NationStates Jolt Archive

Somewhere along the border of Colombia and Venezuela...

The night air is muggy and a million unnamed species of insects, animals, and other creatures howl, shriek, and squeek in the night. The forest is alive with activity even at this late of an hour in this part of the world. It is a new moon out and pitch blackness blankets the land like the trees, engulfing everything in its' wake. The only lights come from a hilltop villa, off a muddy, windy road leading off a wider muddy road. A splendid getaway from the hustle and bustle of the city, just some hundred mies away or so. Here, along the border, it's an anyman's world. Drug cartels vie for power, through ruthless confrontations and intimidation of the local population. But here, things are fare more peaceful.

Down at the bottom of the hill, just a hundred yards from where the road diverges from the main one, a small hut is nestles at the side of the road, a pole extending like an ever present sentinel across the road. Two men, half tired and bored beyond belief, stand as vigilant a watch as they can. Their weapons are state of the art AUG's however, and they carry nightvision and infared detectors. One bums a light from the other and manages through the mud a few feet away. There are no lights on and his cigarette burns like a torch for miles. He leans up against a tree and watches the puffs of smoke linger in the air.

Suddenly, he felt a prick along the back of his calve. The mosquitoes in this part of the world are unforgiving and carnivirous, he reckoned. He went to swipe it away when his hand hit something, he rotated his hips and looked down to see a dart sticking from the calve, before he could react he face planted in the mud.

The other guard turned around, "Andel?" He asked in a thick accent, not from the region. He heard no response and quickly flipped down his nightvision goggles and cocked the assault rifle. He stepped gingerly through the mud and around the building. Like a flash of lightning he came across someone, before he could pull the trigger, this figure in the goggles shoved the gun upwards, another hand crushing him in the face and the grasp on the stock let loose and he fumbled in the air. The butt of the stock came back against his bloodied face and it all went dark...

"This is Fox, we have a greenlight" A woman said into her comlink which wrapped around her throat. She was dressed in sleak black clothes and gear. She removed her mask and a wave of medium red hair cascaded down. The man groaned on the ground, trying to get an idea of what the license plate to that truck was.

"You just rest now" She whispered and quickly disassembled the weapon, scattering the pieces. Fox darted into the brush.

Elsewhere, a man by the name of Nathan Frost, a person with special attributes watched from the back of a MH-6 Little Bird which circled some miles away. It was specially fitted to make it near silent as the blades cut throw the thick night air. He oversaw several computer screens with an assistant next to him. He spoke into the comm link, "Alright team, we've all done our homework, Fox has neutralized the guard post at the access road. I want Team Two to converge on the helipad on the southeast corner of the villa. Team One will regroup with Fox and head up the access road. You all know your objectives. We want Scarlet alive if possible, you all know what she's capable of, be careful and good luck"

The remaining members of a special and dangerous organization which was effectively destroyed as a working entity, were scattered across the globe. These individuals were metahumans, belonging to a group known as HYDRA, now most of its' members are dead or in prison. One of the main persons of interest, a woman with one helluva a right hook by the name of Scarlet has been tracked down to this villa in the jungle.

Fox dashed like lightning and easily cleared over fallen tree branches, all without hardly making a sound, she was to regroup with her team somewhere up ahead. She had waited for this chance for over a year. Her life has changed drastically over such a short period of time. At once she was a renowned art thief, now an agent of a most special organization, Fox, her real name Felicia Hunter...was an Agent of SHIELD...

OOC Thread: http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=589896

"Let me out!" shouted James Sephron, banging on the door of his cell. All he got in return a sharp series of bangs on the outside of the door. Muttering several curses, he started to pace along the length of his cell.
That bastard. He knew that these guys were here. He set me up! But, who are these guys? There guns are way too modern for terrorists...Maybe they are French. Nah. Bloody hell! Whoever set me up is gonna be missing a few limbs when i find them! he thought.

"Lead, Iron," a voice deepened artificially replied to Frost's orders. "Moving in on the helipad. Maintaining radio silence. Iron out." With that, the figure simply moved his eyes to switch to the Team Two internal channel. "Team Two, Iron. We've got the go. Approach helipad."

The man -- for that was what he was -- mentally 'told' the communications system to go silent. It responded instantaneously, being a part of the armor he wore. But it wasn't just any armor, no, and this was not just any man. This man was Robert Amantia, agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. And this armor was the powerful Mark XVII 'Tin Man' Iron Man suit.

Robert was, at one time, a pilot for the Sentinel ONE Team, a group of soldiers piloting manned Sentinels to protect -- of all things -- mutants, mostly depowered after the House of M. Tony Stark had known all the members of ONE, but Amantia had stood out in the billionaire's mind as a man with a singularly advanced ability to guide the motions of the latter's armor like a second skin, a gift which Iron Man had found was relatively unique to himself. Another time, perhaps, they might have formed a closer relation, Amantia might have been given the latest Shellhead creation to try out -- but with Stark's death, such would never be the case.

So it was that Amantia 'encouraged' S.H.I.E.L.D. to manufacture one of the passed superhero's older armors, one for which schematics existed and didn't require a techno-virus to be implanted in Amantia's system (like Stark), and the Strategic Hazard Intervention, Espionage Logistics Directorate found itself a new metal soldier. An Iron Soldier. But for the new man's age and noticeable lack of a multibillion-dollar value, little existed to differentiate old and new, besides a War Machine-esque plain silver and gray paint scheme (about which Rhodey had yet to comment).

The uncanny similarity in roles and identities led some to still call Amantia Iron Man, a situation that caused some awkwardness in both parties when it occurred -- more often than not. Still, the Iron Soldier shrugged off these incidents when they happened, and just accepted it as part of the job. A job that he was now doing.

The jungle was far too dark and quiet to use his thrusters, so IS -- known sometimes as Metalhead to agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., to recognize his predecessor and offer a contrast with the past superhero -- simply began jogging. The suit, while thick and metallic, made no more extra noise than any other armor would, conventional or otherwise, so his presence was unnoticed. Enhanced optics, capable of seeing in the dark, indicated that there were people out there able to see him -- and that just wouldn't do.

Keeping in a lane, and hoping the rest of Team Two would follow their damn orders this time, Amantia dove into a guard, hand slamming down the man's head -- while the other kept him from having a shattered skull. Besides a groan, the man was silent and still, and a quick sweep of him indicated little more than a concussion and some broken bones. He'd live. Robert rose and continued his advance, this at a much lower pace, before spotting a cigarette butt. He kneeled to examine it; it was old, at least a few hours so. Glancing up, Metalhead saw the helipad within range -- and some guards making their presence known with bright floodlights.

"Shit," Amantia breathed. "Lead, Iron," he transmitted to Frost. "Helipad is lit up like a Christmas tree. Do we shut them down? Remove the guards only? Stand down? Orders would be nice," he added as he snapped off the communication and knelt to watch the idiots prance around on their 'patrol' with ill-gotten firearms.

OOC: Apologies for unintended crappyness, but I couldn't think of a good way to start my dude off.

Somewhere up ahead of Fox's location, at the designated rendezvous point just off the access road , a figure swiveled the military-issue binoculars back up and down the road, coming over the small guard house. A uniformed guard sat inside, reading a book. His assault rifle was propped up on the side. Two more guards were outside, pacing up and down the road, a long yellow pole extending across it's diameter. He could hear the two guards talking, but was too far to make out what they were saying.

Marcus Schultze shifted in his prone position without so much as a sound, and put the binoculars down. A relatively new addition to SHIELD, Marcus had only been around for six months, but had already done enough to earn his keep. His ability to go just about anywhere unnoticed had, ironically, caught the attention of his superiors, who promptly had him transferred up from the SHIELD reserve unit. Now, he lay in the edge of a forest, clad in black camo-gear, and with black camo-paint smeared over his face. He placed his binos in a pouch, and pulled out his Mk23 Mod 0, the standard-issue pistol for special operations. He reached into his other pouch, and pulled out a sleek, black silencer. Slowly, quietly, he fitted it into the gun, screwing the silencer on with ease. Holstering it, he tapped his comm-link, and retreated back into the forest.

"Shadow here." He whispered. "There's a secondary checkpoint .2 klicks north of our position."

-Smithsonian Museum-
Natas couldn't help but smile as his cronies opened fire on the guards in the museum. Raw fire power easily overcoming the security guards pistols. Slipping past a large steel wall that acted as the top of a vault Natas leisurely picked up the several items he was looking for. They would be instrumental in the destruction of the human race. Picking up a skull, the oldest one known to man, Natas placed it on his person he then looked for his next item. It was a rare isotope of cesium, which was highly radioactive. Even Natas had to be careful since the cesium caused problems with his powers.

Giving a suave grin he backed out of the vault, items on his body. He looked to one of the humans he had employed who carried with him a flame thrower,"torch it!"

The human nodded and began to spray flames at the roof and walls. Natas could care less what the damage to the museum was but uneeded destruction always caused him to coo like a child. The human race was a despicable thing and deserved to be wiped off the face of the earth. Destroying humanities history was almost as good as killing a thousand of those vile creatures but Natas was no common museum thief even though his past 4 targets had been museums.

As his compatriots sped away from the scene Natas went intangible and headed back to their base via passing through the many apartments and houses. After 20 minutes Natas finally arrived and going back to his normal mode he sat down on the chair and put the items taken from their latest expedition out and placed them on the table.

With HYDRA mostly gone Natas had hired hundreds of henchmen. He easily had the money necessary to pay them all do to his ability to rob banks out of millions of dollars and get away with it however that was besides the point.

Natas's grin widened as two of his fellow 'mutants' sat down on the other side of the table. Both were twins and called themselves the witches. Both practiced the arcane and paranormal and when Natas came to them seeking directions to the destruction of humanity they had given him a long list of items. With the latest heist he only needed a few more, including the head of ghengis khan.

(I would respond better but it is 12am and I have to get to bed)

Frost monitored the action below from the Little Bird, he switched tacs and instructed the pilot to head to specific coordinates on the grid. He kept in mind that the Little Bird was fully armed, not just with conventional gattling guns and missiles, but an extra suprise or two in case they needed to act directly. He then switched tacs again, "Lay low for now, Amantia. Wait for Fox and the others to reach their rendevous point", he instructed.

Meanwhile, Fox made her way through the jungle, like an acrobat. She smiled joyfully as she cleared over thick brush with ease, the forest was her playground. More importantly, the woman hardly made a sound. She checked what looked like a wrist watch but was really a small GPS which showed her exact location and that of the team. Others were around, spread out, she new Iron Soldier had already reached his point. Must be nice to have boosters in your feet, she thought.

"Shadow, this is Fox- I'll be coming up on your six" She warned, making sure her counterpart didn't accidently kill her or such. Everything was still quiet, their presence had not been compromised yet. There was a rookie or two about and this concerned her, mainly because she knew how green and ignorant she once was, even if it was just a short time ago.

Fortunately the Smith - 'America's attic' as some called it - is composed of marble, granite and other stonework, though the collections certainly weren't. I had to wait until the damned thieves had disappeared, and that gritched me. But the split second the leader had vanished I acted. The flames died instantly absorbed by little old moi.

However saving the museum from total destruction had not been part of my orders, that got done gratis. I had been under strict orders not to engage, just observe - and even then I had arrived too late to do anything about the guards. I had found them dead as I slipped inside the vast and spooky building - easing my way in behind the murderous thieves. I barely had time to make sure the tiny robotic tracking devices, smaller than a daddy longlegs spider, made it to the interlopers and attached themselves unnoticeably.

Tracking them to their lair had been deemed the greatest importance. As I understood it agents had been emplaced at any number of museums, trying to cover as many potential sites as possible. I had been the one to get lucky - I just hoped that I had been the only one to get lucky. Museums were among my favorite things...

And I had some additional data. The leader was a Meta, and that really frosted my flakes. We're supposed to be better than that!

Taking the interesting information with me, and knowing others were in charge of keeping up with the tiny ultra high tech tracking devices, I left the scene of the crime, before the cops arrived, thought I could hear sirens approaching fast. I slipped into to my brand new Hammerhead (http://www.autoblog.com/media/2006/11/vtol2.jpg) and with a soft whoosh of it’s three fans headed skyward …”Up, up and aways, junior birdmen!” I had to laugh at that remembered voice. My father’s voice had been so gravelly that it scared most people, but to me it had held a world of warmth and love.

I leveled off at eight thousand feet and headed back to the nearest S.H.I.E.L.D. base, looking to see if they had any more assignments for me to consider. I wasn’t a full agent, but a freelance contractor – picking and choosing what interested me. They paid superbly and were damned good at NOT micromanaging me. They got the benefit of a superbly trained agent without the hassel of having to deny my existance should I get caught - Ha! as if that was likely!...NOT

I let the auto pilot take over while I checked my multiply encrypted, encoded and scrambled for breakfast message system to see if any one had tried to contact me...

"Come on....Let me out. Pretty please?" said James, hanging his arms out the bars of the door.
"Back off,"said the nearest guard, who made the rather nasty mistake of getting within arms reach. James then lunged his hands forward, grabbing the poor guard around the neck, pulled him up against the door, and snapped the poor man's neck. James then reached down, grabbed the keys and unlocked his cell door. He then headed towards the security station, wanting to find his sword. In fact, he found it inside the security station. He quickly broke the neck of the guard who was on duty, picked up the 4 ft sword with one hand, and started walking along the corridors of the villa.

Scarlet typed furiously on a keyboard. The harsh glow of the computer washed her face, but she stared unflinching as the words spilled out over an encrypted email. For the past year, she struggled to maintain the organization. She blew out a puff of air in protest to the duties at hand. Zemsky was far more suited for this business, she enjoyed getting her hands dirty, doing the work out on the field. Now, with Zemsky dead, so with him died any future HYDRA may have had. Two years ago HYDRA did not exist, having fallen into the abyss of history. But Zemsky, with fresh ideas and unlimited monetary supplies, rebuilt them into a force to reckon with. Their proudest moment was nearly destroying SHIELD Central and successfully killing Tony Stark, she believed that to be the death nail of SHIELD. But their grander plot was foiled and since then, HYDRA is the one feeling the pressure. Much of the leadership and prominent members were dead or in prison. Scarlet managed to avoid such consequences. But, she knew it was a matter of time before her arch enemies returned to finish the job.

The email was sent, completely protected from unwanted eyes to a destonation she wasn't even sure of. Communication with other members became increasingly complex and dangerous, as well as funds and such. But, they managed as best as possible. Scarlet pushed the chair back and turned off the computer just as a breeze brushed across her face. It was a peaceful night, a quiet night, a dangerous night. She depressed a button on the desk and it buzzed.

"Yes Ma'am?" inquired the box

"I want a double check of the peremiter. We need to be on our guard" Scarlet replied, voice stone cold. There was no reply, there was no need for one.

Meanwhile...

Fox knelt down into the tall grass and produced a set of binoculars, so small they fit in her palm but more powerful and with more bells and whistles than anything in production. She zoomed in on the villa which lay up on the hill, just a hundred plus yards away, The other team was in place and she called into the comm link, "Shadow, this is Fox, what is your location?"

James's escape had been going well until he a stubbled across a patrol in a corridor. naturally, they started shooting at him, and James hid around a corner from their fire.
"YOU BETTER HOPE YOUR MAGAZINES ARE INFINITE, BECAUSE AS SOON AS YOU STOP FIRING, YOU DIE!!!" James shouted, waiting for the hail of bullets to stop. As soon as it did, he threw himself around the corner and threw his sword as hard as he could, impaling one guard through the chest. He then quickly ran up, pulled it out of the guards chest, spun around and sliced the other guards head off.
"Great, now they know i'm out,"said James, shouldering Chaos Blade and continuing his search through the villa.

"Lead, Iron. Holding." Amantia shut off the commo again and settled in to wait for whatever it was Frost had planned. Barely had a minute or two had passed, though, when the 'guards' that he saw lifted their hands to their heads, and his armor's sensors indicated shortwave radio traffic. It quickly decrypted the primitive security that the circuits had, and a translated text appeared on his HUD as quickly as the software could translate their language to English:

(Voice One {Reclassify -- 'CO'}): [Send out another patrol. The boss wants us to check everything again.]
(Voice Two): [Right, we will do that.]
(CO): [Make sure you are thorough. You have those imaging systems for a reason.]
(Voice Two): [Yes, yes, yes, we will handle it, do not worry.]

"Uh-oh," the Iron Soldier said to himself, and he opened up the line to Frost. "Lead, the enemy's getting antsy. We've got some movement, and their comms indicate patrols are being stepped up. I'm about to pull back so-- hold that thought."

The last came as Amantia's HUD flashed an arrow towards his left, indicating a violation of status quo parameters -- namely, it saw, heard, or otherwise detected something moving in from that direction. Another video screen quickly resolved in the bottom-right corner of the display, the real-time imagery from a Stark Industries satellite, and there was something moving -- about 20 meters away. Several things moving.

"Lead, area is hot! Repeat, engaging enemy! I'll try to maintain noise discipline." Amantia dove left, tucking into a roll and emerging in a full sprint towards the figures that now appeared on his own sensors. There was no question that they knew of his presence, though -- they gesticulated madly in his direction, and he heard some spontaneous shouts, which emerged translated in the bottom-left corner of the screen.

[What is that, what is that?]
[Stop! Do not come any closer!]
[Someone call Base! Now!]

The last chilled Amantia, and he redoubled his movement, quickly coming up on them like a godlike metal ghost. One of the three that he could see had his head exploded -- nice of the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents in Team Two. The other two remained directly in front of him, and this time, he took no chances. As he reached the first, he drew back his armored fist and slammed it into the man's face, smashing it to an unrecognizable mess. The other one held something in his hand, some sort of electronics or--

[Base! Enemies are in the perimeter! I repeat, enemies--]

The man fell silent, and well he should; Amantia had fired a repulsor beam out of his right palm, probably breaking a few ribs -- it was at a lower strength -- and otherwise knocking him down. Things didn't look so good at the point, though.

"Lead, Iron," he radioed in again. "Just engaged a three-man team, one of them was saying something to base about enemies --us. I have no confirmation of whether the message got through or not. What are my damned orders?" No sooner had he said that then his sensitive audio sensors picked up some shouting -- at this distance, wordless, even with the sensitivity of the detection equipment -- and some shots being fired. Team One? Civil War? Hell if he knew.

Frost kept his cool as the radio traffic buzzed in his ears. He heard everything that Iron Soldier heard, the shouting, the screaming. It hardly phased him as he listened to the report, "Alright teams, we have to go under the assumption that their transmissions got through. Iron Soldier, take your team and neutralize the helipad"

He reviewed the map which showed real-time locations of the members, "Fox, you and your team head in, now"

Frost ordered the pilot to close the gap and arm the systems. The pilot, a man who called himself Danger, broke a wide, bright smile, "You got it sir!" and he flipped several switches and pulled the stick to the left, dipping down. The co-pilot began making preperations.

On the ground...

Fox listened to Frost's transmission, "Copy that" and with that simple reply, she was off again, dashing through the tall grass, she tried to find Shadow, the idea of going in alone didn't appeal to her. Her adrenaline pumped to insane levels, allowing her to move faster and faster. Everything was focused as her green eyes gazed up at the villa in the distance. Up there, somewhere, Scarlet awaited their arrival.

In the villa...

Scarlet slammed her fist into the desk, it buckled and split in two, making a thunderous roar. She then cracked her knuckles and picked up an ear piece and tucked it into her left ear, allowing a flood of raven black hair cascade back like a tide.

"The compound has been compromised" She announced, "All members to thier assigned duties, I want the helicopter up" Scarlet poured out order after order, there were only about two dozen members in the compound, she being the only metahuman, at least free one. This idea gave her an idea as she decided to leave her room and head through the hallways, past rushing men, fully decked out in gear and weapons, menacing looking weapons.

They had a special guest in the cells in the lower level and she intended to pay him a visit. As she passed through the darkened corridors, she smiled, knowing full well that it would be a good fight ahead.

"Hi there. Shoes untied. Nice shirt,"said James, cutting his way through a group of guards standing guard at a door. He kicked it right off its hinges, killing the poor guard behind it, walked in and found himself in a room full of flashing lights and switchs. Getting close to on, he read: WEST WING: MAINS.
"Oh wow, this is the fuse box,"said James, before grinning and flicking off random switches.

OOC: sorry for the crappyness. Had a beautiful post ready but then IE ate it when i went for lunch.

