2012-11-29 Outside Interference 3

The flight is largely uneventful but it is long, and there's a lot of boring water to see. It turns out the pilot's name is Flynn, and he's... not so indoctrinated. In fact, he barely knows that much about HYDRA. Eventually, the banks over, and the island comes into view. Is that... yes, that, dear friends, is an active volcano. Let the commentary commence.
Soon enough, the wheels hit the tarmac on a landing strip literally sticking out of a cave built into the volcano. Flynn taxis in, commenting as he flips switches. "Look... I don't know what you guys really have going on and I really don't want to, but I'm just gonna say this-- I'm offloading, then I think I'm going to fly somewhere else. Got a bad feeling lately. If you guys ever need a pilot, swing by the diner on Main Street in Potsdam. Upstate New York." There's already HYDRA people showing up to offload the plane. It seems they are WAY more efficient and on the ball out here.
He seems nice. Too bad Spider-Girl, disguise and all, is far too distracted by the fact that they have landed at a legit /supervillain volcano lair/ to say much about it. At least... not out loud. Her phone gets quickly stuffed back into her pocket after a quick flurry of typing.
: the_spider_girl: The temptation to use 4square right now is /nearly overwhelming/.
After a quick look to the others, Spider-Girl is up and moving down the ramp, with a quick, crisp nod to the much-more-together mooks unloading the plane. Right. We're just. Gonna. Keep our mouth shut for now, because the alternative does not end well for her. One heck of a Tango.
Rain is at least used to flying, although it's much akin to going from a motorcycle to a car. She is polite to their pilot. There's a nod to the fellow, and she will just um, quietly do her best to resemble a proper HYDRA employee. She can't seem to blame the man for his bad feeling about the place. She does at least nod at his offer. Duly noted. In like F-- wait... Nevermind. Regardless, she pauses for a moment. An actual. Volcanic. Lair. Don't they worry about eruptions? Especially the sort that tend to terrorize island dwellers? Rain files it away and follows Spider-Girl. Her I <3 HYDRA mug is long forgotten, lost in the solemn shift to serious business.
'@Spoiler_Alert: afk, terrorism' is the last of what turned out to be a flurry of tweets from a terminally bored Spoiler. Once she started to get the picture that Flynn was, in fact, not a crazy person, she started peppering him with all manner of questions about life as a pilot for terrorist-hire between bouts of texting; it very possibly might have taken a great amount of willpower not to start @shit_flynn_says with some of the responses, depending on how forthcoming the man was.
After giving the Tango mooks a quick onceover, she just tucks her phone away and scurries down the ramp without bothering to bellow the proper greeting; she's sure they won't mind too much. If any of them actually do look at her funny, she can just give them a salute or something.
Sam's picking Flynn's brain about the way to fly this crate. He's a fast learner, he's managed the Blackbird before. When they're all ready to go, he salutes Flynn and slips out of his seat. "Thanks, man. Appreciate the help." With that, he's got to catch up to SG to see if that tablet thing will render any assistance, like a map of the base. Not that he expects PRISON to be labelled on it, but there are often suspicious blank spots.
"Sure, brosef. Don't get shot," Flynn supplies helpfully and settles himself into prepping the plane for the return trip. He doesn't get out on these trips. Not at bases like these.
One can understand why. Some of what worked at the supply base is clearly not going to work here. These guys have their stuff together on a level that is frightening. Even the tablet, though it is automatically attempting to connect, is insisting on a user authentication, now.
And, in fact, while the workers unloading the plane don't pay them much mind... they don't go unnoticed. "You four!" one of the officers shouts, waving them down. "You came on the plane? Transfers, I suppose," he muses with a bit of a sneer.
Spider-Girl is a pretty computer-savvy person, don't get her wrong. But she's no hacker. She tilts it to let the others get a load of the now-entirely-useless screen before the shout gets her attention, and she whips her attention up to the officer. RIGHT. Proper posture, stiff upper lip. Let Sam do the talking. He's... he's tallest. Obviously.
