2014.06.04 - All In 1 - Dead Man's Hand

It has been an incredibly quiet week in the world of SHIELD. Very quiet. Business as usual at its finest. Of course in a city of this size, someone always has something up their sleeves, and that's why, to nobody's surprise on the helicarrier, an alarm is detected going off. Thank goodness whenever something lights up in any of the police stations, SHIELD gets an alert, too. One never knows when the local law enforcement needs to be backed up.
In this particular case, a lab belonging to the Center of Disease Control set off a silent alarm, warning of an intrusion. This is one of those situations where it was passed onto SHIELD willingly. A CDC lab? Nothing good can come of an intrusion there.
“I'm sure you're all joyful to hear my voice on your days off,” comes the voice of Deputy Director Maria Hill over the comms. Ah, the downside of being a SHIELD agent: you're perpetually on call. Just in case something happens. “We have a break-in in a CDC lab just outside the city. Find out what's going on. Meet up outside the lab. Go in.” This is the message everyone gets.
"Gotcha boss, on the way." Agent Barton then gears up in his SHIELD uniform and heads towards the lab on his Avengers Skycycle, "In route will let you know when I get there. Any intel available?"
Jo jas been keeping busy lately, just last night he had helped defeat a giant river monster. This is why he is glad to be working of SIELD, his clothes got incredibly dirty during that fight, and he has spare SHIELD uniforms. He only has one LSH uniform, and while is has a lot of good properties, it is the only one he has. If something actually does succeed in staining it, he can not get it replaced.
He hears the alert while in his bunk and quickly dresses in a clean uniform. Reporting to the control deck, he gets the coordinates of the building and locates it with his Ultra Vision. Switching to speed, he exits the carrier and then switches to flight. He arrives at the scene quickly and switches to Invulnerability, in that state he is immune to disease. His Transsuit might handle it, but it does not always activate in the cases of subtle threats.
Shrinking Violet isn't familiar with the concept of the 'day-off' it seems, as the call comes in while Violet was doing her own patrols. "A disease control center? I... don't like how that sounds...", she says timidly, but has already adjusted course. Rearing about in mid air, she cuts her flight and drops about ten feet, shrinking along the way, right onto, and into, a power line! A solid two weeks practice navigating the city's power grid may start to pay off.
Still on the comm, her voice comes up timidly "U-uhm... not to be impertient, but... how good is SHIELD issue hasmat? M-my Transsuit should be sufficient for me... but...". Ever worried about her teammates, that was Vi.
“Not much. A few scientists on site used a cellphone to communicate with the police after the alarm was pulled. They said one of their fellows got into a fight with some rough-looking guys, and then these 'things' started coming out of nowhere. They've assured the authorities that none of the diseases they keep locked up for study have been stolen. Apparently that vault still hasn't been breached. Might want to ask when you get there, to be sure.” Hopefully this answers, in a roundabout way, Vi's worries.
The building looks pretty calm at first approach. There are three men standing outside, all wearing labcoats. They look nervous, and are passing back and forth, checking their cellphones, checking the road that leads to the lab... and periodically glancing nervously at the front door.
When someone finally approaches them, one man – the glasses, brown hair, looks immensely relieved. “Oh thank goodness, someone! Are you with the police?”
Clitn Barton smiles to the man, "Close enough." he flashes his SHIELD ID. then he aks ot make sure, "So the diseases are stil lcontained?" he asks nad what do you mean by things?" He gets his bow off his shouldr and nocks an arrow while talking not that it will help against germs or viruses but it makes him feel better.
Jo is wondering what is meant by "things" also, so he says softly, "Ultra Vision". With that in place, he can see for himself what is inside.
Shrinking Violet gives a little 'wince', nervous not for her own sake but her teammates. It takes a minute, but seemingly appearing from nowhere, Shrinking Violet resizes, seeming to appear from dust, just outside the transformer atop the power line. Floating slowly down to the ground, she nods politely to both Clinton, and to Jo, for now simply sitting back and listening.
“It's all contained,” the man assures. He holds up his cellphone. “Security system connected to the cellphones. It's showing us everything's still active.” He casts a nervous glance back to the door, and though he sees nothing, Jo Nah's Ultra Vision tells him exactly what's in there. Human-sized, gorilla-ish lizard things, running up and down the halls. Somewhere within is a body on the ground, and a man and a gun. Fun!
