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Nikolai, who had chosen the codename Vanguard that very morning with no help at all from Harry (who thought the name Lone-star, after Nikolai's shield, was perfect), nodded, laying down on the rock to provide as little a target as he could, pulling his sniper rifle around and aiming down into the basin below.
Below the four newcomers, Crossbones cursed wildly as the things came out of the cave that was supposed to lead into some kind of hidden treasure. His current employer had ordered him, along with a group of local dupes, to meet with a band of gangsters who had somehow captured a small fire team from SHIELD. For some reason, the gangsters, a group from the Maggia, had opened up discussions about trading away their prisoners for being guided to this point, deep in the rugged mountainous region of Eastern Anatolia, Turkey. The trek had been aggravating for Crossbones, especially with such a lovely… distraction nearby. But that prissy old man, Vulture, wouldn't let him or any of his boys near the prisoners, let alone the one woman among them.
Crossbones had been looking forward to having the blonde SHIELD agent under his control but evidently Goldbug and his friends had held out on what they could be running into, if the giant freaking scorpion-men made out of stone were anything to go by.
His head whipped around as a 'Fizz-zap' noise was heard behind them. A small streak of bright orange zoomed towards Bullseye. It was only because someone from his own group stood up at just the right moment that Bullseye didn't die right there. The terrorist's chest exploded from the blast and he went down, dead before he hit the ground.
Bullseye dodged to the side, his reflexes allowing him to immediately return fire, throwing a playing card of all things, with such accuracy that Crossbones whistled a little. Crossbones had heard about the guy and thought him a bit of a fruitcake, even by his standards, but his accuracy was nothing to sneeze at.
It caused the man firing at him, who was dressed all in red, to roll and keep rolling as more playing cards were thrown at him. It was only because of the rocks all around him that he remained alive, so good was Bullseye's aim. At this point, Crossbones decided to join in and began to fire up the mountain at the sharpshooter with his machine gun, a weapon that was normally a crew served weapon but which he used with one hand, the other holding the belt of bullets feeding into the gun.
He changed targets, however, as out of thin air, it seemed, a huge metal-clad man appeared rushing towards them. Uncaring of his erstwhile allies or comrades who got in the way of his fire, Crossbones opened up on the metal-clad behemoth. It didn't seem to slow the armored giant down though, and he watched in growing alarm as men were punched or thrown aside.
"Damnit, just what we need, some kind of costumed hero types butting in! These two are new, though, they ain't covered in the database the boss has been collecting. Wonder where the hell they came from?" he muttered to himself, retreating to one side, trying to keep away from the metal giant until he realized where the guy was going. "Shit, he's after the prisoners!" He made a fast command decision. "Bazookas! Concentrate on that metal man!"
Colossus skidded to a halt, bringing his arms up to block in front of his face as two of the men dressed in dessert camo, who had been about to fire bazooka rounds at the onrushing scorpion-men, turned and fired on him instead. He cursed for a moment, irritated that his turning into his metal form had apparently canceled the Dissolution spell on him, and now that he was doing so much the Notice-Me-Not wasn't holding either.
A moment later, there was no more time to think as the two rockets sped toward him. Jean, coming in from above, caught one and twisted it aside to land in among the tents, killing and maiming several people and panicking the rest even further when it exploded. The other impacted, pushing Colossus back a few steps but that was all. As the smoke wafted away from him, the shining metal clad giant appeared unharmed, save for his clothing, which was ripped and torn.
Crossbones cursed again, beginning to fire at the armor clad man again, but his armor piercing bullets didn't seem to be doing anything.
Bullseye, too, was not pleased. He had tried to turn his attention to the metal giant, noticing several of what looked like seams in the man's metal skin that might allow him to get a card in there. There were also his eyes, which, while still metal, probably were much less durable. The second assumption proved false when one of his thin throwing knives actually bounced off Colossus's eye and he had to dodge another blast from the sniper rifle. What is that thing he's firing anyway, it looks almost like something that Iron Man twat who showed up a few weeks back would use, but he doesn't shoot to kill like this guy!
He next tried to take aim at the redhead, who was flying through the air above them, only to watch as she grabbed his knives and playing cards out of the air and threw them back down towards him. He dodged them only to nearly get hit by a blast from the sniper, forcing him to roll and hide behind a large boulder for a moment.
This distraction allowed Colossus to close the distance between where his charge had begun and the prisoners, smashing aside their guards, who, though nervous, had stayed put even as the scorpion men moved from the cave up in the side of the vale toward the campsite. Colossus ignored their fire and smashed into them, his hands along with his legs flashing out, kicking and punching gangsters and terrorists away until he stood alone over the prisoners.
At this point, the scorpion men completed their own charge towards the makeshift camp that the two groups had set up and were now rushing through, killing and spearing the invaders as they could.
Vulture had taken to the sky as soon as the scorpion men had charged out of the hole and he had been swooping down on them trying to find a weakness. But he turned aside and began to make his way towards the sniper after he heard the distinctive noise of his energy weapon firing. However, he was stopped by a lightning bolt nearly decapitating him. Only his enhanced reflexes and ability to change direction on a dime saved him from a very painful wound, at the very least.