"Yeah," Amantia responded in a clipped tone, and he again switched to the team channel. "Team Two, move in. You know the drill." And he was going in under the impression that the transmission made it through, which meant--

With a low rumble, his boot thrusters kicked in, launching him skyward, and the helipad -- brightly lit and giving all the targets nice silhouettes, as if his advanced targeting systems really needed it -- shrank as he flew about 50 meters upwards. His palms came out in front of him, and weak repulsor blasts smashed downwards like bolts of lightning, slaying targets -- well, stunning them, operational parameters standing -- like the thunder of Zeus -- until Amantia's armor detected a sensor signature somewhere down there.

[AA SYSTEM DETECTED -- STINGER BLOCK II. MISSILE LOCKED ON.]

This rather ominous message appeared, along with a diagram of the newest iteration of the American man-portable SAM. "Clear HUD!" he shouted at the suit, and the schematics disappeared just in time to see a launch plume, followed by another warning:

[LAUNCH DETECTED. MISSILE IN UV LOCK.]

The ultraviolet lock meant that flares and chaff would be pretty much useless. Cursing silently, he rocketed straight downwards, popping a string of countermeasures just in case. For a bone-chilling nanosecond, he found himself next to the missile soaring upwards, and its small electronic brain took a moment to figure out that the target had just passed it. With this 'thought', it detonated, accelerating Amantia's descent and making it into a fall.

Righting himself just before landing, the Iron Soldier still slammed into the ground and went to one knee, and this gave a half-dozen troops time to position themselves and open fire on him. Small arms fire, more an annoyance than anything else, but even mosquitoes could kill.

Without a second thought, Amantia simply powered his chest-mounted weapon system -- the 'Uni-Beam' in Shellhead's nomenclature -- and tossed them aside like straw men. Groaning as he picked himself up, he walked in a decidedly ungraceful manner to the helicopter, the rotor of which was spinning, and a pilot was struggling to pull out a pistol from a holster. He simply pulled open the door and looked at the man.

"Now, now," he said reproachfully, voice still deepened and mechanized by the armor, "Let's not get anyone else hurt here, shall we?" There was no doubt who would be the one hurt if it came to it. "Lead, helipad is secure," he communicated back to Frost.

"Hi there. Shoes untied. Nice shirt,"said James, cutting his way through a group of guards standing guard at a door. He kicked it right off its hinges, killing the poor guard behind it, walked in and found himself in a room full of flashing lights and switchs. Getting close to on, he read: WEST WING: MAINS.
"Oh wow, this is the fuse box,"said James, before grinning and flicking off random switches.

OOC: sorry for the crappyness. Had a beautiful post ready but then IE ate it when i went for lunch.

ooc: Daaaaaamn. I missed like 4 good introduction-post opertunitys there...:(
Kul, would you mind editing that last post so that I can be in the villa too? I have no idea what's going on and the villa seems the easyest place for me to start.

IC: Ujaktus stormed around a corner in the villa, the blaring alarms bringing his tempriment to a rapid boil. His eyes were on the ground, following the trail of destruction James had made, sniffing the air and tasting it with his tounge to track him.

Rounding another corner he stoped, straightened and stiffened as the scent became even stronger over the metalic one of blood. His red eyes narrowed as he glared down the coridor, thrugh the broken down door, and at the man with the large sword who was now flipping random switches and causing several lights to flicker and the whine of the alarm to quiver slightly.

Putting on a burst of speed Ujaktus shot to the door way and said in a sarcastic tone "Didn't your mother ever teach you its dangerous to paly with electricity?" before surging forward again to land a punch into the man.

Marcus tapped his comm-link, sensing Fox carefully coming up behind him. He was about to make what he thought was a very clever and sarcastic comment about her 'checkin' out his six' but held his tongue, as Frost beat him to the punch with new orders.

"Fox, you and your team head in, now"

"Roger, lead." Marcus whispered. "Team One, moving in." He turned to look over his shoulder at Fox, but she had already taken off into the forest, no doubt nearly there by now. Sighing to himself, Marcus quickly followed suit, moving quickly yet quietly towards the villa. Along the way, he tapped into his comm-bead.

"Shadow here." He said, vaulting over a fallen tree trunk. "What intel do we have on the target? I hear she's a real pretty lady..."

IC: Ujaktus stormed around a corner in the villa, the blaring alarms bringing his tempriment to a rapid boil. His eyes were on the ground, following the trail of destruction James had made, sniffing the air and tasting it with his tounge to track him.

Rounding another corner he stoped, straightened and stiffened as the scent became even stronger over the metalic one of blood. His red eyes narrowed as he glared down the coridor, thrugh the broken down door, and at the man with the large sword who was now flipping random switches and causing several lights to flicker and the whine of the alarm to quiver slightly.

Putting on a burst of speed Ujaktus shot to the door way and said in a sarcastic tone "Didn't your mother ever teach you its dangerous to paly with electricity?" before surging forward again to land a punch into the man.

"Didn't have a mother,"said James, rolling out of the way of the punch. Standing up, he said:"As much as i wanna play with you, i have places to be. People to kill. that sort of thing." With that, James surged forward, hand forward, sword beside it, in what his mentor called The Stinger attack.

Fox was crouched on a tree branch, hanging over Marcus. She smiled and lept down, a good twelve feet or so, child's play to her. "Our target is one of the top members of HYDRA. If you hadn't slept through all the briefings, you'd be up to speed on the situation. To make it short and sweet, she's bad, we're good, and she's one tough cookie too"

The Little Bird dipped down to just a few hundred feet above the canopy. They were about a mile away from both teams but that distance could easily be covered. Frost monitored the radio traffic. Codebreakers at the base camp managed to jam the signals coming from the villa. They intended to cut off the head before the rest of the body knew what was happening. He remained even faced as Danger's smile broadened with each passing moment.

In the villa, Scarlet ordered her men to ready themselves. There was more going on through the basement. The power went out and the emergency generator roared to life, flood lights around the compund beamed with the fury of the sun.

"Christ, Shadow," Amantia said in the global channel as he laid the pilot, knocked out from drugs, on the ground, "Keep it in your pants." As he said that, the floodlights suddenly blazed from being merely bright, to a dazzling sun-like brilliance. His optics immediately compensated and polarized, but he knew the night-scoped S.H.I.E.L.D. agents in Team Two would be blinded.

"Team Two, maintain position at target location," he ordered them. No sooner had he said that then an agent appeared and placed the barrel of his weapon on the pilot's head. Evidently, they weren't as dazzled as he had thought. Nodding, he turned to the door into the villa proper and analyzed it. Squeezing his palms until his knuckles popped, the Iron Soldier punched the door into the building, receiving a nice torrent of weapons fire for his trouble.

Shaking his head again from the idiocy more than anything, he walked into the room, chest sometimes being slightly repelled by bullet impacts, and walked up to the first guard. Taking the weapon in hand, he crushed the barrel with little effort and clubbed the man with it. He tossed the wrecked weapon at a second guard, and finished the third and last one with a leg sweep followed by a weakened repulsor to the chest.

He turned the corner of the next hall, only to hear a man's voice saying, "...I have places to be. People to kill. that sort of thing."

He froze. Definitely not the target, but it didn't sound like a guard. Another meta...?

"Lead, Iron," he said, safe from external audio detection because of the armor, "There's someone here... rebroadcasting recording of voice now. Tone and nonchalance at the subject matter suggests a meta of some sort. Can you confirm identity?" At his command, the suit uploaded the small voice clip to the channel, playing it for Frost in his mobile command post.

"Standby, Iron Soldier" Frost ordered. The audio recording electronically downloaded onto his console. He switched channels and analyzed the recording. The voice was bone-chilling to the ears. He ran it through the Metahuman Registery. It was a massive archive, located in a secret SHIELD complex which contained data on every registered metahuman across the globe. It would take some time so he switched back to quarterbacking the action on the ground. A reserve team was on standby in a Blackhawk. A minute later the search came back negative.

"That's a negative, Iron soldier. This is an unknown" Frost reported back.

In the villa Scarlet ordered her men to fall back. They knew they didn't have the firepower with them at the moment to deal with Iron Soldier, but she had the brawn to. She cracked her knuckles and smiled coyfully.

"Funny, I thought Stark was dead" She said, stepping over a piece of rubble, "I guess you're just a wannabe, eh?"

"Ah, shit," Amantia said to himself, first of all. The next was a message to Frost; "Lead, Iron, Target is standing in front of me. Marking position on GPS -- I recommend double-timing troops to my position. Will attempt apprehension." Finally, he took a deep breath, and switched to the external channel. "Halt. You are an unauthorized metahuman, and known member of the terrorist organization HYDRA. You have ten seconds to surrender and be placed under arrest. Failure to comply will result in the use of force." No more than that, he didn't raise his hands or do anything else overtly threatening -- especially since EVERYONE knew Iron Man's mannerisms.

Unfortunately for the bad guys, he wasn't Iron Man. He was the Iron Soldier. The new title reflected his ability to play a little bit harder than his predecessor. But let her think what she would.

In the villa Scarlet ordered her men to fall back. They knew they didn't have the firepower with them at the moment to deal with Iron Soldier, but she had the brawn to. She cracked her knuckles and smiled coyfully.

"Funny, I thought Stark was dead" She said, stepping over a piece of rubble, "I guess you're just a wannabe, eh?"

"Didn't have a mother,"said James, rolling out of the way of the punch. Standing up, he said:"As much as i wanna play with you, i have places to be. People to kill. that sort of thing." With that, James surged forward, hand forward, sword beside it, in what his mentor called The Stinger attack.

"Shame" Ujaktus said in a falsely sympathetic voice as he ducked the balde, losing some of his hair in the process, and lashed out with a sweep to James' leg "I would soooo like to play!"
His acent, not dissimilar than that of the Russians, made everything slightly hard to understand. This fact wasn't helped by his deep and grating voice.

"What are you, Robocop?" Scarlet mocked, and a quick laugh followed but abruptly stopped, her face returned to a cold exterior, she looked at the so-called Iron Soldier up and down, just a normal, pathetic human inside a tin can. Scarlet was not afraid and didn't feel though he was a threat. She held her hands out, wrists locked together, "Come and apprehend me, if you can"

With one quick moment, Sacrlet picked up the heavy door as though it were a piece of paper and heaved it at Iron Soldier, it tossed in the air, a heavy projectile heading straight for his head.

The armor, its AI, and the man inside it worked together as one seamless organism, addressing any stimuli more quickly than any one could accomplish singlehandedly. Amantia allowed himself to be aware of the apparent metahuman skirmish taking place not too far away, but his first priority was the inbound door. The system locked onto it, and together with the automatic reaction of the suit, his arm flew upwards and a repulsor blast, this one full power, struck the door and deflected it to smash into the roof of the hall with a solid bang.

Shrugging his shoulders, Amantia simple began walking towards Scarlet, one eyebrow raised in amusement. "Please," he said sarcastically, the robotic tone added to his voice by the modulator making it a singularly odd event, "keep throwing things at me. I need the workout, I'm sure."

"Shame" Ujaktus said in a falsely sympathetic voice as he ducked the balde, losing some of his hair in the process, and lashed out with a sweep to James' leg "I would soooo like to play!"
His acent, not dissimilar than that of the Russians, made everything slightly hard to understand. This fact wasn't helped by his deep and grating voice.

"Damnit..."muttered James as his legs were swept out from underneath him.
"Wait, why the hell am i fighting? Screw this, I'm outa here,"said James, picking himself up off the ground and charging out the door and down the corridor at almost superhuman speeds. He only stopped running when he saw a women and what looked like Iron Man facing off.
"Oh balls. They are in between me and the exit,"said James, sighing and bring his sword back to his fighting stance.

The thin figure seated in an alcove of the library in the Chateau sighed and held up a magnifying glass to the book.
"Far, far too busy today, child. You've swapped places with Vincente?" The othed figure, slumped in another chair, idly drummed on one arm, resting it's chin on the other, nodded in the affirmative. "You have bad timing. You have a shift that might get a bit hairy. Metahumans and SHIELD."
"Ever notice how I always get the tough jobs?"
"Yes, I do."
"Ever care?"
"Not in the least."
"You bastard. I could die." The figure's face didn't move, as skulls don't generally have expressions other than grin, but Orin could swear it raised an eyebrow. "Figuratively of course."
"Point in case. You're tasked anyway. Get to it." The skeleton closed the book and put it back into his desk. Orin stood up from the chair, nodded and disappeared, reappearing moments later in the villa... and right in front of Ujaktus' fist. It hit her in the stomach and sent her into the opposite wall.
"Well, that didn't go as plan." She muttered between coughs. "Whats with the agression?"

OOC: Quick intro post.

Marcus laughed at his comrade's remarks. Dispute everything, he still had a ways to go. However, any sense of comedic relief quickly faded when Iron Soldier transmitted his next set of data. He took a breath, sliding under a branch.

"Iron, Shadow here." He said, seeing what he was sure was Fox jumping off what was seemingly at least twelve feet of height from branch to floor. "We're still a few minutes out. Try to stay alive until we get there."

All things considered, he would be seeing that 'pretty lady' pretty soon.

Scarlet watched the door shatter into a million splinters against the ceiling and cascaded down. It was impressive, such quick reflexes, and all the bells and whistles to come with it. This proved to be an interesting fight indeed. She cracked her neck and made a move, she quickly closed the gap between her and Iron Soldier, she didn't expect him to be fast, too fast to be correct, so her only real chance was to get a good hit or two in and crush the man inside. She cocked her right hand back, balled in a fist and thrusted it forward, impacting Iron Soldier in the stomach area.

Meanwhile, Frost monitored the action from above. Through the scopes he saw a helicopter on the helipad. The rotors began to turn around, it was warming up. One Team was already engaged and Fox and Shadow still had ground to cover. Iron Soldier had his hands full.

"Danger, get us to that helipad, I don't want any of our guests to leave early" Frost said through the comm link. Danger simply turned around and smiled. The Little Bird was armed to the teeth and ready for a scrap. It dipped down and jutted a sharp turn to the right, lining up with the villa. Danger flipped up a switch ad a red light, one of many lights on the console lite up. He depressed the trigger and a missle shot out from the side, laser guided straight for the helipad. It impacted the chopper, turning it into a huge ball of flames and fiery debris.

Fox smiled, she was always a thrill seeker. It was funny how just a year ago she was a thief, a master thief at that, on the run from the law, dashing from country to country, outwitting police and security. Now, she was on the side of the law, but still getting to do all the same things she once enjoyed. Adrenaline pumped through her veins like battery acid as the two of them quickly closed the distance to the villa. There was a rocky out cropping that led to the villa, almost straight up some numer of meters. She produced her grapple gun and shot a bolt which snagged onto something sturdy high up.

"Going up" she remarked and the grapple line whizzed her up, she steeled herself for what was in store up top. She reached the top and unhooked herself. The other team was hard at work, dealing with their fair share of bad guys. Fox did a quick scan of the compound and added an attachment to the grapple gun which turned it inot a crossbow of sorts. It had a magazine at the bottom and she darted from cover to cover, pieces of concrete from the long wall shooting up from rifle fire. She crouched low and followed the long wall, peeking up but wuickly scrambling back down, almost losing her head.

"It's pretty bad here" she said into the comm link

"This is what life is for."

The voice was from a girl just behind Frost in the Helicopter, watching with amusement as the Facility was taken quickly and effeciently. Surprise had been gained, the Guards flatfooted, the dagger stuck nicely into the windpipe. She stood over his shoulder and watched the monitors, watching Scarlet and the Iron Soldier fighting and the HYDRA Helicopter blowing high into the air. With every thug and Criminal who was killed filled her heart with joy. They deserved this punishment, all of them. They had chosen this life and had to live with the consequences. That included death. She hated them with a burning passion after...after that night...She had been with SHIELD for nearly ten years and never had she forgotten that night.

She snapped herself to it, throwing her brilliantly red hair out of the way and looked down into the monitors,
"Coming along nicely." She said to Frost in satisfaction then at the ground, where Fox was pinned, "On the other hand."

"Yes, the operation is running smoothly" Frost agreed, nodding slightly, "This team has come along nicely. The rookies are fairing well, Agent Fox has matured into a good field operative, though her nonchalant attitude does need some work"

The helicopter dipped out of the action. Frost ordered Danger, much to his dismay, to back off for now. The ground team needed breathing space and if it was needed, they will swoop down again. His eyes were cold and watched the monitors and listened to radio traffic, they had these guys in disoray. The other HYDRA members were being rounded up easily, but Scarlet would not come quietly.

Scarlet watched the door shatter into a million splinters against the ceiling and cascaded down. It was impressive, such quick reflexes, and all the bells and whistles to come with it. This proved to be an interesting fight indeed. She cracked her neck and made a move, she quickly closed the gap between her and Iron Soldier, she didn't expect him to be fast, too fast to be correct, so her only real chance was to get a good hit or two in and crush the man inside. She cocked her right hand back, balled in a fist and thrusted it forward, impacting Iron Soldier in the stomach area.

The armor dented slightly externally, but Amantia didn't feel a thing, physically. Mentally, however...

"Okay then, bitch," he said crossly. "Here's a secret: I'm not Iron Man. And you just made your last mistake as a free woman." With that, his left foot rocketed forward to slam her in the gut, even as the Uni-Beam spoke again to blast her backwards.

"Ok...ummmm...Screw it!" shouted James, continuing down the corridor away from the fight between Scarlet and the Iron Man wannabe. Running down a corridor, he ran as fast as he could, then launched a 2-footed kick at the door at the end of the corridor, knocking it off its hinges and carrying him into what appeared to be a fire fight. Ducking behind a box, he shouted at the guards:"Best be saying your prayers! Cause as soon as you stop firing, your dead!"

The hit was blinding, it throttled her backwards, feet leaving the ground. Scarlet flew back a good fifteen feet and her back slammed into a wall, sending huge cracks up to the ceiling. She slumped to the ground, a huge indent where her back hit. Pieces of plaster fell to the ground, her head dipped down. After a few seconds, she looked up, a bit dazed but regaining herself. Scarlet struggled to her feet and placed a hand on her stomach, there was smoke coming from it. the blast left a scorch mark, a bad one. The pain spidered up her body but she stelled herself.

"You'd hit a woman?" She asked, coughing up dust, brushing off bits of drywall from her shoulders.

"A bit late for that angle, isn't it?" Amantia glanced over to where the loud-mouthed meta (suspected) had run, only to hear some more shouts of absurdities and cocksure dialogue. Sighing, he pointed at where the man had run, cocking his head slightly to the side as he addressed the HYDRA operative. "Before I finish your idiotic attempts at resistance, any idea who that little ray of sunshine is?"

"Agent Fox has matured into a good field operative, though her nonchalant attitude does need some work"

"She's an Adreneline Junkie," Enigma scoffed, "She deliberately seeks the thrills and trying to get her to change would be like trying to convince a Leopard to change it's spots." She sighed, watching at the pockets of resistance slowly faded away in the face of superior numbers and firepower. However, the only problem was with Scarlet, the meta-human who seemed to be putting up one hell of a fight. By god, she hated it when they didn't come quietly, though it seemed like Iron Soldier was doing his job nicely,

"Well?" She asked Frost, watching the battle unfold and seeing human another flashing through the battle, as if ignoring the fight, she frowned, "Did you see that?"

"He is immaterial" Scarlet coldly replied, "Just a guest who it seems doesn;t want to stay our guest any longer" She deeply underestimated Iron Soldier. She was tough but that last hit was still hurting. All she had were her fists, and that may not be enough. It was time to switch plans, but for now she decided to just stall.

Frost simply nodded as Enigma listed off things he already knew about Fox. Felicia "Fox" Hunter was an interesting person indeed. A year ago he found her in Paris, after she had successfully stolen the Mona Lisa and returned it to Italy for kicks. There was no purpose behind it, no clear motivation, it was all for sport and fun. Though reckless, she carried an attitude that let her do more things than many other people, a sort of freedom he knew nothing about. Enigma's comment on another unknown on the ground snapped him from history, "He is unknown. The Reserve Team can pick him up"

Reaching the rocky outcrop, Shadow once again sighed as he noticed Fox pulling out her all-so-handy grapple gun/crossbow. Boy did he wish he had one of those.

"When do I get the fancy toys?" He said aloud, as he jumped seamlessly from rocky ledge to rocky ledge, without so much as knocking off a small pebble. Panting, he finally reached the top ledge, almost falling back over as automatic weapons fire impacted in the ground directly to his left. Pulling out his SOCOM, he darted into cover, his pitiful weapon putting bullet holes into the guard's firing positions. Despite his happy-go-lucky attitude, he prided himself on the fact that he kept mortality rates among the enemies he encountered to a minimum.

But some things couldn't be helped.

Diving into some cover, he caught Fox's eye, and motioned to his ear.

"Now what?" He whispered.

