, he's not going to let her die on his watch. He fires a smoke arrow beside Spider-woman the purple smoke obscuring her from view. Then he rises and fires off a pair of explosive tipped arrows right at MODOK. "Hey ugly, bet you can't do that twice!" he shouts the draws another smoke arrow to fire at his feet. Hopefully getting it off before the AIM guys and MODOK light him up.
Starfire is looping around, firing off quick energy bursts then. A blast from the power armor slams her in the gut. It's much more forceful than she had braced herself for. It stops her in midair, the blast slamming her back several dozen feet. Her bounceback is iterrupted as the armor swings an electroshock tendril, lashing about her ankles, and giving her a massive jolt as it yanks her back hard towards the ground, it's other fist swinging around to brutally smash her in the head.
Nightwing is having a grand old time with the regular AIM folks, his body like poetry in motions as he deftly avoid their blasts with his acrobations while pauses in one place just long enough to deliver some punishment, he steer clear of MODOK for the moment letting those with more experience with the Big headed one handle him for the moment.
Apparently, having the Power Armor dance is starting to bore Janet. "Aww...I was going for the Macarena." She goes for a knockout blow...by delivering an uppercut. Inside a suit of armor, with no where for the head to go. Needless to say, the operator should be down and out for the count. Then, Janet retreats the way she came in, and finds herself coughing just a little as the smoke catches her. "Well....never let it be said that they don't have good filters on those armors." A couple more coughs, then Janet ascends, partly to clear the air...and mostly to assess where she is needed next.
Spider-Woman is down still, balled up and muttering to herself, though this isn't anything uncommon for a psionic attack from MODOK. At least she's stopped screaming.
Clint's arrows distract MODOK long enough for him to cease his psionic assault on Spider-Woman. But even as he attempts to get her away, the normal AIM guys are shooting at them both. Nightwing suddenly finds himself in front of a guy with a backpack and a blowtorch as he tries to singe the wings of the Bat-like hero. Starfire is kind of on her own, the fist of the power armor does try to bash her brains in before attempting to shoot her at point blank range. Janet scores a K.O. as the guy inside the armor goes unconcious and the armor itself falls onto it's back. MODOK hovers high in his chair. "You Avengers should never have come. None of you can outsmart the supreme intelligence of MODOK. I have calculated and planned accordingly. You will not leave here alive. I-'BOOM'"
Right in the middle of his monologue he is impacted by four mini-rockets from the direction of the hole they were digging. Iron Man appears there while holding a large rock under his arm like a beach ball. "I got it. I suggest we get the hell out of here. I've called the Quinjet to our location. Jess..MODOK is all yours.”
The attack is released, Spider-Woman shakes her head and wipes the tears off her face from under her mask. "This asshole needs to go down..." she looks like she's about to rage all over the place, but Iron Man's words bring her back. "You've got it, that floating scrotum is going down," she punches and kicks her way towards MODOK, "Hawkeye, give me a smoke screen."
There is a world of difference between being fire-proof and fire resistant, sadly Nightwing's uniform is only fire resistant. He is unable to get out of the way of the gout of flames and while his is not killed by it, he certainly has had better days. He tosses razor sharp Bata-rang at the fuel line for the burning weapon as he stops, drops and rolls to try to put himself out before the resistance the costume gives is overwhelmed.
WHAM! Starfire is bludgeoned, smashed, and hit again and again. THe Power Armor is strangely enough piloted by someone that knows what they're doing with it,s witching up it's attacks and systems to prevent her from rallying. A blast of flame hits her in the body, another laser blast to the torso, and a sledgehammer of a fist sends her spiraling, right over as the power armor goes to stomp her hard with a foot.
Hawkeye flips and tumbles out of the way of the first shots but before a third hits him square in chest knocking him on his ass. He sees the one who shot him fiddling with a dial on the side of his weapon, boosting the power no doubt. Hawkeye forces himself to roll, stand up and when he hears Jess's shout he smacks a smoke arrow on the ground and lets it loose at MODOK the arrow spewing smoke the whole way. Then he flat out runs for cover. "Stark, I hate you so much right now," he says over comms. Followed by: "Good plan though."