From out of the blue above him flew a gorgeous African woman wearing a black formfitting suit along with a cloth headdress. She was flying in the air easily, a short black cape fluttering in the wind behind her. "I would ask you to surrender." she said, her voice carrying easily along the wind for some reason, despite the clamor of battle and the shrieks of the wounded below them. "However, I don't think you would and I prefer not to waste my breath."
Vulture nodded, smirking a little. "I'm afraid I wouldn't, you know. The amount of gold that is supposed to be here is going to fund my retirement and I'm afraid that is one dream I'm not willing to give up, even to a beauty such as you." With that the battle in the sky was joined, with Vulture zooming forward trying to close the distance quickly.
As fast as he was, Storm was faster and she ducked to one side easily, blasting back with a blast of ice and wind. The latter of which caught the Vulture and threw him backwards but he was able to ride with it, dissipating most of its force. He came back in from the side, trying to use the wind to power his momentum.
Goldbug had immediately moved towards the scorpions, thinking that if he could use his gun to halt their movements that they could then shatter them at their leisure. His gun was designed to immobilize by covering the target it hit with a very thin layer of gold-colored paralyzing agent. Of course, he wasn't certain if that would actually work on creatures that weren't technically alive or had skin that the agent could seep into, but it was all he could do.
His information about this place hadn't hinted at defenses, certainly none like this but, then again, it was only legend and rumor of a witch using this place as a dumping ground for her ill-gotten gains that had led him here. That and the mention of said witch being real from Silvermane, one of the oldest and most respected leaders in the Maggia, the criminal cartel he worked for.
He ignored the battle going on behind them, though he wondered where this other group had come from, if they were part of SHIELD sent to rescue the agents he and Vulture had captured a few weeks ago or if they too were treasure hunters. He'd gotten the drop on the agents, who had been following some other Maggia members through the city of Istanbul as they were doing a gun deal with some of the locals.
Seeing that his gun was doing nothing against the scorpions, he pulled back, running away from them and moving towards the armor clad Colossus. He raised his gun and was about to fire at him when the redhead, who had been attacking the scorpion men with telekinetic blasts above them, suddenly grabbed him with the same telekinetic force, hurling him back towards the scorpion men. He had time to scream "AGGGHHHH HELP!" Then one of them caught him with its tail, piercing his armor straight through the chest, killing him instantly.
Jean grimaced a little at that, but not so much. In her opinion, if you killed someone you should be prepared to face the same level of violence.
The scorpion men were now in amongst the earthbound terrorists and gangsters, confusing the issue and making them forget all about their prisoners. They even made most of them even forget about Colossus standing in their midst, since he was just standing there defending the prisoners with his body against their bullets and using his fists and feet to smash any that came too close. The scorpion men, in fact, were proving even more deadly than the attacking superpowered quartet.
Within minutes, the scorpion men had killed off about half of the mixed group of gangsters and terrorists, the screams of the wounded and dying resounding around the valley. Crossbones had retreated to the side, in fact, he was apparently trying to run away entirely. Bullseye was charging, trying to take the fight to Nikolai, while at the same time staying away from the scorpion men. His bow was off his back now, and he was firing arrows rapidly at Vanguard with his usual unerring accuracy. This forced the red clad Vanguard to bring his shield off his own back to defend himself from them, still firing around it with the sniper rifle occasionally, though his shots were nowhere near as accurate now.
Phoenix, concentrating on keeping the scorpion men away from the prisoners and Colossus, was forced to dodge suddenly as Bullseye turned from firing at Vanguard to shoot up into the air at her. His accuracy was amazing, despite running in a different direction and her being so high up in the air, something she thought would have taken his attention away from her.
Even taken by surprise Jean was able to dodge the arrows successfully, but one of them was an exploding arrow. The blast impacted her telepathic shield with as much force as one of Harry's Bombarda spells, causing her to curse luridly. "Son-of-a-bitch!"
The blast pushed her down to the ground. A few of the scorpion men had, by this time, grown twice as large as normal men, something that became evident when they reached up with their blades and tails in an effort to slash at her. Dodging one such, Jean found herself being pulled down and thrown to the ground by the pincers of another.
Three more scorpion men closed in, their blades stabbing towards her, but she raised a telekinetic shield around her with one hand even as she thrust forward with her other hand to throw them away. Four more scorpion men turned from slaughtering the terrorists, who were now in full retreat, encircling her. Somehow, the things could tell she was the most dangerous of their opponents and they looked to overwhelm her with numbers.
She looked over at Colossus, even as she poured more power into her shield. From her other hand, she began to throw the scorpions around with telekinetic projections in the form of large fiery claws, which, surprisingly, caused the stone scorpion men to writhe in pain. "Get the prisoners out of here!" she ordered. "I'm going to cut loose soon!"
Colossus nodded. Turning he quickly ripped apart the bindings holding the woman, and gathered up the other four still living prisoners to him, throwing two over each arm, not wanting to take the time to free them where they were standing. "Grab onto my neck please, miss, we are getting you out of here, da?" He was glad that Storm had remembered the necessity of hitting himself and Nikolai with a translation charm before leaving Hogwarts or else he doubted the woman would understand him.
The woman blinked for a moment at the rather out of place formality in the giant metal clad man's voice. Still, she nodded quickly, wrapping one arm around his neck even as she reached down to grab up an AK-47, which one of the terrorists had dropped in their hurry to get away, with her free hand.
