It turns out that aside from the features that Jubilee had mentioned, Hunter Brawn's Malibu Mansion was a gorgeous Spanish Hacienda-style mansion. A long driveway flanked by trees led up from a gate to a plaza with a fountain in the middle of it sat in front of the entrance to the mansion. Various outbuildings around the Plaza could be seen, including a garage where Hunter Brawn parked his Corvette. At the same time, the Mansion Proper lay at the end of a peninsula jutting out from the Malibu Coastline into the Pacific Ocean, though it wasn't on a cliff like Tony's was. Meanwhile, the entrance to the mansion had various arches and windows looking out over the Plaza. There was a lot of brick and stucco giving the impression of an Old Spanish Don's Home that had been refurbished and modernized. It was very Southern Californian, but it was also a problem.
From what Jubilee's info said, there were a number of laser turrets in the trees that flanked the driveway, just waiting to be triggered in case of uninvited guests. While I could just apparate past them, Jubilee couldn't, and that meant that any attempt to bypass them would need to come via side-along Apparition. That, in turn, likely would throw off my aim somewhat. I didn't see another way, though. Not unless we wanted to deal with the turrets. It was the problem with having to assault a mansion on a peninsula, really. Unless you were willing to swim up, there was really only one way to go. Furthermore, those windows could be shuttered in an emergency, covered by Carbonadium Alloy Security shutters, while one of those outbuildings around the Plaza was a guardhouse. If we apparated to the Plaza, unless we were quick, the shutters would close and the guards would attack.
As we overlooked the Mansion from the Roof of Tony's nearby Malibu home through Binoculars, I could clearly tell that Jubilee was worried. She'd gotten the information about the security arrangements, but I was guessing knowing the intel and seeing it all laid out in person were two different things. She was pouting as she thought over her plan of attack one more time. Unfortunately, we didn't have the time to redo our attack plans in detail. Tony had only bought us a two-hour window with the LAPD where we wouldn't have to worry about the cops busting in on us. I looked over at Jubilee and put my hand on her shoulder, reassuringly. She looked over at me with a cocked eyebrow and I nodded at her.
"Jubes, do you trust me?" I questioned.
"What, why?" Queried Jubilee.
"I can get us to the Plaza with magic, but we need to be quick about getting inside to avoid being locked out and having to fight off guards while trying to cut through the Security Shutters." I explained.
"Sure, I trust you. Why the hell not?" Shrugged Jubilee.
"All right. Fair warning, you might feel the urge to puke. Try not to." I warned.
"What?" Asked Jubilee.
But I was already grabbing her in a side hug while casting the apparition spell. I was counting on the fact that the plaza was in line of sight from Tony's Mansion rooftop to counteract the extra passenger that Jubilee represented without even more loss of accuracy. As it happened, when I felt the lurch in my tummy as the magic took hold, that extra accuracy from being able to see my destination helped quite a bit, though Jubilee reappeared in the fountain while I reappeared five feet above the plaza and had to swiftly right myself to avoid being dumped on my ass. Jubilee clambered out of the fountain with a groan, even as I struggled to land in a crouch instead of on my ass.
"The hell was that? I think I'm gonna ralf!" Hissed Jubilee.
"I've never taken a passenger along before, it threw me off!" I retorted.
As Jubilee dry heaved, though, a klaxon went off and the Carbonadium security shutters began to slide into place over the windows and the front door to the mansion. A bunch of Goons in suits with various high-powered, military-surplus, rifles began to exit the guardhouse and I knew that we had little time for Jubilee's stomach to sort itself out. With an arcane gesture and a few mystic syllables, I flung a ferromantic spell at the security shutters sliding over the front door, jamming them halfway down. We'd have to crouch, but we could enter the Hacienda now. That just left the Goons that were even now fanning out around us and leveling their rifles. Jubilee, seeing this, forced her stomach to settle down through what had to be stubborn willpower and straightened up, looking around at the various Goons. One of them, a Man in a charcoal suit with an Old School M-One Carbine of the kind that'd been phased out of service after Vietnam stepped forth.
"You guys picked the wrong house to fuck with." He sneered.
