Hall of Science
Unknown to the Sentinel of Liberty, Riri's drone was not the first to follow him today.
Another, more stealthy one had spotted him on the way to the museum, and had spied upon the battle.
On the other end of its transmission, a man in a purple costume watched. You could not see his facial expressions through his mask, though.
He was angry, yet thoughtful at the same time. He could not yet tell if this individual was his old foe.
Time to find out, then.
He picked up a communicator and whispered into it, "attack."
A few moments later, a kind of futuristic helicopter landed near the museum, and several men wearing yellow uniforms reminiscent of beekeeper suits
stepped outside carrying odd-looking guns. They then began shooting their way inside, pinning the policemen still outside in the crossfire.
edited 19th Aug '17 5:21:51 AM by Sijo
New York Hall of Science
"Not a problem," said Cap. "Anyway, nice to meet you, though I am curious how you managed to—"
Just then, sounds of gunfire could be heard from outside the Hall of Science, and Cap knew from experience that whenever gunfire was involved, it was never anything good. He rushed back over to his shield and grabbed it, hoping that Meteor Man wouldn't be stupid enough to try and take on everyone in the middle of an oncoming hail of bullets. "Everyone," he said, "find some cover! I'm heading out!" He then darted over to the hole in the wall from earlier before going through and sidling against the hall's exterior. He peeked out over the edge of the wall as he tried to see just what was happening before rushing in. Sure enough, there were a group of... evil beekeepers? Well, he'd seen stranger. All he knew was that there were a group of cops under fire, and that was good enough for him.
He charged into the crowd shield first, his shield hopefully protecting him from any incoming fire. Though with any luck, they'd be too busy dealing with the police to notice him before he landed his first blow...
New York Downtown - Angela
"You said these were Amazons, but they are frail and powerless!" Angela simultaneously taunted and complained, sheathing her sword. The one Diana was fighting seemed to be a challenge, the two warriors locked in a fierce and exciting battle... but her minions were mere vermin. Their primitive weapons were sluggish and weak, bouncing off of her, while they moved so slowly. Ripping a street light out of the ground, she swung the large pole over her head, using her other hand to point at one of the Bacchae on her far left."I am Angela, Midgardian. You will be spared so my name will be remembered in this hell you call a homeworld. I suggest you run now, lest I forget."
With that said, she started swinging the street light at the other Bacchae.
Hall of Science
The Looter apparently didn't have much to say, so when Cap reappeared and grabbed his shield without so much as a "how do you do," Tabitha eagerly followed him to the one-sided battle of cops and beekeepers with guns.
"You know these guys?" she asked in between throwing bombs at the beekeepers' guns. It was slow going - focusing on aiming meant she could only throw one at a time - but it was going, at least.
Kingswinford, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
It was a fairly ordinary day in the neighborhood of Kingswinford, within Metro Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. People were travelling to and from work, pedestrians going to and fro either as commuters or shoppers, and buses were picking people up from the stands virtually everywhere in the area.
Kingswinford may have been part of Vancouver, but it felt more like a British suburb with its street nameplates at pedestrian level on a white background in Helvetica Bold font a la Bolton, Greater Manchester, England, instead of on a green color atop a post, and British-style housing that looked not unlike one in Breightmet, Bolton, England, United Kingdom.
Just to show how un-Canadianized it was, no large street lamps
◊ here, but instead you had old-fashioned 1980s style Thorn Beta 5 on swan-necks that looked curiously titled, and painted in a somewhat Oak Green color, yet looked more like a faded green due to the weather.
In short, it was a mix of British and Canadian in one neighborhood.
Jessica Jones was waiting in a queue in Carla's, a Mexican take-out / restaurant, whose USP was 100% vegetarian Mexican cuisine. She'd decided to go for the "Four Seasons Quesadilla" which had four different types of flavoring and four different seasonings, so it wasn't as misleading as you'd expect from the name. Jessica had ordered three for herself, but it wasn't out of greed, she needed the energy after doing a long run earlier in the day. But she'd always managed to eat a lot and remain thin, yet not too waif-like.
She was about 6"2 tall, with pale skin, and sandy-colored hair, some said she looked like Gigi Hadid. Well, she did, but consider her as Gigi Hadid, some 11 years older and with a thick Vancouver accent instead of Gigi's New York drawl.
