After the party: SHIELD cleans up!

[Phil Coulson]

Agents Phil Coulson and Melinda May had been asked to stay in Manhattan after the Hellfire Gala to do some footwork for Maria Hill. Well, it was really for Director Stark, but the order came from Hill, so it was pretty much the same thing.

"I love these very specific requests," Coulson opined as he finished his now-tepid cup of coffee and chucked the blue and white Greek diner-style cup in a trash can. "And, of course, we aren't supposed to talk, on the record at least, to half the people who might actually know what's going on."

Coulson had seen a Who's Who of Evil at the Hellfire Gala, but it had been Morgan Le Fay who had caused most of the drama. But the fact Loki, Cain Marko and Madelyne Pryor had been at the party as invited guests led Hill and Stark to wonder about the reach of what was actually going on behind the scenes. Sebastian Shaw and Michael Priest were not exactly ones who had the purest intentions about anything.

"And there they go," May said as she looked overhead to see Ms. Marvel and Spider-Man making their way through the Upper East Side and into Midtown. Sirens blared as police, fire and EMS units rushed in the same direction.

[Captain Marvel]

Carol was starting to feel like a marble in a pinball machine. The whole scenario with Quicksilver had been for nothing once the speedster took off with his nephews Wiccan and Speed in search of the Scarlet Witch. Then the team found out Doctor Doom had been seducing Wanda over to the dark side, but the Latverian despot had been duped by a robotic Wanda pawned off on him by some techno-mage. It was enough to give Ms. Marvel a huge headache.

The only bright spot had been the return of Steve Rogers, but no one seemed to be rejoicing in his return just yet. Whatever had happened at the Hellfire Club party had spilled out across Manhattan, and now Avengers were being called in to fight off demonic holdovers from last night's incursion.

"Calling all Avengers and reserves," Carol said over her commline as she flew over the city streets, "head for Bryant Park. Some of Morgan Le Fay's demons have popped back up, and they're trying a hostile take-over of some midtown office buildings. Reports are coming in about possible Wrecking Crew or Serpent Society activity as well."

[Dante Walker]

Demons? Check.

Pink Lemonade? Check.

Javelin anti-tank missle? Why the hell would anyone have one of those?

Because Dante, that's why.

He wasn't present for the initial demon incursion at the Hellfire Club, but he made his way back to New York once he found out about it; he was a demon hunter after all. Dispatching these menaces was his specialty. Standing on a rooftop, Dante held a bottle of pink lemonade in one hand while he glanced through the viewfinder of the Javelin missile launcher. He kept an eye out on any friendly and civilian personnel in his target area, and once he saw a cluster of demons without any innocents in the area, he took a sip of lemonade and fired a missile. And since his weapon was enhanced, he shot off three more.

Four explosions went off in rapid succession, sending hordes flying through the air. "Party time!" he shouted at the top of his lungs before he lunged off of the roof and into the body of a demon and launched it further into the air with an uppercut. As he descended to the ground, he drew his handguns from his holsters and began to rain shots down on the demons below him, which caused them to scatter from the area moments before he slammed into the street in a crouched position.

As he stood up, Dante twirled both guns around on his index fingers as he looked around. At the moment, he was ridiculously outnumbered, but he tended to like it that way. Hopefully, he won't end up regretting this by getting into a fight with a demon as strong as the Hulk. After spending time hunting and fighting that Thor clone, the last thing he wanted to do was fight something else in that weight class.

[Sydney MacLeod]

Sydney and her grandfather Malcolm arrived in Manhattan in a glimmer of light, and right off the bat Syd had to send a blast at a pack of demons that seemed to come running out of nowhere. Then she looked up and saw a volley of rockets crashing into some of the demons. "OK, I am going to bet you that wasn't SHIELD ordinance," Syd said as she looked through the demon throng to see Dante going to town on a group crazy enough to take him on. "He likes to work alone. I think he does anyway," she said as she watched her grandfather load up his favorite hunting rifle. "But I'll watch both your backs."

"Winifred, you don't need to watch my back," Malcolm replied as Syd gritted her teeth. "And you don't need to get upset because I used your birth name. It's a lovely name."

Syd groaned as she looked to see how Dante was handling the group around him, and he seemed to be doing fine. "Let's just make it through this mess," she said to Malcolm, "and then we can talk about how nifty it sounds when you get called Winifred!"