"Puh-leeze! Like I care what some random goon thinks!" Scoffed Jubilee.
"You sure about that? Lotta guns pointed your way. Why not surrender?" Questioned the Lead Goon.
"We're not afraid of bullets." I insisted.
"Shame. I coulda made a few bucks off the girl. Oh well, light 'em up, boys!" Sighed the Lead Goon.
As soon as he said that, I was already casting. A mystical shield popped up around Jubilee and I as the various Goons let rip with their rifles, bullets slamming into my mystical shield to little effect. In response, I began to cast various spells of my own. Water coalesced out of the moisture in the air into whips that wrapped around legs, slamming goons into each other, even as I used the Force to do the same with Telekinesis. Out of my bag of holding, a torrent of white sand erupted, a landslide bowling goons off their feet even as I reached out with Ferromantic power to jam rifles and pistols.
Jubilee wasn't idle either, she spotted a number of laser turrets folding out of the archways that covered the front doorway and windows, letting rip with her energy plasmoids as she split apart sub-atomic particles to melt the cannons before they could get more than one shot off. That shot discharged into my mystic shield, barely scuffing it before Jubilee destroyed the cannons. As Jubilee fired off her energy plasmoids to keep melting turrets as they appeared, I kept incapacitating goons with spells. None of the turrets or goons even came close to breaking the mystic shield I had put up at the start of all this. It really wasn't a fair fight. Not that the Goons would have played fair if the shoe was on the other foot, mind you.
In a few moments, all of the two dozen Goons that had attacked us had been incapacitated and all of the exterior laser turrets had been melted thanks to My Magic and Jubilee's powers. We hadn't so much as been scuffed in the brief, but intense, firefight. As soon as we were done, I lowered my shield and strode over to the jammed security shutter over the front door. The Carbonadium Alloy was wedged into place with only the top half of the front door covered, leaving the doorknob and bottom half of the front door free to access. I tried the handle and sure enough, it was locked. I could go about opening it with Amestrian Alchemy, disassembling the door into its constituent materials or I could simply kick the door down. Choices, choices. However, as I was pondering how to go about that, Jubilee walked right up to the door, pulled a hairpin out of her hair, and started to pick the lock.
"You know how to pick locks?" I queried.
"I was part of the X-Men, I know a lotta things." Smirked Jubilee.
"Yeah, but most of that was hanging around Logan. I would've thought he'd have preferred cutting his way into places." I chuckled.
"And he stopped doing that so much when I learned how to do this, now shut up and let me concentrate." Grinned Jubilee.
I did so, and a few moments later, the lock on the front door let out a satisfying click. Jubilee had managed to pick the lock easy enough, just like she'd said. Once the lock was picked, Jubilee swung the door open and turned to me with a shit-eating grin on her face.
"See? What'd I tell you?" She asked, amused.
"Sure. Never should've doubted you." I deadpanned.
"Damn Skippy. Now come on!" She nodded.
Then, crouching, the pair of us headed into Hunter Brawn's Mansion via the front door. . .
XXXX
Hunter Brawn frowned, looking over at the cameras that he had all around his property. He had no idea how they'd managed to bypass the gate and his turrets in the trees, but it didn't matter. Already, the pair of Intruders had incapacitated over a score of his Men. The Agency had assured him that these were some of the best local contractors that money could buy, yet they hadn't so much as scratched the pair. It would be one thing if these Intruders wanted money. He could deal with that, just pay them to go away, but they clearly didn't. That was clearly Zhan Lee's Daughter in the Yellow, while the Sorcerer was one of the latest team of Avengers. Presumably, they were here to bring him in for ordering the murder of Zhan and Jingyi Lee. On the one hand, that crime had been so long ago that Hunter hadn't thought about it in a long time. On the other, there was no statute of limitations for murder.