Jessica was a businesswoman, she owned several car showrooms across the Vancouver area (none of which were connected in any way as a franchised dealer, all had different names]] and a private detective agency, although she didn't actively participate much in any of them, instead concentrating on the business side of things. Well, almost not participating.
She was hands-on enough with the automobile side, would go occasionally and get import cars on a truck to deliver to her dealers every now and then (it was a surprise for the bosses of those dealers to see her, although rather than experiencing any misogyny, it was like, "What?? The boss is actually hands-on?").
Automobiles were a passion for Jessica she'd had ever since she was a kid, and she hated anyone assuming "oh, she must be a tomboy if she likes cars", as Jessica was girly as could be, despite this interest.
Jessica was a strong woman who had super-strength, more than an average woman could handle, yet she rarely used it, simply because it wasn't something she expected to need or use in every day life. About the only time she used it was in her private gym in Vancouver in her large-ish house. She had acquired her powers from a car accident which killed her parents Brian and Alysa Jones, and was taken in by Dorothy Walker, and her daughter Trish.
It had taken her many years to cope with the accident, including physical and psychological therapy. She still had some flashbacks to it every now and then.
She was wealthy, but didn't flaunt it, indeed her choice of car and clothing reflected it. If anything, she liked the benefits of wealth, but hated flaunting it, and used some of her fortune to donate to causes as diverse as Down's Syndrome and funding adult day centers, funding a new American expat social group (some of her friends were American expats) and other things.
For her, being a superhero wasn't something she considered as normal, she'd been in the press a few months ago for saving a mentally-ill man from certain death (he was walking along the freeway, unconcerned). He wasn't a psychopath, but someone who had issues troubling him, according to the press. This was back in April, though.
She didn't consider herself a superhero, just thought at the time she was doing what anyone would do to prevent someone injuring themselves. Superheroics wasn't something that she'd wanted to get into, it just came to her, and she wasn't confident about seeing herself as a superhero.
Since then, life had been relatively tame for her, doing business, and travel.
Jessica was wearing a suit, comprised of a charcoal gray jacket, ivory blouse and bootcut trousers with black boots, and she was waiting in line, with two people ahead of her.
"Soon... soon I'll get this Four Seasons quesadilla takeaway", she thought to herself.
This was a calm quiet neighborhood where the only real crimes were joy-riders stealing old 1980s, 1990s and 2000s sedans and stationwagons or the occasional shoplifter, but nothing on the scale of the Mafia or gang murders. It was a pleasant neighborhood, but not a dull one.
If anything, it was the place to come for Asian, Mexican, Irish, Scandinavian and English cuisine, run independently, and you wouldn't find big-name fast-food restaurants here, indeed, there wasn't even a Mc Donald's, unless you went some six miles up the road.
Jessica was considering going on vacation to her second home she had in Northop Hall/Llaneurgain, Flintshire, Wales, United Kingdom, to spend a week there.
She could have gone to the U.S. as she had dual citizenship through being born to a Canadian mother and American father (although in truth, she had triple citizenships due to English grandparents) and gone between Canada, the U.S. and the United Kingdom, at will, but had decided she'd go to Northop Hall fairly soon, see some friends over in Flintshire.
It had been a good week for her, and hopefully the next week would be too, at least with her friend Dominique visiting her soon.
edited 20th Aug '17 10:51:14 AM by Merseyuser1
The past few weeks had been strange times to say the least for Lukasz, or as he was now known, Eden Blake. It wasn't enough that he'd had to learn how to wear bras, stockings, high heels and skirts convincingly. It wasn't enough that the usual regime of combat training now had an added element of mystic meditation and incantation, to little to no avail just yet, and spliced with the constant, constant whining of those snot nosed little brats he'd been saddled with, meaning he had to be nice and reasonable and put on this sickly sweet 'mommy knows best' smiles and voices or else his cover would be blown to smithereens when he chopped their heads clean off. It wasn't even enough that, even having pulled some strings and weaselled his way into the Aladdin- CIA branch and top mutant monitoring operation in the country -he'd been stuck filing files, bringing higher-ups coffee and wolf-whistled by pudgy old assholes. But now, on this particular day, when all this nonsense was finally settling into drudgery, everything decided to go completely insane.