Thumbsup to not getting shot. Rain's a good audience, smiling faintly. She has to like the guy. This heightened level of organization has her worried. There's going to be badges and such involved at some point. Or she hopes not, anyway. She frowns a bit, her smile faded and forgotten. She doesn't have a snazzy device to post to a tweet, and she would probably butt up against the 140 character limit. For now, she just nods meekly to the officer, going quiet and standing straight, looking between the group. Who looks most important...? Certainly not the woman with dark glasses.
Sam salutes with a very serious, "Hail HYDRA," then nods. "Yes, sir." He gives the officer his best completely innocent, I-am-a-blank-slate look. He's good at that one. He's not going to make excuses or explain. He'll let the officer fill in the blanks. Every military organization is full of dropped balls and mixed messages. He'll respond to whatever the officer feels is going on instead of trying to make something up.
"Newbies." It is very strange hearing it out of his mouth, not least because the venom involved is like what all those online gamer jerks are aspiring to if only they knew they were. The officer thumbs over his shoulder. "You are meant to be in with the rest of them. We will have you properly molded soon enough. Assembly hall, on the double." A pause. "Hail HYDRA."
It's not hard to get there-- there's all sorts of irritable people along the way to shove them in the right direction. The assembly hall itself turns out to be... well, mostly empty, save for a pair of figures on a small elevated platform and perhaps a dozen HYDRA goons standing in ranks at a loose kind of attention. The man dominating the space is dressed in purple, with an equipment harness full of weapons, and a matching purple mask with little gold accents, including a HYDRA logo on the sleeve. He appears to be droning on with a longwinded speech about HYDRA's goals and achievements, in a masterfully-tuned sort of cadence that lends itself well to indoctrinating recruits. Outsiders... meet Baron Zemo.
Spider-Girl knows when to echo a "Hail HYDRA" and, perhaps more importantly, she knows when she spin on her heel and go exactly where the nice terrifying man says to go. Stick with the group, Anya, you don't want this to go like that second grade field trip to the Bronx Zoo.
Spider-Girl casts a sidelong look at Rain that silently conveys a massive amount of 'what the hell is this' before she lifts her chin and moves further into the hall. Right. Do... do supervillains sit in assemblies? Should she be finding her class' row and sitting indian style? These are not questions she ever anticipated asking herself in a volcano lair.
Yeah. Rain's vaguely familar. She frowns and does her best to look apologetic. She shuffles along with the irritable crowd, staying close to the others. She blinks at the guy in purple, keeping her dark glasses up. She looks positively owlish in her confusion at Spider-Girl. She's not sure what the hell it is, besides a frightening sort of organization. She does offer a quiet, "They probably stay in squads...?" She whispers. But either way, she'll echo HAIL HYDRAs and try to see if it's squads, finding seats or ... free for all seating.
Sometimes, Spoiler accentuates her 'Hail!'s with a green-gloved fist held up even with her head. For solidarity. In fact, it's still hovering there when they make it into the assembly and she catches a glimpse of the spirited, purple-clad leader of the organization.
Of course, his attire does prompt her to turn that fist 'round and shake it indignantly in his direction a time or two before she remembers where she is and hastily tucks both hands behind her back. After quickly checking around to make sure none of the mooks actually noticed, she hisses, "/Thief/," with a narrow-eyed glare on the good Baron.
This is actually... going pretty well. It's fascinating. Sam wishes he could tape all this. He's going to have to let the Professor pick his brain when he gets back. To the casual observer, he must look absolutely rapt, soaking in every word from Zemo's... mask. He does look around once in a while, trying to take in the rank markings, seeing who stands out, who might be worth following up on after the fact. All this observing is keeping him from really dealing with the fact that they are in the middle of fascist terrorist organization without a smidgen of backup.