"Guest? Oh, well, in that case... enemy of my enemy, right?" he asked rhetorically of the woman. "Why does HYDRA dislike him, then? Or is it just you? No, wait," he said dryly, "with your matching personalities... lovers' spat, am I right?"

James waited for the guards to stop firing, then launched himself out of cover and charged at them. He rushed forward and impaled one of them on the end of his sword, quickly pulled it out of him, sliced through the second guards neck, then brought his sword down on the head of the third guard, slicing it in half like a watermelon.
"Told you,"James said to the bloody corpses, wiping the blood off his sword and shouldering it again.

Fox flicked back a lock of hair behind her ear and gave a broad smile, "Beats me, Shadow. I'm just here for the free t-shirt" with that comment she dove over the top of the long wall and barrel rolled, springing to her feet and dashing across the open lawn, moving in a zig zag. Three HYDRA men on the opposite side were so stunned by this brazen move that they were momentarily studdered by it but regained composure and returned fire. Fox slide across the remaining part of the lawn, as dirt flew about her. She was below them and could hear the shouts and curses. She lept up and caught one of them in the jaw with her fist and swept his leg.

"Fuck!" One of the shouted and cocked back the reciever to his weapon and began firing. She returned fire with her crossbow and a dart delivered an instantaneous knock out. It was filled with a powerful mixture and the man crumpled to the ground.

Meanwhile, Scarlet sized up her opponent, it was rare she had the chance to converse with a SHIELD operative. The ones she had talked to before were unfortunate members who were normally tied up to a chair and screaming for mercy, "Hardly, I'm not much into dating these days, I'm a career-minded woman"

Behind his mask, Amantia's expression was totally deadpan. Light conversation... leading him on? Let's spring whatever trap she's setting. "It does show, I'll grant you that. Still, you seem like one of those female James Bond types -- sex before every mission, ya know, how the 'Man with the Golden Gun' theme went? 'Love is desired whenever he fires, comes just before the kill', eh?"

His eyes flicked to the Situational Awareness Indicator (http://manual.americasarmy.com/index.php/Situational_Awareness_Indicator_(SAI)) in the corner of his HUD, stolen straight from the Future Force program of the US Military -- obviously, his was much more effective, aided as it was by Stark Industries GPS. A few circles began charging the villa, one of them marked by a '1' -- Team 1 was moving in. He just had to hold her attention. Amantia's vision returned to look at Scarlet. Yeah, okay.

"I think I'll head down there," Enigma stated as she watched the battle dissolve into a stalemate. Obviously Scarlet did not have the resources to beat Iron Soldier and she did not see the point in waiting when there was someone on the ground who needed her help.
In a moment, she was gone, dissolving into the air and falling to the ground along the same path as rainfall. She landed just behind James, dropping like water before forming up into a shiny, silvery-grey liquid form, before turning solid again. She ensured she was far enough out of the way to avoid a swing attack and enough obsticles to stop a sudden attack,
"Where do you think you're going?" She asked him calmly, brushing her hair out of the way."

"I think I'll head down there," Enigma stated as she watched the battle dissolve into a stalemate. Obviously Scarlet did not have the resources to beat Iron Soldier and she did not see the point in waiting when there was someone on the ground who needed her help.
In a moment, she was gone, dissolving into the air and falling to the ground along the same path as rainfall. She landed just behind James, dropping like water before forming up into a shiny, silvery-grey liquid form, before turning solid again. She ensured she was far enough out of the way to avoid a swing attack and enough obsticles to stop a sudden attack,
"Where do you think you're going?" She asked him calmly, brushing her hair out of the way."

"I dunno...Mr. Tin man inside was blocking the front door...Wait...Who the hell are you?"said James, spinning around and bringing his bloody sword up to a fighting stance. The sword wasn't the only thing of his that was bloody: A streak of his white hair was dripping blood from it.

Enigma also went into a fighting stance as she saw that he was getting ready to attack her, blood dripping. So much for the Reserve Team. She looked at the blade and the blood and saw her enemy in those eyes. The type she had hunted for years. The type who saw blood and enjoyed it. She let the relative silence hang in the air before speaking,
"My name is Operative Enigma, SHIELD Agent. I'm going to have to ask you to stand down your weapons and come with me." She said it a commanding voice, with a strong tone, leaving no room for argument. Her face had hardened, she was already seeing the battle unfold and she was ready for it.

Enigma also went into a fighting stance as she saw that he was getting ready to attack her, blood dripping. So much for the Reserve Team. She looked at the blade and the blood and saw her enemy in those eyes. The type she had hunted for years. The type who saw blood and enjoyed it. She let the relative silence hang in the air before speaking,
"My name is Operative Enigma, SHIELD Agent. I'm going to have to ask you to stand down your weapons and come with me." She said it a commanding voice, with a strong tone, leaving no room for argument. Her face had hardened, she was already seeing the battle unfold and she was ready for it.

"Lets see....Go...To....HELL!" shouted James, surging forward and slashing at Enigma with superhuman speed.

Natas had no need to travel by boat or some invisible magic plane. He had a much faster way of traveling and that was by the shadows. Shadows existed everywhere that light existed because of the simple fact that both black and white were two sides of the same coin. That was why he arrived in Columbia and in the villa in which the HYDRA woman scarlet resided.

The shadows of the villa began to ooze a bubbling black putrified liquid. From this liquid a figure began to form and as it solidified it took the shape of a man. A bullet ripped through the solidified liquid but it did not splatter instead the wound turned into black whisps of smoke. With a hiss Natas realized that he was in the middle of a battle.

When he realized it was shield he could only grin. Spotting Scarlet fighting that iron soldier Natas's grin widened. The only thing white on the now solid black figure. Raising his arm several shadows jumped force heading for Iron Soldier. The shadows formed into hands each wanting to choke and crush the man inside.

He looked around the battle. The HYDRA were losing but with the flick of his wrist a hundred shadow snakes ripped from the walls and went on trying to grab the shield operatives. The deadly shadows would tear the operatives from limb to limb.

Natas let out a laugh as the black shell cracked and a man, well a metahuman, stepped out of the shadows and into the light.

"Lets see....Go...To....HELL!" shouted James, surging forward and slashing at Enigma with superhuman speed.

Luckily, he had spoken before his attack, trying to be the smart guy and that given away what he was going to do. Enigma managed to concentrate in time for his attack. The sword did not bite into flesh as was to be expected but instead slashed through the liquid. The metal passed through easily, though the figure that had once been a women, watched as the massive slash melted back into her body, leaving a smooth liquidy body untarnished by marks. She shook her head,
"I'll ask again, please come with me." She said it more softly this time, but with no less command in her voice. She did not want to do what she would have to, but she would.
Her body did not have full features as was to be expected but only the rough features of a human, mouth, noseline and basics.

With a shrieking alarm, the armor's AI told Amantia that something had literally appeared directly behind him. He twisted in time to see tentacle-esque shadow hands -- wait, what? Was he seeing things? -- soaring towards him, and he blasted at them with his repulsors. He took a quick snapshot of the new man who had... hatched from the shadows. He sent this to Frost. "Identify!" he shouted, and he glanced back at Scarlet. Now was a bad time. Scarlet was nearly disabled, yes, but nearly wasn't good enough -- she may still escape. And yet, with this new arrival...

"Fox, Shadow, get up here, NOW!" This came through as a shout on the circuit, and even with his dampeners, the feedback was enormous. Oh well, if being louder made them more expedient, it would have to do. "New meta on the block. I am not going to lose Scarlet. Not tonight, not after all the pre-op shit we went through." Then, in spite of the call for identification, he still spat at the new arrival, "Who the hell are you?"

Fox flicked back a lock of hair behind her ear and gave a broad smile, "Beats me, Shadow. I'm just here for the free t-shirt" with that comment she dove over the top of the long wall and barrel rolled, springing to her feet and dashing across the open lawn, moving in a zig zag. Three HYDRA men on the opposite side were so stunned by this brazen move that they were momentarily studdered by it but regained composure and returned fire. Fox slide across the remaining part of the lawn, as dirt flew about her. She was below them and could hear the shouts and curses. She lept up and caught one of them in the jaw with her fist and swept his leg.

"Fuck!" One of the shouted and cocked back the reciever to his weapon and began firing. She returned fire with her crossbow and a dart delivered an instantaneous knock out. It was filled with a powerful mixture and the man crumpled to the ground.


Seeing Fox brazenly vault over cover without a care for her own life into the wave of enemy bullets made Shadow sigh even deeper. Slipping a clip into his SOCOM, he leaned out and over, providing covering fire in order to ensure that Fox at least made it to the enemy without getting turned into Swiss cheese. Putting a bullet through the leg of one another, the shoulder of another, and the rear-end of a third ensured that his shots wouldn't he fatal wounds. Vaulting over his cover, he sprinted towards he helipad. Two guards ran forward to intercept him, their assault rifles held forwards.

Sensing their intent, Marcus reacted quickly. He stuck his legs out, merging into a baseball-slide forward into the first guard. Tripping him up, he fell over, his assault rifle sputtering bullets in random directions. The second guard ran forward, a combat knife clutched in his hand, moving in a stabbing motion. Sidestepping the knife, Marcus quickly grabbed the outstreched arm, and twisted it until he heard a resonating crack. With a cry of pain, the guard clutched his broken arm, until a sharp kick in the stomach sent him flying. Leaving the other guard to his fate, Marcus took off toward the helipad, hoping that Iron wasn't dead yet.

Luckily, he had spoken before his attack, trying to be the smart guy and that given away what he was going to do. Enigma managed to concentrate in time for his attack. The sword did not bite into flesh as was to be expected but instead slashed through the liquid. The metal passed through easily, though the figure that had once been a women, watched as the massive slash melted back into her body, leaving a smooth liquidy body untarnished by marks. She shook her head,
"I'll ask again, please come with me." She said it more softly this time, but with no less command in her voice. She did not want to do what she would have to, but she would.
Her body did not have full features as was to be expected but only the rough features of a human, mouth, noseline and basics.

"Now thats not fair,"moaned James, shaking his head."If i can't hurt you who am i suppose to fight you?" Looking at her, then his sword, he sighed, then threw his sword down at her feet.
"I'm smart enough to know when i'm beat, even if it is by cheating."

The widening grin turned to Iron Soldier as he raised his hand which was now covered in black again. It extended and spreaded out as it attempted to swat Iron Soldier like a fly. Even with one hand occupied Natas walked towards scarlet.

His eyes turned to hers, they were penetrating like a knife. He finally arrived at her and bowed.

"My name is Natas but you can simply call me the Shadow Demon. I can offer you and one other a trip out of here to my headquarters. Would you like me to take you out of here?"

She took the sword suspiciously, closing on him slowly while still in liquid form. She took a piece of rope from the ground and tied his hands behind his back. When she was sure that he was secure and that he would be doing nothing to undermine her, she began to search him, looking for hidden weapons and other such devices. She kept herself in liquid form, making sure that she was immune to his attack until she had secured him and handed him over to the SHIELD Agents who were rushing into the complex from all directions.

Amantia found himself flying across the hall, much like Scarlet but moments ago, and also got launched into the wall, plaster falling onto himself. Unlike her, he was wearing a multibillion-dollar suit of armor. Pushing himself to his feet, injured but with some fight left in him, he saw the newcomer engage in conversation with the HYDRA agent, and that was... bad. Punching a code into his wrist-mounted control panel, he overrode the primary systems and charged the Uni-Beam with a quarter or so of the suit's charge. "Take this with you, asshole!" he shouted, and the beam fired, consuming the entire hallway. Undoubtedly, it would be blocked or otherwise have its power reduced, but it took out the right-hand wall as it traveled, through which a spotlight from the helipad blasted through. His polarity shields kicked in, making the rest of his vision dark and making it difficult to see his opponents.

OOC: From now on, I'm using that other font to distinguish his robotic voice, like IM's comics did.

Enigma would find no other weapons on him. What she would find is a small file of papers, hidden in his jacket pocket.
Shaking his head, James was content to be searched. He reckoned that if he played along, he got uses these people as a way out. then he could bust out of whatever they threw him in and disappear into the countryside again.

Vaulting over a final fence, Marcus finally arrived into what could have been the helipad at one point in time. Well, since the actual helipad was currently a giant flame, it was more like the giant open area that at one point held a helipad. There was little left of the helicopter, just wreckage, but there was much more important things to worry about, like that giant...dark...thing that was behind Iron.

"Iron!" He shouted, bringing his pistol up in a fluid motion, he fired two bullets right at the giant...dark...thing.

There was a death curdling scream as Natas was exposed to the light. His flesh began to melt from his body as the light sliced him into ribbons along with the bullets from the other mans weapon. After the light faded all that was left was a bubbling mess besides scarlets feet.

Then there was a laugh, it was almost maniacal. Strangely though it came from the corner between the ceiling and the wall right above Iron Soldier. However another tentacle ripped from the shadow in the corner, it carried a large horn that looked as if it meant serious business. The laughter stopped as a voice taunted the Iron Soldier.

"You must take me for some vampire or weakling. OH NO! THE LIGHT IT BURNS ME kind of idiocracy is pure foolishness like dressing in a tin can and attaching weapons to said tin can. You're a kid in a box who thinks he is a super hero. It would be cute if it wasn't so sad," Natas taunted with a cruel laugh at the end.

S.H.I.E.L.D. Headquarters

"Absolutely nothing... -nothing- on th' tele today." Mumbled Asterix, or 'Lycan' as he actually -liked- to be called, as he tossed the Remote onto his couch in his armored and reinforced 'apartment'. It'd been five years since he'd been deployed last. Noone ever seemed to have the time to act as his 'god appointed supervisor' from SHIELD. Besides, SHIELD had field operatives, field operatives much less 'touchy' as he was... As he was told by one of his guards.

Quietly walking over to the kitchen he'd dig through his fridge mumbling about food, stepping through the massive walk-in fridge's door he began digging through the tons of meat carefully stacked in the cooled chamber, coming out with five pounds of Venison he set it on the counter... When his enhanced hearing caught a remark from outside his chamber from his guards, SHIELD's field operatives were on some sort of mission? Meh, lucky them... he thought, only to be replied too...

Indeed Asterix. Lucky them. I yearn to be free once more. Why must you keep me subdued in this cage and frail form? Whispered the Werewolf within. Or rather, the 'werewolf' within was dumb as a doornail. This was really Asterix's warped subconcious being effected by the Werewolf within.

Asterix sighed, "No Lycan. You know just as well as I do, if we went to wereform and started tearing this place up... They would not hesitate to eliminate us. You know there areforces in SHIELD who already want us gone." he said this to himself, like he was talking to someone beside him. Despite being in an empty room.

Asterix shook his head and opened the package of steaks as he began munching the raw meat on the couch, "Besides, let's just eat dinner. Okay?"

"Didn't think about the light, to be honest," Amantia said pensively, one eye on the hooked shadow behind him. "Just wanted to blast you with a really big beam of kickassery. It seems to have not worked. And obviously," he said pointing at the waving tentacle, "it looks like your powers depend on shadows, and those are virtually anywhere. So tell ya what," he said thoughtfully. "I'm gonna go ahead, come over there, pick your ass up, and strap you to that there floodlight, face-first, you follow? Then you won't be able so much as see a shadow, and, hell, you'll be powerless, right? COME HERE!" The last came with his boot thrusters igniting at full power and he slammed forward at something like 50 miles per hour towards the man.

Enigma finished her search, taking the papers from James and slapping a pair of handcuffs on to replace the rope. She had returned to her solid form and was escorting him, along with a half dozen other Guards who had formed up with her to keep the Prisoner under guard. She should really have chained his ankles as well to stop him running, but she was lacking and so continued towards the Helicopter landing site,
"So what's your story?" She asked as she walked, keeping a firm grip of his shirt collar as she walked.

"Idiot," he said disappearing from where Iron Soldier was heading. "You would be lucky to hit me."

His hands writhed out to crush Iron Soldier once again while he appeared once again near scarlet.

Enigma finished her search, taking the papers from James and slapping a pair of handcuffs on to replace the rope. She had returned to her solid form and was escorting him, along with a half dozen other Guards who had formed up with her to keep the Prisoner under guard. She should really have chained his ankles as well to stop him running, but she was lacking and so continued towards the Helicopter landing site,
"So what's your story?" She asked as she walked, keeping a firm grip of his shirt collar as she walked.

"I was born as a experiment, combining human DNA with that of a so-called demon,"said James."The result was me. I'm trying to find the monster who created me. And then i'm gonna kill them. Slowly."

Amantia crashed into the ground, swatted by one of the shadows again. This was no fun at all. Staggering to his feet, he flicked on the comms channel. "Shadow, shoot him again. Get him angry. Distract him. I'm gonna snatch Scarlet and go high. She's a meta, she'll survive a supersonic ascent. First priority is the mission. This guy can come later. When I have a full battery, preferably."

"I was born as a experiment, combining human DNA with that of a so-called demon,"said James."The result was me. I'm trying to find the monster who created me. And then i'm gonna kill them. Slowly."

"I see," Enigma recognised the same desire for revenge that driven her across continents, and she could certainly understand and sympathise with his anger and with his cause, but she also knew that his path was dangerous. As it had been for her, the path he wanted to lead could only bring death, destruction and misery. She had never liked it, but she had felt obligated to do it. Her mistake. No more, she was changing that through SHIELD, doing what was needed.
So many experiments, why couldn't Scientists just accept Meta-humans as a happy and random accident before moving on? Because Meta-humans were better and humans had a record of trying to adapt and improve, even at a cost.
"Your name?" She said, not voicing her tumiltious thoughts, instead hiding them behind her mask, using a tougher tone than she had planned.

"James Sephron,"said James, before chuckling."I on't even remember who gave me that name...but it stuck, i guess..."

Shadow tapped twice on his comm-bead, signifying that he acknowledged what he said.

"Fine, you go chase after ladies, while I tackle the scary tentacle man." Without another word, he fired a few more shots at the shadow thing, which certainly put his code-name to shame. He took off, trying to keep up with it.

S.H.I.E.L.D. Headquarters

Munching happily away at his meat, Asterix began looking at his theorems for why and how he transformed. And, if there was a way to control himslef in the transformed state. If so, he might become a SHIELD Field Operative, finally let the wolf inside him loose. If he could just learn to control himself, he could be free in a way. He could be respected instead of sitting in this metal cell, forgotten by all but his guards.

His Guards, he'd been so preoccupied he'd forgotten to say hello to Leeroy and Mike. They'd been outside his door for 2 years now, tirelessly at their jobs. And, he was pretty sure, they'd become friends. Even his were-side seemed fond of them, in a 'won't kill them first' manner.

"Hello Leeroy, Mike. How are you today? Leeroy, how's the pup?" called Asterix, through the microphone. He'd never actually seen the pair, they'd never actually seen him in person. But they were nice enough to leave the Intercom on all day while they gabbed. To give Asterix a idea that there was infact, still an outside world.

"How many times have I told ya' Asterix? It's a baby, not a puppy. Though, the way 'e's growing, I'd have to say he's just about as luck as can be. His momma suckles 'im just like a onna your dream girls." said Leeroy, long since used to talking in canine and human terms, but never to let it go.

"Aw man Leeroy, your wife, she is hot man. H-O-T." chuckled Mike as he listened in on the convosation, "Everything alright in there Asterix? Need anything?"

"Nope, just having a snack and talking with you guys." Muttered Asterix, dully.

"Appreciated." Powering his thrusters again, Amantia launched flares to distract the shadowy bastard's attacks, and flew right at Scarlet instead of him. He grabbed the HYDRA operative with one hand as he passed her by, ignoring whatever protest she made and resisting the super-powered fists punching his armored ribcage while firing his repulsor from the other, and took her through the already partially-shattered wall, expecting a shadowy fist to emerge from anywhere and bring him to the ground.

[OOC] Kulikovia's gone for the night, it seems, and while the faceless HYDRA baddies were one thing, I don't want to RP too deeply with a main character... but I also don't want to stall...

"I don't even remember who gave me that name...but it stuck, I guess..."

"Very good Mr. Sephron, care to tell me what you were doing in that compound?" the Redhead forced some civility into her voice as she marched him towards the multitude of waiting helicopters, one of whom was already started up and waiting for the Prisoners. This one was going straight to SHIELD HQ. She was still pondering the parellels between his situation and her own. A painful thought came into her head and, at the same time, she heard herself speak the dreaded words,
"Did you have a family?" She asked, feeling a lump gather in her throat. She tried to force her mind off the subject but like a magnet it just stuck. At least she could enjoy the dampness in the air, that was one bonus, feeling it build up throughout her body.