“One of our follows had a meeting with some guys. Don't know who they were. Rough-looking. Simmons here said he heard something about a purchase. Then we heard a gunshot and those... things...” he gestures back into the building. “Came out. I don't... I don't know what they are.”
Clint looks to Vi and Jo and smiles, "Well looks like we got us a job to do." he then says, "Be careful." He tells them both and lets try to stay together." He then heads towards the door.
Jo studies the creatures, thinking over his exobiology lessons. Yes, lessons, the entire time he was in the Legion they had required classes they had to study. Physics, Exobiology, Technology, Self Defense, and other subjects.
Jo says, "I can see them, humanoid basic shape, reptillian scales, long arms. I am not certain, but I think they might be Bandoon."
Shrinking Violet spends a moment glancing over the building itself, having stayed relatively quiet. Stepping to the side, and with a nod to Clint, she turns to the men. "Uhm.. e-excuse me. Is there a central security station in the building? And, are there any area's not covered by camearas?" It's become something of her standard operating procedure. Find the most advantageous field support position, no reason for it to change now. Her eyes dart up briefly when Jo goes into an explanation of the infiltrators, but raises a brow quizzically. "Here? Or.. now.. I suppose would be the better.. ah. Nevermind. If so, what would they want?"
“Security? Uhh... oh, sort of! Just inside. Turn right. It's a little booth. Got a few consoles to control the handful of cameras,” one of the men says to Violet. “Why? How's that going to help?”
In time with Clint walking up to the doors, one of the weird creatures – gorilla-lizard-human-sized thing is suddenly there, and pounds on the glass to no effect. It makes a feral cry and then lopes off, the tatters of clothing dropping to the ground behind it.
In time with Clint walking up to the doors, one of the weird creatures – gorilla-lizard-human-sized thing is suddenly there, and pounds on the glass to no effect. It makes a feral cry and then lopes off, the tatters of clothing dropping to the ground behind it.
Clint steps back a bit as the lizard-y thing show up, "Alirhgt sounds like you two have heard of them. What sort of capabilities do they have and, well how should we procede you two have hte expertise here." At least he cn shoot lizard things those are better then germs.
Jo frowns, "I am not certain they are Bandoon, did you notice the clothing? It looked rather like a person with had just changed to something else. Would there be anything within that could change someone into something like that creature?"
Jo had not seen clothing on the previous ones, he does a quick head count to see if the number of people and reptillians has changed.
Shrinking Violet sighs a little. "I... suppose it won't as much as I would like." she says to the man, and turns to face the building, taking out her Omnicom and tapping away at it. She answers a little more automatically, just before Jo pipes up. "Above human levels of strength, physical durability, endurance and smell, resistant to pulses of light, poor tolerance for extreme temperature variences, known for overly agressive ten~", she starts rambling, all from the top of her head!
What was coming up on the omnicom was any relevant public (and not-so-public) documents on this particular building. When Jo pipes up, a little blush crosses her cheeks. "U-uhm.. well.. yes there is also that. Well I believe that priority one is safeguarding the vault inside, priority two is apprehen~"WHAM! One of the creatures suddenly leaps up against the all, causing Violet to give a little shriek of surprise. When anyone looks over, she'll be roughly a quarter her normal size, more out of reflex than anything. "S-sion.. Agent Barton, d-do you have anything to protect against contamination?
“Really, you're fine.” The lead – the man in glasses – holds his phone out, tapping a few things to show Vi. “See? Everything reads as normal. But look, um. Charles..” he gestures at the third man, who still hasn't spoken, and has just kept pacing, “...seems to think those things were the rest of our coworkers that didn't make it out. Whatever those men did...” he shudders.
After that first one, a second, then third weird gorilla-thing comes by, beating on the glass doors. They're still not strong enough to do anything. And peering down through the glass allows one to see down to the end of the hall, where a man in a suit periodically walks to and fro as if searching for something.
Clint shakes his head to Vi, "Just my good looks." he trys to use his normal humor but his heart isn't into it.' He does says, "But well I can provide temerature exteremes I have incenderary arrows." he looks to the two of them, "Whatever is going on in there we need to stop it before those things let something loose."