He was just delivering Agent Brown's third cup of the day, when she noticed everyone crowding around the centre of the room. GENIE, the supercomputer this whole sub-agency was centred around, had suddenly started blaring multiple sensors at once. Some agents were tuning into the news on a computer screen. On one end of town, a museum robbery had met an anticlimactic end, when suddenly a horde of AIM soldiers had converged on present hero Captain America. On the other side, a woman with wings had dropped from the sky, and now several mostly-mystically inclined women were duking it out in the streets. It was like half the evil superhuman armies had suddenly picked now this minute to descend upon Manhattan.
Still, Lukasz had to admit, those amazon warriors made fighting look pretty damn good. Rowr, that Wonder Woman could pull off ancient greek armour like nobody's business. Maybe if he dropped by, he could show off some skills and maybe introduce her to his own sword of justi...oh, that's right, he didn't have a sword of justice anymore, did he? Lukas swore that when he rescued the Archimage, he'd kill him. Then again, Wonder Woman was an amazon, wasn't she? Growing up all her life with only other women for company, she might be open to a little...experimentation. If nothing else, he could finally get to throw himself in the heat of battle again, have something nice to look at while doing so, AND maybe now people wouldn't whine about him battling women!
'Eden' surreptitiously put the coffee just beside Agent Brown's arm, silently hoping catcalling bastard would knock it over and ruin his nice suit. Then she called over to the Director, "Sir, I'm going to take my break now, is that all right?"
"Hm? Yeah, sure, have fun, Evie."
Lukas decided not to dignify the flub with response. Instead, he quietly hurried away down the corridor to the furthest window, looking around to make absolutely certain he wasn't watched. Opening the window wide, he reached down his shirt and fished out the charm at the end of a necklace. The tiny white mask hung in the air, and the eyes took on an eerie green glow the closer they came to his face. Closing his eyes and taking a breath, Lukas muttered "Now for...the mantra-"
But apparently, only thinking about the mantra was enough this time. The air shimmered and rippled around himself. A white mask faded into existence, as if unveiled from behind an invisible blanket. His business blouse, jacket and skirt suit (All pre-owned by his new self. He really needed to get some work trousers) shimmered and rippled until finally unfurling into a floor length navy blue cloak and hood, plus long black gloves reaching up her arm, while revealing the shimmering gold and worryingly form-hugging swimsuit of armour, with a white strip of cloth hanging down from the belt line. His stockings and high-heels were the last to go, replaced by black thigh-high boots with soles that, thankfully, were flat.
Now came the trickier part. Clambering out the window, Lukasz looked out over the skyscrapers beyond, and did his best not to look down to the sound of the cars and traffic far below. With another sigh, he began to recite. "Change...growth...power...change...growth...power." As he continued to repeat, he began to feel a gust of wind rise up from beneath, stronger and stronger. He'd practiced flight before, but never from this height. He'd just have to hope that the breeze would be strong enough. "Change...growth...power!" He cried, leaping from his perch before he could have time to be scared of the plunge. There was a second of fright as he began to fall, but in the space of moment, his cape stopped fluttering and went firm and still. Lukasz found himself catching the breeze, and levelled off as he swooped high through the air. Laughing excitedly, Lukas swerved, span and weaved his way past the skyscrapers, as 'she' flew through the air on her way to Downtown NY.
edited 20th Aug '17 4:21:08 PM by LizardOfAus
someone
Rose, Street To Roof
Rose looked at Angela in confusion. "I can offer you some flo—woah."was her response, and Gwen grabbed her and she was on the roof in a bliink.
Good to see someone has their priorities right. Unlike Miss Going-To-Get-Herself-Killed-For-No-Reason.
That's not my name.
Are you sure?
Yes.
Whatever floats your boat.
You have issues.
I have issues?
Yes.
Rose swayed and looked at the ground. "Thank you," she said to Spider-Woman. "But I'm not the only one in danger."