On and on, and while it's all very interesting... it's not really specific about plans and goals. Just all of that 'world domination' stuff villains love to go on about. It's... hypnotising, in it's way, eventually, though, he transitions onto a new subject. "Tonight, we have a special surprise, everyone. We have guests! It appears that some intrepid sorts have taken issue with some of our recent activities and..." he gestures with a pair of walking fingers across one palm "...snuck themselves into the base to make their greivances known. Isn't that exciting? Yes, yes, I know. It really is. I have debated for some time how to welcome our guests, and after much thought, I have come to a decision on the matter." They eyes peering out from the mask sweep across the Outsiders, along with a hand. "Welcome, my dear weapons. I am Baron Zemo. We truly are honored. Perhaps this is the point where you might like to throw caution to the wind, but that would be, I assure you, most unwise. Particularly as I am prepared to offer you a most generous placement in our grand endeavor."
Someone was thinking this was going well. That has to be it. They thought it and they jinxed it. Spider-Girl casts a suspicious look over her three comrades, trying to decide who the most likely culprit could be, before glancing around the room to weigh their options.
"Hope you paid attention when Flynn was talkin'," Spider-Girl hisses in an aside to Sam, before she rises back to her feet, moves away from the others, and tugs off her HYDRA mask to reveal... her Spider-Girl mask. What, you thought she'd leave the suit at home? As if. Maybe the less-than-sterling reputation of New York's wallcrawlers can come in handy, for once. "Okay, big guy," she calls towards the stage, holding up her hands. "Ya got me. I'm listenin'."
Ah snap. Rain was listening, kind of interested in seeing how this whole business works. That, and the friggin' purple mask. Eat your heart out, Prince. Rain pauses, freezing. Wait. Do they mean her? They totally mean her. Nuts. He did say guestS plural, after all. Maybe he's bluffin' with his muffin? Could she hope he's bluffing? Her eyes are still wide behind her sun glasses. Should she admit to being one of them? They always know, though. She is quiet, watching Spider-Girl. She'll totally stay at least as close as she can.
Spoiler would yank her mask off all dramatically, but she doesn't imagine Baron Zemo would be all that moved by anything Stephanie Brown, High School Junior has to say. Crossing her arms defiantly, she tilts her chin up towards the colour thief and shoots back, "If we /have/ to, but like--I haven't been loving the vibe around here so far." Swallowing, she lowers her eyes to the ground and starts trying to tally up the gear she managed to bring along: her one batarang. A few flash bombs. Taser. Firecrackers. Coins; et cetera. If only they'd gotten those plasma weapons she was hoping for.
"/Major/ points off," she quietly tacks on, after a moment.
Well. What Sam needs now is to be in the same place as Laura... preferably for all of them to be in the same place as Laura. If Zemo is serious about using them, Sam's in no great hurry.
"We've been listening with great interest, Baron," he says respectfully, stepping forward and stopping in a clear space, hands clasped behind his back. "We're only concerned about our friend who's a guest of yours. We still value loyalty. May we see her while we consider your generous offer?"
Zemo chuckles. "Yes, she seemed convinced you'd come." He gestures. "It's how I knew to expect you, of course. I am impressed with the accuracy. Though I am not surprised by it." He gestures towards Spider-Girl. "It is nothing complicated. You lend your efforts to conquer the world, and there is a place in that world for you. Simple." They can see his face shift under the mask-- it looks like a smile. "But you know, ever since I was a boy, i have been very good at understanding what others are thinking. And I think you are thinking to stall, not to join. To position for effect. I congradulate you on your sucesses thus far-- I am not surprised that idiot MODOK lost the cube base."
He gestures to the other figure on the podium, who has been shrouded in a hooded robe. HYDRA likes it's theatricality. "Good news, though-- I am happy to acquiesce to your request," he muses towards Sam.
Laura steps forward and sheds the hood, and the cloak, with a dispassionate air. It's been a while since she's worn a sleeveless combat suit, and last time it had an X on the chest, not HYDRA's Skull-and-Tentacle logo.