{{How the heck am I going to live down Winifred if Dante hears it?}} she thought to herself as more demons seemed to converge on Dante's position. "This is the first time they haven't all run after us. They must hate him as much or more than they hate us!" she said to Malcolm as she switched up tactics and sent a chilling ice blast at some of the demon horde. "Dante? Do you need help?" she yelled back to the man in the red coat as she'd ice up demons so her granddad could blast them into icy chunks with his gun.

[Saibogu]

The cyborg didn't like being here.

It was inevitable that they would end up fighting against the superheroes, Liquid Snake counted on it and planned on it happening. Saibogu was briefed on several of them and their tactics and fully expected to encounter them at some point. He didn't realize that they would be going up against the Avengers, nor did he expect to do so by going on the offensive. Orders were orders and he did as he was told.

It wouldn't have been a problem had there not been demons running around to make things even harder. But those things were accounted for as well; they were part of the plan. So while the Avengers dealt with the demons below, a Weapon Plus unit stood on the rooftops: Testament, Arachnid, and Dominique joined him at his side. There was the big buy, Potemkin as well, but he was elsewhere, he had his own job.

"I don't like this," Saibogu glanced over to his right and stared at the other armored man, Ezekiel Stane, as he looked down below. He wasn't a real member of Weapon Plus, but ever since Saibogu fought and beat him, he'd been used by Weapon Plus for purposes beyond what he knew. And now, he was on a field mission with them.

He hissed at the thought of having to work with him. "Deal with it. You know what we have to do. So go in first."

They had their goal: go in, fight the Avengers. If the demons get in the way, kill them. But they weren't meant to kill and dispatch them all. No, the demons were also part of the plan. So, Ezekiel took flight and launched himself toward the Avengers, unleashing a barrage of energy blasts as a means of crowd control to keep them and SHIELD back. Testament soon joined him. Activating his stealth camo, Saibogu dropped to the streets below along with Dominique and the Arachnid. The three of them would go for the stealth approach.

[Mr. Negative]

This whole mess was beyond him.

But he was made an offer that he literally couldn't refuse. Martin Li--Mister Negative--was flanked on his side by his gang of henchmen called the Inner Demons. He nor they ever expected that today that they would actually be fighting real demons. It wasn't their plan, it wasn't Negative's plan, but it was the plan that they were given, and they would carry it out. "Go, go!" Martin shouted as he directed his Inner Demons forward. With a battle cry, the men ran forth by the dozens, wielding a variety of weapons from swords to guns.

Despite not being all that casual about it, Mr. Negative moved with a calmness. Though far from physically defenseless himself, going up against demons was not something he was used to. Clashing with Spider-Man, the Hood, and Anti-Venom, yes, but nothing this extreme. But just in case he wasn't up to it, he was given a "bodyguard" in Potemkin. The massive brute stood behind him, charged with protecting him at all costs.

Mister Negative wasn't there to fight, he was there to convert. His current employers wouldn't mind having demons to bolster their forces, and since these demons belonged to another, just grabbing them wholesale wasn't going to work. Negative had the ability to alter the psyche of others, bending them to his will. This was a test to see if he could successfully dominate a demon. And if he could, then they would capture as many as they could. And they would kill the ones that they couldn't. So, as the demons began to notice his presence, Negative went to work. Swiftly, he lunged at a demon, grabbing a piece of steel off the ground as he moved, and clubbed one in the head. He then went into a pivot and cracked another in the ribs before he speared another through the chest with his makeshift weapon.

The first demon he attacked was then grabbed by the head with both of his hands. Potemkin moved in to provide defense while Li manipulated his darkforce energies and used them on the demon. After nearly a minute of work, the demons color inverted to match that of Negative and his Inner Demons. He then moved over to the to three demons downed by Potemkin and did his best to rapidly convert them as well. And within a manner of minutes, ehe and Potemkin stood with four converted demons. [smear:f0f0f0]"We have proof of concept,"[/smear:2e2e2e] He announced over his com-link to his superiors and to those he was currently working with. [smear:f0f0f0]"Lets get the work done so we can get the hell out of here."[/smear:2e2e2e]

[Carrie Carlyle]

Carrie Carlyle was fit to be tied when her editor sent her out to cover the aftermath of that stupid Hellfire Gala, but she was terrified when the aftermath ended up being demons running around in Bryant Park. She did not have her trusted red haired pal with the sword to watch her back, nor the friend's lover with the claws and not even the friend's hunky brothers with their various weapons.