He was wrong it wasn't a fist, it was a hand and it was attached to a body and that body was angry. Natas pointed his other hand like a gun at the agent shooting him.
"bang," his finger began to rupture as the black from the floor was fed into the shadow gun like bullets. Even though his hand was in the form of a pistol it shot as fast as a gatling gun but was widely inaccurate.

"Drop her now before I swallow all of you," he said in all seriousness.

"I don't even remember who gave me that name...but it stuck, I guess..."

"Very good Mr. Sephron, care to tell me what you were doing in that compound?" the Redhead forced some civility into her voice as she marched him towards the multitude of waiting helicopters, one of whom was already started up and waiting for the Prisoners. This one was going straight to SHIELD HQ. She was still pondering the parellels between his situation and her own. A painful thought came into her head and, at the same time, she heard herself speak the dreaded words,
"Did you have a family?" She asked, feeling a lump gather in her throat. She tried to force her mind off the subject but like a magnet it just stuck. At least she could enjoy the dampness in the air, that was one bonus, feeling it build up throughout her body.

"I was there following a lead that someone gave me..."said James, listening to her second question."No...I don't have a family...Doubt i ever will...."

"You never know where you can find salvation. Keep looking, perhaps it will find you" She said softly to him as she finally let go at the base of the helicopter, two other Guards taking over her duty and planting him on the transport. They would bring him to SHIELD HQ and from there someone else would take over, the joyous circle of beaucracy. As the door slid shut she picked out her radio,
"Enigma to Frost," She said curtly, "I've detained the suspect. I'll upload his details momentarily. Is there anywhere on the perimeter that needs shoring up?" She asked, looking at the Agents walking forwards and backwards from the Logistics area. She parted her hair again, the red hair catching in the moonlight to gleam like a mirror. She ignored the looks around her and waited for a response.

He dropped Scarlet, watching the SAI carefully. Reinforcements had to be coming. He marked the location with his HUD -- she wasn't going anywhere fast. "Yeah, I'm thinking... 'no'," Amantia said, sitting on the ground, and this time the thrusters spared no expense. Blasting the hand with a full-powered repulsor and firing the thrusters with almost all available energy (and threatening to break the leg actuators), Amantia zipped away upwards from the villa, rapidly building speed until a compression bubble formed. Supersonic. The electronic altimeter flicked rapidly, warning him that he was rapidly leaving the combat zone. Shadow... he knew his duty, and the risks, same as all of them. He still couldn't help but consider... an unpowered human against a meta...

Sighing in spite of himself, Amantia turned over in mid-air, and accelerated towards the ground. The thrusters were hidden by his body, and with the plain, dark paint scheme (as opposed to ol' Tony's Red-and-gold), he wouldn't be seen too well. Mach 1... 2... 3...

Locking right onto the location of Natas, he guided himself in, a manned missile. He had to time it perfectly. Aim just below....

The villa shook as a sonic boom arrived with the Iron Soldier, and he rolled in his vertical flight, diving upwards into the target. Though he might die from the retaliation, he would buy S.H.I.E.L.D. the time that it needed.

(You guys need to get Alversia in here)
"Idiot," he said smiling as he went intangible just as the missiles hit where he was standing. He reformed moments just as the smoke rose. He now pointed his gun at where he had seen Iron Soldier go up but was confused at where the man had gone.

"What the fu-!" Was all Shadow got out before a huge stream of shadow-like projectile bullets flew towards him, making huge craters in the ground as it reached him. Making his move, Marcus dove out of the way, but not before a bullet nicked his shin, which sent him reeling to the ground. Looking up, his eyes went wide as the bullets quickly crossed over to finish him off, but stopped just short as a missile flew out of nowhere, impacting where the shadow dude had been. The bullets stopped instantly as a massive explosion engulfed the area, but it seemed to do less then nothing. The being simply reformed, intent of killing whatever happened to him.

Marcus dragged himself into cover, the pain eating away at him. He quickly applied a field bandage, wondering if there was even a bullet to extract, and hoping to God that thing was content Marcus was dead.

Natas was smashed into Iron Soldier like a bug on a windshield wiper. With a thick splat he broke into two as his upper body and lower body laid shattered on the floor. With the sick sound of gurgling the tentacles pulled him back together and now it was his turn to cause massive damage against tin can man.

"die," he said as hundreds of spears were spit out from his right palm. Each one aimed to impale iron soldier against the brick wall. Natas was angry, angry enough to turn his eyes red.

"You never know where you can find salvation. Keep looking, perhaps it will find you" She said softly to him as she finally let go at the base of the helicopter, two other Guards taking over her duty and planting him on the transport. They would bring him to SHIELD HQ and from there someone else would take over, the joyous circle of beaucracy. As the door slid shut she picked out her radio,
"Enigma to Frost," She said curtly, "I've detained the suspect. I'll upload his details momentarily. Is there anywhere on the perimeter that needs shoring up?" She asked, looking at the Agents walking forwards and backwards from the Logistics area. She parted her hair again, the red hair catching in the moonlight to gleam like a mirror. She ignored the looks around her and waited for a response.

James was silent as they lead him into the helicopter, musing over what Enigma had said. He thought about it for a while, then shrugged, and amused himself by singing to lyrics to Master of Puppets by Metallica.

S.H.I.E.L.D. Headquarters

"So, what is this I heard about SHIELD's team being deployed?" asked Asterix as he took a big bite of the meat from the raw steak he was holding like a Taco with the steak-suce in the center...

"Oh yeah, whole team got called up for some crazy mission. What I hear they got everyone from that liquid thing t'th' Iron Soldier." crowed Mike as he leaned against the wall...

"Yeah, Sorry Asterix, You n' Lycan in there just seem like overkill fer this one. They got the top group on it." Leeroy's voice echoed the shrug his gave to the wall. "And I'm sorry t'say Asterix. I don't think anyone but us even comes down to this level anymore. I think y'dun got forgotten."

Asterix sighed lightly, leaning against the wall. "Y'right. With a group like that... Their probably having a cakewalk. I doubt their even sweatin' let alone bleedin'." The werewolf sighed dejectedly as he leaned against the wall and took another bite. "D'you think I'm too much of a Liability? Think they are just gunna leave me down here to see how long a werewolf lives?"

"I dunno Asterix," Mumbled Leeroy as he looked to mike, who lifted his hands apologetically towards the speaker,

"Yeah Asterix, Not much we can do but wait. Y'know?"

Natas was smashed into Iron Soldier like a bug on a windshield wiper. With a thick splat he broke into two as his upper body and lower body laid shattered on the floor. With the sick sound of gurgling the tentacles pulled him back together and now it was his turn to cause massive damage against tin can man.

"die," he said as hundreds of spears were spit out from his right palm. Each one aimed to impale iron soldier against the brick wall. Natas was angry, angry enough to turn his eyes red.

"Jesus Christ!" Amantia shouted out loud as he found himself blasting and dodging shadowy spikes of doom. -- and receiving an occasional glancing blow, worrisome but not too much so. "What the hell does it take to kill you?" He was silenced -- well, except for a grunt from a spear piercing his left upper arm, followed by his right calf, and he felt those muscles go limp, even though the armor still reacted to his mind's actions and kept him standing and moving his arm. He wasn't equipped for this battle, not by a long shot, and especially not depowered -- he was down to something like 10% charge, and he had long ago established 3% as his danger threshold (time to start thinking about de-armoring).

Clutching his arm, he watched the man begin to reengage. No, no chance at all. This time firing a burst from the thrusters, he hopped the wall and dove into the forest. The mission, taking priority over his personal safety, didn't quite make it over certain death in his book. He opened his comm channel. "Lead, Iron," he said, teeth gritted. "That hostile I sent you pictures of? Well, he nearly killed me, and I'm about to go look for Shadow. Iron out."

Hearing the communication, Marcus was quick to tap into his comm. Well, it was either that, or be left to die at the hands of scary shadow-people with tentacles and shadow bullets. Like hell he would let that happen. He looked down. Blood poured fourth from his wound, soaking his improvised bandage to a shade of dark red.

"Shadow here." He grunted. "I'm by where you went all Iron Man on the bad guy." He paused to look over his shoulder. "Shit, what the hell was that?"

OOC: OMG! I go and catch some rest and come back to all these pages. Well, I don't have time for a post or anything but I'll catch up later.

(bump)

James was bored. His helicopter still hadn't taken off and he had nothing to do. After a while, he gave up trying to keep himself amused, laid down on the floor, and went to sleep.

Frost tapped his comm link, "Iron Soldier is having some trouble with the other unknown at this moment. Shadow and Fox are doing fine, the other team members are sweeping up. Stay behind and let a snatch and grab team take our other guest back to base" Frost ordered.

"Fox, Frost-What is your position?" He asked, switching tacs.

Down on the ground, Fox patrolled up through the corridors of the villa. There were approximately ten or so enemies being detailed on the south lawn, ready to be tagged. She blew a sigh of relief and ran a hand through her hair. Things weren't quite over yet, there was still a battle raging elsewhere.

"Frost, this is Fox-We're doing just fine here, I'm going to link up with Iron Soldier. Scarlet's out of the picture"

Scarlet, lay on the ground, she was unconsious. Her bout with Iron Soldier, the sudden skyward rocketing and the pitfall have left her near broken. Fox put a special set of shackled on Scarlet's hands and legs, they were cylindrical with titanium bonds. For good measure, another agent shot her up with enough tranquilizers to knock out a herd of elephants. Their primary mission is a success but they still had an unknown metahuman to deal with.

"Shadow, this is Fox-We need to get to Iron Soldier now!" she said as there was a sound of thunder echoing though the villa.

"I'd love to help you right now, Foxxy." Shadow grunted through the pain, flinching at the crack of the lightening. "But there's currently a nice hole in my shin. I can't move it."

"Lead, Iron," Amantia said, trudging towards where the SAI indicated Shadow was located, "This new meta is hot. Very hot. I am moving to recover Shadow, and I recommend we bug out ASAP. I'm moving to Shadow, just for your information, not the other way around." Cutting the channel, he returned to the task of walking to where the agent had last been marked on his locator, shin screaming with pain. The suit had automatically dispensed medical gel -- a neat innovation by Stark Industries that could seal minor cuts and at least stabilize larger ones -- but that didn't stop the fact that his leg had been pierced by a projectile, and the armor was now forcing his damaged muscles to move, never a good thing. The same was the case with his arm, although that was less of an issue since he didn't have to move it.

Watching the wreckage of the villa carefully, he slowly approached Shadow's location, and was rewarded with the sight of the man, with a hastily-applied field dressing to his leg. What a coincidence.

Dropping to a squat and ignoring the pain, he slowly moved in to where the agent lay. "Shadow," he said over the communication channel, not wanting to make any noise externally, "You wanna head home? Or do you wanna keep fighting the walking embodiment of darkness over there?" he asked rhetorically, lifting his chin towards the villa.

Fox sighed, 'Maybe if you were a bit more careful, you wouldn't be dead weight" She knelt down and looked at the wound, she cringed a bit but looked up at him, "We'll get you out of here?"

Fox and Shadow were seperated during the fight and she didn;t realize that he was injured, it looked bad but she was sure he'd survive, 'Alright, you're coming with me"

She slipped an arm around him and used all her strength to help him along, "You'll have to help me a little, I'm not terribly strong" They rounded a corridor, they were heading for the southern lawn where the Snatch and Grab team was located, she'd get him on a helicopter and some medical attention, 'I guess you won't be on the SHIELD softball team any time soon, huh?" she tried to make light of the situation.

Frost muttered something then had to make a decision, Iron Soldier was backing out, wisely as it seems. They had no idea who this new meta was but what they did know is that he was dangerous, too dangerous for them to handle right now. They would need to fall back, regroup and formulate a plan on dealing with this meta. As much as he didn;t like to back away, the mission, given the objectives was a total success. This was just un unexpected complication.

"Alright, all Teams prepare to move out. Break off contact with the unknown and fall out" He ordered

"Funny." Shadow grunted as he, with the aid of Fox and Iron, hoisted himself up and started limping down the corridor towards the waiting helicopters. "You try fighting creepy-ass shadow-metas with a pea-shooter." After a few seconds, he added. "Did we get 'er?"

As Amantia reached the S.H.I.E.L.D. team retreating, Shadow in tow, he looked at Frost coldly. The faceplate of his helmet rose and he looked the man in the eyes. "We need a plan, Lead," he said simply. "But first, I need a charge." He walked over to where the logistics chopper was, and began rummaging for a replacement power core.

"Yeah, we got her" Fox replied, with the glint of a smile

"Our plan is to delay this unknown and get out. Our objectives were met, all of them. We don't have the power or equipment to deal with this guy now so we are going to regroup and come up with a polan of action. Until then, we move" Frost said as he took off his headset, it was noisy and agents scrambled here and there, it was just a matter of time before their guest arrived and he knew it.

"Good stuff." Marcus replied, grinning as he was laid down on a waiting stretcher. A field medic came over to him, and began applying the necessary aid to the bullet wound. Shadow wouldn't die that easily, but it was still pretty bad. "So." He said. "We have no idea who the hell that was, or how to deal with him. Perfect."

Frost shook his head, "No, the intel we gathered didn't show him as being here. It's as though he just materialized from thin air, which is probably what he did anyways"

"Shadows, Frost," Amantia said as he walked up to them, suit fully powered. "Not thin air, shadows. Darkness. I watched him hatch from an egg, if you will, or maybe a cocoon, of shadow. Some sort of energy manipulation, it seems, but definitely one of dark energy rather than light." He tapped the side of his helmet. "I'll get you the recording. Suffice it to say, I want S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters lit up like a Christmas tree, morning, noon, and night, because if my current theory is right, he might be able to materialize in shadows. Or he may be a teleporter -- who knows?" he finished rhetorically. "I suggest we speak at length back at HQ." Snapping a salute to Lead, he leaped into the air, firing his new-powered thrusters and soaring away at Mach 3+ towards the Avengers/S.H.I.E.L.D. joint HQ.

Fox checked her gear, the adrenaline still pumped vigirously through her veins and her eyes darted around the rubble and destruction, she wouldn't say it out loud, but in her mind she thought of all the fun she had. She forced her heart to calm a few hundred beats or so, "How you holding up, Shadow?"

Frost sank deep in thought, 'Materialized through shadow?"

Fox instantly snapped her attention to Frost who went on, "Sounds like Zemsky to me"

"Impossible!" Fox blurted, stepping forward, "He was killed, I killed him myself"

"I don't think it was him, there's no way. But it's not unusual for there to be more than one meta out there with the same ability. We'll review Iron Soldier's tapes later

James sat up when he heard movement. He sat up, walkwed over to the door, and shouted: "Are you leaving now?"

"And there he goes..." Marcus commented, watching Iron take off through the air with the same speed as an F-18 fighter jet. "He's certainly got he superhero thing down pa-ow!" He suddenly yelped. "Don't poke it! I thought you were a licensed professional!"

"Sorry, sir." The medic tending to his wound said, not even look up from his work. "It's just that, I can't find any traces of a projectile in your skin. Usually, when one get's shot..."

"It leaves a bullet, yeah." Marcus hastily replied. "But this meta didn't even have any sort of weapon. He just sorta stuck his hand up, and the ground started..." he trailed off "...exploding around me, like a friggen minigun. That meta's got some pretty advanced skills."

Natas bit down on his cheek to stop from laughing. He was walking slowly through the rubble before sitting down. The battle was over and the majority of the enemies had left but not before he had put his own tracker on scarlet. It wasn't so much a tracker but a shadow imprint on her but that was not the point.

He sighed content at the destruction he had wreaked as he pulled off the black goop that was his shadow body. He was handsome in all senses of the word. Deep blue eyes and blonde hair. He could have been a supermodel if the shadows didn't keep jumping back on him. They were symbiotic living off of him while they protected him but they did not allow him to relax.

With most of the crap off of him he headed to the villa's library and began to rummage through them oblivious of Fox's sneaking around. The shadow's were off him so for now he looked normal. Well even in his normalcy he had a billion dollar reward on his capture. The Ralkovian government wanted him more than anything. To reclaim there little experiment.

'Pulling back?'

Enigma frowned deeply as she strode through the rubble of the compound, watching as the Agents marched past her in the opposite direction. She was livid at the decision. SHIELD was running from this Meta, no, fleeing from this Meta. Iron Soldier may not have been able to take down this big shadowy Bugger but she felt was more up to the task, despite her small, petite form. She headed into the building and only then raised her radio to her lips,
"Enigma to Frost, you Guys pull back, I'll have a closer look at this Meta" Like Frosty, she had her suspicions as to who it could be, but for the moment, she would keep an open mind. However one thing was certain, SHIELD, and her especially, would not run from this Villian.

She walked through the house, past the devastating wrought by the battle between Iron Soldier and this Shadow. She found him sitting in the library, deep in a book. She took two steps inside, her combat boots soft on the floor. She cleared her throat, pushing her hair out of the way,
"Little late to be reading?" She asked in a loud voice, standing in a loose combat pose.

Frost had little patience for such diversions. The team succeeded in their primary objectives and that was enough. They would deal with this new meta in due time but they had to have a plan. Enigma knew this, but decided to go on regardless. He respected her experience and opinions but this time she was wrong. But, she was gone before he could raise an objection or protest her decision.

His eyes narrowed to the rest of the team, "No one else is going out there. I will get Enigma, the rest of you head back to the base camp" There was no room for interpretation in his tone, it was finite.

Fox took a gulp and nodded, she swung onto the chopper, next to Shadow as others filed in. Frost stepped off the helicopter, cracking his knuckles.

'What?! What are you doing?" Fox shouted over the noise.

"I am going to get Enigma" Frost coldly replied, "You are under orders to head back to base camp, I expect you to follow them. You still remember our deal, don't you?"

Fox gulped and nodded

Without another word or order, Frost headed off back into the villa.

Retconning. IS was heading back to base camp, actually :).

Amantia heard conversation on his communication channel as he rocketed towards the forward S.H.I.E.L.D. base camp, and came to a full halt in midair as he heard Enigma's voice.

"Enigma to Frost, you Guys pull back, I'll have a closer look at this Meta"

"God damn it!" he shouted at himself. She wasn't ready for this, not by a long shot. Despite the obvious comparison to the decade and a half of service Iron Man had provided, Amantia was no stranger to combat, having been a member of Sentinel Team ONE. He was, quite honestly, probably the most experienced and able person on the team (with the possible exception of Frost). Enigma was... well, she was inexperienced. Still had the fresh 'new hero' smell, as far as Amantia perceived.

Twisting in his hover, he pointed himself back to the villa and accelerated to full speed, something like Mach 3.5. It was fast enough that he was risking structural integrity, but he wasn't going to let someone die from naivete.

Ten minutes previous
Titan had just finished his latest job on behalf of a local drug lord, the destruction of a rival's factory, when he heard gunfire in the distance. He decided to find out who was shooting who, and if he could benefit from it, and set off through the dense jungle, smashing through it like an enraged elephant. After running for approximately ten minutes he reached a hill, with a villa on it. He saw a group of people getting into a helicopter and someone else flying off, with rockets attached to his boots apparently.

He walked around to the other side of the hill and approached the villa. Through a window he could hear someone speak, but he couldn't quite hear what was being said. He looked through it and saw a man sitting in a chair, reading a book, and a woman standing a bit away from him, ready to fight. He waited to see what would happen next.

"I'm not in the mood to fight," he said. The book he was reading was about the nazi death camps and the experiments they did. There was also another document in the book labeled ralkovian experiment dg. Written across it was the word 'classified.'

S.H.I.E.L.D. Headquarters

"AUUGH! wha th' hell??!" Asterix's voice yelled, mixed with a pained howl, "Why did my lights suddenly go onto overdrive? I'm tryin' ta' bloody SLEEP!" He stumbled out of his 'room' rubbing his eyes and scrabbled at the intercom, "LEEROY! IF YOU DON'T GET MY LIGHTS FIXED I AM GOING TO SHIFT AND RIP THIS DOOR DOWN TO SHAKE YOU UNTIL YOU DO!!" His voice seemed to have a deep growled mixed with it in the background as he shouted...

"Hey Not my call Asterix! Don'choo be that way. Now iffin' you'll calm down and relax, I'll explain. Don't make me turn on th' Tranq guns. I know neither you nor Lycan like that there tranq." Called Leeroy over the intercom. He looked sideway at mike who was litterally leaning over the control console for the defenses -inside- Asterix's chamber.

However, Asterix took a few deep breaths and scrubbed at his eyes. Swallowing back the rising bile as he shook his head, pushing the werewolf back in him, metaphorically. His voice, calmer now, said through the Intercom... "What the hell is up with my lights? I didn't even know they -had- this setting? Lights now-a-days have an "uber-bright" setting? I swear, if you make another joke about 'wherwulf' and the Nazis I'll tear the door down and beat you widdit."