Jo suggests, "Do you have cryogenic arrows, they might be more effective. Reptiles tend to sleep when it is cold. I can do heat easy enough, by Flash vision could fry them...but if they are innocent victims we so not want to harm them."
Shrinking Violet still blushes from her little outburst, even while opening one of the pouches on her utility belt, slowly returning to normal size. Eyes still on the readout she's being given by the scientist, and failing to look into the building at the right time, she draws out what might at first look like a pair of plastic wrap pjama's. Stretchy, skin tight and almost completely invisible, she hands the futuristic environment suit to Clint, saying "Here. It's an environment suit. I.. it SHOULD keep you safe, just.. be careful. We need to get in there and secure the vault before anything else goes wrong. Uhm.." she turns to lok at the silent man, and isntead steps right up to him. "Charles?" she asks in a friendly tone "Were you working on anything that may be relevant? We need as much information as we can get."
The man stops when he hears his name called, and shakes his head. “Me? No, no. But, uh. Our coworker? The one inside who met the guys? Um. I think he was working on some kind of... virus to grant super powers.” A cry of 'WHAT?!' comes from his coworkers, and Charles sighs. “Look, I just... overheard a phone call or two, okay? I have no idea what it works but... but what if that's the result?” he asks, gesturing at the gorilla-things that keep slamming on the door.
The glasses guy-leader sighs. “You'll want to check his work station, I suppose,” he tells Clint. “It's in the back corner in the room at the end of the hall. Power's all on in there according to my security sweep. So.... your answers should be there.
Hawkeye sighs, "Great idea there." He then starts to put on the contamination suit Vi gave him. He also sadly shakes his head to Jo, "Not part of my normal load out." He then nods as he gets directions to the mans work station. "alright what should I look for when i get there?"
Jo is troubled by hurting innocents, and wonders what kind of powers the virus is supposed to be giving. They so far are not strong enough to break the glass, which is presumably some kind of safety glass. Well he does have a thought, "I can try to knock these things out or render them harmless with ultra speed. If those scales protect them from direct attack, they should still be vulnerable to being supn around a few times making them too disy to move."
Ultra speed increases his reflexes, making him very hard to hit. It is not as good a defense as invulnrability, but better than nothing. He should be strong enough to lift a creature this size or grab it and spin it in place...
Shrinking Violet gives a little wince herself. Muttering, almost silently, she says "Self testing maybe? 
Cross contamination?" She was talking entirely to herself as she turns to walk up to the door. "Look for? Uhm... first priority should be to neutralize everyone inside. If there hasn't been full contamination yet, we want to minimize the likelyhood of something... bad.. getting out. I'll head research desk and see what I can find. Jo, could you please do a full building sweep? Look.." she pauses, thinking... "Look for anybody not contaminated, but.. be careful. Something.. feels off."
Finally, enough fists have been banging on the glass so that it shatters entirely. Out spills a half dozen of the gorilla-things. The scientists, predictably, shriek and start running, heading for the road. Two or three romp after them.
It does leave the hallway mostly empty, though who knows what else is in there?
Ok gorilla-lizard things loose have priority. He fires off a brace of arrows not wanting ot harm innocent victims if that is what they ar he uses a net arrow on one and a putty arrow to hopefully stick another in place, "Alright Round them up first then lets head inside."
Jo calls out "Ultra Speed", but he is already in motion. He speeds forward and grabs the first creature, spinning it in place to cause it to collapse from dizziness. Releases it while it is still spinning and moves on to the next until he has those not entangled spinning like tops. It is certainly better than possibly killing some of them with Ultra Strength.
Shrinking Violet starts when the glass shatters, and one would expect the timid girl to cower again. If Violet is one thing though, its dependable in a pinch. She steps to the side as one charges up, as though intending to outright stop it in its tracks! It isn't until the ravenous thing is directly in front of her and swiping that she moves.
Violet steps to the inside of the creature's slash cupping her hands around its wrists. A sharp twist and bend of the arm is followed by a sudden tug. It was larger, heavier, and likely a good deal stronger than she was. She was more skillfull, and thats what counted. In a throw reminiscant of 'modern' jujuitsu, she pulls the lizard to the ground 'firmly'. That is to say, she lays it out firmly enough to at least daze it. Erhm... him. Taking out her omni-tool, she tries to act fast, bending down to try for a blood sample.