It was Carrie, her iPhone and not much else. She was so thrown off by all this that she started to talk to herself out loud.

"I am going to get myself killed for this? What will my epitaph say? Carrie Carlyle. She bought shoes a lot and got snuffed by a demon?"

As she stood there trying to figure out where the hell she could hide, Carrie saw two men attacking the demons. One looked kinda pasty, and the other looked like a mountain on two feet. Then she noticed that the pasty one was doing something decidedly unkosher to the demons. Then she smacked her head and thought about it a minute. "Maybe he's getting the demons to work for him in the fight? It must be his mutant power or something."

The two men had to have seen Carrie staring at them by now, but she was too busy trying to figure out how to get out of the park safely to think about people actually watching her to see what she had been doing. "You'd think if the X-Men were here I'd actually see a few I know!" she said as she started to move toward the two men. "Might as well ask them where the others are," she said as she took off her heels and broke into a run toward Mr. Negative and Potemkin. "Hey! X-Men! Where is the rest of your team?"

[Captain America]

Now this felt normal, as odd as that sounded. After months upon months in that limbo or hell dimension, Steve Rogers could now plant his feet firmly onto the sidewalks of the concrete canyons that made up his beloved New York City.

Well, firmly until he had to launch himself into the air to plant his shield into the neck of a demon that was going after a group of school kids on a field trip. "Ma'am, I'd get the little ones out of here quickly," he said to the group's teacher before he pulled his shield free, flung it with deliberate precision and watched as a part of the demon horde was sent flying backward from the impact.

"Cap'n America!" one of the kids shouted, his classmates joining in with cheers and waving arms before a demon came into view and charged the class. The cheering was replaced by screams as the demon barreled at them.

"Ms. Marvel, could use your help near the Starbucks across from the back of the library," he said over his commline as he flung his shield once more and heard it connect with the demon's skull. "Who else is in the field?"

"Captain, Avengers ranks are thin at the moment. I just put a call out to War Machine, and he said he's a few minutes out," Carol Danvers said back over the commline. "Spider-Man is fending off a group near the Daily Bugle, and Firestar is backing him up. No word from the Fantastic Four. Saw Coulson and May headed into the library to help evacuate there."

[Potemkin]

Both Negative and Potemkin knew that they would be approached by someone eventually, be it SHIELD, the Avengers, or whomever. What they weren't expecting was for some random woman to run over and assume they were the X-Men. Neither men could figure out why that was the case, and really, they didn't care. Negative was instructed to do one thing and he ignored the woman.

Potemkin, on the other hand, focused all of his attention on her. "We ain't got time for this! he shouted moments before a demon latched on to his back. He let out a roar of frustration before he ripped the creature from his back. For half a second, he thought about handing it over to his current partner and have it converted for their use, but instead, simply chucked it into the air with all of his might.

It'd land somewhere, and as long as it was away from him, he couldn't care less. As for the lady, he could've pretended to be an X-Man and coax her into some false sense of security, but he wasn't that kind of guy, and this wasn't that kind of mission. Instead, he aimed to punch her head off and call it a day.

[Carrie Carlyle]

"Oh shit," was all Carrie got out of her mouth before she saw the huge guy's fist moving toward her head. "Not X-Men, not even nice men!" she shouted as she tried to duck before the fist could connect with her head. She turned enough to take the brunt of the hit on her left shoulder, and she felt it shatter as the brute made contact. Carrie tried to scream, but blood came out of her mouth as she looked up to see what the big guy was going to do next.

((I am gonna die)) she thought as more of the demons seemed to flood the area, and she was sure nobody saw her fall or gave a crap if she died. She didn't have a magical doohicky to call Kari, and she didn't have any X-Men or Avengers on speed dial. Hell, J. Jonah Jamison couldn't even help her now. Not that he'd give a damn in the first place anyway.

Carrie started to go in and out of consciousness as she coughed up more blood. She started to try and assess her injuries, but the pain was making it harder and harder to think. The last thing she saw before blacking out as a gleaming shield flying over her head.

[Captain America]

Cap had no clue who the woman on the ground was, but the guy who attacked her was vaguely familiar. Rogers let his shield fly in the behemoth's direction as he motioned for two SHIELD operatives to move in and help the civilian who had fallen. "I take great exception to attacks on the innocent!" he yelled as his shield missed Potemkin and came back to his hand. The Sentinel of Liberty vaulted over a pile of dead demons and put his shield in front of him, preparing to use his speed and a bit of his own brute force to fell the attacker. It was then that Cap noticed the man who was partnered with the walking roadblock. Perhaps slamming into the brute was not the best plan of attack after all?