Leeroy couldn't help but chuckle, any time Asterix used the term 'uber' he and mike had started joking around calling him 'herr wherwulf' after the Nazi's failed supersoldier/attempted werewolf program that Captain America had destroyed. However, more important matters.

Before Leeroy could say anything, Mike chimed in, "Well you see Asterix, I'm reading off the report that the whole Avenger team got it's tails trounced. Iron Solder got his ass kicked, we got multiple wounded... And apparantly some meta can go swooping around in and out of shadows in a type of teleportation. They wanted no shadows in the base..."

"Well, that's pretty stupid... shadows are everywhere. It's impossible not to make a shadow. You'd have to make yourself and everything in the base -glow- which, is impossible. And you certainly arn't going to acheive that by turning the lights on super-bright." Asterix rubbed his chin, "But they all got their asses kicked? Huh... Even Iron Trousers?"

"Yeup, even Iron -soldier-..." Leeroy said, enunciating 'soldier'.

"Yeah, Yeah. Soldier. Think that I'll have a chance at being deployed? Sounds like they'll need psuedo-invulernability and super strength on this one... Even if it's half insane..." Asterix's voice was actually hopeful. That hopefulness hadn't been heard in his voice in three years.

Leeroy chuckled, but mike beat him to the punch, "You'll never know if you never try. I'll send in the application forms for another Handler. Maybe you'll get one!"

And so with some quick typing the already saved (Multiple times over) application form was sent up to Avenger Headquarters. Maybe someone would see it and finally let Asterix, and by extension Lycan, out?

Frost kept his comm link on, he heard everything Enigma said. He was concerned, these were dangerous matters. He'd spent the better part of his life living day by day, uncertain if he'd survive to the next. Living like that for so long makes you cold, understandably so. But he wasn't going to let her get killed. A long time has past since he used his abilities, from a young age he struggled with what he was capable of, the dangers and uncertanties. As an adult, he strove to mitigate them, try to be normal. In a world such as this, where people like him are misunderstood and often sources of prejudice and hate, he tried and tried to be normal, to fit in. But he could never deny what he was, how he was.

He continued down the narrow corridor, the GPS showed Enigma being just down the hall and to the left. Frost stepped to the doorway and saw Enigma, facing of with the unknown.

"Agent Enigma, I thought I explained things carefully. I don't speak for my health, so you'd do well to listen when I do speak" Frost said, "But we are here and this is now and we must deal with it"

He cracked his knuckles and gave an uncharacteristic wink, cracking his normal stone face.

Enigma circled slowly, coming around to face the man who had defeated the Iron Soldier just minutes ago. He did not look threatening, he did not look powerful but he was supposed to be and, in her experience, the least threatening ones were usually the most threatening. She noted the book he was reading, something about Concentration Camps. Not a good sign, She supposed to herself. She was still alert, still awake, still ready for anything he could do or try to do,
"That's good to hear," She said smoothly, voice calm and yet somehow taunting, "I guess that means you'll come quietly?" She asked, putting one hand on her hip. The place was too dark, too many places for him to hide. She needed to even the odds a bit,
"Don't mind if I turn the light on do you?" She asked in an easy manner, like someone would talk in a hotel room, "I hear reading in the dark's bad for your eyes."

She twisted around to see Frost enter, surprised and angered by his arrival at the same time. She had said that she would deal with this damnit! She knew what to fight and when to flee. She was experienced and wise enough to handle herself. She saw the wink and it lessened her anger a bit, but not by much,
"I said I'd deal with this," She used a sharp tone, like a wife scolding a late husband.

"You are an Agent of SHIELD, Enigma" Frost replied, "I cannot be expected to leave an agent behind" he shrugged his shoulders. His ice cold blue eyes gazed over at the unknown metahuman. His facial features did not match Ivan Zemsky, the ruthless businessman and head of the HYDRA organization. He was skeptical from the start, Agent Fox had killed Zemsky in Siberia a year ago. These two men were far too different, they had very similar attributes but still different. Perhaps some strain of the meta gene gone awry perhaps, that was best saved for a different time.

He knew there was no point in saying the usual speel to the unknown, none of the usual orders such as "Surrender now" or any snappy one liner, that wasn't him and it appeared as though their new friend wouldn't give up anyways.

( right now im on my cell phone, ill be at my house in like 10 mins ill post then )

Titan watched as the woman circled the reading man and said something to him. A second man entered the room and spoke with the woman, they seemed annoyed with each other. The only thing Titan managed to hear of their small conversation was "SHIELD".

So, those two are SHIELD agents, and the reading man is probably some poor bastard they are trying to imprison. I think I'll help him out. Titan cracked his knuckles and prepared to aid the man against the two SHIELD agents.

Natas slowly looked up at Enigma, his eyes had expelled a single tear from the deep blue pools of sad memories. His face on closer inspection was not as young and brazen looking but had a look of knowledge that only came by experiencing the worst humanity had to offer. He let a low sigh escape from his mouth as he put down the book and removed the documents of paper from the classified folder.

He raised his hands to surrender but quickly his fingers touched his shadow and he began to scream. His shadow was alive and eating away at him from the body upward. His calm and reserved personality was replaced with an erratic laughing black figure. A large smile and two gleaming red eyes looked back at Frost and Enigma, they seemed full of madness.

"I don't very much like surrender," a voice answered back despite his mouth not moving. "Surrender removes all the fun from the fight! Normally I don't play with joykills however for you guys...I MIGHT MAKE AN EXCEPTION!"

He raised his hand like guns at frost and enigma. They made clicking noises despite looking just like hands. Then the hands began to fire and not only fire but fire as fast as a minigun could. The shadow being fed the guns with the darkness surrounding him. The shadow bullets also penetrated like normal bullets. Eight shadows darted out from where Natas was firing, they rose from the ground and took the shape of tentacles each one writhing like a severed tail from a lizard. And if that wasn't enough they also appeared to have razors on them.

Titan was quite surprised when the reading man suddenly turned into some shadow-monster thing and attacked the two SHIELD agents. It now seemed like they were the ones who were outmatched. I don't mind an uneven fight, especially when I can gain from it. Titan thought, and a wicked grin spread across his face. He took a few steps backwards, preparing to attack.

Enigma took a step back from the figure, rather taken aback by the screaming figure. Her attention had been focused on Frost and she had been about to speak when he had screamed and turned into a blackened shadow. She had been taken aback as well by the tear but had not had the time to refer to it. Instead, she was confronted by the shadow and machine gun-like shadow needles from his hands. Enigma knew what to do. In an instant, her body had moulded into it's silvery liquid form. The 'bullets' impacted with her body and passed right through, striking the wall behind. The 'holes' created in her form simply moulded into themselves again to leave the same smooth surface as if it had never been touched.

Enigma's form smiled at Natas in a slightly mocking manner before slipping into her normal stance again. The tentacles may have been tough, but she knew that she could take him,
"Frost!" She called over, not taking her eyes from the Shadow in front of her, "you need to go!" She knew that she could make herself immune to the attacks of this 'Meta' for a while but Frost could not and it would be a sad day if he were to be killed.
"You'll need to do better than that." She smiled.

"Go faster!" Amantia screamed at his armor ineffectually -- he was already at risk of the suit falling apart from the current amount of strain, and actually going faster would breach that stress barrier. Nonetheless, the thrusters increased power just a bit more, giving him an extra few miles per hour. He soared over the rearmost section of the camp, passing by the choppers headed out -- but the SAI indicated that Frost and Enigma were both in the villa.

He slowed himself down but was still supersonic as he approached, and he saw a man -- Christ, a giant, something like 9 feet tall -- standing at a window, looking in and flexing his muscles, obviously about to attack something or someone. The SAI indicated his team was inside. All right, then.

At the very least, Amantia had the decency to not attack someone unprovoked. "Hey, shorty!" he called out, voice artificially made louder and deeper, as he plowed into the man at the speed of sound. Hopefully this one wouldn't fall apart, rejoin itself, and start shooting shadows at him.

"OOH aren't you just adorable little girl," he said mocking Enigma. She was already a gonner. A liquid elemental trying to fight him. His smile got larger as the shadows began to flicker. This time they exploded with a large force. He brought his hand that had been aiming at Frost over to Enigma almost increasing his fire power 10 fold. Several more tentacles jettisoned up from their layers and attacked the girl as Natas walked closer.

"Your abilities are weak girl. Retreat while we still allow you to," a calm voice said from within the shadow creature. Again the shadow did not speek but only have a face full of joy.

"Hey Shorty!" A voice screamed at Titan, and at the same time someone or something impacted him from behind. He wasn't prepared for it, and he was slammed into the wall in front of him, making several deep cracks in it. Luckily the wall was softer than him, and he only had the wind knocked out of him, he would probably get some bad bruises on his back though. He took a few deep breaths, and then screamed "I'm gonna rip your spine out and make you eat it!"

He turned around to face his opponent. It was the man with the rocket boots, and apparently he had an entire suit to match. He remembered having heard something about this guy before, "You're Iron Man, aren't you? Well, I'm gonna enjoy crushing you like a tin can!" He grabbed a nearby rock and hurled it at the iron-clad man.

"Everyone likes throwing things at me today, it seems," Amantia said as he caught the boulder. Time to change things up. "Well, now I'm throwing back!" He heaved the rock back at the man, following it with a repulsor blast from both palms.

Enigma gasped as the number of shots she was taking increased, virtually disintergrating her body, causing it to collapse down into it's base form, a liquid puddle on the floor. Slowly, the liquid began to fold away, as if evaporating into the air around them, slowly turning invisible. A couple of moments later though, she quickly formed up behind Natas as he walked forward, the liquid form materialising quickly behind him. The figure lashed out quickly, kicking him in the back of the knees before he could react to her presence behind him. She knew what she could do, thanks to Fury's training, she had expanded her abilities, she knew what she could do, she knew what she could take and she knew that she was a match for this Meta, at least for the moment anyway.

"I think I'll stay if it's all the same," She smiled knowingly from behind him.

Iron Man easily caught the boulder Titan threw at him, and then he returned it. Titan simply laughed at this and headbutted the boulder, splitting it in two. But then he was struck in the face by two bright lights, and while they didn't do any real damage they made it hard for him to see in the darkness while his eyes tried to readjust themselves to the rapid changes in light. He started swinging around wildly while he was blinded, hoping to get a lucky hit on his opponent.

Her legs were absorbed into his shadow as he pulled her closer. Unlike him liquid had limited tensile strength meaning his body could stretch on for literally miles while hers had a limit. She was encapsulated in shadows. Disappearing right before everyones eyes. Outside the shadow figure smiled, to everyone she was now gone, swallowed by him. He was going to kill her as he expanded farther and farther until something snapped.

"MAMAMIA That was a spicy meatball but mmhmm it was good," the shadow figure put his hands to his mouth and kissed them before they went out and expanded.

Inside the body Enigma would be feeling the enormous pressure and expansion, it was like a jolt that she was launched from being crushed to being in a room. In the room were tables with hundreds of notes and at least 20 armored soldiers carrying weapons. Amongst the death guard, the soldiers, men in white coats carrying worried looks on their face. All stood frozen in place. It was evident that this was some sort of lab as large cryogenic tubes attached to monitors and tubes with colored liquid were all over.

The one that held the most attention was the one marked in common Ralkovian language,"Krieg Dea: Experamanta 10321 'Satan.' A large mirror was in front of the cryogenic tube stood. It seemed that voices could be heard, fear or excitement sometimes both in every voice.

"Experamanta 'Satan' ick doen 'dremon, Dachstag!"
"DACHSTAG!"
"Nie biena, Sio, cloke gata's. DACHSTAG!!!!"

A boys screams could be heard inside the tube. He was screaming for help. The sound of electricity, two tesla coils on either side, began to zap at the cryogenics shutting the boy up for a moment before his screams became louder. One of the scientist gradually pulled a small knob marked 'poywor' and the bolts of energy increased. It seemed that the boys screaming got louder as he knocked at the cryogenic tube. The scientist who looked to be in charge said some encouraging words to the other who turned the knob to the maximum.

The tube inside began to fill red before turning to black. One of the men laughed and said something in german and english trying to get his point through,"I think you killed him."

The tube shattered with a great racket as a small boy dropped out from it. He looked tired and exhausted as if he was bearing the world on his shoulders. He was dragged away into another room, as enigma followed, she was led into a camp full of squalor.

The boy was thrown into a pile of dead bodies to rot like the rest of them. It seemed he was already dying, tears covered his face. Nothing moved except for the boys shadow. He slowly spoke to it like one would to a dear friend on your death bed.

"I can't go on...at least you'll live on...shado-" the boy began to scream for a minute and grabbed his head in agony. His shadow swallowed him and quickly got up and looked around at the camp. He gave a grin despite his surroundings. His blood lust evident on his face.

Enigma was jolted as she was ripped from the memory into a big empty black space. A furious voice screamed from somewhere in the balck abyss, "HOW DID YOU GET IN HERE?!?!"

(This was done with Alversia's permission and just so you know. On the outside world it looks like he just killed her however she's inside Nata's mind.)

Frost took a step forward and held out his right hand, he took a deep breath and exhaled, his breath was visible as the temperature suddenly dropped. The hand shook and without warning, it turned to ice. A blast of ice shot out from his hand, sharp, jagged shards of ice sprayed out from his hand, imapling and crushing the tentacles. One managed to snake away and lept for the attack. His fist remained clench, like solid ice and he gave it a powerful punch, sending it against the wall. The adrenaline pumped through his veins, the sting of fighting rejuvinated him. It felt good to use his powers, which he supressed most of the time.

"I'm not leaving without you!" Frost yelled for Enigma

The creature smiled,"How about a trade...scarlet for Enigma. Here's my card," he said pointing to frost's shadow before dropping back and disappearing into the hard wood of the villa. He was already gone however a faint laughter lingered in the air.

Enigma gasped under the strain of being in this...this place! She had no idea where she was but wherever it was, it was not somewhere she was comfortable. She had known that the shadows should not have consumed her in that way and she was not ready for it. Now she had watched this kid suffer in this place, she assumed it was the memories of this Villan and she was watching his memories unfold from within, as if she were a spectator to it.
She watched as he was tortures, his screams racking through to her very heart, tearing at it, while tears of pity welled up in her eyes. She had never seen such torture before, she had seen bad before but never on children. She had always seen them as pure. Children should not be exposed to this sort of horror. They would have a lifetime for that and these fifteen years or so should be painfree and without suffering. Even thinking about it dragged her back to her own childhood in Alversia when...it...had happened.

The dark night, the cool air that permiated the house due to the open door. They were in the dining room. That was where she had been found. The man was dead on the ground, dead. His eyes were wide open in shock at what had happened, how his life had turned out so badly. She huddled in the corner, shuddering and listening to the constant drip, drip, drip from the ceiling. The body focused her attention though. She couldn't believe it. It couldn't have happened. Not to her

"I...I..." Enigma tried to breath, feeling the blackness chocking her, entering her lungs. She was scared and her fear was only making the problem worse. She tried to speak to the voice, the angry voice,
"I'm here by accident," She choked out, "I was dragged here by..." She say, the air to her brain was lacking, her eyes began to slide, tongues rolling, bent over double in an attempt to force more air into her lungs.

One such blow struck Amantia in the jaw, and he felt it, to be sure, but the armor took the brunt of it. He watched the man stumble about blindly, and shook his head. "I've got more important things to deal with than you, amateur," he said dismissively, and nodding to the blinded man, he dove through the window -- only to get slammed to the floor by a shadow limb as Natas exited. "Damn."

He looked around and noticed that Enigma wasn't there; furthermore, her SAI signal had gone kaput. "Frost, where the fuck is she?" he said heatedly.

"LET ME OUT!!!"shouted James, banging on the helicopter door with his knee. He had had enough of sitting around and had reverted to his 'let-me-out-now-before-i-kick-the-
door-down' attitude.

Frost turned to face the monster, he flared his teeth, eyes mad with fire. His fists were prepared to whatever was needed. He was going to save Enigma even if it killed him. But, the creature's words stopped him as he stepped forward. A trade?

"What have you done with Enigma? What do you want Scarlet?" He demanded

"by Natas...you'll feel more comfortable here," the man said as the enviroment began to change to that of a large field. It was near a playground that was empty of all but a single child probably only 4 or 5. For a second what looked like a destroyed city was in the background but a blue sky covered it in an instant hiding it from view however the stench of burning still poured through the screen.

"Who are you?" he said walking over to the woman and brushing some of the loose hair on her face away. The child began to call for his mother and father but their was no answer. Only the quiet of the playground.

The boy ran past them before stopping by the girl and looking at her...no through her. He then resumed his running.

Frost turned to face the monster, he flared his teeth, eyes mad with fire. His fists were prepared to whatever was needed. He was going to save Enigma even if it killed him. But, the creature's words stopped him as he stepped forward. A trade?

"What have you done with Enigma? What do you want Scarlet?" He demanded

(My guy already disappeared.)

Enigma gasped aloud, lung gratefully grabbing at the air that had been provided though it was still not as pure as the stuff she was used to. The stench of burning was incredible though and she struggled to concentrate on things other than the choking smell. The smell of burning wood, burning plastic, burning...burning flesh. She shook her head, hair falling from side to side before focusing on the boy. She flashed her perfect smile at him as he pushed her hair away for her. He was young, she guessed just above a Toddler in terms of age, old enough to understand pain but not the cause. She sighed in pity and was about to speak when he called for his Parents.

That shout shut her mouth with a snap, more tears springing up in her eyes. He was looking for his parents, looking for comfort, looking for guidance and safety. She knew the feeling, she had so craved it herself. She still did. She desired that even now...but...she had lost her innocence.

She watched as he ran past, standing up again after kneeling down to allow him to brush his hair away,
"I am Enig..." She paused, mind racing as she tried to rationalise. She smiled softly at his retreating back, "My name is Emily Dawson." She gave herself a small smile.

"...amateur"

That single word angered Titan greatly, it reminded him of past failures, and he was determined to punish Iron Man for his mockery. His eyes adjusted to the darkness, finally allowing him to see again, but he didn't see his target until he turned around and looked into the room, there he was, standing next to some other man. Titan charged at the wall, easily smashing through it, and when he entered the room he noticed that the shadow being was gone, but that didn't matter to him now. He charged at Iron Man, intending to tackle him into the wall.

"My name is Josh my shadow is Natas...Emily, it is a very beautiful name," he hesitated. It was evident that he had not socialized with anyone in a long time. It was the same man who had sat down and read the book. He smiled at her as he laid down next to her a looked at the fake sky, his face showed years of fatigue.

"How did you get into my memories?" he said closing his beleaguered eyes. His chest slowly rose and lowered. The twitter of a song bird filled the air with a hint of music and finally the memory turned to the purest one. It was a boy at least 12 pushing a girl on a swing set. The air was sweet with the scent of spring.

"Thank you," Enigma smiled at his clumsy compliment, watching him look up to the sky. She recognised him as the man she had confronted in the House beforehand, reading the book on Concentration Camps. When she had seen him before, she had been blinded by her determination to confront him, to defeat what she saw as a real threat to the Security of the world and to SHIELD itself. He was a villian, an evil villian no different from the rest. Now that she could see him like this in this enviroment, well...she couldn't see where she had got it from, he was so sweet, so charming, but he looked so tired. She felt real pity for him, real symapthy, she empathised strongly with him.
"I was fighting your...shadow was it? Yes, I was fighting Natas," She explained, "He swallowed me in shadow and the next thing I know, I'm here," She spoke softly, enjoying the tickling feeling of the grass against her body, "He is you," She said, hoping she had figured it out, "that...boy...is you." She said it, managing to hold back her tears. It was so tragic a story. He had been so young.

Frost found himself yelling into the emptiness of the library, all alone. Nothing but him and the shadows. Enigma's body lay on the ground. He rushed over to feel for a pulse. Luckily, there was a faint one, so slight it took his full attention to sense it. She was alive, this was certain. He gently moved her head and stared into blank eyes, it was frightening.

"Medvac 1, Lead" Frost said into his comm link, "I need a medvac ASAP!"

"You're going to be alright, Emily" Frost uttered her real name, his voice softened as his eyes swept around the room, there was no telling if that meta would return.

A few minutes later, a helicopter returned and the medical crew took extra care in taking Enigma's body off site. She would be taken to the base camp where the rest of the team was, then moved back to SHIELD Headquarters, where there was a state-of-the-art medical unit within its' walls. There was no telling what this Natas did to her. Her mind was lost, but everything else was fine. He watched the sun struggle over the mountains in the distance as the forested floor below appeared as a green blur. All the while he was on the satellite phone with the Director of SHIELD. The successful mission in his mind has turned to a failure. What could he have done different? Heinsight is 20/20 in all cases.