The gorilla-things, while strong in a group, don't seem to be much stronger than a regular human. Putty arrow, super speed, and straight out martial arts are all terribly effective. They knock out easily too, so that's awfully handy! Getting closer to the entrance, however, only proves that there are more, and they lope out eagerly, not seeing, apparently, that their fellows were also easily dealt with.
Inside the lab, when the heroes finally get there, is pretty disturbingly quiet. Things were thrown to the side, knocked over, or made a mess of by the gorilla-things. But from the looks of things and the states of various desks, the security area and the like, proves that someone's been rifling through everything. Somebody's looking for something.
Eventually, down the hall, comes the noise of chatter. “Can't find anything. Still looking for more samples. Going to check their storage.” It's a clipped, English voice.
Agent Barton signals for silence as he starts to sneak towards the voices. If he can he will try to get close enough to engage in hand to hand combat since stray bullets could be really, really bad here.
Jo suggests, "You two get inside and find out what is going on, I will keep these things contained."
He continues to corral and spin any creatures he finds, and once allof them are down he checks inside for more making certain all of them are out of the action.
Shrinking Violet was already gone after collecting the sample she wanted. Jo would call out just in time to see her dash around the side of the building. She had the layout of the building, and more importantly, its power grid. Hitching a ride, something that was becoming an iconic trick of hers, she makes her way to the workstation Charles the scientist had mentioned earlier. Over the com, she sounds. "We're counting on you Jo, they go down easy, so try to be gentle. Agent Barton, let me know if you run into anything in there. I'm on route to the workstation Charles mentioned." Such is the speed of electrons that she's barely finished explaining, that she 'steps' out of the computer monitor, standing on the desk about the size of an ant. Step one, make sure she was alone.
Alone? Sort of. Well, okay. Not really. In her part of the spacious back room, Salu is definitely alone. Nobody there. But on the other side of the room, in a glassed-off area is the man in the suit. The door to this area is open, so he can be heard chatting to someone on the other end. Something about not finding the samples and still looking.
More disturbingly, and within view of Vi – and Clint once he gets in there – is a body on the ground. The man's been shot at least six times. Hard to tell with the chest that messy, but six for sure. He's definitely not getting up. There's a smashed beaker on the ground too, and the floor has a puddle of some kind of liquid around it.
Jo, like before, won't find the gorilla-things all that difficult to round up. They don't have any powers, they're just damned ugly to look at. So his speed or his strength will vastly outclass the creatures and make it easier to deal with them.
on the ground near where then mans feet are and lets fly. Hopefulyl that will distract them from searching and turn the focus on him, after all he has bene shot at a lot being exposed ot odd labs things not so much.
Jo looks around a moment, he has these...for lack of a better term...these people contained, but he heeds to keep doing so in order to keep them from harming others or being harmed. That is not good, he needs something more lasting. He needs something like a coil of wire that he can use to wrap the people up and keep them unharmed.
Shrinking Violet grows a little more, just enough to be able to move around the desk at a reasonable pace, but still small enough to be hard to spot, and easy to mistake for something else. "This... should be the workstation. Is this what they're looking for?" She was muttering to herself again, too quiet for someone next to hear to hear, let alone those in a room as large to her as a city. She had already started wandering the desk for evidence. Step one, a USB spike to collect the computers data. Step two, take photographs of relevant documents and samples. Step three, look for anything else of value. Research samples, diagrams, anything. She only has precious few se~was that a thwip?" She looks up, and into the room beyond, just as Hawkeye lets his arrow fly.
While the man in the suit does not, in fact, notice the incrementally larger Shrinking Violet, he does notice Hawkeye. “Hey! Who the hell are you?” He manages to make two large strides, one out of the room and one in Hawkeye's direction, before the archer shoots the arrow. There's a brief moment of confusion; he tries to attack Hawkeye, one of his arms suddenly stretching out... but the stretchy gets lazy and the arm droops... and then he hits the ground bodily. His phone clatters to the ground, too.
There's a lot on the computer. There's data about the virus he was apparently working on. His notes at the very least, can confirm for Vi what Charles was saying earlier. He was definitely trying to work on something that would infect and give powers. There's also a memo indicating on some his trials, the results severely mutated the test mice, turning them into something wild and nasty.
