revivalproject | It's the Final Countdown

Entry tags:

It's the Final Countdown

WHO: Billy, The Remembers, OTA
WHERE: Billy's City
WHAT: Kidnapping, and Final Showdown
WHEN: Event End
WARNINGS: TBD

Billynapping

It was nice to have a routine, and in a city like this, it could be hard to keep one, the ever changing landscape of hero vs. villain could make things difficult to predict. But this one was still going strong. Billy rode his bike through the streets, making sure to stop for his usual offering of donuts, before continuing on to the comic stand.

He offered a wave towards Peter, busy with a small group of kids, and went to lock up his bike so he could browse, holding the bag in his teeth so he could stoop on the pavement and struggle with the finicky key.

Shadow Monster

This was not good. This was a serious threat to this world where the Shadow had come to enjoy it's free reign.

The Darkness swooped in oozing and spreading like mist, its shape ill defined and ever changing, shielding Billy and attempting to drive away anyone who would try to get near. It spread up through the sky, spreading it's reach and calling out to those it had infected to come protect this world, whatever the cost.

Billy appeared to have no sway over the creature, looking just as surprised as frightened as the rest of them, though the Shadow clearly was determined to isolate him him, whether he wanted it or not.

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The message from the Agri had brought her memories back, slamming into her like a magazine full of bullets to a kevlar vest, and it had taken Starling a few days to recover. Now that she had, though, she knew that Darkness wasn't a good sign, and loaded up on whatever non-lethal weapons SHIELD could provide someone with her credentials. (There were quite a few.) She had stun darts in gauntlets around her wrists, a tranquilizer gun at her hip, and a prayer on her lips that she wouldn't need to use any of them: especially when she saw the two familiar faces already assaulting the warehouse.

"Cayde! Eddie!" She called out, one hand hovering over the tranq. "C'mon, boys, this's gotta stop."

In the air and hanging back a few feet to assess the spread of the darkness, watching the sky anxiously and waiting for reality to stop making sense and eyeballs to start flying like that dark sky over the Institute had heralded, Iron Man had only distantly considered the lone redhead showing up weird, but not as weird as it turning out to be the Director. He rapidly flipped through channels, hoping she had a radio or earpiece on her despite the cowboy act, seeking out an avenue to greet, "Director. You know these gentlemen?"

Iron Man knew Cayde, at least. Getting to know him better by the second, it turned out, because he hadn't anticipated the freezing powers from his new stalker, or that they would lead him across the city to and ongoing crisis. He really should have followed the robot the first time, maybe this whole thing could have been avoided. Hopefully, Clarice wasn't too attached to her secret friends, because Iron Man fired a concussive blast to the ground between them and the warehouse to warn them off from trying to get in, or let whatever it was that was leaking out...out.

Eddie wasn't bothered by the arrival of the robot. He didn't know how, but he knew that they were on the same side. He'd almost made it through the locks before he heard his name.

Stopping the stream of acid, he turned and glared in the direction of the speaker. "Who the..." His curse was interrupted by the blast hitting the ground in front of him. He stumbled, narrowly keeping his feet. "Seriously?!" He glared up at Iron Man. He wasn't sure what the range was on his newly amped up powers, but he might be able to hit him... or at least make him dodge something. Taking a breath, he squared his feet and spit a spray towards those nice rocket boots.

The Exo craned his head towards Clarice at her shout, the light in his throat a chilly blue that was echoed in the glow of his eyes, cold as the backlit smirk he wore.

"Oh, now you want it to stop?" The sarcasm was still there, but it was all edges. Ikora had broken through whatever had swallowed up his emotions, but none of Cayde's usual warmth had managed to seep through those cracks. Still, it was a slight step up from his being mostly silent.

He looked up and then leaped back as he saw the flying metal man taking aim. With Eddie hawking loogies at Iron Man, Cayde turned his attention to the S.H.I.E.L.D. director. He raised his hands in something of a shrug. "What're you gonna do? Shoot me?"

His fingers flicked as he twisted his arms inward, hands gripping a pair of icy sickles as they suddenly took form. He plunged one blade into the ground, driving up a surge of icy crystals that went straight for her.