Zemo steps away, and the smirk is ALL OVER his voice. "I have so been looking forward to seeing if she's as good as advertised."
For a moment, Spider-Girl looks puzzled -- much like with Zemo, it shows through her mask. Cube base? She's racking her mind trying to figure out what, precisely, is remotely cube-like about the silo, before she is quite thoroughly distracted by the Big Reveal.
"...ah," Spider-Girl says lightly, glancing between Laura and Zemo's retreating form. It takes her a minute to find the right words as she turns her focus more fully to the subject of their rescue, but she finds them. "Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal."
"..." Rain is quiet and glances back and forth. Her eyebrows lift. He's pretty good. She rubs the back of her head. "... ah, snap," He's good. She pulls off her sunglasses, because only a guy named Corey can wear his sunglasses at night. Oh, if only she could glare that smirk off his voice. But regardless, she looks more than a little worried. "Um." And here she is without duct tape or a sleeping spell. She definitely regrets this. There's tinges of guilt, too. But what can they do...
Maybe MODOK kept his collection of AIM-engineered Rubick's cubes at the Silo; Spoiler makes a mental note to go digging for 80's treasures whenever they make it back to the base--
--until, that is, Zemo unveils his companion. By the time she's done studying the clawed girl - in great detail, just to be /sure/ - that already over-optimistic 'when' just tumbles all the way over to an 'if', and the blonde vigilante swallows back a lump.
"I--" Her eyes flick between Sam, Rain, and Anya, and then, as they set on Laura, she slowly holds her hands out in front of herself, and then--starts--convulsing.
And making weird noises--no, wait, those are gun sounds. And pantomimed automatic weapons fire; the display stops after a couple of seconds, and then she flashes a weak smile up at the mutant.
"R-remember? Godfather? Good, uh, times, right?" Beat. "With--all that murder."
Sam learned a thing or two over the last little while, one of those things being the power of ruthlessness. He doesn't hesitate, he doesn't even turn around, he just slams a wide blast of power out behind him that catches the dozen HYDRA goons standing there and blows them all back against the wall with extreme prejudice. The general effect is the same as whipping a handful of GI Joes around. Those kung-fu action grips only hang on so long. Weapons and other gear go scattering in all directions, ready for the picking. Sam's willing to do the same to Laura--she, at least, will survive it--but he doesn't think Spider-Girl will forgive him if he doesn't give peace (or at least a web to the face) a chance.
Laura rolls her eyes in a patiently exasperated kind of way when Anya let's fly with the movie reference, then glances aside towards Zemo as if to see if he noticed. "The Baron was right," she muses, as if bored-- but she's also choosing words and tone carefully. "I *am* an Outsider."
Then Sam's blast goes off and she dashes forward while he's occupied, zeroing in on Spider-Girl. She makes for a series of strikes that are *just* off-target, then grabs for the other girl's wrists in a far faster and more accurate fashion.
"Do me a favor and don't miss the big red button," she hisses, then hauls backwards and plants a foot in Anya's midsection so she can roll and throw her at the control console before popping back up to her feet.
Through all of this, Zemo does not seem very worried-- even when his minions get blasted out of commission. One wonders why... but men like this guy don't exactly have that level of self-confidence without a reason.
Spider-Girl can't /not/ look back when Sam blasts the goons behind them, and it's just her luck that it makes her miss Laura's wink. ...okay, it was an eyeroll, not a wink, but. Shut up. She turns back to the stage just in time to see INCOMING X-23 which at least makes for a /very/ convincing confrontation as she twists and bobs to avoid the blows, stumbling back in the process. Crap. Crap. Crap -- aaaaand grabbed.
Spider-Girl blinks owlishly at Laura behind her mask and starts to open her mouth before she gets unceremoniously /flung/ across the room, arcing gracefully through the sky in a tangle of flailing limb and "waitwaitwaitWAITWAITWAAAAAAIT--" before she successfully manages to begin /this/ conflict with HYDRA precisely the way they began it at the Den: by landing face-first on something. But at least her face hit the big red button, just like Laura asked.