Colossus rushed away from the center of the battle, all five of them in his arms for the moment. He raced back up the steep gradient of the mountain towards where Vanguard was.
Even as he was running away, Crossbones saw the metal giant and his burden running off. Deciding that his employer would be angry enough with the results of this little endeavor, he concluded he wanted to at least inform the man that SHIELD hadn't gotten its men back, at least. He raised his two handguns, pulling them out from their holsters at his thighs, firing at the armor clad giant and the former prisoners. The shot was difficult, since only about half the body of the four prisoners in Colossus's care were visible from where Crossbones was, draped over the armored man's shoulders and arms. Crossbones tried to overcome this with weight of fire.
A few of his bullets found their marks, causing one man to cry out in agony as he was hit in the back. "ARGH!" Another was hit in the shoulder, and one hit in the head killing him. "Aw Fuck, Felipes, down, get us under cover, big man!" Colossus cursed, and complied, dodging around as best he could while still heading up the mountainside.
Vanguard saw this and cursed, turning wildly and firing a blast towards Crossbones which hit the ground right in front of him, causing him to stop firing and dodge to the side. Unfortunately, this allowed Bullseye to range on him and an arrow nearly hit him in the eye. It was only his raising his shield at the last minute that saved him, knocking the arrow up enough so that it grazed over the top of his head, tearing away a bit of his mask and furrowing his hair.
Colossus reached a small place of safety on a ledge above the main battle. He dropped all of the wounded behind a large outcropping of rock, which could shield them from fire from below, then looked into the woman's eyes. "Will you be all right here?"
The woman nodded grimly. After examining the rifle, she began to fire down toward the ongoing battle, thankful that this gun had a full clip.
Colossus nodded, tapping his communicator. "Vanguard, try to cover me as I move towards Bullseye. Then I think you should switch off to Crossbones, he's getting away."
Above them Storm was battling Vulture but it wasn't taking nearly as much of her attention as the others were forced to put into their own battles. Despite his skill, strength, and metal claws, in the air Vulture was no match for one who could use the very air against him. She was simply more maneuverable, her weapons were longer-ranged, and she was faster as well. She overheard this communication and nodded, opening up a team wide communique, one hand bringing out her microphone from where it had been hidden in her hair behind her ear. "We don't want any of these people to get away if we can help it and Crossbones has definitely cut his losses at this point. Get after him Vanguard, we'll send Colossus after you when we're done mopping up here."
Vanguard nodded even as he began to fire as quickly as his plasma based sniper rifle could handle. The whine of the capacitors built quickly next to his ear as he overrode the parameters for it.
Below nearer the center of the ongoing battle between Jean and the scorpion men, Bullseye had to dodge even more wildly, though he returned fire just as accurately as before. One almost idly thrown card almost killed the woman from SHIELD who ducked back just in time to miss getting the card stuck in her forehead. Instead, it ricocheted off the rock behind her, nicking her upper arm as it came back towards her.
She flinched as she felt the blood running down her arm but returned fire gamely, catching several more of the fleeing terrorists, though there were few enough of those now. They were small fry, however, and she frowned as she noticed the red clad sniper, who had been doing such a good job of pinning Bullseye down and taking most of his attention, switch fire to Crossbones. She knew Crossbones. He was connected to several dozen terrorist groups and, while that wasn't the division she was assigned to, capturing him would be a major intelligence boon. With that in mind, she looked over at her one awake, if injured comrade, throwing him the AK-47. "Cover me, I'm heading up after Crossbones."
The man nodded, almost catching Bullseye as he was trying to open the range between him and Colossus, throwing dozens of knives and cards at the metal-clad Russian with little success. This caused Bullseye to dodge aside at the last minute, but it was enough time to allow Colossus to close.
Before Bullseye could do anything else, Colossus was on him. One of the giant's hand clamped down on his arm and Bullseye screamed as he felt his arm crushed in a metal vise. Even so, he reached down with his free arm grabbing a knife and stabbing the metal clad titan in the eye. However, Piotr eyes were also metal and the knife skittered off them. It was startling but not painful, yet Colossus still flinched, releasing his grip on the master assassin.
This allowed Bullseye to pull out a small limpet mine from one of his pouches, which he clamped onto Piotr's chest. He wrenched himself away from the large metal man, ducking behind a large rock as it went off. The blow threw Colossus off his feet while further disintegrating his clothing but did not do any other damage.
Bullseye, at this point, decided to partake of the same thought as Crossbones and choose the better part of valor. With that in mind, he reached into another pouch at his belt, pulling out several small smoke pellets, tossing them around everywhere. With that done, he raced away towards the entrance to the small valley, heading down the mountain. He narrowed his eyes as he saw Crossbones already exiting the tiny valley out into the larger gorge leading down the mountain.
While Jean had no attention to spare for this, busy as she was with keeping the scorpion men at bay, nearly all of whom were now concentrating on her (not being quick enough to capture the fleeing humans), as well as dealing with the explosions from their destruction of the three helicopters where some gangsters had tried to take refuge, Storm did notice. The Mistress of Weather willed into being two air blasts, one after another which caught Vulture, throwing him away from her again. This gave her enough time to turn and her hands slashed forward, dropping multiple lightning bolts towards Bullseye.