"Yeah, and you should know them too," she urged under her breath, glad that she'd thought to wear the Bluetooth nestled in her ear. "The billboards, the messages ... haven't you been remembering memories that don't seem like --"

And then he blasted the ground, setting the two others off.

"Goddammit, of all the times I need you to not be a loose cannon!" She growled, as Eddie loosed a stream of - oh God, that had better not be what she thought it ... oh it was, that mental image was never leaving her head. She swiveled to look at Cayde, her first memory of him all too fresh and clear juxtaposed against the look he was giving her then.

"I'm so sorry," she said, then her eyes widened and she jumped to one side, tucking her shoulder in so that she'd land and roll across the concrete. "I didn't know! Not until the other day--! EDDIE! Eddie, come on, this is a serious risk you're taking here...!"

She hoped against hope that maybe her choice of words would have some sort of impact.

Starling sounded incredibly accusatory to Tony, who pouted and was quite certain neither of these guys had ever popped up on one of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s many, exhaustive lists of threats and, honestly, it was shocking they expected him to keep up with, he had a life of his own--Remembering memories?

"What?" Iron Man tried to ask over her complaining about him, only to be caught off guard by whatever it was Subject Eddie was spitting at him. And, honestly, even if it was just spit, Iron Man wasn't interested and tried to veer out of range, grumbling, "Eugh..." with disbelief that someone would even try to cover that kind of distance. Maybe he wilfully forgot and Clarice was reasonably irritated. The substance still spattered some of his boot, which Tony was prepared to chastise the guy for before he suddenly felt dots of white-hot pain burning through to his foot, making his helmet erupt in a crash of surprised static as he tried to simultaneously cut the vocal feed and keep upright as the jet boot automatically shut down in response, sending him careening on one, unbalanced jet until the diagnostic cleared the other boot for thrust.

So, he might have hit the dirt and gone sprinting in the opposite direction, away from the Director, but on the bright side, he was more prepared now for what Eddie had to offer. "That's not Cayde," he instructed as he ran, limping slightly on the sizzling foot, "At least, the one I met had fire power, so he might have backup incoming. Cayde-2." All systems online. Iron Man spun on his toe and took to the air again as he swung back around on Eddie and his spit, both arms outstretched to send another blast his way and turn any more of his own projectiles back on him.

Eddie's impressed that he managed to hit Iron Man at all. The boost to his powers was definitely working out in his favor. Cayde seemed to have a handle on the woman who somehow knew his name. That still concerned him.

He looked in her direction with a frown. "Who the hell are you?" Her words got a glimmer of recognition somewhere deep in the recesses of his mind. He had a feeling he should know what she meant. But he had nothing to connect it to, so the glimmer was gone as quickly as it came.

Iron Man was running away, the weird redhead was occupied. He turned back to the door to continue melting it so they could get inside. He heard Iron Man's boosters fire back up a moment later and turned, just in time to see the blast heading his way. It was too late to stop it. He tried to jump out of the way but was too slow. He was hit with the blast and sent flying backwards. He grunted when he hit the wall of the building. Momentarily stunned, he slid down to the ground. He's gonna need a second for shit to stop spinning.

The Exo spun the icy sickle in hand almost idly as he walked towards Clarice. "It's fine. Everything worked out for everyone here right? Just turn around, go back to your offices. Nothing to see here."

He glanced over in time to see Eddie go flying, brows lifting, and he winced at the collision. "Way to go, Boogie Man," he snorted before looking towards Iron Man, who seemed more the one to watch than Clarice, given his confidence that nothing she had could harm him.

One hand snapped out, flinging crystalline throwing stars in the armored man's direction, ones that would start to freeze on contact, not nearly as dramatically as the ice that had surged across the ground, but meant to slow someone down. Cayde came running right after it, dragging the curved blade he held along the ground, tearing an icy furrow along with it that he sent off ahead of him with a sweep of his arm.

"No, no it didn't", she said, "we're not meant to be here--"

And then Eddie hit the deck, and Cayde shifted his attention. "Oh, no you don't, friend," she snapped, bringing the gun up again and aiming for his wrist. She might not be able to harm him, but she could sure ruin his aim with a well-placed shot, and keep him from bringing Tony down.