The helicopter landed at the base camp, located at an abandoned airfield near Bogota. It was being used by SHIELD as a forward operating base, mobile and easily moved from wherever it was needed to set up operations. The medics wheeled her off to the medical unit, housed in an old hangar. He was exhausted, angered, at himself and at Enigma for going off like that.

Fox sat at the edge of the airfield, craddling a cup of coffee, she hadn't slept for 24 plus hours. Shadow was in the medical unit as well, bitching but alive.

"What did he do to her?" Fox questioned, cautiously

Frost looked at the ground, "I can't say exactly. This 'Natas' wants a trade"

'A trade?" Fox gives him a sideward glance, astounded.

"Yes, he wants Scarlet, for some odd reason"

Amantia was slammed with what felt like a bulldozer as he watched Frost scream at thin air. He barely had time to glance over and see the giant before he was thrust through the back wall of the library and crashed to the ground. Damage indicators flashed up on his HUD.

"I'll live, right?" he asked the AI, and it mutely responded with a plus sign. "Good, clear HUD." He fought his way to one knee, right shin still damaged from Natas' previous attack, and looked up to see the man, face furious. "Lead, Iron," he said to Frost as the man left, not realizing he was still in the villa, "ANOTHER meta. Will apprehend, but... he's kinda big. Sending imagery."

"Look," he said calmly, "I don't know who you are or what your angle is. I was talking to my boss, and then... all I know was, you could have at least had the decency to warn me, first, as I did towards you. Because now, you see, whereas I was simply going to dismiss you out-of-hand, now I have to apprehend you as an unregistered metahuman. And that means more paperwork for me, some for you, not to mention incarceration in a nice little..." Amantia paused, looking Titan from head to foot. "Er... make that big cell for you while you listen to the details of your crime. So, wanna make it easy, or must I take you down?"

James felt the helicopter land, then kicked the door and said:"Can i be let out NOW?!"

"Yes...I lost everything as a child but my shadow. As a child I imagined my shadow as being a living breathing being I tried to feed it my rations," he winced at the word. He had been used to calling it that for a long time.

"My food and took care of it like a brother. Now my shadow protects me. I feel so tired," he said yawning. His eyes were closed his brain just playing the memory again and again. He gave her a smile as he rested again a small grassy knoll. He looked so gentle and calm. He was still awake but just barely. He opened his mouth and began to speak trying to keep himself awake but it just closed again.

Titan let forth a roaring laughter, "Take me down? I am unstoppable!"

He attacked with a series of punches, aiming for Iron Man's head. While the punches weren't very fast they were strong enough to shatter rock.

The Tin Man Armor was strong, but it was no Hulkbuster suit. The punches that hit Amantia -- some were laughably slow, considering the 'fight for your life' situation -- but those that did were like a jackhammer.

"Unstoppable?" Iron Soldier looked at him after dancing back from the storm of blows for a moment. "Ah, you're the Juggernaut, then, right?"

"He protects you," Enigma chewed the words over, trying think of how to counter that arguement. This man had obviously suffered so much turmoil in his time, too much pain. His shadow had been his only friend, his only Ally. His shield. She could not complain at that, after all, her only shield had been her powers. Once discovered, she had hidden behind them, protecting herself with them, shrouding herself like a blanket in them. She bit her pale lip lightly, trying to think of how to phrase her next question, she could see he was falling asleep and she didn't want him to. First of all because if he did, then she didn't know if she would be trapped here or it she would be released, but she was also curious, curious about him and intrigued. She wanted to know more about the man behind the shadow. He seemed so kind and compassionate, completely different from his Shadow form.

"Do you agree with what Natas is doing?" She asked him softly, the harshness and command in her voice fading away to a delicate, gently questioning tone. She couldn't keep her anger at him.

"Juggernaut? I am Titan!" He said as he tried to smash his foe into the ground with both hands, the attack missed, and he made a small crater in the ground. "Aren't you supposed to be a super genius or something, building that suit?" He tried a large sideways sweep with his arm, but Iron Man simply evaded it.

"Okay, really now," Amantia said dryly. "I'm not red-and-gold, and that should be an obvious indicator that I'm not Iron Man. If anything, my paint scheme should scream War Machine, but the lack of a dozen conspicuous weapons sticking out of me should make that illusion false, too." He watched the man, then shook his head for what seemed like the hundredth time. And the last today. "For reference, Titan, I am Iron Soldier. And I'll be coming back for you. Enjoy Columbia." With that, he leaped into the air again, taking especial care to fire his thrusters so that the exhaust struck the would-be supervillain.

"Lead, Iron. Target is a low-grade meta with perpetual momentum -- Juggernaut, like. Returning to base; see you in an hour or so. Iron out."

James was getting pissed at the fact that no one was listening to him, and this meant that he started kicking the door harder and harder, creating a sizable dent on the outside of the door.

Fox dumped out the cold coffee and walked about aimlessly. She ehard the kicking from one of the containers. Her eyes looked from side to side, the guards had left for whatever reason, security wasn't their top priority, which it should have been. Fox walked over to the container and opened it up, after removing the locks.

"Are you going to stop kicking?" She inquired

"Yes! Thats all you had to do! Let me out,"said James, staggering out of the container and breathing deeply."I cannot stand small, dark places."

"Well, in all the commotion, I don't recall how you came to be our guest" Fox replied, stepping back. She kept her eyes on his hands, "But you seem friendly enough, what's your story?"

Titan screamed with rage, "Come back here you coward! Fight me!", and then he started to fruitlessly hurl nearby objects towards the Iron Soldier. When his foe refused to return he unleashed his fury upon the now-empty villa, tearing it down like a house of cards. When he had calmed himself slightly he left the rubble behind and started running in the direction Iron Soldier had gone. If nothing else he knew that their base had to be located in that direction.

He ran for many hours, easily tearing through the jungle, but still he had not seen any sign of the SHIELD HQ. And he was interrupted in his sprint by a growl from his stomach. He was hungry, and decided to start looking for some source of food before he continued his chase. He was by no means stealthy, so he had significant problems catching any animals, but he spent some time tearing down trees with fruit in them. He spent about an hour eating before he started running again. When the sun started rising he exited the jungle, and before him lay a tranquil town, perhaps he could use it to lure his foe to him?

"I was at that villa trying to find some people,"said James, trying to break open his cuffs."I was captured. I got out, killed a bunch of guards, then could caught by that Enigma chick. Now....wheres my sword?"

He bit his cheek the question stung a little, a crease appeared on his forehead as his eyebrows knitted together,"He....my...I." His eyes creased as he tried to think harder. The environment began to change as his memories came back.

"These men killed your mother and father. They used you and threw you away. I can kill them. I am your shadow even if you blame me I will always be with you. I am your shadow and I will never be far from you," said Natas appearing to talk to himself but it was obvious he was talking to Josh.

"Excellent. Then we shall seek revenge on the world that would let us rot," the shadow smiled as he headed off to the lab. Screams and gunfire slipped from the camp as men were flung like toys. The shadow man merely smiled as several guards were being choked by their own shadows.

The shadow man merely let loose a laugh as his finger sawed scientist in half with shadow bullets. Most of the scientist laid on the floor begging for mercy,"You who have shown none to my body shall receive none from his shadow."

Finally the head scientist stood smiling,"So then experiment satan worked? That is good. Ralkovia now has the ability to create metahumans."

The shadow stopped as the man walked closer smiling. From the shadow a small boys voice was evoked from the shadow,"Brother why did you kill mom and dad. Why did you let them try and kill me!"

"You sniveling snot. I've made our country great. Sacrifices are necessary to create a new world. Now go die in the pit of bodies I told them to drop you in," the man laughed mercilessly.

"Brother I love you," the shadow was losing power as it disappeared from the boys body.

"Say hello to mom and dad for me brat. I shall enjoy watching you cry," he emptied a clip of pistol ammo into the boy who collapsed bleeding from his wounds. Blood flowed like a river from his mouth.

More guards entered the room and got ready to put the boy out of his misery. Each aimed for the head getting ready to blast his brains from his head. A dark voice spoke to the bleeding boy,"Do you agree with what I'm about to do?"

The boy whimpered and let out a small nod as his body was consumed in a black wave. Shadows everywhere ripping men and machinery apart. Older brother, where was older brother. The shadow let out a cry as he neared the camp tearing loose walls, setting prisoners loose, and ripping enemies apart. Anything between him and brother would die.

He found the man in his house with his family. Brother had a wife, a 16 year old, and 2 twins only 1 year old. Brother tried to protect his wife and children but Natas grabbed the twins and killed them before throwing them back at brother. He mocked brothers words,"I guess your wife and you will say hello for mama and papa."

The shadow began to laugh as it picked up his wife,"I will give you back the same present I was given. I will take away everything and make sure you live in squalor for the next 5 years of your petty life. I will be back later. Also I destroyed all your work. Nothing is left just like your family."

The shadow tore apart the shrieking wife and chucked the dead bodies at the brother.
"Isn't vengeance a bitch?"


He quickly gained control of his mind as it returned to the swingset. Josh was visibly scarred as he had rolled up in a ball and was shivering. His eyes wide in fear. He was shaken as the blood and gore, everything he had went through passed through his eyes. Five years of torture and death. He was frightened and in anguish.

Fox produced a carton of clove cigarettes and pulled one out with her mouth and lite it. She watched the puffs of smoke dance into the air, "Knives are sharp" she said, 'Too dangerous"

S.H.I.E.L.D. Headquarters

Asterix sighed lightly, unable to get back to sleep. So, he sat down in his chamber and began drawing aimlessly. What else was he going to do? He was tempted to shift, but what would that matter? Really? What could he do? Try his best to keep Lycan entertained without destroying his home? Asterix sighed boredly, and turned on the television... These shows were so sadly predictable... For five years of having his life revolve around television and re-reading books... He was slipping into another bout of depression when...

"Hey Asterix! Get this!" came Mike's voice over the Intercom, "I got you an update on the Avenger team. They've apparantly broke contact, one hostile has been captured... they've all moved back to the FOB. On top of this I think I heard that someone, uhm... Enigma! that's it. It seem's Enigma is a casualty, I don't have any details on that though. It also seems that Iron Soldier met up with a big guy he's coined as either "Titan... or Juggernaut... I'm not sure which." Mike seemed somewhat happy to bring information to Asterix...

Asterix, despite how deeply it cut that he hadn't a chance to be part of the action as well as the mournful mental cry of Lycan at missing the action too, could not help but lean towards the intercom speaker and call out; "Oh? So the Avenger team -really- got trounced? It's been awhile since I heard the Avengers took a casualty. It's usually all the other poor dumb bastards on our team that get slaughtered." He rubbed his chin, messing with his beard somewhat boredly. "What's ETA on them getting home?"

"No idea Asterix, sorry." said Mike.

Over the intercom, Asterix could hear the soft snoring of Leeroy... That cut deeply aswell, He was locked up in SHIELD HQ... Too dangerous to ever be let out... Yet his guards couldn't even stay awake because he'd never made trouble in Five years... And they didn't think he was a threat either. He tried his best to remember the last time the higher-ups came down to check out if his containment chamber was being protected. They hadn't even come back in a year and a half. They didn't seem to think him a threat either on level B48... Forty Eight floors into the basement, if he listened carefully he could hear generators purring two more floors down.

"My God..."

Enigma could think of nothing else to say to the flashback that she had witnessed. There was nothing else she could say. Where there had only been pricks of tears before, there were now streams as she watched the horror unfold. She could not imagine that sort of pain, that sort of agony was unimaginable. She felt so so sorry for him. Once she was out of the flashback, she gave a deep gasp and looked down at the curled up man. He was so pure, so innocent. He had given himself to the Shadow. Natas was his opposite, his negative, the one he had trusted his anger and his malice to. Natas fed off that, he lived on it. It made him who he was.

"Come here," She leant over and gently took Josh in her arms, allowing him to put his hands around her, to hug her and to let all his anxiety and pain out. She became a shoulder to cry on, gently holding him, allowing him to pour this anger out into another human being without resorting to pain or Natas. She didn't know why she did it, she supposed it felt like the right thing to do. She had lost her own parents so suddenly, so painfully. She couldn't compare her pain to his, but she could understand it.

That's all one could ever do.

Frost left the airfield and into the control tower. It was rundown, chipped paint, shaky thin walls, but it is what they had to work with. A crew was up in the tower but Frost remained downstairs, in his temporary office. He closed the door and flipped up the laptop. It hummed to life and he typed in the security code which encrypted a real-time line with SHIELD Headquarters.

A man's image appeared, graying hair, nothing unique or special, just a man. But this man was Michael O'Hara, Director of SHIELD. After the death of Tony Stark and the end of the Mastermind Plot, SHIELD's council turned initially to Frost to become the new director. It was tempting, Frost would have near unlimited power in decision and operation making but instead he respectfully declined. He didn;t feel as though he was to par with a man such as Tony Stark, or Nick Fury. They were the kind of men such an organization needed, Frost in his own mind, was not that. So, they turned to O'Hara, a loud man with a good mind and comes from a backround in counterintelligence. He was in his mid-fifties. He was an Irishman, his voice was commanding and took control of whatever room he was in. Frost was his polar opposite, quiet, spoke only when he needed. Frost was annoyed by their choice but had no room to complain, he did turn it down and had no right to gripe about who they put in his spot.

"Frost, speak to me" O'Hara said, cutting to the chase.

Frost took a deep breath, "Sir, we accomplished our primary objectives. Scarlet is in our custody, as well as over a dozen other HYDRA members, and a library of documents and other assorted things"

During the brief, O'Hara nit-picked on certain topics but for the most part, allowed Frost to finish. "We have a complication. An unknown metahuman appeared from nowhere, we weren't expecting him. He was far too powerful and we pulled out. Iron Soldier has more data on him but has not returned yet. Agent Enigma is in some sort of trance, by this Natas"

"Who is this Natas?" O'Hara inquired, leaning forward

Iron Soldier was, in fact, just arriving, streaking over the makeshift airfield. Unfortunately, he wasn't going to make a clean landing. As he lowered himself in a vertical descent, his right thruster failed, and he crumpled to the ground. He waved off the Agents that started his way, watching the one with a fire extinguisher warily (Williams was an eager son of a bitch with that thing), and he looked up to see Fox smoking nonchalantly, speaking with the meta he had taunted Scarlet with.

"You're obviously not a complete threat," he said, and pulled off the damaged helmet, tossing it to the ground. He fought his way to his feet, and glanced at Fox. "Because otherwise, Fox there would have killed you already if you were. What's your story?"

Josh just held onto her his body shivered against her,"What's your story?" he said wiping tears off his sleeve.


"Well I could tell you a lot about me!" said a figure in the corner. Natas stepped out from the shadows smiling his big smile,"In fact I could talk to you face to face but for now ITS FUN TIME," he said as 20 large tentacles zipped towards Frost.

OOC: Negative on that one Ralkovia. I am going to have to ask you to back off for now, I know you enjoy having your uber-badass character stomp around and all but now it's time for some breathing space so that this rp can slow to a normal rate and kill the explosions and action for a tick.

Enigma gently wiped the tears from his eyes, comforting him with her mere presence and touch. She found that, sometimes that could be the most encouraging. She knew that she could reach and connect with him and that perhaps she could use that in later contests to stop Natas from inflicting such pain again. Those Scientists and Soldiers had deserved it, but many of his victims would not. They would die for a vengence that they had not earned. She had sworn to stop such pain and suffering and she would.

The next story took her back,
"My story?" She frowned, trying quickly to think of what to tell him and whatnot. She felt guilty about concealing things from her past but it was an old defensive mechanism. She would not talk of such things and, in return, they couldn't hurt her.
"My...my parents died when I was a small child. I wandered around for a few years before SHIELD took me in. I've worked for them ever since." She shrugged. She was lying of course, but that was all she was willing to tell. All she could tell. Even referring to that brought tears of her own to her eyes. The pain never went away. It could be hidden, it could be suppressed but it could never go away.

Josh held her,"I guess we are two people on the same boat..."

(Yeah fine Kul but we need some way of getting enigma to you guys and scarlet to me.)

S.H.I.E.L.D. Headquarters

Below O'Hara's screen... The soft "message Alert" button blinked on the desk. One quick look at the message and receiver marked where it came from. However, it had been three years, if not four since the message was last seen. So, there was possible hope that the "New" leader of SHIELD might not remember the thousands of the same message poor Fury had to contend with.

Would O'hara consider Asterix's request and deploy him? Or would O'hara just write him off?

OOC: I think Asterix/Lycan would be a perfect "Good Guy" to face our big bad "Jugganaut" Titan. Or, heck, even Natas.

OOC: Kulikova wrote that thing about less action after this post was mostly complete, and I didn't feel like discarding it, I hope everyone is okay with this.

Titan had made his presence painfully clear to the local residents. He had entered the town and started to destroy a small cluster of houses. They were poorly built and was hardly challenging to knock down. After a few minutes a pair of police officers arrived and tried to apprehend him, and when he refused to listen to their orders to get on the ground they opened fire with their pistols, which of course did no damage. He grabbed one of them and took his time killing him, as a part of his plan, the other officer ran to the car and radioed for help and then tried to escape. Titan managed to grab the car before it left, and threw it into a nearby house. Then he walked towards the center of town, destroying everything in his path.

Soon reinforcements arrived in the form of both more police officers and a small platoon of soldiers stationed here to combat the drug lords. They had jeeps with machine guns mounted on them, and a small attack helicopter. The helicopter launched a dozen missiles at him, but they only slowed him down, and the helicopter had its tail knocked off by a thrown car and crashed. The soldiers and the police officers put up a spirited fight, unleashing all they had on him, but it ultimately proved futile as he just kept on coming. After less than twenty minutes of fighting most of them lay dead, only those that had escaped were alive, and hopefully they were radioing in for help, as that was his plan.

Lets see if that coward will come out to face me now. While he waited he entertained himself by watching a televised boxing match.

A shadow appeared next to titan. Its dark figure stood tall or as tall as Titan,"Your powers interest me. Would you like to join my little group of metahuman's?"

Titan jumped as a shadow spoke to him. Then he recognized it as the being that had been at the villa. He quickly regained his composure.

"Depends, what is the goal of this... group of yours."

"To rid the world of SHIELD among other things."

"Well, that is a cause I can support. I'm in."

"Good. Now you're a big fellow so its going to be tough to transport you to mongolia."

"Mongolia? How the hell am I supposed to get there? Not all of us can jump out of the shadows you know, do you have a plane or something?"

"We in the same Boat..."

"...yeah," Emily agreed, not looking at him for that moment. She couldn't believe that she was speaking to him like this. But he was so sweet and caring that it was hard not to like him. She looked up to see him staring into her blue eyes. She leant forward slowly, following her instincts, her lips brushed his, kissing him gently. She didn't know why she did it, but it seemed like the right thing to do. She wanted to deny that she was falling in love with Josh but it was hard to deny in the moment of the kiss.

Frost dronned on for about thrity minutes, all the while O'Hara listened, uncharacteristically of him. Even more unusual was O'Hara saying even less in response once Frost completed the briefing.

"This Natas wants Scarlet in exchange for Enigma's mind?" It wasn't a question, but more of a thought left aloud for all to hear, "We don't negotiate with these people"

The way he used the term these people caused Frost's right eye to twitch. O'Hara wasn't a metahuman and was against the Avenger Initiative from the start. Frost propsed the idea after the Mastermind Plot. SHIELD needed metahumans to carry out it's purpose. He eventually swung the council in favor but to the shagrin of O'Hara. he two did not get along but kept their dealings professional.

"Sir, we need to get her back, she is a vital asset, but not only that-she's one of us" Frost pleaded, "We need to draft a plan and regroup to deal with this new threat. He's powerful and we have no idea what his plans are as of now. Whatever it is, it isn't good"

"I understand that-"

"That's why we need to help her"

O'Hara held up a hand, "How do we do that? Scarlet is dangerous and who knows what will happen if she's free"

"She won't stay free for long, Sir" Frost replied, maintaining his cool.

"Then you will have to think of something. I want you and the team to return to Headquarters and scrub down the base,leave no trace"

"But what about Enigma?"

"Regroup here, from the sound of things, he isn't even there anymore"

"Actually I can, just have to make sure a big shadow is at the other end," he put his hand on titan's back and smiled. "You might want to get angry. Think of how Iron Soldier embarrased you." With that they were in Mongolia and more importantly in the secret base where they were surrounded by at least 20 metahumans and thousands of guards.