The man heard the crackle of the incoming bolts and turned trying to dodge but he could only dodge two of them. The third caught him in his arm and he screamed as the electrical energy surged through him, instantly giving him third degree burns on that arm as well as sending enough electrical current through his body to kill any normal man instantly. He fell to the ground, smoking and screaming. "AHHHHHH….."
At this point, he was put out of his misery as Colossus floundered out of the smoke, almost blind, trying to find him. Bullseye's life ended as an errant foot found his head, crushing his skull like it was a watermelon. Colossus looked down and saw that he had stepped on the man's head, crushing it, and he winced a little but shook it off. The man had been a contract killer, a death in battle was probably too good for him, really. He'd have time to think about having taken a life later. With that thought, he turned and raced after the woman and Vanguard chasing after Crossbones.
Meanwhile, Crossbones had made it quite a ways down the canyon which had lead him and the others to the supposed secret cache of the ancient witch. His steroid given speed and natural agility allowed him to cover the rocky and steep ground of the ravine's sides easily enough as he raced downwards.
He jumped to the side, however, as a red and white streak flew through the air he had just previously occupied. When it ricocheted off the ground in front of it and back the way it came, the streak resolved itself into a large shield, the same kind Captain America had made famous during World War Two. This shield was red with a white star on it, rather than the famous red, white and blue of the Captain's, however.
Crossbones recognized it from a few briefings as belonging to Russia's attempt to combat Captain America, the Red Guardian. Apparently, Russia was trying to train up a new one, though what the hell he was doing here, Crossbones didn't know.
He turned around, raising his pistols, and firing back. This forced the man behind him to duck as well but he still caught his shield on the rebound from the rocks below. This was what Crossbones had wanted, however, and he closed the distance quickly, dropping one pistol and pulling out a long trench knife which he used to slash at the man. Vanguard barely dodged the strike, wincing as it ripped his costume across his shoulder and marked the skin underneath, then winced some more as Crossbones' leg caught him straight in the diaphragm throwing him backwards with a oof of released air. "UNG!"
Vanguard snarled, rolling with the blow as much as he could, falling down the side of the steep canyon. He barely got his feet under him before a blow smashed him in the face from Crossbones' pistol.
Unfortunately for the steroid abuser, Nikolai's power, which he had only barely begun to really control over the past few days, activated at this threat to his life. The blow rebounded, throwing Crossbones off balance. Vanguard took advantage of this, kicking out quickly to throw Crossbones off balance even further, then ducking in to get him in an arm lock, twisting the man and slamming him mask first down to the rocky ground.
Far from finished, Crossbones was even stronger than he looked. Before Vanguard could finish putting his arm in a lock, Crossbones broke out of it, turning quickly and smashing an elbow into Vanguards side, a blow that got through despite Nikolai's attempt to activate his power. The blow cracked a rib and threw the Russian off balance enough for Crossbones to trip easily, though he rolled to his knees just as quickly. Crossbones sneered under his mask, readying his trench knife. "I don't know who the hell you are, but a shield does not a Captain America or Red Guardian make."
When Crossbones came in again, Vanguard blocked it with his shield, bum-rushing the man and trying to take him off his feet. That failed when Crossbones, using his greater strength, held him and punched over the shield with his other arm, slamming him once more to his knees. This, however, played to Vanguard's strength. Still on his knees, Nikolai smashed upwards with his full strength behind the blow, catching Crossbones in the crotch. Even with the cup he wore, that was painful enough to make Crossbones step back, vulnerable for just a moment.
Vanguard followed up swiftly. Without getting up, he grasped Crossbones' leg and knee in a grip taken from Sambo. He wrenched, shattering the man's knee and continued to grind his fist into the side of it, causing Crossbones to scream in pure agony. "AHHHHHH!" There was a bundle of nerves there that if they were hit with enough force would make any fighter simply forget about anything but being sick and screaming in pain, even one like Crossbones, who had taken so many drugs that he had nearly killed off his ability to feel pain.
Nikolai remained on the ground but flipped his legs out, grabbing the other man's leg in both of his. He continued to wrench the knee around with his arms, causing Crossbones to scream even harder.
Even that though wouldn't have been enough to put Crossbones out of the fight. If Nikolai had let up for just a minute, his greater strength and pain threshold would have allowed him to break out of the battle.
It was at this stage that the woman in the SHIELD uniform came upon them. She breathed a sigh of relief as she saw the man in red had taken the terrorist prisoner, swinging up Vanguard's rifle onto one shoulder. Vanguard had discarded the rifle in his haste to go after Crossbones. if he had carried the heavy sniper rifle he couldn't have moved as quickly down the valley as he had to catch the other man. "Good work, I don't know who you four are, but thanks. That guy is a gold mine of information. I'll…"
At that moment, the sky to the side coming from deeper in the valley illuminated with a bright flare of an air explosion. Nikolai chuckled a little, even as the flare took on the shape of a monstrously huge phoenix, the bird of flame arching its neck to the sky. "Methinks Phoenix has had her say, much like fat lady only with more fire and less fat, yes?"
Back at the main battle, Storm took the time out from battling Vulture, while still forcing him to remain where he was rather than completely retreat and fly away. She blasted downward, freezing the air around many of the scorpion men, shattering several of them with wind blasts before racing after Vulture once more, not wanting the man to get away. This gave Jean enough time to gather her power to perform the same compression and ignition of the air trick that she had done to Harry during their practice and, before that, in the first cache she had raided. This time she didn't hold back so much and a massive explosion occurred, so massive it would have registered on any satellite that was in the correct position to see it. "KERBOOM!"