One down, not so bad. Iron Man was already casually asking, "Hey, what do you think about lunch after this...?" before he realized this had earned the robot's attention. Just as unprepared for what artillery Cayde was packing, Iron Man only braced his arms in front of his chest to deflect the glint that was thrown at him, not expecting the groan and chatter of frosty tension crackling across the metal. He should have known better than to expect simple blades. He had to pressure release to send a rain of broken ice to the ground from his gauntlets, then broke up the frost threatening to seize his hips with his fists as a shot rang out and more went shooting by his shoulder in a glacial wave.

"We have no plans to market Iron Man popsicles at this time," he announced as he went veering away from the ice, then launched himself toward Cayde before he could consider retaliating against Clarice. The armor could handle some chill, but she might lose a limb to it, if she was lucky. "But we'll keep in touch," was Iron Man's warning as he aimed to bowl the robot over, bringing them close enough to set off the EMP that he hoped would work well enough on the construct as it was going to work on his own suit.

"Booogie man? Seriously?"

Eddie made a face as he pushed himself to his feet. This was not how this was supposed to go! He was supposed to just break down the door and find what was calling him there. Not get into a fight with Iron Man and whoever this woman was.

He saw her raising her gun at Cayde and he frowned. He could help the robot... then again, the guy looked like he could take whatever they were throwing at him. Maybe at least long enough for him to get through the door. "You're doing great, man!" He called out before turning his attention back to melting those hinges.

"Ow!" The icy sickle vanished as his hand jerked aside with Clarice's shot, which at least saved Tony the continuous freeze. Cayde shook his arm out, glaring back in her direction, and then over at Eddie- bailing on him?! Not tha the had stopped to help him out much himself. The shattering sound of ice caused him to look back just in time to see Iron Man coming right at him.

He grabbed onto the armored wonder, frost crawling across the red and gold upon contact, his feet skidding along the ground in a trade of icy shards. The grin on his face was by no means a warm one, until it froze itself once the EMP went off and he realized what Tony's intent really was.

By then it was too late to ghost-step or evade, the burst hitting him without effort, and for a moment it felt like the breath had been knocked out of him, if he still had the lungs to breathe. His limbs tingled and went numb, the light in his optics and throat flickering wildly. He vaguely had the sensation of hitting the ground.

Starling had seen the EMP before, and knew exactly what it meant: that Tony was stuck there in that suit until he had the chance to reboot. Cayde wasn't so lucky, and she winced, turning her head away fast so she wouldn't have to watch her friend hit the ground. All things considered, it was the best solution, but she didn't have to like it. She didn't let her mind linger too long on the thought that an EMP might effectively mean death for a robot, trusting that the Agrii had their backs and wouldn't let Cayde's body die, wherever they really were.

Instead, she approached Eddie, her gun at the ready but her finger solidly away from the trigger.

"Eddie, you don't wanna make me do this. Richie'd never let me hear the end of it if I had to shoot you. Breaking up the only two Losers in Temba? Capital offense..."

Hopefully, Clarice knew exactly what she was doing by calling the angry acid-spitting man a loser, because by then the two metal men had slid to a stop as both of their systems flickered and dimmed, and the best Tony could manage was a cautioning wheeze, "Director..." Behind her, the grappling pair wavered and collapsed, Iron Man's gloves locked around Cayde's shoulders and the frost crackling in the air between them.

Tony was left staring at the robot's strangely emotive face, gasping for shallow, ineffective breaths as he pleaded with the Iron Man to reboot before his heart gave out, or Cayde enchanted him once again by recovering faster before putting Tony out of his misery. Between his sharp gasps and in a small voice, Tony mumbled, "If this is-because-we didn't do lunch-my evening's-free."

That crash behind him couldn't be good. Shit, maybe he should've helped the robot, after all. Too late, now.

Eddie turned, looking skeptically at the redheaded woman. "Who the hell are you, lady?" He shook his head, trying to knock free the odd thoughts flitting through them. "No. Screw this." No one was shooting anyone today. He hoped his aim was true as he spat at that gun. He didn't want to hurt her, but if he could put that gun out of commission it would be enough for him.

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It's the Final Countdown

hope this is cool!

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