---------------------
Josh kissed back his lips enjoying hers. He then pulled away and smiled. "You're beautiful," he said laying down next to her. He kissed her again.

------------------

Natas screamed as part of him began to melt, he quickly caught himself and explained that 'bright light hurt him and that titan should make himself at home for the time being.' He ran away fast before going into meditation.

------------------

"JOSH WHAT THE HELL IS HAPPENING?!?" he screamed the voice echoing through their memories.

"You're not too bad yourself," Emily giggled as she kissed him again, laying next to him amongst the grass. She was enjoying the contact, enjoying the affection from Josh and, for one moment, she forgot about all her problems, all her issues. However, Natas' deep voice boomed through the reality and Emily naturally clung to Josh, as if for protection against the threat,
"Josh...is that him?" She asked in a frightened voice.

"Your safe," he said his heart was beating calmly. A Josh blackened and corrupted suddenly erupted from the ground. He was discolored in dull colors except for the red on his cheeks.

"Josh who is she?" he said asking as he raised his fist. Josh gripped her a bit tighter as he spoke to Natas. "Natas seriously go away," josh ordered but the other Josh merely smiled as he raised his fist and picked up Josh to throw him off to the side.

"Josh! No!" Emily was up in an instant, rushing forward to defend Josh, a man she was developing closer and closer feelings to. She leapt forward, aiming a kick to Natas' midriff. She did not care that this was his territory, his 'patch' and the place where he was effectively a god. All that went through her mind was protecting the innocence of Josh.

The moment she attacked him she was ripped from the mind and returned to her body.

Iron Soldier was, in fact, just arriving, streaking over the makeshift airfield. Unfortunately, he wasn't going to make a clean landing. As he lowered himself in a vertical descent, his right thruster failed, and he crumpled to the ground. He waved off the Agents that started his way, watching the one with a fire extinguisher warily (Williams was an eager son of a bitch with that thing), and he looked up to see Fox smoking nonchalantly, speaking with the meta he had taunted Scarlet with.

"You're obviously not a complete threat," he said, and pulled off the damaged helmet, tossing it to the ground. He fought his way to his feet, and glanced at Fox. "Because otherwise, Fox there would have killed you already if you were. What's your story?"

"Man, how many times do i have to say it?!" said James, before sighing."I was there looking for some people who i wanna kill. Badly. Anway, i got captured, i broke out, i got captured by that Enigma chick. Happy, Tinman?"

"Man, how many times do i have to say it?!" said James, before sighing."I was there looking for some people who i wanna kill. Badly. Anway, i got captured, i broke out, i got captured by that Enigma chick. Happy, Tinman?"

"At the moment?" Amantia said in response to the question, knowing it was rhetorical. "No, not really. We have a missing, potentially dead, agent -- of which I have yet to learn any details surrounding her fate. The mission has gone to hell, because while we got our target, two more metas were available for detainment -- and both were either too powerful or not really capable of containment, with our current loadout. This armor's shot to shit, and I've gotta hope that the maintenance on my other suit is complete, back at headquarters. This seems like a singularly unhappy time, friend."

"Sooo....Your gonna drag me along for the ride?"said James, having worked out how to break his cuffs.

Marcus wheeled around the SHIELD medical tent in his brand new wheelchair, laughing to himself as he executed perfect wheelies across the floor. The doctor said he'd be back on his feet in almost no time, but for the time being, he'd have to be restricted to two wheels. Well, it wasn't so bad. Wheels were fun, after all! Sure the doctor was occupied with somebody else to watch him too closely, he rolled out of the tent past the guard, who simply regarded him with a blank stare and a puff of smoke from a cigarette.

Rolling across the open ground, he yelped as several agents rushed past him, intent on tending to Iron Soldier, who was just returning to the base with a thud of an iron suit. Bastards nearly knocked him over.

"People these days..." he said to himself, a smile written across his features. Moving on, he made his way into the mess tent, using his 'I'm hurt' privaliges to swiftly move himself to the front of a growing line, grabbing himself a sandwich. Food from the FOB wasn't ever really that great, but hey, it's the best they can do after you nearly get yourself killed during a hard day of keeping the world safe. Exiting the tent with a sandwich in his hand (and cold cuts in his mouth), he carefully moved across the way (avoiding the doctor, who was apparently searching for him by now), eventually noticing Fox and Iron talking to somebody in a cell.

"New friend?" He asked, wheeling up to them. He took another bite of his sandwich, executing a perfect wheelie on his chair. Looking up, he noticed Fox's pack of cigarettes.

"Those are bad for you, by the way." He pointed out. He knew she hated hearing that, especially from him. So he made a point to bring it up every time he saw them.

"Sooo....Your gonna drag me along for the ride?"said James, having worked out how to break his cuffs.

"It seems so," Amantia said distractedly. "Oh, and by the way, I know it's harsh and all -- but we actually have a holding cell on the airplane." He looked at the meta out of the corner of his eye. "Enjoy your time, because effective... oh, in ten minutes or so, you're a full prisoner of S.H.I.E.L.D. Oh, and the best way to run for an escape attempt now is that way," he said, pointing northwards, "But the problem is that you'll be cornered -- a ridge on your right, the edge of our perimeter -- and the detection equipment -- on your left, and an ocean right in front of you. You're welcome to try, though -- at least you won't have to worry about me, battered as I am. I understand that my boss is pretty pissed at the moment, though, so I'd rethink that if I were you."

"who said i wanted to run?"said James, quickly breaking his cuffs and rubbing his wrists."You guys get to have loads of fun AND you get to do so without police chasing you across a boarder or three. But I like my style better, soo...Can i have my sword back?"

"Why do we even keep those things around if just about every prisioner with an IQ above 50 finds a way out of them?" Marcus said, through a mouthful of sandwich. He looked around. His comms had been down while he was being patched up, so he had no idea what had happened with Frost and Enigma.

"Where's Enigma?" He suddenly asked.

"who said i wanted to run?"said James, quickly breaking his cuffs and rubbing his wrists."You guys get to have loads of fun AND you get to do so without police chasing you across a boarder or three. But I like my style better, soo...Can i have my sword back?"

"Heh, heh, he -- no," Amantia said flatly. "This isn't a joke, this isn't a game, nor is it a free-for-all. We can not have unauthorized metahumans running rampant in this world, terrorizing people innocently."

He glanced over at Shadow, stunting with his wheelchair. "I see they tended to you," he said dryly. "Myself, I need no such handling." He indicated his right leg, shin still shot to shit, but leg actuators still holding it up and acting as his muscles. "Sure, I won't be able to do anything outside of the suit, but it's great fun to play war hero while it lasts."

"But I'm not even a meta!"said James, shaking his head.

"Technically," Amantia said in reply, "neither am I. Without this suit, I'm physically fit to a military standard, yes, but I am just another guy. Lots of other people claimed that defense during the Reg' Act's most... excitable days. Punisher, Iron Man and War Machine -- plenty of people existed who just happened to be really good at what they did, without super powers. Find a new audience."

"And I just kick ass!" Marcus announced, waving his sandwich in the air in front of Iron and Fox.

S.H.I.E.L.D. Headquarters

Sitting on his couch, digging through some boxes he'd discovered in his closet, Asterix had his feet up and had by now decided that if he hadn't gotten a response yet... O'hara had forgotten him, or had ignored it. So, he sat on his couch with his new boxes and watching television.

His mind began to wander, drifting into the daydreams given to him by Lycan... Oddly enough, these daydreams did not have him fighting or killing. He closed his eyes as he scrounged through the box using touch only... In his minds eye he was running across great open fields, in a way... His mind was 'frolicking' in wereform. He remembered Frolicking back before he joined SHIELD and the Avengers to try and do the right thing. His mind immediately turned to darker thoughts at that.

The freedom a werewolf could experience in the wild, frolicking, making kills and feast on deer and other animals, tracking for sport, exploring, climbing, swimming... But no... His mind seemed to lash out at reality as his mind went to where he was now, in a small four rooms that would be considered 'tiny' for a Condominium or an Apartment. Forbidden from shifting and forgotten by everyone else. No, he wasn't forgotten by some... He was despised by others and considered 'too volatile' to be left loose.

He could not run, he could not shift, he could not get rid of these dark thoughts. He could not appease or soothe Lycan... Five years of being pent up, at least three years of rage. Lycan was feeding on all of it, his alter ego was becoming more and more infuriated. While at one time, early on, he could have effected Lycan's actions by hinting mentally... Just like Lycan did now. Asterix feared these years of containment would cause Lycan to fly off the handle and completely shut him out until they were either forced to shift back, or Lycan took his frustrations out.

He remembered at his prime, as Lycan was always in his prime. Always growing, always stronger, always getting better each time he shifted... He remembered the last time his shifted, Lycan had managed to bench-press a Humvee. He'd been able to punch (Causing both destruction of the track system, a massive dent, and the tank to shift position 8 feet to one side.), or lift or at least tip, the early Abrams tanks.

He sighed his hand grasping a rubber ball. He squeezed in as all the darkness inside him seemed to leak out one bit as he lifted the ball. His eyes flashed as he snarled, semi-shifted as his muscled twisted, warped, and grew for a brief second... His clothing squeaked and groaned for the half second he grew. His hair stood on end and the dark shadow of furr touched his skin as he hurled the ball. The ball slamed into the wall hard enough to deform and cause a small crack to appear in the five inch thick glass and the whole enclosure's glass to warp briefly. As the ball bounced back... Only one thing saved Asterix and kept Lycan safely back....

The fact the ball, going roughly 175 miles per hour... Had bounced directly back and slammed Semi Asterix/lycan in the face. Shoving him backward... Over the couch and onto his ass...

It effectively stunned Lycan and Asterix long enough for Asterix to regain control, return to fully human form, and yelp in pain as he rolled back and fourth holding his hurting face...

Fox's eyes narrowed on Shadow, she took a long satisfying drag from her cigarette and blew a heavy puff of smoke in his direction, giving a coy wink, "Neither is getting blasted with laser beams and what not" she retorted

"Least you can avoid those." Shadow replied, waving the smoke away with his free hand. "Can't stop lung cancer..."

"Enough chit-chat," Amantia said crossly. He gestured at James. "Come on, Mr. Sparkling Personality, I've gotta get you settled in for your little ride. It's not like a closet or something," he said informatively. "It's a pretty big jet, so we have the room for a nice little chamber for prisoners. S'far as I know, unless she's made a miraculous recovery, Scarlet's gonna be kept under guard in the medical bay. So, it's all good," he concluded. "Let's go."

"Give us time, crippy boy" Fox smiled. She knew full well that the mission turned up bad but she had to find humor, it was a defense mechanism. She was always there with the smart remark or doing something. That was just her, "These are strange times we live in, maybe there will be a cure someday. Anyways, as I see it, if I can survive bouts with metahumans, I think I can handle smoking"

"Hell no!"said James."I am NOT going in another of your little dog boxes!"

Fox turned her attention to their guest, flicking the spent cigarette to the ground and grinding the life out of it beneath her feet, "You're not going to, not now anyways"

"Huh?"said James, looking at Fox.

"Frankly" Fox began, "I don't know why you were in that villa. Maybe you were their guest or not, I dunno. But a sword wheeling maniac talking about killing people doesn't make me feel better, that's why you don't get your big steak knife back, not yet anyways"

Her eyes went up and down, she tried to figure him out.

Meanwhile, teams were preparing to bug out of the airfield. There were two C-130's at the other end of the strip. Cargo boxes were being loaded, men busied about doing their tasks. Such bug outs were common and they were well trained. The mobile command centers were a superb idea that worked quite well in numerous times.

"Hey! They were trying to kill me! I cal self defence,"said James."Besides, the people i'm hunting would get killed anyway; Give them a fair trail, and they'll get the death sentence. And it's not a steak knife! I made that sword!"

Titan was surprised, to say the least, by their mode of transport. Everything around him turned black, and less than a second later he was standing in a large room, surrounded by other people. Most of them looked like normal people, a few seemed to have powers, but the normal-looking ones were by far the majority, there were thousands of them.

The shadow said something to him about making himself at home, then he left. Titan walked off in search of sleeping quarters, he hadn't slept for at least twenty hours, and he was feeling tired.

Enigma woke with a gasp back in her body again. She looked around in shock, taking in the new surroundings that she found herself in. She didn't know where she was, she didn't know who had her body but one thing was certain, she was back. She stood up uneasily, IV Drip needles falling out of her arms. She winced at the pain, then recognised the forward base. She looked around, trying to find someone familiar
"Frost?" She called, her voice uncertain and hesitant, "Frost!?"

"It seems your little girlfriend left. How do you feel about that Josh? I bet that when you meet her next time she won't even remember you. You know I am the only one who would never leave you. A shadow is always close to his body. No matter if the body hurts the shadow," Natas said his smile hidden behind a face of 'concern.' His body, Josh, was in pain and turmoil and it was like a steroid shot to Natas. Natas held in his laughter as he pulled Josh up.

In a few minutes Natas was in complete control as he walked over to where Titan was supposed to be. He saw him sleeping and closed the door. No use in waking a sleeping giant at this point. Natas laughed at his own joke as pulled out some crumpled paper on the experimentation and began to read it.

In Josh's memories the one of the burning city just played over and over again. He wandered through the empty city following his younger self.

As Frost turned off the laptop, a medical officer stormed into the room, the door swinging open and slamming into the wall. Frost turned his head, startled.

"Sir, Agent Enigma's awake" He huffed

Frost, without a word was out of the room before the medic could say another word. He made his way to the medical wing, it was in an open hangar. Medical equipment here and there, gurnies, monitors, there were several cots as well. Enigma was behind several curtains. Frost pulled one aside and walked in.

"Emily-" He paused, "Agent Enigma, it's good to see you back with us" Frost composed himself.

Enigma snapped around as Frost entered, almost ready for a fight. When she saw who it was though, she let out a sigh of relief and managed to calm herself down,
"Yes Sir," She said, deciding to keep it formal, although she was technically of equal rank to Frost, he was in command of the Operation and so she would honour his command, something she had not done earlier, though she did not regret it,
"It's good to be back." She gave a hesitant smile, brushing her hair out of her face as she frequently did.

Frost let out a sigh of relief and managed a faint smile which quickly disappeared, "The medics tell me you're not injured, which is good to hear. So, dare I ask what happened to you?"

(the villa is empty it's been abandoned a long time ago.)

"So, dare I ask what happened to you?"

"Well," Enigma hesitated, trying to think of what had happened, trying to recall the memories. They had seemed so vivid in her mind just moments ago but now it was like she was trying to grab shadows...a bad comparison admittedly but still a suitable one. She explained all she could remember, she explained about the Concentration Camp and how Nadas had torn it's garrison to shreds. Other than that, she struggled to remember anything, she knew there was a name...a name...why couldn't she remember it.

"Sorry Frost, that's all I can remember." She shrugged in apology.

Titan woke up and got up from the beds he had occupied, there was no single bed large enough for him so he had pushed together three smaller ones. Now that he was not tired anymore he decided to explore the facility, to find out if it was just a miserable hole in the ground, or one of those over-the-top villain hideouts he had seen on TV.

He came across who had gotten something to feed on. It wasn't for him but Josh. He came across Titan and greeted the giant,"I don't believe we've gotten to talk. I am Natas and you are Titan. I lead KAOS. KAOS is an organization of metahumans who are to destroy the UN and SHIELD. Tell me about yourself?"

"I am Titan. I am also unstoppable. I have spent quite some time working for various people in South America, that is how I happened upon your battle against the SHIELD agents. Not much more to say really, I want to crush SHIELD, Iron Soldier in particular."

He paused to look around, "So, how big is this place?"

"About 12 square miles. The complex is smaller however we are about 120ft underground. We are part of 4 different countries for example you are standing on the border between Russia and Mongolia. Most of the base is long tunnels but every few hundred yards there are barracks and what not. You are close to the main elevator shaft."

"12 square miles? How many people do you have here?"

"6000 plus metahuman's its like 6036 or 37. Pay is good and with all the mad scientists health care is free."

OOC: Woa, Ralkovia, you do not have 6,000 plus metahumans.

(I think I can easily find 6000 guys to operate an underground facility when I am in one of the rather poor regions of the world. However I will decrease the number to 2000 plus metahuman's. )

James was not happy. One second he had been ranting about the injustice of his situation, the next he was in another holding cell. He was trying to stay calm, but in the end he got pissed off. He went up do the door, and shouted:"Better let me the FUCK out before i kick the door down!"

After learning of the operation Shield had put into action against the Hydra Facility she immediately left the Avengers Tower bound for the coordianates given her.

"LET! ME! OUT!!" shouted James, kicking the door of his cell/ container with every once of strength he had, which was considerably more then the normal human.

Titan was quite impressed with the number of people his new ally had, he said "So you have your own personal army then. Call for me when you have a job that needs to be done." Then he kept walking through the corridors, now looking for the scientists Natas had told him about.

After walking for a little while he found a room labeled 'Weapons Lab', and stepped inside, in the room he saw half a dozen white-clad people working on various weapons he could not identify, a few of the weapons looked rather 'cutting-edge' though.

One of the scientists approached him and said in slightly broken English "Can I help you?". Titan answered "Yes, I want a weapon". The man waited a few more seconds for him to specify what kind, or just say something else, but Titan said no more. "Uh... Do you have any specific sort of weapon in mind?", he was used to talking to people he did not have to look up at, and this man made him nervous. "Yes, one that can neutralize powered armor". The man was glad he could help this giant, he did not want to make him mad, "Oh, something like an EMP-gun? It would be able to knock out electronics". "If it can do what you claim then it is what I want, but make it something that can be used in close combat, I like to crush my foes up close" Titan said with a grin. "Ah, ok. That shouldn't be too hard, just give us a little time and it will be ready".

Titan said no more as he walked out of the lab, the scientist he had spoken to made it his top priority to try to make this weapon for him, and called for a few engineers to help. After that comment about crushing people he really didn't want to upset the giant.

Poiuytrewq, Kenavt
500 hours
Ten years ago

A small boy wandered across the lonely street of an average city. Face dirty with a little soot and wearing ragged clothes, he stared as another, clean-shaven man came down the street. Great, another businessman.He stared in the windows as the man went by, but kept his senses alert. I WILL be like him some day though...He daydreamed until, looking into the window of the abandoned bakery across the street, he sighted him. His older brother. Armed with a mean-looking rifle. Who is this businessman? He can't die! He ran across the street and knocked over the businessman as a bullet whizzed overhead. "Run, sir! Run!"

Airborne
1100 hours
Modern-day

Alex walked around the interior of the large jet, tipping his baseball cap to those he walked past. Thank goodness that I saved Tony's life... he thought back. I ended up in SHIELD at a cushy HQ... DOING NOTHING! He turned the corner toward James's cell. I'll show them! All of those metahumans... Right as he walked past the door, he heard muffled yelling and kicking. He put his ear to the door as it got kicked again.

"Owww." He muttered, opening the door to find a guy older then himself, but not by much. "Hello, you must be the new prisoner. You must be dead bored in here. Well, so am I."

"Oh hey kid,"said James, stopping himself for kicking again."mind telling me where to hell we are?"

"I'm not a freakin' kid," he muttered through closed teeth. What a loser. "I can drive, you know. Quite well. Better than you. And I know where we are: in the atmosphere. Genius, eh?" He scowled a little, and leaned back against the wall of the cell, leaving the door open to freedom. "Gonna take it?"

"Why? Mr Tin Man will just find me again and throw me back in with thicker cuffs,"said James, quickly snapping his cuffs again.

"Mr. Tin Man?" Alex thought for a moment. "Oh, what's-his-name... umm... Amantia. Yah, Mr. Amantia." He paused. "Or Mr. Amantia to me..." he mumbled under his breath. "So, what did you do to get thrown in here?" He examined his fingernails.

"Being in the wrong place at the wrong time,"said James, rubbing his wrists.

"Oh yeah, that happens a lot. They'll let you out in a little bit, if you join SHIELD." Alex just remained unconcerned. "So, what's your power? You are a metahuman." It was a statement.

"Powers? Not much...Just stronger and faster then normal humans. Oh, and i can heal damn near anything,"said James.

Meanwhile, Mr. Amantia was striding purposefully towards the mag-lift within S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters that connected the hundred-some floors of top secret government activities. He had recently swapped out his armor for his newest suit, and told himself that his next activity was just calibration. ONLY calibration.

Right.

"This is Iron," he said in a closed-circuit communication channel. "I'm going to see Fluffy." He stepped up to the lift, the sensor already detecting his Agent's pass -- in his case, his Agent's Armor -- and the platform glided to a smooth stop in front of him. He stepped onto it, and quietly said, "Permanent Prisoner Block 3." The lift silently obeyed his command, and began its long -- yet fast -- trip into the ground.