The rumble and booming sound carried for miles around, causing a few groups of people elsewhere in the deep mountains to turn and stare in that direction. The wave front from it picked up the few remaining fleeing gangsters and terrorists and flung them around like rag dolls, killing most either by the sheer force of the shockwave or when they impacted the mountains sides. Even crouched behind the boulders and as far away as you could get and still be in the same valley, the SHIELD agents screamed aloud at the sudden crashing force. Colossus was very nearly smacked off his feet, though he was otherwise unharmed as he was well away from the epicenter of the detonation.
Jean grinned. "Damn, that felt good! The only thing that would've made it better would be if those scorpion things had been demons. Still, I'm beginning to enjoy smashing everything that bitch Selene left behind." She looked around with her powers, sensing, searching making certain that none of the scorpion men shaped golems were going to be reforming.
Above her Storm used the distraction of the explosion and the resultant shock wave, which had thrown Vulture around but which Storm had easily ridden out, to finally take out the Vulture. The old man had surprised her several times. His agility making it hard to catch him with most of her attacks, hampered as she was by a desire to capture him rather than kill, although her own speed and her attacks allowed Storm to evade Vulture's attacks easily.
Before the old man could control his flight, the air around him suddenly thickened, growing cold enough to nearly freeze him solid in seconds. Storm didn't keep the attack up for long, merely long enough to target his wings and rip them apart with knife sized air bullets. This caused the Vulture to crash in a heap on the ground, his descent slowed by Storm's power.
She landed well away from him, one hand whispering with the small, powerful tornado attack she had created months back. "I would suggest you surrender. I have nothing against you personally, but your position is untenable."
The man gulped, looking around at the wreckage of the former battle zone, the stone and rocks under him and all around actually bubbling a little from the heat of the explosion that Jean had set off. He slowly raised his hands, pulling them out of the metal claws he used as offensive weapons, letting them flap loosely against the outside of his forearms. "I believe I'll take you up on your generous offer, my dear."
"Please remove your wings and your backpack." Storm said calmly. "We will probably knock you out momentarily but it will not be painful or debilitating in the long run. She looked over at the redhead for a moment before quickly looking back at Vulture to make certain the old man hadn't moved. "Phoenix, if you please."
Phoenix, had been concentrating on pushing her thoughts out as far as she could, obscuring and erasing any interest her light show had garnered in any nearby minds. but once she was finished that, she knocked the old man out in the same manner she had used against the terrorists in Pakistan. Then Phoenix leaned briefly against the older woman's shoulder, smiling. "That is the most useful telepathic trick in my repertoire. Anyway, this was fun and this was supposed to be the easy run. Makes me worry about that last one all the more."
Storm nodded grimly but called for Clare to bring in some healing potions, before moving up the valley to the injured SHIELD agents. Moments later, she was administering the potions to the man who had been shot in the leg. The man who had been shot in the back had died of his wounds, joining his fellows. This left only three of the six man team that the Maggia had captured alive but that was more than any of those captives had ever really expected.
At this point, Colossus came back leading Vanguard and the SHIELD woman with the large Russian holding Crossbones in a constricting grip, so tight the man had no chance of breaking out. Strong he might be for a normal human, Crossbones was no match for Colossus who measured his strength in tons rather than pounds. Phoenix grinned at him, amused by the look of hate in Crossbones' eyes behind his mask. "Say goodnight, murderer." With a single wave of her hand and a burst of telepathic power the terrorist collapsed into unconsciousness.
At the redhead's nod, Piotr unceremoniously dropped his captive to the ground, making a big show of wiping at his arms as if he was trying to clean them of filth. Vanguard chuckled weakly, not wanting to irritate his ribs any more than he had to, while the others all chuckled as well, even the SHIELD man trying tend to his friend's wounds.
The blonde woman in the SHIELD combat uniform nodded her head, seeing that they had taken Vulture captive. "That was a good move, he was the only reason I wasn't raped." she said, rather matter-of-factly. Every woman in the Armed or Intelligence Services knew that was what happened to a woman who was captured by terrorists or gangsters. There are very few gangsters who had any sense of morals and, to most terrorists in the world, a woman fighter was anathema and any woman who thought otherwise was a mere whore.
"So we had supposed." Storm said, smiling slightly at the woman. She motioned her over to the other agents then looked at Jean, tapping her head.
Jean got the message and initiated a telepathic link between them. "So, let me think… We're not trusting these agents even if we saved them, I trust? Remember, I told Duggan that we were cleaning up after Selene's death. Given the scorpion men doing just as much damage to the gangster and terrorist here as we did, that will be even more believable."
Yes, but I think you need to clear that cache now, before any of the SHIELD agents think of exploring it themselves. They must already be curious of what brought the gangsters out here. Storm replied, even as she led the blond and Vanguard, who was now dragging the comatose Crossbones up the mountain, taking care to let the man's head bounce off every rock he could. Take Colossus with you, just in case. If there are any more traps, his steel body should be immune to most of them. But still be careful, my Jean.