When the poo hits the fan, you hold up a lawnmower. It's about now Rain wishes she had some duct tape. And she has to wonder why Zemo is so calm. Drugs? Extra red buttons? - Well, Rain might conjure some ice - though she's settled in to start casting. Some ice might be handy, be it for Spider-Girl's face or slipping minions up. So Rain decides to take cover behind either Conveniently Located Furniture, That Guy No One Likes or A Pillar. She winces sympathetically as Spider Girl hits the button with her face. Maybe ... she should hurry on that order of ice.
"Uh--" Spoiler's eyes flick uncertaintly between Laura and Zemo. One is a brainwashed assassin, the other a terrorist bent on world dominations; her hands drift absently past compartments holding a tiny bottle of hairspray, some hairpins, and ball-bearings as she considers how /awful/ every one of her options really is, until finally--/finally/--
"Rrrarrgh!"
--she decides to at first charge, then /leap/ after Laura in the hopes of getting a hold of the girl from behind. Or at least the side; really, she'll take meeting Laura in any way other than 'head on', because it doesn't take a genius to imagine how /that/ might go. If she's successful, she'll try to keep the mutant occupied enough for Spider-Girl to get her bearings back and prevent Laura from gutting the Gothamite.
It'll probably involve a hell of a lot of hairpulling and not much else; so it goes when the bulk of one's girl-fighting experience comes from the school yard.
Sam didn't miss the eyeroll or the careful wording. That means he's free to unleash a full array of energy blasts at Zemo, which he does without hesitation. If Laura's okay, this is on. Zemo is canny and fast, he gets behind a console in time to avoid Sam's inital volley, but Sam's not about to let up.
For the record, Sam also doesn't miss that neither Rain nor Spoiler go for the weapons and HYDRA goodies lying all over the floor. If they're going to fight HYDRA in future, the team is going to have to work on "by any means necessary" in a pinch. Maybe they should start taking themselves a little more seriously, because they're about to leave an impression.
Zemo certainly seems to be taking them plenty seriously. Since he returns fire with a straight-up disintegration pistol. We're not even talking one of those Hydra guns-- it splashes off a bit of floor and there's just a small crater where the matter... simply fell apart into constituent particles.
Anya's expert button-pushing resulted in some loud alarms and heavy blast doors slamming into place at the doors as the whole base goes into lockdown... which will keep HYDRA from making an effective go at the whole thing.
Laura, meanwhile, fends off Spoiler. Since she doesn't really want to hurt the other girl, this results in something akin to a brief slappy-fight. "Stop, I'm alright! It was just an act," she insists, slipping free to charge Zemo. "Grab their guns, we'll need them getting out of here."
It doesn't take too long for the Baron to piece the rest together. "Clever girl. You are considerably better than advertised! Disappointing." She takes a swipe at him, claws popping out, and is surprised herself when she catches nothing but air, and Zemo grabs her wrist, making an interested sound. "Retractable claws. Interesting. And familiar." Laura finds herself sailing through the air, tossed.
Spider-Girl is okay. Her pride, less so, but she has experienced far worse. Normally, she doesn't care for guns -- but this is a /volcano lair/ and the gun is trying to /disintigrate them/. So she's willing to make an exception. She darts for one of the discarded rifles and whips it up to pop off a shot towards Zemo once Laura is clear with all the expertise of a NERF and paintball veteran.
"Speaking of 'out' -- let's do that," Spider-Girl says crisply, glancing around for a likely looking spot before she points -- near the ceiling, where it would be hard for normal footsoldiers to easily follow. "Make a hole!"
Um. Holy crap. The only time Rain's dealt with distintegration was either in a D&D game or someone magical was irritated. She at least scatters some ice in front of a few goons. Take, THAT OSHA! Splitting their gadgets might be less bad than getting zapped or hurt, after all. "Yeah, since... there doesn't seem to be a door-" She agrees. She'll summon her broom, so she can help get up there or at least get out of the way and blast them. "It's a good thing those aren't standard issue," Either way, her own gun might come out in a moment.