Fortunately, mere Goons armed with rifles weren't all that Hunter Brawn could afford these days. As he heard the clanking of metal footsteps on stone coming up behind him, Hunter Brawn smiled as his Ace in the Hole arrived. Legault wouldn't let him down. After all, the Superpowered Mercenary never had before. Turning, Hunter Brawn spotted the large man in his Black and Yellow Armor. Legault had recently taken to shaving his head after a bout with the Punisher in New York City had resulted in the Punisher shooting off his helmet and using his black air as a handhold to break Legault's nose. They had just barely escaped that fiasco. It was part of why they had come to the West Coast, to wait until Frank Castle had other concerns to deal with. Given how the Kingpin was out of prison now, that wouldn't take long to happen. Back to the matter at hand, though.
"Legault. We have intruders." Intoned Hunter Brawn.
"I saw. That's what you get for hiring local." Smirked Legault.
"So you said at the time. I should've listened. Still, you're in a whole other league from those Goons. I expect you to deal with these two." Commanded Hunter Brawn.
"Not a problem. They're just kids, after all. I should be able to handle them." Smirked Legault.
"Excellent. In the meantime, I will be in the panic room." Intoned Hunter Brawn.
"Right. I'll get you when I'm finished with them." Agreed Legault.
And like that, Legault headed out of the study to do just that. Meanwhile, Hunter Brawn went over to his bookshelf, hitting the hidden switch disguised by the copy of Sherlock Holmes in The Final Problem. The bookshelf slid aside to reveal a carbonadium alloy security door and a keypad. Hunter Brawn punched in the six-digit code to open his panic room, a small room lined on all sides with Carbonadium-Alloy Plating and entered into it. He would emerge once Legault had dealt with the Lee Girl and her Avenger Friend. Legault always managed to deal with such problems, after all. It was why he was paid so highly.
Until then, Hunter Brawn would play the waiting game from inside the safety of his panic room. . .
XXXX
We'd entered the foyer to find another trio of laser turrets folding out of the ceiling alongside another six Goons with guns. Jubilee immediately destroyed the turrets with her energy plasmoids while I handled the goons, rushing forward up the stairs, casting spells as I went, knocking two out with a pair of Stupefy Spells even as a third fired his Chinese Type Sixty-Three Assault Rifle into my chest at point-blank range. However, between all of my Mystical and Chi-based Enhancements, alongside the Argentum Armor I was wearing, I was pretty damned bulletproof. The full magazine he unloaded into my chest didn't so much as slow me down as I slammed a gauntleted fist into his temple with enough force to knock him unconscious, being very careful to pull the punch enough that I wouldn't kill him.
One of the other three goons tried to shove the barrel of his French PA-Fifteen Surplus Military Pistol into my eye before pulling the trigger only for me to grab the pistol in one hand and fuse the bolt assembly into a single block of metal using Amestrian Alchemy. Unable to fire the weapon, he found himself the recipient of a Muay Thai Style Push Kick that broke three of his ribs and sent him flying back into the fifth Goon. They collapsed in a tangle of limbs to the floor, where I hit them with water I pulled out of the air via Hydromancy before freezing them together and to the floor in a block of Ice. The Last Goon tried to lob a grenade at me, but I used Photomancy to blind him in a flash of bright light causing him to miss his throw badly, sending the grenade out through a nearby window to explode outside. Another Stupefy Spell sent him to the floor, stunned.
Meanwhile, I spotted Jubilee dodging and leaping around acrobatically as a trio of new Laser Turrets had folded out of the ceiling and begun firing at her. Honestly, it was clear that she was a damn talented gymnast as she cartwheeled away from a laser blast only to fling an energy plasmoid at another turret. The turret melted as she somersaulted away from a second blast, coming up to one knee out of her tumble and tossing an energy plasmoid at a second turret before flipping up and over a table, kicking out to topple it to its side and ducking behind it to avoid a third laser blast. The table took the bolt, exploding, but allowing Jubilee to jump up unscathed to fling an energy plasmoid at the last of the trio of laser turrets that had shown up. I couldn't help myself, I started clapping. Jubilee did a mock bow at me before she spoke up.
"Thank you, thank you. Six-for-six on laser turrets, not too shabby." She grinned.
"Not too shabby at all." I chuckled.
"Gymnastics has come in handy a lot for me." Nodded Jubilee.
"I'll bet. Come on, let's keep going before more Goons show up." I agreed.