"Hawkeye, I need some help keeping the rank and file demons away from the library entrance. Ms. Marvel, flank me," Cap said over his commline as he finished his final assessment of this troublesome tag team. By now the SHIELD ops were with the injured woman, so Rogers felt he could finally let loose a bit. He broke into a run and, using a car's roof for leverage, somersaulted, shield in hand, and prepared to slam the brute in the head. He knew the attack would likely fail, but at least it would get him closer to the two combatants.

By now Carol Danvers had turned and was flying back in Cap's direction, using energy blasts to try and push back the attackers in Rogers' general area of battle.

[The Arachnid]

Captain America moved in, but so did he.

As soon as they arrived to the battlefield, the Arachnid mostly stayed out of sight, using his enhanced speed and agility to corral the demons as he passed by while simultaneously avoiding SHIELD when necessary, knowing full well that dealing with the Avengers would take up all of his attention. So when Captain America and Ms. Marvel started to move in on Potemkin, he moved in to strike.

As the Captain attempted to strike Potemkin with his shield, Arachnid shot a neon blue web stream on to Ms. Marvel and used the flying hero as an object to swing himself off of to launch himself toward Captain America. Afterward, he launched another web-line mid-flip toward Cap's shield to yank him away from Potemkin and follow that up with a dropkick.

Arachnid knew Potemkin would have his hands full with Ms. Marvel, he didn't need to deal with the extra attention on top of that battle.

[Captain America]

Cap went flying after the dropkick from the man who was not Spider-Man. The thought that there was yet another arachnid foe in New York made Rogers' head spin. This one, at least, did not seem to be a symbiote-wielding battler. That had to be a minor advantage in this fight.

The sight of Ms. Marvel being tossed toward the huge combatant Rogers had been targeting broke his concentration for a moment, so Cap collided with the side of a bus, bouncing off it and rolling to a stop in time to see Hawkeye setting up shop on a scaffolding as he started to take down more of the demon attackers in the battle. That allowed Cap to zero back in on Arachnid.

"Well, I know who you aren't," Rogers said as he let his shield fly again at Arachnid, looking for anything else that he could use to slow down his foe. He looked to see if Spider-Man was anywhere near their location, but he was still involved in the battle near The Daily Bugle.  

[Leo Sumner]

"Bunch of rank amateurs..."

Leo Sumner was up to his necktie in demon ichor, and seeing the local superhero muckity-mucks of New York trying to take down a demon army was pissing him off.

"Bollocks!" he shouted as some loon swung by on a web line and went after Captain Washington or whatever the hell he was called. "You lot can fight each other until your balls turn blue! Leave the demon hunting to the professionals!"

Leo had been sent by the Mystic Council to undo what those twits at the Hellfire Club had done at their stupid party or panto or whatever it was. Undoing this was going to take an army of Leos. He knew that the minute he saw the gent in the red coat wading into the fight.

"Walker," Sumner growled as he saw Dante making a rather huge dent in the demon army that was roaming free around midtown. "And...the MacLeods. Lovely. Mal! You old sod! What brings you across the pond?" Leo then looked back at Dante Walker and grimaced. "Bloody show off," he spit as he pulled his golden, sawed-off shotgun from under his coat and sent blessed bullets into the heads of a few demons.

[Oliver Thomas]

((Carrie is going to kill me)) Ollie Thomas thought as he rounded a corner and walked into the middle of chaos. Demons, SHIELD agents, members of the Avengers and a lot of civilians in harm's way. He'd heard about the insanity at the Hellfire party from Carrie when she called last night, but he never expected it to carry over to the next day and never like this.

As he ducked under a light pole that was being swung by a demon, Ollie saw SHIELD medics tending to a woman that had been caught in the crossfire. At first he didn't even think it might be Carrie, but then he saw the handbag that was on the ground next to the woman and got a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach.

((No no no no no no no no) he said to himself as he came to a stop next to the medics. "Carrie, hang on girl," he said as he knelt down next to her still form. "Her name is Carrie Carlyle. I'm her friend Ollie Thomas. Did you see what happened to her?"