After a brief time spent just standing there, face turned away while she madly flails away in Laura's general direction, a couple of things occur to Spoiler:
A.) She is having a /slap fight/ with a brainwashed girl who has knives in her arms, and,B.) Said girl was only pretending to be brainwashed all along.
Technically, of course, 'B' is less of a revelation and more the product of actually paying attention for, like, a second, but that's good enough for Spoiler. As Laura breaks away, the blonde runs and dives to scoop up a fallen rifle, intending to flop onto her back and oblige Anya by snapping a shot off at the ceiling once she's clear. Thanks to her training, it actually goes pretty well; no falling into any man-made craters or anything!
Thanks to the patch of ice near her chosen gun, she also ends up sliding across the floor on her back for a few feet; rather than one clean shot through the ceiling, she sprays the air above them with beam fire until she skids off of the ice and comes to a stop.
This is why God gave Sam two hands. One to direct a blast straight up, one to lay down a bit of cover fire in Zemo's direction. "Let's get this show on the road." He takes off slowly, sheilds up, determined to make as much of a shiny nuisance of himself as possible while everyone else bails. After all, he's already died once. What's twice?
Somehow, it just... all works. Zemo doesn't manage to get off more than token shots, the roof gets a hole blown in it, Laura picks herself off and makes a dive to catch hold of Rain's broom to hitch a ride out, yelling "Up, up!" while she dangles and rains blue plasma bolts down to cover the others and... it probably all look more brilliant than it is.
Once they do get up onto the next floor, she gives Rain a terse 'thanks' and heads for the closest blast door, using her claws to carve a hole into the hallway. "We'll need to move fast before he figures out what we're doing," she announces to the others." A pause. "...thanks for coming."
Super brilliant. That's the Outsiders. Spider-Girl makes a dash for the wall, offering Spoiler a hand on her way past. Not to her feet, no, that would be /boring/. She hauls her up and into a /highly dignified/ piggyback ride, and without missing a step, goes zooming right up the wall and springs up through the hole. This kind of thing, she's a little more practiced at than gunplay. Woosh!
"Of course we came," Spider-Girl tells Laura, flashing her a quick grin. Only once Sam makes it up after them does she start moving again. Hangar. They need to get back to the hangar. "The can opener broke."
Rain will reach over to help make sure Laura is steady before they begin their climb. Up, up and away! Wizard style! Ok, witch style, but why not? "Um, sorry about the ice," She offers. Rain turns red, looking REALLY sheepish. She can at least own up to her mistake. There's no time for it now, though, and she nods. "I think we'd be sad if we didn't," She offers. "Um." She's keeping them flying. But she's not sure where she's going to get a can opener. An engineer without a can opener. Her life is sad.
Getting a piggyback ride to safety is a great idea! So quick, so efficient; Spoiler is all too eager to hop aboard the Corazon Express to freedom.
And then--the piggyback ride /actually happens/, and it's all bouncing and jostling and trying not to throw up because that would be a total superhero party foul; she will be as green as her uniform when they make it up to solid ground.
"Any--*hpp!*--time--" she gasps while hanging on for deer life and trying her damndest not to accidentally strangle Spider-Girl or something in the process.
This is Sam's crack team of... Outsiders. How the heck did these supervillains get to be "super" in the first place? He takes off after the girls and catches up as Laura's making the hole. "Of course we came," he says, echoing Spider-Girl without knowing it. "We're a team." He gestures to indicate that he should go first, what with being slightly more durable than the others. It only takes a moment for him to orient himself to where they left the hangar. And Flynn. Dude, Flynn can't be happy. "I can try and take out the hangar doors if we can find the plane we came in on. Otherwise... we'll just make it up as we go."