Eventually, Maria Hill comes back on the line. Nobody's been speaking for some time. “Barton. This is Hill. Could use a situation report. What's going on down there?”
"No icky germs free, weird gorilla-lizards the future force are callign the Badoon, but they are contained. Agent Digby is doing hte science stuff and i just knocked out hte baddies at least hte ones we found and we got a dead scientist looks like there is six or so shots put into him." He then says, "Will update youif I learn more. he hten waits to the gas to disapate a bit and retrieves the mans cell phone.
Jo eventually manages to find something to tie up the infected and does so. He switches to Ultra Vision and searches the area for any escapees or any remaining bad guys.
Shrinking Violet watches the man go down, and upsizes fully. Keeping an eye on the door, she leaves behind something special. Namely, a trap. Arranging a separate USB key with just enough data to look enticing, but not actually give away anything crucial, she keeps a special tracking virus on it to. Just in case there's more than one person here. Leaving the drive 'carelessly' on the research table amongst other 'seemingly' useful documents, she makes her way out of the room, graciously immune to the tear gas thanks to her transuit. "Is everything okay out here? Were they alone?"
The man was, indeed, alone. He has no idea on him, and the phone is a typical 'burn phone' – bought in a convenience store. There are some bills, a few coins, a paperclip, and an empty syringe in his pockets, however. The syringe's needle tip is broken off.
“The CDC is sending another group along with the police,” she says. “They may have sent it up to us, but they're coming to secure the area and the CDC is coming to clear the lab. Get whatever's of interest and pull out. ...And tell your future-friends to take pictures of these Badoon-things. I want to see them.”
She backs up. “Wait. You found someone there? Restrain him and bring hm back. Let's see f he'll talk. If not, the police can have him and he can rot in a cell for attacking a CDC lab.”
"Got his cell phone boss, hopefully hthe tech cna works ome magic on it." he then checks the contact list etc but knows he will likely find nothing that easily. He hten cuffs the unconsuious dude. "Alright guys the locals and CDC are on hte way get the good stuff and pull out, also Deputy Director hHill wants pics of the Badoon, one of oyu to make it happen." He then hoist the man over his shoulder and starts to carry him out.
Not finding any further immediate danger, Jo sets about gathering the visual evidence requested using the SHIELd gear he has been given.
Shrinking Violet pulls up her own com. "Assistant Director? I have copies of the hard drive for the researcher working on. It seems its... some sort of mutagen. They are.. were... h-hopefully still are... or can be.. human." It takes a few stumblings over words to get the point out. "It seems even many of his co-workers aren't quite sure the extent of what he was working on. Would you like me to confiscate relevant materials, or just bring fortht the copies?"
“Confiscate, Agent Digby. I don't want to risk anyone else finding that information. Place the usual bait boxes in place in case whoever did this comes back for whatever they were looking for.” There's a pause before she notes, “Quinjet is on the way. I've sent a bigger one to accomodate your Skycycle, Barton. Rendezvous in three. That gives you two minutes before the CDC and the police show up. Let's move, people.” Well, at least Maria seems to be in a good mood.
"Got it, Boss." he hten gets the man out and sets him do so gently to the side and looks over to Jo and syas to him and over the com, "Ride is here in three, lets be ready to roll in two and a half." hehas bene very business like this mission, I guess odd viruses worry him.
Jo informs the scientists outside, "The inside team has dealt with the perpetrator. It seems likely these are what remains of your fellow scientists, hopefully they can be reverted to human." He then prepares to leave with the others.
Shrinking Violet was already turning on her heel when the order to confiscate came in. Turning to the room she left, she gathers up the documents on the desk. She was already reasonably familiar with where things were from her earlier sweep. "Understood. I've also got a blood sample from one of the affected... hopefully we can put that to good use as well." Sheaths of paper are stuffed away, the hard drive itself is removed and replaced, and more bait is planted before turning on her heel and starting to head back out of the lab, a whole minute ahead of Clint's schedule. Girl works fast. "Agent Barten, Jo, I'm going to rush these back to the Helicarrier. I trust you can finish up here?" She was already making her way out the front of the building. "I'd.. rather not leave this stuff here longer than we have to."
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