 

[Maria Hill]

OOC: Putting a capper on this--K

IC:

~~Several hours later~~

Hellicarriers had landed in both the East and Hudson Rivers, and by now Maria Hill had sent out the clean up crews to make sure the public, first responders, her agents and the super-powered community were now safe and getting the medical care they likely needed.

"Coulson!" she shouted as she saw Phil Coulson and Melinda May helping to attend to the wounded. "What the hell..."

"Yes, Hell would sum it up pretty well, Deputy Director Hill," Coulson replied as he pointed to a group of mages who were hustling the last of the demon horde out of the area via some freakish looking portal. "Ten dead, five civilians, four agents and one NYPD recruit who was in the wrong place at the very worst time. MI-13 lent us some of their mage pool to help close down the gateway these things were using. The mages were here on a vacation of all things..."

"Pete Wisdom will be insufferable," Hill said as she shook her head. "Any injured people we need to pay a visit to?"

"Maybe one. A Carrie Carlyle. She knows the X-Men fairly well," Coulson added as Hill nodded in reply. "But she was set for major surgery, so a visit would be down the road a bit. She ran into that brick wall named Potemkin. Maybe she knows why he was here."

"Great. Weapons project people. Gotta love that," Hill growled as she continued to look around. "And that lippy guy from MI-13. Sumner.  That made my day even better."

[Captain America]

"Unfortunately, Potemkin and his group used one of those portals and left the scene," Cap said as he joined Hill and her agents. "And I saw Carrie Carlyle. She was taken to NYU Langone. A guy named Ollie Thomas was with her, and I talked to him before the ambulance pulled out. I'm not sure she's going to make it."

"Thanks for the update, Cap," Hill replied as she watched another armored personnel carrier taking agents away from the scene. "I take it you're headed back to see Director Stark?"

"No, I think I better contact Wolverine and Karenza. Carrie Carlyle is a friend of Karenza's, and none of the X-Men were here in this fight," Cap added as he looked around. "Coulson, you're sort of a liaison to the X-Men. Were you going to handle that?"

"Yes, sir," Coulson said as he looked back to see another ambulance puling out and heading for the nearest hospital. "I just wish I could let them know where Potemkin went."

"And then we'd see all kinds of redheaded crazy, Coulson.  Remember that time the Purifiers attacked that school and your favorite X-Woman came out with all those heads in her hand?" Hill said as Coulson nodded. "I'd like to avoid a hunting party."

"We all would, but you know as well as I do that woman operates by her own rules," Rogers added as more TV and camera crews entered the area.

 

[Jack O'Neill]

"Uhm, if I may, I'm sort of an expert on that family," SHIELD Colonel Jack O'Neill said as he joined the group. "And, I know Carrie Carlyle. Would you like me to go tell them about Carrie, ma'am?" he added as he looked at Hill.

"I forgot you used to date one of them," Hill replied as Jack started to kick some of the debris at his feet. "Which one? Not the one with the twins..."

"Hayley? Oh God no!" Jack said as Coulson gave him a weird look. "She hates me. At least that's the impression I always get from her. She used to be with that Van Helsing guy, but I think they broke up."

"Are you Hedda Hopper or Louella Parsons?" Cap asked, referring to famous gossip columnists from back in the 1940s. "I know you aren't with TMZ."

Jack just stood there with his mouth open as he looked at Captain America. He stammered once he started to speak again. "W...well, if you need me to go, let me know. I'll just be over here trying to look busy."

OOC:

Info on Hedda Hopper can be found here.

Info on Louella Parsons can be found here.

[Captain America]

"Where did you find him?" Rogers asked Hill as O'Neill walked toward some other SHIELD operatives, but her reply was cut off by a loud explosion coming from the direction of Avengers Tower. "That stupid robot Tony found! I'm betting whatever happened has to do with that thing."

"Get me a transport! Now!" Hill yelled over her comm line, and soon as small hover craft landed near the group. "Tell the medics to get prepped. Director Stark said there are injuries among the team's support personnel. Coulson, Pepper Potts got hit by debris, and Tony says it looks bad."

"Did all the X-Men decamp to the West Coast?" O'Neill asked as he boarded the hover craft behind Hill, Coulson, May and Rogers. "They could get healers down here if they're still in Salem Center."

"I don't think Director Stark will want the magically-inclined healers working on this," Hill replied as the group strapped in for the quick jump to the tower.

TBC anyone still active in this thread (Hill, Coulson, Rogers, May, O'Neill) to the Fembots thread

TBC the MacLeods back in Scotland

thread closed