[TOP SECRET]
King of Lame-Style
Hall of Science
Riri found the good Captain's advice wise and ran to get some cover, and control D1 from behind it. "ok now I kinda regret not putting the colapsible pop-up punch in it, but well we'll make do, what can we do?..." she thought out loud to herself as she looked though the machine's digital eye "ok, so I can look at things thats- aha!" She realized and zipped D1 over to the front of the building, and sending it skywards to survey and looked over the battle.
"Captain! Look out! they are flanking you! Boom Boom... You're doing ok just keep them from the the Cap!" Sounded off D1's potent speakers.
The graceless warrior, wielder of the edgeless blade, prophet of the old religions, writer of fluent nonsense, saviour of soul and song.
Rose was clearly still a bit surprised by suddenly getting transported to a roof but she still took the time to thank Gwen.
"You are welcome. And don't worry, everyone left already. At least the ones that are not trying to film this whole thing"
People didn't think straight in these kind of situations but it was hard to blame them, since Angela displayed her super strength by basically destroying more objects during her fight. That was easily worth a couple thousands views on YouTube. Plus hundreds of videos analyzing how fake it was.
"Hey! You are not supposed to break more of the city!" Gwen yelled out at Angela. For all her help against Artume, she really didn't seem to care about collateral damage.
Street
There was one difference between The Amazons and The Bacchae: the latter were not afraid to fight dirty.
When their attacks proved ineffective against Angela, one of them pulled out what looked like a glass vial with a black liquid inside, and hurled it at the wingless angel.
shat-ter! it smashed against her armor. The glass shards themselves were harmless, but the liquid splashed over her exposed skin.
It would be obvious to Angela, both from the smell and the logic of the attack, that she had just been splashed with some kind of poison.
Museum
When the "bee-keepers" realized their attacks were not getting past Captain America's shield and reflexes, they decided instead to start firing at the one opponent who was just standing there in the open- Boom Boom!
edited 21st Aug '17 8:06:56 PM by Sijo
8th Floor Office Building - Then
"You're a... monkey?" the governmental pencil-pusher asked me incredulously as she took a seat in my office. Now, did I have to be hanging by one foot from the ceiling fixture as I made my introductions? No but damn if I didn't enjoy the look of discomfort on his face.
"You might need to go reread your children's petting zoo book there babyface - I'm an ape, not a monkey. Do you see a tail on me?" I asked, swinging down from the fixture and landing quite gracefully in my chair. I doused out my cig that I had still been holding.
"...right...Well, Mr. Chimp...did not realize that wasn't just a last name...I represent the interests of SHIELD - have you heard of them?" the lady asked. Boy did she look the type. Horn-rimmed glasses, hair in a bun so tight that Funky Flashman would call him cheap, and a handgun that she thought was cleverly concealed in her purse.
"Let's say that I have. What do suits want with a simple guy like me?" I got straight to the point. Truthfully, I didn't know much about SHIELD but people were always more honest with you about things if they think you're already in the know.
"Investigation, basically. We hear that you're among the best. We're currently trying to obtain some data on a certain group of individuals who are all currently in the city. All we require from you is to find these individuals and observe them. Whether you observe them from a distance or up close and personal is up to you but we would like full dossiers on all of them once you have the necessary info...you can type, right?" she asked me. I smirked and began peeling a banana on my desk with my feet. That seemed to shut up anymore questions about my dexterity.
"...okay...basically, we're looking for information on powers, frequent places of visitation, allies, and most importantly, a psychological profile. Now we know you're no psychologist but my higher-ups seems to think you a good enough judge of character to determine whether or not any of these people pose a threat to the world and if they could be persuaded to use their powers for the betterment of mankind." the suit kept going on. I took a delicious bite of the banana - damn I needed to buy more - and nodded. Truthfully, they could have asked me to clean up a hyena cage and I'd still have said yes. When someone as high-ranking as the stooge who was on the phone with me prior offered you the amount of money that was offered, you didn't say no. Not that I don't have my moral guidelines but they get more flexible as more money enters the equation.
"So you want me to see if any of these yahoos would be your little soldiers? Will do, I guess, provided you guys keep your end and pay me on time." I said, opening my drawer and making sure I had enough bullets. You never could tell with these hero types when trouble might spring up...