Laura... turns in the exact opposite direction everyone else is suggesting heading. She's quite clearly going further in and up, and she just carves open doors as they go. "Hangar's going to be a fight. I looked around while I was waiting," she explains.
Where are they headed? Turns out they are headed to a smallish landing platform in-- survey says-- the caldera of this actually quite ACTIVE volcano. Though HYDRA appears to not be completely insane. Beyond the pad, there's a mass of machinery spanning the lava, and it appears to be... well, there for some sort of reason. Power generation, maybe.
Of much more interest to the escaping Outsiders is the stubby, somewhat pregnant-looking VTOL craft crouched on the pad on what seems like not-quite-enough wheels. Otherwise, though... it looks terribly advanced. Laura stops at a control console and pokes at it. "This'll take a minute," she warns, as the sounds of boots comes down the hall. Looks like HYDRA figured it out, and they're not all that slow.
"Air Spidey is usually way smoother," Spider-Girl tells Spoiler, giving her a light, apologetic pat on the shoulder. And then it's all about the running -- after Laura. Because she's why they're /there/, so she might as well keep her in sight, right? Right. Even if that involves... volcano. Are you serious. After a moment's pause, she tucks the rifle under her arm so she can yank out her phone, whip it up, and snap a photo. Smile, HYDRA. You just got INSTAGRAM'D.
: the_spider_girl: I am not even making this up. *IMAGE*
Spider-Girl has played team shooters before. She knows the score. Once she has hurriedly stowed her phone, she parks herself near Laura and the console, rifle trained on the path inside. "Fifty-nine," she tells Laura lightly, with a crisp nod to Sam. Door duty. Let's DO THIS. "Fifty-eight. Fifty-seven." Ah. Mooks. Time to indiscriminately spray the passage with laser beams and hope she hits something that is not, in fact, a teammate.
Holy crap, lasers! Rain seems relieved they aren't going to be in a huge fight after all. Air Spidey. She contemplates the idea of flying spiders. Then stops because that is just scary. Too much ... too much spider action, yeah, that's it. She doesn't have a phone with her, so they are spared further instagramming from Rain. "Righto..." She'll help pelt the mooks and stay with the others.
"Tag me!" Spoiler breathlessly exclaims once she realizes what Spider-Girl's up to. She's a stolen rifle to deal with, a breakneck ride to recover from, a volcano base to escape from; going for her own phone /now/ is out of the question.
/Next/ time she's in the heart of a terrorist stronghold, she'll have to remember to get a few pictures before things go totally pear-shaped.
Hernce the running stops and she's only gotta worry about shooting into the throng of goons, things do get a lot simpler: spray'n'pray is the order of the day.
Everyone's seen the opening of A New Hope, right? This is a lot like that, with goons coming down a short hallway and getting shot a lot. Also with the... lots and lots of goons trying to push through anyway. Fanatics are dangerous, mmkay.
Laura manages to get the console to unlock the VTOL before Anya finishes counting and gives a yell as the ramp lowers. "Anyone else know how to fly?" she asks, scurrying back over to where they're holding the goons off. "Video games count," she adds, thumbing over her shoulder. "Speaking of, who plays... um... Call of Honor? There's a gunner's chair."
"Hero's Duty," Spider-Girl 'corrects' Laura, pitching her voice to carry. It's important information, you know, much like "SO TAGGED" being called to Spoiler. Vital. Information. Once the ramp is down, she turns and shoves her rifle into Laura's arms -- she doesn't /know/ Laura is a better shot, but she's pretty damned sure it's a safe bet -- and goes sprinting up into the plane. "All aboard! Hayseed took some lessons on our way out but I think we might need some shields 'til we're clear of this place!" Look at her. Thinking. Thinking, and shouting "SHOTGUN" as she dives into the gunner's chair. Yeeeeeees.