Watching his altimeter quickly decrease in altitude until it came to 0, at which point it rapidly began counting up in negatives, Amantia plummeted into the subterranean levels of this branch of S.H.I.E.L.D. -- by no means the largest. Sliding to a gentle stop, he stepped quickly off of the platform and followed the small blinking mark on his SAI to a cell that had been occupied for some time.

Ahead of him, Leeroy and Mike (whose names he had forgotten, not because of disdain, but simply because he 'met' low-level agents all the time, and couldn't keep track of them all) were watching their oh-so-unique prisoner. The Iron Soldier gestured at the door.

"I'm down here and armored for a reason, Agents," he said tiredly. "Open it up and hope your friend in there doesn't make a wrong move."

Obviously, RP both the guards and Asterix.

Upon Mr. Amantia's arrival, Leeroy was most literally sleeping with his feet propped up on chairs and his mouth was hanging open. He snored quite well for a thin guy with what obviously weren't the most massive pair of lungs. Mike on the other hand had his back turned from everything and was busying himself with a game of Solitaire and not even paying attention to Asterix's cell or the monitors. His soft mouse clicks were the only thing to be heard other than the soft hum of the ventilation system above them, and the powerplants below their feet.

When the door opened and Amantia stepped off the lift, Leeroy litterally startled himself so badly out of his sleep he jerked and fell of all three chairs he was propped up on and fell to the ground.

Mike on the other hand stiffened and quickly -minimized- his Solitaire game... I mean, he was doing good! He couldn't loose all his work! He then turned around and saluted to whomever it was. Whoever was coming down here was -obviously- important. Because, well... Noone else would care about this place?

Leeroy gathered himself up and promptly saluted, not noticing his shirt was untucked, his tie was untied, and his gunbelt was hanging from the chair halfway across the room. Both of his boots were off and he was standing there in his socks.

The pair had been here for so long they'd actually hung pictures and a couple of paintings as well as brought in a small carpet. As well as obviously after market rolly-chairs.

...

Upon seeing Iron Soldier Leeroy blurted out, "Holeh Shitake Mushrooms! Di'in't you get yer ass kicked earlier?" His eyes grew really wide and he put his hand on his mouth, "Oh! I mean, Uhm, err, Sorry sir! I didn't mean to. uhm... eheh..." He rubbed the back of his neck, smiling like a guy about to get his ass kicked. Not like he could get a "Lower" job than this.

Mike on the other hand Saluted, "Of course... Sir! But, Asterix is kinda in his sleep cycle at the moment. He doesn't like to wake up before eight. Y'know? Wake him up before that an' y'might get a bad dream or two."

Amantia's eyes glowed, not in response, so much as a part of the status quo. "You think I can't handle him? With a brand-new suit and full power?" His voice was, as usual, amplified and mechanically deepened by his facepiece. "Open the door, and get back. Naptime's over."

Leeroy shook his head, "No, y'see... Lycan ain't been released in nigh' five years. Y'relleh dun wanna do dis..." Leeroy looked to Mike...

But Mike just shrugged. "Get your boots on Leeroy. Get the Elephant guns outta th' closet as well as the helmets." Meanwhile Mike got on the Intercom, "Hey! Asterix! Wakey Wakey. You got a -visitor-..."

Mike looked to Amantia's helmet before shrugging, "Gave you all the warning possible." He looked out the window, "Aaand your walkway is connected. When you cross, I'm locking the doors behind you and calling the walkway back... Just so you know."

Mike hit the button and the main gates *whooshed* open.

Inside the cell, Asterix was shivering as he got up. HIs hand shakily steading himself as he shook his head to clear it. Did you hear that Asterix? Fresh meat. How long has it been since we've tasted fresh meat? Too long, succulent, warm, bloody fresh meat. Asterix shook his head as he stumbled into the main room, "N-No Lycan, we've finally gotten a visitor. I'm not letting you eat him..."

You may not have a choice... Don't you feel that hatred, that frustration? That -anger- deep inside you? How they abandoned you down here for five years? They deserve it... Give in, you know you want too. The tempting voice, from deep inside his mind whispered. Asterix shook his head, Your mind is clouded, it is getting weaker. We know of the dreams you have been having... We know the temptations... Let it over, let me -out- Asterix... The voice catcalled deep in his mind as Asterix leaned against his couch, his eyes squeezed shut....

Looking out of the corner of his HUD, Amantia watched the two guards scurry around with their precautionary measures. Oh, yes, he knew the dangers, knew that anything less than the Hulkbuster armor would be suicide if the beast awoke -- but he was prepared to take that risk, for the exact reason. In front of him, a walkway extended to a central, isolated 'island' structure. He crossed it, noting dryly that his thrusters would work just as well, and behind him, the walkway hummed as it retracted again.

Not bothering to knock, Amantia waved his hand for one of the two guards to unlock the inner door. After an audible click of the outer door's mechanism locking, the door in front of him unlocked itself, and he opened it. Amantia strode into the 'foyer' boldly, eyes scanning for the target. He saw... well, an unimposing man leaning himself into a couch. He had done his homework, though.

"Asterix, it's been, what, a year since I was down here last? Inspecting the security, of all things," he said idly. "And, well, no, you didn't see me. I was hovering around like a flying tank, just making sure everything was installed right..." He let his augmented voice trail off. "So. I know you have been sending messages to the director. I'm the messenger." He wasn't really, but Asterix didn't need to know that he had been intercepting the messages -- he was no Tony Stark, armor notwithstanding, but he had some skill with network manipulation -- and he knew how the director felt, and also knew that a reminder that this werewolf existed would probably lead to... euthanasia, he thought coldly. "Well, what is it that you want? Philosophy? Politics? Sports? The weather?"

Asterix shook his head trying to clear his thoughts. He coughed lightly but sucked in his breath through gritted teeth. "Oh no, you arn't doing it -now- Lycan, not when we're so close...." He murrmured under his breath. It would barely be heard to unaugmented ears... His left hand, gripped into the couch. Soft 'pops' could be heard as claws poked into the leather. But he shook his head, warring internally...

So close? You are a mockery! He has intercepted your messages! You heard him! WE heard him! But he jokes with you, he has no respect for you, they have forgotten the power betown upon you. Make them remember.... Make -him- remember. The voice goaded, trying to claw at Lycan's mental prison to let it out...

Breathing thorugh gritted teeth, Asterix looked up at Amantia... His eyes bloodshot from days, weeks, maybe years, of horrible sleep. They shined with barely held back tears from the war within him... "I want to be... -free-... I want... fresh air...." He grit his teeth as pain briefly shot thorugh him.

Amantia would be able to briefly see Asterix's ears briefly sharpen to a point before molding almost freakishly back to normal human ears, probably the first visible sign of the battle the unassuming man was going through within.

...
At least he wasn't having -both- sides of his conversation with himself verbally... That was a plus...

"Asterix, you are on the verge of turning," Amantia said unnecessarily -- from what he understood, it was a process sufficiently painful that the werewolf wouldn't miss it. "I can tell you right now, that would be a very bad idea for both of us. Bad for me, because of paperwork; bad for you because there's a deep hole around this residence, and you can't fly, last I checked." To punctuate his point, Amantia raised his palm, casually, not threateningly, just showing that he was ready, if not quite planning on, blasting the werewolf with a repulsor should he get excitable.

"You are a danger to yourself and others. Do you not remember what you were doing the day you were brought in*? Do you really wish to experience that again? Do you?" His voice was commanding, but not authoritative; a father giving a lecture to his son, instead of a sergeant screaming at his troops. "Control yourself, or I will establish control."

* Retcon this line as necessary to get your character's backstory involved. Killed 50 S.H.I.E.L.D. agents? Whatever. Eaten a baby alive? Definitely something that fulfills the "Never experience again" thing. Was it actually the day BEFORE he was brought in? Sure. A month ago? Whatever. ;)

Asterix was, indeed, very aware he was on the verge of turning... In fact, he was probably very intimately aware he was on the verge of turning. His eyes were squeezed closed as he literally blocked out the outer world, mentally grappling with the voice in his mind to push it back to the very depths of his subconscious.

His whole body was trembling, but suddenly... There seemed to be a mental crack as he 'turned the key in the lock' so to say... He fell to his knees gasping for air as he barely kept himself upright by holding onto the couch. A soft whimper and a brief sniffle could be heard as he fought against tears before rubbing his eyes and taking a deep breath. He sat there, leaning on the back of the couch, his chest heaving. He voice came out clear this time, despite his chattering teeth and his deep, heaving breaths...

"It will come, you know it will come Iron Soldier... It is only a matter of when and where. You saw what happened when I let Lycan get the best of me while shifted... You remember that day all to well, don't you? You can hear the screams of your men, the gnash of jaws and the spray of blood. He was infuriated that you dare try and cage him, you remember, don't you?" Asterix's voice was cold and hard, "You remember Lycan killing all eighty of those troops, I know you do. Because I can't forget it. It haunts my dreams, and fuels -his- rage. I can vividly see, every night, through my own eyes... A beast that was not me, nor the Lycan I always knew... Peeling open the armored trucks your men hid within to get away."

Asterix slid slowly down the back of the couch onto the floor as he looked up, directly into Amantia's electronic eyes... "He was that made at the aspect of being caged... Now as yourself, The wolf has been in the cage for five years... Replaying it's last stand and biding it's time... Lycan's been eating away at my mind, slowly but surely... He'll get too mad for my mind to hold him back. And no pitiful little trench is going to hold him back."

Asterix's eyes just stared briefly into Amantia's visual sensors, "Now, ask yourself... Are you going to let him go insane against You, and every last being in this base? Or are you going to give me precious freedom, under supervision... As you would most certainly require... And let him, how do you say it? I believe when I was 'captured', it was "Blow off steam"...?"

The man stared up at Amantia, his pained eyes boring into the Armored Man's skull. Even if it was slightly off because of the armor... The werewolf shivered despite himself as he heard, through all that armor, the 'Thump-Thump' of Amantia's heard... And despite himself, his mouth watered....

"Oh kid, think we are landing,"said James, stepping out of the cell and looking for a sword replacement.

"Oh kid, think we are landing,"said James, stepping out of the cell and looking for a sword replacement.

"Cool." Alex didn't really care, but he was a little curious about his powers. "But super-fast healing and speed?" He followed him. "Mind telling me the backstory?"

"I'm an experiment, in which human DNA was combined with demon DNA,"said James."I don't know how it works either."

"Demon DNA?" Alex scoffed as he headed down the hall. "What's next? SuperBeetle?" He paused, turning around. "C'mon, let's go up to the front, see if we're gonna land yet." He turned around without bothering to see if James was following. He has nothing better to do, after all.

Natas smiled as he entered into the exhibits of the American Museum of Natural History in New York. It was a simple task to crush the security guard patrolling the museum. However despite Natas's stealth several silent alarm systems had been installed. This did not matter to Natas who was simply perusing the precious gems. Natas internally laughed as he opened up a rift and watched a large part of the collection drop from their cases and into his base back at Mongolia.

Natas continued to walk through the Museum before arriving at the meteorite exhibit. He took several particular meteorites before heading to the biological history part of the Museum. This was where he was confronted by the first police which he mercilessly slaughtered. It was when the body of one of the officers was thrown into another building that they called for the help of the 'super heroes' meanwhile Natas continued to search for several specific items in the darkened Museum.

"Don't ask, don't tell,"said James, following Alex.
If it boils down to it, the kid will make a good hostage thought James, mentally planning out his escape

OOC: I am lost, please fill me in, sorry for my lack of posts

(Absolutely nothing. Orinon, Tiger, Sut and Kenavt have just had their characters introduce themselves. I'm pillaging a world famous museum in search for some old stuff for my evil plan. Besides those things nothing has happened.)

Titan walked through the corridors for a few minutes before he found himself standing at the entrance to the large chamber Natas had brought him to from Colombia, and there was some activity inside it. He decided to investigate and approached a few dozen men working with something. When he got closer he saw that they were standing around and holding bags, they seemed to be waiting for something. Titan approached one of them, "What is going on?". The man looked up at him, and said, in a rather bored voice, "The Boss is going to be sending some stuff through here soon, and someone's gotta put it in storage, you know?". Suddenly a black rift appeared in the air, and some gems fell through it. A couple of the men crawled forward and started picking them up, making sure not to touch the rift, and putting them in the bags. Titan looked down at the man again, "Where is he sending them from?", and the man simply answered "New York"

Titan thought for a few seconds, then he spoke once more, "Does the portal work both ways?". "I think so, the boss told us to not touch it, that may be why. Try it if you wanna go to New York so badly. Now I'll have to get to work", a few more gems fell through the rift, and the man started picking them up.

Titan considered what to do for a few seconds, but he didn't know how long the portal would be open, and so he decided to go for it. He ran towards it and leaped into the shadowy rift in the air. Almost instantly he appeared in a dark building, probably somewhere in New York, but he couldn't see Natas anywhere.

(OOC: Ralkovia, does the rift work both ways? Otherwise I'll have to rewrite this post.)

"So, dare I ask what happened to you?"

"Well," Enigma hesitated, trying to think of what had happened, trying to recall the memories. They had seemed so vivid in her mind just moments ago but now it was like she was trying to grab shadows...a bad comparison admittedly but still a suitable one. She explained all she could remember, she explained about the Concentration Camp and how Nadas had torn it's garrison to shreds. Other than that, she struggled to remember anything, she knew there was a name...a name...why couldn't she remember it.

"Sorry Frost, that's all I can remember." She shrugged in apology.

OOC: See here Kul

"Don't ask, don't tell,"said James, following Alex.
If it boils down to it, the kid will make a good hostage thought James, mentally planning out his escape

"What? You know?" He suddenly resumed interest, oblivious of any such plot by James. I still have my knife, right? He reached into his pocket, as he did every five minutes or so. Stupid paranoia. Yep, it's there. He turned the corner. "We're almost there. And seriously, what's next?" The engineer in him came out. [i]Yah, being an engineer would be cool.And I'm asking, you know. So spill the beans."

OOC: Have fun with that obstacle. Of course, what will really set Alex free will be this (http://www.online-literature.com/o_henry/1041/).

The FOB in Colombia was abandoned and scrubbed of any trace that could indicate they were ever there. The Director of SHIELD spoke directly to the Colombian President and recieved authorization for their agents to enter the country and were out within 72hrs. Such matters were best left discrete and out of the public eye, that's how SHIELD operated. The public image of the organization was lumped in with the UN, which it was a chartered organization under the umbrella of the UN. In this charter it describes their mission as aiding in the Metahuman Registration Act as well as being a watchdog to ensure that rights were not being violated. many civil rights groups and others across the world condemned these actions but most people gernerally saw SHIELD as just as useless as the UN.

SHIELD Headquarters was located in New York, just a few blocks away, down the Hudson from the UN complex. It blended in with most buildings around the city, inconspicuous to the letter. This did not cover the underground complexes and the other facilities around the world, owned and operated by the organization.

The agents were exhausted from the ordeal in Colombia. Scarlet, heavily sedated and under heavy guard was taken to the underground detention facility where the highly dangerous metahumans, recently captured were kept temporarily until they were shipped to an undisclosed location, far far away from population centers.

Frost managed to heave himself to the sleeping quarters that were inside the compound. He showered, shaved a week's worth of stubble off his face, ate a hot meal, and put on a suit so he could meet with the director. The other aents relaxed from the mission, one down and another to go. Fox showered and changed into casual clothes, one could see her loitering around, listening to her iPOD. Frost stood before the door to O'Hara's office with his trademark deadpan face, they had a big problem and Frost knew he'd have to deal with it.

"Guess what kid? I don't know myself,"said James, feeling the bump as the plane landed.
"So, do we a welcoming party then?"

"Guess what kid? I don't know myself,"said James, feeling the bump as the plane landed.
"So, do we a welcoming party then?"

"Nope." Alex headed toward the exit. "Now, since you're our prisoner," he said, assuming James was following, "we might as well go to HQ, see what's up. We're in NYC, see." He stood next to the door, waiting for it to open.

The door slid open, and a CHIK, CHIK noise was heard as Marcus navigated his way into his room in SHIELD headquarters. During the rather lengthy flight back home from Columbia, the doctor noted that Marcus' wound was healing quite nicely, and the decision was made to upgrade the beleaguered SHIELD agent from a wheelchair to crutches. Well, as far a pair crutches could go that could hold a clip of 5.56mm ammunition and grenades went. Marcus chuckled at the thought. The only time he got nice things was when he got himself hurt. Sighing, he made his way over to the small bathroom, and after a few minutes (and several muffled curses), he managed to get himself showered and changed into civilian clothes. Deciding to check his messages, he moseyed over to the computer, and logged in. Hitting a few keys, his message inbox popped up. Browsing through the useless messages he never bothered to read (like the ones that said "TO ALL AGENTS" in big mean letters) until he noticed the manila folder sitting on his desk.

Perking an eyebrow, he reached over and picked it up, flipping it open.

"Oh..." Was all he had to say.
-------------------------------------------------

Marcus shifted uneasily as he descended the lift, trying not to fall over on his crutches as the sudden change in movement jerked the mag-lift, the same manila folder clutched in his free hand. The guard posted there tried to hold back a snicker, but failed miserably as his face twisted into a smile. Marcus so wanted to give him the finger, but alas, his crutches and that damn folder were in the way. Instead, he just glared at him, which seemed enough to shut him up.

"Permanent Prisoner Block 3." He said, keeping his gaze as the guard, who seemed to have stopped paying attention to him. The lift obeyed, and glided smoothly to the area, coming to a stop in front of the two double doors. Stepping though, he followed a series of corridors down to the lone cell. To his surprise, he heard voices inside.

Flashing his identification to the two agents posted there, he commented. "Your boy here's got a new buddy." He waved the paper in front of the first agent's face.

OOC: TG Kul

A contingent of armed men escorted Scarlet, practically bolted to a gurney through the cooridor and into a specially designed room. The walls were of a thick titanium alloy of sorts. Every measure was made to make the room and supporting structures built around it, as strong as possible. The medication would wear off eventually and they took certain precautions. The slid her onto the concrete slab of a bed and quickly exited the room. After an hour or so, she moved her head and those purple eyes fluttered.

Scarlet sat up, hand to head, looking aound the room. She grinned, realizing where she was, "Isn't this something" she said to no one in particular.

Elsewhere, Fox was finally caught up and had to file an after-action report. There was going to be a debriefing the next day, late in the afternoon so that they could enjoy some time. She knew Frost and Enigma were meeting with the director. She didn't care for the man. He was a pencil pusher from some office somewhere, Fox never said it aloud but she'd rather Frost be the Director of SHIELD.

OOC: TG Kul

OOC: Yeah, she can meet with him

OOC: Thanks, sorry for being a pain :$

Enigma stood outside with Frost, waiting to see the Director of SHIELD along with him. She had been one of the Senior Agents on the team and she knew that she had made such a mistake in trying to engage Nadas on her own. She didn't regret it for a momemt of course, even if she couldn't remember why. She had already gathered that O'Hara was not a fan of hers, which suited her fine as she wasn't a fan of his. She suspected that the best man to lead SHIELD forward was standing beside her, but she dare not voice her thoughts to Frost, for he had already made his own intentions clear, to support the Agency but not to yield it. He had a shower and a shave and cleaned himself up, likewise, she had changed into more casual clothes, not a suit but something informal. She didn't speak, saving herself for this meeting.

Frost turned to see Enigma standing by his side, he simply nodded to her as the door buzzed open, the secretary outside seemed not to notice them. The office was simple, nothing great about it. There was a screen on the opposite wal, the furniture black. Everything appeared state-of-the-art and such. They walked in and the door closed behind them. O'Hara sat at his desk, milling over some paperwork and looked up at them, motioning for them to come closer. There were two seats in front of his desk and the agents took their seats.

"What happened down there?" O'Hara got right to the point. Frost's eye twitched but he plowed forward.

"Sir, we engaged a HYDRA strongpoint and met all our primary objectives. Scarlet is in our custody, as are over a dozen other terrorists and a wealth of intel that has yet to be decoded and sorted through but I am certain that with what we will gain, HYDRA can be wiped clean forever" Frost replied, each word methodical.

O'Hara raised a hand, "I understand that, congrats on all of that, but what about this- metahuman" It was as though saying that word cringed his very soul, Frost picked up on this but said nothing.

Frost looked to Enigma, "We're not certain, sir. Iron Soldier collected data on him during their brief encounter. He is dangerous, that is for certain"

O'Hara turned to Enigma, "What happened to you?"