City Rooftops Near the Hall of Science - Now
It's been a few hours. I've been tailing this kid for a bit - not too difficult when you smell like she does and you have a sniffer like I do. Seems she decided to get a bit heroic, maybe to make up for lifting that knick-knack back at the Statue of Liberty.
Some nut named the Looter was attacking the place. Two-bit whackjob. I'd ordinarily go in and help but when I see Captain America is there, I stand back. Just common sense. When the Sentinel of freakin' Liberty rolls up, the best thing you can do as a chimp with a gun is stay out of the way. Right now, I'm content to wait this out and see how it plays.
This Boom Boom kid is first on my list. Hopefully, I can get this done before supper.
Outside the New York Hall of Science
"TABATHA! LOOK OUT!"
Not again. There was no time to lose. Without hesitation, Cap abandoned his assault on the Evil Beekeepers (TM) and tried his best to protect Tabatha. He rushed over to her as fast as he could to try and raise his shield in time, but there was no telling if he could make it.
edited 21st Aug '17 8:23:36 PM by kkhohoho
Museum
"That's what I was planning on doing," Tabitha shouted at the robot. "Can't you do something that's not ordering -"
"TABITHA! LOOK OUT!"
Cap's warning snapped Tabby back into action, and she dove out of the way of the beekeeper's shots, landing on her side.
Outside the New York Hall of Science
Oh thank God. Cap briefly stopped where he stood. The bullets had missed her, she was safe, but there was still a war going on. He immediately turned back to face the Evil Beekeepers (TM), shield raised and his free fist at the ready, though he still took a moment to give Tabatha a few kinds words of advice. "TABATHA, GET OUT OF HERE! NOW!" He then charged straight into them once more, keeping his guard up while still trying to take out as many of them as he could.
Jessica had been in New York City for three days now and was staying in an upper-class hotel in Manhattan. It was a bit of a change from Vancouver for her, and the hustle and bustle of the city was what she was used to, but this was it on a bigger scale.
She'd left her rental car, a 2016 Audi A4 2.0T Premium quattro sedan
◊, parked on the street. It was in a shade of willow green and shone in the sunlight. This wasn't a bad hire car, but smaller than the sedans she was used to driving. The willow color wasn't her favorite, but it was at least better than another blue or white rental car.
She was here in New York to sample some of the city's fine dining it was known for.
However, she'd ended up by the New York Hall of Science due to a wrong turn (she'd got lost in the maze that is New York city streets), right in the vicinity of Boom-Boom, aka Tabitha, and Steve Rogers (Captain America) who were fighting off evil beekeepers.
In the background, a WRTL Vectra
◊ exploded in a flash of white light as the fighting broke out, its black 8m (26ft tall) column dropping to the ground like a log of timber falling in the forest. It's alien-eye-like light fell to the ground in a flash of sparks.
She really wasn't used to this. "Is this some tourist show thingy?" she thought as she filmed it on her smartphone. Filming things on smartphones was what people did; or selfies too.
On her smartphone's screen a rather 1990s-looking, 1990s-font camera interface filmed in the action.
Jessica was unaware of who these people were, but shortly she would be....
edited 22nd Aug '17 9:39:49 AM by Merseyuser1
New York Street - Angela
"I am doing this city a favor by protecting it, is it not better that I contain the damage to one of its posts of lights than allow these women to slay one of its citizens!" Angela shouted at Gwen as the Bacchae attacked her with some sort of vial."Trickery!" she shouted at the Bacchae, throwing the street light at them sideways like a boomerang.
someone
Rose, Rooftop
Rose watched the ensuing battle anxiously. When one of the Braccae threw a vial, she quickly put two and two together. She turned to Spider-Woman. "You have to get me down there."
Rose.
Shut up. You know what that is.
I know.
I can help.
Fine.
"That vial that she got splashed with? It's poison."
[TOP SECRET]
Street
The lamppost struck the bacchae who had poisoned Angela and knocked her down.
However, the angel would start feeling ill about now.
"Hah! You're doomed, stranger!" another one of her female foes boasted, "That was hydra poison! If it could kill Hercules' human form, it will definitely end you!"