"She totally called it," Rain sagely and smiling watches Spider-Girl take the Gunner's chair. "I... don't really," She admits. She rubs the back of her head. "At least, outside of riding my broom around. I think we could probably work out the equipment -" Electrical engineering, why must you fail her now!? "There might be an instruction manual somewhere, too, I bet," She points out. She will try to rifle around for one. If not, it's time to start peering over buttons.
With the gunner's position occupied and Rain demuring, Spoiler has little choice but to slide in behind the VTOL's controls. She briskly cracks her knuckles, exhales a shaky breath, then gingerly wraps her fingers around the controls and shouts, "I got it! We're taking off in three--wait--" She glances down and quickly jabs a glowing button.
"--three! Two! One! Here we go!"
And that... is the story of how the Outsiders crashed a stolen vehicle into the side of a volcano and died.
...
...
...
Nah, just kidding; flying a vehicle that's half video game? Spoiler can totally manage that! It won't be a particularly /smooth/ ride, but the pot-bellied craft will emerge from the fires of Base Tango as soon as everyone is strapped in.
Laura lets Spoiler run up the ramp first, covering the escape, then turns and dashes for the ramp, where it becomes obvious why she isn't flying herself-- she's the best shot on the team (she's pretty sure she's the only actually-qualified sniper, point of fact), so she sits somewhat precariously on the ramp with an arm around one of the struts and snaps off shots while they lift. Eventually, of course, they're up a bit and Anya can get going with the energy cannon swivel-mounted to the nose, and she crawls in the rest of the way and slap the button to raise the ramp.
The VTOL is surprisingly un-wobbly... probably because of the very nice avionics package that keeps it easy to fly. As they get a little higher, the shots from below stop coming, and Anya gets a nice view of the three supports holding the power generator up over the lava in the caldera.
"We are /so good at this/," Spider-Girl declares, and she even means it. Seat-of-pants heroics are not the most common in teams, true, but... but it's workin' out. And she likes that. Almost as much as she likes swiveling the nose-cannon around, given the sudden burst of laughter that comes from her when the HYDRA goons on the platform see the weapon suddenly aimed their way and begin making a highly dignified scramble back towards the relative cover of the entry hall. She only fires a couple of shots to encourage this. Scram, snakeys.
"We should really ruin their day," Spider-Girl says thoughtfully, looking back over her shoulder. "Can we ruin their day? Because they ruined our /week/, so a day is fair, right?"
"You could blow up the supports to the generator, or..." Hmm. Rain could create fire or encourage the lava up. Yes. It only takes a spark! And she'll improvise. Rain will cling to her pistols for dear life and concentrate like it's a Mathalon. C'mon... fortunately, she's not having to fly or anything, but with all these heat around and blasting and what have you, it would just take - *POP*. Like a downed beast, one support crumples, groaning dramatically. It should be enough, but there is room for other shots. Not long, though. Aching and arthritic, the other supports are giving way as their third is lost.
Once they're safely up in the air, Spoiler takes a break from the controls to fetch her phone.
: @spoiler_alert: RT this if you flew out of an exploding volcano today #yolo
"Suck it, HYDRA!" she whoops when she glances down from her phone and sees the havoc her teammates are unleashing below. "We are /out/," she adds, beaming a grin around at her teammates. "Those jerks had /no idea/ who they were messing with!"
And Rain scores herself the MVP title for the day by Most Raw Damage Done, as the power generator for the whole darn base creaks, groans, makes snapping noises and falls into the volcano. Which, by the way, is large enough to splash a significant amount of lava up the inside of the thing. Especially once the generator starts exploding once the lava melts through into sensitive bits. It is truely a glorious thing to see. Zemo's gotta be MAD.
Laura moves up through the craft, racking the swiped gun into a weapon rack designed for the purpose, and leans over Spoiler's shoulder to press a switch. "Stealth systems engaged," a remarkably pleasant computer voice announces. "Bring it around to 061," Laura starts, then looks thoughtful at the other girl, and points out the left window. "That way."
And thus the Outsiders fly off into the sunset. Ish. Just a little wobbly here and there.
Category:Logs
Category:Events