Jean smiled at her, then turned and made her way toward the large slit in the mountain side that led into the cavern. She paused for a moment outside, sending her thoughts probing inward but didn't sense anything living down there. Next, she did the same with her telekinetic power, sending in a low powered burst that filled the small entrance way to trigger anything along the floors, ceilings, or walls. There were several "FWIP!" sounds as if from blow darts, then silence.
She nodded at Colossus, who took the lead, very firmly pushing Jean behind him in a protective gesture that brought a smile to the redhead's face. "No wonder you and Mr. Wizard get along so well," she said teasingly smacking him on the shoulder, "same protective instincts."
Piotr blushed a little, though it didn't show up on his armor. "I am well aware that you and Storm can handle yourselves, Phoenix, but my metal form can protect me better and last longer than your shields, with nowhere near the effort."
That was actually debatable but Jean merely nodded, motioning him onward.
The large Russian moved forward into the cavern, gasping slightly a moment later. "It's…it is safe but Svyataya Mariya Bogoroditsa… this is… magnificent."
Jean entered the cavern at that, then stopped, looking around in awe despite herself. This cache didn't have as much gold as the other one did but what it did have was several life-size statues, made out of silver, gold, and stone festooned with jewels. There were carved and shaped jewels in tiny alcoves set into the walls, many made to look like animals, some to look like roses. Then there were several paintings hung up on the wall, all of whom looked, well Jean was no art enthusiast, but they certainly looked amazing. One of them looked like a Picasso, another one (she had to hold her breath for a moment at this) looked like it said 'van Gogh' in one corner.
The paintings are magnificent, she thought sardonically, save for the one that looks like a portrait of Selene sitting in pride of place. That painting hung on the wall directly across the entrance with two large statues of lions on either side and a few golden candlesticks set into the floor in front of it. What made this show of egotism worse was that, in one corner along the very edge, the painting had the signature of 'Rembrandt' on it.
Piotr however had gone to his knees, looking at a section of one wall near the painting of Selene. Inside it on a small alcove, as if placed with even more care than the carved jewels elsewhere, there were four eggs made of gold, exquisite jewels and precious metals, with the work looking so fine it was amazing to think it had been done by human hands. Jean looked over and gasped aloud as well. "Faberge eggs!" she said incredulously. "How the..." she broke off. "I'm beginning to wonder if Selene was more of a thief than a sorceress."
She looked around her frowning and then nodded. "This place wasn't just a cache…" Piotr looked up at her and Jean shrugged. "Everything here is in a way beautiful, even that self-portrait, much as I hate to admit it. There's no gold ingots or coins here. It's all worked pieces, even the jewels are like that. This was Selene's personal art exhibit. The place where she could go and have a quiet chuckle or gloat, I guess." Jean shook her head, not really understanding the idea of someone keeping all this beauty to herself. She frowned thoughtfully, then looked over at Piotr. "Could you go outside and ask Clare to come in here. I bet that Storm's already finished with her."
Jean didn't know why the house elves didn't respond to orders from her or the others when they weren't on Harry's property but she wasn't about to make a point of it. Nor was she about to just toss all these magnificent paintings into the mokeskin pouch willy-nilly. She didn't know anything about the properties of the pouch but she didn't want to take chances.
While Colossus was doing that, she pulled out her compact and called Harry. She got Harry quickly, sitting next to Emma, apparently traveling to somewhere in a limo going by the movement of the image behind them through a window pane. "Harry, we ran into some issues here and I had a question about what we should do, as well as about the mokeskin pouch." With that she panned the mirror around showing then the interior.
Emma responded as she did before, gasping and literally moaning aloud at the sight of all the jewelry and worked statuary. However, one thing caught her attention and made her gasp even louder. "Holy hell, are those Faberge eggs? Is that the 'Lovers: the Poets Garden IV'!?" Without another word she turned and pulled Harry into a kiss, groaning aloud as she ground against one of his legs before pulling back and huffing. "Oh, my, God!"
Harry chuckled, wiping up at his mouth for a moment to get her lipstick off his lips then turned to Jean who was smirking at Emma's reaction. "What kind of situation and what's your question? You know, I trust all of you to handle whatever you ran into on your own."
"Well, this time you might want to decide what we do." She briefly outlined what had happened, then looked around at the treasures. "Before we deal with the SHIELD agents, though, is it safe to stop this stuff into the mokeskin pouch?"
Her lover frowned thoughtfully, then shook his head. "Best not chance it. Ask Clare, she's the house elf the one you're using for teleportation?" Jean nodded and he went on. "Ask Clare to take the paintings to Hogwarts and put them somewhere safe. You can handle the statues and gems by putting that stuff into the pouch, but not the paintings. You probably should do the same with the Faberge eggs. I understand they're rather fragile."
Emma put her face into her hands. "Rather fragile he says. Ten of those eggs are missing worldwide, and I'm looking at four of them, oh my God. That painting has been missing since World War II and, again, is priceless. There's another 'van Gogh' in the back I see and a Picasso, I don't know as well as a 'van Gogh'! It could be Le Pigeon Aux Petits Pois, I think. I'd have to check."
Harry shrugged unconcerned. "I'm not an artist and I never studied art so I wouldn't know. They are just money in the bank to me. Still, I'd be willing to sell them to you, I suppose, at market price of course."
Emma moaned again but then shook her head. "MMMHHH, good God, you two are not good for my heart."
"Not going to apologize." Jean chirped then began the process of pulling the statues and other worked gems towards her via telekinesis, opening the pouch in the same manner.