Museum
The battle was going badly for the 'beekeepers'. In some distant laboratory, their master looked on at events impassively. He didn't care what happened to his minions; they were expendable. Their purpose was just to carry on-the-field experiments. Which reminded him:
Once again, he whispered into his communicator:
"Release the prototype."
Immediately, some of his men who were still aboard their hovercraft set to work. The ship suddenly split open, and there, on a metal slab, was visible a large, featureless, yellow-green humanoid figure. After a few seconds, its eyes illuminated and it hummed to life, getting up and off the slate, and started walking ominously towards the heroes!
King of Lame-Style
Hall of Science
"Ok-ok! Sorry!" said Riri as she directed D1 to dive-bomb on the evil bee-keepers and fly around them aiming to distract them. After zipping around Riri directed D1 to sneak up on the new weird ominous guy and attempt to taze him from behind. "I hope this doesn't wreck it" thought Riri out loud to herself.
edited 22nd Aug '17 5:29:57 PM by Sanojutsu
The graceless warrior, wielder of the edgeless blade, prophet of the old religions, writer of fluent nonsense, saviour of soul and song.
"THE MUSEUM"
"Uh-oh."
This was bad. Cap had managed to route most of the Evil Beekeepers (TM), with Riri helping him top mop up the last of them, (how was she and that... whatever that was doing it anyway,) but it seemed the Beekeepers one last trick up their sleeve. He didn't even need to go up against it to know what it was. The Nazi's had had plenty of robots at their disposal; he knew one when he saw it. And he also knew that as good as he was, he wouldn't have much of a chance on his own; it could probably crush his skull and eat it for breakfast if it wanted to. He really didn't want to do this — he didn't want to risk going through it all over again, nevermind being a damn hypocrite — but he didn't see much choice. He had issues, but he wasn't an idiot.
"Riri," he said, "see if you can use whatever that is to keep it busy until Tabatha lights things up! Tabatha, ignore what I said earlier! Give that thing everything you've got!" He then crouched to the ground while covering himself with his shield, hoping to protect himself against what he was hoping to be the oncoming fireworks show...
edited 22nd Aug '17 5:46:08 PM by kkhohoho
King of Lame-Style
Hall of science
Its hard to argue with orders from the Captain, so instead of going sneaky she pulled off and began buzzing around the large automaton like bi-planes around King Kong(as she took mental notes and thought of building something similar herself). She considered playing something Cap related as to taunt the mechanical monster, but she chose instead something more on the lines of upbeat and distracting to blast out of D1.
edited 22nd Aug '17 5:45:00 PM by Sanojutsu
The graceless warrior, wielder of the edgeless blade, prophet of the old religions, writer of fluent nonsense, saviour of soul and song.
The robotic newcomer just followed Riri's device with its gaze.
It also looked at Captain America and Boom-Boom.
And did nothing else.
It was just- staring at them. As if- waiting for something.
edited 22nd Aug '17 6:13:48 PM by Sijo
NYC Streets - Angela
"This Hercules must be truly powerful, for a poison used upon him to bring such pain to an Angel," Angela roared at the Bacchae. She reached for her belt, drawing forth the Blades of Ichor in the form of a small dagger. In a flash, she stabbed it into her left shoulder, slicking the blade with her own blood."How would a pitiful band of the daughters of Midgard fare against such a thing, I wonder?" she taunted, flicking the weapon ahead. As she did so, it transformed into a whip, the blood upon it being flung at the Bacchae.
Outside the Hall of Science
Tabitha whipped up a small bomb. The robot thing wasn't attacking - yet. It had to be powering up, so they had to attack while it was vulnerable.
"Don't have to tell me twice!"
With that, she threw it at the weird robot's head. She didn't wait for it to react before making another one.
New York Hall of Science
"Zola? Zola... Oh right, old timey Nazi scientist. Er no, I'm not like that" said D1 hovering in place and then came out of her hiding spot, a nook on the behind of a particularly big geological exhibit. She waved at the Cap, walking towards him with her tablet under her arm and said "Riri Wiliams, sir, at your service" she said giving a military salute, then she dropped it, gave a little laugh "Sorry, always wanted to do-/-say that, seemed appropriate."
The graceless warrior, wielder of the edgeless blade, prophet of the old religions, writer of fluent nonsense, saviour of soul and song.