And with that, we were headed up the stairs and into a long hallway. Here, though, a turret folded out of the ceiling and fired as a pair of carbonadium alloy blast doors slammed down to hem us in. I put up a hast mystic shield to tank the laser bolt and Jubilee flung an energy plasmoid at the turret, wrecking it, but the time it took to do that meant we didn't manage to stop the blast doors from slamming down and shutting us in. I frowned as a hissing noise started up, remembering the poison gas that was supposed to be a problem. Immediately, I began casting, using aeromancy to mark out a safe space for Jubilee and I where the poison gas couldn't flow. A dome of fresh air sprung up around us, anchored on me.
"Stick next to me! I'll protect us from the gas!" I insisted.
"Right. Don't need to tell me twice." Muttered Jubilee as she crowded next to me.
As my dome of circulating fresh air kept us safe from the gas, I began to Analyze the gas using my powers of Comprehension so that I could use Amestrian Alchemy to transmute it into something harmless. The gas was Hydrogen Cyanide, a compound similar enough to Zyklon B that it made me think that Hunter Brawn had bought it off of Hydra. With a bit of work, though, alongside some iron oxide, I could transmute it into a chemical pigment, Prussian Blue, something that we couldn't breathe in easily and wouldn't kill us. A few moments later, and the addition of Iron Oxide transmuted out of the iron light fixtures, and that was precisely what I did. Instead of being full of poison gas, the hallway was now coated in a layer of blue dust along the floor. The hissing also stopped the ventilation system seemingly out of poison gas.
"All right, now we just need to go through this blast door and we should be good to go." I remarked.
As I said that, however, the Force screamed at me to duck. I did so and suddenly found to left wall of the corridor being smashed through as if by a battering ram, all while bolts of pinkish energy were sent chattering through the hole by a large, armored, Man who was holding an M-Sixteen A-Two Assault Rifle with an underbarrel grenade launcher made out of pinkish energy. The pulses of pinkish energy sailed overhead as the man frowned, looking over at me. He growled as he saw his surprise attack had failed and leveled his energy construct rifle at me.
"I thought that would've worked." Scowled the Man.
There was only one person this could be, the Superhuman Mercenary Legault. I stood from where I'd been crouched down and pulled my Wan-Shen from my Bag of Holding, preparing to go Mano-A-Mano with Legault. He smirked on seeing this and his rifle construct discorporated, before turning into a sword and kite shield like some kind of medieval knight. Legault nodded at me as I took up a stance with my Wan-Shen.
"Feel like going hand-to-hand, eh? I can respect that." He grinned.
Jubilee, though, wasn't having it. She fired off a stream of energy plasmoids at Legault from the side, forcing him to block the blasts with his shield. I didn't hesitate to take advantage, striking out with my Wan-Shen for Legault's leg. He barely managed to parry the blow with his construct sword before letting out a shout and shifting his constructs into a pair of battering rams that slammed into me and forced Jubilee into a gymnastic dodge to avoid. I staggered backward for a brief moment before steadying myself as Jubilee stood up from her tumble. That moment was all Legault needed to shift his constructs yet again into that Assault Rifle with underslung grenade launcher from earlier. He leveled his rifle at me and growled low in his throat.
"If that's the way you wanna play this, fine! No mercy!" He spat.
Then he pulled the trigger and the fight began in earnest. . .
XXXX
AN: The next chapter is already up on my Patreon, so check the link in the threadmarked post if you guys feel like throwing me a couple bucks to get chapters in advance. Everyone who does is super appreciated and I can't thank my patrons enough.
All right, so here's the next chapter. There's not really a whole lot that Hunter Brawn has that can stop Jubilee and Jan for long. As we see here, Goons with military hardware, hidden laser turrets, Carbonadium-Alloy Security Doors, and poison gas have barely managed to slow their assault on Hunter Brawn's Malibu Mansion. Only Legault has thus far been able to do anything to really stop them, and who knows how long that will last? In the meantime, Hunter Brawn is going to hide in his panic room. Fitting for a guy like him.
At any rate, the next chapter will be the rest of the assault on Hunter Brawn's Malibu Mansion. I'll also have some images out before then.
Stay tuned. . .