With that over with, Harry thought for a moment then grinned. "I think it's two birds with one stone time, love. You say this woman and the others are from SHIELD? I'll be there in a bit, then we can drop them off with Duggan and can pass on the message about the man who tried to kill your prisoner, maybe gain some good will in another way." He looked over at Emma. "Would you mind if I left for a few hours?"
Outside, Storm, Vanguard, and the two conscious SHIELD agents had finished healing their wounds and those of their fellows, though the man who had taken a bullet to the leg had fallen asleep after downing his potions as Clare pulled the bullet out of the wound, with him wincing all the while.
"Might I ask your name?" Storm said kneeling down next to the blonde woman, nodding cordially at the other SHIELD agent.
"Carol Danvers, formerly a colonel in the US Air Force." The blond woman responded leaning back against a boulder, wincing as she felt the last of her adrenaline leave her system and being a bit more open than she would otherwise have been thanks to that and her recent brush with death and worse. "I joined SHIELD in the hopes that we would be forming an extraterrestrial response unit, simply because NASA couldn't find its own ass if you gave them a map. Unfortunately, any plan to do that was scrapped due to lack of funding and I was assigned to our anti-crime division. We were trying to figure out if the new Maggia had some terrorist ties to a group called AIM. A few of the 'families' have gotten some weapons that are beyond anything available on the open market. We thought we were busting in on a sale of said weapons to them. Unfortunately, it didn't quite go as planned."
"Plans rarely do when they contact the enemy," Storm replied dryly, getting a laugh from Carol.
Colossus came up and asked Clare to head towards Jean to help her, which the house elf did at Storm's nod. Storm meanwhile stared down at Crossbones distastefully. "You're not thinking of just locking this creature away are you? Surely he'll get the death penalty."
"Eventually, I sure as hell hope so," Carol said fervently. "At the moment, he's a treasure trove of information, if we can break his indoctrination."
At that point, Storm's mirror quivered in the small pouch at her waist. She reached down, pulling it out to see Harry's smiling face. "Hey, Storm" he said, "Jean called me for my opinion on your little rescued problem and I think it's two birds with one stone time…"
About ten minutes later, Harry, with Hedwig following him, zoomed down out of the sky. His face was fully covered in his crysis suit, while also being covered in the same sort of spell he had used on Ororo and Jean the night of the fireman's gala. He could be seen, but the moment someone looked away, they would forget everything about his features.
He landed lightly next to Storm, nodding to her and the others. "Well done, both finishing off this last cache of dark magic and for rescuing these three." Harry nodded his head to Carol and her two fellows, one of whom was still moving his legs and arms, as if surprised they still worked, which he actually was.
The potions he had been given, and the house-elf's removal of the bullet, had healed his spinal damage. He felt a little light headed due to lose of blood, but that was about it, and even that was fading after the last potion he had been given kicked in.
"Vanguard, Colossus, you two did good. I think you deserve the rest of the day off." So saying Harry reached down and picked up a foot long shale piece, murmuring, "Portus," under his breath. The stone glowed blue for a moment then Harry handed it over to the two young men.
Colossus, knowing how this worked, took one end of the rock, motioning Vanguard to do the same. He did, looking a little dubious, then flinched as Hedwig alighted on the rock between them.
"Say activate, and you're on your way, oh and Colossus, if you want to talk about what happened here, I'm available." Hedwig of course had to go with them, to get them through the powerful wards around Hogwarts.
Piotr nodded his head at Harry's invitation. He would probably take him up on it, but at the moment he was sort of numb, not really feeling anything despite having had to take a life today.
The black clad Vanguard still looked a little dubious, but said 'activate' along with Colossus all the same. The two men and their accompanying owl disappeared with a pop of displaced air, causing the trio of SHIELD agents to gasp in astonishment. Harry turned to them with a smile. "Now, let's see if we can get these wayward chicks home, shall we?"
OOOOOOO
Once more, Duggan was roused from his command center by a report of a large group of people moving through the air without any visible mechanical means of doing so. This time, however, only two of the collection was unconscious, one of which in particular brought a grim smile to Duggan's face. The rest were held in a large energy field of some kind in the shape of a sphere around what looked like a wooden raft for a floor, with Phoenix, standing in the center controlling it, or possibly Mr. Wizard, who stood next to her. There was also a woman he recognized as Storm, a follower of Xavier's belief in coexistence, though for some reason, Duggan couldn't remember what they looked like if he looked away from any of the three. Beside them, there were three people dressed in SHIELD combat gear.
This time, they were not fired upon and the group came to rest on the ground without incident, the bubble of telekinetic force disappearing with a pop. Carol Danvers, who Duggan had worked with a time or two before, stepped forward and saluted. "Sir, good to see you again. I don't know if you heard, but my team and I, well there's no way to sugarcoat this, we screwed up badly and were captured in Istanbul by the group we were there to apprehend. We were going to be traded to a terrorist group led by Crossbones," the blond gestured at the comatose Crossbones, whose knee, Duggan noticed with interest, hadn't been healed or taken care of "but Storm and the others here saved us."
"You come barin' gifts again Phoenix, are ya goin' to be makin' a habit of this ma'am?" Phoenix laughed, shaking her head while Duggan turned to the man standing next to her, his emerald eyes locked on the SHIELD captain, though Duggan could tell that he was also watching their surroundings. "And you must be Mr. Wizard, heh."