"Thanks, Circus Boy, take cover. The roaches are about to scatter," Spider-Woman says as she rolls into position. "Prepare to shit your tiny pants, MODOK." With that, Spider-Woman works up fear pheromones so potent not even she knows what they'll do. In the cover of Hawkeye's smoke she waits it out so as to not bring that stuff back with her.
Even though Nightwing got a little singed, his counter attack is right on the money, causing the backpack to explode and the AIM agent blasted forwards while flipping end over end. Hawkeye is still in slight trouble as the guy who shot him, boosts the power on his weapon and takes aim again. However, he may not get the chance because MODOK screeches like a little girl and hightails it back to their transport, yelling for everyone to retreat and if they're not back by the time he's ready to take off, he's leaving them in the jungle. Looks like Jess kind of over-did it a little.
As for Starfire, she gets some help from Stark himself, since he kind of felt guilty for her being in that situation to begin with. His center chest piece glows brightly before the unibeam flies to strike the armor that was currently giving Star the business. "Sorry, Hawkeye. I didn't have time to go over the plan completely. Great job guys. By the way, our ride is here." The Quinjet has indeed arrived as he lands so the others can board her. While they're doing that, Stark is putting the rock inside a compartment in the Armory.
Starfire is slammed down over to the ground, being helped up and over by Stark a moment later. "Is everyone all right?" SHe's in pain but not injured then, even as she lets Iron Man finish down the final adversary. "We should all get out of here regardless."
Hawkeye turns as the AIM guy takes aim. Ha. Funny right? He reaches back draws an arrow but he already knows he's going to be too late. Fortunately MODOK's scream shatters both their concentration. "FLEE" he shouts and hovers past. The AIM guy turns to watch, Hawkeye doesn't he fires the TASER arrow into his chest and then turns and runs towards the Quinjet to live to fight another day. Though as he sits down, telling Tony it's all good if we got what they came for he can't help but think one thing: that guy had me.
It was going to be one of those thoughts that was going to fester.
Spider-Woman staggers her way back to the Quinjet, having had the pleasure of watching MODOK and his goons beat feet without even a sidelong glance to her. Her effort has left her emotionally and physically drained as she climbs in the back to head back home. "Way to go, guys. I'd say that was slightly successful," she says as she watches Stark store the rock. "Remind me to never go on Earth Science missions with you ever again, Stark," she waves off any comment and heads to the back of the jet to find a bed to lay down in. "Starfire, Nightwing, it has been a pleasure working with you both," there is a sense of genuine appreciation there, perhaps she's too tired for snark. "You," she points at Hawkeye when he boards the jet and takes a seat, that look he's got might have something to do with it, "come with me. We've got to chat." With that, Spider-Woman is off to find a bed after hearing parting comments.
Starfire nods over, "So then, why did we want to get the rocks off? Or did we want to get the rocks on?" SHe's normally used to this point the giant asteroids spawning forth some sort of twisted evil alien, exploding, or having some sort of evil passenger aboard that will attack them soon. SHe looks at it curiously.
Still smoking a bit Nightwing runs ot the quinjet and the ride home, "Don't let the bus leave without, my Portuguese is not good enough to get me home." Once insides he finds a place to sit, good thing Alfred keeps plenty of burn cream on hand. He nods to Spider-woman, "Nice to meet you." He looks over to the asteroid, "I am sure it will cause us more trouble later." He comments.
With everyone on board, Stark asks. "Everyone alright? Starfire you took kind of a beating there. Does anyone need medical attention?" He lets Hawkeye take them home as he glances over at Jessica. "Hey, this was a productive trip. Not bad for a guy who became an expert on geology just this morning." He is scary smart. "And no more comments about the alien thing. I figured out Kree and Skrull tech. I even helped the Justice League stop a Skrull invasion of Earth..along with the Green Lantern Corps. So I'm gonna put the rock under lock and key at Avengers Mansion while I study it. No worries." His helmet pops off long enough for that billion dollar smile of his...which means the world was probably in trouble.