Harry laughed. "Alright, fine, yes, I need a new name and as soon as I don't have a dozen other demands on my time, I will look into that." A wave of his hand sent the two prisoners to land right in front of Duggan. "We're still cleaning up after that incident in London, the bitch behind it was an immortal sorceress and had lifetimes to collect magical items that in the hands of non-magicals would be catastrophic, so we've been searching her caches out and destroying them ever since."
Duggan nodded, not really caring about why they had been in the area, only the results. "Crossbones, damn he is one hell of a find, if we can break his conditioning. A big if with this bastard, but still…"
"I actually might have something that can help you there. It's called veritaserum and it's as close to a truth serum as there is." Harry said, looking at Duggan contemplatively.
All of the SHIELD operatives, and Duggan had very firmly made certain there were no regular soldiers nearby, not even the base liaison, around gaped in shock. After a moment, however, Duggan remembered he was a spy and that people very rarely just walked up to him bearing gifts. "Okay, so what do you want in return Mr. Wizard?"
"Well for one thing, we were never here, understand? No personal, no official records, not even in your personal database. I haven't really formed an opinion about your agency as a whole, but I distrust those who hide themselves for no reason for it, and worse those who have hidden agendas. I want nothing to do with SHIELD's backers and I'm not certain about Fury, either. He's too much part of the system, part of the status quo, which to my mind isn't working, for me to be happy about him."
Dum-Dum nodded, he could easily agree to that, he didn't particularly trust the 'council' either, who seemed intent on using SHIELD as their own fiefdom, regardless of the remit that that SHIELD was formed to meet. He glared around at the other operatives, all of whom nodded with varying degrees of acceptance, with Carol being the most, which wasn't exactly surprising, given why she had wished to work for SHIELD and what had happened since. It wouldn't keep rumors from spreading, but it would keep the higher ups from learning about it.
"In return for administering the veritaserum, I want to leave a method of communication between us. I'm not going to ask you to spill any of SHIELD's secrets nor will I offer you any of ours, but I want to open a dialogue between us. As I said, you lot work too much in the system and that system is controlled by those above you too much for me to trust. I give my trust to people and, from all I've heard, you're good people, Duggan. If either of us hear anything, such as me hearing about a gun deal, an imminent attack on someone, or something of that nature, I will let you know. In return, you pass on anything you hear of a magical persuasion or anything world threatening that you can't handle."
That Dum Dum had to think about it for a moment. Having such a communication would be against regs in about a dozen ways he could think of, but it would also be useful in more than a dozen and it wasn't like he couldn't pick and choose what information to share. It was also true that they didn't have anyone on the payroll, at least to his knowledge, that could handle the mystic side of things. And if push comes to shove, I trust people more than organizations too. It might be a good idea to have someplace to bolt if the Security Council becomes even more controlling than they already are. "I won't tell you anything I don't personally have a hand in. I won't send you rumors or anything that Fury has put under a security lock but, other than that, I'll provisionally agree to keep a channel open for dialogue."
While Storm gave him one of the communicators, not the magical but the technical kind, Phoenix smiled. "In the interest of sharing things, there is something you should know. When I dropped off Talmud, I was fired at by a man in one of your helicopters. At the time we all put it down to nerves, but…
After a few moments, Phoenix finished telling Duggan all they had figured out by watching the memory of that aborted assault on her, as well as the feelings that had proven it was deliberate. "Find that man, and you might be able to figure out many secrets."
All the men who stood with Dum-Dum and the man himself exchanged glances, then at his nod four of them left immediately to consult with the liaison officer. Two more men, who had been working on handcuffing Vulture and Crossbones, stood up, with Crossbones between them. They quickly tied him to a chair, then removed his mask. The face below it was pasty-white, as if he had spent far too much time wearing it rather than getting some sun. It also had a scar running right under one eye over the nose and down to the other side of his jaw, jagged and nasty looking. Even without that scar though, the face was ugly, with deep set eyes sallow cheekbones.
Harry chuckled. "Ah, now there is the original face only a mother could love. Open his mouth, I'll administer the veritaserum, then Phoenix can wake him up, might keep him from spouting off." The others all nodded and one of the men who had tied him to a chair pulled Crossbones' mouth open. Harry poured in the clear, crystalline liquid, three drops on the prisoner's tongue. Next Phoenix moved forward, her hand on the man's head for a moment.
Crossbones jerked in the chair but before he could do anything, the effects of the veritaserum kicked in, making him lethargic, almost half-asleep. Harry nodded grimly. "It should last two hours or so. The timing is a bit uncertain since in most cases, instead of waiting for it to wear off, you would administer the antidote. Make certain only one person questions him though; too many questioners can confuse the issue and can give him a way to avoid answering the really important questions. Ask him a few nonsensical questions at first to make certain it works."
Duggan nodded then did so, confirming that Crossbones was under the influence of the potion. After that he nodded again, sending off a few of his men. "No offense, but I want to bring in a few officers from the base for this and you three can't be here when they arrive."
The trio nodded and, after Storm bade farewell to Carol, Harry conjured up a stone, muttered the Portus spell, and, in seconds, they were gone. As Harry and the others teleported away, Carol and Duggan had already begun to question Crossbones.